Monday, June 20, 2011

Things done differently

I experienced a different take on food over the past few days. Some green vegetables, potato and slow cooked meat. Hey, that sounds like my normal fare. No not quite.

Meat cooked with potato with more mashed potato on the side and vegetables cooked in brine 'til grey


This meal resulted from my having chest pains (nothing found) that put me in hospital for 2 days of tests. The food I was served was so salty it was almost inedible, and amazingly despite the fact that they clearly had more prep time spent on them than anything you can see on this blog, they were completely disgusting. Tasteless, salty, grey food that had been ground, cooked and mashed to a paste.

Chicken parts, cooked 'til tough, covered with brown salty cornflour hydrocolloid, accompanied by potato done two ways and broccoli well cooked in brine, salted, steamed some more and then reheated.  Set off with wonderfully by Creamy Rice Pudding, made from 9 mystery ingredients, but mainly rice and sugar.  Yum

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Not a real post but delicious Roast Vegetables

Roast Veg

Not much of a post, I didn't take any photos, it's not modernist in any way, but I threw it together from virtually random ingredients this evening and it's really worked well. More than anything else I simply wanted to record it for my own future reference.

In a big baking tray.

Rosemary, Garlic and Macadamia nuts. Chopped up Pumpkin, Carrots, Zucchini and whole mushrooms and onions. Quartered a Lemon. Sprinkled with Extra Virgin Olive oil, Sesame oil and Honey.

200 degrees for 50 minutes.

I did put a 61.5 degree 180 minute egg yolk on top, more because I could than anything else, but that wasn't really the standout in the meal.

On the other hand I finally got the Calcium Lactate that I've had on order for 8 weeks. So some reverse spherification is on the way as soon as I get over the cold that's laid me low the last week.

Update 31/07/11
I've made that roast veg several times since that post, but only just got my act together to photograph it.  Not much change from the one above, use veg whatever comes to hand really. 

Sunday, June 5, 2011

I win over the Boss

Tonight was the good old standby, chicken and veg. Ok, so I'm short on innovation. So sue me.

Side sauce was shallots and ginger. Big bunch of shallots sliced up short, about half a cup of ginger chopped into a fine mince. Stirred in quarter cup of EVO oil, 1.5 tsp of reduced salt soy, 1 tsp rice wine vinegar and stirred then put aside in the fridge for 4 hours. 



Sliced mushrooms, sauted in butter.

Sous Vide the chicken breast with a couple of sprigs of rosemary, one on each side. 



57.5 for 3 hours. Did it a bit higher than last time as I wanted to be sure. I think next time I'll go back to 55.3 but do it for 4 hours to be sure. Douglas Baldwin has nothing to say about pasteurisation time at that temperature for chicken, so it's a bit of guesswork based on beef. Chicken times are longer than beef, so I wasn't really certain. I think 55.3/3 hours should be ok, but I'm not 100% sure. Pan fried in a super hot pan at the last moment and sliced.

Asparagus, cooked in plain water for about 10 minutes (I thought it was over done but the boss liked it).

Beetroot, topped and tailed, cleaned with a scourer halved peppered and roasted at 180 for an hour and a half with a whole corm of garlic that had been peeled and bruised but that's all. 



Half way through I got the brainwave of adding an egg, but they really needed to be cooked hotter and longer than I had, and I ended up with basically raw egg yolks which just broke rather than going in as a sort of savoury custard topping.

I was slightly disappointed in the chicken. I would have said it was the best chicken I've had, had I not had 55.3 degree chicken a few nights ago. The beetroot was the standout of the night. Sweet, peppery-hot, delicious. 



This was the first modernist meal that the Boss would eat, and the verdict? “That was really really lovely”