chadzilla

preserving the moment

I have a few posts to compose from our recent family trip to bayou country.  Specifically, most of the week was spent in Lockport which is centrally located along Bayou Lafourche (the centerpoint of Lafourche parish and the first part of the drive from New Orleans to Grand Isle).  Central and south Lafourche are purely rural and the main passers-thru are oil and fishing industry traffic and those curious about the BP oil spill affects on South Louisiana (even Obama has been through).  Lots of quaint scenery and great food down there, and I missed it very much.

After getting back with various goodies and groceries, Ming and I took some fresh brussels sprouts that my Uncle had grown by accident (he thought it was broccoli and since no one there uses brussels sprouts we scooped them up).  Ming also isn't a fan of brussels sprouts, but I convinced her to help me make a kimchee with them.  She pulled up a very interesting recipe that utilizes finely shredded daikon and green apple to round out the flavors.  Brine first, then mix with other ingredients and allow to ferment/press for 2 days, then jar and chill.  The taste after the initial fermentation is 'pow.'  Just jarred it up, and now to wait a couple of weeks to allow the flavors to meld before cooking with it.

the take home list

Packing up my ice chest for the long drive home from Lockport, Louisiana to Miami.  Here's what's coming home...

2# Louisiana crawfish tails (3x as expensive as the Chinese variety, and a hundred times better)

Patton's hot sausage patties & links

salt pork (cause it's not that easy to find in South Florida)

Abita beer (Amber, Golden, Restoration Ale, Jock-I-Mo IPA)

Zapps Cajun Craw-tator kettle chips

Zatarain's Crab Boil (traditional powdered & liquid)

Zatarain's Fish Fri & Shrimp Fri (I could make my own, but sometimes you gotta have the Zat's)

brussels sprouts (straight from my Uncle's garden... ok, not a traditional Louisiana food, but he planted it by accident and I'm happy to take it off his hands)

fresh catfish (that muddy water is the ultimate marinade... seasoning the fish well before it's ever landed)

Louisiana shrimp caught by my cousin on his trawl boat

Camellia red beans (they taste better than the other varieties)

alligator meat (just because)

dried shrimp (it's not just a snack... this is locally caught and dried on screens in the Louisiana sun)

sausage (smoked and fresh green onion... it's really hard to find a good smoked sausage in Florida when you want to make a gumbo)

gumbo file (made from ground sassafras leaves and hard to find)

alligator tongue

I distinctly remember reading something a few months back about a chef who was judging a competition somewhere and ended up trying something that had a texture or taste similar to foie gras.  It was revealed to him that he had just eaten alligator tongue.

Now, I had never heard of anything like this before although eating alligator was quite common back where I grew up.  The idea is amazingly intriguing.  All of my web searches so far have proved to be deadends and the only mention of actually consuming gator tongue is in an old imperial Vietnamese dish.  Has anyone out there heard of this or have any information?  I would like to pursue.  With the alligator farming business struggling since the economic downturn began a couple of years ago (the industry mostly survives on producing gator hide for luxury products), this could be a unique way to put attention on the industry.  I could also appeal to the modern fascination with eating 'off the wall' strange foods.

Either way, it's a passing curiosity so any information is appreciated.

will goldfarb twitter rushes 1, 2, 3, & 4

Since following Will Goldfarb on Twitter, I've awoken on several occasions to find strings of tweeted recipes sent out overnight.  While reading through them over my morning coffee, I've wondered if this guy stays up all night hammering out formulas due to some sort of genius-stricken insomnia.  Actually, it's a time change difference as I discovered later since Will has been spending a lot of time in Dubai.  The recipe tweet has become an art in itself that seems to work best for recipes that are either extremely simple or fairly modern (requiring space only to list out flavors and hydrocolloids and their amounts/percentages with the process being 'understood').  Will's tend to be more on the latter end.

Luckily, I started to copy/paste these tweets from the get-go.  I have them saved on file documents, and with Will's permission I post them below for you.  These are unaltered, and may seem confusing at various points.  Maybe a decoder ring would help as twitter recipes can be a bit cryptic, but if you have a fair knowledge about hydrocolloids and other additives and how they work... you can garner some good information here.  (These are not all modern... as Will has thrown in a few more traditional formulas as well).

Download Willgoldfarb twitter rush 1

Download Willgoldfarb twitter rush 2

Download Willgoldfarb twitter rush 3

Download Willgoldfarb twitter rush 4

If this sounds interesting enough to require some taste sampling, check out Will in Miami for a one night R4D (that's Room 4 Dessert for those who aren't familiar with his resume) in the Design District on 2 April 2011 (one month from today!!!).  6 courses plus hors d'oeuvres and wine pairings for $75!  More details here.

pastrami chicken wings

I love chicken confit.  Sure, it cannot compare with duck confit, but that would be like comparing... chicken and ducks.  When compared to other chicken preparations, the confit method offers a lot to overall chicken flavor and texture.  We've undergone this process many times with chicken leg-thigh quarters, but wings ended up pretty nice as well.

pastrami wing confit, pain perdu, mustard seed maple gastrique

This was one of two dishes we contributed to the Gastropod Ideas in Food brunch this past Sunday.  The wings are brined with pastrami spices, allowed to refrigerate dry for at least 24 hours, then poached slowly in a mixture of roasted chicken fat and bacon fat.  We used sliced Cuban bread for the french toast.  The sauce is mustard seed pressure cooked with maple syrup and sherry vinegar.  The sweet/sour balance of the gastrique obviously works well with confit, but the nutiness from the mustard and maple are great flavor bonuses.

For the actual execution of the dish, the wings were deboned and tossed with a few pastrami spices again.  We griddled them to heat.