Ok lets BURN some food

Chefs burn food — on purpose
Culinary innovators experiment with the use of ash in dishes
July 18, 2011 | By Bret Thorn

Chef Angelo Sosa's ash-inspired lamb dish

Burning food to cinders is widely considered a mistake when cooking, but ash is being used as a flavoring these days by a number of cutting-edge chefs.

At Aquavit in New York City, chef Marcus Jernmark uses hay ashes to add a smoky depth to some meat dishes. The ash comes from hay that he burns to smoke sweetbreads. Jernmark, who previously worked as the chef at the Swedish Consulate in New York, is one of the members of the New Nordic artistic school of chefs.

René Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen, cooks with ash in a couple different ways in his cookbook “Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine,” which Phaidon published in 2010.

He grills leek tops until they are “completely dried and burnt,” pushes them through a sieve and then coats boiled leek hearts with it.

For a different dish, he takes a couple of pounds of hay and sets it on fire in “a big fireproof container.” He lets it burn for two to three hours and then passes it through a fine cloth or sieve. He rolls boiled leek hearts in that, too.

This past spring, Anthony Goncalves, executive chef of 42, a restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in White Plains, N.Y., burnt ramps using the same method as Redzepi. He used the ashes to coat house-made salt cod, which he served with non-burnt ramps, scallions and ginger.

Ash has had its place in food for centuries. Mexican food expert Zarela Martinez, former chef-owner of Zarela in New York, pointed out that it is used to make nixtamal, which is corn that’s treated to remove the outer skin and then used to make tamales. Burnt, powdered seeds are also used to make a variety of moles.

Celebrity chef and former Top Chef contestant Angelo Sosa used ash in a dish he cooked earlier this year at the James Beard House. Inspired by the deep char on meats Sosa experienced during a recent visit to Istanbul, he used the skin of roasted eggplant for a sous-vide lamb dish.

Normally, Middle Eastern cooks char eggplant and use the cooked flesh to make babaganoush. Sosa did that, but he also used the charred skin, which he blended with oil and salt, to make what he called “ash purée.” He put dots of that purée on the babaganoush and served that with lamb that he slowly cooked in sous-vide.

The charred eggplant was meant to simulate the char that was missing from the slow-cooked lamb, he said.

“That comes from my food fetish of the char of meat in Istanbul,” Sosa explained.

Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

Read more: http://nrn.com/article/ch...20trucks#ixzz1SYTe2VoS

Dr of BBQ


Chefs burn food — on purpose
Culinary innovators experiment with the use of ash in dishes
July 18, 2011 | By Bret Thorn

Chef Angelo Sosa's ash-inspired lamb dish
For a different dish, he takes a couple of pounds of hay and sets it on fire in “a big fireproof container.” He lets it burn for two to three hours and then passes it through a fine cloth or sieve. He rolls boiled leek hearts in that, too.

 
i have to call shenanigans on this !!  if he has found a way to keep 2 pounds of hay burning for three hours he just solved the energy problems of the world !

BTW....
cant anyone just cook a decent meal anymore ? is there really a need to turn cooking into experimental chemistry ???
 
next thing you know they will be using the partially digested grass out of cow patties because it makes for a much more tender and succulent ash....  

BackAlleyBurger
BTW.... cant anyone just cook a decent meal anymore ? is there really a need to turn cooking into experimental chemistry ???
next thing you know they will be using the partially digested grass out of cow patties because it makes for a much more tender and succulent ash....  

 
That's funny. But I love that crunchy burnt part of meat (usually fat) and I thought if you could add that taste to another product....it may not be a bad idea. Just my thought.

oohhh i agree, the "char" you get on a well cooked piece of meat fat is the best taste in the world! thats what makes a solid half of a good steak in my opinion!!
 
but rolling stuff around in pulverized hay ashes just seems, i dunno,  .......lol, i really dont know, im at a loss for words on that, lol.... 

If I want burnt food, I'll let my wife cook!

While I like "Cajun Blackened" meats, they can keep their hay ash. I guess I don't have "gourmet" or "haute cuisine" taste buds!

Foodbme


If I want burnt food, I'll let my wife cook!

  I will bet your wife was not around as you typed that
 
al

BackAlleyBurger

next thing you know they will be using the partially digested grass out of cow patties because it makes for a much more tender and succulent ash....  

 
Well, there is this certain type of coffee bean called Kopi Luwak that is picked out of the feces of the Civet.....

Parrot Cage

 

BackAlleyBurger

next thing you know they will be using the partially digested grass out of cow patties because it makes for a much more tender and succulent ash....  

 Well, there is this certain type of coffee bean called Kopi Luwak that is picked out of the feces of the Civet.....

 
back in the day...... you would find me in the pine forests looking for red caps, while my friends were out in the fields flipping cow patties...... mine were always better, and no crap involved !!

What the hell is a red cap?
 
From Hairy Potter: The Red Cap is a small dwarf-like creature that lives in holes underground. They are found on the sites of old battlefields, or wherever blood has been ...

shrooms.

oh ok.

Next big thing to come across the table is a ash dinner from uncle Ernies ashes. Open the urn and pour over pizza,,,,

LOL,
Come on guys they're not talking about putting burnt ash on anything. LMAO. It's the essence of the chard, smokey taste that they are adding to food. 

Dr of BBQ

... he takes a couple of pounds of hay and sets it on fire in “a big fireproof container.” He lets it burn for two to three hours and then passes it through a fine cloth or sieve. He rolls boiled leek hearts in that, too.[b/b]

...burnt ramps... He used the ashes to coat house-made salt cod...

that's is not what it said. gosh did you miss this
 
"passes it through a fine cloth."
 
All you'd get is the oil (taste) not ashes. Come on Lorna it's to add the taste of smoke, and fire, to other foods. You guys are killing me.
 
Oh an example. Take a sliced green pepper or onion and cook it in a pan on a stove. And take the same item and cook it over charcoal which is better?
The charbroiled item because it has that taste of being cooked on a grill.
But this guy is taking the chard part (the chard taste) and not the rest and transferring that taste to other foods, without cooking them on a grill. OK?

so why not just cook on a grill ???
real is real, fake will always be fake.....

I'm guessing (heavy on the guessing part) that this are dishes that won't withstand a charcoal grill or charbroiler. So what these chefs are doing is adding the taste with out the effect.........by the way these aren't guys working at Wendy's or some fast food house look at their credentials. It may not catch on but then again with some dishes it may be awesome. I really don't know but I like to rethink in my head every recipe I read. How would this taste if it were cooked on a smoker, or charcoal grill. I have tried some strange things in my smoker and some worked others not so good. LOL. If you have time re-read this section, I think it would be awesome, although I understand the sous-vide cooking I have never tried it or even tasted it. But to use that method your never close to a grill or anything that will give you a sense of char so now he has brought the two together. .
 
Normally, Middle Eastern cooks char eggplant and use the cooked flesh to make babaganoush. Sosa did that, but he also used the charred skin, which he blended with oil and salt, to make what he called “ash purée.” He put dots of that purée on the babaganoush and served that with lamb that he slowly cooked in sous-vide.

But aren't the burnt oils the part that some people claim carry the carcinogens?

6star
But aren't the burnt oils the part that some people claim carry the carcinogens?

 
I assume your serious and so I would say YES and I'd ask 3 or 4 drops on a service what possible harm could that cause? A carcinogen is a material or agent in your surroundings, that impacts you over the course of years. Not a great meal.

Jack, I do agree with you that the affect of the oil would be very minor due to a single meal.  I just thought that some of these major chefs were putting themselves in a position for some problems, since some of the people I referred to that make the cancer claim are pretty fanatic, and if one just happened to be diagnosed with a stomach or intestinal cancer shortly after eating one of these meals, a major lawsuit could result, effectively ruining the chef's reputation.  You know how, at the present time, lawyers are just begging to take on a high-profile case and milk it for all it is worth.

Lets face it, the only reason this chef is using Hay is so people will talk about him.  And food snobs will eat at his restaurant and brag to their friends that they ate food flavored with burnt horse food.  If he were to burn dried herbs for a more flavorful dish no one would even care.  It is all about PR and Spin.