ANN CURRY, co-host:
This morning on
HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING TODAY
, reinventing dishes from the number one restaurant in the world.
Mark Bittman
has been there, he's with
The New York Times
, of course, he's a columnist and author there on "How to Cook Everything." And earlier this year, he traveled to
Copenhagen
,
Denmark
, to check out a stone warehouse turned restaurant called
Noma
. With just 12 tables, it nabbed top honors as the
Best Restaurant in the World
for
2010
.
Mark
, good morning.
Mr. MARK BITTMAN:
Hi, Ann.
CURRY:
Now what makes
Noma
the
best restaurant in the world
?
Mr. BITTMAN:
Well, it's a tough title, but there was a competition of sorts and it won this title. And what I can say is that it was really an amazing place. And it -- the book and the restaurant it sort of reflects and it's called "
Time
and
Place
in
Nordic Cuisine
" and it's very local, intense,
northern European
food with many strange and unusual and wonderful ingredients. And they've done this book called "
Time
and
Place
in
Nordic Cuisine
" and actually, you know, in cooking through it, we found that you can do some of these things. They're wacky, they're odd and you have to make a substitution here and there, but we have a couple things here that you can do from there, and they are amazing dishes, really interesting.
CURRY:
It sounds like fun, so let's get started. But the interesting thing is you actually adapt some of these recipes from the number one restaurant in the world, I mean that's kind of cheeky.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Well, we didn't make many changes.
CURRY:
OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
But, I mean, we couldn't find spruce leaves, for example.
CURRY:
Oh, OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
So we -- but this is -- this is a very lovely dish called onions and blueberries.
CURRY:
Now what is that about?
Mr. BITTMAN:
Yeah. I mean, well...
CURRY:
Let's get started, let's find out what this is.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Stay with me. OK. So these are
white onions
which are different from
yellow onions
...
CURRY:
Uh-huh
.
Mr. BITTMAN:
...but you can find them easily enough.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. BITTMAN:
And you take the -- you take a few of the center petals out just like that.
CURRY:
Right. They look like flower petals.
Mr. BITTMAN:
And you blanch them, you just cook them in boiling water for a minute or so.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. BITTMAN:
You do the same thing with some shallots. And then you peel the shallots in the same way, you separate the leaves like that.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mr. BITTMAN:
I mean, the petals like that.
CURRY:
Petals, right.
Uh-huh
.
Mr. BITTMAN:
And then these will get cooked in a mixture of blueberry juice and vinegar with a
little
thyme in it. And that pickles them. And like any other pickle, you strain it. You cook it
for a little while
, you strain it, and then you have to let it sit for a few days. So you just do this and get it out of the way.
CURRY:
Oh. Oh. That's nice.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Now you take your...
CURRY:
Your petals of your onions.
Mr. BITTMAN:
When you're ready to go...
CURRY:
Right.
Mr. BITTMAN:
...you take your onions and you cook them in a
little
butter.
CURRY:
So two days later. There we are.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Yeah. A
little
butter, OK?
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. BITTMAN:
That's like a -- meanwhile, you have -- I mean, each of these steps takes you a
little
bit, but they're each easy enough.
Mr. BITTMAN:
You puree some blueberries. You basically make a
blueberry jam
.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. BITTMAN:
You have your shallots that you've pickled. You make...
CURRY:
That's right
here. Shallots are right here.
Uh-huh
.
Mr. BITTMAN:
...a rosemary parsley oil. And, of course, at the restaurant they use spruce leaves, not rosemary leaves.
CURRY:
Uh-huh. How do you make a rosemary parsley oil, just mix them together?
Mr. BITTMAN:
Well, you just mix some -- you cook some oil with some -- you blanch some parsley, you mix it up with oil and rosemary and you put it in a
little
squeeze bottle. Now we're ready to go.
CURRY:
OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
We have our blueberry puree. And, you know, you think I can't do this, but the fact is I can.
CURRY:
I know you can do everything. I have so much faith in you,
Mark
.
Mr. BITTMAN:
You have your beautiful blue -- look at the color there, it's fantastic.
CURRY:
That's pretty.
Mr. BITTMAN:
You take your
little
rosemary oil
.
CURRY:
And then you create your...
Mr. BITTMAN:
Now you take your lovely sort of lightly poached onions.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm. Nice. Pretty.
Mr. BITTMAN:
This one's -- this one is...
CURRY:
Oh, sorry. OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
That's my fault.
CURRY:
No, no, it's fine.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Might as well do it right, right? And now you take a
little
bit of a shallot and put it in each of these.
CURRY:
That is beautiful. And this would be great for just like an opening presentation at your...
Mr. BITTMAN:
You know what, it's a terrific salad...
CURRY:
...because this is not going to be filling,
Mark
, I mean, as much as it's pretty.
Mr. BITTMAN:
...or it's a terrific dessert. I mean, it's just amazing.
CURRY:
OK. Well, so that's a presentation.
NATALIE MORALES, anchor:
Beautiful.
CURRY:
We're
running out of time
and I want to get to this other thing back here.
Mr. BITTMAN:
So quick.
CURRY:
Come on, this is the chocolate thing.
MORALES:
Yes.
Mr. BITTMAN:
This is -- sorry, guys.
CURRY:
No, no, that's all right.
MORALES:
Now we're talking, a chocolate thing.
CURRY:
We're getting to the presentation.
Mr. BITTMAN:
This is tempered chocolate. And basically you take some potato chips.
CURRY:
Look at this.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Coat them...
CURRY:
In some chocolate.
Mr. BITTMAN:
...in chocolate. You basically just have to melt the chocolate.
CURRY:
I love this. Look at this, you guys.
MORALES:
Melted -- like a
dark chocolate
? Yeah.
CURRY:
And you just put them there. And then what are we sprinkling on top?
Mr. BITTMAN:
Sprinkling anise and fennel...
CURRY:
OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
...which is really unusual. And try one of these.
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