I've been a chef for several years, and while it gives me room to play around with my food (especially while in culinary school) I've always wondered what I should try to do next.
I've always had on the backburner the idea of a soup using tea as a base. I figure that people tend to use water, stock, or cream as a base, so why not tea? I love using it for recipes, especially an Earl Gray custard sauce I made for a chocolate molten cake a few years ago.
I've been meaning to make a "soft pretzel panzanella"- that is to say, a bread salad using soft pretzel croutons. I'd like to experiment with all the classic South Philly flavors- broccoli rabe, sharp provolone, etc., with some sort of mustard-y vinaigrette. I made an iteration once that didn't quite do it for me. I haven't had occasion to try again, but now that tomato season is almost upon us...
That sounds fantastic! And I love the idea of using soft-pretzel for things other than buns. I've been tossing about a savory bread-pudding with pretzel and maybe a lighter mustard binder. On a related German note, I got bored at work one day and worked our beer-batter into a crepe batter and made beer-crepes with whole-grain mustard, pickle, and sliced bratwurst as a filling. That was delicious.
Pit roasting is fun. I've never done a whole pig, because I've never had a reason to cook that much meat (I'm not popular enough to pull of a party of that size). But I have cook lamb legs and pork shoulders a number of times. It's easy as hell, even more fun, and the meat turns out amazing. There's really no down side, unless you consider digging a large hole in your backyard a downside. Probably the best part is getting a two day party, as it takes a whole day to dig the hole, and then work up enough coals in the bonfire to actually cook the thing. Then the next day you get to enjoy the result! My best advice is to make sure your beer supply is well stocked, because you get pretty dehydrated tending a large fire for that long.
I wonder how tea as a base for congee would be- you could maybe half it with stock- whatever the main protein is. Or, rice pudding with tea as a main flavoring component instead of water...
I can vouch for the tea pudding, it's rather good if you use the right tea. Back when I was a broke first year college student I had the bright idea to use the rest of the tea in my pot to mix up some rice pudding. That first batch was just English breakfast tea and some raisins and remains one of my favorite impromptu meals I've made. Something about the sugary creamy milk with the rice starch just goes perfectly with the tea. It really makes sense since sugar and milk and tea go right together and sugar and milk and rice go together as well. One thing I would advise against though is over brewing the tea, by itself the rice and fruit don't provide much flavor so your pudding is going to be dominated by the tea spices so unless you're huge into strong tea something mild would be best. Next time I'm doing it I'm going to try a nice white tea.
Ooh, a Chinese dish would probably work even better! Mmm, barley tea Congee sounds fantastic, I'll have to try it! Seriously, I think the cooking applications of tea are highly underutilized. People do so much with plain water or stock, and I figure tea is basically herbal stock. I'm gonna have a lot of fun this week with tea and rice, I'll let you know how it goes!
Tea as a base for a soup? -Interesting idea, report back your findings. Also, the #recipes tag isn't used enough in my opinion, feel free to show it some love. One of my favorite drinks is called the Tea Thyme and is served at Grange Restaurant and Bar in Ann Arbor, MI. I believe ecib, b_b and mk have all at least tried the drink. It's pretty damn good. Here are the ingredients, though I'm not sure of the exact amounts:
The other day I was juicing beets and thought to myself, "I should make beet infused simple syrup." -I'll do it one of these days and report back. Good question btw. Black currant tea
thyme simple syrup
Plymouth gin
lemon juice
I recall that Tea Thyme was pretty good. Unfortunately, Grange also has this abomination which I accidentally ordered expecting a classic Manhattan:
It tasted like someone poured bacon juice in my whiskey. GKB Manhattan:
Bacon infused Bulleit Bourbon
Michigan maple syrup
blood orange bitters
house brandied cherries
Yeah, that drink was "unfortunate" at best. The smoke from the bacon was incredibly over-powering. cW, you used to be intimately familiar with these cocktails. What's your take on the baconator-manhattan?
Sad to say, I am in agreement with mk on this one. (Not sad to agree with mk, just sad that I can't stick up for my previous and beloved place of employment on this one). Had the bacon been served on the side, the synergy would have been wonderful. Alas, not only was the smoke overpowering (at times), but that, and the oily fattiness of the bacon, were the only things imparted. Without crispness, salinity and umami, bacon wouldn't ever work. And so it did not work in the GKB manhattan. The only successful incorporation of bacon into a cocktail I've seen is when Bloody Marys are garnished with generous strips of the stuff. Anyone else have candidates?
Beet infused simple syrup should be really great! It's such a naturally sweet food. I'm sure you know, but that's why we have Red Velvet cake, beet was used as a sweetener during the early 1900's in America, and Red Velvet came about because of the dye it imparted to the cake. Let me know how it turns out! And that tea sounds absolutely delicious, currant isn't used nearly enough and thyme simple syrup sounds delightful.
Wow man you like good music, and you cook. Are you me? But seriously, last sunday the wife and I took Portabello mushrrom caps, put a light coating of butter on them, cooked up some ground turkey, mixed that with a small tub of ricotta cheese, put the mix on top of the mushrooms, then put a layer of spinach leaves, then melted mozzarella on top. Phenomenal.
I highly recommend it, Its probably the greatest thing I've ever made. Rocking the goatee these days cause my head refuses to grow hair anymore.
I have always to make 25 pounds of molten sugar and deep "fry" in it. 366 degrees should be hot enough. But it my smaller experiments the water from the food quickly desolves the sugar. So i want a huge vat of lava.
I am a candy maker but not at that scale ... yet. Hard candy carmels taffy etc.
Wouldn't mind making a terrine... if the whole process of making a terrine wasn't incredibly daunting and time-expensive. And I guess money-expensive. Used to want to try my hand at sourdough until I read Beard's opinion/description of it (here's where I would link if I could find it online, or else transcribe if I wasn't lazy). I keep playing with the idea of making either beer or liquor- just have to get over the twin obstacles of 1) not having or wanting to buy the equipment involved, and 2) being a terrible chemist. No, that's unfair. I'd have to have any background in chemistry to be considered a terrible chemist. Also, I guess home distilling is still illegal here. Where do you chef (is that a verb)?
We did Terrines at school, and you're write, they're incredibly daunting, and you need the write kind of dish and all to make it in. Plus, I was severely disappointed with the taste: they weren't really terrible, but they're fairly bland considering the quality and flavor of the ingredients in them. I'd love to make beer sometime too, the closest I've come is putting yeast in some Welch's grape juice when I was a teenager and letting it sit for a week. I chef (I guess?) for a little bistro/martini bar in Louisville, not the fanciest place I've been, but a good friend of mine runs it.
My roommates made beer in our college dorm way back when (who didn't). It tasted terrible, but I don't think we cared. My landlord's husband makes beer every few months, but his methods for making anything at all are incredibly dubious, so I haven't worked up the steel to try any. Here's the conversation we had last time I stopped by their place: ME: "Hey Sean, I, uh, brought the rent, uh, the rent check..." SEAN (sees me staring at the giant open bowl of ground meat on dirty kitchen table): "Thanks. Oh, that? We're making sausage. Lots of sausage. ME: "...Huh." SEAN (sees me staring at the black cat that's jumped up on the table and is now eating directly from the giant open bowl of ground meat): "That Felix. He loves his sausage."
And I think that's what they mean when they say "you don't want to know how the sausage is made."
Venison jerky! One of our neighbors goes hunting and one in a while he'll share his catches with my family. Been wanting to make that stuff for a while.
Pan-seared duck breast. Kinda expensive, but when you get the perfect sear on the fat, it's magic. Great alternative protein.
I think the culinary experiments post and the favorite breakfast post should meet
I've been meaning to try poaching a steak for a while now. Now hear me out before you tell me I'd be wasting a perfectly delicious piece of meat. I've poached fish a ton and by far the best thing about poaching is temperature control, the food you poach will never be warmer than whatever the temperature of the water is. Secondly poaching can infuse flavors deep into the food that are hard to get at otherwise. Thirdly poaching keeps foods that would otherwise quickly dry out nice and moist. So here's how I think about it in my head. While steak really benefits from a nice char on the outside it also is very important to have the inside cooked right. Maintaining a proper internal temperature is difficult as almost always you get a little slice of perfect in the middle, a ring of okay around that, a ring of well done, a ring of well this is rather dry, and then your char. So picture this: A light red wine, salt and pepper all mixed into a brine poaching a cheap steak (maybe a bad sirloin that always has a habit of turning to sawdust when cooked) that you've dry aged for a few days. The temperature is set to a perfect 135 and that steak now infused with all that salty, peppery, red winey goodness is now medium rare all the way through. Throw it into a skillet or onto the grill for 30 seconds a side to char and drain a little bit of the juices so it isn't water logged... in my head it tastes so good. Never had the occasion to try it but man, would I love to.
Unfortunately, I don't have time for a lengthy response. But I worked for a while at a high-end country club and we would occasionally Sous-Vide steak. This worked okay, but our idiot chef didn't sear them afterwards and they ended up flavorless. And I'm not sure about poaching, one of the absolute worst things you can do to beef is waterlog it, even surrounded by moisture, it will likely end up dry and tough. Such a small cut of meat won't do as well with a braise, and definitely won't function well in a poach. What you're describing is basically a single-serve braise on a small cut of meat. So you may be able to do it in a smaller amount of time if you sear it first, but otherwise you'll end up with a tough and dry cut of meat.
I'd agree that waterlogged steak is pretty much one of the worst abuses of beef you can manage. I was thinking that hopefully a few days of dry aging (not too long or else the enzymes will tenderize it too much) will stiffen up the steak a little so it doesn't absorb it all like a sponge. Additionally a smaller cut will mean less time in the water so hopefully less time to get all friendly with the moisture. Beef really benefits from dry heat and I certainly think it needs a sear before and possibly after. Even with all the potential difficulties I still believe it could be a very unique and delicious way to cook beef. Fingers crossed anyway.
Oh definitely give it a shot! I'd love to hear how it turns out. Like I said, I'm just wary about putting beef in water like that, but if you end up doing it, be sure to let me know what happens! You may want to try using beef stock with wine in it instead of brine, too.