K(C)ooking Keller

I bought The French Laundry Cookbook 2 weeks ago and have been completely enamoured by it ever since - S will attest to the fact that most nights I fall asleep rolling on whatever page the book is opened to, and dreaming of how to perfect that recipe.

At around the same time, I also stumbled upon the French Laundry at Home blog, which documents Carol's attempts to recreate ALL of the French Laundry recipes at home, and is absolutely hilarious. Truth be told, some of the recipes are way too technically complicated, and others just too esoteric (braised pig's head anyone)? Don't get me wrong, I love offal (I'm Chinese - I'll eat just about anything), but I don't think S or too many of my dinner party guests will be too appreciative.

Anyway, before I proceed, I've made 2 changes to the blog. First of all, because I have had comments that this blog is too "technical" for non-cooks, I've decided to omit the precise recipes and techniques. I'm happy to share recipes though - just post me a comment and I will respond. Secondly, because I am so craaaaap at photography, I have decided to appoint S as creative director (aka photographer) of my blog (in addition to his official role as chief taster).

We have S's sister, G, visiting for the weekend, so I decided that it would be a great opportunity to try out some of Keller's recipes. I was a touch ambitious and decided to serve 4 courses for dinner last night.

I started out with Parmesan Crisps with Goats Cheese Mousse - a recipe straight out of the book itself. The slight complication was that I did not have the egg carton called for to shape the crisps, so I decided a small rice bowl would have to do the job. Also I don't have a Silpat (don't even know what that is?!), so I used a non-stick pan lined with baking paper, and shaped them with a cookie cutter - it seemed to work fine.

The crisps came out ok. The difficult bit was the shaping part - my first 2 batches crumbled into shards as I pushed them into the bowl. I finally figured out that timeliness was key - I had to shape these just as they were going from hot-and-still-a-little-soft to cool-and-brittle. Also, I found the best way to shape them was to press in the edges with thumbs and fingers to create a tulip shape - you kind of need fingers of steel for that as the crisps are HOT! Ouch.

The goats cheese mousse I decided to do it my way - instead of processing everything in a blender, I handwhipped the cream first, before creaming the cheese by hand, and then folding n the cream. The resulting mousse was light, and yet held its shape through dinner. I actually made about 10 crisps but we forgot about the photography until only 3 were left - oops. For the next course, I served Blinis with Salmon Tartare, Red Onion Creme Fraiche and Ikura (salmon roe). Now Keller serves his Salmon Tartare on home-made cornets, but I looked at the recipe and was sutably intimidated by the technicality. Also I had read Chubby Hubby's attempt at doing the same, so I had been forewarned! I decided then to serve my tartare on mini potato blinis, using the recipe from another part of Keller's book. To take the salmon theme further, and also because it is oh-so-trendy to do the Japanese fusion thing, I decided to garnish the top with a sprinkle of ikura.

Now, my blini did not come out looking "evenly browned with a small ring of white on the edges", like the picture in the book. I attribute this to uneven heat conduction of my pan as well as a slightly too thin batter. However the taste was very delicate, and the combination of textures of the various components along with the richsalty burst from the ikura was very pleasant indeed.

I then served Gazpacho, the recipe for which I followed to the letter in Keller's book, except that I substituted the cayenne pepper for a fresh red chilli. I did omit the balsamic glaze as I ran out of time to make it! However the resulting soup was still one of the better gazpacho I've eaten (drunk), perfect for a warm summer night, and even S, who does not normally take to tomatoey food, liked it. (we forgot to photograph this.. obviously too caught up in the eating at this point!)

For the main course, I did not use any Keller recipes. I had found some beautiful quails from the specialist butcher nearmy home and really wanted to try roasting them (first time cooking quail!!). I also found some very fresh chicken livers, and decided to do an ode to Keller by pairing the livers with the quail, since he does mention throughout the book that he loves to eat offal.

I brined the quails in a mixture of salt and sugar solution with bay leaves and thyme, and then, in my enthusiasm, decided it would be a brilliant idea to tunnel-bone the birds (it wasn't). A brave attempt, given I've never seen a live demonstration of the process, let alone been trained in the technique. I did manage to remove the ribs and breast bones, as well as the thigh bones of the quails, with minimal tearing of the skin, but couldn't quite figure out how to remove the back bone, so I left that in (lame lame!!), after about an hour struggling with the birds. Anyway, with the half tunneled birds, I decided to stuff with a porcini-pancetta mixture. I then grilled the birds on my outdoor barbie.

With the livers, i marinated them in milk for about a half hour (reduces the gamey flavour), then sauteed these over high heat for a couple of minutes until medium rare. I then made a pan sauce by deglazing the pan with white wine, a mixture of reduced duck and quail stock, and added minced onions, dijon mustard and butter (sauce Robert).

I served the quail and liver with a potato rosti (under the quail in the pic) and a side of braised red cabbage. On hindsight, I should have chosen a green vegetable side because everything on the plate just looks too brown. Also my plating skills are terrible - next course I take is going to be one on food aesthetics.

Tastewise however, the quail was quite delicious, as was the liver. The most outstanding thing on the dish though, was the sauce - S is not usually a huge sauce person and he actually remarked on it. I think next time I make this dish, I will make enough sauce so that it is pourable from a side bowl as a proper "sauce".

Leftovers are always an issue for me. This morning, I made bacon croquettes with all the leftover potato and creme fraiche I had - that went pretty quickly. I am also making gravalax with the rest of the salmon... However what do you do with leftover ikura (besides eat it outright)?