Chef Michael Will Be Away!

I am away just now. First, a new wireless system is being installed and so access to this site is difficult for the moment. Second, I will be visiting Bristol, England for two weeks to visit family. I will return in January if not sooner with more entries. I hope to be able to send greetings from England and Wales, where I will spend the new year. Perhaps a photo or two and some more foodie type news. I am anxious to find out about how great the food has become in England since my visit in 1972 (Okay, okay, I was there in 2002, but I did not eat at any of the posh new English eateries). I'll report to you and be back to more regular entries after the new year.

Have a safe and joyful holiday season.

Chef Michael

Roasted Rosemary Sweet Potatoes and Red Potatoes

This potato combination is superb for a winter supper. The great nutritional value of the sweet potato combined with the fresh earthy flavor of new potatoes, finely chopped rosemary, butter, olive oil, salt and pepper serves up a fantastic side dish for fish, beef or chicken.



2 pounds of red potatoes
2 pounds of sweet potatoes
2 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped
4 T sweet butter
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the potatoes into bit size pieces (smaller pieces will cook faster) making sure the pieces are the same size. Place onto a baking sheet. Finely chop fresh rosemary and sprinkle over the potatoes. Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes. Salt and pepper. Mix the potatoes making sure they are well coated with the oil and herbs. Finally, cut up butter into bits and scatter them over the potatoes. Place in oven and roast turning potatoes a couple of times during the cooking process to evenly brown. Roast for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown and tender.

Salmon with Citrus Beurre Blanc Sauce

The beurre blanc sauce is a branch off of one of the original four basic french mother sauces. Any chef must be able to successfully create any one of them and hundreds of dozens of variations, sans recipe, before ever receiving their diploma. Those four sauces are the basis for all of the other hundreds of other sauces in the world.

Bechamel Sauce (white)
Veloute Sauce (blond)
Brown (demi-glace) or Espagnole Sauce
Hollandaise Sauce (butter)

The original sauce would be made with egg yolks, but with so many concerned about the safety of eggs not cooked to oblivion, something had to be done. While nothing satisfies like the real thing, this version comes closee and is more forgiving. The basic sauce can be modified in numerous ways to enhance or bring forward a multitude of flavors from various meats or vegetables as in the version below.

Citrus Beurre Blanc Sauce

1 c heavy cream
1/2 bottle dry white wine
2 T minced shallot
2 T capers
juice of one fresh lemon
8 oz. sweet butter (2 cubes), cut into pats

Pour wine into a sauce pan. Add shallots. Bring to boil and reduce t about half. Add lemon juice and caper and continue reducing another couple of minutes. Stir in heavy cream. Reduce this to about half or until desired thickness. Reduce heat to medium. While whisking, add pats of butter one at a time. Allow each pat to melt before adding the next one. When all the butter is melted, turn the sauce to low and hold until ready to serve. Do not allow the sauce to get too hot (above 170 degrees) or it will seperate and be ruined. Spoon over salmon or most anything. It is delicious and rich.

Braised Oxtail in Red Wine and Mushroom Sauce

Oxtail, literally the tail of the ox cut into sections about 2 inches in length, was once thought of as just another part of the animal to eat as nothing would have been wasted. Today, it is the tail from a beef cow and seldom used. It is mostly bone but with succulent chunks of meat if you are willing to do a bit of work for them. Surprisingly, of late, oxtail has become a delicious addition to many upscale restaurants.

Never seen an oxtail at your supermarket? If you can find it, you will usually find the price very affordable. You may have to ask your butcher to order them. At my local supermarket they are often on display but go unpurchased until they wind up in the mark down bin. Sad, because the lowly oxtail, properly prepared, can be a richly delicious bonne bouche.

Here is one recipe I recently developed that I found delicious.


Braised Oxtail in Red Wine and Mushroom Sauce
Serves 6

6 pounds of oxtail cut 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick
2 cups Red Wine
2 cups of sweet onions such as Walla Walla sliced 1/4 inch
4 cups of assorted mushrooms chopped and sliced--shiitakes, criminis, chanterelles, oysters, porcinis and or morels (Use what you can find and experiment. Wild are best.)
2 cups of good beef broth
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground Black Pepper
4 teaspoons Kosher Salt
1/4 cup Olive Oil
2 tablespoons Parsley, coarsely chopped

Brown off oxtails in a large, heavy dutch oven. When browned, remove oxtail pieces with tongs. Add onions, mushrooms, celery, carrots and bay leaf to oil. Saute until tender. Add oxtail back into vegetables. Add wine beef broth and wine. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to a simmer and cook on stove top for 3 hours or until the meat is nearly falling off the bone.

Uncover, tilt the dutch oven slightly, and skim as much fat as possible using a bulb baster or ladle. Remove the meat to a plate and keep warm. Remove bay leaf. Bring heat back up to high and reduce the pan sauce until thickened. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Serve oxtails over pasta or mashed potatoes and pour sauce over oxtails. Serve sprinkled with the chopped parsley.

Salmon Leftovers?

A problem like this probbably seldom happens as salmon prepared most of the time is most likely consumed without a thing left on the platter. But, on that rare occasion when a few tidbits might be left behind, don't throw it away. Use it to prepare a romantic, easy-to-fix, gourmet brunch on a lazy Sunday morning.

Scrambled Eggs with Salmon and Hollandaise

4 eggs

Water

Salt and Pepper

1 T sweet butter

2 T diced shallot
Leftover salmon rough chopped or broken into bits
4 slices of bacon, cooked and broken into bits
2 T of chopped parsley or other fresh herb of your choice

In a non-stick pan, melt butter then add shallot and saute until transluscent. Crack eggs into a bowl, add a splash of water to them. Add salt and fresh ground pepper to your likeing. Whisk the egg mixture well to get a fluffier outcome. Pour eggs into the pan with butter and shallot. Sprinkle bacon and herbs over the eggs evenly. Scramble mixture to doneness of your liking.

2 slices of a good rustic-stye bread toasted

Quick and Easy Hollandaise Sauce

INGREDIENTS
3 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 dash hot pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco™)
1/2 cup butter

DIRECTIONS
In a blender, combine the egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice and hot pepper sauce. Cover, and blend for about 5 seconds.
Place the butter in a glass measuring cup. Heat butter in the microwave for about 1 minute, or until completely melted and hot. Set the blender on high speed, and pour the butter into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream. It should thicken almost immediately. Keep the sauce warm until serving by placing the blender container in a pan of hot tap water.

Serving:

Place a slice of the toasted bread on a plate, dish scrambled eggs over the toast. Ladle the Hollandaise over the eggs and around the plate. Sprinkle a bit of Paprika over the Hollandaise.

Serve with a glass of Mimosa (Orange juice and champagne) and the Sunday paper. Bon Apetit!

Salmon Recipe from Tim

We were over visiting our friends Tim and Kevin the other day. I was sharing my good fortune during my summer fishing trip. We were making a date to have them over for a salmon dinner and Tim mentioned a recipe he had that he particulrly liked. I liked teh basic idea, but as is my way, I took it and walked off in a slightly different direction. Here is what I came up with:

Salmon with a Citrus, White Wine and Dill-Mustard Sauce

4-3-4 oz. Salmon filets with skin on.
1/2 cup--Dijon Mustard
4 T fresh lime juice
Large splash of white wine
fresh dill finely chopped
2 T--sweet butter
Finely Chopped Italian Parsley for garnish

Thinly sliced shallots or,
thinly sliced sweet onion such as Walla Wallas
1 c canola oil

In a sauce pan stir together mustard, lime juice, and wine. Bring to a boil and reduce to a thickened sauce. Finish by stirring in the butter. Use a pastry brush to coat each filet, skin side down, with the sauce.

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven. Cook about 15-20 minutes or until salmon flakes with a fork.

Using a vegetable slicer or mandoline, slice onions paper thin. In a fryer or put oil in a heavy skillet, heat oil to 350 degrees being careful. Dry onions carefully before frying. Place onions in oil and deep fry until golden brown. Drain and salt onions. Before serving the finished salmon, place a small nest of the onions on a plate. Place the finished filet on the onion nest. Drizzle remaining around the onion nest and the plate. Sprinkle plate with finely chopped Italian parsley. Serve.

More Fun with Salmon!

Next time you visit your fish monger and pick out a nice whole salmon, no matter how you have them prepare it, filets, roasts or steaks, make sure you leave with the entire fish. Many times they assume you won't want the backbone or head of the fish and these contain some very usable parts--if you know what can be done with them and are willing to take the extra time. The fish monger will most likely sell those parts, you already paid for, to a crabber as bait. The backbone usually has quite a bit of delicious meat left between the rib bones and the head is also full of delicious salmon flavor.

Have them wrap up those parts separately. Take them home and freeze them until a day when you have the time to make this fabulous recipe.

Salmon Chowder

Place salmon bones and heads in a stock pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and then simmer until the water has been reduced to half. Pour through a strainer retaining liquid. Pick as much of the salmon meat off the bones and set aside.

2--russett potatoes cut into 1/2 inch square pieces

2--carrots cut into 1/2 inch square pieces

2--stalks of celery cut into 1/2 square pieces

1--large onion chopped in 1/2 pieces

2-ears of corn on the cob with corn removed from cob

2-T of Olive oil

2-4 ounce filets of salmon

1--quart of half and half

4--T of butter

4--T of flour

salt and pepper

parsley coursely chopped

1--bunch green onions dark green part sliced

Baked salmon filets until flaky, then set aside.

Place olive oil in large saute pan. Heat pan and add five vegetables. Add one teaspoon of salt and pepper and sweat the veggies until they appear opaque. Place veggies into a stock pot. Pour salmon stock over vegetables.

Using the same saute pan, make roux with 2 T of the butter and the flour, then add half and half. Stir constantly allowing mixture to come to boil and thicken. Add roux to vegetables and add the salmon meat from the bones and the filets. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer about 20 minutes or until potatoes and carrots are tender but firm. Add chopped parsley and tyhe remaining butter, stirring into mixture just before serving. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Pour into bowls and sprinkle green onions in the center.

Serves 4-6