Eggs part one.

I know, I know. I've been a neglectful blogger. 

Okay, let's talk about eggs. They're probably the biggest bang for your buck available in the culinary world. Even if you splurge (like I've been known to) on the four dollar dozen fresh eggs from a local farm the value is hard to ignore. They keep an incredibly long time, they're endlessly versatile. You can make tons of delicious deserts, sauces, and breakfast foods with eggs and a small list of other ingredients.

I suppose I'll start with breakfast. 

Poached eggs in broth.

This is probably my favorite thing to eat when I plan to go out and get things done. It's an unusual breakfast in that it completely discards the starchy carbohydrate saturated elements in favor of pure protein and calories. 

For the stock you will need:

5 pounds pork rib or neck bones or beef joints

1 large daikon, diced into about 1 inch pieces

3-4 carrots, diced in 1 inch pieces

3 leeks washed, ends discarded, cut in half and into 1 inch slices

2-3 yellow onions diced

8 cloves garlic, peeled but whole

about 1 inch of ginger sliced

a bunch of scallions ends, roots discarded and lightly crushed

parsley stems

3-4 star anise, whole

10-15 black peppercorns

10-15 coriander seeds whole

1/2 inch stick of cinnamon

2 bay leaves

~8 whole cloves

fish sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar to taste.

Method:

This broth is reasonably close to a traditional pho, but I'm not really interested in getting into a semantic argument about what that might entail. So the bone choice is really up to you. I like pork bones the best, but pork soup seems perenially unpopular in most of the places I've lived. If you use beef bones marrow is always a plus.

Additionally, there are things you could do to make this broth more academically perfect. There are techniques which will make it crystal clear, but I can't be bothered with that when I'm cooking at home. If it matters to you there are lots of resources available to you concerning stock technique. 

Salt and oil your bones and throw them on a tray in your oven at about 350 degrees. 

Toss the first group of veggies in oil and salt and put them on a separate pan in the oven.

Roast the vegetables until they are tender and beginning to brown. Roast the bones until they are quite brown and aromatic.

Add everything to a large stock pot and fill it with cold water. Yes, it's important that this water is cold.

Toast the spices in a dry pan if you feel like it. You can make a sachet out of cheesecloth or you could just throw them in whole and strain them out, which is what I usually do. Toss them in along with the ginger and scallions and start heating the pot over low heat.

Your broth should never boil. It helps to be going in and out of the kitchen while you make this recipe, because you know it's getting near hot enough when the smell of broth completely fills your house. As soon as bubbles break the surface you can back the heat off.

Skim the sludge off periodically as it comes to the surface.

I've let this broth simmer as long as 16 hours. It's not really necessary to go that long, but I do think you will have a sweeter more subtle broth if you take your time cooking it. I've read sources that claimed that all the flavor from the bones is extracted after 3 hours, but I don't really buy it. In any case, the difference in sweetness and body is obvious if you try cooking this several times and back the heat off.

When it's done cooking drain it, discard the bones and veggies and let the liquid cool. You can freeze some of it at this point, which will be necessary unless you live with lots of people who really love soup. 

To poach the eggs:

Heat about 2-3 cups of your broth up. I usually add the soy, fish sauce, rice vinegar and salt at this point rather than adding it to the whole batch. When you reduce broth the salt level rises, which is why it's always wise to salt liquid just before you eat it, unlike almost all other foods.

When the liquid is boiling, whisk it hard and immediately crack two eggs straight into it. The motion of the water should cause them to retain their shape, unless you break the whites. Immediately remove the pan from heat, allow the eggs to cook in the liquid for a minute or two, until they retain their shape but the yolk still feels soft. 

Serve the eggs and broth. You can either allow the eggs to continue cooking or smash the shit out of them and allow the yolk to mix with the liquid. Squeeze a little lime or toss some cilantro leaves in there.

Nothing is better on a rainy day.

Seared white fish with a Khmer mango salad.

Here is a fish recipe similar to the special I ran tonight at work.

Ingredients.

4 6-8oz. portions of a delicate white fish (such as sablefish, sea bass, sole or fluke)

2 ripe mangoes

1 large shallot

4 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 tsp ginger, minced

1/2tsp lemon zest and a small squeeze of juice

1 small chili (jalapeno or serrano will do)

~ 1tsp mint leaves, finely chopped

~ 1tsp cilantro, finely chopped

1/2tsp fish sauce

1/8 sugar (optional, may be unecessary depending on the ripeness of the mangoes)

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped

Method.

Peel the mangoes and juliene them.

Carefully mince the shallot, being careful not to crush it. 

Slice the Garlic into medallions or matchsticks, again being careful not to agitate it.

Seed and mince the chili.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl (except the fish) and set aside. It's important to let the fish sauce work together with the rest of the flavors so the salad will develop.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and salt your fish.

Heat a pan large enough for all of your fish. If the pan has a rubber or plastic handle it will be a problem later. Add enough neutral oil to coat the bottom of the pan plus enough that it rolls a bit when you turn the pan. When the pan is quite hot, place the fish in on the side that didn't have skin on it. We'll refer to this as the "presentation" side. Once the fish are in the pan, immediately shake them from side to side to ensure that they aren't sticking.

The trick here is patience. Obviously you don't want to burn the fish, but crisping the outside of it will impart a good deal of flavor and texture down the line. Once you think the fish is ready to be turned, I can pretty much guarantee that you're wrong. If you're worried that you'll burn the side you're cooking, don't be afraid to turn the flame down a little, but let it cook until you have an evenly cooked brown sear.

At this point you can flip the fish over and put it (pan and all) in the oven, or you can just finish it off on the stovetop. I prefer the oven method, but you just need to cook the fish until it's done. You can poke it, slice into it, or use a thermometer to check. If you use the thermometer I would suggest a temp of about 120 degrees to serve it.

Garnish the fish with the mango salad. It's quite tasty.

Notes on technique.

Some things are harder to cook than others. I've been guilty of saying that a lot of different foods are 'the most difficult' to cook, which obviously depends on the intended result. For example, anyone can cook the hell out a shrimp or a piece of chicken and call it done. But cooking it 'correctly' requires that you cook it just enough without making it tough or dry. 

Here are some of the things I think are most difficult to cook well.

1. Eggs

2. Chocolate

3. Sugar

4. Fish

The first three all pose difficulties because the window between them being hot enough to cook and hot enough to burn is so small. As with the chicken example above, anyone can cook an egg that's spotty and brown. Cooking an egg with a smooth, coagulated white and a completely runny yolk is far more difficult. 

Chocolate and sugar are difficult to work with because they both begin to burn at such a low temperature that melting them can pose problems if you don't have proper equipment and pay close attention. 

Cooking fish demands a great deal of subtlety. Because there are hundred of different preparations and hundreds of different kinds of fish it's difficult to describe the gamut of possible techniques involved. I personally believe that cooking fish well requires that you do it over and over. I've never seen anyone do it well their first time and I think the time it takes to actually master fish cookery is very extensive for all but the most talented cooks.

In the next post or two I'd like to closely examine egg and fish cookery and offer a few different recipes which allow the opportunity to make wonderful food without necessarily having to execute the cooking perfectly. Think of them as practice dishes which will be delicious even if you don't acheive every goal in the process.

Braised Shortribs.

I love braised dishes, and this is a favorite of mine. It takes an especially long time to cook, but it keeps well and is very easy to reheat. 

Ingredients.

9 ~2 inch cuts of shortribs, on the bone

2 yellow onions, large dice

4 carrots, ends discarded, washed and sliced

2 leeks, tops removed, washed, halved and sliced

6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled but whole

~4 scallions, ends removed, lightly crushed

1/2 bottle of red wine, preferably rioja or temperanillo

1 bay leaf

3-4 juniper berries

a few sprigs of thyme

unsalted butter, as needed

salt and pepper, as needed

Method.

Heat your oven to about 250 degrees.

I recommend working in a rondeau or similarly wide and shallow pan. 

Salt your shortribs.

Get your pan quite hot, with a neutral oil (vegetable, grapeseed, canola, etc.) and add the shortribs, just searing them on two sides. You want to get a good deep brown on the outside, indicating that you have begun to carmelize the fats and sugars on the outside of the meat. Your goal is not to cook them all the way through, but to put a hard sear on the outside. Make sure your oil is very hot before adding them.

Set the ribs aside and reduce your heat.

In the same pan, add onions, carrots, leeks, scallions and garlic. The liquid from these vegetables should loosen any meat still stuck to the pan, but if it continues to stick add a small amount of water and deglaze to keep it from burning. Sautee the vegetables until they begin to turn soft; about ten minutes. 

Once your vegetables have become soft, deglaze with red wine and return the ribs to the pan. Add the herbs and juniper berries as well. The ribs should be almost completely submerged. If you don't have enough liquid with the wine alone, feel free to add a bit of water. Don't worry about salting the liquid at this point; it will reduce quite a bit and become saltier in the process. If you added enough salt to the ribs and seared them properly it shouldn't be an issue.

Bring the wine to just below a simmer. Once you see bubbles coming to the surface, put a vented lid on top of the pan and put the whole thing in the oven.

Depending on how your oven cooks, there could be a wide variance in how long this part actually takes. 3-4 hours is a pretty good estimate for most ovens, but the real indicator will be that the meat can be easily shredded with your fingers.

Once the beef is finished cooking, remove it from the pan and set it aside. At this point I usually turn the oven off and put the ribs in to keep them warm. Drain the liquid into a separate container and discard the vegetables. 

If you want to have extra sauce for leftovers, use only as much of the liquid as you need and set the rest aside now. 

In a small saucepan, bring the liquid to a boil. Allow it to reduce until it completely coats a spoon that's been dipped into it. Remove the liquid from heat and whisk butter into it until it's thickened. This is essentially a bordelaise sauce.

Serve the ribs with sauce over them. I recommend serving it with gremolata, mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts, but these ribs are pretty much great no matter what you serve them with. 

Enjoy.

Here is a new blog.

Hi.

Over the past few years the frequency with which my friends have asked me for cooking advice, techniques are recipes has gone steadily up. I suppose I've finally reached the point at which I will start blogging about it in an effort to make this information public and accessible. 

My intention here is to offer a variety of recipes with components that should be relatively easy to acquire, even in places where organic or international groceries are unavailable. While I try to keep my recipes within the constraints of what is available seasonally, there will be certain things that I prefer to use year round such as lemons.

Finally, while there will be dishes on this blog that are vegetarian because I don't think they benefit from the inclusion of meat, I do not go out of my way to cater to any specific dietary preference. I hate food additives like nutrional yeast, liquid aminos, and other hippie crap meant to make food taste salty in some health-conscious way. If you eat fresh well prepared food you will be healthy. Don't douse your food in crap to alleviate your guilt over eating something out of a box. It just doesn't work that way.

I've worked with and talked to a number of talented cooks who refuse to divulge their recipes to even their closest friends. I think that's insane. Cooking requires a lot of technique, which is something that you only learn by doing it over and over. In my opinion, most of the recipes I've worked through numerous times will not taste as good made by someone who is trying it for the first time. The aim of this blog isn't to give you a small repetoire of recipes to repeat endlessly at home, but to teach you enough cooking technique that you can look at what's available to you and make a new meal out of it.

I'm certainly interested in hearing feedback as well as suggestions concerning content. If you'd like to make guest submissions you're welcome to do that as well.