LaurentGras

White and Black Sesame

We tried to make sesame paste out of sesame seeds, but there was always a bitter finish that bothered me. So we sourced sesame paste, black and white, directly from Japan. We use in recipes from time to time. The latest recipe is the combination of both in a macaroon. The shell use white sesame flour and white sesame paste with, of course, the basic ingredients (almond flour, egg white and icing sugar), while the filling is a bitter sweet ganache with the addition of black sesame paste and Murray salt. Nathan spent some time making both recipes work and the result is a very intense sesame flavor enhanced by the salt. I almost forgot to mention that he sprinkles a dust of black sesame flour on the shell . That was the ultimate touch that we always like.

 

 

Yukon Gold Potato Bread, Roasted Garlic, Step 3: The Final Version

After several versions, Noe our baker has finalized the potato bread to put it into production for our bread program. We were mainly working on the consistency of the bread, and the holding time from when it comes out of the oven until serving time later that night. Of course we have natural variations between a humid rainy day when the bread gets baked longer, and a dry sunny day when the bread get a shorter baking time to compensate. The keys have been adjusting the amount of fat and the amount of the Polish dough going into the recipe. On the shape, we decided a large cannele mold conducts the heat very well and creates a nice crust while keeping the moisture on the inside.

Polish Dough Recipe

Ingredients:
1000 gr AP flour
1000 gr water
4 gr yeast

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together and place in a warm place for 12 hours.

Potato and Garlic

Ingredients:

800 gr Yukon Gold potato
100 gr garlic
20 gr sea salt
40 gr olive oil

Method:
Season the Yukon Gold potatos and whole garlic with sea salt and olive oil. 

Bake in a combi oven at 140C for 45 minute with 10% humidity. 

Press the garlic though a sieve to get the pulp. 

Peel the potato and mash.

Dough

Ingredients:
1400 gr AP flour
100 gr sugar
400 gr butter
12 gr yeast
44 gr sea salt
400 gr Yukon Gold potato pulp
50 gr garlic pulp
300 gr water
200 gr whole milk
120 gr olive oil
2000 gr Polish dough

Method:

Mix the AP flour, sugar, butter, yeast, potato pulp, garlic pulp, water, milk, olive oil and Polish together for 4 minutes. Add the salt. Mix for 4 more minutes in slow and 1 minutes in fast. 

Place the dough in a bowl and let rest for 30 minutes. Punch the dough and roll it. Leave it rest for another hour. 

Divide the dough into 20 gr pieces, roll them and let them rest for 30 minutes. 

Roll them again and place them in the cannele mold, already brushed with butter. Let the dough rise for one hour. 

At this point they are baked at 250C for 15 minutes, removed from the mold and let cool down over a rack.

 
 Yukon Gold Potato Bread Post I

Yukon Gold Potato Bread Post II

Green Papaya Salad

Green papaya salad combines the freshness of the various ingredients used, but the real flavor for me is the dressing. I've visited Thailand on several occasions and each time I always went to the market to taste the dressing, made of course with a homemade fish sauce. Fish sauce is usually made with anchovies, salt and water that is fermented giving it a very unique strong salty, fishy flavor. It is a recipe of southeast Asia. In my hometown Antibes, we make a pissalat sauce with fresh anchovies, using the same technique. The pissalat is used to flavor the cooked onions of the pissaladiere (a kind of a foccacia covered with onions and black olives). 

But going back to the dressing for the green papaya salad, it combines palm sugar, garlic, fish sauce, Thai chili, lime juice and water. In Thailand the dressing is extremely spicy and you have to make sure you have a couple of cold local beers in hand to help. But the ingredients of the salad usually cool down the heat . We currently use shredded green papaya, jicama, star fruit, radish, pickled red onions, fried shallot, lotus root chips, kulantro and Thai basil.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Strawberry, Aloe Vera: The Dish

The final dish combines fresh strawberries, marinated in the strawberry juice  to enhance the natural flavors, frozen strawberries filled with aloe vera or strawberry sorbet, preserved aloe vera diced into cubes, a black sesame seeds croquant and few drops of black sesame paste. The strawberry juice is poured table side over the fruit. A white sesame bun is served on the side.