WSH is saddened to announce that Sally passed in 2015 after a long illness.  Please enjoy her posts as long as you can.  WSH

Consomme - or I now pronounce myself a cook.

 



I made my usual batch of chicken stock yesterday.

 

 

Thanks to the constant skimming, it came out relatively clear. For some masochistic reason, I decided I wanted to try to make it into consomme. I had read that one cannot honestly call oneself a cook until one has successfully made consomme. That's all it took.

I had to go to the store to get lean ground meat for this and needed to pick up some cheesecloth for the final clarification.  Cristy asked me, where is THAT? In the cheesecloth aisle? I shouldn't have laughed. The angels of irony or maybe it was karma, got me. I couldn't find it. I asked an employee who looked at me as if I had just spoken in Martian. Our conversation went something like this:

Hi! Do you know if you carry cheesecloth and where I might find it?
What is it?
A loosely woven cotton cloth.
Does it have cheese in it?
No.
What do you want it for?
Straining stock, I made 15 quarts of chicken stock yesterday.
Why did you do that?
Because I didn't have anything else to do.
She called the manager.
Other employees spread out across the aisles on a store wide search for cheesecloth.
We finally found it and they all asked me again, what I was going to do with it. I wanted to be witty, on the spot clever like I was making a dress or something, but I had nothing. I was drained already.

I knew the technique but I consulted the web for the correct proportions of ingredients for my amount of stock. So I mixed ground turkey (couldn't find chicken and was not about to add the extra step of grinding to this process) a carton of eggbeaters (about 10 egg whites--see, I didn't even want to break the eggs and separate them) and mire poix (carrots, celery and shallots).

I mixed all of that into a gloppy, sick looking mess. I held my breath and put it into the clean stock pot, then poured in my stock -- about 11 quarts of reasonably clear, delicious chicken stock that had taken 6-7 hours to make on Saturday.  I turned on the heat and immediately went into a panic. What have I done? I've ruined my beautiful stock!! It looked like ... well, I won't go into details but it looked really disgusting. I was supposed to stir constantly while bringing it up to temperature, which means I stood on a step stool for about an hour stirring this messy, sick looking pot of ick. It takes a while for 10-11 quarts of cold stock to come up to a simmer. The number of new inventive phrases I found for demeaning myself was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

Ok, so I knew that theoretically, the glop was supposed to sort of congeal and capture the tiny impurities that will make a broth cloudy. It's called a raft. At this point, however, it didn't look good, I had no raft, only a murky sea.

To the web! Answers! Videos!

Sometimes less information is better. I found a video of a culinary class, yes he actually wore a toque (tall white hat) and the very first thing he said was "This is probably the coolest thing you'll ever do once." Oh boy. He gave a lecture and wrote on a white board and issued many stern warnings about how delicate the process was and if you looked at the raft wrong it would break apart and presumably your life would end at that very moment. What he didn't say was how to get the raft out of the pot, or the stock out from under the raft.

There was no turning back now, though, so I searched again. Eventually I came upon a video done by a young chef  named Roble who clearly knew what he was doing but was way more relaxed and laid back than toque-head. This chef wore a backwards baseball cap.  In other words, he didn't scare the crap out of me and I felt reassured in the knowledge that if my raft broke apart, I most likely would not die at that very moment.  So, brimming with my new found confidence I marched into the kitchen, climbed up on the stool and what do you think I found? A raft! A life-raft!  Doesn't this look delightful?

I let the stuff simmer for about an hour, but taking the toque-head warnings to heart, I did not punch holes in the raft... it just seems counter intuitive doesn't it? Who wants holes in their raft? When the time came to get the good stuff out, I took a spatula and cut through this inch-plus layer of  souffle looking stuff  (it was very much like a gross omelet) and I removed enough to fit my ladle in. Then I proceeded to ladle out 10 quarts of stock, straining each ladle-ful through a cheesecloth lined strainer.

And there you have it! Consomme. I am now a cook.  And I agree with toque-head, once is enough.

 

 

See you soon.

North Carolina

The fine state of North Carolina is where most of my remaining family lives these days. This trip was a joyful one, despite the rain that pounded us all the way there. We drove to Charlotte on Friday and stayed in the Hilton at City Center. We arrived at supper time and not wanting to wander around in the rain and wind, we chose The Mimosa Grill . One of the cool things about Charlotte City Center is that you can walk about 4 blocks without ever going outside through a series of atria and skywalks and through various buildings.  The Mimosa Grill is part of Harper's Restaurant Group, so while it isn't a real indie restaurant, it is very very good. I had salad with lemon vinaigrette that was so fantastic I pleaded for the recipe. (I keep checking my email.) The lemon was not overpowering and it had to be a Meyer lemon, it was so clean and fresh and delicious. My main was a flank steak with boursin cheese melted on top. It had been perfectly marinated and grilled, tender, full of flavor, just wonderful. No dessert. If you're ever in Charlotte looking for a friendly, flavorful meal, check out the Mimosa Grill. The service was perfect, too!

Saturday was a picture perfect spring day, it was breezy, sunny, slightly cool and a perfect day for a wedding. By the time we headed to Lexington, I was fully regretting my haphazard packing (if you could even call it that) I needed my Visine badly!! Spring is lovely but man all that plant sex kills my eyes and nose and lungs. Thankfully I brought my inhalers. But. I. Forgot. my. camera!!!!!! :(

We gathered at the Lake House seeing old friends, family, meeting new friends (Hi Rose!) and enjoying the day. Liz had decorated with white flowers all over the house, it was just lovely.  As the time drew near Byron and Will gathered on the dock and friends and family were spread out across 2 porches and various walkways by the water. Their house is a full 18" from the water. Then the DJ (aka Alan) cued the music for the bride's procession. Also Sprach Zarathustra Op. 30 (probably better known as the theme song to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey). Liz, I don't care what you say, it is not a South Carolina Gamecock song. :P  There they were facing one another, dressed alike in blue jeans and white starched shirts, saying their vows. No swarmageddon (cicadas coming out of the ground) no, rings dropped into the lake, only one vow misstep (by the preacher-he is a true Man of God and unfortunately combined unconditional and faithful) and the deed was done. They are now husband and wife. I wish for them many perfectly beautiful sunny days together.

See you soon.

Hi Folks, I have a post in the works, but I've been to lazy to edit the photos yet... Hey, at least I'm honest! In the meantime, here is a post from a really world class blog about some people in Atlanta whom I don't know personally but have been following for quite some time. I was never quick enough to get into one of the supper clubs, but surely wish I had been. Please read and send some positive thoughts Ryan and Jen's way.

Meet Staplehouse

 http://www.livethefinelife.com/2013/02/meet-staplehouse-atlanta.html


See you soon

Another Lovely Leisurely Lunch

Hello again! Yesterday I thoroughly enjoyed another leisurely lunch with my dear friend Cristy (pictured on the left in my profile).  No Bistro this time, just me and my kitchen aka the safest place on earth. Unless you count knife injuries, but that's another story. My kitchen is safe in the sense of warmth and comfort and freedom from judgment, at least to me it is, and since I spend more time in there than most people, it works for me. We had several treasures to review together and plans to make about ramping up the snail's pace of renewing the extra bedroom space so we decided it was best she come here.

The menu started out as a simple spinach salad with some lovely little extras: hard boiled eggs, bacon, blue cheese, toasted almonds, a pear and some sliced baby bellas aka crimini. The dressing was a warm bacon vinaigrette using a bit of bacon fat, some extra virgin olive oil, Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar, Balsamic vinegar and a touch of salt and pepper. Easy enough!

Salad ingredients:

Toss them all together and drizzle with dressing on serving plate.



I think it was Wednesday night I watched an episode of one of Ina Garten's shows and in it she prepared a dish with roasted asparagus, crisped prosciutto, hollandaise and a fried egg on top. I had to try it! So as a sort of last minute item, this was added to the menu as well. I'm so glad!! It was out of this world!

Place the asparagus on a baking sheet and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast them in a preheated 400 oven for about ten minutes. For the last 4 minutes of cooking, slide the other baking sheet holding the prosciutto slices, in the oven to crisp up.

Meanwhile make the Hollandaise sauce:

Whizz up the egg yolks in a blender **** They must be at room temperature**** it takes several hours to accomplish this, so you should take the eggs out way before you do anything else. Ina said she sometimes leaves them on the countertop overnight. (As usual my chronology is screwed.) Anyway, whizz the egg yolks about 15 seconds, add the lemon juice salt and pepper (pictured above is Magic Unicorn Salt) and lastly, melt the butter (see chronology above) and slowly drizzle the hot butter into the whizzing blender through the hole in the top. When finished, the sauce should have a very rich, creamy consistency and look something like this:

The amount this recipe makes is really enough for 4 asparagus servings, but you couldn't do less than this in the blender. In fact, I probably should have done it by hand, because 2 egg yolks just don't provide enough volume for the blades to properly mix. In any case, it tasted rich and buttery with a slight lemon tang, sort of like... Hollandaise sauce! Imagine that!

Last step in the prep is to gently (low medium  heat) fry an egg to top the dish. To assemble, place the asparagus on the plate, spoon some hollandaise on top, crumble the crispy prosciutto and top with your just done egg. I added a few chive bits for jazz.

This is a GREAT low carb lunch enough to fill you up for the entire day. Cristy and I ate and talked and laughed and reviewed photos of my trip to celebrate my Uncle's 85th birthday. It was lovely. Then, to laugh off our memories of our shameful behavior in the early 70s we watched Nadia G's Bitchin Kitchen Rehab recipes episode! It was great fun and we're so glad we don't behave that way any more.

Both of these recipes are very easy. Don't be afraid of hollandaise, it has an unearned bad rep. Thanks Cristy, for stopping by to see me! I had so much fun! Thanks for all who read this and may be inspired to try it.

See you soon.

The Salt of the Earth

A lot has been said about salt, besides the one about Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt. Paraphrase: You are the Salt of the earth, if you lose your saltiness, what then have you become?  An old wives' tale speaks of throwing spilled salt over your left shoulder to ward off bad luck. Thomas Keller says that the most important lesson for any chef (or home cook for that matter) is how to properly salt your food in cooking. Many chefs say that the best ingredients for enhancing flavor in a dish are salt and vinegar. Personally, I'd add fat to that list but that would be very non-PC. Except here. Thanks, Charlie!

My dear friend Audrey and I had a lunch in France yesterday. Well, ok, we weren't actually in France, but we took our time in a friendly Bistro talking, sharing stories for about 4 hours. That is the way to really appreciate a meal with friends. They had great music playing, great artwork and a nice aquarium to get lost in.

Audrey and I were having our belated Christmas/Birthday lunch. Her Birthday is in the same week as Christmas, so I used to wrap her Birthday presents in Pink and Blue so that they would be Separate From Christmas Gifts!  This year her present was in lavendar, thanks to Cristy, and her Christmas gifts were not even wrapped -- I don't do the retail Christmas anymore. I bought a hand carved Nativity in Bethlehem when I visited Israel back in the early 90s and that's the only decoration I bring forth.

Anyhoo, back to salt... I have at least 6 different salts in my cupboard, Fleur de Sel, Regular non-french sea salt, hickory smoked salt, you get the idea. Audrey is so fantastic! She gave me a box of salts!! I was opening each one, saying OMG! They have cute names but great ingredients I can't wait to try.

Santa Salt

 

Pure Ocean Salt, Rosemary, Pink Peppercorns

Suggested uses: Vegetables, Pasta, Eggs, Popcorn, Beef, Poultry, Seafood, Butter, Olive Oil, Shortbread, Salads

Rosemary Salt

Pure Ocean Salt, Rosemary
Suggested Uses: Spring Vegetables, Tomatoes, Eggs, Pasta, Fish, Pork, Lamb, Beef Poultry, Vanilla Ice Cream (if only) Shortbread, Grilled Corn, Popcorn







Magic Unicorn Salt  (great name and great ingredients)

Pure Ocean Salt, Celery Seed, Rosemary, Granulated Garlic, Smoked Paprika, Lemon Juice Powder
Suggested Uses: Anything. It's Magic.






Friends Forever (my favorite name and it smelled wonderful)

Pure Ocean Salt, Granulated Honey  -- there are no carbs listed so it must not have any!!  =)
Suggested Uses: Popcorn, Sweet Potataoes, Lemon Chicken, Spinach Salad, Carrots, Ice Cream, Fancy Drinks


Just like compound butters, you can make your own salt combinations with spices and herbs. Why not give it a try?

See you soon.

Balancing Act

First , with great joy, enthusiasm and surprise, I must tell you something. I located a "Food Photography" setting on my camera! I hope I'll be able to find it again!  What will they think of next?  Ha - it only took me a  year to find it; imagine what other wonders await my discovery.

One of the premises of this new way of eating is that the ratio of fat to protein should be more or less equal. In some cases, such as fish and lean meats, this can be a challenge. Tonight I am preparing Beef Tenderloins which are quite lean and as a result, sometimes lacking in the flavor department since fat = flavor. The same thing is true of other cuts such as sirloin, although sirloin certainly has more flavor than tenderloin.

To try to balance it out, I am making a compound butter to be used as a garnish on the steak which will increase the fat content and add a ton of flavor. Compound butters can be used on anything really: meats, fish, eggs, even vegetables. You can flavor the butter with anything you like, herbs, aromatics (garlic, shallots) cheese, spices, citrus zest, the possibilities are endless. I like the combination of beef and blue cheese so that's what I'm doing, with a touch of fresh parsley for brightness. As always, buy the best ingredients you can afford. All butters are not created equal! Maytag is my favorite domestic Blue, and yes, it's the same family who makes the appliances. My store was out of it so I just picked another medium blue, not too much bite.

You can use the food processor for this, or soften the butter at room temperature and mix it by hand. I opted for the processor. Before you begin, wash and chop some parsley.  I used 1 stick butter, about 2.5 ounces blue cheese, 1/3 c chopped flat leaf parsley and about a teaspoon of freshly grated pepper.
Mix it up! 

When done, spread the mixture into a log shape on plastic wrap and roll it up in a tube. This will keep in the fridge for a week or so. Cut the desired amount and allow to come to room temperature before using.

When your steak or fish or whatever target is ready, plop a generous Tablespoon of the butter on top and let it melt as the meat rests.  If you've never tried this, I highly recommend it. It can add a whole new profile to an old favorite and maybe dress up a dish that has become so familiar, you don't want to eat it anymore.

Nutritional Info for the butter is approximate because I'm sure different types of Bleu or Blue cheese vary. But here goes: Total 71 g Fat, 13g Protein, 2 g Carb 1 G Fiber and that is for 10 generous servings of a heaping Tblsp. each.  Per serving: 7.1g Fat, 1.3g Protein, .1 Net carb.

I served the steaks with Aparagus spears which had been roasted in the oven at 400 for about 10 min, they were pretty thick.

See you soon!