Fourth of July weekend

I took four days off for the holiday.  On Friday I did my yearly excursion to Taste of Chicago.  The main reason is to watch cooking demos at the Dominick's Cooking Corner and pick up some of the cookbooks they giveaway each year, I have every book from 1999 to 2010 except for the 2001 version which is MIA but probably somewhere in the house.  Giuseppe Tentori of Boka was the one I really wanted to see, he did a grilled eggplant carpaccio with cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella which looks pretty good.  I'll have to try making a version of it at home sometime soon.  Every year I walk to and from the Taste, about 5 miles each way.  That way I can eat anything I want without feeling too guilty, but my legs and feet pay for it over the next few days.  After I got home from the Taste on Friday afternoon I went upstairs to my computer.  The doorbell rang later that afternoon, and it took me so long to get on my feet and down to the door that I almost missed FedEx delivering a package I had ordered from Sellout.woot.com earlier in the week.  I'm glad I was able to make it, the package contained my new Cuisinart ICE-50 ice cream maker!  I'll write about that later.

On Saturday I started planning the menu for our July 5th cookout.  Steaks are the tradition, so I went to Costco and found some nicely marbled USDA prime ribeyes.  These were BIG steaks!  About 2" thick and 1 1/2 pounds apiece.  When I got home I seasoned each steak with pepper and garlic, then placed them on a cooling rack and let sit in the refrigerator for 2 days loosely covered with paper towels to allow a bit of the natural moisture to evaporate.  Not quite the same as dry aging, but it does improve the flavors IMO.  I decided to cook the steaks sous vide this year, so the morning of the cookout I salted both sides of the steaks, vacuum sealed them and put them in the freezer.  Since there were only three of us and we would be making some baked salmon as well, I only needed to cook one of the steaks.  The immersion circulator was set up and set to 135 degrees.  The steak was placed in to the water bath frozen and left for about 4 hours before being removed and allowed to cool a bit in the bag.  I lit a full chimney of charcoal and dumped it all on one side of the grill once it was ready, then evened out the coals with a trowel and threw on a handful of soaked cherry wood chips.  The steak was de-bagged, dried off and coated with a liberal amount of oil before being placed on the grill.  About a minute per side produced a really nice crust, and since the meat had been allowed to cool off a bit before searing the interior remained a perfect medium rare.  I really love this cooking method.  Outstanding results that rival the best steakhouses, and I have two more in the freezer ready to go!  The salmon was made simply by spreading a little mustard and seasoning on top, then cooking it in the toaster oven in some heat-proof plates we have.  Nothing could be simpler and just one plate to clean!


For sides we had corn of the cob, green beans and french fries.  The corn was simple, I cut of the ends and immediately submerged them in a salt/sugar brine.  The corn was then grilled until some of the kernels were slightly caramelized, then dressed with a drizzle of really good olive oil from Old Town Oil.  Since it had been soaked in brine, no additional seasoning was needed.  The green beans where simply steamed in the microwave for about 4 minutes and seasoned with some salt, pepper and garlic.


French fries may sound like a strange choice, but a well done fry can be sublime.  The process starts by cutting russet potatoes in to 3/8" batons and immediately placing them in cold water.  Once all the potatoes were cut, I rinsed them in several changes of water, then covered them again and put the bowl in the refrigerator overnight.  About an hour before serving the meal, I filled my fryer with oil and heated it up to 325 degrees.  The potatoes were drained and dried on paper towels to get as much moisture off them as possible.  This is important if you don't want to be wiping oil off of everything later.  The dried fries were placed in the fryer and cooked for about 5-6 minutes until they just started to get brown on the edges.  Then they were removed and allowed to cool down on a paper lined sheet pan.  Meanwhile, the oil in the fryer is increased to 375 degrees.  While it was heating up I mixed salt, pepper, finely minced garlic and finely minced rosemary in a small bowl.  Once the oil reached temperature, the fries were placed back in the fryer and cooked until they were golden brown.  When done they were put in a bowl, tossed with the salt/pepper/garlic/rosemary mix, and placed on a paper towel lined plate to drain.  It's important to season fried food as soon as they get out of the oil, the seasonings tend to stick better than if it is done later.  These fries were perfect, crisp on the outside with an almost creamy interior.  No ketchup necessary!


We have two cats named Pika and Boo.  For some unknown reason their nicknames are Peach and Booberry, so I made a blueberry and peach pie as a dessert.  This was a Sandra Lee moment, so don't shoot me.  I made an all butter pate brisee, rolled it out and lined a pie tin.  The filling started with a can of pre-made blueberry pie filling which I topped with slices of canned peaches that had been drained.  The syrup from the peaches was mixed with tapiocca flour and cinnamon and poured over the peaches.  I made a crumble topping by crushing some lemon snaps, mixing with some butter and cinnamon and sprinkling over the top.  The oven was heated to 400 degrees with a pizza stone in place and the pie was placed directly on the hot stone to help cook the bottom layer of crust.  By the time we were ready to eat the pie, it had cooled but was still warm.  It was served with homemade vanilla ice cream made made in the new Cuisinart and chantilly cream.  I plan on posting about the new ice cream maker sometime in the near future.  All in all an excellent meal!