Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Filmjölk tea discovery, potato rösti and Soul Daddy America’s Next Great Restaurant

Chicken liver and rice
Food Diary (June 15, 2011)
Breakfast: Rolled oats with honey melon
Lunch: Chicken liver and rice
Dinner: Rye sourdough with lentil spinach filmjölk spread
Baking/sweets:

The chicken liver was lightly spiced and sautéed. It was delicious, well delicious only if you like liver. Generally people love it or hate it, there is no in between. Animals have one (or two?) livers so the supply is pretty limited, just like caviar. Unlike caviar the demand is also low so liver ends up being cheaper than regular cuts of meat. Good news  that most of the people don't like liver. Liver is quick and easy to prepare, has no bones and is nutritious.  

Today I made a culinary discovery, I think. Sometimes I drink tea with milk. Today I thought why not add yogurt (or its Nordic cousin filmjölk). Tea with a slight tangy flavor would be nice, in theory anyway. When I added filmjölk it look fine, for the first few seconds anyway. Then the milk solids started to separate and in the process it clarified the tea. As a result the tea was almost clear with a tangy flavor and the solids settled at the bottom. I strained the milk solids and it tastes OK, like tasteless fresh cheese. Now I know what to do if I want to clarify my tea and add a slight tangy flavor. But I don't like having my tea this way so I won't be doing it again. I wonder what would happen if yogurt was added to coffee. I don't want to waste good coffee. In case you try, please let me know what happens.

Overall an interesting discovery for me, now I know why yogurt is not added to tea. However I don't think I will be winning any awards for this one, or maybe win awards that I don't want to receive.

Filmjölk is fermented milk, sort of like yogurt.

Today's Favourite Photo
Potato Rösti filled with Chicken and Cream Cheese


Today's Favourite Blog
If you watched America's Next Great Restaurant you would be familiar with the concept. I only saw part of one episode. Individuals compete and the winner gets to open a restaurant and receive funding from the judges. The judges for the last series were Chipotle founder Steve Ells, and chefs Lorena Garcia, Curtis Stone and Bobby Flay. The winner was Jamawn Woods with his concept restaurant called Soul Daddy.

Even before the restaurant opened it received widespread publicity through TV and other media. And high profile restauranteurs chose the Soul Daddy concept and supposedly put their money where the mouth is. Three restaurants were opened and two closed within the first month. In spite of the publicity, strong backing and a supposedly winning concept Soul Daddy showed signs of failure within the first month. I suppose on the positive note at least by closing within a month the losses were contained, maybe that's one of the smartest decisions made by the team so far!

13 comments:

  1. Mr. Three-Cookies, you are really funny experimenting tea with yogurt. Thank you for doing it for us so we know what's it like. Now coffee and yogurt...yeah better not to waste good coffee that I drink. LOL. I loved Luciana's potato dish too! Good find!

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  2. Interesting using yogurt. I wouldn't have even thought to try that! :)

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  3. Hehe... that's funny, yogurt and tea/coffee. Never would I have dared to attempt something like that. Funnily enough, I'm having some chicken livers while looking at your post :D My husband wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole!

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  4. Fermented yogurt. Hmm, I'm going to have to find some. Great choices today!

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  5. I can manage chicken livers and I love liver pate but can't eat liver just as it is - I think it's a texture thing - funny, I love the smell of it cooking. Maybe I'll just have to keep trying.

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  6. I was an avid watcher of the show and never understood why they chose Soul Daddy! I knew I, for one, would most likely never visit the restaurant they opened here in LA. Oh well. Not sure how I feel about chicken liver, but it does look yummy how you cooked/plated it!

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  7. I love the use of the yogurt! So creative!

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  8. Simply life: yes it does look delicious
    Nami: You are welcome but I won't try with coffee. Or maybe I will, I am curious!
    Lorraine: now you won't need to, but you can try with coffee?
    ping: what a coincidence. I must say you have good taste:)
    yummychunklet: You may have difficulty finding it I suspect
    Hester Casey: yes, practice makes perfect:)
    Caroline: sounds like you had better foresight than the judges
    Emily: thank you!

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  9. I hate pork and calf liver, like the chicken liver when it's well prepared, but I think I could kill a duck with my own hands to retrieve a fat duck's liver. If it wasn't so fat and full of calories, I could have it every day. For breakfast too!
    Your experience reminds me what happens when I put soy milk in my morning coffee. It happens only with certain coffee brands. I don't know why, since I always buy arabica... I know drink only the brands which don't curdle.
    I have just read on wikipedia was filmjölk was. They say it's similar to kefir. I love kefir!!! It is great to cool the organism when it's hot and it's fantastic cure for a hangover ;-) Full of good vitamins.

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  10. Oh , I have forgotten to say it's so funny to see one of the national dishes of the country I live in ;-) It's very good!

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  11. Sissi: Thats a bit strange that soy milk curdles with certain brands. Filmjölk is similar but also different to kefir! Kefir is a bit more gassy/bubbly and more runny whereas filmjölk is more thicker. But its all fermented/cultured milk. One of my favourite restaurants in Stockholm is a Polish restaurant. I haven't visited them in a long while. I eat the rosti every time I go there, its awesome.

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  12. Mr. Three-Cookies, in fact, rösti is Swiss, not Polish (I live in Switzerland). The Polish dish you probably talk about is called "placki ziemniaczane" (potato pancakes) and they are made in a slightly different way (sometimes they are small, sometimes they can be as big as rösti, but most of the time they have the size of the hand). I prefer the Polish ones, the potatoes are usually finely grated, they contain more flour, lots of onions and are softer. I also think the raw onion and lots of ground black pepper (Poles like lots of pepper in their dishes) and sometimes marjoram make them more tasty (the Swiss rösti tend to be a bit bland).
    From what you say filmjölk must be delicious!

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