Txacoli

Voila, photos. Our food mill crushed up the seeds, and I didn't like the tannins released by cooking the seeds in the mash......but arms recover easier than VitaMix motors! Our final batch I think we will follow your lead and run the quarters through the food mill, then hit the mash with the immersion blender to get it super smooth.

Well, alrighty then. The silence in this forum is deafening.....so I will answer my own questions: The firmness of the membrillo appears to be completely unrelated to sugar temperature. Pectin does the job. Also, since we were doing 50 pounds of quince we rapidly got over peeling the quince. Absolutely no need to peel, and cooking them takes advantage of the fragrance of the ionones. We actually preferred the color and flavor of the batches with peels ground in. We simply quarter the quince, remove the seeds and steam them in a few inches of water. Further, there is no need to remove the syrup, unless you have mass quantities of water to very few quince. In fact, our most successful batch by far was the wettest. The drier batch resisted all attempts to puree it fine enough for that smooth, beautiful texture. Plus we nearly blew up two immersion blenders and our VitaMix. So, to review the Cachagua General Store membrillo recipe: 5 pounds of quince, quartered and seeded. Two quarts of water. Cover and cook until soft. Puree my any means necessary but be careful of your motors. Add five pounds of sugar, cook slowly, covered with a screen to avoid burns. Stir occassionally, immersion blend occaisonally. When finished pour onto halfsheets covered with parchment, or into silicone molds. We put the sheets in our Wolf gas oven overnight just on the pilot to finish drying a bit. Perfect! I will post photos of the process as soon as my iPhone decides to communicate with my laptop.

Re: Fermenting Lactic acid fermentation is not just limited to cabbage. We serve fermented carrots as part of a cheese/savory dish. Probiotic, etc, etc. Also, kim chee.....though that is also cabbage, simple cheeses like mozzarella and neufchatel, yoghurts, sour doughs for our breads, fish sauce (there is fermented fish in Worcestshire!). Fermentation was an orginal food processing and preservation technique that probably precedes fire. Magnus Nillson of Faviken and of course Noma use fermentation in all kinds of ways. Our fermented carrot dish was stolen from Andoni Aduriz at Mugaritz, by way of Jardin des Sens, so it is not just for hippies!

We have membrillo on our menu as part of a savory/cheese course. Each batch is like re-inventing the wheel.....some are dark, some bright, some perfectly firm, others hopelessly sticky. Is the final consistency due to the stage of sugar carmelization......or the dryness of the mix? I have a beautiful batch right now at 180 degrees F, and a darker brown batch at 160. Harold McGee is silent on the subject, except to say that cooking in the skins is important to capture the violet ionones. Perhaps the amount of lemon juice needs to be better regulated? Many thanks for your post, and any help.

Ours arrived over the weekend. As the owner said, the little heater won't heat a big volume of water. Right now it is working away at a 16qt unisulated bath (an old US Army squarehead) and is set for 65 Celsius. So far it looks like it can't quite keep up: the temperature dropped down to 63 Celcius. We put our old Haake circulator (no thermostat) set on 5 to give the little guy some backup. It will probably work fine at lesser temperatures, less water volume, and an insulated bath. The design is compact, user-friendly and seemingly bullet-proof. We will re-post when we do a lower temp project.

I am trying to come to grips with folks' obsession with 41. One of the main reasons the Adria's closed Bulli was that it stopped being fun. The fun fifty person cocktail/dinner party out in the wilds turned into a fist fight of corporate types and foodies struggling for tables to buff their own egos rather than enjoy the experience. I just spent two weeks in Barca and Donostia (San Pau, Rafa, Can Roca, Extebarre, Azurmendi, etc) and the most fun and best food I had was at Bar Tickets. The same dedicated crew runs both venues....the food is the substantially the same. I hit Tickets four times, and it is hard to imagine having more dishes or better dishes. My strategy is to turn my night over to the servers and chefs, and just eat whatever they bring by. The crew at Tickets is so skilled and sensitive that you can develop a relationship with them in minutes. One sits at one of three or four bars staffed by chefs and waiters (their rank is displayed by the number of stars on their shoulders....though Albert is not above sending out a commis with a four-star jacket...just for laughs). Come back a time or two and they all know who you are, what you already tried, what you drink and what you like. Off menu dishes are there for the asking....well, a little subtlety.... and trust, is involved. And fun.....I could not get Albert to admit it, but the name of the place comes from dialogue in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. My favorite bar at Tickets (there are about four....I did two) has the HD plasma TV where I got to watch Real v Barca Copa Real 2nd leg....surrounded by dozens of electronic Hello Kitty's doing their seig heil thing. The dessert cart comes complete with a funky bicycle bell as the chef wheels through the crowd....Adria food is delicious, beautiful....and fun! Food is fun...food is life. Food is not uptight. My enduring memories of my nights and days at Tickets are: 1)a two star ranked chef at the Hello Kitty bar coming over to explain the cazuela pulpo dish: pigs' feet, garbanzos and octopus....simple and delicious in the Inopia mode. I admired the dish and with full eye contact he said "Este....me encanta!" This dish enchants me. The guy working 16 hours a day is still enchanted by his work. Normally, the under or not paid kitchen guys come nowhere near the guests. Albert has guys with skill, personality, and deep love of what they do.....that you can talk to! 2) my neighbor at the bar during the Real/Barca match was an Italian guy...a former chef at Boulevard, a Michelin one-star in San Francisco. We talked about restaurants, food, politics, soccer. Conversation increases the value of food...the staff at the bar, both chefs and servers were part of our discussions....; 3) My kooky wife pointed out the Willy Wonka thing to Albert, then admired the anise sprouts on his avocado cannoli/crab dish. Albert presented her with a planter full of the sprouts. She carried it everywhere with her in our two weeks....smuggled it back; 4) Badly dressed guy with no reservations had the executive chef come out and make guacamole with mint and erizos (sea urchin) from scratch with a fork and a spoon on a little tray next to the bar. He is ex French Laundry, ex Bulli, ex Who Knows...and is out in the dining room, inter-acting with the guests...even the lowest of us. Bar Tickets has everything any food and service lover...with a sense of humor....would want. And you are struggling to get into 41 because.....? Your Viagra script ran out? You need to impress your banker? Oh....and my bill for all the food a professional chef could possibly down.....plus a bottle of Cava Brut Nature, with refills....less than 100 euros. To me Tickets is restaurant heaven....Paris in 1924. Hemingway and F. Scott at the bar. Good luck with your 41 obsession.

Yes. Worked, not just visited.

There was a time not so long ago when one feared to post on this forum. It was highly judgmental and highly competitive…..better have your facts in a row and be ready to defend any lame opinion you might happen upon. I particularly remember being slammed for being naïve enough to think that Basque people were kind, open and willing to embrace idiot wanna-be’s like myself ....who stumbled blindly through their culture. Silly me…..Reno raised, pidgin Basque-speaking chef. I have to say that now I miss that critical environment. There is a rule among the kids who work for me that you can leave a message to a girl or boy…no worries. If they don’t respond, you can leave another….who knows? Maybe they missed the first. Leaving a third is problematic…..and leaving a fourth message is full-on stalking. That is how I feel with the Spain/eGullet forum. I have four threads now where I am the most recent poster. Full-on stalking. I am the old lady with too many cats…. But, sorry….I still maintain that Spain has the best and most accessible food culture on the planet. So, I am posting a lame video my wife and I did about one of our favorite places on the planet….Sagardotegi Zelaia, a sidreria in Hernani, outside San Sebastian. On any quality scale, sidrerias...especially Zelaia....rock: hospitality that will break your heart, killer tortilla with bacalao, then more delicious bacalao with fried onions and peppers, then 90-day aged, thick cut entrecote, grilled over applewood…..local sheep cheese and walnuts…..and, oh,duh: the cider. Made from three dozen different heirloom varieties that are now being cut down in favor of pulp pine paper farms….. So…..family based, heirloom, simple local foods, reasonably priced, culturally inspiring…... And.....?? Downside? None.

My culinary godfather was an old, old school guy named Werner Kalmus from Colmar. The Chef (even his wife called him "The Chef") worked at the Georges Cinq after the war, and Fierjahrezeit Kempinski in Berlin, before emigrating to the US. In quaint old Monterey, California of the 50's and 60's, Chef Kalmus won Chef of the Year every year...until they stopped bothering to have one. I was lucky enough to inherit a lot of the Chef's stuff: his lamb-splitter from HIS grandfater, his foie gras forms from Paris, his still from his father, his silver parfait dishes...even his old Hobart mix and KitchenAid countertop from the 50's....everything still showroom perfect, of course. I also got two carbonnade pans...and therein lies a story. I worked for Chef as a waiter in his little retirement place in Carmel Valley while my partners and I were struggling to establish a catering kitchen. The Chef was amused by our flailings, and helped keep us on the right track. One day we got a Mercedes film shoot for a commercial...big crew, multi days. We hashed together a series of menus to keep the crew happy, while the Chef looked over our shoulders. We set on Carbonnade de boeuf....as folks have suggested, a big top round of beef stewed in good mild beer with lots of caramelized onions....and the pain epice, by the way. The Chef went ballistic in the way only an old-school German/French chef can go ballistic. "You cannot do BOEUF carbonnade! It is not possible!" We tried to reason with him...."Yeah, Chef. We know it is supposed to be pork, but it is a big crew and we will save a ton of money if we use top round." Chef blew his stack....stomped off, fired me from my only real job at the time...and refused to speak to me for six months. Until I grovelled, begged and apologized humbly and profusely. Chef Kalmus: Carbonnade is not the meat or the process....it is the pan. The pan fits a whole boned pork loin. Add the beer and tons of carmelized onion. Seal with the pain epice and parchment. Cover with the carbonnade lid. Put the pan "au coin du feu"....in the back of the plancha, or in the coals in a quiet oven. Then get your coal shovel and cover the top of the carbonnade with "carbon"....coals from the oven fire! Carbonnade cooks above and below, in the nice skinny carbonnade....pan. This is why he went ape on us....there is no way to fit an entire top round in a carbonnade. Therefore, there can be no such thing as boeuf carbonnade. Well, maybe a filet...but who would do that to a filet? Whew! I am not offering this as argument to everything that has gone before here, just perspective. I hope we all appreciate both our freedoms in the kitchen....and the tradtion born of hard work that came before. And....I have to say, the pork carbonnade rocks the house. I use the Weber. And I am still afraid of the concept of boeuf, even though Chef has been gone for 25 years now!

David Kinch, chef/owner at Manresa in Los Gatos, California has been named "Chef of the Year" by GQ Magazine. I don't read GQ.....but this time they got it right. David is a sweet, kind, patient, generous chef. David doesn't wear fancy chef coats with stripes, stars and embroidery....when he visits you in his dining room he is typically dressed as his dishwashers do: polyester/cotton short-sleeved short with snap buttons, and a commercial white bib apron. Not spotless and starched.....the uniform he has worked in that night. David worked at Akelarre in San Sebastian under Pedro Subijana back in the day. He learned his lessons well. Manresa is an ingredient run house....to the point where they have their own farm. And the lessons go the other way as well. Walk into Akelarre and mention David, and all manner of waitresses, stewards, porters, chefs, dishwashers and managers run out to shake your hand and inquire about him: what is he doing, is he married, are there babies....and when is he coming back? My on-going respect and fascination for restaurants in San Sebastian revolves around the way the best of them (unknown, 1-star, 2-star, 3-star...whatever) seamlessly integrate local farmers, fishers, hunters, families and friends, clients....and the best of modern art and technology into age-old kitchen traditions and work. In a post here a few years back I was ridiculed by a local "expert" as being naive to think that the grounded, organic, familial aspect I perceive modern Basque restaurants is anything but a commercial facade. I don't think so....and it is nice to see a continuation and extension of that discipline and mystique out here on the West Coast of North America. Manresa does have two Michelin stars...to Akelarre's three....but there is something encouraging about the mass media finally figuring it out.

Rafa update: When we last saw Rafa and Rosa in Roses in March 2010, they were talking about retiring. Probably in 2012, and definitely to Galicia of all places. I phoned the other day and talked to Rosa....there was a wedding going on (!!!??!!....we have never figured out their exact relationship) and everyone was hammered. Too hammered for much English or Spanish. It was early morning in California, so I was not hammered, and my Catalan is soooo much better after a bottle of Cava.....but this is what I gathered: They are reopening in 2012 after a December vacation, probably on 10 January or so. Keep in mind that this was the plan in 2010....and the weather and the quality of fish and shellfish available to him in Roses made Rafa so grumpy that he didn't actually open for real until March....just in time for the big snowstorm. Rafa is not a fan of climate change. Now that Victor at Extebarri is fully mainstream, Rafa is one of the last "secret" pilgrimages for chefs visiting Spain. Victor and Rosa are forever dear to my heart for having both thrown out both the Michelin folks AND the Lomejordelagastronimia guy. Victor has made his peace, obviously. Not Rosa....."A carrer!!" is her comment when one brings up either publication. "Into the street!" For the 25,000 some odd posters desperate for recommendations on where to eat in Barca...and desperate to track down the footprints of any stray Adria family member: Roses is a mellow couple of hours' drive north of Barca, within easy striking distance of Sant Pau and Can Roca, a gorgeous half hour drive from Cadaques. You can stay at the Hotel Novel Risech for 50eu, right on the beach. Attached is the view from my 50eu balcony. And you get Rafa....for a little while yet. I am posting a photo of Rafa and Rosa, one of Rafa's entire hot-side setup, and a closeup of his ingredients (olive oil, salt, water, vinegar, lemon). Oh,yeah. Pepper. Well, plus the best fish in Europe. Simplicity has always been sublime.

Coincidentally....I just heard from my friend with the vegan wife, whom we sent to Akelarre with no notice. I feared the worst...but they had a great time and wound up smoking cigars and drinking Armagnac with Pedro himself until the wee hours. We may have started something ugly, though. My buddy, a US Army captain horribly wounded at Fallujah and just returned from Afghanistan, is hooked. He and Tucker are grabbing a flight to London this weekend for dinner at The Fat Duck. At Pedro's recommendation.....

Take it as a compliment....and move on. If you are any good, the recipe is the least of your assets: staff, facility, ambience, etc all score way more. In 1989 I "stole" a recipe from a now defunct place in Seattle...a wild rice salad. We adapted it, deleted the apples because they rot so fast, deleted the pecans because of allergies and replaced them with pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.... Now, three or four of my competitors have "stolen" "my" wild rice salad recipe. Go for it, guys. Do you have my same supplier? Do you know to soak the rice a day in advance? Do you use fresh strawberry juice from the Champion juicer instead of stock cranberry juice? Do you have my source for the balsamic that we finish it with? And.....we don't even use it very much anymore, anyway. Hey, that was 1989......Milli Vanilli had two hits in the Top 20 in 1989. I figure a recipe is good for about 90 days..... If you need a wild rice salad recipe I will be happy to send it to you.....

Arzak, the Zubie brothers, Akelarre, etc have fixed tasting menus....and they will accommodate you, but the quality of your experience will suffer. Pedro at Akelarre is still barely getting used to the whole no smoking thing, much less vegetarians, pescatarians, etc. I sent a buddy of mine there last May...forgetting that his lady friend is a vegan. Have not heard back from him. Pedro may have eaten her. Victor in Axpe on the other hand, does not have a tasting menu. He sort of pretends to have one...but it is basically a la carte. He has the best simple green salad in Spain, you can have the egg from the waitress' chicken that can be seen running around the yard across the street, the oyster, persebbe at 200eu the kilo, baby eels at 200eu the kilo, killer merluza, etc, etc etc. Etxebarre, hands down. I agree with the other poster...and would add El Kano in Guetaria. Also Ibai in San Sabby (San Martin area) is really hard to find...the basement of a grumpy old man bar near the cathedral....but all seafood, very traditional, very worthwhile. They barely speak Spanish, much less English. Best wishes, Txacoli

Not sure what is going on with eGullet....but Quique and El Poblet had acres of photos and comments back in the day. My friends and I once drove from Mugaritz to El Poblet, then drove back to Mugaritz, then drove back to El Poblet. Trying to figure out which was the best restaurant in Spain. One of the group owns a Michelin two star restaurant of his own. Quique inherited the old place from his folks, and supposedly never worked elsewhere. I think he is a stone genius. His maitre d', Didier, is an ex Mugaritz person, and was voted best young maitre d' in Spain in 2010. Super smart, speaks a handful of languages perfectly, knows all the inside baseball of every restaurant in Spain and France....but do not screw around with him. My wife calls him the French Pekinese...because we got bit when we tried to pull a fast one on him few years back. The sommelier is a super sweet, kind, humble soul who has given us the best pairing we have ever had anywhere. He first turned us on to a single vineyard sherry with Quique's fish course that was mind blowing. We had the same wine two days later at Sant Pau from the more famous and much less humble wine couple there. Tasted better in Denia. I have had the best appetizer and the best dessert of my life in Denia. When a professional chef cannot figure out how the dish is even made.....it is a singular restaurant. My son sneaked a photo of me contemplating the "Walk in the Woods" appetizer....I look like I was hit with a mallet. Great call....don't wonder why there are no posts, it is all about the site...not you. Best, Txacoli