Monday, May 2, 2011

Roasted and Fried Rolled Shoulder of Pork

This is another recipe involving crispy pig skin. The other two entires, puffy and crunchy, were the basis for this attempt. It uses a picnic roast, which is from the shoulder, but cheaper than the Boston butt.
Ingredients:
1 each pork picnic roast/pork arm picnic
salt
soy sauce
brown sugar
pepper
frying fat
Method:
Lay the shoulder skin side up and take off all of the meat resting above the two bones and joint. This will leave you with a slab of skin with a little fat and meat underneath it.
Rolled and baked shoulder
The bones and rest of the shoulder(a majority of it will be left behind) can be use for something else. Lay the slab you have removed flesh side up and season with salt, pepper, and sugar. Add a few dashes of the soy to the very center of the meat and roll the skin over so that the open ends of skin meet. Hold this roll tightly and secure with several knots tied with thin twine.
After frying, the skin puffs
Rub the outside with more salt and bake at 325F for 2 hours. Turn it over, turn down the oven to 250F and bake for an additional 3 hours. Remove from the oven and pan fry in very hot oil so that the skin puffs. Slice once it cools slightly.
The cross section
The skin is a hybrid of crunchy and puffy, the meat is tender and juicy.
Plate it up!
Roasted and Fried Rolled Shoulder of Pork on a duck fat and sour cream bun with sweet and sour mustard sauce

Regrettably,
Adam


Saturday, February 26, 2011

Smoked Banana Ice Cream

Bacon? If its smoked, its bacon. Or, at least that seems to be the zeitgeist of the food world.
This banana ice cream has a lot of dairy(as iced creams should) and no egg.
Ingredients:
185g smoked ripe banana
200g cream
240g milk
5g salt
130g sugar
4g lemon juice
4g squid ink
Method:
Place everything into a blender and blend until completely smooth. Chill and churn into ice cream.
Plate it up!
Smoked banana ice cream with browned white chocolate bonbon, frozen white chocolate, burnt banana, and grey salt.

Easily,
Adam

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Canelé - Without copper molds

This is the recipe and method I have developed from the results of my trials of making canelé without a copper cooking vessel.
Ingredients:
500g milk
40g butter + 15g
1 vanilla bean
40g rum
125g ap flour
4g salt
220g sugar
56g egg
40g egg yolk
15g beeswax
Method:
A mold lined with wax.
Warm the milk with 40g of the butter until the butter melts. Blend the whole eggs and yolks into the warmed milk and butter. Once incorporated, add the sugar, flour, rum, salt, and vanilla. Blend everything for a few seconds and then place into a container and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Stir gently and pass through a fine strainer. Melt the beeswax with the reserved butter. Line the mold with a thin layer of the wax-butter.
Pour the  batter into the mold, three-quarters full, and place the mold on a wire rack so that the base of the mold does not conduct more heat that the rest of the mold during baking. Loosely cover the top of the mold with foil to protect the opening from browning before the sides and bottom. Bake at 350F for 80 minutes, uncover and bake for another 30 minutes, or until dark brown. Un-mold while hot and eat while still warm.
It's already plated... just eat it.

Willingly,
Adam


Saturday, January 8, 2011

Squid Stew

I kept the aromatic base for the stew separate from the other flavor components. While this may not be a traditional step in making a stew, I still think calling this dish a stew makes good sense.
Ingredients:
80g extra virgin olive oil + 80g
240g small diced celery
290g small diced fennel
246g small diced onion
12g salt
20g vegetable peeled lemon zest + 8g micro-planed lemon zest
22g garlic
3g dried oregano
650g Liebfraumilch
830g cleaned squid
800g whole canned tomatoes
50g heavily reduced neutral fish broth
Tender veggies after sweating
6g hot sauce
12g lemon juice
Method:
Place 80g of olive oil in a pot and get it hot, but not to its smoking point.  Add the diced vegetables and the salt. Make the vegetables sweat in the fat until they are tender. Remove everything from the pot, set aside, and cool.  Slice the heads of the squid into thin rings and leave the tentacles whole. To the same pot as before, add the other 80g of olive oil. Place the heat on high and add the garlic, large lemon peels, oregano and squid.  Cook everything in the fat until the squid proteins are fully set and start to release liquid. Let the squid simmer in its own liquid for 20 minutes. Then, cover with the wine and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Pass the tomatoes through a course food mill and add to the squid with the fish broth.  Simmer until the squid is a creamy, but still slightly chewy texture.  Add the hot sauce, lemon juice, and micro-planed zest. Cool and reserve. Reheat the squid and tomato base with the tender vegetables to serve.

Plate it up!
Squid stew with whole wheat croutons, striped bass, firecracker sauce, and butter radish sprouts.
The bigger picture
I love mayo and squid stew

Egregiously,
Adam