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62degreeEgg-2

62 degrees

by on September 12, 2011 in Accents, Main

A couple of weeks ago at Baumé Restaurant we installed a new Menu box that is located to the left of the entrance door. In that box we display the tasting menu options and the list of ingredients being currently used, a list that changes constantly with the farmer’s market’s offerings. If you read the list, you might be surprised to see a 62-degree egg. Why 62 degrees? Is it a cold or a warm dish? Which temperature scale are we talking about? Those are the questions that most of our clients ask, and that I am past due answering in this blog.

62 degrees (Celsius) is known as the temperature at which the egg white is cooked. The egg yolk does not start the cooking process until it reaches 68 degrees. So, by cooking the egg at 62 degrees, we keep the egg yolk liquid, nice and warm, and cook the egg white to a creamy, soft texture that melts in your mouth.

If you think that this recipe is only available to us thanks to modern cuisine and the tinkering of  foodies/chemists, you may be surprised to learn that this cooking technique has been used for more 1500 years in Japan and is called “onsen tamago”. Onsen tamago are eggs, slow cooked in hot springs, that were and still are served with local condiments. Sometimes natural resources are a great source for cooking inspiration!

We use the silky and smooth egg as a base for multiple variations such as an artichoke cream and prosciutto, ratatouille, etc. Bon appétit!

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Ratatouille-1

Ratatouille

by on September 1, 2011 in Main, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

I am sure you have heard of this traditional dish from Provence at least once. You might have found it on the menu of a French restaurant here in the Bay Area, tried it during a trip to South East France, or just seen it on screen – even prepared by a mouse!

Ratatouille comes from Nice -the full name of the dish is “Ratatouille Niçoise”.  It is an Occitan dish and is traditionally prepared with eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes. The vegetables are combined either at the end or the beginning of the recipe as its name lets us predict – tatouiller in old French means toss together. Now, there is still a debate as to which vegetables are included in the traditional recipe and how to combine them. Some add bell pepper, some others are even more daring with carrots or even mushrooms. Some dice the vegetables, others cut them in thin slices. As for the cooking process, there is still a fiery debate between advocates of separate cooking of each vegetable then mixing and those who like cooking all the vegetables at once. Even the cooking method (pan frying, baking etc.) is left to individual interpretation.

My personal preference goes to simplicity. In all the different versions we favor at Baumé, I limit the number of ingredients to the most traditional ones and play with cooking techniques. In the one seen below, I only use tomatoes, zucchinis and eggplants, and I complement the charbroiled baby vegetables with a candied tomatoes sauce.

At home, using a flameproof casserole,  you can pan fry (separately) coarsely chopped onions, eggplants, zucchinis then toss them together with herbs and add peeled tomatoes as in the recipe below :

Ingredients :

1 large yellow onion

3 mediumItalian eggplants

4 medium green zucchinis

2 medium yellow zucchini squash

2 bell peppers

6 medium sized tomatoes (peeled)

1 tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley

4 sprigs of fresh thyme,

4 garlic cloves (chopped)

4 bay leaves

olive oil, salt pepper.

Steps :

1. Slice the onion,

2. Chop the rest of the vegetables into 1/2 inch dice.

3. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a flameproof casserole over medium heat and start with frying the onions with the garlic. Stir them for about 5 minutes then remove them from the casserole and reserve.

4. Repeat the same process with the eggplants, the zucchinis and the bell pepper.

5. Toss all the vegetables together, then add the tomatoes, thyme, bay leaves, salt pepper and let them simmer for 45 minutes to one hour.

This recipe can be reheated a few times, it gets better and better each time. Enjoy!

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DuckPeach-2

Canard à l’Abricot

by on August 23, 2011 in Main

You are probably familiar with the traditional French dish : Canard à l’Orange (roast duck with orange sauce). I have experienced with several versions of this culinary landmark before settling on something more light and versatile than the original recipe.
The traditional Canard à l’Orange is a complex combination of roasted duck, a tangy duck stock and orange peel reduction (in other words, sauce) and the fruit itself. The duck stock is prepared with duck giblets, neck and wing ends, carrots, onions, a beef broth and other condiments. Then, it is mixed with a sweet and sour vinegar reduction. The result is a tangy, meaty sauce, that complements the roasted—almost caramelized—duck very well.
True enough, I enjoy going back to my roots, and exploring the traditional ways of cooking with a brand new approach. In fact, my main interest in cuisine is to use innovative techniques to improve a recipe, enhancing the taste of its various components and/or making a lighter, healthier version of  it.
That is why the Canard a l’Orange has become, at Baumé, Canard à l’Abricot (roast duck with apricots) or Canard à la Pêche (roast duck with peach), for those fruits are now in season and also bring a tangy flavor to the duck meat. I like to replace the duck and orange sauce with an aged balsamic vinegar espuma that perfectly weaves sweet and sour notes into this dish without adding any heaviness to it.

Although I like to go back to my roots and re-study the traditional ways of cooking, my main interest in cuisine is to use new techniques to improve a recipe, to enhance the taste of its different components and/or make a lighter, healthier version of  it.

That is why the Canard a l’Orange has become a Canard à l’Abricot (roast duck with apricots) or Canard à la Pêche (roast duck with peach) for those fruits are now in season and also bring a tangy flavor to the duck meat. I like to replace the duck and orange sauce with an aged balsamic vinegar espuma that perfectly weaves sweet and sour notes into this dish without adding any heaviness to it.

At home, you can use a few drops of aged balsamic vinegar (I highly recommend at least 25 years aged vinegar of Modena) and it will do the trick.

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PannaCotta-3

Vanilla

by on August 16, 2011 in Dessert

Did you know that vanilla beans come from an aromatic orchid? They are found around the world in tropical places like Madagascar (main world producer), Comoros and Reunion Islands, Uganda, Indonesia, India, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, and Veracruz, Mexico.

In France, Bourbon Vanilla is most commonly found. Its name refers to its place of origin, ‘Ile de Bourbon’, as Reunion, the tropical island east of Madagascar, was known until 1793. Reunion has been a vanilla-producing ground since the very early 1800s, when the French brought vanilla cuttings from Mexico, and planted them in the King’s garden in the capital Saint-Denis.

Here in California, we work with the Bacstrom Import Company because of their careful selection of beans, their passion for spices and the multiple choices they offer in terms of beans origins. Vanilla being such a wonderfully versatile spice, it is nice to be able to choose between the different textures (more or less moist, thick or fine) and flavor strengths offered by different varieties. Tahitian beans are very moist, thick, “oily” an flavorful. Madagascar’s are oily and large, with a very high vanillin content that gives them a strong and unique flavor. I encourage you to try them in your own culinary experiences.

This panna cotta recipe will allow you to play with various vanilla beans, and enjoy their differences :

You need (serves 4) :
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup coconut milk
2 g agar agar
1/3 cup +1/2 tbsp sugar
1 vanilla bean.
Steps :
Let the agar agar soak in water for one hour.
Mix the cream, coconut milk, sugar and vanilla seeds and bring to boil. Turn off the heat then add the agar agar. Boil until dissolved.
Pour the cream in small glasses and let it cool for about 30 min.
Refrigerate for one hour then serve.
Can be served with fresh mangoes, pureed mangoes or  a berry coulis.

At Baumé we serve a panna cotta with strawberries, almonds, a thyme coulis and a vanilla mousse. Like the recipe above, our recipe uses agar agar instead of gelatin. I prefer it for a couple reasons. One is because it stays solid at a much higher temperature than gelatin. That way we maintain the preparation’s quality during warmer weather. The second reason is that agar agar is derived from algae -or seaweed – whereas gelatin comes from the collagen inside animals’ skin and bones.  With agar agar, our dessert remains a vegetarian dish.

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RaspberrySorbet-1

A simple recipe for a raspberry sorbet

by on August 8, 2011 in Dessert

Today, I wanted to share a very quick and easy way to prepare a delicious and refreshing dessert : raspberry sorbet. Few fruits prompt as much childhood nostalgia as raspberries, so it is crucial to preserve the raspberry taste as much as possible. At Baumé, we even enhance that taste with a frozen raspberry explosion.

At home, you only need a couple of ingredients and tools : fresh raspberries, lime , sugar,  a sieve and a ice-cream maker.

Ingredients :

- 2 lbs raspberries

- 1 1/4 cup sugar

- zest of 1 lime

Steps :

1- Grate the lime’s zest and mix with the sugar

2 – Carefully select and wash the raspberries

3- Place a sieve over a large bowl. Mash the raspberries and pass them through the sieve. You should obtain a fresh raspberry coulis.

4- Mix the raspberry coulis with the lime flavored sugar until the sugar is fully disolved.

5- Pour into an ice-cream maker

30 minutes later the sorbet is ready. For a firmer sorbet, you can leave it in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours before serving.

Et voila!

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Baumétini-1web

“There is something about a Martini…”

by on July 30, 2011 in Cocktails

Martini. For French people it’s a Vermouth brand, a sweet cooked wine that is served chilled – sometimes with sparkling lemonade and lemon zest. The drink is very different from the classic American gin/vermouth mix and is usually served at home. You can imagine my surprise when, at my first position as a chef at le Chantilly in New York, I saw someone order a Martini at the restaurant and discovered it was hard liquor.

I must confess that the European version of the Martini is much more to my liking. It is smoother, more flavorful, and probably a much better introduction to a tasting menu. We serve two versions of the drink. They are called Baumétini and Razztini, served in a classic (US) martini glass, and prepared in the kitchen like the rest of our cocktails. One is flavored with passion fruit caviar, the other with raspberry sorbet. Instead of Vermouth, we use sparkling Sake, which inspired this cocktail because it is similar to the European Martini but more refined and subtle.

We recommend the Baumetini to start because the effervescence of the sake with the bursts of passion fruit caviar opens your palate to the food you are about to eat.

One last remark. I always try to imagine a drink in the midst of a tasting menu : how will it complement the dishes served before and after it? For instance, we recommend the Baumetini to start because the effervescence of the sake with the bursts of passion fruit caviar opens your palate to the food you are about to eat.  But between seafood and a sorbet intermezzo I would recommend Lillet with orange because, full of bitters, it helps to remove the flavors of seafood from your palate and opens it up to the sweetness of the sorbet.

Cheers!

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Accents1

Accents

by on July 14, 2011 in Accents

I’ve been repeatedly referring to accents in past posts, and you may actually be wondering what that’s about.

Accents are subtle notes or personal touches that are present in almost every one of my recipes. They help reveal, nuance or enhance other flavors. They bring balance to textures, brighten ingredients, or give more depth to flavors. They can also please the eye. In other words, they are endless possibilities to perfect a recipe.

Are they easily recognizable on a plate? Although they’re a little more visible than spices and condiments, they are ingredients or preparations that, added in small quantities to the dish, reveal themselves mainly to the palate. They are usually prepared separately, sometimes ahead of time. They can be dried vegetables or fruits, seasoned bread crumbs, a personal version of aioli, etc.

To give you a better idea, let’s take a few examples. At Baumé’s, we use a tomato powder called “crutomat”. The taste of the powder is called “umami” popularly referred to as savoriness, and can be compared to concentrated vegetable broth. It adds tart, acidic and sweet flavors which reveal the meaty qualities of either fish or meat. It can also be added to other accents such as our “olive dirt”, a combination of several dry ingredients that we serve with our “dorade royale” (gilted seabream). Another example is the verbena aioli, a citrusy version of the classic garlic mayonnaise that counterbalances the sweetness and crispiness of the summer vegetables with astringent flavors, in a creamy base. And the creamy texture of our 62-degree egg is enhanced by breadcrumbs seasoned with garlic (among other ingredients).

These are just recent examples that vary almost on a daily basis. Accents are to a cook what new notes are to a composer’s music sheet. They’re a noticeable part of the whole although they represent a very small portion of it.

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SaladedEte

Growing your own fancy ingredients

by on July 5, 2011 in Appetizer

Exploring a farmers’ market’s summer offerings is a great way to court the wonder of the delightful variety and beauty of the fruit and vegetable kingdom. In some cases, you might be also surprised by the price tags. Cucumber flowers, zucchini flowers and lavender are among those ingredients that one might relish on a plate but is not ready to spend the extra dollars on.

Why not consider, then, a cheaper and more environmentally conscious path to procure them: growing them yourself. By the way, there is no need for a fancy large garden to do so (I am referring here to family-size crops, not restaurant ones, of course). A deck, a few half barrels, a bag or two of organic soil and a few seeds will do the trick.

Aromatic herbs, lavender, zucchinis, tomatoes, pepper, peas, beans, even artichokes are among those delicious ingredients that are usually easy to find in nurseries and can be bought either as seeds or as small plants. The herbs are more fresh and fragrant, the fruits and vegetables can be harvested as flowers or fully grown, and you can teach your children where your food comes from and how to grow it. To top it all, you can even grow plants that aren’t easily found in stores such as citrus verbena, edible lavender and edible flowers.

In my Salade d’Été (Summer Salad), I am using baby summer vegetables, a cucumber flower and verbena aioli. Come and try the difference that these pristine ingredients make in this fresh, flavorful, zesty dish.

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RadishSalt

A variation on red radish-butter-fleur de sel

by on June 27, 2011 in Appetizer, Seafood

Two leitmotivs in my cooking process are thoughtfulness and zen. A recent illustration of this approach is a variation on the traditional French small bite : radis beurre et fleur de sel (red radish with butter and fleur de sel).

Red radish? Too mundane, might you think. You have a point, given that the root was fed to the laborers working on the Egyptian pyramids. But consider this: radishes contain about 42% as much vitamin C as fresh oranges, help improve your digestion and hold anti-cancerous properties. There are some stunning varieties boasting vivid red, purple, or fuchsia colors. The sheer sophistication of the root’s taste may also surprise you at times. Crunchy, juicy, with a peppery finish that sometimes reminds us of Dijon mustard. Not so bad for a small root!

Now, back to the radis-beurre-fleur de sel combination. It brings salty and smooth qualities to the tangy, peppery flavors of the vegetable. As such, it is a perfect, perfectly simple concept. Keeping that in mind, my variation replaces salt with caviar, butter with home-made customized crème fraîche, and adds some texture and flavor sparkles with a savory meringue and lemon pulp. Still simple, yet more colorful and tasty.

Oh, and did you know that radish greens can be used in a variety of dishes, including raw in blended drinks or in salads? They can also substitute for arugula.

Bon appétit!

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Tart-18web

Tarts and their crust

by on June 20, 2011 in Dessert

Tarts. As most of you probably know, tarts are baked desserts that consist of two elements: crust and filling.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to some of the many opportunities that a cook has to make a pie’s crust an interesting part of the play. It might seem a little challenging at first glance but with a little planning and cunning, your final result will surprise and delight you.

There are so many crusts to choose from. One could fancy a fluffy, buttery puff pastry dough for a crunchy base; a sugar dough to complement a tangy filling; a “pâte brisée” for sweet fillings; an arlette for a thin, crunchy, sweet base like in the tartelette below, etc.

The filling is the most important factor in choosing your crust. I can’t overstate how important it is to find a perfect match between both elements. Think in terms of balance of flavors, sweetness, complementary textures, visual aspects and accents.

The classic example is the tarte tatin. The lukewarm, soft, generously caramelized and lightly spiced plump apples are calling for a crunchy light crust. Using puff pastry dough will give a perfect contrast in textures, without adding too much sweetness to the already sweetened filling (the apples).

With regard to accents, a good example is our “Tarte Exotique”. We are using an “Arlette” (puff pastry dough, rolled with spices, then flattened in powdered sugar) in order to  add sweetness and crunch to the soft texture of the mango and lychees and the tangy flavors of the mango-citrus pearls. The filling is clearly the star of this tart, but the crust does not go unnoticed. A discreet but efficient smidgeon of spices allows us to perfectly tailor the flavor of the dough to our choice of fruits. Cardamom, freshly cracked pepper, cinnamon, are just a few examples of spices that can revamp a basic pie crust.

Also, be realistic about how much time you have at your disposal. For instance, puff pastry dough requires more wait time than a sugar dough or a “pâte brisée”, for the layers are the result of folding the dough and letting it sit in the fridge between each folding session. Generally, it is important to know that most doughs have to sit in the fridge for at least a couple of hours before you can roll them into a mold. Most can be prepared in advance and left in the freezer until needed.

Here is an easy recipe for a sugar dough that can be used with apricots, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and other tangy fruits.

Ingredients :

125 g butter

125 g sugar

250 g all purpose flour

1 egg

1 vanilla bean

1 pinch of salt

2 tbsp of glucose syrup (optional, yet adds elasticity to the dough)

a pinch of fresh cracked pepper

Steps :

Cut the butter into small pieces. Knead the flour with the butter. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean.

Make a hole in the center and add sugar, syrup, vanilla, salt and the whole egg.

Mix the ingredients without lingering until you obtain a homogeneous dough, then form a ball and let it cool in the fridge for 2 hours.

Then roll and transfer onto a tart mold. The crust is ready for the filling!

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