Chris Hennes
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Posts posted by Chris Hennes
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In the season premiere of Top Chef on Bravo, one of the contestants uses a hand held smoke generator. Has anyone seen this and know where to find one? It looks intrigueing.
Polyscience makes one, available here.
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Ooooooh, crispy duck skin...the whole dish looks fantastic.
What did you use in the cauliflower puree? I like how it keeps its shape and doesn't run all over the place.
Thanks, I was quite pleased with it. The cauliflower puree started with the roasted cauliflower recipe in RecipeGullet, then added a bit of cream to bind it together, but not so much that it turned liquid. I had never had roasted cauliflower before, it was wonderful.
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My wife is back out of town, so tonight's extravagance was sous vide duck breast with peas and pancetta, on roasted cauliflower puree. I seared off the duck skin and cut it into shards, served atop the duck:
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Duck breast sous vide at 55C for 3.5 hours, then seared over very high heat for a few seconds each side:
Pre-sear:
Final plated dish:
As you can see, I still don't have a proper vacuum machine, so I'm using the Reynolds Handi-Vac system, lining their bags with an additional layer of heat-safe plastic. Actually works pretty well (for $10!!). If found the duck to be as perfectly cooked as any I have ever had.
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I finally get to participate in this thread, instead of just living vicariously through the rest of you... a few months ago I picked up a laboratory circulator on eBay for $5 plus $20 shipping. It is just the pump, controller and heating element, with no container or hosing, which I just got around to picking up today. All told, I spent about $60 on this setup:
The controller is only proportional, and the dial is analog, so I use an external thermometer to monitor the temperature. For this experiment I am doing a duck breast at 55 C for four hours. It took about a 30 minutes to get the temperature dialed in, but once it was there it was rock steady (to within a degree, as fine as my thermometer measures). I've got a duck breast in there now, so we'll see how that goes...
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I had a bit of a windfall so we splurged. I got a big cote de bouef steak and cooked "Yabba Dabba Do" for the French Laundry cookbook. Steak was topped with sauted hen of the woods mushrooms and bourdelaise sauce. Potatoes were mashed with garlic confit and truffle cream. Topped with gruyere and baked in ramekins. Fresh bread, tomato salad on the side. And a 2003 Silver Oak which was awesome! I had never had it and have some left today for dinner.
Dessert was fresh strawberries and cream over pound cake.
Won't happen again anytime soon, but dang it was good.
NO PICTURES?!?
It sounds incredible. -
Wouldn't that (and a fried egg) make it a croque madame? Or can t he monsieur have bechamel too? I feel dumb.
Easy to get confused, since there are a number of "croque" variations, but I always thought that the egg was all that was required to turn a "monsieur" into a "madame." I have never had one with a sauce on top, but I have heard of it, and it was still called "monsieur," at least on that menu. Any food historians care to shed some light?
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I really wish I had one of those smokers. Remember when it was used in Next Iron Chef? I have to wonder what the effects of a cut of meat sealed in a bag on smoke would be? I bet fish would be awesome.
I almost think it is more intriguing to use it to add smoke flavor to things that can't be smoked normally, or to push the smoke dial to 11 on something like a BBQ sandwich, which could be served under a smoke-filled glass bubble, infusing the smokiness directly into the bread, and hitting the customer with smoke before even taking the first bite. That is one heck of a run-on sentence.
I love smoke. 
But I'm not sure how useful the little gadget would be as a replacement for a regular smoker for something like meat. -
That looks good! But where's the bechamel? I love the rich goodness of bechamel with my croque!
I've never had one with bechamel, or mornay. I guess I should add that to my list of things to try... would not have worked well with this one, I don't think. This bread choice was a mistake.
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I just think in Richard's dish he used the smoke as a gimmick. My taste for crab cakes is simple-I want the sweet, buttery taste of the crab to be the star and I don't want the flavor of the meat to be hidden behind a "smoke screen." That's just my personal taste in general when we are discussing crab cakes. Had I been at the judges table and tasted Richard's dish, I might have given him a thumbs up.
I think it is definitely possible that it was more gimmick than useful flavoring technique, but I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt in this case (though this may be my personal love of smoke as a flavoring agent coming out). I am also a big fan of dissecting each show on these threads, so I'm looking forward to the rest of the season! No harm in a little disagreement here and there...
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I thought it was pretty stupid as well. He was also acting like he was the first one to think of it and it was something super-novel. Many other chefs have been doing that sort of thing for awhile, Grant Achatz at Alinea is an easy example.
I guess I get the be the voice of dissent
... I disagree. I definitely did not catch any attitude from him about it being super-novel: after all, he was using a gadget produced for this express purpose and sold to chefs throughout the world. We've even seen it in Iron Chef America, so I doubt he thought he was being really unique. He was just cranking it up a notch over the other competitors. Yes, it would have been great if he could have served it under glass domes like you generally see done, but if they weren't available, I think plastic wrap is an OK compromise, allowing you to see the smoke in the bowl before releasing it---I wouldn't like it in a restaurant, but I think under the circumstances it was OK. Also, I think that a little smoke gives everything a "meatier" flavor, so I didn't object to that comment, either. -
What will be obvious is the freshness of the mushrooms each person uses for this experiment. Mushrooms that have sat in cold storage for a month will double in weight when washed, fresh ones will gain an insignificant amount of weight.
Even that is an interesting result: it would basically mean that the additional water added by washing the mushrooms is in fact bringing them back to their "correct" weight, in some sense. Therefore, if a recipe calls for 100g of mushrooms, that would be 100g after washing, not before.
Isn't that another topic entirely? That would be more applicable in a thread about reviving poor quality ingredients. I don't see how different people measuring the weight gain of different age/quality mushrooms will lead to any sort of statistically valid conclusion...
Yeah, probably. Of course, our sample size here is going to be too small to yield truly statistically valid results even under ideal mushroom-quality circumstances. Maybe we will find a pattern in the results, maybe we won't, and either way it won't be definitive. It will be one more data point. AB claims to have "busted the myth" of washing mushrooms, and he has done no such thing. Mushrooms, under some circumstances, do indeed gain significant weight when washed in water. Whether it matters is up for debate, of course.
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What will be obvious is the freshness of the mushrooms each person uses for this experiment. Mushrooms that have sat in cold storage for a month will double in weight when washed, fresh ones will gain an insignificant amount of weight.
Even that is an interesting result: it would basically mean that the additional water added by washing the mushrooms is in fact bringing them back to their "correct" weight, in some sense. Therefore, if a recipe calls for 100g of mushrooms, that would be 100g after washing, not before.
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I thought the 60-second time made sense. What happens in 10-30 minutes of soaking isn't relevant to actual cooking.
I'd agree that 10-30 minutes is irrelevant. But 60 seconds may not be long enough - it all depends how many mushrooms you're cleaning. I'd guess when I'm cleaning several pounds of small mushrooms like yellow foot or black trumpets that I end up leaving some in the water for two or three minutes.
I was only cleaning enough mushrooms for one serving atop a steak, so 60 seconds was plenty, I think. I'm not suggesting we all soak for 60 seconds, just that we keep track. If enough people participate I think the trends will be quite obvious. If you rinse, just indicate it in your post.
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So you only had them in water for a minute? Hmmm, I ALWAYS wash my mushrooms under running water, not soaking, and I don't think they absorb much. Weird.
I did not find the weight increase conspicuous until I weighed them, so it is possible that your mushrooms are gaining weight without you even noticing! And since I am sautéing them over very high heat, the water gain is eliminated quickly and doesn't affect the final dish, as far as I can tell. If you were to gently sweat them, however, I expect a 36% increase in water weight could make a big difference.
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She said she tasted it before it went out and found it salty.....
Not really the kind of mistake you can easily correct. The secret is to not make it in the first place... (easy to say from my armchair
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The Mushroom Council recommends brushing off any dirt with a damp paper towel or fingers, rinsing only briefly under running water and pat dry with a paper towel. Never soak them, as they absorb moisture.
According to tests run by Alton Brown of Good Eats, the bit about soaking appears to be a culinary myth. Per his tests, 4 ounces of button mushrooms soaked in 1 liter of water for 10, 20, and 30 minutes gained 0.2, 0.25, and 0.15 ounces, respectively (about a teaspoon, max). This works out to 3.75% to 6.25% gain. The kicker? Another 4 ounces of button mushrooms, subjected to a brief blast of cold water, gained 0.2 oz - same as when soaked for 10 minutes.
I think this would be a great, separate, topic. Long ago, McGee did this same experiment and reached similar conclusions. Yet I'm not sure it was a complete experiment. Anyway, perhaps somebody will start a topic on the subject?
I have gone ahead and done so, over here. My first batch of results was surprising...
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In the previous thread on removing mushroom gills the subject of washing mushrooms came up. According to Lauren Schiff, PR rep for the Mushroom Council,
The Mushroom Council recommends brushing off any dirt with a damp paper towel or fingers, rinsing only briefly under running water and pat dry with a paper towel. Never soak them, as they absorb moisture.There is some dispute as to the reasoning behind this advice. According to DCP:
According to tests run by Alton Brown of Good Eats, the bit about soaking appears to be a culinary myth. Per his tests, 4 ounces of button mushrooms soaked in 1 liter of water for 10, 20, and 30 minutes gained 0.2, 0.25, and 0.15 ounces, respectively (about a teaspoon, max). This works out to 3.75% to 6.25% gain. The kicker? Another 4 ounces of button mushrooms, subjected to a brief blast of cold water, gained 0.2 oz - same as when soaked for 10 minutes.My strong suspicion is that the dispute is due in large part to the differing behaviors of various types of mushrooms. Button mushrooms and shiitakes are quite different, for example. Last night I began some testing that I hope can become a collaborative eGullet effort to document the various "water absorption" properties of differing mushrooms over differing lengths of time.
Mushroom Type Dry Weight Wet Weight Soak Time % change
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Shiitake 76.0 g 104.6 g 60 s +37.6%I cannot state that this dramatic increase in weight had any particular impact on the finished dish, but for now that's not the point. Anyone else care to play?
ETA: My method here was to soak the mushrooms in cold water, swirling them around in it, for 60 seconds. I then took them out and laid them on towels, patting them dry. So the weight increase is not due to visible water on the surface of the mushrooms or in the gills (though the gills are challenging to dry completely).
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SanaaSol that gnocchi looks great. I've had trouble making gnocchi recently, but maybe I should give it another go.
Tonight I had essentially the same thing as last Thursday, except this time with a ribeye instead of the lamb, and taking the plating suggestion given here of putting the brussel sprouts in their own dish. I'm much happier with the more "rustic" presentation here, which I think is better suited to this meal:
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Yet another Croque Monsieur, this time on Honey Apple Oat bread from Wegmans, which was too sweet.
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I've been watching for one of these-it looks like you got a good deal! Do you know what wattage the motor is?
No idea, and it's probably a non-issue. I've sliced dense sausages, huge slabs of bacon, pork roast, etc. with no trouble at all, I don't think the blade even slows down. It has an integral sharpener, so that's no problem, either. This unit is designed for small-scale commercial operations, so the abuse I dish out is nothing. I'd worry if I was going to be using it 8 hours a day, but I'm more like 8 minutes a month
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Is souffle considered a pastry and is this another case where chefs get penalized for having to work in an area outside their expertise? I guess by season 4, the pushback could be that you would be well served to learn some pastry to give you an edge. Has a pastry chef ever competed on TC?
Meh, the souffle didn't get him sent home, so it's a moot point, I think. I think if it had tasted good the judges wouldn't have been so hard on him, since they seemed willing to forgive the lack-of-souffle-ness.
I don't think we've ever seen a full-blown pastry chef, but at least one or two who had more experience at it. I can't recall who, at the moment. I would think it would be hard to win as a strictly pastry chef, since the majority of the work required is not pastry-oriented. You'd be at a disadvantage in nearly every challenge. A lot of pastry work takes too much time, and too much prep, to fit in the contest well, IMO.
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Are we talking about how to cut even layers, or how to bake even layers? When I make multi-layered cakes I am almost invariably making one or two thick layers that get sliced in half or in thirds, etc. That is just a matter of cutting the layers correctly. I think baking such thin layers, especially in a home oven, is quite the challenge. Hot spots, non-level racks, warped sheet pans, not-perfectly-even batter, etc. With a jaconde I use strips of wood of the appropriate thickness to guide the spreading of the batter to ensure an even layer, and even then there is some variation (I assume) due to hot and cold spots in my oven. I only use that as an outside coating on the so-called "modern" cakes, though, so it doesn't really matter.
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Was no one else appalled that Andrew didn't know how to make mayo? Guess he was too busy trying to sound like a playa to learn that...
Good point, I had forgotten about that. I mean, it's common for regular people not to know, but as a chef? You've got to me kidding me. Even if you always buy it jarred, isn't that one of those pieces of knowledge that you just have in that profession? It's like the classic sauce to end all classic sauces! The one we still use everywhere!
Hand Held Smoker
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Personally, I hot-smoke bacon, and I use an awful lot of smoke compared to the amount this little gadget puts out. I guess if you were holding the smoke in you could use less, but I'd be pretty surprised if you could just fill a box with smoke and cured belly, seal it off, and end up with bacon in a few hours. Of course, feel free to prove me wrong...
it would be slick if it worked.