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What are your thoughts?

2K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  chiffonade 
#1 ·
I was just reading my latest issue of Art Culinaire, There is some very interesting recipes based on classic technique.

I am curious of your thoughts, Let me share some items
First is "barding"
Crispy blue fin tuna barded with Foie Gras
Wild sturgeon barded with duck procuitto
Maine Halibut larded with yellow fin toro
Tuna barded with tuna bacon
Fried sweetbreads larded with smoked bacon
Roasted beets larded with anchovies
Scallops larded with truffle
Cod barded with serrano ham
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Next is "rilletes"
Mousseron and apricot rillettes with turmeric sauce
Pistachio and grapefruit rillettes
Pigeon rilletts with green mango and crustacean foam
Skate cheek rillettes with pineapple sauce and truffles
saltwater jelly ravioli with foie gras rillettes (No kidding)
wild mushroom rillettes with goat cheese and corn crackers
smoked trout and brie rillettes with chive and garlic bread
rabbit rillettes with foie gras pancakes
lobster rillettes with grapefruit and tarragon
Quail rillettes with apples and muscatel sauce
squab with panchetta rillettes and pomagranite sauce
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Well, What do you think? Likes/dislikes? Over the top? or a fun trend. Any thoughts?
cc
 
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#2 ·
Interesting. I tend to think sometimes that some Chefs put combinations together because thay sound so "frou frou" and the high brow crowd they are trying to impress will ooh and ahh without knowing exactly what the **** they are talking about, let alone eating. That is just my opinion. It is cemented in my mind when I see the first 5 dishes in the Rillettes category.
Mousseron and apricot rillettes with turmeric sauce
Pistachio and grapefruit rillettes
Pigeon rilletts with green mango and crustacean foam
Skate cheek rillettes with pineapple sauce and truffles
saltwater jelly ravioli with foie gras rillettes (No kidding)

I'm sorry but to me these sound ridiculous!:eek:
The last 6 sound like there's actually a little thought put ino them. They actually sound plausible.

Barding while just a fancy french term is given some nice sounding combinations here.
The Maine Halibut larded with yellow fin toro is the only one to me that sounds like a bit of a waste. The halibut is a wonderful fish and the Yellow fin toro (my favorite) wouldn't add enough of a flavor or contrast to make it worth the cost. I think you'd be better off doing separate treatments on the same plate. Perhaps a Yellow Fin Toro Carpaccio and a Mini Maine Halibut Napolean of Fried potato slices and lightly Smoked Scallops or Bacon.

How you're going to crisp the tuna and bard it with fois gras is beyond me. Obviously it was done. I think the term barded in this case must have been used loosely.
The rest of the larding and barding sound very interesting and tasty. The cod reminds me of a Jean Louis Palladin dish. He par roasted monkfish and then barded it in pancetta and black truffles. Roasted it it a little further and served it with truffle, pancetta butter:bounce: :bounce: Now that's my kind of cooking!!!
 
#3 ·
I'm not sure I follow, how can you make rillettes with grapefruit and pistachios since it's a pate. He is just adding this to a regular rillettes recipe?
 
#4 ·
I'm guessing that they are just using the basic style and changing it to suit their needs. IE: Finely diced grapefruit simmered and reduced or just plain chopped with pistachios added. They can't be using the meat because as we know the acid in the grapefruit will destroy or cook the meat (echhh in this case) I'm sure there are many more ingredients than what was listed in the title that would make a little more sense. But not much, if you ask me!
 
#5 ·
I am writing this by candle light so bare with me.

This recipe is broken down into a few parts.
First there is a grapefruit confit.
1 grapefruit, juiced and rind chopped
1 " " peeled and diced
1 star anise
1/2 vanilla bean
1/2 piece red licorice(really)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
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Then there is a Pistachio oil sorbet:
9 ounces pistachio oil
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Then there is a pistachio nougatine:
3 oz water
12 oz sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2 cups sicilian green pistachios, chopped
**********
Then there is a grapefruit salad:
segments from 4 ruby red grapefruits
segments of 1 blood orange
1 vanilla bean, split
2 sprigs thai basil, stemmed
sugar to taste.
********
Then there is a grapefruit jelly:
16 oz red grapefruit juice
1/2 teaspoon agar agar
3 sheets gelatin bloomed in 3 cups of water
***********
Then there is a pistachio purre :
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup pistachio oil
1 1/2 cups thai basil leaves blanched
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For the dish:
thai basil leaves
***********
For the garnish:
fleur de sel.

I am not going to type the methode because my candle is getting low.
This recipe is by PAUL LIEBRANDT
Formaly of atlas New York, NY
 
#8 ·
For the grapefruit confit , in a medium saucepan over medium heat,combine all the ingredents and simmer to almost dry,about ten minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl,and set aside to cool overnight. For the pistachio oil sorbet,in a medium saucepan over medium heat,simmer the oil till warm, set aside in a ice bath to cool, transfer to an ice cream machine and freeze according to manufactures advice. For the pistachio nougatine,Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, in a medium covered sauce pan over medium heat,combine the water,sugar and corn syrup,bring to a boil and simmer until 250 degrees, remove from the heat and pour onto a silpat lined sheet pan, and spread thin. set aside to cool and firm. transfer the nougatine sheet to a cutting board and chop into small pieces. transfer to a spice grinder and turn into a powder, spread the powder on a silpat lined sheet pan and sprinkle with pistachios,bake unto crisp (about 5 minutes)remove from the heat,break into small pieces and set aside. for the grapefruit salad , preheat your oven to 200 degrees, in a medium bowl combine all the ingredients and season. transfer to a silpat lined sheet pan a place it in the oven for 45 minutes to dry, remove from the heat and transfer to a medium bowl,and set aside in the fridge to cool.
For the grapefruit jelly,in a medium sauce pan over medium heat,simmer the juice till warm and whisk in the agar agar and whipped to combined,add the gelitan and warm until it melts,remove from the heat and pour in a shallow dish. Set aside in the fridge till it sets. For the pistachio purre, in a medium sauce pan over medium heat,combine all the ingredients and simmer till reduced by half, remove from the heat and place in a blender,blend till smooth, then run through a fine mesh sieve.

To serve , place some grapefruit salad and grapefruit confit and grapefruit jelly in the middle of the plate. Place a quenelle of the pistachio sorbet in the middle and top with some nougatine,drizzel with pistachio purre and sprinkle with fleur de sel

Enjoy
cc
 
#10 ·
That grapefruit thing sounds pretty ridiculous. It definately needs another name 'cause rillette it aint.
The larded and barded stuff sounds good, except i think you would want to lard with foie gras, but not bard.
I agree with Chrose about the halibut and toro. Might make a pretty combination, but the flavour of either fish wouldn't be accentuated.
I've done monkfish wrapped in prosciutto many times, and that is a lovely combination. Rillettes are something i love. What i love about them, however, has much to do with pork , duck and fat, and nothing to do with grapefruit or brie.
 
#11 ·
Thank you pollyg,

I tend to agree with you,
We have had many discussions here in the past about classic terms being used out of context.
Although I find some of these items intriqing and pretty innovative,I do think the terms have been over done.
cc
 
#12 ·
Depends on whether you're a purist or a radical! I guess in a sense chefs have some kind of poetic license to call their creation whatever they want. :D I've been known to disagree and have also been known to call these "creations" other things ;).

I think we should choose our battles wisely when it comes to the etymology of culinary terms. For one, we do not have a sufficient culinary lexicon to adequately describe the whole gamut. Our other problem is in the radical translation of culinary concepts other than ours. A simple example can be had by comparing American precepts of "golden brown" to a Frenchman's. Totally differing views, yet we speak of "golden brown" meaningfully in our daily meanderings. Of course the actual golden brown to which we refer is going to be different (different wavelength, hue, tint, etc) but conceptually golden brown is golden brown, but I don't think this really matters. What we're trying to convey is a certain sense which we cannot get from pointing to a golden brown loaf of bread and saying golden brown.

I think the same goes for other culinary words, terms, and phrases, if meaningful and truly significant, will, in time,follow a natural path of acceptance. Those which seem forced, created, lacking content and true meaning, will not. So who wants to take bets on "grapefruit rillettes?"

Kuan
 
#13 ·
The dishes you mention seem to be an interpretation of a cooking technique, i.e. the rillettes.

Lately, anything stacked is a Napoleon. Any presentation of a sheet of pasta with a filling and another sheet of pasta laid on top is a ravioli. Tying a slice of foie gras on something may very well be considered barding but the original purpose was to add fat to a lean protein using a slice of fat. You can definitely charge more for a dish that has a slice of foie gras tied onto it, as opposed to a common sheet of fat.

Clearly these terms are being used as verbs as opposed to a description of not only the action but the assumed ingredients. They are an expansion on the classic definitions. Barding and larding will no longer be used to define the simple act of injecting/applying fat (moisture) to a dish, but a complementary flavor.

Anything that infuses flavor into anything else will be around for awhile. I think chefs will use these techniques in a whole new fun exploration of layering flavors.
 
#14 ·
For, those of you who have heard this ranting and raving from me before, just skip this-for those of you who haven't-here is my 2 cents worth.
When I first got into cooking professionally, I was all about fusion cuisine, trying out new flavors, trying to come up with combinations and creations that no one had ever seen before. As I have matured, in my cooking (and hopefully, in my regular life), I have found myself looking more and more towards the tried and true. Classical foods, peasant dishes. Is it because I have become less adventuresome? Am a becoming more set in my ways? Have I (God Forbid!!) become my father? No- I have learned that there is a reason classics are classics. It is because they work, because they are great combinations. I have learned that foods have been created to have an affinity with other foods from that region. Why go to all this work, trying to recreate the wheel, people have been working on creating it for thousands of years. Why do people not eat blueberries with anchovies? It's not because someone hasn't tried it, it's because people have tried it and realized that it is not worth trying again.
With that said, on the other hand, I believe in experimentation. But, within bounds. If you want to create a rillette for your restaurant create away, but do it in the context of what a rillette is suppose to be. Listen to common sense. Sure you can reason out just about anything (just like the chef in the Art Culinare article reasoned out trying Eel Ice Cream), but ultimately something in the back of your mind says that this isn't right. In my short career I have found that if you have to force a combination to work, it will never really work out anyway.
And I won't even get into a discussion on giving an item a classical name when it in no way resembles that item. BTW, what is your thoughts on the Saltwater Ravioli (a saltwater jello sheet covering a truffle rillette). Sorry, but gelled saltwater just doesn't do it for me.
 
#15 ·
I hope you heard me cheering from wherever you are! For a time some far out combinations were being tried. I cringe every time I think of a perfectly wonderful briny lobster being bathed in vanilla sauce. (Thank God that fad is over.) And funny you mention blueberries, because I remember reading about a place that served calamari with blueberries!

The larding and barding fall within your guidelines but I am in total agreement about the rillettes (and don't forget Napoleons!) A ravioli should look like a ravioli. If it doesn't, it's something else.
 
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