A Day At Play

New toys are always fun. Got up this morning and shot up to the market to buy some ingredients to play with in the new chamber vac. I have been reading a lot about 'instant pickles' and compressed fruit/vegetables so I returned with the spoils. Apples, rhubarb, turnips, pineapple, dragon fruit, nectarcots (I assume a nectarine apricot cross) and a bag stuffed with herbs.

We left the market and headed off for the 'Artisan Market' in Tweezledown. A pleasant 35 minute walk (unless you are carrying half a market garden and have a bad back). After a 45 minute  stroll around the stalls we left with some pork and peppercorn pate, some garlic sausage and some spice raclette cheese. Lunch in the Tweezledown pub (a fantastic lamb and apricot curry) and it was off home to play.

Once through the door and having put the perishables in the fridge, I set about learning the abilities of the beastie. No photographs today, but I will repeat the recipes that worked at later dates and show you the before, after and ingredients.

First into the vacuum was the nectarcots. I boiled up 250ml of Sauvignon Blanc vinegar, 80ml of maple syrup, 150 ml filtered water and 7g of salt. Meanwhile, I quartered the 8 nectarcots and popped them into a large bag along with 150 ml of brandy. Once the brine was bubbling, I poured it on top of the fruit and brandy then popped it into the chamber vac, on a 45 second cycle 7 second seal. There was an exciting time at the bottom end of the pump out as the water and alcohol boiled off just before the bag sealed. A few seconds later the vacuum was cleared and the pickled nectarcots went into the fridge. Apparently good for 3 months.

Some apples in cider and strawberries in white rum (for some jelly cocktails to be mentioned at a later date) soon followed. At this point, objections were raised that nothing had been tasted yet so I prepared a small bag of sliced strawberries in white rum for us to try. The strawberries sucked in a good measure of rum in a minute and were a great snack. Can't wait for the cocktail proper.

As a finale I popped some apple 1/8ths into a small bag with some maple syrup and compressed them. I also balled some watermelon and it underwent the vacuum treatment. These joined the potato salad with instant pickled red onion slices in basil oil  as an accompaniment  to our cheese, pate and sausage from the artisan market with a nice bottle of Rioja. A nice end to a busy day.

Once I am over the excitement of the new toy and have had a chance to get some recipes sorted out I will publish both photographs and ingredients up here. If you are brave enough to throw caution to the wind and buy one of these great machines then you can them out. Otherwise, you will have to take my word for how great the products are.

Needed a kick start

Having played around with some molecular cooking techniques I had quickly come to realize that if I was to be spontaneous in my cooking then I was going to need a chamber vacuum sealer to clear the bubbles out of the variety of substances whisked into liquids. Either that or I had to wait 24 to 48 hours for the bubbles to leave through gravity. I finally bit the bullet and purchased one of these beauties :

This rather large beast is the SousVide Supreme ChamberVac VP122 (available here : http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/Shop_Online/Vacuum_Sealers/SousVide_Supreme_Chamber_Vacuum_Sealer/Product.aspx?ProductID=54&DeptID=36&&). It arrived today and once the wight lifting exercise was over (it is around 56 lb in weight) I started to play.

My first bit of fun was the same, I suspect,  as most people who invest in one of these. Compressed fruit or vegetables. I had purchased a small watermelon for this very purpose. Having cut the fruit into inch thick, quarter slices, I placed some slices in a vacuum bag. Placed the bag in the machine. Set the vacuum time to 35 seconds to give a full vacuum and a 6 second seal. Once I had pressed the start button, the machine went through it's process and when the beep sounded I was able to remove the bag. This is the change that the fruit undertook

Before

After

As you can see, the fruit is compressed, translucent and appeared much juicier when eaten. There was no change in flavour but the texture felt richer in the mouth. The reason for the change is that the alveoli (air filled cells) in the food burst under vacuum. Then, when the bag is sealed and the vacuum released then 15lb per square inch of air pressure crush the now empty alveoli leaving the fruit more dense.

Now I have this great gadget I hope to post more new experiences such as maple pickled turnip, olive oil pickled tomato as well as some molecular recipes.

A load of balls

I thought I would adventure a little further into the modernist kitchen with a journey into spherification and the reverse of the same. A few hours of fun on the interweb thingy son revealed a number of videos :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lcNupGGkkw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeRMBv95gLk
http://www.molecularrecipes.com/spherification/carbonated-mojito-spheres/

etc.

Having found a half decent starter kit ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/MOLECULAR-GASTRONOMY-SPHERIFICATION-AND-REVERSE/dp/B00CQ1P9B6/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1393786707&sr=1-1&keywords=spherification+kit) for £15 and a bit of time on a Saturdey afternoon. Off I went. A little research and I had some basic ideas. Spherification appears to be something a little time constrained in that the process continues to full jellification. Oh. Hang on, a brief explanation of this load of balls is required:

In essence, you take two ingredients. One taken from pond scum and the other from the crunchy, salty bits in cheese. Sodium alginate and Calcium lactate. When the two meet in a solution of almost pure water they form a jelly separating one pool from the other. This can be used by the creative cook to produce small, caviar like pearls of intense flavoured sauce surrounded by a jelly case or larger 'spheres' of creamy silk flavours encased in jelly.

My first play was with reverse spherification. This is the simpler form in that once the spheres are washed off then the reaction stops. Apparently, spherification continues after the wash so you need to do this jut before serving.

Firstly I played with a mix of cream and blueberries. This formed rather odd, kidney shaped and colured jelly encased cream. Having toyed with this, I then played with limoncello. Having dissolved the calcium lactate in the limoncello and let the air settle out (the same for the deionized water and sodium alginate) I tipped spoonfuls of the limoncello into the alginate solution. A minute or two later I had jelly encased limoncello that could be handled with ease. Popped into the mouth, they exploded with the strong lemon flavour. My concern was that the shapes were not attractive.

A little more research soon showed that the odd shapes were not unusual. The stunning demispheres I have seen and experienced in restaurants are created using the freezer to create the shape and warm alginate solution to create the jelly.

Tonight's efforts went completely awry (more on that in a later post) but I will continue to experiment and post the results here. When the photographs appear then you know I am happier wit the results

A gift of trout

I popped up to my local social club on Thursday evening for a small libation. Whilst there, a friend came in from a long days fishing. The boot of his car had a number of large trout, the spoils of his days efforts. He offered me a good sized trout and I thought it only fare to reciprocate with some home made bacon which he gratefully accepted.

The following evening I filleted the trout and prepared a beetroot cure. I have used this before on salmon but I fancied that the sweetness and the colour would complement the trout. I placed the fillets skin side down in a large tray and covered them in the cure. after 10 hours in the fridge I turned the fish over and returned it to the fridge for another 20 hours or so. The fish was then removed and washed. The results, as you can see, were spectacular.

My next job was to slice the fillets thinly. Starting at the tail, I used a very sharp knife to slice at a steep angle towards the tail right through to but not through the skin.

 Each slice was then flipped over until the whole fillet was sliced.

It was now a simple matter of running the knife along the skin from the tail to the head to remove multiple, paper thin slices of cured trout. I then vacuum packed these ready for future use.

 It will keep for a few weeks in the fridge but the majority ended up in the freezer where it will keep for a month or two.

A simple but tasty treat (and a great use for marmalade)

I was a little stuck for lunch today and wanted something a little more exciting that soup or a sandwich. My wife had mentioned having a rather nice dish in a tapas bar recently. We normally have a good selection of cheeses in so I pottered to the kitchen and found a nice soft goats cheese. With the oven on, I spent a short while finding the right sized oven proof dish to accommodate said cheese. I then placed the cheese in the dish and sealed the top with a good layer of marmalade (the very same I made a week or two ago). I then popped it into the hot oven (180 C) for about 15 minutes so that the cheese was well melted. The piquance of the marmalade is a perfect counterpoint to the musky goats cheese Served with some good French bread you have to admit it looks great.

Stuck for lunch?

It is a horrible day outside. I am sat at home nursing the end of a rotten cold and the last thing I want to do is brave the wind and the rain. As lunch time approached I realised that if I didn't get creative then lunch was going to be some toast. A quick look in the veg box revealed some useful ingredients

 The peeler is a rather special gadget I was given for Christmas a year or two ago. It is a pepper/tomato peeler. It avoids all the messy burning of the skins, cooling and peeling and although that can add a nice smokey taste I am not looking for that today. A minute or so later and my ingredients are stripped ready for a hot bath.

 I diced the onions and minced the garlic and popped them into a hot saucepan with a tablespoon of good olive oil. Once they were softened up in went the chopped tomatoes and pepper, some thyme, pepper, salt and 1/2 a pint of chicken stock (vegetable stock if you want to keep it vegetarian). The next part is optional and can be replaced with more fresh tomatoes but I like the taste a tin of peeled plum tomatoes adds to the soup. Once this had started to boil I lowered the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes. I was left with this rather lumpy mix below.

A quick burst with my pet Bamix and I have a delicious soup full of vitamin C to help with the cold. Enough for 5 large lunchtime portions. 1 for the bowl and 4 for the freezer for the next rainy day.

A little more hassle than a tin of soup but oh so much nicer.

Old Fashioned Marmalade

With Sevil oranges kicking around the shops and last years supply almost at an end the time has come to make some fresh marmalade.It seems like everyone has their own recipe so here is mine.




1.5 kilos of Seville Oranges
2 lemons
1 kilo of preserving sugar
0,5 kilos of muscovado or dark brown sugar



First score the skins of each of the oranges to enable you to peel them in quarters. Juice the remaining flesh of the oranges but keep the pith and pips then add the juice and pips from the lemons. If the pith on the skins is thick and loose then use a teaspoon to scoop away as much of the pith as you can. Add this pith to the waste from juicing the flesh. Put this waste in muslin and tie it off into a secure bag. Add enough water to make the juice up to 3 litres and place the muslin bag in this watered juice. Next, carefully slice the peel into thin strips. I like mine about 2mm across the strip but the thickness is up to you. Add theses peel slices to the juice and water and set aside in a cool place for 24 hours.

The following day put the mixture into a preserving pan and bring to the boil. Simmer until the peel turns translucent then remove the muslin bag and set aside to cool. Once cool enough to squeeze, press as much juice as you can from the muslin bag into the preserving pan. Add the sugar and bring  to a rolling boil. Using a sugar thermometer bring the mixture to 220 C. Check the set using a cold saucer (I put one in the fridge before I start the boil). When you are happy with the set then bottle in sterile jars.

I love my home made marmalade. Not only does it taste great on toast but it adds a certain something to roast lamb, ham, pork and salmon.