For some reason Heston’s follow up to to his book In search of perfection had passed my attention unoticed. Following the same scheme as in the first book, in Further adventures in search of perfection Heston examines eight classic dishes in great detail: Trifle, Baked Alaska, Fish Pie, Hamburger, Peking Duck, Chicken Tikka Masala, Risotto and Chilli Con Carne.
[Via Der Kompottsurfer]
The recipes are fantastic, but *considerably* more complex than those in the first book. I’ve cooked the chilli and the burger, and both were wonderful, but a lot of work.
(I wrote up my misadventures cooking the chilli some time ago – http://cairmen.livejournal.com/321261.html , http://cairmen.livejournal.com/321499.html?mode=reply , http://cairmen.livejournal.com/321823.html,
http://cairmen.livejournal.com/322182.html . I fear you’ll get an extremely accurate impression of my skill as a cook from the writeup, but it may be interesting. For comparison, I also wrote up the Spaghetti Bolognaise from the first book, at http://cairmen.livejournal.com/252937.html )
We also featured the Spaghetti Bolognaise in our weblog and had a nice discussion with Italian pasta purists about what goes into a bolognaise and what doesn’t. http://kuirejo.de/blog/2008/02/02/spaghetti-bolognese-nach-heston-blumenthal/
Plus we reviewed Heston’s book (although only in German): http://kuirejo.de/blog/2008/01/24/heston-blumenthal-further-adventures-in-search-of-perfection/
Although the recipes are very complex, you can always take some elements (e.g. the wonderful Peking style duck confit or the burger with bought buns) from the recipes and focus on them. And it’s very well written.
Yes, I agree. Whilst I enjoy making the recipes, most of the utility I see from Dr Blumenthal’s books comes from mining the techniques he uses to enhance my own rather less ambitious cooking. The tomato pip sauce, for example, is particularly impressive.