Aki Kamozawa - Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Copyright 2013 by Aki Kamozawa & H. Alexander Talbot

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.clarksonpotter.com

CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kamozawa, Aki.
Maximum flavor/Aki Kamozawa & H. Alexander Talbot.
pages cm
Includes index.
1. Cooking. 2. Cookbooks. lcgft I. Talbot, H. Alexander. II. Title.
TX714.K3578 2013
641.5dc23
2012033801
ISBN 978-0-7704-3321-5
eISBN 978-0-7704-3322-2

BOOK DESIGN: Laura Palese

v3.1

INTRODUCTION

WE LOVE TO PLAY WITH FOOD. In fact, we love it so much that weve made careers out of it. When we cooked professionally, we started experimenting in our free time, teaching ourselves new approaches and embracing innovation to make food taste better. We eventually made the jump to opening our own business and now consult with restaurants and companies big and small to help them solve kitchen conundrums and think more creatively about cooking.

As a result, youll find lots of kitchen science in these pages. When, years ago, we became fascinated by figuring out the hows and whys of what happens in the kitchen, we started chronicling our adventures on our website and blog, Ideas in Food . Modern cooking, aka molecular gastronomy, has inspired many chefs and cooks to explore new ideas in the kitchen, which is always a good thing. But some of its techniques can be too over the top for most home cookslike using liquid nitrogen to freeze ice cream. So in this book we focus exclusively on recipes that can help home cooks make better meals every day. And while there are many cool things you can do with food, were only ever interested in the tricks and techniques that help deliver maximum flavor.

Often well take a standard recipe and see if we can improve it by experimenting with different ways to prepare it. When you make , which also break some culinary rules; contrary to popular belief, burgers cook more quickly and evenly if you flip them regularly.

We also use pantry ingredients strategically to maximize flavor. It turns out that the secret to the best : Cook them in a simple sugar syrup first, allowing them to soak in the liquid, before toasting them as you normally would. The nuts take on a deep, dark brown color and have a rich flavor and an excellent crunch.

In many recipes, we take advantage of common kitchen equipment that home cooks may otherwise overlook. Take the microwave. This often-maligned machine is actually very useful. We put it to use in making is to cook it first sous vide and then grill the meat, producing a perfectly tender juicy steak with that all-important char on the outside.

We want Maximum Flavor to be a helpful kitchen guide and a source of inspiration. So not only does each recipe offer some sort of insight into how food works and how you can make it taste better, but, throughout the book, weve also included sidebars with discussions on topics such as gluten-free mixes for baking, how to balance salty and sweet flavors, and what fermentation is and how it makes sourdough so deliciousall to help inform your day-to-day cooking.

Youll find that measurements in the ingredients lists are given in standard American volume measurements and also by weight in grams. The volume, or imperial, measurements are the ones with which most home cooks are more comfortable, and we want everyone to cook from this book. That said, using the gram measurements will provide the most accuracy, and we strongly encourage the use of a scale for all of the recipes with an emphasis on baking; volume measurements for ingredients such as flour, cornstarch, and confectioners sugar vary greatly as the ingredients tend to get packed down in their containers.

We hope that Maximum Flavor gives you lots of interesting ideas and helpful information to boost your own kitchen creativity. The recipes in this book can be adapted and altered to suit your own palate, and the techniques can be applied to other dishes (the handy freezer shucking tip in the recipe just may make cooking quick seafood dishes on a weeknight more of a reality in your house, too).

BACON & DEVILED EGGS

CLASSIC DEVILED EGGS ARE ALWAYS A FAVORITE, BUT THEY can be a challenge to pull off perfectly every time. We prefer the technique of steaming eggs to hard cooking them, because it gives consistent results with the added benefit of making the eggs easier to peelmeaning you can say good-bye forever to that green tinge around the yolk and also to whites that are pitted and unattractive to set out. The smoked tea brine bath seasons the eggs after theyre cooked and makes them look beautiful and festive. Leftover pickle juice (or olive brine) is often thoughtlessly discarded but makes an inspiring addition to dishes such as this one. The glazed bacon is crisp, sweet, spicy, and the perfect accent to the creamy eggs.

MAKES 24 DEVILED EGGS

DEVILED EGGS

12 large eggs

4 cups 907 grams cranberry juice

ounce 15 grams Lapsang Souchong tea (about 6 tea bags)

1 tablespoon 18 grams fine sea salt

cup 100 grams mayonnaise, preferably Dukes or Hellmanns

1 tablespoon 14 grams Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon 14 grams sweet pickle juice

2 tablespoons 43 grams red pepper jelly

GLAZED BACON

6 slices bacon

cup 85 grams red pepper jelly

COOK AND BRINE THE EGGS: Set a stovetop steamer over high heat and bring the water to a boil. Put the eggs in the steamer basket, add them to the pot, cover, and steam the eggs for 14 minutes. While the eggs are steaming, prepare an ice water bath. When the eggs are cooked, transfer them to the ice water and let cool for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the cranberry juice, tea, and salt, stirring until the salt is dissolved.

Take the eggs out of the ice water, and use the back of a spoon to uniformly crack the shells all over without piercing the eggs or removing any of the shell. Put the cracked eggs into the brine and put another bowl on top of the eggs to keep them submerged. Refrigerate the eggs for 48 hours.

After 48 hours, take the eggs out of the brine and peel them, discarding the shells. Halve each egg lengthwise. Remove the yolks and set the whites aside. In a small food processor, combine the egg yolks, mayonnaise, mustard, and pickle juice and puree until smooth. Scoop the deviled egg mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and put the bag in the refrigerator.