lasts night's 5 course dinner (pics in order of menu):

High class dining, where you pay more for less!

funny thing is its not really expensive and its served on whats basically a 20 person picnic table inside a small, laid back grocery store.

Its really good too (not my work or design, I merely help prep for the chef)

wow, i'm actually impressed. The color and texture definitely look like the real deal. A nice twist is to add a tiny bit of ground caraway at the very end. Some like to also squeez a few drops of lemon juice in right before consumption.

Why?

I was not familiar with harira, but sounds nice on wikipedia. What did you go with?


Looks tasty, though a bit more rustic presentation than I'd expected after reading that the first course was a terrine.

Did you get to taste everything?

What did you enjoy?

Did you have any 'aha' moments during this session?

Also, I didn't get super far on my ravioli today. Did the shopping, but saw chicken feet on sale and ended up making chicken stock and basil oil before my gf took over the kitchen and made oil poached salmon with creamy beer foam.

Didn't plate super well at first, but grabbed a couple sprigs of dill from my mini herb garden (highly recommend planting one) and added a little color along with the basil oil.



I'm not posting the recipe as it's not a great one.

I'm also kinda planning to do a similar plating style for my ravioli, so probably won't really post this in the blog for realzies.

because white bread/tortillas aren't as good?

Snipe, do you take the membranes or talons off the chicken feet before tossing them in the stockpot?

I do not. However I do tend to take forever to skim. Typically about 45 - 1:00 before it stops creating scum. I then let the pressure cooker go for a couple hours.

Do you? If so, is there a compelling reason?

I've never used chicken feet for stock before, but my inclination would to just toss em in. When I googled it I saw something about taking the membrane and talons off, which seems overly fussy to me. Not exactly sure what their reasoning was.

I've made stock several ways including using backs, carcasses, feet, legs, etc. I like feet as they have a ton of collagen and are cheaper than wings. I think for the most part, cook books are written from the perspective of the restaurant where the write has worked / owns - meaning David Chang has a ton of pork fat / offal / scraps, and thus uses it for all kinds of things whereas other authors have chicken backs from doing chicken dishes, and thus use that. If you're going to go out and buy stuff, and need to purchase "scraps" - again, I like feet for the price.

Be warned, they're pretty effing creepy little things. Even my Rottweiler was skeptical and she'll eat almost anything.

But yeah - make sure you clean everything going in a stock really well (ldo I know - but worth repeating). Things like leeks have tons of dirt deep in the crevices - sand that will get through a strainer.

Also, skim until scum stops appearing. It might take quite a while, but it will yield a much better product. Buy a fine mesh skimmer from an Asian market (often used for shabu). They're like $3 and super useful for stocks.

I can't look for it right now but he's got 2 bits in there on making

A) chicken stock
B) chicken consomme worthy of a michelin star restaurant

all really easy. The series is AWESOME. He takes one ingredient and shows you modern methods for cooking them. The one on eggs blows my mind.

Disagree. I think he's an awesome chef and has an amazing take on food, but i found that basically everything i tried from the show either

A)included far too many involved steps for very little payoff (like milk powder + chicken wings into stock, lining up the mince strands for the burgers (really??))
or
B) was a shortened version of a technique he himself uses, but in taking the shortcuts leaves you with a normal/sub-par result despite more than normal effort (i brought this up in the egg thread, about how his poached eggs basically always turn out fine, but generally look terrible. He also just poopoos vinegar/stirring for frivolous reasons)

I think the show is a cool concept, but i just haven't seen the results from anything i've tried from it. It did teach me tons about food science/pairing though.

The only thing from Heston's new series that I have tried is the chicken. It is great, very tender and juicy, with excellent flavor. Easy as well. Some folks have trouble roasting chickens, and this way is pretty much foolproof.

All right boys I need some good hangover food. Right now I'm thinking posole. Any other ideas?

awesome. I've done the Thomas Keller method and it works out VERY nicely, very easy, very minimal. I didn't think I'd need another recipe but now I'm looking forward to trying out Heston's.

I followed this recipe, plus their suggested tedouira variation

http://www.whats4eats.com/soups-and-stews/harira-recipe

It's easy and delicious, and the spices are quite the change up from most cuisines.

Garbage plate.

How does he do chicken? I've never found roasting difficult, but I'm curious.

Brined, then slow and low, ~4 hrs

then I think he hits it under the broiler at the end, or does something for a better skin

Larb chicken spring rolls with rice stick and red bell, with nuoc cham sauce for dipping.

Fish sauce sambal cane sugar lime juice and water is the sauce.

This tip from the recent cook's illustrated is pretty excellent:

If you are making a stir fry and you don't have a wok or a wok burner, use your largest nonstick pan and don't stir the food for up to 5 minutes at a time on high heat. This builds the char flavor you would otherwise get from the hot wok.

^ Look delicious.

Does anyone have any good recipes for Broccoli and Stilton (blue cheese) soup? I had an amazing one at a restaurant last year and fancy making it this week.

(Obv I've googled but I will post pics here and give feedback if someone has a nice recipe)

Thanks.