Alineaphile

Junsai, Bonito, Soy, Mirin – Alinea cookbook recipe, pages 270-271.

It’s a texture thang. This Alinea cookbook recipe is a cold shot of dashi with a floater of slimy junsai — water lily buds, that is. These rare ‘veggies’ come from the submerged parts of the Brasenia schreberi plant, and are coated with a clear mucilage that imparts quite a unique mouthfeel when eaten. Some will like it, others not! I liked it.

Once you find all the ingredients, this is a really easy recipe to make. Once you find them are the key words. Finding junsai in San Diego was impossible. I say near, because someone must have it secreted away somewhere, but hell if I can find them…

One of the simplest in the cookbook, in fact. It uses only a few ingredients…

Dashi
I’ve heard dashi (出汁, だし) is traditionally known as a basic cooking stock, not a straight-up beverage. I spoke to my son’s karate sensai about this recipe, and Shihan replied with disgust, “uugghh, that is no good.” I, personally, like it — however lowly it may be thought of.

Mise en place:

Think of it as fundamentally as veal stock, chicken consumé, or miso broth. It’s made by boiling dried kombu seaweed with kezurikatsuo (dried, shaved bonito tuna flakes).

Pretty simple recipe. Oh, by the way, cats like kezurikatsuo…

I soaked the kombu overnight in a bowl of water.

I boiled the kombu to get extract its seaside, kelpy taste…

…and poured it over the bonito to steep. After about 15 minutes, I strained it through a coffee filter, then added some mirin cooking wine, rice wine vinegar and soy sauce to taste, and refrigerated.

Ingredients
Water
Dried kombu seaweed
Dried kezurikatsuo, bonito flakes
Kikkoman reduced sodium soy sauce
Mirin cooking wine
Kikkoman rice vinegar

Junsai
Junsai (Brasenia schreberi), also commonly known as ‘water shield,’ ‘dollar bonnet,’ and ‘water target,’ is a type of floating flower related to the lily family. In fact, many people consider it to be a water lily. It looks like one: flat, oval, greenish-purple leaves floating on a pond’s surface with small purple flowers. But, unlike virtually all water lilies, its submerged parts are covered with a thick, clear mucilage. This slimy goo protects the flower’s buds, fruit and emerging leaves, all of which are edible and have been consumed for eons by Asian and Native American cultures. Today, junsai is grown and commercially harvested in China.

Never heard of it here in the States before? No.

Not so surprising… until you know it’s indigenous to many parts of the U.S. and Canada! I did not know that.

I suppose people just think of it as a pretty pond plant. But just try buying some here. Hahahaha!

I went online to the Alinea Mosaic to see if anyone had found junsai. No.

Allen Hemberg of The Alinea Project was still looking. Carol of Alinea at Home used enoki mushrooms in her version. Which, I may say, sounded pretty tasty! But no junsai.

I was determined. And eventually found several sources online. Nishikidôri Market and Workshop ISSé, both located in Paris, France had it in stock! A bit expensive at 8,00€ for the junsai + 28,00€ for shipping (US$42.42 total, for a 60ml bottle delivered to the US), but I found them!

Workshop ISSé, Épicerie fine japonaise
11 Rue Saint Augustin
75002 Paris, France
tél: +33 (0)1 42 96 26 74

Ingredients
White hawk Brand bottled junsai

To Assemble and Serve
Add some chilled dashi to a shot glass and toss in a few junsai.

Equipment
Cutting board and kitchen knife
Salter digital scale
Large pot for boiling
Spoon
Bowls
Strainer or sieve
Coffee filters

Serveware
Shot glasses

Yields: plenty for 16-32 servings

LAMB, In Cubism – Alinea Cookbook recipe, pages 188-191.

A cubist feast of Mediterranean flavors, lamb, mint, eggplant, yogurt, lemon and exotic spices. In 2-D. Pablo would be impressed. That’s what you get in this complex, but delicious recipe from the Alinea Restaurant cookbook. Every bite is different, a personal taste, just as is everyone’s interpretation of a Cubist painting.

Day One

I thought this would just be a two day recipe, but it was much more labor-intensive than I’d thought. I started on a Friday night after work in August. My girlfriend came over Saturday to help and we spent twelve hours in the kitchen. Finished too late to eat that night, so it became a Sunday night meal! Just warning you…

You’ll also need enough freezer space for all the puddings laid flat. I’d suggest doing a half-batch of each; you’ll have plenty for eight servings.

Fenugreek Sprouts
Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) is a great flavor. It immediately brings to my mind the cuisines of India and the Mediterranean. If you have a source for these, use it. If you can’t find ’em, sprout ’em yourself! I also did this for PROSCIUTTO, Passion Fruit, Zuta Levana. Making sprouts is so easy, and most always cheaper than buying them at a specialty shop. The trick with spices is to find and use seeds that have not been roasted or irradiated — they’ll never sprout!

Mise en place:

I scattered some fenugreek seeds on a paper towel in a plastic container, and moistened with water.

Covered with some slits in the lid, and put in a cool, dark place for a couple of days.

Ingredients
Dried Fenugreek seeds
Water

Lamb Boned, Rolled, and Tied
So what’s a “saddle” of lamb? And where do you get one in San Diego?

North Park Produce sells whole lamb for about US$140.00. I asked for one cut into three primal cuts (then each split in two at the spine). So I got a whole lamb in six parts — here’s the lamb in a box!

The saddle of lamb is composed of the two loins and spine. The ribs were attached, but not needed for the loin roll; we’ll roast those and make lamb stock. The loins will be separated from the bone, and a layer of fat from the flaps will be rolled around them and tied. These are called loin roasts, rolled loins, or in French noisettes (“nwah-ZETS”).

So what I needed to do was remove the bones from the meat, fat and flaps. Trying to keep all the meat together. We’ll see about that.

But how do you go about breaking the primal cuts? Trying to do this from a few sentences in the cookbook is insane. I shoulda’ looked up some of these butchering how-to videos first. But like most men who don’t ask for directions when they’re driving lost, I did not.

After removing the bones, I had the loins and tenderloins attached to the flaps.

Trimmed the flap meat so there was no skin on the outside, and mostly a layer of fat with which to roll the loins.

Then I could clean up the loins, removed the silverskin, and rolled them in the fat, and tied with kitchen twin.

Here are the final rolled lamb loins, or noisettes. Each loin yielded 6-8 large medallions. The scraps and smaller tenderloins I reserved for the lamb rillets recipe.

I put the noisettes and some olive oil in plastic sous-vide bags, fitting one lamb roll per bag…

Then sealed the bags with my FoodSaver vacuum sealer.

Then cooked them en sous vide for two hours at 135°F, which is supposed to result in medium rare.

After they were done, I plunged the bags in an ice water bath to cool, removed them from their bags, and refrigerated for later. (Rapid cooling reduces the risk of bacteria growth in the warm bag.)

Here’s one lamb noisette fully cooked:

It still looks raw, but it’s not. It was cooked en sous vide for several hours. After I seared it for service, it came out more medium than medium-rare.

Ingredients
Whole saddle of lamb, split on the spine by the butcher
STAR extra virgin olive oil

Lamb Stock
I saved the rib bones and meat scraps leftover from butchering the lamb, and used those to make this rich stock. There’s a LOT of grease and fat to be dealt with in this recipe. I skimmed off so much from stock as it simmered!

I roasted the bones in the oven until they were quite brown. Also seared and roasted some lamb shanks, and browned the lamb scraps.

The Alinea recipe for lamb stock uses bones only — no meat — a more classic approach, which yields clearer stock. I threw all of this in the pot for a really rich stock, not really minding if it got cloudy…

Added the bones and scraps to a large stock pot and covered with water, and brought to a boil. Then I added onions, carrots, peppercorns, thyme, tomato paste, and reduced to a simmer. I skimmed off the fat and foam as it appeared on the surface.

For six hours or so, it simmered, and then was strained… And reduced some more….

I kept it simmering on the stove, as I was using it in some of the components of this recipe. Here’s the final lamb stock:

Ingredients
Lamb bones, ribs and scraps, reserved from above
Diced onions
Diced carrots
Black peppercorns
Bunch fresh thyme
Hunt’s tomato paste

Lamb Rillettes
A rillette (ree-YEHT) is a French preparation of meat similar to pâté — meat (pork, lamb, goose, duck, chicken, game birds, rabbit, fish) is slowly cooked in fat until it is tender, shredded, and then cooled with enough of the fat to form a paste. Rillettes are normally spread on bread or toast, and served at room temperature.

In this Alinea Restaurant recipe, you take the classic rillette, bread it with panko, and fry until golden. The exterior is crispy and the interior is soft, filled with warm, shredded lamby goodness. Of all those who tried my version, this was everyone’s favorite part of LAMB, In Cubism.

Mise en place:

Tenderloin meat and lamb scraps left over from prepping the noisettes:

What are Cassia Buds?
Just as cloves are the dried flower buds of the clove plant, cassia buds are simply the dried, unopened flower buds from the cinnamon (Cinnamomum aromaticum, et al) tree (and ground cinnamon is the bark from that tree).

They have a more subtle, slightly milder taste than regular cinnamon, almost sweeter.

Cassia buds are more difficult to find than cloves, though. I ordered mine online after exhausting every spice outlet and source I could find locally.

I combined the dry spices and toasted in a hot skillet until they released their aromatic oils. I like the combination, their aroma was wonderful wafting through the house! After they had cooled, I ground them to a powder in my spice grinder.

I cut up the lamb, coated it with the spices.

Then heated some canola oil in a roundeau pan, until it was smoking. Then I seared the meat on all sides…

…added some lamb stock, then covered it to braise for three hours.

After the lamb was nice and tender, I removed it from the pan and reduced the remaining stock until thick.

Then I added the meat back in and shredded it with a fork, mixing with the reduction, and mixed in the butter, some olive oil, minced shallots and salt. (Yeah I know, ‘pulled pork’ is all the rage right now, but this old-school French preparation is better!)

I divided the meat in two portions, rolled into tight logs in SARAN plastic wrap, twisting the ends to tighten up.

I put the finished lamb rillette logs in the fridge to cool and harden.

Ingredients
Coriander seed
Ground cardamom
Cumin seed
Cassia buds
Fennel seed
Black Tellicherry pepper
Ground turmeric
Canola oil
Lamb meat and scraps, reserved from above
Lamb stock, reserved from above
Challenge unsalted butter
Star Brand extra virgin olive oil
Morton’s kosher salt

Pine Nut Pudding
I toasted some pine nuts until they were golden brown, then combined them in a medium saucepan with whole milk, sugar and pine nut oil. I brought the mixture to a boil for awhile, then removed from the heat, covered and let steep. When it was room temp, I refrigerated overnight to infuse.