Heston Success

[whereismywine]

i got the cookbook about home cooking for Christmas. Well, I liked looking at it but my home doesn't have dry ice or a sous vide machine BUT we have made the macaroni cheese which wasn't too hard and it really was the best macaroni cheese I've ever made/eaten. It is a really odd way of making it but very good indeed. I don't reckon it needs truffle oil, but we had some anyway and it was tasty.

www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/heston-blumenthal/macaroni-cheese-recipe

Anyone else tried anything of his where it didnt take five days?

I have tried a few from his TV show, including the macaroni (I agree, so easy and tastes amazing! I dint use truffle oil). I use his flip/flip/flip method of cooking steaks (use it for chops/gammon steak too) and they always taste fab. Ive brined & slow cooked a chicken too, was amazingly moist. Going to try & make chocolate soil for my sons brithday party . Made the choc truffles, so simple and best I have ever tasted!

We did the caraway biscuits which were nice, the golden syrup cookies which were great (both v easy with Magimix) and chocolate chip cookies which were a bit of a disaster because you're meant to make your own chip and freeze them but they just didn't freeze. But I reckon if you froze a packet of commercial chocolate chips and used them instead it would be fine, and miles easier.
Really want to do raspberry sherbet, but can't find freeze dried raspberries except online.

I made a meal on Friday using his new book. I made steamed salmon (cooked in a courte bouillon), crushed new potatoes and the Bois Boudron sauce.

I liked it. Was worried the sauce would be too spicy but it wasn't just tasted nice. Not sure the steamed fish really tasted a great deal different but it felt "proper" making up my own stock, etc.

The flip-flip steak method was bloody brilliant.

His olive oil potatoes however, were a bit, well, olivey to be honest.

Ok I am inspired to keep going! Had breezed over the brining bit but will return. And yes we did the flip flip steak thing and much better after years of the delia way. Sorry delia. Has anyone tried the lemon tart?

Have done the stake and the mac and cheese, both really good

Going to the fat duck in April for DPs birthday

Jealousy!

Am planning the Fat Duck for MIL's birthday next January. Have the date to phone up and book marked in the diary!

i made the exploding choc cake its super easy if you skip the paint gun step and so very yummy :D

I poached an egg at whatever temperature it was that he said you should do it at, with a probe thermometer in the water. It was indeed nicer than your average poached egg.

Oh yeah, I always do my boiled eggs his way, and they do turn out perfect!

I did the beef tagliata (using flip method) and the triple cooked chips tonight. The chips were very very good! However, I didn't make quite enough and they fell apart very easily, need to boil them for less time. DH and 9y DD loved the beef, nice and pink. I don't eat meat so had tuna using a similar dressing and similar method and it was lovely.

Hula I'm drooling a bit reading that!

Forgot that I made the chips too! Quite a bit of work, but totally divine :)

We now call triple cooked chips 'Damn you Heston' in our house. I thought I'd try them, can't be much nicer than my usual double cooked, can't be worth the faff.....and OMG they were amazing. So now of course all proper chips must be triple cooked, hence Damn you Heston with your triple cooked chips.

Dh gave me the book for our anniversary (self-interest, much?) can't wait to try some of it but I'm drawing the line at liquid nitrogen.

The chips are definitely a success and so good! I forgot to buy potatoes earlier to make mash so tonight we ended up with oven chips - the difference was just so huge!

I am now ice filtering my chicken stock - I was sceptical but the difference is amazing

His roast potato method worked amazingly too - they were delicious last night.

Just did the flippy flippy steak oh yum - it is different. And will now be exploring ice stock...

What is this flip flop steak you're all talking about?
And the chips? Please post recipes for those of us who are tootight poor to buy book

Picallili - I did the triple cooked chips as an experiment once. The DCs now demand them and will not eat any other sort of chip.

I do also cook roast beef veeeeeery slow like Heston too. It is very good.

Problem is that doing it like Heston does require somewhere between 4 - 24 hours and loads of special equipment - and modern life just doesn't work that way. Who has a paint gun in their kitchen?

DCs were asking for home cooked croissant the other day. Not bake off shop bought bung in the oven ones but proper made from scratch ones. I explained that I was not prepared to get up at 4 am to make it happen.

Cue a set of glum faces.

i've done the chips, roast chicken, steak and tried his method of searing beef mince.

all were amazing

except - i found the beef mince always has a lot of water in it so i end up boiling off the water before the meat will brown nicely. anyone else have that?

I find that warthog. I now get mince from the meat counter, not in plastic packs as they always seems to be full of water. Failing that I open the pack a good hour before I cook with it and sit it on some kitchen towel.

I'll give that a try, skiinggardener. it's the same with whatever mince though - i've tried duchy originals, butcher's mince and normal old mince. doesn't seem to make a difference so far.