Steak au Poivre (Pepper Steak)

This is my favorite way to make steak: pepper encrusted steak cooked in the French style and served with a creamy pan sauce.  This works equally well with venison loin, and I typically serve it with some simple potatoes and sauteed asparagus; mushrooms also tend to pair well with the cream sauce.

Ingredients
1 good steak, I like strip steak, but you could use filet or other tender steak, but if you use a big one like t-bone you'll probably want to double the sauce
1 T coarsely cracked pepper
Vegetable oil, or other high smoke point oil
salt
a splash cognac or dry sherry
3 T heavy cream
1 T dijon mustard
1 shallot, halved and sliced into half rings


Instructions

Press the pepper into both sides of the steak and let it sit for a couple of hours.
Put some oil in a steel or cast iron skillet over medium high to high heat, and while the oil heats sprinkle salt and pepper on the steak to taste.  Pat to make sure the pepper adheres to the steak.  It's important to use a heavy skillet that isn't non-stick; this is going to be hot enough to destroy teflon.
When the oil is just short of smoking add the steak and sear the steak on both sides to desired doneness (which is medium rare).  Fight the temptation to poke, prod, and move the meat; you're going to flip this steak exactly once.  When it's on the second side and getting close to where you want it add the shallot into the pan around the steak.  Remove the steak to rest, leaving the shallot.
Deglaze the pan with the cognac or sherry, then tip the pan to ignite (or use a long lighter).  Be careful, the fireball can be impressive, and you probably like your eyebrows, but it does make this a good dish if you feel like showing off.  Whisk the bottom of the skillet to release the fond.
Add the cream and mustard; whisk to combine, cook for a couple of minutes, check the seasoning, then pour over the steak and serve.



Note:
You can make more than one of these at a time, just make sure you don't crowd the pan and multiply the sauce as necessary.

Zucchini and Lardon

A rich but simple side dish which can be served with a variety of  cuisines.

3 smallish zucchini, quartered and chopped
6-7 T salt pork, finely chopped (1/4" cubes)
2 shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
salt and pepper to taste.

Throw the salt pork in a skillet (not non-stick), and saute until brown and crispy. Add the shallots and garlic, saute for a minute or so, add the zucchini, salt, and pepper. Cook until the zucchini is the desired texture.

Onion Confit

Onions slowly cooked down with wine and vinegar to the consistency of jam.  This makes a great condiment to put on pastrami sandwiches, or anywhere else you want to add a sweet onion flavor, and because you cook all the water out this stuff will keep just about forever in the fridge.

1.5 lbs sweet onion, quartered and thinly sliced
0.5 lbs yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1/4 C white wine vinegar
1/4 C honey
1/2 C dry white wine
6 T unsalted butter
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter and cook the crap out of the onions, covered over medium heat, for ~40 minutes (you want them soft), stirring it occasionally.  Add the rest of the ingredients and cook until the mixture almost dries out.

Spanish Garlic Soup

This is about as simple as a soup gets, but still tasty and a wonderful thing for a cold day.

Ingredients:
4 C beef broth
1 T paprika (I like to use a mix of plain and smoked paprika)
6 cloves garlic, peeled and flattened with the side of a knife
4 slices French bread, about 1 cm thick
4 eggs
1/4 t cumin, ground
2 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil and toast the garlic cloves until golden brown.  Remove the garlic and reserve, crushing it.  Use the oil to brown the bread on both sides, then remove and reserve the bread.

At this point if the bread has absorbed all of the oil you may need to add a little more; briefly cook the paprika and cumin in the oil, then add the broth and reserved garlic.  Simmer for a few minutes, then add the eggs and poach until set.  Add the toasted bread into the soup and serve.

Pork Confit

Pork cured in herbs then slowly poached in fat.  It may not be terribly good for you, but sometimes you have to indulge.  You can make this with either loin or shoulder, with loin being better for things like slicing to put on sandwiches, but if you want to make rillettes you're really going to need to make it with the shoulder.  This recipe is a slight modification of the one from Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn -- THE guide to curing meats, and as the weather gets colder and more suitable to hanging meat to dry, one you should definitely go buy.

Ingredients:
2.5 lbs of pork loin, or 4 lbs if using shoulder cut in to four slices for loin, or cubed for shoulder
2 T kosher salt
3 bay leaves
6 T flat leaf parsley
4 T fresh sage
1.5 T black pepper, ground or crushed
4 T shallots
5 cloves garlic
1/2 t pink salt (insta cure #1, a mix of salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite)
enough fat to fully submerge the meat, preferably rendered duck fat, but lard will also work (at some point I also want to try using fat rendered from beef marrow bones when making stock/glace)

Food processor together the herbs, shallots, and garlic, then add in the salt, pink salt, and pepper and processor briefly.  Rub the meat with this mixture and refrigerate for three to four days.

Remove the meat and rinse off all the seasoning, then dry.  Melt the fat in a pot or dutch oven, add the meat, and bring just to a simmer; the meat must be fully submerged.  Remove from the heat and place in an oven preheated to 180-200 F.  Cook until fork tender, approximately 4 hours for loin, and 4-6 for shoulder.

At this point you can remove the meat and separate out the meat and the juices from cooking, making sure to reserve both.  The meat can be re-submerged in the fat and kept in the fridge for weeks or months (the original purpose of confit was to preserve meat), while the juices can be used as a seasoning for the meat, either mixed into rillettes or sprinkled onto the meat while pan searing.  If you do this with shoulder the juices will also have a considerable amount of gelatin, which helps to produce a rich velvety sauce.  Keep in mind that the juices and the meat will be fairly salty from the curing, so taste to make sure you don't over salt.  The fat can be reused, but again, it will pick up salt.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

The small rich stuffed grape leaves made in the Egyptian style with a yogurt sauce.  This is another fairly approximate recipe, and rolling the leaves can be somewhat difficult if you don't first see how to do it, but the main secret is to make sure that the filling is completely wrapped.  This is also quite a bit easier if you have a large pot with a colander insert as you need something to put pressure on the top of the leaves while they cook.

Ingredients:
Potatoes, sliced approximately 1/4", enough to cover the bottom of the pot
6-7 large cloves of garlic, sliced lengthwise into several large slices each

Grape leaves:
1 large jar grape leaves, drained and rinsed (I typically make sure I have two on hand, you may need some of the second depending on the size of the leaves and how tightly you roll them)
3 lbs of ground beef (it's important that you don't use anything leaner than 80/20, it just won't taste right with lean beef)
~ 4 C of uncooked basmati rice
salt as needed

Sauce:
4 C plain yogurt
one good sized cucumber, peeled, seeded, and minced
6-7 cloves garlic (or to taste), minced
handful dried mint, or to taste

Mix the sauce ingredients, as these need time to blend in flavor.  Mix together the beef, rice, and salt.  Layer the potatoes on the bottom of the pot (these actually aren't typically eaten, they're just there to keep the grape leaves from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pot). 
Cut off the small piece of stem from the grape leaves, then trim them to an appropriate size. Most of the grape leaves will be big enough to cut in to 2 pieces (3 for large leaves, but the smaller the piece you cut the harder it is to roll). A small amount of the beef and rice mixture should be put in to the center of the piece of leaf and rolled so that it forms a stuffed cylinder approximately 5-6 cm in length and 2 cm or less in diameter. The filling should be completely wrapped in leaf so it doesn't leak out while cooking.  If you find leaves or pieces of leaves that have holes or are otherwise unsuitable for stuffing, set them aside as we'll need a layer or two of leaves to cover the top.
Do this for all the grape leaves and filling, placing them in the pot in circles so that they form solid layers of grape leaves (make sure to pack them tightly together). When a layer is complete put 6-8 slices of garlic between the grape leaves in the layer, then top with a layer of unstuffed grape leaves.
When you've used all of the filling top with another layer of unstuffed leaves, then pour in enough hot water to more than cover the top of the leaves and weight down the leaves (I usually use the colander insert with something like a pot of water on top of it for weight).  Simmer until the rice is done, approximately 30 minutes (pull a leaf out and test to make sure it's done).
Carefully pour off the excess water, and serve with the sauce.

Baklava with 3 nuts

My recipe for baklava made with a mixture of walnuts, almonds, and pistachios.  This makes an 11"x7" pan, and this is rich enough that it'll feed a small army, or 8 hungry foodies.  This recipe more than most is approximate, just taste it as you go.

Ingredients:
phyllo dough
melted butter

Nut mixture:
Between 1 and 1 1/4 lb of nuts, evenly mixed between walnuts, almonds, and pistachios (I get unsalted unroasted nuts for the walnuts and almonds then roast them, and salted in shell pistachios)
1/4 C sugar
1 heavy t cinnamon
1/4 t ground clove
1/4 t ground cardamom
salt to taste, if using all unsalted nuts

Honey mixture:
1 1/4 C honey
1 1/4 C sugar
5/8 C water
2 cinnamon sticks
6-8 cloves
scant 1/2 t ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 350.  Simmer the ingredients for the honey mixture together until syrupy, then kill the heat and allow to cool (remember, it will thicken as it cools).  When it's cool remove the cinnamon sticks and the cloves.

Food processor the nut mixture together, and you may have to work in batches as there's quite a bit of it.  You want small chunks but not powder.

Heavily butter each of eight layers of phyllo and put those in the bottom of the pan.  Add half the nut mixture, then add eight more buttered phyllo layers, then the rest of the nut mixture.  Add another eight layers of buttered phyllo on top.  Cut the top layer into diamonds a little over an inch on a side, and if you want to be fancy push a clove into the center of each diamond (this is removed before eating).  Bake until golden brown (approximately 20 minutes).  Remove and cool for 15 minutes before adding the honey mixture; cool another 3 hours before serving.

Toum, V1

This is an initial pass, modified from a recipe online, but I wasn't completely happy with the meringue-like texture that I got from this one (I could be biased, I despise meringue).  The next time I think I'm going to skip the egg white and add some lecithin as an emulsifier, though the acidity of the lemon juice may keep that from working well.  If the lecithin works it would also make this generally fridge stable unlike something with raw egg in it.

6 cloves garlic
3-4 T lemon juice (to taste)
salt to taste
1/4 C neutral flavored oil
2T cold water
1 egg white

Food processor the garlic, a pinch of salt, and 1 T of lemon juice together.  Add the egg white and processor some more.  Drizzle in half the oil while blending, then alternate slowly adding the lemon juice and the rest of the oil.  At the end add water while checking the consistency, and adjust the salt of necessary.

Sushi Rice

The start to all good sushi and chirashi.

Sushi Rice:
2 2/3 C Japanese short grain rice, rinsed to remove starch
Water appropriate for your rice cooker plus a little (roughly 3 C on the stove top)
note card sized piece of kombu, wiped down with a damp cloth

Vinegar mixture:
1/2 C Japanese rice vinegar
1/4 C sugar
1 t salt

Heat the vinegar mixture until everything is dissolved, but without boiling. Allow to come to room temperature.
Cook the rice the kombu, then remove to a large bowl (preferably non-metallic), discarding the kombu, and allow to sit for several minutes to cool.
Add a small amount of the vinegar to the rice, pouring it on the back of the spatula to spread it, then cut it into the rice. Continue this until you've used all the vinegar; this mixes the vinegar in and separates the rice grains.

Miso Soup

Basic miso soup, but made so much better by using homemade dashi.

Miso soup:
2 Q water
1 - 1 1/2 oz bonito flakes
half a block firm tofu, in large dice
small handful wakame, rehydrated
5 note card sized pieces of kombu
~10 T miso paste (depending on taste and type used, I like a blend of white and red called awase)
small handful thinly sliced green onion

Place the kombu in the water and bring just to a light boil over medium. Remove the kombu and add the bonito, continue to cook until it just returns to a boil, or 10 seconds, whichever comes first, then kill the heat. Allow the bonito to soak for 15 minutes, or until the bonito sinks to the bottom, then strain out the bonito flakes. From this point you can hold the stock (dashi) until ready to make the soup. When you are ready bring the dashi to a gentle simmer, whisk in the miso, then add in the tofu, green onion, and wakame and give it another 30 seconds.