kayb

Lunch today was one of my better efforts. I had cured a salmon filet per Kenji's gravlax recipe (with coriander and dill). With deviled eggs and silver-dollar-sized latkes. Some of the latkes got apple butter, instead. Not shown is the mustard dill sauce for the gravlax.

Braciole, risotto from the Instant Pot (Hip Pressure Cooking recipe), and roasted broccoli from the CSO. I'm not certain how I ever cooked before eGullet taught me the wonders of all these small kitchen appliances. This was before I cut the strings that tied the rolls together. That's really not worms on the lower right. Tonight was a disappointment -- pork chops baked in sauerkraut with some brown sugar, vinegar, white wine and caraway; cucumber salad, German potato salad. I guess I'd cooked all weekend and was tired of it. Potato salad dressing was too thin, cucumbers had a tough skin, and the pork chops just didn't taste good. No photos.

Made my first IP risotto tonight, from the Hip Pressure Cooking recipe. I sauteed onions, toasted rice, added more wine than called for (somewhere between a third and a half a cup), and then went 2:1 liquid:rice. 5 minutes at high pressure, about 5 minutes regular release then quick release for the remainder. Stirred in the parmesan and added a couple tablespoons of butter, because, well, butter. Perfect doneness on the rice -- just the tiniest bit al dente. Not quite as creamy as stovetop risotto, but I didn't stand there stirring it for 45 minutes, either. On another IP topic -- when I make yogurt, I always have a thin layer of milk solids stuck to the bottom of the pot. I can get rid of it by soaking and then scraping/scrubbing....but I've learned I can also get rid of it by filling the pot about 1/3 full with water, adding a squirt of automatic dishwasher detergent, and setting it to the saute function until the auto timer runs out. The pot just rinses out.

As I was cleaning out the freezer this week, I discovered several packages of frozen caramlized onions. A couple of weeks ago, I made beef stock. I feel French onion soup coming on. One of the chief reasons I love fall and winter is soup.

I eat meat probably every other day, on average. There are meats I absolutely adore, most of them pork -- bacon, ham, barbecue. I enjoy a good steak, but I don't want one all that often; ditto a good chuck roast or beef stew or roast beef sandwich. I like the idea of substitutes for meat that would taste the same/have the same texture in the dishes I enjoy, mostly from an environmental and pricing standpoint. I don't care about making a vegetable taste/act like meat just for the sake of having meat in a meal; I'm perfectly happy with a bowl of beans, or a plate of cheese, or some other protein. I could, however, never be vegan. I don't think I could function without butter, cheese, eggs, and half-and-half for my coffee. I am willing to pay a premium for the assurance the animals/birds that produced those products did so in a safe and healthy environment and enjoyed a comfortable and pleasant lifestyle.

Ahhh, linguine in clam sauce. Many fond memories of Little Italy, a Mom and Pop Italian joint in Memphis back in the 70s. How I loved that place. I had a surf and turf of sorts: steak tartare and scallops. Steak tartare was via the ChefSteps recipe for same; scallops by Paul Raphael's. With some cheese (Emmenthaler, Cabot cloth-bound cheddar, and Parrano). And pickles and olives, because, well, one needs a vegetable and some fruit, right?

@Franci-- here you go. This is cut and pasted from my blog, thus the narrative style to the instructions. 3 pounds bacon, diced and the fat rendered, but not crisp 1 cup caramelized onions (about three medium onions) 1 cup strong black coffee 1/4 cup garlic confit from the fridge 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 2 tbsp red wine vinegar about 1 tsp allspice about 1 tsp Aleppo pepper 1/2 cup turbinado sugar (or brown; my hand found the turbinado first) 1/2 cup maple syrup about 1/4 cup brandy If I don’t have caramelized onions in the fridge, I start with that; roughly dice the onions, put them in a bit of olive oil in your big Dutch oven, and let them go. Go ahead and use the big Dutch oven, because you’re going to use that pot to add everything else to. I go ahead and add the brown sugar to help the onions along in caramelizing. While that’s happening, brown your bacon. I work with three pounds because Wright’s, my bacon purveyor of choice, sells a three-pound package of bacon pieces and ends. Same excellent bacon taste, just the trimmings, which is fine for these purposes. Wright’s, at $8.99 a pound, is pricy for making jam, but the ends-and-pieces, at $7.99 for three pounds, is a helluva deal. There’ll be some pieces big enough you’ll want to cut them up; try not to have anything bigger than an inch cube. I render it in batches, about a pound at a time, until it’s done but not necessarily crisp. Then when the onions get caramelized, I dump the bacon in with them. (The bacon grease replenishes my supply in the crock in the cabinet; one must, after all, keep bacon grease for one’s cornbread, and seasoning peas and beans!) I add all the other stuff at whatever point I have a second amid stirring bacon. Measures, as in most all my recipes, are approximates. If you want yours hotter, add more pepper; sweeter, add more syrup. If you don’t have Aleppo pepper, a bit of minced chipotle will do. I used about 1/4 cup more coffee because that was how much was left in my cold-brew container in the fridge, and I didn’t see the point in wasting it. And then I just let it simmer. I’ve done it in a slow cooker and cooked it overnight, but I was also going to be making bread, and as my counter space with access to electrical outlets is severely limited, so I just let it simmer away in the Dutch oven. It needs to cook at a bare simmer for at least a couple of hours, Once it’s cooled, transfer it (in batches) to the food processor and process until it’s the texture you want it. I then transfer it to canning jars, the little half-pint ones, and process it in a water bath for about 45 minutes. This recipe will make five or six half-pints, which is enough to stock some gift baskets and still give you some to enjoy at home. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of canning, you could freeze it, or quarter the recipe and make enough to keep in the fridge for your own use; it lives nicely there for a good while.

I've made a bacon jam that's a great spread on biscuits, or as a topping for burgers. If you'd like, I'll send the recipe.

Sent me to google, that one did.

Arkansas voted for medical marijuana. This state's voters never cease to amaze me.

It's election night. Dinner is wine, and snacky stuff. I have good Genoa salami, several kinds of cheese, olives, pickles. Did I say wine? Started out finishing off a bottle of pinot grigio that was in the fridge from last night. Went to a new bottle of Orin Swift Prisoner, which I commend to all y'all as an excellent, excellent red blend. (At $40-ish a bottle, it ain't cheap, but it's election night. It calls for the good stuff.) I have yet to get to the snacky stuff.

The bread recipe calls for four tablespoons of the husks. The pharmaceutical use calls for two tablespoons stirred into a glass of juice. So unless you eat half the loaf at a sitting, you ought to be OK. I think.

I can state with some authority I have learned to cook the best country-fried steak on the planet, thanks to my Anova. My quarter-steer comes with several packages of tenderized round steak, what used to be sold in the grocery as "minute steak," although this is thicker and does not appear to have been run through the jacquardizing machine as many times as the grocery store version. I took two packages, salted and peppered them, and put them in the bath at 145F about 9 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday morning, after about 10 hours in the bath, I took them out and stashed them in the fridge after an ice bath. When time came to cook Sunday dinner, I set up my breading station: a bowl of seasoned flour, one of egg/milk wash, one of breadcrumbs. After a trip through each, the steaks fried in something less than 1/4 inch of oil for about 5-6 minutes on a side, and then drained on paper towels with each layer of them loosely covered by foil and more paper towels to hold in heat. Pan drippings got an extra dose of flour to make gravy, followed by the jus from the bag, and milk. The kids said I did good. I don't care for CF steak, but tasted to sample; decent flavor, and fork-tender. Thinking of trying a similar technique with pork loin, sliced thin and pounded, SV'd and then breaded to fry up as schnitzel.

Psyllium husks? I recently found a recipe for a nut-and-seed bread that depends on psyllium husks to bind it. I now possess some. Have never worked with them before. Found them in the nutritional supplements at the health food store.

Here in the Mid-South, Kroger is ubiquitous. Lately, they've started upgrading and/or building some new, more upscale stores in some locations. They have a greatly expanded deli with, among other offerings: a sushi bar (decent sushi, not great but not bad) a Chinese take-out bar (beef and broccoli, General Tso's chicken, couple of other entrees, fried rice, noodles) a "Mexican" food bar (I use quotes because it appears to be only vaguely Mexican) a wings bar an extensive salad bar with four different soup offerings a hot counter with a couple of entrees and five or six sides, as well as fried chicken a cold case with all manner of salads, as well as grilled veggies, etc., that can either be eaten cold or warmed back up an expanded cheese section with a really good (for this part of the world) selection of cheeses, and they'll cut the size chunk you want a massive olive and antipasto bar and the sliced deli meat/cheese section will make you a sandwich to order and sell it to you by weight. There are some packaged meals like premade sandwiches and salads. There's also a fairly decent, for this part of the world, seafood section, and a decent (for a supermarket) custom meat section. There are some tables, but most people appear to be picking up stuff to take out. I've picked up lunch or dinner there more than a few times.

Leftover roast chicken, with mushrooms, in a cream sauce, served inside a hollowed out roll, with scalloped potatoes and roasted broccoli with lemon zest.

I eat alone a fair amount when I'm traveling, so I enjoy communal tables, but rarely see them. If I'm somewhere there's a line and people are being seated, I always offer to share my table with anyone who wants to eat more quickly. I did that a few weeks ago when I was on the road, and wound up having a delightful lunch and conversation with a gentleman who was a retired state trooper and who had, amazingly enough, been partnered with a man I grew up with and haven't seen since we left high school. I love how small the world is.

If you like, you can order it here. Per the website, they have a hickory smoked, but not applewood. I thought I remembered applewood, as well. The peppered is about the best going.

Have eaten at Morimoto's. Very good. I loved the dessert presentation of three scoops of sorbet on a slab of ice with three "dimples" in it to hold the sorbet. Never managed to make it to Le Bec Fin. However, the best German food I ever ate was at the Austrian Village in Huntingdon Valley.

There ARE such abodes? The horror!

I don't do magazines in general. They pile up, and I don't have time to read them. That said, while Milk Street was a good-looking piece, it didn't entice me to the tune of 20 bucks for a year's worth. I would be much more likely to subscribe to something like the old Gourmet, or Food and Wine.

People losing their minds over your food is ALWAYS a good thing. And the roses look delectable.

When I'm in Center City (unfortunately, not for a long time now), I always had to go to that cheesesteak place just off Rittenhouse Square (on South St.? I forget my Philly geography). But my favorite meal -- perhaps my best (Italian) meal ever -- remains the homemade ravioli and meatballs at Villa di Roma on Ninth. If a meatball can be sublime, these were sublime. Hell, no "if" to it. These suckers were sublime.

I would be really interested to hear your take on Petit Jean Farms' bacon, @btbyrd. Not "as artisinal" as Benton's, Broadbent's...but damn good bacon. And for basic grocery store bacon (you can get Petit Jean in the grocery store, for premium prices), it's real hard to beat Wright's.

Get thee behind me. Thankfully, I am far from the Greater LA area.