Behind the Scenes: Pork, Apple and Braised Red Cabbage Pies

Image from the Bourque Street Bakery book.

I’ve had a few requests for the “secret” to my prize winning pies I cooked for 86′d at The Drake .  There is no particular secret, but a practiced technique that work every time.  An experienced cook memorizes techniques and ratios rather than recipes.  Memorize the patterns in your favourite dishes and before long you’ll see what I mean.

The Bourque Street Bakery book is a fantastic companion.  It is gorgeous and I recommend getting yourself a copy.  Today, I’m writing about my modifications and tips.  Here is what most recipe books won’t tell you:

Making pie/tart shells is a lengthly and time sensitive project.  You have to chill your dough before rolling it and chill it after it is rolled and cut.  You have to work quickly to make sure the chilled dough doesn’t stretch from the heat of your hands (which will cause shrinking in the tart shell).  For this particular instance I used buttered and floured muffin tins instead of French rings, which worked very well.  I made sure to take the shells out of the tin as soon as I could handle them and put them on a cooling wrack. My “secret” in this case is using vinegar instead of water in the tart shell.  Vinegar or any briny substance will cause the shell to flake nicely.  Going half and half on lard and butter works nicely too.

The second issue was the braised meat.  A lot of people argue about searing a piece of shoulder or simply placing it into the pot.  I personally find that searing meat generates far more flavour.  This particular book instructs to put the meat on top of the gently cooked vegetables.  Instead I seared the meat, removed from the pot and cooked the vegetables on top of the meat and deglazed with liquid. I’ve literally written a one page recipe in that previous sentence.  Follow it and it will treat you well.

Thirdly, taste your food.  Taste your food in the beginning, in the middle and the end of the process.  Taste, taste, taste.  Taste your raw dough. Know what is happening in that pot!  Jesus murphy, just do it.

When I tasted the filling from the book it wasn’t right.  I know I’d done everything to the letter, but it wasn’t ground breaking.  There wasn’t enough tartness to the sweet, fatty meat.  What’s the perfect contrast to hot, sweet fat? What’s sour, crunchy and cold?  A pickle.  Et voila.  Added a pickle to the bottom of the tart.

Use your imagination when you cook.  Have fun!  There are no secrets.

***

PS:

A Taste of History with Glenfiddich at the Spoke Club (via Good Food Revolution)

One doesn’t simply walk into a liquor store with a fist full of cash looking for an expensive hobby.  Scotch lovers are a refined, passionate bunch who are serious about their drink. I felt extremely fortunate to join the world famous Ian Millar (Global Brand Ambassador for Glenfiddich) and Ian MacDonald (Head Cooper, Glenfiddich) at the Spoke Club for a master’s class tasting of single malt scotch. Getting right down to business we started with … Read More

via Good Food Revolution

California Caviar Company

The California Caviar Company, (purveyors of indulgence) have introduced infused sustainable roe. CCC has such flavours as Bourbon Trout Roe, Sake Trout Roe, Truffle Whitefish Roe, Saffron Whitefish Roe, Lemongrass Whitefish Roe and Bacon & Eggs.

The caviar is at a cost of $15 an ounce.

The Mast Brothers Chocolate – Brooklyn

Brothers, Michael and Rick Mast are making incredible chocolate in Brooklyn, New York.

Their chocolate is made meticulously by hand sorting every bean, using laser thermometers.  They only use two ingredients, cocoa bean and sugar to achieve a pure product.

Even their equipment is unique.   An aerospace engineer friend of the brothers helped make an original device to break up the beans.

Their craft style chocolate is brought in by boat via Brasil and Dominican Republic.  Now, that makes me hungry for chocolate!

via Coolhunting

BrewDog’s 55% Beer Strongest and Most Expensive in History

55% Beer, inside a taxedermied rodent in a tuxedo for a very high price.

This 55% beer should be drank in small servings whilst exuding an endearing pseudo vigilance and reverence for Mr Stoat. This is to be enjoyed with a weather eye on the horizon for inflatable alcohol industry Nazis, judgemental washed up neo-prohibitionists or any grandiloquent, ostentatious foxes.

The End of History: The name derives from the famous work of philosopher Francis Fukuyama, this is to beer what democracy is to history. Fukuyama defined history as the evolution of the political system and traced this through the ages until we got the Western Democratic paradigm. For Fukuyama this was the end point of man’s political evolution and consequently the end of history. The beer is the last high abv beer we are going to brew, the end point of our research into how far the can push the boundaries of extreme brewing, the end of beer.

*Update* The End of History is now sold out. But you can still buy some of our other limited edition, crazy high ABV beers. Buy the 32% Tactical Nuclear Penguin and the 41% (yes 41%) Sink the Bismarck! here: http://www.brewdog.com/product.php?id=47

The End of History from BrewDog on Vimeo.

Inside Insides

Ever wonder what a tomato, corn or dragon fruit look like through an MRI?  Well wonder no longer.

Check out the cool gifs on Inside Insides.  Warning: site takes a minute to load.

(Click on pineapple above for example)

Virgin Airlines’ New Menu

As early as June, Virgin America’s six new aircrafts are flying from Toronto (Pearson YYZ) to LAX and SFO.  The Virgin fleet is known for their mood lighting, free in flight wifi and delicious menu.

So, what’s on the menu? Check it out:

Pineberries

In a search of seasonal fruits and vegetables, I came across the pineberry.

The pineberry is a hybrid fruit which has the appearance of a reverse strawberry and the flavour of a pineapple.

Pineberries were bred from a wild strawberry originating in South America where it grew wild, but was nearly extinct until 2003, when a group of Dutch farmers banded together to save the plant. The Pineberry is said to have the same genetic makeup as the common strawberry. When ripe, it is almost completely white, but with red seeds.^[9] A pineberry is smaller than a common strawberry, measuring between 15 to 23 mm. They are grown in glasshouses, growing on coir like other strawberries. Pineberries begin life as green berries, then become slightly white. By the time their deeply set seeds turn deep red, the white fruit is deemed ripe.

(Wikipedia)

At Waitrose (in the UK) the tiny berry is available in 45 stores nationwide for a price of £3.99 per punnet.  That’s approximately $6.00 Canadian.

Via ABC News

Sanagan’s Meat Locker

I finally had the chance to get myself to Sanagan’s Meat Locker in Kensington Market this weekend.  Sanagan’s is the type of diamond in the rough butcher you hear about from a friend (and a food expert).  The man behind the block, Derek was incredibly friendly, knowledgeable and eager to answer any questions.

Don’t expect to come into Sanagan’s with a specific recipe. The meat they have is received directly from the farm.  This is the type of place you go to first before you buy your vegetables.  A few Woodbridgesque women came in directly after me looking for ground turkey for their South Beach diets.  They didn’t have any.

I bought a whole chicken, several pounds of ground beef, two peices of beautiful osso bucco and a gorgeous piece of bison shoulder.

Here’s what I did with the meat (recipe):

Bob Kramer Knives

51 year-old Bob Kramer is one of the 114 Master Bladesmiths in the world.  He has completed 10 years in professional kitchens along with 18 years of building knives.  He has been written about in Saveur Magazine, Cook’s Illustrated, The New Yorker and many more.

The Elderwood handled knives are made with Damascus steel, which spends its time in a 2500º oven.  The cost is $300 per inch and the wait is 14 months and growing.

“It’s hard on your eyes, on your elbow on your wrist.  You have to use a respirator.  It’s very dirty”, says Kramer.

I’d love to get my paws on one of these.

Umami in a Tube

Well, it seems like this week’s theme is tubes!

A lot of people seem confused by the Japanese term umami (the fifth taste). It’s what happens when something in your mouth is so good, you have to close your eyes. A food-gasm if you will. It’s an experiential process that is personal and unique.

If you’ve ever been unable to stop wolfing down a bag of Lay’s BBQ chips or maybe can’t stop adding MAGGI to your soup, this is a chemical reaction caused by MSG. Although MSG is not the only substance that can cause umami, it is probably the most common in North America. You can also cause umami from having a perfect balance of salt, sweet and sour flavours.

Behold Taste No5 invented by Laura Santtini. Umami in a tube.

Unfortunately it’s only available at Selfridges and Waitrose and La Grande Epicerie. C’est domage. I’d probably brush my teeth with it.

Jello Mega Sculptures by Liz Hickok

Liz Hickok is a San Francisco-based artist working in photography, video, sculpture, installation, and currently, Jell-O. Her artwork has been exhibited across the country and is included in international collections.

The gentle light emitting from underneath the see-through sculptures makes absolutely gorgeous colours.

Some of the sculptures are recreations of Twin Peaks, San Francisco (including Alcatraz) and the White House.

Images used with permission.

La Brandade de Bacalau, Chorizo et Pistes Juste Aillés

In an effort to attempt cooking the most complicated dishes possible, I picked a recipe from Jaques & Laurent Pourcel’s book “Transparences en Duo”.  My Sous-Chef, Alex lent me the book, which I really appreciate.  It’s a gorgeous book with photography from Michael Hirsch.

So what is it?

The branade is salt cod poached in milk (flavoured with garlic and bay leaf). (White part)
The black layers are squid ink and nori flavoured tuiles
The middle parts are cooked chiorizo
The sauce is calms pulverized and mixed with eggs as an emulsifier.

The problems I ran into were that #1, I don’t have a chinois or tamis.  I mashed ingredients through the best sieve I have. Problem #2, I can’t find chiorizo that is as big as the photo.  Maybe they mean pancetta?  I’m confused.  Problem #3, I don’t really like squid.  I’ve tried.  I actually hate it.  I think it’s awful even when cooked by the most fancy establishment.

Not only was cooking this dish a challenge, translating a recipe was quite a task itself!

I have followed with a printable link to the direct google translation and the original French text.

Printable recipe.

Blackberry and Pomelo Cake

Whenever I see an unusual fruit or vegetable, I need to buy it. I need to figure out how to eat it.

Enter the pomelo, the largest citrus fruit.  What can I make with it?  Why is it so big?!

The pomelo tastes like a sweet, mild grapefruit – it has very little or none of the common grapefruit’s bitterness, but the membranes of the segments are bitter and usually discarded. The peel is sometimes used to make marmalade, or candied then dipped in chocolate. The peel of the pomelo is also used in Chinese cooking or candied. In general, citrus peel is often used in southern Chinese cuisine for flavouring, especially in sweet soup desserts. – Wikipedia

Pomelo:

I adapted one of my favourite German fruit cakes into the following recipe:

Printable Recipe

Kingstrike – McMickey Deluxe by Joshua Agerstrand

Hey, I like burgers.  Hey, I like Mickey Mouse too!  Who doesn’t?
I had one tonight from Kraft Burger.  A burger.  Not a mouse, stupid.

I like tshirts too.  This one from Kingstrike is amazing.  Anyone have a spare $400?