Beef Stout Stew

0.5 lb beef stew meat
1.0 lb oxtail
0.25 c pearl barley

1 med yellow onion
2 carrots
2 med waxy potatoes (yukon gold)
3 cloves garlic

1.0 c oatmeal stout
2 c stock of choice

2 Tb flour
salt
pepper
3 bay leaves

Oil and salt stew meat, then sear in bottom of pressure cooker. Set aside stew meat and oxtail separately. Sauté diced onion in rendered beef fat, adding garlic toward end. Add flour to create roux. When roux is complete, add stout and scrub fond off bottom of pot. Re-introduce seared oxtails, add barley and stock. Bring to a simmer and lock pressure cooker. Simmer at pressure for 25 minutes. After releasing pressure, remove lid and add carrots and potatoes to pot. They should be cut in spoon-friendly sizes. Salt and pepper to taste, then simmer for 15 minutes. Finally, re-introduce seared stew meat and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Once done, remove bay leaves, remove bones from oxtails and shred associated meat. Serve with crusty warm bread and plenty of chopped parsley on top.

Calling on Mom

I asked my Mom about her Minestrone recipe. One of my favorites and a frequent dinner at our house as a kid. Here's her response:

When I first started making that we lived on Palm St. in San Luis Obispo and there were a bunch of boys who lived next door (Dad and they built a massive deck between our two houses) and they did a LOT of barbqueing whole cut up chicken. So I started having them give me the chicken backs, and I made stock---yes I did.

The chicken backs make awesome stock. (I made it the day before and refrigerated it to peel off the fat.) Then i would saute onions and carrots. You have the rest of the typical ingredients right....I consider a clove of chopped garlic to be absolutely necessary, and zucchini is a must, and finally the SECRET de riguer ingredient is at the last ten minutes, add a cup or two of sliced cabbage. The only herb I use is dried basil. I add all the tomatoe liquid when I add the large can of tomatoes. Use the good ones (sliced style.)

Ideally I would use at least two chicken backs for my soup pot size. Four would be better. I don't put anything else in there, but you could.

Don't forget parmesean on top (silly me of course you won't)
Love,
Mom

Chocolate Custard

I suppose I might as well change the name of this blog to "Custardnumbers." What can I say? Dairy, eggs, and flavoring. So simple. So much variety. So good.

1 c. heavy cream
0.5 c. milk
2 eggs + 1 yolk
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. cocoa powder
pinch salt
1/2 t. vanilla

Heat oven to 325ºF

I warmed the milk and cream together in a pan to a sub-boiling level, then added the sugar and cocoa. I whisked the mixture until the cocoa and sugar had completely integrated. Turning off the heat, I added the vanilla and salt to the mix.

In a large glass bowl, I whisked the eggs lightly. Didn't want to incorporate too much air because that would tend to make unsightly bubbles on the surface of the custard. Adding the still warmish chocolate cream little by little to the eggs and mixing well completes the process.

I buttered six ramekins and placed them in a big Pyrex baking dish. Boiled water in my teakettle in preparation for the baking process. The custard mix was enough to fill each ramekin up to 5/8" or so. I filled the baking dish up about 1/2" with boiling water and put it in the oven for an hour. After the hour, I let the ramekins rack-cool, then popped them in the fridge with saran wrap covering to limit moisture loss and skin formation.

In the end, the custards we're a little overthick and had a slightly desiccated layer on the surface. Cooked too long I expect. Next time I'll trust my bump testing and not blindly cook for any given time. Also, I think the dairy:egg ratio could be increased slightly. Finally, it would be better, I think, to have the custards be a bit deeper. Maybe not. I'll increase the milk and that will address the thickness and also add volume. Also may consider straining the milk to remove stray chunks of cocoa and crystalized sugar. The buttering did not appear to be neccesary.

Damn they were good though, as imperfect as they were.

Banana Custard Pie

Freestyled a banana custard pie tonight. Basic homemade graham cracker crust (2), then:

Mash four very ripe bananas (approx. 2 cups) with a fork and put in blender or food processor. Add 1 and 2/3 cups half n half. Blend till smooth. In a bowl, break three eggs and add two egg yolks. Add 1 cup white sugar. This was WAY too much sugar. I was basing this on my squash/pumpkin pie recipe, which obviously needs the extra sugar. Didn't think of that. I'd reduce it to between 1/2 and 1/3 cups next time. Maybe none.

Anyway, whisk the eggs and sugar together. Add about a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Whisking vigorously incorporates air, which might not be so great. Can create sort of a foamy pie surface. Mix the blended banana/cream mixture into the egg/sugar mixture. Pour into cooled graham crusts. Should be enough for two pies. Bake at 350º F for about 30 minutes.

Cool, then refrigerate before serving. Good with whipped cream and toasted walnuts.

Squash Custard

3/4 c. Cooked Squash, Mashed (acorn is good, but could be pumpkin or butternut, or anything)
1/3 c. B. Sugar
1/3 t. Cinnamon
1/3 t. Ginger
1 Egg + 1 Yolk
1/2 c. Cream/Half-n-half

Preaheat oven to 325ºF. Boil teakettle full of water.

Roast or steam squash, cool and peel skins. Mash or cuisinart to desired consistency. Beat eggs with sugar, then add all other ingredients, mixing well. Grease 3 or 4 rammekins and distribute mix equally among them. Place in glass baking dish and pour in pre-heated water bath. Put in oven for 30 to 50 minutes, or until set. Remove and cool before serving. Whipped cream.

Ricotta Custard

Tried a basic ricotta cheese custard.

0.75 cups boiling water

dash salt

2 Tb corn meal

120 grams ricotta

60 grams cream cheese

1 egg, beaten

handful of grated hard cheese

Add boiling water to corm meal with salt. Wait for cornmeal to soften, thicken, and cool. In the meantime, integrate ricotta and cream cheese. Beat egg in small bowl. Once corn meal is coolish, add soft cheeses, egg, cheese, and mix well. This will fill three or four small ramekins. I cooked in a water bath for about an hour. Internal temperature reached about 160ºF. Didn't brown on top as much as I would like, but the internal texture was pretty perfect.

Great changes to this dish would include: To use fresh corn instead of corn meal; To substitute pineapple chunks for the savory hard cheese; To add spinach or leeks sautéed with shallots...

Pressure Pintos

Soaked 0.5 lbs pintos overnight. Cut one half of a white onion into three wedges. Laid the wedges into a bit of hot oil at the bottom of the pressure cooker, just to brown on one side. Also added one dried chile. At the end, I threw in three bay leaves and four half-cloves of garlic. After a minute of heat on the garlic, I dropped the pintos and water in. A half pound of soaked pintos was a bit over 2 cups by volume. I included water at an approximate 2:1 ratio. This was less than the typical 3:1 ratio for pintos because of the pressure cooker technique.

Immediately after adding the pintos and water, I covered the cooker and locked the lid, turning heat up to high. Once the steam reached pressure, I cooked for 30 minutes - turning heat down to medium (which seems to be the minimum flame to maintain pressure). I released pressure using the valve and waited to open the lid.

Results were good flavor-wise, but not great on the whole. I added salt after cooking was complete - maybe a half teaspoon. The beans seemed a bit overcooked. I think they could have cooked for 2/3 or even half the time. Many were broken up and there was a lot of starch granules on everything. So, next time I'll cook for about 15 minutes at pressure.

Poached Pears (Poached Anyfruit)

I like pears, and it certainly seems to be a good time for them, judging by the store's produce section. However, I've never been a big fan of the texture of the flesh. Poached pears are more homogeneous, texture-wise, plus they are more soft and delicate.

Pears pair well with ginger, so the first question - cooking liquid - is easily answered: Real ginger ale. You know, the kind sometimes labeled ginger "beer." Though it is non-alcoholic, the stringency of it does justify the alternative nomenclature.

The second question is this: To peel, or not to peel? After poaching, I find the skin of the pear is tough and leathery, and quickly discolors unappealingly. On the plus-side, especially with red pears, the skin can impart its pigment to the outside layer of the poached pear, tinging it a gentle pink - almost like the smoke ring on low-slow barbequed meat. It's beautiful. However, in the end, I opt for skin off. If I do whole red pears, I might leave the skin on, since I could more easily remove it in one big go, but other than that - 3/8in. thick skinless slices are how I'll do it.

I pour about 3/8in. of ginger beer into the bottom of a skillet or wide-bottomed pan, and bring it up to a simmer. Then I add about a tablespoon of sugar. When that is dissolved, I lay the pear slices in and let them cook in a bare simmer for about 4 minutes. Then I turn them over and cook 2-3 minutes more. I want them to still be a bit firm when they come out of the poaching liquid, but obviously soft from cooking. In other words - don't cook them till they look poached. That's overcooked.

When I remove the pears, I put them in an ice-water bath to cease the cooking process, and prepare them for the fridge. This may remove some of the nice syrup from the outside, but they will be rejoined with much more of it later, so I figure it's okay.

For each additional batch, I add however much more ginger beer is needed to make the bath approximately the same depth as the slices. If many batches are cooked, a bit more sugar might be added later.

Finally, after all the slices are cooked, I leave the remaining liquid over med-low heat and watch as it reduces. As soon as it is slightly thickened (bubbles seem to shrink instead of pop, and when agitated, the whole pan become golden bubbly), I remove the syrup to an ice-cooled metal bowl for brief cooling. It should still be fluidy and pourable at this point. If you want actual pear syrup (like maple syrup), reduce it more and don't bother with the cooling - just put it straight into the syrup vessel. But what we are doing it making a light syrup for the pears to live in, so keep that in mind. Once it's cooled a bit, pour it over the pears and refridgerate. Have them with anything.

Gingerbread Pancakes (á la La Note)

Been working on pancake skills lately. Baking (and anything like it) are tough to practice, one of the side-effects being that you either have to throw out a lot of food or eat a lot of calories for one experiment. The guilt throws the scientific process way off.

I decided to try gingerbread pancakes, since I had bought some pears and did some poaching. La Note in Berkeley serves terrific gingerbread pancakes with poached pears. In additions, the poaching liquid can be reduced into a delicious pear-ginger syrup. For my base pancake recipe I used this one:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/GINGERBREAD-PANCAKES-108785

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brewed coffee, cold or at room temperature
4 large eggs
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

I made a couple changes right out of the gate: 2 of the 3 cups of flour were whole wheat, not APF. I substituted 1 cup of real buttermilk for the coffee and water. Didn't have any coffee, plus buttermilk is delicious and almost certainly will be acidic enough to match the coffee. Finally, I used sunflower oil (my standard vegetable oil) in place of the butter.

I actually assembled the dry and wet ingredients the night before so that I could just mix and cook in the morning. I hope there is nothing wrong with leaving the eggs in buttermilk and lemon juice overnight.

When it came to mixing, I tried to adhere to standard practice of mixing as little as possible, but was foiled by the unexpected thickness of the batter. After a few mix-rounds I could see it was WAY to dry. I decided to bite the bullet and add milk until it looked right. Not sure how much I added, but it took more mixing than I would have liked to get it integrated. Then, once it had sit for a bit (volume increasing substantially from the gas formation) it was still a bit thick, so I added more milk and mixed again, which released quite a bit of gas. I was afraid what with the de-gassing and the over-mixing that I'd be screwed, but they were still quite cakey and soft.

There was one additional dynamic, and that was the thickness of the batter varied from top to bottom of the pitcher. In other words, the first pancakes were much thicker than the last. I like the variability, but it can be confusing when trying to get the consistency right at the outset. The only alternative would seem to be mix it before each pour, but I would think that would be a gluten no-no.

The amount of sugar in the batter means that these brown WAY faster than typical pancakes, so one has to be cautious. I turned down my griddle from 375º to 350º to even things out. All told, it seemed like 3 mins on side A, 2 mins on side B was about right.

Seems to me it is almost impossible to serve home pancakes hot off the griddle, unless you are literally doing them right off the griddle onto people's plates, server-style. When I do pancakes, I cook them all at once, choose the best eight or so for immediate serving, then freeze the rest right away. I want them to retain as much moisture in as possible. Then I put the chosen eight into the toaster over briefly before serving, just so the butter will melt.

Jacki and I were pretty happy with the end results. Next time I plan to make the following changes: (1) Reduce the sugar by at least half. (2) Double the spices. (3) Add the correct amount of liquid right from the start. Not sure how much milk I added. Could have easily been a cup. Will refer to other pancake recipes I like to figure out what the approximate flour/fluid ratio is.

Coq Au Vin

Cherry Cheesecake

Bought a new springform pan for this one.

Jacki's Dad's favorite thing is cheesecake, and I think cherry cheesecake is the classic. I based my recipe on one I found at cookingforengineers.com - the first time I've seen that! They do the coolest thing with recipe tables - basically creating a sort of abstract timeline of the prep process and ingredients.

Three parts: (1) the crust; (2) the cheesecake; (3) the cherry sauce

Part 1 - The Crust

Basic graham cracker crust. 8oz graham crackers, 8Tb melted butter, 3Tb granulated sugar. Pulse crackers in food processor till fine. Add sugar and pulse again to integrate. Pour into mixing bowl and evenly distribute melted butter. Mix to integrate. Pour into bottom of springform pan that has been buttered and fitted with a parchment disk. Bake at 325º for 12 minutes or until fragrant and slightly darkened. I then put this in the garage on the floor to cool. Cover with cloth or something to keep out dust bunnies!

Part 2 - The Cheesecake

Here I strayed from the basic recipe a bit. This is a NY cheesecake recipe, and as such does not use a water bath, nor ricotta cheese. The recipe I read called for heavy cream to be added to the cream cheese, but I opted for sour cream. I like the tang it adds, especially for a cake that will be paired with sweet fruit compote.

Beating the cream cheese with the electric hand mixer is vital. My old one is so weak it can barely handle the job. If the cream cheese had been closer to room temp, it would have gone smoother. Ha!

I used about half the recipe, but it still filled up the pan almost all the way.

Part 3 - Cherry Topping
Had Jacki pit about 2lbs of cherries. Put all the cherry flesh into a pot with sugar, water, and lemon juice. Boiled shortly, then removed flesh from sauce. Reduced sauce briefly, then mixed in 1Tb of arrowroot powder (that had been dissolved in water). Once thickened and cooled a bit, added flesh back in.

Topped cheesecake at time of slicing, keeping a bowl of sauce on the side.

Rice Pilaf

Never made rice pilaf before - not counting box-style quickie pilafs. Spoke to my buddy Justin about his recipe, and adopted it, making a few modifications.

3-4 Tb butter (possibly half-n-half with olive oil)
1/4 lb. spaghetti (this could be orzo - or any other pasta for that matter)
2 cups brown rice
1 small onion diced
1-2 cup diced jalapeno
1/4 cup chopped parsley
4 cups broth (I used vegetable broth)
salt & pepper liberally

Brown pasta in butter/oil, add veggie/greens, add rice, add broth, bring to a boil. Transfer mixture to Pyrex baking pan and cover with perforated foil. Cook in 375º oven for 20-40 minutes. Pyrex lets you see the water level or state of the rice. Serves a lot of people, but probably less than it looks like.

Corn Meal

Note to self: Bob's Red Mill Medium Grind Corm Meal is actually 2 cents less per ounce then the standard corn meal.

French Toast

French toast is not egg cooked on the outside of bread. French toast is a custard, and should be treated more like a steak than an egg.

Choice of bread is often over-emphasized. The most important thing is that it be able to absorb lots of the custard fluid, and integrate well with it without falling apart. Thickness matters more than bread type. I like to cut slices between 0.75 and 1.5 inches.

Okay, here we go. This is a custard. I use heavy cream. Half and half would cut it, but sack up and don't use milk. You're eating French toast, you pansy.

1/2 cup heavy cream
5 eggs
spices

This is enough to make French toast for 2-4 people, depending on how much they eat. Add eggs to cream and mix well. I do this in a large Pyrex measuring cup. This is where I'd add spices if I were to do such a thing. Cinnamon, nutmeg maybe, ground cloves maybe, cayenne pepper maybe.

Have your bread sliced and ready. Ideally, you'll have sliced it the day before and left it out to dry - or just use stale bread, as it was intended. Less water in the bread means more absorption of custard and a firmer end result. Pour enough of your custard mixture into the bottom of a Pyrex baking dish to coat. Lay bread in cozy cozy. Pour remaining custard over the top, spreading evenly. The only reason to spread is to avoid dry spots. The custard will drain down into the dish and eventually be completely absorbed by the bread, so don't sweat the details. Cover with plastic wrap and fridgerate overnight. Yes, really - this is mandatory. Okay, fine. You can leave it for a couple hours minimum. Again, the watchwords here are integration and absorption, so use your best judgment.

Pre-heat your oven to 375. Now, heat a big cast-iron skillet over med-high heat. When hot, drop a tablespoon or two of butter in there. It will melt, then burn quickly, so have the soaked bread ready to go immediately. Lay everything down even over the melted butter and cook just until nicely browned. Flip everything and brown on the other side.

Your French toast is not done. Just like a thick steak, you want to sear the sides for flavor, but finish cooking in the oven. There is a load of creamy custard in the center of that French toast, and if you bite into it you will be grossed out like nobody's business. Putting all the pieces on the rack in the oven for 10-12 minutes will set the custard that makes up most of the interior, while keeping the outside crispy and golden brown, but not burned. I say rack because you definitely want to use a rack to avoid the sogginess that comes with steam buildup if they were set on a surface like a cookie sheet. Heed my words.

Now, your French toast is done. Enjoy with a bit of butter, and real warmed maple syrup. Coffee optional but recommended. Eat and then go take a nap before heading to the drug store for insulin booster shots.

Corn Chowder

8 ears corn
1 med yellow onion
2 orange bell peppers
2 cloves garlic

3 oz bacon or salt pork
1 tb butter
3 tb flour

3 cups chicken broth
3 cups milk (whole thickens best)
1 bay leaf

1-2 pinches saffron threads
1 cup cream

Start by harvesting kernels from 3 uncooked cobs corn - keeping the kernels as big as possible. Shed them into a large bowl and then set aside, retaining cobs. In another big bowl, milk the 3 corn cobs with the back of a butter knife. Shave open the kernels of the remaining cobs and milk into the second bowl. Set aside.

Dice onion med-fine. Mince garlic. Slice cap ends off bell peppers, remove inside, and roll out for skinning. Remove skin by sliding sharp knife under flesh against cutting board. Dice remaining flesh.

Begin by rendering fat from bacon or salt pork in med-hot dutch oven. If usuing bacon, remove when crispy, leaving behind rendered fat. Cook onions until translucent (sweat, don't sauté), adding garlic in last minute. Remove onions and garlic to bowl and add flour to oil, making a roux. If there is less than 3 Tb of fat in the bottom of the pot, add butter to compensate. Brown flour slightly (about 2 minutes), then add onions and garlic back. Slowly add broth, while whisking to smoothly integrate with roux. Once integrated, add milk, bay leaf, milked corn (but not whole kernels), and bell pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes.

In last minute of simmer, add saffron threads whole to enhance yellow color. Stir to integrate. Once integrated, add remaining corn kernels and cream. Bring to a simmer again and cook another 10 minutes, thickening very slightly.

Serve with toasted baguette and yummy salad. If you like, you can add potatoes to this recipe. Dice red potatoes into half-inch cubes and add when the broth goes in. They should stay whole through service, and will add somewhat to thickening.

Pressure Cooker

For my birthday, my mom and grandpa bought be a nice big 10 qt. pressure cooker. I've been into beans lately, and this sure makes experimentation a lot easier - being that it only takes 10 minutes to cook a batch, rather that 2 to 6 hours. I haven't yet even begun to think about the things I'll be able to do with meat.

I have made two batches of beans thus far, one small red beans flavored with smoked ham hock, another was actually real simple black-eyed peas. Both cooked under pressure for between 10 and 15 minutes, and both came out with the most buttery texture - like nothing I've ever made. In both cases, the flavor has been slightly lacking - not sure how to address that. In the case of beans flavored by meat, maybe I'll cook the meat a bit first (after browning, of course) to let more of its flavoring agents emerge, then remove it and do the beans in the fluids for the last 10 minutes.

Another issue is how to time the thing. There's a little button that pops up once some pressure has been established, but I get the feeling that is sort of minimal pressure to seal the vessel. Later, steam really starts issuing from the valve - and I expect this means it has reached full pressure. My instinct tells me to start timing at this point, but I really don't know. Then there is the matter of pressure release and temp-down - a whole 'nuther ballgame. Will have to just do plenty of experiments...

Pickled Beets

Saw some nice golden beets for relatively cheap at the Joe the other day. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to grab some. Here's what I did:

Cut them all in half lengthwise and steamed them for about 20 minutes. Once steamed, a tea-towel pulls the dirty, tough skins right off. Then the nice, clean steamed beets can be sliced into glowing golden rainbows, about 3/16 of an inch thick.

Next, I mixed half-and-half apple cider vinegar and honey - heating in the microwave to help dissolution. That's a lot of honey, I know, but it is worth it.

I poured the warm sugar/vinegar mixture over the beet slices and put them in the fridge for a few hours. Doing this for, I don't know, four to six hours creates a light pickling. When the time has passed, the pickling fluid has taken on an amazing yellow color, plus an earthy goodness from the beets. Pour it off and save it to use for vinaigrettes.

The par-pickled beets are now ready to eat. They're delicious when served with toasted walnuts and maybe a bit of crumbly dry feta or blue cheese. Also, add a bit of chopped parsley for grassiness and color contrast.

I think next time I'll get red beets in a ratio of maybe 1:8 for an additional point of visual interest.

Meat Condiment

Ground beef seasoned with salt and pepper, minced garlic. Brown with red chile flakes and then remove from pan. Toss two thinly sliced jalapeños into beef fat residue, brown on high heat, when just browned, add about a teaspoon of miso bean paste. Add meat back and mince/mix entire mixture to integrate. Spoon some mixture over fried egg on brown rice. Would have been improved with sliced green onion.

Pasta Primavera

Dang, those big ole nitrogen-fixing peas in the backyard got to be good for something, eh?

I harvested about a cup and a half of pea-pods from the backyard, and shelled them, providing maybe a quarter cup of fresh peas. I then prepared one medium carrot by peeling it, then slicing it into thickish matchsticks.

I then took one small young leek from the garden and thinly slided the dense end. This is about 1.5Tb of leek slices. Then I minced a small clove of garlic. I cut a 1Tb pat of butter from a stick, and measured out and equal amount of all-purpose flour.

In the meantime, I had water boiling to cook a serving (alright, a serving and a half) of whole wheat penne pasta. Salted water, of course.

I started a basic bechamel by melting the butter and sweating the leeks, adding the garlic at the end. Once everything was sufficiently softened, I slowly added the flour (through a sieve), mixing it with the whisk until fully integrated and browned.

On another burner, I began sautéing the carrots in olive oil till slightly browned. Don't move them around too much or they'll just be soft and not caramelized. Caramelization provides the essential sweetness, so get it there. No excuses. After the carrots were slightly browned, I tossed in the peas and squeezed the juice of about half a lemon over the peas and carrots. The acid deglazes the pan somewhat (I think), and provides some water so that the peas steam more than they sauté. I let the heat go on them a bit more, then turned it off to focus on the bechamel.

Adding a half-cup of milk to the white sauce is the final step. All I had was 1%, but it worked out fine. I haven't completely figured out the best way to integrate the milk yet, but doing it little by little, whisking smooth between each addition seems to work well. Once all the milk is integrated, I let it sit over med-low heat until it's thickened. I feel like ideally it shouldn't bubble, but again, I don't really know what's proper.

Assembly. Pasta has been draining in the colander and is nice and dry by now. Ready to accept sauce. I put it in a nice bowl, spooned a liberal amount of bechamel over the top, and dumped some of the now gently softened veggies over the top. A little salt, pepper, and a little splash of lemon juice, and I was ready to go. Dee-lish.

Also, I had meant to add parmeseano-regiano, but forgot. Was good anyway.

Burgers & Fries

Had some friends over the other day and wanted to do a little Springtime BBQ cookout type meal, and took it as an opportunity to try some things I've been thinking about. Yes, my good friends would become guinea-pigs to my culinary experimentation.

The menu I devised was as follows:

Sage turkey burgers
Sweet potato oven fries
Grilled young leeks (from the garden)

Of course, my friends were tasked with bringing wine.

The sage turkey burgers were not new to me, I learned them from Jacki's step-brother, Chris. I am not sure how he does them, but he turned me on to the flavor combo and it basically completely resurrected the idea of turkey burgers for me. I do it the following way:

Start with about a half-fistful of fresh sage (They sell little packages at my supermarket, and I just use the whole thing, not sure how much it is. Will make a note to record it.), removing the leaves from the stems. You can reserve the stems to toss on the coals when you grill or toss them out. I am not sure they're good for much. I throw the leaves into the food processor with a few cloves of garlic and enough olive oil to make the mixture a heavy paste when processed. The sage bits should be big enough on average to be visible as flecks of green in the patties, so it's a coarse paste. This paste I add to three pounds ground turkey and mix well, adding salt to taste. Don't over-salt, because it is nice to salt the patty surfaces before they go on the grill.

After letting the turkey mixture sit a spell (in the fridge!) to integrate, I commence patty formation. If I'm not mistaken, three pounds is 48oz, and that is perfect for making eight 6oz patties. I use a digital scale because I'm anal like that, don't you know. I also find it useful to cut squares of parchment (or wax paper) to put between the patties so they can be stacked. This makes them good for freezing and reduces the exposed surface area while they sit around waiting to go on the grill. They're closer to a third pound than a half pound, but still a hearty piece of meat. I usually try to prepare the patties first, then put them in the fridge or freezer until grilling time. This frustrates any bacterial baddies, plus it causes the patties to be more firm and easier to work with. Ground turkey is much stickier and less viscous than ground beef.

When I was at the store getting fixins for this meal, I went over to the potato area and there was not a sweet potato in sight. Foiled! So, I had to make a quick change of plan and substitute another starch. I was feeling sort of wedded to the idea of "burgers and fries," so I wanted to do something else as oven fries. My friend Michael turned me on to the beauty and power of fried parsnips, so I figured I might give them a go as oven fries.

I wasn't sure how many parsnips to purchase. I figured I'd want to use only the outside flesh, because the inner core is much more fibrous, and not much fun to eat (though to me it seems to be the sweetest). I think I ended up getting six medium parsnip roots (for four people), and as it turns out I could have easily doubled that amount. I cut the outside layers off the parsnip (sort of like pitting a mango), and then cut them into rough french-fry shapes. These I put in a big metal bowl, drizzled with peanut oil, and threw in a clove or two of finely minced garlic. Tossing that all together, I layed it all out on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, salted them, and put it in a 425º oven. It took a long time for them to cook up - probably over 40 minutes - but it is important to let them go all the way. The smallest pieces on the sheet should be blackened. After removing from the oven, I tossed them with some chopped parsley for color, and put them on a nice colored serving plate. These things are great on their own - or you can make a spicy mayo dipping sauce for them. Sweet and salt and spicy. Yum.

Jacki and I have been growing leeks in the backyard, and they're not like the leeks you see in the store. Commercial leeks are like freakishly huge compared to ours. Our young garden leeks vary in size from that of a typical scallion to maybe 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Jacki pulled up about eight half-inch leeks, I trimmed the roots, sprayed the dirt out of the leaves, and cut the tops off to a length to easily fit on the grill. Then, I cooked them like cebollitas, cooking until they are blackened outside and soft inside. Once done, I spritzed them with lemon juice and dashed with salt.

I cooked the turkey patties to 165º - which gives them a nicely browned exterior - and served on toasted whole wheat hamburger buns. The earthy flavor of the whole wheat buns is a huge player in the greatness of these burgers. For condiments I recommend simplicity: thickly sliced red onion, butter lettuce leaves, and mayo. Maybe a touch of ketchup. Friends brought a delicious pinot noir. Drank Sierra Nevada Summer Lager while grilling.

I think the meal turned out well. Wish I had pictures. Oh well.

Hummus

Garbanzo beans (chickpeas) are supposedly the most consumed legume in the world. I don't know if that's true, but they're tasty and they cost $1.69/lb at my grocery store, so I want to learn to use 'em.

Working with dried beans is something I don't have much experience with. I never understood the soaking thing, and canned beans are so dang easy. Cost is that main factor, I guess. Dried beans are a lot cheaper, and of course, they keep forever if airtight. Anyway, I decided to get to learning about them, and garbanzos are as good a place to start as any. I love hummus, and it is perhaps the most prototypical garbanzo dish I regularly consume.

First, I did a quick hot soak method on the dried beans. I used two dried cups - way more than necessary, but that wasn't entirely unintentional. I boiled about ten cups of water, then simmered the dry beans (peas?) for a few minutes. I then turned off the heat and covered the pot, letting them sit for about 4 hours. At the end of this they didn't seem adequately rehydrated, so I went ahead and left them overnight. In the morning, they were still hard and didn't seem suitable for use, but as it turns out, they were fine - I was just comparing them to canned garbanzos which are cooked already. I didn't realize that would be a necessary step.

I figured out the cooking factor and boiled the rehydrated beans for an hour or two, until they seemed right. Now I had about 4 cups of prepared garbanzos. On to hummus making.

Hummus

Two cups of prepared garbanzos into food processor, add about 4Tb tahini, 8Tb olive oil, juice of one lemon, one or two smallish cloves of garlic, and a good pinch of salt. Puree, adding water as needed to achieve the correct consistency. When fully processed, remove to storage bowl, adjusting salt as needed. I like to leave it slightly under-salted because sprinkling some kosher salt on top when serving is nice. Also, I generally tend to put more garlic into recipes than they call for, but in this case it is a bit overpowering to add more than is typical. Lastly, I finely mince about half a fistful of Italian flat-leaf parsley, and mix it in for color variation and a nice grassy flavor element.

For serving, I like to dish some out into a medium hemispherical bowl, drizzling EV olive oil on top, along with an additional squeeze of lemon, sprinkle of salt, and perhaps a bit more minced parsley. Toast up some pita on the stove, and you're set. Adding some Kalamata olives on the side puts you well into light meal territory.

Notes:

An open avenue for flavor exists when using dried garbanzos. The cooking water can be augmented with anything for a subtle layer of herb or spice flavor in the final product. Sort of like herb-tea-brining chicken. Also, for spicy palates I sometimes enjoy adding a bit of cayanne pepper at the processor stage. Roasted red peppers are another option.

First Quiche!

3 eggs (so few!? yes.)
1.5 cups milk/cream
6oz. cheese (gruyere)
2 cups sliced leeks
1/4 lb. sliced turkey bacon
whole wheat pie crust (frozen)
3 Tb butter

Cut "bacon" in strips, brown in pan, using about 1 Tb butter - turkey bacon doesn't render much fat. If I use regular bacon, I wouldn't add the butter. Remove bacon from pan, leaving rendered oil. Add 2 Tb. additional butter. Sweat 2 cups leeks on med. heat until soft and delicious. Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 325º F

Beat eggs in big bowl. Add milk/cream mixture. I used 3/4 c. half-and-half, plus 3/4 c. 2% milk. Mix in 6 oz. cheese. At this point I added some finely chopped chives - just to add some color to the quiche body. Mix well.

Remove pie crust from freezer. I made a little foil wrapper for the crust edge so it wouldn't burn - but that is personal preference. Evenly distribute leeks into bottom of pie crust. Add turkey bacon in an even layer. Pour egg mixture over leeks and bacon, filling pie crust. The quiche will not rise, so go ahead and fill to the max level.

The instructions I used said cook 20-30 minutes. Mine took nearly twice that judging by thermometer readings. I cooked it to 160º at the center ( I think most of it reached 165º) and it was quite good that way - perfectly browned on top, soft and custardy inside. I figure it could have gone to 170-175º for additional firmness, but it was quite good as it was. Also, I put a piece of foil over it for the last few minutes because it wasn't quite up to temp, but the top had reached the brown-ness I wanted. Worked great.

In fact, I made a second quiche with foil over the top for the whole cooking process. It cooked a lot faster, but when done, had no browning. Will be great for re-heating, but looks kinda pale.

Final product, as served:


As you can see, I topped it off with chopped chives. Color is king. Served with big salad (homemade fresh croûtons), and sautéed carrots. Delish. Riesling wine. Parmesan pictured is for salad.

Lessons:

Next time, a bit less cheese. Maybe 4 oz. Also, might flirt with higher cooking temp. Whole wheat crust is a winner.

Basic Lentils

Ratios:

Water:Lentils - 3:1
Onion:Celery:Carrot - 2:1:1 (Mirepoix)

Technique:

Sweating the aromatics (as opposed to softening on higher heat) really seems to help keep the flavor light and sweet, though I do throw the carrot in first and give it a little caramelization. I can't resist the flavor of caramelized carrots, plus the are the most robust, so can do with a little extra cooking time. Not that it makes any difference considering they are about to simmer for ages. I do this in just enough olive oil to thinly coat the bottom of the pot. Adding a couple pinches of salt with the onions.

Once everything is softened and smelling nice, I add the lentils and let them warm up and take some oil.

In the meantime, I've heated the water in my electric kettle, so it will reach a boil/simmer more quickly. I'm not sure if there's anything wrong with this, as opposed to adding cold water, but I find it helps me more quickly get the whole mass to the correct simmer so I can leave the room and see to other tasks. I have too often let the pot boil too hard for 15 minutes, forgetting to go in and check to turn down the heat. That has left me with hard lentils in the past. Best to get it all over with quick. At the same time I add the water I add a few bay leaves.

Once the pot is simmering low, I set the timer for 30 minutes and come check on the pot in intervals. It is usually an hour or two before they are done. They can be served any number of ways.

One of my favorite ways to serve:

Prepare a salad with lettuce sliced thinly and a basic vinaigrette. To this, I add thinly sliced garlic cloves and thin slices of jalapeño pepper, and sometimes sliced red onion. Toss with a pinch of salt and some ground pepper.

Heat pita bread on the stove until steam causes pocket to swell, then stowing under a plate to soften some. After a minute, slice pita into halves.

Dolop a large potion of lentils into each pita half, spreading with spoon. Then, grab a fistful of salad and shove it in there too. If it doesn't look like it's going to fit, you know you have the correct amount. Enjoy.

This dish is also well-accompanied by a honey-tahini sauce, or balsamic-pickled onions and peppers.

Walnut Cookie Lessons

Base recipe:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter creamed with 0.75 cups each of brown and white sugar. Add two large eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla. Mix together is separate bowl 2.25 cups whole wheat flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt. Mix dry into wet in batches. Chop 2 cups walnuts coarsely and stir into batter. Recommended cooking at 375 for 9-11 mins.

Lessons/modifications:

1. Creaming room temp butter really does make a huge difference.
2. Whole wheat flour is delicious with the savory, nutty flavor of the walnuts. Plus, better texture.
   
3. I added an extra teaspoon of salt and did not regret it.
4. Next time I will increase nuts by 50%, making the total 3 cups.
5. I cooked on parchment, equal-sized scoops from my white plastic disher (which I think is about 1/8 cup), six to a sheet. They were done at 13 mins. I did a batch to 11 mins. and they fell in the middle, slightly goopy. I think they will be suitable for vigorous toaster-oven reheating, though.
6. The rest of the batter is in the fridge. Straight out of the fridge, the cooking time will probably be 15 mins or greater. I'll keep an eye on them.
   

Bonnie BDay Lasagna

I made lasagna for Bonnie's birthday dinner here at the house. Can be quite a task by any measure, but considering that I made my own sauce, brined and roasted chicken breasts (it was a chicken-spinach lasagna), steamed the spinach, used pre-cook noodles, and refrigerated the lasagna 24 hrs in advance, I must have invested eight hours in the thing. Here's what I learned:

1. Consulting Ze Internets told me that I should heat the sucker to an internal temp of 160-170 degrees. Makes sense from a bacterial standpoint, but also probably has a lot to do with cheese meltage. In any event, it turned out to be a good measure. I pushed the thing to 165 and it was just right. However, it took over two hours to get there from the fridge. Threw my timing all to hell because I had planned for about 45 minutes. Oops!
2. My ideal lasagna has a firm, solid body, without being overly dense. When it falls apart on the plate (or on its way to the plate), or leaves a puddle of liquid at the bottom of the tray - well, that sucks. In an effort to avoid that fate, I did a little experiment with my spinach. I wanted the spinach to have the freshest, brightest possible flavor, but that to be balanced against the amount of water that those little leaves contain. I decided early on to opt for steaming the leaves rather than putting them in raw, but wasn't sure how much water savings that would get me - if any. In order to find out the answer I devised an experiment. I weighed all the spinach raw on my digital kitchen scale, then steamed it briefly (enough to go just beyond wilted) and weighed it again. I expected maybe a slight decrease in mass, or possibly even a slight increase, but was surprised by the results I saw. The initial weight was 231g and the final was 130g. Over 100g of water loss. That's 44% of the total original weight lost. I was careful to make sure every leaf made it to the second weighing, so I expect those numbers are accurate. Cool!
3. Despite my spinach strategy, the lasagna had a bit of a case of water-bottom when I served it. I attribute this to two things. First, I could have reduced the tomato sauce a bit more, making it thicker and less apt to contribute moisture. Second, due to the extended time it took to heat the beast up, I was forced to serve it right away - when normally I would have elected to let it stand for a bit. Perhaps some of the liquid would have been re-absorbed in that time.
4. I made a small practice lasagna for lunch one day because I wanted to experiment with the chicken component - which I've never used in lasagna before. My first instinct was to take tender chicken breast and tear it up into largish stringy strips, like in some Mexican food. This proved to be precisely the wrong strategy. The cohesion of the fibers of th chicken, though tender, impeded cutting and contributed to the lasagna disintegrating under the fork. For the final lasagna, I chose instead to cut the breasts against the grain (at about 3/8") and broke up those slices into bite-sized pieces. This I mixed with a small amount of prepared ricotta and grated mozzarella and formed into a single layer between noodles. This worked out okay - next time no ricotta, only mozzarella.

So anyway, fairly happy with the result, but next time - better.

Dry Rub

I have tried to make a good dry rub in the past, but never really got it. This time I tried something new.

Herb brine chicken (five hours):
One quart water boiled, then steep herb bundle for about 5 minutes. Remove herb bundle, then add 1/2 cup salt, plus four Tb sugar. Add one quart ice to cool before pouring over chicken parts.

Dry rub:
In a hot, dry skillet, heat four seeded dried chiles, cut up into 1/2 inch strips. Add also 1 Tb each cumin seeds, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, and peppercorns. Heat until fragrant and seeds begin to pop. Once heated, pour into spice grinder, adding 1 Tb salt, 1 Tb brown sugar, and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Then grind until... er, ground up real good.

After drying off chicken pieces, sprinkle liberally with rub. Let sit for a bit so rub adheres well.

Grill chicken as per usual.

Result: A bit salty. I'll leave out the salt from the rub next time, and either salt independently, or let the brine handle it. Also, the spicy flavor just wasn't that great. I feel like it needed something a bit exotic, like cinnamon maybe. We'll see.

Schmaltz

Aw yeah.

Repeat... AW YEAH!

In the past, when I was gonna make chicken (bbq or baked or fried or whatever), I used to buy butchered thighs from The Joe (that's Farmer Joe's, our local yuppie-mart, not Trader Joe's). I still do when I'm cooking for company (consistency), but other times I've taken to buying the whole chickens.

Buying whole chickens means two things in addition to the deliciousness of legs, thighs, breasts, and wings: Chicken stock from the backs, wingtips, and necks - and Schmaltz.

I adore matzoh ball soup, as do Jacki and Nikki, and man those balls ain't the same without the chicken-fatty flavor of schmaltz. As I am ready now to make another batch from the fat I trimmed from the chickens, I figured I'd research schmaltz rendering techniques. In the past I simply put the fats and skins into the fry-pan and heated until the fat was liquefied, then poured it off and cooled it. Turns out I was not far off.

It seems there are two alternate methods to my basic low-heat pan rendering. One is to use water in the process (a little or a lot) - boiling the fat to render it, then allowing it to separate in the fridge before discarding the water (letting all the water boil away in some cases). I had thought of this, but between the absence of that yummy browned flavor that comes from pan-rendering, and not seeing the need to cool a bunch of water in the fridge unnecessarily, I think I will stick with the pan. The second different method is to use the pan-rendering technique, but to add diced onion to augment the flavor. Sounds good to me, but I think my basic rendering will remain nude.

I've taken to saving lots of my rendered fats (beef, bacon, etc) in the freezer, because they invariably prove useful. On the most basic level, it simply expands my choice of oils/fats to use in whatever recipe I'm making. Plus, it feels like less waste. Surely it's a sin to pour down the drain something as luxurious (and resource consumptive) as premium animal fats.

Poached Cod

I poached some delicious cod I got at the Joe today. Decided to do it with Asian flavors, because I was making Asian-flavor chicken stock tonight, too.

Started by sautéing a bit of yellow onion and green onion stalks. Did 'em up well-browned to maximize the sweetness and carmely flavors. Then I added garlic and deglazed with sake (about 2 cups). I then added a good chunk of ginger, thinly sliced, and 2 cups of water, plus a splash of soy sauce (instead of salt). Brought this to a boil and reduced to medium heat before adding 2 biggish cod fillets (1.5 lb total) and a fist full of cilantro. Simmering for about 20 minutes gave me fish that was at about 160ºF internal. It was hell of buttery and good, but I could have done with it being a bit more firmly cooked. Maybe head up to 170ºF or 175ºF next time. Also, I think I'll save the cilantro for serving, or add at the very end. it's best when fresh - cooking makes it flat and yuckish.

Cod seems to have lots of little bones, and the fillets I got didn't seem to be scaled. The scales were very small and delicate, though, and I didn't notice them while eating it.

Also - the Asian-flavor stock came out alright. A bit flat. I think I simmered it too hard (being distracted by cod cooking. It was the Cooks quick-stock method, but with green onions, garlic, and ginger as flavoring agents, rather than the traditional european counterparts. Also, added some leaves and flesh of kiefer limes from June's backyard.

Bitely

I like science. I like cooking.
I believe I'll keep my notes here.
Feel free to peruse.