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A Chophouse Holiday
The end of this strange, haggard, trying year is almost upon us. That means the weird cluster of end-of-the-year holidays.
For me, good food has always been a way to bring people together around a table, to provide comfort and ______, particularly around the holidays. That’s hard this year.
There are a lot of holiday food traditions out there. Roasted birds of all feathers, my neighbor’s amazing brisket, tables piled high with fish and shellfish, smoked hams, pastry and cakes of every sort. We like to celebrate with food and some pretty fun traditions have evolved around that. For years my family sat around frying tiny chunks of beef in hot oil on Christmas Eve … mostly, I think, because my father was a minister, and it was a way to keep us entertained between what seemed like 37 different Christmas services.
Who doesn’t love a fancy festive meal? Of course, I mean the actual meal part. Not the drama of personalities around the table. Not Uncle Melvin’s inappropriate stories, or that brother-in-law who had a few too many pre-dinner cocktails, ate all the deviled eggs and knocked over the punch bowl. (Disclaimer, I am both Uncle Melvin and the inebriated brother-in-law.) Me, I look forward to the meal. I think a lot of us do. Even if it’s just your household, in their pajamas, with old Star Wars movies playing in the background because you’re not traveling, and everything’s closed, and despite it feeling like it’s been a decade since News Years it’s still 2020. Heck, even if it’s just you and an iPad, who says you can’t indulge yourself?
This week’s menu is festive, I think. It’s a little silly, a little indulgent, and specifically it’s not a family tradition. It’s an “if we could go out” not an “if we all could be together” and that’s intentional. Actually, it’s more of “if we could go out and we were a minor member of Frank Sinatra’s entourage in the late fifties” sort of menu – which since I wasn’t born until the mid ‘70s makes it even more silly, indulgent, and whatever.
Chips and Dip
I have no idea why I think that this is fancy. For some reason, growing up, I associated chips and dip with parties, with gatherings, with “fancy.” Granted, those dips were almost always either from a can or made with a tub of sour cream and a packet of soup. As an adult, I’ve played around with this from time to time and I’ve even served this exact dip – albeit with a big dollop of caviar in the middle of the dip – for a very fancy meal. It’s like ordering a Shirley Temple as a full grown real adult person. It’s still fun. It’s still fancy.
¾ cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
1 large onion
1 tsp finely chopped chives
1 tsp unsalted butter
½ tsp kosher salt
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp ground black pepper
Additional Salt to taste
Peel, trim, and dice the onion into a very small 1/8-1/4 inch dice.
Add the butter to a thick bottomed pan over medium heat.
As soon as the butter is melted, add the onion and salt, and sit well.
Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to brown and caramelize.
Deglaze the pan with small amounts of water (or white wine if you’re feeling fancy) and scrape up any fond (delicious brown bits) forming on the bottom of the pan.
Continue to cook, deglazing occasionally, until the onions are very dark.
Remove and allow to cool.
Mix the onions and remaining ingredients, and allow to meld and thicken in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.
Serve with homemade chips or good quality “kettle” chips.
How to make homemade potato chips:
Choose good, large potatoes with few or no blemishes.
Peel the potatoes, taking special care that there’s no skin or green flesh remaining.
Use a mandoline slicer to create thin slices.
Soak these slices in cold water for at least 1 hour – changing the water at least twice. This removes the surface starches and makes it easier to cook the chips to a very crisp finish without burning or over browning.
Set up a fryer with a high smoke point oil (canola, peanut, soy, grapeseed) at 350°F
Fry the chips in small batches until they’re crisp and to your preferred color. For the above dip, I use slightly thicker cut chips cooked a bit further for a dark, kettle style chip.
Shrimp Cocktail
Shrimp cocktail is one of those things that’s sort of fallen out of fashion, come back, been taken to a culinary extreme by tattooed and bearded hipster chefs with chips on their shoulders, and then settled comfortably back into the category of a “well, sure, that sounds good” item on a steakhouse menu. I love it. I have no idea why. I love a really spicy sauce – so it may just be that I’ve decided I like shrimp cocktail as a delivery device for spicy sauce. This sauce is a quick, better than bottled sauce you can tweak to your own liking.
Many Shrimps. All the Shrimps You Want. Shrimps.
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tbsp chili sauce
2 tsp prepared horseradish (not cream style)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ tsp lemon zest
1 clove garlic (very finely minced)
½ tsp ground black pepper
Mix the ketchup, chili sauce (I use Huy Fong Foods Chili Garlic Paste), horseradish, lemon juice, zest, garlic, and black pepper.
Chill for at least 1 hour for flavors to combine.
Poach and chill the shrimp. I do this by heavily salted boiling water, and pouring the boiling water over raw (or thawed) shrimp in a very large bowl, then allowing the shrimp to gently poach in the cooling water.
Once the shrimp is just firm throughout, remove it and chill in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Drain, and chill uncovered for 1 hour before serving.
Lobster Bisque
There is no better way to extend a luxurious ingredient than to a soup. A lot of times, it’s even better than the thing on its own. My favorite way to eat lobster is on a lobster roll, purchased from a shack, sitting on a sea wall with a tall boy of ‘Ganset tucked between the rocks so as not to attract attention. Lobster bisque is my second. It’s rich, satiny, and has a surprisingly intense seafood flavor for the actual amount of seafood used in its preparation. Plus, it’s one of those starters that just says “This! This is gonna be a good meal.”
I use fennel here because it really complements the shellfish. If you don’t like lobster, or you’re economizing, this same soup can be made with shrimp. Simply use shrimp shells and tails in place of the lobster shells. Or, use both.
2 lobster tails
1 fennel bulb
1 medium shallot
1 medium carrot
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp tomato paste
½ cup white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream plus more for garnish
1 cup cooked rice
1 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp unsalted butter
¼ tsp finely ground white pepper
Salt to taste
1 oz sherry (opt)
Remove the meat from the lobster tails. This can be done by quickly shocking them in boiling water, and using a table knife or wooden spoon or chopstick to push out the meat – or since this will be cut up anyway, just smashing them up. Save the shells.
Melt 4 tbsp of unsalted butter in a pan over low heat.
Add the tail meat and cook, spooning the butter over the tails, until firm. Keep the temp very low.
Remove the tail meat and chop for garnish.
Set the (now lobster flavored) butter aside for later steps.
Peel, trim, and cut the carrot into 2-inch chunks.
Remove the green parts, and thinly slice the fennel bulb.
Peel, trim, and slice the garlic.
Peel, trim, and coarsely chop the shallot.
In a large, thick bottomed pan, heat one tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Add lobster shell and crush with the back of a spoon, add vegetables, and tomato paste.
Cook, siring frequently, until the shallot and fennel are softened, and a fond is beginning to form on the bottom of the pan.
Add the white wine and scrape the bottom of the pan to release the fond.
Add 2 quarts water, 1 bay leaf, and bring to a low simmer.
Simmer until the liquid has reduced by 1/3.
Strain though a fine strainer, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible.
Add the warm liquid, cooked rice, and reserved butter to the container of a blender.
Process until smooth.
Return the soup to the stove and bring to a very, very low simmer.
Add cream, and season generously with salt.
Keep warm, stirring frequently, until ready to serve.
Optionally, add a small amount of sherry immediately before service. Stir to incorporate.
Serve with a drizzle of cream, and pieces of chopped tail meat.
Potato Dinner Rolls
Fancy, old fashioned dinners aren’t fancy old fashioned dinners without dinner rolls. This is both because dinner rolls are objectively good, and because they’re necessary at a large gathering because they’re an available and potentially less fatal ballistic object that can be used to end Uncle Melvin’s tirade about the incredible injustice of low-fat mayonnaise that’s no doubt being perpetrated by the European Union as revenge for the Crossandwich.
These potato rolls are a little rustic, but the use of instant mashed potato flakes makes them exceptionally tender and adds a lot of flavor. They’re soft on the inside, with a bit of a crust – which makes them perfect for flinging at Uncle Melvin or at that sibling who insists on calling you an embarrassing childhood nickname in front of the new boyfriend or girlfriend.
7 g yeast
225 g whole milk (warmed to room temperature)
350 g AP
50 g instant mashed potato flakes
8 g salt
25 g honey
One egg, beaten
25 oil
Add the milk and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer.
If using active dry yeast, allow to proof 10 minutes. If using instant, continue.
Add the egg, honey, and oil and mix.
Add the flour and mashed potato flakes.
Add the salt.
Knead for 10 minutes.
Allow to rise in a warm place until at least doubled.
Punch down, and divide into 12-16 evenly sized balls.
Flatten the balls, and roll them into small rectangular loaves.
Arrange with the seam down on a greased sheet pan or in a skillet with at least 1 inch between each piece.
Preheat your oven to 350°F
Allow to proof 30-45 minutes.
Brush the tops very generously with water.
Bake until golden on top.
Serve warm (or blitz them in the microwave for a few seconds) with good butter.
Salt and Herb Roasted Beef with Garlic Jus
There’s very little that is more satisfying, if you’re an inveterate carnivore like me, than a slab of perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, still juicy roasted beef. It’s not cheap. Good beef is pricy, and that alone makes it a celebratory dish. This is a simple preparation that really lets the meat shine – with just a hint of herb and garlic to make it … more meaty? With a side of creamed spinach and some fancy potatoes, it’s one of the ultimate simple, celebratory meals.
1 bone in rib roast
2 cloves garlic
6-8 sprigs fresh rosemary
6-8 sprigs fresh thyme
3 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp coarse finishing salt (such as Maldon)
1 tsp fresh coarsely ground black pepper
At least 24 hours before cooking, generously salt the roast – about 2 tbsp or more for a larger roast, and place uncovered on a sheet pan with a rack. Surround with rosemary and thyme sprigs. Allow to rest refrigerated overnight and up to 48 hours.
Peel, trim, and mince the garlic.
Create a paste of garlic and 1 tbsp salt in a mortar and pestle or by crushing both with the flat of a knife blade, swiping back and forth.
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Spread the garlic and salt paste generously over the surface of the meat.
Transfer the entire sheet pan, herbs included, into the oven.
Roast for 10-12 minutes per pound, checking the internal temp frequently, until the internal temperature has reached 120°F (the temp will continue to rise a few degrees after removing it from the oven). This will result in a rare/medium rare center, with more well done ends. Cook longer if you prefer a more well done roast.
To serve, garnish with fresh herbs, and slice to “order” with Garlic Jus.
Garlic Jus
This looks like coffee. I would drink it like coffee. It’s meat sauce though. Promise.
1 lbs lean ground beef
2 heads garlic
1 large onion
1 large carrot
2 stalks celery
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 sprig thyme
1 tsp black peppercorns
Preheat your oven to its highest temperature.
Wash, and thinly slice the unpeeled onion.
Wash, and cut the carrot into 1 to 2 inch chunks
Wash the celery.
Break up the ground beef and spread on a half sheet pan.
Coat the vegetables with the tomato paste and spread on the sheep pan.
Transfer to the oven, and roast until the vegetables are very dark, the onions almost blackened on the edges.
Add the vegetables to three quarts of cold water and bring to a simmer.
Without peeling, cut heads of garlic in half lengthwise, and add to the pot.
Add the bay leaf, peppercorns, and thyme.
Simmer for at least 2 hours.
Strain thought a fine strainer and or filter towel pressing out as much liquid as possible and discard solids.
Bring back to a simmer and reduce to 2 quarts.
Taste, and season well with salt.
If you desire a thicker jus, use cornstarch or arrowroot in a thin slurry to thicken.
Pommes Dauphinoise
Extra Fancy Scalloped Potatoes
One of the things I truly love about French cuisine is the absurd number of specialty potato dishes – all of which seem to be named in honor of some member of the long defunct royal family. Whipped, fried, layered with whatever seemed most luxurious at the moment, mixed with choux pastry and fried into the world’s greatest tater-tot – the variety seems almost endless. This is a take on Pommes Dauphinoise. I think, if my French doesn’t fail me, and it will, that it’s named after the wife of the presumptive heir to the French throne, which really has nothing to do with the dish, but may be why we in the English-speaking world tend to call them scalloped potatoes instead of Fancy French Soon-to-be-Queen Potatoes.
This variation on scalloped potatoes produces a massive loaf of potatoes that when sliced and fried up, yields tender layers with a crisp browned finish. It’s simple, but fussy at the same time, which makes it pretty much perfect for a festive meal.
6-8 russet potatoes
½ cup heavy cream
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp neutral oil or clarified butter
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Peel the potatoes and cut into very thin slices (this is easiest using a mandoline slicer, but take care, those things are finger manglers).
Pour salt and cream over the slices and mix well to coat the slices.
Grease a loaf pan and line with parchment (to make removing the finished potatoes easier)
Arrange the slices in layers in the loaf pan.
Bake for 60-90 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
Remove from the oven, weight down the potatoes with a foil-wrapped brick (seriously), cans, or other heavy weight, and refrigerate the potato loaf until cooled complete (best overnight).
To finish, remove the loaf from the pan and slice across the layers, width-wise.
Heat a pan with neutral oil or clarified butter, and cook the slices until well browned on at least one side, and warmed through.
Creamed Spinach
I admit, this is probably the least vegetably vegetable you can cook. It’s probably less of a vegetable than zucchini cake. It’s more of a sauce than a vegetable.
It’s glorious.
When I’m craving old school steakhouse/chophouse sorts of food, this is what I’m craving. Soft, sweet spinach in a simple, creamy sauce. And a martini. But that’s a different sort of newsletter.
12 oz fresh spinach
½ cup heavy cream
1 tsp unsalted butter
1 tsp AP flour
1 clove garlic
Salt, pepper, and fresh grated nutmeg to taste.
Blanch and shock the spinach by bringing a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil, immersing the spinach for 30 seconds, then shocking in an ice bath.
Squeeze as much water as possible from the spinach. Set the spinach aside to continue draining.
Peel, trim, and crush or microplane the garlic.
In a thick bottomed pan over medium heat, melt the butter and stir in the flour.
Cook until just combined.
Add the cream and garlic and bring to a low simmer, stirring constantly.
Add the spinach to this mixture and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper. Top with fresh grated nutmeg.
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Toffee always felt like a special treat to me as a kid. Those little rolls of toffee covered with crushed almonds? Or SKOR, the candy bar that tried so very hard to be European. Super Fancy. Sticky toffee pudding probably isn’t so much fancy as it is British – but my mom’s family were Scots (some by way of Canada) and to a lot of those concepts (discounting their Scots nationalist politics …) were sort of the same.
This recipe is adapted from a recipe at Food and Wine. I swap in some whiskey-soaked fruit for extra texture and extra whiskeyness, and use a slightly simpler caramel sauce.
Toffee Sauce
1 cup granulated sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp water
Add water, sugar, and butter to a thick bottomed pot.
Cook over medium low heat until the sugar is melted and caramelized – up to 40 minutes. I like my caramel for this dish to be dark, but you can vary how dark the sugar gets to your taste.
Once a dark caramel has formed, add the heavy cream, stirring well, and cook an additional five minutes or until the sauce is well integrated.
Puddings
12 pitted dates
¾ cup water
1 oz bourbon whiskey
½ tsp
¼ cup AP flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 tsp kosher salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
Bring the ¾ cup of water to a boil (I simply microwave it).
Add 6 of the pitted dates to the water and allow to soften (15 minutes).
Process the water and dates in a blender to create a date puree.
Chop the remaining 6 dates, and soak in the whiskey.
Cream the butter, sugar, and egg together in the bowl of a mixer or food processor.
Add the date puree, flour, baking powder and salt and mix until just combined.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Grease a cupcake pan.
Fill the cups ¾ full.
Bake until fully set – about 20 minutes.
To serve, remove the puddings from the tin, dip into the toffee sauce, and reheat in the oven (or honestly – the microwave) until the toffee is bubbling.
Place, and spoon additional toffee sauce over the pudding.
Serve with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or even yogurt (it’s a nice contrast to the treacly sweetness of the toffee).