Paco Sundaes

Banana Ice Cream at the ready.

Someday my equipment order is going to arrive and I'm going to have all the toys for the new shop, namely the freezer. Until then, making ice cream entails storing the PacoJet beakers in Woodberry Kitchen's walk-in freezer, popping over to the restaurant then running back to project hampden to spin the ice cream for tests. It's a bit of a pain.

Tonight we're playing with the vanilla ice cream I mixed up back on the third. Spin it in the PacoJet, whip up some chocolate ganache and we're got lickety-split sundaes for late night snacking.

That's when she spied the lonely banana sitting in the pastry case left over from Saturday's barista jam. "What if we spun the banana into the ice cream?" Chop, chop, chop then spin, spin, spin and voila - Banana Ice Cream!

Add a little more chocolate ganache and all is well.

ph: Playing With Food

Sandwich Onglet with frites and a salad.

Since project hampden was literally wrecked from last nights' dinner, what better way to spend the day than playing a bit more with food and the tabletop Waring fryer? I mean, the shop already smells like grease-laden hell.

There's still some steak and stuff left, so why not make a simple lunch of toasted baguette with melted gruyere with dijon, greens and thin slices of sous vide hangar steak? The Onglet Sandwich. Now that would be a nice menu addition. Add a small side of vinaigrette salad and some fries, with some moules mouclade on the side? Oh, la la!


Poached Egg Three Ways -

With some borrowed eggs, we plopped them into a hot water bath for an hour to test some variations on poached eggs. A shooter in oyster shell, a simple version in an egg cup and on a sliced croissant. Some nice preparations that should also make it onto our menu.

The thoughts then turned back to the sandwich and how nice it would be to serve the sandwich with french fries. But since using a fryer in the shop results in horrific odors filling your pores, that's out of the question. But what if we fried them elsewhere then heated in the oven for service?

Ixnay on that one.


Oven Fries - Just Say No.


A little potato, mushroom and sausage tart from across the street - classic.