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Lamb shank was rubbed down with a mixture of salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, oregano, and lemon zest. Cooked Sous Vide @ 57C (135F ) for 72 hours. Then seared off quickly to brown the outside.

The Couscous salad was made with finely diced green pepper, dried apricot, dried sour cherry, diced pumpkin and some white balsamic vinegar with about 1/2 a tsp of Za’atar and some cayenne pepper.

Tags: couscous, lamb, pumpkin, shank, Sous Vide

Stolen directly from Ryan’s blog. Except I cooked mine Sous Vide for extra nerdy factor.

I need to write up my Duck Consomme experience properly,  but not tonight.    Here is the perfect dish to show it off, a riff on a fantastic dish served to my by Hank Shaw at the Duck Duel.  Perfectly clear consomme with homemade mushroom wontons and crispy home cured bacon and finely chopped green onion ( and seasoning ! ).

Several months ago I had a sweetbread salad at a local restaurant and really enjoyed it. Ever since I’ve been thinking about doing something similar but have been somewhat daunted by it. Last week I decided that I was finally going to tackle them.

Sweetbreads are the common and someone deceiving name for several glands, the Thymus gland and Pancreas are the more common. They consist of pink nuggets of flesh inside a complicated network of membranes and are associated with younger animals,  Veal and Lamb.   I have read that the Thymus gland actually disappears when the animal reaches maturity.

I knew cooking them usually requires several processes and I wanted to make sure I got it right, so I turned to Nose to Tail @ Home the blog run by my good friend Ryan. Not surprisingly he had a good post on sweetbreads. I also read through my River Cottage Meat Book and my own copy of Fergus’ Opus.

In summary to prepare Sweetbreads you first soak them overnight in several changes of water to help draw out any unpleasant odors, then you boil them briefly in a Court Bullion until they firm up. You then have to carefully remove the outer membrane and if they vary in size you can remove some of the connecting membranes to split the fleshy parts up into even sized pieces at the same time.

Once that’s done you can saute, crumb and fry, or otherwise cook them. I chose to prepare mine in a slightly unusual fashion. I first sauteed them in some butter and duck fat and then smoked them in a pan filled with hay ( sorry no pictures of the smoking ).

I served them on a bed of mixed lettuce dressed with a confit garlic and white balsamic vinaigrette, some caramelized lemon segments and some quick pickled red onion ( whoops! i forgot about the onion until after I took the pictures ).

The sweetbreads have a firmness to the outside and then as you bite through have a silky almost pillowy texture and a very light flavor with a slight metallic undertone which goes fantastically with something acidic. I’ve read that the French often have them with a creamy sauce but I think light acidity is definitely the way to go. Next time I make them though I will try and find lamb sweetbreads instead of veal as they are smaller sized and thus would suit a salad better.

Tags: confit garlic, salad, sweetbread

Seeing Hank’s post on Wild Duck Consomme I decided to make some of my own ( post coming soon ) and as a result of butchering a whole duck I ended up with a couple of duck breasts that need eating. I had some Pomegranate Molasses and decided to use this as a base for a thick heavily reduced glaze.

I seasoned the breast well and then cooked it Sous Vide for 2 hours at 57C (135F).

While it cooked I made the sauce from Onion, Garlic, Red Wine, Duck Stock, Honey and Pomegranate Molasses. This was cooked down to a thick syrup and glossed with a small knob of butter.

When the sauce was ready I cross hatched the duck skin and seared it to crisp it up.

Served with some baby potatoes and Asparagus broiled with a slice of bacon cheddar on top.

Oh and kids, if you go to all the effort of getting your duck skin nice and crispy don’t rest it skin side down.

Tags: Asparagus, duck, Pomegranate Molasses, Sous Vide

My take on a Thomas Keller recipe.   Quail eggs cooked sous vide @ 61 C served with home cured bacon sliced very fine and cooked until crispy, topped with a Sprinkle of Smoked Maldon Sea Salt and a grind of Pepper.

Obviously a Chinese spoon would be a better serving plate but apparently I don’t have any.      

The textures of the crispy bacon and the silky egg go amazingly together.

Tags: Bacon, Egg, Quail Eggs, Sous Vide, Thomas Keller

I wanted to make a batch of real eggnog for Christmas and went googling to get some history and preparation methods. I found a post on Ruhlman‘s blog talking about drinking some eggnog he made the previous year, this of course intrigued me as I have a lot of interest in preserved foods, and I had no idea you could preseve milk in a liquid form easily at home.  I followed a few links before I finally got to a recipe.

I started the eggnog in October to give it a good 2 months to age before Christmas. I started by separating a dozen organic free range ( important to help reduce risk of bacteria, and of course it’s better for the chickens ). I whisked the yolks with two cups of sugar until they were light and creamy.

To this I added the cream and then the booze ( bourbon, rum, and brandy ).

In went the rest of the ingredients and whisked together. A couple of loose nutmegs lulling around at the bottom of the mixture.

The lid went onto the container and it was wrapped in foil to protect it from light.

2 months later on Christmas day I whipped egg whites and cream and folded them together. A good dollop of this went into each glass and was topped up with the eggnog. A fine grating of nutmeg on top and it was ready to drink.

I have 2 half liter bottles left in the fridge which I plan to keep until next Christmas.

Tags: drink, Egg, eggnog

Scrounging in the fridge for some breakfast I found a bowl of meat pulled from smoked ham hocks that I had made a pea and ham soup with… Perfect for some Breakfast Tacos.

I made sure there were no sneaky foot bones bones in the meat and threw it into a hot pan adding a good drizzle of maple syrup. This cooked until the syrup had coated the meat and was just starting to caramelize.

I then added in a shot of espresso along with a little salt and pepper cooking it down until there was no liquid left in the pan.

Then it was just a matter of scrambling some eggs and toasting some corn tacos.

The Tacos were served with a few drops of maple syrup and some hot sauce.

Simple, quick, and tasty.

Tags: breakfast, eggs, maple syrup, pig, pork, taco

Ruhlman has a post up on his blog called Ciabatta From Scratch which I would have loved to have had two years ago when I started trying to make Ciabatta. The recipe he has up is very similar to how I now make my Ciabatta ( albiet I use sourdough starter and don’t hydrate as much ).

Reading and commenting on the post was enough to convince me to pull my starter out of hibernation and bake some bread.

I Used 500g (bread) flour, 300g Water, 10g Salt, 100g Starter.

Mixed flour and water together enough to bring into a ball. Left for 1 hour. Kneaded in salt, then kneaded in Starter. Then every hour I folded the dough to help the gluten along.

After about 6 hours I preheated the oven to 450F with a clay pot inside. Shaped the dough into a ball ( being careful not to knock out too much air ) and left in an oiled bowl about the same size as the pot.

An hour later with the oven roaring I tipped the dough into the pot and slashed the top, sprinkled with a pinch of smoked sea salt and baked for 30 mins lid on, then 10 mins lid off.

I always cool my bread on a rack to help ensure the bottom doesn’t get soggy.

Tags: bread, Ruhlman, sourdough

With my parents visiting for Christmas we did a few quick overnight trips to check out some other parts of Texas. When they showed an interest in Houston I was quick to suggest we go to Feast for dinner, a restaurant I’d heard Ryan wax lyrical about a few times in the past. Feast is a British style Restaurant that subscribes to the Nose to Tail philosophy ( hence Ryan’s love of it ).

We opted to go for the Chef’s tasting menu and sat back as our very knowledgeable waitress took us through a fantastic journey through 9 courses.

First up was a Carrot and Lentil soup made from a base of duck stock with apple chutney. The soup was rich and delightful with the occasional crunch and sweetness from the apple, however there was a substantial film of fat on top which detracted from the dish a little.

Next up was a Pork Rillette served with some toasted bread and a cornichon. This was probably the weakest dish of the night, it was lukewarm and underseasoned. I’d have preferred it either cold or hot, not halfway in between.

Next up was easily the dish of the day. A black pudding made with duck blood sitting on a bed of minted peas with a soft fried egg on top. This was amazingly rich and smooth, a distant cry from the dry grainy dish I would expect.

Following was a tongue and drunken cherry terrine. This tasted great, but could have done with a dash of dijon mustard.

Then came a dish called ‘Bath Chaps’ which is a very traditional British dish. This one was if I remember correctly made with Pork Cheek wrapped around a tongue. This tasted like a really great roasted pork with crackling on it. It was amazingly porky, probably the most piggy tasting piece of pork I’ve eaten since living in the US.

Following this came a Fish pie served with brussel sprouts. This was rich and creamy and incredibly tasty. As you can see we tucked into it before I remembered to take a photo.

Then we had a Pork Butt Stew that tasted like a really good Beef Bourguignon, it had to have been made with a very strong beef stock base as I would never have guessed it to be pork without having been told. It was served with perfectly cooked beans and mashed potato.

Next was a brilliantly executed refreshing palette cleansing Clementine sorbet.

And finally we were given Spotted Dick with Creme Anglaise and Sticky Toffee Pudding with Clotted Cream.

Both dishes tasted great, I really liked the Toffee Pudding with a drizzle of the Creme Anglaise from the Spotted Dick over the top.

Tags: Dinner, Feast, Houston, Restaurant