Cloud Lab

Spring?.......Think Again!

I must have summoned the God's of winter with all my blogging about green things, farmers and sprouts because, although it may be hard to see in these pictures, yes it is snowing on this the 28th day of March here in Washington.  Its typical in the Pacific Northwest to have a couple of beautiful weeks in Feburary where everyone plows their gardens, breaks out their shorts and sandals and declares winter gone for good (or at least another nine months!), only to follow it up with another four months of almost constant drizzle.  After living here my whole life I still seem to fall into the trap but I can tell you that spring is very wet (for a good cause) and summer doesnt actually begin until July 5th.  And when it finally arrives, theres no place on earth I'd rather be!

The problem with snow in Western Washington is that it doesnt happen (in any traceable amounts) nearly enough and therefore snow removal is not part of any cities budget.  So when it does accumulate, the roads are treacherous and everyone is scared to death to drive anywhere (with good reason).  There are also a lot of hills in most places, which doesnt help the problem.  I dont know from experience but it seems like people that grow up in a snowy place learn to drive in the snow and just deal with it.  Anyone who is from this area completely stops their daily routines with the slightest trace of snow because  they are scared to death to drive anywhere.  The moral of the story is that even though the snow that is falling outside right now is basically rain and has no chance of sticking, the streets are bare of cars and not a lot of people are going out to eat.  Which is why I'm sitting here blogging on a Friday night at 7pm instead of getting my ass handed to me in the kitchen.  The forcast is for more "snow" tonight.  Yay!

Drayton Harbor Oysters

Shellfish must be some of the most under appreciated beings.  Either you love 'em or you hate 'em.   They hardly get the credit they deserve as one of the foundations of the earths watershed.  Clams, Mussels, Oysters, ect. are literal filters of the environment that they are in and are constantly sucking in and spitting out water.  It's occurred to me lately, after conversations with Geoff Menzies from Drayton Harbor Community Oyster Farm, how important these farms and these farmers are to our local environments.  Oyster farmers become stewards of the tidelands, taking the local governments to task on issues of water cleanliness and environmental protection legislation. Click here to watch a short and informative YouTube video where Geoff is discussing Oyster habitat protection and what you can do to help.

Of course this is a small picture of how farmers everywhere take so much responsibility for the rest of us in regards to the environment and it makes you realize just how important sustainable farming practices are.

Can I Get A Table With A View?

Has anyone seen this??  This has to be about the most ridiculous thing!  I had it forwarded to me in an email and I thought it was a prank.  Upon further investigation it seems that it is all too real.  You can see it for yourself (http://dinnerinthesky.com/index.php) but basically its a cooking station

surrounded by seats that are bolted into a platform and are able to rotate 180 degrees in either direction so that you might catch a glimpse of your dining partner.  The platform is suspended, in the location of your choice, by a crane 50meters above the earth for a maximum event time of 8 hours.  How many women do you know that can hold their bladders for that long?  Another question- is everything bolted  or secured to the table?  Napkins?  Flatware?  Wine Glasses?  S+P?  I'd hate to be walking below and get a blown away fork in my eye. 

In any case, the most hilarious thing about Dinner in the Sky is the price tag.  I wont ruin it for you.  See for yourself.  Oh, its also apparently for sale so you could have dinners in the sky in your back yard every night!

Signs of Life!

Spring is in the air (even though it was sleeting last night)!  We probably have the equivalent of a quarter of a ninth pan of chives in our kitchen herb box and these baby Savory leaves are packed with flavor.  So tempting to pick and use but we must be patient and let the baby's grow.  We'll soon fill the empty space in  our herb box with more herb starts that, throughout the summer, will provide nice garnishes to some of our plates.

On another subject, I am nursing a vicious hang over today (thanks to Holly Smith and the Willows for hosting a great dinner last night and thanks, I think, to Riley for not letting my wine glass stay empty!  The beets, Gorgonzola and marconas are always an enlightenment and James' new obsession is Octopus) and I barely made it into the restaurant.  Needless to say I was not feeling inspired to cook much of anything.  But one things for sure, right now I want everything I cook to be  bright green.   It's just that time of year.  Thanks to our cook (and part time forager) Dan for bringing in those stinging nettles and perking my interest.  We'll serve them in a special tonight with a caramelized sea scallop, sunchoke cream and a bacon chip.  Simple clean flavors.  Late winter/early spring in a bowl.   

Givin' Thanks

Its been a long time since we've posted, not because we're not cooking our asses off, experimenting, and thinking about blogging.  We're really not in the habit yet of documenting everything that goes on in our kitchen and with everything else that goes into running a business, sometimes we get stretched thin.  I will admit that this current menu was one of the harder ones to bust out.  Some of that is due to the complexity of the previous menu, which was kind of a mind fuck and sucked us dry of inspiration for a brief time, and some of it is due to the dreariness of late winter in Washington and getting tired of carrots and celery root.  We're definitely ready for anything green to come along and it was nice to get a call from our friend Billy at Moondance Farm.  It's the time of year to start planning and talking to our farmers about what they are planting and what we would like them to plant.  Billy brought us a bag of some beautiful Sunflower Sprouts.   So green, fresh, delicious and healthy!  Even fresh chives are exiting this time of year!

Anyways, the reason this post is called "Givin' Thanks" is because, even though no one reads this blog, some of our favorite chef bloggers have been writing about blogging and I thought I would take this opportunity to say how much it has meant to us to feel like we are part of a larger community of chefs who are all experimenting and pushing their food and techniques to new places.  It is an amazing thing to have a direct window, if you will, into the kitchens of some of the most talented cooks of our time and to be able to follow their successes and failures on a daily basis.  As if that is not enough, any one has the opportunity to ask a question directly or comment on anything they see on the blog!  Imagine if this technology had been around in the time of Escoffier and any cook across the world could pick his brain about clarifying a stock or making a perfect Hollandaise.  Not only has reading a few blogs made us better cooks, I'm learning more about science and molecular chemistry than I ever did in High School (it makes me wish I would have paid more attention). 

The moral of the story is, to all of those chef bloggers out there, keep doing what your doing because you are inspiring a whole new food movement and a new generation of cooks!  Thank you!

Sous Vide Salmon & A Sign From The Demi Gods

We've been serving our menu Salmon Sous Vide for about a month now and we're happy to report very little complaints from customers and surprisingly few orders sent back.  Anyone who's had Sous Vide cooked anything knows that it is usually the way to go but most people around here haven't had it, don't know about it and would probably glaze over if you tried to tell them about it.  The reason that we're surprised at the lack of complaints is not in the flavor or doneness of the salmon, but the temperature at which it is served.  First, a little about the process.

We have to thank Chadzilla for his experimentations in Sous Vide Salmon and the wonders of salt brining in order to reduce protein leaching (the white stuff that you often see on cooked salmon).  Without that bit of knowledge we probably wouldn't be serving our Salmon in this method.

We cook our Salmon at 60 degrees celcius for 7 minutes and when it goes out to the guest it looks raw.  When you stick your fork into it, it falls apart and all but melts in your mouth.  The brining also seasons the fish perfectly throughout.

At other places I've worked, in larger cities, we've had problems with Sous Vide fish becausee by the time it gets to the table it  is just above room temp.  People think its "cold" and send it back to the kitchen who then takes the partially bitten fish and flashes it in a 500 degree oven or underneath the salamander, effectively destroying the Sous Vide effect.  We don't have heat warmers or food runners (on a regular basis), which makes it even more miraculous that we don't get more send backs.  Basically, the fish has to go directly from the bag to the warm plate with warm sauce and immediately out to the guest.  Most of the time we are able to accomplish that.

The current dish is served with caramelized Devine Gardens Leeks, a crispy Potato "cloud" and Mustard-Caper sauce.  The "cloud" is cool because it is literally light as a feather but crispy and potato-y.  We wanted a crispy component to this dish because the Salmon is so melt-in-your-mouth and we usually serve our Sockeye with the skin crisped.  In the second picture you can see the "cloud" better and see how the fish is flaking apart (even though its a blurry shot). 

   

One other interesting thing to share today.  Sometimes dealing with a huge food company (which we try to do as little as possible but "buy local" tends to get a little tougher in the dead of winter) can have its benefits.  Once in a while something can get lost in the belly of the beast and wind up in your cooler unaccounted for (of course this can work the other way around and has for us many times, thats why we feel no Karma coming our way), and un-invoiced.  This week we took Monday off to attend a Chef's Collaborative event in Seattle.  Very rarely do we both leave the restaurant for an entire day and its always a little nerve-racking.  Upon our return, we found a full case of Veal Bones in our walk in.  Must have been a mistake but when God gives you lemons..............

Its been a loooong time since we have made true Demi Glace in our kitchen and today I was reminded of that unmistakable aroma of roasting Veal bones, a red wine deglaze and simmering Veal stock.  It brought me back to my early days of cooking and made me feel kind of warm and fuzzy.  Comfort food.  This will probably end up in some form on our Valentines day menu.  We have the classical technique, now, how to re-invent demi?  We'll see what manifests. 

Be Flexible!......Please

Ever since visiting WD-50 last summer, I have been a little obsessed with a dessert I had there.  It involved Avocado, Mint, Coffee and Flexible Chocolate.  Yes, I also had the now infamous "Knot Foie" and that was great.  The texture, presentation and overall concept of the plate is fantastic (knot to mention the word play).  We've been experimenting with knots and I have to say, it is a lot harder than you would think to make something flexible enough to tie in a knot and still get a nice creamy texture.  We're still experimenting.  But with the flexible chocolate, I believe Wiley or (maybe his pastry chef?) one-up'd the knot by creating a product that can be twisted and tied but also has enough structure to actually stand up off the plate and support itself, while still maintaining a chocolate ganachy texture. 

We had some luck right off the bat by combining a few different gelling agents at low percentages in a  chocolate-water mixture.  We got a nice firm and flexible sheet of chocolate that had great mouth feel.  I then of course thought that, since I had a basic outline and formula, we could make anything flexible!  And I wanted to!  My next attempt was flexible coconut using the same gelling agents and coconut milk.  Not so good.  I could not achieve the same texture and came out with three batches of flexible but gummy coconut.  Not a desirable texture.  Well, we're still learning every day through experimentation and just when you think you have a technique down you can run into a roadblock with the slightest change in ingredient.  But, in any case, the chocolate was pretty cool and we will continue to work on different flexible foods.  Here's a pic of a flexible chocolate dessert with a strip of Banana, some Orange puree, Coconut gel, and Milk foam frozen in Liquid Nitrogen.

Geode Update!

While Josh was busy playing with bean curds, James was perfecting the Nitro Geode.  This time it manifested itself in a play on Tiramisu-

 

Coffee Geode, Chocolate cylander, Encapsulated Irish Cream, Ladyfinger dust.

Tofu Dayze

A recent article in Food & Wine about a writers trip to Japan and the newfound popularity of artisan tofu restaurants there made me feel ashamed that I had never actually made my own tofu!  I am known to a lot of our patrons as the vegetarian of the operation and, although its true, I was raised vegetarian and still do not eat a lot of meat in my home life, in the kitchen I follow no dietary restrictions.  I taste everything and actually enjoy cooking meat. I've seen James crack a smile many times when a guest asks which one of us is "the vegetarian" because he has seen me eat foie gras and many other meat dishes that even a meat eater might think twice about on several occasions.  We compose our menus as a team and the vegetarian dishes that end up on our menu's are as much his concoction as mine.  And vice versa, I am just as involved in the meat preparations.  But, that being said, making tofu was an enlightening procedure.  First of all because its so easy!  If you've ever made your own Riccotta cheese then you can make tofu.  Secondly, the flavor and texture of the resulting tofu was far superior to any that I've ever purchased in the store.  Thirdly, working with tofu is always a bit limited because you generally only have the standard cube shaped loaves which can only make for so many presentation options and the flavors are few.  When making your own tofu, you can hypethetically shape the loaf however you like, and flavor profiles can be tinkered with as well. 

The dried soy beans get soaked overnight.  BTW, soybeans, which are available in bulk from any health food store or co-op are cheap.  Less than a $1.50/pound and the yeild is great.  About a pound of tofu from a cup and a half of soybeans.

The soaked soybeans get pureed with boiling water.  The resulting puree gets strained and pressed through cheesecloth.  The puree puts off an amazing foam.  The stuff looks just like meringue!  Vegan meringue pie anyone?!

                                                   The liquid that comes off of the puree is the soymilk which then gets heated with a coagulant (nigari, sea water, acidic liquids or calcium chloride are what is used most) until the curds form which make the tofu once they are pressed in a mold.

The cool thing about tofu making is that it is completely sustainable in the fact that every by-product can be used and is generally packed fulll of protein and/or fiber.  The debris from the pureed beans, which the liquid "milk" is drained from can be used as a thickener in soups or as a binder in veggie burgers.  And the milk can be in the normal ways one uses soy milk. 

The first batch we made was just unflavored plain tofu.  The nuttiness of the curds were substantially more pronounced than in your normal storebought varieties and the texture was better than that of any extra-firm tofu I have had.  for The second batch we decided to try to flavor the curds with some lime leaves, jalapenos, and soy sauce.  The kaffir flavor definately came through but not a lot of spice or chili flavor.  Also, adding some of the ingredients did have an effect on the texture and we ended up with a slightly softer end product.  But definately tasty and here is how it ended up on the nightly special-

The tofu is seared on one side, served with sriracha "caviar", Orange puree, pickled jalapenos, soy gastrique and jalapeno tempura.  Fusion Confusion!

 

Nitro Geode

We have been playing with the hollow frozen spheres for a while and finally found appropriate sweeteners to get the job done..... this is a yuzu sphere, the first successful sphere. Since we have put together wasabi and ginger spheres..... The ginger spheres were paired with avocado brulee, dark chocolate ganache and passion fruit gastrique.... unfortunatley the camera wasnt available to document the dessert going out, but it will find it way to another post!