Cooking with "Modernist Cuisine at Home" (Part 1)

[Chris Hennes]

Fresh apple juice and gelatin, mostly (some lime juice, sugar, and salt as well): chilled for four hours and then dispensed from a thermowhip. It held its shape for about a half hour before deflating, so it has to be a last-minute addition to the pie before serving.

[KennethT]

If you kept the pie refrigerated, would the foam still deflate? I'd imagine it deflated at room temp as the gelatin lost its structure. Do they talk about other hydrocolloids in the book, or is their discussion limited to the main, easily obtainable ones? (gelatin, agar, etc.)

[Chris Hennes]

If you kept the pie refrigerated, would the foam still deflate? I'd imagine it deflated at room temp as the gelatin lost its structure. Do they talk about other hydrocolloids in the book, or is their discussion limited to the main, easily obtainable ones? (gelatin, agar, etc.)

"Discussion" is not quite right: this is not Modernist Cuisine. The "at Home" version contains a two page spread with very brief descriptions of a dozen or so Modernist pantry staples. There is no in-depth discussion of any of them. This is mostly a recipe book.

[Chris Hennes]

Aged White Cheddar on Sourdough With Apples (p. 318)

Once they introduce the idea of using sodium citrate to stabilize cheese and make your own processed cheese slices, they have a two-page spread with ideas for grilled cheese sandwiches. I was looking through it this morning and realized that I had all the ingredients for one of them, so I made it for lunch:

Starting with a Grafton cheddar and emulsifying it in water using sodium citrate:

I poured that into a shallow baking dish and tossed it in the fridge while I started making the rest of the sandwich: first layer (after the buttered sourdough) is a thinly sliced jalapeño. This is from my garden, and they are quite hot, so I tried not to overdo it.

The next layer is sliced honeycrisp apple:

By the time that was assembled the cheese had cooled enough to be maneuverable, so I put a slice on (the good fit to the bread is coincidental, that's just how the edge of the cheese pool turned out):

A shot of the finished sandwich:

And proof of the supreme meltability of this cheese:

[rotuts]

very interesting. how would that 'same' sandwich have tasted to you with the same cheddar not processed? more grainy? still melted of course, maybe not enough to separate.

[Chris Hennes]

Tasted? The same, I hope! But yes, the difference here is in the texture. I personally think it was worth the extra five minutes, but I'm fanatical about grilled cheese .

[rotuts]

sort of why American Cheese ( not white! ) works so well on a burger. cant say it would work well on much else, except a grilled cheese sand. with top notch bread.

[coz]

I made the microwave eggplant parmesan tonight. Very tasty and fairly quick since I used store bought marinara sauce. I didn't have the called for size pan so it came out a little messy so no pictures. I recommend trying it out!

[Merkinz]

What is a suitable substitute for Wondra? It's just not available here

[Dexter]

What is a suitable substitute for Wondra? It's just not available here

I've managed to fake it fairly well with low protein cake flour, spiked with about 1% corn starch. Make a slurry with it first to work out lumps, but it really only works when you are using a relatively small amount.

There are enough New Zealanders on this board that it might be worth trying to put together some kind of drop shipment of a bunch of stuff that's not available there. Just a thought, but I'd be willing to pack things up and take a big box to the post office if it'd be worth while to people...

Edited October 2, 2012 by Dexter (log)

[Merkinz]

Thanks Dexter! That is a generous offer and if the others on here are keen then I am in. It seems to come up alot in this book. I've reached out to an american foods store here to see if they are able to obtain it for me but I haven't heard back yet. Modernist Pantry are great for the modernist ingredients but there are odd things like Wondra that they don't stock for obvious reasons.

[Kerry Beal]

What is a suitable substitute for Wondra? It's just not available here

In Canada we have Robin Hood Blending flour. Look for something like that.

[Chris Hennes]

Pressure-Cooked Chickpea Salad (p. 172-173)

Sous Vide Tuna Confit (p. 174)

Dinner tonight was two simple dishes from MCaH, one cooked sous vide and the other pressure cooked. I made the recipes almost exactly as written, with the exception of replacing the mineral water called for cooking the chickpeas in with a 1% calcium chloride solution (the recommended ratio from MC for cooking beans). The tuna is brined for 24 hours and then cooked in oil to 122°F: it wound up meltingly tender (and very difficult to plate neatly, I thought). The chickpeas were fully cooked but still firm, with an intensely lemony dressing. I found that my mint leaves were much smaller than theirs, so I need far more than 5-6 leaves to get three grams, but otherwise everything worked out as expected.

[Todd in Chicago]

Pressure-Cooked Chickpea Salad (p. 172-173)

Sous Vide Tuna Confit (p. 174)

Dinner tonight was two simple dishes from MCaH, one cooked sous vide and the other pressure cooked. I made the recipes almost exactly as written, with the exception of replacing the mineral water called for cooking the chickpeas in with a 1% calcium chloride solution (the recommended ratio from MC for cooking beans). The tuna is brined for 24 hours and then cooked in oil to 122°F: it wound up meltingly tender (and very difficult to plate neatly, I thought). The chickpeas were fully cooked but still firm, with an intensely lemony dressing. I found that my mint leaves were much smaller than theirs, so I need far more than 5-6 leaves to get three grams, but otherwise everything worked out as expected.

Ah! Mine just came in today! I'll have to start flippin' through the pages tomorrow!

Todd in Chicago

[AlenChris]

The pie looks delicious. I like it.

[rotuts]

I love this thread and follow it with relish. Im going to have to look into those foamers.

[coz]

Question on the Microwaved Cod and other fish recipes.

MCAH specifies using 800 watts on your microwave but the Jan '12 MC blog posting which outlined this recipe said 600 watts. The times appear to be similar.

I made some red snapper last night with this method using 800 w but it did seem a bit overdone.

Do you think this is a typo in the book?

[Dexter]

Thanks Dexter! That is a generous offer and if the others on here are keen then I am in. It seems to come up alot in this book. I've reached out to an american foods store here to see if they are able to obtain it for me but I haven't heard back yet. Modernist Pantry are great for the modernist ingredients but there are odd things like Wondra that they don't stock for obvious reasons.

Happy to do it, honestly. I was thinking that Modernist Pantry and the like are definitely the go-to suppliers for most of this stuff, but, as you said, don't stock a lot of the things that are taken for granted at the grocery store. Seems like there have been a dozen or so items that people have been looking for over the last year. I will start a thread and see if we can get some interest worked up.

[Merkinz]

My first dish: Refried Bean Foam

I was making nachos for dinner and since it is an easy meal I thought why not give this a try, how hard could it be?

I got all the ingredients including bottled water. I measured everything out to the gram. I dumped the oil, beans and water in my pressure cooker (Fagor), sealed and brought up to pressure then reduced the heat so there was just a light hiss coming out of the cooker. This cooked for an hour as I prepared dinner...

BUT OH NOOOOOO!!! The beans stuck to the bottom of the pan and made a hell of a mess even though there was a little water still in there at the end. There was no hint that this was happening, no smell nothing. I scraped the soft beans out making sure to leave the scalded bean goo behind.

I MUST PRESS ON ... I mean how badly can I mess up what is effectively a two ingredient recipe!!! So I blended the beans with my blender and the puree was thhhhhhhhhhhhhick! I blended for about 5 minutes to get as many lumps out as possible. I returned this puree to a new pan, added the cream (with an extra 20g of cream to try to loosen the puree a little morew) and whisked it over a low heat. Once it reached the right temperature (yes I used a digital thermometer!) I passed it though a sieve into my 0.5L ISI whipper... I cannot begin to describe the mess this made but I'm glad I did it because there were a few little lumps that the blender just couldn't manage. These would have easily blocked the siphon. Once in the siphon I charged it with two chargers (is this even safe in a 0.5L siphon?) shook it, inverted it and dispensed it into a large ramekin. It took some interesting shaking and dancing around to try and get most of the puree to the nozzle end and I still left alot behind.

The result was delicious! A lovely light tasting (but thick) bean foam. It didn't last very long, maybe 5 - 10 minutes before it started to deflate and lose its beautiful texture. It was still delicious but not unique like it was when it first came out.

I have two gripes with this recipe:

1) It's a mess to make. It is effectively a two ingredient recipe, I followed the recipe to the letter using a very accurate digital scale and a digital thermometer and I feel like I still stuffed it up! Are the beans meant to stick to the base of the pan like that? Is the puree ment to be that thick?

2) And my biggest gripe: It's not stable!!! Ok I know that it states this in the recipe but if I'm being instructed to invest in hydrocolloids and other food additives foreign to the home kitchen then surely there must be something I could add to this to make it more stable right? The stability is an issue for this dish because it was difficult enough getting it OUT of the whipper that you couldn't simply siphon to order... Because it's so thick there is no warning about when the bean foam will stop coming out of the whipper and a high pressure jet of air will start!

Would I make it again? I'd like to hear other peoples attempts before I try this recipe again; it was delicious and I want to eat it again! But I don't want to go through that hastle again. Can I put extra water in and strain it off at the end? This may dilute the flavor a little but surely it'd prevent leaving a caked on mess in the pan.

Onwards and upwards... I look forward to my next recipe!

[Keith_W]

To avoid making a mess in your pressure cooker, place a trivet on the base and add some water. Place your food in an oven-safe bowl and on the trivet. You can buy cheap trivets in Asian grocery stores - I think mine cost less than $1.

[Chris Hennes]

Right: a basic pressure cooker isn't that different from a normal pan. If you only apply heat from the bottom you can easily scorch things, especially if you've got the heat on high to get the pressure up quickly. I am actually using a gargantuan pressure canner that I put a smaller bowl inside with the food in it. That works well for me.

[Baselerd]

2) And my biggest gripe: It's not stable!!! Ok I know that it states this in the recipe but if I'm being instructed to invest in hydrocolloids and other food additives foreign to the home kitchen then surely there must be something I could add to this to make it more stable right? The stability is an issue for this dish because it was difficult enough getting it OUT of the whipper that you couldn't simply siphon to order... Because it's so thick there is no warning about when the bean foam will stop coming out of the whipper and a high pressure jet of air will start!

Would I make it again? I'd like to hear other peoples attempts before I try this recipe again; it was delicious and I want to eat it again! But I don't want to go through that hastle again. Can I put extra water in and strain it off at the end? This may dilute the flavor a little but surely it'd prevent leaving a caked on mess in the pan.

Onwards and upwards... I look forward to my next recipe!

Looks great Merkinz! Regarding thick foams and ISI whips (I've unfortunately been in your spot several times), I've had the best luck tapping or gently agitating the siphon while repeately pressing and releasing the dispensing lever. Although you suggest you don't want to "siphon to order", that is probably the best way to serve the foam if it is unstable. You just have to judge how much is left by the weight >_<

Also, I think it's perfectly safe to fill the .5 L Siphon with two charges.

Edited October 4, 2012 by Baselerd (log)

[rotuts]

ChrisH: Ive leaned a lot from your post.

Ive never considered that the Brown Butter 'flavor' was in the supernate!

what would you think of this 'supernate' as a fat for browning Veg.?

do you feel it might further 'burn' ? this seems to me to be a solution for a fat that one might use for

finishing veg to get some color on them, after the session in the MicroWave to get them 90% cooked

thanks!

Edited October 4, 2012 by rotuts (log)

[Merkinz]

Keith & Chris: If I use the trivet for something like this (my cooker came with one) does the surrounding water need to be touching the bowl / container containing the food?

Thanks for the tip Baselerd but I think my pure was unreasonably thick! I'll give the authors the benefit of the doubt though because the scorching in the pan may have had something to do with it. In the end I had the siphon inverted holding my finger over the nozzle and whipping the bottle down with force using my whole arm (like when you try to get the last out of the shampoo bottle). Then when I opened the siphon after getting as much out as I could there was still half of the mixture still stuck to the sides and the bottom of the siphon - nowhere near the nozzle.

Out of curiosity does any one know how many chargers you can crack into a 0.5L siphon before it gets dangerous?

[Chris Hennes]

Keith & Chris: If I use the trivet for something like this (my cooker came with one) does the surrounding water need to be touching the bowl / container containing the food?

I always do, but I think once you've got enough water vapor in there it probably doesn't much matter, the steam that condenses on your (relatively) cool inner pot should heat it up very quickly.