edsel
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Posts posted by edsel
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Catching up with the topic, I see some new (to me) discussion of sorbets. One of my Creami adventures was a blueberry sorbet, inspired by some beautiful blueberries at the farmers market. I used Paul Raphaelson's example recipe subbing blueberries for the strawberries.
It turned out great. One of his stated goals in his recipe development is to tone down the sweetness (fine by me), and I didn't know if the blueberries would prove too sweet for the recipe. Turns out it was just right. He calls for some less-sweet sugars like dextrose to supply body without taking the sweetness too high. His stabilizer mix is something he was excited about because it doesn't require heat to dissolve. The fruit is just puréed and strained - no cooking required.
I also tried Dana Cree's recipe for strawberry sherbet. I modified it slightly by subbing some dextrose for part of the sugar. She calls for three grams of (unspecified) stabilizer, so since I had the ingredients for Raphaelson's recipe I used them for the sherbet.
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48 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:
Interesting - for some reason I thought the Nemox was a direct competitor of the Pacojet and made a larger quantity.
Yeah, the Nemox is pretty small. The biggest advantage over the Pacojet is that you can freeze the product in the plastic containers which are reasonably cheap, and get the thermal mass of the steel holder when you spin. As I recall, the Paco canisters are a bit pricey. The Nemox is relatively quiet as well, and there's a Clean cycle where you can quickly run a canister of water to rinse off the works between spins (nice if you're switching flavors). I suppose the logistics for a professional kitchen would not be that different from the Paco since the Nemox is fast (and quiet!).
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I decided to do a quick comparison between the Nemox Frix Air and the Ninja Creami. I've had the Nemox for years, but rarely use it. The canisters for the Nemox are quite small and fit into a heavy stainless steel holder that you freeze along with the actual canisters, which are plastic and interchangeable, like the Creami ones but small. The Nemox is enclosed, making it much quieter than the Creami.
I tried out Paul Raphaelson's chocolate ice cream recipe, but used a less fancy chocolate and good old Droste cocoa rather than the single origin ones he specifies. The Nemox buzzed through the canister effortlessly, but the Creami threw a bit of a fit and I had to run it three times to get a decent result. Eventually I ended up with approximately the same result, but with a lot less drama from the Nemox. Still, the larger quantity from the Creami is an advantage.
The canisters before freezing:
Nemox:
Creami:
The blades (for comparison):
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I just came across this review on the Wired Magazine site. The reviewer, Joe Ray, struggled a bit adjusting recipes for the machine, but he seems to like it overall.
I like the sound of the Campari sorbet, after he adjusted the amount of alcohol.
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I dined at Bulrush again on the Saturday before Christmas. I had essentially the same menu as Chris had a couple of weeks before. I posted photos to my Flickr set if you want to see what the dishes looked like.
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My dinner on Thursday was amazing. Here are a couple of courses that differed from the ones that Chris posted.
Course 1
Fermented Blueberries
Pickled Cucumber & Purslane
Blueberry Crémeux
Fermented Elderflower Honey Amazake Sphere
Course 7
Juniper Pickled Blueberry
Bluberry
Cinnamon Pecan Praline Custard
Almond Daquoise
Berry Milk CrumbI uploaded my full set of photos to Flickr.
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I missed you guys by just a few days! I rolled into STL this afternoon and plan to check out the bar menu tonight. I'm doing the tasting menu tomorrow. Thanks for the preview!
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On 4/28/2018 at 6:36 PM, rancho_gordo said:
I don't know about the Premier machine. I haven't had luck with it but I know others have and really like it.
I have the Premier grinder and have used it successfully to make masa from freshly nixtamalized corn. Lately I've switched to using a food processor. You have to do it in small batches and let it run a really long time. the corn eventually gets fine enough and sticky enough to form a ball in the processor. That's when you know it's ready.
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My first attempts at the French Lean Bread. I thought it would be quite similar to the Ken Forkish white bread with poolish recipe, but the results are significantly different. The hydration in the Forkish recipe is slightly higher, but since it calls for all-purpose unbleached flour, it's much more slack than this recipe. The crumb is OK, but not great. It might help if I had the book to guide me with more detailed instructions.
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This recipe / technique isn't too different from my go-to from Ken Forkish' "Flour Water Salt Yeast". I think I can do this one!
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I've bought tickets to multiple dinners at Next, Alinea, Grace, L2O, and Elizabeth (in Chicago), and Empellon Cocina in New York, all using the Tock system They all take full payment up front, and don't offer refunds. (Actually, I bet you could contact Elizabeth and they'd let you off the hook - they're such nice people.
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I live near Cleveland, and there's just one restaurant that has attempted a ticket system. Jonathon Sawyer's Trentina started out as a tasting menu only place that required purchasing the table in advance. They still offer the "Menu Bianco" tasting menu, but started offering an a la carte menu and also take reservations (for the shorter menu). I suspect that a market like Cleveland just isn't big enough to sustain a ticket-only system. Don't know if STL is enough bigger to change that dynamic.
I think your proposed system of half up front, remainder day of, is much more appealing. Especially since a full refund is available if you cancel in time. I've been burned a couple of times when I had to unload some Tock tickets that I couldn't use.
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This just makes me so sad.
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I'm glad that you enjoyed Ravintola Olo. It's funny that I don't even recall my remark to DocSconz.
The menu looks similar in style to the one I had in May, though most of the ingredients are different. I had neither Reindeer nor Moose at Olo, but I had reindeer twice while in Finland, and a customer invited us to his vacation cottage on the Gulf of Finland for Moose Stew. (It was delicious!)
My photos from Olo are in a set on Flickr. As you can see from the photos, I had a lot more daylight in May than you had last week.
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I noticed that the AEX10 accepts fewer dies than the AEX18. Is that because it has a smaller motor?
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Marc Vetri posted a photo of a prototype consumer machine from Arcobaleno. I wonder how much it will cost...
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Has anyone had success selling tickets to Next? Posting on their Facebook page appears to be the "official" way to do it, but I wonder how effective it is.
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I tweeted Nick Kokonas back in early July about the other cookbooks and he said that they were "nearly done...just need to encode and go". Anybody with a connection know anything more? I loved cooking from the Paris book and am dying for more.
I was beginning to think that they had abandoned the eBook idea, but now there's a glimmer of hope again. From a piece in Chicagoist about Christian Seel, the guy who does their promo films, and who compiled the original Paris eBook:
Chicagoist: You mentioned the electronic cookbooks earlier; do you think they will be released?
CS: They have been talking about a couple different things that I can’t really share at this time, but yes, I am still photographing and we are still producing content. When and how they are released publicly, I don’t honestly know.
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Brilliant topic. Octopus is one of my favourite uses of sous vide.
I picked up some baby octopus at the market this morning. Any thoughts on SV temps and times?
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Marinating in pickle juice is one thing that would never occur to me as a good idea. Thanks for trying it out.
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VTR was named one of the "Best Bars in America" by Esquire.
A baby grand piano provides the background to the low din of conversation. A tiny black-and-white TV plays old movies on mute. The lighting is like looking through the amber haze of a whiskey bottle. The meticulously created scene is meant to bring the focus back to the booze, which is why decorum is as important to Nasvytis as the homemade bitters are. -
For anyone still hoping to get into the elBulli menu at Next, I can tell you that persistence pays off! A friend scored same-day tickets this weekend. We found out at 1:00 PM Eastern that it was a go for 7:30 Central the same night. Talk about a mad dash from Cleveland to Chicago...
It really is an incredible experience. I never made it to el Bulli, but at least I got to enjoy the retrospective at Next.
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Lot's of options in the Tremont neighborhood (where Lolita is located): Fahrenheit, Dante, Ginko (wonderful sushi), Parallax
In nearby Ohio City: Crop (gorgeous space), Flying Fig, SOHO, Light Bistro.
Last night I dined at Spice Kitchen in the Detroit Shoreway district, which is also on the West side and easy to get to from Oberlin.
Downtown there's Greenhouse Tavern, Lola, Noodlecat, Pura Vida and Hodges.
What kind of food and ambiance are you looking for?
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It isn't clear how similar the Alinea system will be to the one employed by Next.
At the latter it isn't possible to get odd-numbered seating arrangements. All of the tables in the dining room are two-tops or four-tops. The Kitchen Table seats six. In all cases you have to purchase the entire table.
The demand for tickets at Next has been crazy, especially for the El Bulli menu they're currently serving. I'm sure there's still ample demand for seats at Alinea. They've been a destination restaurant from day one, and now that they have three Michelin stars, demand certainly isn't going down.
It would be nice if Alinea could allow odd-numbered seating arrangements. Solo diners or odd-numbered groups would still be pre-paying for their meals - it would just mean one fewer seat filled at that table. We'll see what they decide to do when the new system debuts.
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Alinea is switching from phone reservations to an on-line ticketing system:
Alinea's Reservation System To Be Replaced With Next-Style E-Tickets, Grant Achatz Says
I wonder if it will be more flexible than the one at Next, which requires the purchase of tables in fixed sizes. Will it still be possible to reserve tables for odd-sized parties? I guess we'll find out soon enough.
New Toy: Breville/Polyscience Control Freak!
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Oh, perfect timing! I ordered one last week at full price. 😬