FOOD!

[Avantster]

You have LPQ too, Avantster? I like that place.

Totally, I first stumbled across LPQ while I was in Antwerp and had a really great lunch there. Arrived back to find there was actually one in Sydney! It's a little pricey but I like the rustic style of the food and it's perfect for lazy Sunday morning.

[Faust]

My sentiments exactly. We have about a dozen of them though.

[Chinorlz]

Arto, what is the name of the restaurant?

The component they mixed with the butter to powderize it is tapioca maltodextrin:

http://www.lepicerie.com/catalog/product_702700_Tapioca_Maltodextrin.html

it's pretty neat stuff. There's a lovely Alinea snack where they mix the maltodextrin with bacon fat to create a powder that you wrap in a sheet of pineapple reduction to form a tasty packet.

I'm a sucker for crazy intensive presentations like the ones you photographed. Microgreens, things in cubes and textures... pushes it to the limit!

[theetruscan]

I promised my friend's daughter that I'd bake for her birthday. So this saturday I made Nick Malgieri's supernatural brownies, David Liebovitz's cheesecake brownies (mine never look as good, but they taste damn good), and Jacques Torres's chocolate chip cookies.

I dunno, for the "best chocolate chip cookies ever" they seem like they still need a little something. I think oats. The texture needs improvement.

[ahlefeldt]

I'll take this and raise you

I'll take this and raise you

[Faust]

lol, what the fuck is this?!

[theetruscan]

Long overdue taco recipe, from Jeffrey Steingarten's - It Must've Been Something I ate. I wrote my own instructions (that's why they suck), but the ingredients are exact. I hope this is ok to post.

Guacamole
1 1/4 Haas avocado
1/2 small white onion cut into chunks
5 sprigs cilantro
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp water

Peel, pit, and mash avocado with potato masher. Puree onion, cilantro water in blender, pour over avocado. Mash all together until lumps left are smaller than grains of rice.


Salsa Ranchera
1/2 lb white onion, peeled
1/2 lb red tomatoes, unpelled, halfed
6 sprigs cilantro
1 tsp salt

Chop onion and tomatoes into regular cubes, about a quarter inch on a side. Chop cilantro finely. Combine all ingredients.


Salsa Roja
1/4 cup dried chiles de arbol
1 small tomato, trimmed, halved.
1/4 tsp salt

Remove stems of chiles, toast them in cast iron skillet over med-high stirring often. Stop before blackened. Discard seeds that fall out. Cut tomato in half, place in a small saucepan, cover with water bring to a boil, cook until it begins foaming. Blend chiles with tomato cooling water (just enough to cover). Add tomato and salt, puree until smooth (seeds will still not be smooth).


Tortillas
1 lb AP flour (3 cups about)
1 Tbsp salt (scant)
1/2 cup - 1 Tbsp lard
1 1/4 cup very warm water

Pour flour into into bowl, mix in salt. Roll lard in flour to coat. Break up with fingers (a few pieces), making sure they are coated with flour. Keep breaking up lard until they are between the size of coarse cornmeal and grains of rice. Mix in water, 1/3 at a time. gather dough and knead for 1-2 minutes.
Divide dough into 16 pieces, roll each in flour. Let rest for 10-15 minutes. Roll each piece into a 6" circle. cook on preheated cast iron pan/griddle over medium low heat. 2 minutes a side. If temp is correct, they'll puff after 1 minutes, brown slightly after 2 minutes.


Carne Asada
2 Flank steaks (2 lbs each)
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp black pepper (ground)
2 tsp salt
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, smashed

Slice both flank steaks in half so that they're half as thick as before (not sure which ways this is, but slice so that they're very thin, not shorter or narrower). Mix together everything else for marinade. Marinade right before grilling for 20-30 minutes. Brush off garlic when done, grill over very hot fire. Outside should char, but cook to only medium rare. When cooking split to < 1/4 inch on a side.

[Chinorlz]

mmm, thanks for the carne asada recipe!

I frowned upon seeing the water added to the guacamole recipe but I guess 1/4 cup isn't too bad...

[Faust]

Finishing up The Omnivore's Dilemma - I highly recommend it to anyone who takes food seriously (which should be pretty much everyone).

[theetruscan]

Finishing up The Omnivore's Dilemma - I highly recommend it to anyone who takes food seriously (which should be pretty much everyone).

A few other interesting reads in that vein are Food Matters and The End of Food. If you have read "Omnivore's Dilemma" and think about food, Pollan's "In Defense of Food" is completely skippable.

The reasoning for the water in guacamole is to thin it down as a component in the taco. It is not meant to be a guacamole that survives on its own.

[Chinorlz]

oh I know :) I hate it when they do that down here too haha

It's the thick creamy texture of guacamole that I love

[theetruscan]

fuck, you've just hit upon one of my biggest peeves in all of creation - the runny, watered-down tacomole. there ought to be a law against that shit, seriously.

In general, I agree. In this case, I fell in love despite reservations.

[ahlefeldt]

lol, what the fuck is this?!

Ak-47 made entirely out of bacon.

[Faust]

Yes, I understand that part - it was more of the question of why the fuck is this?

[Faust]

Michael Pollan at Google. Very interesting.