Archives Under "faithful readers" (RSS)
The 6 Best Chef Blogs of 2008.
4 January 2009 | blog, faithful readers, food | 6 Responses
In 2008 I read a lot of shit on the internet. Some of that shit didn’t smell. Here’s a list of blogs that were time and time again good reading over the past year. My faithful readers should know about them. The components of a good blog are information, inspiration, visuals, and personality. Without these, it’s just words.
IDEAS IN FOOD -The single most engaging food blog on the web. The information and inspiration that this site provides is huge amenity to the food world. The frequent updates from this husband and wife teams blog entice my tongue and stretch my perceptions of what can be done with food. A recent post about short ribs still has me drooling. Check out their ideas on Foie Gras and Hot Ice Cream. Chefs Aki and Alex write a web column for Popular Science, called Kitchen Alchemy, and can also be followed on Twitter. They even appeared on Food Network. Congratulations to these two brilliant Chefs on their new baby!!
eggbeater- When you Google “Pastry Chef Blog” the first hit you get is eggbeater. Shuna fish Lydon a gift to this planet. Her words, so often, have spoken right to the heart of me; seen me. I have also learned a ton from her. Be sure to explore her recipes, read her posts on Chefdom, and Visit her Flickr page. You can check her out on Twitter, as well. From what I gather, she’s just moved to London, and is running a retail operation. I feel Shuna…I think that’s why I enjoy reading her blog so much.
Line Cook- high up in the rankings for Google search “line cook,” you’ll find this great blog. Intuitive musings about restaurant life, pictures of the good food at nopa in San Francisco, and just good reading. On a personal level I don’t know much about Line Cook’s author, I think his name is Richie. I know he owns a rabbit and writes this kick ass blog. He cooks delicious looking food. His writing has made me pensively reflect on my career, and wax poetic about where it will lead. He has a knack for describing kitchen situations vividly, using cook jargon fluidly. His post about pastry certainly struck a chord. I know Ruhlman, Shuna, and even Micheal Laiskonis all read, so your in good company. Read into the archives, you’ll find a lot of good stuff. This blog is creating a buzz on the web, and I couldn’t be happier. If you work in a kitchen, you should be reading this.
David Lebovitz- I have benefited greatly from this blog, as well as the man’s book The Perfect Scoop. His down to earth approach to writing and great recipes have given me great ideas. His Salted Caramel Ice Cream is one of my favorite recipes of all time. I’ve used it as a base for both raspberry and apple. He loves eating as much as I do I think, and writes about it often. He also lives in Paris, of which I am jealous. His site contains an extensive recipe section, blurbs about his books, and of course tons of great interesting content. He’s also tweeting like crazy, and who isn’t these days?
Ruhlman- The dog-eared copies of his book The Soul of Chef are passed around among cooks everywhere, seen almost as frequently as Kitchen Confidential. He sometimes judges Iron Chef America, was one of the judges of Next Iron Chef. He went on to write The French Laundry Cookbook with TK, and book with Eric Ripert from Le Bernardin. He has also written one of the most definitve volumes on Charcutertie, the art of cured meats. He latest book with TK, the eye-popping Under Pressure, I covet highly. As you might imagine, a blog written by this guy has got to be good. And it is. Frequently updated and packed with great recipes, insights, and pictures, it’s well worth the bookmark.
Michael Laiskonis- Last but not least, the blog of one of my personal heroes, the pastry chef at world reknowned Le Bernardin in New York, Micheal Laiskonis. His posts are always well written and packed with information and insight, as well as glimpses of whats it’s like at Le Bernardin. His desserts are amazing, and when he posts a recipe, I always pore over it repeatedly, trying to glean what it is to be a world class pastry chef. I have a special file on my computer for his recipes. Apparently, he was thinking of quitting the blog, but instead started a second one. His blog is a benchmark for Chef’s everywhere. Great photos, exceptional writing, profound insight and luminous inspiration.
So there’s my list peeps, hope you enjoyed it. Now go back to reading Reddit. Or Digg, if your one of those types.
Dessert of the Year.
15 October 2008 | Ten 01, creative presentation of the week, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, jack yoss, plated dessert, recipe, shameless self promotion | 9 Responses
This is a variation of one of my older recipes, literally the first dessert I made at ten-01. I learned this one from Tony, of course, and I’ve been tweaking it ever since. If you review the earlier version, you’ll notice a few changes in the recipe below. Firstly, the weights have changed. Somewhere along the line, while converting it for various applications, I skewed the amounts. The newer proportions reflect just how many times I’ve made this recipe, how many times I’ve observed it’s subtleties. Chef actually improved upon its technique by mistake while I was in Europe. Anyway, here’s whats changed and why.
This recipe contains all my favorite ingredients; butter, chocolate, eggs, sugar, and booze. I was taught to melt the butter and chocolate over a double boiler Then whisk together the sugar and the eggs. Then, when the chocolate was melted, everything was whisked together with the booze and baked in a water bath in ten inch cake pans. When baked and thoroughly cooled we glazed them with a one to one ganache and sliced them in 16 portions. Onto a marble and out to the buffet. Simple and decadently effective. The main trick then (and now) was knowing when to pull them from the oven. They never really look baked, all loose and jiggly. It’s still a kind of leap of faith for me when I pull them. I find myself touching them every five minutes until they cool and solidify.
At Carlyle this recipe started to evolve. The original recipe, just cut in half, was giving me some great results. I realized at this point how similar this cake was to cheesecake, and I treat cheesecake like a custard. I started baking it at a lower temperature, and turning off the oven for the last half hour of baking. A thick, fudgey texture was my reward. I started trying different molds, and building up creamy layers. The best version at those times was with passionfruit, I wanted to call it Sexual Chocolate.
For my tasting at ten-01, I baked the cake in a small ring mold and served it with brown butter ice cream. It was over the top rich and showed I wasn’t afraid to knock people unconscious with chocolate. At least that’s what I kept telling myself as they ate it (”They don’t hate you, they don’t hate you, they don’t even KNOW you, man!”) I got the job, needless to say, and the cake ended up on the first menu. I started to bake it in frames around this time, and that marks the first change in the recipe’s proportions. Every time I pulled the 1/2 sheet cakes from the oven, the tops were just pooled with butter. I think this happened because the cakes where to big to cook through before basically breaking. I tried varying oven temperatures, mixing techniques, and finally ended up just reducing the amount of butter. The cake had a slightly more crumbly texture but was still dense and fudgy. Chef suggested I started serving the cake at room temperature. Chef knows a lot about food. Much like cheese, the cake was way better at room temp. He actually improved upon the recipe by mistake, confusing the bread pudding technique with this one and whipped it on high speed for over 15 minutes. The cake melted in the mouth, inducing groaning. This version of the cake sold really well. It seemed like it was around forever. I started to get bored with it. I replaced it with another Tony Classic and tried to forget about it.
Fast forward three or four menus. The servers are clamoring for a rich, knock-out chocolate dessert. The stupid Guinness brownie thing just wasn’t working. Marble Cheesecake? Yeah, kind of, but not quite. Scouring the internet for ideas, I came across this. The tenth item on McCormick’s 2008 Flavor Forecast was rubbed sage and rye whiskey. Things started to click into place in my mind; the hamster running in its wheel turned the lock’s tumblers to open my mind on a new idea. I knew whiskey and chocolate worked. Would I use whiskey in the cake or in the sauce? I knew how to make a kick-ass mint ice cream, would it work with sage? And would it go with the rich fudginess of the cake? As it turns out, it does. Famously. I remember standing in the walk-in waiting for the ice cream base to cool down enough to spin. I had some whiskey caramel left over form the Guinness brownie. I spooned the caramel into my mouth followed by the sage base. Closing my eyes, nodding, I reached to the top shelf for a beer…it was time to celebrate.
“Oh wait…” I thought, “…it’s only 6:30.” I started straight away making a batch of flourless chocolate cake. Scanning over the ingredients, I encountered a problem. I’ve only made this recipe with alcohol. It’s always been whiskey, or Grand Mariner or Bailey’s or something. I knew this recipe really well and just knew that I had to come up something to use in the place of whiskey, 3/4 of a cup of what, dammit, air? Suddenly it hit me. Water.
This batch of cakes, baked in my handy new flexipans, was one of the best I’ve created. Fudgy, of course, but the main flavor was chocolate. Not booze, but chocolate. Water made this possible. Having worked in pastry for a few years, this really struck me. Water, the arch-nemesis of chocolate, was helping me showcase chocolate in this recipe. Sometimes when things seem weird at first, proper handling can produce fantastic results. Water is now my new favorite ingredient. Even chocolate isn’t scared anymore. I even used the two together it in the mirror glaze. Anyway, enough of my jawing, here’s the recipes for my faithful readers, and also for the readers of the Willamette Week, who will find this cake in the October 15th Restaurant Guide.
Chocolate Flourless Cake
1 pound 14 ounces chocolate (64%)
1 pound 8 ounces butter
15 ounces eggs
15 ounces sugar
3/4 cup water
1. Pre-heat your convection oven to 200 F.
2. Weigh the chocolate into a bowl and set aside.
3. Weigh the butter into a sauce pot, and bring it to a boil.
4. Weigh the eggs and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and whip light and fluffy.
5. Pour the boiling butter over the chocolate, give the bowl a shake and a spin and let stand two minutes.
6. Whisk the chocolate until smooth.
7. Fold the whipped eggs into the melted chocolate, then fold in the water.
8. Pour the batter into the flexipans and bake in a water bath until set, about 30 minutes.
9. Cool properly and chill thoroughly before demolding and glazing.
Mirror Glaze
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
9 ounces chocolate
enough hot water to reach desired consistency
1. Weigh the chocolate into a bowl.
2. Measure the corn syrup and heavy cream into a sauce pot and bring to a boil.
3. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate, give the bowl a shake and a spin and let stand two minutes.
4. Whisk the chocolate until smooth.
5. Whisk in enough hot water to make the glaze loose and pour easily.
Assembly- Set the de-molded cakes on a glazing rack and ladle the hot glaze over the cakes. Chill the cakes and apply a second coat. Serve at room temperature with Sage Ice Cream and Whiskey Caramel.
Goat Cheese Gnocchi Experiment.
3 October 2008 | delicious, eating, faithful readers, food, photoshop | 3 Responses
This is certainly my most exhaustive Photoshop effort to date. This silly thing took at least five times as long to make as the gnocchi, and isn’t half as delicious. For this recipe I used Ile de France goat cheese, the second installment of product they wanted me to eat and write about. The last cheese they sent me I basically ate straight, so I thought it better to cook with this one. The cheese had a creamy texture and showcased that distinctive goaty taste. The flavor carried through to the gnocchi, and was exceptional. I liked this cheese better than the last one they sent, it had a little more personality. I also found the packaging more pleasing, this time with a picture of a goat rather than a picture of cheese. Still a bit flashy for me but a step in the right direction. This company is bringing some great cheese into the country. I hope some more of it finds its way to my doorstep. I chose gnocchi because I have always wanted to try it. I’ve seen Perez and before him Arturo making these things three times a week for the past eight months. I had the process memorized just by seeing it done so many times. I won’t include a detailed recipe because I’m quite sure there isn’t one. You basically knead the ingredients into a dough, form it into a wiener, and you’re good to go. You’ll have to forgive the penis humor, faithful readers, but I gotta be me.
How to Pull Your Pork.
10 September 2008 | beer, delicious, eating, faithful readers, pig | 2 Responses
My brother Jaybill has perfected southern style smoked pork. He finally showed me how to do it, and it really got my faithful readers excited. The 20 hour process involves brining, rubbing, smoking, roasting and only about 15 minutes of actual work. Most of it is a drinking waiting game. The night before you’re going to smoke, you need to get your pig in the brine. I used two six or seven pound boned-out boston butts. Jaybill swears by the bone-in cut, and I tend to agree with him. I think the bone adds flavor as it cooks, and my dogs just love those things. So you’ve got your meat, now crack a beer. The brine is a simple recipe, taking just a few moments to prepare. Whisk the ingredients together then sink in your meat. Make sure the pork is covered with the flavorful liquid. Optimal brining is about 12-14 hours. Any longer, it might get too salty. I floated mine at 6 pm the day before I was going to smoke, and pulled ‘em out at around 7:45 am the following morning. Pat the meat dry to remove any excess moisture. Now comes the rub. As a cook, there have always been certain jobs that I’ve found naughty, almost erotic, and spice rubbing meat is certainly one of them. Prepare your rub and go to town on that meat. Every inch of that sucker should be crusted with spicy goodness. When the meat is enrobed in deliciousness, get the smoker ready. The genius of Jaybill’s smokers comes from their simplicity. The parts for which can be found at any home and garden store, the heating element at your local Fred Meyer. These things are everywhere. Fellow Alton Brown fans the world over embraced this DIY set-up, and our recipe featured here is adapted from his “Q” episode. Jaybill taught me to smoke the butts for four hours. You’ll need at least a 12-pack of crsipy Longhammers for this part. When four hours is up, remove the pork and tightly wrap it in tin foil. Roast for an additional four hours in a pre-heated 300 degree oven. Don’t be tempted to raise the oven temperature to shorten the cooking time. All of those delicious juices you’ve worked so hard to create are going to escape. Don’t you know, that with the pork bro, slow and low that is the tempo? After 8 hours of cooking you’ll be well brined yourself no doubt and ready for the fun part, pulling. After proper resting (about 20 minutes) pull back the foil and take in the sweet smelling steam. A pair of latex gloves will ensure your tender skin won’t get too warm as you pull apart the porky goodness. At this point, the entire neighborhood will be lined up to sample your pork. The smoke signal was sent out hours ago. Don’t Jersey up your meat with store bought barbeque sauce. I recommend a North Carolina style vinegar sauce and some srirachanaise. You can find AB’s original recipe here. For our adapted ones read on.
Brine:
1/2 cup molasses
24 ounces kosher salt
1 gallon water
2- 6 to 8 pound Boston butts
Rub:
2 tblsp whole cumin seed
2 tblsp whole fennel seed
2 tblsp whole coriander
2 tblsp chipotle powder
2 tblsp onion powder
2 tblsp paprika
Combine molasses, pickling salt, and water in large bucket. Completely submerge pork in brine, cover, and let sit in refrigerator 12 hours.Grind all spices to a fine powder in a coffee grinder.
Remove pork from brine and pat dry.
Rub them shits!!
Smoke them shits!!
Eat them shits with Foie Gras Baked Beans!!
Out Standing In A Field And Cooking…Again.
3 September 2008 | Ten 01, delicious, faithful readers, jack yoss | 2 Responses
We did it again, faithful readers. We rolled up into a vineyard and cooked a bad-assed meal. At Adelsheim Vineyards in Oregon wine country Chef and I cooked up a 5 course plated dinner for some lucky people. They had hor de oeuvres at the winery while we set up our food and the service staff set up the table. Nestled between rows of grape vines sat our al fresco kitchen, which was equipped with two low propane burners (the kind used for outdoor turkey frying,) a large charcoal grill, and ample plating space. The guests were enjoying Gazpacho shots, arugula pesto prawns, and hamachi tartare while I drank beer and spit cusses at the grill. I had one hell of a time getting that thing lit. It took a side towel soaked in lighter fluid, but I got that fire rolling. The guests strolled up in the waning evening light as the charcoal sputtered and spat to life. Spring Lamb Chops marinated. Chef seared scallops as the girls plated the first course. I scurried about, feeding chef clean pans and regulating fires and helping plate. The servers bussed and poured and ran the plates when each course came up. When it was time for the duck tits, the sheet pan flat top was again created, and the sizzling fat filled the air with a delicious smell. They were sliced and hit the plate with a scrumptous plop. The fading light mingled with the gasps of gastronomic pleasure, the breeze wafted sweet smelling smoke and aounds of merriment across the vineyard. The lamb chops hit the grill with a satisfying sound, that fucker was hot. Chef kicked me off grill duty as I blackened some of the chops. Fucking pastry chefs trying to grill, shit…
Buy Me A 40oz for My Blogday.
4 August 2008 | faithful readers, news | No Responses
Today marks one year that I’ve been writing this blog. From humble beginnings mrjeffmccarthy.com has soared into the blogosphere, with faithful readers in 29 countries and over 400 average monthly visits. Maintaining this blog has helped me get jobs, learn Photoshop, improve my writing skills, and become an international superstar. Well that last bit is an exaggeration but you get the idea. I’d like to thank everyone for reading, the comments and celebrity visits have been highly enjoyable. The feedback, copious. Special thanks goes out to Jaybill for making this site possible, the guy created a monster. A hairy, sarcastic, irreverent, sometimes foul-smelling monster. For the next year I’ve got big plans. Guest writers, an expanded recipe section, finishing Butterhead and of course, more genius. Lots more genius. For anyone that wasn’t aware my blogday was today, never fear!! Mrjeffmccarthy.com will be accepting 40 oz’s all week!!
Crap Meal In Paris.
23 July 2008 | Europe, eating, faithful readers | 2 Responses
Yes, faithful readers, that, unfortunately, is Foie Gras. A cold lifeless hunk of fatty fat-fat, alongside a pile of stinky aspic. This pathetic terrine was crap, and so was our entire meal at a brasserie in Paris, France. The 27 euro prix fix was just shit. The service staff hovered annoyingly, the dude eye-balling my fork, just bent on that moment when I put it down so he can snatch it away. Our salad, hands down the best course, reminded me of middle school. I felt the bearded cigar smoking lady from 6th grade lunch line watching me from the kitchen as I ate slimy lettuce and hard tomatoes. Even the cream corn was present. Kate had salmon, a flesh colored mass that arrived at the table amidst a broken hollandaise and rice pilaf. The only texture in the fish came from the numerous pin bones. My lamb chops showed up overcooked with no sauce, the “chips” were the only thing more embarrassing than the foie terrine. And what the fuck was that salad? Even Ground Round did it better than that!! At least they dressed the cunting thing. We sat in the middle of the dining room, in sight of the (shudder) dessert table, which housed the included sweets of the evening. A kind of enclosure or sneeze card covered the room temp plates I could almost reach. The profiteroles came from the kitchen, however and the imported Hershey’s syrup the saving grace of the meal. My lemon crap-tart arrived quickly, as it was stored less than a meter from my face in the center of the crowded room. It had the tip broken off of it’s stale meringue. The fucking tip was broken off!! Show some pride people!! This is Paris!! Putain de merde!!
NY Cheesecake…Kind Of.
4 June 2008 | creative presentation of the week, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, plated dessert, recipe | 1 Response
People go nuts for this dessert. Eyes pop out of people’s heads. It changes worlds. Even Chef cleaned his plate and he rarely does with sweets. So it’s this month’s Creative Presentation of the Week. Just a little New York Style Cheesecake with Balsamic Strawberries and Hazelnut Scone. As I look at the plate now, I marvel at how I put TWO leaves of mint. C’mon dude! It’s a basic cheesecake recipe I learned from Mark Metzger at the Vail Cascade. I used it also at Carlyle for the cheesecake three ways. Thanks Mark!! The balsamic strawberries were Chef’s idea, and after some tinkering we reproduced them. Look at those babies! All glistening and shit. The “crust” on this cheesecake comes form of scone. I always liked scones for strawberry shortcakes and this dish had strawberries so I thought, what the F. Toasted hazelnuts and sugar crust it up. It’s a little weird, sure, but damn yummy. My faithful readers need these recipes. So…here:
Metzger NY Cheesecake
1 1/2 # cream cheese at room temp
6 oz sugar
Pulp of 1 vanilla bean
3 eggs
1. Preheat the oven to 250 (200 for convection.) Place the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla pulp in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle. Beat on low speed for 5 minutes
2. Scrape the bowl thoroughly with a spatula.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time scraping thoroughly between each addition. The more careful you are here, the better your end product. Add and scrape!! Visualize that nipple in the bottom of the mixing bowl, and scrape it well!!
4. Transfer the batter to a square flexible mold.
5. Bake in a water bath for 25 minutes, then rotate the pan, and bake for another 15 minutes.
6. At this point, the cheesecake should be set on the outsides, and slightly jiggly in the middle. Open the oven door for a sec, then close it and turn the oven off. Set a timer for 45 minutes. I finish all of my custards this way, it works really well. Thanks Alton.
7. Chill the cake for at least 3 hrs before attempting to de-mold and slice. I usually flash mine in the freezer for about 25 minutes to get a clean square.
Balsamic Strawberries
3 cups balsamic vinegar
1 cup honey
granulated sugar to taste
2 vanilla beans scraped
2 pods toasted star anise
2 1/2 - 3 cups hulled local strawberries
1. Measure the balsamic and honey into a pot and whisk to combine. Whisk in the the sugar 1/2 cup at a time until you reach the desired sweetness. Remember the strawberries have a good sweetness as well.
2. Scape the vanilla pods into the pot and bring the mix to a boil.
3. Add the berries and kill the heat. Cover and steep for 25-30 minutes until berries are tender but still slightly firm. They will carry over, so…
4. Create an ice bath with water, ice and two vessels. Stop the cooking process.
5. Carefully pour the steeped berries and liquid into the ice bath. Try not to agitate the berries as they cool, they become very fragile.
Scones
I left the scone recipe at work. Eat your fucking cheesecake. Here’s a good scone recipe for you. And here’s a picture of some ice creams.
Shameless Self Promotion.
30 May 2008 | faithful readers, shameless self promotion | 5 Responses
I wanted to write rap song and wear gold chains and shit but instead I’ll just post these images. A little self-promotion never hurts. My faithful readers know, I’m humble as shit. Above is Baking and Pastry North America. I’m in the same magazine as Pierre Herme and Claire Clark, the pastry chef at the French Laundry. I guess I’m in good company. Remember this dessert? Funny how things work themselves out. Really I have my sister-in-law Keri to thank for this. Her picture of those funnel cakes is gorgeous. The other article is from Bon Appetit. Yeah it’s only two sentences. Fucking Bon Appetit!! Thanks everyone. A lot has happened for me at Ten-01. The life of a cookie baker is a wild ride.
Google Search: Jeff McCarthy
8 May 2008 | faithful readers, jeff, news | 1 Response
Faithful readers, I am number TWO on the first page of Google search : Jeff McCarthy. I’ve finally made it onto the first page and that theatrical performer Jeff McCarthy better watch his ass. Seriously folks, I’m blowin’ up!! The Olive Oil Beignets were mentioned in Bon Appetit, and Pastry and Baking North America is doing a regional showcase on me this month. Jaybill also uninstalled Windows Vista from my laptop, and with XP, I’m blogging extreme!! Actually, I’m busy as shit and haven’t had much time to sit in front this machine. I’ve got a couple things in the works however so stay tuned!!
