slkinsey
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This is very interesting!
Could someone explain (and maybe even illustrate) the technique for making atsuyaki tamago? How is this different from making a French omelette? It looks like it is a bunch of very thin layers of egg all folded together and somehow made into a kind of "log" shape? What's the process. Are they usually consumed cold?
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Kevin, have you ever considered doing a zampone? They make those at Salumeria Biellese, too.
I am thinking of doing a big bollito misto party when it gets cold, and will definitely be getting one of those bad boys from Biellese.
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Very interesting Dave! Kudos on the concept and design.
You do have a technical problem to overcome there with the gravy if you want it to be thinner so it runs out of the cake. My advice would be forego the starch-thickened gravy and use instead a sauce that is thickened by reduction. In my T2W recipe, I braise the dark meat in wine, port and rich turkey stock, then I strain out the solids and reduce the braising liquid by around 3/4 to make the sauce (which is then mounted with plenty of butter). There is some starch in the sauce, but really very little. This sauce is solid at refrigerator temperature due to the gelatin, but liquid at room temperature once it has been melted. If you used a sauce like this rather than a starchy gravy you would get the rich taste and mouthfeel, and it would definitely run out when the potato cake was opened.
Another thought is that the uniquitous "molten chocolate cake" is usually made in a shallow mold that looks something like this. These molds can usually be had fairly inexpensively, don't take up much room, are designed to look great turned out, and are perfect any time you want to make individual desserts for a dinner party. The advantage of having the slopiong sides and an overall shorter cake is that you don't have to worry about the structural integrity as much. This means a higher gravy-to-potato ratio is possible.
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Call Salumeria Biellese in Manhattan.
Their online catalogue didn't list it as something they had.
They have it. Give them a call.
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I like to do sauteed chicken livers glazed in balsamic vinegar. Just take some balsamic vinegar and boil it down until reduced by half to two-thirds. Trim up the livers. You can marinade them in a touch of brandy for a while if you like (I do). Then get a frypan screaming hot on the stove, toss in plenty of butter and the livers and stard shaking. Don't crowd the pan. It's better to use two pans than crowd one. Anyway, stand over the pan and poke the livers with a finger from time to time. After a minute or two, they will suddenly go from gloopy-soft to just-firm. Pay close attention, because this change can happen very quickly. This is the magic "just cooked through and pink in the middle" chicken liver stage. Act fast, because it doesn't last long! Chicken livers cooked beyond this point aren't "bad" per se, but they aren't as magically good either. Toss in enough of the reduced balsamic vinegar to coat the livers well and get it onto a plate pronto. Serve with slices of white peasant bread to soak up the sauce.
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Call Salumeria Biellese in Manhattan.
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Hmm... Interesting. So, what people seem to be saying is that there are three attractions to a gyutou: 1) no bolster; 2) specialty steel; and 3) thinner/lighter. The shape of the knife seems to be a Western shape, so there's not difference there. Does that about sum it up?
Given the above, these seem pretty similar to custom Western knives, which often have a similar or lower price. For example, you will note that my chef's knives don't have a bolster, which is often the case with Western custom knives. My knives are also made of super-hard cast dendritic steel, and Western custom knives are often made of special metals. The main difference I can see is that my knives are extra-thick (definitely thicker than a Wusthhof) and the Japanese knives are most often thin. People will differ in whether they prefer a heavy knife or a light one (I like heavy) and one can always, of course, prefer one specialty metal over another. When I go to Japanese-Knife.com and search for "gyutou," the knives don't look all that exotic.
Not sure about needing the bolster to balance the knife. I though a full tang and a properly weighted handle took care of that.
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i've liked lots of them. but my favorite would have to be either the misono ux10 or the hattori (NOT the $1,200 one, though i'm sure i'd love it if i could ever get it through my expense account).
Interesting. Looking at this UX10 here, it doesn't look fundamentally different in design from my custom cast dendritic steel knives:
These always struck me as fundamentally Western shapes. What makes a gyutou different?
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Just a few more pictures by popular demand, then I'm handing over the reins. These address the question of my culinary roots and the the depth of my entertaining experience...
I am a foodie from way back
I was often to be seen about the kitchen
As you can see, I am quite the dinner party veteran
Yea, I've been hitting the sauce for a few years, too
Although it did take me a few years before I could hold my liquor
But at least I've always been able to appreciate a good bottle of Haut Brion (that's my father in the back)
Thanks, everyone!
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Back to Negronis - at the moment I'm using Noilly Prat and Juniper Green Organic Gin.
Ooh, interesting! Dimmi di questo gin.
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I like to make mine with the same ratios as Janet and Dave, but a smaller drink: 1 oz gin, .75 oz campari and .75 Carpano Punt e Mes instead of regular sweet vermouth. In general, I'd rather have two small drinks instead of one big one.
From a purely historical standpoint, isn't the formula favored by Janet, Dave and myself a Camparinete, or was that just its original name?
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Guys, it's been fun. My thanks to everyone for their kind comments and enthusiasm. I hope I've provided some inspiration, and if nothing else I hope I've shown that you don't have to be a Ducasse-trained chef to pull off a complex, multicourse dinner party. All it takes is planning.
If there are any questions or requests, please post today and I'll see what I can do. Thanks again!
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"Nurse Cocktail"! I love that. And why not "Anesthesiologist Cocktail"?
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Good points, Robert. I should have mentioned the difference between "potable bitters" and "nonpotable bitters." My comments were, of course, directed towards the latter -- which is to say, the kind of bitters one uses in drops and dashes as a flavoring.
Interesting to hear that "potability" was keeping Gary's bitters off the market, and very glad to hear that it will be on the market soon. I predict a rash of cocktails designed around orange bitters upon its release.
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I don't think any place is in the same league as Peter Luger with respect to the quality of the steak. So the other places are competing on the basis of, "sides, wine list, atmosphere and service much better; steak not quite as good." I'm not sure it qualifies as "obscure," but Fat Guy and I had a very good meal at Ben Benson's not too long ago that fit that bill.
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Now, I hope no one out there with the Doc's book is cheating!
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Pretty much any long-simmered vegetable will be perfect with the addition of this "kosher smoked ham hock."
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Not sure on the drink name though off the top of my head... keep thinking of something like "Apple Rose" don't know why...
Nope. You're probably thinking of the Jack Rose. That's applejack, lemon or lime juice and grenadine.
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A vintage concoction makes a comeback ... just don't ask for its name:
The Professor, our cocktailian bartender, is having a problem with a customer who doesn't seem to know what she wants to drink."How can I make you a cocktail if you won't tell me which one you want?"
"It's a secret cocktail."
"Can you tell me the ingredients?"
"Yes, but it's still a secret."
"Your name isn't Abbott or Costello by any chance?"
The woman holds out her hand. "Nope. Janet's the name. Ted Haigh told me to say hi."
"Ah, you're a friend of Dr. Cocktail. I haven't seen him in a while. He ever finish that book?"
"Where d'ya think I found the recipe for the Secret Cocktail?"
Here's the recipe:
1.5 oz : gin
0.5 oz: applejack
0.5 oz: fresh lemon juice
1 egg white
2 dashes grenadine
Shake well over cracked ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass, garnish with maraschino cherry.
This is a wonderful classic libation. Can anyone guess what it is? And who is this mysterious "Janet" at the bar?
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I just scored some raspberry syrup and tried this one myself. Loved it, but I am a real fan of rye. One thing, though: this is a drink that IMO required Old Overholt. I tried it with Wild Turkey 101, which has a much stronger flavor, and it was hard to tell that the drink tasted like much of anything other than rye. With milder Old Overholt, though, it worked very well. Interesting drink. I would never have thought of rye with grapefruit juice. I'll definitely be making it again. After all, I have to use up my raspberry syrup.
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From the business section of today's NY Times:
On Dec. 7, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments from small wineries and state regulators to decide whether those wineries can sell directly to out-of-state consumers, or whether they must use a state-mandated distribution system that, the winemakers argue, is far too costly.+ + +
At the heart of the matter are regulations enacted after the approval of the 21st Amendment in 1933, which ended Prohibition and allowed states to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages. At that time, New York and other states passed laws requiring out-of-state sellers of alcoholic beverages to sell only to licensed wholesalers in the state, who would then market the wine and other drinks to retailers.
For whatever it's worth, here is the 21st Amendment:
Article XXISection 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
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One more question, and pardon me if I missed this upthread, but where did you get the slabs o' slate for the oysters and granita? They look too thick to be tiles. They're brilliant.
The slates have an interesting story. My old day job used to be doing graphics and publicity materials, etc. for a small group at Citibank that was developing a product to do very secure, high value, electronic cash transactions. When I say "cash" I mean actual cash, not some front-end that looks like cash but actually involves bank-to-bank transters at the back-end level. So if you withdrew a million dollars of cash and left it sitting on your computer, it was like having a million dollars of cash in your wallet. You can see our patent portfolio here.
Anyway, we were part of what was called the "Corporate Technology Office" -- a small division that reported directly to the CEO of Citicorp. One of the things that the head of the CTO did was order a whole bunch of these slate things to use for corporate awards and whatnot. They could just send out the slate to be engraved whenever they wanted, and so it was handy to have a bunch of them on hand. Well, eventually Citicorp merged with Traveler's Group to become Citigroup. Soon thereafter the Citigroup CEO was gone and Sandy Weil was the top dog. Sandy Weil was not interested in having a small technology division under him, and so the CTO was dissolved. Everyone forgot about the slates (among other things) or simply didn't care. Our group was put under "emerging markets." Then 9/11 happened and the bottom fell out of "emerging markets" -- most of which are in Asia and the Middle East. Suddenly there was pressure to make money, and our product was more of a long-term project with not insubstantial right-now costs. To make a long story short, our project was terminated.
Not only was the project terminated, but we had very little time to get out of our facility. Some bigwig from Solomon Smith Barney wanted the whole floor for his group, and they were coming to tear out the whole floor in a few weeks. We had around 14 days to shut down the project, warehouse all the records, terminate contracts, get rid of the hardware and clear out. Anything that was left on the floor after a certain date would be thrown out with the trash.
Since all the other CTO people were long gone, there was no one around to care about the slates and they were going to be thrown away. So I took them... among other things. Use them mostly as trivets.
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Okay... now that I have some breathing room, I'll run down the dinnertime execution logistics. As mentioned upthread, there were cocktails and crudités starting around 6:00 with a planned sit-down time of 8:00.
3:00 : All chilled wines into the refrigerator (cava, moschofilero, montlouis sur loire and riesling). Red wines by an open window. Make bourbon caramel for bread pudding. bergerka cubes brioche.
3:30 : Shred turkey dark meat, reduce braising liquid. Set covered saucepan on kitchen window sill (the sill in the kitchen is around 1 foot deep).
4:00 : Blanch cabbage leaves and make dressing rolls. Place in baking pan, sprinkle turkey stock jelly over rolls, cover with foil and set on kitchen window sill. Extra dressing removed from baking pan to ziplock bag and into refrigerator. Dressing pan washed and put away.
4:30 : Pound out tuna, place onto salad plates. Salad plates into refrigerator. Mix herbs for salad, place into stainless steel bowl. Bowl onto kitchen window sill (underneath baking pan).
5:00 : Brussels sprouts gratin out of refrigerator to kitchen window sill (on top of baking pan with dressing rolls).
5:15 : Shower. bergerka does last minute cleanup and supervises setting of table. Various infused oils, vinaigrettes and purees in squeeze bottles out of refrigerator to kitchen counter.
5:45 : Print place cards (menu on back) and assign seating. Two bottles of cava from refrigerator into freezer.
6:15 : Cauliflower soup and spinach puree out of refrigerator and into covered pans on the stove. Slates into the freezer. Make custard for bread pudding. Layer brioche cubes and bourbon caramel, then cover with custard and set aside.
6:30 : Make first round of cranberry champagne cocktails. Mingle and make merry. Set oven to 350 F.
7:30 : Moschofilero wine to freezer.
7:45 : Start opening oysters. Take cauliflower soup and spinach puree up to simmer and then reduce heat to minimum.
8:00 : Deploy slates on table. Go around table making mound of salt on each slate followed by ewindels who placed one oyster on each salt mound. Open wine. Fill and place cucumber cups while ewindels pours wine and bergerka gets everyone to the table. Begin dinner proper.
Next : When oyster course is finished, ewindels and bergerka remove slates from table, sweep salt, shell and cucumber cup into trash with damp cloth and stack slates out of the way. Demitasse spoons into the bus bin. Meanwhile I have turned stove to high to bring soup and puree up to full simmer and opened wine. All bowls laid out on kitchen counter. One ladle of spinach into each bowl, then knock bowls on counter to level puree then fill bowls with cauliflower soup. Each bowl garnished with parsley leaf and sprinkled with curry oil. ewindels has poured the wine by the time I am at the garnishing stage. ewindels and bergerka take finished bowls out to table. Brussels sprout gratin into the oven. Pots for soup and puree rinsed out and put away. This whole process takes maybe 7 - 10 minutes.
Next : When soup course is finished, ewindels and bergerka strike soup bowls and soup spoons to bus bins. Wine is opened and ewindels pours. Sauteed Brussels sprouts into nonstick frypan with guanciale fat on low heat. Guanciale into oven. Salad plates onto kitchen counter and sprinkled with a few desalinated capers. Herb salad dressed, mixed and mounded on plates by hand. Plates deployed by ewindels and bergerka. Down time 5 - 7 minutes.
Next: Salad plates and white wine glasses removed to bus bins by ewindels and bergerka. Red wine glasses set and wine opened/poured by ewindels. Sauteed brussel sprouts pan turned to high. Crème brûlée removed from refrigerator, sprinkled with sugar and flamed with torch by me. Gratin and guanciale removed from oven and slaw from refrigerator to counter top by me. Each plate is: cut small round of gratin with too-expensive French ring cutter, place on plate; place one crème brûlée at opposite side; place four pieces of sauteed Brussels sprout and a few pieces of guanciale by hand; place small mound of slaw by hand (which cools off fingers from placing the sauteed pieces); squirt ring of marjoram vinaigrette and hand off to ewindels. Oven to 400 degrees. Down time 10 - 12 minutes.
Next: Plates scraped and stacked in bus bin along with ramekins by ewindels and bergerka. Red wine glasses removed and small glasses for moscato deployed and filled by ewindels. Sorbet bowls placed on kitchen counter. Meanwhile, roasting pan heated on stove, breasts browned in butter and put into oven with temperature probe. Skillet of sliced mushrooms and butter into oven. Baking pan with dressing rolls into oven. Sauce and shredded dark meat brought up to temperature on low heat at back of stove. Each sorbet bowl with two scoops of sorbet and a drizzle of Farigoule thyme liqueur. Down time 10 minutes.
Next : Large "restaurant plates" (kind of like gigantic pasta bowls) placed in oven. Turkey breast and dressing rolls removed from oven. Sorbet bowls, spoons and moscato glasses removed to bus bins by bergerka and ewindels. Large bowl red wine glasses set and both red wines opened. Mestizaje poured by ewindels and Syrah placed on table. Sauce mounted with around 3/4 pounds of 83% butter. To make up a plate: ring mold into center of heated plate; then some mushrooms, then some shredded darm meat; a little sauce on top of the shredded meat; then several slices of white meat into the top of the rind mold; a small piece of foie gras and some black truffle over the white meat; remove ring mold; place sliced dressing roll at 12 o'clock and pour sauce around plate; dust with minced parsley. ewindels took each plate to the table as finished. Oven to 300 F and the bread pudding into the oven. Down time 15 - 17 minutes.
Next: Everyone to the living room for a break. Plates and glasses to the bus bins. Desserts deployed to table and espresso made to order. People help themselves to desserts.
Next: palmiers, chocolate truffles and various bottles of booze offered.
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Sam, will you look this over and tell me if you think I've gotten the proportions and technique right? I wish I could do this "by feel", as you have, but I need a more solid outline.
Seems about right to me. A few comments below.
Place chopped cauliflower in large dutch oven over medium-low heat. Pour in milk to within 1" of the pan lip barely cover cauliflower. Simmer uncovered until just tender, but not overcooked. Drain, reserving cooking liquid.Run cauliflower through a food mill to remove fibrous texture (optional). Then place into blender with enough of the milk to make a thick puree about 1/2 of the reserved cooking liquid (ratio should be about 2:1 cauliflower to milk). Blend till silky. Can be chilled overnight at this point. Before service, reheat soup, adding cream to taste.
For curry oil, add curry to olive oil, let steep overnight heat until bubbles begin to form and infuse for several hours. Strain through fine mesh sieve a coffee filter or paper towel. Pour into squeeze bottle.
Saute spinach with 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil in heavy skillet Steam spinach until completely wilted, squeeze dry in tea towel and place in food processor blender with cream and nutmeg. Process Blend until smooth and mix in crispy fried shallots.
For assembly, in a small bowl with high sides, place 1" of spinach puree, top with a sprinkle of crispy shallots, then 3 or 4" of cauliflower mixture. Garnish with curry oil drizzle and a few of the crisped shallots or a single chervil leaf.
These changes make it closer to what I did, which is not to say that doing exactly what you originally wrote wouldn't be just as tasty.
Tamago (Eggs)
in Japan: Cooking & Baking
Posted
And in the "answer your own question" department, I found this page. Is this the way most people make it at home (albeit in a round skillet)?