Vichyssoise

 This is probably not the most traditional vichssoise you will ever have, but it was pretty good! We served about 1/2 of it to a partof 6 and the rest we just dipped into as and when we felt like it. The major differences are:

• No onions - just leeks
• 1/2 chicken stock and 1/2 water
• Crunchy salt and chives to decorate

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs leeks - white and light green parts only. Washed and cut into small pieces

2 Tbs butter

3 lbs russet potatoes cubed into 3/4 inch pieces

20 oz  chicken stock (we used home made, concentrated)

20 oz water

1/2 t ghost pepper vodka (home made)

Salt

White pepper

12 oz whipping cream

Finely chooped chives

Sea salt crustals to finish

Method

Split the leeks lengthwise and chop across the grain into a salad spinner bowl. Fill the salad spinner with water and swirl. Lift the leeks out. Discard the water and repeat. This is a handy techniquefor getting all of the grit out of the leeks.

Melt the butter in a large pot, and add the leeks and a generous pinch of salt. Cook gently for about 15 minutes withot letting them brown.

Add the potatoes, stock mixture, white pepper, ghost pepper vodka. Bring to a simmer, cover,  and simmer until the potatoes are cooked (about 12 minutes). Note, the iquid should just cover the potatoes

Blend with an immersion blender until very smooth. Adjust the seasoning, rememberig that you will also be using sea salt when serving. Chill the soup and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Just befor seving, stir in the heavy cream. Serve in small bowls with chopped chives and sea salt crystals.

We served this with an Oregaon Pinot noir.

Leeks, mushrooms, asparagus

I suppose this is one of those dishes where an exotic name (preferably in an obscure language) is appropriate. But I decided just to be prosaic. It's more one of those, "What do we have lying around?" kinds of dishes. It turned out well, and got the "We can serve this to people" accolade.
To get the asparagus to behave, I cooked the stem ends for a minute before adding the tips.

Ingredients

2T Unsalted butter

3 leeks, white and light green parts, rinsed, and chopped finely

6 oz mushrooms, sliced (We had some white and some cremini, so used both)

1 minced jalapeno pepper

12 oz fresh asparagus cut into 2" lengths

2 T Port (I would have preferred a medium dry sherry, but port was what I could find)

2T water

2 dozen cherry tomatoes, halved

salt/pepper to taste

Sea salt to sprinkle for extra crunch

Method

Melt the butter over low heat in a large skillet. Add the leeks and sweat them (adding a little salt) for 4 or 5 minutes, taking care not to brown them. Move the leeks to the edge of the pan, and place the mushrooms in the center, turning up the heat a bit. Cook the mushrooms until they have driven off most of their moisture. Combine the leeks and mushrooms, add the port and the asparagus stalks. Put the lid on the pan and steam gently for a minute or so. Add the water and the asparagus tips, steam for a further 2 minutes with the lid on the pan.

Turn off the heat and immediately add the cherry tomatoes. Stir to combine and serve.

We had this as a main course, but it would make an excellent side dish, perhaps in a warm salad, or as a bruschetta on grilled baguette slices. 

Mushroom soup

This month's issue of Fine Cooking had a terrific looking recipe for mushroom soup. However I didn't completely remember the ingredients when I went shopping. No matter, what came out was another "We can serve this to people" accolade from Madame.
What did I do wrong? I was convinced that the recipe said to use dashi - that stock used in Japanese cooking, made from kombu (kelp) and dried bonito flakes. After all, there would be lots of umami resulting from this. I thought it would be interesting to make my own dashi, so I followed Alton Brown's recipe for that.
The recipe actually called for chicken stock. Never mind! I also used more mushrooms than the recipe called for. I did follow the technique carefully - because it seemed unusual to me. I am glad that I did because the result was outstanding.

Ingredients

4t unsalted butter (divided use)

1T olive oil

1t whole cumin seeds

1/2 lb white mushrooms, coarsely chopped

1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, coarsely chopped

6oz oyster mushrooms, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup Negro Modelo beer (or other dark/brown beer)

3 large leeks, white and light green parts only, sliced into thin rounds

2 cloves garlic, minced. 

2 cups dashi + 2 cups water warmed to a low simmer

2 t habanero vodka or other hot sauce

1/4 cup heavy cream

salt/pepper to taste

Torn cilantro leaves as garnish

1/2 t sherry vinegar per serving

Method - and this is where Fine Cooking really shone

Melt 2 t of the butter + the oil in a 6qt pot on low/medium heat. I used the trusty Le Creuset for this and it worked well. When the butter is melted, add the cumin and cook until they brown a little. They should start to become fragrant and nutty. Take care not to burn the butter. 

Add all the mushrooms, turning the meat up to medium high. Cook the mushrooms until they become quite dry. The recipe said 8 - 10 minutes. Mine was more like 12 minutes.

Add the beer and continue to cook until dry.

Add the remaining butter and the leeks, cooking the leaks until soft. when the leeks are soft, add the garlic and cook a while longer - until the garlic is fragrant.

Turn the heat off and add the dashi and hot sauce. Stir and blend (taking care to put a kitchen towel over the blender goblet)  in batches until silky smooth and thick. Return the blended mixture to the original (but now cleaned) pot. Stir in the cream. Over low heat, bring the mixture up to a slow simmer. Adjust the seasoning.

Serve in warmed soup bowls with some drops of sherry vinegar and a few cilantro leaves on top.

Vegetable casserole (again)

With my new dietary requirements, vegetables playe a much larger part than even before. So we have taken to making a lot of vegetarian dishes. This one is a very pretty casserole with sweet potatoes, leeks, mushrooms, cauliflower, and tomatoes. The trouble with these kinds of casseroles is that the vegetation all cooks at different rates and releases liquids unpredictably. Soggy, tasteless liquid in the bottom of a casserole full of improperly cooked piece parts. Yuk. So this was our attempt to fix that. It got the, "we can serve this to people" accolade, so it must have worked! The saucy flavoring was made from a bechamel - a bit thicker than normal, but plenty tasty. And of course there was cheese - after all cauliflower and cheese are a great combo.

Ingredients - Vegetables

4T vegetable oil

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed - 1/2" cubes

3 leeks (white and light green, rinsed and shopped fine)

6 large carrots, scrubbed and sliced into 1/2" pieces

1 head of cauliflower

12 cherry tomatoes

1oz unsalted butter

8 oz mushrooms, roughly chopped and microwaved to extract liquid

1 Recipe cheese sauce (below)

6 T breadcrumbs

salt/pepper - to taste

Method - Vegetables

Pre-heat the milk/onion/cove misxture as described in the cheese sauce.

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Oil a large casserole dish, stir in the sweet potatoes and carrots. Place in the casserole dish in the oven. After about 10 minutes add the leeks and toss together to coat. Leave to cook/dry in the oven for about 35 minutes. 

After 35 minutes, slice the cauliflower (florets only), and toss lightly in oil. Nest the tomatoes in among the vegetables, turn up the oven temperature to 425, sprinkle salt/pepper onto the vegetables. Replace the casserole into the oven. Chop the mushrooms roughly, and put in a microwave safe bow with the butter. Microwave on high for 4-5 minutes. Spoon out the mushrooms (leaving any liquid behind) into the casserole and return to the oven. Start making the cheese sauce (based on a bechamel sauce). As soon as the cheese sauce is made, pour over the vegetables, spread out the sauce, top with breadcrumbs and return to the hot oven for 25-30 minutes.

Remove from the oven when the breadcrumbs are brown and crunchy. Allow to stand for 15 minutes before serving - perhaps with crusty bread....

Ingredients - Cheese Sauce

1 Medium onion, peeled and left whole
24 cloves
1 US Quart whole milk
2oz unsalted butter
3oz All purpose flour
1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg
12 oz grated cheddar cheese

Method - Cheese sauce
Put milk, onion in a saucepan and heat slowly until bubbles form on the surface. Turn heat off, cover and leave to steep for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, melt the butter over medium heat, and when foaming has stopped, add the flour and cook, stirring vigorously for 3 minutes to cook out the floury taste and make a blonde roux. Do not let the butter flour mixture brown.
Strain the hot milk mixture into the roux while whisking constantly to ensure no lumps. Discard the onion from the strainer. Add the nutmeg.
Bring the roux/milk mixture slowly to the boil allowing it to thicken. Boil gently for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Off heat, add the grated cheese and stir in thoroughly.

Oxtails

We have a rather inventive dinner coming up. It's called "a day in dinner", where each course comes from a different meal/time of day. The course corresponding to dinner is a sous-vide oxtail. On the night it will be served with celeriac puree and bitter greens. I did think it might be a good idea to try it out before actually serving it - especially as it takes 3 days to cook. Like many things sous vide, it is pretty straightforward - as long as someone gives you a clue. I wanted some 5-spice flavorings on this - they go so well with the richness of the oxtails, but how much?
Ingredients
2 t Szechuan peppercorns
1 t whole cloves
1 t pink peppercorns
4 whole star anise
1" piece of cinnamon
2 t salt
1T vegetable oil
2 lb oxtail (1 whole oxtail  of variable size)
3 leeks chopped roughly
1T vegetable oil
6 oz linguine
Method
Toast the Szechuan pepper, cloves and pink peppercorns in a hot skillet until fragrant. Allow to cool. Grind finely together with the star anise and cinnamon. Sieve the ground spices into the 1T of vegetable oil. Add the salt. Coat the oxtails in the oil/spice/salt mixture and double seal in a vacuum bag. Cook at 55C for 24hrs in the circulator, and a further 48 hrs at 70C.

Remove, chill and refrigerate.
Empty the contents of the bag into a saucier and start to reheat, melting the juices. Saute the leeks and when slightly browned, add the pan juices, stirring to combine.

Cook the pasta. About 5 minutes before the pasta is cooked, sear the oxtails on a hot skillet. Serve the oxtails over the pasta with the leek/sauce drizzled around.

The spicing was just right - cutting through the richness of the meat nicely. Of course the bottle of M. Chapoutier Chateau Neuf du Pape 2006 didn't do a lot of harm either!
And, oh yes. This does get the "we can serve this to people" accolade from Madame. Just as well really because we are going to anyway!

Sous Vide Part 1 Chicken Beef Lamb and Pork

In this posting, I am laying out those items I plan to do in the first week or so of the grand sous vide experiment. Madame and I went shopping for:

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Pork ribs
• Lamb chops
• Beef sirloin
• Leeks, peppers, celery

These are going to be turned into:

Chicken:

1. mushrooms, onion, cream, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper
2. onion, fennel, indian spices, salt, pepper
3. ginger, kaffir lime, coconut milk, lemon grass, salt, pepper
4. cumin, coriander, star anise, cinnamon, clove, hot pepper sauce, salt, pepper
5. tarragon, salt and pepper

Pork Ribs

1. home made bbq sauce (ketchup, fish sauce, brown sugar, paprika, molasses, cumin ++)
2. fish sauce, lime (juice and zest) shrimp paste, mirin, palm oil, szechuan peppers
3. apple, calvados, cider vinegar

Lamb chops

1. mint, garlic, salt pepper, trace of grapeseed oil

Sirloin (prime)

1. salt, pink pepper corns, trace of oil

Vegetable Medley

1. leeks, peppers, fennel, carrots, basil,

here's hoping that at least some of these will come out well. The chicken will be set to cook at 65 C. The lamb and the beef at 50C. The pork at 60C. The vegetables at 80C. Since the dishes will be finished later (sauced dishes by reheating, non sauced dishes by searing), the final temperatures should come out properly, and in line with the FDA guidelines in the USA. The vegetables should concentrate their sweetness too, by finishing in the oven.
These dishes will all be frozen, and then brought out as dinners at various times this winter/spring. If I have to travel, then I want to make sure that Madame has tasty/nutritious items.
Subsequent postings will detail the experiments.