Honor Thy Father

This is the hardest post to write. I have been avoiding the blog for weeks because I wish to sojourn in the land of Egypt, you know, the land of de-Nile. When I pick up the phone to call him, or plan my next trip to Vegas, or get a sympathy card, or write this blog, it all comes back.
I just want it not to be true, but it is.

Father of Food passed away on October 5th.

He will be missed, remembered, needed, yearned for, but never forgotten.

Here is a chronological list of Dad's posts:
Priorities
A Real Cut Up
Hidden Treasure
Dining Sicilian Style
Special Hint
Oh My, What a Pie!
Mom's Night Out
Ole
Small Plates---BigTaste
Basil-Pesto (Recipe)
Size Matters
Food
24/7 Mandalay Bay
This Ain't Your Big Mac
Diet Rules For Cheaters (unknown)
True Confessions
Boo
Thanksgiving - common problems - simple solutions
The Deli Experience
Patio Dining on the Strip
Hammy Hannukah or (Chanukah)
Good - Better - Best
Pizzacue
24/7 Venetian
Zoozacrackers
Aunt of Food
Vintage Vegas
O Sole Mio! (Recipe)
Good Company
Passover Recipe (Recipe)
Passover Recipe Matzo Brie (Recipe)
Did I say smear?

Gazpacho Foam

For everyone who has been following Father of Food's health situation it looks like with exercise and therapy his swallowing is improving, and he is able to taste food again in the form of thickened liquids and purées, but he's keeping the feeding tube for now, because we know that his condition may worsen again.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about what he might be able to eat that could offer the taste and aroma and textures of food without ending up in the lungs, and it occurs to me that the answer may not be in bland hospital foods, but at the cutting edge of the culinary arts, in the field of "molecular gastronomy," experimentation with science and food--food that does not even attempt to satisfy hunger, but food for food's sake. The "thickened liquids" that Father of Food has been drinking, after all, are thickened with many of the same hydrocolloids that avantgarde chefs like Ferran Adrià, Grant Achatz, and Wylie Dufresne have been playing with. Perhaps some restaurant critics think that Adrià's espumas and foams that became popular in the mid-1990s are a bit passé, but what could be more ideal for Father of Food than something intensely flavored and without any substantial mass? Of course we'll have to confirm that with his doctors and the speech therapists who work with him on his swallowing, but it seems promising, and it's always fun to learn to make something new.

Foams are typically made from liquids thickened with starch, fat, egg whites, or hydrocolloids like gelatin, agar agar, xanthan, carageenan, and other food stabilizers that may be familiar from processed food labels, but are generally naturally derived from plants or algae. They may be whipped with a blender or in a nitrous oxide cream whipper. A cream whipper like those made by iSi can whip cream to five times its original volume, or around twice the volume of cream whipped with a whisk or an electric mixer. The one that I use is the iSi Thermo Whip, which is also a thermos flask that can keep ingredients hot for three hours or cold for up to eight hours. The contents are protected by the nitrous oxide gas, so they taste and look fresh when dispensed.

While this all seems new and exotic, it is not that hard to make a foam. My first foam was simply mashed potatoes, served hot and whipped lighter than any mashed potatoes I'd ever had. It was perfect as a side dish where I might want the flavor and texture of potatoes without getting filled up on potatoes. It also worked cold as a garnish for a cold cucumber soup.

To make the gazpacho foam pictured above, blend at high speed about 1/3 cup chopped onion and one clove garlic with about 1/3 cup beef consommé and the juice of one lemon. Add about 2/3 cup tomato and an equal amount of peeled cucumber and blend thoroughly. Add marjoram, black pepper, sea salt, and piment d’Espelette or other hot pepper or Tabasco to taste. Dissolve 2g Knox gelatin in about 1/4 cup warm beef consommé, and blend into mixture. Strain and chill.

Pour one pint of the mixture into the 1 pint Thermo Whip, charge with one N2O charger, and shake vigorously, then turn the Thermo Whip upside down and shake a couple of times to bring most of the liquid to the spout. Release the foam gently at first to produce a controlled spray. If dispensed at this point, it will be drinkable. For a firmer foam that can be eaten with a spoon, allow Thermo Whip to rest in the refrigerator overnight on its side. Shake vigorously and dispense into a cocktail glass garnished with a cucumber slice and a spear of red bell pepper.

A Drink in the Desert

Aaaaahhhhhh, sweet food, have you ever seen such deliciousness?

This bowl of soup, pudding, jello, and thickened apple juice may not look like much to you but I can guarantee it is a huge improvement over feeding tube fare which does not even get near the mouth on its way to the stomach. Can you imagine what it would be like to taste the most simple of hospital purees when just a week ago you were not sure you would ever get to suck on an ice chip again? It would be like finding a drink of water after wandering through the desert for days without.

Wait... my Father is in the desert and he could not have even a drink for days and days. So it is exactly like that.

The state of things a couple of weeks ago when Father of Food first got his feeding tube was grim, but things are improving. Father of Food was moved to a regular hospital bed and is out of the ICU. He still has a feeding tube, but he has been working with a speech therapist who has helped him strengthen his swallow and speech. This has allowed him to progress to drinking thickened liquids. Thank you everyone who has sent cards, left comments on the blog, sent e-mails, visited, and called. It is better therapy than any other.

Dad's Knife

Father of Food (that would be my dad) has pretty good knife skills, which I suppose he learned from his mother and improved a bit in a Chinese cooking class he took some 38 years ago, around the time he bought this Henckels 8-inch chef's knife from The Pampered Chef in Miami. We replaced this old, worn knife with a new Henckels 8-inch chef's knife on his birthday several years ago, but on our recent trip to Las Vegas, I found the old one in a drawer, and as you can see from the photo on top, it had been oversharpened so that a hollow had formed in front of the bolster, which is the thick part of a forged knife where the blade meets the handle. Periodically the bolster needs to be ground down to prevent this, but sometimes even professional sharpening services don't do this. The wooden handle has held up surprisingly well without splitting or cracking. I remember Grandmother of Food used to use ancient butcher's knives that probably belonged to her mother and had rubber bands to keep the handles from falling off. I grew up with this knife, and when I went to college some twenty-odd years ago and needed a knife of my own, I bought one just like it in the Henckels Four-star line with a molded polypropylene handle, which I still use every day.

I've been working on refining my sharpening technique and trying a few more advanced projects like grinding bolsters and reshaping worn out knives, so I thought I had nothing to lose by taking this knife back to New York with me and seeing if I could turn it into something usable again. I've reshaped a few old Sabatier carbon steel chef's knives successfully, but they are fairly easy to work. They are thinner than German style knives, so there isn't as much metal to remove, and carbon steel is easier to sharpen than stainless steel like Henckels "Friodur." It turned into a two-day project, and I still consider it a work in progress.

I started by grinding off most of the excess metal at the heel of the blade with a Dremel, cooling the blade in water as I progressed to avoid losing the temper of the steel. When it started looking like a knife again, I switched to a file, refining the curve to get back the characteristic bounce of a good chef's knife, and restoring the bevel along the edge. Then I continued sharpening and refining the edge first on a double-sided coarse/medium oilstone, and finished on a Japanese 1000/6000 grit waterstone. I tried chopping a bit and wasn't getting a good rock. The heel of the knife was striking the board too soon, so it was back to the file, and then another round of sharpening on both double-sided stones, and the result is what you see in the bottom photograph. The profile is narrower like a French-style chef's knife, but it's still got most of the heft of a German-style knife.

I used it to chop some carrots and garlic for dinner, and it felt like meeting an old friend I hadn't seen in a long time. It's not perfect yet, but it's not too bad for a knife that's pushing forty. I think I've got one more curve adjustment to get the rocking motion just right and a couple of more sharpenings to go to get the edge sharp all the way back to the heel of the knife, but except for the last inch or so, the blade is sharper than its been in years. If it turns out that the back part of the blade is too thick to hold an edge, I can still use it for heavy work like chopping through bones. When the edge is right, I'll probably shave a bit off the end of the handle to move the balance forward a bit, and then maybe I'll buff out the scratches on the blade.

Dad's old knife won't replace my newer knives that are in better shape, but my new knives won't take the place of this old friend either.

Father of Food

Dear Family of Food Readers,

You may have been wondering, where is Father of Food? Back in January we posted some updates, but he has been in a long term care facility since. Recently, he had a bad setback and is now recovering in the hospital, but he is not going to be able to be as active as even in recent months. His mobility is severely limited. He has been progressively losing muscle function which the doctor called today a dystrophy. What I am extremely saddened by today, the thing that I am reluctant to write, is the distinct possibility that Father may need to eat through a feeding tube. This would be very sad indeed. Father of Food without Food? It would be quite a loss of joy in his life. I would like any of you who know Father of Food or who have ever read any of his articles or tried one of his recipes to send him a nice word or two. If you know Father personally, send this to anyone else who knows him. If I get a bunch of comments I will bring them to him and read them to him for comfort and support. It really helps. If he can not have Food, at least he will have Food for the soul.

Thanks very much,
Daughter of Food