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paul o' vendange

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Everything posted by paul o' vendange

  1. Yes. There's a part of me that wars with a part of me that misses the classical coulis that is disgusted by most elements of haute cuisine. It's one reason I got out. There.
  2. This is a "gateau orange caramel," which I got from Cuisine et Vins de France. The recipe calls for Grand Marnier in the batter. My wife, whom I lovingly refer to as "kitchen witch" as she loves to make all kinds of liqueurs and extraordinary bitters, provided her "Cointreau." One of these days we will have to source Seville Oranges. The recipe also calls for faisselle égoutté. Easy to make (the soft, drained cheese), I've made it many times but I haven't made any cheese in a log time and have no cultures so I substituted the faisselle égoutté with Chobani yogurt - I made a "sack" with double layers of tight-weave cheesecloth and drained it overnight over a bowl in the frigo. Texture came out beautifully.
  3. @paulraphael: " It's so easy that I don't do anything generic like veal or a white chicken glace. I use a dish-appropriate meat for whatever meals I'm planning. The degree to which this is better than an Escoffier demi-glace has to be tasted to be appreciated. And you don't give up a whole weekend for it." I always believe in using the "thing itself" as much as possible, which is why I was always such a fan of Keller's "quick sauces" approach. That said, because he uses his (extremely light, 40-minute simmer) chicken stock and demi-glace, along with water, for his multiple glazings, I think there can be a tendency for a generic "roast meaty" taste between his duck, squab, lamb, etc. quick sauces, despite the uses of "squab spice" and so forth. Interested in the coulis approach, with meat. Anyway, more of the PC process generally somewhere?
  4. Paul, a sort of master process, let's say. Do you have a "standard" light chicken stock recipe? And what size (make, while we're there) PC do you use? And you're earlier description of a sort of hybrid-coulis process sounds like something I seem to recall Peterson describes, in terms of trying to parse out aromatics given multiple wettings. Is this where you got it?
  5. Thanks. Looking for Puebla y su Cocina, no luck so far but I love these kinds of books.
  6. Loved his autobiography. Ooooooooo, juice! Also loved Tony Bourdain's documentary on him, The Last Magnificent. Saddens me he seems to be a recluse now in Mexico. Wonderful place to be, but I can't help think he was wounded from very early on and left a lot of life behind.
  7. I'm re-reading 32 yolks right now, third or 4th time through. Just closed the chapter on the loss of his dad. Deeply moving, brought me to tears. I love the guy. In case it's not apparent, Eric and Maguy and I aren't like "this." We're "never met." And I'd fall of my chair too, swooning to my wife and son's humiliation. 😁
  8. I get it. I'm such an orthodox cat it's extremely hard for me to change up my ways. I know that's hard to discern, because I'm always going on about pushing the modernist envelope and am generally considered "down with it" and "cutting edge" by most younger cooks who know "where I'm at." But it's definitely something I'm going to try. This is probably not at all comparable, but in brewing, you actually want to drive off some volatiles, mostly the precursor to dimethyl sulfide, which can give finished beer a quality of cooked corn. Yum. Perhaps there's something here - desirable loss of volatiles?
  9. Congratulations, and happy anniversary! Say hi to Eric and Maguy. We're like "this."
  10. Rancho on my cart - looks awesome. Could you talk about Pueblo Y Su Cocina a bit?
  11. @paulraphael "...James Peterson Sauces book (a gem). " - Can we get an amen! It's in my bedside "speed rail" of books I can't stand not having within arm's reach. 'My reduction days are mostly over too. When I want to make a glace or coulis, I start with proportions pretty close to what I'm hoping to end with. Why lose all those aromatics? The Carême and Escoffier methods seem very dated now. They're about throwing in a whole barnyard full of meat in in the beginning, knowing that most of the flavor will go out the window. You can do better even without a pressure cooker. " I know you're right, Paul. In every way (losing volatiles; not keen on coulis, old-school or as Bernard Loiseaux called it, "sacrificial meats."). Still, I'm a hopeless luddite romantic. I'll never be able to jettison the old fellas entirely. At least my dog loves me.
  12. Well, jury's out for me on this jus. Tastes salty to me but my wife died for it. Her threshold is much higher than mine (it helps she's Estonian blooded). I don't like to taste salt at all in anything, unless it's grains of fleur de sel or gris at finishing. Muddier than I like, but then I wonder if as Heidi says, I might have been chasing all these years clarity at the cost of deeper flavor. Keller's "Big Pot" blanching; Alice Waters's decrial of such blanching for looking beautiful but losing flavor. Hmm. I'll need a bigger freezer, lol. Mine is an old army tank of a 20 qt. All-American. It's also aluminum. But you intrigued me before, and now I'll have to do it - with a smaller PC.
  13. I do like the complex sweetness that comes from aromatics, but add them in final hour. I love Keller's veal stock, but with the remouillage, those veggies are dead. I think if there's one issue I have with it, it's a bit too sweet for me, and I like some (lighter side) roastiness. Making Ducasse's chicken jus right now. 2# chix parts, 8 oz. butter, 6 garlic cloves smashed, 1/2 tsp salt. Two glaze cycles, mere 20 minutes with very little water. I'm a fan of repeated glazings, which I think Ecoffier does either with his fond brun, or fond brun de veau, maybe both, Keller's "quick sauces." Will report!
  14. Thanks Tdev! I've tried that and for some reason I'm not getting the link suggestions - it just stays as plain text. -except right now, of course, as I'm confusing this site with a bread site I'm part of (doesn't have this feature). My brain, lol. @TdeV. @paulraphael, you're being talked about!
  15. This is all great info, thanks you guys - Dave in particular, thanks for the link back to your thread. Awesome experiment. If PaulRaphael happens to see this I know he loves to make stock in a PC, hopefully he'll chime in. I have a massive one capable of handling 5L Erlenmeyer flasks (I used to use them for yeast propagation in brewing and other things), so.....thats a lot of bones! I'm such a freak. I find myself almost tearing at the flesh to abandon myself to another approach - almost using confirmation bias to find some old school French guys who don't use salt to "give permission" it's OK to stick with what I've always done. Almost all do. I'm screwed. It feels like I'm making a Tetrapak broth. Can't even begin to go from there to not religiously skimming every time a fleck pops up to the surface and embracing Ducasse's absolute neglect during the pendency of the simmer. And a stick of butter! The obsessive weirdo runs square up against the guy on the shoulder who slaps upside the head, "what's wrong with you? You're not cooking for anyone paying you anymore, freaking' try it!" I'm in need of gustatory counseling.
  16. Thanks weinoo. I wondered about that. What do you think of his thing for white chicken stock to not skim at all? I'm not certain of my memory, but I think Judy Rogers might have felt the same way, removing fat in the frigo. Now that I think of it, she trained for a short while with the Troisgros brothers, and here's from their The Nouvelle Cuisine of Jean and Pierre Troisgros, on light chicken stock: (after adding the chicken)...bring to the boil gently and skim..." but then, after aromatics: "...make certain that it stays at a rolling boil for 45 minutes...." Unfortunately I only have the English translation so I guess it's possible that's a translation error but it sure seems specific. Weirdly they say right after "...45 minutes": "...skim off the fat as it rises to the surface. These two points [skimming, and the rolling boil] are important if you want to achieve a crystal-clear stock." Rolling boil with light chicken stock? Crystal clear? I don't get it at all. I understand from Steven and others that Ducasse has no problem with clear stocks and jus - with the butter giving it a beautiful sheen, without the lip-smacking unpleasantness of overly reduced stocks (after all these years, I'm moving in the same direction. Just for home and friends now). What are your thoughts?
  17. I know he's been covered in terms of his interesting methods re stocks and jus - I don't have any of his Grand Livres, but do have his Flavors of France and have read on him throughout here in terms of his approaches, e.g., not skimming the chicken stock, jus perlé, etc. I've never tried his approach but I want to try all the stocks and jus in the index. I've always skimmed all stocks like a freak, for instance. Stumped how he would achieve clarity in his chicken stock but looking forward to it. The use of salt. See it universally here, and looked back to Chapel in his La Cuisine C'est Beaucoup Plus Que Les Recettes to see he, too, used salt. I vaguely recall Bocuse does the same but at least cautions on reducing and resultant saltier flavor (I think. I haven't read his Cuisine du Marché in a really long time). I never use salt in any stocks, jus, fumets, etc. Can anyone explain the reasoning? Does salt aid in the extraction of flavor? In general, I am very intrigued by Ducasse and have never really explored him in depth. I have his Atelier, Flavors of France, Bistro (and "Cooking School," not a fan). Outside his Grand Livres (which are way out of my range), any resources in particular you could recommend to get inside his methods (v. recipes; looking for commentary that aids learning his approach. French Laundryesque?). Thanks.
  18. IIRC, it's also the method laid out by Jim Lahey. Never tried it but I'm intrigued. Also want to try using Caputo "Chef" and "Pizzeria" Type 00 flours.
  19. Wish I could add a "delicious laughter" at the same time. 😁
  20. I, um, want to eat this. Though the abalone has to be tough as boot leather and the scallops good for handball. Yet still I want to eat it. Help.
  21. That's terrible news. Ann, I hope you're OK, I hope the injuries were fairly minor! You are very much in mind - heal well, and quickly.
  22. I'm in the same boat JoNorvelle, haven't baked in a few months, I think it's been. First loaf "back," a "Rubaud" levain (70% BF, 18% WW - a 50:50 mix of home-milled hard spring and winter wheats, 9% spelt, 3% rye (both milled at home as well).
  23. Thanks! I had it and sold it years ago, to my regret. I don't know why the book doesn't more love here in the States, anyway. I love my Ferrandi (and so many others), but this is such an amazing technical, teaching book. I had the French version but great to know of the deal. Thanks again!
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