Why are the best things in life always Bivalves?

Riesling Steamed Mussels, Chobai Sausage, Apricots

I have decided to end the October edition of BOHK with a nice easy going dish. In the next couple weeks, I will be posting some serious dishes that require a lot of focus, skill and time. Not today.

Today, I share my love of Bivalves, and more specifically, mussels. It's almost mandatory as a professional cook to have a sub-conscience border-line infatuation with mussels. I think Anthony Bourdain said it best when he wrote that he could never accept mussels from a stranger. They are best consumed fresh and amongst friends.

They are not on our menu. Rather, I will make an amuse bouche out of them and fight off the other cooks from snatching the whole lot. To cooks, mussels are irresistible. My theory is because they know when they are fresh, they are rustic, cheap, humorlessly simple to make (even properly), slightly off the beaten path, and go well with beer.

This recipe is a big favourite of mine. Usually, on a day off with proper company, it's either Curried Mussels with Stella Beer, or this recipe. ....Or if the season is right, Malpaques with Kressi Vinegar Mignonette (Malpaque Oysters - a good reason to be a proud Canadian).

Riesling Steamed Mussels, Chobai Sausage, Apricots

Yield; 1 Pound of addictive Mussels

Ingredients;

1 Tbs. Butter

1 Shallot - Brunoise

1 Crushed Clove of Garlic

1 Chobai Sausage - Brunoise

1 Pound Mussels (rinsed, alive)

7 Sprigs of Thyme Chopped (No Stems Slacker!)

350ml. Riesling (If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it)

2 Apricots - Concasse

Salt/Pepper (EASY ON THE SALT, TASTE FIRST!)

Method;

1) Bring a saute pan to Med/High.heat, add the butter and bring to a bubble. Sweat the Shallots, Garlic, and Sausage for 1 minute.

2) Add the mussels and again, sweat for 1 minute until the first of the shells start to open up. Add the Wine, Thyme, and Apricots, use a second equal sized pan to form a cover for 2 minutes to fully cook the mussels.

3) When most are open, taste and check for awesomeness (It's all over the dish).

4) Enjoy with a Baguette, the rest of the bottle of Riesling, and good company (cooks).

-Jerek

Wagyu and Me

Potato-Truffle Soup, Smoked Wagyu Beef Belly


Initial product, Wagyu Beef Belly.
Aside from removing the obvious pockets of fat and silverskin, it's pointless to remove all of it. The combined cooking methods break it down.


Day 1, Brine.
A mixture of Water, Vinegar, Salt, Peppercorns, Rosemary.
-Bring it to a boil, chill completely, add the Wagyu, let rest for 24 hours.

Day 2. Confit Au Sous Vide

Remove the Wagyu from the brine, rinse away any residue.

Cryovac with Duck Fat, Glace de Viande, and a sachet of Thyme, Garlic, Parsley Stems, Bay Leaf.

Set for 160F @ 24 hours.


Day 3. Awesome smelling smoking day.

Ice-Bath the cryovac bag until chilled, remove product.

Create a glaze, in this case, Molasses-Peppercorn.

Using a po-boys smoker, cold smoke with Spruce Tips and Mesquite for 1 hour. Regulate the temperature, it's easier to have too much heat here than not enough.


About that Po-Boys Smoker...

Essentially, the Spruce Tips and active charred Mesquite are put on the bottom of the hotel pan, a perforated smaller hotel pan with the wagyu rests over it and sealed with tinfoil. The whole thing sits on a slightly hot surface to encourage smouldering.

The final product.

At this point, you must become really aggressive to ward of fellow cooks from sampling without proper consent. A good trick is to temporarily loose sanity and grow eyes on the back of your head.


Notes on Wagyu.

Wagyu, the American Kobe, is a wonderful beef. If you ever get the chance to try a Wagyu or Kobe Strip, insist on having it seared in Clarified Butter with Fleur De Sel and Black Pepper. Serve as is.

This product in particular worked out well, it's part of an idea for the winter menu, which is to do a Classic French Onion Soup with Artisan Cheese and shredded Wagyu.

...Definitely looking forward to the colder weather...

-Jerek

Brown Butter Gelato (Not just a great idea!)

Ben & Jerry would be proud.

Thickening into a custard consistency.

Ideal way to strain right into the storage container.

This is not the ice-cream machine from my home.


Beautiful, smooth, velvety Brown Butter Gelato.

Brown Butter is my favorite ingredient right now. I tend to do this, I'll have one distinct favorite which I will explore as much of until the flare dies down and I move on. Past recipients of my attention; Olive Oil, Maldon Salt, Pumpkin Seeds, Truffle, you'll always have a place in my heart... ....especially truffle...

Anyways, anyone who has made brown butter knows that it's great because of the sweet nutty smell.

I wanted to do a gelato with it because we tend to have Apple Tart Tatin as a special dessert and I thought the two would pair perfectly. I consulted Pastry Chef Vanessa Fiorini, and together we worked out the final product. I am taking slightly more credit here then I should... credit for spotting talent?...

The trick is to balance the enormous amount of fat from the brown butter with the milk and cream. Too much fat will feel funny on the palate, too little will make for choppy churning.

Brown Butter Gelato

Yield: 4lt.

Ingredients:

28 Egg Yolks

500gr. Brown Sugar

400gr. White Sugar

2lt. Whole Milk

400ml. 35% Cream

350ml. Brown Butter

Pinch of Salt

Method:

1) Whip the eggs with the sugar (This will make for a smoother churned Gelato), slowly temper the butter into this mixture.

2) As you are whipping the eggs (whip it good!) scald the milk, cream, and salt together.

3) Temper the cream mixture into the eggs, return everything back on the stove top and thicken like you would Creme Anglaise (Nappy consistency)

4) Strain custard through cheesecloth and cover directly on the surface with cling-film for 24 hours in the fridge.

5) Next day churn at will! The amount of time you churn depends on the machine it's self. Mine at home takes 20 minutes. The one at work takes 8. Let rest in the freezer at least 2 hours before sneaking back with a tablespoon.

-Jerek

To cook for another cook...

Diver Scallop Cerviche

Ontario Lamb Shank Ravioli

Guanciale, Medjool Dates, Pine Nuts

Brown Butter, Honey Jus

Cold Poached Lobster Salad

Tarragon/Vodka Grapefruit Confit

Compressed Honey Dew

Purdy Fisheries Caviar

Seared Fois Gras

5-Spiced Brioche French Toast

Macerated Sour Cherries

Almond Froth

Apple Tart Tatin

Lemongrass Gelato

Frangipane Tort, Chocolate Ganache


I have a ton of fun when I have the time and opportunity to design and execute new dishes, especially dishes to be served to another cook.

Cooks will tell you flat out what they like and didn't like about your food.

At worst, a shot to the ego when you were not expecting it. The positive aspect, honed in criticism and (hopefully...!) praise that makes you; - and the dish that represents you better.

In this case, I was happy with the final product, Tara had a blast coming in to eat at the same restaurant she cooks at on a nightly basis, and we got to experience that ultra-satisfaction, that gratifying experience of a job well done that makes this career choice of ours so worth while.

Special thanks to Vanessa Fiorini for being 100% owner on the dessert course!

-Jerek

Why Botulism is a bad thing.

Botulism; What to look for if you have stunningly impeccable eyesight.

~

Properly Pickled Peppers

As much as your Nana's tomato sauce probably rocks in the winter with slightly over-cooked spaghetti (and why DOES she add olive oil to the blanching water anyways?!), your granny has to be careful because canning has the very real potential to make a bad day for someone who inadvertently consumes tainted preserves with botulism. With roughly 1oo cases of food-born botulism reported annually in the U.S., it is rare, though remains a big concern due to it's ridiculously high mortality rate (Upwards of 60% if left untreated).
This has to be the priority prevention when canning anything. There are a couple ways to avoid this super-heat resistant, low-acid loving spore.

A) Use a lot acid. Seriously, anything with a pH balance of 4.6 or less, this generally includes fruits and properly pickled vegetables. Only these are suitable for the boiling jar method of preserving.
B) If sticking with low acid (Proteins, Oils), it's imperative to bring the contents of the jar to 250f for at least 3 minutes through pressure cooking. While the bacterial cells are killed at 212f, the spores can remain intact past that.

Now, how to pickle and preserve peppers that happen to grow on the top of your hotel;

As a standard brine with Chilies, for every 1 Cup White Vinegar (Cider Vinegar works as well), I add 1Tbs. Salt.

i) Sterilize the jar (we use the hot bath for 10 minutes).

ii) Separately, blanch the de-stemmed chilies for 3 minutes. Time it so that they go into the jars as soon as they are removed.

iii) In co-ordination with the first two steps, bring Salt, Vinegar, any aromatics you choose to use (in this case, Shallots, Garlic, Bay Leaf, Pepper Corn, Fennel Seed, Celery Seed, Mustard Seed, Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme) up to a boil.

iv) Using sterilized tongs, remove the jars from the water and place the chilies neatly into the jars. Right away, cover the jars to the top with the brine solution. With a sterilized cloth, tightly seal the jars, submerse into boiling water for 1 minute.

v) Remove, cool off on a rack in a cold space.
When completely chilled, check the seal to makes sure it's tight and concave inwards (no broken seal). Store in a dark dry area.

-Jerek

RYH Pasta Demo with Executive Sous Chef Babak Nasser

Executive Sous Chef Babak Nasser

Our Executive Sous Chef Babak Nasser is brilliant with Italian Cuisine. When he decided to perform a community in-house service and do a demo for us cooks about the formalities of his passion, a lot of people took notice.

Chef Beginning.

Suspiciously quiet and attentive cooks.


A couple fine points of interest; The subtlety of garlic. Above, chef has brought the olive oil and crushed cloves of garlic to a saute for about one minute before removing the garlic completely, it has done it's job.

As well, note the amount of olive oil used (this is going to be a Pomodoro Sauce).



The last 20%. The pasta should be blanched a la minute, cooked 80% in seasoned water, transferred to the sauce to finish (Reserving the liquid). This is demonstrated above.


Orecchiette Con Cime Di Rapa

-Two particulars of note;
a) The use of Anchovy as a seasoning was perfect, b) The intense green generated purely because it was made to order. What a difference.


From left, Pomodoro -Olive Oil, Garlic (Removed) Basil, Tomato, Salt, Black Pepper
Right, Guanciale for the Amatriciana Sauce in Olive Oil


The beginning efforts of the Amatriciana Sauce (Note, no Garlic)
-Guanciale, Julienne Onion, Olive Oil, Tomato, Chili Pepper, Parsley


The Spaghetti Al Pomodoro being finished.
In regard to the tomato based sauces, as a finish, Olive Oil was used, giving a pleasant shine to the final product.

Spaghetti Al Pomodoro


Amatriciana Sauce

Left - Amatriciana Sauce
Right- Pomodoro (Soon to be with Melanzane!)


One of the greatest methods at our disposal is the re-use of the blanching liquid. Here, the cook strains the 80% finished Penne, to be finished in the sauce, then he holds the seasoned liquid to adjust the moisture content of the final product before serving.


Penne Al'Amatriciana


Chef Babak, and the inconspicuous beginning of cream sauce.

It was at this point I was stunned to see how simple it was. Nothing he created had any wine in it! Why put an acid with an acid?
This cream sauce (as a final product) had everything I had always strained for in my cream sauce; body, viscosity, depth, richness, flavour, but this was only 35% Cream, Parmeasan Reggiano, Porcini, and Seasoning! NO GARLIC!
I took a step back and realized my lesson on subtlety of ingredients and the action of less can be (a lot!) more.



As mentioned previously, the blanching water is perfect to adjust the moisture content of the pasta.

Rigatoni Con Melanzane E Pomodoro

A sampling of the Culinary Brigade of the RYH listening to Chef Babak.

The last preparations of the Tagliatelle dish.

Tagliatelle Al Porcini

Having had a been a part of a great demonstration, sampled five pasta dishes, experienced one or two culinary epiphanies, I am amazed with what I picked up today... though now more so, I look forward to the fresh pasta demo...

-Jerek

Thanksgiving 2009

What a feeling to go back home again. We all made it this year. The photos tell the story. Great job Mom!

The tragedy of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. (A.P. Article)

By Carol Kopp
On 12:20 pm EDT, Tuesday October 13, 2009

There's a truism among investors that you should invest in what you know, understand, and like. It's a common sense strategy: You spot something new. It's special. It's useful or innovative. It's cool and affordable. Let me buy some of that!

The response to that can be summed up in just two words: Krispy Kreme (KKD).
Krispy Kreme had been a popular doughnut chain in the South since 1937, but remained unknown to the rest of us until about 1996. That's when the first Krispy Kreme popped up in New York City, on West 23rd Street.
Believe it or not, the town went nuts.
Doughnuts are a major food group in New York, where people eat many of their meals while walking. These fabulous new doughnuts were favorably reviewed by local newspapers. Lines formed when the "Hot Doughnuts" sign was lit. The two young men who owned the franchise were extolled as modern entrepreneurs.
I lived one block away from the store, and thought Krispy Kremes were a much better thing than sliced bread. I was soon as knowledgeable about the product as any potential investor could be.
Krispy Kreme went public in 2000. Luckily, by then I was living out of the country and didn't hear about it.
After all, what could go wrong? Just about everything.
Krispy Kreme stock hit a high of about $49 in 2003. Then it started on a long downward spiral, losing about 90% of its value.
This company had problems that had nothing to do with its doughnut recipe.
It over-expanded and took on crushing debt. There were allegations of management misconduct. Some franchises went bankrupt. Competition was fierce in the cheap eats category. More people started consuming healthy foods.
In short, Krispy Kreme managed to lose money selling something that is both cheap and delicious.
Now the company is under new management and seems to be on a bit of a roll.
Since February, when its share price hovered around $1, it has climbed steadily, topping $4 a share before settling at $3.49 as of October 8, 2009. It has fewer and smaller stores, but is parking them in strategic locations around the world. Is there hope for Krispy Kreme? Apparently, the answer is "maybe."
At the end of September, Standard & Poor's raised its outlook on the company's junk credit ratings to Stable from Negative (still just above "highly speculative") and indicated that its sales declines had slowed and cost pressures would ease.
In its latest quarterly report, the company announced it was close to breaking even, and reported a 5.9% increase in year-over-year, same-store sales for company-owned locations.
The company even got some good press recently, if you want to call it that. A new junk-food craze involves a bacon cheeseburger sandwiched between two Krispy Kremes (Original Glazed). It weighs in at 1,500 calories, give or take a few.
(With this company's luck, everyone who eats one will have a coronary within the hour.)
So, taking the common sense investing strategy to its illogical conclusion, what about McDonald's (MCD)?
You hate it, right? Everybody says they do. Nutritionists condemn it as a major cause of the American obesity crisis. Fat teens have tried to sue it for damages. French farmers demonstrated when it started expanding its presence there. In India, people rioted -- all because of a little fib about what those French fries were fried in. For more, see Bad Boys of Business: McDonald's.
McDonald's will announce its latest quarterly earnings on October 22, when it's expected to report earnings of $1.10 per share on revenues of $6.09 billion. The company's sales grew 4.5% last year.
So much for tough competition in the fast-food industry.
Meanwhile, the company's share price over the past five years has climbed steadily from the mid-20s to mid-50s. They also pay a dividend, currently 3.87%.
So, if there's a shred of truth in the common sense investing strategy, maybe it's this: Forget about everything you understand, think is new or wonderful, or ought to take the world by storm.
Instead, watch what everybody else is doing.
Pretty soon, what they'll be doing at The Louvre in Paris is eating at the city's newest McDonald's restaurant. They probably needed one because those on the nearby Rue de Rivoli and Champs Elysee are always overcrowded.
Nothing contained in this article is intended as a solicitation for business of any kind or for investment in the firm.

Silence of the Lamb! (Portioned into primal cuts that is...)

Observe, one lamb carcass. This was part of the CWC advanced charcuterie program I went through. The highlight of this particular day was not when we ended up making awesome merguez sausage out of the lamb, but when an obviously distraught vegetarian peeped through the door to the kitchen and loudly deemed all of us chefs to be "murderers!". ...it was pointed out she was wearing leather. (Check & Mate!)

Now with the door to the kitchen closed...

There are five primal portions of lamb to note. First, shown here is the "Shank" and "Breast". Shanks are great to braise (especially served with Risotto) and breast meat is usually best used minced (think Shepherd's Pie).

Cut one inch above the ending joint of the arm bone across and into the 12 ribs, perpendicular to where the 13th rib ends (This is way easier than I make it out to sound).

Done. Easy. Moving on.

Next up, the shoulder (Shown here to the far left). There are two decent applications that you can do with lamb shoulder. First, because of it's amount of connective tissue, it's ideal for cubed pieces to stew. Second, it's possible to de-bone, stuff it, and make a roll out of it. Though I prefer the stewed version more because I am a big sucker for curried lamb (...with some fragrant jasmine rice ...amazing).

Using a big saw because a pairing knife would take to long, cut through the blade bone between the 4th and 5th rib.

Done. Admire your butchery skills momentarily.

Next up, the famous "Rack". Because this cut houses the rib eye muscle, it's regarded as the most tender, sought after cut (though, not the most flavourful) of lamb. Don't screw up.

Make two cuts between the 5th and 12th rib.

Afterwards, you can go on to split the rack into two, and proceed to french the ribs to make a proper "Frenched Lamb Rack" .

The Hindsaddle (minus Kidneys).

At the forefront, the "Loin", followed by the "Legs".

The Loin is also useful in dry-heat cooking, great for producing medallions, the loin houses the tenderloin and is quite tender.

The incision should be made (assuming you have already removed the Rack) on the very last chine bone right before the beginning of the pelvic bone.

The legs are handled in a few fashions. Bone-in legs are used for buffet services, the sirloin portion being much more suitable for dry-heat cooking than the bottom shank (braised). Do I really need to explain how to cut them bilaterally?

One portioned lamb. ...and now I have curried lamb on my mind...

-Jerek