Mex Mix

Moving

2010-04-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

Asides from rarely writing, I feel that my blog has not been quite on the subject that I had in mind when I created it. Thus, the move to a new address. The title is just a nod to one of the greatest chefs of our time, and something that expresses what I feel about the cooking going on in a lot of places in this country.

So there we are, new address, same old stuff.

I will keep all of the contents here, but it's also been moved to the new place: http://sansturbot.blogspot.com/

Helping

2010-02-27T12:45:00.000-08:00

A week ago, Chef Mauricio Martínez suffered an accident that left in in a grave state. Unfortunately, Mauricio has no assurance or social security benefits, so all the medical expenses have to be covered by his friends and family. The cost of his medical attention has been significant since we're dealing with neurosurgery.

Antonio Márquez of LMA FoodConcepts and Edna Alanis of CEC Roccatti have been working to set up a help network and raise the funds needed to help the Martínez family.

The bank account where people may send help is:
SCOTIABANK
Luis Arturo Martinez Carreon
00 105 922 437
Clabe 044 18000 105 922 4372

Another way to help is attending to the benefit dinner hosted by Adrián Herrera at the Fonda San Francisco. It will take place tuesday, march the 2nd. Reservations can be made through Ada Guillén at (81)8336 6706.

St. Valentine's dessert

2010-02-19T17:04:00.000-08:00

De Blogger Pictures

Simple: Warm Brownie, Balsamic Strawberries, Port Reduction, Rose Ganache, Spice Tuile, Chocolate Ice Cream.

February 4

2010-02-11T16:36:00.000-08:00

An international company from a town up in the border contacted me about catering a very important dinner. They wanted a Mexican inspired dinner and I thought it would be adequate to showcase some good Mexican wines too. Sommelier Humberto Falcón, provided the pairings. Here's the Menu.

Cucumber and Jicama Salad, Aguachile Shrimp.
Mariatinto Blanco 2008.

Green Pozole, Duck Confit.
Maat 2007

Zucchini Blossom Risotto, Pepitas and Cotija Crisp
Kojáa 2007

Entrée options:
Rack of Lamb, Cinnamon Mole, "Esquite" purée

Duck breast in Adobo, Glazed Camote, Guajillo and Agave Sauce

Red Snapper in Achiote, Grilled Peppers, Orange and Mezcal Sauce.

The wine for these was La Borde Vieille DCR 2007. A great wine made by Hugo D'Acosta in the Languedoc Rousillon Region.

Making the dinner was a lot of work and dealing with unexpected issues. In the end, I was happy with the results, but more importantly the customers were happy too.

Highlighting 2009

2010-01-05T17:21:00.001-08:00

This last year was, to say the least, a very busy one. I had left teaching to take on the opening of Buké, later on I re-took it. We ate a bunch of things both in Monterrey as well as on our trips. So here's a list of the best things of 09. This list is bound to grow as I keep thinking of more cool things that happened on the year.

Best Restaurant Meals

If we were to keep tabs on the cost of the dinners, then the Highlight would definitely be either Thierry Blouet or Las Ventanas. However, as good as those were, I don't think they were the best of the year. Of course they had their highlights.

At Thierry Blouet's I had one hell of an Escolar, one of the best fish dishes I've ever had. The cheese plate, although tiny, was really creative (and It was kindly given to us as a comp). The dish at Las Ventanas that stuck the most wasn't definitely the best of the night, and while it was good, it was definitely not mind-blowing. Again, for full disclosure, I must say that we got complimentary glasses of Danzantes mezcal, apparently to make it up for not having the cheese dish I had ordered.

Probably the best meal this year was at Frida!. Chef Antonio DeLivier's flagship restaurant at the Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach. It's really sad that it doesn't have a website, but that was the one dinner where all but one courses were incredibly delicious. I didn't love the dessert. A really close second, or even maybe tie, were the meals I had at Pangea. Those three were also great, but I think that the extremely refined service at Frida! made for a superior experience.

Other remarkable meals of 2009:
Nick San Cabo San Lucas
Kitchoan
Aquiles Chavez cooks at La Catarina
Street and Typical Food in Michoacán, La Paz and San Luis

Dishes I enjoyed making this year:
One of my pet peeves is gloating over the food that I make. Thus, this section is not about the dishes that I think were the best, but instead, the ones I had more fun making:

Beef Tartare with Pimentón, Chocolate Sauce
Danablu, Onion Agrodolce over Tesinois
Plancha U8 Shrimp, Oyster Mushroom, Potato, Rouille
Red Snapper, White Beans, Spicy Tomato Stew
Pecan Pain Perdu, Pluots, Blue Cheese Ice Cream
Salt Roasted Red Beets with Chocolate Vinaigrette
Instant Chocolate Cake with Ancho Confit, Blueberry Compote
Sweet Bean "Buñuelo", Chipotle-Piloncillo Sauce, Vanilla Ice Cream
Brown Butter Cake, Spice poached apples, Danablu foam, Vanilla Ice Cream
White Pepper Ice Cream with Strawberry Chutney

Other cool things that happened this year:
The Book
The huge flop at the Cocinero del Año Semifinal (I'll try again this year)
The still unpublished webisode thingy for the guys at ElGusto.tv
Tasted lots of really good wines.

Let's just hope this year is as cool or better!

Xmas Dessert

2009-12-01T15:49:00.001-08:00

For more than a year now, I had been obsessing about Dulce de Frijol. While I have tasted azuki paste and my parents told me about sweets made from beans or garbanzo, it wasn't until last year's Culinary Symposium that it stuck. I didn't get a chance to do much with the lingering idea for a good long while. I even wento to the Second Culinary Symposium...

Luckily for me, the same presenter was on this year, and he showed the same clip. This year, I recorded the clip and later I took note of the recipe. So now I had the information needed to tackle my obsession. What I didn't have was a purpose other than pure curiosity. Then I read this. Author Haalo talks about interchangeable ingredients. So instead of azuki, our pinto bean paste went in. Some people relate wontons with tortillas (and why not), but the look of fried wontons reminds me a lot of Buñuelos, a typical dessert for the holiday season.

Buñuelos are usually served with a syrup made with piloncillo and accompanied by some hot drink such as atole, champurrado or hot chocolate. We simply decided to add some heat to the syrup by putting a bit of chipotle in there.

Other elements in the dish are chipotle crumble and vanilla Ice Cream. This dessert made with playing with regional flavors will be available for Holiday Dinners this season.

Published

2009-11-26T16:54:00.000-08:00

I really can't complain. This has been a very eventful year. Of course that the events leading up to this actually started since last year when I had the chance to join the team at Buké. Things have been crazy since then, we've cruised (or dragged ourselves) through some very bad times like the whole H1N1 flu craze, a couple of holidays and overall a slow economy. While we're not at all where we'd like to be, I'd like to think we're well on our way.

Personally, this job has landed me a few interesting opportunities, such as participating in the "Cocinero del Año" semifinal, taped an episode for a web-based show (which hasn't aired because suppposedly it's going to go on TV) and had a couple of press mentions.

One of the best things that have happened this year was being invited to be a part of the "Cocina de Autor" cookbook. The project was born as a charitable project for the Mano Amiga Foundation, who give out scholarships for elementary education. Mano Amiga managed to gather some of the biggest names in the Culinary Industy in Mexico like Thierry Blouet, Enrique Olvera, Paulina Abascal and Guillermo Gonzalez and other very important chefs from Monterrey like Antonio Marquez, Adrián Herrera, Mima Gonzalez, Alberto Sentíes and others. I am really blessed to have my name on the cover among theirs and as it's the day for it, Thanks are in order to all of those who have allowed me to have such luck.

I guess I'm a published author now too... cool!

OMG GMO! or requiem for corn.

2009-10-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

Just this last week, Mexican Government approved 15 out of 35 permits that will enable GMO corn planting. The beneficiaries of such permits are Monsanto and Dow AgroScience. This news has been received in a couple different ways. On one hand Greenpeace has strongly objected to this, arguing that SAGARPA (Secretary of Agriculture) is ignoring international agreements and advice from experts in the field. On the other hand, mainstream press personalities have expressed their approval of the motion. Their argument: that this will improve the yield of our fields, enabling a sort of "Argicultural Revolution".

I for one, find the move appalling. I believe that the press is missing on some big issues such as quality of the produced food, and where the revenue from that nasty corn is going. It's definitely not going into the poor journeyman's pocket. And that is where all the problem spawns. For a good deal of our history, we have had a history of exploiting the people tending to our fields. And it has been the greed of the people buying dirt cheap products from them that has led to the ruined state our fields are in. Take Vanilla, for example. Veracruz is the home of Vanilla, and for decades, Papantla vanilla was regarded as the best available. Seeing that their product was in demand, sellers (not the growers) entice extract producers to start messing with the product. Buyers notice and demand for our vanilla spirals down, resulting in being perhaps third-string option. Gladly, as with Coffee, responsible growing and movements like Fair Trade have started their rescue of Vanilla.

With corn, however, the outlook is definitely stark. I had the chance of meeting Diana Kennedy, recently. She asks: how can a country as rich as ours embrace a crap product like Maseca? We've just embraced worse. Lots of mexicans don't know what nixtamal tastes like. Now, I am reminded of David Patterson when I feel we're en route to forget corn.

The only word I can think of to describe what's going on right now is shameful. Eight years ago, when I was in France, you could see the strength of the anti-GMO shift. Producers were proudly boasting: Non-GMO in their labels. We seem to be bidding them welcome.

Need more? How about watching Michael Ruhlman and Dan Barber at Chautauqua. Mr. Ruhlman goes, as Mr. Patterson earlier, into detail about why the corn produced by the mass industries is wrong, even explaining how it affects the rest of the food chain. Chances are, you already read Michael Ruhlman's Blog but as I said earlier: if you don't, start doing so.

Finally, a big Thank You to Donna Turner Ruhlman for kindly letting me use her "Ear of Corn" picture. See more of her amazing work at Ruhlmanphotography.com.

Pics from the job

2009-10-20T13:18:00.001-07:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Taking pictures onsite is challenging, to say the least. Lighgting in kitchens isn't quite adequate for good photography. However, I have been trying to get some better pictures into this blog.

Here's a sampling of some pictures taken of both dishes from our menu and others created for our wine tasting events.

Cocinero del Año Menu

2009-10-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

Last september I participated in the local semifinal of the Cocinero del Año contest. It was my first contest and I learned a lot about what needs to be improved for following attempts (meaning I didn't do that good).

Here's the menu I prepared:

Appetizer 1:

Smoked Salmon and Xiqueño Mole Tostada

Appetizer 2:

Escabeche Carrot Cappucchino and Pig Trotter Croquette

First Course:

Salt-Cured Nopal and Confit Tomato Salad.

Main:

Red Snapper with Beet Mole, Cacahuazintle Corn Raviolo, Oyster Mushrooms and Cilantro Pesto

Dessert:

Chocolate and Corn Millefeuille, Garapiñado Ice Cream, Coffee Sauce.

Maybe next year!

2nd CANIRAC Culinary Symposium

2009-10-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

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Last year the State's Restaurant Chamber (CANIRAC) organized a culinary symposium focused on the "rescue and preservation of Northeastern Mexico's cuisine". Many of us were surprised to see that the seemingly simple cuisine of the northeast isn't shabby at all. True that we don't have the culinary complexity or popularity of the central and southern regions. But it's still worth taking a look into.

Last Wednesday, CANIRAC hosted their second edition of the symposium, and again, there was a fair share of great information to chew on.

The event kicked off with the early day being mostly about conferences, starting with Dr. Glafiro Alanís, from the State University's Faculty of Biology. His conference was a presentation of the edible plants available in Nuevo León, some of which were unknown to many of the assistants.

Eduardo Alvarado, host of the show "Reportajes de Alvarado" presented a recap of some of the show's moments highlighting the people of the state and their traditional foods. Asado de Puerco, Sweet Bean Paste, Beef Cortadillo and many other regional specialties were highlighted in them. After his presentation, CANIRAC presented Mr. Alvarado with a special recognition for the show's labor in the rescue and preservation of local culinary traditions.

Nina Mayagoitia, from Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma came up next and after a brief talk, gave way to Sommelier Humberto Falcón. Humberto talked about the company's premium brand: Bohemia, the characteristics of the different varieties, proper service for each and even pairing tips.

After a Short break, consultant Miguel Espejel took the stage and briefly gave us some pointers on Restaurant Marketing.

For the second part of the Symposium, we moved to the Museum of the Northeast's terrace for the cooking demos. Unfortunately, it was a bit hot last week so both Speaker Chefs and attendees were in a bit of an uncomfortable situation. The good part of this was that the demos were both entertaining and illustrating and more than made up for the weather.

First up, Saltillo's Juan Ramón Cárdenas shared one of his passions: Pecans. Being native of the region, pecans make up a pretty important part of our cuisine, particularly in the sweet side of it. Chef Cárdenas told us about how the Tlaxcaltecan women, finding themselves lacking avocado leaves to cook with, took upon the pecan tree for substitutes and proceeded to make a Pecan Tree leaf green mole. It was served over some pork rib carnitas... delicious! He also shared a quick way to make "Queso de Nuez", a local candy similar to Marzipan.

Chef Abdiel Cervantes was up next. Chef Cervantes has dedicated himself to promoting Mexico's culinary heritage both locally and internationally. He spoke to the many culinary students in the audience about the importance of discovering and mastering the local tradition. He also prepared a Prickly Pear Ceviche and a "Cactus Flan" flavored with saffron and served with a poblano sauce.

Last but definitely not least, Chefs Alberto Sentíes and Adrián Herrera took the stage and prepared a three course menu using flowers as ingredients. This was definitely one of the highlights of the day, as their contrasting culinary styles meshed together in some quite interesting dishes.

I was forgetting, there was one last, surprise demo held by Chef Rodolfo Onofre on fruit carving, unfortunately it was getting late and I had to go back to the restaurant to our regular Wednesday wine tasting.

Congratulations to CANIRAC and all the speakers for this second Symposium, our region definitely needs more efforts like this one.

Introducing: TGRBT #1

2009-10-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

After recently hosting a round of TGRWT, blogger Aidan Brooks comes up with a really interesting idea: They really go badly together, inspired by a recent Masterchef episode...

Worth a read if not a shot!

TGRWT 19 Tomato and Black Tea announcement

2009-09-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

While we're still expecting the news from Trig, the announcement for the next round of TGRWT is already out!

Pablo, from Medellitin is our host this time and his choice of ingredients are: Tomato and Black Tea. His words are the best to say what this is all about:

But, maybe, just maybe, you can use this to get your creative juices going, and find your way back into your poor, neglected kitchen. I wanted to choose common ingredients that were familiar, seasonal and could still be exciting for people to riff on. I also wanted to choose things that would let our vegetarian/vegan friends contribute.

So there we have it... Let's cook!

Mexican menu in the works

2009-09-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

Mexican Independence Day is just around the corner. So we're taking a shot at making our first multi-course menu for the whole restaurant. We're thinking of doing a 5 course menu, details about service are still to be decided. Heck, the whole menu is still to be decided. But here's a sneak peek:

Griddled Jalapeño Panela

Watermelon

Arúgula

Roasted Pumpkin seeds

Margarita Serrano Vinaigrette

Green Pozole

Chicken Confit

Radish Salad

Bacon fat plancha Shrimp

Frijoles Puercos

Cotija Frico

Chipotle

Braised Short Rib

Nixtamal Gnocchi

Corn Purée

Colorado Chile Sauce

Vanilla Panna Cotta

Tamarind Gel

Peanut Praline Sauce

Coffee Ice

I'm still working on this. When it's done, I'll try to re-post here and at the restaurant's blog.

P.S. A note of credit: Thanks to the Ideas in food twitter feed for the gnocchi.

TGRWT #18: Plum and Blue cheese.

2009-08-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

So as I'd announced previously, TGRWT #18 is being hosted this time by Aidan Brooks. As usual, I had a bunch of ideas as to what to do in this round. But thanks to the extra push by Mr. Brooks, I decided to tackle dessert.

I had ideas swimming around for a while, but it wasn't until I received a dinner invitation that the planning process really got started. The ingredient list was there: Plums (Pluots), Blue Cheese, some nut and something bacon.

We have an awesome bread puveyor that had brought over some samples of pecan bread. Since it wasn't quite fresh (Frozen) I decided to use it to make French Toast. This made me think of adding spices to the mix, but since we were going to taste this with Sparkling Riesling Icewine, I decided to skip on them. I also refrained from making a candied bacon crisp and opted to make Bacon fat Pecans (just like making butter pecans). Finally, I had to skip on adding some blue cheese crumbs because I didn't have the time.

For the pluots, I used part of them fresh and made a gastrique-like sauce with the rest. I didn't cook it too long to keep the wonderful flavor of the plum.

Here's what it ended up looking like:

Pecan Bread French Toast, Danish Blue Ice Cream, Pluots fresh and gastrique, Bacon Fat Pecans

Taste wise, the flavors were pretty much spot on as I had imagined. I had thought that the Ice Cream could be too sweet and overpowering, but it when placed in the context of the whole dish, it was balanced out with the sweet tartness of the gastrique. I would've liked a bit more presence of the salty element (pecans or the crumble, perhaps). While the dessert was pretty good on it's own. The Pilliteri ended up being even sweeter and overpowered the whole dish. Still it was a very good way to end our sunday Meal.

Morelia Tour

2009-08-05T17:35:00.001-07:00

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Earlier this year, my wife and I took off to Morelia for a weekend. We had a great time visiting that beautiful city. Michoacan is an amazing state full of incredible places and lots of very interesting food. Pictures of the sights are on our Facebook, but I got all the ones of the Food.

Particularly memorable were the all the sorts of tamales: Corundas, Uchepos and Wheat tamal as well as the awesome Black Zapote Sorbet.

TGRWT #18: Plum and Blue cheese.

2009-07-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

It's back! Although I don't know why I get so excited seeing how I am really a terrible blogger and I've participated in little of these awesome events. Still, they're tons of fun and it helps getting the thinking hats on. Sooo...

As we all surely know by now, TGRWT is a blogging event created by Marin Lersch over at Khymos. Using the principle of aroma pairing, we're challenged to create dishes incorporating ingredients that are seemingly an odd match, but that should go well together because of common aroma compounds.

This round is being hosted by Aidan Brooks. To make things even more fun, Aidan is challenging us to go the extra mile with an optional competition. Be sure to scroll all the way down when you read his post to get the scoop!

My only regret is that I didn't get to see good Pluots this year...

What people want.

2009-07-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

While creating the dessert section of our menu, my two principles were to try to be true to the ingredients of the Mediterranean region, and to be different to what everyone else is doing (Thanks to the restaurant Chains, stuff like Hot Apple Pie and Brownie, both a la mode is everyewhere). It was a matter of testing, but we finally settled on the following choices:

Our version of Manchego and Membrillo: Olive Oil and Quince Paste Cake, Young Manchego, Artisanal Quince Paste.

Goat Cheese Flan, Orange Sauce, Dates, Pistacchio Crumble

Yoghurt Panna Cotta, Honey Stewed Peaches

Lavender Chocolate Mousse, Apple Granité, Apple Rollup

Citrus Espuma, Citrus Caramel, Pistacchio Joconde, Chamomille Gel

Pear Tarte Tatin, Port Wine Sorbet.

For our lunch menu, we also added a Black Pepper Ice Cream, Strawberry ALmond Chutney and Crumble.

After a mere four months of operation, changes are due. There will be a new dessert and we're getting our Ice Creams outsourced and getting rid of the Port Sorbet (Mainly because of production issues). Our new dessert has been conceived by listening to what people want. Unfortunately, people want what every other place in town is offering: Brownie A la Mode.

Since this is business, after all, we're making them the darned thing. But not quite. The brownie part is being replaced with a Almond and Cocoa Financier. We're buying a wonderful Burnt Caramel Ice Cream to go with it, and finishing the dessert with some Candied Orange Peel.

It will be available sometime this week.

Microwave Crisping

2009-07-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

Foodplayer Linda's last post on crispy asparagus sparked an interest into making crispy vegetables with a different technique than that used in pastry (simple syrup + oven). Two things stand out for me in her experiment, apart from the obvious, exciting result: first, finding a better way to use our microwave oven, and second, the fact that replicating the technique seems doable within almost any kitchen.

After asking her about other experiments with other vegetables, she let me know that she has gotten good results out of mushrooms and she's got a list of others to try. We have a dish at the restaurant that, while it sells like crazy, I've always felt that it needs something to give it a bit more of a visual impact. So the thought of crisping zucchini came to mind.

I took some zucchini bits left over from some prep and since it was too short to slice lengthwise, sliced it into rounds. Prepped my salted water and blanched them. I laid the zucchini rounds on paper towels and transfered to parchment. In comes snag #1. The dehydration process. Our oven's lowest temp setting is 220°F. So instead of the 30 minutes at 100°F they were there for 15 minutes. Snag #2 came from a huge human error. I was pulled into a meeting and couldn't keep watch over my experiment. When I came out of the meeting I found my rounds perhaps a bit too dry or they were too thinly sliced as many were sticking to the parchment or too fragile to handle.

Still I managed to get some into the microwave. Before I had my zucchini ready, I microwaved some of our soft apple glass with pretty decent results. Testing on the glass allowed me to notice that perhaps tossing stuff into the microwave at full power wasn't too wise. Plinio advised to reduce power. Which led to a bunch of trial and error tests to get the right power and time. It also reminded me of David Arnold's microwave power woes and to think about how the oven being non-linear could affect the result.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel like finishing pastry's mise en place with my testing and I didn't quite like my zucchini slices. So results obtained so far are mixed. Initially it feels like a wafer. It's paper thin and somewhat crispy. Once inside the mouth it loses the texture and becomes chewy. Taste, however, is very good. Although I'm thinking of seasoning them slightly. Perhaps with curry...

Adventures w/Activa (Not too proud)

2009-06-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

I had been saving my Activa samples for... I don't know exactly what. I had been toying with the idea of rolling up some marinated arrachera (skirt), a meat that's practically a staple in barbecues around here. And cooking it like a roast.

However, I haven't had much time to do much fun, now that I have a space to play, I don't dedicate my time or budget to things that aren't part of the restaurant operation. So the Activa sat in my freezer.

Just recently a friend of mine called me to ask for some of it. So the Activa came out of retirement. I let him have some of the GS as well as the regular GM. I still have to check with him how his meals worked out. I also noticed that I had been given two samples of both, so I was left with some spares without really knowing what to do with them.

The opportunity presented itself in a shameful fashion. A batch of braised pork shank was cooked a bit too long and the meat was falling off the bone. Usually this is a good sign, but this one was impossible to handle. Out came the Activa.

I made a RM Slurry, brushed it on the meat and reassembled the shanks in the best way possible. Wrapped it tightly in film and left them in the refrigerator so set.

Today we got the first order for a shank. It worked perfectly. Not the proudest example of how to use the Activa, but our first test with it.

Milk and Sugar

2009-05-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to take the flavors of childhood and tweak them into something more apt to be served in a restaurant. I've never really gotten around to doing it, however. I have reinterpreted things like Reese's cups or a cake that was very popular about ten years ago (Chocolate cake with a flan layer on top) with relative success as far as the clients' enjoyment of the desserts.

Growing up in urban areas of northern Mexico makes for pretty lousy food memories, as far as traditional eats are concerned. Having parents that were born elsewhere doesn't help either as far as my exposure to what the local sweets are. However, I did get to know a few of the sweets of the region. Like Jamoncillos, Cocadas and the most famous "sweet" of the region: Pan de Pulque.

Jamoncillos and Cocadas share two ingredients that could be considered staples in pretty much every region of Mexico: Milk and Sugar. Wherever you go in Mexico you're bound to find sweets based on custards, curdled milk or more commonly caramelized milk. On a more modern note, condensed milk has also made a place for itself in the sweet pantry of our kitchens.

In the 2003 movie "Politiki Kouzina" (A touch of Spice), the main character reflects on milk and sugar. He mentions having seen many seniors walking around with boxes of sweets based on these ingredients, which are, ironically, the first flavors we taste.

One very popular sweet combination, and one that many Mexicans have eaten regardless of their region is the Galletas Marías and Cajeta. The former being a very popular biscuit, the latter, our version of Dulce de Leche (made from goat's milk).

Taking that idea and this one from Linda, I wonder how people would react to a new, elegant version of the childhood staple. How about Galletas Marías and Lemon??

Menu Changes

2009-05-21T10:57:00.001-07:00

Due to event logistics, the menu has changed for tonight. It is now as follows:

Bohemia Clásica

Tuna Tartare "montado", citrus dressing, soy caramel.

Bohemia Obscura

Seared Beef Filet "Montado" Red Onion Compote.

MariaTinto Celeste Blanco Sauvignon Blanc

Olive Oil confit Salmon, Meyer Lemon, Grilled Zucchini, Pine Nut

Adobe Guadalupe Gabriel

Duck Confit, Arúgula, Red Onion, Berry Vinaigrette.

Adobe Guadalupe Kerubiel

Beef Filet Tartare, Pimentón de la Vera, Roast Garlic, Chocolate.

Beer and Wine Tasting at Buké

2009-05-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

Tru Miller, from Adobe Guadalupe, Humberto Falcón and Cervecería Cuauhtémoc are coming to Buké. We're having a 30 pax beer and wine tasting.

This is what I've come up with so far:

Bohemia Clásica:

Tuna Tartar "Montadito", Citrus-Honey dressing, Soy Caramel.

Bohemia Obscura:

Beef Filet "Montadito", Red Onion Compote,

CelesteBlanco Sauvignon Blanc:

Seared Salmon, Grilled Zucchini, Citrus, Pine nut. (I had come up with a bolder match, but perhaps I'd need a longer menu).

Adobe Guadalupe Gabriel:

Pork Loin, Coffe-Cocoa soil, Berry Chutney

Adobe Guadalupe Kerubiel:

Beef Filet, Chocolate-Wine Sauce. Beet Confit.

It's in the works so it might end up changing.

Swine Flu Panic

2009-04-27T20:46:00.001-07:00

Bread Aisle
Originally uploaded by cookiejesus

The city's deserted. Movie theaters are closed. Restaurants are empty (Rumor has it we're going to be closed. . Concerts and plays are cancelling and rescheduling. Schools are closed for a week and a half. People are all walking around with their mouths covered and some even are wearing gloves.

But what really got me was going to the supermarket. People are really stocking up on some basics. Milk, toilet paper, water and bread aisles are ravaged,. Lines are long as hell, but orderly, still.

Me, I picked up a six pack for me and a fashion magazine for my wife (she works in a school, still no date for going back to work)...

Too much?

2009-04-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Gagnaire's totally synthetic dish

Perhaps, I'd say.

Bacon Torches

2009-04-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

Popsci has an interesting piece on using bacon (actually prosciutto) to make a thermal lance and cut up a steel pan. While it may not be my favorite way of consuming prosciutto, it's still an interesting read.

Bacon, the Other White Heat

Duck in Rose Petal Sauce (Sort of TGRWT #16)

2009-04-14T08:15:00.001-07:00

Duck in Rose Petal Sauce
Originally uploaded by cookiejesus

I didn't get to make an entry for TGRWT #16, which was about chicken and rose. All I did was translate a recipe from a book.

Last weekend, I got the chance to dine at El Sacromonte, in Guadalajara and had a couple of dishes that incorporated Rose Petals.

First up were the Quesadillas with rose petals and strawberry aioli. They weren't really as good as they may sound. The rose petal was overpowered by the strawberries and the aioli didn't resemble anything but a jam or a coulis.

On the other hand. We did get the roast duck in rose petal sauce. Since it was such a huge dish, my wife and I shared. She got the leg and I got the breast. The sauce was really good, nicely sweet and it went really well with the duck. My only problem is that the duck was a tad dry. I believe my wife got the better end of this issue.

What's in a name?

2009-04-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face. O, be some other name
Belonging to a man.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.I
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;
And for thy name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.

Because we've all heard of this by now

Quail in Rose Petal Sauce (Translation)

2009-03-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

TGRWT #16 is about chicken and roses. I had mentioned a recipe from "Like Water for Chocolate". I looked up the recipe and here’s the translation. The recipe came from here.

Ingredients
6 Quails
12 Roses (Red, preferrably)
12 Almonds, toasted
Butter
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
2 Drops Rose Esence
2 Tablespoons anise
2 Tablespoons Honey
2 Cloves of Garlic
Salt and Pepper

Carefully separate the rose petals. Grind them in a mortar with the anise. Cook the almonds in water and purée them. Mince the garlic and sweat them in butter. Add the almond purée, honey, rose petal mixture and salt. If necesary, add the cornstarch to adjust thickness. Add the rose esence.

Place the quails in the sauce and simmer them for a maximum of ten minutes so they'll take the flavor.

According to the book, they're to be served in a platter with a whole rose in the center and petals scattered around.

Might be worth a try…

TGRWT #16: Chicken and Rose

2009-03-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

Markus from Supernova Condensate is the host for round #16 of TGRWT. As you all probably know by now, TGRWT is a blogging event where we're challenged to come up with dishes that combine ingredients that may not seem like a good match, but should match according to their OAV's.

It may sound a little complicated, but once you get past the previous ideas you may have about ingredients going together with others, it can be quite fun.

For this round, Markus is inviting us to combine Chicken and Rose. As he states, rose is an ingredient that is used fairly often in Middle Eastern and Oriental cuisines. Mexican cuisine also has a few recipes using roses. Some of them made famous by Laura Esquivel's Book: Like Water for Chocolate.

So there you go, stop by Markus' blog to get the details on how to join in this time. Deadline is April 1st!

TGRWT #15 - Dark Chocolate and Smoked Salmon

2009-03-02T12:12:00.001-08:00

As usual, I'm a bit late with my posting. However, this time it's really because we've been very busy as of lately. Deadlines for the restaurant's opening are approaching and we're all on fifth gear to get things ready on time.

Off the bat, I had thought of making something involving mole. However this idea quickly got scratched because one of the contributions had mole in it, so back to the drawing board. I felt that this combination really called for the ingredients to be left pretty much alone. But some of us can't really do that. So I had to go and complicate things a little bit.

One of my favorite pastry blogs, Cannelle et Vanille just posted a recipe to the latest daring bakers challenge. Funny, it was just what I had been thinking about. Flourless cake and Ice cream. You could say that this post would fit both TGRWT and Daring Bakers...

So here it is: Smoked Salmon and Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches.

First up: The flourless cake.

I had been thinking about flourless cake for the restaurant. We have a mousse dessert that needed something texturally different. For this idea, I initially considered the double chocolate cookie from demolition desserts. But when I saw Aran's recipe, I decided to try it. It is good. The valentino's texture is really nice and dense and the taste is quite intense (we used dark chocolate of unspecified percentage).

The Ice Cream:

For the ice cream, we used a pretty straightforward custard recipe. We infused the smoked salmon in milk. Cooked it like a Creme Anglaise, then while churning we added bits of extra salmon. I ended up piping the Ice Cream into cilinders with a valentino bottom, topped it with another piece of valentino. Overall, there was about 75g of salmon in 500ml of liquid (50g in the infusion and the rest folded into the ice cream).

While it was hardening, we tested the ice cream on it's own. It was quite good. Tasting really sweet and creamy at first then yielding to the smoked salmon taste. A bit later, when it was colder. We tasted it again. The flavors were a bit more integrated, and the feeling of it was strangely reminiscent of the sensation of eating smoked salmon and cream cheese, only sweet. I could eat a lot of this. I believe it'd be a hard sell because of the psychological block that the idea would propose.

Tasting them together, the combination was very GOOD! The only problem is that the valentino was a bit too thin for the amount of Ice Cream. The cooks, one of the owners tasted it and they were all captivated. I don't know if the'yd order it from a menu.

I'll save one for my wife to taste tomorrow when she gets back...

TGRWT #15 Round-up

2009-03-01T11:13:00.000-08:00

The fifteenth round of TGRWT invited us to pair dark chocolate and smoked salmon. While it may have initially come off as a completely weird match, it seems to have given good results along the contributions. Hopefully, some of the participants will like to add this combination into their repertoires.

Here are the contributions:

Travis used some Tim Tam biscuits to give this combination an Australian twist on his Black Forest Salmon skewers. Apparently, the flavor and texture of his creation was a success since he barely managed to snap a picture of the last two. You can read his post here.

Grant, from Charlie Weis and the Chocolate Factory created Smoked Salmon Cigars with Dark Chocolate Mole. Again, the flavors combined in a very pleasing manner. Grant's recipe can be found here.

Erik from Fooducation joined this TGRWT with his Smoked salmon-goat's cheese-chocolate ganache-tortilla roll-ups . Read his post here.

Markus, from Supernova Condensate also joined the cooking with his Hot Chocolate Salmon Pancakes, which seem to have left him thinking about adding chocolate to his salmon breakfast toast. Apparently, they were so good, that the pictures couldn't be taken.

Josh, from Silk Experience decided to put the flavor combination to the test on his Oscars Party and he created a black sesame cracker topped with a sriracha ricotta, smoked salmon, ginger syrup and shaved chocolate. Sounds quite good and it looks good too. Click here for the post.

Alex, from Cooking Sideways also put the flavor combination to the test creating a Spinach and Aubergine Salad with Dark Chocolate and Smoked Salmon Dressing for a romantic dinner. He highly recommends it. Picture will come later.

Daniel, from What's Cookin', Good Lookin' also took advantage of a social event to play with the Dark Chocolate and Smoked Salmon Combo. Daniel approached the ingredients just as they are in making his Chocolox. These bites were all eaten by his collaborators, so again, the flavor combination was good, albeit a bit too strong on the chocolate. The story's here.

Yannik and his friend Robert created two dishes for TGRWT. Robert made an Salmon Praline with Sauce à L'Orange for appetizer and Yannik made a dessert: Dark Chocolate Brownie with Smoked Salmon Honey Topping and Mango Dill Sauce. Check their dishes out at Yannick's Blog.

From Portugal, Ana sent her recipe for a Smoked Salmon Millefeuille with Chocolate Sauce and Pepper Caviar. The recipe's at Céu da Boca, her blog and it's worth a look. The dish is beautiful.

Rob, from The Curious Blogquat, and host to the previous round of TGRWT decided to try both sweet and savory versions of Hot Chocolate with Salmon Marshmallow. Rob's customers seem to have enjoyed samplings of this, and it appears that enjoy they did. Read about it.

Papin, from Flavor Alchemy, and host to round #7 created a Smoked Salmon Salad with Chocolate Dressing that looks quite interesting. It's over at his blog.

Martin, who practically needs no introduction to TGRWT people, also contributed to this round with his Smoked Salmon in Cocoa Gel with Lime.

Finally, I would be a terrible host if I didn't join into the fray. So I made Ice Cream Sandwiches... I'll put the pictures up sometime later because, quite frankly, they were awful... But they did taste nice.

Thanks everyone who participated in this edition of TGRWT, to Martin for allowing me to be the host and, well, if anyone's still reading after this long post... thank you too.

Stay tuned for Round 16!

Addendum (23/03/09)

I casually found this Entry from Aitorevolution. It's all in Spanish, but it's worth a look.

Goat Cheese Flan

2009-02-26T14:46:00.001-08:00

Goat Cheese Flan
Originally uploaded by cookiejesus

Here's the recipe for a piece I wrote on Sugar Savvy:

Goat Cheese Flan with Orange Purée and Pistacchio Crumble

Goat Cheese Flan:
100g. Condensed Sweetened Milk
100g. Goat Cheese
200g. Evaporated Milk
80g. Heavy Cream
4 Eggs.

Blend all the ingredients. Pour into molds, cook at 175°C until set.

Orange Purée:
Cut one orange in eight parts. Simmer in simple syrup along with a branch of rosemary. Blend while adjusting the consistency and taste with the syrup, pass through a fine mesh sieve. Reserve.

Pistacchio Crumbs:
Equal Parts Ground Pistacchio, Flour, Butter and Sugar. Mix until it resembles a coarse sand. Bake at 150°C until dry and just slightly golden.

TGRWT #15 Dark Chocolate and Smoked Salmon by Travis

2009-02-21T10:52:00.001-08:00

Travi s from Australia has sent in his submission for this edition of TGRWT. Since he hasn't got a blog of his own, I'm uploading his submission here.

Not wanting to over-complicate things, and in the midst of party planning, I decided to make a salmon and dark chocolate canapé - and, since I live in Australia, I thought I'd give it an auzzie twist.

We have a biscuit here which is gaining in notoriety - it's called a tim-tam, and is basically 2 layers of chocolate biscuit, with a chocolate-cream filling, and then coated in a layer of chocolate..

I bought a variation on this one - which was a black-forest style, containing a dark, sweet cherry centre.

I also picked up a beautiful tray of sliced, smoked Tasmanian salmon, which is very lucky to have survived long enough to make it to the next step!

At home, in my mad-science lab of a kitchen, I merrily chopped a tim tam in two, and then cut a square of soft cheddar to roughly the same size.

I sandwiched the salmon and cheddar between the two biscuits, skewered them with a long wooden stick, and then cut the shape into rounds with an apple corer.

Now - on to the important bit... The taste! Oh. My. God. So GOOD!

The first sense one gets is of the biscuit, as you crunch through it. The dark chocolate clings to your tongue a bit - with bittersweet intensity, but then gives way to the soft, buttery texture of the salmon, and it's delicate smoky-fishy flavour.

The cheddar added a more complicated salty note, that really helped to round out the whole experience. I was utterly delighted, and proceeded to make several more. Unfortunately, all but two were harmed before I could take any photos..

This flavour combo is lovely, and my only regret is the finish on my little 'nibblies' - I think I'll try to turn them into petite fours next time, using chocolate biscuit, a small amount of cherry jelly / jam, cheddar and smoked salmon, and then dipping it all into melted dark chocolate.

It's not exactly 'cookery' - but it certainly is a quick way to get this flavour pairing into your mouth ;)

TGRWT #15 Dark Chocolate and Smoked Salmon

2009-02-03T23:08:00.000-08:00

Martin, from Khymos is letting me host round 15 of "They go really well together" or TGRWT. If you don't know TGRWT, it's the food blogging event that has us put together seemingly strange pairs of ingredients that share a certain number of chemical components, thus, making them "compatible".

After spending whatever free time I had trying to come up with some flavor pairing that would be interesting to work with. Thanks to the foodpairing website, I've come up with a couple of ingredients that might be interesting to play with: Dark Chocolate and Smoked Salmon. Since we're in a bit of a rush, and I'm not much of a chemist, I'll leave the Chemistry for later.

Here's how to participate in this event:

Prepare a dish that combines dark chocolate and smoked salmon.
Write a entry in your blog by March first with TGRWT #15 in the subject and make sure to include a link to the header of this post for trackback links. Readers will probably be particularily interested in how the flavour pairing worked out, so make an attempt at describing it.
Deadline for submissions is March first. A round-up will be posted by me here some days later with pictures.
Please send me an email at jrnavlag (at) gmail (dot) com with the following details: Your name, URL of blog and URL of the TGRWT #15 post and a picture for your entry in the round-up.
If you don’t have a blog, email me your recipe, name and location and I’ll be glad to include it in the final round-up.

Have fun!

Hans Beck

2009-02-03T23:01:00.000-08:00

Photo AFP

German carpenter Hans Beck passed away last January 30th. I have many memories from my childhood of playing with his most famous creation: Playmobil figures. Somewhere in my parent's house there's still a big Playmobil pirate ship tucked away.

I stopped seeing playmobil toys for a while until I went to France. I found myself face to face with a great childhood memory. Now I know that they are still here in toy stores... and I still love them.

Thanks Mr. Beck. Rest in Peace.

Butterscotch Panna Cotta

2009-01-28T10:35:00.001-08:00

Butterscotch Panna Cotta
Originally uploaded by cookiejesus

I don't really know where or when I first tasted butterscotch. Being relatively close to the U.S. Border, it's not strange that I had a share of exposure to the American culture. Cable TV and American Schooling helped. Regardless, it was a flavor that had long ago fallen into oblivion in my mind. Until a few years back, when I tried one recipe. Then again it went into oblivion.

It wasn't until Shuna posted her recipe, that butterscotch came back into the scene. Added to that, the constant mention that the Bacon, Apple, Butterscotch and Thyme dish at Alinea has been getting, and I found myself wanting to try the combination.

The first time I tried this idea, It went in a totally different direction, serving a small amount of butterscotch in a glass with crumbled, crispy bacon on top and a skewered sauteed apple sticking out of the glass.

The second time around, I went for a simpler presentation, while also letting the bacon show. Next time I make it, perhaps I'll try David Lebovitz's candied bacon and unmolding the Panna Cotta.

The Panna Cotta recipe:
250ml. Butterscotch
500ml. Heavy Cream
6g Gelatin sheets

Bloom the gelatin sheets in cold water. Mix the Butterscotch and Heavy cream and bring to a boil. Add the gelatin and dissolve. Pour into molds and set.

The apple puree was pretty simple. It was just apples sauteed in bacon fat along with some sugar and thyme.

The panna cotta in itself is rich and good, the bacon goes along marvelously, I just have to find a way to better balance the flavors.

Happy Chinese New Year... sort of.

2009-01-27T11:03:00.001-08:00

Spaghetti Lunghi
Originally uploaded by cookiejesus

So it was the Chinese New Year yesterday and my wife and I were hungry. We were at the grocery store considering picking up something quick and simple. Then I saw the pack of Spaghetti Lunghi. Without any fact checking, as it seems to be the thing to do these days. We picked it up along with some heavy cream, as we had a few ingredients at home.

We set up a big pot of water and while it was ready I cut and rendered some bacon. I didn't even let it get nice and crispy before I added a generous splash of Marsala. Then cheese was added to the mix: Winsconsin blue, some herbed goat 's and cream cheese for texture. Some heavy cream, salt and pepper. I let that sit while the pasta cooked.

When the pasta was ready, it went into the pan, along with some of its nice water. Heated and stirred the whole thing together and finished with a sprinkling of Parmesan.

Along with a nice Riesling (it's what we had at hand), we toasted our Chinese New Year with our "long noodles".

Polenta Cups with Boston-Style Beans

2009-01-22T10:04:00.001-08:00

I made this for a recent cooking meeting. We wanted corn and beans to be involved, since they're staples in Mexican gastronomy. I recalled a recipe from a book I was lent once for polenta cups and decided to fill them up with Boston-style beans, which I've wanted to try for a long time.

Polenta Cups (From Party Bites)
1 stick plus 4 tbsps butter
3/4 cups cream cheese
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons polenta
a pinch of sea salt crystals

Cream butter and cheese together. Combine the flour, polenta and salt. Add gradually to the creamed butter and cream cheese until a dough forms. Break balls and press into mini muffin pans. Bake until golden (about 20 minutes). I made half the recipe and got 24 small cups from this.

I don't really have a recipe for the beans. I used approximately a pound of beans, a quarter of an onion, a couple ounces of bacon and about a quarter of a cup of muscovado (I couldn't find molasses). Ketchup and Worcestershire sauce were added to taste. I also stewed them instead of the traditional baking.

Finally, the candied jalapeños were a much quicker version than what should've been. I just simmered a jalapeño julienne in simple syrup until they were traslucent. Sort of what you'd do for candied orange peel, except that I didn't allow for the repetitive drying and simmering in syrup.

To serve, I just filled the cups with the beans, added a sprinke of sea salt, a dollop of sour cream and finished with the jalapeños.

Pictures will have to wait until I get my bluetooth thingy since I only managed a nasty cellphone pic.

P.S. Incidentally, when I searched the recipe up in the book, it turns out they filled their version with beans as well, a black bean chili that looks quite interesting as well.

TGRWT #14 Malt and Soy Sauce

2009-01-06T15:08:00.000-08:00

It's on again! This edition of TGRWT is being hosted by Rob at The Curious Blogquat. The ingredients this time are, as previously stated. Malt and Soy Sauce. Any form of malt will do for this so because of the difficulty that some ingredients may present, I'll use beer. A bunch of ideas are coming. I just hope to make the time in order to actually get to cook something.

Deadline's February the 1st. Get cookin'!

In Memoriam

2008-12-29T08:33:00.000-08:00

I first met Elisa Loyo almost 20 years ago. She must have been around 7 years old at the time. I remember seeing her on TV when my friend Lucía told me that her sisters were going to be on a kiddie game show.

Then I didn't see her again for ages. I knew that she had moved to Canada with her mother. We talked once or twice on the net as she was getting into culinary school. Then a couple years ago she went to my hometown. She helped me with a small cocktail I was making and then went along to one of my classes. She told me she was going off to Paris for a stage at Taillevent.

Last time I heard of her, she was off to work at the Fontana Leisure Parks & Casino Hotel just north of Manila.

Elisa went missing a few days ago and on friday night I received an e-mail about her passing. Details are sketchy and there is an "official" bullshit version (supported by the Hotel itself) that states that she took her life. Her family believes that she may have been tortured and murdered for trying to straighten up some theft that was going on her working place.

Our thoughts and prayers go to Elisa's family. I hope that truth is found in this case where someones's life was cut short at just 25 for trying to do things right, but in the state that the Philippines are now. It seems a long shot.

Space Invaders

2008-12-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

This is sure to be a blast among geek cooks like myself.

Picture by ThinkGeek

From the oven.

2008-12-11T09:57:00.000-08:00

I had a chance to see the Horno 3 museum show yesterday, and it left my head filled with thoughts.

First up, I was amazed by the complexity of the steel oven operation. I guess that's something one should try to see at least once. It's a bit of a shame that the place closed down, but it's a blessing, for the local government has really outdone itself with the museum. It has given us a chance to experience a piece of Monterrey history.

The oven operated at about 1100ºC, and people there would stand just a couple feet away while going about their business. It left me thinking because we are in a business that has inherent risks such as fire, heat and sharp objects. But seeing yesterday's show left me thinking that we're a bunch of sissies if we complain about the rough conditions we work in. After all, these guys were probably risking their lives at something like minimum wage.

The show includes a lot of testimonials from former oven workers. The very first thing one hears is a poem written by a shift supervisor from the late sixties. Hearing the poem made me realize the awful state our current education system is in. Here you have a shift supervisor deftly weaving phrases into a poem that many modern-day graduate school people would have a hard time not only writing, but understanding. Secretary of Education, you've got a TON of work to do.

The testimonials also serve as evidence of something. These people LOVED their job. It's very frustrating as a teacher to see so many people try to get into our business because they've been blinded by the media or because they dream of fame. But there's very little passion. They're uninterested and apathetic. Most of them leave the kitchen and stop thinking about it. I've seen the same in many High Schools and Universities around town. Kids don't seem to care about much these days.

Pear-Honey Panna Cotta

2008-11-23T23:16:00.000-08:00

I recently attended one of those dinners where everyone’s supposed to bring something. Curiously when the idea of getting together came up, I was just commenting on the dinner I made a couple weeks back. So they asked me for dessert.

I mulled the idea for different desserts, but since I wanted to give them something that wouldn’t keep me in the kitchen a long time, I went for panna cotta, as I could simply put it in to a disposable vessel.

After pondering many ideas, and seeing I had some pears left in my fridge. I thought about making a honey panna cotta with a pear compote. My wife also wanted to incorporate anise and dried fruits into the mix, so the final idea became: Honey and Pear Panna Cotta; Star Anise, Muscovado and Jerez raisins and Bacon Nougatine.

For my Buddy Adrián, I’ll post the recipe:

Honey Pear Panna Cotta

600ml. Whipping Cream

200 ml. Pear and Honey Purée (Follows)

5g Gelatin Sheets, bloomed.

For the Pear and Honey Purée

4 small Pears, peeled, cored and quartered.

4 tbsps Honey.

To make the purée, heat the honey in a sauté pan until hot and bubbly. Arrange the pears on the honey. Lower heat to a simmer and cook until desired color and texture, moving occasionally. Cool.

Mix the cooled purée with the cream and bring to a boil. Add the gelatin and mix to dissolve. Pour the mixture into molds and refrigerate until set.

Star Anise, Muscovado and Jerez Raisins

115g Water

115g Muscovado Sugar

4 Pods Star Anise

½ Cups Raisins

15ml. Jerez

Bring the star anise, muscovado and water to a boil. Pour over the raisins and let them steep. When the raisins are soft, remove from the syrup. Reduce the syrup to desired consistency and return the raisins. Add the Jerez and Stir. Reserve.

Bacon Nougatine

Bacon

Glucose

Sugar

Butter.

Cut bacon into small strips. Place in a cold sauté pan and bring over a low flame. Allow the fat to render and turn heat up to medium. Sauté until crispy and browned. Place over paper towel to remove excess fat.

Freeze the bacon, weigh and grind. I’m sure some liquid Nitrogen or Tapioca Maltodextrin would’ve made this last step easier, but alas I have none.

On a small pot, place the same amount as the bacon of glucose and sugar. Heat up until it forms a dark caramel and add the same amount of cold butter in small pieces and the bacon. Stir well and pour over a silicone mat. Allow to cool and break it into shards or cut into shapes before it’s completely cooled down.

To serve, place some raisins and syrup on top of the panna cotta. Decorate with the nougatine.

I used plastic test tubes.

Music to eat by...

2008-11-20T08:47:00.000-08:00

TreceVeinte, a modern lifestyle journal has published an article on how music affects us while shopping. One of the journal's sections even has advice on how to build playlists for different moments of the day, including shopping.

It's known that sound is an important factor in setting the atmosphere where customers will enjoy our products. Usually the biggest problem is noise, busy restaurants become noisy places and the experience might be hindered. I've had good meals become modest meals because of either extremely noisy ambiances or, yes, bad music.

If you're spending a significant amount of your paycheck at arguably the best restaurant in town, you don't want your ears booming with the electronic pulses of the latest pop band (let alone their hollering).

So the question is, what music do we eat by?

Laurent Gras had his own music made...

TGRWT #12 Chanterelle and Apricot.

2008-11-02T23:48:00.000-08:00

We're just starting to relax from the last event and next one's already up. This time it's being hosted by Tri-2-cook. The challenge: Apricot and Chanterelle.

Martin has already posted a bit on the chemical information involved in the pairing and I did some searching of my own. A word of warning though, on the Good Scents people don't list "chanterelle" specifically so the search is for component matches between mushrooms and apricots. This comes somewhat handy as I believe chanterelles are a bit tough to come by in this area.

I'm already cooking up some ideas...

TGRWT #11 The late one.

2008-11-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

I had the ideas, the ingredients ready, and all of a sudden all hell breaks loose and I didn't have the time to get this one done on time.

The idea I had was to make caramelized bananas sprinked with clove. For some reason I couldn't let it rest there and had to go and make things complicated. Thus I came with the idea for making a Roquefort 40-second cake. I had read about this in a few blogs and finally took the recipe from Linda at playing with fire and water (which y'all should read if you aren't already).

I followed her recipe verbatim just substituting the chocolate for melted Roquefort cheese. Speaking of the technique itself, it really is all that and more. It's quite interesting to see the batter rise in the microwave. I believe that roquefort was a little bit too fatty for the recipe because the final product was not as spongy as the ones in Linda's blog.

Tasting it was a whole different experience. Just out of the microwave the cake appeared almost salty and with a lot of cheese aroma. It wasn't the taste I was looking for. Colder however, the sweetness came out and it was just what I had in mind. Unfortunately, the texture also changed rendering it a little chewy.

The caramelized bananas, due to my time constraint had to become a purée. The bananas had become incredibly soft during the couple of extra resting days they had (I had bought them pretty much ready to use on the same day). It was quite a straighforward thing: I ground some cloves, heated some butter, added muscovado sugar, ground clove and let it come together; I then added the bananas and cooked until soft; the whole thing was then processed to a smooth paste (with some speckles of clove there). The purée tasted quite good, with the aroma of the cloves really coming forward and marrying itself with the banana.

I tasted the whole dish twice, once with the hot cake and a second one with a colder one. The first one wasn't too enjoyable, because of the aformentioned reasons (cake). Colder, it was very good. I believe the taste combination has potential to develop some other desserts, perhaps using more traditional means.

A final Head's up: The next TGRWT is already up!

Discombobulated

2008-10-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

Talk about an identity/inspiration crisis... This is the menu for an upcoming dinner.

Cuitlacoche and Goat Cheese Chausson
Chipotle Hollandaise

Indio Beer and honey Braised Spare Ribs
Manchego Polenta
Oyster Mushroom and Chorizo Sauté

Chai Leche Frita
Rhum-raisin and pine nut sauce
Caramel-apple Ice cream.

Hopefully my wife will be around to take pictures this time as I always neglect to do so...

It's BACK!

2008-10-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

Martin from Khymos is back with TGRWT! Since it's been a while, I'll re-cap it briefly. TGRWT or "They go really well together" is a blogging event where two items are paired into a probably unsual combination, based on flavor pairings via volatile compound similarities... Sounds complicated. Basically it means that those two items have similar chemical compounds and thus, should be able to be paired with good results.

This time, it's banana and cloves. While it doesn't sound too alien for me to have these two together, it's now up to me to "play"...

Menus of the Week

2008-09-26T00:09:00.000-07:00

Two diferent events this week. One was a wine tasting, second was a dinner for a group of ladies.

Wine Tasting Menu:

Tuna Tartare
Citrus-Honey Dressing
Bagel Toast
Doña Paula "Los Cardos"
Chardonnay
Argentina

Cold Roast Beef filet Crostini
Red Onion Compote
Chive
Olive Oil
Chateau Sygnac
Côtes du Rhône

Angus Sirloin Hamburger on Brioche
Sautéed Mushrooms
Winsconsin Blue Cheese
Doña Paula Estate
Cabernet Sauvignon
Argentina

Duck Confit and Tomato Tatin
Thyme Jus
Valduero
Ribera del Duero

Dinner Menu

Mesclun
Bacon
Blue Cheese
Peanut Praline Vinaigrette

Oyster Mushroom and Escargot Aumoniere
Roast Garlic Polenta with Goat Milk Butter
Beet Coulis

"Strawberries and Cream"
Balsamic Strawberry Crumble
White Pepper Ice Cream

Studiokitchen

2008-09-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

Is it down? I can't seem to get into the page. It's a shame.

1.5 million pesos

2008-09-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

That's roughly what it'd take to have a place up and running in what I've estimated would be less than two months. The most time consuming issues would be getting a team together and tweaking some previously existing concepts.

Too bad I don't have that kind of cash lying around... Probably if I did I'd use it to buy a House.

Any interested investors?

Injury

2008-09-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

(AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

There goes the Super Bowl hopes... I wonder if Daunte's phone is ringing...

It's about the chef... dummies.

2008-08-25T09:37:00.001-07:00

I may be going out on a limb here, but I think that amongst the many flaws in the "gastronomic culture" that people around here like to boast, the worst one is the lack of respect for chefs. Whenever I read the ghastly reviews in the one paper that cares enough about this, it's almost tragic to see that it's mostly the owner who takes the credit. People assume that if the owner from succesful restaurant A is opening B, it'll be just as good.

Of course, that a lot of the food that finally gets put on plates is either decided by owners or some consulting chef they hired for a while. And the "chef" is just some guy hired to execute said recipes. While this is logical where the figure of the Chef-owner exists, there is still no recognition for the guy on the line.

Jean-Francois Piege, is one of the examples of what a Chef de cuisine becomes in a cultured environment. He was, after all, just the chef under one of the culinary gods of our era: Alain Ducasse. For a while there, I thought he was one of the best in Paris. One day, he surprises us all by leaving ADPA to take the kitchens of the Crillon, where he's striving to reach the third macaron.

In our town, there's no way in hell that Chef John Doe, who simply mans the stoves at Restaurant X, will ever get lured out of his succesful cuisine to take charge of a new place. Experience running a restaurant will just make you an able cook to run another kitchen somewhere else in the eyes of employers. Why hire a chef, why pay big (not really) money to someone for a job that's not even necessary.

Food here isn't about the epicurean, organoleptic or intellectual experience. It's about the social part of the meal, about being seen in the trendy spot in town. So why even give a damn about what I'm eating, how I'm eating it and much less, about who created and prepped? There is no place for the culinary artist here, even in the better restaurants. I have to get out of here

I'm such a geek

2008-08-05T16:20:00.001-07:00

Get this widget!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed at IGN

Read your labels...

2008-07-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

Taurine, now a popular name thanks to the energy drink fad, is still under the microscope in some places because its consumption might have some unhealthy consecuences. It's got such a rep that it's been banned in France. Red Bull even went as far as searching for an alternative ingredient in order to sell their drinks in land of Asterix...

One of the habits that have come with the increased use of hydrocolloids in restaurant kitchens is reading labels in the supermarket. If you've never done it, you'll be surprised to find "new" ingredients as Xanthan, Gellan, Alginates and others in your everyday diet (Unless you eat really healthy and natural, that is).

On a recent visit to a friends house, I picked up the can of Baby Formula and was pretty impressed to run into Taurine in one of the ingredients. No wonder mothers complain kids these days are so active...

I know that I should have written to the people over at Mead Johnson to ask about this, but I haven't made the time for this...

Best taco in ages

2008-07-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

Being from Mexico, it's sometimes ridiculous to see a taco fad across other countries. Specially since it seemed to my untrained eye that the early international versions of the taco had absolutely nothing to do with the real deal. The incredibly simple and delicious taco. I've seen this trend spring around with a bunch of other foodstuffs I grew up taking for granted. But I guess this is just part of the process of food becoming global. You can't expect all of the ingredients to make the trip along with the idea.

Celebrating our anniversary with a recent trip, my wife and I visited the beautiful city of Querétaro. One of Mexico's UNESCO protected cities. In the Cinco de Mayo walkway, we came across a sign that grabbed my attention so hard, it practically pulled me in: Tacos de Chapulines (yes, that's grasshopper tacos).

It had been a while since I last had chapulines, so the Oaxaca-inspired taqueria/cantina was a nice place for a meal. The place was quite eye-catching, but then again, in a city where most buildings are considered cultural heritage, that's not the hard part.

We started off immediately with a couple of the tacos de chapulines and while we drank our beers, the waiters brouught our treats. It was a beautiful, simple thing: one tortilla laid on the plate with chunks of avocado, pieces of pork rind and a good handful of the little critters. Add a good spoonful of salsa and we were ready to dig in.

If you've never had the little buggers. Let me give you a very poor description of what it's like: Crunchy, salty with a hint of acid and spice. That's because they're so deeply fried that crunchy's all that's left and they are later seasoned with chili and lime juice. Still, it was a very good taste along with the pork rind and avocado chunks. How good, well, well enough to rate as one of the best tacos I've ever eaten. I've even gone to get me some chapulines at an artisan fair to reproduce these sometime this week...

Remembering

2008-07-23T14:45:00.001-07:00

Just this Monday, I receive what's to be my "new" book for our new First Semester concept: 'La Cuisine de Reference', now in Spanish. As I started browsing the book, I came upon a foreword from one of my former teachers in France: Chef Franck Petagna.

Meilleur Ouvrier de France since 2000, Chef Petagna worked in the Hotel Martinez, in Cannes, the Hotel du Palais in Biarritz. In 2001 Chef Petagna joined the staff of the Institut Paul Bocuse, and was later appointed Coordinator of Culinary Programs.

About a year ago, I received an e-mail informing me of the passing of Chef Franck Petagna. It was shocking to receive such news as he seemed in such good health. I was wrong, Chef Petagna had lost his battle against Leukemia.

Wherever you are Chef: Thanks.

Photo Credit: Thuries Magazine

Best soups in town.

2008-05-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

Genoma has been around for about 6 years now. However I didn't ever visit it until last year when chef Guillermo Gonzalez had me over for lunch. That time I had my first taste of the Genoma soups: Mex/Thai mussels.

Simply put, it was just mussels and their cooking juices. Those juices however, were delicious. The chefs at Genoma nailed a nice combo mixing mexican chilies with coconut milk. It was the priciest soup on their menu (which can be understood, because of the mussels) but it was definitely worth it. If my wife wasn't allergic to coconut, I would've had it more often. Alas, it's off the menu now.

Another "regular" is their Roast tomato soup with fried feta and pesto. Sure, it's a simple soup, but it's the best tomato soup in this town. Hands down. This has become my wife's favorite soup and she will have it every time we're there.

Genoma also features an onion soup dubbed: Three Onion soup. I haven't had a taste of this one since... well it's soupe a l'oignon. I'll just give you the description: Red, White and Green onion soup with gruyere and baguette.

Recently (I think) Genoma has added a prix-fixe menu that's an excellent value with very good meal choices. It's from that menu that I've had my most recent soup choices, and they've been all so good

First up, Curried Mussel Cream with fried mussels, and apple. I think this is my favorite version of a dish including mussels and curry. It used to be a regular combination in our residence hall repertoire at IPB, but Genoma's soup was much more delicate and elegant. So much I should probably be ashamed at not coming up with something.

Finally, the most recent addition to the Genoma Repertoire: Tortilla Soup. The mexican classic is most often found in it's original state. I had seen a spin off this in a Regional restaurant in Saltillo that while good, it wasn't great. Genoma's doesn't try to distance itself from the original so much but manages to to leave an impression. It consists of a richer, thicker soup that's a far cry from the usual broth. The soup however is much tastier. As for the accoutrements, they're the classic tortilla chips. This time, they're multicolored and cut in a julienne that makes it also much easier to eat.

If you're ever around, stop by Genoma, even if it's just for the soup.

On an unrelated note: Go Foie Gras! Kudos to Chicago!

Mother's day dinner

2008-05-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

Yet another menu... it was a really simple thing this time.
Tomato and Watermelon
Basil
12 yr. Balsámico

Beet soup
Crimini
Escargots

Almond Citrus crusted Bassa
Cranberry-Onion Compote
Whole wheat spaghetti

Chocolate and Caramel Mousse.

I miss TGRWT events...

Mexican dinner menu

2008-04-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

A little dinner over the weekend.

Jicama and Cucumber Salad (Inspired by Tetsuya)
Aguachile Shrimp
Aguachile vinaigrette

Cuitlacoche Cream
Añejo cheese sauce

Baked Salmon in Ancho adobo.
Maple-Chipotle Carrot puree
Semi-cured, grilled nopal.

"Choco-Flan"
Flan-Chocolate beignets
Caramel/Cajeta parfait
Pecan praline sauce.

TGRWT #9 - Revisited

2008-04-14T10:27:00.001-07:00

Since I had been left with lingering ideas from TGRWT #9, I took the chance to revisit the a dessert idea. A bit of baking, and some anglaises later, I had a Mexican chocolate tartlet with parmesan cream and a balsamic-raspberry condiment.

... and it was good.

I even think this one was better than the risotto.

TGRWT #10: Dirty Pineapple Martini

2008-04-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

I should feel guilty or something. This time I've "neglected" the TGRWT. Usually I'd really work up my mind to come up with some convoluted ideas that eventually I wouldn't cook. At the least, I'd make a post referring to the host.

This time I only had a couple of ideas and none too complicated. Still I went for the easiest one.

#10 is about combining Pineapple and Blue Cheese. Heston Blumenthal seems to have pointed this one out at a list at eGullet sometime back. My Ideas were:

a) Meat Course: Involving Pork, coconut and blue cheese... somehow.
b) Dessert: Pineapple Crisp Millefeuille with Blue Cheese cream and a "liquid" pineapple center. Caramel sauce or Ice Cream.

I really don't know when the thought for the drink came up. Probably a flashback to the college days when Vodka and Pineapple juice were sometimes quaffed at clubs. Vodka led to the Cheesecake Factory's Dirty Martini, which involves blue cheese stuffed olives.

So I came up with the idea of mixing Vodka, pineapple juice and brine. It went roughly like this:

1 Part Pineapple Juice
1 Part Vodka
1 Dash Olive Brine.

After a bit of shaking I dropped it into a glass and went for the taste. I loved the almost spicy combination of the vodka, brine and pineapple juice, and I think it was very good with the blue cheese stuffed olives. While my wife decided she'd rather have it sweetened, I would rather opt for a dash of dry vermouth... and more olives.

I re-made the concoction for the post and hit a roadblock... I forgot my martini glasses. So I improvised using a quadruple shot glass:

I encourage you few readers to go ahead and try this drink... I'm sure I will repeat it.

P.S. New camera is in order... finally!

TGRWT #9: Risotto

2008-03-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

A while back I ran into a book by French Pastry Chef Frédéric Bau. Chocolat Fusion's quite an interesting book since it's all about chocolate in savory recipes. I haven't gotten around to buying the book yet, but one of it's recipes, or what I recalled of it, was the inspiration for this TGRWT's theme.

In the book, Bau marries anise-smoked rack of pork with milk chocolate in a risotto. I wasn't quite sure of what it included except for basic risotto ingredients, pork and chocolate. So I set out to make my version of this risotto.

I started out by rendering bacon fat, and letting it cook in it until crispy. I used that same fat to sweat my onions. Added the rice, then I changed the white wine for cream sherry. After that it was pretty much a regular cooking until the moment of mantecare. I replaced the butter for dark chocolate (my bad), and added the parmesan. Served in bowls and topped with the bacon.

I didn't have a nice bowl at hand since I did this at a cousin's place. I also have to excuse myself for the terrible picture. Our camera is broken and I had to resort to the nasty cellphone camera.

The tasting could be classified as a success since both my cousin and his wife completely ate their bowls, and seemed to have enjoyed it. Personally I think it could've used some improvements such as an older Parmiggiano in order to get a sharper cheese note. It was so delicate that it seemed like an afterthought in comparison with the powerful chocolate. Probably a stronger, spicier stock as Bau's would've made another difference, but since this was about chocolate and parmesan, I kept it simple. It was good, but not perfect... and I couldn't help thinking about Cocoa Krispies.

I also wanted to experiment with a Parmesan cheesecake and a chocolate-balsamic-berry sauce, or a Mexican Chocolate Tartlet with Parmesan Ice Cream, but those only stayed as Ideas for future play.

Edit: This event was hosted by Robert @ lamiacucina. Final roundup's here

TGRWT #9

2008-02-19T14:23:00.000-08:00

It's on again! This time it's being hosted by Robert @ lamiacucina. The flavor combination is Parmesan and Chocolate/cocoa.

At first I thought of Masaharu Morimoto's recipe. But Martin had already published that one back in the days of the first TGRWT. Another interesting find is Francesco Schintu's lasagna recipe. But I don't think I'll be working along the lines of any of them.

I would like to include a third element into the combination. Morimoto's added prosciutto and Schintu's include, well pretty much everything that's in pesto. Honestly basil's not a terrible idea.

According to the old google search, other possible ingredients include pork, beef, hazelnut, potato and others.

Another source for inspiration, is obviously foodpairing.

La Leche

2008-02-06T06:57:00.000-08:00

After so long of this restaurant lingering in my head, we finally made our way to La Leche. Created by Chef Alfonso Cadena, La Leche revolves around a funky-sounding concept coined by Cadena himself: Kocinaperitivo (It's even registered).

As far as I could grasp, Kocinaperitivo is not quite a cuisine philosophy as much as a service and drinking concept. The restaurant has a theme drink for the day and food's supposed to be paired with it, also food's served in the center of the table for sharing while quafing the bar's concoctions.

We arrived to La Leche at our scheduled reservation time, and found the place totally empty. Being an entirely white locale, it looked even emptier, despite the five or six persons staffing it. Service was friendly and attentive (at least until some other clients, known to our waitress showed up). She explained to us that the spirit of the day was Gin and they had four cocktails classified according to the moment we were supposed to drink them.

First up was the "Before" cocktail, a mixture of grape juice, lemon, gin and curacao. The "during" one was cranberry, lemon and gin. For an "After" drink they carried a Kahlua, coconut and gin mix and finally, for the "Party" they announced the "martini" of cucumber, gin and dark creme de cacao. We only had the first two, I found the first one a bit too sweet and tangy. I couldn't find a hint of the gin. Next up the "During" was a bit more balanced, but still on the sweet side. Not a bad drink but not quite something I would've paired with the meal.

For starters we had "Capri Roll" and Ravioli in Meat Jus. Capri roll was poorly treated goat cheese smothered in pesto. It was dry and crumbly but tasted fine. The ravioli were filled with chicken mousse and brie and came swimming in a dark meat broth. The mousse was tough and chewy and the brie was MIA. The broth was a bit too salty but overall, the dish had a decent taste to it.

Our mains were Salmon in Fava Cream and Chipotle Duck. The server asked me how I wanted the salmon "From seared rare to well done", I wanted it medium. The duck, medium as well. The salmon came bordering on well done, it was well seasoned and the fava cream was excellent. The duck came spot on as far as the temperature and the chipotle syrup was also excellent.

My grudge as far as the mains, relates to the garnishes and plating. The garnishes were pretty much the same for both dishes: roughly mashed potato and vegetable julienne. They came slightly warm instead of piping hot, for one of the "Nicest restaurants in Mexico", they were lacking. As for the plating, I feel that the plating didn't embrace the idea that this is food meant to be shared. The duck had to be awkwardly sliced by us and the mash was so "rustic" that it was impossible to get a decently sized bite from it without spending a lifetime fiddling with it.

For dessert we opted not to have drinks. My wife had lemonade and I asked for sparking water. They were out of Perrier, which was good, because I'm not too huge on it. They were also out of Pellegrino. They left me with only Topo Chico, and not the nice, new, table version. So no, thanks. Again, the hyped place fell short.

Choices for dessert were utterly lacking creativity: Creme Brulee, Brownie and Chocolate Mousse. Our server told us the mousse was extremely rich in flavor. So we had it along with the creme brulee. Again, I was disappointed. The Creme brulee had a perfect caramel shell on top, a nice taste but an awful texture. It was so overcooked it resembled scrambled eggs. The mouse was so rich in flavor it was sinful. Also a sin was its texture, it was a hard, grainy, block of chocolate.

In the end, it was a good dinner for this town, the price was fair, except for the extremely poor craftmanship on the desserts. I've paid more for creme brulee, ($12 bucks at a Ritz Carlton), but theirs was flawless while this eight buck one, should've at least had a better texture, or a hint of real vanilla bean.

Maybe I'd come back to this place, maybe I won't. It's definitely not ranking up among my town favorites.

TGRWT #8 - The one I didn't do...

2008-01-31T14:48:00.000-08:00

So the deadline's long gone, and I didn't do it. I came up with a couple of ideas but time and economic constraints stopped me from doing it. Here's the one I was almost sure I was going to do.

At first I had thought up of a fish dish that would be a spin-off of Alain Senderens' Homard a la vanille. I have it written down somewhere. Sometime later, the idea for an "edible cocktail" came to mind, based on the idea that vodka and caviar also go well together. So, without further ado here it is:

White Chocolate and Caviar "Martini"

250 mL White Chocolate Liqueur
250mL Vanilla infused Vodka
10 g gelatin sheets (4.7%)

The idea is to set the different liquids in layers, then cut into bite-sized pieces. Top with a small quenelle of caviar.

I hope to actually get to make this one sometime...

Adrián Herrera

2008-01-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

I met Chef Adrián Herrera over a Christmas dinner last year. He runs a small place here in Monterrey that could practically be called a Joint (because of the physical space, not the food). Tucked in the downtown area of San Pedro, the Fonda San Francisco is undoubtedly one of the restaurant jewels of the city.

Adrián has dedicated part of his life to researching about Mexican food. He's gathered a wealth of recipes from the diferent regions of the country. When creating plates for the Fonda, he'll usually take the original recipe then give it a twist. A fine example would be his Smoked corn soup. It's basically, as the name suggests smoked corn broth into which cured cacahuazintle corn is added for garnish. The result is a surprising flavor that still manages to be familiar.

The rest of his dishes complete the range for appetizers, antojitos, and main courses. As an added bonus, he features a weekly menu to keep things fresh.

Something else that sets Chef Herrera apart from others in the city, is according to his own words: "I don't only sell food, I sell stories". Adrián is frequently seen in the dining room entertaining his patrons. A word of caution though, sometimes his stories might be a bit far from the truth, but incredibly fun nonetheless.

If you're ever in town, don't miss the Fonda de San Francisco. Or in case someone looking for a talented Mexican cuisine specialist is reading: Invest in this guy!

X-Mas Dinner Menu

2008-01-10T07:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, It's been ages, but who cares... We visited some friends in Germany over the Holidays, my parents insisted that I had to make them a meal and the only timeslot available was Christmas Dinner. Having no clue as to what their tradition dictates on this day, or the intention to work on a turkey, I came up with this menu (partly I had to come up with it at the supermarket, THERE WAS NO FISH!).

X-Mas menu

Baby Arugula
Roasted Red Peppers
Pecorino Dolce
Balsamico

Risotto
Fennel Compote

Roasted Veal Loin
Celery Puree
Sautéed Oyster Mushrooms
Port sauce
Hazelnuts

Sauteed Granny Smith Apples
Rosemary Anglaise

Back!

2008-01-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone's starting their year good and all...

I'm back from a trip to Europe: Amsterdam, Lübeck, Prague, Berlin and Hamburg. Lots of food, wine and beer. Lot's of sights.

Once I get things organized I'll try to report on some of the things that we ate.

Dinner Tasting

2007-12-07T09:45:00.001-08:00

I had a dinner tasting last night to select the menu for an event next week. The menus were:

Soups:

Smoked Potato Soup, Cured Salmon

Sweet Potato Soup, Ginger Cream

Mains:

Mushroom filled Chicken
Cauliflower Puree
Chevre-creamed corn
Cream Sherry Sauce

Olive filled Chicken
Spinach-Jocoque Spaetzle
Sauteed Mushrooms
Lemon Butter Sauce

Desserts:

Roasted Pinapple, Coconut Financier

Chai Panna Cotta, Pear Coulis

Balsamic with Cacao

2007-12-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

While shopping for a big dinner, I found this vinegar. I was curious so I bought it thinking that it could be added to dessert. Upon opening it I tasted it. It bears no resemblance to the good stuff, but it's not as awful as the supermarket balsamic (just a tad short of it). It does, however present a nice hint of cocoa and just a touch of figs. I ended up reducing it into a nice sauce.

It's in no way a fancy product, but a nice, useful ingredient.

December 1st.

2007-12-01T03:18:00.000-08:00

Dinner Menu:

Red Beet
Passionfruit Jocoque
Popcorn

SRF Kurobuta Pork
Girolles
Red Onion Puree
"Vino de Piedra" Sauce
Pollen-Mint

Chocolate Coulant
Blue Cheese Ice Cream
Cider Tapioca
Cacao Balsamic Reduction

TGRWT 8 - Roadblock

2007-11-30T00:06:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit upset that I haven't found Caviar, the real deal, in this town... There's got to be a bit somewhere.

As for ideas, I had been thinking of making something like a white chocolate "beurre blanc". It's still on the drawing board...

In Memoriam: Sean Taylor

2007-11-27T22:46:00.001-08:00

(Don Wright Photo)

Not having grown up in a place with an NFL franchise, I had usually been unstable in my support for teams. However I do tend to favor teams from cities I feel connections with or have lived in. And after a time in the DC Metro, it was very hard not to let the Skins grow on to me.

Today I was saddened to hear that young Sean Taylor passed away. He was one of the defensive leaders in the team and he was only on his 4th year in the NFL. It's sad to see him leave us, and it's even sadder when one thinks that he was only 24.

That's DOCTOR Adrià for you

2007-11-23T13:43:00.000-08:00

Universitat de Barcelona is naming Ferrán Adrià Doctor Honoris Causa. This notion was put forward by the School of Chemistry and seconded by pretty much all the rest. It's the first time a cook receives such a naming from the University.

Naming ceremony will be December the 17th.

From: Directo al Paladar

Big Bake

2007-11-22T01:41:00.000-08:00

Old school baking!

I got to admit, when I was making the mornay sauce for the gougeres I couldn't help thinking about setting it with xanthan gum instead of roux. I did end up with a texture somewhat similar to a xanthan thickened cream... I guess I'll have to scourge town for some gum.

The sound of Khymos

2007-11-21T14:44:00.000-08:00

Food, the "improvisational electroacoustic jazz band" has released their fifth album called: Molecular Gastronomy. Amongst track names as "Heston", "texturas" and "spherification" there's a track named after Martin's website: Khymos.

Kudos to Martin for "making" it into fame, now in the world of music.

Volatile Compounds for TGRWT #8

2007-11-21T00:33:00.000-08:00

M. pointed out that there's a third component in the TGRWT pairing: trimethyl amine. A quick google search showed that it's a compound associated with some utterly nasty smells:

"Trimethylamine is a product of decomposition of plants and animals. It is the substance mainly responsible for the fishy odor often associated with fouling fish, bacterial vagina infections, and bad breath." (From wikipedia)

According to our trusted Good Scents Company trimethyl amine occurs naturaly in cocoa and caviar. As do the previously mentioned substances. As for other ingredients that share the components, the list has been drastically reduced to five other foodstuffs: beer, cheese, fish, cofee and whiskey.

Just in case anyone was wondering about the previous list, it included: apple, arctic bramble, banana, beans, beef, beer, bilberry, brandy, bread, cabbage, carrot, caviar, cheeses, chicken, cider, clary sage, coffee, cranberry, currant, eucalyptus, fish, grape, guava, honey, hop oil, milk, peanut, peas, pecan, pork, potato, potato chip, soya bean, tea, tomato, turkey, whiskey and wine.

TGRWT #8

2007-11-19T16:55:00.000-08:00

Next round is up!

Chadzilla brings us the next challenge, and it is well... challenging (duh!). The ingredients for number 8 are caviar and white chocolate. It's been done before, notably by Marc Veyrat and Heston Blumenthal.

As for the train of thought that might go into the making of this, I think I'm taking a very complicated route. So far I started by applying Martin's technique for searching for common volatile aroma compounds in food. I got two components from the search: valeraldehyde and butyraldehyde. Curiously, I had already found these two components for another dessert idea.

Anyway, I took the list of natural occurrences for each compound and cross referenced it. In all, I have 39 matches for the compounds (caviar and chocolate included). While it does present an interesting challenge for a multi-ingredient dish, there's also the risk of overdoing it. So far two choices are my top ones:

1. White Chocolate, Caviar, fish (or not), potato, vanilla (from the Used in part of the search).
2. Simply white chocolate and caviar.

Again, more on this as I get hands on.

Update: Tokyo is Michelin Capital

2007-11-19T15:41:00.000-08:00

Michelin keeps going at expanding it's comercial universe... At least that's the impression some people have been getting from the Guide's exhaustive attempts at covering big cities outside their usual market. First it was NY, now Tokyo.

However, it seems that the japanese weren't too thrilled at having a bunch of gaijin coming and rating their food. So how do you solve this? Throw a bunch of stars around. Tokyo is now the city with the city with the most stars in the world.

The breakdown:
8 Three-Star Restaurants:
Hamadaya, Classic Japanese
Joel Robuchon, French
Kanda, Japanese
Koju, Japanese
L'Osier, French
Quintessence, French
Sushi Mizutani, Sushi
Sukiyabashi Jiro, Sushi

25 Two-Star restaurants (RyuGin amongst them)

117 One-Star restaurants.

From: Directo al Paladar

Interesting Gadgets

2007-11-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

Directo al Paladar has presented two curious gadgets.

First is a wine decanter that's attached to the bottle. You fill a little sphere on one end then pour your glass. It's selling for 31 Euros, but the real value of it will have to be determined by each user so if anyone tries it, let us know!

The second cool gadget (and probably even better than the first) is a silicone spatula designed for chocolate work. Built into the spatula is a thermometer and drawn on it's sides it has temperature indicators for the adecuate range for each chocolate. This one can come in handy for the beginning chocolate worker... or those without a thermomix.

Germany is #2

2007-11-16T06:56:00.000-08:00

Michelin released today its Red Guide for Germany and it holds an interesting surprise. The number of German restaurants with 3 Michelin Stars are now 9. This puts it in second place after France as the countries with the most top rated restaurants.

This change might just be temporary though, as the guides for Spain, Italy and Portugal are still unreleased.

From: Directo al Paladar

MY truffles

2007-11-14T18:01:00.000-08:00

Just as it was done in Italy a while back, a company in the UK with a oak plantation in Gascogne is putting trees up for adoption. All truffles harvested from the adopted tree will be property of the investor. The company then offers two choices: having them mailed to you or having the company sell them for you.

Finantial times called this: "Definitely risky, potentially fun".

See the website.

TGRWT #7 Belated Posting

2007-11-12T14:34:00.000-08:00

I finally have time to post what went on with the TGRWT #7 experiment. I have to confess that I am guilty of not devoting as much time and energy to this as I would have wanted. But other projects are gobbling up time.

So after the previously announced failure of the macaron, I decided to see what happened to the batter if I stuck it in the oven longer. Out came the silicone mini muffin mold. In went the batter and it turned out to be a sticky, sort of financier.

As for the cauliflower. I decided to roast it in the oven with a little Olive Oil. I did want a bit of brown on it, but I ended up covering it later to let it cook it it's own steam. I pureed this with some heavy cream and sweetened with condensed milk. The puree wasn't bad, but I feel that the cauliflower taste was lost in the sugar. My wife simply avoided tasting it on the basis of knowing it was cauliflower.

In the end, I just tried to take a semi-nice picture to feel the experiment wasn't such a failure.

I think I need to find a better balance for this combination of flavors. Cocoa was too overpowering and reduced to taste of cauliflower to simply feeling something sweet and creamy. I would like to keep this idea on the warmer also for a savory application.

Buy this book

2007-11-07T15:27:00.000-08:00

Nope, no catchy title there...

If you're into food, and the internet, it's almost certain that you've run into Ideas in Food. The extremely interesting blog by chefs Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot. I'm not sure how many readers they have, but I am sure that there's many of us that avidly read their posts. It's kind of sad, but I actually prefer seeing that they posted than getting e-mail.

Anyway, Aki and Alex have contributed an essay to this book. So go out and get it. Read it, digest it, think about it and all...

Brioche

2007-11-06T22:20:00.000-08:00

I love bread. Baking is a truly amazing art and of those, I'd say brioche and puff pastry are amongst the best in the viennoiserie catalog (and the most challenging when in hot weather).

Today we made this Brioche in school using a sourdough method. the original recipe called for orange blossom water, but since we're going to use it for some canapés. I just skipped it.

I took a loaf home and gave my wife a taste. It was creamy and rich. It was her idea to make a couple sandwiches with it. A bit of mayo, tomato pesto, olives and parmesan with some turkey went into it and it was good.

I have to give a huge thank you to Christian Hackl who helped me rediscover bread and particularly, the sourdoughs.

Wide right...

2007-11-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite rock groups, Héroes del Silencio say in one of their songs (ca): "I've never rejected a lost cause, I'll never deny they're my favorites". I took this "approach" when tackling the dessert project for TGRWT #7. I went for the bolder, riskier option: Macarons.

I don't know if anyone has had this happened to them, but the one class where you missed something that was said or made, is the one thing that will come back to haunt you. I remember sometime in school we made macarons, but I'm totally oblivious to the way they were done.

The difficulty of macarons is almost of mythical proportions, it's the do or die test for pastry. A chef once told the that there are some fool-proof recipes for them but, alas, I didn't have them at hand. I ended up going for one very respected source: The Alain Ducasse book.

The batter I resulted with was dense as hell. So it's no surprise that I ended up with something that in no way resembles a macaron. Honestly, I don't really know if it resembles anything. It's kind of frustrating, but I'm not giving up.

Electric Emulsions...

2007-11-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

If you've read Food for Design, you might have stumbled upon this report. Research has shown that due to water's properties, it is possible to form stable emulsions of water and an oily medium just from electrostatics.

In the conclusions, the researchers state that "Their practical power for manipulating certain systems is not only of interest for (self-) assembly, but also for processes like emulsion production and encapsulation". So I'm guessing it won't be long before someone finds a way to put this into use in kitchens.

"Electrostatic" olive oil caramel, anyone?

Full Article here

TGRWT #7

2007-10-31T17:20:00.000-07:00

So, I have had a lot of time to think, but none to execute. This leads to more thinking and thus, more ideas. One of those inspired by the fact that I lack an Ice-cream maker here...

The original idea was to make a cauliflower crème brulée and serve it with a bitter cocoa sorbet. The fact that I don't have my machine here has led me to think that I could do a "cremeux" in it's place.

More Ideas have come along so far. Some of them are:

Cauliflower Gnocci, cocoa sauce: Just a thought really.
Cocoa macaron with cauliflower cream: Now I'm really getting in deep... I've never even made macarons.

Anyhoo, more to come when I actually get in the kitchen.

Molecular Gastronomy... no bull

2007-10-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

I'f you've stopped at Khymos, you probably already know about TGRWT (They go really well together). The event consists of creating recipes using a couple (or more) ingredients that "marry" really well according to their volatile aroma compounds.

Martin came up with a clever, albeit not perfect way to come up with the aromatic compounds of a certain ingredient, as was explained here. It involves searching for matches of those compounds between a number of ingredients, usually, some that wouldn't often show up together in menus.

If you ask me, that is REAL molecular gastronomy.

Update:
I'm going to make a "late entry" for TGRWT #7. The ingredients are caramelized cauliflower and cocoa so I'm thinking cauliflower creme brulée and bitter cocoa sorbet. I'll probably end up throwing a tuile in there just for kicks.

Eggless Mayo.

2007-10-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's right. It sounds as weird as Fat-free mayo but this one actually delivers what it promises. Apparently Reology investigators from the Universidad de Sevilla, have developped a new emulsified sauce, very similar to mayonnaise in texture, flavor and odor yet free of egg and stabilizing additives.

There is little information on the process of making this "mayo" itself, my guess is that it's mainly due to the fact that the University is applying for a patent on the technique and formula. They do say that the main ingredient is a highly-nutritional dairy product derived from the production of butter.

I'm thinking this might give us a new option for those watching out for their cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, it might end up facing the lactose intolerant market... Time will tell.

Original Note (In Spanish)

50 Best Restaurants

2007-10-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

The list is out for 2007. If anyone in the whole 100 restaurant list is reading... I could use a job!

My samples part 1.

2007-10-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

My Activa came in today. I got 200g of two different products: Activa GS and Activa RM. I was told by the people at Ajinomoto that GS can be used the same, but it has a much faster binding.

I hope to get some pics up soon.

The Project: Caldo Tlalpeño

2007-10-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

I love Caldo Tlalpeño (foto from mexico.canalblog.com. For those of you who might not know it, it's quite simple. Chicken broth with shredded chicken meat, vegetables and chickpeas. Some add rice to it. It also has one of my favorite ingredients in Mexico: chilpotles. It's usually served with garnishes that include avocado and fresh cheese, among other things that may vary from house to house.

In my book, it's one of the ultimate in mexican comfort foods. Thus, I've always been obsessed with tumbling it around. In the "early days" of my involvement with the scientific techniques (a.k.a. I knew nothing except lecithin). I had come up with a Dry version of the soup. It involved making the chicken into some sort of ballotine, a panisse of sorts, broth "aire", avocado in a mousse or cream and some other elements I can't recall right now (I have them written down somewhere at home). It was a very "simple" version of the dish.

Yesterday, armed with a bit more knowledge of what can be done, and drawing inspiration from a lot of places (mainly Alex Stupak, Wylie Dufresne, Sean Brock and Aki and Alex). I am determined to make a newer version of it. I have been thinking of using Activa with the chicken and turn it into some different shape. I might try using tapioca maltodextrin in order to turn the avocado into dust. As for the rest of the ingredients, I still have to think about them.

A sad twist of events

2007-10-24T09:19:00.000-07:00

Today, the Mexican postal system made me proud. It turns out Winston Industries, who was present at the Starchefs ICC, sent me a card so I could visit their booth and win a chance to get a CVap. I did see the booth, and I saw the equipment. However, the card didn't arrive until today...

There went my CVap. Then again, considering my current budget, I think I'll settle for the smoke gun.

Sources for inspiration

2007-10-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

It has always been alluring to delve into the depths of the newest techniques in cooking. Yet actually starting to experiment with these has taken a relatively long way.

My first encounter with the trends was probably still in school, when one of our buddies started schooling us into the techniques of Ferran Adria. Some of us actually went and bought our ISI canisters. Another thing we met at school was sous-vide cooking. It was such a matter of fact technique for the french, that I wasn't expecting it to be such a big issue when I went Stateside. We did use it in every restaurant I was in. Briffard was a master in it, but having worked for long with Robuchon, it's not surprising.

Briffard also introduced me to "aires". We didn't call it like that and we used no lecithin or any other soy additives. Just emulsions. The same guy who used to lecture us on Adria during school told us about use of "aires" in the restaurant he was working in The Plaza Athenée. I was a bit surprised by how much we used "aires" in Maestro. Both Garde Manger and Entremetier used to have at least two or three every night.

Maestro also introduced me to agar (I had heard about it, but never used it) and my first hot gel. After that, it has been mostly reading that has kept me informed. Then came the Starchefs ICC. Watching so many amazing chefs showcase their techniques really got me into track, so as soon as my samples come through... I expect to start turning things upside down.