Sous Vide

A thought crossed my mind last night, but I need to develop it more. Isn't the current vogue for sous vide cooking (i.e., cooking at a very low, constant temperature for a long time in a vacuum pouch) really just a great way for restaurants to make food in advance? From what I've seen of major kitchens these days, much of the cooking on the line is now just assembly - remove artichokes from sous vide bag, remove pork belly from sous vide bag, warm the first in butter, deep fry the second, stack on top of each other with a sauce from a third bag. Is all this bagging really worth the supposed flavor we're getting?

Ruhlman has thoughts on sous vide in general.

Food Video

I love this food video from the Japanese equivalent of the FDA. I especially like when the good fish, soup, and rice are replaced with meat and pancakes on the CGI family's table. Plus, the whole thing has a hilarious Japanese sensibility. Even if the dialogue was in English, I'm pretty sure most people would recognize where this was from, and the message is pretty unmistakeable - "look, the Americans are our friends, but their food makes you fat".

Anatomy of a wine list

We are having Thanksgiving Dinner at 2941, an excellent restaurant in suburban Virginia. My mom can't cook, as she is in France visiting my grandmother, and though I could prepare food and take it down with me to finish, that seemed like a big hassle to feed my fiancee, me, my sister and dad.

In any case, I love restaurants that put their entire wine list online, first because it helps me learn about wine, and second because online wine lists give you rare transparency into the restaurant's cost structure.

Here, for example, are 2941's options for Oregon Pinot Noir (something I am trying to learn about in the context of Red Burgundy, which I like a lot), the price they are selling for in the restaurant, the price the wine sells for at retail, and the markup. Of course, this isn't necessarily the price the restaurant paid, but my assumption here (as opposed to when a restaurant buys meat, where a good chef might pay a premium to ensure timely delivery) is that the sommelier or wine director is paying below retail. On the other hand, they probably have good stemware, and I might never have found these wines on my own.

Domaine Serene, Jerusalem Hill Vineyard, Willamette Valley - $150 - $76.95 - 194%

Medici Vinyard - Estate East Block, Willamette Valley, 2002 - $85 - $27.00 - 314%

Rex Hill - Reserve, Willamette Valley, 2004 - $90 - $31.72 - 283%

Shea Wine Cellars - Shea Vineyard Estate, Willamette Valley, 2006 - $130 - $42.99 - 302%

Civic Literacy Test

I took the online test on civic affairs that elected officials are said to have failed. I would think that a lawyer, at least, should never get fewer than 30 of these correct, assuming they did the test with some care, though really, all the questions are entirely answerable.

Some experimentation

I spent the weekend working on some things I know how to do, but wanted to try with a slightly different twist, or to perfect.  

Poached, deep fried, eggs - Since my visit to Blue Hill at Stone Barns a few months ago, I've been intrigued by the prospect of deep frying a breaded egg.  How better to bring together two of the best things in the world?  It seemed to me, though, that frying a soft poached egg would be easier than a soft boiled one, as I've always struggled to get the shell off of an egg that was cooked softly enough to fry.  For this experiment, then,  I poached a good egg for three minutes, dunked in ice water to set, trimmed, and then dipped in more egg and cornmeal before frying briefly in olive oil.  

The results were delicious, but I note (a) that more seasoning in the crust would have made this tastier, and (b) that dried breadcrumbs or panko would probably have been better than cornmeal. 

The presentation of the soft boiled egg is superior, I think. 

Rustic fruit tart - I'm much taken with the rustic fruit tart I made a couple of weeks ago, and want to make it on my visit home during Thanksgiving.   Since my dad boasts a quartet of bypassed arteries, though, I wondered if (no trans-fat) butter substitutes might work.  I made this with some pears that were sitting around.  The flavor is not what I'd necessarily hoped, and it didn't brown as well as it might, but still, quite serviceable indeed.

Lebneh - I have no idea why this is called keffir cheese by some, nor why anyone at all thinks this is Israeli, but lebneh is one of my favorite breakfast foods.  It couldn't be easier to make: simply empty a container of yogurt into cheese cloth and tie, as shown, onto your faucet. The next morning, voila - lebneh. 

Making lebneh made me focus this afternoon on the passing whims of my breakfast appetite.  Sometimes, entire weeks pass by when all I want are bagels with smooth cream cheese or peanut butter.  Then, nothing but croissants with apricot jam will do.  Later, for months at a time, my inner Scot bubbles to the surface, and I spend long half hours stirring steel cut oats in the grim winter and searching Manhattan grocery stores for Lyle's Golden Syrup.  But in the end, put a gun to my head and I'll always pick a Middle Eastern breakfast.  Zatar with oil, lebneh, pita, olives, fava beans, and vegetables.