Steve Irby

We went a little heavy on the red meat over Christmas so seafood got top billing for the New Year. I bought a box of oysters that were fat and salty and delicious raw and grilled. I also made a nice gumbo with leftover smoked turkey and andouille that I made a few weeks ago.

I had some leftover items from sunday brunch that became todays breakfast. Egg salad, creme fraiche and paddlefish caviar topped the top half of a bagel from Panera. The bottom half was topped with salmon cured with a north african spice blend, cream cheese, red onion and salt cured capers.

Dinner was a chocolate covered almond antidote aka "shrimp salad". I polished off the contents of the nut medley rather quickly and will now focus on the panettone.

We had an all dressed up and nowhere to go brunch. I've been threatening to make the Shrimp and Tasso Henican appetizer from Commanders Palace for years so this weekend I got busy. I followed the recipe published in Savuer and substituted homemade guanciale for the tasso. It is a really tasty dish and worth the effort. It would have been perfect with a few of CP's twenty-five cent martinis! I also made the Caviar Parfait from Michael Mina after watching Hubert Keller's Secret of Chefs Las Vegas. Another delish dish but I'm afraid the caviar would blow the budget for a party.

A hearty breakfast non-southern style. The red onion was pretty hot so social distancing should not be a problem this morning.

Here are a few pics from our party for three. A quick appetizer of homemade longaniza sausage and kashmiri curry cured salmon served with Forkish's overnight white bread. Followed with a salad of mixed greens, bluecheese, pear and toasted pecans. The main coarse was bacon wrapped turkey tenderloin, stuffed porkchops, garlic mashed potatoes and wilted spinach. The meats were prepared SV and finished with a quick fry. Dessert was white chocolate and amaretto cheesecake.

Thanks. I cooked them three hours @ 140F plus another 45 minutes as the water bath came up to temp. The meat went from the fridge at 38F into a cold water bath and it took awhile for the Anova to bring the five double chops to temp. The sausage texture was great. It was definitely fully cooked and I think I will drop the temp to 135 on the next batch.

Dinner was faux stuffed porkchops served with mashed potatoes and a green salad. The chops were actually laminated with homemade sausage placed between two chops, dusted with transglutaminase, vacuum bagged and cooked sous vide.

Tamales with queso fresco, avocado, tomatoes and salsa from the farmers market.

Chili-rubbed salmon sandwiches. Fresh bread and perfectly cooked fish made for a great lunch. The thick end of the fillet had that melty, oozy, buttery texture that made it hard to quit "trimming".

The chicken oysters made it to the table. Le sotlylaisse with local arugula and tomatoes. Dressed with last nights citrus vinaigrette with the addition of horseradish. The salad was topped with montasio cheese and served with a side of Pommes Gaufrette .

A couple of easy peasy dinners. Last night was crab cakes with a radicchio orange salad from an e-recipe by Lidia Bastianich. I bought a fresh leafy head of radicchio at the farmers market and combined it with the other ingredients including radishes, oil cured olives and orange supremes. It was dressed with a simple dijon vinaigrette of lemon juice and orange juice\pulp. The previous nights dinner was fresh zucchini spirals cooked al dente with red onion, mushrooms and topped with Rao's jarred sauce with homemade luganeca sausage. The sausage is seasoned with fresh rosemary, garlic, pecorino romano and nutmeg. Lot's of flavor but not too heavy for a late dinner.

It's kind of strange to have limited meat supplies and still have low prices. I bought some really nice leg quarters at Sam's for 59/cents lb and a prime beef packer for $2.94 lb. The leg quarters had a portion of the back attached that I filleted the "oysters" for a later meal. I marinated the chicken with fresh thyme, rosemary and sage and then grilled. The chicken with fresh corn and a vinegary coleslaw made a great lunch. Vacuumed bagged, bacon wrapped, deboned leg from a few weeks ago. The Vacmaster VP112 continues it's yeoman service.

I was breaking down some pork butts for sausage and decided these well marbled cuts would be perfect seared. They pan drippings were finished with a quick sauce of meyer lemon, butter, garlic and rosemary. I made a caeser'ish salad with pecorino romano to counter the fatty richness of the pork. The fatty pork was really tasty.