Monday, December 1, 2008

Thanksgiving Part II

On second thought, a twelve pound turkey is way too much food for two people. If I eat one more meal of thanksgiving left overs, I am going to start gobbling!

Thanks
-J

Thanksgiving Dinner

So, as some of you may know, our plans for Thanksgiving this year experienced a minor wrinkle. Instead of 4-8 people for dinner, we had just ourselves. I decided to go whole hog anyway, and cook a 12 pound turkey (which we are still eating...). I think it is really important to spend Thanksgiving with someone you care about, and to continue the tradition of cooking the meal, in all its glory. It helps to remind you of all the wonderful blessings we have, right?



Here we are toasting the bounty of 2008:





First off here is a picture of the finished plate, all lovely (and as of yet unmolested):



The plate contains everything we prepared (I do mean we, as Jodi was an extremely efficient helper!): Turkey, Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole and cranberry relish (minus the giblet gravy). Okay, there is no pumpkin pie on the plate, but we ate that 3 hours later as a pure safety measure (prevention of unintentional rupture!, see below!)




I think a few of the recipes I used are truly excellent, and are worthy of posting, and follow:

Alton Brown Turkey Recipe:
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine: 1 cup kosher salt 1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger 1 gallon iced water

For the aromatics: 1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours.

Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.
Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage.

Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.”


Green Bean Casserole

Beans
2 quarts water
1 tablespoon table salt
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces

Bring the water to boil in a large pot. While it's heating, cut up the beans. Add the salt and beans to the boiling water. Cover and cook for 6 minutes. Drain beans in a colander, and then shock in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Let them drain in the colander, shaking every now and then to get off all the water.

Sauce
10 ounces mushrooms (I used buttons)
3 cloves garlic, minced
Generous pinch cayenne pepper (I used hot paprika this time)
Salt to taste
Fresh pepper to taste
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon dry sherry (except I was out of sherry, used Bourbon)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan (FRESH!)

Trim and discard the mushroom stems and chop the mushrooms into pieces. Spray a non-stick pan with canola oil and heat it. Add the mushrooms, garlic, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Cook until mushrooms are very soft and exude their juices. Add the flour to the pan, and stir (think Roux). Add the sherry and let simmer for 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and simmer, stirring, until mixture thickens. Add the cream and simmer until thick, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the cheese and adjust the seasonings to taste. Stir in the beans.

Topping
1 1/2 slices whole grain bread
(I used extra bread cubes from the dressing)
1 tablespoon butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/16 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3-ounce can of French fried onions


Put the bread, butter, salt, and pepper into a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Pour into a bowl and add the onions. Stir to combine.

To assemble:

Put the green beans into an buttered casserole dish and top with the onion mixture. Bake at 425 F for about 15 minutes. If you are not serving this right away, refrigerate the topping separately. Bring to room temperature before sprinkling the topping on the casserole and baking for about 20 minutes or until hot throughout.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe :

Crust (modified version of Alton Brown recipe)
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) butter
chilled 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) Crisco
chilled 6 ounces (approximately 1 cup) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup ice water, in spritz bottle

Place butter and lard in freezer for 15 minutes. When ready to use, remove and cut both into small pieces.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add butter and pulse 5 to 6 times until texture looks mealy. Add Crisco and pulse another 3 to 4 times. Remove lid of food processor and spritz surface of mixture thoroughly with water.

Replace lid and pulse 5 times. Add more water and pulse again until mixture holds together when squeezed. Place mixture in large zip-top bag, squeeze together until it forms a ball, and then press into a rounded disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Place 2 metal pie pans in the refrigerator to chill.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Cut along 2 sides of the plastic bag, open bag to expose dough, and sprinkle both sides with flour. Cover again with plastic and roll out with a rolling pin to a 10 to 11-inch circle. Open plastic again and sprinkle top of dough with flour. Remove pie pans from refrigerator and set first pan on top of dough. Turn everything upside down and peel plastic from bottom of dough. Place second pan upside down on top of dough and flip again. Remove first pan from atop dough. Trim edges if necessary, crimp edges to make PRETTY! Refrigerate until time to bake.

Filling (modified Libby's recipe)

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon ground Saigon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

PREHEAT oven to 425° F.

COMBINE sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell.

BAKE for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. (Do not freeze as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling.)

HUGS
-John

Friday, November 28, 2008

Pizza Paradiso - Gtown

So, I skipped the thanksgiving update. I promise I'll do a full write up on the meal next week. But today, black friday, we went to pizza paradiso for the very first time.. so worth it. Pizza Atomica (tomat0, olive, salami, red pepper flake, mozzarella) = perfect pie. Second favorite on the east coast (not quite a coal fired pizza, but close). Beer list is impossibly good. Almost too good to believe. Seasonal Brasserie Dupont? ON DRAFT? REALLY?!!?!?!? Holy crap explosions of joy in my mouth!

To top off the experience, I looked up from my Pie and saison and saw the GUVERNATOR getting out of his car (okay, really it was a long train of identical Tahoes).
















Of course, his motorcade snarled G-town traffic up nice and tight!

Happy Black Friday

-J

Thursday, November 6, 2008

What I did for her birthday

So the wife just celebrated her thirty - somethingist birthday, and all she wanted was her favorite foods for dinner (the big present this year is saving for our delayed honeymoon next year).

So, what does she like? She calls it the "wall of chicken." This is basically a pan seared chicken breast that usually involves a pan sauce and either rice or pasta. So, in preparation for this, I went around to my favorite boutique food stores and did some prep work. I stopped at "Let's meat on the avenue" for chicken breast (also picked up some weisswurst and some Niman Ranch Lamb chops, menu to be described later).

So the reason for this post. The chicken from Let's Meat was awesome, not to mention HUGE. I mean, I bought a whole skinless boneless breast (both sides), and it had to weigh 2 lbs! After all was said and done it came out perfectly!

Thanks
-J

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

OBAMA

Not food related, I know.

But praise the food gods, we have a new president.

-J

Monday, November 3, 2008

The Fall Festival and Autumn Extravaganza

Well,

The fall festival came and went with nary a hitch. The weather was spectacularly good for November 1st, and that lent itself to a nice turn out and a nice evening. The patio heater was not the star this year, an honor taken by the newly built fire pit. Smore's were roasted. Beer was consumed.

Lot's of beer actually. We killed a full 1/2 Barrel of Paulaner Oktoberfestbier. Man is that stuff good. I got really lucky when I called Total Wine, they had one solitary keg of Paulaner Oktoberfest left, and I was all over it.

A brief explanation of 'festbier. Oktoberfestbier is a true seasonal beer. They slow ferment the beer over the summer, in preparation for Oktoberfest and when its gone, they don't make any more until the next year. There are six major producers of true Oktoberfestbier, which is served in the major beer tents in Munich in the annual party to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen in 1810. Generally the beers are a style called Märzen, which is a lager style of beer, typically dark gold to amber in color with a fairly complex malt flavor and fairly minimal hops. Oh yeah, they usually have a slightly higher alcohol content than the typical lager as well. Personally, I find 'festbeir to be really drinkable and extremely tasty. It's a fairly simple beer that most people can relate to, while at the same time extremely high quality. The standards and the ingredients are absolutely the best the german producers can get, yielding a very good beer for a fall party!!

So at the Fall Festival this year, a lot of our friends got introduced to the wonders of a proper seasonal lager. Hopefully next year, we can do it again!

Thanks
- J

Friday, October 31, 2008

Donuts = Job Security

Never forget this. If you bring a few dozen donuts to work every couple months, you will become unfireable. At least this is my theory. Boston Creams make the f^#*ing world go round!

Shells and Cheese

So,

Backstory. My wife works at an association (the American association of blankety blank) as a meeting planner. As such, she travels regularly and plans luncheons, receptions, etc. She is actually very good at this (despite her perceived need to seek my approval of her menu selections).

So, last year she was at an banquet event sponsored by a member company of her association, which she was not allowed to plan. This was a pretty big event, with several hundred attendees and dignitaries. Did I say dignitaries? Yes, including a head of state no less, the President of Panama. Now, what would you figure they would serve at a banquet with a special guest of such stature? Roast beef? Seafood? Chicken? Something exotic? No, the people who planned this banquet were definitely on a BUDGET, and served shells with cheese, ham and peas (a poor man's Carbonara I guess).

Now, it's not so much that the food wasn't good, but somehow this has become a running joke in her organization. So. Why I am writing about this? Well, the American Association of Blankety Blanks is having a halloween banquet, and as the wife is mildy allergic to cooking, it falls on me to improve upon this classic dish, shells with cheese, ham and peas. I would like to report successs!!

2 lbs of cooked shell pasta (yes two whole boxes)
1 3oz block of good white cheddar, shredded
1 quart of milk (or so)
3/4 stick of butter
1/2 cup flour
1lb Maple smoked ham steak diced into cubes
1 small bag of frozen peas
1 tsp thyme leaves
1/2 tsp finely chopped rosemary
Fresh Grated Nutmeg to taste
Salt
Pepper

So this is a basic Roux based cheese sauce.

Melt butter in a 2 qt or larger saucepan. Add Flour slowly, whisking continuously until the consistency of peanut butter. If you add too much flour, it will almost turn into dough, and you may need to add some oil to thin it out. Let this cook, whisking regularly over medium heat for a few minutes, just until the color starts to change (we don't want a dark roux, just a gold colored roux).

Slowly add the milk, whisking continuously until smooth and all milk is incorporated. At this point bring the heat up to high and whisk slowly until the sauce thickens and just begins to bubble. Reduce the heat to low, and then add the cheese in 2 batches, whisking all the while until smooth and cheeserrific. Add the nutmeg, herbs and salt and pepper to taste (this is a lot of sauce, don't be afraid of the salt and pepper!).

The ham is better if you brown it in a skillet, but you don't have to.

Cook the peas in the microwave following the instructions on the package.

Mix the peas and the ham into the sauce and then mix the sauce into the pasta.

Enjoy :-)

Thanks
- John

Thursday, October 30, 2008

One more thing

Booze. Yeah. I forgot to mention that I will probably expound at length on the qualities of various wines, beers, and other adult beverages. I may even comment on the costs and relative merits of various stores, states, countries, and (in the case of Texas) dry vs. wet counties. So don't be too shocked, okay?

Thanks
- J

Ahh starbucks. The love. The hate. The......

ADDICTION? So. Daily 2-3 pm starbucks run. Drinkable espresso. Water. Was hoping for one of the delicious and seasonal pumpkin cream cheese muffins.. but alas, none to be had. Tried the pumpkin loaf instead. Not as delectable. Passable, but not worth it. Sad Face.

Thanks
- John

All hands Lunch

Every month, we have an all hands meeting in my group here at work, and as payment for making us all sit in a stuffy conference room and listen to updates that we really don't need, we get given lunch. Note, I didn't say free lunch, but it doesn't cost me any money. So really, you can't complain about a no dollar meal, right? As you can imagine, we typically get pizzas (major chains only, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Papa John's) or sandwiches (potbelly, sometimes local deli's). But today we had a new one. Chinese food. A week or so before the meeting, we got an e-mail with an attached menu, and all of us (20+) all ordered individual lunches. I give the admin staff that did this credit, because there were ZERO errors. Everyone got what they ordered!!!

But onto the food. It's from a place called Mei's Asian Bistro (near Clarendon) and it was suprisingly adequate. Not special, not even memorable. But a nice change of pace. I ordered the Szechuan chicken lunch special. The main dish was, as typical of take out Chinese, a bit too greasy, but it was also adequately spicy, with nice texture and flavor. The rice was definitely "Asian" (very sticky and short grained), and the included salad was fresh, crisp and had separate dressing! But again, a big change from the usual pizza or deli sandwich!

So. Why am I writing about take out lunch at work? One word. Ho's. No not that kind of ho. Ho's Chinese Takeout in the plaza with the CVS and the Spoke's Etc, hidden between the Baskin Robbins and the Antique Shop. Once you eat take out this good, everything else is boring. Try the boneless spareribs, the Singapore style noodles (thin rice noodles with a spicy curry sauce, pork shrimp and chicken) and the pork chow fun (homemade soft wide noodles). All of these are guaranteed to make you feel happy. Just don't expect to sit down and eat there. Take out or delivery only!!!!

Thanks
- John

So it begins




Hi,

My name is John McConnell and I live to eat. I thought about saying "I love to eat," but upon reflection, I think the former statement is closer to the truth. By that I mean that perhaps love isn't a strong enough word to describe the relationship I have with food. Food is my mistress, my mother, my wife. Food is life and love and god and all the wonders of the universe and human ingenuity, and yes I would like to try a bite of that! Spectacular food, simple food. It consumes me. Somehow though, the best parts are always the fatty bits. You know, that last bit of cheese stuck to the paper wrapper. Foie gras. Truffle oil. The crispy skin of a perfectly roasted chicken. These are things that hit you in the face, that make you go back for just one last nibble!

So that's what I want to talk about. The purpose of this blog is to document the culinary events in my life, as widely varied as they are. From the simple pleasure of a fast food cheeseburger to the wonders of Michelin Stars. From banquets and balls to workday lunches. I will do my best to find the fatty bits of life and document them here. Recipes, pictures, reviews, comments, whatever seems to matter to me at the moment are fair game.

Thanks
-John