Archive for May, 2010
Cooking Near Ashes
May 24th, 2010
We cooked this onion not on the grill or buried in the ashes. Rather, we put it below the main grill grate and near but not touching the ashes. The onion cooked slowly and became sweet and tender with some resistance left to its structure. It has us thinking about the middle ground. A place and a way to cook which adds heat, char and does so with a subtle hand.
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Adding Flavor
May 23rd, 2010
Everyday we cook we come across crossroads where we have the choice to add flavor to a dish or just proceed as we have always done. When I was first exposed to professional cooking I was taught to soak softshell crabs in buttermilk. I did not know why, I did not ask. My job was to clean the crabs and cover them with buttermilk. Fifteen years later we looked back at the procedure and wondered about the addition of flavor. That was a few weeks ago. One softshell preparation had the crabs soaking in our smoked coconut-lovage milk. Another round of crabs were marinated in Oldbay and A-1 buttermilk. The crabs were then dredged in flour and deep fried in a blend of rice bran oil and smoked tallow. The results were more flavorful crabs with flavor profiles which were now dish and ingredient specific.
The small addition of the marinade sparked thoughts of other moments to introduce flavors into our cooking. When making pate a choux, what flavor is your milk, butter, flour and eggs? Look at that, a classic with four distinct possibilities to add flavor not including mix ins. We are faced with an option at every turn in the pathway of cooking. It is up to us take the time to pause, examine and seize the opportunity.
Strawberries and Brie
May 21st, 2010
Now that we are growing, albeit small amounts, our own strawberries we see them in a different light. The ones we save from the rabbits are special treats, often eaten by Amaya. As gardeners we are not very good. Weeds grow faster than we can keep up. Knowing that we are selective weeders. We let the weeds we want to eat grow with the fruits and vegetables we initially planted. In our strawberry patch oxalis and purslane have popped up. Seeing these edible delights together sparked the idea of putting them all onto the plate together. To add some richness to the ingredients we added powdered brie cheese. The addition of the tomatoes came about because we liked what we saw at the store and their own fruity characteristics would work well with the strawberries and weeds. We used some grassy olive oil, inspired by the grass now taking root in the strawberry patch, to dress the strawberries. Finally a few drops of minus 8 vinegar syrup completed the thought process.
BBQ 25
May 21st, 2010
Occasionally publishers contact us to ask if we’d like a copy of a book or two. We have a big enough library that we tend to be somewhat choosy about which books we say yes too. (A lucky place to
be in, as we well know.) Recently Harper Collins offered us a copy of Adam Perry Lang’s new book BBQ 25 and Farm to Fork by Emeril Lagasse. We said yes to both and they arrived today. Now it’s a rare day when we can be surprised by a book but BBQ 25 was so darned smart right out of the box that I couldn’t help but share. It’s a board book with plastic coated pages, compactly sized at 8″x5″. With a little pressing it happily seems to stay open for easy access and even better, every single recipe is written and illustrated on two pages facing each other, so whatever page you turn to has all the information you need to complete the dish. Pretty cool. Now we haven’t actually tried any of the recipes but the design was so clever that we couldn’t resist writing about it anyway. It’s inspiring just to flip through it and we don’t say that about every book that we open.
And for the record the new Emeril book surprised the heck outta me. It’s got some really fun stuff in it, and this coming from someone who’s never bought an Emeril cookbook. After reading some of these recipes I can honestly say the man can cook.
Soft Shell Crab
May 20th, 2010
Soft shell crabs are blue crabs that usually come from Maryland or Virginia. The season is spring to summer when they are changing their shell, which is why they are soft. To keep them alive they are packed in hay in tiny boxes, perfectly lined up. They come in several sizes, but the jumbo turns out to be a nice serving portion.
The first time I tried a soft shell crab was in NY when I just got to the US. I ordered them at the restaurant. First I learned how to dress them and then listened all the various recipe from the team. We tried few of them and I really liked the soft shell tempura, a touch spiced and a dipping sauce with some acidity. Several years later, I still like soft shell crab and serve then during the season.
Here the soft shell is served with pickled vegetables and homemade Thai noodle (made of Vietnamese Thai dressing). Few leaves of fresh Thai basil and grated lime zest are the final touch.
Green Olive Seasoning
May 20th, 2010
We have been looking at how we season our meat. Some ingredients are not always ideal to use as a flavoring agent because of the form they are in. With the assistance of a bit of liquid nitrogen forms can change. I was looking at green olives, a fetish of mine, and decided to powder them to season our flank steak. We added some brown sugar, garlic powder and salt and then grilled the meat. The quick seasoning was delicious, though a longer seasoning, actually a cure shows great potential in our next evolutions.
It Is Still Spring
May 19th, 2010
Lemon Marmalade Recipe
May 19th, 2010
I used to be afraid of making Marmalade. Afraid is maybe a soft word. I don't want to admit to you all how afraid I was. Scared like a cat hiding under a car scared.
Scared still.
Maybe not, though, for the reasons you might think.
I was scared of making marmalade because I respect it so much. Its craft, its patience, its perfect balance of sweet, gel, bitter, bite, fruit to peel ratio. All of it. When citrus marmalade is right, like so many things, its perfect is quiet, soft, shy.
A je ne sais quoi perfection.
It stemmed from having once, perhaps 20 years ago, done a bit of work for the British Marmalade Goddess June Taylor. June did it the old school way. Really old school, ancient. Cutting thousands of citrus orbs by hand. With a knife. No cutting of corners, no electric machinery.
I even took a marmalade class from her.
But still. Scared.
And then I was forced. Pulled out from under the car by my tail.
By the most wondrous citrus marmalade! Kumquat Marmalade! Anna Hansen, possibly by way of Christine Manfield, had one of the best, most straightforward, citrus fruit marmalade recipes anyone could possess & execute. I arched my back, hissed, and then looked as if nothing was ever wrong with hiding under a big dangerous machine.
When I tasted that gorgeous, bright, fruity Kumquat Marmalade I never looked back. When I landed back in America and began working at 10 Downing all of Florida's citrus was a' raging, I set to task. And marmalade I made! I made grapefruit, lime-ginger, Meyer lemon, Orange-Mineola Tangelo-Grapefruit-Navel Orange, lemon and grapefruit-fennel. If you go into that restaurant now you will still be eating my marmalades. /yeah, I went a little crazy once the fear left.
So, without further waiting & hoping, I give you my "recipe" which is more of a method than anything else.
For real live Recipes please check out Elise's step-by-step instruction for a Meyer Lemon marmalade recipe on Simply Recipes. But beware: it's a time consuming, old school method. And David Lebovitz has a great recipe for Seville Orange.
**TAKE NOTE: For your health & safety if you plan on jarring your marmalade you must follow proper 'canning' procedure.** I am a restaurant pastry chef and am not making marmalade for resale to the public. I am cooling down swiftly & keeping my product refrigerated indefinitely.
LEMON, ORANGE, KUMQUAT, TANGERINE, MEYER LEMON MARMALADE etc*
- prep your fruit any way you like. I like to think in terms of bite size pieces but I have also been known to shake it up a bit. know that you will lose size when it begins to cook, like a cotton shirt you put in hot water & a dryer on the first go round. your knife should be non serrated and be sharp.
make sure to discard only the stem end where the little green button resides. taste your fruit! even if they are lemons, eat it rind and all. yes. no whining. you need to know how sweet or sour your overall batch of fruit is. you cannot be psychic about this step. you have to know. for certain. empirically. - pull, push, nudge out any and all seeds. SAVE YOUR SEEDS!! the seeds are money. do not throw
them away. - when you have all your cut up fruit, and your seeds in a separate container, weigh your fruit. write this number {I like to work in grams because they are easier, better, easier to remember & make more sense} on a piece of masking tape. put all your fruit in a container large enough to hold it & the step you are about to take next.
- fill your container with cold water from the tap. you may use expensive water too if you like. the fruit should BE COVERED AND SUBMERGED but NOT DROWNING. my most common mistake is I drown the fruit. you become sorry later, I promise you. if you have OCD and are worried about that fruit that floats to the top you can lay a folded clean dishcloth over the top and put a plate on top of that. but none of that is necessary. place this container in the fridge and affix that important piece of masking tape to the outside.
- in order to make marmalade you NEED a stainless steel HEAVY BOTTOMED pot. your pot should be twice the size of the batch of marmalade you are making. please do not crowd the pot. you spent all this time prepping the fruit and taking out all the seeds…
- you will also need a piece of cheesecloth the size of a dishtowel. you may also use a jelly bag, but you may not use a paper coffee filter. if the mesh on the cloth you are using is too tight, your marmalade will not get thick enough. or, it won't get as thick as if you use cheesecloth.
- the next day {although truth be told you can also cook this two days after you submerge it under water} dump all the contents of the container into your stainless steel pot.
- you know you have just the right amount of water in there when, upon pressing down on the fruit, you feel a mass like washing a sweater in the bathroom sink. if it feels like floating, amorphous fruit, your fruit is drowning and you need to pour away some of your water.
- turn the heat on to medium or medium high.
- do not leave the house.
- but you may want to plan an afternoon activity. the next step, depending on your batch size, could take 3+ hours total cooking time.
- you are cooking your prepped fruit until THE PEEL IS TEETH TENDER. you are not making mush. you do not want a rapid boil. you do not want aggressive water or to stir the mass aggressively. be firm but fair with your wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula.
- AS SOON AS THE PEEL is palatable by way of feel and taste, you are going to measure out 40-60% of the fruit's total weight {which you wrote on that piece of masking tape} in sugar. white sugar. so. if you have 1500g lemon slices, you probably want 750 – 900g sugar. lemons are sour. but if you have 1000g Navel oranges or Meyer lemons you may only want 400g sugar. see? see why grams are better? easier, that's for damn sure.
- now you want to turn the flame down to an exact medium. not medium high, not medium low. call in one of the Three Bears if you can't decide. if you're lucky the Christian Right will not have locked up Goldylocks just yet.
- see those beautiful glistening seeds? touch them. fondle them. feel their slimyness? that slime is natural pectin. fruit protein of the gods.
- dump out your seeds into the cheesecloth. you probably want to have folded your cheesecloth in half, though, so it's not too porous.
- wipe out any excess pectin that's clinging to the sides, with your cheesecloth. every molecule matters. I'm not joking.
- make a little package of your seeds. NOT TIGHT. do not suffocate your seeds. they are like bees– give them room and you will be much rewarded. tie top with food grade twine or a rubber band. plop in the center of your hot fruit mess.
- stir infrequently, but intentionally.
- do not leave the house. but you may water the garden or dust.
- place a saucer or two in the freezer.
- this is what you are looking for:
- your marmalade is done when it begins to thicken and your bubbles get lazy. yes, bubbles. you want your mixture to simmer on the high side.
- your marmalade is done when the mixture darkens but it is overcooked if it begins to take on a golden hue.
- when you think you're getting close, spoon out a bit of the mixture & drop it onto your frozen saucer. when the droplet firms up instead of melts out it is ready.
- do not plotz if your first batch does not set up stiff like a tight skirt. like a three piece suit. you are making a homemade something wondrous and it will not look like any commercial jam, jelly or marmalade you have in your condiments section.
- when you think your marmalade is done, pour it immediately into a large vessel and place that in a larger vessel filled with ice. or you can leave it out at room temp, uncovered, until it can be handled.
*This recipe is good for "soft" skinned fruits. By this I do not mean limes or grapefruits. If you are dead set on making either or both, let me know in the comments section and I will tell you how I deal with these fruits. I definitely do not suggest starting your marmalade making with limes or grapefruits as they are tricky in the frustrating kind of way.
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Scrambled Eggs Super
May 18th, 2010
Now it’s no surprise that one of Amaya’s two favorite bedtime books is Green Eggs and Ham, but have you ever heard the story of Scrambled Eggs Super, special deluxe a la Peter T Hooper? It’s another great selection for young foodies from Dr. Seuss. Consider the first page:
I don’t like to brag and I don’t like to boast,
Said Peter T Hooper, but speaking of toast
And speaking of kitchens and ketchup and cake
And kettles and stoves and the stuff people bake…
Well I don’t like to brag, but I’m telling you Liz,
That speaking of cooks, I’m the best that there is!
Why, only last Tuesday, when mother was out
I really cooked something worth talking about!
If ever there was a children’s book about an aspiring young chef, this is it. It chronicles the adventures of Peter T Hooper as he searches for the finest freshest eggs pilfered from the best tasting birds from around the world, culminating in the very finest Scrambled Eggs Super the world has ever seen. As always Dr. Seuss delights in taking personalities and situations to the extreme while beginning with a very plausible scenario. It’s a tongue in cheek look at cooking written over fifty years ago that still manages to remind us (the parents) of modern day gourmet clubs that focus on extreme eating and exotics from around the world. At bedtime Amaya chooses her two books. Most of the time we start with “Ham” and end with “Super” and by the time Daddy is done reading Amaya is usually sound asleep.
Spherical Shape
May 17th, 2010
The sphere has been a big player in our food. It is the most simple and the most sophisticated shape, that can stand alone or as a part of other components. It always feels to me that a sphere is sufficient on its own and does not need much accompaniment. Does the elegance come from the simplicity? Does complexity sometimes mask the beauty of certain flavors and components? It does, but it also can be boring or uninteresting if it doesn’t fulfill the eyes and the appetite.
We use all kinds of molds, from stainless steel to custom silicon that range from an half sphere to a full sphere. We also use squeeze bottles with extremely small tips to pipe stable emulsion into a spherical shape. All kind of preparations can easily fit into that shape. From a thinly sliced avocado, to melted chocolate, liquid set with gellan, lobster mousse baked into a silicon mold or just a simple ball of ice.