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Everything posted by Chris Amirault
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Up for more prep today. Last night after a painstaking hour of careful slicing I had the mushroom noodles all set. Here they are after a quick simmer in chicken stock that I'll use later in the soup: More udon than angel hair, but that's ok, I think. Also got the lop yuk bundles done.
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Following on jackal10's idea, I've assembled the "Devils on Horseback" lop yuk and prune bundles. The prunes were small so I combined two for each serving, and placed a bit of tangerine rind in the middle before wrapping with the lop yuk: I'll sauté them a la minute and then give them a dusting of the pepper-salt seasoning, which includes szechuan peppercorn, black peppercorns, salt, and ground tangerine rind: The only hard part is slicing the lop yuk very thinly! (As you know, curing it is a breeze!)
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Please do -- and if you want to try out experiments involving order of ingredients, particularly salty ones, that'd be swell. I'm a few days away from having free time in the kitchen!
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Curing and Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie" (Part 4)
Chris Amirault replied to a topic in Cooking
Just save me some of that fat . . . yum! Chris, how long did you cure those breasts? =R= ← Thanks, everyone! I cut up two breasts, that one for lardons and the other in very thin slices. Ron, I cured that breast for about 18 hours and then let them dry in the fridge for about 36. That recipe is a breeze, I must say. -
You may have added something: you introduced the salty anchovies after the emulsion was formed, not before, as I did.
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It's an excellent idea, I must say! Twirling them into that shape gets around one of the noodle problems that I've been wondering about. The other one is whether or not I want to have two vegetable noodles in the same meal.... No arugula to be found, but I found some remarkable Chinese celery just now and the leaves will be perfect as the green for the lobster. (Celery is, of course, one of the staple extenders in lobster salad.)
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Final draft of courses. I've turned the bundles into canapés with the cocktails and fiddled a bit with the other elements: Red Hook Cocktails Lop yuk and prune bundles Amuse: Maine shrimp with cucumber noodles and Thai gremolata Course 1: Mushroom noodle soup Course 2: Lobster tempura with arugula (pea pod leaves?) and two sauces Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Herrenweg de Turckheim 2003 Course 3: Ham and eggs on toast Course 4: Roasted Toulouse sausage, shallots, and grapes with spinach and mashed potatoes E. Guigal Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2000 A few notes. I've prepped the ham and lop yuk (click and click respectively) and realized that I wanted to cook up both of them. In particular, I sliced up one of the duck breasts very thinly and the other (pictured) I've cut into lardons to crisp up and serve with the non-cooked slices. I also tried out the lop yuk with the prunes, and the prunes in the non-cooked bundles overwhelm the lop yuk -- and the texture is very uniform. So I think I'm going to crisp up the lop yuk bundles briefly before service, which I found this morning brings to the fore the porky goodness of the lop yuk. Also, I'll find out today whether I'll have a good supply of pea pod leaves to substitute in for the greens on the lobster plate. Finally, I found some very simple and cheap square plates at Crate and Barrel, which will solve the rest of my plate problems. I still will have, no doubt, plating problems, so I've read again the great eGCI course on plating and presentation.
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Curing and Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie" (Part 4)
Chris Amirault replied to a topic in Cooking
I'm making a course with duck ham for Christmas dinner (click) with this latest batch of duck ham, which turned out great: -
I'm preparing lop yuk and prune canapés for Christmas dinner (click) and just sliced thinly one of the aromatic pieces. You can see why it's utterly justified to call this Chinese prosciutto:
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Q&A: Plating and Presentation
Chris Amirault replied to a topic in The eGullet Culinary Institute (eGCI)
That's an awful lot of brown on a plate, fawn! As much as I hate mint sprigs as garnish, the impulse to provide variety of colors really makes sense to me.... edited to fix typo -- ca -
In my experience, overnight in the fridge does 'em in.
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Share a bit more information, folks. What January meeting?
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OK, let's get down to brass tacks, then. If I remove the flesh using the boil/ice shock method and then place it immediately into a clean vacuum-sealed bag on Sunday evening, then I should be ok for cooking and service Monday evening? The alternative, of course, is keeping the bugs alive overnight, which is risky to say the least.
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Flesh it is -- thanks. I've changed the title to be more accurate. So why do you want me to use it quickly? I have a vacuum sealer so I can use that to pack it overnight. Would you still recommend the fat? I've got plenty around, btw.
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When I read the quote above, I thought, "How long is Keller going to live?" and I can't imagine I'd be the only possible diner who would think such a thing. It seems that the celebrity chef trend might well have a detrimental effect on the longevity of some four-star NYC restaurants, for many of the reasons detailed elsewhere in eG Forums. Per Se is tied so explicitly to Keller the Star that it's hard to imagine it continuing into the 2040s. Compare that to Le Bernardin, whose longevity was extended when Maguy brought in the relatively new US arrival Ripert in the early 1990s to get the restaurant back up to snuff.
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Over in this topic about my Christmas menu, I've been planning a lobster tempura course that requires raw lobster meat for the tempura. I'm an old hand at removing lobster meat from the shell in pieces; it's a bit of a grim task because the flesh twitches even after you've killed the beastie, but such is the price for luxury, I suppose. I've also used a method Thomas Keller describes somewhere for removing larger pieces whole, which involves pouring boiling water over the parts you want to remove from the shells and waiting a minute before cooling, cracking, and getting out the meat. I'm posting this topic in the hopes that I can find out two answers that I've had in my head the last few days. First, are there any other methods for removing raw lobster meat from the shells? I'd be interested to know my options. Second -- and this one is more important -- do I need to treat the shelled raw lobster meat in any particular way? For example, do I need to use it within a particular period of time? I've always used raw lobster meat almost immediately, and certainly within an hour or two. If I do want to store it in the fridge for a day or two, will wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap and placing it on ice be acceptable?
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Very useful pictorial! When you put the droplets onto the shrimp, did you do it just with a finger or chopstick? And why do you think it only worked on one side -- or were you unable to turn the shrimp to coat the other side?
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I had the good fortune to attend a Dogfish Head dinner at Gracie's in Providence hosted by Sam Calagione. He mentioned "a molecular archaeologist" when he introduced the Chateau Jiahu, which the Dogfish Head website describes as follows: The website also mentions the same sort of genesis story with the Midas Touch Golden Elixir. Both were good, though I thought that the Jiahu was far superior. It's great marketing, to be sure -- and I'll admit to being swayed by Calagione's enthusiasm and grace. But I wanted to know more about this reference to "molecular archaeology" and its relationship to brewing. Is this just a Dogfish Head phenomenon? Are others pursuing it?
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So here's a question. Mashed garlic clove with anchovy paste, black pepper, and mustard. Whisked in a little homemade worcestershire sauce, then a little cider vinegar. A drop of olive oil at a time, whisking hard... and it never emulsified. Thoughts?
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We're closing this topic as the story seems to have played itself out. Further discussions about chains and Olive Garden can be found elsewhere on eG Forums. Thanks.
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oakapple, are you suggesting that a three-year run, a la the Biltmore Room, demonstrates stability? I'm just wondering what counts as a "long" or "solid" run in this context, particularly given the astronomical start-up costs for any restaurant in Manhattan. edited to indicate addressee -- ca
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WF in Providence are reporting the same concern. I've just got word that the last certain shipment is on Friday.... I'll be there with bells on tomorrow morning.
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I am most definitely looking forward to learning this technique! Thanks for the response.
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I'd never heard of it either -- but double-battered sounds about right, based on the photo.
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Scored a bottle of the Taylor falernum at Joyal's in West Warwick earlier this week, and with it made a fine Velvet Daiquiri. Thanks, Janet, and do weigh back in with the gin-based concoction. That Test Pilot looks swell, I must say.