Food Consultancy and Research Kitchen.
Nov 28th, 2011 by Paul
I was at work on Saturday when I hear a voice from across the room “Hey Paul, do you want some ducks ?”. A rather strange question to hear at work, but of course I immediately said yes. Turns out the guy had gone out for a quick hunt before work. I headed on out to his car and he presented me with two freshly killed ducks. I immediately doubted my decision to take these ducks as they were still fully intact, ungutted, unplucked.
Nov 21st, 2011 by Paul
Twice in the last week I have seen reference to Mushroom Ragu over Polenta. It sounded like a pretty good meat free option… Something which living in Austin, surrounded by smelly hippies is a handy thing to have in your back pocket.
It’s also a remarkably simple recipe. The Ragu itself is just a few ingredients and if you use quick cook polenta it can come together in about 25 minutes. I jazzed it up with a sparking Vino Verde Gelee, but don’t feel obliged to go that far.
Nov 20th, 2011 by Paul
Read any Chef’s recipe for risotto and it involves standing over a hot pot ladling hot stock and stirring for what seems like an eternity. I’ve seen various recipes for no-stir risotto floating around the interwebs and always dismissed them. Who does some dude on the internet think he his trying to tell us that all our favourite chef’s are wrong and their recipes have you needlessly stirring away at a pot.
Well after seeing a write up on the ‘science’ of risotto on SeriousEats I decided to give it a shot. I read through the information and it all did seem to make sense. Of course the proof was in the pudding and after making a risotto roughly following their recipe I gotta say … It was pretty damn good.
Moussaka is a greek dish that has many facsimiles throughout the Mediterranean region. At heart its very similar to a lasagne using Eggplant instead of pasta to separate the layers of sauce. Its a good hearty rustic dish filled with strong greek flavours that is fantastic on a gloomy day. It’s also really easy to make it either gluten free by swapping the flour in the béchamel for cornstarch, or replacing it completely with some Tzatziki whipped with some eggs. Vegetarian might be harder, but I guess you could use a soy based ground beef substitute.
Aug 21st, 2011 by Paul
I have been pondering the idea of making a chocolate bread for a while now. A bit of googling told me that it has in fact been done before. Reading through David’s recipe I could see it was at heart a faily simple sweet dough / brioche type deal. Knowing my way around a brioche dough I decided I wanted to try making my own recipe for it.
I’ve been experimenting recently with using a Water Roux (Tang Zhong) a Japanese method of heating a flour/water combo to 65C where it forms a paste and adding it to the dough. This helps create a fluffy texture to the bread. Using this technique I started with a fairly traditional Brioche recipe, added the Water Roux and some Cocoa Powder and then substituted chocolate milk for milk.
I tried to keep the sugar content fairly low as I didn’t want the bread itself to be super sweet, but to instead lend a chocolately undertone to whatever is spread on it. To add some extra interest to it I added some milk chocolate chips and dollops of Bourbon spiked Dulce de Leche.
Aug 15th, 2011 by Paul
Congee is a fantastic way to use up chicken bones from a Barbecued or Roasted chicken ( hell even a supermarket rotisserie chicken ). In essence its a savory rice porridge from Asia. This is a very simple to make one pot dish that makes for a great hearty meal with little more than scraps for ingredients.
The ingredients are simple, the only thing you really have to know is a general rule of 9 cups water per 1 cup rice. The rest you can make up as you go along, don’t even need to keep the flavors asian.
Aug 14th, 2011 by Paul
With friends coming over for dinner and a moderate weather forecast for today it was an obvious choice to do some barbecue. Due to the extreme summer ( 60 days of 100f/38c or higher ) its hard to get motivated to go stand out in the sun.
Usually I spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to do for a rub, adding all sorts of spices and other oddments like Cocoa and Coffee, this time I decided to go minimalist and just get good quality meat. A trip to wholefoods got me a small grass fed brisket and a pasture raised chicken ( which despite my skepticism seems to be a genuine claim not a marketing loophole ).
This turned out to be quite the epiphany as the brisket was without a doubt the best brisket I’ve ever cooked, and not far off the best brisket I’ve ever tasted ( I’m talking to you Franklin). So from now on quality meat, simple rub, add flavors with interesting sauces on the side. ( which actually thinking about it, is exactly what Franklin does. )
I also wanted to make a BBQ sauce and decided on one that I’ve been eyeing off for a while, which is Hank Shaw‘s recipe for Dr Pepper BBQ Sauce. I was going to get Dublin Dr Pepper which is made with real sugar but couldn’t find any, instead I grabbed a Dr B which is the HEB branded version. I had thought that it was also real sugar, but when I checked, dammit HFCS, apparently they have a sugar version but I picked up the wrong bottle.
Aug 8th, 2011 by Paul
This week marked the start of Hatch Green Chile season here in Austin. Hatch chiles are not actually a specific variety of chilli but a source of origin ( Hatch, New Mexico ), that being said the most common hatch chilli that makes its way to Austin is is a green chile that looks a lot like an Anaheim.
Roasted Hatch Green Chile courtesy of Foodie is the New Forty
Many supermarkets have a hatch chile roaster which is a big rotating mesh barrel with a blowtorch and you can buy them freshly roasted in a bag. All you have to do is scrape off the blackened skin and it’s ready to go.
Jun 14th, 2011 by Paul
Just a few short weeks ago my attention was drawn to a sandwich known as the Shooter’s Sandwich. It’s a very old British recipe from the Edwardian era designed to be carried by the gentleman hunter to have a good wholesome portable meal while hunting. In fact it’s almost a portable Beef Wellington.
The sandwich is made up of several layers of steak, mushrooms and onions with mustard and horseradish stuffed into a hollowed out loaf of bread and then pressed down with something heavy to flatten it out.
Jun 12th, 2011 by Paul
Chicken Stock is incredibly easy to make and is a necessity in almost all kitchens. Once you start making your own chicken stock, you quickly discover the inadequacies of store bought stocks, especially the ones that come in cube form. Store bought stock is almost always too salty, insipid and lacking body.
Home made chicken stock is the polar opposite of store bought stock. It has a strong chicken flavour, very little salt and full body.
There are as many different ways of making stock as there are people who make it. This stock is a very basic stock made from cheap cuts of chicken, a few cheap vegetables and some basic herbs and spices.
Using the pressure cooker greatly reduces the necessary cooking time, in fact you can get a decent stock with only 30 minutes under pressure. If you don’t have a pressure cooker you can do it on the stove or even in the oven ( if so cook just the chicken for about 4 hours, then add the vegetables for another 60 minutes ) … just don’t let it boil, a gentle simmer will give best results.
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