For this month's Daring Cooks Challenge, Sketchy chose a recipe from Grant Achatz' Alinea at Home cookbook - Skate, traditional flavors powdered. Because of my own taste preferences and availability/sustainability of seafood and a couple of missteps along the way, my challenge became something more along the lines of Scallops, simplified flavors powdered. The experience itself was one that I am happy to have tried, and certain techniques will get incorporated into my routine. That being said, I'm not so sure that there is a future in it all for me.
The whole process started one sunday with the dehydration of the various flavor components - capers, red onions, candied lemons, cilantro and parsley. I knew I was in trouble when the only thing that smelled remotely enticing to me was the candied lemon zest. I'd read from another adventurer that the smell of these items all together was wonderful, and it just wasn't flying for me.
I ventured on, however, and ground up the condiments and sorted them into little jars to await the rest of the challenge. Lesson learned: really dehydrate everything that you intend to grind up because it makes a big difference in the ability to grind the ingredients as well as the taste profiles. My red onions and capers were just the tiniest bit soft when I ground them and I believe I lost a lot of the effect for those powders (not just because that bit of moisture made them more lumpy than powder-like).
The final powder was a brown butter powder which just didn't work for me. I used dry milk powder and baked it as suggested. Mine did not brown, and I was so afraid of burning it, that I sort of took it as is. I then attempted to grind the dehydrated banana that I had purchased at Trader Joe's for the rest of the brown butter powder. Another dehydration fail. It wasn't so much dehydrated banana as it was banana leather. Leather doesn't grind. It's actually very tasty, but not useful in a spice grinder. So I used the lightly toasted milk powder on its own, but I am positive that I did not get the benefit of that flavor profile.
On challenge day, I had a hard time finding one of the substitute fishes that had been suggested by Sketchy, and was not entirely disappointed because of the aforementioned sustainability issues. I went with scallops, frankly because I already had access to them and I thought the texture would lend itself well as a substitute. In this, I was right.
The next step called for simmering green beans and the fish (separately) in beurre monte - essentially chunks of cold butter with a bit of water. This technique really brought out the richness and simplicity of the scallops and gave a sweetness to the green beans. I emphasize simple here, since the flavor dynamics of this dish are all in the powders, but there was something refreshing in that simplicity and I will definitely use that method again.
When it came time to plate, I kept to the recipe as close as I could. I thinly sliced bananas (which I was very skeptical about), topped them with my buttery beans and then the scallops which I dusted with my cream-colored powder. I created two powdered flavor areas - one for the caper/red onion/herbs and one for the lemon powder to which I added some smoky paprika and some garlic powder, partly for color and partly because I was nervous about the caper/onion/herb set not being as amazing for me as it might be for some others.
I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with the way the dish came together. The flavors of the banana added sweetness and a tropical brightness. I didn't love the powders that I sort of banished, but the combination of lemon, paprika and garlic definitely brought the whole dish to a new level. While I'm not 100% sure the effort level was worth making this a regular part of my routine, I think the effects were successful and I might conjure something up along these lines again.
To complement it all, I poured myself the 2007 Goosecross Napa Valley Chenin Blanc. I was nervous that there would be too much sweetness, but the citrus flavors like grapefruit and lemon and the crisp pear added yet another level of flavor to the dish. All in all, a wonderful pairing.
Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 11:48AM 
For this month's Daring Cooks Challenge, Sketchy chose a recipe from Grant Achatz' Alinea at Home cookbook - Skate, traditional flavors powdered. Because of my own taste preferences and availability/sustainability of seafood and a couple of missteps along the way, my challenge became something more along the lines of Scallops, simplified flavors powdered. The experience itself was one that I am happy to have tried, and certain techniques will get incorporated into my routine. That being said, I'm not so sure that there is a future in it all for me.
Reader Comments (1)
Wow love your experiences venturing in this challenge. And it is great that you enjoyed the dish. Chenin Blanc sounds so refreshing with this recipe. Your red, orange and white swirl is very dramatic. Good to hear that you did pick some skills and techniques along the way. Cheers from Audax