Friday Night Wine Nights

After I took the bar and started working full time, I discovered how nice it was to grill something in our backyard on the UWS (yes, we had a backyard and a grill in Manhattan! Amazing, right!?!) and have a bottle (or most likely, three bottles) of wine on Friday nights when we didn't have anything planned. I loved stopping by either Fairway or the butcher at 87th and Amsterdam to get our meats and then by the Market on Broadway and 85th for our vegetables and seafood (Bob the seafood man was slightly creepy and loveable all at the same time and always had great recommendations).

 (Our UWS Backyard)

Jason and I have continued Friday night dinner and wine nights since moving to North Carolina. My excitement for my new sous vide inspired me to make several meals using it, all of which have turned out incredibly with very little effort. I am finding cooking meat sous vide is equivalent to the crock-pot recipes everyone's moms seemed to make when I was growing up, but this allows for much healthier meals involving something other than a roast/carrot/potato dish or chili. Cooking meat sous vide allows for one to cook an otherwise tough meat to be very tender and moist by cooking it at the temperature at which it is to be served over a long period of time. We recently cooked a sous vide flank steak for fajitas for about 8 hours, and it was not in the least bit tough or chewy. Sous vide wine night is as easy as season, seal, and set temp/time = best way to enjoy a dinner with very little effort. Here are a few recipes that I've tried so far:

Braised Short Ribs finished with an Eastern Carolina Barbecue Sauce

Recipe adapted from Modernist Cuisine

Short Ribs: 

(8-10 4-5 inch long short ribs)

1. Remove fat cap and silver skin covering short ribs.

2. Season with salt (I used alder wood salt), fresh ground pepper, minced garlic, and vacuum seal. 

3. Cook sous vide in 140° F bath for 72 hours. (I cooked mine for about 76 hours because of when I stared and when I was ready to cook them, and they were incredibly tender.)

4. Remove from bag and strain juices. 

5.* Brush with barbecue sauce (recipe below) and sear on each side for 45 seconds-1 minute.  *(Save this step until all of your sides are cooked and you're ready to eat.

North Carolina Eastern Region Barbecue Sauce: 

Recipe from Modernist Cuisine

(This can be prepared hours/days in advance and kept in the refrigerator until ready to use)

Ingredients: 

• 200g Cider vinegar
• 200g Distilled white vinegar
• 30g Maple syrup  
• 10g Chili flakes
• 3g Black pepper, ground
• Salt, to taste

1. Mix all ingredients, except for salt, in a heavy-bottom pot

2. Simmer, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, until reduced to 250g, about 20 minutes. (I brought to a very quick boil, then went down to a simmer)

3. Season with salt and refrigerate   

  

Pork Tenderloin With a Blackberry Jalapeno Glaze

 

1. Season pork tenderloin with salt and pepper and vacuum seal. 

2. Cook sous vide in a 142° F bath for 48 hours. 

3. When ready to serve, melt half of a tablespoon of butter in a pan, brush pork with blackberry jalapeno glaze and sear on each side for 30-45 seconds to slightly crisp.

4. Slice and serve with a bit of glaze across each piece.

Blackberry Jalapeno Glaze:

Adapted from a Guy Fieri recipe.
I often find a recipe and then will adapt it both to my tastes and to the ingredients I have on hand, because some of those normal spices seem to disappear quickly from my cabinet and then I often forget to pick them up at the market. This is an example of one such instance. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 2 tablespoons of jalapenos, diced (I some from the jar in the refrigerator and diced them; you could also use fresh jalapenos)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (I keep a large jar of this in the house at all times)
• 3/4 cup of blackberries
• 1 1/4 cup red wine (pinot noir worked for me); keep 1/4 reserved 
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of maple syrup     

1. Add butter to sauce pan over medium-high heat. Once melted add jalapenos and garlic and saute for 4-5 minutes

2. Stir in blackberries and 1 cup of wine and bring to a boil. Continually whisk breaking down the blackberries.

3. Once the blackberries are broken down, bring to simmer and add in maple syrup and the remaining wine.  It should take about 20-25 minutes to get to this point. If your mixture is still too watery, you can bring it back up to a boil to reduce it. 

Beef Loin with Mushroom Risotto and Browned-Butter Brussel Sprouts and Almonds

So I felt like I kind of cheated on this recipe: The beef tenderloin for this was one that we got at the grocery store that was already pre-vacuum-sealed and seasoned with mushroom broth and pepper, so I simply cooked it sous vide in a 136° F bath for 8.5 hours and finished it by searing it in a pan lightly coated with olive oil. This is something you could easily throw in the sous vide in the morning and leave to cook while you're at work; it could be cooked in the sous vide for anywhere from 8-18 hours.

Mushroom Risotto:

Recipe from SkinnyTaste. I absolutely LOVE this website.  There are many awesome recipes, which you will see that I am using frequently. 

Servings: SkinnyTaste said this was 6 servings; it ended up being about 12 servings for us
Size: 1 cup
Calories: 278 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cups arborio rice
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 3 teaspoon butter
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 cup white wine (I used an oaky chardonnay)
• 8 cups fat free chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 4 tablespoons chopped parsley

1. Heat chicken stock in a small pot and keep on low heat.
2. In a medium size heavy sauce pan, saute garlic in 1 teaspoon olive oil.
3. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook 1 minute.
4. Add 1/2 cup of the chicken stock and let the mushrooms cook about 4 minutes. Set aside.

Sauteed Mushrooms, Garlic and Chicken Stock

5. Add butter to the pan on set flame to medium-low heat. Add shallots, sauté about 1 minute.

Diced Shallots

6. Add rice mixing well until well coated and translucent, about 2 minutes. (If there still appears to be some white parts to the rice, it's likely okay. I couldn't decide if it was or not when I was cooking and it turned out fine; just be sure to mix well and coat the rice with butter for the full two minutes. You must stir quickly otherwise it will stick)

Rice coated with butter

7. Add wine, salt and pepper and mix well until it is absorbed into the rice.
8. Ladle 1 cup stock into rice and mix until all stock is absorbed, add another ladle, and continue adding and stirring until all broth is absorbed, about 20-25 minutes.
9. Mix in mushrooms and parsley. Serve with a bit of grated parmesan cheese.

Risotto after all chicken stock and mushrooms and parsley were mixed in

Browned-Butter Brussel Sprouts with Almonds:

I'm not sure this really requires all that much of an explanation, but there may be some of you who have never browned butter before, and after you have, you will want browned-butter with everything! 

1. I microwaved a 16 ounce bag of frozen brussel sprouts for 7 minutes, stirring half way through to be sure they were evenly heated.
2. Add three tablespoons of butter to a medium sauce pot on medium-high heat.
3. Once melted, add in 1/4 cup of sliced almonds and 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Stir for 3-5 minutes until butter literally starts to brown.
5. Add in brussel sprouts and cover with a lid. Leave in pot for about 5 minutes and stir about every minute to evenly coat all of the brussel sprouts.

 

 Enjoy your very easy and delicious meals!

Modernist Cuisine

Last year for my birthday, Jason gave me the Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking after we saw it on The Colbert Report. It is a six volume set of books that starts with the history of food and moves through techniques and skills that have landed us in the current era where food, science and art combine, which is something I find absolutely fascinating. I love all of the restaurants and chefs that are embracing this idea in their food and drinks and creating things that are incredibly flavorful and beautiful and visually interesting. One such molecular gastronomy restaurant I have yet to make it to, but am dying to try on my next trip home is wd-50.

Since the move, I have been reading Modernist Cuisine and experimenting with some of the new techniques including sous vide, which is a method of cooking food in a sealed airtight bag for a longer period of time at the temperature at which the food should be served. The first time that I had something cooked sous vide was at Aguaviva in Old San Juan. While at dinner, the chef came by our table and offered recommendations including the sous vide salmon, which was a special for the night, and he only had two left, so I of course immediately ordered it. It was so moist and flavorful, which prompted Jason and me to buy a sous vide, so we could start experimenting.

 (Aguaviva in Old San Juan)

I am now taking the time to read the Modernist Cuisine books, which are each the size of a casebook, but are a lot more fun and interesting. I am trying to go through each of them in order, but because of my impatience and their length, I have started the first "History and Fundamentals", and then have jumped forward to using some of the recipes. The first recipe I tried was lamb chop sous vide with a side of garlic rosemary potato puree and arugula salad (recipe below). It only took me cooking sous vide once to determine it is the easiest way to cook, because for meats it only requires seasoning the meat, vacuum sealing, and setting it to cook at the appropriate temperature; then the sous vide does all the work. Here is a summary and recipe of my first sous vide experiment.

Sous Vide Lamb Chops with Rosemary Garlic Potato Puree and Arugula Salad

Rosemary Lamb Chops

1. Cut the lamb into chops. Place into vacuum seal-able bag and season with olive oil, rosemary, fresh cracked pepper, garlic powder, and applewood salt; then seal.

2. Cook the vacuum sealed lamb chops for 1 hour at 62°C. Once they're done cooking, set them to the side until all other items are done. 

Step 3: Once all side items are complete and the mushroom broth (below) is done, sear the lamb chops on the grill for 1-2 minutes on each side. They can also be seared in a skillet if you do not have a grill.

Rosemary Garlic Potato Puree

While the lamb is cooking in the sous vide, I peeled, diced, and boiled about 7 Yukon Gold potatoes. After boiling them until they're soft enough to cut with a fork, drain the water out of them and add in a small can of fat free evaporated milk, a teaspoon of minced garlic, a teaspoon of dried rosemary, salt and pepper to taste, and blend with an immersion hand blender until completely smooth. (Side Note: The handheld blender is an extremely useful kitchen instrument. It allows for more control and comes with many nifty attachments and is easy to use and clean up-dishwasher safe!) 

Mushroom Broth

1. Thinly slice two shallots and add to 2.5 tablespoons of olive oil in a small sauce pan. Saute until golden about 10-15 minutes.

 

2. Add about 1 cup of thinly sliced crimini mushrooms and saute for 3-5 minutes then add in about 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. (I also added in 2 teaspoons of bacon grease because I had cooked bacon to top the potatoes. This is not a necessary step, but who doesn't love bacon flavor added to basically everything!?!) Let it boil until the liquid is reduced by a bit more than half then let it simmer until ready to serve.

Final Touches and Presentation: I served the lamb chops topped with the mushroom broth; the potato puree topped with bacon crumbles; and finally made a very simple arugula salad with halved cherry tomatoes and topped with an Italian Vinaigrette. (I used Walden Farms Zesty Italian-it is delicious and calorie-free = mind blown!) And voila! Add iced tea, prosecco and candles, and this is a dinner that is sure to please!

Happy experimenting!

New salon, new holiday festivities, and a new taco place!

There are a lot of adjustments that come with a big move. For me, it has been not only adjusting to a new city, but also adjusting to being "retired", as I'm calling it.  The changes and things that one must adjust to exceed anything I had imagined. The small things like the time restaurants close during the week, which is often earlier than my normal dinner time and inevitably caused me to freak upon finding this out initially, are some of the most unexpected and difficult to adjust to, but I am starting to realize all of the pleasant surprises and fun of a new city.

Last Friday, I tried a new salon and stylist (who is the artistic director). It was a nerve-racking process after using the same wonderful man in New York for four years to change to someone new, not only because of the fear of ending up with terrible hair, but also because it means I am officially establishing myself here. However, Jay had a great rapport with me, took the time to find out the history of my hair and my preferences, and was very knowledgeable.  And most importantly, I walked out feeling more beautiful leaving than entering the salon.

Also on Friday, Greensboro was having its Festival of Lights, which included all of the normal holiday festivities including a tree lighting, Santa Clause, tents of music acts, goods and food, and a bit of snow (from a machine or "soap" as Jason called it. It was enough to excite me anyway about it). It certainly wasn't the scale of tree lighting and holiday festivities I'm used to at Rock Center, but nice to see people enjoying the season nonetheless.

(holiday snow/"soap")

Due to the lovely southern "winter" weather (rain and 40-something degrees), we decided to forgo partaking in extensive festivities including watching the tree lighting, ice skating and marshmallow roasting, and do a quick walk through it all on our way to a new taco place called Crafted, The Art of the Taco. This was actually our second time frequenting this restaurant. We went the previous Saturday night, which was the first week it was open for dinner, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Because of my obsession with any restaurant or truck that has tacos on the menu, this was the obvious choice for the night.

We started the feast with nachos and queso, because I can't eat at a restaurant that has queso and not order it. The nachos have a base of thin sweet potato chips cooked on premise and topped with pulled pork and a spicy aioli. The chips were a nice surprise and helped keep the nachos on the lighter side. We also added a house hot sauce to them (as I do to most dishes), which has a good bite and a smoky flavor. The queso is not your typical white queso that most Mexican restaurants will serve; it is a blend of three cheeses, pimento, white cheddar and a third cheese I cannot remember, and was quite mild and nice.

Next, I had to try the tuna tacos called the "Fedora". They were two tacos with seared tuna and pineapple. It was an excellent combination; the only thing I would have changed was the end pieces of the tuna were a little well done for my liking, but the middle pieces were a seared to a good pink rare. I ordered a side of black beans, which is a food I often think I don't like; however, I enjoyed them so much the first time I ate there, so I they were my first choice for a side again.  They had a smoky and lime flavor.

The food and service were great; we sat at the bar per our usual custom, and they have an awesome beer selection. I had an excellent toasted coconut porter among a few other good local beers. It was a great dining experience and addition to the downtown Greensboro restaurants, and will almost certainly be a regular on my list. 

Cheers to new experiences!
*K

all photos by yours truly