Cooking with Marcus Samuelsson's "The Rise"

[gfweb]

I have a different standard for crispness in potato fries and sweet potato fries. Don't think the latter can approach the former , at least not in my kitchen. 

[Chris Hennes]

I love biscuits, so it's no surprise that I'm having another go at the Teff and Brown Butter Biscuits I posted about earlier. I think that recipe has a few flaws: first and most obviously, it's too salty. I'm guessing that they swapped teaspoons for tablespoons (<soapbox>another sad entry in a long line of problems that wouldn't have occurred if they'd used weights instead!</soapbox>). So the recipe had three times as much salt as it should. Tonight I swapped them back. Definitely the right choice.

 

Second, the biscuits were actually too tender! They couldn't hold together enough for you to actually eat them with the country ham. Tonight I swapped out half the cake flour for all purpose, and was a bit less gentle with the dough as I was forming it. Another success: they are still tender, but have enough structure to eat with your hands.

 

Third, I think the recipe is designed for a much larger batch size, so you end up with a sheet pan full of octagonal biscuits (you don't space them in the pan, so the circles merge). With a smaller batch size that doesn't really work. They sort of smoosh out at the edges, and only one or two in the middle really have proper support and get their full rise. So I cut square biscuits and baked them in a loaf pan that was just big enough to hold them. This gave them more vertical structure, and better rise. I'm sure an alternative is to just make more biscuits, but there are only two of us eating them. So a half batch split between us is about right.

 

Tonight I served them as a sausage (well, Calabrese salami), egg and cheese sandwich. I like them - they are an interesting addition to my biscuit repertoire (Eat Your Books says I have 51 savory biscuit recipes now).

 

[Chris Hennes]

Farro in Jollof Sauce (p. 260)

 

Another recipe that sounds deceptively simple, but actually involves a number of steps to build up a surprisingly complex and well-balanced flavor. I say surprisingly just because the ingredients list is not particularly exotic---it doesn't call for any of the various sauces, butters, spices, etc. that many of the other recipes do. The farro is cooked relatively conventionally first. Then a sauce of red onion, red bell pepper, tomato, garlic, and habanero is prepared: the ingredients are blended together, some onion is sauteed separately, then the sauce is added to the pan and cooked down until it begins to darken. The farro and a large quantity of thyme is added, then some of the farro cooking liquid is used in the style of a risotto, adding a bit and stirring until it's been absorbed, then adding more, etc. Finally, monter au beurre and stir in parsley and scallions (I used chives). The result is a delicious dish with a texture similar to risotto, quite a bit of heat, and a good flavor complexity. It was a bit involved, but the end result was worth it.

 

(ETA: The recipe is from Pierre Thiam)

 

[heidih]

https://www.facebook.com/bonappetitmag/videos/683428745877289  Perhaps of co-interest

Edited December 2, 2020 by heidih (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Pork Griot with Roasted Pineapple and Pikliz (p. 30)

 

This was spectacular. It probably would have been even if I had followed the recipe . Let me explain...

 

There are four components to this dish: "pikliz," a quick-pickled cabbage, carrot, and cauliflower mixture, used as a topping. "Vegetables," which in this case means red bell peppers sauteed with garlic, ginger, and habanero and then sauced with orange juice, Worcestershire, and blonde miso. "Pineapple," which is a roasted pineapple spiced with brown sugar, chili powder and cumin. And the pork shoulder, which the recipe has you cube and then marinate in orange juice, allspice, thyme, black pepper, and garlic for six hours before roasting at 250°F for a couple of hours to cook.

 

Most components I left alone, but I bought the pork on Saturday morning from a local farmer, and I didn't want to leave it raw in the fridge all week while the pikliz pickled (piklizzed?). So instead of slow-roasting the pork in the oven, I dumped the pork and marinade in a vacuum pouch and cooked it sous vide for 36 hours at 65°C, then chilled it. That way it would keep until the pikliz were ready, which took until Thursday (today). To serve the dish you make the vegetable and pineapple components, then deep fry the pork until the chunks are browned and crispy, then mix it all together and serve with the pikliz on top. I thought the ingredients looked too good on their own to mix together before plating, so I left them distinct and only mixed while eating. The big advantage of that deep frying step is that it is the perfect finish to the sous vided pork chunks, getting them nice and browned and crispy, while leaving the interior perfectly cooked. I'm sure it would have been good with the pork roasted in the oven instead, this was just more convenient for me, timing-wise.

 

These are big flavors here, layered with a lot of complexity. The balance is excellent, and really my only complaint is that for a dish that uses three habaneros, there wasn't actually that much heat. Well, that and the fact that there are like eighty six steps and four hundred ingredients. (That might be a slight exaggeration...) It was fun to make and turned out great.

 

[heidih]

You are  nutter in a good way. The component mix entices. Sounds like the cuisine notes he is hitting are complex but not "in your face"  heat example. Looking forward to your further ventures. 

[Chris Hennes]

I'm working on the croissants right now and I'm interested to note that Eric Gestel's recipe only calls for three turns (letter-style folds). My go-to recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum calls for four. I know that with laminated doughs more is not necessarily better, but I'd bet that in the restaurant (this is Le Bernardin) they actually do three turns of the other style fold, whatever that is called. So maybe something was lost in translation to home baker quantities. I'll have to decide pretty soon whether to do the fourth turn here, so any advice is welcome.

[Chris Hennes]

Couscous and Roasted Figs with Lemon Ayib and Honey Vinaigrette (p. 102)

 

Davita Davison of FoodLab Detroit brings us this recipe using Ethiopia's fresh cheese, Ayib. The cheese is easy enough to make, but you need four hours of lead time: the only ingredients are whole milk, lemon juice, and salt. Once made, for this recipe the cheese is tossed with lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. The next component is roasted figs: I assumed that when the recipe said "halved mission figs" it meant fresh figs here, but my Instacart shopper showed up with dried figs. Oh well, they are just a topping component for a salad, dried figs are delicious too. These are tossed in honey and olive oil and briefly roasted. Obviously you're going to roast fresh figs for longer than dried! The next component is berbere spiced cashews, made by tossing cashews with Berbere Spice Brown Butter (itself a whole separate recipe, of course) and roasting them. Finally, the salad itself is couscous, small greens (I used baby arugula), mint, parsley, and lemon zest. To assemble, add the the cashews to the salad ingredients and toss with Caramelized Honey Vinaigrette (yep, another auxiliary recipe). Top with the figs and ayib, and drizzle with more of the vinaigrette.

 

Phew. A lot of work for a side dish! But, as usual with this book, delicious. Complex enough to be interesting, familiar enough to serve to guests with diverse tastes.

 

[AAQuesada]

I've heard nothing but great things about Jimmy Griffin's The Art of Lamination book from pastry pro's. Maybe this video will help

 

 

[heidih]

That fresh cheese is so nice to have on hand. We prefer the buttermilk version. How our Ethiopian angel makes it. I give up. Early Christmas present while my free Prime lasts. 

[heidih]

Oh and just remembered a nice interview with  co-author  I had bookmarked https://soundcloud.com/user-306003081/special-sauce-osayi-endolyn-on

 

[heidih]

Part 2 of Edolyn's interview  https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/03/special-sauce-osayi-endolyn-2-2.html

Edited December 6, 2020 by heidih (log)

[heidih]

Well I am out of luck - Amazon shipped it to my stepmother - I'll never see it though trash can will. I will have to live vicariously through you,

[Chris Hennes]

Chicken Liver Mousse with Croissants (p. 22)

 

This recipe comes from Eric Gestel (a.k.a. "The Other Eric"), executive chef at Le Bernardin. The mousse is pretty nearly a compound butter: there is 3/4 lb butter to 1 lb chicken livers. There is also a pretty large dose of cognac. Needless to say, then: it's delicious. It's definitely the most refined chicken liver dish I've ever had! The croissants are classic, no frills or twists. I'm not really sure the recipe includes enough detail to do a proper job of them: there are a lot of "refrigerate for 30 minutes" steps, but no talk about the target temperature for the dough or butter. I decided to basically just follow the recipe exactly (including only giving it three turns): the croissants were good, but were not the flakiest I've ever made. This is almost certainly a temperature management issue, I think at several points the butter was too cold and fragmented in the dough. With only three folds this was not catastrophic, but if you decide to follow this recipe I'd let the dough warm up a bit before rolling.

 

[Katie Meadow]

No chicken liver mousse or chopped liver should be be without cognac. Sounds delicious. But eating it on a croissant seems extremely strange, especially given the mousse is almost half butter itself. Croissants with coffee for breakfast. Chicken liver mousse or pate or whatever you call it is my idea of a perfect snack that turns into dinner with simple crackers or rye bread accompanied by ice cold vodka...and probably later in the day. I know, not very adventurous!

[teonzo]

On 12/5/2020 at 6:05 PM, Chris Hennes said:

I'm working on the croissants right now and I'm interested to note that Eric Gestel's recipe only calls for three turns (letter-style folds). My go-to recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum calls for four. I know that with laminated doughs more is not necessarily better, but I'd bet that in the restaurant (this is Le Bernardin) they actually do three turns of the other style fold, whatever that is called. So maybe something was lost in translation to home baker quantities. I'll have to decide pretty soon whether to do the fourth turn here, so any advice is welcome.

 

The standard for croissant dough is 3 three-folds (letter-folds). With laminated doughs usually you give a three-fold (roll the dough, then fold like a letter to get 3 layers of the original dough) or a four-fold (roll the dough, then fold to get 4 layers of the original dough). Most bakers use 3 three-folds, for a final of 27 layers (3*3*3). In the past years some people went lower giving 2 folds (3*3 or 3*4). Going 4 folds is not recommended.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Chris Hennes said:

I'm not really sure the recipe includes enough detail to do a proper job of them: there are a lot of "refrigerate for 30 minutes" steps, but no talk about the target temperature for the dough or butter.

 

The refrigeration step is done to relax the gluten structure and to allow the butter to get colder, since during the rolling/folding it gets warmer. 30 minutes is the standard recommendation in all recipes, not knowing what fridge people are using. About temperature, your goal is for the dough to reach about 8-10°C. If you go lower the butter becomes hard and it causes troubles, like you experienced. If it remains warmer, then the butter becomes too soft and you risk the toothpaste effect. Always put the dough in the warmer side of your fridge, if you put in the colder side then the exterior of the dough will become much colder than the interior.

Many times 30 minutes is too much. For the gluten to relax 15 minutes are more than enough, after that it's just a matter for the dough to get cold enough. So it's better to check the dough after 15 minutes and then decide what to do. Checking the temperature is a good guide, but it's better to check the dough pliability with your hands. You should have enough experience to do so.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Chris Hennes]

3 hours ago, teonzo said:

The standard for croissant dough is 3 three-folds (letter-folds). With laminated doughs usually you give a three-fold (roll the dough, then fold like a letter to get 3 layers of the original dough) or a four-fold (roll the dough, then fold to get 4 layers of the original dough). Most bakers use 3 three-folds, for a final of 27 layers (3*3*3). In the past years some people went lower giving 2 folds (3*3 or 3*4). Going 4 folds is not recommended.

I'm glad I didn't, then!

 

3 hours ago, teonzo said:

Always put the dough in the warmer side of your fridge

Yeah, I sort of cheated here (I knew that I was targeting a ~10°C temperature) -- I didn't use the fridge at all while rolling, the exterior temp here yesterday was right around 10°C (50°F), I just put the dough outside the kitchen door . So I tried to stay true to the recipe, but I admit I fudged things a little bit, having made croissants several times before. My kitchen was also relatively cold, so the real problems with the recipe resulted from the two first-thing-in-the-morning stages, where the dough was truly at refrigerator temperature. An intelligent cook would have let the dough (and more to the point, the butter!) warm up a bit before pressing on. I, however, am not that cook.

[Chris Hennes]

4 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

No chicken liver mousse or chopped liver should be be without cognac. Sounds delicious. But eating it on a croissant seems extremely strange, especially given the mousse is almost half butter itself. Croissants with coffee for breakfast. Chicken liver mousse or pate or whatever you call it is my idea of a perfect snack that turns into dinner with simple crackers or rye bread accompanied by ice cold vodka...and probably later in the day. I know, not very adventurous!

Well, the croissants came out of the oven at lunch time, so I guess I split the difference! And it was a bit decadent, you are right: there was a LOT of butter involved in that meal. Not the kind of thing you can do every day...

[Chris Hennes]

Boston Bay Jerk Chicken with Roti (p. 251)

 

The chicken was delicious, but this is the first recipe where I thought they neutered it a bit for the home cook. The ingredients list only calls for 2 Scotch Bonnet chiles to make enough jerk seasoning for two chickens. For a similar quantity of seasoning, Willinsky's Jerk From Jamaica (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) calls for four to six. So while the chicken tasted great, I definitely missed the heat that I think of as characteristic of Jerk seasoning.

 

[kayb]

On 12/5/2020 at 5:54 PM, Chris Hennes said:

Couscous and Roasted Figs with Lemon Ayib and Honey Vinaigrette (p. 102)

 

Davita Davison of FoodLab Detroit brings us this recipe using Ethiopia's fresh cheese, Ayib. The cheese is easy enough to make, but you need four hours of lead time: the only ingredients are whole milk, lemon juice, and salt. Once made, for this recipe the cheese is tossed with lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. The next component is roasted figs: I assumed that when the recipe said "halved mission figs" it meant fresh figs here, but my Instacart shopper showed up with dried figs. Oh well, they are just a topping component for a salad, dried figs are delicious too. These are tossed in honey and olive oil and briefly roasted. Obviously you're going to roast fresh figs for longer than dried! The next component is berbere spiced cashews, made by tossing cashews with Berbere Spice Brown Butter (itself a whole separate recipe, of course) and roasting them. Finally, the salad itself is couscous, small greens (I used baby arugula), mint, parsley, and lemon zest. To assemble, add the the cashews to the salad ingredients and toss with Caramelized Honey Vinaigrette (yep, another auxiliary recipe). Top with the figs and ayib, and drizzle with more of the vinaigrette.

 

Phew. A lot of work for a side dish! But, as usual with this book, delicious. Complex enough to be interesting, familiar enough to serve to guests with diverse tastes.

 

 

Oh, damn. I want a big mixing bowl full of that.

 

[Chris Hennes]

On 12/7/2020 at 11:18 AM, kayb said:

Oh, damn. I want a big mixing bowl full of that.

Yeah, I made it again tonight, but switched out the roasted figs for pomegranate arils, and left the cashews whole. Still great. Those cashews roasted with berbere spice brown butter are fantastic, someone needs to package that up and market it.

 

[Chris Hennes]

Beets with Sage Leaf and Dukkah Spice (p. 116)

 

The beets are roasted with sherry vinegar and olive oil, then tossed with a spice mixture of fennel, coriander, cumin, raw cashews, pistachios, and benne seeds, plus julienned sage leaves, onion, olive oil, and lime juice. This requires careful balance, the ingredients are all pretty aggressive: I think it was successful for the most part, but I'm not sold on julienned sage, next time I'd chop it instead.

 

[heidih]

Wow - now I am even more ticked off that my book is MIA. Perhaps te cut on the sage is affected by the age of the leave. Growing my own the mll ones would have worked but at some  point they trend "chewy".

[Chris Hennes]

41 minutes ago, heidih said:

Growing my own the mll ones would have worked but at some  point they trend "chewy".

Yes, maybe chewy, but I though the real problem was more flavor density: sage is pretty intense, and a long julienned strip of it struck me as just being too much sage all at once.

[heidih]

My typing is impaired - I meant small ones which would also be less intense but I get what you are saying. Really enjoying your adventures into the book.