There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

The December Holidays have come and gone. A new year has begun.

I realize the magic of my season comes from the solace of the hearth and kitchen.  Family and friends naturally gather where food can be found and the wafting aromas lure everyone to the kitchen.

In that spirit, I wanted to show you what I came up with for the hollidays.  I think it worked out well.

Happy Eating and Happy New Year.


Grilled Sweetbreads

Sweetbreads are the thyroid gland of a calf or a lamb.  Which sounds horrible but are really a wonderfully delicate and flavorful meat.  As with all offal, make certain it's fresh or frozen appropriately. 
1 lb veal Sweetbreads
Salt
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Rinse the sweetbreads in cold water.  Remove any extra membrane.

Dissolve 2 tablespoons of salt in 2 quarts of water in a non-reactive bowl.  Add the sweetbreads.  (add more water if needed to cover.)  Seal in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for 8 hours or more.

Heat your grill to medium high (about 400 degrees).  Rinse the sweetbreads thoroughly and pat dry with paper towels.  Break into skewerable chunks and skewer onto 4 skewers.  (I know--if I used my Thesaurus, I might find another word for skewer.  But I'm not.  Feel free to contribute your ideas in the Comments section.)  Drizzle lightly with olive oil and smear it around with your hand to evenly coat.  Season with salt and pepper.

Lay the skewers on the grill and get to grilling.  Toast each side until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes per side.  (Caution: keep an eye on them.  They'll go from golden brown to burnt in a hurry.)

Remove from the heat and serve warm with a great dipping sauce.  Chimchurri is traditional, but I used a homemade Asian-style soy and vinegar.  Delicious!


Beef Wellington
1 lb Mushrooms (I love a mix of wild mushrooms for a richer flavor)
2 Leeks, trimmed, rinsed and sliced into 1/4 inch quarter-round slices
1 teaspoon fresh Thyme leaves
2 tablespoons Butter or Olive Oil
1 lb Foie Gras
3 lbs Center Cut Beef Tenderloin
2 tablespoons Bacon Fat
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 lb Puff Pastry (we used my Mom's homemade Brioche)
1 Egg, beaten (for egg wash)

To make the Duxelles: coarsely chop mushrooms.  Dump it into the food processor along with leeks, thyme and a 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Pulse until the mushrooms are small and evenly-sized pieces, but not a paste.  Melt the butter in a large skillet on medium high heat.  Transfer the mushroom mix to the pan, add any more salt and pepper to taste, and saute until the moisture has mostly evaporated out, about 8-10 minutes.  Remove from the heat to let cool.

In the mean time, tie the tenderloin like a roast to keep its cylindrical shape.  Sprinkle evenly with salt on all sides.  (Most chefs prefer to not only trim the tenderloin for excess fat and silverskin, but also shape it at this time so everything cooks evenly.  I can see their point, but I know that my family prefers various degrees of doneness in their meat.  When the center is rare, the smaller ends will be medium well.  And that's OK.  Use your judgement.)  Melt the bacon fat in a large skillet (the same one you just used?  Yes.  It's got good flavor...) on high heat.  Sear the tenderloin on all sides, seasoning with pepper as you go.  Remove from the heat place in the refrigerator to cool.  (Remember, you want a sear on the outside and the inside should be cold and raw.)  The searing adds flavor and the tying, searing and refrigeration help keep it's shape.

While cooling, slice the foie gras into thin (1/8 inch) slices.  Assemble the foie gras slices like fish scales (slightly overlapping) on a large sheet(s) of plastic wrap.  It's OK if some of the plastic wrap shows through--this part doesn't need to be perfect, just reasonably consistent.  Spread the duxelles evenly over the foie gras.  Cut the string off the tenderloin, lay it on the foie gras and duxelles palette, and then wrap the plastic firmly around the whole thing.  Refrigerate for 30 min to an hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

On a floured board, roll out your puff pastry to a sheet large enough to encase the tenderloin with a little extra overlap.  Move it to a sheet of parchment paper.  (This makes moving it and cleaning so much easier.)  Working quickly, but gently, unwrap the meat from the plastic wrap.  The foie gras should now stick to the duxelles which should stick to the tenderloin.  Place in the center of the pastry and wrap the pastry firmly around it.  Trim the excess off the ends, keeping the trimmings for decoration or a puff pastry dessert (as you desire).   Seal any seams with egg wash.  Using a sharp knife, slice a few small vents into the pastry.  Transfer the parchment paper to a cookie sheet and put the cookie sheet into the oven.

Bake until the desired doneness.  I like rare to medium rare in the center, so using your probe thermometer, cook until it reads 125 degrees in the center.  Remove from the oven.  Take a second to admire your beautiful handiwork, then cover with foil and let rest for 20 minutes.  20 MINUTES!  No touching it, no matter how good it looks.

Starting in the center, slice into one inch slices and serve.  Some people will want to add a sauce.  This is so rich and flavorful that you really don't need it.  Gilding the lily and whatnot.


Rommegrot
This pudding is completely stolen from NPR.  Yes, NPR.  Not Delicious Dish with Alec Baldwin, but the real thing.  Simple and delicious.  Just like Carl Kasell.
1/2 cup white rice
2 cups half-and-half or cream
Pinch of salt
4-6 cups milk
Butter, Cinnamon and Sugar

Heat the rice, half-and-half and salt in a double boiler over low heat. Cover and simmer for a minimum of 2 hours, adding additional milk as the mixture thickens. This is the minimum time you need for the rice to break down. Ideally, it should cook over low heat for 6-8 hours for a smoother, creamier rommegrot. Continue to add milk as needed and periodically check the double boiler to keep it from boiling dry. If it does boil dry it will turn your rommegrot brown. You can adjust the recipe and amounts of cream versus milk to suit your taste, although it is not recommended to make it with just milk.

When ready to serve, make sure the rommegrot is at a pudding consistency. Serve warm with a dollop of butter and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

"Traditional Norwegian rommegrot does not use rice. It is essentially just cooked cream with flour, but in this recipe the rice acts as a thickening agent instead. I'm not sure how my family started making it with rice, but this is the way my Norwegian grandmother and also, I believe, the way her mother made it."

Caution: Children Playing

We had a little family reunion this weekend.  It was the first time all 3 siblings and all of our families could be in attendance, because it was the first time we've all been together since my nephew was born.  I learned a LOT about children, and a little about myself.   

My niece is almost 3 years old.  We'll call her Milly.  My nephew, lets call him Baxter, was just learning to crawl, so I think that makes him somewhere between 5 and 7 months old.  Certainly less than 1 year.  And since he was born sometime in 2010, I think that's a pretty safe guess. 

Now, my niece and nephew are the most beautiful children in all the land.  Not at all lizard-like.  Additionally, they are exceptionally well behaved--unless they want something.  Then, the otherwise sweet and demure children scream like banshees.  I also now know that these two are always in some state of undress: When Baxter was completely dressed, Milly would be peeling off her pants.  Milly likes to be completely dressed for dinner, but Baxter needs to be in his all-together. 

Milly is very fond of the lime light--if she's singing and you're not paying attention, well . . . attention must be paid.

I learned that kids can be very finicky eaters, but that they will also put anything in their mouths.  I learned that kids can swing from laughter, to screaming, to laughter again in a matter of moments.  I learned that my Mom really likes being a Grandma. 

More than anything else, I learned that my younger brother and his wife are great parents. 

I get to be a great uncle.  Who teaches the kids inappropriate behavior.  And maybe a little cooking. 

For meals this weekend, we enjoyed:

Aussie Burger

This is my brother's award-winning recipe based on a recipe found in Gourmet magazine.  This is another case of taking a good idea and making it better.  Side note: I'm not sure why it's called an Aussie Burger.  Unless you believe the Australians enjoy things larger than they need to be (think: cans of Foster's Beer) or you think they are a sloppy nation.  But I don't think that's fair.  Shame on you, you racist.

1/2 lbs Hamburger Patty

Toasted Hamburger Bun

1 leaf Lettuce

1 slice of Tomato

3 medium Green Chilies, roasted and skins removed

2 slices Pickled Beets

1 slice Pineapple, grilled

1 Egg, fried, over easy

2 tablespoons Chili Aioli

Grill the burgers to your liking.  Toasts the buns.  Assemble.  Eat it as best you can.  Use lots of napkins. 

Salt Crust Roasted Chicken
10 lbs Rock Salt (coarse sea salt is fine but very expensive.  Ice cream salt also works well and is much cheaper.  Just be sure it's a kind that you can eat, and not a poisonous de-icer for sidewalks.)

1 Frier Chicken (3 lbs) 

1 large sprig Thyme
6-7 large leaves Sage
3/4 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper 

About 2-3 hours before cooking, completely rinse the chicken, inside and out.  Pat it off with paper towels, season inside and out with pepper, and let stand to dry.  (Like we did in the Duck recipe.) 

About 1 hour before cooking, put the salt in a deep baking pan and put it in the oven set to 400 degrees.  Salt is a rock and can withstand very high heat.

About 10 minutes before cooking, stuff the herbs into the body cavity of the bird and truss its legs and body closed.  Clip or tuck its wings.

When the salt is heated all the way through, remove 2/3 - 3/4 into another large metal bowl.  BE CAREFUL!  With a wooden spoon or paddle, even the salt back out over the bottom of the pan.  Lay the bird in the middle of the salt and then pour the hot salt from the bowl over the bird.  Completely cover the chicken.

Put the pan back in the oven, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and cook for an hour and 30 minutes. 

By this time most people are thinking, "Great idea!  I've completely ruined this chicken by dumping 10 pounds of salt on it."  Not so, good reader!  Allow me to lay a little science on you: Drying the skin and heating the salt allows the cooking to begin without dissolving the salt into the water in the meat.  As the meat heats up, steam escapes and there is a subtle interplay of steam dissolving small amounts of salt and the chicken taking on the perfect amount of seasoning.  If the salt grows to too high of a concentration, the steam from the cooking meat forces it back out again!  Ain't science great?

Pull the pan out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes.  Carefully brush the salt away until you come to the hard crust.  Gently crack through with a heavy knife handle and let some of the steam escape.  You should be able to then remove the rest of the crust with your fingers.  This will be the juiciest, most tender and most perfectly seasoned roasted chicken you've ever tried.  One word of caution, however.  If the salt grains are too fine, you may have to discard the skin and only eat the meat beneath. 


Sausage Gravy
1lbs of Pork Sausage (plus up to 1 tablespoon bacon fat)
3 tablespoons All Purpose Flour
Salt and Ground Black Pepper, to taste
3-4 cups Milk

In a heavy skillet, on medium high heat, brown and render the fat out of the sausage.  Drain the sausage, reserving the fat and the drippings in the skillet.  There should be about 3 tablespoons of fat.  If not, add additional bacon fat to the pan, reduce the heat to medium and lightly sprinkle in the flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or wire whisk. 

Keep stirring until the roux darkens to a deep chocolaty, caramelly brown.  Reduce the heat to medium low.  Slowly add the milk, stirring the entire time.  If you aren't using a wire whisk, yet, do so now.  Pour in 3 cups of milk and keep stirring as the roux dissolves into the milk.  Season with salt and pepper.

Stir and stir.  This is an exercise in patience and love.  When the milk begins to boil (15 minutes or so) there won't be that raw flour flavor.  Let it cook and start to thicken.  If the gravy gets too thick, add more milk.  If the gravy is too thin, let it cook a little bit longer.  It will thicken.  As it starts to cool, it will thicken more.  Don't forget to scrape the bottom and the sides of the pan.

About 5 minutes before serving, taste and finish seasoning with salt and pepper.  Add the sausage to the gravy and stir.  Serve on top of buttermilk biscuits.