mis en possible

Surprise, surprise, I’ve been ignoring my food blog. Finding this ‘multiple blog’ thing a bit harder than I’d intended, I’ve been focusing my efforts on getting photos of my daughter out to the interwebs for my family to enjoy.

I’m still cooking, though, being fairly busy, not as frequently as I’d like to. The other day I made this (pictured), though, and it turned out rather well, I’m happy to say.

I picked up some spicy Italian sausage, beat the living daylights out of a few breasts of chicken, stuffed it with the sausage and Parmesan cheese and then baked the. Finished with a cream sauce with basil and oregano. I believe I’ve found a way I like to eat chicken!

I’ve been working on a multi-course dinner idea and maybe we’ll have another soon. Until then, happy eating.

This is my second foray into attempting dishes using Asian flavors. As a base, I used this Ming Tsai sauce. More on this dish later.

This is a work in progress though the first pass was tasty. Again, there’s not many ways a beurre blanc can fit into a ‘cutting calories’ diet, but each plate here used only about a tablespoon of sauce if that.

We only had some button mushrooms on hand for this, but I think I will eventually use trumpet royal mushrooms trimmed like scallops.

The brunoise is a collection of shallot, carrot, broccoli stem, Swiss chard, celery and zucchini that was sauted until aldente in Greek olive oil with a bit of the white wine thrown in at the end and garlic powder (I know, the horror).

I don’t have a recipe just yet, but maybe soon. In any event, this worked out well for a small-portion appetizer.

This town (Austin, FWIW) has a severe lack of coleslaw that I like. The fast food chains tend to be too sweet, some restaurants have some that’s too soggy, some put bell peppers in it (why I’m not sure, but they make me very ill so must be avoided at all costs), and there are a few places that I won’t name that I’m not even sure if they’ve heard of coleslaw yet insist on putting something under that moniker on the menu. Bone Daddy’s is decent, though, but I don’t go there very often.

So rewind to a few weeks ago and I was looking for a good coleslaw recipe. I tried a few, and, though satisfactory, none really stood out as being exceptional. I wanted the rich flavor of a traditional coleslaw but with a twist, something to make it interesting. Also, the first recipe I tried made like 129309101 servings. I swear, we had a coleslaw slum sprout up in the ice box.

The next week I abandoned said recipe and went my own direction. I added a bit of spice in the form of both Tabasco added to the dressing and the single-most-potent cayenne pepper I’ve ever had in my life. Needless to say, ‘3 alarm’ coleslaw was not exactly the direction I wanted to go.

Then I got on a ‘healthy’ kick and I needed to lighten it up a lot. The first recipe I’d tried required a cup (yes, a cup) of mayonnaise. I mean, there’s no real way you’re going to make coleslaw ‘healthy’ but give it a good punch, a good flavor and you can cut down the portion size.

In order to infuse some flavor, I turned to my new stand-by: Smoked Paprika. This is secret weapon #23 in my ‘hey where did THIS flavor come from?’ arsenal of tricks. You can blend this stuff into sauces, sprinkle on meat, salads, vegetables, whatever and get an instant ’smoked’ flavor that you can’t get anywhere else.

But why stop there? Instead of the standard Tabasco, I used hot sauce made with chipotles. And not quite as much of it so as to save what few taste buds I had left, and to balance it out some of the flavors, I added in another secret weapon (#27), Yuzu vinegar.

I made this once and it was still missing something, or rather, two somethings: a bit of sweet and a bit of texture. The second time I experimented, I added in a handful of raisins and a handful of almonds. I was very happy with the results.

So here it is:

“Smoked” Coleslaw

Ingredients:
1/2 small head of cabbage, sliced thinly into strips of about 2″ in length
3 scallions, sliced thin on an extreme bias
1 large carrot, grated
1 shallot, small-dice
1/4 cup golden raising
1/4 cup thin-sliced almonds (roasted, if you wish)
Salt and pepper to taste
Smoked paprika (1-2 tablespoons, to taste)

Assemble the cabbage, onions, carrot and shallots in a bowl. Give it a pinch of salt and maybe a grind of pepper or two. Make the dressing (below).

Pour the dressing over the salad and gently toss (this is more of a ‘fold’ really) with a pair of tongs until evenly distributed. It may not seem like enough dressing. Trust me, it is.

After the dressing has been absorbed, add the raisins and the almonds, and sprinkle the smoked paprika over the top. This will seem like a lot of paprika. It’s not, but start small and add more as desired. Toss/fold until all elements are more-or-less distributed evenly.

Put plastic wrap over the bowl and place in the ice box to chill for around 2 hours or so before serving.

Dressing:
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
2 tbsp Yuzu vinegar
1 tbsp whole-grain mustard
1/4 cup Kalamata (greek) olive oil, extra virgin
10-12 dashes of Chipotle hot sauce
Salt

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard and mayonnaise until fully incorporated. Drizzle in the olive oil while whisking somewhat furiously (actually, with the mayo and mustard, you can be pretty slack about how much you whisk). Once olive oil is in, dash the hot sauce in and stir until incorporated.

Plating:
When I plated this, I laid out a bed of Mizuna greens (another secret weapon, though seasonal) and dashed a bit more paprika on top.

I don’t particularly like chicken, but since I’m eating healthy, I figure I ought to give it one more try.

My first attempt at this recipe was an unmitigated disaster. Flavorless or off-flavor, dry… it was everything I hate about boneless, skinless chicken breasts made worse by whatever the heck was coating it.

So on my second attempt, I made a few tweaks.

The first thing I did was get rid of the sesame seeds. They add nothing. I replaced them with sliced almonds (though only a few. I’d originally used a whole-wheat cracker, but this time around, I used an Italian-flavored organic cracker that I found at Central Market.

When it came time to bake, instead of putting them on a baking sheet, I put them on a rack on the baking sheet. This prevented the bottom from becoming soggy. I also cooked them 40 minutes (or rather to temperature, 167 before carryover).

And, because I love it, I garnished it with a hefty dose of Hungarian Smoked Paprika.

Finally, to kick up the spice a bit, I set it on top of a bed of my recipe-in-the-works healthy but fiery cayenne coleslaw.

On the topic of healthy eating, I’ve found that I can actually cook in quite a bit less fat as well as substituting relatively-healthy olive oil in for the massive amounts of butter I used to use. And I’ve found I can eek a lot more flavor out of butter simply by taking a small amount and letting it brown slightly.

This dish was made, literally, with what we had laying around the house left over from other projects. Heather was toying with the camera so captured a bit of the mis en place for the dish. One onion, two carrots, two yellow squash, two zucchini. I sauted the onion for a few minutes in a bit of olive oil, then added the carrot, then about 2 minutes later, the squash and zucchini. To the saute I added a hint of cumin and a good helping of Hungarian smoked paprika and a bit of garlic salt (the horror! but it works here) as I didn’t feel like cutting up any garlic. After it had all started to soften, I added in a half cup of white wine and let that boil away.

All while this was going on, I sliced up half a tomato we had left over, a seeded cucumber, and zested a meyer lemon. The juice of half the lemon went into the saute. On another burner, I was boiling the Acini di Pepe away.

At the last minute before combining, I added a handful of sliced almonds to the sauted vegetables and let that cook for a minute or so, then combined the warm vegetables, lemon zest, pasta and a little bit of oil, browned butter and salt.

The plate was garnished with a wedge of the remaining lemon half, the cucumber and the tomato.

It was good. Fresh and the contrast between the saute and the clean vegetables and the lemon really added some punch. We ate it and have had it the last two nights as a side dish.

I love food. I love French food, rich food, and lots of it.

However, there comes a time when that will catch up to a person. Sadly, it caught up with me a few years ago, I just hadn’t realized it yet.

So I’m trying to alter my diet such that it’s significantly more healthy. I’m not doing a ‘fad diet’ or even any particular diet, just watching what I eat, when I eat, and how much I eat.

How’s it going? Meh. I’m sticking to my guns, but the food could leave a bit to be desired. When you consume a very unhealthy amount of butter, going to a scant tablespoon or so of olive oil for similar dishes changes things. In any event, baked chicken, pasta with saute of squash, zucchini and tomato, rice with steamed broccoli and saute of mushrooms, non-sugary cereals, whole grain breads. I feel better, which I guess is encouraging.

The first ’shot worthy’ dish is not the most impressive dish I’ve ever come up with. That’s angel hair, tossed with a scant bit of olive oil, a wee bit of white wine in the vegetable saute (batonettes of squash and zucchini, diced tomato and diced onion), and a bit of parm cheese over the top (not much!), and finished with a squeeze of lemon juice and some parsley chiffonade.

I ate it. Heather liked it. Zoe devoured it. It’s not the prettiest dish ever, but then again, I’m not going for pretty.

I’m in a rut cooking-wise as well as elsewhere. We’ve been doing a lot of pasta lately and none of it very fancy, just functional. Last week I got sick and I can never get up the energy to cook while I’m sick and I’ve been preoccupied on the weekends getting the back yard ready for summer. To top it all off, my foot gives me some serious trouble after standing on the hard kitchen floors for more than about 20 minutes.

So, all excuses aside, I’ll just leave off with a few pics… the first of my soup and the latter two of Heather’s bread and biscotti.

The first dish is yet-another-attempt at getting a pure white soup. I don’t know what my fascination is with creating a pure white soup but I want to and I want it to taste good. When some smoked paprika was added as a garnish, this dish was not only smooth but had this wonderful smokey flavor (oddly enough) that played well against the richness of the soup.

I’ve not the foggiest what I put in here beyond white wine, celeriac, cauliflower, white vegetable stock, onions, garlic, cream, a russet potato, white pepper and white truffle oil (hrm, that might be it… make up some good ratios, cook until everything is tender, then blend the heck out of it, and add the cream and oil last, after the blending, garnish with the paprika and some microgreens… might work). Anyway, this is the first pure white soup where I went back for seconds, thirds, and fourths.

On to the pictures of the baked goods…

Oh, and why don’t we throw in a picture of one of my favorite drinks… Coron Pere & Fils 2004 Burgundy:

I made this recipe for just me seeing as very few other people I eat dinner with regularly (Zoe, Heather) will go near a chunk of meat let alone a leg of lamb. In technique land, I tried the roast-then-braise to develop a few different flavors, skipping any sort of ’sear’ step at all. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, honestly. I have a love-hate relationship with lamb, and this way… this is on the side of the love.

1 Lamb Shank ~1.5 lbs, frenched, surrounding layer of fat still intact
1 bottle of red wine (I used Coron, Pere & Fils Burgundy, 2005)
2 large white onions, sliced
4 carrots, sliced
4 stalks of celery, sliced
1 qt of beef stock
2 tablespoons of lamb demi-glace (beef if you don’t have that)
12 cloves of garlic, peeled and cracked
1/4 cup all purpose flour
4 sprigs of rosemary
8 stems of flat parsley
Greek (kalamata) olive oil
salt and pepper
1 dozen uncracked black peppercorns
1/2 stick of butter

2 quenelles Horseradish Creme Fraiche (below)

Start the oven heating to 475 degrees. Immediately after starting the oven, take the shank directly from the fridge and salt and pepper liberally. Lightly coat with olive oil. Place shank standing up in a large (8qt or so) dutch oven. When the oven is up to temperature, place the dutch oven with the shank inside, uncovered on the bottom rack. Roast for 90 minutes.

Pull the dutch oven out and carefully set the shank aside on a plate. Place the dutch oven on a burner and turn it on medium to medium-high heat. There should be enough oil in the bottom to do the rest but if there isn’t add a bit more oil.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

Add the onions and saute until they are clear. Add the carrots and celery and saute for another 5 minutes. Very important that nothing burns (brown OK, black bad). Try and scrape up any bits on the bottom of the pot.

Evenly distribute the flour over the aromatics and saute for another 2 minutes.

Add 3/4ths of the bottle of wine, bring that to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Add the garlic. Reduce to 3/4ths liquid volume of what you started with, scraping the sides and bottom to make sure nothing is burning to the bottom.

Add the shank back in, add the beef stock, the demi-glace, peppercorns, rosemary, parsley. Add a bit of salt to the liquid. The amount of beef stock may vary — you want to leave a little bit of the meat exposed but it should be about 3/4ths covered in liquid.

Bring that to a simmer and cover, placing it back into the oven. Let it braise for approximately 90 minutes or until it starts to fall off of the bone.

When it’s done, pull out the put, VERY carefully set the shank aside (on another plate) trying to keep it all together (if you don’t care about appearance, don’t worry about that little bit). Take 4-6 8oz ladles and strain it through a fine-mesh sieve into a 12″ (or so) saute pan over medium heat.

Bring the sauce to a simmer and let it simmer until it’s reduced by half. Whisk in the butter. Re-season as necessary.

Plate the lamb shank and ladle the sauce over the shank, then add the quenelles of the horseradish sauce.

The last 1/4th bottle of wine? Goes really good with the shank.

Horseradish Creme Fraiche
1/4 cup grated fresh horse radish
8 oz creme fraiche
4 tablespoons kalamata olive oil
Salt and white pepper

Gently whisk together the grated horse radish, olive oil and creme fraiche. Add a pinch of salt and a few pinches of white pepper and whisk until it is almost the consistency of a light butter. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

I took the same marinade and cooking technique used in the post about the ‘London broil’ and approached a decent-sized Ribeye the same way and then sliced that pretty thin (eighth of an inch or so) . Sure, it takes for ever and a day to cook this way, but it tastes pretty good when all is said and done.

And just to completely bastardize a decent dish, I took pasta (capellini) and made a beurre rouge with an added heaping of crushed garlic and for visuals and tasty floral notes, I added some edible flowers. For some reason the deep red color of the sauce gets distributed around the pasta… not quite as bold a look as I though I might have. In any event, it was tasty, though in all honesty, I could really do without the flowers.

I think I may open a dinner with this at some point. Although it’s rich, it achieves a good peak about 3 bites in which to me seems like a good starter.