johnder

The timing was good on the lenght of time, although as I mentioned I think I reduced some of the texture I spent so long getting with the SV by keeping under the broiler for about a minute too long. The spice mix cure was noticable in the final product, the flavors of the fennel and star anise really working nicely with the pork. The fat was nicely jelled and melted in your mouth. Really a good cure / lenght of time I think. Next time just a little less final searing. But the recipe is definately a keeper. Having a great belly to work with surely helps too. John

Fast forward to this morning. Giant coffee. Double espresso shot, iced, topped with Ronnybrook farms Coffee milk. Leftover brioche, french butter, jam. Even the Dune is tired after last night.

Dessert. My wife was responsible for the desert thankfully. She made a really amazing honeyed panna cotta, though to be truthful, she's made a buttermilk pc in the past that's a better recipe (first time with the honeyed recipe). Before service she topped each one with a spoonful of the pear poaching liquid and a sliver of a super ripe fig. A great way to end the evening. Finally, the wines... not bad. 8 wines, 8 people. (not to mention, uh, a few cocktails, just a few). As you can tell we had a lot of older California wines.

Cheese. I passed off the cheese course to Donbert, former cheesemonger turned IT guy, part time cocktail master. I lost the piece of paper I had the cheese names written down on. One was a Gorgonzola, and the other was a raw milk sheeps. Cutting the sheep... Making some quenelles of the gorgonzola. Served with some slightly under-ripe pears to have some acidity to cut through the rich cheese (which you remember I whipped up with a tad of french butter) The sheeps cheese was put on top of some Luxardo cherries which were soaked in bourbon for a few hours. Added some of the bourbon cherry liquid as a garnish. Finished! (thanks Donbert!) I will let Don fill you in on the specifics of the cheeses he brought. They were really awesome!

Tomato salad. This was the opposite of every other dish. 4 ingredients. Tomatoes Salt Olive Oil Lemon Vinegar. A good acidic palate cleanser after the rich pork dish. On the subject of salt... Kosher, Fine Sea, Sea, Maldon. Also Vadouvan's liquid seasoning.

Yes, yes. I know everyone has been waiting and waiting for the pork belly. Well your time has come. Crisping up the pork on a sizzle plate under the infrared. See all that fat that came out from the crisping in the picture above? Can't let that go to waste! Let's use it in the sprouts. Pork on top of the parsnip puree Adding the bergamot soaked prune. A little bit of veal stock, some cream that had some beragmot infused in it, along with some of the tea soaking liquid. Added a touch of lechitin whipped it up with a bamix plated Man this was good. My only critique of this is that I had it under the broiler maybe a minute too long. While the extra time added more crispness to the dish, I think I sacrificed some of the jelly like qualityof the fat that came from the SV process. Regardless it was still good. The tea/milk/prune sauce was really good too, although the foam, even with the lechitin added didn't last very long.

Next up, the risotto. Here is about a pound of lobster mushrooms being added to the risotto. Stir stir stir Sauteing the chantrelle mushrooms to top the risotto. Simply cooking in some thyme with copious amounts of butte. Mounting up the risotto with a wee bit of butter. Plating up the ristotto Finsihed, topped with a little veal jus reduction.

Given Donbert to0k almost 140 photos during the event, I went through and selected the best ones. Even with that, there are almost 40 photos to post. (You asked for it). I want to thank Donberts help in taking the photos, as well as my sous-chefs Don and Sam to help in plating, stirring risotto, etc. All set... First, a mystery man with blazing hands double shaking a few juniperitivos. So tasty. So first the Venison raviolo, topped with a reduced veal / juniper infused jus, parm reggiano and a sage leaf. Unfortunatley the dinner tonight started off on a sour note. I originally wanted to make the raviolo much smaller, but in a test run I did with a very small one, the size really didn't permit the ragu flavor to come through. Hence it was super sized. Almost to the point it was a course itself. I slightly undercooked the raviolo, and the pasta sheet was slightly too big. Flavor wise it was bang on, but could use some re-working. Next up. The fois. First plating the torchon and the poached pear. Then a few sunflower sprouts with a simple lemon vinagrette. Searing off the fois. The plated fois with the peach/bourbon/sichuan chutney. I need some coffee, I will post more photos after I have some

I am so tired. I can't possibly post all the photos we took tonight. I am going to post two photos of the pork because I know I have been withholding them from everyone. If I didn't post these tonight, I wouldn't hear the end of it. Tomorrow will be a huge picture day. After coming out of the sous-vide, 46.5 hours. Portioned out, ready for sear.

and this was before desert.

I used the recipe from Drinkboy's (Robert Hess) site. Here is the link. The site appears down now, so I am not sure if it is the same as eje's post. John

40 minutes until cocktails start, 1:40 for dinner. Here are the final photos until after the dinner is over. Plates for each course are setup. Cheese garnish is ready, Tomato salad waiting to be dressed. Weinoo, here is the espresso machine. You were correct, it was next to the fridge. Stocks simmering on stove for quick sauces, pot of water waiting for pasta. Started sweating onions for the risotto. Mis en place for fhe fois, chutney, toasted brioche. [notice the small squeeze bottles with the blue tape? I am trying Vadouvans tip.] All set.. I need a cocktail before takeoff.

ok, another bulk upload ragu, when it started way early this morning. Venison, Carrot, Onion, Thyme, Bay, Tomato Puree, splash of red wine. parsnips poaching in some Ronnybrook Farms milk pureed in a blender, pushed through a tamis. done. (btw, this only took me 6 different bowls and things to clean. If I had a thermomix, I could have had one.) gorgonzola cheese Donbert picked up for me. beaten with a paddle with a big tablespoon of french butter. Going to be part of the cheese course. lobster mushrooms, diced for the risotto. cooking down the mushrooms, salt, butter, thyme. thats it. ragu after cooking for 9 hours ragu completed. pasta dough being made. ravoli being stuffed. completed ravioli

I have seen on a website where you can use what looks like pingpong balls that will float on the top of the water to prevent evaporation. I am sure they are "special" ping pong balls, but it seems like it would work. Yes, I have an overtemp cutoff.

So I got up at the literal crack of dawn (by my standards) to get to the market before it got crazy. Of course it seems everyone else had the same idea. While I writing this, I am having an espresso with the last of last weeks beans. First stop, Bread alone. Picked up a loaf of brioche, rasin walnut and sourdough. I didn't get any of the breakfast danish... was waiting for a bagel. Flying pigs farm... unfortunately Mike or Jenn weren't there. Ronnybrook farms, where I picked up 3 qts of creamline milk, and 1 qt of Coffee Milk Grapes on the vine, I picked some up to use in either the cheese course or the desert. This is the Arch at Grand Army Plaza Terrace Bagels, the line was out the door almost. The bread and milk back at home Picked up a flying pigs chicken as well. Bagel time, they were very hot, the must have just come out of the over 15 minutes before I got there. Had it with just a schmear of cream cheese. Sorry for the terse replies, much cooking to be had. Given I need to do the cooking and remember to take the photos, I am getting nervous about the time.

They are selling the bottle as a collectors item. It just happens this item has it's full contents intact as well as the factory seal. Of course ebay assumes you are buying for the bottle, which you are correct?

That was for a concord grape, ginger, and key lime variation on a gimlet. ps Thanks for the cardamom tincture! The Ramos just isn't the same without it. ← Oops. I was so busy taking pictures I guess I got confused. Thanks again Don.

Uh, btw. This is a special treat for all the cocktail geeks reading this blog. Some guy on ebay is selling Hermes orange and Hermes aromatic. He has one bottle left of each. Aromatic Orange. It looks like it will be about 13 bucks including shipping from Japan. I bought one bottle of each, so there is one left!

Ok, back from Donberts. Slkinsey was there from Egullet as well as weinoo. The infamous maninwhite made an appearance too! Don at the helm, with the maninwhite. Don's collection of booze. The bar setup. The Last Ward the MIW made me with Chatreuse VEP. Smoking Don grating some ginger. I forgot what for, I think it may have been a jamican firefly A tequilla tasting. I want to thank Donbert for the drinks, it was another great cocktails over Canal! I wish I could have stayed longer but I needed to come home and finish some work for the dinner tomorrow. Tomorrow morning I am heading to the Greenmarket at the Grand Army Plaza, I will be sure to take my camera so I can get some cool photos. p.s. nice meeting you weinoo.

You can just go a google search for "buchner funnel kit, pump" You want to make sure you get the complete kit with the pump. It should run you about 45 to 50 bucks. ← In fact, Here's one right here. (I have no earthly use for one of these gizmos myself, right at the moment, but the looks of it just gave me all sorts of fond flashbacks to, erm, "acquiring" random bits of glassware from my college chem lab for, erm, experiments. Yep, that's right, they were experiments. ) Do tell Mizducky!

Thanks Doc. I am trying!

Cool! Does the sichuan pepper give it that tongue-numbing weird and wonderful heat? I take it the Lauda didn't burn the house down. It took me months to start trusting mine unattended for more than a few minutes... Loving your blog. ← No tounge numbing effects yet. I assume tomorrow there will be a little. As fa as the lauda, so far so good. I am more worried about the water evaporating at this point then a fire. John

Just finishing up prep for now. I am cleaning up and getting ready to head over to Donbert's for a cocktail or two. I need to have some self control as I do need to do more work when I get home. I poached the pears in a simple syrup with some black pepper, cloves, and sichuan peppercorns. After simmering for a few minutes I removed them into a holding container with the hot syrup to cool down. (side note, I think this syrup will be awesome in cocktails... I need to try that) I also made a spicy bourbon peach chutney to serve with the seared fois. I roughly chopped some peaches, half a red chili. Added some of the pear poaching syrup and a good splash of Elijah Craig and going to let macerate overnight. Tomorrow I will chop up the peaches a bit more and adjust for flavor. More updates and pictures from Donbert's cocktails over canal later! John edit: BTW the pork is crazy. I am saving photos of that as a surprise. It has been taking a nice hot bath for almost 26 hours now.

Got a couple of more things done. First some of the ingredients for tomorrow. Peaches, for the chutney, Rice for the risotto along with some Parm Reg. Earl Grey / Bergamot Tea, Prunes, Parsnips, Brussel Sprouts, Tomato Paste... I also got a whole bunch of bones to make a heavily reduced stock, along with a fresh bay leaf and thyme from my backyard. Meat all browned and some water and a splash or wine added to a mirepoix. I also finished up the Thomas Keller torchon. After curing all night in the fridge you take out the fois and wrap it in cheesecloth, squeezing it into a log and tying it. Then you poach it for 90 seconds... look at all that fois fat coming out...mmmm Plunge into ice bath. After that you squeeze it back into shape and hang it in your fridge overnight or until ready to serve. I didn't want to let that poaching liquid go to waste, so I dumped all the trimmings from the mushrooms into it to start the mushroom stock for the risotto.

On the way home I stopped at fairway to pick up some goods to continue the cooking. I will post some pictures of the stuff in a bit. Fairway Red Hook is their newest store and tops at at 33000 sq ft. I would have taken some pictures inside but didn't want my camera smashed. The mushrooms! And the lemon vin. Kick ass.