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July 18, 2004
for starters
Last night I cooked for some friends (a proper housewarming will take place when the Finns get back from holiday). I love cooking, but I'm a slow cook, and I enjoy it most when cooking for myself - no pressure, you can experiment, and you can take your time. Cooking is a flow activity for me, and normally I'm eating the dish as it gets made - just to check it's ok, of course.
I haven't cooked for others in a long while (years if you discount boyfriends); I hate trying to coordinate many courses, plus side dishes. Timing of veg is always a problem. However, I think I've discovered the secrets: pre-prep *everything* (I had little baggies and bowls containing every part of the dishes), don't cook more than one course (unless one can, say, put it in the oven and forget about completely), and don't make more than two courses (which tends to break down into 'buy dessert - professionals will always be able to do it better than you'). A stopclock is a great idea too; one that counts up works best for my mind.
I'm a big Nigel Slater fan - honest quick food using good ingredients, and I was going to do a simple pasta for starters, and turkey saltimbocca for main. However, I then worried that the starter in particular would be a bit oily, especially with the sauce I was making.
Not my style of cooking, but very inspirational, is Heston Blumenthal and the molecular gastronomists. Cooking is a lot like interaction design: there's lots of science to understand (and all too often ignored), but it's an art. The molecular gastronomists are trying to revive the science of taste. The end results tend to be quite finicky, and certainly more restaurant food than home cooking. It plays a lot with unexpected contrasts, and using extremes to create a balance - this is similar to cocktails, which tend take a base, then sweeten, then sour.
The original starter was going to be pasta with a tomato and olive oil sauce (which I thought was by Nigel Slater originally, but I cannot find the recipe anywhere now). The thought popped into my head - what if I froze the sauce? The original plan was to have the contrast of hot hot pasta and cold cold sauce, but this would probably end up with lukewarm everything. So cold cooked pasta was decided upon.
There wasn't time to make an ice cream, but a granita is simple - freeze the liquid, forking occasionally.
From there, the idea bloomed. What other contrasts could be introduced? Pasta is quite bland and moist, so I tried to introduce a particular taste - salt, as this is distinct and quite different to the rest of the dish. A low-carb recipe I remembered for cheese crisps introduced crunch, and also makes for interesting presentation. Sweet and sour is provided by a standard chef trick, reduced balsamic vinegar. A little bit of extra presentation was small cubes of frozen tomato.
This was all very prissy for my style, but the main benefit was that it could all (had to be) cooked well before, and just plated at the last minute. It's also good to cook outside your safety zone once in a while.
So here's the recipe:
Penne pasta with tomato and olive oil granita
(the day before)
Granita:
small cup of olive oil (60ml? - more than you'd think is healthy)
6-8 tomatoes, quartered (remove stem)
a tiny spoon of sugar, especially if the tomatoes aren't too flavourful
a dash of Balsamic vinegar
salt - a little more than normal
pepper - probably quite a lot more than normal
Throw everything into a saucepan. Put over a medium heat (be careful the boiling sauce will burn and spatter everywhere if you use too high a heat). Cook for at least 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. The tomatoes should break down almost completely, apart from the skins.
Strain/sieve the liquid into a freezable container. Try to pass as much through the sieve with a fork.
The liquid should contain a thick tomato layer, with quite a lot of orange-coloured oil floating on top.
Put in freezer.
After half an hour, check the mixture, and mix as much as possible. Try to get the layers to mix.
Repeat every 20-30 mins until it is frozen. When frozen, keep forking the mixture every hour so that it forms small crystals - if there are any large lumps (> 1cm), break them with a fork.
After a few hours, if it seems to keep stable as crystals (and not freezing together in a lump), it's ready, and you can leave it in the freezer until plating.
Frozen tomato:
Cut a tomato into quarters, remove stem, and all seeds and jelly. Cut remaining tomato into 5mm cubes, put in a bowl and freeze.
(at least three hours before)
Pasta:
Boil water. Add salt. More than you do normally. You never put enough in. Add pasta (preferably, good quality hard durum penne - not fresh!); about 10-15 pieces per person. Start trying the pasta after about two-thirds the time they recommend. You want the pasta to be really quite firm and toothsome.
Drain, run under cold water to stop the pasta cooking. Put in a bowl, add a little very good olive oil, and quite a lot of good salt (Maldon or Fleur de Sel de Guerande). Mix thoroughly. Put in fridge.
(If I had a sous-chef, I'd get them to roll the oiled pasta in whole salt grains just before serving rather than adding now - this would give unexpected crunch and intense saltiness.)
Cheese crisp bowl:
Grate a block of Parmesan cheese (about 200g for 4) as fine as possible. Heat oven to 350°F, or gas mark 4. Line baking sheet with parchment, or use a non-stick baking sheet. Spoon grated parmesan into the tin, crating a circle about 15cm/5 inches in diameter. Put in oven, and cook for 6 minutes. The cheese will melt, become lacy, bubble, and gradually harden, especially at the edges. Remove from oven, let cool for just a second, and then remove from tray with pallet knife or suitable implement. If you want to turn the crisp into a bowl shape, manouvre the crisp onto an upturned bowl before it cools and hardens, and press down gingerly at the sides (be careful, hot cheese is HOTT!). It doesn't have to be a perfect bowl, just something to hold the pasta. Place onto kitchen towel to absorb some of the oil.
Repeat for as many crisps as you need.
Store somewhere cool and dry - not the fridge.
Balsamic reduction:
Take good (i.e. expensive) Balsamic vinegar. Put in a small saucepan, and heat slowly. It will start to boil, don't let it go too fast. When reduced, probably by about half, and seemingly slightly thickened, pour into a glass, or if you have one, a squeeze bottle (another chef trick). Refrigerate - it will get considerably thicker when cold. Note the saucepan will be covered in thick Balsamic goo that will not pour - scoop it up and enjoy it yourself!
(on the day)
To assemble -
Put cheese crisp bowl on plate, add a small amount of pasta, spoon over granita, pour a couple of small circles of Balsamic on top, and finish with a few cubes of frozen tomato.
No, I can't believe I did all that either. Seemed to go down well, though.
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