Great dinner, not such a good ending !

It has taken a while for me to post the pictures and let you know how the Beef Wellington dinner came out.  First, let me say the meal and the company was wonderful.  We had a great time and because we had a plan for when everything had to happen, each course came out right on time and like clockwork.  The photo above is of the main course dinner plate.  It is Beef Wellington with a red wine sauce, roasted baby rosemary potatoes, and roasted asparagus.  

We started the evening with drinks and a trio of bruschetta.  They were Salmon with capers and creme fresh, fig jam, apple and brie, and goats cheese with tomato caper salad. Here is the tray with the three types of bruschetta. 

Our next course was butternut squash ravioli in a sage brown butter sauce.  We grated parmesan and bittersweet chocolate over the ravioli. I think it was really delicious and pretty on the plate, but I somehow missed getting a picture of that course.  We served a nice crisp chardonnay with the ravioli.

Next we had the salad, which was spinach, apple and cheddar cheese with a maple syrup dressing.  It was served with a Gewurztraminer that went very nicely with the sweetness in the salad dressing.  The photographer (me) forgot to get a picture of that course too.

The main course came next.  You saw the plate at the top of the post.  Here is what the Beef Wellington looked like when I began to slice it.  My pastry decorating looks a little like the laces on a football, but it tasted great.  We served a Chateauneuf Du Pape with the beef.  

Here is what the beef looked like after it was coated with the pate'.

And here it is in the puff pastry, right before it went in the oven.

Next up was a cheese course.  It included just a small sample slice of six different cheeses.  It seemed to be very popular and a surprise that we would have that course.  We included three French cheeses including my favorite Blue, St. Agur, along with La Petite Brie and Pave' Du Nord.  We also had Cotswold, an English Gloucester with onion and chives and an Irish Cheddar with whiskey.  We had one American cheese, which was Humboldt Fog, a California goat's cheese with a stripe of edible vegetable ash running through it.  The cheese plates had a little swirl of honey, and some walnuts and raspberries.  We continued to drink the dinner red wine with the cheese.  The cheese servings looked like this:

As a final course we had honey poached pears.  The pear was served with a Missouri Ice Wine called Augusta, which was delightful with the pear and honey.  

Now to the not so good an ending.  Our guests left around 10:30 or 11:00.  Jan and I were cleaning up the dishes and the kitchen.  Our sink started to gurgle although it was still draining.  I happened to look out in the entry hall of the condo and had a very unpleasant surprise.  The contents of the disposal seemed to be leaking out of the furnace closet door and all over our carpet.  The sewer line leading from the sink runs under the floor and under the heating system, which is in a closet off the entry hall.  There is a floor drain under the heating system.  Apparently there was a clog in the line somewhere out in the hall leading to the condo.  When the waste from the sink and disposal got to the clog they backed up through the floor drain and into the condo.  I called a plumber who arrived at 1:00 AM and left at 2:30.  We got to bed at 3:30 and ever since have been dealing with the cleanup, including having baseboard removed, fans running for 24x7 for four days, carpets cleaned, drywall repair where the baseboards were removed and repainting. We hope the conteractor will have the work done by Tuesday or Wednesday. 

This dinner party will be remembered not only for the good food and company but also for the ending, which as you can now see was not so good.  

Beef Wellington with roasted asparagus and baby rosemary potatoes

Beef Wellington is an old staple of gourmet dining.  There is some debate as to where the dish originated.  The French would like to take credit, but why would they name something after Wellington ? Some say the English invented it, but that can't be proved either. Regardless of who first wrapped a beef tenderloin in pastry the end result is a wonderful main course that looks as beautiful as it tastes. There are many varieties but all use the center-most portion of a whole beef tenderloin.  I bought a peeled whole tenderloin and cut off the tail section as well as the chains, the extensions on the sides of the thicker end of the tenderloin. I cut a 12" section out of the middle of the tenderloin to use for the beef wellington.  The other pieces I froze to use as steaks.  Be sure to clean off all of the fat and silver-skin from the beef.  The recipe I am using calls for dry-aging the beef for three days uncovered on a rack in the fridge. Here is what the beef looked like after it was cut, cleaned of all silver-skin, tied and aged.  

The beef is about 12 " long and approximately 3.5 Lbs.  The whole filet was between 5 and 6 Lbs., so you can see that this is just the center cut portion of the fillet.  One question I had was whether to buy a prime or choice tenderloin.  In talking this over with a qualified expert, I was advised that the difference between prime and choice is the inter-muscular fat content in the beef.  Since the tenderloin has such a limited amount of inter-muscular fat there is really no discernible difference between choice and prime when it comes to tenderloin.  Consequently I went with the choice.  I will let you know how that decision came out.  

I am making the classic French form of Beef Wellington which calls for coating the beef with Foie Gras pate', then another layer of duxelles, a cooked mushroom, shallot, cream and herb creation and
encasing the whole thing in a puff pastry.  Here is what it should look like when done.  

Variations on this classic form include such things as using brioche dough instead of puff pastry(Julia Child's Favorite)or varying the recipes for the layers or sometimes stuffing the pate' and or the duxelles into the center of the meat.  

I will add some pictures of my completed product when I finally get it assembled and cooked.  When served, the Beef Wellington will be topped with a red wine sauce that is a bit of a process in itself. When serving a main course as dramatic as Beef Wellington, you do not want to have anything else too complicated on the plate, so I will serve simple roasted asparagus and baby roasted rosemary potatoes with the beef.  

The recipe I am using for the Beef Wellington comes form Cook's Illustrated.  Here is a timeline for the preparation:

2-3 Days before serving:  Dry age tenderloin.

Up to 2 days before serving:  Make the stock base for the sauce.

Up to 1 day before serving:  Make the duxelles. Brown the dry-aged beef.

Day of serving:  Assemble and bake the Beef Wellington. 

Ingredients:

1 Beef Tenderloin - center cut Chateaubriand, 3 to 4 Lbs. trimmed weight, about 12" long and 4" in diameter, tied.
2 TBSP olive oil
2 tsps. table salt
2 tsps. fresh ground black pepper
5 ounces fine pate', mashed until smooth
Unbleached all purpose flour for dusting work surface
1 Lb. puff pastry, either homemade or Dufour brand frozen puff pastry. (Available at Whole Foods)
1 Large egg


Preparation:

3 days prior to serving, place trimmed and tied beef on a wire rack set above a rimmed baking dish and refrigerate uncovered for 48 hours.

One day prior to serving, heat 12-inch heavy bottomed skillet over high heat until very hot, about four minutes.  Meanwhile, rub tenderloin with oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper and lightly rub into meat.  

Set tenderloin in hot skillet, curving to fit if necessary, and sear on first side without moving, until well browned, about one minute, pressing down on meat so that bottom of roast makes full contact with pan.  Using tongs, rotate tenderloin and brown on all sides, about one minute per side.  Remove from skillet and wrap hot tenderloin tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours before day of serving. Here is my browned tenderloin:

Day of serving, unwrap tenderloin and cut off and discard twine. Using a small spatula, spread pate' over top and sides of tenderloin.  

Dust a large sheet of parchment paper with flour.  Unwrap puff pastry and place on parchment;  dust puff pastry lightly with flour and cover with a second sheet of parchment.  Roll into a 12 by 15" rectangle, mending cracks as you roll.  Remove top sheet of parchment and with a sharp knife trim two 1-inch bands off long side to form a 10 by 15" rectangle.  Refrigerate bands on parchment lined plate.  

Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.  Beat egg with 1 TBSP water and set aside.  

Remove plastic wrap from duxelles (see recipe below).  Invert duxelles onto puff pastry; peel off parchment.  Place tenderloin pate' side down onto duxelles-covered dough.

Brush edges of dough lightly with beaten egg.  Wrap tenderloin in dough by bringing long sides together and overlapping by about one inch.  Trim off excess dough.  Encase ends by turning up as in wrapping a package and seal.  Insure tenderloin is wrapped tightly. Carefully invert dough-wrapped tenderloin onto prepared baking sheet and brush dough lightly with beaten egg; refrigerate uncovered for at least thirty minutes.

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Bake Wellington until light golden brown, about 15 minutes, then using bands you cut from the dough, arrange decorative ribbons on top.  Continue to bake until deep golden brown and instant read thermometer inserted into center reads between 113 and 115 degrees for rare, about 15 more minutes, or around 120 degrees for medium rare, about 20 more minutes.  Let stand for 10 minutes and then transfer to a carving board, and cut crosswise into 1/2" slices. Serve with sauce(see recipe below).  

Duxelles Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Lb button mushrooms, brushed of dirt and broken in rough pieces
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
2-3 large shallots-minced (about 1/2 Cup)
2 TBSP heavy cream
1 tsps Madeira (optional)
1 tsps table salt
1/2 tsps fresh ground black pepper
1 TBSP minced fresh thyme leaves

Preparation:

One day prior to serving, process half of the mushrooms in food processor until chopped uniformly fine, about 10 1-second pulses, stopping to scrape down sides after 5 pulses (mushrooms should not be ground so fine as to release liquid).  Transfer chopped mushrooms to a medium bowl and repeat to chop remaining mushrooms.  Here are my chopped mushrooms:

Heat butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-low heat until foaming; add shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes.  Stir in mushrooms, increase heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring frequently, until most of liquid given off by mushrooms has evaporated, 7 to 10 minutes.  

Add cream, Madeira, salt and pepper; cook until mixture is dry, about 3 minutes longer.  Off heat, stir in thyme.  It should look something like this:

Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; turn duxelles onto baking sheet and, with a rubber spatula, spread into 8 by 10" rectangle of even thickness.  Cover flush with plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely cold, at least 2 hours or up to 24.  Here is what mine looked like:

Red Wine Sauce

Ingredients:

21/2 Lbs. beef oxtails-trimmed of excess fat
2 medium carrots- chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 medium celery ribs, chopped into 1 inch pieces
4 small onions, chopped coarse (about 3 Cups)
1 large head garlic, broken into cloves, unpeeled
2 tsps tomato paste
1 bottle dry red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon
4-6 large shallots, minced (about 1 Cup)
1 bay leaf
10 sprigs fresh thyme
1 15 Oz. can low sodium beef broth
1 15 Oz. can low sodium chicken broth
1 tsps whole black peppercorns
6 parsley stems
1/4 cup ruby port
4 TBSP unsalted butter cold, cut into 4 pieces
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Two days prior to serving,  adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.  Combine oxtails, carrots, celery, onion and garlic in large flameproof roasting pan;  spray lightly with cooking spray and toss to combine.  Roast, stirring every ten minutes, until beef and vegetables are well browned, 40-50 minutes, adding tomato paste to roasting pan after 30 minutes.  

While oxtails and vegetables roast, bring wine, shallots, bay leaf, and thyme to simmer over medium heat in a heavy bottomed 8 quart stockpot or Dutch oven; reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until reduced to about 1 1/2 Cups, about thirty minutes. Set pot aside.  Here is my wine and shallot pot both before and after reduction:

Wine and Shallots 

Reduced wine and shallot mixture

Place roasting pan with the browned oxtails and vegetables over a burner(s) set at high; add beef and chicken broths and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits on bottom of pan with a wooden spoon.  It will look like this:

Oxtails and vegetables with broth added

Transfer contents of roasting pan to stockpot with wine reduction. Add 7 cups of water, peppercorns, and parsley stems and bring to a boil over high heat;  reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered until richly flavored and full bodied, 3-4 hours. Here is my broth when it first started boiling:

Oxtail, vegetables, wine reduction and water mix

It is hard to believe, but after the 3 to 4 hours you will end up with the solids protruding out of the top of the liquid and not much liquid left.

Strain broth into large glass measuring cup or container(you should have about 2 cups), discarding solids in the strainer.  Cool to room temperature; cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.  Here is my broth after being in the fridge overnight and having the fat skimmed off of the top:

It is basically a beef based jell that is about 4 by 7" and 1"thick.

While Beef Wellington bakes skim hardened fat from surface of stock using a soup spoon and discard. Transfer stock to a small saucepan and simmer over medium low heat until further reduced to about 1 cup, 10 to 15 minutes.  Add port; set aside off heat.

While Beef Wellington rests, return broth to simmer over medium heat and whisk in butter 1 piece at a time.  Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper and serve with Beef Wellington.  

Tomorrow I will be assembling my beef Wellington and serving.  I will take some more pictures and post them a day or two later.  We skipped lightly over the pate' portion of the recipe.  Hopefully you will be able to find it in your local fine food store.  I couldn't find any in Kansas City but was able to find actual foie gras (fatty duck or goose liver from force fed animals).  I decided to make my own pate' using the duck livers I bought, but that is another whole story and recipe for some time later.  

Second and third courses

Once we have had cocktails and the three types of bruschetta that were covered in my last post, we will move to the dining room table and have our butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter sauce.  You can find the recipe for that dish in my post of October 23, 2016.  The ravioli will be served with a Scott 2014 Chardonnay. I chose that wine as it is a California chardonnay but one that isn't as oaky as some.  Too much oak overrides the silky smooth taste of the sage brown butter sauce and the sweetness of the squash ravioli. 

The next course will be Spinach, Apple and Cheddar Cheese salad. This salad is simple to make but pretty on the plate and with the maple syrup flavored dressing makes a great fall/winter dish.  We will serve the salad with a chilled 2013 Trimbach Gewurztraminer. This wine will have just enough of a hint of sweetness to stand up to the dressing on the salad, but will also have enough acidity to pair with the balsamic vinegar in the dressing.  Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/4 Cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 Cup pure maple syrup
1/4 Cup extra virgin olive oil
12 Oz. baby spinach leaves
2 large Granny Smith  apples, cored and thinly sliced
8 Oz. extra sharp Cheddar cheese, cut into 1/2" cubes
1/2 Cup walnuts

Preparation:

Combine vinegar, maple syrup and oil in a small bowl; whisk to blend.  Season dressing with salt and pepper to taste.  Can be made 1 day ahead.  Cover and chill.  Combine spinach, apples and walnuts in a large salad bowl.  Toss with enough dressing to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Transfer to serving plates and serve.  

3 varieties of Bruschetta

As promised in my last post, here is the first recipe that we will use for our upcoming dinner party.  This recipe makes three different types of bruschetta, none being the traditional tomato/ basil variety. I created the recipe to yield 18 pieces of bruschetta.  Six pieces of each of the three types.  This will work very nicely for our party of six people, providing each person with a single bruschetta of each of the three types. That is plenty to have with cocktails prior to sitting down at the table for dinner.  Here is the recipe :

Assorted Bruschetta

This is a recipe for making three kinds of bruschetta.  They are apple & fig with brie, smoked salmon with capers and crème fresh, and goat cheese with caper and sun-dried tomato salad. 

Ingredients:

Fresh baguette– sliced into 3/4” slices diagonally – total 18 slices

Extra virgin olive oil

Minced garlic

Fig Jam

One Granny Smith apple – cored and sliced as thinly as possible

Soft Brie - Like St. Andre, or fromager de’ affinois – cut into small slices

8 oz. package smoked salmon slices - like lox or nova

Crème Fresh

Capers

Fresh dill

Herbed goat cheese

Caper and sun-dried tomato salad – available at Whole Foods deli

Preparation:

Preheat oven to Broil. Slice baguette into ¾” slices.  Lay out 18 baguette slices on a jelly roll pan.  Combine about ¾ Cup extra virgin olive oil and a TBSP of minced garlic in a small bowl.  Brush the top of each slice with the olive oil and garlic, making sure to get a few pieces of garlic on each piece of baguette.  Broil for one to two minutes, just until slices are turning golden.  Remove from broiler and turn over the slices.  Repeat the process of brushing oil and garlic on the opposite side of each piece of bread.  Place under broiler and once again toast just until golden.  Remove from oven.  Spread fig Jam on six slices of baguette, top with an apple slice and a slice of brie.  Put back under broiler just until brie begins to melt over the apple.  Remove and plate.  Spread crème fresh on the next six slices of baguette.  Top with a double layer of smoked salmon, some capers and a sprig of fresh dill frond.  Plate.  (To keep the capers from rolling off, put them on under the salmon or chop them coarsely).  Slice six  ¼” thick slices of goat cheese and top the last six baguettes with the cheese.  Put under the broiler just until the goat cheese starts to melt.  Remove and top with about a TBSP of the caper and sun-dried tomato salad.  Plate and serve.

I will include a photo next week when these are prepared.  It makes a very pretty tray with the three types of bruschetta and the contrasting colors and flavors.    

Planning and executing a complex meal

What is this blog all about you ask ?  Why would anyone want to make a complex meal.  Well, we have all done it.  We have some special occasion to celebrate like Thanksgiving or we want to make a really special meal for someone.  Perhaps we are paying back a really nice favor. 

In December we hosted a Christmas party for 28 people.  It was held in the party room of our condo building and the food was provided by a caterer.  Jan wanted to have the tables be very celebratory and a friend here in the building volunteered to help her out with the decorating.  She and her husband both jumped in to help.  Not only did they do the decorating, they loaned us a 
whole bunch of their personal Christmas items to make the tables over- the- top beautiful.  As a small token of our appreciation, we are planning a special dinner for them and one more couple.  The dinner will be on the evening of January 17, and the planning has already begun.  

The key word in that last sentence was PLANNING.  Any time you take on a complicated menu you need to develop a plan for putting together the meal.  When I say plan, I am talking about a day by day plan leading up to the meal and a minute by minute plan for the day of the meal.  This plan may be in your mind if you are experienced or the menu is not too complex, but with a complicated menu I find that writing everything down works best.  

Step one is usually menu development.  Here is the menu for this dinner party:

 Assorted Bruschetta
 Cocktails

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter
Scott Chardonnay

Spinach, Apple and Cheddar Cheese Salad with a Maple Syrup Dressing 
 Gewürztraminer

Beef Wellington

Roasted Asparagus

Baby Rosemary Potatoes
Cabernet Sauvignon

                              Honey Poached Pears
                                       Port 

When you are developing a menu there are a number of things to consider.  First is your guests.  Do they have any foods they do not eat or are allergic to.  If you don't know, ask them before you start to plan.  I learned this lesson long ago when I invited my boss and his wife for dinner.  I made seafood and found out at the dinner table that his wife didn't eat seafood.  Oops !!  Next, what is the season and what produce is readily available.  Since we are in early winter you will see that we have incorporated things like squash, apples, maple syrup and pears.  Don't get too carried away with complexity.  For example, Beef Wellington is a very complicated dish that takes three to four days to complete from dry aging the beef to making the duxelles and the red wine sauce and wrapping in the puff pastry. We planned simple vegetables and potatoes to go with the Wellington because it is so complicated.  You can't do too many difficult items at once. Think also about preparation.  If you have limited oven space, for example, don't make your whole menu require roasting or baking.   Finally, think about how the items on your menu will fit together both in taste and appearance.  You want the end result to flow nicely from course to course and to be beautiful on the plate.  

Once you have developed a menu, the next step is to create a general day by day plan leading up to the day of your event.   For example, with Beef Wellington I know that 3 days prior to serving I will want to begin dry aging the beef in the fridge.  2 Days prior to serving I will make the stock base for the sauce.  1 Day before serving I will make the duxelles, (a blend of mushrooms, shallots, cream, maderia and herbs) and I will brown the aged beef tenderloin.  Fortunately I made a batch of squash raviolis a couple of months ago and have them in the freezer, so they will be easy to prepare just before serving, otherwise that would have been another multi-day process.  Once you have this general day to day plan you can back into when you need to shop for your groceries.  Based on the general plan I laid out for the Beef Wellington, I will shop on Saturday morning for our dinner party to be held on Tuesday.  Of course there will be some items that you may want to pick up the day of the party, like fresh bread and vegetables as well as flowers for table decoration.  

Now that we know when to shop, we need to know what to buy.  I develop my shopping list by laying out all of the recipes I intend to use.  I go down the ingredients one by one and write down anything I need to buy.  Of course there will be things like salt, pepper, olive oil, etc. that you already have on hand.  There may also be some real specialty items that you need to search out ahead of time.  For example, the Beef Wellington recipe calls for Dufour Puff Pastry. It specifically says not to use Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry as the sheets are too small for encasing the tenderloin.   I got on line today and found out that the only place in Kansas City that handles Dufour pastry is Whole Foods.  It is frozen so I can pick that up any time in the next few days.  Jan needed star anise for her poached pear recipe and she stopped at a specialty spice store today to get that.  At any rate, by Saturday, I will have developed an entire grocery list and divided it into things I want to buy Saturday and things I will buy early the morning of the dinner party. 

Once the shopping is done we will create a plan that leads us through the days leading up to the party and a minute by minute plan for the day of the party.  We will create this plan by deciding what time we want dinner on the table and then backing into the timing for each recipe and when we need to start prep for each course to hit the table when we want it to.  For our party we have asked the guests to arrive at 6:00 PM.  We will need to have our assorted bruschetta ready to serve when they arrive.  We will have about an hour for cocktails and then be seated for dinner at 7:00 PM, so we will need to have the butternut squash ravioli ready to go at 7:00.  The salad course will be served at about 7:20 and the main course will need to be ready at about 7:40.  We will linger over the main course, allowing about 45 minutes for that course to be served and eaten.  We will clear the main course at about 8:25. Dessert and coffee will be served around 8:40.  With these times in place we can back into our detailed schedule.  Here is what it looks like:

Saturday AM - grocery shopping
Saturday PM - begin dry aging beef - place uncovered on a wire                               rack set above a rimmed baking dish in the fridge.

Sunday PM  -  Make stock base for sauce

Monday AM - Make Duxelles.  Brown the dry-aged beef
Monday PM -  Clean House.  Make salad dressing.

Tuesday AM - Shop for baguette, ciabatta, asparagus and fresh                                 spinach.   Set table.

Tues 3:00 PM - Jan prepare poached pears - hold at room                                           temperature.  Steve prepare sage brown butter.
Tues 4:00 PM - Jan prep salad, Steve prep asparagus and                                           potatoes
Tues 4:30 PM - Steve assemble Beef Wellington - hold in fridge
Tues 5:15 PM - Steve begin making bruschetta
Tues 6:00 PM - Guests arrive - serve Bruschetta. Preheat oven to                               450 degrees
Tues 6:40 PM - Boil raviolis and heat sauce
Tues 6:55 PM - Beef Wellington into oven
Tues 7:00 PM - Plate and serve ravioli
Tues 7:10 PM - Add pastry ribbons to beef wellington top.
                          Potatoes into oven
Tues 7:20 PM - Steve Clear ravioli - Jan dress, plate and serve 
                          salad
Tues 7:25 PM - Steve prepare sauce for meat
Tues 7:30 PM - Wellington out of oven. Reduce heat to 400                                       degrees. Asparagus in oven.
Tues 7:40 PM - Serve Beef Wellington, potatoes and asparagus
Tues 8:25 PM - clear main course
Tues 8:35 PM - Prepare coffee, plate dessert
Tues 8:45 PM - Serve Dessert

This is a long illustration and more than you need to know about our upcoming dinner party, but I thought I would use the whole occasion as a means to demonstrate how to plan and prepare a complicated menu.  Over  the next week I will include all of the recipes that we will use and include some photos of the prep and final products.  I hope you find it fun to follow.  

Seafood Chowder with Dill

I know I keep writing about soup, but when it is in the teens outside I have a hard time not talking about soup.  Nothing will warm you up like a bowl of really hot soup.  This particular chowder recipe originally came from a Bon Appetit magazine in 1998.  I found it on Epicurious in 2007. It combines two of my favorite things - soup and seafood.  It is as good today as it was 19 years ago when the recipe first appeared.  

Ingredients:

8 ounces salt pork, trimmed and cut into 1/4 inch dice
1 3/4 Cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
3/4 tsps dried thyme
1/2 cup finely crushed saltine crackers
2-10 ounce cans baby clams, drained, juice reserved
1 1/4 pounds white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 1/2 Cups bottled clam juice
1 1/2 pounds thick cod fillets, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
1 Cup half and half
1/2 Cup whipping cream
1/4 Cup chopped fresh dill

Preparation:

Stir salt pork pieces in heavy large soup pot over medium low heat until crisp and golden, about 20 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the salt pork pieces and discard.  Add chopped onions, chopped celery and dried thyme to drippings in pot.  Increase heat to medium and saute' until vegetables are pale golden, about ten minutes.  Add crushed crackers and stir until beginning to color, about three minutes.  Add reserved juices from clams, potatoes and 2 1/2 Cups bottled clam juice to pot.  Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low, partially cover pot and simmer until potatoes are almost tender, about fifteen minutes.  Add cod pieces; simmer until fish is cooked through and potatoes are tender, about 5 minutes longer.  Add 1 Cup half and half, whipping cream, and canned baby clams.  Cook just until heated through, about five minutes (do not boil).  Mix in chopped dill and season with salt and pepper.  Garnish with dill fronds or green onion tops.  Serve with chilled chardonnay, crispy baguette and a simple green side salad. Um, Um Um !!  

Old Friends

This morning we had breakfast with old friends Mike and Ann Loehrer and Craig and Pat Burroughs.  Mike and I have been friends since kindergarten at Bryant School in Boone, Iowa and Craig and I met at Iowa State more than fifty years ago.  Mike met Craig through me way back then and we have been friends ever since.  We were in each other's weddings, so the girls joined the group too and the six of us have all been friends for almost fifty years. It is always fun to get together and tell old stories as well as some new ones.  Today, the new one was that Craig sent Mike an email telling them to meet us at the Big Biscuit, a local breakfast spot.  Mike read it quickly and thought the note said they were to meet Jan and the Big Biscuit, assuming that was a new nickname for me. It was funnier in the telling than in the writing.  You had to be there.  At any rate, Mike has now decided that my new nickname is The Big Biscuit and he even bought me a tee shirt at the restaurant. The Big Biscuit is proudly printed  across the chest.  

Mike and Ann were passing through town on their way to Arizona for a few weeks.  Ann's first question to me was, "When is Grandpa going to cook again ?"  I had to admit that I had gotten busy lately or maybe a little lazy and had been ignoring the blog, so here it goes again.  I will try to do better in the new year.  

Here is a fun way to cook a standing rib roast that is pretty fool proof and seems to come out perfect every time.  

Ingredients:

1- Standing Rib Roast - any size
Salt and Pepper

Preparation:  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Salt and pepper roast and place in a roasting pan without a lid.  At 3:00 PM put the roast in the oven and cook for one hour.  Turn the oven off.  Do not open the oven door !!  Leave the roast in the oven with the heat off.  45 minutes before you want to serve the roast turn the oven back on to 300 degrees.  At the end of the 45 minutes the roast will be a perfect juicy medium rare.  If you are at high altitude you will need to add 25 degrees to each oven temp.  

Here is a creamy horseradish sauce to serve with your perfectly cooked roast.

Ingredients:

1 Cup heavy whipping cream
3 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 tsps salt
1/4 tsps paprika
Dash of pepper
4 TBSP grated horseradish

Preparation:

Beat whipping cream until stiff.  Add slowly, while beating constantly,  the lemon juice, salt, paprika, pepper and the grated horseradish.  Refrigerate until serving time.  

Serve the roast with your favorite potatoes and vegetable and a big hearty Cabernet Sauvignon.