BAR TARTI N E TECHNIQUES & RECIPES Nicolaus Balla and Cortney Burns Photographs by Chad Robertson CHRONICLE BOOKS SAN FRANCISCO Design by Juliette Cezzar Editorial assistance by Jan Newberry Typesetting by DC Typography Food and prop styling by Nicolaus Balla, Cortney Burns, and Chad Robertson Text copyright © 2014 by Nicolaus Balla and Cortney Burns. Photographs copyright © 2014 by Chad Robertson. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available. ISBN 978-1-4521-2646-3 (hc) ISBN 978-1-4521-3235-8 (epub, mobi) Chronicle Books LLC 680 Second Street San Francisco, California 94107 www.chroniclebooks.com THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO OUR PARENTS, THEIR PARENTS, AND EVERYWHERE WE COME FROM. CLEVELAND, 1950 Dark outside, I sit at the table, the kitchen quiet, its cold black window framing winter, and night, timelessly still. Except away, beyond the horizon, derricked above some radio station one small red point blinks steadily on. Grandparents sleep. I still feel the hum of their Slovak and Hungarian, syllables echoing like that beacon. I speak but English. Do those Old World sounds specially bear rosaries, currants, palm fronds, gooseberries, crucifixes, and goose down? I don’t know yet about the stone streets of Pest, poets Kosztolányi, Ady, Attila József, or the coffeehouse nights that they blessed. I don’t know the garden hills of Buda – like Istenhegy, on Diana utca, where grew Radnóti’s hexameter stanzas. But an old language, I feel, I can guess, yet throbs, like that red light, saying yes, yes, as if memory pulsed in accents, accents. – Phil Balla, 1977 8 BAR TARTINE CONTENTS FOREWORD 14 INTRODUCTION 17 PART ONE: TECHNIQUES INSIDE THE PROJECT KITCHEN  26 DRYING 29 HERBS, FLOWERS & SEEDS 30 Chamomile 31 • Cilantro 31 • Elderflowers 33 • Hops 33 • Fennel Flowers 33 ALLIUMS 34 Sweet White Onion Powder 34 • Smoked Onion Powder 34 • Green Onion Powder 36 • Charred Green Onion Powder 36 • Garlic Powder 37 • Green Garlic Powder 37 • Black Garlic 39 • Black Garlic Powder 39 MISCELLANEOUS VEGETABLES 40 Dried Mushrooms 40 • Dried Tomatoes 40 • Dried Zucchini 41 PEPPERS 42 Sweet and Hot Paprika 42 • Smoked Peppers 45 • Charred Chiles 47 ASSORTED POWDERS 47 Huitlacoche Powder 47 • Yogurt Powder 48 • Rice Powder 48 • Rice Koji Powder 48 • Burnt Bread Powder 48 • Kale Powder 50 • Parsnip Powder 50 • Sauerkraut Powder 50 SPICE MIXES 51 Charred Eggplant Spice 51 • Chutney Spice 53 • Shichimi Togarashi 53 • Furikake 54 FRUITS 56 Dried Apricots 56 • Sliced and Dried Citrus 57 • Citrus Peel Powder 57 • Smoked Blood Orange Peels 57 • Dried Sour Cherries 58 • Dried Strawberries 58 • Hoshigaki 58 • Dried Stone-Fruit Leaves 59 MEAT & FISH 61 Dry-Cured Meat or Fat 61 • Karasumi/Bottarga 62 DAIRY 67 Whey 67 • Farmer’s Cheese 67 • Goat Cheese 68 • Cottage Cheese 69 • Cheese in the Style of Feta 70 • Sour Cream 71 • Yogurt 74 • Milk Kefir 75 • Kefir Cream 76 • Kefir Butter and Buttermilk 76 • Brown Butter 77 SPROUTING & SOAKING 79 Bean Sprouts 79 • Seed Sprouts 79 • Sunflower or Pumpkin Seed Soaks 80 • Amaranth or Quinoa Sprouts 80 • Buckwheat Sprouts 81 • Pea and Sunflower Greens 81 • Toasted Sprouted Nuts 83 • Dried Sprouted Nuts 83 • Sprouted Nut or Seed Milk 83 • Sprouted Nut or Seed Butters 83 • Noyaux 84 OILS & ANIMAL FATS 87 Herb Oil 87 • Pine Oil 88 • Caraway Oil 89 • Sweet or Spicy Chile Oil 89 • Fennel Oil 90 • Sunchoke Oil 91 • Pork Fat Chile Oil 91 • Garlic Oil 91 • Schmaltz (Rendered Poultry Fat) 93 • Lard (Rendered Pork Fat) 93 • Whipped Cured Pork Fatback 94 • Tallow (Rendered Beef Fat) 94