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.