chadzilla

oyster emulsion

The idea was first presented last year at the Star Chefs ICC by Rene Redzepi... how simple, using raw oysters as an emulsifying agent.  As with many ideas and inspirations, they sit within the dark caverns of the brain waiting for a moment to bounce back into the light.

 

We made a clam block with some littlenecks that were brought in bulk for a catering function.  We also had a handful of oysters and were pursuing a somewhat loose play on chowder flavors... without presenting a deconstruction or any other such presentation.  Chef K threw out the emulsion idea.  It could definitely be used as a strong flavorful sauce base for the cold-served dish.

I shucked and cold smoked about 20 oysters.  These were then placed in a blender and spun with a bit of sea salt, whole milk, koji aji, and olive oil (and a little Ultratex 8 to thicken and refine).  It was so strongly flavored, yet still struck a perfect balance with the other elements... celery juice-poached potato, bacon powder, the littleneck block, and onion rings (which we breaded in a seasoned Trisol mixture).  The modified wheat starch available from the 'surprises' line of El Bulli products is a miracle ingredient.  You can imagine what potential uses it can have in larger operations such as hotels for keeping fried items at their peak through plating and transporting or on a station or buffet scenario (or sitting on top of a smoked oyster cream emulsion without getting soggy).

row 11

Last night we had a successful dinner for Row 11 wines from California in conjunction with Cellars Wine & Spirits Warehouse in Aventura, FL.  3 pinot noir courses in a row plus an unoaked Chardonnay and a Cabernet.  Success is measured in many ways... food ran smooth (chefs happy), extra business (waitstaff happy), pulling in decent numbers for a promo event (boss happy), getting to look good for a new crowd (winemaker happy), and all of the above plus good times (guests happy... the most important factor).  Hitting above our expected numbers makes us optimistic about future promo events during this time.  It was a busy night during the plating (including a duck course that seemed to have twenty something components... or maybe it's my exaggerated impression under the gun), so no pictures except dessert.

tobacco-infused chocolate, dehydrated salty chocolate, cassis sorbet, black currant marmalade

 

Fabian has done this chocolate tobacco infusion once before.  A month before the event, chocolate is broken up and vacuum sealed with tobacco leaves from a local cigar roller.  After this time, the chocolate is soaked and melted into barely warm milk... the chocolate melts, the mixture is left to rest one day refrigerated, then the tobacco is strained out.

don't let your guard down

Scrolling through my increasingly cumbersome blogroll this morning, I found a great article titled "Shock & Foie" by Mark Pastore, owner of Incanto Restaurant in San Francisco.  The foie debate has somewhat settled down in past months within the changing political spectrum and wavering economy, but make no mistake that it is as threatening as ever.  Mark's words are brilliantly written.  The title not only sounds cool, but directly points to a political strategy in a war that is not yet won.  Awareness and understanding is vital.

wagyu vs. kobe

Hey, Chef... are you still feeling confused over this subject.  Don't be embarrassed if you are because you should be.  They've both been featured on menus all over the US for quite some time, your meat purveyor keeps trying to sell it to you,  world class chefs have mis-labelled it, and it pops up constantly on television food shows, magazines, blogs, and books.  So why, after all this time, should you need to be educated on the subject.  Because there is a difference and it's more than just the difference between a Fender Stratocaster and a Squire knock-off.

The truth is, we think of beef differently in America.  Japan has approached cattle husbandry from a completely different perpective than we have.  American beef, like pork, has gone the route of breeding leaner and leaner cows over time (far longer than our lifetime), and our standards of judging beef and even our very concept of it is different.  Chef Masaharu Morimoto recently gave a speech at the SoBe Wine & Food Fest titled "The Wagyu Truth."  You can view a home movie of it here, but you'd probably need an audio technician to make out any words.  Although I did not see it, Chef K did and he mentioned a few of the points brought up.  One being that there is no Kobe beef in America.

What?  Then how do you explain the product list faxed to me by my meat purveyor?  What's with the label on the box he just sent to me?  Does that 'S' stand for 'Kobe-style?'  Truth... Kobe is a place in Japan, and just like Champagne, anything labelled with it must come from that specific area.  I had some concept as to the difference, but after reading this research paper by Daryll Neault (manager of the meat department at Uwajimaya in Seattle) it made much more sense.

So, here is a sort of summary to offer some clarification.

Kobe is a place.  Japanese cattle raisers there have practiced a system of stock unions in which ranchers united and cross-bred their cattle over a larger gene pool than individual cattlemen could do alone.  This allowed them to create very superior breed of beef in a relatively (compared to the American cattle industry) short time frame.  Kobe beef is rated with 20 to 25% fat compared to American prime which tops out at only 6 to 8%.  Wagyu is basically two words which translate into 'wa' (Japanese style) and 'gyu' (cattle).  The big majority of wagyu comes form Australia with a growing number of US ranchers and the wagyu that makes it to your kitchen is most likely a hybrid of Japanese beef and a western breed such as black Angus.  The wagyu cattle are not exposed to the same detailed ranching methods as true Kobe, but instead are kept free roaming and fed a diet of barley, golden wheat, and alfalfa.  They do not drink beer, are not as rigorously discouraged from exercising, and do not get massages.  Although they may sound like a watered down version of true Kobe, they are still far passed American prime on the grading charts.  The higher fat content, which may sound less healthy on the surface, actually makes wagyu and kobe much better for us than American beef.  Why?  Because kobe has a higher level of Conjugated Linolic Acid which helps to reduce cholesterol much moreso than American commodity beef.  The extra fat also dictates that kobe and wagyu be cooked a little differently.  Prolonged high heat will just melt the fat and destroy everything beautiful about kobe.  A quick sear on the outside and removal from heat are necessary to preserve the great texture and flavor.  That's why preparations like carpaccio and tartare work best.

 

So, the whole point of this is 'truth in menu.'  I, personally, have never had the pleasure of tasting real Kobe beef... I can't afford it, and no one's going to send me a free sample.  If you have wagyu, then call it wagyu... or Japanese style.  Don't say kobe unless you paid over half a thousand bucks a pound for true kobe which then should have been frozen and air shipped to you.  Morimoto seriously doubts that it was.

kettle corn (exclamation point)

 

I've been obsessed with it lately.  I would say I don't know why, but actually I do.  It's not because of it's sweet/salty goodness and wicked texture.  It's not even so much about the kettle corn culture...  although I am quite new to it, as it was never popular where i grew up.  It's totally because of the science behind it which is so simple, and I want to know more about the process.  That being~ the combination of really hot oil and sugar.  What other culinary applications contain those 2 ingredients in this particular manner.

Ok, just what do we mean by kettle corn.  I'm straight-up eliminating recipes that add the sugar after the popcorn is popped, like Rachael Ray's.  Also, use of other strange ingredients, although I'm not opposed to using flavored kettle corn as an element on a dish.  For basic purposes here, those recipes don't even count.

Simple web searches pop up equally-fascinated fans of the crunchy kernels such as this one (disturbingly goofy), this one (suburbanishly strange, but a good tutorial of making it at home... somehow, I feel I can trust her), this one (interesting use of excessive ingredients, but I don't like the method), this one (Pappy has the right tool for the job), this one (Fred does it with style!), and this one (Doug's got style too...  I'll bet the triangle makes it taste better).  And there are many many more.

I've also pulled up and read at least 30 recipes for it.  Can't remember where I got this one, but it's so simple and widespread that there's no earthly reason to worry about someone claiming it as original.

1/2 cup good quality popcorn kernels
1/4 cup oil (I use peanut for pretty much everything)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
fine ground salt...  to your idea of the perfect balance between sweet and salty

That's it.  4 ingredients.  If you use brown sugar, you get caramel corn.

Put the oil and 3 kernels of the popcorn in the pot, and turn the heat up.  Once the 3rd kernel pops (yes, there's always 3 and it's always the 3rd one), dump in the rest of the popcorn and the sugar, close the lid, and shake and heat and shake and heat and shake and heat until the popping stops.  Dump out into a really big mixing bowl, and toss with salt long enough to separate the pops (the hot sugar coating will want to cling to the others for a few seconds).

What really hooked me into it was the step of dumping a bunch of sugar into smoking hot oil.  That and the tiny sugar shell that forms around the kernels as they pop.  How can this process be utilized with other ingredients or applications?  Maybe using other oils?  We thought about other popping grains like amaranth.  Can it be duplicated with something other than grains?

espelette pepper kettle corn, coconut shrimp lolly

 

Since I've read so many summaries of kettle corn's history, I will give you a summary of the summaries.  Native Americans invented popcorn.  Either early immigrant Germans or Dutch in the Americas contributed to the evolution of the kettle corn process.  In its original heyday, it was popular in rural areas and farm country.  Kettle corn had practically vanished from sight in the US during the 1900's until about 10 years ago when it had a resurgence. 

How did we ever let something so good almost dwindle into extinction?

chocolate basil truffle tomato

A Fabian dessert...

 

Here's a dish that Fabian was playing with a few days ago.  An olive oil macaroon over a truffled chocolate cremoso.  The tomatoes are soaked in a basil syrup.  What you can't see readily is that the whole thing sits over a soft basil milk gel set into the bottom of the bowl.  Milk keeps repeating itself lately... it's ability to infuse with flavors so easily without losing it's properties.  It's a magnet for flavor and aroma. 

That's why you can't leave dairy products exposed in the fridge.  Hey, it all makes sense now.

chicken liver pâté

This pâté followed an evolution that began by using Thomas Keller's chicken liver pâté recipe from "Under Pressure" a couple of times, then the desire to create a softer molded pâté using gelatin, then thinking about Yakko-San's Japanese style fried chicken livers and wanting to put those flavors into a pâté, and eventually deciding to give that pâté hot and cold stability by using gelatin and methocel... and it may progress even further in the future.  For right now, though, I am enjoying the flavor of it as is.

The pâté thus far has been paired with the eel banana ice cream in the previous post, and appropriately served to Hiro who was part inspiration for its creation.  The hot/cold capability was inspired by old posts from Ideas in Food, who were messing around with the technique in foie terrines so long ago it makes your brain twitch to think about how we're just starting to play with the idea (we're talking about 2005!  ... and look at the beauty of that terrine basking in the Autumn Colorado sun!).  Using experience to set starting ratios of 1% gelatin and 1.2% methocel, and adopting Alex and Aki's method as a guideline (along with their choice of E4M), the recipe hit success in the first trial.  Becoming more experienced with the different types and uses of methocel sits continually on our 'to do' list, and we'll get to it someday... someday, possibly starting right here with Linda.  Good quality Belle & Evans air chilled chicken livers help the pure liver flavor push through (not that the flavor of liver ever really struggles with less bold flavors).

Download Warm Chicken Liver Pâté

eel banana ice cream

We had the pleasure of hosting a table for Mr. Hiroshi Shigetomi (of the well-visited Miami izakaya, Yakko-San, favorite chef and restaurant industry hang-out) a couple of nights ago.  He and his wife, Mae, and two of their friends honored us by allowing us to feed them a Trump Omakase of some improvised dishes as well as some regular menu items.  The eel banana combination was a salute to Hiro who makes a great eel banana sushi roll (I'm not even sure if it's on the menu, but if you walk next door to his Sushi Express, you may request one).  The pairing of banana and eel sauce is a beautiful match. 

 

eel banana ice cream, smoked tobiko, caramelized white chocolate nitsume sauce, warm nippon-flavored chicken liver pâté, sweet and sour kumquats.

Download Eel Banana Ice Cream

infusing raw oysters

A few forerunning thoughts... Dave Arnold's oyster recipe, pickles on the brain, an email conversation with another Dave from H2Oyster...

 

Putting flavor into live raw oysters seems so brilliant, yet sort of obvious, and more than anything else... so cool.  We just had to try it out.  Reading Arnold's recipe gave a set of guidelines which would make it more or less foolproof.  If you're going to spend dollars importing nice quality oysters, you want at least a slight guarantee that you'll get results.  If you have fresh live oysters sitting in your seafood cooler, give it a test run. 

I emailed my friend, Dave Hebert (certified marine biologist), in New Orleans who owns H2Oyster (a company that regularly tests the Louisiana coastal oyster beds for various environmental factors that directly affect the safety of the product).  He couldn't readily name any elements that would prove severely caustic for the oysters within the 2 hour 'feeding' time before serving.  Oysters can filter (this is how they feed) up to 3 gallons of water an hour.  That's a lot for a little bivalve... what a pumping system!  In addition, if the oysters have been harvested within a week the chances of successful filtering are better.  In cases such as oil spills in oyster beds, the oysters have been noted to take on an 'off' flavor... but, that flavor corrects itself within a week of so afterwards.  My initial questions as to what would prove caustic to the oysters included factors such as pH and salinity, but Dave had me thinking about fats as well.  The power of these little power pumps is often under estimated.  Even after the millions of gallons of toxic water was backwashed from New Orleans back into the natural waterways after hurricane Katrina, there was high concern over the effects on the oyster industry.  These worries were short-lived when it became apparent, through testing, that the oysters were back to their normal state in a brief period of time.  When infusing your oysters, the feeding should occur a couple of hours before serving, and extreme caution should be taken with oysters that have perished.  Use your head while attempting this if any raw oysters are to be consumed.  Serving raw oysters always entails certain risks, so you don't want to be lackadaisical.

We ordered in some pickle point oysters from Prince Edward Island, Canada.  These are obviously cold water oysters, rather small, with a great salty/sweet flavor.  The fact that they were from Pickle Point plus our recent trials with pickle juice gels brought us to awareness of the obvious, yet missed, perfect pairing of oysters and pickles (they're salty, briny, with a bit of acetic acid... not to mention the dill).  We submerged some of the animals in pickle brine for a couple of hours, shucked them, rinsed them, and were happy with the subtle, but balanced, burst of pickle flavor melded with the natural oyster nuances.  A topping of compressed Jewish pickle and bacon powder dressed them up to be served.

Here's the little oysters' story told in pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tasting these side by side with un-infused oysters (hey, somebody's got to do the taste test!) was enough proof that this is worth trying out with many other flavor combinations.  It seems that almost any liquid can be pumped through the oyster's digestive system.  If they are to be served immediately, then the effects on the oyster itself do not seem to be a huge factor with food safety if proper time and temperature rules are adhered to.

Oh yeah, and the Jewish pickles... those were a nod to counter cukes at the recently closed down Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House just a few blocks down the street from us.  They've been saluted in the latest edition of Saveur.  We simply took the brine (white vinegar, sugar, water, dill) and compressed some cucumber with it before slicing it paper thin.  Yes, Jewish pickles served on shellfish with bacon powder... fantastic.

slow-cooked pasta

This falls under the 'home cooking' category, but I've never created one so I'll just write...

A month ago when I found myself at home everyday, it was difficult not to revert back to comfort flavors and textures.  Besides, my mom was here and she has tunnel-vision taste buds.  Making what we call a 'cajun' spaghetti, I started to really reflect on slow cooked pasta.  At the time, it was just a bouncing thought not meant to be posted until Harold McGee posted about his pasta quandry.  Actually, I thought about it again 5 years ago when one of our cooks in New Orleans, the lovely Ms. Deborah Abdin, cooked her spaghetti in limited water with the steam kettle turned on it's lowest setting.  Hmmm, another buried thought germinating.

This is how it goes... you have vivid memories of your grandma cooking broken sticks of spaghetti in just enough water to cover them.  A little salt and a low flame, and the pasta grows fat, soft, and full of flavor, the water getting cloudy and wafting up with that memory-triggering aroma.  Years later, after culinary school and a stretch of restaurant work plus continuous reading on the subject of food, you seek to rebuke your grandma's method.  You tell her it's not the right way.  You file it away with all of the other 'bad' culinary practices she employs (not bad as in bad-tasting, but just plain breakin' the rules... come on, Grandma).  You're not at a secure enough level in your culinary journey to fully understand and appreciate the art of her craft... but then one day, you reach that point. 

So, here it is.  Slow cooked spaghetti is freakin' awesome.  I've begun to adopt it as my main cooking method of pasta at home.  Also, if you think that's good then try slow cooked elbow macaroni tossed in just a little whole butter.  The spaghetti became the base to hold my cajun spaghetti sauce.  So, just what in the hell is cajun spaghetti sauce (another great memory).  It's the way my grandma used to make it, and it has been passed down to my aunt (for some reason, my mom can't make it), and now it's in my hands.  Basically, it's ground beef, sausage, and chicken wings cooked down in a roux-thickened red sauce... that's right, red sauce is what we call it... or more specifically, red gravy (this is technically not a misnomer since it does in fact gain it's nice viscosity from a roux).  I guess in even more basic terms, cajun spaghetti sauce is a gumbo with tomato added.

 

All three meats are somewhat cooked ahead of time before being added to the sauce.  The pot starts like a gumbo... brown some roux, add your trinity veg plus garlic, tomato sauce, add all your meats, adjust the salt and seasoning, add parsley and/or green onion.  That's it basically.

As I was internally battling whether or not this was post-worthy, I figured what the hell.  Although my last name may sound vaguely Italian (pronounce it Aye-talian), my family is pure bayou cajun from Lafourche parish (and I found out just a few years ago that the name is Spanish, go figure), and this was as much a part of our diet as any other indigenous food.  Besides, it's got 3 kinds of meat!  The whole idea of reflecting on home-cooking technique with a fresh look has got me thinking about other things from way back when.  I mean, if Harold McGee thinks it's worth thinking about, then it's got to be.