Iron Chef WAYCT - What Are You Cooking Today
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Dayum! Was that a Valentine's Day meal? Here is ours, surf and turn and turf, strip au poivre with cognac pan sauce, scallops, morel risotto.
But not until an appropriate start to the evening:
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It happened to be our dinner last night, but only because that's all we could throw together with what we had in the house. I've been sick for a week and a half, and yesterday was the first time I've felt like cooking in a while.
That dinner looks awesome! I love oysters and I also love Veuve!
That steak looks phenomenal, as does the sauce. Are you covering up a mistake with that sauce?
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Thanks!
No, the steak was perfectly seared to medium rare. It had a rub of salt, coarse pepper, and a little garlic, seared in cast iron on avocado oil outside on the grill for smoke management, then I deglazed the pan with ghee, shallot, cognac, cashewgurt (in lieu of heavy cream), and red wine. The sauce unfortunately is covering up a nice crust, I probably should have served the steak on top of the sauce.
The scallops were the best I've made yet. They have such a short window of perfection between under- and over- cooked and I finally hit it perfectly this time. I really hate a rubbery scallop. There's a touch of balsamic reduction finishing these along with lemon.
The oysters were my first time shucking my own, and I did it with a shop towel and a paring knife. The lesson here is to get heavy gloves and a proper shucking knife, as what I did was pretty dangerous. Luckily it was successful. I chose a very mild west coast oyster, as this was Brandi's first raw oyster. She liked it!
Not pictured is a butter lettuce salad with a lemon vinaigrette that was a perfect foil for such a heavy meal.
Brandi handled the risotto, and that was her first effort. It was great.
We used also cashewgurt in lieu of dairy for the risotto. Ideally I would have thrown some pecorino on mine
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The sauce unfortunately is covering up a nice crust, I probably should have served the steak on top of the sauce.
Bingo! Sauce goes underneath unless you're trying to cover something up. A spoonful of sauce covers 1,000 mistakes.
Everything sounds great! I shoot for medium rare with scallops for that very reason. They're so good when they're cooked properly.
A proper shucking knife is so essential. I was an oyster shucker about 20 years ago, and there's no replacement for the proper tools.
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Damm, that looks great.
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Crispy skn chicken thighs, some of the highest taste-return-on-effort-invested food one can make…
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/perfect-pan-roasted-chicken-thighs
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Drooooool
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Yep, that is a Scorpion Fish….
I'll take photos later, but at the moment I am cooking Potato and Celeriac Gratin - yes to go with my potato curry! I also have some chicken and lentil curry that Paula made (and made the recipe up too). Paula is away today, visiting her mum (I had a subsequent engagement :)), so I'm playing in the kitchen....
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Yep, that is a Scorpion Fish….
I'll take photos later, but at the moment I am cooking Potato and Celeriac Gratin - yes to go with my potato curry! I also have some chicken and lentil curry that Paula made (and made the recipe up too). Paula is away today, visiting her mum (I had a subsequent engagement :)), so I'm playing in the kitchen....
love those playing in the kitchen evenings… the new kitchen yet your playground?La Rouille:
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Today I'm making my famous Yankee Pot Roast. This is perhaps one of the most labor intensive dishes that I regularly make. What I love about it is, at the end it seems so simple, but the flavors are complex and well developed. I'll post updates along the way, but here's the beginning. 5 pounds of chuck, mire poix (rough chopped), garlic, bouquet garni (bay leaves, thyme stems, parsley stems, and peppercorns wrapped in a coffee filter and tied), tomato paste, and chicken stock (not shown).
