Tag: Thomas Keller

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garlic confit, the key to sautéed greens

This right here is how to make any leafy green more palatable. Before garlic confit, I was a very reluctant eater of cooked leafy greens. I’d pretty much avoided them since childhood—terrifying brick of spinach microwaved directly from the freezer, anyone?—and only occasionally ate them as an adult because I know they’re good for me. But since our discovery of garlic confit, I’ll happily eat them alongside any main course.

Garlic confit has all the delicious flavor of garlic without the harsh bite. It’s ridiculously easy to make and delicious in pretty much anything – vegetables, pasta, mashed potatoes, spread on bread.  Do yourself a favor, make a big batch, keep it in your fridge and bust it out anytime you’ve got a bunch of kale, spinach, chard, or mustard greens languishing. Because of our CSA, we usually have several bunches of greens on hand and make this once or twice a week.

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Garlic Confit, from Ad Hoc at Home
2 heads of garlic, peeled
1 cup flavorless oil, like grapeseed or safflower

Peel the cloves of garlic and put them in a small saucepan. Cover completely with oil, about 1 cup. Turn the heat on to very low and let the garlic simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of the cloves. When the cloves are soft, it’s done. Pour garlic and garlic oil into a glass jar and store in the fridge.

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Sauteed Greens with Garlic Confit
4 cups leafy greens and stems (this will cook down significantly)
several cloves of garlic confit and its oil
salt and pepper
1/2 lemon, juiced

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Put several cloves of garlic and some of the oil in a large saute pan. Turn the heat to medium. Add your greens and let the begin to wilt, about 2 minutes. Once they’ve released some of their water and shrunken some, use tongs to stir them around. Cook another 2 minutes and turn the heat off. Season well with salt and pepper, finish with a squeeze of lemon.

-Emily

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we’re alive! just busy!

It’s been a really crazy few months.

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Jordan is getting his psychology nerd on, studying lots, running lots of experiments, plus selling lots records at the Amoeba Music, bike riding like a fiend, learning how to surf, and decimating the mold infestation in our formerly-leaky bedroom.

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I’ve working hard in the Joby webiverse, launching new products (camera straps and smartphone tripods – woot!), pulling together three holiday campaigns (gift guide, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, 12 days of Christmas giveaways), plus some cooking, learning to surf, and snuggling with Willow and Jordan to keep my sanity. Bottom line, spending more time on a computer to blog just hasn’t been on the menu.

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Willow is very ready to be a surf dog. Still, her main aim in life is to find the most comfortable spot in the house and snuggle up.

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With any luck, we’ll be back with more tasty porktastic recipes. Probably more sporadic than the good ole days, but back nonetheless.

Hoping your holidays are off to a wonderful start! Maybe a few French bulldogs in your stocking this year? I sure wouldn’t mind one of those lil peanuts on Christmas morning.

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Ps. Last Saturday we went to see Thomas Keller speak. He was humble, honest and really darn smart. And then we got to meet him and have all of our cookbooks signed!!! If it isn’t obvious from this super nerdy photo, I was on cloud nine.

-Emily

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raspberry napoleon

This was my first napoleon. I made it for a dinner party with friends. It was delicious and even road public transit (though I’d probably recommend serving it at home – wrapped securely in plastic wrap it does travel, but only ok). Easy to prepare once you’ve mastered pastry cream, this napoleon is summery and delightful. Like a pie, but better! You can make it a few hours ahead and just take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving.

Raspberry Napoleon 
1 sheet puff pastry (I used store-bought and it was just fine)
2 T corn syrup
2 cups pastry cream
1 pint raspberries

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees. Cut the puff pastry sheet into thirds. Place on a baking sheet and poke with a fork all over. Cook 15, until just browned. Brush with corn syrup and return to the oven for another 5 minutes. Cook until golden brown.

For the pastry cream
2 cups whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split in half and scraped
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 T corn starch
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 T butter
In a medium saucepan over low heat, heat the milk, vanilla bean and salt until just under a boil. In a medium bowl, whisk together the corn starch, sugar and eggs. Temper the eggs with the hot milk by slowly ladling the milk into the egg mixture.

Pour the egg and milk mixture back into the saucepan. Heat over low heat until it thickens, whisking constantly. It can over cook very easily so be sure to pay close attention to the custard. When the custard can coat the back of a spoon, remove from the heat and pour through a mesh sieve back into the bowl.

Once the custard has cooled slightly, add the butter one tablespoon at a time making sure to mix completely before adding the next tablespoon. Once all of the butter has been added, let the cream cool and place in the fridge or assemble the napoleon.

To assemble the napoleon

Place a layer puff pastry on a plate and top with a layer of pastry cream. Top with another layer of puff pastry and then another layer of pastry cream.

Place the raspberries in rows in the pastry cream and top with another layer of puff pastry dough. The napoleon can be assembled up to six hours in advance and refrigerated. Bring up to room temperature before serving and cut deliberately with a serrated knife.

-Emily

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seared salmon over creamed corn

Creamed corn is a good idea, especially when summer corn is at its best and you follow a Thomas Keller recipe. That guy, he knows what’s up.  As a relevant aside, we have all three of Thomas Keller’s cookbooks, but Ad Hoc at Home is the only one we really cook from. The recipes from Bouchon and The French Laundry Cookbook are daunting, to say the least.  Ad Hoc at Home is much more accessible and every recipe we’ve made has been wonderful—homestyle cooking with serious finesse. It is becoming one of our favorite cookbooks.

Seared Salmon with Creamed Corn, adapted from Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
2 ears of corn
1 T butter
1/4 cup cream
1 lime, zested and juiced
salt
pinch of cayenne
1 small salmon fillet
olive oil
salt and pepper

Cut the corn off the cob and scape the cob with the back of the knife to get all the juice. Zest the lime. In a medium saute pan, melt the butter. Add the corn and juice of one half of the lime. Cook the corn over low heat until the liquid evaporates, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt.  Add the cream, cayenne and lime zest. Cook another 5 – 8 minutes, until the cream thickens. Season again with salt and turn of the heat.

Season the salmon with salt and pepper. In a nonstick pan, heat some olive oil over low heat. Add the salmon, skin side down. Cook for four minutes. Flip and cook an additional two minutes. We like our salmon pretty rare so just seared for a few minutes on each side is perfect. Spoon a bed of creamed corn on the plate and top with the seared salmon fillet. A nice side salad never hurts—this one was orzo with arrugula and cherry tomatoes.

-Emily

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little birds

Emily and I wanted to do something a little special (and very delicious) for a recent dinner party.  After nearly endless debate and hours scanning the pages of our cookbooks, we settled roast cornish hens from Ad Hoc at Home.  These succulent little chickens are slathered and stuffed with gremolata butter.  It couldn’t possibly be bad.

Roasted Game Hens with Gremolata Butter, from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home.

For the gremolata butter
1 t black peppercorns
finely rated zest of 2 lemons
2 garlic cloves, grated or minced
12 T (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 T lemon juice
2 T  finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 T kosher salt

Grind the pepper in a mortar and pestle, add the lemon zest and garlic, and mash to a paste.  Stir pepper mixture and butter together in a medium bowl followed by the lemon juice.  Stir in the parsley and salt.

Yummmmm.  You could do anything with this and it will turn out amazing.  But, we chose to put it all over little birds.

For the hens
4 cornish game hens
duck fat (you can use canola oil if you’d like)
6 garlic cloves, smashed, skin left on
1 bunch thyme
fleur de sel (any sea salt will do)

Remove the neck and innards if they are still intact.  Rinse the birds inside and out then dry them thoroughly with a paper towel.  Then remove the wish bone.

Next, insert your fingers between the skin and the meat, starting at the end of the cavity.  Work your way down the breasts and repeat for the thighs.  Once the skin is loosened, insert about .5 T of the gremolata butter under each thigh and about 1 T under each breast.  Truss the birds and let them stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes.  While they rest, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Brush the birds with melted duck fat (or canola oil if you’re using that) and season with sea salt.  Don’t go crazy with the salt here because there is a healthy does of it in the butter already.  Place the birds on their backs in a single layer on a roasting pan and evenly scatter the garlic and thyme around the birds.   Put the birds in the oven for about 25 or 30 minutes, until the internal temperature of the thigh is 160 degrees.  Let rest on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes then either serve them whole, halved, or quartered.

conclusions:
This was a delightful, tasty meal and those little birds made it feel special.  The gremolata butter is great and I can think of a dozen things to do with it.  The first being this same recipe, but with normal sized chickens.  This is my only complaint with the recipe; the birds are so small that they only take 25 to 30 minutes to cook, which is not nearly enough time for the skin to get brown and crispy.  Next time, I’ll be making this recipe with a four pound chicken and giving it 50-60 minutes in the oven (reducing the temperature to 350 after 10 or 15 minutes, of course).  I’ll let you guys know how it turns out.

-Jordan

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leek bread pudding

One of our favorite things is a nice loaf of fresh sourdough.  Another one of our favorite things is how versatile the leftover bread is when it gets stale.   Normally we just make toast with it, but I was inspired by Thomas Keller’s leek bread pudding from Ad Hoc at Home.  My sister and her boyfriend Kyle gave Emily and me this book as a gift.  After my sister confessed to reading the entire thing, she turned to page 213 and informed me that I must make this beautiful side dish.  The recipe calls for brioche and serves twelve, so I made a few minor changes.  With about half of an Acme sourdough batard leftover and leeks from our CSA box, I got to work.

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Slice the leeks and clean them in a bowl of cold water; the grit will fall to the bottom and the leeks will float.  When you’re confident that they are grit-free, add them to a dry saute pan over medium-high heat.  Season and stir until they release liquid (it won’t be much), then lower the heat to low, add about two tablespoons of butter, and stir to create an emulsion.  Cover and stir occasionally until the leeks are very soft.  Once they are done, taste and season with salt and pepper.

While the leeks are getting soft and sweet, cut your bread into one inch cubes and place in the oven and brown on both sides.  When the bread is toasted and the leeks are done, mix the two in a bowl and add a tablespoon of chopped chives and a teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves.

Now that you’ve got your bread and your leeks, you need some pudding, right?  Kinda.  It’s a custard and while that sounds difficult, it’s actually really easy.  Whisk together one egg, one cup of whole milk, and one cup of cream.  Add a very small pinch of nutmeg and a generous pinch (maybe a half teaspoon) of salt and some fresh pepper.  That’s it.

Next, you need some cheese for extra decadence.  The recipe calls for comté or emmentaler, but any semi-soft, flavorful cheese will work.  I had some cave-aged emmentaler on hand, so I used that.  I shredded it all and got about half a cup.  Butter an appropriately sized baking dish (I used a medium sized, round casserole) and put about a third of the cheese on the bottom.  Then place about half of the bread mixture and top with another third of the cheese.  Then add the last of the bread and pour in the custard until there’s about half an inch of bread poking out of the top; you can push the bread into the custard a little bit if it looks like there’s not enough custard.  Here, the recipe says to let the bread pudding sit to absorb the custard for about 15 minutes, but Emily and I don’t really like a super gooey texture, so I just topped it with the rest of the cheese and threw it in the oven.  Bake until the center has set up and the top is browned, about 45-60 minutes.

Conclusions:

It was very tasty, you don’t have to be very precise with it, you can switch thing out if you need to, and it make a great side dish.  The cookbook says it can be a main course, but that seems like a bit much.  It would be fantastic with any hearty fall or winter meal, but it may overshadow the main course.  As a matter of fact, I can’t remember what we ate this with.  I guess that means it was a winner, right?

-Jordan

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Recipes

baking therapy: brownies

I came home from work today and really wanted to bake. And when the mood strikes … I’m thankful I have an above average supply of butter on hand.

Jordan and I have also been hitting the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook pretty hard lately. Thomas Keller works magic in the kitchen and this cookbook compiles his family style recipes.  Thanks Liz and Kyle for this awesome book!

Brownies, from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home
Note: Below are the measurements for the whole recipe. I halved the recipe because I didn’t think it was wise for Jordan and I to eat an entire tray of brownies in two days (the recommended period of freshness).
3/4 c flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t kosher salt
3/4 lb unsalted butter, cut into 1 T pieces
3 eggs
1/2 t vanilla paste or extract (I used extract, although vanilla paste sounds awesome)
6 oz 61% – 64% chocolate, chopped into chip-sized pieces (I used some Scharffen-Berger I had laying around from a previous dessert)

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9″ x 9″ baking dish (I used a loaf pan because I halved the recipe).

Sift together flour, cocoa powder and salt.

Melt half the butter in a small saucepan. Pour the melted butter over the cold butter. Stir to melt the butter. There will be some butter chunks. These are awesome.

In a mixer, mix eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Add in 1/3 of dry ingredients alternating with 1/3 of the butter. Continue with remaining dry mixture and butter. Last, add in chocolate chips.

Pour into prepared dish and bake for 40 – 45 minutes, until the center when poked with a tester has just a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Cool in the pan until a bit warmer than room temperature.

Invert and cut into pieces. Dust the tops with powered sugar before serving.

Conclusions: Quite good, but more of a cake-like texture then a brownie texture. The little gooey bits of dark chocolate definitely made the dessert!

Still searching for a brownie recipe!

-Emily