Late for my own party - Daring Cooks July
Due to some domain issues, my website went down the day before the big reveal. SO verry sorry.
Each month the Daring Cooks take on a challenging new recipe to test out abilities and comfort zones. I was granted the honor of hosting the July challenge. I opted to go for one of my own culinary passions - Molecular Cuisine. Many people are afraid to even broach the subject in the kitchen, or have decided they don't like the cooking style - having never attempted or tried the resulting food.
I chose something that would introduce the Daring Cooks to the style of cooking without requiring expensive tools or exotic ingredients (no chemicals required). An oven or microwave would prepare most of the ingredients. All you needed that was 'different' - a coffee/herb grinder, or a morter and pestle.
For July, I delved into a fascinating cookbook and pulled out Skate - Traditional Flavors Powdered. This is a dish from Grant Achatz, found in the Alinea cookbook
- page 230.I feel this is a good introduction to Molecular Cuisine. Just a little work and you can make this, the techniques are not very hard and only require a few tools.
Onto the recipe:
Powders - prepare ahead of time
caper / onion
lemon powder
cilantro/parsley powder
'brown butter' powder
Powders once dried, all powders should be pulsed in a coffee grinder/spice mill/morter and pestle then passed through a chinois or fine mesh strainer.
Citrus powder
300g lemons
1000g simple syrup
5g citric acid/vitamin c tablet
Zest 300g of lemons (10.6 oz), remove the pith from the zest and poach in the simple syrup three times. dry with paper towels and move to a dehydrating tray. 130 for 12 hours. pulse the zest in a coffee grinder, pass through chinois, and mix with citric acid/vitamin C powder. If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 8 to 10 minutes at medium powder. Once dried, follow the other instructions.
Cilantro/parsley powder
150g cilantro
150g parsley
Blanch the parsley in boiling saltwater for 1 second, submerge the leaves in ice water for 3 minutes. Dry on paper towels and place on dehydrator tray. 130 for 12 hours. grind and pass through chinois. If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 30 seconds, turn over leaves and microwave for another thirty seconds. They should be dry by now, pulse in coffee grinder, pass through chinois and reserve.
Onion powder
100g cup minced red onions
dehydrate - 130 for 12 hours microwave at medium power for 20 minutes. pulse in grinder, pass through chinois
Caper powder
200g capers (get the ones packed in brine/vinegar)
Run the capers under cold water for two minutes to remove some of the brine. dry on paper towels and dehydrate for 12 hours at 130 degrees. microwave instructions are unclear. Dry them as much a possible with paper towels, the microwave on medium for 1 minute. Check the moisture content and stir them. repeat for 30 second intervals until they are dry. If you use this method, pleas post the time needed to dry the capers. Once dry, pulse and sift the powder. Mix it with the onion powder.
Brown Butter powder
100g Dried banana chips (unsweetened if possible - many are coated in honey - the freeze dried ones would be brilliant)
300g spray dried cream powder
If you cannot find the cream powder, you can substitute Bob's red mill non fat dry milk powder, or even carnation instant milk powder. The substitutions will alter the flavor a little, but you will still get the general idea. preheat the oven to 350 degrees, sift the cream powder into a fine layer on a silpat or on parchment. bake for 4 minutes, then remove for heat. If it bakes for too long, it will burn.
Be very cautious with all powders in the oven. They all go from browned to burnt in a few seconds. grind the banana chips in a coffee grinder and mix with the toasted cream powder. Pass this through a chinois and reserve.
* For green beans, slice each beans into very thin rounds (2 mm)
* Beurre Monte - 454g butter (4 sticks, 1 pound) cubed and cold, 60g water. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1 cube at a time. This should from an emulsion. Keep this heated, but under 195 degrees. The emulsion will not break - this is your poaching liquid.
Skate
Prepare the skate - 50G v shaped cuts are recommended Bring 100g water, 100g beurre monte, and green bean rounds to a boil over high heat. Cook until the water has evaporated (about 3 minutes), when the pan is almost dry, remove it from heat and season with 3g salt.
Bring 300g water and 300g beurre monte to simmer over medium heat, add skate wings and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and flip the wing over and let rest in pan for two more minutes. Transfer to warming tray lined with parchment and season with 5 grams of fine sea salt.
Plating
Take the tip of a small spoon and make a small mound of the citrus powder, the onion-caper powder, and the cilantro parsley-powder. Swirl these around in a hurricane type pattern. I found that it is easier, and you get finer lines if you lightly shake the plate to flatten out the mounds, then swirl the spoon through it to get the pattern.
Peel the remaining banana into very think slices (3mm) fan three slices on the plate, place green beans on top and place skate wing portion on top. On the tall edge, sprinkle the brown butter powder.
Each month the Daring Cooks take on a challenging new recipe to test out abilities and comfort zones. I was granted the honor of hosting the July challenge. I opted to go for one of my own culinary passions - Molecular Cuisine. Many people are afraid to even broach the subject in the kitchen, or have decided they don't like the cooking style - having never attempted or tried the resulting food.
I chose something that would introduce the Daring Cooks to the style of cooking without requiring expensive tools or exotic ingredients (no chemicals required). An oven or microwave would prepare most of the ingredients. All you needed that was 'different' - a coffee/herb grinder, or a morter and pestle.
For July, I delved into a fascinating cookbook and pulled out Skate - Traditional Flavors Powdered. This is a dish from Grant Achatz, found in the Alinea cookbook
- page 230.I feel this is a good introduction to Molecular Cuisine. Just a little work and you can make this, the techniques are not very hard and only require a few tools.
Onto the recipe:Skate, Traditional Flavors Powdered - with changes
- 4 skate wings
- * Beurre monte
- * 300g fresh green beans
- sea salt/kosher salt
- 1 banana
- 454g butter - 4 sticks
- 300g lemons
- 5g citric acid/vitamin c tablet
- 150g cilantro
- 150g parsley
- 100g dried banana chips
- 300g spray dried cream powder (or powdered milk)
- 100g cup minced red onion
- 200g capers (brined, not in oil)
Powders - prepare ahead of time
caper / onion
lemon powder
cilantro/parsley powder
'brown butter' powder
Powders once dried, all powders should be pulsed in a coffee grinder/spice mill/morter and pestle then passed through a chinois or fine mesh strainer.
Citrus powder
300g lemons
1000g simple syrup
5g citric acid/vitamin c tablet
Zest 300g of lemons (10.6 oz), remove the pith from the zest and poach in the simple syrup three times. dry with paper towels and move to a dehydrating tray. 130 for 12 hours. pulse the zest in a coffee grinder, pass through chinois, and mix with citric acid/vitamin C powder. If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 8 to 10 minutes at medium powder. Once dried, follow the other instructions.
Cilantro/parsley powder
150g cilantro
150g parsley
Blanch the parsley in boiling saltwater for 1 second, submerge the leaves in ice water for 3 minutes. Dry on paper towels and place on dehydrator tray. 130 for 12 hours. grind and pass through chinois. If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 30 seconds, turn over leaves and microwave for another thirty seconds. They should be dry by now, pulse in coffee grinder, pass through chinois and reserve.
Onion powder
100g cup minced red onions
dehydrate - 130 for 12 hours microwave at medium power for 20 minutes. pulse in grinder, pass through chinois
Caper powder
200g capers (get the ones packed in brine/vinegar)
Run the capers under cold water for two minutes to remove some of the brine. dry on paper towels and dehydrate for 12 hours at 130 degrees. microwave instructions are unclear. Dry them as much a possible with paper towels, the microwave on medium for 1 minute. Check the moisture content and stir them. repeat for 30 second intervals until they are dry. If you use this method, pleas post the time needed to dry the capers. Once dry, pulse and sift the powder. Mix it with the onion powder.
Brown Butter powder
100g Dried banana chips (unsweetened if possible - many are coated in honey - the freeze dried ones would be brilliant)
300g spray dried cream powder
If you cannot find the cream powder, you can substitute Bob's red mill non fat dry milk powder, or even carnation instant milk powder. The substitutions will alter the flavor a little, but you will still get the general idea. preheat the oven to 350 degrees, sift the cream powder into a fine layer on a silpat or on parchment. bake for 4 minutes, then remove for heat. If it bakes for too long, it will burn.
Be very cautious with all powders in the oven. They all go from browned to burnt in a few seconds. grind the banana chips in a coffee grinder and mix with the toasted cream powder. Pass this through a chinois and reserve.
* For green beans, slice each beans into very thin rounds (2 mm)
* Beurre Monte - 454g butter (4 sticks, 1 pound) cubed and cold, 60g water. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1 cube at a time. This should from an emulsion. Keep this heated, but under 195 degrees. The emulsion will not break - this is your poaching liquid.
Skate
Prepare the skate - 50G v shaped cuts are recommended Bring 100g water, 100g beurre monte, and green bean rounds to a boil over high heat. Cook until the water has evaporated (about 3 minutes), when the pan is almost dry, remove it from heat and season with 3g salt.
Bring 300g water and 300g beurre monte to simmer over medium heat, add skate wings and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and flip the wing over and let rest in pan for two more minutes. Transfer to warming tray lined with parchment and season with 5 grams of fine sea salt.
Plating
Take the tip of a small spoon and make a small mound of the citrus powder, the onion-caper powder, and the cilantro parsley-powder. Swirl these around in a hurricane type pattern. I found that it is easier, and you get finer lines if you lightly shake the plate to flatten out the mounds, then swirl the spoon through it to get the pattern.
Peel the remaining banana into very think slices (3mm) fan three slices on the plate, place green beans on top and place skate wing portion on top. On the tall edge, sprinkle the brown butter powder.
The Results? most everyone loved the dish. Everyone in my home loved it. Many of the daring cooks were skeptical of the banana, or the powders, thinking it would be overly dry, or too sweet. in the end, I think I may have converted a few to this style of cooking.
I opted to use Cod - based on availability, and the dish worked wonderfully. We had some who used skate, shark, cod, chicken, and even tofu. As long as you keep the cooking methods, the moisture vs dryness of the dish will remain balanced. The powders are very strong and powerful flavors, they explode on the tongue and immerse you in a new tasting experience. the recipe looks complicated, but if you reread it a few times, it is not too complicated, just requires a little bit of work on the cooks part, which can me done ahead of time.
Again, I apologize for missing the reveal date - they took down my website >.<
And thanks to all the Daring Cooks who took up the challenge and gave it a whirl :D
I opted to use Cod - based on availability, and the dish worked wonderfully. We had some who used skate, shark, cod, chicken, and even tofu. As long as you keep the cooking methods, the moisture vs dryness of the dish will remain balanced. The powders are very strong and powerful flavors, they explode on the tongue and immerse you in a new tasting experience. the recipe looks complicated, but if you reread it a few times, it is not too complicated, just requires a little bit of work on the cooks part, which can me done ahead of time.
Again, I apologize for missing the reveal date - they took down my website >.<And thanks to all the Daring Cooks who took up the challenge and gave it a whirl :D
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Sketcy, thanks so much for a great challenge. 'Daring' is an understatement, and it was great to play with new techniques. The powders were fabulous! On that note, even though I saw your photos prior to you posting them here, your dish turned out clean and lovely, and the 'hurricane' is perfection.
An oven or microwave would prepare most of the ingredients. All you needed that was 'different' - a coffee/herb grinder, or a mortar and pestle. ... one Daring Cook used a mug as a pestle and placed the dried herbs in white bond paper as the mortar to make the powders!!! There were two fires while drying. One cook even caught his own skate! Talk about taking the challenge on board.
At the beginning you had a lot of very skeptical, scared, disbelieving, denying Daring Cooks and most questioned the very tenets of your challenge recipe but the results of the challenge speak for themselves – I have only come across three people who said it was only OK and one who didn't care for it but the rest loved it, adored it, was amazed by it, and “I loved the bananas” was a constant in the blogs I read.
Thank you for picking such an eye-opening and intriguing challenge I for one was stunned by how profound this dish was in flavour and visual impact. And I thought the bananas were perfect with the dish – and I was daunted at first glance and the whole idea of molecular cuisine I thought was a lot of old toss BUT this recipe has changed my mind. I even have attempted a peanut/chocolate cake reduction with great success and to the delight of my dinner guests.
Thank you for picking such a challenging challenge for the Daring Cooks' Cheers from Audax.
Just to let you know, Wifey, who normally hates the idea of fruit and any kind of meat, recommends this dish. We actually saved some of the powders to use on other things.
Hey Sketchy.
Let me say thank you. I was one of those very skeptical cooks at the beginning of this challenge. Then after tasting my first powder, my mind was changed. The powders and the beurre monte poaching are both techniques I will carry forward into many new creations. In fact I have already made poor man's lobster using halibut and the beurre monte.
This was a great choice for the challenge and your fearlessness in choosing it is much appreciated.
Robert
This sounds and looks delicious! I have Achatz's book but have not dared try any of his recipes.
Yay, you made it to your own party! Isn't that the way everything goes, C'est La Vie! Thanks for a wonderful challenge, this is why I signed up for daring cooks!
I'm glad your Web site is all back to normal now. Thanks for giving us such a real challenge that took most of us out of our comfort zone and made us learn something new! It was fun. Great plating, by the way.
Thanks for this challenge! I recently received a food dehydrator as a gift and it was great to experiment with different powder flavors. Oh, and your dish looks amazing!
Thanks for a great first challenge, Sketchy! You picked the perfect recipe, there is nothing more daring than this dish! It was great to learn new techniques, and I enjoyed having to actually think about my flavor combinations.
GREAT presentation and beautiful job. Love the idea of this challenge, I will have to try it later on.
So glad your blog is back in action. And thanks for hosting such a daring challenge! I would never have attempted this on my own. Even beyond my skepticism about "powders," I tend to avoid recipes that call for pushing things through fine-mesh sieves -- too cheffy. But when I muster the effort, it's the cheffy techniques that bring refinement to the home kitchen. Now I'm thinking I might need a dehydrator. Looking forward to following your obsession.
Hi Sketchy
thanks so much for the challange. Sorry, but I was late too! Have a look at my version of powdered parmigana, if you have a moment.
Cheers
Thanks for this challenge! I've never tried molecular cuisine, and this was a wonderful eye-opener =D. Your cod looks beautiful as well!!
This was my first experience dabbling in molecular cuisine too, and it was a great challenge! Thank you so much for taking me out of my comfort zone and teaching me something new--the reason I joined! Plus it tasted great too!
Thank you for providing such an interesting post on nutrition - it’s very informative & helpful! This recipe looks absolutely delicious! I’m gonna try it right away! Thanks for providing this awesome recipe. - Shane