Author Archives: donaldson103211

The Best Turkey Meatloaf Ever

1.5 lbs ground Turkey

2 slices white bread, crusts removed

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup milk

1 onion

1/2 of a green bell pepper

1/2 of a red bell pepper

1 tsp neutral cooking oil

1 whole egg

1/2 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tbsp smoked paprika

1/2 tbsp dried thyme

1/2 tbsp ground ginger

3/4 tbsp salt, plus 1 pinch for sauteing

1/2 tbsp pepper

1/4 cup of ketchup, plus more for serving

1/4 cup grated parmigiano reggiano or grana padana cheese

hot sauce

Equipment: 1 small mixing bowl, 1 medium mixing bowls, cheese grater, chef knife, rimmed sheet pan, saute pan, silicon or wooden spoon

1. Tear the crustless bread into small pieces and soak in a mixture of the cream and milk until its completely mushy (15-20 minutes) in the small mixing bowl.

2. Peel and grate the onion into the medium bowl and preheat your saute pan with the oil over medium heat.

3. Chop the bell peppers into small pieces and add to the hot pan with a pinch of salt and cook until they are softened but not browned. Add to the bowl of grated onion.

4. Drain the excess liquid from the soaked bread and add the bread and the ground turkey to the bowl of grated onion and cooked peppers.

5. Beat the egg with a fork and add to the bowl along with the spices, cheese and ketchup. Mix until fully combined.

6. Form into a loaf shape on a sheet pan and bake at 400F until a meat thermometer inserted into the middle reads 155 F.

7. Let the meatloaf rest for 15 minutes, slice and serve with ketchup, hot sauce and preferred sides.

Brown Butter Egg Whites

Have you ever made a recipe that calls for egg yolks, leaving you with multiple eggs’ worth of whites to waste?

Don’t fret, I’ve come up with a perfect use for those lone whites that is delicious enough to make keeping up with them worthwhile.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp butter

4 egg whites/ 1/2 cup liquid egg whites

1 slice white american cheese (broken up into small pieces)

salt and pepper to taste

Something carby to accompany your eggs (crusty bread, toast, rice, etc)

Equipment

small nonstick pan (you can use a well seasoned carbon steel/ cast iron of you’d prefer), rubber spatula

  1. Heat your tbsp of butter over medium-high heat until the bubbling subsides and the milk solids have darkened. Season your egg whites with a pinch of salt, 2-3 cranks of freshly ground black pepper and your broken up slice of cheese.
  2. Immediately turn the heat down to medium-low, and add your egg whites.
  3. Stir it quickly with your rubber spatula, incorporating the butter into the eggs and breaking up any large curds that form.
  4. Once the whites are no longer watery and are almost completely firmed up, remove them to a plate and enjoy with your preferred carb!

What should be

To do is to determine what is

And what is

might not always be what should be

To wholly mourn what should be

is to let what is

be what it is

without judgement

or expectations

and be one with the universe

one thing at a time.

Don’t fight what is

to defend what should be

after all

it may not even exist

in the first place.

Simplicity

I can’t stand when a chef says that the recipe they use for something is “simple” but then use an ultra specific piece of equipment only really available in restaurants or the kitchens of wealthy people that can afford it.

Great, simple recipes are not made so based on the amount of ingredients. The method to get to the other side of raw components

The clip that comes to mind is of a European chef claiming that his “simple dessert” is perfectly delicious, despite his effort. He isn’t lying, because it is simple to him. He takes créme englaise (most likely supplied by one of his lackeys) and adds it to chocolate. Super simple!

The problem is that he dumps this shit into a $2200 Thermomix that can also be used to heat cook the mixture.

Most chefs of a certain level are so sickeningly disconnected from reality that “simplicity” in their presence is only really found after digging through layers and layers of technique and currency. Of course it’s possible to recreate his method and dish in more common home equipment, but the effort and thought required to convert his technique to the real world make the recipe inherently not simple anymore.

It’s hard to say why so many chefs fall into this fallacious habit of over simplifying description and approach, but I would bet money that it’s simply due to them being a bit too disconnected from reality. They’ve been in their realms for so long surrounded by vacuum sealers, Pacojets and Hobarts to realize that the ground that they’re looking down upon is actually just clouds.

De-Elitizing High Quality Food

The year is 2024.

Consumers are scrutinizing what they put into their bodies more than ever. Regular, middle class people are actually caring about how they eat, going so far as to label certain ingredients as “toxic” based on advice from non-experts on social media, and further blacklisting a ton of seemingly inconspicuous products because they can’t pronounce a handful of the listed ingredients. These people needlessly fear mongering over “seed oils” and other superfluous buzz words only do so because they can afford to. Meanwhile, the rest of us have become practice dummies for the greedy corporations to crank prices up to see just how much stress they can put on the working class beneath them. The real issue isn’t antibiotics in your chicken, it’s the fact that a lot of people can’t afford anything but the cheapest option in the meat section.

I’m all for caring about this side of processed food, and holding a magnifying glass up against greedy companies pushing “health food” to people desperate for nourishment. More than ever has it become clear that a lot of the mass-produced foodstuff that we see advertised as wholesome and healthy are really just a branding exercise on how deeply misinformed so many of us are about food. In terms of fresh produce, prices are unsettling to say the least. We can tout “eat organic” all day, but when the organic onions are almost 50% more expensive than their non-organic counterpart ($1.69 for non-organic vs. $2.49 for organic), it feels like less of a “rule of thumb” and more like a luxury most available to those who are ahead financially.

I understand the concept of making more money and rightfully being able to provide yourself with a better quality of life. Love it or hate it, that is the reality of the capitalist society we live in. I would be pissed if my raise in pay ended up not showing in how well I can live for myself. However, it should affect things like your brand of sneakers, the size of your TV, or the maker of your car, not the quality of your necessary provisions. After all, from early childhood onward we are told that god himself wants us to have access to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Obviously that “life” isn’t guaranteed, the “liberty” has become a shrinking list of shit choices, and the “pursuit of happiness” has been reduced to a desire to achieve what others have, rather than an actual path upward in life.

I’m not saying that everyone needs organic everything all the time. I’m not even saying the organic issue is the most pressing part of our food system here in the USA. What I am saying is that eating healthily shouldn’t be a luxury. Having access to clean, well processed meat and poultry should be expected in the “richest country of the western world,” without exception. Our cultural obsession with always getting bigger and faster and more profitable has officially undermined our ability to properly provide for ourselves, and even when a company comes along to provide that service, it’s typical, sooner or later, for that small business to sell-out to the highest bidder and rid themselves of the headache of operating a business like that as a non-corporation. And the cycle begins again and again. “We want our high quality product on she shelves of every grocery store in America,” is what we hear time and again from local mom-and-pop brands on the come-up. The American Dream was never about creating a better America, it’s been about winning at life. And now it’s not even about that, it’s become more about just getting to the finish line of line with you and yours intact and nothing more. Don’t worry about your neighbors getting screwed, just keep your head down and make it to the end and you’ll be just fine.

I don’t know about you, but I want better for my fellow American no matter how differently they look, think, or vote than me. Better starts at the bottom with strong integrity of individuals, and I fear that we may never return to that type of strength. Yes, an 80¢ difference in onion prices seems insignificant. It’s a minute difference that a lot of people won’t notice, but it is a sign of something that’s wrong with the priorities of our leadership.

Yes, I think everyone at some point in their lives should experience the taste of a perfectly ripe, in-season tomato. Yes I think that sort of experience can convert seasonal produce detractors to agreeing that local, seasonal produce might be good for our communities, even if a little more expensive. But that’s the difference in that sort of thing. Produce like that is a luxury right now for a disturbingly large majority of our populous, not an expectation.

My goal is not necessarily to make the absolute best version of every single dish or idea. My goal is to make the best version of things that can be made just as well for a family who eats produce exclusively from Walmart-Mart or any other large-scale chain grocery store with mediocre produce. I used to easily get caught up on specifics like particular ingredients and brands. I used to get very frustrated when people didn’t take specifics like that as seriously as me. Now I know that technique, intuition, and the ability to adapt are the most important aspects of cooking, and the world would be a better place if everyone had that capacity.

Seasoning Mastery: part 1

To make food truly delicious, you must master seasoning. It’s a daunting undertaking to be sure, but a necessary one if your aim is to have your guests leaving fat and happy as can be. If I have the option, I only ever use Diamond Crystal kosher salt because it’s widely available and the salt crystals themselves are nice and coarsely ground, which helps prevent over seasoning. A little goes less of a long way than other, more finely particled salts, and I like that.

The crucible for this process of proficiency must be cheap and satisfying, giving aspiring home cooks no excuse not to try and fail, at the very least, until they get consistent with their technique. To check these boxes I almost always reach for the humble chicken leg.

They’re one of the cheapest per-pound pieces of fresh meat that can be bought at all supermarkets, and they’re delicious to boot; fried, grilled, roasted, braised, confit. All take fairly little effort to reach a fantastically succulent end result. My reaction from guests is usually something along the lines of “What the hell did you put on that chicken?!” and when I say simply salt and time they gasp and feign disbelief. I get a kick out of it every time.

Getting to that point take some time and trials; you’ll probably end up over and under seasoning quite a few legs. I strongly recommend eating it no matter if it tastes perfectly seasoned, bland as cardboard or salty as the sea. It will help you internalize your results and remember for next time the mistakes you made. You’ll need a chicken leg, some cooking oil, salt, tongs, a plate, an oven-safe sauté pan, paper towels, and a meat thermometer. All of these things are equally as important as the next and will give you a great end result with enough practice,

Now for the actual process:

  1. With washed hands, you take your chicken leg. Dry it with a paper towel until there is no residual moisture on the surface and sprinkle enough salt on the surface to lightly coat the whole thing with no spots unseasoned. Put it on a plate with paper towels underneath to absorb moisture pulled out by the salt. Now is the time to be patient. For now, leave it uncovered for 24 hours in your fridge. With time, the salt will dissolve and disperse itself throughout the meat, the skin will dry out from the cold circulating air and the flavor will concentrate.
  2. Flash forward. It’s the next day and you’re giddy about your experiment. Take the plate with the chicken out of the fridge and let it sit on your counter for 30-45 minutes. Preheat your oven to 400℉ and preheat an oven safe pan over medium heat on a burner for a couple minutes. Once it’s nice and hot, add a tablespoon of neutral oil (I recommend peanut or canola) and use a paper towel to remove any accumulated moisture from your chicken and place it skin side down in the pan. Turn it down to medium-low and let it sit for 5 minutes. Flip it and immediately place the pan in the hot oven. Let it roast in the oven for 10 minutes and the check the temperature. You want to insert it into the thickest part of the meat and make sure to not touch the bone because it will give you an inaccurate reading. If it reads 155℉, move the chicken onto your reserved clean plate to rest for 10 minutes before digging in.
  3. Take mental note of what you taste: the texture, flavor, seasoning, juiciness. Your end result should taste seasoned all the way down to the bone, but not salty. It should be supremely juicy and intensely satisfying. If it isn’t, there’s always next time! No matter the outcome, you just took your first step towards mastering your seasoning technique!

Now do it until you have a consistently delicious final product every time, and you’re golden! This is just the beginning of a great journey of delicious memories. Keep at it until you’re confident and it will pay off tenfold.

Feeding the soul

I fed my soul today

My unlikely heroes of the late morning

Freshly purchased published pages

Accompanied by my cortado

and stale cardamom bun

Nourishing my mind

In the ways that matter most

I’ll revive my love of culinaire

With my own ether

That has eluded me until now

The responsibility is mine

To go up and away

And exist amongst my dreams and goals

Where I belong

When I’m ready

And no sooner

Creamy Spinach Flatbread

makes 4 servings

2 tbsp Olive oil

6 cloves garlic minced or grated on a microplane

3 scallions, sliced

1/2 a small yellow onion, small diced

1 bundle spinach (not baby) washed and chopped with stems removed,

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp rice vin

1.5 cups cream, reduced by half

7 oz freshly grated gruyere

Salt to taste

4 pieces 6-8″ store-bought pita bread or flatbread

8 oz low moisture mozzarella, cut into small cubes

Equipment: large sauté pan, chef knife, cutting board, microplane, salad spinner, cheese grater, tbsp measuring spoon, 1/2 cup measure, 1-2 sheet pans, cooling rack

  1. Preheat your sauté pan with the oil in it. Once the oil is hot, add the scallions, onion, and garlic and cook until soft, avoiding brow. Avoid
  2. By the end you should have just under a quart’s worth of the creamy spinach topping. You can use it as a filling, spread, or dip, but today we’re using it to make flatbreads.
  3. Preheat your oven to 400℉ and spread a quarter of the filling on each flatbread from edge to edge. Place 2 oz of the cheese on each flatbread. The cheese shouldn’t cover it completely.
  4. Place your flatbreads onto your sheet pan and then put that on the lowest rack of your oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the bottoms have crisped and the edges have browned slightly. If your cheese hasn’t melted all the way, move the pan to the top rack in the oven and bake until molten and bubbly.
  5. Cool on a rack for 5-10 minutes, cut into quarters and enjoy!

Lemon Curd Roast Chicken

feeds 3-4 people

1 whole spatchcocked chicken

4 hefty 5-finger pinches of salt

200 g lemon curd

1 tbsp neutral oil

1 tbsp corn starch

1 cup water (or more as needed)

2 tsp chicken better than bullion

1 tbsp cold butter

Equipment: sheet pan set with a rack (for marinating), large sauté pan, oven, sheet pan (for resting after cooking), small saucepan, small tupperware/ deli container, small mixing bowl

  1. Season the whole chicken with the salt starting with the underside and working your way to the skin-side. Carefully pull the skin away from the meat where the backbone and head/neck were cut from the carcass. Try not to pull the skin all the way off and do your best to not tear the skin either. Make sure to get salt as far under the skin as possible so that the whole thing will be thoroughly seasoned.
  2. Flip the chicken back over and spread half of the lemon curd onto the exposed underside surface. Once there are no more uncovered spots, flip it back over one last time and spread the rest of the curd wherever you put salt under the skin.
  3. Set the chicken skin side up in your racked sheet pan and let it marinate on the bottom shelf of your fridge uncovered for between 24-48 hours so that the skin dries out well.
  4. Preheat your oven to 375℉ and take the chicken out of the fridge, let it sit on the countertop while the oven comes up to temp. There should be some lemon curd accumulated in the sheet pan under your chicken, and that’s fine. Reserve this extra curd and refrigerate until ready to use. Preheat your pan over medium heat with the oil until it’s shimmering. Dry off any moisture that has formed on the skin and place your chicken skin side down in the pan. Immediately turn the heat down to medium-low.
  5. Cook your chicken until the skin is browned and then flip it over and place the pan into the middle rack of your oven. Roast until a meat thermometer reads 155℉ in the deepest part of the breast, careful not to touch the bone. Move the chicken to your clean sheet tray to rest. Its temperature will continue to rise for the next 15-20 minutes until the chicken is perfectly cooked.
  6. Pour your pan drippings into your saucepan along with the extra curd that was under your chicken when it was in the fridge, heat that mixture on the stove over medium heat. In your small mixing bowl, add the cornstarch and mix in the half cup of water with a fork. Once fully combined, add the bullion paste and mix again. Add the mixture to your pan of lemon curd and mix again. This is the sauce for your chicken.
  7. Bring your sauce to a boil until thickened and remove it from the heat. Add your cold butter and keep your sauce moving with a spoon until it has melted and incorporated itself completely into your sauce. Carve your chicken and serve the sauce alongside with your favorite sides and enjoy!