Upon perusing the intrawebs, I see that there’s not a lot of recipes for crispy pork belly. After trying my hand at various methods of cooking this cut, I can see why. It seems to be very difficult to get the meat juicy AND crispy…
Yep. It’s Hubs’s birthday. It was actually a few days ago, but everyone came over last night. On the actual day, we had Molly and Kip over (Hub’s sister and brother in law), and they came again last night. They just moved back here and…
Magic wands DO exist. And we call them Sous Vides. I’ve wielded mine without the glitter shower of a fairy, but I feel no less fairy godmother like with my sous vide wand. Last night I made london broil. Yes, from our cow. I didn’t know this, but several of these things come from one whole cow. The point is….I have what I think is too many of these suckers. So I dropped two into the sous vide.
London broil is not necessarily terribly tender. In the past I’ve scored it. I’ve garlic rubbed it. I’ve left it in marinade in the fridge for two days. I got tender beef in two hours in the sous vide without all the fuss and knife work and flipping and dipping of years past. It’s glorious. And it comes out perfect every time. You can pick up a sous vide wand for about a hundred bucks.
Carne asada is pretty straight forward. And it’s beef, so it’s a quick cook. Because it cooks quickly you want to avoid cuts of beef that don’t lend to quick cooking….like any kind of stew beef. Flank or skirt steak is generally used, but I…
This has to be my favorite comfort food. When I’m feeling down, off center, or just needing to feel wrapped in a warm blanket of food love, I don’t think of chicken soup. I’m an onion soup girl. There’s just something solid about the dish…
Rather than give a gift over the holidays to clients, I chose to do a dinner for them all instead. We all collectively decided that after the holidays would be best. We could all breathe before diving into the culinary madness of doing multiple plated courses. It’s a lot of work to create and it’s exhausting to eat.
Yeah, yeah, I know…real world problems. But I’m in a small rural town where every time I ask people to eat this way, they’re making a culinary leap of faith. I’m in burgers and bbq hell out here! Even the Mexican food is watered down. Don’t even get me started on the chile relleno dilemma. If it weren’t for pad thai, there would be no Thai food restaurant. Yes, that’s single. There are three, actually, but only one counts. Ahem. And even they offer Chinese options.
Where was I? Oh right….culinary leaps of faith. Courses here don’t go past three. The appetizer, the main, and the dessert. Beyond that, people get confused. Amuse bouche has to be explained. No, the sorbet is not the dessert. No one can pronounce foie gras. It’s sous vide. Sous what? Ok fine. If bread isn’t served with absolutely everything people get suspicious.
Without further adieu…the thank you dinner in pictures:
Foie Gras with Sauternes carmelized onion, balsamic glaze, and freezed dried Fuji apple
Sous vide poached egg on arugula and radicchio with shaved shallot and radish, smoked applewood duck bacon, and duck fat dressing with truffle mustard
Duck meatlof with a roasted baby yukon potato in duck fat with cherry beef bone broth and wine reduction
Same
Kiwi sorbet
Sous vide filet mignon in shitake cream with pink peppercorns
Same
UPDATE: Pam got a pic of the grilled cheeses! Go Pam! These were Norwegian lobster on cracked wheat sourdough rounds in marinated labneh and comte cheese with a parmesan crust and chives.
50s style Hershey’s chocolate cake made by the lovely Elizabeth
She made two
No one got pictures of the cocktails, but here’s us hard at work
The wonderful owners of Joseph Jane Winery hosted us in their home. Hubs helped, but I was too busy to get pics of him. I’ll edit later if anyone has some with him in there. Thank you to the crew…Hubs, Elizabeth, and Pam! You guys worked so hard! Thanks to Leon and Kayla Glaser for letting us take over their house for a few hours! I think everyone had a great time.
I kept my bones from a beef chuck the other day because I knew I’d have a little down time to make some stock. My secret evil plan was to make french onion soup at some point this week. I didn’t know if I was…
January was always the tightest month for me. It was the recovering from Christmas month. While most folks were nursing hangovers, I was playing a shell game with utility bills. Some Januaries were worse than others in previous years. January was all about my carefully…
You might be surprised by this, but here goes anyway. I’m not a fan of Indian food. There. I said it. I’ve tried! I just couldn’t get past the smell of Indian curry. Or my unfortunate exposure to bugs in any given Indian restaurant. To be fair, I tried three different Indian restaurants. In three different states! I feel justified in my dislike.
But then the Instant Pot happened. That and my spice collection has gotten pretty sophisticated in the past half a decade or so. Hubs and I were pondering what to do with a chuck roast one night. Stew? Boring. Pot roast? Blah. I grabbed my instant pot cook book. Thai curry? Perhaps. And then I saw it. Vindaloo. I ran my hand over the page. Should I try it? What if bugs suddenly appear? That’s ridiculous I told myself.
The recipe said it was spicy. I happen to like spicy and so does Hubs. He protested the long list of ingredients. Pshaw! I have everything on that list! He got to work cutting the bone out and I gathered all the spices. Off we went! I have to say, it was pretty spicy. I couldn’t stop eating it. It’s not very glamorous to look at, but we haven’t stopped talking about it since we made it.
I’ve since gone down a winding path of vindaloo recipes that seems neverending. The book said this was the British version of vindaloo and that makes sense to me now. What’s going to happen?! Will butter chicken be next?! What’s the story with masala?! Why does ghee exhist?! Can tandoori happen without the tandoori oven?! Why are curry leaves green, but the powder is yellow?! Why?! Tune in next week for As My Curry Burns.
This recipe came straight from the book Instant Pot Obsession by Janet A. Zimmerman. I would hug her and love her and call her my squishy if I ever met her in person.
It’s actually not a mystery where the naan vanishes to. I live with men. Mystery solved. I don’t even bother making a single batch. A double batch makes it a day or two longer as a leftover item. This particular batch made it exactly three…