Iron Chef WAYCT - What Are You Cooking Today

[Chap]

That's a nice piece of meat… always a pleasure to see the work of other kitchen enthusiasts here 

[seawolf]

I heavily coated the chuck with kosher salt, and placed it into a hot dutch oven over medium heat. Looking to get a nice hard sear on all sides. Once the meat is adequately browned, I'll move onto the vegetables.

[seawolf]

Next: get the garlic nice and golden, add the mire poix and sweat it down, add the tomato paste and caramelize.

[seawolf]

Deglazed with about half a bottle of red wine, cooked it down to au sec, added a quart of chicken stock, the bouquet garni, and the beef. Putting it in the oven with the lid on for 4-6 hours. Once it's done, I'll move onto the next phase.

[Giles]

And I had a humble gratin and curry….

[seawolf]

That looks delicious!

[seawolf]

Next up: Puree the vegetables and push them through a fine chinois. The pureed and strained vegetables will thicken the sauce and make it very silky. Add the beef back, and put it back in the oven.

[seawolf]

If you're not sick of seeing this yet, I have a couple more steps to show you. Adding new vegetables to the sauce next. Normally I do a mix of pearl onions and carrots, but I couldn't find pearl onions easily and didn't feel like running around looking for them, so just carrots today.

[JDelage]

… I'll be right over ...  ??? 

[seawolf]

Finished with Gremolata.

Thanks for letting me hijack this thread for the day!

[sabergirl]

Looks delicious, Chief!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[neph93]

Great hijack!  Thoroughly enjoyed following that and it looks amazing. The pureeing of the veg took me by surprise but the result is wonderful.

[Giles]

On my list to cook…..

[seawolf]

@sabergirl:

Looks delicious, Chief!

Thanks! Turned out great!

@neph93:

Great hijack!  Thoroughly enjoyed following that and it looks amazing. The pureeing of the veg took me by surprise but the result is wonderful.

That's the detail that makes it a special recipe for sure. The sauce thickened up nicely in the oven for the last phase of the braise which made me very happy. I love that I don't need roux for this recipe!

Also, glad you enjoyed that. I thought I might be being annoying with the oversharing, but once I realized that, I was already committed, so I went for it

@Giles:

On my list to cook…..

So glad to hear! I'm sure you noticed the mashed potatoes, and that's because Mrs. Seawolf doesn't care for the texture of potatoes that have been cooked in a stew, but if that's your thing, by all means, go for it. I personally love putting potatoes, carrots, and pearl onions back into the sauce for the last phase.

[Giles]

I'll do mash with mine, love a bit of good, highly calorific, mash…

[seawolf]

Nothing like some fluffy mash with lots of butter.

[mclaincausey]

That looks great! We do the vegetable puree thing to thicken curries and other stews, as we avoid most ingredients that thicken.

[Chris]

Damn, @seawolf, that looks amazing.  You could probably cook for a living doing stuff like that. 

[seawolf]

@mclaincausey:

That looks great! We do the vegetable puree thing to thicken curries and other stews, as we avoid most ingredients that thicken.

Piqued my interest! Which ingredients that thicken do you still use? I feel like the onions in this dish cook down to nothing and really add a lot to the thickness of the sauce.

Thanks @Chris ! I'm actively trying to avoid it at this point 

[mclaincausey]

We try to avoid wheat flour and corn starch and the like, but masa, potato starch, rice flour, and especially almond flour are some examples we use in addition to the immersion blender technique as you did here. I am interested in trying ancient grain flours (amaranth, sorghum, etc), but I have not gotten around to it.

One other thing we really love is cashewgurt (cashew "yogurt," which can be made at home but we typically just buy it). It has a thinness and a sourness that is reminiscent of crema, so we will use it in lieu of dairy such as heavy cream, and also to bind things–we'll use that in lieu of mayonnaise in a ranch dressing, for example. That can thicken or provide a base for a sauce too.

I know there's a lot of anti-gluten-free stuff going around and the science is not settled, but some of what I've read about it is enough for me to err on the side of caution at least enough to reduce our intake, particularly for possible neurological effects that would be difficult to detect until it's too late.