Day 42 - Cereal Milk Ice Cream

Thinking about Momofuku Milk Bar's soft serve cereal milk flavors, I found Bill Corbett's recipe for Cereal Milk Ice Cream here. He is now at Coi but previously worked at Michael Mina and before that hopped around and at one time was at Wylie Dufresne's wd-50. Christina Tosi (Momofuku pastry wizard) worked at wd-50 also and so now we have a rough idea of the cereal milk flavor lineage as it relates to the contemporary restaurant world and how I happened to make cereal milk ice cream today.

My version differed a little from Corbett's because I used half the egg yolks. Maybe that is why it seemed less like ice cream and more like a gelato but that is just my on-the-fly observation and not based on any real research into the technical differences between the two. Anyway, it was creamy and smooth with the unmistakable flavor of corn flakes.

Day 41 - Pages 253 through 256 - Soft-cooked Hen Egg; Caviar, Onions, & Potato

If I were to advise someone about how to cook through the Momofuku cookbook, I would tell them to make this dish first. It has many components but each one is technically straightforward and though time consuming, difficult to botch. And it is really, really good.

I thought it might be difficult to find the right caviar but this is Marin and it turns out that every market between Kentfield and Corte Madera has a selection of caviars in its deli case. At Woodlands Market I got the Tsar Nicolai Classic (at $38/ounce is ranked "affordable"); it's local (California central valley) and sustainable (farm raised). Having tasted it, I can imagine larger beads with more flavor and texture but this was very creamy and briny of the sea. I also found some nice Russian Banana Fingerling Potatoes.

First I made the Onion Soubise: "Tender, tender onions in an emulsified sauce of butter, onion juice, and water." This took about 2 hours of monitored cooking.
Next came the 5:10 Eggs: I boiled the eggs for 5 minutes, 10 seconds exactly and put them in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Cracking and peeling the eggs under water makes it easier to remove the shells without tearing the egg white.

For the Fines Herbes Salad I cut up some parsley, chives, and marjoram from the garden.
The Fingerling Potato Chips were sliced on a mandoline ("see-through thin"!) and deep fried until crisp. (Yeah, I like to take photos of food frying!)

Everything was arranged on a plate, the egg was nestled into the onions, and I carefully made a cut in the egg and let the soft yolk spill out. I piled half an ounce of caviar into the egg and I had an incredible lunch.

Eating this dish put me in a celebratory mood. It's clear now why caviar is such a special treat and I'm glad to have this as part of my kitchen repertoire because I'm sure that I'll return to it.

Day 40 - Page 178-179- Spicy Pork Sausage & Rice cakes & Chinese Broccoli

I've made this earlier but this time I had all of the ingredients in the recipe with the exception of packaged Chinese fried shallots. The dish is a take off on ma po tofu which originated in Sichuan province. It is popular all over China and recently has become a common item in Chinese restaurants in the U.S. There are many variations but one of the necessary ingredients is Sichuan peppercorns. In his book, On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee had this to say:  "They are not simply pungent; 'they produce a strange tingling, buzzing, numbing sensation that is something like the effect of carbonated drinks or of a mild electrical current (touching the terminals of a nine-volt battery to the tongue). Sanshools [the bioactive component] appear to act on several different kinds of nerve endings at once, induce sensitivity to touch and cold in nerves that are ordinarily nonsensitive, and so perhaps cause a kind of general neurological confusion.'" While my reaction is not quite so intense, still, I use Sichuan peppercorns in small doses - the numbing effect is pretty strange and I'm still developing a taste for its citrus/lavender-like flavor.

Here they are along with kochukaru (Korean chili powder):

 

I made a sauce with garlic, dried red chilis, Sichuan peppercorns, kochukaru, fermented bean paste, and soy sauce. There were a lot of chilis but because they were cooked for just a few minutes, the sauce was not overly spicy.

The pork and onions were cooked separately and then added to the sauce along with the rice cakes, broccoli, and tofu. It was all that was needed for dinner!

Day 39 - Page 68 - Pickled Cherries, Page 95 - Cherry Tomato Salad w/ Soft Tofu, Page 99 - Peas w/ Horseradish

At this time of year -

this is an indispensible tool -

and the recipe called for 2 pints of pitted cherries. Chang writes, "I cribbed this recipe from Bertrand Chemel, who was the sous-chef at Cafe Boulud while I was there." The pits were cracked with a hammer and slightly mashed so the almond-y flavor is released from the nuts. It smelled divine. (This would be a great ice cream flavor).

A brine was made by wrapping the pits into a cheesecloth sachet and boiling it with water, rice vinegar and sugar. It took on a subtle nutty aroma. For optimum pickling the cherries are best stored for a week but I couldn't wait to try them with the last bits of foie gras torchon.

For the salad the cherry tomatoes were lightly dressed in a sesame oil and soy sauce vinaigrette and spooned over a round of tofu. The snap peas were cooked for a couple of minutes - just until they turned bright green - in a reduced ramen broth. Preparation for both dishes was easy and quick. I really liked the tomato/tofu combination.

Day 38 - Page 93 - Roasted Sweet Summer Corn, Miso Butter, Bacon & Roasted Onions

This just in from Gay: NYTimes article re "Haute Stoner Cuisine"
Geez, I guess it did cross my mind...

I haven't posted in quite a while. It's becoming a little more difficult to find a recipe in the book that I haven't already made and that doesn't require a substantial investment in a sous vide machine or the hard-to-come-by transglutaminase (meat glue). But mainly there just hasn't been much time to cook because I've been busy with the garden. This year I planted some things with Momofuku in mind: daikon, snap peas, carrots, and lots of scallions.

The first corn of the season has arrived in the stores and so tonight's menu included Roasted Sweet Corn. First I prepared the Roasted Onions. Sliced onions are cooked in a little oil

for almost an hour at a low heat. They shrink, begin to carmelize, and are done just before they turn mushy.

I think of this dish as creamed corn (one of my all-time favorites) Momofuku style. It's smokey from the bacon and the miso butter gives it the M trademark unctuousness.


Betsy and Janet had dinner at Ssäm Bar in NYC and reported back that it was really yummy. Here is the evidence:

Fried Arctichokes

and Rice Cakes. Thanks for the pictures, Betsy!

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.