Introducing the Playful and Innovative Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz

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He was the protégé of Ferran Adria, the world’s greatest chef. He is a veteran of some of the world’s famous kitchens. Over the years, Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz has established a name for himself in the world of culinary arts. He has come into his own and he is quickly becoming one of the world’s best chefs. Chef Aduriz is famous for one thing – his playful approach to food preparation, cooking and presentation. You can probably say that he is one mad culinary scientist. Indeed, he has merged cooking and science.

In truth, Andoni Luis Aduriz is a young chef who has the gone through many stages of culinary growth. His restaurant, Mugaritz, has grown and evolved with him. This restaurant is one of the most acclaimed restaurants in the world. It is not something that you can visit anytime you want. It is not something that you can stumble upon on your way to another tourist destination. It is situated outside San Sebastian City and it will take you thirty minutes to reach the countryside hilltop where Mugaritz restaurant is located.

To actually eat in this restaurant, you need to include this in your itinerary, plan your vacation and get a reservation. If you do this, Chef Aduriz will definitely make your while. You will experience what he is known for. You will have a taste of his innovative, hyper-seasonal and delicious cuisines.

But what can you expect from Chef Aduriz? He has mastered innovative cooking as a fine art. He is continuously evolving in his craft. He takes an interest on something and then he masters it. Curiously, he never forgets whatever he has created or learned. He does not abandon it. He continuously reinvents himself. In his quest to learn more, he has published Tabula Bacalao, a well-respected treatise focusing on codfish. Thereafter, he published the Foie Gras when his interest was caught by foie gras. He also explored and studied scents and flavors. In relation to this, he published Diccionario Botanico Para Cocineros.

Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz has redefined culinary arts. You will never forget his chocolate bubbles and potato stones recipes once you have tried them. Once served with his potato stones recipe, you will likely frown at the shiny small rocks, but they will surprise you with their creamy and delicious taste once you have taken a bite. His chocolate bubbles recipe is even more surprising. You will be served with airy spheres. Then they would burst and reveal your delicious desserts. These are just a couple of Chef Aduriz inventions and he does not intend to stop anytime soon.

Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz Recipe

Little squid cooked braised with vine shoot braise with vegetable shortening and reduced “begihandi” (squid in Basque) cream sauce

(for 4 people)

For the vine shoots:

For the vegetable broth:

1.5 l water

25 g carrots

25 g leaks

2 garlic cloves

50 g onion

250 g chick peas soaked since the evening before

1 bone

100 g collagen-rich meat (hock, cheek, etc.)

Put all the ingredients in a pan. Lightly season and let cook on low heat for 4 to 5 hours before using. Filter and set aside.

For the black broth:

½ l vegetable broth

150 g shucked purple corn

0.5 g yeast extract

2.5 g fine salt

20 g squid ink

Blend all the ingredients, except the purple corn, and bring to a boil. Pass through a blender and filter with the help of a sieve. Add the purple corn and boil the mixture together slowly for at least an hour on the lower end of the grill. Filter the broth and remove the purple corn.

Vine root dough:

325 g wheat flour

30 ml extra virgin olive oil

5 g bakers yeast

160 ml black broth

5 g salt

Add the black broth to the yeast kept at room temperature (about 250C). Dissolve and add the oil then stit with a spoon, until well thinned out.

Sift the flour then pour it into a mixer. Add the black broth with the yeast and flour, knead for 10 minutes, take out the dough and shape into a ball. Place this ball in a salad bowl and let it rise for 1 hour at room temperature of about 25°C.

Roll out the dough with a roller then cut into wide strips. Stretch the dough with the palms of your hand and press with your fingers to make small balls appear. Put these strips on a sheet and let them sit for 20 minutes until small ridges are formed. Stretch out the strips to refine them. Put in oven for 3 minutes at 200°C. Take out of oven and cut the strips lengthwise in half while the dough is still warm so the new vine shoots don’t break.

For the Iberian broth:

60 g pig tail

40 g rancid, salted white lard

60 g pork bone

40 g shortening

½ kg fresh white pork meat

30 g carrots

40 g leaks

60 g onion

40 g chick peas

100 g potato

1.3 l water

Rinse off the pig tail, the bone and fat to take off excess salt. Put a large amount of water to boil in a big pan. In the boiling water, add the pork offal and boil them to eliminate any rancidness or impurities. Remove from this water and pass under sink water.

In an oven at 170°C, brown the pork meat cut in dices with a trickle of extra virgin olive oil. Once the meat is browned, take off the stove and take away any excess fat.

In a bowl, put the tail, the salted white lard, the bones, the shortening, chick peas, onions, carrots, leaks, potato, grilled meat and water. Let it all hydrate for 2 hours. Then cook, on low heat without boiling, so as not to disturb the broth, until the latter has been reduced in half. Filter with a sieve and filter paper. Salt and set aside.

For the vegetable shortening:

¼ green watermelon

Iberian broth

Gut the watermelon using a paring knife until you see the white layer of the peal. With a potato peeler, cut fine 5cm strips and 1cm wide in this white layer. Cook these strips in the water for about 2 minutes until they lose their tendinous appearance.

In a vacuum pressure cooker, put the watermelon strips submerged in Iberian broth. At a temperature less than the melted broth (under 35°C), have the strips be permeated with the aroma by opening and closing the air outlet. It is by this suction that the fruit absorbs the flavour of the Iberian broth. The veiny and half-transparent appearance of the strands end up looking like the shortening.

If you don’t have a vacuum pressure cooker, another process would be to vacuum pack the strips with the Iberian broth and leaving them at fairly low temperatures (45-50 º C).

For the garlic casein:

½ head of garlic

100 ml extra virgin olive oil

Cut up the garlic in small pieces. Put them in a pan and cover them with olive oil, cook on low heat, continuously stir with a whisk until the blend becomes a pretty golden colour. Quickly cool the mixture down by plunging the pan into a double boiler full of water and ice.

For the aubergine powder:

1 aubergine

Cover the aubergines in aluminium paper and bury it under the charcoal.

Let it grill until it’s totally dehydrated. Mince up in an electric blender, pass the powder through a fine strainer and set aside.

For the ashes:

70 g dry bread

4 g garlic casein

1.4 g aubergine powder

0.2 g salt

Take off crust from traditional bread. Cut white bread in dices and dry in the oven for 1 hour at 12°C. Once white bread is dry, put in mixing glass. Then add the well-drained, ground garlic casein, aubergine powder and salt. Mix on highest level to obtain a grey powder resembling ashes. Set aside in a closed container and in a dry area.

For the squid broth:

875 g onion

25 ml olive oil

600 g clean squid

200 ml white wine

5 egg whites

5 g de fine salt

Peel and cut the onions in large pieces. Add some oil in a pot and sauté the onions until they become caramelized. Once caramelized, add the cut-up squid and white wine. Cover the pot and let cook slowly during 1 hour. Then filter and set aside in the fridge. When the mixture is chilled, take off the fat surface layer. In a salad bowl, beat the egg whites well and add to squid broth. Then whisk again on the fire at low heat. Leave until the egg white curdles and the impurities become attached.

Using a skimmer, remove the egg white from the surface. Pass the broth through a damp cloth and then a strainer.

For the smooth creamy squid sauce :

16 g kuzu

200 ml squid broth prepared during the previous step

100 g natural squid ink

In a small pan, mix the cold kuzu, the squid broth and ink pockets (pierce well so all the ink is emptied). Dissolve well and pass the mixture through the strainer over a pot. Cook on the grill at a moderate temperature and stir using a spatula, until the mixture homogeneously jellifies and has the texture of a massage jelly. Set aside with a cover, or shrink wrap, in a warm double boiler.

For the squid:

4 squid fished on a hook and cut into pieces. For the presentation, use the squid fished on a hook which are the size of a finger. Extra virgin olive oil and sprinkles of salt

Open the squids, using a paring knife, from the pen-part to the other end. Empty them, clean them, and cut them in pieces (4×4 cm)/

Put them on the grill at 225-250º C until they turn a golden brown. Put them immediately into a heated salamander at about 45-50º C for 2 to 3 minutes, just before serving up the plate. It’s very important to not break the heat chain.

Also:

Ground vine shoots

Smoking pipe

FINAL TOUCH AND PRESENTATION

In a plate with a dome, serve up a generous serving of squid cream sauce. Sprinkle over with a spoonful of ashes. Arrange 5 vine roots and a strip of vegetal shortening. Then atop, place the squid pieces, bodies and tentacles fished on a hook. Put on another vine shoot. With a special pipe to make smoke, and by slightly raising the dome for enough room to slide in the pipe end, fill up the hollow part of the dome. Lower, and set it on the plate, therefore creating a smoke pocket. This smoke will become impregnated with the traditional grill aroma until the guest arrives … then off comes the dome! This guest will be the best seated to appreciate these smoke effects.

Portrait Credit: Zimbio

Food Image and Recipe Credit: EntreChefs

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