Archives for November 2008
Mount of The Holy Cross.
22 November 2008 | jeff, mountain, vail | No Responses
In August of 2007 I hiked Mt of The Holy Holy Cross with my two dogs Jelly and Jam. Holy Cross and Notch Mountain create sort of a crown in the Holy Cross Wilderness, which I lived near the edge of for 5 years. This peak is visible for miles around in the central Rocky Mountains. One of the most incredible views is seen when exiting the gondola on Vail Mountain, at Eagle’s Nest. I often gazed at it, strapping into my snowboard, imagining what it would be like to stand on top of it. Dominating the horizon and towering at 14,000 feet it frightened and enticed me. Jelly and Jam were up for it, both seasoned hikers. The afternoon walk up into the saddle of Half Moon Pass was breezy, except for the 60 pound pack. Dogs roamed freely, Jam tearing through the woods chasing every marmot, and Jelly trailed, watching my feet from behind. The first vista spins 360. West, Mt. Jackson and the first close view of Holy Cross, East, The Back Bowls of Vail and the Gore Range. To the right, the north saddle of Notch Mountain, and the the south, the shoulder of Notch Itself. I sat here for a while, catching my breath and preparing for the downward spiral into the next valley, the base of Holy Cross. Here I would camp, near a water fall and babbling creek. I made a camp meal I can’t remember, I was in an excited daze thinking about the following day. The dogs were nervous too, and looking lethargic, blowing their load in the first leg. I slept restlessly. The morning took forever, I fried eggs and loaded my day pack. Jelly maued her food, Jam was indifferent, as usual, but ate nonetheless. A gentle push up from the campsite quickly opened up into a steep rock field, cairns dotting its slope to show the way. At some point in the climb, these two dudes burned me. They were wearing casual jogging gear and trucking the side of this mountain. I didn’t see anyone else until the summit. As I claimed the first ridge of the ascent, I saw a view that will stay with me forever; the west facing slope of Notch Mountain. I felt like it was watching me for the rest of the hike, looming in my periphery. On Holy Cross’s shoulder I kept losing the trail. I would be looking down, choosing my steps rhythmically, listening to Pelican on myPod and when I looked up…no trail. Wandering around aimlessly for a bit, I would always find Jelly, sitting silently and peacefully on the trail, watching me. Her look would say “What are you doing dipshit?” Ahh the pleasures of a too-smart dog. On the final push to the summit, the vistas became increasingly incredible. Looking down into the Bowl of Tears below, marveling at the perfect day around me, feeling light headed. Finally on the summit after 3 plus hours, I met some people. Jam was more than happy to make friends, while Jelly and I just wanted to try and take it all in. The panorama was staggering. As often happens to me on high peaks, I couldn’t stay long. For me the journey is the main source of enjoyment, and sitting still at the pinnacle of a rocky apex always proves a struggle for me. I took a few pictures, packed some snow into my camelback’s bladder, and started to slowly pick my way down. A keen sense of accomplishment and silly over-tired slap-happiness had me smiling all the way back to my campsite. At some point I slipped and fell and smashed myPod, but it still worked for another two hours. I regained the campsite in silence around 4 in the afternoon. Eating and packing up I filtered some water from the nearby stream, then slowly made my way up and out of the valley and toward the car. Driving home felt strange and beautiful, I was a different man, now. My relationship with nature had deepened, and with my dogs as well. Atop that mountain, I felt something best described by William Gibson in Virtual Light.
“…a fleeting awareness of something very high, very pure, and quite clinically empty; the doing of the thing, the not-thinking; that weird adrenal exultation and the losing of every more troublesome aspect of self.”
Pate de Fruit Demystified.
7 November 2008 | Ten 01, candy, delicious, recipe | 11 Responses
I used to be mystified by Pate de Fruit (PAHT duh fruit.) I watched Tony create these candies from passion fruit puree and I was in awe. Chewy, sugary, fruity, firm but yielding. When I first started at ten-01, Chef asked me if I could make them to serve as mignardises. I of course said “Sure!” and set about learning to make them. I searched around online and came across some ratios and learned the basic components. Fruit puree, granulated sugar, apple pectin, glucose, and tartaric acid. The recipes I found were specific and complicated, and scaled in grams. I felt way out of my element. Stupidly, however, I had already told Chef I knew how to do it, so I shit my pants and dove in to swim. The importance of mise en place in this process was blatantly apparent from the outset. Ingredients were added in specific order at specific times. On the stove this shit looks dangerous; bubbling and spitting hot goopy napalm. It always gets a second glance when cooks pass by. After fucking it up a few times (too hard, too soft, grainy or burned) I started to learn the critical points. Firstly, always have a spat and a whisk in a bain near the stove. As you add the various items, you want to alternate between the two, making sure to incorporate and scape well. Second, dump the ingredients in, then whisk/scrape. At first I was adding while whisking, but the precision cook loathes unincorporated ingredients stuck to the whisk. Those grams add up quick, and this recipe requires exactitude. Next, after you get the glucose in, turn the flame down a bit. This burbling lava is hell of hazardous. Don’t let it get away from you. You have at least ten minutes before this candy reaches its finishing temperature. Don’t add the thermometer until you get past that. It’s easier to whisk/scrape without it, which you should do often. Have your molds set up and ready to go, because time is limited when you reach temp. Have a towel for the pot to land on, and your tartaric acid near by. Remember that bain you’ve been working out of? Drop your thermometer in there, and move it to where your molds are. After adding the acid, you only have a few moments to pour before it starts to set up. Cool the candy to room temperature before turning it out onto parchment to store or a board to cut into desired shape. To serve, toss them into a big bowl with sugar, and tap off the excess. The sugar will absorb into them, but you can, to a point, recoat them. A few words on ingredients: Use the good shit. Buy Perfect Puree, or an equivalent high quality puree. I’ve tried most of them, and now stick with Perfect’s strawberry and white peach, the recipes below are product specific. If you want to make your own puree, buena suerte. Use powdered apple pectin. This recipe is written for it, not the liquid shit. Glucose and corn syrup while similar, are not equal. Glucose has a higher density and while I would substitute corn syrup in brownies, I wouldn’t here. Many of these products are available to you at Pastry Chef Central, whose logo resembles Pom Pom, the most mackinest.
Strawberry (and White Peach) Pate de Fruit.
1800 g puree
180 g sugar
44 g apple pectin (46 g for white peach)
1800 g sugar (1738 g for white peach)
360 g glucose
27 g tartaric acid (28 g for white peach)
1. Weigh puree into a large heavy saucepot. Scale all other ingredients and set aside.
2. Sift togehter the first amount of sugar with the apple pectin while bringing the puree to a boil.
3. When the puree starts to boil, add the sugar/pectin. Return to a boil and add the other amount of sugar. Return to a boil and add the glucose.
4. Cook to 225 F and remove from heat. Add tartaric acid add pour immediately.
Here’s an Easy One.
1 November 2008 | Ten 01, delicious, dessert, plated dessert, recipe | 5 Responses
I love deep frying. As long as I’m creating dessert menus, there will be a fried item included. Customers seem to love them, too. I still have people asking me about the Olive Oil Beignets. Not every fried dessert I’ve tried has been a huge success. The funnel cakes turned out to be just OK, and the brown butter beignets straight didn’t work. I mostly base my doughnut ideas on pate choux, because I can pipe them, freeze them and fry from frozen. This system works well because I normally have to make the batter only once a week. A simple dipping sauce of creme anglaise or fruit coulis made it a no-brain pick up. With the lackluster reception of the funnel cakes, I wanted to try something different. I turned my Googles upon the humble fritter. The simple, basic recipes I found reminded me right away of pancake batter. Milk or water, eggs, flour, chemical leavener, flavorings. I tried a couple of “meh” recipes before choosing the most simple. A no frills apple fritter formula I found God knows where at God knows what wee hour of the morning through bleary search-engine eyes. I thought this recipe was the most tweakable, and slightly tweak I did. The original recipe called for milk as the liquid, and apples for the fruit. I wanted to use pears, because I originally had bleu cheese in mind for the sauce. I ended up using pear puree for half of the liquid volume (instead of all milk,) because the fruit flavor was faint at best. I also tossed the diced pears in more pear puree, just to seal the deal. These steaming balls of fried tree fruit batter are delicious. Hot from the fryer they get tossed in cinnamon sugar, the smell is heady, as in it turns heads in the kitchen. At this point, I started working on the sauce. My first idea was a honey-roquefort creme anglaise. Blue cheese and pears are thick as thieves, right? A famous pearing pairing. I bounced the idea off of Chef and he suggested I use Gorgonzola Dolce. I put together the simple custard based on David Lebovitz’s ice recipe in The Perfect Scoop. Spooning the warm cream into my mouth I almost puked. The funky foot taste filled my sinus and the too sweet eggyness turned my stomach. I stashed it in my low boy. Somebody was getting got with that stinky mess. It turned out to be Perez. I called him over once the sauce was cooled to have a taste. The look on his face was priceless. Slowly nodding his head and trying not to grimace, he looked like as if he was going to spit it out, but didn’t want to offend me. I burst out laughing in his face. I love cooking. Even the failures prove to be somehow useful. This is my second experiment with stinky cheese in a dessert, and the second not so good result. I decided to go with a pear brandy caramel, using local a Clear Creek Distillers product. Anyway, here’s the recipes. To fry these babies, spoon the batter into a 350 F deep fryer. When they float to the top, note how they look like The Guardian from Big Trouble in Little China. Fry until golden brown and a knife comes out almost clean. And watch out for Lo Pan.
Pear Fitters
makes one deep 6 pan
4 eggs
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup pear puree
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 oz salt
1 oz baking powder
4 cups diced pears
pear puree to coat pears
1. Whisk the eggs together with the milk and the pear puree in a large bowl.
2. Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl and mix to combine with a wooden spoon.
3. Dice the pears into a seperate bowl and toss them with enough pear puree to generously coat.
4. Fold the pears into the batter and either fry at 350 F until golden brown, or refigerate up to five days.
Pear Brandy Caramel
1 lb 8 oz sugar
10 oz corn syrup
10 oz butter
3 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup Clear Creek Pear Brandy (don’t sub the cheap shit)
1. Caramelize the sugar and the corn syrup to a rich amber color.
2. Whisk in the butter, take care with the bubbling and frothing.
3. Whisk in the cream and return to a boil.
4. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature, then whisk in the pear brandy. Serve warm or store up to 1 month in the refigerator.
