Baselerd

I'm glad you called this out because I was getting ready to make this recipe too. Like you, I would've instinctively tried to increase the fat content to keep the N2O in solution. I suppose adding some xanthan gum or other thickener, or maybe reducing the water content would help?

Thanks! It's not as hard as it seems - you just need to temper the ice cream/sorbet to the right texture and make sure you soak your spoon in hot water between quenelles.

Here's the coconut vacherin from Eleven Madison Park, quite a few components. It was a ton of work (even by EMP standards), but the result was delicious - especially considering the lack of chocolate. -Coconut Sorbet -Passion fruit kaffir lime sorbet -Coconut crumble -Coconut meringue filled with passion fruit curd -Pineapple (Bruléed and compressed with coconut syrup) -Green Mango salad -Coconut-Lime Yogurt -Passion fruit pulp, mango, papaya -Coconut oil

Thanks for all the help - this was for a green mango salad (with simple syrup, lemon juice, and lemon zest) for a component of a dessert dish. I ended up just buying some unripe Atkins mangos - definitely a bit fibrous as Panaderia had mentioned. Cutting the mango down into small matchsticks helped reduce that a bit.

I was looking through some cookbooks and wanted to try a recipe that featured green mango. I have tried to Google this with surprisingly little luck - is this a wholly different species of mango than the typical ones you find at the supermarket, or just one that is not ripened? Thanks!

Erotic dessert party? Never tried thickening the spheres with gelatin, but xanthan gum works like a charm.

I'm surprised that you find Agar to be expensive. A little bit goes a long way... You may have luck by dipping your terrine in an Agar solution held above 150 F several times, letting the coating solidify between dips. I would even recommend freezing your terrine solid to get the gel to set in a thin layer quickly. However, keep in mind that Agar will have a much different texture than gelatin - it is not soft like a gelatin gel, and is crumbly/brittle. Looking through the MC, they don't recommend use of Agar as a coating gel without combining it with other gelling agents (xanthan gum, sorbitol). You could also just cast the entire terrine in a larger mold, filled with the agar solution. It probably won't be as aesthetically pleasing though, since agar isn't crystal clear like gelatin (from my experience...)

In the Modernist Cuisine they describe that the flavor from fresh fruit juice is due to the many chemical intermediates produced from different ongoing enzymatic reactions within the juice. Once these reactions proceed to completion, the flavor is changed/reduced. They recommend adding a small amount of fresh juice to the preparation to "re-fill" the starting reagents, which will produce the full flavor profile after a bit of time (temporarily).

Lamb shanks need to be slow cooked for much longer than four hours. I usually cook them at 62 C for 48 hours (ala MC reccomendations). Regarding veggies, I find that I prefer sous vide over pressure cooking for most vegetables. It is very easy to produce high-end restaurant-quality glazed vegetables by cooking veggies sous vide until tender (with a little thyme and butter in the bag), and then finishing them on the stove with a little glaze (butter, stock, and salt). Obviously, some vegetables are better suited for sous vide than others - I noticed that root vegetables benefit the most from sous vide. Pressure cooked vegetables are great for purees and soups - but they often have too soft a texture to be served whole (maybe I just need to cook it for less time?). Some vegetables are great in the pressure cooker though - such as cabbage, so I really think it depends... The only head-to-head I've done before is with carrots. It wasn't a tightly controlled experiment - I simply prepared some carrots sous vide (85 C for 1 hour) with butter and thyme. I also pressure cooked carrots with butter, thyme, and chicken stock at 15 psi for 1 hour. The latter was too soft to serve glazed, but had a stronger (but different) flavor.

I believe it's really tasty fresh. I've also had some good pureed kohlrabi soups (vichyssoise).

Just made a pretty awesome vanilla syrup/garnish combination (actually out of a dessert book, Dessert Fourplays). If you have any vanilla beans (or scraped vanilla beans from baking), you can cut the vanilla bean husk lengthwise into thin strips, then simmer them in simple syrup for an hour or so. Remove the beans, dry them by setting them on parchment paper, and then roll them in granulated sugar. The result is some pretty nice vanilla bean syrup with suspended vanilla bean seeds. And as a bonus, you get some crystallized vanilla bean strips for garnish.

I've been noticing kohlrabi at trendy places more and more. Same with beets. But with that said I will still eat brussels sprouts and kale any chance I get...

That's some serious food Xilimmns and FrogPrincess... Here's a little Fig and Cheese Salad, made with Candied Walnuts, Lemon Vinaigrette, Baby Spinach, Chevre (Cypress Grove Truffle Tremor), Sliced Fig, Fig Fluid Gel (Fig puree, Fig-infused balsamic vinegar, sugar, agar). And then (out of the Eleven Madison Park Cookbook) some Hamachi with Fennel (Stalks and Bulbs, thinly shaved), dressed in meyer lemon oil. Underneath is some Meyer lemon puree, garlic horseradish puree, and lemon-soy vinaigrette. Finally, the Cassoulet Toulousain (minus the lamb shank) from the Modernist Cuisine. This had some Garlic Sausage, Boneless Duck Leg Confit, Garlic Confit, Cured Ham Broth, Pressure-Cooked Navy Beans, and Fried Croutons.

I made a great crudo recipe from the Uchi Cookbook recently using kaffir lime leaves - definitely didn't use as many as you have though. The recipe had you make kaffir lime oil, pickled cucumber, and pickled shallots. Then you simply dress some raw Cobia with the kaffir lime oil and plate with the pickled shallots/cucumber - garnish with mint leaves, thinly sliced jalapeno, a bit more of the oil, a squirt of the lime juice, and a pinch of sea salt. With that said, the kaffir lime oil itself should be a very versatile ingredient in it's own right.

Just keep in mind the one of the most common sources of food contamination in the kitchen is the kitchen towel.

Well, two weeks seems pretty old. How was it made/stored? Even if its not poisonous, I would imagine the food may start to go rancid if there's chicken in it.

In the Alinea cookbook (iirc), they recommend an easy replacement for the anti-griddle: Simply go to the store and pickup a nice brick of dry ice. Place a kitchen towel on the counter, place the dry ice block on top, and then place a metal sheetpan ontop of that.

Specialty what? If you're talking meat or perishables, shipping will always be expensive because they usually overnight/2-day it or package it in dry ice, or some combination of all of the above.

Another few data points to contribute: I have prepared the MC short rib (from the plated dish recipes, book 5) which was at 140F for 72 hours with some white beef stock. The result was good, but a little softer than I prefer (being very picky here)- had almost the same texture as traditional braised short ribs. I recently tried the recommended 133 F / 72 hour combination with the meat only (trimmed off most fat, silver skin, removed bones) - this produced the perfect texture. The result was firmer, almost steak-like, but still very tender. Definitely my go to combination now (below)

Just around - a quick Google search of "chicken farm legs" returned some results. Of course, it's hard to find unbiased information - all of these are generally published by animal rights groups (crazies...). In either case I love eating chicken What do you hope to find by weighing the legs? I would imagine it has mostly to do with bone and muscle strength vs. animal weight, not necessarily the weight of the legs.

I've read that some of the massive chickens nowadays will naturally suffer from crippling leg disorders if they aren't slaughtered when they're young (i.e. they outgrow their legs due to selective breeding of large-breasted chicken)... shouldn't come as a surprise I suppose considering the size of these chickens nowadays.

I've also heard of an "instant bloody mary" where you infuse celery sticks with vodka and tomato juice.

I would serve the pork on a steamed bun with some pickled veggies, but that's just me...

Thanks! The serving sizes were definitely increased after photos Buffalo mozzarella is mozzarella made from the milk of a water buffalo instead of a cow. The milk has almost twice the fat content, so it ends up being much softer, creamy, and more flavorful. It also costs a lot more... The fluid gel was made mostly according to the Eleven Madison Park directions - you will need a lot of fresh basil (I used 4 cups of packed fresh basil leaves). It's a pretty standard fluid gel preparation - although you avoid heating the basil (thus breaking the flavor down), so that the final sauce has a fresh basil flavor. I would have to give special props to the recipe, I've never cooked any other basil sauce that captured the fresh flavor of basil quite as well as this fluid gel. 1. Blanch (boil ~5-10 sec, shock in ice water 1 min) and dry the basil (4 cups) 2. Puree the basil with water and ice (1 cup water, 2 cup ice) until very smooth 3. Mix sugar and agar agar (1/3 cup, ~ 7 g), hydrate by boiling with .5 cup water and whisking for a few minutes 4. Temper the hot gel solution into the cold basil puree and blend until homogenous 5. Cast in a sheet pan, refrigerate for a few hours 6. Puree set gel until smooth, strain, and refrigerate in a squeeze bottle.

And another salad from the Eleven Madison Park Cookbook (slightly modified): Radicchio, mango, basil, and buffalo mozzarella with lemon vinaigrette and basil fluid gel. The lemon vinaigrette was made by infusing some neutral oil with lemon zest, and then adding fresh lemon juice, salt, and xanthan gum.