Alinea's Cheese in Cracker

I came across a short, easy, fun recipe in the Alinea cookbook called Cheese, in Cracker. The simplicity of a cheese cracker in the Alinea book was all it took to draw my curiosity, so I went about my afternoon snack of cheese crackers.

Cheese, in Cracker

The dough was made the day before and baked the day of. After the crackers puff up, I made a melted cheese sauce. Right before serving, the hot sauce was injected into previously punched holes on the crackers. A bite into the crunchy cracker with hot melted aged Wisconsin cheese, and you will understand why Chef Achatz had to put this simple snack in his book. Seconds later, I found myself making a second batch of crackers. Compared to other dishes in the book, this cheese cracker snack lacks complexity and layers of flavors. The combination of crackers, cheese, and milk also seems rather traditional. What makes this so special, however, is the pure cheesiness in one, hot explosive bite.

Here is a quick recap of the process:

Cutting dough into 1-inch squares

Puffed Crackers out of the Oven

Injecting Hot Wisconsin Cheese Sauce into Crackers

Melted Cheese inside of Each Cracker

Alinea's Transparency, of Manchego Cheese

As I lazily sipped on my sunday afternoon coffee, I couldn't help loving one of my many birthday presents from my husband - the Alinea book. Just the evening before, I was enjoying every page of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a thoughtful, much-desired gift from my best friend. I must confess that life is good.

Alinea

Reading Alinea is like being transported to a different world; a world of ideas, inspiration, and aestheticism. I have much respect for Chef Grant Achatz, a true artist and creator of today's culinary world. To Chef Achatz, the gnarly roots of an overturned tree has inspired him to create the famous dish Salsify; the accidental shattering of a wineglass makes him question how he can create raspberries that fragile. I started noticing details, things I have not seen before, and wondered how delicate it would be to replicate my memories through food.

Transparency of Manchego Cheese

Recent obsession of Manchego cheese has led my husband to conclude that we would have to create Chef Grant Achatz's Transparency of Manchego Cheese. The thinly sliced Manchego cheese melts over olive oil pudding, roasted garlic, roasted red and yellow peppers, fresh sourdough croutons, manchego squares and dice, dehydrated Niçoise olives, white anchovies, and garnished with baby arugula and spring flowers. Aside from Transparency's literal visual meaning, I believe Chef Achatz is also referring to the transparency and elements of traditional appetizers, such as cheese, olives, olive oil, bread, garlic, etc., being reassembled here.

So, the two of us spent the better half (conservatively speaking) of our day assembling the different components of the dish. Here are a couple steps along the way if you are interested...

We pitted and pitted those tiny olives...

Finally dehydrated, 5 hours later...

Charring peppers in open flame

Chilling olive oil pudding

Every bite was an explosion of flavors: salty, sweet, creamy, crunchy. I was eating through a million layers of flavors, at once - so amazing. And so delicious.