wolvesmouth

detroit meat city...

just left detroit. before that was in n.y. and pittsburgh. on my way to chicago, hoping to have time to eat some great food. if not i am going to have to make the trek back to eat at my list of chicago places. on the list so far is l20. alinea. avenues. lockwood. hot dougs. schwa. and a few others. if anyone has any suggestions let me know i would greatly appreciate it.

leaving yet again...

will be back in october sometime. ny. chicago. vegas. sf. and a few others be on the lookout. kosta i will try and post some pictures from the road...

root beer boba...

uni and monkfish...

cherries and lychee marinated in vanilla and yuzu. celery. chorizo. uni. rose and yuzu gelee. wasabi.

normally i am not one who goes crazy with combinations because i like to put a few things together and keep it very focused but sometimes i gotta let loose. for me uni has a very honey like floral scent to it so i kind of took that not and ran adding chorizo for saltiness and spice as well as wasabi which normally you would never find me doing, i am not very big on going nuts with "fusion" style cooking but this dish worked really well. the celery brought everything back in check. alright enough explaining. it was a fun dish if anything.

this was a happy accident since i didnt have time to actually do what i wanted to do, sometimes when you plan on having things done at a certain time and you have to put out your food 1 hour earlier than expected you are forced to just make something happen. my mise en place for the other uni dish was already ready this one not so much, i had the quail eggs and that was about it. the plan was to take sushi rice and make a soup out of it, then lay in the uni with the smoked quail egg and raw quail egg, so i cooked to rice but could not let it cook for a long time so i took it out and blended with a little milk and it had a polenta like consistency so i thought well why not make it look like polenta with the uni so in a rush to just get it done and plated i took the rice porridge and whisked in the uni balancing out the seasoning, threw it down, then placed my uni on top with smoked quail egg, scallion, crunchy little rice balls, and raw quail egg. satisfying, the dish may have not looked that great but the flavor was spot on.

monkfish. pickled mushrooms. sauteed mushrooms. potato confit. scallion.

gotta say the highlight was the pickled mushrooms. i pickled them in star anise, ginger, garlic, mirin, rice vinegar, scallion, water, sugar, and soy. the flavor was explosive it counteracted the richness of the dish. 

i had another monkfish dish which was serrano ham wrapped monkfish with croutons and an onion and pepper puree with pedro ximenez but wasnt in a place to take the picture.

some good dishes considering my timing got thrown off but thats part of the job.

maryland blue crab...

went out and plowed through some crabs while in maryland, i was in baltimore then headed to annapolis to a place called cantlers. ordered a things of crabs and went to town. ridiculous....

before 

after... the carnage.

the view from the crab table... pretty epic.

travel...

it seems like my traveling has become out of control this last year. the best part about it is being able to go out and eat regional foods from all over. tasting a clams in rhode island is alot different then tasting them in california, going to new york and eating myself into a food coma everyday eating at all of the places i had dreamed of eating and how on point these chefs are, eating food in new orleans is a lot different than creole or cajun style food in a different place even if the person cooking is from that region. its pretty amazing to be able to be exposed to so much and be able to store things in my "flavor bank" as reference. right now i am driving through the u.s. its pretty inspiring to see all of the different things nature has to offer as well as what has been built (although we will never be able to match nature). its things like this that inspire my cooking and future dishes, driving through the u.s. i have a lot of time to look around zone out and just think (until i am in ny because its the most stressful place to drive ever, i have driven in both new york and l.a. its like night and day) today i am in maryland so i am going to hit up some maryland blue crab. passing through vermont as well, gotta get that maple syrup.

driving through utah

random stream on the side of the road in colorado

empty field in wisconsin

downtown ny with the contrast of the ships.

i will post up some more pics, maybe some of some food even though most of the time i am so excited to be trying things i forget to stop and take a picture since it lasts longer.

egg...

i decided to approach the sous vide egg today. yes i know everyone has done it, i have made tons of them but realized i dont really like them as much as a soft boiled egg,  for this post i am concentrating on one temp, different methods. for me personally i am not too fond of the barely quivering egg white, maybe i am old fashioned, but the texture of a soft boiled egg is rad. so i set out to marry the two together. i took 5 eggs, all are cooked for different times. 3 of which were boiled before being plunged into the circulator at 63.5 c.

so the eggs are labeled except one, all of these eggs cooked for 45 min. although the ones labeled with the minutes were boiled for that amount of time before being cooked for 45 min @ 63.5c. the one with no label was cooked for an hour at 63.5c NO pre-boil.

eggs cooking. pretty basic. moving on.

the eggs after 45 min of cooking. notice the 3 min pre-boil pretty much rules. i was happy with the outcome, it was firm enough to peel and handle but you could feel how delicate the inside was. this was the clear winner for my personal preference.

this is with applying barely any pressure, you can see the egg giving quite a bit. this would also be a good way to prep, "blanch" your eggs, then cook peel and set aside to heat to order. its like a poached egg wrapped in a thin layer of egg that has been cooked a little further giving you 2 textures in the same egg white then a 3rd texture in the yolk.

the one to the left was the one minute pre-boil, the one in the middle was the 2 min pre-boil, and the last one was the straight 63.5c for 45 min. personally i didnt like the results with any of these.

here is the 63.5 after 1 hour of cooking, this is the egg that is the standard to this technique. it turned out well, but i still personally love the other 3 min pre-boil egg.

3 min pre-boiled (temp before cooking was cooler to room temp. size large egg. grade a) then transferred to 63.5c for 45 min. although the additional 15 min to make it an even hour at 63.5 would  be even more ideal as it would tighten up the inside white a little more.

eggs and toast. with blis of course.

creamiest yolk ever. just on the verge of wanting to solidify .5c more and it will start to solidify. notice the inside texture as opposed to the outside texture,t he outside is the firmer texture while the inside white is a lot softer.

you choose. the one on the left or the one on the right? for me the right one is my clear choice, yes it does require a little more in the labor department since you cant just crack them open, strain on a paper towel then plate, and call it done while not peeling a thing then so be it. but if this is the texture you are looking for, its totally worth it.

michael jackson dead 1958-2009...

grew up listening to michael jackson, one of the biggest entertainers of all time. amazing musician. rip. l.a. is nuts right now, cant drive anywhere!

kumquat...

kumquat filled with kumquat. go figure. so i took some kumquats i had laying around and decided to fill them with well more kumquats, this goes to part of a lamb dish i want to put together. i took my kumquats and blanched them in cold water, bringing the temp to boiling straining then again, then again, then filling with spring water and sugar then cooking slowly to somewhat candy them, then while still hot just a quick rinse under cold water then poke a little hole and let it spew out then straining through a sieve and adjust seasoning. then fill it up again with the puree. if i had more i would take the extra skins and cook them down even more then puree them with the insides that had been strained then maybe add some vanilla. the directions you could go are pretty insane with the types of spices or flavors you can also blend, from curry to ginger to yogurt to mint or black pepper, long pepper, etc etc etc.... anyways glad it worked out and still just looks like a random kumquat that would be sitting on the plate. some of the dishes i have written down are supposed to look beyond minimal on the plate but be supercharged in flavor.

as few as possible...

i can definitely say that my main way of cooking is to take as few ingredients as possible and try to hit multiple flavor profiles, salty bitter sweet sour with this well essentially a garnish that would be a set up for a nice light fish dish i took tomato, squash blossom, red onion, and italian peppers. its not the most creative dish by any means, but the flavor balance is pretty epic. i took and sweated some onion and added my italian peppers and cooked them down til they were sweeter but still had the bitter edge, the onions were sweet and salty, once they were cooked i added some sherry vinegar and olive oil then let them sit a while, i filled the squash blossom with the mixture then basted them in a small por with butter water and salt, i took my tomatoes and blanched to remove the skin, marinated then threw down some more of the pickled pepper relish, tomato, squash blossoms filled with italian pepper relish, and tarragon. so although pretty basic there is a lot of flavors going on here, sweet salty bitter sour refreshing. like i said this would be a nice set up for a light fish dish or anything else coming up in summer. can't wait til i have some real time off which i think will be in august, haha damn, well til then i can at least maybe do things that only take a few minutes to do while at home.