Gougere Sandwiches

 These are 2 words that don't often go together. We had a Covid-19 post vaccination celebration recently. The eppaetiver dish were small gougeres (about 2" in diameter). Gougeres are choux paste, cheesey puffs that are a dish from Burgundy. And, by the way, they go really well with white wines from the region.

I had made around 20 of these little delights, so of course there were left overs. Knowing that they go stale quickly, it became quite a dilemma as to what to do. And then it occurred to me, that they would make great sandwiches - small bites, obviously. But nonetheless, open them up, put some filling in them, reheat in the microwave for 15 seconds (if you want them warm), and voila, delicious sandwiches. - albeit small, so one has to eat a few.

Ingredients - Gougere

4 Fl oz water (1/2 cup in the USA)

4 oz butter (1 stick in the USA)  + butter for greasing baking sheet, unless using parchment

1 tsp Kosher salt

1 Cup bread flour

4 eggs, beaten

7 oz. Gruyere cheese (divided use)

1/2 tsp. Dry mustard 

1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

A few grinds of black pepper

Method - Gougere

Melt the butter very slowly in a saucier. When the butter is almost melted, add the water, and bring the mixture to the boil. Once the water is boiling, immediately dump all the flour and the salt into it, and beat with a wooden spoon until the flour/water/butter become a cohesive mass. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until there is a white, floury film on the bottom of the pan. This will probably take at least a minute.

Transfer the flour to the bowl of a mixer, and allow to cool until the temperature is below 165F. This is to make sure that the eggs don't scramble wehen they are added. Add the eggs a little at a time.  Beat each egg in thoroughly before the next addition.

Grate 4 oz of the cheese coarsely, and the other 3 oz finely. Add the mustard, pepper and nutmeg to the coarsely grated cheese. 

Once the eggs have been incorporated, incorporate the cheese/mustard/nutmeg/pepper mixture into the dough, and mix thoroughly.

The dough can rest in this state for at least a couple of hours.

When you are ready to bake, heat the oven to 425f allowing at least 20 minutes of preheating.

Form the dough into 1" balls, and roll them in the finely grated cheese. Arrange them on a prepared baking sheet, flatten them slightly, and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 - 20 minutes - until golden brown.

When they come out of the oven, slit the sides of each pastry to allow steam to escape. They will have puffed and spread out a bit, so will be quite light. You don't want them soggy.

Sandwiches

If   you are fortunate enough to have leftovers, then store them in a plastic bag - after they have cooled. To make sandwiches, using these as the wrapper (instead of bread, croissants, etc.) fill them  with whatever sandwich filling you want. You do want to make sure that there is a small omount of a spread of some kind, otherwise they can be a bit dry. We filled ours with a leek/tomato saute, some leftver roast lamb. 30 seconds in the microwave and they are delicious.

Sous-Vide-Que

 I didn't make up this term. It really is a thing. I figured it would be fun to try. I really like BBQ, especially the king if Texas BBQ, brisket. I am used to starting briskets late at night, leaving them in the smoker for 12-15 hours depending on size, thickness, etc. I am able to keep te smoking going because I use a Primo, the US brand of kamado style "grill". So proper BBQ pitmasters will look down their noses at a charcoal based, wood enhanced smoking apparatus, I can produce pretty decent BBQ quite consistently - without having yet another piece of equipment.

But I digree.

The Sous-Vide-Que technique changes the norms considerably. First off, the initial cooking is done low and slow sous-vide in a water bath.

And after a prodigious amount of time in the circulator, it is chilled (in my case for almost a week still in its bag, in the fridge) and then smoked at 275f until the internal temperature is about 150f.

There some surprising bonuses - the liquid remaining in the bag (and there is a lot of it), becomes some of the meatiest beef stock. So a basis for pho perhaps. The process in the circulator is entirely hands off. The ping pong balls here are in place to slow evaporation.

However, even though 150f was recommended to me, I would do it very differently next time. As we can see in the finished product,

 the fat seam is not fully rendeerd. Cleary 150f was too low a temperature. Next time I will multi-temp the circulator. 115 for the first 12 hours and 165 for the remaining 12 hours. Shorter time, higher temperature. The lower temperature is the tenderizing temperature; the higher temperature is the "cooking" temperature.

The other downside for me is that I can't do a whole brisket. So I have to do it it in 2 passes. First the flat and then the point. Surprisingly the flat came out better - but that was, I suspect, because it has less fat in seams inside, so didn't need as much rendering.

Is this recognisable as Texas BBQ? No, not really. Is it good? Yes, but could be a lot better.

Ingredients

1 Whole beef brisket, divided into the point and flat

1 tsp kosher alt per pound of meat

3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper per pound of meat

Method - Part 1, Sous Vide

Season the meat liberally, all over with the salt and pepper. Place the point in a vacuum bag, and the flat in another. Leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably longer.

Set up the circulator at 150f and immerse one of the bags. Note, if you have a big enough container and a powerful enough circulator, you *might* be able to do both at the same time. If not, do them one afer the other, spaced 36 hours apart.

Put some kind of anti-evaporation device on top of the water, and cook for 36 hours at 150f. When done, remove the bag from the circulator, and chill fairly rapidly. If you are going to smoke it immediately, chill in an ice water bath. It needs to go into the smoker cold, otherwise it will dry out.

Method - Part 2, Smoking

Set up your smoker to cook at 275f. Make sure that you have plenty of white smoke coming off it. Meanwhile, slit the bag and collect any meat juices - there will be a lot. Reserve these for pho, a pan sauce or something. Don't throw them out. There is masses of flavor.

Put the meat into the smoker and smoke until the internal temperature is 145 or so. I had been advised not to let the meat temperature rise above the temperature of the circulator. I am not convinced by that advice.