Shalmanese
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Posts posted by Shalmanese
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Shinboners and I were invited by Chef Robin to test drive the 25 course degustation, known as "The Tour". We duly showed up with hiking boots and note pads at 7pm, March 9.
It was a 5 hour journey.
It turned out to be 28 courses in total.
The timing of so many courses was crucial. We were asked to note how that worked, and to be honest, portioning was just right, leaving that hint of "I'd like a bit more" and anticipation for the next item.
It was revealed to us that foams and intense but light emulsions are crucial in providing flavour in terms of a 'sauce' but yet holding back enough bulk to prevent overly stuffing one self.
There were a few new things on the menu, such as an interpretation of a 'pizza' slice, dehydrated 'pina colada' to start with, and a mean squab and foie gras emulsion combo. The stand out was a piece of salmon, fatty and pristine, lightly poached and sitting on a steaming 'potato consomme'... sounds banal, but hey, it's not what you'd expect.
The ensuing discussion with Robin was insightful, our notes being presented and dissected and critiques put forward. I'm no culinary master, but it was good to know that the 'man on the street' has a voice that's worth listening to.
At this point, I'd like to invite Chef Robin to post about The Tour, and maybe give us an update on going-ons in the kitchen. When we visited, it was only a week or so after a new brigade had been inducted into the kitchen. Also, calling out to Shinboners to chip in his valueable 2cts worth!
Oh man, I really need to make it down to Melbourne sometime
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What I've noticed about the various Chowhound announcements and interviews is that nobody is articulating a vision for anything. They're just saying they're going to redesign the site and change nothing. But they're also saying Chowhound has been a failure as a business venture. Surely they don't think it's going to become a success just because it gets a redesign and a search engine, and surely CNet isn't buying it because they want it to continue to be a failed venture. So somebody, somewhere is planning to change something in a big way. Once we learn what that is -- maybe it will become more like CitySearch, or maybe it will become more like MySpace or whatever -- we'll have a better idea of the direction of this thing.
A relevant article from the New York Times (reg required): Hungry Media Companies Find a Meager Menu of Web Sites to Buy
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Breasts are cheaper than wings where you are? I've found that pounding it out ala schnitzel leads to moist, tender meat.
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PM me and I'll take you around Chinatown sometime maybe.
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The fist thing they teach you in sauce and stock making in any cooking school is clarity (of viscousity and flavor)
Butter will emulsify by stratification into meat Jus.
Meat Fat just tastes oily and nasty.
Yeah, but in cooking school, they teach you how to make food that will make money. For home cooking, I don't see the point in a clarified sauce, it's an unneccesary effort and results in a loss of flavour all for the sake of better presentation.
I dont know what you mean by stratification but Butter emulsifies into a sauce because of the lecithin in it acts as am emulsifier. The lecithin in butter is enough to easily emulsify several times the amount of fat which means it can be used to incorporate other fat flavours into a sauce.
The only reason why I've made it just once is because I don't usually make ala minute demiglaces, especially of lamb. If your commiting the effort of making a demiglace anyway, then it's not much extra effort. Forget about coating the ribs in lamb fat and just use vegtable oil and you can do the cracklings while the ribs are roasting. The butter thing only takes 2 minutes.
You can leave the whole marrow thing out if you want, it added a nice but not essential flavour. I think theres a bit of a misunderstanding when I say marrow. I don't mean the soft, gelatinous marrow inside leg bones which, although has a nice texture, would be far too subtle a flavour and get lost. I mean the liquid trapped in the spongy marrow of the rib bones which has a bold, assertive flavour and is very intense.
When I did this, I only simmered the bones for 3 - 4 hours or so so there was still plenty of structural integrity left in them.
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All prices sourced from the local supermarket or greengrocer unless otherwise stated.
(AUD/Kg)(USD/Lb)
beef (chuck) $8.00 $2.66
bacon $11.00 $3.66
"chicken, whole" $4.29 $1.43 (Supermarket mass fed chicken)
salmon $27.00 $8.98 (Tasmanian Salmon Filets)
shrimp $15.00 $4.99 (Large, uncooked, green shrimp)
cabbage $2.00 $0.67
carrots $1.00 $0.33
corn $1.00 $0.73 (for pack of 2)
garlic $3.00 $1.00 ($1.50 for pack of 500gm)
mushrooms $6.00 $2.00 (button & flat)
onions $1.00 $0.33 (brown, cooking)
potatoes $1.50 $0.50
squash $1.50 $0.50
apples $3.00 $1.00 (From $3 - $6 or so depending on type)
bananas $2.00 $0.67
lemons $5.00 $1.66
limes $-.-- $-.-- (Varies too much from place to place)
oranges $2.00 $0.67 (Navel)
tomatoes $7.00 $2.33 (Truss tomatos. These were $3 or so just a month ago :()
beans (dried) $4.00 $1.33 (Red Kidney)
flour $1.00 $0.33
pasta/noodles $2.00 $0.67
rice $1.00 $0.33 (in 25kg lots)
sugar $1.50 $0.50
cooking oil $2.00 $0.67 (Canola)
olive oil $10.00 $3.33 (EVOO)
butter $2.80 $0.93 ($1.40 for 500gm, "european" style cultured)
cream $7.50 $2.49 (About $2.50 for 375mL)
eggs $2.50 $1.83 (per dozen, non free range)
yogurt $4.00 $1.33
milk $1.25 $0.86 (AUD per L, USD per quart, non organic)
beer $3.00 $2.20 (per bottle of mid range)
bread $4.00 $2.93 (per loaf)
juice $2.00 $1.38 (AUD per L, USD per quart, non organic) -
Oh wow, I guess I should be eating more of them fresh then now that I know everywhere else in the world can only get them frozen
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Pulling the bones through a pasta machine ????
Say What.
Trimming out the fat and rendering it only to then roast the meat /bones from which the fat was sourced is simply redundant and a waste of time.
You should just roast the bones.
Have you ever sucked out the spongy marrow from inside a lamb bone? Thats rich, deep flavour which never makes it into a stock normally.
The rendering of the lamb fat is to get the cracklings. The fat is simply a bonus.
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If you want to make the ultimate richest sauce ever, here is my procedure:
Get a whole bunch of young lamb ribs from your butcher. Trim off most of the visible fat from the ribs and dice into small pieces. Render out the lamb fat and reserve the cracklings. Coat the ribs with the lamb fat and roast in a hot oven until well browned. Make a lamb stock out of the browned bones, some carrots, some onions, garlic, bay leaves, rosemary, a 1/4 cup of red wine and a tiny dab of tomato paste.
Then, get the lamb bones and pull them through a pasta machine, squeezing out the marrow fluid and saving. Get 1 cup of the strained lamb stock and put it in with the reserved cracklings and blend until a paste is formed. Reduce the lamb stock down to almost a demiglace, add back in the marrow fluid and the cracklings and then reduce down further.
While doing that, take 1 tbsp of lamb fat and 1 tbsp of slightly softened butter and mix together until completely combined and chill. Once the sauce is at a nappe consitency (it coats the back of a spoon), season, then whisk in the 2 tbsp of butter/lamb fat (the lecithin in the butter will act as an emulsifier).
This will be the richest sauce you have ever tasted. But at the same time, it doesn't taste overreduced like a beef demiglace would be because of the balance of different lamb flavours. I have only ever made this once and the only way to experience it straight is to just put a drop of the sauce on the back of your hand and lick it off and savour the taste for 30 seconds.
But diluted with a bit of blonde roux and water, it makes a very, very good gravy.
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/gossip on
I'm also talking with a certain restaurant in Bray (UK) to send the highest achiever over the year of courses to them for a stage
/gossip off
Uhh... that wouldn't be a certain restaurant in Bray that has a certain cache of michelin stars and a reputation for serving... inventive... food is it? If so, I am officially jealous
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brad is right, microwave dries it out and ruins the texture, i just tried it
Microwaved with the braising liquid? What was your procedure? I've never had it dry out.
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But where can home cooks get liquid nitrogen? Give me a source and I'll get some.
Scientific and Medical supply stores. Although some are a bit more picky about who can buy. If your near a university (which, IIRC, you are), you can sometimes just rock up to the chemisty department with a thermos and they'll fill it for you then and there.
Be careful though, it's not especially dangerous but there are some precautions you have to take.
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However, the contentious Australians at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Center offer this brief definition:Creamy soup originating from the west coast of the USA, usually made with corn, potato and shell fish.
Uh... I order to make up for my Australian brethern, I present this chowder I made a few months ago:
We don't have clams in Australia so I used the local equivilant which is pippies. I also added some sundried tomatos which didn't thrill me in the end and will probably be left out of the next version.
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Forgive my stupidity, but how is freeze drying different from dehydrating? I mean, I get the freezing part, but I usually associate dryness of frozen things to just be freezer burned. Could someone fill me in?
Is it flash freezing and dehydrating at the same time? Do the items need to be kept frozen, or stored at room temp?
The key is to freeze as fast as possible then dry as slow as possible. The freezing stiffens the cells so that when it is dried, it still maintains it's shape and texture. Because the freezing is fast, relatively few cell walls are ruptured which means it can be rehydrated with much less loss of quality.
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A request for any kindly montreal egulleteers, I am heading to your fair city in late april and I would have dearly loved to grab a copy of the gourmet magazine but it appears to be impossible to find in Australia. If anybody could snag a copy and mail it to me, I would really appreciate it. All costs will, of course, be reimbursed via paypal. PM me for details.
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The shanks have been braised for several hours now, theres very little you can do now to really mess them up. I just microwave on high for 2 minutes, stir, microwave on high for another 2 minutes and then let rest for 5 minutes.
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Shane "baked beans" Warne on el Bulli would be hilarious.
I bet he would have nothing on Glenn McGrath on L'Arpege
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As in truffle truffles? Not chocolate truffles? Do you give them any advanced warning? I know I would be a bit miffed and slightly inimidated if I was suddenly handed a whole truffle that would go bad in a week.
I make a lemon butter that is really good spread on toast. Cakes occasionally, chocolate truffles as well. Chocolate mousse for a friend who is obsessed with them.
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Another idea I've heard a couple of NY restaurants are doing is to cold smoke entire primals and then cut off steaks to grill at your leisure. You could even smoke the loin, portion it, freeze it and have smoked steaks ready to go all month.
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If you force lard deep into a roast it will not melt, unless you like a very high internal temperature.
Up until the development of the enclosed domestic oven, roasting was done in front of an open source of heat, usually on some type of spit arrangement. When you 'roast' in the oven, it is actually what would have been called 'baked' meat. The two type of cooking are quite different, the former has a high radiant heat componant and this is most relavant of larding and barding, as it helps to keep the surface of the meat cool, and prevent it from drying out, while the interior of the meat heats up and cooks.
There are numerous historical illustrations and descriptions of how to lard meat, these indicate the the lard is inserted at a shallow angle, with much of the lard actually on the outside of the meat. This makes sense if you want to keep the surface of the meat cool. Even cuts of meat like a fillet, which are tender and don't need internal lubrication, where larded like this.
Another purpose was to add flavour and this is mostly what is done now as, drying out of the meat in an oven isn't such a big deal. This was done historically by rolling the lard strips in herbs/spices or in some case inserting things like strips of Seville orange peel or even anchovies instead of lard. Obviously, in this latter case there is not going to be any 'internal' lubrication of the meat. In this modern setting, if you want to deeply lard a chunk of meat, you are much better off using strips of bacon ("Lardons"), rather then backfat, unless you really like large chunks of fat through rare roast.
Barding is also a good way of keeping the surface of meat cool and moist, and unless uou have a very fine larding needle and a lot of time, larding game birds would actually be counter productive as it would disrupt the flesh too much.
The reason why larding/barding was more common then using caul, is that fat is a year round prodcut and always on hand, caul was much more finite and mostly only avalible around the time a pig was killed. Obviously, this issue is no longer a problem.
Cheers Adam. Thats exactly the type of detailed response that makes eGullet so great!
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My daughter just told me that she had Olivio spread on popcorn at a friend's house, and that it was pretty good. I dunno, I'll stick to spraying the popcorn with olive oil and salting it, here at home. I just can't get the application right with butter, and I end up using sticks and sticks of the stuff!
Buy a spritz bottle for 50c. Melt a stick of butter with 2 tbsp of salt and pour it into the bottle and spritz onto the popcorn. Of course, your left with 9/10th of a stick of butter in the spritz bottle but that can be put into the fridge and warmed up in the microwave when you need to use it again. Further uses for a spritz bottle of salty melted butter is left as an exercise to the perspicacious reader
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I'm not cheap or stingy but with things like yogurt, I occasionally like to take the nearly empty carton back into my room and then slowly disassemble it with my fingers and mouth until it's all licked clean. It's more something to keep my hands busy because I tend to fidget a lot.
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I was just watching a cooking show featuring barding and larding* and I thought, man, I can't remember the last time that was featured anywhere modern. It seems like it was big all through the 60s and then just dropped out of favour. I wouldn't even know where to start getting a larding needle. Even on egullet, this doesn't even seem to be discussed anymore.
So does anyone still lard? Pros? Cons? Why did it gain prominence? Why did it fall out of favour?
*Larding involves the threading of thin strings of fat (pork fatback or beef suet usually) through large chunks of relatively lean meat so that, when it is roasted, the meat is more moist.
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Today I'm rendering beef fat from pure pieces of fat for the first time. It seems to be taking forever. Do the fat pieces ever melt completely down?
The smaller you chop your pieces, the faster the fat renders. Generally, it takes about 15 - 30 minutes to render out a batch of beef fat, not matter how much you have. You can tell when the rendering is done because there will be no more bubbles emerging from the cracklings. All the moisture and, consequently, fat, has been rendered out. Drain off the crispy bits onto lots of paper towels, sprinkle with some salt and eat. Alternatively, if I am making a stew, they serve as an excellent garnish sprinkled on at the end.
Interlude food similarities
in Australia & New Zealand: Dining
Posted
Well, the problem is that your not eating the food of a chef, but the food of a sous chef, true, it's a sous chef seperated by 6000 miles and 6 months but a sous chef still the same.
It's perfectly well and good to use existing recipes as a base for your own creations, however, for most chefs, this is happening in the back room, not being placed in star status on their menus for punters to pay the privledge of trying.
I look forward to seeing what chef robin can do with his new found inspirations and hope that he can lend his own unique culinary personality onto these dishes.