Whats Cooking? 2012

Hello all and Happy Independence Day (to us Yanks)!

Headed east this morning and picked up some jumbo blue claws and a few pounds of shrimp. These crabs were almost a pound each! Steamed the crabs, grilled the shrimp on the bbq and served with roasted rosemary/parsley/basil potatoes, corn on the cob, stuffed bacon wrapped jalapenos, and very cold Buds.





Tom

Pork Tenderloins marinated in lemon juice, sherry vinegar, shallot, garlic, oregano, Coleman's mustard powder, salt and white pepper and grilled on the Weber.

Green Beans sauteed with garlic and bacon.

Lavender Pastry Cream, Blackberry and Raspberry Tart. (red, white and blue)

Odesea Albarino

A little light lunch

I'll take column A, B, and sure. . . C.??

ouch said:

A little light lunch

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The missus has gone to Indonesia on a business trip (to a nickel ore mine in the middle of Sulawesi as it happens) and I am self-catering. Tonight it is a rib-eye steak with a brandy cream sauce. Pan fried the steak, tent, and set aside. Add chopped shallot and garlic, sweat. That's not hard in my kitchen no AC. Throw in a decent slurp of brandy and flame. When the flames are out, add some cornflour and stir in. Add about two cups of beef stock (I cheated and used a cube, but in fairness it was an organic branded one that I bought in France), and stir so no lumps. Increase heat and reduce, and lob in a cheeky amount of cold butter just to make sure it's nice and healthy. When it's nice and thick, spoon in two teaspoons of thick cream and stir through. Stir in any juices from the steak and pour over the steak. I had a green salad with a lemon and EVOO dressing with it, and a bottle of NZ Pinot Noir that was on special offer this afternoon in the supermarket, only SGD20...

#1, resting steak
#2, sweating shallot and garlic
#3 reducing stock with healthy butter
#4 the finished sauce

Weird, I just cannot get this posting photos sussed.



Anyway, dinner for one, sir?

So on Monday I had some lamb and herb sausages for dinner, with fried eggs and Heinz baked beans, just fancied sausages for some reason. They only come in packs of 6 and even I cannot eat a whole pack on my own so I was due to have the remaining three last night, but didn't want to just have the same thing again, also I was a bit more peckish than Monday and needed some carbs.

So I cut the sausages open and scooped out the meat, into a pan with a little oil - they don't have as much fat as a porky one would have but I cannot have those in the house (missus is a Muslim!) - and broke up the meat with the back of spoon, fried it off for a while. In with finely chopped garlic and an equally finely chopped bird's eye chilli, then a teaspoon of paprika and some dried oregano.

Meanwhile I had a pan boiling away with some penne pasta cooking according to instructions. When my little timer thing 'dinged', I drained the penne, but leaving a little of the cooking water behind and tossed into the pan. Added a knob of butter and a small grating of Parmesan, tossed it all around to mix and make the sauce.

Tip into a pasta bowl, slug of EVOO and more Parmesan, and open a can of Asahi to aid lubrication.

Turned out really well, and will figure again when the missus is back.

A little Dungeness action for 2:

Today I made Chateaubriand steak for the first time. Started with an untrimed tenderloin and YouTube. Was perfect!

I love Sunday mornings. By Sunday I've got most of the "have to do" things done and I can do things I enjoy. One of the things I enjoy is cooking so this morning I sent aunt Jemima on vacation and made my pancakes from scratch. Truthfully I've not had a box of pancake mix in the house for over 10 years as making them from scratch is sooooo easy and taste soooooo much better.

To start. Put your pan on the stove. I believe that one of the major causes of pancake failure is not having the pan at the proper temperature. Folk tend to put the pan on high heat after they have mixed their batter. . . resulting in underdone pancakes for the first few and burnt pancakes at the end of their cooking session. What is the proper temperature???? On my stove it looks like this
below medium.

The recipe I use is something like this:

1 ½ cups of flour
1 tbsp. brown sugar (I had none and used white)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
(a bit of vanilla is nice but optional)
3 tbsp. melted butter / oil / BACON GREASE!!!
1 egg
1 ¼ cups milk

I mix it all together with a fork. You want it to be fairly liquid otherwise you will end up with pancakes that are so thick they don't cook in the middle . . . but you don't want it too runny or you will end up with crapes (not too bad a thing if that is what you are looking for)

I have not really measured it for years except for the flour. I just know how much to grab out with my hands . . . scoop out baking soda and powder with a finger etc.

I put a bit of butter into the pan, perhaps a teaspoon and spread it out with a lifter. After I pour in the batter I add chunks of cheese and cover the cheese with a bit of batter so that it does not leak out so much as it would do other wise.

Here is what it looked like.

A simple addition to this thread. A couple pounds of fresh yellow squash in a flat bottomed pan covered in Olive oil.


Add a little salt and after 1.5-2 hours of slow cooking its ready. This photo taken about 10 minutes before the cooking stopped. I usually remove the lid and cook off much of the water, but this time left it soupy. It's not sweet, but tastes better than candy.

I'm considering making a Dungeness crab and artichoke risotto with saffron. I just don't know if I'm too lazy.

Alacrity59 said:

pancakes... making them from scratch is sooooo easy and taste soooooo much better.

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soooo much better.

Last night, Grilled rack of lamb, grilled asparagus, mashed potatoes. Port Wine Demiglace sauce for the lamb, and Creme Brulee for dessert:

Blondie said:

Last night, Grilled rack of lamb, grilled asparagus, mashed potatoes. Port Wine Demiglace sauce for the lamb, and Creme Brulee for dessert:

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That looks great

Nice Phil!

Blondie said:

Last night, Grilled rack of lamb, grilled asparagus, mashed potatoes. Port Wine Demiglace sauce for the lamb, and Creme Brulee for dessert:

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I have always wanted to make demiglace, but the process seems very involved and a little too daunting for me.

JoshuaNY said:

I have always wanted to make demiglace, but the process seems very involved and a little too daunting for me.

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Only takes me 3 days at Christmas..

JoshuaNY said:

That looks great

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Thank you! It could have been a touch rarer, but it was my first time cooking one of these, and I got a gas grill this summer for weeknight convenience, and I am still learning that as well. Been a charcoal guy for 40+ years.

Jim said:

Nice Phil!

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That means alot coming from you!

JoshuaNY said:

I have always wanted to make demiglace, but the process seems very involved and a little too daunting for me.

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Actually, I cheat on the demiglace. I use one that is already made, expensive, but takes alot of work out for you. This one is pretty good, very little salt, and alot of restaurants use it as well:



I found it at Amazon, and it is not too bad on a subscribe and save:

http://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Gou...337&sr=1-3-catcorr&keywords=more+than+gourmet

That stuff is pretty darn good. A little doctoring and you can make a very nice sauce. They make a few nice sauce bases. The Glace is good. The Turkey one is pretty awesome too.