Alinea at Home: Bison, Potatoes, Pistachios, Sweet Spices

So, I finally got this dish completed.  Good lord, was this one tougher than I had anticipated.  I was supposed to have this on Saturday, but circumstances which prevented it.  I then tried to have it Sunday but realized I had messed up some steps along the way so I rebooted and did some of the accompaniments over.  I had company on Tuesday and so I finally got to a point where I could finish.  So here we go.

The first thing I made was the pistachio puree.  Salt, sugar, water, yukon gold potato, and pistachios.  In the first go I used unshelled pistachios, which were probably a better option.  After I messed it up, however, I decided that the shelled variety would be easier.  Shelling the number of pistachios I needed is NOT a fun task.

The completed puree.  As you can see by the color the in the shell variety with the papery skin underneath removed is the purest way to get the bright green color they should have been, but I don't really care.

Next step were the braised pistachios.  This included salt, pistachios, water and butter.  These ingredients were combined and cooked until the pistachios were tender.

Here are the completed braised pistachios.

The third component was the spice pudding.  This is where I had really messed up the first time where I missed the instruction to strain the mixture before chilling it in the fridge.  The spices used include peppercorns, cinnamon, allspice and salt.  The spices were boiled and then steeped in a mixture of water and white wine vinegar.

Once the liquid boiled the mixture steeped for about 20 minutes.  Once the steeping had completed, agar agar was introduced and the mixture was brought to a boil again to activate the starch.  The mixture was then strained and then put in a bowl and put in the fridge to set up.

This is the completed spice pudding.

The final minor component was the spice powder, which included salt, cinnamon, peppercorns and allspice.  These spices were toasted and then ground.

This is the completed powder.

The final step was to prepare the main part of the dish, potatoes and the bison.  I sliced the potato very thin using the mandolin and then sliced into thin strips.  The real recipe called for a next of potato which required a spiral slicer, which I don't have. 

For the bison I trimmed off the sliverskin, chain meat and the head roast.  Then finally I cut off a small portion for this dish.

I seasoned the bison with salt and pepper and started to deep fry it.  After a couple minutes I added the potatoes.  Obviously you can't see anything in the picture but those bubbles mean that the oil is doing its job.

The completed bison and potatoes.  I seasoned the potatoes with a bit of the spice powder.  Now it's time to plate.

Completed plate.  Overall, I was very happy with the dish and it was of course delicious. 

Marinated Steak

So, I'm trying to get back into the groove here, but for whatever reason I just can't seem to do it.  Tonight I went easy and straightforward, grilled steak.   This dish actually started on Saturday when the steak first hit the marinade.

Here are the items that made up the marinade.  Olive oil, parsley, red pepper, poblano pepper, yellow pepper and garlic. I roasted the whole peppers to take the waxy skin off and then combined everything together.  Once complete the steak went into the marinade. 

Here's everything after hanging out for two days in the fridge. 

The completed steak.

The final plate.  Truly a perfect weeknight meal, especially when life is busy.

Alinea at Home: Kuroge Wagyu, Squash, Yogurt, Sweet Paprka Taffy

So, I'm back with a vengeance with a fantastic dish from the Alinea cookbook.  Cooking through this book thus far has really stretched me as a cook and has shown me that there is nothing that I can't do in the kitchen.

The first step for this dish was to make the paprika yogurt glaze.  This included yogurt, simple syrup, salt and paprkia.  All the ingredients got mixed together and sat in the bridge until I was ready to use it.

 Next up was to make the garnishes, dried red peppers, garlic chips and dried shiitake mushrooms.  The mushrooms and red peppers were easy enough just slice and put on the baking sheet and into the oven for a few hours.  The garlic however, took a little more work.

 I sliced the garlic thin on the mandoline and then simmered it three times in a new batch of skim milk. 

Once the third simmering was complete all items went into a 170 degree oven for about four hours until they were dried and crispy.  These also went into the fridge until I needed them.

 Step number three, the beef.  This is my first time working with wagyu beef.  Wagyu is a special kind of beef that has a much higher fat content that what we typically can get.  This beautiful rib-eye was ordered from Dartagnan, which has become my go to source for hard to find products.  I love that place so much. 

I cut off the portion of the steak I needed and put into a vacuum bag with a bit of olive oil and got it ready to cook sous vide for about 20 minutes. Sous vide is poaching under a vacuum.  So, once the beef was sealed inside the vacuum bag I put in a pot of water at 135 degrees for 20 minutes.  This cooking method cooks things very evenly, it's quite an amazing thing.

Six awesome red peppers turned into the base for the sweet paprika taffy and the smoked paprika pudding. 

 Next up was the yogurt pudding, this one was also really simple.  Yogurt, salt, simple syrup and ultra tex 3 which is a modified starch.  All the ingredients got mixed together and was set aside until ready for plating.

 The acorn squash for the squash part of the dish. 

With the squash dispatched I harvested some of the seeds to be used for part of the taffy.  The seeds were fried off in a bit of olive oil until brown.

 Everything you need for the sweet paprika taffy.  Paprika, red pepper juice, sugar, salt, isomalt, butter, glucose, glycerin. 

 Everything except the butter was combined in a sauce pan and heated until it reached 235 degrees.  After the mixture reached that temp, I poured it into a pyrex pan to let it cool.

Once the taffy had cooled a little bit, I topped it with the fried squash seeds and let it cool the res of the way to room temperature.

The final component that needed to cook was the squash.  This was also cooked sous vide.  This time it got cooked at 190 degrees for about 45 minutes. 

Now that all the individual components had been cooked its time to put everything together.  We have Paprika, Oregano, the dried garnishes, the smoked paprika pudding, the yogurt pudding, the smoked paprika glaze, the beef, the squash and smoked paprika taffy.

The squash got topped with the smoked paprika glaze and went under the broiler for a few minutes.

The squash after coming out of the broiler.

While the squash was in the broiler, I seared off one side of the beef.  This is what they looked like coming out of the pan.

I topped the beef with the paprika taffy and put it under the broiler until the taffy had softened a bit.

The completed beef ready to hit the plate.

The final plate.  I'm in love with this one.  There were a lot of components, but this plating and the way the dish came out I fell like it was worth of the Alinea name and kitchen.