Big 'Dawg Eats

Change we can believe in

2010-04-05T19:53:00.000-05:00

I've decided to move the blog, if you follow this, please come with.
www.bigdawgeats.wordpress.com

Flavor combinations: a little taste of Spain

2010-04-01T21:33:00.002-05:00

I was making dinner for my mom the other day, and we had some pan-roasted fish and sauteed fingerling potatoes. To make the potatoes, I par-boiled them, and then sauteed them with butter, sherry vinegar, and smoked paprika. After tasting the potatoes, the sauce was what we kept coming back for, basically to the point of licking the pan.
More than anything else, I think this demonstrates the power of combining classic flavor combinations that we can apply to any number of things. Yeah, I know that butter isn't necessarily Spanish, just go with it. For example, you've got a great Spanish wine, and you want to do something in that vein. These flavors are a great combination to put together with soup, sauce for meat, pasta, rice, eggs, veggies, salad dressing, etc. Of course, there is basic technique, but what really makes it sing is great flavor combination.
Quiche lorraine is a classic example. Egg custard with onion, bacon, thyme in a pastry shell. You can take those same flavors and make a veggie sautee, flatbread, pizza, topping for bruschetta, add to a salad (fried shallots, bacon, thyme). Filet mignon with black pepper, cognac and cream, dry red wine. Roasted red pepper, balsamic vinegar, goat cheese, caramelized onions. Tomato, onion, cilantro, and lime. Chocolate and raspberry. Strawberries and cream. Tarragon and chicken. PB and J. Carrot and ginger. Caviar and champagne.
Case in point: remembering that sauce combination, and scrounging for dinner the other night, I had some lamb chops that I had just thawed and I thought it would be good to add risotto to it. Aside from standards of onion and garlic, I put smoked paprika and sherry vinegar in with the risotto as well, and it turned out really great.
Push the edges of these boundaries, combine them with some basic technique, and liberate yourself.

Braised beef short rib a la Nicoise

2010-03-30T08:37:00.001-05:00

This recipe is inspired from Suzanne Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques. It uses the technique of braising which I love but mostly equate with Winter. Early Spring is very transitional (especially when you don't live in South Georgia), with cold and dreary followed by warm and sunny.

a la Nicoise is a Mediterranean variety that's kinda half Italian and half French, and has little black olives and tomatoes. This recipe called for a braise of beef short rib. I decided to leave the bones in although you don't have to, they can be cut out. This recipe served enough as a main course for 4 people.

8 beef short ribs, well-browned. Drain excess fat and add

1 diced onion

2 celery stalks

2 carrots

2 garlic cloves

on low heat until aromatic.

Then add:

2-3 sprigs of thyme

28 oz of tomatoes (2 small cans, or 1 big one)

1/2 cup of pitted Nicoise olives

1 bay leaf

1 quart of chicken or beef stock

10 peppercorns

Put the meat back on top of that, making sure it's mostly submerged. If not, add water as needed, depending on your pot. Either put it in an oven at 225, or put it on low heat and let it go for a few hours until the short rib is fork tender. I don't salt it until the end because I don't know how far I need to reduce it until it's done. If you salt too heavily at the beginning, and you reduce the liquid, it's going to be inedible.

Here is decision time. You can leave the braising liquid as is (chunky) or separate the meat and the braising liquid and blend it up into a puree (which is what I did in this case). Serve it with something green for the color contrast (parsley, fresh thyme, etc.).

Side notes

Like any other braised dish, the more time you spend on browning your meat, the better it's going to be.
Think ahead on this dish. Make it the day before you plan to eat it, and let the sauce and the meat sit together to really combine those flavors.
This can be served with wide egg noodles like papardelle or fetuccine. Alternatively, you could serve with rice or bread. Although the meat is great, the highlight of this is the sauce.
If you puree, realize that your going to emulsify whatever fat you didn't get rid of in the braising liquid. Ideally, you defat your braise as much as possible before throwing it in the blender, because the flavor of beef fat is a little heavy.
Original recipe called for balsamic vinegar, which you definitely can add to give a little sweet acid.

Progress

2010-03-25T09:46:00.002-05:00

Making progress on the outdoor kitchen. After having to completely repour the foundation to the house and have a structural engineer approve the plan...finally we have our outdoor structure and future site of the wood-fired oven! Potentially will be making pizzas here week after Master's. Stay tuned.

Pepin the genius!

2010-03-22T10:48:00.004-05:00

I haven't posted in some time, but I have been cooking. Most things have been off the cuff and overall pretty good, but nothing particularly note-worthy. Last night, I threw a few things together a la Jacques (Fast Food My Way) that I had in my pantry, and in fewer than 10 minutes, I had a damn good meal.

Gnocchi, Egg, Truffle for 2

Supermarket Potato Gnocchi (I used 1/2 bag of the minis ~ 8 oz)

2 large eggs, whisked

1/4 cup ricotta

4 scallions, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1 T butter

2 T olive oil

1/2 tsp chili flakes

fresh ground black pepper

white truffle oil and parmesean for finishing

Bring about 2 quarts of water to a boil and aggressively season with salt, meanwhile melt butter in oil over medium low heat in a non-stick pan until the butter starts to brown. When the water has boiled, toss in the gnocchi and boil until they float (about 2 to 3 minutes tops) and remove ASAP to avoid overcooking. While the gnocchi cook, saute the scallions and garlic, taking care not to burn the garlic (will become too bitter). When the gnocchi float, transfer directly to the pan with a slotted spoon and saute until the water has evaporated and the gnocchi begin to brown. Toss in the chili flakes and saute for about 30 seconds. Remove pan from the heat and quickly stir in the eggs taking care to break up any large curds (don't want scrambled eggs here). After about 30 seconds, stir in the ricotta (creme fraiche or mexican crema would be dynamite as well), salt and pepper to you liking. Transfer to bowls, drizzle with truffle oil and dust with the cheese.

Time from conception to table, approximately 15 minutes. As good as anything I've made in weeks :) Next time, I may add some crumbled pancetta or bacon...though I'm not sure if more would be less.

Old garlic and camarones (shrimp) al mojo de ajo

2010-02-22T14:53:00.000-06:00

As I understand, some Asian religions abstain from eating garlic and onions because they are considered too stimulating and passion-inducing, which thereby destroys the balance required for happiness. Fortunately for me, I'm not Buddhist, so I cook a bunch of food with garlic and onion. Sometimes, I even get crazy and add BOTH to a dish! Go figure.
One thing I've heard cooks talk about is removing the green growth from garlic. Have you ever tried to plant a clove in garlic in the ground to see what would happen? Sure enough it grows. The green is supposed to be bitter and a little difficult to digest. I've never had much of a problem with it, but what the heck, remove it, it's easy enough, and represents yet another reason you don't want or need a garlic press.

From Drop Box

You can split whole cloves in half, and if they're old enough, you'll have some green sprouts in them. Simply remove them, and mince your garlic. The result stands to be not as bitter as you might normally encounter.

From Drop Box

From there, a recipe for Mexican style mojo de ajo, which roughly translated means smothered in garlic. This is one to try if you're worried about vampires invading your neighborhood because it's really garlicky. It's really difficult, so pay close attention....

10-12 cloves of minced garlic
Olive oil, about 4:1 oil to garlic by volume
optional: hot chile pepper or 2 (I added a couple of chipotles)

Put on the stove on super-low, and let it simmer until the garlic is barely brown, maybe a couple of hours. What have you made?

Infused oil and minced garlic confit (kohn-FEE). Alternatively, you could just cut the fuzzy part of a whole head of garlic off, stick it in foil with some olive oil, and throw it in the oven while you're cooking something else, and you've got whole clove garlic confit, just like the stuff from the olive bar at the grocery store. It's great stuff to have around, and a good way to make use of bulk garlic. I can hardly use all the stuff up before it starts growing or goes bad.

From Drop Box

Strain the solids out of the oil. Use the oil to sautee your shrimp (or poach at 180-200F if you really want to be awesome), and serve with fresh salsa, tortillas, pouring the garlic on top of the shrimp. If you've never had it, and you like garlic, you'll love it!

OK, so it wasn't that difficult, and really very little of it is when you apply a couple of basic techniques and plan appropriately.

The Contraption: Lobster Style

2010-02-14T19:42:00.027-06:00

So, what did you and your life partner do for Valentine's Day? Yeah, that doesn't sound nearly as good as what I did. Let's see... I placed an order early in the week for a special package to arrive on Friday. An order that I had placed only once before, probably 5 years ago. It was for two 2.5-pound live Maine lobsters to be shipped via FedEx, and arrive at my door in time for a Saturday Valentine's, since Laura was on call Sunday.

The order five years prior included a bisque, some clams, and a Maine blueberry cobbler, which were all good, but the lobsters weren't large enough. I got smart this time, and skipped the promotional Valentines package, opting for only lobsters. I paid about 1/3rd less, and got double the poundage in lobsters. If you've ever ordered live lobsters, you understand that they usually come in a styrofoam cooler, packed with an ice bag, wetted with a little sea water and seaweed, and a packet of sweet Maine sea salt for cooking.

Lindley and I were at home when they arrived, so we quickly checked that they were moving, and placed the container in the back fridge. Live lobsters are only guaranteed to stay that way for about 12 hours after they arrive, so the instructions will tell you to cook them the day of arrival. I figured the environmental factors were all working in my favor: cold temps departing the frigid coastal waters of Maine, flying in the unheated belly of a FedEx plane at 40,000 feet, and arriving on my doorstep on a day when we would receive a rare eight inches of snow. I did feel the need to check them every couple of hours, though. Lindley worked on ideas for Lobster-style Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), in the event that one was a bit too lethargic. Thankfully, we never had to implement that plan. The lobsters showed movement until dinner time.

Since announcing the arrival of live lobsters to both friends and family, I had gotten many comments or "questions" on the subject of lobster movement prior to placing them into the pot (e.g. "Are you gonna cook them alive?"). I say "questions", because they were more like concerns or statements than questions. "Questions" included:

LINDLEY (6 years old) - "Daddy, I saw on Discovery Channel where they rubbed the back of the lobster shell and it fell asleep before they cooked it";
THE PAMPHLET - it came with the lobsters and said you could place them in fresh water for 15 minutes prior cooking, which would kill them. This is basically drowning the lobster, which to me, isn't any better than boiling it alive;
JW - "Don't put a stethascope up to the pot like Bobcat Goldthwait, cause you can hear them scream".

So, what did I do? Well, I gave them about 36 hours to die on their own, then I let the steam do the work. See the pics below for the less than politically correct way to cook a lobster.

You may recall The Contraption I wrote about back in the spring of 2009 that we used at the oyster roast. I had been to the 06 Oriental Market a number of times to procure a contraption for myself after that. After a dozen or more visits I finally managed to obtain one close to the size of the contraption loaned to me for the oyster roast. My contraption is 36cm, whearas the borrowed one was a 40cm version. Not enough to justify waiting any longer, so I purchased it back in September, and placed it on a shelf in the laundry room. I had forgotten the contraption until I was searching for a way to cook the lobster without losing too much flavor. Steam seemed to be the best option, and the contraption did the trick. With two layers, I put 2.5 quarts of water and a cup of sea salt in the bottom, which I let come to a boil, then gingerly placed a lobster and some seaweed on each of the two layers while wearing my silicone Orca gauntlet gloves, and placed the lid on.

Seventeen minutes later, the layers were removed, and two succulent lobsters were paired with twice-baked potatoes from the New York Butcher Shoppe, and some Schramsburg Blanc de Noirs. The audible pleasures heard emanating from the dining room could have been mistaken for "What About Bob?" on the DVD player or pre-Valentines festivities.

As an aside, I saw either a Bordain or Andrew Zimmern show recently that was filmed in Thailand. Hundreds of street vendors were using well-worn versions of the contraption made from bamboo, drums, etc. to serve up steamed dumplings. I may have to try some steamed pork buns on it soon- the 06 market has frozen ones.

Dissection-how to read a recipe

2010-02-07T12:10:00.003-06:00

Recipes are starting points, not destinations. The more we liberate ourselves from them, the more fun and creative our home cooking experience can be. It helps to understand that most recipes work in someone else's kitchen with their cookware and represent pure anecdote. Aside from baking, every step of a recipe represents a potential divergence, and most every ingredient serves a specific purpose and is potentially replaceable. The Food Network, all the cooking magazines, and the dizzying number of recipe books have made cooking today easier than ever, but the quality of the end result isn't as dependent on how well you follow the steps as it is on fundamental technique. Is it all just getting lost in translation? Take a look at this chili recipe I found on Epicurious.

Active time: 1 3/4 hr Start to finish: 6 1/2 hr (plus 1 to 2 days for flavors to develop)
Yield: Makes 8 servings
Active Time: 1 3/4 hr
Total Time: 6 1/2 hr (plus 1 to 2 days for flavors to develop)

2 oz dried ancho chiles (4 large), stemmed and seeded
6 large garlic cloves, 3 of them finely chopped
1 tablespoon salt, or to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder (not pure chile)
4 lb well-marbled beef brisket or boneless chuck, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2- to 2-inch pieces
3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 (28- to 32-oz) can whole tomatoes in juice
1/4 cup canned chipotle chiles in adobo
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 lb white onions, chopped (4 cups)
1 tablespoon dried oregano (preferably Mexican), crumbled
1 to 4 fresh serrano or other small green chiles, finely chopped, including seeds (1 is fine for most tastes; 4 is the eight-alarm version)
1 (12-oz) bottle beer (not dark)
2 cups water
2 1/2 cups cooked pinto beans (optional; 30 oz), rinsed if canned

Soak ancho chiles in hot water to cover until softened, about 30 minutes. Drain well.
While chiles soak, mince 1 whole garlic clove and mash to a paste with 1/2 tablespoon salt, 1/2 tablespoon cumin, and 1/2 tablespoon chili powder. Pat beef dry and toss with spice mixture in a large bowl until coated.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wide 6- to 7-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown beef in 3 or 4 batches, without crowding, turning occasionally, about 5 minutes per batch (lower heat as needed; spice mixture burns easily). Transfer beef as browned to another bowl. (Do not clean pot.)
Purée anchos in a blender along with tomatoes (including juice), chipotles in adobo, cilantro, remaining 2 whole garlic cloves, and remaining 1/2 tablespoon salt until smooth.
Add enough oil to fat in pot to total 3 tablespoons, then cook onions and chopped garlic over moderate heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits from beef, until softened, 8 to 10 minutes. Add oregano, remaining tablespoon cumin, and remaining tablespoon chili powder and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add chile purée and 1 chopped serrano and simmer, stirring, 5 minutes. Stir in beer, water, and beef along with any juices accumulated in bowl and gently simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally and checking often to make sure chili is not scorching, 2 hours.
Taste sauce, then add more serrano if desired and continue to simmer, partially covered, until beef is very tender and sauce is slightly thickened, 1 to 2 hours more. (If chili becomes very thick before meat is tender, thin with water as needed.)
Coarsely shred meat (still in pot) with 2 forks and cool chili completely, uncovered, then chill, covered, 1 to 2 days to allow flavors to develop.
Reheat over low heat, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until hot, about 30 minutes. Add beans (if using) and simmer, stirring, 5 minutes.

6 1/2 hours? That right there is probably enough to discourage a lot of people from making this recipe. If you look at this a little closer and apply some basic fundamentals, this is not a very complicated recipe. There are a few ingredients, but it all comes together pretty quick. Most of the cooking time is spent simmering if you plan well. Let's dissect this and figure out how they made it, and see if there's an alternative.

Soak ancho chiles in hot water to cover until softened, about 30 minutes. Drain well. Nothing too mysterious. This is one way to treat dried chiles (read: peppers). Alternatively, toast them dry in a hot pan to add another flavor layer or fry them to infuse oil that you might use to sautee with later. Regardless, in the end you need these peppers to soften because they'll be pureed. And all that you're making is a Mexican-style Adobo sauce. Seemed like an easy step, right? Let's keep reading.

While chiles soak, mince 1 whole garlic clove and mash to a paste with 1/2 tablespoon salt, 1/2 tablespoon cumin, and 1/2 tablespoon chili powder. Pat beef dry and toss with spice mixture in a large bowl until coated. In order to cheat a little bit and both increase flavor depth and help the meat to brown, a paste is made with garlic, salt, cumin, and chili powder. Already, there's a flaw in this step: garlic. If you've ever smelled burned garlic, it's inedible because it's terribly bitter. Frankly, this step is unnecessary. You can sprinkle the powders and salt onto room-temperature meat and sautee at high heat. Browning the meat is the most critical step that will majorly impact the final product. The browning causes the proteins on the surface to undergo Maillard reaction which gives browned meat the salty, sweet, crunchy goodness we love. If you don't brown the meat properly, you'll either steam it or poach it, neither of which will be as good as well-browned meat. And if you brown your garlic coated meat at the required temperature to do it properly, the garlic will burn, almost without question. Alternative? Add either some roasted garlic cloves to the finished product prior to puree or just skip it all together.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wide 6- to 7-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown beef in 3 or 4 batches, without crowding, turning occasionally, about 5 minutes per batch (lower heat as needed; spice mixture burns easily).   This is the step that will separate good from great, and requires attention. For starters, what cookware should you use? The ideal for me here is an enameled cast iron dutch oven 5-7 quarts. If it's too big, the liquid will evaporate too quickly, if it's too small, you may not have enough liquid to stew in. Next question, how deep should the oil be? The volume of oil they give works in their dutch oven, maybe not yours. The principle is that you want to maximize contact between meat and fire to evenly brown, and oil is the middle man, so, this is basically pan frying. Therefore, your meat should be neatly cubed to provide flat surfaces, and you'll need enough oil to fill the pan about 1/8 inch. They want you to heat the oil pretty hot, but not to the smoke point, so watch your oil selection and your temperature. You want batches where the meat doesn't touch each other, because if they touch, they're more likely to produce steam which cooks without browning. 5 minutes per batch seems way too short, but maybe the normal laws of physics and heat transfer don't apply to their kitchen. Brown for as long as they need to be nice and dark which will give a nice flavor to the meat, create a strong flavor base, and leave behind fond in the bottom of the pan which will be used (more on that later). The bigger you cut the meat, the less likely you'll be to overcook it. This recipe has you shredding the meat anyway. If you buy precut stew meat, they're a little small and totally nonuniform in size because it's otherwise throwaway scraps. Consider a chuck or rump roast that you can cut into the pieces you want.

Transfer beef as browned to another bowl. (Do not clean pot.)
Don't get in the habit of resting meat in a bowl. It won't matter for this preparation, but it will for temperature sensitive stuff like steak, lamb, fish, etc. Resting on a wire rack prevents steam from forming and overcooking your meat. It's a good point to not clean the pot, because the fond (charred brown bits on the bottom of your pan) holds a ton of flavor and will be the base of the "stock."

Purée anchos in a blender along with tomatoes (including juice), chipotles in adobo, cilantro, remaining 2 whole garlic cloves, and remaining 1/2 tablespoon salt until smooth. This is how you make a standard Mexican-style adobo sauce. You want softened ancho chiles, canned tomatoes, and garlic. Wouldn't it be great if this is where you replaced raw garlic cloves with roasted ones? Couldn't you also cook your tomatoes? What about tomato paste to add some depth? Yes, yes, and yes. This will be dependent on your tomato selection. Local grocery store brand probably needs some doctoring to taste better. If you can find DOP-certified San Marzano tomatoes, they're awesome and really sweet. OK, so they're 4-5 bucks or so per can. You're already saving money by using cheap meat, so splurge. As for the cilantro, I personally wouldn't add herbs at this point. Why? The aromaticity of the herbs will be lost because you're going to be cooking with them. Fresh cilantro is best used as a garnish at the end.

Add enough oil to fat in pot to total 3 tablespoons, then cook onions and chopped garlic over moderate heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits from beef, until softened, 8 to 10 minutes. Straightforward enough right? Maybe not. Onions behave very differently depending on how they're cooked. There's a big difference between French onion soup and onion rings. The former depends on caramelization created by deep browning, the latter fries batter while trapping steam internally. All you're doing in this step is sweating the veggies to make them aromatic. This is similar step to creating stock, you're just leaving out the carrots and the celery/green peppers/fennel/etc. The other thing your doing is deglazing your pan. Going with low heat here will cook the veggies with steam from their own water that can act as a solvent to help you get the brown stuff off the bottom of your pan. Whatever you do, don't wash this part off and throw it away, because you worked really hard to get it. It's the same stuff (fond) that you use when making a pan sauce, and it has concentrated flavors of the browned meat. Low and slow, you don't want your veggies to brown because burned garlic tastes bad, and browned onions are sweet but probably not what you're going for here.

Add oregano, remaining tablespoon cumin, and remaining tablespoon chili powder and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Not much to say about this step except that crushing dried oregano prior to putting in the pan is a good idea, gets the aroma going, and that anytime you use seeds instead of powder you're getting more flavor. If you had cumin seeds, you could just toast them, grind them in a mortar and pestle, and add. Once they're ground, the flavor decreases over time. Extra chili powder is just more flavor, but now that your veggies are wet from softening, it should stick.

Add chile purée and 1 chopped serrano and simmer, stirring, 5 minutes. As the ingredients warn, this is where your heat is going to come from. Serranos are a little hotter than jalapenos, either can be used here. The heat doesn't come from the seeds as much as it comes from the white membranes holding the seed pods in place. Taste a little bit of them raw, because there is a lot of variability in how much heat they have, mostly dependent on how young they were when picked. In general, the more mature, the hotter. The chile puree/adobo is your liquid base and will continue cooking your meat.

Stir in beer, water, and beef along with any juices accumulated in bowl and gently simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally and checking often to make sure chili is not scorching, 2 hours. I guess the beer is for flavor, there's really no reason you couldn't use dark beer, but it depends on what you want your final color to be. The alcohol (not that there's very much) may help act as a solvent to blend your flavors, but frankly is unnecessary. Just think about what color you want your chili to be: brown or red. If you want your broth to be darker, then add some dark beer. Otherwise, don't waste a good beer, just drink it!

Taste sauce, then add more serrano if desired and continue to simmer, partially covered, until beef is very tender and sauce is slightly thickened, 1 to 2 hours more. (If chili becomes very thick before meat is tender, thin with water as needed.) Good points, that you should always taste. Here's where you should consider salinity. Should you salt to taste now? NO! Why? Because if you cook it the way they tell you, partially covered, you'll concentrate the liquid, also concentrating salt. At this point, the salt doesn't really do anything for you, so add it at the end. You can also cover with a parchment lid if you want. Leaving the pot partially covered does something else, also. Moreso with a braise, the top of the meat is just covered, and the liquid is close to but not boiling. Sort of. Some of the water is boiling and producing steam, other parts are not. The steam, if trapped by a tight lid, will superheat and overcook whatever is exposed, and if that's meat, it will become tough. If you have a loose lid, the heat will escape and cook lower and slower on the exposed meat, if there is any. Of course, you can't heat liquid water more than 100C, but you knew that. Right? So if the meat is in the liquid, it has to cook low and slow. The times here are all relative, and you cook it until the meat is tender. However long that is. Mine cooked for about 12-14 hours without ill effect.

Coarsely shred meat (still in pot) with 2 forks and cool chili completely, uncovered, then chill, covered, 1 to 2 days to allow flavors to develop.
Reheat over low heat, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until hot, about 30 minutes. Add beans (if using) and simmer, stirring, 5 minutes. Final steps. Shredding the meat just makes it easier to eat. Chilling and reheating does bring everything together. I don't know if the flavors develop as much as they blend. This is a good point about the beans. Canned beans would work well for this, they're already cooked, and you add them at the end so they don't overcook.

I know it was wordy, but you can see that there are a couple of steps that will make the difference in this dish, and cooks at different skill levels will make two very different dishes. Just to review, look at the steps strictly from a technical point of view. Should it go without saying that this dish needs to be made at least a day ahead of time?

1. Create the stock and your adobo sauce. This is what your doing with the ancho chiles, tomatoes, onions and garlic, and fond from browning the meat.
2. Brown the meat. Sets the foundation, and the battle will be won or lost here.
3. Stew the meat. Straightforward technique. The flavors are already developed, you just need to cook your meat.
4. Chill, allow the flavors to homogenize, and serve.

Ruhlman used one of my comments in his blog (click to read)

2010-02-01T15:21:00.002-06:00

The fish cooker

2010-01-31T14:36:00.000-06:00

Speaking of contraptions, I've got one that I've been trying to find the right context to share. It's a custom-welded fish cooker that the wife's grandparents have down in Tallahassee, FL. On the day when the refrigerator is most full of leftovers, the family tradition is to have a fish fry. Don't question, just enjoy it!
The fish cooker pictured here is welded out of stainless steel with a custom burner underneath.

From November 2009

I thought it was also interesting to note the fish-breading box pictured here that houses flour in a "well" underneath a plastic grate where the meat that you're going to cook sits on. Give it a shake, forget about dredging and splattering flour everywhere.

From November 2009

Here are some marinated oysters about to hit the fryer. A little of Essence of Emeril (otherwise known as a mixture of paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, etc.), oyster liquor, and oil.

From November 2009

Can you say Po Boy?

From November 2009

Three Couples and Limo - Part Deux

2010-01-27T19:59:00.023-06:00

If You Missed Part I, Click HERE

From San Fran Sonoma 2009

Chapter 3 – I had a memorable meal at Slanted Door

Our trip continued with less food and more wine, which was both exciting and overwhelming. We completed a lovely stay in San Francisco by eating at one of my favorite Spanish restaurants – Zarzeula. I don’t believe it has ever won a culinary award, but I am inclined to dine there every trip I make to San Fran. I easily convinced my travel mates, and we took the cable car the short distance from Union Square to Russian Hill. Luckily, Zarzuela is a corner stop for the cable car. We made our way to a table in the back, proceeded to order Sangria and a number of tapas. I can recall garlic shrimp, eggplant with goat cheese, sardines, choriza, Padron peppers, pork medallions, and chicken on a stick. We had a few others, but considering the culinary experience for the remainder of the trip, I’m lucky to recall anything from Zarzeula. They never disappoint, but the meals only increased in quality from Thursday-nite Spanish to Sunday-nite Vietnamese.

From San Fran Sonoma 2009

We made our way to the wine country beginning Friday morning. Based on experience, we intentionally planned little, while leaving most to chance. Our first stop was Gundlach-Bundschu, in lower Sonoma County. It was an excellent choice, provided a nice selection of Tempranillo, Zin, and Syrah, and also gave us some next-stop suggestions, which proved to be the pattern for our weekend tastings. We left Gundlach for Bartholomew Vineyards, which is owned by the same group. It was not disappointing, however, we procured less wine there than our first stop, and I’m sure the inclimate weather slightly dampened our experience . We again got suggestions for our Saturday limo tour.

We then drove into Napa Valley, and decided to sample Thomas Keller’s Bouchon for lunch, but realized we didn’t want to wait long for a table, nor did we want to spoil our appetite for Zazu that nite. I was personally less disappointed than my fellow travelers were, since I had experience Bouchon at the Venetian in Las Vegas a few years back. We opted for the adjacent Bouchon Bakery. In my opinion, six hot sandwiches overwhelmed the two-person bakery counter staff, which managed to warm our sandwiches to the point of no return on the Panini press. We requested that they be removed just in time (the staff reluctantly obliged), and enjoyed them on Smith and Hawken furniture in the recently rain-soaked courtyard, along with the obligatory pastry. The overall experience was exceptional, since after the long drive from lower Sonoma, we were more than relieved to relieve ourselves in the Bouchon potty. Although the Bouchon Bakery staff was sub-par, the foodies in the group still had to say, “How do I love thee Thomas Keller? – Let me count the ways”.

It happens that a wine festival was occurring on the weekend, and we had not purchased tickets to participate. After receiving rave reviews from fellow Southerners we met at Gundlach, but mixed reviews about the festival from others, we decided to taste wine primarily at the locations not participating in the wine festival, in order to avoid the crowds. That was probably one of the best decisions we would make all week.

After a long drive in a Suburban over a treacherous mountain road from Napa to Sonoma, bravely driven by our Atlantan, we arrived at the hotel, and settled in for a quick nap, then the 20 minute drive to Zazu. Zazu grows much of what they serve, and is a very casual dinner location. I would love to wax on about the food; however, I had the worst case of heartburn I had experienced in years, and was not able to enjoy my meal, or drink wine even though I pre-medicated with Zantac 150 – four of them. My companions were impressed with the food, but distracted by the close-talking couple at an adjacent table that maintained an unmoving gaze literally inches from each others eyes while speaking OR eating. It was distgusting, distracting, and unappetizing. It reminded me of the “Schmoopy” Seinfeld episode. No, you’re a schmoopy.

Chapter 4 – Limo Tour in Sonoma County
Our wine country experiences had taught us that the limo tour of wineries was more of a sure thing than a hooker and less expensive. Learning the backroads of wine country while trying to find obscure wineries is not my idea of fun. The gang agreed, and we spent a wonderful day celebrating Neecie’s birthday while sampling wines from many wineries that we had never heard of, and a couple of old stand by’s. We began with Rodney Strong, whose Pinot Noir I’ve enjoyed since well before Sideways, where we tasted, purchased, again asked for suggestions, and proceeded to Armida (Excellent Zins and excellent view from an unimpressive 1970’s almost A-Frame).

From San Fran Sonoma 2009

Next was Zichichi (the owner poured our tastings in V.E.R.Y small portions – almost too small to taste), lunch from the Dry Creek Kitchen, which we ate on the grounds of Dry Creek Vineyards with a bottle of Syrah, then on to about three others where the crowds were too thick for us to stop the limo. We ended the day at Frick. Frick is one of the smallest, most unassuming wineries you will ever visit. It reminds me of a charming double-wide with a porch. The staff was the friendliest of the day, and the wines were very unique. Frick bottles a number of wines that are often used to blend with other wines, like Cinsault, which is typically blended with Grenache, but at Frick is bottled as a Rosè. Our dinner after the long day of touring was early and unassuming. We were all in bed by 8:30pm (except for Nigel, who apparently found a local pub).

From San Fran Sonoma 2009

Chapter 5 – The Slanted Door
Sunday began with a visit to the Dry Creek Olive Company, where tasted and procured small batch olive oil and pomegranate vinegar, then took a nice (and less winding) road from Santa Rosa to the Napa Valley so we could stop at the new kitchen store at the Culinary Institute of America Greystone campus, and so we could swing by to get my camera bag and lens from the limo company. Something I inadvertently left the day prior.

From San Fran Sonoma 2009

We finally made our way back to San Francisco, the SUV filled with great anticipation for the greatest meal of our trip – The Slanted Door, located in the Ferry Building. We made a reservation a couple of months in advance, and were eating early to ensure we would make it to the airport in time for our red eye flight. We arrived at 6:30 for our reservation, and the place was completely packed. After getting suggestions from our waiter, we ordered

Cellophane Noodles with fresh Dungeness crab,

Snow Pea Pods,

wood oven braised niman ranch short ribs with lemongrass, daikon, watermelon radishes and baby carrots

niman ranch shaking beef cubed filet mignon, sausalito springs' watercress, red onions and lime sauce

barbecued willis ranch pork spareribs with honey-hoisin sauce

mesquite grilled lamb sausage and kusshi oysters, chinese black olive and preserved lemon relish

chicken claypot with caramel sauce, chilies and fresh ginger

Every dish had enormous depth of flavor and texture and, thanks to our waiter, were all complementary. I can honestly say that this meal was the highlight of a trip filled with unforgettable experiences. I didn’t leave my heart in San Francisco, but I think I left part of it in Sonoma County, part in Foley’s Irish Pub, and the rest in the Slanted Door.

Confidence

2010-01-15T18:28:00.000-06:00

There you have it. Richt and Evans have hired Todd Grantham from the Dallas Cowboys as the new athletic director for a 3 year deal worth 750K/year. Take it as a positive that they're dedicated to do what it takes to get UGA back in contention in the SEC. The process, while a little nerve-wracking, worked, and it sounds like we shouldn't have ever doubted Richt and Evans. Whew! Breathe a sigh of relief! Of course, I don't think any UT fans felt like they ever should have doubted Kiffin and company.

What kind of guy is he? He runs a 3-4 defense which is what several other pro teams have (Steelers, Cowboys, Patriots, etc), which means that we're going to need linebackers. I personally would have loved to see Rennie Curran in this defense. As to his philosophy, in his words:

"I look forward to developing an aggressive, physical, attacking style defense that offenses will not look forward to playing against."

"After the game is over," he said, "the team you just played is happy they don't have to play you anymore."

So how should we feel? Why don't you ask Mark Richt?

“I think we hit the jackpot,” Richt said.

You can't spell slu- umm, I mean irony without UT

2010-01-14T16:47:00.000-06:00

Look I don't have to make this up. Ah, the irony.

Hamilton also made it clear a permanent coach will be on board rather than going forward with an interim coach.

"Men’s Athletic Director Mike Hamilton is in charge of the process to both address the immediate needs and to hire a new head football coach," UT Interim President Jan Simek said in a statement this afternoon.

At least the head coach can be permanent, even if the president isn't.  Good luck with all that.

There is no Keyser Soze! Kiffins screw the Vols in the middle of night and move to Southern Cal.

2010-01-13T06:02:00.000-06:00

We'll have to wait and see how much destruction the UT crowd left in the wake of the angry mob. I read some reports on Rockytoptalk that said the fans were trying to barricade the street to prevent Kiffin from leaving. Between ineffective rioting, some tear gas, and a couple of burning pieces of furniture, UT fans have really shown us something.
As much as I express concern about this whole defensive coordinator business, I have to say that I'm eternally thankful that Mark Richt is UGA's coach. In the end, time will tell how this works out for UGA and Tennessee. Just another good example of what hired guns will get you.

What do Mark McGwire and Kenny Rogers have in common?

2010-01-12T17:47:00.000-06:00

You be the judge.

2005

2010

The Gambler

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The lateral move and difficult decisions

2010-01-11T17:59:00.001-06:00

Kirby won't be the next DC at UGA. It sounds like a lot of fans were really counting on this, and are beyond pissed. I'm not one of them, because of what I posted last week: despite what many UGA loyalists think, there was no way Kirby Smart was going to be better off short- or long-term in Athens than in Tuscaloosa. And for everyone that doesn't believe his moving to be UGA's DC was a step down, get over yourselves. UGA is currently a second-tier program (we hope) in the SEC. Not that it's a bad thing, because Alabama was, also, a couple of years ago. And that's all subject to change from season to season.
Being something of an expert on "lateral moves" I can say that tons of factors go into making these decisions, not the least of which is consideration of the upside of each place. As long as Smart and his wife are happy in Tuscaloosa, the only thing that could have brought him to Athens was a coach-in-waiting position, and I bet that despite the money he may have been offered (which was way too much in my opinion based on what is being reported, but was supposedly matched), that wasn't on the table. Again, another important clue as to what Richt's plan is for the program and his career. Of course, it's all speculation because he refuses to talk about it. Considering the upside in Tuscaloosa (didn't they win the other night?) and Smart's apparent goals to be a head coach somewhere, the only thing that Alabama didn't have was that it wasn't Athens. Otherwise, it has everything else going for it. The were few to no net benefits to moving to UGA.
What worries me now, as a fan, is that we appear to have been waiting and expecting this deal to go through, and apparently had some level of commitment from Smart that he would go through with it.
What if 'Bama had lost the national championship game? Would things have been different? What if the freakish hadn't happened, and Colt McCoy didn't wind up with a case of the "dead arm," Texas didn't commit 5 turnovers, and was able to embarrass the 'Bama defense? Maybe verbally committing to UGA was a "smart" insurance policy.
Regardless of whether Smart is really responsible for the defense or not, it brings up an interesting and sobering realization that perception is everything. Even if he's eating M&Ms in the bleachers during practice while Saban is literally doing all the hands on coaching, the longer the program is successful and the longer he sticks with it, the greater will be the perception that he can reproduce it wherever he goes. And that he can parlay into a head coaching job. Because his success is more guaranteed at Alabama than in Athens. I'm sure Saban reminded him of that this weekend.

What's next? I still think it's going to be at least one person from the NFL, and it's going to cost us. If we don't know something by next week, I think we're going to have a serious problem on our hands in the way of fan mutiny and recruiting class. Which means that the cut-off on the Hartmann fund will be significantly lower! See, the glass is half-full.

Seriously, the world hasn't ended because we couldn't get Kirby Smart. Jobs like these are all about timing. We've had some timing issues with the people we've approached, although I really think that we'll all soon realize that Smart wasn't the "right man" for the job.

Left Overs...

2010-01-11T14:26:00.005-06:00

Posting has been pretty slow for me, I'm still cooking up a storm, but not cooking much new... In the past week, I've made steak frites, various pizzas, a ton of bread, roasted chicken, and homemade sausage with lentils (see previous posts regarding all of these). Not much new to write about. However, I did want to mention a terrific side-item that keeps well for several days, potato pave.

The beauty of this thing is that you can make it as rich or lite as you wish by varying the liquid added to the potato prior to baking. What makes it better than "au gratin" is the ability to saute and add some textural contrast to the creamy potatoes. Pictured above are New Year's Day leftovers (1/2 of a cornish hen, black-eyed pea and collard gratin, and potato pave).

For my preparation of the pave you'll need

Heavy cream

4 russets

salt & pepper

parmesean

butter

2-8 inch square pyrex dishes

Something heavy and oven proof like a good cast-iron skillet

aluminum foil.

Preheat oven to 400F. Start by lining one of the baking dishes with foil and butter generously. Butter another piece of foil for the top and set aside. Square the potatoes (the dish is called pave, pavers, get it?) and slice thinly, about 1/8 of an inch thick. Could use a mandoline or show off your sick knife skills. I prefer the latter. Pour cream (a cup or two) into a bowl and dip each potato slice in the cream then transfer to the dish, overlapping very slightly. After half of the potatoes have been layered, give a good sprinkle of salt and pepper, then grate a good amount of parmesan over the first half. Repeat with the second half and top with the other piece of foil. Place the second dish inside the first, give a good press and weight with the iron skillet. Bake for about an hour and a half. Remove from the oven and cool. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably weighted.

When ready to serve (about 10 minutes beforehand), pull the entire pave out of the dish using the foil and carefully peel off the foil. Using a very sharp knife, cut rectangles/squares etc from the center. Next in a hot pan, saute for 2 to 3 minutes per side in the oil of your choosing, or even on all sides for extra crunch!

You can serve these in place of any potato dish and look like a Rock Star, or better yet, a television star on The Learning Channel Trauma show!

America: Too Stupid To Cook

2010-01-04T14:37:00.001-06:00

America: Too Stupid To Cook

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Defensive coordinator salaries: the UGA effect

2010-01-04T12:14:00.002-06:00

As of January 4th, UGA still has no defensive coaches other than Rodney Garner. It seems as though we waited one year too long to make a change. Had we done it last year, Chavis might well have been our coordinator. As it stands now, there's no one in sight. Reportedly, Richt has contacted at least 3 people:

Bud Foster from Virginia Tech-leveraged VT for a contract renegotiation
Vic Koenning-wanted to go to UGA, but they dragged their feet and Ron Zook (Illinois) scooped him up
John Chavis-leveraged LSU for a contract renegotiation

Sounds like we're willing to offer 600K a year and a 3-year contract. As long Richt is confident, I guess we should be, too. Maybe it's all a big scheme to either bankrupt these other schools or lock them into someone that may not work out. Evil Richt strikes again?

So what do you think Richt will do? There are tons of variables that go into this, most of which we'll never know, but I think it's interesting to contemplate a few questions.

Is there a role for someone like Kirby Smart to come in as head coach in waiting like Jimbo Fisher or Will Muschamp? In other words, how much longer would Richt be willing to stay at UGA? If you need precedent, look no farther than his mentor, Bobby Bowden. He took a program that hadn't done much and turned them into a perennial powerhouse. And he stayed for the remainder of his career. Growing up close to FSU and having folks in the family reminding me of all the Bowden wisdom, there are major similarities between Richt and Bowden's style, whether it's in handling the media, other coaches, the players, etc. So my answer to question number 1 is no, the answer to 2 is a long time.
Do we benefit from Kirby Smart? Likely not. I for one can't believe that he is responsible for getting Alabama to the national title game. It's mostly Saban, who's the brains behind their success, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. Besides, Smart's stock likely can't rise as high at UGA than it can at 'Bama unless there's a potential role for a head coaching job. And if there's not that potential for him at UGA, he'll be gone when the offer comes from elsewhere.
Do we need to go out and get an NFL coach? That's likely to be the case, but if Richt has a young guy out there that he's interested in that's not quite ready for prime time, maybe he could set up a scenario where a senior NFL DC comes in and tutors a young coach into a star. That would be great planning for the future, and would be a much more sound investment than buying the most expensive thing out there, just because we can afford it. Look at the two guys he made a seriously play for, Foster and Chavis: both experienced and in the latter 1/3 of their careers. They never made a serious run at Koenning, which is why he's in Illinois, freezing his ass off.
How should we interpret Richt's choice of defensive coordinator? I think it's going to be a turning point in his career. If he chooses something that looks like a long-term plan, he's more likely telling us (as he always has, but then so did Tubby) that he's in it for the long haul. If he hires a flashy name for a bunch of cash, I would take it as a sign he's going to give it one good try, and if it fails, he's done. And it will likely be our own fault.

What the duck? Roti, pan sauce, and cookware selection

2009-12-30T11:53:00.001-06:00

From Drop Box

With your shotgun, go outside when it's cold, wait for some ducks to fly over, and kill a couple of them. Don't forget your duck stamps, waders, etc.

Or...you could go to your local grocery store (or particularly Asian market) and pick up some duck breasts or a whole duck. The duck breasts can be frozen, that's not a problem. As with anything frozen, you've got to get the water out of it. You can do this by letting it sit in the fridge uncovered as the humidity of the fridge is generally pretty low (hence the reason for humidity drawers that prevent veggies from drying out).

Pan-roasted duck breast with glazed baby carrots

Notice the polarity of the duck breasts, one side has the skin, the other does not (if you got something like I used). The presentation side is the skin side, and has the most flavor. The subcutaneous fat sits right under the skin, and provides a bunch of flavor as well. If you watched the Top Chef finale, one of the contestants made fried chicken skin and squash casserole for his first course. Bold! Dry rub the duck breasts with about equal parts chili powder, cumin, salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Preheat the oven to 400. Heat your pan to somewhere around 350-400, which is close to the smoke point of butter and olive oil. A useful tool for this is an infrared thermometer which you can use to measure the temperature of your pan. This was a Christmas gift I got this year (thanks Cartwrights!). If you don't have one, rely on when you see smoke coming from your fat.

Which pan do you use?
Why do folks pay so much money for clad pans? Sadly, it may have something to do with one being shinier than the other. I won't get that far into metallurgy, but some points are worth considering. Pans that hold heat well won't cool off very quickly when you either take them off heat or when you add something cold. They're ideal for searing meat or filling with oil for frying (cast iron skillet, enameled cast iron dutch oven). Other pans are great heat conductors, meaning they take the heat from the flame and efficiently turn that into radiant heat. When they're off the flame, they cool quickly. THIS is where you get your money's worth. The model for this is copper cookware which is great, but costs a fortune and is difficult to clean. The clad cookware (All-Clad) will frequently have a copper core. This translates to you as this: the better the conduction, (1) the lower the flame for the same job and (2) more quickly it cools when you take it off heat. You want (2) for some applications because it will prevent you from over cooking.
Which pan would you use for the duck, then? My ideal preparation would involve seared, crispy skin with a consistent doneness throughout. Either the clad pan or the cast iron would work great. The clad pan advantage is in making the pan sauce because it heats up and cools off quickly, so that's the one I used.

From Drop Box

The higher the temperature you "set" the skin side when you initially sear the duck, the less you have to worry about uneven cooking. With varying oils, know the smoke points, heat your pan to high, and put the meat on at the temperature you want. Realize that a pan with good conduction will cool off slightly when you add the meat, less so with cast iron or warmer meat. From there, it's just like grilling, take it out of the oven when the juices are clear. After you quickly sear the skin, put it in the pan and into the oven. There are a lot of different ways to do this, so experiment.

Sear one side, flip, and roast. This works great because it gets your pan up to the roasting temperature. It needs only enough time one the burner to get your pan back up to temperature after you added the meat. The longer you temper (let it come to room temperature) your meat, the shorter your searing time will be.
Sear both sides, roast. This might result in overcooking one side.
Sear neither side, roast, and crisp under the broiler afterwards. May work well, ideally you want your pan to be at temperature so you get even cooking. Crisping the skin works great, particularly for poultry.

Like with any roasted meat, it needs to rest substantially, so do this on a rack so that steam doesn't build up and overcook the bottom side. You may think I'm kidding; I'm not. If you carve too soon, the juices won't have a chance to spread out. The pan sauce was made by pouring off the excess fat, deglazing with orange juice and reducing until thickened, adding a little butter and salt to get it right, and pouring over served family style. Accompanying this, I served it with glazed carrots. You can find a recipe for this on Eric Ripert's website.

From Drop Box

Ratio application: muffins

2009-12-30T11:11:00.003-06:00

Did you know that the batter for banana nut bread is the same as it is for muffins? I didn't know that for a long time, and until recently I had not eaten muffins that were not either store-bought or made from a store-bought package of ingredients.

There's no mystery to this. This is a little more complicated of a ratio, but a ratio nonetheless. Think of it as 3 parts: wet ingredients, dry ingredients, and additives. You can hand mix it, or do it in you stand mixer, if you'd like, using your whisk attachment.

Wet:
2 parts liquid
1 part egg
1 part fat.

For my liquid I used milk, for the fat I used melted butter. 4 oz of eggs = 2 large eggs.

Dry:
2 parts flour
Sugar to taste (about 1 part)
Leavening agent
Good pinch of salt.

For my flour, I used regular AP flour, the sugar was regular granular sugar, the leavening agent was baking powder about 1 tsp per 4 oz of flour (you knew that was the ratio of flour to baking powder, right?).

Additives:
1 ripe about to throw away banana, diced
1/4 cup of chopped pecans.

Mix the wet ingredients first until well-combined. You can sift your dry ingredients in, mix them separately then combine slowly, or throw caution to the wind and just dump the whole thing in. The quicker you can combine the ingredients, the less tough your finished product will be (thanks, gluten).
Cook them on 325 convection bake (350 regular) until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Variations on the theme

For the muffins I substituted Splenda for half of the sugar. Remember that Splenda does not substitute 1:1 for granular by weight, but is intended to do so by volume. That means you need to figure out the volume of your sugar. Sugar isn't part of the ratio, but added at 1 part is a good start.
Other additives can be dried fruits like cranberries, cherries, figs, apricots, candied orange peels, etc.
Blueberries go great, classic combination!
You can sub a little oil for half of the butter if you'd like without major failure. I did it on the muffins because I ran out of butter.
Especially for things with nuts, think about adding brown butter. How to make, you ask? Just add heat to your melted butter, don't burn it!
Why not chocolate and chocolate chips? Raspberry and white chocolate? Bacon and asparagus?
For a different texture, try varying gluten flours such as cake flour vs bread flour. Find your balance of lightness vs texture/crust.

Salt

2009-12-29T14:19:00.003-06:00

What's the big deal with salt, anyway? I have to admit that before I started paying a little more attention to what I was doing, I was one of those people that on occasion would salt food without tasting it. Now, I don't think I would ever do that, but hey, you live and you learn. If you go to the gourmet food shop or even your local grocery store, you'll find several varieties of salt that are not interchangeable. I dug through the pantry and found a few to offer for illustration.

From Drop Box

Clockwise from the top left these are:

Kosher salt
Fleur de Sel
Grey salt from Colima, Mexico
Regular iodized table salt
Kona salt from Hawaii

Close up pictures illustrate a few points.

From Drop Box
Kosher

When you look at kosher salt up close, there is some irregularity to the size of the crystals. I've heard a lot of theories about why it is the preferred cooking salt of a lot of chefs, I think it has more to do with texture and the ability to better feel how much you're putting in. Believe it or not, with very little practice, you can feel how much a tsp of kosher salt feels like. It also seems to have a lower salinity which is a good thing because you want to use salt as a seasoning agent, being careful to not overpower the dish. This is not a finishing salt. More on that, next....

From Drop Box
Fleur de sel

Fleur de sel, on the other hand is fairly uniform in size, beautiful and clear, and works great as a finishing salt. When or why would you use finishing salt, you may ask? The beauty of finishing salt is having a nicely textured, fine crystal of salt explosion while you're eating something. Beware that you'll only be salting the outer surface, so don't use this technique when you have something thick that needs uniform salinity. I use this on grilled bread, vegetable sautee that I have purposely left undersalted, thin meats and fish, citrus, etc.

From Drop Box
Grey salt

The grey salt I have pictured here is nonuniform in size, but has a much more mineral flavor than regular kosher salt. The size differences make it a little less useful than fleur de sel for a finishing salt, but this one does have a similar flavor burst and delicate texture that the other has. Interesting one to try!

From Drop Box
Table salt

Regular table salt. Fine, small crystals that add a uniform salinity to whatever you're seasoning, fit nice in a shaker, and is easy to measure. This type of salt may be easier to use in baking, dissolves readily because of the small crystals. It doesn't have the texture of kosher salt, so it may be a little trickier to take a pinch of it and know what you're getting. Still useful, don't throw it all away, but in my house, it took 20 minutes of scouring through the kitchen to find a salt shaker. I don't set them out anymore. If you're eating my food, you have to trust me that I seasoned it correctly.

From Drop Box
Kona salt

Hawaiian Kona salt is fun because it's black, from the effect of volcanic rock. This makes it a little trompe l'oeil, "fools the eye." Use this as a fake out with white pepper. Frankly, I'm still trying to figure out ways to use this, and haven't really settled on anything. The salinity seems a little higher in this one than others, and it has a unique visual effect.

There are tons of other options out there that I haven't tried, feel free to experiment!

Craft

2009-12-16T08:30:00.004-06:00

Great weekend in the ATL with Knothead. Drove up Saturday afternoon, and despite miserable weather, was giddy about eating at Craft. (Yes! Colicchio has a restaurant in Atlanta, seems to be a trend of "celebrity" chefs of late). Because of the horrific traffic near Lenox/Phipps and the fact that it was cold and raining sideways, we decided to drop in early for our 730 reservations and have a few drinks at the bar. When we arrived at 640, they asked if we would like to be seated early...so that's what we did and planned to make a full night of it (much to the chagrin of our waitress, who didn't turn our table over once, ha!).

First of all, we elected to eat at Craft Bar, not quite as intimate as Craft, and even though we were near midtown, had little desire to be viewed as a "couple". When entering Craft Bar, I was struck by the awesome firepit where lots of tasty meats were being grilled over mahogany and white oak...excellent first impression.

After much debate, we decided to order single items for sharing in a methodical order, allowing enough recovery time in between sucessive dishes to avoid over bloatation. We failed miserable, but powered through 7 dishes.

First, we starteds with Risotto balls, listed as a snack. 3 perfectly cripy risotto balls arrived filled with what I believe was a mascarpone cheesse mixture...nice start.

Second, Pork belly, apple, curry, maple syrup. I can't tell you have good this freaking thing was...I'll be dreaming about this dish for months. I am definitely going to have to find a pork belly purveyor in the near future.

Third, Sweetbreads, bacon jam, kumquat. All I can say here is, "very interesting". The sweetbreads were perfectly fried and almost pillowy and creamy on the inside. The bacon jam was interesting, but way too salty. I ruined half of my experience with this dish by smearing a huge dollop of this stuff onto my first bite of sweetbread. All I could taste was salt for 10 minutes, and I tried to clense my taste buds by swilling some vino, but alas... I didn't like the kumquat whatsoever. It was candied and tasted too much like an orange slice candy. Got nothing against those things, but I didn't think went with the rest of the dish. Kevin liked the whole thing, and he was reluctant to even taste it.

Short rib cannelloni. Wow. My favorite of the night. Sounds good, doesn't it! Colicchio is a master of the braise, but it was the sauce that made this truly rememberable. The sauce was a dark sauce, ?veal-based. It was a bit sweet and had red and green peppers. It tasted like a refined version of a gumbo. There certainly was some alcohol as well, perhaps this was the sweet we tasted, Sherry?

Veal meatballs, pappardelle. This was my least favorite dish. Not because it wasn't good, but because I could make something identical at home on any given weeknight. It was kind of a play on spaghetti and meatballs, the canned kind you'd eat as a kid. The sauce was a similar thick, orange colored sauce as the canned stuff.

Carrot, oat, ice cream sandwich. If you like carrot cake, you'd LOOOOVE this. Very simple and doable at home. Basically you had "carrot cake" oatmeal cookies with a cream cheese ice cream filling. Fabulous!

Finally, Smores, homemade graham crackers, homemade marshmallows, fancy chocolate cooked over that fabulous fire pit. Good stuff.

Arrived at 640, left at 1040, in bed by 11. Didn't eat again until 1PM the next day. Cheeseburger and a Miller at the Falcons/Saints game. Not a bad weekend at all.

Are you afraid of the silence?

2009-12-15T22:36:00.000-06:00

Who's going to be the next defensive coordinator at UGA? The silence is deafening. I really think we'd be in better position had we made our move last year. Look at the competition this year, which is significant: UF and FSU. These are schools that are recruiting out of our backyard, and we're having to fight with them over a defensive coach, now? Like MNF, "C'mon, man?!?!?"

Don't get me wrong. I've got the utmost faith in Richt about choosing someone that's more than capable of filling the vacancy, but it would be nice to hear something about interviews or at least discussions with someone other than Kirby Smart (forget it, seriously?) and Bud Foster (even bigger pipedream). CMR is a man of faith, and I guess he's pushing ours to the limit. The upside is the donation to the Hartmann fund is likely to be less than it was a couple of years ago. So at least we've got that going for us. Which is freaking nice.

I'm still in, lock stock, and barrel. But I don't have to like it.

Frankly, I'm nervous, and becoming more nervous with every passing hour.

GDSEWWWWW

Didn't you get it?
(go 'dawgs, sic 'em, woof woof woof woof woof)

WTP2 College Football Bowl Pool

2009-12-15T09:27:00.006-06:00

The 5th annual White Trash Porch Party College Football Bowl Pool is up at Fun Office Pools dot com. CLICK HERE to play. Picks are due by Saturday. Forward this link to your friends. More players = more in the kitty. If the link does not work, copy http://www.funofficepools.com/joinpool.php?Passed_Pool_Key=4816421fb10 into the address field of your browser.

Pool Name: White Trash Porch Party 2009-2010 Football Bowl Pool

MAB

Caramelized pecan tart

2009-12-15T09:10:00.001-06:00

Pecan. The way I see it, there are three ways to say this word, and at least one of them is wrong. I say this being a self-proclaimed authority as I'm from Mitchell County, GA, one of the top pecan-producing counties in the entire country. And when the old-timers down there say PEE-KANS, then by God, that's how you say it. You can say pi-KAHN ("pin" not "pie") if you'd like. Just please don't say PEE-KAHN.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. And if you really like pecans, check out this link to my uncle and cousin's farm. (No disclosures to report.)

From Drop Box

This is a recipe in two parts. One for the crust, and the other for the filling.
I've wrestled with the pastry dough recipe for a few months, and I think I've finally found something that works for me. This is fun recipe because it strings a bunch of techniques together all into one, and I think it helps you become a better cook for other stuff. Here are the rules:

Pie dough should be made with low-gluten flour or else it will be tough and shrink (it shrinks?). Low-gluten flour includes White Lily, Swansdown, and King Arthur cake flour. In general, the further north the flour comes from, the higher the gluten, having something to do with the grain variety and cold weather.
There's a tradeoff between ease of use (Crisco or shortening) and flavor (butter). Butter gets too soft at room temperature or more precisely kitchen temperature, and if it forms a dough paste instead of staying flaky, the game's over.
Acids and sugar make for softer dough because of their interaction with gluten.
Add flavorings to your dough depending on what you're making (eg. cinnamon, nutmeg, grated parmesan, etc.). Use the microplane grater.
Sugar will set harder the higher the finishing temperature.

Tart-dough (pate sucre) for 10-inch tart pan

300gm low gluten flour
200gm butter (or 50/50 Crisco and butter)
1 tsp of salt
1/4 cup of sugar

Pulse this in the food processor until it looks like oatmeal or at worst coarse, wet sand. You can do this in a large bowl with the pastry blender, but it takes longer, and if it's not going well, you may have to take a break and stick in the freezer. Main thing is not letting the butter melt and form a paste. Since it's winter time, do it outside.

Add ice water a couple of tbsp at a time until the dough is wet enough to come together. This DOES NOT necessarily mean to pulse it until it forms a ball. Once you can get it together, wrap in plastic wrap, and stick it in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Normally that would be while you're working on your filling, but not this one. After the 30 minutes, take it out of the fridge, and roll to about 1cm or 1/4 inch or so. Blind bake it at around 400F in your tart shell until just brown, don't forget to put parchment paper or foil down with pie weights (pinto beans that you can reuse).

Filling

1 1/4 cup of light brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks of butter
1/2 - 1 cup of water (optional)

Put all of this in at smallest a 2.5 quart saucepan, preferably 3 qt, and heat it until it turns amber and starts to foam a little bit, about 10 minutes.

1 cup heavy cream
1-2 tsp of curry powder (trust me)

You'll need a candy thermometer to do this, or some experience making candy. Add your final ingredients, and bring to high heat. If you have a lot of water in there, it may take longer to get to your target heat.

Here's where you can diverge a little. If you have a candy thermometer, you want the mixture to get to 240F and immediately take off heat. If you don't have a thermometer, you can set up a cup of ice water and intermittently slide a few drops of your candy into the water. It sets immediately, and that's going to be the final consistency. You want caramel (soft ball stage), probably not as chewy as tootsie rolls. Remember, the higher the heat, the harder the candy. Of course you can try this way (from Ian Kelly's biography of Antonin Careme, Cooking for Kings)

Freezing his hand first in iced water, Antonin then plunged it straight into the boiling sugar, and back into the cold. A kitchen-boy gasped - Carême's patissier trick never failed to impress. He repeated the process, then took a knife, dipped it into the top of the sugar-lava and then into the cup of water. He brought it straight out, cracking the crystalline sugar clean from the knife and announced in his thick Parisian accent, 'Cassa.' The sugar was cracked and ready to spin. Antonin stood back from the stove with the first spouted pan. He held the base mould at his waist and raised the pan to head height and started to pour. The thread of sugar fell towards the mould, like a perfect skein of hot wax, and Antonin laced it round in one continuous movement.

When you get the consistency you want, act quickly. Pour the caramel into your tart shell, drop some pecan halves in there (about 1/2-3/4 pound). My picture shows a full pound, which is too much. You can put the pie back into the oven at high temperature for a couple of minutes. What this will do is harden the top of your candy and the exposed pecans. Don't leave it for more than 5 minutes or so. The caramel will continue to cook making it too chewy.

Final notes

The curry powder isn't necessary but it adds a nice sharp tang to it, just don't add too much.
The salt is in it because most everything needs a little salt to add accent to flavor. According to Thomas Keller, the only seasoning agents are salt and acid. Pepper is a flavored spice.
You can add water to the caramel mixture as you start to use the "wet method." This may make it take a little longer to get to your target temperature, but sometimes that extra time is nice.
The higher the butter percentage of your pastry dough, the colder it needs to stay. Shortening is easy to use because it's solid at room or kitchen temperature. Butter starts to melt at 75 or so. An average kitchen with an oven on is hotter than that.
Blind baking is a useful technique because fillings may frequently finish at a different time than the crust. Most recipes you can cook filling and crust separately, and put them together at the end.
If you don't have brown sugar, you can make caramel with regular granular sugar. I've made it this way and I used molassess instead of honey. It's a slightly different flavor profile, but still comes out great. Brown sugar makes it darker (obviously), but the addition of molasses, corn syrup, or honey adds a non-sucrose sugar to the mixture that helps prevent crystallization.

Not As Bad As It Could Be

2009-12-09T20:07:00.005-06:00

No, really, it's not. Truett Cathy should have paid more attention to who was selected for his namesake bowl. The Hello Kiffy machine at UT is being investigated by the NCAA in the middle of recruiting season, for sending ho's to high school games of potential recruits with signs and other "sundries". And that's just since Kiffy took over.

And on the Dawg front, I was listening to the pre-game show before the UGA vs. St. Johns basketball game tonight (12/9) in Madison Square Garden, and Scott Howard offered this statistic: Georgia Basketball is 10-47 (or maybe it was 42?) in non-neutral away games in the past 6 years - that's a win percentage of 17.5%. There are just 3 t0 5 neutral games per season.

Just think about the football program having that type of winning percentage, and be thankful Mark Richt has been a 10 win per season coach til this year.

Changes

2009-12-02T20:53:00.000-06:00

You gotta know that the past few years have been tough for CMR, culminating in agony over the last 2-3 days, despite the win at Tech. I wonder if the demeanor that we saw from him when he got doused in Gatorade was because he knew he was going to have to do something almost unthinkable and didn't feel like celebrating.

We'll probably never know, just like we'll never know why he fired both Jancek and Fabris, although either one probably had some probable cause in their bodies of work. He did say that it was to make more room for CWM's successor, but maybe that was a contingency of someone they already had in mind.

One thing seems clear to me, though. Richt is dead serious about moving the Dawgs in the right direction, and didn't make a half-hearted decision. Does he already have a replacement in mind? I'm almost positive that he does, or else you wouldn't have seen the move that was made today when he fired Martinez, Fabris, and Jancek. Who the replacements will be obviously remains to be seen, but they have acknowledged to the fan base that the bar has been raised, and the status quo wasn't cutting it.

Again, our football future lives in dangerous times, because we're about to be in competition with the biggest dog on the block for a defensive coordinator. The rumors are that Charlie Strong (DC at Florida) is being considered for head coach at Louisville which would leave that job vacant, but they aren't going to approach him until after the SECCG. Expect UGA to make a quick and fierce move, maybe even this week.

The fate of Rodney Garner

I guess you have to ignore most everything that I predicted last night, because I was just proven wrong by CMR today. The one thing that hasn't been decided yet is what's going to happen with Coach Garner. By all accounts, he's a helluva recruiter, bonds well with the kids, and is integral to the program. But if I had to guess, I'd say that there's something off under the surface. David Hale reported some interesting stuff about him that suggest if he's not promoted to DC, he's gone. Could be, don't know, and without inside knowledge of the program, it's hard to say what affect that will have.

So, hold on to your hats, change is coming. Of course, there's no guarantee that it will be for the better, but one can only hope.

From the Munson Archives, circa 2006

2009-12-01T22:50:00.000-06:00

"We are on the 4 1/2 yard line, third-down. You win or you lose here. 12 to 7, Georgia Tech. Mikey Henderson has come in, which means...if we can get the ball to him...speed.... Tech at the moment in a four-man line. we got four receivers out wide, Stafford retreats, looks, pumps, throw... TOUCHDOWN!! TOUCHDOWN!! TOUCHDOWN!! MY GOD A TOUCHDOWN!! TOUCHDOWN!! TOUCHDOWN!!
(crowd roars and barks) MASSAQUOI!!!!"

"Dan, did you see this? He did this, he didn't throw, and he just stood there."

"Stafford is in a shotgun, we want a two-point play. Massaquoi goes in motion. And Stafford now running to the right," (Bobo from the booth next door "There it is!!!") "...fires... and its COMPLETE!!! We caught it 1 yard in, Massaquoi! Now you've got 105 seconds to hang on, don't celebrate now, for God sakes! 15-12, we lead. 15-12, we gotta hang on, 105 seconds, and were too TIRED to hang on!"

Fortunately, we hung on. I frequently find myself thinking about how many seconds are left in the game, even in the first quarter. God, I miss Munson.

30-24, the Governor's Cup returns to it's rightful home.

2009-12-01T19:55:00.003-06:00

You only need to look at the tape under Washaun's eyes to know that the guys in red and black came ready to play. Quite simply, they

OUT-TECHED TECH AT TECH.

I RUN. THIS STATE.

Yes, you did. To the tune of 339 yards. Maybe that could be the new area code for Tech's campus.

The good news for Tech is that their pants were the same color before and after they pissed themselves in classic Reggie Ball fashion. How sweet the taste of Tech's tears- I could live off the stuff if you could bottle it!

Go DAWGS, thanks for an interesting year that resulted in the bottom of too many bottles.

Go to HELL Jackets, see ya next year in Athens!!

Football expectations and predictions.

Coach Martinez will not be fired. He might resign, but he won't be fired.
Coach Garner will leave. Interestingly, he has not signed a contract, and all things point to his having a bad relationship with Damon Evans. This might hurt the team because of his recruiting and nurturing of several players, but is there already a rift between him and other coaches, players, and/or the administration? Maybe in the big picture, it will help, but he's going to be hard to replace.
Coach Fabris will not leave, but Richt will step up and visibly ramp up the special teams coverage.
We're going to struggle to fill the DC spot if it comes vacant.
Aaron Murray is going to be the starter next year.
Bobo and Searles are quite secure.
Bryan Evans is going to get a raise.

BTW-check out the link to these game pictures by a fellow named Josh Weiss.
Anyone else with any thoughts about it?

Chef Pretty Hair

2009-11-19T21:00:00.005-06:00

FYI - Chef Pretty Hair (Eric Ripert) was on Charlie Rose Tuesday nite (November 17th). You can watch it at http://www.charlierose.com/. He talks about his new show on PBS called Avec Eric which just started this Fall. One point I didn't realize is that his producer is the same one Julia Childs had.

I was surprised by the fact that he went on a wild boar hunt in one episode. He is apparently more of "natural (no steriods, free range, etc.)" than an "organic freak", which is how I had him pegged. Anyway, it's a good show if you get a chance to watch it.

In December, I plan on an end-of-year review series of posts, one of which will be (Finally!!!) my experience at his NYC restaurant Le Bernardin, and meeting Chef Ripert (pronounced Rip-air).

MAB

A favorite, under-utilized kitchen gadget

2009-11-18T09:37:00.006-06:00

First, I apologize for pirating pictures from the web for this post, but the recipe described was quickly gobbled before photos could be taken!

Second, I want to talk briefly about one of my favorite kitchen gadgets...a small mechanical scoop. Basically this is a small ice cream type scooper that rarely gets use but is really nice when you need it.Mine has a black handle but you get the idea. This is perfect for making small round things where you don't want to dirty your hands or when you have a dough that you don't want to overwork. Perfect for dumplings, meatballs, fish balls, and last night appetizer...crab tater tots!

I got a copy of Michael Symon's new book from Amazon for a deal and this idea/recipe had to be attempted. I love me a crab cake, I love me a tater tot...The method is interesting in that he makes a choux paste as a binder and it works great!

Crab tater tots

2 T butter
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1 cup mashed potato
1/2 lb crab
Panko
Oil for frying (he deep frys, I pan fried with excellent results)
salt & pepper

Start by making the choux paste. In a non-stick pan, combine butter, water, and flour over high heat and cook stirring rapidly until everything comes together in one mass and colors slightly. Remove from heat and let cool in pan for about 5 minutes. Add the egg and stir like mad until well combined, about 1 minute. One the mixture is cool, add the potatoes and crab meat and mix well, but be gentle with the crab. Pour some panko into a dish and using the scooper, make perfectly round crab balls, roll in Panko and set aside. I suggest forming 1/2 as your oil heats and making the other half while your first batch is frying. To cook, add enough oil to a skillet to come about 1/3 of the way up the sides of your tots. Fry for about 1 1/2 minutes on the first side, then turn until brown on all sides. Transfer to a cooling rack over a baking sheet and sprinkle with kosher salt. Repeat with the second batch. Can be made about 1/2 hour ahead of time and reheated in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges and sauce of your choice...I like a spicy aioli :)

JW

Shrimp and grits: the concept of layers

2009-11-16T19:19:00.004-06:00

From Drop Box

How do you make a heavy dish taste light? There has to be acid to balance it out. Shrimp and grits as a traditionally Southern dish is notorious for being way too heavy, but there's a way to lighten it on your palate. The inspiration for this dish came from watching (don't laugh) Martha Stewart when she had David Chang from Momofuku restaurant in New York City, who has been featured in several magazines lately and considered the new guard of Asian cooking in the Eastern US. I've never eaten there, but I'm intrigued because the weakest link in my repertoire is definitely Asian.

From concept to satisfaction
Shrimp and grits are about a few main ingredients, the sine qua non, because without these ingredients, shrimp and grits barely exist if at all. But as you build the layers separately and add them all at the end, you'll taste that complexity in the final product. Sure, you could just make grits, add some cheese, and add some shrimp, but you've limited the depth.
Obviously shrimp and grits, but also bacon, butter, and something acid to balance the flavor. The David Chang version included dashi, soy sauce, and hot chiles to give it a distinctively Asian flavor profile. The bacon and soy sauce are a surprising combination and an easy dressing to any Asian style noodle dish, but...that's another post (was that too Alton Brown?).

One guy's version of shrimp and grits
The recipe is not important, because if you're Southern, and you like to cook, then you've likely eaten it, or at least tried it.

This was a 3-4 pan dish.

1. High volume water pot at 140F to soft boil two eggs (serving was for 2 people). I can't swear about the time on these, but my thought was that as long as they cooked no higher than 140, they couldn't be bad. They cooked for about 20 minutes.
2. Sautee bacon, shallot, and minced garlic. Low heat is the key, don't really need to brown it, particularly the veggies.
3. Grits, of your choice, cooked to almost done. The higher the quality of the grits (yes there are different kinds like instant, quick, regular, fresh, etc.), clearly the better the dish. Chang swore by Anson Mills in Columbia, SC. Y'all hear that, CSRA? Have you tried them? Whatever you do, add butter to the grits as they're cooking.
4. Garnish of finely diced scallions.

Cook the above, use the sautee pan to cook your shrimp. Deglaze the pan with water and reduce, add to the grits for flavor. Don't skip steps like these, they'll be the difference between good and irreproducibly great.

Assembly
Once the grits were cooked, I added the sautee of bacon, shallot, and garlic to them and added 1 tbsp of butter and heavy cream until the consistency was right. Added the shrimp (sauteed in a Dizzy Pig rub that obviously had a hint of curry powder), and stirred it up to mix.
Side note: the egg. Crack the shell CAREFULLY and place in a slotted spoon. What you want is a coagulated layer of egg white around the creamy yolk. Add to the dish, garnish with something fancy.

Other ideas

For acid, you could use vinegar, but the "volume" is to high. A little squeeze of lemon or lime juice (not enough to taste) would do. Probably not zest, because you need the flavor and the acid.
This would have been infinitely better with a higher quality of grits. The wife got a funny look when all I could find were Quick Grits. As I learned in My Cousin Vinny, "No self-respecting Southerner cooks instant grits." Nuff said.
Go Asian, cook your grits in a seaweed broth with smoked or unsmoked pork belly. Add soy sauce to the grits, it goes GREAT with butter.

Three Couples and a Limo – Part I

2009-11-13T20:17:00.018-06:00

Charles Dickens once wrote:

“To begin our trip with the beginning of our trip, I record that we settled into the Tahoe to journey to the airport. At precisely three thirty on Thursday, we arrived at the Newman residence, where the clock began to strike, and I began to cry simultaneously.”

Since I probably just angered the living descendants of Dickens, I will now regale you, in less than Dickensesque prose, with the details of our trip to San Francisco, and the Sonoma/Napa area.

Chapter 1 – Nutella
As we are prone to do when traveling, we paid a brief visit to the ATL A17 Crown Room between connections. It began with a beer and ended with a double scotch less than 15 minutes later.

During that brief visit, medicinal beverages were prescribed, prescriptions filled, and beverages consumed with the efficiency of an Intel processor and the accelerated effect of the first hour of controlled-release Ambien. The accelerated effect was, unfortunately, not sustained for the in-flight beverage service. So disappointing was the unsustainability that I refused to exercise the free drink voucher that I received in Augusta for having TSA discover a small handgun in my blazer as it went through the x-ray. A diversion I will not yet detail.

Also during that brief visit, a man discovered Nutella. The versatile hazelnut spread created in 1940s Italy because cocoa was in short supply due to war rationing. (FYI – you can win 12 jars online at Nutella) The modern-day discoverer was Danny Newman. Enamored is the word that comes to mind.

Between the Nutella and Biscoff cookies consumed or squirreled away in pockets, and the 8 to 12 gratis prescriptions that were filled, I’d say we
covered the annual membership fee.

Chapter 2 – Chinatown
Visiting San Francisco requires most people to ride a cable car, take a taxi, or drive the Bay City of Starsky and Hutch. We refuse to follow the tourists with small calves, and instead, walk from our hotel, in a circuitous route, to Fisherman’s Warf [sic]. Along the way, we discover buildings, sites, structures, and objects that we have never before encountered. Chinatown was an exception.

We had tasted Chinatown, but never experienced the Pork Bun (cha siu baau). Being from the South, the mention of almost any pork product elicits Pavlov salivation. Dr. Newman was told of the phenomenon known as the pork bun by a patient, and was determined to sample their sweet and savory glory. So, we rooted them out like truffles. At 10:30am PST, only 45 minutes after a large breakfast at Sears Fine Food (which has amazing corned-beef hash) we shared three pork buns and a wad of meat in a dumpling wrapper. The pork buns were like eating a big fat yeast roll from the Western Sizzlin’, stuffed with Sconyer’s BBQ that was dipped in John Boy and Billy sauce. It was heaven on a bun. In reality, it was a baked yeast roll variation with pork belly and an oyster/hoisun sauce. I hear you can get them steamed too. I did not taste the meat wad in the dumpling wrapper, which got mixed reviews from the other participants.

The six of us had beer and Dungeness crab at Fisherman’s Wharf (which I have always found to be good) then trotted our sufficiently exercised calves onto the cable car, and rode it back to the hotel. The guys quickly left the hotel for some afternoon carousing at Johnny Foley’s Irish House one block from the hotel. The intent was to pub crawl, but the variety of 18 beers (each of which was poured into the correspondingly branded glass), the conversation with locals and travelers, and the advent of tasting a lamb slider kept us there.

The technique used by the bartender to pour beer was unusual and virgin to our eyes. A beer glass was placed, inverted, under the tap. A second glass (the consumptive glass) was placed on top, right-side up, and the tap was eased down about half way, so that the beer poured slowly. Once filled, the beer was allowed to settle in place, then the tap was slot-machined in order to put a head on the beer. An outstanding and entertaining way to pour beer.

The sliders were not exactly what you would expect on a pub menu. A slider is simply how mid-western Americans grew up referring to a Krystal or White Castle burger. The concept is great, and the lamb sliders were outstanding. They were Niman Ranch Lamb (famous ranch in the wine country) topped with arugula, eggplant, goat cheese, and a mint aoli. I believe I will attempt a recreation of the sliders in the near future.

To be continued… [Chapters 3 thru 5]

Faux gras. Not.

2009-11-09T14:51:00.004-06:00

I saw this on Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, and figured why not. Instead of foie gras (fat duck or goose liver), they made it out of chicken livers. Basically, the concept is enrich chicken livers with a creamy stock and ton of butter. Why not, if you can get chicken livers for cheap? Don't you have a bait store close by? Or Bi-Lo?

Faux gras
1 lb of chicken livers, cleaned of sinew
2 sticks of butter
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1 cup of diced onion
1 garlic clove
salt
pepper (white if you have it)

From Drop Box

Take your livers and clean them of sinew. There's a ligament that separates the lobes, not to mention some blood vessels. Don't stress too much, you'll strain later, and get most of it out.

Take your onion and with a couple of tbsp of your butter, soften over super low heat. Add the garlic after a couple of minutes with the cream. Keep going another few minutes until you're sure that the onions are softened, and kill the heat. Adde the butter, and set up a bain marie in the oven at 300 F like you would for creme brulee'.

Bain marie
Preheat the oven to 300 F. Put a tea kettle or pot of water on to boil while you're doing the other stuff. The purpose here is to use steam heat (gentle and low) and humidity to "set" your mousse or custard, or whatever you're making. You'll put your mixture in ramekins in a baking dish, and fill the dish with boiling water until you've come about halfway up the ramekins.

Take your livers and the onion/cream mixture and blend until very smooth. Make sure that:
1. You have a cover to your blender AND...
2. That your two year-old doesn't wander by and turn on the blender.

From Drop Box

Once you've got your puree, force it through a sieve (wire mesh strainer) with a ladle or something like that and pour into your ramekins. Cook in the bain marie for about 30 minutes or until it's set.

From Drop Box

Cool in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.

What the recipe doesn't tell is what the heck to do with it. I tried to make it like regular foie gras, had caramelized some apples and made a sauce out of that. I noticed a little problem with the consistency, and I tried to form what looked like liver slices.

From Drop Box

The result? Good grief. Quite simply some of the worst looking stuff I've ever seen or made, and trust me, I've seen plenty in my job. Inedible.

From Drop Box

So, we didn't eat it. And it made a HUGE mess compounded by the toddler that turned on the blender whose lid we had just lost. Not to mention that until you steam it, it's raw chicken liver. Not exactly the kind of stuff you want all over your kitchen. Where did it go wrong?

1. I didn't have a complete pound of liver. I only had 10+ oz, because I had made a Jacques Pepin recipe earlier that night that required 5 livers cut in quarters. That's the main thing I can think of.
2. I watched this again on the website, and Ruth Reichl (the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine) makes it with a more reduced onion/cream mixture. She doesn't mention that it's a requisite.
3. Did I use too hot of a skillet? I experimented with various heat combinations, and none of them worked out properly. I also (dummy) used my stainless pan and burned it.

What I wound up making was caramelized apples with an apple reduction sauce.

"Apples and sauce"
1 whole apple, peeled and cored, sliced pretty thin
Sautee in butter until caramelized over medium heat
Deglaze the pan with about a cup of chicken stock
Add apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper
Finish with a little butter to add thickness

Reduce until thick and strain, pour over the apples. Sorry no picture, but it was simple and really good!

Online Cooking School Revisited...

2009-11-03T09:02:00.002-06:00

Just stumbled onto this site while doing a google search for endothelin and a specific thing I'm looking for in the lab...go figure. Looks pretty good. I'm going to add to the links.

http://rouxbe.com/

Got a new gadget for the Kitchen Aid for my B-day. Will be posting the results in a few.

Insanity.

2009-10-31T19:29:00.002-05:00

As Richt even alluded to in a press conference not too long ago, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. As much as I'm sure there will be some coach bashing after UGA embarrassed themselves against FU (again) giving up 41 points (again), that wasn't the problem. It was discipline, plain and simple.
The refs are not going to be helping UGA for a long time, and FU gets away with a lot. I though for sure Penn Wagers would be officiating this game, but when I saw him calling something in the Auburn/Ole Miss game, I thought we might actually have a chance. Richt got in their ear a little bit, but it wasn't enough. What's maybe not so crazy is that Florida had the perfect gameplan: sit back, do their thing, and watch us implode. They played well, particularly on special teams, but they didn't have to beat us. They did, but we helped take care of that ourselves.
I hope the seniors enjoyed the black helmets and black pants. We're going to catch hell and ridicule for it as a desparation move. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. It was fun, but considering the weather that we were about to be facing, you have to think it was the wrong thing to do. Black absorbs heat, right?
A final word about the coaches. There's going to be a lot of talk about how bad the coaching was. Florida came out running a different offense, heavy on misdirection that was eating us up for their first two drives, but noticeably, Marinez made the proper adjustment and we started holding them. Bobo and company had the run offense going, inexplicably against the best defense in the country. The playcalling was 90% effective, subject to execution. The special teams play was there. Good kickoffs, decent coverage, even success in the directional kick.
This game was yet another in the many implosions we've seen this season. Penalty after penalty, and many of them couldn't have come at worse times. Joe Cox is a gunslinger, but like the dude in Top Gun said: "Son, your ego's writing checks your body just can't cash." I have not doubt about his heart as a DGD. But for every brilliant flash, we've seen at least as much that is inexplicable. 3 interceptions, and he has yet to have a game where he doesn't throw a pick. The attempted throw aways that go to a defender for an easy pick. The pressure that he never sees and gets plowed. The wide open receiver that he doesn't throw to, opting instead for the guy in quadruple coverage. As good as some of the blocking was, you can point out just as many blown assignments that have just about gotten Cox killed.
This loss won't be about bad scheme or playcalling. This was about bad decisions and lack of discipline. I don't know who to pin that one on, and frankly I don't care. The bottom line for me is that since 1991, we've beaten UF 3 times. Got that? 3. Despite 2 coaching changes since I graduated from high school, NOTHING HAS CHANGED. I'm tired of coming up with commentary or suggestions. I just know that whatever we're doing now isn't working, and it would be insanity to think that a different result would come from doing the same thing over. And over.

Don't send the lifeboat. I'm going down with the ship, wallowing and basking in the masochism and perpetual self-inflicted misery that appears to be mandatory to be a Georgia football fan. If only the black and gold nerds could beat the white and gold nerds tonight in the game down the street (GT vs Vandy).

Halloween-UGA vs FU

2009-10-31T09:48:00.001-05:00

Nothing to say other than I'm dressing as an eternal optimist. That's right, I'm a UGA fan that thinks we can win today!

GO DAWGS!!!!!!! HBTD, GATA!!!!!!

Filet mignon with sauce Bernaise

2009-10-30T09:48:00.003-05:00

Filet mignon, one of the most coveted pieces of meat, is awesomely tender, but low on flavor. That's probably why you see it served with sauce just about everywhere you go. Almost uniformly, the sauce is based on some fat emulsion because fat provides an irreplacable combination of flavor and mouthfeel.

Filet mignon with sauce Bernaise

Bernaise sauce is an augmentation of Hollandaise sauce adding shallot, herbs like chervil and tarragon, white wine, and white wine vinegar. Hollandaise sauce, in its purest form, is an emulsion of butter and egg yolks. It's like mayonnaise made with butter instead of oil. The technique to make it is different because to get butter in liquid form, it takes heat, and heat scrambles eggs.

For the filet, dry well, lightly oil and season as you wish with dry ingredients. Salt and pepper are really all you need, but you can put other stuff on there.
Sear in a heavy-bottom pan over high heat, open your windows or turn on your hood ventilation system. My preference is rare to medium rare.
Take the filet out, set it aside and let it rest on a wire rack about 5-10 minutes, save the juice if there is any. This should be made to order, and will take about 10 minutes total, depending on whether you already have them seasoned and your pan is ready to go. The reason to rest meat on a rack (particularly with a temperature sensitive meat like filet) is to prevent steam from being trapped on one side (the down side on the plate) and either overcooking or cooking unevenly.

For the sauce, get your Hollandaise setup with a simmering sauce pan of water, ice bath in the sink, and a non-reactive mixing bowl, preferably steel or something that will cool quickly.
Mince 1 tbsp of shallot, put in a saucepan with 1/2 cup of white wine (dry preferable over sweet) and white wine vinegar. Reduce by at least 1/2. That's your augmentation, although I didn't have the herbs. Since I was serving with salad (and I didn't have chervil), I left it out.
Strain and add that to your melted butter (about 1.5 to 2 sticks, yeah, no joke) and keep it warm.
Take 3 egg yolks, a little salt, a little pepper, 1 tbsp of lemon juice +/- 1/2 tbsp of water and whisk in your steel bowl. Dice up a couple of tbsp of cold butter and add to the egg yolks. Put this over your simmering water and start whisking. If it gets too hot, take it off heat. If you don't use the double boiler techique, you could really get it too hot, and that's where the ice bath comes in handy to cool it quickly. Curiously, the melting butter can look a little like scrambled eggs, but don't be dissuaded- press on! When you're done with this part, you should have a nice sticky yellow goo at the bottom of your pan.

To this you'll emulsify the melted butter/shallot-wine-wine vinegar reduction, slowly at first (drop by drop) until you get it started, then faster towards the end until you get the consistency you want. The only thing I can say about the consistency is that you want smooth and creamy like a salad dressing as opposed to thick like mayo. Check the Julia Childs instructions on classic Hollandaise for full instructions including bail out tips if you screw it up.

A little time consuming, but the ingredients are pretty cheap. Done that way, it's worth about 20-30 bucks per plate at the restaurant if you can even find it.
Below I've served it with sweet potato gnocchi and a basic green salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

From Drop Box

Ridin' on empty: roux part deux

2009-10-30T07:58:00.008-05:00

Just as a follow up to MAB's post, I wanted to put up some pictures of a roux that we made for a recent gumbo. If you'll recall the Seinfeld episode when Kramer and the guy from the car lot drove the demo until it ran out of gas, it's like that. Go until you can't stand it, then go a little more. "I've never felt so alive!"

For roux ingredients, you have some choices. It's going to be about equal parts by weight of flour and fat (butter, oil, or animal fat), and the amount will vary on how much you're going to make. A rough estimate is about 1-2 oz of fat to each quart of final product. I used either a 5.5 qt or 8qt enameled cast iron dutch oven and it's pretty full. For that, I used a whole stick of unsalted butter, and I added flour to it until it had the consistency of something between heavy cream and pudding. Clarified butter might be better, but requires an extra step. I heated it up until it was barely bubbling, stirring the whole while for about 20-30 minutes, maybe longer.

White Roux

From Drop Box

Blond Roux

From Drop Box

Brown Roux

From Drop Box

Brick Roux/Dark Brown Roux

From Drop Box

It goes really slowly, then it goes really quick, as depicted above. That's why you have to hover because there's a fine line between perfect vs burnt and ruined. Rurnt. Also remember that it will continue to cook when you add the veggies.
The color should be more like chocolate sauce before you throw the trinity veggies in (onion, celery, green pepper). Throw the veggies in and give them a few minutes to soften, then add the stock. From there, add the meat in reverse order of cooking time. Whatever you can find in the bayou or the ditch out back will do. While you're at it, throw some alligator meat in. I don't think I've seen any recipes without Andouille sausage.

Final notes

The roux provides taste, color, and thickening. Using a reduction method would require several gallons of stock and a lot of time, but could be done. Add okra if you can, because okra does the same with regard to thickening. Finally, file' powder is added just prior to serving which has an interesting aromatic flavor, but also is a thickening agent. In the end, the consistency is up to you, but the thicker the better. Think stew, not soup.
Oil-based roux is a little easier to work with because butter burns so easily. You can also work with it at higher temperature than you can the butter based roux.
The darker the roux, the less the thickening, the more the flavor. If you want to go really dark, you'll need more roux to get the same thickening.
Black flecks=burned=throw it out, start over. Those burned pieces will make it taste awful. The flavor of the dark roux will be something like toasted chocolate coffee. With butter!
The gumbo "base" is made when you soften your veggies and add stock and aromatics. From there it's a matter of adding the meat. You can stop at this stage, simmer for an hour or two, depending on how meticulous you were with your stock.
The next time I make it, I'm going to sautee the uncooked meats and add them with the cooking liquor/pan sauce towards the end. Again, the better the stock is to start with, the less you have to rely on the added meats to provide an extra layer of flavor.
Adding beer is fine, but it's probably a cheat to make the gumbo look darker. Think Abita Turbo Dog or Guinness, not Miller Lite.
Does the technique of making a roux then adding a flavorful stock sound familiar? It should because it's the basis of bechamel/veloute'. Gumbo is a veloute' (roux + stock) based on a dark roux with Cajun/Creole veggies and meats, served over rice. Cajun style is dark, Creole is a little lighter, don't forget the tomatoes.

Dinner party with the Newmans

2009-10-28T15:20:00.003-05:00

Danny and Meredith dropped in last Saturday for a dinner party/wine tasting at our house. I made 4 simple dishes, all of which were quite good. The 3 appetizer types will definitely be featured time and again at future JW-led events.

1. Salmon cornets ala the French Laundry, super easy, damn good. Cheated on the cornets and bought these crunchy little pastry cups from the Fresh Market. I actually preferred these to the overly buttery cornets that Keller makes.

2. Ceci bruschetta, the amuse buche that Batali serves at Babbo... Since there was only 4 people, I actually used the $250 basalmic Jennifer bought me for Christmas last year...decadent.

3. Zucchini crudo salad...details on Ruhlman's blog. This is wonderful, please try it!

The main dish was a pan-seared grass fed petit filet topped with a bacon/mushroom/red wine demi with pan-roasted white asparagus.

Had a bit much to drink, so the main dish could have probably been prepared better. I made ala minute after course 3 and after 6 glasses of the vino.

I Tore My Rotator Cuff Making Roux

2009-10-27T21:40:00.006-05:00

I tore my rotator cuff making roux
The whisks were more than a few
It cooked for an hour
I required a shower
To clean my sausage for the stew.

I’ve attempted, successfully I might add, to make a gumbo on only three occasions. The first two were magnificent. The third (last week), was acceptable, but not up to my expectations. The first two were for tailgating at Georgia games, and included some interesting ingredients. The last was during the family mountain trip on the night assigned to Laura and me for dinner. I got no complaints from the adults, but I was completely disappointed with the final product.

The History
Round 1, I made a stock with chicken, whole crawfish, and shrimp shells, along with the customary root vegetables (onion, leeks, carrots), peppercorns, bay leaves, and thyme. It was a 4-hour stock, and was delicious. For the gumbo, I included chicken, andouille sausage, and some quail that my good buddy Danny Newman shot. Quite good.

Round 2 involved making a brown chicken stock (chicken browned in the oven and then simmered on the range with leeks, carrots, onions, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns) and a seafood stock (shrimp shells and crab leg shells). The gumbo included chicken, andouille sausage, crawfish tails (meat only), and alligator sausage. Again, this was good.

Round 3 involved the same brown chicken stock above, no seafood stock was used. The gumbo included chicken and andouille, both of which were browned in the oven. Here’s where I made the mistake. In round one and two, the chicken was brown, but the sausage was not. I was using an unfamiliar stove, and left the sausage to brown while I had a glass of wine and walked to the nearby raging river (this was in the TN mountains) to relax. We came back early to check the sausage only to realize it was overcooked. I knew better than to leave it, but needed to relax for a while. Lesson Learned: Never leave your sausage unattended (I know – “that’s what she said!”).

Roux
Now, about that roux. I make roux scared. Not that I scare the roux. It scares me, cause I’ve read too many gumbo recipes that say “if ya see black specks while makin’ yer roux, throw that mess out – iss dun burnt up.” Since I like the dark variety, it takes quite a while on low(er) heat. I could crank it up and get it done in about 25 minutes. On low(er) it takes close to an hour. Hence the rotator cuff incident. When “they” say stir constantly, “they” ain’t kiddin’. You never put your whisk down. Or your roux paddle. Yeah, I never heard of one either. There's a crawfish paddle and a gumbo paddle too. BS if you ask me, but here's a link if you are interested - http://www.cajunbrands.com/proddetail.asp?prod=KMays%2DPaddles&cat=103.

My roux has a wonderful nutty aroma and flavor, and has the color of the bottom of the Guinness foam layer, just before it hits the liquid layer. It has lost most of its thickening power at this point, but it adds a wonderful flavor to the gumbo. Without it, Round 3 would have been hassenpfeffer without the rabbit.

MAB

Surf and surf: tuna and scallops with an asian twist

2009-10-23T20:56:00.002-05:00

Check PBS, Eric Ripert (famed chef of Le Bernardin in NYC) has a new show out entitled "Avec Eric." The first episode I saw is mostly gushing over a local garden and it restaurant in California where s**t like that can happen. I'd wager to guess that it's not that feasible in Missouri, Tennessee, or Georgia for that matter.
The good part of the show is that at the end, he demonstrates his cooking technique for various cuts of seafood, and let me just say that there are few in this country that can rival the technique. If you watched Top Chef last season (and if you didn't you should have if you are interested in cooking) the contestants went to his restaurant in NYC, tasted his dishes, and the challenge was to reproduce them as best they could. We do that all the time, but this was on an incredibly different level.
Digression: Ripert demonstrated a slightly Asian style of cooking salmon that looked awesome. He demonstrated that making a marinade was not about making emulsion, it's a broken sauce with fat on top (oil).
His recipe called for salmon marinated in soy sauce, ginger, and olive oil, seared on the "flat top" (his stove top searing station) over peas and pea shoots with a sauce based on the marinade. Salmon didn't look as good as the tuna today, and we were in the mood for some scallops, so what the heck.

"Avec Eric" surf and surf (tuna and scallops)

Tuna: fresh 3/4 pound steak
Scallops: 1 pound of U6 (about 6 total)
3 bunches of baby bok choy

Marinade for tuna
brunoise of ginger, about 1/2 cup
1/2 and 1/2 soy sauce and EVOO to just cover fish in a tight dish
**lay off the salt, the soy sauce probably has all you'll need

**(see problem below) Marinade for scallops
Yuzu and olive oil, same ratio and coverage as before
salt, pepper to taste

To cook with:
Sautee pan for both. This will be a future post: what pan should I cook ____ with? These fish are best when they stay cold until cooked, and they need a heavy pan that holds high heat and won't cool off when fresh cold fish is applied. Oil or fat well (use EVOO or butter or a mixture of both, up to you!), and bring to at least medium high heat.

**Problem!!! The marinade for the scallops was the wrong thing to do. Why? Well, it made the scallops "wet" and the wet surface=no browning. It doesn't matter because they cooked properly thanks to raging high heat, but they didn't brown the way I had intended. In retrospect it would have been better to dry them well, season with pepper only, and then sear the heck out of 'em. They were still tasty, but could have been better. Lesson learned.

The tuna was first, I seared it like crazy on the cast iron griddle on my stove top. It worked great, but splattered EVERYWHERE and I probably will never use it again for that. 2-3 minutes per side, give about 2-3 mm of doneness on each side (just look at the thing), and take it off rare. This you can do, of course, because you got a respectable piece of fish. If they're putting artificial color in your fish to make it look hot pink, don't buy it.

Scallops second, again over as high of a heat as you can stand. The temperature for both fish is rare to medium rare. Again, both fish should be good enough to eat raw if it came down to it, so any sear you put on it is just to create Maillard reaction.

Set the meat aside to rest, it's done most of it's job.
Reserve marinade (or make some anew) from the tuna, strain out the ginger if you haven't already. This is going to be your sauce.

Take the bunches of baby bok choy, cut the leaves off, preserving as much of the stem as you like, and put in a hot skillet with some of the scallop marinade, wilting until bright green. Takie it off heat, and plate immediately.

To finish, it's bok choy, tuna on top, scallops on the side, and then provide a layer of sauce on the bottom to finish.

**Note about bok choy: it's like a lettuce with a charred poblano pepper flavor. I couldn't swear that I could have placed the flavor until today, but it's a nice twist, should go well with anything Asian you're trying to do.

From Drop Box

Quick recipe: caprese consommee

2009-10-19T16:58:00.004-05:00

The summer's officially over when there's frost on my car. More's the pity, but it doesn't mean that I can't still pine away for it. This is a soup recipe that requires a little technique and some cool flavor combinations put together in a way that I hadn't previously thought of or eaten anywhere.

Caprese consommee

2-3 quarts of chicken stock, skimmed and defatted. I made this chicken stock with some left over chicken parts (carcass) from a couple of whole birds that I smoked and pulled the meat from. It was basically just a big stock pot with the chicken parts and mire poix, bay leaves, and bouquet garni. I let it simmer for about 4 hours, skimming the crud off of it all the while, and chilled in the fridge to solidify the fat which I was able to strain off before the clarification process.

Clarification (making the consommee)
I think there's been a previous post in here before about the process, but it basically takes egg whites which you temper and add back to the stock. Bring to a boil, whisking the whole time to keep from just simply poaching the egg whites, and it miraculously will clear the solid components. The alternative is to add some mire poix ingredients to help give the solids something to cling so that it will form a "raft." That's not necessary, but it makes it a little easier.
To this I added a bunch of basil leaves from the garden, the last of the season to infuse it with that flavor as the base of what we were doing. That's really it, the rest is garnish.

Garnish
I found some water packed mozzerrella at the grocery store and rinsed them so they would give off too much cloudy fluid. If you're going to all the trouble of making consommee, don't let anything make it cloudy. To this I added just enough balsamic vinegar to give it color, some diced fresh tomato and small chiffonade of basil just to reinforce it.

From Drop Box

Backing off the ledge. A little. UGA over Vandy!

2009-10-19T09:25:00.002-05:00

In the coldest October game that I can remember going to, UGA came to my backyard and once again bullied the class nerd. Vandy had called for a "Blackout" but stuff like that only happens when the stadium is at capacity (it wasn't), most of the fans are pulling for the home team (they weren't), your fan base is all on the same page (not even close).

Notable points about Saturday that we noticed from our seats:

Vandy-UGA is typically Vandy's homecoming. But there are a whole bunch of UGA fans in Nashville, and the stadium was full of red. If you haven't been to this game, it's a lot of fun!
Mike Bobo was calling plays from the sideline. First time I've ever seen that from him. A change needed to be made, and it was a step in the right direction.
Joe Cox is really up and down. I imagine he's really thankful that a guy named A.J. Green is on his team, because if not, UGA's 2-5 at best this year, and Logan Gray is our quarterback.
Speaking of Logan Gray, the one punt I saw him back for he didn't fair catch, instead trying to return it for -2 yards. Huh?
Boykin is incredible as a kick returner and is improving in pass coverage.
UGA's defense played with a lot of fire, laying big hit after big hit. The TV coverage didn't really show it that well.
Any enthusiasm about the running game should be cautious at best. About half of our yards came after the game was out of reach.
Munzenmaier did his best Herschel impression, plowing a defender inside the 10 to go rumbling into the endzone for a touchdown.
One reason Drew Butler has the longest punting average in the country has got to be because of where he's kicking from. We still go three and out way too often, and he's usually kicking from his side of the 50. I don't how to look that up.
The kickoff coverage was vastly improved. Although, it was Vandy, not LSU or Florida.
Vandy either doesn't allow us to bring our full band, or we just don't. They also don't dress up in their typical Redcoat uniforms. Weird.

One last note: we went out and hit Broadway Saturday night and I saw one of the most unbelievable things I've ever seen from a live band. The majority of the patronage was UGA fans, out carousing and having fun. The band started asking for money to play requests. When no one made any requests, they said they were going to play Rocky Top unless someone paid them not to. They played it, we screamed and cursed and left. Unbelievable. I guess that's what I get for living in Tennessee.

Staring in to the abyss

2009-10-19T09:00:00.002-05:00

The UT loss was one of the lowest points of the Richt era, without much question. JW and I have talked about it on many occasions, and I agree that at some level, it was an important loss in terms of recruiting and losing grip on the East. When UGA began their successful run with Richt, we all knew that a major hurdle was getting over the UT bug and putting ourselves in position to beat Florida. Whether we did it or not frankly would be the difference between getting into the SEC championship game which you must do in order to have a shot at the whole enchilada or not, assuming that you can hold everyone else off.
Losing ground to UT is part of the standard deviation, but it's a dangerous time for Georgia. Tennessee has done all it can to buy their way back into contention with their coaching staff, and is going to expect a near immediate return on the investment. Kiffin himself swore to his players and said they would never lose to Georgia as long as he was the coach.
The coaching staff has heard just about everything this past week, so there's really not much else to say except that we're worried and we want to know what's going to be done to fix the problems that this team invents for itself week after week.

My question is this: do the coaches know what's wrong?

In a previous post I included a quote from an LSU player who basically said what we've known all along: we're easily predictable. Everyone has the formula for how to beat us. Take this quote from Crompton in the Banner-Herald:

"We got the right plays because we knew what they were going to do," Crompton said.

I can't help but think that everyone involved in this game prepares for the other team and looks at film, tendencies, patterns, anything that you can to come up with a game plan. But what do you do when that game plan fails? There's got to be a plan B, and personally, I don't feel like we've been able to implement that. I'm not one of these that is begging Van Gorder to come back, but I will say that everyone knew they had better get their points against us in the first half, because his second half adjustment was going to clamp them down. "He ALWAYS makes an adjustment," is a quote I often heard from UGA fans with regard to BVG.

Stubbornness. Failure to admit that the current strategy isn't working and changing it. Is that our problem?

Recovery

2009-10-05T19:21:00.002-05:00

Like any close game that your team loses, all you can think about is "what if?" The unsportsmanlike penalty didn't help, but could hardly be blamed as the sole reason for UGA losing an all-out war on Saturday night. Sometimes the other team just makes a play, and LSU definitely did. The frustrating thing is that we've seen flashes of brilliance from this team that exceeded our expectations, and we dared to dream a little bit. But we as fans have only done that because we had faith in the leadership surrounding the team as well as the players, that they would somehow find a way to compete. And to see them make the same mistakes over and over again is eternally frustrating.
Rex Robinson had one of the most insightful posts I've ever read about this. If you're interested, check it out here at Roughing the Kicker. There's a level of stubbornness that I think we're seeing from this coaching staff that needs an intervention. Is Damon Evans going to be able to do that?

The main problems that appear to be facing this team are:

Kickoff/punt returns and coverage, to be fair mostly kickoffs. Is this is a coaching problem? If so, who's responsible for that?
Running game. Richt thinks it's his players more than it is the line, and how can anyone argue? Knowshon got a lot more production out of what was considered an inferior line, despite Sturdivant's injury. Maybe we overrated our line because Knowshon was just that elusive.
Player productivity. We've got some "superstars" out there that look absolutely lost. One thing we'll probably never know as fans is how the coaches can increase productivity with anything other than tyranny. Recruiting shouldn't be a major issue because we've consistently had highly rated classes. Is this coaching? Is it personnel? We may never know, but I think it's safe to assume that coaching plays a significant role because these players develop quite a bit during college. But we all recall great teams of the early 2000's that couldn't catch a pass if their life depended on it. Do we just always play tight because we're pressing? Is the fanbase, press, coaching staff creating that type of environment that the players can't just get out there and play? Even Richt said in his press conference that this particular team seems to need a spark before they can get going.
We're getting outschemed. This is wholly on the shoulders of the coaches. Joe Cox was off, and that didn't help. But John Chavis has been around for years, and he knew exactly what we were going to do. We broke a few big plays off in the 4th quarter, and AJ is AJ. When we're wrong on our scheme, we can't adjust. Bobo seems like he gets into a little bit of panic when stuff isn't working and starts throwing anything out there that he can. It's like there's not an alternative plan, or any anticipation that the defense may have figured out that we run play action out of the I. Guess what, PA pass doesn't work unless you can run, and we can't. I'd love to hear what the coaches said about this, but the first half, it looked we were doing the same thing over and over, and it wasn't working, but we couldn't adjust. 1 first down, but the biggest problems were coming on 1st down which got us into a 3rd and long almost every time. And just to take the suspense away, to all of UGA's opposing teams, if you see #1 on offense, it's a reverse. Why? Because that's all Bobo's called with him on the field, as best I can tell. We can also recall defensively that when Van Gorder was the DC, most teams got their points in the first half, and the defense always got tougher as the game went on because he adjusted well. I haven't seen much of that, but again, this game is not on the defense.

Again, these are the differences that are keeping us out of the top ten, which we could have been close to with one more win. I guess there's nothing left to do now but to take it out on UT and Vandy, let's hope we can...

Pulpwood strikes again

2009-10-02T13:25:00.002-05:00

If you've never seen any of these, they're pretty funny. It's the UGA/LSU preview courtesy of your favorite monk-e, Pulpwood Smith. Caution: profanity.

LSU: how they see us. Also, a perspective on turnovers.

2009-10-01T13:18:00.005-05:00

I thought this quote was pretty interesting:

"It's the same type of offense," said LSU linebacker Harry Coleman, who was a strong safety last year. "They show their hand. 'This is what we got, so stop it.' They haven't changed, pretty much. I-backfield, play-action pass. That's what they do."

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Do you agree with that or not? It basically implies that the Dawgs don't really scheme, and we never customize our look based on our opponent. It also seems to illustrate the mentality of "We've got better players than you do, so there's no way you can't stop us." Which is what won games at FSU in the heyday, but it doesn't work anymore. Anywhere. The rest is about matchup and being as unpredictable as possible.

The article later goes on to describe how LSU's top defensive back typically only plays one side of the field, not a particular player. I don't think that's what the NFL does, is it? When you have Champ Bailey, wouldn't you put him on their best receiver as long as you're in man coverage?

As a side note, I feel like I can't be critical of what happens anymore, because there's so much more to the story than we ever hear about. Whether it's Martinez making us pull our hair out so we all look like him, Bobo and the random number generator, or Richt saying "Aw, shucks..." it's hard to be too hard on these guys because we really don't know what goes on play by play, or for that matter, day by day unless you're a beat writer and you know all of these guys personally. You only see the result of thought process, but you rarely if ever get the thought process itself.

The final thing I'll say is this. Harp all you want about the turnover ratio. Absolutely, it's an unsustainable model for continued victory. BUT...we've all seen games where an upset was about to occur, and the underdog made a mindless turnover (Michigan State vs Notre Dame this season, Vandy vs UGA 2 years ago) that cost the game. Turnovers are like finding lost money in the street. You don't want to just throw dollar bills out the window, that's crazy. And you may find one now and again. But, if your quality of life centers around found money, that ain't no way to live either. LSU is currently 5th in the country in turnover margin with a +7. UGA is 115th at -9. Out of 120. All I'm saying is that we're fortunate to have the record we have considering how we've tried to lose EVERY game we've played, and almost have. Turnovers then become a surrogate measurement of luck, then.

It's best to be lucky AND good.
On any given day, it's better to be lucky than good.
Over the course of a season, luck may run out so it may be better to be good than lucky.
Bad and unlucky usually mean "Wait 'til next year!" which should be the official motto of the University of South Carolina.

I hope we're at worst #3. Saturday will be telling.

BLT

2009-09-29T08:34:00.002-05:00

You've got to check out Ruhlman's BLT challenge results...amazing! I am jealous of the guy who harvested his own sea salt... hardcore!
JW

Low Fat Diet?!? Have I lost my mind?

2009-09-25T09:29:00.003-05:00

Posting on this end has been miserable for multiple reasons. No, I haven't stopped cooking, but I've been extremely busy with work, home, kids, etc. Probably the biggest reason for the lapse is...

Yep, as usual, I am a sucker for the infomercial and like to order things late at night after a bender... After 2 1/2 + years away from the gym and "boxing" I was feeling pretty out of shape, jeans getting tight, sweating on relatively cool days, you get the picture. I wanted a kick start. What I really need is a personal trainer and I found one in that freak, Tony Horton. p90X promises to get you in the best shape of your life in 90 days (13 weeks). If you follow the program to a T, there is no doubt this would happen. Basically, this program is based on the concept of muscle confusion and consists of intese exercise 6 days per week. Overall, one could expect to work hard for about 1 1/2 hours! Some nuts even do doubles! I don't know who has this kind of time, but I've adjusted my schedule so that I get up at 5AM and do these workouts before work. I am currently finishing week 9. I can definately see differences, but I don't expect to look like the dudes in the videos as I am genetically predisposed to have a pot-belly and bird legs. With that said, there is also a diet plan that I have followed loosely which has the common thread of being low-fat.

Low-fat diets aren't the best meals for food blogs. I eat lots of stuff like the Nicoise salad pictured below, but as the weather cools, I will most certainly be cooking some good eats on the weekends.

BTW: still making pizzas every week or 2. Some combos to try
1. Pancetta and parsnip (slice parsnips thin and fry until crispy in pork-fat)
2. Red onion and pistacio with a white base
3. Goat cheese with spicy pine nut/currant relish (relish recipe can be found in Luques); basically a spin on her tart
4. Proscuitto, fig, gorgonzola

JW

From lowly to high and mighty: chicken thighs with tarragon pan sauce

2009-09-24T22:27:00.003-05:00

Unless you're trying to cook neck bones (which actually work great for stock) the lowliest cut on the chicken is the thigh. The crazy thing is that it's one of the tastiest parts of the bird. We're so brainwashed into thinking that boneless, skinless is all we can eat, that the industry has tailored it's production and made this one of the highest price cuts. It involves the most labor, but has some of the least flavor of any other part.

Pan fried chicken thighs with tarragon sauce
4-6 chicken thighs
salt, pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup of water or chicken stock
2 tbsp of minced shallot (optional)
2 tbsp of tarragon leaves, minced
2 up to 6-8 tbsp of butter

Enter the chicken thigh. You can get them boneless or bone in, it doesn't matter. If you get them with the bone in, just cut slits longitudinally along the bone as this is the part of the cut that takes the longest to cook (remember the heat sink principle). Season with salt, pepper or whatever you like to put on chicken.

Put a big saute pan on medium high. You can use non-stick, but it's not necessary. Lay the chicken thighs down skin down. Turn the heat to low, drop the temp to low and COVER. There will be no turning this over, you don't need it. Cook 15-20 minutes until the meat the around the bone looks cooked and there is no blood coming from it.

This is where I prefer to use a regular steel, clad skillet. Take your thighs out, set them aside to rest. Add a dry white wine to deglaze the plan, 1/2 cup, medium heat and allow it to start to reduce. Add a cup of water (good) or chicken stock (better), and let this reduce. Add about a couple of tablespoons of minced tarragon leaves (dry will work fine for this), and you can add minced shallot if you like but it's not totally necessary. Add 1 or 2 tbsp of butter when the sauce gets reduced down to spoon-coating consistency to start sort of an emulsion, then add as much as you think you can stand. You're welcome to strain this sauce and use clarified butter instead if you really want to "do it up." Season with salt, pepper as needed. Serve over the chicken or on the side. You will be amazed at how well the tarragon pairs with the chicken, and I'll discuss this in a future post.
For more cooking notes on cooking the chicken thighs (or if you don't believe that you can cook them this way) check out the master Jacques Pepin on More Fast Food My Way, which all episodes are available on video. Advance to about 2:20 to watch how he does it. If you haven't checked out this show, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Easy as 1-2-3, pie and tart dough

2009-09-24T20:21:00.004-05:00

Frankly, I was a little intimidated by all these cookbooks with tart recipes. It sounded great, and whenever I had had one, I really liked it, but a recipe that called with 3 1/3 cups of flour plus 2 tbsp seemed a little much. Enter Ratio, and a world of ease.
Tarts are really just fancy pizzas where the dough is made with fat instead of just the 5:3 of flour to water like regular bread dough. The ratio for a plain savory tart is as easy as it gets-3:2:1 by weight. Go find a good round tart pan with a removable bottom (the one we have has a 9 in diameter), and get started.

Basic tart dough
9 oz AP flour
6 oz of chilled butter cut into pieced (stick and a half. No seriously!)
ice water approximately 3 oz
pinch of salt

Want a pate sucre (pie dough)? Add 1/2 cup of sugar to this recipe and you have it.

The key here is consistency of the dough. I find it easiest to use the food processor with a large cutting blade. As with any dough, the amount of water required depends a heck of a lot more the hydration of the flour than on anything else. Case in point: if the flour has been in the freezer, it's dehydrated and requires much more water.

Measure out your butter and flour, and pulse in the food processor until it looks like wet sand. Add cold water a tsp or two at a time until the dough "catches" in the processor. Personally, I think that the wetter the dough, the flakier it will be because that water converts to steam in the oven and will give it the consistency of a croissant.
Flatten the dough into a disc, cover with plastic wrap, and stick it in the fridge until you're ready to go. This achieves a couple of things. Foremost is that it redistributes the hydration throughout the dough, but it also keeps the butter chilled until you're ready for it. You don't want to beat up your flour or the pastry becomes a little tough, like a scone.

For most tarts or pies, you should blind bake. Get some beans that you don't care about, lay some parchment paper down on the tart, and use the beans as your pie weights. Bake at 350-400 for about 30 minutes or so, until the crust is browning, being careful to not overcook.

From there, you can do whatever you want! The tart I have pictured is one where I quick sauteed some yellow squash and onion, adding some tomato, goat cheese, and thyme.

**Keep in mind that while using something with a lot of liquid like tomato, salt them and allow them to drain well before adding to the tart. The other option is put some sealant in the bottom of the tart dough like dijon mustard which groups well with the flavor profile I'm describing.

If you want a sweeter version and you don't have the tart pan, take a basic pate sucre (see above), peel and core 4 apples (Granny Smith or something tart from North GA since they're in season), slice to about 1/4". If you can't use them right away, put them in acidulated water (water with lemon juice) to prevent oxidation. Take your dough, roll it circular until it's about 3-5 mm thick. Lay it on a SilPat. Take your apples and lay them overlapping each other in a circle until you're out of them. Leave about 1.5 inches of margin at the edge of the dough. Fold the edges up, sprinkle some regular or brown sugar over the apples, and bake at 350-400, again lower if you have convection. You can grate some fresh cinnamon or nutmeg on it as well. I'll link to another site for pics until I get mine up. The tart is done when the crust is brown and the apples are cooked, about 30-45 minutes.

**For an added finishing touch, take some apricot jam and spread it over the apples. I've also done this with mayhaw jelly, but you could use anything that compliments the apples, something sweet and tart.

Mystery no more. You'll laugh at how easy this is.

Skate wing grenobloise

2009-09-24T18:56:00.003-05:00

Skate wing. Before I really started looking around, I don't think I ever saw it anywhere. It's one of those weird fishes that most seafood retailers probably don't carry. It's among the cheapest fare that you can buy, but if you know how to make the cheap stuff taste good, you can do anything.
First of all, it's a critter much like a ray, with wings, and this is the part that you eat. Some places (Bob's Seafood in STL) sells them skinned for around $5/lb, and Whole Paycheck in Nashville sells it with the skin on for about $3-4/lb. They're not that difficult to skin if you've ever filleted a fish or skinned a catfish, so save your money.

**Timing of this dish is key, make it the last thing you make unless you have a heat lamp in your kitchen. If you leave it out too long, it will be dry and even the butter sauce won't be enough.

Skate grenobloise

1-2 skate wings, skinned, boned
1/2 stick butter
2 tbsp capers
half a lemon, seeded, cut into wedges. Can sub lime
Flour for dredging
Salt, pepper for seasoning
Cilantro or flat parsley for garnish

This one's so easy, you won't believe it. Take your skate wing and lightly season with salt and pepper. Dredge lightly in flour, and saute at medium high heat. Cook it all the way through, this isn't one you would necessarily want to make a crudo from.
Take your skillet (or saute pan) and melt half a stick of butter over moderate heat. Add a couple of tbsp of capers, and some seeded lemon or lime wedges. Garnish and serve immediately.

Seriously, that's it.

Fish fry. Sort of.

2009-09-24T18:45:00.003-05:00

You might not think about this. Imagine if you will, that you're at your favorite bait store. C'mon, you've got one. Would you think of taking the minnows home and cooking them? Probably not, but I've got to tell you, find the right kind and you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

When there was no sand, we at the smelt.

At the local chain grocery store a few weeks ago, they had fresh smelt that had been gutted and beheaded. Perfect! Set up for deep fry (sauce pan with canola, peanut, or vegetable oil at around 350-375), lightly flour the smelt, and let 'em rip. The result? Miniature fried fishy goodness! Fresh crispy minnows, anyone? Serve with a hot sauce aioli, spicy mustard sauce, horseradish sauce, etc.

If you can find these suckers, you won't believe how good they are.

In abesntia

2009-09-24T18:27:00.003-05:00

I think you could use that to describe any of us with regard to posting, or to UGA's defensive secondary, but not A.J. during the Arkansas game.
Howeverit, ASU is a classic setup game for us because we're feeling like the offense is unstoppable (which is not true), we may believe anyone that says this is the easiest opponent we've had (possible), and that we're looking ahead to LSU (likely).
Can you believe that at UGA the offense has to bail out the defense? Somewhere, David Greene is shaking his head and chuckling out loud. Then again, if we stop the bleeding and beat UT and Vandy, we're right there in the East. Clearly, some of the main issues for UGA are

turnovers
defensive front applying pressure
linebacker play
secondary

I never thought we'd be confident in the offense, scared to death of the defense.

What I'll look for on Saturday night:

Proper defensive adjustment. If you didn't find this yet, I highly recommend it. I'm glad to see how some folks spend their time, makes my life easier.
Fewer mental breakdowns on both offense and defense. No kidding.
Continued resiliency. We've been down by 10+ in each of the last two games and come out with the W.
Expanding the offensive packages. If Branden White is in the game, the ball's going to him, right? More AJ, more tight ends, more Michael Moore.

Continued smart performance from the Ginger Ninja, Joe Cox. Maybe he did have the flu afterall.

Go DAWGS, GATA!
og

The enigma that is the 2009 'Dawgs

2009-09-16T11:34:00.002-05:00

Holy what the...?

It's been awhile since any rants or raves on here. The summer was busier than predicted for various reasons. But I'll start this with saying that we've seen quite a bit of variety from the 'Dawgs so far this season, and you only have to look at the USC game to see just about every wrinkle and twist that can happen in a game.

A few things are clear and worthy of mention.

Joe Cox is better than he showed at the OSU game, but that was a wretched pick 6 against USC.
The Blair Walsh project is going pretty well, with two kicks now over 50 yards.
We appear to have a TON of young speed all over the place (Boykin, Smith).
Richard Samuel is improving, and appears to be a bruiser.
Quick: name 2 other linebackers other than Rennie Curran.
The coaches LOVE the directional kick, but few can figure out why.
AJ Green is awesome, but has a nagging tendency to fumble.
Reshad Jones is better, but the refs are trying to choke him.
We're not going to win many games if the turnovers continue.
The red zone defense is good, and they've had PLENTY of practice.
The team appears to be resilient and can take a punch.

Any other thoughts?

Coca cola, where have you been?

2009-08-02T22:57:00.002-05:00

Sugar vs high fructose corn syrup. It's probably not worth getting into an in-depth discussion about this, only to say that a shift occurred in the mid-80's with the glut of corn (see book review) when the major soft drink manufacturers changed their formulas. "New Coke" was forced on us, and it was sweetened with HFCS. It tasted different, we all seemed to hate it, and Pepsi tried to tell us that they had won the taste test. The public doesn't like change, and the market forced a different product. Enter Coca cola "classic," which wasn't classic. It was a contrived formula of flavors that tasted more like the original non-HFCS than "New Coke."
So what, right? That's how it's been since around 1985 or so, and if you're younger than 30, you probably couldn't care. But for those of us with a couple more miles on us, we always knew that coke classic didn't taste quite right, but we got used to it. Enter the time capsule known as the Mexican grocery store. In Mexico, sugar is still used as the sweetener instead of HFCS.

Check the label, and you'll notice that instead of HFCS, the sweetener used in this drink is sugar. The taste is different, and it's a throwback to what many of us may remember as the original flavor of Coke, back when every type of soft drink was referred to as a "Coke," even if it was something else like sprite or pibb. It may explain why Pepsi won the taste tests, since it came across as sweeter, more like the original coke flavor without the weird aftertaste we've all gotten used to.
Coke classic? Yeah right. How about "new New Coke." Fortunately for the company, it was just enough like the original that it stuck. I can't tell you which one is better, that's obviously personal. But if you remember Coke as a kid in the 70's, and want to relive a little bit of childhood, go to the Mexican grocery store, and read the label. Unless you live in a big enough Jewish community that offered Kosher Coke with a yellow cap for Passover. They changed it for that, too.

Churros

2009-07-27T13:48:00.004-05:00

From Drop Box

If you haven't been to a Mexican grocery store and eaten churros, don't wait a minute longer. Similar to funnel cake, they are fried to a little crunch, and then coated with sugar. Unlike funnel cake, they are typically covered with granular sugar and can be filled with creamy filling to provide any number of possibilities. This is an expansion off the pate a choux recipe, again showing it's versatility.

Churro batter
8 oz of whole milk or cream
1/4 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
6 oz AP flour
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Like the pate a choux, bring the milk to a hot simmer, add the sugar and salt. Follow this with the flour, let it cool a bit and combine the vanilla and the eggs.
Keep it in a large ziploc bag and let it cool just a bit. You can put this in an icing bag with a large star tip, or do straight out of the ziploc with the same tip, which is how I've ever seen churros. Pipe out 4 inch lengths of batter into hot oil around 350F. Flip them over to get a consistent brown crispy shell, and let them drain on a wire rack. You can either toss them in a plastic bag or bowl with granular sugar and cinnamon. And that's your basic churro.
The longer they sit and cool, the better they'll be. I found mine to be a little soft in the center, that may have been because I had the oil at 375 which was probably a little high. I also didn't have a star tip so they looked like mini corn dogs.
To make funnel cake, just squirt the batter into the oil in a free lattice pattern at 1/4 to 1/2 inch diameter. Tastes just like the stuff they make at the rattlesnake roundup!

Mudbugs & such

2009-07-25T15:26:00.003-05:00

Food doesn't have to be gourmet to be exceptional. In fact, my favorite dishes are generally the simple ones and I might even say the "primal ones". Big hunks of meat grilled over fire...oyster roast...low country boil... You get my drift.

On Wednesday night, John Beck, the owner of our favorite dining establishment, Sheehan's Irish Pub informed me that he was getting in a shipment of live crawfish Thursday night and for me, Danny, and whomever to show up around 6:30. Of course, that's what we did, with our 3rd being Danny's son John Newman and our 4th the late arriving Mike Brown.

We sat down, ordered some Magic Hat #9, and our waitress informed us that we would be having crawfish tonight and it would be on the house. We informed her that's what we'd come for, and we'd start with 4 pounds. The crawfish arrived with the scent typical of crawfish boil...I think it's a little "clovey" and spicy at the same time. And let me tell you these things were huge! So large in fact that we actually ate claw meat from several.

The highlight of my week had to be helping teach John Newman how to eat a crawfish. Rip off the tail, remove the 1st bit of shell, dip in drawn butter, pull with your teeth, suck the heads! Fantastic! Ate 4lbs with a side of grilled andouille and several beers.

Everyone has their own recipe for low country boil etc, but I think by far the best seafood boil I've found is from the New Orleans School of Cooking, unfortunately, post-Katrina, I don't think they sell this stuff anymore! Theirs is very spicy and flavorful at the same time. Boil up some shrimp, crawfish, or whatever you can get your hands on and transport yourself to a steamy Louisiana afternoon. Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Uh, gazpacho, por favor....

2009-07-23T20:17:00.004-05:00

I know, it's Spanish. I'm not particularly anti-Spain, but realize that Europe didn't have tomatoes until the Conquistadors took them back from the Americas, as they are native to South America, and have been grown in Mexico since prehistory.
But it's a great refreshing chilled summer soup, the primary ingredients being awesome tomatoes, cucumbers, and salt. There are plenty of other things you can put in it, and you can alter the flavors widely. Warning: as with most tomato dishes, the difference between good and great is the quality of the tomatoes.
The other consideration is whether you want something crunchy, or you want it pureed. You can also do both by pureeing the soup and adding tableside garnishes as your additives.

Thanks to CLG for doing most of the work on this one.

Heirloom tomato gazpacho
1 large brandywine tomato, approx 1.5 lbs, diced
1 medium cucumber, peeled, not seeded
1 each of green, yellow, and red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1/4 cup of good quality olive oil
1/4 cup of minced cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely minced
salt to taste
juice of 1 lime
12 oz of V8. You can skip this step and add more tomato or water if you'd like. Don't worry, the V8 did nothing to hide the rich flavor of the tomato.

Other additives could be onions and garlic. If you puree the soup but you still want a little crunch, serve garnish of fresh diced tomato, bell pepper of your choice, and onion at the tableside. What goes better with this than grilled bread? Not much, and you can also use stale bread to thicken the soup. You can puree in batches, add a piece of stale bread if you want to give it a little more thickness.

CUSTOMER: Uh, gazpacho, por favor.

SOUP NAZI: Por favor?

CUSTOMER: Um, I'm part Spanish.

SOUP NAZI: Adios muchacho!

From Drop Box

Pate a choux and gougere

2009-07-23T19:42:00.003-05:00

More wonders of Ratio, and a couple of easy ones.

Pate a choux ("pot o' shoe") is a pretty versatile thing to whip up and is great for a large crowd if you're entertaining. There are several ways to build it up from it's base, and you can either bake it to a puffy pastry balls that you can fill with whatever you want either sweet or savory, cheese puffs (gougere), or you can make dumplings to finish off your chicken soup. You can even make gnocchi out of this "dough."

Ruhlman's ratio: 2 liquid, 1 fat, 1 flour for the base.

Pate a choux
8 oz water
4 oz flour
1 stick of butter (4 oz)
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs

Heat the water to hot simmer in a saucepan, add the stick of butter and melt it. Reduce the heat and stir in the flour. The dough should come off the sides and turn into a hot batter. Take it off heat and let it cool a bit, then add the eggs one at a time.

From Drop Box

At this point, you can do nothing, or you can turn it into a cheese puff, otherwise called a gougere ("goo jair", funny right?).
To do that, add another tsp of salt to your water bath, then stir in a half a cup of your favorite cheese after your, I happened to use Gruyere, but you could put whatever you want, Ruhlman recommends Parm-Reggiano, but you could use romano, Emmantaler, anything on the harder size that will shred and give more of a savory flavor.

Once you've got the paste, you can cool it down a bit, and put it in a gallon-sized ziploc bag, cut the end off and use like you're going to ice a cake. I heated the oven to 425 on convection bake, and piped out a few golf-ball sized dough balls on a silpat/baking sheet combo. Wet your fingers, and make sure the edges are smooth because little peaks will burn. Bake for 10 minutes on high temp, turn the oven down to 325 and cook another 10-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. In my oven on convection bake, it took another 12 minutes or so. The result? That's right, cheesy poofs!

From Drop Box

Other alternatives are to pipe it out in long strings on parchment paper, run grooves in it with a fork, and freeze until hardened. Take them out and cut into gnocchi, and put them back in the freezer in a bag, until you're ready to use. I think I might recommend not using the gougere recipe, instead, just use the regular pate a choux.
I can't believe I waited so long to make this, it's really versatile. You can make desserts (fill with chocolate sauce, custard), appetizers (fill with a cheese sauce, chicken salad, confit tomato and garlic with herb, etc.). Experiment and go crazy!

Homemade pasta: 3 yards and a cloud of dust

2009-07-17T12:15:00.002-05:00

As we're watching a rerun of No Reservations, DOG got excited watching these Japanese dudes make soba noodles. What better lead in to making our own spaghetti? It was 8am.
"Daddy, we're making noodles. But we don't have hats like those guys." Not for long.

From Drop Box

Ruhlman's ratio: 1 egg for every 3 oz of flour. We used 00 from King Arthur, 9 oz flour to 3 large pasture-raised eggs. The result a little wet, had to add A BUNCH of extra flour so the disks would make it through the stand mixer/pasta roller. We finally had it right, rolled them out to 5 on the thickness meter, and had flour EVERYWHERE.

From Drop Box

Cut them down to spaghetti, and of course that's what we were going to have to eat for breakfast. To make it more interesting, we made a little cacio e pepe.

From Drop Box

Cacio e pepe
However much spaghetti or linguini you want. Obviously homemade is preferable
Either olive oil or butter, whichever you prefer
Freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
That's it! You won't believe it if you've never had it, it's amazing and crazy simple.

From Drop Box

Now for the clean-up. Wish me luck.

Little plates

2009-07-16T08:28:00.005-05:00

Whenever I go out to a good restaurant, and I see tons of great stuff on the menu I want to try it all. Not everyone offers a tasting menu. But that's one of the things I love about tapas restaurants-the chance to try several things at one sitting.
Couple that with the concept that says that anything you can do large, you can do small, and you've got it. The challenge for this type of menu is that everything is cooked to order, and there's very little prep time involved. It makes it a little hectic, and it would be hard to do it for a huge crowd without a well set up mise en place.

Little plates night
Salmon crudo amuse bouche
Sauteed salmon "Nigiri" with tatziki
Cajun-style barbecue shrimp
Steak frites

Salmon crudo was a recipe of necessity. They had some good wild caught salmon fillets at the store, but they provided a bunch of the belly meat which left varying thickness of the fish. Solution? Cut off the thin part, skin it, and make a sashimi style appetizer.

Per person:
Bite size portion of salmon
Finely minced ginger, a pinch
1/4 tsp of toasted sesame oil
Sea salt
Pulp of a thin half-slice of lime
Lime zest

From Big 'Dawg Eats

With the remaining salmon, I cut into portions that looked like a big piece of nigiri sushi.
Cut salmon into ~2x4 inch portions, season with salt and pepper, and sautee on high heat to medium rare. Set aside.
The tatziki was a little unconventional, but consisted of 1/2 cup of sour cream, tbsp of good olive oil, juice of 1 lime, 1/4 cup of diced cucumber, salt, pepper, and parsley. You can sub plain yogurt and mint or dill, and it goes great with lamb or oily fish.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

The bruschetta was store-bought, but tasted pretty good. Harry and David for the olive/tomato relish and local supermarket for the ciabatta that we toasted in the oven.

For the barbecue shrimp, I took 12 in-the-shell shrimp combined with olive oil, parsley, 4 cloves of minced garlic, cayenne pepper, crystal hot sauce, and some Dizzy Pig Jamaican Fire Walk rub, combined in a bowl to dress. 2 tbsp of butter, and some oil in a large skillet, and cooked them on high heat until just pink. Shrimps out, reduce most of a bottle of beer with a tbsp or so of molasses for sweetness and color. Finished with butter (3-4 tbsp) until thick, and return the shrimps to the sauce. The result? Can you believe that it wasn't spicy enough? Ultimately, we should have left the relish off the bread, and just used it to sop up the sauce.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

The frites were really just thinly sliced, fried new potato chips with home-made Crystal hot sauce aioli. Totally forgot to do the microwave blanch, they would have been crispier. For the mayonnaise, consult any book, but it's really pretty easy. In your blender, combine 1 whole egg with 2 yolks, 1 tsp of mustard powder, 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, and salt. Blend to combine, and with the blender on, add olive oil very slowly at first until you get your emulsification. Keep adding oil until you get the consistency your looking for. The mustard is a good binder, and you can use prepared dijon mustard if you like, as well. To complete the aioli, mince as much garlic as you can stand (3-4 cloves or more), and add to your mayonnaise with juice from a half lime, a little salt, and Crystal hot sauce (or your favorite) to taste and color.

The steak was ribeye that we had cooked a night or two ago, and intentionally left one of them pretty rare for purposes of reheating. The mushrooms were stemmed, sliced thinly, and sauteed in butter with a little salt. Add just a dash of water to the pan and it creates a mushroom sauce. Cup of red wine reduced to molasses consistency for a little sweet kick on the meat, and that's it.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

The results? Well, the plate tells the story. The beauty of this menu and the way it was prepared, was that it didn't all have to come out at the same time. With young kids in the middle of going to bed, we cooked one or two, took a break and dealt with the kids, and then came back and cooked some more.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

Wine pairings:

Adegas Morgadio Legado del Conde 2006 Abarino

From Drop Box

Charles and Charles 2008 Rose

From Drop Box

Descendientes de J. Palacios "Petalos" 2007 Mencia

From Drop Box

Pesto and the joys of summer

2009-07-13T21:40:00.004-05:00

From a technique standpoint, I think the cooking in the summer gets easier. There are TONS of great ingredients around, my favorites: tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, herbs, you name it. I want to eat this food for the rest of my life, and I crave it in the winter. Once you have a couple of basic techniques down, the rest is just a matter of figuring out and experimenting with which flavors go together.

A quick summer dinner:

Oven roasted portabello mushrooms stuffed with lemon artichoke pesto
Backyard Roma and heirloom tomato salad
Grilldomed ribeye steak with thyme

The pesto is easy, there's more on that later. The mushroom caps are cleaned, oiled, and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, roasted in an oven at 350F for about 30-40 minutes until soft, or grilled. Be careful, don't burn them, keep them soft.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

1/2 cup of canned artichokes
1 tbsp of capers
zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp of minced parsley
1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 squeezed lemon

Pulse in your food processor and mix the ingredients.
Drizzle in olive oil until you have a nice, dense pesto consistency. Et voila!

Want a different pesto? Add basil and parsley instead of the artichokes, maybe throw some pine nuts (or pecans?) and finish the same way. Pesto is a smashed wet, oily paste, that is given major depth with your favorite dry cheese and then finished with olive oil. Pick your favorite herbs, add enough fat and seasoning to make it interesting. There's no wrong way to do this. Mystery solved.

As far as the tomatoes go, the more ripe, the better. The dressing is just nice olive oil lightly drizzled with kosher salt or fleur de sel. This is what I'll be dreaming about in 6 months.

Steak: rub with olive oil, kosher salt, ground pepper, and fresh thyme leaves, let it sit as long as you can stand it. Sear TRex style on your grill. This was ribeye, doesn't need a sauce, but if you must, you certainly could.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

Wine pairing: Oregon Pinot 2007 A to Z. Nice minerally, light, low alcohol. Not overpoweringly fruity, with a nice gentle bottom end and short finish (although we didn't really let it open, it was gone in about 20 minutes.)

From Big 'Dawg Eats

Expanding the double oven pizza technique

2009-07-02T21:10:00.002-05:00

So you're making a bunch of pizza, and you've got it down, but away from your company for about an hour if you wait for them to get there before you start cooking. You can't really prep anything but the tomato sauce before they get there.
Remembering the concept of the double oven, you can take advantage of the fact that your egg will tend to cook the bottom faster than the top. Cook all of your pizzas until the bottoms are finished, and set them on a wire rack to cool and rest. Be careful to not put them flat on a surface or else the steam can make them soggy.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

When you're ready to eat, fire up the oven on high broil and use your metal peel to finish them. Spin it around until the edges are evenly charred. You may even consider waiting to put your cheese on it until you do this step. This is going to give a finish closer than to the wood burning stove than either the oven or the egg will alone.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

Tonight's recipes:

Pizza Margherita
Fresh drained tomatoes
Sweet and purple basil
Olive oil
String cheese (I was out of mozzarella at the last minute)

Pulled pork pizza
Pulled pork (Boston Butt)
Purple basil
Cheese
Quick, raw tomato sauce (garlic, small can diced tomatoes, salt, olive oil)

Dough tonight was made from King Arthur LA-4 starter which rises much faster than than their regular sourdough, and provided a nice chewiness. Try it sometime!

Heirloom tomato caprese salad

2009-07-02T15:12:00.003-05:00

Tomatoes are just coming in, and so there are going to be a bunch of posts extolling their virtues. I've got some Cherokee purple, Brandywine, rainbow, and Romas growing in a couple of 4x8 foot plots. When they're that ripe, the simpler the better.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

If you need a recipe, there are several to be found. It basically consists of mozzarella, basil, tomato dressed with balsamic vinegar, good olive oil and salt. I chose purple basil for this one, and it's a smaller leaf, a little saltier than regular "sweet basil." The purple basil isn't always purple: some of the leaves are green, some are purple, and some are speckled.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

The first one is sliced evenly into rounds and is a more classic presentation.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

The second one is little more deconstructed into sticks. The ratios are the same, but it's a good trick to use for the tops of these tomatoes which aren't worth wasting as the stem sits way down in them.

Considering these things go for around 5 bucks a pound, it may just be more cost effective to grow them yourself, and that way you don't have to worry if the market has any good ones.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

My first Brandywine is tipping the scales at a pound and a quarter. I picked it just a bit green as some critter took a couple of healthy bites out of it's twin and I had to throw it out.

How to Slice an Orange

2009-06-26T21:53:00.011-05:00

Yeah, I know - what fool doesn't know how to slice an orange? I submit that the fool writing this post did not know how to properly slice an orange PAPER THIN. Why would you want a paper thin slice of orange, you say? Well, maybe if you were trying to recreate the Fromage Blanc Souffle Glace dessert you had at CityZen. Which is what I tried to do. Suffice it to say that you can spend an entire blog post on the orange, and save the rest of the dessert for another post.

I have to admit, I, like most inexperienced orange slicers, approached this task with little concern. How difficult could it be? All you need is an extremely sharp knife and steady hands. Wrong. Ok, so if that doesn't work, then all you need is a mandoline that can slice to 1/16th inch, and you're golden. Well almost.

I honestly didn't research the science behind citrus pulp, but I'm sure someone has, so if you are interested, then Google it. I like "figurin" stuff out. The primary problem with the mandoline procedure is that the pulp of the orange is not stiff enough to be smoothly sliced by the mandoline. For instance, a pear or an apple, with a much more dense cellular makeup, will easily slice paper thin and smooth with a mandoline. Large, open-celled citrus fruit does not.

So how do you solve this problem? Well, my first thought was the freezer. It worked. But, you need to par-freeze (not sure if I just made that term up, but it works) the orange, then slice it. If it's too frozen, then the mandoline will have a difficult time cutting through the frozen liquid in the pulp. I par-froze my orange for a little less than two hours, but your times may vary, depending upon how efficient your freezer is, and whether you actually close the freezer door all the way. Some members of my household have difficulty with that.

Once you have the paper-thin slice you are looking for, then you need to move on to the crispy factor. This is no easy task either. My experiment involved a simple syrup with a dash of Gran Marnier for sweetness. I dropped the slices into simmering syrup for about 10 minutes. After removal and patting dry, I placed them on a Silpat, and proceeded to dehydrate the slices.

After burning the first batch, I determined that low and slow was the way to go. It took about two hours in a 250 degree electric oven to get close to the result I was looking for. I think I ran out of time before I actually achieved my goal. Next time I might try the gas oven (dry heat) or (gulp) try the microwave. I know the microwave may sound un-professional, but based on the results of re-heating a chicken dinner in the microwave, I'm sure it would dehydrate quicker.

And while you are attempting this ridiculous task, keep in mind that it has relatively little to do with the flavor of the CityZen Dreamsicle. It's a garnish - although an impressive one. I'm sure some people ordering the Dreamsicle even toss it to the side, without ever tasting it. What a shame.

HFD version 2: application of some technique

2009-06-22T15:05:00.011-05:00

The landlocked wanted seafood. So, seafood it was. I'm with JW about the heat, and although I know I don't live in Augusta anymore, grilling on a black egg in the blazing sun gets a little hot. Not to worry, though...

The theme of this menu was ocean and farm/garden to table. Some of it came from my garden, some from the farmer's market, the rest from Whole Foods. We have had critical camera failure, so I don't really have any good pictures to share. Sorry, we're working on it.

Menu:

Organic microgreens with roasted red beets, heirloom tomatoes, and fried shallots
Red snapper ceviche
Seared diver scallops with basil/mint emulsion
"Lucques" style sauteed snow peas
Grill roasted whole chicken
Orange-fig gelato (store-bought)

Wine pairing: Chateau St. Michelle Riesling
Beer pairing: New Belgium Brewery: Mighty Arrow (sold out spring brew really great)

Nothing particularly difficult or time-consuming. Total meal took about 3 hours to prepare, eat, and clean up. Here's how it broke down:

Salad
We have been buying bulk salad greens from the grocery store (Harris Teeter) because it's about 1/3 the price of buying it in the plastic containers. Once you realize that almost all of the microgreen lettuce comes from Earthbound farms in California, even the bulk, you realize that you're paying for packaging. And I think it's easier on fridge space to store a bag of greens.
For the beets, I bought them at a traveling farmer's market that comes right to VUMC campus on Thursday afternoons in the spring and summer. The beets were half the price of what I can get at the store and higher quality, raised locally. I trimmed the greens off (which are very edible and present in many of the microgreen mixes you buy, whether you knew it or not) and parboiled them. Per Jamie Oliver, mix acid (vinegar or citrus), oil, and aromatic in foil with your root veg and throw on the grill for a while as you're cooking something else. My combo was balsamic vinegar, olive oil, whole crushed garlic, and red beets. Peel, slice, add them to whatever or eat them by themselves.
The Cherokee Purple tomatoes are an heirloom variety that I like, and I have some growing in my backyard, they're just coming in. I just quartered, salted, and placed on a wire rack over paper towels to drain excess liquid and concentrate the flavors for a couple of hours as I was working on everything else. Remember, water is the enemy of salads.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

The fried shallot is stupid simple, but really adds a nice edge to whatever you're doing, particularly greens. Literally, 1 shallot, thinly sliced on the equator, and fried at moderate heat. Don't burn it! Top your salad with it, you won't be sorry. It's like tiny flavor-packed onion rings without the breading.
Finally, fnished it with a balsamic vinaigrette that I used a spicy English style mustard for a binder. I don't stick to the 3:1 ratio as closely for vinaigrette, because I use a pretty strong oil that can overpower it. Just whisk and add oil until it firms up to the consistency of sour cream.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

Ceviche (sous vide che?)
I admit I screwed this up a little bit. We had some left over red snapper (DOG loves it), about one portion size. Skinned it, cut into a dice, and added to a ziploc bag with 2 fresh squeezed limes, a handful of diced onion, 1 minced jalapeno from the garden, and a healthy handful of cilantro. This was allowed to cure in the fridge for about 2 hours. Now, this fish could have been eaten raw as a "crudo" so it wasn't a big deal to have it completely cooked through (white instead of pink). To rush it a little bit, I threw it in the microwave to apply a little steam heat for 2-3 minutes. The mistake here was if I was thinking it wasn't cooked enough, then I ruined the herbs. The herbs had that wilted faded look. Ceviche is really a sous vide of fish using acid instead of heat to cook the protein. I also should have drained off the excess lime juice or added some oil, because it was really strong, and I could hardly taste the fish. I'll keep working on this one.

Seared scallops with basil/mint emulsion
For fun, I stuck my sautee pan on the grill as it was winding down to keep the smoke outside. Scallops are best cooked on pretty high heat to medium rare, in my opinion.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

This was really nothing fancy, just salt, pepper, and olive oil for the sautee fat. I did them in batches to maximize the crust of the sear. The emulsion is just a lower ratio vinaigrette done in the blender (eventually after the food processor and the immersion blender failed). I didn't execute it as well as I would have liked because I did it in too small of a volume, and it broke, and it wasn't the bright green like a pesto that I was looking for. I just used a handful of basil, handful of mint, handful of lemon balm (from the garden), lime juice, salt pepper, and drizzled in the olive oil while it was blending. I need an inert binder to help it "catch" and emulsify, but I don't think egg is the thing here.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

Lucques-style sauteed snow peas
For Lucques-style, I just mean that the base is thinly sliced onions in a couple of tablespoons of butter with salt, thyme, and a crushed, dry, small pepper like japones or something similar.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

Just add whatever other veg you want (in this we had some snow peas), give a quick sautee and you're done. Easy. Try yellow squash this way, you'll love it!

Grilled chicken
Whole chicken, pasture raised with a salty, savory dry rub, indirect at 400 for about an hour or so.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

There may be a subtle difference in the breast meat of these birds in that it doesn't seem to dehydrate as quickly, but I'm not sure about that. Maybe the marketing has gotten to me.

From Big 'Dawg Eats

Gelato
Well we were in too big of a rush to enjoy the dessert, but I did a couple of days later. Gelato and paletas are out there, just look around and find one you like, reproduce it at home. Haven't quite gotten there yet.

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-22T12:56:00.007-05:00

Sunday around my house used to be known as "Mexican Night". Virtually every Sunday, Jen and I would lovingly prepare what we considered to be authentic Mexican fare. There was an excellent Bon Appetit issue in May 2003 that enticed me to delve into "real" Mexican cooking. This was followed by a brief enchantment with Rick Bayless' books... the end result come Sunday night was spicy, rich, fresh, and often intoxicating.

This tradition has fallen on hard times. Enter Lucy and Julia. They are not cooperating with my laborious preparations of authentic Mexican foods. Lucy just can't seem to p

erfect fresh tortillas and Julia won't stop crying from having her fingers crushed in the press...

This brings me to Father's Day 2009. I wanted something relatively easy to prepare, but different from the regular hot dogs and burgers, and I wanted some Latin flare, but with Southern Tradition. Thusly, I concocted an eccentric menu that really hit the spot. I wouldn't recommend you combine these unless you are in a similar mood, but each was interesting in and of itself.

First of all, ridiculous heat wave in Augusta. Any grilling would have to have a suitable, refreshing beverage accompaniment. With the inability to purchase alcohol on Sunday and having no beer and a limited amount of Tequila, I had to get creative. Jennifer recently bought a few herbs, one of which was lavender. Scouring through my liquor supply, I found a disgusting bottle of Absolut Raspberry Vodka purchased years ago by mistake. I rationed that sweet tea infused with lavender and "fortified" with this vodka would hit the spot. Surprisingly, I was right! I made about a 1/2 gallon of the stuff and drank 2 tall tumblers which helped me get through/stumble through the day/heat.

The remainder of the menu:

Guacamole

Grilled portabellas, marinated in a sort of mojo sauce, tossed with a fire-roasted salsa of tomato, onion, serrano, and poblano

Chips

Jicima with lime and chili flakes

Skirt steak burgers with chimichurri and Mexican crema.

For the burgers, I simply cut the steak into 1 inch cubes, salted, and refrigerated for about an hour. Afterwards, I pulsed in the food processor until coarsely ground and formed into patties. Just before dinner, I grilled over high heat for about minutes per side (because I ground myself, I am perfectly happy to have a medium to medium rare burger), plopped on a toasted bun and doused with chimichurri and crema. BTW...this burger was gooooooooodddd.

Onto dessert. This is where things get really unusual. I enjoy making ice cream, and since purchasing Ratio, have been into experimentation. It never occurred to me that creme anglaise, creme brulee, flan, and ice cream were essentially the same exact thing just cooked in different ways. Last weekend, I made peach ice cream. It was gooooooodddd. This weekend, I decided to try my take on ice cream that I saw in the Lees Brothers Cookbook. They made a boiled peanut and sorgum syrup ice cream for a low country boil dessert. This of course doesn't go at all with my theme, but hey, Kroger had some boiled peanuts, and I've been on a cane syrup kick ever since eating the pancakes at Stanley's in NOLA (the ones with ice cream and cane syrup...mmmm....).

My ice cream base recipe for one quart

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

6 egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

vanilla extract (about 1 tsp)

pinch of salt

1-2 T of some type of liquor

*Ruhlman's ratio would call for more yolks, but I think 2 per cup liquid is enough, and I'm cooking here!

Because I would be using cane syrup, I decreased the sugar to 1/2 cup. To make the ice cream, bring 1 cup of the creme and 1 cup of the milk with the sugar to just below a simmer over medium heat (light whisps of steam will begin to rise). In a separate bowl, combine egg yolks with cold creme and the vanilla. When the creme/milk/sugar mixture is up to temperature, temper the yolk mixture with about a 1/3 of the liquid and whisk vigorously. Then, add the remaining mixture. Return the pot back to the fire and strain the mixture to remove any cooked egg (bad eats in these type desserts). Cook stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened and coats the back of a spoon (the French call this nappe). Remove to a stainless steel bowl set over ice to cool and when near room temperature refrigerate to chill completely, preferrably over night. The next morning (or whenever), churn the cream as directed by your ice cream maker (to this step I added 1/2 cup rinsed and shelled boiled peanuts and if you don't want large ice crystals to form, you can add 1-2 T of whatever liquor you desire), should take about 25 to 30 minutes to become thick and fluffy. Transfer to a quart container and freeze for atleast 4 hours until solid (Before freezing, I swirled in a quarter cup of chilled cane syrup).

We ate this ice cream last night with our neighbors. This time Jimmy and the oldest daughter, Mary Margaret, and unbelievable, this was loved by all! Most liked the peach better, except for Jennifer, who has a penchant for saltiness.

Cookbooks

2009-06-19T10:19:00.002-05:00

Wanted to get a thread going so we could share our favorite cookbooks. My top 5 in no order are...Frank Stitt's Southern Table, Mario's Molto Italiano, Ruhlman's Ratio, Keller's Bouchon, and America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. I am anxiously awaiting the release of Keller's Ad Hoc, which will be Keller's definitive recipes for home classics, and David Chang's Momofuku. Both of these will be available this fall.

Digital Confidential

2009-06-14T22:15:00.010-05:00

TV. Not what my last post was about, but not far from what makes it tick. Music (if you missed the last post) and television (Julia on PBS) were both broadcast in analog glory over low-bandwith sprectrums available with almost any simple device within range (ie. a car radio or a home tv set) over the past upteen years, until the government decided we all needed to switch to digital. I am by no means opposed to digital television. In fact, I think it's a huge advancement to receive digital transmissions. But now, you need a cable box, satellite dish, and an array of other devices to consistently receive your daily dose of information.

I realize I sound like a codger here (for a definition of codger, you may need to visit Webster). My life is by no means simple, uncomplex, or without modern electronic amenities. In fact, I pride myself on understanding electonic trends, having most of the latest gadgets, and being able to speak intelligently with my teenage neices on a technologically relevant level. Which is why I recently watched a crap-load more digital television than I normally do.

I caught an eposide of Ted Nugent's SpiritWild Ranch Saturday Night (6/13), in which he entertained Anthony Bourdain with his religious hunting experience (which is admittedely a little weird, but normal for Ted), an epidsode of 60 minutes on Sunday, which featured Alice Waters (San Fran chef) touting organic produce, and a new-old sitcom of which I was unaware.

The sitcom I watched was the first episode of "Kitchen Confidential" on NetFlix on demand. I read Bourdain's book a few years ago, but until last Friday, I didn't realize there was an attempted sitcom based on the book. The sitcom apparently dates from 2005. It was relatively entertaining, and worth watching more episodes. I'm planning on completing the entire set of episodes, regardleass of my feelings about the show. I feel I owe it to Bourdain and this blog to finish what I started, If I expect to become a successful music, food, and television critic.

UPDATE: I just realized i didn't watch Kitchen Confidential on Netflix. It was on Hulu.

MAB

Cooking School at Home

2009-06-05T21:36:00.003-05:00

I'm writing because I can't sleep and I'm anxious. Jennifer, thankfully, is has been mercifully drugged by her night nurse and I'm sitting here trying to find things to take my mind off reality. Lately I've been contemplating ways to improve my overall skills in the kitchen. Apart from going to culinary school, there simply aren't many resources out there that aren't basic recipe books. I'm tempted to work through a techniques book, page by page to accomplish these things and hopefully have some fun. My initial thought would be to work through Jacques' book, but I also found this website that teaches fundamental and is linked to podcasts. What do you guys think? My other thought would be to work through Ratio, but that isn't as much about technique as it is an understanding the essence of a food.

Tasty BBQ side dish

2009-05-31T18:58:00.002-05:00

Apologies for the picture...

I'm not sure why I don't make these things more often. They are easy, delicious, and could be somewhat nutritious. What I'm talking about are fritters! Fritters can contain anything to the hearts desire and can literally be made in less than 30 minutes, idea to table. Tonight, last night at home for awhile...sister-in-law in town...I smoked a few chickens on the BGE, roasted some vegetables, and made some corn fritters. All I can say is that there is plenty of chicken and veggies left, but all 10 fritters have been devoured.

Using a ratio (sorry, I can't help myself). A fritter is simply pancake batter minus the fat. The ratio is 2:2:1 (flour:liquid:egg). A 1 egg batter will bind about a cup of garnish. In this case fresh corn kernals. A large egg weighs 2 ounces, so I used about 2 oz AP flour and 2 oz cornmeal (~1/2 cup minus a tablespoon of each), a tsp of baking powder, a tsp salt, a tsp chili powder, and about 1/2 cup milk, and the egg. I stirred all together gently and then pan fried in about 1/8 inch depth of oil by the tablespoonful until done. To prevent sogginess, transfer to a baking rack over paper towels while finishing subsequent batches.

These are terrific! Try some next time you barbeque and let me know how many are left over.

The Wonders of Stock

2009-05-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

After making veal stock using the French Laundry method, tying up my range for 48 hours and not sleeping for 2 1/2 days, I have determined that simpler methods and more reasonable quantities are in order for stock to me a routine part of my already hectic life. With that said, Jennifer volunteered me to make soup for the "Shepard's Table Soup Kitchen" at our church which is basically a bible study where old heads drop in and eat soup every Tuesday for lunch. The priest who presides over this affair has Celiac sprue, which for laymen is gluten-intolerance meaning that if he eats wheat based products, he breaks out in a horrific rash. Thus my task was to make soup for about 30 people, gluten-free, which should not be a problem if you thicken with corn starch and avoid wheat-based noodles...

I figured for 30 people, I would need about 10 ounces per person, so I reasoned that I would need about to make about 3 gallons of stock to be safe = 384 ounces and end up with around 2 1/2 gallons of soup.

For the stock, this may shock you, but I used a Ratio! (3:2 water:bone) = 384 oz water (3 gallon) & 256 oz bone (~15 lbs). I only had about 2 lbs of bones in my fridge, so I added another 10 lbs of chicken wings and 3 lbs of turkey necks hacked all to hell. I dropped the bones 2 pots, added the water, brought to a simmer skimming, skimming, skimming...then I transferred to 180 degree oven and didn't touch for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, I skimmed again and added the mirepoix and sachet d'espices and returned to the oven for another hour.

After that I removed from the oven, strained 3 times into one pot and moved to the sink to cool in an ice bath.

The following day, I prepped the soup. I first simmered about a dozen bone in chicken breasts in my stock for 30 minutes. Whilst this was happening, I chopped my mirepoix/garnish for the actual soup. Once the chicken was done, I removed and shredded the meat with a fork. I then strained the stock 2 more times, reserving 6 cups for dinner...

The following day, I left instructions and several glad containers on my kitchen counter for Belinda and later than night, the stock pot returned empty with a note from Rev Andy who was happy to have homemade chicken soup & to be rash free :)

This brings me back to my dinner. I was giddy and nearly intoxicated by the chickeny goodness, so I decided to make a consomme. Here's my mise...

The "raft" is then pureed...

Then stirred into the stock...

Then the "raft" floats to the top in one disgusting clump resembling something you would find in an elementary school hallway after too many Jungle Juices covered with that janitor saw dust stuff...

See what I mean...yuck!

But in the end, a miracle happens! Look you can read the date on this nickel at the bottom of the pot! (or you could if I'd taken the picture with something other than my phone)

The end result is a crystal clear chicken soup/consomme...I love cooking!

Caught In A Trap, Can't Walk Out

2009-05-19T21:50:00.013-05:00

I’ve been a bit overly sensitive to restaurant music lately. It’s not always obvious what’s playing either. I go to a little Irish pub around the corner from my house in Augusta, and unless the place is dead, you have no idea what’s playing. The Washington Post “Going Out Guide” lists the “Sound Check” in decibels of a restaurant that it’s editors have reviewed. For instance, the three star restaurant Cashion’s Eat Place received 77 decibels (Must speak with raised voice). I imagine it’s a little less noisy than the Irish Pub, but I doubt you can hear the music playing there either.

This ridiculous fixation I have started on a Tuesday nite in late April in New Orleans. I was there to give a three-day training session as part of my job. JW had just left after a long weekend of Jazz Fest. Since JW didn’t have any parting recommendations for dinner (breakfast is a different story – but I’ll leave it to JW to tell you about the Boudin sausage at Stanley), me and 4 co-workers were searching for some decent food in the French Quarter. We decided upon a brew pub – Crescent City Brewhouse. Well, the guys decided. The girls definitely would not have picked this place on their own.

On the pedestrian route to the CCB, we passed by a number of alluring restaurants, most of which I can’t recall the name. One of them had nice white table cloths, a pricey menu, and ambiance to go with it. I heard no music. Once we reached the CCB and sat down, we noticed the reasonable prices on the menu, which was (in my opinion) kinda like the menu at TGI Friday’s. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll eat at a chain restaurant on occasion, but it’s usually due to lack of local choices or being too hungry to care. I’m a firm believer in eating local. The food is usually much better, and you meet some interesting locals.

Anyway, while I read through the Friday’s-esque menu, I noticed a familiar tune playing near the open-air entrance. It was “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)” by Antonio Carlos Jobim. One of my all-time favorite artists. After the song finished, another Jobim song was playing - Desifinado. It piqued my interest, so I looked toward the front (we were seated near the back – about 75 feet from the door), and I realized that it was a live trio playing in a small corner by the bar. I was amazed and surprised. I’m not sure if it was simply a part of being in NOLA, or being in NOLA during Jazz Fest. Regardless, it was a treat. It did not, however, pair up with the menu very well. I recall commenting as we left that the jazz trio should have been down the street at the white tablecloth restaurant, not at the ribs and beer Friday’s wanna-be I was leaving.

Fast forward to May 18th. I arrived in the DC area for yet another meeting. I sauntered down the street about a half mile from my hotel and found a few local ethnic restaurants tucked in behind some corporate buildings. I picked “A Taste of the World”, which was adjacent to a Vietnamese restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, and an Ethiopian restaurant. All looked equally inviting, but I felt I could get a month’s worth of affirmative action eating knocked out in one visit, so I picked the most ethnically diverse restaurant in a sea of diversely ethnic restaurants.

After I sat down (which was 15 minutes before closing time – 9pm), I heard the first familiar tune. It was Astrud Gilberto singing “How Insensitive”. That was followed in order by Doris Day singing “A Guy is a Guy”, Elvis singing “Suspicious Minds”, a voice like that of Barbra Streisand or Jane Monheit singing “Peel Me A Grape”, and a Nat King Cole song that I couldn’t place.

All this while ordering from, and quickly receiving food from, a menu that varied from Pad Thai noodles, Mole, Maharani Dal, and Jerk Chicken, to the fish dish I ordered – Agra Dulce Pineapple Fish. It was described as a Spanish and Chinese mix of vegetables with pineapple and fried fish served with rice. It was a permanently printed $14 special. In reality, it was “number 6 on the Thai side with fish, medium spicy”. At least that’s the way I would have ordered it at Thai Jong in Augusta.

The dish was very good. It just wasn’t Spanish at all. I may pretend to know a lot of things, but I actually do know something about Spanish food. I’ve been experimenting with Paella for 10 years. The Agra Dulce dish had nothing Spanish in it. It had red peppers, which tend to be roasted Pimientos in Spanish dishes, but were un-roasted red bells in this dish. If I remember correctly, Agra Dulce is Spanish for Bitter Sweet. There was a lot of sweet, and no bitter in this dish. Again, it was an excellent Thai dish, but that’s not how it was described. I don’t think the music counted either. Gilberto is from Brazil, where the food and the dialect is a mix of Portuguese and Spanish. Elvis may have looked a little Chinese in the later years, but that was just because the weight he gained made his eyes squinty.

It also made me question whether I would go back there and order the Mole. I’ve had Mole at the Red Iguana in Salt Lake City, UT, and it’s supposed to be one of the best places in the US. A Taste of the World might be a Mole let-down in comparison. I do not, however, recall what music was playing at the Red Iguana.

I say all this to make the following point: How much thought goes into the music choices at a restaurant? It really can make or break a meal. I’m sure the Hard Rock Café doesn’t have a hard time picking the playlist everyday. They can probably just set the Sirius radio to channel 15 and be done. Other restaurants should put a little more thought into it. When I eat lunch at Bombay Central in Augusta, I get a pure selection of Indian music. I suffered through the bad atmosphere and Friday’s-esque fare at the CCB because of the live jazz trio. I was less disappointed with my pseudo-Spanish dish at “A Taste of the World” because I liked the imaginary 45s being spun in the kitchen. And some of the fondest memories I have of the best Chinese restaurant in the South (by far) are of hearing Dean Martin singing “Standing on the Corner” at China Garden in Augusta.

MAB

Hot chicken in Nashville: Prince's Hot Chicken Shack

2009-05-19T20:01:00.004-05:00

This may be little known, but Nashville is known for hot chicken. I have to admit, I had no idea what hot chicken is, until this afternoon. This is not buffalo chicken, it's dry and pan fried in a cast iron pan, like Southern fried chicken is frequently done. Prince's has apparently been around since around WWII, the origin of the hot chicken being a punishment to a little philandering. Backfire, because it turned out to be a big hit, his buddies loved it, and a star was born.
It's a little out of the way, to those of us who live on the southside, but it's worth the trip and the wait.

The wait comes from the fact that everything is made to order, nothing is premade. You want some chicken, you step up and order, they make it right there, and you take it home. It's served on white bread with pickles, the bread sops up the grease, and is pretty tasty itself. I ordered hot, and I don't many people that could have eaten it without a trip to the emergency room.
As far as technique goes, I'm not 100% sure how it's done. My guess would be a well-seasoned cast-iron pan and a paste rub or brine that is heavy on the paprika and cayenne. I don't think there are too many ingredients in the flavoring, but it really does penetrate the meat pretty well. The hotter you order it, the more stuff they put on it. They do run out of chicken which makes me think that they keep them in a brine of some sort allowing it soak up the spices in.
Unfortunately, I had to work during the 3rd Annual Hot Chicken festival here in Nashville on July the 4th. Maybe I can catch it next year!

Pizza toppings and the concept of the "double oven"

2009-05-18T09:11:00.004-05:00

Continuously on the quest for the perfect pizza, I experiment with several combinations. The dough is one thing that took me quite a while to sort out, and since I'm not an apprentice at a world class pizzeria in Italy or NYC, it's really trial and error to get it right. In adhering to the formula put forth in a previous post, and to stick with the ratio concept, the breakdown for my dough by bakers' percentage is as follows:

Flour (all-purpose): 100%
Spring water: 60%
Poolish (50/50): 10%
Salt: 2.5%

In keeping with Ruhlman's ratios, 5:3 flour to water, salt to taste and a leavening agent.
Each 13" pie is about 300g, so for example if your total is 500g of flour, you can make about 3 pies since your total mass is about 900g. It makes sense. Finally.
For the leavening agent, I use the sourdough starter that JW got me from King Arthur that I keep in a small, sealed flour bin on my kitchen counter. It's fed with a 50/50 mixture of spring water and AP flour. If there aren't any bubbles in it, it's dead and needs to be refed. I don't use any instant dried yeast or cake, and I don't know what the advantage might be other than potentially faster rise time. Again it all varies according to temperature, but an easy estimate is 3-4 hours. You can refrigerate it at any point and bring it out when you're ready to use.
The techniques are autolysis (start with 75% of the flour) for 20 minutes, followed by wet-kneading for about 10 minutes gradually adding the remaining flour, mostly at the end of kneading. It's all in the stand mixer with the dough hook.

The cooking method is a raised grid with a 13" stone at max temperature. Since the heat source is from below, it's hard to get a char on top of the pizza like you would in a brick oven. Or is there? Grilled pizza is always going to be more cooked on the bottom than on top, just because that's where the fire is. So, why not run the broiler in your oven, take the pizza off the grill just before you think it's done and stick it under the broiler for a few seconds to get that brick oven char? In fact, why not do that for all of your pies, and then broil them as you're ready to serve? Timing is always an issue with grilled pizza, because you're making them one at a time. This way, you can "premake" the pizzas, and then "finish" them. Just an idea....

The pizzas last night were:

Margherita (of course!)
Grilled pork chop, sauteed mushrooms and garlic, balsamic vinaigrette, fresh rosemary, and Gruyere
Chorizo, roasted tomato, roasted garlic, thyme, and mozzarella (see picture)

This is only to illustrate the point that you can put whatever you want on your pizza. Clear out the fridge if you like, sort of like making soup or stock. However, if you can make a good Margherita pizza, the rest is just up to your imagination.

Book review: The Ominvore's Dilemma

2009-05-13T19:49:00.007-05:00

Consider the whole point of this book: what do you want for dinner? Depending on your store, you have almost everything in the world to choose from. Some of it has a low price in the store, but may have a high cost to society, the earth, and potentially our health. Although this is mostly related to meat and how it's born, raised, and eventually slaughtered, it could be anything. The Chinese pine nuts are an example of this. Think of the fuel it takes to transport that from China (along with just about everything that's for sale at WalMart, Target, Sams, the mall, you name it) or wherever its origin. There's an eventual price to be paid for it, and although I'm not saying we have to change everything, we have to at least be cognizant of it.
The concepts of the CAFO (concentrated animal farm operation) and the dominance that corn and its multiple byproducts have over the American agricultural industry are important ones, and have been going on relatively unnoticed by the general public for decades. But there may be bigger issues at stake here, including public health and immigration as brought out by Linklater's Fast Food Nation. Not to mention antibiotic resistance of common human pathogens like resistant staph infections.
The easiest question to ask but one of the most difficult to answer is this: Do you know where your meat comes from? Likely not, as you're limited to what the best deal Harris Teeter, Kroger, Schnuck's, Publix, Sam's, Costco, etc. can get. And the cheapest, high-yield production of meat is by CAFO with an artificial diet of corn products (that cows have to be forced to eat to their detriment and ours) . What about salmon, then, can't I just eat that and get my omega 3's and vitamin E back? Unfortunately, it may not be that simple. The diet change in the beef, fish and poultry products that we love alters the fat composition.
OK fine, so I'm buying all organic milk. That's better right? Maybe, maybe not. The definition of organic, and free-range, and pasture-raised, and wild varies with the industry and what the government forces them to do.
What's the difference between free-range and regular CAFO? An open door and a small patch of grass that the animals may have access to but don't necessarily ever traverse. I mean, is that really different or better? Maybe but not as much as we'd like to think.
I think we've been our own worst enemies here, as we are so far under the thumb of big agribusiness, that we're stuck with a lot of the status quo. I'm no expert on any of this, and like anyone, I have to process the information and decide for myself if it's real or not. It does, however, make sense to know that my chickens, pork, beef, lamb, eggs, etc. are pasture-raised by a farmer from Kentucky or Tennessee whom I've met, talked to, and who welcome visitation to their respective farms to see how things are done. It's not always feasible, because we all suffer from the Omnivore's Dilemma: we have access to just about anything you can imagine, and a lot of it we can get overnight.
Consider this: the world's largest pork producer is Smithfield foods. Do you think this is not an influential company? Just ask Paula Deen. The current flu epidemic is thought to have originated from one of their CAFOs in La Gloria, Mexico in the state of Veracruz. What was previously reported as the swine flu by the World Health Organization is now being called H1N1 influenza. Why? Because people started banning pork imports, the Egyptians started killing ALL of their country's pigs, and pork sales were going down. One of the first American officials to refer to this was none other than President Obama, back in April before the WHO officially changed the name.

My opinion is that there's almost certainly a not-so-friendly truth behind what we're being sold. Reading this book has forced me to think far differently about how I intend to feed myself and my family. I highly recommend it, and even if it doesn't have the answers, it is thought-provoking and worth a look. For all we know, this could be the subject of the next American revolution.

OG is driving me nuts...

2009-05-07T21:13:00.005-05:00

This is driving me crazy. I can see where a long bone (marrow bone) or a spongy bone (like a shoulder bone) would heat quicker due to lower density and higher water content. I can also understand that a lower thermal conductivity means less heat is transferred to surrounding tissue, however, for the life of me I cannot understand why meat that is directly touching hot bone is often...raw... I emailed Harold McGee (I have no shame). I will post a follow-up if I get an answer. If no response I will next look to AB, then to Ruhlman, then to some of the engineers that I know at Tech (last resort).

This is Ruhlman's response. He kicked over to Bob del Grosso. If you don't know this guy check him out on google. He has an awesome blog. The second email seems to support OG's heat sink theory-pretty cool I think!

From: "Robert del Grosso"

Date: May 8, 2009 5:49:35 AM EDT

To: "'Michael Ruhlman'"

Subject: RE: Troubling question re: thermal conductivity

Bones that are exposed at the tips of say a chicken leg heat more rapidly than muscle but bone that is surrounded by meat will not heat faster than the surrounding meat because it is buried within the meat. In other words it is insulated.

If you are talking about a rib roast the situation is a bit different. The bone still heats faster than the meat, but because the meat to bone ratio is so high (There is a hell of a lot of meat) the bone loses heat to the meat at a tremendous rate and so stays relatively cool.

From: Robert delGrosso

Date: May 8, 2009 7:59:32 AM EDT

To: Michael Ruhlman , Michael@ruhlman.com

Subject: bones and heat

I just remembered that another reason why meat next to the bone is more likely to be rare is that even though the bone heats faster than meat it also cools faster. And if the bone is cut at one end (as in a rib roast) it will act like a chimney and take the heat up and away even faster. b

When you come to a fork in the road, it's time to eat. www.AHungerArtist.bobdelgrosso.com

Happy Cinco de Mayo

2009-05-06T19:22:00.013-05:00

Like Cinco de Mayo was going to pass and you weren't going to have a post from the only Mexican on here!

You have to start by understanding that Cinco de Mayo has nothing to do with Mexican Independence in the sense that we know it. It's not like the fourth of July with fireworks and nationwide patriotism. It is mostly celebrated in the state of Puebla in eastern/central Mexico, and represents the victory of the Mexican army over the French in 1862 in the battle of Puebla. More than anything it was the last time a foreign army attempted to invade the country. Otherwise, it's just an American holiday between Easter and Memorial Day where you drink Corona with lime wedges at La Vallarta or whatever other Mexican restaurant is out there that has Speedy #5 with beans on the menu. In fairness, anything that increases the awareness of Mexicans is fine with me, as if you needed that (just take a look around!). So, pour some tequila or some Bohemia (my favorite Mexican beer, no lime required) and check it out.

Pollo con crema a la Francesa con salsa habanero a la Mexicana

If you're going to eat Mexican food on Cinco de Mayo, I think it's appropriate to eat something that has Poblano peppers. Poblanos are originally be from the Mexican state of Puebla, so there you go. They're the ones that look like flat, dark bell peppers at your local supermarket a.k.a. "grid." How better to cook them then charred on the grill, peeled, and cut into strips (rajas) and served with a creamy sauce.

Pollo con crema (for you, Amber Perry) I have had mostly in this country but is a dish eaten in Mexico, not only with chicken, but also with fish.

Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs seasoned with salt, pepper, or your favorite grill rub
Bechamel (hence the Francesa), Mexican crema, or heavy whipping cream about 2-3 cups
Two poblano peppers, blackened, peeled, cut into strips or rajas
1/3 of an onion
2 cloves of garlic

The other purpose of the post is to illustrate the versatility of one of the mother sauces, Bechamel. It's not particularly Mexican to use butter for something, but there's no reason you can't do it.

Bechamel
3 tbsp AP flour
2 tbsp of butter in pieces
2 cups of boiling milk with 1/4 tbsp of salt (medium pinch) (Bechamel) or stock (Veloute', can use any white stock, preferably fish)

Melt the butter over lower heat, and add the flour whisking as you go until you have a nice blond roux. Hmm, this looks familiar all of a sudden, and it should, as this can also be the basis of Gumbo and other Creole/Cajun delicacies. Cook this a couple of minutes, whisking the keep it smooth. Timing is key here, and ideally you may want to prepare this as your meat is resting.

This sauce can be augemented, ideally with some acid like lemon or lime juice and it adds a nice kick to it. Remember that the ratio here is 1 part flour: 1 part fat (either butter or oil). Add hot liquid to create a nice thick sauce consistency. From this, you augment the base sauce, in our case with onions, garlic, lime juice, and roasted Poblano peppers.

Back to the rest of the show. Grill the chickens, indirect heat until well cooked through, pull them off to rest.

In the meantime, sautee your onions and garlic. Add the cream sauce, rajas, and a little water, stir to get your emulsion going, then add the chicken and keep it warm until serving.

If you add your jus from the chicken, and let it sit a little while, the flavors will really come together.

For the salsa, it's just like a previous post, but now that tomatoes are slowly reappearing at the market, just to recap:

3 medium whole tomatoes diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 habanero, seeded and chopped
2 fresh garlic cloves
1/3 of an onion diced
Juice from 1 lime
salt to taste
small handful of cilantro, minced

Add all but the cilantro to the blender, pulse to combine. The fresh tomatoes will give it a little froth. Add the cilantro after you pull it out of the blender or food processor. This salsa isn't going to win any beauty contests, but when you taste you'll be glad you subbed the fresh tomato for the canned. Finally remember that anything "a la Mexicana" is going to have onion, tomato and chile.

Rosemary and garlic grilled leg of lamb, sauteed greens and thermodynamics for the home cook

2009-05-05T11:02:00.015-05:00

This is a little belated, and the picture didn't work out so well. But, man, it was something else, and I can't wait to try it again. I guess I'm something of a novelty seeker, and although it's great, I get a little weary of only cooking steak and chicken on the grill. I figured it was Easter, might as well try some lamb.
When I went to Whole Foods, I was looking for boneless leg of lamb. Silly me, they were sold out. I had a choice between previously frozen leg of lamb from New Zealand, or probably previously frozen leg of lamb from a farm in Kentucky, right up the road. Which one was cheaper? You might be surprised to know that the lamb that required a ton more fuel to transport to my "grid" was cheaper. So, Kentucky bone-in lamb leg it was.

Marinade:

Crushed garlic, olive oil, fresh rosemary from the garden, and salt and pepper. Overnight.

Grill temperature: HTH (hotter than hell, more on that later)

Seared the outside, and then set it up on the upper deck with a drip pan to create an indirect effect. The finishing temperature was 126F, and I pulled it off to rest for about 20-30 minutes. With a piece like this, the longer it rests the better.

What does resting do?
I've frequently wondered about this, and what the big deal was. I've ignored it in the past, and didn't think anything about it. According to Cookwise by Shirley Corriher, the outer layer of muscle fiber contract, and that at least partially "squeezes" the liquid to the cooler center of the meat.

You're left with dry outside, wet inside. If you slice you meat too soon, you'll lose a lot of the juices, and the result will be dry. But, if you let the meat rest appropriately, the juice redistributes back throughout the whole cut and is much juicier. Remember osmosis? Fluid moves from an area of high solute concentration to an area of lower concentration. It also moves along pressure gradients. Entropy strikes again.

For my lamb leg, I let it rest almost 30 minutes, and the result was exquisite. The longer the better. Also, serve the juice that runs out as your au jus on the meat at the table; you won't be sorry.

Cooking on the bone
The more I think about it, it really does make more sense to cook meat on the bone. In French cuisine, stock is the basis of many dishes and meat flavors. What is one of the main ingredients in stock? You guessed it: bones. The younger and more cartilaginous, the better. Refer back to JW's post about veal stock based on Ruhlman and Keller's logic of white veal stock being a major contributor to haute cuisine. Veal bones will always make a better stock than beef bones because of their bone/cartilage ratio. Second, there is typically a lot of connective tissue and fat surrounding bone (how the muscles attach to it) which has a basting effect as well as being just plain good, as we know with pork shoulder and other braised/"slow and low". Finally, the bone-in cut also allows for various temperatures of the meat. This can be a challenge with certain cuts (pork and chicken), but with red meats, this is more desirable, and it allows you to taste a range of temperature in the meat. Why is the meat closest to the bone the least cooked, yet the bones are hotter? In other words, when you check the temperature of the meat, if you touch the bones, they will give a falsely elevated reading. Why, then, if the bones are hot, would the meat around the bones not be at a higher temperature as opposed to a lower one? Good question...

Normally, when you cook your meat (boneless) this is how it's going to look. Heat attacks it from the outside via conduction, convection, and radiation and transfers to the coldest area, the middle, thus satisfying the second law of thermodynamics (bear with me). The slower you bring it up to final temperature, the more consistently cooked the entire piece will be. Since the majority of the BBQ cuts we make has a final finishing temperature is around 190-200F, 225-250F is the preferred temperature for cooking it. We can get it to temperature with higher heat, but the outside will be overcooked, and the collagen structure of the meat will not have had time to break down, resulting in something you don't want to eat. Some meats are better suited for slow and low or braising, and some are better on HHH (a nursing term I learned in residency used to describe enemas: high, hot, and helluva lot).

Why do streams always seem cooler than the air temperature would suggest? A phenomenon we can call "heat sink."

Bone-in meat seems to represent muscle with a fluid/flow system within it (the bone). This also has some application in the medical field, if you're familiar with radio frequency ablation of tumors. A probe that generates a bunch of heat basically cooks a tumor, killing it. If you do it close to a big blood vessel, you can't generate as much heat because the continuous current sucks the heat away, acting like a heat sink.
Bones anatomically and physiologically speaking have similar properties to blood vessels, in that they can be used to give fluids and medications. They basically would act like a stream in the middle of a hot field. The part I have yet to prove is that the center of the bones is cooler than the surrounding meat, thus preferentially transferring the heat from the bones centripetally as opposed to the contiguous meat. It may just be that there is "flow" of heat and fluid (gas or liquid) through the center of the bone, and even if the center is hotter, there is a steady fluid flow acting like a convection current that pulls that heat away down the gradient. I guess I have all summer to experiment. I also welcome any better description. I'm doubt JW has gotten any sleep since I posited the question to him.

Back to the menu. The lamb was cooked, rested, looked great and was really juicy. The greens were organic mustard greens that I cut into two inch strips, blanched, drained, and dried. I sauteed some pieces of Spanish chorizo and added the greens back to it for a minute or two. Pancetta, bacon, pork belly, anything fatty would have worked fine. The result was a wonderful main course and blurry picture. Really, though, I can't recommend more highly experimenting with different, maybe unfamiliar cuts. The result could be something really great. I'd feel like I was missing out on something if all I ate was BS (boneless, skinless) chicken breast and hamburgers.

The Wonders of "Ratio"

2009-04-30T20:27:00.006-05:00

Recieved Ruhlman's "Ratio" last week and read cover to cover on the plane to and from New Orleans. Reading this book, if legit, does amazing things for the avid home cook. It ends reliance on recipes! When in New Orleans last weekend, Lil B recommended we try crawfish-goat cheese crepes at Muriel's on Jackson Square. They were indeed quite good, and I couldn't help but think to myself..."I could make something better..." Of course my efforts to duplicate were foiled when neither the BILE-LOW or the K-Roger had any crawfish tails. However, I did find some frozen lobster tails at the K-Roger, so that's what I went with.

Here's how the dinner came together. Got home around 6PM. Boiled some water with a little champagne vinegar and poured over the still frozen lobster tails. Let steep for 5 minutes. I then rinsed under cool running water, removed the tails from their shell and popped into the fridge. I next chopped the shells into little bits, tossed into some water with some veg that included leftover fennel and left to simmer. 615PM went out to play with babies. 715PM removed simmering "stock" from stove and took Julia upstairs for some exciting Elmo action.

745PM returned to the kitchen, got Lucy and Julia some bedtime milk and made the crepe batter. This is where "Ratio" kicks in. Knowing that crepe batter is a ratio of 2 part liquid, 2 part egg, and 1 part flour, I needed no recipe to make a savory crepe. I wanted just enough batter for 2 people, so I made a 2 egg crepe batter. Large eggs weight about 2 ounces each, so I mixed 2 eggs with 1/2 cup (4 oz) of my strained lobster stock, and using my scale measured out 2 ounces of AP flour. For leavening, I added 1/4 tsp baking powder (1 tsp usual per cup flour) and for seasoning a big pinch of salt and some red curry powder. I whisked the mess together and popped into the fridge. I also fired up my make shift sous vide apparatus and set the water bath for 139 degrees as recommended by Keller (he actually prefers 139.1 degrees for lobster, and yes .1 degrees makes a difference?)

755PM went back upstairs to help put the girls to bed.

810PM back in the kitchen. Preheated oven to 350 degrees. Made 5 crepes and set aside to cool. Made filling. Made 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of ricotta & goat cheese seasoned simply with salt, pepper, and fines de herbs.

820PM "Food-saved" lobster tails with a couple pats of butter and tossed into the sous vide apparatus. Filled crepes and popped into oven. Set timer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile made a sauce out of a shallot, white wine, remaining lobster stock, a little coconut milk (let over from last night, had no cream), some curry powder and finished with some butter kneaded with flour.

The result was on the table at 840PM and gone by 850PM.

Was this as good as what I had in NOLA? Not quite, but it's my first attempt, and I do believe I heard several MMMMMs from Jenny.

BTW: lobster cooked sous vide...best I've had at home...best I've had anywhere outside of a Ritz-Carlton or 4 star uppity joint. Keller actually cooks lobster, not sous vide per say, but poaches directly in a butter bath at 139.1 degrees maintained by a thermal immersion circulator. This requires about 5 kg butter (about $100 worth of butter). My version used 1 T butter per tail (about 10 cents worth) and was full of buttery goodness. I can't wait to try Keller's someday. Maybe I'll walk into Per Se next time in NYC, sit at the bar and order a tail ala cart.

Sous vide Thanksgiving, courtesy of Grant Achatz

2009-04-22T12:15:00.002-05:00

These videos are very interesting, and I stumbled across them after watching Achatz appear as a judge on Top Chef. I became even more interested in it when the Alinea at Home website was launched. More than anything, it opens a totally new dimension of possibility. At it's simplest form, cooking is about ingredient selection and combination, chemistry, and heat transfer. Maybe that's what makes it so intriguing to me. Watch both and enjoy!

Sous Vide at the White House?

2009-04-22T09:28:00.002-05:00

As you probably know, I have been interested in Sous Vide cooking for quite some time and had pre-ordered Keller's "Under Pressure" last November. My enthusiasm was greatly diminshed thereafter as the recipes in "Under Pressure" were designed for high-end restaurants with access to ultra-expensive equipment and ingredients. A good thermal immersion circulator runs about $1000 and a vacuum-chamber capable of "compression" runs 3-4K. Not going to happen at my house...So above you see the comprimise, a PID controller from Auber and a Black & Decker 20 cup rice cooker. The PID controller cost about $150 and the cooker $40. Below is my 1st attempt at Sous Vide.

On the way home yesterday, thought I would pick up some steaks for dinner and thought this would be the perfect 1st run. Went to the NY Butcher Shoppe and bought 2~10oz NY strip, I didn't splurge for prime cut as I wanted to see what this cooking technique would do for an ordinary choice cut of meat.

The process could not have been any easier. I simply put hot tap water in the rice cooker, plugged it into the PID controller and set the temperature to 135 degrees F. Within 10 minutes the water was at temperature and holding steady. There was some overshoot at times, but never above 137 and never below 135. The PID controller works by regulating the current supplied to the rice cooker based on the set temperature. Next I patted the steaks dry, seasoned with salt and pepper, brushed a small amount of olive oil and sealed with my FoodSaver (purchased at Tuesday morning sometime back for < $100). I dropped the steaks into the water bath and left them there until we were ready to eat which turned out to be about 3 hours.
This is what the steaks look like in the pouch after "cooking":

An this is the unappetizing appearance when removed from the bag...

But never fear, I've got a blow torch!

And this is the end result...

Meat that is succulent and wonderfully tender. Almost didn't need a knife. The entire steak was a perfect-medium rare, but when cut exuded almost no juices, they all stay inside the meat! There are some problems with this preparation, but with some refinement has great potential. First, I definately want more char, more that I could get with the torch. The difficulty will be making char without cooking further. Will try on a high-heat egg next time... Second, you have to trim as much fat as possible. The fat doesn't render and actully becomes extremely tough and quite disgusting. So next time, I will trim, trim, trim. I think my next attempt with be with a flat-iron steak. I will post a follow-up with the results.

The Contraption

2009-04-21T20:09:00.022-05:00

The contraption showed up on my front porch about two days before the oyster roast. No note. No pre-arranged dropoff. Just the contraption. I was working from home that day, but didn't notice it until around 11am. I went to put my latest Netflix in the mailbox (Madagascar 2) for the mail carrier, and noticed it perched on the wicker table out front. Pristine-ly clean aluminum, shining in the morning sun. The kind that makes you squint, even after a morning Starbucks. It was about 24 inches tall, round, with a domed lid. It took about 45 seconds for me to realize what it was.

My friend and former insurance agent had mentioned this contraption in the recent past. He offered to assist with the oyster "roast", and had a potential supplier for oysters. He had been to our oyster "roasts" many times, and appreciated the work that went into the event. We have had them many times in the past - UGA football games on the big screen (25 feet of high-def bliss - but I digress) and for the annual Master's party that we have on Par 3 Wednesday. Unbeknownst (I hate that word) to me, Rusty had dropped the contraption on the porch before he went to his office, which is about a mile from my house.

Rusty is the kind of friend that everyone should have. Good hearted. Personable. And previously being in the home insurance business (now corporate), could find almost any building-related material at low or no cost using his client connections out in "the country" (i.e. Waynesboro, Sylvania, etc). He once got me a claw foot tub from a house in Harlem, GA for free. To this day, I still wonder whether we actually stole the thing. We took my pickup truck at sunset to a dilapidated shack with no power. We crept inside with flashlights, took a hacksaw to the pipes to get it free, and man-handled it into the pickup. I was on the verge of a hernia. If you've ever picked up a real clawfoot tub, you know what I mean. We still use that tub for iced bottles of beer when we have parties. I got smart and bought a hand truck to move it around.

Anyway, Rusty is a man who can get things. And a man who likes to dream up contraptions. Cooking contraptions appears to be one of his latest fixations. He had a fellow build him an upright smokehouse for meat, that stands about 5-feet tall, is rectangular and made of sheet metal, and has about 10 racks inside. It's attached to a pot-belly stove that he feeds to smoke and heat to the meat. Awesome contraption. He also had a fellow build him a smoker/grill from a 6-foot propane tank, cut in half, with a 1/2 inch sheet metal divider to distribute the heat, and make the smoke roll across the meat from one end to the other, prior to exiting through the chimney. Again, awesome contraption.

The contraption Rusty brought me two days before the oyster roast was not at all contrived or built by a fellow. It was from an Oriental Market. An oh-six oriental market nonetheless (for you non-Augustans, that's the south side, as in 309-oh-6 zip code). The 06'ers have a number of oriental markets, and as OG pointed out, if you haven't been to one, you don't know what you are missing. Especially in variety and price. This contraption was made for steam, and boy can it steam. I'm not sure what the oriental crowd uses this contraption to cook, but you can't beat steaming oysters in it.

Which brings me to the first clarification of the day. We call all of our oyster events "oyster roasts", although technically, it's a steam. Oyster Steam doesn't sound nearly as appetizing as an Oyster Roast, so we stuck with the latter. Although I can promise you, I will have the wet canvas and wire cages available for an event in the near future, which we will honestly call an Oyster Roast.

So we have established that the contraption is a steamer, and can steam oysters better than any contraption I have used. Since we have done this a number of times in the past, I have tried to perfect the process, not unlike the way JW continues to perfect his Pizza dough. An oyster steam is a bit harder to perfect. Not because it's a difficult process. It's actually pretty simple. That's why it's difficult to perfect. The simplicity is inherent in the steaming process. There's a lot less opportunity to introduce flavor into the process when you are steaming. My typical process involved a 40 quart aluminum pot with a basket, which was resting in the pot on top of half garlic heads, lemons, and a number of spices. These additions don't do much for the oysters, but do give an amazing aroma that enhances the eating experience. My problem has always been the limited distance between having the lid tight, when the basket is resting on garlic and lemons, to having the lid too far above the pot rim, where too much steam escapes. The contraption completely solved that problem.

Not only did the contraption allow the lid to tightly seal, but the bottom section provided a good 4 inches of room for liquid and aromatics. I used sea salt, 30 bay leaves, 4 heads of garlic (halved), 4 lemons (halved), a cup of old bay seasoning, a 1/4 cup of cayenne pepper, 1/4 cup of peppercorns, and about 4 quarts of water to steam the oysters. We use a turkey burner outside, and with the contraption, had two layers of oysters. This gave us a layer (bottom) that was well steamed (for the girls), and a layer that was just right (for the manly oyster eater). For the record, Rusty ate with the girls.

I got 400 oysters from my good buddy that runs the restaurant around the corner from the house. Very good quality, and about 50% cheaper than what you would pay at Publix (which we have done in the past). The first round of oysters was a test of the contraption, and were a little too steamed for me. They were all eaten. The next 3 batches were perfect. About 20 of the guests managed to consume all 400 oysters, and the contraption was an excellent addition to this annual event. As you can see from the photos, it's not something sold by Ronco, but is extremely light, inexpensive, and durable. And expandable. I'm not sure when it would resemble the leaning tower of Pisa, but as Rusty says, "the steam has to go up, so put as many of them layers on there as you want." More experimenting is definitely in order. I foresee vegetables (corn, potatoes, etc.) on some of the layers.

Rusty is on the lookout for one that I can purchase for myself. It appears that the oriental market doesn't keep them in stock for very long.

MAB

New charcoal

2009-04-13T15:42:00.006-05:00

I went to a local restaurant supply store (the Cash n' Carry) and they were advertising this on the billboard outside. I figured, why not? I don't like going to Walmart in general, and I sure don't like buying the 10# bags because they run out pretty quick. My other problem is that the small bags of Royal Oak have too many small pieces and dust, so it takes FOREVER to light because the small pieces restrict airflow (fuel).
So, this one isn't even on the Naked Whiz' website. It is pretty much Royal Oak, which I'm sure is almost identical to what you might get in a bag of BGE, which I suppose I should compare it to. Burns great, hot, it is a little sparky, ash burns fine and white. Does great for low and slow and HHH.
It's distributed by Sysco who makes a lot of bulk items that restaurants I'm sure use (plates, canned veggies, frozen stuff, etc.). About 14 bucks for the 20# bag.
Now, if they'd just get rid of that orange bag....

Interesting website: pizza related

2009-04-10T12:27:00.005-05:00

Check out this website about the proper way to make pizza. Interestingly, it seems to be a lot more about technique than the type of dough that he uses. Also, it seems like there is a significant place for the sourdough starter. Clearly, I have a lot more experimenting to do.
The good news for all you in GA is that this guy's pizzeria is in the ATL, so it's definitely something to try out if you get the chance. The other cool thing is that there is a google map of what he considers the greatest pizzerias in the world. Finally, JW, notice that your pizzeria in New Haven is really high on the list.
I think it further illustrates the level of obsession that can sink in regarding pizza, and that unless you live in NYC or Italy, you have the opportunity to make some of the best pizza in town if you're careful about it!

Oyster "Roast"

2009-04-09T09:48:00.005-05:00

Good times! First, let me apologize for the quality of this photo...I guess that's what happens when you take pictures with your phone in the dark. Mr. Brown hopefully will post more on this event later and discuss the fantastic steaming device found at the Oriental Market.

My job as usual was to provide the condiments (I'm the equivalent of a redneck saucier). I made a cocktails sauce from the Lee Brothers Southern Cookbook (great book that has upscale versions of Southern classics) that used tomatoes instead of ketchup and whose secret ingredient was orange zest. I also made a remoulade & a wasabi aioli. Typically I make the remoulade from scratch, but this time decided to simplify in the essence of time. I had read somewhere of using of all things, sweet pickle relish as a "secret" ingredient. So I tried that, and the remoulade was the most used condiment by far, and I had atleast 5 requests for the recipe. So here goes:

For 1 cup
1 cup Hellman's mayo
1 tsp capers
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves minced
1 T sweet pickle relish
1 T hot sauce (I use Crystal for cooking), add more to taste
Juice of a lemon
1 T minced parsley leaves
About 20 grinds of black pepper
Salt to taste (probably doesn't need any if the capers are salty)

To make: pulse everything in a food processor fitted with the blade until combined and creamy. This sauce is particularly good on po boys and pan-fried or blackened fish.

JW

Ruhlman's new book

2009-04-07T13:19:00.005-05:00

Called "Ratio". Teaches how to cook without being a slave to recipes. Could be awesome, though I hope not too heavy on baking...

Jen's Birthday & One Helluva Dessert!

2009-04-06T21:28:00.006-05:00

Marinated Olives with Goat Cheese

Greek Spiced Baked Shrimp

Recipe courtesy Epicurious

Well, as per my usual, I was on-call for Jennifer's birthday, so I had to come up with a reasonably quick but tasty mid-week menu to "gild the lilly" to borrow a horrific phrase from that bloated genius Mario Batali. The appetizer was a simple marinated olive and goat cheese served with some artesianal bread from the Fresh Market. The bread also came in handy for mopping up the delicious sauce from the shrimp dish. BTW: this dish is awesome and very easy. Could make ahead and serve in a pinch...

Those are not the reason for the post. The dessert is where it's at! The picture doesn't do it justice, but it is a bastardized version of a recipe from the Babbo cookbook called "Strawberries and Peaches with Balsamic Zabaglione".

Strawberries are everywhere it seems, so I wanted to do a dessert using what's available at our crappy local markets and I remembered this recipe from my readings. Mario calls for peaches which I would not dare use this time of year even if I could find them, so I used all strawberries. He also calls for vin santo...good luck finding that stuff in Augusta... What I did find was a very tasty liqueur called Farette Biscotti Famosi. Interesting stuff, has hints of nuts, citrus, caramel, and fennel...nice even by itself.

Easy recipe and fantastic in my opinion. For the berries, I sliced a pint thinly and covered with 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup liquour that I brought to a simmer to macerate.

For the zabagione: Whip 1 cup heavy cream to stiff peaks and chill. Over a double boiler, whisk 4 egg yolks, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup liquour, and 1 T aged balsalmic until thick and foamy. Remove from heat and continue to whisk until mixture cools to room temperature. Next fold in the cream and chill until ready to eat.

To serve, I a few spoonfuls of the berries in the bottom of a martini glass, topped with crumbled biscotti cookie, then added generous dollops of the zabaglione.

MMMMMMM! This was so easy and incredibly flavorful. We had a shot of the liquour on the side. This would be a perfect make ahead dessert for a dinner party when you don't want the dessert to be the star, though it just might be! Try it and lemme know.