Springtime In Columbus

We went to Columbus for Easter, and we had a great time. Spring in Columbus always seems about three weeks ahead of cold dreary Chicago, and this past weekend we had nice weather to get out and hit some of our favorite spots.



On Friday we went to Yankee Trader to load up on trinkets for the Easter egg hunt. Plastic bugs, stickers, butterfly erasers, fuzzy gnomes, you just get a paper bag and write down what yer putting in the sack. I hadn't been there in a long time, it seemed a lot less cluttered but still fun. Just don't play with the whistles.





Then Ma took us to Pistacia Vera for cookies.





Once back in Clintonville I made a trip to Wasserstrom where found a wok brush and I also stopped at Giant Eagle for a 25Lb bag of Sapphire flour.



For Dinner we had turkey sandwiches and blue cheese potato chips. The turkey was left over from the Seder dinner my mom had at church.

On Saturday I made my pantry run to Penzeys then ma took me to The Fresh Market and Marcs. She calls them the yin and yang of grocery shopping in one stop.



In the Afternoon we hunted for eggs and had cake.










For dinner Bonne Femme made Blue cheese burgers. She said she gets them like this at Hackney's and they're called the Inside Out Burger.



Could it be a Jucy Lucy?



I fried up some shoulder bacon to top it off. After dinner I took Bonne Femme to Studio 35. She thought it was pretty cool.



Sunday started with a trip to church. I'm not much of a church-going person but I liked walking to Church. Crestview Presbyterian is where my parents got married, I got baptized, and I attended many a mother-son banquets. It was a nice day for a walk. The boys got to ring the tower bell.



For brunch we had a salmon bendict with a sorrel sauce. Sorrel is the first green up in my mom's garden, we got the recipe from the Herbfarm Cookbook. My mom cured the salmon and got the eggs from the coop.



After brunch we walked to grandma's house. We hunted for Easter baskets.



Then for dinner I prepared a leg of lamb on the kettle.









It turned out pretty good. Family and place are made special by what we make of them. Take care to make it good and the memories will flow.

Cheers.

South Side Irish

Yeah I live on the Southside. Yeah I have an Irish last name. Ergo, this Irish Bangers recipe has got to be authentic.

Irish Banger

2 lb pork shoulder diced
3 slices (90 g) whole wheat bread dried in the oven chopped into fine crumbs
20 g salt
1/2 t (1 g) dried marjoram
1/2 t (1 g) grated nutmeg
1/4 t (1 g) powdered ginger
1/2 t (2 g) ground black pepper
1/2 t (1 g) finely grated lemon zest
100 ml milk

Combine ingredients, except milk, and rest the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour. Grind through fine plate into chilled bowl. Add milk and stir mixture until it starts to come together, about one minute. Stuff into hog casings. For that fancy pub look, twist the sausages into 4 inch lengths. Gently saute them to an internal temperature of 150F. To finish the authentic look make some grilled onions, some curry gravy and mashed potatoes.

The recipe originally appeared last year in the post St. Patrick's Day Bangers and Mash.

Cheers.

Gravlaks Nation

photo: Erik in Oberlin

Photo: Erik in Oberlin


(Dear MAC: )

I just made gravlaks this morning--two kinds actually; one the kind we brought last year (you know, the one Jen loved so much.), the other kind a new one with caraway, red pepper, aniseed and whisky. We're using two recipes in Kitchen of Light, by Andreas Viestad. We're also doing a kransekakke, and will try to send a pic or two of it as well.

All the best,

Erik in Oberlin

Dear EIO:

Thanks for the pictures. Merry Christmas. There is nothing finer than cured fish on Christmas morning. Gravlaks, as spelled by the Norwegians (Graavilohi for our Finnish friends, or gravlax in Stockholm), is so easy to make, I don't know why every red blooded American isn't salting away a fillet right now. We went through two and a half pounds in two days.

Slice and sweep.

Christmas Day with hollandaise and mustard

Next day picnic lunch at Cedar Falls.

Here's how you do it:

Grind spices, combine with salt and sugar.

Rub it on both sides of the fish.

Don't be shy with the dill.

Wrap em up together and cure in the fridge for 3 days. Flip daily. Slice thin, using your sharpest knife, in a sweeping motion leaving the skin on the board. Garnish however you want, I like mustard,

Christmas mustard if you've got it.

Here's the quantities I used:

2 lbs 8 oz (1136 grams) Salmon fillet, skin on

40 g Kosher salt

65 g Sugar

5 g white pepper

1 g caraway

a bunch of fresh dill.

Cheers.

Christmas Party

The proper way to open cava as demonstrated by Zack.

Office Christmas Party 2007

Once again the holiday party for Bonne Femme's office was held at a tony Lincoln Park location. As with any party I like to bring some food:

Rôti de porc à la porchetta.

I love this roast. A boneless pork loin is wrapped with a pork belly. In between the layers a cream of olive oil, salt, rosemary, juniper berry, garlic and pepper is applied, then smoked over hickory.

Fazzoletti della nonna coi funghi secchi e spinaci.

Italian crepes. I think it literally translates to "grandma's headscarf with wild mushrooms and spinach." I got the idea from Marcella Hazan.

I got these Criminis (baby bellas) River Valley Ranch in Burlington Wisconsin. Stop by if you are in the neighborhood.

I made the mushrooms into a Duxelles, pureed sauteed spinach, and made a white sauce with Parmesan cheese. Making crepes was fun.


Rillettes du canard.

After receiving Brian's letter, The Jersey Report: Confit du Canard, I got a duck. I like to think I aways read the label but in this case I didn't and when I got home I realized that my pintail had been "flavored" with a brine solution. So I skipped salting it. Rillettes is potted meat, but to get the meat I have to make a confit first.

I threw away the orange sauce, saved the neck and the carcass for stock, and rendered the skin and fat.

I got about 12 ounces of fat from the duck. I needed more so I made some lard.

For the confit I probably added 16 ounces of lard to the duck fat to make sure everything was covered. I put in the meat the gizzards and the wings. They cooked in a 200F oven for about 6 hours.

For the rillettes, I took the confit meat and a little duck fat and ran it through the Cuisinart.

Gravlax.



I feel no holiday is complete with out some home cured fish. This one with dill, white pepper and caraway.



Other Additions:



Kiff made a magical mango chutney to go with the pork. Audrey roasted chestnuts for a superb chestnut cheesecake. Corine's spinach salad added color and balance to the holiday fare. JJ made Christmas cookies, and Bonne Femme made her signature bacon and onion tart, polenta and the ever popular Ice box cake. Thanks everybody for a great party.



Merry Christmas



Cheers.

MAC's Holiday Turkey Tips

So you're bootin around the web looking for Turkey Tips? Well you found the right place. I am not going to give some fancy pants preparation, just straight talk so that you can keep cool during a time when it feels like all heck is about to break loose.

1. Plan ahead.

The name of the game is preparation, play it right and the only thing you'll have to do on T-day is drink a beer and watch the smoke curl off the barbecue (okay maybe there's a few things to do). Start out by getting a Turkey. What you don't have one yet? Go now go go go. Most turkeys you'll find at the store are going to be frozen and they take several days to thaw. 24 hours for every 4-5 pounds of meat, says this month's Gourmet magazine. Placing an order for a bird (about a month ahead, too late now) is always a good idea, supermarkets usually provide this service and you can request that they thaw it for you. In the past, I have ordered Kosher turkeys which can save you some prep time (I'll talk about that in a moment). You can also snoop around to find locally produced turkeys. For second year in a row, we ordered our turkey from the Dickmans. They have a farm down by Kankakee were they pasture raise poultry.

2. Selection.

Think small. Don't worry about leftovers, pick the smallest bird that will feed your crew. We cooked an 11 pound turkey recently that fed 6 adults and 2 children and still had half a bird left. I think you should be able to serve 8-10 with a 12 pounder. A smaller size is easier to handle, and cooks quicker. Maybe right now you are thinking, jeeze that's small, I don't wanna run out of meat; I get the same feeling every time ("It's not enough food!"), relax, let's chant together: Pick the small guy, pick the small guy. It works.

3. Cure yer bird.

You don't need fancy pants seasonings, you don't need a flavor injector, I don't have a turkey baster, I don't own a basting brush. Here's my secret ingredient: Salt. A brine cure changes the flavor of the meat in magical ways. It's juicer too. Both Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated and Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman have good discussions on brining, but here is what I did: Dissolve 225 grams (1 cup) of Kosher salt per 4 liters ( 1 gallon) of water, make enough to cover the turkey. I used maybe 8 liters for my 11 pound pullet, make sure you use a non-reactive container: Stainless steel, glass or plastic. Put a weight on it to submerge. Let it soak in the fridge for 18 hours. Be careful on the time, leave it too long and it can get too salty. Some brine recipes call for sugar, it doesn't do much for me and I think it causes the skin to brown (read blacken) quicker. You don't have a bucket that big? Here are two alternatives: Order a Kosher turkey, they are already salted, most supermarkets can get you one. Do a salt rub, the November 2006 of Cook's Illustrated from has a salt rub recipe, I never tried it, but Novak did and he was happy with the results.

3. Give it a rest.

After the briny soak let your tom dry in the fridge uncovered for 12 hours. This will give the brine in the bird time to balance and the skin a better chance for crisping during cooking. Before resting, truss the turkey. Towards the end of the 12 hours brush the skin with some olive oil.

4. Let's take it outside.

Nothing finer than smoked turkey, my weapon of choice is the Weber Smokey Mountain, but you can use a kettle grill, gas, whatever. The important thing is to create indirect heat and a hood temp of 350F. You skoff? yeah I said 350, I wanna have my turkey sometime today and the skin will be crispy and it will have plenty of smoky flavor. Before putting it on, brush it again with some olive oil, if you have a thermometer that you can leave in while cooking, stick that in, and start cooking. Plan for three hours, check it every once in a while, make sure one side isn't cooking faster than the other, but try not to peek too often. When the internal temp reads 165F pull it off and let it rest. If you can't do it outside, cook it in a 350F oven, maybe stick some fresh herbs in the cavity like rosemary, thyme, parsley, bay leaf and some peeled cloves of garlic. I haven't cooked a turkey in an oven in a long time, but that sounds good.

5. Carving.

Unless it is chiseled in stone on the dining room wall, don't carve the turkey at the table, put the whole bird on a platter, present it to your guests, then take it back to the kitchen for the wet work. Pick out a long, thin, sharp knife and cut up one side at a time. Remove the leg and thigh together at the thigh joint then find the then remove the wing at the joint. Now the easy part: Remove the whole breast from the side you are working on. Start by making a longitudinal cut along the breast bone then work the knife along the ribs so that you have one big boneless piece of meat. Now can cut straight across the boneless breast for 3/4 inch thick slices. I think the pros call em cutlets. Cut up the thight meat serve the drum whole. Serve the turkey warm, enjoy the company.

To Review: Get it, thaw it, cure it, dry it, cook it, cut it, serve it. What could be easier?

Here is a sample thanksgiving menu:

Brine cured smoked turkey

Cornbread mushroom stuffing

Mashed potatoes with roasted parsnips

Sauteed Swiss Chard with garlic and red pepper flakes

Giblet gravy

Cranberry sauce

Pumpkin Pie

Please don't make yourself crazy with the holiday, good food is important but taking time to be with friends and family is what really matters. if the turkey burns, make spaghetti.

Cheers.