Curly Endive, Pear and Blue Cheese salad

As I sauntered through the fruit and vegetable store.... there's a place near Pape subway that allegedly is a 24hr fruit and veg store (I say allegedly 'cause I've never tried to procure a carrot at 3 a.m.)... Regardless, I was in that store and I saw a bunch of endive. 

It looked like this





Now this is curly endive

not belgian endive

nor frisée

(now frisée is just baby curly endive)

Anyway, I bought it to make a salad.  Which salad you may ask...

Endive, Pear, Blue cheese salad.

• Tear up your curly endive into bite-sized pieces
• Wash thoroughly and sprinkly with salt and a little bit of sugar (it's a bit bitter but the sweetness from a little sugar and the pear really work on it)
• Slice up your pear and either leave in slices or chop down to matchsticks
• Sprinkle pear on endive
• Crumble up some blue cheese
• Sprinkle on salad
• Drizzle some olive oil
• Take a fork, use chopsticks, fingers work also and eat it

Damn, this is so good.  The endive is a bitter green when it's raw but with the sweetness of the pear and the sharpness of the blue cheese and it's held by the olive oil.  Damn this is good.  Go get some.

Mushroom Rillettes

What you need

• some mushrooms - crimini, oyster, shitake, portobello... I used all
• butter
• scallions
• capers
• duck fat
• brandy
• chipotle pepper (I used dried and ground)
• salt and pepper

Chop all the mushrooms into small pieces - julienne or in pea sized chunks

Sautee in the butter

Add chopped scallions, capers, chipotle, salt and pepper

Try to reduce most of the moisture out of the mushrooms

Add duck fat and simmer away in that fat for a while - like an hour

Toss in some brandy

Spoon into ramekins, let cool and then refrigerate

If there's not enough duck fat to form a layer on top - add some more.

Serve on some toast or crackers with cornichons

Really really dense mushroom flavour.  Now that's some umami.  I really like heat from the chipotle.  I just had it again with some toast and a cheese omelette - it is so good, like a mushroom condiment.

Espinacas a la Catalan

I had this in a tapas restaurant and it was so dammed good I had to make it myself.  It's spinach and lots of it reduced down to this dense flavourful dish

What you need

• spinach
• pine nuts
• garlic
• rasins (or dried cranberries, dates)
• olive oil
• cider vinegar (or balsamic)
• salt and pepper

To do this in a single pot
Put some olive oil in a pot and sautee the finely chopped garlic.  Toss in the pine nuts too.
Add all the spinach... a whole bag... if the leaves are too large, chop them up a bit... fill the pot and put a lid on it
The spinach will reduce down to about 1/5 it's size when cooked
Stir in the dried fruit with a spash of vinegar and olive oil (if needed) some salt and pepper
Serve warm

Pork Tenderloin Saucisson - Tasso seasoning

What you need

• pork tenderloin
• salt
• sugar
• cognac - or brandy, bourbon, whatever
• tasso seasoning - let's go NOLA

Rub the pork tenderloin in a 50/50 salt/sugar mix
Throw into a zip lock bag, pour in the rest of the salt sugar and toss into the fridge
Occassionally pour out the accumlated liquid
Let sit for a couple of days
Rinse off salt/sugar
Rub with cognac, whiskey, whatever
Now in Jacques Pepin recipe he uses herbs de provence
I chose to go tasso.  Tasso is a New Orleans pork seasoning.

Tasso seasoning
What you need

• brown sugar
• cayenne
• paprika
• salt
• black pepper
• white pepper
• garlic powder
• cinnamon

Portions and amounts to taste, Cher. Laissez le Bon temp rouler.
Rub your loins with tasso, Cher
Wrap in cheesecloth
Truss up with butchers twine
And dangle off a shelf in your fridge
Let it dangle for a couple or three weeks
Slice thinly and enjoy any way you want.  Put on some crackers and cream cheese.  C'est bon.

Gravlax - Cured Salmon

What you need

• salmon
• salt
• sugar
• dill

This struck me as something simple to do and after the success I've been having with the duck proscuitto and pork saucisson I thought I'd turn my attention to fish.

Take a skin on salmon fillet and rub with a 50/50 salt/sugar mix
Put it into a container and cover with dill (I used dry but you can use fresh)
Cover with plastic wrap
Put another container on top and weigh it down (I used pickle jars)
Drain off the accumulated liquid occassionally
Let it sit for 48 hours

... now I did this yesterday so I haven't even tasted it yet... stay tuned

OK, ate it.  Can't say I'm nuts about it.  I kept expecting the taste of smoked salmon... and then when that's not there it's like... Awwwwww.  Now the flesh did firm up.  Tons of liquid came out during the curing process.  But you should try it - maybe you'll like it.

Pate a Choux Cheese Puffs

I blame Alton Brown.

What you need

• water
• butter
• flour
• cheese - pecorino, parmesean, romano (something hard)
• salt and pepper

Boil 1 cup of water
Toss in 3/4 stick of butter and as much salt as you feel like
Throw in 1 cup of flour and stir util you have a big firm ball (if too liquidy add more flour, if too firm add some water)
Let it cool a bit in the pot
Crack in one egg and work it in.
Crack in a second egg and work it in.
Add some grated peccorino, parmesean, romano, all three, or any hard cheese you feel like. And some pepper.
Now, you can either stuff this mix into a piping bag and squeeze out your profiteroles onto some parchment paper
Or, stuff it into a freezer bag, slice off a corner and squeeze away
Or, put some water in a bowl and with very wet fingers grab little balls of it and place on some parchment
They should be kinda round and smooth out the tops or any little pointy bits will burn
Preheat an over to 425 and toss in when it's at temperature
Five minutes later turn down to 350
When they look purdy they're done

And then you eat them all.  As Anne said, "These won't keep so we might as well finish them off."

Duck Proscuitto

What you need

• duck breasts
• salt
• sugar
• congnac
• pepper
• cheesecloth, butcher's twine

Using the duck breasts I harvested from the duck for the duck rillettes, I made some duck proscuitto.

Make a 50/50 mixture of salt and sugar
Rub all over the breasts
Toss into a zip lock bag and pour in the extra salt/sugar
Put in the fridge for a couple of days
Pour out the accumulated liquid once a day or whenever you feel like it
Rinse off the sugar/salt and pat dry
Rub with some cognac (brandy, whiskey, burbon, sherry - whatever)
Sprinkle some pepper
Wrap each breast in cheesecloth
Using butcher's twine, tie each one up and dangle it from a fridge shelf
Let it dry for a couple weeks

You can then liberate it and slice very thinly.  Put it on some crackers and cream cheese.
Chop it up and sprinkle it on a salad like bacon bits.
Or just chew on it like jerky - you are your own master.

Duck Rillettes

This all began when I went to Chinatown to pick up a duck.  Now normally I do a whole duck butterflied in a large baking dish so the flesh confits itself - but that will be another post.  This time I wanted to make Rillettes de Canard.

So, whole duck.  I harvested the breasts to make some duck proscuitto.  Since this bird came from Chinatown, it had feet, head, the whole shebang.  I harvested all the big bones for stock.  What I was left with was legs (bone in), wings (yes with bones), skin, miscellanous scraps of meat.

Toss all the meat into a pressure cooker
Add salt and pepper and cooked that sucker at pressure for a couple of hours
Let it cool down, don't be too eager
Scrape the meat from the bones (keep the bones for stock)
Take the skin and crisp it up in a frying pan
Used a mesh strainer to get duck fat out of the meat (keep the confit)
Shred the meat in a bowl
Chop up the crispy skin and add that to the meat
Add cognac, chopped parsley, salt, pepper and orange zest
Spoon the mixture into ramekins and push it down with a fork to create a level surface
Spoon the duck fat onto the ramekins until there is about a 1/4 inch of fat over the meat
Put in the fridge and don't touch for two days

Now, you make some toast points.  Slice up some cornichon (baby dills).  Fork on some Rillettes to the toast.  Put a pickle on top.  OMG.

What you need

• A duck
• cognac
• chopped parsley
• orange zest
• salt and pepper
• toast points and cornichon for the eating

Radish Toasts

This is based on a Jacques Pepin recipe.  It's just toast and radishes.

What you need

• Radishes
• Bread - sour dough, baguette, whatever
• cream cheese
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

To make toast I like to slice the bread and drizzle some olive oil on it then put it under the broiler.

Slice the radishes with a mandolin to get nice even slices or brush up on your knife skills.

Smear cream cheese on the toasts.  I first cut the toast into small two-bite sizes.

Layer the radish slices like scales.

Sprinkle salt and pepper.

There, done.  In Jacques' recipie he used butter but I thought cream cheese would work better.  You don't need a lot of it either - unless you really want a lot of cream cheese then smear away.