Roasted Potato Stacks

I know, I know, sorry to have to give you all the creeps with the picture in the last entry. So get your mind off it by thinking of roasted potato stacks.

Here's the theory behind it: get a bunch of potatoes, waxy preferred, probably around medium to small, then slice them with a mandoline (sorry, if you're a serious cook you'll have one -- can't take responsibility for hand-sliced). Then soak them in cold water for a while, then dry them off, one by one, toss them in oil and herbs, stack them somewhat randomly into towers and then bake them. Here's how I did it:

Ingredients

(To serve two):

4-6 new potatoes, blond or purple, smallish (a bit larger than a very large hen's egg), scrubbed but not peeled
3-6 garlic cloves, peeled and slivered thinly
Truffle oil (optional)
Olive oil
1 tablespoon dried thyme or 2 chopped fresh thyme
Fresh ground pepper
Sea salt

Method

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Mandoline potatoes, thicker than the thickest potato chip you ever ate but thin enough to bend almost in half without breaking; about 1 1/12 of an inch.

Immerse slices in cold water pre-treated with about three tablespoons salt and three tablespoons sugar.

After about a half an hour, drain and rinse potatoes. Dry thoroughly on paper towels.


Toss with truffle/olive oil and herbs until coated.

In a baking pan (aluminum, glass, anything flat is okay) start stacking the potato slices. Intersperse each one with a couple of slivers of garlic. The more garlic, the better, as the slivers will help keep the potato slices apart so the hot oven air can circulate enough to bake (and not steam) them.

Once stacked, ideally about 1 1/2 to 2 inches high, carefully place in baking pan.



Reduce oven temperature to about 475 and put the potatoes in on the middle rack. Time it at 15-minute intervals so you can rotate the baking dish and make sure the stacks aren't collapsing.

After about 45 minutes, start checking every five minutes or so. The top few potato slices should be brown and almost crispy, as should be all the edges. Serve with chopped Italian parsley.

Shrimp à la Nick

I swear, I never have more fun cooking than when I abandon all thoughts of recipes. Yes, recipes have their place, but once you've cooked shrimp 1,000 ways you can just grab what's on hand and make it sing.

If you know how to cook you'll know how I combined brined shrimp with sesame oil, red peppers, garlic, onions, bamboo shoots and scallions and flambéed them with saké, added soy and mirin and cilantro and a little corn starch . . . well, you'll just know.

I'll never be able to duplicate this exact recipe, however . . .

Steak Teriyaki

This is always a hassle-free dinner and it doesn't take much time. It shouldn't end up like those teriyakis you get in Vietnamese restaurants (there are only a handful of Japanese-run Japanese restaurants in Montreal), with cloyingly sweet-sauced, rubbery steak concealed by too many inexpensive vegetables.

Contrary to popular belief, no one eats steak teriyaki as we know it in Japan. It's entirely a Western invention, like chow mein. The closest thing might be teppanyaki (think Benihana) but even in Japan that's considered Western food. And they don't throw knives in the air or behind their back. One interesting thing they do do is to put live jumbo shrimp on the griddle. Now that's something to watch. And the heads are a delicacy.

But there is no such thing as "teriyaki sauce." They usually serve the steak teppanyaki with a thin dipping sauce on the side. It's always eaten with plain white Japanese rice.

Since I don't have a griddle, but rather a grill pan, I had to do some things differently here. Authenticity was not my target. But these things are nice to have around, if not authentic (I like 'em, so that's what's in it!):

Carrots
Bean sprouts
Scallions
Mushrooms
Broccoli
Ginger
Garlic
Mirin
Japanese saké
Authentic Japanese soy sauce (preferably usukuchi)

And that's about it. I make my rice with jasmine and coconut milk, just because I want to.

So here we go:

Ingredients

A couple of nice steaks, about 3/4 of an inch thick. If you have the bucks, spring for filet mignon. If not, a ribeye will do. Don't get cheap steak.
20-30 mushrooms, preferably shiitake, but any will do, sliced
3 bunches scallions (green onions), sliced (use mostly the lower parts)
2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced on a bias
1/2 head broccoli
10 cloves garlic, 6 of which peeled and sliced very thinly, the others chopped finely.
2 tablespoons ginger, frozen and grated with a microplane grater
2 handfuls beansprouts, washed thoroughly and drained
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup saké
1/2 cup Mirin
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in a little water
2 cups jasmine rice
1 2/3 cup chicken broth
1 cup coconut milk
Sesame or mustard oil


Method

Season the steaks with oil, salt and pepper, cover with plastic wrap and set aside, unrefrigerated.

Combine soy sauce, mirin, saké and chicken broth in a bowl.

In a sauté pan, sauté the mushrooms in oil on medium heat until they have given off all their moisture and begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

In more oil, sauté garlic chips until they begin to brown and are slightly crisp. Set aside.

In same oil, sauté carrots with diced garlic for about five minutes; they must still be firm. Set aside.

In a little more oil, sauté broccoli florets for about 7-10 minutes on medium. Set aside with carrots.

Pour sauce in sauté pan and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add mushrooms and cook until slightly reduced, about 10 minutes. Add cornstarch mixture and stir until slightly thickened. Set aside.

Make Rice

I use a rice steamer. Rinse rice thoroughly and drain. Combine rice, broth and coconut milk in steamer and set to cook. If you don't have a rice steamer bring broth and coconut milk to a boil in medium pot, add rice, stir thoroughly to combine, reduce to minimum heat and cover tightly. After 18 minutes, turn heat off and let rice rest, covered, for ten minutes.

Cook Steak

Oil grill pan lightly and place on medium heat for about five minutes. Add steaks, cooking for about 3-4 minutes on each side for medium rare. Only flip once.

Set aside on warmed plate and tent with foil. Let rest for about ten minutes. Transfer to cutting board and slice against the grain as finely as you can. Pour any juices into mushroom sauce.

Put finished rice into a small bowl and invert onto plate. Transfer steak to plate, garnishing with garlic chips, briefly microwave carrots and broccoli until hot, place on plate, pour on mushroom sauce, then garnish with beansprouts and green onions. Serve.

Pizza Night

Six of 'em tonight! Three tomato-based (mozzarella di bufala, tomato sauce with a hint of chipotle, ham or salami or prosciutto, onions, red pepper -- all scantly spread -- kalamata olives, gruyère, aged cheddar and Maréchal de lait cru) and three with goat cheese, sliced cherry tomatoes and a combination of the above.

I do believe I'm getting this down. Some before and afters:

Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup (Pho Bo)

Brigitte is in Pho mode, which seems to happen every fall or so. But although I like it, it's not exactly my cup of soup as a meal. (Apparently Pho is pronounced "Feu" and is descended from the French dish Pot au feu).

But it was a challenge to see if I could match the Pho from her favorite Pho joint (Hoai Huong, on Victoria). In my research I discovered that to make it from scratch involved oxtail bones blah blah blah and I was not about to explore it with such fervor.

Luckily, I turned up a convenient can of Pho broth at Kim Phat, Cote-des-Neiges. No harm in co-opting the real thing. I added large amounts of plain old broth but also added in the spices I had found in my research -- the one giving it that indefinable "Pho" flavor being star anise, which I'd never used before.

It worked out far better than I could have expected. Brigitte said it was BETTER than the restaurant's.

So this one's Pho you.

Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup)

Ingredients:

Broth

1 can (796 ml/27fl. oz./3 1/2 C) pho beef broth (available at Asian groceries) or the equivalent in beef broth
4 additional cups beef broth
2 cups chicken broth
3-4 whole cloves of star anise
I stick cinnamon
3-4 cloves
4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 inch ginger, frozen and grated
1 inch lemongrass, frozen and grated
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
1 fistful cilantro, washed and shredded by hand
1 1/2 tablespoons palm sugar (brown sugar is acceptable)

Method: Bring all ingredients to boil. Partially cover and simmer fairly energetically for thirty minutes. Strain through fine-mesh strainer and reserve broth.


Broth on the simmer

Other ingredients:

1 high-quality bavette/flap steak/top sirloin steak, about 3/4 inch thick
2 generous cups bean sprouts, washed
1 small white onion, sliced thinly into rounds
2 large carrots, peeled and julienned
3 green onions (scallions, spring onions) washed and chopped into 1/4-inch rounds, 3/4 of the way to the green end of the stalk
1/2 package Banh Pho (Vietnamese flat dried rice noodles, available at your Asian grocery store)
Handful cilantro leaves, washed and torn
Whole sprig Vietnamese basil or Thai purple basil
Mint leaves, if desired

Method: Put steak in the freezer for about thirty minutes. Using a very sharp knife, slice across the grain into 1/8-inch slices. Set aside.

In a bowl of hot water, soak the noodles while the steak is freezing.

In a small pot, boil 3-4 cups of water. Plunge beansprouts in for approximately thirty seconds to blanch, remove to strainer and chill with cold water. In same pot, bring the noodles to a boil and then remove after about 2 minutes. Chill to stop cooking.

Assemble dish; heat broth to boiling point, then pour into large bowls. Add the steak, the onion, the scallions and the carrots. After about three minutes, add all remaining ingredients and serve.