Gravy's Cooking Thread

I forgot if you're Calgarian Silence. If so I picked up a bunch at Co-op last summer. Hopefully they'll bring them back this year, also.

My Taco recipe for anyone that is interested.

1.5 lbs ground beef
24 oz jar of a picante salsa of your choice ( I prefer pace medium)
1 dozen corn tortillas
1 bunch green onions
1 tomato
1 cup sharp cheedar cheese.

Dice the tomato and green onion and set aside for garnishment.
Saute the ground beef until brown. Add the jar of salsa and reduce over medium heat.
In another pan lightly fry the corn tortillas by immersing them in heated canola oil. My technique is to put the tortilla in the oil, fold into a taco shape with tongs and cook for 10 seconds on each side. Let the tacos dry on a paper towel which will remove the excess oil. Serve with cheese, tomato and onion. Makes about 20 tacos.

blehh_sl said:

Anyone have any good recipes for pork chops?

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quick and dirty, slather in Oyster Sauce



Sear one side high heat for 1-2 mins. Flip and finish on med low 3-5 mins depending on thickness. Let rest. Always juicy. Even better if you do em on a gas grill this way.

So I moved to San Antonio and finally started working with some real chef's after 2 years of slumming it in some boring kitchens. Here a few of the specials we've come up with. Starting at my chef's new restaurant in about a month (hopefully, who knows when it comes to investors). Going to be all seafood of all styles. Can't wait to start posting pics and recipes from there.

First is a fritter of Brandade de Moreau, which is cured cod flaked into potatoes, mashed, and hand beat with garlic oil, nutmeg, cayenne, and lemon zest.

1 lb Salted cod (soaked for at least 8 hours before use, to remove excess salt. I cure the cod for our restaurant too.)
1 lb Potatoes
5 large garlic cloves
2 oz olive oil
pinch nutmeg
pinch cayenne
2 tsp lemon zest
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 bouquet garni
1 large sprig thyme
2 allspice berries
5 black peppercorns
1 clove
1 bay leaf

Combine milk and water and heat. Add cod and the bouquet garni (herbs tied off in cheesecloth). Simmer until cod flakes easily, set aside at room temp (reserve cooking liquid for later). Peel and cut potatoes into 1in cubes, add to pot with garlic and just enough water to cover the potatoes, bring to a boil and cook until tender. Remove garlic from potatoes, place in a saute pan, crush with a fork and add oil. Heat until very warm.

Mash potatoes in a large mixing bowl, then using your fingers, flake the cod over the mashed potatoes. Continue mashing and combing the cod with the potatoes, then drizzle in oil mixture with garlic as you mix vigorously. Mix in nutmeg, cayenne, and lemon zest. Beat in half a cup of the cooking liquid to thin out mixture.

Roll mixture into little balls and dip in creme fraiche, then roll into panko and fry. Garnish with two green onion slices, cut on a hard bias. Served with a Saffron Aioli a teammate made, unsure of his recipe.

Second is a desert I did for a dinner party I threw. The rest of the food wasn't quite to the level I wanted, which is why I'm not including any of it lol.

Strawberry Granita with Dark Rum

15 strawberries
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp honey
1 pinch Maldon Salt
1 oz Dark Rum (I use Kraken)

Puree the strawberries in a vitamix with water for about 5 minutes. Push puree through a chinois (or multiple layers of cheesecloth may work) to remove excess fibers. Place in a quart container with lid and set in freezer. Over the course of the next few hours, occasionally (I did twice an hour) take the mixture out and run a fork through it, flaking any frozen bits back into the mix. After about 3-4 hours it should start to set up to almost a shaved ice texture. This is the actual granita.

1 4 oz scoop of granita into a serving dish, add the rum over the top, microplane lemon zest, and then add a pinch of Maldon salt to garnish.

Making Oxtail stew for dinner tonight. It has to cook for four or five hours to be right. Here are the ingredients I'm using. I'm just eyeballing everything.


oxtail (probably about 3 pounds)
carrot, roughly chopped
turnip, roughly chopped
celery, roughly chopped
onion, roughly chopped
bay leaf
thyme
black peppercorns
tomato paste
red wine
beef stock
butter
parsley, chopped

There will be some flour and olive oil used, too. I love the gelatinous meat that is oxtail!

Third up isn't my creation, but it's too cool not to share. It's a special we're running and tastes fantastic.

Pickled Squash Salad

2 oz pickled butternut squash (he pickled it using pumpkin oriented spices, like star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. unsure of exact mixture)
1 oz goat cheese
1 tbsp nutmeg
2 sprigs parsley
1 shallot
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp salt
6 candied walnuts
1 beet

Roast the beet, peel, and dice into 1/4 in cubes. Coat the bits of goat cheese in the nutmeg, and slice the shallot into rings. Combine the flour, salt, cayenne, pepper, and paprika. Coat the shallots in the mixture and fry like onion rings. Build ingredients up. Squash, Goat Cheese, Candied Walnuts, Pasley, Shallot Rings. Spread the beets around the base. (the final take actually calls for the beets to be pureed and swooped along the base.)

Chanur_sl said:

I am looking for a good BBQ sauce recipe or a great BBQ sauce from a jar. Any recommendations?

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Here are a few to get you started:

Basic pulled pork sammy sauce

1 cup ketchup
? 1/2 cup water
? 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
? 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
? 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
? 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (more or less to taste)
? 2 teaspoons dry mustard
? 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
? 2 Tablespoons molasses
? 1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke

Simmer for about 30 minutes on LOW heat.
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Basic BBQ Sauce -

2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1/4 packed brown sugar
2 tbls molasses
1 tbls honey
2 tbls mustard
1 tbls hot sauce
1 tbls TBBQ rub
2teaspoon liquid smoke
teaspoon black pepper

Combine all in pot and simmer for around 30-45 minutes until sauce thickens up a little.
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If you like a thinner sauce like the Que places have, try this one.

2 ? cups catsup
? cup brown sugar
1 ? cups chili sauce
1 ? cups wine vinegar
1 ? cups water
? can beer
? cup lemon juice
? cup prepared mustard
1 Tbls celery seed
4 Tbls Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbls soy sauce
? tsp garlic powder
? tsp onion powder
dash hot pepper sauce (optional)
ground black pepper to taste.

Gently simmer for about thirty minutes until the sugar and spices have dissolved and the flavors melded.
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Texas Red Sauce

This is a thin sauce, very
basic and good on all
meats.

1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
6 Tbl white sugar
2 Tsp salt
2 Tsp chili powder (Guajillo powder, chile d'arbol powder
and ground cumin)
1tsp back pepper
1tbl New mexico chili powder
1 tbl paprika
2 tsp Cholula hot sauce

In a microwavable bowl or large measuring cup combine vinegar, water, sugar and spices.
Heat on high 1 min stir to dissolve sugar allow to cool 20 min. stir in ketchup and bottle.
Allow to sit at least 4 hrs or overnight.
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Blu's Black Gold

Ingredients:

1/3 cup dark karo syrup or cane syrup
1/3 cup strong coffee
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
6 tsp chili powder
1 tbl corn oil
2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tssp salt
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce

Directions:
Mix Coffee, vinegar, Woster, oil and spices in a sauce pan bring to a bloi for 1 min. emove from heat add remaining ingredients stir to combine allow to cool and bottle.
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Sweet Mustard Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup cider vinegar

2/3 cup prepared mustard

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

1/2 teaspoon hot sauce

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
Directions
Stir together first 8 ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.
Remove from heat, and stir in butter and worcestershire sauce
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Shack BBQ Sauce Recipe

1 24oz bottle ketchup
12 oz cider vinegar
1 oz ea. black pepper, garlic salt,chili powder.( by weight)
1 qrt grape koolaide
1 oz hot sauce
2 oz worchestershire.
2 oz spicy mustard

Wet Stuff

Mix in a large bowl:

24 ounce bottle of ketchup (catsup)

1 qrt grape koolaide pour some in the ketchup bottle and swoosh it around to get all the ketchup out( reuse the bottle fro the sauce)

Pour in plain ole cheap vinegar.

Put "wet stuff' in a LARGE pan, put heat on "high"
by the time it is approaching a boil, you will have "dry stuff' prepared.

Dry Stuff:

Since you dumped wet stuff out of bowl, why not use for 'dry'?
Into bowl, dump:

1 ounce of chili powder
1 ounce of black pepper
1 ounce of garlic salt (SALT, NOT garlic powder!!!)
1 -oz hot sauce or to taste
2-oz mustard good old yeller hot dog mustard

Stir
...btw, easier to put the mustard in last, and just swirl around till it looks like chocolaty brown tar.

Simmer

Dump all this stuff into pan on stove now approaching a simmer
stir enough to make it evenly liquid...bring to a boil and immediately lower heat to a simmer 30 minutes

Finish

That is it.
Remove from heat, pour back into bottles you saved, unfortunately, you will have an excess of sauce. Improvise, all life has dry rot.

You now have about a 1/2 gal + a little

*Notes
Do NOT futz with the amount of black pepper. I KNOW it sounds like a lot. Trust me on this.

Also remember garlic SALT, not garlic powder!!

Do NOT judge 'heat', as in taste, by sipping off spoon from pot, even if you were stingy with the Tabasco. Dunk a piece of bread into sauce and sample that way.

Cooking has started in the house again. Was a moratorium since Christmas. But I'm a lot less barfy. Making zucchini squash tortellini soup atm. Made this earlier:

http://www.tastingtable.com/entry_de..._recipes/12271

Got this in my email and I was like mmmmm yummy. Letting it sit over night - will let you all know how it turns out.

look good

Motherfucking cookies n' shit.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsps coarse grain sea salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
1 tbsp butter
1 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
1 package (~ 3 cups) chocolate chips

In a bowl, mix sticks of butter and both sugars until incorporated. Add in the eggs, lightly beaten, one at a time, and incorporate. Add vanilla. Add flour, stirring between each cup added. Add salt and baking soda. In a small, microwave safe bowl, add 1 tbsp butter and baking chocolate. Microwave for 30 seconds, or until melty. Stir well. Add chocolate to dough. Using an electric mixer, beat on low power until everything is well-mixed. Add chocolate chips and mix again. For best results, cover dough with wax paper and refridgerate for ~24 hours. If you need your cookies right fucking now, bake in an oven at 350 for 14 minutes.


They're basically the best chocolate chip cookies I've had. A little bit savory, not super sweet, soft and a little chewy.

Tonight I made a chuck roast with winter veg and fries. Delicious.

Marinate the roast overnight with the juice of a lemon, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, quarter cup of soy sauce, some brown sugar, a couple cloves of garlic, and season the meat well.
Hot pan, olive oil.
Sear the roast on all sides.
Put it in the oven until you're happy with the temperature (I like pretty rare, pull it at 110 degrees)
Roast out of the pan. Pan on the stove, veg in.
(veg are beets, parsnips, turnips, and carrots, cut into thin strips).
Cook veg until they're just tender. Don't overdo them.


Cook fries in the regular way. Salt/pepper them immediately after coming out of the oil.

Fries on the side. Veg on top of roast (sliced about 1/4 inch thick). Pan sauce over the lot.

Delicious.

Etoille_sl said:

. But I'm a lot less barfy. Making zucchini squash tortellini soup atm.

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Like that's going to help with the barfy feeling!

This is pretty much my favorite hot sauce I've found. It adds a pretty intense amount of heat (1-2 drops is all you need) but not enough where it's unbearable (see:wasted meal)

Tossed some in with saut?ed zucchini, squash and eggplant, along with some balsamic tomato sauce that I make, garnished with basil, and served with wilted spinach/garlic/raisins/cashews.

Made it for the misses and it wasn't too much for her.

Bacon, wrapped around a muffin tin, cooked until crispy, filled with whipped eggs and baked some more. Fun, and tasty.

Making a roast this week, so wanted to post the only, FOOL PROOF RECIPE, for eye of round roast.

(I don't make many roasts since the BF tends to be more of a chicken guy - something happened this week though and I bought ribeyes, prime rib and roast and I'm fucking making it all. That prime rib is huge; I think I'll probably invite people over for it but I might just eat it all myself!)

Heat oven to 500 degrees.

Rinse roast, pat dry, and apply seasonings.

Time honored rub:

5 cloves of garlic
1 t black pepper
1 t kosher salt
1 t onion power
1 t dried thyme

Rub it all over the roast and set it aside for 30-40 minutes, so it can come to room temperature, and the seasonings can set up shop.

Place it into a roasting pan, fatty side up, and cook at 7 minutes per pound.

After allotted time, TURN OFF the oven. Seriously. No joke. Do I look like I am joking? Look in my eyes. Do you see the beast within?

Leave the roast inside of the oven for 2-2 1/2 hrs. (If it's a gas oven, you might want to leave the temp around 170, because they don't retain heat as well, and check after 2 hrs.)

After the 2-2 1/2 hrs have passed, check with a meat thermometer. Roast should be at 130-150 degrees, wtih 130-140 being medium rare, and 145-150 being medium. Put the roast onto a plate and cover with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

You can add potatoes and other veggies like normal if you like; if you are roasting on top of a wire rack, you can place the veggies underneath where they will catch any drippings. Remove the veggies, de-glaze the pan with a red wine (burgundy is a good, standard red win for beef), add some beef broth and let simmer till it thickens. If you need more thickening power, you can add a roux. Salt and pepper to taste. Remember, it's a roast, so if it's thin, congrats, it's au jus, a little thicker and it's a jus lie, and even thicker and it's a pan gravy. (I wouldn't go all the way to pan gravy though.)

End result should be almost prime rib like; crusty outside, tender and pinky red on the inside. Delicious.

I'm looking for a good way to cook steaks at home (not on the grill). I've been trying to sear them in a pan then finish them in the stove, but even if I marinate them for a very long time, they seem to come out a bit chewy. I usually cook my steaks medium or medium rare, so I'm not terribly overcooking them. Anyone have any good techniques? I basically just cook by feel and usually don't follow a ton of recipes.

Deathwing_sl said:

What size are the steaks? You really shouldn't ever need to put a steak in the oven unless they are ultra thick. At which point, I would suggest butterflying them.

You're resting your meat outside of the fridge for up to hour before cooking, right?

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Typically I enjoy a tip steak or 10. I didn't know about resting outside of the fridge though, I will try that.