Archives Under "faithful readers" (RSS)
Copyright Infringement Pie.
15 December 2010 | Uncategorized, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, plated dessert, recipe | 6 Responses
This is the 200th post on mrjeffmccarthy.com!!
If you haven’t heard of Crack Pie, crawl out from under the rock you’ve been hiding under and Google the shit. I mean, this fucking thing is trademarked! Also, FYI: they brought back the McRib. Anyway here’s my version of the sucker, served with a sweet potato puree and toasted oatmeal ice cream. A simple garnish of ground honey roasted hazelnuts adds a crunch. The pastry is really similar to chess pie; or the more archaic Barbara Fritchie Pie, which to me tastes like pecan pie without the pecans. Faithful readers and newbies alike will appreciate the simplicity of this dessert, a nod to seasonality and old world pastry, it’s just fucking good. I recently traveled to New York to visit my family, and on our way back Shorty and I visited NYC and Momofuku Milk bar. We of course had the original crack pie, and it was damned good, and illuminating. You see, I had been over-baking mine, looking for it to be totally set. Miss Tosi pulls hers as it’s just starting to firm up, and serves it cold. I prefer a room temp treat, but if I baked it her way it would be an oozy mess. Anyway, I still take mine a bit further in the oven and still serve it room temp. Another tweak I…tweak is this: I substitute half of the brown sugar with muscavado sugar, and the butter with brown butter, both in the crust and in the filling. The molasses-y flavor of this almost ebony sweetener adds a nice bitter tone to an otherwise sticky sweet concoction. I also use a half sheet pan in lieu of the standard pie pan, because i like rectangles better then wedges. At the restaurant be call this this little bitch a Brown Sugar Bar, because I don’t want David Chang suing my ass. But look, if they were worried about me using the recipe, they wouldn’t have published the fucker in Bon Appetit The Ice cream we serve here was created by my pastry cook Liz Clements, who has since moved on to a full time pastry gig in a fancy restaurant. I’m sad to see her go, but proud to have her moving on up in the world. I also bit this recipe off her before she bounced so it’s all good. The sweet potato puree is piss easy, a simple process I learned from my Chef Michael: peel and slice the yams, cover ‘em with water, a little salt and a vanilla bean, and boil the shit out of them. When the water is almost completely evaporated, the potatoes should be completely cooked and ready to puree in your Vita-Prep. pass the mess through a tamis and cool to room temp before serving.
makes 2 half sheet pans
Crust
12 oz brown butter at room temp.
4 oz sugar
4 oz brown sugar
4 oz muscavado sugar
4 eggs
12 oz rolled oats
2 C A.P. Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1. Preheat the oven to 325. Cream the butter and the sugars; add the eggs and scrape, you know the deal.
2. Add in the dry ingredients, and mix on low until dough just forms.
3. Spread the batter onto a full sheet pan in an even layer.
4. Bake until GBD
5. Cool completely and then crumble by hand. Then add:
8 oz brown butter
1 1/2 oz brown sugar
1 1/2 oz muscavado sugar
6. Mix by hand to form a crust like dough, similar to graham cracker crust.
7. Weigh the dough and divide it between two parchment lined pans. Press and roll the dough into an even layer. Set aside so you can make the
Filling
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups muscavado sugar
6 tblsp milk powder
12 oz brown butter, melted and cooled.
1 1/2 tsp salt
10 oz heavy cream
24 egg yolks
3 tblsp vanilla
1. Whisk together the first four ingredients well, break up any large clumps of sugar with your hands.
2. Add the melted cooled brown butter and whisk smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk smooth.
3. Weigh the batter and divide it between the two pans. Bake until GBD and just set, the top will have a nice crust.
4. Cool completely before portioning and putting into your face.
Valrhona Flourless, Fernet Menta Caramel.
8 November 2010 | cake, chocolate, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, plated dessert | 5 Responses
So here we are again, another blog post and another version of the ever evolving flourless chocolate cake. Why do I continually return to this cake, faithful readers might ask? And why do I do so many mother loving chocolate desserts already? Well, my answer is this: I fucking love chocolate, and a flourless cake is a clean way to showcase it’s decadence. Served at room temperature this cake is smooth, rich as fuck, and chocolatey as a motherfucker. In the past I’ve typically made this cake with Cocoa Barry 64% and it was good. This past year I made the switch over to all things Valrhona and have never looked back. The recipe below uses a combination of Jivara 40% and Couer de Guanaja 80% chocolates. The result is a sweet and creamy smoothness with a nice strong bitter backbone. I bake the shit in thin layers and hit the bottom with a crunchy layer of milk chocolate and feuilletine, then glaze the top with a ganache of sorts and then the milk chocolate decorative lines. The cake itself is pretty standard, nothing I haven’t kind of done before. The blood orange ice cream, yeah…you’ve seen it before. The ice cream is perched on a simple chocolate tuile, which is stuck to the cake with an equally simple chocolate cremeaux. The real joy in this plate for me is in the sauce. Fernet Menta Caramel suckers!! Again, not a huge deviance from the formula here, kids. I been putting booze in caramel from the beginning. But this is Fernet, and I’ve been wanting to work it into a dessert forever. So here it is. Also garnishing the plate is a mint foam, and what I think is a nice, subtle use of the ubiquitous mint leaf.
Valrhona Chocolate Flourless Cake
!5 oz Valrhona Jivara 35%
7 oz Valrhona Couer de Guanaja 80%
12 oz butter
11.25 oz egg
9 0z sugar
4.5 oz water
1. Preheat your convection oven to 275 F and prepare the desired mold.
2. Melt chocolate and butter over a double boiler.
3. Whisk together the eggs, sugar and water.
4. When the chocolate and butter are melted, whisk in the eggs until thoroughly incorporated.
5. Pour into the prepared mold and bake in a covered water bath until just set, like a cheesecake.
To review the methodology for this recipe click here.
Fernet Menta Caramel
12 oz sugar
5 oz corn syrup
6 oz butter
1.25 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup Fernet Menta
1. Weigh the sugar and corn syrup into a heavy bottomed sauce pot. Caramelize according to your tastes.
2. Whisk in the butter, continue whisking until incorporated.
3. Whisk in the heavy cream until incorporated, return to a boil.
4. Pour the caramel through a strainer into a storage vessel.
5. When the caramel has cooled to room temperature, whisk in the fernet menta. Serve warm.
For the Blood Orange ice cream click here.
To see a video of me plating this bitch up, click here.
To see a video of a kitten riding a turtle, click here.
Shameless Self Promotion. Again.
26 October 2010 | Ten 01, faithful readers, news, plated dessert, shameless self promotion, shorty | 12 Responses
So as my true faithful readers know, I will self promote the shit out of myself, least ways as much as any lazy man would. But this week, I don’t have to!! In yet another demonstration of this city’s undying and ever pounding lust for all things McCarthy, the Willamette Week Restaurant guide had some very kind words to say about yours truly in their review of Ten-01. Now lets take a look, shall we:
Ten 01’s secret weapon is pastry chef Jeff McCarthy, whose highbrow stoner desserts are addictive. His Valrhona chocolate trio—a light malted milkshake, crazy-rich bittersweet torte and dense sorbet decorated with rice puffs—is freakin’ ridiculous.
Upstairs it’s all about the soup, pork loin and anything McCarthy makes.
Kelly Clarke Willamette Week
Ah yes, the Willamette Week has been kind to me once again, and once again I will regurgitate their words onto this blog in order to make you all aware that someone out there, somebody gets what I’m doing, even if i don’t a good portion of the time. Let’s see what was said about desserts at Tabla, where I also make the sweets in collaboration with Chef Anthony Cafiero.
…the dessert menu, which has options both rich (chocolate truffle cake) and perfect for summer (a lemon poundcake with blueberries and lemon mascarpone).
Michael Mannheimer Willamette Week
In all seriousness, it sure is nice to have a little validation, a little pat on the back, a little “Nice work, Champ!” every once in awhile. Do I care that the description of the dessert was a little off? Not really. The milkshake is not malted at all, the misuse of the word “torte” is flagrant, and the sorbet is garnished with toasted baguette, not “rice puffs,” but hey, do I care? Not a single iota. Fact is, the desserts are being enjoyed. People are thinking and writing about them, so color me happy as shit folks. Thanks to all who ate and enjoyed, and even to those who ate and criticized, for without you I would not get any better at what I do. Also, ironically, the cover of this years WW Restaurant Guide is graced by none other than the lovely Miss Ingrid Chen, with whom I am in close relation.
Re: Tart.
18 September 2010 | blueberries, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, recipe | 8 Responses
A fruit tart is a ubiquitous pastry, as old school as it comes and typically sells really well on any menu. I’ve done them in the past and will no doubt do them in the future. The large varietal, the ten to twelve inch pastry shell loaded down with pastry cream and too much fruit, can basically blow me. Sure they look nice whole, but how do you get a clean slice out of an artful display of fruit that’s brushed with simple syrup or apricot glaze? I can’t. Best I can hope for is a mashed up mess of cookie, cream, and fruit. The precision baker loathes a large fruit tart, least ways one intended to eat. I can understand the exactitude required to make a showpiece, but you don’t eat a showpiece.
Now the individual variety, as pictured here, is something I can get behind. It arrives on your plate as a simple showcase of quality ingredients. In this case, the plate is smeared with a buttery lemon curd, the thin pate sucree shell next, a vanilla white chocolate mousse is piped in, Viridian Farms blueberries arranged, and then the cocaine. This is assembled a la minute and that is the key. When a tart of this nature is filled to far before it is meant to be eaten; the crust gets soggy, and faithful readers now that soggy crust is straight bullshit. So fill your fruit tarts to order or to hell with you. The recipe below I’ve used for years, is used without permission from one of my most beloved cookbooks: Desserts by Charlie Trotter.
Pate Sucree
Such as a Simple Cookie.
14 August 2010 | chocolate, cookies, delicious, faithful readers, recipe, shameless self promotion | 11 Responses
I hear the phrase “the best thing I’ve ever eaten” thrown around, and ultimately, I call bullshit. I mean the notion of “the best” is a fake idea. With subject like food which is completely psychological, The best? Well how many tacos have you eaten, faithful readers? How many burgers have you consumed? Have you eaten enough chocolate chip cookies to definitively say that that is the best? The tradition of chocolate chip cookies is well documented, and who the fuck are you to say “this is the best.” Who the fuck am I for that matter?
As I re-read that last paragraph I realize that I to, am full of shit. Because you know what? Sometimes things are simply “the best.” Like my chocolate chip cookies. I know, I know. But they are. It’s like the old adage says: “if one person calls you a horse, tell them he’s crazy. If twenty people call you a horse, go buy a fucking saddle.” And so I have started to believe the hype about these little god dammits. We give them away for free at the restaurant, as part of out mignardises program, if you have dinner. I go through about three or four hundred a week. People come back in to purchase the cookies for a dollar a piece, not bad for a nineteen cent cookie.
The recipe is based upon a now classic by the famous Jacques Torres. I first tasted these years ago, brought to work for sampling by a very close friend of mine. The most important step in this recipe is the aging the dough. Jacques suggests between 24 and 36 hours, and up to 72. I imagine that this process would improve upon almost any cookie recipe, the flavor and texture improved by hydrating the flour. I have been told recently that even cake batters can stand to sit and hydrate for a while, a few hours in the fridge improving the quality remarkably. But that guy also boiled gelatin with a snarky look and kept his sugar and eggs mixed together in the fridge. These are things that i cannot bring myself to do, even if the pastry chef from Valrhona says I should.
I improve upon Jacques recipe in two simple ways. I substitute muscovado sugar for half of the amount of brown, and I use both semi-sweet and milk chocolate pistoles. Almost as important as the aging the dough is the selection of chocolate. Pistoles, disks, or feves are a must, as they create s sort of layering of chocolate unique to the texture of this recipe. Think you might want to skip the sprinkling of sea salt on top? Don’t. These are the best for a reason, and salt is part of that reason. I believe Jacques likes fluer de sel and I prefer Maldon’s but any quality, coarse sea salt would work. Also, batters of this nature always come together nicer when all your ingredients are at room temperature, even the eggs. A note on baking: I typically am baking these from frozen in a 300 degree convection oven. I like to pull them when they just puff up, and just barely start to brown on the edges. These are little guys too, maybe a tablespoon of dough. At that size they take about 12 minutes, with one rotation halfway through baking. If you make them bigger, they’re going to take longer. Our Chef at the restaurant enjoys the dough frozen, and I always smile when he grabs a handful. This recipe makes A LOT!! it’s a rim-rider in my 600 pro-series Kitchen Aid. You might want to cut it in half.
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Popcorn Ice Cream.
3 August 2010 | custard, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, recipe | 12 Responses
Does this look like barf to you? Does it remind you of that morning after close up you got of the contents of the toilet after that long night of too many PBRs and poor choices? Me too! But that’s not what it is. In fact, it’s popped popcorn infusing dairy product with its buttery goodness. Last year I had pretty good success with sweet corn ice cream in a blackberry float. The idea of a float on a summer dessert menu is always a welcome one to me, both refreshing and decadent if done right. So after several large bong hits and two bags of sour cream and onion potato chips I thought: “Dude…POPCORN…ICE CREAM!!”
To be honest, the process is quite easy and the results are quite rewarding. Sure, it takes three days. Sure it uses three bags of popcorn that you could have just eaten. But was Rome built in a day? Fuck no. Neither was a Raspberry Float. The frozen custard is smooth and creamy but toasty and buttery. It tastes just like it sounds. I decided to pair it with raspberries in the float, it just seemed natural, like raspberry cornbread. I wish the fucking thing sold better, I guess it just sounds too weird for people. Faithful readers know, though: I wouldn’t steer anyone wrong! I deal in delicious through and through people!! Now eat the shit!
Popcorn Ice Cream (makes a shit ton)
3 bags popcorn (no “light” bullshit. Use something that sounds bad for you.)
6 cups half & half
2 cups heavy cream
16 oz sugar
1 cup glucose powder (optional)
16 egg youlks
More half & half as needed
1. Pop two of the bags of popcorn and place in a large sauce pot. Add the half & half and heavy cream. Bring to a boil and cover, then kill the heat. Steep for thirty minutes.
2. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate overnight. Next day, pour the whole barfy mess into a chinoise and use the back of a ladle to push as much of the liquid through as possible.
3. Re-measure the cream and make up any difference with half & half. Pop the final bag of popcorn and place it in your large sauce pot. Add the popcorn milk and BTAB. Cover and kill the heat, Steep for thirty minutes.
4. Strain the dairy (use the ladle to push) again and re-measure. Make up any difference with half & half. Return to a pot and create a custard with the sugar and egg yolks. Review how to do this here, be sure to read the footnote.
5. Pour the custard into an airtight container and refrigerate over night to ripen the flavors.
6. Next day strain the custard again and spin it in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
You could serve this in a float, or simply in a bowl with berries and caramel corn. Have your friends over and surprise the living shit out of them with your culinary prowess. I promise, there will be no barfing.
Back in the House.
29 May 2010 | blog, faithful readers, jeff, news | 15 Responses
Suffice to say I been through some shit lately, and this blog has been the last thing on my mind. When my thoughts did finally roll around to it, I was afraid of what I might write. I figured my commitment to writing that is real, that is raw and personal, would get me into trouble. Then I remembered at some point that getting in trouble is basically a fake idea, and I looked up and looked around and found myself doing not to bad. Pretty fucking good, actually. Great even. I’ve come home to live with my brother and his housemates, dear friends all. They found me a spot and built a wall, took me in and fed me well, gave me beer. This is a place where meat is smoked, where wine is drank while fires burn. A place where someone says “brisket nachos” and soon they are being made. The sink is always full of dishes, the fridge full of deli cups of mise. There is late night laughing and dogs; a constant roiling mass of fur and barking. Breakfast will sometimes involve ice cream. Things are created for the internet at every turn, smart phones are always out and a subtle finger tapping can be heard late into the night. Vegetables are cultivated in the back yard. The transition into the next phase of my life has been in spite of everything, pretty painless. Except for all the pain of course. But that’s life. And show business. And we all live to fuck it up another day. Thanks to all of those who have been there, you’ve always been there haven’t you? You know who you are. Thanks to my dogs who’ve always kept their tails wagging. Thanks work, my sanctuary, my safe haven; slaving away slanging treats saves me. Thanks to my parents, who love me no matter what. I must be a good person because I am surrounded be good people. Last but certainly not least, thanks to my faithful readers; whom I know hell of represent. Oh yeah and whiskey, can’t forget whiskey.
Fuck facebook.
7 March 2010 | faithful readers | 5 Responses
A week or so ago I woke up to several voice mails, text messages, and emails from loved friends and loved ones wondering how I ended up in the UK, and why they should send me money. Somebody had gotten a hold of my password and was using my personal information against me to try and make a quick buck. As if facebook wasn’t annoying enough, now it’s literally fucking with my life. My poor friend Meghan was on her way to Western Union to send me money from Malaysia, the perps had instant messaged her that my wife Kate was in the hospital. What the flying fuck?! I immediately logged on and posted a message on my wall: I am safe and sound in Oregon, don’t send me money!! Later that day the facebook team shut down my account because I violated the terms of use. I violated? The level that these fuckers will stoop to is so low, they have given new meaning to the word “scumbag.“ I swear I must have a sign on my internet forehead that says: Hey everybody, exploit me!! Luckily Meghan thought better of it at the last minute and emailed me directly to find out what was up. Thankfully ALL of my friends were smart enough to avoid sending me money before talking with me, but the whole situation made me feel dirty. It really made me think about why I need this silly service in my life, if the pros actually outweigh the cons. Sure, I’ve “met up” with some people I haven’t seen in some years, I’ve enjoyed some of the shared videos and pictures. I finally figured out how to shut off the email alerts for everything, so I’m not immediately notified when John from eighth grade social studies “achieves” in Mafia Wars. As if I fucking care about your rabbit in Farmville. Get a life “friends.” If they ever unlock my account the first thing I’m going to do is log on and delete a bunch of “friends.” If I haven’t talked to you or received a personal email from you in the past ten years, or ever; sayonara. I just don’t care that much. I don’t need a website to validate me as popular or friendly, faithful readers know I’m neither. This has all been so bitchy and depressing. I will attempt to cheer the internet up now with this video I took of a man in a carriage being pulled by a shetland pony. Enjoy!
The Bomb.
11 February 2010 | Europe, chocolate, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, pastries, plated dessert, recipe | 6 Responses
A fucking bomb went off! Chocolate flourless cake, salty caramel core, milk chocolate shell and blood orange ice cream. The dessert is inspired by a pastry I had in Paris, from the shop of the revered pastry Chef Pierre Herme. It was a bombe, tempered shell and caramel core, I enjoyed it on a park bench in Luxembourg gardens. Mr. Herme ingeniously used a macaron base, his desserts were all marked by inventive skill and imagination. I employ a compressed devil’s food cake sealed with icing to seal in the oozing salty caramel, just a candle held towards Chef Pierre’s brilliance. The milk chocolate shell is just that, tempered 38% milk chocolate. Here’s a recipe for my faithful readers.
Blood Orange Ice Cream
2 cups milk
2 cups blood orange puree
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 oz butter
pinch o’ salt
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup egg yolks
P.S. See this in the Willamette Week?
2010: The Future is Now.
7 January 2010 | Ten 01, cake, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, pastries, plated dessert, recipe | 5 Responses
Two thousand and motherfucking TEN?!? The future is now my faithful readers. I command the powers of the internet in my pants. I make ice cream base in an immersion circulator. As a race we fringe on symbiosis with technology; and I can’t wait to realize this next phase of evolution. Anyway, I been busy as shit. The holidays kicked my ass; and with in-laws in town and hell of prep, plating and me plowing through it all it went by in a pop! Shit 2009 was a pop, a bang, a blast, dice cast and rolled and truth be told past year was fucking fast. I turned thirty, I got married, I’ve become a half way decent pastry chef and an annoying blogger. I’ve made some bad-assed desserts and also learned some killer savory food. Pretty standard actually. Looking to the new year, I’m hoping to step up my game. Turn it up to eleven so to speak. I just need to work harder, cleaner. The desserts will be smaller, more precise. Flavors? Louder. Here’s a recipe bitches. I adapted it from one of the best recipes I’ve learned in a long time.
Graham Cracker Sponge Cake
250 g soft butter
375 g sugar
5 g salt
6 eggs
375 g fine ground graham cracker crumbs.
7.5 g baking powder
100 g A.P. flour
1. Preheat your convection oven to 300 F. Spray and line with parchment one half sheet pan.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and salt light and fluffy in the bowl of a stand mixer.
3. Weigh the crumbs, baking powder, and flour into a bowl and whisk them together well.
4. Add the eggs 2 at a time, allowing the batter to fully absorb each addition of eggs. Scrape the bowl twice during this step.
5. Scape the bowl again and add the dry ingredients all at once. Mix the batter on low speed until homogeneous.
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake 12 minutes, rotate the pans, and bake an additional 6 to 8 minutes, or until golden brown and springy. Use as a base for a no bake cheesecake or serve it warm with a cream cheese ice cream.
