Chef Daniel Angerer's Blog

"WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS STAYS IN VEGAS"...MAYBE NOT A BAD THING

Hitting the Strip
Las Vegas is a town where you travel around the world within minutes. In front of the Hotel Paris there is a duplicate of the Eiffel Tower reaching some four hundred feet up into air. There is a man-made lake in front of the Belagio Hotel whose fountain plays every hour or so in duette with the singing of Frank Sinatra. If you want to swing your golf club you can do that too at the Wynn where they built an 18-hole course with manicured grass and a lake landscape.  Don’t forget all this in the heart of a desert.
 
(Hotel Paris) (water fountains - Hotel Belagio) 

Viva Las Vegas
An “Alice in Wonderland” world for the adult where Elvis used to rock, magicians make tigers disappear and acrobats make gravity seem non-existent in the various Cirque de Solei presentations. A daily “fight” against an army of gaming machines is on at all times.
  
(homage to Elvis – peanut butter pudding with banana mousse and caramaelized honey pop corn)

Adult Entertainment
Besides entertainment for adults other than legal prostitution there are also terrific dining spots or at least great “chef names” thrown around such as Joel Roubouchon, Rick Moonen, Jean Georges, Charley Palmer, Wolfgang Puck, Jean Georges and the list goes on. 
 
(Las Vegas advertisment)  (Hotel MGM lion)

All that Glitters isn’t Gold
Can crowds be fed well? I had to come to the conclusion that many culinary experiences were mediocre at best in Las Vegas . I was surprised how chef colleagues are caught up in the number jungle (sales figures, daily guest counts). Where was the spirit of cooking extraordinary food and giving good service? There is this feel of get’m in and out almost like in a cantina maybe because you never seem the same guest twice? It all looks glitzy and nice but the cookie cutter type of assembly line didn’t cut it for me.

Culinary Theater?
Is it a culinary destination? Well I don’t think so. Would I go back?  Yes but with different expectations.

So here is my acknowledgement to the different kind of culinary charm that Vegas has … a colorful, pretty dish to visually impress.
 
(Octopussy a la James Bond with edible gold leaf and king crab)
 

 

QUINCE ESSENTIAL...THE TRUFFLE OF FRUITS

Ripe quince is naturally perfumed like beautiful rose petals. An immaculate sweet scent which wafts through the air when left out at room temperature penetrating the nostrils like white truffles do. At the Greenmarket on Saturday I could not stop inhaling the beautiful aromas of these weird fruits.  Hard and somewhat astringent when eaten raw - meaning they have to be cooked.

(Grilled quince with venison and lavender)

Pear-Apple, Apple-Pear?
Related to apples with somewhat of a pear shape, cooked quince will definitely remind you of eating pears but combined with apple flavor.  They also have a core with seeds. Compared with apples or pears quince will take longer to cook because of it’s hard texture. The fruit is golden yellow in color when ripe and greenish when unripe with a white fuzz on its skin. It’s perfectly quirky.
  
(right picture: quince close-up)
 
Hard Texture – Gentle cooking
I like to cook quince gently by peeling it, cutting it in half then with touch of good honey and a piece of cinnamon placed in a Zip-loc style bag immersed in a pot filled with hot water. Cook it this way at 186 degrees Fahrenheit (keep pot of water on very low flame and check temperature with kitchen thermometer) for 2-2 ½ hours or until soft when pierced with a knife. Quince cooked this way will have a silky flavor and just tastes lovely bringing out all its fragrant qualities.

The Old Fashioned Way
If you like to cook them the old fashioned way here’s what I suggest: cover quince in a pot (peeled and halved) with water then add sugar (with a ration of 4:1) and a cinnamon stick. Cook quince on a low flame until soft (45- 60 minutes or so). Cooking quince this way will dilute the fragrant taste somewhat, more reminiscent of canned pears. 
 
(quince cooked in Zip-loc style bag with a touch of honey)
  
Cooked Quince Combos … Cheese, Cake or Savory
-Quince are delicious with cheese and nut bread – In my opinion they have a very satisfying texture which complements soft or hard cheeses.
-Small cooked quince cubes keep their shape when baked in a cake -- not only lovely to look at but also delicious when you bite into it.
-Cooked then grilled quince is a perfect match with game foods like deer or pheasant. The soft-silky quince texture sooths the rather strong flavor of game.  
-Keep quince in mind for Thanksgiving - quince compote makes a great friend next to cranberry jelly and it’s unexpected.

FISH MATH

To the lady that returned the fish
It all started that evening when a pregnant lady returned her pristine day boat codfish - just to be clear there was nothing wrong with her fish - she just wanted the hunk of a whole grilled Mediterrenan sea bass her companion had ordered when it arrived at the table.  She “changed her mind.” 

In the heat of the kitchen
My line cook "fired" it right away meaning the fish was massaged with vegetable oil, stuffed with preserved lemon and fragrant thyme then sprinkled generously with sea salt and a touch of cayenne.
 
(a close-up of thyme and lemon stuffing, note the charred skin)


(Mediterrenan sea bass stuffed with preserved lemon and thyme ready to go on the grill) 

Helpful hints
When I order whole fish I specify a 1.3 pound heavy fish which is plenty for one person.
We prepare fish by taking gills and guts out and rinse them with cold water.

Cook & rest
The whole fish is grilled on the hottest spot on the char-grill or you can skillet cook it for a good two minutes on each side in vegetable oil.  Either cooking technique will crisp the skin up and give it flavour.
The whole fish is transferred to an ovenproof tray and then placed in a 350 degree oven. Eight minutes later the whole fish is done cooking, but is rested in a warm place for five to ten minutes; this way the heat has time to penetrate the very center of the fish. The fish has a moist texture with a crisped skin at this point.
 

(left-grilled Dorado - first grilled then cooked on a hot stone)
(right-grilled Mediterranean Loup de Mer with a sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil)
 
Bratty Eater
Sounds delicious, you would think - unless the particular lady is literally pounding her fists on the table similar to when I did not get enough honey on my buttered rye bread - needless to say I was about five years old when I did that (that's the story my mother tells me over and over ever year around my October birthday). Bratty lady eventually got her fish and loved it – the other one went to the trash.  Poor fish, poor me.

Let's do some whole fish math
1 minute to season fish (vegetable oil, sea salt, cayenne, lemon/thyme stuffing)
4 minutes grilling (2 minutes on each side or skillet cooking)
8 minutes cooking (@350 degrees Fahrenheit)
5-10 minutes resting time
Voila! Your whole fish in about 18-23 minutes perfectly cooked (different fish will have pretty much the same cooking time).

Why cook it whole?
I have cooked numerous whole fish such as red snapper, sea bream (Dorado) etc.
The point of cooking fish on the bone is that it has more flavour and stays juicy. Fish such as sea bream are rather lean (meaning it has low fat content) which dries out quickly when cooked on high heat such as a char grill.  So 18-23 minutes for a nicely cooked fish or 10 minutes for a dry one.

Moral of the story
Pounding your fists will not make a fish cook faster and taste good.

STUDYING GERMAN THE FUN WAY - SEASONAL BEER!

Partying with the King
Every year during the last week of September and the first week of October it’s the best time to brush up your German language skills. Oktoberfest - it all started when King Ludwig from Bavaria threw a big Volksfest  (translated from German meaning “large party for the people”) in the capital, Munich, honoring his new wife Therese. Like a German version of  Disneyland but not only fun rides also delicious foods and of course Beer.
 
Internationally known Bavarian brew houses like Spaten, Paulaner, Hacker Pschorr (there are about 15 well known brew houses) release a young, malty, easy drinkable Oktoberfest brew and served at the Wies’n (and sold all over the world) which is the location where the Oktoberfest happen every year. What I always thought was funny is that Germans consider their Maß as food.  Maß is the word for a quarter gallon of beer, served in a humongous glass by mostly female servers in their traditional “Dirnd’l” dress.  The Germans drink it plentifully in any public space like you’d eat a sandwich...now that’s a way of living. 

An Excerpt of the Menu
Every year an international crowd of over six million festival visitors are squeezed into huge tents (the biggest one seats 12,000 people) where big bands play German oompha music. People indulge on Würstel which are specialty sausages with sauerkraut, Brez’n which is a large soft pretzel sprinkled with crunchy rock salt and Jaeger schnitzel (meaning “hunter” in the Bavarian dialect). Jaeger schnitzel is a breaded and fried slice of meat most commonly made with pork then smothered with homey mushroom gravy.
 

(left picture; white Bockwurst a pork sausage with a touch of lemon and parsley, Kaesekrainer - a pork sausage with bits of Emmenthaler cheese)

(right picture; big pretzel sprinkled with rock salt, house-made horseradish mustard)

Michelin Starred Roast Chicken
Apprenticing in a fancy three Michelin star restaurant close to where Oktoberfest was happening we young cooks took off a few days of work during that time. We made a good amount of cash that way. One of my tasks was to make Hend’l which is the word for roast chicken. It was simply putting whole chickens on a spit and rolling them in a salt/paprika/rosemary mixture then hanging them on huge rotisseries for roasting – all day long - hundreds of them. Certainly a repetitive job but besides the extra cash, a bonus was a free flowing tapped barrel of beer were where we could “hydrate” and nourish as much as was required.
 
Needless to say it felt somewhat strange to me basting a few truffle stuffed chickens a night back in the fancy restaurant after having had fun working at the Oktoberfest…and there were no beers on the line.

I’m Austrian, not German but I certainly took a real liking to the traditions and habits of the Oktoberfest and every year add Oktoberfest specialties to my restaurant’s menu like a fancy veal schnitzel with porcini mushroom sauce, house-pickles and a cupcake version of black forest torte.
 
(black forest cup cakes with a cherry & kirsch brandy filling)