Comfort

Smoked Vegetable Broth

Pearl Barley [Soft & Crispy]

Grilled Zucchini

Wilted Swiss Chard

Grape Tomatoes

Radish

Thai Basil Flowers

How is comfort defined in terms of cuisine?

Everyone seeks comfort in different flavors, preparations and ingredients; often tied to ethnicity and upbringing.

Cue the grandmother laboring over the stovetop ladling spoonfuls of hearty such and such in the dead white of a suburban winter or the third floor of a Queens apartment building or the back porch of a Bible-Belt Brownstone. At least that's what marketing has taught us. Comfort Food™: The opposite of molecular, complex cooking. Nostalgia via rusticity and down-to-earth soulful food made with love. Not that stuffy high-end, white tablecloth fine dining.

Unless you're pumping out corn chips for Nabisco, all food should be made with love. It can be complex and comforting all the same. It seems as there is a disconnect created when we apply terms to food (farm-to-table, molecular gastronomy, fusion, etc.). As much as we feel like it helps us understand it more by giving it a definition, it can create false and unnecessary expectations.

If you care about what you're serving, it should be made with fresh ingredients of great quality hopefully from a farm or local market. Therefore, 'farm-to-table' is unnecessary. If you employ new technology in your kitchen because you want the food to taste better or be economically more efficient, should you be stamped with such a bludgeoning term as 'molecular gastronomy'? We're wasting our time trying to pigeon-hole the food we eat and should keep our mouths shut until we taste it.

It's one thing for the consumer ('foodie' [ouch]) to use these terms to fulfill their need to genre-fy everything, but when the restaurants and businesses start masturbating these terms as an attractive point of sale, I really start to turn red with anger. Whenever I see 'Molecular Cocktails' advertised as such because they learned how to make caviar out of anything and put it in everything, my brain begins to vomit.

But I'm not bitter...

We should be thankful for the amount of knowledge we have access to nowadays. It should be utilized towards the greater good of being progressive, not reducing the food we love (or hate) to terms that, in the end, really don't mean much.

Here, I made a broth by juicing vegetables and then simmering the juice in garlic, peppercorns, coriander, salt and the same vegetables: grilled. After letting it marinate overnight, I then strained and smoked the broth with cherrywood using the Smoking Gun. The pearl barley was cooked simply in water and once dried, I deep fried a few grains till they puffed up and got crispy. The tomato and radish are raw. The zucchini is grilled and diced. The swiss chard is wilted in chicken schmaltz and charred lemon.

Many techniques, complex and simple, were used to achieve a comforting restaurant-level dish that is still made with great care.

Huancaina

A Peruvian staple, Huancaina is one of my favorite sauces. Typically served cold with potatoes, olives and a hard boiled egg it is absolutely addictive and redefines what a potato salad could be with great simplicity. The sauce is typically made with:

aji amarillo

queso fresco

evaporated milk

soda crackers

garlic

Everything is blended together to make a sauce worthy of putting atop almost anything. My variation involves toasting the soda crackers and steeping it in warm fresh milk, straining it and using that instead of evaporated milk. I also roast the garlic and add cumin and turmeric to the final blend. I'll often loosen the sauce with coconut milk before serving.

Besides laying over cold potatoes, I love tossing it with pasta or having it on the side with breakfast. Oh, and it makes for a killer eggs benedict! (replacing the Hollandaise) [By the way, I never use the word 'killer'. Here it felt appropriate]. An easy and delicious sauce that I think everyone should have in their fridge at all times.

Baked Beans Natto

natto in the style of baked beans

Midnight Goat

A mix of goat leg & shoulder braised in:

Guinness Draught

coffee

beef stock

onions

brown sugar

Vietnamese cinnamon

cloves

star anise

worcestershire

Angostura bitters

homemade garam masala

I decided to split up the goat into two vessels for comparative braising.

One half in a traditional stovetop braise, no lid on lowest heat possible.

The other half in a Crock-Pot, with lid.

Yes, a Crock-Pot.

A friend of mine, Joanna, gave me one that she wasn't using recently and though they have always reminded me of the clichéd housewife with a deranged Stepford smile simmering beef and starches for her chauvinistic and complacent husband, I've realized that I too was fooled by an initial demographic.

In the end, a Crock-Pot is a stoneware pot in a controlled temperature environment. Not quite sous-vide, but if you apply similar practices why wouldn't the result be close? The key here is to not simply throw all your ingredients together and plug it in. There's some important prep work involved (browning of meat, caramelization of onions + sugar and deglazing). After these steps, you combine everything else. I started prepping around midnight, had everything simmering by 12:30am, leaving me to go to bed and wake up at 8am to some successful goat.

The stovetop braise ended up losing all of it's liquid and a drier result of meat, thought It had more intense flavor.

The Crock-Pot braise yielded a much more tender cut still swimming in delicious goat broth, though the flavor was not as pronounced as the stovetop braise.

What's more important? Texture or flavor? In this scenario I favor texture. Flavor can always be added and improved upon (i'll probably reduce remaining liquid and adjust seasonings from there), but once meat has dried out, it's a lot harder to come back from that.

Though there are many kitchen gadgets that are cringeworthy and seemingly useless, we should also be as open minded as possible to try everything and see if it can actually be useful for you, whether or not it was advertised or intended that way. Rice cookers, egg separators, microwaves; these all have their place in a home or a fine dining kitchen. Certain methods by hand and labor are linked to tradition and stubbornness, set your machismo aside and make it easy on yourself.

Smoked Tuna Melt

Very often time and money collectively become almost impossible to obtain. In these cases, you may make unhealthy decisions out of desperation. However, there is usually a way to turn your decisions into something worthy of your limited time and money. Case in point: canned tuna. As a child, I hated canned tuna. I didn't understand why cat food was so appealing to everyone. Tuna melts and salad sandwiches adorned the lunch boxes of my peers. But lately I find myself craving the canned stuff, so in a fit of reverse nostalgia and frugality, I bought some. I used a Smoking Gun to make that fish meat more worthy, mixed with Colman's mustard aioli and served on whole wheat with charred muenster, tomato, pickled fennel and cilantro. I no longer think I can have canned tuna without smoking it first.

Accidental Ham

I was cutting away at a picnic shoulder to make cubes for pork stew leaving behind a healthy amount of meat on the bone, almost purposely. I say almost, because I knew I wanted to do something with the bone meat, but was unsure though I wanted it to be in the realm of bo ssam or pulled pork. I coated the rest of the meat in salt and brown sugar (didn't even weigh it out) and set it aside hoping to just roast it or something the next day. The next day turned out to be the next 2.5 days and after I brushed and drained off the excess salt/sugar cure I popped it in the oven first thing in the morning at 225ºF. Almost a couple hours later, when I remembered the hunk of pig flesh roasting away, I raised the temp to 300ºF and then finished it to broil at 450ºF. Let it cool a lil', then knifed a sliver to make sure it was decent enough to add to something. After the first bite, I thought to myself "This is fucking ham!". After the feeling of foolishness settled in I said to myself "Of course this is fucking ham..." and my usual process of conception worked its way backwards.

Though chefs are often meticulous and methodical, they are just the same spontaneous and advocates of the willy-nilly. The latter is one way that chefs themselves continue to be excited by food, even if it's an obvious moment or a moment of unexpected discovery. Many a happy accident has gone on to be essential and often iconic in the world of food and the way we perceive it.

The Shape of Things to Come

Julienne. Oblique. Chiffonnade. Fine Dice.

These are some examples of predetermined shapes applied to mostly vegetables in the world of fine dining. Usually for the sake of presentation, they are designed to be visually striking by way of uniform precision. Sort of like....military art. Ok, that's a bit harsh. I do love the squares, stems, isosceles, spheres and rotundas immaculately displayed on white plates of similar shapes; but as the world of cuisine moves forward, we're always looking for game changers. What is plating like nowadays? How will it change? There are those like Grant Achatz, Heston Blumenthal & Massimo Bottura who have always taken a closer look at the vessel as presentation and how it effects the way we dine. But I am most in admiration of those who are experimenting with the way the food itself is displayed like John Shields & Karen Urie, Magnus Nilsson & Andoni Aduriz. They create the largest sense of wonderment as you probably don't know what you're about to eat from just looking.

As I was peeling some newly roasted beets, I was thinking of the best way to cut and display these purple bulbs. I randomly went to them with my knife creating whatever shapes were being allowed with swiftness and a carefree nature. In the end, I was just making a salad, but the erratic knife work made for a more interesting plate than perfect slices or cubes. Almost as if nature intended it.

This is why I prefer this over this

Dishes of the Year: 2011

This is not something I normally do, but I've come across some great food this past year and decided to compile a list of my favorites. Now, some of these I've had since before this year and they were so good they conquered this year's list as well.

Here it is:

Koji-Pickled Horse Mackerel

NAOE

[Sunny Isles, FL]

Chef: Kevin Cory

Utilizing the bacteria used to create miso, soy sauce and sake for the pickling of an already stellar ingredient such as horse mackerel, koji (also known as aspergillus oryzae) made for a great agent in flavoring and inspired me to no end. This was a part of Kevin's 13 course omakase offering from one of the best , if not the best, Japanese restaurants in Miami.

Pork Belly. Butterscotch. Bok Choy. Kabocha. Corn Powder.

Pubbelly

[Miami Beach, FL]

Chefs: Jose Mendin & Sergio Navarro

This was the first dish I tried on my first visit to Pubbelly around the first month that they opened. Was absolutely blown away by the tenderness and great marrying of butterscotch and pig. A welcome kabocha purée and bright bok choy to soak it all up.

BBQ Shrimp

Redlight

[Miami, FL]

Chef: Kris Wessel

An undeniable classic. A definitive signature of Kris Wessel's amalgam of New Orleans and Southern Florida cuisine. Served with a side of bread to soak up the Worcestire-laden sauce that is absolutely addictive.

Diver Scallops. Pickled Plum. Sea Beans. Lardo.

Roberta's

[Brooklyn, NY]

Chef: Carlo Mirarchi

Though I was squeezed into a cramped corner of the bar in this hipsterful establishment last minute, I knew I was in for something spectacular. The standout dish of the evening was this lovely plate of perfect diver scallops. What most impressed me was the genius pairing of sweet and acidic freshness from the pickled plum, salted fat in the form of thin lardo strips and a rounded and snappy salinity from the sea beans. It all made so much sense.

Sticky Pork Belly. Cream Soda. Crunchy Turnip. Charred Scallions.

Ideas in Food Cobaya

[Miami, FL]

Chef: Alex Talbot

What most made me happy about this dish was the fact that I could actually taste the cream soda flavor in the pork belly. The crunchy turnip representing a preserved turnip without the overwhelming salinity. Charred scallions are always delicious. A great pairing overall.

Soft Shell Crab

Fatty Crab's

[NYC]

Chef: Zak Pelaccio

Seasoned and fried to perfection. Don't remember what it was served with but I know it was successful. Washed it down with a barrel-aged cocktail.

50/50 Burger

Norman Bros. Produce

[Miami, FL]

Best burger I've had to date. 50/50 means the beef is ground with 50% bacon. Served with avocado, a delicious sauce and all the other fixin's. Only available on Friday's. Worth the trip down south.

Smoked Brisket

ChowDown Grill

[Surfside, FL]

Chef: Joshua Marcus

I don't stop craving this perfectly smoked cut of beef. Served with spicy pickles (usually cauliflower and brussels sprouts). It's been on Chow Down's specials board for a while now. Good thing I'm in walking distance.

Staff Meal

Pan-fried Marlin

Buttered Kohlrabi-Honeydew Mash

Sumac BBQ Pulled Pork

Kohlrabi Greens

Jalapeño Vinegar

The idea of the staff meal has always intrigued me.

The dichotomy of chefs creating high-end, well crafted and beautiful dishes every night sitting down to take a quick break enjoying homely rustic practically leftover fare.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It may even ground a chef, digging deep into a soulful bowl of top quality ingredients almost as if your grandmother started a catering company. Bulking up to have the energy to continue service through the rest of the night.

Clearly, I don't have a staff of any kind but I utilize this same application to my everyday meals. Through experimentation, I usually yield enough for one or two dishes. There is a lot of leftover product and makes for an easily composed dinner or a more interesting breakfast.

Here I topped some marlin steaks with the leftover sumac BBQ pulled pork that i made plenty of sandwiches with, stuffed into squid bodies and used to garnish fried eggs.

The kohlrabi-honeydew mash plays off the flavors of the honeydew-pickled broccoli from previous posts and the classic application of buttered broccoli (the stems begin my favorite part, which I find kohlrabi to essentially taste like one giant broccoli stem with cabbage tendencies)

The wilted kohlrabi greens were a last minute given, enhanced with a touch of jalapeño vinegar. Ideally, I would prefer to braise the greens in a ham hock broth to compliment to the southern BBQ flavors.

Overall made for a very satisfying lunch.

Sumac BBQ Pulled Pork

Dry rub of sumac, paprika, brown sugar, cinnamon, cumin, ground mustard, ginger, pepper & salt.

Oven roasted pork ribs for 200ºF for 4 hours, then dropped to 175ºF for 3 more hours.

Pulled by hand.

Pressure cooked fatty rib trimmings in ginger ale, ketchup, onion & water for 1 hour.

Reduced pressure cooked stock with garlic, thyme, jalapeño, worchestire, aji amarillo & dijon.

Folded in pulled pork.

Thanks to Harold McGee & Ideas in Food for the researched influence and tips.