Shalmanese
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Posts posted by Shalmanese
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Although it's a bit too much for 8 duck breasts. For one or two, my preferred method is to score it and cook it skin side down over low heat and continually spoon the hot duck fat over the top of the breast. This cooks the breast with a much more gently heat which leads to, IMHO, more tender meat and you get maximum skin crispness without having to use the oven. Just continually feel the breast until it feels medium rare.
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Sunflower seeds. Salty covered crack balls they are.
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The fat usually captures a lot of the vegtable flavour and will stain red if you use tomato paste. If you want clean fat, I'm a big advocate of the 2 stage process:
Firstly, fill your pot full ENTIRELY of chicken bones and top up with water and simmer for 8 hours. Strain, skim off as much of the fat as you can be bothered. Then, add in your mirepoix herbs etc and simmer again for an hour, strain, defat, reduce down further if desired and then chill and portion.
Although more complicated, this has a few advantages. It allows you to make bigger batches of stock at a time in the same pot since you can cram more bones in there. The fat is clean and clear flavoured. The vegtables are only simmered for an hour so they don't get a leaden and overcooked flavour. And your reduce the stock at the same time as you simmer the vegtables so it saves you a bit of time there.
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I'll never again put the magazine whose recipe I'm using on an 'off' ring, and then decide to switch rings … and turn on the ring under the magazine. It was nearly hot enough to burst into flames before I noticed.
I had to do a double take on that because I was all like "WTF? Is that magazine MELTING?"
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The conversation so far has been focused on whether great chefs should be copied and my response is that of course they should because that is a celebration of their greatness. If I wanted to, I could go out tomorrow and buy the French Laundry Cookbook or the El Bulli cookbook and presumably (skill not withstanding) cook the food of Thomas Keller and Ferran Adria. Why is this? Because those chefs have made it a point to dissemenate their work and spread their influence as good chefs should. I respect inventolux in saying that certain processes involved in making the food can and maybe should be patented but the simple flavour combinations and techniques are things that not only should be copied but almost impossible to prevent copying.
What dissapointed me about the entire affair is not that good chefs shouldn't be copied, but that good chefs shouldn't be copying. To duplicate a dish exactly betrays a profound lack of commitment to creativity and also a violation of the implied expectations of the diner. It's a disservice to those to eat and also to the chef himself.
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Are you committed to duck breasts? I would blanch at the thought of cooking 16 duck breasts perfectly (medium rare, not too dried, very crispy skin, perfectly seasoned).
For the citrus dessert, sorbet is a lovely make ahead dessert that is very easy.
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What about using pressure cookers for fried chicken? Anyone?
I've heard this is a bad idea as the pressure seals are not designed to handle the temperatures that hot oil can get up to and can lead to... explosive decompression of very hot oil. You need to buy a special broaster like the ones KFC uses.
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I've been mulling over this for a few days now but I can't seem to get it. Heres what I have so far:
Tounge is simmered, deskinned, pan/deep fried.
Cheek is braised whole, then a slit is cut into it and the deep fried tounge is inserted into the slit. The entire thing is then wrapped in puff pastry and baked until golden.
The title of the dish: Tounge in Cheek
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I say bah to cooks illustrated and shame on you for the continued dumbing down of the American palate. Perhaps they won't be happy until everyone is eating factory farmed chicken, feedlotted, grainfed, wet aged cattle and lamb that is completely pink and flavourless.
Why not embrace the quintessentially lamby flavour in all it's glory rather than denying it's heritage?
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I've had cassoulet twice in restaurants and I really don't see the point. The problem lies in how you serve it. Cassoulet occupies that odd spot where no low priced restaurant will serve it because it takes way too much effort and skill and all the high end restaurants serving it just can't stand a messy glob of stuff on your plate so they need to fiddle with it.
Usually, what I am served as "cassoulet" is some sort of bean and sauce base with a single duck leg and pork chop artfully placed on top and sprinkled with some asinine garnish. The leg is clearly not confited and clearly not cooked with the beans because that would dirty the meat and sully presentation. No sign of breadcrumbs anywhere. In the end, it feels like your trying to have sex in a hazmat suit.
I don't want artfully arranged cassoulet. I want a huge glob of mish mash, a spoon and a good fire to curl around. I maintain that cassoulet is a dish that is unsuitable for restaurant cooking in Australia.
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Another possible reason is that the baking soda might be off. Baking soda is notorious for absorbing odours and your soda, even though it might be relatively new, might still have caught something else from your pantry if it was left open to the air.
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Riding on this, can anyone produce a chart of prices for 25, 50 and 100 year old balsamic vinegars during this time? It seems like with a fixed supply and massively growing demand, either the price has to shoot up astronomically or fakes start appearing on the market.
Given that I've not seen much comment on rising balsamic prices, my hunch is that theres a lot of crap on the market in the high end.
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Sydney, outie, thank god for that.
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Yeah, heat kills pretty much anything distinctive about an OO so just use extra light for cooking.
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Our local supermarket sells a "reduced salt" corned beef. Personally, I dont know how reduced it actually is but it's probably low only relative to corned beef and not much else.
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For a discussion on this topic, I know of no better source than fellow egulleteer Tim Hayward blog post Cooks Graveyard. And check out the rest of his blog while your there, some of the best food writing I've found on the web.
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Today, I just got some very good news so my family and I went and celebrated at Restaurant Balzac with my family. For those who are unfamiliar with it, the chef, Matthew Kemp runs a small, cozy local joint focused on serving great french style food focusing on taking many individual components cooked to best highlight their inherent flavour and then bringing them together with an expertly made sauce to make it better than the sum of it's parts. It's also conveniently just 2 blocks away from my house and easy to get in on a Friday night which is very handy for us.
We were in a celbratory mood today so we went for the 7 course degustation for 4 with 1 wine pairing shared between 2 (mother and little brother who is 13 aren't drinkers).
The menu we had tonight was the following (I don't have the menu in front of me so some of these are by memory. Apologies to the chef for any mistakes):
Amuse - Sydney Rock oyster with Iced Verjus
This was a brilliant amuse. Simple, refined, elegant. The oyster was top quality, briny with a strong iodine finish and the verjus lent a really interesting element to the dish. Something I'm definately copying for home use, except with a bucket of oysters
.Mille Fieulle of Petuna Ocean Trout Confit and a Sauté of W.A. Yabbies with
Sauce Bois Boudran
2004 Alsace, Lucien Albrecht - Alsace, France
Clearly inspired by Tetsuyas salmon confit, the trout was moist and flavourful if a little undersalted. However, the yabby was full of flavour. The garnish of fish skin on the top was far too tough and was a disappointment for me as a great fan of fried fish skins. The sauce made of a disconcerting sounding combination of ketchup, tabasco, worstershire and tarragon was actually surprisingly subtle in flavour and played with rather than fought the subtle flavours of the trout. Over all, a solid dish but probably my least favourite of the night.
The wine was intensely grassy and paired nicely.
Panfried Kingfish with Vongole, Chorizo and Squid
2004 Petit Chablis, William Fevre - Chablis, France
I have to admit, my kingfish was just a touch overcooked but the other 3 were done perfectly. It was remarkably flavourful though and seasoned completely through which is a nice change from the salty skin/bland flesh syndrome some other preparations lead to. I'm normally a huge fan of chorizo and I'm certainly not going to turn it down but I didn't see how it added that much to the entire picture. The squid I had was cooked wonderfully and was melt-in-your-mouth tender but my brother complained about a piece so tough it was inedible. The sauce was a combination of citrus reduction and chorizo fat and was amazingly good. The kind you try and "inadvertenly" brush your fingers through so you have an excuse to lick them. I think this was my favourite savoury dish of the night.
The wine was a very odd one. The waiter said that the vineyard grows on top of a fossilised oyster bed and I could definately catch a very strong wiff of some smell which has been frustrating me all night because it's just on the tip of my tounge. It's got a very oceanic taste to it. Very enjoyable but odd.
Quail Breast with braised Quail Leg and Chestnut, Parmesan Gnocci and fried sage leaves
2004 Massale, Kooyong Pinot Noir - Mornington Peninsula
There was a bit of a humerous misunderstanding as the entire table heard the waiter describe the dish as containing "braised quail egg" and me wondering how the fuck you braise an egg. But this was quickly rectified and did nothing to ruin the meal. The breast was tender and well flavoured and the leg was rich in flavour although I have to admit that I couldn't taste the chestnut. The gnocchi was good but not extraordinary but again, the sauce was the standout with a expertly made veal demi-glace without much embellishment. I have to say, I'm quite puzzled by Matthew Kemps fondness for using fried herbs as I've never seen much point to it every time I was there.
The wine was slightly disappointing for me. I've found that with some reds, theres a complete deadness to the finish which completely ruins the taste to me. It's almost as if you get a taste of water. This wine wasn't so bad in this regard but I've had another wine pairing at a degustation that totally didn't work for me whatsoever for precisely this reason. Still, nice lean pinot with quite a minerally taste which paired well.
Caramelised Pork Neck, Butternut Squash, Boudin Noir and Cracklings
2001 Cotes du Rhone, Domaine du Parc St Charles - Rhone Valley, France
The pig comes from a specialty farm in Northern Queensland which, for the life of me, I can't remember the name of now. As an asian and great lover of pork neck which I believe is a greatly underutilised cut, I was really looking forward to this. However, the pork was just briefly caremalised with butter which means that the tough connective tissue in the neck had not broken down at all. The flavour of the pork was rich and deep and laced with wonderful marbling (the farm also does wagyu apparently so they're not into the whole lean pig thing) and was just an indescribably lovely porky flavour. The squash was good but not great, I didn't really see the logical pairing with the pork. The crackling was disappointing as a lover of crackling (in fact, this seems to be a trend, a lunch there a while back contained a wholly unmemorable slice of bone marrow which was also a huge disappointment) as it was far too tough. The boudin was amazingly deeply flavoured and a radical departure from the several times I've had congealed blood in China which seemed to focus on presenting the purity of the flavour of blood. The sauce was the standout favourite of my brother who not only cleared his plate of sauce but also graciously offered to clean our plates as well
.The wine had rich berry notes which was good in itself but my palate was a bit too tired at this stage to judge the appropriateness of the pairing and just tried them individually.
Rhubard Cream Pre-dessert
I was very impressed with this. As someone who does not eat rhubarb often, this has inspired me to try and incorporate it into my dishes. Presented in a shot glass, it consisted of a rhubary syrup on the bottom with whipped cream and chunks of meringue and topped off with chunks of rhubarb. The wonderful crunchy texture of the meringue totally made this dish.
Chocolate Fondant with Nocello Ice Cream, Bread and Butter Pudding with Pain D'Epice Ice Cream
A Spanish fortified wine which I cannot find the name of
Bread and Butter pudding could be quite justified as being called the signature dish of Balzac and one I try and get every time I am there. To me, it's the mark of an exceptional chef that he can turn such humble ingredients into such a wonderful dessert and it's a constant surprise to me every time I eat it how far he surpasses my expectations of what can be done with a bread and butter pudding. The chocolate fondant on the other hand, was just too chocolaty and rich at this stage in the evening. I'm not normally a big fan of chocolate in the first place and I just couldn't handle such aggressivness at the end of such a long meal. It hurts me to say this as I know the kitchen puts a lot of effort into the ice creams but I've been consistently underwhelmed by them. They seem to be oddly dry and gritty (like, sand, not ice crystals) and the flavour becomes too subtle with such a ballsy pairing like a fondant.
It didn't help that the wine was also insanely rich. At this stage in the evening, I would have far preferred a nice, sparkling dessert wine to help lift the palate but the wine and the chocolate, although an amazing pairing, just taxed my already overworked tounge and stomach far too much.
Tea, Coffee, petit fours
For a finish, I chose a springtime tea with mint, rosehip and something else. Dad chose a rhubarb and cream tea, Mum chose a Cappucino and my brother ordered a latte. I'm by no means an expert on coffee but I was not wowed by the quality of either of them although the latte was marginally better. The teas, however, were exceptional. Soothing and complex, it was a perfect end to the meal. The petit fours were a banana creme pie and a champagne chocolate truffle. The creme pie was unmemorable and the truffle was again, far too chocolately for that stage of the night.
All in all, the dinner took over 3 hours and we had a ball of a time. I know that my reviews tend to come off slightly negative sounding but that is mainly because I try to be honest with my percieved flaws with the food. In truth, all of the negative points I raised were minor and inevitable in any pairing of this length and complexity. Overall, the meal was an amazing experience with solid dishes from start to finish and I was highly impressed. In total, the bill came up to slightly more than $90 per person which I think is very reasonable for a restaurant of this calibre. The food was impeccable, the service was friendly and warm and the entire experience was well worth the money. Highly reccomended to anyone who happens to be in the area, if nothing else but to try some of the most refined saucing I've seen in my quite limited experience at high end dining.
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Shark fin.
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Another vote for the OXO, I have the straight one.
Okay, you folks have persuaded me to get the serrated peeler for tomatoes and such. You're right, they are a hassle, even with a very sharp smooth edged peeler.Why would you ever peel tomatos with a peeler? the blanching technique is much easier and results in just the skin being taken off.
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I've always thought that eGullet caters to people who cook while Chowhound caters to people who eat. Obviously, theres a significant overlap and the boundaries are blurry but there seems to be a much more technique and craft oriented focus here as opposed to review and judging.
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I think, there is a difference between "good" restaurants and "great" restaurants. A good restaurant's aim is to serve great, tasty food, whether traditional or experimental and to do it well. Cheap ethnic joints, traditional french bistros, great pizza, burger or barbeque places. These could all be justified as being called good restaurants. But great restaurants are another breed. Great restaurants are about one chef pioneering his own approach to food and pushing culinary boundaries. French Laundry, Alinea, Tetsuyas etc can all be safely classified as some of the great restaurants in the world because of their approach to the creative process.
Now, nobody would have a beef with chef robin if he was merely the chef of a good restaurant, copying established dishes like the fettucini alfredo inventolux mentioned above. But Chef Robin is clearly placing himself within the realm of the great restaurants and, IMHO, this is a fundamental breach of expectations for his diners. Even if he could produce, course for course, an el Bulli meal, I think it would be fundamentally dishonest to do so and not have the diners be made aware than all of the dishes are copies. Because people who dine at great restaurants not only expect great food, but also original and personal food.
Sure, ideas should be disseminated and chefs should be aware of each others work. I dont think anyone is denying this. But if a chef wants to study and incorporate such influences, it should be done in the back room, not on the menu. Perhaps it is hard to constantly come out with new dishes every 6 weeks. But I, as a diner, would far prefer a slower changing menu full of completely original dishes rather a fast one with elements taken verbatim from other chefs.
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woot, Woot, WOOT! I have a reservation for 8:45 on Thursday the 20th of April for Alinea! I am unbelievably excited! I've been wanting to do this ever since the restaurant opened and missed out on the chance last time because I didn't plan far enough ahead
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This issue was covered in none other than the daily gullet by Dave the Cook.
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bmj: There is already a thread here on the issue of interlude and plagiarism. This thread is for discussing the food.
A Freeze Dryer!
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Hrmm... maybe not freeze drying sorbet but I imagine using freeze dried fruits IN sorbet would give a much more intense flavour. Especially for things like watermelon which I've had great trouble sorbeting successfully.