Seabirdskitchen visits Sustenio

Last weekend madame and I drove down to San Antonio to visit our good friend Chef David Gilbert (@beyondthekit on twitter) in his new adventure as the Executive Chef at Sustenio - the inspired restaurant at the Eilan resort in the North Western suburbs of San Antonio. And what a treat.

Even with all that magic, that wasn't the only high point! The resort and hotel are themselves fabulous. Great staff, wonderful place. But there's more. As many know, I am an avid baker. I was delighted when I was offered the chance to spend time with the brilliant bread maker Kelly Wiltshire in the pastry kitchen. The catch? Oh he starts at 4am. So at about 04:00 on the Saturday morning, I rocked up to the kitchen to find Kelly and get the training.

Intense. Fascinating to work with larger batches and the industrial sized Hobart mixers. Fresh yeast too.  So what did I learn (but come nowhere near mastering)?

• That I am too nice to my dough. 
• That shaping rolls has a rhythm and skill that I have yet to master, but am now on the way.
• That doughs are more forgiving than I realized
• The real importance of high gluten flours - and their ability to withstand jostling during transfer from making to baking
• That you can (should) double bake artisinal breads to get extra crust
• That it is even harder work than I expected!
• That there is equipment I can only dream about 

Now That's a mixer!

 I also got to watch a Ernest, a pastry chef do some incredibly detailed work - and best of all let me taste some of the results. How do pastry chefs stay thin? beats me!

Caesar Salad

We had a hankering for a "proper" Caesar salad last week. No hairy fish, no gloppy dressing - just great Romaine with everything done just right. It's harder than it appears - even though the ingredients are simple.
Ingredients (Served 2 as main course)
2 garlic cloves + 1/4 t salt
3T pure olive oil
1/2 cup croutons (unflavored if buying - home made better)
1 egg
1 Romaine - pale leaves and heart only
4T Extra Virgin Olive Oil (best quality you can find
1T lemon juice
Few drops Worcesterhire sauce
1/4 cup coarsely grated Parmiggiano Reggiano
Coarse sea salt
Pepper
Method
Peel and mince the garlic, then sprinkle with salt and make a paste. Mix in 1T olive oil. Warm the other 2T of the pure olive oil in a pan, add the garlic paste and warm through. Toss in the croutons and warm through. Do not allow the garlic to brown as it will turn bitter.
Coddle the egg by placing the refrigerator temperature egg in a pan enough water to cover, bring to a simmer, turn off the heat and leave for 1 minute. Note if you are worried about salmonella and eggs, you may want to use a pasteurized egg for this.
Place the leaves in a large bowl, drizzle on the extra virgin olive oil. Toss. Add the lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Toss. Add the coddled egg and toss. The egg should emuslify into the lemon juice/oil. Add the croutons. Toss. Add the grated cheese. Toss. Serve the salad with some coarse sea salt and pepper to taste.

Bacon and egg ice cream

The always amazing Chef Heston Blumenthal (he of the fat duck restaurant in Bray, England) makes bacon and egg ice cream. I was watching one of his programs and he showed how it is done. It looked pretty straightforward - and by doing it table side it has a definite wow factor. Well it isn't actually done table side, but the final freezing is - using dry ice.
Now dry ice is cold and potentially nasty stuff. It is carbon dioxide (CO2), and so you don't want it in a confined/airtight space. It comes in a solid block. It goes straight from solid to gas without going through a liquid phase. That means if you seal it up, the gas pressure build up will cause it to explode/ It is incredibly cold. You will get frostbite if you handle it wrong. In other words consult an expert before trying this at home.
Ingredients 
1 lb smoked bacon
1 1/4 pints (US pints or 1 Imperial pint) of WHOLE milk
10 large egg yolks - make meringues with the whites?
1/3 cup of maple syrup. (Chef Blumenthal's recipe uses sugar, but I wanted the maple flavor)
2T dried milk powder.
2 lbs dry ice
Method
Cook the bacon - I did it in the oven for 15 minutes at 425F.

Drain the bacon on paper towels. Cut into small pieces and infuse into the milk. Let stand in the fridge for at least 12 hours - preferably 18.
When the time comes to make the ice cream base, heat the milk/bacon mixture + the milk powder in a saucier until almost boiling. Temper the egg yolks with a little of the hot milk. When the yolks are tempered, strain the hot milk onto the eggs, whisking it in.

Discard the bacon. return the custard base to the saucier and heat slowly until thick (175F), stirring continuously. It will thicken and coagulate. Don't worry if it looks a bit like scrambled eggs at this stage - but do not allow to become solid!
Strain into a bowl, and immediately cool in an ice water bath. 

Refrigerate until ready to do the theater.
Serving
This dish was served with melba toast triangles

and a little maple syrup garnish. To freeze the ice cream, pulverize the dry ice in a plastic bag until it is a very fine powder. take care to wear gloves and safety goggles. Dump the dry ice into the custard base and stir like crazy with a metal spoon. The ice cream will freeze instantly and be very smooth in texture.

Soup and Sandwich

This course was the "lunch" course of the Day in Dinner party. It was the soup course, but like everything at the party, it was to have a slight twist. The soup was a simple tomato/roasted red pepper soup. The twist was the sandwich. With the soup you don't have to be precise about the size of the vegetables - it is going to be blended and strained so it is completely smooth.
Ingredients  - Soup
2 red bell peppers, left whole
2T vegetable oil
2 oz butter
1 large onion (I used yellow) minced
1 shallot minced
3 cloves garlic smashed
3T all purpose flour
1 large and 1 small can of whole tomatoes
2 cups chicken stock
3 sprigs of thyme
salt/pepper to taste
A few drops of extra virgin olive oil for serving
Sea salt crystals
Method - Soup
Heat the oven to 450F and roast the peppers until the skin is well charred (about 45 minutes). Meanwhile heat the oil/butter gently until hot but not brown. Add the onion, shallot, garlic and sweat gently. Do not allow any color to form.
Place the tomatoes into the blender and pulse quickly to break up the larger pieces. It is better to this than to but crushed or sauce tomatoes. This way they are less metallic tasting. Also if you are lucky enough to have some home canned tomatoes (as we were), they will almost always be whole.
Once the onion, shallot and garlic have softened, add the flour to the pot and stir to coat, and make a light roux. Add the tomatoes, stock, thyme to the pot. Stir to incorporate. Peel and roughly chop the roasted peppers (having removed the seeds), add the peppers to the pot.
Bring up to a simmer - gently to avoid sticking. Simmer for about 35 - 40 minutes stirring occasionally.
Puree the soup in the blender in several batches. Do this while it is hot - make sure you place a kitchen towel over the blender while doing this. You do not want hot tomato soup flying around the kitchen!
Strain the soup using a fine strainer and discard anything that remains in the strainer.
Chill overnight to allow the flavors to develop. Reheat when ready.
Ingredients - Sandwiches
16 oz Parmesan cheese - grated finely. Use the highest quality you can
6 oz fresh goat cheese
A good handful of fresh basil leaves
2T milk (may not be needed if the goats cheese is soft and creamy)
1t sherry vinegar
1t extra virgin olive oil
Method - Sandwiches
Make Parmesan tuiles by spreading the Parmesan cheese on a baking sheet

and baking in a 475 degree oven until it is melted and bubbling. (3-4 minutes). Allow to cool a bit. While still flexible (they do become crunchy eventually), cut them out into the shapes you want. I used a 1" ring cutter. One guest remarked that they looked like Communion Wafers.

When ready to make the sandwiches, form the filling pr processing the cheese, basil, milk (if needed), vinegar, oil until a smooth green paste is formed. There is no need for salt because the tuiles have enough salt for the whole sandwich. To make the sandwiches spread a little filling on one tuile and top with another.
Serve alongside the soup.

Butter Rosemary Almond Biscuits and coffee flavored vodka

These biscuits (cookies) are a variant on a recipe from my grandmother, handed down to me by my mother. So when I was last in England talking to her, I asked whether she made them by the "creaming method" or whether she made them like pastry. She also told me to use "proper butter" not the unsalted stuff! I ignored that admonition, but added salt anyway!
In the first post on the subject, I had assumed the creaming method, but 2 weeks ago, she corrected me and said that she always makes them like pastry. So for a Day in Dinner I made them like pastry. I also increased the rosemary slightly to get a bit more flavor.
Ingredients - Biscuits
4 oz powdered (icing) sugar
6 oz all purpose flour
4 oz slivered almonds, toasted
a pinch of salt
2 T rosemary leaves
8 oz cold unsalted butter - cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
Method - Biscuits
Place the flour, almonds, salt, sugar, rosemary into the food processor. Pulse several times until the almonds are ground finely and well incorporated. Add the cubed butter and pulse to incorporate. Continue to pulse until the dough comes together into a single piece. Don't overmix as you will end up with too much gluten.
Turn the dough out, form into a disk, wrap in cling wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, up to a couple of hours.
Heat oven to 350F
Roll dough out into about 1/8in to 1/4 in thickness. Cut into 1in rounds.
Bake on a lined cookie sheet for 7 minutes, turn the temp down to 325 and bake until brown (another 7 mins or so). Rotate the pan when you change the temp.
Allow to cool on a wire rack.
Ingredients - Coffee Infused Vodka
2 Cups good quality vodka - we use Tito's because it is the nearest we can find to locally made.
2T Roasted coffee beans ( medium/dark roast works best).
Method
Pour the vodka over the coffee beans in a glass bottle. Leave to steep at room temperature for at least 2 weeks, turning occasionally. When the vodka is the color of  Scotch whisky, place the bottle in the freezer. It will keep almost indefinitely. You do however want to drink it very cold.
Serving
Serve the vodka in chilled vodka glasses (1 oz per person) with three coffee beans in each glass, accompanied by 2 or 3 of the biscuits.

Coffee and Baileys Gelee

For the "Day in Dinner" event, we made a coffee/Baileys gelee. A simple 2 level composition with a drop of cream on top. The trick is to make the gelees separately pour the bottom (in this case the coffee) first before it has started to set. Allow it to set up, and then very gently add the second.
Ingredients - Coffee Gelee
1 pkt gelatine
1/2 cup cold water
3 t plain sugar
2 cups of strong coffee (double strength, carefully filtered)
Method - Coffee Gelee
Bloom the gelatine in the cold water. Brew the coffee - make it double strength. Ad the sugar to the coffee and make sure it is very hot. Add to the bloomed gelatine and stir until combined. Place in an ice/water bath to cool, but not set. Put some of the coffee into a demitasse and refrigerate until set. About 3 hours.
Ingredients - Baileys Gelee
3/4 pkt gelatine
1 oz cold water
5 oz boiling water
8 oz Baileys Irish Cream
Method - Baileys Gelee
Bloom the gelatine in the cold water. Add the boiling water followed by the Baileys Irish Cream. Stir to combine. Chill in an ice/water bath until cold but not set.
Assembly
Once the coffee has set, use a pipette, place a thin layer of the Baileys gelee on top of the coffee. Take care not to disturb the surface of the coffee.

Chill until set and ready to serve. Again, with a pipette place a drop of cream into the center of the Baileys.