Steve Irby

Prep And dinner.

I don't want to sound overly dramatic but the fennel soup was simple but sublime. Fennel, along with celeriac, are a couple of ingredients that are rarer than hen's teeth on menu's in the deep south. I've been pretty resourceful in incorporating celeriac into various dishes but fennel has certainly lagged. BKEats piqued my interest with fennel pesto last week so I incorporated fennel it into a light soup. The soup base was a puree of fennel, onion and chicken stock. The soup was finished with diced potatoes, cauliflower and fennel fronds.

The problem for us gluttons is we graze all day then come meal time we're not hungry. I cooked a ham early in the day and if it hadn't been for my wife hogging up the counter top in front of the ham it would be gone by now. Dinner was pop overs, deviled eggs and a little bit more of the ham.

Just like my mom made them! The sliced onions are soaked in milk and then tossed in a brown paper bag with AP flour.

I've been jonesing for a good cheeseburger so I took my first crack at brioche buns today using a recipe from the NYT. The buns and burger, with a side of onion rings, hit the spot.

I made a batch of pizza dough from Ken Forkish FWSY and used two portions of dough yesterday for pizza with homemade pork sausage and pepperjack. Today I used one portion for pizza with smoked turkey, more pepperjack and oil cured olives. The remaining dough was roughly formed and baked after the pizza was cooked. I used the gas grill both days.

Dinner was an adaptation of a Jody Adams recipe for chicken with poppy seeds and pancetta. I substituted Wright's smoked and peppered bacon for the pancetta and cooked the bird in the oven instead of the grill. Served with comfort sides and cornbread.

Gruyere and heavy cream. The cheese was cut from a wheel that must have had a little age on it as it had a much earthier taste than the shrink wrapped blocks.

Käsespätzle and fried onions served with smoked brisket and asparagus. Last night dessert was a celestial brownie with Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. I was a little heavy handed with the whipped cream but we suffered through it.

Yesterday I made a double recipe of cannelloni to distribute to some of our housebound friends and for the freezer. I have used the same recipe from Cotton Country Collection by the Jr. League of Monroe LA for about forty years. The filling is ground beef, spinach and a little chicken liver bound with eggs, cream and pecorino romano. I make fresh pasta sheets to substitute for manicotti tubes. The stuffed pasta is covered in a bechamel sauce then topped with red sauce. I'm embarrassed to say how much we inhaled for dinner but the freezer certainly isn't going to have to work as hard.

Roast beet salad with whipped goat cheese. The goat cheese is a recipe from Alon Shaya and is just terrific. A dish we never get tired of shrimp and grits gussied up with scallops.

Butter poached royal red shrimp and pasta with oil cured olives, capers and piment d'espelette.

My take on a great dish from the former Madison's Diner in Pensacola. Salmon Rockefeller- grilled salmon, fried oysters, hollandaise, spinach and gouda cheese grits. And from a few weeks ago smoked ribs cooked on a gas grill using a Smokai smoke generator.

Last nights dinner was based on a trip to the back of the frig. I reheated beef ribs (under the broiler) which I had separated from a rib roast prior to serving for Christmas dinner and served them with other remnants of meals from the past week. The ribs had been vacuumed bagged and had held up quite well. New years dinner included all the usual suspects with the addition of a roasted beet and satsuma salad that was really refreshing. A few other dishes that were incorporated over the holidays included mirlition, sausage and cornbread dressing A delicious rutagaba, turnip and butternut squash gratin from a Southern Living recipe A 9-inch cake pan surface area is the equivalent to 2 x 4-inch and 2 x 5-inch so I made these White Chocolate and amaretto cheesecakes to serve and also to gift. The bread is overnight white from Ken Forkish.

A few dishes from this past week. Shrimp, chicken and chaurice sausage served over creamy grits bolstered with pepperjack cheese and heavy cream. The sauce was reduced cream with hatch chilies and some jellied pork stock. The hatch chilies and sausage also made an appearance with grilled oysters. And a chocolate espresso torta from a recipe from Jody Adams.

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!