Recently in Sip & Sup Category

I brewed up a batch of Kern River Red for the Christmas holidays as I had quite a bit of family coming in. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite ready. It takes a good 3-4 weeks in the bottle for good results. This is 5 weeks in the bottle. This is as good as it gets. Excellent head and carbonation. Smooth malt with just a bit of bitterness and dryness from the hops. I need to finish this batch up so I can bottle the North Dakota Sweet Porter.

Well its Mad Oilman's birthday and the Mrs. sets up a fabulous birthday meal. At Mark's American Cuisine, a highly regarded restaurant which we have never visited.

Arriving 5 minutes early for our 7:00 reservation, we are quickly seated at one of the worst tables in the restaurant. A two seater backing the hallway between this room and the main room. So much for a reservation three weeks in advance. Seems that was meaningless.

Our waiter arrives and we choose a fine bottle of wine. A Seghesio Barolo, 2000. This is a special occasion.

Menus arrive. The standard menu as well as a chefs menu for the day. Our waiter then told us about the specials of the day. All seven of them (appetizers and entrées).

Listening to the specials before we have even glanced at the menus, we dove in to the treasures within. And completely forgot about the specials. Our intrepid waiter returns and we ask him to recite the litany of specials once again. He does, yet he forgets one which Mrs. Oilman immediately points out. Isn't there a duck special as well?

Our waiter quickly remembered and recited that special.

Now it is decision time. I choose the garden salad, the cask smoked Scottish Salmon with caviar, and the Kobe beef platter for my menu.

Mrs. Oilman chooses everything from the Chef's menu. Oysters to start, a pear and greens salad, and a softshell crab entrée.

First course is delivered within seconds of our waiter leaving. My salad is wonderful and expertly dressed. Mrs. Oilman receives a soup which she enjoys immensely.

Before we could say uncle our plates were cleared and the second course delivered. It is obvious they are trying to turn tables. So much for a pleasurable dining experience. They turn tables at Friday's and Chili's too.

Second course arrives. House smoked salmon for me, oysters for Mrs. Oilman.

The salmon was ridiculously good. And the caviar. My goodness. I've had caviar before and they were little salt bombs. This was a whole new world. Exquisite.

The Mrs. receives her oysters. And realizes this is the appetizer she ordered as her first course. A salad was her second course. Our waiter has screwed up our order. Our opinion of Mark's is starting to deflate a bit.

Before our second courses are completed the vultures arrive to take our plates. The traffic behind my wife is amazing. Wait staff hovering, antsy, looking for a plate to clear. The traffic is just ridiculous. The table turning antics even more so.

As soon as the second course plates are cleared, guess what? The entrées appear within thirty seconds. This is the fastest turn at a fine dining establishment I have ever been party to. They really want us to give them our money and leave. As fast as they can make it happen.

The Kobe beef platter. Three cuts. Flank steak, short ribs and sirloin. Flank steak was a joke. I ordered the platter medium rare. The flank steak was well done. A rude joke. Next it is on to the sirloin. I should not have to use a knife to cut Kobe beef. I did for this. Although well marbled, this particular cut was nothing special. The short ribs were an embarrassment. Ibiza's short ribs crush these. As do Restaurant 17's. As do my own (from the Craft cookbook). Granted there were lots of sauces on the dish. But with Kobe, meat comes first and sauce second. In this dish sauce came in second and meat came in third (there was no first place finish).

Entrées are again whisked away in record speed as the vultures hovering around my wife's table descend. Were but 75 minutes into our meal. We have a third of a bottle of wine left, and we've been through three very rushed courses.

Dessert. Mrs. Oilman asks for the special and I ask for a special on their own menu. They have a lemon cake on the menu. Sounds good. Theirs is served with a mouse, candied zest, berries, and meringue. I just want cake. Simple request, right? The waiter said no twice. At that point I told him I didn't want anything. He relented and brought out what I wanted (only because it was my birthday and he knew that). It was exactly as I expected. Damn good lemon cake without the garnish I had no need for.

So there you go. One of the best-rated restaurants in town. With a three week reservation seated us at the worst table in the restaurant. Screwed up our order. Food was brilliant at times and a joke at others. The only way they could have moved our table faster would be to have a group of waiters surround our table and stare at us as we ate. It was that bad.

As we leave I hand my ticket to the valet. He pulled the car up but did not open the door for my wife. Nor did the two other valets nearby. Bush league service.

Final Review. Huge reputation. Extremely poor execution on service, and marginal (given the prices) acceptance on food. DaMarco's is just up the street. And from my experience it crushes Mark's. Crushes it.

Pronto Cucinino
1401 Montrose

Review in 5 words or less? Turd. Italian TV dinner.

Full review.

An offshoot of the fine Nino's, Vincents and Grappino di Nino complex off West Dallas and promising quality food in a quick environment, I was intrigued. On a lazy night, Mrs. Oilman and I jump into the petromuncher and drove the four blocks to this new establishment.

Order entry, payment, service, blah, blah, blah. Let's get to the food. That is the most important thing, isn't it?

Fried buffalo mozzarella appetizer. With marinara. I could eat thirty of these things. The incredibly clean taste of the buffalo mozzarella with it's lightly fried shell is just something else. But then fried cheese. How can you mess that up? Especially with good cheese. And this was.

Now for the downfall. I ordered the parmesan crusted chicken breast with a side of spinach sautéed with garlic.

The chicken is a low budget knockoff of Veal Vincent, the parmesan crusted veal at Nino's. Funny thing about this one, though. It was not fresh. It was obviously reheated. I'm starting to feel some doubt about this place now. Precooked and reheated entree's? That's just not right, especially from such a famous food family.

The side dish was worse. Supposedly it was spinach sautéed with garlic. My ass. That was boiled and pressed spinach tossed with precooked garlic. There was no hint of olive oil on the spinach at all. The garlic, given the size of the slices, was limp and cold. This Italian knows how to sauté a damn spinach and garlic together and knows what it is supposed to taste like. I could have bought a can of Popeye's for a fraction of the price and been equally satisfied. Utterly pathetic.

For the thing they actually cooked on premises (fried cheese) this is a pretty good place. For anything else that has any chance at all of being precooked, forget it. And forget this turd of a restaurant.

Well, Mad Oilman thinks it is time for a proper Steak Fiorentina. Tuscan classic. Basically you take a honkin' big t-bone (2-1/2 - 3 lbs), coat it in a dry rub of fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, salt and pepper, and blast the crap out of it on the hottest grill you can muster. 12 minutes side one, 9 minutes side two. On a steak that is nearly 3" thick.

Well, a 2-1/2 to 3" t-bone ain't cheap. But Central Market just sent a $10 off STEAK coupon in the mail. Expensive recipe? Yes. But 10$ off? Time to see how this recipe holds up.

Get to the counter, and of course the butchers have been crushed under steak requests. "Ninety one! Ninety one!" the bloodied butcher yelled. Professional purchaser that I am, I responded "NINETY ONE!" in my most forceful baritone. Taught my fellow meat counter pikers a lesson. You want service? Command service.

I point to the T-bones. " I need a 2-1/2 to 3 pound T-bone". Butcher responds "I'll have to cut one."

What would you say? I said "Excellent. Cut it"

Waiting patiently, several butchers asked if I needed assistance. I just pointed to my new friend at the band saw. "Oh. Yeah." And away they went to serve hamburger and sausage. They were jealous.

My man comes back and displays the majesty of beef. Three of his fellow butchers gathered as he held it above his head and placed it upon the scale. There was a strange silence amongst them.

"That's a beautiful steak" one of them finally exclaimed, caught in the reverie of the moment. Many at the counter stood dumbfounded at the sight of this monster. Final tally? 2-2/3 pounder.

Well, I get it home, prep the rest of the meal and now it is time to prep the meat. Fresh rub, drizzle with oil, an into the hottest pan I have.

First note. That is not a T-Bone. It's a porterhouse. A prime porterhouse. Look at the size of the fillet on that thing. And he charged me T-bone price. Hooray Butcher! Challenge your butcher and he will reward you.

That is a 12" pan. On high heat with no oil for a good 15 minutes before I dropped the steak in. Gotta love cast iron and its heat retention in this case.

Departing from the recipe, I did not coat both sides of the steak before placing it into the pan. Didn't want to waste any of that goodness.

Still fresh in the pan, I coat the other side. Which looks like this:

My spoonholder trout is starting to eye this thing.

The house is really starting to smell good. After 12 minutes, it's time to flip. As I've never flipped a nearly 3 pound herb crusted steak, this was a bit awkward. Luckily, the 12 uninterrupted minutes transformed the herbs into a thick black crust, which separated easily from the pan. A breeze.

9 more minutes and it's off the heat. To rest. As illustrated here:

Rest for 5 minutes. This serves four easily. And it is ridiculously good.

Formally, the chef will bring this entire steak tableside. He will then remove the fillet and the strip from the bone, slice it, and serve each patron a portion of each. I think Ill have to do that in the near future.

And for all the temperature freaks out there, this steak had it all. Near the bone, rare. Progressing to medium rare in the majority of the meat to medium on the extremities. A taste for all.

Due to some reshuffling of web services, it's been a while since I've had the chance to post. Mrs. Oilman handles all of the IT duties in the household and she has had her hands full with her own transfers. This recipe was made on May 8th.

This recipe is Sea Bass in a Bag and Stuffed with Herbs which is published in Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef Takes Off. Overall a pretty good book.

The FoodTV linked recipe is nearly the same as the one in the book.

One 4 lb. sea bass ( I used a 3-1/2 lb red snapper)
1 red onion
1 fennel bulb
1 clove of garlic
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
4 handfuls mixed herbs (I used parsley, dill, tarragon and basil)
3 lemons
6 glugs olive oil

Here are the majority of the ingredients laid out. Fresh herbs make a difference

And here's our fish. Fresh as can be. It's good to have a good fishmonger in the neighborhood.

So let's get to work!

Laying out enough foil to hold the fish and all ingredients is the first step. Next, make a base of red onion, garlic and fennel directly on the aluminum foil.

The snapper is stuffed with the herbs and rested on top of the bed of veggies. Salt and pepper are also added at this point.

Fennel seeds and lemon slices top it all off.

A few glugs of olive oil all over and now it's time to seal this thing up. Here it is after in is tightly sealed and ready to go in the oven.

About 35 minutes later (10 minutes per pound) and it's time to remove it from the 425 degree oven. It smells phenomenal at this point as all of the flavors have blended together in the steam of the aluminum foil.

I like to transfer this directly in the serving tray as nothing will be lost. Especially all those wonderful and flavorful juices at the bottom.

Simply pull the foil gently out from under the fish and all of the juices and veggie goodness stay right where they should. Some quick rearranging and it's ready to serve.

And how does it taste? We'll, here's what's left after three people had their fill.

An excellent and very simple recipe.

It was time to entertain in the Mad Oilman house. With the Flesh Off being postponed, Mad Oilman's need to make tasty food for friends was denied. This will make up for it. But what to make?

I had just made an excellent broccoli recipe from a magazine. It involved prosciutto. I wanted to serve this as a side. So I decided to create an entire menu with prosciutto as an ingredient in each. Pulling out the various cookbooks in the Mad Oilman arsenal, the menu was settled upon in less than ten minutes.

Appetizer/Salad

Prosciutto San Danielle with Apple Salad
From Mario Batali's 'Simple Italian Cooking', this is a very simple yet amazing combination of flavors. A salad of three types of apples cut into matchsticks, thinly sliced radicchio, olive oil, red wine vinegar and poppy seeds. Served on a bed of San Danielle prosciutto.

Entree

Prosciutto Wrapped Roast Loin of Beef
From Jamie Oliver's 'The Naked Chef Takes Off', this is an interesting recipe. Take a 2 pound or so beef tenderloin, roll it in fresh herbs, then wrap it in prosciutto and porcini mushrooms. My guests willbe guinea pigs on this one as I've never made this recipe.

Vegetable

Broccoli con Prosciutto al Forno
From The March 2005 issue of 'Tastes of Italia' this was made last weekend for the first time. Broccoli blanched, basted with butter and chicken broth, dusted with a bit of nutmeg and a large bit of Parmigianno Reggiano, and blanketed with prosciutto. Baked.

Starch

Risotto Milanese con Prosciutto
Standard issue (f there is such a thing) Risotto Milanese but finished with ribbons of prosciutto.

Menu complete it's off to Central Market. As it it 10 am on Saturday morning, Mrs. Oilman thought it might be fairly quiet. Unlike the usual mayhem that Central Market is on the weekends. Well no such luck. Seems it was tourist season (really). It was a struggle to get through but we clawed and scraped our way through the store, smashing carts, removing obstacles in our path despite the malignant stares of the obstructors. 'This may be your adult Disneyland but this is my weekend grocery store. Dammit! Begone suburbanites! I banish you to Foodtown!'

Back home time to get busy.

Step One. Roll that beautiful piece of beef in a couple handfuls of thyme and rosemary. With some salt and pepper for good measure. (and yes, the beautiful piece of beef in its natural glory should be Step One. Or at least Image One. But Mad Oilman was lost in the prep work and forgot to document until this image. What do you expect from an amateur?)

Next up is laying out the prosciutto wrapper. That's about 18 slices of prosciutto.

Now for the mushrooms. Dried porcini mushrooms reconstituted and sautéed with butter and garlic. For good measure, add some more butter when they are finished to create a smooth rich mixture. This part smells really good

Action Shot! Mad Oilman spreads his mushroom mixture across the prosciutto blanket.

Mushrooms distributed. Yes it looks like there are more on one side than the other. The filet tapers. As the meat gets wider, so do the mushrooms. Mad Oilman may be an amateur but he has a bit of snap.

Meat in position. Now comes the fun part. Rolling.

Action Shot! Rolling in its initial stages. Since this was the first attempt at this process, the learning curve was steep. Cookbooks and recipes can only take you so far. You're on your own for the rest.

Action Shot! Rolling nearing completion. The thinness of the prosciutto really makes this a challenge.

Finished! Now it's time to transfer this beast to the roasting pan.

In the pan. Porcelain. Been a winner for a while. The roast is a bit of a tight fit but this is the biggest pan in the Mad Oilman collection.

Action Shot! Slicing up apples for the salad. Unfortunately there is not a finished product photo of this most delicious salad.

Intermission

By now the guests have arrived. Most of the heavy lifting has concluded, dishes just need to be finished. Good conversation and it's time to serve the salad. Roast in the oven, risotto stopped at the near moment of completion and the broccoli prepped and ready to hit the oven. Mad Oilman plates the salad and joins his friends for this fine first course. Of course the oven timer rings in an instant although 20 minutes have passed. Excusing myself, Mad Oilman goes to the kitchen to add the two cups of wine to the roast. Oven door opened and the smell is incredible. With space to spare, Mad Oilman begins pouring wine into the roasting pan. And now for a physics lesson.

Hot ceramic pan. Room temperature wine. Roast acting as a dam across the pan. Temperature gradient. Big one.

I start to hear pops and watch the cracks fly across the pan. Sensing imminent failure, Mad Oilman poured the remaining wine on the other side of the meat dam to stop the cracking. But it was too late. The end of the pan fell off. Completely.

Of course, when it fell off there were two cups of wine in that pan. Well now there's two cups of wine on the bottom of a 450 degree oven. The initial superheated vapor blast pushed me back. But Mad Oilman was not backing down. He was going to save this dish.

With smoke now pouring out of the oven (and in a kitchen with no vent), the entire room became quite smoky. Wanting to rescue this meal while simultaneously trying to avoid a kitchen fire, Mad Oilman successfully pulled the stricken pan from the oven and transferred the meat to a cookie sheet. And promptly added 2 cups of wine into the sheet. Grace under pressure.

Windows and back door open to create a cross flow, smoke began pouring out of the windows. Good. Fire hazard now gone. Situation under control, Mad Oilman returned to finish his salad. And share his tale of disaster averted.

Dishes completed it's time to plate.

Here's the broccoli. In one of those 'How the hell did that picture happen with a digital camera?' shots. Just weird but also very cool.

Risotto Milanese con Prosciutto, complete and ready to serve.

Finished roast resting, begging to be carved (patience......)

End result. Perfect rare-medium rare (camera flash pushes the image to medium. t'ain't so).

As plated. The wine and drippings from the pan turned into an amazingly light yet flavorful gravy. Needless to say there wasn't a lot of anything left at the end of this meal.

All in all, the Prosciutto Menu was a success. And it's not every day you can create an instant massive smokescreen in your kitchen without your guests really knowing and without burning the kitchen down.

My how time flies! Here it is March 15th, the Third Annual International Eat An Animal for PETA Day!

Reminded of this holiday (which is fast becoming an annual tradition in the Mad Oilman Household) by the banner at Laurence's Site, Mad Oilman was tempted to visit the Ragin' Cajun for group festivities, but it just, well, didn't seem enough.

Brainstorming a menu at the office while conducting Mad Oilman international business, a plan was quickly settled upon. There must be animal flesh in every dish served. That was the easy part. The concept. Making it work took a bit more thought. Well, not really.

Main course? Has to be veal, kid goat or suckling pig. Since veal is most readily available it is chosen first. Some kind of veal dish. Veal rolled with prosciutto and sage. Skewered on sticks with pancetta. Yeah, that'll do it.

Animals: 2 (veal, pork)
Forms of Animals: 3 (veal scaloppini, prosciutto, pancetta)

Starch? Mad Oilman has several wonderful meat/starch recipes but they are not convenient on a weeknight. How about risotto? With homemade venison and wild boar stock as the base instead of standard issue chicken stock. Excellent.

Animals: 4 (veal, pork, venison, wild boar)
Forms of Animals: 5 (veal scaloppini, prosciutto, pancetta, venison stock, wild boar stock)

And no, pork and wild boar are not the same. Not even close.

Oh, and the stocks? Homemade. From freshly killed, freshly butchered wild boar and deer. Yes this takes time and effort. Worth every moment.

Vegetable? OK, here's the tough one. My menu is on an Italian path and I'm limited in recipe knowledge for vegetable dishes with meat. Limited to one. Brussel Sprouts with pancetta. And for all of you cringing on Brussel Sprouts, this dish will convert anyone.

Final Count:
Animals: 4 (veal, pork, venison, wild boar)
Forms of Animals: 5 (veal scaloppini, prosciutto, pancetta, venison stock, wild boar stock)

Now that's a proper celebration of the holiday. Rendering and assembly photos follow:

Assembling of the veal rolls.

Prosciutto Manipulation

Skewering with Pancetta

Of course with al of this hard work, Mad Oilman requires chef sauce. In keeping with our animal consumption theme, Mad Oilman chose wines with animals on the labels. Seems only fitting. For prep and cooking, a light Vino Verde:

For the meal, a bit of a more sophisticated Barolo:

And yes, dammit, there's an animal on the label:

Meal is coming together. Four burner action. The Silver Surfer provides Quality Control duties.

No comment necessary, really.

As plated. Yes, the Mad Oilman can make the fancy plate but family style seemed better for this meal.

Postscript:

Meal concluded, a wonderful benevolent aura of wellness surround Mad Oilman and the Mrs. A sucesful IEAPD indeed. May next year be better than this one.

Ah, Flesh Off. If memory serves, this is a Festival of the Carnivore. Of succulent musculature expertly rendered from once living creatures. So many creatures, so many recipes.

Preparation and presentation are on display, respecting the noble creature under the knife while crushing our opponents with the meagerness of their offerings.

Chef H is a Master with an intimidating presence. His skill is known to all as his victories show. But he has grown lazy and arrogant. Flesh will be his downfall.

At one with the Flesh, Mad Oilman will sink his talons into Flesh and with wings unfolded take Flesh to lofty heights unknown.

When asked about his chances, Mad Oilman responded "I am Confident. I will Do My Best."

Musical accompaniment by either Judas Priest (Bringing the Goods, which I will) or Lamb of God (Song 6 on the CD. Lamb, flesh, need I say more?). A game time decision.

So our meal has concluded and now it's time to prep for tomorrow. Here's a play by play of the assembly of this thing (the mignons de porc a l' ail).

Here's the first flattened pork tenderloin, and the roasted garlic.

And here's the remainder of the roasted garlic which is being reserved for the sauce.

Assembly begins. Roasted garlic has been smashed with a fork and is now spread/smeared on the tenderloin. This smells REALLY good.

Garlic application complete. That's a bit over a head of roasted garlic.

And now the bacon. Nothing but Holmes in the Mad Oilman compound (unless I can't find it)

Flattening the second tenderloin. Yes I have a meat tenderizer hammer thing. It comes out when necessary. But recipe suggested heel of hand and I have to agree. Moderate flattening, not sheet making.

Properly flattened pork. (Disclaimer: I did not choose the plastic wrap. Mrs. Oilman did. Great for sealing contaners. Questionable for kitchen tasks. Well, it actually worked, but can't I just have some plain old plastic wrap? DAMMIT!"

And the trussing begins. Recipe calls for individual knots so the string will not have to be removed while serving, but I like the truss better. And it looks cool.

Final product. Now I know professional chefs out there are probably laughing but I think this looks pretty good. Despite the zig zag. That was on purpose. Yep. On purpose.

So now this thing will reside in the fridge in non-traditional plastic wrap and all those (well, three) flavors will have all night and all day to say hello. I'm going to enjoy finishing this thing off tomorrow, especially the sauce which should be quite robust.

Lazy day here at the Mad Oilman complex. Chores done early, lucnh out at a good burger joint, and then on to the main mission of the day. Stopped at Central Market to get the ingredients and Specs for the alchoholic components and off to the kitchen.

First thing is a demi-glace. I have about 1-1/2 gallons of wild boar stock that I've reserved for this purpose. Since this takes a while, it goes on the stove first. And I'll use some of it for tomorrow's dinner.

Next is roasted garlic, two heads worth. This is also prep for tommorrow's recipe. So what will I be making? Some french thing called 'mignons de porc a l' ail'. Whatever. Basically I take a pork tenderloin and flatten it slightly. Then I take the majority of the roasted garlic and I smear it all over the tenderloin. For good measure, add a strip of bacon. Then take a similiarly flattened tenderloin and make a sandwich. Roll it up, tie off with twine, and let marinate in the fridge overnight. (photos to follow once rolling commences).

And that's all well and good, but what's for dinner tonight? Mrs. Oilman wanted pasta. So out come the books. Today is a day to try something new. 'Cavateli with Garlic, Crab, Chile, and Trebbiano'. This one just leapt out at me so I'll give it a shot.

And since I'm using crab and I don't want leftovers, I now have a conundrum. An extra half pound of crab meat. Looks like I'll have to make a crab cake or three for lunch tomorrow.