The Mind of a Chef (2012) s04e11 Episode Script
Ocean
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The ocean, covering over 70% of the earth's surface.
Its magnificence is both mesmerizing and foreboding.
It is believed that life began in its depths some one billion years ago.
Its bounty and its life-sustaining powers are as important as the air we breathe.
For David Kinch, being alone in the ocean, with its 230,000 known species, inspires him to eat them, preferably raw.
Enter The Mind of a Chef.
You can actually taste the sun.
I don't know how we're going to top that one.
It's the fun part in cooking.
Cheers.
I always felt a strange, compelling attraction to it.
I dreamed as a young kid what I wanted to do when I grew up.
I wanted to be a marine biologist.
Fascinated by the ocean, and the creatures that lived in it.
I always liked the wind and the salt and the sun.
Where you learned you had to have respect for it, that anything could happen.
It still is the place where I find a certain amount of peace.
It conjures up a simple life.
Don't need much to wear.
You don't need much to eat.
There's plenty to do, even if there's nothing to do at all.
If you are walking along the coast, you come to points, rocky outcroppings, reefs pushed up, you can tell that it's earthquake country.
On these little plateaus, crags, holes, tides come and go, and they leave a lot of things behind.
They are like aquariums.
Starfish and seaweed waving at you.
And sea anemone can never pronounce that word.
And there are shadows that reflects the water and the sun and the movement.
It's pretty astonishing, and then it's gone.
Brimming with life and movement, tidal pools are very iconic to our very rocky and reef-strewn coast of California.
It originally started as almost, like, a shabu-shabu type of foie gras dish, in which we had raw foie gras, and then we just poured a broth over it.
By the time it got in front of a diner, it would poach.
It's a very nice, interesting texture.
Over time, it became a surf and turf dish.
I like sea urchin sea urchin makes me happy It's the one creature you always find in Northern California in a tidal pool.
Very, very beautiful creatures.
I have these very nice butter clams here.
They are a little bit big.
It's important everything is one bite.
There's no room for a fork, there's no room for a knife.
This deep bowl was made specifically for the tidal pool dish.
Part of the pleasure of the dish is being able to drain the last bite by drinking it.
Mussels, steamed ever so lightly, and then shucked where they're almost raw.
A raw oyster.
This is white kombu.
We pickle it.
When people bite into it, it's a real surprise, because of the acidic element.
Scallions.
Nori, lightly toasted.
And then we tear by hand.
And this, of course, will shrink.
It will become very aromatized when the broth is poured on top.
The dashi we have is a very traditional dashi, but we poach a lot of fresh and dried mushrooms into it.
In this case, it's dried shiitakes.
Everything becomes aromatized as the foie gras fat renders out, which is really a pleasurable experience.
Little bit of shiitake gel.
Gives it little places of light and shadow.
And everything is just slowly warmed up.
There is natural salinity happing in this dish, mostly from the oyster.
And, in some aspect, the clam.
We're relying on the seasoning of the dashi to be the natural saline quality for this dish.
People go in and explore.
Okay, ready? First thing, take off the head.
Now we'll take the filets off.
Belly, all the way to the spine.
Next, along the back.
Belly, back.
Flip it over.
Back, belly.
Now we have two filets.
Follow it along the ventral line.
Belly, back; back, belly.
I went to the green market this morning, and I found some peas, pea shoots, and some bush basil.
The sashimi dish we're going to do today is with sea bream, a classic fish used for sashimi in Japan.
First thing is I'm going to take the skin off these filets.
Where did you learn those techniques like that? Actually, I learned them working in Japan.
Yes? And working with Japanese cooks.
Even when I was staging in Europe, there was always a Japanese stage.
The training, yeah.
So you ask a lot of questions.
And then what is the difference in texture in between the belly and the back? The belly is a lot richer, because a higher fat content.
Yeah.
The back is much more muscular.
In fact, they say the best sea bream, the water is really deep, and the current is very strong, because the fish is constantly working to stay in place.
It develops a strong muscular It's very firm.
And they pride that.
- Yes.
So I'm actually going to brine this fish.
And this is what I really wanted to show you.
We're going to make a vinaigrette with a sauce that we have made with the bream bone.
How do you treat the bones? We very lightly cold smoke the bones.
Stack the bones in a pot with a tremendous amount of ginger.
Oh, interesting.
Completely cover it with dry sake.
And then cook it all the way down to a glaze.
And it does its magic.
How shiny it is, right? Yeah, and it's emulsified.
Yeah, you're right.
It's intense.
It's intense, but it is very, very fine.
Yes.
And very harmonious, but well balanced.
I can taste the bones at the end.
You end up with the fish flavor.
Bream bones to be served with the fish.
Super interesting.
It's almost like caramel.
Yeah, toffee sauce.
Fish toffee.
So this is the base of your vinaigrette.
Yes.
That, and then, believe it or not, extra virgin olive oil.
Hey, California olive oil.
So half and half.
It might need a little bit of acidity.
A little bit of rice vinegar.
Sure.
So I'm going to give it the fish a quick rinse.
Very gently.
So the salt makes the flesh firmer? A little bit.
Removes any kind of stickiness Ah, yes.
on the outside.
And it gives a bit of saltiness to the fish, right? Yes.
I'm going to slice some slices from the back here.
It's true that the fish shines.
Almost like you see a rainbow.
It reflects the light in a very different way.
This is the belly piece.
Getting that shine on it makes a huge difference.
So you think very few people with very good taste buds and training can see the difference.
I think that is true.
But sometimes God is in the details, you know? Yeah.
Going to cut some cucumbers.
They look beautiful and fresh, huh? They have a nice crunch to it.
Yeah.
You barely blanch them? About ten seconds.
They kept their flavor, too.
Yes.
Are you inspired by Japanese presentation? Very much so.
I'm fascinated by the idea of hand crafted.
Yes.
To me that contributes to the entire appeal of a dish in front of a guest.
Fish toffee sauce.
The sauce has a lot of ginger in it.
That ties everything in with the cucumber and the peas as well.
Not too sweet.
No, no, no.
With the fish, the ginger loses, like, pungence, strong flavor.
It becomes more subdued.
Yeah.
Super good.
When I think of ginger, I also think of basil.
This is bush basil.
It's very fragrant.
It looks beautiful.
This is an homage to the product, and to your philosophy of cooking.
Thank you.
When Manresa first started, we were struggling.
And Eric came to the restaurant to eat.
He said he had a great experience, and it pained him that we weren't busy.
He called me and said, "I want you to come "and do a lunch here in New York.
I'm going to introduce you to people.
" There's not a lot of people who would do something like that.
I will always be grateful to Eric for that.
So I'm going to do a hot broth.
And the sashimi will stay raw, obviously, but we'll have a little bit of heat.
And this will bring the dish together.
It's plentiful.
A mackerel, it's a great fish that was overlooked for many years.
It was considered cat food for a long time.
Yeah, but it's very rich.
Good for you.
- Great texture, and it tastes delicious.
We have great mackerel in California, also.
And it's much darker in color.
Because of the blood? Yeah, because of the bloodline and the size.
So there is a huge diversity in species between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
- For sure.
It's pretty amazing.
- Yes.
It's a huge difference also in the flavor of the fish.
I agree.
I start with shallots.
I don't like onions.
Yeah.
They're not as precise, the flavor, as the shallots.
The onion to me is too sweet.
And in a sauce, sometimes you put sweetness, all the flavors, they're not very controllable.
The onion doesn't have the same power as the shallot.
Some white wine.
That's good for TV, I guess.
It's okay.
Put the shallots in it.
Okay.
Using a little bit of white pepper.
We are going to put few Manila clams.
Some mussels.
Clam flavor is more briny.
It's just to cut the sweetness of the mussel juice.
That's fascinating.
And then we're just going to let it cook until they open.
I miss the flavor of clams something, on the Pacific coast, we don't get much of.
When they open, I'm going to let them release their juice.
I don't really care about the meats for this dish.
In discussing the mackerel, it would be interesting to cook it, but soon as we do that, we lose 80% of the qualities of what we like, the delicate flavor of the fish itself.
So how can we have a dish where the mackerel is cooked, and is not cooked at the same time? For me, creativity, it's like a flash that comes to my head.
To me that's the true definition of creativity that accumulation of all your experience.
Perhaps you took a walk through a market, or you smelled something new, and things just happened.
And it happens real quick.
Yeah.
So I want to feel the texture of the fish.
I try to keep it as natural as I can.
Looks beautiful.
It smells fantastic.
This is getting good, you see? This one has a lot of juice, still.
And it's the same for the clams.
We're getting there maybe one more minute.
Now I'm going to warm up the sashimi.
Oh.
- On a plate.
It's going in the oven.
The idea is to have the plate not to be too cold.
Because of the sauce with butter going on it.
Yes.
And the fish to be a bit warmer than room temperature.
And then we put it back on the fire.
You want to reduce it? No, if I reduce it, I'm going to lose three-quarter of the power of that broth.
It's all about complimenting the fish and the caviar that we are going to use.
And I'm generous with the butter.
I don't care.
Here we have something that is very rich in between the sauce and the butter and the fish and the caviar.
At the last minute, we put lemon juice.
Yeah, it's where I want to be.
A bit of spiciness.
If the white pepper wasn't there, you would miss it.
It's delicious.
And now I'm going to put the caviar.
So we use farm-raised caviar from China.
It's called schrencki.
This fish is very rich, fatty.
The caviar is going to bring a lot of brininess.
A little bit of micro, micro, micro chives.
That brings a little bit of a rigor into it.
Mm-hmm, thoughtful.
So now, the sauce is very hot.
Cover the fish with it.
It's beautiful.
But not the caviar.
It symbolizes everything that I love about your cooking.
There's a quiet confidence in the food.
Everything has a very natural presentation to it, but it's obvious that a lot of thought has gone behind every single step.
Yes, like your cooking.
Or like your cooking.
Well Do you trust people that don't like caviar? No.
In general, I don't trust people who don't like food.
It's like a kayak with amas, arms on the outside.
It's a little rocket, and it flies.
For fun, I started gathering seawater.
Deep, clean, clear water.
Dive a mile or two off with two five-gallon containers.
Bungee cord them back on.
And sail back.
There's nothing around.
It's peaceful.
The beauty of fleur de sel is the sexiness of the way it just rolls off your finger.
It lands, and it looks good, tastes good, and it's just the right amount of bite.
And I like to think it's one of those intangibles that shows the difference between something that's very good and great.
Monterey Bay abalone may become very, very famous because of the quality of their product.
They go out and harvest all the seaweed that they use to feed the abalone.
The abalones are in these little cages.
They're all lined up in little slots.
It's almost like file folders.
They just jam that thing full of seaweed, and next day it's gone.
They're very vigorous.
It's astonishing how fast they eat.
And as far as I'm concerned, abalone should be considered on the state flag.
It's either the bear or an abalone.
Or sasquatch.
It's probably one of the most iconic, almost mythical creatures on the California coast.
They move a lot quicker than you can imagine.
They grow very, very slowly.
These small ones here, they're up to four years in age.
So when you see abalone shells, 12 inches, 14 inches, they're up to 20 years old already.
First thing is to blanch them to get them out of the shell.
In this case, we braise them in dashi.
Soft water, kombu, and katsuoboshi.
Abalones have a naturally salty taste, so I don't salt them.
When we do season them, we try to be very judicious.
Put them directly in.
The abalones are covered.
We're going to put a couple sheets of kombu on the surface, kind of like a kombu lid.
And then we'll bring these slowly to a simmer.
Then we're going to take a brief pause that will have loosened them up.
You can see that they shrunk up a little bit.
Now we're going to pop them out of the shell.
The shells are really beautiful.
That nice iridescence, the mother of pearl.
Continue to braise them very, very slowly, up to six hours.
The abalone cooks, tenderizes, and becomes very flavorful.
But just as important, the dashi is being transformed to an abalone dashi.
Okay, so, six hours.
These should be nice and tender.
The broth really nice and clear.
And this here, sometimes refer to the liver, but I do believe it's the stomach.
If you look at the color, you can see what its diet is, which is seaweed.
Makes a wonderful sauce.
The foot, which is really the toughest part, I'm going to remove, and continue off the back.
And there's the finished abalone right there.
And just put it back in the liquid to let it cool.
And now we're going to make the liver aioli.
Smells very much of the seaweed.
Very nice; smells like the beach.
It's amazing.
Egg yolks.
Abalone dashi.
Black rice vinegar.
Pinch of salt.
Beautiful color.
And olive oil.
Adjust the seasoning.
Pinch of salt.
Oh, yeah.
Japanese sushi rice, short grain.
And then three parts aba dashi.
So I'm going to bring this to a simmer, and cook it until it's well cooked.
Stir it, keep it moving.
Congee, or a jook-style porridge it's a great delivery method for someone who might be a little bit squeamish about abalone, or has never tried it before.
It's a very familiar flavor, and that texture oatmeal, risotto, that sort of thing.
The rice is not only soft, but it's starting to break apart.
It's really thick because of that starch.
If I taste this, essentially unseasoned, there is already an intense abalone flavor.
Sesame oil, very fragrant.
Mmm.
This here is our secret ingredient.
Takes it to another level rendered chicken fat.
The rice is ready.
Abalone, it has a reputation for toughness, but it's more about tenderness.
The luxuriousness in the product is not only the flavor, but in the chew.
It is very, very meaty.
And I think it's pretty versatile.
This dish is very much reflective of not only where we are, but who we are.
It's delicious.
Usually when I plate this, the perfect amount of rice is what clings to the abalone pieces.
This is Chinese black vinegar.
The liver aioli.
Pickled seaweed.
Puffed white and wild rice, which gives it beautiful color, and a textural crunch.
Toasted black and white sesame seeds.
Scallion.
And last but not least, fragrant citrus.
In this case, lime zest.
And this is a dish we call abalone rice porridge with black vinegar.
The ocean.
Floating in the water.
You know, that's the ultimate cleansing.
Recharging everything.
Nothing else matters for a while.
And then you come back, and you're almost like a different person.
There's just a natural pull towards the sea.
I mean, that's where we all came from.
Have you heard that? So it must be true, then.
Support your PBS station.
The ocean, covering over 70% of the earth's surface.
Its magnificence is both mesmerizing and foreboding.
It is believed that life began in its depths some one billion years ago.
Its bounty and its life-sustaining powers are as important as the air we breathe.
For David Kinch, being alone in the ocean, with its 230,000 known species, inspires him to eat them, preferably raw.
Enter The Mind of a Chef.
You can actually taste the sun.
I don't know how we're going to top that one.
It's the fun part in cooking.
Cheers.
I always felt a strange, compelling attraction to it.
I dreamed as a young kid what I wanted to do when I grew up.
I wanted to be a marine biologist.
Fascinated by the ocean, and the creatures that lived in it.
I always liked the wind and the salt and the sun.
Where you learned you had to have respect for it, that anything could happen.
It still is the place where I find a certain amount of peace.
It conjures up a simple life.
Don't need much to wear.
You don't need much to eat.
There's plenty to do, even if there's nothing to do at all.
If you are walking along the coast, you come to points, rocky outcroppings, reefs pushed up, you can tell that it's earthquake country.
On these little plateaus, crags, holes, tides come and go, and they leave a lot of things behind.
They are like aquariums.
Starfish and seaweed waving at you.
And sea anemone can never pronounce that word.
And there are shadows that reflects the water and the sun and the movement.
It's pretty astonishing, and then it's gone.
Brimming with life and movement, tidal pools are very iconic to our very rocky and reef-strewn coast of California.
It originally started as almost, like, a shabu-shabu type of foie gras dish, in which we had raw foie gras, and then we just poured a broth over it.
By the time it got in front of a diner, it would poach.
It's a very nice, interesting texture.
Over time, it became a surf and turf dish.
I like sea urchin sea urchin makes me happy It's the one creature you always find in Northern California in a tidal pool.
Very, very beautiful creatures.
I have these very nice butter clams here.
They are a little bit big.
It's important everything is one bite.
There's no room for a fork, there's no room for a knife.
This deep bowl was made specifically for the tidal pool dish.
Part of the pleasure of the dish is being able to drain the last bite by drinking it.
Mussels, steamed ever so lightly, and then shucked where they're almost raw.
A raw oyster.
This is white kombu.
We pickle it.
When people bite into it, it's a real surprise, because of the acidic element.
Scallions.
Nori, lightly toasted.
And then we tear by hand.
And this, of course, will shrink.
It will become very aromatized when the broth is poured on top.
The dashi we have is a very traditional dashi, but we poach a lot of fresh and dried mushrooms into it.
In this case, it's dried shiitakes.
Everything becomes aromatized as the foie gras fat renders out, which is really a pleasurable experience.
Little bit of shiitake gel.
Gives it little places of light and shadow.
And everything is just slowly warmed up.
There is natural salinity happing in this dish, mostly from the oyster.
And, in some aspect, the clam.
We're relying on the seasoning of the dashi to be the natural saline quality for this dish.
People go in and explore.
Okay, ready? First thing, take off the head.
Now we'll take the filets off.
Belly, all the way to the spine.
Next, along the back.
Belly, back.
Flip it over.
Back, belly.
Now we have two filets.
Follow it along the ventral line.
Belly, back; back, belly.
I went to the green market this morning, and I found some peas, pea shoots, and some bush basil.
The sashimi dish we're going to do today is with sea bream, a classic fish used for sashimi in Japan.
First thing is I'm going to take the skin off these filets.
Where did you learn those techniques like that? Actually, I learned them working in Japan.
Yes? And working with Japanese cooks.
Even when I was staging in Europe, there was always a Japanese stage.
The training, yeah.
So you ask a lot of questions.
And then what is the difference in texture in between the belly and the back? The belly is a lot richer, because a higher fat content.
Yeah.
The back is much more muscular.
In fact, they say the best sea bream, the water is really deep, and the current is very strong, because the fish is constantly working to stay in place.
It develops a strong muscular It's very firm.
And they pride that.
- Yes.
So I'm actually going to brine this fish.
And this is what I really wanted to show you.
We're going to make a vinaigrette with a sauce that we have made with the bream bone.
How do you treat the bones? We very lightly cold smoke the bones.
Stack the bones in a pot with a tremendous amount of ginger.
Oh, interesting.
Completely cover it with dry sake.
And then cook it all the way down to a glaze.
And it does its magic.
How shiny it is, right? Yeah, and it's emulsified.
Yeah, you're right.
It's intense.
It's intense, but it is very, very fine.
Yes.
And very harmonious, but well balanced.
I can taste the bones at the end.
You end up with the fish flavor.
Bream bones to be served with the fish.
Super interesting.
It's almost like caramel.
Yeah, toffee sauce.
Fish toffee.
So this is the base of your vinaigrette.
Yes.
That, and then, believe it or not, extra virgin olive oil.
Hey, California olive oil.
So half and half.
It might need a little bit of acidity.
A little bit of rice vinegar.
Sure.
So I'm going to give it the fish a quick rinse.
Very gently.
So the salt makes the flesh firmer? A little bit.
Removes any kind of stickiness Ah, yes.
on the outside.
And it gives a bit of saltiness to the fish, right? Yes.
I'm going to slice some slices from the back here.
It's true that the fish shines.
Almost like you see a rainbow.
It reflects the light in a very different way.
This is the belly piece.
Getting that shine on it makes a huge difference.
So you think very few people with very good taste buds and training can see the difference.
I think that is true.
But sometimes God is in the details, you know? Yeah.
Going to cut some cucumbers.
They look beautiful and fresh, huh? They have a nice crunch to it.
Yeah.
You barely blanch them? About ten seconds.
They kept their flavor, too.
Yes.
Are you inspired by Japanese presentation? Very much so.
I'm fascinated by the idea of hand crafted.
Yes.
To me that contributes to the entire appeal of a dish in front of a guest.
Fish toffee sauce.
The sauce has a lot of ginger in it.
That ties everything in with the cucumber and the peas as well.
Not too sweet.
No, no, no.
With the fish, the ginger loses, like, pungence, strong flavor.
It becomes more subdued.
Yeah.
Super good.
When I think of ginger, I also think of basil.
This is bush basil.
It's very fragrant.
It looks beautiful.
This is an homage to the product, and to your philosophy of cooking.
Thank you.
When Manresa first started, we were struggling.
And Eric came to the restaurant to eat.
He said he had a great experience, and it pained him that we weren't busy.
He called me and said, "I want you to come "and do a lunch here in New York.
I'm going to introduce you to people.
" There's not a lot of people who would do something like that.
I will always be grateful to Eric for that.
So I'm going to do a hot broth.
And the sashimi will stay raw, obviously, but we'll have a little bit of heat.
And this will bring the dish together.
It's plentiful.
A mackerel, it's a great fish that was overlooked for many years.
It was considered cat food for a long time.
Yeah, but it's very rich.
Good for you.
- Great texture, and it tastes delicious.
We have great mackerel in California, also.
And it's much darker in color.
Because of the blood? Yeah, because of the bloodline and the size.
So there is a huge diversity in species between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
- For sure.
It's pretty amazing.
- Yes.
It's a huge difference also in the flavor of the fish.
I agree.
I start with shallots.
I don't like onions.
Yeah.
They're not as precise, the flavor, as the shallots.
The onion to me is too sweet.
And in a sauce, sometimes you put sweetness, all the flavors, they're not very controllable.
The onion doesn't have the same power as the shallot.
Some white wine.
That's good for TV, I guess.
It's okay.
Put the shallots in it.
Okay.
Using a little bit of white pepper.
We are going to put few Manila clams.
Some mussels.
Clam flavor is more briny.
It's just to cut the sweetness of the mussel juice.
That's fascinating.
And then we're just going to let it cook until they open.
I miss the flavor of clams something, on the Pacific coast, we don't get much of.
When they open, I'm going to let them release their juice.
I don't really care about the meats for this dish.
In discussing the mackerel, it would be interesting to cook it, but soon as we do that, we lose 80% of the qualities of what we like, the delicate flavor of the fish itself.
So how can we have a dish where the mackerel is cooked, and is not cooked at the same time? For me, creativity, it's like a flash that comes to my head.
To me that's the true definition of creativity that accumulation of all your experience.
Perhaps you took a walk through a market, or you smelled something new, and things just happened.
And it happens real quick.
Yeah.
So I want to feel the texture of the fish.
I try to keep it as natural as I can.
Looks beautiful.
It smells fantastic.
This is getting good, you see? This one has a lot of juice, still.
And it's the same for the clams.
We're getting there maybe one more minute.
Now I'm going to warm up the sashimi.
Oh.
- On a plate.
It's going in the oven.
The idea is to have the plate not to be too cold.
Because of the sauce with butter going on it.
Yes.
And the fish to be a bit warmer than room temperature.
And then we put it back on the fire.
You want to reduce it? No, if I reduce it, I'm going to lose three-quarter of the power of that broth.
It's all about complimenting the fish and the caviar that we are going to use.
And I'm generous with the butter.
I don't care.
Here we have something that is very rich in between the sauce and the butter and the fish and the caviar.
At the last minute, we put lemon juice.
Yeah, it's where I want to be.
A bit of spiciness.
If the white pepper wasn't there, you would miss it.
It's delicious.
And now I'm going to put the caviar.
So we use farm-raised caviar from China.
It's called schrencki.
This fish is very rich, fatty.
The caviar is going to bring a lot of brininess.
A little bit of micro, micro, micro chives.
That brings a little bit of a rigor into it.
Mm-hmm, thoughtful.
So now, the sauce is very hot.
Cover the fish with it.
It's beautiful.
But not the caviar.
It symbolizes everything that I love about your cooking.
There's a quiet confidence in the food.
Everything has a very natural presentation to it, but it's obvious that a lot of thought has gone behind every single step.
Yes, like your cooking.
Or like your cooking.
Well Do you trust people that don't like caviar? No.
In general, I don't trust people who don't like food.
It's like a kayak with amas, arms on the outside.
It's a little rocket, and it flies.
For fun, I started gathering seawater.
Deep, clean, clear water.
Dive a mile or two off with two five-gallon containers.
Bungee cord them back on.
And sail back.
There's nothing around.
It's peaceful.
The beauty of fleur de sel is the sexiness of the way it just rolls off your finger.
It lands, and it looks good, tastes good, and it's just the right amount of bite.
And I like to think it's one of those intangibles that shows the difference between something that's very good and great.
Monterey Bay abalone may become very, very famous because of the quality of their product.
They go out and harvest all the seaweed that they use to feed the abalone.
The abalones are in these little cages.
They're all lined up in little slots.
It's almost like file folders.
They just jam that thing full of seaweed, and next day it's gone.
They're very vigorous.
It's astonishing how fast they eat.
And as far as I'm concerned, abalone should be considered on the state flag.
It's either the bear or an abalone.
Or sasquatch.
It's probably one of the most iconic, almost mythical creatures on the California coast.
They move a lot quicker than you can imagine.
They grow very, very slowly.
These small ones here, they're up to four years in age.
So when you see abalone shells, 12 inches, 14 inches, they're up to 20 years old already.
First thing is to blanch them to get them out of the shell.
In this case, we braise them in dashi.
Soft water, kombu, and katsuoboshi.
Abalones have a naturally salty taste, so I don't salt them.
When we do season them, we try to be very judicious.
Put them directly in.
The abalones are covered.
We're going to put a couple sheets of kombu on the surface, kind of like a kombu lid.
And then we'll bring these slowly to a simmer.
Then we're going to take a brief pause that will have loosened them up.
You can see that they shrunk up a little bit.
Now we're going to pop them out of the shell.
The shells are really beautiful.
That nice iridescence, the mother of pearl.
Continue to braise them very, very slowly, up to six hours.
The abalone cooks, tenderizes, and becomes very flavorful.
But just as important, the dashi is being transformed to an abalone dashi.
Okay, so, six hours.
These should be nice and tender.
The broth really nice and clear.
And this here, sometimes refer to the liver, but I do believe it's the stomach.
If you look at the color, you can see what its diet is, which is seaweed.
Makes a wonderful sauce.
The foot, which is really the toughest part, I'm going to remove, and continue off the back.
And there's the finished abalone right there.
And just put it back in the liquid to let it cool.
And now we're going to make the liver aioli.
Smells very much of the seaweed.
Very nice; smells like the beach.
It's amazing.
Egg yolks.
Abalone dashi.
Black rice vinegar.
Pinch of salt.
Beautiful color.
And olive oil.
Adjust the seasoning.
Pinch of salt.
Oh, yeah.
Japanese sushi rice, short grain.
And then three parts aba dashi.
So I'm going to bring this to a simmer, and cook it until it's well cooked.
Stir it, keep it moving.
Congee, or a jook-style porridge it's a great delivery method for someone who might be a little bit squeamish about abalone, or has never tried it before.
It's a very familiar flavor, and that texture oatmeal, risotto, that sort of thing.
The rice is not only soft, but it's starting to break apart.
It's really thick because of that starch.
If I taste this, essentially unseasoned, there is already an intense abalone flavor.
Sesame oil, very fragrant.
Mmm.
This here is our secret ingredient.
Takes it to another level rendered chicken fat.
The rice is ready.
Abalone, it has a reputation for toughness, but it's more about tenderness.
The luxuriousness in the product is not only the flavor, but in the chew.
It is very, very meaty.
And I think it's pretty versatile.
This dish is very much reflective of not only where we are, but who we are.
It's delicious.
Usually when I plate this, the perfect amount of rice is what clings to the abalone pieces.
This is Chinese black vinegar.
The liver aioli.
Pickled seaweed.
Puffed white and wild rice, which gives it beautiful color, and a textural crunch.
Toasted black and white sesame seeds.
Scallion.
And last but not least, fragrant citrus.
In this case, lime zest.
And this is a dish we call abalone rice porridge with black vinegar.
The ocean.
Floating in the water.
You know, that's the ultimate cleansing.
Recharging everything.
Nothing else matters for a while.
And then you come back, and you're almost like a different person.
There's just a natural pull towards the sea.
I mean, that's where we all came from.
Have you heard that? So it must be true, then.