Candied Walnuts

Make an ordinary salad extraordinary or just a darn good snack!

A salad is a salad.  But with some walnuts, sugar, a frying pan and 5 minutes you can jazz up that salad.

I was recalling a salad I had at a steak house here in Las Vegas and recalled just how much I enjoyed their blue nut salad.  It was a very simple salad with mixed greens a raspberry vinaigrette and blue cheese but the kicker was the sweet candied walnuts.  The combination of the tart vinaigrette, the pungent blue cheese and the sweet crunchy walnuts was a gastronomic delight.  So I set off to recreate those sweet and crunchy little gems.

I started with 1/2 cup of walnuts and 1/4 cup of sugar in a skillet over medium heat and stirred in an ounce of water to create a simple syrup.  Once the syrup formed I tossed in the nuts.  Stirring constantly for several minutes the water evaporated off and the sugar began to encrust the outside of the walnuts.  I kept stirring until the nuts had reached a slightly golden brown appearance and scooped them out of the pan on to waiting parchment paper.  Let them cool completely and enjoy.

On a second attempt I used the same ingredients but first toasted the nuts dry in a pan for 1-2 minutes before removing them.  Use your nose to let you know how long to dry roast the nuts.  When you just start to smell them, pull them out of the pan.  Then create your simple syrup and continue as before.  The result was similar but the nuts had a bit more of the roasted taste and were a bit more crunchy.  Also a note here.  If your pan is not hot enough the sugar will crystallize around the nuts rather than making a smooth shiny candy coating.  The crystallized nuts taste just as good just doesn't have the same appearance.  Relax, have a cocktail and try it again.

So you can try both methods and see which one you like better.  Just be careful not to roast the nuts to long or they will develop a bitter taste to them.  While you're experimenting with candied nuts try other nuts as well.  This method works well with almost all raw nuts.  Try almonds, cashews, pecans, pine nuts or peanuts.  Add a touch of salt at the end for a sweet, crunchy salty snack.  Add some cinnamon for a holiday flair or a pinch of wasabi power or hot red pepper for a sweet and spicy festive snack or garnish.  Try adding a couple teaspoons of butter to create a caramel touch to your creation.  Mix and match flavors and find your perfect accompaniment of snacks.

This is sticky stuff, so to clean your pan simply add some water, put it back on the heat and lightly scrub it with tongs and a steel wool pad.  The pan is clean in seconds and ready for another batch which will be ordered by your family! 

Until then, remember a cocktail in your hand while cooking, helps make mistakes alright!

The hot pretzel dog experiment!

After watching Alton Brown one day I decided to try and make a batch of his soft pretzels.  They looked fabulous and besides it was football season and what could be better than football, a hot pretzel and of course an ice cold beer.

I followed the recipe and they came out just as advertised.  They had the perfect color, a nice chew on the outside as well as a little crunch from the salt but inside sooooo soft and smooth with a nice hint of butter.  I new right away that this recipe was one I would be using again.  So when my wife and I decided to have the gang over for a football party it was a natural choice to make a batch of soft pretzels.  Thinking about other things to make for the party I figured some hot dogs, pizza, wings, the usual game food would be in order.  Then an epiphany, why not make pretzel buns for the dogs, better yet make pretzels around the hot dogs!

The adventure began with a batch of Altons' pretzel dough which you can get right here.  When the dough was ready to shape I decided to liberally flour it and run it through a hand cranked pasta machine working it down to the thickness of a thin crust pizza.  With a flat long strip I took hot dogs and cut dough strips just a bit longer than the hot dog.  I placed the hot dog on the dough and wrapped it up, just gently pressing the seams together and placed them seam side down on a cookie sheet.  With all of the dogs assembled I cover them with plastic wrap and placed them in a warm spot to rise again.  About and hour later they had risen nicely so I just continued to follow the remainder of the recipe by boiling and baking the dogs.

I watched them closely and when they came out of the oven they looked perfect.  A beautiful deep brown crust with white speckles of course sea salt and a smooth inside with the surprise hot dog.

I had no choice at this point but to take a bite, and they tasted as good as they looked and a nice change of pace from the grocery store tasteless buns!  My mind immediately began to race, what about an Italian sausage or better yet a bratwurst.  Maybe this was my big idea in life and this was destined to have a stick rammed in it and sold at every state and county fair in the country!  But that may be for another day.  For now I'm happy enjoying them at home and hope others try them in their homes!

By the way they heat up nicely in the microwave the next day wrapped in a paper towel.  And smaller versions like little smokies work really well also.  If I try any other variations I will let you know.

Until then, remember a cocktail in your hand while cooking, helps make mistakes alright!

The Perfect Steak - Everytime!

Whether you like to grill, broil, or pan fry your steak this is the fool-proof method creating a tender, juicy steak every time.  You just need to add one, step the sous vide step!

I just happened to finish off a great rib-eye steak from the sous vide water bath.  It would be a tragedy if I did not pass on the method so you can achieve the same results.

I started off with 2 rib eyes about 20oz each and dry aged them in the refrigerator for 4 days.  To learn about this process go see Alton Brown on read about the technique, he is preparing a porterhouse steak but the same technique is easily applied to a rib eye or almost any type of steak.  If you want to dry age you must not proceed with the next step until you read and go through Altons' process.

After dry aging or when starting with a fresh steak you begin by seasoning the way you would with any steak, Montreal steak rub, Cajun, fresh rosemary, thyme, sky's the limit!  I prefer to let the flavor of the beef speak for itself so I go basic with just salt, pepper and a little granulated garlic.  Sprinkle it on and give it a good massage but be careful not to over season.  The sous vide bath can intensify the flavors.  I find the normal amounts of salt and pepper are fine but when you get into adding aromatics they can become a little overpowering.  Take your normal amount of herbs and spices  and cut it back by about about 25%.

After the seasoning process, place the steaks in the vacuum bags and remove all the air and seal the bags.  At this point you can toss them back in the refrigerator and let them absorb all of the wonderful flavors you want to impart in them or just toss them in the water bath and let them cook away.

How long to let them cook?  With a steak the cooking times are pretty straight forward for most cuts, but the time does vary by the thickness of the steak.  For a good guide for times for your cut of meat I suggest you visit this site that has a full breakdown of all the times and temperatures for all types of proteins.

The real theory behind sous vide cooking is the point that you can't overcook your food, unless you program your water bath wrong.  If you put a steak in a water bath set to a constant temperature of 135F then the steak can never get hotter than 135F.  If it's in there for 60 minutes like a thin steak or 72 hours for beef short ribs they will never get hotter than the temperature of the bath.  The only difference is that the texture of the meat can and will change.  In the case of a steak, a long cooking time, say over 6 hours, can produce a meat texture that can be mushy.  In the case of the beef short ribs the meat at 6 hours would still be tough, but at 72 hours it's still perfectly pink throughout the cut but fall apart tender.

That being said, my wife and I like our steaks cooked somewhere between medium rare (130F) and Medium (140F), so I cook them at 135F.  At this temperature the steak is a solid pink all the way through and retains its juices.  Cooking most proteins past 140F causes the muscle fibers to contract and begin to push all the juices of the steak out, creating a dry steak.  I'm not saying that cooking a steak to medium will cause it to be dry but cooking it past this point, just as on a BBQ, will give a drier piece of meat.  I cook a steak like this that is about 2" thick for 90 minutes.  Being a tender cut of meat we are just heating and pasteurizing rather than tenderizing.

Amother good reason for cooking at the low temperature in the water bath is to allow the collagen in the meat,  the substance that creates that silky mouth feel, a chance to dissolve into the meat.  Collagen really starts to melt away at 135F which is why I cook steaks to that temperature.  If I were to cook them to rare the collagen would still be intact and the great texture it creates would not be released. 

One of the great benefits of sous vide cooking is the free time it creates for you to create the rest of the meal or just relax.  If I leave the steaks in the bath for 3 hours nothing will change, the steaks won't be overcooked and they will be ready to go.  The down side to sous vide cooking is what a steak looks like when it comes out of the bath.  A bit grey and not so appetizing but that gives us our options to make it look perfect. 

Flame thrower hot heat, its a beautiful thing.  15 minutes before you are ready to serve is the time to get your searing option ready.  I have tried the broiler, pan searing, the grill and the every popular propane torch.  The quickest method is the 500+F cast iron skillet with a little peanut oil.  This creates a very fast sear, about 1 minute per side, and is by far the least time consuming.

The best option I have found is a hybrid between the grill and the torch.  Preheat your grill as hot as it will get for at least 15 minutes.  When the grill is ready remove the steaks form the bath, remove from the bag, and pat them dry with paper towels. Brush with olive oil and get them on the grill for 1 minute on each side.  While they are on the grill I do the edges with a torch to get the fat crisp and pretty.  Flip the steaks and repeat.  Now just serve your creation.  Unlike a purely grilled, broiled, etc.. steak, this one can be served immediately, no resting required.  We didn't overheat the meat so juices don't need to redistribute, we can eat.

Never forget, cocktail while your cooking makes mistakes a little better!

Sous Vide and pan seared scallops

Why just make Christmas dinner when you can make a multi course feast.  While there was a complete meal this post will focus on the appetizer.

I wanted to try something different than the usual meat and snacks that the holidays offer.  No carb comas at my house this year!  After a salad, I wanted a light course to continue the meal.  I choose to make scallops.  This dish started with frozen scallops.  I know what your going to say 'frozen scallops', but when thinking about the pressure of vacuum sealing I figured the freezing would help them maintain their shape better than a fresh scallop that would have been turned into a scallop pancake.  After seasoning the butter with salt and pepper I placed all the ingredients in the vac bag and sealed them.  They went into a make shift sous vide water bath, I now, thanks to my wife, have the real deal.  The bath was set to 124 F and I let them take a leisurely swim for 40 minutes.  I gave them a little extra time since they were frozen.

While they relaxed in the hot tub I created a very simply sauce of roasted red peppers, a dab of sour cream and a pinch of chili pepper for a hint of heat, along with the customary salt and pepper.  Then I took it all for a spin in the food processor until smooth and creamy.  I used a squeeze bottle for plating the sauce which makes things very easy and ascetically pleasing.

Around now, the scallops were about ready to dry off from their swim, I may have enjoyed a cocktail at this point as well.   I heated up the cast iron skillet with a little olive oil and strained bacon fat, that I just happened to have left from breakfast and got the skillet flame thrower hot.  My infrared thermometer was reading just over 500 F so I pulled the scallops out patted them dry and seared them in the pan for about a minute or so on each side, just enough to create that beautiful crust on each side.  With a bit of the pepper sauce drizzled on the plate along with a garnish of endive and a lemon wedge they were served. 

The result was fabulous!  A nice crust on the outside with a perfectly cooked center, a nice rich and creamy sauce with just a hint of heat.  The lemon wedge was never even used by myself or any of the others crowed around the table.  You can judge the results of the dish yourself by trying it yourself or just taking a looking at the photo!

As I mentioned earlier, this was prepared with a makeshift sous vide water bath that was only able to maintain temperature within about 5 F.  Now that I have the new Sous Vide Supreme I'm sure results will be even better.  With a temperature control within 1 F there will be far less possibility of over or under cooking.

Even though the 124 F temperature seemed to be excellent, I will try other temps in the near future and post results for your edification!

Until then, remember a cocktail in your hand while your cooking helps make mistakes alright!