Saviolo
Saviolo's JournalWhite Wine Steamed Mussels Recipe
Simple and basic this week. Steamed mussels are delicious and ridiculously simple to make. The hardest part of the whole operation is giving your mussels a good scrub before you drop them in the pot! No matter how clean they are, some grit usually sticks to those shells, so make sure they get a good cleaning before you put them in the pot if you're hoping to eat some of the broth after the mussels are done (which I recommend!).
We used white wine for this, but of course if you would prefer not to use any kind of booze you could use chicken stock (or even something like shrimp stock, I suppose). Other things that would go well in this recipe are things like a good Belgian Trappist ale, or a nice EBS or Brown Ale. The combination of leeks and tomato with some garlic and shallot is pretty classic, but this is a versatile dish changing the flavour profile is easy.
Totally Non-traditional Sous-vide Brisket recipe
Very early on in our channel, we made a video for a traditional braised brisket recipe. This is an update on that recipe with a completely different cooking method! If you haven't dipped your toe into trying sous-vide yet, I highly encourage it. It's a really excellent cooking method if you do it right, and the results can be stunningly delicious. Sous-vide does take some advance planning, however, because the cooking times are extremely long. For this recipe, we cook the brisket at 135F for 48 hours.
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking: Isn't that in the temperature danger zone? You're right, it is! (For those who don't know, the temperature danger zone is between 40F and 140F where bacteria loves to flourish and proliferate in food. Keeping food out of the danger zone is important for restaurants.) But! The neat thing about the length of the cooking time is that the slightly lower temperature will actually pasteurize the meat, rendering it safe. If you follow the time and temperature guidelines there is no risk of food-borne illness from this technique.
As far as flavour profile goes, the sky's the limit. One thing you should avoid when you're cooking sous-vide is adding oil to the bag, because the low cooking temperature and long cooking time will extract flavour from the item you're cooking into the oil, so keep it to things like herbs, spices, and aromatics. The onion/garlic cure with some light spices came out extremely delicious, as well as fork-tender. I wish I could show you how delicious the brisket was after it got that beautiful sear on it. It would also work extremely well with grits and brisket, or put it on a bun with some grainy muster, dill pickle slices, and a nice chunk of mature cheddar!
Easy and Delicious Blue Cheese Gougere Recipe
This week we made blue cheese gougère! This is a simple and quick dish (that does require a little bit of elbow grease to whip up the very sticky batter), and is extremely versatile. Gougère is made from a choux pastry (pâte à choux), which is the same sort of dough you would use to make something like an éclair or profiteroles. For gougère, of course we're going to be omitting any sweet ingredients, and we'll be adding some savoury elements, which typically include cheese, herbs, and spices.
For this recipe, we used blue cheese (alongside the parmesan), though Gruyère or Emmental is more traditional. Honestly, you can mix and match a lot of different kinds of cheese into this recipe, and it would still be delicious. Mix and match and use something that will complement what you're serving them with. You can also add things like sauteed mushrooms, or even fried okra.
Not-really-traditional Lobster Bisque Recipe
Lobster bisque is a strange sort of recipe. Traditionally, this rich and velvety soup was thickened using a paste made from crushed rice and the shells of the lobster used to flavour the soup. These days, bisque is more typically thickened using a roux, which is what we've done here (along with the crushed up shells). Also, it does take a little bit of patience and some specialized equipment to make a good bisque. Crushing up lobster and crab shells to thicken the soup requires a pretty decent blender or food processor. We've got a Bamix stick blender which is very serious, but we don't really recommend using an immersion blender for this recipe. It will also definitely require straining, no matter how good your blender or food processor is.
Homemade Gnocchi in a Tomato Blue Cheese Sauce Recipe
We wanted to do something a little different this week. We very rarely do pasta of any kind because hubby tries to avoid carbs as much as possible, but we wanted to try this out and see how it worked, and it worked very well! Also a great way to get rid of some leftovers. Gnocchi are honestly pretty easy to make, it's just a matter of getting the right amount of flour to the amount of potato you're using, and it can vary greatly depending on how dry your flour is, how fresh the potatoes are, or even how humid it is in your kitchen! So, really it's a bit of a "go by feel" thing for the gnocchi.
For the sauce we cooked down the tomato soup recipe we did a while back on our channel, and it made a fantastic sauce. A little dried basil, some sauteed shallot, a dash of Marsala wine, and some blue cheese really added a lot of complexity and richness to an already excellent tomato base. Other things that you could substitute in include fresh basil, vermouth, Tabasco, parmesan, chili flakes, or oregano.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Ottawa, Ontario
Home country: Canada
Current location: Toronto, Ontario
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 04:34 PM
Number of posts: 3,280
