Old-fashioned Tamis A Tool For Many Uses - Monterey Herald

Gnocchi light as clouds, sauces so smooth they”re like velvet, macaroons that dissolve to nothing in your mouth, pates and mousses as fine as Irish butter, a rain of Parmesan like fine dust. Achieving such kitchen refinement doesn”t take a closetful of expensive gadgets — nor a wave of Harry Potter”s wand — just a single old-fashioned tool.

It”s called a tamis, or drum sieve, and it looks like a cross between an ordinary strainer and your rock-star son”s snare drum. It dates to around the Middle Ages, and it”s been used in professional kitchens pretty much since.

“It”s one of the most important tools in our kitchen,” says chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry, “because it”s what gives food that sense of refinement. In our restaurant it”s in use constantly.” Keller says it”s the key to dishes as diverse as English pea soup, fish mousse and mashed potatoes; he even uses his as a steamer.

It couldn”t be easier to use. Just place the tamis (rhymes with “whammy”) over a bowl, then spoon whatever you want to sieve onto the center of the fine metal mesh and pull the food through, using a plastic bowl scraper. Julia Child recommended pushing ingredients through using a wooden pestle in 1961; chefs nowadays go the carefree flexi-plastic route.

Boiled potatoes or blanched English peas might take a few minutes to press through, while a coulis of fresh blackberries only needs a few swipes.

Sifting is even easier: Flour or powdered sugar might take a little pressure if there are lumps, but often a few taps on the tamis” side is all it takes to translate coarse flours into fine dust.

The tamis” genius is in its design. Because it”s flat, you can take advantage of the sweep of the surface, and apply downward pressure by pulling across, without much effort.

Because of this, a tamis can do what neither a conventional strainer nor a chinois (a china cap, or conical strainer) can easily achieve: It can strain quickly and very finely. It”s like a study in applied plane geometry. (Imagine Euclid in the kitchen, studying a bowlful of potatoes.)

“With a ”chinois” you”re pushing down through a tip,” says Keller. “The tamis is much broader — and it”s even.” Keller”s tamis are large, 18 inches in diameter. “You have so much more area to work with.”

For those of us without a Michelin-starred restaurant, a smaller tamis will do just fine: They come in a wide variety of sizes, and you can find them with metal or wood sides.

Besides sifting and straining, a tamis is also great for purifying: it removes the tiny veins and impurities from foie gras, turning it into silky pates and terrines. For a classic foie gras “torchon,” many chefs use a tamis to sieve the liver before rolling it tightly in cheesecloth and poaching it. Craig Strong, chef at Pasadena”s Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel & Spa, makes his torchon this way, ditto his foie gras mousse. “Anything that you want to be sure is smooth,” he says.

Strong also uses it for an unusual, amazingly smooth eggplant marmalade, “to remove all those seeds.” And when he makes a Bavarian cream, he first passes cooled pastry cream through a tamis to lighten it up before folding it into whipped cream.

A tamis can rice a cooked potato more finely than any ricer or food mill — it was key to making French chef Joel Robuchon”s famous potato pur?e (that and a frightening amount of butter). And if you”ve ever tried mashing raspberries or straining a bulky soup through a strainer — concave, insecurely hooked, often too small — you”ll find the beautiful flat expanse of a tamis a happy revelation.

A tamis is also one of the secrets to making beautiful quenelles — light-as-air fish dumplings — as well as a classic shrimp bisque.

Though as rare on today”s menus as quenelles, velvety shrimp or lobster bisque is achieved by flamb?ing, then caramelizing the shells before cooking them with the other ingredients. Next the shells are finely ground up with the rest of the bisque before being pressed through a tamis. The shells impart a glorious pink color as well as a depth of flavor that you simply can”t achieve otherwise — but you don”t want them in your soup. A tamis is fine enough to strain them out.

At Spago, pastry chef Sherry Yard uses hers to make the lightest macaroons. She first pulses almond flour and powdered sugar in a food processor, then sifts it through the tamis. “This ensures the lightest, finest flour,” says Yard, who also uses the tool when she makes the fillings for Austrian dumplings and strudels, using soft cheeses such as farmer”s cheese, quark and goat cheese. “We flip the tamis upside down, put a bowl underneath and press the cheese directly into the bowl,” Yard says. It”s the difference between a grainy texture and one fine as silk.

|Sage gnocchi with|

|parsley-walnut pesto|

Notes: You”ll need a tamis, a bowl scraper and, for forming the gnocchi, either a fork or a wooden gnocchi paddle. Sage flowers are available at farmers markets.

1 cup walnuts

1½ lbs. baking potatoes (all about the same size), scrubbed

2 cloves garlic

2 T. plus 1 tsp. kosher salt, divided

Zest of 1 lemon

1½ cups Parmesan, grated, plus extra for garnish

1 large bunch Italian parsley, stems removed, cleaned

1/3 cup walnut oil

2 large eggs, beaten well

1½ cups flour, plus more for working with the dough

2 T. finely minced fresh sage

Sage flowers for garnish (optional)

Steps: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast until brown and fragrant, about 8 minutes. Set aside.

Put the potatoes, whole and unpeeled, in a large pot with enough cold water to cover them by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, and cook until they”re easily pierced with a knife, about 20 to 25 minutes. Don”t overcook or let the skins burst.

In a food processor, place the garlic, ¼ tsp. salt, the walnuts, lemon zest, Parmesan and parsley, and pur?e until smooth. Spoon the pesto mixture into a medium bowl and gradually stir in the walnut oil. Mix until combined and reserve.

When the potatoes are done, drain them and peel them carefully with a paring knife while they”re still hot; use a kitchen towel to hold them. Put the peeled potatoes into the tamis, held over a large bowl. Using a bowl scraper, break the potatoes apart and scrape them through the tamis. Spread the potatoes into a thin layer on a baking sheet or tray, sprinkle the remaining three-fourths tsp. salt over them, and let them cool and dry for at least 20 minutes and up to 2 hours.

To mix the dough, pile the dried potatoes into a large, loose mound on a board or work surface. Make a small well in the pile of potatoes, pour in the beaten eggs, then sprinkle 1 cup of the flour and the minced sage on top. Using your hands or the bowl scraper, work in the eggs, mixing and moistening the flour and potatoes. Gather into a single mass, and knead for several minutes, scraping in sticky bits from the board and your hands. Incorporate additional flour in small amounts, only as needed, until the dough is smooth, soft and only slightly sticky. Avoid adding too much flour, which will make the gnocchi heavy and dry. Cover the dough with a towel and form the gnocchi as soon as possible. Meanwhile, bring 8 qts. of water with 2 T. of salt to a rolling boil.

To shape the gnocchi, cut the finished dough into three or four pieces. Dust the work surface and your hands with flour. Roll one piece under your hands into a thick cylinder, and gradually stretch it into a long rope, about 2/3-inch thick. With a sharp knife or the bench scraper, slice the rope crosswise into half-inch lengths; sprinkle the pieces with flour.

To form the gnocchi, use a fork or a gnocchi paddle. Hold the fork or paddle with the tines (or grooves, if using a paddle) at an angle against your work surface. Place one of the cut sides of a piece of dough against the tines. With your lightly floured thumb, press into the dough, and at the same time push it off the end of the fork or paddle and onto a floured board. It will be hollow and curved where you pressed it, and ridged on the side that rolled off the tool. Press and roll the other cut pieces, dust them with flour, and set in a single layer on a floured tray, not touching. (Gnocchi should be cooked, or frozen, as soon as they are all shaped.)

When the water is at a rolling boil, brush off the excess flour from a large handful of gnocchi and drop them into the pot. Stir, cover the pot, and allow the water to return to a boil over high heat. As the gnocchi come to the surface, turn and stir them occasionally so that they cook evenly and don”t stick to one another. Boil for a total of about 6 minutes, until cooked through. Remove with a slotted spoon or strainer. Repeat for the rest of the gnocchi.

While the gnocchi are cooking, spoon about one-fourth cup of pesto into a medium bowl and add a few tablespoons of the water you are cooking the gnocchi with into the bowl. Stir the pesto and water to combine. When the gnocchi are done, lift them out of the water with a slotted spoon and drop them into the bowl with the pesto. Stir gently to combine, then spoon the gnocchi into a soup plate. Sprinkle a little of the extra Parmesan on top, grind a little black pepper over it, adjust the seasoning and garnish with a few sage flowers. Serve immediately.

— Adapted from “Lidia”s Kitchen” by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich.

|Shrimp bisque with Pernod|

1½ lbs. med. shrimp with shells

2 T. unsalted butter

¼ cup olive oil, divided

2 med. fennel bulbs, chopped (about 3 cups)

2 shallots, chopped (about ½ cup)

½ cup dry white wine

½ cup Pernod, plus 1 tsp. for finishing

¼ cup tomato paste

2 bay leaves

½ cup Arborio rice

1 pint heavy cream

½ tsp. kosher salt

tsp. white pepper

Steps: Pull off the legs of the shrimp, then peel them, saving the shells. Pull off the tail and devein.

In a large saucepan with a lid, heat the butter and 2 T. of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the fennel and shallots and saut? until tender and beginning to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Add the shrimp shells and white wine and continue to cook until the shells have good color and are caramelized, about 10 minutes.

Add ½ cup of the Pernod, then ignite with a kitchen lighter or long match. After the flames have subsided, add the tomato paste, bay leaves and 2 qts. water. Stir, cover and cook for about 30 minutes.

Add the rice, cover and cook for another 30 minutes. (If all of the liquid evaporates and the mixture seems dry, add water as necessary.)

Meanwhile, saut? the shrimp in about 2 T. olive oil and a pinch of salt in a large pan over high heat, until just done, about 3 minutes. Set aside.

When the shell-rice mixture is done (the rice should be mushy, even overcooked), take it off the heat and let it cool briefly. pur?e the mixture plus all but 8 of the shrimp in a food processor in batches. (You will be pur?eing the shells, too.)

Put a tamis over a large bowl and press the pur?ed shrimp mixture through it. It”s easier if you do this in batches and take your time. You should have about 4 cups of thick pur?e when you”re finished. Discard the shell mixture that remains in the tamis.

In a medium pot over low heat, whisk the pur?e and heavy cream, heating slowly. Add ½ cup water, 1½ tsp. kosher salt, white pepper and 1 tsp. Pernod. Strain the soup again through the clean tamis and then back into a medium soup pot and warm over low heat.

Meanwhile, thinly slice the remaining whole shrimp lengthwise and keep warm, reheating if necessary in a small saucepan. When the bisque is hot, test for seasoning and ladle into soup bowls. Divide the sliced shrimp among the bowls, spooning the shrimp into the middle of the bisque, and serve immediately. This makes about 9½ cups of soup.