What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[nucleargirl]

i'm hungry! ate mostly cookies today! I made them! containing lots of chocolate pieces and brown sugar and butterscotch sauce! but they're all gone now...

 

[turbo]

Wife gave a HUGE thumbs-up to the sauce. Wants more. I will make more as the Marianas ripen.

When she came into the house after work, her first word was "Wow!" I guess as a base for future spaghetti, pizza, etc, sauces, we have a winner. Mariana tomatoes are very fleshy, and they simmer to a nice consistency very quickly without juicing them.

 

[turbo]

I hope I left enough head-space in the plastic container. I'm greedy, so I packed it pretty full. It will expand as it freezes, but it might be de-watered enough to avoid popping the top.

 

[turbo]

Today is pizza-sauce day! Blended moskvich tomatoes, fresh garlic, fresh basil, onion, oregano, salt, pepper, cayenne, and lots of my jalapeno/dill relish. The sauce was foaming up when it started simmering... Oops! Forgot the olive oil. All fixed now.

 

[Saladsamurai]

Filet with Simple Port Glaze (with potatoes and asparagus)

OK. Here goes my first addition to the food thread. It's a Filet or Tenderloin with a simple Port glaze. It is my variation of Steak au poivre. I have also included some optional sides below main recipe.

****************
T = tablespoon; t = teaspoon; all measurements are approximate and can be adjusted to suit your tastes
****************
Filet with Port Glaze
What you need:

1) 2 Filet or Tenderloins. Each should be between .25 - .38 lbs. Any bigger and the cook times get strange.
2) Kosher salt and black pepper (sea salt is next best and table salt as a least resort)
3) Port wine (approx 1/2 cup should do)
4) 4 T butter
5) 1 t vegetable oil

Preparation
1) Let your steaks come to room temperature. This is generally a good steak cooking practice. I also trim any excess fat (though there really should not be much).
2) Sprinkle 1/2 T kosher salt on each steak; each side (for a total of 1 T per steak).
3) Coat each side of each steak with about a 1/2 T (or 1 T if you really like pepper like I do).
There are two ways to apply the pepper:i) Use a pepper mill (twisty grinder thing) on a coarse setting or ii) take whole black peppercorns and very coarsely crush them with mortar and pestle. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, but want to keep it "traditional" I cover the peppercorns with wax paper, then a towel and then hit them a few times with a hammer.

Cooking
1) Heat fry pan or skillet over medium heat
2) Add 1 t vegetable oil and 2 T butter to pan (the oil keeps the butter from burning)
3) The butter should "foam up" as it melts if your pan is hot enough, but it should not brown.
4) Add steaks to pan. I usually put the "prettiest" sides down. In general, first side down always looks the best when done.
5) Cook for 4 minutes on each side for medium rare. (this will vary with steak size; I usually shoot for the .3 lb steaks and 4 minutes gets medium rare)
6) Remove steaks from pan and cover with foil.
7) Remove pan from heat and drain excess butter (but don't wipe away the burnt on steak residue)
8) Add enough Port to cover the bottom on pan (~ 1.2 Cup). DO THIS OFF THE HEAT! PORT WILL FLAME UP! Scrape pan to deglaze.
9) Return to heat and tilt pan to ignite port. Have a pan cover near by just in case!
10) Once alcohol is mostly burned off, lower heat and add 2 T butter.
11) Stir until mixture will coat a spoon (i.e. is not watery).

Serve steaks each with 1 T of glaze poured over top. Don't use too much at first. The idea is that steak tastes good on its own and the glaze should simply compliment it.This meal is very quick. I usually serve it with my Simple Roasted Rosemary Potatoes and Steamed Asparagus with lemon (below). All in all, an hour is the most I will spend cooking the entire meal. This meal is great because it really looks like a fancy meal that you spent all day preparing.Simple Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

I call them simple because they are par-cooked in the microwave and finished in toaster oven. This speeds up he cooking process.

1) 1 potato (washed/scrubbed) per person is a good rule of thumb.
2) Place potatoes in microwave on medium heat for about 4-7 minutes (until centers are warm; test with a knife or cake tester).
3) Half each potato and then quarter each half. Place on toaster-oven tray (I cover the tray with foil first for easy clean up).
4) Drizzle olive oil over potatoes and kosher salt (1T) and pepper (1t)
5) Crush a garlic clove or two onto potatoes.
6) Add 1T fresh, chopped rosemary. Toss mixture with hands or tongs (be gentle though) to coat potatoes.
7) Cook on 400 °F until potatoes are accented with golden brown areas. (about 30 min)

I generally start my potatoes first since they take the longest. Then I get the steaks ready. When the potatoes first start to show signs of browning is when I start cooking my steaks. They usually finish within moments of each other.Steamed Asparagus with Lemon

1) Take a bundle of asparagus and chop off the tougher, lighter portions at the bottom.
2) If you have a steamer, use that and steam until tender (about 8 - 10 minutes). If no steamer, place in microwave safe casserole dish and sprinkle with water. Cover and Microwave on high for 5 - 10 minutes until deep green and tender.
3) Squeeze 1/4 of a lemon onto asparagus and top with fresh grated Romano (or Parmesan).

I usually start the asparagus immediately before the steak and finish it immediately after the steaks are done.

 

[turbo]

Update on pizza sauce. When I first blended the ingredients, the sauce tasted a bit sour. I trusted my gut though, and simmered to reduce the sauce without any sweetening. That turned out to be a good decision. The combination of the fresh basil and the moskvich tomatoes sweetened the sauce as it reduced. I may have to make up lots more of this sauce and freeze it for winter, if the pizza comes out good.

My wife picked up a new bread book yesterday, and is trying a new pizza crust recipe, too. Lots of experimentation today, with one of our favorite comfort-foods. Normally, once we have something like this nailed down, we don't tinker with it much. We'll see...

Somehow, the sauce is not as spicy-hot as usual. Might have to resort to breaking out the shaker of crushed red pepper, like in the old days before chili relishes.

 

[turbo]

Mmm! Fresh home-made pizza! We pre-cooked the crust so it stayed crunchy, covered that with fresh sauce, mozzarella, red bell pepper, onion, red jalapeno pepper, bits of hamburg, and a dusting of grated Romano. Top with a little oregano and black pepper, and bake. Finest kind!

I'll have to make more moskvich-based pizza sauce this season. The mariana tomatoes will be simmered to make base-sauces to be used for pasta dishes, casseroles, etc this winter.

 

[Evo]

OK. Here goes my first addition to the food thread. It's a Filet or Tenderloin with a simple Port glaze. It is my variation of Steak au poivre. I have also included some optional sides below main recipe.

Fabulous! I can't wait to try these!

 

[FrancisZ]

For the past two days, I've been trying, very unsuccessfully, to get my hands on even just ONE can of pumpkin glop (figuring, it's that time of year again).

[PLAIN]http://www.lesliehawes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/libbys-pumpkin.jpg

Somehow, I can't help but be reminded of that Mencia quote: "Oh no, the world's going to run out of cookies!"

Well, apparently, it ran out sieved pumpkin, sometime in July (which was the last time I saw it on the shelf). Tons of berry filling, but no pumpkin. Very sad. :(

 

[lisab]

For the past two days, I've been trying, very unsuccessfully, to get my hands on even just ONE can of pumpkin glop (figuring, it's that time of year again).

[PLAIN]http://www.lesliehawes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/libbys-pumpkin.jpg

Somehow, I can't help but be reminded of that Mencia quote: "Oh no, the world's going to run out of cookies!"

Well, apparently, it ran out sieved pumpkin, sometime in July (which was the last time I saw it on the shelf). Tons of berry filling, but no pumpkin. Very sad. :(

You might be able to find it on the black market.

 

[turbo]

Find someone who grows pie pumpkins and store the pumpkins in a dark cool place. They store well. Then you can incorporate them into pies, breads, cookies, etc, this winter.

 

[Evo]

There was a pumpkin blight last year, canned pumpkin is rare now.

 

[FrancisZ]

Find someone who grows pie pumpkins and store the pumpkins in a dark cool place. They store well. Then you can incorporate them into pies, breads, cookies, etc, this winter.

Honestly, I actually have made pies by sieving them myself; but I have found that the canned pumpkin glop is a little more tasty, in my opinion. Seems sweeter than fresh--and I use the small pie pumpkins too. Perhaps sitting around for a while allows the natural sugars to form.

There was a pumpkin blight last year, canned pumpkin is rare now.

Well, that explains it. The horror, the absolute horror. I love pumpkins!

 

[Evo]

I've been watching the Anthony Bourdain 100 show marathon all day. I have yet to come across one I haven't already seen. :(

 

[turbo]

I made more Mariana-basil tomato sauce today, and I've got to say that I am hooked. The place smells so nice when I'm simmering the sauce, that I want to dream up pasta dishes. My wife has gotten hooked on flower-gardening and landscaping, and I have ended up taking on the harvesting and processing of our vegetables to an extent even more than previously. She distributed slate stones today, while I picked tomatoes and cukes, and then tilled new areas for her to plant perennials, while ducking in and out of the house to check my simmering tomato sauce.

Remember that if you want to put up some sauce using Marianas (or the likely progenitor Romas), you don't have to juice the tomatoes before blending and simmering. If you want to make sauce out of the popular slicing tomatoes, juice them first, then blend them. You'll have a nice reserve of fresh tomato juice to chill and drink, and you'll cut the simmer-time by at least 1/2.

 

[lisab]

Looks like fall has come early. It's rainy, in the mid-50s.

Perfect day for red beans and rice, yum!

 

[FrancisZ]

Looks like fall has come early. It's rainy, in the mid-50s.

Perfect day for red beans and rice, yum!

It can never come early enough. I love the pumpkins; I love the leaves. I've missed the shadows; I've missed the breeze.

Truly, I pray for a cool, non-humid, September and October, this year.

 

[Evo]

OMG, I had a sushi nightmare last night. I was gorging myself on sushi and I dreamt I was eating so much that I woke up feeling like I was going to burst.

I dreamt that it was an all you can eat for free sushi buffet. supposedly it was only for the 1st ten minutes, but it didn't stop.

I was heaping my plate full of sushi, but the wasabi wasn't hot, so I kept mounding on the wasabi, but it was bland, and there was no pickled ginger, the only taste I was getting was from the soy sauce.

Then my girlfriend from work sat at the table and she had two whole fish, a zebra fish and a red fish. So, I went to the line with the whole fish, (the fish were about 8 inches long each) but there was another line to these two monstrous 3 foot long fish in glass displays that they would give you servings off of. One was garnished to look like a dragon. So I ordered a portion of each. Then the server handed me a receipt and told me to pay the cashier, she wanted $15! Wait, this is free! I woke up.

That's how they get you in real life, the sushi rolls are free, but when you want a piece of dragon, you've got to pay.

 

[nucleargirl]

oh my god what a horrible, yet vivid, yet fishy dream! I too hate it when all you can taste is soy sauce!

 

[Evo]

I had a nightmare about cake decorating last night. Perhaps I have finally OD'd on Food TV?

 

[turbo]

Yet another day simmering marinara sauce for the freezer. The first few times are kind of fun, but when the garden is coming in full-force, it can be overwhelming.

 

[nucleargirl]

I had a nightmare about cake decorating last night. Perhaps I have finally OD'd on Food TV?

oh my god! you just reminded me! we have food tv here! I used to watch it all the time! but somehow I haven't watched any for ages! like months! I totally forgot it existed. hm... not sure if I should start... don't want to have nightmares too... and don't want to go down that hole again... must have been a reason I stopped...

 

[turbo]

The Food Network is 99% junk. I'm glad I had my mother and grandmother to learn from. On the Food Network, the "stars" are supposed to be challenged by odd ingredients or combinations thereof. How is that impressive? In real-life, cooks have to deal with what is available, affordable, and in quantities sufficient to feed the people you are cooking for. That's a whole lot more significant than some seeing some celebrity find out that his/her basket of must-use ingredients contains prawns, mangoes and fresh ginger. That's as exciting as most of those shows ever get.

 

[nucleargirl]

The Food Network is 99% junk.

yeah it isn't very practical, but its so cool! I love Iron chef! its like being in a posh restaurant, but... um not actually eating the food, but you get all the enjoyment from it! lol! kind of. And where else can you see castles being made from cake?!

 

[Evo]

Turbo, food competitions are no less reasonable than say, a football game. When in real life are you going to find a group of refrigerator sized men wearing armor and throwing a piece of leather at each other?

It's entertainment.

 

[nismaratwork]

I will say this, I like Good Eats; I've gotten some excellent recipes from it, and there are many solid primers on technique. The whole "contest" (other than Iron Chef) stuff leaves me uninterested.

Oh, and I discovered Plyley's hard candies as a result.. their coffee cream and pineapple coconut (with coconut in) candies are... *moans*... really good. I'd say 95% junk, but the good stuff is, as nucleargirl says, vicarious fun, or in my view some decent tips.

 

[turbo]

Turbo, food competitions are no less reasonable than say, a football game. When in real life are you going to find a group of refrigerator sized men wearing armor and throwing a piece of leather at each other?

It's entertainment.

I don't watch team sports, either. Huge waste of time. If the Food Network had cooks of the caliber of Julia Child and Graham Kerr (who actually taught you things with their shows), I'd watch those. Some of Alton Brown's shows have been OK - but not the competition ones.

 

[Evo]

More sad evidence that Alton Brown is just an actor and not an even an interested "foodie".

Sadly, I just watched the new show he is hosting on Food Network "America's Best". The entire show was just a tired rehash of the same food and restaurants they've been showing for the last 2 years, the same tired food celebrities, yada yada.

The kick in the teeth came at the end when he was describing the NUMBER ONE food, the WINNER of the show! It was the mac n cheese at Zingerman's Roudhouse. The chef at the restauarnt describes what makes their mac n cheese so unique, they cook it on the stove top in a french Iron skillet, and they are showing the skillet on tv. Alton Brown starts his narration, and what makes them Number One is that they individually cook each portion in a CAST IRON skillet!". Uhm, no, Alton, although that's what your script says (they also have the same misinformation on the Food Network site), it's obviously not cast iron. So it wasn't a slip up by Alton, he was just disinterestedly reading his script and had apparently not even bothered to watch the video! Or worse, he doesn't know what cast iron is.

Here's what the pan was, perhaps not this brand. http://www.cutleryandmore.com/details.asp?SKU=17909&src=GoogleBase&cam=Products&kw=17909

I also read a recent review of the retsaurant and the mac n cheese and found out that it's not really good and it costs $17! Just for a single serving of mac n cheese!

http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/zingermans-roadhouse-comfort-food-at-uncomfortable-prices/

Alton Brown, yeah, he came up with a novel show premise "good eats", but he's a food fraud.

 

[turbo]

His tips on searing and cooking steaks are not bad, and his tips on brining turkey are useful. His advice on allowing itinerant nuts to sharpen your prized cutlery on belt-grinders was so bad that I wanted to puke. No chef, meat-cutter, or fish-monger with an ounce of sense would ever allow that! That was his worst show ever, IMO! People who love to cook are very attached to their knives, and if they have a couple of firing brain-cells, they know that you have to sharpen them carefully with proper lubrication and cooling. The thought of letting some nut "sharpen" my Thiers-Issard knives by overheating the edges and throwing sparks off a belt-grinder is repulsive.

There are very few Food Network shows that impart any useful knowledge, so I don't watch any of them. You could pick a random person off the street and force them watch the Cooking with the Neeleys show, and after an hour or two they would confess to the Son of Sam murders, the WTC attacks and the Murrah building bombing. Just make it stop!

 

[Evo]

His tips on searing and cooking steaks are not bad, and his tips on brining turkey are useful. His advice on allowing itinerant nuts to sharpen your prized cutlery on belt-grinders was so bad that I wanted to puke. No chef, meat-cutter, or fish-monger with an ounce of sense would ever allow that! That was his worst show ever, IMO! People who love to cook are very attached to their knives, and if they have a couple of firing brain-cells, they know that you have to sharpen them carefully with proper lubrication and cooling. The thought of letting some nut "sharpen" my Thiers-Issard knives by overheating the edges and throwing sparks off a belt-grinder is repulsive.

There are very few Food Network shows that impart any useful knowledge, so I don't watch any of them. You could pick a random person off the street and force them watch the Cooking with the Neeleys show, and after an hour or two they would confess to the Son of Sam murders, the WTC attacks and the Murrah building bombing. Just make it stop!

The point is that the information on his Good Eats show are from a script written by show writers. Some of the mistakes on that show have been doozies.

Sad that a show featuring someone that was a cook and scientific is just that, a show, fake. Oh well. I kept hoping he was at least interested in food.

 

[turbo]

The point is that the information on his Good Eats show are from a script written by show writers. Some of the mistakes on that show have been doozies.

Oh, yes, he has perpetrated some real stinkers. I don't know his history, but he was probably involved in producing a show or two and said "this food stuff is easy" and fell prey to his own ignorance/lack of experience.

The Food Network shows are produced in bulk and on a budget. Aside from "The Price is Right" etc, I can't imagine any TV shows that can be pumped out more cheaply with fewer sets and props. I can't stand the "competition" shows! My earlier comment about some celebrity cooks finding out that they "have" to include prawns, mangoes, and fresh ginger in their main dish shows my disdain for them. There is always an artificial time constraint, and the ever-present panel of judges at the end. How many ways can FN vary that format?? Apparently, they are going to beat that horse into the ground.

 

[nismaratwork]

Wow... I just meant that I enjoyed some of his shows, not that Alton Brown should be a messianic food-figure. No one should learn to cook via TV, so these things should be approached with a ready knowledge of food.

I will say, the knife episode was... very bad. Nobody touches my chef's knives but ME, the proper honing steel, and whetstone. It should be said that Alton Brown never claimed to be some kind of food guru, rather he worked into television specifically, and food ended up being the place he got into. I find him more entertaining than educational, but he's all about pretty basic techniques anyway.

Iron Chef is merely carried by Food Network... and I can't think of another show on there that I can stand.

 

[turbo]

Wow... I just meant that I enjoyed some of his shows, not that Alton Brown should be a messianic food-figure. No one should learn to cook via TV, so these things should be approached with a ready knowledge of food.

I know what you meant. I'm home about every day, and when the weather is bad, it would be nice to have some informative cooking shows on TV. Unfortunately, the Food Network falls far short of that mark. I learned basic French cooking, canning, pickling, etc from my mother, and learned how to manage meals for large groups from my grandmother, who cooked for a large log-driving crew every day for years.

For an example of what a cooking show *should* be, see if you can get 'hold of Michael Jubinsky's "Artisan Bread" Lesson on DVD, sponsored by King Arthur Flour. It's only 50 minutes, but it is packed with tips and tricks. My wife attended a milling and baking seminar last summer, and bought that DVD - it was well worth the investment. She now makes the best French bread ever.
Some critical tips:
~ keep your dough wet, and resist the temptation to add flour to reduce stickiness
~ don't man-handle the dough or knead it - stretch it using its own weight, fold it, and turn 90 degrees and repeat
~ don't dip your measuring cup into the flour. Use a scoop to get the flour out of the cannister, and dust it into the measuring cup for a fair measure. If you plunge the measuring cup into the flour, you'll end up with far too much flour because you have packed it tightly. Alternatively, you can weigh the flour.
~ those slashes on French breads aren't decorative - you make the slashes to relieve pressure during baking, to avoid "blowing out", deforming the shape of the loaves.

There's a lot more in that DVD, so if you'd like to make great French bread, the lesson is a "must-have".

 

[nucleargirl]

I watched food network today! and oh my god they've brought in a new and even more annoying (than Eva Garten) chef! she was doing some 'healthy eating' show, Elaine or something...

 

[Evo]

I watched food network today! and oh my god they've brought in a new and even more annoying (than Eva Garten) chef! she was doing some 'healthy eating' show, Elaine or something...

Oh, I don't ever watch her, she's got to be the worst and most annoying.