Month: October 2011

Meal 3 From The Family Meal

Alyosha
Cooked the third meal from Ferran Adriá’s new cookbook The Family Meal. Vichyssoise with a soft-boiled egg, roasted lamb, and chocolate truffles. Substituted lamb shoulder cuts for the neck he called for, otherwise used what was called out in the recipe.

Perfect. Never thought a crap cut of lamb could be that good, and the vichyssoise was a revelation.  No proportion land mines in any of the recipes; a straightforward set of dishes.

Edit: Scratch that, the 6 1/2 cups of water called for in the lamb for the serving for six — was rediculous. Just a cup or two is plenty.

One note of interest, after passing the vichyssoise through the strainer, what you’re left with in the strainer is essentially the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever eaten. Don’t throw that out.

Edit: Also, the strainer mesh size matters with this — depending on how finely you strain the soup, you could end up with any number of consistencies (all delicious.)

Edit: Thinking back, I should add that I thought his timing on the soft-boiled eggs was overly optimistic — too short — so be sure to AT LEAST temper your eggs (get them up to roomish temperature) before you boil them.

Cooking Ferran Adriá’s The Family Meal — The Errata

Cooking Ferran Adrià’s The Family Meal

Alyosha
Began cooking my way through the new cookbook from El Bulli chef/founder Ferran Adrià. Two meals down with one minor disaster.

  • Meal 1 went great: burgers, Caesar salad, and Santiago cake (lemon and almond meal) The burgers were simple, but perfect, same with the salad — one minor quibble with the cake, no mention of the size of the pan for the 6-person serving in the recipe.
  • Meal 2 went less well. The bolognese sauce was more than perfect, and the fish stew (substituting better-than-bullion’s fish stock and Sockeye salmon for the Mackerel) was great. However, the Chocolate cookie recipe remains a complete mystery. Cannot make heads or tails of the proportions, even after three attempts I am left with puddles of sugar and chocolate. Maybe the French version will avoid the translation errors. I have an email out with the publisher for an errata source.
Edit: Phaidon never responded.

Edit : I figured out the cookie recipe: here.

Also: Check out the newer posts; I’ve finished the book