Monthly Archives: October 2010

Life at 40,000 BTU: The Stations- Fry

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Back in June I started at working at Blueacre Seafood as a line cook.  I just moved up to a line cook position in my previous job from prep cook but I was working as a pantry cook and I really wanted to play with fire so Blueacre was looking for people so I applied and I got the job.  I was at school one day and someone asked me, “Eric, you work at Blueacre?”  Yes, I do.  ”What do you do there?”  I work on the line, cooking hot foods. “Really? I saw that they wanted people with at least 3 years experience?”  You let that stop you from applying? “Well, um…”

I told you a little bit about my first day here (click) but things kind of stopped there on this blog.  Over the next few weeks I’m going to take you inside of what it’s like to cook hot food at an awesome restaurant.  Hot food….cold food?  I worked pantry and prep. at my previous job like I said before.  Prep involved a lot of cutting, sauce making, soup making, and just bigger preparations to help the cooks on the line be prepared for their evening.  I learned a lot and I have deadly awesome knife skills now…..that was my goal.  From prep I moved up to pantry which involved making salads, desserts, and a few other side items but again, not dangerous or firey…..so it wasn’t really that exciting.  Don’t get me wrong here, I love to do everything in a kitchen and my goal is to learn everything but when it comes to plating a dessert or throwing a salad around compared to flipping something mid-air underneath 40,000 BTU while you have 6 other pans cooking it just simply doesn’t compare.

I was really excited to work at Blueacre for a ton of reasons but from the second I walked in I was a hot line guy and not only that I was working prime time on prime days….evenings on Wednesday-Sunday.   My first day I worked Saute which I will get in a separate post and then the next few days I worked Hot Apps. which I will again, talk about in another post but my first home on the line was at the fry station.

Fry station is responsible for fried items as well as most of the sides that come off of the menu.  Here is a copy of the menu so you can see what I’m talking about.  It changes everyday so here is one from two days ago ( CLICK OCT. 26th menu)….

The fried items that come from the station can be main dish items or just one component to a main dish item.   Main dish items on fry:

  • Rainier Beer Battered Fish and Chips
  • Hush Puppies
  • Razor Clams (seasonal)
  • Crispy Smelt (not on the menu right now, seasonal)
  • Salt & Vinegar Fries
  • Regular Fries

Then you have fried components that go on other dishes.

  • Fried polenta cake for a grilled salmon prep. we were doing
  • Crispy oysters that go on top of the tenderloin
  • Fried onion rings that go on top of the Cowboy Steak…not on the menu right now
  • Beer battered pickles
  • Whatever else that Chef Kevin wants.

The key to the fry station is communication….that’s it.  The food will sort itself out as long as you can communicate with everyone else down the line.  Once you drop something in that fryer the rest of the food going with it better be ready because there is no slowing down or speeding up.  It’s pretty much the only station that needs to talk continuously with the other stations.

“Hey, can you let me know when that black cod is 4 minutes out so I can fire these fish and chips?”

“Do you want me to fire fries for that burger yet?”

“Let me know when that AAC is two minutes out so I can fire these razors!”

This is actually a nice station for me because I can yell.  I love to yell and besides baseball and attempting back-flips it’s my favorite national past time. When I first started at fry I didn’t realize how well I would have to communicate with everyone on the line in order to make that station work.  A lot of what I was doing wrong had nothing to do with the food itself it was just the communication with the other line cooks. I was really intimidated by everyone there and they all knew what they were doing but here I was trying to figure this stuff out as it was thrown my way.  I was afraid to talk to people on the line until Kevin told me that it was essential and I had to get over it………

The worst thing you could ever hear as a cook is “re-fire!”   Dammit……F*#%……S*%*……AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh!!!!  There are reasons that are out of my control where I have to re-fire something but when I first started it was all my fault and it was extremely frustrating.

  • I wasn’t getting the right color on fries….either too dark or too light…when you’re cooking 5 other things you have to develop an internal clock…I didn’t have that.
  • The fish and chips had splattered batter……what?!?!?
  • The razor clams were cooked too far and became rubbery….I had to re-fire razor clams three times once…..not fun.
  • Burnt onion rings……F*#&!!!!!!!!!!!
  • The list can go on but I’ll just stick with a few of these examples.

Chef Kevin is very particular about fried items.  He told me that because they’re simple people see items like this everywhere and if you mess them up or don’t take them to the next level of perfection then people won’t come back.  Sure, you’ve had fish and chips but have you had them like this?!?!?!? (I need a picture here, haha).  Fries? How are you going to mess up fries?!?!! Huh…..that makes sense. He’s also from the south and they pretty much fry everything down there so when it comes to dealing with fried food he has a sweet spot for it.

I’ve been to places and eaten fish and chips but it wasn’t until I saw a Monte Cristo sandwich in the book Modern Cafe that I truly questioned how good fried food could look.  The batter spatter/splattered batter is what I’m talking about here.   There is a beer batter that I make before the start of every shift that is the key component to making the fish and chips world class.   It needs the right amount of liquid (Rainier Beer) to other ingredients that I won’t tell you because I’ve made it my own and it’s the best one out there…..muah ha haha hahahahahahha…ha..hahahaahha.  Since I’ve made this special beer batter then why am I going to ruin it by just taking a few pieces of nice fish, dusting them with flour, dipping them in the batter, then throwing them in the fryer so that spatter blatter makes the final product look like amateur hour at Long John Silver.  No, this is the #1 seafood restaurant in Seattle…there is no time/place amateur hour.   When the right batter is there achieved the two portions of fish are gently dusted with seasoned flour then placed in the batter, removed then raised so excess batter can drip back into the pan, then slowly placed into the fryer.  When I do this my finger is about 1/2 an inch from hitting oil and I hold onto the fish until it slowly floats to the top…..sounds dangerous, it is, but that’s what it takes and I’m ready for it….and I’m really good at it. Recently, we added beer battered onion rings to the mix which go in right after fish.  We cut thick pieces and serve them along with the fish and chips but sometimes we run out and that’s when magical things happen.  The other day I made a fish shape with the onions and it worked when I fried it……a few more times and I’ll have it down :)

The issue with fish and chips is that it takes two of the four baskets out of use when I fire them.  There are two fryers and chef Kevin doesn’t like when we fire the fish and chips together in the same fryer because the fries cool the fish down too much and we don’t get that nice crispiness to it. This is a problem when there are multiple orders coming in but there are tricks that I have learned along the way….I’ll get to them in a separate post.

Razor clams, ugh.  That’s been the hardest thing I’ve had to fry.  If you don’t fry them long enough then they will be gummy….too long….gummy….just right, f’ing delicious!   When I started working hot line I was becoming obsessed with time.  Fish and chips takes 4-5 minutes, crispy oyster 2 minutes, other sides coming off the station….whenever really because they’re on a burner and I can slow them down or speed them up just right when needed….. Razor clams on the other hand are all about watching and waiting for the red lines to appear.  Buttermilk, flour, fry…..then wait for the red lines to show up then take them out quickly, plate them faster and clean, then call for a runner immediately…….RUNNER PLEASE!!!!

That’s another thing about fried food.   It’s best when it’s crispy and crunchy on the outside and warm and not over/under cooked on the inside.   When each plate is finished it can’t “die” in the window. Food stuck in the window and not on a table is a disaster.  When I worked at my previous  restaurant they would  normally put food in the window then place plastic disks over the food to keep them warm or they would turn on the heat lamp and let the food sit there until the order was completed.    Chef Kevin is not a fan of those shenanigans.  All of the food for an order will come up at the same time, be very hot, and be cooked perfectly….none of that dying in the window garbage….again, amateur hour stuff. Food is ready, get it to the customers that want to eat it…the window isn’t paying! When I work fry I’m the last one in the window because that’s the last thing that chef wants so that way the customer is getting the ultimate fried experience without food dying in the window.

I have gotten pretty good at fry station. When I started working that station the other guys on the line said that there was only one guy that could work that station properly and the other people have quit or been fired after a short period of time.   I took this as a challenge and proceeded to make sure I was the best with the help of the guy that had been there the longest…Dio.  He moved up from washing dishes to working pantry then to working fry station.   Some of us spend $50,000 on culinary school to work fry stations….others find a less expensive way to get there…..haha.   That was the joke I kept hearing at work for a while.   “Eric, Dio doesn’t have a blog, formal culinary training, or a lot of the other stuff you have but he rocks this station”.  Dammit……….well um…….ugh……yikes.  I think this is the point where other guys quit or were fired.  They took it as something to deflate their ego or as a personal attack on them.  I welcomed the challenge and proceeded to pick the brain of Dio in order to get myself on par with the fry master.

It’s about communication right?  This station?  Mira Dio, como puedo hacer estas Fish N Chips mejor? Ok, y come puedo hacer esto y esto y esto.  I remember speaking Spanish to Dio and the rest of the people on the line looked at me like they saw a ghost….they had no idea that I could.  I would sit there and speak with Dio and it was easy for him to answer questions or just have me fire things because he could say it quickly in Spanish. It made him more comfortable to teach me and we could joke around and have fun while we were getting our teeth kicked in on busy nights.  My Spanish isn’t the best when I’m speaking it but I understand everything that’s being said to me.   This is golden in a kitchen.  I laugh when culinary students want to learn French just so they have a better understanding of what they’re cooking…..I say, “learn Spanish because those people are going to be the majority of people cooking your food in a kitchen….not some crazy French chef”.   So Spanish folks…..it will get you ahead/let you keep your job on fry.

Those are a couple of highlights of the fry station but remember, I told you about sides that come off that station and there is no bigger/better side that comes off that station than the Minneapolis (pictured above).   That is a hash brown cooked in clarified butter stuffed with onions and bacon then if you choose to make it an ala Brian then we add more bacon, chives, and sour cream….it’s amazing and very simple.   This is the hardest thing to make on fry and probably the biggest make or break item on the line.   It takes 10 minutes to cook which is one of the longest things we fire on the line, it involves a mid-air flip, and can really mess up the flow of food on the line.

My first experience with the Minneapolis was on my third day on fry. The first two days they wouldn’t let me make one until I watched the flip.  There were two people on fry so Dio was sent home early so I could go solo.   Ticket comes in and I heard the words, “FIRE MINNY!!!!”.  Oh S*&t, OK!!!! Take a non-stick pan fill it with shredded potatoes about an inch or two up then place the bacon, onions, salt and pepper in then place more shredded potatoes on top, form it, then pour clarified butter around the edges of the pan then on full fire it goes.  Chef Kevin talked me through the process, my hands were shaking and I knew what the stakes were….if I mess this up it will add another 10 minutes to this ticket…….I CAN’T MESS THIS UP!!!  When the Minneapolis is in the pan I take a rubber spatula and make sure the edges are setting nicely so I can get it ready for the flip.  Chef Kevin talked me to through the flip before I did it.  ”You ever play golf”.  Yup.  ”Alright, so grab the pan then when you flip it don’t let your wrists break, it’s one solid motion with your hands and your arms in order to get the Minneapolis to flip”.   Ok….let’s do this.   “Just remember, don’t break your wrists…this isn’t an omelette”.   I grabbed the pan, drained off the butter, looked at it and said, “don’t f#(% me here”, then flipped it…..IT WORKED!!! Flying potatoes!!!! Somersaulting starch!!!  Backflipping brotato!!!

Since then I have only messed up 5, yes I have kept count and those 5 times were all laced with profanity quietly under my breath….haha.

The other sides on the menu change frequently and are exciting to make but there is nothing as exciting on that station as “FIRE MINNY!!!”  Getting those Minneapolis’ down really helped my confidence on the other two stations I work at Blueacre….Saute and Hot Apps but I’ll save those two for another post. I’m just happy that I was able to work in that brotato picture…I think it’s hilarious.

Eric

Chef Chris Mills’ James Beard House Preview Dinner @ Joey Restaurant (Seattle)

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I received an email a few weeks ago with an invitation to check out a preview dinner for Chef Chris Mills who for the second time was going to be cooking at the James Beard House in New York.  Cooking at the James Beard House is a goal of mine and to have the opportunity to do it twice would be like winning the lottery….twice.  I had to check this out but honestly, I had never heard of Chris Mills and beyond that the dinner was going to be held at Joey Restaurant in Seattle.    I’ve been there a few times and each time I have been there I had just gone there to grab drinks with the guys and eat a burger and watch sports on the huge television.  In the summertime it’s the place to be with a patio that overlooks Lake Union and gives you easy access to a friend’s boat……that was my experience with Joey Restaurant in Seattle. I’ve been to their restaurant in Bellevue many times during my business suit wearing days and I’ve even visited their new location in Southcenter…..I’ve been to Joey’s many times but after eating this dinner last night I had no idea they could put out this type of food.  Joey’s….yeah burgers, sports on t.v., good scenery on the inside and on the outside….plain and simple, that was it before Chris Mills and his crew came in with guns blaring.

Joey restaurants brought in all of their general managers from their 20 restaurants, located mostly in Canada, and proceeded to provide white glove service and top notch food fare.  What? This is Joey’s right?  The one with the burgers and t.v…….and perfectly paired wines…..and amazing food….and dishes…and food combinations that will lead you in the right direction….and inspire…. “Eric, your thoughts are changing on Joey’s”.  You’re damn right they are…..I’m confused now….

Hors D’Oeuvres:

Peaches & Cream Chicken ‘Corndog’
Japanese Hummus
Chicken Tacos
Pacific Tuna Chopsticks

Wine:  ”Ferel” Sauvignon Blanc, Washington

Ok, that sounds like typical food fare at Joey’s.  Tacos, hummus, corndog, blah blah blah…… “Please make your way to your seats”

This is the point where my idea of Joey’s went right out the window. No burgers, no b.s., serious food, cooked by an amazing chef.

Citrus-Cured Haida Gwaii Salmon with Dungeness Crab Flan & Cornbread paired with L’ecole 41 Chenin Blanc, Washington.

They called this the bacon and eggs course…very nice and playful and delicious. The salmon was nice and fresh and it was cut perfectly and just fell apart in my mouth and left me wanting more.  The dungeness crab flan was very nice and again, I wanted more.  The egg under the frisee was great and had a nice tangy vinaigrette to perfectly balance itself on the dish.

Alaskan Black Cod, BBQ Pork Belly & Squash Dumpling in a Matsutake Mushroom Broth paired with Sandhill “Small Lots” Viognier, B.C.

Oh wow….but wait, there’s more……the mushroom broth.

“Chef Mills picked these mushrooms himself in British Columbia”.    Are you serious? Really?   “Yes, there are a few other items on the menu he foraged”.  AWESOME!

This goes down as one of the best dishes I’ve ever eaten. Each bite had a different flavor component to it….then they served up some broccolini and more mushrooms with it just to make it more of an epic dish.

I was extremely happy at this point and I was happily anticipating the next course….could they top it? Yes, but here is something to refresh the palette before the next course.  An apple salad that set it up perfectly.

I knew there was duck coming and I was really excited. I love duck and when it’s cooked correctly it’s one of the best things in the world.  This duck was cooked correctly…..and it was one of the best things in the world.

Licorice Lacquered Duck Breast, Summer Cherry Conserve, with a Hazelnut-Crusted Korean Duck Roll paired with La Crema “Sonoma” Pinot Noir, California.

“We went golfing and while we were playing on the greens Chef was picking cherries”.

The duck cooked medium rare with warmed pitted cherries and the duck roll to add to the mix that was fantastic.  I was putting pieces of the duck in the middle on top of the duck roll for a little duckxtravaganza and it was f’ing delicious.  How about a cherry on top? OH MY!

45 Day-Aged Beef Rib Eye with Yukon Gold Potato, Braised Oxtail & Black Trumpet Mushroom Lasagna & Bellmann Farm Carrots paired with Magnificient Wine Co. “The Originals” Syrah, Washington.

Aged in-house for 45 days. A premium beef rib eye with an explosion of flavor from the oxtail lasagna.  The oxtail lasagna could have been it’s own dish and I would have been extremely happy but to add the 45 day-aged steak it felt like someone just gave me a Ferrari and gave me a Rolls-Royce at the same time…..yeah, pretty amazing.

I absolutely hate when sauces go all over a plate and aren’t controlled. I love flooding techniques and when I saw the puree with the two onions on each side controlling the jus. I wanted to stand up and start applauding the chef….I would have but the other people at the table would have thought I was even more of a weirdo.   Bravo Chef!!!

Vietnamese Banana Cake with Tropical Fruit Salad & Toasted Coconut Ice Cream paired with Inniskillin Okanagan Riesling Ice Wine, British Columbia.

Banana Cake was amazing and the marshmallow all the way to the right was incredible.  I am definitely on a search for that ice wine as well. Yes.

Finally, a mignardises of raspberry muffins….proper way to end an amazing dinner.

On the way out I was handed a box with an apple and a chocolate inside.  Chef Mills is ready for a James Beard Dinner/Anything.  This was an absolute throw down in Seattle.  It rocked everything I thought of Joey restaurants and I honestly feel bad for thinking this place was nothing more than a beer and sports place.  Chef Mills is the real deal and Joey restaurants is lucky for having such an amazing chef at the helm. If a dinner like this occurred more often in their Lake Union I think it would be a great rivalry between themselves and another restaurant that overlooks Lake Union.

If you’re in New York on November 20th then get yourself over to the James Beard House and consider yourself lucky to be there (click)…that’s how I felt after this dinner.

Eric

Lobster Mushroom and Pancetta with Descending Romanesco Broccoli

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Pretty creative stuff at 2AM.

I get off of work late….I cook things when I get home.

The yellow dots are an emulsified butternut squash puree.

The romanesco broccoli is cooked sous vide with salt, pepper, and a touch of contadina.

The tower is composed of lobster mushrooms cooked in pancetta fat with pancetta lardons spread throughout. Saute of frisee with leeks, and gold beets.  It’s topped with a small salad of arugula and pickled shaved fennel.

Eric

Seatown Snacks (Seattle, WA)

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Tom Douglas’ newest restaurant in Seattle hits the spot. I’ve been there three times already and I’m hooked.  The restaurant reminds me of a restaurant that I want to go to/work at one day, Martin Picard’s Au Pied Du Cochon (click….interior shots of both restaurants are pretty close and concepts of the take-home items are the same….very cool stuff).  It’s snack time!

The picture above is of their sticky ribs with mustard and plum.  I wanted to keep my hands dirty so I ordered a round of jerk chicken wings as well (blurry, I know….means I’ll have to go back and eat them again….wooo hooo!).

Finishing it off with a griddled blini, wild salmon “ikura”, in-house cream cheese made with goat cheese, and duck fat fried capers.

I’ll be back, I have to try that Julia Child crab cake and the Seatown Super Duper! These breaks in between classes have been absolutely delicious!  Happiest Hours!

Eric

Dinner, My Place: Baking, Science, and Killer Pasta

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Aw yes, lobster mushrooms. They look like cooked lobsters on the outside and they have a nice meaty texture when cooked…..

Put some salt and pepper on the ox tail and braise it with some veal stock and smoked ham hock…..yes, excellent.  It’s going to be a ragout for the pasta.

Make some fresh rosemary pasta then cut it and work on something else.  (Duck eggs, rosemary, “00″, Semolina, Contadina, Water)

Mushrooms, golden beets, and butternut squash go into bags so they can have a meeting with the immersion circulator for a while. I made a terrine with that carrot ginger soup using agar, took about 3 hours to set.

Well, I’m ready to go so let’s start cooking stuff!

First up is a brown butter brioche with sauce rouille and pickled vegetables.

Next is a carrot/ginger terrine with sous vide butter poached lobster mushrooms, golden beets, butternut squash, and shaved fennel served with a caramelized fig sauce with reduced sherry and contadina extra virgin olive oil.

Finally, an ox tail and smoked ham hock ragout over rosemary/duck egg pasta.

Another successful dinner at my place.  See you next week!

Eric

MindyRiveraFarms: Paprika and Competing Family Farms!

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Mindy grew some paprika for me and here it is! I’m going to dehydrate it, smoke it, and make it into a powder to be used for future projects…..I’m so excited!

Mindy’s dad is in town and he brought up some peppers, tomatoes, and some squash from their garden.   GARDEN FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! Not really, this is just proof that I married well. :)

Look at those peppers! WOW! Now what to do with them?!?!?  You’ll see :)

Check out these tomatoes! Mindy’s mom canned some for me too. I don’t know if she realizes this but she did a tomato concasse before she canned them!

I’m happy that my family is supportive of my culinary habit.  FOOD, I NEED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eric

Le Pichet (Seattle, WA)

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My “Happiest Hours” are on fire! A week or so ago I showed you Lecosho (click) which is within reach of my 3 hour walk around Seattle while I wait for my next class to start.

Last week I chose Le Pichet as a place to have my Happiest Hours and it was a great choice.  I love French food and while I don’t think I would have said that before I started culinary school I can honestly say that it’s been a grand discovery.  The food is simple, it’s good, and the people at Le Pichet know what they’re doing when it comes to French food.

The restaurant is small but there is a very nice at-home feeling to it.  I was planning a seafood extravaganza so it was a nice relaxing place for me to scribble crazy ideas all over a piece of yellow legal pad paper while I constructed three courses from their lunch menu (Le Déjeuner).

First up was the Almonds Sautéed in Olive Oil with Coarse Sea Salt.  I loved this dish…..I loved the salt and I left enough so I could take some to class with me. I enjoyed the liberal amount of sel de mer…..my favorite.

Next course was the Cold Salad of Roasted Beets, Goat Cheese, Oil Cured Olives, Parsley, Crispy Chickpeas and Almond Vinaigrette.  When I look at menus there are always things that stand out but when all of those things are in one dish I get excited.  Roasted Beets……yes…….goat cheese……..YES…….Olives!!!!………CHICKPEAS THAT ARE CRISPY!!!!!…….ALMOND VINAIGRETTE (Font size infinity).   That’s what goes on in my head, pretty awesome.

Then it comes to the table and then I start to do imaginary back flips (tried once, wasn’t sure how to land……it was more of just falling on my back…..I’ll just leave it to those Cirque Du Soleil people.  In the future I’ll hire a person from Cirque Du Soleil to go with me to restaurants and when I get a great dish I’ll scream “backlflip now!!” then clap my hands….. opulence, I will have it.”

What? Ok, back on track!

Look at that…….Yeah, it was really good and it was a great way to set up the last dish.

Just stop talking. No more writing.  Order this, thank me later.

Country style pork pâté with honey and walnuts.

Eric

Damiana’s Truck Special-Fundraiser November 7th!

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I love food trucks. I have spent countless hours visiting/stalking my next meal from these culinary crusaders on wheels.  Marination Mobile, Minimus Maximus, Skillet, Dante’s, Parfait, Where ya at, and more…(click).. …I love them all.

There is a new truck coming to town and a good friend of mine, (CHEF BRIAN!!!) asked me to help him and his girlfriend, Damiana, cook for a fundraiser they are having for their new food truck.    The goal of the fundraiser is to raise a little money to help that blue truck get on the move around town.

Hold on, before I go any further.  Does this do anything for you?


DUCK!!!

How about this?

Mmmmm, galette.

That’s a preview of what’s going to be available at the fundraising dinner.  ”Eric, when is it and can I come?!?!?!”  Yes, you can. Here is the press release.

Damiana’s Truck Special is excited to announce a one night pop-up restaurant experience. Chef Brian O’Connor and Damiana Merryweather will prepare a four course seasonal meal served in an intimate setting with family style seating and service. Chef O’Connor is the highly lauded local chef and previously of San Francisco’s Cliff House.

Menu:

Roasted Heirloom Beet Salad- watercress, feta yogurt emulsion, honey crisp apple

Curried Cinderella Pumpkin Soup- roasted root vegetables, pineapple quince, pepitas

Coriander Braised Maple Leaf Duck Leg- green lentils, smoked cauliflower, bacon, confit garlic

Caramelized Comice Pear and Rosemary Galette- creme fraiche ice cream

Price: $40/person. Wine and gratuity not included. Recommended wines and pairings available by the glass and bottle.

Location: Swirl Wine Bar, Magnolia. 3217 W McGraw Street.

Date/Time: Sunday, November 7 @ 6:00PM

Secure Reservations Required
Tickets available through Brown Paper Tickets.

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/134029

-Damiana’s Truck Special: A forthcoming mobile food adventure committed to serving our neighbors delicious, delightful, and unpretentious food.

-Pop-up Restaurant: Using an existing restaurant, bar or commercial space on its closed night for a wholly unrelated dining experience.

This is a huge event and if you live in Seattle then you should definitely make it out on November 7th.  You’re in for a fantastic dinner and you’ll be helping a few people achieve their dreams by helping them raise funds for the truck.

BUY TICKETS NOW!!!!

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/134029

Eric

Dinner, my place. Seafood Extravaganza

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Practice makes perfect!

Had some friends over the night for dinner and since I have one night a week to cook dinner at home I went all out.

A couple dungeness crabs as you can see above. Some spot prawns.

A collection of fun things from Mindy’s garden.

and off to work I go.

First up was Kumamoto Oysters with sauce Mignonette and a Japones Chili Oil Vinaigrette that was infused with green onions using Nitrogen Cavitation.

Next up was a compressed warmed salad which consisted of golden beets, Mindy’s carrots, another nitrogen cavitation vinaigrette infused with persillade.

Next, a carrot ginger soup (click) with pancetta lardons (click)

Next, sous vide spot prawns cooked in a killer sauce that I’m not going to talk about.  I took the roe from the prawns and soaked them in a ginger brine for a few hours……incredible.

Finally, harissa spiced angry crab.

Eric

Wanna Play Chicken?

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I use chicken as a practice protein for ideas I have. It’s inexpensive because I buy a whole chicken then just break it down myself and then go from there….stocks are made, nice little airline breasts,  dark meat for braising and whatever else I can make into a meal.

In the picture above I’m getting ready to work with duck in the near future but duck is expensive so for now I wanted to see how it would work with chicken…duck breast isn’t cooked like chicken breast but it’s close to the same size and I wanted to see how medallions would look on top of couscous with two broken sauces.

I learned about broken sauces at work….instead of doing those tight sauces that I have learned at school then broken ones look really cool if you have the right things to make it with.  At work we do a broken tomato vinaigrette….it’s f’ing delicious.

The dish above is a brined the chicken is sauteed in bacon fat and cut into medallions. It’s sitting on top of glazed leeks and carrots which is sitting on top of coriander cous cous.  The broken sauce above is a kale puree (kale that Mindy grew!) mixed with popped brown and yellow mustard seeds. The sauce on the bottom is a broken dijon pan sauce.  With duck it will be incredible….pretty awesome with chicken too!

I wanted to work with polenta and one day use transglutaminase to make a roasted chicken piece with skin on that will go below the polenta (rectangle chicken piece). The polenta will be a different shape on the second go -around.  The sauce is a take from one at work….brown butter almondine but this uses pumpkin seeds, peaches, and sage……yes, excellent………the one at work is f’ing amazing too! The next time I make this I’m going to use compressed pumpkin instead of peaches.

This is a piquillo pepper polenta cake over a sauteed chicken medallion with a brown butter, sage, pumpkin seed, and peach sauce.

This was a sous vide stew I did one night at 2AM.  I put all of the things you see in a plastic bag then vacuum sealed it, cooked it, then seared the chicken.  It was pretty good and a good late night snack.

Chicken, the practice meat!

Eric

Then and Now: Carrot Soup

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About a year ago I made a carrot soup on this site which is kind of amusing because I work up this morning and starting making a carrot soup then I went to post this picture above and I realized there was another post on here about carrot soup……This is the first time I’ve done that on this site.

What the hell was I thinking about a year ago?  It looks awful!

Original Soup (click) Garnish is sinking, cream should have been reduced before putting it in the soup at the end, parsley leaves could have been fried.  Ugh….disgusting.

Funny enough though, the process I used to make it didn’t change but some of the ingredients did (lots of ginger! No sugar or dill.).   Lard from a store a year ago???? Oh no no no, I do that in-house now.

The oil you see on top to garnish in the nice one is that japones chili oil mixed with rendered pancetta fat….. Yeah, things have changed in a year (I used to write recipes on here….hilarious).  Pretty awesome.

Eric

House-Cured Pancetta, Egg Yolk, Avocado, Tomato, and Hearts of Palm

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Tomatoes from Mindy!  That’s the pancetta I’ve been working on for a month resting on top of a quick poached egg yolk….when the yolk is broken it flows over the other items on the plate.   The pancetta is rendered then I worked that fat into the avocado puree. There’s more to it but I won’t bore you with you details.

Eric

Cookbook: NOMA

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I’ve been waiting for this book to come out for quite some time.  I first heard of Chef Rene Redzepi in the book COCO (click).  He’s one of the 10 master chefs that picked other chefs around the world to be in the book (I currently work for one of the chefs that was chosen…Kevin Davis!).

Chef Redzepi has worked for Ferran Adria and Thomas Keller and at the age of 25 took the reigns of Noma in 2003 and in a short period of time he has taken the restaurant to being rated #1 in the world (click).

His specialty is truly living off the land. The restaurant is located in Copenhagen K, Denmark.  In the mornings before the restaurant opens he normally forages through the land and picks up ingredients to feature at the restaurant that evening.  This book shows  a lot of that and while there are some ingredients that I can’t find here to replicate the recipes I am left to be inspired by them and to search for my own local ingredients from the land.

The layout of the book is different from other cookbooks as well.   There are chapters that highlight the name of each dish then go onto show a picture of the dish mixed in with other pictures of the area, restaurant, and finally of Chef Redzepi.  The recipes aren’t located next to the pictures, they’re in the back of the book.  I think that’s a great idea.  It left me guessing as to what I was looking at….it immediately inspired me in my own plating and presentations….fireworks going off in my head…..you could try this…..do this…..oh look at that….wow…..wow….wow!!!!

I’ve looked through the book since I have picked it up and I have stared at the pictures for hours. This is amazing and I can see why a number 1 rating came to Chef Redzepi.  He has taken his community, food, restaurant, life, and put it on a plate for all to share…..amazing.

Normally, that would be the end of one of my cookbook write-ups but this one turned out to be a little more exciting.  Chef Redzepi came to Seattle and I met him!

Kim Ricketts Book Events held an event at MistralKitchen here in Seattle where the book would be debuted.  MistralKitchen was going to do some cocktails and appetizers then Chef Redzepi would make his rounds and talk to people and sign books.   I looked at the price of the event and I had to think about it for a few days…………after thinking about it I said, “You missed when Thomas Keller and David Chang were in town because you were working….how often does Chef Redzepi come to Seattle?!!?!?!?!? Oh, and you’ll get to meet him and ask him for a job!….Oh, and you’ll get a copy of the book!!!!”.    Done.  The voices in my head are good salesmen.

I went to the event and MistralKitchen did a number of dishes inspired by Chef Redzepi.  Here are a few pictures.

Yeah, awesome.

While I was there I ran into another cooking legend but I’m saving that for another post coming soon…….

Ok, back to Chef Redzepi and the book.  He was so nice walking around the crowd of eager people waiting to shake his hand and get an autograph but I was there for different reasons……Ok, I was there to get a handshake and an autograph too but every person there wanted to talk about eating at his restaurant….I want to cook at his restaurant…..I don’t even care if I just empty the trash there, I just want to see what goes on at the restaurant…..I’m sure it’s incredible.  I think the book only scratches the surface but it gives its readers an idea of the genius that is being doled out on a dish on a daily basis at Noma.

My moment finally arrived.  I said, “hello chef!”. He immediately asked if I was a cook. I said, “yes, I work right up the street at Blueacre, I go to culinary school, and I’m a huge fan of your work, I can’t believe I’m actually meeting you, the book is stunning. Congratulations on being the #1 restaurant in the world”.   He said, “thank you and asked me how much longer I had in school.” I said about a year and then I asked him how I could get into the kitchen at NOMA for a stage.  As I was asking this he was writing down an email address and said, “when you’re ready e-mail us, tell them you were at this event, and we’ll get you in”.

What?

Really?

I was beside myself. “Hey self freaking out…calm down….you’re embarrassing us.”

I said, “That’s awesome chef, thanks for your time, and congratulations again” then I left…..what else do you do after something like that?!?!?!

I got home and told Mindy what was going on while she was talking to her mom on the phone. Mindy handed me the phone and said tell my mom, she would love to hear it.

Graduate……..keep working…….go to NOMA……we’ll see what happens.

Eric