Cookaholics Bulletin Board http://cookaholics.org/ |
|
Heston Blumenthal at Home http://cookaholics.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1808 |
Page 1 of 1 |
Author: | Paul Kierstead [ Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:01 am ] |
Post subject: | Heston Blumenthal at Home |
One of my latest acquisitions is Heston Blumenthal at Home. I've given it a good looking over and I must say, I think I am going to like it. Although he is a modernist, this book doesn't use modernist ingredients for the most part and is accessible. It is definitely no ATK in difficulty though; I'd tend to put it somewhere near (or a little below) Ad Hoc in time and trouble. There are some specialist ingredients, but lots and lots of recipes without any. And, although it isn't modernist, it still is full of interesting and different flavour profiles, along with many classic dishes which have been tweaked. Most dishes have very good explanations which are useful whether or not you make that exact dish. So far, I've only made a caper and shallot vinaigrette, using it as suggest with potatoes and meat (duck breast in this case) and was inspired by his used of brussel sprouts (basically blanching the leaves) and his comments on leeks. I was extremely pleased with this vinaigrette for this application, it really finished the dish. I imported the UK version to get metric weights; I'm hoping for most of you that they don't screw up the US version too much. I think they'll convert to US weights for sure; if you're lucky, they won't convert everything to volumes. |
Author: | jeanf [ Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:09 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Heston Blumenthal at Home |
I jsut bought his "In Search of Perfection" at a booksale ($4, could not leave it there) and am enjoying thumbing through it, but not sure if I'll make anything yet. Have you tried that book at all? |
Author: | Paul Kierstead [ Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:26 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Heston Blumenthal at Home |
No, I don't have that book. I watched some of the tv series, and it put me off the book some; not because I don't believe in going utterly mad for perfection, but because I felt it seemed kind of arbitrary. But, of course, a TV show has severe limitations a book doesn't, so if I'd seen it for $4, I probably would have bought it My meal that was inspired by him was duck breast (SV'd and seared) over boiled new mini-potatoes tossed with the shallot and caper vinaigrette, with blanched brussel sprout leaves, topped with finely shredded leek sweated in duck fat. The flavours worked well together and was a winner. The only complaint from the peanut gallery concerned the duck breast skin, which I will treat differently next time. Only the vinaigrette was directly from the book, but the overall inspiration was from there. |
Author: | jeanf [ Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:31 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Heston Blumenthal at Home |
thanks Paul. I too watched the series and enjoyed it. Will post when/if I try anything from there. For future referenence, if you need testers, I'll need a 4 hour head start for dinner. |
Author: | Paul Kierstead [ Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:29 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Heston Blumenthal at Home |
This weekend, tried a couple more.
|
Page 1 of 1 | All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ] |
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group http://www.phpbb.com/ |