In Conclusion

This is the final post for Gastronaut Jones. I was happy to have this digital outlet to discuss food and how it can be constructed and deconstructed. The desire to expand this vision and shift my focus has led to a new project that I started assembling earlier this year.

Fish Head In A French Press will be the creative umbrella and production company for all of my future endeavors. The first project under FHIAFP is a seasonal magazine of the same name, now for sale. There are also links to all of my current blogs as well as some original music, soon to come. I will be posting similar food-related ideas and dishes as well as other subjects. You can find them all on the new website. 

For everyone who has followed me or visited this website, thank you.

Love,

Jarrett

*enter space travel-related signoff here*

GASTRONAUT JONES

(2009 - 2015)

You can still find and follow me here:

Fish Head In A French Press
Quick Brown Fox
Eutrice
Grounded
FHIAFP

Breakfast Curry

Breakfast Curry Powder

cardamom

fenugreek

coriander

cara cara orange peel

turmeric

cinnamon

star anise

ginger

Curry is so versatile. Even though it is often a one pot dish, the complexity of a good curry is unparalleled. I'm constantly trying to define what makes a good curry and refine my own in the process. In doing so I've tried a lot of different combinations of spices and ingredients; considering the seasons, current mood or how I want to highlight a main ingredient.

One result that I am happy with is my breakfast curry blend. I began by considering what spices lend itself best to the morning and what pairs well with most (Western) breakfast options. Not an attempt at "fusion", but an example of what curry is capable of and using it as a subtle addition rather than an assertive overtone of flavor.

I've since kept it on the countertop and have been finding ways to creep it into breakfast each morning.

                   

           

                      

                       

Three in One

[from top to bottom]

gribenes

schmaltz

chicharrón

I'm back at it with chicken skins. This time digging deeper and exploring how much can be extracted from this thin, floppy and eventually magical layer of poultry. (It is THE reason we like fried chicken, right?) One beautiful aspect of cooking chicken skin is the byproduct it yields. After all the prep and cooking is done, I'm left with three ingredients: gribenes, schmaltz and chicharrón. The first two ingredients are lifted from the Jewish lexicon and is a breakdown of the German word griebenschmalz, which loosely translates to lard or crackling fat. Gribenes are the crisp nuggets of skin that are left over from rendering the skin fat (schmaltz) and are usually fried with onions, flavoring the schmaltz and gribenes all at once. The chicharrón, in this case, is really just a crisp brittle skin. When you remove the fat and keep it flat while cooking, you're left with what can best be described as a chicken chip.

The prep & cooking:

After scraping the excess fat from the underside of the skin, I sandwich the skin between two sheet pans and drop it into a 275F oven for about 1 to 1.5 hours or until crispy. While the skin is in the oven I heat the scraped fat in a small pan over low heat. As the fat renders the left over proteins (essentially more skin) start to brown in their own fat. These are the gribenes. Once they are golden and all of the fat (schmaltz) has been rendered, they are ready. 

One ingredient producing three results. 

Chicken-Fried Catfish

I've always been intrigued by the concept of "Chicken-fried". Google searches will direct you to some information (mostly recipes and a Zac Brown Band song) but long before Google existed it was just a Cracker Barrel fantasy. Summers between elementary school semesters en route to Central Florida, I was often more excited about Cracker Barrel than Disney World. The two dishes I would order the most were catfish and country-fried steak ("chicken" & "country" being interchangeable in this context). Although I'm unsure if chicken-frying is in reference to cooking steak in the same oil used to fry chicken, or if simply the application of breading and frying a steak was similar to the way fried chicken was prepared, I've realized that no one seems to have the answer*. Why should they? It's too delicious to quibble over semantics. 

This week I figured I would take this loose interpretation into my own hands by actually using chicken as a crust for catfish. After crisping chicken skins in the oven until they are brittle and golden, I blended them with potato flakes & breadcrumbs for a more literal 'chicken-fry'.

For the chicken skin:

Preheat oven to 350ºF

Spread skins flat onto a sheet pan

Place another sheet pan on top, sandwiching the skins between the two pans.

(this will prevent the skins from curling and allow them to cook evenly)

Place the sandwiched skins in the oven for 15-20 mins or until crispy throughout.

Remove from oven and remove the top sheet pan; let the skins cool.

At this point you can keep the skins in an airtight container if not using right away. It also makes for an addictive snack; essentially chicken chicharrones, so you could eat them as is if you wish.

For the breading:

Break the chicken skin up into a blender with potato flakes, breadcrumbs, black peppercorns and salt. You can be liberal with the peppercorns, you want the breading to taste of black pepper.

Blend to fully mix all ingredients evenly.

The measurements weren't specific, I just made sure it looked like it would adhere well to the fish during cooking. The fat from the chicken skins will help bind the dry ingredients. If you don't have potato flakes, you can just use chicken skin and breadcrumbs.

For the catfish:

Set up three dishes side by side, each being large enough to fit a catfish fillet

Fill the first dish with flour

Fill the second dish with one beaten egg

Fill the third dish with the chicken skin breading

Season the catfish fillets lightly with salt on both sides (remember the breading is also seasoned)

Dip the fish first in the flour, then the egg, then breadcrumbs

Heat fat or oil (preferably chicken fat or bacon grease) in a heavy bottomed pan to medium high heat (350ºF if deep frying). 

Fry catfish on both sides until crisp and golden.

*I have a theory that chicken-frying originated in the 19th century from the abundance of beef to chicken in certain parts of the U.S., much like pork is to "City Chicken". 

Failure In The Form Of Granita

                       sour milk granita

grilled cantaloupe

lemon basil

                

Failure #1: Ricotta Non Grata

I've made ricotta before, but in my latest attempt the curds would just not set. There was a faint ring of whey but no sturdy blocks of curd to strain into fresh cheese. Maybe my lemon wasn't acidic enough? Did I add acid at the wrong temperature? Even after adjusting with vinegar and adding back to the heat, there was no positive result. As soon as I was ready to throw in the towel (and the spoon and the pot), I decided to taste the murky milk mélange. The flavor was bright, tangy and straddled the line between buttermilk and yogurt. It's possible that this failure could be rectified.

Failure #2: The Lemon Basil Incident

Not so much an incident as a result of ignorance (though, it would make for an intriguing Seinfeld episode). I bought some beautiful lemon basil from the Santa Monica Farmers' Market and had them wrap it up for me to tame its unwieldy foliage. I was not going home right away and had these precious herbs tucked away in my bag for a good 10 hours. Even when I got home I made the mistake of transferring directly from my bag, still wrapped, into the fridge and forgot about them for another whole day. When I was finally ready to use them, they had gone dark and wilted. Still super fragrant, I hung them upside down in the kitchen window until they dried. This is when I added them to my failed ricotta/sour milk mixture to infuse as well as some sugar and salt to make an ice cream base. I figured I might as well add one failure to the other.


Failure #3: I Only Have Ice For You

Thinking I had come up with a brilliant solution for all of my culinary bungles, I was ready to make an creamy frozen yogurt of sorts, employing all of the benefits of lactic acid with a texture indistinguishable from ice cream (i'll be slinging quenelles in no time). The initial churn proved it to be too soft, which I hoped would be resolved with a quick firm-up in the freezer. When I opened the finished product, too many ice crystals had formed and I really thought my perseverance through all of these failures had ultimately resulted in...failure. However, even though the texture was not what I had planned, that doesn't mean it was bad. The flavor was still on point and I decided to go at it with a fork, right out of the freezer, resulting in a snowy and fragrant lemon basil sour milk granita.


The sweet and sour contrast in the granita gives it a lot of versatility. It can be used as a palette cleanser between courses, just plain dessert or (my favorite way) as breakfast with fruits of any kind. For this dish I tossed cantaloupe in lemon basil oil + salt and grilled them. Kept the cantaloupe on a chilled plate in the freezer before pairing it with the sour milk granita. Though there are only two components to this dish, there are still sweet, salty, sour, charred and fruity characteristics.

• Perseverance is a plus in the kitchen. 
• We should always be thinking of a Plan B, C or even D. 
• How can you utilize creativity to prevent waste?

These are key topics that I consider with every dish I make and every ingredient I buy and something I think all chefs and home cooks can benefit from.

Breakfast Bolognese

Bolognese is a beautiful thing. The quintessential ragú of meat and tomatoes where fat and acidity breaks down into a rich stew of balanced sweetness and umami flavors. Loaded with nostalgia as well, because I'm sure most of our mothers have made some form of pasta & meat sauce for us (tu mámi flavors?).

Most recipes for bolognese will call for ground beef and/or pork, but the beauty of this dish is that you can toss in whatever scraps or combination of meat you have. Leftover charcuterie, pancetta, sausage, ham, bacon, etc. My favorite combo is oxtail and bacon. This time around I used breakfast pork sausage, bacon and headcheese. Considering the breakfast flavors that are very specific to sausage and bacon, I thought about how I could further those flavors to complete a bolognese inspired by breakfast.

After the fat was rendered from the diced bacon and torn apart breakfast sausage & headcheese, I added diced onions and jalapeños until golden and really starting to come together. To that, I included garlic, bay leaf, cinnamon, star anise, soy sauce and some leftover red wine I had laying around (Charles Shaw Cabernet; only the best for me). Once the wine reduced and the brown bits were scraped up from the bottom I added peeled plum tomatoes and let that sucker simmer for about an hour and a half, once the tomatoes melted into the sauce and all the molecules mingled.  Added fresh cherry tomatoes and adjusted the seasoning with salt. Now it's time to assemble.

I paired the breakfast bolognese with french fry gnocchi and topped it off with an egg poached in coffee, soy sauce and maple syrup. Garnished with scallions, tarragon, basil and hush puppy breadcrumbs and black pepper.

The flavors of breakfast are definitely in there: egg, sausage, bacon, maple syrup, coffee and fried potatoes. I'm not looking to be overly conceptual with a novel idea, I just want to introduce familiar flavors to each other. Oh, and don't forget the runny egg yolk. That's almost as important as breakfast itself:

                          The Secret of the Ooze

Revisiting the Green Goddess

Green Goddess is one of those salad dressings invented 90+ years ago at an hotel restaurant, much like the Caesar and Thousand Island. Creamy, from the 1920's and maintaining a steady popularity throughout America. These condiments have often popped up in garish, dusty cookbooks and housewife club manuals; feeding U.S. bellies while quickly going out of style in the modern age due to its mayonnaise-laden heaviness (an undesirable feature for our "health-concious" population). I admit to dismissing the Green Goddess for a long time, but I've always loved how the term "green" can be open for interpretation. The Goddess was no exception.

Most recipes call for mayonnaise and sour cream, which are not staples in my pantry. I decided to substitute those ingredients for avocado and essentially considered what I had on hand that was also green.

• charred tomatillo
• avocado
• garlic
• anchovy
• lime juice
• carrot tops
• tarragon
• basil

This is what is pictured above. I threw all of these ingredients into the blender and adjusted it with salt, nutritional yeast, homemade pineapple vinegar, coconut oil and some coriander fruit I had drying out in the windowsill. Now I see the potential of this dated dressing. It is delicious on practically anything.

Chamomile Doughnut

made a yeasted doughnut and tossed it in a ground mix of dried chamomile flowers and white sugar.

it lends itself very well to apple, honey and almond flavors.

chamomile is subtle and complex all at the same time.

this makes for a great August/September doughnut, as summer bleeds into autumn.

milky beverages of any temperature will pair just fine.

Okra Leaf

okra leaf

warm ham vinaigrette

crisp garlic

Okra leaves offer the taste and texture of okra, though less assertive. I love how leaves, tops and flowers can bring a preview of it's attached vegetable; like nature's coming attractions or samples for a curious predator. What's fascinating about okra leaves is the texture. It has a hint of the sliminess of okra, providing this unique consistency unfamiliar to most leafy greens. There's a chew. It also lends itself very well to stews and quick sautés, bringing an organic creaminess from the subtle slime. If you like the taste of okra but find it's inherent ooze to be off-putting, then you should start with it's leaves and eventually work your way down.

Salmon Skin No. 2

salmon skin

tofu crema with habanero and capelin roe

carrot tops & watercress stems dressed in pineapple vinegar