Brandon Jew's Smoked Peppercorn Ice Milk with Shaved Wagyu Cheek Jerky
Brandon Jew
Brandon Jew
A layering of culture, ideas, experience and ingredients is at the heart of San Francisco chef Brandon Jew’s approach to cooking and running restaurants. “My restaurant Mr Jiu’s is on a site that’s run as a restaurant since the 1850s,” he says. “I’m inspired by the chefs that have been in Chinatown before me, as well as my family’s Cantonese background.” There’s also a lot of play with the notion of Chinese-American food. “There are dishes that started off inspired by China, but how they are expressed here is very much American. It’s a different lens on Chinese cuisine.”
This whimsical pre-dessert palate cleanser is a kind of sweet-savoury sundae. At his San Francisco restaurant Mr Jiu’s, chef Brandon Jew sometimes does a beef heart version of the jerky, but wagyu has special qualities. “Because the wagyu is so marbled, it becomes almost flossy,” he says. The ice milk is dressed with sorghum. “It tastes like maple syrup and is used in the American South, but it’s also used in China to make [the spirit] baiju.”
The interweaving of Chinese and American influence is part of the approach at Mr Jiu’s. “The restaurant is really personal in a sense of wanting to express Chinese-America,” says Brandon.
Ingredients
Main
Main
115g (4 oz) Smoked Ice Milk (see below)
30g (1 oz) tapioca, cooked and held in filtered water
30g (1 oz) sorghum syrup
1 Cured Wagyu Cheek (see below)
3 lychees, seeds removed and split
60g (2 oz) candied cashews 1 tsp cocoa powder
Smoked Ice Milk
Smoked Ice Milk
550g milk
185g cream, smoked
90g sugar
55g glucose
5g salt
12g whiskey
3g vanilla extract
0.5 vanilla beans
Cured Wagyu Cheek
Cured Wagyu Cheek
1 Westholme wagyu cheek
coriander seeds
green peppercorns
red Sichuan peppercorns
kosher salt
granulated cane sugar
pink curing salt No. 2
Method
Smoked Ice Milk
Combine all ingredients in a sauce pot. Gently warm to dissolve the sugar, salt and glucose. Allow to steep for 30-40 minutes.
Strain and cast into Pacoject sleeves or pint containers. Freeze overnight.
Cured Wagyu Cheek
Trim sinew from wagyu cheek.
Calculate the following seasonings and spices based on the trimmed weight.
.05% coriander seeds
.05% green peppercorns
.05% red Sichuan peppercorns
3% kosher salt
1% granulated cane sugar
.16% pink curing salt No. 2
Cure for 2 days then dehydrate at 60C / 140F for 2 days.
To Serve
Scoop Smoked Ice Milk in a bowl, add sorghum syrup, lychees, cashews and tapioca.
Flake over Cured Wagyu Cheek and dust with cocoa powder.
