eG Foodblog: Chris Hennes (2012) - Chocolate, Tamales, Modernism, etc.

[hsm]

Just imagining how delicious that omelet tasted is fun, as was following your blog this week. Thanks for sharing!

[paulpegg]

Chris,

Did you use the onions from the butter anyplace? It looks like they could be used in the gratin, especially if I need to significantly increase the quantity of the gratin. I did some shopping today and will make a trial run at this one later in the week.

[Andreas]

Thanks for the Blog, the final onion tarte looks amazing! Would you say that it was worth the hassle? (Regardless what you say, I'll try it anyways... But I still have not red through the book, I'm currently at v3)

[Chris Hennes]

Did you use the onions from the butter anyplace?

Two places: I used them to make today's omelette, and I had previously used some of them to make a pasta sauce for lunch.

[Chris Hennes]

Would you say that it was worth the hassle?

If you ask a mountain climber at the top of El Capitan whether the view was worth the trouble, you are apt to get a funny look. Ask the climber why, then, did he climb El Cap? "Because it was there."

[Chris Hennes]

Last weekend I picked up a few Meyer lemons at the Whole Foods, on a whim. Today I put up one of them following the Alinea recipe for preserved Meyer lemons:

And dropped the other two into a jar of vodka:

[Chris Hennes]

Dinner tonight was a hot lentil salad and asparagus. The lentils were cooked sous vide yesterday with a massive pouch of vegetables (the veg were discarded)

I used distilled water this time and it made a huge difference, the lentils came up perfectly tender, and very few had split. Today I made some massive asparagus I picked up at Whole Foods last weekend:

These are bagged with a little water, olive oil, and salt, and cooked at 85°C/185°F for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I prepared the rest of the ingredients for the lentil salad:

Those are dried cherries, pecans, and a sour cherry vinaigrette. Toast the pecans, of course:

I wanted some greens in the salad, so I went out the the lawn near my herb garden:

Those weeds? Not your normal weeds:

Shot of my cilantro, for kicks:

So, I plucked some parsley from the lawn and chopped my ingredients:

I wanted a sauce for the asparagus, so I decided to try to do an egg yolk and lemon juice sauce thickened just slightly sous vide:

My favorite egg yolk sous vide bag:

Once the asparagus were done I dropped the temp to 65°C, the temp for a gel-like egg yolk, and added the mixture:

Unfortunately, it turns out that was too warm, I wanted a runny, flowing sauce, and was hoping that cooking the yolk to gel and being thinned out with the lemon juice would give me that, but instead the whole thing came out as a thick gel. Oh well, now I know... it tasted good, anyway.

[Andreas]

If you ask a mountain climber at the top of El Capitan whether the view was worth the trouble, you are apt to get a funny look. Ask the climber why, then, did he climb El Cap? "Because it was there."

The funny thing, I'm one of those crazy climbers... (Not El Camp, but still...). Never looked at cooking quite this way though: When climbing pretty much the journey is the reward, when I cook I can get pretty angry at me when I make unnecessary mistakes... Something to learn maybe...

[Chris Hennes]

[...] the journey is the reward

If you don't believe this about cooking, then MC V5 is not for you. You have to enjoy cooking, not just eating. The tart tasted great, best onion tart I've ever had. But you can make a damned good onion tart in about 30 minutes. It's not as fun, though.

[KennethT]

Chris - I really enjoyed this past week.. great job!!

[nickrey]

Thanks Chris, Great blog.

[robirdstx]

Thanks Chris. Great week. Loved the action photos.

[Chris Hennes]

Thanks to everyone who joined in, hope to see you in Lebanon starting tomorrow. My final post of the week: yet another Sauvignon Blanc, this one from New Zealand. Farewell, and take care!

[Andreas]

I think you got me the wrong way around... It's about the cooking AND the end result. While when climbing I can be perfectly happy with not ascending a route, I can't stand dumb mistakes that make the cooked end product worse...

I think I might skip v4 and read a little bit through v5...

[heidih]

Loved the parsley foraging from the winter-dead lawn.

I have been inspired by your masa and must take advantage of my local supply.

Thank you for an interesting and inspiring week!

[ChefCrash]

Wonderful blog Chris.

Thanks for sharing.

[rotuts]

may i ask what japanese knife I see in the Lentil series.

Id also like to find out the bagging system for the veg in the lentil dish

im very interested in learning how to remove 'flavor veg' from a SV packet.

many many thanks!

[Chris Hennes]

On 1330349669' post='1865851, rotuts said:

may i ask what japanese knife I see in the Lentil series.

The Inazuma Nakiri from JCK.

Quote

Id also like to find out the bagging system for the veg in the lentil dish

It's just cheesecloth: you make a big pouch of veg, stick it in with the lentils and little water, cook it, and then toss the pouch when you are done. It's basically equivalent to using a rich vegetable stock to cook the lentils in.

[rotuts]

wow. thanks for the info re the knife. I have so many and with the Edge-Pro I cant justify another ...

but japanese? would you get this knife again? happy with it?

every once and a while ... we fall off the ....

and Im glad I came back: never thought of the SV yolk thing.

it BookMarked!

[Chris Hennes]

but japanese? would you get this knife again? happy with it?

Yeah, I'm happy with it. It holds a very sharp edge for a long time (I use it exclusively on vegetables), and it's quite thin. It took some getting used to the round nose, but I've come to appreciate that, too.

[Anna N]

Thanks, Chris for a very interesting blog. Still don't have those corn tortillas sorted but have not given up just yet!

[ScottyBoy]

Great stuff, thank you

[Kerry Beal]

Thanks for the week of your life Chris - thoroughly enjoyed it!

[gfweb]

Inspiring stuff, Chris.

[David Ross]

Chris-I remember the sous vide egg we had at brunch at the Heartland Gathering this past Summer. I wasn't really a fan. I thought the white had a gummy texture and the yolk didn't have the same texture as an egg poached in water. Do you have a special technique for sous vide eggs that you feel comes close, or is better, than a traditionally poached egg?