Edd Kimber, a.k.a. @theboywhobakes linked to this article on twitter not once, but twice – and I’m very glad he did. It’s a fascinating article from the New Yorker about the evolution of the modern dessert, a “quest to find out what desserts really [are] and where they [are] going”.
It’s a great read, although leaves you wanting more detail in a number of places. However, I found the distinction between dessert and not dessert somewhat false. As the article describes, the line between the two is quite blurred, because the techniques straddle dessert and main course cooking, and sweet and savoury flavours can appear in both. Ultimately, the only good definition of dessert is that it comes at the end of the meal.
But for me, the more interesting separation is not about dessert, but about pastry. I found the most interesting part of the article Ferran Adria’s description of the two major revolutions in French cooking coming from chefs originally trained in pastry – Carême codifying French cuisine and Michel Guérard and nouvelle cuisine. I’ve always found it interesting that Gordon Ramsay trained in pastry as well, and his Just Desserts book
I definitely prefer pastry, mostly baking, to cooking – something that’s very obvious from the archives of this blog. It is something that I have thought of as a bit of defect, and have tried to correct (at least on the blog). I have thought of myself as preferring pastry because I have a sweet tooth, and when I was at cooking school, because it was a calmer task than line cooking. These preferences are part of it, but this article also starts to get at something else which marks pastry apart from the rest of cooking. It is learning the techniques you need, and understanding the science behind the transformations in baking that really fascinates me, and draws me back to repeat, refine, adapt and develop.
The idea of constructing something new – creating new textures and materials out of raw ingredients – is fascinating. This is what Alice Medrich calls
Something I’ve done before is to map out techniques or recipes, to see how learning one can lead you on to the next. This seems to work particularly well for pastry, where the same few ingredients can be combined in a huge number of different ways.
This diagram is an illustration of where these techniques can take you. A diagram of how to navigate the materials and techniques, and what you can access with each of them. This is a start – I would like to develop this further. If you can see anything that’s missing, or have any good ideas on how it could be used or developed, please let me know.
What about you – do you prefer pastry or cookery – and do you know why?
and had a go at tacos at home. The main problem seems to be finding good tortillas in the UK – although apparently Thomasina is working on that problem too. I also bought masa harina this year, but haven’t found the time to try making my own tortillas yet. A project for 2011 instead.
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recipe for them. This calls for a heap of peeled, halved onions, white wine and a huge amount of balsamic vinegar. I couldn’t quite bring myself to put all that balsamic in, so compromised with half real balsamic and half apple balsamic. This was a really beautiful recipe – a sweet, rich liquor with beautiful tender meat. I removed the meat from the shanks and shredded it, which was a bit of pain, but made leftovers much easier to deal with. I served it with butter beans, soaked overnight then cooked until tender, and reheated with garlic, olive oil, cherry tomatoes and parsley. A really lovely warm meal for a cold night, but not too heavy.
, with the end of the loaf, and a piece of hazelnut and prune cake, which keeps getting moister as it keeps, a bit like fruit cake.
as curry for the freezer – it makes a really creamy, mild chicken curry, but with a rich flavour, even though I leave out all the cream and just use yoghurt. I tend to make in huge quantities – two skinless breasts plus six skinless chicken thighs. It can then be frozen in tubs and reheated, either with some chickpeas and extra veg to stretch it a bit further, or just as it is.
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. It’s a good moist recipe and the banana flavour isn’t too dominant so they lend themselves to flavour variations. As these are a pretty healthy variation of muffins, with oil instead of butter, bananas replacing some of the fat, and wholemeal flour, I feel just fine about consuming them everyday. I like to freeze them and take them into work as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack.
book (and from the 
Using Mainly Spoons 