Sous Vide Duck Breast inpired by AD HOC at home

AD HOC inspired Sous Vide Duck Breast with roasted root vegetables (from someone else's garden).

AD HOC inspired Duck Breast Sous Vide

Happy 1st year anniversary to my love!  Rather than going out for a fancy dinner on our 1st year marriage anniversary, I decided to try and cook an amazing meal for Ying.  My brother bought me a $400 Sous 

Vide Supreme machine and  I thought this occasion would be the perfect time to break it in and try to make that perfect medium rare duck breast with crunchy skin you dream about from fancy restaurants.  Along with a sous vide duck breast, I roasted some yellow beets and brussel sprouts picked from someone else's garden, inspired by Thomas Keller's AD HOC at Home cookbook  =) .  The meal was paired with salad made of fresh living greens, sweet orange slices and pickled onions (to take off the raw onion bite).  This was all washed down with a bottle of wine and a wonderful evening on our patio!

How did it taste?  The duck was perfectly medium rare throughout, and bursting with duck juice. The subtle marinade of orange zest and herbs on the duck provided depth and acidity to the duck while the crunchy skin gave each duck slice a multi textural explosion.  The root vegetables provided a nice roasted crunch with some subtle sweetness that complimented the duck quite well. TTT approved!

How to Sous Vide a duck breast -

1. Criss cross duck skin and season high duck breast with salt, pepper, orange zest, nutmeg, thyme,  alsamic vinegar, and vinegar.  Get a high quality duck breast from your local butcher and specialty shop.  We got a duck breast from Grimaud Farms.  
2. After seasoning let sit and rest for a few hours to soak in marinade.  Try to pat dry any excess moisture and vacuum seal duck breast. Sous vide in Sous Vide Supreme machine set at 57°C / 135°F depending on when you are ready to sear!  Sous vide for 45 minutes to 3 hours to get the perfect medium rare!

3. 

   Giraud Farms Duck Breast

   Take out of the water bath and let sit for 10 minutes while preheating a cast iron skillet.  Take out of the vacuum seal, pat dry and re-season with a pinch bit of sea salt and pepper.
4. Add a splash of high temp searing oil (grapeseed, canola) to the cast iron skillet and wait until the oil starts to smoke.  
5. Now throw that duck breast skin side down onto the skiller and hear that sizzle, feel that sear, and start to salivate for some crunchy duck skin!!!   (mmmmmm getting hungry yet?)  it only takes one minute to sear on that skin side down and just turn over and kiss the meat side on the pan for a few seconds.  
6. Let sit and and rest on a cutting board while staring at your beautiful peace of duck.  Wait don't cut it yet!  Let it sit for 3-5 minutes to let the juices back in.  Then slice....

Sous Vide Supreme Machine

Vacuum Sealed Duck Breast

Cast Iron Seared Duck Breast

Living Greens Salad

Sliced Sous Vide Duck Breast (Sliced too early! look at that love)

Happy 1 year Anniversary!

Prime New York Steak Dinner done right

Cast Iron Seared Prime New York Steak

Friday night steak dinners are always enjoyable if you can produce delicious food without slaving over the stove all day; This meal can be completed in about thirty minutes. First we started off with a kale salad then we had cast iron seared prime new York steak.  Kale salad was made from dinosaur kale, parm chips, cherry tomatoes, and lemon vinaigrette. This salad is easy to make, balanced, extremely healthy, and a fresh change.  The parm chips are key to help give  a subtle nuttiness and saltiness to balance out some of the bitterness from the kale salad.

Instructions -
Kale Salad

Derib one bunch of kale leaves from the stems then julienne the leaves.  Save the stems for stir fry later on.
Parm chips - grab three finger pinch of shaved parm and put onto foil.  Repeat 8 times.  Bake at 375 for 5 minutes or until crispy but not burned. Cut cherry tomatoes in half. Emulsify 1/2 a lemon with a 1/4 cup of good evoo, salt and pepper to taste, and 1 minced garlic Clove. Toss and serve!  The kale will hold up so you can toss ahead of time and it will still taste delicious.

Basting Time

Dinner Table

Instructions

Prime 1/2 inch cut New York Steak with a simple cast iron sear.

Cast iron on high heat. Wait until slightly smoking. Add small pad of butter.Season steak liberally with large sea salt, black pepper, granulated garlic.  Sear 4 minutes, flip and sear the other side for 4 minutes, and baste with juices.  Set aside and let it rest for 5 minuted under foil to retain the juices.  Slice at diagonal in 1/4 inch slices against the grain.  Top with some extra evoo and some big sea salt.  Pair this thirty minute meal with a awesome Napa cab and your guests will be impressed.  TTT approved!

Finished Product

New Years Breakfast Crostini Trio

Ying made me a delicious breakfast to start off the year right.

The dish consisted of 3 separate crostini's along with a kale salad.

1. The first was a chicken apple sausage with melted gruyere and whole grain mustard.
2.  The second was a Mexican inspired crostini with an avocado mousse and farm fresh tomato and onions that were soaked in water to take off the bite and finished off with some smoked paprika/ salt and pepper to taste.
3. kale salad topped with an overeasy egg.

Avocado mousse - whipped with a blender and a squeeze of lime juice until creamy. It was then flavored with chopped jalapenos and salt and pepper and blended in. The ratio is half a lime to 1 avocado.
FYI be careful when whipping avocado with open top as someone might just make a mistake and get avocado over the entire kitchen including the walls, the floor, the refrigerator, her cheeks and my face, and the stove. It sucked fyi.

Kale salad - Organic baby kale from Costco. Dressing was made from lime juice olive oil salt and pepper to taste and half a clove of minced garlic.

It was delicious and a great way to start off the year. TTT approved.

Giant green onions and pork belly

What to do when you have uncured pork belly and giant green onions from the Korean market?

Stir fry that belly!

2 thinly sliced Shallots
Half a stalk of giant green onions or leeks
6 slices uncured pork belly cut into three
2 handfuls Bean sprouts
Garlic and ginger

Most importantly make sure you use high temp oil to get the right sear and wok hay into your food.  Sear aromatics and get bacon seared.  Add in greens and sear to get some light char.  Finish with bean sprouts and soy sauce/oyster sauce.

how did it taste?  The pork was crispy, the leaks were melted into the pork fat, and the bean sprouts were crispy adding a nice textural contrast.

TTT approved

A delicious dinner from the sea ready in 10 minutes

One of the best things to cook when you are in a hurry is seafod!  Went to the fish market and picked up a few large scallops and a pre tenderized calamari steak.

Pan seared scallop over sauteed spinach had a nice sear and tasted sweet like the sea.  We pan fried the scallop without any seasoning by pre heating a pan to high heat using a high temp oil(grapeseed oil).  After searing for a two minutes served with a squeeze of lemon allowing the true flavors of the scallop to come out.

Kale salad with pine nuts

Panko crusted calamari steak - This was easy to cook and was ready in 5 minutes!.  Get a pre tenderized calamari steak, dip into egg wash then panko.  Pan fry for three minutes in a non stick pan for 2.5 minutes on each side and it's ready!  the calamari was soft, sweet, not chewy, and had a nice breading to it.
TTT approved.

AD HOC Fried Chicken at home

AD HOC Fried Chicken 

"World's best fried chicken" cooked at home

Thomas Keller's Ad HOC fried chicken is truly the best chicken you will ever eat.  The crunchiest, juiciest, and most flavorful fried chicken you'll ever consume.  Now the cook at home can make this recipe at home!  Enjoy the step by step pictures! 

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Chicken Brine Recipe(Above)

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• For Coating and Frying
• Peanut oil for deep-frying (Don't change any other oil)
• 1 quart buttermilk
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Coating:
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup garlic powder
• 1/4 cup onion powder
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Ground fleur de sel or fine sea salt
• Rosemary and thyme sprigs for garnish
• 5 lemons, halved
• 12 bay leaves
• 1 bunch (4 ounces) flat-leaf parsley
• 1 bunch (1 ounce) thyme
• 1/2 cup clover honey
• 1 head garlic, halved through the equator
• 1/4 cup black peppercorns
• 2 cups (10 ounces) Diamond Crystal kosher salt
• 2 gallons water

Vongole Pasta

Well TTT Food Fans, I am sorry to say but this Vongole looks better than it tasted. I've been watching some Italian cooking shows and I really want to master the art of simple spaghetti pasta with clams. Unfortunately it's not as simple as it looks. First, I overcooked the clams (note to self: stop cooking after they open else you'll bastardize them). Second, I used to much red pepper flakes (it burned in a few ways). Then noodles were too hard (should've used more white wine and pasta water) and lastly, there's wasn't enough clam flavor (either I was too cheap to buy more clams or the clams were sub-par... I blame it on the clams).

Recipe
1/3 lb of  spaghetti
10 manila clams
1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes (don't do this, use just a pinch)
1/3 cup white wine
Handful of chopped Italian parsley
2 cloves of razor thin garlic
4 drizzles of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
Salt and pepper to taste

Not TTT approved.  Stay tuned for the next battle.....