Dry Aged Porterhouse with Leek Bread Pudding and Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette

Hi friends! Time to get back to SND! First things first - dry aged steak. You can do this in your own fridge, people! Why pay $26.99/pound for a dry aged steak at Whole Foods, when you can pay $12.99/pound for a fresh steak and age it yourself? All you need to do is wrap the steak in cheesecloth and place in the coolest part of your fridge (the shelf closest to the freezer is best). We let our steak age for a week, and it was amazing! I let it come to room temp before cooking and coated it with salt and white pepper. Look at this amazing color before it was cooked!

The steak was seared in a hot hot hot cast iron pan for five minutes, then I flipped it and cooked and four minutes on the second, then I let it rest for ten minutes before the Mr. sliced it. Look at the size of that filet!!

Okay, now for sides - Leek Bread Pudding! Yes I said it: Leek. Bread. Pudding. It's f-ing delicious. Of course the recipe is Thomas Keller's from Ad Hoc. A beautiful book, I highly recommend. Start with 2 cups of 1/2 inch thick slices of leeks (be sure not to use the tough, dark green parts at the top). Make sure you really really wash the leeks with cool water - sand can hide in all of those layers. Heat a medium sized saute pan over medium high heat, and add the sliced leeks. Season with salt (couple of pinches) and cook for a few minutes so that the leeks begin to release some liquid. Add 4 tablespoons of butter (yup) and turn the heat down to medium low. Stir often, as this will help the butter to emulsify (thicken). Add a few grinds of pepper (I'm really loving white pepper these days kiddos - I find it a little spicier and it's pretty without the black specs) and cook for a half hour or so (don't forget to stir) until the leeks are very soft. If the butter breaks (or separates) add a teaspoon of water to re-emulsify the sauce.

Whilst the leeks are cooking, slice a loaf of Brioche into 1 inch cubes - you're going to need 12 cups, but i just used one loaf of bread and it was perfect. Thomas' recipe calls for crustless Brioche but I used one with a crust and I really enjoyed the texture. Spread the cubes on a baking sheet and toast up in the oven at 350 degrees for around 15-20 minutes. You want the cubes to be pale gold and dry. Leave the oven at 350 degrees. Once the leeks are soft, mix the leeks/butter with the bread cubes in a large mixing bowl with 1 tablespoon of chopped chives, 1 teaspoon of chopped thyme, and set aside.

Now for the custard! Whisk 3 large eggs in a bowl, then add 3 cups whole milk, 3 cups of heavy cream, a big pinch of salt and (white!) pepper to taste, along with a pinch of grated nutmeg. Side note: as ya'll know, the Mr. is lactose intolerant, so I used lactose free skim milk (4 cups) with half and half (2 cups). I was worried the custard wouldn't thicken, but it totally did.

Okay let's assemble! Sprinkle 1/4 cup of shredded Gruyere (Thomas calls for emmenthaler but I prefer Gruyere) in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan. Spread half of the leeks and bread cubes with a spatula over the cheese, then add another 1/4 cup of the cheese. Add the rest of the leeks and bread cubes with another 1/4 cup of cheese, then pour enough of the milk/egg mixture to cover the bread and press gently down with your clean hands so the custard soaks in the milk. Let the bread soak in the milk for fifteen minutes or so. After that, pour more custard so that the tops of the bread cubes stick out and add 1/4 cup of cheese on top (you'll need 1 cup of grated cheese total).

Bake for an hour and a half (at 350 degrees) until the top is golden brown and amaaaaazing. Dudes. Do it now, it's creamy and savory and all over satisfying.

Now for some salad! Quarter around 15 cherry tomatoes and place in a small mixing bowl. Add a 1/4 cup of champagne vinegar (red wine would work too, but I'd like ya'll to try the champagne vinegar, it's super special), one tablespoon of dijon or horseradish mustard, salt/pepper to taste, then whisk in a 1/4 cup plus some (prolly 1-2 tablespoons) of olive oil. Whisk, whisk, then let the cherry tomatoes marinate and break down in the vinaigrette. When you assemble your salad, use butter lettuce and toss in the vinaigrette with some chopped chives and more halved cherry tomatoes. You won't be sorry, this simple and fresh vinaigrette is bright and really cuts the richness of the porterhouse and bread pudding.

This is a fantastic and special meal that I insist you try this weekend, dear friends. Let me know how it goes!

xoxo

d

Better late than never Sunday Night Dinner

I totally made Sunday Night Dinner, but I had a cold so I forgot to write it up. I swear. But here's what I made and it was yummy. Give it a go.

Chicken with Riesling

Rice Pilaf

Mixed Green salad with mustard vinaigrette

Okay here is how it went: the chicken with Riesling is a Mark Bittman recipe, from his cook book called "The Minimalist". I totally recommend picking it up, it's an amazing book, along with Bittman's "How to Cook Everything". It's the cooking encyclopedia.

Anyhoosers, start with a whole chicken (bone in, skin on), cut up. In a heavy bottomed dutch oven (le crueset people!), heat a three to four count of olive oil over medium high heat. Salt and pepper the chicken, then sear all of the pieces in batches in the oil. Don't overcrowd the pan, get some good color on both sides of all pieces and take it out of the pan. While the chicken is done browning, slice four onions. Yeah that's right I said four. To avoid stingy onions tears, refrigerate the onions beforehand. It's the only trick that's ever worked for me - it seems as if the onions are cold they don't release as much of the tear inducing air. That's science right there, peeps. Theater degree, what.

After removing the last of the chicken from the dutch oven, put all of the sliced onions in with a good dose of salt and pepper. I also added five or six shakes of garlic powder, one bay leaf, and a good handful of fresh thyme wrapped in butcher's twine. It's easier to do the thyme that way because you don't need to scrape all of the thyme leaves off - they fall off in the sauce and you can remove the stems in one fell swoop. Stir the onions often and get them nice and soft. I let them go a bit farther than soft, because I like a little carmelization on the onions, but don't let them burn. Once they are to the color and texture that you like best, add half of a bottle of dry Riesling. Be sure to look for a Riesling that says "dry" on the bottle, because you do not want this dish to be too sweet. Add the browned chicken pieces back to the pot, and settle them in the sauce - make sure all of the chicken is mostly covered by sauce. Add more wine if necessary. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to simmer, and cook that deliciousness for about forty five minutes. As I like to say: taste taste taste. You really need to balance the sweetness of the Riesling with salt, so be sure to taste and season to your liking. When it's done, the chicken on the thighs and legs should be falling off of the bone.

As the chicken cooked, towards the end I made two boxes of Near East Rice Pilaf. I know that's cheating, but like I always say - take the help where you can get it. You know that the boxed rice pilaf will come out perfect every time, so why not do it. I also made the mustard vinaigrette for the greens: two tablespoons of Dijon mustard, a splash of the Riesling that you cooked the chicken in, three tablespoons of red wine vinegar, salt/pepper and a 1/4 cup of olive oil. Whisk all ingredients together and set aside. Right before serving, toss your greens in the vinaigrette. Ha, toss it.

Once the chicken is done, remove it from the pan and then get out my favorite kitchen tool. Say it together people: "immersion blender". Awww yeah. Immersion blend that sauce until it thickens a bit, then add the chicken back in and heat through. Again, if you don't have an immersion blender, dudes, buy one. Orrrrrrrrrr blend it in a blender, sheesh.

Serve the chicken with the rice pilaf and the pan sauce, along with your salad with mustard vinaigrette. A baguette to soak up the sauce is also helpful, and everyone loves bread! It's a delicious, slow cooked meal worthy of the coldest of days. It will warm the cockles of your heart. Haa, I said cockles.

As always, let me know how it goes.

BFF,

Dana

Dinner from Sunday Night Past....

Hi friends! Alas, I cannot make Sunday Night Dinner tonight, gots to go sling some ale. But do not fret! You will be visited by the ghost of a Sunday Night Dinner past....but you won't be scared. You will become the mayor of Delicious Town.

Menu:

Brisket burgers with umami mushrooms, caramelized onions, avocado, and Cabot white cheddah

Artichoke-Zucchini Gratin

Mache and Heirloom tomato Salad with a mustard vinaigrette

I know, right? It was a tasty one. The brisket for the burgers is clutch, I urge you all to try it. Go to Whole Foods or Bristol Farms or Byerly's (what up, MN peeps!) and head on over to the meat counter. Ask for a pound of brisket and have them grind it for you. I have a grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, and the Whole Foods butcher was cranky, so I just brought the brisket home and ground it myself (read: Adam ground it; that's a boy's job).

To make the brisket patties, I put the ground brisket in a mixing bowl with a few squeezes of ketchup, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce, some salt/pepper, and one egg to bind them all. Use your hands here, guys - the are your best tools. Get everything nice and incorporated, but don't overwork the meat. Heh. Divide the meat into four and form into patties and refrigerate until you're ready to grill.

The Artichoke/Zucchini Gratin is pretty tasty - and a healthier alternative to delicious fries. It is a Giada De Laurentiis recipe, but I changed it just slightly as so to feed four people. For the artichokes, don't be scrrrd: you do not need to use fresh artichokes. Most grocery stores have them in the freezer section. Just let them thaw before you use them so that they don't steam when you saute them. So, I pre heated the oven to 450 degrees. As it heated, I threw the entire bag of thawed frozen artichoke hearts (it was almost a pound) in a skillet with a three-count of olive oil, three zucchinis that i roughly chopped, three cloves of chopped garlic, a handful of chopped parsley, and a pinch of red pepper flake. I got the veggies to brown a bit, and then added to the pan 1/2 cup of chicken broth and 1/4 cup of dry Marsala wine. I let that simmer for another couple of minutes, then transferred the mixture to my gratin pan (any shallow roasting pan will do here). Meanwhile, I melted some....butter! 2 tablespoons and then mixed it with 1/3 cup bread crumbs and 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese and poured in on the vegetables for a yummy, crusty topping. Into the oven until it turned golden brown, it took about 15 minutes. Dude. So good.

For the salad, I got some Mache, from Whole Foods - which I love. I heart it. I really like soft lettuces like mache and butter lettuce. Give them a go. I made a quick vinaigrette with mustard, red wine vinegar, a splash of white wine, salt/pepper and olive oil. I like to whisk the vinaigrette in the bottom of the salad bowl, then pile the greens on top. That way you can toss it right before serving, and the lettuce won't wilt. I also added chopped heirloom tomatoes, which were so sweet and delicious. Big step for me here, as I am usually only a fan of tomatoes in their sauce form. I'm such a grown up.

Okay - burger toppings. If you read last week's dinner, I do so love caramelized onions. I made these in the same way: two to three count of olive oil in the pan with a sliced onion with some salt/pepper. Get some good color on those boys and deglaze the pan with some white wine. Take the onions out and set aside, you're going to use this same pan to cook the mushrooms.

Time for umami mushrooms! I wear very fancy pants, by the way. Just kidding. Adam and his brother wear fancy pants - these mushrooms were their idear. So I took 10 or so crimini mushrooms and cleaned them (do NOT wash these, just brush the tops with a damp cloth; or don't if you like super rubbery mushrooms) and quartered them. I let them marinate during the burger and artichoke prep in some soy sauce, some Worcestershire sauce (five or so good shakes of the bottle of each), a small palmful of dried thyme, and some salt/pepper. After the onions are caramelized and out of the pan, pour the mushrooms and the marinade in, and cook those delicious fellas until they are browned but not too dry.

Sliced avocado and some Cabot white cheddar rounded out these outstanding, melt in your mouth burgers. Since grilling is also a boy's job, I sent Adam down to our apartment community's grill. He had gone down about ten minutes earlier to clean and heat the grill. When he went down there with the the meat and the ciabatta buns, a lovely neighbor of ours had totally bogarted the grill that Adam had prepped. Had it ENTIRELY covered . Uh, hello? Did you think that this grill was prepped just for you? Ah, apartment living. My patient fella shot the duder some laser beam looks and just prepped another grill. Sigh.

Anyhoosers, the burgers were cooked medium for me and medium well for those who can't handle a little pink in their burgers. Not naming names. The brisket was like butter, so juicy and melty and you can really tell the difference when it is freshly ground. With all of the toppings and side dishes, this was a really special meal. So tasty and refreshing on a beautiful, warm Sunday night. Try it tonight! Let me know how it goes!

-D