German Potato Salad

Ingredients

3 lbs. potatoes

4 strips bacon

one large yellow onion

Handful of parsley

(for the dressing)

1/4 cup champagne vinegar

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

2 tbsp water

Directions:

Peel potatoes and dice into one-inch pieces. Put in large pot and cover with water. (can sit until you are ready to cook). Check frequently to make sure it does not overcook.

Dice onion finely.  

Chop parsley.

Combine dressing ingredients and whisk. Taste, adjust for sweetness/vinegar balance

Airfry bacon. In my Breville, this means 450 degrees. Put the bacon on the tray and let it microwave while the oven preheats for three minutes, then cook for ten more. Turn it at 5, check it periodically.

Remove bacon, dry on paper towel. Transfer bacon grease to a cast iron skillet and heat skillet. Add onions and SOFTEN, don't let them brown too much. 

Chop bacon. Split into two portions.

Once onions are soft and starting to brown, add DRESSING. Let it come to a boil. Once boiling, add potatoes and one portion of bacon. Using a wooden spoon, carefully turn to coat. Let some liquid burn off as it coats, add salt periodically, correcting as you taste.

Once ready, add one-half (a little more) parsley and mix. Transfer to serving bowl, garnish with parsley and remaining bacon. 

Then fucking enjoy.

Salad Dressing Perfection: Shallots in Champagne Vinegar

 For the past year or so we have subscribed to a kind of farmer's market box--the kind of thing where you get a bag of vegetables once a week. You never know what you are going to get. We used to do this in Georgia, but the result was always disappointing. Not so in California, where every week we get a huge bounty of fresh produce for $20. 

One of the bounties is fresh red onion, which lately has been coming every couple of weeks. It inspired me to pick up an old salad dressing recipe and adapt it, and the results have been lovely.

• finely chopped shallot
• honey
• salt and pepper
  

Finely chop a shallot, or, in my case, a red onion.

Drop it into a small tupperware and cover with champagne vinegar. Add salt and pepper and squeeze in honey to taste. The rule of thumb here is about a tablespoon of honey for about 12 oz. of vinegar, I think. Err on the low side because you can always add more. Then shake, taste, and correct the seasonings.

Funny Valentine (Blood Orange Old Fashioned)

 This is a really good cocktail. It has a little more depth than a traditional Old Fashioned, At its best, there are complex flavors that blend well but also stand out at different points, on their own. Also, this is an easy drink to make in bulk, making it a party favorite. 

You will need:

• 4 oz. bourbon
• 1/2 oz. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
• blood oranges
  
• Aztec Chocolate Bitters (or a bitters that you prefer)

There are two ways to make this drink. Old school and new school.

I want to go old school:

1. Get a shaker. add some ice.
   
2. Pour in the bourbon. Stir. (You want that bourbon to get cold, so agitate it!)
3. Get an old fashioned glass.
4. Add the Luxardo Marachino Liqueur to the glass.
5. Quarter a blood orange and squeeze the juice of one quarter of blood orange into the glass. Drop the quarter blood orange into the glass.
   
6. Add the bitters.
7. Muddle these ingredients.
8. Stir the bourbon in the shaker. You want it cold!
9. Add ice to the old fashioned glass. Make sure you have good, hard ice. The larger the cube, the better.
10. Add the bourbon to the glass. Stir if you like, but only gently. You want this drink to be a progressive one--it will start boozy and get sweeter as you go down.
11. Garnish with a cherry, or blood orange rind, or blood orange slice. Up to you!

I'm postmodern, thank you very much:

1. Get a shaker. Add some ice. 
2. Pour in bourbon, Luxardo Marachino Liqueur, and bitters.
3. Quarter a blood orange and squeeze the juice of one quarter of the blood orange into the shaker.
4. Stir, baby, stir.
5. Let it sit while you prepare garnish. You want this baby cold!
6. Get an old fashioned glass. Add a big ice cube, or whatever ice you use. You can also serve this drink straight up, but make sure it has plenty of time to chill in that shaker.
   
7. Stir, baby, stir. (the shaker, obviously).
8. Pour the old fashioned into the glass. 
9. Garnish with a cherry, or blood orange rind, or blood orange slice. Up to you!

A word on garnish:

If you are going old school, consider skewering a cherry, an eighth cut of the blood orange (a little triangle), and another cherry on a toothpick and using that as a garnish. 

The rind is by far the most elegant garnish. And blood orange rind can be absolutely beautiful. Just make sure to leave out the pith, express the oils, and then give the rim of the glass a twirl. This works great in either.

Slices of blood orange are gorgeous. And don't feel bad about mixing garnishes. This is a drink that can be elegant or a little noisy.

Blood Orange Margarita

 This is hardly original, but it is the best damn margarita I've ever had. And the proportions are not hard to get right, but easy to mess up.

• 4 oz tequila
• 2 oz lime juice
• 2 oz blood orange
• tsp or so of agave syrup (preferably amber)
  
• pinch salt

The 1:1 ratio of juice to tequila can be altered to 1.5:1 or even 2:1 depending on taste. Blood oranges are only mildly sweet, but definitely not acidic enough without the lime juice.

Agave syrup is to taste. Honestly, I just squeeze in a little, shake the margarita, and then taste. It is easy to adjust the sugar upwards, a little more work to juice some more limes.

Miso For weekday soups

 Recipe for a workweek's worth of miso soup.

make a quart of dashi broth. Kombu and don't skimp on the Katsuboshi. 

next, take a pint of the dashi and make the miso broth. This will make (roughly) three servings.

• 16 oz. dashi broth
  
• 2 tbsp miso paste
• 1 tbsp mirin

I prefer to mix the miso, mirin, and 2 oz. of the dashi broth, and then add it to the rest of the broth. Like you're making a roux. Then, you can adjust to taste, depending on how strong you want your miso broth. Once it is appropriately strong, take it off the heat. Let it cool, and store it in the fridge.

Day of, Take six oz. or so of the miso broth, put it over heat, add mushrooms, nori, green onions. Meanwhile, cut up tofu into bite size pieces. Put the tofu in the serving bowl (or thermos, or whatever). Bring the heat up slowly. If eating immediately, serve the broth once warmed, and mushrooms are cooked. If putting in a thermos, I heat the broth slowly, let the mushrooms cook, then bring the whole mixture to a boil, then pour into the thermos, to ensure it remains warm. Do as you please, though.

Mac N Cheese, kinda southern style

 Trying to recall a really good mac n cheese I made, but can't find the recipe. Here goes. (Proportion comment follows)

 Mix a roux. Use

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups half n half 
• 1/2 cup flour 
• grated nutmeg

It's helpful to start with a small amount of half n half and the flour. Mix that and then add more liquid.

• cheddar (4 cups)
• Gruyere (2 cups)
• 1.5 lbs. pasta
• diced tomatoes, 1 can

Cook the pasta ahead of time. We did 1 cup and that was ... too little. Either cut down the proportions of the cheese and roux, or up the pasta. 1 pound of pasta produced a side dish for three and ... will be two more meals. So maybe cut down the cheese. 

I honestly think 2 + 2 cups of cheese and everything else in half would be just fine.

sous vide poached egg

Here's a quick sous vide poach, and it works quite well. 167 degrees for 12 minutes, then ice bath to arrest cooking. The eggs can be cracked directly onto toast, or perhaps into a bowl if you want to scrape off the unset whites. But I was pretty impressed. Very little egg left in the shell.

Marinated Eggs

 I am trying to perfect soft boiled eggs, which have been difficult. I have found that following the sous vide instructions does not work, because eight minutes at 194 degrees produces eggs where the whites are too loose. It won't extract from the peel, and it is generally a mess.

Today I tried six eggs, 194 degrees, for ten minutes. Specifically, I add the eggs, then start the timer. I add the eggs one at a time in a slotted spoon, so it takes a few seconds. I have to be very careful, or risk cracking the eggs when they go in. 

The result was interesting. Several of the eggs peeled rather easily, but still seemed soft enough to be truly soft boiled. Several still had adolescent whites, clinging to the shell. There must be a thirty second window around the ten minute mark, given that some of the eggs had to have cooked longer, and I could not tell you which ones they were. 

Marinade (a totally made-up recipe on my part):

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin
  
• 1/8 tsp cayenne
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 star anise

panko crusted rockfish fillets

This is a total experiment, because they had rockfish on special down at the fish market. Here goes:

I will dredge fish in flour (one-half cup flour plus salt and pepper, 1/2 tsp. each); then in egg, then in panko and parm and seasoning (cajun, likely, or maybe just my own four seasons blend). 

heat the oven to 425 

heat oil in a cast iron skillet

prepare a baking sheet with a rack

fry the fish fillets, two at a time, one minute per side, then place on rack. 

Then place the rack and baking sheet in the oven. Cook for an additional five minutes

And that should do it. Total experiment. Fingers crossed and all...

Simple bison tacos (not so simple)

 So, this is a weekday meal that you can prep ahead of time. 

• 2 cups spinach (1/2 a bag that I get at the farmer's market)
• 1 bucket of mushrooms (whatever that container is they come in in the supermarket)
• 1 lb. ground bison
• 1 red or green or yellow bell pepper
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon 
• cilantro, avocado, chopped lettuce... the works
  

Simple directions:

1. make the spice rub. (you can do this ahead of time or at the time, no matter which.) You will end up using most of this for the meat, but reserve a little to sprinkle onto the peppers and onions.
2. use a food processor to coarsely chop up the spinach and mushrooms. (easy to do ahead if you, like me, do a lot of food prep at the beginning of the week.)
3. combine the spice rub with the bison. 
4. Put a tbsp of oil in a frying pan and cook up the ground bison.
5. When it is browned and really getting there, add the mushrooms and spinach. Combine well, let the moisture cook off. 
6. Check and effing correct the seasoning. 
7. In a separate pan, cook up the onions and peppers. Sprinkle with seasoning. 
8. at some point, make sure to chop the lettuce and the avocado, cilantro, or whatever else you need. This should probably be somewhere between step three and four. Whatever.
9. Heat the tortillas. Or make a rice bowl. Or just eat it. Bisony goodness.