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Aug. 9th, 2010 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yagathaiOK, I owe you people a couple of recipes.
Chipotle aioli tuna salad
The dressing:
6-8 cloves garlic
2 egg yolks, room temperature
1 chipotle pepper in adobo
White wine vinegar
Lemon
pepper
salt
olive oil
Zest the lemon. Throw the garlic, the yolks, the pepper with a little attendant adobo, about a third of the lemon zest and about a teaspoon of the vinegar into a food processor. Run the processor until it's all pureed, and then with the processor still running start drizzling some olive oil into the mixture, very slowly at first and then faster as the emulsion builds. Start with about 3/4s cup of oil, check the consistency (TURN OFF THE PROCESSOR FIRST!) and if necessary, add more until you're happy. I usually end up using about 1.25 cups.
Add fresh-squeezed lemon juice, (or more vinegar if the lemon juice runs out, though it never has for me), salt and pepper to taste.
As far as assembling the salad goes, it's really simple: Throw some canned tuna into a big mixing bowl and add aoili until the salad is your desired consistency. As far as other ingredients go, I added some sweet onion and that was good enough for me, but you may want to experiment with cilantro, shallots, capers, celery, maybe some really fresh cherry tomato halves or whatever you like. I was thinking maybe some shredded carrot or even... dried cherries? Hm. I don't know about cherries and tuna, but cherries go with chipotle really well. Hmmm.
This goes great with a nice cold slice of watermelon.
The onion-pear confit... OK, here goes:
1 1/3 sticks unsalted butter
3 large sweet onions (or about 2 lbs of sweet onion)
3 leeks, whites only
3 medium pears, peeled and cored
1/2 shallot
Port wine
Honey
Red wine vinegar
Kosher salt
Slice the onions into half-rings. Slice the leeks medium-thin. Dice the shallot fine. Slice the pears.
Melt the butter in a big ol' skillet. Once it's melted and any foam has subsided, add the onions, leeks and shallots and a couple of generous pinches of salt.
Cook, covered, over medium heat for about 30 minutes, stirring maybe every 10 minutes or so. It's OK if they burn a little here and there-- that adds some nice caramel flavor. It is not OK if it burns a lot, though, so be careful. You will likely have to stir more frequently at the end. At this point the onions should be translucent, a little brown but not totally reduced.
At this point, add the pears, stir well and cook for approx. 30 more minutes. Again, stir occasionally, and don't be afraid to develop a nice strong brown color. After about a half-hour add 1/3 cup of honey, 2/3 cup of port wine and 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar. Turn the heat up to high and cook until the liquid is reduced and everything is like a thick syrupy brownish-purplish sludge.
Remove from heat, transfer it to a big bowl, let it cool a little so you don't risk splattering yourself with scalding hot sticky sugar-butter. Seriously, the stuff burns and sticks like delicious napalm if it gets on you. Make a cup of tea, pick a fight on the internet with a pack of angrytranssexual rights activists werewolves, whatever. Once it's cooled a bit (but it still hot, just not greek fire hot!), go to town with your stick blender until it's a nice, chunky relish-like texture. Now add salt to taste -- and while usually I tend to undersalt food, in this case it should taste just a little oversalted when it's hot because the confit is meant to be served at room temperature, which will mute the flavors a bit. THIS IS NOT LICENSE TO GO CRAZY WITH THE SALT. It should just taste a bit saltier than it would otherwise be.
Now I'm really nervous about you oversalting it. Don't do that. It's a fine balance. Be careful. Please. For me.
Cover, refrigerate overnight. Taste it in the morning and BE AMAZED!
Chipotle aioli tuna salad
The dressing:
6-8 cloves garlic
2 egg yolks, room temperature
1 chipotle pepper in adobo
White wine vinegar
Lemon
pepper
salt
olive oil
Zest the lemon. Throw the garlic, the yolks, the pepper with a little attendant adobo, about a third of the lemon zest and about a teaspoon of the vinegar into a food processor. Run the processor until it's all pureed, and then with the processor still running start drizzling some olive oil into the mixture, very slowly at first and then faster as the emulsion builds. Start with about 3/4s cup of oil, check the consistency (TURN OFF THE PROCESSOR FIRST!) and if necessary, add more until you're happy. I usually end up using about 1.25 cups.
Add fresh-squeezed lemon juice, (or more vinegar if the lemon juice runs out, though it never has for me), salt and pepper to taste.
As far as assembling the salad goes, it's really simple: Throw some canned tuna into a big mixing bowl and add aoili until the salad is your desired consistency. As far as other ingredients go, I added some sweet onion and that was good enough for me, but you may want to experiment with cilantro, shallots, capers, celery, maybe some really fresh cherry tomato halves or whatever you like. I was thinking maybe some shredded carrot or even... dried cherries? Hm. I don't know about cherries and tuna, but cherries go with chipotle really well. Hmmm.
This goes great with a nice cold slice of watermelon.
The onion-pear confit... OK, here goes:
1 1/3 sticks unsalted butter
3 large sweet onions (or about 2 lbs of sweet onion)
3 leeks, whites only
3 medium pears, peeled and cored
1/2 shallot
Port wine
Honey
Red wine vinegar
Kosher salt
Slice the onions into half-rings. Slice the leeks medium-thin. Dice the shallot fine. Slice the pears.
Melt the butter in a big ol' skillet. Once it's melted and any foam has subsided, add the onions, leeks and shallots and a couple of generous pinches of salt.
Cook, covered, over medium heat for about 30 minutes, stirring maybe every 10 minutes or so. It's OK if they burn a little here and there-- that adds some nice caramel flavor. It is not OK if it burns a lot, though, so be careful. You will likely have to stir more frequently at the end. At this point the onions should be translucent, a little brown but not totally reduced.
At this point, add the pears, stir well and cook for approx. 30 more minutes. Again, stir occasionally, and don't be afraid to develop a nice strong brown color. After about a half-hour add 1/3 cup of honey, 2/3 cup of port wine and 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar. Turn the heat up to high and cook until the liquid is reduced and everything is like a thick syrupy brownish-purplish sludge.
Remove from heat, transfer it to a big bowl, let it cool a little so you don't risk splattering yourself with scalding hot sticky sugar-butter. Seriously, the stuff burns and sticks like delicious napalm if it gets on you. Make a cup of tea, pick a fight on the internet with a pack of angry
Now I'm really nervous about you oversalting it. Don't do that. It's a fine balance. Be careful. Please. For me.
Cover, refrigerate overnight. Taste it in the morning and BE AMAZED!
