Only 27 more cooking days left......

till the greatest of all American Feasts! The SUPER BOWL! Already eliminated Cincinnati Chili, Georgia Peach Pie, Pittsburgh all in one sandwiches and K.C. BBQ. But Texas BBQ, Mile High Green Chili, Wisconsin Brats, Maryland Crabs, Manhattan Clam and New England Clam Chowders are still in it. Unfortunately the best two food Cities are matching up this weekend as Jambalaya takes on Cioppino when the Saints and 49ers clash in San Francisco. What match up menu do you want to see on Super Bowl Sunday? My dream match up is Green Chili vs. Cioppino, all though my house might be a little tense in the days leading up to the BIG GAME!

What French call American X-mas Trees

Mmmm meat candy!

Bacon!

My Wife's Baked Goods are Amazing

 

She calls this "Crack" try it and be addicted.

Fromage Fort or What to do with leftover cheese

So you've bought a wedge of brie and haven't finished it, and you have a bit of jack left from taco Tuesdays, you have a half a log of goat cheese remaining and there is just a little roquefort left over from that dinner party from last month, what do you do with all? You make a cheesy spread called fromage fort that's what you do.

This isn't a recipe as much as it is a solution to make scraps into something delicious. Take your left over bits of cheese, cutting off any unwanted mold spots you have on them, until you have about a pound of cheese remnants. Add to that 3 Tablespoons butter, 1/4 cup of white wine, a garlic clove, a pinch of herbs (today thyme) and a pinch of pepper flakes.

Chop up the cheeses into smaller pieces and place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor with the chopping blade and process the mixture until it is smooth.

Once smooth remove and place covered in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or better overnight so the flavors can meld together. Remember there are no set rules for the cheese ratio, just use what you got, it's all cheese and cheese is never undelicious.

You can use it as a dip, let it soften for a couple hours, it's an excellent filling for an omelette, or spread it on bread and toast it until is melty bubbly gooey goodness.

Ménage à Turkey, the Thanksgiving Three Way

It all started out innocently as my wife and I decided to host Thanksgiving, but soon it turned into not just one turkey but 3 of the big birds. We bought our first bird early. Then later in the day while shopping for other ingredients for the meal at a local grocery store we discovered that we could by 2 extra birds for $10 based on the stuffing, cream, yams, butter, etc. we were buying. My wife chimed in first, that it would be more then worth it just on using one for stock. I agreed and took it further saying we should save the breasts and sous vide them in butter. Then I thought well I might as well get a third and put my BBQ grill to work before the rainy season starts.

Tuesday - We'll start with the sous vide, Barbara did a fantastic job of butchery and removed the breast from the carcass. From there I removed the skin from the breast and divided them into 2 pieces. I then placed the breasts in a simple wet brine that I also used for the BBQ bird. Both were set in the brine for 4 hours, would have done the one for the BBQ longer but needed to have done by sundown.

I removed the skin from the breast and saved for crisping up on Thanksgiving Day. For the sous vide I combined 1/2 cup of soft butter with 2 Tablespoons of Bell's Seasoning and a teaspoon of kosher salt.

I divided the mixture in two and used each half of the mixture in one pouch with each breast and vacuum sealed and placed in the fridge until Thanksgiving Day.

Due to the threat of rain I had to BBQ the smoked bird on Tuesday. To expedite the cooking process I removed the back bone. It was brined for 4 hours, and then placed over a pan filled with a bottle of white wine, 2 wine bottles of water, a bunch of green onions, and a lemon halved and a very hot indirect fire. Grilled bird hot for about 1 hour & 45 minutes, until the internal temp reached 165. Removing the back bone took off about an hour of grilling time.

Also on Tuesday the regular roasted turkey was given its dry brine. And placed in the fridge till Thanksgiving morning.

Thanksgiving Day arrives and the the dry brined bird is removed from the fridge and its breast is buttered after resting for an hour out of the fridge. Then it was placed in a 375 degree oven for about 3 hours until it reached an internal temp of 165.

While the dry brine bird was roasting away our buttered breasts were put into the Sous Vide Supreme at 150 for about 3 hours. Then when the roasted bird finished in the oven, the breast skins were placed on a sheet pan and crisped up in the oven to add crunch to the sous vide breasts. Also cooked smoked bird was carved and placed in the sous vide supreme 30 minutes prior to eating to take the chill off the bird.

Of course since I was cooking for a group of hungry people, and making gravy, biscuits, sweet potatoes etc... I wasn't able to get a photo of the finished birds. Luckily my brother took a photo of the buffet before it was demolished. And of the three birds the one to end up on top as the taste favorite was the sous vide breast. With one guest proclaiming normally to be a dark meat fan, but was won over by the juiciness of the sous vide bird. Second was the BBQ bird, the smoky flavor added a real taste sensation, and while the roasted bird was good it was just not as good as the other two. Next year just one bird, broken down and done sous vide. Its not that we didn't love the other birds, but doing just one is a lot less complicated.