Modernist Cuisine At Home: Puffed Chicken Feet

17 Thursday May 2012

Posted by jethro in combi oven, MC at home, recipes, sous vide, vacuum sealing

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Puffed Chicken Foot, or “Party Claw” (photo: Scott Heimendinger)

I threw a big dinner party last weekend. Well, six people total (including our culinary teammate Scott), but seven courses. I totally brought it. But then I was brought down: three of the courses totally sucked. The pea consommé? At the last moment I overdid it with the cinnamon oil – it tasted like a bad scented candle. The Thai beef curry broth was watery and the beef over-tender. The sous vide vegetables were mushy and lifeless. Man, was I embarrassed. But one of the courses did come through: my deep fried chicken feet. Good thing, too – they took the longest to prepare. I don’t know if I was redeemed, but at least I wasn’t damned. In the end, fowl became friend.

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Dinner At The Modernist Cuisine Cooking Lab

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by jethro in i ate there

≈ 6 Comments

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Cooking Lab, Maxime Bilet, Modernist Cuisine, Nathan Myhrvold, Seattle, Seattle Food Geek

You can’t make a reservation, and you can’t pay.

– Nathan Myrvold on having dinner at the Cooking Lab

Last night I had the rare privilege of attending one of the dinners at the Modernist Cuisine Cooking Lab. The phrase ‘rare privilege’ can be overused, but in this case, it is completely warranted. The purity and concentration of their flavors is off the charts. Twenty-nine courses of it. Needless to say, but it needs to be said: it was amazing.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Oxtail Pho Broth

03 Thursday May 2012

Posted by jethro in MC at home, pressure cooking, recipes

≈ 12 Comments

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broth, pho, pressure cooker, Vietnam

My Neighborhood Pho Place

Spring is taking its time arriving this year, and there seem to be more cloudy days than sunshine. But that’s not a problem – while I wait for the outside to warm up, I can just warm up my insides. With a Vietnamese pho, to be exact. Cooking Asian food can seem so different than what I’m used to making in the kitchen. Can my soup match the dish at my favorite local spot? I turned to Modernist Cuisine to help me in my quest.

Note: It’s way too easy to play on words with the pronunciation of the word “pho”, which is “fuh”. For instance, we have a chain of restaurants here in Seattle called “What The Pho?“. I will try to abstain.

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Jet City Gastrophysics Goes To Alinea

23 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by jethro in blow shit up, i ate there

≈ 1 Comment

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Alinea, Chicago, Eric Rivera, Grant Achatz, Scott Heimendinger

~~Jet~~ Windy City Gastrophysics

I hear it’s pretty hard to get into high end restaurants. I’m not so sure – either the problem is exaggerated or I have an awesome lucky streak. My dinner for Next:Childhood? I just got online and reserved a ticket. Benu in San Francisco? I put in a request on the waiting list and a table cancelled.

So when I wanted to get into Alinea, considered the best restaurant in the US, and even the world (depending on who’s ranking), I called their reservation line. It was busy. I called again. It was busy. I called again. They answered and I made a reservation. I wouldn’t call that persistence. I guess it’s either not that hard or the food gods want my taste buds to do some worshiping. And if all else fails, of course, you can always rap battle.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Tomato Basil Spheres

16 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by jethro in centrifuge, emulsions, MC at home, spherification

≈ 1 Comment

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basil, Modernist Cuisine, tomato water

It’s been a long time since I’ve tried my hand at spherification, and I thought it was time to revisit the technique. I’ve done it three times before: the first meeting of Jet City Gastrophysics, my cooking session with Chef Ian Kleinman, and another time when I made some coffee caviar. One of the iconic photos from Modernist Cuisine is their Tomato Basil Spheres, so that seemed like a perfect place to give it another go around. It’s basically an Insalata Caprese that’s been liquified. Welcome to the future.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Liquid Center Egg

08 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by jethro in MC at home, sous vide

≈ 4 Comments

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Beet Juice, Easter, Egg, Modernist Cuisine

I was invited to an Easter brunch yesterday and thought I should bring something along, as is custom. Although a bottle of champagne for mimosas would have been good enough, I wanted to bring a dish as well. Of course, there is Easter ham, but I wanted to do something different. As luck would have it, the crew at Modernist Cuisine put up a riff on traditional Chinese tea eggs to create a special Easter dish. Perfect! I went to the store and went at it in the kitchen.

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The Explore Taste Adventures: Eric, Scott And Friends Forage An Epic Meal

15 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by jethro in blow shit up

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Eric Rivera, foraging, Jennifer Adler, Langdon Cook, northwest style, Sahale Snacks, San Juan Islands, Scott Heimendinger

Last summer, the owners of Sahale Snacks took a few people out into the San Juan Islands here in Washington State to cook a meal that used ingredients that they found there. Scott and Eric went along with Jennifer Adler, an expert in seaweed, and Langdon Cook, an expert in foraging. A culinary adventure ensued with all the requisite plot points – sailing on the sea, trekking through the forest, even the unfortunate drama of illness and a helicopter rescue.

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We Want To Be Liked, So We’re On Facebook Now.

09 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by jethro in blow shit up

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Facebook

Short story: ‘like’ us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JetCityGastrophysics.

Long story: So we thought it would be good to have a place to update you on various topics that orbit around Modernist Cuisine but not specifically to it. From gardening to restaurant news to events and whatnot, our Facebook page will keep you informed on things we find interesting that are going on. It’s a lot like our separate Twitter accounts (here, here and here), but all three of our food interests combined into one big superpage of food awesomeness. What’s not to like?

The JCG Crew

My Failed Experiment With Fluorescent Oysters

04 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by sheimend in infusion

≈ 5 Comments

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black light, fluorescence, glow in the dark, Modernist Cuisine, oyster, shellfish, UV

blacklight oyster
I really wanted to make glow-in-the-dark oysters. More accurately, I wanted to make oysters fluoresce under ultraviolet light (sometimes called “black light”). Why? Because it’s cool, of course. [If you were hoping for a more noble, practical reason, you’re probably reading this blog by mistake.]