Saviolo
Saviolo's JournalRestaurant-Style Huevos Rancheros Recipe
We've been delving into some Mexican and Tex Mex recently, so this week we decided to use the carnitas we made last week and add it to some delicious Huevos Rancheros! The real trick to a good huevos rancheros is the ranchera sauce, which is basically a sofrito (as we made for the Mexican rice and similar to what we did for the pepian). It's a simple and delicious flavour profile, and if you wanted to garnish this with a little bit of pico, that would also be excellent.
Crispy corn tortillas is really awesome part of this recipe, and we made our own. We made our homemade corn tortillas, then fried them in oil until they got all puffed-up and crispy, and they worked extremely well. If you don't want to go through the trouble, you can either fry store-bought corn tortillas, or you can buy already crispy tortillas for this.
Mexican-style Confit Pork - Carnitas Recipe
Here's another one of those recipes that has a million variations depending on who's making it or where it comes from. At its base, it is a dish of pork that has been braised (or really confit) in pork fat. You can use lard that you get in a black from the grocery store, and that will work fine, but if you can get your hands on the rendered pork fat called "manteca" it is a little nicer to work with. The version we did here is very basic, and we only flavoured it with onion, garlic, bay leaf, orange peel, and orange juice. There are some wild variations out there that include things like evaporated milk and cola, as well!
This is a sort of low-and-slow cooking, but it's not your typical five-hour slow cooking situation. This recipe takes about an hour from the time the pork hits the hot oil to when it's fully cooked. We're lucky to have an induction burner where we can adjust the cooking temperature on a dime, so if you're using an electric range, make sure you give some time for the temperature to change when you turn it down at the beginning.
Canada Tries ANOTHER Universal Basic Income Experiment
There was a much wider UBI pilot program started a few years ago in Ontario that was intended to run for three years, but was shut down by Ontario premier Doug Ford after only one year (when he took office) despite saying he would keep it in place during his campaign. Only one year in to the three year pilot program, and it was getting good results and positive outcomes, then Doug Ford just slammed the door on it.
Simple Seared Duck Breast Recipe
Very quick and simple one today. We've recently found a grocery store nearby where we can reliably get some excellent local duck. They sell whole, quarter legs, and breasts individually packaged, and also some smoked breast that are pre-cooked. For the video, we used the pre-cooked smoked duck breast, but the same technique will work for raw breast as well, though you may want to increase the cooking time. For the raw breast, you want it to hit about 140F for medium, and anything past that will make it a bit tougher.
If you have the raw duck breast, you can add flavours when you're seasoning, or marinate if you like, but we like the flavour of duck on its own, so for us, a little salt and pepper on the skin side before it hits the pan is perfect. It will render a LOT of fat, so do not worry about oiling the pan before you put the duck breast in. Skin side down to start, then turn it over once it has a good sear and finish it in the oven.
Homemade Sushi Rice and Simple Sushi Recipe
We had a bit of a seafood bonanza lately. I think I mentioned last week that we found a local company delivering restaurant-quality seafood direct to consumers because the restaurant industry is still quite depressed from COVID, and one of the things we got was some beautiful sushi-grade tuna. So, we decided to make a variety of sushi. It's not too hard to make a decent roll at home, the key is really in the rice. If you have a rice maker, it's super easy, just remember to rinse your rice before you cook it, it will help it come out much nicer. Also, a rolling mat is absolutely indispensable to help you get a good tight and consistent roll.
Now, what you put in your rolls is entirely up to you. We did a simple kappa maki with some lovely little cucumbers, and a really delicious smoked salmon and cream cheese roll to go with our amazing rich tuna. Also, yes, we did not trim up the tuna quite right! It was still delicious, but it could have been more even. Guess I need to watch more Kimagure Cook on YouTube to teach me how to butcher fish properly!
White Wine Steamed Mussels Recipe
Simple and basic this week. Steamed mussels are delicious and ridiculously simple to make. The hardest part of the whole operation is giving your mussels a good scrub before you drop them in the pot! No matter how clean they are, some grit usually sticks to those shells, so make sure they get a good cleaning before you put them in the pot if you're hoping to eat some of the broth after the mussels are done (which I recommend!).
We used white wine for this, but of course if you would prefer not to use any kind of booze you could use chicken stock (or even something like shrimp stock, I suppose). Other things that would go well in this recipe are things like a good Belgian Trappist ale, or a nice EBS or Brown Ale. The combination of leeks and tomato with some garlic and shallot is pretty classic, but this is a versatile dish changing the flavour profile is easy.
Totally Non-traditional Sous-vide Brisket recipe
Very early on in our channel, we made a video for a traditional braised brisket recipe. This is an update on that recipe with a completely different cooking method! If you haven't dipped your toe into trying sous-vide yet, I highly encourage it. It's a really excellent cooking method if you do it right, and the results can be stunningly delicious. Sous-vide does take some advance planning, however, because the cooking times are extremely long. For this recipe, we cook the brisket at 135F for 48 hours.
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking: Isn't that in the temperature danger zone? You're right, it is! (For those who don't know, the temperature danger zone is between 40F and 140F where bacteria loves to flourish and proliferate in food. Keeping food out of the danger zone is important for restaurants.) But! The neat thing about the length of the cooking time is that the slightly lower temperature will actually pasteurize the meat, rendering it safe. If you follow the time and temperature guidelines there is no risk of food-borne illness from this technique.
As far as flavour profile goes, the sky's the limit. One thing you should avoid when you're cooking sous-vide is adding oil to the bag, because the low cooking temperature and long cooking time will extract flavour from the item you're cooking into the oil, so keep it to things like herbs, spices, and aromatics. The onion/garlic cure with some light spices came out extremely delicious, as well as fork-tender. I wish I could show you how delicious the brisket was after it got that beautiful sear on it. It would also work extremely well with grits and brisket, or put it on a bun with some grainy muster, dill pickle slices, and a nice chunk of mature cheddar!
Easy and Delicious Blue Cheese Gougere Recipe
This week we made blue cheese gougère! This is a simple and quick dish (that does require a little bit of elbow grease to whip up the very sticky batter), and is extremely versatile. Gougère is made from a choux pastry (pâte à choux), which is the same sort of dough you would use to make something like an éclair or profiteroles. For gougère, of course we're going to be omitting any sweet ingredients, and we'll be adding some savoury elements, which typically include cheese, herbs, and spices.
For this recipe, we used blue cheese (alongside the parmesan), though Gruyère or Emmental is more traditional. Honestly, you can mix and match a lot of different kinds of cheese into this recipe, and it would still be delicious. Mix and match and use something that will complement what you're serving them with. You can also add things like sauteed mushrooms, or even fried okra.
Not-really-traditional Lobster Bisque Recipe
Lobster bisque is a strange sort of recipe. Traditionally, this rich and velvety soup was thickened using a paste made from crushed rice and the shells of the lobster used to flavour the soup. These days, bisque is more typically thickened using a roux, which is what we've done here (along with the crushed up shells). Also, it does take a little bit of patience and some specialized equipment to make a good bisque. Crushing up lobster and crab shells to thicken the soup requires a pretty decent blender or food processor. We've got a Bamix stick blender which is very serious, but we don't really recommend using an immersion blender for this recipe. It will also definitely require straining, no matter how good your blender or food processor is.
Homemade Gnocchi in a Tomato Blue Cheese Sauce Recipe
We wanted to do something a little different this week. We very rarely do pasta of any kind because hubby tries to avoid carbs as much as possible, but we wanted to try this out and see how it worked, and it worked very well! Also a great way to get rid of some leftovers. Gnocchi are honestly pretty easy to make, it's just a matter of getting the right amount of flour to the amount of potato you're using, and it can vary greatly depending on how dry your flour is, how fresh the potatoes are, or even how humid it is in your kitchen! So, really it's a bit of a "go by feel" thing for the gnocchi.
For the sauce we cooked down the tomato soup recipe we did a while back on our channel, and it made a fantastic sauce. A little dried basil, some sauteed shallot, a dash of Marsala wine, and some blue cheese really added a lot of complexity and richness to an already excellent tomato base. Other things that you could substitute in include fresh basil, vermouth, Tabasco, parmesan, chili flakes, or oregano.
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Gender: MaleHometown: Ottawa, Ontario
Home country: Canada
Current location: Toronto, Ontario
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 04:34 PM
Number of posts: 3,280
