Sous Vide Supreme:

I am really enjoying my time with the Sous Vide Supreme and learning a lot about when to sous vide and when not to sous vide. For ribeye, skirt, or simply large steaks, sous vide is the method to use. For chicken, burgers or smaller cuts of meat, one can over tenderize the meat if it is cooked too long. I have found that burgers cooked at 131 degrees for 30-45 minutes is about the right amount of time to cook a half pound burger to medium rare, but not turn it “mushy.” In my opinion, part of the pleasure of eating a burger is the actual chewing of the meat. If the burger is too tender, there is little resistance and it feels like eating baby food. If you have ever eaten a medium rare Kobe burger, you know what I am talking about. However, cooking the burger in the Sous Vide Supreme to just done and giving it a hard, crusty sear will produce a heavenly burger.

Making chicken wings in the sous vide is not really worth the effort. They looked and tasted fine, but the extra half-hour did not produce significant differences in the taste of the wings. What did matter was the two hour soak in a brine and the use of corn starch AND flour in the coating. The wings were seasoned all the way through to the bone and the outside was very crispy. I am still working on infusing more flavors (think spicy) into the wings and will share more later.

Bread Chronicles:

I had about a pound of 24 hour, Reinhart’s French bread dough and a half a pound of Parmesan cheese. So I decided to make cheesy bread. Form the dough into a rectangle, spread the cheese over the dough. Roll up the dough like a jelly roll and proof for about an hour. About ten minutes before baking, slit the top to allow steam and the cheese to escape. Bake at 450 degrees for 20-25 mins. Enjoy.

Note: I skipped a number in the lab series by accident. So while this really number six, I am calling it number five.

Every so often I just look into my refrigerator and ask myself what can I make with that ingredient? Yesterday, it was ricotta cheese.

Adapted from Gale Gand’s recipe

Ingredients:

• 225 grams ricotta cheese
• 200 grams flour
• 60 grams sugar
• 8 grams baking powder
• 2 grams vanilla extract
• 2 grams kosher salt
• 3 large eggs

Application:

• In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, ricotta and vanilla extract until combined.
• In separate large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt until combined.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until combined. Do not over mix the batter.
• Heat your deep fryer (or large pot) to 375 degrees. Using an small ice cream scoop (#40), gently drop the batter into the oil and fry for 3 minutes or until golden brown.
• Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with powdered sugar while still warm.

These were some the lightest and yummiest doughnuts I have ever had. Thank you, Gale.

Writing a real post for the first time in a while and it feels pretty good. Sometimes the creativity that is needed to produce a food blog escapes you. How many different ways can you take pictures of cookies or in my case, hamburgers? What colorful words can I use to describe ketchup? How should I have syrup pour down those pancakes? Exactly!

My writer’s block started to melt away once I remembered why I started Weekend Food Projects. I had something to say about food, I love taking pictures, and I could contribute something to the game. Oh yes, I forgot something, fun! On my 44th birthday, I decided that I was going to be the man that I always wanted to be. As far as this blog is concerned, I am going to produce work that I can be proud of, on a schedule that allows for those creative juice to flow.

During my writer’s block I decided to work on my baking skills and realized that I have some ability. One of my “go to” baking products are my buttermilk biscuits. After tweaking this recipe to death, I have finally nailed it.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients

• 325 grams flour
• 2 grams baking soda
• 15 grams baking powder
• 5 grams kosher salt
• 80 grams butter
• 235 grams buttermilk

Application:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, butter, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a food processor, pulse until mixture looks like crumbs. Pour in the chilled buttermilk and pulse just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. (Note: I used a rectangular cutter for these biscuits)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 20 minutes.

This my skirt steak biscuit. The sauce is a homemade Honey Chipotle Mayo. The steak was sous vide for 10 hours and seared for 2 minutes on each side.

Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits and Jam

Ground ribeye steak, french bread rolls, asiago fresca cheese and honey-chipotle mayo.

Homemade Mayo. Nothing special, I know. An egg yolk, tsp of dijon mustard, tsp of vinegar, a squeeze of lime juice and salt to taste. What was special was the 8oz (225g) of veggie oil infused with 1/2oz (15g) of dried red pepper in an ISI cream whipper with two NO2 canisters. Put all of the ingredients in a tall container (a Mason jar will do) and blend with an immersion blender. Simple, quick and tasty. If you want to create quick infused oils or liquors, invest in an ISI cream whipper. It will be the best 50-60 dollars you can spend.

The Sous Vide Supreme

I was planning on spending my Martin Luther King, Jr. three day weekend practicing my baking. However, my oven decided to blow the ignitor, rendering my plans (and my oven) useless. So I spent the time reading, watching videos on sous-vide cooking, and experimenting with my new Sous Vide Supreme. I will be writing a post about it later on this month, but I can tell you that cooking burgers, steaks, and chicken in the Sous Vide Supreme is amazing.

These are my lab notes for my homemade Ginger Ale

1 oz. fresh ginger juice
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
3.5 oz. simple syrup
Two or three pinches ground star anise (optional and mix with the simple syrup)
10 oz. carbonated water

If you are drinking alcohol, add 2 oz of Novo Fogo (cachaca) and only use 8 oz of cold carbonated water. Pour over ice.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that my recent lab efforts have been dedicated to baking my own breads, pizzas, and buns. How can you possibly have a “perfect burger” without it?

One of the more frustrating things about restaurant burgers is that many of them do not pay attention to the bun. Imagine putting all of that time and effort to create the perfect blend of beef, cheese and spices, just to ruin it with a cheap store bought bun. Wow, that really is a depressing thought…

So I started my research into bread making by studying YouTube videos of Jim Lahey, Peter Reinhart, Nancy Silverton, and Chad Robertson. Their passion for bread is infectious. After successfully using Lahey’s “No Knead” method, I was hooked on being able to make bread. Was it perfect? No, but it was bread out of my oven and it tasted better than most of the supermarket bread I have eaten.

With that success under my belt, the next step was to tackle making hamburger buns. With the help of my favorite new book, Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day I was able to make the basic white buns and a white sandwich loaf. I know that white bread is not “artisan”, but for many people a soft white bun is “perfect!” In any case, don’t these buns look great?

I can honestly say that these hamburger buns were pretty good and will act as a platform for developing the right bun for the perfect burger. I am going to play around with Reinhart’s recipe a bit to see if can make the bun more to my taste. I am thinking maybe I would add whole wheat flour or playing with the hydration level. Once I have worked out those tweaks, I will post the recipe. Until then, enjoy the loaf I made using the same dough I used for the buns.

This post will be short and sweet. Excellent meat produces excellent product. During my first experiment with duck prosciutto, I realized that I am selling myself short by buying grocery store meat. So I went to my new favorite place, Rain Shadow meats in Seattle and bought myself some serious Muscovy duck breast. I paid a pretty penny for 2.5 pounds of duck and I can not afford to make this a monthly habit, but the results were fantastic.

Ingredients:
1.134 kilograms (2.5 pounds) duck breast
1300 grams kosher salt
Several sprigs of thyme (to taste)
2-3 juniper berries (trust me, you don’t want to use much more)

Application:
The goal here is to completely cover the duck in herbs and salt. I used a plate for each duck breast half. Spread about 350 grams of kosher salt down on each of the plates. Grind the juniper berries in a spice grinder and sprinkle it equally over the two plates. Next, place the thyme sprigs down on the salt. Lay the duck breasts skin side up on the salt and herb mixture. Use the remaining salt to cover the duck breast. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Note: Don’t be stingy with the salt, salt is cheap!

Place the duck breast in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours. Since the duck breasts were huge, I cured it for 48 hours. After 24-48 hours, rinse the salt and herbs off the duck breast. Dry them off, wrap in cheese cloth and hang in curing chamber for 10-14 days. Because of the duck’s size, I chose to hang the duck longer (14 days) to make sure it was done.

To store the duck prosciutto, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator. To serve, just slice thinly. Enjoy.