05.23.09
Posted in Recipes at 4:13 pm by Chef Matt
When I tell people I have the recipe for the greatest Gin & Tonic, most people look at me like I’m insane. “Gin…. and tonic… on ice… right?” they say full of haughty skepticism. “No, there’s more to it than that, and you’re a douchebag,” I then reply. There are techniques and volumes and tricks that go into making the perfect Gin & Tonic, and with the heat of summer upon us, I’m going to share them with you now.
This recipe was actually taught to me by a TV weatherman in Anchorage, AK of all places. (I’ve lived an odd life to be sure…) They were and are the best Gin & Tonics I’ve ever had. Though I was barely able to say my own name after the party where he taught me this drink, I hold onto the recipe he showed me like it was a cherished family heirloom.
What follows is a step-by-step photo display of how to make this awesome summer cocktail properly.
First off, the ingredients:
1. A glass filled 2/3 with ice cubes
2. Tanqueray Gin - cold (I’m picky about the brand here, and I think Tanqueray is the best.)
3. Tonic Water (I’m not too picky on brand here - Schweppes does me fine.)
4. Lime - one wedge, not the whole lime…
5. Something long enough to reach the bottom of the glass, like a spoon |
The first departure from the traditional method, and we’re only at step 2. Squeeze the lime wedge over the ice cubes before you add anything else. Let the lime wedge drop in on top of the ice cubes. |
Next, in goes the gin. So, you’re looking to fill the glass to the halfway point here, but I’m NOT advocating a 1:1 ratio of gin:tonic. You’re filling the lower half of the glass, and it’s full of ice. So when the gin line reaches the halfway point, you’re hardly at 50% gin. In fact, since the glass was 2/3 full of ice, the line of gin shouldn’t be above the ice cubes. |
Of course, we follow this with the tonic. Fill the glass until the bubbles reach the top, then fill again when the bubbles settle, so the glass is almost totally full. |
And now for the part one might almost consider to be tricky. You don’t “stir” the drink. In a James Bond-esque move, you simply take your spoon (or whatever) and simply push the lime wedge to the bottom of the glass. |
Get it all the way down there to the bottom, and mash it a little against the bottom. This is all the stirring you do. Remove the spoon, and enjoy! |
OK, so now you’re ready to go with your perfect Gin & Tonic! Sure, maybe I have more love for a margarita given that adventure, but this is a fabulous drink to beat the heat of the summer.
I also want to note that I was NOT paid by Tanqueray to write this post. This is really how I do Gin & Tonics, and I just thought I’d share! (And I wasn’t paid by Schweppes either, but seeing as how I didn’t promote them much, it’d be pretty silly if they had…)
And of course, please enjoy these in moderation. I can speak from experience that too many of these can have you up until 3 AM playing Road Rash 3 on a Sega Genesis in the middle of Anchorage, AK. And that’s something I wouldn’t wish on anybody…
Chef Matt
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05.13.09
Posted in The Story, Recipes, My Cookbook at 7:36 pm by Chef Matt
Wow, I just have to break in here and say that I am really amazed at all of you who have written in to me offering some sort of help one way or the other with the cookbook. From help with layout, to proofreading, it is really overwhelming in how awesome you all have been! So thank you so much for your support as I go down this road! You guys are the best!
So, I guess I need to supply you all with an update. Right now, I am writing recipes like a madman, comparing techniques for different recipes, and cooking up a storm. It is busy work putting together a cookbook as I am learning, but I have to say, the experimentation so far is quite delicious!
The only downside to writing a cookbook on Italian cooking is that I do find myself getting a little tired of Italian food here and there… When my friends ask me where I would like to go out to eat (on the rare nights I eat out now…), my only response is, “Anywhere but an Italian restaurant.”
Keep your advice coming in people. If you know a publisher (or are a publisher) who may be interested in this project, I would love to hear about it! If you just want to test some recipes, well, I can offer that as well. Here is another recipe from the book that I have recently brought about to a successful conclusion, so I offer it up to you as something to share with you all since you have been so good to me! Enjoy!
Fettuccine with Brussels Sprouts, Pine Nuts and Butter
And it looks pretty too! Click image for larger version. |
Brussels sprouts are one of those vegetables that I thought were terrible as a kid only because I never knew how to cook them properly. It suddenly seems that everybody figured out how to cook them properly, and they are now one of my favorite vegetables to work with. And this is just one of many great dishes I have discovered using them.
½ lb - fettuccine
4 Tbsp - unsalted butter - divided
½ ea - white onion – diced
1 clove - garlic - minced
¾ lb - Brussels sprouts, cleaned, shaved thin
3 Tbsp - pine nuts – toasted
1 Tbsp - fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp - fresh flat leaf Italian parsley – chopped
½ tsp - freshly grated nutmeg
To Taste - salt and pepper
As needed - grated Parmesan
1. In salted water, begin cooking fettuccine.
2. Melt 3 Tbsp butter in skillet over medium high heat. Sauté onions until lightly colored.
3. Add garlic, cook until fragrant – about 30 seconds.
4. Add shaved Brussels sprouts, cook until lightly browned.
5. When pasta is al dente, strain, and return to pot it cooked in. Add Brussels sprouts and remaining 1 Tbsp butter. Toss to combine.
6. Add pine nuts, lemon juice, parsley and nutmeg. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Serve immediately, and pass grated Parmesan at table.
Serves 2-3
Keep that help coming people! Thanks so much!
Chef Matt
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04.10.09
Posted in The Story, Recipes, My Cookbook at 8:45 am by Chef Matt
Just so you all don’t think I’m sitting around doing nothing in my spare time - which is stunningly close to the truth - I want to throw a small update your all’s way as to what I’m actually doing in the endless hours on the couch. I’m sifting through the countless pages, word files, notes in cookbooks and scraps of paper I have here and there and seeing if I have enough recipes to put together my first cookbook.
For now, it’s a mystery.
And I hope to have a better cover and title… |
“What is the cookbook about?” I hear you all asking. Well, at least I hope you are asking if you have read this far…
“I can’t fully tell you just yet,” I reply since I’m a jerk.
Seriously though, I have an angle on my cookbook that I want to keep quiet for the time being since I think the concept is one that nobody has actually ever attempted before. Hopefully the innovation inherent in my concept will provide me with a niche that could tip the scales in my favor towards actually getting this thing published somewhere. But I do think it is safe enough to let you all know that the main culinary thrust of the book will be - of course - Italian cuisine.
So if I can’t tell you fully what the book is about, why in God’s name am I telling you that I’m even doing this? There are two main reasons:
- If I were to write a cookbook, or any kind of book, and not tell you all about it in the process, then there would be a certain level of betrayal from me to you, my loyal readers. This blog is about my evolving story in the culinary world, and I think this counts, so you all should know about my endeavors - even if they don’t pan out - from the get-go.
- This post is acting as a “feeler” post among you - my aforementioned loyal readers - to see what/who you may know that could help me. The connections/opportunities that have literally fallen in my lap as a result of this blog thanks to you all has never ceased to amaze me. And maybe one of you out there knows/holds the key I need to know in order to get this book out there and published. If so, I would love to start down that path at the same time as I am compiling all these recipes together.
And lastly, since everyone likes a good recipe, allow me to share one of the recipes I recently created for the purpose of the book. It was received with rave reviews from all it was presented to, and I thought it was pretty kick-ass myself! Enjoy!
Mixed Seafood Risotto
1 recipe court bouillon (I will add this in a separate section - in the meantime this recipe works fine)
½ lb 20-24 shrimp – peeled and de-veined
20-25 mussels – in shells
4 cups “weak” chicken or seafood broth (basically 1/2 - 1/3 strength so as not to overpower your risotto)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 leek - white part diced, greener parts sliced in semi-circles – divided (deep green parts discarded)
½ medium white onion – small dice
2 cloves garlic – minced
½ cup white wine
1 cup risotto rice
3 tubes calamari – sliced thin
3 Tbsp vodka
Salt and pepper to taste
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- Heat court bouillon to a light boil. Add shrimp and mussels and cook for 3 minutes. Remove seafood and cool in ice bath. Remove mussels from shells. Set cooked seafood aside, discard court bouillon.
- Heat broth in small saucepan, keep warm through cooking.
- In separate saucepan, melt butter and sauté white part of the leeks and the onion until translucent.
- Add garlic, sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add rice, and cook while stirring until coated with butter and shiny, about 1 minute.
- Add white wine, cook until absorbed by rice.
- Add broth, 1-2 ladlefuls at a time, stirring between additions, letting rice absorb broth between each addition, until only 2 ladlefuls remain.
- Add cooked shrimp and mussels as well as calamari rings to risotto, and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add vodka and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add remaining broth, cook until absorbed by rice, taste and correct for seasonings.
- Remove risotto from heat, add butter and reserved sliced light green leeks.
- Stir in fresh lemon juice and serve immediately.
Serves 3-4
If any of you out there have any ideas or contacts for the book, or if you want more details on how to cook risotto (which I cover elsewhere in my book), or even if you just want to say hi, drop me an email!
Chef Matt
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03.09.09
Posted in The Story, Recipes at 10:30 am by Chef Matt
With time to kill here in Oxford, I’m able to invent dishes that come to mind when I have some things laying around in the kitchen. It’s arguably the greatest perk of not actually having a full-time job. The other day we bought a whole chicken, and I used the breasts and wings for a chicken pot pie, and I turned the carcass into a stock which I used as the base for an awesome black bean soup. So now I was presented with the opportunity to invent something from the legs.
So I decided to make up a recipe for Chicken Legs Braised in Red Wine with Porcini Mushrooms and Risotto. Sounded good to me, and just to be on the safe side, I took photos as I went along. (You’ll notice a marked difference in how a real camera records these events as compared to last time.) I figured if it was good, I’d share it with you, and if it sucked, well, photos are easy to delete. Fortunately, the result was a success with my wife and flat mate practically licking their plates clean, so I figure it worth sharing with you what I did. I hope you try it and enjoy as well!
Be sure to soak for about 20-30 minutes. |
First, soak some dried porcinis in warm water - about 3/4 cup. Many great recipes start with this step, so I figured why not start with the proven methods? When they are done soaking, take out the mushrooms (no need to chop) and strain the liquid, but be sure to save it! That water may look dirty, but it is 100% flavor!
Salt and pepper the meat well. |
Next, cut apart the thigh and drumsticks of the legs. This allows the chicken to cook faster, and it’s easier to manipulate these smaller pieces. I prefer leg meat for braising - the result is more flavorful and juicier. Also, it’s important to have pieces that have bones in them for a good braise since the gelatin they add helps thicken the sauce.
Why wouldn’t you use it?… |
How could a chef with a tattoo of a pig on his back leave bacon out of a recipe? Rendering some bacon adds fat and flavor, and also creates a garnish for the end. Render the bacon to crispy, remove and set aside for garnishing the final dish. Add a little more oil to the pan if needed so as to brown the chicken.
It almost looks good enough to eat as is, huh?… |
Brown the chicken pieces thoroughly on all sides. This is important in a braise, and something that I sometimes mess up due to laziness and over-crowding the pan. Take your time, and do this in batches if you have to in order to make sure you get a nice browning on the chicken. When browned, remove the chicken from the pan, set aside and pour out all but 1-2 Tbsp of the fat.
Garlic and porcinis. This also looks good enough to eat as is. |
Throw the soaked porcinis into the pan along with 2-3 chopped cloves of garlic. Cook until nicely browned (about 1-2 minutes) then deglaze the pan with the water from the porcini soak as well as 1 cup of red wine.
This does not look particularly appetizing as is, but it is really an important step. It’s deglazing after all! |
Bring the wine and porncini water to a boil. Because you want to cook the alcohol off, let it boil at a good clip for about a minute. Add some dried thyme and dried rosemary as well as a few bay leaves. Return the chicken to the pan (along with accumulated juices!), reduce the heat to low, cover, and braise for about 1-1.5 hours (flipping chicken every 20 minutes or so) until the meat is falling-off-the-bone tender.
I almost didn’t need the knife at all. That’s a perfect braise. |
Take the meat out of the pot once agian, and cutting it off the bone should be really easy. If you have to work to trim the meat off, then it is not done - keep cooking. When the meat is falling off, shred the meat (or chop roughly) and throw away the bones, cartilage and any especially fatty pieces of skin. Return the meat to the pan, taste and correct with salt and pepper, and keep warm.
The risotto here is just a base, it doesn’t need to be super-flavored, or else it will compete with the braised chicken. |
Make some risotto. I’m not going into the many steps and techniques needed to make a perfect risotto here. Perhaps I will talk of that some other time. Basically I made an onion and garlic risotto, with white wine and broth to cook the rice. The mantacare (the fat stirred in when the rice is done cooking) was done with 2 Tbsp butter and about 1/3 cup of grated Parmesan.
The finished dish. |
Plating is easy, just remember that the bacon should probably be warm, and by now it’s assuredly cold. But that’s why the good Lord gave us microwaves. Place the risotto on the plate, top with a generous portion of the shredded chicken and porcinis, spoon on some sauce from the braise and then garnish with the warmed bacon and some wild arugula.
I’m happy with the result, and hope you enjoy as well!
Chef Matt
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02.20.09
Posted in The Story, Recipes at 9:13 am by Chef Matt
Disclaimer: I’m not one for disclaimers. But in this one, I have to apologize for the truly horrid nature of the photos. I wanted to do this project for you all, but I left my camera with a friend in London, so all I had was my camera phone. And it blows. So I’m sorry the pictures are such crap. But it’s my scintillating writing that’s what brings you back anyway, right?…
While I was awaiting re-entry into the UK over the holidays, I was poking around in all manner of old documents. Many of them were related to my attempts to secure a UK visa, but others were of a more nostalgic nature. When I went through my mother’s recipe box though was when I discovered some of my earliest attempts at recipe writing as a kid.
 |
Yeah, that’s my handwriting. Click each for larger. |
Now sure, I had some recipes for how to heat soup, and how to put American cheese and raisins on bread and heat that in the toaster, but those I’m not actually counting. Instead, I found what I had always remembered to be my first recipe, which was for a tomato-mushroom sauce for pasta. I figured it might be fun to cook it exactly as I had it written, and to see how it turned out. (And also to see if knowing what I now know, ways for improvement…)
Now I know my handwriting on an old 3X5 card may not be the most legible thing ever, so here is the recipe as it appears on the card:
Matt’s Mushroom Sauce
3 Tbsp Olive Oil (XVO)
3 cloves garlic - sliced
2 lbs fresh Italian plum tomatoes (2 cups +)
salt and pepper to taste
5 large fresh sage leaves (1 tsp diced)
1 medium large onion - chopped fine
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2-2/3 lbs fresh white mushrooms
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 Tbsp chopped parsley
optional: porcinis and soaking water
optional: pancetta and/or anchovies
1. Simmer oil, 2 cloves of garlic, and tomatoes over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper and sage and let simmer on low heat while rest of sauce is prepared. (add porcinis w/ s+p & herbs)
2. Wash mushrooms and pat dry w/paper towel - cut lengthwise w/their stems and set aside.
3. Sauté onions and oil in large skillet until onions are translucent.
4. Add remaining clove of garlic - cook until garlic turns gold.
5. Add mushrooms (w/some salt + pepper) lower heat and cook until all liquid they give off is evaporated. (then add pancetta)
6. Add white wine - simmer until it evaporates (add anchovies)
cook 5-10 min.
7. When pasta is done, combine contents of skillet + saucepan and add the parsley. Mix, toss + serve!
The beginning workings of the sauce. |
So to start off, there was the simmering of the garlic and adding of tomatoes. (It’s winter, so I used some nice canned tomatoes instead of fresh.) As is my style, I added them whole, and crushed them in the sauce as they cook. I know it didn’t say to do this, but I figured I’d've done that back in the day as well… (maybe).
Porcinis and breaking down tomatoes - I may have been on to something here! |
I actually somehow had some dried porcinis in this new kitchen of mine. A quick soak brought them back to life, and I figured would add a nice depth to the sauce. I must have really been thinking ahead as a kid! (I also give myself credit for the optional addition of pancetta and anchovies. I had neither on hand for the making of this batch.)
Sauté of onions, garlic and mushrooms. If only some pancetta had been involved. |
In a separate pan, since I seemed as hell-bent on dirtying as many pans as I could even as a child, I put together the sauté of mushrooms and onions. The mushrooms browned nicely, and then I added the white wine and then some porcini water for flavor. How appropriate (prophetic?) that my first recipe had a “deglazing” step!
Combing the pots. |
I was supposed to combine the contents of the skillet and the saucepot, but I didn’t say which was supposed to go into which… I chose to pour the saucepot into the skillet if only to make sure the skillet was thoroughly deglazed. The penne was almost done cooking, so it looked like we were going to be just on time.
Now that looks like a mushroom sauce. |
The result was slightly as I remember it, a little too brown to be completely appetizing. The techniques were OK, but I had not yet learned the importance of “eating with the eyes” first. But this is also a recipe I had not made in easily 20 years, so forgive me if I forgot that point…
The final product - enjoyable, but not memorable. |
The final product came to the table, and with a little bit of Parmesan from my cheese grater we were in business. The final dish tasted just fine - like what one would expect from a mushroom sauce ordered in a standard Italian restaurant. Nothing special or exciting, but all the same, not a bad first attempt by yours truly!
So what would I have done differently now? First of all, I would have done it all in one pan. All my sauces tend to cook together these days. So I would have sautéed the onions and mushrooms, would have deglazed with red wine, added the herbs, then the tomatoes and porcinis. I would also make sure the porcinis and pancetta were mandatory. The anchovies might be a tad much, and unnecessary.
I am one of the people who is an outspoken fan of white button mushrooms. They really do have a lot of flavor. But in a mushroom sauce like this, I would make a little more of a mix. Add some sliced creminis and maybe some shiitakes as well. This would add depth and richness to the mushroom flavor of the sauce.
But finally, to take the sauce in a totally different direction, adding lemon juice instead of wine as well as some lemon zest and sautéing in some spinach might lighten up the colors, brighten the flavors and create a more appealing sauce all-around. A touch of mascarpone cheese and some hazelnuts might not be a bad addition either. But that is another recipe for another time…
Chef Matt
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12.15.08
Posted in Recipes at 7:16 am by Chef Matt
Growing up, I had a prejudice against Brussels sprouts, and a well-deserved one, seeing as how they invariably sucked. Even my father, who would eat anything known to man, thought they tasted like gym socks. This of course stemmed from the fact that the only way anyone seemed to know how to cook them was to boil them for about half an hour - to ensure they were cooked through to the center - and the resulting over-cooked exteriors were a pallid, sulfurous mess. No offense to my newly-adopted fellow countrymen, but this was how Brits cooked vegetables (BBR - “Boiling Beyond Recognition”) and as could be predicted, it produced something completely inedible.
Scary when raw, they come about nicely when cooked right… |
I can’t remember when I had my first good Brussels sprout, but it was well into my adult life. The trick was to blanch them, and then saute them - applying a dry heat cooking method to caramelize the sugars, and to keep down the sulfur production. And I then used this method when I was at Vero to add a dish similar to this to the menu. When winter rolled around in Rustico, Chef Frank showed me his way of making Brussels sprouts, which was the same as I had learned to do it to produce great results. I was happy to learn that the technique I had worked out was the same as the one he was teaching me - sort of a “corroboration after the fact” by a chef who knew a lot more than me…
However, I have developed a recipe that seems to please the crowds, so I will now share with you the technique step-by-step with you, and I hope you will follow along at home, and let me know what you think!
Wow, so artistic! |
Step 1: You need to trim the bottoms off the Brussels sprouts. They are usually discolored and tough anyway, so trim them off slightly, and any leaves that want to fall off at this point, let them go. This is great stuff for your compost pile anyway…
Action photo! I hope you all appreciate the steam burns I gave myself trying to capture this moment for you… |
Step 2: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in the sprouts and simmer them until they are nicely cooked – but not cooked all the way through. This is a critical step – if you overcook them at this stage, we will be back at the “sulfurous mess” stage of things. So how do you know when they are blanched enough? I like to go by the smell guide. When they just start giving off that “cooked cabbage” smell, they are done – drain them, and get them into an ice bath to stop the cooking process.
This is a lot of bacon for the sprouts. You may want to do a little less. |
Step 3: In a large sauté pan, start cooking some bacon. Cook it until it is done, but not too crisp of course, because that is just nasty. Remove the bacon to a plate, but leave the rendered fat behind. This is what we will use to cook the sprouts. If you don’t have enough fat from the bacon, you can boost it with butter, oil, or best, some reserved bacon fat (which you all save, right?…)
Sprouts are sliced and trimmed of all the leaves that want to fall off. You are ready to assemble the final dish! |
Step 4: The blanched sprouts are nice and cool by now, so take them out and slice them in half. Again, some more leaves will want to fall off – let them go. Some people like to quarter their sprouts at this stage, and I have no problem with that if they are nice and big. But I like the look of halved sprouts myself. That is a question of personal preference, not divine mandate…
Since they are sauteing in bacon fat, the odds that they will be awesome are now pretty high… |
Step 5: Sprouts go in the pan! All that hot fat should start cooking them nicely right off the bat, but you want to work quickly to make sure you get all the cuts sides face down in the pan so they brown nicely. When your guests look at the sprouts, this is the side that will tell their brain that these have been nicely caramelized – so make sure this side is looking good on your sprouts – the rest is just cooking them through.
Testing for doneness. You want to see some color on that flat side. This one here needs just a little bit more… |
Step 6: You can test for when all the sprouts are ready to flip by turning over one of them in the middle of the pan. If they look good, you should be well on the way. Give them all a toss, and then throw in some halved chestnuts and heat them through.
The pan is getting more crowded now. Crowded with awesome! |
Step 7: Back goes the bacon! Really, how can you go wrong with bacon playing such a starring role in the recipe? Maybe I don’t like Brussels sprouts after all – maybe I’m just using them as a convenient vehicle for bacon… No, not really – but its presence certainly doesn’t hurt things!
The finished product - lovely to look at, and wonderful to eat! |
Step 8: Just before you pull them off the heat, toss in some dried cranberries (plumped in some warm water if you like) or some raisins. Off the heat, top with some blue cheese or Parmesan (not too much, just a little to make the texture more creamy) and some pomegranate seeds (if you like). The sweet/tart/creamy/bacony/buttery flavors and textures will not only delight the taste buds, but the resulting dish is lovely on the plate as well.
I hope this changes your mind on this much-maligned vegetable, and of course I hope you enjoy cooking them now as well!
Chef Matt
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11.12.08
Posted in Reviews, Recipes, Other Fun at 9:58 am by Chef Matt
No, I’m not making a turducken this year, seeing as how I will most likely be spending Thanksgiving in England this year. In one of the stranger coincidences in history, a holiday that celebrates the survival of a group of religious extremists running from persecution in England is actually NOT celebrated in England! Go figure…
But Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays even if it forces us all to remember in some small way that the American populace is descended from some of the most irritating and intolerant people in the history of the world. And the reason Thanksgiving holds a space as one of my favorites (just behind Flag Day) is this recipe. See, the turducken is the ultimate American recipe. It is a monument to both American ingenuity AND extreme gluttony at the same time!
One turducken - all seven of the deadly sins represented… |
For the uninitiated, the “turducken” consists of a de-boned chicken jammed (without first being introduced properly) into a de-boned duck that is then forced (much against its will I’m sure) into a de-boned turkey. The resulting mess is then usually deep-fried and served with a side of angioplasty balloons.
As a chef, the only response I could come up with when I first heard about this several years ago was, “Holy shit! When can I make one?!?”
Alas, it looks like I will have to wait a few more years before I get the chance. If I were to make one of these in England and invite some of my new friends over to share it, I think they’d deport me on principle alone. Just look what they did to Scotland when they learned about haggis…
Chef Matt
P.S. And for one of the funniest articles I have ever read on the subject of turduckens - or on anything really - please check out Francesco Marciuliano’s blog post “The Admittedly Incomplete History of the Turducken”. Just fabulous.
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06.12.08
Posted in Recipes at 10:07 pm by Chef Matt
A classic of Italian cooking, Linguine alle Vongole is one of those dishes that is not only sublime in its natural ocean flavors, but is so simple to prepare, you’d almost have to wonder why you don’t make it every day. Perhaps because so many recipes for this are full of flour and gumminess that are just completely inedible. Well, once you have this simple step-by-step approach, you’ll have a simple recipe that is clean, fresh and delicious, and one you’ll be able to make whenever you want.
Let’s get started. You’ll need the following all ready to go (since this all comes together fast):
click any of these photos to enlarge |
- 15 (or so) littleneck clams - scrubbed clean
- 2 Tbsp rough chopped basil
- 1 1/2 Tbsp chopped garlic
- 1/4 cup chopped tomatoes
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- Generous plash of white wine
- Kosher salt
- dash of red pepper flakes (not pictured)
- 4 oz linguine or other long pasta (I’m using squid ink spaghetti since squid ink pasta goes so well with seafood dishes.)
Oil and garlic - the base for all good cooking. |
Of course you’ll want to start a pot of salted water boiling for the pasta. In fact, if you have the pasta water boiling, and the pan and oil for the clams heated, you can pretty much cook both simultaneously in the same amount of time. So drop the pasta into the water, and throw the garlic in the pan. (If it’s not sizzling on contact, your pan is not hot enough…)
Of course, if you just dump all the pasta and boiling water all over the measuring cup, you’re on your own… |
One ingredient you may need later on in the recipe is some of the pasta water. If the pasta is too dry and needs more sauce, this is how you are going to add it. But I often have the problem that I drain the pasta, sending all the pasta water down the drain and then remember I needed some of the water. Here is my trick to remember how to save some. When you put your colander in the sink for the pasta, place a measuring cup in it. When the magic time comes to drain the pasta, you’ll remember to scoop out a cup for yourself - which I promise is more than enough.
I always carefully measure when I add booze to food. |
Once the garlic has a little color to it, you pretty much just want to throw everything else in. Tomatoes, clams, basil, red pepper, and a big old splash of white wine. Give the pan a few shakes to mix everything together, and then slap a cover on it. The wine will start to boil, and the steam will make the clams pop open to reveal their lovely meat inside.
All I did was throw it all in a pan, and it looks like this good that fast… |
When steam is coming out from the side of the lid, you’re probably pretty close to where you need to be. Take of the lid and take a peek. If the clams are ALL open, then keep the lid off. If only some are open, put the lid back on and keep cooking. Of course if all the other clams are open and one is just refusing to budge, then it probably is a bad clam, and should be discarded.
Remember, if they aren’t open by now, you don’t want to eat them. |
Take the clams out of the pan and place them in a separate bowl. The easiest way to do this is to use tongs. Grip them by placing one of the tongs inside the clam, and grip one of the two shells. Then be sure to tip the clam to drain all the natural juice out of the clam and into the sauce. When all of the clams are out, the pasta should be just about done. (You’ve been keeping a close eye on it, right?…) Save some of the liquid, and drain the pasta in your colander.
This is where the magic happens. Add the pasta to the pan with the clam sauce. See, the pasta (assuming you didn’t rinse it, which you should NEVER do) is coated with starch that is just dying to absorb some kind of sauce. So the pasta slides into the pan, grabs all this wonderfully reducing sauce, and with just a few tosses, it’s ready to go. If the sauce is too wet, cook it down a little more, if it’s too dry, this is where that pasta water will come in handy.
Place the pasta on a large plate, and top with all the open clams. And be sure to pour any juices in the bowl with clams over the pasta. That stuff is pure flavor, so don’t waste it! Serve with the same white wine you cooked with, and you have a meal that you’ve thrown together in less than 10 minutes, and yet could be served to the finest company.
Enjoy.
Yeah, this is the kind of lunch I have on my day off… |
Chef Matt
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05.05.08
Posted in Recipes, Other Fun at 9:15 am by Chef Matt
Cold, lime-flavored, salt-rimmed glass… as God intended. |
There is nothing that says “Today is Cinco de Mayo,” to me as much as a nice, ice cold margarita. I prefer them on the rocks - to put that debate to bed early - though I will have one frozen too if that is all that is available. But as for flavor, I am all about the traditional lime. I mean really, what else is supposed to go with tequila but lime?
But until recently, a great margarita was something that was only available for me at Mexican restaurants and upscale bars. And even those were frequently disappointing. I’ve tried to make margaritas myself for several years now, and the road has been one fraught with many terrible attempts and nights that (thankfully) I’ll never remember. But with 9 years of persistence and a blending of so many recipes and techniques that I’ve come across, I have finally created what I consider to be the perfect margarita. So great, that I would even dare to call it a “Matt-arita”.
The first margarita I made was two parts tequila, one part triple sec, one part Rose’s sweetened lime juice and ice put into a cuisinart (I didn’t have a blender then…) blended into a bitter, nasty slush of thick chunks of ice with untempered tequila. It was about the worst thing I had ever created drink-wise, and this is coming from someone who has mixed Rumplemintz with Mr. Pibb…
But I was not defeated. I was determined to make my own perfect margarita. So much so that I bought my own giant vat of margarita salt and a set of decorative margarita glasses from a wine festival. Buying items like this when you have no ability to make a decent margarita is optimism in the highest form. Or perhaps it was motivation…
One thing I noticed as I was questing to see how others made margaritas was how other countries seem to use lemons instead of limes with tequila. In Australia - where I did a lot of drinking - it was impossible to purchase a shot of tequila with anything but a lemon wedge. But if you got a margarita, it was made with lime-flavored mix. There is not a large Mexican population in Australia, so we can forgive their lack of understanding on this point. Another country lacking in Mexican immigrants is Ukraine. I was there with a friend, and he said that we just HAD to try this “Mexican” restaurant there. The building was even topped with a glass “dome” shaped like a sombrero. The food was an interesting take on Mexican cuisine, so I had to see their take on a margarita as well. I went to the bar and ordered one, and was sure to watch him make it. Crushed ice, tequila, Cointreau, and the straight juice of a lemon.
Me (left) and my friend Shane in the Kiev Mexican restaurant. I am holding the worst margarita in the world, and I’m not smiling. I’m cringing. |
“Oh dear,” I thought to myself as I watched it being made.
“Oh dear GOD!” I said aloud after tasting it.
My earlier attempts at margarita making seemed delicious and professional compared to this foul slush I was trying to swallow. This was the worst margarita in creation. It also taught me a valuable lesson in approaching a margarita: lemon is not a bad flavor with tequila, but limes are vital.
I will save you all from the millions of iterations of margaritas that I went through before arriving at the perfect recipe, but it was the lack of lime flavor that was always killing me. Most of the recipes I encountered had just Rose’s sweetened lime juice in there for all the lime flavor, and this was just not cutting it. Sure, the Rose’s was important for the sugar to help cut the sharpness of the tequila, but it was definitely a background player.
It wasn’t until I added the juice of a lemon to my margarita that I noticed a boost in flavors that really took me in the right direction. And I decided to really boost it up by zesting the lemon as well as adding the lemon juice. One sip, and I knew I was on the right track. It was all a question of balancing flavors from this point on, and of course, it was the lime flavoring that won out in the end.
So without forcing you to wait any longer, here is the recipe for what I consider to be the perfect margarita. Please give one a try. They’re involved and take a little while to make - as do most of my recipes - but I promise you the results are well worth the effort. I make one, thinking that’s all I want, and I usually end up making 2 or 3 more. Yes, they’re that good.
A perfect Matt-arita. In one of my special margarita glasses, rimmed with my optimistic margarita salt. |
Matt’s Perfect Margarita - a.k.a. the “Matt-arita”
(makes one margarita)
one lemon
one lime
1.5 shots Rose’s Sweetened
Lime Juice
1 shot Triple Sec
2 shots Tequila
(I prefer silver tequila for a
margarita)
ice cubes
Cocktail shaker
two bowls
fine mesh strainer
margarita glass rimmed with
salt
- Zest the lime (only the lime - I have tried it with the lemon too, not as good…) into one bowl.
- Juice the lemon and the lime into the bowl. It’s okay to get seeds and pulp in there, they will be strained out later.
- Add the Rose’s, Triple Sec and tequila to the bowl.
- Give the mixture a stir, and let the mixture steep in the fridge for at least 10 minutes, up to an hour (as if you could wait that long…)
- Strain the mixture through the fine mesh strainer into the other bowl (press the solids to get all the flavor out.)
- Pour into shaker, add four or five ice cubes.
- Shake thoroughly and pour (use shaker’s strainer to keep ice out) into margarita glass.
I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised with the results - especially with summer’s heat approaching. I can only hope that this recipe goes global - it would be nice to see something like this in other countries some day as well…
Chef Matt
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03.25.08
Posted in Recipes at 5:44 pm by Chef Matt
This is a recipe I just transcribed from my recipe file for a friend. It is from somewhere in New Orleans, but I don’t know where (if anyone does, I would love to credit it properly). Anyway, it is about the best soufflé I have ever had, so I wanted to share it with you all. No special reason, just a little something to share with you all.
Bread Pudding Soufflé
For the bread pudding:
10 cups stale French bread cubes
3 egg yolks
3 whole eggs
1 ¾ cups sugar
4 ½ Tbsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
½ cup butter, softened
4 cups milk
½ cup raisins, soaked in water
-Toast the bread crumbs in the oven, place in an ungreased 13X9 pan
-Beat the eggs and egg yolks together in separate bowl
-Add the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg – stir to combine
-Add the butter, beat in
-Stir in the milk
-Sprinkle raisins over the bread crumbs, then pour the egg/milk mixture over all that.
-Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes until browned and puffed. Let cool – will sink some as it cools.
For the Soufflé:
½ cup sugar
6 egg yolks
2 ½ cups bread pudding (not all of it, you will have some left over to enjoy)
6 egg whites
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
-Over a double-boiler, mix/warm sugar and egg yolks GENTLY so as to combine thoroughly, but DON’T cook the egg yolks.
-If you have not scrambled your eggs, add the bread pudding and stir to combine, again, being gentle with the heat, but combining thoroughly.
-In a separate (copper if you have it) bowl, whip the egg whites and sugar together to stiff peaks.
-Fold in the bread pudding mixture and bake the soufflé for 35-40 minutes at 375.
For the Bourbon Sauce:
1 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream
Dash cinnamon
1 Tbsp butter
1 ½ - 2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp bourbon or rum
-In saucepan, combine sugar, cream, cinnamon and butter. Bring to boil
-Mix the cornstarch and water together in a separate bowl, then whip into boiling sauce. Sauce should thicken pretty quicky.
-Remove from heat, stir in booze and use while warm on top of the soufflé.
Nothing short of awesome! I hope you all enjoy, and if anyone makes it and wants to send me a photo, I’ll post it!
Chef Matt
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