In Videos: Alinea's Grant Achatz Makes Sous Vide Stuffing and Gelled Pumpkin Pie
At the Alinea Thanksgiving, there are two magic words: "plastic" and "bag." Earlier today, we showed you turkey, the Grant Achatz way. (aka, throw it into a plastic bag). Not much changes in the stuffing department. Achatz calls it his bag o' stuffing, in lieu of the more traditional cavity o' stuffing. Since he's such a pro, Achatz doesn't need tongs when placing bags into bubbling-hot water baths. He scoffs at tongs. He uses his bare hands.
For the pumpkin pie, Achatz gives the baggies a break to whip out the blowtorch. "This doesn't look like pumpkin pie. This looks like Alinea. With funny gels and stuff," noted Nick Kokonas, an Alinea business partner. Those gelatinous pumpkin-bourbon cubes get tempura-battered, fried, and pierced with a cinnamon stick that gets the blowtorch sizzle treatment. Part two of the Alinea Thanksgiving, after the jump.
Sous Vide Stuffing and Blowtorched Pumpkin Pie
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5 Comments:
as much as I have enjoyed reading about him in the past and following his career (not to mention how much I am really enjoying exploring the Alinea cookbook), Achatz comes across as rather obnoxious in these videos. still pretty fascinating though.
intheyearofthepig at 5:37PM on 11/25/08
these are a little awkward & amateurish, no? I kind of get uncomfortable watching them...
mh330 at 6:07PM on 11/25/08
i actually like it. Almost like we're a fly on the wall
savvysearch at 5:15AM on 11/26/08
What kind of zip loc bags did he use? We tried this and one of the bags melted, the other let water in and the stuffing was soupy.
kdjmom3 at 12:08PM on 11/28/08
I was impressed with Grant and Nick's goofing in the kitchen. Grant came across as an informed guy that is puzzled by a lot of pomp surrounding his methods. He had my attention when he admitted to not liking turkey (in the traditional sense). They did some cool stuff in a really NICE home kitchen. Grant still reminds me of a guy who works at Sears, and whose advice I would be ignoring about which grill to buy for the patio. I would watch a whole lot of videos of Grant teaching Nick a few tricks to make a meal more interesting. The one that Nick did with his sons on Youtube is also funny.
craigkite at 10:47AM on 11/30/08