We had good food and wine. I assisted with dinner, and for the morning-after I made the same Mexican breakfast casserole I’ve been making for years. My camera is a little better than my initial post on this dish, which is one of the most popular all-time on the old blog.

I didn’t know the origin of the recipe for years as it was emailed to me in plain text, but it turns out it’s an Emeril recipe. Bam!

Next time I do this I’m going to use two smaller casserole dishes instead of a single large one. The outside edge is cooked well before the center. If you cook the casserole until the center is no longer soggy, the outside edge of egg is a little burnt/crispy for my taste. I also like to cover mine for the first half of cooking, then remove the foil so the exposed top doesn’t overcook. This aluminum foil cover could mitigate moisture loss, which is perhaps why the casserole is still soggy in the center. Always tinkering…

For this post I also considered the title “Jock out with my stock out”, as this past Saturday also included a good bit of college football watching while making demi-glace with my friend Dude. See, it would have worked two ways.

This was my first attempt at a true demi-glace, a rich sauce made by mixing brown stock and Espagnole sauce and reducing until it’s almost a slick glaze. Espagnole (“Spanish” in French, debates exist re the naming) is the same brown sauce, with a brown roux and tomato paste or puree, and is one of the french mother sauces created by Antonin Carême, later updated by Auguste Escoffier. Though, I’ve read that many modern chefs forgo the roux in favor of a straight up reduction to obtain the thick demi-glace.

On it’s own, the name demi-glace implies the use of veal bones, but we had to take what we could get and produced a beef demi-glace using marrow bones from Dekalb Farmer’s market, $2/lb. We actually used an Emeril recipe, but no shame in my game, it’s very similar to Escoffier’s recipe.

I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, it’s self explanatory. We had a fun time talking through the recipe, handling YDFM on a Satuday, and of course, eating and drinking all through the day. The photos at the bottom of the post are a Caw Caw pork shoulder Dude cooked on the Big Green Egg for the Momofuku Bo Ssäm recipe, which include really tasty fermented bean/gochujang and ginger scallion sauces.

I read a lot of food related materials – magazines, blogs, newspapers, and the like. When I come across a dish I’d like to recreate or a recipe I want to add to my never-ending list, I have various methods of saving it. If it’s an actual hard copy (old school, I know!) I tear it out and put it in a manila folder by my desk.

When it’s a website, I file it in Google Chrome. You may notice I have an entire folder dedicated to hot wings, and yes, I find that humorous as well. I don’t plan on following each of these recipes word for word, but I often review these papers and these links for inspiration. Maybe I’m in the mood for soup, so I’ll peruse that folder. Or I’ll type a word like “squash” in the search field and see what comes up. Digging through the pizza folder, I’ll notice there’s that “no knead” recipe I’ve yet to try, maybe tonight’s the tonight!

I wish the magazines were as easy to index, or my cookbooks for that matter. I’m sure there are a lot of great recipes I’ve forgotten about that would be perfect, if only I had the time to look through forty books every time I wanted some new ideas.

Anyone else have useful ways to use technology to save recipes you’d like to make, and subsequently recall them?

** Update **

There are some good ideas for the filing of electronic data in the comments below, but the problem I’ve really been thinking about is hard copy cook books. It would be awesome if there was a central source (so formatting would be consistent) of cook book indexes. Maybe a PDF I could download of the recipe index, to be filed away in a folder on my computer. OS X and Windows 7 perform full text indexing of PDF files, so I could just pull up that folder and easily type in my advanced search.

Or if the index only resides online, I could go to this recipe index website and search, let’s say, for popular Asian recipes utilizing pork belly. I’d be given a list of recipe titles, with the name of the cookbook and the page number where the recipe resides. If I own it, I’m money. If I don’t own that cookbook, there’s an Amazon link to purchase it, or a way to download an e-Book (if available for purchase).

This would generate more sales of the cookbooks, AND make it easier to find recipes in hardcopy cookbooks.

Really, Amazon could easily do this. They already have access to the texts and the eBooks. And they could offer previews. Hell, if the publishers got on board they could even sell individual recipes downloadable to a Kindle application. The iTunes model for cookbooks.

If I find a recipe title that sounds enticing, but I don’t want to lay down $30 for the whole cookbook at that moment, maybe I could just purchase that one recipe for $1-2? A media rich recipe with background text, recipe, photographs, etc.

It allows the user to cherry pick recipes, but I can’t afford to buy every single cookbook I want. My Amazon wish-list of cookbooks is at least twenty deep. Would the publisher/author rather have $2-$4 of my money, or zero? And if I really like what I see, I’m more inclined to buy the whole thing.

I’ve amassed a bunch of crappy iphone pics (and crappy good camera pics) to share with internet-land. Operation photo barf commencing.

How about the above bar near Lake Burton? I’m considering opening a satellite location in College Park.

The wines I’ve tasted lately have continued to be an embarrassment of riches. Le Montrachet (right) is one of the most prized vineyards in the world, while the Leroy (left) one of the best producers. But this ’02 Leroy is simply a bourgogne (unclassified grapes, not necessarily from a particular vineyard). The Grand Cru is clearly better, but the lowly Bourgogne held its ground. And it costs 1/5th the price.

Columbia has food truck parking lot get-togethers, just like Atlanta. And just like Atlanta, it’s hot, and the lines are long and the food takes a while.

Georgia Tech football has been fun. Can’t beat a night game in Midtown.

The Quality Wine & Spirits / Inland Seafood show was a few weeks ago. This is Kevin O’Connor of LIOCO. They make good chardonnay and pinot noir that you will see around town.

The Jon-David Headrick table was where all the cool kids were hanging.

These St. George gins were amazing. Gotta find me some of these.

Two dogs waiting on their owner at Octane.

Really nice white blend. I had this in South Carolina, but the Au Bon Climat wines are recently available at Holeman & Finch bottle shop.

A few tacos from the new location of Verde. The shrimp and grits special on the left was tasty, and the schlong looking buffalo chicken was way better than it looks below. Pulled pork was surprisingly tender with a few chunks of bark. When I want “fusion tacos”, I much prefer Verde to Taqueria del Sol. I hate standing in line.

Playing around with the Tartine Bread pizza dough recipe with Rowdy. This was late night. He can make them look way prettier than this.

My former roommate got married last weekend, this was his groom’s cake.

Wine lunch at One Eared Stag. This one was one of my favorites.

And this one.

And this one too.

Bone marrow at OES.

Catfish at OES was extra dirty tasting (it IS a bottom feeder), but the creamed cabbage it was served on…beat still my arteries!!

Pork sandwich.

Salt and pepper shrimp. Best thing I’ve had in a while.

Crab cakes a friend sent from G&M as a wedding present. MASSIVE lumps of crab, very little batter. I made a yuzu kosho mayo to go with them. If you don’t have yuzu kosho, buy some, it’s citrusy and spicy and powerful.

Two winners from Tim Gaddis’ (Star Provisions) cheese week. The goat cheese feta from Carrolton made me never wanna turn back to the mass produced stuff at the grocery store.

I’ve been cooking bomba (Spanish) rice in the paella style, then scraping up the rice from the pan once the socarrat (the crispy layer on the bottom) has formed. Then I eat it with normal fried rice accompaniments, or just a splash of soy sauce and sriracha. It’s uber crunchy and the short rice is so resilient with good chew and absorbs flavors like no other. I don’t want normal long grain fried rice anymore.

A while back I came across a recipe from a dish at The Purple Pig in Chicago, which featured pork blade steaks and nduja. Fortuitously, I had just received some blade steaks from Caw Caw, a thin, beyond fatty, delicious, and inexpensive cut of pork. But where to find nduja?

The only online source I could find was Boccalone, the famous producer of “tasty salted pig parts” in San Francisco. I further inquired with the twitterverse, and to no surprise, Cured Meats replied that I should avoid the Boccalone product which isn’t anything like the traditional Calabrian style, and if I wanted some I should go see him, as Sausage Debauchery had sent him the real deal.

Apparently the only way to get a true Calabrian nduja in the US is to make it yourself. The ingredients are simple: very fatty pork cuts (often jowl, belly, and head), chili powder, salt, cure, and maybe some other spices. Stuff in a hog casing, ferment, dry in a curing chamber. More info can be found in the book My Calabria (related nduja website by the cookbook’s author here).

So the other weekend I went to go see the “pork Godfather” to give it a try. The nduja was the heat, in the badass colloquial sense, but also quite literally. Spicy and fatty and rich, it’s spreadable consistency means it can be used in a wide variety of applications. I first tried it simply spread on some bread. Later at home I used it to make a savory grilled cheese with cheddar, feta, and basil.

Per Cured Meat’s instructions, I’ve been making an amazing pasta with the nduja as well.

While boiling some noodles in very salty water, I saute sliced onions in a small amount of oil, later adding the mostly cooked pasta, cherry tomatoes, torn basil, 1/2 cup of pasta water, and a healthy dollop of nduja to the pan. Then toss (with tongs, or a nice wrist flip if you got that in your bag) until the nduja literally melts, coating the pasta and creating an instant sauce, rich with fat and fiery flavor.

The sad part is, I only have one tablespoon left. As they say, ’tis better to have loved spicy cured pork fat, than to never have loved at all.

Bonus photo! Check out Cured Meat’s new meat slicer, the hand crank design is a work of art.

My buddy Matt and I cooked up some dinner for a party this past weekend, which I was calling my “Spring Meal”. The focus was to complete more recipes from Chez Panisse Vegetables, but to also use a few elements from the new cookbook Ideas In Food. Featured vegetables were asparagus, artichokes (which we completely screwed up during prep), fennel, and carrot. But the main proteins were seafood – sushi grade yellowtail (hamachi), uni, and halibut. I believe yellowtail can be found in the Atlanta area, and halibut is here and there, but I couldn’t find a viable uni source. So I decided to order all three from Catalina Offshore Products.

I had previously browsed their website, but had been hesitant to make a purchase due to the $20 overnight shipping. But when purchasing four items (I also picked up soft shell crabs), the freight per unit is greatly diminished and the prices become more reasonable. Also, based on their geography and volume, I assumed (and hoped) the quality would exceed anything at local grocers.

The morning after ordering, a cooler arrived Fedex. The hamachi was still frozen solid. Yes, this is Japanese fish, and no, I’m not worried about radioactive fallout. Besides my recent acquisition of super human strength, I feel fine.

The hamachi had some really nice looking marbling, especially obvious on the belly side. Half the yellowtail was served completely raw with a lemon and olive oil dressing, the other half was cured for three hours in Sichuan pepper, sugar, and salt ala the Momofuku cookbook.

The tray of uni was small, but quite affordable at $20. It was enough to garnish nine plates of pasta, plus have enough leftover for the dish at the top of this post, which I prepared for lunch the next day. As far as quality goes the flavor was excellent and on most pieces the texture was spot-on (a few on the bottom were slightly compressed). I’d order this again without question.

I made a crab stock for the pasta sauce, and I just like this photo. It’s fun as hell hacking up shells with my big Chinese cleaver, which I picked up for < $20 in the grocery store in Chinatown.

I made the asparagus soup from Chez Panisse, but used the cryo-blanche method from Ideas in Food for the garnish. The asparagus were peeled, soaked in a brine, frozen in an airtight bag for 24 hours, then defrosted in the fridge. Read the book for the science behind it, but the ice crystals basically tenderize the asparagus, which can then be eaten immediately without further “cooking”. I think 24 hours was too long as they were a bit mushy, but definitely tender and edible. Next time I’d like to try 6-12 hours and see if my results change.

Here’s the soup, before plating and garnish. We served it cold. People really enjoyed it, and I’d make it again.

On accident I didn’t order enough halibut from Catalina, so I went to Fresh Market for another pound. The Fresh Market Alaskan halibut ($24/lb) is on top, the Catalina Pacific Halibut ($14) is below. Both were cooked in the oven in a fennel infused fish broth. They are slightly different fish, but the Catalina was much cleaner tasting and more tender than its meatier and flakier counterpart, and obviously much less expensive.

Just had to shout out to Star Provisions. The Italian buffalo butter, truffled ham, and baguette is a fine snack while waiting to serve the first course.

The pasta was another Ideas in Food recipe, from their blog. The pasta is from their cookbook, which is interesting as it includes milk and olive oil. The filling is ricotta, parm, uni, and yuzo kosho. The sauce is crab stock with xanthan gum and butter. I found the pasta to be a little heavy, maybe it wasn’t rolled thin enough, and the filling flavor didn’t emerge as much as I’d like, but it was a really fun dish and peopled enjoyed it. The little bit of uni went really well with the dish. I’d do it again, though I want it to feel lighter. I look forward to playing around with xanthan gum too.

I picked up a few new cookbooks and decided I’m going to completely cook my way through Chez Panisse Vegetables. It ought to take quite some time as it’s fairly large, with many small variations of the same vegetable. The cookbook is alphabetical but I’m going to work through it seasonally. I started with brussel sprouts and soon I’ll hit up up asparagus, artichokes, and fava beans. Lots of visits to farmer’s markets will be in order this summer.

I feel like if I do this, I’ll have a damn good handle on how to work with just about any vegetable, a handy skill for any cook.

I’m not going to do a post on everything I cook from this book, but will probably post photos to Flickr. But here are the first four.

steamed sprouts in butter

braised sprout leaves with pancetta

quick chicken stock and lemon braised, sliced sprouts

quick cooked sprouts with chicken stock, walnuts

leaves with pasta, red onion, garlic

I made the buns soon after the cookbook came out, during a full day of frantic Fuku cooking. Trying four new recipes from the cookbook isn’t recommended in one afternoon. There were lots of “oh yeah, I forgot I have to pickle mustard seeds” moments. Besides these buns, I’ve already posted on everything else I’ve tried (pork belly ssam, chicken wings, English muffins, fried chicken). I’d cook everything again except the fried chicken. I don’t believe the steam/fry method really adds anything except more work. The chicken wings were unreal. UNREAL!

The dough recipe includes pork fat, naturally. Ya form them into ballz, let ‘em rise, yadda yadda.

‘

Roll out, fold, let them rise again on wax paper so they can steam individually and they won’t stick to the steaming basket.

Before steaming they kind of look like this.

My parents’ kitchen didn’t have a bamboo steamer, so my photo doesn’t look super official like they would if this had occurred at my place. Also, some of the buns came out a bit retarded deflated looking, like the one on the right. No idea why.

A streak of hoisin, a few quick pickled cucumbers, and slices of roasted pork belly…not too shabby. But damn those buns made a mess and took up a lot of my time. And half of them looked, well, less than blog worthy. Tasted good enough though.

Part 2 – How to make steamed buns, easy edition.

1) Walk into Super H and pick the bag up from the floor freezer, pay $2.99 and leave.

I ate them with some leftover roast chicken, cilantro, and a streak of gojuchang and hoisin.

Do I regret trying out the recipe to make them from scratch? Nah. Was the frozen version as fluffy and fresh tasting? Nope. Will I ever make my own again? No sir.

More fun with miso, this time kimchi based dumplings. One batch with firm pressed/minced tofu, another with ground pork.

The great thing about using kimchi for dumplings is it has inherent flavor, and this kimchi had scallions, so I didn’t need to add a bunch of ingredients for flavor or filler. It’s super fast to make them too. I used frozen dumplings wrappers, which are also convenient because they thaw relatively quickly. I did add a little miso to kick them up a notch. BAM!

Yes, I went Emeril on you.

I tried various cook methods. Cast iron, non-stick, and regular steel pan. I would sear for a few minutes then add a tablespoon or two of water and cover. These below were regular steel pan, and had the best crust, but a few of them stuck to the pan too much and tore while lifting.

This is the non-stick. It didn’t develop that nice even crust I desire.

P.S. Yesterday I had the best gyoza I can recall. Stay tuned for more.

(keep ‘em coming with teasers!)

Recently my brother busted out the fine china (first time since his wedding?) and whipped up a French meal. I say whipped up, but another way to put it would be to say that he cooked all day. We started off with some Gougères and Champagne, naturally. He used this recipe from Epicurious. They were the best home version I’ve ever had, light and custardy, toeing the line between over and undercooked.

I’m not a big fan of stuffed mushroom, but I enjoyed these immensely and think the presentation is very good. The breading filling is simple, but I think that’s why I liked it.

I brought over this ’99 Drouhin Clos des Mouches, a white Burgundy I purchased online. At $60 it was a steal. I bought the ’07 at Ansley Wine Merchants for $80 (also an awesome wine) so I think I got a good deal. Even better, neither of the two bottles I bought were premox’d. This was everything I dig in white Burgundy – rich color, lively, acidic, balanced, a moderate dose spice, some minerality, and lingonberry gastrique. OK, I made that last one up.