Here is another “bed” recipe. As in “serve as a bed for sauteed fish” or, as in the article below, ratatouille as a bed for soft shell crabs. I saw this salsa recipe in the Washington Post and tried it out only to find it a bit bland. So I changed it. This is a nice fresh salsa. Great as a side with pork or as a bed for fish. Making this salsa requires some knife skills and, as such, would a be a fine recipe to start off a grandchild in the kitchen by learning when to dice and when to chop a product. This salsa needs to rest for about 8 hours in the fridge to mellow out the ingredients.

Cucumber-Orange Salsa

1 —— large cucumber, peeled, cored, quartered lengthwise and then small diced (about 8 ounces)
2 —— large oranges, peeled, segmented with white parts removed then small diced
3T —- spring onion, scallions or shallots, finely diced
30 —- leaves fresh mint, washed-dried then finely chopped
1.5T– EVOO, your best in house
1 —— pinch of salt
2 —— pinches of cayenne pepper

Combine all the ingredients and toss thoroughly. Taste for salt and pepper. Chill for about 8 hours to mellow out the ingredients.

Olive oil is as essential as salt. (There is a good book on salt in the biography.) This is a very good book about olive oil. And especially extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), which until reading this book, I thought was a tried and true product where difference in price equaled difference in quality. How naive.

It turns out that the olive oil industry that has been corrupt for a millennia. And still is. Doctoring good oil with cheap oil and labeling as EVOO is common practice world wide. Worse still, olive oil just north of lamp oil (lampante) is deodorized, degummed, bleached and then sold wholesale as “refined” olive oil where some of it is retailed as EVOO. So, what you see on the labels in the super market ain’t what you get!

Bad oil has all but driven out good EVOO to the remarkable degree, says Mueller, that many consumers, even along the Mediterranean littoral, don’t know the real stuff when they taste it, or worse, find its remarkable flavors off putting. Still, Mueller, assures us that high quality EVOO is out there and widely available. Fine EVOO is produced today not only along the littoral of the Med but in Australia, California, South Africa and Argentina by producers who are passionate about honest EVOO. Mueller takes the reader through history and describes the centrality of olive oil in the lives and commerce of human kind for two millennia. How the stuff is grown, harvested, processed and how those activities have changed through time also makes good reading. It’s a good book and will surely be up for a culinary award next year.

It’s hard to pass up the olive bar at your favorite super market. The selection is too hard to resist with olives green and black, pitted, stuffed or unstuffed along with mini onions, mushrooms and maybe an artichoke heart or two. All swimming in oil. We learn from Tom Mueller, in the book profiled below, that the oil used in the olive bar selections is probably refined olive oil or, at best, low grade EVOO. So here’s what to do:

Having spooned your selections at the olive bar into a deli container, bring them home and dump them all in a colander. Spray wash them thoroughly with luke warm water and put them in a fresh container. Then add a tablespoon or so of your best EVOO. Toss and enjoy. You will taste a big difference. So too, I found about a year ago with capers. I get the big jar from Costco, dump them into the colander, wash off the vinegar, place them into a cleaned jar and then add little water and some rice vinegar. Result: The capors are remarkably less salty. You can actually taste them!

Last month I wrote:

For whatever reasons, Nathan Myhrvold and company’s Modernist Cuisine is getting stiffed by the 2012 James Beard Foundation
Awards. It is only nominated for the Cooking From the Professional Point of View Award. Nothin else. And it may not win that . . .

Outrageous!

The 34th Annual IACP Awards recognized Modernist Cuisine with The Design Award, The Professional Kitchen Award and The Visual Achievements Award.

There is hidden meaning in this, somewhere

Sigh . . .

Well, the James Beard Foundation Awards redeemed itself. It awarded Modernist Cuisine Cookbook of the Year and the Cooking From a Professional Point of View Award. I don’t believe that there are nominees for best cookbook, so I missed that possibility. Good on em: Five awards for this landmark achieivement.

The Wall Street Journal had an article about this stuff. So I got some from The Spice House in Milwaukee–my reliable Internet go-to supplier. Lift the lid and one can smell and almost see the power of this aromatic spice. It is described as a flavor booster. Not many of them around: MSM, garam masala and demi glace come to mind. A library search comes up empty, so fennel pollen is quite new. According to the WSJ, the stuff first came to market as a digestive then into professional kitchens where chefs discovered that it amped up umami flavors–the subtle but deep savory notes. Its flavor combines the licorice of fennel with notes of lemon and honey, according to the WSJ.

The Italians have used fennel pollen for years, in and on all things pork. Veal too, as well as chicken and salmon. Pastry chefs have added it to cookies and breads. Another spice vender says it pairs with lavender and works in yogurt.

Magic? Fairy Dust? Stay tuned as I give it go.

I just put a teaspoon of fennel pollen in a batch of pantry cookies, made this time with raisins, unsalted peanuts and unsweetened coconut. I’ve given a few to friends telling them that I put an “exotic aromatic” in the cookies and to see if they can taste and identify it. For me: the bouquet of anise is very present as well as a faint taste of anise or licorice. It works. Not at all off putting.

Balducci’s is a high end grocer located five minutes from home. They carry top quality produce, meats, fish and cheese, with prices to match. Still I go there–convenience is everything–for fish, produce and cheese. They have a nice deli counter too. Now and then I buy something there, but more often I scan the presentation for ideas. Last week they had a fancy bowl full of spinach and shallots.

“That might work,” sez I to me . . .

So, that evening I wilted some spinach in a pot with a couple tablespoons of chicken broth, sauteed some finely sliced shallots in butter and EVOO and tossed them together with salt and pepper. It worked! They got along fine. I then beer-poached a salmon fillet, from yesterday’s fresh fish buy, and placed it atop the spinach and shallots. Good so far, but it portended blandness. So, I warmed together some Raspberry Wasabi Mustard (made by the Robert Rothschild Farm people), EVOO, rice wine vinegar and pepper as a spicy sauce for the salmon.

It’s a nice dish. Try it, you’ll like it.

Ratatouille is a vegetable stew always comprised of equal portions of these five veggies: tomato, onions, egg plant, zucchini and bell peppers. If not, it ain’t ratatouille, it’s something else.

1. All the veggies are to be diced, not chopped carelessly.

2. Start with the tomatoes (about one per serving): Prepare a small pot of boiling water and another of ice water. Cut a shallow X through the skin in the bottom of each tomato and gently drop them into the boiling water. After fifteen seconds, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and transfer them to the ice bath. When cool enough to handle, peel off the skins. Then cut and dice the tomatoes, bite sized and save the juice. Set aside. (If tomatoes are out of season or otherwise look awful, good canned tomatoes–such as Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes work great, juice and all.)

3. Gather up a bouquet of thyme and parsley (stems too), bay leaves and pepper corns and stuff them all into a sachet (bag) or onto a square of cheese cloth then tied off into a bag. Set aside for next step.

4. Peel and dice the onions. Then in a large heavy pot, sweat the onions to translucent in a generous amount of EVOO. Then add the tomatoes and juice. Add the sachet of spices and simmer the whole mess until the tomatoes soften and look tender. 15 minutes, or so.

5. Peel the egg plant, cut off the ends, stand it upright and cut away about a half inch of rounded side to make a flat surface. Then cut away 1/2 inch thick flat slabs. Dice each slab into cubes 1/2 x 1/2 inch. (Don’t bother to salt the egg plant, beforehand.) Set aside for step 8.

6. Cut the zucchini lengthwise and then cut crosswise pieces about 3/4 inch think. Set aside for step 8.

7. Core and seed the bell peppers (green or red or both) and cut into squares about 3/4 inch in size. Set aside for step 8.

8. Using one or two saute pans and generous amounts of EVOO, saute the egg plant cubes, the zucchini pieces and the bell pepper squares SEPERATELY until each is softened and tender. Season each with a little salt and pepper. (The egg plant will suck up a lot of EVOO.)

9. When each veggie is ready, transfer it to the onion/tomato mixture leaving its EVOO behind.

10. Simmer the ratatouille for about 40 minutes until all is very tender. Add a little water or chicken broth if it gets too dry.

11. Taste frequently along the way and add salt and pepper, as needed.

Note: Ratatouille can be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated. Serve heated or ambient.

For whatever reasons, Nathan Myhrvold and company’s Modernist Cuisine is getting stiffed by the 2012 James Beard Foundation
Awards. It is only nominated for the Cooking From the Professional Point of View Award. Nothin else. It may not win that . . .

Outrageous!

The 34th Annual IACP Awards recognized Modernist Cuisine with The Design Award, The Professional Kitchen Award and The Visual Achievements Award.

There is hidden meaning in this, somewhere.

Sigh . . .

Fingerling potatoes are petite, pricey, tasty and firm. We have here Ruby Crescents, French Fingerlings, Russian Banana and Purple Peruvian–all delightfully weird and perfect for a skin-on potato salad. Read more about these spuds in Schneider’s Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini.

German Potato Salad
See Abbreviations, if needed
I’ve been, of late, constructing salads without mayo: coleslaw for Super Bowl Sunday and now this very tasty potato salad. What with skin-on potatoes , lardons of bacon and cilantro, it’s a winner! Here’s how:

• 2 lbs–fingerling or red potatoes, with skins, cut to bite size
• 8 strips–bacon, cut into 3/4 inch rectangles (“lardons”)
• 1–red onion, diced
• 1t–sugar
• 2T–Dijon mustard
• 3 oz–white wine vinegar
• 1/3–cup cilantro, fresh chopped (or parsley if you can’t stand cilantro)
• S/P–about 8 grinds of pepper and quite a lot of salt: 2 teaspoons, for sure)
———————————————
1. Boil cut potatoes to fork-tender done
2. Reserve ½ cup of the boiling liquid
3. Cut bacon into lardons, fry to crisp then transfer to paper towel
4. Sauté onions in some of the bacon fat to just turning brown—don’t burn
5. Add sugar, WWV and boiling liquid
6. Reduce for a few minutes
7. Transfer the onion mixture to a large bowl
8. Add mustard, salt and ground pepper
9. Add potatoes, bacon lardons and cilantro and toss
10. Taste—it may need more salt. If too dry add a little water
11. Serve warm

This is a family recipe, much modified. It originally called for finishing the ribs on the grill while brushing them with sauce. That doesn’t work since the ribs are falling-off-the-bone-tender when done and can’t be moved from pan to grill without making a wretched mess of it all. Forget the grill. These are braised ribs! Serve a sauce of choice in a heated gravy boat. (Don’t be surprised if quite a few diners won’t want sauce on their braised ribs.)

Ribs: (allow five ribs per person, that is: 2 racks = 26 ribs= dinner for 5)

Two racks of baby back pork ribs

Dry Rub:
1T salt
2T brown sugar
2t dry mustard
2t thyme
1t ginger, fresh grated
½ t cinnamon, fresh grated
1t cayenne

Pan Braising Mixture:
1 large onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick, broken
1T ginger, freshly grated
2C apple cider or apple juice (enough to cover the pan bottom about ¼ inch deep)

Optional Barbecue Sauce: (If you don’t have your own favorite)
½ C brown sugar
1 oz butter, melted
¼ C bourbon
¼ C rice wine or white wine vinegar
2T Dijon mustard
1. Remove silver skin from back of ribs, trim off excess fat and set aside
2. Prepare dry rub by mixing all ingredients together in a small bowl
3. Hand rub the meat side with the dry rub, salt and pepper the skin side of the ribs. Cover and chill for an hour or more
4. Spray or rub sheet pan or roasting pan surface with EVOO
5. Place braising pan mixture (less apple cider) in pan
6. Lay ribs in pan meat side up and then add apple cider (see photo)
7. Cover pan with foil and place in preheated 325F oven
8. Braise ribs for about 2 hours covered and another half hour uncovered, until meat is pulling away from the bones (Allow 2½ hours for this)
9. When ready, cut racks with a sharp knife into two or three bone servings
10. Serve the ribs right out of the braising pan along with a little spooned-on braising liquid and braised onions
11. Serve with a sauce of choice, heated

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.