on the kitchen steps

I have pizza envy.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:13:00 +0000

Damn you Michael Rulhman! Damn you and your beautifully presented site. Damn you and your pizza post. Why, you ask, am I damning a man I really admire? Because I’ve been working on this post for a few days and he goes and cuts my legs from under me. There’s a spy in my house, has to be. Or it could be that pizza is just one of those wonderful things that can makes everything in the world seem better, and making it and writing about it just has to be done.

My current little obsession is the pursuit of a spectacular pizza dough. I thought I had found “the one” but now I’m not so sure. I am going to have to try out at least 2 other recipes before I can make a final call. The recipes in question are Rulhman’s dough from his book “Ratio”, referenced in his post linked above, and the Peter Reinhart recipes from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice”.

The “one” I am talking about currently is straight off of Foodnetwork.com, from “Jamie at Home”, That’s Oliver, Jamie Oliver. He’s British you know.

The recipe calls for bread flour or a mix of bread flour and Italian Tipo “00”. I like the blend and I have ready access to 00 flour, (Thanks Tom) so that’s my poison.

The steps are really quite easy, shift the flour and salt into a bowl or on a work surface. I think the bowl is less messy since I also don’t have a huge counter top on which to make a well in a giant pile of flour. (Chasing flour around a counter top is a pain.) All the other ingredients go into a big measuring cup. For a little added flavor I swapped out the sugar for a locally produced honey.
I use Fleischmann's RapidRise yeast, and even though you don’t need to let it bloom, I do anyway.

So pour all the wet onto the dry and mix… By hand is preferred, but you can use the paddle on a stand mixer. In a couple minutes you get a “shaggy” dough, I don’t have a picture cause my hands were encased in dough and I have yet to master using a camera with my elbows. Once you have the dough in a form you can turn out of the bowl, do so onto a nice clean work surface. I have a pseudo-granite topped kitchen cart that I use. I’m considering a having a wooden top made for it, but I digress.

Knead until the dough starts to get smooth and really quite elastic. If you’re kneading by hand your shoulders will clue you in to when the dough is kneaded enough. I know mine do. You can use a mixer to knead with a dough hook but I like the tactile interaction with the dough. I am totally a bread novice but I am starting to get a feel for when the dough is “right”.

When you are done kneading plop the dough into a clean bowl and either dust with flour or spritz with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and clean up your flour coated kitchen. In an hour your dough should have at least doubled in size.

And look something like that.

My next step to to portion the dough. Preferred method to get even portions, is a scale.

I weigh the entire mass.

Divide by 6 and use a bench scraper to cut the dough into equal hunks, by weight.

After all the math involved in portioning I need the calming activity of shaping the dough into balls.

Pull the top of the dough ball down over itself. Kinda like turning a sock inside out. Then pinch the bottom together.

Sorta like that.

I like to further shape the ball by cupping my hands over the ball and moving them in a circular motion on the counter. Lightly force the dough to drag against the counter so that it pulls together in a tighter ball.

Repeat 6 times and then line up the balls into neat rows so you can take a picture,

or if you aren’t an obsessed blogger, just stick em in zip top bags or wrap in plastic wrap.

As the recipe states, you can use the dough immediately or let it rest in the fridge until you are ready to use it. I like this idea. It builds flavor. Flour + water = crackers, flour + water + yeast = bread, flour + water + yeast + time = flavor.

Store the dough in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for… um I don’t know how long it will keep in the freezer cause it’s never around long enough to need to be frozen.

When I am ready to use a dough ball, I take it out of the fridge and let it warm up a little, 15 – 20 minutes usually does the trick.

Flour the work surface,

and press the dough into a rough disk to start the shaping.

I’d love to show you a video of me tossing dough into the air and spinning it across my shoulders like that guy in the Visa commercial (the music is a little iffy but mad skills) but that’s not happening. I will show a couple pictures of me stretching the dough.

Thinner…

Once the dough is shaped, it goes onto a peel dusted with flour or corn meal. (You can use a over turned cookie sheet if you don’t have a peel. The whole thing a can go into the oven)

Then it’s ready to be dressed.

One of my favorite toppings lately has been pancetta. It helps that I make my own but you can use the store bought stuff. It goes well with shaved garlic.

I use a truffle shaver to get paper thin slivers of garlic, which stick to each other and your fingers like crazy, but it’s worth it.

Little grey sea salt, little fresh ground black pepper, little fresh chopped flat leaf parsley and a kiss of olive oil - and the whole lot is chucked into a 550 degree oven for about 4 to 5 mins.

2 minutes in and the crust is rising nicely and the pancetta has started to render a little.

I intended to pull this pizza at 5 minutes but the phone rang and it turned into 6 minutes.

Little more done than I wanted but still…

Look at that crispity goodness.

Once you have a crust like this under your belt the possibilities are endless. Shaved fennel and shiitake, shaved onions and black cerignola olives, a simple pizza margarita.

I even did a pizza with eggs on it. Parmigiano Reggiano, shave onions, and 2 eggs, (HAH! Rulhman with your single egg… <sigh>), and a little sprinkle of cayenne.

Pizza dough is a thing of beauty. So simple to make and so wonderfully flavorful. It amazes me that Chef B. still makes a boxed dough. And people buy it!!!! WTF?

Get some flour, make some dough, join the food revolution.

Cheers

Chris

Feed the cheerleader, Feed the world.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:22:00 +0000

You guys all should know by now that I am a fan of Michael Ruhlman and his writings. Well, he just released a new book called “Ratio”, all about how much of this goes with how much of that. He is promoting this new offering by partnering up with Share Our Strength. Share Our Strength is a great organization trying to end childhood hunger.

He’s giving stuff to 3 donators as incentive. He also asked his fellow bloggers to link back to the SOS site. So I did.

Buy a book, make a donation, do something. I did.

Cheers

Chris

Will cook for food

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:24:00 +0000

I love to cook. It might be obvious from the fact that I actually take the time to write about the act. I cook all the time, but I have never had a job in a professional kitchen. I read books and blogs about professional kitchens, I occasionally get to meet the chef in a really groovy restaurant,

but I don’t cook for a living.

Last night I got a tiny taste of what it might feel like to work the line.

My friend Claudia had procured some steaks from an Italian heritage breed and had planned a dinner party to see how they rated. She invited me to dinner along with 8 other guest. She let me know she would like a little help with the meal and I was happy to help. She was also excited about some of the pork products produced from the trip to the farm.

On the appointed day I gathered up my dishes: pork liver terrine, blood sausages, and pizza dough, packed my apron and hopped in the truck.

When I arrived there were so many things to get done. Unpack steaks, trim artichokes, plate the terrine, preheat the ovens. Nothing too difficult but time was pressing. People would be arriving soon.

I am not going to detail out every step of the night but I had a blast shaping pizza dough, prepping the chokes, slicing various and sundry meats. It was quick and lively, people swirling around the kitchen, chatting and laughing.

A big highlight of the night for me was praise from a culinary professional. My blood sausage was a hit even though I was a bit apprehensive about how it turned out. The pizza dough, straight off of foodnetwork.com had fans. The terrine was attacked with relish.

The absolute best part of the night was seeing everyone dig in and eat, and eat and eat. The round of applause was a little embarrassing but heartwarming.

I was, by the end of the night, thoroughly exhausted, stuffed and exhilarated. A great time was had by everyone. Thanks for inviting me Claudia, and thanks to everyone else for all the kind words.

Cheers

Chris

This little piggy stayed home.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:47:00 +0000

Okay so right out of the gate let me say to my loyal subscribers, “I’m sorry!”. I know, 4 months is a long interval between posts. I have reasons: Holidays, met someone, work, broke up, lazy. When I say lazy, I don’t mean I have been lazy in the kitchen, just lazy about the blog. I will try to do better I promise.

Now on to the makeup/apology post. It’s a big one.

Last summer I read a book many of you might have read. “The Omnivore's Dilemma” by Michael Pollan. It completely changed the way I think about food and where it SHOULD come from. So I started looking for farmers locally, that could supply me with the sustainably raised meat and vegetables I had read about.
I was sooooooo damn lucky too.

One Saturday morning this past Autumn I met a disciple of Joel Salatin, the very farmer profiled in “The Omnivore's Dilemma”, the farmer I had admired for his farming methods.

Weldon Hawkins was the embodiment of the farmer I was looking for. Passionate about being sustainable, and the treatment and health of his animals. I immediately became a fan of his products. Pork, chicken, eggs, beef and lamb, all raised on the verdant pastures of Emerald Glen Farm.

BUT! There is always a but.
But there was still a disconnect from the food. Eggs came in neat little cartons, pork and beef came in neatly wrapped packages, already frozen. Sausage was already spiced, mixed and stuffed. The only difference from the grocery store was that the person selling the meat was knowing the guy that raised it. Major difference I know, but I wanted more connection.

So what to do…? Well turns out Weldon is super cool and didn’t give me the “Are you barking mad?” look when I asked about the possibility of buying a hog on the hoof and processing it myself. Yeah you read that right. I meant to do ALL the work. A to Z. So to prove just how cool he is Weldon said that it might be possible to do the processing on the farm. After a check with other concerned parties, he came back with affirmative response. I slapped down my deposit right then and there. I was gonna slaughter a pig…?

OH SHIT!!! What had I gotten myself into? I had a couple of months to contemplate it.

Dateline March 09 – Idiot goes to KY to collect his pig!
The night before I packed up everything I thought I would need — knives, pans, towels, bell scraper, zip top bags, propane torch, work tables, .22 pistol and last but not least my courage. I set the alarm for 5am and trundled off to bed.

I was up and actually out the door by 6am as planned. Weldon had informed me that the farm was a solid hour and forty five minutes from my house, and he wasn’t pulling my leg. 2 hours after hitting the road I turned onto the farm driveway and had to brake to avoid a trio of lambs bouncing across the drive. I wish I had taken a pic of the sheep but I was a little preoccupied with the impending task.

Weldon was already doing some farmy tasks when I pulled up and after a few minutes of organizing we started to prepare. Introductions were made. Someone was feeling shy.

She wasn’t shy for long.

She happily rooted while other preparations were made.

_____________________________________________

!!!!!!!! – WARNING!!!!!! GRAPHIC CONTENT -- !!!!!!!!

If you haven’t figured it out by now I went to KY to actually kill and butcher the above pig. If you are disturbed by images of animals being butchered you should stop reading now. I have not photo documented the actual kill process as I have too much respect for the pig and you, dear reader.

That being said here is the rest of the process.

_____________________________________________

Step 1: Fill a 55gal drum 3/4 full with water and set to boil, well almost boil. And the tractor was set up to lift the pig.

Step 2: Wait 2 hours for water to heat.

Step 3: Load .22 pistol

Step 4: Look pig in the eyes while trying to aim at the correct place to shoot and hope like hell that you don’t frakk it up and cause the animal undue pain.
This is where a commercial slaughter house has the advantage. They mostly use an electrocution system to effect the actual kill and there is less chance of not hitting the target.

Step 5: Try to calm down and pull the trigger… I got it right folks. I hit her in the correct spot and she slumped to the ground without making a sound. At this point I was shaking due to the massive amount of adrenaline pumping through my body.

Step 6: Stop shaking enough to cut the carotid artery so that she would bleed out.

Step 7: Wait. Calm down. Wish for a cigarette, or a shot of tequila. And not to get all spacey and new age on you but I also thanked the pig for her life. It was the least I could do.

Step 8: Carry out the rest of the butchering process.

If you grew up on a farm or in close proximity and was involved in this particular farm task, one that for most of recorded time was done on the farm, then you know that pig hair is something that needs to go before any other part of the process can take place. To that end the pig was hoisted by the tractor, rinsed off and dunked in the barrel of scalding water.

So after this soaking the hair is supposed to come right out. RIGHT! This is one of the more arduous tasks. Scraping the hair takes a looooooong time and a lot of energy. Luckily for me I was joined by my friend Matt who picked up a knife and jumped in to help.

For those of you who have been curious what I look like… That’s me in the blue.

I will not bore you with the 12 other images of pig scraping. Suffice it to say that we scraped for a long time. Nearly 2 hours. We even broke for lunch. Weldon’s family hosted us and it was a wonderful interlude in an otherwise stressful day for me.

Eviscerate… Transitive verb - : to take out the entrails of

If you are a regular reader of this blog (when I get off my ass and post) you have already seen this process with the “Doe a deer” post. It’s basically the same.

Hang the animal by the legs

Rinse the carcass.

And then CAREFULLY open the belly using a wicked sharp knife.

If you aren’t careful you can cut into the the viscera, which is just as unpleasant as it sounds. Especially if you get it on you or even less pleasant, in your mouth…

One of the less enjoyable moments of the day. However the cackling laughter that surrounded me as the unseen watchers (my so called friends) peed in their pants, kept it from being too heavy a moment. Plus the fact that it was from the upper end of the GI tract made it less, EWWWish.

Much more CAREFULLY, I finished opening the body cavity.

There is a lot of stuff that has to come out of the carcass before you can get an actual recognizable cut of meat.

Kidneys

Caul fat

Heart

Liver

I have to admit as I write this post , it’s a pretty gruesome process. However I think I have a responsibility to the sow to share this with as many people as have the stomach to read it. Pork doesn’t start out on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic.

In the spirit of the Nose to Tail movement that I support I removed the head for later processing.

I had help. As with every other part of this animal, the head was heavy.

Once the head was off and the sternum split I needed to make the big “draw” cut down the spine. I have a manual bone saw, and it is HARD to control. Very hard to control. So much so that if I ever do this again, my mother’s off hand comment about using a Sawzall for the task will be taken to heart.

This cut took about 10 minutes. There are 8 images but I decided the last one before the final stroke would be enough.

This is a “side” of pork.

And here is the side cut away from the ham.

From this I cut the loin, belly (bacon), lardo, shoulder (Boston Butt), picnic ham, ribs, hocks and trotters.

I have already started to process some of the less used parts into tasty treats.

And some of the more common parts as well. The 30lb hams have been covered in salt and are on their way to becoming salt cured ham.

I wish I had a few more pictures of the butchering process but I had my hands full at the moment and my drafted photographer was busy at other tasks. I’ll have more shots of the raw cuts when I post other processes.
On the agenda; Canadian Bacon, Salt Pork, Lardo, Roast Loin, Sugar Cured Ham, and various and sundry sausages. Boudin Noir anyone?

So, was it worth all the work? I would have to say it was. I know the details of the life of the pig in these pictures. I am even more intimately acquainted with her death. I do not feel any guilt her death. It was clean and quick and quiet.
I don’t have a single qualm about eating any part of this animal.
I have no fear of solution injected meat or high fructose corn syrup in the sausages, or hormones and antibiotics infusing the meat.
I know that the farmer who raised her is as concerned with the health of the animals he raises as he is about the health of the people who consume them.

When I sat down to a plate of bacon and eggs the following day, it was with bacon I had already cured from pigs raised by a man I trust, eggs I collected from the hens he keeps on pasture and milk so fresh it might be illegal.

In a few weeks I’ll invite some friends over for my annual “Spring Smoke”. Pork will feature prominently on the menu, ribs, handmade sausages and maybe a Canadian bacon pizza from the grill.

My friends and I will sit around eating astoundingly good food, raised by an outstanding farmer, and prepared with all the care that the ingredients deserve.

I’ll raise a glass to the fine ole girl that gave her all to the feast and know that this is the only way to eat.

Cheers

Chris

Special thanks to my guest editor for catching all the screw ups.

Doe a deer a female deer...

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:21:00 +0000

My friend Claudia has totally put me on the spot. Which, to be perfectly honest, was a kick in the ass I probably needed.

She recently posted about venison. Venison that I acquired from my stepfather, and then delivered to her fridge after an appropriate hanging time. Her post basically forces me to write my post so you can see where she got her venison.

WARNING! The rest of this post contains graphic images of a deer carcass being butchered.

The first thing you notice when picking up a fresh deer carcass from a relative is how heavy they are. Whitetail doe average 140 to 160 lbs. It took two of us to haul the doe into the back of my truck, where she maintained the classic dead dear posture. Head thrown back, tongue hanging out.

A few things have to happen to "process" a dear. First you have to access the tendons of the legs so that you can suspend the body from a tree or some similarly high point.

I was advised that evisceration should be preformed head up. So I hoisted the carcass into the giant mulberry tree in the backyard, much to the delight of the dogs who sniffed the alien creature until shooed away but continued to watch with great interest in the entire process.

The third step is to actually make the incision. Heard the phrase "Stem to stern"? That's the cut I had to make. Carefully, so as to not damage the organs inside or pierce the stomach or intestines. Deer are ruminants. Meaning they have fermentation tanks for stomachs. Not a pleasant smell if breeched.

The viscera was caught by a recycling bin as it was trimmed out. Heart, liver and kidneys were set to the side for later use.

Step... um... The next step was to skin the carcass. This is the suckiest part of the whole process. You might think it was the gutting part, but you would be wrong. While gutting is fairly bloody and messy it is not particularly difficult. Skinning on the other hand is akin to opening a plastic bubble packed electronic device with a pair of blunt nosed safety scissors. You wind up with small cuts on your fingers from the plastic, longingly staring at the liquor cabinet at 11 in the morning. Mammal skin is designed to stay attached and it's slippery. By the end of the almost 2 hour long process my hands hurt from the cold and from gripping the skin tight enough to not have it slip through my fingers. The entire time I was thinking how all this work better be worth it.

Done. Sorta. The carcass has to hang, and age. Meat is the one case were freshness is not necessarily a virtue.

WARNING! Science content: Why hang/age meat?
Two things happen when you hang an animal to age. First, immediately after death, enzymes in the muscle tissue (proteases) start to break break down proteins in muscle tissue (proteolysis) causing the tissue to become tender. Second, moisture is lost due to exposure to the air. "Dry Aging" is the preferred method for most meat connoisseurs as opposed to "Wet Aging" where the meat is packed in a vacuum bag and is left to soak in the released fluids (blood). Wet aging leaves the meat all metallicky tasting. Gross. Sadly, most grocery store meat is wet aged.

The end result of aging/hanging is that the meat is more tender and typically more concentrated in flavor.

Seven days after all the joy that was skinning the doe I had this.

A carcass ready to be broken down. I used the basic butchering guide for a lamb as they are relatively similar. Plus the book I was referencing recommended it.

The rear cut was made first.

Then the front half of the carcass was boned out. (The visible mold was trimmed away)

Leaving lovely bones for stock. I removed the lower section of ribs on both sides. You might notice the dark red blood on the side of the carcass. That was were the bullet hit and dropped the deer where she stood. Brutal but ultimately painless death. She didn't know what hit her.

The hind quarters were next.

The tenderloins had been previously removed and gifted to Claudia. She made them amazing. This left me with the loins (backstrap) and the haunches.

The haunches are going to be used in an experiment in ham curing. (Future post) The majority of the meat left was converted into Sweet Italian sausage or vacuum sealed and frozen for later use (loins).

I am still trying to determine my like or dislike of the sausage. I am, as you might be aware, a pork guy and the texture of ground deer is quite different from pork. So the sausage is strange to me. Not really a flavor issue so much as texture. Whitetail deer is a sweeter flavored meat that pork, so that changed the flavor profile of the sausage a bit. Like I said I am still figuring out if I like it or not.

What I really did like, do like, continue to like, is the country pate that was made with the liver. But that is another post.

When my stepfather called me bright and early that Saturday morning asking if I was still interested in an entire deer, I jumped at the offer. When I got it home and ready to process I wasn't sure I could go through with it. After the first cut into the skin and belly I knew I would be fine. Waiting on the meat to age was just a matter of the occasional poke at the carcass and a sniff to make sure nothing was starting to "turn". I learned a lot during this ongoing process. I am grateful to my stepfather for the gift of the deer, and not to get all new agey or mystical I am grateful to the deer for her life. I hope to do right by her.

The most important thing I learned? Knowing where your food comes from and how much work is involved makes you appreciate the meals produced that much more.

Cheers

Chris

Seattle - the REST of the StOry.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:10:00 +0000

I am no longer in Seattle, but Seattle is still RAWKING. My trip is completed but the memories remain.

Dinner at Cellars: a nice Italian restaurant/bar with some really cool dishes. The menu reads like a code-switching wet dream, Italian and English nestled together like exotic lovers on cream colored sheets.
CALAMARI:Herb breaded squid sautéed with garlic & lemon over tomato sauce.

PAPPARDELLE AL SUGO DI CHINGIALE
(Wild Boar, with wide pasta)

CREMA CATALANA
(Italian style Creme Brulee)

Had a great time at Cellars that night. The Truffle Lady showed up with friends to celebrate her brothers birthday and invited me to hang out for the evening. Very nice peoples.

Dinner at Duke's Chowder House: where I had of all things, chowder. Five types of chowder to be exact.

In order counter clockwise from the bottom center: Clam, Lobster Pernod, Cajun Chicken Corn, Northwest Seafood, and Dungeness Crab & Bourbon.

My favorite was the Norhtwest Seafood. It had big chunks of Halibut that were fabulous.

Duke's boasts is "Undefeated Champion Seattle Chowder Cook-Off". I wasn't impressed. There is a huge difference to me in Northwest vs New England clam chowder. So far the best I have ever had was at Mr Dooleys Boston Tavern. Give it a shot when you are in Boston. Overall Duke's was not bad for a chain.

Lunch at Salumi: Separate post on the way.

Lunch with the gang at Pam's Kitchen: Pam's is a Trinidadian-Caribbean restaurant which it seems to me is serving mostly Indian dishes. The Goat Roti is absolutely fantastic. Tender and a little spicy and very satisfying.

The flatbread in the basket is killer. Roti is the word for flatbread is a number of languages.
Some customers are just cooler than others.

It was Halloween. Just to explain weird blonde on the left.

Saturday I got to spend the day at Pike Place Market again. Breakfast was a pecan roll and coffee from Cinnamon Works and a BBQ Pork Humbow from Mee Sum Pastry.

You know the bbq spare ribs that are ubiquitous to the average Chinese restaurant? Imagine that pork made into something with the consistency of Tuna salad, folded up into a fluffy wheat bun. Like ummm pork on a bun. In a bun. A bun wrapped around pork... You get the picture.

I wandered around the market for the rest of the day. I don't think I came anywhere close to seeing it all. I can say that I am extremely jealous of the Seattlites who get to shop at this market whenever that want.

Nashville's farmers market is getting better but there is something truly unique about Pike Place Market.

If you are interested here is a link to the rest of the pictures I snapped at the market. Enjoy.

Cheers

Chris

Seattle - Three days on.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:29:00 +0000

I, am in Seattle. Seattle RAWKS! Pike Place Market is something so concrete it knocks you over but so ethereal you can't describe it. Fish mongers, cheese makers, vegetable stands, Sur La Table, the truffle lady and this guy.

This is the first view you get. Nothing too impressive.

Then this after topping the hill.

Who knew they had a brick and mortar storefront? Seattleites, apparently.

The fish guys who throw fish...? Nearly asleep on his feet. I got pictures of shellfish instead.

The place is big, and crowded and big... Did I mention it's big?

Not even close to the entire place, just one aisle.

They make cheese here, Beechers. Really nice cheddar.

You can watch em make it.

They have live music right across the street.

The Truffle Lady has a wicked cool shop. la buona tavola. Her staff is awesome and very knowledgeable.

I learned a lot about truffles, and a little about wine.

Then there was the produce stand with all the garlic and pepper braids.

This is about the time I started to burn out... Not on the market but on too much envy. I want this kinda place at home. Even the view from the hotel is nice, once you ignore the utility lines.

I can even see the Space Needle. Foggy this morning.

So, that's basically the first 3 whole days. 4 more to go.

Cheers

Chris

I can haz summer malaise?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:44:00 +0000

Seems that I at least had summer writers block.

I am not a warm weather person. Never have been. Even as a child I preferred running barefoot through the snow to barefoot in the sand. Heat makes me languorous.

That being said I have not been idle this summer. I have had all sorts of unfulfilled grandiose plans and a few fulfilled smaller moderately well planned ideas. Just not anything I wanted to write about, until now.

So without further stalling here is my "What I did on my summer vacation." report.

Tried for the perfect BLT made with organic tomatoes and home cured bacon, buffalo mozzarella, and homemade mayo (I do like a few things about summer).

My first paella, made at the lake for tons of people.(Not exactly the right pan but that is sure to be remedied)

Grilled watermelon and peaches. Quite tasty.

Discovering Pineapple Pancetta Grilled Cheese. This kills!

Showed some love for the pear tree in my back yard.

Pear preserves all winter, for the price of picking up jars from my mother (gratis) and a pound of sugar, rocks.

Recreating my Grandmothers pressure cooked green beans, almost.

My first tentative steps into the world of fresh pasta.

Used in alla carbonara, sans cream with pancetta,

and with cream and guanciale. (this one was better)

Peach ice cream with homemade caramel sauce.

And most recently and the most grandiose of my summer activities. Tilling up roughly 1800 square feet of the back yard for a garden next spring.

It's bigger than it looks.

And summer just wouldn't be summer without friends to share it with.

I will make every effort to post more often.

Next up is Salt Pork.

Cheers

Chris

Ravioli di Coniglio

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:14:00 +0000

As I meandered through the Nashville Farmers Market one meltingly hot Saturday morning, I happened to pass the stall of Chigger Ridge Ranch. John and Debbie Mays raise lamb and rabbits on their hormone, antibiotic, herbicide, fungicide, and insecticide free farm in Charlotte TN. While I wasn't in the mood for lamb that morning, I was intrigued by the rabbit. Turns out they had sold out for the day a wouldn't have more for a couple of week due to holidays and processor schedules.
So I would have to wait. And wait. Then I had scheduling issues that made me wait... I thought I would never lay hands on a little cute furry bunny wabbit to grind up into forcemeat for rabbit tarragon sausage.
I did finally catch John and Debbie on a fine (read miserably hot) Saturday morning with a fine stock of individually frozen leporidae and separately packaged livers. I chose a nice looking rabbit and a single pack of livers and I was off to make sausage.

While I don't have pictures of the act, boning a rabbit carcass is not an easy task. While the legs are similar in size and shape to chicken legs, that's were the similarity ends. The bones are different and the meat is a little more resistant to removal from said bones. Plus all the connective tissue makes it interesting. After a few minutes with a good sharp knife I had a pile of meat that resembled so much chicken. It wouldn't look that way for long.

My grandfathers meat grinder served well to render the chunks into a nice fine textured ground meat. The livers (ground also) added to the meat served the same purpose that pork fat would serve in regular pork sausage, flavor and binding. My hands were covered in meat and liver, so snapping a pic was out of the question at the time. Picture ground chicken in a bowl and you will have the visual.

So here is my take on:

Rabbit Tarragon Sausage

1 1/2 lbs ground rabbit meat
1/2 lbs ground rabbit liver
1 tsp rubbed sage
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black or white pepper, finely ground
2-3 tbsp fresh minced tarragon (I like a lot of tarragon)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and until thoroughly combined. Try to keep the mixture cold so that the forcemeat doesn't "break". (separate the fat and lean)
To adjust the seasoning, poach a tsp of the sausage either wrapped in plastic wrap in gently simmering water (180°) or sauté over medium heat until well done 3-4 minutes for both methods.

Once you have a nice batch of sausage you need some way to deliver it to your unwitting culinary guinea pigs or to your family. Whichever group you have easier access to and might be more ~~gullible~~ receptive. Remember, not everyone digs the prospect of noshing Thumper. ("heheh heheh" evil chuckle)

I decided on ravioli. Pretty easy to make. Or so I thought... The first batch of pasta was a might on the thin side and kept blowing out during sealing. The second batch was a little thicker (one notch on the pasta roller machine thicker) and was better suited to making the little pasta dumplings.

1 tsp of sausage per ravioli is what I went with. I didn't want to overload the pasta.

I topped the little bugger with a scant 1/4 tsp of ricotta and a pinch of good parmigiano reggiano.

The I used a pastry brush to dampen the edges of the pasta with a little water, folded it over and carefully sealed it. I made sure to remove as much air as possible so that the ravioli wouldn't explode. I trimmed the edges with a pastry crimper and was all set.

So how to cook and serve... 3-5 minutes in gently boiling, salted water (they float to the top) then a quick sauté with a little butter. Plate and drizzle with a little beurre noisette (brown butter).

Again no pictures. Both times I served these was not in my kitchen and I had forgotten my camera. I actually meant for my one ~~guinea pig~~ friend to take pictures when I did dinner with he and his wife, but I forgot.

I really enjoyed the light texture of the rabbit. It has a deeper flavor than the look-alike chicken and is more substantial without being heavy.

Rabbit is going to become a staple protein in my kitchen, just not too frequently. (It's slightly more expensive than other white meat. But nutritionally better.)

I recommend trying rabbit. I recommend getting it from John and Debbie at Chigger Ridge Ranch. Saturdays at the Nashville Farmers Market. Tell em Chris sent you.

Cheers

Chris

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, this post was in no way sponsored, endorsed or solicited by Chigger Ridge Ranch.

But they do got good meat - psst try the lamb sausage too.

Cherry 2000

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:25:00 +0000

I read a number of other gastronomic bloggers, celebrity and otherwise, but rarely (never in fact) have I jumped on a post as quickly as this one from Eric Ripert. His post for Raspberry Clafouti was so simple and inviting that I had to try it. I had to try it that night. I had to try it immediately. Like some kind of Pavlovian zombie, I lurched into the kitchen, drooling in anticipation.

Now I am not overly fond of Raspberries but the recipe printed at the bottom of the post has cherries listed as the fruit and Eric says point blank that it was originally made with cherries, so not a qualm was had when I made the substitution to black sweet bing cherries.

So... I recommend you pop over for the video and try it. Here is my version. Double the recipe, using fresh cherries (pitted of course and halved) and vanilla bean instead of extract.

My mise.
(from top left clockwise: 2 cups cherries, 6 tbsp ap flour, 12 tbsp half/half, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 vanilla bean, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp butter)

Butter the skillet and coat with sugar, add the cherries.

Batter poured and ready to bake.

Baked. 15 minutes at 400 in my handy little convection toaster oven. Not a Cuisinart but just as functional.

Service for one.

Self saucing dessert. My clafouti basically made it's own Créme Anglaise because it didn't cook through 100%. Mind you I loved it this way! Wouldn't change a thing.

Simply stated this desert is nearly fool proof. Might want to keep an eye on it during the last 5 minutes that it doesn't burn.

This taste goooooood. Smack yo mama good!

Cheers

Chris

Now your cooking with acid!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:11:00 +0000

Wednesday nights for me are a time to relax on the lake while repeatedly keeping myself from drowning.

I am a white water kayaker and as practice for those times when the river says "you can't float right side up now" there is the activity referred to as an Eskimo Roll.

I meet up with other like minded nut jobs and we take turns flipping over and then righting ourselves, or we spend unbelievably long 30 seconds upside down underwater wondering if someone will come rescue us before we decide to swim.

All of this boat rotation causes much hunger, so we gather together on the shore after such antics along with our flat water brethren and we eat. It's a pot luck dinner that can go either way, Feast or famine . It's a roll of the dice.

So knowing that I would be floundering in lake water Wednesday then chowing down with my friends I stopped in at Publix and picked up a few tidbits to make one of my favorite summer dishes.

Ceviche.

Turns out I have been butchering the pronunciation and spelling for a long while calling it sir-viche. Now I am not sure how to say it so I am just gonna drop the r until someone that speaks Spanish corrects me.

The seafood chosen for this recipe need not match the list below. Just make sure that it is as fresh as you can get. Not fresh seafood is not yummy.
Conch is not a common item in Nashville but Publix in Goodletsville has it, the guy will have to thaw some for you but they gots it. K&S World Market on Nolensville Rd might have it as well.

4 oz deveined shrimp peeled, 25/30 count 10-12 shrimp cut into 2 or 3 pieces each
4 oz bay scallops or 4 oz sea scallops cut into ½ inch dice
8 oz conch sliced 1/8 inch thick slices
1 large Grouper fillet approximately 12 – 16 oz cut into 1x1x ¼ inch thick slices
4 smallish calamari 4- 6 oz – bodies sliced into ¼ inch rings and tentacles split in 2
4 oz fresh Bing or black cherries – pitted and quartered
1 lbs cherry or grape tomatoes
½ a medium red onion sliced into wedges
¼ cup chopped cilantro
1 oz sun dried tomatoes - julienned
1 large or 2 medium gloves garlic mashed into a paste with the side of a knife
¼ tsp red pepper flake
dash or 2 of hot sauce – I like habanero based sauces. Lots of flavor without adding as much vinegar as the average pepper sauce.
Juice from 2 oranges about ½ a cup
Juice of 8 limes
Juice of 6 lemons
Salt and pepper to taste just before serving.

Mix everything in a bowl and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

Alternatively reserve the conch until 15 minutes or less before serving as it tends to toughen up the longer it “cooks”. Technically the seafood is being “denatured” not cooked but the end result is the same.

I didn't take any pictures today but there are bazillions of pics on the web. Google returned 1,630,000 hits and Food Network has 71 recipes...

So my best advice is chose firm, non oily, white fleshed fish, - grouper, tilapia, sole, snapper etc etc. Use only fresh citrus juice. Dress it up with spices you like.

Cheers

Chris

The other white cheek.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:20:00 +0000

Installment # 3 in the Charcuterie posts is Guanciale. First let's work on pronunciation. For those of you who, like me, do not speak Italian this is a puzzling word to pronounce but after many web searches and a conversation with former resident (but not native) of Italy, I have narrowed it down to 2 possible pronunciations. Gwan-see-ah-lay and gwan-chi-ah-lay. That out of the way, on the the meat of the matter.

The first step in any of these more esoteric recipes is to acquire the main ingredient, in this case UNCURED pork cheek, otherwise known as hog jowls. Uncured being the hard part... At the Nashville farmers market you can find salted and smoked hog jowls by the bushel basket, literally. This being a city of "southern food", hog jowls and ham hocks play a major part in a lot of southern cooking, soul food included. However, I wanted pig cheek au-natural. So I called up Danny at DW Farms and placed an order for 4 cheeks.

On the appointed day and at the appointed place, I picked up the jowls. 2 smallish 2 larger.

Let me just say this, I have never really been freaked out by a cut of meat until now... It's not the muscle tissue, or the location of origin from the animal, it was the bristles of the 2 smaller cheeks that could be felt on the skin side.
All I can say is someone needs a Mach 3. <shiver> ewww.

I trimmed the nasty bits (glands and the like, some bristles, again ewww) and started the cure.

Kosher salt, sugar, garlic black pepper corns, and thyme. Quite a simple cure.

I doubled the amount of cure due to the amount of pork I decided to process. Just a little over double the weight.

I spread a layer of cure in the bottom of a big plastic container.

Then laid in the washed, trimmed and dried jowls. A layer of cure, a layer of meat, a layer of cure, a layer of meat then the rest of the cure.

Pop on the lid and chuck it in the fridge for 7 days, or until the jowls are uniformly firm. Turning and rotating every other day.

After 7 days it looks like this.

Not a lot to see in that one, so how about this. Ready to rinse and hang

After a little shower in the sink, I used a very sharp knife to poke a hole in the thinner end of each jowl and used butchers twine to hang them to dry.

As you can see the skin on the smaller two guanciali turned a little gray. This would be remedied by the drying process.

After 3 weeks of hanging the skin has turned all mahogany and pretty... The two large guanciali did not have skin.

Here are the first couple of slices.

This stuff is really fragrant. Slightly floral from the thyme and a little pungent from the garlic. There is a meaty aroma also that is really hard to pin down.

The flavor is also floral-ish but very porky and works very well as a traditional ingredient in alla carbonara.

If you can lay hands on uncured pork cheeks and a copy of Charcuterie, I recommend making this.

It may not be for everyone but I like it.

Cheers

Chris

Dontcha hate to get your cheeks pinched?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:25:00 +0000

I would have never expected to enjoy this particular cut of beef, but cheeks are brilliant! The need some special treatment but the results, if handled even 3/4 correctly are outstanding.

Those of you who familiar with The French Laundry at Home will have more than likely already seen this dish fully blogged by Carol, and done with humor and style and great camera work...

Well for this blog you might get 1 of those 3... And even I don't know which one it will be... So without further rambling obfuscating I give you partial Tongue In Cheek from the French Laundry cook book.

I was inspired to try this part of the recipe by my experience with the Braised Veal Cheeks that I had at Roosters in Charlotte. Also I found beef cheeks for some ridiculous price like $1.25 a pound.

So with my newly acquired beef cheeks (Carol is dead on when she said that beef cheeks is fun and funny to say), I cracked open my, coffee table extravaganza, copy of, The French Laundry cookbook.

It starts by unpacking and trimming the cheeks. (Squeamish alert!)

The little pile of meat at the front of the picture is the part that I didn't keep, silver skin and membranes.

The second step is to make a batch of the Red Wine Marinade found on page 190.

1 bottle of good red wine (this will come back to bite you if you don't use a decent wine.) carrots, leeks, onions, garlic, flat leaf parsley, thyme and bay leaf.

Everything goes into a pot and is brought to a boil. The recipe states... "Tilt the pan away from the burner and carefully ignite the wine with a match." This is rather nerve racking in a kitchen with 8 foot ceilings and no commercial fire suppression system. It's also the best way to make sure that the alcohol is burned off so that it doesn't cook the meat while it is marinating. (Note to self: Make sure fire extinguisher is charged, as a precaution)

If you look closely you might be able to see the flames.

Once I couldn't get anymore vapors to ignite it was time to let the marinade cool.

I but the cheek in a one gallon zip-top vacuum bag and poured the room temp marinade in with it, sealed up the bag and stuck it in the fridge over night.

After a 8 to 12 hour soak, I removed the meat and strained the marinade into a pot and brought it to a boil. The vegetables are reserved for later.

While the marinade was getting it's boil on, I dredged the cheeks in all purpose flour and started to brown them in a little peanut oil (my de facto cooking oil). It took about 3 minutes a side for the cheeks to get brown and crusty and ready for the next steps.

The marinade, once boiled and reduced a bit was strained again, this time through a coffee filter. Not part of the original recipe but I wanted to remove any little icky bits that the skimming didn't catch.

Per the recipe I had about a cup marinade.

The vegetables left from the marinade got a quick saute in the pan used to brown the meat.

Let me just say that throughout the process nothing had really tasted all that great, and the colors were almost disturbing... purple leeks and carrots, freaky. I did figure out the issue with the off flavor and this is were the quality of the wine comes into play... Cheap wine is not the best idea. I don't mean Thunderbird cheap but not anything I will buy again. Lesson learned... I get it now even though I am not much of a wine person. Good wine = good food.

So now that I had all the parts ready, I was hoping that my bad choice of wine wouldn't ruin the final dish, but I had to put it together to find out.

Cheeks, marinade, vegetables, veal stock and water to cover went into a loaf pan of all things. I used a loaf pan because of the overall volume it held was just over what was needed to hold the ingredients without diluting the marinade/stock too much with water.

I covered the meat with a parchment lid... Neat idea. Cut parchment to the size and shape of the cooking vessel with a vent hole in the center so that the meat is protected from caramelizing and allows a little evaporation. Mr. Keller says "It's like having a lid and not having a lid at the same time." How Zen...

I cooked the cheeks for 4 hours at 300°, then let them rest for 30 minutes before even removing the parchment. That's a long 30 minutes, but worth the wait.

For the final plating I did a quick sauté of fingerling Yukon Gold potatoes and sliced the cheek into half inch slices. I also reduced some of the braising liquid until it was satiny smooth and coated the back of a spoon.

Oh Damn! it was good. My worries about the wine flavor were put to rest with the first bite. This had has good a flavor as the veal cheeks I had at Roosters. The texture was very nice but not as good as the veal. I really enjoyed the dish, and I learned lessons while making it. Two hallmarks of a good recipe to me.

I will make this again when the temperature is a bit lower. It's a perfect late fall or winter dish.

Anyone else out there tried variations on French Laundry recipes? Did they work? Did they fail? Tell me about what you experienced.

Cheers

Chris

If life hands you lemons, make lemon cookies.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:55:00 +0000

Many of you will know exactly what the phrase "cookie dough sale" means. For those of you who don't, let me splain...

The ubiquitous candy/trinket/candle fundraiser sales of our school days have been augmented by the sales of 3 lbs tubs of cookie dough with nearly the mythical self life of Twinkies. (Actual shelf life of the dough frozen, is 12 months). The dough cost between 10 and 13 dollars depending on the flavor.

Now this is not an item I would buy if little Timmy knocked on the door hawking his wares to fund raise for his school field trip to the science center, but when my nephew called at the beginning of his school year, (in perfect compliance with the Do Not Call Registry, since I brought and consumed cookies the previous year) I played the part of dutiful uncle and agreed to purchase a tub-o-cookies.

I chose the German Chocolate cookies, seeing as that is probably my favorite cake, I thought they would be tolerable.

After a few months and the inevitable memory lapse about the purchase, I received a call one Saturday morning with a cryptic message informing me that my sister-in-law would be at certain small/square hamburger joint, at a certain time and would have my "stuff"... I arrived at the aforementioned time and place feeling like I was ready for a shady drug deal and took delivery of my rapidly thawing tub of joy... Once home I tucked the tub away in the garage freezer until such time as I needed on demand cookies.

This morning, that time arrived... I had actually planned for the event by removing the dough from the freezer last night and leaving it out to thaw.

I imagine that you, dear reader, might be asking yourself "what the hell do lemons have to do with German Chocolate cookies...?" or maybe "What the hell is he yammering on about today...?" I will do more 'splaining'.

Over the weekend I purchased a bag of lemons from the local chain grocery store, I found a little mold on one, then a second, then third and fourth lemon this morning, and knew that if I didn't harvest the lemon juice quickly, I would have moldy additions to my compost pile, and a couple of wasted bucks.

So I wind up in the kitchen with 2 dozen German Chocolate cookies and a half a cup of lemon juice... Now what does anyone worthy of the description "curious" do with 2 dozen cookies and a half a cup of lemon juice? Sprinkle a little juice on a cookie of course...

You could have knocked me over with a feather... Turns out the combination is actually really really good, and I'm not even fond of sweet lemon preparations.

So, lessons learned today... Chocolate and lemon CAN go together, and the scary tub-o-cookies can be turned into a decent desert.

I recommend finding a nice chocolate cookie recipe and drizzling fresh lemon juice on them while they are still warm... I also recommend you find way to get rid of the remaining cookies other than standing over the cooling rack eating cookies and growling at your family members when they venture too close to you...

Surprises happen all the time... Be open to them.

Cheers

Chris

Peter Pan-cetta

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:34:00 +0000

Garlic Cloves
Pink Salt (Nitrite)
Kosher Salt
Dark Brown Sugar
Black Pepper
Juniper Berries (crushed with the bottom of a small sauté pan)
Bay Leaves
Fresh Ground Nutmeg
Fresh Thyme
Pork Belly

These ten ingredients are the alchemic start to the wondrous substance referred to by the Italians as Pancetta. From the Italian for belly: pancia. Belly people, as in pork. Or more commonly BACON. "Gimme what's in tha bag..."

Some of you might have guessed that this is a Charcuterie post. For those of you who didn't figure it out... It is.
Pancetta is the second recipe in the book and sorry for the time it took to get it to you... Pancetta is not a quick recipe like, say like Fennel-Cured Salmon, that take around 48 hours. Pancetta takes 7 days to cure and 3 weeks to dry. Some recipes I looked at had drying times upwards of 3 months.
This belly started it's inexorable journey to bacondom at the same time as the country/fresh bacon that was in the first official post from the masterwork that is Charcuterie... (Too gushing? Too wordy? But it's a really good book.)
As a matter of fact, the meat came from the same 14 1/4lbs belly as the fresh bacon.

There are 2 major differences between the 2 types of bacon.

1: The fresh bacon was smoked after it was cured. The pancetta was dried and not smoked.
2: There was a lot more to the cure. Fresh bacon only had 3 cure ingredients whereas the pancetta cure has 9.

Hard to see in this picture but that's 8 out of 9. I forgot the thyme until last minute.(Remember, no exact quantities cause that would be plagiarism, and thieving. Want to know, buy the book.)

The first part is pretty simple. Mix the cure ingredients together so that the pink salt is evenly distributed. Then give your belly a massage rubbing the cure mixture all over. The goal here is to get as even a coating of cure as possible on the entire belly.

See, simple... Next comes the second hardest part of the process. Wrestling the belly into the zip top bag without scraping all the cure off or getting it all over yourself. Hindsight being 20/20 and all that, next time I might try to enlist an assistant for this part. There is also a definite drawback to getting cure in the grooves of the zipper, damn things won't close if there is cure blocking the nifty zipping action...

Tick Tock... and through the miracle of internet time dilation, 7 days pass. 7 days of waiting patiently for the various chemical and physical reactions to take place, flipping the bag every other day so the cure stays evenly distributed. "...(a process called overhauling)..." Observe, a direct quote from the book, page 45 in fact. Proof I really am following the book.

Check the belly by poking it with your finger... If it's uniformly firm and not squishy, it is ready to go. If still squishy let it sit for an additional day or two.

What do we do now that the 7 days have past and the belly is not squishy? Time to roll it duuude... This, my friends, is the single hardest task in the whole process.

After rinsing all the cure off of the newly christened pancetta, you will be left with a slightly stiff and slippery chunk of meat, that you have to roll up very tightly. This is so not an easy chore. I would rate it somewhere between giving a cat a pill and trying to convince a 3 year old that spinach is yummy. I have to confess that due to the battle that transpired, I was not able to free my hands to snap a shot of the pancetta mid-roll.

After trimming the belly to square it up, I sprinkled the meat side with cracked pepper and rolled it as tight as I could, tying it as I went. I spaced out the butchers twine about every 1 - to - 2 inches.

I wrapped it in cheese cloth and prepared for another wait. This time a mere 3 weeks needed to transpire before I would be able to show you this!

Let me just say the it taste as good as it looks.

The first thing I made with it after it had dried was farfalle alla carbonara. (Expect a post in a day or so)

I also cooked the trimmings on the grill while smoking the fresh bacon. Let me just say again as I did in that first post... Grilled bacon rawks!

If you can find yourself a farmer to supply the belly and lay hands on a copy of the book, I really recommend making this. It's actually quite simple. Just takes a little patience.

Next up from the book. Gaunciale.

Cheer

Chris

Great Balls of Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:11:00 +0000

"Here, you have to try this..." she said sliding a sliver of mango across the cutting board. It was topped with a lurid, almost pornographically red sauce. Just a couple of little dots of the stuff, but I knew—oh yes I knew—that in those few small dots of color existed pain... If you weren't careful. But I trusted my host, wrangled the slippery piece of fruit from the board and popped it in my mouth.

Amazing! The mango was juicy and sweet with that slightly funny mango aftertaste, but this time somehow more mango than the un-garnished chunk I had just robbed from the cutting board. The heat of the sauce "woke up" the mango. I was enlightened, just a little bit.

So I am sitting in a ~~sardine can~~ airplane a couple weeks later on my way home, when out of the clear blue, BANG!!! Mango Sriracha Ice Cream... No shit. My brain thought that up... I thought it was freakin insane, but I was hooked on the idea.

I didn't write down any quantities while I was concocting but I will do better next time and post an accurate recipe.

I filleted 4 ripe mangos and rough chopped the resulting flesh and chucked it into a pot with 2 tbsp of sugar. The pot then went over medium high heat until it start to sizzle a bit, basically a sauté. I reduced the heat to a simmer and cook hell out of it until it reduced by at least a third and everything is very soft. Since I am guessing at a time for this post I would say 20 minutes or so.

The next step was to puree the fruit into, well puree. I also added 1/2 cup of cream and 1 cup of milk. More simmering, then "DING" you have about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of mango milk that need to be strained.

You lose about 2/3 to 1 cup of solids. You could leave this in, but I think it makes for a stringy mixture...

This is not stringy...

My end result was 2 cups of mango mixture ready to add to a custard style ice cream base.

Pretty standard mix, or at least my version of a standard mix. Less eggs than normally called for.

1 whole egg
1 egg yoke
1 1/2 cups milk (I didn't use more cream because my mango mix was already so creamy)
1/4 cup sugar

Heat the milk in a pot to just simmering, you don't want to scald it. While the milk is heating mix the egg and yoke in a bowl with the sugar... beat the hell out of this mixture until it starts to thicken (I'll take pictures next time.)
Temper the egg mix with the hot milk, adding little bits at a time while whisking. I added a tbsp at a time until I had doubled the volume of liquid in the bowl... If you do this too quickly you will get scrambled eggs. Add the tempered mix into the hot milk and stir gently until the entire pot starts to thicken. It's gonna be like a thin custard or pudding.

Chill everything down so it can be stored in the fridge until ready to freeze... I used an ice bath.

Everything in the fridge over night for a through chilling.

The next day I mixed the ice cream base and mango mix together and then had to figure out how much sriracha to add. I did little test batches of the mango puree with various amounts of sriracha.

The one thing I couldn't get around is how raw sriracha tastes... It's really quite harsh. The solution??? Cook it.

2 tbsp of the chili sauce mixed with 1 tbsp of sugar to make what truly looked like a chili sauce glaze after about 5 minutes cook time. (I didn't get a picture, it was cooking too fast to stop and snap one.)

Once I had, or thought I had, an acceptable ratio of chili to mango, I poured the final mix into my super handy ice cream maker. The batches are small but the freezing is fast... 20 - 30 minutes for ice cream ready to serve soft or put in the freezer to firm up.

Now all I needed was someone to ~~experiment on~~ taste it. I got my chance last week when I had dinner with my dad and stepmother.

This is what I served.

The sauce is a basic blackberry puree. 1 quart of blackberries and enough sugar to make it sweet, (sugar quantity depends on the berries) boiled, strained of the seeds and chilled.

Reactions were, as expected, a little delayed due to the creep up factor of the sriracha. It's a little hit in the back of the throat. Lots of mmmmm's and ahhhh's and in general fawning praise, which is to be expected from parental units but I think it was honest reactions not parental pandering. A success on that night.

I also had a couple of culinary professionals evaluate this concoction. The reviews there were mixed... One chef said point blank that he didn't care much for tropical fruit, so that review was a bust. The other guy really like the texture but is a purist about flavor, so the mix of mango and chili was not really something he liked. The pastry chef at this local eatery agreed to give it a review when I made another batch. I would like a dessert persons opinion.

My final thoughts...
The sriracha might not be the best chili sauce to use for an ice cream because of the savory elements built into that sauce. I might try it with a really strong pepper jelly next time.
In the end I liked the flavor and the heat working together.

I will try this again with better recipe notes.

Cheers

Chris

All's shell that end's shell

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:17:00 +0000

About 25 years ago I had my first raw oyster. It was not pleasant. In general, up to that point I had enjoyed oysters prepared in various ways, fried, stewed, casseroled, but not naked. Little did I know that the tub of raw oysters my mother had procured to concoct an oyster casserole for the Christmas Eve dinner, was not the same critter as the Bullhead canned oysters to which I was accustomed. These, unlike the canned variety, were uncooked. I popped a cold, slimy, ovoid of shellfish into my mouth and was immediately aware that something was amiss. This was not the pleasant liver textured, nugget of intense flavor I was used to, but an alien creature, cold, slightly gritty, and mostly tasting of salt water. Why did people eat these things? Ewwwhhk. I would spend the next 25 or so years avoiding raw bars and raw sampler plates. Until recently.

Some of you are aware of my admiration for Anthony Bourdain. No so much as a chef, but as someone that communicates a passion for food in a way that really hits home for me. So it was with no small amount of envy that I read his description of his first oyster, "at a witless age 9...".

"I took it in my hand, tilted the shell back into my mouth as instructed by the now beaming Monsieur Saint-Jour and with one bite and a slurp, wolfed it down. It tasted of seawater ... of brine and flesh ... and somehow ... of the future.

Everything was different now. Everything.

I'd not only survived -- I'd enjoyed.

... The genie was out of the bottle. My life as a cook, and as a chef, had begun.

Food had power."

I had not enjoyed... I had nearly urked. How had what he eaten been so different from what I had eaten. Besides the obvious difference in freshness. Turns out that would be key. Freshness is absolutely the key to oysters on the 1/2...

To that end I went searching for fresh. I even went so far as to tell my sad story to one of the fish mongers at Whole Foods. He took down my name and number, promising to call when the next shipment arrived. That's pretty fresh for Nashville. Unless you can fork out the dough to have them flown in...

Fast forward 2 weeks. I stop by Whole Foods to pick up a few things and to enquire about the state of oyster shipments. A different fish monger this time, assures me that there had indeed been deliveries of bi-valves since I had been in last, and that yes I was still on the call list and he was terribly sorry that no one had called. Determined to fulfill his customer service mandate he offered me a free dozen on the next shipment. I was happy to accept.

But I would thwarted in my plans to have fresh oysters... 3 additional weeks pasted and while stopping in on my way to a Memorial Day party to grab strawberries and cream, I head back to the fish counter to give someone what for. I spoke with fish monger number 1 and he remembered me after looking in "the book" and seeing his own hand writing. There was not however a note about the free dozen. He did however offer me a serious deal on a case. An entire case for 17 bucks, approximately 25 cents per oyster, given a count of 70 per case.

I now had fresh oysters and a shiny new shucking knife - and a party to go to where there was most likely not a place to store a box of mollusks. A 2.99 white foam beer cooler from a gas station and a bag of ice fixed that issue.

I had a nice time at the party, I offered fresh shucked oysters to any and all who wanted to try them. I didn't have many takers. But that's where I had my first decent (but not wonderful) raw oyster. I wasn't overly impressed but I wasn't grossed out either. I came to the conclusion that I would give the next raw bar I found myself at a try.

I have since shared a dozen in two different restaurants, in two different states. I think I understand now what Bourdain was talking about. I had a clue about fresh...

So now after all that chatter about my first time failure and mid thirties redemption with oysters, I get to the final point of this post... After the Memorial Day party I still had the lions share of a case of oysters to content with...

So I set about to shucking... I counted about 70 critters needing pried from their mother of pearl homes, which means I actually got a better deal that I had figured, seeing as nearly 2 dozen had been shucked at the party (most of them cooked)

I ended up with nearly a quart of the little snots, and a few decent shell inflicted cuts on my left hand.

One of my favorite dishes growing up was oyster stew. So simple, 1 can of Bullhead oysters, 1 can of whole milk, 2 tablespoons of butter, and enough pepper to turn the whole mixture black...

I wanted to try a fresher version, so I started out with about an ounce of un-smoked bacon in a saucier. I rendered the bacon for about 5 minutes then added a little butter.

Next came the oysters. 8 or so, just over 1/2 a cup.

A pinch of salt, and 8 turns of my pepper mill, 1 tsp chopped flat leaf parley and a tsp of minced tarragon simmered in 1 and 1/2 cups of whole milk for about 15 minutes.

More pepper added to the bowl makes this a bit of an ugly plating - but the flavor was killer.

For now I think I will leave the shucking to professionals and stick to cooking oyster when at home. But I can say with pride that I didn't let on bad experience keep me from learning to really enjoy a creature many refer to a snot on a shell...

Cheers

Chris

No rest for the wicked

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:04:00 +0000

It's late or early, depends on how you view the clock. For me it's late... It's late and I can't sleep. The pillows are too soft, the bed is too hard, I need a drink of water - I can't shut down my brain. That's the hard one.

What's got me all riled up you ask... Politics, Religion, work life, social life or lack there of? D - None of the above...

What's got me all twisted in knots tonight is the realization that while I really love food, love to eat, what I love more is the process. Turning raw pork belly into bacon - or asparagus, butter and lemon into something that made my father say "WOW!" - hearing a friend "mmmmm" over black walnut cherry ice cream. More than eating, I love making... It's always been more fun to cook for others. To feed people.

I have that desire or disease to pull a "Buford", pack up my shit and head to Tuscany, meet Dario and the Maestro, eat some steak. But sadly I don't think I have the huevos to do something so radical. I have gotten kinda comfortable with my life. Maybe that's my problem. Why I can't sleep...

I have always claimed that I didn't want to be a culinary professional. Maybe I have been lying to myself. I love to feed people.

Maybe my ADD affected brain just gets bored to easily and cooking is one of those things that you can never totally master. You might be able to master a method, but you will never master all the variations.

Now that I paddled down that steam of consciousness, maybe I can sleep - or I might just lie here thinking about the "Possibilities".

Don't that just mess with your head.

Night all

Chris

Confit de Canard - Final Service

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:29:00 +0000

Finding an adventurous taster is sometimes a daunting task. Food allergies, dietary restrictions, picky eaters, and uneducated pallets, all things you have to contend with when trying to find someone to give you a cage match brutal review of some dish you sent hours fussing over. I'm lucky... I found at least one taster that doesn't twitch at words like kidney, liver or gizzard. Willing to submit to my attempts at culinary voodoo. She said "My heart is breaking over how salty this is... you worked so hard." and indeed I had but I wouldn't have been happy if she had smiled at me and lied "It's wonderful...". Especially since I was eating the same chokingly salty prep of duck confit.

Yes folks, my Duck Confit was for the most part a failure. I say most part because buried deep in the heart of the thigh meat was a nugget of meat that was not like a salt lick. That one bite for me made up for the rest of the duck. It gave me a hint of what duck confit could be. Just salty enough, perfumed with the bay leaf, garlic, and cloves, melt in your mouth tender, lick you fingers good. Hell, lick your entire hand good.

If you read the two previous post in this series, Day 1-2, Day 3-4, you are aware of the time it takes to prep this dish. The final plating is done by crisping up the skin either on the stove top or in an oven.

My lovely taster granted me the use of her oven, broiler cranked up on high. I set the tray as high as it would go, and let the oven get rippin hot. While the oven was preheating I helped finish a mango, arugula salad. I also dropped two orders of Lemon Asparagus.(first posted here).

After a few minutes of preheating, the oven was ready and in went the duck. A few minutes later, as I was trimming the flesh from a ripe mango, for the salad, I caught a flash of light out of the corner of my eye.... What? Fire? Yep. Shit... The duck fat was kicking up and splattering on the broiler elements and creating quick little flashes of orange light as it incinerated into duck smoke. (Which actually smelled quite nice).

I moved the oven rack down a level, killed the power and left the duck to finish cooking in the cooling oven, while the salad and asparagus finished. My host turned on the commercial kitchen sized vent hood on, and sucked out the smoke in a matter of a couple minutes.

I imagine if you could seal off the kitchen entrances (3 of them), you could probably use the vent to create a NASA vacuum chamber for space suit testing... I am so jealous.

We plated the duck on the asparagus with the salad on the side. It was very pretty.

Let me just warn you... If you cook duck in this manner and want to make pron with it, you better do it quick. The duck is all moist and glistening right out of the oven, but within a couple of minutes, it goes a little dull, not so shiny. This in no way affects the flavor. I have a feeling that those pictures of in foodie magazines are primped and spritzed and mostly cold when the shutter was clicked. I would also like to say that the preceding paragraph is not in any way an indictment of my host taster's photography skills, just a warning... Take pictures of duck quick as you can.

The Lemon Asparagus got thumbs up and the duck thumbs down from my volunteer taster. The salad was killer but I can't claim that one even though I helped

Even thought it was a failure this time, I will be trying the confit again. I learned a lot as I usually do when trying something like this, and I still have 2 breast to turn into duck rillettes.

I recommend trying your hand at duck confit, but then again I recommend trying all the recipes I post.

Cheers

Chris

Bacon - A 3 part exposé - Film at 11

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 06:48:00 +0000

Being on the road is a good way to be patient when making something like bacon. You can't poke and prod curing meat over a distance 430 miles in person. You have to do it by proxy. In this instance the person tending my pups obliged me in turning the belly on Humpday. But I am jumping ahead... A lot ahead.

Bacon:
Wiki says - a cut of meat taken from the sides, belly, or back of a pig that has been cured, smoked, or both.
Websters says - the back and sides of the hog, salted and dried or smoked, usually sliced thin and fried for food.
I says - one of the most versatile meat products on the planet, and not overly complicated to make.

I followed the recipe from a Charcuterie mostly too the letter. I diverge at the end of the process. Don't worry I share the details

The first thing I had to have to make-a da bacon was uncured pork belly. Not as easy to find as you might imagine. After a couple weeks of procrastination and online searching, I was finally able to procure a fine belly from Danny, proprietor of DW Farms in Pulaski TN. I called him during the week and he agreed to bring a selection of bellies of various sizes for me to evaluate. Like I have a clue about pork bellies...

I picked the big one. A little over 14 pounds. Danny had it in a cooler, frozen for the trip from his farm to the Saturday CSA location he has at a Nashville restaurant, where he also provides pig, albeit on a larger scale.

I took my plastic wrapped belly and put in my cooler for the much shorter trip home. Maniacal laughter rang out as I drove the 8 miles.

14 pounds of frozen pig does not thaw quickly, and I didn't want to damage the meat in any way so, I followed the old advise to thaw in the refrigerator. Overnight fridge thawing might work for a 12 ounce steak but not so much for this much meat. It probably didn't help that the fridge in question is extra cold. All told it was 4 days to thaw the pork, but once it was ready so was I...
NOT...! no pink salt (sodium nitrite with pink coloring added to distinguish it from table salt). Luckily for me, I was having lunch soon with a friend who just happened to be sitting on a stash of the pink stuff. She floated me 75mg, which will be paid back in the form of ready to cook bacon. Now I had pork and pink and a couple hours to get started.

The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of "Basic Cure", which I had to produce using pink salt, kosher salt and sugar.

I am not going to post the exact proportions and here's why... I didn't write the book and if I post everything you need to know to execute the recipe then I am basically thieving from Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, which would be BAD. Want the recipe??? Go buy the book, it's worth it. Back to the cure.

Salt - Kosher, Sugar - white, Pink Salt - well it's ummm pink.

Mix until... mixed? How about uniformly pale pink. Not too hard so far.

The next step in this little bacon makin venture, was to deal with the belly. It was finally thawed and ready to be divided and trimmed and in general fussed over.

TADA!

For a little perspective, it's sitting on a half sheet tray. Lotta meat. Enough for 2 recipes... Stay turned.

I portioned the belly into 3 roughly equal portions.

I picked one to reserve for that other project I mentioned and proceeded to apply the cure to the remainder. 1/4 cup per flitch (that's what you call a side of un-sliced bacon. Seriously... You can't make this stuff up.)

Within moments of applying the cure, I started to see it in action. Moisture was already being drawn out of the meat.

Now I am caught up with myself and the start of this post.

The hardest part of a project like this for me, is the wait... This time I had help being patient. I had to spend the week in Charlotte working. I asked my step-brother, who was kindly attending my pooches for the week, to flip the enormous 3 gallon zip top bags, holding the future bacon, on Wednesday.

Upon my arrival home Friday evening, I was pleased to find firm flesh in the bags. MR advises that it should only take week to cure a belly but not all belly are created equal and a thicker belly might take longer to cure. Firm flesh means competed cure, squishy flesh means not so much completed.

Mine seemed fine. Next steps, rinse, pat dry and cook.

This is where I diverge. Country bacon is best smoked in my opinion, and considering that my smoker is not a cold smokers it seemed an ideal method to cook the nascent bacon to 150° as directed. To that end I gathered up the necessary tools and headed out into the backyard.

The next 2 pictures are what I will now refer to as my Bacon Meez.

Rinsed belly, and probe thermometer, ever so sun dappled.

Hickory chips, soaked in water for the better part of an hour.

Bacon Meez ready, I lit up the fire box on my grill/smoker, and after a vigorous cleaning of the grates, I placed the belly in the path of the smoke.

Again, I am forced to wait while bacon transforms one more time. How long... Well if you do it in a 200° oven like the book says, then about 2 hours. Seeing as the temperature control on a charcoal fired grill/smoker is less that pin point accurate, I would estimate that it took twice the recipes stated time, but that's okay with me, I got to hang with my dawgs. No really... after a week away form home I was ready for some pooch time.

So what does 4 hours in the smoker get you? This...

Have you ever had grilled bacon, really fresh grilled bacon, thick cut fresh grilled bacon? Oh god... It's...

Grilled Bacon for pete's sake!!! do I need to say anything more!?

On that subject, I don't think so, but there is a final step. The newly smoked bacon needs to chill. I recommend stashing it in the fridge and going to dinner.

Later when you are back in your kitchen you can slice off a rasher or 3 and cook em up to see if you can give Oscar Meyer a run for their money.

I can hardly wait for a truly perfect tomato to pair with this bacon for the ultimate in BLT joy.

I don't know what else to say after that particular bit of food pron... Scandalous! and yummy.

The next recipe in the book is pancetta...

Coming soon, to a computer screen near you.

Cheers

Chris

That's it man, game over man, gameover!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:00:00 +0000

What - the - hell - was - I - thinking???

Where did I get the bright idea to tell the Restaurant Manager and Executive Chef of Rooster's Wood Fired Kitchen about this blog? I guess I just couldn't help myself... Like watching a train wreck...

It all started back in March when I had a wonderful meal at the restaurant in question. I wrote a review and it became my very first post for this blog. Effectively that review/post started this blog. So when Laura Lee, the manager, approached me tonight and it was obvious that she remembered me after nearly 4 months, I was more than a little impressed. She asked me how I had been and I lost control of my brain... and tongue... 'Blurt' is a good word for what occurred next. I told her about writing the review and how it was partial inspiration for the blog, and what I was doing with it. Imagine my chagrin when she said she wanted to check it out. But I kept my cool and said something on the order of "cool" with only a slight crack in my voice, panic welling up in the pit of my stomach... After a little more very polite conversation Laura Lee left me to my very tasty cream of mushroom soup with truffle oil.

My waiter, (whose name I never really did catch, sorry dude) brought my charcuterie sampler, comprised of pork rillettes, bresaola, cured duck, Serrano ham and speck. The rillettes, bresaola, and duck ham were house made and really really good. I asked the waiter if he knew what spice the bresaola was with and he confessed he didn't but would find out. He walked about 10 feet to Ramon the executive chef and asked on my behalf. I imagine the my surprise when Ramon came over to talk to me himself and he also recognized me just like Laura Lee did. He even remembered what I had for dinner. I was again done in... I started to babble about the blog and my charcuterie and smoked leg of lamb... I wonder how much of a dork I sounded like. I must not have made too much of an ass of myself because Ramon and I talked for a while about food and charcuterie and the restaurant world. It was really cool... and he wanted to see the blog too... bugger!

All told I spent 2 or so hours at Rooster's watching the cooks and chefs handle the first dinner rush, eating wonderful food and talking to staff. It was a kewl dinner. I even ordered the mac & cheese. I got to find out what cheese they use in the mac... Sweeet

I even did something I don't do often when on the road, I brought leftovers back to the hotel...

Clock wise from the top left Serrano, bresaola, rillettes, speck and in the middle the mac & cheese.

This has kinda turned into another review... So final thoughts:
Only had one creative criticism, the cream of mushroom was a little flat. On a scale of 1-10 it was an 8. It just needed something to brighten it up a little. On whole it still gets high marks for service, decor, and food.

Roosters will remain on my favorites list and is still number one in Charlotte.

If you make it to or live in Charlotte, go to Rooster's. Go a lot. Take bunches of friends.

Cheers

Chris

PS to Laura Lee and Ramon if you read this or the original post... The stools are only uncomfortable after an extended period of time, which I will gladly endure again the next time I am in Charlotte.

Food Network has a terrorist as a host???

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:27:00 +0000

In a shear case of WTF!!!, Dunkin' Donuts has pulled an online ad featuring Rachel Ray because she wore a black and white scarf that could be mistaken for a kaffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian garment and some people might think she is a terrorist sympathizer. There are even some "analyst" on an entertainment news show that suggested that she should have paid more attention to the clothes the stylist picked for the ad.

Now I am not particularly a fan of Rachel Ray but please...
If I never hear the phrase "E.V.O.O." it will be too soon... But Please..!
If I never see another episode of 30 Minute Meals, my eyes might stop bleeding... BUT PLEASE!!!

Rachel Ray might make me want to "drink the Kool-Aid" but, going out on a limb here... I just don't see her as the terrorist sympathizer type.

Political Correctness run amok...

And with a final incredulous "PLEASE!!!" I am signing off in Charlotte.

Cheers

Chris

Bringing home the bacon

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:51:00 +0000

I have been a bad blogger lately, lazy, uninspired, spring fevered, full of excuses and reasons to not post... Well, that time is over. I finally connected with a local farmer who will be able to provide me with a steady supply of farm raised oinker so that I can bring you... wait for it...

wait for it....

Charcuterie the blog... I am doing it. I am shooting for the moon. I am officially announcing that I will be preparing every recipe in Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn's fabulous book. Ironically enough MR just had an interesting post that references a Wall Street Journal article about "cook-through" blogs. I have actually been teasing you guys with this plan for a while now... but it is official. I am doing it. I have not been in contact with the man himself and maybe some day I will, but for now I will just start at the beginning and go from there.

The first post in this series is actually here Confit de Canard -Day 1 & 2. It seems out of order but I started out with the duck confit because it was one of MR's inspirations and he spends more that a few sentences extolling the virtues of a properly cured, fat poached, and aged duck.

I will be posting the final duck confit post soon...

The next post in the series is Bacon, were I buy pork belly, borrow pink salt, and bind pig up in a roulade (bondage pig... sounds like a '70s punk band, but trust me when I tell you, Do NOT Google that phrase... <shiver>).

Some of these post will be either multi-post or long in the making due to the length of time it takes some of the recipes to complete. Prosciutto, for example can take up to a year to age.

I will try to post at least one Charcuterie post per week... Some might run to every two weeks. Budgetary constraints and all that jazz. (Unless there is someone out there that would like to sponsor me... no ads on this blog for the foreseeable future)

So now that I have blathered on about what I am going to do, let me offer a little proof of what I have started to do.

Looking forward to making everything... and you guys reading about it.

Cheers

Chris

Black Roads and Cherry Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:20:00 +0000

Some situations can send you down a dark black road. Tragic love, desperate trauma, and sometimes if you are really lucky, the astringent tannins of a rock hard nut. Juglans nigra to be exact, or more commonly American or Black Walnut. The bad boy of the the nut world. Eaten alone they can almost choke you with the harshness of the tannins, but mixed with other ingredients they take on a whole new dimension of flavor.

The flavor brings back memories of rainy Autumn days sitting in my Pappy's garage with a framing hammer swinging await at the hard little shells, my Pappy using a nut pick to harvest the meat so that my Grandmother could make all manner of sweet treats, the extra stored in Mason jars in the freezer.

This is an ingredient that is kinda hard to come by in this day and age. I found a supplier of the near impossible to harvest nuts in Hendersonville TN. I have had the blasted things in my freezer for at least 2 months wondering when I would break out the rock salt and ice cream churn. Well this post by David Lebovitz about a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker caught my eye and I ordered one. Can't beat 20 bucks for Cuisinart anything... It arrived while I was on vacation and was one of the first things I unpacked when I got in. No rock salt needed, basically no ice cream maker mess. Sweeeet.

I started with a basic custard, actually the one from the little recipe booklet that comes with the IC maker.

1.5 cups whole milk
1.5 cups heavy cream
3 egg yokes
2 eggs
3/4 cup of sugar
1 vanilla bean

I reduced the amount of sugar to 1/2 cup cause I knew I would be adding honey later. I also omitted the vanilla bean as I was not making vanilla IC.

Bring the milk and cream to a simmer over medium low heat stirring often.
In a separate bowl mix the eggs, yokes and sugar until it turns a little paler and thickens a smidge. I thought I would hand mix it with a balloon whisk... I was wrong. The sugar makes it a very stiff mix. I switched over to my Kitchen Aid.

Once the egg mixture is as thick as you want it, add about a cup of the hot milk/cream. Do it slowly or you will have scrambled eggs. This is called tempering. (In my mind that sounds so condescending, but I figure some of you might not know why I do the things I do) Once the mixture is up to temp, add it back to the rest of the milk/cream and turn up the heat just a little. Still this over medium heat until it starts to steam and it coats the back of a spoon. Another clue that it is ready is when you coat that spoon... the coating holds its shape when you run your finger through it making a little trough. Finger paint on the spoon a little, relaaaax, it's just food. It should be fun.

You can chill this in an ice bath once it has thickened or you can just wait. It needs to be covered or it will develop a skin, which is yummy to eat but not groovy for ice cream makin'. I strained my custard through a wire mesh strainer, into a bowl then covered with parchment paper. Turns out I am out of plastic wrap.

I dry toasted about 1/2 cup of black walnut pieces over medium high heat, until there was a little smoke and I could smell the toasty goodness. Careful not to burn them.

Since the custard was still piping hot I lifted the cover and added the nuts.

A cup of split and pitted red cherries went into a 1 quart saucier with 2 tbsp of sugar... Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes or until you get a thickened cherry syrup. The fruit will be softened as well. I wanted to use Bing Cherries but couldn't find any fresh.

Seeing as I had a rather thick custard I added the cherries too. Had I been using a thinner base I would have added the cherries and possibly the nuts closer to the end of the freezing process. Why??? So the additives don't all sink to the bottom and bind up the churn.

I chilled the mixture over night and this is what it looked like just before introduction to the IC maker.

Kinda gray ain't it...?

I already had the freezer bowl rock solid frozen, so this morning I added the mixture to the bowl and flipped the switch. I added the honey at this point. About 2 tbsp while the thing is spinning so it will mix well.

25 - 30 minutes later it was like a nice thick soft serve.

I scraped it into a storage container to store in the freezer for a while to firm it up even more.

I could have stuck a mint sprig in this to make it a little brighter but I am not trying to impress anyone with the pictures (riiiiiggghhht and if you believe that I have some land to sell you... I just plain forgot.)
Serve in a bowl with a spoon. Oh and it's very rich so you don't need a huge serving...

I can say without hubris that this is one nummy ice cream.

If you like contrasting flavors, the back of the throat bite of the walnuts really goes well with the sweetness of the cherries.

This is not a flavor for everyone. I grew up with it and I love it. It just might be a southern thang.

And considering the tannins, does anyone have any pairing suggestions?

Cheers

Chris

Cruise Notes... groannnnn.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Preface:
I am sure that I will have detractors for this post, but it's my blog and my opinion... So thbbbbb'. Oh yeah I whine a lot in this post so be warned.

It's the last day at sea, and I am stiff and sore from the wall mounted bunk bed, missing my own bed, kitchen and shower. This is my second cruise and I have come to the conclusion that cruising is not for me. The drinks are over priced, the food is marginal and the accommodations are spartan. And to top it all off I have an itchy sunburn...

Cozumel and Playa del Carmen are crawling with vendors selling every sort of trinket, knickknack and tchotchke. Mostly items that serve no purpose, other than to remind people of where they have been. In two ports of call I only found 3 items that interested me. A shirt that I could most likely have acquired for less in Miami, a traditional grinding stone that weighed 60 lbs and a set of 4 terra cotta mugs, for which I probably paid way too much. I wanted the grinding stone but was unwilling to schlep it back to the ship, plus is was pricey. The shirt turned out to be a little small, but it will languish in my closet until I can shed a few pounds or foist it off as a thoughtful birthday gift. The mugs I really dig.

The one excursion I was willing to pay for, (Beginners Scuba)was canceled the morning of, for some un-named reason. So I still have not had my first experience with a regulator, air tank or decompression chamber.

Now since this is a food centric blog, I guess I should touch on the food at least briefly. In 13 possible sit down meals and numerous snack times, only a few items stood out a pretty good... There was the pizza counter that had the usual suspects, and something call "de Cherve", which as you might suspect from the name was made with goats milk cheese along with sautéed mushrooms, and mozzarella. It was a "white" pizza sans red sauce. The crust was pre-made but not terrible. It was the freshest food on the boat, since the counter is open 24 hours.

One of the other items that was quite tasty was the Caesar dressing. Not something you would think would stand out on a cruise ship, amongst all the "halt cuisine" (food that makes you stop eating after the first bite) but it turns out when you make it fresh, with real anchovies, it's a thing of beauty.

Last but not least was the small dish of Escargot, served in the dinning room this evening. It was very flavorful without any chewy factor at all, very tender. I didn't get a picture because I didn't even think to take the camera to the dinning room.

Update:

Most of that was written while underway in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. I am home now with my post vacation sinus infection. I am happy to be here and am ready to get back into the kitchen.

Next major projects from Charcuterie will be bacon and pancetta. I am all about the pork belly.

Cheers

Chris