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Kent
The other night I was flipping channels on the TV and stopped to watch Star Trek: Voyager. It was an interesting episode, but the part that I found funniest (yes, I know it is a space drama) was when Neelix calls out Tuvok for always having to get the last word in. The repartee between them is writing gold, in my opinion. Now we all know that person (or persons) that just have to have the last word. Heck, you may even recognize you yourself as being that type of person. Well, this cocktail is not for them because it is the Next to the Last Word, which probably suits you and me to a tee, correct? All kidding aside, this beauty is a riff on the revived…
Just in case the holidays have not exhausted your party spirit (or maybe you have finally recovered and are ready to get back to enjoying the company of others!), tonight’s post is a quick and easy appetizer perfect for either a happy hour type meet-up or a true appetizer for a more formal affair. The concept for this recipe came from Leite’s Culinaria, a wonderful resource filled with interesting dishes. And this recipe called to me on many levels. First, this appetizer is beyond easy. Second, I wanted to try it with different olives and herbs. Lastly, I wanted to try preparing this dish using sous vide. So after a little research, the results are below. I also provided a link to the…
Let’s add to the variety of side dish recipes with another sous vide prepared vegetable. I found this recipe on the All Recipes website and immediately knew I had to try it. While I was intrigued by the simple, Asian inspired sauce it was cooked in, I opted to move slightly west for my inspiration India. Wanting to keep it simple, I cleaned and cut up the cauliflower, added two heavy soup spoons to the bottom of my recloseable bag for additional weight, added the cauliflower, ghee and garam masala. Once closed, I used my pump vacuum on the bag and dropped it into the water bath. 50 minutes later, I emptied the bag into a bowl and gave it a taste. The cauliflower was perfectly…
Last week was a rare appearance of gin on the Friday cocktail post, so I decided to add another this week after I received so much fanfare for the Gin & It. Now, this cocktail is quite the conundrum because it has been published in a variety of possible concoctions. If you do not believe me, read this absolutely wonderful brief cocktail history for yourself, compliments of Jamie Boudreau’s post on Spirits and Cocktails! My thanks to Jamie for his thorough research and witty writing! This Trilby variant is the kissing cousin to last week’s Gin & It. Instead of using Italian vermouth to add the sweetness to the dry gin, this tipple relies on dry vermouth in a 1 to 1 ratio to…
Tonight’s post is another of my attempts to foolproof a single serving dish. Previously, I have made single servings of rice, mashed potato, and farro. This time I want to tackle another of those tough to cook ingredients – lentils. On the stove top, lentils have a reputation for either being under or over cooked. Under cooked lentils are crunchy and when over cooked, they blow out and become mushy. Couple that challenge with also cooking a small amount and the effort becomes frustrating. Sous vide cooking is once again coming to the rescue so we never have under or over cooked lentils. As a bonus, we can flavor them while they cook to get consistent and enhanced results instead of the unpredictable results everyone dreads…
Tonight’s dish is another demonstration on how cooking sous vide makes meal preparation easier and basically foolproof. Have you ever overcooked a fillet of fish in a pan? I bet you have and I know I have. Heck, I bet that anyone who has ever cooked fish has overcooked it at least once. Well, sous vide helps you by cooking it gently in a vacuum bag within a water bath – always done and never overcooked. After the water bath soak, the easiest and most fun part is all that is left – searing to add a little color before plating. But if you thought the mahi mahi is the star of this dish, you would be incorrect. The star of this dish is the sauce…
This dish comes from New York’s Momofuku Ssam Bar by way of Sam Sifton and the NY Times. I saw this dish in a recent email and thought ‘dang, that looks good!’ and upon reading more, I just knew I had to make it. Chefs David Chang and Tien Ho have created a deeply flavorful fusion of Korean, Chinese and Italian cuisine with this dish. Of course, I made a few minor adjustments in order to cook this dish for one. This dish follows closely on the tails of its distant cousin Italian recipe – Pasta Genovese – the slow cooked onion sauce with beef. Except for needing to cook the onions a lengthy time, the similarities stop there. The rest of this dish…
Happy New Year everyone! For this first Friday of 2018, let’s indulge in a gin cocktail. No, not your typical martini per se, but a sibling to that vaunted and oh-so difficult to peg down bar staple. This simple twist on that martini features bold botanicals that sooth while warming the soul. Made with London dry gin and Italian vermouth, this ‘Gin & It’ has as clouded a back story as any cocktail. My research came up with many various ways it came into being, but the one that resonates with me is the story about this drink originally being called a ‘Gin & Cin’ – gin mixed with Cinzano sweet vermouth. If made with any other Italian vermouth, I can…
Tonight’s pasta dish is one I had never heard of until I read about it on the NY Times Cooking site. Like several of the recent pasta dishes I have posted, this one has a multitude of variations. From my research, I went with a base recipe that I figured was the closest to the original/classic preparation. Similarly, like those other pasta dishes, this one also has just a few ingredients. The big difference is in the time it takes to make this dish. Genovese meat sauce takes many hours of cooking for the onions to break down and meld into the fork tender beef, essentially becoming one as ‘the sauce’. I will admit to being excited to make it after seeing this…
Here we are at the end of 2017 and these are some of the dishes I made that did not become posts or were previously posted. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed eating them! Farewell 2017 and Welcome 2018! Drunken Noodles This dish is always a favorite to try and work into the menu! Sous vide 12 Spice Beef Bites Based on an appetizer from one of my favorite restaurants, this tasty beef dish benefits from temperature controlled cooking for tender bites infused with robust Mediterranean spices. I will keep working to deliver this one to all of you! Fajitas Because sometimes you have to enjoy those wonderful Mexican flavors… Pulled Pork Fried Rice Did anyone notice the Basmati rice in this…