Vieux L'Ecole

Steak au poivre with glazed carrots

Fifty years ago French gastronomy was the end all be all of the American food world. With champions such as Jackie Kennedy and Julia Child, French cuisine represented both high culture and home cooking. But then American food tastes began to shift. Regional Italian became a starlet for a while and still commands a hefty performance fee. Now Asian and South American cooking garners our attention more than trout meuniere ever did. Watch for regional Mexican to explode in the next few years. Sadly, "French cooking" has by and large become the mom jeans of the culinary world.

Of course, this is an imperfect analogy, as things like charcuterie have been reborn in restaurants across America and the food of the bistro will never disappear. Ask yourself this, when was the last time a new restaurant opened that had a pure French bend and was not a bistro? When did you last get a craving for homard l'americaine or bernaise? Luckily there may be no finer cuisine suited to your home cooking explorations as that of the French. Most of the ingredients you already have and it requires very little in the way of intricate tools or burdensome techniques. So pull out those mom jeans and bring them back in style while you Prancercise about the house.

Steak au Poivre

Steak au poivre is a dish that no one will be debuting on a tasting menu any time soon. To make it, use any cut of beef you like, but I prefer the chuck eye roast which is like a faux filet. Most recipes call for veal stock or demi-glace, but you can omit them. The star of this dish is the pepper and the cream. The only key technique is basting this mother continuously as it cooks with hot butter.

Cut of beef, your choice
Peppercorns, a good amount, whole, crushed lightly but not ground
Brandy or Cognac, 2 tablespoons
1/2 cup cream
Salt
Butter

Crack your pepper corns in a mortar and pestle or however else you accomplish such things. Generously coat your beef with the peppercorns and let sit for thirty minutes. Heat a cast iron skillet till wisps of smoke rise from its surface. Season steak with kosher salt and place on the skillet.

After 3 minutes, flip steak over. Toss in a golf ball sized lump of butter and begin basting the meat. Baste furiously. After another 3 minutes, turn the steak on its side and brown all sides evenly. Continue basting with what should now be delicious brown butter. Remove steak from pan and allow to rest when at preferred doneness. But since you are cooking French food, go rarer than normal. Re-salt when the steak comes off the heat. 

Pour out the butter. Add brandy or cognac to the skillet and return to the stove. Scrape up all those crusty bits on the pan. Add cream, bring to a simmer, taste, adjust seasoning, and serve immediately on top of the steak.

Serve this with lots of cheap Bordeaux. Two reasons to do so. One, no one else is drinking this stuff, so there is a glut of inventory, which translates to affordable wine. Secondly, many of it is actually pretty tasty and almost tastes like expensive, old Bordeaux is supposed to taste like. 

La vie en rose. 

A Quick Drink: Riesling

You and I aren't drinking enough Riesling (pronounced Reese's Peanut Butter Cups). The International Association of Riesling Exporters and Importers' (IAREI) states that the average American drinks only 1 tablespoon of Riesling every two years. Art Vandelay, head of the IAREI, recently expressed his firm desire to "get that number up to 1/4 cup at least every eighteen months."

Well, you might be saying, why should I drink more Riesling? Chances are you are going to go out for spicy food, seafood, barbecue, or Asian food soon. Likely the waiter will come by first to take your drink order and you will request something disgusting like sweet tea or Pepsi. The reason you want these drinks is because of their inherent sweetness. Sweetness brings stability and helps balance out aggressive, bold flavors. Put down the sweet tea and ask for a Riesling instead.

What is Riesling? Riesling is a type of grape, grown mainly in Germany, but also Germany-light (Alsace), the Finger Lakes Region of New York, and other cool areas, such as Washington State and Sean Payton's bachelor pad. Besides having a touch of sweetness or honey on the palate, Rieslings can also have some acidity which makes them the George Gershwin of wines. You can pair them up with fancy food like smoked salmon and caviar or dress them down and pair with boiled crawfish. Try it with poached salmon with a grapefruit and ginger beurre blanc.

In short, drink more Riesling.

Grapefruit and Ginger Beurre Blanc

I use less butter than is traditionally called for per Ms. Child's classic recipe, as I do not think you really need 2 sticks of butter to achieve a rich and luxurious sauce. But look, Mrs. Child is probably right.

1 Shallot, minced
1 joint of ginger about the size of your thumb, peeled and roughly chopped
3 tablespoons of grapefuit juice
3 tablespoons of white wine
8 tablespoons of butter
Salt and Pepper, to taste

In a saucepan, combine the shallots, ginger, a pinch of salt, a few cracks of pepper, wine, grapefruit juice and 3 tablespoons of butter and bring to a rapid boil. Allow this mixture to reduce to a syrupy consistency. Take the remaining 5 tablespoons of butter and cut into small pieces roughly the size of your thumbnail. Or if you are a giant, the size of your pinky nail.

Strain the reduced sauce into a clean, unheated sauce pan. Immediately, add 2 pieces of the reserved 5 tablespoons of butter. Whisk furiously. Then, place pan on low heat and whisk in the remaining butter and remove from heat. Taste, adjust for seasoning, and spoon over poached or grilled fish for best results.

Bo Kho

For a few days last week, the weather was chilly enough to warrant making a big batch of beef stew. While there is nothing wrong with the traditional Irish beef stew or Beef Burgundy, something had me in an Asian mood. This is a basic braise, but with the subtraction of a few traditional ingredients and the addition of a couple Southeast Asian flavors. After the initial braise, strain the sauce and remove the meat. Then cover the meat with the sauce and cool overnight. The next day add in the blanched carrots and turnips and reheat.

This is the perfect dish to make halfway on a Sunday and then finish off on Monday night. Serve it with warm French bread to soak up the pungent, rich sauce.

My Bo Kho

1 pound beef stew meat
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks of celery
1 stalk of lemongrass, diced
3 cloves of garlic
1 turnip, peeled and diced
1 leek, diced
1 tablespoon of minced ginger
1 tablespoon of red curry paste
Vermouth
4 cups chicken stock
Vegetable oil
Fish sauce
Juice of one lime
Bouquet garni - bay, coriander, allspice, and clove. I put them in one of those metal mesh loose tea holders - easier than tying or trying to fish out.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Pat dry your beef. Season with salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven, heat three tablespoons of vegetable oil until just smoking. Sear the meat in batches. Add in handful of the carrots (reserve the rest for the next day), the leeks, celery, lemongrass, ginger, and garlic. Stir to combine and let sweat for about five minutes or until soft. Add in curry paste and cook for another three minutes. Then deglaze with a quarter cup of vermouth. Once the vermouth has evaporated, add in the stock, lime juice, the seared meat, a good few dashes of fish sauce, and the bouquet garni. Bring to a boil. Cover and pop in the oven for 2 hours.

Remove the meat and place in a bowl. Strain the sauce into the bowl, cool, and refrigerate for at least six hours but preferably overnight. When ready to serve, blanch the reserved carrots and turnips in salted, boiling water until al dente. In a separate sauce pan, rewarm the braised meat and its sauce, and add in the carrots and turnips.

Serve in warm bowls with plenty of French bread and a crisp beer.

Porchetta James

With the weather cooler and a new baby keeping us close to home, my kitchen has gotten plenty of attention. Afternoons are spent simmering stock, making hearty soups, or on a recent weekend rolling a boned out pork butt in two pounds of skin on pork belly, tying it, and roasting it.

The basic recipe comes from the kitchen of a Mano and if you have a few moments this holiday season, you might find this the perfect replacement to a prime rib or turkey. I served this on a Sunday for a lazy brunch with a salad of shaved brussel sprouts and a poached egg. Imagine an Italian version of salade lyonnaise, that is a pretty sexy image.

Porchetta

2 pound skin on pork belly (Check with Bill Ryals at the Crescent City Farmer's Market)
3 pounds of pork butt, boned and butterflied
The zest of 2 Satsumas
2 tablespoons of fennel seed
2 tablespoons of chili flake
2 tablespoons of kosher salt
1 tablespoon of black pepper
1 head of roasted garlic
Baking Powder

Toast the fennel. In a mortar and pestle, add the toasted fennel seed and crush. Add this to the chili flake, salt, and satsuma zest. Mix to combine.

Lay on a clean surface, your pork belly skin side down. On the flesh side, spread a layer of your spice rub and rub in to the meat. Lay your pork butt on top of the pork belly and season it with a layer of the spice mixture.

Down the center of the pork butt, lay as many cloves of roasted garlic as you like. Tightly roll up the pork belly and butt and truss. Some of the butt will peek out the ends of the porchetta. Feel free to trim it up or leave it. Your call. Now take a tablespoon of baking powder and mix this with an additional tablespoon of kosher salt. Sprinkle this over the skin of the pork belly, it will help it crisp.

Now park this beautiful roll of deliciousness in the fridge overnight, covered. Remove the pork from the oven for about an hour before tossing into a preheated 375 degree oven for four hours. After four hours, remove from the oven, and crank it to broil. Let the pork rest for 15 minutes or so. Add back to the oven and watch carefully for the skin to puff and crisp.

Slice into rounds and place on top of the salad of your choice. Add a poached egg and let bacon and eggs become immortal.

Syrah and Lamb

Dark red fruits, hard herbs, smoke, pepper, and bacon. No, this does not describe the newest fragrance from the people who brought you Sex Panther, but rather the aromas and flavors of Syrah. I love Syrah. If I had my druthers and the bank account of a star NFL quarterback, I would pretty much only drink wines from the Rhone Valley (with maybe just a bit of Burgundy and Champagne thrown in for good measure). Alas, every man bears a cross and mine is law school loans which keep my druthers in the drawer.

The good news is the wine market is quite overloaded with Syrah. Syrah is planted all over the Rhone Valley and other parts of France (the bottle in photo above is from an area in southwest France). In the Northern Rhone, Hermitage and Cote-Rotie generally let Syrah stand on its own, although occasionally it is mixed with Viognier, a white wine grape which tends to add a softer, floral edge to the wine. The further south you travel down the Rhone, Syrah gets blended with a variety of grapes giving it more herbal flavors, reaching its pinnacle in the world class wines from Chateauneuf-du-Pape. In Australia, they call it Shiraz because a colony of prisoners always does thing strangely. In California, they call Syrah ""Pinot Noir" and sell it as such. 

More importantly, Syrah is a perfect match for grilled, juicy meats. Roasted lamb in particular is a fantastic excuse to open a bottle of Syrah. I will concede that roasting a leg of lamb is an ambitious project for a weeknight dinner. But you know how to make burgers right? If you answered yes, this recipe should be right in your wheelhouse. The juicy lamb sits on a bed of peppery kale and is topped with an herb fueled yogurt sauce. It just may make you crave a leg of lamb and more bottles of Syrah.

Lambsbury Steak with wilted kale and yogurt sauce

For the burgers
1 pound ground lamb
Salt and Pepper

Carefully form lamb into patties. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. Cook on a grill or in a cast iron skillet. Either way use medium-high heat. 3-4 minutes per side.

For the Kale
4 cups kale
1 shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
Sherry vinegar
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Heat a saute pan and add olive oil. When oil shimmers, add garlic and shallot and cook for one minute. Add kale and toss to combine. Add salt, pepper, and a few dashes of sherry vinegar. Once kale has wilted (about 2 minutes) turn off heat. Taste adjust seasoning if necessary.

For the yogurt sauce
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup of watercress, chopped
4 radishes, minced
1/4 cup of mint, chopped
1 tablespoon of sherry vinegar

Combine all of the above in a bowl, stir to combine.

To assemble

Kale on the bottom of the plate. Add lamb burger. Top with yogurt sauce. A few diced tomatoes aren't a bad idea.

Orzo & Summer Squash Salad

Good Lord, it's hot outside. The heat and humidity this summer have been insufferable. Staying inside means sky high electric bills; it's like Entergy has a nuclear plant dedicated to powering your air conditioner. Leaving the house is even worse. When you take that first step out the front door, it feels like you're wearing a warm, wet blanket.

Keeping cool is a theme that extends to the dinner table, and the stifling heat makes summertime meals a challenge as well. While it's perfectly acceptable to rely exclusively on Hansen's and Creole Creamery for your entire daily calorie intake, a little vegetation every now and then is a welcome change of pace. A few weeks ago The Folk Singer found this recipe for an orzo and zucchini salad, and we have adopted it as our own with a few tweeks. It's cool, refreshing, and has quickly become one of our go to summer dishes.

Orzo & Summer Squash Salad

• 1 1/2 cups dry orzo pasta
• 3 baby zucchini
• 1 large yellow squash
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 tbsp. white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 8 oz. feta
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (optional)
• salt and pepper

Cook the orzo according to instructions. Don't forget to add salt to the cooking water. Drain, rinse under cold water to cool down, and dry as best as you can.

Cut the zucchini lengthwise and then slice into 1/4 inch half moons. Chop off the neck of the squash and follow the same process as the zucchini. For the thicker base of the squash, I like to cut it lengthwise into quarter rounds and then slice. The main goal is uniform cuts. After prepping all of the veggies, hit them a few grinds of salt and pepper.

In a large bowl combine the olive oil, vinegar, and red pepper and whisk with a fork. Add the squash and zucchini and lightly toss to coat. Throw the bowl into the fridge to continue to chill while the orzo finishes cooking and cooling.  In a perfect world, the vegetables will marinate for an hour.

After the orzo has cooled, add it to the bowl with the squash and zucchini. Dice the feta and throw that in as well.  Same for the dill if you got it. Gently toss everything together and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve with a grilled hanger steak and a bottle of properly chilled Joseph Drouin 2009 Côte de Beaune Villages ($25 from Hopper's Cartes des Vins).

Shrimp, Corn, and Tomato

The combination of shrimp, corn, and tomatoes has rusticity and grace. The classic combination of those three stalwarts is a stew chock full of sweet corn and plump shrimp in a tomato laced broth. That is all fine and dandy, but the season for shrimp, corn, and tomatoes is not necessarily soup weather. So switching gears, it's time to make tacos filled with a bright pico de gallo.

Shrimp, Tomato, and Corn Tacos
Serves 4

Ingredients
Corn Tortillas - buy them or make them, make sure they are warm
5 pounds shrimp, peeled, and deveined
1 Creole tomato, diced
Half a white onion, finely diced
Tablespoon of oregano
Lemon juice
Olive Oil


Technique
Season your shrimp. Your choice. Salt and pepper work or one of those seasoning blends sitting on your spice rack. Let this sit for a few moments. Combine the tomatoes, onion, and oregano. Squeeze in lemon juice, pour in some olive oil, and season to taste. Stir.

Get a cast iron pan ripping hot. Add the shrimp, in batches, if necessary and cook for two to three minutes. Once those shrimp turn pink and curl, they are almost overcooked. Remove the shrimp from the heat and chop roughly. Squeeze lemon juice over the chopped shrimp and spoon into a tortilla, top with pico.

Brisket Sandwich

The Ubon's BBQ Crew from Yazoo make what is truthfully called The Perfect Sandwich on Friday at Memphis in May. It is a celebration of community and friendship as teams flock to their tent to eat and talk shop. The sandwich is a simple thing really: smoked prime rib, pickle, onion, horseradish, mustard, and mayo on a hamburger bun. It is so simple, I ate about 3 of them and contemplated a fourth.

This sandwich has been haunting me. I lay awake at night wondering how long til next year's Memphis in May like a kid in April making his list for Santa. I may or may not be traveling through the Delta in a week or so, specifically so I can pass through Yazoo City for lunch and a Perfect Sandwich to go. A few weeks ago after over a month long drought since my last Perfect Sandwich, I broke down and decided to try and make one at home. I swapped out brisket for prime rib and made a few other tweaks. While the result was very good, it was no Perfect Sandwich. I should know better than to mess with perfection.

Brisket Sandwich

For the Brisket
1 4-5 pound brisket
Salt and Pepper - about 2 tablespoons each
Rosemary
Garlic - 2 cloves
A few bay leaves
Olive Oil - 3 good glugs
Smoke
Time

For the Sandwich
A soft well-made bun with a good crust (Maple St. Patisserie)
Mayo
Real Horseradish (Whole Foods, among others)
Garlic
Creole Mustard
Thin slices of white onion
Pickles

To Make Brisket

The day before combine the salt, pepper, rosemary, and garlic in a mortar and pestle or food processor until it becomes a paste. Stir in olive oil. Rub this mixture all over the brisket and park in the fridge overnight. This general technique comes from Donald Link's Real Cajun cookbook, but I replace the thyme with rosemary because it grows in my yard.

Remove from fridge and smoke over your wood of choice at 225 degrees for about three hours. Then wrap in foil and continue cooking for another 2 hours or so, or until the meat pulls away easily. Let rest, then slice across the grain.

To Assemble the Sandwich

While the brisket cooks, grate horseradish (you want a tablespoon) and garlic into a mixing bowl. Add a few squirts of mayo and Creole mustard. Stir to combine. taste. adjust if necessary. The taste should take your breath away. Toast the buns, slather on the horseradish mayo on both sides of the bun. Throw on a few slices of sliced onion, the brisket, and then some pickles. Eat one, then two more. Then drive to Yazoo City.

The Most Valuable Burger

From food trucks to high-end warehouses of fine dining, the burger has become this season's must have restaurant accessory. This trend has been growing for years, but recently may have reached critical mass. As NOLA Defender pointed out yesterday, three new burger spots are slated to open in the next few weeks. This is all fine and well. But you can make a much better burger at home than any place in town.

A burger is all about the meat. It starts and ends with high quality meat ground freshly and handled simply. You can add anything you want to your burger, but please start with freshly ground beef. The type and ratio of cuts is important as well. Fifty percent of your total should be chuck. Chuck will provide the body and structure to your burger. The remaining fifty percent is up to you, but you want something with a fair amount of fat (flavor). Brisket ideally, but as Dan Stein laments, "All these burger places using brisket is making pastrami expensive." A good substitute for brisket is skirt.

And how do you get freshly ground beef if you don't have a meat grinder at home? Ask the butcher. Simply walk up to the counter and ask the butcher for a "Pound of chuck and a pound of brisket , ground through a thick grind, but not as thick as your chili grind."

To make your patty, be very careful. First, do not add anything to the meat. No salt, no Tony's, no  family secret marinade, nothing. I find six ounces is the perfect size. Make a patty by forming a ball and then lightly pressing down to the desired thickness. I like a quarter of an inch. Now park the patties in the fridge for about 30 minutes. This is a good time to heat up your grill or cast iron pan, which are the only two ways to cook a burger at home. Season the patties with salt and pepper just prior to cooking. I like to cook the burger until medium. At medium the fat has had time to melt and baste the meat, making for a juicier burger. Anything less and the meat can be chalky. This meat won't dry out if cooked more, but it will lose its appealing rosiness.

As for toppings, I like tomato, thin slices of onion, cheddar cheese, arugula, and Larkin sauce. Larkin sauce is a one to one ratio of mayo and stone ground mustard. You can find good buns at a decent grocery store. Buy them and toast them with some butter. Enjoy your Independence and a great burger.

Presto Pesto

Pesto is the sunscreen of summer dining. You should always have it around and use it liberally. Pesto, like all Mediterranean foodstuffs, was either invented by the Italians, Spanish, French, Greeks, North Africans, or Asians by way of trade routes. You may choose to believe whichever story you choose. Pungent, salty, lemony, pesto has a deep flavor that is unmistakable. While the fragrance of pesto is intoxicating, its color is a jungle of greens.

Pesto, culinary and linguistically speaking, is just a paste, a combination of ingredients smashed into something greater than the sum of its parts. Prior to the invention of the food processor, pesto was a laborious task, most likely assigned to a mother-in-law to keep her out of one's hair. Give granny a mortar, pestle, and a glass of wine and let her go to work. With a food processor, making delicious pesto is something you should be doing every week. Possible uses:

• Toss with warm pasta
• Slather over skin on chicken thighs and grill
• Ciabatta, prosciutto, mozzarella, and pesto paninis 
• Spoon over fried eggs or inside a creamy omelet
• Combine the last two for Eggs Benedicto - poached eggs, pesto, grilled ciabatta, and prosciutto
• Marinade for shrimp
• A spread on sandwiches
• Tomato, mozzarella, and pesto 
• Pizza sauce
• Sunscreen

Traditionally, pesto combines basil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, lemon, garlic, and olive oil. But that is just a starting point, try cilantro, peanuts, lime, shallots, and red chili for an Asian twist. Use pecans. Hell, just use your goddamn imagination. 

My Basic Pesto

2 handfuls of basil, leaves only (if technical, about 3 cups tightly packed)

1/4 cup of pine nuts, toasted

1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan
1 clove garlic, smashed

Juice and zest of one lemon

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Place the basil, pine nuts, Parmesan, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a food processor. Pulse about 5 times. Then with machine running, drizzle in olive oil to your desired texture. For me this is generally a half cup of olive oil. Taste. Add salt and pepper if needed. 

Will keep in fridge for a few days, but it is usually gone by then. 

Adventures in Babysitting

Nephew #1 keeping his work space clean, as per instructions. 

About a month ago, my nephews came to visit. For one overnight stay, they brought with them each two suitcase filled with clothes, movies, toys, trucks, and books. I should have charged my sister an overweight baggage fee. In one bag, there were bathing suits, goggles, and diving rings. For mid-February and staying at a house without a pool, one couldn't help but applaud their wishful thinking. 

After about fifteen minutes in a "boring house", they were hungry and the hounds were hiding under the table. Luckily, we had spent the last few days preparing for just such an emergency. It began two days prior, when Lindsay spent the better part of a week making a pizza sauce from scratch. My protestations to just puree a can of tomatoes with some garlic and olive oil only got me The Look. Apparently the nephews would need serious proof to revoke their fried shrimp and white rice diet. 

The day before they arrived, I began making a pizza dough. This dough recipe came from Tariq Hanna of Sucre and if you read this in a slight British accent you will get the same results: "2 cups water, 3 cups of flour or so, a package of yeast. Combine it, park it in the fridge overnight. Next day, add another 3 cups of flour and let rise in a bowl covered with a towel for a few hours. Now, quit bothering me."

After making the dough and since it was only eleven p.m. the night before we were having company over, it made perfect sense to start in on some ice cream. While in New York, we made the pilgrimage to Momofuku Milk Bar for the world renowned cereal milk ice cream. At some point after this, the idea of Oreo cookie milk ice cream entered my brain. Into a pan went about a row of Oreos with some cream. These steeped for about 10 minutes before I strained the cream, added milk, and sugar. Then proceed with ice cream base. After churning, I added in a cup of chopped Oreos and then parked in the freezer. Cookies and Cream ice cream, in case you needed me to finish the obvious for you. 

We rolled out pizzas, throwing dough in the air, and putting flour in crevices all over the kitchen. Sitting in front of the oven, the nephews and hounds delighted as pizzas crusted and turned bubbly and brown. They added whatever toppings they liked, but I drew the line at adding anything from their suitcases. After the pizzas were devoured and the ice cream polished off, Nephew #2 headed upstairs. "Where you going," I asked.

"I'm tired," he said. 

He had a point.

Cooking With Wine

a heavy bottle of red wine

brought up from the cold basement

in a basket of white laundry

 William Carlos Williams

Welcome to the last Cooking With Wine. Studies have shown that people with the name Anonymous absolutely hated this series, while the rest of you just seemed to tolerate it. But that is ok. I enjoyed it and until and unless this jobby starts making us some serious money, the guiding principle around here will be if we enjoy it, we do it.

Mad Max's last selection is another from the Highway 12 portfolio, this time the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is 100% Cabernet, with a dark, intense color providing the foreshadowing for dark berries and soft French oak nuances. The silky mouthfeel gives way to aggressive tannins - this is a big, bold wine. Which is why, with final chill of winter in the air, it seemed the perfect time to make a hearty beef stew. The wine retails for around $20, and you can find it at Swirl, Sylvain, Theo's, Dick and Jenny's, and Elio's.

Oxtail and Beef Stew

Braising gives the occasional cook a margin of error wider than the headwaters of the Mississippi. For this beef stew, I like to use two cuts of beef- the gelatinous, sticky oxtails and what is commonly sold as beef stew meat. The oxtails allow a rich, lip smacking sauce to develop while the beef stew meat provides enough tender, shredded meat to go around the table. I like to use bacon grease as my lipid of choice, mostly because bacon is the new black this award season.

Preheat an oven to 300 degrees.

In a large dutch oven, heat enough oil or bacon fat to coat the entire pan in a quarter inch layer of lipid. Meanwhile, pat the oxtails and beef stew meat dry with a paper towel. The dryer you get the meat, the better the sear. The better the sear, the better the stew. Coat the meat with salt and sear in batches until well browned. Once browned remove from heat.

After browning all the meat, toss in an onion, two celery sticks, and two carrots, all coarsely chopped. Sweat for around eight minutes. Then add, a tablespoon of tomato paste. Let this color - you are looking for a dark rust color. Once the roots are rusted, add some salt and pepper, a bay leaf, and a few sprigs of thyme. Now add one whole bottle of decent red wine. Bring to just under a boil, return the meat to the pan, cover, and pop in the oven.

You want to cook this for about three hours or until the meat of the oxtails falls off the bone easily. It is better to overcook here (hardly possible) than undercook. Meanwhile, trim a two cups of green beans, cut them in half, and blanch in boiling, salted water. When done, plunge in ice water. Once cool, drain, and dry on paper towels. Now, peel and slice two carrots into half inch thick rounds and treat just like you did the green beans. Finally, slice some mushrooms of your choosing and saute on high heat in a well buttered pan. Once browned, add in some chopped garlic, salt, and pepper. Stir and remove from the heat.

I want you to remove the meat from the braising liquid. I realize this is sort of time intensive, but it is worth it. Then strain the braising liquid and reserve. (The leftover detritus of carrots, celery, onion, and shreds of meat is best with a sprinkle of chunky sea salt and eaten on crisp rounds of crusty bread or by the spoonful.)

Now, combine the meat with the strained sauce, the green beans, carrots, and mushrooms, and warm through. Taste. Adjust seasoning and serve in a big wide bowl. I topped mine with a gremolata - a fine dice- of preserved lemon, parsley, and garlic.

Cooking With Wine

Ahab had his white whale; I have brisket. Recently, I have become mildly obsessed with cooking the perfect brisket which is crusty and barked on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside. I am only in the beginning stages of this particular culinary obsession, but if you want to try some incredible brisket (as well as other bbq), make your way to Smokin Buddha BBQieux. Their brisket is fat and tender, with a spiced bark and rich interior. But more on the city's best barbecue later.

Mad Max sent forth a brawny and polished California Cab this week made by the folks at Five Vintners. Sourced from grapes from St. Helena, Rutherford, and Napa, this cab burst forth with red fruits and smooth tannins. Now, I could have easily grilled a fat porterhouse or thick lamb chops and knocked this pairing out of the park. But, brisket was on my mind. Specifically, a brisket that combined the benefits of braising with the glories of barbecue. Something that would not be too aggressive with the wine, but also stand up to the heavy onslaught or wine power that a California Cab brings to the table.

Marinated, uncooked brisket ready for the grill.

The Taste of Braising, the Texture of BBQ 

That is not an entirely accurate description, but let's go with it. What results in a juicy, lip smacking brisket with a deeper flavorprofile than traditional barbecued brisket while retaining more than a touch of smoke. To accomplish this, first get to marinating. Combine 3/4's of a bottle of stout red wine - Malbec will do- a glove of garlic smashed, a sprig of rosemary chopped, enough salt to fit in the palm of your hand, two bay leaves crushed, and ten or so cracks of black pepper. Mix all of this together, and pour over the brisket. Cover and marinate overnight. 

Get a smoker to hold steady at 225 degrees. I added a 3:2 mix of hickory and cherry wood chips, feel free to smoke with what the good lord gave you. Remove the brisket from the fridge and marinade; reserve the marinade. Pat dry and sprinkle some more coarse salt on top. Place in your smoker, cover and smoke at 225 for 3 hours. Meanwhile, reduce the marinade in a sauce pan until only about a quarter of it remains. 

After three hours, remove the brisket, place on a sheet of foil, pour over the reduced marinade, seal the foil, and place back on the smoker for another three hours or so. After three hours, remove from foil, place back on the smoker unencumbered for thirty minutes or so. Then slice across the grain. 

Last time I made this the Saints dominated the Lions in a playoff matchup. If everyone makes this brisket, no doubt the Saints are going to the win. Throw in the wine, and most likely we are hosting an NFC Championship game next Sunday. The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon from Five Vintners is available at Iris, Commander's Palace, Mr. B's, Houston's, Whole Foods, and The Wine Seller, where it retails for around $37.

Cooking With Wine

The wines made by Abe Schoener are unique, to put it mildly. His Scholium Project crafts wines which often bear no relation to any wine you have ever had. Take for instance, his wine called the Prince in His Caves, which is a sauvignon blanc aged in old red wine barrels. The wine is bottled unfiltered and with a mild orange hue,  it looks more like a wheat beer and tastes like biting into a grapefruit. It is perhaps the strangest, and most memorable wine, I've ever tasted. So when Mad Max's box o' wine revealed the 2009 Naucratis, let's just say a straightforward dish would not due. This wine is made from 100% Verdelho, a varietal more common in Portugal and used almost exclusively for Madeira. The wine is lush, almost oily in the mouth with crisp acidity.

So with those flavors in mind, we wanted to do something that would be able to stand up to the heft of the wine while benefiting from its palate cleansing acidity. What resulted was a leftover meal fit for a king. I must confess though most of the heavy lifting was borne by Lindsay. Should be no surprise then, that this was our favorite wine and food pairing so far.

Mexican Chicken Pot Pie

The night before, Lindsay made chicken enchiladas based on a recipe pulled from one of her television boyfriends, Tyler Florence. The recipe left us with a large pot of black beans and chicken in a tomatillo veloute. So we took a logical step and combined a cup of the beans with the remaining chicken veloute. We tucked it into ramekins and topped it with sheets of puff pastry. Then bake it at 350 degrees until the top is brown and crusty.

Chicken Pot Pie is often boring and bland. This one was anything but. Robust, spicy, with deep flavors and varying textures. Plus, anytime you can add puff pastry to leftovers, you create a dish much greater than the sum of its parts. Which sort of reminds me of Schoener's wines. You can find the 2009 Naucratis at August, Rue 127, Loa, Delachaise, Rambla, Wino, Dick and Jenny's, and Cafe Amelie. It retails for just under $20.

The South's Olive

They grow in sandy soil. While they can be eaten raw, more often than not, they are processed prior to ingestion. They can be turned into paste and smeared on bread. They can be pressed to get an oil suitable for nearly any cooking or beauty purpose. They can relax in a salty brine producing an excellent snack. I am speaking of course of the humble giant that is the peanut.

I love peanuts, always have, always will. I still eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, unironically. I carry a year's supply of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on any boat trip I take, just in case. I enjoy snacking on crunchy, salty peanuts while sipping a cold beer or rum drink. Yet, all of those forms take a back seat to boiled peanuts.

I first encountered boiled peanuts in college when classmates from South Carolina would truck up tubs filled with the brown pods following breaks in classes. Eating a boiled peanut is not at all dissimilar to eating crawfish. First, you place the pod in between your teeth and press gently. If you do it correctly, a tiny slit will rupture, with a gentle inhale your mouth will flood with saltwater. Then pull the peanut from your mouth, peel off the shell and eat the one, two, or three peanuts inside. Lather, rinse, and repeat. You can do this for hours on end, making it a great source of exercise.

The best boiled peanuts come from "green" peanuts which means they were grown using solar energy and transported via a Toyota Prius. They are hard to find down here, so I tend to use raw peanuts when making boiled peanuts. All raw means is the peanuts have been dried. I've tried various techniques of boiling peanuts- overnight soaking, boiling rapidly in heavily salted water, salting after boiling, steeping, and on and on - with differing levels of success. But one day a few weeks ago, the crock pot once again proved its utility. 

Fill a crock pot with peanuts about three-fourths of the way up. Then pour in some cold water. Some peanuts will float on top, don't worry as they will sink eventually. Then dump in a 1/4 cup of salt - you can reseason later anyway. Turn the crock pot on low and go to work. When you come home, stir the pot, and raise heat to high. After another 30 minutes, all of the peanuts should have sunk to the bottom. Turn off heat and let peanuts steep for an hour. Taste. They should be salty enough, but if not, add more salt. They should be soft, but not mushy. You can eat them warm, but for some perverse reason, I prefer cold boiled peanuts. They are even better with the following martini.

A Southern Dirty Martini

A salted olive and a boiled peanut have much in common both in flavor and texture. It is highly probable that the entire idea of adding olives to a martini came about when some inebriated businessmen decided to add the olives which were served as snacks with his martini to his martini. Last year, Jake pointed out his favorite way of drinking martinis is with chilled boiled peanuts. So why use olives from Greece or Spain to season your martini, when a peanut will do? Ice in a glass, add four parts gin and one and a half parts of vermouth. Grab two cold boiled peanuts and squeeze the juice into the glass. Stir with a long handled spoon and then strain into a chilled glass or serve on the rocks. Add three or four shelled boiled peanuts.

What results is a typical martini with a salty, slightly nutty edge - imagine your crazy Uncle Leo distilled into a cocktail. Plus, and trust me on this, a gin soaked boiled peanut is the best way to enjoy the South's olive. 

Cooking With Wine

In the last few years, Brussels sprouts have emerged as one of the favorite vegetables in our house. Sometimes we roast them with bacon, garlic, and salt, other times we blanch them before slicing them in half and slowly caramelizing in brown butter and finishing it with shallot and lemon. For the last few weeks, Lindsay has been raving about the shaved Brussels sprouts salad at Sylvain and asking me to make something like that.

When Mad Max dropped off a substantial white wine with notes of lemon, green apple, citrus, and grapefruit my mind immediately went to trying a version of shaved Brussels sprout salad. The 2009 Ribolla Adriatico from Bastianich Wines has a firm minerality and a lot of acid, with just a touch of sweetness at the end. That made me want to incorporate some spice and sesame oil to take the dish in an Asian direction. You can find the wine on the list at Green Goddess, Bacchanal, and Whole Foods, where it retails for under $20.

Shaved Brussels Sprouts Slaw with Poached Chicken

The chicken is optional. But if you want to add it, it works best in salads when poached. Bring 6 cups of water up to a simmer, add some cloves, salt, bay leaf, and a half cup of white wine. Add the chicken and simmer for 25 minutes or so.

A mandoline is one way to slice the sprouts into thin rounds. But be careful and it helps to listen to this song while doing it. A food processor with a slicing blade is a much better option. Once your sprouts are shaved, place them in a deep bowl. Thinly slice the radicchio and add this to the Brussels sprouts. Toast about a palmful of slivered almonds until light brown. Add this to the above, along with salt and pepper.

Finely dice the green chili and some garlic (if you have ginger, by all means use it). Place this in a second bowl. To this add some soy sauce, the juice of one lemon, a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar, and a teaspoon of honey (you need the sweetness to counteract the bitterness of the raw radicchio and Brussels sprouts). Whisk. While whisking stream in a about tablespoon of sesame oil, then finish the dressing with olive oil. Taste. Adjust seasoning.

Pour dressing over the Brussels sprouts and radicchio top with poached chicken and mix to combine. Let sit for a few minutes before diving in. Chopsticks or forks are acceptable.

Cooking With Wine

Sometimes a meal just comes together without a plan. When this happens the result is not at all unlike giving a speech. There is the meal you wanted to make, the meal you made, and the meal you should have made. What I intended to make was a pork roast that sat atop firm stewed lentils. What ended up on the plate was a stew of lentils which had thickened the braising liquid by bursting forth from their shells. What I should have done is cook the two separately.

The wine was partially to blame or credit depending on your point of view. Mad Max's offering that week was winemaker Brian Graham's 2009 Parlay "Bookmaker" blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Syrah, Syrah, and Petite Verdot, which kept changing in the glass. There was jammy red fruit, and black pepper, calling to mind that incredible Italian dessert of ripe strawberries with balsamic and black pepper. Sharp and firm tannins led to a quick, pleasing finish. This great everyday red wine retails for about $20 and you can find it at Mondo, Whole Foods, Le Foret, Ste. Marie, Cork & Bottle, and Stanley.

Roast Pork Loin with Lentil Stew

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

A two pound pork loin (not tenderloin) benefits from a brine. If pressed for time, just season with salt for an hour or so before cooking. Rinse off brine and dry thoroughly. Season with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Sear in olive oil in a dutch oven until brown and crusty on all sides. Remove. Into the pot, add an onion and three carrots roughly chopped. Saute on medium heat for about 10 minutes until softened.

 Add in a cup of lentils and a few cloves of garlic. I had red ones which turned a muted orange once cooked. Then 4 cups of water. Add back in the pork roast, bring to a boil and, place in oven, uncovered until pork is cooked through and the lentils have absorbed most of the liquid. Remove pork, allow it to rest for 10 minutes, slice and cube. Taste stew, adjust seasoning - a little cumin at this point is a great idea, a dash of vinegar also. Ladle lentil stew into a shallow bowl, top with diced pork, and leaves of parsley.

Cooking with Wine

Today's episode is brought to you by the Texas Board of Tourism. In case you haven't heard, Texas and its various boards, commissions, cowboys, and people who love big hair paid a whole 10 gallon hat of money to have Top Chef film in its various locales. Now, me personally, I don't see anything wrong with that. What I can't understand is why they didn't pay any money to keep Most Eligible Dallas from airing. Such a boneheaded decision really has me question their supposed supremacy in things like "living" or "modern cities" or "producing good football teams".

Chili is revered by Texans like Ted Hall who once threatened to kill me if I ever included beans in a bowl of Texas Red. Pinto beans always make me think of some stagecoach cook shutting up a guy named Slim with a scoop from a dutch oven. Couple this with bottle of zinfandel from Mad Max that had me thinking of something spicy and tomato strewn and the stage was set to make a chili that would send a Texan running to the Alamo. I used torn, dried chiles to bring not just heat, but a fragrant fruitiness to the party. Some kale chips (wash, dry, olive oil, salt 300 degree oven for 20 minutes) were the crowning jewel on a mockery fiercer than any Tony Romo joke.

All of this got along very well with the 2009 Saldo Zinfandel released by Orin-Swift wines made under the stewardship of owner/winemaker Dave Phinney. Zinfandel is a wine that wants something robust and brash, and making fun of Texas sure is. The wine retails for around $28 and you can find it at Sylvain, Whole Foods, Iris, Commander's Palace, K-Paul's, Wine Seller, and Maximos.

Messed With Texas Red

Soak 1 pound of pinto beans overnight or while at work. In a Dutch oven, saute over medium heat one whole onion diced with two or three jalapenos diced fine. While that melts, de-stem and de-seed one dried ancho chili and cut into roughly one inch squares. Add these to the pot, and cook for a minute or so. The heat will soften them. Now add in a tablespoon of chopped garlic along with a teaspoon of cumin, a hearty pinch of oregano, and a teaspoon of chili powder. Stir so the spices can absorb some of the oil.

After a minute or so, add a tablespoon of tomato paste. Stir. Let cook for about 2 minutes (doing so deepens the flavor). Deglaze with half a bottle of beer and a 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. Once the beer has mostly evaporated, add in a 28 ounce can of whole tomatoes and their juice. Using the back of a spoon mash the tomatoes. Drain beans from soaking water and add to the pot along with a quart of water. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook uncovered until beans are tender and the sauce is thick..

Crown with queso blanco, parsley, the kale chips, and a dig at Mack Brown's coaching prowess. 

Cooking With Wine

The term Indian Summer is thrown around a lot right now. Near as I can tell it is the last few days of September when the days feel like summer and the nights fall. Well here in New Orleans, it is still just hot, but there are rumors of fall in the air. Sunday afternoon was one of those perfect Indian Summer days and it was time to grill. But this time in lieu of beef, pork, or chicken, we opted to grill shrimp.

Mad Max had provided the perfect wine for grilled shrimp. As the man himself says,"The 2008 Pinot Blanc from cult winemaker, Robert Foley, is vinified with total focus on the fruit characteristics of the Pinot Blanc grape - effusive peach and gardenia blossom notes in the bouquet, a broad and fresh mouth feel with a lingering fruity finish. The wine was vinified entirely in stainless steel to preserve the freshness of fruit, no oak barrels, no malolactic fermentation." You can find it at Carte des Vins, Rib Room, Stella!, Herbsaint, NOLA, and Coquette. This wine retails for around $25 and is best drank out of a mason jar to complete the summertime ensemble.

Good enough for good times I say. The recipe we used came out of Mario Batali's excellent Italian Grill cookbook. It is really more of a technique than a recipe as he uses it throughout the book to add a crunchy, charred crust to proteins. As you will see below, a bread crumb sort of pesto kicks ass on the grill. Batali also calls for a piastra- a  flat metal sheet over a roaring fire- in this recipe. Not having one and channeling inner MacGyver, I just flipped over a cast iron skillet and used its flat underside.

Shrimp Spiedini alla Romagnola

First combine 1 bunch of Italian parsley, 1 bunch basil, 2 cups fresh bread crumbs, a hefty pinch of salt, black pepper, and 1/4 cup of olive oil. I added a little bit of lemon zest because yellow and green look good together. You blend all of that into a paste in a food processor, blender, or mortar and pestle, if you aren't into that whole brevity thing. Toss two pounds of peeled and deveined shrimp into this paste and coat well.

Now thread the shrimp onto some rosemary sprigs that you have removed the leaves from and soaked in water. Or you could use bamboo skewers. Or if you are afraid of pokey things, just place them directly on grill. After skewering all the shrimp, leave in the fridge for about 30 minutes while you get your fire cranking.

 Take a cast iron pan (or piastra if you fancy), flip it over and place it over the hottest part of the grill. Let it get hot, brush on some olive oil, and then place the skewers on the makeshift piastra. Cook 2 minutes per side. Serve with a salad- here I did a grilled Caesar. The shrimp come out the perfect love child between grilled shrimp and fried shrimp, with little clumps of charred bread and a zip of "pesto". It is the perfect dish for an Indian Summer's Eve....Wait, that didn't come out right.

Cooking With Wine

As soon as my grubby little paw grabbed the bottle of Curveball Spinning White Mad Max had stashed into his box of treats, I knew precisely what dish I wanted to make: Spaghetti Carbonara. Carbonara is one of the world's most perfect dishes, combining eggs, pork, cheese, pepper, and starch into an elegant sauce. Fact: carbonara is the only pasta dish in the world which can double as breakfast.

The composition of the Spinning White is an interesting one. At 85% Sauvignon Blanc and 15% Gewurztraminer there is a nice acidic kick but also this white plays very nicely with spicy foods. This wine is also made by Paul Hoffman. You can find it for under $20 at Cork & Bottle, Mondo, and Rum House.

A fattier chardonnay might be many peoples first choice with a dish like carbonara. I prefer something that can handle spice a bit better, which this wine can. The reason is that black pepper can lose a lot of its spicy and aromatic characters when you cook it above a certain temperature or cook it for long periods of time. With carbonara, you aren't doing much more than warming than pepper, so be prepared for a simple battery to your sinuses, if you make it correctly.

Note: The beauty of carbonara lies in its simplicity. Do not try to muck this up with North African Wild Hyssop or Guatemalan Coffee reductions. And if you do, please don't write in about it.

Spaghetti Carbonara

Like roast chicken, I almost never make carbonara the same way twice. One time I might use fettucine, another time one egg and one extra yolk, the third time I mix the bacon into the sauce first, etc... But always, the same 5 ingredients: pasta, eggs, cheese, pork, and black pepper. Normally, I substitute bacon and Parmesan for the traditional guanciale and Pecorino Romano and you can too.

Cut bacon strips into quarter inch rectangles. Fry until crisp then place on a paper napkin lined plate to drain. One package spaghetti, boil in heavily salted water. As you can see, you do not need a doctorate in culinary arts for this dish.

While, pasta is boiling crack an egg into a deep bowl. Grate roughly a half cup of Parmesan over the egg. Whisk. Now take a pepper mill and crank it twenty times. Whisk again. Few more cranks and you should be ready to go.

Once cooked, drain the pasta but reserve a smidge of the starchy, salted water. Add the pasta and the water into the bowl and mix rapidly. The warm pasta will melt the cheese, warm the eggs, and awaken the pepper, essentially playing the role of the Uniter. Once combined, mount on plates and top with bacon, more cheese, and a crack or two of pepper.