Vermont Maple Cheesecake, West View style

(you probably don't get this unless you have a small child but this is from a cartoon and the character is named Cheese.)

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cheesecake (our photo is coming)



We have had a lot of requests for this recipe in the last few weeks. I typically don't mind giving out recipes but scaling it for home use often presents problems. So if this doesn't come out right my math either stinks or I left a key ingredient out (only kidding on the latter). We make these in single serving sizes but making a single large one should be okay as long as the cooking time is adjusted. If anyone makes a big one, let me know.



Vermont Maple Cheesecake
Yield: 10-12 in 4 ounce ramekins

2 cups medium amber maple syrup
½ cup heavy cream

Simmer and reduce by half. Cool to room temperature.

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
454 grams mascarpone

Whip cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add eggs until combined. Scrape sides and whip until smooth. Add vanilla and mascarpone, beat until smooth. Do not over beat mascarpone will break. Add ½ cup of maple syrup/heavy cream reduction and beat until combined.
Butter and sugar molds. Bake at 325 in a hot water bath, covered. Bake for 25 minutes and remove cover to allow steam to dissipate. Recover and bake for an additional 25 minutes. Cheesecake should be slightly “jiggly” in the center when finished. Chill uncovered in refrigerator. Cover when completely cooled


Maple Pecan Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cups (4 ½ ounces) pecans, coarsely chopped

1. In a medium bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Gradually beat in the sugar until well blended.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with the maple syrup and vanilla. Drizzle the egg-yolk mixture into the butter, beating at low speed until incorporated.
3. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour and pecans. Divide the dough in half and shape into 2 disks. Wrap each disk in plastic and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or overnight. Let the dough stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before rolling it out.
4. Preheat the oven to 325° F. Roll out each disk of dough ¼ inch thick between 2 sheets of wax paper. Cut the dough into 2 ½ inch rounds and transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden (the tiny cookies we use only take 5 minutes in a convection oven).

Funny, while I am posting this How It's Made (a program on Discovery) is showing how production cheesecakes are made. Coincidence or ???.

It takes an expert village to make a tai chi video.

This weekend I was fortunate enough to work with Rich Marantz on his project to create tai chi instructional videos for expertvillage.com. A filmmaker, Joseph, was sent to Manchester to film this 8 part series, each with 16 segments.

The filming was done over two days. In it Rich covered many of the Yang style postures, corresponding exercises, tai chi for seniors, martial applications and two-man drills. Rich's ability to do all these segments in a largely unscripted format and with limited retakes is a tribute to both his devotion to tai chi and his expertise in this art. I participated mainly as a partner in the two-man drills and as the crash test dummy in the martial applications.

These videos, hopefully, will prove to be useful to current students as a reference and also to prospective tai chi students.

Expert village's turnaround time is about two months from the time the videos are filmed. So stay tuned...

How Hydrocolloids Saved My Easter and the Life of a Poached Egg

Joyeux Paques!!!

Frank has forever altered the picture in my head of the Easter Bunny!

So I'm making Bearnaise for our Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict and what happens in the middle of service, you guessed it, the Bearnaise breaks. However, thanks to molecular gastronomy's popularity in haute cuisine, I too have a hydrocolloid in my kitchen. A little xanthan gum and voila my Bearnaise is back together. If I only had that back in the day when I was working brunches for 400 every Sunday in NYC.

The following is our Easter menu for 2008:

Easter Sunday Brunch

Tri Color Beet Salad with Goat Cheese, Walnuts, Mesclun and Aged Balsamic

House Salad with Mesclun, Tomatoes and Soy-Citrus Vinaigrette

Crab-Tarragon Wontons with Ponzu

Grilled Shrimp with Avocado Puree, Portabella and Baby Greens

Truffle Infused Vermont Cheddar Quiche with Spinach and Bacon

Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict with Sauce Bernaise

Steamed Mushroom & Chicken Dumplings
with Ginger Dipping Sauce

Cheddar Croque Monsieur with Sauce Mornay

Char Siu Bao (Chinese Roast Pork Buns)

Baby Back Ribs with Hickory Hoisin Barbecue Sauce

Duck Confit with Warm Dijon, Spinach and Fingerling Salad

Duck Liver and Foie Gras Pate with Baby Arugula and Croutons

Beer Battered Bass with Sauce Tartare and French Fries

Fellen Pollen Grilled Quail with Fingerlings, Goat Cheese & Aged Balsamic

Roasted Lamb with Couscous Salad and Tapenade

Choose two from above, $35.00 per person prix fixe including dessert
(Beverages, tax and gratuity additional)

Char Siu Bao (3 and last)

Dough recipe (finally)

This is it! After much struggling, I finally have a consistent recipe, although the tackiness of the dough is something you have to develop a feel for.

Everytime, I thought I nailed a recipe, I would make it again and it would be a failure. Until this one!

Yield: 18 @ 35 grams each

1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 cup all purpose
1 tsp SAF yeast
2 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
Water (this is a variable, may not need any)
2 tbsps canola oil

Everything into a mixing bowl fitted with hook. Speed 4 for ten minutes. Proof, covered for 1 hour. Portion into 35 gram balls. Roll flat to either make baotzi or mantou. If you truly want to know how to form baotzi, email me. Dough needs to be steamed for 8 minutes.

Welcome to the Stone Valley Byway (formerly known as Route 30)

Our beloved Route 30 from Manchester to Poultney has been given the name the Stone Valley Byway. Sounds good and seems apppropriate given our resources in marble and slate. If you send me snail mail to 2928 Stone Valley Byway, Dorset, VT 05251, will I get it?

Stone Valley Byway: "The Stone Valley Scenic Byway features a rich background in slate and marble production, as well as incredible scenic, recreational, and cultural amenities. This segment of Vermont Route 30, spanning from Manchester to Poultney, is highlighted by mountain slopes that provide a dramatic backdrop to the rural landscape and provide access to a host of recreational opportunities. Historic, picturesque towns dot the valley floors, and rich agricultural soils have accumulated alongside the free-flowing Mettawee and Poultney Rivers. Lake St. Catherine, the State Park, golf course and many smaller water bodies along the byway corridor are exceptional natural, scenic, and recreational resources."

Champagne Beurre Blanc

Don't use this.
Our Champagne Beurre Blanc is probably a little misleading. It is not made with the infamous sparkling wines of Champagne but it is made with Champagne vinegar. This vinegar like its sparkling wine cousin should only be called Champagne if it is produced within the viticultural region of Champagne. These Champagnes typically will shown Reims or Epernay as their point of origin. Originally we did use a sparkling wine, one from Limoux, but found the subtlety of the sparkling wine was lost with the intensity of the vinegar. So we switched to a French chardonnay.


Use this.

Champagne vinegar is often considered the 'king of vinegars' in France, its production process is unique and includes a carefully monitored aging in small oak barrels.

Another point one could nitpick is that we add heavy cream to our beurre blanc. I believe beurre blanc with the addition of cream is more accurately called beurre nantais. The heavy cream while unnecessary does improve the stability of the sauce. During the course of a busy restaurant service, having a stable sauce in an unstable environment is highly valued.

Classicly, butter is added slowly in little pieces over low heat. We have found that it can be done by adding the butter all at once.


2 shallots, finely chopped
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
1/4 cup white wine
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 pound butter, cold
Salt and cayenne

In a saucier, slowly reduce vinegar and white wine with shallots until dry. Over medium heat, add heavy cream and butter. Whisk constantly until butter is melted, emulsified and warm. Do not bring this to a boil, it will break. Season to taste.

Fresh cut herbs added to the sauce greatly improves the sauce's dimension.

Braised Short Ribs

These ribs have been on the menu since the opening of the restaurant. I tried to take them off the menu for a while with somewhat hostile results. So now they are a fixture. We often take the oldies but goodies for granted but eating some the other day reminded me of just how good they are. There is no great secret to a great braised dish except you have to braise slowly and it's always better the next day, allowing the meat and sauce to cool together overnight. In our 'I need it NOW!' world, having dinner cook slowly in the oven for four or five hours is untenable. So you have to embrace the slower is better mentality (for this anyway). With that in mind, it's good for the home cook without a lot of time to make more than you need and freeze the leftovers. Portion out each serving in ziplock bags with some sauce and freeze. When you want to eat just drop the bag in some boiling water.

One of our regular customers was nice enough to request this recipe from Bon Appetit. This appeared in the April 2007 issue in the RSVP section.

The only difficulty in preparing this dish is being able to find this cut of meat. Often you will find flanken which is the right cut but it's too thin. We use two or three bone ribs which are cut 2 inches wide. You will probably need to make friends with your butcher (if you can find one anymore) and have him butcher it for you.

As it is often said, recipes are just guidelines. Be brave and experiment with different meats (fatty and tough), wines (red or white), beer, spice, herbs, etc. All will yield a superb product (alright not all) as long as solid cooking techniques are followed.

Go slow with your braises and you will be rewarded!!!

The Art of Stir Frying

This is for you Hasso.

Simple Chinese stir-frys will generally follow a series of similar steps. It is important when stir-frying that all your ingredients are prepped and ready (mise en place) before the actual cooking process begins. Typically, diced or sliced meats are quick marinated, no more than an hour. The marinade will often consist of soy sauce, dry sherry and cornstarch. I like to add a pinch of sugar to many recipes to aid in caramelization. I don't have any written recipes for stir-frys but I will try to create some. I have been stir frying since I was a kid so the amounts and techniques all come second nature to me.

1 pound sliced chicken breast

3 tbsps soy sauce

2 tbsps dry sherry

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp garlic, minced

2 coins ginger

2 tbps canola oil

1 cup frozen peas

Slurry 1/4 cup water mixed with 2 tsps cornstarch

1 tsp sesame oil

2 scallions sliced

Method

Combine first four ingredients in a bowl. Marinate for 10 minutes.

In a wok or saute pan, over high heat add oil and ginger coins. Make sure your pan is very hot before heating your oil. This will help to insure your meat will not stick. When ginger coins have bubbled for 30 seconds, add marinated chicken. Spread the meat around the pan and don't move for about 30 seconds. This will allow for some caramelization. Then stir with a large spoon. When cooked, about 5 minutes (this will depend on how hot your stove gets), add peas and cook until hot. Add slurry and bring to boil. Add more water if there isn't enough sauce. Adjust seasoning by adding salt, pepper and/or soy sauce. Remove from heat and add sesame oil and scallions.

Notes:

Vegetables are obviously interchangeable. Fresh veggies that may require more cooking can be stir fried in a little oil and ginger first. Remove and reserve. Add to the wok when the chicken is cooked. Fresh peas, snow peas can be added while the chicken is still cooking. Maybe after 4 minutes.

Serve with plain white rice.

There is an incredible link to a Boston Globe article, which has a ground beef stir-fry that I grew up with and my son now loves. The link is: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/10/31/growing_up_gourmet/

I will post more ideas, recipes and techniques on another post.

Xiao Long Bao (XLB)

An early attempt to make the best complete food ever, Xiao Long Bao. A great effort wasn't made to make an exact filling so far. The goal was to try to get a skin that was thin enough and pliable enough to hold the filling and the soup. Also, we needed to develop the skills to form these little gems. We didn't have any pork skin to make the gelatinous soup so we substituted the jus that we always get whenever we make duck confit. It always proves to be wildly flavorful and highly gelatinous. We eyeballed the ground pork, seasonings and the amount of the duck jus. We will become more exacting at a later date.

The dough was our priority right now. After trying several recipes, a traditional hot water dough produced the best results. My skills at rolling the dough into thin enough disks proved to be the next challenge. Once the pleats were formed the dough at the top was always too thick. In the restaurant we make a lot of pasta dough so I thought we'd play with the pasta machine. This rolled out beautiful sheets of the dough which were then cut with a cookie cutter.

A word to the wise, be careful with the water level of your steaming a liquid. While surfing the web, my steaming water dried up and set the steamer ablaze. Ooops!

Will post more on this topic, as recipes and techniques develop.

Char Siu Bao (2)

We have pretty much nailed the vital aspects of making a respectable char siu bao. The dough has been improved with the addition of a small amount of yeast and using cake flour. The cake flour which is bleached produces a baotzi that has its traditonal snowy white color (which appears to be a requisite) and makes the finished product a little lighter. I will post the recipe shortly.

The recipe for the filling is as follows (this is not the marinade- think lee kum kee):

• 2 2-ounce ladles oyster sauce
• 2 1.5-ounce ladles kecap manis
• 2 2-ounce ladles ketchup
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 1.5 ounce ladles sesame oil

Combine all ingredients.

Sweat 1/2 cup diced onions. Add 3 diced Chinese roast pork tenderloins and 1 tablespoon dry sherry. Stiry fry for 2 minutes. Chill.