Steve Irby

Lasagne Alla Verde Bolognese from American Sfoglino. It took me a couple of days to get this in the oven but it was worth the effort. The ragu was made per the recipe but I substituted Citterio hot capacolla and homemade toulouse sausage for the pork shoulder, mortadella and prosciutto.

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.

We had a quick salad last night with grilled salmon and pineapple. The main focus was cubing and seasoning four pork butts to make into sausage. Today I ground and linked up approximately six pounds of luganeca, six pounds of shawarma/feta and ten pounds of southern style sausage using A. C. Leggs #10 blend. I added some pink salt to the Leggs batch since I plan on smoking some tomorrow. I set aside about four pounds of Leggs as bulk sausage for breakfast patties. Supper tonight was a test link of each style for quality control purpose's. No photo but the samples were great.

I had some leftover pulled pork that I incorporated into tamales. I used the rendered fat and jelly from the roasting pan in the masa. They were really tasty coming right out of the steamer.

The hot dish tonight was orphaned vegetables with tempura batter wanna-be. I had some leftover vegetables in the frig (gold pepper, zucchini, artichoke hearts) that became a fritto misto type dish to accompany beer (for me) and wine (for the wife).

Lunch was a bacon, green chili cheeseburger with chips on a homemade bun. Wright Bacon, Hatch Chilies and Tillamook Pepper Cheese helped produce a great burger. The buns were from a KAF recipe. I roasted the peppers last year and froze them on big sheet pan prior to vacuum bagging. It makes it easy to break off a chunk for meals. The potato chips were double fried then hit with sea salt.

Very full tart from the Plenty cookbook. The pie crust was bit of a struggle. Warm temps, high humidity and losing power due to severe thunderstorms were the primary hurdles. The filling itself takes a bit of time to complete but boy is it tasty.

Thanks, yes those are deboned drumsticks stuffed with toulouse sausage. I'll include a couple of pictures during prep. After stuffing I always wrap each drumstick with plastic film to hold the bacon in place prior to slipping into the vacuum bag. The bagging ensures good adhesion of the bacon and overall appearance. The next day they are ready for the grill or SV bath.

I've been shopping/cooking like others have been buying toilet paper. I know I don't need that big a** can of Bush beans from Sam's but I can't help myself. Thank God for a chamber vacuum sealer and an extra freezer. Over the past few days we've had a lot of yummy baked beans, cajun potato salad, homemade tortilla chips (please get behind me Satan) and various grilled meats. I'm also riding the skirt steak surge like others. Tonight's attempt at moderation was a compressed watermelon salad with feta. It was so darn good after the "heavy' food binge of the past few days.

The recipe is posted on a sausage centric site by Len Poli. I came across the site shortly after my introduction to sausage making via Charcuterie by Ruhlman & Polcyn. It's been a great resource for formulations by nationality and each recipe opens as a .pdf so they are easy to archive. Here's the link to the Toulouse - http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/French Toulouse.pdf My favorite formulation is the spanish longaniza - http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Longaniza-Spanish-fresh.pdf

A little baking and grilling today. I bought 10# of chicken leg quarters and froze the thigh portion for later use. I deboned the drumsticks and stuffed with homemade Toulouse sausage. I skinned then bacon wrapped seven portions and kept three skin on. I smoked the chicken on my weber gas grill using my Smokai smoke generator. I'm also cooking a pork butt on the grill which will come off later in the day. I baked the bread this morning and reheated a apple pie from the local farmers market. I'm pretty stuffed and am looking forward to my nap!