Silly Disciple

This is sort of their signature amuse, I'd be surprised if they did away with it.

Has anyone got any experience cooking octopus? Suggestions for times/temperatures? thanks.

Congrats Becca, Hisop is a great restaurant and I'm sure you'll learn quite a bit from the guys there. I'll be sure to stop and say hi next time I have dinner there.

You don't need McGyver; I bought my two circulators (one is a Lauda, the other is some German brand) on eBay at about 150 each + shipping. They both work magnificently. You can get a Tillia for about that price as well, so these days you can have a somewhat decent home cook setup for less than 400 bucks, or about the price of a mid-quality home oven.

Quique Dacosta's El Poblet restaurant in Denia, about 100 km from Valencia seems to be having lots of positive comments lately.

Bux, I think you and Esilda caught me on a week where I hadn't been to the market on the previous Saturday, or I needed to "refill". Weekdays before lunch the Boqueria is bearable; most stalls are open and the inflow of tourists is not so bad. In any case, thanks for the vote of confidence .

Steve, you're right about the Boqueria, it is worthless after 5-6pm and crowded Sat after 10-11am. I usually go Sats, very early (around 8:30/9), so it starts getting crowded by the time I'm done. I know it's harsh to wake up that early on a weekend, but really if you're stuck in an office during the week there's not much else you can do. I can give you the stall numbers of the two or three butchers I buy from and you can go ask them if you want , or you can meet me there one of these weekends.

I'm sure you can get a taxi from Mas Pau to either Cala Montjoi or Girona, just ask them to arrange it for you in advance.

Unfortunately, this is quite possibly your best shot. You don't need to ask them all, just one you trust. I'll ask my butcher next week and let you know.

This was the dish I made for my final exam at cooking school. click here for a larger pic. basically it's both the drumstick and the tigh, the former braised, and the latter stuffed with shrimp and roasted in the oven, then finished on a pan for a nice crispy skin. The sauce is a reduction of the braising stock, made with the usual veggies plus shrimp heads (short explanation, it's actually a bit more complicated since I needed to show several techniques). the garnishes are potato chips, asparragus, boletus and chive oil.

if it's of any help, there seems to be an Italian version of the book as well. The Spanish edition seems to be out of stock here. edited to add: you can get it through the publisher here.

Lucy, this might be taking it a bit too far, but since you already have a good relationship with your butcher, why not take your own cooking-safe vacuum bags? They are pretty inexpensive, and might be a good solution.

I have the Hattori HD as well, among several japanese knives, mostly bought from japanesechefsknife.com. This is a great knife, and one I have recommended several times to friends.

That's right. The recipe I have (from Paula Wolfert's Cooking of Southwest France) says to cook the fish and oil over low heat for 30 minutes. Then raise it nearly to a boil near the end when you add the hot pepper and parsley. Actually, I am so glad you posted this because I was looking for a final seafood dish for Christmas dinner (doing a small plates-type meal) and Bacalao a-pil-pil is the perfect dish to round things out. I can also get very good salt cod fillets from the local Shop-Rte (not sure why other than a good-sized italian population.) ← I find 30 minutes to be way too long for a delicate fish like cod. A good indication to stop cooking is when the meat "flakes" of the cod start separating. For me, it is usually 8 to 10 minutes (off the top of my head). Since you'll be leaving it covered for a while to allow the juices with the gellatin to come out, residual heat will finish cooking the bacalao.

Indeed this is bacalao al pil-pil, a classic Basque dish. However, if I'm not mistaken, the bacalao is not fried but confited (the oil is kept at a temperature of around 70-80C), and usually you throw in some finely sliced garlic and guindilla while the oil is warming, and you get it out before it burns. You then use this garlic to garnish the dish.

Lunch service is usually 12-4 and work hours are 10-4:30, so theoretically speaking you could at least do lunch, and even dinner if you convince someone to let you get in a bit late for it (usually 7-12), it is not unheard of. Your first resource is the school itself, which has excellent connections. Find out who's in charge of the "bolsa de trabajo" and see if there are any stage or paid positions available. Your second option is to come up with a list of restaurants that would be interesting for you, and just show up with a resume. Third option, find out about "bolos", basically one-day jobs working as an extra for big events. Particularly during this time of the year demand is huge, and you should be able to find some work. This will help you get some money, experience, connections and local resume references.

My only concern when asking the butcher to vacuum pack meat for cooking is that the bags he uses are probably the storage type and not the cooking one. They are recommended for different temperature ranges, afaik.

Well, the butcher happens to be argentinian (as I am), I buy mostly argie cuts from him, and so that helped a bit .

Here in Barcelona vacuum packing machines are becoming more common in market stalls. I tend to go do my shopping at the Boqueria market once a week, and then if anything is needed during the week I either go to Sant Antoni or El Ninot. Vacuum machines are less common in the "cheaper" Boqueria and Sant Antoni, but the majority of butchers have them now at the pricer El Ninot. I've asked my butcher there to seal meat sous vide for me a few times, although I feel a bit silly handing him the aromatics and salt.

Yup, that's what I meant, thanks for the correction. Hisop is indeed a very good restaurant and one of the best values in town.

A few places which have been sounding around lately are Manairo, Andaira, Cuore and Osmosis. I've only been to Manairo and Andaira so far. Manairo: chef Jordi Herrera, instructor at CETT cooking school, cooks meat in a "nail barbeque", and is also known to steam cigalas from the inside out, using something described as vapor needle, which I'm told he will be presenting in Madrid Fusion). The meal was good, interesting, but a bit expensive and I'm not sure I would go back. The usual Adria tricks are present (spherification, nitro powders, etc), but not always justified. If this is what pushes your buttons, then go for it. Close to Arc de Triomf. Andaira: Apparently this restaurant and its chef Carl Borg were very successful in Menorca, and has recently moved to Barcelona. Conceptually interesting dishes, heavy use of sous vide, but when we were there the service was a disaster (at its highest point, one waitress walked away/was fired right in the middle of service) and the execution suffered in consequence. But I've heard a conflicting report, so I might give it another chance. In Barceloneta. Cuore was recently very positively reviewed in La Vanguardia's Cinc a Taula. Osmosis was recommended to me initially by an instructor at Hofmann cooking school, and later on someone else talked positively about it as well. Apparently it belongs to a former Hofmann student, but unfortunately I can't add much more about it. Somewhere in the Eixample. I can't seem to find info about it on google, so spelling might be wrong.

Actually, you can get water baths pretty cheaply on eBay these days (again, see the main sous vide and/or or the sous vide equipment threads). I would imagine the price tag comes attached to the "novelty" of the method. And since the equipment is available and as someone pointed out "any idiot can do it", I would think you will see more and more "sous vide whatever" in menus. I agree that it seems somewhat pointless to cook certain cuts sous vide where several other techniques will work as good if not better.

Usual contract length is 4-6 months. I know two people who secured stages at Mugaritz and Berazategui without having an "inside contact". The guy who went to Berazategui called several times until he managed to talk to someone who could give him more information, while the one who is going to Mugaritz did the whole thing through email (he was coming from a previous stage at TFD, though).

Lucy, I'm curious, is there a specific reason/benefit for which you write your recipes on translucid paper?

Oh well, it seems I'll have to go and try it for myself now . Not anytime soon though, I'm sure with the third star it's going to be pretty hard to get a reservation anytime soon.