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katace

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  1. Rotus, thanks for the reply! Is butter not a good thing or flavor to use? I usually use duck fat but the steak is finished by butter basting so I thought I'd keep it simple. I've decided to use some of the ideas of Toulouse Lautrec (the artist) and also put pepper and some mustard (horseradish mustard) into the vacuum pack. I think I'll only cook it for around 18 hours. Starting at 60 c but when I go to bed I'll turn that down to 50-ish. I'm not kosher. I do eat butter and since I switched from vegetable oils to saturated fats my cholesterol went way down. Baby carrots sous vide with a bit of butter are wonders (no salt needed here). I no longer use regular salt, only pink, grey and bitter/mineral salts. And I am very careful how I buy any food - I will pay extra to support growers and products I think are good for the environment and health. I actually don't eat that much, I do like to taste. (altho, T-giving was a gut enlarger, ha) As I'm working on a recipe I keep notes. Then when I feel like I have a recipe that I like I type it out and email it to myself. Can print it out later and I have a small stack of them. I just recently started to learn to cook (6 months ago, altho I have always loved to cook but just did it by winging it) and only in the last month have been trying to consciously create recipes. It's what I do to de-stress from work.
  2. I am starting to prepare for a dinner this saturday (I have to travel at the end of the week so I need to prepare way in advance). I ordered and got a 3" thick center cut bone included (not attached) pasture raised, grass fed, beef ribeye steak. I salt brined it, rinsed that off, patted dry, stuck it in the freezer for about an hour then vacuum packed it with a stick of unsalted butter. Today I'll start the sous vide bath. 60 degrees C for 2 days (since it is so thick). Will finish in an iron pan, medium heat and dry to brown it and then butter baste in the pan. Drain the butter out and flip the steak and do the same. I'll do that before guests arrive and then put it in a 135 oven. The Mondrian cake will take several days to cook and prepare. It's my second attempt! BTW that skirt steak looks great!
  3. I'm preparing for an 'artists' dinner with friends who are artists, made by and artist (me) riffing off of an artist's recipes (lautrec), and I started preparing for it tonite. Made the trout and set out to cure. Salt brined then rinsed and dried and slightly froze a 3" thick bone inch bone in rib eye steak and made the first loaf of Mondrian cake (which is yummm). http://www.mindfood.com/recipe/mondrian-cake/ I made this once before but did not have this detailed recipe and sort of winged it with a simple pound cake and no proper kitchen baking pans etc (formed them with tin foil), and figured out the construction method myself without any kitchen aids. And I made the mistake of letting it sit out during dinner so that it got too warm and started to look like an Oldenburg version of Mondrian. But this time I want it to look even better than the SF version (if that is possible - I have an idea how to do that) Ha, dreams. Start to sous vide the steak tomorrow (packed it tonite after salt brining and then rinsing and then patting it dry, and freezing it for an hour - dry in my freezer, not re-salting it and vacuum packing it with a stick of unsalted butter) for at least 72 hours and start other parts of the dinner (planned for this Saturday) in the next few days. Will set the table formal-- I mean formally (ref: game of thrones). Am making chicken consomme (already made the stock which is good tasting) and one diner is vegetarian so I'm practicing some nice recipes that will go with my intended flavor profiles (tomato consomme for example) but do not look like 'meat substitute' looking dishes (because if I was vegetarian, again, I would really not like eating a dish that simply 'looks' like a meat substitute-- and I want the meat eaters to rather envy her specially made dishes, heh) I ordered a new book on the philosophy and history of cooking, and one on creative presentation of dishes. And yet another on flavor profiles. Over all I spend a lot of $$ on a dinner like this, BUT I spend way LESS than if I paid for myself only at a very expensive restaurant for one meal. I do that maybe only once every two years in NYC and PDX and LA. Plus this is way more fun for me as a new cook. The dinner, plus wine and vodka and a $56 port will cost me around $4-500, which for 8 is very reasonable for this food and for this amount of effort. That is only $50-60 per person. Here is my menu: 1st course, cheese course, with cocktails. Ha, the cheese course is at the beginning. 2nd course, at the table, consomme (chicken for the meat eaters, tomato for the veg) served with a champaign (sweet savory tastes). 3rd course, fish course- the trout or a tempeh cake served on a bitter horseradish salad served with a fresh horseradish infused vodka ( just a tiny bit) (bitter cleansing tastes) 4th course, entree: steak; savory tart (bacon cream Laurtrec inspired recipe); a duck confit recipe I am currently trying to work on (order the duck online), but I have my ideas; brussels sprouts recipe (tried this out at T-giving and it was nice; English Salad, inspired by a Lautrec recipe; served with a Chilean Syrah (Kingston Family) and/or a Woodward vineyards 2012 'Artist series' (My painting is on the label of their 'sleeping beauty' which is the title of that painting they bought). (this vintage has just been released see here: https://www.woodwardcanyon.com/drink-hold/) And maybe "Abstract" 2013. (rich meaty tastes and extremely balanced tastes and nose.) 5th course, 'Nuns Fritters' From Lautrec which is a kind of deep fat fried fritter. Served with a nice golden port. (mildly sweet tastes - mostly fat tastes) 6th course Mondrian cake served with decaf coffee. ( vanilla sweet tastes since I infuse the cane sugar with vanilla beans (ordered online) for about at least a month before) Lots of cooking .... lots of de-stressing in my kitchen!! Any comments, critiques would be so welcomed!!
  4. I did sous vide a whole turkey this year. First I quartered it and packed the legs/thighs in separate bags with herbs and some duck fat. Then each breast in its separate bag with herbs and duck fat. Sous vide each at slightly different temps and times. Chilled and put in frig. Re-thermed them in the sink (since it was too much meat for my sous vide container - it was a 23 lb turkey) and finished for 20 minutes in a 500 oven till the skin browned and got crispy. It was great! Evenly and perfectly cooked - every single piece. Now I'm making soup stock.
  5. katace

    Thanksgiving 2014

    I had 14 people for T-giving. I made: Turkey which I had quartered and sous vide cooked 5 days in advance and reheated then browned in a hot oven . Used the backbone and giblets to make stock Turkey gravy made in advance Duck comfit legs made sous vide a month ago then reheated and finished in a deep fat fryer in duck fat Dressing (three kinds of bulk sausage, onions, celery, crimini, toasted walnuts and pecans, dried apricots soaked in grand marnier, herbs, dried challah bread) Mashed potatoes (this is to simply keep the kids over to one side of my small kitchen and let them play with the ricer). Savory tart with cranberry, fennel, gorgonzola Brussels sprouts roasted in duck fat with herbs and bacon Buttermilk biscuits Carrots sous vide. Cranberry sauce made with very little sugar and finished with grand marnier so it was 'hot'. Everything turned out great except that I have not gotten the buttermilk biscuits right yet tho no one complained! Guests brought some very fine wines and then dessert was over at my sister's - one block away. The turkey was perfectly cooked, very evenly cooked with a turkey flavor - not a brine flavor (tho I do dry salt brine it before sous vide cooking it). I used a pink salt and a bitter/mineral salt combo. I feel pretty good about how the flavors in the dishes worked with each other. Plates were brimming. There was even a moment of unintentional silence after we all sat down and I looked up to see everyone looking intently at their food and eating quietly. Luckily that quiet did not last. Ha! I'm new here and I love reading and looking at the pics. You all are great cooks!
  6. Hi epicures! I'm just a home cook, but am an artist and like to de-stress in my kitchen. Recently, I have been making or updating and making, and then riffing off of recipes by the great artist Toulouse Lautrec published as "The Art of Cuisine". He loved to cook for his art friends and then wrote down his recipes in the style of the day - late 1800s. This is a dish I've been trying to 'get good'. I'll put in his, then mine. He does not use any measurements (as in modern measurements), usually no cooking times and often other information. So, as another artist (painter) I don't cook that way either (tho I AM trying to learn how to bake and will make my second attempt at Mondrian cake this week and in that measurements count). Lautrec recipe: Take a dozen trout freshly caught, empty them through the gills, wash and dry them carefully. Stuff the inside of the trout with peppercorns, four cloves and some coarse salt. Arrange the trout in an earthenware terrine which can go into the oven, and moisten to the height of the fish with good wine vinegar and a glass of good white wine. Let them simmer for about twenty minutes; leave the trout in the terrine, bathed in their court bouillon, and take the whole thing to a cool cellar to preserve for at least a month in the sumer and two months in the winter. When you are about to serve, let the trout drain and arrange them on a dish surrounded by rounds of lemon and curled parsley. Each guest should garnish his trout with some good olive oil worked with a pinch of chervil and of finely chopped parsley. This recipe can be used for herring, mackerel, and weever fish, freshly caught. Now for my riff off recipe (this is a work in progress so any comments or suggestions will be so appreciated): take cleaned trout and debone them, cut fins off and heads and tails and cut each trout into two fillets with the skin on. Put the halves of the fish into a wide and deep pan and cover with a mix of champaign vinegar and a nice white pinot. Put in some peppercorns and whole cloves and a bitter/mineral salt. Put the heads and tails in too. Simmer for 15 minutes then take the heads and tails out and put in ~1C duck fat. Keep on a very low flame for another 5 minutes until the duck fat has melted. Cover and cool. The duck fat will form a seal. Keep in the frig (or a cool place) for several days. Thinly slice some red onion and marinate for at least 5 hours in a little oil and vinegar. Drain. Grate some fresh horseradish root and a bit of garlic into some buttermilk. Let it infuse then strain. Mix horseradish garlic buttermilk with some sour cream to make a nice consistency. add pink salt to taste. Shave some fennel and celery. Chop some watercress. Cut some nice small rounds from a few steamed red potatoes. Add softened red onion. Let them sit in some of the horseradish dressing, then drain that. To serve, put the bitter salad out with a bit of the dressing. Lay a piece of the trout onto a pan skin side up, pat dry the skin, and then torch the skin to crisp it. then lay that on the plate too. Finish with a tiny sprinkle of the bitter/mineral salt and a bit of the horseradish sauce on top of the crispy fish. Maybe a fennel frond would look nice. Serve with fresh infused vodka in ice cold tiny glasses.
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