Inquiring Minds Want to Know - Herbed Garlic Paste

So Miss Katie wants to know how to make herbed garlic paste.

Making herbed garlic paste is actually pretty simple. Here is what to do. Peel two cloves of garlic and push them through a garlic press.

You should use a garlic press because it produces a very fine mash of the garlic which is easier to blend with the remaining ingredients. Hand mincing of the garlic won't work nearly as well. You could crush minced garlic by pressing it hard under the blade of a chef's knife, but again the garlic press beats this hands down. So if you don't have a garlic press, now is the time to go down to the kitchen store and buy a good one for yourself. I use a Zyliss garlic press. (Highly recommended people!) I have had mine for 10 years and it will last me the rest of my cooking lifetime. So buy yours now, take good care of it and it will last you a good long time too.



[Sidebar One...A garlic press comes under the general heading of a kitchen gadget. Actually a better description of it is a kitchen tool. Gadgets are things that you don't really need and take up space in your kitchen. Gadgets are for the hopeless and not for you. What you need are good solid tools. So resist all temptations, and there are many, to buy hopeless single purpose kitchen gadgets. You have neither the space nor the money to waste on such frippery. (God, I have always wanted to use the word frippery in a sentence)]




[Sidebar Two...The pungent flavor of garlic is only released when it is crushed! If you were to peel a whole clove of garlic and cook with it, it would only impart a mild flavor. The act of crushing releases an important enzyme in the garlic cells which activates the pungent garlic flavors and aromas. So to maximize garlic flavor and pungency, pushing it through a garlic press works best.]




Ok, so where were we???? Ah yes, you peeled two cloves of garlic and pushed them through your snappy new garlic press. Place the mashed garlic on a flat surface. Add to this pile of garlic 1/2 tsp of kosher salt + 1/4 tsp of fresh ground pepper + 1/2 tsp of olive oil + 1-2 tsp of dried herbs (basil, majoram, thyme - your choice to use one or all three.) Using a spatula, mix all of these together (levigate actually) until you have a uniform paste. If you need to add a little more olive oil to aid mixing, please do so. If you want some more salt you can add this as well. The amount of ingredients here is really very flexible so don't be afraid to experiment. Just don't forget to take notes on what you actually did!

Please note that the recipe calls for KOSHER salt. Kosher salt is a large particle size salt which will aid the mixing and particle size reduction process that occurs during levigation. If you don't have any Kosher salt then take yourself down to the grocery store and buy some. It comes in big boxes and is really cheap and never goes bad. Plus you can dip the rim of your margarita glass in the stuff before filling it up.

So once you have your paste, you can then proceed to apply it to your steak. You can use your hands to do this or you can use the back of a spoon. Your choice. If you find that the recipe did not provide enough paste to cover the steak to your satisfaction you can always make more. This recipe is very easily scalable. You can double or triple it or more if you like. You will certainly need to do this if you plan to coat a large roast like I did last Christmas. Please note cooking fans, that when it comes to garlic paste it is strictly a case of use it or lose it. You cannot store the excess! So keep this in mind. Of course, in my opinion there is no such thing as too much garlic.

Ok, so I hope that answers your questions about herbed garlic paste. Any comments or questions, just let me know. Ok????

(That was a long answer to a short question wasn't it???)

Buying and Roasting Filet Mignon

Ok, here we go...

So Joan and I were at a wine tasting last night and met a couple (Mike and Vicky) we had met at a wine luncheon in February. The tasting was held by Kreston's Liquors in Wilmington (who we highly recommend BTW) and the tasting was hosted by Alain Blanchon who is one of our all time favorite wine distributors. Alain had Francois Thienpont with him who was the producer of the wine. (Hmmmm, maybe I should do a separate post on this?? Yes, I think I will. (Someone once asked if talking to yourself meant you were crazy. The reply was only if you answered yourself. I think I just answered myself)) (Check out those nested parens math majors!)

So I was describing to Mike the oven roasted filet mignon I served at Christmas Eve. He had never heard of doing this before. He only grilled them and asked me for details on the prep. He asked me where I got my beef and I told him Doc's in Hockessin. (Which is a butcher shop. But you could google that your self) Mike gets his meats from Costco which I had heard had good stuff. Anyway, I emailed Mike my analysis which follows..

As far as the whole fillet goes, here is how I cooked it. I bought a whole filet mignon from Doc's which weighed in at ~7.1 lbs. The butchers at doc's trimmed it down to a final weight of 5.75 lbs.
I had them save some of the trimmings for me so I could make stock.
(I need a post on stock I think. Somebody remind me.)

Doc's gave me a final weight and roasting time of 50 minutes at 425F based on the weight of the cut. As is usual with such cuts, one end is not as thick as the rest of the roast. So I tied the roast to balance the thickness. I usually do this anyway with roasts.

I prepared a paste of fresh ground pepper, garlic, kosher salt and I think Herbes de Provence.
I smeared this all over the filet. My biggest problem was finding something that would hold the whole roast. The pic shows the roast after cooking and is a bit shorter than the uncooked roast.
I have a fairly good set of equipment here, but that had me a little worried. I did fail to take the temperature of the roast after it came out of the oven and after resting. We like beef on the rare side here. (Fish well done, if you please) I think I would have gone 60 minutes in the oven in retrospect. I picked roasting over grilling as we had 12 over for dinner that night and roasting was easier. Believe me, no one complained!




As for Doc's vs. Costco...

I visited Costco a month or two ago to check them out. We had heard from others that they had good stuff at good prices. And frankly, who can ignore good prices nowadays? The thing that concerned me was their meats were not from branded sources. This worried me. Everything was Kirkland brand I think. Except the pork products were from Swift. Swift is a well known pork producer so no issues there.

Now once upon a time I used to go to a local butcher in Avondale. One day I asked him why his london broil was $4 a pound and the Acme's was $2 a pound. He said that Acme bought all of their meats in bulk in order to support timing and distribution of sale ads. Also, in order to be able to sell at the price points their consumers expected, Acme bought from who ever was the low price supplier at the time.

The local butcher bought all of his beef from either one or another supplier out in the mid West. Thus the local guy got a consistent supply of beef that he could always count on as being high quality. And so could the butcher's customers. Eventually, this butcher folded up shop. Which was a real loss because he had some killer beef and lamb chops. However, based on all of this I tend to stick with small local butchers and ask them who their supplier are. I like to support my local independent businessman.

Which brings me back to Costco and Kirkland. If Costco needs to present a certain product at a certain price point they need flexibility in suppliers in order to do so. They are an Acme only on a different scale. Their corporate purchasing criteria is price because that is their customer's purchasing criteria. So a very long winded story short, I did not feel comfortable buying the generic brands from Costco. If I bought their beef once and it was good, could I count on it in the future?

Since this is all speculation on my part and I don't know Costco's actual business practices for sure, we kind of stick with Doc's. If things really start to press, I guess we could try Costco.
But that is my current thinking on the matter.

So, anyway, that's my very first post and I'm stickin to it!