GeezerGourmet.com seeks to foster a renewed
interest in home culinary arts among experienced home cooks
The GeezerGourmet (brief bio)
caters to clientele who have life-long experiences in home
cooking and now, as empty nesters and retirees, have the time
to renew their love of good food and its preparation.
The Geezer Gourmet assumes that you routinely cook for one
or two people; eat out quite often; still like to entertain
and are experienced at it; have adequately equipped kitchens;
and enjoy life and good health.
If you have some of the above attributes but are not a
geezer nor even approaching pre-geezerhood, thank God for
that, press on regardless, and welcome.
This is not a Website for food phobics or wellness hypochondriacs
Salmon Filet in Beer
Fresh farm raised salmon filets are not all that expensive,
especially if you find them in a big box grocery outlet.
Whenever I go to Costco, I get a nice small salmon filet
for about $12US. Eating alone, I saute half of it in EVOO
and serve it with clarified butter infused with a few washed
capors, maybe. The next morning, I smoke the rest with the
stove top smoker and eat it
with crackers as an appetizer or put it together with salsa
as a salad. This time around however, the sauteed salmon
was so good I decided not to smoke the rest but make another
dinner out of it.
But how not to reprise yesterday's repast? Easy! Poach
it in beer. Fill a saute pan with two bottles of a good
hearty beer and poach the salmon filet until done--about
two minutes a side. (Carbonated beer wants to foam up and
boil over, so watch for that.) Then remove it to a heated
plate and season it with salt and pepper. I had the fish
with French fried sweet potatoes, made by the Alexis people
and a ginger wasabi sauce out of a bottle from somewhere
in the fridge. Quick, simple, delicious.
Some Sous Vide Numbers
Over the last few months, I have put my sous vide to some
use. Making good food. In all events, I have placed a product
in a vacuum bag, added seasonings and butter, sealed them
with the Food Saver vacuum
machine and then placed them in the fridge until ready.
I have kept a record of the temperatures and times, since
sous vide books are fine but real cooking yields real numbers.
Here is what I have so far:
- I've done a lot of lamb chops--usually two in a bag
but as many as six. I am now confident that a water temp
of 144°F and an immersion time of 55 minutes yields
chops at a perfect pink 137°F. Every time!
- One guest wanted lamb chops well done, so 165°F
for 60 minutes produced two nice moist chops well done
without a trace of redness.
- A two inch thick choice sirloin at 135°F for 46
minutes yields a rare steak at 129°F.
- Boneless veal shank (two pieces glued together) took
four hours at 185°F to become tender and flaky.
- A one inch thick prime veal chop at 140°F for 50
minutes comes out rare at 126°F (Christmas day dinner).
- A 7 ounce filet of halibut was unbagged with a nice
core temp of 125°F after 27 minutes at a water temp
of 132°.
- Four cleaned and halved leeks, seasoned with herbes
de Provence and butter, came out tender but not falling
apart after 50 minutes in 185°F water.
In general, premium cuts of meat, done sous vide, need
a water temp about 5% higher than the desired core temperature
of the meat, when cooked for 50 minutes. Tough meats like
veal or lamb shanks take a long time. Hearty veggies need
a temperature of about 185°F for 50 minutes. All the
meat products, when removed from their bag,were browned
in a hot iron skillet with their sauces added at the last
minute or heated aside.
Coconut Clouds (rev)

I've always been fond of coconut macaroon snowballs. We
bought some at the Williamsburg farmers' market awhile back
but I couldn't finish a whole one. It was just too sweet
and heavy. Maybe they were made with sweetened coconut (since
the unsweetened variety is hard to find). Whatever. . .
So here we have something lighter made with Italian meringue:
Coconut Clouds (rev)
Yield: about 30 cookies
See Abbreviations, if needed
1.25 C sugar
3/4 C water
3 egg whites (ambient)
8 oz unsweetened finely grated coconut
1 oz unsweetened coconut flakes (for garnish)
------------------------------------------------
1. Preheat oven to 325°F and prep sheet pans with super
parchment paper or silicone pads
2. Place sugar and water in sauce pan, heat slowly and stir
gently until sugar is dissolved
3. Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites in a stand mixer until
stiff peaks form
4. Once the eggs whites are ready (and not before), quickly
turn up the heat on the sugar water to high and bring it
to 235°F
5. Set the mixer to high rotation and then carefully pour
in the hot sugar mix (don't splash it onto the rotating
whisk)
6. Continue to whisk at high speed until the meringue has
cooled to near-ambient
7. Slow the mixer and pour in the coconut and mix briefly
8. Use a kitchen table spoon and tap-drop batter onto the
sheet pan about 2 inches apart. Insert a few flakes of coconut
into the top of each cookie for texture and color
9. Bake about 12 minutes until the cookies appear firm enough
to be lifted off the pan without breaking up
10. Let cookies cool for about 4 minutes, then transfer
them to a rack using a wetted spatula
Note: Thanks to Ruth Reichl and The
Gourmet Cookbook for inspiration.
A New Cookie Paradigm?
When is a cookie done?
In school we were instructed
to look for a trace of browning around the edge of the cookie.
Corriher says the same thing.
Reichl says 'until golden.'
I'm now convinced that waiting for evidence of browning
results in an over baked cookie: one that dries when
cooled and gets hard when stored. The 'until golden'
works better for white sugar than brown sugar'd cookies.
The conundrum is compounded in a convection oven, which
shortens baking time by 20%, for sure, and maybe more.
Which also means that the time to take out the cookies comes
sooner and passes faster.
So . . .
I just baked a batch
of Pantry Cookies and a batch
of my new Nut, Coconut and Health
Bar Cookies. I took them out when they appeared
set. That is, when they were fully shaped, with
a dry surface top and with edges sharply defined and not
clinging to the silicone pad. No evidence of browning.
The result: moist, chewy cookies!
This is heavy...but
a change is required on all my cookie recipes. Got
to do it.
|