Archives for August 2009
Fat Spouse.
23 August 2009 | chocolate, delicious, faithful readers, plated dessert, recipe | 7 Responses
Anyone who gets Food Arts probably saw this presentation on page 81 of the July issue; yep I totally stole it. The original creator is Chef Sandro Michell, pastry master for Alain Ducasse’s Adour in New York’s St. Regis Hotel. To say that he is a bad ass is a bit of an understatement, to say that his work will be aspired to and emulated the world over is a point of fact. Who knows if I’m even the first to bite his presentation? The design of it is perfect; each bite a perfect portion of the flavors and textures. Faithful readers know of my love of cylinders, this set up was a natural progression from my dulce de leche logs. Chef Sandro streamlines the process by rolling up acetate and piping in the soft ice cream. Anyway, on to the flavors. I’ve always wanted to do a plated dessert version of Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby, so here it fucking is!! Devils food cake, chocolate peanut butter pretzel bark, malted milk ice cream. This dessert had been a fun little path of progressions for me. It’s first incarnation was done like Tony Martin’s Brownie Crunchie, a peanut butter and pretzel layer was spread warm onto the cake then set, and sliced. With that method, the pretzels got soggy; hydrating from the moisture in the simple syrup soaked sponge. I was riding my bike home on Friday night and it hits me: bark!! What I wanted was bark, like we had in Zermatt!! Just with pretzels instead of almonds and shit. Crunch factor, achieved!! The plate is sauced with chocolate and peanut butter caramel, sooooo fucking good!! When I first plated it up, I tweeted a picture of it, which caused a bit of a stir. Next day my buddy Rich was in to eat it; fucking Twitter, huh? The other cool thing about this dessert is the cocktail pairing: White Russian. Naturally you want milk with this right? Or cream? And vodka, right? Kaluha? We all know Kelley makes a killer Caucasian, it’s perfect!!
Pretzel Bark
6 oz milk chocolate
6 oz dark chocolate
6 oz creamy peanut butter
3 cups loose chopped pretzel sticks
1. Melt the first three ingredients over a double boiler.
2. Stir in the pretzels and pour onto a sheet pan with a silpat or parchment.
3. Chill the bark for 30 minutes before cutting into desired shapes. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
IPNC pt.II
10 August 2009 | delicious, eating, people | 4 Responses
I can still hear the rapid-fire “smek smek smek smek” of bare feet on solid pour polyurethane. As he rounded the first bend I looked at myPhone’s stop watch and realized he was going to beat his time. He challenged himself to get 1:25 and he was way ahead. Chepe was running this track barefoot; and he was doing it fast, burning it. Moments before he sat on the edge of his seat, pysching himself up, amping himself. Moments after he had to lay on the ground, about to puke passionate, pumping vessels throbbing in his head. As he lay there panting, my mind rewinded the days events. The fun-as-shit-I-love-being-a-chef lunch dish up. A dip in the fountain, a boozy aftrnoon nap; a reprieve from relentless heat, a snorey slumber. Soon after as we lined up for salmon and started to spot other Chefs, enjoying service or fine wine; poured by more familiar faces. The fish roasted over a long trench I couldn’t get too close, I was sizzled, scorched. A trench of fire!! We ate salmon and salads in the sinking sunlight. There was also pork. We drank wine with decadent abandon; swilling with senseless pretention and simply sloshing out as the next selction sauntered up smiling. Our table mates included the former director of the American Heart Association, his friends and relatives. Behind us nearby eating; the Chef from Toro Bravo; we felt friendly in good company. Ditching our table at dusk we hit the dessert buffet and then the still scalding fire. A couple chasing each other around the trench made me grin. It was fast approaching the opening of the Library Wines so we turned to the center of the venue. Soon after we had more sips to swirl and ran into my old friend Jeremy, he had also worked the event and was now partying. After tasting so much wine it all began to taste the same we bounced, we knew of a secret stairwell somm soiree with more wine and friends. In a flash my head hits the present, the way-back machine having caught up with itself. Fuck I love days like this. My best buddy sprawled supine below trying to catch his breath, and me in the stands, reeling.
