This past weekend was the third session of what I’ll call the “educational and aspirational” meals I’ve cooked with my friend Brad. Meals where we’ve invested ourselves (and our cash) in planning a meal from a particular cookbook which require an inordinate amount of research and planning. The first time we tackled The French Laundry. Next was our dinner from most recent cookbook On the Line. This time we dug into David Chang’s Momofuku, a cookbook .
I’ll say this right up front; this meal was the most disappointing of the three. Not bad, mind you, but the return on time invested was not there. And this is not the first time I’ve been unhappy with results from this cookbook. I’ll admit some flaws in execution, but a good cookbook should set you up for success with its direction, and I don’t think this one does a good job of that. Some recipes don’t flow well, and I’m left making assumptions or changes that I think are necessary, but go unmentioned by the book. And while I appreciate the introduction to certain techniques, flavors, chemicals, and sustainability, some flavors just don’t work, and there is such a thing as an unnecessary “improvement”. I love this cookbook as reference, and the stories are great, but to me it’s not to be followed blindly, and I do not plan on attempting any more of the tedious or expensive recipes. That said, here’s what we ate.
The meal began with the English muffins, my second attempt. They were halved and griddled in a pool of bay leaf infused, whipped mix of rendered Benton’s bacon fat and butter. Garnished with Maldon salt and chives, they are excellent. This recipe is actually forgiving, the only difficult part is trying to make them pretty.
Next was the Riverview Farms pig’s head torchon. Brad boiled the pig’s head for a few hours, then we had a fun time digging our paws inside the pig’s face, pulling out chunks of meat and fat anywhere our fingers could go. A layer of fat is layed down, then seasoned meat, then wrapped in plastic wrap into the cylindrical torchon shape. Fried in panko, it was served with cherries and a mustard/mayo sauce. It was goooood, and porky, but again, I wasn’t happy with the instruction and think it could be improved. The texture was too dense and chewy, the fat was not quite where I wanted to be, and the book mentioned nothing about the size of the pieces needed to form the torchon. We chopped them to the size that made sense to us, but looking back it could have been a finer mix.
The “brick chicken” is a deboned chicken half, sprinkled with transglutaminase (aka “meat glue”), then wrapped onto itself to form a brick shape. Wrapped overnight, the glue causes the meat to adhere to itself, creating a single entity of white and dark meat. Pan roasted on the stove top and the oven, the chicken skin was initially crispy, but somewhat rubbery by the time I could cut and plate the dish. The skin was my fault. The chicken was tasty, with plenty of moisture lent to the white meat by it’s soulful cousin, the thigh. I think the chicken should have been brined first though.
The oyster mushroom with pistachio-dashi puree was ok, but the puree is a waste of time if you ask me. I would have been just as happy simply with a side of mixed, sautéed mushroom in butter.
I enjoyed the flavor of the cereal milk panna cotta, which was rich with the savory flavor of corn flakes, though a friend said it was “disgusting”. The hazelnut/chocolate served with it was amazing. We left out the avocado puree, as we agreed it was weird for weird’s sake, and our particular avocado was less than stellar.
Not pictured (bad blogger!) is the famous Ko Egg, which we had before the torchon, and I did thoroughly enjoy. Visually stunning, and slightly less delicious than that, it’s a fine egg preparation, and who doesn’t enjoy caviar? The extra potato chips were a pleasing snack too. I would recommend this dish, as it’s beautiful and elegant, a great way to start a meal. Picture from Bon Appetit below (ours more or less looked similar).
** UPDATE ** Brad sent me a photo of the egg. So the photo below is our Ko Egg dish.
More Links!
Brad’s account of the Pig’s Head in Creative Loafing.
My first attempt of the English Muffin
The Pork Belly Ssam
The Fried Chicken
Chicken Wings (best recipe in the book!)
Pork Buns
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