Grassfed Beef Short Ribs braised in porcini, szechuan peppercorns, & rosemary

Playing with the incomparable szechuan peppercorn here, worked very nicely with rosemary and porcini adding a citrus and slightly sharp bite to the Italian flavors here.

From 2009-12-29

Tenderloin Head Roast Sous Vide with Truffled Home Fries

Pulled out the new infrared thermometer to sous vide the head roast in garlic, French thyme, rosemary, and shallots. Cooked for 2 hours at 150F, finished under the broiler for 10 minutes after resting the meat to just above room temp. The home fries were dry roasted yukon gold slices, flipped after 15 minutes at 450F, then finished for 10 more minutes. The finishing salt was a hand harvested pink sea salt and the finishing oil was black truffle infused.

From 2009-12-26

Christmas Menu 2009

* Beef Tenderloin sous vide in marjoram, garlic, white onion and manzanillo olive oil
* Potatoes Anna
* Roasted Asparagus with Black Truffle Oil
* Ridge Lytton Springs single vineyard Zinfandel 2006

Turkey Legs on Christmas Eve

From 2009-12-24

Raw Cheddar and Cayenne Mac & Cheese

Just a simple reinterpretation on mac and cheese. The cheddar was raw milk sharp cheddar from Organic Valley, melted in a Longmont Dairy milk base with a splash of sherry vinegar, 1/2 a cup of fresh organic tomatoes, a teaspoon of cayenne chile powder, and sea salt.

From 2009-11-29

Roasted Leeks in Smashed Potatoes

Killer flavor combo - totally overshadowing the rather good braised short ribs in red wine and demi glace. The choppted leeks were quarted, sliced to 1/4" and roasted at 450F in a little salt and olive oil. These were incorporated into mashed potatoes with a touch of half and half, sea salt, and white pepper. Roasted leeks rule! Epic steakhouse dish waiting to happen here...

From 2009-11-15

Spinach, Balsamico & Pancetta

Steamed the spinach, crisped the pancetta, reduced some balsamic vinegar by 1/2 with the pancetta drippings, 3 twists of black pepper and a dash of salt.

From 2009-11-15

Hot Sauce Braised Pork Butt with Kalamata Tapenade

Making the most of good food, served the second time, is a goal of mine. Leftovers is the wrong word here, proximal reinterpretations might be a better one. Had the most amazing hot sauce at our friends wedding in the fall. Quizzed the catering chef and found out that this was a butter mounted Louisiana hot sauce of his own design. I asked for the leftover and they gave me a quart of the nectar.

From 2009-10-25

The next day, straight-away to whole foods for some all natural pork butt. Cut into 2" thick ribs of meat, the pork was braised in the hot sauce at 200F for 4 hours. This was served with the tapenade as a fatty and briney way to cut the heat. Very interesting and soon to be repeated flavor theme, the heat was met with unctuous salty goodness, a meal that was quickly devoured.

What a long strange trip it has been ...

Too much, too fast this autumn. Anyway, I have been cooking and I hope you're all still hungry out there. Happy 2010, forthcoming are some recent experiments, food adventures from the Foodbuzz 2009 Festival, and the occasional indulgence in noteworthy wines and craft beers - with a set of new drum sieves, a commercial grade infrared thermometer, several amazing finishing salts, and a new can opener with now sharp edge ... I'm kinda-gadgety, kinda-finicky, kinda-particular, and alway kindageeky ... moreover, I'm back.

Hatch Chile Corn Chowder

Just a little corn chowder, this time with 5 of 10 spicy hatch chiles. The sausage is a sweet Italian fennel sausage.

From 2009-10-19