ChefSwartz

I just got in some killer monkfish liver and i am looking for recommendations for cooking it? any ideas? the liver has the texture of chicken liver and smels like the sea. i also am wondering if the liver will make a good terrine.

im not familiar with the term gavage. care to inform me? i also find it unlikely that they are "FORCE FED" it seems that it would take alot of cruel labor to force food into the animals mouth. then again i dont know, i originally had the vision of a bunch of ducks caged in with nowhere to go with tubes running straight in the mouth to feed but i found this is not the case. it seems that as they are fed more and more they become more and more hungry because of the expansion of their stomachs, just like us. but the initial expansion must be forced.

is there documentation on the process of the force feeding? the chef i currently work with said that the duck are not actually force fed that they come to the feed tubes willingly after you expand their stomachs. either way it sucks. we are not at a point in history where we can outlaw just the production of the foie and call it quits, whats next? these peta freaks have nothing else to do? man, what a world.

utz - carolina style

hey that vanilla corn sounds kinda good maybe a little poblano 2? DIIIIEEEEEEE ATIKINNNNNNNSSSSS DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE its funny it lasted right to the point when people realized no more bread or potatoes. its just a matter of time before there are enough people from EVERY country here on earth living in the us trying to make a buck and they all end up opeing a restaurant with his or her food. lucky us, too bad they will all be in NY and CAL.

commercial vegetables in ice cream already available in central america along with fish, blood, pork, beef, etc. everything ice cream. nasty huh!

try stewing the beans in evoo, with whole grape tomatoes,garlic,shallots,thyme and basil mmmmmmmm...

the whole point of blanching the breads is to prepare them for the secondary cooking method ie pan-fry, grill, etc. and to pull some sinew off, but techniquely you can roast them from the raw state in a pan just like a piece of meat. the blanching method eliminates a little room for error because by the time you sear them properly they will be perfectly cooked. by the way truffles go with EVERYTHING

i've heard that the difference between a free-renge bird and a regular bird is about 6 inches. The taste and texture have more to do with diet and processing than the ability to "roam".

magic in the kitchen is when you get someone to try something new, and they like it

that is certified ALCOLHOL ABUSE, yall should be ashamed. when i was little i used to sitck my finger in all the sauces in the fridge to taste them. with nothing else. one after the other. oh wait that was yesterday.

art is creativity. art is a hamburger. art is a taco. art is heirloom tomatoes over hearts of palm sorbet with fried capers. art is a plate. an empty plate is not art. all things created are "artistic" based on experience and a stroke of indescribable genius. you cant put your finger on this. media and commercialism dont allow for "closet artists" so its all in your face. prominence may not be acheived untill ones death beacause people study the past. the one with the best work gets recognized because as we evolve we build on the works of those before us. Just because adria or achatz is actually doing something unseen or heard of yet does not mean it has not been conceptualized by someone else. they simply got credit. Original thought is completely debateable. They have the means to experiment and play with their food. necessity breeds invention, avant garde is simply a chefs' need to be original. you either have it or you dont. alot of chefs are perfectly content COPYING anothers work instead of questioning it and finding out why and then creating something new. ALL artists are inspiring, unfortunately sometimes even the copy-cats are percieved to be as such, just because they put some money on the table and got their name out there.

I have roasted them raw and sliced them as you would a steak, i have also poached for 4 minutes at a simmer, then shocked them, weighted them overnight(this removes the excess water that they seem to absorb from the poaching liquid, however you can leave a bit of the liquor in the hotel pan you are pressing them in to marinate overnight) them clean them, I completely agree that at some point you have to say enough is enough with the membrane because it is what holds it together. The main point is to remove the Large portions of congealed fat and Some of the membrane while leaving them structurally intact. You also want to cut the vein out of the middle as you would foie. I must mention that this process leaves the breads tender and about MR-M depending on the location of the meat( the stuff in the middle will be less cooked). But once this process is over then you portion them and either bread them and saute them or I hate to reveal this beautiful secret, scewer them and put them on the grill(with a nice sherry/shallot marinade perhaps?).

I'm not sure why there is no acknowledged difference. I can assure I have had hominy and i have had grits and they are different. I have heard them called hominy grits but they are not gritty by any means.the stone ground version is what i have grown accustomed to. Anson mills has some great organic stone ground grits by the way. The chef at hominy grill is a student of bill neal an ben barker i hardly think he deserves any credit for origination. especially after having worked for barker, myself. I think it will come downed to no one person in particular but something that evolved from someones grandma or grandpa.

we will take a brown stock made with hips and knees and knuckles and reduce down to a half glaze then as we are butchering meats we sear the scraps in a pan with butter and reduce the glaze down to proper consistency. This works great from the chain on the filet and the other spare parts extracte from the loin and eye. The flavor is unparalleled by a classic demi. I haven't seen a classic demi in years, if you still butcher your own meats and make your own beef stock it is DEFINITELY the way to go. It seems that alot of places are making a single beef stock and reducing it down with just the original bones which is good but they reduce it to the point of glaze so they, in a sense create a tech of over reducing when the same flavor can be achieved with the addition of seared scraps while yielding a greater amount of more flavor full stock.a double stock if you will. Thomas keller no offense is a little queer with some of his techniques, i personally think alot of his food is over-refined a step forward in looks but a step backwards in flavor. skimming removes nothing but flavor and nutrients. technically speaking of course. i mean your gonna mount with buttter to finish the sauce anyway right? why not leave some of the original animal fat in the sauce and emulisify it to order with an immersion blender. with skill and practice this also produces a groovy froth.

I was wondering if anyone knows the (who/where)origination of shrimp and grits? I would assume somewhere near the beach, maybe charleston,SC. not sure but curious for personal reasons.

how do you all like the book is it worth the hefty price tag? informational or lots of reciepes? i love background information on technique and product, is there a lot? how would you compare to FL or elbuli?

call me old fashioned... but i like panroasted veg. all of it. especially the bitter kinds, broccoli, rapini, califlower, brusellsprts. An old chef called it "melting". You soften the veg with butter, the veg will absorb the butter as it is cooking so you gradually add more until your sauteeing(low oil+high heat). But keep the oil moderately hot and drop the veg in the pan in the oven until its tender. I cannot stand a half cooked "blanched" green bean on my plate,no matter how cool it looks. if you want brillant color make a nice sauce or a chlorophyll oil. i guess its about personal preference but i dont "eat with my eyes" ,eat with my mouth.

hey no offense, but why are you blanching snow peas? they loose all their sweetness and texture in a matter of seconds. I never serve them anyway but raw or tossing them AT THE LAST MINUTE with my whatever. no trying to sound like a know it all.

i have been trained in the limb from limb method, and the tails seem to buck and thrash disconnected for a good while. the rest of the body seems immobile, maybe the poor storage and transportation, i mean they are comatose after being out of water for so long right? i feel like every "living thing" knows how to survive innately, the cockroach knows when they dont have the means of survival, the cells and neurons run with our input, we cant control pain, hunger, we can get used to it. if they did wouldn't they show some sort of counter-balanced mood with a state of happiness? i.e. when my arm heals up from that shark bite im gonna do the mchammer on the ocean floor.

DO NOT LEAVE THE OVEN ON OVERNIGHT, this will burn the delicate oils in the veg, (they have extremely low smoking points),Try putting them in the convection with just the fan on overnight, they should be dry afterwards. You can take whole carrots,turnips,celery,onion,mushrooms and dry them in the same process. Before you start, shave the veggies on a box cheese grater, then try making a great earthy savory crust by grinding them in the robot coupe toegether. This goes great on roasted meats,fish,etc. wherever.