Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking [Hardcover]

It's here, the holy bible of cookbooks. Only $461.62 at Amazon.com and already sold out. Anyone looking for gift ideas for me, here you go. ;-)

A sampling of what you'll discover:

• Why plunging food in ice water doesn't stop the cooking process
• When boiling cooks faster than steaming
• Why raising the grill doesn't lower the heat
• How low-cost pots and pans can perform better than expensive ones
• Why baking is mostly a drying process
• Why deep-fried food tastes best and browns better when the oil is older
• How modern cooking techniques can achieve ideal results without the perfect timing or good luck that traditional methods demand

Many invaluable features include:

• Insights into the surprising science behind traditional food preparation methods such as grilling, smoking, and stir-frying
• The most comprehensive guide yet published on cooking sous vide, including the best options for water baths, packaging materials, and sealing equipment; cooking strategies; and troubleshooting tips
• More than 256 pages on meat and seafood and 130 pages on fruits, vegetables, and grains, including hundreds of parametric recipes and step-by-step techniques
• Extensive chapters explaining how to achieve amazing results by using modern thickeners, gels, emulsions, and foams, including example recipes and many formulas
• More than 300 pages of new recipes for plated dishes suitable for service at top-tier restaurants, plus recipes adapted from master chefs including Grant Achatz, Ferran Adrià , Heston Blumenthal, David Chang, Wylie Dufresne, David Kinch, and many others

From the professional chef to the home cook, Modernist Cuisine is an indispensable guide for anyone who is passionate about the art and science of cooking.

Apparently there is an entire chapter dedicated to water.  So if you want to take your cooking to a new level and learn things you never knew about food this is your book.

southwestern crab, corn, avocado, red bell pepper, pasta

Here's a quick and easy recipe just loaded with flavor and great for the coming of spring.

1 cup lump crab meat
4 ears of corn
2 tbsp olive oil
2 hass avocados
1 red bell pepper
1 cup diced sweet or yellow onion
2 serrano or jalepeno chilis
2 green onions
2 tbsp cilantro
1 tsp ground coriander seed
1 tsp ground cumin
juice of 1-2 limes
flaky salt
pepper
pasta or rice

Pick through crab to remove any remaining bits of shell.  Remove corn from husk.  I used a mandolin but a knife works too.  Slice bell pepper into 1 inch strips.  Dice onion.  Dice avocado and cover with lime juice and store in airtight container to avoid oxidation.  Thinly slice scallion.  Thinly slice chilis (I love spicy food so I add some variation of hot to about everything I make so scale back if hot is not your thing).  Chop cilantro.

Heat olive oil in pan and saute onions on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes until soft.  Add corn, coriander, cumin, lightly salt, and pepper, and cook another 5 minutes or so, then add red bell pepper and cook another 3-4 minutes until slightly soft but keep firm for the most part.  Turn off heat and add avocado, cilantro, scallions, flaky salt (I use fleur de sel) and gently stir to combine.  The crunch of the salt goes well with the corn.  Add fresh lime juice and serve over warm pasta or rice or even black bean soup immediately (fresh citrus juice starts to loose its punch after 20-30 minutes).  Pile on some lump crab meat and eat up.

Sous vide duck breast, duck fat fries, cherry/wine reduction, smoked paprika olive oil pudding, roasted butternut squash

Duck breast is another sous vide winner.  It came out a perfect medium rare and was very tender and moist with a nice crispy skin.  I finished it of in a pan to render out some fat and then with the kitchen torch to give it a nice sear.  I had some leftover olive oil pudding in the fridge and wasn't quite sure what to do with it so I decided to add some smoked paprika to it.  This gave it a nice smokiness but it wasn't quite what I wanted so I pulled out my smoking gun www.cuisinetechnology.com/the-smoking-gun.php and added some more smoke to it and that did the trick.  The perfect accompaniment to duck fat fries.

sous vide duck breast
1 duck breast
salt
pepper
smoked paprika

Dry breast completely with paper towel and if possible leave uncovered in fridge for an hour.  Season with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika, and vacuum seal on high.  Heat sous vide bath to 135F and cook for 2 hours.  Pan sear skin side to render out some fat and crisp skin and finish off with a kitchen torch.

duck fat fries
3-4 yukon white potatoes
peanut oil for deep frying
duck fat
salt

I cut the fries with my new benriner mandoline.  Be careful, this thing is sharp and I cut my finger but it works extremely well.  I deep fried in peanut oil at 350F until almost golden brown, removed and salted, and drained on a cooling rack.  I then gave them a pan fry in the rendered duck fat.  I didn't have enough duck fat to deep fry but this worked pretty well.

cherry/wine reduction
juices from sous vide duck
1 cup 100% cherry juice (don't use the 10% juice stuff)
1 cup zinfandel
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp diced shallot
1 bay leaf
salt
pepper

Add all ingredients to sauce pan, reduce by half, strain, and reduce some more until thick.  Keep warm until ready to use

roasted squash
1 butternut squash
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp smoked paprika
salt
pepper

Peel and cut squash into 1/2 inch dice.  Spread evenly in one layer in glass or corning baking dish.  Drizzle with olive oil, and season with smoked paprika, salt, and pepper.  Bake at 500F for 35-40 minutes.  This gives the squash a nice crust and makes it very soft inside.

smoked paprika olive oil pudding
2 tbsp olive oil pudding (recipe in earlier post)
1 tsp smoked paprika
salt

Combine olive oil pudding and smoked paprika and give a good smoke with smoking gun.  To do this I put it in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap, inserted hose, filled with smoke and then let sit for a bit to suck up that smoky flavor.  I used applewood sawdust for the smoke.

To serve I sliced the duck, covered with cherry/wine reduction, fries, butternut squash, smoked paprika olive oil pudding, and a faux egg

72 hr sous vide short ribs, port/wine reduction, braised heirloom carrots, carrot top sauce, fingerling mash

The main course of the evening was 72 hr sous vide short ribs.  I had read a lot about how amazing these come out so I had to give them a try and it was well worth the wait.  The preparation is actually quite easy and just requires some patience and planning ahead.  The ribs came out medium rare, extremely flavorful, very moist, amazingly tender, and just oh so good.  I had made the braised carrots and carrot top sauce before (this is from Michel Richard) and it's a great combo of veggies.  I included purple heirloom carrots this time and the purple carrots bled and  altered the presentation of the dish.  They are also more dense than other carrots and require longer cooking time.  If I make them again I'll definitely cook them separately.  The braising liquid for the carrots is a component of the carrot top sauce and the purple made it a dark green.  The first time I made this it was a much more vibrant green and nicer presentation although the taste was still very nice so that was good.  The taste has a mild carrot flavor and creamy texture.  And of course I don't have to talk about the mashed potatoes.  They're great no matter what.  I used fingerling potatoes and added fresh chives.

beef short ribs
4 short ribs
salt
pepper

Cut fat from ribs.  Season with salt and pepper.  Vacuum seal on high.  Heat sous vide bath to 133F.  Cook ribs for 72 hours.  I finished them off with my kitchen torch and seared them on the sides and top.  Another option is to deep fry at 350 for about a minute or pan fry on high for 30-45 seconds per side.  I prefer the kitchen torch because it's less clean up, is fun to use, and looks cool.

I poured the liquid from the ribs into a sauce pan, added a cup of zinfandel, a cup of port, half a diced shallot, a bay leaf, some salt & pepper.  Reduce by half, strain, and reduce until it's thick and keep warm until ready to use.

braised carrots
assorted heirloom carrots with greens
1 orange
4 tbsp butter
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion
pinch of coriander
pepper
salt

Remove and reserve carrot greens.  Now you can peel the carrots in one of two ways.  With a peeler or if you're completely anal like me you can blanch the carrots in boiling water for 2-3 minutes then submerge in ice water.  Then rub the skins off with your fingers and rinse under water.  You can also use the back of a knife.  This requires more time but preserves the true shape of the carrot and makes for a nicer presentation.

Remove zest from orange and reserve juice.

Melt 2 tbsp of butter and saute onion for 30 seconds, add the orange juice, pinch of salt, coriander, and carrots.  Bring to a simmer, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the chicken stock, and simmer for another 15 minutes of so.  (If using purple carrots cook separately and they will require at least 20 minutes).  When the carrots are done remove from liquid and keep warm until ready to serve.  Reduce remaining liquid to 1/2 cup.

carrot top sauce
Bring pot of water to boil.  Pick the leaves from the stems and discard stems.  Blanch the leaves in water for 15 seconds and submerge in ice water, then strain, and dry with paper towel.  In blender combine reserved liquid from carrots, 2 tbsp of butter, carrot tops, and salt & pepper, and blend until smooth.

To serve add a portion of mashed potatoes, place ribs on top, spoon ribs with port/wine reduction.  Place carrots on plate, add portion of carrot top sauce on plate.  Dust carrot top sauce with orange zest.

Transparency of Manchego Cheese

The following is another recipe from Alinea.  It was not as visually appealing as I would have liked but the taste and flavors were good.  I mean you can't go wrong with melted manchego cheese with semi-hidden treasures of goodness below them.  The olive oil pudding was very interesting.  Has the consistency of pudding and tastes like olive oil.  I ended up adding closer to 40-45g of olive oil to give it a stronger olive oil flavor.  I also added a faux egg, which I got from Michel Richard.  In my haste I forgot to take the egg out of the freezer so I tried a quick melt with my kitchen torch and ended up giving it more of a char.  We waited a little while for it to melt but it was still somewhat frozen when we ate it. The white was made from buffalo mozzarella, paremsan, milk and gelatin, and the yolk was made from tomato, milk and gelatin.  The funny thing is I had ordered molds to make this egg and the egg white was on back order.  I just had to make these faux eggs though so I spent hours on end looking everywhere for a mold.  I even went to Jo-Ann fabrics and I can't stand that place.  I finally found something that would work at World Market.  They had a real egg shell filled with hazelnut & chocolate that came in a plastic case the shape and size of an egg.  And that did it..


Olive Oil Pudding
262g whole milk
2 egg yolks
64g sugar
19g corn starch
4g kosher salt
30g olive oil

Fill large bowl with ice water and set smaller bowl inside it.  In large saucepan bring milk to a boil over medium low heat.  In small bowl whisk together egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and salt. Slowly whisk half of milk into yolk mixture to temper.  Pour mixture back into saucepan, reduce heat to low and bring to a simmer whisking constantly.  Remove from heat.  Whisk in oil.  Strain through chinois into bowl set over ice water.  Let cool to room temperature.  Transfer to squeeze bottle and refrigerate.

Roasted Garlic
1 head garlic
7g olive oil

Preheat oven to 375F.  Lightly coat garlic with oil.  Wrap tightly in aluminum foil.  Roast for 45 minutes.  Remove foil and let cool to room temperature.  Peel garlic cloves taking care to keep cloves whole.

Roasted Red & Yellow Peppers
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper

Char peppers over open flame until skin is completely blackened.  Immediately transfer peppers to container, cover tightly and let cool.  Remove skin, seeds and ribs (do not rinse under water as you'll wash away the oils which contain the flavor).  Cut peppers into 1/2 inch squares.  Reserve colors in separate containers.

Croutons
1 small loaf sour dough bread

Preheat over to 325F.  Trim off crust from loaf and then cut loaf into 1/4 inch cubes.  Spread in single layer on sheet tray and toast turning cubes every 5 minutes for 10 - 15 minutes until evenly browned.  Reserve in airtight container.

Manchego Square
115g Manchego cheese

Now you're supposed to use a meat slicer and cut into 4 1/16 inch slices.  I don't have the luxury of a meat slicer so I used a sharp knife and cut at thin as possible.  I think next time I'll take my cheese to the deli and have them cut it.

Dried Olives
8 Nicoise olives

Dehydrate at 150F for 24 hours.  Reserve in airtight container

To Assemble
3 white anchovies
16 baby arugula leaves

In center of plate arrange the following in single layer: olive oil pudding, 1 crouton, 1 square roasted red pepper, 1 square roasted yellow pepper, 1 clove roasted garlic, 2 dehydrated olives, and 1 anchovy.  Cover ingredients with manchego square and using broiler or kitchen torch melt cheese over ingredients.  Garnish each plate with 2 arugula leaves.

Oyster, ginger, salmon roe, beer

Here's another recipe from Alinea.  I made some modifications such as replacing trout roe with salmon roe because it's much easier to find.  This is probably one of the easiest recipes I've done from this cookbook and  my favorite so far.  Grant Achatz is a genius and I hope to one day be able to go to his restaurant Alinea in Chicago.  His food creations know no bounds and he's one of my food idols.  Until then I'm stuck with my interpretations of his food.

8 Oysters
Rinse well
Shuck oysters and liquid into a bowl nestled in iced and reserve in fridge

Ginger Gelee
62g ginger peeled
250g water
50g sugar
1g salt
2 gelatin sheets

Slice ginger very thinly with mandolin.  In small sauce pan bring water, sugar, and salt to a boil.  Add ginger slices and remove from heat.  Cover and let steep for 10 minutes.  Immerse gelatin sheets in ice water for 5 minutes,  Strain ginger through chinois and discard ginger.  Gather gelatin and squeeze out excess water.  Stir gelatin into warm ginger until dissolved.  Pour into container and refrigerate until set.

Beer froth
1 bottle Alagash white ale (or similar beer)
50 g sugar
3g soy lecithin

In medium sauce pan bring beer and sugar to a simmer and skim away foam.  Add lecithin and stir to combine thoroughly.

To assemble and serve:
1 scallion
25g salmon roe

Using a sharp knife, slice green part of scallion on slight bias as thinly as possible.  Using immersion blender, blend beer until it has head of froth.  Allow to rest for about 2 minutes before plating and serving.

Spoon in a good size scoop of ginger gelee into bottom of glass.  Spoon 2 oysters, 5 slices of scallion, and salmon roe atop of gelee.  Top with beer froth.

This was a definite winner.  The ginger gelee itself was worth the efforts of this dish.  This was my first gelee and it has given me lots of other ideas for using other gelees in other dishes.  It's kind of like ginger jello and it really captures the essence of ginger and compliments the other components very nicely.  The beer froth really works with the oyster and the saltiness of the salmon roe contrasts nicely with the sweetness of the beer and oyster. 

Tuna & Yellow Tail Poke with Butternut Squash

I first made this for a dinner party we had with another couple where the theme was butternut squash and I included it in every dish.  I wanted to showcase butternut squash in a new way and decided to sous vide it to maintain a firm texture and shape and yet be fully cooked.  Yuzu goes well with raw fish and it works with the squash too.  The butternut squash adds a lovely element of taste and color.

8 oz sushi grade tuna

4 oz sushi grade yellow tail

1/2 cup cucumber 

1 cup butternut squash

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp cilantro chopped

2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

3 tsp yuzu juice

Prepare the squash ahead of time.  Cut into a uniform small dice (about 3/8 inch).  Heat sous vide to 185F.  Freeze 2 tsp of yuzu juice and vacuum seal with cubed squash on high.  Cook in sous vide for 1.5 hours then immerse in ice water to stop cooking.  

Cut tuna, yellow tail, and cucumber into a uniform small dice.  Gently combine the tuna, yellow tail, cucumber, 1/2 the squash, soy sauce, cilantro, sesame seeds, and remaining tsp of yuzu juice.  (With yuzu a little bit can go a long way and it opens up with time and increases in flavor so be careful not to add too much)  Center a ring mold on a plate and fill 3/4 of the way with the poke then top off with the butternut squash.  I like to keep some of the squash separate to maintain its beautiful orange color.

The little orange blobs with green are my attempt at creativity and trying to kick my presentation up a few notches.  Didn't quite turn out like I hoped but I'm making progress.  They kind of dried out and became flimsy by the time I used them.  Should have stored them in an air tight container.  They actually tasted pretty good and were a very different texture from the sous vide squash.

Butternut squash leather
butternut squash juice (200g)
simple syrup (30g)
a splash of yuzu
grated ginger (5g)
agar agar (1g)

Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil then run through chinois and pour onto acetate (spray with cooking spray and wipe off with paper towl).  The mixture will firm as it cools.

Cilantro Sauce (this recipe is from Alinea) 
1 bunch of cilantro
2000g of water & 75g salt for blanching
250g ice water
2.5g salt
10g simple syrup
10g ultra-tex 3

Pick leaves from stems and blanch in boiling water for 3 minutes and transfer to ice water to cool.  Drain and place in blender.  Add 250g ice water and blend on high speed until smooth.  Strain through chinois and reserve in covered container.
Return strained liquid to clean blender.  With blender running on low speed add 2.5g salt, 10g simple syrup, and 10g ultra-tex 3.  Blend thoroughly and strain through chinois.  Reserve in squeeze container.

I cut out circles of the squash leather and cut smaller circles out of them and squeezed in the cilantro sauce.  The problem with that was the cilantro sauce is thick however I had to dehydrate it to firm it so that I could be able to transport it and this dried out the squash leather a bit too much.  I had actually made the cilantro sauce for something else and this was an afterthought.  You can see the sauce squirted on the finished plate as well.  Next time I'll have to modify the cilantro with agar agar so it sets.  Here's a picture of before it went in the dehydrator.

Dinner with friends

It's always exciting cooking for friends that share a common interest in food.  The other weekend we had our good friends Daphne and Bill over for dinner.  I always go the extra mile for these two because Bill is a chef of many years and really inspired and taught me to become a better cook.  The first time he had some friends and me over for dinner he just blew me away with his cooking.  I had been to great restaurants and experienced good food and at that point never saw myself making food at that level.  I was an ok cook and enjoyed dabbling in the kitchen but this guy Bill made some amazing food and was always happy to show me the way and teach me new things.  I was also at dinner with him one time and he made a comment of what he would have done differently with a dish and told me he always liked to change dishes to make them more his own.  That really changed the way I looked at things and has lead to a lot of creativity for me in the kitchen.

I remember the first time I had these guys over for dinner I was so nervous and intimidated and I think it took me a year to figure out the menu.  It's a few years later and I've learned a few new things and it took a lot less than a year to come up with my menu this time.  I made my version of tuna poke, 2 recipes from Alinea - 'oyster, ginger, salmon roe, beer' & 'transparency of manchego cheese', 72 hour sous vide short ribs with a port/wine reduction served with fingerling mashed potatoes, braised heirloom carrots and carrot top sauce, and for dessert Marina made a chocolate & tonka bean creme brulee.  For the most part everything came out quite nice...especially dessert.  There were some snaffoos along the way and I completely forgot to add some things but if you go all out and don't mess a little bit up you're not pushing your personal limits in the kitchen.  I'll share the recipes in future posts.

Black Bean Soup

There's something very special about black bean soup.  It's extremely versatile and is great to eat year round.  The flavor is rich and hardy and it goes with just about anything.  Here's my basic recipe and I'll talk about some of my favorite variations and different ways to dress it up.  Every now and then I'll make my own beans and they're definitely better than canned but the thing I love about this soup is that when short on time you can make very quickly.  Black bean soup keeps well for up to 5 days or so and the flavor just gets better upon reheating.

2 large cans black beans (I use Goya 29 oz.)
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 cup onion diced
2-3 cloves garlic minced
2 tbsp oil
2-4 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp Mexican oregano
1-2 limes

Saute the onion over medium heat until soft (5 minutes or so) then add the garlic and half the ginger, saute for a minute then add the beans (water & all), tomatoes, the rest of the ginger, chipotles, and the spices.  Bring to a boil then simmer for 5-10 minutes to let the flavors come together.  Turn off the heat and puree with an immersion blender.  Add the juice of half a lime and stir in.  Serve and squeeze a quarter lime per serving.  When using canned beans you really don't need any salt but season to taste if necessary.

A real easy option is to serve the soup with some freshly chopped cilantro and avocado and these flavors work extremely well together.  I also usually cook 3-4 thinly sliced carrots with the onion.  If you cook for people that claim to not like vegetables they won't even know you've added them as long as you do a good job destroying the evidence with your immersion blender.  Another option to carrots is a roasted butternut squash.

If you want to get a little more fancy kick it up with some crab salad.
1/2 cup lump crab meat
2 tomatoes diced
1 avocado diced
1/2 - 1 thinly sliced jalapeño or anaheim chile
1 tbsp finely diced red onion
2 tbsp cilantro
1 lime
salt, pepper

Gently fold all ingredients together and server on top of the soup.