HOLYCRAPDELICIOUS STEAK!!

I am a firm believer in the time-honored, two-step method for cooking steak:

1. Get the best quality meat that you can.
2. Don't Fuck It Up.

I believe I successfully followed this code of ethics this evening.  

I fulfilled Step One by buying a quarter cow (~125lbs split into a variety of cuts) from Haiwick Heritage Ranch (www.haiwickheritageranch.com).  They sell hormone free, pasture raised, grain finished Angus.  No feedlots, no stress, no unnecessary antibiotics.  Plus, it is dry aged for several weeks, which I haven't seen from any other grass fed beef suppliers online.  Awesome.  The quarter cow arrived today, and of course we had to try it immediately.  We decided to thaw out a pack of two New York Strip steaks and give them a shot.  

I fulfilled Step Two by treating the steaks with simple care.  First, I sprinkled a little salt and pepper, then put them on a very hot grill.  I cooked them for a total of about 8.5 minutes, 5 on the first side and 3.5 on the second side, rotating them 90 degrees halfway through each side.  Then, they rested for about 5 or 6 minutes in foil (normally I would let them rest longer, but I was hungry!).  Then, we ate it with a side of salad.  

Resulting Deliciousness:

The steaks were a perfect medium to medium rare throughout, with a respectable crust.  This might have been the juiciest steak I've ever made.  The high quality of the meat was fully on display.  The strip of fat was perfectly done and just melted in your mouth.  This steak was easily on par with any I've had in high end steakhouses (and yes, I've been to Keens and Peter Luger's in NYC).  The dry aging and high quality grass fed meat is definitely the key.  Luckily, I was able to pull off Step Two and didn't overcook it or, worse, cover up the meat's inherent taste with a bunch of seasoning or sauce. 

This is the first time I've bought meat in bulk and so far have zero regrets.  Quite the opposite.  If you don't have a chest freezer full of awesome meat, you should seriously re-examine your priorities in life.  

Crockpot Ribs and Vegetables

Last weekend, I finished off the last of the forest fed pork I had in the freezer. I was feeling lazy, so I just threw some ribs in a crockpot with a bunch of vegetables. Turned out pretty good.

Ingredients:

• Pork ribs from the forest
• Marinade - about 20 hours
  
• Apple Cider
• Cumin
• Cloves
• Vegetables
• Celery Root
• Green, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers with red onion (I saw a pre-cut pack at the grocery store)
• Carrots
• Seasonings
• Garlic (about a bulb and a half)
• Shallots (diced from a jar)
• Apple Cider (~1/2 cup)
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• Red pepper
• White pepper
• Paprika
• Celery salt
• olive oil
• honey
• Sauce
• Drippings from everything above
• Apple Cider (~1/3 cup)
• Cane sugar
• Cloves
• Cumin
• Red pepper

Procedure:

The night before, I knew I'd want to cook the ribs so I threw them in a freezer bag with apple cider, cloves, and cumin to marinate.  The next evening, I took a pre-cut pack of various bell peppers and red onion, put it in the crock pot, added celery root and carrots, all the seasonings, and tossed all that in a crockpot, coating the vegetables with olive oil and seasonings. I then cut the meat into individual ribs, placed them on top of the vegetables, sprinkled on some more pepper, honey, and a little apple cider. That was cooked at about 200-250 for about an hour and a half.

After everything was done, I pulled everything out of the crockpot, leaving the drippings - mostly some pork fat, cider, and garlic, all of which had been flavored by all of the great vegetables. I added a little more cider, a little raw cane sugar, cloves, cumin, and red pepper, then reduced it for about 5-10 minutes. If reducing sounds fancy, it is not - you just simmer it until it gets thicker - the sugars get caramelized and you cook off some water. I then added the ribs back to the sauce for about 5-10 minutes, stirring most of the time to really coat them well.

Resulting Deliciousness:

These ribs were pretty good, but the vegetables stole the show - they were absolutely fantastic. I think this was because I don't have a very good crockpot, I have a multipurpose thing that's mostly good for frying. The low temperature controls aren't very good, so I basically steamed this stuff in an hour and a half instead of slow cooking it over about 4 hours, as I intended. As a result, the vegetables were nicely done, but the ribs had a very slightly chewy texture, not the perfect tenderness you want for ribs. But, they were still really good. If you have a real crockpot or a dutch oven, this would probably turn out better, texturally speaking. 

  

If you want to see some really well-done ribs, check out my Spring Break '08 Ribs.   

Roasted Pork Loin, Applesauce, and Mashed Potatoes

Last weekend I got a pork loin roast from Babes in the Wood, and cooked it on Tuesday, along with some applesauce and mashed potatoes. In case you haven't noticed, I am a huge supporter of raising animals in a sustainable way and feeding them what they want to eat naturally. This forest-fed pork is hands down the best pork that I've ever had. See my post on North Carolina Barbecue for more about that.

Ingredients:

• Pork Roast
• 1.6 lb boneless pork loin roast
• Dry Rub
• Kosher salt
• Raw cane sugar (or brown sugar)
• Cumin
• Cloves
• Garlic Salt
• Black Pepper
• Celery Salt
• Paprika
• Applesauce
• Honey Crisp Apples (peeled and roughly cut)
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Sugar
• Mashed Potatoes
• 2 lb bag of Red Potatoes
• Garlic
• 1/2 Roasted Red Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Butter
• Milk
• Rosemary
• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper 
• Paprika
• Garlic Salt

Procedure:

• Pork:  I started the pork by defrosting it in a sealed bag in hot water (I like that or fridge defrosting more than microwave), while I mixed up the rub.  Rubs generally have about half and half salt and sugar plus whatever seasonings you want - I used cumin, and cloves because they are my favorite pork seasonings. I also only use kosher salt or sea salt for rubs - they are much more subtle and taste better than table salt, and treat the meat better. I cut the fat layer mostly off the meat to make a pocket to add the rub. I rubbed the rub into every surface of the roast.  This was placed on the bottom rack over a pan and baked at 350 for about 1.5 hours.
• Applesauce:  Homemade applesauce is really, really easy. I just cut up some apples, put them in a pan with a splash of cider and some cinnamon, cloves, and sugar. That was baked for about 30 minutes at 350, then ran through a food processor. 
• Mashed Potatoes:  I boiled red potatoes with some rosemary and seasonings. I roasted garlic in olive oil and paprika at the same time the apples and roast were baking, for about 30 minutes. The potatoes, garlic, half a roasted red pepper I had leftover, butter, milk, salt, and pepper went into a food processor (in two batches).  
  

Resulting Deliciousness:

    The pork turned out pretty well. I prepared it in a more barbecue-ey way than a roast-ey way, but that's the mood I was in. I overcooked it a bit, so it was a tad tough, but wasn't dried out. The taste was great, but the rub was just a tad strong - any pork but the flavorful forest-fed stuff would have been overwhelmed by the cumin. Next time I would either cook it less, or cook it low and slow, and would have brined it if I had time. But, still really good. 

    The mashed potatoes were really, really creamy from the butter, milk, olive oil from the roasted garlic, and the use of a food processor instead of hand-mashing. They were really good, but unfortunately had a slight fridge taste to them from the week or two old roasted red pepper I put in. I have learned that it probably isn't good to throw a roasted pepper in a bag in the fridge - next time I have some leftover, I'll add some olive oil or vinegar to help hold the flavor.

    The applesauce was also a little below my standards. Last time I did this, I roasted them for over an hour and they were awesome, almost like apple butter, but not so sweet and heavy. This time, I didn't roast it as long, so I expected a lighter flavor, which was fine. The problem was the texture - the apples had gone through at least a couple improper freeze/thaw cycles. I could tell when I bought them that they had been through that kind of abuse, I was just too excited to see honey crisp apples in January and figured they would be fine for applesauce. It might have been better if I cooked them more, but in addition to the good applesauce texture, there was a grainy texture that was a bit of a put-off. Oh well, still good if not perfect.

    So, overall it was a nice meal, but there were some little things that kept it from being great.

Chili

I haven't made chili in a really long time.  Last weekend, my friend James made some and inspired me to do the same.  I think it turned out quite well.

Ingredients:

• Ground beef (90/10 lean)
• Ground turkey
• Celery root
• Celery
• Onion
• Roasted red pepper
• Apple cider
• Peas (1 can)
• Corn (1 can)
• Black beans (1 can)
• Pinto beans (1 can)
• Kidney beans (1 can)
• Garbanzo beans (1 can)
• Tomato sauce (2 cans)
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Bay leaf
• Kosher salt
• Raw cane sugar
• Honey
• Black pepper
• Red pepper
• White pepper
• Chili powder
• Garlic salt
• Garlic
• Cumin
• Cloves
• Dry mustard
• Paprika

Procedure:

Chili is one of the easiest things to make.  All I did was cut up the ingredients that weren't canned, caramelized the onions and celery, browned the ground beef and turkey, put everything in a big pot, and let it simmer for about 2.5 hours.  I tasted it from time to time and seasoned it to my taste.  I went heavy on cumin because it suited my palate and my mood.  

Resulting Deliciousness:

This was fantastic chili.  One key thing that some people don't think of is the sugar.  Sugar helps balance the spices and salt and really gets all the flavors to blend together smoothly.  I didn't make this chili very spicy because I didn't feel like spicy food tonight.  Chili, and stews in general, always taste better after sitting around for a while.  I'm really looking forward to eating this for lunch for the rest of the week!

Gluten Free Sweet Rolls

This was my family's favorite desert when I was growing up, we were always bugging my mom to make them. Since I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease about seven years ago, we've tried to re-make sweet rolls a couple times, but nothing ever came close. This time, we nailed the taste. If the rolls would rise a little more and be a little softer, they would be perfect. If you have any advice on that, please let me know in the comments!

Ingredients:

• Sweet Dough
• 1.5 cups milk warmed to ~120
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 packets yeast
• 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 7.5 cups flour (we used Jules Shepard's All Purpose Flour from Nearly Normal)
• Filling
  
• ~ 1 stick melted Butter
  
• ~ 1 cup Sugar
  
• ~ 2 tbsp Cinnamon
  
• Glaze
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 5 tbsp white karo corn syrup

Procedure:

I'll tell you the original recipe, with notes about how it was different with GF flour... To make the dough, start by mixing the yeast with half a cup of warm water. While that sits, mix together the warm milk, sugar, and salt. When the yeast has bubbled, add it to the warm milk mixture and stir. To that, add 2 lightly beaten eggs and half a cup of shortening. Mix about half the flour. Once that is mixed in, add the rest of the flour - you can use a little more or less, just add it until the dough feels like dough. Knead the dough (although I don't think that is necessary for GF flours?). Place the dough in a large greased bowl, cover it with a damp towel, and let it sit in a warm place to rise until it doubles in size, about 2 hours (it did not double with GF flour, but did rise significantly). Punch the dough down, flip it over in the bowl, re-cover it, and let it rise a second time. Once risen, punch it down a final time and let it sit for 15 minutes. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar (the ratio listed is an estimate, just use as much cinnamon as you like) and melt some butter. Then, separate out a baseball-softball sized chunk of dough and roll it out into a rectangle about 3-4 inches wide. Drizzle on some butter to lightly coat the dough, then sprinkle on a thin layer of the cinnamon and sugar mix. Roll up the dough and cut it into pieces about an inch and a half long. Place the pieces cut side up/down in the prepared pan (see below), with room between the rolls for them to rise (the GF rolls didn't rise much, so we placed them closer together than you would for wheat flour rolls).

While the dough is rising, you can prepare the baking pans and make the glaze. For the glaze, just mix together the brown sugar, butter, and karo syrup. Grease 3 or 4 8" baking pans and line the bottom of the pans with the glaze mix. If you want, you can add chopped up walnuts or pecans on the glaze (we used pecans).

Bake the rolls at 370 for 15-20 minutes (they took about 27 with the GF flour - anyone know why that would be?). After baking, set a plate on top of the pan of rolls, then flip it over. Let it sit for a minute to let the glaze drizzle down, the remove the pan. There you are - a beautiful pan of glazed sweet rolls! They get stale quickly, so make sure to cover them soon after they cool.

Resulting Deliciousness:

These rolls were the closest to the real thing that we've ever gotten using GF flour - Jules' mix definitely works well, I highly recommend it. The taste was exactly what I remember. The only shortcoming was the texture - these did not rise as well as the flour ones, so they were a little more dense and harder. However, they were very worth the effort. If anyone can give me some tips on how to tweak the recipe to get them to rise better, please let me know in a comment!

Local Grass-Fed Applewood Smoked Beef

Many people are intimidated by slow cooking techniques like smoking.  In reality, it is one of the oldest, simplest, easiest, tastiest ways to prepare food.  Low temperature slow cooking is very forgiving.  While you'll want a smoker to really do it right, you can improvise quite well with a grill (see my North Carolina Pulled Pork Barbecue!).  This was the first thing we made with my dad's new smoker.  

The meat we smoked was very special, although it shouldn't be.  We used extremely fresh, locally raised grass-fed beef, which was absolutely beautiful.  As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I am a huge supporter of feeding animals the foods they evolved to eat.  No cow can properly digest corn.  A happy cow is out in a field eating a variety of different grasses.  A grass-fed cow's meat is leaner and far superior in taste to any feedlot meat.  Because the meat is more lean, low and slow techniques are helpful because it can be easy to overcook lean meat on a grill if you're used to fatty grain-fed beef (less fat means less juices).  Low and slow also helps make the meat even more tender.  If the environmental, health, and moral shortcomings of feedlot meat won't convince you to go for more expensive grass-fed meat, maybe the taste and texture benefits will.  And that isn't limited to cows - in my opinion, the taste benefit of a free-range life and natural diet is even greater for chicken and pork than it is for beef (check out forestfed.com, makes other pork taste like uncooked tofu).  Anyway, here is what we did:

Ingredients:

• Sirloin Roast
• Short Ribs
• Kielbasa
• Dale's
• Rub
• Sea Salt
• Brown Sugar
• Paprika
• Black Pepper
  
• Garlic Salt
• Dry Mustard
• Celery Salt
• Red Pepper
• White Pepper
• Cumin
• Thyme
• Onion Powder
• Cloves
• Zucchini
  
• Yellow Squash
• Potatoes
• Barbecue Sauce
• Ketchup
• Dry Mustard
• Tabasco 
• White pepper
• Red pepper
• Black pepper
• Oregano
• Garlic Salt
• Paprika
• Red wine

Procedure:

My dad and I started this meal by marinating the beef.  I used some Dale's, one of the very few pre-packaged marinades I use.  While the meat marinated for about an hour, we got the fire in the smoker going with some charcoal and scraps of oak, and cut some green branches off our apple tree (you can also buy wood to smoke).  While the fire burned down, I mixed up the rub - about half and half sugar and salt, plus whatever seasonings you have around, to your taste.  After marinating for an hour, I took the beef out, patted it semi-dry, and rubbed in the rub.  Remember to really rub the rub into the meat - it's not called a 'sprinkle'.  Once the fire was ready, we put the beef on the lower rack in the smoker, right above the water pan.  About 5 hours later, it was ready.  Over the course of of the 5 hours, we periodically threw in some more green applewood to keep the smoke going.

This was the first time I've tried to smoke vegetables.  I ended up losing track of time and didn't put them on as early as I wanted.  So, I cut them up, coated them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, wrapped it loosely in tin foil, then added them to the upper rack of the smoker.  After about an hour, they were soft and ready.

    Just before serving, my dad mixed up his barbecue sauce.

Resulting Deliciousness:

    This was the best smoked beef we've ever made.  The rub worked very well and the smoke flavor was fantastic.  The meat, however was the real star.  It was moist and so tender you could cut it with a spoon.  You could really tell the difference from going with good cuts of grass-fed meat.  The vegetables were good, but because they were pre-sliced, the smoke flavor was too strong.  Next time I wouldn't cut them up and would use more seasoning after smoking and slicing.

Although very good, my rub and my dad's sauce didn't closely follow any major style of barbecue, so any fans of a particular region would probably point out some shortcomings (although the apple wood was definitely a feature of our region of Western North Carolina).  I think the next few times I do barbecue, I'll try to follow a few different regions closely.  If you have any favorites that you want to see me try, tell me about it in the comments!

Roast Duck with Celery Roots, Beets, and Asparagus

I recently heard about a new butcher shop in Alexandria, Virginia called Let's Meat on the Avenue.  They specialize in local pasture fed and naturally fed meat.  Obviously, I had to check it out.  It's a great little butcher shop, just what I've been looking for in the area.  The selection is good and you can get custom cuts and order specialty things that they don't always have.  While I went in looking for grass fed beef, I ended up getting a duck.  It wasn't local like most of the other meat (farm raised in Indiana), but I found I was in the mood for fowl.  If you are in northern Virginia or DC and appreciate meat with a traceable source that has put real thought and care into how they farm (as well as a butcher that understands that) this is the butcher shop for you!

Ingredients:

• Duck
• Brine
• Apple cider
• Kosher salt
• Garlic
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Thyme
• Juniper berries (lightly crushed)
• Pepper
• Celery salt
• Paprika
• Rub
• Kosher salt
• Cane sugar
• Paprika
• Cloves
• Black pepper
• Red pepper
• Garlic Salt
• Celery Salt
• Oregano
• Basil
• Celery Root
• Beets
• Asparagus
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Apple Cider

Procedure:

    Like most of the meat I've prepared in the last year, this started out with a brine.  I took some apple cider, added the ingredients listed, simmered it for about 45 minutes, and let it cool.  I removed the giblets from the duck, cut off a little excess fat and skin, and rinsed it well.  The brine and the duck met each other in a ziplock bag and moved to the fridge, where they together pursued perfection of flavor and texture for the next 24 hours.

    The next evening, I cut up a celery root, three beets, and a bundle of asparagus.  These were covered in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and placed in a baking pan with a little cider and a fowl roasting rack.  A fowl roasting rack holds a bird in a V-shaped rack a bit above the bottom of a roasting pan.  This keeps the whole bird in the air and allows the vegetables placed underneath to receive a slow shower of flavorful drippings. If you've never used celery root, I highly recommend it.  It is a large white root vegetable that you can prepare the same ways you can prepare potatoes.  However, they have a nice subtle celery flavor that blows potatoes out of the water.  They are an easy way to take a meat and potatoes kind of meal and kick it up to a higher level.  I only discovered celery root recently and it is my new favorite thing.

    Once the pan was prepared, I mixed up a rub of equal parts cane sugar and kosher salt, plus the seasonings listed above.  I took the duck out of the brine, rinsed it lightly, smeared it with a little olive oil, and covered it with the rub, including the cavity.  Remember that rubs are called 'rubs' for a reason - don't just sprinkle meat with it, really rub it in.  This grinds it into the skin and fat and keeps the rub from running off with the drippings while you cook.  Instead, the flavor infuses the meat and makes the skin slightly crusty and extremely tasty.  Once rubbed, the duck got its cavity stuffed with the rest of my fresh rosemary, sage, thyme, and garlic.

    I placed the duck breast down in the fowl roasting rack above the vegetables.  I've started cooking birds breast down whenever I remember to.  This lets all of the fatty, flavorful drippings seep through the prime meat, making it juicier and more succulent than when baked on its back.  I roasted the duck on the bottom rack at 325 for about 2 hours.  I then flipped it on its back and roasted another 30 minutes breast up because the back was perfectly done and the breast needed a little more heat.  

    While this description is long, roasting like this is quick and easy.  You only have to roughly chop the vegetables and the meat preparation is very fast.  The only time consuming part is the actual roasting, but that's a fairly passive undertaking.  

Resulting Deliciousness:  

    This duck turned out exactly how I wanted it to.  The skin was just a little crusty and had a powerful flavor that complimented the meat.  The celery root, beats, and asparagus were delicious - they held their own and did not just taste like drippings, as could easily happen with things like potatoes and carrots.  I was really happy with the way this turned out.  

    Duck is a naturally fatty and flavorful meat, and if you cook it too fast or don't let it drip, you risk ending up with a greasy meal.  This was not greasy at all.  The fat that did not drip off to enhance the vegetables stayed with the skin and took on the flavors of the brine and the rub.  That flavor made the difference between feeling like you were eating a nice piece of meat with a nasty strip of fat, and feeling like you were eating a well balanced, flavorful, well prepared cut.

Corn Statch Crepes

  Whenever I'm home, I try to get my mom to make crepes.  Since we both have Celiac Disease, we can't eat normal crepes made with wheat flour.  Fortunately, my mom has an old recipe for corn starch crepes.  We made them even before we knew we had to eat gluten free because they are easy, cheap, and taste better than most other crepes - which is saying something since we've had them in Paris crepe shops.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 Tbs corn oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup corn starch

Procedure:

    These are extremely easy.  Just beat the eggs, then mix in everything else.  Heat up a small to medium skillet and add a little oil.  Pour about 1/8 of a cup of batter into the pan and swirl it around to cover.  Flip after about 45 seconds, cook another 45 seconds, and your first crepe is ready.  You don't need to re-oil the pan between crepes, it's good for a while.  Put the crepe on a plate, add a little filling, roll it up, and eat it.

Resulting Deliciousness:

    These crepes come out nice and thin and soft, and are good with any type of filling so you can use them for anything from breakfast to desert.  Some of our favorites are bacon, jelly/jam/preserves, cream cheese, scrambled eggs, cheese, etc.   

Post-Thanksgiving Turkey Gumbo

Making gumbo from the leftover turkey is a Thanksgiving tradition at our house.  It is a great way to shift the flavors away from the cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and gravy everyone's been eating for two days, and it is way more satisfying than a turkey sandwich.  It starts with making stock from the turkey bones and just keeps getting better:

Ingredients:

• Stock
• Turkey bones, stripped of meat, seasoned, baked
• Rosemary
  
• Thyme
  
• Black pepper
  
• White pepper
  
• Red pepper
  
• Dried cilantro
  
• Basil
  
• Oregano
  
• Sea salt
  
• Garlic salt
  
• Onion
• Green pepper
• Carrots
• Celery
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Sage
• Red pepper
• Black pepper
• Sea salt
• Garlic Salt
• Oregano
• Basil
• Paprika
• Water
• Turkey, pulled into bite sized or smaller pieces
• Kielbasa
• Celery
• Red pepper
• Onion
• Dad's spice mix (see Chicken, The Phantom Menace)
• White wine
• Roux
• GF Flour (Bob's Red Mill All Purpose mix) (~1/3 cup)
• Vegetable Oil (~1/4 cup) (or clarified butter)
• Black eyed peas
• Black beans
• Carrots
• Sugar
• Red pepper
• Water

Procedure:

Stock:

    After cooking a whole bird, or other meat that leaves you with a bunch of tasty bones, I like to make stock.  Homemade stock is extremely easy to make and way, way better than any store bought broth or bullion.  The key to good stock is baking the bones.  Once we were done with Thanksgiving dinner, we got all of the meat off the bones (you can leave skin and a little fat).  Don't be shy to put down the knife and use your fingers - you can only carve nice slices off so much, and you're going to want small pieces for the gumbo later anyway.  Once the bones are clean, put them in a roasting pan or on a baking sheet with sides to catch liquids - you don't want fat to drip onto the stove and start a fire.  Sprinkle the bones generously with salt, pepper, and any herbs and spices you like - garlic salt, celery salt, paprika, and rosemary work well.  Bake the bones at 350-400 for 1-2 hours.  They should be very browned, bordering on blackened, bot not burnt or charred.

    After the bones are baked, cram them into the bottom of a large pot.  Don't be afraid to use some force, breaking bones is good - it exposes the marrow even further than baking.  Add some roughly chopped vegetables - celery and onion are a must, I usually use a bell pepper and carrots as well, use whatever you like or look online for some more suggestions.  Only chop them roughly because you'll be straining them out later.  Also add herbs, spices and salt.

    Cover the mix with water and get it simmering.  Simmer uncovered until it reduces by about half - I think I let mine go for about 4 hours, and ended up with a little under half a gallon of stock.  Let it cool a little, and skim fat off the top a few times.  Strain out all the solids and you're left with a dark, flavorful stock.  The stock is very potent, so you can usually cut it with equal amounts water.  

     

Gumbo:

    To start the gumbo, get the black eyed peas and black beans cooking if you're starting with dried (not necessary if they are canned).  When Season the onions, celery, and red pepper with some of the spice mix and caramelize them in a pan with no oil.  When there is a good amount of residue and they are getting cooked, add some wine or other liquid to deglaze the pan.  Add the sliced kielbasa and cook until browned lightly.  Add the stuff in the pan and the beans to a large pot, add stock and water, and start it simmering.  Add the carrots and the pulled turkey.  Next, it's time to make the roux.  This is a somewhat delicate operation.  In a pan, start mixing the flour and oil on medium to high heat.  Stir it constantly while it slowly browns.  The roux is done when it is just bordering on burnt.  As soon as it is ready, add it to the big pot and stir it in.  Let the gumbo simmer for about an hour, or until you're too hungry to wait.  Taste it and add sugar, salt, pepper, or whatever else you think it needs.  Serve the gumbo in bowls on top of rice.

Resulting Deliciousness:

    The stock turned out very rich, very tasty.  After sitting overnight in the refrigerator, it was almost jelly-like, so it was pretty high in fat.  We cut it with about an equal amount of water for the gumbo.  The gumbo was fantastic.  Even after simmering for an hour or more, you could still taste the flavor of the brine in some of the dark turkey meat.  The fatty stock did not make the gumbo greasy, which can easily happen if you don't skim enough fat off of the stock, or don't cut it with enough water.  The flavors of the gumbo were perfect, everything blended well, and the meal left you feeling very satisfied.  I think the key to the blending of the flavors is the few tablespoons of sugar added at the end. 

Thanksgiving Dinner, 2008

This year was a small Thanksgiving for us, only about 8 people. But, we didn't use that as an excuse to make less food...

Ingredients:

• Turkey and derivatives:
  
• Brine
  
• Apple Cider
  
• Cranberry juice
  
• Water
  
• Rosemary
  
• Thyme
  
• Sage
  
• Sea salt (~10tbs)
  
• Black pepper
  
• White pepper
  
• Red pepper
  
• Paprika
  
• Stuffing
  
• Whole Foods Gluten Free Sandwich Bread (toasted and cubed)
• Onion
• Celery
• Green pepper
• Dad's spice mix (found on Chicken, The Phantom Menace post)
• White wine
• Pecan halves
• Craisins (raisins made from cranberries)
• Gravy
  
• Gluten Free Flour (we used Bob's Red Mill all purpose mix)
• Vegetable oil (just a little to brown the flour in)
• Turkey drippings, strained and separated
• Milk
• Salt & Pepper (lots, just keep adding until it tastes right to you)
• Side of Fruit
• Pineapple
• Grapes
• Cantaloupe 
• Side Salad
• Lettuce 
• Carrot shavings
• Red Peppers
• Artichoke Hearts
• Tomatoes
• Various dressings
• Green beans
• Green beans
• Chicken Broth
• Salt
• Pepper
• Steamed Vegetables
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Butter
• Garlic Salt
• Mashed Potatoes
• Potatoes
• Milk
• Butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cranberry Sauce
• Cranberries
• Sugar
• Water

Procedure:

Turkey:

    This year, I brined the turkey overnight.  The brine consisted of about a gallon or so of liquid, split roughly between apple cider, cranberry juice, and water.  To that I added lots of sea salt, spices, and fresh herbs.  The brine simmered for about an hour and a half, long enough to infuse the herb flavors into the liquid, caramelize the sugars in the juices, and boil off some of the water.  I removed the giblets and rinsed the turkey well (I also had to cut off some fat and some of the giblets that were left in the cavity - the bird had been butchered in haste).  I placed the turkey in a huge ziplok bag made for brining turkeys and added the cooled brine.  This went in the fridge for about 15 hours, roughly an hour per pound.

    The morning of Thanksgiving, we took the turkey out of the brine, rinsed it briefly, and rubbed it with oil.  Then, we stuffed and trussed it and baked it at 325 until the internal temperature was 185 (about an hour for every 3 pounds).  Because we forgot to move the rack to the very bottom, the turkey started blackening early.  We covered it lightly with foil.  It looks pretty black in these pictures, but was not actually burned.  I'm not sure if the brining makes the skin blacken faster than normal, it may.  

Stuffing:

    My dad has gotten gluten free stuffing down pat.  We just use Whole Foods Gluten Free Sandwich bread, toasted and cut into cubes.  Another GF bread would be fine, but I would stay away from anything with oily or hard seeds (flax, poppy, etc), or large amounts of bean flour (too much flavor that doesn't really go with stuffing) - the closer to white bread you can get, the better - you want to soak up flavor with the bread, not add too much.  To start the stuffing, caramelize onions, celery, and green pepper with a little oil or butter and seasonings to your taste (we used my dad's general spice mix, found here).  Use a little white wine or other liquid to de-glaze the pan when it's almost ready.  Mix the vegetables with the bread cubes, pecan halves, and lots of melted butter.  It should be a moist, butter mix.  This goes into the turkey to become extremely delicious.  Some people prefer to make stuffing on the stove top.  I don't buy into that, but you could probably get good results that way, just using turkey drippings to add flavor instead of baking in the turkey.  I can see doing that so you can make more than you can fit in a turkey.  

Gravy:

    We usually make a white gravy.  You start by browning some GF flour with a little oil, making an unappetizing brown goo.  Add some turkey drippings, strained and separated.  Just keep mixing slowly and all the clumps of flour will go away.  Add some milk slowly, while stirring.  Add salt and pepper, until it tastes the way you like it.  You can add more drippings or milk as needed to get the balance right.

Mashed Potatoes:

    You should know how to make these.  Boil lots of peeled potatoes.  Drain.  Mash with milk, butter, salt and pepper.

Steamed Vegetables:

    My mom makes this all the time, easy and delicious.  Cover a large plate with a head of cauliflower, surround it with some cut up broccoli and carrots, pour some melted butter over it, sprinkle on some garlic salt, cover with saran wrap, and microwave for about 10-15 minutes, until everything is nice and soft.

Cranberry Sauce:

    Cranberry sauce is very easy to make, and much better than the canned stuff.  Just boil cranberries in sugar water until it tastes like cranberry sauce.  I don't remember the ratio of sugar and water, but I think its about equal amounts - bags of cranberries have the recipe on them.

Other sides:

    The other sides were just a tossed salad, some cut up fresh fruit, and green beans simmered in chicken broth.

Resulting Deliciousness:

    This Thanksgiving turned out very well.  The turkey was extremely flavorful, the brine worked just how I wanted it to.  The dark meat took on the flavor especially well, maybe because it has a larger skin surface area - to - meat ratio than white meat, or maybe because it is a little fattier and more flavorful to start with.  The stuffing turned out as good as it always does.  I think the GF bread, being higher in fat than normal bread, actually makes a better stuffing than any wheat-based bread stuffing I've ever had.  All of the sides turned out great, as always.  Next year (and at Christmas), I think I want to venture out to some new sides.

Gluten Free Thanksgiving Summary

This Thanksgiving was a blur of cooking, eating, and napping - in other words, a perfect vacation.  I'm breaking all of the recipes up into several posts.  Check back over the next day or two as I add them.  For now, here is a list of what we made and a few teaser pictures!  I'll make these links to the recipes once I get them written up.  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Dinner

• Turkey (brined!)
  

• Gluten Free Stuffing
  

• Gravy
  
• Salad

• Steamed Veggies
  

• Green Beans
  

• Cranberry Sauce

• Fruit

Thanksgiving Desert

• Pumpkin Pie
• Apple Cranberry Pie
• Whipped Cream
• Ice cream 

Day After Thanksgiving Breakfast

• Cornstarch Crepes

Day After Thanksgiving Dinner

• Turkey Gumbo

Chicken Stew with Bombadil

Bombadil was back in town, along with some other friends, so I made some stew for everyone.  It turned out pretty decent, but the Bombadil show definitely stole the night.  

Ingredients:

• Ground Chicken
• Celery
• Onion
• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Quinoa
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Black Beans
• Roasted Red Pepper
• Chicken Stock
• Apple Cider
• Cane Sugar
• Celery Salt
• Garlic Salt
• Black Pepper
• White Pepper
• Red Pepper
• Paprika
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Thyme
• Cloves

Procedure:

    To make this, I used the basic procedure for any stew: throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and hope for the best.  I browned the chicken with the onions and celery in a separate pan, and roasted a red pepper on a burner, but other than that, everything just went in the pot and simmered for about an hour and a half.

Resulting Deliciousness:

    I give this about a B-.  It was definitely tasty, and healthy, and the flavors were decently layered and went together well.  However, I was a little disappointed with the combination of textures.  It would have been better to cut the potatoes and cauliflower smaller.  If I was less lazy, it would have been really good to steam the cauliflower separately, put it in a blender with some butter or olive oil, then add it to the stew.  That would have smoothed things out and thickened the broth nicely.  Also, I burnt it a little.  I noticed quick and didn't stir up the burnt stuff on the bottom, so it wasn't ruined and most people couldn't tell.  All in all, it was good, and gave me some good ideas, but fell a little short of the bar I set for myself.

Chorizo Stew and Cornmeal Crunch

Ingredients:

• Forest Fed pork chorizo (www.forestfed.com)
• Turkey stock
• Tomatoes
• Quinoa
• Celery
• Black Eyed Peas
• Hominy
• Carrots
• Blackberries
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Cilantro
• Apple Cider
• Garlic salt
• Celery salt
• Black pepper
• Cane sugar
• Honey

• Cornmeal Crunch : http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/cornmeal-crunch-recipe.html

Procedure

    The cornmeal crunch is a recipe I got from another cooking blog, www.101cookbooks.com that I thought would go well with this stew.  The stew started with some cider and frozen turkey stock that I made a while back.  To that I added the quinoa, black eyed peas, tomatoes, blackberries, and all of the seasonings.  That simmered while I worked on the cornmeal crunch and preparing the chorizo.  The chorizo was coming out of its casings, so I just ditched the casings and browned the sausage with some celery and added that to the stew.  When the cornmeal was about half an hour from being done, I added the hominy.  Total, the stew simmered for about an hour.  Near the end, I picked out the rosemary, sage, and cilantro stalks, and skimmed off the fat that had risen to the top.

Resulting Deliciousness

    This stew was great.  The cornmeal crunch was much more flavorful that I thought it would be, and it complimented the stew perfectly.  The stew has a variety of textures and the flavors blended perfectly.  It is a nicely balanced, filling dish.  My only regret is the blackberries.  They simmered long enough to fall apart and become part of the blend, so you can't really taste them on their own, and their seeds are a distracting texture.  But, overall, a fantastic dinner!

Chicken, The Phantom Menace

*This is a family favorite created by my dad.  He did all of the cooking and writing, and gets all the credit.*

This dish was named in honor of the Star Wars movie which came out about the same time I started making it. It is anything but a menace. Quite the opposite, it is a great comfort food and as you will see from the ingredients, also healthy.

There a lot of steps to making this dish. I have from time to time tried to cut corners and combine steps, but I was never quite as happy with the results as when I follow the steps outlined below.

Step 1- Precook a small bag of black eyed peas- about 2-3 cups dried. I like to add a little salt and bullion to the water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes. I usually get this going so it can be cooking while I go through the other steps. This is actually one thing you can short cut on by buying canned black eyed peas, but it is really easy and inexpensive to go with the dried peas. This will make an excess quantity, so I freeze some for other dishes.

Step 2 – Toast about a quarter to a third of a cup of all purpose GF four in a large sauce pan. With the heat on medium high to high stir the flour continuously in the pan. This takes 5-10 minutes and can produce a lot of smoke as the flour browns. (You may have issues with smoke detectors. Be prepared to ventilate.) Stir briskly or it will burn and you’ll have to start over. Shoot for a nice dark brown like a good piece of toast.

Put this aside and rinse out the pan. You’re going to need it.

Step 3 – Collect and mix spices. This is about what I use:

1 tsp dried mustard

1 tsp coarse salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

¼ tsp cayenne pepper ( more if you like hot stuff)

¼ tsp white pepper

1 tsp paprika

I feel like the white pepper is especially important for how it feels in the back of your mouth, but don’t over do it because it will give the dish a harsh taste.

Spice Mixture

Step 4 – Precook Chicken - I like to cut up chicken breasts into small pieces, maybe about an inch or so. I have also done this dish with chicken thighs, which worked very well too. Sprinkle about a quarter of the spice mixture on the cut up chicken and fry in some a few table spoons of peanut or olive oil. The idea is to just brown the outside a little, it will have time to cook through later. Set the chicken aside and wipe the pan out, at least so there are no small pieces of chicken left.

Chicken Pieces frying in the pan

Step 5 – Dice up vegetables – I like to use one Vidalia onion, 3-4 celery stalks and a bell pepper, green or red. Cut these up and put most of the remaining spice mixture on them.

Have about three cups of chicken stock or three cups of warm water with a couple of bullion cubes dissolved in it on hand. Also, have about a cup of white grape juice or white wine handy.

Brown these in the pan on high heat, stirring the while. A brown residue will build up on the bottom which you should scrape to prevent it from burning. From time to time deglaze the pan, first with white grape juice, then with some chicken stock when the residue builds up again. The vegetables should be well cooked and brown.

When you are satisfied that they are done add the remainder of the stock and a little more wine or grape juice.

Add in the other things you precooked, the chicken, the flour and one to two cups of the black eyed peas. I also like to put in carrots at this point. You can slice up a couple of large ones or throw in a bag of those baby ones. Add the rest of the spice mixture too.

If you used white wine instead of white grape juice add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar.

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

Step 6 – Simmer and Serve – I usually like to let this mixture simmer for 30-60 minutes. Make sure the carrots are soft. Check the seasoning. Often I need to add a little more salt and/or sugar. Give it a stir from time to time. The flour and the starch from the peas generally thicken the dish well; about like gravy. If you want it thicker when you are ready to serve, bring it to a boil and add a table spoon of corn starch in a third of a cup of cold water

About 30 minutes before serving, peel and cook some potatoes. Cook in boiling salted water. When the potatoes are soft when stabbed with a fork they are ready. Drain the water, pore into a colander, put them back in the pot you boiled them in and mash along with butter, milk, salt and pepper. You can also use condensed milk at this step which makes them even creamier.

How many potatoes should you use? Take the number you think you will need and multiply by 2.5.

Plop down some mashed potatoes on a plate and ladle the menace over it. Damn !

This dish is ever better when reheated, and it freezes well too.