Archive for August, 2010
Aromatic Eggs
August 31st, 2010
We pack our eggs with basil for two days and then cook them in a variety of styles: hot spring, scrambled, aerated, poached, steamed and more.
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Yellow Tomato Sorbet, the recipe
August 30th, 2010
Yellow Tomato Sorbet
1030 grams cleaned and cut yellow tomatoes
110 grams sugar
100 grams liquid glucose
60 grams lime juice
6.5 grams salt
13 grams low acyl gellan
Put the tomatoes into a vacuum bag and seal on high pressure. When the bag is sealed, bruise and break up the tomatoes. Cut the bag open and press the tomato mixture through a course sieve to extract 350 grams of tomato juice. Put this juice into a pot. Meanwhile put the remaining tomato into a blender with the sugar, glucose, salt and lime juice and puree until smooth. Reserve this mixture. Put the tomato juice into a pot and bring to a simmer. Pour the hot juice into a blender and turn it on low. Increase the speed until a vortex forms. Sprinkle in the gellan and increase the speed to medium high. Blend the mixture until the gellan is dispersed and hydrated. The mixture will thicken and the blending should take 1 minute. Pour the gellan mixture quickly into a Pyrex dish to set as gellan sets quickly. Allow the mix to set at room temperature and then put in the refrigerator to chill. When the gellan-tomato mixture is cold cut it up into small pieces and put it and the pureed tomato mixture into a blender. Puree the mixture starting on medium and increasing to high until it is smooth. This process can take up to five minutes, be patient. When the mixture is puréed, strain it through a fine mess strainer. Let reset several hours then freeze in an ice cream maker.
Fresh Sunflower Seeds
August 29th, 2010
There is a laundry list of ideas to do with these tender bites. Somehow it took a of random observing to unveil what a unique ingredient has been staring us in the face.
Ginger juice, how I loathed you and now I love you
August 28th, 2010
Juicing ginger is not a task I usually get excited about. It takes time, clogs the juicer and requires more preparation and clean up work than I am willing to do for myself. When we cook for others we go an extra mile. At home, for us, somehow we just do not.
We have been exploring the world of cocktails and juices and aroma and tastes and working on extracting the most flavor with the least amount of work. Some things just do not have to be hard. Aki was working on an orange-verbena spritzer and wanted an element of ginger. Unfortunately, she thought of muddling the ginger after the drink was made.
But there, lying on the cutting board was our citrus juicer and a knob of ginger. I put the ginger in the press and squeezed. Out came a rush of beautiful ginger juice with very little effort. I tried it again and it was effortless deliciousness. Now we are looking at combining herbs and knobs in the press so that oils and aromas blend and delivered quickly and instantly into drinks. It also lends to finishing sauces, vinaigrettes, marinades and more.
Ginger juice, how I loathed you and now I love you
August 28th, 2010
Juicing ginger is not a task I usually get excited about. It takes time, clogs the juicer and requires more preparation and clean up work than I am willing to do for myself. When we cook for others we go an extra mile. At home, for us, somehow we just do not.
We have been exploring the world of cocktails and juices and aroma and tastes and working on extracting the most flavor with the least amount of work. Some things just do not have to be hard. Aki was working on an orange-verbena spritzer and wanted an element of ginger. Unfortunately, she thought of muddling the ginger after the drink was made.
But there, lying on the cutting board was our citrus juicer and a knob of ginger. I put the ginger in the press and squeezed. Out came a rush of beautiful ginger juice with very little effort. I tried it again and it was effortless deliciousness. Now we are looking at combining herbs and knobs in the press so that oils and aromas blend and delivered quickly and instantly into drinks. It also lends to finishing sauces, vinaigrettes, marinades and more.
Carrots, Ham, Lardo and Herbs
August 28th, 2010
In our don’t leave well enough alone approach to cooking we decided to pair the ham flavored carrots with the sheet of basil specked lardo. We added sliced garlic chives and some more bush basil leaves from the weed patch to complete the dish. The lardo is served initially chilled and the warm carrots temper it quite quickly adding another layer seasoned aromatic fat to the dish. Initially I wanted to add an egg yolk cooked in bacon fat to this as well, but fate intervened and the dish is all the better for it.
Carrots and Ham
August 28th, 2010
These are the tastiest carrots we have cooked to date. They are cut into obliques and then put in a vacuum bag with shaved Benton's ham and some butter. We sealed the bag and cooked the carrots in boiling water for thirteen minutes. When the carrots were cooked we removed them from the water and let them rest at room temperatured for 5 minutes and then put the bag into an ice bath. When the carrots were cool, we cut the bag and tasted. The blend of meat, smoke, salt, butter and carrot was incredible. I know we should have been doing this long ago, heck Michel Bras has been. Somehow we just did not pick up on the clues. Now to explore other meat and vegetable combinations. Garlic infused with chorizo or pearl onions with beef jerky might not be a bad way to start.
Wylie Dufresne
August 28th, 2010
We had a post prepared for tonight. What Wylie has to say is more important. I twittered earlier that Wylie is the Peyton Manning of the food world. I mean this as the ultimate compliment because Peyton is talented, scholarly and personable and this interview easily illustrates the comparison.
Oh yeah, and if you want to see some of his new dishes he has a number of updated pictures on his website along with some of Alex Stupak's brilliant desserts.
Lardo with Herbs
August 28th, 2010
Bacon, Lettuce and Fried Greenish Tomato
August 28th, 2010
You know what happens when you buy green tomatoes and forget about them on the counter? They ripen, slowly. What is interesting is that half ripe tomatoes make for really delicious cooked tomatoes. They have a nice balance of sweetness and acidity, and they are just a little bit juicy with enough structure to give them a bit of bite after cooking without falling apart. In short they are perfect for a flour-egg-seasoneed cornmeal dredge and a quick pan fry. Add some good bread, creamy mayo, crisp lettuce and crunchy-chewy bacon and you've got a meal to remember.