IDEAS IN FOOD

Popovers Unlimited

It should come as no surprise that I'm a sucker for books on food, especially those small collections of opinionated essays that come in and out of vogue every so often. The last time I was browsing through a used bookstore I came across Caramel Knowledge by Al Sicherman.   He wrote a food column for the Minneapolis Star and Tribune and the book is a collection of these articles. They are witty and somewhat twisted, describing many foods that I personally would never consume, but enjoyed vicariously through his book. It is a snapshot of a brief moment in someone's culinary history, actually many someones because his articles were read by and responded to by the newspaper's readership. Al had an adventorous palate and wasn't afraid to try and recreate popular items like Hostess cupcakes and Twinkies or to create an entire menu around Spam or "mock dishes" like the Ritz Crackers Mock Apple Pie .

He also wrote an article about popovers where he claimed that popovers were absolutely foolproof. Suffice it to say that this did not prove to be the case for one of his readers and he spent many weeeks backtracking and trying to determine exactly why the gentleman in question was unable to make them "pop".  After establishing the basic popover recipe, one of his suggestions was to pour the popover batter over leftovers to make something wonderful and delicious. It made me think of BLT Steak in New York and their amazing cheesy popovers. So this morning I pulled out his recipe, made a few minor adjustments and poured it over some diced ham and onions. I laid some thin slices of cheese over the top of the batter and baked them up. They popped admirably and were custardy and delicious with a  thick crunchy crust.  It was just the thing for a hectic Monday mornng.

Below is a recipe for basic popovers.  To stuff them place the filling of your choice in the bottom of your tins and then pour the batter over it. The contents will blend together and be evenly distributed through the finished popovers. You could stuff them with diced shrimp and caramelized onions and finish them with a quenelle of horseradish creme fraiche. This will melt slightly into the various nooks and crannies and create a contrast of textures and flavors to please the palate. You could stuff them with fresh berries and finish them with a warm chocolate sauce or fresh lemon curd. You could infuse the milk with a fresh herb, such as dill, and top them with a savory lemon whipped cream, sliced green onions and caviar. You could pour the batter over fresh peaches and serve them for breakfast with yogurt. The possibilities are endless, as always, you are only limited by your imagination.

Basic Popovers
adapted from Caramel Knowlege by Al Sicherman

1 cup of milk
3 eggs
1 cup of flour
2 tablespoons of melted butter
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Combine milk and eggs in a blender and blend to mix. Add flour and blend briefly, scraping down the sides of the blender container. With the blender running, drizzle in the melted butter and stop when combined.

Makes four large or eight smaller popovers. Pour batter into well-greased muffin tins or cast iron popover pans. Fill the cups about 3/4 of the way with batter to maximize your rise.

Bake 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, lower heat and 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.

Kimchee Cracklings and Those Who Got Us There

I used to eat a fair number of cheetos as a kid.  The light crisp texture and the staining orange cheese powder were too addictive to avoid.  Over time I have leaned towards the simple salinity and crispness of potato chips rather then the puffed crunch of cheetos.  Recently I have become interested in the light as air nature of puffed materials.  The spark has come from several sources.  Reiko, Aki’s mom, continues to send a variety of Japanese snacks with intense flavors and light as air texture.  I have read about though not eaten the various puffs/crisps produced by Grant Achatz and team Alinea.  I have also revisited the El Bulli book 1998-2002 which features a number of puffed snacks.  These three have been the key influences in wanting to tackle the notion of puffed fried crisps.  Actually, to me they have become crackling’ varietals.

I had much difficulty in sourcing a base recipe for what I wanted to do.  In retrospect, I have a variety books which had the answer, I was just looking at the problem from the wrong angle.  So, I must thank, Chef Sean Brock  of McCrady’s restaurant, Shola Olunloyo of Studio Kitchen fame andNathan Myhrvold a serious gastronome with a knack for finding enough research to answer almost any question.

With that said, I took the information from these three individuals and was able to work out a base recipe for ramp kimchee cracklings.  Each added some specific insight which enabled me to generate a recipe for my immediate needs.  Now of course I have a huge number of variations to explore from clam chowder to passionfruit.

Here is our recipe:

200g coarse ground tapioca
220g moist ramp kimchee
20g kimchee liquid

Puree the three ingredients in a food processor until a smooth dough is formed.  Divide the dough into two portions and roll into thin cylinders about an inch in diameter.  Place the cylinder on a sheet of plastic wrap and cover with another sheet.  Roll the cylinder out into a flat thin sheet.  The dough should be nearly translucent.  Repeat with the other cylinder.  Steam the dough sheets, still in plastic, in a steamer for fifteen minutes.  We are able to use a hotel pan to make a long steamer so both sheets fit lengthwise on top of each other.  If you have a smaller steamer, cut the sheets into portions that fit in your steamer.  Once the dough is steamed, remove it from the plastic wrap and lay it out on a parchment lined rack on a sheet pan to allow for even airflow.  Place the pan in a 180 degree F oven and allow the dough to dry.  Flip the dough sheets occasionally to allow for even drying.  When the sheets are completely dry and brittle, remove them from the oven and allow to cool.  Break or cut the dough crisps into pieces and then fry in 350 degree F oil.  The crisps will puff quickly and triple in size.  Remove from the oil onto a paper towel lined rack.  Season the crisps lightly with salt.  Enjoy.

My Friend the Freezer

I like to read.  Anyway, I came across an interesting technique on fruit purees on Phatduck in the Pastry Department.  Go there and read the article.

Great huh?  Somebody thinking about food, figuring out a better way to generate flavors and textures.  No, I have not tried the process yet, but it makes sense.  In fact, I actually have a couple of thoughts beyond the initial approach.  What if you held the fruit in a strainer and collected the extruded juice while the fruit thawed in the refrigerator?  Could you then cook the juice down to a concentrate and then puree it with the fruit to concentrate the flavor even more.  How would the process work with just blanched vegetables like asparagus.  Could you make an incredible vibrant asparagus puree, freezing the asparagus and then pureeing it in its near frozen state?  What about cooked or raw carrots?  Heck what about peaches?  Those super ripe heady wonders.  Cut them in half, freeze and then scoop out the flesh and puree.  Plums to for an incredible plum puree, add some salted plum for a taste balance.  I know flash frozen peas make a tasty soup.  I am quite excited with this bit of culinary insight.

Thanks again Dana for the culinary spark.

Size Does Matter

What is great with one or two bites can certainly become a disastrous wreck with any more than that.  I am not talking about a palate getting bored and tired.  I am simply noting that a dish can be excellent on a micro scale and just lousy on a macro scale.  A case for my insight is a dish from our own repertoire.  I made a litchi jelly candy and set in small molds.  The taste and texture was smooth, silky and melting reminiscent of a true litchi though with less chew.  I felt the litchi jelly would pair nicely with marinated tomatoes and olive oil.  I prepared small spoonfuls of peeled tomatoes, miso tea, olive oil and the litchi jelly and took a bite.  Absolutely delicious.  I felt we needed to serve this dish.  I took a great many peeled tomatoes and covered them in melted litchi jelly.  I set this base mixture in small ramekins, eagerly waiting for the jelly to set so we could try the complete dish.  When the tomato and litchi jelly molds were solidified we turned them out onto a plate and dressed them with olive oil, miso tea, sorrel and marjoram.  We then began eating the dish.  One bite was tasty, two was good, three just OK.  I looked at Aki and she and me and we both nodded.  We cannot serve this.  It literally tells you to stop eating it and that is not good.  While the initial tastes and textures of the litchi jelly and tomato seemed promising as a whole dish we need to rethink its uses.  For now, we can serve the refreshing bite as an element of a dish.

A Variety of Caramels

Begin with a near burnt caramel made with equal parts isomalt and liquid glucose.  Add a flavored liquid, do this carefully to avoid sputtering hot sugar.  Cook the mixture until the caramel and liquid come together into a uniform sauce.  Stain the caramel and chill.

What kind of flavored liquids could we use:  truffle juice, chorizo water, roquefort or cheddar broth, oxtail-tea consomme, celery juice, onion juice, chicken fond extract, oatmeal essence, toasted rice water, horseradish juice.  These are just a few thoughts on what is possible.  A few days ago we made black truffle caramel.  We have used it so far in two applications:  as the sauce for a hot broccoli creme caramel, as a glaze for butter poached beef tenderloin.  We now have a large door open.  I wonder what we will find?

Hummus Gnocchi

In writing this brief recipe I am making the assumption that most people have a base or familiar recipe for hummus.  That said, we begin by pureeing the hummus and passing it through a tammis to make sure it is  silky smooth.  The recipe begins here.

Hummus Gnocchi

300g smooth hummus
75g water
3.75g Methocel SGA150
3.75g gelatin

Make sure the hummus is at room temperature.  Bloom the gelatin in cold water.   Bring the water to a boil, remove from the heat and whisk in the methocel to disperse it.  Add the drained bloomed gelatin to the methocel water, then mix this mixture into the hummus.  Once the two mixtures are fully combined, place the base mixture in a bowl in an ice bath and allow the mixture to cool completely.  When the mixture is ice cold, place it in a pastry bag with a one centimeter tip.  Bring a pot of water to a boil and season with salt and turn down the heat so the water just simmers.  Begin to squeeze the hummus mixture into the water.  Use a pairing knife to cut off two centimeter sections.  The gnocchi will float and be firm to the touch when they are set.  You can then fold these gnocchi into a warm sauce or ragout.  Remember, the gnocchi base can be made ahead, but the gnocchi must be cooked to order and used warm.  (For those out there with liquid nitrogen on hand, you could make the gnocchi into a bath of liquid nitrogen, then just place in the freezer and cook the gnocchi from frozen.)

Smoked Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Every once in a while I get a craving for cinnamon raisin bread.  It's an old childhood favorite.  I loved to eat it toasted, dripping with butter, lightly dusted with more cinnamon and coarse sugar. In a response to a bit of nostalgia, yesterday I set some dried Thompson raisins to soak in a mixture of water and dark rum. As I grabbed the raisins I noticed some dried Rainer cherries, so on a whim I soaked them in a mixture of Jack Daniels and water.  Whiskey cherries are yet another story from childhood visits to Pittsburgh but we'll save that one for another day. As the fruit soaked I made some cinnamon whole wheat dough and finished it with soft butter. When Alex noticed what I was doing he whipped out some leftover smoked butter and I used it in a second batch of dough.  The results are pictured above, a delicately smoky and sweet cinnamon raisin bread. The cinnamon and Ranier cherry bread wasn't half bad either. Just follow the recipe below substituting ranier cherries and whiskey for the raisins and rum. If you don't have smoked butter or aren't partial to smoke, sweet butter is an admirable stand in for the smoked.

Smoked Cinnamon Raisin Bread

3 cups AP flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 package yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 1/2 cups water
2 ounces smoked butter, sliced, room temperature
1/2 cup raisins, soaked in dark rum and water to cover

Combine flours, yeast, sugar, salt and cinnamon stirring well to blend in the bowl of a standing mixer.  With the mixer going on the slowest speed and the paddle attached, slowly pour in the water. When the dough comes together in a rough mass, switch to the dough hook. Add a couple of tablespoons of water if it seems too dry. Once the dough comes together in a cohesive mass, increase the speed by one  and add the butter a slice at a time. Wait until each slice is fully incorporated before adding the next one.  Once the dough has absorbed all of the butter, continue to knead the dough for 3 minutes until it is looks smooth and silky. Take the dough from the mixer and finish by hand, kneading it a few times to form a springy ball. Put the dough into a lightly buttered bowl, roll it once to coat the ball with butter, cover and set aside to rise.  The first rising should take 1-2 hours depending in the temperature in your kitchen. Once the dough has doubled, gently deflate it and turn it over. Let the dough rise once more, it should take about half the time of the first rising.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Lightly butter three 8x4'' loaf pans. The easiest way to do this is to melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and brush it inside the pans with pastry brush. Divide the dough into thirds. Keep the dough that you are not working with covered so it does not dry out. You can use plastic wrap or simply invert your bowl over the extra dough. Roll the dough out into a rectangle 8" wide and approximately 1/2" thick. Drain your raisins in a colander saving any excess liquid to use in another recipe. You can use the flavored water the next time you make bread. Sprinkle 1/3 of the raisins over the rectangle. Roll the dough up into an 8" log and place it into the prepared pan. Spray or brush it lightly with water and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Do the same with the remaining two pieces of dough. Set aside for a final rising, approximately 30 minutes.  The dough will look slightly puffy like a roasted marshmallow when it's ready to bake. Brush or spray the loaves lightly with water before placing in the oven. Bake for fifteen minutes and rotate the loaves. Bake for fifteen minutes more and check for doneness. If you have a convection oven, rotate the loaves after 12 minutes and check them after another twelve. The loaf should be a deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Let cool for at least an hour before cutting the loaves.

July 27, 2006

Smoked Steelhead Trout Roe
olive chip ice cream, pea crisp

Barramundi
hummus gnocchi, cucumber,
roasted red pepper

Butter Poached Grass Roots Beef Tenderloin
green asparagus, caramel melansporum,
cashew-cocoa

Lincolnshire Poacher
german potato salad, sauerkraut glass

Crepe Cake
damsonplum cream

July 26, 2006

Griddled Key West Pink Shrimp
hot mozzarella, asparagus relish,
dried squid

Broccoli Creme Caramel
black truffle caramel, porcini marmalade

Crispy Lamb Belly
smoked spaetzle, pickled morels and chanterelles,
special sauce

Strawberry Pie
sweet cream

July 25, 2006

Giant Green Asparagus
smoked sea trout roe, celery leaves,
olive crumbs

Seared Scallop
melon confit, crispy peas,
roquefort water

Grass Roots Beef Tenderloin
tea braised artichokes, passionfruit mustard,
button mushroom grits

Goat’s Leap Sumi
sweet tomatoes, caraway,
focaccia croutons

Walnut Semi Fredo

Grilled Potato Ice Cream: the Recipe

500g raw russet potatoes, cut  into quarters lengthwise
530g skim milk
80g agave nectar
4g salt
370g whole milk yogurt

Cook the potato quarters on the grill until they are charred on all sides.  Once the potatoes are grilled, cut them into chunks and put them in a pot with the skim milk, salt and the agave nectar.  When the potatoes are falling apart, turn off the heat and fold in the yogurt.  Use a food mill to coarsely pulverize the base mixture.   Chill the mixture.  We use a pacojet to make ice cream, a device which thinly shaves the frozen mixture into creamy ice cream.  In lieu of the pacojet, I would recommend quickly pulsing the ice cream mixture in a blender to smooth the mixture.  This process must be done quickly so as not to overwork the starch in the potatoes.  At this point, freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker.

Asparagus Boat

One of the reasons I have been searching for large asparagus is that I have been wanting to serve asparagus boats.  Perhaps my early days working at a country club still influences my cooking.  That or I just like food in a boat.  Either way, the asparagus boat filled with smoked sea trout roe served with olive crumbs and celery leaves worked out quite well last evening.  Perhaps soon I will fill the boats with scrambled truffles--only time will tell.

View From the Back Steps

Sometimes a brief glimpse of a rainbow is enough.

What is on your plate?

Plenty of ideas and thoughts, nothing to say.

Agave Syrup

A few weeks ago Dan wrote me an email asking about agave syrup. He had noticed it showing up more and more often in our writing and was wondering why we were so enamored of it. My initial response was what's there not to love about agave syrup?

Agave juice was known to native Mexicans as "honey water".  Agave syrup is made mainly from the juices extracted from the core of the agave plant. The juices are either used as they are to create a dark agave syrup, or they are filtered to produce lighter agave syrups. As with any refining process, the filtered juices lose some of their nutritional content and flavor in their metamorphosis to a more neutral flavor. The darker syrups have a deeper, richer flavor with notes of minerals and vanilla.  The lighter syrups can be considered more versatile, especially when used in delicately flavored recipes. After the juices are extracted, they are heated to break down the carbohydrates.  The main carbohydrate in agave juice is comprised of a complex form of fructose. Once the juice has broken down it is reduced to a syrupy consistency.  As with maple syrup, you can find a wide range of agave syrups on the market ranging from a dark, almost molasses like product to a light syrup like the one pictured above.

Since agave syrup is approximately 90% fructose it has a sweeter flavor than granulated sugar. Because it tastes sweeter you do need to add as much to a recipe to obtain the same level of sweetness. This makes it an ideal product for people who are sugar sensitive or watching calories but do not want to resort to artificial sweeteners to satisfy their sugar cravings. Most agave syrups available in the United States are organic, vegan and kosher making them appropriate for almost every one.

Aside from the health benefits, which to be honest are not why we use agave syrup, it has a light viscosity and a high level of solubility. This means that it is easily incorporated into other ingredients regardless of temperature. It is perfect for bar applications as it can be stirred into cold drinks and homogenizes easily. It's shelf stable and does not need to be refrigerated after opening. It can be used as a substitute for corn syrup, maple or molasses in any old fashioned recipes and as an inverted sugar for modern applications. The light syrup provides a clean sweet flavor that is useful for balancing recipes in both sweet and savory applications. The darker syrups lend their own intense flavors to dishes and can be seen as chord of their own. If you do a bit of exploring on the Internet you can find a variety of different agave syrups. We like Madhava for their lighter syrups and we're still experimenting with the darker ones. But if you're looking for an alternative sweetener to play with you should definitely pick up some agave. We love it and hopefully so will you.

An Extra Set of Hands in the Kitchen

Sometimes an extra set of hands is so much more than just another two hands in the kitchen. We started this blog many moons ago partially as a digital notebook where we could record our culinary experiments and improvisation, and partially as a form of motivation for ourselves.  As a start-up with owners who were not experienced in the hotel business there were a few hiccups, the biggest ones occuring in the marketing and PR departments.  We never knew that you need to hire the public relations firm months before construction is finished and that someone needs to be out there selling and marketing your brand for up to a year before the actual opening. We've all learned a lot since the days when this place was just a glint in Barbara's eye. We were hired long before that first PR firm and lived through many days and evenings with no one to feed and no arriving guests in sight. A chef needs someone to cook for and so we decided to create a blog. This was so that we could have an audience in cyberspace to sustain us until the actual guests began to arrive.

Since then things have become increasingly busy, both on Ideas in Food and in the Guest House. Our flow of guests at Keyah Grande is not consistent yet and so we have not been able to justify hiring any extra staff in the kitchen. It's a catch-22 because although there are long stretches of fifteen hour days without a break, there are also periods where between us we can handle the load without excessive strain and periods when we have no guests at all.  It may not always be pretty behind closed doors but we can always get the job done.

Chris came to visit us a twice in the last few weeks. Although we were hesitant to bring him down from Denver, it turned out to be a windfall for us and hopefully a good learning experience for him. We were both reminded of something that we had lost during these many months alone in our kitchen. We had forgotten that the soul of a chef is fed by more than just cooking. We need to create delicious and beautiful food, we need to nourish others and make them feel cosseted and indulged when they visit our establishments, and we need to share our skills with others. We need to teach.

Chris made it easy to restablish a classroom mentality as he poesses a lively curiousity and a definite affinity for food and cooking.  We both spent time thinking of new things for him to do and techniques that we felt were important for him to experience. Chris himself had some questions born from Ideas in Food and the things he saw and read about here.  Looking at cooking from another, less experienced cook's point of view was a refreshing change of pace. It reminded me of the demonstrations we did on the Amsterdam and how much fun we had teaching new things to our audience and learning new things from them in return.  That exchange of unique ideas and perspectives is something that has been missing in our kitchen for too long. We have long discussions about food with one another but we are well acquainted with each other's capabilities and prejudices. We are always pushing each other to try new things but that's different from an interaction with someone who poesses totally different experiences and perspectives. The comments and emails that we receive through Ideas in Food are a huge inspiration.  We've met some amazing people and we've learned something from each one of them. We wanted to take a moment to say thank you for that. Whether it is an extra set of hands in our kitchen or tapping away on a keyboard, you have all helped us stay inspired to try new things, take better photos, document recipes, share ideas and learn about food together.

Sharing Ideas: Smoked Spaetzle, Steamed Tamarind Pudding

I am currently facing a huge stack of post it notes, my temporary file cabinet for ideas and recipes.  What is truly perplexing to me is how difficult it is to translate ideas and recipes into interesting stories.  So today I will be dry and uninteresting.  That said, here are two recipes from the pile which we will be integrating into our menus soon.

Smoked Creme Fraiche Spaetzle

300g AP flour
250g smoked creme fraiche
108g whole eggs
4g crystal hot sauce
4g salt

Combine the wet ingredients together and then pour the wet into the dry in a large bowl, incorporating all the flour.  The mixture will be wet and sticky.  That is a good thing.  Cover the spaetzle mixture with plastic and let rest for half an hour.  Meanwhile, put a large pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil.  When the water boils, season with salt.  Assemble an ice bath to shock the cooked spaetzle.  Using a spaetzle maker or a perforated hotel pan press the spaetzle dough into the boiling water.  Do this in several batches, removing the spaetzle to the ice bath once it is cooked, it should taste tender and cooked, not like raw dough.  When all the spaetzle is cooked, remove it from the ice water and dress lightly in olive oil.  To serve, saute in clarified butter or glaze in any number of sauces.

Tamarind Steamed Pudding

115g sugar
65g butter
55g whole egg
70g tamarind puree
76g AP flour
3g salt
6g baking powder
108g milk
8g spiced vodka or vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  Cream together the butter and sugar.  Beat in the egg and tamarind puree.  Sift together the dry ingredients and then beat into the base mixture.  When the flour is just incorporated add the milk and vodka.  Bring the batter together, do not over mix.  Spoon the batter into small mason jars or egg cups with lids.  Fill the cups only half way, the pudding will rise.  Place the lidded containers in a water bath and cook for 30-40 minutes.  The puddings will feel tender and cooked to the touch.  Remove the puddings from the water bath and let cool.  Serve with banana ice cream or any other interesting combination of flavors.  I am thinking of using this in a savory preparation with crab meat and horseradish.

Asparagus and Squid

Our first work with the giant asparagus married the field with the fisherman.  We cleaned up the asparagus and blanched it to cook it through.  We then served the chilled asparagus with grilled squid tentacles, tart cherry and smoked butter crumbs, black lime-licorice puree and the dried squid crisp.

Squid Crisp

210g miso tea
100g liquid glucose
70g dried squid filaments

Cook these ingredients together until the squid becomes translucent.  Puree the mixture in a blender, strain and chill.  Spread on a silpat with a template and then dry in the oven for forty minutes.  You should be able to remove the crisps at this point.  Then place crisps in a dehydrator set at 145 degrees and continue to cook (about three hours) to remove all excess moisture.  We have found do to the increased humidity that the additional time in the dehydrator is essential to creating a great snap in the crisps.

Crispy Squid

Every once in a while Reiko, my mother in law,  travels to Japan on business and pleasure.  When she returns Aki and I are the recipients of many interesting Japanese exports, from candied nuts wrapped in nori to dried cuttlefish and squid.  Reiko hand picks interesting ingredients and snacks and then bundles them up and ships them to us.  Inevitably, we have little or no idea what all the packages are so we have a verbal show and tell over the phone as we are led through the ingredients, their significance and reason for being included in the care package.  Recently, Reiko sent dried cuttlefish which is like a sweet sea jerky.  At first the taste turns your head, though like many Japanese snacks the taste, texture and aroma become addicting.  At first I wanted to make a puree out of the dried cuttlefish.  Unfortunately Aki and Inky finished the package off before I spoke up. 

When I talked with Reiko she said she would send some more dried cuttlefish or squid.  She was true to her word and in her latest package arrived a package of what I believe is dried squid.  It is not as thick or sweet as the cuttlefish, though I could be wrong for I cannot read or speak Japanese.

I took the dried squid and rethought my idea about a puree.  I wanted something crispy.  So, I made a dried squid crisp.  I plan on using the crisp in an asparagus salad, though I shall see what inspirations come between now and then.

A New Source

One interesting aspect about sharing ideas with the world is that the world shares back.  We were recently contacted by Gourmet Trading Company, a source for asparagus and berries.  They are in the business of searching out and selling terrific asparagus.  OK, that is there sales pitch.  They found our site most likely by our writings about white asparagus.  What caught their attention were the variety of dishes using white and green asparagus and the photographs which documented the dishes.  Anyway, they were impressed with what we were doing with asparagus and wanted to know if we were interested in using their asparagus.  I spoke with Julia, a marketing manager, (I am still not sure what that is, but marketing is a whole other story) and explained our criteria for ingredients and what we were looking for in green and white asparagus.  Green asparagus have been more difficult to procure, especially fat, meaty green asparagus where the act of cutting them exudes a sense of luxurious decadence, creating anticipation for that first bite.

I have gotten off on a tangent.  Julia said she understood what I was looking for and wanted us to try the asparagus.  I said sure and within two days a box of jumbo green asparagus arrived at our doorstep with the addition of one bunch of white asparagus, just to see what they were like.  The green asparagus is some of the largest I have been able to work with and the vegetable is tender and juicy with a bright asparagus flavor.  I ate one stalk raw and griddled another to make an initial taste comparison and analysis.  I really like this asparagus.  I also like how they shipped the asparagus with an ice pack below the stalks and a foil insulated package around the whole box.  It reminded me of the first time someone wrapped a cold soda in a brown paper bag and then aluminum foil to keep the soda cold as they brown bagged their lunch.  The asparagus, like the cola, staid chilled and crisp.  I wonder why other companies do not package like this, especially in the dead of summer.

Our first shipment of asparagus was sent gratis so that we could work freely with the ingredient unconstrained by cost.  I am looking forward to working with this asparagus and seeing what evolves.  It is great to start with an incredible product.

Pea Crackers

Here is the recipe for the pea crackers which we used for our rice pudding ice cream sandwiches.

Pea Cracker

100g freeze dried peas
120g liquid glucose
3g salt
310g water

Cook all the ingredients together until the peas are soft, tender and hydrated.  Cool mixture in an ice bath then puree until smooth.  Strain the mixture and then let rest for an hour.  Use a template to spread the mixture and then dry in a 200 degree oven for thirty five minutes.  Remove from the silpat and let cool.

Licorice and Black Lime

Last evening I was going through our pantry and came across our last box of Panda black licorice.  I had previously used the licorice to make a port-licorice puree which we have used in a number of dishes.  Yesterday, I realized I wanted a licorice puree with a seasoning which complemented and piqued the intense character of the black licorice.  I turned to our jar of black limes for assistance.  I took one black lime and smashed into pieces.  I scattered these shards over the black licorice which I had poured into a bowl.  I then sprinkled some salt on the couple of ingredients and just covered the licorice and lime with hot water and then plastic wrap.  I let the mixture set at room temperature overnight and then blended the softened licorice and lime into a puree this morning.  The balance of the licorice and lime is quite amazing.  In fact the flavor is more exciting than I had first anticipated.  Now begins the task of integrating the licorice-lime puree into our cooking.  A few concepts from the start include serving it with grilled squid or poached turbot.  In fact, I believe this licorice puree would have worked even better than the port-licorice puree we served with another turbot and melon dish.

Raspberries en Papillote

Sometimes inspiration can arrive by email. Raspil sent us this link to her roasted blueberry sorbet which looked fabulous and made me think about berries en papillote. It's a technique that we've played around with in the past because it intensifies the flavor of the berries and is a great way to utilize fruit that looks less than beautiful but still tastes yummy. One of the few berries we haven't roasted in the past is the raspberry. There is something about the beauty and seeming fragility about that particular fruit which beguiles you into serving it relatively unadorned. There's nothing like a handful of fresh, juicy berries slowly savored with nothing to accompany them but the sun on your face and the quiet company of a good friend. Like snowflakes, each berry is slightly different with varying levels of sweet and tart, textures shading from slightly firm beneath your teeth to practically melting on tongue, comprised of small rounded cells of slightly furry essence of berry. As I child I would attempt to pull apart each section intact and eat each one separately. I was rarely successful but I always enjoyed the challenge.

Since I happened to have some raspberries in the walk-in that morning I decided to roast them off and see what happened. I was thinking more savory than sweet, hoping to utilize the bit of pectin in the berries to make something fun for our guests to enjoy. I followed my nose to the spice drawer and added half a cinnamon stick, one crushed pod of green cardamom, two blades of mace, part of a kola nut, butter, a small scattering of raw sugar and a pinch of salt to the berries. I sealed this up in foil and cooked it on the grill until the berries softened and began to release their juices.

The final product was pureed with a little bit of agave for balance, I had some tart berries that particular day.  I strained it after blending to remove any large particles of leftover spices. The finished product had a lovely viscosity and was bursting with rich, deep flavor and spice. We served the puree warm with Loup de Mer broiled in smoked butter and charred green onions. The crispy skin and delicately smoky flesh of the fish were highlighted against the smooth texture of the slightly sweet and acidic raspberry and the green onions added both texture and an earthy flavor with faintly bitter undertones to round out the dish. It all began with a single email from another chef.  It just illustrates the fact that inspiration is all around us and probably closer than you think.

Risi e Bisi

So begins our work with rice and peas.  We started with a pea cracker around lemon verbena rice pudding ice cream.  This is the first incarnation of either a canape, an accompaniment to a larger dish or just a brief bit of fun with a cocktail.  We have since figured out a means to create more uniform ice cream sandwiches, but these worked out quite well.

...and Compound Fats

I just shared my thoughts on compound butter with Aki and low and behold, she had another clever idea.  What about compound fats.  Flavor and infuse bacon fat, foie gras fat, rendered prosciutto fat to make flavorful additions to dishes.  We could make a ham and cheese compound fat.

Compound Butter

I cannot remember the last time I made a compound butter.  That is not a good thing.  With the world wide culinary palette to choose from compound butters should be emerging from there quiet and restful time on the haute cuisine side line.  Over the weekend, we broiled fish on a bed of smoked butter.  That is a beginning.  What if we made a ramp kimchee butter to melt on fish or slow cooked steak or pork.  What else could we do with the smoked butter?  How about grits or mashed potatoes or creamed corn enriched with chorizo butter, or pancetta butter or blood sausage butter.  Seaweed butter would also be interesting especially to poach seafood or baste pan roasted scallops.  Spruce tip butter on French Toast would be equally delicious.  Similarly, black olive butter to glaze peas and carrots would add another flavorful element.  And I am not that clever.  I am sure there are endless variations on compound butter that I have not even come close to thinking of.

What I am getting at is taking a look around your kitchen and seeing something differently.

Learning and Sharing

Everything can get better.  Over the weekend we were lucky enough to work hands on with Karyn Millet as she photographed Keyah Grande.  She is passionate about her work and it is truly contagious.  She wants to share the world photograph by photograph.  She also is willing to try anything to get a better picture.  And guess what, she is still learning and cares less about hiding the fact that she does not know everything.  That is huge.  What Karyn showed me is that learning and sharing are intertwined. 

Furthermore, her approach kicked me in the mental ass.  We prepared a dish over the weekend, Pea and Chocolate Soup with oysters, cashew-cocoa and smoked paprika.  The dish is tasty.  The soup is made with chocolate water and frozen peas.  The oysters are poached in miso tea.  The cashews and cocoa nibs are candied with agave and brown sugar and dusted with smoked paprika.  We served the dish and it was tasty.  Different and familiar.  I was happy.  Yet, as Aki and I examined the dish Aki noted that clams would be a better fit than the oysters.  The oysters worked well, though poached and sliced razor clams would be incredible.  Along those lines, a baked stuffed razor clam topped with the cashew-cocoa crumble would bring a great dish into a special dish.  We learned something.  That is important.  What is more important is enjoying the process as well.

Grilled Potato Ice Cream and Roe

This weekend we were able to  serve my new favorite ice cream again.  This time we paired the grilled potato ice cream and smoked roe with a tart cherry crisp and salad burnet.  No, this was not rocket science, just a means to present and unite some great flavors.

July 14, 2006

Smoked Sea Trout Roe
grilled potato ice cream, tart cherry,
salad burnet

Pea and Chocolate Soup
poached oysters, cashew-cocoa nib,
smoked paprika

Slow Cooked Pork Loin
zucchini-tomato ravioli, black lime red sauce,
benedictine cheese

Petite Tomato Salad
roquefort water, armando manni olive oil,
smokey blue cheese

Caraibe Chocolate Pudding
avocado marble, strawberry confit,
crunchy walnuts

July 13, 2006

Tuna Carpaccio
green chilies, sweet onion,
spruce gin-melon broth

Broiled Loup de Mer
aromatic raspberries,  smoked butter,
charred scallions

Crispy Lamb Belly
whole grain quinoa, curry,
zucchini

Fleur de Teche
crenshaw melon, olive caramel,
nasturtium leaves

Lovage Cake
mara de bois, frozen yogurt,
blis elixir

Chocolate Pudding for the Chocolate Addict

I don't waste calories on dessert unless it's chocolate. This statement was issued by a guest in our dining room the other day and we took it as a challenge to create intense chocolate desserts for a true chocophile.  He was happy to have chocolate three meals a day and fortunately most of his dining companions were equally happy to follow suit. Except for the one (there's always one) person who couldn't eat chocolate at all.  Although at this point making the adjustments for one person is a piece of cake. Our pantry is up to the challenge any day.

So last night was our chocoholic's last dinner with us. We were originally going to use the antigriddle for a half frozen chocolate pudding dessert. I've always been a a pudding fan. I love the smooth texture and the way that a pudding's creamy sweetness lingers on the tongue. It's delicious and comforting, like the memory of childhood when chocolate pudding was one of the best treats imagined and available. Mousses are definitely not my thing. They are too light and fluffy and French.  When it comes to dessert I prefer American all the way.  Pies,  layer cakes and puddings versus pastries, genoise and mousses. In preparation for the intended dessert we made a chocolate pudding and loaded it up with extra chocolate.  My theory was that the extra chocolate would give it a thicker, more viscous texture to ensure that it would hold up better to being aerated in an ISI canister before being dropped onto the antigriddle. I was aiming for intense and light at the same time. But when Alex and Chris tasted the pudding plans were changed. They loved it so much that we served it as a pudding with a thin layer of avocado, spicy candied walnuts and strawberries that were confited in a strawberry-red wine gastrique (I only discriminate against French desserts, not French techniques). The chocophile cleaned his bowl and asked for seconds. What better compliment is there than that?

Intense Chocolate Pudding

1 1/4 cups of sugar
1 cup of cocoa
1 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup of flour
4 cups of milk
4 eggs yolk, lightly beaten
5 ounces of cold butter, diced
3 ounces of chopped bittersweet chocolate

Whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa and salt in a large heavy sauce pan. Add one half of a cup of milk and whisk over medium heat to form a thick paste. Slowly whisk in the remainder of the milk and the egg yolks until fully incorporated and continue to cook until thick, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heat proof rubber spatula. When the mixture is thick enough to coat your spoon or spatula remove the pot from heat and add the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted and incorporated. Add the butter and stir until melted and fully incorporated. Strain through a fine sieve into a heat proof bowl. Place plastic wrap directly against the surface of the pudding and refrigerate for at least six hours before serving. If you like pudding skin refrigerate uncovered for two hours, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and continue to chill for four more hours before serving. You can also refrigerate the pudding in individual serving dishes.

Marco's Salad

While working on the Vineyard, Martha's that is, we worked with Marco Canora at La Cucina in The Tuscany Inn.  During our tenure we were exposed to a number of traditional Italian cooking techniques from soffrito to a salad of fava beans and fresh Pecorino.  The fava bean salad is a dish that is just down right tasty.  The fresh fava beans are dressed with the Pecorino which is marinated in olive oil, crushed red pepper and dried oregano.  A splash of fresh lemon brightens the salad right before serving.  If you are up for trying the salad in its original form stop by Marco's restaurant Hearth and enjoy a truly tasty and traditional salad.

Today we borrowed that salad.  Well sort of.  We dressed edamame and Pecorino Toscano with olive oil and salt.  We then pounded the salad into a thin marble.  Once the marble was finished we dressed it with lemon juice and Aleppo pepper.  We served the "salad" with slow cooked Loup de Mer which we dressed with olive oil, marjoram and its own crisp skin.  On a side note, Aki found that the skin from a fish cooked sous vide crisps up quickly and easily on a griddle.  While it may not be chicken skin it is tasty.

Important Questions

I tripped across an interesting list of questions about marketers.  What the heck are marketers anyway?  I am not really sure, but these questions are pretty interesting.  Especially if you apply them to the development of a dish, the interaction with purveyors and guests, running a kitchen or just living life.  The  list came from The Church of the Customer Blog.   Actually, they linked to the list from Deborah Schultz, a consultant and evangelist for new marketing.  Again, I am not sure what a marketer is let alone new marketing, but here is the list, brought into our medium.

This is the list Deborah says when people start talking about marketing.  As I noted, many of these and similar questions should be asked about food and the world there of.

10. Yes, but why do I care?
9.  I’m sorry but your product/company/feature does not make me go  "aHa, cool, I want that" ...yet.
8.  Yes, it’s hard, but the devil is in the details.
7. Have you asked your customers what they want?
6. The last 20% effort is when things get really interesting?
5. No, real evangelism, buzz and community cannot be manufactured out of thin air.
4. Cultivating impassioned customers for sustainable growth actually takes time.
3. Because they are your customers – you serve them.
2. It's a relationship, and relationships take work.
1. Why are you so afraid of your customers?

Library of Cheese

One of the great things about buying cheese from Tomales Bay Foods is their Library of Cheese. It's a great resource, especially if you buy cheese the way we do. We buy whatever they tell us is good that particular day whether we're familiar with the cheeses or not. The library enables us to go and look up the background information when the cheese arrives. It's a font of information whether you are lucky enough to get your cheeses from them or not.

Inspired by Ingredients and the Anti-Griddle

Yesterday was big.  We received some beautiful strawberries from Wicked Wilds , a new solera style vinegar from Steve, a beautiful organic yogurt and young celery leaves from the Chef's Garden.  Together this influx of ingredients created a perfect storm of sorts.  What I mean is that they all came together and triggered idea of a canape.  We have had an antigriddle for sometime, stored nicely in its original packing, seal unbroken.  I had truly wanted to make great things with this piece of kitchen equipment, though I had yet to find grand inspiration.  When all these ingredients arrived together I simply tasted them as individuals and the idea for the dish formulated itself.  I do not think our Mara de des Bois with frozen yogurt, though it certainly is tasty.

Here are the first shots of the dish coming together in the kitchen last night.

The Butterfly Effect

I haven't had much to say about food lately. Well, actually I haven't had much to say about cooking. There's a lot on our plates at the moment. The GM is leaving at the end of the month and as far as we know he's not going to be replaced until the end of the year. We're short staffed, as always and housekeeping has become a major headache. The wait staff are dropping like flies as the summer comes to a close and the fall is busy (for us) and we need to staff it now. We're also transitioning our current administrative assistant into a new, still undefined position in order to bring in a brand new administrative assistant with a stronger background in accounting to take over some of the duties that our GM currently handles. So I'm quietly trying to remember how to do all of the administrative hotel duties that I haven't been doing for the last year and a half while we try to figure out how we're going to distribute the increased workload among those of us that remain while making sure that the quality of service that our guests receive does not suffer in the slightest. Change is never easy. On the outside of that time is flying by and we're trying to establish some sort of a plan for our departure. That's just a nagging thought at the back of my mind because there's not much I can actually do to move things along at the moment.  Although I'm certainly trying.  In my spare time I'm trying to finish reading The Omnivore's Dilemma because I think it's an important book although it's beginning to feel like homework.  So somehow actually thinking about cooking has fallen by the wayside, not for the first time and certainly not for the last. I'm still in the kitchen, more or less, I'm just not feeling very creative at the moment. There are too many other things on my mind.

So as an exercise in procrastination, about two weeks ago Dan over at SaltShaker tagged us for this meme :

My thought in this meme is food items or events that changed your foodie life. Not some “oh, it’s the first time I didn’t put jelly on a peanut butter sandwich and used bananas instead” sort of change, unless you truly feel that affected you profoundly. That’s the key - it affected you profoundly, in some manner. A moment you can look back at and say “that was a defining moment”. The questions are simple, the answers might be harder - an item, person, event, or place that had that effect on you, and why. They don’t have to be big splashy things - sometimes it’s something very small and simple that changes the way we view the world - the famed “butterfly effect” (and I’m not talking about the Aston Kutcher movie). So, to those who want to participate, copy this and pass it on (and, if you’re so inclined, do a trackback to the originating post). Here are your categories:

1. An ingredient
2. A dish, a recipe
3. A meal (in a restaurant, a home, or elsewhere)
4. A cookbook or other written work
5. A food “personality” (chef, writer, etc.)
6. Another person in your life

 

and I thought that I would take a few minutes to answer the call. Alex can add his answers separately. I'm going to go with the first answers that pop into my head so bear with me here.

1. An ingredient that changed my life would be lobsters. I've loved them since I was a child and in my youth they were always consumed naked. I adore taking apart their bodies to try and excavate every last nugget of sweet succulent flesh. I never understood the butter thing. Why gild the lily? As I grew older I branched out and began to enjoy different preparations and more elaborate lobster dishes. I still like them best straight from the shell with no adornment.  I rarely order them in restaurants because of the expense. If I'm going to spend lots of money on a lobster I want the whole thing. Lobsters were also the first ingredient I ever attempted to kill and cook myself. I've been fishing for years but someone else usually took them off the line and finished the task for me. Trying to kill my first lobster with a chef's knife was nerve wracking and ultimately unsuccessful. I had a good friend screaming in the background as I desperately tried to stab the poor creature scuttling across the kitchen counter. My nerves and my squeamishness won out and I ended up steaming the beast alive and that's pretty much what I did with the majority of lobsters from that moment on. It's not a pretty story but it's the truth. My first restaurant lobster was at the Palm when I was a small child, completely indignant that I had to share a two pound lobster with my then arch-nemesis Louise.  In my mind lobsters conjure up summers at the beach on Rhode Island, birthday dinners at the Palm, lobster rolls and rum punches at Shaws in Maine, huge stuffed lobsters cooked especially for me by my husband and so many other precious moments from the past thirty three years.

2. A dish would be fried eggplant made by my late Aunt Lucy.  She was Aunt Marie's mother and when she and Uncle Alex would come to New York from Pittsburgh to visit she would always make the fried eggplant. It was a dish of love because it was one of Aunt Marie's favorites, something she didn't get from anyone else. Actually all of the meals with Aunt Lucy and Uncle Alex were like that, born of love for a child that they didn't get to see very often. I was just lucky to be at the table.  It taught me that cooking is much more than simply preparing food.

3. A meal would be the first sushi dinner with Alex and my Mom.  Their relationship was prickly in the beginning. The meal gave Mom a chance to share her heritage with him and educate him about things Japanese.  It was a moment of bonding for the two of them, a chance to share a common ground that had nothing to do with me. It was a chance for him to try some things that he had never tasted before and for all of us to share a moment of pleasure and camaraderie.  From where I was sitting it was a turning point in their relationship.

4. A cookbook that changed my life was actually a boxed set of the Sixty Minute Gourmet and More Sixty Minute Gourmet that I received for Christmas one year. They are not my favorite cookbooks or the most well read in my extensive collection. They were the very first cookbooks that I read from cover to cover, savoring the intermingling of personal stories with recipes. The first formal meal I cooked was from that book, Steak Diane followed by vanilla ice cream with melon and Chambord.  In some ways you could say that it was the beginning of my career in fine dining.

5. A food personality would have to be Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet. I watched his show after school for years.  I loved watching him visit different areas with his trusty sidekick Craig. He was so matter of fact about cooking and so obviously appreciative of food. I loved the different stories he told about the dishes and watching him create different cuisines from ingredients that I could find in my own kitchen. 

6. A person who influenced my life in food would have to be Alex. Our relationship changed the way that I look at food. I learn something new from him each day and for that I am profoundly grateful.

That's all he wrote. Thanks Dan, that actually took me out of my head for a while and brightened my day. So to finish this, I'm sending it over to four people who I think can do it justice Tana, Sam, Haddock, and Brett.   If you've got the time it's worth the exercise.

Tomato Salad

I grew up eating a tomato salad flavored with sliced onions, basil, a little olive oil, crumbled blue cheese and a splash of vinegar.  We have taken this Sunday night summer dish and adapted it.  We used an assortment of young tomatoes which we dressed with chives, salt and olive oil.  We then used young marjoram and nasturtium leaves to add herbal punches to the tomatoes.  Finally, we poured Roquefort water over the dish to add the blue cheese element I find essential to this tomato salad.

Smoked Potato Flake Crust

I have returned to my roots.  Well, at least to my smoker.  This weekend I was finally able to smoke potato flakes.  At one point in time I had smoked potato chips in lieu of potato flakes.  The potato flakes are far superior.  The flakes are neutral in flavor and are unseasoned and thus take on the clear flavor of the smoke rather than starting with the base flavor of potato chips and then adding smoke.  I smoked the flakes with hickory wood for an hour and they slowly absorbed the smoke.  I then used these smoked flakes to crust potatoes which we had slow cooked until they were tender.  We then breaded the potatoes with the potatoes and deep fried them.  The flakes became a delicate crisp crust which yielded to the silky potato interior.  The smoke was delicate and bacon like which complemented the confit potato.  We served this potato duet with a red wine and agave glazed beef cheek, succulent spinach and smoked paprika and lemon sour cream.

Sauerkraut Glass the Recipe

Here is the recipe for sauerkraut glass.

400g sauerkraut red or white, we used white but red would be beautiful
110g liquid glucose
40g agave nectar
shake of caraway seeds
65g water
pinch of salt

Cook all ingredients together until the sauerkraut looks transparent and half of the liquid has evaporated.  Puree the mixture in a blender until silky and smooth.  Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer and let cool and rest for at least an hour or overnight.  Spread the sauerkraut mixture on a silpat using a template then bake in a 200 degree F oven for half an hour.  Check the consistency.  If the glass is dry and transparent remove from the oven, take the glass off of the silpat and let cool on a clean table top.  If the glass still retains moisture continue to cook, checking every five minutes until the glass is dry.  Use as you wish.

An Honest Voice

You must stay true to your own voice.  This is true in cooking as in life.  It is difficult to be true to your own voice.  Life is full of influences, obstacles and trophy ceremonies all of which can alter an original voice.  I know recently I have been affected.  That is why my recent writing and observations about food have been lacking the personality and drive which is instrumental to our cuisine. 

I have been quite inspired by Aki's writing and integrity in discussing the turbulent world of food, its politics and which side of the line you should stand on.  Check out her eloquent response here.

My point is simply this, do what you truly believe in.  Live life and observe it with integrity.  And have fun doing it.

A writer with whom I should have been familiar with and was not is the late Laurie Colwin.  Yesterday evening Aki opened one of her books and placed it in my face and said read.  I could not stop reading the vignettes and stories, married with recipes and life.  I laughed, smiled and read aloud to Aki who knew most of the tales by heart and still became entranced in the world of the author.  Laurie Colwin has a voice which is honest and true and speaks to the reasons why I cook.  With that said, I must eagerly share these two books by Laurie Colwin: Home Cooking and More Home Cooking.  If Marco Pierre White were to have a feminine alter ego it might be close to this.  Oh yeah, all this and she makes creamed spinach with pickled jalapenos and Monterey Jack cheese.

Feeding Ourselves Again

I was going to post this in the comment section of Feeding Ourselves in response to a passionate comment by Vic but after reading it Alex asked me to put it here as a new post. Food issues are touchy subject, extremely personal and volatile. This blog is meant to be an open exchange of ideas. We may or may not agree with what others have to say but we always appreciate your input and opinions.

Those are definitely examples that I hadn’t been considering when I wrote my post. I can understand your passion and your point of view, especially if you have experienced any of the preparations that you described. I am not against regulations regarding torture and vivisection and frankly conditions in many industrial feedlots can be considered the equivalent of government-approved torture of animals. I still believe in freedom of choice. I believe in the power of education and it’s ability to change people’s minds. I also believe that most people would be against eating something that was tortured to death or painfully and sadistically slaughtered so here in America that is mostly a moot point. Why else would there be such a strong movement for sustainability and humanely raised and slaughtered animals?  Realistically I know that vivisection happens in different parts of the world (and probably closer than I realize) but it is almost beyond my comprehension that anyone would ever knowingly harvest a live animal for consumption. So in that instance I would agree with you. There should be regulations for extreme measures. Those were not the scenarios I had in mind when I wrote my post and it’s a lesson to me not to make broad sweeping statements without considering all possible ramifications.

I still believe that in most cases people should have the right to choose. I also believe that regulations can be used to protect the rights of animals. The fact that we eat them doesn’t give us the right to abuse them. But at the moment those regulations don’t exist. The fact that we do eat other living creatures is inescapable. There’s no way to make the fact that we raise animals for food anything other than what it is. We should respect the food that we eat. We should consume it with love and enjoyment and the knowledge that something else is giving up its existence to feed us, whether it is a fruit or a vegetable or a pig. There are lots of people who don’t eat lobster or foie gras or HFCS or mass produced chickens raised in CAFOs or farmed fish or pesticide drenched berries picked by poorly paid migrant workers. We make choices and when demand falls different items slowly fall out of the food chain, or not.

My point is this, once you’ve made a choice and cooked a meal it’s important to enjoy it. If you spend a meal thinking of all of the bad things that went into it or what you could have eliminated if you had more time or more money or made better choices than there’s no point in eating it. There’s no pleasure left in the experience. We are extremely lucky to be at the top of the food chain. Luck is really all there is to it. These days it seems as though every choice we make in buying and preparing food is fraught with peril. Our food system in America has serious problems and we’re not alone. But we cannot always think about every bite that goes into our mouths and how and why it got there. Sometimes we just need to eat. Occasionally just eating something for pleasure and sustenance and not including the politics should be okay, as long as we’re not abusing our food source in the process.

While I’m thinking about these issues, where do oysters fall on the food chain? They’re theoretically still alive when we eat them on the half shell. Can they feel it? Do they know? Anyone?

An Essential Book

Yesterday we had the chance to steal away to Durango.  We were able to stock up on dog biscuits, paper towels and a bottle of Del Maguey Mezcal.  We also rummaged through several used bookstores looking to uncover a few hidden gems.  It is a good thing we did, for Aki found me another copy of Cutting Up In the Kitchen, by Merle Ellis.  This book is a hands on book for getting the most out of your meat.  It covers the basics and the obscure.  It answers questions.  It should be on everyone's bookshelf.  OK, at least everyone who is interested in meat, the variety of cuts and how to utilize most everything from an animal.

The other reason I mention this book is now I have two copies.  That means someone is going to be receiving a copy of this book from us in the near future.  The only question is why?  Stay tuned for the means in which you can try and earn a true cornerstone to your culinary collection.

Feeding Ourselves

Here's a link to one of the truest and most entertaining things that I've read on line in a while. It's written by Michael Ruhlman over at Megnut and it's a very accurate description of how frustrating the recent hysteria over supposedly inhumane food products can be. Now I am not ready to start an argument on what people should and shouldn't be eating. I don't have enough information and frankly I think it should be a matter of personal choice. In food as with anything else in life, you must pick your battles. The fact that more and more people are researching the food we eat and sharing that information is a step in the right direction. We should understand what we are putting in our mouths. We just shouldn't be dictating what anyone else puts in their mouth. Let's not forget that eating is something that we do to nourish ourselves. It can simply be fuel for the body or it can be sustenance for body and spirit.  We should dine consciously, thoughtfully and with pleasure. Each meal is an opportunity to do something wonderful for yourself whether that means sinking your teeth into a chunky lobster roll on a grilled hot dog bun with french fries and cold beer or savoring a rich, creamy slice of foie gras terrine with pickled mustard seeds, micro basil and peeled peaches or pulling apart hunks of a whole grain baguette and devouring it with organic butter, juicy locally grown tomatoes and thinly sliced Prosciutto San Daniele. There are pros and cons to every meal we can create.  We choose to make the best decisions that we can for each meal and then set our baggage aside until it's time to prepare the next one. We can't always be vigilant and well fed.  I'm not saying that we should be careless or narrow minded about our choices just that occasionally it's okay to indulge ourselves. Sometimes a meal is about more than what's on our plates or how it ended up there. Sometimes it's just about the fulfillment of different kinds of hunger.

July 3, 2006

Hearts of Palm Soup
shrimp ravioli, ramp kimchee, chorizo oil

Foie Gras au Torchon
country toast, broccoli rabe,
passionfruit

Braised Kobe Beef Cheek
bacon crusted potatoes, arugula,
ramp relish

Petite Comte
tart cherry, smoked lampong peppercorn,
red ribbon sorrel

Strawberries
nasturtium leaves, sour honey,
caramelized yogurt

He's Not Just a Chef...

He's also the bellman and the bartender and the maitre'd and... Service with a smile, always.

The High Fructose Corn Syrup Debate Continues

Tomorrow we are getting our first day off in literally weeks, so we'll be able to get back to doing a bit more writing to accompany the short posts and photographs we've been providing lately. Thanks to Noam, in spite of our schedule we were aware of the article in the Times on HFCS. A recent comment inspired by the article brought back the question of whether or not HCFS is really as bad as people think. Since neither of us has had the time recently to do any research on the subject we're simply going to point you in the direction of two other informed and opinionated bloggers and what they had to say on the subject. Kate has written several educational posts on HFCS and Barbara spent part of the holiday writing  her own thoughtful account of the subject.  I have yet to come across anyone writing about the positive aspects of HFCS but perhaps the absence of kudos speaks for itself.

Rhubarb Ribbon Recipe

I have finally gotten around to going through some of my notes and realized I had yet to post the recipe for rhubarb ribbons.  Here it is.

Rhubarb Ribbons

450g rhubarb slice
88g liquid glucose
48g honey
50g water
2g salt

Cook all the ingredients together until the rhubarb is falling apart.  Puree the mixture in the blender and then strain through a fine conical sieve.  Cool the mixture in a metal bowl over an ice bath and then let the mixture rest for at least an hour in the refrigerator.  Use a template to shape the rhubarb mixture on a silpat and then bake at 200 degrees F for a half an hour or until the rhubarb is completely dry.  Remove the rhubarb from the silpat and shape the strips into ribbons and then let cool.  The rhubarb will hold its shape.   

Chocolate and Olives

This dish is based on a decadent chocolate terrine which weaves chocolate and butter together into a luxurious creamy decadent dessert.  We paired this terrine with some of our olive components: sandy, caramel, crisp, and  crumbs.  What I find interesting is that we could have reversed the dish and made a decadent olive terrine with an array of chocolate garnishes.  That would be interesting and we will look into that in the near future.  For now we must enjoy what we have.

Snap Pea-Miso

We had beautiful sugar snap peas show up on our doorstep.  We initially used them as a salad which we paired with smokey blue cheese.  The savory nature of the blue cheese sparked the idea of making a puree of snap peas and miso.  The rich, buttery fermented nature married well with the sweet vegetal characteristics of the snap peas.  We cooked the snap peas all the way and then pureed them with white miso.  We strained the resulting puree and that was all.  The taste is sweet and savory with an intense richness yet no fat is added.  We served the puree with crispy lamb belly, white peach pickles, young basil and onion shards.

Sauerkraut Glass

What did you hear?  What did you say?  The mind is a funny thing.  When we had curious Chris in our kitchen the other day we were exploring and sharing a number of ideas and dishes.  In one instance we gave him a crisp to try.  He responded with fruit, but could not pin point or express the exact flavor.  I quickly retorted with tart cherry.  He heard sauerkraut.  I speak quickly and my thoughts bounce like a super ball.  No, tart cherry was my response.  As my words shot from my mouth I followed with brilliant.  Let’s make sauerkraut glass.  And we did.  Last evening sauerkraut glass made its debut.  We paired warmed Dungeness crab with cauliflower steamed pudding, golden purslane and sauerkraut glass.

Oh yeah, and this morning we started work on a sauerkraut caramel.  Not quite sure where that is going.