Sous Vide Duck Breast with Port and Plum Sauce

I was an early adopted of sous-vide cooking, which permits the cook to heat foods to a precise temperature  and keep them there (using a water bath and a vacuum sealed cooking pouch) until it's convenient to remove them. I particularly use it for meats that are very sensitive to temperature, such as ostrich (which I like at 132 degrees), turkey breast (155 degrees) and duck breasts (138 or 145, depending).

Recently we had a friend and dedicated follower of my blog, whom I will call Doctor Who, to dinner, and the centerpiece of a fairly extensive meal was duck breast with port and plum sauce, based on a recipe from Gordon Hamersley's excellent Bistro Cooking at Home, one of my go-to cookbooks, that I adapted for sous vide cooking.

I have to admit that it came out perfectly.

Sous vide duck breast with sauteed fingerling potatoes

Since J cannot eat duck meat cooked to rare (say 138 degrees), I cooked one breast at that temperature and the other at 145 degrees, which turned out to be fine for her. First, I marinated the meat for an hour in a port, shallot, soy sauce and ginger marinade, then, saving the marinade, sealed the breasts into vacuum (hence sous vide) bags. I cooked the breasts at 138 for two hours and then cooked one of them for another 40 minutes at 145. I chilled them and later sauteed them slowly to sear them and crisp up the skin. Plums were sauteed and combined with more port, chicken stock and with the reserved marinade and liquid from the sealed bags, and reduced. A rich combination of sweet and savory.

Port and plum sauce

As this was a bistro meal, we started with a very light version of céleri rémoulade that I made with Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise or crème fraîche, plus the obligatory mustard, served side by side with a traditional grated carrot salad (carottes rapées).

Céleri rémoulade and grated carrot salad

After the main, as a palate cleanser, I served a simple salad of tossed pea shoots and radish sprouts that I got at the wonderful Sunday green market on Columbus Avenue between 77th and 81st Streets, lightly dressed with lemon and Sicilian olive oil.

Pea shoot and radish sprout salad

For dessert I made my fresh blueberry and raspberry pie from Food52 Genius Recipes but without the crust, i.e. fresh and cooked berries with a dollop of crème fraîche.

Fresh and cooked berries with crème fraîche

In honor of Doctor Who, who is a museum curator of Asian art, the salads and dessert were served on plates made by Japanese ceramic artists, which I think went well with French bistro cooking.

A fun meal, made nearly foolproof by use of sous vide cooking. As sous vide devices have become smarter and easier to use, and can now be used with ordinary (large) pots or storage vessels, I encourage you to take the plunge (along with your food).

Bobby Jay

More on the Instant Pot

I recently wrote about my initial experiences with the Instant Pot, which were, on the whole, favorable. In particular, I praised Melissa Clark's Dinner in an Instant, which contains 75 recipes expressly designed for the Instant Pot. Since then, I have cooked her Green Persian Rice with Tahdig (crust), an authentic take on this Iranian treasure, made with copious amounts of dill, parsley, chives and cilantro.

Green Persian Rice with Tahdig

This was my second try on this recipe, and this time I followed Clark's suggestion and got a non-stick insert for my Instant Pot, which enabled me to be more bold about frying the steamed rice. I may go a couple of minutes longer next time, but this was plenty crispy, as you can see.

I have done several other recipes from her book with great success and one that didn't work for me. The good ones were Garlicky Cuban Pork, Duck Confit (it's probably worth getting the pot for this and the Persian rice alone), Braised Italian Style Pork, Osso Bucco and Polenta (effortless, which is great, but a little lumpy, which required some serious whisking). My one failure -- and it was not really so bad -- was the Butternut Squash Soup, although in fairness I added too much liquid so had to reduce it for longer than normal. Together with the ones I mentioned in my previous post, that's ten recipes from the book, and I'm by no means through.

So get an Instant Pot and get Clark's book. You won't be disappointed.

Bobby Jay

The Instant Pot

Well, it was only a matter of time until I broke down and got an Instant Pot, in my case the Six-Quart Duo Plus, with nine programs. This piece of equipment has been nearly universally praised, and already there are many many cookbooks and blogs with recipes written just for the Instant Pot.

I love kitchen gadgets and already had a pressure cooker, which I use frequently, and a slow cooker, which I use rarely. The Instant Pot is above all a substitute for these space consumers, and by getting rid of them, the IP has already save me precious kitchen space. It is a good pressure cooker, not quite as fast as my trusty Fagor stovetop one, but I do appreciate the controls that an electric cooker provides. My wonderful chicken stock was just as good with my IP as with the Fagor.I haven't tested the slow cooker but I am sure that it will be competent, if not quite as good as my Crockpot 8-quart model.

What about other results? I have made yogurt and hard(ish) boiled eggs using the special functions for these applications, with mixed success. The first thing I learned is that no recipe for the IP works perfectly the first time, except for something like soup or stew, where you can just toss a lot of ingredients together and cook in one go, especially the Indian food I describe below.

Here is an egg I almost hard-boiled using the "egg" function. Very nice indeed, but you need to know your eggs and your cooker to be able to duplicate the result. For sure they are easier to peel than eggs boiled conventionally, and I have tried countless methods.

Instant Pot five minute egg

Melissa Clark has written an excellent book, Dinner in an Instant, which contains recipes for the IP, usually using the pressure function, but with alternate instructions for slow cooking. I have used her takes on yogurt, eggs, steel-cut oats and, most notably Persian rice. The rice was OK but the tahdig was not sufficiently crusty due to my own lack of courage. I will definitely try this again because I love Persian rice and cook it rarely due to the complexity.

Clark is a good food writer and her book has a number of very inviting recipes that I hope to try, including very simple duck confit, braised pork with garlic, fennel and olive; braised Roman style lamb with herbs and peas; classic polenta; saffron risotto, butternut squash soup with coriander and lemon, dulce de leche, among many others.

Switching gears, I read somewhere that Urvashi Pitre's Indian Instant Pot Cookbook was a winner and so far so good. The book is written with my exact IP in mind, and the recipes seem to be very authentic. So far I've made a wonderful and super easy coconut tomato soup, and chana dal (chickpeas in sauce), based on an onion masala that comes together very easily and, to this non-Indian at least, screams INDIA. Finally, I made Punjabi chicken curry, which was also amazingly easy and flavorful, although neither Joan nor I loved the flavor profile at first (it was totally delicious when reheated for lunch, though, so maybe I'll make it again, this time with more fresh ginger.)

Urvashi's book is short and efficient, and contains a lot of good information about Indian cooking. Her mother grew up in Punjab and her father in Maharashtra, so she is adept at two quite different cuisines, and has recipes from both cultures. This is a useful and fun book.

Based on the foregoing, I give the Instant Pot thumbs up, but don't expect miracles: it requires experience but in the long run will become an essential part of your kitchen battery.

Bobby Jay

Spanish Night

As noted in my post of May 20, we recently spent a weekend in Madison, Wisconsin with friends, and did some cooking and relaxing together.

I made Roast Chicken with Sumac, Za'Atar and Lemon using their wonderful paella pan. I immediately developed a case of pan envy, and upon returning to New York, ordered my very own, a genuine classic carbon steel one from a maker in Valencia, the home of paella. By the way, "paella pan" is technically redundant, since paella refers to the pan as well as the dish, but I'll go with paella pan to avoid confusion.

Last night I broke it in, and served a completely Spanish meal for some good friends who are willing to share my experiments in the kitchen.

So here's my virgin pan, with four tablespoons of olive oil, just waiting to get to work.

Paella pan waiting to fulfill its destiny

I chose to do a classic chicken paella, following the recipe that accompanied the pan, except that I added a little (1/4 lb) chopped fresh chorizo to the grated onions and tomatoes that formed the soffrito, the flavor base for any paella and many other Spanish dishes. First the chicken.

Browning chicken for paella

After that's done, I sauteed slices of fresh artichoke hearts and a red bell pepper, then put them aside while I made the aforementioned soffrito. Finally the rice is added, together with chicken broth that was flavored with some excellent precious saffron that I bought over the Internet, first toasted and then infused in a bit of broth. The chicken and vegetables are placed on top, arrayed as attractively as possible. For about eight minutes, the rice is cooked at a fast boil, until the broth is reduced to the level of the rice.

Boiling the rice

Then the dish is brought to a low simmer for the final cooking.

Simmering the rice, nearly done

The finished paella (photo courtesy of Miyako Yoshinaga)

To stay on the evening's theme, I started with a platter of great Spanish products: Serrano ham, Manchego cheese and Marcona almonds, accompanied by some lightly cured (but not Spanish) green olives.

Serrano ham, Manchego cheese, Marcona almonds

Next, a simple salad of orange slices atop a bed of spinach with seasoned hazelnut oil and chopped hazelnuts.

Orange slices and spinach with hazelnut oil and hazelnuts

Finally, after the paella, a walnut cake with Spanish brandy, using the recipe from Claudia Roden's excellent The Food of Spain. A really interesting torte, with complex walnut notes beautifully offset by the brandy. A wet, dense cake -- it doesn't rise because no leavening is used, not even whipped egg whites -- so I served it with a dollop of crème fraîche on top.

Walnut cake with Spanish brandy

Inspired by the humble paella pan, this was a pretty authentic and really fun dinner. Viva España!

Bobby Jay

Brilliant New Book on the Science of Cooking: The Food Lab

I have been reading J. Kenji López-Alt's wonderful blog, "The Food Lab" at Serious Eats, for quite awhile, so, like his many other fans, I eagerly awaited his new book The Food Lab: Better Cooking Through Science, which reached the shelves in September. When it arrived, I spent the next 10 days reading the 900-page tome, in which Kenji details the results of his use of the scientific method to produce repeatable, foolproof versions of many classic dishes.

Kenji is a self-described nerd, who was inspired as a child by Mr. Wizard and then went to MIT, where he got a degree in architecture but discovered his real passion: cooking. After stints in a variety of restaurant kitchens, where he learned the (often incorrect) conventional rules of cooking, but without the "why," he got a job as a test cook at Cook's Illustrated and ultimately became editor of "The Food Lab," a column at Serious Eats, his dream job, where he mixes science and cooking and shares the result of his explorations with us, the lucky public.

The book is a major contribution to our knowledge of the science of cooking. Others, most notably Harold McGee, have written extensively on this topic, but without the rigorous application of the science to actual recipes. The Food Lab contains detailed explanations of the science behind the recipes, and sets forth the testing procedures that Kenji employed, but ultimately there are lots of things in the book that you want to cook, so this is not a science book.

Before getting to the first of his nine chapters, Kenji gives readers an incomparable 40-page section on "Essential kitchen gear," which is useful reading for anyone contemplating equipping a kitchen or just getting more serious about his or her cooking.

The first chapter, Eggs, Dairy and the Science of Breakfast, describes Kenji's recipes for perfect soft- and hard-boiled and poached eggs and how he developed them.

The Food Lab's approach to egg researach

Along the way he debunks myths about old vs new eggs, water boiling and others, but ultimately arrives at simple, repeatable recipes. For example, his hard-boiled egg method solves for three problems: perfectly cooked yolk, tender white, ability to peel cleanly (this is what always gives me fits). The solution: add eggs to boiling water, boil for 30 seconds, add ice cubes, bring back to boil, then simmer slowly for 11 minutes. Worked for me.

My version of The Food Lab's hard-boiled eggs

The chapter continues with egg-based sauces (Hollandaise) and recipes (Eggs Benedict, omelets, etc.), as well as other breakfast foods, including pancakes, waffles, biscuits, potato cakes, sticky buns, to name a few.

Other chapters follow, each with a lot of basic science and recipe development, with numerous spin-offs:

• Soups, Stews, and the Science of Stock
• Steaks, Chops, Chicken, Fish, and the Science of Fast-Cooking Foods
• Blanching, Searing, Braising, Glazing, Roasting, and the Science of Vegetables
• Balls, Loaves, Links, Burgers, and the Science of Ground Meat
• Chickens, Turkeys, Prime Rib, and the Science of Roasts
• Tomato Sauce, Macaroni, and the Science of Pasta
• Greens, Emulsions, and the Science of Salads
• Batter, Breadings, and the Science of Frying 

While all are fascinating, I must mention a couple of highlights: 16 pages on burgers, with recipes for fat, smashed and pub-style ones;

15 pages on potatoes, roasted, mashed and a killer Hasselback-style gratin;

Cheesy Hasselback potato gratin

and 20 pages on frying, culminating in an extra crunchy Southern fried chicken recipe.

Techniques abound, knife skills in particular, but also whisking and roux-making, blanching, etc.

The book is a great read for cooking nerds like the undersigned, but also can be used as a recipe book. It is copiously illustrated with beautiful images of the final dishes but also step-by-step pictures that allow you to check in at various points in the preparation to make sure you are on the right track.

All in all, a major achievement, which I recommend heartily.

Bobby Jay

Paris -- Cooking Lesson: Le Siphon

I had a fun cooking lesson the other day, which focused on using the syphon, a device like a selzer maker that uses nitrogen dioxide instead of carbon dioxide to make foams and whipped creams.

Syphons

We made three things:

First, a cream of foie gras (not made in the syphon) with a spicy whipped cream on top and little apple bâtons for decoration and a hint of sweetness.

Foie gras cream with seasoned whipped cream and apple bâtons

Next, a good-tasting baby clam (cockle) risotto with a pretty unattractive cuttlefish ink emulsion.

Cockle risotto with cuttlefish ink emulsion

Finally, a vanilla poached pear with pear chantilly, salted caramel sauce and toasted brioche, delicious and attractive, I think.

Vanilla poached pear with caramel sauce, pear chantilly and brioche toast

Using a syphon is fun and something you can easily do at home. Just know that the contents must contain fat (cream, egg whites) or a gelling agent (gelatin or agar agar). I have had a syphon for several years and rarely use it, but hope to use it more often, at least for super light flavored whipped creams that have about double the volume of ones made in the traditional way.

Great Kitchen Tool: All-Clad Dutch Oven

I sometimes find that my beloved and well-used 7-1/4-quart Le Creuset enamel cast iron round Dutch (the company calls it French) oven is a tiny bit too small, and have been considering going for a 9-quart model for those occasions where a little extra room would be helpful. But it is a monster, weighing in at 16.9 pounds, and obviously takes up more real estate than my 7-1/4 quart one.

Then I got a notice of a huge sale at Willams-Sonoma on an All-Clad stainless steel 8-quart Dutch oven, which had been extremely well reviewed by Cook's Illustrated and was said to be very nearly as good as enamel cast iron. The minus: it's not as capacious as the 9-quart Le Creuset. The plus: it weighs in at just under 7 pounds with the cover, and with its excellent handles is much easier to maneuver than my Le Creuset 7-1/4 quart. So I went for it. I can report that it is as good at gentle simmering as Le Creuset and considerably more versatile, and has become my go-to pot for soups, braises, pasta and even stock if I am not making an enormous batch.  A truly fantastic kitchen tool!

My All-Clad 8-quart Dutch oven

Bobby Jay

My New Santoku

Like many people who like to cook, especially guys, I like knives. When I was in Kyoto in October, I went to the famous Aritsugu, which has been in business since 1560, three times but bought nothing. Why not? Because I decided to buy a knife at the much less well-known Shigeharu, which has been in business far longer, since the Kamakura period (1190-1329). My decision was made easier when I found out that Aritsugu's knives are actually made by a different company in Osaka, while Shigeharu's are made in Kyoto.

Based on the recommendation of a website of the Haru Cooking School, I decided to buy a standard grade, medium-sized santoku, the most all-purpose of Japanese knives (but you still can't use it to cut even tiny bones).

Armed with this knowledge, I went to Shigeharu, a not very prepossessing shop that is not particularly convenient and where English is not spoken, thus challenging my very limited Japanese.

Shigeharu knife store

Shigeharu knife store display

When I walked in the lady in charge called for her husband. I told him I wanted a two-edged santoku, and he brought me some samples. I opted for a standard grade, medium sized knife, in carbon steel (he told me that stainless steel, while easier to care for, would never be as sharp as the carbon steel). As he was packing it, I asked the man who had made it and he pointed to himself. I then asked where he had made it, and he pointed to the back of the very store we were in, through the blue noren.

Mr. Shigeharu, nth generation knife maker

I loved that, because I am always thrilled to buy things from the artisans who have made them, particularly where the family history is measured in centuries (in this case at least seven).

So here's my knife, which I am enjoying immensely. It does nothing that I can't do with my others but when I use it I feel a connection with Mr. Shigeharu and his ancestors that I just don't get from a Wüsthof,  Henkels or Sabatier knife.

My Shigeharu santoku

Happy cutting!

Bobby Jay

Thin Apple Tart (Tarte Fine aux Pommes) - My Go-to Dessert

Everybody loves an apple tart, and there are many approaches to this classic. One, which I learned nearly 35 years ago in Paris, is the tarte fine aux pommes, or thin apple tart.

There are two versions: simple and simpler.

Simple version: Roll out pâte brisée to whatever shape you want, including a tart pan, but without high sides. Array apple slices in the most attractive manner you can. Sprinkle sugar on top. Bake at 400-425 degrees until done, usually about 30-40 minutes. The apples should have beautiful color. Brush with apricot jam and let cool. Serve as is or with crème fraîche or ice cream.

Last night I brought two of these on half-sheet pans to a party given by friends in honor of a Japanese ceramic artist. They were very well received.

Tarte fine aux pommes: the simple version, made with pâte brisée

Simpler version: Exactly the same as the simple version, but use store-bought puff pastry (Dufour's all-butter is far and away the best), thawed overnight in the refrigerator. Make sure you leave a 1/2 inch border, which will rise majestically above the rest of the tart. For a slight prettier version, brush the exposed crust with an egg wash made with a yolk plus a tablespoon or so of water.

Trick for either version: I forgot where I got this trick, but it is nice to sprinkle a lot of thyme (really!) under the apples. This imparts a subtle but noticeable herbal taste/scent to the tart that is worth the few seconds it takes to do. You can see a piece or two coming through in the photo above.

For either version, you need to slice apples. If you want super-thin slices, you can use a mandolin. In this case, you need to roll the tart dough very thin so it will become crispy in the time it takes the apples to cook.

If you want slightly thicker ones, which I generally use, you can cut the apples by hand, but the most efficient way is to use an apple peeler/corer/slicer, like the one I described in my post of December 8, 2008. This device gives you perfect slices in about 10 seconds per apple, and I find that the approximately 1/8 inch thickness is fine for this type of apple tart.

No matter what you do, it is hard to screw up an apple tart, and your guests will love whatever version you make.

Bobby Jay

Jerked Pork Chops and Smoked Potatoes

J has been after me to make smoked potatoes, which we discovered recently at a restaurant that I can't remember. Last night I made them, using the tried and true recipe that I got from Laura Calder and eight minutes in my Cameron stove-top smoker.

The potatoes spurred me to fill out the menu with Caribbean Jerk Pork Chops, rubbed with a jerk paste and, again, smoked in my stove-top stuffer. The sauce is from Big Bob Gibson, the procedure is the product of experimentation by yours truly.

It's easy to dry out pork chops, especially when smoking them, so it's important to find moist ones with some fat. The other approach - brining them - helps but does not produce the rich flavor that rendering fat produces. I made the trek to the Essex Market to find chops at Heritage Meat Shop (the retail space of Heritage Farms), and was rewarded with these gorgeous Tamworth chops.

Tamworth pork chops from Heritage Meat Market

Now it was just a matter of rubbing them with the jerk sauce, smoking them and finishing first in the oven and then under a broiler. Here's the result, with the potatoes and some sauteed zucchini; not a great picture, I'm afraid, but the tastes were there. The accompanying jerk-spiced barbecue sauce tied the plate together a bit and brought the chops to life.

Smoked potatoes, Tamworth pork chop and grated zucchini

The recipes for the pork chops and the smoke potatoes follow:

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Caribbean Jerk Pork Chops

(Big Bob Gibson)

Ingredients

·       1 habañero chile, seeded and chopped

·       1 small onion, coarsely chopped

·       1 scallion, thinly sliced

·       1 garlic clove, thinly sliced

·       1 teaspoon ground allspice

·       3/4 teaspoon dried thyme

·       1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

·       1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

·       1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

·       Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

·       1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for brushing

·       1 cup store-bought Kansas City–style barbecue sauce

·       4 pork rib chops (12 ounces each)

·       2 ½ TBS hickory, pecan or oak chips

Directions

1.     In a mini food processor, combine the habañero, onion, scallion, garlic, allspice, thyme, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Process until finely chopped. Add the 1 tablespoon of oil and process to a smooth paste.

2.     In a small bowl, whisk 1 tablespoon of the paste with the barbecue sauce. Spread the remaining paste all over the chops and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

3.     Put wood chips into Cameron smoker. Cover and let the chips begin to smoke, about 5 minutes.

4.     Cook the chops in smoker over moderately high heat for 30 minutes.  Check temperature with a meat thermometer close to the bone. If necessary, put into 400 oven and roast for a few minutes, until they are lightly charred the temperature is about 140°. Transfer the chops to a platter and let rest a few minutes.  Then broil on one side until they get a nice color, about 3 minutes, and serve with the spiced barbecue sauce on the side.

NOTE 1: This is a very hot sauce.  Best to put less jerk mix into the BBQ sauce.

NOTE 2: Big Bob uses the jerk rub for slow-cooked pork.

Smoked Squished Baby Potatoes

(Laura Calder, Bobby Jay)

Ingredients

·       2 lbs baby Yukon Gold potatoes

·       Kosher salt and pepper

·       olive oil

·       2 TBS hickory, pecan or oak chips

Directions

1.     Scrub the potatoes and place them in salted water. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, but not totally soft.

2.     Flatten the potatoes a little with a mallet, a ramekin or your hand.

3.     Put wood chips into Cameron smoker. Cover and let the chips begin to smoke, about 5 minutes.

4.     Cook the potatoes in smoker over moderately high heat for 7-8 minutes.

5.     Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake in 400° oven for about 35 minutes, until they are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Enjoy!

Bobby Jay