Dave's Big Blue Plate

NC-Style Pork, Collards, and a Pimm's Cup

2013-05-05T16:13:00.003-07:00

Escoffier's Lobster Bisque and Keller's Brioche

2013-04-27T16:13:00.001-07:00

Brioche

2013-04-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

Prime Rib with Bordelaise Sauce and Thomas Keller's Pommes Anna with Asparagus and Mushrooms

2013-03-31T17:24:00.001-07:00

Cailles à la Bonne Femme

2013-02-26T17:09:00.000-08:00

Make the sauce:

Saute slices of button mushrooms in butter. Add cream and reduce to 1/2.
When quail is done browning in the pan deglaze with brandy and ignite.
When the flaming is over add the cream mixture and reduce by 3/4, or until desired thickness is obtained.
Keep warm until service.

Make the quail:

Follow the basics of Daniel Boulud in this video.
Stuff with a 50/50 mix (by your eyes) of ground pork/meatloaf mix and mushrooms/shallots cooked in butter. (Make sure both are cold when you mix.)
Brown the quail in the pan and roast in the oven.
When done, remove and keep warm.

Finish:

Wilt spinach in olive oil and butter.
Slice quail and plate.

Côte De Boeuf and Chimichurri with Creamy Onion, Corn, and Potato Hash

2013-02-23T18:16:00.003-08:00

Make the Chimichurri. (Recipe here.)
The Hash:

Peel Yukon gold potatoes and chop into a rough dice. Cover with cold water and salt it well. Cook the potatoes until fork tender. Drain. Return this to the same pan after cooking some red onions* in butter. Add cream and corn and heat through. When this is warm whisk vigorously to slightly mash the potatoes. Add salt, pepper, and fresh basil, then keep warm until ready to serve.

Meat:

Temper a Côte De Boeuf then cook directly on coals (see Dirty Steak) for a few minutes. Transfer to a hot oven and cook until the center reaches 125F. Let them rest for 8 minutes and serve.

*The onions can also be charred in the coals beforehand. Remove the charred parts before cooking them in the butter though.

Chicken Galantine with Black Trumpet Mushrooms and Pistachios

2013-02-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

Sugo all'Amatriciana

2013-01-27T08:13:00.002-08:00

Well it looks like I will be posting my first recipe in months. I've been developing my French repertoire and all that, but writing and organizing a new post here or there just isn't paying the dividends it used to. So, with that said here is a recipe that I think is worth keeping in mind for future use. (Actually, if I remember correctly I make this about twice a year, especially when I want a simple red pasta dish without all the heavy lifting.) Usually it is nothing to go crazy about, but I did make a pretty good version of it this weekend.

Since I am pressed for time I am going to tell you to go to Wikipedia and read about the history of this pasta sauce. (Found here.) The sauce is literally centuries old, and it laid the foundation for many of the foods currently offered at your local Italian restaurant. The food history is really cool to me and I get why it would make your eyes roll, but it’s worth mentioning for those out there interested.

The part we can all appreciate about this recipe is its simplicity. In about 30 minutes you can have a quality pasta dish made from scratch. Yes, there are pasta dishes that can be made in this amount of time too. However, this recipe is basically how they made it almost 500 years ago, barring any development in technology and differences in serving size. I don't think you can say that about mostly all of we make at home anymore. Another distinct advantage is this sauce's ability to mold to what you already have in the kitchen. Let’s talk more about that:

Meat: This is the most flexible part of the recipe. Use drippings from roast pork as well as a few scraps to make this an intensely original version. For a more modern-authentic recipe we can use guanicale. If you're in a real pickle you can use pancetta or unsmoked bacon too.
Tomatoes: I really like to use Pomi brand tomatoes when making this type of sauce, but an equal weight of fresh tomatoes that have been seeded, peeled, and crushed works as well. (They do take a lot of time to process though, so I use canned/boxed tomatoes.) I should note that when I say an equal weight this means an equal weight after you processed them. When you are at the store buy about 20% more tomatoes by weight if you go this route.
Pasta: Buy DeCecco brand please. Once you get the brand right you can experiment with what pasta shape you'll use. I like bucatini, but spaghetti and all those long thin pastas will do. Penne is quite nice as well because of its textural quality.

Sugo all'Amatriciana:
1/4 pound meat (see "Meat" bullet point above)
1/2-3/4 cup dry white wine
26-32oz canned tomatoes, chopped
1/2 pound of pasta
1/2 cup pasta water
Pecorino Cheese
Extra virgin olive oil

1. First, get your salted water boiling and throw the pasta in once it is at the boil. While you cook your sauce keep testing the pasta until it is slightly less cooked than normal. Reserve a half cup or more of the pasta water and drain it at this point, then toss the pasta with the smallest amount of oil needed to coat the pasta.
2. While all of the above is happening you can also cook your sauce. Start by cooking the meat over medium heat in a very large pan to render the fat. Once the fat is rendered kick the heat up to high and get a little color on it.
3. When the meat is colored add the wine and let this boil down until reduced three quarters. Add your tomatoes and bring to the boil, then reduce to a quick simmer.
4. When the pasta is cooked add the water to the sauce and bring back to the boil over high heat. Slightly reduce your heat and evaporate some of the water added.
5. Throw the pasta in the sauce to coat and bring the heat to medium, remembering to lightly stir the pasta as it completes its cooking.
6. When the pasta is cooked remove it from the heat and add some pecorino to flavor and lightly thicken the sauce. Plate the pasta with more pecorino and serve.

Taleggio Baked in Handmade Puff Pastry, Apple Butter, and Candied Pepitas

2012-10-23T16:24:00.002-07:00

I went to The Cheese Traveler today and picked up a few cheeses. The place is great and I can't wait to see what happens with the store in the future. This is the Taleggio that they are currently selling. I felt that my pastry wasn't prepared/cooked perfectly, but the cheese inside more than made up for it. I urge you to slip on down to 540 Delaware and see what all the cheesey-goodness is all about.

Demi-Glace

2012-10-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

Three or four months ago I made demi-glace for the first time. It did not come out the way that I wanted it to, and I made it a point to perfect this sauce over the past months. Looking back on the whole experience, I've learned that this sauce starts with good ingredients and promptly ends with technique. If you have both of these things, you can make a great demi-glace even on your first attempt. So with this all said, lets get down to the nitty-gritty.

I seriously recommend buying More Than Gourmet's Glace de Viande. This makes about 10 liters of high-quality stock, and if you shop around for it online this is actually cheaper than the store bought stuff. (Seriously I can't live without this in my kitchen at this point.) Once you have that you're basically good to go as demi-glace requires basic ingredients. I must stress that the meat glaze/stock is the most important part of this sauce! Once you have your stock situation taken care of we can talk about technique. This was the hardest part for me to learn. I looked to many resources to get the right color and taste, and it seemed that nothing worked out for me. After awhile though, I kind of came up with the way I like to do it with a little inspiration from Escoffier. I think if you follow my directions explicitly, you'll have no problem with the technique side of things.

Sauce Demi-Glace:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 slices of unsmoked bacon, cut into strips
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1/4 cup tomato purèe, preferably fresh
1 bayleaf
1/4 cup glace de viande
4 1/2 cups water

1. Add the glaze and the water in a medium sized pot and bring to a simmer while you work the roux and vegetables.
2. Add the bacon to a pan and cook over medium-high heat to render the fat. Once the majority of the fat is rendered, remove the bacon but leave the fat in the pan. Cook the carrot and onion in the fat until golden brown. (Let it cook while you make the roux.)
3. Melt the butter in another medium sized pot over medium heat. Once it is completely melted, add the flour a little at a time and whisk vigorously to remove lumps.
4. Once all the flour is added, continue to cook the roux over medium heat until it takes on a color a few shades darker than cardboard. (Whisk it once in a while to distribute the heat as well.)
5. When the roux is ready, add the vegetables while being careful not to transfer the excess bacon fat. Stir the roux and vegetables together and let them cook about 5 minutes longer over the medium heat.
6. Make sure that your stock is at a bare simmer, then slowly add it to the roux base a cup or so at a time. As always, whisk after each addition to remove lumps.
7. Once the sauce is uniform, add the celery, tomato purèe, and bay leaf to the sauce and mix. Bring this to a bare simmer and let it reduce for about 45 minutes to an hour. (You should be able to easily create a thick coat on the back of a spoon with this sauce, so keep reducing if needed.)
8. Strain off the vegetables, return the sauce to a clean pot, and bring it back to a bear simmer. Once this is achieved, quickly remove the sauce from the heat and serve accordingly.

Stuffed Mozzerella, Proscuitto, and Basil Pork Chop with Lima Bean and Corn Succotash

2012-10-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

Sauce Bordelaise

2012-09-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

If you've read some of my more recent posts from this summer, you might know that I am sort of obsessed with Le Guide Culinaire by Auguste Escoffier. As you might expect, this recipe was adapted from his book. Adaptation is necessary because when it comes to compound sauces, fully replicating his recipes is near impossible. All of his recipes are designed for professional applications and usually require a great deal of preparation. For instance, he creates a base for the sauce Bordelaise with sauce Espagnole. Sauce Espagnole is made from a brown roux, brown stock, tomato purée, aromatics, and seasonings. The brown roux and stock must be made beforehand, and are quite expensive to make on your own because his roux requires clarified butter only, and because the stock recipe requires expensive beef shin bones. Needless to say, his method for sauce Bordelaise needs streamlining for the home kitchen. I attempt to do so in this recipe.

Sauce Bordelaise translates to Bordeaux sauce in English. Unlike a lot of regionally named recipes, this sauce is not named after the region in which it is made, but rather the wine that is used to make it. With that said, a red Bordeaux is the optimal choice to cook with in this recipe. If a good Bordeaux is too expensive to work with a blend of Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon is an acceptable substitute. The second most important part of this recipe is the beef stock. In my opinion, the stuff from the store just wont do. I recommend buying More Than Gourmet's Galce de Viande (meat glaze) online. It is a bit of an investment at about $30, but it makes 5 gallons of high quality stock. (Which is a steal!) You can also use it as a meat glaze, which is a reduced stock base used in the famous demi-glace sauce. If you don't want to go that route you can always buy the equivalent amount of reduced sodium beef broth.

When all is said and done, you should have some of this sauce leftover. In reality, it is just an elegant gravy, and should be treated as such when used as a leftover. Above I use the warmed sauce on a roast beef sandwich, but you can throw it on some potatoes or however else you wish to use it.

Sauce Bordelaise:
"Espagnole" base:
4 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, rough chop
1 carrot, rough chop
Generous 1/4 cup flour
4 cups stock made from 4 cups water and 1/4 cup meat glaze, or reduced sodium beef broth
1 large rib of celery, rough chop
Generous 1/4 cup tomato purée
1 Bayleaf

Bordelaise reduction:
2 medium shallots, sliced
1 1/2 cups red Bordeaux wine, or Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend
1/4 fresh lemon
1 tablepsoon meat glaze, *or 1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon softened butter
1/4 cup poached bone marrow, passed through a fine sieve or puréed
Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Melt the butter over medium heat and then add the onion and carrot. Let these brown slightly, about ten minutes. While this cooks, dissolve the meat glaze in the water over heat, or just heat the stock until simmering.
2. Add the flour and mix well to prevent lumps. Let this cook further until well browned, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the stock to the roux while whisking to prevent lumps. Once the stock is added, throw the rest of the ingredients in and bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and stir occasionally. Let this simmer for about an hour while you prepare the wine reduction and other foods.
4. Place the wine and shallots in a medium sized pot with high sides. Bring this to the boil and then simmer until reduced by half. Remove this from heat and let it cool until the Espagnole base is ready.
5. Once the Espagnole base has reduced to around three cups, pass it through a fine strainer. You should have about 2 to 2 1/4 cups sauce. Add water to the sauce if it is below 2 cups sauce, or reduce further if it is above 2 1/4 cups
6. Add the Espagnole base to the Bordeaux reduction 20 minutes before service. Bring this to the boil and then simmer, stirring occasionally. Right before serving, add the juice of the lemon, the bone marrow, the meat glaze* and salt and pepper to taste.

*If you aren't using the meat glaze, mix the softened butter with the flour to make a buerre manié and then add it to the sauce to thicken it.

Eric Ripert's Salmon Rillettes in Vol au Vent

2012-09-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well here is another quick post before I dash off up to the Adirondacks this weekend. Last night I used left over puff pastry and made some vol au vent casings. Vol au vent casings can be filled with a lot of things, and I decided that Eric Ripert's Salmon Rillettes could be one of them. The casings were awesome with the half smoked and half poached salmon. The main thing I would change about Ripert's recipe is the use of straight mayonnaise to coat the fish. It reminds me of tuna salad or something. Maybe crème fraîche and mayonnaise in a 50-50 split would work better?

Read more to see how to make vol au vent.
Vol au Vent:
Vol au vents are super easy to make if you buy puff pastry at the store. (It should be in the frozen section with the phyllo dough and tartlet casings.) Once you have the dough all you need to do is cut it to size. assemble, and bake. To learn how to do this, follow the video below:

Profiteroles

2012-08-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Baking is not my forte, and this is especially true when it comes to French methods and recipes. Measuring, weighing, and carefully heating ingredients doesn't really interest me. When I saw profiteroles on my twitter feed for Julia Child's 100th though, I figured they would be a nice way to do something a little different. I've made profiteroles before with great success, but I only ever filled them with prepared ice cream and such. Using a little intuition and Escoffier's recipe for frangipane cream as guide, I came up with this coffee flavored filling for profiteroles. That recipe needed a little tweaking, but I think I finally got my very own profiterole recipe down.

Once again, in the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I put this recipe together by using two different sources. I used the ingredients list from Ina Garten's recipe, and some of the cooking times and temperatures from Joy of Baking's recipe. (Feel free to use either recipe if you don't trust me. I like them both.) I also used some of my own experience with making these, and a little dry milk powder too.

Profiteroles:

1 cup milk
1 stick butter
Pinch kosher salt (if the butter is unsalted)
1 cup flour

1 teaspoon dry milk powder
5 extra-large eggs

Parchment paper

1. Preheat an oven to 425F while preparing the paste. (The French typically interchange the word dough and paste when translating to English.)

2. Melt the butter over medium heat, being sure not to scald the milk. While the butter melts, mix the flour, salt, and milk powder together.

3. Once the butter is completely melted, bring it to a bare boil and remove from heat.

4. Quickly add the flour to the hot milk and mix with a wooden spoon until a very uniform paste is formed, about 1 to 3 minutes depending on how strongly you mix it.

5. Once the paste is formed, transfer it to a standing mixer and beat with a paddle attachment on low for 40 seconds to dissipate some of the heat.

6. Add 4 of the eggs to the slightly cooled paste and beat on high with the paddle attachment until a very fine and uniform paste is formed once again, about 1 to 2 minutes.

7. Transfer the paste to a Ziploc bag or piping bag. (If using a Ziploc, snip a small part of the end off to pipe out the pastry.)

8. Pipe out the paste into tablespoon amounts on parchment paper. Use a wet finger to push down any pointy tops as well.

9. Bake the piped pastry at 425F for 15 minutes, then drop the oven temperature to 350F and bake for another 15 minutes.

10. Beat the last egg very well with a few drops of milk to create an egg wash. Remove the pastries from the oven and gently (but quickly) glaze the tops of each pastry.

11. Return to the oven and bake for another 15 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Dave's Summer Burger

2012-08-20T14:08:00.002-07:00

A few months ago I posted a recipe about a "bunless" burger. Sure it didn't have a bun, but it was sitting on a potato croquette, so it wasn't exactly carb-free. Making stylized burgers really isn't a typical thing for me to do. Throw some cheese on a burger with some of the regular stuff and I am happy. The only reason why I made this recipe in particular is because we happened to get some summer squash, zucchini, and tomatoes from a family member's garden a few days ago. After taking a quick peek in the bags I was reminded of a julienned vegetable side dish I used to make on the line. In this post I make the julienee thingy, but then throw it on top of a burger with some mozzarella and some more vegetables. Is this healthy? No, definitely not. However, it is a great alternative to slathering your burger with bacon and buttered mushrooms. It is a bit more colorful too.

I recommend using a griddle to prepare the entirety of the burger. it just seems more succinct to me. You can cook the buns, burgers, and vegetables all in one place, and only dirty one appliance/pan. That said, feel free to turn on the grill and grill off the burgers. (I plan on writing a post dedicated to the advantages of griddles in certain situations, but for now just do what feel is right.) You can also sauté the vegetables with a pan in two batches as well.

The one thing you do need to do is use a mandoline on the squash and carrots. The carrots must be cut in a julienne because they are rich in pectin, and therefore require a generous distribution of heat to become somewhat soft. The situation is a little different for the squash since they contain a lot of water. I only mandoline the skin from the zucchini and summer squash because this is the only part of the squash that wont become mush once heated. Also, there will be a lot of leftover squash, so I recommend cubing, freezing, battering, and then frying the leftovers.

Dave's Summer Burger:

Vegetable medley:

3 small summer squash

3 small zucchini

3 small carrots

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 tablespoon olive oil

Burgers:

1 pound 80/20 ground beef

4 whole wheat buns

4 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1/2 pound fresh mozzarella cheese

Thinly sliced iceberg lettuce

8 slices of Spanish onions

1 thinly sliced tomato

Salt and pepper

1. Julienne the vegetables on a mandoline while you preheat a griddle or sauté pan. (400F for a griddle.)

2. Toss the vegetables in the oil and melted butter.

3. Cook the vegetables on the griddle until take on a medium-soft stiffness, about 5 to 7 minutes, moving the vegetables around as needed. Reserve while you cook the burgers.

4. While the vegetables cook make four evenly shaped patties and season them with salt and pepper, then butter the tops and bottoms of each bun.

5. Toast the buttered side of the buns and cook the burgers simultaneously.

6. Once the burgers are cooked and the buns are toasted, assemble the burgers with the rest of the toppings and let it rest for a minute or two so that the cheese loosens up.

Ratatouille

2012-07-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

We had a nice little Provencal-style meal two nights ago. I made some honey lavender chicken with some of this ratatouille and it was a huge hit. There are about a million and a half recipes for ratatouille, but I think it is nice to have your own version or method, so to speak. Here is my go at it.

The largest problem with ratatouille is the water content of the eggplant. The texture of soggy eggplant really puts me off, so I have a few ways I up the quality of this dish. Salting and extracting water from the eggplant is the main way, but I also use a thin layering of vegetables to maximize evaporation potential.

Lastly, making the paste of garlic and spices is rather important in my mind. Crushed garlic runs the risk of burning, and that gives us an undesirable product in the end. I think it also just flavors the oil better, but that is just me.

Ratatouille:

1 large eggplant

1 zucchini

1 large onion

1 red pepper, cored and seeded

4 roma tomatoes

3 cloves garlic

Fresh basil leaves

1 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more for eggplant

A pinch of: oregano, cayenne, cumin, tumeric, paprika, and thyme

5 to 7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat an oven to 450F.

2. Slice the eggplant into 1/2-inch thick rounds, and then cut those in half. Liberally salt the eggplant flesh on both sides and then drain on a wire rack while preparing the other vegetables. (I reccomend at least 30 minutes of draining time before cooking the eggplant.)

3. Using a mandoline, slice the onion into 1/8-inch thick rounds, and the zuchhini into 1/4-inch thick rounds. Slice the red pepper and tomatoes into 1/4-inch rounds as well.

4. Using a mortar and pestle make a paste from the garlic cloves, the spices, and the salt. Mix this with the 5 tablespoons of oil and set aside.

5. Once the eggplant is done draining begin layering the vegetables in an lightly oiled broiler pan. Make a horizontal layer of onions, then red pepper, eggplant, tomato, basil, and zucchini. Keep working down the pan until it is full, being careful not to make thick layers of vegetables. (Just enough to cover a little of the previous layer.)

6. Brush the tops of the layers with the flavored oil, adding more oil to the bowl as necessary. Roast for 30 minutes and serve slightly hot.

Sweet Corn Purée

2012-07-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

Fresh corn isn't really in season yet, but this recipe makes a great substitute using the frozen variety. I've been making a lot of purées lately and this is probably the one with my favorite texture. This purée comes out very thick and intensely flavored, which was surprising to me when I first made this. The best part is it was insanely cheap to make given how much it made. Frozen corn is dirt cheap and pretty delicious if you handle it the right way.

I really recommend passing this through a sieve after processing or blending the corn. (This makes the texture better.) Reblend what is left behind and repeat the straining. This takes a little effort to do, but the results are superior. Also, just in case this purée gets too thick, have a little milk on hand to dilute it to the right consistency.

Sweet Corn Purée:
3 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 pint heavy cream
3/4 cup half and half
1 medium potato
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter

1. While the corn kernels defrost boil the potato in salted water until fork tender and cook the onion in the butter until slightly brown.
2. Once these are both cooked drain the potato and add all the ingredients to a medium pot.
3. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Let this cook for 30 minutes and then remove from heat and slightly cool. (The cooler it is, the easier it is to purée.)
4. Purée the corn in a food processor or blender. Pass this through a fine sieve and reprocess anything that is left behind. Once the purée is processed put it back over heat to warm it up and serve it hot.

Cooking Escoffier: Purée de Pois (Split Pea Soup)

2012-06-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

If you told me years ago that I would make a split pea soup and that I would actually like the end product, I would've been more than skeptical. My father used to make split pea soup a lot when I was a child and I absolutely loathed it. I don't know if it was the taste, texture, or the color, but I refused to eat it either way. Luckily, Escoffier's version of the recipe has erased my childhood apprehension for this classic soup.

Unlike most of the Le Guide Culinaire recipes I've been posting lately, I am amending his recipe since most people don't have kitchen scales at home, and since getting ham hocks may be a bit difficult. I am also changing how he thinks this dish should be served. For Escoffier a soup was only one dish in a series of dishes to compromise a complete meal. This is all fine and dandy if you are working in a kitchen and serving multi-course meals, but that is almost never true. So, to make this soup more substantial I added fried chicken, crème fraîche, and a little parmesan cheese.

Purée de Pois (Split Pea Soup):
1 lbs dried split peas, rinse and drained
1/2 tablespoon table salt (10 grams)
5 cups water
1/2 medium onion, roughly chopped (2 oz or 60 grams)
1 large carrot, roughly chopped (2 oz or 60 grams)
1 medium leek, sliced in half and washed well, white and pale green parts only (2 oz or 60 grams)
3 slices of bacon, sliced into 1 inch pieces (2 oz or 60 grams)
1 ham hock (optional)
1 bayleaf
2 cups chicken stock (more as needed)

1. Bring the water and salt to a boil then add all of the ingredients except for the chicken stock.
2. Bring back to the boil and then simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the peas are cooked. Remove the ham hock and bay leaf from the soup.
3. Remove the soup from heat and let it cool slightly before puréeing.
4. Once cooled, purée the soup in batches while adding chicken stock as necessary.
5. Pass the purée through a sieve and blend whatever is left behind again until all the soup passes through the sieve.
6. Put the soup over medium heat to reheat and then adjust the thickness of the soup with chicken stock, if necessary.
7. Garnish the soup with sour cream or crème fraîche, fried bread or chunks of fried chicken, and Parmesan cheese.

Pizza Margherita

2012-06-20T07:00:00.001-07:00

So I was watching reruns of Bourdain's No Reservations a few days ago when I saw something interesting. Tony sits down for a Neopolitan pizza and starts to recant all of these rules that one must follow while making pizza in Naples. These aren't just any old tips, tricks, rules or otherwise. These are actual rules. There are restrictions on ingredients, technique, oven temperature, and even the exact dimensions of the pizza. Furthermore, your business has to be inspected by an organization known as the "Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana" just to earn the right to say you're making pizza! Here is a list of their rules that I found on Wikipedia:

Neapolitan pizza dough consists of wheat flour (type 0 or 00, or a mixture of both), natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water.
Only San Marzano tomatoes are used for sauce.
The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer.
After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other machine, and may be no more than 3 millimetres (0.12 in) thick.
The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-wood fire.
There are three official variants:

Pizza Marinara: made with tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil,
Pizza Margherita: made with tomato, sliced mozzarella, basil and extra-virgin olive oil,
Pizza Margherita Extra made with tomato, buffalo mozzarella from Campania in fillets, basil and extra virgin olive oil.

After looking at those rules you know that most of them aren't achievable unless you have access to a special oven and special ingredients. All the same though, I try my best to follow the rules stipulated by the AVPN.

I've been working on this recipe for about a month now, but I think I am finally happy with my results. Substituting ingredients and oven temperature was the easy part of the process. What was harder for me was the hand stretching and dough making.

In the end I decided that store bought dough is still the best to buy, seeing as how it is dirt cheap and homemade dough takes too much time and effort to make a quick pizza. (I really like the Portland Pie Company pizza dough that Hannaford is currently carrying.)

My last hurdle was hand stretching the dough. I've always known how to do it but it always took too much time; a rolling pin is just much more efficient for me. I went ahead and hand stretched my dough though, only to realize that it took just as much time once you have the dough tempered the dough. (If you don't know how to hand stretch here is the best video I could find on it.)

Pizza Margherita:

1 lb prepared pizza dough, tempered at room temperature for a few hours
1 cup ground tomatoes
3/4 lb fresh whole milk mozzerella, sliced
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt (I use Maldon sea salt here.)
Fresh pepper
Fresh Basil leaves
Flour
Parchment paper

1. Place a pizza stone of sheet pan in the lowermost register of the oven and then preheat an oven to 500F.
2. Hand stretch the dough into a thin circle less than 1/4 inch thick. (Or roll it out with a pin to the same thickness if you aren't going for authenticity.)
3. Flip the dough onto a sufficiently large piece of parchment paper, then reshape into a circle as best you can. Wet the outside inch of dough and then roll up the wet edges to form a crust. Press down to seal.
4. Add the ground tomatoes and spread evenly, then distribute the slices of mozzarella onto the pizza. Finish with salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste. (I make it a point to oil the crust as well as this enhances the crust.) Add basil to taste and then transfer to the oven to cook for 13 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.
5. Let the pizza cool for 5 to 7 minutes, then cut and serve.

Pine Nut and Artichoke "Schmear"

2012-06-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

The schmear is in the middle.

This one kind of came out of nowhere yesterday while I was making Pommes Duchesse. I knew I was going to make the potatoes with the leftover cut of strip we had, but that was about it. Later on I made a "schmear" of artichokes and toasted pine nuts using cream cheese, and I finished with a little diluted meat glaze that I had in the fridge. In the end we were all pretty happy with what was for dinner, albeit a very light dinner.

Since I already shared the Pommes Duchesse recipe and assuming everyone can cook a steak to their pleasing, I am just going to supply the schmear recipe. (A meat glaze is pretty intense to make at home but you can buy it pre-made.)

I think this sauce, schmear, what-have-you, works well with the beef. Even though it is cut with cream cheese, the toasted pine nuts give it a strong enough flavor to hold up to the red protein. We all agreed that this would make a great party dip too, though it would need more cream cheese to deaden the flavors.

Pine Nut and Artichoke "Schmear":
4 oz low fat cream cheese (more if using as a dip), at room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons pine nuts
12 oz canned artichoke hearts, drained, marinade reserved
Squeeze of fresh lemon

1. Toast pine nuts over medium heat with a little butter in a pan until deep brown.
2. Let the pine nuts cool slightly, then add them to a food processor and process until a powder forms.
3. Add the artichoke hearts and process until a thin paste forms. Add the cream cheese and process into a uniform consistency. (Add more cream cheese if you would like to use this as a dip.)
4. Just before serving, squeeze some lemon juice into the sauce and mix well.

Cooking Escoffier: Pommes de Terre Duchesse

2012-06-11T17:27:00.002-07:00

Beef Bourguignon with a layer of Pommes Duchesse

A few days ago I found my copy of Le Guide Culinaire covered in a light haze of pollen in the extra bedroom. This alerted me two things that I have been doing wrong lately. First, I have't cooked from Escoffier's masterpiece in over a month. That is a problem since I was determined to really get into his work once I got it in the mail. (It wasn't cheap either.) Secondly, I really need to close the windows in this house. Cheaping out on air conditioning is filling my house with pollen and as we all know, allergies don't mix well with pollen. Anyway, after I dusted my book off I leafed through the pages looking for my next Escoffier experience. I decided that cooking something complicated was out of the question, so went with a classic potato recipe that Escoffier uses to compose many of his hearty meat dishes.

Pommes de Terre Duchesse (or Pommes Duchesse) is a relatively simple potato dish that presents nicely in multiple formats. It does take a few more steps to make than your traditional mashed potatoes, but it is worth the extra effort when feeding a crowd of people looking for something a little different. Depending on how you finalize your Pommes Duchesse this on recipe can make anywhere from 6 to 12, or maybe even 20 servings. (Assuming you are making a composed dish and only preparing small amounts of this recipe, you can really make this go far.) Now, I did change some things from Le Guide Culinaire that I didn't agree with, mainly the use of nutmeg and the temperature of the batter before adding the eggs. Other than that, this is all Escoffier.

Piped Pommes Duchesse

Pommes de Terre Duchesse:
2 1/4 lbs potatoes
3 1/2 ounces (7 tablespoons) unsalted butter
6 eggs (4 yolks, 2 whole)
Salt
Pepper

1. Preheat an oven to 375F. Meanwhile, peel and cut potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces. Place the pieces in a large shallow pan and add enough water to cover the potatoes 3/4 of the way. Generously salt the water and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes until slightly they are slightly firm.
2. Thoroughly drain the potatoes and place them on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the oven and dry out the potatoes, about 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool slightly and slowly melt the butter in a pan over low heat while you process the potatoes.
3. Pass the potatoes through a ricer or fine sieve and mix with the melted butter. Let this mixture cool until only warm to the touch. Once cooled, add the 4 yolks and 1 whole egg to the mixture; mix gently until uniform. Preheat or raise the oven temperature to 425F.
4. Pipe the batter into small shapes and then brush each with a well beaten egg. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes and then serve.

Making Quick Iced Coffee

2012-06-03T09:21:00.001-07:00

As we gently waltz into the months of Summer the usual hot coffee is becoming a non-option as we walk out the door to work or to run errands. Myself, I almost always have my coffee cold all year round. I see how that doesn't make sense during the Winter and such, but whatever. The fact is a boiling hot cup of coffee during hot and humid weather makes even less sense to me, so I am going to share my method of making a quick cup or two of iced coffee.

Now there are many techniques to making a cold cup of coffee. The most popular being the cold extraction method. I myself have never tried it, not because I am skeptical, but just because I've always been happy with the way I make my iced coffee. The cold water extraction method also requires a little forethought, and if you're in a rush to go to where you're going it is just out of the question. As you will see, my method takes the same amount of time as making your regular cup of coffee.

The idea here is to double the amount of coffee that the water passes through to make a super strength brew. We then pour this super brew into a cup filled with ice and maybe some dairy product to dilute the rocket fuel then finish with more ice if necessary. Just make sure no one mistakes the double strength coffee for the regular stuff!

Quick Iced Coffee:
Your choice of coffee
Water
Ice
Milk, cream, or half and half (optional)
Sugar (optional)

1. Prepare your coffee in your usual manner but double the amount of coffee grinds per cup of coffee that you would normally use. (I use 2 tablespoons per cup of water for dark roasts and 4 tablespoons per cup of water for light roasts.)
2. When the coffee is done percolating or steeping completely fill a cup or glass with ice. Fill this with your regular amount of cream and sugar.
3. Pour the coffee over the ice until the cup is 80% full and then add more ice if desired.

Dirty Steak

2012-05-23T18:10:00.004-07:00

I heard of this grilling method a few years ago and held my reservations for a long time. Throwing meat directly onto ashy coals seemed like the epitome of bad decisions, especially when grilling on a grate over charcoal produces a good result. I mean why go out on a limb when you are fine with what you already do? Well I am proud to say I defied all steak-o-logical reasoning today and tried the "dirty steak" method, and dare I say it, this may be how I cook the rest of my steaks this summer... but don't hold me to that.

Here they are before they hit the coals.

Since I never made this recipe before I used some basic principles from the dirty steak recipe on Epicurious. (Found here.) Honestly I would recommend using the epicurious version first, and then branching out into thicker cuts. (The cooking times vary quite a bit based on coal temperature, distribution of heat, and what cut of steak you use.) Just as in the epicurious recipe, there are certain rules you must follow or you will fail at this prehistoric grilling method:

Do not use anything other than all natural hardwood charcoal. Briquettes and the like will ruin your food by leaving behind that unnatural smoke flavor that you would never want to taste in a million years. This also applies to lighter fluid, just don't use it.
Once the steaks are cooked to your desired temperature LET THEM REST!!! I can't stress this enough. Liquids will redistribute into the meat and wont end up pouring out onto your plate. More liquids means more flavor and a higher quality texture.
Depending on how well you cooked your steak, always be sure to scrape off any excessive amount of black char on the outside. There is no need to remove all of it, but be sure scrape off most of the smoky char with a knife before serving.

Dirty Steak:
1-2 2 inch thick strip steaks
Fresh coarsely ground black pepper
Large grain salt (Preferably a sea salt like Maldon)

1. Leave steaks at room temperature while you prepare the coals. (If you really believe tempering makes a difference like me, leave them out for a full three hours to get them to room temperature.)
2. Light coals in a chimney and let them burn until they are completely white. Drop the coals into your grill and waft away as much ash as possible.
3. Just before grilling liberally cover the steaks with salt and pepper. Quickly throw these on the coals with the fat cap down first. After a minute of cooking the fat cap cook the other two sides for 3 minutes a piece. This will give you a rare steak in the middle like the first picture below.
4. If you would like a more medium cut of steak (second picture below) leave them on for another 1 to 2 minutes per side.
5. When cooked, remove the steaks from the coals and let them rest for 5 to 10 minutes. When they are ready to serve scrape off most of the outside char and any ashes left from cooking.

The rare.

The not-so-rare.

Parmesan Cups

2012-05-14T08:27:00.001-07:00

Ah yes it is good to be back friends. After removing all internet and cooking related activities from my life last week I can finally say I am done studying for MLC. I'll get my results in a little less than eight weeks, and with any luck I will be making a celebratory meal sometime in July. Also, I plan on taking my next one in August so I will be cooking and posting much less than I wanted to this summer. Oh well! Onto the food.

I planned on making this a much larger post but I just didn't find the caponata and mini muffaleta pizza I made with these that appealing. They tasted good I guess, but they just weren't doing it for me visually. It is all the same though since I really liked this recipe. Parmesan cups are versatile and easy to make, yet they look like something you mat be served out to eat. When making mini versions of these it possible to concoct excellent hors d'ourves that present extremely well. There are a lot of uses for these edible containers, but some of my favorites are ceasar salads, cacio e pepe, and fried eggplant.

Parmesan Cups:

1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese (zested/microplaned cheese does not work)
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Parchment paper or silpat
Large muffin tin

1. Preheat an oven to 375F. Grate the cheese, and then mix the cheese with the salt and pepper.
2. Spread the cheese into 1/8 inch thick square or diamond on the parchment paper.
3. Bake this for 6 minutes and then turn off your oven. Let the Parmesan cheese brown slightly, and then promptly remove from the oven.
4. Quickly cut the square or diamond into your desired shapes. (Squares and triangles are recommended.)
5. Using a thin spatula move each square to an upside down muffin tin, and drape them over the muffin mold to make a cup.
*Do the last two steps in a timely manner as the cheese will harden and be useless as far as making a cup goes. If this does happen you can just serve square Parmesan chips with what ever you were making with the cups.

The Simplest Tomato Sauce

2012-04-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick one. With five (or six) ingredients and 10 to 30 minutes of time you can make a very simple tomato sauce for all kinds of dishes. Pasta is the most obvious choice, but if you make a lot of this at once it can be used on nearly any dish asking for a tomato based sauce. The best part is, you can recreate the version of tomato sauce that you yourself like. I prefer mine thick and smooth in consistency, but this sauce can be thin and chunky and so on and so forth.

The key to making this sauce well is heat regulation and emulsifying the sauce. After that, making this sauce to your tastes is the hardest part. I'm going to explain in the directions on how to tackle the first two problems, but I will explain the last one here:

Thickness:

For a thinner sauce that is more like a good marinara do not reduce for any longer than 10 minutes. Serve this immediately as the sauce will reduce further and thicken as it cools.
For a thicker sauce reduce for the full 30 minutes or even more until a desired thickness is reached. While reducing be careful not to let the sauce boil. It should only be simmering so it is necessary to lower the heat as the amount of liquid in the pot decreases.

Consistency:

For a chunky sauce I recommend using canned diced tomatoes, but if you like it extremely chunky chopped is okay too. I prefer Pomi brand for all of these recipes by the way.
For a smooth sauce you can use strained, ground, or pureed tomatoes in a can. Each will have a slightly different texture in the end, but they are all comparable.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Garlic:

Use a mid range extra virgin olive oil to make this sauce. Nothing too expensive, but also nothing too cheap.
Do not use more than the directed amount of garlic until you taste the sauce once or twice! This is not like making ragu and a little garlic will go longer than you might think.

Basil:

Completely optional, in fact I prefer my sauce without it. Go a head and use it if you have it in the fridge, or if you want a sauce that has a touch of basil in the background.

Simple Tomato Sauce:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

28 ounces canned tomatoes (diced, chopped, strained, ground, or pureed)

2 cloves garlic. crushed or finely minced

Salt

Pepper

2 teaspoons minced basil leaves (optional)

1. Heat olive oil and garlic in a small pot over medium low heat. Gently cook the garlic for 5 minutes, being careful not to fry it, saute it, or change its color in anyway.

2. Add 1/2 a cup of the tomatoes to the pot and whisk thoroughly until the tomatoes and the olive oil are well mixed.

3. Keep adding the tomatoes in 1/2 cup amounts and incorporate each addition by whisking thoroughly. Repeat this until all the tomatoes are used.

4. Keep the pot over medium low heat and reduce 10 to 30 minutes (or more) until you reach your desired thickness, then finish with salt and pepper to taste.