Deck's Chile and Fruit Sauce

When I started to get more into cooking, one of the things that I started incorporating was sauces.  It’s one of the things that I would always get when I went out to eat, but never prepared myself.  I think that they are a great accompaniment to any meal, and can bring another level of depth to the cuisine.  One of my favorite sauces is a fruit and chile combination that adds a little sweet and a little spice.  Now I’ll admit that this recipe is originally from Bobby Flay, but it’s one that I wanted to be sure I shared because I use it with many different things, and have many different variations.  It’s very simple, and doesn’t require a lot of steps, which makes it that much better (and is also why there are so few photos!).

Deck’s Chile and Fruit Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

• 3 cups Chicken Stock
• 2 chiles (Fresno or Jalapeño are my favorite) chopped.
• ½ cup rice wine vinegar
• ½ cup white wine vinegar
• ¾ cup granulated white sugar
• Fruit such as plums, cherries, Pomegranate, Passion Fruit, etc. (should be about 1½ - 2 cups worth; i.e. 2 plums). 

Step 1 – Combine the chicken stock and chiles in a medium sauce pan over high heat. If you want a spicier sauce, include more of the veins and seeds.  For a milder sauce, remove and discard these prior to adding to the stock.

Bring to a boil, and then reduce by half (down to 1½ cups).  This takes about 20 – 25 minutes.  Strain into a bowl when done. 

Step 2 – While the stock is reducing, combine the vinegars, sugar, and fruit in a medium sauce pan.  If you are using fruit with an edible skin (i.e. plums, cherries) leave the skin on.  Cook the mixture over medium heat until the sauce has thickened and the fruit is very soft.  Then using a stick blender or a regular blender, puree the mixture until smooth.  Strain the mixture into a clean sauce pan.

Step 3 – Add the reduced stock to the fruit mixture over medium-high heat stirring occasionally until a sauce consistency.  The mixture will reduce by almost half (any more and it becomes more of a jelly).  Keep an eye on the sauce as it is apt to boil over if you are not paying attention.

That’s it!  I think that this sauce in its variations goes well with pork and chicken.  My most recent variation was a Bing cherry and Fresno chile variety that I served over pork chops, and later over braised short ribs.  It was excellent!

Braised Short Ribs - Learning another new technique

When I went to Whole Foods the other day to go grocery shopping, I didn't enter with a plan for a change. Instead I simply looked around to see if I could see something that would be interesting to make.  As I was checking out the meat counter, I noticed beef short ribs.  Having never actually made short ribs myself, and never having attempted to braise anything, it seemed like something worth trying (especially since I could experiment on myself).  So, I had them wrap up a pound and a half of spare ribs (basically 4 ribs), and headed home to pull out the cookbooks.

Of the 5 cookbooks that I own, two had recipes for braised short ribs; Bobby Flay and Michael Symon.  Looking at the recipes I quickly realized that I really only had ingredients to try and pull of the Bobby Flay version, so that's the one I decided to do.  I actually got started last night by adding salt and pepper to the meat to allow it to be more receptive to the flavors that I would be trying to incorporate and infuse.

After a long day at the office, I headed home to begin cooking.  It was at this point that I wondered to myself why I thought it would be a good idea to try braising short ribs knowing that the earliest I would be getting home is 6, and at a minimum it would take 3 hours to get the ribs to a nice and tender state (unless I had a pressure cooker of course...).  But, since I had already proceeded to apply the salt and pepper, I needed to make sure I cooked them.  So, I just dove in and decided that I would simply find myself a snack at some point in the evening.  Besides, after eating out for the past few nights, I needed a change and a home-cooked meal, even if my Urbanspoon ranking might suffer a little.

I started by putting together a simple spice rub while the oil heated.  It called for chile powder, cinnamon and black pepper.  Then I applied the rub to the ribs prior to putting it in the oil to brown.  At this point, I ended up making a couple mistakes.  The first was that I didn't shake the excess rub off so it fell into the oil.  This leads to burning, and a flavor that is not that desirable.  The second was that I had not pre-chopped my veggies that I would need, so I was trying to do that, and ended up cooking the ribs a bit past golden brown.  But, I pulled them out, and forged on ahead, where actually the rest is quite simple.  I added some onion, garlic, carrot and celery to a little bit of oil remaining in the pot.  I also decided to throw in a jalepeno for a little flavor (kinda cooked this a little long too).  Then I added the red wine and went to add the chicken stock when much to my shock, I realized I had none in the house.  This is quite the rare occurrence lately, but it happened just when I needed about 4 cups.  So, I improvised.  I added an additional two cups of wine and two cups of water.  I brought this to a simmer, added the ribs and put it in the oven at 275 (the Michael Symon recipe called for 225, and Bobby Flay's was 325, so I compromised).

At this point, I just went about my evening; going for a run, getting some work done, picking up the house.  All told, I left the ribs in the braising liquid for almost 3 hours.  Finally, I had to pull them out and eat.  I decided to opt out of the part of the recipe that called for a sauce to be made out of the braising liquid, put them on my plate, and dug in.  The first thing I noticed was that they were incredibly tender, even though they probably could have used another half hour or so.  I didn't need a knife to get to some bite-sized pieces.  The flavor though was a little weak.  Part of that owes to the spice rub not really being applied liberally and worked into the meat, and part of it was just weak ingredients.  The chile powder was just the kind you get with a spice rack and the cinnamon was not freshly ground.  But, the meat was very tender, and very moist, so I was quite pleased with that.

In the end, I had a good dinner, albeit awful late at night.  And, I learned a few things, mistakes I can correct for the next time such as working the rub into the meat, and removing the excess to prevent burning.  I also came up with a few other things to try like using Coca-Cola as the primary braising liquid, or doing the whole thing is a sweeter red wine.  Maybe mixing up the rub to have some different, more defined flavors.  Or I could be really crazy and make sure that I have the ingredients that the recipe calls for and actually make it the way the chef intended.  All I know is that now that I have a general understanding of braising, I'm going to be experimenting with that cooking style more often; just maybe not during the week.

Hot Tamale! - A new southwest dish and flavor

Today I decided to take advantage of the rainy weather to spend the day inside cooking.  With an entire day to cook, I figured there were a lot of different things that I could try, which meant there were a lot of things to write about.  Everything from sauces, to vegetables to actually cooking lamb which I don't do often.  But, I decided instead to write about the starch item of our dinner because it was more interesting.  Today, I attempted to make tamales!

When I had that first meal at Mesa Grill, I found the tamale just as interesting and delicious as the pork itself.  It was one of the southwest flavors that was brand new to me.  Then when I had the opportunity to dine at Frontera Grill, I again had a tamale, and again was blown away.  Now, I figured it was time to give it a try myself.  So, I pulled out the Mesa Grill cookbook and flipped to the tamale section.  Out of the various options available, I thought I would go with the sweet potato tamales with pecan butter.  

Turns out that tamales are pretty labor intensive and time consuming.  Just looking at the recipe I realized that it would take a minimum of 3 hours.  For starters, you have to take corn husks clean them and soak for at least two hours.  Then there is the roasting of the sweet potato and plantains, two ingredients that I don't work with a lot.  The sweet potato roasts for about an hour, and you throw the plantain in for the last fifteen minutes.  Then throw the sweet potato, plantain, some maple syrup, cinnamon, butter and cream in a food processor (sounds delicious already doesn't it)?  I could stop here, put the puree into a pan, cook it, and have incredibly delicious sweet potatoes...in fact, I might have to break this out for Thanksgiving.  

But, it keeps going.  After creating the puree, you put it in a blender with corn, onion, more maple syrup, and more cinnamon, and then blend until it is nice a smooth.  Then you add a bit of corn meal and create a nice, sweet potato flavored masa.  Up to this point, everything has actually been pretty easy.  A lot of roasting, blending and pureeing.  Now, the tamale prep gets a little tricky.  According to the recipe, I'm supposed to put a bunch of the tamale mixture into two corn husks that are overlapping.  Then you fold the tamales over and tie the ends.  Sounds easy, right?  It wasn't.  The first time I tried, I tied them, and then went to pick it up, and they slid apart spilling the filling.  And it's not like I can start over because the husks have to soak for over 2 hours.  So I cleaned everything up and tried again, trying to make sure that when I tied the tamales, they wouldn't slide apart.  It took about a half dozen tries and about 15 minutes, I managed to get three tamales pseudo-tied.  

After that, it's a matter of cooking them.  You put them in a steamer, and steam for over an hour.  In theory they stay together and then you take them out and open them.  In actuality, at about an hour, they had kind of opened themselves, and weren't fully cooked, so I left them on longer while I finished everything else.  The one problem is that I forgot to check the water.  I started to notice a faint burning smell and realized that there was no water left in the pot.  Note to readers, when steaming something, especially for a longer period of time, be sure to check the water level every now and then so you don't burn the bottom of the pot.

Anyway, I pulled the tamales out, added a little bit of the pecan butter that I had made earlier in the day, and served them with lamb chops with an orange/passion fruit sauce, chicken (I didn't but enough lamb...) and a roasted asparagus.  The flavor profiles were a little all over the place reaching from Italian vegetables to a Southwestern tamale, to a protein with a flavor that was pretty unique. But, in a way it all worked and came together as a delicious.  The flavor of the tamales was quite excellent.  They stayed moist, thanks to cooking by steaming.  And, I got the ok to try them again.

This was a fun dish because it allowed me to cook something that I've never done before, and present a flavor that I hadn't done before.  It was a lot of work, and there were a few mistakes along the way, but all in all, isn't that what learning to cook is all about.  Next time I'm going to figure out the trick to wrapping tamales.  I think I'll have to break out the Rick Bayless cookbook because I seem to remember an instructional guide...

A Grocery Shopping Routine

When I'm not out on the ski slopes, or traveling for work, Sundays are my lazy days at home.  This usually consists of sleeping in, having a cup (ok, a pot) of coffee and grocery shopping!  Since today was one of those Sundays, I figured it was the perfect topic for a blog post.

The grocery shopping process has started to take on a little bit of a ritual for me.  In the morning, I start planning out the menu for the week.  I grab my four cookbooks and a cup of coffee and sit down on the couch.  My current collection consists of 2 Bobby Flay, 1 Rick Bayless, and 1 Michael Chiarello cookbooks.  It's a little limited at this point, but it's a nice variety that is helping me learn a little bit more about flavors and techniques.

Before I can start planning, I have to figure out what the weekly schedule looks like for us.  Some nights we have sports or meetings or happy hours that can alter dinner decisions.  Once I get that figured out, I start flipping through the cookbooks.  I usually like to pick one or two things that are completely new that I haven't tried before, and see what ingredients are needed.  Then I jot down a few of the other things I need to make sure I remember, and head to Whole Foods.

Once I get to Whole Foods, I start in the produce section.  I get fruit, typically oranges and pineapples, vegetables, and herbs.  I then look for some of the new ingredients based on the recipes.  This is how I've discovered tomatillos, a variety of peppers outside the bell family, and fresh herbs.  After a couple more laps, just to see what else is around (found passion fruit tonight!!), I head over to the meat section.  This is where I spend the most time.  I start by looking at the fresh fish, then to the pre-seasoned meats, just to get some ideas, and then work my way down the counter from beef to pork to poultry.  In my mind, I'm trying to balance out the proteins, as I don't like to serve the same thing two nights in a row.  Finally, I'll step up to the counter and make my decision.  Tonight I opted for halibut, lamb chops, bone-in/skin-on chicken and a beef rib roast for slow-cooking.  And of course some bacon.

From there, I head up and down each aisle.  There are definitely some things that I always get like milk, yogurt and bread.  Beyond that, I'm taking in the different things, trying to figure out what would be good to have on hand, what would be good to try, and what I need for lunch for the week assuming I'm not going to have leftovers to take with me.

All told, I usually spend anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half in the store.  When I walk out, I only have three or four bags of food, but it is enough to last the two of us a week, and maintain as much fresh food as possible (I end up freezing a few meats for later in the week, but that's all).  Before going home, I will stop by Safeway just to pick up a couple things I can't get at Whole Foods, namely Coke Zero.

All that is left at this point is to put everything away and get to work on a delicious dinner from all of the great ingredients.  Tonight that was a pan-seared pork chop, green chile rice and a simple spinach salad.  It turned out very good, thanks in part to the wonderful ingredients I picked up today.

From Dislike to Like; Opening my eyes to Avocado

In the previous post, I wrote a restaurant review on one of my favorite restaurants. These type of reviews will definitely be a staple of this blog as they are fun and relatively easy to write. The thing is, when I'm not traveling, I don't go out to eat that often, I cook. And it's the stories of my cooking adventures, learning new techniques, experimenting with flavors, that I think will really make this into an interesting and fun blog about my "food journey". But, before diving into the first of this type of post, I have to give thanks where thanks is due. This wouldn't be nearly as interesting and fun if it wasn't for my soon-to-be-wife Jennifer, and her willingness to be the primary taste tester for whatever I end up creating. So far it has been mostly good which I suppose meakes it a little easier to tolerate.

Yesterday actually featured a lot of new and different things (as tends to happen when I have all day to cook).  I decided to do fajitas which up until this point usually consisted of sauteing some peppers and onions, adding chicken and a few pre-packaged spices, and serving on a tortilla with cheese and sour cream.  Good, but not super exciting, and definitely ripe for experimentation.  In the end I did something different with nearly every component, except the cheese (who messes with cheese?), but it was using an ingredient that I am not particularly fond of and never cook with that actually ended up being my biggest success.

If Jennifer has one gripe about my cooking (other than sometimes experimenting too much), it's that she doesn't get things that she likes because I don't like them, and therefore don't cook them.  The top 3 on her list; Avocado, Mushroom, Tofu.  So, feeling adventurous, I decided that this was as good a time as any to experiment with Avocado.   And for those of you going "WTF, who doesn't like avocado?", the answer was "This guy".  There has always been something about the texture that never worked for me, and the flavor was just not that appealing.  But, in the spirit of trying new things, I thought I might as well give it a try.

Previously, while watching Food Network, I remember Bobby Flay doing an Avocado Crema (yes, I like and watch other chefs, leave me alone...).  By smoothing it out into more of a sour cream texture, I thought it might be more palatable to me.  So, I took an avocado and added some lime, honey cilantro, a dash of oil and vinegar, and a little bit of water, many of the primary ingredients of a good guacamole, and blended it right up.  I debated adding a bit of sour cream, but thought I could always go back and mix that in later if I wanted to.  After a couple minutes I pulled the lid off for the moment of truth.  I dipped in the spoon, took a bite, and was pleasantly surprised.  I couldn't believe that what I had just tasted.  It was this nice, sweet, almost silky like Yoplait yogurt texture.  I decided to forgo the sour cream and simply serve it as is.  I can definitely see adding some chopped red onion and tomato to the crema and making a creamy, slightly sweet guacamole.  This may not be something for the guacamole purists, but I know it is something I would sit down and eat with a big bag of blue corn chips.

Being able to take something that I was never a huge fan of in avocado, and turning it into something that I enjoy to eat is the essence of what I love about cooking, and also why this made a great first post.  The avocado crema was an absolute success.  The pickled green and red roasted peppers on the other hand still have a little work, but that's a story for another time.

If you are interested in the recipe I used, feel free to send me an e-mail.  It should be noted that the base recipe is not mine, though I did adjust some ingredients (namely honey and cilantro) to my liking.  I'm still at the point of adapting existing recipes, or trying different tangents as opposed to creating from scratch.  All in due time though.

Restaurant Review: Deck on The Mesa Grill, Las Vegas

For my first restaurant review, it only seemed natural to go back to the place where it all started for me, The Mesa Grill by Bobby Flay at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.  The first time I went there was about a year and a half ago.  I was in Las Vegas for work, attending a small conference.  Not really wanting to venture out of the hotel as I had just wrapped up a day at the show and still had a bit of work to do that evening, I decided to just head down to one of the casino restaurants.  The Mesa Grill was close to my elevators, and looked interesting, so I headed in.  I recognized the chef from a Food Network show that I had seen as a barbeque guy, but really didn't know anything beyond that.

When I walked in, I headed to the bar.  I figured I was dining by myself, no need to get a table.  I ordered myself a beer, and asked for a dinner menu.  While looking over the menu, trying to find an entree that would allow me to stay close to my dinner per diem, I reached out and grabbed one of the bread sticks sitting up there.  As I took that first bite, the flavor just exploded in my mouth.  This was no ordinary breadstick.  Firm on the outside, but soft on the inside, with a hint of spice, and a dash of cornmeal.  I quickly polished that off and reached for another.

Now, with my taste buds alive, I quickly made a decision on the menu; the New Mexican Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Bourbon-Ancho Sauce.  When I asked how I'd like it prepared, I hesitated.  No one had asked me that on pork before.  The bartender, noticing my slight bit of confusion, said that the chef recommends medium.  So, I went with it.

About 15 minutes (and probably a half dozen breadsticks) later, I saw the plate making its way toward me.  At this point, I was almost giddy with anticipation.  The first thing I noticed was the aroma, a spice with a hint of sweet.  I cut into the first piece of tenderloin and took a bite.  Instantly, I knew this was like nothing I had tasted before.  The pork was so juicy, the spice blends just right, and the sauce just pulled it all together.  I quickly devoured the first piece of tenderloin before noticing that there was a tamale on my plate.  Thinking back, I think it was one of the sage butter tamales.  It tasted like a perfect piece of cornbread, but had this just creamy, melt in your mouth texture that was unlike any tamale I had ever eaten before.

When I finished every last bite on my plate, cleaned up the sauce, and had one last breadstick, I felt like I was in food heaven.  Now don't get me wrong.  It's not like this is the first time I'd ever been to a nice restaurant and had delicious food.  But for some reason, it was this experience that really seemed to bring everything together for me.  Food and flavor took on a new meaning.  I knew that when I walked out of there, I wanted to start trying new things, creating sauces to accompany my food, exploring different cooking techniques.  Why it was Mesa Grill, I couldn't tell you.  Maybe because the flavors were uniquely different and appealed to me.   Maybe because it took things that seemed so basic, and transformed them to something so much more.

The memory was so great that I had to revisit during my trip to Las Vegas last week.  This time, I dragged my friends with me.  I was a little worried because I had set such a high expectation in my mind, and in theirs as well.  Could Mesa Grill deliver the goods again?  In a word, Absolutely!  I recommend the pork to Nick, and ordered the Lamb Porterhouse for myself.  This time when I asked how I wanted it prepared, I remembered to ask, "How does the chef recommend?"  Again, I was blown away.  I've never had lamb cooked so perfectly, and flavored so wonderfully, with that perfect blend of spice with just a little sweet.  I don't know any other way to describe it.  But, the biggest telling point was when my friend Cliff took his first bite.  Before he had even finished chewing he said it was probably the best lamb chop he had ever eaten.  High praise for someone that has spent his entire life on a sheep ranch in Wyoming.

I know that this post has gone on for awhile, but, I think that the back story is important, and the Mesa Grill deserves it.  It opened my eyes, and my palette, to food in a different way, both in my own cooking, and when I go out to restaurants.  If you ever find yourself in Las Vegas, there are many fantastic places to eat (and I know that there will be more chronicled in this blog), but the Mesa Grill is one place that is absolutely worth visiting.  The food is superb, and is very reasonably priced ($25-$40/entree).  My only regret from that first trip is that I didn't eat there every single night.

A newfound passion...

About five and a half years ago, I met this girl.  Like any guy, I wanted to find any way to talk to her, and any way to impress her.  So, for one of our first dates I decided to cook her dinner.  It was a mess.  We ended up eating slightly undercooked steaks and potatoes in the dark.  But that date spawned something.  Maybe it was my desire to keep trying to impress her with my cooking prowess.  Maybe it was my understanding that she was never going to be the cook in this relationship.  Whatever it was, I kept trying new things, and slowly improving what I was doing.  I'm not sure what the tipping point was exactly (though I'm pretty sure it was right around the time I ate my first meal at a Bobby Flay restaurant), but in the past year, a new passion has taken hold.  So, like any 20 something in this high-tech, inter-connected world, I'm not just exploring it, I'm blogging about it.

Now, I'm not about to embark on something like the Julie and Julia (or whatever the title was) movie where I work my way through a cookbook.  And I'm not about to drop everything to go to culinary school and open a restaurant.  It's not about me becoming a great chef.  It's simply about me enjoying food; whether it be cooking it myself, enjoying the labors of others, or learning about new things in general.

So, that brings me to my point.  I've developed a new appreciation for food.  I've gone from the type of guy that prided himself on being able to purchase a month's worth of groceries for $100 to a guy that will spend twenty minutes just staring into the meat section at Whole Foods before selecting just what I want.  I went from having two pots and one pan to watching Iron Chef and adding things to my wedding registry because I was so intrigued by what they were doing (though I had to draw the line at vacuum sealer and imersion circulator).  I watch shows like Top Chef and Iron Chef America to get some ideas as much as for pure entertainment.  I went from Mac and Cheese to Roasted Red Pepper Risotto with Applewood Smoked Bacon and Orange Glazed Prawns.

But, it's not just about the cooking.  It's about the eating too.  I am already anticipating blog posts about restaurants that I've been too (guaranteed that CraftSteak and Mesa Grill are coming up).  I've actually created a spreadsheet of different restaurants in different cities that I want to try, given the opportunity of making it to the city through travel.  

I know I'm no different than many amateur chefs out there.  In fact, there are many that have far more talent that I do.  But, it is something that I absolutely enjoy, and I'm hoping that a few of you that read this will enjoy it as well.  And who knows, maybe as my skills continue to develop, one of these days I'll be able to share some of my creations with you.

As the French would say, Bon Appetit!