Deus Ex Culina

Monday Meat Madness!!!

I should probably make a regular thing called Monday Meat Madness. That would be cool. Anyways, last night was in fact Monday Meat Madness at the samaPlace. I'd long wanted to make Alton Brown's roast rib eye dish, ever since I saw him do it on TV. I'm not sure wether it's because he suggests using a terra cota planter as a dutch oven, or because he ages his own roast in his refrigerator, or because he doesn't sear the roast first but last instead. Whatever it was, Monday was the night.

yours truly, at
Monday Meat Madness

My friends Nate and Chris came over, and we ran the recipe pretty much according to the book. Well, as well as possible while sipping down mojitos, mint juleps and every other mint drink Chris could make. A few differences are worth noting, however:

1) I live in an apartment and my oven is only 16" sq. So I used a 15" diameter planter. Also, for my pizza stone, I used a 16" sq patio brick I bought at Home Depot. It's about 2" thick, so It's pretty much overkill, but I think that's macho, so there.

2) We never reached the recommended internal temperature of 130 degrees. We woud up getting close, at about 125.

3) This recipe took us a bit longer than 4 hours. More like 5 to roast.

4) We made the sauce, but forgot to use it. I did use some of it today on leftovers, and it was good.

So in any event, I a happy to report that the roast came out unbelievably good. Like completely unreal. I think that Brown is onto something with his recommendation to brown a roast at the end instead of at the beginning, and Chris told me he'd read somewhere that doing this has become standard practice in restaurants now, who realized some time ago that searing at the beginning of a roast does not in fact seal juices in. Go figure.

The picture below is the actual roast. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the plated product. But you can click on the photo to see a video clip of the carving (that's Chris' voice you hear getting excited). Enjoy!

Chicken with Riesling

I wanted to make some chicken on Saturday night, and I came across the following recipe in an old Food and Wine magazine. I decided to make it, and for the dry riesling I used a 1998 Piesporter Michaelsberg St. Johannis.

I have to say that it was a bit disappointing. I followed the recipe by the book, not terribly difficult. But the chicken just tasted more blanched or poached to me, not as much braised as the magazine promised. And it just wasn't terribly flavorful. In any event, here are two photos of what I did. It didn't come out quite as brown as in the magazine photo. Not entirely sure why that was. Oh well. I served with a side of olive salad and French bread, both of which went well with the entree.

Iron Chef - 10PM Tonite

I was at teh Boston Marathon on Monday and some guy from the Food Network was handing out these trading cards with the 4 Iron Chefs. I asked if they had a Michiba card, but they didn't. I figured I'd scan them in for you to see. The championship battle is on tonite, so check it out.

And enjoy the cards.

Deus Ex Culina

Deus ex Culina, meaning "God from the Kitchen" is a blog devoted to a love of food. In particular, it is devoted to the art of cooking, as opposed to simply enjoying food prepared by others. The goal for this blog is to publish for the world the culinary triumphs, and failures, of our work in the kitchen. It is to entertain but also to enlighten our readers, and help share knowledge in a way that only the web can make happen.

The originators of this blog are Rob Sama and Chris Kausel, also known as "Calzone." They are two close friends from high school, who now both enjoy the joys of cooking. Though they now live on opposite coasts, Rob in Boston and Calzone in San Francisco, they chat daily about food, including discoveries, techniques and recipes. They started this blog to bring those discussions to the public, and for the select few, invite others to join in the discussion.

While anyone can post questions or comments in the comments or, "Pig Out" section of the blog, only select individuals may post to the blog. If you wish to be so invited, please write to us and let us know why you think you'd make a good contributor. In the meantime, enjoy the culinary musings of Rob Sama and Chris Kausel. Buon Appetito

Artery Clogging Meat Casserole With Walnut Pesto Sauce

Frank Giobbi wrote a book some years ago called, "Italian Family Cooking." James beard recommended it, and I've found it to be a great book on the essentials of good Italian cooking. Well, I came across a recipe in there for a Walnut Pesto sauce. He put it over a spinach tortelloni, but I wanted to do something else with the sauce. The sauce recipe that follows is his verbatim, and the copyright on it still belongs to him. In using this recipe, I did the same thing but made it in double portion with a food processor, substituting fresh marjoram for the dried (in 3x the volume). So here it is, in italics...

Walnut Pesto
ingredients:
1/2 walnuts
1/4 cup pignoli nuts
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil
dash of nutmeg
1/2 heavy cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper

in a wooden bowl mash walnuts and pignoli together until they are a grainy texture, or work them in a blender at low speed. Add all remaining ingredients except cream. (although this recipe doesn't call for it, 1/4 cup of ricotta cheese can be added if filling is too heavy.) Just before draining tortelloni, add cream to pesto. Season with salt and pepper to paste.

So here are the ingredients for the casserole I made:

Walnut Pesto (2x above, no ricotta in pesto)
1 pound whole wheat penne
two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 shallot lobes, sliced
8 ounces ground beef
about a pound of ground pork
2/3 lbs of ground veal
one tablespoon fresh choppen marjoram
one tablespoon fresh chopped oregano
6 sticks of fresh thyme, leaves only, twigs discarded
1/2 lbs ricotta cheese
Italian red pepper flakes
grated mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Set oven to 400F. meanwhile, get a large stock pot, fill with water, and heat it to boiling. Salt water generously, and add some olive oil. You know the drill, when water boils, throw in pasta. Drain when pasta is al dente. In the meantime, on to the meat.

So I didn't really have any grated pork and veal in the house. What I did have was two pork chopps and 4 veal scallopine, which I chopped up and put in the food processor along with the beef. The result was a sort of pasty texture, like a mousse. Not exactly what I was going for, so if I were you, I'd just buy the ground porducts as recommended above. Take a saute pan and heat it up, placing the olive oil in when hot. Saute the shallots. Place meat in pan. Brown meat, continually stirring. Meanwhile, add all the herbs, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste. Just keep flipping. When meat appears to be done, add ricotta cheese. Again, stir and flip it in. It will melt and get a little watery, and that's ok.

Meanwhile, pasta should be done. Strain it, and in a large bown, add pesto sauce. Mix well. Get a casserole dish (I needed 2). Start by making a layer of pasta on the bottom, followed by a layer of meat, and continue until casserole is full or you run out. Top with grated mozzarella cheese. Oven should be preheated by now, so set in there for 20 minutes or so or until cheese is meltes and is starting to brown. Remove from oven and serve with garlic bread. Garnish with parsley bits and Italian red pepper flakes. Buon appetito!

I should warn you that this dish is EXTREMELY heavy and will serve LOTS of people. I liked it overall, though I think I undersalted it a bit, so I've been adding salt to the leftovers I've been eating. Be sure to go to the gym after eating this.

Duck Confit Spring Rolls with Cherry Hoisin Sauce

So I had these two duck legs and thighs and wasn't sure what to do with them exactly. After searching around online a bit, I decided that a confit would be best, as it would delay my need to make a decision about what to do. I used Emeril's duck confit recipe on the Food Network website, as it seemed to be about the same as all the other duck confit recipes I'd seen. I just cut the ingredients in half for two instead of 4 legs and thighs.

I cooked them for fourteen hours in the oven, starting in the morning just before work and taking them out at about 10 at night. The meat fell right off the bone, and it tasted delicious. But I put everything but a nibble in a container and strained the fat and put that back over the duck, and put the container back in the refrigerator. Then, to decide what to make.

Again, after searching online for a bit I came across Tyler Florence's recipe for spring rolls with duck confit, but it just looked all wrong to me. To begin with, I wanted to use rice flour spring roll wrappers, not crepes. And using chile paste I thought would overpower the duck. So I set out on my own, and here's what I did.

Ingredients:
duck confit, two legs and thighs
two carrotts, julienned (I just kept peeling it and chopped up the shavings)
one bunch cilantro, chopped, stems discarded
one pound fava beans
about 15 frozen, pitted cherries
about 3 inches of ginger, grated
sake mirin
4 or 5 scallions, chopped
leaves from 4 or 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 1/2 tablespoons of sesame oil
bean sprouts
6 cloves of garlic confit (use roasted garlic if you must)
dried vietnamese spring roll skins
1 8.5 oz jar of Lee Kum Kee Hoisin Sauce (can you even make your own, or is that like making your own ketsup? I couldn't find any recipes online)

Remove fava beans from the outer husk, and boil them in salted water for about 5 minutes, until the outer skin on the bean begins to come off. strain, and remove outer skins on beans, allowing the two bean halves to come apart. Place in a bowl. Also place in that bowl all of the other vegetables (chopped) except for the sprouts. Add sesame oil and toss. Veggies should look glistening.

Then, place the cherries in a small pot or saucepan. Pour in sake mirin to cover. Let it boil until alcohol smell dissapates (a few minutes). Transfer to food processor, and add hoisin sauce. Blend. Return to saucepan and let simmer for a few minutes, so flavors combine. Set aside.

Now it took me a while to figure out what to do with the dried wrappers, but it turns out you soak them in water. Don't soak the whole package like I did. Just pull out ten or so and start there. They soften up quickly. pull out one, or two if they rip (they're pretty flimsy). Place on a flat surface. Begin by placing an appropriate amount of duck in a straight line about two thirds of the way down the wrapper. Then, place sprouts and veggies, and top with some cherry hoisin sauce. take bottom third of wrapper, and fold over stuffing. Take sides, and fold in as well, and then roll the bottom all the way up until it's completely rolled. Repeat until you're done. It's not easy. And I had extra veggies left over, just so you know.

Two rolls fills me up for a meal, they're quite hearty. Use the extra sauce to top off the rolls with. And they're best eaten with a knife and fork, as those rice skins are left soft. Below is a picture, replete with a piece of parsley for decoration. Enjoy!