Baselerd

Definitely something crunchy - seems like all your components so far are relatively soft (except maybe the green beans?). Smoked almonds sounds great.

Thanks! That lamb looks great too.

So I recently got my hands on some foie gras, my first time cooking with it: Seared foie gras, sushi rice, pomegranate reduction, tare, candied quinoa. Recipe from The Uchi Cookbook. Foie gras terrine, gingerbread streusel, pomegranate reduction, gingerbread puree, sous vide squash. Recipe from Under Pressure.

I understand that a lot of people dislike GM foods, since it's perceived as "unnatural" - but it's the way of the future. How are we going to support an exploding world population without making our crops have higher yield, increased tolerance to weather, improved nutrition, improved shelf life, etc? There's already worldwide food shortages...

Quite a broad category - but pretty much any seafood. Once you eat a fresh caught fish straight from the docks, you realize how bad most of the fish at the supermarket is in comparison.

Very nice - looks like some good, challenging recipes.

Ann_T, awesome photography. And mm84321, that gratin looks great. I can' tell - are those white discs the marrow or cheese? If they are marrow - how did you prepare them to be so firm?

Thanks! It was great - I really liked the flavor combinations. I would strongly recommend the braised pork belly recipe to anyone, regardless of if your willing to cook all of the other components. I too have had this dish at Nine-Ten, but it was quite a while ago so I can't say how it compared.

One of my favorite garnishes for scallops is black garlic. A black garlic puree works nicely if you have a good blender (black garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic, salt). Another technique that's great for garnishes - from the eleven madison park cookbook - is to press the black garlic through a fine sieve, place it between two oiled sheets of acetate (or parchment). Roll it into a thin layer and refrigerate for 1 hour, then dehydrate at a low temperature (125 F) until dry. You can then punch out little black discs with a ring cutter.

I recently made this recipe from Nine-Ten. It included Jamaican jerk-marinated pork belly, habanero gel veil, sweet potato puree, fried plantains, black eyed peas, and carrots.

I don't know how close you can get to the texture of a real ganache, but I know there's plenty of ingredients out there than can turn a liquid base or puree into gels of varying textures. I made this "flexi-curd" (recipe) that might be a starting point for inspiration. It definitely was way softer than a ganache, but still was reasonably firm, and I can imagine increasing some of the gelling agents you might be able to get something closer to a ganache.

That salad looks great SobaAddict. Here's a dish adapted from The Uchi Cookbook: Kombu-cured mackerel, blueberry (original recipe called for huckleberry) gastrique, pickled shimeji mushrooms, charred onions, and juniper powder.

That looks amazing Choc Doc - I can't imagine how much prep you had to do for that (sounds fun). I did a four-course once for Valentine's Day and that was a ton of fun, although I don't know if I'm ambitious enough to go for ten.

Thanks! I got it in the bulk section of a spice store where I live. I think I've seen it in the bulk section of whole foods before as well.

Thanks! Nothing to be embarrassed about - chocolate chip cookies are great With that said I too prefer creamed butter for cookies. Those still look delicious though.

Here's a plated dessert I made - inspired by this photo on Modern Pastry. It included greek yogurt mousse, chamomile-hibiscus sorbet, fennel shortbread crumble, sous vide lemon curd (from MC), and carbonated green grapes. One of the best sorbets I've made, I started with this recipe and changed it a bit: 1/4 cup dry chamomile 1/8 cup dry hibiscus 4 cups water 1 cup sugar 3 Tbsp honey 1.5 g xanthan gum

What I like to do (confit cherry tomatoes, heavily inspired by the Modernist Cuisine): -cut a small "x" at the bottom of each tomato -blanch, shock, and peel the tomatoes -place on an oven sheet, brush each tomato with simple syrup and olive oil -Sprinkle with salt and fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, etc) -Set oven to 225-250 F and cook for several hours until dark red -Flip tomatoes and continue to cook until dark red -Store submerged in olive oil.

Morkai, that lamb looks delicious - great photography too. Here's a dish I made from the Uchi cookbook: bigeye tuna sashimi, soft chevre, fuji apples, san bai zu sauce (sugar + rice vinegar + soy sauce + hon dashi), and pumpkin seed oil.

Cured hamachi sashimi, edamame-horseradish puree, pea shoots, and furikake. From the Momofuku cookbook.

I've had plenty luck frying the herbs in the microwave on a flat plate - never found a plastic wrap that worked though.

Here's something I cooked from the VOLT Ink cookbook recently. I changed up the plating a bit and added the chocolate crumble: Caramelized white chocolate goat cheesecakes, frozen chocolate mousse, mandarin sorbet, chocolate crumble.

I just made some mandarin sorbet - pretty tasty stuff. I'd recommend it if you have an ice cream maker.

Sounds cool, but I want another cook book from them!

Thanks keith! Yep that's the recipe - I deviated a bit on the short rib preparation though, since I prefer my short ribs at a lower temperature (133 F for 72 hours). With that said the recipe turned out delicious, and I'm definitely going to dive right back into it. As you said, the book has a major focus on modern techniques. Luckily I have most of the equipment, but I don't think you could get very far on many of the recipes without some investment in modern equipment - mainly a dehydrator, sous vide setup, and whipping siphon.

Those lamb shanks look great Anne_T! As do those deep fried brussels sprouts (one of my favorites). I recently picked up the Volt Ink cookbook, and here's my first attempt at cooking from it. It's supposed to be a modern take on stir-fry beef with broccoli. The components include sous vide boneless short ribs, creamy broccoli puree, spicy soy caramel, deep fried dehydrated broccoli, deyhdrated horseradish foam, and broccolini. Turned out really well - with special mention to the broccoli puree. Instead of puree'ing the broccoli stalks, they were juiced then blended with cream, sauteed broccoli crowns, xanthan gum, salt, and butter.