DiverXO: 9-6-11

So, I was in Spain the past couple weeks on a family vacation and our meal at DiverXO was by far the best meal we had the entire trip and one of the best meals I’ve had in my life.  For me, DiverXO ranks up there with Alinea and is as good as, if not better than, Avenues (under Curtis Duffy) and Ria.

We visited Madrid, Toledo, Seville, Cordoba, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Barcelona, and Montserrat.  The plan was to use the time in San Sebastian to eat at high end restaurants and save money by doing tapas everywhere else.  I wanted to make an exception for DiverXO if we could get a reservation there, though.  Located in Madrid, the Michelin 1-star DiverXO offers a unique blend of Asian and Spanish food with touches of modern gastronomy.

However, DiverXO was on vacation the month leading up to the trip, and I was unable to make a reservation before leaving for Spain.  I was a bit bummed, but it wasn’t a big deal considering we already had reservations for Mugaritz, Etxebarri, and Akelarre in the Basque Country.  On a whim, we called DiverXO on our last day in Madrid and somehow got a reservation.

Almost every bite I took at DiverXO had so much flavor.  Some flavors were familiar and distinctly rooted in Chinese traditions, while others were brand new and presumably rooted in Spanish traditions.  Even if one were completely ignorant of Asian and Spanish cuisine, there’s no denying that the food that David Munoz is putting out is really tasty.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the food due to DiverXO’s policy of not allowing photography.  My attempt at briefly describing each dish doesn’t do DiverXO justice, but it’s the only thing I can do.  I can’t stress enough how awesome this meal was and I’m really hoping they eventually obtain their second Michelin star soon because they really deserve it.

Edamame with Aji Amarillo Dipping Sauce – Presented to the table to snack on throughout the meal.  Aji amarillo is a chili pepper from Peru.  The sauce was sweet, tangy, and a little spicy.  I think there may have also been a little miso in the sauce too.  A nice way to wake up the palate.

Green Tea with Wildflowers, Raspberry – A hot cup of green tea with wildflowers and raspberry floating in the cup was poured in order to be paired with the amuse bouche (mejillones tigre).  The wildflowers were very aromatic.

Mejillones Tigre – Translates to “tiger mussels,”  a popular Spanish tapa that’s like a breaded and baked mussel.  DiverXO’s version consisted of mussels, rock fish roe, a creamy but light sauce, and breadcrumbs.

Kokotxas/Cocochas with Fried Duck Tongues, Avocado, Sichuan Peppercorn – Kokotxas are essentially fish jowls.  I believe the type of fish used was hake.  As tasty as kokotxas are, the fried duck tongues were the star of the dish.  They basically tasted like the best chicharon you’ve ever had and melted in your mouth.

Smoked Tuna Belly with Fried Egg Yolk Wonton, Garlic Aioli, Herbs – The fried egg yolk wonton doesn’t refer to a wonton whose wrapper is made from egg yolks.  It refers to a fried wonton that is filled with an amazingly runny egg yolk.  Distinctly Chinese in flavor, it reminded me of traditional Chinese steamed fish with scallion and cilantro.  There were a couple leaves of some fresh herb that tasted intensely of cooked scallion.  This dish was a highlight for me.

Shanghai Dumpling on Crispy Wafer with Langoustine, Mushroom, Broth – This was pretty much a deconstructed Shanghai soup dumpling.  The dumpling was attached to a thin and crunchy wafer.  I can say without hesitation that the dumpling was the best dumpling I’ve had in my life.  The pristine langoustine and tasty broth were icing on the cake.  I would’ve been completely happy with just the dumpling.  This dish tied for my favorite.

Trumpet Mushroom Bao with Cecina – This is the other dish that tied for my favorite.  The bao was the lightest, fluffiest, moistest, tastiest, and most awesome bao I’ve ever had.  It was also buttery and packed with umami from the mushroom filling.  The sweetness of the bao was offset by a thin slice of cecina (a salted and dried meat).  I had rehydrated cecina in tacos a few months prior, but this was my first time eating cecina in it’s pure form.  It was sort of like beef jerky.

Prawn Disks with Prawn Head Sauce, Mayo Foam, Yuzu, Salad – Essentially, Munoz takes raw prawn flesh and pounds it into super thin disks.  He then pours hot oil over the prawn disks to cook the flesh.  He then makes a sauce from the magical juices of the prawn heads.  This dish was packed with so much prawn flavor in the best way.

Peking-Style Pork Skin with Black Sesame Brioche, Hoisin, Cucumber – Yet another homerun.  Imagine what a 4-inch ruler/straightedge would look like.  Now imagine that ruler was made out of roasted pork skin.  How Munoz is able to get pork skin to be so perfectly crispy and crunchy yet at the same time so perfectly flat and rectangular boggled all of our minds.  The black sesame brioche, hoisin, and cucumber sat atop the skin.  Like the dumpling, the accoutrements were icing on the cake.  I would’ve been completely happy had I been served just the pork skin with no fixings.

Iberico Pork Lettuce Wrap with Adobo Dipping Sauce – Traditionally, Peking duck is served in multiple courses.  You’ll usually get the skin as a separate course in addition to options like soup with duck meat, simple roast duck, or minced duck in lettuce wraps to name a few.  The course following the pork skin at DiverXO stayed true to Chinese tradition.  This dish was a lot simpler than the others, but still tasted really good.  You don’t need to do much when you’re working with such a good product like Iberico pork.

Wok-Glazed Monkfish with Tamarind, Hoisin, White Asparagus – This dish has the least amount of punch, but it was still solid.  We were told that Munoz developed a technique to glaze fish in a wok such that it only took 2 minutes, which I guess is a lot faster than traditional techniques?

“Fatless” Ox Short Rib With Tamarind Foam, Nuts, Rice Paper Veil – The short ribs are cooked sous vide.  Then, the fat is separated from the lean.  The rice paper veil covers the now “fatless” short rib in order to provide the same mouthfeel as fat.  Really beefy and nicely cut by the tamarind foam.

Green Apple Sorbet with Celery Foam, Celery Fronds, Black Olive, Chocolate, White Chocolate – Celery and black olives don’t sound like they should work in a dessert, but they did somehow when combined with everything else.  I usually gag at the taste of raw celery, but this interesting combination made celery tolerable for me.  As a whole, it was like nothing I’d ever tasted before.

Ice Cream with Violet Cylinders, Violet Foam, Walnut, Sesame – I much preferred this dessert, and it happened to be one of my favorite desserts of all time.  We were told that violet confections are a traditional specialty of Madrid.  What I’m calling “cylinders” had a a cloud-like texture.  So smooth and pillowy.  I’m guessing they were made with kudzu because the only thing I’ve ever had with a similar texture were the “pillows” at Alinea.  The violet flavor really came through in the dish tasted similar to lavender.

Pate Chaud: Vietnamese Pork Pie

As challenging and fun making pate en croute sounds, I sadly didn’t have enough time this month to take a stab at it.  Thankfully, English pork pie was offered as an alternative for the September CharcutePalooza challenge.  I didn’t know what an English pork pie consisted of until I read the recipe in Charcuterie.  Once I read the recipe, though, I was completely familiar with it and realized that I’d been making pork pies for the past few years and eating them since childhood in the form of pate chaud.

Pate chaud is essentially the Vietnamese version of a pork pie.  Instead of Western seasonings, the pork is typically seasoned with fish sauce.  Depending on the cook, miscellaneous things like wood ear mushrooms may be added for a crunchy texture.  However, my grandma’s vegetarian version that I grew up on consisted of Morningstar Griller soy meat, mushrooms, peas, carrots, and Maggi (sort of like soy sauce) baked inside a handheld puff pastry shell.  The soy meat never bothered me because to this day I still prefer her version over any meat-based pate chaud I’ve ever tried.

My goal for this month’s challenge was to use the English pork pie recipe and technique in Charcuterie as a foundation and impart my grandma’s influence on it in order to make a respectable pork pate chaud.  Typically my grandma uses frozen peas, but I saw some nice snap peas at the market and had to use them.  Also, my grandma and I usually use premade frozen puff pastry dough, but making my own pastry dough from scratch this time was a good experience.

With the exception of a slightly soggy bottom (probably due to underestimating the amount of water released from the mushrooms) the pate chaud came out pretty good.  The pastry was understandably less flaky than the puff pastry that I’m used to, but it was flaky enough to hold its own.  One regret was not forming the pate chaud into its traditional handheld portions.  This would’ve made freezing and reheating portions much easier.

In all honesty, though, I still prefer my grandma’s vegetarian pate chaud.  There’s just something about the combination of soy meat, mushrooms, peas, carrots, and Maggi that I just love.

 

Pate Chaud Meat Filling

Mise En Place

1. 675 g pork, freshly ground
2. 100 g peas, diced
3. 100 g carrots, diced
4. 100 g shiitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
5. 5 g black pepper, freshly ground
6. 80 g mushroom-pork stock, reduced slightly more than normal and chilled
7. 40 g Maggi, European version with red top is preferable

Muscadines & Scuppernongs

(Reposting because the image links seemed broken)

Before a couple weeks ago, I had no clue what a muscadine (purple) or scuppernong (green) was and I’m still not sure what the correct pronunciations is for both words.  However, thanks to the always exciting Marketplace On Oakton, one thing I do know is that they’re both super awesome.  If you’ve ever had Kasugai Muscat Gummies, muscadine and scuppernong flesh tastes exactly like that.

Extremely sweet with an intense grape flavor, the sphere of flesh can be easily harvested from the thick and contrastingly tart skin.  Because the skin is so tart, I usually can only eat 75% of a serving with the skin on, saving the final 25% for flesh-only bites.

Since I never enjoy wasting things, I thought about making muscadine gummies and adding a touch of honey to nudge the overall flavor towards the sweet side rather than tart side.  I heated, blended, and reduced down a pot of muscadines, scuppernongs, honey, water, and agar.  After a few taste tests and further reducing until the mixture tasted like a grape explosion, I waited for the mixture to set.  However, that plan didn’t work out so well.

Although I used a 1% agar solution just as I did with the tempura headcheese, the mixture never solidified.  I’m not sure if I did something wrong or if something in the muscadines and scuppernongs somehow inhibited the agar from working its magic.  What’s one to do when life gives you a goopy grape mixture?  Freeze them into mini popsicles of course.

HEADCHEESE – parsley root, doenjang mustard, smoldering cinnamon

Having been exposed to headcheese at a young age through banh mi, I fortunately don’t have an aversion to it.  I also have no qualms about handling a pig’s head as I’ve cooked with it in the past.  Although I’ve used pig’s head for tamales, congee, and barbeque in the past, I’ve never made headcheese.  This month’s CharcutePalooza challenge provided a great excuse to finally make some.

For the headcheese challenge, I wanted to focus on texture because headcheese typically lacks in that department.  Placing some headcheese on top of a cracker didn’t sound very fun, so I thought about battering and deep frying pieces of headcheese.  However, I wanted to preserve the integrity of the gelatin in the headcheese and prevent it from melting in the fryer.  After all, where’s the fun in eating headcheese if it doesn’t have any gelatin?

The use of agar-agar came to mind as a way to keep the gelatin from melting under high heat.  My mom used to make jasmine-coconut agar jelly when I was young, so working with agar wasn’t too foreign to me.  The application of agar in a hot preparation, though, was a first.  I already knew agar-based gelatins held their gel state at room temperature, and a little research revealed that agar-based gelatins melt at 85 Celsius.  I decided to use agar threads as they’re readily available at most Asian grocers and 3 times cheaper than agar powder found online.

Since I received some negative responses about showing a pig’s head in previous head-related posts, I’ll spare readers the sight of the suckling pig’s head I bought from Marketplace Oakton.  I feel pretty spoiled having suckling pig’s head so readily available and for only $0.99/lb.  After poaching the head and separating the liquid, I added enough agar to bring the liquid to a 1% agar solution.  I’m not sure how apparent it is in the picture above, but I think I added too much liquid to the mold.

During my research into how much agar to use per unit of liquid, I stumbled upon Grant Achatz’s pheasant with burning oak leaves and sweet potato with smoldering cinnamon stick recipes.  I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to eat at Alinea a few times, so I was familiar with the “tempura on a skewer that serves as an aroma source” style of preparation.  It didn’t take long for me to realize that preparing the headcheese in a similar fashion would be interesting and fun.

When thinking about what to pair the headcheese with, I looked to classic combinations like pickles and mustard.  Initially, I wasn’t sure what I’d use for the pickle, but upon seeing fresh parsley root at Marketplace Oakton I knew I had to use it.  It was only natural to use the leaves in the poaching liquid and make a quick pickle out of the roots.

The previous week I worked with doenjang (a fermented soybean paste akin to miso) for the first time and made some doenjang jigae.  Being on somewhat of a doenjang binge and with mustard on my mind, I was reminded of my cousin’s miso salad dressing I had as a kid.  The miso salad dressing tasted like honey mustard, so I figured an agar-based doenjang mustard gel would work nicely.

A common element between the mustard, pickled parsley root, and headcheese was allspice.  Since allspice and cinnamon go hand in hand, the choice of a cinnamon stick skewer made sense.  The tempura batter specified by Achatz was super light and when fried provided a nice crispy texture.  Using a blowtorch, I set the top of the cinnamon stick ablaze to release its aroma.

To plate the bite, I used an old wire whisk (a great idea from Martin over at Alineaphile) to achieve some semblance of the original served at Alinea that comes nestled in the “squid” by Crucial Detail.  The squid is “designed to hold a delicate course in an upright position.  Six thin wires distribute weight evenly and allow air flow around the dish.”

Overall, the tempura headcheese was a success and a lot of fun to research and implement.  Deep frying headcheese and having the gelatin not melt tickled me pretty good.  I also achieved my goal of highlighting texture for this challenge.  The fried tempura batter provided crispiness and the pickled parsley root provided crunchiness.  Everything worked from a flavor standpoint as well.  The combination of headcheese, pickle, and mustard was immediately familiar, and the addition of doenjang added a sweet note to the bite.

I don’t know if I’ll be making these again any time soon due to the amount of time required, but I’m confident enough to try Achatz’s pheasant and sweet potato recipes now that I’m familiar with the general strategies.  I’m also walking away with a great tempura batter ratio.  Out of all the CharcutePalooza challenges thus far, this one has been my favorite as I’ve learned the most from it.

 

Doenjang Mustard Gel (adapted from here)

Mise En Place

1. 30 g yellow mustard seeds
2. 30 g brown mustard seeds
3. 60 g doenjang
4. 1 g white peppercorns
5. Pinch allspice
6. 70 g white wine
7. 70 g vinegar
8. 45 g shallot, minced
9. 3 g agar

Method

1. Combine all ingredients and refrigerate overnight
2. Transfer all ingredients to a saucepan or pot over high heat and bring to boil
3. Quickly transfer all ingredients to a blender and blend for ~2 minutes
4. Quickly transfer mixture into a small mold (must set to at least 3 mm thickness) and refrigerate until completely set, ~2 hours

HEADCHEESE – pickled parsley root, doenjang mustard, smoldering cinnamon (adapted from here)

Mise En Place

1. Headcheese, cut into a 2 cm cubes
2. Pickled parsley root, cut into 2 cm X 2 cm X 3 mm rectangular prisms
3. Doenjang mustard gel, cut into 2 cm X 2 cm X 3 mm rectangular prisms
4. Cinnamon stick, pared down thin enough on one end to skewer the ingredients
5. Flour for dredging
6. Tempura batter

Method

1. Skewer the pickled parsley root onto the cinnamon stick, followed by the doenjang mustard gel, and lastly the headcheese
2. Dredge the ingredients in flour and shake off any excess
3. Coat the ingredients in tempura batter and let any excess drip off
4. Holding onto one end of the cinnamon, dip ingredients in 190 Celsius oil until golden, ~2 minutes
5. Drain on paper towels and season with salt
6. Take a flame to one end of the cinnamon until smoldering

Homemade Ramen With Hot Dogs & Corn

Often times when my dad was too busy to cook a proper meal, he would make a bowl of Sapporo Ichiban instant ramen and fortified it with a hot dog and canned corn.  The corn my sound odd, but its sweetness goes well with the saltiness of the hot dog and instant ramen broth.  Once I became old enough to boil a pot of water and make instant ramen by myself, I carried on his tradition whenever I needed something to eat in a pinch.  Eventually, I’d come to add my own personal touch to instant ramen by using Mexicorn instead of plain canned corn.

With this month’s Charcutepalooza challenge being hot dogs, I was motivated to make one of the most treasured fast foods from my childhood completely from scratch.  Not only would I make the hot dogs from scratch, but the noodles, broth, and Mexicorn as well.

By now, grinding meat has become second nature.  However, emulsifying meat was new territory.  I was pretty paranoid when the meat was being blended in the food processor.  Fears of the emulsification breaking ran wild through my head as I’ve broken a mayonnaise once.  Thankfully the emulsification came together without a hitch.

I did have issues stuffing the hot dogs, though.  I lost the small plastic propeller from my sausage stuffer Kitchen Aid attachment which caused the meat to extrude unevenly.  Although I was successful in the end, stuffing was a bit harder this time around.  To smoke the hot dogs, I again used the method of starting the stovetop smoker on the stove for 10 minutes and then transferring it to the oven for about an hour until the hot dogs came to temperature.

The task of making the ramen noodles from scratch seemed ambitious at first, but once I got started I realized how easy it is to make a basic noodle (as long as you have a pasta roller and cutter).  Making the noodles simply amounted to mixing the dough in a stand mixer, portioning the dough, running the dough through a pasta roller, and running the dough through a pasta cutter.

One notable thing about the ramen noodles was the addition of xanthan gum.  Inspired by Tom’s modernist ravioli, I added 3 grams of xanthan gum to my 300 gram batch of flour.  True to his word, my noodles didn’t stick together at all even in the absence of a dusting of flour.

When I gulped down my first spoonful of soup and happily slurped the chewy noodles, I was taken back to my childhood.  I could picture myself sitting in the kitchen in Southern California filling my stomach with instant ramen packed with umami.  Only this time, the umami came from a broth consisting of homemade dashi and homemade pork stock rather than an MSG-laden packet of soup base.  Also, the smokiness of the bonito flakes in the dashi complimented the smokiness of the hot dog quite well.

Overall, the dish and challenge was a resounding success.  Not only did I get to relive a moment of my childhood, but I learned how to make an emulsified sausage, ramen noodles, and dashi (which I will be using a lot in the future) from scratch.

 

Ramen Noodles

Via norecipes.com (with an addition of 3 grams xanthan gum)

Ramen Broth

Via citrusandcandy.com

Mexicorn

Mise En Place

1. 250 g corn, cut from the cob
2. 130 g bell peppers, skinned and diced

Method

1. Melt a pad of butter in a pan over medium heat
2. Add corn and bell peppers to pan and saute for a few minutes
3. Salt to taste