culinary bear

Get your commis to do them. :)

I have to admit more than a passing fondness for parasol mushrooms. Chickeny, and I know where to find them. :)

Soak them in hot water, retain the liquor... Heat XVOO in a pan, have your fresh tagliatelle cooking in plenty of boiling salted water. Add picked oregano to the oil, shake pan, add shrooms, heat through. Emulsify with a little of the reserved liquor. Season generously. Add cooked pasta, toss, add grated fresh reggiano, toss again, serve. Looks, frankly, like a bowl of tapeworms. Eats divinely.

Egg white is functionally protein, with very limited (if any) anabolic enzymatic ability. Agar, if I remember rightly, is a salt of an anionic polysaccharide, and thus definitely has no enzymatic ability. I just hate it when a little "science" is used to trick and blindside customers. It goes against everything I stand for, everything.

digital scales... lovely. :)

Okay, be warned. If you don't like swearing, don't read this. I fear the effect would not be the same without it. 1) I am disappointed by the entire fucking front of house 'team' at the restaurant in which I work. They're a lazy, undisciplined, moronic bunch of wankers who, if they were any less intelligent, would have to be fucking watered twice-weekly. When I fucking well shout 'Service!', I don't want to still see you scraping plates, or what's worse, picking the fucking food off them to munch while you stand at the pass with your thumb up your fat arse and a gormless, vapid expression on your face. 'Service!' means that I have lovely, refined, tasty food on the pass, and I need to get it to the customers without you dropping it, misordering, forgetting the fucking butter, or not speaking enough fucking english to understand when I tell you which dish is which. I speak your language, you should bloody well learn functional English. *pause while the blood pressure goes down* 2) I am further disappointed by the fucking gormless twat who insists on cutting the nose of a particularly fine piece of Picos de Europa cheese in order to provide a customer with ONE portion from the cheeseboard, thus rendering it unfit for use the next service. Needless to say, the head chef and I are making a list of people to put up against the wall and shoot when the revolution comes. One happy moment, in the vein of Ramsay vs Gill. One of the HC's friends runs his own (fairly highly rated) restaurant, and a customer complained about a pave of salmon that had been sent back because it was "raw", i.e. not cooked to death (I'm sure I don't need to educate any of you how salmon should be served). The chef patiently explained, through the waitress, that the salmon was cooked perfectly, and that if it wasn't to the customer's satisfaction he could order another dish; he made it clear (politely so) that the salmon would not be cooked any further. The customer then sent back a snotty remark, via the (trembling) waitress, to say that 'only an arsehole would serve raw fish'. The chef then emerges from behind the pass, out of the swing doors to the kitchen, up to the gentleman's table (in the middle of a 100+ cover service), and shouts, from a range of about four feet : "If you don't like the salmon, why don't you just fuck off, you miserable old cunt?"... ... and then marching straight back behind the pass and plating food as if nothing happened. Oh, how we rejoiced on hearing this.

A couple of weeks does good things for the flavour; I don't think there's an epiphanous point. Six months is bloody nice.

Confit duck on grilled home-made sourdough.

Happily, as the fat in the legs renders during cooking, the amount of overall fat tends to remain moderately constant. Unless you use some between batches for roast potatoes :) This lot should last for a good few batches... Bollocks. My secret's out... *licks lips to remove traces of salt* Actually, I put them on silpats and in a medium oven till cracklingly crisp.

Tried that once, and ended up with confit that was far too salty. The pot was a birthday present from a good friend of mine. Needless to say, she gets a jar. :) Clarified butter though, yes? Any large bubbles are best avoided; small ones aren't much of a problem. The jars are tightly lidded, brought to a gentle simmer in plenty of water, and are then given half an hour. Take them out, unscrew the lids then put them back on (this gives a better seal as the internal contents contract upon cooling) then store in the fridge until set.

Bloody hell; I'd never heard of that before today. :)

I got book tokens as part of my xmas, so I might be buying it as part of that. The local shop has signed copies. :)

Dig it out! Just scrape back the fat and remove as much meat as you need. Theoretically, an unopened jar should last a significant number of years. Once opened, you should definitely keep it in the fridge and use within a month or two.

Let me don my scientist's hat and shoot this one down first. Many enzymes bind proteins to each other. If they didn't exist, you'd be a pool of liquid in front of your keyboard. You could indeed make something resembling pasta from proteinaceous material, but to my mind you'd need far more than 1% 'other' content to make it behave in a pliable fashion. In any case, it wouldn't be a case of adding a mystery powder to meat / seafood / your grandmother in order to make it magically turn into noodles. "The chef has discovered an enzyme, etc etc" sounds to me like spurious grossly inflated egocentric hyperbole. And then some.

might be a very good idea...

okay, this is the first batch potted up... 1) This is the pot straight after coming out of the oven. 2) The legs have been lifted gently from the hot fat, and set aside. At this point I've also strained the duck fat into a large glass jar. 3) I've started to pick the meat from the legs. This is far easier if the legs are still hot. It's very easy to do; very similar to picking down boiled ham hocks. The meat in the bowl represents two legs' worth. 4) The same two legs' worth of picked meat packed firmly into a glass jar, with enough space left at the top for a layer of fat. 5) one medium and one large jar with a good layer of fat on top of the meat. I'll leave these to set in the fridge overnight, and then boil them up tomorrow to sterilise them. 6) a view from below, showing how the duck looks when packed in to the jar. I'll show you the finished articles tomorrow...

The lemon and orange aren't as significant in the final flavour as you'd think - they add what is at most a very subtle background flavour. The main alteration I'd make is to cooking time. This batch took ten hours to cook to (falling apart) tenderness; for cassoulet, where it's going to be cooked again and subject to a little bit of mechanical stress, I'd check after five or six hours. And once you start making cassoulet, there's no turning back...

f**k me... $15 for 12oz? *faints* Even at the current exchange rate, mine works out at no more than US$25 for the whole 8lbs. Fair enough, I'm paying trade prices, but still... The total bill (pardon the pun) for the fat and legs was 33.01 (that's our strange UK pounds). I've just potted up the whole batch, resulting in four medium and one large pot of picked duck, and several inquisitive cats nosing around the bins outside. I'll pot the second batch up whole; pics of the first lot should be up in a wee while. Dave - Fresh crusty baguette, salted butter, confit de canard... bliss.

As time goes on, the duck will begin to develop a more mature flavour. It's not like hanging poultry or game to achieve a 'higher' flavour; it's more like maturing a christmas pudding or fruit cake, or hanging up a ham to mature. If I'm certain about having a well-sealed jar, I'll be happy storing in a cupboard. Open jars should be kept in the fridge. The flavour acquires a certain nuttiness, and a roundness which is very pleasing. 'Fresh' confit duck is very nice, but the matured article is sublime. It's one of the reasons you should make it at home; I know of no restaurant that makes confit in bulk to keep and deliberately age before serving it, so you you'll never get a true matured confit flavour unless you make it yourself at home. I'll post more about the 'how do you know if you're doing it right?' tomorrow, but if you pack the jars properly, and then bring the jars up to boiling point in a pot of water, you'll almost certainly guarantee sterility. If in doubt: off meat smells bad - decomposition generally leaves nothing to the imagination, smell-wise. I've never had any trouble with confit, and I've had some over three years old. One of the best books on the subject is one of my all-time favourites, 'Goose Fat and Garlic', by Jeanne Strang. JJ, I just thought it would help make things clearer - dry text can sometimes be hard to follow. I have a few more ideas for step-by-steps, if more of the same would be welcome.

The goose fat comes in a 3.5kg (8lb) tin, from France via the good people at West Country Fine Foods (one of my restaurant suppliers). Cost was eleven pounds. Some of the confit will be stripped down and the meat packed in jars, covered with a thin layer of fat, and put aside to mature. Some will be jarred whole in fat. I'm going to keep some for myself (this is batch one of two; there are another ten legs in the fridge as we speak) and some will be given to appreciative foodie friends as christmas things.

I'm in the process of making confit duck, so I thought I'd share my technique for doing so; it's a slightly modified version of the one I make in the restaurant. I hope this encourages people to try making it, as it's a wonderful thing to have in the storecupboard. I'd be interested in hearing how other people's techniques vary from my own. You'll need: 10 duck legs (I use French Babrary) a lemon, sliced into 6 or so slices an orange, ditto a couple of dozen sprigs of thyme half a dozen bay leaves a head of garlic about 8oz / 220g medium coarse salt about 2kg / 4lb duck or goose fat (I use goose) 1) In a plastic or otherwise non-reactive contatiner that'll fit in the fridge, place everything apart from the goose fat, and mix with the hands to combine. Leave in the fridge for 12-16 hours. 2) Take the legs out of the fridge. The salt will have dissolved and there'll be some fluid in the bottom of the container. 3) In warm water, rinse the duck legs, and leave them to drain. Rinse and drain the herbs, garlic, orange and lemon. 4) Place half the herbs, garlic and fruit slices in the bottom of a heavy pot (I use a cast-iron Le Creuset pot) 5) Make the first layer of duck legs, overlapping like this. 6) Place the fifth leg in to make a complete circle. 7) Fill in the middle with the remaining herbs/garlic/fruit. 8) Make the second layer of five legs in the same way as the first. 9) Just cover with warm duck/goose fat. 10) Cover with a cartouche of aluminium foil. It's imporatant that the foil doesn't overlap the edge of the pot otherwise the fat may spill over upon cooking. 11) Place in the oven at 90C (200F) for 12-14 hours. The lid should be slightly ajar, as shown, and it's good practice to place a tray underneath the pot to avoid any spillage catching fire on the oven floor. I learned this the hard way. If there's any interest, I'll put up pics of the potting process when I do that tomorrow. Hope this proves of interest...

A fitting piece of natural justice.

heinously non-traditional, but I wonder what would happen if you used ghee or clarified butter?

I liked the sound of that - touch of the classic Paris brasserie about it. Seems an odd contrast to the ALC though! ← The thursday Kate and Sidney pudding is very nice - the staff grumble if they're all sold at lunch, as they're a favourite leftover for the staff meal at 5:30pm :) The corned beef hash is hangover from Ian Morgan's time as HC at Rhodes & Co in Old Trafford, which became Watersreach in early 2003 (Ian left there in March this year to set up the Establishment). It's still on the menu at WR, and proves popular. The ALC corned beef hash at the Establishment is a different beast, very dressed up - globe artichoke bottoms are cooked sous-vide, then placed on a square of corned beef with bashed root vegetables through it. The globe artichoke then has a jerusalem artichoke puree piped into it. Green beans neatly trimmed to the same size as the hash then line the sides in threes, and the space at the corners is occupied by truffled creme fraiche. Finally, a breaded deep-fried hen's egg is placed on the artichoke puree, with the requisite green frilly herbal crap around the place and a beef reduction squirted around. It eats very well, probably despite the complexity, not because of it.

You know what I mean - you're eating something nice and sophisticated, and it never occurs to you that there's a small (or not so small) child nearby who might appreciate it. Kids shouldn't like smoked salmon, or capers, or roast duck... but sometimes they do. A very good friend of mine has a 7 year old daughter who doesn't like fish, if it doesn't look like a fish. Fillet of haddock? No thanks. Nice piece of salmon? Ew. Tender flakes of cod? They get a wrinkled nose. Barbecued sardine, complete with head, crispy tail, and finnicky little hair-like bones? The tail is held in one hand, the head in the other, and she's at it like a corn-on-the-cob. Whole dover sole (expensive tastes, this one)? Adores it. Even helped me skin them. Nice bloody medium-rare roast duck? Her mother had a breast, she had half a breast, then the other, then both legs, and then spent a happy half hour picking through the carcase. It's not as if she's an overfed kid, either; I've seen more meat on a butcher's pencil! Adores garlicky confit duck, too. Has anyone else been surprised by what kids will try / enjoy / bite your arm off in order to get?