TestKitchen

School...

So if you check in here periodically to see what I have been up to you will have noticed that I have been away for a long time. I graduate on December 20th and school has been keeping me very busy. So I haven't had that much time to spare for cooking anything interesting. I did buy a book recently that I really recommend. Its one by Michel Bras and it contains 90 recipes of desserts. Hopefully I'll be back soon. Ive been making Cherry-Whisky Vinegar and I believe that its almost done so I should be able to share that soon. For now heres a picture of the mushrooms I've been working on. These are some of the small oyster mushrooms that I grew and they have been pickled in rice vinegar, soy sauce, siracha, and garlic. They really pack a punch. They are spicy, slightly salty and really explode with flavor when you eat them. As you can see these really picked up alot of color from the soy sauce(they were white when they started).   

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving.

         "Who does not thank for little will not thank for much."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Confit

Duck Confit is one of my favorite things this time of year. Its simply delicous. For this batch I cured it in cinnamon, anise, peppercorns, and brown sugar. Its tasty there not much else I can say about it. The duck meat picked up the scent of all the ingredients and added flavor to the meat. 

Gobble Gobble Gobble

So Thanksgiving is on its way here and I have been waiting to use my sample of Activa for a long time. I saw this technique on my favorite site Ideas In Food. Its really great because you can have turkey ready in less than an hour and have alot of bones left to make turkey stock. Its very simple and rather than explain it I thought I might show you. Click Here. I wasn't able to take quite as many photos because I didnt feel like washing my hands 37 times. Heres a few pictures of my progress with the Turkey Ballotine. I would have liked to kryovac the  pieces separately but!, those who are borrowing time and equipment can't really be choosers. 

Lobster

Chestnuts are my favorite thing this time of year. Their flavor and texture are, to me, perfect. This dish is centered around them. Here is Lobster Cuite Sous Vide with Vanilla-Marron Puree. Its toped with braised leeks. A black currant puree dots the plate and ads a sharp taste that cuts through nicely. 

The Rest of the Photos

   

My Day at the Javit Center

International Hotel & Restaurant Show

Today was spent in NYC at the restaurant show. It was really quite amazing. I have never been over to the Javit Center before so it was quite amazing to see. Here are some pictures of it from the inside (I didnt take any before I went in because it was rainy).

I walked in picked up my ticket compliments of the CIA and entered into the place. It was really fun to see all the various people showing off their best stuff. The main hall held alot of plate manufacturers(includidng fortessa, bernardaud, and a bunch of others), there were oven people, dishmachine people, and my favorite discovery of the day was the oil purifier.

In the lower level of the facility they had a garde manger and petit fors display from school and individuals from all over. I my humble opinion the CIA had the best display, everything was clean and accurate. And they had the most impressive cake and center piece. You can take a peek and see what you think. Oh! Also in the lower level was a food demostration being put on by Michael Lomanico.

After I had seen it all I went up the street a couple of blocks and stopped in at BBQ. The place was great and oddly enough the chef is friends with D. Bouloud. The walls were covered with newspaper write-ups and pictures(many of them including DB, the chef of the Daisy May's BBQ and the old chef of Le Cirque(name?).

Coffee Powder

Heres what became of my playing around with Zorbit. I Took some oil and steeped it 1:1 espresso grounds until it was very aromatic. I think that if i let it steep longer I would have gotten a darker color. Once the oil had steeped for as long as I was patient enough to let it I strained it through a coffee filter. This was then whisked with 2:1 Zorbit to oil and then passed through a tammis. The resulting mixture is powdery and slightly tanned. It has a really great aroma the room fill with coffee smell and the flavor is great as well. I think that this could be a wonderful part of dessert. 

Oh yeah I forgot to mention the clumpy guys here are pre-tammis so its a bit more powdery now.

Ever Expanding Box of Goodies

Yesterday in the mail I recieved my sample of N-Zorbit M and it seemed like it really rounded out my collection. N-Zorbit M is Tapioca Maltodextrin, TM can be used to turn a fat into a powder. Powdered fats may seem really odd and perhaps even repulsive but if you get the correct proportion and the right oil you can make a very tasty component to the plate. Last night I used some N-Zorbit to create a garlic oil powder and a coffee oil powder. The garlic oil powder is terrible in my mind. That could be the fault of the oil but either way im very turned off by that powder. The coffee powder how ever is really great. It has an incredibly strong coffee aroma and very good flavor. I would like to try and use it as a part of a "coffee cake". Only time will tell what I actually do use it for. For now heres a picture of my collection to date. 

First Attempt

This is my first attempt to link anything savory to this peanut butter consomme. I have been having a great deal of trouble with it because it cannot be heated. Any attempt to heat it yeilded a cloudy unappetizing by product. So I gave up and went with some thing Chaud-Frois in the tiny espresso cup is a rockshrimp ragout with house grown oyster mushrooms. The dish is really tasty, the rockshrimp are really something great and the meaty oyster mushrooms go very well with them. The two flavors are bridged when you add the cool peanut butter consomme and its really something tasty. After all the trouble i have had with this dish I actually quite pleased with the flavors in the end.