Chef at Home

Tony Maws has made the art of sharing food an experience like no other. He takes off cuts and limited quantities and prepares them so that a few select people may indulge in the experience. At the lunch we just cooked he presented his red chile marinated hiramasa collar with a grated salad of Asian pear, daikon and scallion. The collar is placed in front of several guests who then are able to dig into the flesh. Fingers get dirty and diners forget about the world around them. Delicous is the key and pleasure is the goal. The picture portrays us finishing the plating of five collars prepared for twelve guests. The fact that supplies are limited makes the eating all the more exciting and challenging.

Actually, these are strips of the scallop mantle. We trim them off from the fresh shucked scallop innards and soak them in a brine of 5% salt for 10 minutes. Once the mantles are soaked, we saute them in olive oil and then quickly cool them down. When they are chilled we add lime juice, black pepper, minced cilantro, basil leaves, un-salt wort and garlic chive blossoms. The mantles have a nice snap to them and the dish is bright and herbaceous with notes of the sea. While scallops are ubiquitous on many menus, the mantles provide a delicious flavor with a texture we do not always consider. Furthermore, the mantle usually ends up in the bin. And if this preparation does not excite you think about scallop chile again made with the mantle.

It has been a long time since I have shucked scallops. This morning the learning curve was steep and exilerating. The quivering muscles were deliciously inspiring. All the parts in front of me reminded me about how little we often work with and how much we let escape our creative nets. Tomorrow we begin to delve into what we usually discard, starting with the eyes.

In cooking there is a lot of peeling. Prepping vegetables can be a tedious task and the idea of cutting small corners here and there can be insidious. Peeling raw peppers is one of those details that many chefs forgo. However, like the simple act of washing a dryer filter, some tasks don’t appear to be necessary until after you try them, when an irritating error message suddenly goes silent or a previously unpeeled vegetable suddenly snaps into sharper focus. Years ago we made a charred jalapeno and bacon sauce, which blended candied bacon with grilled jalapenos that were mostly peeled. However, we peeled those peppers just because we could and the blistered pepper skins mostly fell off on their own. Then, last year when we were preparing the Mangalista dinner at elements in Princeton, Mr Anderson started peeling jalapenos for a relish. He picked up a peeler and just went to town, removing the tough exterior skin of the small peppers. At this point a lightbulb went off. It was one of those moments where “aha” could not cover my delight with an idea. Such a simple evolution and what an amazing difference it made. The peppers were then seeded, diced and vacuum sealed to intensify their color and make the texture juicier. And without the skin of the jalapeno to interfere, the flavorful relish was at first crunchy and then simply melted in our mouths. And this is why most Italians peel their peppers, Those skins are tough and don’t add much flavor. If we’re going to take the time and effort to dice them beautifully, why wouldn’t we want to peel them as well? As always, the devil is in the details. Ignore him at your peril. In order to pursue perfection we have to get our hands dirty in the kitchen.

In looking at the zucchini blossoms we purchased I decided to eat the pistil. Normally we remove the pistil and stamen but today I was drawn into the blossom and dug in. It turns out the pistil has a texture similar to a beautiful button chanterelle mushroom. The flavor is similar too. These few were marinated in lemon juice, salt and olive oil. We have a few more that we will be trying a few other preperations from pan roasted to gently stewed. Are these a viable ingredient? That depends on how fluid your kitchen is and what you consider feasible.

We use these gently cooked yolks to sit atop pasta or to be hidden beneath piles of shave vegetables, cheese and meats. Recently we paired the yolk cooked in bacon fat with padron peppers and some thick fresh extruded spaghetti. The warm thickend yolk perfumed with bacon dressed the noodles and completed the dish.

Egg Yolk Confit

12 egg yolks

Flavored Fat

Put the fat into a vacuum bag or mason jars. Slide the egg yolks into the bag and then seal the bag. Cook the eggs for 1hour at 64°C. Cool the eggs in the fat if the fat is liquid in the refrigerator, otherwise, remove the yolks from the fat and store on a flat tray covered with plastic or on individual sheets of plastic wrap.

The key is the roast corn broth.

Roast Corn Chawan Mushi

340g/12oz roasted corn  stock

156g/5.5oz/3 large eggs

16g/5/8oz/1T smoked soy sauce

Place a steamer on high heat and bring to a full simmer. Use a fork to lightly blend the eggs and the soy sauce. Stir in the roasted corn stock and then strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Some egg particles will be caught in the strainer, that is ok. Pour 200g/3oz of the base into 6 ramekins. Place the ramekins in the steamer and turn the heat down to low. Cook the custards for 13 minutes, until they are firm to the touch and still jiggle. The custards will look a strange grey color if you look into the steamer before they are fully cooked.

Roasted Corn Cob Stock

8 corn cobs (smoked would be better)

800 grams water

1 4 inch piece Kombu

2 cloves garlic

Cut the top and bottom off the 8 ears of corn and discard. Cut each corn cob in half and put on a parchment lined baking pan. Roast the cobs at 425°F for thirty minutes or until foxy brown. Remove the cobs from the oven and put them in a pressure cooker. Add the water, kombu and garlic and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. Let the pressure dissipate naturally. Strain the corn stock and reserve.

We paired our green banana puree with aero-foie. The foie gras is stabilized with GMS, which allows us to use almost 100% foie gras in this preperation. The foie gras is cleaned and cooked at 50°C for ten minutes. Then it is is melted down, whisked back together and then aerated with an iSi canister. We extruded the foie gras into mason jars and sealed the lids. The mason jars are put in the freezer to set the mousse and then removed when ready to eat. We remove the foie from the jar and let it temper in the refrigerator. The light texture allows the flavor of the foie to quickly coat the palate and deliver the decadent richness of the liver as it melts in your mouth. The other components of the dish round out and temper this indulgence: tamarind yogurt, cilantro stems, garlic chive blossoms, tamarind-chile candy, jalapeno-lime relish and pickled asian pear-apple.

A puree of banana and cilantro. It is amazing the play on words and the flavor which comes together.

What do you see?

ice cream

noodles

crisps

stuffing

soup

sabayon

juice

stir fry of stems

shave ice

tempura as is and a batter

as a cure

roasted

creamed

smoked

souffle

gremolata

salsa verde

pesto

agnolotti