Recipe Foci, Le Titi, Le Francais, Arizona Kitchen

Pistachio Brulee (Le Titi)

500 g. cream, 500 g. milk, 100 g. pistachio paste, 150 g. sugar, 200 g. sugar

 

Duck Liver Flan (Le Titi)

1 onion (chopt & caramelized w/ garlic & cooled), 2 clove garlic, 500 g. duck liver, chicken liver, or foie, 7 eggs, 1200 g. cream, thyme, tarragon, or other herb

Puree w/ stick blender or bar blender, pass though sieve, fill timbales or ramekins, water bath, 325*F oven.

 

Maple Cream  (Le Titi)

250 g. maple syrup, 5 yolks, 50 g. pastry cream powder (sub cornstarch?), ½ L. milk (scalded), 2 gelatin leaf (bloom), 250 g. chopt pecans, 500 g. cream (soft peak)

Maple, yolks, powder.  Temper in milk, whisk in gelatin, cook until thick--- bubbles in middle, cool in ice bath.fold in pecan, then cream.  Set overnite.

 

Fig Ice Cream (Le Titi)

 

1471 g. milk, 142 g. powdered milk, 284 g. cream, 483 g. sugar, 156 g. glucose powder, 1000 g. fig puree, 21 g. IC stabilizer

 

Swiss Meringue (Le Titi)

500 g. sugar (soft ball) : 250 whites  For Chocolate, 35 g. cocoa

 Tartlet Dough (Le Francais)

500 g. softened butter, 50 g. sugar, 12 g. salt, 80 g. water, 2 eggs, 1 K. cake flour

Cream butter, sugar, salt.  Add liquid.  Mix flour little by little.

Raspberry Pate  (Le Titi)

1000 g. raspberry puree, 25 g. pectin, 1140 g. sugar, 320 g. glucose, 15 g. citric acid @ 50% (~8 g. water : 8 g. lemon juice)

Warm puree – mix pectin w/ 25% of the sugar, add to puree.  Boil.  Add glucose & additional sugar – cook to 223 *F.  Remove from heat & whisk in acid.  Pour in ½ sheet pan w/ silpat.  Let set in cooler.

 

Mango Pate (Le Titi)

1000 g. mango puree, 300 g. green apple puree, 1500 g. sugar, 450 g. glucose, 35 g. pectin, 20 g. citric acid (~10 g. water : 10 g. lemon juice)

Same as raspberry pate.

 

Spaetzle (Le Titi)

1# flour, 1 ½ c. milk, 6 eggs (+ or- 1), 2 T. Dijon, 1 T. whole grain mustard, tumeric, 2 T. apple cider vinegar

Looking for the consistency of pate choux w/ initial egg addition.

 

Charred Yellow Tomato Gazpacho (AZK)

1 cs yellow tomato – cored in 1/4s, 5 peeled & deseeded cucumbers, 2 yellow squash, s/p, champagne vinegar, olive oil, Tabasco

Char  tomato (easy under a sally), buzz ingredients and season.

 

Goat Cheese Roulades (AZK)

36 oz. goat cheese, 16 oz. cream cheese, pesto or other filling

Mix cheeses at room temp.  Spray table w/ nonstick.  Parchment.  Spray parchment.  Roll out mix, square off.  Spread pesto/filling.  Roll, freeze to set.

 

Tamales (variation cascabel chile) (AZK)

8 c. masa harina, 8 c. apple juice, 2 T. baking powder, 2 T. salt, 14 T. lard, cascabel chile puree

 

Chipotle Citrus Redux (AZK)

4 gal. OJ, 46 oz. pineapple juice, thyme, oregano, black peppercorns

Redux low heat until thick, up to 8 hours.  Strain and freeze.  Base for dressing – add mayo, sherry vinegar, balsamic, Tabasco, chile powder, brown sugar, cumin, salt and white pepper.

 

Smoked Apple & Lime Dressing (AZK)

1 cs granny smith apples (peel, seed, core), 10 lime’s zest, apple juice

Hot smoke, apples & zest – mesquite.  Buzz w/ juice.  FREEZE.  Add same ingred. as citrus dressing.

 

Crema (AZK)

1 pt heavy cream : 1 pt buttermilk

1 pt. lemon juice to every gallon.  Room temp. for 2 days.

At AZK, added zucchini juice & roasted garlic

 

 

Pork Braise (AZK)

¾ OJ : ¼ Lemon Juice + 1 onion, oregano, achiote paste, garlic

 

Star Anise & Vanilla Bean Oil (AZK)

Toast anise.  10 vanilla beans split.  Grapeseed oil.  Let sit 2 days minimum.

 

Pinion Cream (AZK)

1 gal. cream, 1 onion, garlic, olive oil, oregano, thyme, Madeira, pine nuts

Sweat onion, garlic in oil, deglaze w/ Madeira, au sec, cream, pine nuts.  Reduce.  Buzz. Strain chinnoise.  Season.

 

Smoked Bell Pepper Cream (AZK)

15-20 bell peppers (roast, skinned, deseed, smoke until smells), 1 gal. cream, 1 onion, garlic, olive oil, oregano, thyme, Madeira 

Same procedure as pinion cream, but season w/ Tabasco, chile powder, brown sugar, cumin, and cornstarch if loose.

 

Pomegranate & Molasses Glaze (for squab) (AZK)

Simmer half molasses w/ half pomegranate syrup, whisk in garlic, butter, & salt.

 

Red Chile & Goat Cheese Cream (AZK)

1 gal. cream, 1 onion, garlic, olive oil, oregano, thyme, 1 #10 can diced tomato, 3 New Mexico red chiles, tequila, goat cheese

Same procedure as pinion cream, but season w/ Tabasco, chile powder, brown sugar, cumin and deglaze w/ tequila.  The tomato gets added w/ cream, the goat cheese buzzed in at the end.

 

Gabriel’s “Tempura” Batter

350 g. flour, 60 g. cornstarch, 60 g. baking powder, water, s/p

 

Le Francais’ Meat Temps

115* Rare, 120* MR, 125* M, 130-5* MW, 145-50* Well

 

Bacon & Dijon Dressing (Le Francais)

2 T. shallot, 1 T. garlic, ¼ c. red wine vinegar, 1 kitchen spoon Dijon, 3 yolks, 1 qt. blended oil, bacon fat (sub foie?! J), s/p

Whip by hand, bacon fat last.

 

Champagne Vinaigrette (Le Francais)

3 : 1 Oil to Vinegar + shallot, garlic, sugar, S&P.

 

Fruit Brulee (Le Francais)

250 g. cream, 50 g. milk, 40 g. puree, 50 g. sugar, 2 yolks, 1 egg

 

Vanilla Brulee (Le Francais)

200 g. milk, 100 g. cream, 1 vanilla bean, 50 g. sugar, 5 yolks

 

Lobster Bisque (Le Francais)

6# lobster shells, mir poix + garlic, 2 bay leaf, coriander, tarragon, cracked black pepper, cayenne, ½ c. cream sherry (cheaper), ½ c. brandy, ½ c. white wine, tomato paste, fish stock, duck remoulage, finish with cream.  Pass through china cap, chinnoise, & tammy.

 

Orange & Vodka Sorbet (Le Francais)

2 L. fresh OJ, 350 ml simple syrup, 100 g. sugar, 1 lemon’s juice, 250 ml vodka

 

Tart Dough (Le Francais)

1 K. flour, 700 g. butter, 350 sugar, 3 yolks, 2 T. vanilla, pinch salt, 4 T. cream, zest 1 orange

 

Black Truffle Vinaigrette (Le Francais)

1/3 c. balsamic, ¼ c. sherry vinegar, 1-2 black truffles, 3 c. blended oil, 1-2 oz. black truffle oil, s/p

Blender method.  If you have a really nice EVOO, take out ¼ c. blended oil & add ¼ c. in it’s place at end after the blender.

 

Potato Puree (Le Francais)

6# potato : 2# butter : 1 ½ qt. cream reduced to 1 qt.

Cook potato until nicely done, dry in oven.  Ricer into mixer.  Add other ingredients, season, pass through tammy.

 

White Truffle Potato Soup (Le Francais)

1 onion, ¼ c. sliced garlic, 16 peeled & chopt potato, 3 qt. cream, white truffle oil, s/p

Saute veggies, add cream, add potato, cook until done.  Puree, flavor w/ oil, s/p, pass through chinnoise.

 

Broken Beet Vinaigrette  (Le Francais)

1 boiled or roasted beet, balsamic vinegar, blended oil, EVOO, S/P --- Blender.

 

Brown Butter Emulsion

3 large pots, 4 oz. squab ju or duck stock, ½ # butter, ¼ c. lemon juice

Brown butter in one pot.  Heat ju in other.  Add ju & lemon to browned butter.  Whisk hard through bubbles, when emulsified add to other pot & keep whisking.

Favorite Ingredients, Foie Gras

A breakfast of foie gras, poached egg, potatoes lyonnaise, fresh tomatoes & roaring forties blue cheese

I love foie gras.  I love to cook it.  I love to eat it.  When I first started cooking with foie, it had a certain sexy mystique about it.  When your chef portions the liver and forbids others from cleaning it, or perhaps only one cook is allowed to cook it on the hot line, there's something to be said about learning to cook with it as a whole.  A need to prove oneself.   Chicago banned it for a brief period of time.  There are still people that think it's illegal here now and I think that's sad.  Because no matter what PETA thinks, it's still more humane than the way we treat chickens, cattle, and even our labor in this great country.

The book to read about foie when I started cooking was Foie Gras, A Passion, by Michael A. Ginor.

This book contained a veritable who's who of chefs (including Charlie Trotter who lambasts the gras now) and was the most exciting thing to pass around at Le Francais as we talked of preparations we cooks had experienced cooking at other restaurants or had eaten with our meager paychecks on the rare night out.  I remember talking with a friend for about a half hour on the best way to stuff figs with the liver while breaking down the line.  Good times.

Since then, my experience with the product has grown immensely, yet as of late, haven't had the opportunity to deal with it on a regular schedule.  When I was catering, we sold it often on a large scale, the record being fifteen 2 pound lobes brought in for a party of 550, to be broken down into torchon.  That was fun, and a few of our interns actually got some hands on time while it was still banned.  Chicago doesn't always follow the law.  Heck, technically sous vide is illegal, but look at all the cryovacs & immersion circulators out there.  Kinda expensive paperweights, eh?

My favorite way to make torchon is a hybrid method, lightly cleaning, marinating/curing, and then free poaching in duck fat at 190 degrees for a few minutes, then wrapping and cooling like a free form sausage.  First with cheese cloth and then plastic wrap, and then after cooling, rewrapping after being rolled smooth on a warm surface.  I can control the size of the torchon that way, making logs the size of a saucer or as small as a quarter.  Almost perfectly round to boot.  There's little loss of fat (if done correctly) and the duck fat can be reused or utilized in another dish.  Makes some hella roasted potatoes.

Salt cured torchons deserve some mention.  Very little weight loss occurs, but it can come off as too salty if left in the cure too long.  Smaller torchons and overnight curing is the best route.

A whole lobe.  Sexy, ain't it?

As for sauteed foie, I've seen it done a bunch of different ways.  Some chefs flour it.  Some chefs don't.  Some chefs score it.  Other chefs don't.  Cooking from frozen, as much as a sin as it seems, works insanely well, and you tend to generate less waste.  This is good since the product is so damned expensive to begin with.  However, if you're busy enough, a nice thick piece of liver, vein removed, seared fresh is incredible.  Make sure you get deep color, and DO NOT BURN IT.  Nothing makes me more pissed off than paying for something so sacred... than to see it greasy and without color or burnt to inedibility.  Or for it to be too thin.  Or overcooked until it's rubbery. 

There are plenty of ways to use foie scraps that should be mentioned.  Foie gras is the closest thing we have to edible play doh.  At the right temperature you can mold or form it any which way but loose.  Fun to think about, easy to be creative.  When I have scraps the first thing I usually do is make foie butter.  3:1 unsalted butter to foie scrap passed through a sieve, butter first paddled in a mixer, and the scrap folded in.  Freeze or refrigerate until needed.  Outside of smearing it on bread, foie butter prepared properly does not curdle after being mounted into a sauce or nage.  Effing unbelievable mounted into even vegetable broths.

Foie scrap can also be saved for torchons, worked into strudels, sauteed as a salad special, whipped into mousses, made into crusts for meat or fish with cream cheese, egg & breadcrumb, smeared over your...  pardon me.  Anyways, good stuff.  Don't just throw it out.

 Smiley the Goose says, "I'm no corporate chicken!  I eat a lot more too!  PETA can shove it!  Quack!"