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Gadget Report

Our old combination griddle/waffle maker/pannini press died a while back. I wanted to make waffles, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on still another small appliance. So I opted for the Nordic Silver Dollar Waffle Griddle:

The version I bought from Amazon is slightly different, but works in essentially the same way. And it works surprisingly well. I made a big batch of waffles last night and they turned out great. Helen pronounced them cute and tasty.

Saturday Dinner

Dinner was Hello Fresh's Balsamic Fig Chicken. Only a few tweaks tonight. We're really tired of roasted broccoli, which seems to be the only way Hello Fresh suggests preparing it. So we steamed it and hit it with a bit of compound butter made with lemon zest. We had some rosemary left over from what was needed for the sauce, so we mixed them into the potatoes before roasting them.

Coming up with a wine for a meal dominated by a sauce made from shallots, rosemary, balsamic vinegar, and fig jam was a bit of a challenge. Sweet but also sour. Sauvignon blanc would have been an easy option, as long as it wasn't too grassy. But we wanted (as usual) a red. Preferably a young one one with bright fruit, mainly primary flavors, and good acidity, A Chianti might have worked well, but one disadvantage of having downsized our cellar is that we occasionally have gaps in our options. So we opted for a Turtle Rock Westberg Red (Paso Robles) 2017, which is a blend of Zinfandel and Tempranillo. It was immediately approachable, with soft and rounded tannins. Smooth and silky. Tons of forward dark fruit aromas and flavors. A slight suggestion of jam. Grade: A-

Friday Dinner

Dinner was Hello Fresh's Beef Tenderloin and Shallot Pan Sauce, with a few tweaks. Neither fo us felt like the creamed kale that came as a side dish, so we saved the kale for a salad tomorrow and made some Alexia onion rings. Passing on the kale freed up some garlic butter and cream cheese, which went into the mashed potatoes. I added a tablespoon of brandy and a teaspoon of green peppercorns to the sauce.

We drank a Shafer TD-9 (Napa Valley) 2016, which is a lovely blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Malbec. It made a great match for the beef tenderloin. Obviously young, but my tastes have been skewing in that direction for a while. Complex bouquet of blueberry, blackberry, and prune, with a dash of oak. Rich palate suggesting dark fruit and a splash of mocha java. Easy to drink now but probably will improve with some age. Grade: A-

Thursday Dinner

Helen and I have become big fans of Home Chef and Hello Fresh meal delivery systems. Because they only give you exactly what you need, there’s less food waste. The variety is quite good. Delivery has been steady even when places like Instacart were effectively down. We’ll probably go back to a Monday to Thursday schedule when (or if) life gets back to normal, but for now we’re still on 6 days a week. 

Tonight we had Hello Fresh’s lobster ravioli with shrimp in a tomato-cream sauce. Yum.

To drink, we had a Foxen Block UU Bien Nacido Vineyard Chardonnay (Santa Maria Valley) 2016. Well balanced. A moderate amount of smoky oak. Apples. White peaches. Honey. Very food friendly (we had it with lobster ravioli in a tomato cream sauce) but enough acidity to make a nice late afternoon aperitif with some mild cheeses. B+/A-

Thursday's dinner

I’ve had a hard week (although who amongst has not?) and I have a faculty meeting (via Zoom) today. So last night I decided the weekend was starting early. (I have a feeling I’ll be making that decision a lot this year.) Dinner was from Hello Fresh: surf and turf with shrimp, steak, a yummy pan sauce, potatoes, and green beans. I am not a fan of Hello Fresh’s beef (it tends to be tough and chewy), so I stuck their steak in the freezer to save for the next time I grind my own ground beef. Instead, I pulled some filet mignon medallions from the freezer, which—after thawing—I cooked for 60 minutes at 131 degrees using my sous vide machine. I seared the steak when it was done, pan fried the shrimp, and made the sauce. Meanwhile, my beloved sous chef handled the potatoes and green beans. Yum.

Yes, I got away with only having to have about a half dozen green beans. In the permanent debate between Helen and myself over my vegetable intake, this was a major win. You know my views on vegetables, after all. No? Well, put simply, vegetables are not food. They are what food eats.

We pushed the wine boat out a tad and drank a Ridge Vineyards Pagani Ranch Zinfandel (Sonoma County) 2015. Deep ruby shading to purple. A relatively modest bouquet suggesting plums and black cherries. On the palate, it evokes plums, prunes, and earth. A dash of pepper and anise on the finish. Lovely match for tonight’s surf and turf.

Hoison duck legs sous vide recipe

• 2 x duck legs
• 4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon crushed ginger
• 1 teaspoon 5-spice powder
• Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients other than the duck legs in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Put the duck legs in a heavy duty zip-top plastic bag and add the marinade. Rub thoroughly and put in refrigerator overnight. 

Put your ChefSteps Joule Sous Vide in your spaghetti pot and fill with warm water to within an inch of the top. Set the Joule temperature to 167° and the time to 8 hours. Remove duck from marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Reserve marinade.

Put each leg into its own Weston vacuum seal bag and remove the air and seal the bag using your trusty Weston Vacuum Sealer. Add bags to water bath (preventing them from touching as much as possible.)

When the 8-hour cooking time is up, remove bags from water bath and allow them to cool slightly. Preheat your broiler and broiler pan.

Add reserved marinade to a small pan (I like to use my All-Clad 8-Inch non-stick skillet) and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer for a couple of minutes. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more hoisin and soy sauce.

Open the bags with scissors being VERY careful. The legs will have rendered a lot of fat and some juice, which will be very hot. Blot legs dry with paper towels and allow to rest for 10 minutes or so at room temperature. Place legs on broiler pan, skin side up. Broil legs for five minutes. 

Allow legs to rest at room temperature for 5 minutes. Then shred the meat using two forks, being sure to get as much of the crispy skin as possible. 

Serve with soft flour tortillas (taco size), the reserved marinade/sauce, and the Asian pear slaw. We drank a four year old Central Coast Rhône Ranger red wine. 

Skirt steak with hoisin sauce recipe

• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon Siracha sauce
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon 5 spice powder
• Salt and pepper
• 2 scallions sliced thinly
• 12 ounces skirt steak cut into two pieces and trimmed of any connective tissue

Combine all ingredients other than the skirt steak in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add skirt steak and toss to coat. Allow to marinate for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Set broiler pan under broiler on top rack. Preheat broiler and pan for 10 minutes.

Remove steaks from marinade, scraping the marinade off into the bowl, and reserving the marinade. Transfer marinade to a small pan and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer for a couple of minutes. Allow to cool.

Pat steaks dry with paper towels. Broil for about 3-4 minutes per side.

Allow steak to rest 5 minutes. Slice against the grain into small pieces. Toss steak with marinade.

Serve with a mature Russian River Valley Zinfandel and Asian slaw.

Asian slaw (without pears) recipe

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ½ tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon honey
• ¾ tablespoon Red Boat fish sauce
• Pinch salt
• Grind of black pepper
• 1 red jalapeno chile (remove seeds and ribs then diced fine)
• 4 ounces grated carrots
• 4 ounces packaged cole slaw mix
• 4 scallions, green parts only, sliced thinly

Combine olive oil, vinegar, lime juice, honey, fish sauce, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Add vegetables and toss to coat.

Asian Pear Slaw Recipe

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
•  1 ½ tablespoons rice vinegar
• ½ tablespoon sesame oil
• Pinch salt
• Grind of black pepper
• 1 ripe Asian pear, peeled, cored, julienned
• 5 ounces grated carrots
• 7 ounces packaged cole slaw mix
• 4 scallions, green parts only, sliced thinly

 

Combine olive oil, vinegar, sesame oil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Add vegetables and toss to coat.

Served with duck breasts in hoisin sauce.

Duck Breasts with Hoisin Sauce Recipe

• 2 x duck breasts
• 4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon rice wine
• 1-1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1-1/2 teaspoon crushed ginger
• 1 teaspoon 5-spice powder
• Salt and pepper

In a medium bowl, combine hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, garlic, ginger, 5-spice powder.

Season duck breasts with salt and pepper. Put in bowl with sauce to marinate for at least 30 minutes at room temperature.

Heat a medium nonstick pan over medium-high heat for a couple of minutes.

Remove breasts from bowl, scraping off and reserving the marinade, pat dry with paper towels.

Add duck breasts to pan skin down. Reduce heat to medium. Cook 15 minutes (20 for large breasts), removing fat as it renders. Flip to meat side and cook another 5 minutes. Remove breasts to a plate.

Add reserved marinade to pan and bring to a simmer. Let it cook for a minute or two. Return duck to pan and turn it over several times to glaze the breasts.

Allow to rest 5 minutes before serving.

Serve with a good Central Coast Pinot Noir and Asian Pear slaw.

Long Life Noodles

INGREDIENTS

3 ounces shiitake mushrooms

6 green onions

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 cup frozen chopped spinach

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

3 tablespoons soy sauce (I prefer Kikkoman)

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter (I prefer Jif Natural)

1/2 tablespoon honey (I prefer Nature Nate’s raw and unfiltered)

Sriracha

1 tablespoon peanut oil

10 ounces lo mein noodles

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add enough salt so the water tastes like dilute sea water (somebody once told me that Italians cook pasta in water that is as salty as the Bay of Naples).

Cut the stems off the mushrooms, give the caps a quick rinse, and pat dry with paper towels (or a clean tea towel, if you’re feeling environmental). Slice thinly.

Rinse green onions, peeling away any nasty parts, and pat dry as above. Cut off and discard the roots and the top inch of the green parts. Thinly slice crosswise. Separate white and light green parts from dark green parts.

Rinse spinach and squeeze dry.

Toast sesame seeds in a small nonstick pan over medium heat about 3 minutes. Do not let them burn. In a large bowl, combine honey, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, sesame seeds, soy sauce, half of the dark green parts of the green onions, and 1 tablespoon hot water. Mix. Taste and add salt, if necessary, and sriracha to taste.

Place a large nonstick pan over medium heat. When heated (when tested with your infra-red non-contact thermometer, the pan should be about 300 degrees) add oil. (Remember the old aphorism: hot pan, cold oil, food won’t stick.)

Add white and light green parts of the green onions and sauté for 1 minute. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt to the pan. Sauté until the mushrooms have given up all their liquid and softened, which will probably take about 6 to 7 minutes. Add spinach and cook 1 minute. Remove pan from heat.

Add noodles to the pot of boiling water and cook per package directions. Drain.

Add drained pasta and mushroom/spinach mix to the bowl holding the sauce and toss to combine.

Top with remaining green onion and serve.

Chicken Cacciatore with Farro and Foxen Winery Volpino 2015

Brine two each organic free-range air-chilled skin-on and bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks for 90 minutes to 2 hours.

Brine

• 4 cups filtered water
• 3 tablespoons pickling salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons dried Italian herbs

I find it’s helpful to mix the brine using my stick blender, as it ensures that the salt and sugar dissolves. I put the chicken in a zip-lock gallon bag and pour the brine over. I then put the bag in a large dish, making sure all of the chicken pieces are submerged, and put it in the refrigerator.  

After brining the chicken pieces, remove them from the brine, rinse them very thoroughly, dry them with paper towels, and allow them to rest and come up to room temperature on a paper towel-lined plate. Dust the pieces with Wondra flour, coating throughly but shaking off any excess.

Sauce

• 1 tablespoon olive oil (I’m a big fan of the California Olive Ranch brand)
• ½ onion, diced fine
• ½ cup finely diced carrot
• 6 ounces cremini mushrooms, stemmed and chopped roughly (freeze and save the stems for future stock making)
• 3 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and chopped roughly (ditto)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste (I only buy tomato paste in tubes, which is much less wasteful than cans; I like the Cento brand)
• 1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained (as always, I strongly prefer the Muir Glen brand)
• pinch red pepper flakes (or two or three to your taste)
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
• ½ cup white wine (I buy packs of 187 ml bottles of Woodbridge Pinot Grigio to minimize waste)
• 1 cup chicken bone broth (I’ve become a big fan of using my Fagor multi-cooker to make homemade bone broths, but that’s another recipe, and Kettle & Fire brand broths are a very acceptable substitute)
• 1 tablespoon fresh basil chiffonade
• salt and pepper

I cooked the chicken and sauce in my Culina electric skillet. Set the skillet to 350° and, after allowing it to come to temperature, add the olive oil to the skillet. Brown the chicken pieces on all sides, achieving a deep brown but not allowing the skin to burn. Transfer the chicken pieces to a plate. Reduce the heat to 275° and add the onions and carrots. Add a pinch of salt. Sweat the veggies until they are translucent and just starting to brown at the edges, stirring often. Add the mushrooms and crank the heat back up to 350°. Add a pinch of salt and a couple of grinds of pepper.  Sauté the mushrooms for about 6 minutes, or until they have softened and are beginning to brown, add the garlic and tomato paste and sauté for another minute. Add the tomatoes, pepper flakes, herbs, and wine. Allow the wine to reduce by half. Add the broth. Reduce heat to a low simmer. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed. Return chicken pieces to the pan and nestle into the sauce, pour any accumulated juices from the chicken pieces’s resting plate into the sauce, cover the pan, and cook 25-30 minutes, stirring and flipping the chicken pieces occasionally. Adjust heat if necessary to maintain a simmer without either boiling the sauce or letting it just sit in the pan.  

Check chicken thighs with a meat thermometer to make sure they hit 175°. If so, transfer all pieces to service plates. Add basil to sauce. If sauce has gotten too dry, add some broth to loosen it to your taste. Taste and add salt or pepper if needed. Top chicken pieces with sauce.

I wanted something rustic and easy to serve with the chicken.  Alessi Farro Al Funghi was a great choice. It basically cooked itself while I kept an eye on the chicken. 

We drank a 2015 Foxen Vineyards Volpino, which is one of our favorite Cal-Ital wines. It’s a blend of predominately Sangiovese (>80%) and a dollop of Merlot, sourced from Central Coast vineyards in the Santa Ynez valley. On the nose and palate, it suggests rose petals, raspberries, strawberries, and plums, with undertones of earth and sage. Yum. Grade: A-

Rigatoni with beef bolognese sauce and a Foxen Vineyards Volpino (2015)

The sauce was something of an all day project. I started out grinding approximately 3 pounds of beef using the grinder attachment to my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. I had In the freezer 1 pound of chuck, a 12 ounce ribeye steak, a 12 ounce sirloin steak, and about 8 ounces of trimmings left over from butchering a tenderloin roast. I allowed them to partially defrost overnight. This morning I cut the meat into roughly 1-inch pieces and ran the whole batch (alternating cuts) through the coarse grinding plate. I then ran about half of the resulting ground meat through again, but this time using the medium grinding plate. I combined the two batches and then set aside 1 pound for future hamburger patties. 

When I was ready to start cooking, I asked Siri to crank up some Puccini on my HomePod and we were off to the races. (Yes, I copied that move from Alton Brown.)

Four rashers of thick-cut American bacon went into my Le Creuset 7-1/4 Quart Dutch Oven. (I usually use pancetta, but I was in a mood for a slightly smoky bolognese, so I went domestic.) When the bacon was done, I removed the rashers to a paper towel lined plate to drain. When they had cooled, I snipped three rashers into small pieces using kitchen shears (I ate the other one). Meanwhile, I poured off the bacon fat and reserved it.

I dusted the 2 pounds ground beef with a ½ teaspoon of baking soda, a couple of big pinches of salt, and about six grinds of black pepper from my brass pepper mill and lightly mixed it. The baking soda raises the pH of the meat’s surface, which promotes browning and slightly tenderizes it.

I browned the meat in the Dutch oven over medium heat in three batches, adding a ½ tablespoon of the reserved bacon fat before each batch. I transferred the meat to a paper towel lined platter to drain. 

I diced one medium yellow onion, three stalks of celery, and 1 large carrot. I added a big splash of olive oil to the Dutch oven, which was over medium heat, and then the veggies. I added a heavy pinch of salt (I apologize for having eyeballed a lot of the measurements), three grinds of pepper, and a ½ teaspoon of smoked hot paprika. I reduced the heat to medium-low, and sweated the veggies for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they were soft and beginning to show signs of carmelization. I then added a couple of grinds of pepper, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, and 6 crushed cloves of garlic, turned the heat up to medium and stirred for 1 minute. 

One cup of a cheap (but not undrinkable) Pinot Grigio went into the pot with the veggies. (A couple of glasses of the Pinot Grigio went into your chef as the cooking process continued.)  I cranked the heat to high and allowed the wine to cook down to a glaze. One can of evaporated milk went into the Dutch oven and was allowed to reduce by half. I lowered the heat to medium.

Then one 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes and one 28 ounce can of whole plum tomatoes, along with their juices in both cases, went into the pot. (I prefer the Muir Glen brand.) As I added the whole tomatoes, I grabbed the tomatoes and squeezed them to break them up before dropping them one by one into the pot. I then added to the pot a 14.5 ounce can of low sodium beef broth, the beef and bacon, 2 tablespoons ketchup, a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, a big pinch of red pepper flakes, 2 teaspoons of dried Italian herbs, a teaspoon of dried basil, and a teaspoon of dried oregano.

I then thoroughly rinsed 1 ounce of Mycological dried porcini mushrooms and, using kitchen shears, snipped them into small pieces that I let fall into the pot.

I reduced the heat to low, covered the Dutch oven, and let the sauce cook for three and a half hours, stirring every 30 minutes. At the end of the cooking time I tasted the sauce and thought it needed a pinch of salt, two grinds of pepper, two pinches of dried Italian herbs, a squirt of tomato paste, and small dashes of Tabasco and sherry vinegar to brighten it a bit. 

I cooked a pound of rigatoni (I like the Barilla brand) for 11 of the recommended 13 minutes, drained the pasta, reserving 1 cup of cooking water, returned the pasta to the cooking pot, added the reserved cooking water and about a third of the sauce, and let the sauced pasta cook over medium for 2 more minutes. 

We had leftover sauced pasta, which will make a nice dinner after late Mass tomorrow, and leftover sauce to freeze for future dinners. 

We drank a delightful 2015 Foxen Vineyards Volpino. 

Dinner tonight was rigatoni w/ beef bolognese. We drank a @foxenwinery 2015 Volpino. Raspberry, cranberry, and plum notes above an earthy undertone. Well balanced. Consistently my favorite California Sangiovese (83% w/ 17% Merlot). Grade: 91 https://t.co/c4yMgFoGQK

— Professor Bainbridge (@ProfBainbridge) February 17, 2019

Professor Bainbridge's Favorite Cookbooks of 2018

Professor Bainbridge's Top Recommendations in Kitchen Gadgets

Regular readers know that cooking is my main hobby. Here are four items I use all the time and recommend very highly for the cook in your life: