Steve Irby

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/ .

Trying to expand my okra repertoire. Fresh okra, corn and poblano pepper sauted until "al dente" with tasso/poblano cream sauce. Served over jasmine rice with a smoked chicken thigh and fresh tomatoes.

We've been getting really delicious, fresh corn the past couple of weeks. Makes the decision for dinner real easy. I cooked the first ear and added it to batter for the Mexican cornbread.

I checked my triglycerides mid-week and they were only moderately elevated. I felt kind of bad for passing up the PopEyes Fried Chicken earlier so I prepared a nice dinner of fried oysters and catfish with a greek wannabe salad to bring the cholesterol levels into historic ranges. Our cat was evaluating a slightly larger box at the same time and ultimately decided the previous box was fine. Tonight was a little home cooking Italian style -mushroom ravioli with ricotta and baby bella's. Last week I made a green casunziei with vidalia onion, ricotta and potato filling. I going to prepare a stuffed pasta tri-fecta for a derby party next weekend.

Really looks tasty. lots of nice char as a base. Were the greens a second trip into the oven?

Somebody didn't finish their vegetables in that second photo

Great oysters today prepped a few ways. My brother-in-law was in town and I always try to have oysters in one form or the other. I thought grilled oysters would be safe given the time of year so lunch was grilled oysters with a few other dishes from a great Vietnamese grocer. Gulf Coast oysters can be all over the place taste wise but the oysters today were primo-salty and fat with that mineral taste. Prepped three ways for lunch loosely on the style of Rockefeller, Casino and Drago. Lunch morphed into dinner with the oyster'straight off the shell, suck-em down.

Outstanding!

After a rough week on the road, lined with chain restaurants, it was nice to be home and eat a little home cooking. I made a Greek style salad last night with really good Romanian feta. Tonight was a combination of a prepped food from the freezer which included sausage stuffed SV chicken thighs, homemade andouille sausage and with a fresh KC strip. Buttery pommes anna and a simple romaine to accompany.

Guanciale wrapped turkey tenderloin and chicken skin wrapped around a tarragon chicken sausage. I used meat glue and sous vide in the prep of both items. A quick pan fry and finished in the oven. I was going to cook them over the weekend but ran out of steam late yesterday. Served with the usual culprits plus pan charred fresh vidalia onions. Topped with a simple tarragon infused cream sauce.