The Outdoor Kitchen

Welcome back! For my latest cooking project I consulted Nathan Myrvold’s  Modernist Cuisine at Home  in order to make something that would use several modern cooking techniques. I decided on sous vide chicken and sous vide Hollandaise sauce made with the whipping siphon. Sous vide is literally “under vacuum” in French. It’s a technique where you vacuum seal food in a pouch and cook it at a low temperature for a long time in a water bath. The whipping siphon is basically a system used to mix a liquid with a gas, such CO2 or nitrous oxide. Think of a can of whipped cream. Always use the best ingredients you can find. The Modernist cook uses a scale for precise measurements, much like a scientist. The vacuum seal requires a firm hand press. I use the Poly Science sous vide cooker. Set the temp and time and walk away.   Even liquids are measured with the scale. White wine, vinegar and shallots were simmered for a reduction to go in the Hollandaise sauce. The precious reductio...

Wild king salmon on the grill. What could be better? Especially paired with crimini mushroom and bacon risotto, steamed cauliflower and a bottle of Chardonnay. Notice the fleur de sel from Camargue, France and the Italian extra virgin olive oil that my brother Peter brought me from Italy. You must treat the King to only the finest ingredients. The risotto and cauliflower are ready. I confess that the risotto is left over, but in these uncertain times you have to limit your grocery store runs. The King has been rubbed with the precious oil and cooked with minced garlic and home grown dill.   One quick flip onto the skin gets the garlic cooked into the filet. Be sure not to overcook, the King must be  rare to medium rare. Time to enjoy! Who wants skin?

Welcome back to Bri’s Blog, The Outdoor Kitchen. Here are some recent past projects. We decided to break out the deep fryer and cook outside. There is no kitchen oil smell if you do this outside. You can use the same oil for dinner and dessert. The fried chicken was marinated in soy sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, garlic and fresh ginger.  After marinating, they were coated with potato flour and deep fried to perfection. These donuts were Charlotte’s project. They were made with apple glaze. They turned out a little dense, but were still very tasty!                                                          Berlin’s photography especially shines in this beautiful photo of my pulled pork sandwich. The pork was slow cooked in the smoker for 8 hours. Notice the melted Havarti cheese and the Sonoma Brinery pickle slice, ...

Hi everyone.  Welcome to The Outdoor Kitchen blog !  I'm Brian and I cook for my family of five, usually in our outdoor kitchen.  My daughter, Berlin, will be taking the photos and providing much appreciated computer savvy and writing assistance. We will be cooking all sorts of tasty food in the great urban outdoors, so put on your apron and let's get going. This is a blog for food inspiration, tips and to keep up with my recent cooking exploits. My first pic is me cooking fried chicken in the deep fryer, outdoors!