Another good meal, with just a couple of recipe flutters.

The potato salad was great, just watch (when cooking for six) that the ratio for the capers aren’t a third of the amount called out for cooking for 20, so I doubled/tripled what was called for. Pretty interesting flavors, it generally rocked.

The Thai beef curry had another error, where the amount of curry paste called for was 1/3 of a cup for 20 people, it calls for only 1 teaspoon of paste when cooking for 6 — I used a heaping tablespoon. Also, the water called for seemed really excessive, it took quite some time to reduce the cooking stock to something resembling a sauce. I removed the meat, as it was falling apart already, and cooked the stock off for more than an hour. Be sure to reduce it though, the meat has little flavor on its own right out of the pressure cooker. Again, it was pretty good.

The strawberries were great, I used balsamic vinegar instead of red wine vinegar — very interesting flavors. Be sure to mind the recipe when putting the water into the caramel, it creates quite a lot of steam. I served it with some sweetened whipped cream which helped balance out the strawberries, which were just on the verge of getting ripe.

All in all, another sold set of dishes.

Cooking Ferran Adriá’s The Family Meal — The Errata

Well, this was as straightforward as it gets, but — again — nothing I’ve ever tried in the same sitting. Each component was dirt-simple, but together, they seemed to tag-team each other for the better.

The first course was supposed to be Asparagus with fried eggs, but the book mentions that you could use peppers or mushrooms instead. Taking that lead, I poached the eggs rather than fry them, and used mushrooms — it worked well.

Second course made itself — just a great combination of ingredients, well done.

Third course was odd in that some of the old recipe errors appeared. But  comparing the larger serving proportions, and having a calculator helped avoid any errors. Just be sure to peel the fruit as instructed. They need that surface area to help the maceration process.

All in all, a great meal.

Cooking Ferran Adriá’s The Family Meal — The Errata

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: 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.

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.