Choucroute garni

I first had choucroute in France more than 40 years ago. Depending on how many people were being served, some of the platters were freakin' enormous. My version today is very modest. I used homemade sauerkraut (it only takes a few days and very little effort), a kielbasa I got on sale, and boiled potatoes. You can make this with a variety of meats, from corned beef to hotdogs (although maybe wurst is best, LOL). It bears a remarkable resemblance to New England boiled dinner, and is no doubt related genealogically speaking. For a sauerkraut recipe see "Kimchi and sauerkraut", my post from May 15, 2010. I needed to stop by the Georgetown Safeway to get prescriptions for Peter so decided to see what other meat I could find. I did find some white sausages to go with my kielbasa.

I'm not going to post a formal recipe for this. It isn't needed. Boil the potatoes; boil, steam or fry your meats; heat up your sauerkraut. Put it all together on a platter. Invite people over.

Baked potato soup

Monday night Peter and I celebrated our 30th anniversary with a lobster, baked potato, and gai lan dinner. I got the idea, when shopping for the potato, to bake an extra one with which to make a potato soup. What the heck, we had the oven on anyhow.

I saw no reason to make this anything but extremely simple. I went back and forth about using cheese. In the end I decided to go for it, but a fairly small quantity of something mild. Then there was the issue of what to do with the potato skin. Crisped up potato skin bits sounded like a great garnish.

One wrinkle: the use of preserved mustard tuber. You will not find this at Safeway; you need an Asian market. Substitute minced dill pickle if you have some. Otherwise don’t worry about it.

Use any sausage. I had some little turkey breakfast sausages I got for a song.

Since I was using the oven for a side dish of roasted bok choy (simply sprayed with cooking spray and sprinkled with salt and pepper; 400 degree oven for 15 minutes), I sprayed the potato skin, roasted it for 6 or so minutes, and used it as a garnish.

Baked potato soup
1 large russet potato
7 oz. sausage
2 scallions, green and white parts, chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup grated cheese
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp preserved mustard tuber
1 tbsp butter

Bake the potato at 400 degrees for 70 to 75 minutes until tender. Allow to cool and then peel off the skin. Cut into ½” pieces. Lightly mash about half of it to lend texture to the soup.

Cook the sausages by steaming or sautéing. Cut into 1” pieces and set aside.

Put all ingredients in a soup pot and bring to a simmer. Season to taste.

Ham burgers with artichokes

I got creative yesterday and came up with this. It’s not a typo, it is “ham burger” because it’s ham mixed with mashed potato and made into a burger,. It’s fluffy and delicious. The slice of ham I refer to is one of those available all the time at the market.

As for the artichoke hearts, I use frozen ones which are darn near as good as fresh and I don’t have the time or the inclination to deal with those spike heads of goodness. Personally I would not make this with canned artichokes, though it certainly could be done.

My apologies, but my measurements are approximations. You want about equal parts of chopped ham and potatoes. As for the milk and butter, add enough to make the potatoes nice and creamy. The meat and potatoes are both just sticky enough to hold together in the sauté pan. You could add an egg, but I think it would be too wet. Maybe just a yolk – up to you. You could also dredge the burgers in bread crumbs. I thought about doing it but decided not to.

I put the artichoke hearts into the microwave for 3 minutes covered (no added water in spite of what the package says). Then stirred them and microwaved them another 3 minutes uncovered. Peter made a streusel of bread crumbs, salt and pepper, parmesan cheese and olive oil which we topped the artichokes with and broiled for 2-3 minutes until browned. Yum.

Ham burgers (4 servings)
For the burgers:
2 medium red waxy potatoes
¼ cup milk
2 tbsp butter
1 slice ham, usually around 1 lb. or a little less
2 tbsp capers
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Cut the potatoes into 1-2” pieces and put in a pot. Cover them with water. Bring it to a boil. Add salt, and let them cook for 10 or so minutes until mash-worthy doneness. Drain and return to the pot. Add the milk and 1 tbsp butter and mash thoroughly. Oh, I don’t like to peel my potatoes, but that’s up to you.

While the potatoes cook, trim the ham of excess fat and remove the little round bone in the center. Cut into 1” pieces and put it into the food processor. Add capers and mustard and some pepper. Pulse until finely chopped. Remove to a large bowl.

Combine the ham mixture and the potatoes and fold together. Form into 8 burgers. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil and remaining tbsp butter in a sauté pan. When the butter has melted and foam has subsided, add burgers, 4 at a time, and sauté 3-4 minutes per side until browned and a little crisp on the outside. Handle them carefully as they will be delicate.

Steak de Burgo and Steakhouse hash browns

We received a complimentary copy of Cook’s Country magazine last week. There’s some good looking stuff in it. I made two of its recipes last night. The steak recipe was a serendipitous find in that I had snared two beautiful rib eyes from the manager’s special bin at Safeway at 50% off!

Both of these recipes were prepared pretty much verbatim. It’s not my habit to be led along by the nose, but I could see no reason to make modifications for a first-time try.

Steak de Burgo
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper
2 rib eye steaks (about 1” thick)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large garlic clove, peeled and halved
1/8 cup (2 tbsp) white wine
1 tbsp unsalted cold butter, cut into pieces
1 tbsp heavy cream
1 additional tsp dried oregano

Cut out the center of the rib eye (the part that looks about the size of a filet mignon). Save the rest of the meat for another purpose. Wrap a piece of kitchen string around each filet so that they will hold their shape.

Mix together the oregano, garlic powder and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Dry the filets thoroughly and rub them with the dry spices.

Heat oil in a cast iron skillet until it starts to smoke. Cook steaks 3 – 4 minutes per side, according to your preference. Transfer to a plate and tent with foil.

Add garlic clove to skillet and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in wine and scrape bottom of the pan. Cook about 1 minute. Whisk in butter, cream, and remaining oregano. Cook about 1 minute. Discard garlic, season as desired with salt and pepper, pour over meat, and serve.

Steakhouse hash browns
3 lbs. russet potatoes (about 3 large), peeled and cut into 1/2” chunks.
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
½ tsp pepper
4 tbsp vegetable oil

Bring potatoes and enough water to cover by 1” to boil in a pot over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until tender but not falling apart, 20 – 25 minutes. Drain potatoes and return to pot (off heat); let stand 5 minutes.

Transfer 1 cup potatoes to a bowl and toss with butter. Mash until smooth and then gently combine with remaining potato chunks. Mix in salt and pepper.

Adjust oven rack to upper position (about 4” inches below broiler element) and heat broiler. Invert a rimmed baking sheet and coat lightly with cooking spray. Heat 3 tbsp oil in 10” nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add potatoes and lightly pat into a circle. Cook until bottom is crusty and golden brown, 7 to 9 minutes.

Slide potatoes out of skillet onto prepared baking sheet with browned side down. Brush top with remaining oil and broil until deep golden brown, 10 to 14 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes, then cardfully slide onto platter. Cut into wedges and serve.

A beautiful steak dinner

While shopping (with my gift card) at Marczyk Fine Foods, an up-scale Denver spot, several days ago, we were treated to a sample of what they call “Pedro” steak. It was delicious and we bought a ¾ lb. piece. It was seasoned with just Montreal grill seasoning. When I went to King Soopers I couldn’t find the Montreal brand. I went with a Kroger house product called Grill Time Spicy Steak. It’s peppery, salty and very flavorful.

Now this Pedro thing is an unusual cut, very similar to flap steak, or flatiron steak. It’s striated with more fat than either of those, but not to the extent that I had to do anything but trim out some grainy looking bits. Pedro is named after the owner, Pete, so don’t try to find it elsewhere.

We had one more portion of fingerling which Peter roasted (as he has before) with some Indian chat seasoning. We also had half a head of cabbage. I cut up half of that and braised it. You only really need salt and pepper and a bit of broth to do the braise, but we had another unique condiment we had brought home from lunch at a middle Eastern restaurant on Wednesday, thum. The restaurant’s owner described it thus: “99 percent garlic with a hint of lemon, olive oil and a touch of whipped egg white.” It is pungent and no adjective I can think of at the moment suffices to describe it. “Wonderful” will have to do.

My steak technique is very simple. Rub with a bit of olive oil, then rub in (energetically) steak seasoning on both sides (no additional salt and pepper was necessary). Then I heated the ridged side of our stove-top grill to screaming hot and cooked it 4 minutes on one side and 3 on the other. That made it pretty rare, but I sliced the more well-cooked ends for Peter and feasted on the rare center.