Smoked Salmon and Champagne

New Year’s Dinner was a done deal so to speak – ham, beans and greens are expected. But lunch was another story. Here the playing field was open.

Foodtasmic was lucky. A friend gave a bottle of real Champagne. This one was from Nicolas Feuillatte. This is a consistent producer of quality Champagne at reasonable prices.

Champagne? New Year’s? Hey, not much decision there. Break out the nice flutes and enjoy. What else did we have that was already on hand that would do justice to a bottle of nice Champagne?

A look in the fridge brought the answer in three parts. First there was smoked salmon. I think there’s hardly a better combination than thin slices of smoked salmon with bubbly. Ours was topped with a few capers for a little flavor pop here and there.

There was a jar of trout caviar. The color was right and it had a clean fresh flavor. The pop from it was so pleasing too.

We found a small piece of 4-pepper goat cheese. It made a great companion to the salmon and caviar. Its pungency was more interesting than sour cream or cream cheese.

A knob of beautiful fresh butter rounded out the plate. Served alongside were simple butter snack crackers.

With all the possible combinations, the few ingredients made for much variety. A little of this, add a caper next time, use the cheese and then not. It made for a busy and fitting New Year’s lunch bash.

Ham, Beans and Greens

In the south, there is a New Year’s tradition of eating certain things. Black-eyed peas are supposed to bring good luck. Greens are for money. And of course pork is the meat of choice. There are more that are specific to individual families.

At Foodtasmic we certainly didn’t want to violate tradition or risk bad luck and no money all year long. So we had our share of approved eats.

The black-eyed peas were most always to be prepared from dried ones. You probably weren’t fortunate enough to have any you canned or froze yourself. These days little cartons of fresh ones appear in the produce market around Christmas yet the stores still have stacks of dried black-eyes on sale for a couple of weeks.

Our peas were cooked from frozen ones. Onion and smoked hog jowls made for tasty stock flavorings. The peas were simmered in the seasoned stock for around 2 hours. The key to good tender southern vegetables is never to boil them. A nice slow simmer will impart flavor from the cooking liquid and make them tender without destroying the texture.

For green we chose turnip greens – also frozen. These are easier and quicker than collards and have a milder taste and smell. Ham hock went into the stock for the greens and some crushed red pepper. At our house a spoon or two of sugar goes into turnip greens, too. Those simmered a little longer than the peas. Be careful. It’s easy to get too much water into turnip greens and they are wet when served.

For the pork to eat, and not that for flavoring, we went for that southern staple country ham. This is a pork leg that is cured in salt and then smoked before aging. We got the real thing – from the folks at Smithfield.

The trick with country ham is to barely cook it at all. Just like Prosciutto, it can be sliced very thin and eaten “raw.” Regularly sliced and just warmed on each side will do the trick. You won’t lose the salty smokiness and the ham will be tender and moist. The pan drippings make their own sauce.

Our New Year’s dinner was well – foodtasmic worthy. Hopefully we will have good fortune and prosperity all year long.

Tuna Number Two

With the rest of my tuna, I wanted to try to combine poaching in oil and sous vide. I had poached salmon in butter and olive oil before with reasonable success. The butter version was a little overcooked.

I took the other piece of tuna and trimmed away the area that had been at the top and by the skin. I put a cup of olive oil in a quart zip lock bag along with the tuna. By putting the bag in a bowl of water I was able to remove most of the air and make the bag sink in the cooking water.

This time I cooked using the Anova at 110 degrees – Foodtasmic Tuna Temp - for 20 minutes. I allowed for more time due to having to heat the oil. After cooking, I seared the tuna just as in the first piece – 30 seconds per side for color. Because of the oil this piece took on a little browning.

Tuna was cut into four slices just like the first time but it was served with a sauce made from garlic and basil and seasoned with salt and pepper. A salad of raspberries, strawberries and blackberries splashed with fig balsamic was served alongside.

The tuna was just as good as the first try and a touch more moist. It was rare yet warm. The sauce accented the luscious texture from the oil poaching. The flavors of the sauce and berries made for good company with the tuna.

What did I learn?

First that tuna and sous vide are a perfect marriage. When you add the searing before service technique, you get the same result as cooking that way only without the vagaries of temperature and doneness.

Both versions were tender and cooked perfectly. If they were cooked at a slightly higher temperature, I believe that a similar tenderness would result. Beyond that and you begin to impact flavor and texture.

An important consideration is the quality of ingredients – specifically the tuna. Care has to be taken when serving meat and fish rare. Be very sure of the freshness and grade. Storage is important too. Buy only from a very trusted source.

To me the tuna was a hit – a big one. Foodtasmic has a method to make an integral part the best ways to cook certain things.

A Great Tuna Dinner

The weekend before Christmas brought a great treat: a beautiful piece of #1 sushi grade tuna. It was stunning – a luminous consistent color and no hint of blood line.The challenge is to make up your mind. Fresh tuna won’t be fresh for long. Simply decide and get about it.

Hold on. It’s not exactly that simple. The choices are many and quite varied. Sure there’s sashimi and tartar. I’d done those recently. This time I wanted seared tuna with a tender rare interior.

Ah ha! Let’s try sous vide I thought. It seemed like the perfect technique to use. So armed with the Anova immersion circulator I wrote about recently, I set out to create a couple of dishes that were Christmas season worthy.

OK, I had a fine ingredient – in fact a pristine one. Like on one of those TV shows – give me the finest of stuff and how can I go wrong? Get out of the way and the outcome ought to be good.

The sous vide concept – cooked at a consistent temperature that is the same as the service one – seemed like a good approach. In other words cook it how you want to eat it. More to come on this method soon.

After some careful consideration, I decided that 110 degrees was the proper temperature for the interior of the tuna. It would be perfectly rare but warm. It would also allow me to sear the outside for a very brief time so the possibility of a too thick sear line or overcooking would be extremely limited. Seemed like an ideal solution.

The first thing I did was cut the tuna into two pieces. I planned to make one that day and the other the next. The result was a two-inch thick cut – basically a rectangle.

Cutting fish – and other things for that matter – is very important. It is critical to the best sashimi and sushi. The knife skills of a sushi chef are paramount – as important as the quality of the ingredients. Where and how to cut is quite significant. Cut tuna incorrectly and it may sort of unfold or at least have tough sinews for the diner to deal with. When served rare, the problem is magnified.

For my first dish I wanted a simple, un-sauced execution. With true sous vide – actually using a vacuum cooking bag – seasoning is intensified.

Out came my mortar and pestle. Mine is wooden and not as efficient as a stone version. Since I’ve had it for 40 years, I understand its limitations. I crushed fennel seeds, coriander seeds and white peppercorns into a coarse powder and then added Kosher salt. 

Both sides were sprinkled with seasoning before being sealed is bag. The tuna was cooked for 15 minutes at 110 degrees in a circulating water bath. After cooking, the bag was opened, the tuna seasoned again and then seared for just 30 seconds on each side. This warmed the surface and gave it a pleasing appearance.

The tuna was cut into four slices for service. Two slices were placed on each plate and accompanied by carrots braised in tarragon butter and sliced blood orange.

The tuna was perfect – at least for me. It had a pretty, thin opaque ring and a rich red interior. Because of the sous vide process, the interior was warm and rare at the same time. There was also little danger of overcooking. Best of all, the flavor was outstanding. So was the texture.

Sous vide proved to be just the right choice.