btbyrd

There are times I wish I baked or made pizza. This is one of those times.

Grilled skirt steak with sesame ginger scallion noodles.

It's sauce.

I use a wooden spatula or a Foley fork.

This was apparently done in the name of sustainability. Know what's not sustainable? $300 3-star 10-course dinners. This makes no sense. I think it's a fun idea for a pop-up or for a long-ish change (like a quarter of a year like Next in Chicago). But for a restaurant of this caliber to pivot to full-time vegan for sustainability reasons is laughable. There's nothing sustainable about that extravagant style of dining. And for the record, I've had some wonderful vegan meals so it's not like I'm against fully plant-based cuisine. But if I was in the mood for something like that in NYC, I'd rather spend my money at Dirt Candy.

It's an old school steakhouse thing (e.g, Peter Luger's) typically done on cuts that are big/thick enough to be shared (which this was, even though I was the only person eating it). It also helps distribute the sauce evenly. And it lets you eat the meat from the rib bone whenever you please instead of waiting until the end.

Found two tomahawk pork chops from Niman Ranch on markdown. Pre-seared on the grill. One had a barbecue rub and the other garam masala. The BBQ one went in the bag alone, while the masala was cooked with spiced yogurt and jarred tikka masala sauce. Haven’t had the second one yet, but the bbq one was great with a honey glaze.

Grilled chicken nachos in my Darto No. 34.

DHL is spooky fast. A few days from Argentina to the US. Same with knives I've ordered from Australia and Japan (though all of this was pre-pandemic).

I store mine in a shrine.

Cobb salad. Cornbread on the side.

The peas are quite nice, but I'm with you on the rice.

Beans and cornbread (and greens). Jalapeño cheddar cornbread with local cornmeal from The Old Mill at Guilford. Anson Mills sea island red peas cooked in ham stock. Collards cooked the same.

I wish those little keychain pans were magnetic.

I ordered some like three days after it went on sale. But it's still probably 6-7 weeks out. Will report back once I've had the chance. But if your only exposure to this pasta is from the celebrity blogosphere, I highly recommend listening to Dan Pashman's podcast (The Sporkful) about the development process that went into making this pasta. It's quite the journey. Here's a link to the first episode of the 5-part series.

Celebrating my second dose of Pfizer with yakitori al fresco. Joyce Farms poulet rouge. One breast, two thighs, two tendonless tenders, and a liver snack for Rebel. Shio breast with yuzu kosho; shoyu breast with kanzuri ; shishitos. Thigh with onion over donabe rice. Dunked in smoked soy sauce. Kimchi on the side.

Grilled “barbecue” chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I make this at least every other week.

I don't see anything special about these pans. Stainless/carbon/iron pans are metal utensil friendly. If you deglaze any hot pan after cooking protein in it, the fond will come off.

Z noodles aren't really my choice either, but they do serve to lighten up what could otherwise be a quite heavy meal. Pre-nuking is a great idea; I usually pre-salt, drain, and then barely cook them in a very hot pan. I forgot the pre-salt this time, and they got more-than-barely-cooked while I lollygagged cutting herbs. Oh well. I have not tried the gelatin option on the meatballs, as that apparently interferes with browning and browning is a priority. And in this zoodily case, I'm glad I didn't include the gelled broth, as that would have exacerbated my already soupy situation.

Meatballs with red sauce and zucchini noodles. Daniel Gritzer’s Serious Eats meatballs (minus the optional chicken gelatin) with a well-executed red sauce. I did, however, forget the horrendous watery fallout that comes with zucchini noodles. It has been a year or two since I last made them, and forgot the need for special technique (whatever that is). Happily, enough bread can sop up almost all sins.

Time is definitely an issue with SV. You can work around it by cooking strategically, sure, but sometimes you just have to cook something more quickly than lower temps allow. I am a big proponent of cooking in batches at low temps for long times and freezing the surplus, but I only buy corned beef once a year and I don't have unlimited freezer space, so my stores are usually depleted sometime in the fall. This time, I was in a time crunch to make a Reuben kit/gift-bag for a family member who was returning home after a long hospital stay, and I'd already eaten all my frozen 48/140F corned beef from last year. Even the best True Students of SV sometimes need something cooked right-the-****-now. This was one of those times. As for the moisture loss and acceptability, I honestly don't think it mattered for the way that I was preparing it. I slice my corned beef across the grain as thinly as is possible without the use of a deli slicer. If you're going to eat big hunks of corned beef and cabbage, or for some reason like really thick slices on the sandwich, it's probably worth it to go the extra time. But if you like it thinly sliced? And are going to be slathering it with Russian dressing, kraut, and melted cheese? I don't think that the extra time makes for a better product. I'm not even sure it makes for an appreciably different product by the time it's on the plate; my Reuben was as delicious as it always is (and I've always gone 48/140 previously). Of course, I didn't do the Pepsi Challenge and compare them side by side. But the meat was tender and not-at-all-dry. You could have piled it twice as high and still bitten cleanly through it without a struggle (except, perhaps, for the initial discomfort of unhinging your jaw). Even though the brisket was cut from the flat, it was nevertheless on point. Way beyond acceptable. 10/10, would make again.

In my high temp experiment I ended up going for 9 hours at 175F. Definitely had more moisture loss than 48hrs at 140 and had a firmer texture, but for the purposes of making a delicious sandwich, it was a perfectly acceptable time/temp combo. Obligatory Reuben: I also made some pastrami, but it’ll be a few days before I feel able to eat such a sandwich. Need some time to recover from this one!

Reuben time.

Thanks! It's "Chirp" by Lenox.

Should work fine.