Picture Thread: What's For Dinner?

[imcarthur]

Hungarian breakfast for dinner.



Smoked bacon. Cut Hungarian campfire style & fried. Served with eggs over easy & toast.

Ian

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by javadog

Make Boeuf Bourguignon from Thomas Keller's recipe in his Bouchon cookbook. It's worth it if you do it right and it will teach you a new perspective on how to cook recipes like that, if you think about why he does it the way he does it. No cheating, no substitutions.

If you don't have that cookbook (shame on you...) you can get the recipe here:

A Keller Recipe | Kitchen Musings

JR

Thank you, I am assembling the ingredients tomorrow in preparation for NY Eve. If I can make it tomorrow night and keep it, should be that much better on Saturday night.

I have downloaded your link information and also a few others, including:



I am watching, reading and researching more tonight.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by jyl

Prime rib.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

I am watching, reading and researching more tonight.

There's a dozen ways to make the dish and none are like Thomas Keller's way. I haven't watched Julia Child's video, but if it describes the classic French method, I'd avoid it.

My suggestion would be to make it the way it's done at Bouchon. There's a reason they do exactly what it is they do. I like the end result much better, as it has a strong beef flavor and not much from the wine. And, the vegetables will be much, much better than in the classic method. What you want to do is cook each component of the dish in the optimum way for that component, then combine them at the end. I go a little further, in that I do the final seasoning of each component separately, just before combining them. Make sure also to follow his directions on how things are prepared, cut, etc.

The classic French methods yield either a stew with a strong wine flavor, or meat that either has a strong wine flavor, or is bland (depending on the choice of marinating it, or not) and the vegetables are usually cooked to death, with poor flavor and horrible texture.

There is a lot to learn from this simple dish.

Good luck,
JR

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I will heed your advice and will post results.

I just cut off a thinnish ribeye from the roast, sauteed, pulled and now I have some onion and garlic roasting in the pan in the oven. Will pull half, other half will get a splash of balsamic.

Anyway, I gnawed a bit on the steak and have to say, for a piece of meet with mediocre marbling, it has some excellent flavor. I'm guessing if nothing else, grassfed up in VT.

[TimT]

Paul Prudhomme mentions some techniques in some of his cookbooks where veggies, stocks and meats are prepared separately then combined for a bit to get the love going before serving...

Also in some of his recipes veggies will be partially cooked then discarded after they have lent flavor to the sauce or stock...then fresh veggies are added to such that they cook add flavor and still are toothsome..

[Shaun @ Tru6]

[Outback Porsche]

5kg of Australian Blue Mussels

[javadog]

^^^^ Nice mussels. I hadn't heard of blue ones, before.

Originally Posted by TimT

Paul Prudhomme mentions some techniques in some of his cookbooks where veggies, stocks and meats are prepared separately then combined for a bit to get the love going before serving...

Also in some of his recipes veggies will be partially cooked then discarded after they have lent flavor to the sauce or stock...then fresh veggies are added to such that they cook add flavor and still are toothsome..

Those are what's known as "stunt" veggies. Keller take sit a step further in that he cooks them in ways that are more appropriate to cooking a vegetable. It's hard to get a properly seasoned vegetable from one cooked in a stew.

Another bit of advice... I use what the French call a paleron for this stew. It's a cut of meat that means nothing to the average US butcher, as the French cut up cows in a different manner than we do. Here, you might look for a chuck eye roast. Anyway, I don't cut it into the large chunks typical for this dish. There's 2 reasons for that. One, I want my pieces to be bite sized, so there's no cuttting needed when eating them. Secondly, this gives them a greater relative surface area for their volume, so they taste better. If you cook meat a long time in a braise, any seasoning on the outside of the meat will be long gone by the time you eat it. The "gravy" may be tasty, but as you chew each piece that taste doesn't last and the meat ends up tasting bland before you swallow it. Seasoning the meat at the end of the cooking process, while out of the stew, helps greatly. Having smaller chuncks helps just as much. It also gives you a lot more surface area to use when browning the meat, if that's what you choose to do. Browning=flavor.

Make sure you remove all imputies along the way as you cook this stuff. Keller cooks his in layers, separated by cheesecloth, to make removal of things like stunt veggies and the bouquet garni easier.

It's worth it to read his books, as there are discussions of techniques that are not always repeated in the individual recipes.

JR

[RWebb]

FWIW, J. Pepin is going to have a TV program in 2012.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by RWebb

FWIW, J. Pepin is going to have a TV program in 2012.

He's already had several, including one that is airing now. He's a great guy, with a very distinguished history.

JR

[RWebb]

a new one -- IIRC, it will be on simpler techniques

[Joe Bob]

Found this in my spam file.....ironically....

----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.02

Title: FRENCH FRY SPAM CASSEROLE
Categories: Main dish
Yield: 8 servings

1 pk Frozen french fry potatoes,
-thawed (20 oz)
2 c Shredded Cheddar cheese
2 c Sour cream
1 cn Condensed cream of chicken
-soup (10 3/4 oz)
1 cn SPAM Luncheon Meat, cubed
-(12 oz)
1/2 c Chopped red bell pepper
1/2 c Chopped green onion
1/2 c Finely crushed corn flakes

Heat oven to 350'F. In large bowl, combine potatoes, cheese, sour
cream, and soup. Stir in SPAM, bell pepper, and green onion. Spoon
into 13x9″ baking dish. Sprinkle with crushed flakes. Bake 30-40
minutes or until thoroughly heated.

[TimT]

FRENCH FRY SPAM CASSEROLE

That sounds barfably delicious !!!

[azasadny]

Homemade malt waffles with fresh fruit and whipped cream....

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Art, I'm coming to your house for breakfast tomorrow!!!

So it's pretty clear I should have started this on Thursday, in truth only got the veal stock done yesterday. Way too busy.

Here's the start, it's been in the oven for 2 hours how, will take it out at 8PM. Have a lot of pics, and video of this crazy leek piston, but rushing around now for the night.

Happy New Year everyone!

[azasadny]

Leeks make everything good!!!

[Racerbvd]

[Shaun @ Tru6]

The boeuf bourguignon turned out phenomenally great, thank you JR, but I don't think you'll be happy with how far I deviated from Keller. My story in pictures below.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

this is it after 4 hours at 250. Removed the foil and did another 30+ minutes at 325.

THe best "bite" of the entire dish would be a spoonful of meat, broth and onion. That combination was sweet and otherworldly flavorful. I could see doing all this work just for an appetizer. One cube of meat, two onions, one carrot, velvety sauce reduction.