Steve Irby

I'm getting started on my annual loss leader turkey fest. This year I bought a 21# turkey and defrosted it in an ice chest. I was afraid it would break the glass shelves in the refrigerator! The breast were dusted with a combination of Tony Chachere's seasoned salt and a Dangold seasoned salt. The wings were bagged with sage, lemon, butter and S&P. The tenderloins were trimmed of the sinew, dusted with meat glue and Tony's and wrapped in bacon. They'll be in the hot water bath for about 3 hours @ 141F. I'll chill and finish the items later. The leg quarters were heavily seasoned and are smoking on my Weber kettle.

Grilled pork chop dusted with Penzey's Revolution spice blend then finished with a soy-satsuma-honey glaze.

I've had better luck using two squares and sandwiching the bone or carapace. I've tried to wrap bones with one sheet but the boneguard shifts making it a little fiddly to adjust.

BJ's had a really nice package of thick cut pork chops so I stuffed four of the six and cooked them sous vide. I used some homemade longaniza for the stuffing and made a quick sauce of heavy cream, pork gelee, tomatoes and green onions. I used a boneguard from JVR to prevent the dreaded puncture in the hot water bath.

Shrimp remoulade and fried green tomatoes.

Tonight's dinner included a pear and starfruit salad. The pears were downed fruit from a neighbors tree and the starfruit came off the reduced for quick sell table (6/$1.50). The salad ingredients included surprisingly hot serrano peppers, mini red peppers, red onion, walnuts and blue cheese. The dressing was a pear preserve vinaigrette. The preserves were prepared with the scavenged pears, lemons, oranges, cinnamon and candied ginger.

I think the dish was a restaurant original. I use gruyere cheese grits as the base.

Dinner was leftovers from a late lunch on Saturday. My wife is very involved in animal rescue and I prepared a big spread for the TNR gang. The mezze's included roasted beets and carrots with whipped citrus goat cheese, marinated roast peppers and eggplant (Escalivada), grilled zucchini , sautéed shrimp with feta, smoked eggplant dip (Mutabal) with toasted pita and bread. I was so busy with prep and serving that I didn't take a single picture. Dessert was white chocolate cheescake. This slice is heading over to the next door neighbor. The main course on Saturday was my take on Salmon Rockefeller as served at the former Madison's Restaurant. This photo was from dinner a few years ago but the plating was identical. My blender hollandaise was definitely not as good this time as it was a little thin.

Dawn to Dusk loaves. Started in the AM with 1000 grams of flour at 78% hydration and 2.4 grams of yeast. Finished sometime after dark.

Tonight's supper was leftover grilled salmon repurposed into salmon cakes with celeriac remoulade. Served with a pizza slice from Flourish And yesterday we had Chinese broccoli, chickpeas and preserved lemon over pasta. Topped with Fulvi pecorino Romano and Aleppo peppers

@BonVivant that fried okra and tofu has me drooling. What's the procedure for the tofu and duck yolk sauce? Okra was also on our menu today. Lunch was a variation on "Meat and Three". The okra is sliced then rolled in cornmeal prior to frying in hot oil. My Mom couldn't fix enough for us kids.

A little grill action for some very nice eggplant and zucchini from the farmers market. The vegetables were brushed with olive oil, lemon juice and S&P then grilled on my gas weber. The grilled vegetables were topped with Kashaval cheese, oil cured olives, tomatoes and fresh oregano & mint. It made for a very nice lunch served on a toasted pita.

I thought they adhered very well. I used a raw russet dipped in a cornstarch and butter mix. The prepped fillets were placed in the frig for about 20 minutes then seared off in a black steel pan. The scales didn't shift going into the pan or when they were flipped.

After a few higher priced restaurant meals recently I decided I better step up my game. The old SSI check doesn't go as far as it used to with entree's hitting $40 bucks. Todays lunch was potato crusted cod with a pea puree. This was my first try with potato scales and I was very happy with the results. Here's another cod dish from last week. Greek inspired salad with some mint and basil and a really creamy goat feta.

Pommes Anna is kind of my go to comfort food and tonight it was topped with a little ode to Spain. Not that I've been to Spain but I have aspirations! Seared cobia with pecans, green olives, onion, garlic and a lot of butter and lemon juice. My Ozempic was caught flat footed.