If I only had ONE pan

It would be my 6-quart sauté pan from All-Clad. Apart from making an omelet, this pan can do everything. I find myself using it 70% of the time when one or more burners are on and I own ~20 pans (multiple all-clad, some ceramic coated iron, cast iron, copper, and regualr steel). I bought it 7 years ago as an indulgence when I got my annual bonus, and have never regretted the purchase. Honestly, this pan is probably worth $500 based on how I've abused it. This pan has played a vital role in many amazing meals and just keeps getting better. The stainless steel is easy to clean and the micro-fissures in the metal allow for good browning when needed. The aluminum core gets it plenty hot for all but the most demanding cooking techniques. While I do have a "new favorite" which I'll blog about in the future, if I only had one pan, this would be it.

No More Crying

So for some reason, I'm a total cry baby when it comes to chopping onions or shallots. My wife got me these great goggles, albeit she got the pink ones so she can giggle at me when I wear them. Nonetheless, these little beauties do the job. I've tried all kinds of things to save my eyes, chopping in a specific manner, refrigerating the onions (which I've come to learn does nothing to keep me from crying, but does elevate the sugar levels in the onion to increase caramelization), lighting a candle by the cutting board, etc ... none of which did anything to keep me from tearing up.

These are the googles ...

So I've committed myself to this unitasker, with apologies to Mr. Alton Brown, as it's the only thing that has worked. Their baptism by fire was at the mise en place for Christmas dinner, which entailed finely chopping 20 shallots. I've grabbed them every time since, no crying. They do fog up a bit after 20 shallots, but otherwise no complaints, even if they are pink and I look like a techno raver with an ambiguous sexual orientation.

Sunday Dinner

• Beef Tenderloin Braised in Shallots & Rosemary
• Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Ginger & Cinnamon
• Haricot Verte with Walnut Oil & Sliced Almonds
• Bananas Foster with Vanilla Ice Cream

Had some leftovers from fabricating the 3 whole beef tenderloins from Christmas dinner, so took the roast and filet mignon tips and cooked them up. Seared the filet medallions for my wife's lunch this week and braised the roast with 4 shallots and some cracked rosemary, a little water, sea salt and olive oil at 425 for 30 minutes (130F).

Baked the sweet potatoes at 450 for 40 minutes (fork tender), then peeled and mashed with some fresh pressed ginger, fresh ground cinnamon, and a little butter.

For the green beans, just steamed them and then finished with walnut oil, salt, and sliced plain almonds.

Finally, the bananas foster was made using 3 quartered bananas in butter over high heat, turning once. As they soften add a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, then shut off the burner, add zest of a small orange, a shot of spiced rum, then light (flambe the bananas and caramelize the sugar & butter). Serve over vanilla ice cream (or vanilla frozen rice milk dessert if you have a child with an egg alergy).

Hambone Soup

Something a little off kilter ... on a cold night when your wanting something hearty but nice to the wasteline, here's an idea

• take a 1 lb bone-in ham steak, trim and debone
• place the trimmed fat into a stockpot with a little olive oil and render the fat
• add in a couple chopped garlic cloves and caramelize the bone
• in a separate saute pan, caramelize 3 yellow onions, halved and sliced about 1/8 inch thick
• once the onions are golden & translucent, add in the ham steak (diced)
• add 1 cup vegetable stock to the stockpot once the bone has done its work, reduce by half
• strain the soup base through a sieve, removing the bone, trimmings, and garlic; return the base to the stockpot
  
• once the ham is cooked through and the onions are turning brown, deglaze the pan with 2 cups water, reduce a bit and then combine in the stock pot
• add 2 cups water to the stockpot
• place 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon greek oregon, and 5 cloves into a spice ball or cheese cloth and introduce to the stockpot
• add 2-3 teaspoons smoked sweet paprika, and a teaspoon of salt
• bring to a boil and add 2 cans (drained) of cannellini beans
• add 2 tablespoons brown sugar and simmer for 30-40 minutes, removing the spice ball / cheese cloth after about 20 minutes
  
• adjust paprika and salt to taste
  

The finished soup is hearty, smoky sweet, and guilt-free.

Mixed Grill via Sous Vide

so mixed grill is a cool italian thing where you basically grill up a few different meats and get nibbles from each (lots of different tastes), somewhat similar to what you see at a brazilian restaurant ... any way, it was snowing pretty hard and i got to the store to grocery shop early today ... so i took the inclement weather as an opportunity to play in the kitchen a bit ... the "innovation" test on "The Next Iron Chef" got me thinking about outside the box techniques a bit, so here's what I tackled...

• sous vide sirloin steak with shallots, tellicherry peppercorns, fine herbes & butter
  
• sous vide pork chops with pasilla peppers, ancho chile powder, fresh lime juice, & Himbeergeist (black forest raspberry brandy)
• sous vide filet mignon with garlic, pepper, & Oloroso (semi-sweet spanish sherry)
  

Sous vide (if you don't know) involves cooking at a low temperature in a water bath with all your ingredients in an air tight bag. In this case cooked everything for about 30 minutes at 160F, with the exception of the filet which only cooked for 20 minutes. A remote thermometer helped the task as getting the temperature just right is not easy (can't wait to get that vacuum sealer and immersion circulator someday). Filet was a perfect medium rare and the others
were medium. Finished everything in a pan with 1/3 butter 2/3 grapeseed oil at medium high heat, just to carmelize the exterior. Also finished the filet's sauce by reducing and adding cream, sort of a spanish take on steak au poivre.

Accompanied by a duo of potato, leek, & bacon soup and mushroom
parsley soup. CMS Hedges wine pairing. Hearty and yummy stuff for a snow storm.

Braised Habanero Pork Roast

So this is a good recipe for the time-constrained parents of twins, when you want something different but easy.

• In a large pot, bring 1 quart chicken stock to a boil.
• add 1 coarsely chopped yellow onion
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ancho chile powder
• 4 whole habanero peppers (don't even touch these bad boys)
  
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2-3 lb pork roast (fat side down initially)
  
• cover and braise over high heat for 20-25 minutes turning once
• reduce to medium heat and braise 20-40 minutes longer until medium well, turning occasionally
• remove from heat and rest for 10 minutes before removing the pork to serve
  
• you might be able to do something with the braising liquid, but it's pretty spicy so you'll want to tame it down with something like milk
  

Simply Estupido!

So I'm definitely not alone in my total disgust for the food network show Simply Delicioso. I watched the first episode just to see how bad it would be. I think that episode basically involved Ingrid using pre-cut mango and chopping some tomatoes to make mango salsa and pico de gallo. I instantly thought, great we've found the latin / south beach equivalent of the semi-homemade show and turned it off. Since then I've been almost boycotting the food network (save for the excellent competition showcased on The Next Iron Chef, kudos to Michael Symon, he's got some mad skills with flavors and technique). This morning I stumbled upon Simply Delicioso and I just couldn't change the channel, it was the greatest train wreck excuse of a cooking show I've ever seen ... Ingrid burnt a pork tenderloin then said she was going to user her "thongs", not "tongs" to pull this charcoal out of the roasting pan, covered it in a (get this) cola, pineapple and red wine reduction (huuurrrrrrlll). She also BLENDED some steamed cauliflower with milk, sour cream, adobo sauce and salt and pepper; I presume she was trying to make a puree but when she poured it into a bowl it had the consistency of curdled milk. Somehow, between the blending and the serving, it magically transformed into a proper puree. Finally, she nearly lopped her arm off trying to slice a shallot, cutting it into about 6-8 thick slices, mixed it with some dijon mustard and sherry vinegar and covering some green beans. Wow, what was the point of the chunks of shallots? Obviously you'd want to mince the shallot if it's to have any effect on the flavor of the vinaigrette or simply to avoid having your guests gag on something so disproportionately strong to the beans. I kept staring, is someone actually going to eat this crap? Oh yes, Ingrid was serving Sunday family dinner. Man they must love her to endure this I'm thinking as I eagerly anticipated seeing them consume this with the same morbid fascination as watching Kobayashi choke down 54 hot dogs ... ahh but through some clever editing by food network, while I did see her poor guests put some of this junk in their mouths, none of the guests were actually shown swallowing or spitting anything. Good job Food Network, you might take some heat off of Rachel Ray from people who know anything about food, you've finally found somebody worse than Epically Bad.

Christmas Menu 2007

Here is the menu I cooked for Christmas dinner for a dozen family members. We finished with an insalata mista with hearts of palm (italian style). The classic sauce accompaniment to chateaubriand (classic) is bearnaise. While the bearnaise was good, it actually came in 4th in popularity ... the run-away winner was the crema del jerez which was a total experiment as a distant cousin of doing a basalmic reduction, only with a spanish flair ... 2nd was the salsa verde, and only the wine geeks liked the bordelaise. Pasta Genevieve was a hit! This is a pasta inspired by one of my daughters, earthy but delicate and fragrant ... sort of what I'd imagine a provencial french pasta might be.

Aperitivo Bellini dell'Albicocca
Prosecco, Apricot Nectar, Triple Sec

Pasta Genevieve
Linguine with Portobello Mushrooms
steeped in Soave Classico, Shallots & Fine Herbes
finished with Toasted Walnuts, Rosemary
& Artisan Olive Oil

Chateaubriand Assemblage
Pan Roasts of Beef Tenderloin
on Parsnip Puree
with French, Italian, & Spanish
inspired accompaniments
Sauce Béarnaise with Tasmanian Pepper Berries
Sauce Bordelais
Salsa Verde
Crema Gastrique del Jerez

Here are the recipes...

Pasta Genevieve
– hollow, clean & dry 2-3 lbs portobello mushrooms
– chop mushrooms
– peal & chop shallots (8)
– boil salted water (HUGE pot with pasta insert)
– toast walnuts
– finish walnuts with rosemary & olive oil
– sweat Butter + chopped shallots (10)
– slightly reduce wine (1 bottle) & small amount of champagne vinegar
– steep mushrooms
– add fine herbes & salt
– remove mushrooms & remove sauce from heat
– cook pasta (3+ packages)
– slightly thicken sauce with butter & adjust seasoning
– combine pasta, mushrooms & sauce (warm everything)
– portion pasta & mushrooms
– finish with walnuts & artisan olive oil

Sauce Bordelaise
– chop shallots (3)
– cube bone marrow
– grind tellicherry peppercorns
– heat / reconstitute demi glace
– simmer & reduce red wine (1 bottle), 2-4 sprigs thyme, ground peppercorns, 1 bay leaf & shallots by half to 2/3
– gradually add demi glace (up to equal portion to reduced wine, tasting for flavor & texture), reduce by 1/3
– add 3-4 tablespoons butter
– strain through chinois
– add bone marrow
– finish with chopped parsley

Sauce Bearnaise (note that the tasmanian pepperberries will dye the flavor reduction pink, use tellicherry peppercorns if you want the final sauce to be the classic yellow, the tasmanian route results in some spicy notes)
Flavor Reduction
– grind tasmanian peppercorns
– chop shallots (3)
– remove tarragon leaves from stem
– combine white wine (1 cup), wine vinegar (1 cup), taragon stems, ground peppercorns, & shallots
and reduce by 2/3
– strain flavor reduction through chinois
Sabayon & Final Sauce
– prep a sabayon base using 8 room temperature egg yolks & 1⁄2 cup cold water tablespoons
– heat & rapidly whisk over medium heat, as the sabayon gets close to the right consistency it will suddenly thicken and triple in volume
– add a small amount of the flavor reduction to boost the sabayon's ability to handle enough heat to eliminate possible salmonella
– once the sabayon is at the right consistency, whisk for 5 seconds more over heat to ensure the sabayon will not resume its fluid stage
– remove from heat and whisk for 20 seconds to cool & avoid carry-over heat cooking / curdling
– ladle in clarified butter (~2 1⁄2 cups) while gently stirring (don't overwork the sauce) .. the sauce will become very stiff
– add the flavored reduction until the right flavor & consistency is achieved
– add the leaves of tarragon
– adjust flavoring of the sauce with salt & white pepper, while keeping it above 145 degrees to keep the butter in liquid form

Salsa Verde
– de-stem 2 bunches of parsley
– combine 4-5 tablespoons capers, parsley leaves, anchovy paste, 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic, 1
teaspoon dijon mustard, 1/2- 1 teaspoon horseradish, 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
– stream in 1 cup extra virgin olive oil, careful not to over process (pulsing)
– salt to taste / adjust flavor components (especially vinegar, mustard & horseradish)

Crema Gastrique del Jerez (original)
Sherry Gastrique base
– combine 2 3 cups granulated sugar & 1/4-1/3 cup water
– heat sugar until it caramelizes
– add 2-4 cups sherry vinegar, reduce
– remove from heat
Finished Crema
– mince 2-3 cloves of garlic
– warm garlic with tiny amount of olive oil
– combine sherry gastrique base & hot Spanish paprika
– add splash of oloroso
– adjust flavoring & remove from heat
– whisk mixture into crème fraîche & a splash of cream to desired flavor
– warm & foam mixture using a frother

Parsnip Puree (Classic)
– peel 7lbs parsnips & 3 lbs russet potatoes
– boil the vegetables in salted water
– puree in a food processor
– combine with 1-2 cups hot heavy cream & 4 oz melted butter
– adjust flavor with salt and white pepper
– reserve in a baking dish
– reheat, covered, in a 400F oven for 15-20 minutes