FoodMan

Damn! You beat me to posting about this Kevin. It really is great to see Feast featured like that. There is also a short Audio with slides about it by Bruni and Wells. I've been a few times so far and am never dissapointed. Most recently we tried the pork cheeks and dandelion, the fried pig tails, lamb shank, cassoulet (best in town--no doubt) and the fish tagine. All fantastic. I tried the fish to be "adventurous" after so much land critters. Spicy, sweet and addictive that was. I would order it again in a heartbeat.

I tried my idea of making bbq-flavored pork shoulder yesterday. This worked great on all fronts. I rubbed the piece of pork shoulder (about 2 inch thick, boneless) with my basic bbq rub (b sugar, salt, paprika, garlic pdr, onion pdr,..) and let it marinate overnight. Before bagging it, I rubbed it with a teaspoon of liquid smoke. I CSV at 170F (76.7C ) for 12 hrs. When it was done, I brushed it with bbq sauce and used a torch to caramalize and give it a bit of a crust. The meat was delicious (a touch more smoke flavor wouldn't hurt), tender, sliceable, fork tender and very juicy. The little fat that was in there was also very good and soft. I served it with bbq baked beans, corn bread and cole slaw. I will certainly be repeating this and making a bit more to have leftovers. It's also worth mentioning that the sauce in the bag was one of the best I've had so far of CSV-bag sauces. I stirred most of it into the beans and added the rest to the bbq sauce.

Thanks Chris. I will try that. I was mostly concerned with the apparent complete lack of "gurgling" in the airlock. I've never seen this before.

Brewing 911: I brewed a batch of Honey Amber Ale late Saturday evening. I used honey, honey malt and crystal to steep and Light Liquid Malt extract. I made a starter using White Labs CA Ale yeast (total of about a pint of starter). It's worth mentioning that the yeast fizzed very well when I opened it but it smelled more funky and sour than what I've tried before. It definitely was NOT expired. I pitched the starter at about 79F. The first time I checked on it was about 10 hrs later. Nothing. No gurgling. Very odd. However, a strong funky smell was evident sort of like an amplified version of the yeast smell I mentioned earlier. Again no activity that I could see through yesterday morning (Monday). By Monday night though, while the airlock still is not bubbling, that odd sour smell seems to have dissipated. The smell that comes out of the airlock is kind of nice now. I am very confused by this scenario. Could I really have missed the "activity" during the first 10 hrs? Should I pursue my initial plan of chucking it all out and making a fresh batch because this seems to be contaminated? Maybe I can take a taste from it this weekend (halfway mark) and decide? Any suggestions that can save me time and effort would be great.

My latest SV experiment form a couple of weeks ago involded pork belly. I brined a skin on piece and cooked it with some ginger and garlic at 150 for 24 hours. I then let is rest under a heavy weight in the fridge overnight. Then I removed the skin and seared it. Here it is served with Soba, Napa Cabbage, a thin cucumber slice, a soy pudding sauce and sesame. The texture was pretty good and the taste was rich and porky. Oddly enough not much ginger or garlic flavor came through. I was worried these might be overwhelming actually. I would like to cook at maybe a slightly higher temp and a shorter time, say 155 for 15 hours or so. I am hoping to get the fat a bit softer. I am thinking of trying a piece of pork butt soon too. The idea is along the lines of barbeque flavor. I do not think it is a good idea to cook it with bbq sauce, but maybe apply a good rub, sear it, add a little liquid smoke and CSV. Whenit is done I can brush with bbq sauce and torch lightly. Does that sound right? Any suggestions to timing/temp? Should I treat it like a piece of chuck and cook in the high 30s for 36 hours?

Tuesday's Dinner (Day 4) I decided to use some of the sausages I made a month or so ago. I picked twe different types to cook, a chicken one flavored with shawarma spices (the longer of the two) and a pork one made in the style of Lebanese Makanik sausage with spices and pine nuts. I gently panfried the links and served them wrapped in pita bread with lettuce, sauteed bell pepper (I had half of a pepper in the fridge drawer), pickled turnips and pickled cukes. I had hoped to make some sort of potato, like oven fries, but was short on time. It was still delicious anyways. Wednesday's Dinner (Day 5) This is one of my family's favorite quick dinners. Everyone loves it and is crazy quick. Chopped frozen (defrosted in the microwave) spinach sauteed with olive oil and garlic. Then a can or two of good tuna is tossed in off the heat. Season and add lemon juice. I do this in less time that in takes to boil the water for some spaghetti. Toss in the cooked pasta and serve. I like lots of black pepper on mine.

Monday's dinner (day 3): - For the kids, leftover lamb and beans with rice (from the night before). Right before bed time they decided they wanted some peanut butter and Jelly. So, they split a snadwich with a glass of milk. - My wife had the last two pieces of a homemade pizza I had left in the fridge from Friday! She declared it still very good. - I'm trying to eat a lot more whole grains and such, so I had a salad of wheat berries with olive oil, cubed cheddar cheese (I wish I has some Feta or something, but this was ok), salt, pepper and a large hadful of those dandelions I picked up from the backyard. Tuesday's dinner will come up shortly...once I get the pictures uploaded.

Will there be recipes for bullshit eggs and a chapter on monkey's ass I wonder? ← Not in the Wal-Mart version. That one would be squeeky clean . Me thinks this won't join my Italian cookbook shelf. As for Top Chef, I really have no favorite. Not really, but I just cannot bring myself to like Carla -she annoys the heck out of me- even with Stefan's arrogant ass on the screen!

Which other part? There were so many, it's difficult to understand to which part you are referring. I thought the part with Augusto's family was rather painful to watch--I could feel the discomfort through my computer screen. But I did like watching Augusto's uncle cook. ← Oh, I'm sorry. I meant the comments AB made about Augusto which seemed disparaging, suggesting that Augusto was not doing the job AB expected on the show or did not have the personality he expected. I can't paraphrase them that well; it was so weird to me-- sounded so weirdly personal-- that I kind of questioned whether I was really hearing it. This was right when the segment with Augusto began. I thought Augusto appeared like a lot of AB's other local guides, not especially used to being on TV but (aside from not being as familiar with the area as most) not a negative presence at all. I'm going to have to watch this again. ← Maybe it was a bit too much of Tony, but on the other hand, maybe not. Notice how short the dinner with family thing was. No one was talking and the whole scene took maybe 30 seconds!! That is way too short comapred to say the family dinner scene in the Saudi episode. All I could think of was how much was actually cut and not used simply because there was nothing in it to use. Augusto displayed so much enthusiasm in his audition that he maybe set the bar too high and promised what he -through no fault of his own- could not deliver, a fun and convivial family dinner.

Saturday dinner: A bastardized version of Pho. I used a new stock I made a day or so ago from leftover roasted chicken. I used up my two chicken breasts here and a small old stash of wood ear shrooms. Also half of my cilantro. I would've loved to have some fresh chillies, basil and bean sprouts too. Oh well...it was still delicious with some Sriracha and lots of lime. Sunday dinner: I cooked the two lamb shanks I had with red beans. It was fairly middle eastern with tomato paste, onion (rationing, so I used a bit less than normal), garlic, cumin, allspice and served it with pita bread. Very good and I made enough for at least another dinner this week, probably tomorrow's. I normally would've chopped some onions to go on top, but like I said, I am trying to make the two that are left last.

Alright, here is a quick look at provisions Freezer 1. This one stores all the stocks, fats and most of the sausages we made a month or so ago. Freezer2. Few proteins, bacon, frozen veggies and berries..and look like I have some frozen bananas in there as well. Looking through this freezer I found that I have been hording too much bones for stock, 2 full bags of mostly chicken bones. Pantry. Look here. So suitable for this no shopping week, I went through my backyard before the lawn guy stopped by and picked all my "weeds" aka Dandelions! Really good stuff simply wrapped in pita bread with olives and olive oil.

Yes I have a lot of stuff in my two fridges/freezers, but I've never been able to do this. I feel like I need to shop every week at least. So, I'm jumping in as well starting tomorrow, Sat. Having two small children I need fresh milk if I run out and will need to get a pack of salad greens. I'll hold off on everything else. Working from memory here is what I think I ahve: Chicken Stock Duck Stock Clarified quart of chicken stock Duck Confit 4 different kinds of homemade sausage a small piece of homecured bacon homecured pancetta guanciale two lamb shanks two ribeye steaks (maybe 8 oz each or more) Two or 3 chicken breasts A few cheeses dried and canned beans PB Canned Tuna Canned Tomatoes Various seasoning, oils and vinegars Rosemary, Oregano and mint in my garden Meyer Lemons in the garden Rice Quinoa Pastas Different flours Cornmeal Burghul I'm sure I am forgetting some stuff, but that should be the majority of it. What I'm low on? I only have one stick of butter Maybe one carrot or two Not sure about the egg situation. We use lots of that. I think I am very low on AP flour I'll take a picture of my freezers and post it soon.

Here are my most recent trials from Alinea. Except for the Pork-Cider-Oak dish, these were served as part of Valentine's dinner I made last week. Pork, cider, Oak This is the pheasant dish, but I did not want to splurge on pheasant to use a few ounces of it here. I figured pork tenderloin would be a very good sub. Afterall, pork and apples are an excellent match. I was right and this morsel is delicious. Note the error in the tempura recipe here. You only need 75gr of the base to mix with the water.The trickiest part here was frying the damn things while not burning your finger tips and not crisping the oak leaves! Pork Belly, bbq sugar, pickled vegetables and polenta I tried making this slightly bigger than what the recipe had to serve it as more of a course. I should've paid more attention in geometry class I guess. My tuilles were a bit too small as were my vegetables. The end result was still pretty but the pork cubes did not get fully enveloped. The taste was like bbq pork candy. Pretty awesome. I have a lot more plain tuille base left and I am thinking about experimenting with it to make candied apple bites... Verjus, beet, olive oil and lemon thyme This was the surprise hit of the evening. We did not know what to expect, but the flavor (after popping the beet sphere) was a pure delight, tangy sweet earthy and cold. I do not have one of those NO2 canister things to make the lemon thyme foam, so I improvise. I figured it's base is more or less similar to a marshmallow base (liquid + gelatin), so I whipped it with a hand mixer until it cooled and I got a lovely fluffy foam.

So sorry for the very late reply. Better late than never I guess. I made the recipe as is, and did not reduce the amount of sugar. Meyers are sweeter but not by much. I did use all 21 tbsps, but I bet you can get by using only 2 sticks (16 Tbsps). I did chill the tart. It actually keeps very well in the fridge without getting soggy.

Tony at his self indulgent best. Not sure I liked it though...too hokey. For my money I would rather see the whole show divided evenly among Chang, Ripert, Picard and Brennan and dispense of all the rest.

Sorry for the semi-crappy pic. I had to use my Blackberry since my camera was nowhere to be found at the time. I had to share my first serious SV attempt. 36-hour Shawarma style beef chuck cooked at 57C. It was marinated with red wine with alcohol cooked off, various shawarma spices and CSV with an onion wrapped in saran with ends open al la Keller. Pretty phenomenal, tender but not mushy, very much like a good beefy steak. I served it with pita among other things. Quick question about reaheating chilled CSV items. How does it work? Say I cooked a steak or some chicken and quick chilled them in an ice bath and stored in the fridge. How do i properly reheat them for dinner without losing the benefit of CSV and without having to have to wait for an hour or two for it to come up to temp again in a water bath?

I guess making an E-R meal and posting about it here is a New Year tradition now . I've been crazy busy at work, so sorry about the delay. This year I made pasta with my 2 boys and served it in a rich duck broth with peas and slivered ham. I wanted to cut it into linguini shapes but they insisted on the thinnest possible setting...who knows why. It was delicious though. Of course the Cotechino was the main event. Also based on J Molinari's recipe. I did do something different this year. I seared it really good on the outside after it was poached. I love the contrast between the crispy crust and the moist unctous interior. We had it with lentils. What a divine sausage. You have to make your own and cook it. BTW, even though Cotechino is never good lukewarm (needs to be HOT), it is very good cold. sliced thin and eaten as a cold cut -it's like salami crossed with headcheese- with mustard and bread.

Well I read this thread ove rthe past few months or so and have been looking for an IC on eBay off and on. After a failed acquisition (won it, got it and it did not work...I got my $$ back tho) I finally got a properly functional IC made by Lauda (Thanks Sam for your help and advice). I have not played too much with it but I did try a few things so far and I am looking forward to jumpo in to more serious lonjg temr cooking. I cannot wait to try some chuck or brisket at 135 for 48hrs. That is the most widely accpeted way of getting a properly cooked and flavorful tender piece of meat. Right? Anyways here's what I tried so far: - Initial test: I cooked two eggs for about 8 hours. I forgot what the temp was, but I followed e-monster's recipe from early on. this was done mostly to test the machine and make sure it maintains it's setting. It did, but the eggs yolk was a bit overcooked and the white was ok. I'm thinking a shorter period and hiher heat might be better. - Pork chops. bagged with butter and seasoning and cooked at 140 for a couple of hours. Ver juicy and deliciuous with a slight pink color. I served these with braised red cabbage. I wish I had taken pictures of all this stuff, but I was still testing. - Desserts seem a bit absent from this thread. I used a recipe from my Alinea book for persimmon cake and adapted it to make a chocolate/banana/coconut cake. This was cooked at 82C for 3.5 hours. It was sliced and served with toasted almonds and coconut foam. This was beyond delicious! My wife -who is very skeptical of the IC- loved it. It was rich and chocolaty. I would like to make it more cylindrical next time and be able to slice perfect rounds after it is CSV. Not sure how to do that yet, but a collagen suusage casing might be involved and I will post pictures next time. - Mahi Mahi fillets. These were cooked a bit too high and too short. They tasted ok, but were a little tough on the outside and undercooked on the inside.

The pig was covered with banana leaves most of the time. It was cooked at 400 for about 1.5 hours, basted with the bitter orange juice periodically and then cooked at 300 for the rest of the way.

Yes, except for a few of the vertebrae, the hip bones and shoulder bones, everything was chopped into pieces about 3/4 inch long. So, certainly we noticed them. They had meat on them as well, so we just ate them like small pieces of ribs.

Abra, Pennyroyal, we only found it dried, is pretty pungent. To me it tastes like a mix of licorice and mint, mostly mint. Doc, I deboned the pig the night before. That took about 1.5 hours. I am surprisingly good at this, not sure why. Must have some butcher blood in my heritage . We put it in a cooler with lots of ice until the next day when we prepared everything else, stuffed it and put it in the oven. Prep work before it went in the oven took about 5 hours I think. It then cooked for about 3.5 hours till it's internal temp reached 155. According to my father in law, the recipe he found online, posted by a Colombian man who researched Lechona Tolimense and found this version in older books. If you want more details, Richard, I can look and see if I can find any. The tricky part was figuring out the spice/herb amounts, since the recipe just listed them with no amounts. I'm sure glad we went easy on the Pennyroyal Here is the intro to the translated recipe as my father in law paraphrased it. If any are interested in the whole recipe, let me know: And following the Lechona customs as I read them in a novel from Ramon Manrique: “…Lets all eat at home the traditional roast! The preparation required a meticulous process. Once the pig was killed, it was gutted and deboned. The lechona’s legs, ribs, head and spine were blessed in the ritual application of the spices & condiments. It was then put in the clay pots and were put in the oven. The spices: cumin, pepper, nutmeg and mustard seed (mostacilla). The herbs: culantrillo (??), dill, pennyroyal, green onions (big head), and garlic. And for a better taste, a generous spray of Txacoli (vinagrillo) on top of pot roast. All these pots, well mixed and condimented would go to an oven well lit with firewood and dry bamboo and it was covered with lots of varejón (Colombian tree) leaves and sticks. An hour later, the smell of the roasting pig indicated that the skin started to crisp and the juices were dripping through the oven cracks. The lechonita was swimming in its own juices! Missia Benedita sent us a big pot with a golden pig leg and another one with tender pieces of pork loin. The shy maids that brought us this delicacy, also brought with it some bottles of mistela (home aguardiente liquor), arepitas and insulsos, and themselves blushing repeated the message of the old maiden lady: That here for you’all Missia Benedita send’u this smo’ll meal…. That the mistela w’the marjoram, that’s good/n strong is for di dotor... and that th’other one, that’s lit’er is for the misses and th’girls…” The previous story reflects a celebration scene towards the end of the XIX century in the old region of the Tolima Grande (currently the states of Tolima and Huila) in Colombia. To this day, the Lechona tolimense remains the traditional dish of these states. Updating the recipe to modern times, here is the new method of preparation:

This Christmas dinner was certainly the biggest and most difficult challenge I've taken over. Along with my father in law and brother in law, we prepared an authentic Lechona as it is prepared in the Tolima region of Colombia. The recipe, translated by my father in law dates back to the late 19th century (well, most of it does). A 24lb pig is de-boned except for it's trotters and legs. The bones are chopped up and mixed with extra pork loin, lard, and garlic and herbs and spices including cumin, pennyroyal and dill. Other "stuffings" include cooked rice, potatoes, peas and onions. All these fillings are lubricated generously with lard. The fillings are layered in the deboned piglet before it's stitched tight (this was a royal pain!!). The piggy is seasoned well throughout and rubbed in and out with bitter orange juice (Naranja Agria). It is also basted with the juice while roasting. After many trials, we managed to fit the darn thing in the oven and roast it to crispy crackly perfection without having to chop it's head off. How was it? Way beyond my expectations. It was delicious, porky and the filling was infused with all the flavors of the pig and the herbs. The fact that it was basically boneless made slicing and serving -ensuring that everyone got some of that crispy cracker skin- was a breeze. We served it with the traditional accompaniments of arepas and insulsos (sweet corn flour and raw sugar tamales wrapped in banana leaves).

Case in point, the friend I went with to Feast on Saturday, would never have thought about going there based on the review. He was turned off and thought the menu would be offal-centric (funny thing he eats any muscle including the tail and heart, but no glands and such) until I sent him the link to the actual menu. Feast might not be the place to take "white meat only chicken eaters" but it is by no means a place that ONLY caters to "adventurous" eaters. One item on the menu was a vegetarian dish and it sounded so good we almost ordered it, it was a pot pie with fennel and other winter vegetables. That's what I'm hoping will catch on, Feast is unique but very approachable.

I stopped by Feast with a friend of mine this past saturday. I really do not have more positive things to say beyond Kevin's comments. I really am glad we have this lovely place here in Houston and hope it lasts. We stopped by shortly after they opened at 5 because we wanted to catch a movie afterwards. We were the only customers there until 6:30 or so. According to our very cordial waitress, they start getting "busy" around 7:30. I hope so, because I would hate for Feast to close. We started off by two appetizers, Ox heart and beets and the Boar terrine with parsley. The ox heart was plain but robust and beefy, sliced thin, seasoned with salt and pepper and served with cubed roasted beats in a tart sauce. The terrine was a star. Rish, unctous and very flavorful. Both worked great with Feast's sourdough bread. For main courses I could not pass the crispy pork belly with potato cake, red cabbage and apples. It was perfectly cooked with crisp cracklings and moist rich meat. My friend ordered the ox tails with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. I took a few bites from it and it was also a wiiner, a homey tasty dish. After the rich food and a few beers, we skipped dessert, but a few things on there looked promising (spotted dick with custard, bitter orange tart). I really was glad that Robb Walsh gave it such a glowing review in the Houston Press recently. However, I am afraid he focused too much on the fact that Feast has SOME offal on the menu and that many potential customers might eschew it because of the whole offal-phobia thing. Feast really has very little offal and most dishes are more than safe for any meat lover who might not want to eat sweetbreads and tripe. Houston needs to give Feast some love!

It's definitly encouraging to hear that from you Kevin. I've been wanting to try a 3 course lunch there. I might be able to have dinner tomorrow night instead though.