If I Had A Blog

7 bone roast

First, I have to apologize for the camera.  I was taking some pictures to document the flooding on the street next to my house for the past two days and the lens of the camera got smudged and I didn’t notice until after I finished taking these pictures.

My regular camera broke over the summer and I’ve been using my old Sony MVC-FD95.  This was my first digital camera.  I have not used it in years and I had forgotten how well it worked.

Tonight I decided to make another Good Eats meal.  I chose a pot roast from Season 4, episode 4: A Chuck for Chuck.  The only thing I needed to buy that I didn’t already have was some balsamic vinegar and the roast itself.

Seared and almost ready for the oven

The 7 bone chuck looked good in the super market.  I seasoned it with cumin and kosher salt, then seared it in my cast iron skillet.

Now, I mentioned before that I stole the idea of making meals from Alton Brown’s Good Eats from a good friend of mine.  He got the idea originally after watching Julia and Julia.  I’ve never seen that movie, perhaps I should rent it.  I met Julia Child in person once.  She was very gracious and friendly and talked with me for a bit.  I asked her to sign an autograph for my mother which she still has hanging in her kitchen.

I chose to use white wine for the liquid after cooking some garlic and onions in the skillet.  I added a bit of tomatoes, carrots and raisins for my ‘chunkies’.

Pot roast, time to eat!

The roast turned out perfect.  It was very tender and delicious.  I served it with some corn bread, black eyed peas and some left over mashed potatoes.

Another Good Eats success!  Thanks Alton!

Salmon steaks wrapped up

I got some fresh salmon steaks from the local fish market.  I decided to do another dish from Good Eats season 1, episode 10: Hook Line and Dinner.

It was a little difficult removing the bones without ripping up the flesh of the fish too much, so I left some of them in.  The steaks were angled at one side so it was a little tough to get the butcher’s twine to stay on.  It kept wanting to slide up on that side and pop off.

On the grill

Once the steaks started to cook on the grill, they stayed together perfectly.  I seasoned them with a little garlic, Old Bay and ground black pepper.

It was easy enough to check their progress while cooking by just pressing lightly on the top of the steak.  Removing the twine took off the skin with it just like when Alton did it in the episode.

Ready to serve

They were tender, flaky and tasted great.  I served them with some turnip greens and potatoes.

Salt dome mortar prep

Today I decided to stop by the Asian market and pick up some fresh fish.  Tonight’s dinner comes from Good Eats season 1, episode 10: Hook Line and Dinner.  I made two whole striped bass baked in a salt dome.

I was already preparing to make a lemon curd for desert.  I had the egg whites left over from that which were exactly what I needed to add to my kosher salt for the dome.

Inside the bass I used lemon, orange, parsley and dill as my aromatics.

All domed up and ready for the oven

The fish came out wonderful.  It was soft and tender and perfectly cooked.  Surprisingly, it was not very salty.  I wondered how much of the five pounds of salt would work into the flesh of the fish.

The salt dome crust was much harder than I expected.  It certainly did a good job holding in the moisture and keeping the temperature even.  I had to give it quite a few good whacks with the hammer to get it cracked enough to remove.  I don’t think I would make this again unless I was going to be serving a large group of people.  It was a good bit of work for a regular dinner.  Perhaps for a dinner party..

Dome done

I served dinner with some of the leftover gratin from last night and green beans seasoned with a little dill.

For desert, I made a lemon curd early in the afternoon.  The lemon curd comes from Good Eats season 1, episode 3: The Egg Files.  This was fairly simple to make.  I was familiar with how to make egg custard in a double boiler to make ice cream.  I don’t have a double boiler here, but a stainless steel bowl over a pot works just fine.  Alton even suggests this in the episode.

Lemon curd ingredients

I served the lemon curd over angel food cake and topped it with strawberries.  Excellent.

Lemon curd desert

Gratin layer 1

The next Good Eats meal of mine comes from Season 1, episode 2: This Spud’s For You.  Since I already make mashed potatoes just about the same way that Alton does in the episode, I decided to make a gratin.

I had an old slicer from ages ago, but it was cheap plastic and not very good.  I had thrown it away a few years back.  I took a trip down to Chef Central today to buy a new one.  There are plenty of other things I can use it for and it is a good addition to the kitchen equipment.

Gratin fresh out of the oven

This was a fairly easy dish to prepare.  It did take me a little time to get used to the new slicer.  I went a little light on the seasoning for the first time, but it came out great.  The consistency was perfect.  I will definitely be making this again.

Rib Eye Steak from the Supermarket

Well, here is the second Good Eats experiment meal.  For this one I chose the very first episode of Good Eats from season 1: Steak Your Claim.  Alton does a very good job explaining the best way to cook a steak.  I was eager to try this because I’ve never known the exact way to sear a steak without burning it.  Dropping something into a pan that is over 500 degrees seemed to me like a sure way to burn it.

I already had a good cast iron pan, so I didn’t need to buy anything special for this one except for the meat.  I went with my friend to the Whole Foods Market to look at their meat department and pick up a few other things.  Their rib eye steaks were aged organic beef and cost $23 per pound.  That was a little more than I wanted to spend for this meal.

Seared in the cast iron pan

I took a drive over to the regular super market later on in the day and picked up two nice looking rib eyes from their meat department.

Alton has a great quote from this episode, “When you start paying attention to what you are doing, you start learning about the food and that’s alot more valuable than any recipe.”

Resting the steaks

I seared the steaks on the stove in the cast iron pan I had preheated in the 500 degree oven.  I’ve always been worried about burning a steak while searing it, but I followed Alton’s instructions and left them in the hot pan for 30 seconds on each side before moving the pan to the oven.  I cooked the steaks another few minutes until I estimated they were medium.  A check with the probe thermometer showed them to be 149 degrees.  Exactly what I was going for — between 145 and 155 degrees.

After resting for 3 minutes, they were both tender and juicy.  I will definitely be cooking more steak in the future.

I seared and cooked some pork chops in a similar manner since I did the steaks and they came out great.