Spaghetti Flower as a Dessert Deco!

Found in the last copy of Thuriès Gastronomie Magazine, this very imaginative way of using a spaghetti as a flower for the plating of a dessert called "L'Orange au Mascarpone".

Here is the procedure : soak the spaghetti in hot water. On a Silpat, shape the petals and the sprig of the flower with the spaghetti. Place at the center a very thin slice of orange powdered with ice sugar and dry in the oven at 70 C./160 F. for 6-8 hours.

But I question myself :

Is this spaghetti flower edible ? Instead of using warm water, I would rather soak it in a simple syrup to make it sweeter to taste. Another option could also be to fry it after the oven stage ?!?!? Well, I will soon test the idea and let you know what is the best result...

This dessert is also served with another inovative deco : orange sorbet scooped in a cup formed with thin orange slices and powder sugar dried in an oven.

Salty ideas and recipes...from Thuries Magazine Sep. 2009

More ideas on the “salty side” of the 2009 September issue of Thuriès magazine :

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An interesting variation of pesto with arugula served with a gaspacho…

Arugula pesto (for 4 guests) : 100 gr arugula, 25 gr roasted almonds, 25 gr Parmesan, 100 gr olive oil

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Foie gras served with roasted melon slices :

for one 8-slice melon, make a syrup with 500 gr water with 150 gr sugar + four-spice blend (ginger, cinnamon, pepper, clove). Pour on the slices and let infuse for half a day. Strain the slices and roast them briefly.

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A marinated salmon in walnut, hazelnut oil, coriander, S&P

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Monkfisk breaded in Asian shrimp chips crumbs plus an emulsion of carrot and ginger

Additionally, before paner à l’anglaise, make an incision in the fillet and add a slice of bacon and a basil leaf. Mix the shrimp chips in a robot (add lemon and lime zest and cayenne or Espelette pepper) section. Bread the fish with the crumbs and bake in a oven at 175 C./ 350 F. for 6-8 minutes

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By the way, I found that culinary equipment pro website where you can buy the latest issues of Thuriès right in the shop in New York or online…

Sweet ideas and recipes...from Thuries Magazine Sep. 2009

From the last issue of Thuriès Magazine (no.212, Sep. 2009), here are a few ideas and recipes that stroked my imagination when reading…

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A Pate à choux recipe flavored with Tonka bean, star anise and cinnamon. From the usual basic recipe, at the first step when you boil the milk for sanitation reasons, you just have to add the spices at that moment… The Pate à choux is stuffed with light poppy (coquelicot) cream in the recipe presented in the magazine…

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A very-easy-to-handle recipe for orange tuiles (see related post on tuiles).

Usually, whenever I prepare tuiles for sweets at a cocktail or a final touch for a dessert, I found the baked tuiles difficult to handle, I have to act fast to cut them or give them a nice shape just after baking, otherwise they will crack… This recipe gives the tuiles a flexible texture for a few minutes which let you with plenty of time to deal with a full sheet pan of tuiles.

Tuile orange craquante (yield 70 2,5 in. tuiles) : 100 gr orange juice, 25 gr lemon juice, 250 gr sugar, 125 gr melted butter, 75 gr flour

Mix all ingredients. After adding the flour, don’t over mix (or your dough will become elastic and tough). Let rest for 1 hour. Form tuiles on a silpat. Bake at 350 F. until golden (7-8 mn)

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Those tuiles are used to build a Napoleon (mille feuilles in French) with a Yuzu lemon pastry cream and small strawberries (fraises des bois in French).

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Another recipe of tuiles with strawberries… served with a light cream of strawberries, a redberries coulis and a “sablé Breton”.

For 10 tuiles : 125 gr sugar, 25 gr flour, 50 gr strawberry juice, 60 gr melted butter

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And Tuiles made of orange and honey, served in a glass with melon, sable Breton and Grand Marnier

For 4 tuiles : 25 gr sugar, 25 gr honey, 40 gr butter, Juice of 1 orange, 20 gr flour

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An interesting vodka/thyme granité …

4 guests : 250 gr water, 125 gr sugar, one vanilla bean, 50 gr Vodka, 5 gr thyme

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A dark chocolate and Cognac XO soufflé I will have to try soon…

For 8 guests : 1 l milk, 10 yolks, 80 gr sugar, 60 gr cream powder (note from the blue chef, I should be able to substitute it with an-easier-to-find cornstarch product), 300 gr 70% chocolate, 100 gr powdered cocoa, 100 gr cognac XO, 400 gr whites (around 13), 100 gr sugar.

By the way, the keys to a successful soufflé are mentioned in some posts here.

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A Fleur de Sel caramel mousse paired with a potato ice cream !

Imperial Rice... for Mr Ambassador

I recently prepared a dessert called Riz à l'Impératrice, Imperial Rice... By coincidence, in the Thuries Magazine April 2009 issue, Jean-Francois Piège, Chef at Les Ambassadeurs, Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, presents that dessert served with anis star and vanilla ice cream.

Here are the ingredients and procedure for this Imperial Rice recipe (10 servings)

Riz au lait

• 100 gr short-grain white rice (riz rond)
• 0.5 l whole milk
• 60 gr sugar
• Half vanilla pod

Blanch rice in boiling water for 5mn
Strain and wash in cold water
Cook in boiling milk and vanilla
Cool down and reserve

Mousse Impératrice

• 2 gelatin sheets = 4 gr (soaked in cold water and pressed)
• Orange zests (1)
• 225 gr crème anglaise (vanilla flavored)
• 300 gr riz au lait
• 150 gr whipped cream

Add gelatin and zests in lukewarm crème anglaise
Pour little by little on the rice
Fold in the whipped cream
Plate in individual ramequins or glasses
Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours
--> In his recipe, JF Piège refrigerates the mixture in a large rectangle ring mold (1,5 cm height). For plating, he will cut small rectangles (12,5 cm x 2,5 cm), topped with a strawberry layer and five tinny scopes of anise star ice cream.

Thuriès Magazine / Mar. 09 (no. 207) : Recipes

Following my first post started with No. 206 Thuries Magazine (Jan. 2009), here is the one regarding the No. 207 (Mar. 2009). As a reminder, I intend to write for each new issue ideas of recipes that stuck my imagination and my taste. So here are my choices for this month :

Seaweed butter (P28)
Coffee Oil (P28)
--> Infuse coffee beans in grape seed oil for 35mn. Mix and strain
Colored salt pedestal for clam shell & use of chopstick set to present croutons (P29)
Watercress broth (P30)
Shrimps in jelly (P30)
Morel coulis (P32)
Roblechon cheese and rum emulsion (P32)
Golden apple, spinach and wasabi puree (P33)
Nuts, crunchy rice and grué tuile (P36)
Nuts, safran and cinnamon cream (P36)
Chestnut mousse (P38)
Chestnut mousse (P38)
White tea sorbet (P38)
Coffee and rum emulsion (P38)
Crousti peanut, banana and parsley (P40)
Carrot raviolis (P52)
Tatin crumble (P61)
Exotic caramel (P66)
--> passion fruit, banana, mango
Earl grey tea sablé (P70)
Orange lace tuile (P82)
Sardine tartar (P86)
Strawberry and balsamic carpacio (P93)
Roasted in cardamom syrup pineapple skewer (P100)
Normand ice cream (P100)
--> calvados, pommeau and cider

Thuriès Magazine / Jan. 09 (no. 206) : Recipes

Here is the first post I intend to write for each new issue of the fabulous Thuries Magazine, in which there are many ideas of recipes, plating and so on about the modern French gastronomy. I don't intend to write full recipes but some ideas that stuck my imagination and my taste. I think that will be an easier way of setting up menus for my clients rather than leafing through each issue...

Slices of potatoes cooked in a beet stock (p30)
Allows a nice plating decoration with bi-color slices of potatoes (red outside and yellow inside)
Chantilly cream flavored with tea (p31)
In the magazine, served with lobster tartare (use S&P for the Chantilly)
Lemon grass and chocolate bearnaise sauce (p36)
In the magazine, served with roasted prawns
Slice of parmesan paste (p40)
Served with a herbed crust lamb fillet
Chocolate and beet ganache (p51)
Served in a small chocolate cup (canapé)
Parsnip cream (p51)
Parsnip and caramel chocolate tartlet (canapé)
Pineapple frite confit in Argan oil (p52)
Lime blanc-manger (p 52)
Pina colada sorbet (p52)
These 3 elements are served as one dessert
Butternut squash confit with spices (p54)
Butternut sorbet (p54)
These 2 elements are served as one dessert with a millefeuille and a grué tuile
Milk chocolate and tea and cacao gelée (p58)
Bourdaloue biscuit (shredded pear and almond cream) (p58)
Served as a dessert with poached pear and pear sorbet
Milk chocolate and spices mousse (cardamome, anise star, cinnamon, clous de girofle, pepper) (p60)
White chocolate and smoked tea mousse (p60)
Pistachio financier (p63)
Mascarpone and vanilla pod cream (p63)
Apple and cider sorbet (p64)
Liquorice and fleur de sel sablé (p64)
Mango and carot sorbet (p66)
Dover sole from Dieppe (p72)
Poached clementine in honey, safran, lemon grass, ginger, lime, yuzu jus (p92)
Carot 2 ways with orange jus and orange flower water, curcuma, cardamome and safran (marinated and cooked) (p94)

Four Roast Chicken Variations (F&W, April 2008)

In the last Food and Wine April 2008 issue, I found out different interesting variations for roasting a chicken. Click here for the link... Please find some additions/tips from my own personal experience in roasting a chicken that are not mentioned in that article :

1) Stuff the cavity of the chicken with a maximum of aromatics and ingredients (it will help moisten and flavor the flesh from the inside)

2) Sear the whole chicken on the four sides in a hot-screaming pan to give a nice golden brown color (known as the Maillard reaction...) and the crunchiness to the skin before putting in the roasting pan in the oven

3) Bast the chicken frequently with the cooking jus

4) Using a fork, lift the whole chicken to check the running juice : if running clear, it is cooked, if it is still red, it needs more time in the oven

Herb-and-Lemon-Roasted Chicken : Rosemary, thyme, lemon, onion with a garlic-lemon zest-herbs butter

Moroccan Roasted Chicken : Dates, dried abricots, garlic and onion with a ground cumin-coriander-sweet paprika-cayenne-cinnamon butter (plus Asian fish sauce before serving)

Ginger-Roasted Chicken : Ginger, garlic, serrano chiles, onion, lime with garlic-ginger

Curry-Roasted Chicken : Garlic, tomatoes, serrano chiles, onion with a garlic-madras curry butter (plus Greek-style yogurt just before serving)

Seven Rules for Perfect Pairing read in FOOD&WINE

Rule #1 : Serve a dry Rosé with Hors d’œuvres

Suggested recipes : Creamy Anchoïade with Crudités, Roquefort Gougères

Rule #2 : Serve an unoaked White with anything you can squeeze a lemon or lime on, such as Sauvignon Blanc
Suggested recipe : Smoked Sablefish and Potato Salad with Capers and Onions

Rule #3 : Try low-alcohol wines with spicy foods, such as off-dry German Rieslings
Suggested recipes : Pan-seared Chicken Breasts with Jamaican Curry, Shrimp with green beans and toasted coconut

Rule #4 : Match rich meats with tannic reds, such as Cabernet, Sauvignon and Syrah
Suggested recipes : Duck Confit with Turnips, Sausages with grapes

Rule #5 : With lighter meats, pair the wine with the sauce
Suggested recipe : Pork chops with shallots

Rule #6 : Choose earthy wines with earthy foods, such as Pinot Noir
Suggested recipe : Bison rib eye steacks with roasted garlic

Rule #7 : For desserts, go with a lighter wine
Suggested recipe : Roasted pears and cider-poached apples