chadzilla

electrolyzed

We took a little step towards being a slightly richer shade of green.  Well actually not we as in the kitchen (it's our housekeeping department), but we as a hotel.  A trial basis set-up for producing electrolyzed water for cleaning was installed.

This is going to replace a lot of the chemicals that the housekeeping department uses to sanitize rooms.  I filled up a few spray bottles of it to use in the kitchen for spraying down work areas and tools.  Aside from not putting harsh chemicals into the ground, it's efficient and economical... it's just water.  It's pretty mind-blowing how the stuff smells like bleach and if you stick your head to far under the top lid and take a deep breath, you will get knocked on your ass.

I've read a little about the benefits of it, like how it kills salmonella, e. Coli, and many other potential harmful little critters.  Supposedly you can fill a bucket with it, and wash your lettuce in it.  It's completely food-safe.  The guy installed it drank a glass of it... I tried it myself too... what the hell?  I've put many far more harmful things into my disgestive system.

Has anyone out there had much experience with electrolyzed water?  I'm wondering how long the water stays that way before it returns to the state of being plain old water.  I even brought a bottle home.

living room seafood market

Another idea inspired by a walk on the beach...

I have maintained a few freshwater aquariums in my time.  I am also always fascinated by the use of aquariums in fish markets (as I've seen in my visits to Taiwan) which are also used by restaurants to hold live lobsters or similar facsimiles until someone buys one.  Then they cook him up and someone eats him.  Why not have that great experience at home?

Actually, I'd never heard of anyone using an aquarium at home as a seafood holding tank.  What's really the difference between the two?  I have a 30 gallon aquarium that's been sitting around without a real use since Katrina (the pump, filters, and other mechanics were destroyed, but the glass aquarium needed only a good washing).  Why not use it to hold live animals until I wanted to eat them.  After consulting a guy in an aquarium store (who was cooperative but seemingly appalled that I wanted to maintain fish to eat, and not as pets), I was assured that all I really needed was a decent filter, dechlorinator, and some aquarium salt.  Balancing the salinity to hold fish that range anywhere from salty to brackish to fresh would be the real challenge.  I have added salt to about 1.75% the suggested amount on the label.  Not sure what the required % of salt is for a saltwater tank, but I'm guess-timating for brackish.

So, I bought a filter and that was that.  I picked up a few blue crabs from a Chinese market to begin the trials.  In the past, we would buy crabs only when we wanted to deal with them, and if you were preparing them for later they would have to be blanched, cleaned, portioned, and frozen.  Most markets that sell live seafood are a distance away.  Now, I can just pull out one or two of them suckers whenever I felt like eating fresh crabs.  I'm only wondering how long I can hold them before they die.  I'm also thinking about what and if I should feed them.  Sure, if I'm going to eat them within a week, it's probably not necessary... but what if I use control of their food to add flavor to them?  What animal proteins would they eat that may also increase their taste value?  Would they eat fresh herbs?  Cheese?

 

Now to find sources for live shrimp and compatible fish to try after the crab trials.  It'll also be fun to catch them from the water before I eat them.  I hope this doesn't turn out like the Simpsons episode where Homer keeps tries to grow a lobster at home and gets attached to it then accidentally boils it while giving it a hot bath and has to eat it... poor Pinchy!

Just to note... we do keep live crabs in South Louisiana as well, but that's in a wire cage enclosure that can be lowered or raised from the bayou, and not in someone's living room.  The down side of that is sometimes snakes get in the holes, eat a crab or fish, then can't escape from the hole they entered due to their increased size.  Then you got a pissed off water mocassin on your hands.  We call this 'box' a vivier (pronounced vee-vyay).

testing waters

I recently received a suggestion from Chris at Bluezoo to 'check' my plastic vacuum sealer bags to make sure that they weren't imparting a 'plastic' flavor on our food.  The executive chef at his hotel had the incredible opportunity to take a 4 day class with Bruno Goussault at Cuisine Solutions.  Among the many great things that were discussed, Goussault said that people often purchase the wrong kind of bag inadvertently, and it isn't neutral in relation to the integrity of the flavor of the food within.

So, what's his suggestion for testing your bags...

Seal some water in a sous-vide bag, cook it in a water bath, and taste it.  I left some of the water in the bottle and chilled both to the same temp after the test for a side-by-side comparison.  Luckily, our bags are fine.

It makes a lot of sense, though.  Some sous-vide dishes take lots of time, attention, and hold expensive ingredients.  Why would you cook them in something that adds the flavor of a PVC pipe to it?

This brings up another good question about the Food Saver type sealers that a lot of restaurants use (since big commercial units are out of many independent restaurant budgets).  Are those bags ok for actual sous-vide cooking?

food pairing from food for design

I've had the date marked on my notepad for over 2 weeks now, but Martin over at Khymos beat me to making a blog announcement on the subject.  It's a good thing though, because although the site is the manifestation of the Food for Design team, they have not even posted it on their blog.

What am I talking about?  It's a food pairing website.  It is based on volatile compounds that select foods have in common with each other.  Heston Blumenthal has been using this method for quite some time, and his pairings have been only accessible to us after he has already created dishes using them.  Khymos has had a listing of certain matching foods for awhile also.  There is a program that can be installed into your computer that is also a data base for unusually matched foods, but their is a significant price to this technical chef's assistant.  This website is completely free, and open to anyone who visits it.  The main page consists of different foods, and reveals a graph (or branches) of flavors that share volatile flavor compounds with it.  For the unaware, these do not always match up but they reveal some interesting complements.

Some of these matches that we have used thus far are mango/pine, parmesan/chocolate, salmon/licorice, olive/caramel, and the many flavor combinations involving cocoa and chocolate.  I am also currently hosting TRGWT#8 based on a white chocolate/caviar combination.  This is a 'for fun' internet 'contest' that encourages readers to create coherent dishes based on the chosen combination.

Have a great Thanksgiving.  For those of you enjoying the day with family or working with your kitchen families in the many hotels and restaurants across America or riding the waters on a boat, peace and blessings.

humbling literature

I just received this book a couple of days ago, and due to the intensity of the material and personal time restraints I am still on the first section.  It reads like an advanced college science textbook (with a cost to match it!).

If I can gain but a fraction of understanding from this text, it will be worth the price and be more valuable than an El Bulli book.  Everything from agar to xanthan is here.

serrano crystals

I noticed small white 'bloomed' spots in a piece of Iglesias serrano while slicing some a couple of days ago.  The texture was harder than the meat surrounding it.  Honestly, we had no idea what it was but I ate a piece just to make sure no one else would die, puke, or end up with a worm growing within their muscle tissue.  That's just the sort of dedication us chefs have for our guests (as long as it doesn't become dead-ication).

Well honestly, I was pretty sure it was safe, but just to make sure I sent the above picture (crystal is shown directly in the center) to Jorge Ruiz Carrascal from La Margarita Seagita in Spain.  He is an expert of all things that are both flesh and cured.  He assured me that this was actually a sign of quality... or basically proof of good long term curing process of the pork.

His explanation was...

They are tyrosine crystals. Tyrosine is an amino acid presents in meat
proteins (proteins are formed by amino acids). After the whole ripening
process there is a considerable amount of free tyrosine due to the action
of muscle proteases (muscle proteolytic enzymes which remain active during
the ripening; they break down proteins releasing amino acids and
peptides). At the same time, there is a dehydration process, which means
that there is a high amount of tyrosine in a not too high amount of water
(at least, not as high amount of water is in raw meat). Tyrosine is not
very soluble in water, which means that when the amount of tyrosine in the
ham reaches a certain level, tyrosine precipitates forming tyrosine
crystals. In fact, in Iberian dry cured ham the presence of these crystals
is a signal of a long processing and it is not considered a drawback at
all. And of course, there is no danger in eating as much as you want.

Well, maybe a little danger of a heart attack if I really ate as much serrano as I would like to.  A little web hopping revealed that these are the same crystals found in hard aged cheeses like asiago and parmesan (good guess, Chef K).  It's great for chefs to know this stuff so that we can sound like geniuses when a guest or waiter asks us about such things. 

Thank you, Jorge, for your expertise.

Now we know... and knowing is half the battle.  GI Joe!

the cold beer epiphany

I love the viscosity of ice cold beer.  That observation and enjoyment has been around for awhile.  Both Chef K and Mike are also fans of beer that is on the verge of freezing up.  There is an art to rotating the beers in and out of the freezer depending on the drinking pace that keeps them right at this optimum point (not frozen, but ice cold).  Chef K just mentioned something in observation to this that we have all noticed in one way or another.  You can keep beer at right below the freezing point where it is still liquid.  Strangely, at this same temperature when you open the beer and tilt it or begin to pour it, it will begin to freeze up and sometimes even seal itself in under a little beer iceberg.  Is it the contact with the warmer air that somehow makes it freeze up or the agitation of the liquid when tilting the bottle?  This had us thinking about the magiqual that Seiji Yamamoto demonstrated via video at the ICC in New York.  The magiqual is a machine that takes liquids well below the freezing point, but keeps them in the liquid state.  Once the liquid is agitated by either tapping it onto a tabletop or pouring it, it begins to change to a solid state... actually more of a slushy highly viscous state.  So our question is, is this the same occurence.  If so, what makes the beer capable of this through normal freezing... is it the carbonation?  the alcohol?  Possibly the CO2 moving around on a molecular level keeps the beer in the liquid state for a few degrees below its normal freezing point?

Of course, we are not scientist... just chefs drinking ice cold beer.  It was just a curious observation, and one that we have never noticed with other liquids.

strange weather

There has been some strange weather in the air.  I've been amazed at the abrupt changes in atmospheric conditions that living in South Florida allows since the first moment we moved here (which was in the middle of hurricanes Rita and Katrina and it seemed that hurricanes and their aftermath dominated my life at the time).  We basically live in an island climate with a physical and psychological attachment to the mainland USA.  The weather lately has paralleled the weather of human ideas and the roller coaster of life.

This is a late shot of a twister resulting in a water spout just off of our beach.  It originally stretched down to the water, then slowly dispersed itself.  Another smaller one began a little further north and east towards the land, but never made it all the way down.  The guests who were outside enjoyed the view and were also intrigued by the number of staff who walked out to see the phenomenon.  Luckily, I usually have my camera on me.

There is indeed some strange wind about to blow.

Sorry, not much foodstuff to write about.  I am taking advantage of 2 days off to pack and prepare for the Star Chefs Congress in New York.  We fly out on Saturday (Chef K, Fabian, and myself).  The Congress begins on Sunday, then also on Monday and Tuesday.  That's 1 extra day added to the itinerary of last year's event.  To view the incredible line-up of this year, click here.  We will definitely be attending the Gala Reception on the last evening in hopes of meeting more and more industry professionals.  It possible, we will also try to have dinner at one of New York's many great restaurants featuring it's many great chefs.  At this point, we have no reservations booked so we may have to take what we can get.  If time allows also, we will meet up with one of our former cooks, Antulio from Venesuela, who promised us some arepas... we'll see.

sea espuma

How's this for some natural espuma.  This phenomenon just happened in Sydney, Australia.  All conditions were met for the occurence.  Check out this link to read about it.

the paco jetsons

... finally it happpened.  We've stepped into the future.

We try to keep up with everything going on in the food world, but it did take quite some time... (and probably would have taken until next year if Chef K hadn't done some creative budget number maneuvering... ahhh, the politics of working in a hotel) but we finally got one.

This is our brand new Paco Jet.  One of the must-have new toys that every chef wants.  Note Fabian's hand lovingly caressing the side of the machine... that's love.

The Paco Jet is an ice cream maker (but much much more) that operates in a different way.  You fill the small canisters with the ingredients you are going to freeze and whip.  It's unnecessary to puree the mix first.  The Paco Jet will do it for you.  Fabian put chunks of banana and mango and the other liquids and sugars necessary for sorbet.  Freeze it in the canister.  Pop the canister into the Jet and click on the amount of servings you want.  Yes, if you need sorbet for two, then you get enough for two and no more.  Fresh sorbet each time and it takes only seconds.  The rest of the frozen ingredients stay in the canister and go back into the freezer for later.  The system operates on a blade the magnetically attaches to the rotor and 'cuts' the frozen product whipping air into it simultaneously.  It's incredible and the texture is so perfect.

Although it can be used for sweet or savoury, the machine will sit in Fabian's kitchen (it's much safer and controlled in there).  The system comes with a nice book of ideas and applications.  Not only ice creams and sorbets can be cranked out, but also pastes and powders.  It's amazing!  Chef K and I reserved 2 canisters for our own experimentation (we don't want Fabian to make ice cream in a canister that may have possibly held smoked salmon... sounds weird, but we actually did make a smoked salmon and honey ice cream quite some years back in New Orleans).  Experimentation will come.  We will show you.  Unfortunately, there isn't much to do with this machine that hasn't already been done.  All we can do is change up the ingredients and ideas.