Last Modified: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 3:03 p.m.
Restaurants that utilize the whole animal, in the European tradition of eating everything but the “oink,” have grown common in the United States.
Now, however, chefs have turned their eye toward produce, finding scrappy new ways to utilize every bit of a vegetable — roots, tops, peels, seeds and all. These days, even composting is getting trashed as a wasteful act.
“An acre of land covered with corn, fava beans and tomatoes is going to produce a huge amount of caloric energy that's going to feed a lot of people,” said Aaron London, the new chef de cuisine at Ubuntu, a Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant in Napa. “But 70 percent of that matter goes into the garbage can.”
At Ubuntu, the kitchen has always used blanched carrot tops and other veggie tops to make pestos and purees. Now London has gone a step beyond, taking organic veggie peels and stems and treating them like Chinese tea.
“We've been working with apple peels and carrot tops and leeks and garlics, and making ashes and powders out of them,” he said. “Some of them are aged with no oxidation, and some are smoked first.”
While this may sound a bit esoteric, the practice of utilizing every bit of foodstuff in the kitchen makes sense. Trained chefs know that some of the best flavor resides in the shells, bones and vegetable skins that most home cooks simply toss.
Now, with recycling hot and the economy still pinching our pocketbooks, it pays to take a culinary cue from the pros, who know how to coax high flavor out of humble waste.
“We used to compost everything, and now we don't even do that,” London said. “We've found ways to use everything, and interesting, flavorful things to get out of it.”
Three chefs — London from Ubuntu, Mary Bergin from Sur La Table and Josh Silvers of Syrah and Jackson's in Santa Rosa — provided a few ideas on how to recycle those leftover bits into low-cost bites.
London, who grew up in Graton and worked at Mixx in Santa Rosa before cooking in New York and Europe, enjoys the challenge of getting inside a vegetable and figuring out how to transform it.
“We juice a lot of things, and the byproduct is a pulp,” he said. “Working with specific temperatures, we've found perfect times and temperatures to dehydrate stuff and make crumbles and powders from carrots and beets.”
This spring at Ubuntu, the organic gardens have been pumping out lots of delicate peas in their pods. Instead of throwing the pods away, London decided to blanch them in boiling water, then shock them in cold water. Then he threw them into a juicer to create a thick puree.
“We use the pods for the pea puree .
.
. and we place the peas on top of the pea puree,” he said. “That allows us to put more peas on the plate.”
Like most chefs, London also makes stock from the different vegetable trimmings, a trick that's not hard for home cooks to master. Although Ubuntu's kitchen makes stocks from single vegetables, home cooks may want to mix their vegetable trimmings together.
“The classic stock is leeks, onions, celery, garlic, carrots and mushrooms,” he said. “Use as much or as little water as you want.”
At Sur La Table in Santa Rosa, Culinary Director Mary Bergin is the queen of lean, keeping costs down by turning all kinds of waste and leftovers into high-flavored stocks and stews.
She saves fennel fronds in plastic freezer bags, to throw into a fish stock at a future time. Ditto salmon skin, fish heads, shrimp shells, crab and lobster shells.
The same goes for leftover legs of lamb — the bone with a bit of meat left on it — which she chars in an oven, then throws into a pot of water to make stock.
“I try to keep the stock as simple as possible, with no seasoning or salt and pepper,” she said. “If you've got a half of an onion sitting in the refrigerator, throw that in the stock.”
When she has extra egg whites, she pours them into ice cube trays. After they're frozen, she stores them in plastic bags and uses them to bake macarons and other meringue desserts.
That extra spoonful of jam at the bottom of the jar? She cooks up some berries and fruit, then puts the jam in to thicken it into a compote.
That piece of ginger left over? She puts it into the freezer, then adds it to carrot soup or iced tea. Even a few teaspoons of tomato paste can be frozen and later thrown into a stock, soup or sauce.
“Keep in mind the pantry,” she said. “A little bit of that and this can always add up to a nice dish.”
Josh Silvers always saves his shrimp shells in a baggie in the freezer. He sautes them in olive oil with garlic, mirepoix and tomato paste, then simmers the shells in white wine and water to make a shrimp stock.
Shrimp stock is a great staple to keep on hand, boosting the flavor of rice and grits, fish stews and sauces.
People who enjoy the comfort of a roast chicken may want to try Silvers' method for using the whole bird to create two meals.
First, he buys a chicken with giblets and butchers the chicken into pieces. The first night, he barbecues the legs and throws the breasts into a brine in the fridge.
The next day, he roasts the carcass and makes a stock. That night, he dices up the giblets. Then he sautes some bacon and onions, adds the giblets with some garlic, and adds a mixture of wild and brown rice. Finally, a splash of chicken stock turns the concoction into a yummy side dish.
For the entree, he places the chicken breasts skin-side down in an oven-proof pan, sears them for a minute, then roasts them in the oven at 450 degrees while creating a natural jus to pour on top.
“Take the rest of the stock and reduce it down,” he said. “Add a bit of fresh herbs at the end, with a little bit of butter.”
This recipe from Ubuntu chef de cuisine Aaron London is a simplified version of a fennel dish he has served at the restaurant. Orion is a variety of fennel.
‘Orion' Fennel Confit,
Puree and Meyer Lemon
Fennel Frond Falafel
Makes 6 servings
For fennel confit:
6heads of fennel
— Salt, to taste
6Meyer lemon leaves
4cloves garlic
2quarts grapeseed oil
For fennel puree:
1head fennel
1shallot
2teaspoons olive oil (or fennel confit oil)
For fennel falafel:
1cup blanched, chopped fennel fronds
6tablespoons bread crumbs
—Zest of 1 lemon
1small pinch chile flakes
½cup Parmesan, microplanned
Pinch salt
3eggs
1/4tablespoon baking soda
3cloves garlic, microplaned
— Juice of 1 lemon
To finish:
—Supremes of 1 Meyer lemon (thin slices of lemon with no skin, pith or connective tissueattached)
— Pinch salt
—Cilantro
—Fennel fronds
[NEWS_RAG_00]For the confit:
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
Remove the stems from the fennel bulbs and reserve. Cut the bulbs in half long ways so that you pass through the core, but each half still stays intact. Rub the bulbs with enough salt to season them. Lay the Meyer lemon leaves and crushed garlic down on the bottom of a roasting pan, followed by the fennel, cut side down, and then cover with the oil.
Cover the pan with tin foil and place it in the oven for about 90 minutes to two hours, until the fennel is extremely tender.
Pull the fennel from the oil and refrigerate until needed. Strain the oil, and reserve for the fennel puree.
For the fennel puree:
Remove the stems and core the fennel, cutting it in half and slicing it thinly. Peel the shallot and slice it thinly. Pick and blanch the fennel fronds, shocking them in ice water to set the color, then chopping them very fine.
Using a heavy bottomed pot, sweat out the fennel and shallot in the fennel confit oil with a pinch of salt over medium-low heat for about 45 minutes until translucent and soft, then chill the mix on a tray or shallow dish in the refrigerator.
Place the fennel in a blender, add a couple of tablespoons of water until it spins freely. Add the fennel fronds and blend until you have a beautiful green puree, then slowly drizzle in 1 tablespoon of fennel confit oil.
For the falafel:
Blanch, shock and chop the fennel fronds, then place them in a large mixing bowl. Add the bread crumbs, lemon zest, chili flakes and Parmesan and a pinch of salt, working them together with your hands, until everything is combined.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, baking soda, garlic and lemon juice.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and use your hadns to work them together. When it is well combined, wash your hands and use a rubber spatula to stir it together. Let it rest for a couple of minutes to let it thicken. Once it sets, form it into little dumplings between two spoons.
To bake: Place them on an oiled cookie sheeta nd bake at 450 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes until just heated through.
To fry: Bring your oil up to 350 degreesa nd fry the falafel for 1.5 minutes until crispy.
To finish:
Heat up a large saute pan, add a little fennel oil and the confit of fennel bulbs. Cook the fennel over high heat until it is caramelized on half of the sides.
Heat the fennel puree gently in a small sauce pot and spread it on six preheated plates. Then place the confit of fennel bulbs through the puree, followed by the falafel.
Place the Meyer Lemon supremes in a small bowl adn gently crush them with a fork and add a pinch of salt to make a quick vinaigrette to spoon over the dish.
To garnish, add thinly sliced cilantro and some fennel fronds.
You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com
<p>Restaurants that utilize the whole animal, in the European tradition of eating everything but the “oink,” have grown common in the United States.</p><p>Now, however, chefs have turned their eye toward produce, finding scrappy new ways to utilize every bit of a vegetable — roots, tops, peels, seeds and all. These days, even composting is getting trashed as a wasteful act.</p><p>“An acre of land covered with corn, fava beans and tomatoes is going to produce a huge amount of caloric energy that's going to feed a lot of people,” said Aaron London, the new chef de cuisine at Ubuntu, a Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant in Napa. “But 70 percent of that matter goes into the garbage can.”</p><p>At Ubuntu, the kitchen has always used blanched carrot tops and other veggie tops to make pestos and purees. Now London has gone a step beyond, taking organic veggie peels and stems and treating them like Chinese tea.</p><p>“We've been working with apple peels and carrot tops and leeks and garlics, and making ashes and powders out of them,” he said. “Some of them are aged with no oxidation, and some are smoked first.”</p><p>While this may sound a bit esoteric, the practice of utilizing every bit of foodstuff in the kitchen makes sense. Trained chefs know that some of the best flavor resides in the shells, bones and vegetable skins that most home cooks simply toss.</p><p>Now, with recycling hot and the economy still pinching our pocketbooks, it pays to take a culinary cue from the pros, who know how to coax high flavor out of humble waste.</p><p>“We used to compost everything, and now we don't even do that,” London said. “We've found ways to use everything, and interesting, flavorful things to get out of it.”</p><p>Three chefs — London from Ubuntu, Mary Bergin from Sur La Table and Josh Silvers of Syrah and Jackson's in Santa Rosa — provided a few ideas on how to recycle those leftover bits into low-cost bites.</p><p>London, who grew up in Graton and worked at Mixx in Santa Rosa before cooking in New York and Europe, enjoys the challenge of getting inside a vegetable and figuring out how to transform it.</p><p>“We juice a lot of things, and the byproduct is a pulp,” he said. “Working with specific temperatures, we've found perfect times and temperatures to dehydrate stuff and make crumbles and powders from carrots and beets.”</p><p>This spring at Ubuntu, the organic gardens have been pumping out lots of delicate peas in their pods. Instead of throwing the pods away, London decided to blanch them in boiling water, then shock them in cold water. Then he threw them into a juicer to create a thick puree.</p><p>“We use the pods for the pea puree .<TH>.<TH>. and we place the peas on top of the pea puree,” he said. “That allows us to put more peas on the plate.”</p><p>Like most chefs, London also makes stock from the different vegetable trimmings, a trick that's not hard for home cooks to master. Although Ubuntu's kitchen makes stocks from single vegetables, home cooks may want to mix their vegetable trimmings together.</p><p>“The classic stock is leeks, onions, celery, garlic, carrots and mushrooms,” he said. “Use as much or as little water as you want.”</p><p>At Sur La Table in Santa Rosa, Culinary Director Mary Bergin is the queen of lean, keeping costs down by turning all kinds of waste and leftovers into high-flavored stocks and stews.</p><p>She saves fennel fronds in plastic freezer bags, to throw into a fish stock at a future time. Ditto salmon skin, fish heads, shrimp shells, crab and lobster shells.</p><p>The same goes for leftover legs of lamb — the bone with a bit of meat left on it — which she chars in an oven, then throws into a pot of water to make stock.</p><p>“I try to keep the stock as simple as possible, with no seasoning or salt and pepper,” she said. “If you've got a half of an onion sitting in the refrigerator, throw that in the stock.”</p><p>When she has extra egg whites, she pours them into ice cube trays. After they're frozen, she stores them in plastic bags and uses them to bake macarons and other meringue desserts.</p><p>That extra spoonful of jam at the bottom of the jar? She cooks up some berries and fruit, then puts the jam in to thicken it into a compote.</p><p>That piece of ginger left over? She puts it into the freezer, then adds it to carrot soup or iced tea. Even a few teaspoons of tomato paste can be frozen and later thrown into a stock, soup or sauce.</p><p>“Keep in mind the pantry,” she said. “A little bit of that and this can always add up to a nice dish.”</p><p>Josh Silvers always saves his shrimp shells in a baggie in the freezer. He sautes them in olive oil with garlic, mirepoix and tomato paste, then simmers the shells in white wine and water to make a shrimp stock.</p><p>Shrimp stock is a great staple to keep on hand, boosting the flavor of rice and grits, fish stews and sauces.</p><p>People who enjoy the comfort of a roast chicken may want to try Silvers' method for using the whole bird to create two meals.</p><p>First, he buys a chicken with giblets and butchers the chicken into pieces. The first night, he barbecues the legs and throws the breasts into a brine in the fridge.</p><p>The next day, he roasts the carcass and makes a stock. That night, he dices up the giblets. Then he sautes some bacon and onions, adds the giblets with some garlic, and adds a mixture of wild and brown rice. Finally, a splash of chicken stock turns the concoction into a yummy side dish.</p><p>For the entree, he places the chicken breasts skin-side down in an oven-proof pan, sears them for a minute, then roasts them in the oven at 450 degrees while creating a natural jus to pour on top.</p><p>“Take the rest of the stock and reduce it down,” he said. “Add a bit of fresh herbs at the end, with a little bit of butter.”</p><p>This recipe from Ubuntu chef de cuisine Aaron London is a simplified version of a fennel dish he has served at the restaurant. Orion is a variety of fennel.</p><p>‘Orion' Fennel Confit,</p><p>Puree and Meyer Lemon</p><p>Fennel Frond Falafel</p><p>Makes 6 servings</p><p>For fennel confit:</p><p>6<MC1><TB>heads of fennel</p><p>— Salt, to taste</p><p><MC0>6<MC1><TB>Meyer lemon leaves</p><p><MC0>4<MC1><TB>cloves garlic</p><p><MC0>2<MC1><TB>quarts grapeseed oil</p><p><MC0>For fennel puree:</p><p>1<MC1><TB>head fennel</p><p><MC0>1<MC1><TB>shallot</p><p><MC0>2<MC1><TB>teaspoons olive oil (or fennel confit oil)</p><p><MC0>For fennel falafel:</p><p>1<MC1><TB>cup blanched, chopped fennel fronds</p><p><MC0>6<MC1><TB>tablespoons bread crumbs</p><p>—<TB>Zest of 1 lemon</p><p><MC0>1<MC1><TB>small pinch chile flakes</p><p><MC0>½<MC1><TB>cup Parmesan, microplanned</p><p><TB>Pinch salt</p><p><MC0>3<MC1><TB>eggs</p><p><MC0>1/4<MC1><TB>tablespoon baking soda</p><p><MC0>3<MC1><TB>cloves garlic, microplaned</p><p>— <TB>Juice of 1 lemon</p><p><MC0>To finish:<MC1></p><p>—<TB>Supremes of 1 Meyer lemon (thin slices of lemon with no skin, pith or connective tissueattached)</p><p>— <TB>Pinch salt</p><p>—<TB>Cilantro</p><p>—<TB>Fennel fronds</p><p>[NEWS_RAG_00]For the confit:</p><p>Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.</p><p>Remove the stems from the fennel bulbs and reserve. Cut the bulbs in half long ways so that you pass through the core, but each half still stays intact. Rub the bulbs with enough salt to season them. Lay the Meyer lemon leaves and crushed garlic down on the bottom of a roasting pan, followed by the fennel, cut side down, and then cover with the oil.</p><p>Cover the pan with tin foil and place it in the oven for about 90 minutes to two hours, until the fennel is extremely tender.</p><p>Pull the fennel from the oil and refrigerate until needed. Strain the oil, and reserve for the fennel puree.</p><p>For the fennel puree:</p><p>Remove the stems and core the fennel, cutting it in half and slicing it thinly. Peel the shallot and slice it thinly. Pick and blanch the fennel fronds, shocking them in ice water to set the color, then chopping them very fine.</p><p>Using a heavy bottomed pot, sweat out the fennel and shallot in the fennel confit oil with a pinch of salt over medium-low heat for about 45 minutes until translucent and soft, then chill the mix on a tray or shallow dish in the refrigerator.</p><p>Place the fennel in a blender, add a couple of tablespoons of water until it spins freely. Add the fennel fronds and blend until you have a beautiful green puree, then slowly drizzle in 1 tablespoon of fennel confit oil.</p><p>For the falafel:</p><p>Blanch, shock and chop the fennel fronds, then place them in a large mixing bowl. Add the bread crumbs, lemon zest, chili flakes and Parmesan and a pinch of salt, working them together with your hands, until everything is combined.</p><p>In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, baking soda, garlic and lemon juice.</p><p>Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and use your hadns to work them together. When it is well combined, wash your hands and use a rubber spatula to stir it together. Let it rest for a couple of minutes to let it thicken. Once it sets, form it into little dumplings between two spoons.</p><p>To bake: Place them on an oiled cookie sheeta nd bake at 450 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes until just heated through.</p><p>To fry: Bring your oil up to 350 degreesa nd fry the falafel for 1.5 minutes until crispy.</p><p>To finish:</p><p>Heat up a large saute pan, add a little fennel oil and the confit of fennel bulbs. Cook the fennel over high heat until it is caramelized on half of the sides.</p><p>Heat the fennel puree gently in a small sauce pot and spread it on six preheated plates. Then place the confit of fennel bulbs through the puree, followed by the falafel.</p><p>Place the Meyer Lemon supremes in a small bowl adn gently crush them with a fork and add a pinch of salt to make a quick vinaigrette to spoon over the dish.</p><p>To garnish, add thinly sliced cilantro and some fennel fronds.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com</p>