Soup Swap 2012, Cambridge

I missed the soup swap last year, but I was able to attend this year. For those unfamiliar, the rules are this:
-bring six 1qt containers of soup, frozen and labeled
-guests pick out a number/letter out of a bowl, this determines the order in which people get to pick up soups
-the first half of the night is dedicated to the telling of the soup (basically explain what is in your soup, why you made it… you’re trying to sell your product here)
-the second half of the night is dedicated to picking up your soup, there are six rounds.

It is important to list out what the soups are on a piece of paper during the telling of the soup. And when it’s time for pick up, it’s important to keep track of quantities. There’s some strategy to getting all the soup flavors you want, but I think it’s mostly luck.

A moment of silence for my BlendMaster, Jr. # 5972B

To my much loved Hamilton Beach BlendMaster, Jr. # 5972B,

You were given to me by my second oldest sister back in the days when I was not such a food nerd. I bet you were just a $15-$20 product, but I felt like I was on the road to cooking awesome food when I unwrapped your box. (It was Christmas, I think.) You only had a two year warranty, and, to be honest, I didn’t think you’d last past it.

You were mine before immersion blenders were on everyone’s wedding registry. I think we were at around ten years together. You helped me through dental surgery, *several* times, and I am forever grateful. I thought we’d last into February at least, but it was not to be.

Rest in peace.

 

Please don’t hate me for replacing you with a colorful Cuisinart.

things to do on a cold winter Sunday

… Or at least, what I did on my Sunday. Here in the Greater Boston area, it was 19F at its highest temperature. That didn’t include wind chill. And believe me, it was very windy.

So I tried my hand at making lemon curd with some Meyer lemons.

And I made some soup with oxtail for dinner. For the soup, I rehydrated some shiitake mushrooms. I decided that my coffee press was the perfect equipment for this.

I also started planning a cookbook swap.  Details are still being worked out, but I’m pretty excited about this.

No recipes this time.  Maybe next time.

What do you like to do on cold winter days?

New Year’s Eve edition: at The Red House

The last few years have been a repeat of going to our favorite bar for dinner, and then getting kicked out at 8pm so that the bar could set up for their NYE festivities. And we’d never bother buying a table for their NYE event, so we’d always wander our separate ways home. Don’t get me wrong – seeing my friends is the *best* was to pass New Year’s Eve. It’s just lame that we could never remember to do something a little out of the ordinary.

But NOT this year. I remembered to make plans ahead of time for us, and after a few days of indecision, we made reservations for The Red House in Cambridge.

We had never been there before, but the NYE special menu totally interested us. Four courses for $50. There was even a vegetarian option for each course which one of our members benefited from.

flourless peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips

This post is dedicated to Martyna of http://wholesomecook.wordpress.com/. The pictures in this post were not taken with my really clunky and heavy digital camera. I recently acquired a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX9 as a result of some confusion and lots of generosity. From here on out, I have no good excuses for leaving my camera at home when I go to food events like the Harvard SEAS lectures.  My WX9 is a travel-friendly small size.

Next time David Chang is in town, I’ll get you a picture of David Chang. (^_^)b

ANYWAY!

Harvard SEAS lecture 12/4/11 – Ferran Adrià

I don’t have a ton of things to say about the lecture.  So, here’s a quick summary:

• Translator? José Andrés .
• Other guests spotted in the audience? Carles Tejedor, David Chang, Najat Kaanache, Harold McGee, and I think Pere Planagumà.
• José Andrés is the most awesome Spanish translator. Even though he’s translating for his good friend, he can’t stop himself from putting his own spin on the dialogue. Early on, Ferran caught him for adding his own words to the translation, and Jose’s reaction was “I’m going to be fired.”
• The lecture was about El Bulli as a restaurant, and the reinvention of El Bulli as a foundation. I think he said that the new building will start construction in 2014. There will be research materials, and it sounded like the 1,845 recipes in the El Bulli archives will be made available. At the moment, the foundation will be in three buildings. The research library, the meeting/conference/presentation room, and the kitchen. All the buildings will be environmentally friendly.
• We saw videos of 1) making a hollow coconut milk ball with the aid of a balloon and some liquid nitrogen, 2) spaghetti where the it’s made from cheese instead of wheat, 3) spun threads of caramel, and 4) pressed flowers in not paper but cotton candy paper.
• Ferran spent some time talking about the book “Natura” by Albert Adrià. It’s a book on desserts, but the food presentation is very organic and inspired by nature.

And that’s it! The semester of lectures is over.  (^_^)

quick blurb, SEAS related

I was invited to the Ferran Adria lecture on Sunday by a new friend.

So, I guess you can expect an update afterall! ^_^

Harvard SEAS lecture 11/28/11, Bill Yosses and Najat Kaanache

Subject? Emulsions, foams, and gels.

Honestly, I don’t have too much to say about this lecture. As my lecture buddy Judy said, “it was disjointed.” There were some really good things going on, but the presentation didn’t feel like it was quite ready.  It started out strong, and then it sort of loss direction.  (Apologies to Bill Yosses, the White House Pastry chef.)

I could watch Najat Kaanache cook all day long though. lol! Najat, who originally hails from Morocco is Spanish but of Moroccan descent, started her professional cooking background in Holland with someone who once worked for Heston Blumenthal. Eventually, she landed jobs at Alinea, Noma, French Laundry, and finally wound up at El Bulli with Ferran Adria. During the whole presentation, she was constantly playing with liquid nitrogen, nitrous chargers, powders, and who knows what else. She demonstrated the use of Manitol, a sugar alcohol, that you melt at 300/572F. It’s sweet like sugar but it doesn’t brown. She dipped frozen concoctions into it just to get a thin coating of Manitol on the sweets. Eventually, the original mixture melted inside the shaped Manitol. Not something you can do at home, but it’s got some cool cooking applications to it.

Najat also made some sorbets using juice and liquid nitrogen.  (Stir furiously, then let it melt a bit before serving.)

Bill Yosses showed off some equipment – a Thermomix and a Paco Jet. I don’t know if I’d have any use for a Paco Jet, but I always wondered about the Thermomix.

We got to taste olive oil spheres.

What I was really hoping to taste was the taste-film inside the box of Visionaire, issue no. 47.
Per a blurb on Amazon, “experience 12 original flavors produced exclusively for Visionaire in the form of fast-dissolving breath-strips in individually marked, custom-designed cases that correspond to images printed in an accompanying hardcover book.” The flavors are Youth, Art, Mommy, Life, Luxury, Feast, Guilty, Adrenaline, Summer, Power, Orgasm, and Exotic. Alas, the box never made it to me. Either we ran out of tasting strips or someone took off with it. *sigh*

And with that, the lectures are done for the semester.  Ferran Adria is still to come but (although free) tickets must be picked up beforehand.  That lecture is on Sunday.  Tickets can be picked up at the Harvard Ticket Office in Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass Ave, Cambridge, Ground Floor.  Tickets are available starting at noon tomorrow, limit is 2 per person.  It’s unlikely that I’ll be going.  I don’t work anywhere near the ticket office so it’s kind of a pain for me.

Reference links:
http://elbulli-arco.blogspot.com/ (related to Najat Kaanache)
http://www.morewhimsy.com/ (looks to be Najat’s official site, but it’s under construction) Per Najat herself, use the previous link.
http://www.visionaireworld.com/issues.php?id=47

Harvard SEAS lecture, 11/21/11, Nathan Myhrvold

Random thought – I am jealous of the students who get to take this class. Last week, they got to attend a cooking panel starring some famous local chefs like Jody Adams (Rialto) and Joanne Chang (Flour).

Anyway!

For those unfamiliar with Nathan Myhrvold, he’s the driving force behind the “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking” books. It’s a six volume book that retails at $625. The books set out to show 1) step by step instructions for cooks at all levels, 2) show technique, 3) be modern, and 4) explain some food science. It’s 1500 pages. One volume alone has four pounds of ink in it. It’s got food history, equipment explanations, and an insert of the recipes on washable paper. Nathan admits that 50% of the recipes are doable by your average home cook. Another 25% requires some high tech equipment, and the last 25% of the recipes cannot even be done at the more high tech, haute cuisine restaurants.

Harvard SEAS lecture 11/14/11, David Chang

Subject – Food Microbiology

I don’t think I have much to say about tonight’s lecture. It was more formal than David Chang’s lecture last year, and it was solely about edible bacteria, whether it’s from lacto-fermentation, inoculating fish that has been steamed/smoked/deydrated with koji mold (katsuobushi), dry aged beef, or David Chang’s own invention of pork bushi.