I got the biggest one they had, about 1.5lbs.  The technique is so simple – wrap the meat in paper towels, put it on a rack and put it in the coldest portion of your refrigerator – for us it’s the top right corner.

I changed the paper towels frequently – only after a few hours the first time, and about every 24 hours after that.  4 days later, the meat looked like this:

The meat probably weighed about 2/3 of it’s original weight because a lot of the water weight was now gone basically concentrating all of the meaty flavor – the major advantage of dry aged meat.

I cooked the Porterhouse via my favorite method: under the chimney starter.

It only took a few minutes per side and I was left with this broiled beauty:

You could really taste the aging process.  The meat was delicious, but the biggest difference was in the fat,  The fat was now extra buttery, melted goodness throughout the whole steak.

I highly recommend giving this a shot.  You could always buy dry aged steak. I know that Whole Foods sells it, and your local butcher probably does too.  But why pay them double or triple the cost when, with a patience and pre-planning, you can do it yourself.

Oh yeah, I already have a bone-in Ribeye aging as I write this.

Since he has never been to Atlanta or met my friends, I wanted to have some friends over and cook a feast.  I figured it would give my friends a chance to put some pieces of my personality into place and a chance for my Dad to see who I’m spending my time with these days.

I kept the menu simple since I wanted to spend my time hanging out, not stressing too much over the food.  For the mains, I decided on beer can chicken and the smoked corned beef that I made to St. Paddy’s Day.

Instead of the chicken resting on a can of beer, I used a can Coke – just to mix things up.  I basically used the same technique that I have shown on “feeding freiman” before.  I made my own spice rub and roasted the chicken on the grill for about an hour.

I roasted some potatoes with chopped onions, and I made coleslaw as well.

Oh yes: look at the lovely plate of barbequed goodness and happy smiling faces:

The next morning was Father’s Day.  I honestly cannot tell you the last time I got to spend Father’s Day with my Dad.  Sad, but true;  I had to do something special.

Growing up, there were some Sunday mornings when Mom just needed some time to herself, and my Dad would take care of us while she slept in.  My Dad would make us what he called, “Daddy’s specials” – 2 Eggo waffles with cream cheese and jelly in the middle.  I decided that I had to surprise him with these.  For a little more substance, I scrambled some eggs and fried up plenty of bacon.

I know, not exactly a complex culinary concoction, but a nostalgic one nonetheless.  It was a great flashback to my childhood, and I’m not going to lie: Mere ate Daddy specials until the box of waffles was gone

July 4th weekend didn’t start out as well as expected.  My best man, Sweeney, was supposed to be come in town for the weekend, but I had to work late.  Since I was working late, I told Mere and him that they should go out for dinner without me.  As I left the hospital around 9:45pm, I called Mere to see where they were.  All of a sudden – WHAM! – I heard the impact of the drunk driver hitting the front driver side of her car, while they were in it and parked.  He flipped his car and was taken immediately to Grady; her car was totaled.

Needless to say, I was freaking out, especially when the phone went dead.  I flew over as soon as I could and found both of them safe and sound, albeit quite shaken.  A trip to the ER later, it was about 3am by the time we got home.  As you can see, a perfect relaxing start to the weekend.

Luckily they were both fine, and after a quick drink to settle the nerves, we all passed out.

Saturday morning started quite early with all the cooking I wanted to do. (You really didn’t think that I would half ass the cooking, did you?)

I had rubbed the meat – a 4 lb. Boston Butt on the left, and a 5lb. Brisket on the right – a few days earlier with a homemade rub.  Once the grill was ready I let the meat slow cook for the next 8ish hours.

I’m so tired of making coleslaw, so I came up with some other options for side dishes.  First, I wanted to try my hand at making baked beans.   You can see the primary ingredients that I used below.  I decided to use dry Navy beans instead of canned so I made sure to soak them for 24 plus hours prior to Saturday morning.

The flavor came out great, but the texture was a little off.  Despite being soaked for almost 30 hours, simmering for almost 4 hours, and being baked uncovered for another 3ish, the beans were still a little hard and undercooked.  I think that I will soak them longer and with more water the next time I decide to make this.

I also made a cold pasta salad and a grilled corn salad.  In the cold pasta salad, I used grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, oregano, parsley, capers and olives, as well as a little vinaigrette.  The grilled corn salad had roasted sunflower seeds, cilantro, tomato, and green onion.  I may be forgetting some ingredients in each dish, but you still get the point.

At this point the meat was getting close to done.  I pulled both off the grill to beautiful results.  First, the brisket with the beautiful bark.

Take a look at the sliced finished product, and do please note the gorgeous smoke ring.

Second the final product of the pulled pork:

All in all, the day was a success.  It was nice to spend the day with close friends after such a scary start to the weekend.

So, let’s begin – braised pork loin in a citrus sauce with onion, shallot, and apricots.

I bought a 2.5lb rib end pork loin, seasoned it well with kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper, and seared it on all sides.

Once browned, I sautéed onions, garlic, and shallots.  Once they softened a bit, I added some earthy, lemony thyme and started building the sauce:  some orange juice (not from concentrate), lemon juice, dijon mustard, and chicken stock. I took before and after pictures so you can see how dark and rich the sauce became when the cooking finished.

Before:

After:

There were a few changes I would make next time.  I would use much more lemon juice.  The sauce came out a little sweet – especially the whole apricots.  I would definitely use less apricots and chop them instead of leaving them whole.  I would also add a little white wine, again to cut some of the sweetness of the sauce.

I served the pork with plenty of reduced sauce and along side of some quinoa.  The quinoa had some scallions and parsley in it and tested great with the sauce drizzled over it.

This is typically not a dish I would flock to, but I was pleasantly surprised by how it came out.  I could definitely improve on this, but it was still delicious.

I used 3 types of mushrooms: cremini, oyster, and shittake.  Mushrooms have that wonderful meaty quality, as well as umami.  A fifth flavor sometimes referred to as savoriness.  By the time this dish was done, I created a rich, flavorful, and filling dish, without having to use a protein.

After sautéeing the shallots, onion, and garlic in some butter, I toasted the rice for a few minutes.

I hit the toasted rice with some white wine and vermouth and then let it reduce.  I had some chicken stock left over from the “banh me’s” which I used to cook the rice.  I added about 1 cup of warm broth to the rice and let that cook until almost absorbed.  That’s basically the technique to making a risotto: add a cup of broth at a time, let it cook, absorb, and repeat until the rice is nice and tender.

A little over halfway through the cooking process, I added in some fresh thyme and the browned, tender mushrooms.  I finished cooking the rice with another 4-5 rounds of chicken stock, and it was almost time to dine.  But first, I folded in some fresh Parmesan cheese for that amazing nutty, salty bite.

Delicious.  I have actually made this dish a few times, and it gets better and better each time.  I love the creamy rice and the earthy mushrooms, coupled with the acidity of the wine, and the fresh salty cheese.

I’m not giving up my meat lovers card quite yet, but a delicious mushroom risotto is a fair compromise.

So, here it is – Banh “me”.

I knew there was only one way for me to make this dish – slow braised.  I bought a beautiful, fatty Boston butt, my favorite for slow cooking, a few days in advance of making this dish.

I seasoned it with S&P, ginger and garlic powder.  I made some slits in the meat and put chunks of fresh ginger, garlic, and lemongrass.

Because of work and timing, I couldn’t make the dish for a few days.  I think it actually worked out well, it gave the meat some time to sit with the chunks of garlic, ginger, and lemongrass, and for the spice rub to add some nice flavor as well.

When the day came to actually cook, I started by browning the meat.

Once the meat was browned, I added onion, cilantro, shallot, more ginger, garlic, and lemongrass to be sautéed.  Once they were a little browned and tender, I built the braising liquid with a homemade chicken stock, and white wine.

I had made the stock a couple of days ahead.  Because I knew that I would be using it in this dish, I wanted the stock to have flavor profiles in line with this dish.  In addition to the usual mirepoix and stock basics, I used lemongrass, lemons, cilantro, and plenty of garlic.

Last time, the recipe called for simply adding sriracha to mayonnaise.  This time, I wanted to make it mine, so I made my own spicy, sesame mayo.  Yup, I sat there whisking the oil by hand until I had a beautiful mayonnaise.  My arm was a little sore, but the end result was well worth it.

The last time, the sandwich was basically a Vietnamese style meatball sub.  This time, I was able to use similar flavor profiles, but with my culinary point of view.  The pulled pork was so tender, and the braising liquid reduced to a delicious thick sauce, adding some great flavor.  I topped the sandwich with fresh cilantro and pickled julienned daikon and carrot.  I was very happy with the end result; the sandwich came out just the was I had envisioned it.

The flavor and the texture is amazing; it is almost identical to sweet, delicious crab meat.   Kyma served it pan fried with a delicious butter and caper sauce.  However, at almost $25 a plate at the restaurant, I had to try to make it myself.

It can be a little hard to find.  I have seen it at Whole Foods, but that is few and far between – definitely not part of their normal stock.  I was able to find it already butchered and cleaned at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market for about $4/lb.  You can actually buy it there still on the bone and with the skin on for less than $3/lb., but I had heard horror storied about butchering it yourself, so I decided to by it already cleaned.

The reason being this word of warning:  be sure that all traces of skin and membrane are removed.  Any remnants can produce a quite pungent ammonia smell / taste that you just do not want any part of.  I actually speak from experience as I did not fully appreciate this warning, and on the top piece in the picture below you can see some membrane still left on the fish.  It may not look like much, but trust me, it is there and it made a massive difference.  Simply put, we did not eat that piece.  Luckily one piece was plenty as the dish came out quite rich, and I learned a very valuable lesson.

I seasoned the skate wing with S&P before I coated it with all purpose flour.  I kept the sauce simple with a small amount of shallot and garlic sautéed in butter.  Once it was softened I added white wine and let that reduce.  I then added the capers, and the sauce was done.

I pan fried each piece in canola oil for about 6 minutes total until golden brown, and the skate was done.

We decided on also making PEI (Prince Edward Island) mussels – $3/lb. – in a delicious white wine and butter sauce.  All of that saucy goodness was to be sopped up with a fresh crusty baguette.

Voila!  A $30 a plate meal – $60 total – made at home for under $15 total.  Not bad.

The skate had the same flaky, sweet flavor of very good crab meat.  The mussels were great and who can resist that buttery, winey, briny broth of the mussels with some crusty bread.

For those of you that have even heard of eating skate, let alone wanted to try it, I would not be scared to try this dish at home.  Just remember to check the skin and the accompanying membrane.  For the less adventurous cook, I still recommend trying it at a restaurant; it is simply delicious.

Anyway, onto the food:

I think I’ve mentioned before that when I lived in Boston, my friends were predominately British.  Well, the British love their Indian food, and the first time I tried it was with them.  If you’ve ever had Indian food, chances are that the first dish you ever tried was this one – chicken tikka masala.  To break down the name: the tikka simply refers to the way the chicken is prepared: chopped into chunks.  Masala refers to a blend of spices.

First, I prepared the marinade for the chicken.  You can see most of the ingredients, but, just in case, some of the spices were garam masala, turmeric, cumin – which I toasted before grinding, cardamom, coriander, and cayenne.

If you’re going to make this dish, I highly recommend doing it over 2 days.  Letting the chicken marinate overnight really adds a lot of flavor.

Because of time constraints the next day, I also made the sauce the day before; this really allowed the flavors to meld adding some great layers of flavor to the final dish.

Yummy! This is the reduced sauce moments before adding the heavy cream.  The smell was absolutely wonderful – spicy, sweet, and smoky.

The next day, I got the grill scorching hot and skewered the chicken.  Traditionally, the chicken would be cooked in a tandoori, but since I don’t own the traditional cylindrical clay oven, the grill had to do.

I was still able to get some nice char on the chicken, and the marinade kept the chicken nice and juicy.

All that was left was to combine everything and chow down.

I garnished the dish with some fresh cilantro, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and I was ready to eat.  This dish a quite labor intensive – more than I thought it would be, but it was delicious.  Oh yeah, the leftovers just get better and better.

Here’s a picture of us senior year:

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Taco Ring.

It has actually been years since I last had this; my mom used to make it for us when we were in high school, and then, when we would come home to visit from college.  Honestly, so much time had passed that we just forgot how to make it, but I had to give it my best effort.  I think it came out pretty close to the original.

There’s really nothing terribly difficult about this dish; I just had to make it my own.

I used Bisquick and formed it into, you guessed it, a ring.

I precooked the dough and then cut the top half off.  I had cooked the meat while the dough cooked, and the rest was really in the assembly.

I loaded up the bottom half of the dough with ground beef, jalapenos, and plenty of cheese and set it back in the oven to melt the cheese.  Then I smeared sour cream on the top that I reserved, and added fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and salsa before putting the top back on.

It was huge!  I can totally see why this was the perfect dish for 2 growing boys – cheap, easy, and plenty to go around.

I served it up like a little sandwich, and I was instantly taken back in time.  For you, Brian – never forgotten.

Monkfish are a type of angler fish found in the northwest Atlantic, and foodies may know them as the “poor man’s lobster”.  We found a couple of small ones at the Buford Highway farmer’s market for only $3/lb.

Although they look pretty big (they were about 2 lbs a piece), they actually each only have 2 small edible fillets running down the tail.  The guy at the fish counter filleted them for us, and even gave us the leftover portions – head, bones, etc. – I heard they’re great for soups.

I kept the preparation very simple to let the fish stand on its own.  After patting down the fillets with a paper towel to dry them, (in general, always pat dry your meat before cooking, if it isn’t dry, it will actually steam, and not brown properly) I seasoned well just with S&P.

I added them to some lightly browned butter, olive oil, and some garlic.

After only maybe 10 minutes of cooking, I finished the cooking process with a fresh melted pat of butter spooned over the fish for that final little bit of richness.

We also made a very simple salad that I cannot remember if I have featured on feeding freiman before, so here it is again, just in case:  use the skinniest asparagus you can find, slice into as thin discs as your knife skills will allow, dice some red onion, and combine with EVOO, red wine vinegar, S&P and a good high quality fresh parmesan.

I’ve had monkfish on a few occasions at restaurants, and I really enjoy it.  My version was not only a very cost effective alternative to going out, but, most importantly, it was delicious.  The monkfish fillet is not flaky; it definitely has the texture and mouthfeel of eating lobster.