Monday, April 5, 2010

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Confit of Veal Breast

A day removed from another holiday and I feel great with my accomplishments!  Holidays are perfect excuses to enjoy the company of friends and family as well as finding exciting new dishes to cook (at least that is the way I see them)!

Last week, in preparation for Easter, Marily and I sat at the kitchen counter wondering what we were going to make this year.  We already decided on a pot luck gathering...but had no idea what to make.  A traditional ham...ugh, too boring.  A roast lamb or lamb chops....mmm, sounds good, but I've made that before (delicious, grilled toasted curry lamb chops with a shallot vinaigrette, yum).  No, neither would do...I needed something different...something new.

Alas, Marily was paging through the newspaper ads and came across one for Sedano's supermarket:  Veal breasts, 99 cents/lb.  Perfect!  First, we are trying to be more budget conscience and second, I've never made a veal breast.  A few minutes with Google at my fingertips and I found an intriguing recipe: Confit of Veal Breast.  I've watched plenty of cooking competition shows and at some point one of the chefs always bust out with a confit of something.  Now was my chance.  This recipe was found on The Splendid Table website and was originally from The Rosengarten Report.


We were cooking for 10 adults and 3 kids, so I basically doubled the recipe found at the link above.

Ingredients





  • (2) 4lb slab of bone-in veal breast
  • 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth
  • 2 cups of beef stock
  • 1 1/2 cups of dry white wine (I used a Frontera Chardonnay from Chile, only $5 and actually decent)
  • 6 shallots, peeled
  • 2 heads of garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
  • Bunch of fresh thyme
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 3 teaspoons of whole black peppercorns
  • coarse sea salt (to season veal breast)
  • fresh cracked black pepper (to season the veal breast)
Cookware
  • Deep roasting pan
  • (2) cookie sheets
  • Heavy duty aluminum foil
Preparation

  1. Prepare and measure out all your ingredients.  Nothing makes cooking more enjoyable and easy than preparing all your ingredients ahead of time.  Chef's would call this mis en place
  2. Preheat oven to 500 degrees (I used the roast setting).  Position the rack about midway
  3. Place veal breasts into roasting pan and generously season it on both sides with the coarse sea salt and fresh cracked pepper
  4. Roast the veal breast for 20 minutes.  This gives the veal some color as the outside crisps under th heat and starts to render the fat
  5. Remove the veal breast from oven and reduce temperature to 300 degrees
  6. Add the shallots, garlic, thyme, bay leaves and peppercorns to the roasting pan.  Pour in the chicken broth, beef stock and wine...hell-oooooooo braising liquids, nice to meet you!



  7. Cover the roasting pan with a double layer of heavy duty aluminum foil and return to the oven to cook for another 3 1/2 hours
  8. Remove and let cool slightly.  Your braising liquids should be a rich brown color and your kitchen should smell amazing!



  9. Line one of the cookie sheets with aluminum foil.  Carefully transfer the tender veal breasts to the cookie sheet.  Remove the bones and connective tissue (as much as possible without tearing the meat apart). Depending on how tender the meat is, you may need to use a combination of your hands and a sharp knife.  Be care, that veal is HOTTTT!  Cut each veal breast into even pieces (as much as possible) and then place on top of each other (creating 2 layers).  Place any loose meat (that you don't eat) in between the layers.




  10. Wrap the entire cookie sheet in aluminum foil and then place the second cookie sheet on top.  Place both in the refrigerator and use canned food or a 12 pack of soda/beer to weigh it down.  This compresses the veal breast together, kind of like making a giant veal panini.  Refrigerator overnight
  11. Strain the braising liquids into a clean container and let cool for about 30 minutes before refrigerating
  12. When ready to server the next day, use a sharp, serrated knife to cut the pressed veal breast into approximately 2 1/2 inch square pieces
  13. Skim the top of the refrigerated braising liquid and pour into a sauce pan
  14. Bring the liquid to a simmer and reduce to concentrate the flavors
  15. Heat a pan with some olive oil and add the veal breast squares.  
  16. Cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side or enough to heat the inside and crust the top and bottom of the square
  17. Pour the sauce over the veal breast and serve

Unfortunately, I was totally in the zone and neglected to take pictures as I finished up the dish.  I think I need to employ Marily as the official photographer to make sure we don't miss out on any pictures in the future!

This was an amazing dish which received rave reviews from our guests and my wife, my most important critic!  The veal was full of flavor but not overpowering and reminded some of a roast pig or pernil.  It takes time to prepare this dish, but most of it is either in the oven or the refrigerator, so it's not very difficult.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Heck, at about a dollar per pound why not?  I know I'll be making this again!

Confit of Veal Breast...Done!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

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Chinese 5 Spice Chicken Thighs...oh my!

 
Several months back Marily and I were at the Fresh Market doing a little shopping and saw they had Chinese 5 spice in the seasoning display.  We had seen various recipes on cooking shows using it, but had never tried it ourselves. 

Well today was the day!  Marily was off having some "girl" time so I was left to fend for myself (LOL, you all know I don't have a problem taking care of myself in the kitchen).  I saw that we had chicken thighs...and then it hit me...hmmm, what can I do with that Chinese 5 spice?!  I quickly googled my favorite chef for some inspiration with the spice.   I found this recipe he did for Christmas Roast Goose.  While my chicken thighs were a sad substitution for a goose, it sounded delicious, so I said why not make some "Chris-mas Thighs" (if you translate that in Spanglish that's Chris-more Thighs!!)


Ingredients
  • lime (zested and half for juice)
  • Chinese 5 spice
  • Orange blossom honey
  • coarse sea salt
  • fresh ground pepper
  • chicken thighs (I'm sure other parts of the chicken would be equally delicious)
  • Japense Blend frozen vegetables (mushrooms, green beans, red pepper & broccoli...fresh is always better, but I didn't have anything on hand)
  • olive oil
Preparation

Rub the chicken thighs using a mixture of the coarse sea salt, ground pepper, Chinese 5 spice and lime zest.  Heat a saute pan and when up to temperature add olive oil to coat the pan.  Add the chicken thighs to the pan (laying away from you so not to burn yourself).  Try not to overcrowd the pan to ensure a good sear.  If you have more pieces then will fit in your pan, cook in batches using the oven to keep your chicken warm. 



Give the chicken about 2-3 minutes on the first side to give it some nice color and then flip.  Squeeze lime juice onto the chicken and then lightly drizzle with the honey.  Cook for another 2-3 minutes. 



Next flip the chicken once more then squeeze lime juice and drizzle this side with the honey.  Add in the vegetables and toss to coat with the cooking juices.  If your pan is too dry, add a little water to help steam the vegetables.  You should only need about 2-3 minutes to soften the vegetables, but cook to your preference.



I really enjoyed the aroma of cooking with Chinese 5 spice and the flavors were absolutely delicious.  I can't wait to try more dishes using this amazing spice!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

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Pear Tatin....DONE!


As I mentioned in the last post, one of our new favorite shows is Gordon Ramsay's F Word shown on BBC America. Last week we were watching one of the DVR'd episodes (our DVR is approximately 85% full of either the F Word or Kitchen Nightmares, lol). For those of you who haven't checked it out yet, the format of the show is a group of people (the "brigade") work in the F Word's restaurant kitchen to prepare a 3 course meal for a group of 50 people. In between courses, Ramsay has various segments which typically include healthy eating, celebrity cook off and the season's project (i.e. rearing pigs, lamb, veal calves to be butchered and cooked at the end of the season). We love the show and all recipes are available online! It's perfect for us home chefs ;-)

Marily and I had just finished eating our dinner while watching the episode when the dessert course came up. The brigade had to prepare a pear tatin...which looked absolutely delicious. Marily enthusiastically shouted out "I want that!" I started cycling through the ingredients in my head and realized we had most of them in the house. The only thing I thought we were missing was the puff pastry, until Marily reminded me we had some pie crusts in the fridge. So, I jumped up and excitedly ran to the kitchen to grab all the ingredients.

The original recipe can be found here: Ramsay's Pear Tatin

The website is UK based, so I've included the conversions and my adjustments below.

Ingredients
2 pears
4 star anise
1-2 vanilla pods
~21 oz puff pastry (refrigerated pie crusts will do the job in a pinch)
powdered sugar for dusting
vanilla ice cream

For the caramel
6 3/4 Tbsp granulated sugar
6 3/4 Tbsp butter
splash of dark rum



Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F (I only did 350˚F as my non stick pan could only go that high)
  2. Peel the pears, halve them and scoop out the cores with a melon baller to create a small, even circular hole.
  3. Insert a star anise into each hole. Use a small knife to cut out the stalks at the top of the pears and replace them with the pieces of vanilla pod.

  4. Roll out the pastry to a large sheet. Divide into 4 pieces. Mould each piece of pastry around the peeled side of each pear and trim away the excess pastry. Place the pears in the fridge to rest for 10 minutes.

  5. To make the caramel melt the sugar and butter in a large heavy-based ovenproof pan. Finish with a splash of rum to deglaze the pan and loosen the caramel.

  6. Remove the pears from the fridge and place them cut-side down on top of the caramel. Generously dust the pastry with powdered sugar.


  7. Bake the tatins for 8-10 minutes until the pastry is golden and crisp (since I used a lower heat, I cooked the pears for about 15 minutes). Leave to stand for a minute or so, then slide a palate knife under each pear and carefully lift and flip over on to a warmed plate.
  8. Trickle over the caramelized pan juices and serve with scoops of vanilla ice-cream.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

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Chicken Soup au Pistou


I know, I know...it's been a looooong time since we've posted here at Cafe Huss. I admit, I sort of hit "cooker's block" if you will. Hopefully that will change with the new year!

My excitement started about two weeks ago when Marily went to Puerto Rico. I spent a lot of my free time watching my new favorite shows on BBC America: The F Word & Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. On one of The F Word episodes, Ramsay prepared chicken fricassee that looked delicious. I have since cooked it twice and I think it's delicious! Not sure why that one didn't make the blog yet...but maybe you'll get a post next time ;-)

Marily has been feeling a little under the weather since our return from frosty Chicago. I wanted to make her some soup but she wasn't in the mood for her norm, asopoa. I did some research and found this French chicken soup recipe that looked tasty and she agreed. We can thank the movie Julie & Julia for my new found interest in French cooking (Sharmi, we can't wait to try those recipes when your mom gets here!)


The only adjustments I made were using olive oil to saute the chicken (rather then cooking spray) and adding about4 cloves of garlic, simply crushed with the side of a knife (I added the garlic in with the onions during the prep). What we felt really made the recipe was the fresh pesto and freshly shaved Parmesan cheese. Don't skip out on either of these or you'll be doing your taste buds a complete disservice! You can pick up a block of Parmesan cheese at the grocery store (don't even think about using grated).

Oh, and don't forget some fresh buttered French bread.

Here is the recipe I used to make fresh pesto, rather then buying it from the store. It was simple to make and oh so delicious:


Since this is a French style chicken soup, pistou is prepared with the same ingredients as a pesto with the exception of pine nuts. I didn't realize this until I was writing this post and was doing research. So, needless to say, I prepared the soup with the pine nuts. It certainly doesn't take away from the dish...if anything it might give it a variation on the texture, but if you wanted to be authentic, skip the nuts.

Enjoy!

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