Archive for August, 2009

Braised Belgian Endive and Bell Pepper Wrapped in Ham with Sauce

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Braising is a method of cooking a product (usually large, tough cuts of meat or fibrous or strong flavored vegetables), tightly covered, in a small amount of liquid (up to about half the product height), at low heat on the stovetop or in the oven. Braising on the stove top is a nice way to prepare vegetables in that seasonings can be imparted to them during the cooking process that is relatively long and slow—in contrast to steaming or boiling them where seasonings are added later. Readers are all familiar with “glazed carrots,” but celery, celeriac, cabbage, fennel and Belgian endive can be braised with wonderfully tender and seasoned results. A tight fitting lid on the braising pot is essential to minimize evaporation of the braising liquid, which may be water or stock, with or without added herbs and spices.

We’re going to go take another measure to reduce evaporation and intensify the braising process:

TIP: After selecting a braising pot (a pot just big enough with a tight fitting cover), roll out a sheet of parchment paper (or aluminum foil) and pencil-trace the circumference of the lid onto the paper. Scissor-trim the paper just inside the pencil trace. Follow the recipe for assembling the braising ingredients. Fire the pot and bring it to boil. Reduce the heat to low simmer and carefully fit the trimmed sheet of parchment paper down onto the product. That is, push the parchment paper down to contact the meat or veggies. Then spread it out to meet the sides of the pot. (The parchment paper usually wants to curl when damp and hot. Deftly, flip it over and it will behave.) Then put the lid on to close the pot. In effect, the parchment paper now forms an effective seal between the product and all the empty space between it and the pot’s lid. The result is a more intense braise with little or no evaporation of the small amount of liquid used.

Here is the classic braised endive from school but without butter in the braising liquid and with bell pepper strips (for color and contrasting taste) and a pre-fab sauce. This is a great veggie dish that can be done ahead and finished in the oven just before service. Any of the other veggies mentioned above can be substituted for the endive. The braising liquid can be flavored with just about anything that compliments the vegetable—from cilantro to herbes de Provence.

Braised Belgian Endive and Bell Pepper Wrapped in Ham with Sauce
Yield: 2 servings with leftovers
See Abbreviations, if needed

· 3 fresh Belgian endive (medium to smaller heads preferable)
· 1 bell pepper, cut into 3/8-inch strips, seeds and white removed
· 2t sugar
· 1T lemon juice
· S/P to taste
· 6 slices of good deli country ham (smoked OK)
· ½ C hollandaise or béchamel sauce (package OK)
· pinch cayenne
· ½ C shredded cheddar cheese

1. Cut the endive heads lengthwise in half
· Trim out the core at the root end
· Refresh the root but don’t cut it off (until Step 8)
2. Place endives snug into the pot (cut-side up) and fill with water to cover half the endives
3. Place bell pepper strips in between the endives
4. Add S/P, sugar (to reduce bitterness of the endive) and lemon juice (to retain color)
5. Place a fitted sheet of parchment paper over the endive
6. Cover and simmer until endives are tender, about 25 minutes
7. Carefully remove the endive onto a rack to drain and cool
8. Cut and remove the root, freeing the leaves
9. Place a strip or two of bell pepper onto the cut side of each endive
10. Carefully wrap each endive head with a slice of deli ham
11. Place all in a butter-bottomed ovenproof shallow pan (or individual ramekins)
12. Top with a little sauce and shredded cheese
13. Just before service, heat in 325F oven to melt the cheese
Note: Make a nice sauce from scratch if you like but for every night, the dry packaged white sauces by Knorr or McCormick are quick and passably OK. Follow the directions, but cut the butter by one-quarter. A pinch of cayenne or chipotle powder will help these sauces.

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Beef Tenderloin Tips with Green Peppercorn Sauce

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Veal stock, methodically reduced 80%, and skimmed and strained over the better part of two days, yields a brown, jellied, concentrated and brilliant-textured sauce known as demi glace.  In the Cathedral of French Culinary Arts, demi glace has its own alcove—less visited than in years past, but still frequented by the faithful who know and appreciate the mystic powers of demi glace as a mother sauce.

This stuff is expensive to make (Let’s say: one cook, two shifts at $15/hour.)  The good news is that a little goes a long way; it keeps for months in the fridge and forever in the freezer.  The breaking news is that now you can buy an acceptable version of veal demi glace at Williams-Sonoma.  The lingering bad news is that it too is expensive (about $23 for 10 ounces).  I’ve tried it four times now and it compares OK with my own demi glace, which I’ll keep making.

It’s worth the cost if, for years, you’ve longed to try your hand at constructing one of the many classic demi-glace-based French sauces, such as peppercorn, Bordelaise, Roquefort, Robert (mustard), Hunter (tomato/tarragon), orange, various mushroom sauces and others.

Here we use it to make a classic green peppercorn sauce.

Green peppercorns are early-picked black peppercorns.  They are not solid or hard and therefore soften out in the cooking process.  A green peppercorn from the jar gives way easily as you bite down on it, in contrast to a hard black peppercorn.  They are quite mild, giving off heat only in the aftertaste.

Beef Tenderloin Tips with Green Peppercorn Sauce

Yield:  Six servings
Preparation time:  30 minutes
Time to serve:  about 5 minutes
See abbreviations, if needed.
·   1.5 lbs        beef tenderloin
·   some          beef tenderloin scraps
·   ½ stick       butter, clarified
·   3                shallots, diced
·   5 oz            red wine
·   2 oz            cognac
·   2 T             green peppercorns, washed and drained
·   1.5T           demi glace
·   2T              fresh parsley leaves, sliced, for garnish

For the beef:
1.  Cut the beef tenderloin into 1×1 inch cubes, about 6 cubes per serving
2.  In a very hot heavy skillet, sear the beef tips and beef scraps in butter, to blue
(blue = seared nicely on the outside—cool and raw inside)
3.  Remove the beef tips to another heavy skillet and set aside
4.  Continue to sauté the beef scraps to build up more sticky brown mass in the skillet
5.  Remove and discard the scraps
For the sauce:
6.  Over medium-low heat, deglaze the skillet with a little water
7.  Add some butter and sweat the shallots to transparent
8.  Add the wine and reduce
9.  Add drippings from the set-aside beef tips
10.  Off heat, add the cognac
11.  Return to skillet to fire and tip it to ignite the cognac (optional)
12.  Add the peppercorns
13.  Add the demi glace and simmer for 5 minutes before tasting
14.  Adjust seasoning and add a little water if needed for volume
15.  Set sauce skillet aside to await the beef
For the dish: (a la minute):
16.  Heat plates in a warming oven (with the bread and veggies)
17.  Bring sauce to simmer
18.  Taste sauce and adjust seasoning (use only S/P and water at this point)
19.  Fire the beef skillet to medium high, add a little butter and sauté the
beef tips to desired doneness (rare = 120F).  Remove from heat
To plate:
20.  Neatly ladle about 2 ounces of the sauce onto the center of each heated plate
21.  Arrange tenderloin tips over the sauce.  Add garnish
22.  Serve immediately
Notes:
1.  Of course you can substitute six 6-ounce filet magnons for the beef tenderloin tips.
2.  For rather more elegance, strain the sauce to remove the onions and peppercorns.  Then reheat it in a clean pan with a little clarified butter just before serving.  Be advised, you will lose a lot of volume.  So, if you plan to strain the sauce, also plan to make more of it than called for in this recipe.
3.  Françoise Dionot, founder/chef of L’Academie de Cuisine, insists that pouring sauce over a steak is hugely improper.  “The sauce must be ladled onto the center of the plate and the steak then placed on top of the sauce.”  I concur, wholeheartedly.  Besides, one never argued with Françoise.

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Baked Whole Onions

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009


Baking whole onions is easy and can be done ahead of time.

1.  Stand whole onions (skin and all) root side down in a baking pan (Teflon or covered with foil).
2.  If you have some ring molds, stand each the onion inside a ring mold (as shown).  If not,
trim the roots just enough so that they stand upright. (photo two).
3.  Place them in a pre-heated 400F oven for 60 to 75 minutes, until they are fork tender.
4.  Remove from oven and rest in a warm place (holding point).
5.  When ready, slice each onion in half across the root stem (a sharp serrated knife works best),
add some salt and pepper.  As an option, add a dollop of butter and a nice layer of freshly
grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
6.  Return to a hot oven to melt the topping.

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Baked Chilean Sea Bass with Ginger and Cilantro

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

The local newspaper featured a Chilean sea bass recipe from Fine Cooking magazine that had a medley of Asian spices that caught the eye of  The Little Woman.

“OK, I’ll use the seasonings but the rest of the recipe is not to my liking.”  It called for cider vinegar, which I use sparingly; a one inch thick fish fillet, which is not typical; poaching it and serving the poaching liquid as a broth; and using cilantro, which we love, only as a garnish along with a few scallions.  Not.

Since the Chilean sea bass fillets I get from American Seafood are about three inches thick, poaching them to doneness would over-boil the poaching liquid beyond what I would serve as a broth.  There’s a more gentle way.  Bake it in the manner of my Red Snapper Veracruz and serve it over Rice.

Here’s how:
4 T           high quality soy sauce, or 2T of the low salt stuff
1.5-2 Lbs            Chilean sea bass fillet, with skin removed
3-4 C                   chicken stock or canned broth
1/3 C                    honey
4 T                       tomato paste
3 T                       white wine vinegar
12                        thin slices of fresh ginger root (quarter size), diced
4 dashes          Tennessee Sunshine or other hot sauce
3                          scallions, sliced thinly on the bias, white and green parts
1/2 C                   cilantro leaves, diced
1 C           prepared oven baked rice

1.  Place the fish fillet and soy sauce in a pan to marinate in the fridge for an hour
2.  Whisk together in a stainless steel bowl all the other ingredients (except the rice)
3.  Remove fish from the fridge, turn it over in the soy sauce one more time, and
place it in a suitable baking dish (see photo)
4.  Discard the left over soy sauce
5.  Pour the liquid mixture over the fish and into the pan
6.  Nicely arrange some scallion, ginger and cilantro parts on top of the fish
7.  Bake in a 350F oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, uncovered
8.  Check for doneness with a fork (the flakes should part easily) 9.  Serve in heated soup bowls over rice and garnish with cilantro sprigs

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Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Bob Nueske makes some of the best bacon on the planet.  His pepper coated apple smoked bacon has been our preference for ten years.  We order it on the Net (nueske.com) and it’s shipped to us in an insulated box.  It freezes well.

With two summer grill dinners on our schedule this month, The Little Woman wanted an appetizer that would do something with the monster mushrooms available at the farmers’ market.  Along comes a new box of bacon with a few recipes thrown in.  TLW put these stuffed mushrooms together in a few minutes and the crowd loved them.  She will do it again next week and we’ll take a photo.

Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms
Yield:  10
See Abbreviations, if needed
6          slices of bacon
10        large mushrooms
3oz      cream cheese, ambient
1/4C    shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1t         pureed garlic (not more)

1.  Preheat oven to 350F
2.  Cut each slice of bacon into bite-sized rectangles about 1/2″ across (called lardons)
3.  Fry the bacon lardons until medium crisp, scoop them out of the pan and onto paper toweling and set aside
4.  Brush dirt off the mushrooms, remove the stems and clean the “gills” out of each interior
5.  Combine cream cheese, cheddar and garlic and then fold in the bacon lardons
6.  Fill each mushroom cap to overflowing
7.  Bake in the oven, on a sheet pan, for 30 minutes
8.  Let cool a few minutes and serve immediately

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Asparagus with Roasted Red Peppers and Toasted Pine Nuts

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Asparagus with Roasted Red Peppers and Toasted Pine Nuts


Here is an idea I saw in a deli window over the holidays.  I’ve improved it by using fresh ingredients, toasting the pine nuts and enhancing the presentation with perfectly diced peppers.  This is a colorful and tasty veggie side dish.  Prepare all three ingredients ahead of time and then assemble a la minute.  Way too many steps here for what is really a simple dish to prepare.  But lets do it all nicely.  Start by roasting the peppers!
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Asparagus with Roasted Red Peppers and Toasted Pine Nuts
Yield:  4 servings
See Abbreviations, if needed

  • 2        red bell peppers
  • 5T     pine nuts
  • 1       bunch fresh asparagus (about 6-8 spears per serving)
  • 4t     EVOO or an infused oil of choice
  • S/P   to taste

For The Roasted Red Peppers:
1.  Roast the red bell peppers over a gas flame, on the grill or under the electric broiler, turning to char and blacken
2.  Place the roasted peppers in individual foil sheets, close up tight and let cool
3.  When cooled, scrape the charred skin off of each pepper using a paring knife

Tip “Keep your Roasted Peppers Dry.”  You need water to clear away the mess created when scraping off the charred and blackened skin of a roasted bell pepper.  The usual method is to place the pepper under cool running water and scrape away the skin with a paring knife.  This method gets the job done but also results in an unholy mess and a slimy pepper.  The trick is to periodically clean off the paring knife under the running water while keeping the pepper, in hand, dry. The result is a still messy sink, but a nice dry skinned pepper.

4.  Cut open the peppers, remove seeds and white ribs and cut into wide rectangular strips
5.  Using your chefs knife, neatly cut 3/8-inch strips from the wide strips and then cut each strip into�
perfect 3/8-inch X 3/8-inch diced pieces
6.  Place the diced peppers in a prep dish, cover and set aside�
For the Pine Nuts:
7.  Heat a dry sauté pan to quite hot and then add the pine nuts
8.  Toss or stir the nuts until they begin to brown and give off the first whiff of toasted nuts.
9.  Transfer the nuts immediately from the hot pan to a prep dish.  If the nuts smell burned, throw them out and do ‘em over
For the Asparagus:
10.  Trim off and discard the bottom few inches of the bunch.  Don’t bother to peel the asparagus�
11.  Spray wash the trimmed asparagus�
12.  Bring water to boil in the bottom of a double boiler�
13.  Place the asparagus into the fitted colander top of the double boiler, cover and steam for five minutes
14.  While steaming, fill a SSB with ice and some water.  When the asparagus are done, transfer them from the colander�
into the ice water to cool and set their bright green color.  After a minute or so, fish the asparagus out of the ice water�
and place all on  paper toweling to hold
For the Dish:
15.  Transfer the diced peppers (and the juice) to a small pan, add a little salt and heat gently
16.  Place the EVOO into a large heated sauté pan.  When medium hot, place in the asparagus spears, quickly add a little salt�
and freshly ground pepper, and toss gently to thoroughly heat the spears, about 2 minutes
17.  Transfer and align about 7 spears to each heated serving plate, add a generous band of red peppers neatly across the spears�
and then sprinkle on a couple of pinches of toasted pine nuts.
18.  Serve immediately with entrée.

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Asparagus, Simple

Monday, August 3rd, 2009


Steam the asparagus, chill in an iced water bath to hold the color, drain, dry and serve at ambient temperature dressed only with a little salt, and black pepper infused EVOO with a little fresh lemon juice whisked in.

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