Food/Drink
I had a chance to breakout my vacuum filtration setup again for a raspberry sauce I plan on using in a separate recipe. Took some time but created a very clean sauce. I taste tested and adjusting the acidity with citric acid and sugar to make a sauce that just pops.
Taking inspiration from one of the greatest TV shows and a sale at Costco I decided to try my hand a my own cactus juice.
A bit of a difficult task in retrospect, cactus fruit has very tough seeds and creates a very viscous pulp when blended. The process was fairly simple. the cactus pears were peeled and pureed. I then sent these through my vacuum filter to remove all of the pulp and to thin the liquid. This then allowed for a nice sipping juice that is great on ice.
Though unfortunately I don’t live in Sicily that won’t stop me from make traditional cannoli.
A bit of a laboured dish it provided a fun weekend challenge. The dough was made traditionally with Marsala wine so that it had plenty of bubbles during frying. I also added a bit of cocoa powder to add a different colour to the shells. The filling was made with drained and sweetened ricotta blended both with coconut and chocolate. Lastly the finished cannoli were coated with home toasted coconut shreds.
Lots of work but worth the effort and sat perfectly under our Christmas tree once completed.
A quick and easy classic rosemary focaccia is staple dish. Not much to note other than the fresh rosemary that add a perfect touch. Great on its own straight out of the oven or with some refreshing toppings.
Known as my “Feel Good Cookies” my hazelnut financier are exceedingly addictive. A combination of hazelnut flour and browned butter make this a supercharged nutty explosion. I coat the baking mould with butter and sugar to give it a “sugar glazed” finish. Overall a 10/10 recipe that always makes you feel good.
I found a reasonably priced cut of Bison and decided to give it a try. It was not the best quality and being that it was a round steak it was a bit tough. I decided to sous vide the steak to get the best process window and got pretty acceptable results. I didn’t notice much of a different flavor probably because it was ranch raised and went pretty well with roasted potatoes.
With a bit of 3D design iterations I was able to convert my manual hand cranked pasta roller into an automatic Kitchen Aid attachment. This was specifically made with Siraya Tech Blu-Tough Resin which is one of the best 3D printing resins for functional parts. I had to take a few measurements but this project ended up working quite well. One of the unforeseen challenges was once completed I was seeing some grinding between the plastics that was making it into the pasta. To solve this I took the easy way out and added some Teflon tape which was actually very effective at reducing wear.
Though modern cooking techniques have provided almost unimaginable amounts of control there is something primal about cooking over a campfire. Though a bit messy with the amount of left over soot it was effective at boiling water and general cooking.
Though traditionally made by slow cooking duck in its own fat to preserve it, the traditional method is a bit cumbersome at home. A simple workaround is using a sous vide and duck fat which allows you to replicate the process in a much controlled and easier way.
For this recipe I use a duck leg as they handle the process much better and then salt pepper and rosemary. There were all place in a vacume sealed alongs a couple table spoons of duckfat so that the duck leg was completely covered in it s own fat. This was then slow cooked for 12 hours and finished in the oven to get perfectly crispy skin. 10/10 classic dish.
I recently had this at a restaurant with asparagus as a side but felt that I might be able to do better with Brussels sprouts. Everything was done typically but the major bonus of this dish is drizzling the brazing liquid over the polenta and allowing it to soak it all up 10/10 dish.
