The most important thing about historical food oriented celebrations is tradition. However forced restraint does not allow creative thought to blossom. While determined to make an entirely traditional turkey gravy for thanksgiving, sauce making is a particular interest so we decided to make some wavy gravy.   Essentially (we did not measure) TURKEY GRAVY with UNI. Standard Butter + Flour Roux. Cook to blonde Roux. Add brown Butter Solids (made from cooking milk powder in Butter) Add Sea Urchin (West Coast Santa Barbara) Add turkey stock and pan drippings. Cook as per standard gravy technique and emulsify with Bamix or other stick blender. Season (salt + White Pepper) The result is an incredibly luxurious veloute that clearly tastes like fantastic turkey gravy with a mysterious complexity. FYI..if you have a        THERMOMIX       ....which is how we really made it....transfer everything to thermomix after adding turkey jus. Cook in thermomix and then blend for service with 1 egg yolk. You get a crazy velvety turkey sabayon.

Last August I wrote about Lime Cordial    HERE     with slightly updated tweaks to the      NEW YORK TIMES RECIPE.     If you read the recipe it finishes with a 12 to 24hr maceration time to allow the flavors to blend. As we suspected in revisiting the recipe a Sonicator completely eliminates the wait time and it is simply processed for 10 minutes resulting in a cordial that tastes as good or better. Perhaps this can apply to other tinctures and bitters in a creative cocktail program. Time is money.

Roasted Potato Brine...for a pre thanksgiving roast turkey and roast chicken experiment.

Using the logic that the best way to fake an expensive mushroom is to use an inexpensive mushroom with a dubious transfer of flavor. Please spare us the lecture on the integrity of ingredients with the comments,that is not the point of this post. This is just plain silliness in the kitchen.

Porcini : Expensive-Highly Perishable.

Royal Trumpet : Dirt Cheap-Keeps well.

The story goes…..

Sonicate slightly steamed dry Cepes into 90% Grapeseed-10% Hazelnut Oil.

Pack the oil and Royal Trumpets into a vacuum pouch.

Cook in the bath.

Cool.

Remove from pouch and wipe clean.

Slice, season with salt and Sear in a pan.

It tastes like and has the texture of a pretty good Porcini.

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 Fall Game pop-up dinner.

Tuesday  November 29.  7.00pm

7 Courses . Matrix Menu . Preparations TBD.

Book HERE.

                            A reader e-mailed us to ask for a recommendation on a new Vacuum Sealer purchase and what particular machine we use. Pictured above is     MINIPAK MVS-45 XP     We determined it is the most effective and user friendly machine on the market for our needs. It includes a double seal bar, programmable printer and most importantly an excellent local service network. There are lots of other machines out there but Minipak provides a few important things. The deepest chamber with all the plastic boards removed and a completely visible top lid so you can monitor the progress of items being sealed. This is particularly important when sealing liquids. MULTIVAC for example has a metal lid with a glass window and is a bit more complicated to use. If you need any further validation even    POLYSCIENCE   the kings of all Souvidery are only peddling Minipak machines as you can see by clicking     HERE.    I assume they sell most of the models but the complete list is on Minipak's website    HERE. 

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Breakfast For Dinner Pictures.

Click Thumbnails for larger view.

1.  Foie Gras Bacon . Kabocha . Kinome . Hijiki . Rosemaple
2. Pu-erh Dashi . Tako . Scallion . Preserved Sansho Berries
3. Uni Brioche Pain Perdu . Wasabi Stem . Sake Cured Trout Roe
4. 21 Day Sake Egg . Toban Jan . Nori Marmalade . Celery
5. Malted Maitake Oatmeal . Clothbound Cheddar . Rainwater Madeira
6. Lamb Belly . Vadouvan-Ginger Oatmeal . Caramelized Yoghurt
7. Oxtail Bacon . Quince Confit . Black Rye . Pickled Eggplant

Not that I particularly care about taking credit but after a very thorough  google search I may in fact be the first person to make Oxtail Bacon....ever....and good lord it is delicious. Obviously ACTIVA-RM  and "Kill-Bill" quality Japanese cutlery is involved ....and by the way I really wish people would stop using that pedestrian pejorative term "meat-glue".