Docsconz- The Blog

Goose Cassoulet - An Idea in Food

Goose was the one constant going in to the weekend. Knowing that Alex and Aki would be visiting and having had the good experiences that I have had with Mary Pratt's Elihu Farm geese, I thought it would be fun to cook one together. I was right.

The defrosted goose was left to dry uncovered overnight in the refrigerator. I then took it apart to Alex's specifications, separating the wings from the shoulder sockets and the hind quarters from the rest of the carcass while leaving sufficient skin behind to keep the breasts fully covered. I then cut out the neck and the rest of the spine and back, leaving the breasts on the sternum. 

While getting ready to cut the spine into smaller pieces for easier cooking to make a stock, I identified the iliopsoas muscles running along the internal spine and dissected them out. Otherwise known as the tenderloins, these lovely strips of muscle were too small to do anything with other than quickly pan sear them and share the bites as cook's treats. Tasty!

In the meantime, Alex and Aki had set smoked bacon bits to cook on the stove, chopped onion and fennel, cooked the wings and hind quarters of the goose and began their initial cooking of the Rancho Gordo cannelini beans in the pressure cooker. Submerged in water they were cooked on low pressure for 5 minutes in the Cuisinart electric pressure cooker with the pressure allowed to dissipate naturally. The water was drained from the beans and the rest of the ingredients including a large can of LaValle San Marzano DOP tomatoes, the onion, fennel, cooked bacon, picked goose meat from the wings and hind quarters and herbs and seasonings were put back in the pressure cooker with the beans. These were cooked at high pressure for 25 minutes and once again the pressure was allowed to drain naturally.

The goose breast was cooked in it's own fat along with some olive oil and seasonings that included fennel fronds and juniper berries. This was cooked in the CVap at 125ºF for about three hours then seared skin side down in a hot cast iron skillet. Alex then deboned the breasts and sliced them adding three or four slices atop each plated bowl of cassoulet. The result was rich, complex and delicious with plump, creamy beans - a perfect finale for a cold winter night's savory dinner.

Braised Bok Choy with Blood Sausage, Horseradish and an Onsen Egg - An Idea in Food

When Alex Talbot saw the blood sausage in the deli case at Oscar's Smoke House in Warrensburg, he couldn't resist it. We had already bought the bok choy and eggs earlier that day at Kilpatrick Family Farm and had previously planned on cooking the goose that my wife and I had purchased from Elihu Farm. The dish came together rather easily and quickly in Alex's ever-whirring mind and became the second course at this dinner.

Alex peeled the sauseage and cut it into small chunks.

Goose bones were browned and made into a quick stock using the pressure cooker.

The bok choy was cooked with the goose jus from the pressure cooker along with horseradish and the blood sausage.

The eggs were cooked in a water bath at 75ºC for 13 minutes and peeled.

Chef Kevin London of Farm House at Top of the World in Lake George, a dinner guest, was enlisted to help plate the dish.

Perhaps my favorite dish of the night, this dish had it all. The bok choy was well braised, but still vibrant with enough horseradish to provide a little zing but not so much as to make it over assertive. It played a great supporting role. The jus was rich and warming and the blood sausage added spice, flavor and texture to the dish, which was unified by the silken coating of the perfectly cooked whites and the oozing European orange yolk of the egg. The dish was greater than the sum of its parts, but the ingredient that set it apart from other similar dishes I have had was the inspired use of the fortuitously found blood sausage. Later in the weekend, per a suggestion from Alex, I cooked some more blood sausage along with fresh eastern L.I.clams, parsley, onions, garlic and white wine served over linguine - another Ideas in Food winner!

Smoked Trout Brandade - an Idea in Food

Not every idea that comes out of Alex and Aki, the couple behind the blog and book, both called Ideas in Food is cutting edge. They are both as well versed with traditional cooking techniques and dishes as they are with the ultramodern. Their idea for the first course  of our Friday night dinner was just such a tradition based idea - a brandade, but instead of using salt cod, they would use smoked trout. I must admit, this was not an idea that I found initially appealing when Alex first proposed it, but I've learned to trust his judgement and skill. I'm glad I did. As with any dish, the quality of the ingredients is important. Here the key element was the smoked trout itself. Purchased that afternoon at Oscar's Smoke House in Warrensburg, N.Y., it was of pristine quality.

The first step was breaking up the fish. Aki did that, reserving the skin and the head.

The skin and head was used to infuse a quarter pound of melted Cabot 83% butter.

The next step was cooking the potatoes (yellow potatoes bought that day at Kilpatrick Family Farm) along with the peeled garlic cloves. My son, Michael peeled the garlic. The potatoes and garlic were boiled in water in a standard fashion. Once cooked they were riced together in a warm pan and mixed with the trout, the trout=skin infused butter, cream and some minced parsley.

The end result was magic. I may not have found the idea all that appealing, but the actuality was wonderful - silky smooth potatoes, moist, smoky meat and sheer pleasure.

Dinner with Friends - Alex and Aki Come to Visit

TV shows like Iron Chef America, Top Chef and Chopped all riff on a theme of spontaneous cooking to varying degrees. Iron Chef America specifies a specific ingredient that must be showcased, Top Chef offers surprise scenarios that must be adhered to and Chopped supplies baskets of disparate ingredients that must all be utilized in a single dish. All of the shows incorporate time limits in their challenges as well. These elements often lead to some fun television, but what is really compelling is the opportunity to take part when true professionals create a delicious meal spontaneously based on what is available.

 

Alex Talbot and Aki Kamozawa of Ideas in Food have, over the years become very good friends of my wife and I. With a presentation and signing of their new book, Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work at Red Fox Books, Alex & Aki along with their daughter and pup paid us an all-too-brief visit, a highlight of which was an informal dinner they cooked for us and a few friends on Friday night.

Identitá Golose 2011 - Part 2: Sat Bains and Paolo Lopriore

The British chef, Sat Bains from his eponymous restaurant in Nottingham, UK followed the charismatic Scabin, speaking of his difficult upbringing and how cooking gave him a life when his parents kicked him out of the house at age 18. Bains' goal at his restaurant to bring something familiar, to do it in a modern way, but without having "lost its soul." The most important thing for him is the ability to still taste the original ingredients of a dish.  He says, "The most important word in my gastronomy is flavor and I will sacrifice presentation to get flavor." Bains figures that in his kitchen, he doesn't try to "reinvent" things Rather, his effort is to "re-introduce." Bains talked about sustainability and demonstrated a dish built around mackerel, a "a very under-rated" fish  found "in abundance" in the British Isles and a "perfect antidote" to the problems of overfishing as it is a "a beautiful fish with great flavor." Crafting a vibrantly colorful dish, as an homage to Italy, Bains first removed the skin from the fish by brushing it with vinegar. This caused the skin to come off easily after about 15 seconds. He then sears the base of the skin leaving the top raw.He then uses acid from a beet ketchup to counterbalance the oily fat of the mackerel. He covered the mackeral with Lardo di Colonnata. The beet ketchup is layered on the bottom of the plate and topped with several slices of salt-baked beet and fresh, wild horseradish mixed with parsley oil and the lardo topped mackerel. To "add a little bit of luxury" he added some caviar and some croutons "for texture." The idea is to get "some soft, salt, fat, earth and acidity from the whole dish."  His second dish was one that he considered to be pure Nottingham, though some of its essential components are also seen in other cultures. For this dish, he "nurtured" beef cheeks by marinating them in Guiness to break down the fibers to make it tender. he paired the cheeks with oysters, reworking a traditional dish for a modern palate. The beef is served with an oyster emulsion, like a raw oyster mayonnaise to get a real flavor of the sea. He took this further by serving it with seaweed from the Kent coast. The dish is meant to be eaten by dragging the beef through the oyster puree combining freshness of vinegar from pickled onions with bitterness of beer. Bains invited a member of the audience up to sample the dish. His final dish showcased the strongly flavored mutton. He braised a salted  aged shoulder of mutton in a pressure cooker. He used capers to provide acidity, a combination that has been used in the UK since the 17th century. Playing around with leftover fat, bains made candles from pure mutton fat and lights them while serving the mutton dish so that the diner gets a sense of roasting mutton even before tasting the dish and then they pour the drippings from the candle into the sauce (made with capers and brown butter) to augment the flavor of the dish. The dish is finished with deep-fried capers, shallots and an onion powder, which adds depth and flavor to the dish.

Paolo Lopriore, chef of Il Canto in the Hotel Certosa di Maggiano just outside of Siena, took the Congress theme of "The Luxury of Simplicity" to heart. e preparec two dishes, both based upon few ingredients and presented very simply. The first was a torn piece of freshly made, crusty bread with a bit of butter and an immaculate raspberry while the second dish was a version of shabu shabu using raw saddle of goat and a broth made with tea roses. The presentation was simple but effective and well received by the audience.

Breaking News: Spanish Chef Santi Santamaria Dead in Singapore

It's a sad day. The culinary world has lost a true giant. Seven Michelin Star Chef Santi Santamaria from Catalunya, Spain has died from an apparent heart attack today at his restaurant in Singapore. Known as much for his feud with Ferran Adria as for his great restaurants El Raco de Can Fabes  in Sant Celoni just outside of Barcelona and Santceloni in Madrid, Santamaria was indisputably a great chef. I will never forget the meal I had at Can Fabes in 2004. The roasted leg of goat in partticular still gets my digestive juices flowing when I think about it. He was 53. RIP.

Identitá Golose 2011 - Part 1: From Alajmo to Scabin

From pizza to pasta and risotto to radicchio, the latest edition of Identitá Golose in Milan covered the latest in the Italian food scene and then some. Laden with top Italian toques such as Massimo Bottura, Davide Scabin, Gennaro Esposito, the Brothers Alajmo, Corrado Assenza, Paolo Lopriore and International stars like Paul Liebrandt, Inaki Aizpitarte, Mauro Colagreco, Yoshihiro Narisawa, Nuno Mendes, Sat Bains, Mehmet Guhrs, Josean Martinez Alja and Magnus Nilsson amongst others, there was plenty for Italophiles as well as those just interested in good food. I will present the main stage presentations from the first two days of the Congress in several parts over the next couple of weeks. By virtue of English being my principle language, the discussions from the presenters who spoke in English will be a bit more detailed than those who did not. While I speak some Spanish, Italian and French (in that order), my abilities are not sufficient to provide the same level of detail. As such, I hope to provide a reasonably accurate gist of those presentations. My apologies if I missed nuance.

 

The Congress opened with Raffaele and Massimiliano Alajmo. Massimiliano, who at age 28 was the youngest chef ever to receive three Michelin stars at his restaurant Le Calandre, followed the theme of "the luxury of simplicity" to demonstrate a single dish, a black squid risotto. The squid,cooked sous vide at low temperature is paired with a rice cooked with a vegetable broth and in the "Venetian way" with very little cheese. Of course, the squid's ink is used for color and the flavors are accented with soy, sugar cane and star anise (none typically Italian). However, in a more Italian vein, the dish is finished with oil, some Parmesan and lemon for a touch of acidity. In what was a portent of upcoming presentations, the Alajmos showed a video entitled "EachCook - Il Diletto Imperfetto (the Imperfect Crime), which, I believe, was a call to removing the superfluous and the baroque from cooking and returning to simplicity. The Alajmos were also the first to send out samples of their cooking to the audience. No, they didn't send out the risotto, but they did send out a delectable olive oil cake with saffron and licorice oil.

Ideas in Food Comes North

I am so very looking forward to a visit this coming weekend from my good friends Alex and Aki of Ideas in Food. For anyone in Northeastern New York who may be interested, you can meet them this Thursday evening, February 17th from 7-9PM in Glens Falls, New York at Red Fox Books where they will be signing copies of and discussing their outstanding new book also called Ideas in Food. If you can't make it to Red Fox Books for the signing or to your own local independent bookstore you can order it from Amazon via the link below.

 

The Best Chef of the Year 2011

According to the prestigious International Academy of Gastronomy the Best Chef of the Year for 2011 is Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy. Chef Bottura learned of his selection during the second day of the recent Identitá Golose in Milan. It has yet to be formally announced though.

I happened to have dinner at the Osteria Francescana the night following his notification of the award.  I am thrilled for Chef Bottura, a desrving soul, if ever their was one. His work is truly amazing and he couldn't be a nicer person. Congratulations to an outstanding chef and artist! Watch for my report on this outstanding dinner. For those in the United States who wish to get a sense of what Chef Bottura is all about, he will be presenting at the next Starchefs International Chefs Congress in NYC in October.

Bocuse d'Or 2011 - The Competition

With Timothy Hollingsworth's strong, but ultimately unsatisfying sixth place finish at the 2009 Bocuse d'Or, the Bocuse d'Or USA organization was primed and optimistic for more in 2011. Hollingsworth had indeed tied the best ever finish for the United States with only about four months of real preparation (read Andrew Friedman's compelling book Knives at Dawn for the whole story). The energy coming off that finish was palpable. With more time and more money to prepare, it was indeed conceivable that the United States could improve and maybe even (why not?) make it onto the podium. With increased sponsorship from companies like All-Clad amongst others, the American effort did indeed have more money to work with and now with two years to plan, more time.

The Winner at Work

Triple Bocuse d'Or medalist Rasmus Kofoed at work at this year's Bocuse d'Or competition in Lyon, France. Kofoed won the gold medal to go along with his previously won bronze and silver medals.

Albert Adria Gets The Last Word on Art vs Craft in Cooking

If Albert Adria or his brother Ferran are not culinary artists than no one is. Here, in Spanish, he says that the question is ultimately up to the diner to answer.

 

I had filmed several other interviews, but alas, audio problems from trying to use some new equipment made them unusable. I hope that you have found this series as interesting to watch and listen to as I did asking the questions and filming. The video quality certainly could have and should have been much better, but I don't think that lessens what these individual culinarians had to say.

Go Team USA!

American Candidates Jamal James Kent and Thomas Allan at dinner at Brasserie de L'Est two nights before competition along with Bocuse d'Or USA organizer Monica Bhambani. They will be getting underway in their quest for a medal at the 2011 Bocuse d'Or shortly. Best of luck!

Daniel Patterson Discourses on the Craft vs. Art Debate

Few chefs are more eloquent and cerebral than Daniel Patterson of San Francisco's Coi and Il Cane Rosso and Oakland's Plum. Few chefs also make more beautiful, thoughtful and delicious food. He is also not afraid to say it as he sees it. Here are his thoughts about the place of Art in cooking.

 

Coming soon: Albert Adria gets la ultima palabra.

Mattias Hagglund Pours His Thoughts on Food as Art

Matthias Hagglund of Elements Restaurant in Princeton, NJ, happens to be one of the craftiest and most creative mixologists I have yet had the pleasure of meeting. His beverages are products of great thought and consideration. The net results comprise a synergy of ingredients and magical cocktails. Here, he expresses his thoughts on whether food can be art. The question unasked, but equally pertinent, how about cocktails?

 

Nils Noren Weighs in on Craft and Art in Cooking.

The other half of the creative team behind the wildly creative Cooking Issues (though Nastassia Lopez should be included there as well to make it a creative trio) along with Dave Arnold, who's response I have already posted, Nils Noren is the former Executive chef of Aquavit in NYC and current Vice President of Culinary Arts of The French Culinary Institute in NYC. He has serious chops in both the craft aspects of cooking and the creative realm. Once again, I apologize for the suboptimal focus of the video, but I think Nils' views are worth putting up with it for a brief period.

 

More Art vs. Craft in Cooking: Scott Boswell Opines

I know few chefs who plate more beautifully than Scott Boswell of Stella!and Stanley in New Orleans. Of course, in the world of food that means nothing if the pleasure of eating a dish does not at least match the beauty of a gorgeously plated dish. Boswell has that down too. In this short video he gives his opinion on whether or not food can be considered art as well as naming a chef who he considers "one of the greatest food artists of all time."

  

Art or Craft in Studio Kitchen? Shola Speaks

i don't know too many chefs who cook more artistically or better than Shola Olunloyo of the soon to open Speck and Studio Kitchen in Philadelphia. In this short video shot at the latest Starchefs International Chefs Congress in NYC, the wonderfully opinionated Chef Shola Olunloyo shares his views on whether cooking is solely a craft or whether it can aspire to art.

 

Rick Moonen's Views on Art vs. Craft in Cooking

The ever energetic Rick Moonen of RM Seafood in Las Vegas is a supremely talented chef, a bright personality and a truly great guy. Aside from being a whiz at the stove as evidenced by his second place finish on rthe 2010 Top Chef Masters, the outgoing and personable Chef Moonen is probably best known as an advocate for sustainable seafood. Here, at the lates Starchefs International Chefs Congress, he provides an opinion on the Art vs. Craft in cooking discussion. Fortunately for me, this interview did not suffer from any significant technical problems.

 

Alex Talbot's Ideas on Food: Art vs. Craft

While my technical difficulties with video at this past Starchefs International Chefs Congress continued, Alex Talbot of Ideas in Food shares his ever fascinating thoughts on Art vs. Craft when it comes to cooking. The video is short, but I think sweet.