When historians look back at the second coming of Julia Child, they’ll say that his career really took off after he posted a video on how to make pot stickers.
Pot Stickers
April 30, 2011Keller Kills It Again with Kickin’ Kchicken
March 21, 2011Every Thomas Keller recipe I cook is better than the last. I’m hoping it’s not just luck. The latest recipe was easy to make just like the pork chops. It required the following ingredients:
- 1 lbs of flattened chicken breasts
- 1 tablespoon of finely chopped shallot
- 1 tablespoon of your favorite curry
- Splash of white wine
- 1 tablespoon of finely chopped tarragon
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1/2 cup of chicken stock
- Salt, kosher salt
Start by applying the curry powder to the chicken. Wrap them cutlets in plastic wrap and stash in the fridge for an hour. When you’re ready, preheat the over to 200 and heat up my favorite pan (you know which one I’m talking about). Put in a generous amount of canola oil to coat the bottom of it and then throw in the cutlets along with a little salt. Don’t move them for about 2 minutes. Let them get brown and tasty. Then flip ‘em. After another two minutes, put them on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet (lining the baking sheet with aluminum foil means no cleanup) and place the whole shebang in the oven to stay warm.
Wipe the oil and blackened bits out of the cast iron pan with a paper towel. If your pan is still really hot, you could probably turn the heat off at this point. Otherwise, leave it on low. First, put the butter in the pan. Let it melt. Then put the shallot in. Saute it for a brief 30 seconds. Then pour in the white wine. It should boil off quickly. Then pour in the chicken stock and tarragon. Simmer it down until you have a nice thick sauce. To me it tastes like liquid fennel. Pour it evenly on top of the chicken and enjoy.
Keller’s Chicken Dumpling Soup
February 20, 2011You may remember my previous post on chicken dumpling soup. Although my post didn’t convey it, it was another Alton Brown let down in terms of the finished product. (I’m still a huge fan Alton! I always learn something, I just don’t enjoy eating the meals produced by most of your recipes.) Well, it was time to step my shit up and get after it Thomas Keller style.
What is Thomas Keller style? Well, besides meaning cooking Thomas Keller recipes, it means devoting the whole damn day to a recipe. Blasphemy you say! No, I quite enjoy it, actually. So what did Keller’s recipe involve?
- A homemade stock (jury is still out in my book on whether this is worth it; I’m making another one today, so we’ll see.).
- Homemade dumplings (similar to Alton’s but with the addition of chives, which makes them money).
- Blanching the carrots and celery, which was my favorite part about this dish. Blanching does a couple things: 1) it produces great color, 2) it produces even salting, and 3) it can introduce new flavors directly to that single thing (and not to the rest of the dish). The celery was a straightforward salt water blanch, while the carrots were a salt, honey, thyme, and bay leaf blanch. It’s hard to truly appreciate good blanching until you take a carrot blanched like this and you taste the new complexity it brings to the party. I now think about a finished meal like this. You can either play a chord, where you bring a few notes together to create a single harmonized flavor (like Alton’s soup), or you can play a song where multiple chords (with the carrot being one, the dumpling being another, etc) come together to create a whole new meal of crazy depth and complexity (like Keller’s).
- A roux to create a creamery, thicker broth.
All in all, it was an excellent dish that I’ll be enjoying again.
My New Favorite Sport
February 20, 2011I’ve spent every winter break of my life in Sun Valley, Idaho save one. The ski resort in Sun Valley is pretty special; fantastically long runs, no lift lines, and perfect pitch. For the longest time I thought its biggest downside was that it doesn’t snow much. It snows somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 inches a year (compared with the 400+ in Washington). What I didn’t ever appreciate, until I lived in the grayest state in the union, is that when it doesn’t snow you get a lot of gorgeous, sunny winter days. Go figure! Sun Valley is actually sunny!
Well this winter break I decided to finally take advantage of the sunny weather. I went skate skiing. It’s hard to describe the exhilartion of great skate skiing, so let me quote my favorite Marmot store rental clerk; “it’s just like mountain biking.” What?!?! You can’t be serious. Cross country skiing like mountain biking? No way.
Yes way. Let’s take the best feelings you get while mountain biking: being outside in the wilderness with your dog: same with nordic. Burning your lungs: same with nordic. Constantly tweaking your body’s mechanics to improve its performance: same with nordic. Hauling ass with the possibility of a painful wipeout: same with nordic.
Trust me, I didn’t believe the guy from Marmot when he told me that. But I’m a convert. Now it’s time to see if it’s as fun at cloudy Snoqualmie pass as it is in sunny Sun Valley.
Sprint to Muir
January 31, 2011For the third time this summer, I went to Camp Muir (and for those who are curious, no, it hasn’t gotten old). This time I went with Sam Porter, my brother in law. We went light, and we went fast. In fact, we really didn’t think we were going to get an opportunity to go. It was mid-September, and it was raining in Seattle. Sam hadn’t been to Paradise, so we were going just to hike. In secret, we did take some extra provisions in case the Gods decided to give us a treat. And boy did they. We arrived to sunny skies. But we knew we didn’t have long. So we strapped on our running shoes, packed our packs with our shitty weather gear, and started motoring. 2 hours and 45 minutes later, we were 4,700 higher than before. Sam kicked my ass, so he had some time to wander around Camp Muir. But it was getting cold and some clouds were moving in. We started literally sprinting down. With a few glissades thrown in, we made it back to the car in an hour and half. All together, our trip took 4 hours and 30 minutes. Not bad.
Family Matters
January 21, 2011I look up and there’s the massive, legendary face of Mount Rainier. Right down the middle of it is the scar known as the Nisqually glacier. The view never gets old.
But then I look to my left and right. Now this isn’t a view I’m used to. It’s my mom, dad, brother, and wife. We’re half way up the Muir snowfield on our way to Camp Muir, elevation 10,080. They’ve got skis on their backs because, yes, we are going to get some turns in in the middle August.
By the end of our journey we’d taken twice our expected time, put on a little too much ghostly sunscreen, laid down some sick turns, and had one of the best family trips of all time.
For those who haven’t been to Paradise at the base of Mount Rainier, you’re missing one of the top five most beautiful vistas in the United States. And for those who haven’t been to Camp Muir, you’re missing one of life’s great adventures.
Pesto to Memory
January 9, 2011I’m trying to commit a basic pesto recipe to memory, but I keep failing. So instead I’ll make a wimpy post where I simply link to the recipe. I guess I’ll add a photo.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/pesto-recipe2/index.html
Chicken Pot Pie
January 9, 2011Thomas Keller inspired me to make my first pie crust. It was a failure. I’ll blame myself for two reasons. First, in an attempt to be healthy, I tried making it with whole wheat flour. I quickly learned that the two attributes of a delicious pie crust, thin and flaky, are nearly impossible to achieve with whole wheat flour. Second, I failed because I have shitty technique. Go figure! Seriously though, it’s hard man!
Now let me talk about Keller’s filling. It was average. That’s why I won’t even put it in here. Not worth the effort. Riveting post Charlie! Thanks, bye.
Gyoza Mothuf$%#a!
November 8, 2010Man, that is fun to say. GYOZA MOTHUF$%#A! All Rex Ryaning aside, this recipe is the bomb. It comes from the hefty chefy, Tom Douglas. There’s not a lot to say about the recipe other than that it is fun to make and tastes like liquid pleasure.
I make a couple of modifications to the recipe. The sake and crab are both optional, although they make it better. Instead of chopping everything by hand, which I did the first time I made the recipe, I make use of my Cuisinart. It saves fifteen minutes of time, easily. Just make sure to put in the water chestnuts last so that you get their nice crunch, and grate the ginger as it releases more of its flavor.
Steamin’ Salmon
November 1, 2010The worst Tom Douglas recipe to date. It involved steaming a piece of salmon in water that contained an orange peel, 15 dollars of sake, star anise, and lemongrass. I’m not sure why I thought it would be good. While we nibbled at the fish, I thought to myself I could taste more of the flavors by simply looking at them. And seriously, 2 bottles of sake to steam the salmon with? That’s outrageous. I should have drunk them, gotten a buzz, and then enjoyed my flavorless salmon.
