Kombu rehydrated in smoked  brine solution. Rinsed and wrapped around HIRAME for an obviously cold raw dish. Vacuum sealed to speed up the process and keep super fresh buried in ice.        

Visual inspiration stimulates ideas which is why I like an open architecture for creative work spaces. One tool, ingredient or process influences everything else around it. Admittedly I am fanatical about housekeeping during food preparation, all equipment must be cleaned to completion by somebody immediately after use. The PASTA BRASS DIES obviously have  dough stuck into the deepest crevices. Unfortunately without a high speed water jet one just has to soak them. While this is not exactly a crisis I just find it slightly annoying to have metal parts sitting in water or vinegar for hours. Guess what solves that problem.....The Ultrasonic Homogenizer at full cycle releases all the stuck bits of pasta, you can wash-rinse the die and put it away properly. DONE.      

              Caramelized Onion Puree + Freeze Dried Onion Soup + Semolina +Powdered Gruyere + Koji Aji.  

                    Added some new dies to the collection. The new ARCOBALENO WEBSITE. I have moved from storing used dies in  water to clear white vinegar. It mitigates the tarnishing and also eats away the dough stuck in the dies overnight so they can be rinsed and put away. Hot water to clean dies just makes it worse as it cooks the dough. Boiling the dies works but it is a waste of energy.  

In Process refers to posts I will put up before the ideas come either to completion, success or failure but it still allows the conversation and exchange of ideas to flow. The Ultrasonic Homogenizer is a brave new world and one has to just take several shots in the dark to see what is possible. One can certainly find the highest speed blender and try to combine olive oil and water into an emulsion without any surfactants or emulsifiers to make a similar poaching medium like the traditional butter-water "beurre fondue". The question is does it separate after it reaches a certain level of heat and how stable is it. The Sonicator certainly can achieve the emulsion in a way no blender does but one needs to precisely experiment with rations of fats to liquids, actual types of fats and liquids and  temperature of the emulsion. Idea #1 is non dairy "beurre fondues" that actually stay emulsified long beyond what a blender can achieve. Rosemary-Olive Beuure Fondue = Olive Oil + Water + Olive Juice + Salt + Rosemary Infusion. I did not fully homogenize just quite yet because I am curious to see just what ratio of oil to liquid works. The flavor is however excellent, buttery with Arbequina olive flavor. The real test to see how the emulsion holds is to freeze it. I am checking it every 20 minutes first then every 10 minutes till it either freezes or separates. If it does freeze as an emulsion which I highly doubt, that creates a whole new though process. Click on the pictures for larger images with more detail. It is quite remarkable that a non rotating wand can actually create an emulsion. Frankly changes every assumption I had about physics.      

        The ultrasonic homogenizer is a game changer. So far I just made a lobster roll with an emulsified stable emulsion of lobster stock and roasted shellfish oil. Pure intense flavors. This is a well designed product able to be handheld or used in a stand. Beautiful and efficient.

Details matter and the erosion of details results in slightly less than desired flavor in food preparation. I am modifying the famous NEW YORK TIMES LIME CORDIAL recipe which is quite excellent to start with. It however exists in the 92nd percentile of excellence but the good news is with one simple tool and one slight modification in the process, you can move it up to the 100th percentile of excellent flavor. Here is the deal. There are certain tools that just do what they do so much better as far as specific processes are concerned, not only are they faster but they also produce quantifiably better results flavor wise. The Tool : If you are going to take the time to zest 18 excellent limes, the first thing you need to do is buy yourself a  MICROPLANE. You want  the one with the finest blades that shave citrus zest like snow. It is just a complete and counter-productive waste of time to zest citrus fruits any other way. It is preferable to hold the fruit and move the microplane as opposed to the reverse (move the fruit and hold the microplane).... Tools do the work not the ingredients. The Technique : Read the New York Times Recipe in it's entirety. The essential problem with this recipe is flavor transfer from lime to cordial which is 100% dependent on how much lime oil you capture. The specific change to the recipe is to microplane-grate the lime zest directly into the sugar and mix it in thoroughly after each lime. The citrus oil is immediately captured by the sugar with less of the volatile compounds dissipating into thin air. You can then proceed to juice the limes and add the juice to the lime zest sugar mixture. The result is far more intense than the original recipe. If you are so inclined it also tastes much better if it is vacuum sealed for 24 hrs.