chadzilla

welsh rarebit

More fun with the 'reverse spherification' technique.  I am finding that this method is easier, more versatile, and generally works better than traditional spherification (isn't that weird to use traditional and spherification in the same descript?).  The major difference (and what makes it easier) is that you are forming a thin alginate gel 'skin' around a liquid instead of the skin being formed by the liquid itself.

Here was yesterday's project...

white cheddar welsh rarebit (white cheddar fondue orb, bacon powder, crostini).

Here was the process...

Make a 0,5% sodium alginate water bath.  Let sit until you are ready for it.  Make a fondue with beer and white cheddar.  Weigh out some of the fondue and add 1.25% calcium lactate gluconate.  (note:  I also added a small unmeasured amount of TIC prehydrated xanthan to the fondue to help 'hold' the emulsion)  Let the fondue cool to make it easier to work with and stiffen up.  Scoop out half Tbsp size balls of the fondue and drop each one into the alginate bath for about 2 minutes.  Remove them from the bath and carefully rinse off any extra un-gelled alginate from the orbs.

The fondue is heated up by placing the orbs in a hot water bath until the cheese is nice and hot.  Remove from the water and serve.  I finished the rarebit recipe with powdered apple smoked bacon and served it on a thin crostini.  All the elements of the Welsh beer snack.  I want to serve this sitting tapas style over a small glass of Boddington's Ale.

cheese orbs

Today, we explored the technique of reverse spherification (which is a horrible name... like we're creating some sort of 4th dimensional inverted sphere).  This is a tomato encapsulated mozzarella cheese orb garnished with balsamic syrup and basil oil... a caprese bite.

The remaining orbs were left in the cooler overnight to test the shelf life.  Unlike the normal method of dropping alginated liquids into a calcium bath, the gelling process stops once the 'orbs' are removed from the algin bath.  These orbs can easily be heated (carefully through microwaving) or by cooking in a hot water bath.  A noticeable advantage to heating them is that the liquid inside becomes softer and the orb becomes smoothly spherical.

We also explored utilizing the use of alginate in a possible action station.  This was demonstrated with a mock dish of Vietnamese soft rolls (where shrimp is steamed within a transparent skin of dough).  A 5% calcium gluconate solution was put in a spray bottle, which was then misted onto a 1% sodium alginate solution of nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce) to gel it around a piece of shrimp (applied before the guest).

The jest is, of course, that the skin is actually the sauce.  A garnish of chive (or even better, cilantro) completes the flavor balance.  Although there is obviously a gel texture present, it isn't an unpleasant one and all of the flavors still come through.  The only 'down side' to this technique as an action station is the set time of the gel, which took at least 3 to 4 minutes... enough time to get behind with a sizeable group.

"Cooking with calcium."  The application of calcium ions by spraying a calcium solution onto an alginated liquid or puree is a common industrial food production method (or I should at least say, not uncommon).  We were only exploring the possibility of taking that process before the guest.  Now the big question is... should we do this dish for the South Beach Food & Wine Festival for 1000 portions... sounds like trouble.  I'm not scared.

fresh diamond

I just received some fresh loroco in the mail from El Salvador (if you're not from Central America or Texas then you've probably never heard of it)... not sure why.  I must have reached such a high level of status somehow that people have just started sending me free stuff for no reason... not exactly, but I'd like to think so... maybe just a little bit.  Nahh, I probably just got dumped on some mailing list from all of my frequent web cruising and searching.  Anyway, since I've never tasted or worked with or even freakin' heard of this stuff, I was happy to shove some in my mouth and eat it.  I like to do that with things I'm completely not familiar with.  "Hey, what's this crap?"  Gulp.

This little flowering herb has quite an interesting and intense aroma and flavor.  I did a quick internet search and found flavor comparisons to asparagus and chocolate, squash and broccoli, but no mention of the nice bitterness in the aftertaste of the fresh bud.  That was actually my favorite part of the experience.  You will continue to 'taste' it for quite some time afterwards. 

A quick side note:  it oxidizes and dulls in color fairly quickly so use it up soon.  I'm not sure what to do with it yet.  A few bites have me feeling quite hyper (like when I eat 2 spoons of bee pollen or just a weird sensation like over salted peanuts on the lips). 

Just to bounce the flavor around in my mind for a day to get ideas on what to do with it, I tossed some buds with avocado, olive oil, squeezed lime, cilantro, onion, salt, and pepper (seems you can do this with almost anything from Central America).  Interesting, fresh, and well... interesting.  It's like a hit of fresh tart guacomole components with all of the creamy fat and bright lime followed by a beautiful bitter finish.  It looks like a mess, but I like it.  I'll have to taste it on and off over the following day to determine if I want to pursue the use of it.  Also, because of it's comparisons to asparagus will it be equally difficult to pair with wine?  I'm not exactly loroco loco at this point.

birthday dinner for friends

Our friend and fellow chef, Mark, who in the last couple of years made his way through kitchens in Miami to Trinidad then back to his hometown of New Orleans stayed in our hotel for a couple of days to celebrate his girlfriend's birthday.  It wasn't an 'average' dinner for me because Mark actually hung out in the kitchen with me for 2 days to help prep the dishes.  We put out an array of technique-based components, and it was fun on both of our ends... sharing ideas, organizing,  playing with food, then later for him eating, and for me plating up.

This is a little of what we did...

Serrano & melon (one of our favorite classical pairings to play with).  Sweet confits of honeydew and cantaloupe (cut with... of course, a melon baller), toasted pine nuts, serrano broth, and a spray of balsamico.

It seems like I'm throwing these noodles out on everything for the last couple of days, but here are the wd~50 noodles again served in a miso dashi, with a side of tuna over ponzu and soy caviar.  What a shame that we only have 2 of these triangle plates because I love this set-up.  I even had the last minute revelation to use a square of nori for a doily.  The broth was frenched tableside from a teapot.  This plate has a perfect spot for the noodles, the chopsticks...

A caprese salad... practice for a tomato seed jelly I am working on.  I was going for a smooth texture, but found that the right amount of gellan held the tomato 'pulp' enough to have plate-up control while leaving the texture of ripe raw tomato.  We ran out of microbasil, so oregano leaves were used.

Another salad of pea tendrils tossed in grilled peanut oil (my favorite oil now), a warm maple vinaigrette, and a slice of goat cheese loaf.

The next course had these Activa formed seabass cakes flavored with African berbere spice.  They were served with charmoulah foam, hummus, and a grilled lemon eggplant steak.

The entre utilized 'smoking under glass' to.... well, just because.  I had just rebuilt the smoke pipe, and it would be a shame not to utilize it.  We used persimmon wood splinters to smoke the hell out of our 24 hour braised wagyu shortribs.  They were served with our peas & carrots puree and some square tater tots.  Dude, are you going to eat your tots?

Happy Birthday Jamie.  It was fun.

korean noodles

We have 5 new additions to our kitchen staff... interns from Korea.  These interns have been through an extensive mass orientation of our property, been settled down and had living arrangements worked out, and are eager to work.  Most of their skills are evident in their knife work... like fruit carvings (unfortunately, we don't do any of that sort of thing, and God help us if we do).  Before putting them to task in our kitchen, we decided to 'orient' them one last time with a display of the ideas and techniques we love... and also our style of food.  (notice the great weather down here while other parts of the country are blanketed in snow)

We put together a 'Korean' noodle dish.  We explained (but better yet, showed) to them how we take components of dishes and 'twist' things around.  Starting with a bowl of sliced tofu, enoki take, and baby broccoli, I added egg that was cooked barely firm for 2 hours.  I also sliced some sous-vide cooked beef that was placed under a dome afterwards and smoked with tea at the table (that one received some stares of amazement).  Other additions were kimchi powder and the soy caviar.  We had to let them smell each element beforehand so they fully understood what they were.

The last garnish was the wd~50 inspired noodles.  Amazement again.  It was totally fun to put on a show like this for cooks who have no clue about modern cuisine (at least, not in our Western world view).  Their cuisine is based on tradition... but then again, so is ours (whether other chefs admit it or not... our view of food almost predates tradition and looks at food in a primal perspective... like what makes us know what to eat?  how do flavors have flavor?  what is appealling and unappealling texture?  how would we even know what is and isn't food if no one was ever there to show us?)  In Fabian's absence, one of our pastry cooks, Deborah, did a dessert based on an edamame ice cream she made in the PacoJet.  This ice cream was incredible.  I was surprised and very impressed that she came up with the idea.

Afterwards, we let these 5 interns loose in the kitchen.  They do not know much English at this point, but they are fast, efficient, and consistent.  Imagine having 5 work-horse employees come into your kitchen at once.  Some of the other guys might have to tighten up, or be replaced.  There's nothing like a little competiveness and a dose of reality to shake things up.

return of the smoke pipe: the sequel

Once again, for the rebuilding... like a phoenix from the ashes (literally)...

The smoke pipe returns!  Taller and better!

I've made some improvements since the original.  The parts were sitting around for awhile and we are planning on using it on a couple of upcoming dinners, so I had to stop procrastinating the reconstruction.  The inside and outside of the fan housing were painted with 3 coats of BBQ pit paint for a little heat resistance.  I then put a layer of aluminum tape wherever possible inside the housing (this is the danger area for heat).  It's true that I cannot make it heat proof, but I can add some heat resistance.  There is an added length of tubing added between the bowl and the fan housing which allows for significant reduction of heat inside the housing below.

The bowl tube fits within another plastic insulator tube (glued on with gorilla glue and more aluminum tape) and can slide in or out.  The rubber band 'closes' the air gap for vacuum suction below when it sits on top of the tube from the weight of the pipe bowl.

Here it is packed for travel.

The smoking gun from Polyscience costs about $50 before shipping, and my parts cost about $30 ($20 for the vacuum and $10 for a cheap pipe at a head shop).  Not much savings considering what you get... this is the "Beverly Hillbillies" car of smoke pipes.  It's still not good for big groups or extended use, but I can work within it's limitations.  I don't want to do 20 plates with smoke under glass anyway.  Grant Achatz has a great way (cut to about 2:20 minutes into the video) to get the same affect with no gun and using the perfume of burning leaves.  Building my gun was fun, though.

I'm using it tomorrow in a demo for our 5 new Korean interns, and as a joke on another dinner.

world weekly diet comparison

This was sent to me in an email from the Slow Food Miami group.  The first posting had problems, but I think I have it cleared up now...  As with the internet and email, sources are not always obvious at first, but I have all intention of stating them.  This comparative is from "The Hungry Planet" by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio.  There is a complete list on this blog showing more families (including 2 more American households and countries like Japan and China and India) and an interactive map.

This is a photo listing of families from different countries and the amount (and types) of food they consume in an average week.  Very interesting to say the least, although I don't know many American families that live on a total processed and snack food diet like the represented American family below (I could have spent that $341.98 much more wisely).  What's also very interesting is (not just the type of foods, but) the translated US dollar amount spent for the amount of food bought.  There are some incredible deals going on in Bhutan and Chad.

Sicily, Italy:  The Manzano Family

214.36 Euros ($260.11 USD)

Bargeteheide, Germany:  The Melander Family

375.39 Euros ($500.07 USD)

North Carolina, United States of America:  The Revis Family

$341.98 USD

Cuernavaca, Mexico:  The Casales Family

1862.78 Pesos ($189.09 USD)

Konstancin-Jeziorna, Poland:  The Sobczynscy Family

582.48 Zlotys ($151.27 USD)

Cairo, Egypt:  The Ahmed Family

387.85 Egyptian Pounds ($68.53 USD)

Tingo, Ecuador:  The Ayme Family

$31.55 USD

Shingkhey Village, Bhutan:  The Namgay Family

224.93 ngultrum ($5.03 USD)

Breidjing Camp, Chad:  The Aboubakar Family

685 CFA Francs ($1.23 USD)

Thanks to Peter Rabbino of Slow Food Miami for forwarding these pictures.  Count your blessings and change your perspective.

cellular egg cookery

While searching for some information on eggs, I found this website claim.  While performing a control experiment to validate the myth, they concluded that you could actually cook and egg placed between two active cell phones in about 65 minutes.  Shocking indeed when you think about how people are 'cooking' their brains everytime they talk for an extended period of time on their mobiles. 

My mind, however, went in the other direction... cooking an egg at the table with cell phones (you can also draw laterals here since an egg is actually a single cell and you are using 'cellular' technology to cook it).  I know, 65 minutes of an egg being radiated between 2 phones at the table is not really feasible, but maybe it could be done differently (how long would it take to cook a quail egg)?  There is also the fact that you are embracing and defying the stigma of cell phones in restaurants.  What about an egg dish dessert (like a custard) that cooks with your phone during your meal and finishes in time for the last course?  What about poaching brains between 2 cell phones... symbolic still.  This is your brain on unlimited minutes.  How much cornier could it get?  How about chewing on that egg with your blue tooth?

use by date?

I never realized that sodium alginate could expire.  Now that some of our pantry stock additives are hitting old age, the thought of some of them going bad did cross my mind.  Could it be that we should re-order our supplies every year like changing the batteries in the smoke detector and throwing out the expired medications in our medicine cabinets?

I was making a soy caviar for a special luncheon (note the cool 3 tip squeeze bottle I found in our storeroom... perfect for a la minute caviar and I don't need to pull out the machine).  After working through the recipe 2 times and having it unexplainably fail (this was one of our previously successful recipes, so I knew it worked), I pondered that the alginate I was using was from an old container.  Le Sanctuaire puts very little information on their packaging.  They often do not have the specific version of the additive printed so any sort of expiration date may be a lot to ask for.  Anyway, once I opened a new bag the recipe worked perfectly again.  Did something unseen go wrong in the first 2 attempts, or did it really expire?  Is it prolonged contact with the atmosphere that killed it?  What other additives might go bad soon?

Soy Caviar (mix 5.1g sodium alginate into 420g water; blend in 380g soy sauce; dispense droplets into a solution of 1000g water mixed with 7g calcium chloride).  Little bursts of soy over your cheap tuna.

a culinary icon has passed away...

Yes, it's true.  Sam the butcher from the Brady Bunch (and possibly Alice's love muffin) is dead.  The food world mourns.

A tribute dinner may be in order.