Truffles and Risotto

I hate making risotto.

It's not that I don't know how to make it or its painful (though the constant stirring kinda sucks) it just takes longer than almost every book I have on the subject says it should, 20 minutes and 5 cups of stock for 1.5 cups of rice

I heat 5 cups of stock on the stove
I put a heavy bottomed high sided pot on the stove
I heat 1.5 cups of arborio rice in the heavy bottomed high sided pot until they are translucent (for three to five minutes)

add ladle of stock and stir until most of the liquid is absorbed (repeat ad infinitum)

Stock is gone, rice is still hard in the center and i am on minute 25.

2 more cups of stock and another 10 minutes of constant stirring and its good, tastes perfect and has a great texture.

But why 35 minutes and 2 cups of stock more than expected?

When I figure it out I will tell you.

However I still needed to dress the risotto up a little.

I have truffles I would like to use, thats a no brainer
rather than add salt I added 1 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano
the Parmigiano-Reggiano melted well but started to seize up the rice more than I liked, so I decided to break a cardinal rule and added 1/4 cup of cream and a pat of butter.

I prefer to never add cream to risotto as I feel its cheating and the rice itself should make the creaminess. This is special though since cream works so well with truffle and the cheese needed thinning a bit....stop looking at me that way.

I grabbed my new handy dandy micro-planer I got for Xmas from my wonderful wife, and whipped a fresh black truffle out of the rice bag in the fridge. I inhaled deeply that wonderful sweet earthy smell. I set the little black jewel in place and ran it across the brand new micro-planer. Once, twice, three times, four times this is easy and fast, far better than a grater SLICE..

So I'm looking into a Kevlar glove to keep the blood in my risotto to a minimum.

My wife wasn't happy that I felt the need to photograph the risotto before serving but she got over it rather quickly.

Laziness has already crept in

I made the pear Gorgonzola salad again, and other than getting a little heavy with the dressing on this one it was roughly the same as the last 2, this recipe (if you could call it that) is now solidified.

I tried to contemplate another recipe last night but failed. Not that I tried the recipe at all. My high aspirations of making a margarita chicken salad melted as I thought about deboning a chicken breast at 8:30pm. I just gave in to the laziness and made an old standby, tuna steak.

It was somewhat lucky I did I suppose as I forgot to buy cilantro, a substance margarita anything goes well with.

I started with a 3 dollar frozen HEB tuna steak, thawed and flecked it with a generous quantity of kosher salt. As the tuna got even closer to room temperature out on the counter I started heating up my handy dandy Emerilware™ Cast Iron Reversible Grill/Griddle. Don't judge me, I got it at Goodwill for $6.

Two things about me, I don't like most branded TV chefs or most of their branded stuff. If I see an ugly mug on some cookware of a TV cook I don't respect much, I generally discount it as crap. I also outfitted most of my kitchen from Goodwill and other thrift stores. Great cookware abounds at great prices, you just have to know how to recognize it.

So my emeril branded grill got up to temperature (smoking hot) and I tossed the fish on. 45 seconds and turn 45 degrees, 45 seconds and flip, 45seconds and turn 90 degrees, 45 seconds and off the grill onto an oven warmed plate.

Now for a sauce,
Something vinaigrette-like
I grabbed one of the Rudy's cups out of the cabinet.
Rudy's is a BBQ restaurant chain here in the Austin area. They make great Texas BBQ and are a great hometown success story. Their reusable cups also fit my stick blender perfectly.

Lets consult the flavor bible and see what works
I'm thinking fresh, green, spicy and tart for this beautiful fish, this is also my comfort zone (insert Bobby Flay reference ->I can properly pronounce chipotle)


Lets start with a seeded jalapeno (Major flavor resonator to tuna)
a clove of garlic (Major)
some cilantro(Major)....damn no cilantro
coriander seed (Major)
juice of 1 lime (Major)
some honey for sweetness (Minor)
some olive oil (Major)
salt+pepper
and I hit it with my stick blender till its liquid

Taste, the heat is there the freshness and tart is nice and well balanced but its missing the headiness the cilantro normally gives it

it's also a little thin

Hmm looking at the flavor bible I see wasabi is a major flavor. Seems wrong since I was moving in more of a southwest direction, but it is a dry absorbent powder that might work as a thickener too.

Added 2 teaspoons of dry wasabi powder
The sauce perfectly balanced out and while is remained slightly thinner than I liked it was far better.

I sliced the tuna thin and laid it out on a plate, setting the slices out in a pleasing fish like shape.

My lovely wife was slicing bright red garden fresh tomatoes for her nightly sandwich so knowing tomatoes go well with all of these flavors I rolled a slice into a resemblance of a tail and tucked it neatly under the last and smallest piece of fish on the plate.

I drizzled on my vibrant green jalapeno garlic coriander lime wasabe vinaigrette lengthwise over the fish.

Sometimes lazy works.

I picked up a new book and a new salad

I got a new book from my wonderful wife for Xmas. The Flavor Bible by Keren Page and Andrew Dornenburg has culinarily opened my eyes. After years of experimenting and attempting to mimic the greats of cooking, These two authors have condensed hundreds of years of food pairings and flavor knowledge of the greats into an elegant, perfect flavor reference.

I found a simple pear with bleu cheese salad and started to add anything I could that referenced well in The Flavor Bible. Ultimately this is what I came up with

Pear Gorgonzola salad with toasted walnuts and port soaked raisins and a honey Dijon vinaigrette

Contents of salad and reference flavor to pear
1. Pears cored and sliced into quarters and each quarter mandolin sliced to 1.3mm thick

2. Port soaked raisins (Raisins and Port both major flavor resonators) *if you don't have any sweet red wine to soak the raisins sweeten a dry wine (red or white but red is better) with sugar, the raisins must be soaked else they are like little rocks in the salad

3. Walnuts toasted with a touch of oil, a slight browning at the contact points is expected(Walnuts are a major flavor resonator)

4. Crumbled Gorgonzola (all bleu cheese are major flavor resonators to pear so any bleu will do) *crumble the cheese finely else the footieness gets overpowering

5. A lite spring mix of lettuce, keep the green mix light like an HEB baby spring lettuce mix, nothing with strong flavors


honey Dijon recipe
1 tbs Dijon mustard (Minor)
2 tsp honey (Major)
juice of 1 lemon (strained) (Major)
salt
pepper
1/4c olive oil (Minor)
stick-blend the crap out of it


Almost every flavor used references pears to some degree and even reference each other if you start researching the individual ingredients. Together these make a wonderful combination of tart, sweet, saltiness, creaminess and texture. This book will forever be my flavor sanity check. If I am making something new from my own creative juices or a recipe I found somewhere this book will always be at my right hand.

Lobster Bisque

Butter Poached Lobster Bisque
Serves	Cook Time	Prep time
2	20 minutes	5 minutes
qty	unit	item	condition	substitute	Pause point
2		lobsters tails + claws*	butter poach meat		Not time sensitive
4		lobster knuckles	butter poach meat		Time sensitive
2	cups	lobster stock **
2	tbs	butter
1/2	cups	Shallots	Diced	white onion
3	tbs	flour
2	tsp	salt
1	cups	heavy cream
3/4	cups	dry sherry	reserve 2 tbs for the end
Initial Procedure
Step #
1	melt butter and sauté shallots
2	deglaze using most of the sherry (careful of fire)
3	sprinkle flour over pan and whisk
4	add lobster stock and bring to a boil on high
5	lower heat to medium low and add heavy cream slowly
6	add remainder dry sherry and lobster knuckle meat
7	puree in a blender until somewhat smooth
8	serve in a low bowl with a butter poached tail and claw centered in bisque
*	See Butter Poached Lobster Recipe
**	See Lobster Stock Recipe

Lobster Stock

Lobster Stock
Serves	Cook Time	Prep time
2	90 minutes	15 minutes
qty	unit	item	condition	substitute	Pause point
2		lobster bodies and shells			Not time sensitive
2	Quarts	chicken stock	low sodium if possible	water	Time sensitive
2		carrots	chopped
2		white onions	chopped
4		celery stalks	chopped
1		stock sock		pillow case
3		bay leaves
3		thyme sprigs
20		peppercorns
Initial Procedure
Step #
1	remove sand sack and gills from lobster bodies and discard reserve all shells
2	place all contents into stock sock
3	place full stock sock into large pot and cover with chicken stock or water
4	boil for 90 minutes
5	remove stock sock and throw away contents
6	further stain or filter stock further if necessary

Butter Poached Lobster

Butter Poached Lobster

Serves

Cook Time

Prep time

2

25 minutes

15 minutes

qty

unit

item

condition

substitute

Pause point

2

whole

lobsters

alive

none

Not time sensitive

5

gal

water

boiling

Time sensitive

1/2

cup

vinegar

white

1/4

cup

Sea salt

1

lb

butter

unsalted

2

tbs

water

1

plastic cooler

1

bowl

ice water

1

hand towel

dry

1

thermometer

digital probe type

Initial Procedure

Step #

1

bring water to a boil

2

add salt and vinegar to water

3

place live lobsters in clean cooler

4

ready the bowl of ice water

5

pour water over lobsters to cover at minimum 4 inches over bodies

6

close cooler lid

Perform this entire set of steps within 7 minutes

7

wait exactly 90 seconds

8

remove lobsters from hot water

9

using a towel break the main knuckles and claws off lobster and return them to the hot water

10

submerge bodies and tails in iced water

11

wait 5 minutes needed for knuckles and claws

12

submerge claws and knuckles in iced water

13

Remove lobster meat from claws, tails and knuckles

14

reserve bodies for stock

15

refrigerate naked lobster meat under plastic wrap

Butter Poaching Procedure (Beurre Monte)

1

place 2 tbs of water in a pan and place on high to boil

2

once boiling turn heat down to medium and whisk in butter in 1/2 tbs units

3

using a probe thermometer make sure the Beurre Monte never gets past 180F or it will break

4

after butter is completely incorporated bring the sauce to 160-170F

5

place lobster meat into Beurre Monte and maintain for 6 minutes

6

extract the butter poached lobster from the Beurre Monte and keep warm