Side

Serve with a green tossed salad.

These onion rings are extra light and crispy because we carbonate the batter. If you don’t have a home carbonation system, you can substitute seltzer water and a tablespoon of freeze-dried coffee. Simple home carbonation systems run the gamut from about $60 for an iSi carbonator to several hundred dollars for a carbonation rig and CO2 tank. Once you start playing with one, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it. The tiny bit of xanthan gum in the recipe helps the batter stick to the onion slices and keeps it from separating. You can season the onion rings with salt and serve with ketchup, but we think you’ll find that the Beef Seasoning and smoked ketchup really take the flavor to the next level.

This recipe demonstrates the versatility of Activa YG in a dairy system, allowing us to make a delicate dumpling without conventional binders. We use the Activa at a ratio of 1 percent of the total weight of the ingredients. In the past we’ve paired these goat cheese dumplings with lobster. They would also be nice with a stew of mushrooms or spring vegetables, or as a warm accompaniment to a crisp salad with a simple vinaigrette.

We pursued the idea of using low-methoxyl pectin to create a fruit and vegetable adhesive that would allow us to create entirely edible terrines that were held together with an almost invisible but flavorful glue. This technique was the result of that exploration. First, we make fruit-flavored solutions with 0.5 percent calcium lactate or calcium gluconate. The choice of one over the other is based on taste. Calcium lactate is derived from lactose and has a slightly acidic taste. Calcium gluconate is derived from glucose and tastes slightly sweet. Calcium lactate has slightly more available calcium than calcium gluconate, although not enough to make a difference in most applications. You will sometimes find blended calcium under the label calcium lactate-gluconate. Then we impregnate the fruit with the calcium by vacuum sealing them together. It takes about five minutes for the calcium to be absorbed by the fruit, after which time we open the vacuum bag and pat the fruit dry. Next we dissolve 3 percent pectin in water at 203°F (95°C) to hydrate it, then let it cool. Once the pectin is cool, we brush it on one piece of the calcium-infused fruit and lay another piece on top. Then we vacuum seal the fruit to compress it together and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight. The following morning when we cut open the bag, we will find that the fruit has been sealed together with a pectin gel. The pectin gel is soft and seamless in the preparation. The resulting presentation is as beautiful as it is delicious. We enjoy the terrine sliced and served with seared scallops and crumbled blue cheese on hot days, and served warm with crispy soft-shell crabs on cool evenings. Even slicing and topping it with thinly shaved prosciutto is an elegant preparation.

Applesauce is a classic example of a delicious and down-home recipe that sometimes suffers from syneresis, or separation of liquid from the gel. In this recipe, we use crabapples for a slight twist on the original. We like them for their tartness and color; they make a beautiful pink sauce. You’ll find that crabapple sauce will make a striking counterpoint for a variety of dishes, both sweet and savory. The little bit of xanthan gum added at a ratio of 0.1 percent of the total weight of the other ingredients makes it almost perfect.

This is a fun and unusual way to serve celery root.

We like roasting in salt because it transfers heat and flavor beautifully. Here we’ve combined the salt with ginger and egg whites to form a crust around the whole beets. The roasting process sweetens and intensifies the flavor of the vegetables. The roasted beets peel easily and have a gentle, tender texture. Their surface layer will be well seasoned and the flavor of the ginger will have permeated their interior. Remember, almost any aromatics can be blended with the salt: lemongrass, cumin, star anise—the pantry is your palette.

The aroma of rosemary is reminiscent of a pine forest. We thought it would be fun to pair this herbal aromatic note with the juicy, sweet-tart flesh of the pineapple. The effect of the controlled bruising brightens and tenderizes the pineapple while preserving its bright flavor. This pairs nicely with a variety of sweet and savory preparations. We like it with white, meaty fish like snapper and flounder or with shrimp or calamari. The pineapple is also pretty darned good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Green beans and almonds are a classic combination. Here we’ve given it our own interpretation by pairing the blanched green beans with an almond-yogurt dressing. We like French feta for this because it tends to be sweeter and less salty than Greek or Bulgarian feta. This is a wonderful cold dish that travels well for picnics or meals on the go.

We like these artichokes both cold and hot. The green olive brine adds a wonderful flavor. Even better, it comes free in your jar of olives. Alternatively, olive brine is now sold as its own ingredient for mixing cocktails. The artichokes are great with potato gnocchi or on top of pizza. They can be sautéed in butter or lightly breaded and deep-fried. They are delicious wrapped in pieces of prosciutto or served as a salad with sliced tomatoes and a simple lemon vinaigrette. If you don’t want the flavor of lemon in your artichokes, you can add citric acid at a ratio of 0.5 percent to your water instead to prevent oxidation.

Butter is the direct result of churning. You can use an electric mixer, a bowl and a whisk, or even a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid (shaken vigorously for ten to fifteen minutes) to make butter. Our tool of choice is the food processor. It works quickly, is easy to control, and is easy to clean—all good things in our kitchen. Use the best cream you can get your hands on because the better your cream tastes, the more delicious your butter will be.

One of the benefits of finding a great container of yogurt is that you can save some of it to make more of your own batch. You can bump the action of natural yogurt cultures and increase the thickness of the finished product by adding powdered milk in the ratio of 1/3 cup (26.6 grams) powdered milk per quart (1,040 grams) of milk. Some cultured yogurt recipes call for the addition of gelatin, pectin, or carrageenan to thicken the finished yogurt. You can substitute powdered milk there as well, starting with 1 tablespoon (5 grams) per quart (1,040 grams) of milk and gradually increasing the ratio to reach a thickness you like. The yogurt will keep for up to two weeks in the refrigerator.

We love crème fraîche. Its slightly viscous, silky texture and sweet-and-sour flavor make it a staple in our kitchen. It probably goes without saying, but the better your cream, the better your crème fraîche.

Yet another favorite of ours, this appears on our table in various guises every few weeks. The evaporated milk may seem like an odd choice but it serves a purpose, helping to stabilize the sauce. Evaporated milk is manufactured by exposing fresh milk to high heat in order to evaporate up to 60 percent of its water content. The resulting milk is concentrated in both flavor and nutrients. It usually has added stabilizers in the form of disodium phosphate and carrageenan. Although it is marketed as a substitute for fresh milk, it has a noticeably caramelized flavor that works nicely in sauces and soups. It produces an incredibly creamy sauce without the use of heavy cream or eggs. We’d like to say that we pair this mac and cheese with a salad or a vegetable, but truthfully, we tend to just savor the pasta with a glass of rich red wine or deep red berry juice depending on our age at the table.

Homemade ricotta is nothing like the supermarket version. It is luxurious, with a sweet, rich flavor that will make you appreciate why this cheese is such an integral part of Italian cuisine. The addition of heavy cream gives it an amazing texture. This ricotta can easily hold center stage on a plate. We like to serve it alongside baked pastas, as a condiment of sorts, instead of inside them. Its sweet creamy flavor is a wonderful contrast to the intense flavors of lasagna or baked ziti. Sweetened with a touch of honey and spread on good toast, it is a wonderful pick-me-up for the mid afternoon slump. In cheesecakes, it is revelatory. Even better, it’s easy to make. A little bit of effort will net you something truly indulgent.

We decided to try cooking hard-boiled eggs at 158°F (70°C), hypothesizing that cooking them at slightly above their coagulation temperature would give us the best results. This did not work as we had planned because by the time the whites were fully set to our satisfaction, the yolks were overdone. We then cooked eggs at 167°F (75°C) and pulled them from the water at fifteen-minute intervals. At fifteen minutes the whites were just set, opaque yet without enough structure to hold them together. The yolk held together and was very pliable, resembling softened Play-Doh in texture. At thirty minutes the whites were firm enough to be peeled but still a bit soft for our taste. In cooking eggs at this temperature we found that even eggs cooked for as little as thirty minutes produced some hard-boiled-egg characteristics. Knowing this, we can produce a range of hard-boiled eggs with yolks at varying degrees of firmness, depending on the desired results.

This is an excellent technique for a dinner party or any occasion when you want to spend time with your guests instead of standing over the stove. The risotto will be firm and toothsome, but you can treat this as traditional risotto and finish it with a dollop of extra virgin olive oil or butter and some freshly grated cheese for added creaminess. It’s a nice change of pace served with sautéed chicken with a quick pan sauce of white wine and fresh herbs, crispy skate in brown butter with capers, or a garlicky stir-fry of seasonal vegetables.

We love the flavor of barbecue sauce. Here we’ve added the sauce to the pasta instead of the other way around. The pasta is simply tossed with butter, ready to be paired with sautéed jumbo shrimp, breaded pork chops, or sausage and peppers. These rigatoni could also be stuffed with raw shrimp sausage and then gently simmered in a blend of barbecue sauce, butter, and white wine to cook the pasta and the shrimp.