OMG a Recipe: Ad Hoc Stroganoff is Seriously Good S#%!

I was getting caught up on episodes of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, and saw his "Obsessed" special, where he profiled people seriously strung-out on food. I saw the bit on food bloggers and it mostly made me cringe because I thought, gads, are we all just a bunch of gout-stricken, angry, misanthropic mouthbreathers? I looked at my sweatpants and t-shirt that I'd been wearing for the second day in a row and thought, yeah, probably, but I perked up when I saw Thomas Keller do his roast chicken bit. I appreciate his cooking style of  DO EVERYTHING YOURSELF, but I can't always put in the time needed to make some of his more involved dishes, so I don't often cook from his recipes. I did however find a new drug in Sir Thomas' take on Beef Stroganoff, from his Ad Hoc at Home cookbook.

Ad Hoc/Two Day Stroganoff - totally worth the effort! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

One of my good friends joked that "Ad Hoc" means Takes Two Days to Make. I guess that could be said for a lot of Thomas Keller's cookbooks. They're no Rachael Ray, done-in-30-minutes-flat kinds of recipes, but that's just because Keller really wants people to have a comprehensive experience of cooking a meal, creating fully-developed flavors. That tends to mean you'd better have a a day or two to fuss about. I'd heard so many good things about his beef stroganoff recipe in Ad Hoc from other food bloggers, plus I wanted a real tah-daaaah dinner for my Auntie S.'s last night before she had to head home, so I took up the Ad Hoc gauntlet and got cookin'.

So, why two days? You could probably prep the beef stroganoff with just one day of prep, as the cooking of the dish itself doesn't take much time beyond the preparation of a basic weekday meal. I made the pasta dough for the wide, flat tagliatelle noodles from scratch on one day, and then made the braising liquid for the boneless beef shortribs on another day, along with the braising itself and the rolling/cutting of the noodles -- this could have happened in a single day, I was just busy with getting the house ready for my aunt. The braising liquid is basically red wine reduced with aromatic spices and vegetables -- I did a cheat, using items from a bag of vegetable scraps I keep in the freezer, collected for making stock once a month. I have this thing about buying fresh vegetables only to cut them up and boil them down just for flavoring a liquid -- it feels so wasteful! Does it make my corner-cutting act evil and cheater-y? Maybe so, but the braising liquid was rich enough with the wine to flavor the beef shortribs nicely, infusing the meat with richness and the low cooking heat rendered it to a fork-tender softness. Keller recommends letting the cooked meat sit in the braising liquid overnight, as the chill firms the meat up for easier cutting before it gets thrown into the creamy stroganoff sauce. He also suggests saving the braising liquid for cooking other meats, but I ended up using it a week later for a rich beef and vegetable soup -- I wasn't going to let anything go to waste on this one.

As to the subject of handmade noodles, many will rightly think, Jeeze, Wasabi, you can just buy pasta, you know. I had it in my head to buy some fresh-made pasta from Pike Place Market, but I had seen some other bloggers talking about homemade pasta recently, and my own frustrations over failed pasta making in the past made me stubborn to accept the fate of being a Quitter McFailure. Once more unto the breach, I told myself. Crying God for Harry, England and St. George, and the satisfaction of not letting a mixture of egg and flour get the better of me, I made a batch of pasta dough and let fly the dogs of war with a rolling pin. For this, I didn't use Keller's pasta recipe because it's so egg-rich and I didn't want to risk losing so many eggs on a failed dough, so I just went with a basic pasta dough recipe. I don't think this resulted in any punishable food sins because it turned out fine. Per the advice of fellow bloggers like Salty Seattle, who regularly makes her own pasta, the dough was rolled out in small, handful-sized portions, and made extra thin, since the cooking process will fatten the noodles. I don't have a pasta machine, so it was just a rolling pin and my own personal Gun Show to get things going, but it did the job, even at the expense of the noodles looking a bit on the "rustic" side. Once covered with a meaty cream sauce, who cares?

The pasta ribbons ready for boiling, braised meat chilled and sliced, the stroganoff was assembled on my aunt's final night at our house. The sauce was a rich mix of cream, mushrooms and onions, handblender-buzzed into velvety smoothness. It warms up the meat and is tossed with the cooked pasta ribbons. I didn't think handmade pasta would make a difference, but the thicker noodles and chewier texture of scratch-made pasta made for a great toothiness. I'll make complicated recipes and then create my own shortcuts if I want to make it again to save time, but for this one, I would gladly make it again the exact same way, handmade pasta and all, for no other reason than to eat such an earthy, rich and flavorful dish.

Making this meal, I really felt like I was fully involved in all the steps of the process, watching each stage of how flavor and texture gets developed, resulting in that much more of a satisfying experience. It really made the food taste better for me, even if everyone else was like, whoa, how much cream is in this? I can honestly say, I look forward to making this dish again, and threatening arterial blockage to others.

Eating well and making pasta with The Gun Show - Photos by Wasabi Prime

OMG a Recipe: the Long Winter - Game Night at Wasabimus Prime's

One of 2009's happy purchases was Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home, and while I make no lofty Julie and Julia promises to cook my way through it, I decided to make at least one dish that appeared low-key enough for a dinner with friends, when we hosted a board game night before the holidays. As fate would have it, neither the meal nor the game went as quickly as one would think, leading us all down a long, winding path into the wee hours of the morning. The dish? A seemingly simple enough chicken, pepper and sausage stew. The game? Steve Jackson's card game of epic backstabbing potential, Illuminati. Intrigue! Betrayal! Sofrito!

Yes, it's a big orange and red mess, but trust me, it was delicious - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I'm notorious for going off-recipe, making substitutions every which willy-nilly way. Out of respect for Thomas Keller, I followed his chicken, peppers and sausage recipe, even though it took a couple of days of preparation. Not to say this took a solid 48 hours of fussing over ingredients, but I did spend one afternoon slowly simmering his recipe for sofrito, a low-and-slow cooking of onions and tomato in olive oil, with a finish of garlic, which then was used in the flavoring for the roasted bell peppers, which took another afternoon to complete. The chicken was soaked in his chicken brine -- a recipe I quite like, as it perfumes the meat with the lovely fragrance of parsley and lemon. Used this same brine for the chicken and pork tenderloins served on our Christmas dinner, to much flavorful success.

The flavorful joy of sofrito, whose om-nom-nom-ness is worth the effort - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Once the preparation for the sofrito roasted peppers was completed, along with the brined chicken parts, plus making stock from the chicken's carcass, the final dish didn't take much preparation beyond basic construction. The chicken and sausage were seared in a Dutch oven, adding the peppers and extra broth, and then letting it slow cook in the oven for a bit. It sounds so easy, doesn't it? Yeah, not so much. Thank the heavens for being a Lady of Leisure at the moment.

Granted, I'll admit it wasn't the most beautiful of things to be placed on a large serving platter (oh, the magic of parsley), but the layering of flavors and the different methods of cooking yielded a delicious chicken that fell off the bone, mixed with savory peppers and spicy sausage. I realize this is an OMG a Recipe post, because I truly followed a recipe, but again, out of respect for Chef Keller, instead of listing his recipes, I'd recommend buying or borrowing the book to truly absorb his wisdom.

Nerd Alert! The secret life of Wasabi Prime and Friends - Photos by Wasabi Prime

It's fitting that such a meal with a lengthy preparation time be served at our game night, as it was an evening that stretched into the morning hours, spent at our table, working out Machiavellian plots of world domination and plundering of treasuries. Good friends Mr. G and Mr. R joined us for a few quick rounds of Rio Grande Games' Dominion a feudally fun card game that lets you made decisions and purchase your own kingdom. I was recently introduced to this game by other board game friends -- lots of fun, never the same game, and requires a bit of strategy. Tis true, we look like a bunch of Magic the Gathering nerds, but considering we usually get together to play old-school Dungeons and Dragons , this was a step up on the geek scale. Don't think badly upon the Prime for being such a total oily nerd; sometimes you just have to let your Freak Flag Fly, and this superfreak waves her banner high, baby.

The night turned dark and sinister when Mr. R brought his copy of Illuminati. Similar to Dominion, it relies primarily on cards and the achieving of certain monetary goals. But with players being given the distinct monikers of Servants of Cthulu or the Gnomes of Zurich, it's a bit like a demonic Monopoly. It also encourages cheating, if you can believe it -- or "creative rule bending," if you like. It also probably didn't help that we were drinking wine and cocktails to fuel our rowdy spirits and trash-talking. Mr. Wasabi made up a powerfully strong batch of Tom and Jerry cocktails -- click here for a recipe from Epicurious. A bit like eggnog, this frothy and powerful drink set our trio into motion for an eight-plus hour marathon session of a single game of Illuminati.

Wine and cocktails... you're getting very sleepy... sleeeeeeeepyyyy.... zzzzz - Photos by Mr/Ms Wasabi

The round of Illuminati finally concluded after two in the morning, after much conspiratorial backstabbing and threats that Mr. Wasabi would surely be sleeping on the couch that night if he snuck a peek at my cards or attempted another overthrowing of my network. I can credit a collective amount of pig-headedness on all players' parts (myself included) as the culprit behind why this game lasted so long. But really, after you've spent so long building up your evil empire, you don't want to just roll over and let someone win for something as silly as sleep.... right? Stubborn heads prevailed until Mr. Wasabi finally won the lofty privilege of saying, "Thank God, this game is OVER."

With enough rest, I feel like I will be ready for the next game night, as well as tackling another recipe from Thomas Keller's recipe books. Onwards and upwards for 2010!

UnRecipe: Yippie-Kai-Yay Holiday

The holidays are all about tradtion, so for as much holly-jolly spirit as one feels when Charlie Brown gets the pathetic twig of a tree for the Christmas pageant, or hearing Jimmy Stewart scream "Merry Christmas, everybody!!" as he runs through winter streets like a lunatic, or even the many warnings of "You'll shoot your eye out," traditions don't necessarily replace one another, they simply build and become like a collection of memories to call upon when the holidays come calling. This year was a first for the Prime -- after last year's icy-hell travel experience, I skipped traveling to spend Christmas with the parental-sans for the first in my thirty-odd years (I love my family, I know it's weird), and decided to start building some new traditions in my Pacific Northwest home.

Holiday dinner for eight... even though we only had six chairs - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I wasn't the only one staying home for the holidays -- several friends had no definite plans for the evening of the 25th and we opened our doors for another 'Fugee Holiday. Mr. Wasabi and I had a dinner for eight on our hands, so under the watchful eye of Miss Indy, the kitchen went into mad prep mode a few days in advance.

From the First Thanksgiving experience, along with previous large meal preparations, I've come to the same conclusion that many other home cooks probably discovered: it sucks to be sweating over the stove when guests are about. Plus it's no fun when everyone else has a cocktail in hand and you're stuck sweating over a skillet sizzling with hot oil. So despite preparation taking over previous days, it was worth doing as much of the work ahead of time, so all that needed to be done the day-of was warming things in the oven, a quick pan-sear and oven bake, and throwing items together at the last minute.

The dinner prep of Gibraltar, but it's worth doing in advance! - Photos by Mr. and Ms. Wasabi

Despite the UnRecipe header, I relied on two recipe books for the menu, based on their manageable ingredient list, what could be made ahead of time, and then some UnRecipe alterations along the way. The amazing local talent of Chef Jerry Traunfeld's The Herbal Kitchen provided a recipe for a salad of greens with wine-poached cherries, as well as an eye-poppingly rich chocolate pot de creme dessert. The main course was a roasted pork tenderloin with green lentils and root vegetables, by Szmania's Chef Ludger Szmania, from a book and program supporting nonprofit groups called Celebrated Chefs, which includes a collection of Seattle area restaurant recipes. I signed up and got the book months ago, but have only just begun to start cooking through some of the dishes -- for providing email and personal information, it's not a bad tradeoff, as the book is a nicely-bound hardback featuring recipes from good restaurants in the Seattle area. And I haven't been inundated with emails saying I have an inheritence from a long-lost relative in Nigeria, so I figure they can't be totally selling my information off.

Festive swine! Photo by Wasabi Prime

I couldn't help myself from modifying the tenderloin recipe by brining the pork first, using Thomas Keller's poultry brine recipe from Ad Hoc, which perfumes the meat with a nice citrus and parsley flavor. I doubled both the brine and the seasoning rub because I had two pork tenderloins, plus a small chicken. The lentil and root vegetables were cooked a day in advance, so all they needed was a reheat in the stove.

Among the other make-aheads included the decadent pot de creme chocolate custards, which I substituted Earl Grey tea for jasmine (more UnRecipe meddling!). Dried cherries with a bit of red wine and a sprig of thyme were poached a day in advance and kept in the fridge before being sprinkled over the salad. A bit of the holiday mulled cranberry spiced drink was made ahead of time as well. By making and preparing as much as possible, it left the seasoning and searing of the meats for Christmas Day, with a finish-off in the oven, which also reheated the lentils and vegetable side dish.

Getting our snack on with cheese, crackers and booze - Photos by Wasabi Prime

For appetizers, a large wheel of Brie was wrapped in store-bought puff pastry and baked until crisp the day-of. There was a bit of flourish added: I had had steeped balsamic vinegar with dried figs and a vanilla bean for a Christmas gift for Mr. Wasabi. Not wanting to waste anything, I kept the figs and chopped them small, sprinkling over the finished baked Brie with a drizzle of honey. The cheese was served with sliced apples and crackers brought by friend Sassy J. A mix of olives tossed with lemon zest and warmed in the oven were served as a savory snack, and an array of bubbly cocktails, wine from Miss Alice's collection, the mulled cranberry spiced wine, and homebrew beer from Mr. K were served. Let it never be said that the House of Wasabi doesn't like to get their drank on.

Winter salad where even the cherries were drunk on wine - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Once everyone had some snacks and a frosty beverage or three, salad, meats, and lentils were laid out. I will say having the oven keep everything warm and just setting everything out, already done, is a nice thing. When I watch cooking shows and the celebrity cooks and chefs flipping food in skillets to the amazement of their guests, I'm always kind of baffled. My friends like to sit, eat, drink, and relax -- and dammit, so do I, especially at my own home. So with some minor salad construction and plating the main courses on serving platters, it was time to get our grub on.

Pan-seared and baked pork tenderloin and chicken - roast beast was not available. Photos by Wasabi Prime

This was probably the largest sit-down dinner the Wasabi Household had hosted. We'll either do small dinners with friends or a big twenty-something gathering where it's more of a stand and wander while you snack. I much prefer smaller gatherings these days, but seating can be tricky when you only have six chairs. Mr. Wasabi solved this by creating the new tradition of casually gathering around the warmth of a large television to watch what we would like to consider a new Christmas classic. Nothing says "holiday" like watching Bruce Willis, circa 1988, with a lot more hair, running from Severus Snape and his band of Euro-terrorists in Die Hard.

Semi s'more dessert, way better than Twinkies - Photos by Wasabi Prime

With the power of  John McClane's action hero wit, we Mystery Science Theater-ed the hell out of this movie, calling out its holiday movie relevance at every turn: "Ho-ho-ho, now I have a machine gun," written on a recently deceased terrorist -- totally a Christmas movie. We balanced the wine and food with a wicked sugar high brought on by baked treats provided by good pal Miss SJBe and the chocolate pot de cremes. I had also made a batch of homemade marshmallows, not wanting the Epic Fail of a previous attempt to haunt my holiday steps forever. These mallows from Alton Brown's recipe were nowhere near perfect, but plopped atop each custard and hand-torched with the force of an explosive Nakatomi Tower, who the hell cares, as fire truly made it better. There was so much sugar being eaten, I think we could see into another dimension -- yippie-kai-yay, indeed.

Bruno wants to roast marshmallows - screencap from Die Hard/photos by Wasabi Prime

Sometimes traditions are just as much about breaking with the old and starting anew, even if they're a little off-kilter... and violent. While the holiday was tinged with a bit of sadness over missing Christmas with Wasabi Mom and Dad, creating new traditions with much beloved friends made for a very special holiday the Prime will not soon forget. Many, many thanks to the fabulous friends who made it out to the homestead to join us for a holiday dinner -- you made this Christmas at home so very special and happily memorable.

FoodTrek: Family Values With Thomas Keller

"Treat it like it's yours and one day it will be" -- this is the working motto behind the way Thomas Keller the businessman, keeps his restaurants successful and in loving, capable hands. His respected name, while well known in the culinary world and public at large, tends to be nearly invisible on his restaurants, and that is most certainly by design. When you hear about French Laundry, Bouchon, and Per Se, you don't need to see his name in lights because the food and the experience speaks for itself, and all-around éclat is the rare currency with which they navigate the restaurant world. That fortune is as a result of Thomas Keller the chef, who has such a clear understanding over ingredients and the importance of complimenting fresh flavors, never straying from the food's sincerity. It is that earnest pleasure from the synthesis of quality ingredients that Keller discussed when he visited Seattle to promote his new book of recipes based off his latest restaurant, Ad Hoc.

Sssh... the book is resting - Photo by Wasabi Prime

A group of diners, well-wishers and media gathered at Bastille, to listen to the wisdom of Sir Thomas, nibble on some samplings from Ad Hoc's recipe book, and experience the foodie fangeek moment of saying they got to talk to Thomas Keller. Don't lie -- I know I couldn't have been the only one totally giddy to be there. Organized by Kim Ricketts Book Events, they couldn't have picked a more ideal location: beautifully detailed French bistro surroundings and Bastille's executive chef Shannon Galusha worked at French Laundry for three years. The warm glow of candles and dimmed lighting cast a golden glow throughout the restaurant and private bar area where the media event was being held. Plates of warm, comforting food were laid out for people to sample, all made from Ad Hoc's menu. Of all the appetizers, the rich, deeply-flavored oxtail and mushroom crostini was probably my favorite item, and then the savory crab cakes.

Oui, chefs! Sir Thomas alongside Bastille's Executive Chef, Shannon Galusha - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Nestled among Keller's existing family of Yountville, California restaurants, Ad Hoc is a more casual dining experience, offering a prix fixe menu of flavors designed to evoke memories of meals at home, amongst loved ones. Ad Hoc simply means provisional or temporary, which was what Thomas Keller's family-style restaurant was meant to be, but it settled so nicely into the dining groove of the neighborhood that it became a permanent resident. The food is distinctly comfort-based, with all-American roots. Keller said he had always wanted to do a hamburger restaurant. It seems like an odd thing for someone with such a prestigious career to move towards something as humble as a quarter pounder, but he spoke of a collective food memory that everyone has. The meals we all grew up on were less likely to be gourmet, more like a family dinner that was put together with simple comforts and shared. It was less about the food and more about the way a meal encouraged interaction with its diners. The process of choosing something on a menu is private, but when the whole meal is laid out for everyone to experience, everyone becomes involved. Keller admits he didn't experience the traditional family dining experience, that his brothers were the ones who took care of meals to notably mixed results, but he clearly understands the function of the family table, and Ad Hoc is a reminder that food isn't always about the prestige of luxury ingredients, simply the immeasurable value of something made with earnest skill.

To the point of Keller's fatherly quote, he runs his restaurants in a parental way, willingly passing on the stewardship to others, once they've proven they can run the business successfully. His corporate and cooking philosophies have a similar theme of self-sufficiency. He spoke of a reliance on culinary skills, that it was crucial to have a thorough understanding of methods and ingredients. He implied that recipes are a bit of a double-edged sword; they can guide people towards recreating a dish, but it doesn't always encourage people to step outside of the printed words and gain a deeper knowledge of how the dish works and why it is successful.

The weather outside was frightful, but Bastille was quite delightful - Photos by Wasabi prime

The topics of home comforts and independence in the kitchen led to a question that I asked Keller when he was signing books. Anthony Bourdain calls it his Death Row Meal, which is to say, it's the thing you crave if you know it is your last meal to enjoy. Inevitably, even the most famous of chefs always name something their mother used to cook for them or some simple, humble dish that no one would have guessed in a hundred years.

I wanted to know what Keller ate when he was in the comfort of his own home, when he can tuck away his celebrity and he only needs to satisfy his own palate. I'm sure it was an idiot question to ask -- he only lives in the same city with all his restaurants as neighbors -- but this wasn't about restaurant dining. Our sense memory comes from a place before we understand what "gourmet" means, and whether we are aware of it or not, we keep those early memories of food close to our hearts, and stomachs. If one truly loves food, it is a blind affection that is not swayed by status, cost or other outside perceptions.

The UnRecipe power of Thomas Keller! Photo by Wasabi Prime

Thomas Keller said his go-to pantry cooking is often some fresh broccoli cooked up with canned tuna, drizzled with olive oil. Incredibly simple, with basic staple ingredients found in most homes. It wasn't until stepping into his food memory shoes and making this same combination in our kitchen that I wondered if some of this was from those childhood days of his brothers cooking for the family. The warmed tuna and greens were reminiscent of the old beloved standby, tuna noodle casserole. The quick meal's simplicity and efficiency spoke to the needs of a busy adult, but the flavor made me think that it spoke to the child finding comfort in a home-cooked meal with family. His answer was perfect, even at the risk of myself looking like a total moron -- I really think he was irritated at me for asking it! But his off-the-cuff answer completely supported the mentality behind what Ad Hoc is, and what its recipes seek to do for people inspired by them: rediscover the family meal, and do so with respect to ingredients and methodology.

Yet another Christmas present come early for the Prime, having the chance to see Thomas Keller and purchasing a copy of Ad Hoc as a gift for myself. I'm hoping the book is a way to give the gift of a good meal to my loved ones in the near future, so that we may continue that philosophy of food with friends and family.

Many thanks to Kim Ricketts Book Events, the fantastic team at Bastille, and Lissa Gruman of Gruman & Nicoll for extending the invitation to the media event. I look forward to future events with guest chefs and food authors visiting Seattle and sharing their thoughts and words with us. Cheers!