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.

 

Weekday Rice Bowl

 One of the bounties of the Santa Monica Farmers' Market was the availability of fresh ginger root, possibly the best ginger I have ever had. I began hashing together some ginger based sauces and came up with this for a weekday meal:

one inch ginger, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, microplaned

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp fish sauce

(You can double this recipe easily and store it, which is a nice way to save some labor for a meal next week).

If I am cooking salmon, then I sous vide up three fillets at 110 degrees for forty minutes (if frozen), and then carefully remove them and let them soak in the marinade. If doing mushrooms, then I presoak the mushrooms in the marinade. In either case, reserve the marinade as a sauce for the bowl.

Optional: add green onions, quartered or thinly sliced

Optional: sous vide some soft boiled eggs (8.5 minutes@194). This can be done up in advance, of course, but I find it a good protein for a vegetarian rice bowl.

While the cooking is happening, 

prepare a vegetable in the steamer. Get it ready to go. 

Get the rice ready to go, and then set them to be done all at the same time.

Chop up an avocado

If salmon, I typically dry the fillets and cook them at high heat to crisp up the skin. If mushrooms then, just strain out the marinade and cook.

Once the rice is ready, spoon into bowls, add the mushrooms or salmon (skin side up), cut the egg in half (vertically). Add the chopped avocado. Top with Bonito Flakes, sriracha mayo,  and the sauce.

I typically serve this with steamed bok choi, on the side. 

 

Sous Vide Turkeyburgers

 Gave this a try. Results were good, for a turkey burger.

1.1 pounds ground turkey breast

3 tbsp chopped parsley

about a teaspoon of kosher salt

cracked pepper

garlic powder (pinch)

mustard powder (pinch)

makes three patties. load em into the bag. (Although I didn't do this, I think I would douse it in some olive oil next time)

Cook the turkey at 145 for one hour. I went about ten minutes over that, to be safe.

sear over high heat, flipping twice and then adding mix of swiss and jack cheese.

Result is as juicy as a turkeyburger would be. Our buns were awful, and this was the major disappointment. The bun makes the burger.

The Max Eastman Flip, Part 2

 So, here is the recipe for the holiday alternative to rum and eggnog.

For 2 cocktails (who mixes just one?)

in a Boston shaker, mix

2 oz. bourbon (Bulleit, or Woodford or Maker's)

1 1/2 oz. vermouth (Dolin with Bulleit; Cocchi with Woodford)

1 1/2 oz. half and half (whipping cream if you have it)

2 egg yolks

2 barspoons powdered sugar

ice

While it sits, prepare a small cocktail glass, either a coup or a small roly poly. Place a single cocktail cherry at the bottom. 

 Shake the drink for at least one minute, preferably two. 

Pour out immediately in stages, reserving froth for both glasses.

The Justin Macalroy

 My daughter shows zero interest in drugs or alcohol or tobacco or anything else that would, under most circumstances, terrify me as a father.

But she does love food, and she has a remarkable palate for someone her age. Such proclivities do not mean that she lacks the fascination, normal for children her age, with sugar, and as such usually wants to crack open a root beer during tippling time so that she can join in the festivities. So, I have taken to making her her own little softdrink cocktail:

2 lemon cubes

3 parts orange juice (1 1/4 oz. jigger)

1/2 oz. grenadine. 

It's a lot of fresh juice and only a tad of added sugar, which certainly beats 12 oz. of cane sugar fueled mess. Gotta keep the vitamin c going...

She named it the Justin Macalroy, after a favorite comic of hers. I'm deliberately misspelling the name because I don't know how to spell it. Also, I don't want him to sue me. 

For those who are keeping score, this is more or less the same recipe for a Montana Sour, and I haven't yet tried the big batch, in part because we won't be attending parties or having dinner guests for some time.

Montana Sours

Sours are an easy go to during quarantine. They are light, not too boozy, and more or less are a vitamin C delivery system after one's normal intake of vitamin C during the day has passed. I've been working on a recipe that is somewhat idiosyncratic, as we will see, but not hard to replicate, season to season or otherwise.

(For 2, I use a 1 1/4 inch jigger)

3 parts orange juice (fresh squeezed, usually two oranges, although three will make 6 parts for refills)

3 lemon ice cubes

2 parts amaretto

1 part Bulleit bourbon

mix all ingredients in a Boston shaker with no ice cubes. serve in a roly poly or old fashioned glass over ice. garnish with orange peel.

The lemon cubes are a staple for us because we have, it would seem, always had a lemon tree in the family, somewhere. It used to be my mom's, and now it is my wife's mom's, and once the lemons drop, there is nothing to do but juice them and freeze them. I'm not sure how much volume is in the cube, but no matter. The sour mix can be adjusted however one likes.

The oranges come from the Santa Monica farmers market. The valencias are in season in December, really juicy and sweet. 

To make this drink, I start by putting out the glasses and the shaker. Before juicing the oranges, I use a mandoline to separate a pith-less bit of peel from the orange. Do it over the cocktail glasses, and it mists them with a nice citrus perfume. Then juice the oranges.

I drop the lemon cube into the shaker, add the orange juice, and then add the amaretto and bourbon. If I need to do anything else, I do. It gives the lemon cube a moment to dissolve. Then I shake it down, until the lemon cube is all but gone. I wait until the last minute to put ice in the glasses, then I pour out the drink (sans strainer!), reserving the froth to garnish both glasses. Then I express the orange peel and drop it on the top. 

I prefer Bulleit Bourbon because it is less oaky and sweet than Woodford or Maker's Mark. Buffalo Trace would work well in this. Definitely steer clear of rye. I prefer Disaronno because the bottle looks pretty, and I haven't yet found a cheap Amaretto that didn't somehow taste cheap. Fresh orange juice is a must, but that goes without saying.

The drink takes its name from the street we live on, where we are spending a good amount of our time these days, or at least crossing, on our walks, during the great pandemic of 2020.

Farmers Market Stirfy

Ingredients for the stirfy

Mushrooms

green onions (chopped into thirds

medium onion (1/2 inch wedges)

minced garlic (3 cloves)

ginger, fresh if possible. And I mean fresh ginger.

Ingredients for the sauce:

3 tsbp soy sauce

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tsp 

1/2 tsp of that really hot pepper sauce.

You can put anything you want into the stirfry. Just make sure there is some crunch and some soft. 

Cook the yellow onion for three or four minutes, then add green onions and cook for another three or four minutes.

Cook the sauce right in the pan and then mix with vegetables and then reduce the sauce.

GO

Santa Monica Shrimp Scampi

So, the east point kitchen has temporarily relocated to a townhome in Santa Monica. The townhome is on the eastern boundary, although not quite the eastern most point of the city's terminus, but close enough that we might say we are at the east point of Santa Monica.

Not that any of that matters. More importantly, we now have an antique stovetop that barely heats a pot of water to cook pasta, an oven that decides when it is ready to heat up, and a kitchen with just a tad less space for stockpots and sauce pans. Oh well. When the weather is perpetually pleasant outside and the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean are only a ten minute bike ride away, you learn to live with a few things.

Tonight we are trying shrimp scampi. I've made this a few times before, but this time I want to record the recipe.

2 tbsp olive oil (about)

pound shrimp

juice of a lemon, or so

1/2 cup white wine

lemon zest

parsley

5 garlic cloves

Cook shrimp in olive oil. Remove. Add garlic. Perhaps some cracked black pepper. Once fragrant, add lemon juice and white wine. Let the liquid cook down. Return the shrimp to the pan and toss. Add the pasta, some pasta water, and let the flavors meld. Finally, grate in some lemon zest. Top with parmesan and parsley and serve.

Cognac Cherries

Here is an adaptation of several different recipes on brandied (or really, cognac) cherries.

I've run the recipe with fresh cherries, frozen cherries, and dried cherries. Fresh are my least favorite. Dried are by far the best.

Bring 3/4 cup of sugar in about 1 1/4 cup of water to a soft boil. Simmer with cinnamon stick or two, a couple cloves, cardamom pods (about 4), and anything else you want to spice the sugar. Simmer about five minutes. Basically, reduce it to the thickness you want the syrup. Add 1 cup of cognac.

I put cherries directly into a jar and then spoon the mixture over them. Then seal and store!

Turkey Breast

So... here's one that could cover a week of sandwich meat and one family dinner. Do a turkey breast!

I cured a turkey breast with a 3:2 ratio of salt to sugar. Then I bagged it and sous vide cooked it for 24 hours at 131. Then I finished it on the grill, and hit it over and over again with a butter, olive oil, garlic, lemon baste.

Nice and tender. Easy to shave off turkey for sandwiches. Easy to block out and serve with whatever else you happen to be making (mac n cheese, ancient grains, whatever!)

Plus, it's in the fridge. It lasts a week. And no bones or mess to deal with.

I would love to try this cooking with the baste and see if it works. Might be the next experiment.

Sirloin pork roast

I did not have an approved sous vide recipe for a pork loin roast. Recipes on several different reputable sites suggested that you could cook a 3-5 pound roast anywhere from 135 to 150 degrees anywhere from 2.5 to 12 hours. Christ.

I settled on a compromise. I am cooking a 2.5 pound roast at 140 degrees for five hours.

Then I'm going to douse it in a butter, apple cider vinegar, herb mixture and roast it at 450 degrees for at least ten minutes, maybe more. We shall see.

Granted, internal temp has to be right, or we may have to roast it for longer at a lower temp... here's hoping. Results to be reported.

Update 1: the bag broke sometime after an hour and a half. I rebagged it, cleaned the sous vide, and got it going again. Don't know how long it was in a hot water bath, but, well, them's the breaks.

Update 2: Followed instructions. Pork came out tough. Okay, but the bone in sirloin was a pain in the ass to cut. Need a new recipe, frankly.