The Mind of a Chef (2012) s04e18 Episode Script

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This episode of The Mind of a Chef finds Chef David Kinch in the kitchen creating some of his favorite dishes.
I'm no bartender.
But, I know what I like.
Corn fritters There's a difference between brown and gold, we're looking for golden brown.
Eggplant caviar tartin I love to char eggplants.
It's very easy to do at home.
Add a little bit of heat.
Spanish ham sliced paper thin.
And his version of the classic Pommes Paillasson.
Jenga.
Tater tots on steroids.
Enter the mind of a chef.
You can actually taste the sun.
I don't know how we're going to top that one.
This is the fun part of cooking.
Cheers.
Cool melon soup as in chilled.
Of course the key to it, is to have a very ripe melon.
The melon juice that surrounds the seed pocket is remarkably high in natural fruit pectin.
So, we'll take advantage of the natural thickening properties.
So I'm going to soften the onions.
But no color.
Add that melon juice with the pectin.
I'm going to add a paper lid, sometimes referred to as a cartouche.
The paper lid still allows it to reduce but kind of slows it down to a much more measured pace.
While the onions are softening, I'm going to go back to the melons.
We'll do some melon balls.
I season these with salt, and a couple of drops of aged cherry vinegar.
And now for the soup, I'm going to cut the melon up into chunks.
You can see that onions are really, really soft now.
It smells fantastic.
And add the rest of the melons and put the lid back on.
And that'll form the base of the soup.
Final part of this dish is tofu.
This is silken tofu and a passive to this tamis.
I season this with a little bit of salt, a little bit of white soy sauce, almond oil Pretty much there.
When you look at the pieces, you can see how they're soft and I bet some of these larger pieces are still raw on the inside, which is perfectly okay.
You can see, what started off as an orange melon is now more of a chartreuse.
And now we're going to chill it down, on this bed of ice.
It looks really rich and creamy.
Adjust the seasoning of salt.
And a little more of the white soy sauce.
We're now ready to plate It's a great first course in the summertime.
Great at lunch.
There you go.
You have cool melon soup confit with silken tofu and toasted almonds.
Perfect for a summer lunch.
The fancy name is Pommes Paillasson.
If you're familiar with tater tots, it'll remind you of tater tots.
For this I'm just using regular russet potatoes.
It's a great balance of waxiness and starchiness.
Next thing I'm going to do is grate the potatoes.
And I have here, some warm duck fat.
I'm just going to put the potatoes directly in.
Not to fry, but to have them poach.
And we're actually going to cook the potato all the way.
As the starch comes out, it'll start to get gummy.
And it'll seem really unappealing, but, it's exactly what we want.
While that's taking place, I'm going to prepare, the only other ingredient that's in this recipe.
A little bit of salt, some fresh thyme, which goes pretty well, with obviously potatoes, but also with duck fat.
This is pretty much ready to go.
You can see when you look at the spoon, you can see how the starch is starting to be glutenised.
We're going to drain it and we're going to reserve the oil for the final step.
And I want to work with them while they're still warm.
Going to season the potatoes with the fresh thyme and let's get sea salt.
Next step is to shape and now I'm going to let it cool.
And it's now about two hours later, we've allowed them to chill.
And as you can see, it's one solid block.
You can kind of handle it.
So what I'm going to do is just cut them into almost like a fancy French fry.
Very uniform in size and shape.
And now, we're going to put the potatoes for a second time, back into the duck fat.
It's just nice to kind of get them going separately and away from each other.
Not really cooking them anymore.
We're just basically, crisping them up.
They'll be very soft and very flavorful on the inside.
Those look really nice.
Just the color where we want them.
Let them drain just a little bit.
Jenga.
Pommes Paillasson.
Tater tots on steroids.
We're going to make a fresh corn fritter, almost like a Beignet.
We want this to be really light and delicate, integrating corn, is a great way of doing it.
You can grate it right of the cob.
This is a beautiful ear of corn.
White and yellow kernels.
You'll see that the kernels, come off on the inside like a pudding.
But more importantly, releasing all the juice.
And you can the juice, sluicing down into the bottom of the bowl.
For this particular recipe it's four ears of corn, it looks like it's about a cup and a half or so.
That's the majority of the work right there.
It's very easy to do.
It's putting everything in a bowl with one minor step.
I like to soften the garlic in the butter.
Tame it a little bit, so the flavor is not just raw garlic.
I'm merely going to soften it.
Make it translucent.
So it's just a very low heat.
And while we're waiting for that, I'm going to add the dry ingredients first.
All purpose flour, semolina flour, a little bit of sugar, and salt and baking soda, which makes it light.
I'll add our grated corn, three egg yolks and lastly, the melter butter and garlic.
To keep it light and really delicate, I'm folding it, as if I'm incorporating egg whites into a cake.
At this point, it's a little bit soft and a little bit liquid.
I want the flour to hydrate all the way through and to be a little bit thicker, before I fry it.
So right now, I'm going to put it in the fridge.
We chill this now, for about an hour.
It's gone a little thicker.
And now I'm drop it off at the end of a spoon into some hot oil that I have set at 350 degrees.
My little babies are flipping just perfectly.
Thank you.
I'm looking for a nice golden color.
There's a difference between brown and gold.
We're looking for golden brown.
It's still a little bit delicate.
I'm actually doing it in two batches because we want to maintain the temperature.
So, it's important that it's not over crowded.
So I drained them, let them rest a little bit on some paper towels, so the outside is not greasy.
And now I'm going to put them in a basket here lined with some linen.
There you have it, warm corn fritters.
Somewhere between a hush puppy and a beignet.
GRAPE FRUI IN JASMINE TEA JELLY You can serve this early in meal, you can serve it as a dessert.
It's really really light.
These are Meyer lemons.
They are incredibly aromatic, it's really wonderful smell.
I'm going to use those instead of regular lemons.
However, you can use regular lemons.
For this recipe you need a fair amount as a substitute for water.
This is Pearl Jasmine Tea.
Pearl referring to the shape of the buds.
And this on.
I'm going to steep the tea in the warm Meyer lemon juice.
But I'm not going to brew it.
I'm going to use a simple syrup.
This is actually a weaker simple syrup.
A classic simple syrup is equal parts sugar to water.
This is actually a little bit more water.
While that's doing that, I'll prepare the grapefruit.
If you want really beautiful segments, you have to pay attention to how you shape it from the outside.
I'm not looking in front of the knife, I'm looking back and all I'm doing is following that line, as I go all the way around and down.
You have to work very hard to make it perfectly round.
It's not that big of a deal.
But it is a detail and god is in the details.
The devil's in the details.
And we're going to squeeze all the juice of what's left over the segments.
The syrup's come to a boil, so it's finished.
We're going to let this cool, all the way down.
The simple syrup is now cooled down to room temperature.
And add fresh lime juice, and the Jasmine tea Meyer lemon.
We're going to put a little warmth under this, and now I have sheet gelatin.
I'm going to soften it in cold water, very important.
That'll probably take a minute or a minute and a half.
Squeeze out all the water.
It's very easy to work with now.
Add the gelatin into the citrus and Jasmine tea mixture and we're going to stir it until it's just melted.
Put it into a mold and then into a refrigerator, so it sets.
While we're waiting on the gelatin, I'm going to get ready for my final plating.
I'm going to pick some nice beautiful mint leaves Pelucias, little tops here.
Take these beautiful grapefruit segments and drain them.
I just like the way the kitchen smells right now.
The smell of that tea, all that different citrus going on.
The gelatin's in good shape.
Break it up.
This is the consistency that we want.
And we're ready to plate.
Little layer of the jelly.
And of course, you can do it in advance.
There's no reason why this can't go to the fridge, now, if you're entertaining.
And now, put some mint leaves on.
And lastly, for me that really takes it to another level unexpected, is a couple drops of extra virgin olive oil.
Yet another addition that blurs the line between savory and sweet.
Grape fruit with citrus and Jasmine tea jelly.
This is a vegetarian stock.
Very similar to what we do at the restaurant.
The great thing about it is, is that we use chickpeas in it.
And the chickpeas give a rich, a more satisfying, umami-esque character to the broth.
I have an onion, celery, carrot going to add some turnip.
Little bit of fennel to it.
The vegetables I cut in large manageable pieces and put them right into the pot.
Some raw garlic.
Going to add the beans.
I soak them in water overnight.
Cover everything with water.
Add a little bit of salt.
Pinch of sugar.
And the final thing, the aromatics.
Bay leaf, a little bit of star anise, coriander seed, cumin seed, black pepper corns, and fennel seed.
Celery leaves, fresh parsley, and then I'm going to tie the bundle up.
Now add the sachet.
I'm going to add the little parsley tails as well.
Cover it and leave a little bit on the edge.
I'll bring it to simmer.
Smells good.
Looks really nice and clean.
Now I'm going to simmer until the chickpeas are finished, which will be about an hour and a half or two hours.
Okay, here we are, almost two hours later, the chickpeas nice and soft.
Delicious, it's got weight to it.
So, just for fun, I'm going to take some of this broth, then I'm going to take a little bit of the chickpeas, a piece of carrot a piece of turnip Mmhmm.
They're a great use for a vegetable stock.
We even used a little bit of the special ingredient, the chickpeas, just to thicken the broth up a little bit.
Just to make a thick soup.
This is a very simple vegetable broth, but very versatile.
It's a great thing to have around.
I'm going to bake a fillet of salmon with a mustard glaze that turns into a mirror like shine on the surface of the fish.
So nice beautiful salmon fillet here.
First thing I'm going to do is take the skin off.
Trim it up, make it look really good.
I have a pan, that's pretty warm.
Going to add a couple drops of oil.
Even though it's a baked dish, I just want to put it in the pan, so I can get a nice crispy exterior.
A really light coating of salt.
And directly into the pan.
Key to creating a great crust, on anything, piece of meat, piece of fish, is to not move it.
Beautiful color, golden brown.
And now, the glaze on top.
This recipe is very simple.
Equal parts dry mustard, equal part sugar.
Going to whisk it and get the lumps out now, while it's dry.
Then I'm going to add just enough water, to form a paste.
That's the consistency I'm looking for, right there.
This is the next step, we're going to bake the salmon.
A crucial detail here, a little bit of olive oil.
And to finish this off, a glaze on top.
When you taste this glaze raw, you wonder how it can possibly taste good.
But there's a reaction that happens in a gentle oven between the oil and the mustard, that creates a really beautiful sauce.
It's a 300 degree oven.
I want the fish to be pink.
And the sugar is going to glaze over.
And we're ready to go.
You could present it on a beautiful bed of some summer vegetables.
Gently roasted salmon with a sweet and spicy mustard glaze.
During the summertime, I love to char an eggplant, roast an eggplant.
Something that's very easy to do at home.
And then I make this tartin with eggplant caviar which is almost like a Baba Ghanoush in a way.
The first step in making the eggplant caviar is to roast the eggplant over an open fire.
I'm not going to be worried about cooking the eggplant all the way through and I want to char the skin so the skin is loose.
This is almost finished here.
This is looking pretty good.
So, to finish this on a piece of foil, now I'm going to wrap it, trap all that heat that it's accumulated on the outside and it's going to steam itself.
Going to take some bread, and make some slices.
And now I'm going to toast the bread till it's nice and crispy.
And we roasted the eggplant.
Eggplant's soft all the way through, it's cooked itself.
It's got a little bit of moisture which I'm going to drain off.
I'm going to remove the skin.
Now, I'm going to take out these big seed packets.
It's like the game of Operation.
This is ready to chop.
Now I'm going to move this to the bowl.
Add a little bit of salt, yogurt, some raw garlic.
Add a little bit of heat to this, piment d'espelettes.
I'm going to stir this in.
And I'm going to taste for the acidity.
The yogurt adds an acidic element.
I'm going to adjust that acidity with lime juice.
Just going to add just a couple of drops of olive oil, to finish it.
Next up for the tartin, tomatoes, I'm going to cut them in half.
Squeeze out the water and the seeds.
Garlic clove, cut in half.
Take the bread, the cut side of the garlic clove.
You don't need a lot.
A couple of gentle swipes.
And then, this is the fun part.
You take the tomato and you actually rub it on the bread because it's toasted.
You treat it as if it's a grater.
It absorbs up the tomato.
And now the eggplant can go on it.
Put as little or as much as you like on it.
Spanish ham, Jamón Ibérico, sliced paper-thin.
Tartin Eggplant Caviar and Spanish Ham.
One of my favorite ways of cooking eggplant.
Today, I'm going to make, "A drink with no name.
" So beginning of the summer, I was very fortunate to receive a gift of slow gin.
Gin marinated with slow-berry, which almost has a cherry-like quality to it.
So I started playing around with it.
I was given some recipes and in almost everything I found, a real interest to me, mixed slow gin and gin, together.
So, that's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to start with one part slow gin, You can see the color, it's really nice.
One part London Dry gin.
And the gin definitely makes it not a sweet.
Half part red vermouth.
Just a dash of orange bitters.
And this is one-quarter of lemon juice.
Now I'm going to stir it very quickly on smaller ice, so on crushed ice.
Just going to pulse it, to crush the ice.
I'm going to do this, fairly quickly.
I want to chill it down as quickly as I can.
Cold and clear.
Then I'm going to garnish it I'm no bartender, but I know what I like.
Oh, it's good.
Slow berry, it looks like a blueberry, but I'm sure it tastes like cherry.
Very nice.