Arnabeet (Lebanese "Fried" Cauliflower)

 We had this at a Lebanese themed dinner last week. It was so good that we just had to recreate it. Instead of frying it, we did it in the oven - a rocking hot oven at that.

The home version was (almost) as good as the version we had out. In this posting, I am going to describe what we did, and where we might make an adjustment.

Ingredients

3T Tahini

2T Olive oil

2T Tomato paste (we used a home made smoked pepper/tomato mixture)

1 T smoked paprika

1 t corn starch

1 medium head of cauliflower cut into florets. The larger florets shold be halved, 

Juice of 1 lemon

Small bunch of cilantro

Arils from 1/4 pomegranate

A little more tahini for drizzling

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 500F. I used the fan setting in mine, but realized that I needed to turn it off while the cauliflower was in the oven. 

In a large bowl combine the tahini, olive oil, tomato paste, paprika. Then mix in the corn starch.  

Toss in the cauliflower and work by hand to make sure it is thoroughly coated. This mixture was actually too much for our 1 3/4lb Caulflower. We could have coated 2. That meant that the cauliflower didn't crisp up quite as nicely as w weould have liked, so I suggest that you play a bit with the proportions.

Wrap a sheet pan with aluminum foil - to make for easier clean up. Spread the coated cauliflower onto the pan, grind some pepper over it, and place in the preheated oven. Check for domeness after 15 minutes. If not to your liking (in our case with a little char), put back in the oven for a few more minutes

To serve, pile onto a plate, toss with lemon juice and garnish with minced cilantro and the pomegranate arils. Sprinkle some finishing salt (e.g. Maldon), and serve piping hot. In our case with a Gewurtztraminer.

Leftover Chuck

In this previous post, I described cooking a piece of beef chuck sous vide. We of course ended up with more than we could eat at a single sitting. So what to do next? I could consigne it to freezer bags, freeze it so that it could be dumped three years later, or better still could find creative uses for it.

It became a voyage of discovery with a really good outcome. The other key idea is that if you have hot potatoes, you can dress withem with a flavorfull vinaigrette style dressing, the potatoes absorb the dressing and become really flavorfull. So why not do it with carrots too?

Ingredients

6 Small Yukon Gold potatoes - of roughly even size

6 small (width of your ring finger) unpeeled, but washed carrrots, cut into 1/2" thick rounds 

3 scallions, white and light green parts only, sliced finely

2T Pickled jalapeno peppers

1 Roasted red pepper, sliced into small strips

3T Pine nuts, toasted

8 Grape tomatoes

4 Radishes, quartered

1 Hot pepper ( we used a fish pepper from the garden)

1/4 cup vinaigrette (we made some using a candied tomato, roasted pepper, olive oil base)

1/2 head of butter lettuce, chopped

8 oz cooked beef chuck, sliced very thinly

Method

Microwave the carrots and potatoes on high until they are soft. The carrots took 90 seconds, the potatoes 3 minutes. As soon as they come out of the  microwave, place in a bowl with the vinaigrette. Add the scallions , hot pepper, pickled jalapenos and leave to set.

Meanwhile, warm the meat gently in a saute pan over low heat. You are not cooking it, just making sure that it has a good texture.

Plate the dish by putting lettuce around the inside edge of each bowl, leaving a small well. Into the well  put the potato/carrot mixture into the well. Srinkle some of the toasted pine nuts over the potatoes. Arrange the sliced peppers, radishes and tomatoes over the top. 

Arrange the thinly sliced beef in spokes on top. Drizzle with a little high quality olive oil and sherry vinegar.

Serve with a robust red wine.

Beef Chuck Sous Vide

 Our local meat market had a terrific deal on beef chuck again. This time I wanted to do something a bit different, so decided to use the circulator and cook it sous vide. Whenn cooked for long enough it becomes really tender, and because it has such good, beefy flavor, it ends up delicious. Served with a slightly sweet pan sauce, redolent with shallots and mushrooms, we had a major hit on our hands. The surprise ingredient here was creme de cassis - the French liqueur that is added to white wine to make a kir.

Ingredients

3lb beef chuck roast, trimmed of some of the external fat, and the hard internal fat removed

1T Kosher salt

1T Coarse black pepper

2T Butter

1 Large shallot, minced finely

6 Mushrooms (white or cremini) thinly sliced

1/2 Cup dry, full bodied red wine (we used the Dashe Zinfandel)

1/4 Cup creme de cassis

Method

Trim the meat, pat dry and then coat liberally with salt and pepper. My standard technique here is to put the salt and pepper onto the cutting board and then pat the meat onto it. You get a nice even coating that way.

Bring the water bath up to 115F (46C) in a lrge container with the circulator. Seal the meat in a vacuum bag, using whichever method you prefer. I use a food saver, but I imagine that the displacement method would work well. Immerse the bag into the circulating water. Cover the surface of the water to prevent evaporation - I use ping pong balls.

Leave the meat in the circulator at this temperature for 12 hours (+-). Increase the temperature to 132F (55C) and cook for another at least 12 hours. At this point the met will be medium rare - medium. Definitely evenly pink all the way through when you cut it. Heston Blumental suggests cooking meat slowly below 120F (50C) to allow some of the envymes to work on tenderization. I know that some people have had success cooking the meat at a single temperature for the whole time. I do it this way because it works for me.

When you are ready to finish the dish, you will need to make a pan sauce. Cut the bag open, taking care to preserve the juices - I poured them into a measuring jug. The juices will be quite salty, so no more seasoning will be needed. For this amount of meat, you will get about 1 cup of liquid. It is surprisingly non fatty.

Microwave the sliced mushrooms for 30 or so seconds to drive off some of their moisture. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet and add the shallots. Cook gently until softened, but not browned. Add the microwaved mushrooms and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Add 1/2 of the wine, stir well and evaporate the liquid until the pan is almost dry. Repeat with the rest of the wine. Add the cassis and bring to a simmer, add the reserved beef liquid and bring again to a simmer. The sauce will be a thick enough emulsion that it doesn't need any extra help.

Serving

Slice the meat thinly agains the grain. Plate with a little sauce. We served a salad of butter lettuce, red peppers, grape tomatoes, radishes, left over cooked potatoes that had been warmed  through, pickled jalapenos. With a dressing made from roasted candied tomatoes, olive oil, rice wine vinegar and scallions.

Potstickers

This started innocently enough. I had dinner at a Chinese dumpling house with my friend Dave Gilbert instead of watching the "Presidential" debate. I was left with a hankering for some more. I like them so much. And my favorites are steam fried

As it happened, Madame had found an amazing deal on pork chops - we had some pan fried with an onion/apple side, another time we had some with a smoked paprika dusting - again pan fried but with apple, green beans, almonds garlic on the side. And still we had some left over - about 12 oz as it turned out.

I had also made a very hearty beef stew for a friend who is very ill. So had a chunk of salt pork too. Now all I needed were the wonton (gyoza) skins, kaffir lime, lemon grass, Napa cabbage, hot peppers, soy sauce, sesame oil, sake, ginger, and scallions As it happens all that I had to buy were the skins, scallions and the Napa cabbage. Everything else either grows in the garden or is a pantry staple.

Now I am generally lazy, so I was looking for a way to get everything to the size I wanted. The meat grinder (mincer) attachment to my stand mixer did the trick. Who knew that you could put the various ingredients in, and let it do the work?

Ingredients

2 cups Napa cabbage, shredded, salted and drained

12 oz lean pork cubed

5 oz salt pork, cubed

2 stalks lemon grass, cut into 1 inch lengths

1 1/2" piece of ginger, peeled and cut into small pieces

2 kaffir lime leaves - woody spine reoved

6 scallions - white and light green parts cut into 1/2" pieces

2 hot Thai peppers - minced

A couple of grinds of white pepper

2T toasted Sesame oil

36 Wonton skins

1T neutral oil for frying the dumplings

Method

Pass half of the salt pork through the grinder. Follow with the ginger. Then half of the lean pork. Follow with the lemon grass. Add the rest of the salt pork then the scallions, kaffir lime leaves peppers. Finish with the rest of the lean pork. Doing them in this order means that the meat has the opportunity to push the aromatics through the grinder. Once all the ingredients have passed through the grinder, add the seame oil into the bowl. Mix up the contents until almost pasty. It wants to be quite tightly textured. Break off a small piece of the mixture and microwave on high for 45 seconds (until cooked through). This will allow you to check the seasoning.

Unfortunately I could only find square wonton skins, so had to improvise. 

I placed the wonton skins onto a cutting board. 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling into the center. Brush all the edges with warm water, and fold to look like this

Cover with a damp cloth until they are ready to cook.

To cook them, heat the neutral oil in a skillet until almost smoking. Place the dumlings into the hot pan, flat side down. They will take about a minute to brown. Check the bottom for doneness. When they are suitably brown, put in 3T of water and innediately cover the pan tightly. Steam for 90 seconds, remove the lid and allow the pan to dry out. Then another 3T of water, tight covering and 90 seconds. Remove the lid and evaporate the water. 

Serve immediately with a dippimg sauce.

Ingredients - Dipping Sauce

1/4 Cup soy sauce

3T Mirin

3T Sake

1T Toasted sesame oil

2 Thai chillis finely chopped

The green parts of the scallions from above

Method - Dipping Sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and leave to stand for the flavors to meld.

Ginger Glazed Carrots

 This is a kind of hybrid dish. Glazed carrots can be pretty good (as long as they aren't overly sweet). Ginger goes well with carrots too. So why not use crystallized ginger as the sweetening base for glazed carrots? So we did.

Ingredients

2T Olive oil

1 large (3 oz) or 2 small shallots sliced

2 lbs carrots sliced into rounds about 1/2 inch thick

4T Finely chopped crystallized ginger

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Into a 4 quart (that's what I had handy, it doesn't need to be quite that big) saucepan, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add the shallots and carrots. Saute for a few minutes (about 5, time isn't terribly critical here). Make sure thaough all of the shallots and carrots are coated in oil.

Add enough water to the pan just to cover the carrots. You will be evaporating all the water, so you don't need a lot. Simmer for about 5 minutes with the lid off. The carrots will have started to soften. Turn the heat up, and add the crystallized ginger. Keet the heat high and stir while the water is being driven off. You want the contents to be glossy and almost dry.

Serve to accompany lamb chops, beef or even dark meat chicken.

Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner

We have been doing a lot of virtual wine tastings of late. Each of them takes about an hour, so our standard format is to have some nibbles while the virtual tasting is underway, and leave something unattended in the oven during the tasting itself. Because the duration of the tasting can vary - they are usually an hour, but they have been known to overrun, we want to make sure that the main dish can tolerate a bit longer in the oven than would be ideal.

Also, we don't want a mountain of dishes. It's bad enough having 4 wineglasses per person. Often the tasting will have at least one white or rose wine, and some reds. So, the dish must be versatile enough for that too. Enter chicken legs (thighs and drumsticks). 

Ingredients

3T Olive oil

4 Medium yellow onions (about 3lbs) chopped (not finely diced)

3 Leeks, washed and sliced thinly

2 Fennel bulbs diced to the same size as the onions

8 large carrots (about 3lbs) sliced in medallions of about 1/2 inch thick (15mm)

4 Garlic cloves, thinly sliced.

4 Chicken drumsticks

4 Chicken thighs 

1/2t Baking powder

1T Kosher salt

2 Preserved lemons, finely diced

1 T smoked paprika

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

The vegetables and the chicken will all (eventually) be cooked in the same pan. But the vegtables will take considerably longer, especially once the chicken is on top.

Heat the oven to 350F and make sure that you have a rack on the middle shelf.

In a roasting pan (yeah, I know this is entitled a sheet pan dinner, but the vegetables are really too deep for that) heat the oil, and when shimmering add all of the vegetables. Stir the vegetables until well coated and saute gently until the oven is hot.

When the oven is hot put the vegetable pan into the oven, and then prepare the chicken. The vegetables will stay in the oven about 20 minutes before the chicken goes in.

Pat the chicken dry. Under its skin rub the preserved lemons (making sure that the lemon gets as far back in the joints as possible).

Rub the salt, paprika,  and pepper into the meaty side of the chicken parts. Mix the baking powder into the salt and rub into the skin side. This helps the skin crisp up. Lightly oil the chicken on the skin side.

Leave the chicken to air dry. With one hour to go, nestle the chicken skin side up on top of the vegetables. Return the dish to the oven and enjoy the tasting!

I typically head to the kitchen to take the temperature of the chicken at around 45 minutes into the tasting. If it has reached 170F or so, I simply turn the oven off. The vegetables will be cooked as well, and the dish just stays warm

Serve over rice - again because that's easy, especially if you have a rice cooker. But even if not, it is not much effort. We made saffron rice for this dish, and served on a platter.

Provencal onion tart

 For a virtual wine event a week or so ago, I made several Provencal inspired dishes. The first was the tapenade that I referenced in  previous post. This one is for an onion tart - made with an insane amount of onions. It ends up being a bit focaccia like.

Ingredients (The Dough)

200 gm all purpose flour (depending on humidity, flour, etc. you may need slightly mor)

7 gm active dry yeast 

120 gm tepid (80-85F) water

5gm salt

15 gm extra virgin olive oil

1 large egg

Ingredients (Onion Mixture, and Assembly))

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

6 gm fennel seeds 

1.5Kg yellow (Spanish) onions, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly into half moons

5gm salt

1 TBSP Dijon mustard (I used a tarragon mustard)

100gm finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Method (The dough)

Dissolve the active dry yeast in the water. Leave to stand for 5 minutes. Add the egg, salt and oil to the water and yeast. Mix in the flour and knead for at least 5 minutes, adding extra flour a small amount at a time if you feel it is too sticky.

Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size (1 1/2 to 2 hours).

Method (Onion Mixture)

In a large skillet heat the oil  over medium heat until it shimmers. Toast the fennel seeds for about 30 seconds. Then pile on the onions and salt. Stir continuously for the first 5 minutes until the onions are softened and have begun to reduce. Cover the skillet with a lid leaving a small gap, and reduce heat to low. Every 10 or 15 minutes, stir the onions. After 75 - 90 minutes, they should be a dark brown, sticky consistency.

Method (Assembly and Cooking)

With about 15 minutes to go, turn the oven on (conventional, not fan assisted) to 375F. Place the rack on the lower middle shelf. Spread the dough into a 15" (380 mm) x12" (300 mm)  rectangle in a parchment covered 1/2 sheet pan. Roll the edges of the slightly so there is a border

Spread the Dijon mustard thinly over the dough. Spread the onion mixture and sprinkle the grated cheese over the whole onion mixture.

Bake in the oven  until the crust is golden brown (about 30 minutes, but do make sure that the crust is properly browned. 

It can be served hot or at room temperature. We prefer it at room temperature. So, slide onto a cooling rack, allow to cool for 30 minutes then transfer to a cutting board and cut into small squares with a pizza cutter.

We served it during the tasting with several of the rose wines from Chateau Minuty at the Veritas virtual tasting. It got the "We can serve this to people" accolade. 

Tapenade

 Classic tapenade isn't just about the olives. Capers play a major role too.  The name comes from the Provencal word for capers (tapenas). In the version that I make, the capers get equal billing with the olives. That makes for a tarter version than we often see. But it works pretty well.

Ingredients

1/2 cup non-pareil capers, rinsed and drained

1 cup black olives in brine, rinsed, pitted and chopped

2 anchovy fillets

2 larger cloves of garlic, crushed 

1/3 cup high quality olive oil (you might need a little more if the olives are quite dry)

Method

Place the drained capers into the jar of your blender. Roughly chop the olives with a few quick passes with your chef's knife. This serves 2 purposes. First it finds any pits that were left behind before your blender or teeth do. Second it allows for a shorter time in the blender so the capers don't get overprocessed. Add the anchovies and crushed garlic.

Pulse the mixture for a second or two. Then add the olive oil, and pulse until the desired consistency is reached. Maybe 3 pulses each lasting a second. Depends on the power of your blender.

Spoon out, the mixture and refrigerate - preferably overnight.

Serve with crostini and a nice glass (or several if you aren't driving) of a chilled Provencal rose.

Gazpacho

This is not your standard, boring blended salsa Gazpacho. It has stale bread. It has olive oil. It has a touch of sherry vinegar. Nothing is heated. The trick is to get as much flavor as possible out of raw vegetables, blending them, and then pushing the soup through a fine-meshed strainer.

The idea and techniques come from Serious Eats (where technique rules). However, when you get to the freezing step do make sure that you freeze the vegetables (especially the onion) in a freezer safe bag. Otherwise you end up with a very smelly freezer - the only thing to do then is to defrost and refreeze. Don't ask me how I know this!

Ingredients - these don't need to be terribly precise

2 or 3 slices of stale bread, sliced. We used a homemade sandwich loaf with 80% bread flour 20% whole wheat.

4-5 lbs ripe tomatoes, cored, cut into chunks. We typically use seconds and cut off any ugly/squashed bits.

2 Cucumbers peeled, cored and sliced into chunks

2 Red bell peppers cored and seeded, sliced into chunks

1 Medium red onion, peeled and cut into chunks

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt 

4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

1/2 cup high quality extra virgin olive oil (first cold press, preferably Spanish)

8 tablespoons Sherry vinegar

Method

Tear the bread into chunks into a small bowl. place the chopped vegetables into a large bowl, sprinkling with the salt as you go. Leave the vegetables for 30 minutes to allow the juice to drain. Drain the juice over the bread to soften it. Set this aside, at room temperature, covered.

Gather the vegetables into 2 one gallon freezer bags. Lay the bags flat to even out the vegetables and press the air out. Freeze the vegetables until slightly mushy feeling. Not frozen solid, but not as firm as they were when they went in. If you let them go too long, that's fine - you will just need to let them thaw prior to the next step

Remove the vegetables from the freezer. Transfer liquid from the bottom of the bags over the bread.

Working in batches, place some of the vegetables, bread, olive oil and sherry vinegar into the blender. Blend on high power for at least 60 seconds. Transfer to a fine strainer and strain the pureed soup pushing it through with a metal spoon. There should be very little residue in the strainer, but what is left in the strainer will tend to clog it up. So you will want to clean the strainer between batches.

Chill until you are ready to serve.

Serving

When serving the soup, use chilled bowls, and some garnishes including chives, avocado, grated egg. We often freeze some of the gazpacho in ice cube trays (there go the freezer smells again). This helps keep the soup chilled, although the texture of the frozen pieces is a bit coarse. The ice crystals, are not ideal. Pour a little more olive oil and a few drops of Sherry vinegar onto the soup, and sprinkle some coarse crunch salt.

If you happen to have baguettes or other crusty bread handy, now would be a good time to serve them too. As you can imagine, we did and we did!

Pineapple and Ancho marinade and sauce

This marinade/sauce is part of my summer project - using dried chillies in all sorts of interesting ways. It is adapted from Milk Street's episode on Tcos al Pasteur. Adapted because their recipe uses ancho powder - and I was using whole anchos. The proportions are slightly different too - because I was doint it from memory. It came out really well - I would definitely do it again. And as a by product, any left over sauce can be added to other salsas to give some extra sweetness and earthiness.

Ingredients

4 Ancho chilis

3 Chipotle chilis in adobo with the sauce that clings to them

4 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole

3 tsp whole cumin seads, toasted and then ground

2T Dark brown sugar

2 1/2" thick pineapple rings, cored. If using canned then either use sweetened and omit the sugar or use water based

1/4 cup neutral oil.

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Cut the tops off the anchos and deseed the peppers. Toast them over medium heat in a dry skiller until they become fragrant. Pressing them against tha bottom of the pan so that as much of the surface as possible gets the heat. Make sure you flip them over to get both sides done.

Remove  the peppers from the heat and add the whole cumin seads to toast them lightly too. Grind the anchos and cumin in a spice grinder (or use a pestle and mortar) until you have a fine powder. 

Put all the ingredients into a blender and pulse several times until you have a smooth paste.

Before use as a marinade, add a teaspoon of lime juice.

For use as a sauce, warm it through and add a tablespoon of limejuice and some chopped cilantro.

When in Texas Make Salsa

A very good friend invited me over to sample her loquats. I had no clue what they were, but figured that if they were food related, I would be up fo a challenge. So off I went to try them and pick some to take home. They are sweet little juicj fruits with a touch of bitterness at the back. Now I had them, what to do

I have clearly become acclimatised to Texas - my first thought was a salsa - perhaps to go on corn chips. After all we had some pasilla and ancho chili pepeppers lying around. They are both dries peppers, so needed to be toasted and then rehydrated. Some chipotle, cumin, garlic and the loquats and we might be onto something.

Ingredients

3 cups loquats seeded

3 pasilla chili peppers

1 ancho chili  pepper

2 cloves of garlic

1 t rice wine vinegar (and will add lime juice when serving)

2T neutral oil

1t toasted chili

salt

pepper

Method

Toast the dried chilis in a dry pan, alond with the cumin. When the chilis are fragrant take them out of the pan and cover with water to hydrate. Leave them standing. Meanwhile, grind the cumin, chop the garlic.

Put the garlic, loquats, vinegar, oil, salt and ppepper into a blender. Let the chilis stand in the water for about 15 minutes. Chop then finally and add to the blender along qith 1/4 cup of the water.

Blend on high speed for about 1 minute. You want a smooth texture. You may need to add a little more water.

Chill, spritz with lime huice and serve with tortilla chips.

FauxFu

Madame doesn't care much for Tofu. There are, however, some dishes that just wouldn't be right without it. Especially miso soup..

We were watching a cooking show and she idly said, what else could we use in this porl/miso soup - instead of the dreaded tofu. Well, we had some edd whites lying around, so I thought put them in icecibe trays and microwave them. So I did, and FauxFu was born.

She loved them.

Ingredients

Whites of 6 eggs (after you have used the yolks for something else)

Method 

Mix all the egg whites together until you have a uniform liquid. 1/2 fill each cavity in your ice cube tray with egg white microwave on high for 30 seconds or so - check after 20 seconds to make sure they are not getting cooked too quickly

Using the point of a paring knife, extract the cubes of egg white from the cavities. Use in place of  firm tofu in several recipes

Tomato and Mozz Skewers

At a properly socially distanced driveway party last week a friend had made some delicious skewers with tomatoes, Mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegar. They were so good we had to replicate them and have them all to ourselves.

Ingredients

6 Cherry tomatoes, halved

12 Small Mozzarella balls (Bocconcini) halved

12 Basil leaves torn in half

a few lettuce leaves, torn

Balsamic vinegar (not measured - just for drizzling)

High quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil (not measured - just for drizzling)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Large crystal sea salt or salt flakes (e.g. Maldon)

Method

On a small wooden cocktail skewer thread (in order) 1/2 of a bocconcini, 1/2 of a basil leaf, half of a cherry tomato, the other half of the same basil leaf, the other half of the bocconcini. Repeat for the other 11 skewers.

On a plate lay out the torn lettuce leaves. Place the skewers artistically over the plate. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar and olive oil, grind pepper over the dish and sprinkle with the coarse salt.

Sourdough and Buttermilk biscuits.

We have a lot of sourdough starter here at the birdhouse. So we have to find ways to use the "discard" that which is poured off the starter before a feeding. If we didn't pour it off, the starter would grow uncontrollably.
Looking at the discard, it is about the texture of buttermilk. And it has some tanginess to it too. So, why not try a little substitution. We did, and it got the "we can serve this to people: accolade from Madame, so I knew we were onto something here.

Ingredients

2 Cups All Purpose Four, sifted (I sift all flour out of habit)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup butter, straight from the fridge, cut into 12 or so small pieces. (if salted, reduce the salt in the recipe a little)

3/4 cup "discard"

1/4 cup buttermilk

Method

Preheat the oven to 400F. I am using a fan assist in mine. You *may* need to adjust the temperature up a little if you do not have a fan in yours. Place the rack in the upper middle.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut the butter into the flour mixture. It doesn't have to be like fine breadcrumbs, it is OK to have some bigger pieces of butter. It's like making flaky pastry.

Add the buttermilk and discard, and mix by hand to make a stiff dough.. Don't rinse the measurement container - you will use the remains to brush on the biscuits before cooking.

Wrap the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Especially if it is warm (like it is here in Texas today).

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and shape into a rectangle about 1/2" thick. Using some kind of cutter (a cup, a circular cutter, etc.) cut out the rounds. Don't twist the cutter as that pinches the edges and prevents that nice craggy rise. Since there will be some left over, you can recombine it (and if you feel the butter is beginning to melt, refrigerate again). These will hold their shape less well, but will still be delicious.

Brush the tops of the biscuits with some of the liquid scraped out of the measurement cup you used earlier.

Bake on a parchment covered sheet pan for 9 minutes, take the pan out of the oven, rotate and bake for a further 6 minutes (even if using a fan) - until they are golden brown. 

Sourdough Crackers

In the land of sourdough bread baking, we often find ourselves with excess starter. Because as we feed our starters, they increase in bulk. If we kep doing it proportionally we would end up with a starter that would take over the neighborhood. So the vexing question of what to do with the excess came up. This is a baking case where measuring by volume is perfectly OK. So it is really quick and easy to do.

Ingredients

1 Cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp Kosher salt (more or less to taste)

1 Cup Sourdough starter excess (usually called discard in baking circles)

1/2 a stick of cold butter (2 oz)

Method

Combine the flour and salt thoroughly. Cut the butter into the flour as if you were making pie dough (pastry). Pour in all of the starter and mix with your fingers. Initially it will all clump up on your fingers, but as you work it a bit, it will gradually come together and your fingers will be almost clean.

Divide the dough in half and make a small disk out of each half. Wrap the dough disks individually in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes - an hour is better. 

Preheat the oven to 350F. The shelf should be on the upper middle rack. While the oven is preheating, roll a dough disk out on a piece of parchment paper (greaseproof) sized to fit in a 1/2 sheet pan. The disk should reach almost to the edges of the parchment. Transfer the parchment with the dough on it to the sheet pan. Cut the dough sheet into suitably sized (1" square is good) pieces. Dock each square several times with a fork.

Bake for about 15 minutes - until golden brown. You may want to ratate the pan after 9 minutes - depending on how evenly your oven heats.

Allow to cool on the sheet. Transfer to an airtight container - they will keep for about a week (if they last that long before eating them all!).

After the first batch has baked and cooled, I reuse the parchment for the second disk. But do make sure the sheet pan is cool - otherwise the dough becomes unmanageable.

Coronagroni

This is a cocktail that we came up with during the Covid-19 "social distancing" time in 2020. We had some of the delicious Diplomatico Reserva rum at a tasting event a month or so ago, They had made a Negroni like cocktail with it. We ordered a bottle and played around with it. The result was this delicious cocktail. The tart cherry juice cuts through the sweetness brought by the Cointreau.

Ingredients

1 3/4 oz Diplomatico Reserva rum

1 1/4 oz Dolin Rouge Vermouth

3/4 oz Cointreau

1tsp Tart Cherry Juice

Combine all the ingredients over ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with a twist of Orange peel.

Relax

OTBN 2020

We often participate in the Wall Street Journal "Open That Bottle Night" concept. The primary idea being to dink wine when you feel like it and not save stuff entirely for special occasions. The special occasion is when you want to drink it!

We have a pretty standardized format, although the attendees vary from year to year. Last night there were 11 of us in total. And there were 8 different wines.The lineup can be seen at this link OTBN 2020 Wine Line Up.

Our format is simple. Each "party" - solo or couple brings a wine that is special to them, and a dish to pair with it. We sequence the dishes so that we drink the wines in the right order. We also start with bubbles (this year the cremant de Bourgogne whose bottles are on the ends of the picture. With that we had some cheese straws, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, and goat cheese stuffed piquillos.

Once the event gets under way, we request that guest(s) who brought the next wine in sequence tells us about the wine and the dish. Then we try it, talk about it and generally carry-on. Thus for the 8 wines, there were 7 different dishes (some over achievers brought more than 1 dish.)

First Tasting 

Wine: Simonnet Febvre Grand Cru Chablis 2016

Food: Country pate (pork, duck, chicken liver, pistachio, tart cherry, brandy + aromatics) with a salad of arugula, pink endive, and radish. A little cranberry mustard on the plate and a pecan vinegar/oil dressing.

The wine came from a tasting at a local restaurant (Rapscallion) where I had previously had it paired with Murder Point Gulf oysters. I generally stay away from raw gulf oysters, but the murder points were spectacular.

Second Tasting

Wine: Raventos i Blanc  (2016) A delicate pink sparkling wine - described as being a "refrigerator wine" i.e. left behind by a friend after a very good party.

Food: A simple and delicious tomato pie with a side salad.  Extremely tasty and perfect for the time of the year

Third Tasting

One of the guests was rather over-scheduled. No time to make something. But she did invite a local caterer to make a dish, and it was excellent!

Wine: Stags Leap :Karia" Chardonnay (2017). Chosen because it goes so well with the food

Food: Roasted, stuffed jalapenos with smoked salmon, herbed cheese and a balsamic glaze. Nive because the ribs had been removed from the jalapenos, so not too much heat. But it did make the conversation turn to why some peppers are not spicy and others are, even though they cam from the same bush.

Fourth Tasting

Wine: Domaine du Grand Tinel - Chateau Neuf du Pape (2016)

Food: Some shaved Tete de Moine cheese with Serrano ham

The food comes from The Alps and Spain. The guests chose the CDP because it has enough body to stand up to the cheese. And since the cheese and ham come from such different locations, this wine remained neutral. Neutral geographically. But a terrific expression of CDP wines, 80+% Grenache.

Fifth Tasting

Wine: Vina Bosconia - Rioja 2007

Food: Croquetas and Spanish Tortilla

The Spanish couple brought this beautiful wine from Rioja. They waxed poetic about the wines and beauty of the region. And of course it went perfectly with the croquettas and the tortilla with its tender potato inside layers of egg.

Sixth Tasting

Wine:  Clos du Val Reserve Cabinet Sauvignon 2011

Food: A beef short-rib ragu, with warm spices over a mushroom gnocchi.

This was the wine that got our Oklahoma native friends to become interested in wine. Still lots of tannin and structure. An all round excellent wine and pairing.

Hearing about their wine tasting adventures in general had us all in stitches!

Seventh (and final) Tasting

Wine: Layer Cake 2018 Shiraz

Food: Chocolate mousse cups with raspberries and raspberry coulis

Even though it would be unusual to have a  lighter red wine after the big Cab from Clos du Val, this pairing worked extremely well. The wine cut the sweetness just enough and brought out the quality notes of the chocolate. This was not your Grandma's chocolate mousse!

Tonic water

America's Test Kitchen has an extensive YouTube presence. I was surprised and delighted to find a cocktails section. They had a piece on making your own tonic - so I figured that I would try. The idea is from then, the ratios are my own. Citric acid is often used in canning, so you can find it near the canning jars. Cinchona bark is a specialty item that we ordered from Amazon. It comes in the right sized pieces.

Ingredients

2 oz Cinchona bark

2 Lemon grass stalks, chopped finely

2 Thai lime leaves

Zest of 1 Seville orange

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

32 oz water

small pinch of salt

2 cups of plain white sugar

4 T Citric acid

Method

Combine bark, citrus, Thai lime, salt ina 4 quart saucier. Bring to the boil. Turn heat down, simmer for 40 minutes. Leave to cool for 24 hours. Strain (through cheesecloth and a fine mesh strainer) and add the sugar, and citric acid. Dissolve the sugar and citric acid. Allow to cool. Transfer to a refrigerator safe bowl, cover and chill overnight.

This will keep for several weeks as long as you keep it well covered. 

Cheese Straws

A very easy go to appetizer. They hold together nicely, and look quite pretty arranged as a "bouquet".

Ingredients

5 oz grated sharp Cheddar cheese

2 oz finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano

2 oz cold butter

3/4 cup of All Purpose flour + a small amount extra for dusting

1/4 - 1/2 t kosher salt. Depends on whether your butter was salted or not

A few grinds of black pepper

1/4t finely ground Cayenne Pepper (40,000 Scoville Units)

2 T Greek yogurt

1T milk  (I used 2% or semi skimmed)

Method

Heat the oven to 350F. I grated the cheddar using the crater attachment of the food processor. That left the cheese neatly in the bowl. Add the other cheese, cold butter, flour, cayenne and salt. Pulse several times for 5 seconds per pulse. This until the butter is fully incorprtaed and the mixture looks like fine sand.

Add the Greek yogurt and let run checking consistency. If it does not form a ball at this stage, add 1/2 the milk. Repeat until a ball is formed.

Roll the dough on a floured surface to an 8x10 rectangle (it will be about 1/8" or 3mm thick).

Using a pizza cutter, cut into long strips and place in a parchment lined sheet pan. Bake for 14-17 minutes - until the straws are medium brown and dry to the touch. You may need to rotate the pan.

Cool the straws on a wire rack. They keep quite well for about 3 days.

The easiest cheese souffle

We had some friends over for lunch today. One of whom is French. I wanted an easy dish that takes 40 minutes to cook because we had other things to do for a while. Also something that was likely to appeal to our French friend. When in doubt always look for something by Jacques Pepin. So we did. This is his mother's cheese souffle recipe - one that is absolutely no fuss. I tinkered with it very slightly (adding nutmeg to make a more classic bechamel sauce) and turning the oven down slightly because of the timing constraints, No matter, with a side salad this turned out to be the perfect light lunch.

Ingredients

6 oz. unsalted butter + 1t for greasing the gratin dish

6T all purpose flour

1 US pint of milk

1/2t freshly grated nutmeg

1/2t kosher salt

1/2t freshly ground black pepper

6 large eggs, beaten slightly

6 oz Gruyere, grated

2 oz Parmigiano Reggiano, grated finely

3T minced chives.

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 425F

In a large saucier or other sauce pan, melt the butter and keep on the heat until it stops hissing and crackling. This drives off all of the water - making it easier to add the cold milk without lumps forming.

Once the butter has stopped foaming, whisk in the flour and cook for about a minute to drive off all of the raw flour taste. Add the milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper and whisk to incorporate. Bring to the boil whisking at 1 minute intervals. Allow to bubble for a few seconds while it thickens up, and then let cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile grease the gratin dish with butter, and use half the Parmigiano Reggiano to stick to the bottom/side of the dish.

Incorporate the bechamel sauce gradually into the eggs, whisking after each addition. Go slowly at first - you don't want scrambled eggs. Once the bechamel and eggs are fully mixed, add the chives, salt and pepper. Stir well. Check the seasoning.

Pour the cheese/egg mixture into the prepared gratin dish, and top with the remaining Parmigiano Reggiano.

Bake on the middle oven rack for ~40 minutes - until risen, with a dark, crunchy dome has started to form.

Serve immediately with a side salad.
Thank you M. Pepin for all you do.