ScottyBoy

Food is a huge arena, when people have time on their hands over thousands of years they like to play with their food. When they pull it off, great. When they don't, sh*t. These "new" advances and techniques are just another way of playing with food and trying to improve on something that has been around since the age of man...

Yay for more California blogging!

Paul! - Once again (as with building any recipe) I have altered the gnocchi. I've added 70g of creme fraiche. I think this is the recipe that will go in my little black book. I can say with confidence that they are awesome

Heidi - I was just using my best guess as to what it was made out of. The texture and flavor was such that there had to be an egg in there. Could be that they added one to the batter...

Paul it's, 3 russet potatoes 70g grated parmasean 3 egg yolks pinch of salt 100g flour After baking and running through a tammis you should have about 250g of potatoes.

Huge burrito, huge cake...hell whoever it is I'm looking forward to it

Pretty poor pictures but... Making my gnocchi, Baked russet potato is run through a tammis, parmesan cheese, egg yolk and flour is added and mix until just combined. Into a pastry bag, sniping off little nuggets into boiling salted water, shocked in ice water and then tossed with a little oil to prevent from sticking. When I'm ready to serve I just fry them a little in a pan. I've started using the pastry bag method because you can work with a wetter dough, that way you don't have to work the flour too much and come up with a chewy product. Even after the boil, shock and fry these are still nice and fluffy on the inside. Dried out some Speck for a new risotto dish. When I was plating it for the party I realized it's "green eggs and ham" hehe. 147 degree egg yolk. Fennel, basil and onion risotto. Sherry vinegar, honey and pickled mustard seed gastrique, pine nuts and dried speck chip.

Sous vide at 132 for 3 hours then seared in a cast iron Making a crispy speck chip for a dish tonight. Local speck, lay between two silpats and in the oven at 275 for 1 hour then dried between paper towels.

Yummm, I still have dreams of the sous vide Iberico pork cheek I had at Mugaritz...

Good to be friends with your meat suppliers. Jeremy while I was leaving asks, "hey you want to try out a free 3 week aged prime t-bone?" Yes.

Sometimes you just need a good grilled ham and cheese... Black Forest ham, gruyere on fresh local sour dough loaf. Half olive oil half butter, weighed down with a cast iron on top. Chewy, cheesy, salty, crispy buttery goodness!

That is a good point too. When I have an overgrowth of tomatoes durring the season and can't keep up with them (eating, canning, giving away) I will totally throw them in the fridge to keep from spoiling. But I am in the "never in the fridge if you can help it" camp.

David - I could get down on that! I love all the wider style of noodles. Nickery - Since you prepped ahead this is something I might want to try out for one of my dinners!

I am mostly looking to buy a SVP because I do a lot of the finishing of dishes at the client's homes. I want to look as streamlined as possible. I use SV magic when pre-cooking and shocking but want a nice mobile unit.

Interesting, gonna have to try this, thanks!

Is there an eGullet friendly link to buy a Sous Vide Professional? I'm not sure how these links work, is it to Amazon?

I go to Pho Ao Sen in oakland for my pho but I go to Pho King (yes, funny when pronounced correctly) for my BBH and omelette thingy. Veggies for the omelette wrap and BBH Bun Bo Hue, pork knuckles, beef, cabbage, thick vermicelli and blood cake. Just a little bit of spice. Spring roll over vermicelli Very thin egg omelette (Bun Xeo) filled with shrimp, pork and bean sprouts. You wrap in lettuce leave with various herbs. there is one herb that I smells like the ocean and tastes like fish.

Hope to be back later in the year to document when I do a "Field to Table" dinner at my friend's family farm

Dang percyn, you've been kill' it.

Thank you all! Hope to do it again soon, I have a lot to share everyday and didn't even scratch the surface.

Well everyone it' time to wrap up and say farewell. I've had an awesome time this past week and a half (thank you for extending it) and thank you all for the nice comments! I'll leave with some photos of last nights dinner. My friend Dave Lu takes some awesome pictures every time he attends one of my dinners, this was the first time at his place. Another great group of people that I'll look forward to cooking for again! As you can see, a first time kitchen and plating for 12 it gets a little crazy sometimes... Thanks all!

The mushroom soup is still solid using buttons. Lobster mushrooms just get their name from the red color they have. Early in the season I like to roast the small ones but later when they get big I dice them up. Phew! Back to work, every dinner is 1000 miles per hour!

New one for tonight, 12 hour kobe top sirloin cap, port syrup, sunburst squash, yukon golds and arugula. Damn, I hadn't checked the bluefoots my friend gave me though, no good...

Yeah, frozen shrooms are good for soups, stocks and puree, never roasted and presented whole. Speaking of which I've got some bluefoots to sear for this dish I'm going to plate...

In the freezer they go to be pureed or thrown into a soup. I used to have a friend who foraged mushrooms for me, used to come to my house with 25 lbs at a time. Can't complain though considering every season chanterelles are $7.95 at Berkeley bowl. Back to work, it's gonna be fun tonight, the new dishes I'm making and the dinner is for a return customer who is a HUGE foodie (jealous of the restaurants/countries he gets to eat in). He has a great eye for photos so it should be a good send off for the blog tomorrow with his pictures. Edit: Ah yes, dehydrating is an excellent route.