Perfect steak

Preheat water bath to 130°F or 54°C for medium rare, vacuum seal steak. 

Place steak in bath for 1 hour for a 1 inch thick steak, I used a t-bone.

When the steak is done to your liking, heat a cast iron skillet on high heat, add a quarter sized dot of high smoke point oil, such as canola, vegetable, or sunflower, and once the pan is starting to smoke a little put in your steak.

After 30 sec.-1min, flip your steak. After another 30 sec-1 min, remove the steak from the pan and let it rest. Keep the pan on the flame, reduce heat, and add some butter butter and a few stalks of rosemary. Cook until the butter is brown and the rosemary is crystallized, then pour from the pan into a bowl.

Once your steak is rested, plate it and serve the butter on the side. Its better to dip the steak in the butter or spoon the butter on the side of the plate than to pour it over the steak itself, as the caramellized flavour of the butter will diminish after sitting on the steak for a while. The crystallized rosemary can, however, be placed directly on the steak.

Breakfast

Not every meal has to be a sous vide masterpiece, sometimes a simple, traditional style dish is perfect.

Espresso, toast, and eggs. Nutritious, delicious, and easy.

To make the eggs, start with a pan on med.low- medium heat. Put in a little oil. 

Once its up to temp, crack in your eggs, cover the pan and reduce heat to low. Let it sit for a few minutes, just until the whites are firm to your liking.

The Maillard Reaction

Otherwise known as the browning effect.

Part of tonight's dinner: roasted cauliflower and pan seared chicken.

Meringhe con la panna (with orange)

Meringue with whipped cream: two piedmontese meringue cookies stuck together with whipped cream.

This recipe is great for learning how to pipe without being too resource intensive: all you need is 3 egg whites, 3 cups of powdered sugar, and some whipped cream. I made the whipped cream with some orange juice and zest, but you could exclude the orange, or even just use canned whipped cream.

Whip the egg whites to a very stiff, glossy peak, and gradually pour in your sugar. I did mine a spoonful at a time, just to give you an idea of how slow to do it. 

Preheat your oven to 250° f. Butter and flour a baking tray or silpat. 

Pipe your meringue onto the tray with a plain tip in 2 inch mounds, atleast an inch apart. You can make them smaller if you would like, but i wouldnt make them bigger or the middles wont cook and they will taste like powdered sugar Place in oven, bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the hard but still white top doesnt slide around when you place your finger on top and wiggle it.

Some may burst open

Some may come out really nice

You can whip half a cup of heavy cream and fold in the juice of half an orange and the zest of an eighth of the same orange. 

ALWAYS ZEST BEFORE YOU JUICE!

Now, loosen the coolies from the tray and let the meringue cool completely to room temp. And scoop a spoonful of cream onto one cookie, then squish another similarly sized cookie on top of the first. Or just eat them. I did a combination of both. 

Have fun cooking, and enjoy your cookies!

Sick day soup

First, put some olive oil and butter in your pan, equal amounts, on medium. Wait for it to bubble and sizzle then chuck in 2 cloves of crushed garlic and as much onion as you want (we didnt have any at the time)

When your onions and garlic soften, add a chopped carrott and a stick of celery.

When the carrots start to brown a little, dump as much broth in as you want, i used about 3/4 of a cardboard container.

Reduce heat to low, then wait till the broth boils. Once it boils, reduce heat to a simmer and add all your seasonings. Basically dump every herb you can find in. I used rosemary, oregano, thyme, cilantro, chili flakes, salt, pepper, and onion powder.

Simmer it until a golden melted fat ring forms around the edge, then dump in some cooked pasta. Any kind you want works but orzo is great for soups. Simmer for atleast 45 minutes, then serve. 

I like to add grated parmesan when i serve it, but that is optional.

Refreshment with a heavy or acidic dinner...

San pellegrino or another sparkling/ mineral/ tonic/ seltzer water over (preferrably finely crushed) ice with a few berries. Its delicious and cuts right through the heaviness, cleansing your pallette every time.

Chicken Standollini with sliced mozzarella

Standollini is a beautiful (looking and tasting) dish consisting of peppers, onions, mushrooms, and a meat, that is fun to make and is great practice in chopping, flipping, searing, braising, and plating. Its one of my favourite dishes to make, and is almost a complete meal. You can add a little homemade pasta (link below) if you want ;)

Start off by sauteing some onions and garlic in olive oil. The proportions are up to you as far as the veggies go, but I used 2/3 of an onion and 2 cloves of garlic. Add lots of salt and some olive oil.

next, start braising, shallow frying, or searing your chicken. Deglaze the pan with red wine after you finish for some beautiful "sauce" to pour over your plated chicken. I tenderized some chicken breast tenderloins, seasoned with salt and pepper, then braised them. 

Now, check on your onions. When they are starting to turn from translucent to golden brown, add your peppers (I used one green and one orange, colours don't matter though) and mushrooms (any single one of the veggies is optional, but I like to leave the mushrooms out) and sweat them out a little, just until they start to look really glossy and are pliable or tender.

Once the peppers are tender, add a little red wine or balsamic vinegar (I prefer both) to taste. Add a little salt as well, then scoop into a dish, or onto your plate.

When the chicken is done cooking, lay it on its nice bed of veggies. 

We served ours with a little sliced mozzarella drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with oregano.

Have fun cooking, and enjoy eating your homemade chicken standollini. 

Homemade pasta: http://theramsayscook.blogspot.com/2014/11/homemade-pasta-tagliatelle-farfallini.html

Homemade pasta: Tagliatelle, Farfallini

This is how my family makes homemade pasta. Pictured below are some tagliatelle noodles and a few little farfallini, which i made just for practice.

The recipe we use is as follows: 1 egg and 3/4 cup of all purpose flour per every 1.5 persons. To feed 6 people, we use 4 eggs and 3 cups of flour.

To make the dough takes a long time amd lots of work. You would be better off watching a video on youtube about how to do it. 

Once you have the dough, roll it out to a 6 or 7, then fold it into quarters and cut into finger width ribbons for tagliatelle. Gently unfold and leave to dry for a few minutes before cooking

Now for farfalle/farfallini, the process is a little different. Roll your dough out to your desired thickness, then cut horizontally with a raviolli roller and vertically witha knife, with a horizontal:vertical ratio of about 3:4. Then, lay your thumb on the edge of one of the little rectangles and scooch the other side inwards with your index finger, making a folded portion in the middle. Then, squash the folded part down lightly so it holds together. 

To prepare, bring water to a medium-boil, not quite rolling, then dump your pasta in. Let it sit for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, then strain it out.