Chef at Home

We almost always roast our chicken on a bed of vegetables. Usually we roast 7 pound birds, butterflied and resting on the bed. It looks like a chicken sitting on its nest. Recently we had an abundance of radishes from daikon to purple and we decided to roast our bird on them. We added some leeks and carrots, ginger and kimchee and roasted away. The chicken juices blended with the roasting vegetables. We enjoyed the dinner but there were plenty of roasted radishes and juices left over. We put the vegetables and their juices into a bowl and let them cool overnight. The following morning we decided to not just reheat the vegetables in their original form. Instead we put the vegetables and the congealed juices through a food mill. The result was an incredible sugo of roasted radishes. This result was not only delicious but it started an avalanche of ideas for creating flavored roasted vegetables: from lobster bodies roasted on white miripoix to bacon on a bed of onions. The blending of fond and roasted vegetables is delicious and a wonderful platform to build dishes and sauces upon.

When we were in Cabo last winter everybody rhapsodized about the freshly fried tortilla chips. They were at almost every meal, accompanied by salsa and guacamole, still warm from the fryer. Or so we thought. Of course when you’re in the business you notice things, you can’t help yourself. And one afternoon I watched as the cooks behind the line opened bag after bag of tortila chips, poured them into hotel pans and parked them under the heat lamps to warm up. It was enlightening to say the least.

Once home I tried the technique using our toaster oven and baked tortilla chips. People gushed. They were blown away that I fried my own tortilla chips and somehow managed to avoid making the entire house smell of oil. That is one of the biggest benefits of this technique, the taste of freshly fried chips without the lingering scent of oil. Since tortilla chips were so good it only made sense to try it with potato chips. We used Kettle chips with sea salt. They were fantastic. You have to let them cool a bit to maximize crispiness. But frankly you could serve them with a variety of dips before dinner and no one would complain because they are that good. Try it and you’ll never serve them straight from the bag again.

This idea has been a long time in the making. Thanks to Tony *for supplying us with some blood sausage puree.

Blood Sausage Cavatelli

220 grams AP flour

1 gram baking powder

225 grams puree of cooked blood sausage

Put the flour and the baking powder into a bowl and stir to combine. Add the blood sausage puree and use your finger tips to incorporate it. Once it comes together into a rough dough, knead it until it is smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a vacuum bag and seal. Put the dough in the refrigerator and let it rest and chill for thirty minutes. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and then from the bag. Roll the dough out until it 1cm thick. Cut the dough into 1cm squares. Roll each square along a gnocchi board so that it folds over itself and forms the traditional cavatelli/malloredus shape. Refrigerate the pasta if you are cooking it the same day, otherwise lay it out in one flat layer on sheet pans and freeze them. When the cavatelli is frozen transfer them to a zip top bag and store frozen for up to a week. The pasta can be cooked in boiling water directly from the freezer.

*Perhaps if there are enough requests Tony will share his incredible blood sausage recipe and his unique way of cooking it for non-traditional presentations and preparations.

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.

As fashion trend has taken the monogram print as a logo, or as a part of the design, I thought that food could do the same. We as chefs are always thinking and looking for innovative plating to create a surprise, but we always fear that the design will take away from the nature of the product. Bold and intense flavors cannot be manipulated too much or they start loose their impact. But a potato, braised with meat bouillon and caramelized to get that shine, does not need a natural round shape to be good. Any shape will work. NYC is submerged with fashion week now, so I thought Chicago can have a little bit of that too.

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.

Noe, our baker, made croissant for us this morning. Some filled with chocolate and other with asiago cheese. That was a nice touch with coffee.

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.