Yeah, yeah, it’s weird to pick scrambled eggs as a dish for COTM, but with Keller as the theme I’m interested in picking up different techniques and new approaches to things I already enjoy eating. So, scrambled eggs.
What he does differently: strains the well-beaten eggs (I do this for chawanmushi but never though to for scrambled), uses cold butter in with the eggs to slow down the custard formation, and finally cold creme fraiche (I used heavy cream) when the custard is pretty much done, to stop further cooking. He also whisks briskly to never let curds form, so what you’re eating at the end is a soft custard.
Too rich as written for everyday eggs, but I may employ the straining going forward because I really don’t like gunk in my eggs. I also prefer curds in even my soft scrambled eggs, so I’ll skip the whisking next time.
@Saregama your sentiment about his fussy approach to things rang a bell for me and I realized that way back in the day, when she was cooking from and reviewing cookbooks as The Tipsy Baker, Jennifer Reese had the same reaction but kept finding (as I think you and others have) that as irksome as the fussiness can be, it mostly pays off. I fell into a lovely rabbit hole of re-reading her Thomas Keller adventures. I really wish she still wrote on that blog, she is so entertaining! The Tipsy Baker posts on Thomas Keller cooking adventures.
I really miss her blog. She has a whole new life now in Brooklyn.
I just read through those posts of hers cooking Thomas Keller recipes … so funny, talking about how much work, tedious details, mountains of dirty dishes to wash BUT usually the dish tastes fantastic!
I’m sorry that years ago I wasted good money buying Ad Hoc At Home … recipes are much too complicated. I still want to make the chicken pot pie but without a double crust (I don’t think that much crust is necessary) and I will just use TJ puff pastry on top.
Well I can’t really help making some adjustments when I think the process is too long or unnecessarily unwieldy for the home kitchen — or there’s a chance to improve flavor at the cost of presentation (like his pats of compound butter that are quite obviously not evenly distributed over the shrimp, so what happens to the shrimp that don’t have any compound butter on them?).
But there’s definitely learning to be done on other things, like the arrangement of the shrimp and the straining of the eggs and the blending of eggs for quiche (for enough time) and so on, that improve the outcome that I may not have done on my own.
I found a couple of cooking from Keller blogs, but had not see Tipsy Baker’s, so thank you for the link! (I never followed her but I know many baking regulars did on CH.)
This was too similar to my favorite brownie recipe including some of my tweaks not to try. My go-to-recipe is Alice Medrich’s best cocoa brownies, to which I often add chocolate bits or pieces (and round down butter). The ingredient proportions between the two recipes are very similar, other than a bit more butter in his case and a bit more sugar in hers.
But, it’s Keller, so of course it takes more work In the Medrich version, butter, sugar, and cocoa are heated together first, then the eggs beaten in, and finally the flour added. Keller has a more cake-like approach with the eggs and sugar beaten, the butter half melted and half not, and wet and dry ingredients combined in parts, alternately. (His are also baked longer.) Yep, fusspot
Anyway the end result is quite similar in texture and flavor (I dialed back the salt slightly to taste) not only to Medrich’s brownies but also to his own bouchons. I’ll give this another shot soon – I scaled down to 1 egg proportions for a brownie batch I was making for someone, from which I tasted the trimmings. Maybe the texture is slightly different – the first try didn’t seem different enough to warrant the extra work vs. the one-bowl brownies, but I may have to eat a few whole brownies from the next batch before I make that decision
ETA: I just went back and looked at the bouchons recipe, and it’s virtually identical to the brownies except that they’re baked in small molds so it’s less oven time.
I’m planning for the roast chicken in the next week, and torn between bread salad (Zuni inspired but simplified) or the leek bread pudding. Though potatoes under the chicken would be much easier.
Haha, yeah what was attractive to me was that it was new as well. But I am rethinking whether I will be into the soggy inside texture of bread pudding… maybe, but not sure.
Also I do love my cheat version of that bread salad so much… those schmaltzy croutons… but I’d have to make the bread first.
I’ve never made a bread pudding with a soggy texture, and I’ve made lots of bread pudding, including baked in a water bath. Unless you just mean not crisp.
I made the chicken pot pie exactly once and I think it took me like 6 or 7 hours from start to finish. It was NUTS. If I ever was insane enough to attempt it again, I’d do it over the course of 2 days at least.
This is my absolute favorite from-scratch brownie recipe. I like that you mix in chocolate chunks into the batter for little melty bits of chocolate. It is one of the easier Keller recipes I’ve made.
I’ve made it several times and everyone loves it. . . but the last time I made them they were NOT good. I don’t know what the difference is except maybe I’ve never made them in this oven before and always made them at the house I used to live in. I brought them to a work barbecue and was literally telling people to skip them. I have a good reputation as a cook/baker there and those brownies were NOT good. Very dense, dry, and they somehow didn’t seem to be sweet enough. I won’t give up on the recipe, though, because I know it is usually good.
I don’t even remember eating it because if I did it was way past my bedtime and zombified. I’m not against attempting it again but now I know what level of time and effort to expect. I’m insane enough to make a coconut cake literally called “the ultimate moist fluffy ridiculous coconut cake”. Just like let me know what I’m in for when I start.
I have a lot of free time to fill so this would be something I’d consider making again as written since I don’t remember much of my attempt several years ago. Then I’d be smart enough (I hope) to make notes if I wanted to do it again in the future. I’m not someone who typically writes notes in cookbooks or notebooks.
— or there’s a chance to improve flavor at the cost of presentation (like his pats of compound butter that are quite obviously not evenly distributed over the shrimp, so what happens to the shrimp that don’t have any compound butter on them?).
