Chef at Home

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.

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.

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.

We have layered thin sheets of lardo with leaves of bush basil.

to be continued…

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.

Pancakes are a breakfast favorite around here. Partially because they are fast and delicious and partially because one of Amaya’s favorite shows is Sid the Science Kid and the episode about cooking pancakes is one of her favorites. Our go to recipe is a riff of one by Alton Brown. Today we happened to have some local, organic whole wheat flour and perfectly ripe bananas on the counter, Amaya loves to peel them but doesn’t have any particular interest in eating them, and these banana pancakes were born. They were surprisingly tender and light, cooked on an ungreased non-stick griddle. They had a clear banana flavor and a bit of nuttiness from the coarsely ground flour. With some butter and maple syrup they passed muster with both Alex and Amaya, not an easy task since she’s not overly fond of eating bananas and he’s not a fan of whole wheat anything. Try them, you may love them too.

Banana Pancakes

2 cups whole wheat flour

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 extremely ripe bananas

1/2-3/4 cups buttermilk

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Coarsley slice the bananas and put them in a blender with 1/2 cup buttermilk. Blend on low until completely pureed. Add enough buttermilk to make two cups of liquid and then add the eggs and vanilla. Puree briefly on low speed to bring everything together. Pour in the butter while the blender is running and turn it off as soon as it is absorbed into the liquid. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together until everything just comes together in a relatively smooth batter.

We cook our pancakes on an electric griddle set at 350F without any additional fat. The wheat flour and brown sugar cause the pancakes to brown easily so flip them a little earlier than you might with regular pancakes, when you have bubbles around the outer perimeter but not in the center of the cakes, to be safe.These pancakes will be a little more delicate than your average buttermilk pancake so flip them carefully and cook until just done. Serve hot with butter, maple syrup, honey, or whatever your pleasure.

Blistered padron peppers with shishito pepper cream cheese.

Delicious.

Alex is headed out to San Francsico at the end of the month and will be teaching a series of classes at Le Sanctuaire. They will be held on Sunday August 29 and Monday August 30. Each class is $125. Each class is two and a half hours long with an hour break between sessions. Please contact Le Sanctuaire to make reservations.

Ice Cream and Sorbet

Sunday, August 29, 2010

10am-12:30pm

The best ice creams maximize flavor and minimize ice crystals. We will be considering different ways to control ice crystal formation without sacrificing taste. In addition to traditional buffers like eggs and sugar we will employ our secret weapon: gellan. We will also be looking at pectin as an alternative for creamy sorbets. Discussing the composition of ice cream and sorbets. Ice creams we will be making include:

White Coffee Ice Cream

Chartreuse Ice Cream

Apple Pie Ice Cream

Yellow Tomato Sorbet

Sweet Corn Sorbet

Pasta

Sunday, August 29, 2010

1:30pm-4pm

It’s about taste and texture. Discussing the difference between dried and fresh pastas and the best ways to highlight both. Exploring the world of flavors and how to incorporate them into your pasta. Vacuum sealing the dough. Hydrating dried pastas. Discovering new flavors and textures by varying the ingredients used. Some of the pastas we will be working on are:

Buckwheat Pasta

Pumpernickel Pasta

Lime Pickle Pasta

Chorizo Infused Noodles

Onion Soup Noodles

Eggs

Monday, August 30, 2010

10am-12:30pm

Explore the egg and why it cooks the way it does. A closer look at its structure, properties, coagulation temperatures, and the way to utilize it to your best advantage. We will take a fresh look at traditional egg preparations from an onsen egg to scrambled eggs and bring new insight to the results and the process.  Some of the egg recipes we will be covering are:

Hot Spring Egg

Peel-able Soft Boiled Egg

Chawan Mushi

Scrambled Egg Mousse

Consistent Hard Boiled Egg

Egg Yolk Confit

Smoked Eggs in their Shells

Aroma

Monday, August 30, 2010

1:30pm-4pm

Examine aroma as a base for adding flavors in cooking. Liquid nitrogen and CO2 are instrumental in allowing us to capture and release aromas at specific times so that food can be more flavorful. We will discuss thoughtful evaluation of taste and smell, how to layer them with aromas and why. We will look at different techniques to capture and deliver aroma using fats, water-based liquids, and alcohol. Some of the techniques we will be covering are:

Powdered aromatics

Using the vacuum sealer to capture aroma

Powdered fats with aromatics

Carbonating aromatic cocktails

Quick infusions

Toasting aromatics

What can we add aroma to?

Adding Aroma to Cold Foods

Aromatic “Marinades”