I've decided to change the title of the blog. I always intended the original blog title to be temporary. I chose Hungry Ghost because it resonates with where I am right now in my culinary pursuits.
Hungry ghosts desire, but cannot attain what they seek. I think this is true for any creative endeavor. I think there's a constant struggle to identify the spirit of a dish or ingredient and bring that forth as clearly as possible. The idea is always more perfect than the execution, but perfection is elusive.
Another reason is that I want cookery to be more than about food as a creative and sensual outlet. There is great satisfaction from "simple" foods. Likewise, there is excitement when a dish engages one's intellect. The problem I'm sensing (vaguely) through my exploration of The French Laundry and Keller's approach in general, is that food can be really tasty, but lack the engagement with the mind, while food that is intellectual, technical, and precise can often lack soul.
I think I want to pay due respect to my "ancestors" in cooking. Those hungry ghosts, the cooks and dishes that have built a foundation and a canon of not only tasty foods, but those which have lasted through time. They have something deeper that allows them to be a springboard for interpretation and creativity. I think this will not only be an exploration of traditional cuisines, but an archaeology of what my experiences have consisted of up to now.
14.11.11
10.11.11
Duck Breast and Port Wine-Sherry Vinegar Beurre Monte
Pairing sauces with proteins is an important thing to learn. I'm still trying to get the hang of this, but I pulled the components of this dish from two different sources of inspiration. Also here, I get to work on the proper use of heat to cook meat, seasoning and spicing proteins, as well as the making of a reduction sauce and a new technique for me: beurre monte.
Sauce is a beurre monte. 1:1 port wine and sherry vinegar, reduced to nearly a glaze, then butter melted into it without whisking to create the mirror like sheen.
Sauce and meat were made for each other. The duck is very rich and meaty, the sauce sweet and sour. I really love the acidity in this. The sourness makes you salivate, which really elevates the duck flavor. I had some carrots with a spiced glaze with this (not pictured, but the glaze was honey, cumin, and cayenne)
9.11.11
Salads
I've been thinking about salads lately. Their composition on the plate, as well as the palate. They are part of the curriculum at culinary schools, which elevates their status. Rightfully so, I think. The more I think about it, the more I think of them as a test of one's ability to compose flavors and a plate. The flavors will stand out, and each bite will be different, but hopefully share a common thread. I'm mystified by what makes them work. The salad I made below does work. It is like magic to me. I particularly loved the bites with the vinaigrette, the roasted pepper, and artichoke. The herbs were sublime.
Blanched baby bok choy, baby carrots, artichoke; red pepper batons roasted with olive oil and salt/pepper; radish wedges; fresh tarragon, basil, oregano, parsley, thyme; on a bed of cauliflower which was put through a food processor to give it the consistency of cous cous, then simmered just until tender.
Vinaigrette of maille dijon mustard, salt, champagne vinegar, and toasted almond oil. The vinaigrette was awesome. We ended up using the remains of the artichoke and veggies as an excuse to pour it into our gullets.
Blanched baby bok choy, baby carrots, artichoke; red pepper batons roasted with olive oil and salt/pepper; radish wedges; fresh tarragon, basil, oregano, parsley, thyme; on a bed of cauliflower which was put through a food processor to give it the consistency of cous cous, then simmered just until tender.
Vinaigrette of maille dijon mustard, salt, champagne vinegar, and toasted almond oil. The vinaigrette was awesome. We ended up using the remains of the artichoke and veggies as an excuse to pour it into our gullets.
8.11.11
Crab, avocado, coconut, basil
Bought some crab legs today. Just boiled them for a couple minutes, extracted and chopped up the meat. Avocado medium dice, coconut milk and whipped homemade creme fraiche, lime juice, yuzu marinated ginger, coconut flakes. Served with a lime-basil sauce and hot chili oil.
I'd like to add some crunch to this, some garnish, and cut back on the cream, which muted the flavors a bit. I'd also like to boost the chili and citrus. I'm not sold on this presentation, either.
The crab shells are in the freezer. Next time I buy whole shrimp, I'm going to make some etouffee. Probably next week sometime.
6.11.11
Dinner November 6, 2011
Lentil puree soup enriched with cream. Served with a homemade baguette:
For dessert I played with some techniques I've out of Grant Achatz' shop at Alinea.
From bottom left. Hazelnut puree with homemade spiced cranberry jam, crushed toasted hazelnuts. Granny smith apple capsule filled with gran marnier cream and topped with a hazelnut "chip"" made from dehydrating hazelnut puree. Apple shortbread with cinnamon streusel.
I think I would serve just the cake with the capsule in the future (you'll see why in the next photo). I wanted to play with different plating ideas though.
Crack open the capsule and the gran marnier (orange flavored cognac) cream mixture pours out over the cake. In the future Im going to make the cream mixture more viscous and the walls of the capsule thinner.
2.11.11
Escoffier
"Where the steady, even pace of life is not troubled by any preoccupations,...,the art of cookery always flourishes because it contributes to one of the most agreeable of the pleasures given man to enjoy.
"On the other hand, when life is hectic,...,good living can only play a minor role. More often the need to eat appears to those caught in the throes of business, as no longer a pleasurable occasion but an unnecessary chore.
"Such habits can and must be condemned, if only from the point of view of the health of customers whose stomachs have to put up with their consequences..."
To put this in context, Escoffier seems to be expressing his disdain for the changes he saw, while acknowledging that the cook and his craft is embedded in the society in which he or she lives. A cook that refuses to accept the realities of the demands on diners is a cook without anybody to serve. That said, he was making these observations in 1907 in the introduction to the second edition of Le Guide Culinaire. I wonder what he would make of today's cuisine, at once more immediate, customer driven, and at the same time seemingly with more promise than at any time since his book was published or the advent of Nouvelle Cuisine.
1.11.11
Crème Fraîche
Crème fraîche really is expensive, and might be difficult to find in your standard grocery store. Why not make it yourself? Along with yogurt, fromage blanc, pasta, preserved lemons, and a host of other products, this one is much less costly to make than to buy, and very easy to do.
Crème fraîche is similar to sour cream, but I think it has a nicer mouth-feel, and has a wider variety of applications. It has a sour note, but it also a hint of nuts. It can be whipped to create a light structure. It can be used in savory or sweet sides of the kitchen. I've seen it flavored with fruits, curries, and more. You can make dressings for salads or other vegetables with this, as it is a nice base for remoulade. It is also a great way to add richness to meat and fish sauces. This will keep for a week to two weeks in the fridge.
The process is very similar to making fromage blanc (also called fromage frais). For fromage blanc, you start with whole milk and add lemon juice with the buttermilk. After heating these, you let it sit for a few minutes and strain to make the fromage blanc. To make crème fraîche, start with heavy cream, warm it gently over low heat. Then add two to three tablespoons of buttermilk. You can use powdered buttermilk here (3-4 tablespoons per cup of water, mixed well). Mix to incorporate the buttermilk and pour into jars, loosely covered.
I think there are two interesting things I want to highlight: fat and culture. This is by no means a comprehensive discussion.
Fat
The fat in milk comes in the form of tiny globules. Whole milk contains ~3.5% fat, while heavy cream contains upwards of 35%. This makes cream better able to be whipped, resist curdling when heated, and gives it its characteristic mouth coating goodness. The important thing to understand is that milk is a colloid, an emulsion of fat in water, held together with proteins. You may know that raw milk will separate, the cream rising to the top. Homogenized milk has been forced through a fine strainer at high pressure, breaking up the fat into smaller bits so they are more easily held in suspension. Too much heat or acid and the emulsion will break.
I have often in the past tried using milk based products in making warm and hot sauces, but found that the fat and solids would separate, making a greasy and unappetizing appearance. What I was seeing were the proteins of the milk coagulating into a tight structure which releases the fat and whey. With heavy cream, and by extension crème fraîche, there is enough fat that the milk proteins are trapped, unable to curdle. Sour cream will curdle with heat, as will milk and yogurt. The reason for sour cream and yogurt is that their acidity already puts them on the edge, the heat easily pushing them to curdle. More on acid below, under Culture.
The globules of fat also have a role to play when cream is whipped. The mechanical action of whipping breaks up the globules into ever finer structures, which then can form into rings of condensed fat trapping air bubbles. If you continue whipping you break the globules and release the fat molecules, which will begin to coalesce into ever increasing sizes, producing butter. Ice cream also illustrates the role of fat globules. Like whipped cream, the fat stabilizes air bubbles produced when you churn the cream. As a side note, ice cream is very interesting stuff with a lot to explore: the controlled crystallization of sugar and water, thermoreversability through the use of stabilizers, and tastes, all could be subjects in future posts.
You can make harder whipped creams by reducing the water content/increasing fat content (heat the cream to cook off some water), then chilling before whipping. To make softer whipped cream, add a bit of milk. To aid quicker whipping, add a touch of acid (lemon, a dash of tartaric acid, etc). This helps to separate the fat from the proteins. That said, the amount of fat globules and the mechanical action of breaking them up is the key.
Culture
Milk fermentation. Milk contains water, proteins, fat, and sugars (lactose). It is this last molecule that makes fermented milk products possible. The lactose serves as a food source for bacteria, which produce lactic acid, preserving the milk. There are literally hundreds of different kinds of fermented fresh milks. Each relies on a set of microbes to digest the sugars and acidify the milk.
Kept at moderate to warm temperatures, the microbes multiply rapidly and the process accelerates. The acidic conditions produced by these helpful bacteria create an environment unfriendly to disease causing bacteria. The acid also causes the proteins to get tangled up with each other, creating a gel structure which thickens the end result. With yogurt and fromage blanc, the process is much quicker (yogurt can gel in a matter of hours, fromage blanc even faster). The faster gelification of yogurt and cheeses produces a looser gel structure, which leaks whey and leaves behind the curds. The slower process involved with crème fraîche creates a denser network of proteins, which retains the whey.
There's a lot going on, even in the ostensibly simplest substances. We can easily take advantage of these complex processes to produce delicious results with very little cost. I can only speak for myself, but I think knowing a little bit about what is going on to produce these foods increases my appreciation for them and helps me understand how to use them effectively in the kitchen.
The above adapted from my reading of McGee. Any errors are my own.
Crème fraîche is similar to sour cream, but I think it has a nicer mouth-feel, and has a wider variety of applications. It has a sour note, but it also a hint of nuts. It can be whipped to create a light structure. It can be used in savory or sweet sides of the kitchen. I've seen it flavored with fruits, curries, and more. You can make dressings for salads or other vegetables with this, as it is a nice base for remoulade. It is also a great way to add richness to meat and fish sauces. This will keep for a week to two weeks in the fridge.
Let the cream sit on a counter to at room temperature for 24 hours. It will become thicker and start to develop some of its characteristic sourness. It will continue to thicken and develop flavor as it sits in the fridge. You can see that it is much thicker than cream.
In More Depth
Fat
The fat in milk comes in the form of tiny globules. Whole milk contains ~3.5% fat, while heavy cream contains upwards of 35%. This makes cream better able to be whipped, resist curdling when heated, and gives it its characteristic mouth coating goodness. The important thing to understand is that milk is a colloid, an emulsion of fat in water, held together with proteins. You may know that raw milk will separate, the cream rising to the top. Homogenized milk has been forced through a fine strainer at high pressure, breaking up the fat into smaller bits so they are more easily held in suspension. Too much heat or acid and the emulsion will break.
I have often in the past tried using milk based products in making warm and hot sauces, but found that the fat and solids would separate, making a greasy and unappetizing appearance. What I was seeing were the proteins of the milk coagulating into a tight structure which releases the fat and whey. With heavy cream, and by extension crème fraîche, there is enough fat that the milk proteins are trapped, unable to curdle. Sour cream will curdle with heat, as will milk and yogurt. The reason for sour cream and yogurt is that their acidity already puts them on the edge, the heat easily pushing them to curdle. More on acid below, under Culture.
The globules of fat also have a role to play when cream is whipped. The mechanical action of whipping breaks up the globules into ever finer structures, which then can form into rings of condensed fat trapping air bubbles. If you continue whipping you break the globules and release the fat molecules, which will begin to coalesce into ever increasing sizes, producing butter. Ice cream also illustrates the role of fat globules. Like whipped cream, the fat stabilizes air bubbles produced when you churn the cream. As a side note, ice cream is very interesting stuff with a lot to explore: the controlled crystallization of sugar and water, thermoreversability through the use of stabilizers, and tastes, all could be subjects in future posts.
You can make harder whipped creams by reducing the water content/increasing fat content (heat the cream to cook off some water), then chilling before whipping. To make softer whipped cream, add a bit of milk. To aid quicker whipping, add a touch of acid (lemon, a dash of tartaric acid, etc). This helps to separate the fat from the proteins. That said, the amount of fat globules and the mechanical action of breaking them up is the key.
Culture
Milk fermentation. Milk contains water, proteins, fat, and sugars (lactose). It is this last molecule that makes fermented milk products possible. The lactose serves as a food source for bacteria, which produce lactic acid, preserving the milk. There are literally hundreds of different kinds of fermented fresh milks. Each relies on a set of microbes to digest the sugars and acidify the milk.
Kept at moderate to warm temperatures, the microbes multiply rapidly and the process accelerates. The acidic conditions produced by these helpful bacteria create an environment unfriendly to disease causing bacteria. The acid also causes the proteins to get tangled up with each other, creating a gel structure which thickens the end result. With yogurt and fromage blanc, the process is much quicker (yogurt can gel in a matter of hours, fromage blanc even faster). The faster gelification of yogurt and cheeses produces a looser gel structure, which leaks whey and leaves behind the curds. The slower process involved with crème fraîche creates a denser network of proteins, which retains the whey.
There's a lot going on, even in the ostensibly simplest substances. We can easily take advantage of these complex processes to produce delicious results with very little cost. I can only speak for myself, but I think knowing a little bit about what is going on to produce these foods increases my appreciation for them and helps me understand how to use them effectively in the kitchen.
Richard Feynman in What Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988)
I have a friend who's an artist, and he sometimes takes a view which I don't agree with. He'll hold up a flower and say, "Look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. But then he'll say, "I, as an artist, can see how beautiful a flower is. But you, as a scientist, take it all apart and it becomes dull." I think he's kind of nutty. [...] There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.
The above adapted from my reading of McGee. Any errors are my own.
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