avaserfi

Many restaurants I have worked in (high end and not) use their high powered blenders to grind spices.

I ate a terrific meal here tonight. The food was phenomenal and for the money I felt like I was dining and dashing. Every plate was well thought out and executed.

I worked at a restaurant where we had freshly double shucked peas, garbanzos and favas on the menu. Each day we did about a quart of each bean. You get quick very fast. Another place required the peas cut into quarters or eights depending on size. That was a time consuming task!

A stew, kind of.

I used the white meat from the hen some pork fat for the sausage. It was stuffed into a boned leg and thigh, I never took the skin off. I did use the breast skin to patch any holes as needed. And I agree most everyone needs more gojujang in their lives.

sausage stuffed cornish game hen / pho 'demi' / crisped crepe / gojujang

If it were me, I would bone the whole thing out in one piece, head included. Then I would make porchetta and throw a small party with a great and delicious center piece.

What exactly do you want to know? With a suckling pig I would not do primals, I would remove the head and break the pig into thirds. If you do want primals, you will probably need a bone saw for the spinal cord and aitch bone.

Scallops and mustard seed caviar, version 2. The original, I made at the beginning of the year:

If you do this again, look into the method used at Manresa where they use any extremely hot oven to roast the meat. The trick is moving the meat in and out of the oven regularly. The technique relies on bursts of heat for even cooking, resulting in a similar effect to low temperature cooking, while the hot oven creates a crust.

Mangalitsa collar steaks for dinner. It really doesn't get any better.

The collar steak is the extension of the loin into the neck. The cut is traditionally used for the coppa. Even so, it is my favorite cut of pork, hands down. I normally sear mine medium rare. Collar steaks tend to have more flavor than a chop or loin at the cost of slightly decreased tenderness. If cooking sous vide, I would probably cook it somewhere between 57-60C depending on my mood. For a more tender product I would probably cook the collar for 12-16 hours, for a little more bite I would probably just let it hit core temperature and sear it.

You could do what I did and stage at a butchers shop, then end up working there for a year. Or practice on your own. Practice is the best way to learn to butcher. One class will show you the basics, but repetition is how you learn to do such tasks. It doesn't matter if it is a fish, chicken, pig or cow. That said, if you can butcher a bird wells most birds (and rabbit) are similar. The same is true for mammals. If you can do well with pig, lamb and cow aren't too hard. The muscle groups are similar, so they are butchered similarly. The difference come in during the fine work. Fish is a little different but most groups of fish ( I.e., flat or round) are treated similarly. For a cheap good knife, get a victorinox straight boning knife. Skip the cleaver and pretty much any other knife. You can break down most any animal with a good boning knife and skill.

Try Cayson Designs, very nice jackets for a reasonable price.

I picked up the dish at an Asian restaurant supply in San Francisco. I cant remember the name. When I have a little more time, ill try to look it up and find a better picture for you.

Geoduck risotto

The base is essentially broccoli and cream with a few spices to round out the flavors, so it almost tastes like an extremely rich cream of broccoli soup.

Makes sense. At those temperatures, though, don't you risk losing the seasoning of the cast iron? I was worried the first time I did it, but I've never had a problem. My lodge pan still feels like glass and I've never had an issue with it sticking.

I tend to prefer cast iron or blue/black steel. Stainless, often sandwiched with aluminum will warp far before it hits the high temperatures that cast iron or blue/black steel can reach. I also like to fry sous vide cooked meats in very hot oil 400F+. Great, very even results.

Modernist Cuisine suggests submerging the already low temperature cooked burgers in liquid nitrogen then deep frying in very hot oil. The technique freezes the outer layer of the meat, but not the inner. As the burger cooks at a high heat the frozen portion defrosts and browns while the inner portion is insulated from the heat. From all reports, the result is a rare, but extremely crisp burger. If I were in your situation (assuming you don't have access to liquid nitrogen), I would probably get dry ice, wrap it in cheese cloth and set it on both sides of the burger for 30 seconds to a minute, then grill. This should mimic liquid nitrogen closely. I would also probably skip the glucose. To be honest, I've never found it necessary. I get great maillard reactions without any additional additives, just a smoking hot pan and some high temp oil.

hot broccoli custard, chipotle roll-up, cheddar crisp

In my experience, a liquid that is properly clarified using agar agar will not cloud when reduced.

Tried doing a porchetta 'tartare' with roast pig skin. It was delicious, but next time I plan on curing the pork first to give it a pink hue, furthering the tartare feel of the dish.

Dinner (unpictured) was a simple steak. Dessert was a fruit salad of drupelets and pips. tangerine, raspberry, grapefruit, blackberry, orange, chocolate, vanilla

Experimenting with a new ingredient (geoduck) and a different plating style. geoduck siphon / 50C geoduck belly / pickled wild garlic / blood tangerine pips / kishu mandarine