Ruhlman's Twenty (45 page)
Authors: Michael Ruhlman
MAKE THE VINAIGRETTE:
In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, garlic, and fish sauce. Let sit for a few minutes so that the garlic has time to give up some of its strength. Whisk in the oil, then add the coriander seeds.
Melt the butter in a 5-quart/4.7-liter pot over medium heat and sweat the leeks, adding a four-finger pinch of salt. Add the stock and bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low. Add the carrots and potato and simmer gently for 5 minutes or so. Add the celery root and continue to cook until the vegetables are tender. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
Add the beef, pressing it down into the stock so that it’s submerged. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook the beef just until rare, 1 to 2 minutes. Divide the leeks among 4 warm bowls. Distribute the root vegetables evenly, and top each serving with 3 pieces of beef. Pour the stock over the beef. Stir the vinaigrette and spoon over the beef and vegetables. Garnish with the cilantro/fresh coriander and serve.
1
/Bring the beef to room temperature and sweat the leeks with salt.
2
/Add the stock.
3
/Add the root vegetables.
4
/Add the beef.
5
/The beef will cook gently.
6
/The coriander vinaigrette.
7
/Spoon the coriander vinaigrette over the finished dish.
Poached eggs are one of many favorite foods to cook. Simple, healthful, and inexpensive, they can be a main ingredient or a substantial garnish on anything from a salad to a soup.
More people than not, it seems, advise adding vinegar to the poaching water, believing that the acidity helps more of the egg white to congeal. I’m not going to say that this is nonsense, since acid does affect protein, but I will argue that adding vinegar to poaching water has no noticeable effect on the egg white, other than that it can make the egg taste sour. Therefore, I do not recommend putting vinegar in poaching water. I poach in plain water. If you want beautiful eggs, understand that an egg white is composed of several different proteins that coagulate at different temperatures and that there is a thin, watery part of an egg white and a thick, viscous part. The thin part is what flies away in wisps and makes the poached egg messy and ill shaped.
For gorgeous poached eggs, follow this method, which I first read about in Harold McGee’s invaluable
On Food and Cooking.
Crack each egg into a small ramekin or bowl. Pour the egg into a large perforated spoon and leave it there for a second or two to allow the thin white to fall through the holes, then tilt the spoon to return the egg and thick white to the ramekin.
My only technique is to poach eggs in water that is not boiling or simmering. Bring a pot of water to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and then, when all bubbling subsides, add the eggs. Cook them just long enough for all the egg white to congeal, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove each egg from the water with a perforated or slotted spoon, holding a folded towel beneath the spoon so that the water drains off the egg before you serve it.
/SERVES
2
This is my favorite lunch to make for my wife and myself when we can carve out some child-free hours in the middle of the week. It’s more than a salad—it’s an occasion, a time when Donna and I can focus on each other, alone in a quiet house and are not exhausted from the day as we can be by the time dinner is done and the dishes are clean. I highly recommend that all couples with school-age kids make time for lunch at home, during the week, once or twice a month. Relationships are stronger when people cook together. This salad is so easy to prepare that there’s plenty of time to talk. I always serve it with a warm baguette and a Pinot Noir or Shiraz.
4 ounces/115 grams arugula/rocket
4 ounces/115 grams thick bacon, cut into lardons
1 large shallot, sliced
2 large eggs
Red wine vinegar
Balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Bring a pot of water to a boil for poaching the eggs. Put the arugula in a salad bowl.
Sauté the bacon
until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Add the shallot and cook until wilted and transparent. Spoon the bacon and shallot and as much bacon fat as desired over the arugula. Toss the greens so they are evenly coated with the fat.
Turn the heat under the boiling water to low and add the eggs.
Sprinkle the greens with red wine vinegar to taste, 1 to 2 tablespoons. Add a few drops of balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and divide among plates or large bowls. When the eggs are done, top each salad with a poached egg and serve.
/SERVES
4
Shallow
poaching means poaching fish in just a little liquid, so that it’s not submerged. This recipe and technique can be used with any fish, but it’s best with dense fish that have tightly bundled muscles, such as walleye, grouper, snapper, or halibut, which will retain some bite when cooked.
This is a healthful way to prepare fish, a way to cook it just right, then make a quick sauce in the pan with the liquid that the fish has flavored. Serve the fish and sauce with
sautéed zucchini/courgette
or
roasted cauliflower
.
2½ tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose/plain flour
1 large shallot, minced
1 cup/240 milliliters dry white wine
3 or 4 sprigs fresh thyme (optional but recommended)
4 walleye fillets, about 6 ounces/170 grams each, skin removed
Fine sea salt
¼ lemon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
In a small bowl, combine 1½ tablespoons of the butter and the flour and knead until the flour is completely incorporated into the butter, to make
beurre manié
(kneaded butter).
In a sauté pan over medium heat, sweat the shallot in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Add the wine, ½ cup/120 milliliters water, and the thyme (if using). Bring to a simmer. Lay the fillets in the pan and cover with a lid—preferably a
parchment/baking paper lid
, which allows for some reduction—and poach the fish until just cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. The liquid should only come halfway up the fish.
Remove the fish to a platter and keep warm in a warm oven or covered with plastic wrap/cling film. Raise the heat to high, swirl in the beurre manié, and cook until it has melted and the sauce has thickened. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning with salt or a squeeze of lemon. Serve the fish, spooning some of the sauce over each fillet and sprinkling with parsley.
/SERVES
4