Recipe Testing.... Doughnuts and such :)

       Whenever I have a moment I like to surf the web and go to food sites. I often search websites recipe archives and stop until something catches my attention. I feel that nothing is ever "original". There is always someone out there who has cooked the same thing. What I like to do is if I find a recipe that looks good, I think of someway to change it to make it my own. Hence- the experimentation comes in. Whenever you alter a recipe (especially for baking), the dish coming out perfect is always left up to chance. You have to make sure that you substitute correct ingredients for each other. For example- if you take out butter, you have to make sure you sub for another fat so that you get the same result for your finished product.  

       One day I stumbled upon Yahoo's Shine website where they have a special cooks section. There, Chef Fabio Viviani (from Top Chef) has a segment called Chow Ciao where there are videos making his favorite dishes. I came across his perfect doughnut recipe. Reading through the recipe, i was surprised to see that the base was white potatoes. I thought how delicious would it be if I substituted the white potatoes for sweet potatoes. Should come out the same or even better, right. So I gave it a try. 

        I followed the recipe http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/perfect-homemade-doughnuts-194600827.html exactly. When the dough was mixed i noticed that it was still very wet and I could not form it in any shape without adding more flour. That is when I remembered that sweet potatoes contain more water than white ones- reason why my dough came out wet. I added about an additional cup and a half of flour to the dough so I could manage it. Also knowing at that point the recipe was extremely altered and kept me guessing how it would come out.

        I let the dough sit out and rise for 20 minutes just like the recipe said but it barely rose. 

     

        I cooked them anyway, knowing the error in my ways just to see how the would come out. The doughnuts fried up well. Once fully cooked I tossed them in a mixture of cinnamon, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Then it was taste time. The doughnuts were dense and had a faint taste of sweet potato. The next time I make them I know what to do differently. For one- after roasting & mashing the sweet potatoes I will cook down the mash so water can evaporate making a paste. That will aid in having a more pronounced sweet potato taste and less flour to be added. I will also up the yeast a bit to get the light and airiness to the finished product. They were good however now I know what to do to make them amazing.

***If you have more leftover potatoes I also recommend this recipe by Chef Fabio for his gnocchi. Below I posted a picture during the process of making it but it was soo good that they were all gone before I could take a picture of the finished product. http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/potatoes-101-perfect-gnocchi-214300981.html

Culinary Nirvana- My Dinner at WD-50

     Well, where do I begin. WD-50 is herald as one of the most ground-breaking restaurants in the country as far as molecular gastronomy is concerned. Molecular gastronomy is "is a sub-discipline of food science that seeks to investigate, explain and make practical use of the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur while cooking, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in general."-wikipedia……Taking cues from the famous Spanish Chef Ferran Adria- the chef who put the use of gastronomy with food on the map, Chef Wylie Dufrense has brought that ideal stateside being one of the first forward thinking chefs with this idea.

   Of course, WD-50 was on my wish list of restaurants to dine at. I had just never gotten the chance to, until now. Like usual one of my college buddies was in town with her friends and we decided to go. I was extremely excited to go because just to witness how far someones imagination can go with food and to what extent ingredients can manipulated and changed but still taste delicious. 
    I think we were lucky because we are some of the few diners that had the pleasure of eating off the menu that made him know. Chef Wylie has decided to shake things up and change his entire menu starting the 2nd week of May. In a recent New York Times article-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/dining/at-wd-50-wylie-dufresne-is-shaking-up-the-entire-menu.htm he goes into detail about the reason for the change and what diners can expect from the new menu.
  So usually I go into great detail of critiquing the food that I eat however, this was a totally different experience. The entire course of the night I was in sheer awe of all the dishes that were presented to us. This blog entry will be an exception…. i will let the pictures speak for itself.

Peekytoe Crab Roll with Celeriac Noodles and Salt & Vinegar Chips

Duck Pastrami- tasted like a pastrami on rye sandwich.

Aerated Foie Gras with Brioche Crisp
"..i think this is the best thing I have ever put in my mouth." Rachel

Cold Fried Chicken with Buttermilk Ricotta, Tabasco & Caviar

Eggs Benedict Florentine- Spinach "paper",  congealed egg yolks, fried hollandaise sauce nuggets. Delicious

Scallop Ravioli- the "pasta" was actually scallop along with the filling

Sesame Flatbread- "Its amazing how they got it paper thin yet so flavorful.."Natalia

Fried Skate, Sunchokes, Sunflower Seed Puree and Giardeneria Vegetables 

Duck Breast, Mushroom Dumplings, Consommé 

Liquid Churro, Spicy Dark Chocolate Sauce, Gelato
On appearance the churro looked like it was crisp, freshly fried. However, with the swipe of a spoon it had a creamy texture

Chocolate Ganache, Beet Powder, Chocolate Pebbles

Rootbeer Float- it was like an airy vanilla rootbeer foam.

Chef Wylie let us take a peak into his kitchen

This is where they store all of the powders, gels & gums that help manipulated food into different textures & forms

He even took a picture with us :)