It's been a while I am away from Kitchens..

Many of you are aware of this fact, that I left Kitchen for "greener pastures" on September 28th, 2013. I joined airlines industry as an "In-flight Chef" just for the namesake (a foodwarmer basically as some would say ..) or as per one of the colleagues, "You cease to be a chef--you are just a cabin crew".

I must tell you-- I am not complaining about this job. This is way easier than slogging your ass for about 12 hours everyday or even more in weekends, getting used and abused in the kitchens and even on your day offs, you dont need to ( and wouldn't like to) see the same faces at work everyday and once you land, you are not the same place everyday. It is not like "Home-Work-Home" everyday and at the end of the day you are so tired to have sometime for yourself..

I remember often telling my trainers "Give me a pot of vegetables and meat..and I can cook a shit out of that but the safety lingo is way above my intellect to receive" and that "the number of day offs I get a month (or a week if I may say) is just way more than I deserve to get". Honestly, it was quite difficult to pick up, but in due course, when I started flying, things started falling in place. My kitchen terms are now replaced safety lingo and that one of course related to Aviation. No more mise-en place, pick up or even "86". There is only boarding clearance, take off, seat-belt signs (off and on) and touchdown.

However, things have changed as well. Now I have the pleasure of tasting the products right from the place where it is the most authentic (and also the privilege of getting it at home right from its birth place). I was really happy to be in Paris for the first time (aye, my first flight) and had champagne lunch followed by a rossini style beef for dinner to churrasco dinner in Sao Paulo or even exploring the renowned fish market  in Sydney and also getting some of the freshest John Dory, Rainbow Trout and Mulloway Fish. Such extensive travel also helps me to get some culinary inspiration, especially Geneva inspired me to prepare a three course dinner at home--with swiss ideas. 

After my christmas meal, I didn't cook a full course (multi-course menu actually) for a while, especially after getting such wonderful products from different parts of the world-- Brazilian beef, Fishes from Sydney and Foie Gras from Paris. Inspired by all these great products, seasonal products and my favorites, I came up with an eight-course menu...named it as "My Discovery Menu"..my personal discovery with these products, combine them with prevalent and unusual garnishes..

Raw

Fin de clair oysters, Mignonette

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Cured

Tasmanian Salmon, Marinated Oranges

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Pressed

Foie gras terrine, mango, passionfruit

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Lightly Cooked

John Dory niçoise style

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Seared

Rib-eye with chimichurri, pomme purée

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Burnt

Bacon and Coffee Crème Brulée

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Aged

16 months Comte Cheese, Quince

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Dried

Vacherin, Seasonal Berries

Fin de Clair Oysters, Mignonette

I have stopped going by just the name of the dish (or course) and instead using the cooking method or the treatment of the product by the *cook*. 

Raw

Oysters are best when it is served raw. Mignonette is a classic accompaniment to freshly shucked oysters -just some chopped shallots and red wine vinegar (or raspberry vinegar if you have). Thats it..

Cured

Tasmanian Salmon, Marinated Oranges

I learnt this citrus cure from an argentinian chef with who I worked for about a week. A very simple curing process which you can even do at home. The tasmanian salmon is filleted, skinned. Prepare a curing mix of 2parts of sugar and 1 part of rock salt(regular table salt will suffice if you dont have rock salt) and lemon,lime and orange 1 each. Mix the salt and sugar and prepare a thin layer of the mix. Arrange a fillet of the fish or piece if you have. Grate the zest of the citrus fruits on the fish and cover up with the rest of the salt-sugar mix. Refrigerate for about 4 hours and it is ready. Make sure you clean the fish off the cure.

I prepared some marinated oranges--just get some orange segments, free from the white pith or any seed. Steep it in hot sugar syrup for 20 seconds and let it macerate with a dash of white wine vinegar. Additonally put some sourcream with a dash of lime juice, for the salmon.

Pressed 

Foie Gras terrine, Mango, Passionfruit

I am a big fan of foie gras  that I finally got a foie gras to make a terrine (the procedure I shared in my previous post). I was much fascinated by pairing up Foie gras with Aamshotto (Aam papdi in Hindi or Mango Fruit Leather) and to give another tropical touch, I added passionfruit. Topped up with some dry cured duck breast with passionfruit and mango

Lightly Cooked

John Dory niçoise style

I bought three John Dory fish from Sydney. And for them, I devised a couple of recipe, one of them were John Dory cooked with Nicoise garnish--bell peppers confit, potato fondant, zucchini, confit cherry tomatoes and tapenade. As simple as that..

Rib-eye with chimichurri, pomme puree

Seared

As you know, the Rib-Eye was bought from Sao Paulo and cooked with the argentinian condiment  "Chimichurri" a condiment of mixed herbs and spices matured in oil and vinegar--a fantastic condiment for grilled meats. And yes, some buttery mash..

Burnt

Mushroom and Coffee creme brulee

Years before, I came across an episode of "No Reservations" by Anthony Bourdain, where he finds a coffee shop in San Francisco, they do weird combinations of bacon and coffee. So, why not in a creme brulee?? Despite, wanting to do a creme brulee with bacon and coffee, I forgot to get the bacon--eventually had to replace with mushrooms. But I really want to do a bacon and coffee. This is a salty creme brulee however, with a sugar crunch of the brulee as you are generally accustomed with. My memories of salty creme brulee obviously starts with Foie Gras creme brulee and later my own recipe of goat cheese creme brulee. But yes, let coffee and bacon evoke your breakfast memories.

Aged

16 months Comte cheese, Quince

On my last trip to Paris, I got this excellent piece of Comte cheese--aged for 16 months. I love comte cheese and along with some quince, you just need a glass of port or some late harvest wine. Thats it...

Dried

Vacherin, Seasonal Berries

I would be wronged to have said that this is a light dessert. This is a perfect dessert for a hot summer evening. This dessert has got only air--meringue, parfait and chantilly. Though heavy on the sweet note (imagine the amount of sugar involved--meringue, parfait and the chantilly cream)but then I am not complaining, since I love all the sweet stuff. Topped up with some seasonal berries...I love vacherin.

After all these small talks and big talks, do you want to know if I miss cooking?? Hell yes, I miss cooking on the stoves, just like a commis who is slogging his ass out for hours and hours and just yelling "Yes chef" to whatever commands come from his boss who is on the pass...

In search of Foie Gras

My relationship with "Foie Gras" (fatty liver in French, if you didnt know) is not too long--but I love it the way it is. Unhealthy, inhuman, high cholesterol--whatever taboo or feedback from Foie gras haters are attached to it, you give me a foie gras and I will lick the plate right in front of you...
Now the question comes--good foie gras and bad foie gras, a perfectly cooked tranche of foie gras and one that is overcooked due to the request of the customer, that virtually, you are left with a piece of liver (akin to Chicken Liver) without any fat in it, thus just the "Foie" without the "Gras". Fresh, really fresh foie gras and then an oxidised piece of shit--rancid, tasteless and awful!!

Being a patron of Foie Gras, my trips to Paris had been continuously focused on the shelves of gourmet stores or supermarket loaded with amounts of Foie Gras. All locally sourced, locally cooked & sold for the local clientele. The first tranche of Foie Gras terrine I bought, just 2 euros for 40 gm--I was desperately looking for its taste. Got one baguette, some sea salt, just to find out, the taste was disgusting--quite close to that of a Foie Gras Mousse (something of which I am not a fan) & threw the rest in sheer disgust.

In posh supermarkets of Paris, Foie Gras was expensive--demanding a few hundred euros a kilo--outrageously expensive for my pocket--since, I also need to carry them all the way to Abu Dhabi. So, all I was looking for the cheaper alternative. I remember Chef Franck telling me once, "Prices come down after Christmas", so my search for reasonably priced Foie Gras continued...

April 4th, in Paris(after 3 months of my last visit), I was desperately looking for Foie Gras--terrine, torchon or anything...best would be "cru", or raw. And finally I got two fresh "fatty duck livers from South West of France"..one dedicated for cutting into trances for my favorite "Foie Gras Poele" or Pan fried Foie Gras and one for making a Foie Gras Terrine--a layered foie gras terrine, the first one I learnt making in restaurants.
So, for the layered terrine I prepared a reduction of -- red wine, sauternes, balsamic vinegar, cognac, sugar, some crushed pepper--with some spices like star anise, cloves and cinnamon. Just reduce on slow fire till you get syrup--quite thicker than your sugar syrup. Whilst, this is reducing, leave your chilled foie gras outside till, it comes to a room temperature.
Once the *syrup* is done, strain and let it cool & clean the foie gras.  (follow any youtube videos for this--quite complicated to describe here).
After cleaning and opening, lay it on a flat tray. Make your seasoning mix--per 500 gram of foie gras, 9 grams of salt, 1 gm sugar and 2 gram of crushed black pepper. Dust the cleaned foie gras with this seasoning and leave it in the refrigerator for about 24 hours.
After 24 hours, prepare your terrine mould--wrap it with plastic wrap (easy to remove the foie gras after being cooked, and dont worry of melting, since the cooking temperature is quite low). Take out the marinated foie gras and keep it aside for about 30 minutes.
Pour a few spoons of Sauternes on the terrine and put a layer of Foie Gras --make sure you put some pressure on the foie gras , to make sure it spreads evenly on the bottom layer. Spread the "mulled wine syrup"thinly and then put another layer of foie gras--evenly applying pressure to make sure that there is no holes here and there. Again spreading another layer of mulled wine syrup. Continue till you are done with the entire foie gras. Put some more Sauternes on top, cover it up with plastic wrap (or as we say cling film in kitchens) and let it refrigerate for about 6 hrs to 12 hours.

[Now when ready to cook]
Preheat your oven to 100 deg C. Prepare a water bath if you dont have a convection oven--at least till reaching half of the terrine mould and keep a plate or something elevated on the water bath, so as not put the terrine mould directly on the water bath. Generally, I recommend keeping the foie gras out of the chillers 30 mins before cooking, since it reduces cooking time & fat loss.In any case, the total weight loss from raw to cooked terrine will be between 25% to 30%.
And then, in goes the foie gras...and voila..wait till the internal temperature reaches at least 42 degree. Cook it anymore, you are destroying the gras from the foie again. Get a kitchen therometer for yourself, if you want to make the perfect foie gras terrine. Keep aside in a cooled place till it is cold enough. You will be left with a lot of fat on top. Pour off the excess fat & you need to put some pressure. Prepare a cardboard wrapped with plastic film again (size should be enough for the perimeter of the foie gras  and not the terrine actually). Put this on the terrine first and then some heavy cans, bottles heavy enough to apply direct pressure and evenly on the foie gras. Put the terrine in the refrigerator and keep this pressure for at least 48 hours.

My Foie Gras Terrine after pressing and slicing it into portions

Once done, remove it from the terrine mould carefully, not to break the foie gras--remove all the plastic wrap or anything. Your terrine is now ready to eat. All you need is some bread (my favorite is brioche), some sea salt(fleur de sel if you want) and some crushed pepper, and some fruit chutney (recently, I prepared a chutney of dates, raisins and red wine vinegar). Et voila...you are already a patron of French Cuisine now... :)