Culinary Challenge 10 | Put Your Own Spin on a Favorite Dish from Wherever You Live

I wish I lived where there are a few good restaurants, or even one or two, there are absolutely none here where I live (the southern tier of NY state.)

~Martin

Appleebeeeees!

I'm kinda in the same boat, I'll have to redo something from Z's cuisine or make modernist sushi - that is about all we eat out here.

andrea.feldman

Lots of interesting possibilities here in Providence — Al Forno's menu is an especially fun one to riff on.

A_L_Esterling_35269

@Johan_Edstrom, you made our day with Applebee’s!

dwl2300_23610

Hey @diggingdogfarm where in the souther tier are you? Im a chef in downtown binghamton. Lived and worked the past 10 years in Charleston SC.

Im trying to do things that havent been done here before at my restaurant.

dwl2300

I'm in Elmira Heights (Chemung County).

I do get to Binghamton occasionally.

~Martin

dwl2300_23610

Remliks oyster bar and grille. Thats where I work. Come try us next time your in town. I believe you will enjoy.

~david

Thanks!

~Martin

Sean_Cameron_40267

I'm australia so naturaly a lot of places here serve kangaroo dishes... so I thonk I might redo a dish from a local resturant "Ocre" using kangaroo loin and wasabi. Thinking caparcio!

Chris_Young_80640

@Sean — Would love to see that.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

@Sean Cameron, a good way I have done venison carpaccio is you sear the loin in a hot pan to form a nice brown crust then roll the meat tightly in plastic wrap to form an even cylinder. Freeze the roll overnight and then slice very thin on a meat slicer while still frozen. The thin dark edge contrasts well with the dark red meat, and the circle of meat confuses people.

About a year and a half ago, a food truck called Kangaroostaurant showed up at the Appleton, WI farmer's market. We stopped by for breakfast that morning and have been going back to be fed by Kelly, Jay and the crew ever since. They are a proud part of the community, sourcing most almost all ingredients from local farmers and purveyors. They started out doing prep in a commercial kitchen for rent, but quickly outgrew it. Then they found a space at the girl scout commercial kitchen for a while, but knew it was temporary. Again they moved, into the kitchen at the Riverview Gardens, a local green space and community center. All of these kitchens gave them a base for their operations, but it wasn't until this winter that they found a home and opened the Kangaroost. As on the truck, the menu changes daily based on whatever is fresh and local, and still highlights the best food products available in our community. I'd describe the cuisine as global comfort food produced locally.

On occasion, they offer their version of what may just be Canada's

greatest culinary contribution: Poutine. I don't think most folks in

Wisconsin know what poutine is. Fries? With gravy? And cheese curds?

Stop it.

For the challenge, I thought I'd do a modernist version of Poutine in honor of the Kangaroost.

I started off with the gravy. I made a brown beef stock in the pressure cooker, then reduced it by about half to intensify. I seasoned the broth, and thickened with 1% Xanthan and 1% Iota Carageenan to provide some thermal stability. I'd never worked with Iota Carageenan, but I wanted a gel structure that would be stable when hot, and that I could break apart the gel matrix and it would reset.

Then I took potatoes and thinly sliced them, dipping the slices in some cream. I laid the potatoes out in a flat sheet, overlapping slightly to create about a 12" x 12" square. Then I put another layer of potatoes on top of these. I topped the potatoes with the gravy gel (this didn't spread as well as I'd hoped), then rolled as tightly in plastic wrap as I could. I compressed these torchons with a couple more wraps and then cooked in the circulator at 90C for about 45 minutes. Luckily, I made 2.

The first one, I removed from the circulator. Unwrapped and sliced

into pieces about 3 inches long. These went into the fryer. And after a

few short minutes they unwrapped and I was basically left with a batch

of potato chips. Like I said, lucky I had 2. That was last night. I

stuck the second potato torchon in the fridge overnight to try again

tonight.

I had to rethink my plating at this point. For my second and final attempt to finish the dish, I sliced the potato roll into about 1" long rounds. Then I pan fried these until crispy, flipping over to get both sides. I plated over a bed of finely grated Red Barn Heritage Weis Cheddar (a fantastic local cheddar), and topped with some Maldon and chopped Chives.

“Scalloped Potato Poutine”.

That is awesome @Brian - looks better than the original too!

Brendan_Lee_56950

I will have to be the judge of your poutine brian, you can feel free to send some my way.

Whoa!

That poutine looks awesome!

My ex is a Canadian native, Algonquin (Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg)......we ate a lot of poutine!!!! I love the stuff!!

~Martin

I'm embarrassed to admit that it took a friend to point this out, but I'd like to change the name of my dish now. Since I'm beyond the hour mark and can't edit my post, I guess I'll just hope everyone reads this. My entry is now called: Scalloped Potato Poutine. If Lorraine or someone with privileges could edit the last line of my post with the new name, I'd be extremely grateful.

@Brian - what struck me right away was making round pave

Poutine Pave.

Mike_Minh_Truong_54120

Starch on top of starch. I'm built to eat like that.

@Johan - Pave was definitely the starting point. I had some difficulty getting it to roll without falling apart, so it's not as tight as I would have liked. Would work better if you could bond the potatoes together prior to rolling. Activa for starches? I know WD has done some work impregnating veggies with gelatin to bond with transglutaminase...

Ideas in food had some interesting stuff on bonding veggies, I was thinking about that too, how to one get the tater thin enough and pliable enough not to mention boonding, I'd guess the pliability naturally is going to remove the binding starch.

Or use a cylindrical core. 1/4 inch diameter would probably work to get it going.

Brendan_Lee_56950

cheese flavored methocel?

1% A4C would happily bind mashed potato I think.

Wasn't there a gnocchi recipe for it?

Brendan_Lee_56950

I think so. I would even consider using the instant potato flakes so you could toast them to enhance the french fry/brown flavor

crkoller

One of my favorite restaurants in Durham is Nana's, if anyone is in the Triangle area in NC it is completely worth going to. They have a delicious pound-cake and in the summer they pair it with strawberries, whipped cream, and other accoutre mon. Definitely a perfect dish for a hot night in the south. Here is my spin...Almond Pound Cake, Freeze-Dried Strawberry Power, Graham Cracker Crumbles, Macerated Strawberries, Brown-Butter Gelato.

Additionally, used the Chefsteps.com Rocher technique and once I learn the sweet spot of the perfect ice cream temperature I think it will be even easier. The Robert Welch spoons that @Chris used at the Fat Duck are available (in a non-silver ie not crazy expensive) version at Bed, Bath and Beyond under the name the name "Meridian Satin Flatware"

@Chris, great looking dish and thanks for the Spoon name.

crkoller

No problem, @Johan_Edstrom on the spoon type, I was walking around there looking for something and I saw them and got so excited because they pull much better rochers than any other spoons I've tried using. As @Grant has mentioned in the past, World Market also has good options....