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.
Cooking Ferran Adriá’s The Family Meal — The Errata