All posts by meat

The Nation Has An Appetite

Gumbo z’herbes changed my life…..

9 Comments

Okay, not really, but! But! this dish proves that kale isn't a joke being played on us by the hip kids. (As you may may have guessed, I'm a kale skeptic, but this was super delish) I adapted this recipe from here.

You'll need - ->

  • 3tablespoons vegetable oil
  • one link of smoked cajun sausage diced - or some tasso
  • 1yellow onion, diced
  • 2shallots, minced
  • 2garlic cloves, minced
  • 1jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
  • couple dashes Worcester sauce
  • a dash or two of your favorite cajun seasoning blend -Cajun Two Step, Tony C's are great but dial down additional salt,  Donnies spice mix is also great
  • 8ounces fresh spinach
  • 1bunch fresh curly kale, large stems removed
  • 2cups vegetable stock, fish stock or clam juice
  • 1(14-ounce) can coconut milk - I used light instead
  • 1pound fresh or frozen okra, trimmed and cut into ¼-inch pieces
  • 3medium Yukon Gold or other yellow potatoes, diced
  • 1tablespoon filé powder
  • 1tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
  • 1pound head-on prawns or shrimp, peeled and deveined - I used Louisiana brown gulf shrimp  and I highly recommend that you do as well or at least try to find domestic shrimp to avoid engaging in slave labor practices rife in international shrimping.........
  • ½pound lump crab meat (preferably Dungeness crab) -blue swimming crab meat is a-okay here
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • Cooked white rice, for serving
  • Lemon wedges, for serving
  • Crystal hot sauce for serving

Method - ->

slice and dice the onion, shallot, garlic, and jalapeño (seed and devein if you're worried about heat). Chop up the sausage into tiny bits. Heat a bit of oil in a dutch oven or deep soup pot. Brown the sausage and remove from the pan, add the onion, shallot, jalapeño, garlic, dash of Worcester, pinch of salt, black pepper, and cajun seasoning (The spice level is a dealer's choice thing, you do you). Add a bit more oil and sauté until veg is translucent and soft. Add the kale, spinach, 1 1/2 cup water, 2 cups stock, and one can of light coconut milk (you can use the unleaded type here and the end product will be .... extra) and wilt the greens (5-10 minutes over medium heat). Remove the greens to a blender (or use your immersion blender) and add a cup (or more) of the pot liquor and blend the greens until smooth. I used a vitamix to really, truly ensure that I wouldn't encounter a single, recognizable piece of kale when finally consuming this dish.......Return the puree to the pot, stir to combine, add potato dice and simmer until the potato is tender - about 10 minutes or so. Add the shrimp and continue to simmer until the shrimp are cooked through. Add tiger file and thyme,  and rinse the crab meat, remove the pot from the heat, add the crab meat and ring the dinner bell. Adjust for salt, serve over rice with lemon. Kale, not all bad. I still skipped the okra. Okra is still gross.

The Nation Has An Appetite

Everything bagel bread

3 Comments

Topping

Bread

  1. For the topping: Combine all ingredients in bowl; set aside.  - or just buy everything but the bagel from Trader Joes.....
2. For the bread: Spray 8½ by 4½-inch loaf pan with oil spray. Whisk flour and yeast together in bowl of stand mixer. Fit mixer with dough hook. Add 1¼ cups (10 ounces) water and 2 tablespoons corn syrup. Mix on medium-low speed until dough comes together and no dry flour remains, about 2 minutes. Turn off mixer, cover bowl with dish towel or plastic wrap, and let dough stand for 10 minutes.
3. Add salt to dough and knead on medium speed until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Turn out dough onto clean counter and form into ball by pinching and pulling dough edges under so top is smooth. Flip dough smooth side down.
4. Pat dough into 6-inch square and position parallel to edge of counter. Fold top edge of dough down to midline, pressing to seal. Fold bottom edge of dough up to meet first seam at midline and press to seal. Fold dough in half so top and bottom edges meet; pinch together to seal. Flip dough seam side down and roll into 8-inch log.
5. Transfer to prepared pan, seam side down. Spray top of dough lightly with oil spray, then cover loosely with plastic. Let sit in warm place until dough rises to lip of pan, about 1 hour.
6. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line large plate with clean dish towel. Bring 2 quarts water to boil in Dutch oven. Once boiling, add baking soda and remaining 2 tablespoons corn syrup.
7. Gently tip dough out of pan onto counter. Lift dough, gently lower into boiling water, and cook for 45 seconds per side. Using spider skimmer or 2 slotted spoons, transfer dough to prepared plate. Fold dish towel over dough gently to wick away excess moisture on top. Let sit until cool enough to handle, about 2 minutes.
8. Respray now-empty pan with oil spray. Add 2 tablespoons topping to pan and shake until bottom and sides of pan are evenly coated. Transfer dough to prepared pan, seam side down, pushing it in at edges to fit if necessary.
9. Using paring knife, make six ¼-inch-deep slashes crosswise along surface of dough, about 1 inch apart. Brush dough with egg, then sprinkle with remaining 4 teaspoons topping. Bake until golden brown and loaf registers at least 200 degrees, about 45 minutes. Let bread cool completely in pan, about 2 hours. Remove from pan, slice, and serve, toasted if desired.
I got this recipe from ATK / Cooks Illustrated. The first time I made this the dough was almost soupy because I didn't really do a great job measuring, and we didn't have a kitchen scale...... The dough was ugly as sin, and flopped all around, and then baked up to perfection. Crazy.
This time the kitchen scale was used and we nailed the correct amount of flour to water and the dough came together exactly as described. We lined the loaf pan with a bit of cheese cloth to help lift the loaf and deposit it into the boiling water.  Worked like a charm. However, I did manage to mangle the shit out of the dough when trying to get it back out of the water. I'll work on a better method next time. Currently in the oven. I'll let you know how it turned out.
The Nation Has An Appetite

Pork for the win

27 Comments

Doc S says that if I don't take the food porn photos then it didn't happen. He's to blame for this.

If you recall last week (what is time?!?) Dr. Chop told me that she wasn't going to be satisfied with anything form our repertoire wrt dinner and thus the pork wellington was hatched. No photos, but it did happen. Welp, decadent Saturday seems like it's a thing that is going to keep happening my diet be damned.

This week's entry? Pork rollup with cream cheese, hatch green chili, and pistachios wrapped in bacon. Dr. Chop work shopped this one, and I executed. Oh, mama was this good.

First I butterflied a pork tenderloin, and then smashed it into a 1/4 of an inch thick slab of meat product.

Next comes the cream cheese bath - cooks note I had a half a tub of creole cream cheese which is pretty runny and easily smeared across said meat slab

Next comes the hatch green chilis- canned is fine, jarred (look for 505 brand / young guns brand)is better, or freshly roasted which is optimal. I hear from my old man that fresh hatch chilis have hit the super markets in 'perterville so they're likely around the greater MN metros. (I also used a bit of shredded cheddar to bind things in the heats of the grills). I rough chopped about 1/3 cup pistachios and dumped them onto the pig product.

 

Next comes the roll up

 

I hadn't planned to wrap this in bacon, but as it turns out the roll up wasn't as tight as I wanted. I happened to have a half pound of schmidt's meat market bacon on hand so why not?

 

This is the final wrap up (yeah doc, you asked for this - now lie in your bed)

 

I quick smoked this by lighting ~3/4 a chimney of briquets and dumping them when mostly on fire in a pile on one side of the grill. I choked off the heat by leaving the bottom vent wide open and the top vent 1/8 inch open. While the coals were regulating themselves I started roasting some baby red potatoes and carrots. I added a couple good sized chunks of cherry wood and put the pork on the indirect side.

Once the internal temp had hit 140 I moved the whole shooting match over the coals with the lid off to crisp up the bacon.

The final result was nothing short of decadent. Doc, wish you were here brother. Even if you were here there wasn't enough for three....... Okay there was but I was greedy AF.