The Death Knell of the Food Blog

Blue Cheese Aioli and Caramelised Onions for Your Favourite Burger

These are buffalo burgers (which were tremendously good!), but of course this aioli and the onions would be good on any type of burger. The recipes below are good for 3-4 burgers.

Go on, tell me that's not the salaciously food porniest photo you've ever seen!

Blue Cheese and Garlic Aioli

1 cup light mayonnaise
6 cloves garlic, pressed
4 ounces crumbled blue cheese
1 tablespoon spicy Dijon mustard
couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce
fresh-ground black pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.  Spread on burgers as soon as they come off the grill.


Caramelised Onions

1 red onion, sliced into rings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Heat oil and onions in a nonstick pan over very low heat and cook slowly, stirring occasionally.  When onions begin to sweat, add sugar and stir frequently until sugar caramelises and onions are soft.

Slather away!

Clafoutis Call

A clafoutis sounds like:

A)  A difficult gymnastics move which may sprain one's nostrils
B)  A perversion involving an unfeasible number of flute-players
C)  A subtropical disease with raving night-sweats which will require quarantine

...or perhaps it's a collective noun for all that is nommilicious.  I've tasted the evidence for this now.

Cherry and Blueberry Clafoutis

1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, pitted (preferably by a lackey)
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
4 tablespoons of slivered almonds, toasted
3 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup cream
1 tablespoon amaretto
2 teaspoons kirsch (cherry brandy)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
butter (for greasing the pan)
confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9-inch round pan with butter.  Distribute the cherries, blueberries, and almonds in the pan evenly.

Mix the eggs, sugar, flour and salt in a bowl with a whisk until smooth.  Add the amaretto, kirsch, vanilla and cream and whisk until smooth again.  Pour over the fruit and almonds in the pan.

Bake for 45 minutes.  Use a toothpick or cake tester in the centre of the clafoutis, and if it comes out clean,  it's done - it will still jiggle a bit and will deflate after you remove it from the oven - unlike your guests after they try this delightful thing.  

 

Allow to cool and dust with confectioner's sugar before cutting and serving.

Adapted from A Girl and Her Fork.

I used Rainier cherries on this occasion because they're my favourite and when they're in season I buy bushels at a time and eat my way out, but any sweet cherry will do.

And a shout out to this lovely device:

It will make your kitchen staff's job much easier (kitchen staff not included).

Superior Pot Roast

I can never come up with snappy recipe names, so I just calls 'em like I sees 'em.  What works well about this recipe is a two-step cooking process that makes the meat fall-apart tender and a savoury, rich gravy.  On this occasion I made the recipe for half, since the chuck roast I got at Swingle's was only about two pounds, but no matter - it still worked perfectly.

Superior Pot Roast

2 tablespoons butter
1 4-pound rump or chuck roast
2 onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 large carrots, sliced
3 bay leaves
5 garlic cloves, chopped
about 25 whole peppercorns
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon thyme
2+ cups beef stock or broth
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325F.  In a large oven-safe pot with a lid or a Dutch oven, melt the butter and sear all sides of the roast until browned, 2-3 minutes per side.  Transfer roast to a plate.

Add the onion, celery, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme, tomato paste, and Worcestershire sauce to the pot.  Saute over high heat until onion starts to brown.  Return meat to the pot and add 2 cups beef stock and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Cover the pot and put it in the oven to bake for about 4 hours, until the meat can be easily torn apart.  Baste with juices every half hour or so.  Next, remove meat from the pot and strain the stock into a bowl, squeezing out as much of the juice as you can.  Put the meat back in the pot and shred it into pieces using two forks.  Pour the strained stock over it, adding a little more beef broth if it doesn't seem like you have  enough.  Add carrots and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Cover the pot and bake in the oven again for another 40-50 minutes.

Serve with mashed or roast potatoes, or crusty bread.

Mining for Noms in the Mother Lode

Yesterday was a glorious day - not too hot and not too cold - so I went for a drive to check out some delicious spots in the Sierra foothills.

I arrived earlier than expected in Amador City and found the only place open for business to be Andrae's Bakery.  This turned out to be a stroke of luck!  The place smelled wonderful, and the ham and cheese croissant I sampled was just what was needed to keep me going.

Heh, that made me laugh.

Next on the agenda was the Sutter Creek Cheese Shoppe.  The woman there was very helpful in offering samples - I think I tried some ten different varieties - and came away with two goat cheeses by Cypress Grove Chevre, Sgt. Pepper and PsycheDillic.  It may not seem like there's all that much to this shop, but everything I tried was varying degrees of marvellous.

Swingle's Meat, with its revolving fiberglass cow (LOVE!) touts itself as the "carnivore's toy store."  And they're not kidding.

You enter, and nothing prepares you for...

THE MENAGERIE!

Yes, they stare at you a bit accusingly...

...or diffidently refuse to meet your gaze...

 ...but the bacon looked incredible...

...so I had her slice me a pound of the honey-cured under the disapproving glare of beasts from near and far.

They had everything you could want.  And a few things I didn't.

Buffalo burgers?  Yeah, we'll try one of those as well.

These folks have been winnin' prizes for pig since way back.

I loaded up with a roast and some bourbon-marinated kabobs too.  Don't tell my heart.

Pets beware... they might come for you, next... don't be fooled by the "I <3 My Pet" ruse!

And so, dear reader, the hypnotic revolving cow keeps perpetually spinning as we leave this meat paradise, but will lure us back, we are sure...

Moving on to Jackson, wherein lies the Vinciguerra Ravioli Company, located in what looks to be an old drive-in fast food joint.  Their hours of operation are very limited, but the lady manning the place was very friendly and helpful once they finally opened.

I had high hopes based on reviews I'd seen, so I got two kinds of ravioli, meat and pumpkin, and some marinara sauce.  I made the meat ones with the marinara for dinner that night:

I hate to say it, but I was disappointed.  The marinara I found thin and unflavourful, and the ravioli themselves were so delicate that they disintegrated when removing them from the cooking water, despite me being very ginger in my treatment of them; the meat filling was very bland, as well.  Ah well - sorry, Vinciguerra!  I'll hope for better when I try the pumpkin ones.

While in Jackson I took a wander through The Biggest Little Kitchen Store in the Mother Lode aka "home of all those bits and bobs you didn't know you needed until you saw them."  The weird and the wonderful, the "I must have this or I can never cook again" and the "that's the stupidest damned thing I've ever seen" - it's all here!

And finally, winding back home there was the Amador Vintage Market, which was a nice little find in such a small town - their prepared deli food looked yummy, though my hopes for a delicious gelato to finish off the day were dashed when I saw how few flavours they had (all unmarked) and how sadly unappealing it looked, with half of the tubs scraped empty.  Sob.

And now to collapse, and plan the next venture... and the next meal made from the swag I acquired...