Anti-griddle Pudding Pop, Bruleed Mango, Black Sesame Tuile - Recipe

 
Anti-griddle Pudding Pop, Bruleed Mango, Black Sesame Tuile

This was my dish for the MasterChef auditions that took Seattle by storm last weekend. I guess it must have been ok, it earned me a callback for a second round interview. There were no cooking facilities for the audition, so the judges made allowances if your food was intended to be served hot.

Still I figured I'd work with those restrictions instead of against them by making dessert that would allow me to do some last minute cooking with my own tools. I bruleed the mango with a torch and made the pudding pop (chocolate, filled with dulce de leche, sea salt, and a drop of toasted sesame oil) on a homebrew anti-griddle.

Anti-griddles are popular in modern-style restaurants. They circulate liquid nitrogen under a flat griddle surface, so that you can freeze a liquid in seconds. I started making a homestyle version using the dry ice from our weekly Amazon Fresh order. (If you try this yourself, use gloves and please be careful - touching dry ice can hurt you badly). I just put it between two sheet pans or cake pans. I've frozen all manner of yogurts, puddings, sauces and so forth. It helps to use a slightly thickened liquid so you can control how it spreads. It also is a good idea to lightly wipe it with oil to make it easier to release your food.

The white sauce you see on the front of the plate is coconut milk, infused with kaffir lime leaf and ginger, and thickened with Ultra-Tex 3. Ultra-Tex 3 is a modified food starch that thickens at room temperature. This makes it easy to see when you've reached the desired texture, so you don't have to be as precise as with some of the other fancy-pants hydrocolloids out there. It releases flavor well and doesn't get gummy. I know it sounds all technical, but really if you are an ambitious home cook, you should consider adding it to your pantry. I think you will find it has a lot of applications.

For the pudding, I followed this simple formula at Smitten Kitchen. Tastes great. Just be sure and use a good quality dark chocolate. These tuiles at Cooking Debauchery are dandy as well. Add about a tablespoon of Japanese black sesame paste and sprinkle them with toasted white sesame seeds before baking.

All of the components here will make way more than you will need for a small number of plates, it just isn't practical to make them in much smaller batches. I'll give the recipe in terms of a single serving.

Anti-griddle Pudding Pop, Bruleed Mango, Black Sesame Tuille
Serves 1
Vegetarian; not vegan nor gluten-free

Coconut milk sauce:

• 1 can coconut milk
• 6 kaffir lime leaves
• 1" piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 2 teaspoons agave nectar
• pinch of salt
• Ultra-tex 3

1. In a small saucepan, warm the coconut milk with the kaffir lime leaves, ginger, agave nectar and salt. Turn off the heat and allow to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve. Taste and adjust seasoning. It should be intensely flavored as you will be serving a very small amount.
2. Using an immersion blender, get a good vortex going. Start sprinkling in Ultra-tex 3, a teaspoon at a time until it reaches a pudding-like consistency, thick enough to stand up on the plate.
3. Strain again in case you got any lumps. Chill.

To finish and serve:

• 1 piece of mango, approx 2" x 3/4" x 3/4"
• 1 teaspon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon chocolate pudding (see link above)
• 1/8 teaspoon dulce de leche
• flaky sea salt
• a drop of toasted sesame oil
• 1 lollipop stick (cut one off of a dum-dum)
• 1/2 black sesame tuile (see link above)
• tiny bit of chiffonade shiso leaf
• coconut milk sauce

1. At one end of the mango, cut a little slot to hold tuile. At the other, poke a hole to hold the pudding pop. Sprinkle the mango with the sugar and brulee (carefully) with a torch until the sugar is deep brown.
2. Put half the chocolate pudding on the antigriddle in a small circle, about 1 1/2" in diameter. Quickly dip the lollipop stick in the dulce de leche, forming a litle ball at the end, and place it in the center of the pudding. Add a couple grains of salt and 1 drop of toasted sesame oil. Top with the rest of the pudding.
3. When the first side is frozen but the middle is still soft, flip the pop and freeze the second side. You'll get the hang of determining when it is frozen on the outside but still pleasingly soft in the interior. And eating your first few mistakes will be fun. Just please be careful not to freeze your tongue.
4. To plate, place the tuile cookie in the slot on the mango and the lollipop in the hole. Add a tiny pinch of the shiso leaf and a small stripe of the coconut milk sauce and serve.

Creamy Grits with Crispy Leeks, Leek Jus, and Cilantro-Epazote Pesto - Recipe

 
Creamy Grits with Crispy Leeks, Leek Jus, and Cilantro-Epazote Pesto

Breakfast for dinner doesn't have to be just pancakes or eggs and toast. I grew up in the South, and was always appalled to watch folks mix together waffles, bacon, maple syrup and everything else on their plate. Thirty years later, I think that mixing sweet, savory and salty flavors is pure genius.

Today's dish explores that idea, with creamy grits, crispy fried leeks, a leek jus with morita peppers and honey, cilantro-epazote pesto, an egg, sunny side up, and a bit of queso fresco. This would be more of a Southwestern spin on that Southern idea.

Grits are one of the great breakfast foods. If you have made polenta before, you've also made grits - there is no real difference, unless you are talking lye-processed hominy grits, which are much less common. Some folks argue about whether or one is coarser or finer, white or yellow but mainly it is a distinction without a definitive difference. Cornmeal is simply whisked into lots of boiling water, and then simmered until smooth, soft and creamy. If you like, you can replace some of the water with milk, and/or add cheese to enrich.

I handled the leeks in an interesting way here. We fry up a big batch of them until crispy. Some are reserved for the final dish, and the rest are then simmered with morita peppers, extracting all of that caramelized flavor to make the jus. I just recently learned about moritas - they are smoked and dried red jalapenos. So basically chipotles, but not packed in adobo. You get the opportunity to get all the pepper flavor and smoke without the extraneous tomatoey flavors in the canned sauce. And let me tell you, breathing in deep from a bag of morita peppers is a transporting experience. Wow.

The cilantro-epazote pesto was a pure experiment. I thought maybe the epazote flavor would be overpowering, and I would only be able to use a tiny bit as an accent. Surprisingly, that wasn't the case. It was present and very appetizing, but not over the top.

Creamy Grits with Crispy Leeks, Leek Jus, and Cilantro-Epazote Pesto
Vegetarian and gluten-free; not vegan
Serves 2

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup stone-ground grits
• 2 tablespoons pepitas, toasted
• 1 handful cilantro leaves, cleaned
• 4 epazote leaves
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 3 leeks, white parts only, halved lengthwise, cleaned thoroughly, sliced thinly
• 2 morita peppers or other smoked pepper of your choice, briefly toasted in a dry skillet
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 organic eggs
• 2 ounces queso fresco or other cheese of your choice

1. Bring the 3 cups of water and 1 cup of milk to a boil. Whisk in the grits in a thin stream, stirring continuously. Add a couple big pinches of salt. Reduce to a simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. You will notice a distinct change where they go from being "gritty" to creamy.  Add more water as necessary if they are getting dry before that happens. Anytime after they turn creamy, they are ready to serve. Taste and add salt as needed.
2. Meanwhile, combine the pepitas, cilantro, epazote, 2 tablespoons of canola oil and a pinch of salt in a mini food processor, and process until it forms a coarse, pesto-like consistency. You might need a little more oil. Taste and adjust salt.
3. Heat a very large, preferably cast-iron skilet over a high flame. Add 1/4 cup of oil and heat for a moment. Add the leeks and a big pinch of salt and fry, turning only very occasionally, until they are mostly deep brown. Remove about two tablespoons of them two paper towels and season with salt. As they cool, the should become crisp.
4. Return the pan to a medium flame (with the rest of the leeks still in it), and deglaze the pan with 1 cup of water, scraping well to get all the flavorful bits. Add the morita peppers and the honey and whisk. Reduce heat to a bare simmer and cook five minutes, adding more water if needed.
5. Using a fine sieve and pressing well, transfer the liquid to a very small saucepan and keep warm. Dispose of the solids. Reduce or add liquid as necessary to produce a thin jus with just a hint of body. Taste and adjust seasoning. We'd like a balance of savory from the leeks, salt, smoke and heat, and sweetness from the honey.
6. In the original skillet, add a little more oil and fry off two eggs. Cover so that the whites cook while the yolk remains runny. Or you could use poached eggs.
7. To serve, put a helping of the grits in each bowl and make a well. Fill the well with the poached egg. Top with the crispy leeks and pour a couple tablespoons of the jus around the edge. Add a tablespoon or so of the pesto and a small piece of queso fresco.

The Wrath of Grapes; Grape Expectations; You Ungrapeful Bastard

 
Grapes four ways

Never stop playing with your food! This is one of my favorite kitchen creativity games. Take a single ingredient, and cut it as many ways as you can think of, then observe the way the cuts and textures change your perception. Then take it a step further and let those new perceptions suggest simple flavor pairings.

These enormous, nearly black seedless grapes gave me all sorts of ideas. 

• Peeled and rolled in crispy crumbled rice crackers, Hawaiian black salt
• Sliced so thin they are transparent, with fennel pollen and lemon zest
• Peeled and cut into irregular "icebergs" with cilantro/pepita pesto
• Fileted with sunflower butter
• (below) Tops and bottoms removed, thinly sliced vertically, again with the cilantro/pepita pesto

Serve chilled.

Grapes with cilantro/pepita pesto