The Rogue Gourmet

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(Future) Rogue Gourmet Story Highlighted on Lifehacker.com & Hackaday.com
2011-11-10 21:35:00
A large form sous vide project I am currently working on, and will post about in depth in a couple of weeks, got posted to Lifehacker today (I got scooped on my own build). Somebody found my Flickr set on the project and it has gotten a lot of coverage today - which is very cool - but it isn't done!. Here is a link to the build photos so far, I am adding new ones as I complete steps in the project. The full article and documentation on the project will come as soon as I complete the build and testing.  Hack a Day Story - Nov 9th 2011: Kitchen hacks: What would you cook if you had a Sous-Vide this large? LifeHacker Story - Nov 10th 2011: This 16-Gallon Sous-Vide Water Oven Is Perfect for Huge Holiday Meals
More About: Future

Pâté de Campagne de Canard et D'agneau - a Campagne Styled Pâté of Duck and
2011-05-09 19:16:00
A pâté de campagne is a traditional country terrine, a rustic preparation, slightly more refined than a pâté grandmère mainly in that it uses only a small amount of liver. In a pâté campagne liver is used as a seasoning device rather than a dominant flavor. In the past I have always used a recipe for a more or less traditional styled pâté de campagne from Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Thier recipe is made up of ground pork and chicken or pork liver, but I wanted to try to make a variation that offered a richer flavor profile - with a game like character, and this recipe made a successful step in that direction. The mushrooms bring out the earthiness in the duck and lamb. Morels would be a wonderful alternative to the porcini's I used in this recipe, but I couldn't find any this weekend. In either case I prefer to used dried mushrooms, the grind breaks ...

Good News in the Garden - More on Spring in Wyoming
2011-04-07 02:50:00
Some great news on the gardening/brewing front, at least 9 out of 10 of our hops plants lived through the winter. I have to admit being pleasantly surprised. We had some very cold days this winter -44 fahrenheit according to our outdoor thermometer, and even in the photos I have uploaded you can see frost heave in the hops bed.  We planted 5 varieties of hop rhizomes last year, and were very lucky getting a reasonable batch of hops for brewing in our first year from two of the varieties. I am pleased to see that all of the varieties have survived, though one plant hasn't yet broken the surface - we will have to see if it catches up later, or if it is a casualty. 
More About: News , Garden , Good News , Spring , Wyoming

Chilcacahuatl Cake - a Flourless Dark Chocolate and Ancho Chile Cake with a
2011-03-31 23:03:00
Today's recipe has become one of my flagship deserts - a deep, dark, rich chile and cocoa experience. The delicate addition of finely ground, carefully selected ancho and New Mexico chiles to this sinfully flourless chocolate cake creates a culinary tryst of surpising complexity and history. I have named the cake for a very old Aztec drink served almost exclusively to royalty. Sophie and Michael Coe, note the drink in thier book The True History of Chocolate : "Universally popular throughout Mesoamerica was the addition to the drink of chile, dried and ground to a powder. The Molina vocabulary [the first Nahuatl-Spanish dictionary] calls the drink chilcacahuatl." You will love this cake if you take care in creating it.
More About: Chile , Cake , Dark

An Outdoor Companion - the Shooter's Sandwich
2011-03-29 06:02:00
As I write this the snow is drifting down, the wind blowing, its cold and wet outside. It has been snowing all week, a thick wet snow that only lasts until about 10 AM each day before the sun melts it off. Tonight we are expecting 3 inches, which might stick around a bit longer, but all of this is great news. Spring is here! Saturday I was planning a fishing trip down in Colorado, where spring is farther along. A fishing buddy, Tom and I were going to try and fish the Cache la Poudre River up in the canyon north of Fort Collins, but A fresh snowfall, a cold and fever, and a spouses migraine cancelled the trip. The fact is that the river might be too high to fish as well, and facing all of this, and no one to go with I ended up staying home. For the trip fare I had been planning on making a lunch that my buddy and I could eat in the canyon. Eating well when out fishing is, in my opinion, an incredible pleasure, and my plan was to make a couple of shooter's sandwiches to make our day...
More About: Outdoor

Carne Asada Tacos Cooked Sous Vide Part 2.
2011-03-25 02:53:00
I ended up making two different versions of carne asada tacos, with one main difference in the recipes (see recipe below). In the second recipe I added a 1/4 cup of medium heat New Mexico red chile powder.
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Carne Asada Tacos Cooked Sous Vide Part 1.
2011-03-22 02:34:00
Once a week is steak night at our house. Both my wife and I realy enjoy tri-tip and flank, both of which are a bit toothier than some more expensive cuts, but both offer great flavor, marinate well, and when cooked properly are a fantastic value. One of my favorite ways to cook both of these cuts is Sous Vide. Cooking using this method is nothing new to the foodie community, and last year the introduction of the SousVide Supreme made affordable sous vide cooking available to the home cook. I was happy to be an early adopter of this gadget, and honestly after using it for over a year now, I am a really big fan.
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St Patty's Day Charcuterie - or - How to Make Leprechaun Sausage and Horrif
2011-03-18 02:30:00
At my daughters school they make a big deal about Saint Patty's Day. They tell the children that Leprechauns visit the school while the kids are out playing, and hide chocolate coins around the classroom. Fiona, my daughter, has been entirely unsure what to think about all of this, she is clearly excited about the chocolate, but inquired quite seriously recently about the existence of Leprechauns. "Tell me the truth daddy... Are leprechauns real?" Oddly enough, I was fearful of telling her that they were not - mostly because at least in my mind, the next question would be about Santa, and at 4 I couldn't bear her thinking that Santa isn't real. What came out of my mouth after assuring her that they were real... I have no excuse, except that it was funny..? "Sure they are Fiona! In fact, Saint Patty's day is the one day of the year that we are allowed to hunt Leprechauns!" Fiona didn't believe a word of it, and went straight home to tell my wife just how horrible Daddy was - tea...
More About: Sausage , Make

Spring in Wyoming
2011-03-16 04:27:00
  Every year since moving to Wyoming now nearly 4 years ago our family spends 10 days of late Spring at Jackson Lake, in Grand Tetons National Park here Wyoming. Late Spring in Wyoming being the end of June and beginning of July. Spring is a fickle dame in Wyoming, especially in the higher altitudes. Perusing Facebook over the last couple of weeks, I see more and more comments from friends living around the country talking up Spring. And lets face it, it's "Spring break", even here, where currently it is in the low 30's and snow drifts and ice packs abound. Spring here in Laramie, doesn't necessarily resemble the season familiar to most. It's cold, though far less cold than last month - when we had several days below -30. The snow is heavy and wet in spring, and persistent, generally through mid June. It seems as thought summer will never arrive, and when it finally does, fall is already in the air. This cold, and slow moving Spring here in Wyoming is also when I, and many...

Your Best Recipe with Fresh Ricotta
2011-03-12 02:54:00
I recently joined food52 an online "cooks" community that is run out of New York City by Amanda Hesser(prolific cookbook author and NYTimes food writer) and Merrill Stubs (also a NYTimes food writer and Le Cordon Bleu Chef). Food52 is a wonderful (however New York City'esqe) cooking and food community, which sponsors weekly recipe contests. As of today I have submitted 2 recipes to food52 contests. Frankly the competition is pretty tough, there are a lot of very good cooks in the community, and I am possibly the only member from Wyoming - which is pretty decidedly not New York City'esqe! All that is not to say that I don't feel like I fit in. I have spent my time in big cities, and I am a big believer that rural cooking is anything but pedestrian - especially since with a little looking we can find almost anything we need in Laramie, and frankly we have seasonal access to ingredients like fresh wild trout, elk, antelope, deer, and wild duck that city folk pay dearly for, if they ...
More About: Recipe , Fresh

My Most Requested Recipe? Shrimp with Red Chile and Piñon Nuts
2011-01-26 02:50:00
Of all the recipes that I have this one is by far the most requested. Its easy to make, and when done with good ingredients is really hard to beat. Its great by itself, as tacos with slaw, or over rice. I "discovered" the dish this recipe is based on when Naomi and I stopped for dinner in the small town of Cuba, New Mexico on our way to Albuquerque from Chaco Canyon. We stumbled onto the most unbelievable appetizer, 6 shrimp, sauteed with piñon in an rich, slightly sweetened chile oil. After a period of trail and error I came up with a recipe that takes its inspiration from the flavors in that dish, but has been built to serve as a stunning main dish, perfect for a dinner party. A simple combination of shrimp, piñon nuts (pine nuts) honey, olive oil, New Mexico chile powder and cream, this dish can be an extraordinary experience. Save your very best chile powders and olive oil for this recipe, as it offers a chance to truly showcase the complexities and r...
More About: Recipe , Chile , Shrimp

High Altitude Cinnamon Rolls
2011-01-23 01:02:00
I have been looking for a good high alitude cinnamon roll recipe for a quite sometime. I finally worked out this one after a couple of tries. The rolls are huge, none of us ate more than half a roll. The recipe is set up to make 12 rolls, this time around I did 8 with the same recipe, and they were great. I admit that I have a Cinnabon problem. Not one that I indulge very often as we don't have one in Laramie - and in fact, I don't even know if there are any in Wyoming. My solution was to come up with a recipe that was just as good, and I think these are it - that said, they take a very long time to make! Recipe After Jump
More About: High , Cinnamon

Waiting for Oaxaca
2011-01-21 08:50:00
So I have a copy of Diana Kennedy's newest book "Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy" on the way to my Wyoming casa. Anyone who knows me well knows that Mexican Cuisine, and in particulaly Oaxacan cuisine has a very special spot in my heart. I very much look forward to reading and reviewing the book (all 492 pages of it). I am particularly interested in reading her recipe(s) on mole(s) from the region. I am a die hard fan of Rick Bayless's Oaxacan black mole, but I am excited to find some other variations. I will post photos, and more once I have the book, but for now, here is an interview with the author.

Columbus & The Humble Chile - A Meditation
2010-01-24 05:36:00
Originally posted on Chile ifre.com 10/5/2007 The chile, it seems to me, is one of the few foods that has its own god. — Diana Kennedy See image notes below Cooking is one of my great pleasures. I enjoy nothing more than creating food that enlivens the palate, invokes strength of flavor, and speaks of refined textures and seductive and sensuous aromas. Spices, herbs and aromatics are to me like pigments to a painter - to be mixed in an endless variety of alchemical compounds, elixirs, and infusions. But spices, herbs and aromatics go beyond the pleasures of the palate. Historically, in early trade, spices often took the place of currency, they have played important roles in the healing arts, adding properties to medicines, bringing scent to perfume and used to enhance our seductive qualites. The flavors brought by these botanicals also become synonymous with location - certain foods evoke imme...
More About: Meditation , Columbus

Diamonds of The Desert - Medjool Dates
2010-01-23 22:12:00
There are very few desert foods that are as universally loved as fresh Medjool dates. I used to consider dates as little more than another barely edible dried fruit added to American Christmas cakes, which I don't care for much. I didn't really appreciate them fully until in the summer of 1987 on a road trip with a small group of high school friends I was forced to pull into a roadside farm market on route 86, 50 or so miles north of the Mexican border with an overheating engine. The market was associated with a date ranch that we had been driving by - unnoticed as our attention was focused on the wavering engine heat indicator which was only being kept from a boil over by our willingness to run the heater all out on this 104° day. Once reserved exclusively for Moroccan royalty and their most important guests, Medjool dates were considered a precious confection and for many remain so today. We pulled into the market to give the car some time to ...
More About: Diamonds , Dates

A High Altitude Summer Crawfish Boil
2008-06-19 00:21:00
Spring in Laramie, Wyoming is fickle at best ~ and by the second snow in June it can seem downright elusive. This year, our first in Laramie, winter has seemed particularly dogged in it's cling to our thin air, but in the last 10 days, daytime warmth and the sudden greening of the plains seems to be announcing that summer has at last arrived. This year we marked Summer twice. Our first attempt, a "Summer Barbecue" over Memorial day weekend was well attended and ended a great success, never mind the wintry chill and icy rain with which it was accompanied. Ultimately the event was hardly the warm outdoor picnic we had all hoped for. No, it was going to be yet another 10 days, before we would really mark Summer properly. Naomi and I gathered some good friends, crossed our fingers and, took the folks at CajunGrocer.com up on an awesome offer, 10 pounds of live Crawfish shipped overnight and delivered to our doorstep. Spicy boiled crawfish, smoked sausage and steaming corn, I...
More About: High

Book Review: Spain And The World Table
2008-06-03 00:00:00
In 2006, the Culinary Institute of America gathered chefs from Spain and around the world to attend a conference on Spanish cuisine and its impact on the 'world table'. The result, this visually splendid cookbook, reduces some of the best culinary talent from the event and present 125 recipes that have been adapted for the home cook. The recipes, each, speak to the traditions of Spanish cuisine, but do not ignore the modern taste for a broad palate for ingredients, or the crafting of new flavors and textures. Over 600 culinary industry leaders participated in the CIA's 2006 "World s of Flavor" International Conference and Festival. And the resulting cookbook brings many techniques, flavors and concepts that might not be historically familiar, but are traditionally rooted, and as richly imaginative as they are flavorful.
More About: Cooking , Recipes , Book Review , Review

America Discovers Curry Laksa
2008-05-22 21:34:00
Curry Laksa is perhaps one of the most incredible soups that I have ever had. Laksa though now available world over is  originally of Peranakan or Nonya origin. Nonya cuisine combines Chinese, Malay and other influences to create a truly unique, and wonderful mosaic of flavors, and it is my opinion that Nonya cuisine's incredible potential can be fully realized in a bowl of fragrant curry laksa. The result of a masterful blending of Chinese ingredients and wok cooking techniques with the aromatic and sometimes fierce spices of the Malay community, Nonya recipes are tangy, aromatic, spicy and herbal. Key ingredients in Nonya cooking include coconut milk, galangal (a rhizome similar to ginger), candlenuts which are used as both a flavoring and thickening agent (and it might be noted poisonous uncooked), laksa leaf, a dried fermented shrimp cake called belacan, tamarind juice, turmeric, lemongrass, ginger bud, jicama, kaffir lime leaf, rice noodles (rice stick) an...
More About: America , Curry

America Discovers Curry Laksa
2008-05-22 00:00:00
Peranakan or Nonya cuisine, and curry laksa haven't really be discovered in United States, that is until recently. Laksa has begun to sporadically appear on The Food Network, the Travel Channel and other foodie programs and networks. Laksa made it's most recent appearance on last nights episode (episode 11) of Top Chef on Bravo, with a shrimp laksa made by one of the contestants. Bourdain, evidently judged the Laksa to smoky for his taste, after announcing that he "took his laksa seriously". Interestingly, it might be noted that Bourdain presumably had his first laksa two seasons back on his traveling foodie show "No Reservations".
More About: America , Cooking , Recipes , Food and Drink , Curry

Book Review: Grilled Pizza & Piadinas
2008-05-07 00:00:00
The dough, in my opinion is going to make or break a book like this one. Yes, the flavor combinations that Priebe puts together in his book are great too - but in the end the crust recipe was going decide it for me - it is foundation of good pizza and the toughest nut to crack. Historically I have always purchased my dough from the best pizzeria that I can find, so while this was not the first time I was making my own dough, a good recipe was going to bring me back to this book over and over.
More About: Cooking , Recipes , Book Review , Pizza , Review

Diamonds of The Desert - Medjool Dates
2008-04-30 00:00:00
Once reserved exclusively for Moroccan royalty and their most important guests, Medjool dates were considered a precious confection and for many remain so today.
More About: Cooking , Recipes , Diamonds , Dates , Food and Drink

Kitchen Gadget: The Kohler Karbon™ Sexy Articulating Kitchen Faucet
2008-04-17 00:00:00
Occasionally I like to highlight a cooking or kitchen gadget here on Chilefire - However normally I have actually used the gadgets that I am reviewing today. In this case I couldn't help myself - I had to post about this gadget before I got my hands on it.
More About: Cooking , Recipes , Kitchen , Gadget , Food and Drink

Experiments Smoking Salt: Part II
2008-04-01 05:23:00
Fresh from the smoker, my latest batch of mesquite smoked salt crystals. The color of good smoked salt should be as rich as the aroma and flavor it provides, ranging from a light amber to a dark pitch, almost black color. Almost two years ago I wrote up an article on a series of experiments I was doing smoking salt. At the time I promised a follow up article posting my results in a "couple of weeks". Clearly it has taken me longer to get here than a couple of weeks, but I didn't want to post on the subject again until I sorted out some of the details and techniques and had a chance to do some research. The art of salt smoking has prompted more inquiries than any other subject I have posted on Chilefire.com - I have received emails from both professionals interested in marketing their own smoked salt and amateur home smokers interested in making up a batch after having tasted the unique salt, all looking for a web resource on the topic. So, after experimenting f...
More About: Smoking , Experiments , Part , Salt

Experiments Smoking Salt: Part II
2008-03-31 00:00:00
Almost two years ago I wrote up an article on a series of experiments I was doing smoking salt. At the time I promised a follow up article posting my results in a "couple of weeks". Clearly it has taken me longer to get here than a couple of weeks, but I didn't want to post on the subject again until I sorted out some of the details and techniques and had a chance to do some research.
More About: Cooking , Recipes , Food and Drink , Smoking , Experiments

Product Comparison Review: Santoku Knives
2007-12-15 00:00:00
The Santoku is a Japanese chef's knife, a low-tip style with a broad blade and a slightly curved cutting edge. in Japan, this knife is used as the same kitchen workhorse as a French chef's knife is in European kitchens. Its cutting edge is less curved than the traditional chef's knife, so it provides less rocking action. The blade is designed for superb straight-down slicing and precise chopping. The santoku is often ground with alternating hollows on each side called Kullenschliffs. The hollows create breaks in the blade, which provide air pockets, allowing food to fall away cleanly.
More About: Cooking , Recipes , Review , Product , Food and Drink

Columbus & The Humble Chile - A Meditation
2007-10-05 00:00:00
The chile, it seems to me, is one of the few foods that has its own god. — Diana Kennedy
More About: Cooking , Recipes , Meditation , Food and Drink , Chile

Book Review: Morimoto, The New Art of Japanese Cooking
2007-09-26 00:00:00
Book Review : Morimoto, The New Art of Japanese Cooking
More About: Recipes , Book Review , Book

Chilefire Finds a New Kitchen and Much More, in Laramie, Wyoming
2007-07-20 00:00:00
Some of you may have noticed our absence the last several months. Naomi and I made some big changes not to long ago - and decided to sell the boat and find a new home on land.
More About: Cooking , Recipes , Kitchen , Food and Drink , Wyoming

Online Asian Food Shopping: Finding Hard To Locate Asian Ingredients Online
2007-07-16 00:00:00
A list of reputable online grocers and retailers specializing in Asian ingredient and kitchenwares
More About: Shopping , Cooking , Food , Recipes , Food and Drink

Ginger & Lemongrass, Star Anise & Thai Chiles - A Delicate Offering
2007-01-31 05:08:01
This is a dish that I came up with after some experimentation I have been doing with asian spice broths. I wanted to combine four distinct spice flavors in a broth or stock base that would not overpower the subtleties of flavor and aromatics offered by the seasonings; ginger, lemongrass, star anise and Thai chile.
More About: Cat , Lemon , Chile , Star