Good evening doper buddies. It's Saturday...and things did NOT go how I expected. As some of you may know, I didn't eat Thanksgiving dinner this year. Tonight was SUPPOSED to be a family and friends feast put on by your friendly hospital staff, me and Nurse B. Without going into detail, I got pissed off because people were acting dumb, so I bailed on that idea and said fuck it, and went all out in a different direction. Here is the result of my latest trip to the hypermart:
Since we weren't doing ham or turkey, beef came to mind. That being said, I decided to grab some high end steaks, more specifically a pair of thick 6oz Filets and package of 4 'Porterhouse Tails', which are about 4 or 5oz each. Straight from the butcher...the filets are on the left.
After a quick dip in some olive oil and seasoned with sea salt and course pepper. I also like to let steaks warm up on the counter for an hour, especially in the winter when you're fighting the cold with the grill. You want your grill as hot as you can get it to properly sear a steak, and this just makes it a little bit easier.
We were gonna do our famous jumbo grilled shrimp scampi for the original dinner. I had em, they were defrosted, and they needed to get used. I did. This is my secret shrimp marinade for the grill, which is Italian dressing, lemon juice, beer and Old Bay. Devein the shrimp, butterfly em, and leave the shells on for the grill. Wash em up in ice cold running water, Pat dry and dump em in the marinade. These went for about 16 hours, but they can handle up to 48 as long as it's not too acidic. If it is, you'll wind up with something that looks like Ceviche.
Ass-pair-a-gas...nature's asshole veggie. Gotta love popping some green on a plate, especially when it's real good. It's posing for this pic in my hard annodized thrift store score grill pan with the holes in it. This pan is a monster for grilled veggies that would normally wanna fall through the grates. It's not quite as hot as without it, so I mainly use it for the vejatableaus. Must have for you die hard grilling guys like myselfs.
Next on the tasting menu is something special. This is an adaptation of Tyler Florence's Ultimate Mashed Potates with grainy mustard. No mustard in these....but I did all the other trickery. The magic comes from super fresh peeled Yukon Golds, heavy cream, garlic and fresh thyme. Peel the potatoes and put em in an ice water bath to de-starch em. When it's time to make em, cut em into chunks and cook em directly in heavy cream, which is always left just under boiling. Put about 6 cloves of minced garlic and about 7 or so sprigs of FRESH Thyme. Dried thyme is nothing like fresh thyme, and if you did this with the dried stuff, it would have that musty flavor that thyme and sage do when they are dried. Chop the thyme up and get it into the cream mix. Cook the taters right in that, and save the cream after they are done. Transfer the cooked taters to a new bowl. Put a pad of butter in, and slowly start stirring the cream liquid back in as you mash em. That's right. (Imagine that in Trey Parker's voice from South Park). These are the best mashed potatoes I think that is humanly possible to craft. They are so fucking creamy, yet stiff and not glue like....and the fresh thyme and garlic infused into the cream is why culinary school exists. Definitely try this one at home kids.
Sadly, I didn't get a pic of the taters finished besides down below on the plate. That pic would go here:
This is my semi homemade Demi-Glace which is veal stock bones and bits cooked in a dark brown roux and veal stock for 18 hours reduced by 85% and once again cooked down with dry Sherry. Fortunately, Wegmans sells the brown part fresh and all thats left to do to make it authentic is to add super dry red wine or Sherry to double the volume of the original Wegmans tub and cook it covered for about 40m. This is a job for my mini Dutch oven so it doesn't need babysitting. Notice the color from the red wines. I used a combo of Dry Sherry and the last of the dry Pinot Noir I opened the other day when I made that DELICIOUS Baked Rigatoni dish with no pictures.
This is nature's asshole again. The attention whore is all oiled up and getting burned by flames and it wants you to notice.
The twin fillets. That's the hot corner of the grill with everything on 10. Don't overcook em!!
Nah....course not. Ooh yeah, that's what we like. Let em rest in a glass pan for a good 8-10m for the best results. Top pic is an out of focus pic of one of my Porterhouse Tails, and my fillet is under that.
Here is a quick montage of a little Rochester treat called Dave's Locker Clams Casino. These are made right down the road for the last 30 years, and are so good, they are the standard fare in most local restaurants around here. They are made with fresh live shucked Quahog clams, the clam is left in the shell, and their signature bacon, celery, and breadcrumb mix is packed on top and finished with a little paprika. To cook em, you place em under the broiler for about 12-15m. They are addicting and I want more. NOW.
This is what they look like after the broiler does it's thing. They come with 6 in a package and here is precisely ½ of that. That's three!!
And here is the finished product. I suppose it's like a genuine Thanksgiving dinner, as it doesn't fit on the plate. It was a genuine pain in the ass getting to this point and having everything come out together at the same time. It was fun, and my God was it delicious. Got a little steak, mashed and shrimp left for some Sunday lunch without the hassle. I also smoked some original GWK tonight in my Sherlock.
Ham coming soon...
THEY'RE called KAAAAHBS Joe's dad's stuff
