Dateline: July 8, 2021 Vichyssoise, Just Because

I had a couple of potatoes, a bunch of leeks, and half and half as well as garlic chives....what to make?  Bingo, vichyssoise and salad from the garden.

I had some a couple of weeks ago when out to dinner with Martha and Sal after Martha and I played flute duets.  We went to a french bistro around the corner from them and it was delicious.  SO, I am attempting to duplicate that experience.

 

 

First step, find a suitable recipe.  I found Tony Bourdain's recipe from Les Halles, and I riffed on it.  Didn't have heavy cream, and didn't have 8 leeks, but I muddled through.

Ingredients

3 leeks, white and light green parts, thoroughly cleaned

2 baking potatoes, peeled and cut into smallish cubes

2-3 T unsalted butter

1 quart chicken stock, divided 

1 pt half and half

salt and pepper

freshly grated nutmeg

chopped chives, or garlic chives for garnish

Method

1.  Steam the potatoes until they can be easily pierced with a knife or fork.  Drain and hold aside.

2.  In a pan large enough to hold all the ingredients,  melt the butter and gently saute the leeks.  You want to soften them, but not brown them.  Salt and pepper them as they cook.  When softened, add in the potato cubes and salt and pepper again.  Mix well in the pan and add 2 cups of the stock.  Bring to a gentle simmer and taste for seasoning.  Remember, if you are serving this cold, then season it highly.  If serving it hot, then season less so.

3.  Remove pan from the heat and allow to cool slightly.  Transfer contents of pan into a blender is small batches and blitz until smooth.  Do not over blend, you will end up with wall paper paste.  Pour blender contents into a container that can hold all of the ingredients.  

4.  Mix in the half and half, nutmeg, and any additional salt and pepper.  Thin with the remaining stock as needed.  Some potatoes are starchier than others so you may need all of the extra 2 cups of stock to get the consistency you want.

5.  Chill.  Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped chives or chopped garlic chives.

Dateline: April 4, 2021 Grilled Steak, Roasted Whole Cauliflower, and Grilled Potatoes

 I had 2 beautiful strip steaks that I wanted to grill.  So I set up the grill and lit a fire hoping to get everything done before it got dark and cold!  I threw a chunk of wood on to supply a little more smoke for the veg.

I oiled the steaks and seasoned with salt and pepper as well as oiling up the cauliflower and seasoning it with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.  I washed up a couple of yukon gold potatoes and oiled and seasoned them up as well.

When the fire was ready, I got it to hold steady at 300°F and put the cauliflower on the grill.  I figured I had about 40 - 60 minutes before it was cooked through and delightfully smokey.  I figured the taters would take about the same amount of time.  They would not fall apart, but get crustier, which is a lovely thing in its own right!

When the veggies were done, I opened up the vents to get the grill hotter, and got it up to 400°F pretty quickly.  I put the steaks on the hottest part of the grill and set a timer for 6 minutes.  After 3 minutes I rotated the steaks 90° for cross hatching.  At the 6 minute mark, the steaks were flipped and rotated again at the 3 minute mark.  I then took its temp and the internal temp was only about 100°F.  So onto their sides the steaks went in 1-2 minute increments.  The grill was getting hotter as the lid was open so a good sear was happening on the edges.  After that I took the temp and it was 120°F, ok getting closer to medium rare.  I put the steaks back on the very hot grill on the less browned side for another minute or two and voila!  Perfect 127° that will rise to 130° as they sit.

The steaks were excellent, I know I usually do sous vide for steak, but I wanted to grill to wake up my grilling chops, if you will.

They were tender, flavorful, nicely seasoned, and quite delicious.  Nothing like meat and taters for an Easter/Passover Dinner.

Dateline: March 12, 2021 3 People Walked into a French Bistro...

Last night Servet came by for dinner and games night.  I was heavily influenced by the Inspector Bruno books I am reading, and by what I had ordered from D'Artagnan.  I ordered rabbit legs.  I have made rabbit once or twice before and found it to be delicious and lean....ergo, let's add cream!

I used a Patricia Wells recipe from her Bistro book, Cafe Des Federations' Rabbit with Mustard Sauce.  To go with it, I made a potato and celeriac layered dish with cream, haricot verte with onions and slivered almonds, a salad (which no one touched), and a cheese course for dessert, supplied by my neighbor who run Brooklyn Larder.

The rabbit was delicious and oh so tender.  I took longer than the recipe stated, but I but it in the oven, covered, to braise for about 2 hours.  Everything was so tasty.  I recommend this recipe highly.  It worked splendidly with the chicken thighs as well.  Everyone went silent around the table....too busy eating to chat!

I also made some stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer.  After cleaning the mushroom, I chopped finely the stems along with a small onion and 3 cloves of garlic.  In a sauce pan, I heated up some butter mixed with olive oil and sauted the onion and chopped mushroom stems along with some salt, red pepper flakes and some black pepper.  When they had given off their water and had reduced that a bit, I then added the garlic.  For a binder, I used panko bread crumbs and enough oil to moisten them up so they would hold together.  For added umami, I added a handful of grated parmesan.  Tasted and adjusted.

For the caps, I put them on a rimmed baking sheet into the oven without stuffing for 3 minutes per side.  I took them out of the oven, allowed to cool a bit until I could handle them, and then stuffed them and returned to the oven for about 15-20 minutes.

There was extra stuffing, which I used to top the casserole.

Up front, I am an impatient cook.  I can not just walk away and let things brown by themselves, I know I shouldn't poke and bother thing that are browning, but I can't help myself.  I browned the rabbit legs and I knew that there would not be enough so I augmented it with 4 chicken thighs.  They came bone in with skin, which I stripped off and then rendered out the fat and saved the crisped skin to chop and sprinkle on the potato casserole.  

What I learned, while the whole grain mustard looks interesting, the seeds separate out and burn, so used a smooth dijon mustard which in turn will adhere to the rabbit/chicken much better.  Use that whole bottle of wine, you heard me, a whole bottle of dry white wine.  I used a sauvignon blanc and it worked beautifully.  I drank a Picpoul with dinner, a little lower in alcohol and a bit of a fizz.

Potato and Celery Root Casserole with Cream

5-6 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced in 1/8" slices (use a mandolin)

1 large celery root, pared and chunked up and sliced in 1/8" slices, use the damn mandolin

1 medium onion, sliced into rings, again on the mandolin

4 large red tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

salt pepper

1 pint heavy cream

grated parmesan cheese

Method

1.  To peel tomatoes, bring a sauce pan of salted water to a boil and get a bowl of ice water ready.  Cut a small "X" on the bottoms of the tomatoes, and put into the boiling water for about 1 - 2 minutes.  Remove and immediately put into the ice water.  When they have cooled down, gently peel off the skin using a paring knife and your fingers.  (Save the water you boiled and use it to blanch the green beans later.)

2.  Cut tomatoes in half and squeeze over the sink or trash.  Using your finger pry out the remaining seeds and set aside until all tomatoes are seeded.  Chop into a 1/2" dice.  (If all of this is too much, then use canned tomatoes, but drain them and reserve liquid to mix with cream.)  Hold in a small bowl

3.  Slice the potatoes and celery root and put into a large bowl of salted water.  Slice the onion and hold on the side in another small bowl.

4.  To assemble the casserole, butter a casserole dish (I used a 9 x 12) and layer first potatoes slices, overlapping in 2 layers followed by 2 layers of the celery root.  Top that with salt and pepper and half the onion slices.  Layer potatoes and celery root again, and top with the tomatoes, salt and pepper, layer potatoes, onions, celery root in a final layer with potatoes or celery at the top of the casserole.  Gently pour in a pint of heavy cream and if you used canned tomatoes, mix the cream with the juice from the tomatoes.  Salt and pepper the top and top with grated parmesan cheese.  Cover with a piece of foil.  Put into a 350° F oven for about 1 hour or so, potatoes should be soft when casserole is pierced with a fork.  Remove foil and let brown in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.  I will help to put the casserole in a rimmed baking pan in case it boils over.  Allow to cool slightly before serving and top with chopped crisped chicken skin.

Note:  If you don't want to bake it this long, then parboil both the potatoes and celery root and layer with the slightly cooked vegetables.

Haricot Verte with Onions, Almonds, and Reduced Stock

1.5 lbs trimmed haricot verte, blanched and shocked in ice water

1 c slivered almonds

1/2 small onion thinly sliced, since the mandolin is out, use it!

2 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped fine

1/2 c rich chicken stock

olive oil or butter

salt and pepper

Method

1.  In a large frying pan, dry toast the almonds until they color slightly and are crisp.  DO NOT BURN!

Empty into a bowl and hold aside.

2.  In the same pan, heat some oil and saute the onions until they are golden in color and starting to brown.  Add garlic and cook for about 1 - 2 minutes until quite fragrant, but not colored.  Add all of the stock and reduce that by half in the pan.  

3.  Add beans and cook until they are crisp-tender and no longer taste raw.   Cook to coat all the beans in a rich sauce that clings nicely to the beans.  Top with toasted almonds.

Dateline: March 5, 2021 What to do with 1/2 a turkey breast? Sheet Pan Dinner #6

I had 1/2 of a turkey breast left over from last nights Indian Night.  What could I do with it quick, as we were on a zoom call until 7 pm. 

I sliced the breast into 4 1-in  thick cutlets, cut up a mess o' potatoes and cauliflower.  These got dumped on a sheet pan, oiled up, salted, peppered and then I realized that the meal was too white.  Yes too white in color, so I made a space between the potatoes and cauliflower and added in 1 lb of trimmed asparagus spears then oiling and salting them as the other veggies were.  I oiled the cutlets and salted and peppered and then realized I had 1/2 a packet of a spice mix from Pensey's that should be used.  I sprinkled that over every thing.  The cutlets went over the asparagus and it was still too white for me, so I grabbed a pint of grape tomatoes and sprinkled them all over the pan.  The palette of the eye was now somewhat soothed.

Into a 400° oven it went for 30 minutes.  By 8 we were sitting down to eat.  Noice!

Dateline: February 17, 2021 Sous Vide Picanha and Baked Veggies

In my quest to create more room in the freezer, I grabbed a big hunk of picanha and decided to sous vide it.   

I seasoned the steak with a mixture of smoked salt, dried garlic, and ground pepper.  Bagged into a large vacuum bag and set up the sous vide rig.  As the steak was frozen still, I had to sous vide for 3 hours!  In the mean time, I set up the sheet pan with broccoli florets, fingerling potatoes, some chunked sweet potatoes and additional white potatoes.  I oiled them and seasoned with salt and pepper.  I added for good measure 1/3 of a yellow bell pepper and 1/2 an onion and scattered that over the veggies.  They went into a 350° F oven for just about an hour....when I started to smell the broccoli, I pulled it out and tented with foil for a few minutes.  I turned off the oven and stuck the pan with its foil into the slowly cooling oven.

When the steak was finished, I pulled it out of the water bath, patted it dry from the juices in the vacuum bag and then torched it on the fat side to crisp up the fat and give the meat a good look.  Without the torching, the meat is kind of grayish, and very unappealing.  After torching, it looks like a good steakhouse!

Sliced steak, quite rare

Baked veggies

I tried slicing the steak in two different directions to see which would be the more tender, and definitely slicing against the grain created a more tender thin slice, not that the steak was tough either way, but it was a little bit more tender in the across grain cuts.

The meal was rounded out with a winter salad of cukes, tomatoes, onions, and celery with a sherry vinegar and olive oil dressing.

Cooking sous vide is very easy and allows one to have a cocktail without screwing up the meal timing!  It is all about the cocktails, after all.  I am currently on a Manhattan or Boulevardier kick, depending on which Bourbon or Rye I am pouring.  I am very particular about my Manhattan or Boulevardier cocktails!

Dateline: December 23, 2020 Meatloaf, Sprouts, Cabbage, and Crispy Taters

I decided to try the FD meatloaf mix based on a recommendation from my friend Jen.  It comes seasoned and ready to load into a loaf pan.  I added a topping that I was hoping would be somewhat spicy, but it turned out to be on the sweetish side instead!  A bit surprising given that the ingredients were Worcestershire sauce, cocktail sauce, Italian hot peppers, ketchup, oyster sauce, and dry mustard.  Strange indeed.

I also made my friend Lyn's Brussel Sprouts with butter and Vegemite.  Bill hates sprouts.  I love them.  He said over dinner, "if you didn't tell me these were sprouts, I would never have known."   High praise for the recipe!  

Sprouts with Butter and Vegemite

Trim and halve sprouts

1 -2 T butter

2-3 t Vegemite or Marmite

water/stock/wine

1.  Heat pan and lightly char sprouts in a dry pan.  This can take a while to get them on both sides.

2.  Pan will get bits of brown in it, this is good.  Use about 2 oz of water, stock, wine to deglaze and steam sprouts for a bit.  When liquid have evaporated, add butter and vegemite/marmite and cook to coat the sprouts.  Add water or stock as necessary to soften the sprouts to your level of doneness.

Braised Napa Cabbage 

1 small head napa cabbage

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

water/stock/wine

1.  Cut the bottom 1 in off of the cabbage.  Make a cut in the base of the cabbage about 1-2 inches long, as if you were going to cut it in half lengthwise, but only go those 1-2 inches.  Grasp both halves and gentle pull the cabbage apart, tearing toward the tips of the leaves.  This splits the cabbage without lots of shredded leaves flying about.  Split each halve again the same way and perhaps again depending on the circumference of your head of cabbage.

2.  Cut the stem portions into about 1/2 inch slices and keep separate from the chopped leaves.  Cut the leaves into about 1/2 inch slices as well.

3.  Heat a pan, and add some olive oil.  When hot, add the onion and saute until softened, add in the garlic and some salt and pepper.  Saute until the garlic starts to soften.  Add the cabbage stem pieces and a sprinkle or two of salt and pepper, and saute until wilted a bit, then add the rest of the leaves.  

4.  Coat the contents of the pan with all of the onion and garlic mixture and allow the leaves to begin to get bright green.  Add about 2 oz of water/stock/wine and bring to a simmer.  Taste and adjust.  Reduce the liquid by 1/2.

Crispy Taters

8-10 new red potatoes, small ones, scrubbed 

salt and pepper

olive oil

1.  Coat a pan with cooking spray and add dried potatoes season with salt and pepper.  Put in a 350° F oven for about 30 minutes, or until taters are somewhat soft.

2.  Smash the taters with a fork so that they split open, add olive oil and put back in oven, but raise temp to 400° F for 15-20 minutes.  The should be crisped on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Drank a lovely Barolo with dinner.  Happy, happy camper!