Oui, Chef - Part 51

Black Bean Soup with Lime-Cilantro Cream

March 16, 2010 By Steve Dunn 4 Comments

Inspired by my friend Devaki at “Weave a Thousand Flavors” who recently posted about Mark Miller’s Black Bean Soup, I decided to dust off this old favorite of mine to cook a few weekends ago. Active time in cooking this dish is quite low, but you must plan in advance because the black beans require soaking overnight before cooking, and about 2 hours to cook once in the pot. I like using chorizo or andouille sausages in this soup as I feel they are more in keeping with the southwest flavors here, but it would also be delicious with hot italians, some merguez (spicy lamb), or even a more delicate duck sausage if you have access to any.

I like this soup a little on the “creamy” side, so just before service, I give it a quick blast with a stick blender to break up some of the beans, if you prefer a “cleaner” soup, you can certainly skip this step. Whatever you do, don’t skip the dollop of the lime-cilantro sour cream on top, it makes all the difference. If you are counting fat grams and calories, substitute some greek style yogurt for the sour cream, but don’t eliminate the garnish entirely, the brightness of the cilantro and citrus really elevates the dish.

Muppet’s Mint-Chip-Brownie Ice Cream

March 12, 2010 By Steve Dunn 9 Comments

As is clear from the title of this post, our young friend Muppet has been back in the kitchen and busy with me. In fact, the entire idea of this post was hers, and she had her hands in every aspect of the creation of this dish. Those of you that remember Muppet from prior posts ( Killer KA Brownies and M Cookies ) will note that she is staying true to form here, rising above the din of the “Oui, Chef” kitchen to advocate for MORE CHOCOLATE in her diet, thank you very much.

As with all posts in which Muppet plays a starring role, this one too has a little story associated with it. Would you like to hear the story? Or as one of my favorite chefs at LCB used to say before launching into a colorful tale of his early days in the kitchen, “Voulez-vous une petite histoire?”

Beef Bourguignon

March 9, 2010 By Steve Dunn 19 Comments

This is a dish that I’ve been making for years, in fact, it is one of the first recipes I learned when I started to get into cooking, and certainly played a part in drawing me to want to study French cuisine more seriously. It has become a staple of our winter recipe rotation, and each year when we make it we always make a double batch (sometimes a triple) so that we have plenty to freeze, and I would encourage you to do the same.

Few things in life give me greater joy than to see the bottom pull-out drawer of our freezer packed with nice, flat vacuum-sealed bags of this bourguignon, some chili, a bolognese, and a variety of soups. I love knowing that a delicious meal is ours for the making with nothing more than reheating required, or can be tossed into a cooler and brought north to feed us after a long day on the slopes. All this joy can be yours too with hardly any additional work on your part. If you have the freezer space, you’d be crazy not to double this recipe and put aside some for a rainy (or snowy) day.

Chewy Fruit and Nut Bars

March 5, 2010 By Steve Dunn 23 Comments

The internet is an amazing thing isn’t it? What with its millions upon millions of recipes to tempt and entice. I have to fight the urge daily to not spend half my day cruising the web looking for new recipes to incorporate into our repertoire here in the Oui, Chef kitchen. I love seeing what others, both professional chefs and home cooks are cooking, but if I’m not careful, I can lose hours bouncing from one site to the next, exploring the work of those I’ve come to trust to do GREAT food. To be honest, even while exercising restraint, I can accumulate 20 recipes during one of these reconnaissance sessions. Some, I’ll cook with the kids eventually, many I’ll file away and likely never get to, but every now and again, I come across a recipe that looks so perfect, that I find myself reorganizing our cooking schedule to make room for my new discovery right away.

This is one of those recipes.

Lamb and Fennel Bolognese

March 2, 2010 By Steve Dunn 9 Comments

Here is another dish from one of my favorite cookbooks, Cooking with Shelburne Farms: Food and Stories from Vermont (Shelburne Farms Books) , written by my friend Melissa Pasanen, and the Inn’s ex-chef, Rick Gencarelli. I can’t say enough good things about this dish, I could eat it every night. It’s funny, because by appearance it is clearly a bolognese, and texturally it is exactly what you’d expect from this classic Italian dish, but give it a quick taste and you’ll find that this is a ragu unlike any you have ever had before.

Minted Beets with Cumin, Lemon and Pistachios

February 26, 2010 By Steve Dunn 4 Comments

As a child, there were very few vegetables that I really liked at all. In fact, the list was dismally short, and included just peas and beets….it’s a miracle I lived past the age of ten on such a “vegetables prohibited” diet. What do these two lovelies have in common you might ask? Certainly not their size or color, nor their botanical specifics, the green pea being technically a seed, the beet a root vegetable. What they do have in common is their relatively high concentration of natural sugars that make them among the sweetest “vegetables” around, and a certain hit with almost all kids. Nature’s candy, I like to call them.

This dish is layered with great flavors, none of which are so strong to offend the average kidlet, and yet are sophisticated enough to appeal to the stuffiest gourmand. The whole shebang can quite easily be prepared by most kids all by themselves. Roasting the beets does take a bit of time, so plan accordingly, but the balance of the dish can be prepped in just a few minutes.

Holy Scrap!

February 24, 2010 By Steve Dunn 19 Comments

Let me start with a great big THANK YOU to the lovely Devaki, author of the terrific food blog "Weave a Thousand Flavors" for tagging me for this, the much coveted "Honest Scrap" award. For those of you in the dark as to the significance of the Honest Scrap (as indeed I was just a few short hours ago), it is an award passed among fellow bloggers in recognition of brilliant or inspiring blog design and content (I'm not entirely convinced that Devaki was clear on this requirement before passing the award along to me and my little band of kitchen slaves…..oh well, it's our now….YIPPEE!).

As there is no such thing as a free lunch, there are a few responsibilities that convey with this award, namely I must:

1. Say Thank You and give a link to the presenter of the award (check….see above)

2. Share "10 Honest Things" about myself (here is where the Holy Scrap! sentiment comes into play)

3. Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me (given how many great blogs I regularly enjoy, this shouldn't be too hard)

4. Tell those 7 people that they have been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines.

Chocolate "Earthquake" Cookies

February 19, 2010 By Steve Dunn 24 Comments

This post represents the start of a little experiment here at “Oui, Chef” that we’d love for you to join in.

Here’s the deal.

My wife and I bought a little bag of decadent chocolate treats at a terrific local bakery a few weeks back, and were so enamored with our find, that we immediately began a quest to figure out how to reproduce the goodies at home. Our first attempt, while tasty, was not even a poor, abused step-child of the yum we were trying to replicate. This, our second iteration, is much closer, though we still have a few issues to correct. The point of our experiment, is that we will continue to refine this recipe over time, hopefully with some input from you all, and report back regularly with our progress. With any luck, we’ll develop a clone of these sinfully delicious treats soon, and all get to share in their glory.

Fennel, Stilton and Walnut Smashed Potatoes

February 15, 2010 By Steve Dunn 11 Comments

To be honest our favorite mashed potatoes are Joel Robuchon’s famous pommes puree, silky smooth and very rich in butter. They are a little slice of heaven on earth, but they are a bit of work, what with having to pass them multiple times through a tamis, and the lengthy process of whisking in the butter and milk. They are also a very refined spud dish, and to me, feel most at home as an accompaniment to an elegant meal like a flaky fish filet, some seared scallops, or as Robuchon often serves them, with tiny, meltingly tender lamb rib chops.

On an evening when you are serving something a little less refined, like a big old rib-eye, or some beef or pork ribs, why not swing way over to the other end of things, and make a smashed potato with a more rustic texture, and maybe even a little crunch. This dish is an amalgam of some of our favorite flavors, and is perfect with roast chicken, a nice thick steak, or even a braised lamb shank. Smash it all together in a big pot just before serving for a dish quite unlike any other mashed potatoes you’ve ever had. This smash was inspired by some fabulously chunky potatoes I had at “Olives” once.

We like the stilton mixed into the potatoes so that it melts a little, spreading its pungent, salty tang throughout the dish. If some in your gang don’t care for blue cheese, feel free to pass it on the side, allowing individuals to sprinkle it over the finished dish if they wish.

Fennel, Stilton and Walnut Smashed Potatoes

by: Steve Dunn

yield:

Cooking Mode Print Recipe

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds red skinned or yukon gold potatoes
1 cup roughly chopped walnuts, toasted
1 bulb fennel, roasted
1 cup creme fraiche
4 ounces stilton cheese, crumbled
3 tablespoons butter
1 bunch chives, finely minced for garnish
kosher salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 425℉ .
Wash, core and roughly chop the bulb of fennel. Toss into a bowl with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour onto a baking sheet and place into the oven. Roast for 20-25 minutes, until the fennel is nicely caramelized and has softened. Remove from the oven and reserve.
Cook the potatoes in their jackets in boiling, salted water until cooked through. Drain them, then return them to the pan and smash them while heating over a low flame to help remove some residual moisture.
With the potatoes still on low heat, add the butter and stir to incorporate, then add the creme fraiche, fennel, toasted walnuts, and season with salt and pepper.
Place in a warmed bowl, top with crumbled stilton and chives, and serve.

A Frenchman’s Chili?

February 11, 2010 By Steve Dunn 14 Comments

By the time they finish reading this post, I expect that a few of my old friends from Houston will be packing a box of shells, securing rifles in their gun-racks, and starting the long journey north to have a word with me. They will undoubtedly think that I have lost all my marbles, and am in desperate need of a little “Come to Jesus” parley (that’s more or less an intervention for those of us that speak plain English). Having just read the words “Frenchman” and “Chili” in the same phrase will have left them just this side of insanity, and I suspect that once they’ve recovered from their apoplexia, they’ll be feelin’ the need to set me straight. If you never hear from me again, then you’ll know they found me.

Why, you must be asking, am I willing to take such a risk by sharing this recipe? Because the Frenchman I am referring to is Chef Daniel Boulud, and his chili is the best I’ve ever had!

I know…I know, I am as surprised as the rest of you (well, maybe not you Texans), but the texture, depth of flavor, and spice of this chili will make a believer out of you in short order. Yes, this king of French cuisine does know a thing or two about chili, and I’d wager that this thoughtful and simple recipe will have you singing “La Marseillaise” every time you have a bowl.

Our kids love this dish as well, and there is plenty of chopping, mixing and measuring to keep yours busy in the kitchen with you while you’re making it. If any of you are sensitive to spice you’ll want to scale back on the chili powder a bit. This is not a hell-fire hot chili, but it does pack a punch, as any good chili should.

Smoky Beef Chili:

by: adapted from: Braise: A Journey Through International Cuisine by Daniel Boulud and Melissa Clark

notes: The recipe is best when using Boulud's homemade chili powder (recipe below), but it also delicious if you use freshly bought pre-made powder. I recently made it with store bought powder (1/2 ancho chili powder, 1/2 plain chili powder) and it was terrific!

yield:

Cooking Mode Print Recipe

Ingredients

2 limes
2 tablespoons masa harina (fine corn meal)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 pounds beef chuck roast: 2½ pounds cut into ½-inch cubes; 1½ pounds ground (ask your butcher to do this) finely chopped
¼ pound slab bacon, cut into large chunks
1 large onion, peeled and cut into large cubes
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried regular oregano or Mexican oregano
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt
¼ cup homemade chili powder *
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
5 large tomatoes, roughly chopped (or 1- 28 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes, roughly chopped with juices)
1 bay leaf
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Homemade Chili Powder:

4 dried ancho chili peppers
4 dried pasilla chili peppers
4 dried guajillo chili peppers
2 dried chilies de árbol
2 dried pequin chili peppers
1 small dried habanero chili pepper

Instructions

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F.
Grate the zest of the limes, then juice both limes. In a large bowl, combine 3 cups water, the masa harina, and the lime zest and juice.
Heat the olive oil in a medium cast-iron pot over high heat. Add the beef cubes and ground beef and sear until golden brown on all sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer the beef to a plate and wipe the inside of the pot clean with paper towels.
Lower the temperature to medium-high. Add the bacon to the pot and cook until it renders its fat, about 5 minutes. Add the onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, and salt and cook until the onions are softened, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the chili powder, stir to combine, and cook for 1 to 2 more minutes. Stir in the vinegar and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a simmer, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Return the beef cubes and ground meat to the pot and add the tomatoes, bay leaf, and masa harina mixture. Bring to a simmer.
Cover the pot and transfer it to the oven to braise for 2 hours, stirring once or twice. Sprinkle with the cilantro leaves right before serving.

Homemade chilli powder:

In a dry skillet over medium heat peppers on all sides for 5 to 7 minutes, making sure that they are lightly toasted, but not burned. Transfer them to a plate to cool. Remove and discard the seeds from the peppers. Blend the peppers in a spice grinder to a fine powder.

Habanero Chili on Foodista Habanero Chili