I wish I could say that I liked this. I really wanted to like it.
This month's daring cooks' challenge, hosted by Sketchy, of Sketchy's Kitchen, was to recreate a Grant Achatz recipe from the Alinea cookbook. I've followed the Alinea at Home blog (http://alineaathome.typepad.com) and wondered whether I could squeeze the powders, gels, molds, trapezes, etc., required to make anything out of that book into my already over-crowded kitchen. This month's challenge was exactly what someone like me, who didn't want to have to buy anything special, needed. Aaaallll we needed to do was figure out how to dry things out without a dehydrator.
The recipe, the combination of flavors, the buttery-ness of the beurre monte didn't work for me. I'll blame it on poor execution, though, rather than an unsuccessful concept, because M and I seem to be in the world wide web minority of people who didn't like this dish.
It's true I wasn't as faithful to the recipe as I could have been.
For starters, I didn't use skate. See, the thing is, I've never tried skate. And although I'm willing to try it, I'm just not sure I would like it. As embarrassed as I am to say this, the texture of live skate reminds me of those tiny toys LK and I put in the bathtub as children that grew into gigantine proportions. So instead M and I used cod.
We made the powders over several days, for no reason other than wanting to take our time. Capers were up first, and were finished in about 12 minutes in the microwave at half the full power level. We then blanched the parsley and cilantro for a second each and let them dry on the counter overnight. The next day, those each were finished in about 2 minutes at the same reduced power level. The lemon zest was next: 3 brief poaching dips in a simple syrup bath, followed by a minute or two in the microwave. We skipped the red onion powder for the obvious reasons -- so maybe I'll blame the failure of this recipe on the incomplete flavor profile. Last was the "brown butter" powder. Wow, the brown butter powder was SO bad. It can't have been close to what other people were eating. There was nothing remotely brown butter about it. Again, we substituted instant milk "for dried cream powder," which I suspect was largely to blame for the off flavor and the melt in your mouth quality of the powder. The banana chips we got from Whole Foods didn't add or ameliorate anything though. Nothing banana about them. Am I making you want to try this for yourself yet?
The beurre monte, though, was a big success, at least as far as being similar to the intended. We sliced the green beans in thin rounds, nothing perfect, and same for the bananas. The beans were cooked in their own pot of beurre monte, and the bananas were placed on the plates in a fanned out pattern. The cod was cooked for just a few minutes in its own pot of beurre monte.
I'm pretty sure we overdid it on the plating of the powders. The design wasn't stunning, and the powders themselves, in that quantity, were far too much and too strong. The bananas didn't bother me a bit.
So we were glad we hadn't invited anyone to dinner. Because we didn't though, we've got a bunch of powder left (aside from the brown butter powder that we promptly dumped), and are trying to come up with ways we can use parsley/cilantro and caper powders. Any ideas?
Can't wait to see what's in store next month!
Skate, Traditional Flavors Powdered
- 4 skate wings (cod or flounder are good substitutes)
- * 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 oil)
* 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 the poaching liquid.
Powders - prepare ahead of time
caper
lemon powder
cilantro/parsley powder
'brown butter' powder
Powders
once dried, all powders should be pulsed in a coffee grinder/spice mill/mortar 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.
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 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.
Caper powder200g capers (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 cook in microwave at half power for about 12 minutes.
Once dry, pulse and sift the powder.
Brown Butter powder
100g Dried banana chips
300g spray dried cream powder
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.
Fish
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.
PlatingTake the tip of a small spoon and make a small mound of the citrus powder, the caper powder, and the cilantro parsley-powder. Swirl these around in a hurricane type 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.
