Tag: Food

Classic Buttermilk Waffles

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I don’t normally do breakfast, but when I do, I tend to gravitate more toward pancakes and French toast. On occasion, I will get a waffle, but generally it is something I may eat once a year. On a recent trip back to the Iron Chef homeland, my mom purchased a waffle iron. Well, she needed a recipe; I knew a good one from Cooks Illustrated, so here you go:

The secret to great waffles is a thick batter, so don’t expect to pour this one. Make toaster waffles out of leftover batter—undercook the waffles a bit, cool them on a wire rack, wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze. Pop them into the toaster for a quick breakfast.

The Software

  • 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon cornmeal (optional)
  • ½ teaspoon table salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 egg, separated
  • 7/8 cup buttermilk
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

The Recipe

1. Heat waffle iron. Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Whisk yolk with buttermilk and butter.

2. Beat egg white until it just holds a 2-inch peak.

3. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients in a thin steady stream while gently mixing with a rubber spatula; be careful not to add liquid faster than you can incorporate it. Toward end of mixing, use a folding motion to incorporate ingredients; gently fold egg white into batter.

4. Spread appropriate amount of batter onto waffle iron. Following manufacturer’s instructions, cook waffle until golden brown, 2 to 5 minutes. Serve immediately. (You can keep waffles warm on a wire rack in a 200-degree oven for up to 5 minutes.)

NOTES

That is it. Serve with syrup, butter, whipped cream, fruit, fried chicken or whatever you like.

 

Even More Over the Top Mac and Cheese

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Well, time to revisit the recipe since a number of people asked for it at a New Year’s Eve party we attended at Domanico Cellars. The original recipe is here, but this is the one I specifically made on NYE

The Software

1/2 lb of elbow macaroni

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 lb. good quality bacon, preferably thick cut

1 1/2 tablespoon powdered mustard

3 cups whole milk

1/2 cup onion, minced (about 3/4 of a medium onion)

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 large egg (lightly beaten)

12 oz Sharp Cheddar  shredded

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Black pepper to taste

The Recipe

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Shred the cheese and separate into 2 parts, one containing 1/4 of the cheese and 1 containing 3/4 of the cheese.
  • Cook the bacon, reserving the fat. Mince into 1/4 inch pieces when cooled.
  • Mince the onion. Add to the pan that you cooked the bacon in with 1 tsp of bacon fat and cook over medium heat until browned and slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
  • Bring 2 quarts of salted water to a boil in a 4 qt pan.
  • Add pasta and cook for about 5 minutes to al dente and drain.
  • While the water is coming to a boil, melt the butter in a 3 qt pan over medium heat.
  • Whisk in the flour and cook until pale blond (about 3 minutes) stirring about every minute.
  • Whisk in onion, paprika and mustard until combined (about 1 minute)
  • Slowly add the milk and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until slightly thickened, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat.
  • Slowly add 2 ladles full of the milk mixture to the egg, whisking as you add it. This will temper the egg to keep it from cooking and turning into scrambled eggs. I usually do this in a measuring cup. If there are any lumps (i.e. cooked egg), start over with another egg.
  • Add the egg mixture into the pot and stir a couple of times to combine.
  • Add 3/4 of the cheese to the sauce and stir until the cheese is melted, 1-2 minutes.
  • Add the pasta to the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste.
  • Add the bacon to the pasta and combine.
  • In the pan that you cooked the onions, add one tablespoon of bacon fat over medium high heat. Add the breadcrumbs and toss. Cook until they become golden brown, about 4-5 minutes, stirring constantly.
  • Put pasta and sauce in a 4 qt casserole dish, cover with the remaining cheese and breadcrumbs and bake in the over for 20 minutes.
  • Let stand for 5 minutes and serve with your favorite hot sauce (or not)

IMPORTANT – don’t fully cook the pasta – it will finish cooking in the oven and it will be completely mushy if you cook it fully on the stove. Also, don’t rinse the pasta after you drain it.

Notes Timing is important on this recipe, so I highly suggest preparing all of your ingredients before you start cooking – it really makes the job much easier when you are not trying to measure something while watching something else. I also highly recommend freezing the cheese for about 10 minutes prior to shredding – it makes it much easier. The shredding can be done in a food processor or using a box grater. Don’t buy the pre-shredded cheese, it really doesn’t taste the same and shredding yourself will take you 2 or 3 minutes extra and it will be worth it. I really like Beecher’s Flagship Cheese in this recipe, but if you aren’t local to Seattle, you probably won’t be able to find it, so just use your favorite cheddar.  I really like Skagit River Ranch’s bacon for this recipe, but any good quality bacon will work. The pasta and sauce can be made in advance and then put in the oven later – just put it in the casserole dish, covered in the fridge and when you are ready to cook it, remove it from the fridge, uncover and let it sit at room temp for 15 minutes while you warm the oven. The leftovers also make really good fried mac and cheese the next day, that is, if there is any left.

 

Hyperbole Much?

By Iron Chef Leftovers

There was recently a bad, but very humorous review of Tao Downtown, which list located in NYC, on Bloomberg.com. The reviewer does not like the place at all, and has some wonderfully colorful descriptions of what he did not like. My favorite:

“Looks like a graveyard,” my friend remarked, when the “snapper in the sand” appeared, a preparation wherein patrons hunt for chunks of crispy fish buried in a tomb of garlic crumbs. The flavor is akin to that of overcooked McDonald’s chicken nuggets. The cost is $42.

In case you are unaware, Tao is part of a series of very high grossing restaurants in NY and Las Vegas.

He really didn’t like much of anything about the place, including the atmosphere:

So kudos to the owners, the people behind Lavo and Arlington Club, for turning the Siddhartha, one of history’s great proponents of self-deprivation, into Paris Hilton.

Imagine what these guys could do with a Kosher joint? Until then, I’m happy to say Tao is one of New York’s most important new restaurants. Not for the food, rather for finding taxis.

If you have ever spent any time in NYC, you understand how nice it is to be able to find a taxi here.

I am hoping that this gets the kitten treatment from eater.com. You probably remember the last time they did this for Guy Fieri’s shithole place in NYC:

2012_critical_cat_review_12

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wrote this on Thursday morning. I go onto Eater.com in the afternoon and what do I see? Kittens!

Your Sushi Impact

By Iron Chef Leftovers

When you are going to your local sushi joint, chances are you are doing something that is both bad for your health and bad for the environment. What and why? You might ask? Well, you may not realize this, but most of the fish used in sushi restaurants (even at the high end places – although this is starting to change) are the equivalent of factory farmed livestock. Here are some examples that I pulled off the menu from I Love Sushi in Seattle:

Atlantic salmon – raised in densely packed pens where they have to be fed antibiotics to prevent disease.

Shrimp – raised in stagnant pools of water in Asia and Latin America loaded with filth and diseases. Here is an example of how bad it is.

The same thing goes for most of your white fishes – sea bass, escolar, yellowtail, snapper, etc. There are very few farmed fish that are done in an environmentally responsible manner.

What about wild caught fish? Well, some are better choices than others. From the same menu:

Sea Eel – they are horribly overfished and the fisheries are on the verge of collapse.

Tuna – depending on the kind, it ranges from a good choice (locally pole caught albacore) to a lousy choice (critically endangered Bluefin tuna).

Sea Urchin – Depending on how and where it is harvested, it might be sustainable.

Clams/Scallops/Oysters/Geoduck – these are generally raised in heavily regulated beds and are an excellent choice for sushi. It doesn’t hurt that Washington has some of the best producers of these tasty critters in the world. If you are buying sushi here, there is a good chance that your bivalves are local.

Wild Salmon – a much better choice than the farmed stuff, especially if the fish is pole caught.

All of this came up from an article I read about Bluefin tuna recently in the Smithsonian magazine. (I highly recommend reading it). I am not saying don’t eat sushi; what I am saying is make informed choices.

The issue is a complex one and I am over-simplifying it here. If you want more information on good choices for eating fish, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program or the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program. We have many sustainable sushi places in Seattle, most notably Mashiko – the chefs there are passionate about what they are serving and are happy to guide you through unfamiliar but tasty choices on their menu. Whole Foods no longer stocks fish on the Seafood Watch red list. The best thing that you can do is to ask where the fish you are eating is coming from – whether it is from a sushi place, a seafood restaurant, a fish monger or a supermarket. If the person selling the fish can’t tell you where it was from, if it is farmed or wild and how it was caught, you really should not buy it. Don’t be afraid to ask a place to carry more sustainable choices. In most cases, they are willing to do it because they don’t want to lose the business. If they aren’t willing to do it, go somewhere else that is.

There is much more information on this topic out there, so I will let you decided what your feelings are on the subject. I would recommend the following though to get you started (and I have all of these books if you want to borrow them from the Iron Chef Lending Library):

Four Fish by Paul Greenberg

The Story of Sushi by Trevor Corson

Tuna, A Love Story by Richard Ellis

The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America by H. Bruce Franklin

The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson

And finally a video from a chef who gets it:

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1399191810
Oh, and in case you are skeptical and  you think that all of these books are written by academics who have never been on a boat, Trevor Corson worked as a professional lobsterman for several years and spent a number of years living in Japan. Greenberg, Ellis and Franklin are all avid sport fishermen and really know their subjects (I have had the pleasure of having long conversations will all 4 of these authors). I am trying to get the dialogue started and at least make people aware of their choices, and getting the information out there is the first step in the process.

Serving a Whole Fish

By Iron Chef Leftovers

This is the kind of reaction that Mrs. Iron Chef would have in this situation. I never understood why people get upset when their food comes from a whole animal. Does not realizing what you are eating had a head and tail and used to be moving make it better?

Anyway, from Pearls Before Swine, August 18.

 

pb130818

Why Modernist Cooking?

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Eric Ripert recently had Wylie Dufresne on his web series. In addition to a new way of poaching an egg, Dufresne shares his thoughts on why he became interested in Modernist Cooking. I am surprised that his reasons and my reasons are very similar and I could have very easily been Wylie had I made different choices. The best part of the description starts at about the 5:30 mark, but the entire episode is worth watching.