Bacon-Wrapped Elk Steaks

In sticking with the "my Portland friends are awesome" theme, a friend brought over a couple gorgeous elk loins for me to play with.  

We did a fairly traditional(-ish) preparation last time, but I wanted to be a little more creative this time... Thus, we broke out some meat glue and pork products and went to town...

Recipe Revisited: Seared Spring Salmon with Melted Leeks and Herbed Beurre Blanc

This is a recipe I've made (and loved) before, but I had to post again because it was even more mind-blowing this time with three small changes.  I don't like to make many alterations to Thomas Keller's recipes, because he's pretty much always right... but I feel like my leeks turned out better (and infinitely easier) by switching up the technique a little.  The recipe for this amazing dish is here, and I highly recommend trying it out next time you get your hands on some beautiful salmon...

Sous Vide (Maybe?) Makes it Better: 72-Hour Oxtail with Celeriac Mash

One recipe that I always crave in the cold months is a Red-Wine Braised Oxtail from The Elements of Taste.  I've been making it almost exactly as written for many years, but (of course) I wanted to see what a sous vide treatment would do to it.  

The original method (plus my favorite celeriac mash to serve with it) is here if you're interested, and I'll talk about the sous vide modifications below...

Oregon Surf & Turf

A friend was telling me the other day that he had some Oregon elk and albacore (shot and caught, respectively, by other friends) in his freezer that were just waiting for the right preparation... While these don't necessarily seem like obvious companions on a plate, we thought it might be fun to use them in a very "Oregon" take on surf and turf, and the results were pretty freaking awesome...

The elk steaks and elk backstrap were pretty thinly cut, so we (obviously) cooked them sous vide to get them tender and perfectly cooked before pan-searing.  The result? Yum...

Everyday Yumminess: Chicken Divan Casserole

My mom tells me that she sometimes made Chicken Divan Casserole for us when we were growing up. I am not about to call my mother a liar, but somehow the food memory didn't dig itself very far into my brain, so this isn't a dish I would have thought to seek out a recipe for and make... A couple weeks ago, though, a friend mentioned some pangs of nostalgia for the Chicken Divan his mom had made for him when he was young...and what kind of friend would I be if I didn't try to make a version of this classic for him? (I know the pictures of the finished dish are a little scrappy, but it's comfort food so I wasn't about to mess around with fancy plating...)

Sous Vide Makes it Better: Two Curries

I haven't made a lot of "new" dishes lately, but something I do a lot of is re-making things I've made before, only switching the cooking method over to sous vide.  I tried this with two curries last week, and was incredibly happy (for different reasons) with both dishes...  The first dish was Beef Rendang with Roti Canai.

Everyday Yumminess: My Favorite Buttery Flatbread

As I mentioned when I made the Mission Street Food Buttery Flatbread, one of the reasons I was a little disappointed by that flatbread was my preexisting love of an easier version...  I first made these Roti Canai almost 5 years ago when I was still living in Australia.  (I have no idea where the original recipe came from anymore...) They're kind of fun to make, super-delicious, and super-buttery...  

Valentine's Feast (Alternate Title: My Mom is Awesome)

UPDATE: I've now uploaded the recipes here if anyone wants to recreate portions of this meal... The soup with lemon dumplings is here.

As I was enjoying an amazing 5-course dinner with my parents last night, I realized something: Nobody has ever cooked a dinner party for me.  I love to cook (obviously), and I love throwing dinner parties, but it was one of the nicest gifts my mom could have given me when she prepared everything for this feast and then brought the whole production over to my house so that she and my dad could share it with me.  There's sometimes a misconception about us people who are obsessed with food and cooking... an idea that, because we love to go crazy in the kitchen, we're going to be harsh critics of other people's cooking and thus are too intimidating to cook for... (When, in fact, I love very simple food, too... and even a grilled cheese sandwich is enough to rock my world if I didn't have to make it myself...) Even though this wasn't a cool restaurant or my own cooking, I wanted to share the meal my mom prepared for us...

Cookbook Adventures: Mission Street Food (Updated)

Mission Street Food is another one of those books that I couldn't wait to get my hands on, but then didn't manage to play with until now...  

Now that I've tried a few recipes, I think it may be a while before I break it out again... Everything was sort of in that "good... but not as great as I'd hoped..." category.

I love the philosophy of the book, and I love the ideas behind the recipes, but it may end up being one of those books that I turn to more for inspiration than for guidance...

Sous Vide Duck Confit

I've been meaning to make Duck Confit for a long time, but it took a while to decide I really wanted to stock up my freezer with duck legs and duck fat...  I finally took the plunge and picked up some gorgeous duck products a few months ago, and then it was on...