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.