Food Consultancy and Research Kitchen.
Jan 30th, 2011 by Paul
My take on a Thomas Keller recipe. Quail eggs cooked sous vide @ 61 C served with home cured bacon sliced very fine and cooked until crispy, topped with a Sprinkle of Smoked Maldon Sea Salt and a grind of Pepper.
Obviously a Chinese spoon would be a better serving plate but apparently I don’t have any.
The textures of the crispy bacon and the silky egg go amazingly together.
Jan 23rd, 2011 by Paul
I wanted to make a batch of real eggnog for Christmas and went googling to get some history and preparation methods. I found a post on Ruhlman‘s blog talking about drinking some eggnog he made the previous year, this of course intrigued me as I have a lot of interest in preserved foods, and I had no idea you could preseve milk in a liquid form easily at home. I followed a few links before I finally got to a recipe.
I started the eggnog in October to give it a good 2 months to age before Christmas. I started by separating a dozen organic free range ( important to help reduce risk of bacteria, and of course it’s better for the chickens ). I whisked the yolks with two cups of sugar until they were light and creamy.
To this I added the cream and then the booze ( bourbon, rum, and brandy ).
In went the rest of the ingredients and whisked together. A couple of loose nutmegs lulling around at the bottom of the mixture.
The lid went onto the container and it was wrapped in foil to protect it from light.
2 months later on Christmas day I whipped egg whites and cream and folded them together. A good dollop of this went into each glass and was topped up with the eggnog. A fine grating of nutmeg on top and it was ready to drink.
I have 2 half liter bottles left in the fridge which I plan to keep until next Christmas.
Jan 23rd, 2011 by Paul
Scrounging in the fridge for some breakfast I found a bowl of meat pulled from smoked ham hocks that I had made a pea and ham soup with… Perfect for some Breakfast Tacos.
I made sure there were no sneaky foot bones bones in the meat and threw it into a hot pan adding a good drizzle of maple syrup. This cooked until the syrup had coated the meat and was just starting to caramelize.
I then added in a shot of espresso along with a little salt and pepper cooking it down until there was no liquid left in the pan.
Then it was just a matter of scrambling some eggs and toasting some corn tacos.
The Tacos were served with a few drops of maple syrup and some hot sauce.
Simple, quick, and tasty.
Jan 8th, 2011 by Paul
Ruhlman has a post up on his blog called Ciabatta From Scratch which I would have loved to have had two years ago when I started trying to make Ciabatta. The recipe he has up is very similar to how I now make my Ciabatta ( albiet I use sourdough starter and don’t hydrate as much ).
Reading and commenting on the post was enough to convince me to pull my starter out of hibernation and bake some bread.
I Used 500g (bread) flour, 300g Water, 10g Salt, 100g Starter.
Mixed flour and water together enough to bring into a ball. Left for 1 hour. Kneaded in salt, then kneaded in Starter. Then every hour I folded the dough to help the gluten along.
After about 6 hours I preheated the oven to 450F with a clay pot inside. Shaped the dough into a ball ( being careful not to knock out too much air ) and left in an oiled bowl about the same size as the pot.
An hour later with the oven roaring I tipped the dough into the pot and slashed the top, sprinkled with a pinch of smoked sea salt and baked for 30 mins lid on, then 10 mins lid off.
I always cool my bread on a rack to help ensure the bottom doesn’t get soggy.
Jan 2nd, 2011 by Paul
With my parents visiting for Christmas we did a few quick overnight trips to check out some other parts of Texas. When they showed an interest in Houston I was quick to suggest we go to Feast for dinner, a restaurant I’d heard Ryan wax lyrical about a few times in the past. Feast is a British style Restaurant that subscribes to the Nose to Tail philosophy ( hence Ryan’s love of it ).
We opted to go for the Chef’s tasting menu and sat back as our very knowledgeable waitress took us through a fantastic journey through 9 courses.
First up was a Carrot and Lentil soup made from a base of duck stock with apple chutney. The soup was rich and delightful with the occasional crunch and sweetness from the apple, however there was a substantial film of fat on top which detracted from the dish a little.
Next up was a Pork Rillette served with some toasted bread and a cornichon. This was probably the weakest dish of the night, it was lukewarm and underseasoned. I’d have preferred it either cold or hot, not halfway in between.
Next up was easily the dish of the day. A black pudding made with duck blood sitting on a bed of minted peas with a soft fried egg on top. This was amazingly rich and smooth, a distant cry from the dry grainy dish I would expect.
Following was a tongue and drunken cherry terrine. This tasted great, but could have done with a dash of dijon mustard.
Then came a dish called ‘Bath Chaps’ which is a very traditional British dish. This one was if I remember correctly made with Pork Cheek wrapped around a tongue. This tasted like a really great roasted pork with crackling on it. It was amazingly porky, probably the most piggy tasting piece of pork I’ve eaten since living in the US.
Following this came a Fish pie served with brussel sprouts. This was rich and creamy and incredibly tasty. As you can see we tucked into it before I remembered to take a photo.
Then we had a Pork Butt Stew that tasted like a really good Beef Bourguignon, it had to have been made with a very strong beef stock base as I would never have guessed it to be pork without having been told. It was served with perfectly cooked beans and mashed potato.
Next was a brilliantly executed refreshing palette cleansing Clementine sorbet.
And finally we were given Spotted Dick with Creme Anglaise and Sticky Toffee Pudding with Clotted Cream.
Both dishes tasted great, I really liked the Toffee Pudding with a drizzle of the Creme Anglaise from the Spotted Dick over the top.
Dec 19th, 2010 by Paul
Dulce De Leche brings back fond memories of Miniature Caramel Tarts that my mother used to make by boiling a can of condensed milk and pouring it into gingernut cookies that had been softened and shaped into little bowls and then cooled to set.
It’s easy to make, just throw a tin of condensed milk into near boiling water for a few hours. If you really want to cause a stir do yourself a favour and whisk in 10% by weight of your favourite liquor and seal it into canning jars ( sterilize etc if you plan on keeping outside of the fridge. but seriously don’t bother it’s not going to remain uneaten for long ) I used a Japanese Whiskey, but you could use Bourbon, Rum, or an infused vodka ( I’m thinking of trying with Chipotle infused Vodka next time.). You can eat it hot, but I would recommend letting it cool down and set into a thick spread-like consistency.
Serve by spreading between two shortbread cookies and you have a version of alfajores, a treat found in a number of South American countries. Or just spoon it straight into your mouth from the jar.
Dec 5th, 2010 by Paul
This is a really simple yet beautiful Ragu served atop Fettuccine. I’ve cooked it a few times now and am really happy with how it turns out. Unlike the Bolognese that you’ll see on most tables it’s surprisingly low on tomato and has no red wine.
Next time I make this I think I’m going to go more traditional and use oxtail and home cured pork belly instead of the ground meats, I think the gelatin extracted from the oxtail will give it some amazing body.
Dec 5th, 2010 by Paul
With winter fast approaching it was time to harvest the remaining tomatoes from the garden and thank them for their valiant efforts at producing food for a mostly ignorant gardener before they wilt and die from the cold. Most of the tomatoes were still green which is new to me, so I had to hunt down something interesting to do with them.
I have been wanting to start canning/preserving for a while and recently my interest in it had been reignited by eating preserved Olives and Sunchokes fresh from the jar at Hank Shaw’s home during my recent trip to Sacramento.
I checked Hank’s website hoping he’d had a recipe for canning green tomatoes and while I didn’t find anything there I followed a link from his page to Food In Jars which had a recipe for Green Tomato Chutney. Perfect I thought and went out shopping for some jars and ingredients.
Nov 28th, 2010 by Paul
When I cook chicken breast I usually buy them still on the crown and bone them so that I can use the bones for stock. I almost always cook chicken sous vide now and will often cook vegetables to go with it sous vide as well. I’ve developed this Stock in a Bag preparation to make the most out of the cooking heat that I’m already using and at the same time be a simple way to make small batch stock as I don’t have a huge amount of freezer space.
Usually I make a more traditional western style stock but last night I decided to make it with a Chinese influence by using Shaoxing Wine, Light Soy and Sesame Oil. This stock can later be used to poach duck or pork belly and will improve each time you use it.
If you want to make a large batch of this, use the same process but in a bigger pan and then just fill your water bath with it ( assuming a ghetto style rice cooker sous vide … I’m sure the sous vide supreme people would get mad if you did this with one of their units ).
Cassoulet is a fairly epic dish that many home cooks shy away from because it requires a lot of time, some recipes call for 3 days of preperation/cooking. It’s a peasant dish and they were too busy working to be cooking for three days straight. I’ll guarantee they worked a lot harder for longer hours than you or I do. You only really need two days, and the first day is just to put the beans in water.
When you get past all the fancy ingredients it’s actually a very simple dish. It’s beans and meat. It has two kinds of meat in it … Fresh ( cheap cuts, require long cooking to be tender ) and Cured ( Bacon, Pancetta, Duck Confit ). Don’t rush out and buy a bunch of expensive meats to make it, use cheap cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and sausage. Use home cured bacon, duck confit, and stock.
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