Cooking with the Alinea Cookbook

[ermintrude]

"my guess would be that most that buy these books never make a single dish from them, but just love to have them. Maybe to add to the experience of having eaten at the restaurant, or info before going there. Or just for the fun of it, to somewhat stay on top of the top of cooking."

Ok I buy these books and have all the el-bulli books. Have I cooked a single recipe from then. I'm only a home cook. That said I have most of the hydrocoloids, gums, emulsifiers in my store cupboard (long story). However I've taken those recipes and used the techniques, to take what I have at hand and had wonderful success and hilarious disasters doing this.

While say "MG" can do show off things (The caaviar thing is fun), but the right emulsifier added to a good fat and stock can make something that would not be possible otherwise that guests think is "normal" and love but don't comment on and then a strawberry granita they think is all MG.

A meal is taste, experience, company and situation.

[Ron Seale]

Has anyone tried the Tomato recipe? I had a go at it last summer. It was an amusing way to spend a week, full time, and still not be able to complete the dish. I went through a lot of gelatin attempting to make the roll, and a lot of mozzarella trying to make the balloon. However, I served it anyway, with a cube instead of a roll, and mozzarella topped with tomato water foam. After all was said and done, I'm not that curious to try another marathon recipe.

[tomdarch]

Ok I buy these books and have all the el-bulli books. Have I cooked a single recipe from then.

I'd say to anyone who has the Alinea book but isn't really cooking out of it - make the "cheese and crackers" dish! It doesn't take any funny ingredients, just a way to squirt the cheese into the crackers (like a squirt bottle), and the result is really delicious. Especially as a holiday/party appetizer or buffet food, it's great.

About the Tomato dish - reading those pages and mentally working out the logistics on that dish made me realize that there are a few dishes in the book that really require a team of people to make them happen. In part, there are all the components to prepare ahead of service, but the real kicker is plating - to put together more than one or two of those at once, I really think you need a few people working together. I'm very interested to see how/if Carol at alineaathome or the guy at alineaphile deal with those mega-dishes.

[ChrisTaylor]

Inspired by my success with a somewhat modified version of the 'sour cream, smoked salmon and sorrel' dish, I'm kicking around the idea of devising a meal from the Alinea book. I'll have to modify the recipes for a few reasons--I want a handful of courses as opposed to twentysomething, I can't access or afford some of the ingredients, etc--but I want to try and stay true to the intent and flavour profiles of the dishes.

So ...

Appetiser: sour cream, smoked salmon and sorrel

First 'main': Kuroge wagyu. I don't have a sous vide rig or the dosh to buy wagyu after all the money I blew on cookbooks this past fortnight, so I'll buy a good quality steak, of which each diner will get a decent slice, and cook it as I usually do. Other than that, I'll be staying fairly true.

Second 'main': Pork cheek, pumpernickel, gruyere, ramps. Tempted to sub the cheek for a single spare rib each. As for ramps, they're like radishes, yeah? I'll stay true to the flavour profile but I'll probably mess around with the presentation--looking at the components I envision a sort of open sandwich, even, which is probably madness.

Where I run aground is the vegetable component. I want to have something that's heavy on vegetables. I also want a dessert. Suggestions? Things that jump out: a simplified version of the chocolate and avocado dessert. Maybe playing with the tomato and complementary flavours. A version of hot potato/cold potato with dried shiitakes or porcinis subbed for truffles.

[FoodMan]

Inspired by my success with a somewhat modified version of the 'sour cream, smoked salmon and sorrel' dish, I'm kicking around the idea of devising a meal from the Alinea book. I'll have to modify the recipes for a few reasons--I want a handful of courses as opposed to twentysomething, I can't access or afford some of the ingredients, etc--but I want to try and stay true to the intent and flavour profiles of the dishes.

So ...

Appetiser: sour cream, smoked salmon and sorrel

First 'main': Kuroge wagyu. I don't have a sous vide rig or the dosh to buy wagyu after all the money I blew on cookbooks this past fortnight, so I'll buy a good quality steak, of which each diner will get a decent slice, and cook it as I usually do. Other than that, I'll be staying fairly true.

Second 'main': Pork cheek, pumpernickel, gruyere, ramps. Tempted to sub the cheek for a single spare rib each. As for ramps, they're like radishes, yeah? I'll stay true to the flavour profile but I'll probably mess around with the presentation--looking at the components I envision a sort of open sandwich, even, which is probably madness.

Where I run aground is the vegetable component. I want to have something that's heavy on vegetables. I also want a dessert. Suggestions? Things that jump out: a simplified version of the chocolate and avocado dessert. Maybe playing with the tomato and complementary flavours. A version of hot potato/cold potato with dried shiitakes or porcinis subbed for truffles.

Ramps are not like radishes. They are a wild leek. So, I would substitute young garlic shoots, small leeks, or even mild spring onions for them, not radishes.

For dessert, I highly recomment the Coffee, Mint, Buckwheat, Passion Fruit dish. That was the first dish I made from Alinea and it is stunning. You can simplify it and make the cake, buckwheat ice cream and maybe the passion fruit pudding along with some form of the coffee cylinder component (freeze in a sheet and break into shards?).

[mkayahara]

That looks great, FoodMan. Did you use the propylene glycol alginate in the mint cream? That looks to be the only ingredient I don't have and/or can't substitute for in the recipe. Not that I need another fiddly recipe to make right at the moment, but this one does look really good.

[FoodMan]

That looks great, FoodMan. Did you use the propylene glycol alginate in the mint cream? That looks to be the only ingredient I don't have and/or can't substitute for in the recipe. Not that I need another fiddly recipe to make right at the moment, but this one does look really good.

Its been a while, but I am pretty sure I did not use it.

[ChrisTaylor]

Thanks for the heads up on ramps. I looked them up in Larousse and Davidson and all I found was rampsomethingorother, which was described as being somewhat like a radish--I figured 'ramp' was shorthand. I'll probably pick some of the young spring onions or leeks from my garden then.

[ChrisTaylor]

Wow. Shopping for these recipes is an expensive exercise, even before you look at texture enhancers.

The plan of attack for tomorrow (will be doing some prep today) is pretty much as listed. For the extra vegetable component I'll be looking in the direction of the hot/cold potato dish, only I'll be making the hot potato component by itself (using dried porcini instead of truffle). For the dessert I've decided to step away from the chocolate/avocado idea a bit--I'm thinking a licorice (I looked around for powder but, finding none, ending up buying some decent, hard sticks, which I'll grate finely) shortbread with a quenelle of chocolate ganache resting atop. I'll top the quenelle with lime zest and a fresh mint leave. Put a few drops of avocado oil around the place and a bit more grated licorice.

[Mjx]

. . . . For the dessert I've decided to step away from the chocolate/avocado idea a bit--I'm thinking a licorice (I looked around for powder but, finding none, ending up buying some decent, hard sticks, which I'll grate finely) shortbread with a quenelle of chocolate ganache resting atop. I'll top the quenelle with lime zest and a fresh mint leave. Put a few drops of avocado oil around the place and a bit more grated licorice.

I'm curious: Are the licorice sticks you refer to the pieces of dried root you can find in some shops, or the candy?

[ChrisTaylor]

The candy was all I could find. I went for the tough, unsweetened kind.

[mkayahara]

Last night I made the Pork, grapefruit, sage, honey(comb) dish. Wonderful flavours and textures, naturally. The sage fluid gel is the first one I've made since getting my Vitamix at Christmas, and it was such a dream compared to doing it with my old blender. So much faster, and such a better texture. Even with the Vitamix, the cornbread puree was a struggle, so I can't imagine it would be possible with a conventional blender! Lacking a honey extractor, I skipped the tableside honey application and just drizzled some honey on the plates before serving them.

[Tri2Cook]

Looks good Matt! I still haven't made an actual complete dish from that book. Borrowed quite a few ideas from it and twisted them to my own purposes but I really need to actually do some of the dishes at some point. Same with the Fat Duck book and many others I have... they usually end up getting used more for inspiration than cookbook. Maybe one weekend I'll pick some dishes from a few different books that will tie together nicely into a meal and invite some friends over. Despite the evidence to the contrary, I really would like to experience some of the complete dishes.