Thanksgiving Bailout

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Pete T.

So you’re going to a potluck this year and not only have you not make that dreaded trip to the over-crowded grocery store full of shoppers in pre-holiday hoarding mode, you don’t even have the slightest inclination of what to make. Worry not, because you’re not the only one – over the course of the last 24 hours, 4 of my friends have asked me for thanksgiving recipes and I’ve given them all the same one.

This Sourdough Bread Stuffing is one of my favorites around this time because it can easily be made vegetarian to accommodate your vegetarians friends, the ingredients should easily be found at most grocery stores. So if you’re in a bind, go ahead and try this recipe out. Just don’t blame me when there are 3 Sourdough Bread Stuffings on your thanksgiving spread. =)

Sourdough Bread Stuffing

Sourdough Bread Stuffing

1lb loaf sourdough bread
8Tbsp butter
10oz crimini mushrooms, sliced 1/2 thick
salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
2-4 stalks celery with leaves, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
10 sprigs of fresh thyme
10-12 fresh sage leaves, chopped
3 1/2C low-sodium chicken broth
3Tbsp chopped italian parsley leaves

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 2-quart baking dish and set aside.
2. Cut or tear the bread into 1-inch cubes and spread it evenly on 2 baking sheets. Toast the bread in the oven until completely dry and beginning to crisp and brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
3. Melt 2 Tbsp of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and a few pinches of salt and saute, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 6-8 minutes. Add celery, onion, 2 Tbsp butter and thyme. Once the butter has melted, cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Add sage and remaining 4 Tbsp butter. Add chicken broth to skillet and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
4. Transfer toasted bread cubes to a large bowl. Pour the chicken broth mixture over the bread cubes and toss to combine until the bread cubes absorb the liquid. Pour the mixture into the greased baking dish, and sprinkle with parsley. Bake in the center of the oven until heated through and the top is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Remove the stuffing from the oven and allow to cool about 15 minutes before serving.

6-8 servings

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

It’s Raining Scallops!!!

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Pete T.

Back in January, I was asked by my friend R to cook dinner for her parent’s anniversary. When I asked her what she had in mind as far as the menu was concerned, she looked at me straight in the eye with a big smile and said one word, “Scallops.”

The scallops is probably one of my favorite proteins, so I didn’t have any problem coming up with a menu. Here’s the menu and some pictures from the night.

Menu
January 3, 2010

Crab Cakes
Spaghetti Squash Slaw, Cilantro Oil

Coquille St. Jacques
Bay Scallops, Gruyere, Mushrooms

Seared Diver Scallops
Swiss Chard, Butternut Squash Puree

New York Style Cheesecake
Strawberry Coulis

Centerpiece

Pasta Zachy (For the kids...)

Swiss Chard

Spaghetti Squash Slaw

Crab Cakes

Seared Diver Scallops

Posted in Events | 2 Comments

[Sous Vide] Short Ribs

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Pete T.

I was shopping at the new Sprout’s by my office and out of curiosity, I decided to check out their meats (they’re more known for their incredibly hard to beat produce price). While I was there, I came across some beautiful looking short ribs that were just too beautiful to pass up. And what more interesting way to enjoy these short ribs then to do them sous vide??

As I’ve said before, one of the biggest advantages of sous vide is that it gives you the ability to cook things precisely to the temperature desired. When you consider a tougher cut of meat like short ribs that usually require an extended period of time braising to get it tender, sous vide can produce something that cannot be done by “traditional” methods of cooking – a piece of short ribs that is perfectly tender, yet only cooked to a medium doneness.

The B-E-AUTIFUL short ribs...

While I was fortunate enough to have quite a lot of braising liquid leftover (from Thomas Keller’s Boeuf Bourguignon) in the freezer, the thought of cooking the short ribs sous vide for 72 hours while sitting in the braising liquid seems like it would completely overpower the beef. So I decided to do the simple (lazy) thing – salt and pepper. 72 hours in 57C – This was going to be my biggest challenge, as this is the longest I’ll be keeping food in the water bath. (I’ll talk about safety and sous vide in a later post)

72 Hours Later...

Note the difference in appearance between straight out of the bag and seared – looks a lot more appetizing.

Straight out of the bag...

Seared

After consulting my friends in twitteronia, I listened to Carol’s advice and paired these short ribs with celery root puree. I reduced the braising liquid (that had 2 bottles of red wine in it at one point) and walla… Sous vide short ribs, red wine reduction, celery root puree…

Plated

Sous Vide Short Ribs, Red Wine Reduction, Celery Root Puree

I’ve never had short ribs like this before. The short ribs were sooo tender. The “medium” texture makes it very similar to a ribeye.

The wonders of kitchen technology...

Posted in Sous Vide | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

[Sous Vide] Scrambled Eggs

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Pete T.

After watching the Australian Open on Sunday morning, I decided that instead of going back to sleep, I wanted to make myself breakfast using the SVS. I opened the fridge and I was greeted with this:

Sunday morning fail...

NOOOOOO!!! For what it’s worth, this is one of my pet peeves. I mean I’d much rather know that there are no eggs in the fridge than thinking there are eggs in the fridge and only finding out there’s only one. Anyways, I must digress. At one point, I thought about making scrambled egg, but the thought of firing up the SVS with all that water and using a bag for one egg seemed pretty ridiculous to me. So I bit the bullet and went to the store. Doesn’t this look a lot better??

Sunday morning win!!

A couple of eggs get mixed in with some cream and a just little goat cheese. Doesn’t this looks like a slice of American cheese??

In the beginning...

I set the bath at 75C. After 10 minutes, I took the bag out for a quick “massage” (to get the scrambed effect), then another 5 minutes in the bath and out comes some scrambled goodness.

Scrambled Eggs (in a bag)

Breakfast is served

I’m not sure what conclusion you can come up with just looking at the picture, but cooked to a precise temperature, these scrambled eggs were creamy and velvety… While they’re not as set as conventional scrambled eggs, they almost have a yogurt like consistency. So really… how good were these “perfectly cooked” scrambled eggs?? This was a game changer for me. After having sous vide scrambled eggs, I don’t think scrambled eggs will ever be the same for me ever again.

Posted in Sous Vide | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

[Sous Vide] Pork Ribs

Posted on January 20, 2010 by Pete T.

This is part 4 of my on-going series playing with a Sous Vide Supreme. For those of you unfamiliar with sous vide, “sous vide” means “under vacuum” in French. The concept is basically that you cook your food under vacuum in a water bath at the exact temperature that your food needs to be cooked at. Since the water bath is only heated to your desired temperature, it is impossible to over cook your food*. Another appeal to sous vide is that none of the flavor is lost during the cooking process, since the food is kept in a vacuum bag during the whole cooking process. I will spend more time to talk about my experience with the advantages/disadvantages of sous vide and also maybe share some tips with those interested at the end of this series.

This was actually my roommate Enoch‘s idea. Ribs were one of those things that I didn’t think about doing sous vide just because I tend to think of easily overcooked food. Since ribs are a tougher cut of meat, it’s not surprising that it’s going to take awhile. I used a recipe I found from “A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking”:

Cut the ribs into portions which will fit in the vacuum pouches (say 3–4 ribs per piece). Then brine roast in a 7–10% salt, 0–3% sugar water solution (70–100 grams salt and 0–30 grams sugar per 1 liter) in the refrigerator for 12–24 hours.

Drain, rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Generously season the top of each rib with a barbecue spice rub (say 2T paprika, 1.5T celery salt, 1.5T garlic powder, 1T black pepper, 1T chili powder, 1T ground cumin, 1T brown sugar, 1T table salt, 1t white sugar, 1t dried oregano, and 1t cayenne pepper). Place each piece of pork in a vacuum pouch and seal.

Place the pork either in a 176°F (80°C) water bath for 8–12 hours or in 155°F (68°C) water bath for 24 hours. When cooking at 176°F (80°C), the bag will puff (from water vapor) and may float to the surface. To prevent uneven cooking, the bags should be held under water using a wire rack or some other restraint. [After cooking, the pork may be rapidly cooled in ice water (see Table 1.1) and frozen or refrigerated at below 38°F (3.3°C) for three to four weeks.]

After removing the ribs from the bag, sear the top with a blowtorch. Then, serve immediately with barbecue sauce.

Pre-Bath

Needless to say, I chose to do 155F for 24 hours (as opposed to 176F for 8-12 hours). Slower is better right?? =)

Post-Bath

After a day in the bath, I took the pouches out, drained and dried the ribs, and seared the outside with a torch.

Fun with torch... =)

I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t expecting much from the ribs. But aside from missing that smoky flavor, the texture of the ribs were perfect… like it doesn’t get much better than this perfect. The meat was moist and falling off the bone. The flavor was good and (of course) very evenly distributed. I would recommend, however, using your favorite rub (so go lightly on the salt if you’re going to brine the meat before) instead of the rub in the recipe. I felt that the rub above have just a tad too much paprika for my taste.

Perfectly tender ribs...

I’ve been a bit busy/lazy this week, I’m about to fire the SVS up and make some scrambled eggs for breakfast. Later this week, I’ll be using one of my favorite things EVER in the SVS… PORK BELLY!!! Oh I can’t wait!! If you haven’t already, please follow @gastronomics on twitter and/or become a fan on facebook!!

Posted in Sous Vide | Tagged , , | 6 Comments