The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
While most kids were licking their fingers after dipping into the sugar bowl or squeezing mounds of maple syrup on to their pancakes, I took to sprinkling salt on my hands and licking it. (This was long before I knew that people usually follow this with tequila and a lime.)
There has been a definite trend toward the addition of coarse salt to sweets. It's been spotted on the brownies at Trader Joe's, and for many in the District, we've always loved Teaism's salty oat cookie. It has now reached the mainstream with the sale of sea salt caramels at Walmart, but has failed to reach many home kitchens.
This recipe for salted caramel pots de crème came out of a desire to do something different from the usual holiday desserts. Pots de crème is a creamy, rich, baked custard that is essentially crème brûlée without the caramelized sugar top. Initially, the hot water bath seems slightly intimidating, but it is simple and makes a world of difference.
Salted Caramel Pots De Crème
Adapted from Daniel Boulud's recipe for Coffee-Cardamom Pots De Crème
3/4 cup sugar (split into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup portions)
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups (approximately) heavy cream (split into 1 cup portions)
1 cup whole milk
7 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon (approximately) coarse sea salt
Note: You will also need to heat water in a kettle or a pan that will be easy to pour in a controlled fashion
1. In a saucepan over medium heat put 1/2 cup of sugar and salt with just enough water to moisten. Stir without stop until the sugar caramelizes; it should thicken and be amber in color.
2. Remove the pan from the heat, and slowly pour 1 cup each of cream and milk, being careful not to get splattered. It will sputter a little, and the caramel will get hard and thready. Return the pan to the heat to melt the caramel until the caramel melts into the liquid. Set aside to cool.
3. Place a rack at the middle setting in the oven and preheat to 300°F.
4. Add heavy cream to your caramel cream mixture to bring the liquid measurement of the mixture up to 2 cups.
5. Working in a bowl that’s large enough to hold all the ingredients, whisk the yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar together until the mixture is pale and thick.
6. Very gradually and very gently—not to create air bubbles—whisk your caramel into the egg mixture; skim off the top foam, if there is any. (Bubbles will show up in your final custard.)
7. Arrange six 4-ounce espresso or ramekins in a small roasting pan, and fill each cup nearly to the top with the custard mixture, again, being careful not to create bubbles. Slide the pan into the oven; then fill the roasting pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and poke two holes in diagonal corners.
8. Bake the custards for about 40 minutes, or until the edges darken ever so slightly and the custards are set but still jiggle a little in the center when you shake them gently.
9. Remove the pan from the oven and let the custards sit in the water bath for 10 minutes, leaving the foil on top.
10. Cool your custards in the fridge.
To serve: Sprinkle the coarse sea salt on top of the custards. I also like to serve this with chocolate malt whipped cream. The original recipe recommends serving them at room temperature, which would require setting them out for 20 minutes before serving. I prefer a nice, cool custard straight out of the fridge.
Tips:
1. When separating the eggs, use three bowls: one to catch the white from the egg you are separating, one for the yolks, and another to hold all of the already separated whites. Many recipes that call for beating eggs white require getting them to soft peak stage, which is near impossible when you have even the slightest bit of yolk in them. The three-bowl method will save you if you mess up leaving you eating lots of egg white omelets.
2. You can prepare the mixture ahead of time and transport it.
3. You can experiment with the type of sugar and salt. Demerara sugar is sure to add an extra depth to the caramel. Vary the salt with one like Maldon smoked sea salt that is available at Whole Foods.
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You could greatly simplify this recipe to three easy steps:
1. Prepare a standard batch of creme bruleé.
2. Sprinkle the rim of your ramekins with margarita salt.
3. Stick a pistol in someone's mouth and have them make the recipe for you at gunpoint.
Remember: with a gun in your mouth, you only speak in vowels.
Added lavender salt to melted dark chocolate, and poured it into chocolate bars.
The little crunches of salt are great in sweets.
K
Excellent post. The savory fans in the readership salute you.
Just read the interview with Bourdain and have to comment here because the space at the interview is full. AB: "There's something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic."
Did the inteviewer request clarification? Did the editor request follow-up?
Alice Waters has done much to prosper and influence, in a good way, food consumption and systems in this country.
It was an overreaching, disdainful comment by a catty interviewee, with no follow-up by the interviewer. It could have easily and fairly been edited out of the quote. I hope Waters sues for a retraction and/or apology from all involved.
I agree there should have been followup. That would have made for an entertaining and informative digression.
My impression is that Bourdain's disdain comes from perhaps a misunderstanding of Waters, Chez Panisse, and what they stand for. Much of her writing can be misread as zealotry. But the whole concept of "sustainable food" forces the question of what exactly is sustainable? On a long enough timeline, everyone's life expectancy drops to zero.
What fresh hell is this? Your comment/reply, so constructive, so clear?! Anyway, thanks for it.
Regardless, Alice Waters is far more than the American oracle of sustainable. Though she might not have the same name recognition, Waters' influence extends beyond Julia Child's. Bourdain knows this well (I would underscore, italicize and bf that if I knew how). And, while Liu does much good here, what he refers to as "acerbic" comments by Bourdain needs to be accented with heaping tablespoons of journalistic skepticism when interviewing a barracuda like him. Better still: savvy editing. Media darlings like Bourdain ought not be given the easy liberty of trashing other accomplished gastro-heroes on the Web, or any other medium.
Bourdain's bitchiness is part of his schtick and is to be expected. His saving grace is a measure of self-deprecation that seems to be absent here. Although he's been a strong advocate for classic straight-outta-Escoffier technique, simple preparation, and a respect for ingredients, that advocacy unfortunately hasn't been extended to sustainability. And his schtick seems to be veering from humor to the realm of caricature. Anyway, he's paid his dues working $h!t jobs preparing meals for people with more money than brains. I won't begrudge him a little bitchiness. There's one episode where he got an order at Les Halles for "steak, hold the butter, extra Hollandaise sauce;" Hollandaise sauce being essentially A STICK OF BUTTER, some egg yolks, and lemon juice. Of course, Bourdain goes ape$h!t and I can't really blame him. I would have been p!$$ing in the Hollandaise years ago with customers like that.
Anyway, advocacy can't exist within a vacuum. You can't just stand for something, you have to be against something as well. In addition to militant vegetarianism, corporate junk food, and anti-fois gras-ism, he seems to have added sustainability to his Nixon-style Enemies List, which is truly unfortunate.
Gothamist provided a bit of followup on the Bourdain/Waters slugfest.
Far from a slugfest, monkey. Bourdain is swinging at a hallucination.