Catch up

It's been almost a month since my last post. I'm still cooking, but I've been too busy with life and work to post.

Since then I've made a Spanish version of Chicken Paprika (I added red bell pepper and chorizo), which wasn't bad, but reminded me a lot of the Murgh Korma.

I used a Bobby Flay recipe for a skirt steak roulade with fontina, prosciutto, and basil. It was good, but it ended up a little rare in the middle. I reprized this with a beef tenderloin and italian fontina. It turned out really well, and the cheese itself was also quite good - it was melty at room temperature and had a strong flavor that reminded me of blue cheese - definitely a good match for beef, I'll have to try it on a burger someday.

In the variations on a theme department, I made a shrimp version of my Larb Gai recipe twice while Emily was away - because I was too lazy to pick up chicken, and we made Moules Marinière with clams once because Sun Fat was out of mussels (due to weather).

More recently, I made a shrimp chowder from a recipe in the most recent issue of Saveur - it was quite easy and tasty.

Finally, while Emily was working last night I made a modified version of a Gordon Ramsey recipe. I boned out a chicken thigh and leg (bask in my mad knife skillz) and rolled it around a mixture of italian sausage, basil, and currants (he called for parsley, egg, and pistachios). Then I wrapped it in leftover prosciutto (in place of bacon), wrapped it in tin foil, and poached it for 25 min. I refrigerated it to let it set, fried in a pan, and put into a 170 degree oven to rest. I made a pan sauce with dry vermouth (in place of marsala), sherry vinegar, and homemade chicken stock and made a parmesan risotto to go with it.

Profiteroles

I finally got around to making cream puffs last night. I used Thomas Keller's recipe for the Pâtes à Choux. The dough came together rather easily, although it was a novel process for me. The tough part was piping the dough onto a baking pan, I ended up with more dough on my hands than on the pan. I'll have to dig up some instructions for using a piping bag.

I wanted a custard filling (Keller used ice cream), so I made up a batch of pot de crème, put one of them into a piping bag, and injected it into the cream puffs. I topped them with chocolate ganache.

I also made my largest batch of chicken stock this weekend, I wanted to use up all of the leftover chicken in the fridge, and ended up with at least 6 qt of stock.

Superbowl Sunday

We had a bit of an impromptu get-together for the Superbowl last Sunday. While my cassoulet was cooking, Emily and I tried to go the palace of fine arts to take some pictures. We figured it wouldn't be very crowded during the game. It turned out that a record-breaking ship was coming into port and there was no parking to be found in the area. So we returned home and joined Dan and Carmen to watch a bit of the game.

Carmen was making a turkey meatloaf in her slow cooker, so I brought down the cassoulet and made some mashed potatoes to round out the meal.

"Cassoulet"
Perhaps not a proper cassoulet, this was inspired by the classic french recipe and made from ingredients that I had on hand.

1 lb dried barlotti beans.
2 sprigs thyme
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 onion, large dice
1 smoked ham hock, cut in 2" thick chunks
a couple of strips of bacon, diced
a bit of duck confit (I used two winglets)
1 litre of duck broth
a bit of parmesan rind (optional)

Rinse the beans and pick out any sketchy ones.

In a dutch oven on medium heat, cook the bacon in a little bit of oil, until crispy. Brown the cut edges of the ham hock. Add the onions and cook for 5 minutes or so to soften them up and brown them a little. Add the broth, thyme, parmesan, and beans and simmer for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. Add water or broth as necessary to cover. About an hour or so into the simmering, add the duck confit.

Once the ham is falling apart and the beans are done, fish out the ham hock and duck, chop up the meat. Fish out the parmesan rind and thyme and discard.

At this point one should strain the beans and layer half the beans, the meat, and the rest of the beans and enough of the liquid to cover. I just stirred in the chopped up meat. I also cooked a bockwurst and hot dog in a bit of duck fat and cut it into 1" thick slices, but forgot to add it. (I remembered later, but Carmen doesn't eat veal.)

Put the dutch oven, uncovered in a 250 degree oven for a 3-6 hours. Every hour or so, gently break the crust that forms with a wooden spoon, so that wet beans come to the top. Add liquid as necessary. Leave a crust on top when it's time to serve. Bring the pot to the table and break the crust at the table.

At any point during the slow cooking, you can cool the pot and refrigerate it overnight. Bring it up to room temperature and cook it once again in the oven until it heats through and a crust is formed.

Oh and the stew/soup is quite tasty before the oven stage, so feel free to cut it short if you're in a hurry. (You can probably use roast or raw chicken in place of the duck and substitute chicken broth for duck if it's not available to you.)

Last Weekend

Last Saturday was a bit of a cooking marathon. I rendered the duck fat and used it to cook the duck confit, made stock out of the duck carcass, and braised the oxtail in red wine. And for dinner I made Chicken Cacciatora.

Sunday morning I made pancakes for breakfast, pizza margherita for lunch, and we had the oxtail with Dan and Carmen for dinner. I got the recipe from the Zuni book, but to chef it up a bit I turned and glazed some carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and pearl onions to go with the ribs (following the instructions from the Bouchon book). It turned out quite well, but I need a bit more practice turning and glazing vegetables.

And so it begins...

I've started my latest project, charcuterie. Tonight, while Emily was working, I hiked 3/4 of a mile to Drewes Bros to pick up a duck, 5 lbs of unrendered duck fat, and a 4-5 lb oxtail.

My plans for the Duck are:

Duck Prosciutto - I've salted the duck breasts, which I will cure for 24 hrs and hang in a cool place for a week or two. With luck I'll have duck prosciutto at the end of the process.

Duck Confit - I'll apply a milder cure to the legs, cook them in duck fat, and store them in the fat.

The rest - I'm planning on making a broth out of the carcass, maybe reduce it to a sauce or glacée. And, the extra skin &c will be rendered into duck fat.

The oxtail, a separate project, will be braised in red wine, using a recipe from the Zuni cookbook. We'll probably eat it Monday as it needs to rest a bit after being cooked. We've had good luck with short ribs in red wine - I look forward to seeing how the oxtails turn out.

Pot au Feu

Above is the "Pot au Feu" that I cooked last week. For the photo, I plated the serving with the bone on a white dish so the sauce would show up nicely. But the other serving, on the black dish, ended up being a bit better plated. Oh well. The meat and sauce was quite tasty, but the veggies were just so-so.

The recipe was rather fussy (or chefy), but it was a good learning experience. I learned some new knife techniques and got a better understanding about how dishes are built in restaurants, by preparing parts ahead of time. I'd definitely marinade with red wine again, but I think I'd try to get more of the flavor of the broth into the vegetables. My next beef dish will likely be the braised oxtail dish from the Zuni book. (I also have duck confit and Pâtes á Choux on my todo list, and I need to learn how to glaze vegetables.)



Last weekend I made the Zuni chicken again. I also tried my hand at Crème Brûlée using a propane torch and one of my mint Pots de Crème. And Sunday night I made a batch of cinnamon rolls using an Alton Brown recipe. They turned out quite well, although next time I'll spread them out a bit more and perhaps make a smaller batch. (I did tweak the instructions a little so I could make it in one night.)

Pots de Crème

Since I got back from Christmas vacation, I've made three batches of the Pots de Crème recipe from Thomas Keller's book, Bouchon. The first batch was split between chocolate and vanilla. The second was cinnamon, and last night I made a mint one.

Pots de Crème
This is a half batch of the recipe from Thomas Keller's book, Bouchon. The book has much more detailed instructions and highly recommended, but this should be enough to pull off the dish.

1 1/4 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup milk
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
3 egg yolks
2 tbsp sugar

1. Combine cream, milk, and 2 1/2 tbsp sugar. Cut the pod in half, scrape in the vanilla seeds, and add the empty pod.
2. Bring to a simmer and make sure the sugar is dissolved.
3. Remove from heat, cover, and let it steep for an hour.
4. Whisk the egg yolks and 2 tbsp sugar together.
5. Rewarm the liquid and strain it.
   
6. Slowly whisk the liquid into the yolks.
7. Gently stir the liquid. Then fill ramekins with the liquid.
8. Refrigerate for a day to let the flavors meld (optional).
9. Put the ramekins in a 9"x9" cake pan, fill with water 1/3-1/2 way up the side of the ramekins. Place the cake pan on a cookie sheet, to protect it from the heat.
10. Cook in a 300 degree oven for 45-55 min. (They should be set, but jiggle slightly. It'll take longer if they just came out of the fridge.)
11. Remove and place on a cooling rack
12. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours, at most 3 days.

Chocolate
After step 5, gently warm the sauce and stir it into 3oz of finely chopped bittersweet chocolate (about 55% cocoa). Gently stir until the chocolate melts.

Cinnamon
In step 1 add 4 cinnamon sticks and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon.

Mint
In step 1 add a handful of mint leaves (about 1/4 oz).

Almond
In step 1 add 1/4 cup toasted, sliced almonds.