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

Johnson Pass Trail

Alyosha

Rode Johnson Pass Trail Saturday.

About 24 miles (24.0 on the Incite 11i, but with one small turnaround) long, good trail conditions top to bottom — with one serious caveat: about FIVE MILES of the trail is overgrown with CHEST HIGH grass and Devil’s Club. The overgrowth was so dense that you had to ride by feel, which was not much fun. Very, very wet with all the grass, although it didn’t make the trail muddy or slick.

Started at the North trailhead, and until the overgrowth, the ride up to the summit was pretty fast, with a normal amount of mud, rocks and roots. After the overgrowth started, it was very trying — uphill in the grass. About a mile after the summit, the trail opened up to near-perfect conditions for the ride downhill (about 7-8 miles) making good time in the process. After that, about 6 miles from the end, there was more climbing, and a trail that was less than perfect — just a little rough here and there — until the end.

Also, I saw more bear scat on that trail than I had in my entire life put together.

Update: 7/2/2012

I have heard form the local bike club, that due to the number of windfalls on this trail, that it may be undoable this year.

Update: 9/23/2013

The windfalls have been cleared.

Portage Valley

Alyosha

If you are going to/from the Kenai Peninsula, be sure to spend a night in the Portage Valley RV Park.

If it’s raining anywhere in Alaska, it will be raining in Portage — hence the owners of the park built a huge log gazebo with a fire pit where travelers congregate in the evenings. The gazebo is nothing short of genius. People who otherwise would congregate over their individual fires (there are none for each site) gather, tell their stories — drink, eat, smoke, and laugh.  People from all over the States, and all over the world, connect through the rarest of serendipity.

Link

Moose Pass…

Alyosha

The 33rd annual Summer Solstice Festival — at Moose pass last weekend (18-19th). Great time for what is essentially a small craft fair with a band, burgers, and bake sale added on. Nearly right on Upper Trail Lake, the setting is stellar — Kayaks and Float Planes, the Alaska Railroad coming down the valley twice a day.

Nice.