Southurn Lurvin

I am a typical American… I have failed to commit to my New Year’s resolutions!  One of which is to blog more.  Here I am one month in to 2015 with only one blog post.  Fail! Truth be told, blogging ain’t cheap… especially when you are cooking for a small crowd.  Often times I have to buy obscure ingredients which would be more cost effecient if I cooked for larger quantities.  So on that note, I have floated the idea of starting a Sunday Night Supper Club.  With the football season ending, the spring approaching with its’ bountiful produce, and the lack of Sunday evening plans most people have, I think it is the perfect time to get this going.  So please reach out if  you are interested in getting this going, or have friends that may have an interest.  For those that do not live in the DMV area, I’ll come cook anywhere… as long as my transportation is paid for :). To business now.  Since my passion for food has grown, I have naturally been drawn towards books, articles, shows, etc. that include some aspect of food.  My favorite show without a doubt is The Mind of a Chef on PBS.  In the second season the show follows Chef Sean Brock, Chef of McGrady’s in Charleston and Husk in Nashville and Charleston, as he attempts to highlight the beauty of simple heirloom ingredients of the South.  I was in awe by his love and passion for food, and the beauty he derived from something as simple as rice and beans. By the end of my Netflix binge of the show, I had his cook book Heritage on my lap so I could follow along as he described things on the television.  After salivating through all of the recipes in his book, I decided to combine two recipes and create my own dish… a dry aged squab prepared in the sous vide with duck confit squab legs, herbed farro and an wild licorice almond sauce.

 

Ingredients

2 squab (1 per person) 6 wild licorice root 4 inch pieces 2 cups of almonds 2 cups whole milk 1 cup of duck fat 1 cup faro 2-3 cups chicken stock 1 onion 2 bushels of flat leaf parsley 1/2 handful of dill 1 lemon 1 garlic bulb 1 package of thyme

Preparation

3-4 days in advance of serving

1) Squab is a gamey bird that tastes much better after some dry aging.  Crown  the squabs (remove the legs and wings), and place on a cooling rack over a baking sheet that is covered in a generous amount of salt, and place in your fridge.  The salt in the baking sheet will prevent the bird from stinking the place up, and cooling rack will prevent the bird from touching the salt and allow for air circulation around the entire bird.

1 day in advance of serving

2) Confit the squab legs in duck fat (or any kind of fat, I just happened to have duck).  Make sure the legs are completely submerged in an oven safe container with herbs (thyme and whatever else is lying around) and a few cloves of garlic.  Cook at 250 degrees for 2.5-3 hours.  Remove and place in fridge with duck fat.  Save duck fat for later use (see step 5).

3) Bring milk, almonds and licorice to an aggressive simmer, and bring back to room temperature.  Place in refrigerator overnight to soak.

Day of serving

4) Bring salted water to a boil.  Add parsley and dill with stems removed to boiling water for 45 seconds.  Remove and place in ice bath.  Puree herbs with lemon juice and add water until the puree is smooth.  Remove from blender and strain through a fine medal strainer.  Save puree/liquid to add to cooked faro.

5) Remove licorice root from milk, and puree for 3 minutes in blender.  Once smooth, strain through fine medal strainer removing as much solid as possible.

6) Sautee 1 cup of onion and 1 large clove of garlic in canola oil.  Add faro and toast lightly.  Gradually ladle a quarter cup of chicken stock (I recommend bringing chicken stock to boil in a separate pot) into faro at a time.  Stir constantly and continue to ladle in chicken stock as the pan gets dry.  Cook until faro is tender and creamy.  Add 2-3 tbsp of duck fat to bring more richness, add herb puree, and season with salt and pepper.

7) Cut the breasts from the dry aged squab and season with salt.  Place individual breasts into vacuum bag with a small portion of butter and a few thyme leaves.  Submerge in 57 degree sous vide for 35 minutes.

8) Place fat (canola oil, duck fat, lard, etc) into cast iron and bring to high heat.  Once the oil is shimmering, place in confit legs.  After three minutes, add squab breasts skins side down.  Once all are golden and crispy remove.

9) Plate and enjoy.  Throw some micro greens on if you have them… I had sunflower shoots.

Thanksgiving Leftovers – Take 3

For those that know me and my eating habits, you should know of my hulk like sweet tooth.  Yes, I am well aware that this is easily my most unhealthy blog post, and yes, I realize how many calories are in this.  But do you realize how f***** delicious this is?

To give a small background… my good friend Julian, who shares a similar sweet tooth to mine, used to like to walk by Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill and poke his head in “Let’s just see what the seasonal shake is today,” he would say.  I am pretty sure he had already googled it or saw it on twitter, but nonetheless, I obliged and would poke my head in.  While I have never seen it or tried it, I will never forget when he told me:

“Oh Man!  Spence you gotta try the November milkshake right around Thanksgiving… They take a vanilla shake and drop an entire slice of pumpkin pie into the blender!!  An entire piece Spence!”

I had to pick up my jaw off the ground.  It made so much sense, slurping small bits of crust through your straw filled with a vanilla-pumpkin blended shake.  I had to try.

 

Ingredients

1 slice of pumpkin pie
4-6 oz whole milk
2-3 scoops vanilla ice cream
Fresh Nutmeg

Preparation 

1) Combine all ingredients except for nutmeg in blender.

2) Blend until you find the right consistancy.  You may need to add more ice cream to thicken, or more milk to liquidize.

3) Grade fresh nutmeg on top of poured glass, it does not take much.

4) Enjoy

There is a reason I used to fit in the suit pictured above.  I love milkshakes!  Enjoy a taste, but don’t have too much!

Thanksgiving Leftovers – Take 2 – Turkey Bahn-Mi

It is Saturday, you have mashed potatoes coming out of your ears and sweet potatoes coming out of your nose.  When you sneeze the reminiscence of cranberry sauce is on your hand, and if you have to eat more stuffing you might throw up.  But there are still plenty of leftovers and you have no idea what to do with them, and you are sick and tired of eating the same leftover sandwich I posted early (I know, you couldn’t resist yourself).

Let me help.

I recently became bahn mi’s biggest fan.  I can’t get enough of it.  I have eaten it so much, I decided it is time to start making my own, and I figured a turkey bahn mi wouldn’t be terrible.  There are so many powerful flavors in bahn mi, from the salty and sweet pickled carrots and diakon, to the cilantro, and finally the creamy and spicy sriracha mayo, you wouldn’t have the slightest idea you were eating Thanksgiving leftovers!

Ingredients (per/ sandwich)

Leftover turkey meat
1 crispy baguette
2 long cucumber slices
3 jalapeno slices
1/2 cup pickled carrots and daikon
(for the pickling brine, I used 1 cup sugar to about 1.5 cups rice vinegar… I also put in a little ginger and lemongrass)
1/4-1/2 cup cilantro
A generous amount of sriracha mayo (mix to your spiciness liking)

Preparation

1) Julienne diakon and carrots, and place in simmering brine (1 cup sugar, 1.5 cups rice vinegar).  Cook for about 10-20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

2) Combing sriracha and mayonnaise until thoroughly mixed to desired spice.

3) Cut jalapeno and cucumber very thin (I used a mandolin).

4) Toast the baguette, and combine all the ingredients.

5) Grab a napkin and enjoy!!

Thanksgiving Leftovers – Take 1

I have never met someone who has said “Nah, I don’t like Thanksgiving leftovers.”

I do not want to meet someone that says something of the sort.

Thanksgiving leftovers are frickin’ delicious.  Nothing like letting the flavors really come out over night, just to enhance expectations of your Thanksgiving experience.  For me, I am all about packing everything into one bite for my leftovers.  By combining all of the flavors into one chomp, you are reminded of everything you loved from the day before.

Ingredients

1 slice of turkey roulade (or just get a bunch of turkey)
1/2 cup of stuffing
1/2 cup of mashed potatoes
1/4 cup port cranberry sauce
1 tbsp harissa spread
1 leftover Pillsbury biscuit

Preparation

1) Cut one Pillsbury biscuit in half, and toast in a pan over medium heat with a little butter.

2) In microwave safe containers, bring turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes to desired temperature.

3) Once the biscuit is golden brown, put on harissa, cranberry sauce, and the heated leftovers.

4) Cut in half and enjoy!  It should be delicious!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is easily one of my favorite holidays.  The food is hearty and everyone seems to be in a great mood… if not, all it takes is some dark beer, wine, and/or a baileys with coffee. Unfortunately for me, getting home for Thanksgiving is expensive and a hassle.  So what do you do when you miss your family and can’t get home for the holiday?  Bring the flavors of your home to you.

I am not going to go into much detail on Thanksgiving because, to be frank, I am more interested in sharing with you my leftover recipes.  Nonetheless, I will walk through my time leading up to Thanksgiving Thursday.

On Tuesday, I picked up the bird.  Lucky for me, I was able to order a pasture raised, antibiotic-free, organic never frozen turkey through Ripple… the bird’s name was probably Colin.  I decided this year I would try out a turkey-roulade recipe I saw on chefsteps.com (Click here for more).  So after my Tuesday shift at The Rip, I spent some time in the kitchen taking the legs off, de-boning them, and removing the tendons.  After I seasoned the turkey legs, or what was once the legs, throw a little fresh sage in there and roll it up in plastic wrap (see the link above for more visualization and explanation).

On Wednesday, I prepared my bring to allow enough time for it to return to room temperature.  In my brine I had some lemon, honey, peppercorn, sage, rosemary, thyme and a few bay leaves.  Once I set that aside to cool, I started preparing my stuffing and cranberry sauces.  For the stuffing, I sauteed in butter a lot of celery, mushrooms, and white onions with fresh herbs (sage, thyme, and rosemary that I put through a piston and mortar).  Separately I toast broken up pieces of english muffin, roast and shell chestnuts, and cook off sausage.  It is important you under cook everything because it will cook later on as you roast your turkey (if  you cook your stuffing too much beforehand, everything will be mushy).  It is also important you store the ingredients separately so nothing gets too soggy.  Once the stuffing preparation was complete, I made a port cranberry sauce and a cranberry chutney.  For the sauce, I took one bag of fresh cranberries and boiled it down with sugar, a little salt, port wine, and some fall spices (cinnamon and cloves).  For the chutney, I took one bag of fresh cranberries, the juice of an orange, the zest of half an orange, one pear with the skin off, and a little sugar, and pulsed it all in a food blender until I found the desired consistency.  On top for garnish I sprinkled candied ginger and candied orange rinds.

As for Thursday, things pretty much fell into place.  I woke up at around 8 A.M. to put the Turkey into the brine.  Then I made the sweet potato dish, where I baked sweet potatoes, removed the skins, and mixed with a little seasoning and maple syrup, and topped with toasted pecans.  Then I prepared the stuffing my combining all the ingredients, and stuffing the bird.  The remaining stuffing I put into tinfoil with turkey bones or the turkey neck, and roasted individually.  Once the bird was in the oven at 350 and the clock was ticking for 2.5-3 hours, I prepared the garlicky mashed potatoes with plenty of butter and a little cream.  I am lucky to have a heating drawer, so I put my mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes in here to avoid cramping up the oven.

As the time drew closer to take the turkey out of the oven, I put a bunch of Pillsbury biscuits on baking trays and prepared them for the oven.  I also prepared a nice fall salad with walnuts, pears, beets and blue cheese with a simple balsamic vinaigrette.

Once you remove the bird, insert biscuitss that need to heat for 15-2- minutes.  Once the biscuits were done, I put in the roulade at 475 until the skin on the outside was crunchy.  I let that sit for about 5 minutes, then I cut into everything and served.