Buffalo West Wing (38 page)

Take one portion of the dough. If you have a pasta machine, follow directions for the machine from here to roll one portion of dough into a thin sheet. If you don’t, you can roll it out by hand using a rolling pin: Roll the dough out, flip it over, and roll it out again. Keep rolling and flipping until the dough is almost thin enough to read through. (It should be about the thickness of a dime if you can manage it, or even thinner if you’re good at this.) Cut the dough into 2-inch squares. Fill with filling below (or filling of your choice—once you have the hang of dough-making, you’ll never go back to store-bought pasta again.). Place a scant teaspoon of filling in the middle of a pasta square. Wet your fingers. Dampen the edges of the pasta square. Place a second square of dough on top of the filled square of pasta. Use your fingers to stick the dough edges together, so that you have a little sandwich of pasta dough around the filling, with the edges firmly glued to each other. Repeat with second ball of dough.

Place a heaping teaspoon of filling in the middle of a wonton-wrapper square. Wet your fingers. Dampen the edges of the wonton square. Place a second wonton square on top of the filled square of wonton wrapper. Use your fingers to stick the dough edges together, so that you have a little sandwich of wonton dough around the filling, with the edges firmly glued to each other.

Place all filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Once your agnolottis are stuffed and ready to go, drop them into a heavy pot filled two-thirds with salted boiling water. Stir the water gently with a wooden spoon to keep the pasta from sticking together. Boil until pasta is cooked al dente, roughly 3-6 minutes. (Fresh pasta cooks a lot faster than dried pasta.) Remove to a warmed platter with a slotted spoon. Drizzle with basil oil. Garnish with fresh basil leaves, if desired. Serve.

Place the olive oil and basil leaves in a blender container. Pulse until leaves are finely chopped but not yet a paste. Transfer the mixture to a skillet over medium heat. Warm through until the oil smells fragrant. Place a fine-meshed strainer over a glass bowl. Line with two layers of cheesecloth. Pour the warm oil through the strainer to remove the basil leaves. Pour the filtered oil into a cruet or a bottle. Keeps in the refrigerator for 3 weeks.

Wagyu beef is an American version of the fantastic Japanese delicacy Kobe beef. It can be hard to find either Kobe or Wagyu beef, so a really nice porterhouse, T-bone, New York strip steak, rib eye, or top sirloin will do the job here if you can’t turn up the gourmet stuff.

In the White House, we broil these in our commercial ovens. But for home chefs, these steaks can be handled in a number of ways. They can be grilled, broiled, or pan-seared. The real trick is starting with a hot surface, and using a good meat thermometer to determine the internal temperature of the steak so you bring it to the desired doneness that you prefer.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. The easiest technique to handle a steak, and the most universally available, regardless of season and weather, is to pan-sear it. You will need a sturdy cast-iron skillet or equivalent. I am particularly fond of enameled cast-iron cookware. You want something with a heavy bottom that will evenly distribute the heat from your cooktop, and not have hot spots that might burn the meat. Place the pan on a burner set on medium-high heat. Place oil in the bottom of the pan and heat until hot but not smoking. You can test the surface to see if it’s hot enough by carefully dropping a drop of water into the pan. If it sizzles and dances across the surface, the oil’s hot enough.

Pat steaks dry. Season both sides of the meat to taste with salt and pepper. Using tongs, (forks pierce the meat and allow those delicious juices to escape) gently place the steak in the heated oil. You should hear a sizzling sound from the pan if it is the right temperature. Slide the steak around on the pool of oil for a few seconds, to keep the meat’s surface from sticking to the pan.

Let continue cooking in the skillet for approximately 2 minutes for a medium-rare steak.

At the end of 2 minutes, using your tongs, turn the steak over. Place a pat of butter on top of the steak. It should bubble and melt immediately. Let the steak sit in the skillet, cooking the other side, for an additional 2 minutes.

Using your meat thermometer, place it in the steak with its tip firmly seated in the middle layer of the meat. Take the temperature of the inside of your steak. For rare, the internal temperature should be 115 degrees; medium-rare, 120 degrees; medium, 125 degrees; medium-well, 130 degrees; and well-done, 140 degrees.

If you are looking for more doneness than you’ve got, using a pot holder, carefully move the steak to the hot oven. Keep an eye on the meat thermometer. When the internal temperature matches your doneness temperature, remove it from the oven.

Using a set of clean tongs (The old ones could transfer germs from the original raw steak you handled to the finished meat. That’s bad. Very bad.), move it from the skillet to a warmed clean platter, and tent with aluminum foil.

Why, do you ask, can’t you just serve these things? They smell fabulous! One of the biggest secrets of handling steaks is that they continue to cook after you remove them from the oven. In fact, the internal temperature of the meat will typically rise between 5 and 10 degrees after you remove your meat from the heat source. After you’ve cooked the meat, you need to set it aside, tented with foil, so the meat rests, reaches your preferred doneness, and the juices redistribute evenly through the steak. If you serve it right off the grill, you’re missing the mark on perfection. The outside will be too hot, and the inside too cool.

Let rest 5 to 10 minutes, then serve on a bed of warmed Garlic Mashed Potatoes.

 

Note—the following recipe originally appeared in
State of the Onion
. But for those of you who haven’t got a copy handy, I repeat it here.

Serves 6

Place potatoes in a large, heavy-bottomed pan. Add water sufficient to cover them. Put lid on pan and bring to a boil over medium heat, watching to be sure pan doesn’t boil over. Once the water is boiling, reduce heat slightly and simmer until potatoes are fork-tender, about 25 minutes.

Drain cooked potatoes and set aside. Return empty pan to heat and add butter. When butter melts, add garlic. Cook until tender. Return cooked potatoes to pan. Mash or whip with immersion blender until nearly smooth, gradually adding warm milk until potatoes are the desired consistency. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Place in warmed serving dish and top with chives, if using. Serve.

 

Cooking scallops is easy. Cleaning them is hard. And finding good fresh scallops is the real secret for making this into a food fit for feasting.

In most cases, you can get your supplier to clean the scallops for you. If you can, go for it. But, just in case you can’t, here are the instructions for dealing with live scallops and getting them ready to eat.

Place the scallops on ice. This makes the animal inside relax and open up its shell.

Hold the scallop firmly in your palm, with its hinge side toward your fingertips and its rounded side toward your palm.

Place a sturdy paring knife in between the two halves of the shell. Twist and cut against the top of the shell, opening the scallop up and severing the muscle from the top shell half. Discard the top shell. Scrape the dark meat away from the scallop by running a spoon over the bottom scallop shell from the hinge toward your palm. Discard the dark stuff. You should be left with a gorgeous, pearly white scallop muscle on the bottom shell. Cut beneath the muscle to release it from the shell. Remove any tough tendon from the outside edge of the scallop. Your scallop is now cleaned and ready to cook.

You will need a sturdy cast-iron skillet or equivalent. I am particularly fond of enameled cast-iron cookware. You want something with a heavy bottom that will evenly distribute the heat from your cooktop, and not have hot spots that might burn the scallops. Place the pan on a burner set on medium-high heat. Place the canola oil in the bottom of the pan with the butter. Mix together as the butter melts. Toss in the minced garlic and give the pan a stir. Let the oil heat up until it is hot, but not smoking. You can test the surface to see if it’s hot enough by carefully dropping a drop of water into the pan. If it sizzles and dances across the surface, the oil’s hot enough.

Using tongs, transfer the scallops to the prepared hot oil in the pan. Let brown for roughly 2 minutes, then turn to brown the other side. Remove cooked scallops from skillet onto warmed plates. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve on a bed of Creamed Spinach with Olive Oil and Shallots.

Serves 6

Put olive oil in a sturdy cast-iron skillet or equivalent over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add shallots, stirring until they are clear, about 1 minute. Add spinach, and continue stirring until mixture is heated through and reduced and wilted, about 2-3 minutes.

Remove from heat. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add flour and whisk vigorously until a smooth bubbling paste forms, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the liquid. Keep stirring until you have a thickened sauce. Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper, to taste. Whisk. Add in the spinach mixture. Stir to coat. Plate. Top with grated cheese. Serve.

Serves 8

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Toss the berries with the cornstarch, ½ cup sugar, and salt. Place in a large casserole dish and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, remaining 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to incorporate smoothly. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add butter, vanilla, milk, and egg. Stir until ingredients are just mixed. Batter will be lumpy. If you work this batter too much, the topping of your cobbler will be tough.

Pour over the berries. Top batter with a sprinkling of sugar. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until berries are bubbling hot and the cobbler top is golden and cooked through. Serve warm.

Of course, adding a scoop of good vanilla ice cream to hot cobbler is always appropriate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anthony and Barry award-winning author,
Julie Hyzy
, writes both the White House Chef Mysteries and the Manor House Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime. A native Chicagoan, she enjoys traveling across the country to research her books. Learn more about her at
www.JulieHyzy.com
. Julie is also a regular contributor at both
www.MysteryLoversKitchen.com
and
www.KillerCharacters.com
.