Bear Cuisine

Vetri's Does It Again

Ever since we ate at Vetri's several years ago I have been longing to return and eat some more of Marc Vetri's glorious food. In June I was blessed to celebrate a birthday and when asked what I would like, I immediately responded with " a meal at Vetri's." Since our last time there, Vetri has sold his other Philadelphia restaurants and concentrates his efforts on his first and most elegant eatery. He has also added lunch on Friday's. Perfect!  Everything was perfect: the weather (not always the case), the food, the service, my dining companion. I could not have had a more wonderful celebration of the gift of life.

Our amuse bouche of roasted beets, fresh mozzarella and foie gras. Each bite was bliss.

ANTIPASTI

Tuna Crudo with Peas and Horseradish

Sweet Onion Crepe with Truffle Fonduta

PASTA

 
 Swiss Chard Gnocchi with Brown Butter

Fig Caramelle with Gorgonzola Fonduta

SECONDI

Halibut Cheek with Spring Vegetables

Hudson Valley Duck Breast with Lentils

 

DOLCE

Chocolate Polenta Souffle with Vanilla Gelato

Blueberry Custard

If you have an occasion you want to celebrate, Vetri's would be a fabulous place to do it.  

Savory Pie

Ever since I watched the lighthearted British crime-comedy series Pie in the Sky and  The Great British Baking Show,I have wanted to bake a version of a savory meat pie. The New York Times obligingly  offered a recipe for Guinness Pie . Don't think of Sweeney Todd; instead, think of steak and kidney pie without the kidneys. Sam Sifton's recipe is straightforward and makes a delicious pie which our company enjoyed. 

Guinness Pie

 

GUINNESS PIE

For the Stew

1. 4 TBS butter
2. 2 large onions, chopped
3. 4 cloves garlic,minced
4. 2 carrots peeled and chopped
5. 2 ribs celery chopped
6. 10 mushrooms,trimmed and sliced
7. 3 pounds brisket or stew meat, cut into bite-size pieces
8. kosher salt
9. freshly ground black pepper
10. 2 TBS flour
11. 1 sprig rosemary
12. 4 cups(2 cans) Guinness or other stout

13. 1 cup trotter gear or 8 ounces freshly grated cheddar

For the Pastry

1. 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2. 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3. 3/4 teaspoon salt
4. 1/2 cup (1 stick) very cold unsalted utter, diced
5. 1 egg yolk

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large dutch oven heat 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until soft. This should take about 10 minutes.

Add the carrots, celery,mushrooms and remaining 2 tablespoons  butter and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are dark in color and the moisture released by them has evaporated, about 15 minutes.

Season the beef pieces all over with salt and pepper. Add the beef, flour and rosemary to the pan and cook over high heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes.

Add enough Guinness to just cover the beef. Cover the pan and put it in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from the oven and stir. If using trotter gear, stir it in now. Return to the oven for 1 hour more. If it remains thin, set the pan over medium-low heat, remove the lid and reduce the liquid. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If using cheddar,fold in about half.

While the stew is cooking, prepare the pastry:sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your hands, quickly work the butter into the dough until it is the texture of coarse meal. Add ice water, a splash at a time, until a firm dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and, using a rolling pin, roll to about 1/4 " thick. Pour the stew into an 8-inch-square,2-inch-high baking dish or a deep 9-inch pie pan. If using Cheddar, scatter the remaining cheese across the top. Place the dough on top of the pie and pinch it closed around the edges using the tines of a fork then slash the center lightly with a knife. Brush with the egg yolk,place on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, or until the pastry is puffy and golden.

TROTTER GEAR

This recipe is from Fergus Henderson of Nose to Tail Eating fame. This will make more than you will use in the pie recipe, but it will store nicely in the freezer.  Think of it as the backbone of a number of soups or stews. I used pig shanks--two shanks rather than three pigs' feet-- instead of the trotters and they worked just fine. If you have a pressure cooker, you can make the gear in it. Cook on high pressure for approximately an hour.

1. 3 trotters (pig's feet)
2. 2 red onions, halved
3. 2 ribs celery, chopped
4. 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
5. 2 leeks, cleaned and chopped
6. 1 head garlic
7. 2 bay leaves
8. 12 black peppercorns
9. 2 sprigs thyme
10. 1 cup Madeira or other sweet wine or one bottle red wine
11. About 1 quart chicken stock

Place everything but the liquids in a large pot. Pour in the wine and enough chicken stock to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to a simmer and cook for 3 hours, until the meat falls off the bone.

Remove the trotters from the pot. Strain the stock. Pluck the meat, flesh and skin from the bones and chop. Discard the bones, Stir the meat, flesh and skin back into the stock, then serve.

The Second Time Around

So, what do you make after you can't even look at another ham sandwich? I found this recipe in Delia Smith's online site for "Ham Hash Cakes with Parsley Sauce". It's a snap to make. Quintessential good British food and in a funny way an homage to my mother's cooking. She was the queen of creative white sauce and knew a thing or two about making wonderful leftovers. A useful skill on a very limited budget.

 The surprise here is the parsley sauce which is very light, almost fluffy. 

HAM HASH CAKES WITH PARSLEY SAUCE

• 12 ounces cooked ham, cut into chunks
• Freshly Ground black pepper
• 1 onion, quartered
• 8 ounces (cooked weight), boiled potatoes
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon chopped gherkins (I used some pickle relish)
• 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
• 2 ounces fine breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon oil

For the Parsley Sauce

• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 ounces butter
• 3/4 ounce flour
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Place ham, onion, potatoes, egg and parsley in the bowl of the food processor and blend until the ham is finely chopped.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl, stir in the chopped gherkins and taste and season with freshly ground black pepper. Divide the mixture into eight equal portions, shape them into rounds and press a light coating of breadcrumbs over each one. Chill the hash cakes in the fridge until need. To cook them, melt the butter with the oil in a frying pan and fry the cakes till golden and crisp--which will take about 5-8 minutes on each side.

 

To make the parsley sauce, place the milk, butter and flour in a saucepan and whisk them over the heat until smooth and thickened. Cook for 5 minutes before adding the parsley and lemon juice and season to taste. 

If you don't want to make the sauce, these go very well with mustard or chutney.

 

Sweet Potato Tacos

SWEET POTATO TACOS

These tacos were made by cooking sweet potatoes sous vide and they were absolutely delicious. The recipe comes from Lisa Q. Fetterman's Sous-Vide at Home.

SWEET POTATO TACOS

2 sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds) peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 4 cups)

3 to 4 chipotle chiles in adobo, seeded and chopped

11/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil

12 (6-inch) corn tortillas

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Juice of 1/2 lime (about 1 tablespoon)

3 tablespoons minced red onion

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup crumbed Cotija cheese or queso fresco

1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish

4 to 6 lime wedges for serving

 

Preheat your sous vide water bath to 185 degrees F.

In a large bowl, toss together the sweet potatoes, chiles, cumin, salt, and 1 tablespoon of the oil until the sweet potato pieces are evenly coated with all of the ingredients.

To ensure that your bag sinks, place 1 to 2 pounds of weight into a gallon-size freezer-safe ziplock bag. Add the sweet potato mixture to the bag and seal.

When the water has reached the target temperature, lower the bagged sweet potatoes into the water bath and cook for one hour. The sweet potatoes are ready if you can crush the pieces through the bag with a firm pinch.

Remove the bag from the water bath and transfer the sweet potatoes to a plate, discarding the liquid. Set aside.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, working in batches, heat the tortillas by placing them directly into the skillet and then waiting until they begin to steam and blister, about 20 seconds. Flip them with tongs or a spatula and cook the other side until they again begin to steam and blister, about 30 seconds. Depending on the size of your skillet, you can heat 3 or 4 tortillas at a time. After each batch is heated, transfer the tortillas to a plate and cover them with a kitchen towel or aluminum foil to keep warm.

When all the tortillas have been heated and with the pan still over medium-high heat, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet and then add the sweet potato mixture. Saute over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until charred and blackened on the edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper and then add the lime juice.

To assemble the tacos, spread a small dollop of the sour cream onto the middle of each tortilla. Divide the sweet potato mixture evenly among the tortillas. Top each taco with a sprinkle of cheese, cilantro and red onion. Serve with the lime wedges.

 

A New Gadget for a New Year

Actually, this is a gadget that is much more than a gadget and I have been using it for almost a year with splendid results. It's an immersion circulator that makes it possible to do sous vide cooking at home. Sous vide is a French term meaning "under pressure" or "under vacuum." Food is placed in vacuum sealed packages and cooked at a constant temperature in water that is heated by an the circulator. After it is cooked, it can be refrigerated for later use or finished for serving. This technique was used previously by restaurants and caterers for large batch cooking were prepping before service was essential. Now, the technique is available to home cooks and I think it is a terrific tool.

I have had an immersion circulator before, but it was so large and bulky and required such a large pot to cook in that I almost never used it. Joule changed all that. Joule is a small device that clips to the side of any pot and it makes sous vide cooking not only possible,  but pleasurable. Joule was developed and is marketed by ChefSteps,Inc and their web site has any number of recipes for using Joule. You run the tool with your I-Phone or I-Pad; so, a wireless connection is a must. 

I have used it to cook amazing salmon; the texture is beautifully silky. It makes a perfect medium-rare steak. I have even cooked the Thanksgiving turkey with it. This is set and forget it cooking with spectacular results.

To get started I recommend two books for your library: Beginning Sous Vide by Jason Logsdon and Sous-Vide at Home by Lisa Q. Fetterman.

We always want to eat well, but I don't always want to spend a lot of time cooking. This very nifty tool lets me achieve both goals which on the face of it are contradictory. So, treat yourself to a Joule and have fun in the kitchen.