I'M IN A PICKLE!

Pickling is fun! I pickle fruits, vegetables, fish and meat – everything that comes near me has the potential to be pickled.  My cat stays clear. Not only does pickling give food an interesting texture it is also delicious and preserves nutrients.  Think how good the pickle tastes on your burger. Pickling also conserves vegetables of the moment such as ramps (wild green garlic) meaning it extends their shelf life. Sturdy vegetables such as raw cauliflower or raw beans become palatable when pickled. 

 
(cauliflower and grape pickles spiced with curry)

Over the years of cooking I have differentiated among three kinds of pickling:

Gotta Have Time Pickling

You can pickle food naturally over an extended period of time by simply adding spices in water to your vegetable which, after two weeks or so at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, starts to develop “good bacteria” which softens and acidifies the pickled food.

Sometimes this way of pickling at home is a bit finicky if the temperature fluctuates or when the process isn’t done in a hygienic way (meaning the pickling containers are dirty and such) bad spoiling bacteria will grow and vegetables will sour in a bad way.

Reliable Pickling

Pickling with vinegar is another way of tenderizing and flavoring food and is relatively fast compared to the natural style, and has a controlled outcome.  Make a spice and vinegar broth sweetened with sugar if you’re on a budget, otherwise I prefer to use honey or maple syrup for a healthier approach. This hot liquid is then poured over “manicured” (cut) vegetables in shapes like rosettes (e.g., broccoli) or diamonds (e.g., peppers). Vegetables pickled in this way are ready to be used after a steeping time of six hours or so.  This enables all the flavors to be absorbed from the spice/vinegar broth. Another benefit is that you can store these pickled vegetables in the refrigerator for up six weeks.

(veal cheek "dog" with flash pickled cucumber)

  
Flash Pickling – My Favorite Method

I call it the cryo-vac-quick-pickling method which is pickling for the 21 century and the sky’s the limit in terms of variations.  With this method, it is possible to “pump” just about any flavored liquid into a vegetable and within seconds!

The only draw back is that you need equipment such as a food saver food saver and specialized vacuum plastic pouches. The technique is rather simple:  place the spiced liquids such as a pickling/spice broth and the vegetable to be pickled in a vacuum pouch and suck the air out of the bag with the air extracting device and within seconds the flavor is forced into the food. What happens is that the cell walls of the particular vegetable get stretched and combined with the natural cell liquid. The same technique can be used when marinating fish or meat to “inject” flavored liquids such as wine with spices into the desired dish. As you know from juicing, there is a significant amount of natural juice in vegetables – think of juicing a cucumber how much liquid they have. The difference is that we’re reversing the process and pumping the flavor into the cucumber and thereby making it even tastier. Dill and vodka infused cucumber anybody?

The Longer I am a Chef The less I Cook - With Heat!

The cryo-vac-quick-pickling method opened a whole other dimension of cooking for us chefs -- or should we call it “pumping” since there is no heat applied. Fruit is also fun to work with. I played around with “infusing” pears with grappa (Italian grape skin pomace brandy), honey and vanilla – mmmm very good!

(diver sea scallops with crones and purple Heirloom cauliflower)
  

Looks Matter

Besides saturating flavors with the cryo-vac technique, the appearance and texture of food is completely modified.  For example, whisky infused cantaloupe comes out bright orange with a somewhat translucent look to it and has a soft candied fruit texture.

We only derive textures and appearances of fruits like that by cooking them which destroys valuable vitamins and nutrition.  But cryo-vac pickling enables us to highlight the beauty of the food while keeping its nutritional integrity. This is a big leap.

(pickled squash with baby apple, pickled yellow wax beans arugula and Robiola cheese)
 

Pickle Garnish

As a finishing touch I like to sprinkle pickled vegetables over stews or salads to brighten the appearance and flavor of dishes.  They also add some texture with their vinegary snap!

 
(pickles and beer are good companions)
  

 

NO MORE FRESH VEGETABLES?!

Every year I am in a bind around this time of the year because the open air vegetable markets in NYC don’t offer anything fresh out of the local soils anymore. You still find wintered-in fruits such as apples and pears and tubers such as potatoes, rutabaga and such.
 
(lardo bruschetta with house-pickled purple cauliflower and romano tomatoes sprinkled with lava salt)
 
So … now is a good time to direct our focus on cooking techniques until the signs of spring or sprouts break to the top soil. The next posts will be about …

…The Good Old Days
We are spoiled these days. We open the refrigerator and take out a piece of meat or a vegetable (and that is not spoiled) because we have a cooled “storing space” to keep food. It wasn’t that way when electricity wasn’t available and humankind found other means of keeping food for several days or months on end. People would dry, confit, conserve, cure or age food to be able to enjoy them during times when it was not available, or to take along on a journey oversees or such.
Strangely these old preserving techniques are hotter then ever these days. 
 
(Mangalitsa upper shoulder lardo, aging for six weeks or so)
 
(certainly fat but addictivly delicious) 
  
Lardo-Days
In my restaurant we made Mangalista lardo, a house-salt cured and aged chunk of pork shoulder fat. The process took us about six weeks between curing and aging, so I was told from one of my cooks. He took it upon himself to cure because he had too much on hand and it’s a highly priced and prized pig!  So he aged Mangalitsa pork fat right in our wine cellar. Our wine room has a medium temperature of 50 – 60 degrees Fahrenheit which suits curing meats or fat perfectly. A few weeks ago it gave me the creeps when I saw it hanging there from the ceiling when I did a routine walk-through with an inspector from the department of health in tow. I had forgotten about it hanging high up, close to the ceiling above shelves of stored wine where it was doing its aging. Seeing the aging pieces of raw, curing pork hanging from the ceiling reminded me of a scene of the movie Silence of the Lambs where the character Hannibal Lector did his grueling cannibal rituals.
Luckily it was hanging high enough in a somewhat dark corner of the ceiling and not easily noticeable so nobody had a “beef” with it.
I won’t bother you with the recipe for lardo because it’s too particular for the home or apartment

A Few Old “cutting edge” Cooking Methods To Confit (meaning cooking for a long time and submerging in oil)
Confit is a French word – we use it often on our restaurant menu but what it means is basically conserving with oil, spices and aromatics such as garlic and intensely aromatic herbs such as rosemary, bay leaf, thyme and such. It does not mean that we actually put food in an oil bath to be stored on the counter – no it is cooked at a rather low temperature.

My favorite meat to confit is duck legs which are naturally on the tougher side if you’d roast them but the cooking “in it’s own juices” meaning the duck legs become submerged in their own rendering fat during the cooking process – WOW what a difference. I am addicted to the meltingly tender textured salty taste of duck legs cooked this way.  I season it with cilantro seeds, lemon-thyme, salt and pink pepper corns. Cooking duck legs in the confit style replaces any water or moisture content in the meat and can be stored for up to six month in the refrigerator safely (immersed in duck fat).
 
(duck confit with red cabbage braised in red wine with roasted rutabaga puree)

Duck Confit Recipe
(recipe for four large portions)

8 duck legs (from duck of 4-5 pounds)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil such as canola
3 teaspoons salt
1 branch thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon whole cilantro or coriander seeds
1 teaspoon white, black or pink whole pepper corns
2 cloves peeled garlic

1. Put duck legs in a large bowl then season with spices, herbs and garlic. Massage seasoning into duck legs.
2. Transfer duck legs into an oven proof dish (put duck legs in a 3-inch deep dish or shallow pot large enough to hold duck legs – duck fat will melt off legs and submerge legs) then cover with aluminum foil tightly.
3. Store raw, seasoned duck legs for up to two days in the refrigerator (spices and salt will cure duck legs – this way duck legs will be very flavorful).
4. Cook duck legs at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 hours – the duck leg meat is soft enough to almost fall of the bone at this point.
5. Let duck legs sit at room temperature in its cooking juices/fat (30 minutes or so – this way soft cooked duck legs won’t break when lifting out of the dish).

Chef’s Tip: I suggest serving bitter greens such as endive or radicchio with duck confit (cold or warm) and mustard, which is an ideal match.

 
Chef’s Note: Use duck confit cooking juice/fat for cooking hearty vegetables such as red cabbage, rutabaga, celery root and such or use instead of butter in many other recipes.

Next week marinating & pickling…

 

MILK THE ALMONDS

Since I am in the United States I have experienced a significant stomach discomfort when drinking milk from the supermarket.

(blanched California almonds) 

And Milk is the Culprit
I have tried different things to work something out between my stomach and those “organic” labeled milks and rather awful tasting lactose intolerant dairy products from the supermarket shelves – those products didn’t do it for me. It made me wonder what’s up with milk in the US? There must be a difference between the milk I grew up with in my daily cereal back in Europe since I consumed plenty of and it didn’t give me excruciating pain in my belly.
 
(spaetzel mac & cheese with enriched with walnut milk) 

Straight from the Cow
I tried fresh milk on a traditional farm which was not unadulterated it also had a naturally delicious sweet flavor and hints of fresh cut grass. The fresh milk reminded me of a milk shake. The best was that my stomach was just doing fine – so I wonder what is added to milk after it leaves the farm and is “fortified” and packaged.

(sea scallop, cod chowder with with clam & pecan milk broth)  

Nut “Milk”
Since picking up fresh milk daily for my morning cereal wasn’t going to be an option living in New York City I looked into different options to replace milk from my diet. Nuts seemed to be a good answer since I liked the nutty sometimes earthy flavor and they are nutritious. When blended into a puree nut milks have a natural richness and silky mouth feel.

Nut Enrichments and Such

Nut Milk
Can be used instead of milk or cream products in dishes such as soup or sauces
2 cups nuts such as almonds, walnuts or others 
4 cups water

1. Toast nuts in a skillet on medium heat setting (brown nuts until 2-4 minutes or until browned - continuously shaking skillet back and forth – this way the nuts won’t torch).
2. Transfer browned almonds into a kitchen blender then add half of water (2 cups) and process (1-2 minutes this will puree almonds). Combine almond mixture with other half of water and continue to process (5 minutes). Steep almond water (30 minutes) then poor into a strainer (fine mesh strainer reserve liquid - discard almond ground).

Nut Butter Spread
(recipe for 2 cups nut butter)
Can be used for meat and fish dishes when cooked in a pan

1 cup nuts such as almonds, walnuts, cashews
2 cups water
Sea salt (to taste)

1. Toast nuts in a skillet on medium heat setting (brown nuts until 2-4 minutes or until browned - continuously shaking skillet back and forth – this way the nuts won’t torch).
2. Transfer toasted nuts to a pot, add salt (1-quart sized) then combine with water and cook on low heat setting (cook nuts 20 minutes, covered with a lid).
3. Poor cooked nuts into an electric kitchen blender then process (4-6 minutes or until silken in texture – if mixture won’t blend add 2-4 tablespoons of hot water). Mixture will stiffen when cold.

Chef’s Note: For a fancy, decadent version of this recipe use pistachio nuts or a mixture of different nuts such as cashews, pecans or Marcona almonds.

Chef’s Tip: I like to add small chocolate chips to the recipe above (1 tablespoon) when it’s still warm (after blending) in this way chocolate chips will melt a little bit into nut butter but will still have chocolate chunk texture).
 
(cashew butter with some chocolate chips embedded)

A Nuisance Became a Pleasure
I have been incorporating these nut “dairy” products in my restaurant cooking and they have been a staple for quite a while now - a nuisance became a pleasure.

MOMMY'S MILK

My cooking instincts are rather natural (e.g., sourcing ingredients from the local market, eating sustainable seafood, buying free-range-all-natural poultry, and I certainly love a steroid free steak) but THIS is a whole other level of “natural” – Mommy’s Milk, from a human mommy, not a cow, sheep or goat ...

(a visual taste of my cheese making experience...maple caramelized pumpkin encrusted cheese with texurized concord grapes) 

Offspring
I came about mother’s milk when our daughter celebrated her 4th week birthday -- my spouse is feeding our baby with breast milk. We are fortunate to have plenty of pumped mommy’s milk on hand and we even freeze a good amount of it – my spouse actually thinks of donating some to an infant milk bank which could help little babies in Haiti and such but for the meantime (the milk bank requires check-ups which takes a little while) our small freezer ran out of space.  To throw it out would be like wasting gold.

(packed frezzer with mommy's milk in specialized bags)  

Conservation Minded
Cheese is produced throughout the world in different flavors, textures, and forms from various animals’ milk such as goat, cow, sheep and even horse.
Cheese is valued for its portability. Depending on the cheese it has a longer shelf life compared with fresh milk since cheese is aged. Different flavors depend on the origin of the milk and diet of the milk host. Cheese is made with relatively high heat (bacteria safe) or non pasteurized milk, which alters its flavor. Sometimes cheeses are smoked, layered with ashes and leaves such as herbs and rubbed with alcohol such as wine or beer or salt which prohibits bacteria growth. Cheese imbedded with spices such as cumin or fragrant mushrooms such as truffles can make a cheese shine.
All that, my over stuffed home freezer and my natural cooking instincts made me think of making cheese out of (human) mother’s milk.

Step-by Step
My Spouse’s Mommy Milk Cheese Making Experiment
(basic recipe using 8 cups of any milk - yields about ½ pound cheese)

2 cups mother’s milk
2 cups milk (just about any animal milk will work)
1½-teaspoon yogurt (must be active cultured yogurt)
1/8-tablet rennet (buy from supermarket, usually located in pudding section)
1 teaspoon sea salt such as Baline
 
1. Inoculate milks by heating (68 degree Fahrenheit) then introduce starter bacteria (active yogurt) then let stand for 6 – 8 hours at room temperature, 68ºF covered with a lid. Bacteria will grow in this way and convert milk sugar (lactose) to lactic acid. You can detect its presence by the tart/sour taste.
2. After inoculating the milk heat to 86 degrees Fahrenheit then add rennet (I use tablets which I dissolve in water) and stir throughout. Cover pot and don’t disturb for an hour until “clean break stage” is achieved, meaning with a clean spoon lift a small piece of curd out of the milk - if it is still soft and gel-like let pot stand for an hour longer. If curds “break clean” cut with a knife into a squares (cut inside the pot a ½-inch cube pattern). 
3. Raise temperature slowly continuously stirring with a pastry spatula (this will prevent clumping of cut curd). This is what I call the “ricotta stage” if you like this kind of fresh cheese – here it is. For cheese with a little bit more of texture heat curds to 92 degree Fahrenheit - for soft curd cheese, or as high 102oF for very firm cheese. The heating of the curd makes all the difference in the consistency of the cheese. When heated the curd looks almost like scrambled eggs at this point (curd should be at bottom of pot in whey liquid).
4. Pour curd through a fine strainer (this will separate curd from whey) then transfer into a bowl and add salt and mix with a pastry spatula (this will prevent curd from spoiling). Whey can be drank - it is quite healthy and its protein is very efficiently absorbed into the blood stream making it a sought-after product in shakes for bodybuilders.
5. Give curd shape by lining a container with cheese cloth (allow any excess of cheese cloth to hang over edges of container). Transfer drained, warm curd in the cheese cloth lined container (I used a large plastic quart containers like a large Chinese take- out soup container and cut 4 holes in the bottom with the tip of my knife). Fold excess cheese cloth over top of cheese then weight curd down (with second container filled with water or such) then store in refrigerator (14 hours or so – put container into a second larger container – this will catch draining whey liquid).
6. Take pressed curd out of container (flip container upside-down then unwrap carefully not to damage structure of pressed curd). Rewrap pressed curd with new cheese cloth then age in refrigerator for several weeks (cheese will form a light brown skin around week two – this is normal). Age cheese longer for a more pronounced/sharper cheese flavor.

(HERE IT IS mommy's milk cheese with beets and romaine) 

Chef’s Note: Cheese has to be rewrapped daily as long cheese cloth feels wet.

Chef’s Note: Curdling is the process when milk is separated into solid (curds) and liquid which is done by introducing acids such as vinegar or a starter bacteria commonly found in yogurts. Rennet (enzymes from the fourth stomach from young calves stomach which breaks down mother milk) is added too so that milk develops strong curds in the cheese making process.

(mommy's milk cheese rolled in dehydrated porcini mushroom powder with burned onion chutney) 

Is it OK
I was concerned a little bit with the thought of making cheese out of mother’s milk.  I wondered if it was ethical - since I haven’t seen it on any restaurant menu yet.
Conclusion – my spouse agreed -- our baby has plenty back-up mother’s milk in the freezer so whoever wants to try it is welcome to try it as long as supply lasts (please consider cheese aging time). 

I want to make it perfectly clear: The mommy's milk cheese was not produced in my restaurant nor was it sold or offered there - as misstated in some media.

(my daughter Arabella/Caroline...nurtered with plenty of mommy's milk...until asleep)