Tags
Cheese, Cooking Blog, Dinner, Flowers, Food, Forage, Marrow, Morel, pressure cooker, Recipe
21 Tuesday Jun 2011
Posted brining, curing, gels, pressure cooking, sous vide, starches, thickeners, vacuum sealing
inTags
Cheese, Cooking Blog, Dinner, Flowers, Food, Forage, Marrow, Morel, pressure cooker, Recipe
31 Tuesday May 2011
Posted uncategorized
inTags
THAT’S CHEF GRANT ACHATZ!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I MET HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JETHRO HAD HIM SIGN A BOOK FOR ME BEFORE I WENT TO NOMA (CLICK)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE TOLD ME AND LUKE (FROM FRESH BISTRO) THAT WE COULD COME TO ALINEA TO WORK FOR A WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ERIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11 Wednesday May 2011
Posted starches
inTags
27 Sunday Feb 2011
Posted centrifuge, gels
inTags
Blog, Centrifuge, Cooknig Blog, Dinner, Food, Iota Carrageenan, Recipe
28 Friday Jan 2011
Posted pressure cooking
inTags
Cooking, Cooking Blog, Dinner, Food, Pressure Cooking, Recipe
I finally had a chance to use my pressure cooker that I bought about a year ago. I purchased it for two reasons: #1 In Heston Blumenthal’s “In Search of Perfection” he suggests using a pressure cooker more often……SOLD! #2 I wanted to do a bunch of canning (never got around to it).
I purchased two 3.5# pieces of pork belly that I brined (one in Chinese 5 spice and the other in a smoked paprika/chili oil blend) then braised, then pressed. The process when it comes to preparing pork belly is time consuming but with a few different pieces of equipment I was able to do this in record time….for me anyway.
The brining process took me the same amount of time….about 4 hours. Luckily, Jethro has a vacuum chamber sealer so next time I’ll go that route and save even more time! The cooking time of the pork belly is what really changed things. Normally, a 3.5# piece of pork belly would take about an hour to an hour and a half to braise properly in the oven. I knocked one out in 20 minutes then the other piece in 18 minutes. The pressing and cooling process took another 45 minutes.
The next time around is what I’m excited about. Essentially, I could have a piece of pork belly brined, cooked off, and ready for pressing in under an hour. Time is everything in a kitchen and space is a concern at home.
The great thing is that I was able to dehydrate tapenade ingredients in my oven overnight then cook the pork belly in the pressure cooker. Once all of the tapenade ingredients were ready I placed them in my spice grinder then emulsified them with extra virgin olive oil then slowly worked in tapioca maltodextrin to create that pavement effect you see in the picture above.
After I made the two pork bellies I made a beef stock in the pressure cooker. Traditional French style beef stock with all the bells and whistles in 45 minutes instead of 8-12 hours. The only problem I had was that the stock was cloudy but I cleaned it up by cooking some egg whites in the stock which cleaned it right up. I talked to Jeth and Scott about this and Jeth suggested after I make the stock to use the centrifuge so I will have a super concentrated stock…..genius.
The picture above is the 5 spice pork belly, tapenade “pavement”, and flower. With a few more adjustments and tinkering I think this will turn out to be a world class dish.
Eric
15 p.s.i. ’til I die!
20 Thursday Jan 2011
Posted centrifuge, sous vide, vacuum sealing
inTags
Blog, Cooking Blog, Dinner, Fish, Food, immersion circulator, Mackerel, Recipe, Sous Vide
20 Thursday Jan 2011
Tags
Blog, cookbook, Cooking Blog, Dinner, Food, Herve This, Molecular Gastonomy, Recipe
A book from the father of molecular gastronomy.
I’ve been kicking around this whole “molecular gastronomy” thing for quite some time. When I first heard about it I was reading about at all the cool presentations, shapes, and textures that were being displayed by chefs at numerous restaurants around the world. I thought, “I want to cook like that one day…..I want to create art through food”. I didn’t realize what these chefs were actually doing. I just thought it was for presentation purposes only. I saw a video on youtube that showed Jose Andres hanging out with Ferran Adria and Chef Adria was explaining his spherification of olive puree, I was amazed.
A few months later I saw Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain talk in Seattle. Mario Batali called molecular gastronomy fake, I was confused. I respect all these chefs and what they do. I’m so far down the totem pole in this chef world that I’m a random bush that is hanging out across the field from the chef totem pole. What to do?
Looking back at the whole thing I realize one thing. Mario Batali wasn’t talking about molecular gastronomy at all. He was talking about the chefs that turned “molecular gastronomy” into elaborate presentations, shapes, and textures. He had no issue with Ferran Adria but he had a problem with the guys trying to be like Ferran Adria without understanding the science behind what Chef Adria was doing.
Heston Blumenthal set me straight when he had Harold McGee on his show, “Kitchen Chemistry”. Harold McGee wrote a book called:
(I have more information on the book coming shortly….not finished yet)
and Heston Blumenthal said that this book changed cooking for him. It was written in 1984, I have the revised version that was written in 2004. This book answered the why’s, how’s, and debunked all those things you have probably heard growing up, “sear the meat it traps in the juices”……these book say, “no, that’s not true”……the books are correct, you are not (I believed the same thing, I suck…haha). Chef Blumenthal listened, learned, and innovated so did Ferran Adria….look where they’re at now.
I did my research, bought my books, and started to read them (I have a lot more on the way). I began reading Harold McGee’s book and then I started doing more research about how the term “molecular gastronomy” came to be. It was an easy way for Herve This and his science partner to market this science of cooking easily. What you have probably heard from the mainstream is that molecular gastronomy is the crazy presentations, shapes, and textures of food. The mainstream doesn’t get it…..it’s like Elvis when he first came out. The teenager’s loved him and parents immediately thought he was the devil. We often shun the things we do not understand or feel uncomfortable with.
My ignorance lead me to this world of molecular gastronomy………OH PRETTY COLORS!!!! My curiosity has lead me to understand and respect it. Herve This’s book, “Building a Meal from Molecular Gastronomy to Culinary Constructivism” has broken down all of these things into plain English for me. Call it stupid, call it ridiculous, call it what you want. There is a science behind cooking. The days of me looking at something and saying, ‘it’s done”, are over. The days of believing someone simply because they have been doing it that way forever are over…..if they can’t tell me WHY then I will question them…..woo hooo I’m 4 years old all over again!
Herve This labeled it molecular gastronomy to make it easy to understand and market but he has also debunked over 25,000 culinary beliefs since he has started his research. This book shows how to boil an egg to perfection, you might say, “well you just boil it for 10 minutes with a soft boil/hard boil/or whatever technique I’ve been using for years”. Do you want to perfect this process? I do, so I listen. Chefs have listened to the words of Herve This and they have become extremely successful in the culinary world, I want the same.
Full speed ahead, let’s build a meal “molecularly”!
BUY THIS BOOK…………..now!
Eric
16 Thursday Sep 2010
Posted emulsions, foams, sous vide, vacuum sealing
inTags
Blog, Bone Marrow, Cooking Blog, Creme Brulee, Egg, Food, Recipe
That’s an egg yolk.
I got together with the guys at Jet City Gastrophysics to work on some projects. This time our theme was eggs. It reminded me of my favorite week at school which was egg week. We had a ton of eggs to cook in every which way possible but we never tried Sous Vide.
Scott was borrowing a machine that Polyscience lent him as well as another machine that he built…the guy is a freaking genius. He had the two baths set up at different temperatures in order for our creative juices to start flowing.
We tried to make a foam mayonnaise but it didn’t turn out the way we wanted….just need more practice and time and I’m sure we’ll get it. On the last foam mayonnaise Scott decided to torch it and it gave us a nice “foamlette” which I wrapped around some salami. It’s a work in progress.
Next up was another idea from Scott. ”We should deep fry one of these egg yolks”. I said, “yeah, we could do that it would be easy”. A little standard breading procedure and some seasoned flour later we came up with this. Perfect the first two times we tried it….it’s almost like I fry things a lot at work or something…..
These little things are incredible. You’ll be seeing them a few more times on this site (waiting on the pancetta to be ready).
Finally, Jeth brought over some bone marrow and he put it in the immersion circulator and cooked it for 45 minutes. When it came out we tasted it on bread with a little sea salt and it was amazing but then we all studied the texture which was very delicate and creamy. We were thinking about what else we could do with it. I thought, “well, we have egg yolks, you have sugar, and cream……let’s make a creme brulee”. Made those a few thousand times………but this time was with BONE MARROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had to leave before the creme brulee was completed so Scott snapped this picture and sent it to me. His reaction to it leads me to believe that it was something I should make again. (PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTT AKA SEATTLEFOODGEEK.COM)
Eric
[Originally posted at ericriveracooks.com]
03 Friday Sep 2010
Posted carbonation
inTags
Blog, Champagne, Cooking Blog, Dinner, Food, Molecular Gastronomy, Recipe
Bubbles baby. That’s what it’s all about.
I purchased a soda siphon and I have been working with it for a few weeks now. Keys to success using a soda siphon…..finding the right temperature in order to have bubbly bliss in a carbonated creation. Let’s just call this “Instant Champagne 1.0”. Good things happened but ideal achievements were not met.
Eric