The Analytical Kitchen » Chocolate

Spring GM Menu

ben — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 23:15:24 +0000

Amuse for Sparkler

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Plain and Vegemite gougère

Vegemite and cheese just works as a combo, although I think most diners believed the plain gougère were superior.

Surf, Turf ‘n’ Garden

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Barramundi, bacon, peas, asparagus, lemon butter

Barramundi and bacon sandwiched together with transglutaminase (“meat glue”) and baked (slightly over-baked in this case). The lemon butter includes ultra-fine shavings of lemon zest to give freshness and lift.

“Steak”

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Watermelon steak, feta, mint

Slow baked watermelon in Sherry and butter, akin to this rendition. The mint can be overpowering, but otherwise an interesting interlude. There was much discussion on a potential wine matching here, and we concluded that a rosé or a rosé Champagne might be a suitable match.

Braised pork belly, galangal-scented salad, Szechuan pepper toffee

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Braised pork belly, galangal-scented salad, Szechuan pepper toffee

Voted the favourite dish of the menu by the diners. The pork belly is braised slowly with Chinese flavours (soy sauce, rice wine, garlic, ginger, spring onion, brown sugar). The concept behind the salad was that the diner would experience the ethereal aromatic lift of galangal. Unfortunately, IMO, galangal is too hot-spicy to achieve this aromatically without burning and overpowering the diner’s palate. In the end, the galangal was simmered with mirin, and sugar added, to take the edge off the heat. Flavour-wise, this worked successfully, although the resulting salad dressing was perhaps a little too sweet.
Nevertheless, this is a dish I am happy with: the Szechuan pepper adds spice aromatics, the salad of shaved capsicum (bell peppers), carrot and fennel add colour and crunch, and both compliment the tender sweet-savoury pork belly and (braising liquid) reduction-sauce. This style of dish harks back to the days when I focused heavily on flavour impact.

Lamb fillet, eggplant purée, mint salad, rosemary lamb jus

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Lamb fillet, eggplant purée, mint salad, rosemary lamb jus

I prefer fillet to backstrap (eye of loin) for this dish, and it is ideally BBQed. The eggplant is baked then flame-charred for a smoky flavour before it is puréed. A little yoghurt is then added and it is reduced and seasoned. I prefer baby garden mint (Mentha sachalinensis) leaves, but when caterpillars decimate…

Manchego, Comté/St Agur, poached pear, croutons, spiced walnut

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Manchego, Comté/St Agur, poached pear, croutons, spiced walnuts

My standard kind of cheese course – you might call it a signature dish.

Lavender icecream, Manuka honey, scorched almonds

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Lavender icecream, Manuka honey, scorched almonds

Salted Caramel and Peanut Truffles

A modification of David Everitt-Matthias’ Salted Caramel and Peanut Truffles (see Beyond Essence, 2013) – I simply omit the layer of chopped peanuts that surrounds the salted peanut caramel core, instead rolling the salted peanut caramel core in milk chocolate before a final cocoa powder dusting. But I still wonder, do we ever truly appreciate the truffle after so many preceding dishes?

Easter/Autumn Menu

ben — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:09:34 +0000

Autumn. There’s a chill in the air. One might imagine animals brought into the barnyard, the hot breath of Robins (Erithacus rubecula) in the crisp morning, hedgerow fruits, composting oak and birch leaves, undergrowth, game, red Burgundy…

But Easter is at completely the wrong time of year in the southern hemisphere… In Sydney, Australia, autumn fits almost none of the above descriptions.

Despite recent tumultous temperatures, there is a chill in the air, and Burgundian wines are available (even if they come at a significant price)…

Salad of quail breast, aspargus, butter beans, Parmigiano Reggiano, baby lettuce

Salad of quail breast, aspargus, butter beans, Parmigiano Reggiano, baby lettuce

Butter and tarragon white wine vinegar dressing.

Christian Moreau‘s Chablis Les Clos 2008 paired well with this dish, showing lemon butter, freshly cut meadow flowers, and perhaps some quince. It possessed lovely and great length.

“Steak”

Baked watermelon, feta, mint

This was baked en papillote with a little butter and Sherry in a moderate oven for about two hours. The texture is very interesting, almost like lychee flesh, and it doesn’t really taste like watermelon at all. Hong and Kim pair it with feta, balsamic reduction and mint. Even just with feta and mint (here) it works well.

Autumn: Game, smoke and chestnuts

Quail legs, Eucalyptus-smoked baked potato, roast chestnuts, quail jus

Quail legs: pan fried

Potato: boiled, smoked in Eucalyptus leaves, then baked in olive oil with rosemary. The smokiness worked quite well, even if the texture of the mise-en-place-reheated potato wasn’t up to scratch. I was quite worried about them until the final roasting: having eaten too many mildly smoked (i.e., “is it actually smoked?”) components in restaurants in the past, and finding the intensity of my own smoking experiments insufficient in the past, I smoked the sh*t out of these potatoes. The result was that everything that came into contact with them became smoke tainted (the tupperware container that held the smoked potatoes over night still has a little taint after soaking for over a week). Smokiness is one thing, smelling like a bushfire torched everything in sight is another. Fortunately, after the roasting, they presented a smoky note that was distinct yet not overpowering.

Chestnuts: roasted, then marinated in Sherry and stock.

The Domaine des Croix Beaune Cents Vignes 2009 was far too young. The fruit was vibrant and has was some sweetness to it (2009, no doubt). The tannins were quite velvety, but the acid stood out a little, as did the pleasant lick of slightly vanillary oak in the finish. I do find Domaine des Croix wines a little sweet-fruited for what I look for in red Burgundy, but this probably just needs time to integrate and become more savoury and… autumnal.

Shin of beef and unadorned veg

Pressed braised shin of beef, blanched radish and griddled spring onion, beef jus, thyme

I have been leafing through the Noma cookbook recently, and the idea of unadorned root/leafy vegetables caught my interest.
Pressing (finely blended) slow braised shin of beef provides a good form; although I admit that the phallic presentation requires further work, and one mustn’t forget it does require some braising juices to keep the meat moist (no pun intended!).

Cheese and nuts

Poached pear-encased Stilton, spiced walnuts

Easter = Chocolate

Early grey cream, dark chocolate mousse, white chocolate mousse, chocolate brownie

(1) Perhaps hair driers are too warm to de-mould cold desserts.
(2) Is Dutch processed cocoa really worth it?
(3) Make sure white chocolate content is high when paired with dark chocolate, lest it’s presence be lost.

Easter Menu 2012

ben — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:48:29 +0000

Salad of greens, fresh beetroot, green beans, walnuts, goat cheese

Salad of greens, fresh beetroot, green beans, walnuts, goat cheese

Discussions with others following the prep for this dish led me to realise just how time consuming the preparation of a properly exectured salad can be. And how typically underrated the skill in preparing salad is. Get the dressing balance off, and it shows. Use anything less than absolutely fresh ingredients and the discerning diner notices. Combine ingredients that don’t compliment each other and it weakens the entire dish. You get away with a lot less when it comes to salads. Could it be that the reason salads remain so underappreciated is because they’re often not well conceived or executed? When I list some of the best dishes I’ve eaten in France, that list invariably includes a salad… they just do salads well in France.

The dressing here was a light extra virgin olive oil and raspberry vinegar with a little salt. Diners never seem to be able to pick out the fruit in fruit vinegars; they add an elusive quality to a salad, and often a touch of welcome sweetness.

The salad was served with Christian Moreau‘s Vaudesir Chablis from 2009. The floral-vanilla oak increasingly overpowered the wine’s minerality, fruit (lemon, pineapple and nectarine/white peach), and attrative edge of vegetation, but it remained delicious, with its suitably austere yet balanced palate and long finish. It complimented the salad quite well. Interesting to note too, that a mouthful of greens+walnut+cheese prior to a sip of that Chablis was a far superior experience than if it followed a mouthful of salad that didn’t include walnut+cheese.

Braised pork belly, cauliflower cream, PX prunes, orange zest

Braised pork belly, cauliflower cream, PX prunes, orange zest

Peter Gilmore (Quay restaurant, Sydney) vac-steams a suckling pig, picks it apart, and remoulds within a piece of crispy pig skin. It’s then served with the cauliflower cream and Pedro Ximénez prunes, and it’s a great dish.
The above dish departs in two significant ways:
(1) The pork here is a ribbed belly cut. For pork belly dishes, I actually prefer cut from the top of the shoulder (à la British belly) or from the hind portion of the belly (no ribs). But the ribbed belly cut (with a firmer texture and less fat) offers something different, and greater textural contrast to the soft cauliflower cream and prunes.
(2) Peter Gilmore doesn’t make the simple addition of orange zest, which is my most humble contribution, but I must say that the addition elevates this dish to a whole new level; providing an aromatic lift that cuts through the pork (in the same way that the acidity of a traditional fruit accompaniment like apple might, yet without the acidity – which isn’t needed here because there’s little fat in the pork) and compliments the cauliflower and prunes well. It’s not entirely surprising, since orange is a classic flavour combination with pork, but the fact that it’s the zest offers something different – I don’t know why citrus zests aren’t used more!

BBQed lamb loin with beans

BBQed lamb loin with beans

In the absence of haricot, cannellini… and broad beans with the shell on (the horror), with a bacon and rosemary-flavoured stock, and mint oil.
The smooth, sweet cherry-fruited E. Pira Barbera d’Alba Superiore 2009 wasn’t a bad match, though it might have been a better match had it not been canvassed in oak.

Chocolate semifreddo

White and dark chocolate semifreddo, PX raisins, hazelnut vanilla fudge

Easter must include chocolate so…
The presentation clearly still needs work, but this was another rendition of the chocolate semifreddo (1 and 2). Here, dark chocolate semifreddo sits on white chocolate semifreddo. Between them lies a hazelnut vanilla fudge. Inside the dark chocolate semifreddo hide PX soaked raisins.

Visual recipes for the adept?

I don’t use recipes, except “in the pastry section”. Even then, I suppose I don’t use recipes as such: I just want to be reminded of the quantities, and a general guide for execution sequence, that I can quickly jot down, take to the kitchen, and follow with visual ease (without reading reams of text). Thus was born the visual “recipe”. Of course, it doesn’t include much of the detail (for example, folding the chocolate and pseudo-pâte à bombe mixture into the cream wouldn’t be done until it was cold, to retain the air in the emulsion), but it contains the essential information. Above is a “visual recipe” for the dark chocolate semifreddo in isolation.

March Menu 2012

ben — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:29:06 +0000

Oyster risotto

Oyster risotto

I was trying to think of a starter that was reasonably filling and could accompany Chablis… Arborio rice (naturally) stirred endlessly while vegetable and shellfish stocks and white wine are continually added and reduced. Then, for the last few tens of seconds, along with the traditional addition of butter, oysters are also added and semi-poached. The resulting texture was better than hoped for: creamy risotto rice with a central bite and appropriately rounded stock-base flavours, with occassion hits of creamy rock-pool oyster flavour.

The Chablis in question was the Seguinot-Bordet Vaudesir 2009. A rather ripe nosed (nectarine and next to no minerality) wine, though the palate combined a delicious tingling acidity on entry with a round (yet in no way fat) texture and a long river pebble-mineral finish. It worked well with the oyster risotto. Interestingly, the particular Arborio used here was quite aromatically “grainy” (smelling like raw wheat grain), which worked surprisingly well with the Chablis as a flavour contrast.

Salad of greens, young goat cheese, crutons and walnuts

Greens, goat cheese, crutons, walnuts

A simple, light and delicious salad with a very light dressing of about 20/80 grapeseed oil/sushi vinegar.

Mushrooms en papillote

Mushrooms en papillote

Surprises are a nice experience for the diner and are perhaps too often reserved for desserts. Here, the diner is presented with a warm paper package where, upon opening, they are greeted with a waft of earthy baked mushroom, herb and vinous aromas. A very simple yet immensely satisfying dish showcasing a variety of mushrooms, baked en papillote with butter, white wine, parsley, thyme, marjoram, and a touch of pepper.

Pierre Amiot‘s Morey St Denis is particularly good for village-level red Burgundy. The 2009 was showing wild raspberry and cherry aromas along with a floral aspect (like pink dog rose) without being volatile in any way. It was like the summer’s bounty of fruit in Northern Europe, with a touch of tree fungus/meat/and ultra-subtle wood. The palate was beautifully textured (damusc-velvet was mentioned), with a sweet-sour cherry flavour that sweetened a little in the finish. With the mushrooms en papillote, this was a complimentary match that was more about textural companionship than elevation or contrast of flavour. The wine also worked reasonably well with the following dish.

Roast quail and figs, jus

Roast quail and figs, jus

Figs and quail roasted en papillote to retain moisture, with a little red wine and dry Sherry. Red wine and quail stock jus.

Quail stock

And a quality (unusually meat-heavy flavoured) stock makes all the difference.

Strawberry and white chocolate mousse

Strawberry and white chocolate mousse

A layered mousse, with the white chocolate component being whipped cream folded into a (low temperature) pâte à bombe that has had white chocolate melted into it. The strawberry component is whipped cream folded into a mixture of whipped egg white and sugar, and gelatin-set fresh strawberry juice. The twist is that the cream used for the strawberry component has been infused with both rose water and (to add complexity) actual rose petals – but subtley so, such that the diner cannot quite detect the addition element and it adds a degree of intrigue. I was quite pleased with the concept.

The candles burned late into the night…

Classic chocolate

ben — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:08:21 +0000

It’s been five years since this rendition, but the theme remains the same because the classic combination of chocolate, nuts, caramel/fudge just works so well. I hold rich desserts (in moderation) under my belt (pun intended ).

A chocolate semifreddo (though it looks like just a mass of chocolate mousse): semi-frozen dark (70%) chocolate custard with whipped cream (and, here, meringue) . Inside hide* raisins plumped-up with Pedro Ximénez, and underneath sits a layer of hazelnuts (for me, the No. 1 nut with chocolate) set in a vanilla-(cream-)fudge.

Chocolate semifreddo, PX raisins, hazelnuts, vanilla fudge

*The best desserts have an element of surprise.

Easter Menu

ben — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:30:04 +0000

A hastily composed menu.

Salmon and prawn wantons, prawn bisque
Certainly not to the standard of this execution, but nevertheless enjoyable. This wonton filling was tighter, due to being blitzed. Unfortunately, I think the touch of added Australian cream let this bisque down.

Australian cream just isn’t up to it’s European counterparts – for a start it’s relatively harder to find cream around 18% fat (Australian “light cream”/British “single cream”/high fat American “half and half”/French “crème légère”) that doesn’t have vegetable gums added, and the cream at >40% fat (Australian “double cream”, French “crème double”, American “double cream”/”extra heavy cream”, British “double cream”) has a texture more like British “clotted cream” (at 85% fat).
Note the appearance of the fat globules in this bisque (emulsified with natural Australian “double cream”), and compare to the equivalent globules in the previous execution noted above (that uses British “single/double cream”).

Salmon and prawn wantons, prawn bisque

Mi cuit salmon, pea soup, lemon oil
A last minute dish, using left over salmon from the wonton filling, and not the best flavour combos as a result (a mint oil would be a better match – even before getting to the pea-salmon combo – but I didn’t have enough mint).

It seems to have become standard to refer to fish cooked to between 40°C and 50°C (104°F and 122°F, respectively) as mi cuit (half/semi cooked), though the proteins have certainly denatured at these temperatures.

Mi cuit salmon, pea soup, lemon oil

The above two dishes were served with Bollinger Special Cuvée NV, with which they went pretty well. But then, “Champagne goes well with everything, and everything goes well with Champagne”. The wine itself had a great autolytic nose of lemon curd and toast, but was let down a little by a palate with very slightly disjointed acidity (that’s just how I feel about Bollie though), bruised apple (I tend to prefer cleaner fruit flavours in Champagne) and dilute pear flavours, and a mid-palate and finish that didn’t quite last or feel in balance. Picking hairs though, as this was good, and went well with the above dishes.

Bollinger Special Cuvée NV

Lamb, Puy lentils, baked aubergine, blanched leek and brocollini, lavender jus
Puy lentils sit inside a blanched leek leaf. The eggplant/aubergine was baked with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame seed oil, red wine vinegar and tarragon – a good combo and the tarragon added an intrigue. The lavender provided a twist that worked well with the lamb.

BBQed lamb, Puy lentils, baked aubergine, blanched leek and brocollini, lavender jus

Server with Chateau Musar red 2001. My first bottle of the 2001 vintage, and it (unfortunately) seems to be moving in the same direction since the 1998, with less VA/Brett influence. Still, lovely warm cedary, gently spiced, ripe plummy fruit (whilst still being savoury), and a smooth palate with soft acidity and great balance (without falling into the dull/sickly-smooth trap). It’s a shame not to see some goat shit here, but then Musar is subject to bottle variation and perhaps this would see a nice Brett bloom in bottle with a few more years.

Chateau Musar red 2001

Chocolate Chantilly, white chocolate-yoghurt icecream
Hervé This thought to develop a foam from a chocolate emulsion, working air into the emulsion as it cools (as with a Chantilly cream). It works very well, essentially creating an eggless chocolate mousse. Here, the chocolate was piped (tricky to work with as the temperature drops and the chocolate firms).

Some chocolate (mousse) eggs were coated in powdered vanilla sugar for variety. Served with Kamozawa’s/Talbot’s white chocolate-yoghurt icecream and (not shown) roasted hazelnuts. The Greek yoghurt’s tang provides freshness, the nuts texture and flavour contrast.

Chocolate Chantilly, white chocolate-yoghurt icecream

Microwave chocolate

ben — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:26:09 +0000

How to set a chocolate mousse á point? The microwave is unfairly dismissed as a modern manipulation, yet it has its advantages.

Set chocolate mousse

Three desserts in one

ben — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 05:04:36 +0000

I like the idea of presenting multiple desserts to the diner on one plate, especially for wine matching menus (for which this was designed).

This dessert is designed to be eaten “left to right” and combines a few things I’d worked on from scratch.

I thought, why not a pure nut sorbet? Hazelnut is a classic dessert nut for me, so I went with that. This is made with roasted hazelnuts that are simply blended, strained (through muslin), and then made the usual way (with sugar added to the magic 37%).
I was exploring icecream flavours and thought about using herbs and what might work with vanilla. The lavender and vanilla combo is something I’m very pleased with (almost proud of). The funny thing is no-one has yet been able to guess what the flavour is (even seasoned herb lovers). I loved poached fruits (these are poached in a wine and lemon syrup), and the butterscotch brittle (dusted with hazelnut pieces) adds some texture.
The chocolate “snail” is a white chocolate truffle sitting on top of a dark chocolate truffle, with a sweet espresso coffee reduction.

I was very pleased with this creation.

: “Left to Right”: Hazelnut sorbet; Poached apple and pear, lavender & vanilla icecream, butterscotch brittle; chocolate ‘snail’, coffee sauce

Late night truffles

ben — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 02:18:51 +0000

On the odd midnight, back in the glory days, making chocolate truffles or salted caramel fudge or perfecting toffee texture and flavour… was almost de rigueur.

Choc truffle and espresso