A Jersey Girl in Portland

Hash Brown Potatoes

I love hash browns, crunchy and brown on the outside, soft in the center. It's the perfect weekend breakfast food. The good news is that tasty hash browns are SO EASY.

No, you don't buy a bag of frozen hash browns and follow the directions. Make 'em from scratch.

I started making hash browns this way when I was in culinary school in Dallas. I used a lattice of shredded potatoes (a really thin layer of hash browns) for a lamb dish for an exam. I got an A.

This recipe is all about process.

Hash Browns

Ingredients:

Potatoes, one medium per person

XVOO

Butter

Salt and pepper

Garnish: chives, sour cream, créme fraîche, spring onions

Equipment: patience, a box grater, colander, tea towel, spatula, and a good saute pan.

Grate one potato per person. I'm using a thin-skinned tuber. Shred with a box

Grated potatoes.

grater.

 

Put grated potatoes in a colander and rinse under hot tap water.

--this begins the cooking process, you're rinsing off the extra starch, and pre-poaching the pots--

Drain well. Place in the tea towel, and squeeze to remove excess water. The potatoes should feel like warm, barely moist, potato shavings.

Soft, fluffy potato shreds

Now the fun part. Heat a good saute pan. Put about a teaspoon of oil per potato, as well as a 1/2 pat of butter in the pan. The pan should be on a medium heat. The hash browns will cook low-and-slow.

Sprinkle a thick (1/2 inch) layer of potatoes on top of the oil. Adjust the heat, you want it hot but not searingly hot.

 Walk away for ten. OK Don't actually walk away, but ignore the pan for a solid ten minutes. Once you see brown bits around the edges, carefully turn the potatoes.  Because of the differing starch and sugar content, thin-skinned potatoes will separate, russets tend to stick together.

So when you flip them, some potatoes will let loose in a lovely, round disc. Some will fall apart. Nothing wrong with either.

Brown the other side, again walking away for a solid ten minutes. I sprinkle chives or green onion on them and serve 'em up with sour cream, like they were potato pancakes.*

The finished product should look like this:

Brekkers (breakfast) rules!

Enjoy,

XOXO

Nancy

 * Oooo. Potato pancakes. Hmmm, sounds like a future blog post.

Good-bye

Good-bye JC, John, Johnny, S----, Charlie, Maynard.

 

Steamed pork & kimchi buns

I love my job. I love working for a living, and I love the adrenalin of line cooking at a busy restaurant.

I also love getting sent home early when the amount of business does not justify the number of cooks on said line.

Since it was a Monday, the odds that I'd get cut last night were good. So, If I got cut early, I had tentative plans.  Handsome & Brave, (aka H&B) and I would make dinner. I believe lamb was discussed.

Oh Joy! Oh Bliss! My day ended at 6, not 9 pm. Date time for Nancy!

Wah, wah, wah, wah.... ☹

Alas, my plans for the evening abruptly changed when H&B had a work

Pork Buns at Bõken, Bend, OR.

emergency. Bummer! But, I still needed to eat, so I decided it was about time that I tackled steamed pork buns.

I want to make buns like the ones I had at Bõken, an Isakaya restaurant (Japanese pub) in -- of all places -- Bend.

So I turned to the interweb. I d/l a grand recipe from David Chang of Momofuku. Although he is a G0d to me, I didn't have three hours to make a yeast-raised, steamed bun dough. Nor did I have the cake flour called for.

The recipe I did find is a quick dough that uses baking powder as a leavening agent. The dough itself is lovely; soft and pliant. I believe it's even softer for resting for an hour (while I chatted with H&B on the phone) rather than the 30 minutes recommended in the recipe.

Steamed buns, three ways.

The buns were wonderful. The dough was soft and easy to manipulate, but building the buns takes some skill. I rolled the first batch beautifully. Thick. I rolled second batch too thinly so the bottom stuck to the wax paper lining the steamer. Enough jibber jabber. Here's the recipe:

 

Steamed bun dough

2-1/4 cups AP flour

1/3 cup sugar

fat pinch salt

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 Tbsp lard (I used butter)

2/3 cup lukewarm water

Directions:

Mix sifted flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.

Cut in lard or butter (if I'd had solid coconut oil, I'd have used it instead of butter).

Add water and knead until smooth (at least 5 minutes -- and I kneaded it in the bowl, occasionally 'wetting' my fingers with flour)

Rest the dough for 30 - 45 minutes. Roll into a sausage shape.

Cut in to 12 portions. flatten with fingers and roll to an even thickness, less than 1/4 inch.

The texture of the dough reminds me of the dinner rolls you buy in the cooler

oops lumpy and thin-skinned.

of a supermarket. They come in a roll, tear off the wrapper and strike it on the counter, and Voila! You have biscuits.

 Since you're reading this blog, I assume you have some familiarity with Chinese cuisine or the ability to research fillings. Go to town, fill 'em with anything that is relatively dry. You don't want soggy buns.

I used a piece of pork belly and some kimchi from the refrigerator as filling. You can use anything. Pork barbecue, cooked sausage and greens, finely chopped asparagus... I bet you could even place a spoonful of marmalade in the center and make a lovely jam bun.

The recipe yields 12 rounds of dough, three-to-four inches in diameter, about 1/4 inch thick. Put a blob of filling in the center of the round. Dampen your fingers and blot the circumference of the dough round. Pull up the sides and gather the edges like a little draw-string purse. Pinch closed.

Steam in a bamboo steamer, on a sheet of lightly oiled waxed paper or parchment paper.

I steamed filled buns for 10 minutes, dough rounds (that I folded around belly and kimchi -- a la Bõken) for 5 minutes.

----The next day.

----I had some dough left over so I rolled it, cut it with a round Ateco cutter and fluted the edges with my fingers. I filled the four rounds with sausage and chard (which I had for brekkers), leftover asparagus, orange marmalade and dried cherries, and fir cured lox, capers and cream cheese.

---45 minutes later still. WOW I love the sausage and chard bun the best. The asparagus argued with the sweetness of the dough. Not pleasant. The jam bun was OK but nothing special. The lox, caper and cream cheese one was good but again, nothing special.

I might try a Hood strawberry bun and another pork belly/kimchi bun.

Good, clean fun.

Happy Tuesday,

XOXO

Nancy

 

 

Impulse cooking? Binge cooking?

Impulse eating is nothing to scoff at or denigrate -- please don't misunderstand. Eating disorders are serious stuff.

But even those without eating disorders will binge, (or impulse) eat, at times of stress. Eating to the point of satiation gives us a warm, comfortable, loved feeling. A food buzz. Eating disorders are not standard blog fodder for me.  But is there such a thing as a cooking disorder?

Binge cooking?

I woke up this morning needing to cook. I didn't want to cook, I needed to. It was primal. I needed to manipulate food, I had to feed my soul. It was almost as strong as the desire for a  cigarette -- 15 years ago when I quit smoking.

But what does it mean? Is the turmoil of my personal life finally kicking the figurative ass of my psyche?

Roommate, former manfriend, has had bumpy ride with his new love. I understand that. We still share an apartment. Not good for either of us... I/we/he need to move on... Blah blah blah. But I'm binge cooking? Why now? Why today?

Hell. I don't know. All I know is that I needed to make tasty things.

So I did. I turned all the misc veggies that the roommate brought from the market into cheese and veg pies. Spinach, garlic, cheddar cheese, leeks, asparagus, and shallots in a pastry shell. As lovely as it is delicious.

But it wasn't enough. I needed to cook more. So I researched a steamed bun recipe that will be perfect with the pork belly I have in the freezer. I'll top it with some kimchi (ignore the dating nonsense and skip right to the recipe -- it's from Mark Bittman so you know it's righteous!).

I didn't make steamed buns. Even though the recipe is from Kitchen God David Chang, which means it will rock, I made beef stew. Rich, thick, meaty, beef stew with fennel, tomatoes, carrots, celery, mushrooms and leeks. I'll serve it over rice. Or pasta.

Worn Chaco's aka eel sandals.

 

But my day was far from over. Heck, I did all of the above before 11.

Life wasn't exciting enough so I decided to wear my favorite Chaco sandals, even though they're slick as Hell.

I slipped on the wet kitchen floor. I landed on my left hand, dislocating the little finger. To my credit, I saw it, gasped, and pulled it back into place before it even had the chance to hurt.

My busted finger and the cure. 

Unfortunately, that crunchy sound I heard when I 'fixed' it was a bit of bone dislodging. It's an avulsion fracture of the middle phalanx of the finger.

I know this because I wrapped it in ice and went to the emergency room. Modern medicine can't do anything but tape one finger to the next and say, "Hey, be careful," but I got an unexpected day off.

I think I'll cook something.....

Beef Stew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course Steak tartar is perfect date food

I had a date the other night with a guy I'll call Handsome and Brave (H&B).  It was a rare Saturday off for me so I made the most of it.

I volunteered at the Farmers Market, in the morning and took Belmont for a

Steak tartar.

long walk. I also planned a meal and snacks for my date -- we were going to the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, with snacks before and dinner after.

He's a foodie -- he has a sous-vide circulator and vacuum sealer in his house! He also has both hot and cold smokers -- useful for the  catering business he runs in addition to working a full-time job.

Can you see the attraction? Food? Fiction? Handsome and brave??

I was going to make pizza; asparagus, shiitake, leeks, and lovely salumi from Chop butchery and charcuterie, but H&B is gluten intolerant.

If I'm going to continue seeing this guy -- and I probably will -- then both roommateSpike and I will have to learn how to cook for gluten-free people -- as he has a GF GF (gluten-free girl friend).

So I made a lovely snack of steak tartar. No gluten at all. Fun ensued, and the film fest was attended.

Steak Tartar

3 - 4 ounces whole muscle meat per person. I used flatiron because I love the flavor. If I'd been thinking clearly I'd have picked up hanging tenders from Zupans market.

1-1/2 tsps finely minced shallots per portion

1/4 tspn Sriracha hot sauce per portion

1/8 tspn Dijon mustard per portion

salt TT

olive oil TT

one coddled egg per portion (raw eggs, in the shell, held in hot tap water for 10 minutes. Or you can boil water, take it from the stove, and drop in the whole, in-shell eggs and allow them to soak for 5 to 10 minutes)

1 tspn capers per serving.

Preparation:

Cut the meat into small, 1/8x1/8 inch pieces (brunoise for those of you with marginally useless culinary degrees -- like me ☺)**

Add the shallots, hot sauce, mustard, salt, pepper (if desired) and olive oil. Mix quickly, adding salt to taste.

Take a ring mold (use a size slightly larger that a bangle bracelet) and fill it with tartar. Leave a depression in the center.

Crack the coddled eggs and place the yolk in the depression.

Garnish with finishing salt (like Maldon) if you have it and a teaspoon of capers tossed over the whole.

---------------------

This is kinda cute. In addition to munching on steak tartar, we spent an hour in the kitchen tasting the multitude of pickles, kimchi, and other fermented delicious things I've made. I tell you what, H&B knows food.

 

** I have used the grinding attachment of my Kitchen Aid to grind the meat but I don't like the texture as much as cutting it finely. Also, do not go back over it--this isn't garlic you're mincing. Texture matters. Just cut it as best you can and run with the results.

 

PS: A friend of mine said that the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else. True that.

From the Mouths of Mom's

I'm in Olympia, WA for a few days, visiting family. My mom recently had back surgery, (vertebrae L4 through L6 were fused) and I wanted to see, with my own eyes, how she was healing.

She's healing very well. She has a nasty scar (I'll post a pic of it if she'll let

Mom's scar three weeks after surgery

me), and has to wear a back brace that looks suspiciously like a corset, but she's up and about and smiling again.

 She's also cooking with rock-star results.

Mum pulled a frozen (yes, frozen) pork roast from the deep freeze in the garage. It was about four pounds, bone in.

She put it (still frozen) (I know, I gasped also) into a crock pot with a couple cups of chicken stock. The crock pot was cranked up to high and 10 hours later we had some amazing pulled pork sandwiches. That's it.

My contribution was easy. I put the pork into the Kitchen Aid mixer and, well, paddled it till the right consistency was achieved--not fine but no large lumps.  Verrry technical stuff (inject sarcasm).

Oh my it was soooo good!

And so easy.

For kicks, take a look at a blog post I wrote a few years ago about pulled pork. Contrast it with the stoopidly simple way my mom cooked the roast and ya gotta ask...

Do I really know anything about cooking??????

The lesson for today is.... sometimes less is more.

Back to basics. Duck egg Hollandaise sauce

 

There are benchmarks in any career. Skills you must master to be a better carpenter, teacher, candlestick maker, whatever. 

Best text book ever by Labensky and Hause

 

In cooking, it's sauces. In my French-based culinary education, it's the Mother sauces. They're also called "leading sauces" but the former phrase tends to stick.

They are (taken right from On Cooking):

Mother/leading sauce            Liquid                        Thickener

Bechamel                              milk                            roux

Veloute                                 white stock                 roux

    veal veloute                        veal stock                 roux

    chicken veloute                   chicken stock            roux

(sensing a trend????)

Espagnole (brown stock)        brown stock (beef)    roux

Tomato sauce                        tomato                      optional -- roux*

Hollandaise                            butter                        egg yolks

So, we know how to make tomato sauce and Espagnole (beef stock). Bechamel is the foundation of any good mac n cheese so I know you know how to make it. 

Veloutes are very useful as silky-smooth sauces over meats. Yummy. 

The mother sauces are also building blocks to other small sauces. Adding gruyere and parmesan to a Bechamel turns it into Sauce Mornay. Add shallots, wine, and tomatoes to an Espagnole to make a Sauce Chasseur (Hunters sauce).

But hollandaise is special. It's a delicious one-trick-pony. It has an unchanging  flavor profile -- lush and buttery with a lemony finish and a smoothness that comes right from the egg yolks.

But it's also a minefield. If the beaten yolks cook over the water bath, you're screwed. So, you have to focus only on the hollandaise or it'll scramble or break (when the oils separate from the body of the sauce). But when done right and held properly, it's a sublime addition to slightly bitter things like asparagus. It's also pretty fantastic over a cheap fillet mignon or on Eggs Benedict.

Hollandaise

4 egg yolks

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

Oyster mushrooms, asparagas, poached duck eggs and hollandaise.

 

salt TT 

pinch cayenne

In a stainless steel bowl, beat the egg yolks and lemon juice together until almost doubled in volume.

Melt the butter, set aside

Put the bowl of eggs over a water bath that is at poaching temp, about 180 degrees, with a few tiny bubbles. The bottom of the bowl can not touch the water.

Whisk the eggs/lemon mixture over heat. If the eggs begin to turn white or you see tendrils of cooked egg, pull the bowl from the heat and continue to whisk.

S-l-o-w-l-y add the butter, whisking consantly. It will thicken almost immediately. Add cayenne and salt and you have a perfect hollandaise. Hold warm or serve immediately.

The roommate brought home duck eggs so I made hollandaise with duck eggs rather than chicken eggs. That's why it' such a neon yellow color. The yolks are beautiful.

Spring in Portland is as beautiful as duck egg hollandaise.

Happy saucing!

XOXO

* On last season's Top Chef (Texas), a Dallas chef, Dean Fearing, quizzed the contestants on the mother sauces. He was Shocked! Agast! that no one put a roux in their tomato sauce.  Really??? Roux in tomato sauce?? I think not. Butter is OK but roux, not so. Tomato sauce has the natural thickeners in tomatoes to add body to the sauce. If you're using a roux, your not reducing the sauce enough. Pffft. Cook it right.

Miso Butter, Umami. Amazing.

This week's obsession is Miso Butter. I know, how 2011 of me. David Chang, Momofufu, umami, <yawn>.

But there's a reason for the popularity of miso. It's a game changer. It's the one thing that uplifts everything it touches to a level of elegance unattainable with any other ingredient.

If you like mushrooms, think about how much better anything (except maybe strawberry ice cream) tastes with 'shrooms.

Parmesan? Think of the depth good parm gives to marinara.

I've written about my desire to pull out my French roots and plant a new culinary garden with different tools. I'm going Asian. Instead of finishing a dish with white wine and butter, I'm using miso butter (I like it strong, 1:1 with a shot of red wine vinegar). The flavors that emerge are fabulous.

Miso, with it's generous heap of Umami (usually defined as 'savouriness,' one of the five tastes), adds depth and umph to anything unsweet it touches. Miso soup is a great example. A perfect soup with earthy, balanced flavors.

But, when you put it on a steak, it's amazing. Imagine the essence of shitaki mushrooms -- without the under-flavor of peat -- sliding across your tongue, accompanied by the blood and juices of rare, red meat.

Sumptuous I say, absolutely sumptuous.

My photos are realistic, right down to the messy bowl

Miso Butter

 

(adapted from a recipe by David Chang)

2:1 soft butter : miso

Red wine (or sherry) vinegar TT

ie: 1 stick butter, 1/4 cup miso paste, 1 Tbsp vinegar

Combine in a mixer and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate.

The stuff keeps forever.

_____-------______-------

On a personal note, the Manfriend and I are no more. I wish him luck, love and happiness as he follows his heart, his bliss.

XOXO
Nancy

What I need is a little perspective.

My bike and coffee mug locked to a pole.

 

 

Izakaya; Boken in Bend, Oregon

Nam Jim Shrimp

I wrote about restaurants and food for many years. I went to culinary school to be a better writer -- to write about food with more authority.  

Really, I'm a cook because I wanted to be a better food writer.

But, as a food critic for some ten years, I'd eaten so many things-- so many good things-- that meals out rarely stand out.  Sure, I love damn near every thing I eat because I love food, but it rarely surprises me.

Bummer because I love surprises.

But Hell yes! I ate in Bend and.... surprised I was.

Mount Fuji roll, pork belly steamed bun.

I went to Central Oregon (high desert country) for a strategic planning meeting. Usually I travel with Belmont, and lately I do things with the Manfriend Spike. This time I traveled alone.

Usually I eat pub food or pizza. Nothing special.

Because Bend is not a dining hot spot. Or is it? 

Tonight I went to Boken, an Izakaya (Japanese pub) joint in 'the breezeway off Wall street in downtown Bend.

Really, it was one of the most delicious and flavorfully challenging meals I've eaten in ages. The flavors, textures, preparations were all intense and incredible.

So, what did I eat?

Baby squid (top), Dinomite mussels (bottom)

 I had skewers of squid, so tender and juicy the bits could be cut with a chopstick.

Mussels in a dynamite sauce (spicy aioli), again lovely and unctuous to boot.

I really liked the Mount Fuji roll; seared scallop, cucumber, avocado, cilantro, Thai chilies and an apple puree (like a silky apple sauce).

My absolute favorite was the steamed bun with a slab of pork belly, kimchi, and slices of cucumber. Amazing -- the way the slippery softness of the belly contrasted with the sour kimchi. Fabulous and so perfectly balanced.

I don't want to diminish or trivialize the cuisine by calling it "pan Asian" but ... well ... They also serve banh mi sandwiches and sushi.

So. Go to Bend. Eat at Boken. Please.

Romesco: dip, sauce or gravy?

(I should post topical  stories on the day they're written.... alas I've been busy)

4/10/12 

I have the day off. Huzzzah! You can't see it but I'm doing the "Day Off Happy Dance.*"

On my days off, I like to cook something different, something special. So I'll pull a cookbook off a shelf and flip through it. See what captures my fancy.

This morning, I pulled a Spanish tapas cook book and a Romesco sauce caught my eye.

I adapted the following Romesco recipe from Penelope Casas' excellent "Tapas" cookbook.

It's basically a tomato sauce. Or, if you're from Philly, gravy. But it makes a wonderful dip, hot or cold.

Is it a dip? sauce? gravy? Who knows. I can tell you that it originated in Catalan, Spain (it's the place with a lispy accent and a lot of X's pronounced thhhh). It's roasted garlic, onion, red pepper and garlic pureed with roasted almonds, olive oil and vinegar.

It's deep and nutty with a little heat from the dried chilies -- steeped in fig vinegar and white vinegar.

Romesco

3 or 4 Roma tomatoes

1 yellow onion, peeled and cut in half

1 small red bell pepper, seeds removed, cut in half

20 ea almonds

1 cup XVOO (divided use)

3 Tbsp red wine vinegar (I was out, so I used fig-infused vin mixed with white vinegar, 3:1)

3 small, hot, dried chilie peppers

4 cloves garlic

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil tomatoes, peeled onion, and halved pepper. Put on baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, add the garlic. Roast for an additional 10 minutes.

Heat the vinegar and dried chilies to a simmer in a small saucepan. Simmer peppers for 5 minutes. Set aside.

Heat 1/4 cup XVOO in a small saute pan. Add the almonds and roast until dark brown. Remove from heat.

Using a food processor, combine roasted veggies, peppers in vinegar and oil-poached almonds. Add 1/2 cup of olive oil as the mix processes. Completely process and season to taste.

That's it.

May your day's off be as fun and fulfilling as mine.

XOXO
Nancy

 

* The Day Off Happy Dance is a 'raise the roof' motion with my hands while I do a little skippy thing with my feet.