a contumacious chef's culinary curmudgeonry
My usual supplier for fresh bread is sick this week and I’m trying out a local French bakery. The baguettes are divine and deserve some special attention. Since I had some pork loin left over, I butchered it into chops and made this sandwich special. The chops are marinaded in a peppery sauce, then pan [...]
I am SO out of my league here, but figured I’d try it anyways. This morning, getting up at five and all, I made Weisswurst. Despite its looks, this is not what’s known to Canadians, Cajun, and other Frenchmen as “boudin blanc“, instead it’s a veal and bacon based mixture (boudin is pork, not surprising [...]
The needle is hitting the hundreds in Dallas, TX, this week, time to make some seasonal cool salads to go with our staple diet of steaks or half hogs on coals.
An easy dish to make in your dutch oven, adapted from a 1848 recipe for trail soup. Something to hold on to while sitting outside and waiting for the steaks to finish. Chop or fine dice bacon, one onion per four diners. Add to hot dutch oven and render, stirring occasionally. Medium dice your potatoes, I [...]
With apologies for the REALLY bad photo above. I had about a minute, a cellphone, and no lighting. I’ll take some nicer photos soon and replace this one. Friend Gail called me this morning, asking for a quick and “idiot proof” dessert she could do for tonight’s Memorial Day Weekend dinner at her house. Gail’s [...]
A few weeks ago, we purchased a few boxes of dry-aged, organic, grass-fed, never frozen, prime, porterhouse steaks. The raw material cost was way too prohibitive to have this on our regular menu, so we made a special from it. A day later, we sold out. Such emboldened, we added it to the menu. And [...]
This Bad Boy is all Business. Weighing in at 1/3 lbs of ground Buffalo sirloin, only a serious Bun can hold this Beast. Best served with a dark Beer and topped with red and green onion marmalades, the Mr. B is a Bite to Behold. Ok, you can come back now. I just wanted to know [...]
A playful interpretation of THE American dish – the loaded baked potato. Steamed potatoes are combined with pork, egg, flour, onions, cheddar cheese, and spices, pureed and formed into dumplings. The dumplings are boiled, refrigerated for 24 hours (to ensure the protein relaxes and fluffs), then sautéed and served with venison or beef, red beet salad, and [...]
Regular readers (all three of you) know, that I don’t eat or serve veal. Unless, that is, it’s raised with its mother instead of being nailed into a box and fed ProViMi (a mix of – you guessed it – Proteins, Vitamins, and Minerals). This is where your veal should come from: Taken at the [...]
Gordon Ramsay is wrong. No, not about that “head chef” myth Fox and he are spreading despite the fact that not one winner in six seasons was made head chef (and, seeing the quality of cooks, I can’t say I am surprised). And, no, not about calling amateur cooks “Master Chef” after six weeks of [...]
My name isn’t exactly common. In most cases I am able to get jluster as my username. There’s one other Jonas Luster in the world, and he’s 87 and in Sweden. Yet, gmail, oh faithful mail delivery and reading tool of mine, regularly reminds me that there are some others out there who share that [...]
