Seaweed

The name of some great seaweed that's like salad is Tosaka Nori. We had it a year ago in this super fancy japanese place and have not seen it since Saw it today on a dish at the restaurant, cool stuff.

Link

this is a link to an interesting review, mentions Bouley,
http://ulteriorepicure.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/a-trolley-like-no-other/

Salad

I have always wanted to make a composed salad that looked great but was large enough to satisfy people who are not eating 14 course taisting menus. We use this hydro lettuce that comes in clam shells, make a lemon vinaigrette that dresses mixed greens then place them in the lettuce.

Hamachi

Sea Urchin

I have wanted to do this for a long time, here it is. Sea Urchin Pana Cota. We use some of the roe whole inside the creme of urchin. Served with a reduced shellfish consome that is emulsified with some gelatin and piped around, fresh sea weeds, sea beans, caviar.

Lots of Misen Place...

Gnocchi Recipe

This is an awesome gnocchi recipe.
3lbs pressed Sheep MIlk Cheese
6 egg yolks
7 ounces of flour
30 grams of Parmesan
salt and olive oil

Mix the egg, ricotta and parmesan in the kitchen aid with the bar. Once they are mixed well, quickly fold in flour and olive oil be very careful not to over beat, just mix enough. Rest on hour in the fridge, then roll out and cut. They cook really quickly. This is such a simple recipe, but honestly produces the lightest pasta i have ever worked with. Serve with a Parsley Pistou, artichoke and their juices reduced down, ect ect.

Amuse

Crispy Parsnip strips with procciuto on the ends. Good idea for an amuse that let's guest's pick them up, maybe out of a shot glass, and experience something other than the typical things we receive all the time.

summer dish

Just had this thought of a dish we did last year that I will really want to revisit and refine once the weather starts warming up again. We did a harissa glazed duck breast with pickled cucumber and greek yoghurt. The dish was very refreshing and every part worked really well with each other. Thanks to shaun for the inspiration on this one. We peeled the cucumbers and ran them over the mandoline to make long "pasta" then pickled them in rice wine vinegar, water, salt, sugar, some thai chili. The yoghurt was served room temperature infused with cummin that had been toasted and ground. The duck was roasted and glazed with a mix of harissa and honey.

Tuesday scenes

Alto Shaam

This is where we cook everything, the soft eggs, pork belly, rabbit terrines. This thing is pressurized, has it's own thermometer for internal temps, is self cleaning and is worth about 30000... It runs all night and all day, at night we roast our pork sholders, during the day from 8a.m. until 10p.m., everything else.

Shichimi

This is a chinese 7 spice mix. Works great on potato chips, just make sure to add while they are still hot and use a lot of salt. The mix includes the following: red pepper, orange peel, black sesame, yellow sesame, seaweed, ginger, japanese pepper.
"7 Spiced Potato Chips" very popular, very simple, very spicy.

Ravioli (2 kinds) More ideas.

First is one we did at Luxembourg. Arugula ravioli with brown butter and cardamom. The filling for the ravioli is blanched arugula, that has been dried very well. Mozzarella, Parmesan and Ricotta cheese, lemon zest, nutmeg, salt and pepper. The sauce is made out of brown butter that has been infused with toasted cardamom. Pickup is toasted pine nuts, preserved lemon rind and a quick saute of arugula.
Second is a head cheese ravioli. The idea is to braise the pigs head, pull the meat, ect ect, but reducing the liquid so much so that when we add the picked meat, it will be suspended in the liquid. Chill to near freezing and cut into pieces that will go inside the pasta so that you will end up with a "liquid" center with the braised meat and what ever else we decide to go with.
Pasta Dough:
1 3/4 cups AP
6 egg yolks
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp EVOO
1 TB milk

Training...

Court Boullion

1 pint white wine
1 pint rice wine vinegar
1 cup sake
5 cloves of garlic
4 lemons juiced
2 TB black peppercorns
1 TB corriander
2 bay leaves
8 sprigs of thyme
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk of celery
water=cover
salt to taste
Bring all to boil, add shrimp or seafood and poach. Shrimp takes about 2 minutes. Save the bouillion and reuse the next day.

Ideas

For a small course: Rabbit terrine. Small diameter with quail egg and natural reduction with a fennel marmalade?
Rabbit Brine (can be used on a lot of wild game, quail, pheasant, squirrel):
1 Liter water
50 grams salt
thyme
bay leaf
2 clove garlic
500 grams of cleaned rabbit...
Combine all but game, bring to a boil and chill. Once cool, add the meat and brine for 12 hours. After brined, rinse with cold fresh water 3 times for several hours.
You can use the tenderloins in the center if you wanted, I am cooking the terrine or roulade, to 130 degrees and then cooling. Re wrap or press depending on what mold you are using. Slice and plate.

Soft Egg

140 degrees for 50 minutes on steam.
The egg is still in the shell and can be cooled in an ice bath or cracked into ramekins. Great substitution for poached eggs.
Once the eggs are cooked and cooled, they can be stored in a refrigerator for up to 1 day. To heat them up, just place in a bowl, cover with hot water, and wait 5 minutes.

Stock and Broth

This is the recipe/procedure for a banging broth..
40 sheets kombu
40 Liters water
5 lbs dried shitake
80 lbs chicken legs
120 lbs chicken necks and backs
40 lbs pork neck
3 slabs smoked chopped bacon (bentons)
7 pieces ham hocks

Bring water and kombu to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes. Strain. Add dried shitakes and simmer for 1 3/4 hour, strain.
Next add chicken legs and simmer until soft. (These will be used for the chicken on the buns and noodles.) Strain. Add 120 lbs raw chicken necks and back, 40 lbs roasted pork neck, 3 slabs benton bacon (for smokiness) and ham hocks. Simmer over night, with scallion scrap, ect ect. Strain the next morning, and place in new kettle. Reduce for "redux", chill and refrigerate.
For service: 2 parts water to 1 part redux. Tare, Salt and Pepper.
Tare (deluxe infused soy sauce used for seasoning the broth, ect ect. Great salt substitution):
8 lbs roasted chicken bones (caramelized)
8 quarts soy sauce
4 quarts Mirin
4 quarts sake
Cook Mirin, sake and chicken bones until reduced by 10 percent. Add soy sauce and reduce until liquid level is 12 quarts.

The idea is to reduce because you want to save space, but is not necessary. This is a standard recipe for all the noodles that we are cooking, roughly 2 Liters of water will accept about 1 quart of Tare. Lots of salt and pepper for flavor. You must remember that the broth has to be "over" seasoned because of the noodles.

October 2008

Bouley has been quite the experience, as is Momofuku currently, but starting in 2 and a 1/2 weeks, I will be starting my new job as Executive Sous Chef at Picholine on the Upper West Side. Check it out at www.picholinenyc.com. I am really very excited, and over the course of the next couple of weeks will be writting down a lot of ideas, and recipes.