Cooking with "Ideas in Food"

[avaserfi]

Extruded potato chip pasta was a success. I used roasted potato flour, instead of flakes, and cut back significantly on the liquid ingredients using a mixture of beer and eggs rather than just eggs.

Cool! That looks awesome. (And so do the photos on your title page!)

What extruder do you have?

A.

Thanks so much. I do the cooking and plating, but not the photography. My partner takes care of that.

The extruder is the KitchenAid KPEXTA attachment.

Edited April 26, 2011 by avaserfi (log)

[gfweb]

This pasta is then boiled...or fried like a pringle?

[mkayahara]

This pasta is then boiled...or fried like a pringle?

The recipe calls for them to be boiled, but I think it'd be fun to turn it into a puffed snack! (Boil/dehydrate/deep fry.)

[avaserfi]

This pasta is then boiled...or fried like a pringle?

Boiled. The pasta still has a primary base of wheat flour, the roasted potato flour gives it a very nutty potato chip like flavor. Although, the sheeted version would make great fried ravioli, maybe a play on sour cream and onion with a green onion-ricotta mixture.

[gfweb]

This pasta is then boiled...or fried like a pringle?

The recipe calls for them to be boiled, but I think it'd be fun to turn it into a puffed snack! (Boil/dehydrate/deep fry.)

exactly! great for dipping.

Edited April 26, 2011 by gfweb (log)

[Msk]

Foodman, Does your Maple Vinegar have any Vinegar "Bite" toit? Mine really does not, but I wouldn't call it sweet either. Its almost like the nutty notes of a port without the sweetness. It is delicious but since I have no basis for this I am curious about others results.

I made the soft scrambled eggs and ran them through an isi. Really awesome, on Chala toast with a slice of cheddar. More like a sauce than eggs, but definetly tasted like eggs.

Mike

[Jen Rehm]

I just read this book on vacation and all I could think about was coming home and COOKING!!!!

Brilliant, accessible, and fun. Kudos to the authors!

Glad for the thread!

j

[FoodMan]

Foodman, Does your Maple Vinegar have any Vinegar "Bite" toit? Mine really does not, but I wouldn't call it sweet either. Its almost like the nutty notes of a port without the sweetness. It is delicious but since I have no basis for this I am curious about others results.

Mike

Well, it is certainly vinegar and has some small bite. Overall it is still mild (been 8 weeks now)and slightly sweet. Like you said though, I have no basis for comparison but it is very tasty.

[chriscook]

Foodman, Does your Maple Vinegar have any Vinegar "Bite" toit? Mine really does not, but I wouldn't call it sweet either. Its almost like the nutty notes of a port without the sweetness. It is delicious but since I have no basis for this I am curious about others results.

I've had a couple jars of this sitting for about 4 weeks. It has a slight acidic bite and mild maple sweetness. Similar to the Rancho Gordo banana vinegar I could a couple weeks ago, although the maple vinegar doesn't have quite the acidic bite of the banana. If I make it again I might add more rum to see if that would increase the acidity a bit.

[JHeald]

Has anyone else tried the no-knead brioche? I've never made brioche before, but this recipe looked very interesting, so I decided to try it out. I used a scale and followed the directions, but I found the brioche to be fairly dense. I've never actually had fresh brioche before (and now I realize I need to have some), so I'm not entirely sure what to expect, but from everything I've read and heard about brioche, this was not the light, airy, and buttery bread that I thought would result. It is good bread, but is it good brioche?

I had the exact same experience. It was good bread and the loaf went quickly but it wasn't brioche, at least based on the brioche I've had before. This was extremely dense - I'm glad you had the same results! I've actually had a high % of Ideas In Food recipes that didn't work the way I had expected although at the same time I've taken a lot of good tips and techniques out of the book and blog.

rg

Roygon,

I was thinking about the density of this brioche recipe, and decided to compare it to other brioche recipes. What was most enlightening is what I found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice. The BBA lists three different recipes for brioche; one of the biggest difference is the amount of butter in the recipes. The recipe with the least amount of butter, which is closest to the Ideas in Food recipe, has about 50% butter (by bakers percentage). The recipe also has a little side bar, describing the brioche as a good sandwich bread. That comment, and the similar butter proportions, make me think that the Ideas in Food brioche is supposed to be fairly dense. It also got me thinking, "what would happen if I added more butter? maybe substituted extra butter for a few of those 8 egg yolks?". Considering how easy the bread was to make, I might try tackling it this weekend. What do you think?

[FoodMan]

I made their ricotta cheese recipe recently and it is certainly an improvement over my regular recipe (using butermilk). The Ideas in Food recipe uses a small amount of Citric acid and provides me with a much better yield and a sweeter ricotta.

[nolnacs]

I made the chicken leg confit earlier this week with some alterations. I didn't have the time or inclination to make the lime pickles that the recipe called for so I mixed up the seasoning a bit. Overall, I have to say that it makes for an extremely tasty chicken leg, but I would cook it longer than the 2 hours @ 150 F that they call for since the tendons/connective tissue were still a bit tough - especially with the drumstick

[JHeald]

I made the chicken leg confit earlier this week with some alterations. I didn't have the time or inclination to make the lime pickles that the recipe called for so I mixed up the seasoning a bit. Overall, I have to say that it makes for an extremely tasty chicken leg, but I would cook it longer than the 2 hours @ 150 F that they call for since the tendons/connective tissue were still a bit tough - especially with the drumstick

I haven't tried the IiF recipe for chicken log confit, but I did try making it using a duck confit recipe. After the dry rub, I rinsed, dried, and sealed them in ziplock vacuum bags and threw them in a slow cooker filled with water and set on low, overnight. I tossed the legs in the fridge the next morning, after dumping the liquid into a jar. Most Amazing Chicken Legs Ever. Plus, there was some rather amazing chicken jello left in the jar...we're talking jello non-jigglers. The tendons had completely dissolved, to the point that I could remove the bones and joint (cartilage), leaving the leg and thigh completely intact!

[FoodMan]

I think the maple vinegar is ready to use. It's been significantly more than the 4 weeks it needed per the recipe but it was still a bit too sweet at 4 weeks. Now, it is still on the sweeter side, but it is much better balanced with the tartness. This is a delicious product and like no commercial vinegar I ever bought. I cannot wait to try it on or with something.

It's been months, and the vinegar finally is around the 4.5 or 4.7 PH mark. It is really delicious. I think the longer time I needed was probably because I used my homemade red wine vinegar as a base and that might not have been quiet ready yet. Now, the sweetness is much milder but still perceptible and the tartness comes through very well. Really the balance is just about perfect.

[FoodMan]

The mozzarella recipe from Ideas in Food worked great. I've had a few failures with mozzarella before and this is the first time I try their recipe. Followed it exactly but did not use the Lipase (had none and was not going to buy any...yet). I want to attempt repeating the result using regular whole milk. This time I used some excellent raw unhomoginized milk from a local farm.

[Robert Jueneman]

Can someone comment on whether this book has a lot of pictures/diagrams? I'm thinking of buying it and tempted to get the Kindle version, but not if there's a lot of illustrations (which never come through very well).

There aren't any illustrations at all - it's all text. The Kindle version should be fine. (In fact, if I ever get an e-reader, this would be one of the first books I'd buy.)

They are now offering a book of pictures on their web site, at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/ideasinfood. Hardcover $60, download $15.

[seabream]

Made their miso noodles. I didn't have white miso, so used red miso instead. Rolled the pasta with the pasta roller, and then cut wide pappardelle pasta by hand.

The pasta was very good, but we couldn't really taste the miso... The recipe says to do it with white miso because it's the mildest variety, so if anything, I was anticipating the pasta to be too intensely flavored with red miso. Can't think of what I could do to improve the result, other than increasing the amount of miso (and decreasing the water to keep the amount of liquids the same).

[Bojana]

I am in love with their mushroom stock, has umami written all over it! Also enjoyed roasted pasta and love the trick of soaking pasta to shorten the cooking time.