Funeral Potatoes

A note about the pictures this time. I'm experimenting with a High Dynamic Range photo app on my phone. So you'll notice some odd highlights in some of the pictures as I figure this out. 

In my neck of the woods, Funeral Potatoes means a mixture of convenience items mixed together and served by caring friends and neighbors to the grieving family after the funeral services.

It's basically a form of Au Gratin potatoes itself a variation on the classic Gratin Dauphinois (Wikipedia details link). I've never successfully made Gratin Dauphinois. It always curdles on me. I think it's because of my altitude and that the cream comes to a boil at a lower temp than lower elevations. So I've come to rely on a roux-based bechamel sauce to reinforce my sauce for these sorts of potato dishes. 

I needed to hurry things along, so I chopped up potatoes and set them to simmer in some seasoned water.

This is about 10 cups  total of 3/8 inch cubes raw russett potato. The water is seasoned with some kosher salt (1 teaspoon), onion powder (1/2 teaspon), garlic powder (1/4 teaspoon) and dried thyme (1/2 teaspoon)  These are the flavors I wanted to infuse into the potato.  Simmer the potatoes about 15 minutes. They'll be mostly cooked but not completely so at that point.

While that's coming to a simmer, I chopped up 4 green onions, green and white parts. 
 

And minced 2 cloves of garlic. Whack the clove or garlic wtih the flat side of your chef knife. This breaks the clove up a bit and loosens the skin from the clove of garlic. Pick out the skin.

Chop it up.

Sprinkle it with kosher salt.

Drag the knife edge across the garlic and salt with some force. You'll feel and hear the salt grains cut apart and grind the garlic. 

Repeat that a few times to create a garlic paste. 

 
Melted 3 tablespoons of butter, whisked in 4 tablespoons of flour to form a roux.

Let it cook a minute or so to cook out the flour. In the last 30 seconds of that roux cooking, add the minced garlic and stir to develop it's flavor. 

Add 2 cups of milk, whisk to form a bechamel. 

Where funeral potatoes use a can of cream of something soup, I opt for a simplified Supreme Sauce (a form of veloute) instead, being a sort of comination of bechamel and chicken stock thickened with roux.

Season with 3 teaspoons chicken base. 1/2-1 teaspoon dried thyme, pepper to taste.  Continue cooking until it thickens and starts to boil.

Add 2 cups sour cream and mix together.

Grate parmesan cheese. This is hard to give a consistent measure for as people's graters are different and so the result packs differently. So it's about an ounce to an ounce and a half of freshly grated parmesan. i grate mine on a Microplane grater. This will provide extra cheese impact in the dish without looking so heavily full of cheese and dense.

Add the cheese and the onions to the  sauce.

Combine. Taste and correct seasoning as needed. 

Add the drained potatoes to the mix--they should be about done now anyway or cook further as needed to the par-cooked stage.

Stir to combine.

Sprinkle on about 1/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese. This is mostly for looks so there will be strands of orange cheese in the casserole. 

Pour all that into a 9x13 baking dish.

Top with grated cheddarBake at 350 until bubbly and the top has browned, about 30-40 minutes

 

Serve while hot. 

Copycat Panera Bread Company Souffles

This recipe has been kicking around the internet for a few years. I've made it twice now. The first time without as much success as the second, but I'll help you avoid my mistakes.

You can get the recipe nice and legally from this ABC newscast link as this is Todd Wilbur's copyrighted work. The first time I thought the microwaving of the scrambled eggs seemed needlessly tedious and slow and so I did the par scramble in a frying pan. That came out dense and less appealing than anything with the name souffle.

The key step is the microwaving and stirring in between bursts. It does give the eggs the structure and lift to pull this off.  Like so many home cooks, I felt it was OK to change the recipe for my convenience but there are risks to that attitude with this dish.

I happened to just use some sausage and cheese this time, as that's what was waiting to be used up. I'm not totally cured of changing recipes. That change was a safe substitution.  

If you follow his recipe, you're stuck in making this recipe in multiples of four because that's what the tube crescent dough supplies. Any extra souffles will freeze well if you let them cool first and then wrap them tightly. Reheat in an oven or toaster oven. A microwave would work too, but will give you a soggier bread crust.

I'm thinking next time I'll try it with Pepperidge Farms puff pastry from the freezer case. I think that will give an even better texture to the crust and still be easy to do.

Cheese Souffle

Cheese souffle may sound daunting and while it my have more steps, nothing is difficult to do. 

2 cups bechamel sauce
6 eggs, yolks and whites separated
1 1/2 -2 cups sharp cheese or blend of cheeses
butter
grated parmesan

Starting with the bechamel sauce.
3 tablespoons butter 
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of ground nutmeg

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. 

When the foaming stops, whisk in the flour and stir to form a roux. 

 Cook the roux, for a minute, stirring the whole time. This cooks out the raw flour taste. 

Add the milk and keep whisking, raising the heat until the sauce thickens or just until it boils which. It's at its thickest just before boiling, but you won't hurt anything if it comes to a boil. Season to taste, remembering you'll be adding cheese and eggs.  Melt the cheese into the sauce and set aside to cool.

Heat the oven to 375 and set the rack to the middle of the oven.

Rub the inside of individual six 8 oz ramekins with butter. Add about a tablespoon of grated parmesan to the ramekin and tilt the ramekin so that the parmesan sticks to the butter. Pour the excess parmesan into  next ramekin and repeat adding more grated parmesan as needed.

Confession, I had my daughter do this step and she used cheddar on my microplane grater. This doesn't work as well for coating the ramekins but it still made a pretty good souffle. And she'll remember the parmesan next time.  Arrange the ramekins on a baking sheet.

Separate the eggs. If you're new to separating eggs, it's wise to separate into a bowl one egg at a time. So if you get some yolk in the white, it only messes up one egg white, not all of them. Discard that one and try again.

 Don't worry if you break one or more yolks. It's just fine.

In a metal bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Plastic bowls tend to have a light oil film which inhibits the whites from whipping as nice or as high. Glass bowls are fine to use too.

Beat the yolks. If the cheese sauce is still hot, you'll have to temper the yolks so they don't cook as you combine them with the cheese sauce. Temper the yolks by adding small amounts of the cheese sauce to the eggs while you mix. Continue until you've doubled the volume of the yolk mixture, then add the rest of the sauce and yolk mix and stir to combine. If the cheese sauce is just warm, you can just stir the yolks right into the sauce. 

I just picked up some of the hot cheese sauce on the whisk and whisked to start tempering the yolks. 
 

  

 Need a bigger bowl. Didn't think ahead on that one. Continue adding cheese sauce in small amounts and whisking.

 

 

And then you're done combining the yolks and sauce.

Fold half the whites into the yolk and cheese mixture. This lightens the mix and makes it easier to fold in the last half of the whites with the least loss of volume.

 

  

Then repeat with the last half of the yolk mixture. Don't stir or whisk as you'll deflate your whites. Don't worry if the final souffle batter is not perfectly mixed. A few white splotches in the batter is better than deflated whites. 

 All mixed up and ready to pour into the ramekins. Notice there are still swirls of lighter and darker areas. No need to overmix.

Pour the batter eveinly into the prepare ramekins. As I'm cooking for five not six, I'm using a larger ramekin and will cook it slightly longer.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. They'll still have some jiggle. Below they're all finished. Notice they rose about 2 1/2 inches.

  
Serve immediately. They deflate quickly.

 

Went a hair too long so it's a bit darker on top than is ideal, but still a very good souffle.

The ratios in a souffle are actually fairly easy to adapt up and down for different servings.  1 egg, 1/4 cup bechamel 1/4 cup cheese and you're there for a single souffle.

A Rice Bowl with Vietnamese Flavors

This is not an authentic or traditional dish. Rather, it uses good technique and flavors to get to the final product.  I created this dish because it embodied flavors I was in the mood for and used up things I had on hand.  I decided I wanted a Rice Bowl, a bowl with rice on the bottom topped with various vegetables and meats unified by the final sauce or broth. I looked through a couple of cookbooks for ideas and concepts that resonated with my cravings and supplies. 

Big Bowl by Bruce Cost

Classic Chinese Cuisine by Nina Simonds

The Complete Vietnamese Cookbook by Ghillie Basan

The Wagamama Cookbook by Hugo Arnold

They all had dishes of interest, but Nina Simonds had a Stir-Fried Beef with Vegetables over Rice recipe on page 43 that gave me a framework and a feel for ratios that proved the most useful. She used 3 cups of stock for her sauce, but I didn't want my rice bowl to be that saucy so I made a smaller batch. Adjust sauce amounts up or down to match your preference.

I had the tail end of box of large button mushrooms (about five or six left), some green beans and about 10 oz of pork I wanted to use. 

The green beans have a longish stir fry and minced garlic and ginger tends to burn in that situation so I cut them in slices so they'd stand up to that prolonged cooking, something commonly seen in Italian cooking (minus the ginger).  The pork, I decided to go with an onion and black pepper stir fry; and the mushrooms, I would stir fry at lower heat and seasoned with oyster sauce.

1 1/2 cups long grain rice

5 or 6 large button mushrooms, sliced thinly

1 pound green beans cut into 1-2 inch pieces

1 onion, sliced julienne

10 oz pork, sliced julienne

3 tablespoons cooking oil

large handful of spinach including some mixed mesclun if you like

Pork Marinade

1 1/2 teaspoons light soy

1 1/2 teapsoons shao hsing wine

1/2 teapoon corn starch

zest of 1 lime grated finely

1/4 teaspoon dried basil, crumbled between your fingers.

Seasonings

2 inch finger thick ginger peeled  and sliced thinly (or equivalent amount of thicker ginger is fine too of course. That's just the size of the knob I used.)

4-5 cloves garlic peeled and sliced thinly

1 tablespoon soy sauce, divided (or to taste)

1 tablespoon shao hsing wine

salt

pepper

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

Sauce mixture

2 cups chicken stock

1 small star anise

1 clove

small pinch of cinnamon

2 tablespoons palm sugar or brown sugar

2-3 tablespoons fish sauce or to taste

1 1/2 tablespoon ketchup

dash of sriracha sauce to taste 

corn starch slurry to thicken to preference

juice of 1 lime

Start the rice cooking, then combine all but the last two ingredients of the sauce mix. Let that simmer along about the same amount of time the rice cooks. If you're using a rice cooker, most have longer cycles than will take for the sauce to cook. The sauce only needs about 15 minutes of cooking, which is about what the stir frying steps will take so match the timing of your rice, sauce, and stir frying.

Heat a wok over high heat until smoking. Add about a tablespoon of oil around the edges to coat the wok. Add the green beans and stir fry 2 minutes. Add half the ginger and about half of the garlic. Stir fry another 2 minutes. Add the shao hsing wine and a splash of soy sauce. Cover and let steam 1 minute, then finish stir frying to your desired doneness. The beans should have brown spots and a few black blisters.

Remove green beans to a serving bowl.

Return the wok to high heat. You shouldn't have to clean the wok as there will be no small bits or sauce stuck to the wok. Add about a tablespoon of oil around the edges to coat the wok.

Add the pork and spread out to let sear for 60-90 seconds. Meanwhile, season with some ground black pepper to taste. When the pork has picked up some sear, stir fry another minute or two and remove to a serving bowl. 

Add a little more oil to the wok if you think it needs it.  Then add the onion to the wok, and about half the remaining garlic and the rest of the ginger.  Stir fry for about 2 minutes with a splash of soy sauce and more pepper. Then add the pork back to the wok and stir fry another 60-90 seconds for the pork to pick up some of the flavor of the aromatics. 

 

Remove the pork and onions to a serving bowl.

Return the wok to the heat, add the rest of the oil and lower the temp to medium high. Your wok will have some bits from teh pork and onions, but that's OK. Just get cooking quickly before those bits burn. Add the remaining garlic, and the mushrooms. Stir fry until the mushrooms have picked up some color., about 2 minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper, and reduce the heat some more. Stir frequently, but not at the level of a true stir fry and keep cooking. The mushrooms should darken, give up liquid and shrink after a few more minutes. When the moisture has cooked off, add the oyster sauce and reduce the heat to low. 

Stir to mix and let cook slowly for a few minutes, with occasional stirring. I wanted to concentrate the mushroom flavor in the mushrooms with the sauce, not leave them crisp tender as in most stir frying.

Put the spinach in a serving bowl. 

While the mushrooms finish cooking, complete the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil. While it's coming to the boil, remove the star anise and clove. When the sauce is boiling, thicken with the slurry to your liking. I mixed it pretty thin, just to add some body to the sauce. Then stir in the juice of 1 lime and remove from the heat. 

Everything should be done now and you're ready to eat.

Build your rice bowl in layers with rice in the bottom, the spinach leaves next, then the beans, mushrooms and top with the pork and onions. The heat from the rice and other cooked items will start wilting the spinach.

Ladle in some hot sauce to your liking, I used about 1/3-1/2 cup of the sauce, which will help the spinach cook.

My son went for the all mixed together approach to the dish.