Egg Salad

Ever since my lovely roommate Hillary discovered that angel food cakes are not only delicious but not that bad for you, they’ve been making regular appearances in our kitchen. Like most desserts, they are even better at breakfast and serve also as a reliable hangover cure.  So, with her being gone this week I’ve had to figure out what else to feed myself on the weekend, and decided I should probably do something about all the leftover egg yolks we have lying around.

So, what did I make? Mayonnaise. Homemade mayonnaise. I know, there are plenty of other more exciting things I could’ve used those extra yolks for, like chocolate mousse or creme brulee, but last weekend I was craving no-frills deli-style egg salad, the kind served on white bread with a pickle. So mayonnaise those yolks became, and delicious egg salad was the result.

Mayonnaise

Ingredients
2 egg yolks
1 ½ cups of oil (light olive oil or vegetable oil)
2  teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2  teaspoons vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt

Separate the yolks from two eggs and beat the yolks rapidly in a medium sized bowl. The magic of mayonnaise is the emulsion you make which enables one egg yolk to hold a whole cup of oil, so  you need to beat them rapidly and add the oil very, very slowly, as if the oil is coming out of an eye dropper.

Add a bit of the vinegar early on,  the acidity helps keep your emulsion more stable.

Continue whisking and adding oil. Your arm should be tired, so here’s a little pump up jam to keep you happy while you work:

Dillon Francis – Que Que feat. Maluca

Each yolk will hold up to one cup of oil. I used about a cup and a half of oil for my two yolks. Season with the rest of your vinegar, lemon juice, and add salt as needed. I added a bit of dijon mustard here as well for flavor.

Egg Salad (Salad)

Ingredients

9 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
⅓ cup homemade mayonnaise
1 celery rib, diced into small pieces
⅓ red onion, grated
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Arugula
1 tomato (chopped)

To hard-boil eggs:

Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with 1 inch of cold water. When water reaches a rapid boil, cover pot and remove from heat and let stand for 9-10 minutes.

To make egg salad:

Chop eggs, add celery and onions, and mix in mayonnaise a little at a time so you don’t over-do it. Add the rest of the seasonings to taste and serve on a bed of arugula and sliced tomato.

Iron Chef: Taste The Rainbow

Apologies for being MIA over the past month. While I have been cooking more than ever, I have been terribly lazy about writing about what’s happening in the Linzertorte’s kitchen. I’ve got lots of pictures and goodies to share with you, though, so hopefully I’ll be able to ramp up my creative juices and entertain you with some witty banter over the coming weeks. Or, I’ll just post pictures because I know you probably only look at those, anyway.

Here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming up:

In the meantime, I can’t wait to tell you about my friends’ Iron Chef Night. Each week, four of my very culinarily innovative friends get together to make dinner according to a guest’s chosen theme. This week, Linzertorte’s was invited as the honored (trusting) guest and picked “Taste The Rainbow” for Tal, the chef for the night. When I arrived, I saw a line of jars full of skittles soaking in vodka, making me very unsure of what I had gotten myself into. It was a tuesday after all, and I’m pretty sure the last time I took a shot the color of a dandelion was… well… never.

The shots turned out to be a bit of a ruse  as Tal impressed us with an extremely creative interpretation of my theme. My ideas for dinner had fallen along the lines of multi colored peppers and swiss chard, but Tal, not surprisingly, pushed our imaginations (and knowledge of physics). We began our meal with a white soup of pureed roasted garlic, parsnips, and cauliflower (appetizer = light before hitting the prism), a spiced up interpretation of Smitten Kitchen’s 44 Garlic Clove Soup.

Once we finished our soup, we moved on to a main course from Land of the Rising Sun: a rainbow bowl of tuna and salmon sashimi, eggs, avocado, and fried purple potatoes over rice.

Behold some butt-kicking thematic greatness:

Luckily (unluckily) for me, Linzertorte’s was just a guest this week, because this multi-faceted interpretation of “Taste The Rainbow” is going to be a very tough act to follow!

DIY Corned Beef: Part 2

Happy Friday! I’m back to tell you all about the corned beef spectacular that went down on Wednesday. This year I opted to bake the briskets instead of simmering them, because after a whole day in the crock pot last year they fell to pieces and lost a lot of their flavor. This year, I slathered them with mustard and brown sugar and wrapped them up in aluminum foil and baked them for three full hours. Delicious. The flavor was spot on, but they weren’t as fall-apart-y as I would normally like, so next year I think I’ll try a combination of both methods. Feel free to leave your tips in the comments!

Corned Beef
3 lbs corned beef
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F. Drain the corned beef from the brine and rinse with cold water. Lay corned beef, fat side up, on a large piece of heavy duty, wide, aluminum foil. Spread with mustard and sprinkle brown sugar over the top.

Wrap the corned beef with foil in a way that allows for a little space on top between the corned beef and the foil, and creates a container to catch the juices. Place foil-wrapped corned beef in a shallow roasting pan and bake for 2 1/2 hours.

Open the foil to check done-ness with a fork. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes, then place on cutting board and cut at a diagonal, across the grain of the meat, into 1/2-inch thick slices.

Serve immediately.

How to Make Your Own Fresh Mozzarella Cheese

How often do you hear “I have a ton of extra rennet lying around?” Not often. Lucky for me, my friend Tal had embarked on a mozzarella-making endeavour earlier this year and invited a group of us over to join him for a second round. The process was surprisingly quick and simple, and despite being off the grain and dairy I forced myself to try it, just to make sure it was good enough for all of you to make. (What I really mean by that is I ate two cups of it and then made a pizza out of what was left, because if I’m going to cheat it’s going to be worth it.)

How to Make Your Own Fresh Mozzarella
We followed cheesemaking.com‘s method

Ingredients
1/2 rennet tablet
1/4 cup cool, chlorine-free water (most bottled waters are chlorine-free)
1 gallon whole milk
2 teaspoons citric acid (or lemon juice)
Salt (to taste)

Tools
6 to 8 quart stainless steel pot. (Aluminum or cast iron will not work)
Stainless steel or strong plastic slotted spoon
A two quart microwave safe mixing bowl
Measuring spoons
A thermometer which will clearly read between 80 – 120 degrees F

Directions
Crush 1/4 tablet of rennet and dissolve in 1/4 cup of cool, unchlorinated water and set aside.

In a second glass, dilute 1.5 tsp. of citric acid into 1 cup cool water and add to 1 gallon of cold milk and stir well.  Next, pour a second gallon of cold milk into your stainless steel pot quite quickly to mix well with the citric acid . This will bring the milk to the proper acidity to stretch well later.

Next, heat this milk to 90F. As you approach 90F, you may notice your milk beginning to curdle slightly due to acidity and temp. (Note: If having problems with milk forming a proper curd, you may need to increase this temp to 95 or even 100F)

At 90F, remove the pot from the burner and slowly add your rennet (which you prepared in previous step) to the milk. Stir in a top to bottom motion for approx. 30 seconds, then stop.

Cover the pot and leave undisturbed for 5 minutes. While you’re waiting, listen to some Grimes. They’re coming to Boston in a couple weeks, are you going to the show?

Grimes – Oblivion

DIY Corned Beef

Have you heard? It’s Boston’s favorite holiday this weekend. While I’ll be missing the sloppy Southie parade this Saturday to squeeze in a few final runs up at Jay Peak, I will not be missing out on corned beef and cabbage. This Wednesday we are hosting our Second Annual St Patrick’s Day Potluck, the preparation for which began last week, when Laura, Tal, and I started brining our grass-fed organic and Kosher beef brisket.

Last year when I decided I would Take On Corned Beef… I had no idea how simple it was. Doing it yourself requires minimal time and effort, is less expensive than store-bought versions and far, far more satisfying. I’ll post the cooking results after Wednesday!

Homemade Corned Beef Brine
Adapted from Michael Ruhlman’s Chacuterie

Ingredients
For the pickling spice
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons hot red-pepper flakes
2 tablespoons allspice berries
2 small cinnamon sticks, crushed or broken into pieces
2 to 4 bay leaves, crumbled
2 tablespoons whole cloves
1 tablespoon ground ginger
OR: buy 2 jars of pickling spice from the store, which is far cheaper than buying 9 individual jars of spices (and what I did this year)

For the brine
1 gallon water
2 cups Kosher salt (or 1 cup table salt)
1/2 cup sugar
1 ounce (5 teaspoons) saltpeter- if using (I omitted)
4 tablespoons pickling spice, (above recipe or store-bought)
One 5-pound well-marbled (first-cut) beef brisket

Directions
Make the Pickling Spice

Lightly toast the peppercorns, mustard seeds, and coriander seeds in a small dry skillet, then smash them with the side of a knife just to crack them.

Combine the cracked spices with the remaining ingredients, mixing well. Store in a tightly sealed plastic container or glass jar.

Make the Brine

Combine the water, salt, sugar, pink curing salt (if using), and 2 tablespoons of the pickling spices in a pot large enough to hold the brisket comfortably. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Remove the pot from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate the brine until it’s completely chilled.

Trim excess fat from the brisket.

Blood Orange, Beet, and Fennel Salad

After a week and a half of my paleo experiment I have to admit that I’m feeling pretty great. While it would be easy to say that the paleo pundits are right about the grains, dairy, and sugar, but so far I’m not totally convinced that it’s the lack of wheat berries, goat cheese, and hummus in my diet that’s making my body happy, but instead the lack of gummy bears, ice cream, cupcakes, and beer. (No matter which nutritional approach you subscribe to, I’m sure we can all be in agreement that Ben & Jerry shouldn’t have their own spot on the pyramid)

The hardest part thus far has been avoiding the delicious apres-ski junk food we had strewn about the house during the ski trip I took last weekend to New Hampshire with a bunch of friends. After a long day of free-heeling, I wanted nothing more than to relax with beer and a fistful of salty M&M’s hand-picked from the trail mix. My fabulous friends, though, are no stranger to special dietary needs (we had 2 paleos, 2 vegetarians, and one who keeps kosher) and made really delicious food that kept every belly full and happy.

Photo credit: Phan Huynh

Thanks to my recent introduction to Larabars, which are perfect for paleo-on-the go (and even easier to eat from the couch!) once I was back in Boston I was somewhat devoid of culinary inspiration. I cracked open my file of recipes and found this bright plate of gem tones waiting for me the top of the stack. Is there any better way to greet this weekend’s spring-forward than with a citrus-y salad to accompany my favorite oven roasted chicken thighs?

Dinner is served.

And while you’re here, why don’t you give “A Walk” by Tycho a listen. I had their chilled out ambient tunes on repeat while cruising the slopes of Attitash this weekend; I think you’ll like them.

Tycho – “A Walk”

Poached Halibut with Crispy Artichoke Hearts and Sherry Tomato Vinaigrette

I don’t know how to break this to you, but I’ve gone Paleo. (For those of you who don’t know, Paleo is a diet that consists mainly of fish, grass-fed meats, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, and refined sugar, more info here) I know it’s completely crazy to hear that coming from me, an anti-dieter who truly believes that people should eat whatever they feel like, but I’ve decided to give this Paleo thing a try for 30 days as a little food challenge for myself.

Before you go and delete your Linzertorte’s bookmark (I know you want to, stop it) listen up: I promise not to turn this blog into a preachy sandbox in support of a popular diet. In fact, I’m probably going to whine more than I preach considering I’m already miserable at the thought of a month without hummus, blue cheese, or beer. (And why oh why did I start this on the day that my girl scout cookies arrived?? Apparently I wanted to torture myself) I guess I should announce from the get-go that I’m probably going to cheat a lot, so I hope that’s okay with you.

The good news for you is that the next 4 recipes are going to be extra awesome because I’m going to try to trick myself into forgetting that I can’t have butter or cheese by making really really ridiculously good food.

So, without further ado, here’s my first Paleo recipe and a song by Cave Singers, the band who’s name sounds the most like the philosophy behind my new little food challenge.

Cave Singers – New Monument

Tags: Fish, Paleo