Deus Ex Culina

Get a meat thermometer !!

Prepared Herb Crusted Standing Rib Roast for Christmas Dinner. The result was perfect !

After seeing an Alton Brown episode on Food Network, I commented that a digital oven thermometer would be nice to have.....

My wife gave me one for Christmas, which she handed to me a few days early because of our decision to serve Standing Rib Roast for Christmas dinner.

The thermometer has a metal probe that is inserted into the meat, at the thickest point, but away from bone. The probe has a long metal pigtail wire that connects to the control and readout unit. The display shows the internal temperature of the meat while the meat is cooking. You can set the alarm for total time or desired temperature.

Anyway here is recipe I used- to feed 8 adults by the way:

11 LB rib on, standing rib roast

3 tbls chopped garlic
3 tbls drieded thyme
2 tbls crushed black pepper
1 tbls salt
enough olive oil to create a paste

1/2 c Cabernet

let roast stand, covered, on the counter until the surface is at room temperature (90 min in our case). Trim all but a thin layer of fat from roast.

Preheat oven to 500'

Combine---garlic, thyme, salt, pepper with enough olive oil to create a paste.

Place roast, bone side down, in a roasting pan large enough to accomidate but not touching the sides of the meat.

Rub paste all over meat, pressing into fat and flesh on top and sides.

Insert probe of thermometer into the thickest part of the meat, taking care to not go all the way through, or touch bone.

Put roast into oven for 30 min @ 500'

After 30 min, turn down oven temp to 325' Continue to roast until desired internal temperature is reached.

In our case, an additional 2hr was needed at 325'. When we removed the meat, the internal temp registered 115'.

Remove the meat to a large cutting board, cover and let rest until internal temp rises another 5'. This took ~15min in our case.

While meat is resting, pour pan juices into a fat seperator, pour off fat and then return juices to pan.

Put pan on top of stove and bring to a boil. Add 1/2c red wine, boil and scrape bottom of pan to deglase. Reduce by 1/2, add 2 tbls butter, swirl, pour into a gravy boat and serve with meat.

After the meat has rested, carve slices and serve. I also seperated the rib bones from the roast. This made for easier carving.

We ended up with med slices from the outside in, with med rare slices in the middle of the roast; something for everyone !

Taste and texture were restaurant quality ! The crust was wonderfull, the meat was tender with a nice flavor.

Overall, thanks to the digital thermometer, this has become one of the easiest recipes to prepare !

Enjoy !!

Exotic California-fusion-on-flatbread-with-chevre

I've been both travelling and working extraordinary amounts lately, and have been cooking mostly things I cook regularly. Tonight, I had a squash and goat cheese pizza. This really hits all of that evil Californian exotic fusion bits, but you can add butter. And everything's better with butter.

Squash and Goat Cheese Pizza

Ingredients:
1 Squash
Goat Cheese (4 or 5 ounces is plenty)
Pizza dough
1 onion
fresh herbs (I've used rosamary or sage, both worked well)

Start by roasting the squash. I use butternut. Slice it longways, put it on some tin foil, salt, pepper, and oil. Roast for about 45 minutes at 350, until soft when poked with a fork.

While the squash roasts, roll out the dough, and caremelize an onion. Slice it up, put in a pan with not-quite-smoking oil. When the first bits of the onion brown, turn down the heat. and cook slowly. Towards the end, brown some butter in the pan, add your herbs, and toss the onions, herbs and butter together.

Take out the squash. Don't turn off the oven, in fact turn it up to 500, for the pizza. (Optionally) allow the squash to cool before skinning and cutting up. If you're in a hurry, hold with a towel as you take the skin off. You want to cut perpendicular to the last cut, so you get little half moons.

Artfully arrange the squash on the dough, add the onions on top of the squash, and then add the goat cheese. in chunks about the size of the tip of your finger. around the pizza. When this is done, you'll be able to see a fair bit of dough through the mixture. That's what makes this flatbread. :) Now add salt and pepper to the pizza, and bake it for 15 minutes or so. The goal is a slight browning of the goat cheese, and it's ready to eat.

Real Men Do Eat Quiche

Who says real men don't eat quiche? I mean, I know the name phonetically sounds anything but manly, but think of what's in it? Eggs! Cheese! You can put meat and veggies in it! It's like an omlette pie, and for the bachelor chef, it's the perfect food. You can eat it hot, you can eat it cold. It's great for breakfast, just like an omlette. And you can have it for lunch or dinner too. Make one at the beginning of the week and forget about making lunch for the next few days. What could be better than that?

So put away your preconcieved notions, and come on by. We're gonne make some quiche!

For the pie crust, I used a store bought one this time. But I've made my own in the past, including this recipe here. The recipe's are generally similar, though you may want to cut back on the sugar for quiche.

For the remainder:

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
  
• 1/4 cup of half and half
  
• 6 oz baby swiss cheese
  
• one small onion
  
• butter
  
• 10 oz spinach
  
• Salt, pepper and nutmeg
  

Directions:

If you read Julia Child's instructions as to how to to make a quiche, she will tell you to take the pie crust dough, put it in your 9" pan, prick the crust with holes all over it, weigh it down with a form fitting pan inside and bake it for 15 minutes at 450 degrees before proceeding with the crust. I skipped this step, and while the bottom of the crust isn't perfectly crispy in all places, I found it was good enough for me, especially given that this is supposed to be a simple recipe.

Heat the oven to 375.

Then, place your pie crust cough on a 9" pan. Trim any excess dough from the edges. Julienne the onion and sautee in butter until translucent. Set aside.

Chean the spinach, even if it says "washed" on the package. Do this by filling your kitchen sink with water, and submerging the spinach in the water, allowing sand and dirt particles to fall to the bottom. Set the spinach in a strainer, and slowly let the sink drain, cleaning up any remaining dirt aprticles with a paper towel. Blanch the spinach in boiling hot water, and set aside, in a bowl with the onions. Mix together, and put in the refrigerator to cool.

Shred the baby swiss. You could use regular swiss for this, I used baby swiss because the supermarket didn't any swiss that I deemed worthy enough for my quiche. When the spinach/onion mixture has groen cool enough to handle, queeze any moisture left out into the sink, and place into the pie crust. Pour cheese into crust as well, and toss cheese, spinach and onions with your hands until everything is evenly distributed.

Beat eggs with half and half. If misture doesn't equal 1 1/2 cups, add more half and half until it does. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to your liking, about 1/4 tsp each. Mix the spices in, and pour into the crust. Bake at 375 for 1/2 hour. Remove from the oven, let it cool a bit, and enjoy!

You can use any type of filling you want if you don't like spinach. Cooked bacon's a favorite of mine, but let your imagination run wild. For a whole page full of quichey goodness, click here.