Good Eats Episodes 4, 5, and 28

Having not touched the book for a few months, I got back to it on Saturday night.  I made our entire dinner from the Good Eats book.  Unfortunately that wasn’t an easy task since a lot of the recipes call for different cooking temperatures or methods but I ended up coming up with a combination that worked for us.

• Episode 4: Veni Vedi Vinaigrette
• Episode 5: B&B Chicken
• Episode 28: Better-than-Grammy’s Creamed Corn

I made the vinaigrette a couple of hours before dinner and it turned out great.  I prepared our salad the way Alton specified in this episode; hand washing the lettuce before gently drying it (sorry Alton, I’ve got no salad spinner) and tearing it by hand.  As he specified, I put some dressing in the bottom of a large bowl and used my hands to mix it over the greens mere seconds before we were ready to eat.  I have no clue why I never did that before — it came out perfect.  The greens weren’t wilted and all had dressing on them.

I’m not sure I butterflied the chicken properly, but it worked out.  In fact, it cooked a bit more quickly than I expected — the breast meat was dry, but the legs and thighs were absolutely perfect.  The skin was beautifully crispy, and the red wine gravy was a perfect accompaniment.  And then there was the creamed corn.

You have never eaten creamed corn before.  I don’t care if you think you did — you didn’t, unless you’ve had this creamed corn.  It was the highlight of our meal.  The kernels were crispy, there was real cream in it, and the whole thing had amazing corn flavor.  Unfortunately I only had enough corn for a half batch — otherwise I would have leftovers so that I could make the cornbread that was featured in the same episode.  I’m going to be making the creamed corn again soon so we can try the bread.  I’m not kidding — this recipe was our favorite part of dinner.

Good Eats Episode 3 (Part 1)

Since it’s a Saturday, I got ready to make breakfast and then remembered that Episode 3 was “The Egg-Files I”.  I took a quick peek, hoping that there would be a recipe for scrambled eggs in there since that’s what I was prepared to make anyway, and sure enough — there was.  Not only is there a recipe, but it is the exact same recipe that I typically use with one exception:  Alton uses whole milk where I typically use 2%.

So I made eggs with whole milk instead of 2%.

John came upstairs and told me that they were the best texture of eggs I’ve ever cooked and he was sure that I had changed something major in the cooking technique, but I hadn’t.  I can only guess that the fat content in the milk helps keep them from browning too much or getting watery.

Unfortunately I don’t have a good non-stick pan for the “Eggs over Easy”, so that will have to wait for a hardware upgrade.  Next up will be Episode 4, “Salad Daze”.

Good Eats Episode 2 (Part 2)

As much as the Mashers weren’t such a hit with us on Wednesday night, I was really nervous about the second recipe from Episode 2.  Technically there was only one recipe for the actual show, but in the book Alton has added a recipe for dealing with any leftover Mashers.  He calls them Masher Cakes.

To make them, you mix leftover Mashers, 1 large egg, and a flavoring agent (I used green onion and thyme), then roll into 6 balls which you will gently compress to form thick patties.  Coat them in panko and then refrigerate for up to 8 hours before frying in olive oil until they’re GBD (Golden, brown and delicious).  Take them out of the pan and let sit on a rack to drain for about three minutes.

A side note with this recipe suggests serving with smoked salmon and some greens.  I had neither on hand, so I used canned pink salmon with a dollop of light sour cream.  John says these are a 10 out of 10.  They came out light and fluffy inside, but crispy on the outside.  He totally loved them and says that I have to make these instead of salmon cakes from now on. The more I think about it, the more I realize that there are a ton of things you could do with these things.  Just keep in mind that if you’re going to make a main dish of this, you’ll need to do two cakes per person because these are so light and fluffy that there’s almost nothing to them.

Thanks, Alton — you totally hit this one out of the park.

Good Eats Episodes 1 and 2

After coming up with the idea for Good Eats, Alton Brown filmed two pilot episodes.  Episode 1 (Steak Your Claim) featured a pan-seared ribeye steak, and Episode 2 (This Spud’s For You) fittingly featured mashed potatoes.  Due to time constraints, each episode only had one recipe; the book supplies one lost recipe (as I call them) for each of these two episodes that were intended to be included but got cut when they ran out of time.  And so, we had the following for dinner tonight:

• Pan-Seared Rib-Eye Steak,
• with Cognac Pan Sauce (lost recipe)
• Mashers

All told, it took nearly an hour to prepare the three recipes.  The potatoes took the longest amount of time for obvious reasons.

The steak itself was amazing; it was also the fastest I’ve ever cooked one in my life.  It’ a somewhat complex procedure for anyone who is used to just throwing one on the grill.  You have to preheat your oven to 500 degrees, all-the-while using it to heat up a cast iron skillet.  Then you transfer the skillet to a stove burner (set to high) for five minutes.  Once the skillet is good and hot, you add the seasoned steaks for 30 seconds (no more!) on each side, then put the whole thing in the 500 degree oven for 2 minutes on each side.

Once the steaks come out of the oven, you move them to the “resting rig”, which is a collander in a large metal bowl, and then topped with a pot lid to keep the steaks warm.  The side benefit is that this captures the juices for dipping.

While the steaks are resting, you’re making the Cognac sauce and mashing the potatoes.  I mentioned before that the steaks were amazing… they really were.  We weren’t as thrilled with the Cognac sauce or the potatoes.  Maybe our tastebuds have been dulled after suffering through years of substandard American cuisine.  The Cognac sauce was just a bit too bold for us and we couldn’t really detect the blue cheese in it.  The potatoes were a bit to bland, even with the garlic.  Don’t get me wrong, we really tasted the garlic, but we’re used to the rich buttery creamy taste of the potatoes that I make week in and week out (potatoes, sour cream, butter, heart attack on a plate).  I can hear Alton Brown telling me right now that that’s not Good Eats…. yeah, but it is tasty eats, lol.

So that was Episode 1 and half of Episode 2.  The second half of Episode 2 will probably come tomorrow: Masher Cakes (lost recipe) … potato pancakes made with the leftover Mashers.

78.5 episodes to go.

In Search of Good Eats

I’m a huge fan of Alton Brown; he really is my hero.  I’ve had the Good Eats series DVDs on my Christmas list for a long time, but alas have never received even one.  But my day was saved during this past October.  He’s in the midst of writing and releasing a three-book series covering every single episode of the show.  The first edition was released in October and my finger was just hovering over the “Buy It Now” button waiting, and waiting.  And when it arrived, I read the whole thing.  And pondered…  would it make sense to even try cooking everything in the first book; muchless before the second was available for purchase?

I have no idea if it’s possible, but darn it, I’m going to try!