johnder

The shipment from Mikuni just arrived! I am going to wait until opening it until I get home. Todays plan of action is Try to get home early and finish up the torchon. Clean and prep the mushrooms and make the mushroom stock for the risotto. Start the venison ragu. Go to the supermarket and stock up. ...

The actual roasting takes about 9 minutes, with 4 minutes of cooldown. The thing that amazed me when I first roasted coffee is that it isn't the most pleasing smell. It goes from a wet grass smell to a burnt grass smell and even with my 1100CFM range hood going full blast, it still permates the first floor of the house with this smell. Even after roasting and cooling the beans don't have a distinct "coffee" aroma. Only after resting a day or two do you really start to get that awesome coffee aroma. John

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. John

Hmm, I just realized somthing this morning. I woke up in the middle of the night and havd a cold sweat moment. The recipe for the fois cure called for pink salt. In my Pegu haze last night I used pink LAVA salt, as opposed to pink CURING salt (which I happened to own as well) Oh well, crap.

Do they grow lemons in Indonesia? Or is "Indonesian lemon" really some kind of lime, such as limau purut (kaffir lime)? ← Not sure. I will know more when I get the bottle tomorrow. I just bought it on the suggestion of Tyler. He said it was kick ass. I will report back once I have it.

I picked that up at the Red Hook Fairway supermarket which is very close to my house. I noticed they had a very large selection of products I know nothing about and try to pick up to try (sometimes to my wifes dismay). I bought this to have in a greek style salad one night. Of course it I bought the product after reading this side of the box: I have no idea what it would be if I had to read this side It was very tasty. I like how they give you this little basket inside the container to lift the cheese out of the liquid. John

I think I have done all I have the energy for tonight. As you know I have been meaning to roast coffee for the past few days. We are dangerously low on beans that are ready to grind. I have been perfecting the roast for the past few months and I am far from done. In order to try to find the perfect roast, I measure very carefully the amount of raw beans to use. I use a mixture of 3 beans, all from Sweet Marias. 4.8 oz of Liquid Amber Espresso 4 oz of Indian Monsooned Malabar and .4 oz of Indian AA Robusta I roast it all in the IRoast2 Here it is right after the first crack Second crack I set the roaster to cool about 20 seconds after the second crack. After cooling you get: Unfortunately you need to wait a 2 to 3 days for the beans to rest and give off all its gasses from the roasting process. Hopefully we have enough of the existing beans to last until then!

Hah! Great minds think alike! We have had a problem with stuff freezing on the top shelf, specifically if the fridge is very full. Don't worry, by tomorrow night the fridge will be bursting at it's seams. I specifically didn't go shopping this week since we were eating out so much early in the week. Tomorrow is a major shopping day.

Things are happening fast and furious here. So I deveined the fois. I skipped the pictures on that because a) it is pretty graphic b) my hands were pretty greasy from the fois, so it was hard to stop and take a photo. Here is the fois that was deveined, reformed into its shape (roughly) or as Keller would say, it is like working with play-doh! Lightly dusted with the cure. Into the fridge for 24 hours before poaching 90 seconds. I also had a batch of Hess House bitters I needed to filter. I made this batch a few weeks ago but didn't get around to doing the final filter. I did filter this through a coffee filter, but it still was pretty cloudy. I heard that if you filter it through a Buchner filter you get a insane clear liquid. Basically a Buchner filter is a porcelin funnel that you put a very fine filter paper in. This sits on a beaker that you connect a small hand vacuum pump to. After you add the liquid, you apply a slight vacuum and it draws the liquid through the filter. Behold... Filter paper in place Adding Hess and applying vacuum. Residue left in filter End product

So after a fun night at Pegu I needed to come home and devein and cure the fois for the torchon. First was make the cure. Demerra sugar Salt Pink Salt White pepper.

Yay, more Pegu! Ok, my plan of staying at Pegu until 8 didn't really work out. I ended up leaving at 10. Donbert showed up and we had a few drinks. I started with an Oriental cocktail Donbert started off with a bang -- a sazerac. Which he nearly finished before I remember to snap a photo. I am not sure why this photo is so blurry. I took it before I even finished my first drink! I ended up having a lil jig variation with Rye, which was smokin. Donbert then had a Jamican Firefly Donbert's cousin then showed up, just as I was getting ready to leave. This forced me to have another drink. Oh yes... I just was forced to have another. Daniel (Donbert's cousin) had a Pegu Club Donbert had a famos Ramos. Complete with Cardomom tinticure. (thanks to Donbert for taking this photo with his steady hand!) And I had a Lil Jig variation with cucumber. I feel like I had another drink, but I can't remember it. Hmm. That is a bad sign. I also snapped a photo of the bar at Pegu. I don't remember seeing any photos here besides the drink. I figure people would like to see. Donbert and I also when we arrived had the honor of sitting next to two of the great mixologists.. the beautiful Audrey and Dale DeGroff! Only in New York.

Sous-vida loca baby! I just hope my house doesn't catch on fire while the poor lauda circulator I bought off ebay is churning away for the next 40 hours!

I'm curious, I'm not familiar with green tobiko. Do you have orange tobiko in the United States, as we do in Japan? Is green tobiko wasabi-flavored? ← Yes, I should have made that clear. We have orange tobiko here, the green in the photo is wasabi flavored. With the eggs it was very mild, and worked well.

So when I was walking before I was thirsty, never saw this before, so I figured I would give it a shot. It wasn't bad. Didn't really taste the asian pear flavor though. I do prefer the Tea's Tea green tea drink better though. Maybe because it (the Tea's Tea) isn't sweetened. And today's Lime/Lemon Index Btw for any New Yorkers -- I am going to be at Pegu tonight from 6:15 until maybe 8 at the latest. After than I need to get home and get cooking. John

I looooove Dr. Pepper. Big fan. Original, not diet, not that crazy vanilla stuff. Actually I really don't like diet anything, it is that artifical sweetner taste. Yuck.

I have been giving some more thought to the menu. As Nina rightly pointed out it is a pretty heavy menu. I though about this instead: Amuse: Venison ragu raviolo Fois: same as previously mentioned Risotto: same as previously mentioned Pork Belly: Sous Vide with ... Salad: Small Heirloom tomato salad with indonesian lemon vinegar Cheese: 2 to 3 composed cheeses a-la Studio Kitchen and FL Desert: who knows. Basically I took off the venison course and put in a salad course instead, using the tomatoes i was going to use in the gazpacho in between the heavy pork and the cheese to allow for some breathing room. Given I already defrosted part of the venison, I can make a good ragu with that and serve it in a small raviolo as the amuse with a little rich stock reduction.

Desert isn't my bag. I am passing that part of the evening, along with the wine pairing to my wife. I am going to be busy enough with the savories. I heard he say something about the pumpkin panna cotta recipe in a past New York Times magazine, but that may have changed. John

Ok, got the camera back and actually had some pics on it I took last night and early this morning. First the dry rubbed pork, that was sitting all night with the rub. Here it is rinsed off and ready for the next step, to happen later tonight. Also I started the fois last night. I am going to make the French Laundry torchon with the smaller lobe, and use the big lobe to do the seared presentation. The first step is to soak it in milk to draw out the blood. I will skip that picture, is isn't the nicest looking thing, I figured while I had the time I would do the fridge photos. We actually have 2 fridges, one in the basement that we just use as overflow and booze storage. I actually expect the fridges to get much more full between now and Saturday with the shopping I need to do.

I'm coming out of lurking-mode also. Great blog! Brussel Sprouts! ← Oh I love brussel sprouts. We may have a winner.

I have no idea why this just came into my head, but I thought: greens (mustard or collard, perhaps in some kind of chiffonaded form) and spaetzle. ← I was actually thinking about spaetzle for the venison at one point. I thought about juicing a cabbage and mixing the juice in to the spaetzle.

So I am pretty behind in my prep for Saturdays dinner. I am going to be leaving shortly to go home and try to get some stuff done. They menu as it stands now is: Amuse -- Heirloom tomato gazpacho First -- Fois two ways. Seared with a fall fruit chutney and Torchon with a poached seckle pear, toasted brioche. Second -- Risotto with wild lobster and chantrelle mushrooms Third -- Flying pigs Pork belly, Sous-vide. Fourth -- Sous-vide wild venison loin with venison ragu raviolo Cheese course Desert I am still trying to come up with a good side for the pork belly. Any suggestions? John

Sorry there haven't been any updates this morning. There was a major crisis at work that caused me to rush out of the house, I even left my camera at home in the rush. I am still putting dealing with some loose ends as a result of the crisis and hopefully will be back to posting in an hour or so. If there are any questions you have, I would be happy to answer in the meantime, since I don't have my camera for now. John

While this week isn't 100% typical, it isn't that far off. We tend to go out to eat at least once a week. While we may not always get a tasting menu, we do enjoy trying as many different dishes as possible. For the sake of diversity, we opted to do that at both dinners out this week. The dinner at Annisa was planned several weeks ago with a friend that happened to fall during the week I was doing the blog, so that was a value add. John

I had the pleasure of having Jim mix me up one of these last week when I was visiting. Truly one of the most delicious cocktails I've ever had the pleasure of tasting. If someone could get Jim to post his recipe for that fabulous libation I'd be eternally grateful. That was one seriously tasty drink! ← I will talk to Jim and see if I can get the recipe. Sunday may be a visit to Gramercy if I recover from Saturday dinner party in time. ← John, you're my hero!! Jim didn't seem to have a problem sharing his recipe, although I suspect the rest of us might not be using the Top Top shelf ingredients he's using in his version. I might have to substitute regular Chartreuse for the V.E.P. and a lower level Cognac for the Ferrand or whatever he's using. That was one damned tasty drink though... ← No problemo. I emailed Jim, I am assuming he would be cool with it. I know he published his recipe for his Van Brunt cocktail in LeNells newsletter a few weeks ago. That is another killer cocktail, using an equally expensive ingredient, the Chinato.

Ok, last post for the night. I did the spice mixture, basing off Vadouvan's awesome anatomy of a dinner party thread he did here. Roasted them in a pan, ground them up with some demerra sugar and salt along with a few other secret things. Have my awesome flying pigs pork belly, pefectly marbled. Here it is rubbed down, I added some fresh thyme, a little garlic and a fresh bay leaf from the backyard after I took the photo. Into the fridge overnight and tomorrow it is going to be prepped for sous-vida-loca as Vado would say.