Baggy

Tried Google to track down sosa/wild harvest, but can’t pin them down. Can anyone give me the web address/contact?

I have been trying to guess what is going to work to fill some tomato jelly cubes with mozzarella (from the new Planet Marx book). I came across flavour injectors which are used for preparing turkey. I understand that the injectors are quite thick and can have holes along the length of the tube. This would make it too large and too leaky for injecting a 1” cube. What is used for putting jam in the centre of a doughnut? I’ve come across using a baster (far too large) and a special attachment for a pastry bag (referred to as a doughnut or Bismarck needle). And of course, HB used to inject his three-times fried ‘chips’ with tomato ketchup using a syringe. It seems to be impossible to get either a turkey flavour injector or a doughnut needle in the UK. But I can get syringes from an ingredient supplier (where they are sold, presumably, as part of the kit for making elBulli-style apple caviar). What does experience show to be the best solution for injecting a thicker filling than apple caviar or jam for a doughnut? And what gauge syringe needle should I try? Apart from turkey and doughnuts, any ideas for new great dishes using injectors?

Having bought, read and used all three, here are my comments: 1994-97 Great recipes, simple ingredients, quite easy to follow 1998-02 More technical (although the techniques are slightly less well illustrated) and hard (in the UK) to get some of the ingredients 2003-04 Techniques are well described and ingredients easier to get hold of; slightly more intensive preparation. Depending on what you are looking for, I would suggest that 2003-04 is more ‘restaurant’ in its approach to the dishes; 1994-97 is more charming and easier to use in practice. All of them are inspirational to read and produce fantastic, tasty results. If you are looking for background on foams (and don’t want to spend so much), I suggets you look at 'The Cooks Book' by Jill Norman (Ferran Adria has a chapter with some really clear and helful examples of foams), or check out this link (in Spanish) www.cookingconcepts.com/PDF/Espumas_elBulli.pdf

Bought it 2 days ago – went straight home and cooked Andouillettes with morels and vin jaune (p258). Not that I have andouillettes, morels or vin jaune in my cupboard, but I substituted some earthy beef sausages, Porcini and dry sherry for my missing ingredients. It was very good! I liked the range of recipes and the words have an authoritative ring about them. I will be trying some the terrines shortly as other recipe books have let me down. On the negative side: the use of ‘curly’ writing for the recipe titles doesn’t work for me as I find them almost impossible to read.

I first came across tempura prawn legs in the elBulli book (Prawn Legs in Tempura Fritters #642, Year 2000), and use them all the time. Being spindly, they add a really interesting architectural dimension. I use them as a garnish – but a wonderful, crispy, interesting garnish. I thought this was really novel use of ‘exoskeleton’, but then I got thinking that, actually, this is just the same as fried soft shell crabs. Doesn’t stop me using this recipe, although I prefer a more traditional (and crispier) Japanese tempura batter to the yeasted recipe shown in elBulli.

If I have understood correctly then, yes, ‘fondant’ can be used in at least two different ways. True fondant (sometimes known as poured fondant) and rolled fondant. If you bought the fondant (especially from a retail outlet), it’s possible that what you have is rolled fondant. Typically this contains icing sugar with gelatine and sometimes gum. The gelatine helps to set the fondant when icing cakes etc. I’m not sure if this could explain the ‘burnt at 130C’, but proteins burn much more easily than sugars. Did it have a bad, burning meat smell? If the ingredients list shows anything other than sugar and glucose then this is probably the explanation. When making croquant, I don’t think it should make much difference using corn syrup rather than isomalt – but I’ve never tried this. The isomalt slows the absorption of water in the finished croquant so it keeps longer without going soft. Maybe it’s worth trying with just (poured) fondant and glucose (100:50 ratio) and see if this stops the burning? I found that the measured temperature could be quite variable when making the croquant, but I don’t remember having more than a 10C difference between bottom of pan and top of liquid. It’s possible that if the temperature was too far over the target of 165C, then the sugar starts to burn. It can happen if there’s a hot spot in the pan (another big advantage of using an all copper pan, as hot spots are less of a problem).

I think I’m going to use standard moisture contents. I’ve tried taking a load of rice, drying it in the oven at 80C for a few hours and then measuring the weight loss. But the results are all over the shop and not really in keeping with standard nutritional tables. I don’t think it’s the measurement as I have scales with 0.1g accuracy. Maybe I'm not leaving it long enough or possibly the oven isn't hot enough? I haven’t had time yet to try puffing rice again, but I intend to use standardised information (glutinous rice moisture content of 10.46%), add a little water to bring the moisture level up to 13.5% and leave it for a few days to equilibrate before I try next time.

It’s an interesting point. I would never have considered alcohol affecting meat through enzymes – perhaps someone will demonstrate that we are wrong. And I’m sure pH is not the answer. However, I can easily see that fish dipped in a high alcohol content batter is embalmed and, when the temperature increases, the alcohol ‘explodes’ the fibrillar structure of the proteins. Perhaps a little dramatic, but I suspect that physical not (bio)chemical processes are at work here.

You’re right about the taste test – all dissolved in water which, of course, removes the element of texture but highlights the differences in taste from the trace minerals. Texture is also critical if sprinkling salt on food or when you want it to dissolve quickly (sauces) or, perhaps, slowly (salt-crusted fish).

I commiserate. Freezing does all kinds of horrible things to the texture and appearance of food and I can’t say I’m surprised that it fouled up your salmon roe. However, depending on what you have to hand, there is no reason not to mush the stuff, mix it with sodium alginate and squirt it drop-wise into a calcium chloride solution to get salmon roe caviar elBulli-style! It works with apple juice (honest!).

I’m impressed that you can find hanger steak – it has a wonderful meaty taste and may well compensate if you have to use a better cut that has been poorly hung. Not sure why cornstarch should give an aftertaste, but leaving out unnecessary ingredients sounds good to me.

Most recipes seem to call for kosher salt simply because it has no additives. Table salt has anti-caking agents and iodine salts added to (a) reduce water absorption and make it run smoothly and (b) stop backwoods folk from getting goitre. Aside from the differing densities of salt presentations, a purest attitude says use unadulterated salt – organic or natural (no additives), although why so many recommend the highly expensive, branded Maldon salt over the cheaper and equally good tasting salts, is beyond my reasoning. If you really want to feel bewildered, try reading Steingarten It Must’ve Been Something I Ate on his experiences of tasting different salts.

Maybe not the voice of an expert, but generally the method seems to be:- Make up a brine solution 30% by weight of salt in 100% by weight of water (30g salt added to 100g water). Probably best if the brine is fully chilled. Soak the roe for no more than 30 minutes (roe should take on a slightly opaque appearance). No less than 20 minutes soak time, and it's probably best to make sure the roe is properly broken up so the individual eggs all get coated with brine. Drain the roe using a sieve or similar. Clean off the gunky bits. Store covered in a cold refrigerator. I guess how long you are prepared to let it keep depends on your confidence in the process! [edited for grammar]

Being a simple cook my approach has been to make sure that the burger is properly seared on the outside, but rested for long enough to be moist and tender. A brief blast on a hot griddle to give some external colour and then a gentle warming through to rare (52C) is all that’s required. Just make sure the burger is thick enough to sear without cooking the centre. This is a sure fire way to get a perfect burger. Unfortunately, the starting point is excellent, tasty meat. Most recommend a fat content of around 25-30% for burgers (a bit high for me if they aren’t going to be grilled/BBQ’d); and nothing else should be added - no salt, pepper, onions or anything. Wagyu beef should have a good fat content, but not all Wagyu-style beef is the same (after all it’s got to be hung correctly to bring out the flavours). Additionally, Wagyu beef seems to have bit of a reputation for going tough if it’s not cooked absolutely perfectly. Maybe a few tries with 28-day hung (not wet matured) ground rib-eye with different grind size and pan/oven temperatures would remove some of the uncertainties before shelling out on more Wagyu. At GBP 99/kg (US$ 100/lb) for rib eye, I’ve been working (randomly) towards my Wagyu experience for the last 2 years, so perhaps I don’t feel in a hurry to be disappointed yet.

Possibly the alcohol evaporates in the 180+C oil temperature causing the mushy effect; it does have a much lower boiling point than water which is why it’s added to make the batter crisp (so it evaporates easily). With marinade, the alcohol travels quickly into the meat/fish, perhaps through its solubility in the fatty tissue, and penetrates the food more rapidly than the non-volatile elements/flavours. You raise an interesting point – maybe the alcohol in a marinade (by infiltrating deeply into the food) makes it go mushy where it has penetrated and this is what leads to the tenderising effect?

I tried some of the croquant recipes last weekend with some great results. Here’s what I made (elBulli recipe number in parentheses): 1. Bacon croquant flute with pine nut ice cream/ petit four version (453) 2. Frozen lime, coffee and juniper tart with banana sponge (791) – includes spicy cinnamon caramel (croquant wafer) 3. Fizzy lolly (820) I used the 50% fondant, 25% glucose and 25% isomalt recipe heated to reach 165C. I also made the fondant. The resulting croquant was transparent, slightly brownish and had a mild, not too sweet toffee taste. Some observations: Using an all-copper sugar warming pan I had no problems with hot spots or controlling the heat. However, the process took almost 45 minutes – perhaps I was being too cautious. The croquant also took almost 2 hours to cool before I could grind it. For the spicy cinnamon and fizzy lolly the recipe uses powdered croquant. A Thermomix handled the grinding process without any problems. However, the powder is extremely fine meaning that (a) it drifts in the atmosphere making all the surfaces sticky and (b) the powder absorbs water very rapidly. Using the powder, I made stencils for the fizzy lollies cutting the bottom out of the cups in a cardboard egg box. Worked OK for the first few, but generally the croquant powder quickly stuck to the stencil and made it difficult to use without cleaning the stencil after each application of dust. And it takes a lot more dust than expected to make each shape. If possible, I would avoid using powder and stencils. The heating and moulding was straightforward, only I found that the hot croquant tended to roll up like mercury on the Silpat making it tricky to maintain the stencilled shape. It also ran downhill if not kept absolutely flat. Cutting the croquant into shapes was easy with a pizza wheel, and rolling the bacon flutes was not a problem. The croquant seems to maintain just enough flexibility and can be handled directly (?around 50-60C) before it cools sufficiently to set. As for the results, the bacon flutes were really crisp with an interesting flavour. The pine nut ice cream recipe is not too sweet and the texture came out more like stiff confectioner’s custard. Overall, there was no obvious flavour of pancetta, but I gave it an 8/10 score. The spicy cinnamon caramel (basically a thin sheet of croquant with sansho powder and cinnamon flavouring) was really good. Very thin and crispy with an interesting flavour. I would definitely try the flavour combination again (9/10), although the dish as a whole didn’t really come together (7/10). The fizzy lollies were fun, but the flavour of the croquant overwhelmed the lemon sherbet filling. Solved this one by putting out extra sherbet for dipping, with a good result. The result was improved still further by a small bowl of popping candy for dipping. Transformed the whole experience and the four of us sat in silence grinning like Cheshire cats – makes it a 9.5/10. I might see if it’s possible to substitute popping candy for the sherbet in the centre. The recipes recommend storing the made up croquant in a desiccator with silica gel. I put them in containers under vacuum, which worked well and resulted in excellent crispiness. However, the process is messy with fly-away bits of croquant which stuck to worktops, floor and clothing, and it took ages of soaking to soften the croquant on the saucepan and tools. Overall, I was happy with the result and, for a first time experience, the whole process was more straightforward than I had expected.

Just an update on trying the HB recipes (?formulas). I have been trying a number of variations on the batter for fish & chips, but always adding part vodka as the liquid. So far the results are quite consistent – the texture of the batter is definitely crispier, but the vodka seems to add a bitter taste and the fish turns mushy. I’m sure I’ve seen similar results (especially the mushy bit) when, for example, wine is used in sous vide without boiling off the alcohol. I wonder if anyone has an idea as to the reason for this result.

These pictures are a great reference – I can see how puffed the rice can be and gives me something to aim for. Do you think that glutinous rice is an important factor? I can always try popping with well-known glutinous types, like sushi rice.

Thanks for the picture. Any idea about the type of rice used or how it’s prepared?

I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get rice to pop. There seems to be a consensus on the following: Moisture content 13.5-14% Temperature around 450F (230-235C) Around 25% oil by weight of rice So far this is pretty much the same as popping candy. I can’t get a result with rice; I’m using long grain non-parboiled rice. Any advice?

Just got back from a well equipped vacation rental in Paris – only no tweezers to remove the pin bones from the fish. Fortunately, found a pair of eyebrow tweezers which worked (sort-of).

When travelling, food is always a great conversation piece when meeting people for the first time. Everyone has an opinion and it keeps pushing on my own knowledge about food and its origins. Having just got back from France, I was stunned to discover two new things. First, several well-heeled restaurant goers who have never heard of molecular gastronomy. Second, no one knew anything about the flour used in bread. Maybe my surprise got the better of me, but it got me thinking about what is not known in England but would be common knowledge elsewhere. I came up with two examples. In England, most people can’t tell the difference between certain cuts of meat. Many professional publications (and master butchers) incorrectly identify onglet (butcher’s steak or hanger steak) as a cut from either the skirt or blade, whereas it’s actually part of the diaphragm, which is why in France it’s counted as offal. Another example, butchers can’t seem to deliver a Porterhouse steak which has a big piece of fillet in the cut, unlike a straight T-bone where there the cut includes only the smaller tail of the fillet. This is well-known in the US but, apparently not in England. I’m sure there are lots more examples from different countries/regions.

I have just come back from Paris with my latest acquisition – a small, all-copper sugar melting pan. Prices are definitely less if buying Mauviel pans in France. For my acquisition I paid approximately 35 euros in Dehillerin. Searching around the internet, prices for the same pan are 40 sterling and 70 US dollars. After changing everything to the same currency this makes pans bought outside France around 50% more expensive (although I don’t know how prices compare in, for example, Belgium or Germany). Of course, if you are visiting from outside the EU it is often possible to claim back the 19.6% TVA (GST equivalent), so the savings could be as high as 50% of US prices.

Can confirm that Librarie Gourmande is up and running in rue Montmartre as Felice mentions. I went there this week; although the shop has less character than before (and desperately needs a coat of paint), they have more space so things are a little easier to find. Only a few books are still in their boxes awaiting unpacking. Additionally, and very positively, the A Simon and MORA kitchen shops are just a few minutes down the road and Dehillerin is equally only 5 minutes walk, so now it’s possible to cover both kit and books in a short visit. (edited because I forgot the 'e' at the end of Gourmande, tut, tut!!)

Have you tried any French methods for building dough from a starter? I have been using a three step build from the chef culture, adding about 35-40% of starter as a percentage of the total weight of dough. Building up this way seems to keep the flavours clean and the starter doesn’t get a chance to make the dough slack. With the French being a slave to unions and labour law, the three-build approach has a first fermentation long enough to be done overnight, with the final two steps and baking completed the next working day. The result is a very mild, creamy bread, but its taste does depend on the culture, fermentation temperature and flour. One of the things that I’ve seen in France, is making bread from the first and second stages – the first stage bread is priced lower as it is rougher (more sour and less structure), with the finest bread coming after the third build. Perhaps you might have some thoughts about some way you can get your bread production going sooner after a trip without compromising quality?