Gastronomic vagabond
a culinary journey of the digital age
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Bakad fänkål smaksatt med citron och friterad dill, kolja tillagad i kärnmjölk och kryddad med fänkålspollen samt skummad smörsås serveras med reduktion av algbuljong och fermenterad vitlök
“Hej Magnus,
Jag förstår, dock kan jag inte säga exakt vilken/-a poäng du fått på ditt recept. Så långt kan jag säga iaf att du placerade dig på den övre halvan totalt sett, så det är mycket bra jobbat. Vi hoppas få se dig i semifinal nästa år.
Stort lycka till framöver!”
För att ni ska förstå smakerna bättre kopierar jag in övriga ingredienser nedan, som inte syns i rättens namn.
- Friterad dill är blandat med ärtskott.
- Smörsås: Ägg (för att stabilisera såsen, tillagade sous vide 70 grader 30 minuter), spetskål (råsaftad), blekselleri (råsaftad och centrifugerad), grädde av svensk getmjölk och konfiterad vitlök.
- Reduktion: Soja och smör från konfiterad vitlök.
- Garnityr: Fänkål och bleksellerirot doppade i ättika.
Frantzén/Lindeberg, kitchen table 29 august 2012
All fantastic –
Grilled squash, grilled onions, raw fennel and beurre noisette vinegrette
Grill without meat: here, the beurre noisette vinegrette gives the dish a more fatty-, complex protein-, caramalized-, maillard- and savoury flavour. Raw fennel is an excellent complement to the bitter smokiness.
How to…
- Use your mandolin to cut the squash really thin.
- Chop the onions in half, or in quarters, so they stick together with help from the root.
- Grate the fennel and stir the mash to bring back all the juices.
- Brown the butter in a hot pan and let it cool in another, beat it with olive oil, sherry- & white wine vinegar (any oil and vinegar of interest will do) and add some salt.
Grill the squash on one side (you will see it right through) and grill the onions until a somewhat dark brown color appears – this will add the important bitter smokiness flavor to the dish. Place the squash at the bottom of the plate so it can hold up all the dripping juices, then add the rest: you’re done.
Scattered broccoli, salted peanuts and czechoslovakian black
Finally: the vegetables are getting ready for some digestive breakdown. You could use broccoli with anchovy; bacon; beef; blue cheese; cauliflower; chili; garlic; hard cheese; lemon; peanut; pork; or even walnut. I thank you – flavour thesaurus: my most valued book, made by Niki Segnit.
The resulting underlaying idea of the complete dish.
- To make the broccoli more interesting: salted peanuts.
- To make the dish flavourful: lime zest.
- To make it dynamic, but not painful: czechoslavakian black – a mild chili with an outward black color and with a templating green color beneath.
- From table to mouth: peeled and scooped cucumber.
Pull away the florets from the scattered broccoli and boil the rest with salted and buttered water. Strain, cool and mix. Turn in creamy cool philadelphia; alot of lime zest; as little as possible of lime juice (just to make it fresh); a too-small-to-taste pinch of salt; and mixed cocumber peel. Crush the salted peanuts. Cut the delicate chili. Find the broccoli florets. Google dodo.
Food experiences as a primary momentum of the journey.
This is not a backpacking blog. Nothing wrong about backpacking! It’s just not my primary goal. I have thought about it many times though… but everytime I think in those directions my mind gets stuck around the cheapest places to live and how to maintain the journey for as long as possible. Perhaps I’m one of those who either goes fully: or not at all (and maybe that’s why I don’t have any pictures here just yet. I mean, who wants to have pictures in a restaurant menu; in a prolog of a book; or in a text like this? It just doesn’t make any sense – certainly not when the text is about something that is going to happen. The personal expectations, based on complex personal experiences, shouldn’t get harpooned by a picture of a dodo).
Gastronomic vagabond is a lifestyle for the open-minded foodie that strives for inspiration; adventure; and who still doesn’t know what to do in life. The differences between a gastronomic vagabond and a backpacker can be confusing and it might seem that they have similar interests. Food experiences as a momentum of the journey does, for me anyway, enhance the feeling of going somewhere – rather than away from something. Backpackers are hard to categories because of the variety, but when I do think about backpacking I recall gap year students who have the same mindset of their hometowns as the sufflé does for its ceramic mold – “I have to get away from here”. Vagabond feels more lika a swedish cracker. Its durable.
There has to be a difference between epicure and greed: but do you really want to choose?
Moldy goat cheese versus chocolate and hazelnut ice cream; “just a little piece – yes, that’s enough” versus “no thank you – I will take the whole ice cream box”; intense, rich and long-lasting versus salt, sugar and fat. What would your mind choose and how does your body reply?
We are hungry beings and with so much food easily available – how do we eat less of it? By maximizing the flavours to make you mentally satisfied? I try to eat as much whole foodstuff as possible and thereby reducing the amount of easily available energy and increasing the amount of nutrients. But I do enjoy to take a big bite of that juicy hamburger with fat that melts around your lips and tomatoes that fills your mouth of roundness. With a salty mayonnaise on the side. With that said: the hamburger can be full of flavour and nutrients; it doesn’t need to be a slur of destroyed ingredients. By doing some greedy food epicure, maybe there’s a new choice available.
Cheese holes: about our invisible friends.
Imagine the flavour of lactic acid and top it with butter (that have stayed too long in room temperature); unroasted peanut; wild strawberry; dry hay; and a hint of gas station. Try to imagine the taste for 30 seconds by organizing the sensations with either a flavour pyramid or a time line. The first taste, lactic acid, is either the base of the pyramid or the first taste to recognize in the time line.
It started to happen… gradually. We were feeding on lactose sugar and started to multiply. Without anyone noticing. We were growing even more and created a healthy and nutritious environment. A man bought this place. But that man couldn’t see us – we were invisible. A friend to this man thought our place had a pleasent flavour. Before, while we were producing carbon dioxide (later, cheese holes), one of us told me that this place was going to transform. That protein was going to link into long chains and capture water; the acid we contributed with was going to break down those links and form a curd; and the water was going to drain out. I looked around. I took on my safety helmet. We did a huge work, day in and day out. Many weeks passed. We did personal sacrifices without credit. It’s okay that the man who bought this place did not see; that he didn’t know. After all, we did not want him to say everything that we have done. Rather – he should enjoy the place we created. Sincerely, bacteria.
Gastronomic vagabond 