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Culinary Challenge 6 (Update Something Your Grandmother Would Have Cooked)

Chris_Young_80640

We have some remarkable people on our forum, and we're really pleased by the sense of community that is already taking shape. In that spirit, this week's challenge comes from Johan, one of our most prolific forum members. For this week, along with the usual folks at ChefSteps, Johan will choose one of the top 3 posts.

This week's objective: Cook something that your grandmother would have cooked, but give it an update. Take advantage of new tools and techniques, juxtapose something old with something new, or simply plate your grandmother's cooking in a contemporary way.

Outline: Take the challenge in your own kitchen then share your results via the ChefSteps forum. Describe the dish you have chosen and techniques used to make it. Be sure to post your pictures.

The top 3 posts will get their photos posted on ChefSteps' Pinterest board. Please have your entry posted by Sunday.

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Comments

lockgavin

Hey guys, for those of you looking for sodium citrate, I have had luck ordering a sample from ADM.

http://www.adm.com/en-us/products/_layouts/ProductDetails.aspx?productid=118

They sent me out a bag I wouldn't use in 10 lifetimes. Unless I got real addicted to that yummy cheese sauce.

trev_teich

@Nicholas Gavin How did you make the aerated jelly?

matthew.snyder77

@Brian Douglas, The flavor of the puree was a skosh off target, which was down to seasoning on my part. The very vivid memory of the peas in my gran's shepherd's pie is down to a textural difference, so that's why I wanted to go with a gel for the peas in my update.

Tried again last night, but I made a mistake on the pea gel this time. Wondered if I could set a gel that wasn't quite as dense but would still hold its form, so I added some xanthan to the puree before adding the agar agar...... and (as I'm figure the more advanced cooked here might have guessed) the gel didn't set. So I had a very dense puree instead of a slightly looser gel. Eh, lesson learned. This is about experimenting with new techniques and ingredients, and sometimes experiments don't work.

Exact same recipe (minus the change to the peas) as before, but different plating.

2.3

Added a garnish of some edible flower petals and mint leaves, and a salad of clover sprouts and celery heart leaves dressed with a tiny bit of lemon juice. Flavor-wise, this was clearly the best of the three.

My biggest thing is I lack refinement in execution and plating. As soon as I sauced the plate, I laughed and told the Spousal Unit that I just made a smiley face on my plate. *facepalm*

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Matthew_Snyder I'm for version 2.1 as well. How did you make the "noodles?"

prince_of_porcelain

I just bought a big tub of Willpowder sodium citrate. Made mac and cheese a couple nights ago and it rocked. Can't wait to play some more.

@Matthew_Snyder - Great work...My vote's for version 2.1. Love the pea noodles. How was the flavor?

Jack_Mayer_85396

Thanks fellas, I guess I knew the answer to this ...

Brendan_Lee_56950

i havent ever seen it locally either.

seijoed

I haven't seen it locally but you should be able to find it from Amazon, Modernist Pantry, Willpowder and so on.

Jack_Mayer_85396

Thanks @Johan, I need to look into that as well. Any non-internet sources for sodium citrate? I wanna turn some great cheese(s) into velveeta!

seijoed

Health shops are another good resource - many of these things are used as substitutes in gluten free diets.

Jack_Mayer_85396

ha ha, cool - thanks for the tip!

Brendan_Lee_56950

Depending on your store they may have agar in powder form or in big sticks that look like packing materials, in which case you will have to pulverize them yourself or I sometimes snip pieces off with scissors to weigh it before hydrating. We asian's love our agar in desserts.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Brendan, thanks! I'm overdue for a visit to the asian market anyway. I did get a box of Knox unflavored gelatin and a package of Xanthan gum.

Brendan_Lee_56950

@jack if you want to play with agar and gelatin you can find them both pretty readily at any asian grocery store in big formats for a cheap price. I have kind of fallen in love with fluid gels (think of how ketchup flows/feels) and the possibilities are endless.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Matthew very cool! I have yet to start playing around with Gels.

this post will help me get in the game. Gotta place my order soon. Did you purchase a starter kit or just make a list of what you thought you needed? Thanks

matthew.snyder77

Oh, definitely... it will be fun exploring other uses. Next time I think I'll warm one of the gels to serve heated through instead of room temp. (Which might give it a flavor boost, as well.)

seijoed

Great job! Gels are interesting aren't they?

matthew.snyder77

Okay, so I know I'm well beyond the deadline for the competition (considering the winners have already been named!), but I still wanted to have a go.

My heritage is Irish and German. (Which means my liver's just fine, thank you) Growing up, one of my most favorite things in the world was my grandmother's shepherd's pie, and it remains a staple comfort food for me. Two years ago we had a St. Patty's Day cookoff of my office, and I took the opportunity to gussy up her recipe.

For some reason, I've always had this memory of the peas in her shepherd's pie. Like they were a distinct component. They weren't, of course, she cooked them in the stew. But to me, they've always been like their own element of the dish. So one thing I decided to focus on was treating the stew, the peas and the potatoes separately, bringing them together only on the final plate. And I decided to use lamb shoulder instead of beef mince because I'm a grown up and that's how I do things.

This is what I came up with:

A not unappetizing plate, if I do so say myself.

But for this challenge I had to explore new methods and techniques and ingredients in order to give the dish an update. So I decided to pull it apart completely and treat the protein and sauce individually as well, and switch from braised shoulder to a rib rack.

Recipes for each of the three side components were as in my original take on the dish, but with some added flourish to modernize the final product.

Sauce is the braise base from my older version (mirepoix of onion, carrot & celery; tomato paste, deglaze with Jameson's, white wine, reduce), blitzed with some xanthan and strained. Flavors were balanced with salt & pepper and a bit of red wine vinegar to taste.

Peas are blanched and shocked, then quickly tossed with some shallot and ginger that had been sweated in extra virgin olive oil. Blizted with agar agar, strained, brought up to 88° C, and then a portion was reserved to set a gel in a block so I could cut small sheets, and part was pulled into plastic tubes and dropped in an ice bath to make 'spaghetti'.

Potatoes were actually quite conventional...... because I forgot to buy charging canisters for my siphon. (*audible sigh*) Boiled the peeled potatoes, and infused some cream with the reserved potato skins and some roasted parsnip. Passed the potatoes through a ricer, combined with the strained cream and added about 25% of that weight in unsalted butter and whisked (lightly). These benefit from a heavy seasoning hand.

Finally, the lamb rib rack was cooked sous vide per the recipe and method shown here at ChefSteps with the stovetop/Ziplock displacement technique. Cooked for 90 minutes at 57° C, then seared off on a grill pan.

Final plating, each using one of the two different gels.

Shepherd's Pie 2.1

Shepherd's Pie 2.2

My plating is terrible, I know. This was the first time I've ever worked with gels and making pea noodles and whatnot, and, frankly, part of me was just elated that the gels set at all!

The final plates aren't really evocative of Shepherd's Pie at all, if I'm honest. But the flavors were more or less right, so that's a good start. Only change I think I need to make (flavor-wise) is the sauce needs some richness and complexity. Since it wasn't cooked with the meat, it was a bit lacking. Might use stock next time. Will also use a bit less agar agar to set the gels; used 1.5%, and it seemed to make things rather more dense than I would have liked. If I can get away with using less, that'd be nice.

I documented what I did yesterday, so I'll be working at developing the concept and refining the dish. I have a whole other rack that I can cook tonight.... I think what I might do there is remove the chops from the bone after cooking, then portion off medallions and assemble the plate in a way that harks a little more directly back to the original. Drop of sauce, lamb medallion, sheet of pea gel, quenelle of potato (which, as I said, was supposed to be a mousse), three or four per plate.

Sorry for the very long post, but this is my first step off the pier and I'm kinda stoked!

prince_of_porcelain

@jim: Love that salad!

jim_53915

Congrats to all challenge winners!

jim_53915

@Brian Douglas, your right, shame on me for dropping the ball on this challenge. Hope this makes up for it. Grandma's Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Salad: sous vide 12hr turkey leg confit, 64C poached egg w/ beet salt, frisee salad greens, bacon lardons. A far cry from the usual leftovers from thanksgiving smothered in mayonnaise!

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Susan, thanks for bringing the thread back on track ...

susan_fox_33805

This is so beautiful and my mouth is watering. Well done, @Chris_Koller!

Brendan_Lee_56950

I went to the caps/pens winter classic, it was pretty sweet to see a hockey game outdoors at heinz field. Weather was shitty though, who would have thought it would rain on january 1st in pitt.

matthew.snyder77

@jack haha i suppose. I tend to model my game after yzerman and datsyuk as a lifelong wings fan

I'm originally from central PA, so I'm solidly Black & Gold in everything I do. But Detroit was the closest non-conference rival for the Pens, so they've always been my 'B' team. Huge Yzerman fan growing up.

My buddy and I have made the same pre-season prediction for the Stanley Cup final every season since I think 1993 -- Pens and Wings. So you can imagine how pleased we were with ourselves in 2008 and 2009. :-D

Brendan_Lee_56950

Good ol, Joe! I have a signed card from when he played for calgary back in the day! Joe was a Cornell man, my friend was recruited heavily in high school to play for the big red and would get "encouraging calls" from Joe suggesting he pick Cornell over his other choices haha.

Jack_Mayer_85396

really? lacrosse is an awesome sport! its hockey on your feet instead of skates. big regret, I never played it. non-existent in the upper midwest in the 70's of my youth. trivia answer for you, who is the only guy to win an NCAA title in both lacrosse and hockey? Joe Nieuwendyk (sp?) at Cornell or Colgate. He won a couple of Stanley Cups, one with Dallas and he's currently the GM.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Haha ironically he's the only wing i have never been able to embrace. I had a few tryouts for WHL junior teams but was never big enough to make a career of it. Ended up going to college to play lacrosse instead.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@B we could talk hockey all night! My Dad played for Jack Reilly at West Point in the late 40's and early 50's. I was at Wisconsin when "Badger Bob" Johnson was the coach; great guy, I knew him pretty well. He was a bigger golf nut than hockey guy ... If you're a redwings fan you must like Chris Chelios. He's younger than I am, but I knew him in school, nice guy ...

Brendan_Lee_56950

He retired this season. I remember watching some sweet videos of phil and gordie and one time we destroyed bobby orr's rental car at the NHL draft and he came out smiling and said it didn't matter he had insurance! Hockey has been my life since I could stand!