Andouille

Oh how I love thee. Pork fat, heat, and smoke. My favorite seasonings!

Andouille hash is my new favorite thing to serve for breakfast!

1 4 oz Andouille sausage, diced 

1 tbsp olive oil

2 large Yukon Gold Potatoes, par-boiled and iced, diced into about 1/2" chunks

1 large shallot, diced

1 tsp fresh thyme

1 tsp fresh rosemary

Salt and Black pepper to taste

Add diced andouille to a cold non-stick skillet (large, say 10", with a lid!). Place on medium low heat and allow some of the fat to render. When the andoiulle starts to brown, add the olive oil and turn up the heat to medium high. Add the potatoes and toss to coat in the fat. Cook over medium high heat, for 10 minutes, turning occassionally. Add the shallots and herbs. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for an additional 10 minutes. Add Salt and Pepper to taste, and serve with eggs your favorite way!

Thanks

- John

Deep Frying... or how I learned to not buy a fry daddy

First of all, I love fried food, right? Especially Tater Tots. I always resisted owning a fryer of any sort out of fear of ballooning past my already progidous girth, but every now and again I find myself needing to make real tot's. How to do this, when no fryer is available? Do I own a frying thermometer? A frying basket? Nope... Just the stuff I have floating around in my kitchen.

First off, I grab a large saucepan (mine is a relatively ancient all-clad 4qt).

I also grab my probe thermometer (you know,  the one I use for turkey)

 and a large ACCO binder clip, like the one shown below.

I clip the probe of the thermometer to the side of the sauce pan using the binder clip, and then I fill the rig with 2 qts of Peanut Oil.  I set the alarm for 350 degrees, and fire up high heat. 

While the oil is heating, I prep my draining and staging areas.

Draining area is a large sheet pan covered in old newspaper (no colored print tho) with a metal cooling rack sitting upside down on it (thanks Alton).

Prep area for tots is a large colander filled with frozen tots (I try to eat FEWER tots when they are fried, by the way, so think 10 tots a person). 

I use a spider (thank you molto mario) as my loading and unloading device.

So, I load up 10 or so tots onto the spider, and wait for the alarm. When it beeps, I gently lower the tots into the oil, making sure to keep them from sticking together (TOT CLUMPS = Lower crust to squishy interior ratio = not good). The oil temp will drop rapidly. Watch the temp closely, as you need to keep it from going much above 360 degrees. 3 minutes later, the tots should be perfect. Unload onto draining rig, and serve immediately (or you can hold the draining rig in the oven on 200 degrees or so). 

When all is done, I just poured 7 bucks worth of peanut oil into my pan, and I'd like to keep it.  Right now, a funnel and paper towels works pretty well, but I need to tweak the arrangement (too slow).  Then I store the used oil in a large jug in the back of the fridge. 

YUM

Thanks

- J

Laradonna's Ragu - interpretted by Me

Hey all,

My mother's birthday is December 28th, and since we were all in Seattle for the holidays anyway, we had to stay an extra day so we could celebrate her 64th year! This year she wanted to share a cooking experience with us instead of going out to a fancy meal (a little bit of economic downturn and a little bit of being proud of her new italian pied-a-terre). So we made Lasagna, with everything but the Pasta from scratch (something we didn't have the energy to try). So, when I got home, I decided to try making the Ragu for myself, with a few tweaks. It was AWESOME, so I am sharing it.

1.5 lbs meat loaf mix (pork, veal, beef, about 85% lean, leaner if you can get it)
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
1 large red onion
2 stalks celery
2 medium carrots
5 cloves garlic
1 cup white wine (dry and drinkable)
1 8oz can of tomato sauce (with basil)
8 oz water (fill the can!)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Crushed Red pepper to taste
Salt and black pepper to taste

Cooking Directions:

Put Parsley, garlic, onion, carrots, and celery into a food processor until "chopped fine" (or you could use Laradonna's technique of Mezzaluna'ing it to death, which ever is your preference)

Heat oil in large saute pan (with a lid!) on medium high heat until the oil shimmers, then add the chopped vegetables and a sprinkle of salt and reduce the heat to medium. Saute for 10 minutes, if it starts to change color, turn it down.

At this point add the ground meat. Break into very small bits as you add it to the pan and saute for 10 minutes more, stirring regularly.

Raise heat to high and add wine. Allow to cook off for 2 minutes.

Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, crushed red pepper, and water. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for 1 - 2 hours. Add salt to taste.

Enjoy over pasta with Pecorino Romano or Parmeggianno Reggianno.

HUGS
- J

Hot Pot with the Chou Family (and Jewboy)

Happy New Year!

This year we were blessed with house guests over the New Years weekend, namely Jewboy and Schnoozle. It was a marvelous weekend on the whole, and we spent most of it eating Chinese. First off, JB and S arrived right before our festivities were to begin, and were quite famished, so we had to get a quick run to Ho's Chinese takeout in (Pork Chow Fun, Crispy Orange Beef, Steamed Dumplings, and Chicken with Garlic Sauce). Great food, a pretty typical rushed dinner for me and the wife, especially if the JB and S are in town. 

The following evening, it was off too Golden King Restaurant in RESTON for a NY Day buffet dinner. A really enjoyable and really traditional dinner. Tons of good stuff (abalone, duck, noodles, great shu-mai, and all the basics) and way too much food. 

Friday we had dinner at our new favorite place, Michel Richard Central. So no chinese food here, but eat the cheese puffs. Really. 

But the kicker was on Saturday, we had a really special event. We had Schnoozle's family out to our house for Hot Pot, a traditional new years celebration feast. Schnoozle took us to her favorite Chinese Grocery store Kam Sam Food Products,  and we had an excellent time picking out all the fixings (thin sliced pork, chicken and beef; celophane and udon noodles; bones for stock; shrimp; all sorts of odd fish sticks and meatballs; and of course all the dipping sauces (hoisin, oyster, chili bean, black vinegar etc). We also got some nice Chrysanthymum tea and a new tea pot. It was truly awesome.. and made me want to go buy a hot pot!

Below is what our place looks like with 8 people and HOT POT going on!

So merry new year!

HUGS

-J

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

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

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

OBAMA

Not food related, I know.

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

-J

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