Marinated Skirt Steak, Asparagus and Tomato Bacon Stew, and Butter Poached Potatoes

It is Sunday night after a long Thanksgiving weekend.  After five days off, it's back to work tomorrow to a busy week so I wanted to fit in one last Ad Hoc meal.  I picked up a skirt steak for the marinated skirt steak recipe as well as the ingredients for asparagus and tomato bacon stew and butter poached potatoes.  I thought all of these dishes sounded like good comfort food to start the week back. 

The first step was making a marinade for the skirt steak.  Skirt steak can be a little tough after being cooked so I was extra careful to trim and cut the steak across the grain into pieces before marinating.  The marinade was a combination of herbs, garlic, peppercorns, and olive oil which you bring to a simmer over the stove.

The first step for the butter poached potatoes is to make emulsified butter which is basically just melted butter with a little water whisked in.  The recipe has you cut the marble potatoes in half and then cover them with the emulsified butter.  I had to melt a pound of butter to get enough to cover... no cholesterol tests this week for us.  Pouring that much butter over the potatoes scares me a little because this is a "heart attack waiting to happen" kind of dish if I ever have seen one.  You then bake the potatoes in the oven over a low temperature for two hours. With all of the butter, cream, and cheese in these recipes you may find me cooking the Weight Watchers cookbook for the next project!  Look at all of this butter...

I started the asparagus and tomato bacon stew by cooking bacon in a little water to render the fat.

I then sauteed chopped leeks, onions, and garlic in the bacon fat until tender and then added a can of whole tomatoes.  The mixture cooks down and half is pureed before adding the residual cooked bacon. The finished stew...

After marinating the skirt steak, I quickly browned the steaks on both sides with butter, thyme, and garlic. 

The steaks were then transferred to the oven until cooked to medium rare, the asparagus was cooked in oil and chicken stock, and the finished stew was drizzled over the cooked asparagus.  The butter poached potatoes were very good and surprise...buttery!  The asparagus with the tomato bacon stew was a very rustic dish and the bacon and tomato really complimented the asparagus.  I really liked this dish as I love asparagus and am always looking for new ways to prepare.  The skirt steak had a great flavor but was still a little tough even though it was cooked perfectly to medium rare.  The herbs, butter, and garlic really gave it a nice mellow flavor without overpowering the beef.  We enjoyed the marinade and will definitely use it again just maybe on a different cut of beef.  The finished dishes with the exception of the potatoes which didn't look all that different cooked than the picture above since all you can see is the butter...

 

In summary, a great Sunday night supper and we finished it off with leftover brownies from the previous post.  Thanks to all of you reading for all of the sweet comments on the blog.  It's been a fun project so far and the words of encouragement will definitely keep me going!

Sweet Onion Tapenade, Coleslaw, and Brownies

Today was my favorite football day of the year...in-state rivalry day.  Teams from each state match up each year on this day for bragging rights in the state until the next year.  We are UGA grads and we get to duke it out with the nerds..err, Yellowjackets every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  This year we invited family and friends over for a Low Country Boil.  I wanted to do a few things from the book to compliment the boil so I selected sweet onion tapenade as an appetizer, coleslaw to serve with the low country, and brownies for dessert.  Everything turned out great with the meal and I am happy to report that the Dawgs will have bragging rights for the next year in Georgia!

To make the tapenade, I started the process by having a good cry.  I am super sensitive to onions and this was a strong one.  I looked like something out of a horror movie with a mascara streaked face as I diced a red onion and the tears streamed down my cheeks.  I think I need to invest in those goofy onion goggles.  After managing to dice the onion, I cooked it over low heat in oil to soften the onion but not brown it.  The pictures I took aren't the best as I am having to use a cell phone until I get my camera back. 

After the onions were cooked, I added to a blender with milk, olives, capers, garlic, and olive oil.   The finished puree can be jarred and kept in the refrigerator.

  I served the tapenade with toasted bread rounds.

The coleslaw recipe was fairly easy.  You start by making a dressing of sour cream, mayo, champagne vinegar, dry mustard, and celery seeds.  

 You then mix the dressing in with shredded red and green cabbage, diced carrot sticks, and toasted sesame seeds.  The finished product made a pretty dish with the red and green cabbage and specks of orange from the carrot.  I normally make coleslaw using my food processor but it always ends up kind of mushy.  I chopped the cabbage into strips and then diced it and the consistency was more of a salad.

The highlight was the brownies.  For something that sounds so simple, they turned out to be great.  I started by sifting flour with cocoa powder and salt.  I then beat sugar and eggs together in my mixer.   Half of the butter (three sticks, of course they were good!) is melted and mixed in with the other half of solid butter.  This makes a creamy mixture with chunks of whole butter.  The dry ingredients and butter are added into the sugar and eggs and then a chopped 60% dark Godiva chocolate bar was added to the mixture.  I didn't take a lot of pictures through the process but here is the finished brownie.  They were sinful and the dark chocolate really hit the spot. 

Way to go brownies and way to go Dawgs!

Creamed Baby Spinach

The holidays are here!  I love this time of year.  Thanksgiving and Christmas always inspire me to try new recipes and I love shopping for gifts for my family.  Thanksgiving is the time to stop and be thankful for what you have been given.  I am thankful for wonderful family and friends to share my dishes with and also that I am healthy and able enough to get in the kitchen and do all of this madness!

We had Thanksgiving lunch at my parents' house and my contribution to the meal was Creamed Baby Spinach from the book.  The ingredients were easy to pack and travel with.

The first step of the recipe is making a Mornay sauce which is a bechamel flavored with cheese.  I used a French Swiss cheese that I found at the Fresh Market.  To make the sauce you cook onion in butter and then add flour and then cream and milk.  The sauce is seasoned with cloves, nutmeg, peppercorns, and bay leaf.  After the sauce simmers for about thirty minutes, you whisk in the cheese. I then wilted the spinach in butter with shallots...

 After stirring the Mornay sauce into the wilted spinach...

 

 I topped the dish with more of the grated cheese used in the sauce. 

After baking the dish in the oven until it was bubbly and the cheese melted, it was ready to serve.

The dish was delicious but I did totally negate any health benefits from spinach by covering it with that much butter, cream, and cheese.  I think I could make a spinach lover out of a hater with this one.

Fresh Tuna Salad

My second find at the Fresh Market trip last weekend was fresh tuna. 

There is a gorgeous picture in the book showcasing a salad made with fresh tuna, avocados, and eggs, basically a fancy tuna salad nicoise.  The steps in the recipe also looked doable for a Monday night after a long work day.

I started out by blanching haricot verts (ok, green beans) and working on my medium-cooked eggs.  The first attempt at medium-cooked eggs turned into grossly-undercooked eggs so I had to try twice.  I then made the simple vinaigrette from the book which was a vinaigrette of Dijon mustard, red vinegar, and oil.  I tossed a bowl of bibb lettuce with the vinaigrette...

I then tossed cherry tomatoes, the green beans, and Kalamata olives in a separate bowl of vinaigrette.  I could have stopped and eaten this bowl by itself, the color combination in the bowl looked awesome...

After briefly searing the tuna, I assembled the salad with all of the ingredients.  This was the prettiest dish yet.  The salad was pretty tasty for a salad.  Every bite was different and the creamy avocados and medium cooked eggs were really good with the vinaigrette and tuna.  We didn't make a dent in the salad though.  When pondering why we keep having so many leftovers, Matt figured out that I have been following the book's recipes so exactly that I have been cooking for six instead of two.  Will have to work on that going forward!

Rack of Pork Arista

The story behind the name of this recipe takes us to Florence, Italy (one of my favorite places) to a meeting of Greek and Roman dignitaries.  They were served a dish of roasted pork which was heavily seasoned with cloves, herbs, pepper, and garlic and the dignitaries were heard to murmur "Arista, arista" which translates to "this is terrific, the best!" 

I finally made it to the Fresh Market over the weekend for the first time since starting the cookbook project.  I went armed with ten or so recipe variations to see what was in stock and what caught my eye.  Well the rack of pork did it.  The market had one crown roast of pork which looked gorgeous in the meat case sitting high above the other pieces of meat.  I mean look at this thing...

I started the process by making a pork brine of lemons, garlic, salt, and herbs and simmering the ingredients over the stove.  After brining the pork for ten hours, I mixed up a rub of cloves, garlic, lemon peel, herbs, and pepper using my mortar and pestle (using this thing always makes me feel like a caveman..lol)

I had "rubbed" the pork and was ready to put in the oven when I realized I had enough pork to feed a group of Roman dignitaries and only two mouths to feed it to.  I rounded up a few friends for an impromptu potluck dinner and pulled the roast out of the oven.  The finished product was gorgeous.  A crown roast sure does make an impressive presentation!

It tasted as good as it looked.  I did have some problems with it being evenly cooked throughout as the middle was close to medium-rare and the outsides were close to medium well but with it being such a large piece of meat, that was inevitable.  This one will go in the keeper pile.  It's beautiful when served and feeds a bunch of folks.  Arista, arista!

Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Puree of Garlic Potatoes

This was a fun one!  Exactly what I needed after the poached salmon and cabbage.  I have been promising this one since the start of the project and was ready to go with the brine and everything when my fridge went out and I lost my poor chicken.  So here is take two and I must say it was a big success!

Growing up in the South will cause you to appreciate fried chicken as a bit of a delicacy.  We have tons of what we call "soul food" restaurants and diners in every small town and fried chicken is always one of their specialties.  I was excited to try this recipe because it featured a new brining technique that I haven't tried before with fried chicken.  I also decided to pair it with "puree of garlic potatoes" from the book...more simply stated down here as "mashed potatoes."

The night before I wanted to fry the chicken, I made up a chicken brine of water, salt, honey, lemons, herbs, and some other ingredients.  I brined the chicken during the day while I was at work and came home at lunch to make the garlic confit (another recipe from the book) for the potato recipe.  Garlic confit is basically cloves of garlic that simmer in oil for about thirty minutes.

 

The cloves get really soft and can be used to flavor dishes and the garlic oil can also be used.  Here is my finished garlic confit:

 After getting home from work, I boiled the yukon gold potatoes to be used in the recipe, peeled them, and put them a pot with butter and the garlic confit cloves.  I used my immersion blender to puree the potatoes and set them aside.

  I then heated a large pot of peanut oil (the only oil that can be used to fry chicken in my book) and setup my alternating breading stations of flour, buttermilk, and flour.  The flour is seasoned with various spices such as cayenne pepper, paprika, and others.

 After the oil was heated, I fried the chicken in batches and stirred in heated heavy cream to the potatoes.

We had our friend Stephen over for dinner and the fried chicken was definitely a hit.  He said the fried chicken was on par with that of the "Clayton Cafe" which had previously been his "BOAT" (best-of-all-time).  The crust was light and airy and the brine on the chicken made it super moist and gave it a nice lemon flavor which really complemented the breaded crust.  The potatoes were the perfect complement to the fried chicken and this made for one excellent Southern meal.  I think Mr. Keller must have spent some time in Georgia!

Poached Salmon and Caramelized Savoy Cabbage

"She hates salmon...he hates cabbage" should be the name of this post.  I really don't know what I was thinking on this one.  I have never been a big salmon fan despite my efforts to have a long term relationship with the fish.  I appreciate the health benefits but can't get past the often "fishy" taste that it has.  We have had some success with grilling salmon on cedar planks that has turned out pretty well so I thought...maybe I like salmon?  Well, I don't.  As a side note, my husband Matt hates cabbage as well but the recipe suggested pairing the salmon on a bed of caramelized cabbage which turned out to be a big mistake for our household.

As I began reading the poached salmon recipe, I realized I had one ding against me in that I don't own (nor really have a use for) a fish poacher.  However, the book is great at offering suitable suggestions for the cooking method if you are lacking the necessary equipment.  I began by making a court bouillon (check..  another recipe down from the book!) by simmering leeks, carrots, onions, wine, vinegar, and stock to make a quick vegetable broth.  The sachet you see is a cheesecloth wrapped in twine that has thyme, garlic, and peppercorns.  It is a method used quite often in the book to flavor dishes.  This is the court bouillon...

While the court bouillon was simmering, I set to work on the melted onion recipe (another check from the book!) which is used in the caramelized savoy cabbage recipe.  The recipe instructs you to slice 3 onions, sprinkle with salt, and cook in a sauté pan (no butter or oil) until the onions begin to release their juices.  I didn't use the full amount of onions and had a problem with the onions not releasing any juices.  I think my problem may have been lack of quantity but I hated to have a whole pan of melted onions when I was only using 1/4 cup in my recipe.  The pan was super dry and the onions ended up browning (almost burning) way too early.  You then cover the onions with a parchment lid, add butter which mine desperately needed, and simmer for about 30 minutes.  I think the onions were supposed to be creamy...mine looked more like those crunchy onion sticks that come in a can.  Here is a picture early on in the onion process, I am too embarrassed to post a picture of the finished melted onion. 

I have never worked with savoy cabbage before but it is described as a mild cabbage so I thought I could slip it in and maybe the taste wouldn't be too strong for Matt.  The cabbage was very leafy and had a combination of dark and lighter greens throughout.  Here is what the savoy cabbage looked like prior to blanching it...

After blanching the cabbage, I setup my homemade fish poaching station.  I basically used a large roasting pan that I was able to place the whole piece of salmon in the bottom of and submerged it completely with the court bouillon.  The recipe instructs you to keep the court bouillon at a temperature of 200 degrees until the center of the salmon reaches 120 degrees.  This is what the salmon looked like during the cooking process (it is hard to make out a lot since the court bouillon covers the fish).

Meanwhile, I set to work at caramelizing the cabbage until it had browned in a pan with canola oil.  After all of the cabbage had been caramelized, I added it to a large stock pan with chicken stock and the melted (crispy!) onions and added butter.


It was difficult to tell when the salmon was done in the poaching liquid.  It is hard to use a meat thermometer to test fish, especially fish that is completely submerged in liquid.  It was also quite a feat to lift the salmon out of the water with two large spatulas without the whole thing falling apart but I managed to do it.

I served the salmon atop the bed of caramelized cabbage, sat down for dinner, and we both said in unison "I don't like it."  I thought the cabbage was edible and the salmon was disgusting and Matt thought the opposite which tells me our review of the dish probably is due to personal taste rather than a flawed recipe.  However, I can't imagine there is a cookbook in print in which every recipe will be a smashing hit.  I will say the poached salmon was very moist and seemed to be cooked perfectly.  At the end of the day it was the fishy taste that got me on this one and the bitter cabbage that got my husband.  Sorry Mr. Keller but I don't think we will be making this one again!

Heirloom Bean and Escarole Soup

In trying to mix it up, I decided to try a soup recipe next.  Most of the soup recipes in the book have some difficult to find ingredients but this one seemed to be one I could pull off.  Escarole is a form of endive and while I couldn't locate escarole, I did find endive at my local store so I used this instead.  I am quickly learning that many of these recipes involve several steps ahead of the time you actually want to make the dish.  I am realizing the book is easy to follow but likely not for a "decide what's for dinner at six pm" kind of person.  The first step in this recipe involved soaking the beans overnight.  I wasn't sure what "heirloom" bean meant and the recipe indicated any type of white bean so that's what I used.  

After soaking overnight, I cooked the beans over a slow simmer with leeks, carrots, herb bouquet, and onions.

I also had to pick up a ham hock to make the broth which also consisted of chicken stock, leeks, carrots, and onions.

Now, you would think I would be way skilled with a ham hock being that I am from Georgia, but I have actually never bought a ham hock, cooked a ham hock, and I dang sure haven't tried to cut the meat out of a cooked ham hock as the recipe instructed!  I did the best I could...although the the ham hock was greasy and tough once cooked.  I'm not sure what part of a hog the "hock" is from and I don't think I want to google it to find out.  We will leave that as a mystery....but I will see there were some very interesting parts of a pig in the basket with the ham hock at the supermarket and we'll leave it at that...

After getting the broth ready, I added the beans and then stirred in the escarole/endive.   The soup turned out to be pretty good for a cold fall night.  It was very flavorful but a little on the salty side.  The broth called for a "generous" helping of salt so I may have gotten carried away.  Here is what the finished dish looked like:

Next up is that buttermilk fried chicken recipe I have been promising...maybe the fridge won't go out this time!

Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon, Creamed Summer Corn, and Scallion Potato Cakes

I had promised the Buttermilk Fried Chicken for my next post.  I had made the Brine, bought the Chicken, and cut into the pieces and then my fridge went out!  So the brine and chicken went to the trash and I had to opt for something that didn't require so much preparation ahead of time.  I selected the Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon and I had the ingredients on hand for the Creamed Summer Corn and Scallion Potato Cakes.  I still had some Tarragon in my herb garden so I thought it may be a good time to take advantage before the winter frost hit here in Georgia.

I started out by making a rub for the Chicken Breasts of paprika and curry powder.  After refrigerating for two hours, you then pound the breasts into pretty thin pieces.  After sautéing on each side to a nice golden brown, a sauce is made which included wine, shallots, butter, and tarragon.  The sauce smelled fantastic thanks to the wine , herbs, and shallots.  The chicken also browned to a beautiful golden brown color thanks to the paprika rub.

The finished chicken dish after the sauce and garnish was added...

The creamed corn recipe called for fresh corn cut from the cob that was sauteed and then cooked with a heaping portion of heavy cream, lime juice, and chives.  A little cayenne is also mixed in for heat.  I love corn, it's probably my favorite vegetable so new and different ways to prepare always catch my attention. 

 The corn turned a nice golden color and it really made a beautiful dish.

The scallion potato cakes were the hardest dish to assemble and make.  The recipe called for the potatoes to be shredded using the food processor.  The cakes are assembled with alternating layers of potato and scallions and fried in oil.  The potatoes browned nicely and flipping them to brown the other side wasn't as difficult as the recipe made it sound.

I can say with all of the butter and oil used in these dishes, I had one heck of a mess to clean up after dinner but all three of the dishes looked pretty on the plate.

My husband gave three thumbs up for the first Ad Hoc at Home meal attempt.  The creamed corn was slightly different than the Southern dish we are used to.  The cayenne and chives really gave it more of a Southwestern flavor but the cream did make the dish pretty heavy and rich.  The chicken breasts were cooked to a perfect golden brown and the sauce complimented it nicely.  My husband is not much of a chicken fan so a thumbs up from him on this dish was a big accomplishment.  The potato cakes were crispy and tasty as well.  With all of the cream, butter, and fried stuff I am now signing off my blog and retiring to my stretchy pajama pants...next up we are going a little healthier (and skinnier) with Heirloom Bean and Escarole Soup.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tomorrow night I am hosting a jewelry party for a friend and needed a quick dessert option to serve with my wine & cheese themed menu.  In browsing the choices from Ad Hoc at Home (I seriously can't believe I am making two desserts in a row), I selected the Chocolate Chip recipe. 

The recipe write up touts these cookies as "arguably the best cookie ever."  High expectations have been set so I was anxious to see how mine turned out.  As you read in my previous post, I am not a Betty Crocker when it comes to baking but even with my mad baking skills, I was hoping to at least turn out a cookie that was "good."

While shopping for the ingredients, I was excited to pour over the different brands of Godiva chocolate that I could choose from.  The recipe calls for half 70% chocolate and half 55% chocolate.  The higher the percentage a bar of chocolate has means the less sugar it has.  Your darker, typically more bitter, chocolate would be a higher percentage while a milk chocolate bar would have a much lower percentage.  I am not a huge fan of most chocolate but I do love dark chocolate and this recipe called for half of the chocolate to be 70% which is pretty dark.  It was so tempting to snack on the 70% bar of Godiva on the way home from the grocery store but I held out for the sake of the cookie.

The cookie dough was relatively easy to make.  I chopped the chocolate in my food processor and mixed up the dough in my stand alone mixer.  This is what the dough looked like before rolling into balls to prepare for baking.

The dough was a lot more moist and sticky than most cookie dough I have worked with.  My attempt at rolling  the dough into small balls turned out to look more like globs but I baked the cookies the recommended time and they turned out to be pretty tasty.

While I was sold on the taste after trying it warm with a glass of milk, I will acknowledge that my cookies' appearances could have used some work.  The globs of dough baked into many different shapes & sizes but let's just say that adds character.  The finished cookie...

I have kind of cheated so far on the project by cooking two of the easier desserts listed but I am happy to report I will be cooking not baking for the next post.  Be on the lookout for Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Creamed Summer Corn.   I have been working on organizing the recipes from the book and listing out the ingredients that will be more difficult for me to find so I can be on the lookout at my monthly trips to Whole Foods or Fresh Market.  I am enjoying this project so far.  It's fun to document the recipe progress and take pictures.    No readers yet but maybe soon!