What's Cooking (Take Two!)

Those are great sounding meals, Mike. Did you use fresh crab from off the coast of Northern California for your crab cakes? I recall eating some great crab this time of year that was fresh off the boats that came in just north of San Francisco.

Nice job on the risotto and a perfect dish for the season. What type of sausage did you use?

Tonight I made a recipe that I have made several times -- you thinly slice 2 Vidalia onions and soften them in olive oil. Meanwhile you mince up a couple of chipotle peppers (in adobo) and add them, and then put in a teaspoon of (roasted) cumin and 1/4 tsp of salt. Add some tomato. You can either chop up one or two fresh tomatoes, or add a small can of diced tomatoes. Simmer that and add some chopped cilantro if you like cilantro.

That onion dish is so good I've made it many times as a side dish to practically anything. But tonight I followed the original recipe for the first time. Melt some cheese on tortillas, cook up some pork chops, cut the pork up and put it on top of the cheesy tortillas. Then top with the onions which have become a kind of sauce. The combination was really nice but I almost like the onion/tomato sauce by itself better.

Those are great sounding meals, Mike. Did you use fresh crab from off the coast of Northern California for your crab cakes? I recall eating some great crab this time of year that was fresh off the boats that came in just north of San Francisco.

Nice job on the risotto and a perfect dish for the season. What type of sausage did you use?

Thanks, Dave! The crab was fresh, but it comes in plastic pots, so I'm not sure where they source the crab. Mardi had picked it up at Costco the day before - its was good for the crab cakes but not as good as the really fresh Dungeness that's available this time of year.

The sausage was sweet Italian from a place in Lodi that specializes in sausage. We get out there every six months or so and stock up. They do a great job with a bunch of different types, although their brats do not measure up to Sheboygan standards.

Last night the weather cooperated and I was able to make Juicy Lucy burgers on the grill topped with bacon. Sides were baked sweet potato wedges seasoned with Arizona Dreaming and broccoli sauteed in Greek olive oil with garlic and chile de arbol.

[Jenise]

Cooking dinner for 70 tonight. Here's the southern-themed menu:

Appetizers:
'Pimenna Cheese' Zucchini bites: Cheddar, zucchini, lardons of bacon and Cousin J's pickled green tomaotes
'Duck Dynasty Canapes': duck rillettes, lima beans, spicy Georgia peach salsa
Texas Two-Step BBQ: mini home-smoked brisket stuffed cheddar-grits cups
Sit-down four course dinner, with wine pairings:
South Carolina Shrimp and Pea Salad: marinated shrimp, pea terrine, mache lettuce, browned butter vinaigrette
Louisiana Potage au Sweet Potato: sweet potato soup, Andouille sausage, chives
Parmesan-Poppy Seed pastry straws served in wide-mouth canning jars
Roast Prime Rib of Tennessee Hog: brined roast pork loin on the bone, cider gravy, melted leek bread pudding, green beans with ham, okra sand
Kentucky Pecan Pie: pecan bars, vanilla bean ice cream, bourbon-caramel drizzle

Dave - What are "Juicy Lucy" burgers?

Jenise - I have to admire someone who's serving duck rillettes with lima beans and salsa to 70 people!

Mike, I am surprised you have never heard of a Juicy Lucy. It is one of the finest culinary creations of Western Civilization!

I was introduced to them when I worked in Minneapolis which is where they supposedly originated. While there are countless variations, the basic idea is a cheeseburger that has a large amount of cheese sealed within two meat patties thus resulting in very moist meat and a lava like core of melted cheese. Here is an example of a cross-section of a Juicy Lucy...

Oh lordy! That looks both very good and potentially deadly.

[Jenise]

Tonight: roasted hot wings with marinated carrot and celery sticks to munch on while watching my Seahawks fight off those retards in Arizona.

BBQ'd pulled pork in sauce in bun, and eggplant salad while watching the mighty Patriots squeak by the lowly Jets! Pork came from the freezer.

[Robin Garr]

"Mushroom alfredo" with lots of garlic over fettuccine in a "light" alfredo sauce (using bechamel in lieu of heavy cream). Still luxurious and delicious.

Tonight: roasted hot wings with marinated carrot and celery sticks to munch on while watching my Seahawks fight off those retards in Arizona.

Yeah, but...how did that dinner for 70 go?? I'm dying for details; that menu sounded to die for!

[Jenise]

It was awesome, Tom. I supervised a staff of 36, and personally cooked two of the courses. It really worked out well, other than the smoke from previous stuff left in the ovens (this was all done in the neighborhood clubhouse) setting off the fire alarms. It's a gargantuan task, and I'm not just talking food prep here but logistics (I'm a born administrator, I thrive on this stuff). We essentially create a restaurant that's open for just one night--with nothing more than the clubhouse's ordinary Kenmore kitchen appliances. But it's all the more satisfying because of it. Couldn't do it in summer: mother nature provides the extra refrigerator space I need to pull off my parts at this time of year. The spiral staircase to my rooftop deck was piled with food all week!

Tonight's dinner is the by-catch: the rib bones we cut off the pork racks? Devilled pork ribs--going to smear them with mustard, pour on the panko and olive oil and roast them until crispy.

WOW!

WOWWWWWWWWW!

*sob*

I married the wrong goods and chattel.....

Lobster Newburg (boy, is that easy) served over crisp curls of puff pastry.

Two ducks, skin rubbed with Five-Spice Powder and grated citrus zests, cooked on vertical (e.g., "beer can") roasters.

Yukon Gold mash, with butter, sour cream, and a head of roasted garlic.

Served with bruschetta and a green salad (dressed with Green Goddess!) to start.

A fabulous bottle of Gonon St-Joseph.

Finished with Ye Olde English Pudding, served aflame in Grand Marnier, with homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream.

New York strip roast with sauteed mushrooms and gravy, three cheese scalloped potatoes, and roasted brussels sprouts. Can't say this was my best-ever kitchen performance, though. My roast beef inexperience showed when I let the roast go about 10° more than I would have liked, resulting in more of a medium than a rare. I also let the sprouts cook longer than they should have when I got distracted making the gravy. Still, it wasn't horrible and I think everyone enjoyed it.

Eh, don't be so hard on yourself, Mike. That all sounds very delicious to me and thankfully your kids are not going through one of those crazy California vegan stages.

Regarding the roast specifically, have you considered going the sous vide route? It is nice because you get what you are expecting as far as level of "doneness" for lack of a better term. You can get a roast like yours come out rare and also done "Texas style" by bringing it to rare temperature via sous vide and then giving it a quick char on the grill.

I've been looking at going the sous vide route for some time, Dave. Haven't made the investment in the equipment yet, though. I love the idea and the restaurant dishes I've had that have been cooked that way have been quite good. Would have been a good way to go on that roast.

Any recommendations on sous vide rigs?

Mike, I guess it depends upon if you want one of the sous vide boxes they use in restaurants or just one of the sticks. A friend of mine owns this Anova Sous Vide Immersion Circulator and it seems to do a very good job. But you would also probably need to purchase a food saver type machine as well regardless of using either the box or stick sous vide device.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GT753W8/?tag=cioequippilot-20.

That's not a bad price for something like that. I last looked into immersion heaters a few years back and they all seemed to be more like $400 - 500.

I simply use my Rival 20-qt roaster (about $40 in stores). It has a dial setting that is marked down to 150 degF, but you can set the dial lower. I've maintained 135 for 36 hours on a sirloin tip roast, then finished in a hot oven. I've also done pork roasts.

Hi Howie, that is a very good idea. I guess one of the advantages is that your roaster is covered so you do not have to really worry about evaporation which is sometimes an issue with the immersion circulators.

Two questions...can you go below 135F with your roaster? My friend does most of her sous vide around 130F. Also, how steady is the temperature? I realizes in your case it averaged 135F but does it vary from say 133 to 138 at any time? I know with some of the higher-end sous vide boxes there is little to no variation in the temp.

[Jenise]

Any recommendations on sous vide rigs?

I bought the Sansaire after reading all the comments on Amazon.com: love it. Got it before Christmas from Sur La Table with that $20 off coupon, so $180.