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

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

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Yey! I'm really looking forward to this challenge!

Brendan_Lee_56950

Good one @johan!

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Thank you @Brendan!

Brendan_Lee_56950

The only problem with this challenge is my grandma was a kick ass cook!

Chef_Dadisi_Olutosin_44496

I like this challenge. Thanks for the info Johan. I think I'll participate.

Jack_Mayer_85396

You rock @Johan!

Johan_Edstrom_5586

/me bows

Johan_Edstrom_5586

I think I have my sourcing list done, I think @Chris and @Grant might have eaten this, it is a dish that while I liked the flavor of it my gramma used to cook the living hell out of... She did that to many things. Her proteins were... Dead, killed, stabbed and then killed again.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

Good challenge...... might have a go at this one, myself.

grant

Dr. Pepper ham here we come! Thanks Johan.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

@Grant_Lee_Crilly I am going in something similar, one ingredient didn't I think come to Sweden until 1973 so grandma had killed proteins for decades before this.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Swedish spam!

Johan_Edstrom_5586

That is called Falukorv.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

The beginning of my sauce!

Porter sauce.

Pressure cooker, will run about 30 minutes, then let cool, strain, reduce again and add some cream.

700g coffe porter

245g Black currant "juice" (Concentrated)

110g Soy

20g parsley stems

100g red onion

110g carrot

1.5g Bay leaf

20g Roasted garlic in oil

500g water

15g Demi-Glace.

Nicholas_Gavin_68199

My g-ma loves to make jello salads. So here is my take on that little easter egg.

I went with nitro crushed berries, aerated raspberry gel, mango gelee, cream foam, fresh fruit and mint.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

@NicholasGavin that plates is just insanely spectacular visually.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

I forgot - there are 10 dried juniper berries in that sauce

Johan_Edstrom_5586

My entry for the challenge.

This is something my brother and I would love and move the meat aside, it is traditionally done as a sauce reduction, braise, then reduce again, served with canned peas, pickled cucumbers and canned carrots. Grandma was stellar at getting that great grey meat texture

It is a spruced up Swedish Porter-Roast.

Swedish "press" pickles

Swedish press pickles.

15g vinegar 24%,

45g water,

10g sugar,

5g salt,

5g dill seeds.

Porter sauce

Pressure cooker, will run about 30 minutes, then let cool, strain, reduce again and add some cream and a simple slurry.

700g coffe porter

245g Black currant "juice" (Concentrated)

110g Soy

20g parsley stems

100g red onion

110g carrot

1.5g Bay leaf

20g Roasted garlic in oil

500g water

15g Demi-Glace.

10 dried juniper berries

Sous vide carrots, taters and radishes.

Carrots and taters with butter, thyme and tarragon, salt and pepper.

Radishes with olive oil.

All finished in a pan after resting to room temp.

Microwave fried parsley for garnish.

Pickled cucumbers with dill.

Pickled red onions.

Black currant gele.

Cryo fried steak.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Your kids eat like champs dude!

Johan_Edstrom_5586

My daughter for some reason is often accused of being snobbish...

Brendan_Lee_56950

That's not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to food. She's going to be in for a rude awakening come college though! Cafeteria food isn't going to be anything like pappa enstrom makes!

Johan_Edstrom_5586

We kinda already have learnt that - she's done some rather fun things, she'll come home from friends late and say she is starving because they serve brown beef, she'll ask people for sauce béarnaise, salads and unfortunately has said a few times - You actually eat that? With regards to hamburger helper...

I think she is a heck of a lot healthier and better off for it though, she's had processed food at home I think 2-3 times in her life.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Good for you guys!

crkoller

@nicholasgavin that plate is gorgeous! Reminds me of a Eleven Madison Park plating, very cool.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

I'll add another one since my wife is sick.

Chickun noodle soooop and grilled cheese sammich.

Roasted chicken Keller style, broken down and pressure cooked broth,

shrooms, herbs and orzo, thickened in room temp. - Chicken added.

Grilled nicolleta and jarlsberg sammich with tomato and herbs.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Mmmm.... grilled cheese. I had some 28 month beecher's special reserve cheddar last night and I am craving it on a grilled cheese now.

michaelnatkin

My grandparents on my Dad's side were from the Eastern European Jewish culinary tradition. Lots of pot roasts, pastrami, shmaltz, that sort of thing. This is my take: beets cooked pastrami style - I cook them sous vide with pastrami spices, then dehydrate them, then rehydrate (a great trick I learned from @Grant_Crilly - I almost threw them out and he said "rehydrate, they will have a great texture.") Served with fried pumpernickel, pickled shallots (thanks @Nick), horseradish Kewpie mayo and watercress.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Very nice!

crkoller

So this week I decided to cook a dish that my great-grandmother made all the time, succotash. As a vaudeville perform and with six children at home, when the depression hit in the 1920s life became even more difficult than it already was for my great-grandmothers family and a staple became succotash because of its stretchability and its cheapness.

When my Papa Ed was still alive, all you would have to do is mention succotash or lima bean and his face would wrinkle in disgust. So I figured what better dish to not make only palatable, but something that even someone who hates it as much as he did would find delicious.

I have been listening to a lot of Dave Arnolds "Cooking Issues" because the commute to work is so long I can easily run through several episodes a day, no problem. The other week he was talking about using pectinex spl to dissolve the pectin in tomatoes to achieve a great clarification. So I used it on some beautiful mexican heirlooms, which I pureed (with some grey salt) and allow to hang in a cheesecloth-lined chinois overnight to produce a crisp tomato water - I was thinking about spinning this in a centrifuge for further clarification, but it was pretty remarkably clear so I said "good enough". *Also as a side note, tomato water is delicious, apparently very 80s and it catches a lot a flack as being well...very 80s, but considering that I was born in the second to last month of the last year of the 80s I am clearly coming to this party a bit late and think it's awesome*

After collecting the tomato water I decided to use another Arnold technique of infusion using a whipper. I took my tomato water and put it into my isi professional whipper with very small amounts of raw jalapeño, banyul vinegar, sliced fried garlic, a couple basil leaves, peppercorns, and like 4x toasted mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Charged it with N2O, shook, waited ~1-2 minutes and expelled the air. This consomme/water/broth whatever you want to call it was delicious, served on ice alone I would have been complete fine with to be honest.

Here is the crazy easy and awesome infusion technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4heCJERp67U

Next I infused some olive oil using the same technique with some thyme and pepper for garnish.

I sous vided some corn and limas, butter sous vide poached a purple potato and made a simple saffron Israeli cous cous with some red bell pepper as well.

To assembly I gently mixed the vegetables and cous cous. Poured the tomato water over top and garnished with fried garlic, the infused olive olive, black pepper and some grey salt.

Everything worked well together, would obviously be better in the summer when the vegetables would be brighter and even more flavorful, but overall a great dish.

Ideally I think it would be cool to have a way of having a hot dish so when the tomato water was poured table-side it would slight vaporized again you would smell all of the aromatic compounds in the water because it is beautifully clean and fragrant, but that will take some thinking about....

Have a good week Sunday, enjoy the Oscars or if your in the South like me the Dayona 500.

Cheers @Chris_Koller

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Chris_Koller your Papa Ed would love that dish! well done!