Mystery Mushrooms

The CC was in Chinatown recently, and he spotted what could only be dried mushrooms except he hasn't a clue of what they are, or how they could be used.

Any clues, fellow foodies?

On Bouillabaisse

Right after she gives the recipe, the lovable Paula Wolfert had something to say in her book "Mediterranean Cooking" on why one could never make a true bouillabaisse in America.

1. For a true bouillabaisse, people will tell you that it must be made in sight of the Mediterranean and, at the very least, cooked within 100 kilometres of Marseilles. There are even purists who proclaim that the water in the soup must be taken from the fishing grounds off Cacalaire. The fact that this air and these waters are now polluted is, to the fanatic gastronome, utterly beside the point.
   
   
2. For a true bouillabaisse, as I noted above, you need rascasse. A scorpion fish is hideous and you should touch it unless its poisonous fins have been removed. A variant, Heliconlenus dactylopterus, is found in North American waters but fishermen ususally toss it back.
   
   
3. For a true bouillabaisse you need a base broth made from at least a hundred tiny Mediterranean rockfish and clam juice simply won’t do.
   
   
4. Finally, no matter what you do there will be some silly snob who will say “This is a rather nice fish soup, my dear — but, of course, NOT a true bouilabaisse.”

Pumpkin Risotto

Well, it's the season and all so what better way to spend a bitterly cold evening than cooking a delicious pumpkin risotto?

First, the CC hied himself to the farmers' market where two small pumpkins, and two leeks were sourced.

After that, the CC made a jaunty saunter to his freezer where previously frozen vegetable stock could be obtained.

Ingredients

1 red onion (diced fine)
2 leeks (diced fine)
2 small pumpkins (or 1 large one)
1 stick cinnamon

2 cups vialone nano, or carnaroli rice

freshly shaved parmigiano-reggiano

Recipe

We roast cut the pumpkins, sprinkle salt and pepper over them, invert them over some water, and roast at 400F for 45 mins in a tightly covered pan.


When they are cool, scrape out the flesh. It should be roasted and very soft. Mash it to a pulp.

Here's the mise-en-scène.

First, the roasted mashed pumpkin.


Here are the diced onions and leeks.


Here is the grated parmigiano-reggiano.


Add the stick of cinnamon to the vegetable broth, and keep on a low simmer.


Sauté the onions on a medium-low heat. The point is soften them by evaporating their water. Do not let them brown.


Add the leeks, and sauté for a bit.


Then, add the rice and let the oil coat each grain. Do not worry if they toast just a little bit.


Now, here's the trick. You want to ladle hot broth into the rice so that the temperature does not fall. Plus, you would like to add the pumpkin.

So alternate! Broth, pumpkin; broth, pumpkin.



Finally, the mantecura. Tasty milk fats to finish off the risotto. First take the pot off the fire, then add the shaved parmigiano-reggiano.


Doesn't that look gorgeously yummy?

Special-ized Equipment

A martini maker.

Now the CC has seen everything.

It's "special" alright, just like the Special Olympics!

A martini is not exactly hard to make as the recipe here points out. Of course, we've seen our share of silly ideas like here.

"Deconstructed" Gazpacho

Before we proceed on this deconstruction, let's just observe what makes the gazpacho so tasty.

First off, the overwhelming purity of the tomato taste. Secondly, the textural crunch of the vegetables (onions, bell peppers, cucumber.) Thirdly, the starch via the bread (which makes it "filling"), and lastly, the sharp tartness of the vinegar (which makes it "vibrant" or "alive".)

So all we have to do is capture the above flavors. The "deconstruction" is going to consist of the fact that we are going to keep each of the ingredients separate and blend them so they are clearly observable.

The heart of it is capturing the tomato flavor. Enter tomato water.

Ingredients (tomato water)

2 lbs ripe tomatoes

Recipe (tomato water)

Pass the tomatoes through the finest screen of a food mill.

Line a fine sieve with multiple layers of cheese cloth. Put the apparatus over a bowl. Pour the above tomato puree into it.

Cover, and leave overnight.

You will see that the puree splits into two components: the tomato water below, and a solid gelée in the cheese cloth/sieve above.

Just taste the water. You will see that it has an intense tomato-ey flavor.

(Save the gelée for later. It makes a delicious "savory tomato sorbet"; or just salt it and gobble it up!)

Ingredients ("deconstructed" gazpacho)

tomato water
1/2 spanish onion
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 english cucumber
5-6 dried sourdough croutons (per serving)
salt and pepper
champagne vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

Recipe ("deconstructed" gazpacho)

You still need to dice the onions, bell peppers, and cucumber as the original gazpacho. (Note the "half"; the rest is not needed.)

Note how the croutons fit the pattern of dicing too. This time you need the real deal. Real sourdough bread cut up into an appropriate size before allowing it to dry out.

Whisk together a vinaigrette with the olive oil and the champagne vinegar. (This is an O/W in the classification scheme.)

Mix everything but the croutons. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Chill.

Add the croutons right before serving.

"Traditional" Gazpacho

Before even beginning, the CC should note that gazpacho does not refer to the just the traditional "cold tomato" soup that is justly famous but really a family of cold soups from Andalusia.

In fact, one of the joys of life emanating from Andalusia is a "gazpacho bianca" made with almonds, garlic and grapes (sounds delicious, doesn't it?)

Secondly, there are as many recipes for "gazpacho" as there are Spanish mamacita's so there will always be some silly sausagey snob who will object to whatever is given below.

In fact, they will scoff at a very specific thing below which is that everything needs to be hand-pounded. Well yes, if the CC had super-ripe tomatoes, and a day to kill but there's reality and there's "reality" (see?!? those scary deconstruction quotes do actually work!)

However, they are not completely wrong. There's a method in their madness in their demand for hand-poundage.

What's given below is what the CC feels is a suitable compromise between spending a day pounding, and just tossing everything in the blender (which would just bring out the howls from the purists, and not give a very good result either, the CC may add.)

Also remember the recipe below is super-approximate so feel free to deviate. Just don't destroy the recipe's soul.

Ingredients

2 lbs tomatoes (left to ripen till nearly over-ripe)
8-10 slices dried bread (read below!)
1 medium spanish onion
1 english cucumber
1 large green bell pepper
1 large red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
champagne vinegar
salt and pepper
olive oil

Recipe

The dried bread is something that is essential, and your gazpacho is only going to be as good as this bread. Ideally, you'd get a traditional sourdough (which will dry out.) This doesn't refer to the crap you get in a supermarket called sourdough. We are talking about bread that is "naturally fermented". (There's a scientific logic here that must wait for a later post.) Otherwise, just get the best baguette or Italian bread you can, cut it into pieces, and let it dry out for a few days.

Prep work

Peel the skin off the bell peppers with a peeler. (yeah! you heard that right!)

Peel the cucumber. (this should not be a surprise.)

Dice half of the bell peppers into uniform squares. Retain the other two halves.

Dice half the onion into the same sized squares. Retain the other half.

Dice half of the cucumber into the same sized squares. Retain the rest (see the pattern?)

Pass all the tomatoes through the finest screen of a food mill. This is labor-intensive work but is totally necessary.

Prep

Take the tomato pulp, the bread slices, the three halves that were not diced (onion, bell peppers, cucumber), the garlic cloves, and a slug of olive oil and blend them in the blender.

Go easy on the garlic. Raw garlic packs a fierce punch so tone it down.

Now, pass this mixture through the finest screen of a food mill a second time. Yep, this is hard work too.

Mix the diced stuff above with this mixture. Add salt, pepper, and the champagne vinegar to taste. There should be a slight vinegarish bite but overall the flavor should be balanced.

Chill and serve.

Obsessive Failure

So the CC seems to have lied albeit inadvertently. He has not sourced that elusive cuttlefish ink.

They lied. They always do!

Armed with a map of the Upper West Side, the CC scoured every single store between 72nd and 96th St, and nary a store carried it. The closest he came was one store that "usually" carries it. Ironically, this store is among the closest to the CC's apartment.

Yes, the CC is aware that he takes "obsessive compulsive" to a new level but what better way to spend a Friday evening than searching for "black nectar"?

After that, he called every single fancy store in town, and only one had it, and that too for nose-bleed prices.

There's always the internet but the CC remains optimistic. New York's reputation as a foodie town is on the line here!

Lemongrass Sorbet

This was the other wonder the CC encountered at the restaurant in San Francisco in August.

This is truly an object of greedy lust, and any of you who know that the CC is not that fond of dessert should know that when a dessert item inspires food lust in the CC, well...

Ingredients

7-8 stalks lemongrass (outer leaves peeled)
2 cups water
2/3 cup fine sugar
1 cup mint (torn into pieces by hand)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
large pinch of salt

Recipe

Cut the lemon grass into vague rounds. Smash them once with a pestle.

Add the water, sugar, and lemon grass together. Bring to a rolling boil.

Do not boil. Remove from the flame immediately.

Toss in the mint leaves, and let it steep for at least 20 minutes (until cool.)

Add the lime juice and salt, and blend in a blender.

If you want a sweeter presence, tone this down. If you want a traditional "sorbet", leave it tart. Remember that as it chills, the acid is going to lose a large portion of its edge so the solution may be quite tart but the sorbet will be "refreshing".

Line a sieve with several layers of cheese cloth, and filter the mixture. Toss the residue. (Yes! you need both the cloth and a fine sieve.)

Now, do the "sorbet" thing. Freeze, and every 30 minutes break up the mixture with a whisk/fork until you get fine crystals.