Kitchen Practice

Shrimp, cucumber with cuke "angel hair," in rice wine vin, radish, spinach and lime.  I created this dish because I wanted to practice something I had read about which was to mix Activa with the shrimp then vacuum seal it and pound it out.  I had tried this several other times, cooking the shrimp first then cutting in thin slices and rolling out between plastic wrap, slicing thin, freezing, on and on.  This pounding method, raw, in the food saver baggie was one thing I didn't think of.  Great result.

Same dish-another shot.

This one was created in a similar way but I cut the shrimp differently... The main ingredient of this dish, the avocado, was pounded out in a similar fashion in the food saver baggie but no Activa and was frozen (another technique I read up on).  I took it out of the freezer to just temper a bit and assembled it while partially frozen or else the avocado will just become mush.  Before I ate it I let it warm.  There is also the addition of dulse seaweed, radish spouts (courtesy of moi) and quail egg-one of my new little obsessions.  I love them.

In this pic I cubed the shrimp.

Today I wanted to practice my chiccaron skills.  Lately I've been working on making a Westmalle Trappist Dubel and Oyster "cracklin," or chiccaron.  I can't seem to get it just perfect and aerated enough but I'm continuing to work on the recipe... However in the meantime I thought I would practice by first better understanding the fundamentals of true skin chiccarones.  I cleaned the skin as good as possible, vacuum sealed it and then cooked it sous vide at about 140 for 30-50 minutes, something like that.  Then I let it cool, removed it, and scraped the skin a bit more until all that was left was skin.  It's sticky, beware.  I dehydrated it at 160 for about 2 to 3 hours, until completely brittle, and then fried it in canola oil at 375.  They were perfect, so good. Again, I put the salmon skin with quail egg, salmon roe and cocoa.  I used this flavor combo because I'll be having a similar dish on my Spring menu but that dish will be a little more elaborate and hopefully I can get Shad roe!  This is really a fun flavor combination.  

Shrimp Noodles.

I spoiled myself with lunch today!

Wd-50 and the man behind it, Wylie Dufresne, was the creator of shrimp noodles (as far as I know) but it is certainly one of his claims to fame.  Using about 95 percent shrimp, activa and a couple other ingredients... When I was staging one day at Schwa they were making scallop noodles: blending the seared scallop with 10% activa, white wine reduced with shallots and garlic, then piping it out onto silpats in long noodle shapes and then allowing it to set.  Last summer I decided I wanted to put a shrimp noodle on my menu with a primavera style, right, but I don't have the kitchen space to put those large sheet trays of noodles so that they can refrigerate and set however I did attempt the noodles and with my Kitchen Aid blender-did not succeed.  You really need a vita prep for this it seems.  Now I have a borrowed vita prep courtesy of my Aunt Barb but after some research as well as thought I've figured out another way to go about making the noodles.  I'm not sure that I get the most refined look-a challenge to work on for this week, but I did get a great tasting shrimp noodle expressing the "point."  I blended about 20 raw shrimp with a pinch of kosher salt and enough reduced white wine and 1/2 a small shallot and about 10% activa to get a nice blended, smooth mixture.  Then I put all of the mixture into a food saver baggie, vacuum sealed it and then pushed out the shrimp mixture flat as could be to all corners (I think next time to get a thinner noodle I will use a bigger baggy or less mixture).  I allowed it to sit for 36 hours then I cooked it sous vide for about 6 minutes or so in 130 degree water.  A good indication that it's done will be a nice pink color.  I allowed it to cool, opened the baggie and then sliced the noodles thin and even.  I reheated them gently in an emulsified butter and water mixture, buerre monte, and then added sauteed garlic, shallot, white bread crumbs, toasted quinoa and finely chopped spinach.  This was a fun way to have that old Country Lounge Shrimp Scampi.