A big part of creativity is sharing ideas. It happens on several mediums the least of which is "in-person" since we are all geographically challenged. The idea for this post came from a good friend Eli Kirshtein. We exchange several text messages bouncing ideas back and forth. Eventually sone of those ideas are revisited or put into practice. It is just a window into the evolution of conversations and compositions with a mix of technique, history and politics. Mild use of vulgarity unfortunately is present.

TEXTS FROM ELI.

Eli-San:   Yorkshire pudding made in clarified foie fat.

Studiokitchen:    Foie fat or Foie filled popovers

Eli-San:    Mangalitsa fat ?

Studiokitchen:     Lardo draped Yorkshire pudding...... Whipped lardo?

Eli-San:    Out of a siphon, straight to the fat, maybe a fryer. Lighter? Crispy?

Studiokitchen:     Ooooh a whipped lardo croquette.

Eli-San:      Elaborate.

Studiokichen:     Dusted with vinegar powder.

Studiokitchen:    Easy...just "pane-anglaise".

Eli-San:     Remember, traditional Argentinian recipe for empanadas calls for 1
part beef 2 parts onions 2 parts beef fat.

Studiokitchen:     True....Lardo Brandade?

Eli-San:     Fried rillette is delicious.

Studiokitchen:      Isn't that called carnitas haha.

Eli-San:      Got to bread it! Fritters!

Studiokitchen:      With a fruit mostarda.

Eli-San:      Maybe beignet like. Tasting like a turnover.

Studiokitchen:     Asian pear mostarda cooked tempura or beer batter.

Eli-San:        White beer sorbet.

Studiokitchen:       Sweet...... Good idea...... Peach mostarda beignet..... with peach
lambic beer batter.

Eli-San:    Exactly.  With the choucroute dinner..

Studiokitchen:       Use lindemans Peche for batter.

Eli-San:      Maybe green peaches for the filling, get crunch and acid.

Studiokitchen:    Yes...obviously apples will work too.

Eli-San:     Sure, but peaches are so amazing. Summer vs fall.

Studiokitchen:       For Sure.

Eli-San:       Apples with sorghum, peaches with honey.

Studiokitchen:        Choucroute Garni is one of my favorite meals but nobody in America.
f**king makes it properly

Eli-San:       Agreed.......and doing it from one hog would rock.

Studiokitchen:   Yup.

Follow on Twitter @EliKirshtein.

While the realm of "breads" made through the     ISI GOURMET WHIP SIPHON        and microwaved have a fantastic fluffy texture they lack the intrinsic fermentation flavors of properly risen bread. The simple solution is to include either a brioche or sourdough starter or "biga" in the blended mixture of eggs-flour-sugar-salt-butter-milk. More complex dairy products could also be used in addition to cheese or dairy powders such as buttermilk and sour cream. A measured amount of properly blanched and pureed herbs of choice in this case dill make a fantastic herb brioche. It is interesting that resting the batter for 10 minutes before cooking results in a much more delicate "bread" with larger pores.

I think one should use all tools and thought within their reach to just see "What If". Unless you try you don't know. I love maple syrup in it's most natural form and with the recent proliferation of pedigreed maple syrups on the market with things like vanilla bean infusion, aging in bourbon barrels or crystallizing into powder I am trying to see what maple syrup tastes like when it is reduced carefully at various states of intensity much like German dessert wines. One could certainly just boil it down in a pot however indications are that too much heat for too long may fundamentally change the nature of the syrup and not for the better. While I gravitate between cooking carefully chosen high quality ingredients with a balance of interesting elements as the underlying cooking philosophy, I find MODERNIST CUISINE to be a fantastic public service by the MC team in terms of exposure to new tools and ideas. Referring to the second book "Techniques and Equipment" page 392. we are reducing maple syrup by 30 and 50% to compare to the original using the Genevac Rocket Evaporator. We started with 2 exceptional syrups Grade A-Medium Amber and Grade B directly from a reputable farm.     Load up the evaporation bottles. Reduce the samples. On a different note since the centrifuge cavity has room for 6 bottles we decided to also "wash" a good maple syrup with bourbon after cavitating it with oak barrel woodchips. All the alcohol washed out but most of the bourbon aroma and flavor remains simulating a more intense version of standard barell aged maple syrup which does take several months.....Total time here...about 3 hrs.