William, it was really nothing

Dinner Tonight — Lobster Rolled

One benefit of the Memorial Day food sales is cheap grillables. Ordinarily, I’d rather do whole, live lobster, but that involves the effort and, to some, unpleasantness of executing a living thing in your kitchen. Also, it’s a school night.

So, I made do with a couple of tails, which for $8 total seems like a reasonable weeknight meal. 

There are two clear schools of thought on the lobster roll: mayo and celery vs. drawn butter and herbs. One is served cold, the other, ideally, is warm. I trend toward the former, especially at the moment when it’s hot outside. Don’t get me wrong. Hot buttered lobster is delicious, but I’d usually rather eat that dish separated into its constituent parts, using the bread to lap up any extra butter. 

What I’ve learned here tonight is that I should’ve bought two more lobster tails and done both. 

ANYWAY, the recipe:

2 lobster tails
2 tablespoons of mayo (more or less to taste)
1 stalk celery, diced fine
3 chives, snipped
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
Squeeze of lemon juice 

Steam the tails, covered, over an inch of simmering water for 7 minutes.
Shock tails in ice water bath
Remove meat and coarsely chop.
Combine lobster with all other ingredients and set to chill

When ready to eat, toast buns (I cut a thin strip off the outside of a bakery hotdog bun, brush with butter and toast), line with lettuce and stuff with lobster mix.

Only about 30 minutes of active work and, even using frozen lobster tails, moist and springy with a nice vegetal and textural contrast.

You can do worse on a Tuesday.  

Dinner Tonight: White Anchovy, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Scallion, Pepper, Pecan Oil

Simple things are about all I can mange these days. Fortunately, this is five ingredients and smashed with flavor. 

It’s from Hugh Acheson’s “A New Turn in the South” cookbook. I got it for Christmas, and he even signed it for me. I love that he has a sense of humor about the unibrow. 

Anyway, this is delicious and takes about 10 minutes. 

Dinner Tonight:

Sous Vide Grassfed Strip, Chimichurri, Baconfat Potatoes

Shhhhh. Chicago secret time:

There’s this good Argentinian steakhouse in Lakeview called Tango Sur. It’s fairly small, dimly lit, BYO and forever-packed. Which is why I don’t go there.

However, there’s a half-sketchy looking corner store next door that actually houses the butchering operation for the restaurant. You can get tremendous cuts of beef for next to nothing. This is part of a 16-oz strip that was $9.

Nine. Dollars.

It’s nicely marbled with that little bit of extra tang that goes along with grassfed beef. They’ve also got a nice assortment of other south of the equator items and a hot box up front with six different kinds of housemade empanadas. 

Please don’t ever go there. 

P.S. — Rare/Medium Rare or GTFO. 

Dinner Tonight: There Are Just So Many Ramps

Charred Ramps, Prosciutto, Toasted Brioche Crumbs, Parmesan

I’m trying to work my way through the first round of ramps I bought. They’re very young, but no less pungent for their age. In this application, which I loosely cribbed from Serious Eats, they lose a little of the loud smell, turn sweet but still wild-tasting and nearly melt into the dish. 

Also, and I can’t believe I’m saying this: the prosciutto is entirely superfluous here. There is zero reason not to make this dish vegetarian. 

Fresh-baked Brioche, Homemade Pimento Cheese, Chives

I don’t have much of an Easter tradition, but I do roll it out for Sunday at The Masters. 

Brioche

I can’t speak for the Lord, but the bread rose nicely. 

Dinner Tonight: It’s Been A Long Time

Chili-Lime Grilled Lobster, Lobster-Sherry Jus, Potato Chips, Scorched Shisito Peppers

So work is presently this unrepentant horrorshow, and this is the first time in too long I’ve made it into the kitchen with any sense of purpose. The lobster itself, as well as most of the accoutrements, was mainly an Asian profile. The sauce was straight French. The two came together a lot better than I expected. 

Hi guys! How’ve you been?

Dinner Tonight:

Grilled Spot Prawns, Barbecue Butter, Herbs

Chinatown has live spot prawns at the moment. I bought them for sashimi, but didn’t get my shit together enough to prep them last night. This is a pretty good fall back. They’re smallish but have a sweetness and texture that’s reminiscent of lobster.

The sauce was just butter, cayenne, rosemary, beer, worcestershire and garlic. Licking it off your fingers is the best part.  

Dinner Tonight:

Panko-Fried Oyster, Bacon Dashi, Scallion

This was a nice idea: Crispy fried oyster, savory broth, nice vegetal hit from the scallion. A little like an Asian oyster rockefeller.  

Dinner Tonight:

Hangar Steak, Parmesan-Garlic Mash, Red-Wine Mushrooms, Thyme

It was nice enough out tonight to break out the grill for the first time in four or so months. A blood-red steak done over an open flame correlates strongly with the end of hibernation. 

I’m going to allow it. 

themattsmith:

Seared foie gras over black pepper funnel cake with peach, pear, mint and 25 year balsamic vinegar.

I’m only now climbing out from under some plague that hit on the ride back from the ice fishing trip, so I’m late to the party, but here are a few notes:

1. This was a great time. We caught more fish last year, but we (Jeff) caught a nice walleye keeper, so we actually got to eat the fruits of our labor. 

2. One of my contributions to the feeding is above. Foie gras has this subtle, inherent sweetness that pairs well with any number of ingredients. The fruit and balsamic really brings those qualities to the fore, and the funnel cake gives that savory + fried bonus. This is, perhaps, not my best plating effort, but we were in spartan cabin (they didn’t even have sheets or toilet paper for god’s sake) so I fell OK about how it turned out.

3. The best bite I had was that walleye, beer-battered and fried. There’s everything to be said about a simple prep of something you pulled out of the water four hours previous. I hope Matt has and will post a picture of it, because I don’t have one. 

4. Jeff and Matt are tremendous folks. We had a great time, some good talks and a lot of excellent food and drink. Mostly, I’m sad I have to wait a year to do it again. I’d have never come across these guys — and countless others — if it weren’t for tumblr. I think about that whenever I’m in the jar about the fact that the search function is less effective than pulling names from a hat. 

In short: great weekend, great people. Plague now conquered, I’m glad to be back. 

Dinner Tonight: 

Parpadelle, White Truffle Butter, Cream, Parmesan, Thyme

This is the dish I refer people to when they say they can’t recreate good pasta dishes at home. It has five ingredients. It takes about 10 minutes. It comes off as elegant and sophisticated. The one tricky thing is to find truffle butter, and it’s a little spendy: a small container — enough for two people, easily — is about $10, but it’s two-thirds of your total cost, and a $15 tab for something pretty decadent is completely reasonable, right? It’s less than you’d spend on steak or pork.

The cream, butter and cheese coalesce into this unctuous sauce. It clings to the pasta, but doesn’t pool on the plate, and the thyme adds just that hit of sweetness and herbacity** to cut through the richness. It’s a remarkably balanced dish to have so few ingredients and to require so little time. 

ANYWAY, do this:

1. Cook pasta al dente, drain.
2. In same pot, gently melt truffle butter over low heat*
3. Add pasta back to the pot; add a splash (1-2T) of cream
4. Grate cheese over top
5. Stir and let mixture come up to temp
6. Plate, season, sprinkle with thyme 

*This is the only even-sort-of fussy bit: truffles don’t like a lot of heat. Be nice to them so their flavor doesn’t cut and run. 

**This is not a word. “Herbaceous” is, but it’s a terrible word. Burn it.  

Dinner Tonight:

Daniel Bolud smoked salmon, chive cream cheese, toasted brioche

Like everyone else, I’m mourning the end of the weekend. I’m just doing it with this killer sandwich.