Summer in Seattle Starts on July 12

Dinner date: June 14, 2008

Menu: Roast Pork Tenderloin with Potato Purée and Fava Beans

Wine: Lafite Rothschild, 1979

Whether it is correctly attributed, Mark Twain has gone down in history as saying, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”

He never visited Seattle.

 

The first week of June 2008 was the coldest in Seattle since 1894, the year when they started to track such stuff here. And now here we are 7 days from ’summer’ and this cold weather means I can continue cooking using methods normally reserved for winter (roast, broil, and braise). I have to keep reminding myself that “summer in Seattle starts on July 12″ a quote from a retired Seattle meteorologist. Earlier this week on June 10, the Cascade mountain passes received 12 inches of snow as low as the 3,500 foot level. There’s talk of canceling the Market strawberry festival next week due to excessive cold, clouds, and rain this spring. Washington strawberries are not even close to being ripe. The locals are starting to call June Junuary.

 

Tonight’s Dinner

The tenderloin for any four-legged animal all look the same… like a giant sperm. It has a large head end and a narrow tail end. Beef tenderloin is about 2 1/2 feet long with the iliacus muscle or wing protruding from the head end. Pork tenderloin is the largest of all at around 3 feet, the use of which is usually reserved for the carving station of catered events. You’ll find much smaller versions from younger pigs at the butcher or wholesale grocery warehouse. They often are packaged in pairs head-to-tail. If you can prepare them this way you’ll find that cooking and portioning is much easier. Tonight is half of two small tenderloins purchased at a grocery warehouse. It was brined in a milk, water, salt, and sugar solution for two days.

 

After brining, pat the tenderloin dry with paper towels. Lay four pieces of string (about a foot long each) across a cutting board, about 2 inches apart. Lay two tenderloins, head to toe, perpendicular to the string on the cutting board. Tie the two loins together with slip knots. To make a slip knot:

 

1. make a loop with the shorter end overlaying the longer end by about an inch.

2. take the shorter end and bring it under the loop.

3. take the shorter end and insert it in the hole created by the string in step two.

4. or just follow the graphic supplied by an instructor at culinary school.

5. now take the other end of the string and insert it in the loop and firmly pull it to tighten the string around. Repeat with the other three strings.

 

Season the tenderloin to your liking. Rub in some flavorings such as herbs de Provence, pepper, nutmeg, rosemary, sage, and thyme. To cook the tenderloin prepare the oven by arranging the oven racks so the top rack is about 8 inches from the top. Preheat it to 350°F. Preheat a skillet over high heat for two minutes, toss a teaspoon of water onto the skillet to seal the pits, swirl the skillet around, toss out the remaining water, and return the skillet to the stove; reduce heat to medium. Add 2 tablespoons canola oil, let it come to smoke point, and add the tenderloin. Brown it well on all sides by rolling it around in the skillet. Place the skillet on the top shelf in the oven and cook it until the internal temperature is 140°F. The 5- to 10-minute resting time will allow the meat to come to 145°F and redistribute the juices evenly across the meat. It also gives you time to finish the other components and to prepare for plating. Before you put a protein on a cutting board to rest cover the board with some paper towels. This helps absorb juices and makes cleanup a little easier.

 

The USDA recommends cooking pork to 170°F. I like mine cooked to 145°F. The resulting meat is pink and juicy.

 

Potato Purée is fast becoming my favorite way to prepare potatoes. It’s potatoes that are pressed through a potato ricer and then pressed again through a tamis. This gives the potato a very smooth texture with less damage to the cell structure than the beater of a mixer—a mixer makes the purée elastic and sticky. To this ‘mash’ add a quarter of its weight in cream and half its weight in butter. The starting ratio for tonight’s purée is 4 parts potato, 1/2 part cream, 1 part butter. The exact measurements can’t be given because it depends on how well the potato absorbs the cream and butter. Finish with a little salt, nutmeg, and white pepper and it’s ready to serve. All the recipes I’ve researched say to serve it immediately. This is usually impossible for a kitchen brigade of one. I’ve found that it holds up well in a 170°F oven for 1 hour. If the oven is warmer, transfer it to a bowl or hotel pan, cover it with plastic wrap and place it on the back burner of the stove that is emanating heat from the oven. I’ve even made the purée the night before and held it in a 1/9 hotel pan in the refrigerator. To refresh it just warm it to 170°F, stirring occasionally to keep the cream and butter from separating, and add a little more cream to soften it.

 

Weigh the potatoes and bake them until their internal temperature reaches 205°F. I prefer using Yukon Gold, a waxy potato that is more suited for boiling. When cooking the potatoes in the oven, don’t prick them with a fork, you want the potatoes to retain as much moisture as possible. Heat enough cream on the stove, equal to one quarter of the potato’s weight; keep warm. Remember, ‘a pint’s a pound the world round’ so with each pound of potatoes heat 1/2 cup cream. When the potatoes are done, press them through the potato ricer; cut them in half if necessary to make them fit. You don’t need to peel them; in fact, save the pressed skins for the next morning’s breakfast. When you press them, hold the ricer over the tamis and let the potato fall onto it. Work fast because you need the potatoes hot. Take a plastic bench scraper and press the potatoes through the tamis into a bowl large enough to hold the tamis. About half the potato will stick to the bottom side of the screen; turn the screen over and scrape the potato into the bowl.

 

Finish pressing all of the potatoes and then slowly fold in the warm cream to blend using a rubber spatula. For a righty, folding is the equivalent of making a capital letter J in the bowl. Start at the far side of the bowl, slide the rubber spatula down the right side, scraping both bottom and side, and at the near side of the bowl bring the spatula to the center. Turn the bowl of a few inches and repeat. Do this slowly so the potato has time to absorb the cream. Add small chunks of cold butter (cold butter is preferred because it melts slowly giving time for the potatoes to absorb it) to the potatoes and continue blending using a ‘folding method’. Keep doing this until the butter is no longer separate from the potatoes. Repeat with more butter. Depending on the freshness and original moisture content of the potato you might not need all the butter. The consistency you’re looking for is a thick, creamy mashed potato. Finish with a salt, white pepper, and a little freshly grated nutmeg. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Spoon the mash into a small bowl and hold in a warm oven or the refrigerator, if serving later.

 

Don’t worry about calories. Eat this in moderation with no more than a 1/2 cup per serving.

 

The person who brought this recipe to fame and is famous because of it is Joël Robuchon. His recipe is published by Patricia Wells in Simply French and L’Atelier of Joël Robuchon, and in a book he authored with Nicolas de Rabaudy La Cuisine de Joël Robuchon. Kriste and I had this dish at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Paris this past winter. It was lovely… rich, creamy, and decadent. Robuchon is so well known for this potato dish that Jonathan Sundstrom of Lark, who won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest in 2007, has named it on his menu as Robuchon Potatoes despite numerous sources for the recipe. Depending on which book you peruse, chef Robuchon’s potato preference is a Roseval, Rate, or a BF15 potato. Thomas Keller has published a recipe in his Bouchon cookbook. He uses the Yukon Gold potato. Early last century August Escoffier published Le Guide Culinaire and offers his version, recipe 4230: Purée de Pommes de Terre—Mashed Potato. He recommended Dutch potatoes.

 

The common theme with these recipes is that all the potatoes are waxy, which has less starch and more moisture, and the prefered preparation method for these recipes is boiling. I’ve had great results with baking Yukon Golds and prefer this method for my potato purée. The moisture content going into the mash is under greater control, and can be further controlled by adjusting the cream and butter. And speaking of butter, the butter should be expensive and tasty. Irish and Normandy butters selling for $5 for 8 ounces are the butters I prefer. If I’m in the mood, I’ll sometimes start with 2 or 3 tablespoons of chilled bacon fat and then add the butter. It gives it a nice smoky, bacony character. I saw goats milk butter at the grocery this week and will experiment with that next time along with goats milk. The flavor of the cream available in this area has less of an influence on this dish so cook’s choice, but use the freshest available.

 

The following table shows the ratio between potato, milk and butter for the previously mentioned recipes:

Book	Potato	Cream/Milk	Butter
Simply French	4 parts	3/4 to 1 1/4 parts	1 part
La Cuisine de Joël Robuchon	Recipe not given, description only.
L’Atelier of Joël Robuchon	4 parts	3/4 to 1 1/4 parts	1 part
Bouchon	4 parts	3/4 part*	1 part
Le Guide Culinaire	5 parts	1 1/4 parts	1 part
My recipe	4 parts	1/2 part*	1 part

* Recipe uses cream

 

Each recipe states that you should maintain flexibility in the amounts of cream/milk and butter added to the recipe because the final consistency dictates the exact quantities used.

 

Fava beans are coming into the market this week so somewhere within 150 miles of here it’s spring.

 

When discussing herbs and spices saffron is usually mentioned as being the world’s most expensive spice. By comparison, I’m sure fava beans are the most expensive vegetable. The beans have a thick outer pod that you’ll discard. The inside of this pod has a wonderful furry material. I love brushing my fingers against it. I wish I could coat my car seats with this stuff. Inside the bean has a white, almost plastic looking, skin. This too you’ll discard. What’s left is just a hint of what you bought.

 

The beans have a seam running down each side, just snap the bean at one end and run your thumb down this seam and the bean opens easily. The fresher the bean, the harder it is to follow the natural seam, which is a good indicator to freshness.

 

I buy the beans from the Corner Produce stand at the Market. The As Purchased weight is 1.1 lbs (483 grams). After removing the pod, the weight of the beans is 5 3/8 ounces (153 grams). Cook them in boiling salt water for 30 seconds; chill in an ice bath, remove the plastic looking skin with a pinch on one side to break the skin and squeeze the other side to force the bean out.

 

The weight of the bean afterwards with the skin removed (and soaking wet) is 3 1/2 ounces (101 grams). To finish the cooking, sauté them in the skillet used to cook the protein with a bit of fleur de sel. For tonight’s dinner, the Edible Portion yield is only 21 percent of the As Purchased portion. This means that 79¢ of every dollar spent on these beans is discarded to the compost heap. You might consider using dried fava beans, but they are no substitute to fresh fava beans. The dry version is best used for soups and stews.

 

To finish the dish you’ll need a sauce. Tonight’s sauce is Sauce Marchand de Vin, an Espagnole sauce made from veal stock with red wine and shallots added at the end of cooking. Espagnole sauce is a heavily reduced sauce made from brown stock and flavored with onions, carrots, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, and whole black peppercorns. Traditionally it is thickened with a roux, a mixture of cooked flour and butter. I thicken my sauces with a slurry, which is a mixture of equal amounts of corn starch and a liquid. Most recipes mention the use of water as the liquid. My liquid preference is a non-oaked white wine. It adds flavor and acidity. The amount of slurry to use is variable and dependant on the strength of the starch, the temperature of the liquid it’s being added to, and how quickly it is mixed into the liquid.

 

The base for a hot sauce usually comes from a stock made from simmering bones. Making a stock from bones is a long process, from six to 12 hours, depending on the bones. Chicken bones are a six-hour simmer, veal bones need 12. I don’t have the luxury to set aside this amount of time every week. When I do make a stock I’ll go through all the motions of making it and then portion it in little 2-ounce plastic portion cups. If you ever bought a salad at a snack bar you’ll usually get the dressing in one of these cups. You can get them at restaurant supply stores that are open to the public. I don’t have the brand handy but the product number for the 2 ounce size is P200. The lid is PL2. This amount is enough for two people when adding 2 tablespoons of butter, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a splash of alcohol such as Madeira, or Port. Store these cups in the freezer up to six months. When you heat it up refresh it with a carrot, shallot or onion, and a bay leaf.

 

As with all my dinners, making the sauce for tonight’s dinner is a thaw and reheat of a stock frozen in the freezer. How to make a stock and store it for later use will be explained in a later post.

 

The Wine

Lafite Rothschild (pronounced la-feet rot-shield, not roth-child) is one of the world’s most recognizable wine brands and it has a price to match. Lafite, as it is referred to, is located in southwest France in the Paulliac (pronounced po-yack) area of Bordeaux on the west side (left bank) of the Gironde estuary. Cabernet Sauvignon is the primary grape varietal for wines made on this side of the estuary with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot blended in to soften the tannic Cabernet Sauvignon and add complexity to the bouquet.

 

It’s one of the five Bordeaux 1st growth wines and I’ll try to summarize what this means in one paragraph. Centuries ago the brokers (negotiants) who sold the wines for left-bank wine growers started cataloging which wines were bringing in the most money per tun (252-gallon casks). The wines were classified from most expensive to least expensive. As an economy dictates, a natural separation developed between the prices and groups began to emerge. Over time, these ‘classifications’ were adjusted and wines were grouped by price with wines commanding the highest price classified as the first group. Eventually five groups (or growths) emerged. One of the first of these classifications is dated October 27, 1647; the most famous is the most recent and is dated April 18, 1855 (known as the 1855 Classification). Historically Lafite has been listed at the top of the first growths more than any other wine.

 

There are many sources of information regarding the 1855 Classification. For me the best source with the most in-depth content is a book written by Dewey Markham, Jr., 1855: A History of the Bordeaux Classification. It is one of the most interesting, fascinating, and well-written books I’ve ever read on the subject of wine.

 

Lafite is made for slow, long-term aging that results in a deep, complex wine. Some vintages should be drunk within 15 years, others should not be opened before 30 years have passed.

 

Like most wines from the Bordeaux region, Lafite has enjoyed an incredible surge in prices since the 2000 vintage. Take the 2005 vintage, for example. At first release (1st traunch) in June 2006 the wine had a retail price $545 a bottle, that’s over $21.25 an ounce (2 tablespoons). This first release was hundreds of dollars more than any previous release because the 2005 was recognized as the best vintage in 40 years. Here we are three years later, the wine is not yet in the hands of the consumer and that bottle is now retailing at $2,000, over $78 an ounce ($39 a tablespoon).

 

Special Equipment Needed

A potato ricer is a gadget that looks like a big garlic press and serves the same purpose only use a cooked potato not garlic. Other root vegetables work just as well. A potato ricer has two handles, the top is for pushing the food into a perforated ‘bucket’ attached to the bottom handle with the food coming through the bucket’s holes. It’s called a ricer because when the food comes out of the bucket holes it looks like rice.

 

Sometimes referred to as a drum sieve, a tamis looks like someone cut out the screen of a porch door and attached it to a round metal drum with the ends cut out of it. Most tamis are sold with the screen attached to the metal drum. Look for one that has a screen that can be replaced with another screen that varies in screen count (like thread count in sheets and pillow cases: from very fine to course). Use a tamis to further improve the textural qualities of a mash, purée, mousseline, terrine, etc.

 

A plastic bench scraper is the plastic version of something bakers use to scrape dough scraps off their work benches. The more common version is made of metal. When working with a tamis, use a plastic scraper so as not to damage the screen should an edge get caught. Plastic bench scrapers also come with a rounded edge to easily scrape the insides of bowls. The results are much more efficient than any spatula.

 

MEP

The bullet-point Mis en Place (pronounced MEEz ahn plahs) for this dinner is as follows.

 

Set up the equipment on the stove:

· skillet for the pork, fava beans, and sauce

· small pot for fava beans and cream

 

Set up the equipment on the counter:

Pork

· cutting board

· chef’s knife

· string

 

Potato Purée

· thermometer

· potato ricer

· tamis

· plastic bench scraper

· large bowl to hold tamis

· small bowl to store potato skins for next morning’s breakfast

 

Sauce

· cutting board

· chef’s knife

 

Prepare for service

· Wine glasses cleaned and set at table

· Eating utensils, napkins etc., at the table

 

Recipe

The following steps are listed in the order taken to prepare the meal as described above, not in the typical order of protein first or first course served is the first course listed.

 

Potato Purée: 1 pound makes about 4 servings, save what isn’t used for the next evening.

 

Prepare oven…

by arranging the oven racks so the top rack is about 8 inches from the top. Preheat oven to 350°F.   Place washed potatoes directly on top rack. Insert a the probe of a high-heat probe wire thermometer. Potatoes are done when they reach 205°F; about 1 hour.

 

Pork tenderloin: Two tenderloins wrapped together make four servings.

 

Prepare the pork loin…	Remove from brine, pat dry, and tie the loins together. Season with salt and add flavorings.
Preheat the skillet…	over high heat for two minutes. Add water, swirl, discard water, reduce heat, and add oil.
Sear the pork tenderloin…	in the skillet. Roll the tenderloin in the skillet to brown all sides.
Roast the pork tenderloin…	in the same skillet on the top rack in the oven until it reaches 140°F internal temperature. Turn off oven and let the pork rest on the cutting board while preparing fava beans and sauce.

 

Fava beans: 1 pound barely makes two servings.

 

Bring pot of salted water to a boil…

and remove beans from their pods; discard pods. Boil beans for 30 seconds, chill in an ice bath, and remove the skins.

 

Continuing with the potato purée.

 

Set up the station…	by placing the tamis in a large bowl. Large enough to hold the entire tamis because you’ll be pushing the bench scraper hard into the screen. Open the handle on the potato ricer.
Press the potatoes through the potato ricer…	and onto the tamis. Use the bench scraper to scrape any potato sticking to the ricer. Open the ricer and remove the skin—save it for a breakfast sauté.   Repeat with the remaining potatoes.
Press the potatoes through the tamis…	with the bench scraper. Lift the tamis and scrape the potatoes underside of the screen into the bowl.
Finish the purée…	by folding in the hot cream, a little at a time, into the bowl. Reserve a couple of tablespoons for finishing the consistency. Begin folding in the butter a few tablespoons at a time.   Once most of the butter is added evaluate the consistency. Add more butter or cream, if necessary. It should be smooth and creamy, not elasticky. Add seasonings and flavorings, taste and adjust.
Hold the purée…	in a bowl or hotel pan and cover with plastic wrap.

 

By now the tenderloin should be done; remove it from the oven and place it on a cutting board covered with paper towels.

 

Continuing with the fava beans while the tenderloin is resting.

 

Degrease skillet used to cook the tenderloin…

by carefully wiping out the grease with a paper towel. Don’t burn yourself. Heat the skillet over high heat for two minutes and add a little water. Use a wooden spoon to scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the skillet. Add a splash of Madeira and boil it for 15 seconds. Add fava beans and shallots. Sauté for one minute.

 

Heat the plates.

 

Place plates in oven…

for two minutes to warm.

 

Continuing with the fava beans.

 

Reduce the heat of the skillet…

as the liquid needs to stop boiling. Add the stock to the skillet, heat the stock to about 170°F. Thicken with the slurry and season. Take the skillet off the heat and add the butter while stirring the skillet to mix. Add a squeeze of lemon juice. Taste, adjust seasonings, and hold warm over low heat.

 

Plating. Open oven door and slide the rack with the plates out.

 

Potato purée…	Spoon the purée into the middle of the plate.
Fava beans and sauce…	Spoon the fava beans and sauce around the purée.
Pork tenderloin…	Slice the tenderloin in serving portions, cut the string, and place one portion on top of the potatoes. Garnish with an herb, if you want. Top with fleur de sel.

 

Analysis and Notes

We opened the wine at 5 P.M. and let it stand straight up until the dinner was served at 6 when we poured our first glasses. It had a beautiful amber color, much like a 40-year old port. The classic Lafite lead pencil note was apparent throughout the evening. The bottle lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes. What follows is a timeline of what and when each new component was detected.

 

6:00 sour cherries T and B and it’s quite acidic

6:05 a 25-second aftertaste, earth and leather B

6:15 autumn leaves and sawdust B

6:20 black currant B

6:25 tobacco leaf B

6:30 stewed tomatoes T

6:30 vegetables T

6:45 the richness in the potatoes and the acidity in the wine are a great foil to each other

7:00 black olive T

7:15 toast B

7:20 by now the aftertaste was at 10 seconds

7:30 earth and leather T

7:45 smoke B

 

T Taste

B Bouquet

 

The fruit in this bottle faded a long time ago in a cellar far, far away. Its peak was probably somewhere in the ‘90s. With the fruit gone the wine showed mostly earthy notes, which is not a bad thing to my taste buds.

 

All-in-all I’d say this was a really nice dinner.

 

Until next Saturday… boja, boja.

 

Photos by me and I’m (obviously) not a photographer.

 

Here are a few items of note about the ingredients. Unless otherwise specified:

· Salt is always Kosher

· Olive oil is always extra-virgin

· Eggs are always large

· Butter is always unsalted

· Pepper is always freshly ground

 

References

Aliza Green, Field Guide to Produce, Philadelphia, Quirk Books, 2004

 

August Escoffier, Le Guide Culinaire, New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1979

 

Dewey Markham, Jr., 1855: A History of the Bordeaux Classification, New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1998

 

Joël Robuchon and Nicolas de Rabaudy, La Cuisine de Joël Robuchon, London, Seven Dials, 2001

 

L. Saulnier, Le Répertoire de La Cuisine, London, Leon Jaeggi & Sons LTD, 1976

 

Patricia Wells, L’Atelier of Joël Robuchon, Hoboken, NJ, Wiley, 1997

 

Patricia Wells and Joël Robuchon, Simply French, New York, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1991

 

Thomas Keller, Bouchon, New York, Artisan, 2004

 

Web Sites

Definition: Foil

How to tie a slip knot

 

Restaurants

Lark

 

Wine

Lafite Rothschild