May 29th, 2013 - Wednesday - Modernist Hamburgers

Modernist Hamburgers****

So last night I did indeed make the Modernist Hamburgers! There are a ton of variations on this... and I didn't use most of them.  But I will tell you what I did.  This is something I definitely will make again, and I will certain refine it greatly.  I took the base of the recipe from the Modernist Cuisine at Home book.

I bought 9 Angus Beef 1/2 pound premade patties at Smith's Grocery.  I asked them if they could grind me a specific mixture of meat I wanted, but they needed me to buy 14 lbs of the stuff to make it worth while.  So I'm going to have to invest in a grinder.  Without that I just bought the premade patties.

I salted them and put them in refrigerator for 1 full hour (covered with saran wrap) while I heated the water bath to 55 degrees Celsius.  I prepared 9 small zip lock bags, putting a teaspoon of vegetable oil in each one.

At the end of the hour... took the meat out of the refrigerator and put one each in the nine zip lock bags.  I dipped the bags in a pot of water to get all the air out (this is explained in depth in the Modernist Cookbook).  Then i put them right into the water bath.  I let them list there for about 2 hours. It said it takes about 45 minutes for them to be done, but... i let them sit longer. It doesn't hurt.  They can't get overcooked.

I got some buns, painted them with melted butter, and browned them under the broiler. I managed to overcook them slightly.

Then I pulled the hamburgers from the bags, dried them, and dropped them in a basket of boiling Vegetable Oil to deep fry them for 30 seconds.  I took them out, patted them dry, salted them again, and put a piece of cheese on top (I used Tillamook Sharp Cheddar).  Once all six were deep fried, I then put them under the broiler with the cheese for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.  It melted the cheese nicely.

Then... we took them out and started building our burgers.  The reviews were outstanding... but there are a few areas I want to explore to expand on the taste.  First I want to grind my own meat and use my own meat blend. I want to season the meat as I want to season it.  I want to make homemade hamburger buns as the Modernists suggest. I want to try grilling the meat instead of deep frying when ti comes out of the water bath.  I want to use a Modernist Cheese making method for cheese! Yes, I know... quiet ambitious!  We'll get there and I'll report on it all!

Till then, this version was fantastic.  Perfectly cooked meat with condiments was just amazing.

May 28th, 2013 - Chef Paul Prudhomme Tradition - Sausage and Spinach Jambalaya

So we cooked a couple Chef Paul Prudhomme recipes from Seasoned America last week and I decided to go ahead and just make my own... an on the spot recipe made by me.  It turned out so good, I was told I needed to include it as a repeat (4-5 Star) recipe in the Smith Family Cookbook!

We are going to called this meal: 

Sausage Jambalaya****

Jambalaya's are traditional meals from Louisiana (Creole) that have French and Spanish influences.  The basic idea is to cook meat and vegetables, add stock and rice, and cook.  That's the basic idea, and I do this with a lot of variations. This is a sausage variation, with the strange addition of spinach...

SEASONING MIX
1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon of Onion Powder
1 teaspoon of Salt
1 teaspoon of black ground pepper
1 teaspoon of white pepper
1 teaspoon of red cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of thyme
1 teaspoon of rosemary
1 teaspoon of ground pasilla 

Now we won't use all the season mix, but this is the ratios I used.  

INGREDIENTS
1 tube of Jimmy Dean Sausage (Regular)

4  Evergood Hot Link Sausages Louisiana Brand (Slice them up) - I got these at Costco.

1 red bell pepper (you can use green, I think the red taste better)

4 stalks of celery (chopped)
1 handful of baby carrots or just 2 big chopped carrots
1 bunch of green onions
1 bunch of spinach (washed and stems cut off)
1 cup of rice
1 can of diced tomatoes
Chicken Broth

DIRECTIONS

I started by browning the Jimmy Dead Sausage in a big pot. I added 2 teaspoons of the seasoning mix.  Once cooked I added the sausage (sliced).  I cooked that a few more minutes.  Then removed all the meat to a paper towel lined plate.

I then added to the same pot (with the sausage fat in it) the diced bell pepper, celery, and carrots.  Add 1 o 2 more teaspoons of seasoning mix.  Cook about 5-7 minutes, till you feel the vegetables look good.  Then add the diced green onions cook a minute, then add the can of tomatoes... cook another minute, then add the cup of rice and cook 3-5 minutes, till the rice is good and brown.  Then add the spinach (washed and stems cut off) add the ground sausage and Louisiana hot links back into the pot and then add stock.  I think I added 6 cups of chicken stock, but you'll have to figure this out for yourself, as you want a good amount. 

Bring to a boil...

Then cover and simmer 20-30 minutes. I had too much stock so I had to simmer longer.

It was... AMAZING.  4 stars. I'll cook it again, and we'll see if it eventually becomes a classic, a 5 star family recipe!  Let me know how it turns out, and let me know the variations you make.  This was a keeper.

Next we have Modernist Hamburgers.... that's for tonight!  Hopefully the recipe will come tomorrow!

May 24th, 2013 - Friday - Paul Prudhomme's New World Chicken Fricassee

May 24th, 2013 - Friday - Paul Prudhomme's New World Chicken Fricassee -THREE STARS- After cooking Chef Paul Prudhomme's Country Captain a few days ago, I dived right back into my Cajun roots and tried another recipe from the same book:  Seasoned America.

The idea behind this book, first published way back in 1991, is that Chef Paul goes across America, and takes all of the famous recipes we are used to, and he 'seasons' them Cajun style.  The result is a list of recipes you are familiar with but have been jazzed up quiet a bit.

I have to say... I've always loved this book, and really enjoy the concept.  I highly recommend it.

So I found his recipe for New World Chicken Fricassee.  Now... I am not familiar with common Fricassee, so this is not a recipe I'm witnessing evolve from plainness to something special. It's just a recipe I'm taking out of the book and cooking.

Now I mentioned in the last post that I need to start doing a Star System for how well I like the recipe.  Star systems are a little overrated actually.  First of all... they only tell you what I thought of it.  You might think something totally different.  Also, it only tells you what I thought at the moment.  Some recipes take repeated preparing and eating for their magic to attach to our souls.

So right now you will see I gave this recipe three stars out of 5.  It was the first time I made it.  Everyone who ate it loved it, really enjoyed it.  Then why only three?  Three is a good score for me.  I like it.  I just don't know that I will ever make it again.  I think you have to want to make it again and again for it to be 4-5 stars.

So here is the recipe.  Of course I've changed it from what Paul did, which he would expect me to do!

SEASONING MIX

1 tablespoon of salt
2 teaspoons of paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder 
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon of white pepper

NOTE:  The list above, minus the Paprika, is the base of almost all Cajun cooking.  Each spice mixture has a healthy mix of salt, garlic, onion, black and white pepper.  Often Red pepper is added to really round the taste out.  If you make spice mixtures in the Cajun tradition, start with a 1:1:1 ration of these and you will have a great base spice mixture every time.  Then whatever else you add with build individual flavors on top of your foundations.

1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon marjoram

NOTE: I almost never have recipes that use Marjoram.  But I love the smell of it.  I think I should use it more often.

1/2 teaspoon of Tarragon

NOTE: I've become a big fan of tarragon with chicken. Tarragon alone seasoning chicken in a wine sauce is amazing.  

1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds of chicken without bones
Olive Oil
2 Onions chopped
1 cup of Celery chopped
2 cups of sliced carrots
5 small bay leaves
2 cups of pearl  onions (I used a frozen bag of them, pre-pealed and everything.  Only way to do it!)
1 small can of mushrooms (I only had 1 can, I would have liked to use more)
2 teaspoons of fresh garlic minced (or garlic from a jar which I used)
1/2 cup of flour
4 cups of chicken stock
2 cups of heavy cream (I used half and half)

You can obviously substitute different vegetables here.  Bell Peppers come to mind.  Also different proportions.  Also tomatoes.  I actually added a can of cut green beans.  I love canned green beans for some reason.  Isn't that weird?

DIRECTIONS

Mix the spices together, then put a good portion on the chicken rubbed in with your hands.  Heat the oil in a big pan, and then brown the chicken.  Take the chicken out, and add the vegetables in layers.   Put  some in and cook with some spice mixture 4-5 minutes, then add another layer.  Usually three layers, so you get three different textures of food in your cooking.  When you've cooked the vegetables enough, throw in the garlic and flour, mix it together, and then add the stock and put the chicken and accumulated juices back into the pot.  Bring to a boil.  Add the cream... and bring back to a boil.

Simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.

We ate this over noodles, out on the porch with my family, as a comfort food, and it was well received.  Three out of four stars.  Don't know that I will make it ever again... but I can say I really enjoyed it.    If you try it, let me know how you liked it and what your subtractions and additions were!

Chef Paul Prudhomme Country Captain

May 21st, 2013 - Tuesday - It has been really busy lately and I've taken to doing something I haven't done in years. Buying frozen meals.  I started with PF Changes Frozen Meal!

Then the next night we did:

So what were the results?

Not great... not at all... so I decided I needed to cook again, on my own! And I decided to do a meal called Country Captain.  In December of 2012 I found three Country Captain Recipes in different books and cooked all three one night in a taste test with my family.  I don't have the details of that cook-off here on the blog, but if I ever do it again I'll do a full post for them. The Paul Prudhomme Country Captain from his book Seasoned America won!

This meal is very similar to some of his Jambalaya that he cooks.  It's a chicken dish heavily seasoned, cooked in rice.   He does a lot of these meals, and they are an absolute favorite of my son Riley.  After the foray into Frozen Meal goodness... it was a nice return to cook something up on our own.  Here is the modified recipe that I used.  I really like this meal, but I wouldn't rate it as top notch. I should create a rating scale to try and make sense of things, but there is a part of me that thinks that's a dumb idea. I'll just let you cook it and tell me where YOU rate it!  

Seasoning Mix

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of curry powder.  I used Bolst's Mild Curry Powder (1 tablespoon) and Rajah Tandoori Masala (1 teaspoon) -  

When it comes to curry powder, well... there are so many brands out there.  For years I used to use Spice Islands Curry Powder only!

Now I have like 20 different brands... One day we are going to have to get serious and figure out which one is the best. It's going to take some serious work and testing... 

On with the recipe...

2 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons of sugar or brown sugar

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon of dried cilantro leaves

1/2 teaspoon of dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon of dried sweet basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon of white pepper

1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice

As with most of my spices, I usually use Spice Islands.

I've considered some variations to this mix.  First of all we could try different Curry Powder brands and see what we get.  Additionally we could add some more pepper to heat it up, white, black, and red mixes always being something I recommend.

Ingredients

2 lbs of chicken tenders - You can use whatever you want here to be honest, chicken breasts, thighs, bone in, bone out . I just had boneless chicken tenders from Costco.

1/2 cup or so of flour

Oil food Cooking - I used about 4 tablespoons of Olive Oil

4 small onions, chopped

2 red bell peppers, chopped - Obviously you can use whatever color peppers you want, but I've noticed that the red ones are a bit sweeter to the taste.  They cost more than green ones, but I think they DO taste different.

1 cup of uncooked rice

1 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic (I get mine from a jar, but you can use fresh)

4 small tomatoes chopped

1 cup of almonds (I didn't slice them, but I think I would next time.  Chop them up good!)

1/2 cup of raisins 

4 cups of chicken stock

This ingredient list can fluctuate. If you don't like almonds and raisins, take them out.  I think the main ingredients are the chicken, rice, onions, pepper, and tomato.  You can add or subtract a few things to that as you like.

Instructions

Add all the spices into a bowl and mix well.  Use a bunch of it to coat the chicken pieces, patting it in with your hands.  Heat the oil in a big pot.  Dredge the chicken, and cook 5-7 minutes, turning often.  Take chicken out.  

You might need to add some more oil here... Throw in some onions and some more spice mixture.  Cook 5 minutes or so.  Add the rice, more spice mixture, and stir and cook 3-4 minutes.  Then add the garlic and tomatoes, and the rest of the onions and peppers and the rest of the spice mixture.  Cook a 5 more minutes, then add the almonds, raisins, and stock and throw the chicken back in there.  You might need more or less stock.

Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer for 20 minutes, covered.  Then turn off the heat and let stand 15 minutes covered.  Then it's ready!

Let me know how you like it!  The idea of mixing meats, vegetables and rice together into meals is just fantastic, and there are endless variations.  This is a good one.  

Jan Smith's Spaghetti Sauces

Jan’s Spaghetti Sauce

Well, I hope this is Jan's (my Mom).  I found a recipe in her golden book hand written and it was kind of vague.  So I went and looked at Paul Prudhomme’s Chicken Mamou with Pasta and used the ‘quantities’ of that recipe to base this recipe.  I’ll have to send this to Rick my brother and see how close it is to what he would do.  We might adjust it, or just add a different one for his.   It turned out pretty good, except my Dad said it wasn't as good, it wasn't Jan’s.  Everyone else loved it. 

Additional note 4/13/2013 – Okay I cooked it again and this time I changed some things and this time I nailed it.  Perfect.  Dad loved it and everyone agreed it was awesome.  The weird thing was how damn good it was the next day.  This is the recipe.  No worries.

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive oil and 1/4^th a stick of butter.

2-3 Yellow Onions, Diced

2-3 Tablespoons of Fresh or Jarred Garlic

Salt & Pepper Bouquet Garni (to Taste)

6 lbs of Meat (I used the following, but feel free to substitute and try and come up with different mixes)

• 2 lbs of Jimmy Dean Sausage
• 2 lbs of lean Ground Beef (Hamburger)
• 2 lbs of Hot Italian Sausage – this is the secret ingredient. I think used Johnsonville.  This was it.  This is the secret.  Don’t use Colisimo.

1 SW Premium Crushed Tomatoes (28 oz cans)

1 SW Premium Tomato Sauce (29 oz)

1 Hunts Tomato Paste (12 oz)

Fresh Oregano

6 Tb sugar

3 Packages of fresh 8 oz cut up mushrooms or three cans of canned mushrooms.

In a huge pot over high heat add the butter and oil and heat till hot.  Then add the diced onions and garlic and season.  Cook for about 5-7 minutes, until onions get a little translucent and are sweet.  Remove them to a bowl.

Add the meats, and start browning. Season.  When Brown add the onions back in, and then add the huge can of Crushed or diced Tomatoes, and then fill the can with water and add that into the mix.   Do the same with the huge can of Tomato Sauce, adding 1 full can of water. It will feel runny at this point, no worries, add the can of tomato paste.  Add as much oregano as you want. I put a lot.  Fresh leaves I stripped off the stalk and throw in there.  Sprinkle the sugar over it.  Add the onions back into the pot, add the canned or fresh mushrooms.  Bring to a boil.

Then… let it simmer covered for hours.  1-4 hours is fine.  This is it.  That will produce my Mom’s sauce.  The secret is the Hot Italian sausage, the taste permeates everything.  You’ll also flat out be amazed the next day, it tastes totally different and 100% better.  (and it’s great the first time!)

Robuchon Pork Chop Discussion on Failure

I have got onto a Pork Chop tangent.  Honestly, I started to utilize the 'techniques' of the Test Kitchen, meaning test a recipe over and over again and figure it out on your own.  So I did Pork Chops the other night and they were amazing... but not quite perfect.  Jumping the gun I wrote my Robuchon Recipe last night and cooked them again... the result?  They were good, but not as good as before!  What the hell?  Well, I made some changes all of which I assumed would make them better.

1.  I cooked them in a nonstick pan.  Not sure if this made a difference.
2.  Instead of letting them sit for 10 minutes before grilling them, I slammed them straight on the grill.
3.  I grilled them for less time.
4.  I let them sit AFTER grilling.
5.  I covered them in bacon fat before putting them on the grill.
6.  I used more wine and stock in the sauce because the first one was pretty thick.
7.  I got the thickest chops I could, but they weren't as thick.
8 . I cooked them over lower heat.

All of this made everyone agree... they were good... but not as good.  How did that happen?  Well that is a LOT of changes above so somewhere in there is the answer.  So... what am I going to do? You know it. It's Friday, I'm dropping my wife off at the airport for a trip she has to take, on the way home this morning I'm buying more chops, and today, cooking them ONE AT A TIME, we'll further mess with this recipe.  I was pissed they didn't taste as good.  All that work on that nice looking recipe, first one out the door, and I misled everyone. It isn't that good yet.

Okay, look for further Pork Chop revelations as we go.

Robuchon Pork Chops - March 28th, 2013

There is this dude named Joel Robuchon.  He's quite the famous French cook.  I heard from him in association with Gordon Ramsay, a rather famous English cook.   Robuchon's cookbook is big, black and white, no pictures, and chock full of good information.  In his book The Complete Robuchon he has a recipe for a single Pork Chop.  Yeah... one pork chop.  Interesting.  Anyway, I took that recipe and built upon it by adding his cornichon sauce, adding some techniques from America's Test Kitchen Cookbook  and adding a Modernist Cuisine magic touch at the end.

So here is the conglomerated recipe that has gotten RAVE reviews from all my taste testers.

Ingredients
Pork Chops
Salt
Pepper
1 teaspoon of neutral oil live vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of butter

1.  Take the Pork Chops out of the refrigerator and let sit out for 20 minutes.  Not sure why he does this.  Someone know? If they do email me so I don't look so stupid telling you to do something when I don't have a clue why.
2.  Start your grill and turned it up all the way and let it get hot!  Grease the skids.
3.  Heat the oil and the butter, then under low heat put salted and peppered porkchops into the pan.  Cook slowly.  How long?  Good thing you asked, because what you  need now is an Instant Read Thermometer.  The Modernist Cuisine at Home cook book recomends the ThermoWorks Instant Read Thermometer and reminds you it's CRUCIAL to have one for Modernist Cooking.  I'll say this, if you want these pork chops to turn out perfectly, with no guesswork, you'll need one.

4.  Robuchon suggest that you baste the chops in the oil and butter quite often, flipping and it and turning it, etc.  The key here is to use your thermometer and get an instant read of 135 degrees inside.  It's still a little pink there, but as explained in detail in the Modernist Cooking cookbooks, pork is quiet safe right now and 99% of people in the world over cook it due to a false fear.  You DO want it a little pink.  Really? Yep.  Read up on it here:  Modernist Cookbook.  The Test Kitchen folks will tell you the same thing.

5.  Once you have your desired temperature, now you got to SEAR THEM!  This is the magical part.  Really... don't skip this.  Take the chops coat them in melted bacon grease.  Did you hear me say that right?  Yes you did.  Melted.  Bacon.  Grease.  Then... slam them on your ridiculously hot grill for about 1/2 a minute to a full minute per side.  BAM!  Take them off and let the rest while you make the sauce!

Ingredients for the Sauce

1 Cup of Chicken Stock
1 Medium Onion chopped up
1/2 Cup of White Wine
1 tablespoon of Mustard
2 teaspoons of butter
3 ounces or more of cornichons - these are small gherkin sweet pickles
Salt
Pepper

1.  Get rid of most of the fat that is left after frying the chops above.  You just mostly want brown juices and tasty bits.  Turn up the heat, and add the onion.  Cook for 3 minutes or so, maybe a bit longer if you are at altitude like I am. You are looking for a sweet translucent color.
2.  Then add the white, it should spit and his at you.  Scrape up any brown bits, then add the stock.  Cook a couple minutes more, 2-3.
3.  Add the mustard and lower the heat.  At this same time I sometimes add some dried tarragon  salt, and pepper, because I like it.  But you can do what you want (obviously).  Then add 2 teaspoons of butter and mix in, then add the pickles (cornichons) sliced up small.

Now put pour the sauce over the chops, and... email me.  If you don't like it, I'll be surprised.  In fact, I'll be convinced you messed up the recipe and it's not my fault.  How else could you not like this magical dish?