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Warm Potato Salad

• 2-3 Yukon Gold potatoes (totaling about a pound)
• 4 slices thick cut bacon
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced shallot
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 ½ tablespoons whole grain mustard
• ½ tablespoon Dijon mustard
• finely snipped fresh chives to taste
• dried Italian parsley to taste
• onion power to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Slice the potatoes on the thick setting (¼") of a mandolin. Put the potatoes in a large sauce pan and add enough water to cover by about half an inch. Add 1 tablespoon of the vinegar and a big pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a rolling simmer, and cook until just tender but not at all mushy (about 15 minutes). 

Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a medium skillet over medium heat. Drain on a paper towel lined plate. Enjoy one piece as a reward for your hard work and crumble the remainder.

Drain potatoes and add to a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and combine gently but thoroughly.

Optional add-ins: caraway seeds, celery seeds, hard boiled eggs, capers, cornichons, sweet gherkins

Tarragon rub

I used this tonight on some sous vide pork chops. The pork chop recipe will go up tomorrow.

• 2 teaspoons dried tarragon 
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian parsley
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon freeze-dried green peppercorns
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder

Combine in a mortar and pestle. Grind to a fine powder.

Shrimp fra diavolo

Dinner Friday night was shrimp fra diavolo over spaghetti.

• 6 ounces spaghetti cooked in 3 or 4 quarts of well salted water for 9 minutes (just shy of al dente) (as far as supermarket brands are concerned, I prefer De Cecco), drained but not rinsed.
• 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained (lately I have been using Carmelina e San Marzano organic)
• 187 ml dry white wine (I keep a few 187 bottles of either Sutter Home or Woodbridge red and white wines on hand for cooking purposes. I wouldn't drink either, but it saves money when you don't need a whole 750 ml bottle of whine.)
• 1 cup Rao's Arrabbiata Sauce
• 6-8 fresh basil leaves
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
• 8 ounces extra large shrimp
• salt 
• pepper

Chiffonade the basil.

Put diced tomatoes and half of the wine into a wide bottom sauce pan. Bring to a boil and reduce wine by half. Remove pan from heat and stir in the jarred sauce. Add half the basil. Set aside.

I buy IQF frozen shrimp (the "fresh" shrimp at your supermarket is actually thawed shrimp). I defrost them overnight in the refrigerator. Reel. Devein. Rinse. Dry. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a 4-quart sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. When oil shimmers, add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add shrimp. Let shrimp cook for 1 minute without moving. Flip shrimp over. Cook 1 minute. Add the sauce and spaghetti, mixing well. Cook 2 minutes.

We drank it with Bottega Gold Prosecco. I love Prosecco with spicy food, especially spicy Italian food. The bubbles, acidity, and slight residual sugar make it very refreshing. The Bottega Gold is an especially nice example. It suggests apple, white peach, and Meyer lemon.

Quasi-East Asian Meat Sauce with Penne Pasta

Seasoning Sauce

• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Red Boat fish sauce
• ± 1 tablespoon Sriracha (to taste)
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon mirin
• pinch red pepper flakes (to taste)
• black pepper to taste

Meat Sauce

• ½ cup finely diced carrot
• ½ cup finely diced celery
• ½ cup finely diced onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 5 ounces ground beef
• 5 ounces ground pork
• ½ ounce dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted, and chopped very finely
• 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon Beef Base Bouillon

Other

• sliced green parts of 2 scallions
• 6 ounces penne pasta prepared as per package directions 

Mix seasoning sauce in a measuring cup. Add enough water to bring total liquid to ¾ cup and set aside.

Heat a 4 quart sauté pan over medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add beef and pork. Season with salt and pepper. Brown meat. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Do not wipe out pan.

Add another teaspoon of olive oil to pan. When oil begins to shimmer, add carrot, celery, and onions. Cook until onions are translucent and carrots have softened (about 10-12 minutes). 

Add garlic, ginger, and tomato paste. Sauté for 2 minutes (do not let garlic burn). 

Return meat to pan and add mushrooms. Add seasoning sauce. Raise heat to high and bring to a boil. reduce heat to low and allow to simmer until sauce thickens to your taste (probably around 20 minutes).

Serve over penne pasta topped with scallions.

We drank a Saldo Zinfandel. Black cherries, blackberries, briars, pepper, anise. Yum.

 

Simplified Coq au Vin

• 1 ounce porcini mushrooms reconstituted in 1 cup hot water
• ¾ cup diced carrot
• 2 chicken legs (preferably free range, organic, and air chilled)
• 1 quart sweet brine
  • 4 tablespoons pickling salt 
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 quart water
• 2 ounces diced pancetta
• 4 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced thickly
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian parsley
• 1 large shallot, minced
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• ½ tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon Wondra® flour
• 1 tablespoon brandy
• ¼ cup red wine (I keep some 187 ml bottles of Woodbridge® Merlot around to cook with)
• 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon Organic Reduced Sodium Roasted Chicken Base

Put chicken in a large zip-top plastic bag with the brine. Put in refrigerator for 2 hours. Remove chicken from brine. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Season well with salt and pepper.

Drain porcini mushrooms in a sieve over a bowl. Rinse the mushrooms, dice them, and set aside. Strain the reconstituting liquid through a coffee filter into a measuring cup. If necessary, add water to bring liquid up to 1 cup.

Put carrots in a microwavable bowl, add 1 tablespoon of water, cover and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Set aside.

Heat a 4 quart sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. When the olive oil begins to shimmer, add chicken skin side down. Cook 6 minutes. Turn and cook an additional 2 minutes. Remove to a plate.

Reduce heat to medium and add pancetta. Cook until browned and crispy (abut 6 minutes). Using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

Pour all the fat into a small dish. Return 2 tablespoons fat to pan and heat using the medium heat setting. Add cremini mushrooms and season with thyme, parsley, and salt and pepper. Sauté until well browned (about 7 minutes). Add shallots and garlic. Sauté for two minutes. Add tomato paste and sauté for 1 minute. Sprinkle with flour and stir well to combine. Increase heat to high and add brandy. Reduce to a glaze. Add wine, the strained liquid from the mushrooms, the reserved carrots and porcini mushrooms, and chicken base. Bring to a boil. Nestle chicken legs into liquid, cover, reduce heat to law and allow to simmer until the thighs reach an internal temperature of about 170° (about 15 minutes). 

Check the thickness of the sauce. If it is too runny for your taste, remove the chicken to a plate and boil until reduced to your preference. (You may also want to add a teaspoon of flour, well whisked in.) Otherwise, allow chicken to rest uncovered in the sauce for 5 minutes before serving.

I served the coq au vin with Alessi mushroom risotto prepared as per package direction s, except that I used 1 tablespoon of the reserved fat from sautéing the chicken and pancetta instead of olive oil.

We drank a The Prisoner Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast) 2019. I liked it despite the fact that it is an unusual Pinot Noir. If I had tasted it blind, I might have thought it was a Zinfandel. Robust. Black cherry and blackberry. Plums. Well integrated oak notes.

Taco Seasoning Mix

• 1 ½ tablespoons paprika
• 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 ½ teaspoons corn starch
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ to ¾ teaspoons cayenne pepper

Mix well.

I prefer Morton & Basset spices.

Depending on how much cayenne pepper you add this recipe makes about 3 to 3 ½ tablespoons of seasoning mix. In turn, how much cayenne pepper you add depends on how much heat you want. It also depends on whether you used sweet or hot paprika.

Speaking of paprika, I do not recommend using smoked paprika. Smoke is not a flavor I want in my tacos.

I will usually use around two tablespoons for a pound of ground meat. I typically add 1 tablespoon to the meat as it fries and stir it in to bloom the spices. After botting up excess fat with paper towels, I’ll add a half of a cup of water to the meat, bring it to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Let the water reduce to a glaze. While the water is reducing, I’ll taste both the liquid and the meat, and then add additional seasoning as needed.

Spaghetti al Tonno with many shortcuts and a Daou Rose

This is about as easy as things get and very tasty:

• 8 ounces spaghetti cooked per package directions and drained. Do NOT rinse.
  • I have been using Rustichella D'Abruzzo lately and like it a lot.
• 1 6.7 ounce jar Tonnino Tuna Ventresca in olive oil, drained and flaked. Do NOT rinse.
  • Jarred tuna is much preferred over canned. The pieces are bigger and the tuna has better texture.
  • Ventresca is the belly of Bonito del Norte (albacore). It's the best part of a great tuna.
  • Oil packed is preferable to water packed or pouch tuna, as it has a moister texture and richer flavor.
  • Tonnino is my favorite brand. It's meaty, clean tasting, and has huge flakes. If you can't get the Ventresca a jar of Tonnino Tuna Filets makes a good substitute.
  • If you're made of money, Nardin Bonito Del Norte Ventresca Fillets is even better but I'm not sure it's worth paying 4x more than what you pay for Tonnino.
• ½ cup roasted tomato bruschetta mix 
  • This is a key time saver. Otherwise, you're dicing tomatoes, and garlic, and so on.
  • I got mine fresh from Bristol Farm's deli department.
  • DeLallo is a very acceptable jarred alternative. 
• 1 cup micro greens rinsed, dried, and loosely packed
• zest of 1 lemon
• ½ tablespoon of lemon juice
• big pinch of salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• red pepper flakes to taste
• ½ teaspoon fish sauce
  • Red Boat is the brand of choice

While pasta is cooking, combine all the other ingredients in a medium to large bowl and lightly toss to combine. Add spaghetti and toss to combine. Add extra virgin olive oil to taste. Use a very good oil. I use California Reserve Miller’s Blend.

We drank a 2019 Daou Rose, which is a blend of Grenache and Sauvignon Blanc. Light. Well balanced. Easy to drink. Peach, melon, and citrus notes.

By the way, have you downloaded my cookbook?

Bavette Steak with Sherry, Mustard, and Green Peppercorn Sauce and Ridge Three Valleys 2019

Helen and I get two meals a week from each of Home Chef and Hello Fresh. Usually we eat them Monday through Thursday and cook from scratch on Friday and Saturday. This week, however, we delayed one of our Hello Fresh meals to Friday night: Bavette Steak in Sherry Shallot Sauce with Crème Fraîche Mashed Potatoes & Roasted Green Beans. It's a pretty good menu kit, but I've made some substantial tweaks that I think significantly improve it.

Start with the Bavette steak. Bavette is a fancy name for a cut taken from the bottom sirloin butt. It comes from a part of the cow near the flank steak, which it resembles. Hello Fresh recommends sautéing the steaks for 5-7 minutes per side. I find the result very unsatisfactory. It's not very tender and easily gets past medium-rare.

Here's what I do instead:

• I give the steaks a quick bash all over with my Jaccard 48-Blade Meat Tenderizer. 
• I then dry marinade the steaks by rubbing them all over with a mix of 2 parts kosher salt, 1 part black pepper, 1 part onion powder, 1 part garlic powder, and 1 part Creole seasoning.
• I then vacuum seal each steak in its own 1 quart plastic bag using my Weston Vacuum Sealer. 
• The bags go into a large 12 quart spaghetti cooker filled about ⅔ full of hot water along with my Breville Joule Sous Vide. I set the sous vide's temperature to 133° and the timer to 100 minutes.
• I preheat a Le Creuset Square Skillet Grill Pan to 375° (as measured by my infrared thermometer).
• After removing the steaks from their bags and patting them very dry with paper towels, I sear them for about 90 seconds on each side. I let them rest and then slice them thinly against the grain.

Hello Fresh gives you two packets of crème fraîche for the mashed potatoes and 1 of sour cream for the sauce. I use one the packet of the crème fraîche for the sauce and put the sour cream and the other packet of crème fraîche in the potatoes.

As for the sauce, I melt a pat of butter in a nonstick skillet. I add a half tablespoon of chopped shallot and cook, stirring, until softened, 1-2 minutes. I then add a teaspoon of minced garlic and cook for 30 more seconds. Next I add 2 teaspoons of the provided sherry vinegar and 1 teaspoon of dry sherry. I let that mix reduce by half. Then goes in the packet of beef stock concentrate, ¼ cup water, and a half tablespoon green peppercorns. Simmer the sauce for a couple of minutes, remove from heat, mix in the reserved packet of crème fraîche, 1 and a half teaspoons of Dijon mustard, and 1 tablespoon butter. Return to heat and simmer until it thickens slightly, stirring to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

I prepare the potatoes as directed, except for swapping in the packet of sour cream.

Instead of roasting the green beans, I microwaved them in their bag (cutting a small hole in the top first) for 3 and a half minutes.

I like my version a LOT better.

With it we drank a Ridge Vineyards Three Valleys (Sonoma County) 2019. It's a blend of 73% Zinfandel, 13% Petite Sirah, 10% Carignane, 3% Mataro, and 1% Alicante Bouschet. (I always wonder whether that 1% really matters.). It was delicious. Full of fruit and youthful vitality. Blackberry, raspberry, briars, and warm spices. A note of pepper on the finish. Not a vin de grade, but a great match for steaks or BBQ in the short term. Grade: A-

Beef Hot Dish

• ½ pound ground beef (not ground sirloin, which is too low in fat)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 shallot, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• ½ pound cremini mushrooms, rinsed, trimmed, and diced
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon Wondra® flour
• 1 package Better than Gravy, Beef Gravy® mix
• 1 cup water
• ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• ½ cup frozen peas
• ½ cup frozen carrots
• ½ package frozen Ore-Ida tater tots or frozen Ore-Ida diced hash brown potatoes
• ½ cup freshly grated cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375°.

Brown beef in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Blot pan with paper towel without disturbing any fond that developed.

Reduce heat to medium. Add shallots to the pan and sauté for 1 minute. Add garlic and tomato paste. Sauté an additional 45 seconds.

Add mushrooms and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the mushrooms have softened, given up their liquid, and begun to color. Sprinkle with flour.

Whisk together gravy mix, water, and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl. Add to pan. Return beef to pan. Add frozen peas and carrots to pan. Mix well to combine.

Put the potatoes in a bowl add 1 tablespoon olive oil and salt to taste. Mix.

Raise heat and bring to a boil. Transfer mixture to a lightly greased 8x8 baking dish. Top mixture with cheddar cheese and potatoes.

Transfer to oven and bake until potatoes are golden brown and mixture reads at least 160°. It should take about 25 minutes. If the potatoes don't brown in that time, stick them under the broiler element for 5-10 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Choose a pleasant red wine but don't push the boat out too far.

Morel Mushrooms in Cream Sauce on Pappardelle

• 2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 ounces dried pappardelle pasta
• 8 ounces fresh morel mushrooms (I got mine from Oregon Mushrooms, a very reliable source)
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry
• 2 tablespoons crème fraîche
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped into ¼  pieces
• freshly grated parmesan to taste (use a good imported Italian cheese)

Cook pappardelle according to package directions, stopping one minute before it reaches the al dente stage. Reserve 1 cup pasta water. Drain but do not rinse pasta.

Melt one tablespoon of butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. When the butter stops foaming, add olive oil. Add the mushrooms and thyme leaves to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté for about 6 minutes. Push the mushrooms out to the outer edges of the pan and add the shallots and garlic to the center of pan. Cook 1-2 minutes (do not let garlic brown). Mix mushrooms and aromatics thoroughly. 

Add sherry. Allow the sherry to reduce to a glaze. Add crème fraîche. Remove pan from heat and stir in the heavy cream. Mix well. Add pasta and cook 1 minute. Add other tablespoon of butter and mix well. If sauce is too thick, dilute it will small additions of the reserved pasta water.

Garnish with chives and parmesan.

Serve with a Chardonnay or, better yet, a Central Coast Viognier.

Quail Stuffed with Alligator Boudin and Cooked Sous Vide with Air-Fried Boudin Balls

Start with two jumbo quail from D'artagnan. Rinse the quail thoroughly, inside and out, and pat dry. Leave the legs tied.

Remove the casing from a link of alligator boudin from Louisiana Crawfish Co. Stuff the quails' cavities with the boudin. Do not overstuff the cavity; leave the boudin loosely packed.

Season the quails on the outside with salt. 

Heat a large stock pot filled with water to 150°using your Joule sous vide. Place each quail in its own bag and seal it using your Weston vacuum sealer. I prefer to use the pulse setting and stop the vacuum process before the quail gets crushed by the collapsing bag. Add to the heated water. If the bags float, use clips to attach them to the sides and hold them below the water level.

Cook for 2 hours.

Remove the bags from the water and then remove the quail from the bags. Pat dry. Using a kitchen propane or butane torch, brown the quail all over.

Brush the quail with a bourbon glaze. Quickly flash it with the torch to slightly caramelize the glaze.

Combine the remaining boudin with some leftover jambalaya or some other rice. Mix in one beaten egg. Form into 6 balls using a 4-ounce disher. Pack the balls tightly. Place on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to set. Roll the balls in flour, dip in egg wash, and then into Panko bread crumbs. Air fry in a preheated Breville Smart Oven for 13 minutes at 375 or until the balls reach an internal temperature of 160°. Do not allow crust to burn.

Serve with remoulade sauce.

We drank a 2017 Ornellaia Le Serre Nuove from Bolgheri. This is the second wine of Ornellaia. The 2017 is a charming, easy to drink, fruity wine that made a great match for the complex flavors of the meal. It's a blend of 54% Merlot, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Petit Verdot, which can compete with similar blends from Bordeaux or Napa. Plums, black cherries, blackberries, blueberries. Grade: A-

Venison Medallions Sous Vide in a Tawny Port Sauce

• 4 3-ounce venison medallions (I get mine from Dartagnan’s)
• 4 cloves of garlic, paper removed and lightly smashed
• 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 1.5-ounce package More than Gourmet French Demi-Glace
• ½ cup white wine
• ½ cup tawny port (use the stuff from Portugal not the domestic US imitation)
• ½ tablespoon soy sauce
• ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon balsamic or sherry vinegar
• ¼ cup dried currants
• 1 sprig each of thyme and rosemary
• Butter
• Salt and pepper

Fill a large stock pot or other food safe container with warm water. Insert your Joule sous vide into the container and set to 135°. Pat the venison medallions very dry with paper towels. Season medallions on both sides with salt and pepper. Put each medallion with a sprig of rosemary, a spring of thyme, and a clove of garlic in its own 6”x10” 3mil bag using your Weston vacuum sealer. Cook for 90 minutes.

In a small saucepan combine the demi glace, wine, port, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic or sherry vinegar, and currants. Put 1 sprig each of thyme and rosemary in a spice bag and add to sauce. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Reduce by about half. (Here’s a trick I think I learned watching Alton Brown: sip a chopstick into the simmering liquid. Using a knife, scratch on the chop stick to mark the level of the liquid. Then use the chopstick like a dipstick to see how much of the liquid has evaporated.)

Reduce heat to low and keep sauce warm. Just before serving, remove spice bag, taste and adjust seasoning as needed, add a pat of butter and swirl to melt.

Remove venison from sous vide and bags, discarding garlic and herbs.

Heat a skillet over high heat. Add a drizzle of a high smoke point oil. When the oil is shimmering, add the venison medallions and sear for a minute or two per side.

Serve with some haricot verts and a puree of yams and parsnips.

With this meal I’d typically opt for a pretty young Napa Cabernet-based blend with a lot of fruit that will match the sauce and compliment the gamy flavor of the meat.

We drank a Jayson (Napa Valley) 2017. It’s a blend of 44% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 15% Petite Sirah, and 4% Cabernet Franc. It’s big but refined. Lots of dark fruit with cherries, blackberries, and currants. A little java and mocha on the long finish.

Kansas City Steak Soup

• 1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in one tablespoon cold water
• 1 pound ground beef
• ½ cup diced onions
• ½ cup diced celery
• ½ cup diced carrots
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• ½ cup white wine (something not very oaky like Pino Grigio)
• 2 ½ cups low sodium beef broth
• 1 cup undrained crushed tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons A-1 steak sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Better than Bouillon roast beef base
• 2 medium red potatoes, peeled and diced

I always grind my own meat when I make this soup, using my KitchenAid meat grinder attachment. When I do a grind, I usually grind several pounds of meat and freeze some for hamburger patties or meatballs. In this instance, I ground 1 pound of chuck, 1 pound of top sirloin, and 1 ½ pounds of various assorted cuts that included trimmings from tenderloin, skirt steak, and bottom round. I ran half through once using just the course grinder plate and the other half through twice using the coarse grinder plate followed by the fine grinder plate. I used half a pound of the coarse grind and half a pound of the finely ground beef for this recipe.

Sprinkle the baking soda mixture over the ground beef and toss lightly to combine. This is a great Cook's Illustrated tip that helps keep the meat very tender and moist.

Warm a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add a pat of butter and a drizzle of olive oil. When the butter stops foaming, add the onions, celery, and carrots. Cook for 10 minutes (or until the veggies have softened and slightly browned on the edges). Add the garlic and tomato paste. Cook for 1 minute, stirring regularly.

Add the wine. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. reduce heat to medium-high and allow to reduce until the wine is a glaze. Add beef stock, tomatoes, A1 sauce, Worcestershire sauce, beef bouillon (this is a trick that amps up the beed flavor), and potatoes. Return heat to high. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Cook for 15 minutes. 

While the soup base is cooking, brown the ground beef. I did it in two batches in my All-Clad 9-inch nonstick skillet, so as to prevent the meat from crowding in the pan and stewing rather than frying. To keep the meat from getting tough and gritty the way ground beef can do, I kept the meat in fairly big chunks and cooked it just to medium-rare. I drained the meat on a paper towel-lined plate.

I added the meat to the Dutch oven and cooked it uncovered for 5 minutes.

As for what we drank, it was a 2018 Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs. It doubtless would have aged, but it’s yummy now. Black cherry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry. Juicy but not jammy. Well balanced.

Garlic Noodles

• 8 ounces spaghetti
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 garlic cloves, pressed
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder, dissolved (to the extent possible) in 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• ½ tablespoon fish sauce
• large pinch sugar (optional)
• ½ teaspoon Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken base
• ¼ cup very finely grated Parmesan (high quality); use a microplane

In your All-Clad 8-Inch non-stick skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add butter. When the butter stops foaming add the garlic. Cook for about a minute, but do not let it brown. Add garlic powder solution and stir. Allow to cook for 30 seconds. Pour garlic sauce into a large bowl. Add the oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar (if used), and chicken base and stir well to combine.

Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add 1 tablespoon kosher salt. Add spaghetti and cook per package directions.

Reserve one cup of pasta cooking water. Drain pasta and add to bowl. Add cheese and toss. You want the noodles to be fairly dry, but add a tablespoon or two of pasta water if they are too dry for your taste.

Green Peppercorns in a Creamy Mustard Sauce

I’ve served this successfully with lamb and beef. The goal is to mainly use pantry staples.

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon minced shallot
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 1 tablespoon brandy
• ¾ cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon Roasted Beef Base
• 1 ½ tablespoons green peppercorns
• ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• ½ tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon freeze-dried chives
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard (I like Maille)
• ½ cup heavy cream
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Warm a small sauce pan (I used my 1 quart All-Clad saucier) over medium heat. Add butter. When it starts to foam, add shallots and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add flour and stir thoroughly to mix. Allow to cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. 

Add brandy, water, beef base, peppercorns, Worcestershire and soy sauces, and dried herbs. Whisk thoroughly to combine. Raise heat to high. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and allow to simmer until it begins to thicken, whisking regularly.

Remove pan from heat and add mustards and cream. Whisk thoroughly. 

Return to heat and allow to cook, whisking occasionally, for a couple of minutes until it reaches a consistency in which it coats the back of a spoon. 

Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. If you have any accumulated juices from allowing the meat to rest and/or carving it, whisk them into the sauce. Serve immediately.