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Neither, I’m married. And I’m hoping to stay that way. And of course, nothing here helps me with tomorrow.

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I remembered to grab shots of 2 dishes that I made.

The first is a recipe from a site I’ve learned to love called Gojee, the recipe was Thai Basil Chicken with Cashews

I modified it a bit with sichuan peppers and dried chili peppers. Over a year of looking at every grocery store, talking to managers, and talking to restaurants that have them in dishes has taught me that it’s impossible to get actual fresh chili peppers in my city. All of the restaurants go through a special supplier who doesn’t work with orders as small as mine would be. Anyway I highly recommend the recipe, I’ve served it multiple time to multiple people and it’s always come off as a hit.

The second is a chicken soup using something like a white sauce.


Recipe

Another recipe that I really enjoyed and recommend.

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I wish that I could give you all a taste of what I made for Christmas dinner. It was brisket in a crock pot. I used a full bottle of cab sauv. It was on a bed of carrots and celery. I first put 5 pounds of top brisket in a huge bowl with crapload of crushed garlick. And sliced onions. I let it marinade for two hours. Salt and fresh ground pepper. added. Also sage and rosemary.

Then I removed them and burned the fuck out of them in a pan. After drying them properly.

Then they went into the crock pot with 4 bay leaves and paprika.

I put the shit together at 7:30 AM

It was done at 5:30 PM.

I couldn’t use tongs to lift the suckers out. Falling apart. Amazing shit. And i used the juice to make a kick ass gravy.

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Looks good, I’m going to give this a try tomorrow!

I could use some help with one ingredient – it calls for lager-style beer, like Tsingtao. Never heard of it.

What beer should I use as a substitute for this? I’m sorry if this is an obvious question. I have no idea about cooking, even less about beer. Could I just get like a Bud lite (Taste great!, Less filling!) and call it a day?

Nice picture, Morberis! All those yellows and reds sold me on this.

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Just use any beer that is not too dark. Bud light, while not beer (cue Monthy Python singing about fucking close to water), will do.

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Dig it, thanks Juste. I hope it turns out.

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Well once again I’m at my mom’s place for holidays, which means I have time to cook things that are more interesting. I forgot the USB-cable for my DSLR back at my place, but with some Photoshop trickery the galaxy s2 camera does a decent job.

Since getting here I’ve mostly been getting the traditional stuff done and over with, but I did make my first mille feuille the other day:

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A mille feuille is basically a dessert constructed using layers of puff pastry, usually with some kind of cream and fruit. I made some puff pastry the day in advance. This takes a long time, but it tastes really nice. In retrospect the pastry should’ve been thinner, but I used the leftovers to make pain au chocolats, which are pretty awesome too.

As for creams I went with two. For the top I figured I’d make something that goes with berries, so it was something like a mascarpone / vanilla / pastry cream. You can’t get mascarpone in the shops here, so I made that the evening in advance too. It’s not very hard. You can see it’s kind of lumpy though, but it tastes pretty nice.

The second is a praline paste cream. Praline paste? What’s that? Well you start by making caramel in a pan. When it’s at a light caramel color you add an assortment of nuts, such as almonds, hazelnuts, etc. Continue cooking until it smells slightly burnt. Pour onto a tray of baking paper and let cool. It should solidify. If it didn’t then you didn’t cook it long enough. When solid break it into pieces and put them into a food mixer. You basically want to mix it into a kind of flour, which doesn’t take that long. Once that’s done add a little bit of a neutral oil, and keep mixing. Eventually the oils from the nuts should start releasing, turning the whole thing into something reminiscent of peanut butter. With the paste done you can fold in some whipped cream to make it lighter. It turned out really nice, but in retrospect it probably would’ve made more sense in a different dessert. (Oh, and it kind of looks like poop.)

It turned out we had quite a bit left over though. I ended up combining the two, adding some egg yolks and milk, and made ice cream out of it. Unfortunately I don’t have an ice cream maker, but with some manual labor every 25 minutes or so it turned out fine. I added some of the left over berries, chocolate bits, and a splash of Grand Marnier.

Tomorrow I have a loin of venison to turn into something decent, and on Wednesday there’s halibut.

Other plans?
Going to try tempering chocolate using a microwave, and making some nice garnish designs. I’ve always had issues tempering chocolate, so I’m hoping this will do the trick.

I feel quite confident at making sauces, but I’ve never made velouté, so towards the end of the week there’ll be chicken.

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No photo today, but the loin turned out pretty decent, but it could’ve been way better had the meat thermometer been easier to read. It was 100% my error, because it seemed that the temperature was at 50c for a really long time, until I opened the oven door and turned out that at the correct temp was 75c (!). Well my mom prefers meat fairly well done, so at least she was pleased. Next time I’m bringing my digital thermometer with a remote read-out.

Next item I screwed up was the apple cider gelee. The goal was something along the lines of

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But although I used the amount recommended on the package it wouldn’t set firmly enough, so now I’m eating it out of a bowl. It looks like some kind of sea creature, but it tastes really nice. Oh well, maybe next time.

The sauce on the other hand was a success, so to provide some kind of a payout for reading this post it was more or less as follows:

  • 2 x shallots.
  • 2 x large mushrooms, or more if you prefer smaller mushrooms.
  • Thyme, salt & pepper.
  • Red wine.
  • Cognac.
  • A tablespoon of mustard.

Finely chop the shallots. Saute them in butter and oil until translucent. Add the (finely chopped) mushrooms and fry them on medium heat for a few minutes. Season with salt & pepper, and add some thyme or whatever other herbs you prefer. Pour in a solid amount of red wine. A decent rule of thumb is to use the same amount as however much sauce you intend to end up with. Add some cognac if you have, and some (Dijon) mustard. Mix it all up and let it reduce until most of the liquids are gone. Pour in a couple dl of cream, some coloring to make it darker. Use an immersion blender to make it more sauce-like, if you prefer. Leave it on medium low for a while to reduce. Adjust for salt & pepper, and add some butter and meat juices at the end if you’d like. In my case it totally saved the overcooked meat.

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So for Christmas dinner I did:

  1. Beef Tenderloin with a horseradish crust
  2. Roasted Brussel sprouts w/pancetta
  3. Homemade dinner rolls

It was delicious. All of it. Once again, I have learned that the meat thermometer is my best friend (especially on an expensive cut like that), and that spending quite a few hours in the kitchen isn’t too bad, because I enjoy it and can time manage pretty well so that I can focus on one active task at a time.

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IMG_3823 by tim_elhajj, on Flickr

I put too much jalapeno in it for the kid’s taste, but I loved it. I can see making this again, but with maybe a little more protein and keeping the jalapeno on the side. Thanks for sharing Morberis!

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Mulled wine, do any of you have any experience with making it or at all with it?

I received what I hear is a great bag of mulling spices and Im thinking that Im going to have to try their recipe which is as follows.

For mulling, use 1-2 tablespoons of mulling spices per bottle of red wine or litre of cider. Here’s a trick, though: spices need to simmer for a little while to begin releasing their flavour. But you don’t want to simmer your wine too long, or you’ll lose all the alcohol. So simmer the spices in water for 10 minutes, then pour out the water and add your wine to the pot. Most people add a couple tablespoons of sugar or honey to the pot at this point to give the mulled wine some sweetness. You can also add a couple glugs of brandy if you’d like.

Heat the wine or cider on the stove until it is hot but don’t allow it to boil. The longer you keep the spices in the more intense the flavour will be, but it’s usually ready in 5-15 minutes. Once it tastes the way you want it, discard the spices and laddle into mugs or glasses. You can also pour the finished drink into a crock pot and keep it warm and ready-to-serve for hours – great for holiday parties!

Ingredients: cinnamon, allspice, cloves, orange peel, cardamom, mace.

I do enjoy wine, but not I dont really, have a refined pallet when it comes to drinking it you may say. Ive just never gotten that much into it. So is there a specific type of red I should be looking at? Preferably something on the cheaper side. Also because I`m not sure at this juncture without someone there that I could tell the difference. Also, how long could I expect something like this to last?

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I made glogg a few days ago on a lark. Turned out great. You want cheap but drinkable wine. I used a bottle of Shiraz, a half bottle of ruby port and a few ounces of bourbon. One of the recipes I looked at claimed it tasted better with time and suggested storing it for months for the best possible flavor, so it should last fairly long.

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I got a pasta machine for Christmas and took a stab at it last night. The first dough I put through picked up some gunk that I didn’t manage to clean off the machine. So it was a non-edible practice run, and machine cleaning dough. The next one was clean, but it seems I haven’t worked the dough enough. The texture was a bit soft after I cooked the fettuccine.

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That spice mixture looks really nice. I’ve been drinking gløgg for years, and the traditional spices are pretty basic, so I think I’ll try something similar to that next time.

And as said cheap wine is fine. I make wine sometimes, and had no problems using that - in fact it’s probably one of the better uses for cheap wine that I can think of.

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On the drier side, Cab Sauv. On the sweeter side, Zinfandel/Temperanillo. I would recommend getting a box from Black Box or Bota, they’re perfectly acceptable wines and will be fine for mulling.

As for the recipe, I don’t get the part where he’s simmering in water and then discarding the water (along with all of the flavor the water has picked up.) I understand he’s trying to bring the spices up to temperature before introducing the wine but you could do that either with a: A small amount of wine or b: gently toasting in a dry pan.

Anyway, box wine is great because it stays fresh for months instead of hours and you can get some decent wines for $5/bottle instead of $10/bottle. Reviews: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/drinking/wine/top5_boxwines

H.

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So I bought on special an 8.5 pound pork Boston butt roast. Any suggestions on how to cook it? Was going to use my crockpot and cook while I’m at work Friday.

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Okay. Maybe not interesting, but I cooked the full Christmas dinner – 20 pound turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans.

I used the family’s favorite stuffing recipe from Williams Sonoma’s Thanksgiving book – it relies on caramelized onions, mushrooms, and tarragon, and is always a hit. The turkey was their cider-glazed turkey with cider-shallot gravy, brined first. The turkey was good, the gravy was awesome. (That made me very happy, because gravy is my cooking bane.) The beans sucked, I stir-fried them with garlic and lemon zest, but overcooked them.

My aunt gave me a clay pot cooker for Christmas. Tried it once already – threw together chicken breasts, mushrooms, carrots, garlic, ginger, soy, wine, and spices. Was only so-so – I overcooked. Will take some practice.

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Interesting, I’ve been tempted by clay pot cooking before but it looked like quite a bit of hassle and another bit thing to store in the kitchen. Let us know what kind of results you get after a little practice. If it’s awesome enough I may yet break down and buy one.

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I typically just wash and dry the thing, give it a generous rub with a good butt rub (bad jokes go here), and then foil it up tightly and let it sit in the fridge overnight to soak up the flavors. The next day I pull it out, unwrap it, and let it sit out on the counter for an hour or so to warm up. Then I toss it in the oven at 325 and cook it until it hits 195 or so. Then I might slice and serve it with BBQ sauce on buns as sandwiches, or with a gravy/sauce of some sort as just roast pork.

A crock pot will work for making pulled pork sandwiches out of it, btw. It’s what I do when I’m feeling lazy. Slice an onion up, line the bottom of the crockpot with onion slices, put a BBQ spice rub on the pork, and put it fat-side-up in the crockpot. Turn the pot on low and go to work. Come home and pull the pork apart with two forks, add enough BBQ sauce to moisten the meat, and throw it in a bowl. Serve on toasted hamburger buns with pickles and a bottle of good BBQ sauce. Quick and easy dinner.

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Made “coq au vin”, which is basically a chicken / hen in red wine, stock and cognac (optional) stew. I bought a whole hen, cut it into pieces, browned them with bacon, sautéd some vegs, set some cognac on fire, tossed it into the pot with a healthy dose of red wine and some fresh thyme, and left it for 90 minutes. It hit the spot.

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