Please be patient with me and forgive the lack of new stories for the next 8 days. I am leaving for New York tomorrow with Paco to do a collaboration dinner for the New York Marathon.
For sure I will have many stories to tell when I return next week!
While designing a menu for Autumn I always lean towards Offal and Game, this year is no exception. For our Autumn menu I was trying to create a sandwich which fit the season.
I thought I really understood the world of risotto until my recent trip to Milan! After listening to the Italians speak about risotto and how many cultural elements there are to risotto that they all seem to know, I now know I am just a beginner in this topic!
On my recent trip to Milano I discovered a very interesting product while cooking in the kitchen of Carlo Cracco. It is a product which I am now amazed about but it seems everyone knew about it except me, as when I have told people since they have all said that they knew about it, apparently it is even available for purchase in Pharmacies and health food stores. Great secret!
Since when did water become the latest fashion accesory? There have been some very good examples of a ridiculous wastes of money throughout time but this one has to take the all-time stupidest award!
I will be out of touch and unable to write stories as often for the next 10 days.
We are going to Milano to prepare special menus for 1 week with Carlo Cracco. For those of you who are unfamiliar with his restaurant of style, find the link here to his 2 Michelin Star restaurant. I am sure to come back with many stories, so stay tuned!
Who doesn’t love a really good piece of Tuna Otoro (the fattiest part of the belly, to be honest I generally prefer the Chutoro which is in between the Akami and Otoro and is less fatty with more flavour)? It is something the Japanese will pay there life savings for and/or fish the waters of Blue-fin tuna until extinction 
The reason it is so expensive is the numbers of fish are dwindling and of course compared to the total weight of the fish the belly is the smallest part and in the highest demand.
So we can think of this technique as an environmentally friendly alternative, and a way to use up the excess loins.
The Spanish have been mixing tuna and pork for a long time, so the combination is not a new one. But the technique to combine them is new! So I ordered some top quality tuna loin and some amazing Jamón de Jabugo. The idea is to mix to two products in a way that they replicate Otoro but the fat instead of being from the tuna is actually from Jamón.
I tried to follow the natural pattern of the tuna when slicing it to keep it as real as possible. I sliced the Jamòn fat into sheets of equal thickness so it would have a better chance of sticking evenly…………….. So using a mix of Transglutaminase WM,GS and EB (I used a mix to utilize the strengths of each type when they work together), I powdered the surfaces and built it up in the same way that it was cut so the grain would all match up.
Obviously in Otoro the fat is marbled through the meat, but in my case I had to settle for veins of fat. What you see in the picture is the first test, for the next test I will try and make the fat more random so it looks more realistic.
SUCCESS!!!!!!!
I haven’t yet decided the best way to serve it or even cook it. So far we have tested Tataki, Carpaccio, Steak, low temperature Confit, etc. But at the end of the day the result was achieved, when heated the fat melts but the structure keeps it held together perfectly. In the proportions which I have used has allowed both products to shine without either one dominating which was the risk when using such a strong flavour such as the fermented fat from Jamón.
One of my strongest beliefs in the world of cooking is “You take out what you put in”! So I make it a habit to read everyday, but the books I read are not your typical books you read in bed to relax (although I do).
I love to read Conceptual cooking books (without recipes, only theories) as they encourage you to think for yourself without giving you all the answers. I also read books about industrial design and architecture as they give you a different perspective on visual presentations. Psychology is also another are of interest as we deal with some of the most interesting people on a daily basis who face some kind of a challenge when it comes to different food. Production industry text books are not for the light hearted as they contain so much heavy information, but in the same token if you can handle them they are a wealth of information and most things are able to transform into a restaurant setting (I only read 1 chapter per day as this is as much as I can handle). The last category of books that I read are Historical theoretical cooking books, As I find most of the theories which were “common knowledge” back then have all pretty much been proved wrong today. But in the same token I have the highest of respect for the Chefs who came before us as they were the pioneers of our trade and they were doing it with far less equipment and knowledge, in these books I will often come across some astounding theories which were way ahead of there time and very insightful.
Now getting to the point of the latest must read! It is the new book from Hervé This. I have every book from Hervé but so far this is by far the best. Again a pretty heavy read (compared to his usual style), but some really interesting pieces of information on the “Inner workings” of things we eat and use everyday. Find the link below for Amazon.
One of the best smells in the world (according to me) is the smell of freshly picked tomatoes, but not the fruit itself, the stems! When slicing fresh vine tomatoes for a sandwich I will always use the core where it was attached as it has the strongest perfume. But we all know that you can’t eat tomato vines or leaves as they are part of the infamous nightshade family and they are poisonous………………………………. Or are they???????????
For many years I have been trying to capture the pure essence of the stem and use it in something to add a perfume, but to no avail! As soon as the stem comes into contact with heat it changes into a flavour similar to tea complete with the tannin. The closest I have come is through using vacuum boiling and infusing a small amount of water and also through Rotovap distillation, but even at such low temperatures you still loose the volatile molecules which give it that very distinct note. I have also “Dunked” them into bolognaise and tomato sauce when I have removed it from the heat (70 degrees) so it will keep a bit of that fresh vine flavour.
The psychology of food is something which has always fascinated me as it limits us in so many ways. Take for example the old belief that tomato vines and leaves are poisonous and can make you sick. How many of us have tested that theory? I have done many tests in the past and after I have felt sick as I believed I had eaten too much, when in fact it was my head telling me that I should be feeling sick.
There are many foods which can be harmful if eaten in significant quantities, but we still eat them. See the examples below:
There are many things which we have included in our diet which have some kind of a poison, this is the plants defense system to stop animals eating certain parts such as the seeds which will ensure the species survival.
Today I received some of the best vine tomatoes I have seen so far in Spain (Which is normally the biggest thing I am complaining about), So my tests will once again resume in the hope of finding the perfect solution on how to use them. So I hope this little story has begun to convince you that we are wasting this amazing part of the plant, and to seek some solutions in using them, at the very least we should be placing them all around the table when we are eating some fresh tomato salads so you get the perfume. On this topic we have been very slow to start to use it as there have been many examples of animals eating the tomato vines then coming back the next day to eat some more, plus there was a study in Israel where cattle ate only the vines for 42 days and did not get sick.
It has taken us a very long time to dismiss the claim that this part of the plant is poisonous. Imagine that the tomato was brought to Europe from Mexico either by Hernán Cortéz in 1521 or Christopher Columbus in 1493. Before this time they also believed that the tomato itself was poisonous, So I think 500 years is a pretty long stretching “Wives Tale”.
But either way I always find it very ironic that it was the Spanish to bring the tomato to there empire which stretched around the globe throughout Asia, South America and Europe, but I still struggle to get a great tomato here in Spain :-(
The picture pretty much says everything which I could of hoped to say!
There are many fish which I love to use, but if I had to call some my favorites they would include……….. Sardines, fresh Anchovies and of course the Red Mullet. I group them together as I believe they are the most earthy flavoured of all the fish, and have a distinct almost dirty flavour. The livers of a red mullet if treated correctly have a delicious umami impact and are definitely worth the effort. There is pretty much a version of Red Mullet in every country with some muchbetter than others! We used to use the Chinese version when I was living in Shanghai which was a surprisingly amazing product, but by far the king of all the Red Mullet family is the one which comes from the Mediterranean! The temperature of the water and that which it feeds on makes the flesh far more dense and the fish far more healthy in almost every case.
I received some today and I was speechless when I saw them! They were as stiff as a board from the rigor mortis and had a perfect slime coating as you can see from the photo.