Vegan Mayonnaise

No, I haven't radically altered my dietary preferences, I still love roast beast, but I got to thinking that by playing around with lecithin I could pull the eggs out of mayonnaise.  That not only makes it vegan, but keeps it from going bad, unlike most homemade mayonnaise; this stuff should keep indefinitely in the fridge, and it may not need refrigeration since none of the ingredients has to be refrigerated (that's an experiment in progress...).  At the least you won't have to worry about keeping it on ice for a picnic.

4 T vinegar (some of this may be replaced with water if you don't like it as tangy)
1 T dijon mustard
1 t liquid lecithin
1 C oil
salt to taste

Mix together the vinegar, mustard, and lecithin in a food processor (or in a bowl with a whisk, but you're gonna get a workout if you got the whisk method), then slowly drizzle in the oil while the food processor runs (or while you whisk until you think your arm is going to fall off).

Note: I don't call out what type of vinegar or oil to use, but this is just a place to get creative.  My first batch was 50/50 red wine vinegar and sherry vinegar, with 1/4 C of walnut oil and 3/4 C vegetable oil.  Play around with it, and you could also use citrus juice in place of vinegar; I may try blood orange and lemon juice mixed with avocado oil for my next effort.

Deep Dish Pizza

I've posted bits and pieces about deep dish pizza before, but never the whole recipe, and many of those older posts are things that I've refined, so here's the complete version with my typical sausage pizza sauce.  If you'd prefer to have yours without sausage check my meatless sauce here.  This recipe is scaled for making one 14" diameter pizza.

Crust:
3 1/2 C AP flour
1 1/2 C warm water
 2 t yeast
heavy pinch sugar
1/2 C olive oil
1/4 C corn meal (optional, makes it easier to remove and adds texture)
1 t kosher salt
Seasonings (oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, garlic, parmesan, etc. - optional)
oil or non-stick spray

Sauce:
one 28 oz can crushed san marzano tomatoes
1 medium onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb spicy Italian sausage
2 T olive oil
1/2 t fennel, toasted and ground
1/2 t basil
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t thyme
splash balsamic vinegar
1/2 t crushed red pepper
1 bay leaf
salt to taste
1/2 t ground black pepper

Toppings:
1 1/2 pounds mozzarella or provolone
1/4 C freshly grated parmesan
Whatever else you want, just remember that it should be a lot.  Deep dish should be about an inch deep.  If I'm doing pepperoni and another topping I'll put about 5 oz of pepperoni on it, corresponding to a complete layer with slight overlap.

Crust:
Mix the yeast with warm water and sugar and allow it to sit for 15 minutes.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients for the crust except for the corn meal, knead lightly, and allow to rise, covered, until doubled in volume.  Punch it down and allow it to rise again.  Make the sauce while the dough is rising.

Sauce:
Cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil until lightly browned, then add in the rest of the ingredients except the sausage and simmer on low for at least half an hour.  While the onion and garlic is sauteing cook the sausage to get a hard sear on it, remove to a cutting board and allow to rest for a couple of minutes, then chop.  Add to the simmering sauce.  At the end of cooking check the seasoning.

Assembly:
Preheat your oven to 425 F.  Oil a deep dish pan (or spray with non-stick spray), and dust with corn meal.  Spread the dough out and push it up the sides; try to get a thin layer on both the bottom and the sides.  You may have more dough than you need, if so just tear off the excess as you push it to the lip of the pan.

Place the cheese on the dough; if using shredded cheese you may need to press it down some.  Add your other toppings on top of the cheese, then spread the sauce out on top; this is important, as your toppings would burn without the moisture of the sauce on top.  Bake for ~30 minutes until the dough is golden brown and the sauce is lightly bubbling.  Pull the pizza out and allow to sit for 15 minutes before trying to de-pan the pizza.

Note: I use an anodized dark colored pan, if using a reflective pan you'll probably have to increase the temperature to 450F, but I haven't tried it.

Quiche Lorraine

The classic quiche of bacon, eggs, and cream.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 C creme fraiche
Cream to thin out the creme fraiche (typically about 3 T)
Pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 lb bacon, in lardons
pie crust, either store bought or homemade

Preheat oven to 375 F and blind bake the crust until lightly golden (about 10 minutes for a room temperature docked crust without pie weights).  While this is baking brown the bacon over medium low heat, then drain.  Beat together the creme fraiche, cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper, and eggs.  Scatter the bacon on the crust, and pour over the cream mixture.  Bake at 375 until the filling is just set, about 25 minutes.


Variations:
While it would stop being a traditional quiche lorraine you could vary the recipe some by adding sauteed mushroom and/or grated gruyere. Be careful with the salt if using gruyere.

French-Style Garlic Sausage

There aren't any amounts to this, as I wasn't measuring when I made it, and you usually have to adjust it by cooking some and tasting it.  The dominant flavors should be garlic and thyme with an under tone of red wine.

Pork shoulder
Salt pork
Thyme
Garlic
Nutmeg
Salt
Pepper
Rich red wine like a burgundy 
A slice or two of slightly stale bread

Grind together the garlic, pork shoulder, salt pork, and bread; I used a coarser grind and only ground it once.  Mix in the spices and check the seasoning by frying up some.  Casing the sausage is optional.

Tomato Bisque

A nice simple creamy tomato soup.  There isn't a whole lot to it, so you need to use the best ingredients - homemade chicken stock and san marzano tomatoes.

Ingredients:
1 onion, minced
1 stalk celery, minced
1 carrot, peeled and minced
4+1 cloves garlic, minced
1 28 oz can whole peeled san marzano tomatoes
2-3 C chicken stock
5 T butter
4 T flour
3/4 C cream, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
3/4 t smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 t thyme

Melt the butter and saute the onion, four cloves garlic, carrot, and celery until lightly browned.  Add the thyme and stir for a few seconds.  Add in the flour and stir to make a roux, cooking it for a few minutes.  Add the chicken stock and hand crush the tomatoes into the pot, then add in any juice that was in the can.  Add bay leaf, paprika, salt, and pepper.  Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes or so to blend the flavors, then puree in a blender or with an immersion blender.  Add in the cream and the last clove of garlic and bring back to a simmer, then check the seasoning.  I like to serve it with toasted bread and cheese, whether baked brie or just a grilled cheese.

Mussaman (massaman) Curry

A mild and complex curry.  This is one that shouldn't get anything herbal added to it, no basil, no kaffir lime, no cilantro.  I also leave out the Thai chiles.  Make sure you use a cheap tough cut of beef and braise it slowly; you can use top round or the like, but shank or ox tail would be ideal.

2 lbs of beef, cubed
1 lb of yukon gold potatoes, cubed
1/2 lb of pearl onions, peeled
1/2 C dry roasted peanuts
2-3 T tamarind paste
1 can massaman curry paste
6-7 black cardamoms
fish sauce as needed
1 can of coconut milk, unshaken

Scoop out the fatty top layer of coconut milk, and use this to fry the curry paste until fragrant.  Add in the beef, the remainder of the coconut milk, the cardamom, and enough water to cover the beef.  Bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer until tender.

When the beef is just about done, add in the onions, peanuts, and potatoes.  When the potatoes are cooked, add the tamarind, adjust the seasoning, and serve.

Smoked Gouda and Chorizo Mac and Cheese

This is my riff on the mac and cheese from Modernist Cuisine at Home, and one of my first forays into what is often called molecular gastronomy.  You'll probably have to get the sodium citrate online, but using it means this is actually less work than the typical roux based version while giving a more pronounced cheese flavor.  What the sodium citrate is doing here is preventing the protein in the cheese from aggregating, so it keeps the cheese sauce from breaking into fat and clumps of protein.  It also helps emulsify the milk with the cheese.  The basic idea can be used with other flavors, just change the type of cheese and change out the chorizo for some other flavoring.

1 1/8 C skim milk
11 g sodium citrate

1/4 lb smoked gouda, grated
1/4 lb white cheddar
1 inch piece of Spanish chorizo, in 1/8" cube, or crisped bacon
2 C (1/2 lb) dried pasta

Over medium low heat cook the chorizo to render the fat and crisp it up, remove from heat.
Cook pasta in salted water until al dente, drain and reserve.
Combine the milk with the sodium citrate and bring to a bare simmer.  Add the smoked gouda a handful at a time and whisk in or use an immersion blender.  Add in the reserved chorizo and the rendered fat, whisk to combine then adjust seasoning; you may also want to whisk in a little water if the cheese sauce is too thick.
Combine the cheese sauce and the pasta and serve.

Pad Prik King

1/2 lb pork loin, trimmed and sliced
4 T vegetable oil
1/2 lb Chinese long beans (or green beans, but those need to be cooked longer)
2-3 T fish sauce
1-2 T grated ginger
6-8 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
handful of Thai basil, torn (optional)
4 oz can of prik king (khing) curry paste

Heat the oil in a wok and cook the curry paste thoroughly, until very fragrant and somewhat dried out.  Add the meat, followed a minute or two later by the long beans (you may want to start the beans first if using green beans).  When the meat is about done add the fish sauce, lime leaves, and basil, then taste.  Add sugar or fish sauce if necessary.

Chimichurri Steak

An Argentinian preparation of steak with an herb vinaigrette.

1.5 lbs of flank steak
1 C olive oil
1/3 C sherry vinegar
2 T lemon juice
1 C Italian parsley leaves
1 t dried oregano
dash crushed red pepper
1/2 t black pepper
3 T garlic
2 T shallot
2 1/2 t salt

Mix together everything but the beef and run it through a food processor.  Measure out a cup of the sauce and reserve, put the rest of it into a container to marinate the beef.

Slice the beef across the grain into 1/4 inch slices and toss in the sauce.  Marinate for 2-4 hours. 

Heat a skillet with a little vegetable oil in it until smoking hot, then cook the beef in batches.  You want to get some sear on the beef while leaving the inside pink; serve with the reserved sauce.

Thai Peanut Sauce

Thai peanut sauce as you would eat with satay (recipe to come).

3/4 C coconut milk (this is actually one of the cases where I take a can of chaokoh and shake it to mix the cream and thinner water)
1 T nam prik pao
1 T red curry paste
1-2 T sugar (start with one, add more if needed)
1 T fish sauce
1 t white vinegar
3 T peanut butter
3 T peanuts, ground
Cayenne to taste


Heat the coconut milk with the curry paste and the nam prik pao until mixed and fragrant (the oil will also start to separate out).  Add the rest and mix.  At this point the sauce is likely to be too thick, so you'll want to thin it with some water, and adjust the seasoning as needed.  You want it rich, sweet, a little spicy, and a little tangy.