Mission Impossible: Quince

This week, I was thoroughly frustrated in a few ways: a grocery store lied to me about getting in a shipment of quince; EMP featured quince in Winter, when it is completely out of season; and finally, wasting 2.5 lbs of butter in a botch job to make brioche bread.

Let's go in order. We needed the quince for the foie gras dish, and at first Colin thought he found it in an Asian supermarket up on Broadway Street. Every other store told him it was out of season, so we were super excited to have potentially out-witted nature. The internet told him that quince was called "mu gua" in Chinese, when "mu gua" actually means papaya, which the Asian store said they had when Colin called to check. Once I got there, the nice lady showed me every piece of produce because she didn't understand what quince was. My heart would lurch every time she said "there it is!" and go forth then to show me taro, or pear, or yucca root. They didn't have it, although there was plenty of papaya. I get it - there was a language barrier and the internet led Colin astray....no hard feelings.

It was then that I began my own search on my phone, and there was a Chowhound thread about finding quince in Chicago. I called every store suggested, and Devon Market said they are expecting a shipment of quince soon. Hooray!! The produce manager said the shipment should have arrived that day (Thursday), but hasn't yet, so it'll probably arrive the next day. That's fine - I had to push dinner back to Sunday anyway, so there was plenty of room to spare. On Friday afternoon, I call Devon Market to check in - got the same story: shipment didn't come in, but will DEFINITELY be there tomorrow (Saturday). At this point, my desperation and anxiety have started to grow, but I was confident in the produce manager's confidence. Lo and behold, on Saturday, after Colin and I navigated through weekend madness at Costco, I called them again and was told that the quince supplier didn't have any quince to begin with - it was out of season, so sorry. I felt like punching someone - namely the produce manager, but he was too far away. Devon Market just lost themselves a potential customer, whatever that may mean to them.


My final option was to find a substitute for quince, which I have never tasted. Online resources say it's like a cross between a tart apple and a pear, with the fragrance of roses. Wow, that's quite a fruit! I settled with getting Granny Smith apples, and planned on dosing it with some leftover Orange Blossom Water for good measure. So in the pictures below, every time I say quince, it's actually apple.

That story leads me to my disappointment in EMP for featuring quince in their Winter section, when quince is a late summer/early fall fruit. I thought the whole point of having the book broken up into seasons was that we'd be cooking with seasonal products. Luckily, the apple worked out fine (well, who's really to say - neither Tina, Barry, Colin or I had ever had quince.)

For my final frustration this week, I can only blame myself. In the spirit of not reading recipes carefully, I missed the part about proofing the brioche dough overnight. That wasn't even a huge issue - a few quick zaps in the freezer cooled it down. The first attempt at the dough, I used 2.5 pounds rather than 2.5 cups of butter.....big difference, considering the volume to weight ration is 2:1. I wondered why the dough was so.....buttery and liquid. Luckily I had some frozen butter in the back of the freezer to redo the whole thing, but boy, was that a reading comprehension ego strike, not to mention I had to recruit Colin to stir the dough the second time because my arm was dead.

On to the actual recipes for the week: foie gras with cocoa powder in apple, and a potato dish with smoked butter and truffle. I can say that it was the most dangerous cooking experience I have ever had. In order to smoke the butter (indoors), we heated up charcoal on the stove until it grew white and sparks were showering the floor. Halfway through, I remembered to ventilate, but I'm pretty sure I inhaled a good chunk of carbon monoxide beforehand. Once the applewood chips and charcoal were in the oven, massive amounts of smoke started to pour out of the oven vent. Even though we opened every window and door, our place still filled with a heavy haze. Luckily (?) our smoke detector didn't go off. Smoked butter is quite delicious, but worth all that trouble? Debatable. Even today (Tuesday), when we come home, we smell a pretty strong smokiness - like a perpetual BBQ.

On a side note, I've began to write more detailed captions with exact quantities of ingredients used, in case any of you want to try it.

Foie Gras Torchon with Quince and Cocoa

Marinated Foie Gras

De-vein the 2 lbs lobes, keeping the pieces as intact as possible. Season with 1 T salt, 1/2 t pink curing salt, 1 t sugar, and 1/2 t white pepper. Add 2 t Madeira, and 1 t Cognac.

Be sure to toss gently and thoroughly.

Spread pieces in a rectangle, and vacuum seal. Refrigerate overnight.

Lay out foie gras on a long piece of plastic wrap in a rectangular shape 2 inches from the bottom. Sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1/2 cup ground coriander over marinated foie gras. Take a few pieces from the top line and stack them on the bottom line.

Cook in immersion circulator for 5 minutes at 137 F, and reset the roll. Chill for 12 hours (give or take) until serving.

Quince Consomme

Peel and thinly slice 2-3 cups of quince. Prepare 1 cup pomegranate juice and 1/4 cup sugar.

Combine in a stainless steel bowl, and wrap tightly in plastic. Place bowl in a big pot to create a double boiler, and cook for 3 hours. Strain.

Quince Gelee

Bloom 3 sheets of gelatin.

Reduce 2 cups of Quince Consomme to 1 1/3 cups. Add in 1/2 t salt and gelatin.

Strain

Pour 1/4 cup into each bowl, and chill in fridge until set.

Quince Sauce

Reduce 4 cups of Quince Consomme to 3/4 cup. Strain, and season with 1 T + 1 t olive oil, and 1/2 t salt.

Cocoa Brioche

Mix together 2 3/4 cups flour, 1/3 sugar, 2 T yeast, and 1 T sea salt.

Beat 1 egg yolk with 4 whole eggs.

Slowly add eggs to dry mix.

Mix until dough pulls away from sides of the bowl.

Slowly add in 2 1/4 cups room temperature butter. Mix until smooth. Cover, and let rise for 1 hr. Move to fridge, and rise another hour. Punch down dough, and rise overnight in fridge.

Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness.

Sift with 1/2 cup cocoa powder.

Roll up into a log, and place in greased bread pan. Cover, and let rise until doubled (at least 2 hours)

Brush top of bread with a beaten egg.

Bake at 325 F for 1 hour.

Plate by slicing 1/2 inch rounds from foie gras log. Place on Quince Gelee. Drizzle Quince Consomme around foie gras, and toast a slice of Cocoa Brioche.

Potato Smoked with Truffles and Pork Crumbles

Smoked Butter

Soak 6 cups of applewood chips in cold water

Heat 1 lb lump charcoal until they are white. Make sure not to use briquettes, as they have added chemicals.

Pour most of the applewood chips onto the charcoal

Place 1 lb of cold, cubed better in a pan on another pan of ice. Place set up on top rack. Place charcoal pan on lowest rack. Smoke for 45 minutes, then reserve butter in an airtight container.

Add 1 lb marble potatoes to 3 crushed cloves of garlic, 3 sprigs thyme, and all of the Smoked Butter.

Cover, and bake at 275 F for 1.5 hours.

Peel potatoes, then reserve in butter until plating.

Buttermilk Dressing

Combine 1 cup mayonnaise with 1 cup buttermilk. Add 2 T chopped chives, 1 pinch ground black pepper, and 1.5 t salt. Chill until plating.

Powdered Vinaigrette

Mix 2 cups tapioca maltodextrin with 1/3 cup olive oil.

Add in 3.5 T malt vinegar powder and 2.5 t salt. Store in airtight container.

Potato Mousseline

Brown half a cup of butter by simmering over low heat for about 30 minutes. Place a clove of garlic and 2-3 sprigs thyme on a cheesecloth, and pour butter over it.

Boil 1.5 lb fingerling potatoes for 25 minutes. Mash them quickly to keep them hot.

Combine 1 cup cream with 1/4 brown butter, and simmer until hot but not bubbling.

Mix cream sauce into potatoes until combined but not stiff.

Quickly, work through a fine mesh strainer with a large spoon. Keep warm until plating.

Pork-Shallot Crumble

Chop up 1 lb pork back fat and thinly slice 3 shallots.

Fry shallots in 2 cups of 265 F canola oil for about 12 minutes.

Keep an eye on the temperature, and keep stirring to prevent burning.

Add 1/4 cup water to pork fat in a saucepan and summer for 40 minutes. Drain most of the fat off, then brown fat over high heat.

Drain both shallots and fat, then chop finely. Combine.

Toss 2 cups baby Mache leaves with 2 t Buttermilk Dressing. Mince 1/2 cup black truffles.

Plating

Cut out acetate or parchment paper in the shape of a 2" x 6" rectangle to use as a template. Spread 3 T of Potato Mousseline on the template. I liberally sprayed canola oil wherever sticking may occur.

Using a knife or spatula, spread evenly across template.

Place template potato side down on plates, then remove paper/acetate.

Top each potato rectangle with marble potatoes, and sprinkle on each 1 T minced black truffle, 1.5 t Pork-Shallot Crumble, 1 t of Powdered Vinegrette and 8 sprigs of dressed mache leaves.

Tasting Notes: The apple substitute, as I had mentioned above, tasted great with the foie gras. Surprisingly, so did the cocoa powdered that veined the terrine and the brioche. I found the foie gras a little over salted, and the brioche a little too oily, but it was mostly very good. It was definitely beautiful - rolling the foie gras bits up like that really created food art. The potato dish was amazing - the mousse was very flavor dense and rich, whereas the marble potatoes were more subtle with hints of smoke. I loved the malt vinegar powder - it gave the dish a little tang and cut the thickness of the potato. I couldn't get over how fun these two dishes were designed - definitely a feast for the eyes!

Tina and Barry made their own cheese! They made fresh mozzarella, which was AMAZING, and tossed it with tomatos, peppers, basil, and mushroom. Yummmmm