Month: December 2011

Meal 9: Osso Buco

Alyosha
Meal 9 from Adria’s The Family Meal: Lime-marinated fish, osso buco, pina colada

This one was pretty uneventful, aside from trying to source fresh seabass in Alaska during December. All proportions were right with one exception, and putting it all together was straightforward as it could be. The one exception was the six cups of stock in the osso buco, and cooking it covered. One look after adding five cups of stock told me a parchment lid was in order for the first hour or so.

The kids WOLFED down the lime marinated fish — now dubbed “sourhead seabass.” Forgot to mention that the fish was “raw”. Same reaction to the Osso buco (substituted beef shank for the veal) and the pina colada.

Nice.

Cooking Ferran Adriá’s The Family Meal — The Errata

Meal 8: Eggplant Oddity.

Alyosha
Meal 8: Roasted eggplant w/miso dressing, sausages w/tomato sauce, creme Catalane


Well, I didn’t know it could be that way with eggplant. Roasted eggplant strips with a miso dressing — and served cold — pretty odd. Couldn’t find the Dashi Powder called for in the dressing, so I opted for “Japanese Soup base” bullion packets containing the usual suspects of seaweed, fish flake, and mushroom. Maybe I can get Dashi powder/base in Anchorage.

Otherwise, all the proportions were right, and the other two parts went without incident. Probably one of the most straightforward set of dishes yet.

Cooking Ferran Adriá’s The Family Meal — The Errata

Meal Seven — Translator’s Revenge

Alyosha
Meal 7: Saffron risotto w/mushrooms, Catalan style turkey, Yogurt foam w/strawberries

Well, it finally dawned on me — Adria obviously knows how to cook; he apparently just wants to know if we “want it” bad enough to be able to cook through the constant errors in The Family Meal.


Fair enough. I think I went through my toolmaker apprenticeship like that. I remember thinking, hey, it just feels like they don’t hate you; they just want you to appreciate being in their club. In reality — it’s all about having the chops to cope. The curveballs are just there to keeep you on your toes.

Anyway — a pretty good meal despite one serious curveball: the timeline shorts you about an hour on the turkey dish. No kidding — just when you thought the crack team of third-world copyeditors could only screw you on the proportions, they sandbagged me on the meal timeline on the title spread with all the ingredients. “Make turkey ahead 1 1/2 hours before the start of the meal and keep warm.” The recipe clearly calls for simmering for 1 1/2 hours AFTER you’ve browned turkey and caramelized the onions. The irony is that the proportions were solid this time — even the ratio of stock to rice for the risotto.

For the dessert, I bought a CO2 gun/canister thingy, which worked like a charm. Just shake, keep your fat content high, and your temperature cold.

All in all, the flavors really worked, and the proportions were about right. 

Cooking Ferran Adriá’s The Family Meal — The Errata

Meal Six — Wild West Macaroons

Alyosha
Potato chip omelet, pork loin w/ peppers, coconut macaroons


Well, two for two — went and cooked meal six. The omelet was tricky to pull off in terms of how long to cook,  and when to flip it. Ended up pulling in the edges to help the top set — since the “40 seconds” for the first side called out in the book was not the kind of magic my stove was capable of….


….maybe some magic pixie dust would have helped.


At any rate, I covered the skillet (maybe the “10 inch diameter” was for the smallest serving size??) and the eggs ended up cooking well. The pork loin worked well as well — very straightforward. Maybe some salt at the end, and definitely eat the peppers with each bite of pork.


The macaroons, however were a masterpiece of recipe sabotage. Without using weight, depending on the cut of coconut, you will end up with a tray of continuous coconut brownies. (As we did) Phaidon needs to step up and fix these screw ups — for heaven’s sake let’s get some accurate measurements here, is an errata page so much to ask?


I will say that the coconut carnage tasted pretty good.






















Cooking Ferran Adriá’s The Family Meal — The Errata

Meal 5

Alyosha
Polenta & parmesan gratin, sesame sardines w/carrot salad, mango w/white chocolate yogurt


Another solid meal, with the usual caveats: Beware the Recipe Errors. The water called for in the Polenta differed wildly from the package instructions, and the proportions for the vinaigrette in the carrot salad have been hideously mangled in translation. Using Ruhlman’s proportions for a vinaigrette saved the dish for 6-8 from a horrible death. I had to substitute smelt for the herring, and other than having to prep 5x the number of fish due to their small size — it all worked.


Otherwise the flavors and amounts were great — another solid meal. I wish Phaidon would acknowledge the errata issues, and respond to emails/issue a fix. But then sometimes the lure isn’t meant to catch the fish at all, maybe it’s just meant to catch the fisherman.
















Cooking Ferran Adriá’s The Family Meal — The Errata