William Colsher

We made the Mejadra a couple weeks ago for Meatless Monday (on Tuesday).

For what it's worth, the 2005 volume contains 125 recipes of which 81 can be made without the use of expensive equipment. This leaves aside the question of sourcing ingredients like "Warty Venus Clams". Some of the later volumes seem to rely more on the gadgets. In the event anyone is interested I've started a little blog about my experiences with the recipes: http://elbulliathome.blogspot.com/

You might take a look at www.foodpairing.com Consider too, as chefmd suggests, that many formerly "ethnic" foods are readily available and those that are not would essentially be irrelevant to your purpose.

There's a 2 foot by 10 foot roll available from Amazon. The smallest roll I've seen in Lowe's/Home Depot type places (and the one I bought) is 25 feet. You do use a surprising amount if you insulate all 6 sides - about 8 feet for a 12x18 Cambro. So depending on your values for "some" and "small" that 25 foot roll could go pretty fast.

As long as the liner is intact dish soap will do the job.

Based on your link and some Googling it looks like the ice bucket should have a glass or ceramic liner. If that's absent, you may be able to find a glass storage jar that will fit in it's place. There's an Anchor Hocking 2 quart glass candy jar that might do the trick.

You can buy a superbag from an industrial supplier for $8-10, a high quality blender, stand mixer, food processor, silpats, piping bags and tips, and the basic chemicals about cover the rest. The truly dedicated will add a chamber vacuum and Thermomix. I'm just getting into the Tapas 2005 but maybe a third of them are reasonably accessible if you're able to source/substitute ingredients. The entire 7th volume is dedicated to his methods and process and how they developed. I think its very relevant to the professional, less so, but still interesting for the home cook. The first 6 are annual catalogs like the ones up to 2005.

Yes, it's the 2005-2011 set. You can get an idea of some of the simpler recipes on the product website: http://www.albertyferranadria.com/index-eng.html But what's your definition of "minimal fuss"? There's not a lot that can be done in a single "stand-up" session in the home kitchen but there is a lot, maybe most, that can be done if you spread the work over several days (which in some cases you must). If you kitchen is large enough for more than 1 person to work then you can obviously overlap a lot of steps. And of course most of the recipes are scaled for 10 servings which isn't so bad since a lot of them are single bites designed to be part of a 25+ course meal. I think most of these sets are going to end up in professional libraries, used for inspiration and the occasional "elBulli Celebration". But there are probably plenty of wackos like me who'll buy them and actually make this stuff at home.

I'm still browsing 2005 but a quick count indicates that given the ingredients, time, and skill one might make 3 of the 5 Cocktails, 4 if you have a chamber vacuum; one requires liquid nitrogen. Looks like about 25 of the 35 Snacks are "within reach". At least one requires an ingrediant, Lay's 3Ds, that is no longer available and several involve freeze-drying (LYO in the title, but a good number of the LYO ingredients are available ready-made). That's as far as I've gotten so far. There are quite a few recipes that call for a superbag - there's a discussion of them on this site. A bigger expense would be a chamber vacuum (anything with CRU in the title) but as you know they have many "normal" uses as well. Of the remaining relatively normal equipment, the Thermomix shows up fairly often - the same price range as an oil pump CV but also useful for more than just elBulli stuff. The chemicals, ISI Whips, etc. are all easily available. Not too many of us home cooking maniacs will buy a dewar and liquid nitrogen (nitro in the title), but it's not out of the question if you can source the stuff. The Pacojet is probaby out of reach for nearly all of us. The internet makes sourcing ingrediants relatively easy but you'll certainly have to approximate some, particularly the fresh seafood itemsand very seasonal fruits, vegetables, and nuts. There are also some purpose built items such as molds, special serving ware, etc. one would have to fabricate or approximate. I think it's very reasonable for one person with reasonable planning skills to put together a Cocktail, 2 Snacks, 3 or 4 Tapas and a Dessert for an "elBulli Tasting at Home".

Ah! a cool thread I hadn't seen thanks for the tip I'm still browsing 2005 but a quick scan of the 2010-2011 volume didn't spot it this morning. I suppose it could easily have a different name in the book. The books are advertised as "every dish" so unless it's a repeat from an earlier year it should be in there somewhere. I'll look in depth this evening.

The package landed on my doorstep this afternoon. Very good packaging, everything intact. Beautiful as expected. What was a bit of a surprise to me is the number of items that require little or no special equipment, additives, etc. plenty that do of course, but there's much that can be done with fairly ordinary skills, patience, and attention to detail.

A couple "heads up" points: 1) Phaidon is starting to process credit card charges in the USA today. Mine was initially declined & I got a "possible fraud alert" from the CC company, likely because I'd never purchased from Phaidon before and because of the amount involved. So keep an eye out as it may happen to others. 2) After I called and got it straightened out I got a nice email that indicated they'll start shipping in (in the USA at least) on Feb 24.

One quick comment - if your smoke dectector is also detecting CO you might want to ensure your oven is actually burning properly before you mess with the detector.

There are loads of chemical changes that take place during baking: proteins break down at 65C, Maillard reactions begin at 110C, sugars caramelize at 140... There is a sort of continuum of thickeners: raw flour, cooked to denature the proteins so the can absorb water and gelatinize, stuff like Wondra, basically precooked flour, and bread which brings along tons of other tasty chemicals. Note that roux made with only flour and fat is often cooked until it browns.

I don't mean to presume on my third post but... it's trivial to make your own "white bread". Flour, water, salt, yeast. No big deal and anyone making Italian recipes can easily use a small loaf in a week or two since it freezes perfectly.

I'd make nice burgers from most of it, and little meat balls as part of a Neapolitan ragu from maybe half a pound or so. Maybe google "sartu" as well...

First post - I never expected it to be in a conversation like this Historic House Fitters makes a variety of hearth cooking items including trivets o support regular pans and the somewhat hard to find spider type frying pan: http://www.historichousefitters.com/subcat.asp?cat=12