What's Cooking EDF? #4

[cbloom]

Double cut pork chop, seared apricots, red wine reduction,
sauteed asparagus,
"grilled" polenta w/ parmesan,
sherry-braised endives w/ cherries


ps. the double cut pork chops at Trader Joes are super cheap and fabulous. I've gotten the Berkshire ones for $50000 before and there's really not a huge difference.

[ElSapo]

I haven't been cooking much because I've been trying to lose weight. Everything has been more simple and less involved/complicated. But this weekend I wanted to make something, and this is what came out:

Pan seared polenta (Double Gloucester & Garlic polenta), with a caramelzied balsamic sauce.

For the polenta, it's a relatively standard recipe (1 cup corn meal, four cups water, salt & pepper) and I added minced garlic as it started to come together and the cheese as it got thick.

I chill it overnight in some shallow containers and turned it out and cut it discs with biscuit cutters. Pan seared in olive oil.

For the sauce, it's a light caramel that I added balsamic to, and then whisked in some oil. I let that stand overnight with a sprig of rosemary and a clove of garlic in it.

[BK_]

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Fantastic. Was it worth the effort? I've never had polenta like this - how is the texture?

[BK_]

This was our first time making cornish hen and we really enjoyed it. I will make a couple of adjustments next time we make it, but overall it was simple, tasty, interesting, and very cheap. I wouldn't make any adjustments to the sides however - two of the best we have made by far.

Cornish Hen:

Remove the backbone (you can find instructions on how to do this online - I had no idea until I looked it up). Season liberally with salt and pepper and rub tons of rosemary and thyme into the skin of the chicken. "Marinate" for 1 - 24 hours (We only did it for 1 hour, next time it will be much more)

This is where the fun part comes in. Heat a skillet (or 2 if you are making 2 birds) to medium heat and swirl in olive oil. Drop in the bird skin side down and place a smaller skillet on top of the hen and place a weight on top of that (4-5 pounds). This will ensure even cooking and will brown both sides very nicely. Cook for 10 minutes or so, remove weight, turn over, add cloves of garlic, and re-apply weight. Cook for 10-12 minutes, or until interior temperature in thigh reaches 160 (I did it to this temperature and it was a bit overcooked - maybe I am not measuring it in the right place. Next time I will cook it to 150 and I'm sure it will be fine)

Salad:

The salad was just a very simple combination of farmers market micro greens, hazelnuts, and raisins. The dressing it was made the dish for me though and tied everything together:

Salad Dressing: 1 tbs sherry vinegar, 3 tbs balsamic vinegar, pinch of salt. Shake vigorously or stir. Add 1/8 cup olive oil and 1/8 cup nut oil (I used hazelnut since I was already using hazelnuts in the salad) The original recipe called for 1/4 cup olive oil and no nut oil, but I loved the extra flavor that the hazelnut oil brought.

[SamIAm]

A bunch of old stuff I never got around to posting:

Pot stickers



Fried wontons with rum/pear/walnut filling.



Chili, with polenta and veggies and stuff.



Real Chicken Caesar Salad, with the coddled eggs and anchovies and worchestire sauce and everything.

[boomshakalaka]

Today was my first day at kendall, its pretty intense. As far as uniforms go its like the military, you have to have everything perfect. I like it though, a professional kitchen is a dangerous place, a healthy dose of discipline is definitely good. The lecture just went over the class syllabus, and the lab we spent cutting potatoes and carrots, learning a few knife cuts. The chefs assure us that by the end of this quarter we will know a potato better than the back of our hand. Anyways, school rant over, here are some pics of the stuffed southwest porkchop with mango jalepeno sauce that I made last night. I may have posted this before, I got the butcher to cut the chop 2 inches thick and leave the bone on though which helped with the stuffing a ton, so whatever.

[edfurlong]

Looks good, did you work in restaurants before going to school?

[boomshakalaka]

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...until interior temperature in thigh reaches 160 (I did it to this temperature and it was a bit overcooked - maybe I am not measuring it in the right place. Next time I will cook it to 150 and I'm sure it will be fine)



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You also have to take into account that the meat will continue to cook after it is removed from the heating source. Its a fine line you have to walk though, food poisoning sucks.

[RiverFenix]

Late night insomnia = first time I've opened one of these. Great stuff, BK your interest is inspiring. Gonna go back and read all the other ones now.

[ElSapo]

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Fantastic. Was it worth the effort? I've never had polenta like this - how is the texture?

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Texture: I think the texture is not unlike firm mashed potatoes - you should be able to cook it until it's not grainy.

Was it worth it: I think that's actually a big question. For me, I cook things like this just to make them, not because I'm hungry. I did a year at the Art Institute's culinary school, and eventually I want to try working in a professional kitchen, so putting together stuff like this is just an interest of mine.

But beyond that, I hate this obsession with "simple/fast" food these days, largely perpetuated by Rachel Ray but also by most everyone else on the Food Network. RR is the easiest target, but there's a whole lot more guilty parties.

Personally, I think that while doing very little with excellent ingredients yields a great meal, doing a middling amount with mediocre ingredients leads to crap.

Sometimes, things just take time. I've found that as I make more complicated foods and sauces, not only do they take more time but I get more complex flavors. And I enjoy that stuff - I don't mind making dishes that take multiple steps, more equipment and prep, because so often the food comes out more interesting.

That's not to say you can't make fantastic food very simply - you absolutely can. But taking extra steps can yield more complex, interetsing flavors.