Vadouvan

Yes mr fenton, they are quite tasty I use them to make Chimichangas......... But before you cringe, hear me out. Gogle any terms you dont understand. Caramelize the bananas whole Take a piece of brik paper, put the banana on lengthwise. Pipe a little bit of thick Chiboute cream on the side. Roll up, seal with egg. Refrigerate. Deep fry till golden, drain and toss in cinnamon sugar. Serve with vanilla ice cream. kinda sick actually but damn tasty.

Sup Bill..... yes Polyscience bath, it has a stainless steel insert and NSF certified. You cant overcook the shrimp. I only cure live shrimp. I make a dish of Scampocarpaccio with Olive oil lemon and fennel. cured lightly with maldon salt and sugar. It's best with live spotted prawns. Chinatown....capt Thomas..10th and race. When are we barbecueing ?

Bananarama I like individual preparations, I hate sharing stuff, if I want communal food, I will go to Chinatown.....or China Grill.... "we encourage you to share, so you can order more food than you need to, we turn the table faster since there is no expediting and we make tons of money". Suckers born every minute....! Anyway......individual tatins.... I reccommend you buy teflon lined molds like these, you can never have too many.... use the round one, the teflon-phobic need not be alarmed, the teflon is to release the parchment paper between the tin and the tart. Seems caramel doesnt release easily even from teflon... The bananas are sauteed slightly and glazed with rum.... and docked dough is put on..... By the way, if you like to bake, commit to the French ASAP, all the tools they make have dimensions that work with each other, American stuff is annoying. Matfer thermoplastic cutters.....perfect size for the tart pans and dishwasher safe... and for Silpat..... Sidebar......Orange rinds. I boil them in 20 degree (density not temperature) syrup till transluscent. Google "Baume Scale" when you have time. Drain, cool, toss in sugar. and then dehydrate them till crispy..... It's very important to use a very low oven or actual dehydrator that removes moisture so you dont melt the sugar on the surface.....use superfine sugar too. I use a nifty device that is a combination of both....an oven and dehydrator. Basically an extremely accurate convectinon oven that starts at 30 degrees centigrade and you can control the vented air ratio so you basically dry anything faster than any other method I know.... here is the control panel.... Speaking of China.......Bernadaud. If you cant cough up the $$$, hit Crate and barrell, they have excellent bargains and lots of clever things. at the end of the day.... and wine... 1983 Sauternes An excellent match, the tart was given a whiff of Orange hydrosol after it was plated with tied in with the citrusy undertones of the Yquem. toodle-oo.

Alex you crazy dude, how are them templates working out ? You know I was thinking exactly what you said based on methocel but I just didnt want to say it since the public has limited access to it. I wonder if Goldfarb sells it in small packs ? Look for pictures of the dehydrator later.....

Shrimp Tales....The final chapter Seems I made out like a bandito on the shrimp, I wanted 10/20 shrimp so I could do a Tetsuya-esque presentation....even the label said.... However upon opening the box, it contained U-10's. It's hard to be honest in these kinds of situations but I threw myself to the sword and informed my Fish Dude...certainly with no intentions of paying the difference but to save him a bunch of $$$ in the long run. He was happy, I saved 50 bucks. On to the plating.......this isnt the most creative food out there, although I am fascinated with the so called Molecular gastronomy, I have little interest in modified texture stuff and Alginates, I just want the stuff to taste good and look fairly smart. You could say the Keller school, make it , make it again, refine it, refine it more, plate it properly. I do appreciate what the MG people are doing, someone has to push the envelope, Imagine the state of music in America today if Miles never recorded "Bitches Brew". However for me..... To borrow my good friend John Sconzo's signature... "It is preferable to have big-ass shrimp you were undercharged for than shrimp noodles made with activa" Plating #1 Had two extra shrimp, chopped them up with tomatoes, tarragon, other stuff to make a salpicon poured the gazpacho around it....... drizzled some of this.... Per Me and you get zees good but to damn rustic looking..... Final Plating...... Wines...... Blanc Fume De pouilly 2004 Dagueneau de chez Didier Daguenau and.. Les preuses...Chablis Grand Cru 1999 I highly recommend mutiple wines with courses, seems something always gets corked.

Whats up Evan shake -shacke...... I am looking at the line at shake shack on my OSX widget.....we can still make it if we leave now.... Thanks for the Londer Pinot, I quaffed it with some ribeye at a barbecue last night....... By the way your PM regarding banana creme brulees. I tried making a few and it just isnt worth it. Just make bananas foster with sheet loads of rum and brown sugar and then spoon it on top of a burnt creme brulee immediately before serving, sprinkle some fennel pollen too...it rocks.

Non Starchy Purees. The current issue of Cooks illustrated rates blenders. Naturally the actual winner was the Thermonix. To those unfamilair, it's a blender that also cooks but besides the convenience, has super sharp blades and makes incredibly smooth purees. thermonix Temperature above, speed below. Peeled Parsnips, Milk, Mace, Salt. Cook till tender, turn on blender function and you get purees like this... No pots, no mess, no BS........and dishwasher safe..... ...and if your girlfriend or wife says 'we dont need a $800 blender, say honey it's half the price of Manolo Blahniks, its a really good deal.....

Croquettes are all the rage in Philly now that "Tapas" is the new black. So far I havent had any I really like, All the bacalao in philly has no salt cod flavor and some are wierdly topped with some kind of caviar. Frying properly is a lost art, very few people do the "pane anglaise" method properly. Flour....Egg or Egg Wash...........crumbs..........chill...........Fry. I braise my short ribs, pull it off the bone and pass it through a kitchen aid meat grinder with the large hole. Add caramelized onions, spices ect ect, bread soaked in milk and squeezed out and seasoned properly. I add some light veal stock with gelatin to it and a little bit of methocel base. Gelatin keeps it set Cold Methylcellulose keeps it set hot. I hate rolling croquettes so in the interest of speed and efficiency, I pack the stuffing into a small round "Pain de Mie" mold to set....... Once it sets and you unmold, you get a torchon of short rib which you can cut with an electric knife into exactly equal sizes (3/4 inch)...flour, egg, in this case cornflakes...and fry.. Perfect croquettes everytime. speaking of meat... Here is the tied, marinated wagyu tri-tip just before sous-vida-loca....

On a good Note, I got the Foie from sonoma which I wanted, I personally like the taste better for saute' as opposed to Hudson or Palmex.............plus it's more evenly shaped. Strangely enough, it is a "Product of Canada" as the label says. Since when did the Sonoma Valley end up in Canada ? This must be a result of Whole foods (Hypocrites) squeezing out Grimaud farms from processing Foie Gras......anyone know ? Sonoma Foie Gras 1.65lb

I suppose one ought to start prepping at some point if there is any eating to be done. Life is much easier when you are organized, I do all my tedious chopping and slicing at once just to get it out of the way and reduce cross contamination. These "speed racks" that bartenders use are also great for organizing chopped herbs and garnishes like a pro. Scallion,Mint,Chive,Parsley,Celery,Celery Not that I really need all this crap but It's a great way to practice knife skills you may have taken for granted...! The Making of the sauce for the Beef, I use Oxtails as they have tons of flavor and meat to bone ration, meat exclusive sauces I find too light and roasted bones get bitter... And after slight roasting in the oven... Yum, i am thinking of my favourite pasta, the oxtail ravioli with squab liver sauce at Babbo...!

So these are the shrimp after cooking, they were done in a water bath in court bouillon at 58C til just barely done and iced down. Also a bamboo skewer was inserted to keep them relatively straight before rigor mortis sets in..... Cooked Shrimp

Bacon and bananas ? Elvis re-union .....

Thanks foe asking Ludja, wine is the least of my problems right now, sufice to say i now know why I have never seen a banana tart tatin in a restaurant in 10 years, it's incredibly easy to F it up in several ways but i think I have if figured out after rummaging through my Previn box-o-tricks. I have only ever had one at Maison Novelli.......Jean Christophe Novelli.

What's up doc. Long time no see. I think Maya is just the Brand name, I have just gotten used to saying it over the years.... In this case a U-10 Head on Shrimp, pretty big....here is a raw one. Raw Shrimp to Scale

I agree with you on the food Jeff, seating outside is only great til about 8 pm when the sun goes down and they it's way too dark I think. As for the water despite the best intentions, 19 types of bottled water is ridiculous.

Duuuude you know me better than that.....of course I know that. Actually the Kobe (Hyogo) Prefecture....

By the way, it's never a bad Idea when you are cooking with specialty crap to have a plan B. Most of these Items are in demand and limited. After the last few days I am convinced if you picked up a phone, called directory assistance, asked for Los Alamos Labs and ask if you could buy some weapons grade plutonium, you may actually have a better chance of success than procuring Snake River Farms Beef............actually the FBI would knock on your door within an hour..... SO PLAN B. The Ribeye Cap was made famous by Thomas keller, apparently it was used for staff meal until they figured out it was too tasty for staff meal so it became a course in the $400 dinner. Delicious it is, I had it at Per se. Also quite excellent is ......STRUBE..........pronouced Stru-bee http://www.struberanch.com/ They dont sell Ribeye Caps alone so I decided plan B was a Tri-Tip. More specifically.... Speaking of meat, I wish local restaurants in Philly would stop referring to Kobe this Kobe that and decieving the public......It isnt KOBE unless it comes from Japan. In fact, while I want to keep this thread local and focused on Philly.... National publications are fair game, there are two excellent articles in the NYTimes today regarding Local and Imported Japanese beef. Get the Times or read it online. Great article.

Princess Di.... Instructions for curing anything can be found all over the web by googling. My cure for this particular pork is based on Daniel Boulud's cure (see Cafe Boulud Cookbook page 58).......... with a slight modification by adding two ingredients that were until recently illegal in the united states but clandestinely available in chinatown ...........and using Demerara instead of white sugar. By the way, feel free to be inspired by cookbooks, there isnt a damn thing wrong about inspiration, just dont pass it on as your creation. Quick story, back when I was a cooking neophyte, I met Charlie Trotter in the Rittenhouse square area and he signed my cookbook, the book had several post-it notes sticking out and he asked what they were, I said they were particular components of some of his dishes I liked even though I didnt neccesarily like the whole dish always. I was expecting a "how dare you" but he said that's exactly what his books are for .....Inspiration....so Inspire away. The whole point of this thread is to Inspire people in philly to think differently about food and see what can be achieved in philly if you know what the hell you are doing ? Can you say Hell on e gullet .... Anyway.....speaking of inspiration, here are some of mine regarding this dinner, some element of all these books were borrowed and modified not reproduced..... And its a pain in the ace to post pics on e gullet so while I have your attention.....here are a few more pieces of the puzzle... Tomatoes for Gazpacho Infused to confit pork belly Finishing prunes for pork belly Gazpacho Williams Sonoma Broad and Walnut. Gazpacho "Almost" Whole Foods ........20th and Callowhill.

Puff Dough Only Masochists make thier own puff pastry for tart tatin. It isnt technically going to rise. In fact one can use pate sucree.....but I find the crispness of fuillette better. There are lots of excellent puff doughs on the market available to the public. I use either Doufour or Pepperidge Farm. As you shall see much later, excellent results will be achieved. I am sure all the serious pastry dudes have the expression of Toodle-oo

In fact that is quite true and sad, I never sat down at one of those SK dinners but the thread is greatly inspirational for me. Oh well you win some you lose some.....

Source List

Yes Mr Big, it's a duo not a quartet. Ribeye and croquette. Pictures coming in 48 HRs...ish

The Mineola i am referring to is a very aromatic Tangerine with qualities of Mandarin orange. The Rind is peeled off without the pith, sliced into strips simmered till transluscent in 20 degree baume simple syrup, drained, cooled, tossed in superfine sugar and dehydrated at 60 Degrees C till bone dry......and then salted slightly with Maldon fine salt. Its a garnish for the Ice cream. Hey it isnt a simple dinner party.....

True, that seems to be the classical Escoffier definition but with the evolution of cooking in France, I remember distinctly at Place Vendome they basically said it is almost interchangeable with a quick saute but slightly different. I dare say "butter roasted" foie gras would be most gratuitous........

Next I would seriously recommend a DETAILED shopping list categorized by source. First figure out everything you need for each dish and then transfer them to a source list. I personally find source lists much more useful when it come to actual shopping than ingredient lists because you just go there or call the purveyor and buy everything you need in one fell swoop. Reduces human error. I will show you a source list later, yes dinner parties require some clerical BS so if you want to nail it, just deal with it. Here is a cured Berkshire pork belly to whet your appetite as a sign of things to come.... Kurobuta/Snake River