Steve Irby

The first gumbo of 2019.

I saw this reference to a style of Kentucky BBQ ( https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/23/dining/monroe-county-pork-steaks-bbq.html) that I tried tonight. Pork steak is pretty common in my part of the country but it is usually breaded and fried or baked. I've never seen it offered at a BBQ joint except for one meat and 3 restaurant where it was featured as the Thursday lunch special. The basting sauce is equal parts lard and butter with distilled vinegar, cayenne (75,000 shu) salt and black pepper. Served with cream potatoes and a green salad. The steaks were cooked with hardwood charcoal and pecan embers. We've been eating a lot of turkey the past month ( 23#, 12# , 2x16#) prepared grilled, baked, SV'd., turchetta, sausage, and boiled etc. I was afraid that I over-cooked a dry brined breast last week so I pumped it while warm. I injected over 4 oz in the evening and injected the remaining ~2 oz the next morning. It turned out great! Breast roasted at 275F. Getting ready to pump. "Plumped" Breast

How about day-bree or duh-bree? For us folks on the gulf coast as long as it's meat scraps and gravy served on good bread we don't quibble about pronunciation😜

Brisket debris with slaw

Supper was a was a little bit of this and that. Fresh bread with smoked turkey breast and/or left over buffalo turkey drumettes. Augmented with very thin slices of sweet potato cheesecake ( at breakfast, lunch and dinner!) Half de-boned breast from 22.75# turkey The breast was dry brined for 24 hours and cooked on a gas grill with a Smokai smoke generator. 12# brisket on the weber being smoked with pecan. Drumettes (from two 16# turkeys) cooked SV for 14 hrs. @ 131F then fried. The bacon wrapped tenderloin's were inhaled to rave reviews! Galatoires sweet potatoe cheese cake receipe from the NYT. A little seafood to start the week.

I was looking for an eggplant ravioli recipe and came across this - https://stefangourmet.com/2013/01/20/ravioli-with-eggplant-and-ricotta-ravioli-di-melanzane-e-ricotta/ I had a red sauce with fresh longaniza on hand which I used for the dish. It is really a good recipe and could easily turn into a favorite. In the background are a couple of loaves of overnight white bread from FWSY. The ravioli prepped And yesterday's offering, Serious Eats sous vide turchetta with bacon wrapped tenderloins.

I've tried a couple of turkey recipes this week. The first bird got the treatment as outlined in Chefsteps procedure for crispy, confit turkey legs and breast. The parts get a pre-sear followed by sous vide of the leg/thigh for 12 hours at 149 F then add the breast with another 12 hours at 131 F. A final sear and it was ready for the plate. I'll probably repeat this for Thanksgiving dinner. The meat was moist with a nice texture and will make a nice presentation. Here's a picture of the pre-seared and seasoned turkey prior to the hot water bath. Last night I prepped a 16# turkey with the breast and tenderloins prepared for sous vide and the remainder into the pressure cooker for stock and meals for our dog. The breast were prepared following Serious Eats Turchetta recipe and the tenderloins were bacon wrapped. I used transglutaminase to bond the skin and meat in both items. I cooked the tenderloins for 4 hours at 130 F and the Turchetta for a total of ~14 hours. I finished both items with a quick fry in the wok. The taste and texture were great for each. This is an earlier photo using chicken breast and finishing the dish by browning in a skillet. And here's a photo my set-up. I use an Anova cooker in a 12 qt. pot. To minimize heat loss I set the pot on an old Styrofoam cooler lid with blanket around it. I top it with a piece of foil and it will go for 24 hours without adding any water. For larger items I use a conventional cooler that I set-up in the garage.

It's been pretty warm on the FL Gulf Coast so finally a little cool weather and time for a little comfort food. I've been socking away a lot of chicken stock so old timey dumplings fit the bill. I used a brown chicken stock with sous vide turkey for the meat lovers. I also made a vegetarian variant using a veg soup base. You have to have good bread for sopping so- - Last nights supper was fried MS catfish, WA oysters and Mexican Chayote. And two apps from Sunday dinner. Shrimp Napoleon and tuna tower The main for Sunday's dinner was Salmon with Beet Casuzieni. Here's a picture of the prep.

A little meat glue action tonight. I used a dusting of transglutaminase on chicken breast, with the tenderloin flipped around to achieve a more cylindrical shape, wrapped with thick cut bacon. Vacuum bagged overnight and oven roasted.

I've been baking Pan Bigio from Carol Field's Italian Baker for decades. It's made with a biga and a blend of unbleached and whole wheat flour. This week I finally bought Ken Forkish FWSY and incorporated his methods. What a difference in the loaves. Much better spring in the dutch oven and overall appearance. I'm just easing into retirement and can't wait to start fine tuning!

Bacon wrapped hanger steak cooked SV. I used meat glue to join the steak halves after removing the silverskin and membrane.

Here's a little variation on the theme. I prepped a Hanger steak yesterday by removing the membrane and silverskin, dusted it with transglutaminase, wrapped in apple wood smoked bacon and vacuum bagged. I cooked it SV tonight for 1.5 hours at 127. I finished it in hot oil to brown up the bacon. I'm still using the meat glue that I bought years ago. It's part of a kilo that I rebagged into 100 gram portions and froze.

How's this for a summery feel? It almost makes you forget how cold it was this week. Spotted these tomatoes at the farmer's market this morning and bought four varieties at $5\lb. Quite tasty and worth the price alone for the beautiful colors. The deep green colored tomato is fully ripe. It's my first time to come across them.

Time to start the low carb diet! Although I may indulge with a little bit of beer tonight as part of the taper. Further evidence of my commitment to healthy eating. Roasted cauliflower, leek and potato soup. I bumped the flavor profile up (judiciously) with a little cheddar and almost-streaky bacon.

The forecast calls for nighttime temps in the mid to low 20's through Friday with the highs in the 40's. We've had close to record highs through out November so this cold stretch is a little bit of a shock.

This will be the last batch of banana leaf wrapped tamales till summer. The bitter cold, at least by NW Florida standards, is settling in and the trees will be wrecked.

Dinner was a really tasty combination of freshly shucked oysters, apple wood smoke bacon and mushrooms sauteed in butter. It was served in a light cream sauce over linguine. Heavy cream was reduced with the oyster liquor then thinned out with pasta water and Meyer lemon juice.

Thanks, I love okra too. I bought a 25# box of oysters for the holidays and had some for lunch on the half shell and set aside some plump beauties to add to the gumbo.

A little leftover gumbo.

Oysters to start followed by turkey cooked sous vide (breast and tenderloins) and conventionally (thighs and wings). The breast was stuffed with homemade chorizo.

Tonight's dinner was deboned chicken thighs stuffed with fresh chorizo sausage and topped with a jalapeno cream sauce. A couple of nights ago we had salmon seasoned with a spice blend including fennel, cumin, guajillo, cardamom, and cinnamon cooked over apple slices. Served with escarole dressed with a pear and champagne vinaigrette. We were given a prime rib roast at Thanksgiving that I sliced into steaks. The darn thing would have been way too fat as a roast but the steaks were unbelievable. And you could have knocked me over with a feather when Iwas told it was from QVC!

More pork than people! 10# dressed roast for 8 people plus the turkey. I have a chamber vacuum bagger to keep the love alive.

In keeping with the not-to-traditional route I served a porchetta roast along side more traditional turkey. I bought a primal cut from from a local Vietnamese grocer and sectioned out the belly and loin. The roast was terrific! Dinner included the white cheddar cauliflower gratin Anna N linked to and a terrific pear bread pudding from Lidia's Table. The bread pudding Early week meal from breaking down the primal cut And a few photos from the start of the process.

I found a small sirloin steak in the frosty recesses of my freezer and decided to mince and grill as a kofte kebab. Served with a reasonable facsimile of a greek salad and grilled shrimp.

Here's a few photo's from a recent trip through the MS Delta following the Tamale Trail -https://www.southernfoodways.org/interview/hot-tamales-the-mississippi-delta/ .