Brie and champagne

Veggie Stroganoff Recipe

My lovely lady friend is a vegetarian, so when I cook for both of us I need to be able to move away from the meat. Here's the result of a recent experiment that turned out pretty well. This recipe is enough for 4-6 people.

6Tb unsalted butter
1/2 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
1/4ts cayenne pepper
1ts anchovy paste (optional)
1-1.5 lbs mushrooms, sliced. Try to use some good ones like oyster, chanterelles, morels, shiitakes to mix in with button or criminis.
1ts dried thyme leaves (you can use fresh)
1/3-3/4 lb soy-based beef substitute of your choice. I used Gimme Lean "ground beef" in the tube. You could also omit this.
3/4 cup veggie or mushroom broth
1Tb Worcestershire sauce
1Tb brandy or sherry
1Tb vermouth or non-oakey white wine
1ts soy sauce
1 cup sour cream
1ts dijon mustard
Fresh ground black pepper
salt (I used a mix of seasoning salt and kosher. The seasoning salt helps add a meatiness.)
Egg noodles

Saute onion and garlic in a large pan with about 2Tb unsalted butter on med to med-high until soft and transparent. Season with salt (I used seasoning salt here) and a pinch of cayenne. Add anchovy paste a few minutes before the onions are done so it can cook a little. I didn't taste the anchovy at all in the final dish (which is what I wanted), but feel free to omit.

Then, remove the garlic and onions, add 2Tb more butter (or oil -- you could probably cut that down to one) and mushrooms. (I used about 1lb of criminis and maybe a dozen shiitakes.)Season with salt and plenty of fresh cracked pepper. Add thyme. Saute, stirring pretty constantly, until they start to soften and give up fluid, which will help to deglaze the pan, about 7-10 minutes.

Remove mushrooms, add a little more butter or other fat. Add meat substitute and saute until brown. You could omit this, use more, or use another type of soy meat (such as seitan). I didn't want to put too much in since I only like soy meat in moderation.

Deglaze pan with veggie or mushroom stock mixed with Worcestershire sauce, brandy or sherry, white vermouth or non-oaky white wine, and soy sauce. Turn heat up to med-high and let reduce for just a couple of minutes. Reduce heat to med-low, add sour cream and mustard (I used light, but I think full fat would work a little better). Whisk or stir well to combine. Add the reserved onion, garlic, and mushrooms, stir to combine. Allow this to heat through and the sauce is done.

Cook egg noodles, toss them with 1Tb butter and season with a little seasoning salt. I think it's best to add the sauce on top of each serving of noodles rather than toss it all together. Garnish with some chopped Italian parsley, and if you're feeling decadent an additional small dollop of sour cream.

What? No finished Wagyu photos?

Yeah, unfortunately I overcooked the steak, something I often struggle with. It was too depressing to photograph. I will say that it still tasted great.

I may do some more notes on the dry-aging project later, but here are my basic impressions:

1) This is not "real" dry-aging. You don't get that ultra-rich flavor that long dry-aging produces because the enzymatic action doesn't have time to really take place. If I were to dry age again at home, I'd buy a sub-primal cut and age the whole thing for two weeks minimum.

2) What you are really doing is reducing the moisture content of the meat, which results in (I think) a faster cooking time. The steak seemed to go from 90F to 145F in about a minute.

3) I need to try the Wagyu as it comes someday. Sadly, I cannot afford to do so for some time!

UPDATE: I just realized that the big problem was that my oven thermostat wasn't working. We just got it replaced after realizing that it wasn't shutting the oven off. Since I finished in the oven, the steaks were probably exposed to drastically higher heat than what they were supposed to be cooked in. I'm (somewhat) off the hook!

The great Wagyu home dry-aging project - Day 4.

On "Good Eats," A.B. stopped the dry-aging process on the fourth day. As you'll see below, I'm following that model in a way.


The steak is now at 13.6oz which is a loss of .5oz from yesterday. From 15.3oz beginning weight to 13.7oz is a loss of roughly 11% in four days. Pretty impressive results, but I am worried about dryness (and ruining a great steak!).


Dark and dense. I hope this experiment doesn't result in a completely dry steak! Hopefully the fat content of the meat will rescue it from such a fate.


I've decided that 13.6oz of concentrated Wagyu beef is probably too much for one portion. Sigh.

I've cut the steak in half (Notice the interesting coloration and all that marbling.) and will wrap one portion in plastic wrap to stop the dry-aging process, but I'll continue the process with the second portion.


Beef two ways.


So this portion, at 6.7oz, will endure at least another day of aging.


The double wrapped portion that's done dry-aging. It's actually about 7oz, but I forgot to take a naked photo.

A note on cooking: You're probably thinking I want to grill this stuff, right? Well I do. But there are two problems with that: 1) Our grills here don't get hot, and 2) the amount of fat in this meat will create an inferno as it drips down on to the gas flames.

As a result of these issues, I'll use the cast iron sear + finish for doneness in the oven method. I'm thinking about 1.5 minutes per side on a hot, hot, hot cast iron for the sear and then into a 400 degree oven for 3-5 minutes. I'm shooting for 120-125 internal temp here, so I'll just keep checking until I get there. I think I'll actually use the perforated pie pan that I'm using for aging as the oven cooking method as well. The pan will catch the fat and suspend the meat on skewers so hot oven air can circulate around it.

A note on side dishes: Irvine Farmer's Market first thing tomorrow for sides! I'm thinking steamed fingerling potatoes and perhaps some kale sauteed with garlic and a little crema mexicana to finish. Since I'm cutting the steak in half, I can add some cream to the kale right?

A note on wine: Northstar Merlot Columbia Valley 2005

A note on a heavy metal icon: I'm dedicating this steak to Ronnie James Dio. Apparently RJD was a veggie avoiding carnivore, which no doubt contributed to his fatal stomach cancer. Let us remember his awesomeness and remind ourselves that red meat is only an occasional treat.

The great Wagyu home dry-aging project - Day 3.

Ok, we're down to 14.1oz from 14.7oz yesterday. That's another .6oz loss, exactly the same as the first day. So we're down almost 8% from our starting weight of 15.3oz.


Darkening in color.


Back in the fridge.

The great Wagyu home dry-aging project - Day 2.

Here we have the steak after roughly 24 hours of dry-aging in the fridge wrapped in a paper towel. It's gone from 15.3oz to 14.7oz, so we've lost .6oz of moisture. This loss equates to nearly four (3.921568) percent of the steak's original weight.

As you can see, some scraps of paper towel have stuck to the meat. If I were to do this again, I might try using tea towels to avoid the paper sticking to the meat.


Notice the deepening of color here. The steak has also become significantly firmer than it was previously, no doubt due in part to the loss of moisture.


Re-wrapped in a fresh paper towel and


ready for another 24 hours in the fridge.

The great Wagyu home dry-aging project - Day 1.

Ok school's almost out, so it's time to celebrate by clogging arteries. After seeing a recent episode of "Good Eats" in which A.B. dry-ages a porterhouse at home, and recently seeing Wagyu (American Kobe) strip steaks at Bristol Farms, I thought I'd give it a go.

I'm normally a ribeye advocate, but Wagyu rib steaks were not available so one does what one can (not that I'm complaining). In fact, this may be a better steak for my purposes as it is my experience that ribeyes need to be cooked at the higher end of medium rare in order to dissolve the fatty sections of the meat, while a strip will take rare very well indeed.

I'm going to give this sucker 4 days in the fridge using the "Good Eats" method, perhaps weighing it every day so we can see the results. I don't expect the deep dry-aged flavor caused by serious enzymatic work in four days, but I should be able to intensify the flavor quite well.


One (ridiculously expensive) Wagyu strip steak

Flash makes this hard to see, but it's just under 1.5 inches thick.

15.3 ounces

Alton Brown method


In the fridge.

Ok fine, it's "sparking wine."

So we just joined the Hi Time Wine Cellars champagne club through which we receive one bottle of French champagne (the only kind that can be called champagne, of course) a month. As a result, I thought I might document the wines here. But before we begin with the French stuff, we drank a bottle of Argyle Brut 2002 with some friends a few weeks back. I forgot to take notes, but if I recall, it was quite nice with a lot of balance, very smooth and fairly creamy although lacking a much minerality or bite. Argyle is reliably good stuff, if usually a tad overpriced.

IPA Bomberfest 2009

The results of an IPA tasting in celebration of the end of the 2008-2009 school year. I'm not going to go into huge detail, but here are some of the beers in contention:

Green Flash Imperial IPA: I really like the Green Flash West Coast IPA, and this Imperial is exactly right in my view. It's a jacked-up version of the West Coast. Copper color, nice full malt body without too much sweetness, and plenty of both bittering and dry hop profile. Delicious and highly recommended, my favorite so far.

Left Coast Hop Juice: "Left Coast" is the brewing arm of Oggi's Pizza and Brewing in SoCal, but unlike BJ's or JT Schmidt's, apparently Oggi's makes serious beer. This one calls itself a Double IPA, and makes a point of telling you on the bottle that they use three forms of hops: extract, pellets, and flowers. Like the Green Flash, Hop Juice is copper colored with plenty of malt to balance the hops. I found this one good if not great. It lacked the piney, citrus-y, floral hop "stickiness" that I love in a well dry-hopped ale. Nonetheless, a very good showing and I would definitely like to sample it on tap.

Port Brewing (Pizza Port) Wipeout IPA: Unfiltered IPA, with a golden, but slightly orange hue. Like Stone's IPA, this one uses only Centennial hops, a policy I'm not particularly fond of. I like Centennials just fine, but use of a single varietal tends to render a beer a little two dimensional. Wipeout is much lower in alcohol than the previous two at 6% abv, but it packs a nice bitterness with a good, not great, dry-hop stickiness. Less malt than the Imperial and Double, of course. This is a "session" IPA, and for that it's quite good.

Alesmith IPA: Bottle conditioned, copper golden. This one might be the bitterest of the four. Only Hop Juice has the same tang. Not much dry hop presence here, which I sorely miss. A little sweet, but well balanced with plenty of malt at 7.25% abv. I had high hopes for this one, and it's a good beer. But it's not my style of IPA. It focuses too much on the bittering hops and too little on the dry hop. However, this is a very respectable beer and if you favor an IPA that foregrounds bitterness and balance, this one could be for you.

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid: Nice. A double IPA with lots of dry hopped goodness. A definite competitor for top prize. 9% abv, I think, but excellently balanced. Paler than some of the other IPAs, with a golden orange hue. Not too sweet, and the alcohol slips by well. Delicious.

Avery Maharaja IPA: Of all of the ales sampled so far, this is objectively the best I think. It's very rich and a little less dry-hop flavor than I might like, but this is just an excellent, huge, but finely crafted, Imperial IPA. Rich copper color, plenty of tasty bitterness, and huge and complex malt body. This is a serious beer.

Moylan's IPA: Moylan's is a Nor Cal brewer that makes this IPA as well as a "double" and a "triple" IPA. I went for the entry level. At 6.5% abv, a relatively "weak" IPA, but don't take that the wrong way. A nice copper-gold look, a nice rich malt body but not too sweet, and the hops are the star, as they should be. And those hops are pretty nice. Piney, "sticky" and full of tasty dry-hopped goodness. Bitter, but not hugely so. A very nice beer with a manageable abv, but strong and well-done hopping. I look forward to the double and triple!

Deschutes Hop Henge: This one is high on my favorite "go-to" beers, but unfortunately this bottle was not good. The freshness of the hops had disintegrated, leaving plenty of bitterness and the ale's quality rich maltiness, but the hop death made this bottle un-reviewable. I still drank the whole thing though. ;)

Russian River Pliny the Elder: Big shit here in Cali. Whenever the campus pub gets a "special" beer, it tends to be a Russian River ale. I'd actually had this on tap at the Anthill, but didn't remember it well. It's a very nice IPA. Another copper colored example, and the concomitant full malt body. Tons of fresh hop aroma , skunky, citrus, pine, floral. More aggressively carbonated than others, giving it that champagne feel. It also has a very crisp, clean bittering hop profile which gives it almost a spicy, astringent (in a good way) quality. Very, very nice. Worth seeking out.

Cervezas Mexicans: Or the Great Mexican Beer Standoff

Mexican pale lagers are pretty weak to those accustomed to American craft beers. Nonetheless, sometimes on very hot summer days nothing beats an ice cold, refreshing Mexican beer. The question is which of these beers should you buy? We did a (quasi) blind tasting to compare imported Mexican macro lagers.

Before we get to the results, a note or two on methodology. We excluded darker Mexican lagers like Negro Modelo and Dos Equis Amber. We tasted the beers one at a time, without lime. (I figured that lime could profitably be added to the best beer without making it worse, and of course lime might improve bad beer as well.) Kristen was our proctor; the test was not blind for her. Brian and I tasted blind. We tasted Pacifico, Bohemia, Tecate, Corona Extra, Carta Blanca, Dos Equis Lager, Trader Jose’s Mexican Lager (available at Trader Joe’s), Sol, and Model Especial, all in bottles. Be advised that canned beers may fare differently.

My pre-test predictions were that Dos Equis lager and Pacifico would finish near the top and that Tecate would finish at the bottom.

On to the results! We had two clear winners, quite a few in the middle, and three that fared quite poorly.

The overall winner by a hair was Modelo Especial. This beer was the most golden colored of the group. Body was “weak but balanced,” and there was a little hint of hop bitterness. Other notes “my favorite,” “pleasant, if hardly bold” and “nice flavor.”

Coming in at a very close second was Bohemia. While this beer was, like all of them, “mild,” it did have noticeably more malt body than many of the others. No real notable hop, but probably only a smidge less than Modelo.(Hops were generally totally lacking from all these beers). “Easy drinking” and “clean and balanced.” Keep an eye out for it.

Both Carta Blanca and Corona were acceptable to all, although “mellow,” “sweet,” “fine, order if pressed” and “got personality like Al Gore” (Corona) and “thin, a little sweet” “nothing to it” and “no aftertaste” (C.B.) might be damning with faint praise. Either will do in a pinch.

Although only available at Trader Joe’s, “Trader Jose’s” finished fairly well although being described as “ok,” and slightly “funky”/“funny.” With a lime, it’ll do the trick and it’s definitely the value winner since it retails for $4.99 a six pack.

Sol struck us as relatively flavorful, but not necessarily in a good way: “musty,” “wheat or grain hints,” “could use a lime.”

Surprisingly, Dos Equis lager and Pacifico were down at the bottom with the real loser Tecate.

Dos Equis comments: “thin,” drinkable with no character,” “skunky,” and “yuck.”

Pacifico: “very little maltiness or richness,” “slightly dehydrated urine” color, “metallic and mildly astringent,” and more positively “easy to drink.”

Tecate: “smells very bad,” “nasty” and “weird” aftertaste/finish, “yuck.”

So what have we learned? Well, these lagers just aren’t very good for the most part. Maybe you’re better off with Negro Modelo or Dos Equis Amber. We were all pretty surprised at the low finish for Pacifico and Dos Equis Lager. I’ll definitely look for Modelo Especial and Bohemia in bottles if I’m at a bar or restaurant, and I’ll probably buy Trader Jose’s for drinking at home with lime. Corona and Carta Blanca are acceptable if not savory. Avoid Tecate (except in a michaleda) at all costs!

(Thanks to Kristen for her help, and Brian for participating. Kristen did most of the work, although there wasn’t too much and all the funny comments are Brian’s.)

Best marinara

This sauce is best with *crushed* San Marzano (http://www.thenibble.com/REVIEWS/main/vegetables/san-marzano-tomatoes.asp) tomatoes. These crushed tomatoes come with a rich juice in the can that makes this sauce. They are often expensive, but supermarkets sometimes have them on sale at which point I stock up. Other canned tomatoes (like Muir Glen or whatever) are fine, but just not as good. You may need to add a teaspoon of sugar if you do not use Marzanos. Also, the sauce is based on a modified soffrito, which means don’t be shy about cooking those initial veggies down until they almost disintegrate. The porcinis are entirely optional, but they add a nice meaty (umami) richness without dominating the sauce. To save money, you can buy domestic dried porcini (or boletus/bolete) at farmer’s markets, or pick your own and dry them. I used “Oregon porcinis.”Finally, I used the unconventional X + X formula for some ingredients here that will be added at different times in the process to make the recipe easier to follow.

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium carrot, grated
1 large stalk of celery, diced
1 medium onion (brown/white/sweet), diced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 larges cloves garlic, minced - divided.
¼ cup chopped fresh basil + ¼ cup chopped fresh basil
¼ cup + ¼ cup red wine (Not too oaky. Taste what you use first to make sure. Big oak will ruin the sauce. An Italian Chianti or Montepluciano is fine. I used a fruity cab sauv.)
½ teaspoon dried oregano (1 teaspoon if fresh)
½ teaspoon + ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 28oz cans crushed San Marzano tomatoes
1 or 2 bay leaves
¼ cup dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in ¼ cup boiling water until soft, 20 minutes minimum, then chopped, water strained through cheesecloth and reserved (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

In a large stockpot or dutch oven, heat olive oil at medium. Add carrot, celery, onion half of the garlic, and salt. Stir well. Sauté these veggies on (lowish) medium until soft, 5-10 minutes, stirring regularly. Lower heat to medium low and continue sautéing for 10 minutes. (The idea here is to make a soffrito, which involves cooking the veggies until they almost breakdown in an ample amount of oil. This may take 20 minutes or much longer.) Add mushrooms, and ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes. Continue sautéing at medium low, stirring regularly, for 10 more minutes or until the soffrito is really soft and mushy. The garlic should not burn at this temperature and with all the other veggies in the pot. It also won’t be as soft as the other veggies, but this is ok. Some stuff sticking to the bottom of the pot is not a problem, but lower heat if there is any burning. Add ¼ cup wine and the reserved porcini water. Scrape up anything that’s attached to the bottom of the pot. Raise heat to medium-high and allow the liquid simmer and reduce for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice, ¼ cup basil, ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, oregano, the remaining garlic, bay leaves, and ¼ cup wine. Stir well. You may want to thin the sauce at this point. If so, run roughly ¼ cup tap water into one of the tomato cans and add that (continue as necessary). Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, stirring occasionally, paying special attention to scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking and burning, for 25 minutes. Next, taste for salt and pepper and season accordingly. Add the last ¼ cup of fresh basil and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat, remove bay leaves, puree with immersion blender if desired. Let cool for a few minutes and use or freeze as desired!

Moules Mariniere

You want a pound or so of mussels per person. I'd highly suggest buying them from a seafood market. They will be cheaper and fresher than the grocery store.

Throw away any raw mussels that have broken shells or are dead. If the mussel feels very light compared to the others, it may be dead--toss it. Recipes often say to discard any open mussels, but live ones sometimes open up in the fridge. To solve this problem, take any partially opened raw mussels and tap them firmly on the counter. If they close up, they are good. If they don't react, they're dead so toss 'em.

This is a rough estimation, but I'd say you need about 1/4 - 1/3 cup wine per pound of mussels. Any white is fine, except Chardonnay which is too oaky. I'd suggest pinto gris/grigio or sauv blanc.

Also, many of these recipes call for adding cream, a traditional ingredient. I prefer it without, but feel free.

For two:

2 pounds mussels, rinsed and de-bearded (That means you want to tear off the hair-like stuff on the mussels. Usually supermarket mussels are already de-beared, but the fish market ones are not).
1/2-2/3 cups white wine
2 TB butter or olive oil (or a mix of the two)
1-3 cloves garlic chopped, depending on how much you like garlic
1-2 shallots chopped, depending on size
fresh herbs of your choice (thyme, rosemary, tarragon, fennel)
1 bay leaf
2-3 TB chopped flat leaf parsley
[1/4 cup heavy cream is traditional, but totally optional. In fact, I prefer to omit this.]

In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat the butter/oil at medium to a nice saute temp. Throw in the shallot and saute for 1-3 minutes, until they begin to smell good and become fairly limp and translucent. Add garlic, saute for another minute or two but avoid browning the garlic. Add the wine (and cream if you're using it), half of the herbs you're using, the bay leaf, parsley and some salt and pepper (the mussels will release some salt, so salt it less than you might think). Raise heat and bring this to a boil. Add mussels, cover the pot and turn the heat down to med or med-low. Steam mussels for 3 minutes. Check them and see if they are all open. (Sometimes the ones on top will be open and the lower ones are not.) When the large majority of mussels are opened, you're done. This should take less than 10 minutes, and may be done when you check them the first time. Add remaining herbs and parsley and stir. Discard any mussels that are not open, serve in bowls with plenty of broth (the best part) and either good crusty bread or Belgian style fries. (To avoid grit, you may strain the broth through a cheesecloth lined sieve before adding the final herbs. If you chose to add cream (1/4-1/2 cup), do that after you've strained but before the herbs).

Hot Buttered Rum (and love)

For those frigid southern California nights...

Hot Buttered Rum Batter (10-15 servings)
-Stolen and slightly modified from Ye Olde Internetees-

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups dark brown sugar
2 Tb honey
1 Tb vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1 Tb pumpkin pie spice + ¼ ts ground cloves + ½ ts ground cinnamon + ¼ ts ground nutmeg
OR
1 Tb cinnamon + ½ ts ground cloves + ½ ts ground nutmeg (fresh ground is best, of course)

Dark or golden rum
Boiling water
Nutmeg to garnish (optional)
Cinnamon sticks to garnish (optional)
Whipped cream to garnish (optional)

With hand-mixer or standing-mixer cream butter, sugar, honey, vanilla, salt, and spices into an even paste. Mix enough so that the ingredients have incorporated into a uniform paste with no chunks of butter. Do not overmix so that the butter begins to melt.

Place batter in an airtight container and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until firm. Batter can be refrigerated for a week or so, and can be frozen indefinitely. If frozen, divide up into two tablespoon balls before freezing.

For each mug, use two tablespoons of batter. Add 2-3 oz. rum, fill with boiling water and stir until batter dissolves.

Garnish as desired, or don’t.

(This is a sweet recipe, so I wouldn’t recommend adding more than 2 Tb of batter per mug. If you want something a little richer but less sweet, cut the sugar by ½ cup and try adding 3 Tb of batter per mug. Also, don’t skimp with light rum. It’s a waste of your damn time.)

First post.

I'm going to use this blog as a place to dump recipes that I think are worth preserving. Perhaps you'll like them too.