Chef at Home

A dish always start somewhere. More precisely, it starts with a component that will be one of the main players on the plate. Sometime you continue the idea and are able to finalize it. Sometimes the idea just dies. It might come back one day mixed into a new thought at a better time. 

Mole is a complex preparation that combines a lot of different elements to create a balance, usually between spicy, sweet and salty. But it is also interesting, from a gustatory point of view, to create greater clarity in that balance by combining these element side by side, to be eaten together but not necessary all at the same time.

In this dish pineapple mole is the main player. It is meant to be combined with a cooked lobster or a prawn. We did few different preparations of the mole and even though the overall taste was good, the different layers of taste were missing clarity. So we broke the mole into several pieces and the result is much more dynamic. The dish itself is not finished yet but it is very close.

Pictured here is roasted pineapple juice, passilla de Oaxaca and tomato, garlic and vanilla, green onion and chive.

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

We found these gorgeous little zucchini with the blossoms still attached at the Philly Farmer’s market today. It’s been a long time since I last played with squash blossoms and I couldn’t resist them. They took me back in time to Martha’s Vineyard and the squash blossoms we used to get from a local farm there. Those summers were were defined by long hours, hard work and good food. Visiting that farm was an almost forgotten pleasure from the past but these blossoms are a promise for the very near future. I have no idea what we’ll do with them, whatever it is will be easy because the ingredient itself is almost perfect just as it is.

We rolled these malloredus style noodles by hand because of the higher moisture content in the dough. The moisture comes from the addition of the shishito pepper puree. The noodles are intensely flavored with the charred flavor of the peppers and call for seafood, particularly crab meat, perhaps with a drizzle of brown butter and a generous handful of Parmigiano Reggiano. Yes we know, but we like cheese with seafood on most occasions. If you don’t have crab, white clam sauce would be an admirable substitute, and if you really want to go over the top, Lobster Americaine served over this pasta would definitely take you there. Even if you want to keep things strictly vegetarian, say with great olive oil, fresh ricotta and freshly grated nutmeg, these noodles would still be amazing. I guess what we’re saying, in the immortal words of Yo Gabba Gabba is try them, you’ll like them.

Shishito Pepper Malloredus

260 grams shishito pepper puree

18 grams egg yolk

225 grams AP flour

100 grams semolina

Mix the pepper puree and the egg yolk together. Put the semolina and the flour in a bowl and stir in the pepper puree mixture. Bring the dough together, then knead till silky and smooth. Vacuum seal the dough to fully hydrate the flour and semolina. Roll the dough like cavatelli with a machine or by hand using a gnocchi board.