Day 37 - Page 176 - Grilled Lemongrass Pork Sausage Ssäm, Page 177 - Fish Sauce Vinaigrette, PageFish 159 - Roasted Cauliflower

Until a few months ago I didn't have any idea what ssäm was. Now when I see lettuce I think of wrapping it around some juicy meat topped with an aromatic herb, pickle, and hot sauce. The ideal ssäm will be sweet/sour, crunchy/chewy, and spicy/cool.

My Lemongrass Pork Sausage was somewhat bland due to a mediocre batch of lemongrass

yet still made a tasty snack when assembled with the suggested Momofuku condiments:  pickled carrot julienne, fish sauce vinaigrette, and mint.

The two dishes in this post have in common Momofuku's version of the versatile Vietnamese Fish Sauce Vinaigrette. Once you taste it you just might crave it for almost all your savory eats. It contains fish sauce, water, rice vinegar, lime juice, sugar, garlic, and chiles. Just the thought of it gets those salivary glands acting up; it could be the singular reason Vietnamese cooking is so popular.

The fish sauce goes into Roasted Cauliflower. I lightly roasted mine because I wanted the florets to maintain a little crunch. Mixed with the puffed rice and deep fried cilantro it was not unlike a warm salad - so many different textures melded together by the sweet and tart vinaigrette.

Day 36 - Pages 289-293 - Fried Apple Pie, Sour Cream Ice Cream; Pages 259-261 - Roasted New Jersey Diver Scallop, Kohlrabi Puree, Pickled Chanterelles

Today I wanted to try a number of Momofuku recipes and in order to make all of them I made several substitutions. Aside from the practical issue of using what's at hand and the additional fun factor of ignoring instructions, I'm finding that I can usually get good results by using my own ideas of what ingredients will give me the taste, texture, and look that I want. Some of the ingredients were not in season while others just weren't readily available. I'm not a strict locavore but freshness is a high priority.

The Fried Apple Pie morphed into a Strawberry Pop Tart. Strawberries are peaking right now and it was just too much bother to track down tart molds with removable bottoms like the Momofuku dessert. Keeping with a combination of quick cooked fruit and jelly I made a barely cooked strawberry compote and a strawberry jam without pectin. These were mixed together for the filling.

 I cut the water in the pastry by one third because I was going to roll out the dough and shape it free form.

    Then fried them one by one in hot oil 

  until they puffed up into little pillows

         

Topped with Sour Cream Ice Cream (Meyer lemon juice and
rind subbing for lime) they were nothing at all like the
pop tarts of the past. These were flaky, fruity, and rich.

 

 

Well, we had dessert first. The tarts were followed by my version of the Roasted Diver Scallop. Chang prefaces the recipe with the note that in the early stages the dish was in constant flux depending on what was available and in season and I had a similar experience. I stayed with the scallops and bacon dashi but omitted the nori and swapped out the kohlrabi for parsnips and chanterelles for shiitakes. I added kale to the puree for some color. It was easy to brown the scallops once the butter was added and, no surprise, the butter made them really creamy and delicious.

Day 32 - Foie Gras Torchon - Finally!

Ava, Wayan, and Eddie arrived today, fortuitously timed to coincide with the final presentation of the torchon. It froze to a hardness that was almost too dense to microplane. Lots of shavings ended up outside the bowl and some ended up on my shoes (!) as the cold cylinder kept slipping from my hands. Regardless, it felt great as I piled the lychees, gelee, brittle, and foie gras into the bowls and brought them to the table.

Ava loved it. Wayan wanted bigger shavings so she could taste the liver. John liked it and not just because he eats foie gras any way he can get it. Eddie said it was like a weird dessert that was topped with rich and creamy meat. Yes, it was definitely of another world. The salty shavings and sweet trio underneath were an ethereal blend of taste and texture that kept me wanting more.

The Momofuku recipes that are the most complex aren't necessarily the most delicious. I've literally thrown together in a few minutes a kimchi stew that was amazingly tasty. But if you take the time to make a foie gras torchon the Momofuku Way and trust in your skills and intuition you will most likely end up with something memorable to share with your family. I enjoyed eating this so much that I didn't think for one second how it would compare to the real thing at Ko. Mine was good no matter what.

Day 29 - Page 270 - Foie Gras Torchon - Day 1

The foie gras recipe should take about three days but for me it took four because I added a day of wandering the back roads of Sonoma admiring the green pastures, stunning rock outcroppings, and freshly sprouting vineyards as I made my way north to pick up the liver. There are only three producers of foie gras in the U.S: two are in New York and the third is in California. Lucky for me, Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras has its office in the town of Sonoma and if you call ahead with your order, you can pick up a lobe or two the same day.

There are many people who think of tortured ducks when they think of foie gras and those people probably shouldn't read this post. I don't have much to add to the controversy other than that most of the arguments against it are irrelevant to the particular situation of Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras, a small family business that has been making duck products for a long time in a humane way and under strict government regulations. The  livelihood of the owners and their employees are in jeopardy and in 2 years under SB 1520 they will be forced out of business in California because animal rights extremists decided to target this particular food item.

But for those of us who eat it and, like Betsy, would "Kill for foie gras" read on...

This is the "A" grade because I don't do this every day and nothing but the best for Mi Momofuku.

Day 28 - Page 110 - Shrimp & Grits

When Chang and company were working on new dishes for Noodle Bar, they were concerned that they would transition into cooking the dreaded fusion food. They didn't want to be like all the other restaurants that were serving food that combined Vietnamese/Chinese/Japanese/French/etc techniques and flavors just for the sake of doing what was popular. The Momofuku kitchen wanted to give their customers food that went beyond someone's idea of modern/traditional and to create something that was unique and based entirely on their own tastes. Through trial and error, the classic southern dish, shrimp and grits evolved into this version that Chang says "allowed us - or me, certainly- to really look outward and onward." (Chang, pg 110, 2009) It marks the time when he began to venture into a new and uncharted territory of foodland where, as long as he stayed true to his own self, anything was possible.

If Shrimp & Grits was groundbreaking it would only be because it was first served in a noodle bar. A little soy sauce and dashi do not signal anything new. It's the scrumptious combination of bacon, grits, shrimp, onions, and egg that have earned it a place on the Momofuku menu. Plus, making it gave me the chance to use some of the most delicious eggs I've ever eaten. They are from the Giammona chickens that live in nearby Inverness Park and are available at Perry's Deli on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. As you can see, the color of the yolks are rich, deep, and dark. It's ridiculous to say it after all the stuff I've been eating but I will: "If I'm going to break my no cholesterol rules, a Giammona egg is one good reason".

Day 27 - Crack Pie

Momofuku's Crack Pie recipe has appeared on the Web in a few places and the latest version, the one I used today, was recently published in the LA Times . Christina Tosi is the pastry chef at Momofuku and when asked in a 2008 interview about how she got into making desserts she said, "I’ve always had a sweet tooth. It’s actually a very nasty habit. I rarely eat regular food." Yikes!

My friend, Joyce, does a bake sale every year to raise money for Heifer International and this year she was going to get a Momofuku sweet from me.

All I can say about crack pie is that I finished making it before dinner and one taste killed my desire to eat anything else for the rest of the evening. Sort of like...you guessed it. The recipe makes 2 - 10 inch pies that are chock full of almost a pound of butter, over 2 cups of sugar, 8 egg yolks, and a cup of cream. Except for a teaspoon of vanilla, there isn't any other flavoring. The crust is a crumbled 9" x 13" oatmeal cookie mixed with butter and pressed into pie tins. A little goes a long way with this dessert and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my Crack Pie does the same towards helping a beneficiary of Heifer International.

Day 25 - Page 283 - Cereal Milk + Dining Out

Cereal milk is a brilliant idea. I remember how I used to quickly gobble up bowls of frosted flakes before the cereal became soggy and then would drink every drop of the sweet, corn flavored milk. That was the way I liked my milk. And it's still a good idea but 5 recipes, dozens of ingredients, and 3 days later, I'm not so sure that the sum is greater than all the parts that went into the making of this Momofuku dessert.

To make this dish I made several substitutions to adapt the recipes to my lifestyle. If, like me, you are a home cook who wants to do one-stop shopping at the local supermarket here is a list of my substitutions:
1. 1 1/2 packets of gelatin softened in a little milk for the gelatin sheets (dissolve the gelatin by heating in the
cereal milk until it reaches a simmer
2. Filberts are in the same family as hazelnuts and are much easier, at least on the west coast, to find in the
market
3. A Valrhona Caraibe Noisette bar (dark chocolate Grand Cru w/ split hazelnuts) for the gianduja
4. Lemon juice for the citric acid
5. Small bowls or parfait cups for the silicone mold or ramekins (take my word for it, you'll never be able to unmold the custard as cleanly as the one pictured in the book)

The first day I made the cereal milk, poured it into dessert bowls, and put them in the refrigerator to set. Then I made the praline paste:

The next day I caramelized the cornflakes and made the hazelnut thing by melting the chocolate with the hazelnuts and sprinkled the cornflakes on top.

On day three, just before serving, I pureed the avocado, and put it all together. It was good but a little disappointing for me. Maybe I was exhausted and still thinking of an earlier time when I was an innocent little kid eating frosted flakes for breakfast.

We rarely dine out but sometimes you read and read glowing reviews of a restaurant and decide that if you were to splurge, you would go there. So, as consolation for being denied an El Bulli 2010 reservation, we went to check out James Syhabout's (he worked with Ferran Adrià for a week) Commis in Oakland. It's on Piedmont Avenue, an unassuming neighborhood street that still has, of all things, a laundromat. The restaurant is a small storefront with bare walls and, except for silver and glassware, the few tables are bare too . The tiny kitchen where all the cooking takes place is in the middle of the room. You can sit at the counter if you want to see up close the chefs quietly maneuver around each other and watch them tweezer the food onto the plates.

The amuse bouche was an amazing 45 minute poached egg atop date jam and onion cream with a granola garnish. This was my favorite dish of the meal because it was beautifully thought out and tasted so dreamy.

I then had the salad with pork jowl and roasted sunchokes.

It got too dark to take photos so I can't show the saddle of lamb and the raw goat's milk panna cotta but everything was delicious and the three courses had us happy and very full.

Day 24 - Page 231 - Chicharrón

 

Now that I've tackled a head, today I was ready to take on the pig's skin that I had stored in the freezer. The recipe seemed complicated but remembering the huge chicharrones at the market in Oaxaca and thinking about the preparation needed to create such giants, surely I could figure out how to fry up a little piece of skin for a snack. Chang serves a chicharrón as an amuse-bouche at Ko and writes, "I'm sure some people saw it as a little 'f... you' to kick off an $85 meal and I can't say that there wasn't some of that in serving a fried pork rind to start a fancy dinner...But, really, chicharrones have what it takes to be a great amuse: fat, salt, spice, and crunch all in one bite." (Chang, 2009, p.231)

I thawed the skin and boiled it for 1 1/2 hours outside so the piggy smell wouldn't permeate the house.Then after a short chill in the refrigerator, I scraped the fat off of the skin. This procedure was pretty easy but it took some time and patience since there were some crevices in the skin. Then, because I couldn't persuade anyone to sacrifice their dehydrator to the cause of chicharrones, I had to use the "unreliable" oven-drying method that Chang did not recommend. I put the skin on a rack in the oven at the lowest setting (about 150 degrees F) for about 24 hours. This was necessary in order to make sure that it was thoroughly dry and had achieved that "shiny plastic" characteristic. At this point I could break the skin into small pieces

and fry them one at a time in a pot of hot oil. In just a few seconds the skin floated to the top of the oil and expanded into a sculpture of big, clear bubbles. The cooled pieces were bites of  irresistible airy pork crunchiness that caused me to blurt out, in a moment of complete inexplicable weirdness, "David would be proud of me!"

Day Twenty One - Page 235 English Muffin, Page 238 Bay Leaf Butter, Page 89 Fried Chicken & Octo Vinaigrette

Taking a break from cooking with pork, I made English muffins. It turned out to be a big commitment of time and the resulting bread was successful as long as we didn't call it an English muffin as Andrea so diplomatically put it. It began with mixing the dough. Midway into the process, the recipe says that the dough will look like "an appendage of the sandman". Now, that is some strange image and had me puzzled for quite a while until I actually got to that point and, voilà , the creature's arm appeared. (See Sandman).

The next part was easy. Rolling the dough into balls and dusting tops and bottoms with cornmeal went very smoothly.

The slow baking was very tedious because I had only a cast iron skillet that held only a few muffins at a time. But I got the hang of how to do all the flipping - very, very carefully so the muffins do not deflate.

The final step, spreading the split muffins with bay leaf butter and toasting them on a hot skillet, was completed by John. He did a good job of getting a crispy top but nothing was going to make them full of holes like the things I thought I was making. They were perfectly edible, even good cold, but they just weren't English muffins. I think we'll just go with Chang's description of what he envisioned for the bread course, "a fat bomb."

Next on the menu was fried chicken. I thought I'd try it with just wings before jumping into frying up a whole chicken. They were tasty but on the dry side. The next time I'll steam them less and use larger pieces of meat.

Day Nineteen - Page 201 - Pig's Head Torchon - Part 1

"Farmers do not raise walking pork chops. If you're serious about your meat, you've got to grasp that concept. And if you're serious about sustainability and about honestly raised good meat ... you've got to embrace the whole pig...A farm turns out a head on each beautiful, well-raised pig, but nobody's rushing to eat it. That's where the cook steps in: you take it, cook it: elevate it, honor it, lavish it with care and attention - whether you're slicing scallions or spooning out caviar or boiling up half a pig's head. Turning ingredients into food, and sometimes almost literally turning a pig's ear into a silk purse, is what cooks do in the kitchen." (D. Chang, 2009, p.201)

Okay. I'm motivated. I got lucky and yesterday MSF (Marin Sun Farms) had a head available.

At first it wasn't easy to handle it without having second thoughts and wondering if I was getting in over my own head but I was reminded of the hundreds of heads I had seen in markets in China and Mexico and how preparing a head to eat is one of the most normal things to do in most of the world. And when the incredibly wonderful aroma from the simmering pot hit me, I knew that I was onto something.

I was also able to pick up a couple of items for the freezer:

 
a bag of chicken parts and

                          2 lbs of pig skin for future cooking.

The head is simmering now and all is well but I do have a word of warning: make sure that you have a pot that is big enough for the head. If not, you'll need a heavy cleaver, a hammer, and someone with a strong will and arm to cut through the snout. Well, it worked out but I don't recommend it. I'll post the next steps tomorrow.

Day Sixteen - Super Bowl Sunday - Page 79 Momofuku Pork Buns, Ramen, pickles + a loaf of bread

Today we had a pre-game pork bun and ramen extravaganza. I started the broth and pork belly at 8 AM and made the shiitake and cucumber pickles. Wendy came later to help roll out the noodles.

Some notes on the prep:
1. I used my reductionist/simplified method on the broth. Browned the pork bones in the pot and set them aside. Simmered together the konbu, shiitakes, and chicken but removed the first two after 20 minutes. Then added the pork bones, onions, and carrots and removed the chicken and vegetables after 1 hour. Then simmered the bones for a couple of hours more. I eliminated the bacon and tare but this was still a full, rich broth.

2. I ran out of lard so used butter for a second batch of buns. Not the same. Entirely different texture and not recommended unless you want your buns to be less light, and have a cake-like texture. So unlike the soft and smooth Chinese buns that inspired Chang. Here are the lard buns at the second rise before steaming.

3. Don't forget to remove the skin before roasting the pork. I didn't and it looked great when I took it out of the oven but it was too hard to slice - and eat. I removed it from the belly and broke it up in little pieces. They were pretty good for some added crunchiness in your bun but watch your teeth!

4. This time I didn't drain the noodles in a colander. Instead, I (actually, Wendy did this) dropped an individual portion in boiling water, as soon as it floated to the top, scooped it out with a spider strainer (flat wire scooper w/ a bamboo handle), drained and dropped the noodles into a bowl, and poured the broth over it. This prevented the noodles from becoming a mass of doughy glop in the colander. I think I saw this method at a saimin restaurant in Lihue, Kauai.

Here is Andrea's demonstration of two-fisted Momofuku fun.

We' ve been experimenting with Jim Lahey's no-knead bread and here is my attempt earlier in the week. You can find the recipe on this page of the NY Times Minimalist column.

For a moist loaf that doesn't dry out quickly, your dough should be very moist. Use at least a 1/4 cup more water than the recipe. Considering the small amount of energy that goes into it, this is a pretty good loaf of bread.