Alinea Weighs In - Zesty!

Professional chefs who write recipes in cups and tablespoons deserve to have chicken stock ladled down the back of their pants. No, not just chicken stock. The greasy, floating scum from the impurities rendered out of the bones in the chicken stock. How dare they fold to the ignorant yearning of the masses at the expense of perfection! It's so frustrating to see absolutely stunning, beautifully photographed cuisine that can be labelled as nothing other than low grade food porn because the erroneous recipes have been dumbed down and gone unchecked.

After my most beloved knives and diamond steel, a set of scales are the next thing I would not want to live without. Every single time I'm handed a recipe I convert all the volumes to weights and every single time I make an experimental change or adjustment I weigh, weigh, weigh. I weigh eggs, I weigh water, I weigh a pinch of salt because ultimately a chef's career depends on his or her ability to punch out tasty and consistent food.

Some industry professionals who I have met (especially the line cooks it seems) have this unlearned impression that pastry chefs can't cook and scales are just for sissies. For some reason you're not really a great cook unless you can guesstimate weights and volumes and do everything by sight. Well I really only have one thing to say to those suckers -"Try working on the other side of the kitchen". We'll see who looks like the bigger sissy when chef turns around to throw discordant food in your face!

Ever since I came across the awesome NY blog Ideas In Food, I've been slowly progressing my way through the archives. Just this morning I stumbled over last year's post on the opportunity to pre-order the soon to be released Alinea cookbook. Apparently it doesn't come out until October this year which isn't soon enough. When you register for a book (extremely cheap for a book of it's calibre) you also get access to the Alinea Mosaic which is a collection of unpublished recipes, pdf page previews and short videos. I've already signed up, it didn't take much convincing to fork out the $50 I must say. The recipes are all in metric weights and boy I can't wait for October to come around!

To keep the rest of you satiated until then, for Sugar High Friday #43: Citrus held by Tartlette this month I present to you my recipe for sheep's milk yoghurt sorbet. You could substitute this recipe with any kind of yoghurt you fancy or even a mixture of strained fruit purees but I personally find that the combination of lemon juice with the sheep's milk yoghurt really lends a hand in bringing out the wonderfully fresh and tangy flavours. I've accompanied it this time with crushed raspberry ice to accentuate the citrus zing, polvorones (Spanish shortbread) for a textural contrast, white pepper ice cream for a different kind of sweet smoothness and manzanilla olive cheeks for a little savoury saltiness. Anyway enough talk, more plate.

Sheep's Milk Yoghurt Sorbet

100 g water
150 g liquid glucose
50 g castor sugar
25 g lemon juice
500 g sheep's milk yoghurt

Combine water, glucose and sugar in a small pot.
Bring to the boil, stir to dissolve then refrigerate until cold.
Empty yoghurt into a medium bowl and add the lemon juice and syrup.
Whisk until smooth and churn immediately.

Crushed Raspberry Ice

175 g water
65 g castor sugar
star anise
2 cardamom pods
300 g raspberries
10 g lemon juice

Combine water and sugar in a small pot.
Crush the aromatics with the heel of a large knife and throw them in.
Bring it to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow aromatics to infuse until cool.
Strain the syrup and discard the spices.
Combine syrup with raspberries and lemon juice in a shallow tray.
Place in the freezer and fork once every hour until set.

White Pepper Ice Cream

250 g milk
250 g cream
125 g egg yolks
85 g castor sugar
20 g white peppercorns

Bring milk and cream to a simmer.
Cream the yolks and sugar in a large bowl.
Temper the yolks by slowly pouring in the hot half and half while whisking continuously.
Place bowl over a bain-marie and stir continuously with a spatula in the figure eight.
Remove from heat immediately once it reaches 83ºC, strain through a fine chinois into an ice bath.
Refrigerate until cold then churn.
Grind the white peppercorns (but not too finely) with a spice grinder or mortar & pestle.
Throw them into the churning ice cream just before it's ready.