Friday Night, Bone-in Rib Eye

It's only been a few weeks since I did a bone-in rib eye in the grill, but it was so good and Tony keeps talking about it. I did have another plan, which was to do braised short ribs. Sometimes the short ribs don't look meaty enough so I told myself if they don't look good I will get a rib eye. Well something wanted me to make the rib eyes because there were no short ribs and the rib eyes looked fantastic.

Roasted Red and Yellow Peppers, Harissa Olives, Buffalo Mozzarella and Crusty Bread Plate

I was sitting in the dentists office when I saw an October Food and Wine sitting there. I thought..."hey this doesn't look familiar, why not, I have all the food magazines"...So I immediately got on the cell phone after leaving the dentist office and Tony called back to say he has ordered a years subscription to Food and Wine. I don't know what happened there, we will have to keep a closer eye on that!!! But anyway as I flipped through the pages I saw Mario Batali did an appetizer with these roasted red and yellow peppers and there were capers and olives and crusty bread and I think a ball of mozzarella. So I did all that I remembered from the picture. I also had in mind that I would make some homemade harissa. A couple posts ago you will notice we had a vegan cook-off, well we have another one in December that will include "harissa", which is a chili-garlic sauce. You can buy this sauce but I saw that you can make it from scratch. I don't want to say how I made it (in case someone is reading this who is in the contest) but it includes some spices and dried chili's and garlic, its made into a paste. I thought I would mix the sauce into the olives but I chickened out and just put it on the side. It was very good, it turns out I could have mixed it in. The Buffalo Mozzarella was the star. We ate the whole ball. It's got a soft and creamy texture on the inside and it's skin is more firm. It was worth spending $7.99.

Bone-in Rib Eye

I always think I should do a sauce or different spices but in the case of a good piece of steak, simple is best. The thing I did this time that was different was instead of just kosher salt and black pepper I sprinkled over a generous amount of very coarse gray salt along with the black pepper. The salt was very nice, it gives a nice crunch, and it wasn't too salty because some of it will fall off on the grill. What I always do is take the steak out of the butchers paper and let it sit on a plate in the refrigerator for the day or until you are ready to grill it, without any plastic wrap or anything. You want it to dry out a little. Then about 30-45 minutes before it goes on the grill I bring it out and let it sit at room temperature. I salted it about 5-10 minutes before it went on the grill, this brings some of the juices to the surface which will caramelize on the hot grill.

Celeriac Souffle

I bought the celeriac thinking I would mash it like potatoes and maybe mix 50% potato to 50% celeriac which I have done before. I was laying in bed that morning thinking what else can I do instead of mashing it??? Souffle came to mind. I looked on foodnetwork.com and there was nothing like that, so I just did what I thought and it worked. I boiled diced celeriac in water with salt then added the drained celeriac to the food processor. I put in 3/4 stick of soft butter, about 3/4 cup milk (heated), salt and pepper, grated Parmesan reggiano (about 1/2-3/4 cup) and 3 egg yolks. I whipped the egg whites in another bowl and folded them into the celeriac mixture. I carefully spooned them into a souffle dish that I buttered and coated with Parmesan cheese. I put it in the refrigerator for about 4 hours before baking it at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. I have a chocolate souffle recipe that I have made a few times that says you can leave it in the frig and just before serving you bake it off. Souffles are best baked off as soon as it's assembled but can be done ahead then baked off hours later for convenience.

Braised Swiss Chard

I always do Swiss chard the same way. I cut the stalk and saute that with garlic then add the leaves and cook over med-high heat until just cooked through, and that's always good. This time I decided to braise it, I started out the same way but when I added the leaves I also put in some chicken stock and covered the pan. I slowly braised the chard for about 15 minutes. It was really good that way. I finished it with a little white wine vinegar and salt and pepper.

Ginger Mousse

I saw this in a Bon Appetit October 09. Someone wrote in asking for the recipe, they had it at a restaurant and they wanted to make it at home. It sounded different, I love ginger, so I made it. It was good, it's 3/4 of a cup of fresh ginger steeped in water then strained. Then gelatin, sugar, eggs and whipped cream are Incorporated and it sets overnight or at least 8 hours which is what I did. I layered in some whipped cream and ginger cookie crumbles from some ginger snaps that I bought at the store. It made me think, what other flavors I can do instead of ginger. This would also be good dolloped on a slice of apple pie or something like that.