Red Wine Poached Pickled Beets

I had about 2 1/2 pounds of beets and a half opened bottle of red wine. So I thought of Red Wine Poached Pickled Beets. The wine gives the beets a better flavor than just being pickled and I didn’t use the best wine either. I just threw my pan of beets in the oven with all the liquid but if you prefer you can do the beets on the stove top. The beets came out with subtle complex flavors this way. Far better than a standard beet pickling. They didn’t really come out winey just more complex with subtle flavors. I presented the beets with toasted pistachios and a cream cheese rose that I piped. I’m thinking that if I did this again maybe toasted spiced walnuts and basil flavored cream cheese would be a really good choice too. OH and don’t use yellow beets….they react with aluminum.

Ingredients for about 10 servings

2 1/2 lbs beets – scrubbed

1 3/4 cup white vinegar

1 3/4 cup red wine

2 cups sugar

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

Directions

Set the oven to 350 degrees F.

Put the beets in a large pan. Cut the beets in half or quarters if needed….

Add all the ingredients and cover the pan tightly with foil. After two hours remove the pan from the oven.

When the beets are cool enough to handle the skins should slip off.

Put the beets in some sort of storage dish and add back the beet liquid. If you desire some onions you can add very thinly sliced onions too. Chill over night and serve.

With extra beet liquid you can make winey pickled eggs too…They really only a need a day but I left mine in for a week before I used them in a salmon salad lavash wrap with saffron pickles.

Salmon Salad with winey pickled eggs and saffron pickles

Red Wine Poached Beets

This was very easy and these beets are better than plain pickled beets. They have a little more going on with them….

The Forking Truth

Asian Style Cabbage with Saffron and Chestnuts

I was reading about a Michelin Stared Chinese Restaurant Chain called Da Dong. One of the dishes on the menu is Braised Cabbage in Saffron with Chestnuts. I’ve never tasted the dish but I did get inspired to make my version of it so here it is. It’s much more delicate than what I normally do. It’s not spicy or very strongly seasoned. Saffron is the star and the cabbage is absolutely perfect. I made the cabbage like I do for slaw and let the salt and sugar cook the slaw for me. Then I made the sauce and poured it over the slaw and it really is delicious. BTW leftover re-heat just as well so there are no worries. I had no idea that saffron and roasted chestnuts are so great with cabbage. The earthy chestnut also goes surprisingly well with these flavors and the sweetness…..I would not have thought of these flavors together. I do note that I didn’t actually roast chestnuts and I used prepackaged roasted chestnuts. The window for fresh chestnuts is maybe one week a year here so if you want to prepare this dish you must use packaged roasted chestnuts.

Ingredients for about 6-8  servings

2 lbs cabbage – thinly shredded

1 carrot – fine shredded

1/4 large sweet onion – fine shredded

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 oz sliced ginger

3 red dried chili peppers – crushed

2 star anise

3 garlic cloves – smashed well

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

3 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

1/3 teaspoon saffron

2 cups vegetable stock

2 Tablespoons corn starch

2 Tablespoons sweet butter

5 oz roasted chestnuts

1/4 cup scallions – chopped

Directions

In a large bowl add the cabbage, carrot, onion, salt and sugar. Mix well and let set it off to the side. Take your time….it needs maybe 45 minutes to cook itself. Make the sauce next.

In a pan add the ginger, dried chilies, star anise, garlic, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, saffron, vegetable stock, 2 tablespoons corn starch (mixed into cold vegetable stock) and butter.

Heat it up to medium high. Let it bubble a few minutes  and reduce to simmer……let it reduce to half and then remove all the big pieces of stuff in it. (garlic, ginger, star anise, chili pods) Heat it up briefly with the chestnuts. Pour over cabbage mixture and mix and serve.

Asian Style Cabbage with Saffron and Chestnuts

What an interesting and different way to prepare cabbage! I don’t know if my inspiration from the Michelin Stared Da Dong Restaurant is even close but this what what I came up with.

The Forking Truth

Making a delicious juicy boneless chicken breast couldn’t be easier when you Sous Vide it. All you do is to set your Sous Vide with water to 146 degrees F. Bring the chicken out of the refrigerator to warm up for about thirty minutes. Then pound the breast out some and try to make them a similar width.

Apply fresh ground Sea Salt and quality Fresh Ground Black Pepper to both sides.

I always have some frozen garlic confit in my freezer. You can make it by either slicing a fresh garlic head in half and a heavy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. In the oven covered at 350 degrees F for about an hour. Or you can do a large amount like I did below and prepare it the same way. Freeze it in smaller portions.

I add about 2 teaspoons of FROZEN garlic confit to each bag and then vacuum seal.

I make sure that I get the bags under the water.

The lid goes back on.

It’s recommend to keep the chicken in the water between one to four hours. I find it usually is best around three hours.

If you are not using the chicken right away you should put the chicken pouches in a water bath so you can cool them down and then refrigerate.

The chicken is done now but you might or might not want to take it one step further.

You might want to sear the breast.

Get a fry pan on high heat with about two or three tablespoons of vegetable oil. When the pan is hot sear the breast for about one minute on each side.

You now have the most delicious, moist flavorful, and crusted chicken!

The Forking Truth

Crispy Baked Salmon Potato Cakes

Someone here read that one of the most favored purchases from Costco was the Canned Wild Alaskan Salmon so we purchased some to try. I will say it really is better than any canned salmon I’ve tasted. Of course it’s not as great as really great fresh salmon. Sadly in my part of Phoenix I very rarely find fresh salmon. I haven’t even tried to purchase any nearby because it’s a 50/50 chance if it’s fresh enough and I often return fish to store after I purchase it. Today I thought this canned salmon would be great in a potato cake so that’s what I did with it. I felt there wasn’t a need to fry these Salmon Cakes. By just using whole wheat panko crumbs you can get a very crispy crust SUPER FORKING EASY without an egg wash or flour dredge… easily. These Salmon Cakes came out very tasty and I think just about everyone would like them. I didn’t try but I don’t recommend freezing leftover Salmon Cakes. After eating one of these Salmon Cakes I have to say they really are tasty. I think they are flavored well but not too much. But it is very surprising how Forking Crispy they are……They came out much better than many fried things I’ve tried. No oil and a big crispy crunch. YOU MUST make the Jean Georges Vonericten’s Saffron Cucumber Pickles to go with these Salmon Potato Cakes. They go together like magic….

Ingredients for 5 servings

1 oz celery – fine chopped (about 1/2 a rib)

1 oz sweet onion – fine chopped

2 garlic cloves – very fine chopped

1/2 oz red pepper – fine chopped (I used a hot/sweet cherry pepper – a fresno would be my 2nd choice.)

non stick spray – canola or vegetable

1 lb potatoes

1 Tablespoon kosher salt (for boiling the potatoes)

sea salt – fresh ground to taste

black pepper – fresh ground to taste

1 oz whipped cream cheese

1 egg – lightly beaten

1- 6 oz can wild salmon – drained

1/2 cup regular panko

1 Tablespoon fresh parsley

1 cup whole wheat panko (****you really only use 1/2 cup but it’s hard to coat using only 1/2 cup)

Directions

Set the oven to 425 degrees F.

Cover potatoes with water in a pot. Add the kosher salt and bring to a medium boil and cook till fork tender. (should be about 15-20 minutes) Remove potatoes from the water and put to the side. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle peel them.

In a fry pan add non stick spray. Add the celery, onion, garlic, red pepper and cook on medium high heat till vegetables are soft. Take off heat and put to the side.

Potatoes should be cool enough to handle so peel them.

Mash the potatoes and add the fry pan of vegetables. Mash well. Add fresh ground sea salt and black pepper to taste. Mix in cream cheese. Mix well. Mix in beaten egg. Mix well. Add drained salmon and 1/2 cup panko, parsley and mix well.

Divide and make into five cakes. If you weigh them they should be about 5 oz. each.

In a small bowl add 1 cup whole wheat panko (secret to crisp breading that usually comes out better than frying) Add a small amount of fresh ground sea salt and a small amount of ground ground black pepper.

Pick up a cake and gently roll it all around in the crumbs. Repeat the next four cakes.

Repeat and do a double coat.

Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Place the salmon cakes down with a little space in-between them. Very LIGHTLY spray the tops of the salmon cakes with spray. Put in the 425 degree F oven for 20 minutes on the first side, then gently turn each cake over and very LIGHTLY spray them again and they go in the oven for another 20 minutes . They should look sort of like this.

After about a total of 40 minutes they are ready to serve. Or you can chill them and reheat latter. If the cakes are coming chilled from the refrigerator I’d say to reheat put them on a pan for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Serve with either lemon aioli, tarter or cocktail sauce. A lemon wedge would go nice too. We really enjoyed the Salmon Cakes with Jean Georges Vongericten’s Saffron Cucumber Pickles. That recipe you can find in the search or just page back two days.

(salmon cake was cut in 1/2 here) They came out really crisp too!

Brûlée Pineapple Sriracha Slaw

I think these Salmon Potato Cakes would pair with the Brûlée Pineapple Sriracha Slaw above! (recipe soon to be published)

Crispy Baked Salmon Potato Cakes

Enjoy!

The Forking Truth