Boots in the Oven

Food and Friends and Colorado, with a side of marrow

What could be better than getting to spend time with friends you don't get to see often enough?

Well, what if those friends also tracked down a downright silly number of marrow bones and brought in steaks from an uncle's ranch?

Yeah.  I knew I liked Jody and Tori.

A couple of weekends ago, we were lucky enough to spend three days at Tori's family vacation home in Edwards, Colorado.  While we were there, we ate and hung out and chatted and went on long walks and explored the area and got massages and ate and ate and ate.

Our first day there, we went into eat! drink!, a terrific specialty wine and cheese shop, and bought a ridiculous assortment of amazing cheeses.  They became a part of our more than complete breakfast on Day 2.

Sexy, right?  From left to right, we have valdeon, a creamy yet crumbly blue cheese made in Spain from cow and goat milk.  It's usually wrapped in sycamore or chestnut leaves and is worth tracking down.  Then we have a swiss Morbier, with a layer of ash and a sharp flavor, smooth and slightly goaty Humboldt Fog from California's Cypress Grove Chevre (which we served at our wedding - it's still one of our favorite cheeses), and ridiculously mellow, rich la tur, made of cow, goat, and sheep milk.

And then we ate these delectably crisp/fluffy waffles that Tori made.  Such a treat, with blackberry syrup a la Logan, fresh whipped cream, and farm-fresh eggs with their deep sunset yolks.  What could be better?

We also got to check out Vail and used our little leggies to walk off at least a half an egg and quarter waffle.  I've never been to Vail (in fact, this was our first time in Colorado except for a time when we got stuck overnight in Denver by a canceled flight) and I was surprised at how new everything felt.  It was like a European ski village as imagined by set designers.  This was a bit of a strange time of year to go, being as it is between the winter ski season and the summer hiking season, but it was still very nice to see the town and wander the pretty lanes.

Jody even got some quick exercise in with a brief foray into bear-busting.

Saturday night was a crazy celebration of meat and meat accessories.  The giant box of marrow bones was busted out, along with beautiful giant steaks (filets and New York strips) from Tori's uncle's ranch.  Plus we ate a lot more cheese.  Phew.

The bones were roasted according to Fergus Henderson's recipe in the New York Times.  And I think they turned out just as good, if not better, than the ones we ate at St. John in 2007.  (That I never blogged.  Ugh.)

The table, ready for us and our two marrow bones apiece.

We had a wealth of accoutrements for the rich marrow.  Quick-pickled shallot, capers, a parsley salad with fried capers, and lemon wedges.  Marrow needs something sour and pickley to keep the overall effect from being too rich.  This was just right.

The marrow, by itself, would have been insanely indulgent.  But we've never been accused of being abstemious, so that was not even close to the end of things.

After a brief break, Logan scooped the marrow from a couple more bones and, following Jody's instructions, made a marrow butter for the steaks.  He sauteed a couple of shallots, then added a couple teaspoons of rosemary and some balsamic vinegar and reduced the mixture until it was almost dry.  After letting this cool a bit, he threw it in a blender with about 3/4 cup of cooled marrow and 2/3 stick of butter.  Then he formed a marrow butter log, which went into the fridge to cool.

Meanwhile, Jody was boiling potatoes in super-saturated salt water.  Hell on the pot, but heaven for the potatoes!  He also seared the steaks on each side and popped them in the oven.  for some greenery, Logan made a simple watercress salad with more of the fried capers.

Yup, I think I like these guys in the kitchen.

Here's the finished plate.  

Marrow butter may be the best thing I've had on a steak.  Wow.  Actually, this whole meal was a ridiculously unimaginable treat!  For something that is really just meat, potatoes, and a salad, the guys totally outdid themselves.

And that was our way over the top meaty meal.  I know the fox that came by the next day was sorry to have missed it.

I can't thank Tori and her family enough for letting us stay at their wonderfully comfortable house!  We had a great time and a very fun introduction to Colorado.  Hilariously, we'll be back this weekend for my cousin's wedding.  And I don't think I mind one bit!

Asking a lot of a simple soup

Dear Soup Peddler Matzoh Ball Soup,

I am about to request something huge and difficult from you.  This has been a hard day.  The computer system at work crashed for over an hour, I stepped in dog poo, and some stupid confused young dude from Chase Bank called me about a business certificate application I hadn't made.  (Should I worry about identity theft, I asked? Only if I call you back tomorrow, he replied.)

Also, Logan's been working out of town for ten days now and the cats yowl their lonely displeasure at me whenever it occurs to them that he's gone.  Thanks for the reminder, cats.  Like I hadn't noticed every second of every day.

So, matzoh ball soup, can you make it all better for a little while?  I can offer you some friendly backup in the form of a sprinkling of Erin and Nat's home-grown cilantro and a glass of nero d'avola.  I'm hoping between the three of you, you'll be able to civilize this red-eyed she-beast who bit the head off of her poor suffering husband from 1,400 miles away.

(Sorry, Husbear.  I wish you were here to share a bowl of soup with me.)

Hopefully,

Girlie

Freaking Out with Blinis.

I'm up for an out of state job that I really want and the producers are toying with me.  I can't make any decisions until I get a yes or no answer, so the last few hours have been a huge stomach twisting stress mess. Wee.

In an effort to calm my self down I was reflecting on these badass blinis that I made last weekend.  Nothing says calming like caviar.

This recipe from Gourmet is totally awesome. It's a little complicated but soooo worth it.

The impetuous for this bakery endeavor came from our friends Jackson and Andy who hosted a sweet costumed cocktail and appetizer party.  Basically, you pick a theme and then match your booze, food and clothes.

As is our fabulous nature, Rachel and I went as new wave Russian mobsters sporting Moscow Mules (I added a half oz. of falernum and cut down a bit on the ginger beer) and platters of the aforementioned buckwheat pancakes topped with creme fraiche, american bowfin caviar, salmon row and fresh chives.

That's some fine Ruskie livin' folks.

As a next day bonus I scrambled some duck eggs, fried up some bacon and we relived the whole good time minus the egregious amounts of hair gel.

Now I'm off to chew my nails and drink. Wish me luck.

-Logan

Wendish Noodles

It's been said lots of times (including repeatedly and possibly annoyingly by us) that one of the best ways to learn about a people is through their food.  Last week, Logan was doing some movie scouting a couple of hours east of Austin when he stopped for lunch in Giddings, Texas.  While eating his sandwich, he noticed a couple of ladies from the Texas Wendish Heritage Society selling dried noodles in little bags.  How could he resist?

As soon as I saw these noodles, I fell in love.  I mean, the Wendish!  Their name sounds impossibly exotic, like a people from a fantasy novel who have the ability to communicate with ponies with rainbow manes.  As it turns out, Wendish origin is a tad more prosaic.  Wends are Slavic, from Lusatia in eastern Germany, and in a detail that makes me love them all the more they are today known as Sorbs.  

In September, the Wends (Sorbs?) of Texas hold a Wendish Festival, where you can enjoy demonstrations of the Wendish arts such as batik egg dying and sausage and sauerkraut making.  For the kiddies, there's Kletternpfosten, which turns out to be greased pole climbing, and stick horse racing.  I am so there in September 2010.

Until then, I'll just console myself with their tasty noodles, which stand up nicely to a hearty boiling.  In fact, we found that they're the perfect chicken noodle soup noodle.

Last week, Logan made a simple and truly delicious dinner for the two of us.  He started by warming (and diluting) some of his chicken stock, which he then cooked the Wendish noodles in as instructed by the package.  Carrots and shallot went in, too, and were cooked until soft.  Then he put in a poached egg, just because a poached egg is the right thing to finish off just about any soup from pho to navy bean.  Garnish with dill.

This made a ridiculously good chicken noodle soup, thanks in no small part to the Wendish noodles.  They stayed starchy and kept their bite even after the 10 minutes of prescribed vigorous cooking.  Yum.

Today is a definite soup day (it's 35 here in Austin again!), so I'm going to go make puppy dog eyes at Logan and request soup for dinner.  I start another season of test-grading tomorrow, so a soul-warming soup would not go amiss.

To find out more about the Wendish and their history, check out the Texas Wendish Heritage Society here.

Recipe! Caramel Fish Fillets, from Mark Bittman

One of the reasons I'm so glad to have bought Mark Bittman's revised tenth anniversary edition of How to Cook Everything is because of dishes like this.  Earlier in the week, Logan thawed a couple of Louisiana redfish fillets his folks gave us while we were there over Christmas.  He cooked one of them, but then he needed an interesting and easy workweek-friendly recipe to apply to the other one.  I hauled out m'Bittman, handed it over, and moments later heard the boy exclaim "Ooh!  Caramel Fish Fillets!  YES!"

This is actually really similar to a pork dish we ate in Vietnam near the Cambodian border a couple of years ago called Thịt Kho Tộ (here's the post, which includes a visit to a floating market).  Apparently if you use fish instead of pork, it's called Cá Kho Tộ.

This is not caramel in the traditional French sense, made with milk or cream or just tons of sugar.  The liquid in this caramel is water mixed that full-of-umami Southeast Asian condiment, fish sauce.  It adds a giant hit of flavor to anything, and Logan likes to keep around a couple of kinds.  He even has some he brought back from Vietnam, but he's hoarding it.  

The dish is super-simple (I mean, as simple as making a caramel can be - careful with that boiling sugar, people!).  Bittman even stamps it with an "F" for fast.  The whole thing comes together in about 30 minutes, so you can be making rice on the side.  And the flavor here is amazing; deep savoriness, with a bit of sweetness.

Recipe, and step by step pictures, after the jump: