Don't Ask, Just Eat.

Beef Two Ways

2013-01-08T17:47:00.002-08:00

Grilled Local Striploin with Carrot Puree, Charred Cippolini Onion, Brussels Sprouts Petals,

Braised Beef Short Ribs and Risotto Croquette, Red Wine Jus.

Ribs

2013-01-08T17:38:00.001-08:00

Grilled/BBQ ribs is one of my favorite things to eat. Though I am not a fan of those who boil their ribs to get them tender at all. I think it's much better to just season the ribs, wrap them in foil, and cook them at 325*F for 2-3 hours. The ribs cook in their own juices and seasoning instead of losing the flavors in the boiling liquid, even if that liquid is well seasoned. I like to finish my ribs on the grill or under the broiler with my bbq sauce. Tonight I made some "Asian style pork spare ribs", and they were delicious. The sauce is a combination of hoisin, ginger, garlic, siracha, soy sauce, and a touch of maple syrup.

2012-11-17T10:05:00.000-08:00

Duck is one of my favorite proteins to eat, but I usually don't ever order it when I go out to eat. Too many people just don't give it enough time in the pan to render out the skin and fat so the results are usually chewy and unappetizing. Also, scoring the skin is very important because you want to expose as much surface area as possible so that the fat renders out quickly and you end up with perfectly crispy duck skin.

2012-11-12T15:16:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy summer, then the awaited/dreaded foliage season. I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I would put some pictures up. Hopefully I will have more time during the winter months to document my dishes more often. Anyway here are a few that I managed to capture.

Summertime

2012-07-17T08:18:00.001-07:00

Playing with a photo tent.

2012-06-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of shots that I took with the photo tent I bought from ebay. I'm still quite a noob when it comes to photography, I need to take some sort of a class on this subject. But I think the pictures came out pretty decent still.

Sticky Rice

2012-06-09T08:02:00.001-07:00

I'm sure that many of you out there know what sticky rice is, but do know how it is prepared?? To many, the sticky rice that you know is probably the sushi rice correct? Well the sticky rice that I grew up with in Thailand is a whole different breed. The sticky rice that the Thais eat is a medium grain rice that to the untrained eyes looks just like any regular rice. But the method of preparation is quite different. The traditional way of cooking sticky rice is to first soak the rice in water over night, then you drain it and put it into what looks like it could be an upside down woven bamboo hat. The "hat" is then put on top of a metal vase-like pot with boiling water inside to create the necessary steam needed for the cooking of the rice. The length of time needed for the rice to cook is not really known, you just have to keep checking and testing the rice for doneness.

Update

2012-06-09T07:42:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this blog. I've been pretty busy and when it's busy, it's hard to try and take pictures of the food as they are going out the door. I am waiting for some slow nights where I can take my time and catch a few cool shots of the food again. One productive thing that I did was purchasing a table top photo tent, it was around $30 on ebay. Nothing fancy really, just a simple collapsable 20"X20" photo tent. But hopefully it'll help enhance the quality of the pictures that I take. Anyway summer is here so I am excited for this years crops and new dishes/ideas so I will definitely try to get more pictures up on the blog. Cheers Narin

Simply Roasted Cornish Hen

2012-04-30T15:22:00.002-07:00

It's amazing how many people out there have a hard time roasting a chicken. It's straight forward, simple, and delicious. Maybe people are just intimidated but the fact that it's a whole chicken.

Wild Edibles

2012-04-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

I recently went on a day hike at a local mountain 10 minutes from where I live. During my hike I was very happy to have stumbled upon a nice patch of ramps and wild mint that grew pretty much along the whole trail. When I picked a mint leaf and crushed it between my fingers I was quite surprised at how mild the mint aroma was when compared to the store bought mint. In the end I decided not to pick any of the mint but came home with a good handful of ramps. While driving back home, I was wondering what to do with the ramps and also what to do for dinner. I really wanted to keep it pretty simple, a few ingredients and let the natural flavors come through. Now I guess I could have just sauteed the ramps and eat it along side of something and that would have been delicious, but I wanted pizza for dinner. So the end result was: Grilled flatbread with bacon and wild ramps, homemade ricotta, garlic oil. The ramps mellowed out nicely and the sweetness really came through.

Froze and Thawed Tomato Consomme

2012-04-12T19:14:00.002-07:00

So one day at work we thawed probably a 20 quart cambro full of local tomatoes that were harvested at the peak of their season and to our surprise, we ended up with the most clear and flavorful tomato water we've ever tasted. So I immediately felt like I needed to put that on the menu for the next night, which was perfect since we have tasmanian sweet crab written down as a protein for the first course. So...

-pick ripe tomatoes that were in season.
-freeze the tomatoes for use in the off season.
-thaw tomatoes for marinara.
-discover a large amount of tomato water from the thawing process.
-create a dish that involves this wonderful discovery.
-make asparagus chawanmushi.
-asparagus + crab = classic combo.
-result: chilled asparagus custard with tasmanian crab, tomato water and oven dried tomato, ivory lentils, and baby herbs.

Alkaline/Ramen Noodles.

2012-04-12T13:37:00.003-07:00

Finding good Asian restaurants is hard enough when you live in a small town in Vermont. But finding a good ramen shop is pretty much impossible, unless i drive to New York City. So what a person to do when he is craving the chewy and firm texture of ramen and the unique flavor that italian pasta can't match??? Well if you've got some time you could make your own ramen noodles, or alkaline noodles as some call it. "Kansui", an essential part of making ramen, is a type of mineral water that contains sodium carbonate, and usually potassium carbonate as well. kansui is pretty hard to get where I live, so after a little bit of searching on the internet, I found a solution. I found a recipe that only calls for calcium bicarbonate on the New York Times web site. The recipe was simple enough, flour, water, and baking soda that's been baked in the oven for an hour @ 250 degrees Fahrenheit. So after gathering the few ingredients, I tried the recipe and whammy!!! I have alkaline noodles. And I must say that it is not perfect, but it definitely satisfied my craving..... for now.

The recipe is at the link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/dining/15curiousrex.html?_r=2

"Old School"

2012-04-06T18:25:00.002-07:00

Chicken Rillettes with foie gras fat added for a more bold flavor and richness. This was a great way for me to use up some left over braised chicken meat. The accompaniments are house made quince mostarda, pickled peppers, local carrot, and zucchini.

Death Comes to All

2012-02-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, fair warning. The pictures to follow are pretty graphic, if you have a weak stomach, don’t like the sight of blood or have no interest in seeing the slaughter of an animal….go away, this isn’t for you…

Now, a little back story. When I first moved to Bhutan, I inherited 2 little piglets from the former Chef. He had planned to raise them for a Barbeque party but they weren’t nearly big enough to slaughter by the time he left so I was stuck with them. Due to business levels and a lot of procrastination on my part the piglets turned into massive beasts that eventually were too big for their pig pen.

Not the most comfortable living conditions I admit

Something had to be done. Being a Chef and infatuated with everything pig and pork related I purposely didn’t get attached to these creatures and thought of them only as food…delicious, food.

The day before I felt like a mob boss… Conversations going something like this:

“so you know a guy that can take care of them?”

“good, what does he want for payment?”

“ok, how long will he take to get it done?”

“good, good, I’ll arrange the place, just tell him to show up at 8am...”

I was apprehensive, I had never seen anyone slaughter any type of animal live before nevermind 2 animals I had practically raised myself.

A half bottle of whisky, a dream of the ‘Zuckerman’s Famous Pig’ parade (from Charlottes Web) and a few hours of sleep later Chef Matt and I were on our way.

I had no idea what to expect, our friends coming to help us with the slaughter were local guys, one with shaky hands from too much ara (the local spirit), another with one eye, and another who never stops smiling, literally.

Skip to the killing, we are standing there watching the above scene. The men tied a rope around the pigs neck, attached it to a nearby tree and strangled it. Yes, strangled it to death. It was tough to watch.

Many would find this appalling and inhuman and if I were in any other country I would agree, but I’m in Bhutan. This is the way they do things and have done things for a very long time. There is no rifle for a quick easy kill, they don’t have spears or skill enough to stick it through the heart. I wasn’t very happy with this form of taking an animals life but on the other hand to have to respect the culture and their way of doing things.

Once the animals had passed it was time for the rest of the process. We dragged the pigs out of the pen and brought them to an open area where we could remove the hair.

Being a rice cultivating culture there is dried rice stalks everywhere. The men gathered a large amount and got to burnin’

This Bastard was heavy...

We scraped the hair from the animals as best we could, washed them and moved them to the slaughter site a few yards away.

On a thin piece of metal covered in dried rice stalks (to catch excess blood) they started the butchering process...

A first cut was made across the neck and he proceeded to cut down the middle of the pig and remove the belly... Yeah thats a machete he's using to cut by the way...

Once the belly was removed, it was time for the most beautiful part..

I'm being sincere when I say beautiful, I really thought the innards were a gorgeous sight.. Sort of fascinating in a gruesome way.

Chef Matt, scooping that blood

We wanted to use as much of the animals as possible, save the blood for sausage, save the heads, all the offal but being that sanitation was not the top priority of this slaughter we decided against it.

Myself cutting up some heart, some lungs, some liver for payment

We cut up the offal for payment (all-in-all we had to sacrifice one head, both belly's and most innards for payment to our butcher) then sent both carcasses away for further butchering and storage. Hopefully a BBQ pig roast will follow to give thanks for these creatures giving their lives for our stomachs.

My first experience with slaughter was definitely an interesting one. I won't say we enjoyed it but we experienced it and are better for it. My thanks to Chef Matt over at Prickly Ash for joining me during this event.

Dangerous Beauty

2012-02-13T20:31:00.000-08:00

A cactus in the different stages of flowering, is incredibly beautiful. Some times its nice to take time to stop and notice things like this. Just don't touch it....shit hurts.

Compressed

2012-01-30T15:36:00.000-08:00

Well I tried out the Thermal Circulator the other day by cooking my chicken thigh-forcemeat-thigh concoction. The result was quite good and both the forcemeat and the thigh meat were cooked to perfection and retained moistness. But I did have one problem, I seared the pressed meat to crisp up the skin on both sides, the skin shrunk quite a bit. So unfortunately I ended up with the crispy skin being half the size it was and only cover the center portion of the block. I think perhaps next time I will remove all the skin completely, crisp up the skin separately and served in small shards on the finished plate. Learning though doing, in most cases, is the best way to learn.

Flavors

2011-10-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of compound butters. Fat is a great carrier of flavors and I love making different flavors of compound butters for the pantry. It is something that is so simple to make, yet can add a lot of flavors and moisture to any type of protein out there. It is a great flavor enhancer to have in the fridge.

Nostalgia

2011-10-06T11:07:00.001-07:00

This dish was inspired by what i used to eat for breakfast while I was growing up in Thailand. The original dish that I had in Thailand were consisted of a bowl of rice porridge, 3 minute egg, ground pork, scallion and some Maggie sauce. The dish was a staple while growing up since it was so cheap to buy, but it was very filling as well.

The picture above is a 64*C poached egg with soba groats in a shitake broth, scallion and crispy shitake. It was on one of my nightly tasting menus, very simple and very delicious.

Been busy.

2011-10-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

So I haven't post anything new on this blog for a while. I think that both Ben and I have been pretty busy with whatever we've got going on in our lives. I think that what I've realized is that having a blog isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. With that being said, I will try my best to keep the posts coming.

Thanks

Taco

2011-06-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

Taco is a great creation in itself, I do not wish to make the taco better than what it already is, but I need to somehow crete one that is my own. So one day I was playing with the wheat starch dough and decided to fry it. The result was this super crispy and light shell. I decided I want to do my take on fish taco with tuna being the protein. I was also influenced by the familiar and fresh flavors of South East Asia. The end result was a Seared Tuna marinated in toast sesame dressing in a crispy wheat starch taco shell with pickled vegetables, a wedge of lime, and chili-garlic dip. The flavor combination worked well together and the finger food factor made it more fun to eat, I could eat like ten of these. I know seared tuna is way overdone in just about every restaurant, but it's what I had to work with at the time. This was just the "first draft" of the dish, next step is to experiment with different type of fish.

Out of Style?

2011-06-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

Are Souffles officially out of style?

I was working a Chefs dinner recently and while brainstorming the final course we got to talking about Souffles. The Boss wanted the souffle as the final course to 'wow' the guest and have that amazing presentation factor. As Chefs we were all sort of burnt out on the fact of having to put this super sweet egg-white creation as the final course to our amazing tasting. We felt that souffles were awesome in the early nineties and to bring it back to finish this degustation would be a disservice...

Chefs are stubborn, there is no doubt about that. We'll keep something on a menu forever even though it doesn't sell only because we created it and we think its great. We also will refuse to put something on a menu because we think its lame even though it would sell like crazy. So I ask the question does anything ever really go 'out of style' in food? There is a reason things hang around for such a long time, if they're really really good is it even possible for them to go 'out of style'? Or is it all personal preference?

Nothing to say...

2011-05-20T05:41:00.001-07:00

A lot of time I just look at pictures of composed dishes online or in a book without reading descriptions just so I can let my imagination go to work and allow the pictures inspire me. It's like being inspired by a painting, it's up to the viewer to fine the meaning.

New Life in Bhutan

2011-04-20T05:30:00.001-07:00

Where the hell is Bhutan you might ask? It's one of the last remaining kingdoms in the world. It is located between China and India near Nepal and Bangladesh. Called "one of the last Shangri-la's" it is nearly impossible to find much information about the country anywhere but from inside the country (a little ironic I know). Its been nearly three weeks in this gorgeous country and I wonder why more people don't know about it... Then I remember that there is only one airline that flies into Bhutan (their fleet consists of 2 planes), visas are difficult to get and extremely expensive ($200 per day for tourists), and it sits between two of the most populated countries in the world...

I came here to fulfill a dream of mine (to live and work in a different country) and to experience something new. Adjusting to life has been difficult, modern conveniences of home are almost non-existent here, save for a few TV's and the internet in certain areas. The new chapter in this life begins and I am ready to cook and eat my way through as much of Bhutan as possible and hopefully the rest of Asia in the future.

Food pictures and posts will follow soon. For now, landscape photos will have to suffice...

Homemade Pho

2011-04-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my annual Asian grocery shopping trip, I was able to make Pho and it was delicious. ( sorry for blurry cellphone picture )

Mock Foods, Why?

2011-04-08T18:03:00.000-07:00

So I went on my yearly pilgrimage to an Asian grocery store in Massachusetts earlier today. And as usual, I found a wide variety of goodies from fresh Asian produce to dried fish and chinese sausage. But I also found a couple of things that was quite interesting and confusing at the same time. There they were, next to the produce section, a wide varieties of vegetarian/vegan products. The ones that really caught my eyes were these "vegetarian kidneys and tripe. My immediate thought was "wow these are cool and weird, who would buy these?" Then I was confused because from what I've seen time and time again, vegetarian/vegan products are often made to mimic products from real animals. Why in the world would you want to turn vegetable protein into a tripe/kidneys looking thing. Are there actually vegetarians out there who wonders what tripe or kidneys tastes like? I mean I just don't get it, seriously. There is no way a piece of tofu will taste like veal kidneys, so why make it into the shape of kidneys? I mean "mock duck" doesn't taste like duck so why make it look like pieces of duck meat? Maybe one day I will see "Mock kidneys" or "Mock Tripe" on a menu at a vegetarian restaurant.... but hopefully not.