Chewy Benton's Bacon Caramels - Page 303

Candy is hard.
We'll try this one again.

Whole Hog Part II

It's coming...
Preps in progress...
Sauces and Rubs are ready...
Are you?

Pork Stock - Page 319

Confession...my involvement in this recipe was labeling ziploc bags and taking a picture.  But the stock looked pretty f'en good.  Nearly solid at room temperature is a good sign, and jello consistency when refrigerated is nice too.  Can't wait to use this in a recipe.

Ox's only comment was that he wishes his stock pots had volume labels so he would have an idea how much there is, and whether he should be diluting.

Advice: You can use a skewer calibrated to your pot to determine the volume in your pot.  This will not work to determine stock volume if the bones are still in it.  Also, a wort chiller is the greatest tool never seen in a modern kitchen.  I can't believe every restaurant kitchen doesn't have one!

If you make stock a lot, you might want one.  They're cheap, and can also be used to make beer.

Homemade Steak Sauce - Page 240

This was an interesting recipe to cook for me.  It was in preparation for the Hanger Steak at Ox's house, and, since he was getting in from the Blessing of the Fleet a lot later than we would have liked, I was responsible for a lot of prep.  I wanted everything to be ready so that when he got in, everything could just hit the pan and we'd be off.  The problem was, that, due to an unfortunate Chief's Initiation incident in Singapore in the 90's, I can't smell fish sauce without becoming, well, uncomfortable.  I don't even keep the stuff in my house.  So what I did was get literally everything except the fish sauce and the spice sachet together in a big jar, so we could just poor and cook at his house.  This worked out pretty well, except that his house got to smell like this amazing Steak Sauce, instead of mine.

This is another slightly time consuming recipe, but relatively easy to get right.  It took about 45 minutes to reduce, but blended up smooth as silk.  A totally delicious steak sauce - and this from a salt, pepper and oil steak guy.

Advice: We use a wooden skewer to measure reducing a sauce.  Just dip it into the pan at the beginning, and mark the level with a permanent marker.  Makes it easy to tell when it's reduced by half.  If you use the same skewer over and over, you have to use different color markers, and it starts to look like a wall where you mark your kid's height every year.


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Herb Marinated Hanger Steak with Vidalia Onion Gratin and Steak Sauce - Page 135

Ox has a gratin problem.  Meaning, he has only successfully execute au gratin potatoes once since I've known him...and I've known him a while.  Not only that, but I'm pretty sure gratin was to blame for our miscommunication wherein Ox showed up at my house expecting me to have ingredients for this recipe, while I expected him to show up with ingredients for another!  Luckily, that day worked out (Huevos de Hoecakes).  I'd like to tell you that this was the day of Ox's triumphant redemption, but that wouldn't be true.  That said, while the gratin didn't come out perfect, it came out a lot better than his usually does, and we're pretty sure how to fix it next time.  The flavors of this gratin are amazing, so we will be doing it right in the future.

There will be another post on the Steak Sauce, which will be used in my kitchen forever, but let me just say it was great!  I've said before that I'm a bit of a meat purist, but again, Chef Brock has changed my views.  The herb marinade and steak sauce complemented the hanger steak PERFECTLY.

We marinated the steaks at about 10 am, and ate at 7 pm.  I also made the base of the marinade, but didn't cook it until I got to Ox's house.  The recipe breaks up nicely over the course of the day, allowing lots of time so it doesn't take over the day.  While time consuming, it's remarkably easy to follow and flows nicely, with lots of time for drinking and watching NASCAR (I chose to do both - Carl Wins!)  The potatoes in the gratin came out slightly under-cooked, while the topping could not be cooked any longer.  We plan on cooking the gratin without the topping until nearly done, then adding the topping and finishing off.


The quick cook on the steak, combined with the marinade and high heat made for a lovely coating on the steak.  Five people made short work of the steaks.

Advice: Read the recipe and plan the steps out.  Especially, don't start the grill until the gratin has been in the oven for 25 minutes at least.  Everything will come together well, and the gratin will wait if done early.  Cook the gratin without the topping for a while, then add the topping and cook until browned.

Slow Cooked Rib Eye with Potato Confit and Green Garlic Parsley Butter - Page 128

We've made the potato confit before, and it changed our potato eating life.  This time, we went with fingerling potatoes and they absorbed even more awesome flavor.  But that's just the start.

We had never worked with Green Garlic before and Ox was a little worried as he was going through the blending process.  Things looked a little stringy and fibrous, but the finished product was perfect.

The Rib Eye cooking method was pretty similar to the Lamb Roast we did recently, and used pretty normal cooking techniques.  Roasting it on a bed of herbs certainly added to the flavor.  We used a probe thermometer with an alarm to make sure the meat was cooked perfectly.  Honestly, the hardest part was waiting the 25 minutes before carving.  I thought Kari was going to lose her mind!  This stuff just smelled AMAZING!

I'm usually a purist when it comes to red meat - salt, pepper and eat.  That said, the Basic Meat Sauce from the lamb and this butter is making a believer out of me.  It truly transformed the Rib Eye flavor without losing the meaty goodness that I live for.

Pictures are from my phone - forgot my camera.  Sorry

Advice: Make the potato confit ahead of time.

Green Garlic Bisque with Herbed Buttermilk and Fried Green Tomato Croutons - Page 32

One of the coolest thing about Chef Brock's book are the pictures.  They are beautiful, expressive and really show off the way food can be presented.  They highlight the ways in which food is a visual, as well as olfactory and gustatory activity.  But sometimes, it's nice when a recipe you are attempting doesn't have a picture.  This way, you can assume your results look EXACTLY the way they would look if Sean was cooking.  Even though they probably don't.

Flavor wise - our results for this recipe were SPECTACULAR.  The bisque had an amazingly unique taste, with lots (but not too much) garlic flavor enhanced by a subtle licorice accent from the tarragon.  The green tomato croutons were delicious, and we barely had enough left for plating after all the sneaky snacking while cooking.  Our green tomatoes were red, but clearly labelled as green, and they tasted like proper green tomatoes.

We are becoming serious green garlic fans, buying tons of the stuff from various vendors at the Summerville Farmer's Market.  Our next post will be the Ribeye Roast with Green Garlic Butter...also awesome.

The recipe was easy to follow, and worked well.  The buttermilk seemed like an unnecessary afterthought, but when you try the soup with and without, it definitely balances out the flavor.  Without a picture it was hard to tell what everything was supposed to look like, and ours had an overabundance of white, so, not sure if all the colors came through.  Totally wonderful though.

Advice: Make more tomatoes.  Then make more.  I think we could have started the tomatoes sooner and had them ready as the soup was finishing.  The way we did it the bisque was ready well in advance and sat around for a while.  Then again, there are two of us, so frying while blending and straining is no big deal.  If you're cooking alone, the sequence might be easier as written.

Cornmeal Hoecakes - Page 72

So, texts were sent in preparation for our weekly Walking Dead, Sean Brock, cooking and horror extravaganza, with big plans for the 90 minute season finale...

Me to Ox: "Thinking hanger steak for Sunday but it requires a 3.5 hour lead time before serving and I will still be at work.  Can you handle it (it's for the gratin...no pressure)."
Ox to Me: "I got this one"

So I'm thinking, "Holy Shit, Ox has already decided what we're making, and it sounds like he's thinking big!"

Sunday rolls around and he arrives early, as expected, but empty handed.  Confused looks, shrugs, awkward laughter...

Apparently, "I got this one" means "I won't fuck this gratin up like I have the last 7" and not, "I've got the meal planning and preparation handled this week."

So, having explored the limits of pure text communication, Kari, Ox and Mary (remember I'm doing taxes right now - try to keep up) brainstorm on what can be done with the limited time we now have - since shopping has to be done.  As an aside, it was nice to be the cause of the scrambling, but not having to be involved in the panic.  The Great Book was consulted, and a lot of recipes had to be discarded due to lead time and/or ingredient needs, so they decided to go with a side of some sort.  We had some Flying Farmer Corn Meal, so they decided to go with the Hoecakes.  For the main dish, thwarted food desires made the choice - let me 'splain, no, there's too much - let me sum up: Mary and Ox had been to Hominy Grill for breakfast, and wanted the Huevos Rancheros, but both wanted something else more, and they couldn't agree on who would sacrifice their primary desire for the good of the group, so Huevos de Hoecakes it was!

Ox has a great Huevos Rancheros "recipe", involving a lovely heated chipotle salsa, homemade refried beans, spanish style chorizo and a bunch of mexican herbs and dried chils from a "nice" Mexican Market on Ashley Phosphate (seriously - there's some awesome food there).

I made the hoecakes, which was super easy and fast (I actually finished ahead of time and had to wait on Ox, who, a few minutes before had said he though he was forgetting something.)  Turns out what he was forgetting was how fast things come together and how many burners you need to make this all work.  I was frying hoecakes on one burner, Ox was cooking eggs on another, Mary was cooking chorizo on a third and the beans were keeping warm on another.  Kari was setting the table, defending the kitchen from the 4 year old, and rushing to the beck and call of the three of us as we needed ingredients or equipment.  It was wonderful chaos!

The mix comes together in literally minutes, and then it's just a matter of frying them up.  If I'd realized how fast it would go I would have pre-staged the skillet with the lard and butter and had it warming up (If there had been a spare burner - I'm getting a six burner oven when I remodel my kitchen - in 2050).  Seriously, stage everything you need and be ready.  You can literally make these in minutes!  The hardest part was getting them to form nice circles, and getting a feel for the cooking and turning time - I burned a couple, and some of them were shapes that could not honestly be called "round".

But they were fricken' delicious!  They also made for AMAZING Huevos de Hoecakes!

Advice: Pre stage everything so you can go directly from one step to the next.  Have the cornmeal in a dish with the tablespoon of lard on top, ready to pour.  While the water boils, start heating the lard and butter in your skillet.  These are really all purpose, and go great with sweet syrups and butter, or savory toppings.

The picture doesn't do it justice.  We took like 30 pictures trying to get it right and then we said fuck it - and ate it!

Looking forward to the McCrady's Alumni Dinner tonight!