Here is a quote from Clement of Alexandria that made me smile:
"Life was given to this animal (the pig) for the extravagant enjoyment of its flesh."
Amen, brother Clement, amen!
Stromateis, Book Two, 105.1
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Monday, September 22, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Disaster...nearly
Remember all that meat I bought from the door to door meat salesman? Well, I was in the mood for a steak tonight, so I went out to the deep freeze in my garage, only to find that things weren't so deeply frozen. In fact, nearly all of my steaks were almost completely thawed. Yikes! I feared that perhaps these steaks were actually in the process of being refrozen--how can you really tell?
I took one steak in the house, opened it up, and did the sniff test. It seemed to smell alright, and I even had my neighbor do a sample sniff test, since I shared with her my fears. We decided that I should cook it up, then take a tentative taste test, and if anything tasted amiss, to chuck the whole kit and caboodle.
Well, I'm happy to say that four or five hours on, I've suffered no ill effects, and the $150 worth of meat I purchased is now safely ensconced in the freezer in my house.
I took one steak in the house, opened it up, and did the sniff test. It seemed to smell alright, and I even had my neighbor do a sample sniff test, since I shared with her my fears. We decided that I should cook it up, then take a tentative taste test, and if anything tasted amiss, to chuck the whole kit and caboodle.
Well, I'm happy to say that four or five hours on, I've suffered no ill effects, and the $150 worth of meat I purchased is now safely ensconced in the freezer in my house.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Texas Eatin!
So far, the highlight of the trip down in Texas has been the food. Tonight, we ate at a place called Delacroix which features Cajun cuisine. We're in east Texas, less than an hour away from Louisiana, and since it's crayfish season, it was high time I sampled my first crayfish of my life. Apparently I attacked them with sufficient exuberance for the local trumpet professor to say I was eatin' like a true Cajun. In order to eat them like a true Cajun, you've got to yank the tail off, squeeze the meat out and then take the head and squeeze out the juices--and let me tell you, that's darn tasty! All you taste are the spices and the crayfish juice, which is fantastic!
Along with the crayfish, I ate my first alligator, fried. It tastes like chicken, and that's no joke. It was good, though I would rather have had the blackened mahi-mahi that some of my other colleagues enjoyed. I also ate some crab ettouffe, a hearty crawfish stew that's simply delicious. The fried okra was fantastic, and so were the hush puppies.
Last night we had some remarkable Tex-Mex, with the best guacamole I've ever eaten, made table-side. Earlier this week we had some Texas BBQ, and lunch the next day at another Cajun restaurant.
It's been a good food week, and tomorrow we're ending up in Austin, a great food town. We'll have a few hours to explore the city in the afternoon, have dinner, do our show and then do a pub crawl on 6th Street, the music scene. We'll see when we get home though--our airline is American, and they canceled 1,000 flights today. It sounds like they're going to continue canceling flights through the weekend. If we get stuck, Austin's not too bad a place to be!
Along with the crayfish, I ate my first alligator, fried. It tastes like chicken, and that's no joke. It was good, though I would rather have had the blackened mahi-mahi that some of my other colleagues enjoyed. I also ate some crab ettouffe, a hearty crawfish stew that's simply delicious. The fried okra was fantastic, and so were the hush puppies.
Last night we had some remarkable Tex-Mex, with the best guacamole I've ever eaten, made table-side. Earlier this week we had some Texas BBQ, and lunch the next day at another Cajun restaurant.
It's been a good food week, and tomorrow we're ending up in Austin, a great food town. We'll have a few hours to explore the city in the afternoon, have dinner, do our show and then do a pub crawl on 6th Street, the music scene. We'll see when we get home though--our airline is American, and they canceled 1,000 flights today. It sounds like they're going to continue canceling flights through the weekend. If we get stuck, Austin's not too bad a place to be!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Tightening the purse strings
So Sunday night I thought I would login to my bank to confirm how much I knew was in the bank account. As happens to all of us who aren't dutiful checkbook balancers, I was shocked to find much less than I was planning on. When that happens from time to time, I'm always convinced I need to look for some sort of fraudulent purchases, but without fail when I start looking I remember every purchase. Isn't it amazing how quickly five bucks here and there adds up?
I'll be fine...if I completely put the brakes on any more purchases for the next week and a half before the next paycheck comes around. As a way to do that, I'm going to view it as a challenge to use every ounce of food that's already in my house. Here's my goal: I'm going to try to eat for less than $10 until my next pay check, and if I can keep the momentum going, I want to put a freeze on spending on anything other than gas and utilities until the pay check after that. I'm convinced I can do it, and I'll be able to clear out the freezer while I'm at it. I don't think I'll be eating like a pauper either, and thinking about it has got the creative juices flowing. I've got a pork shoulder in the deep freeze just waiting to be put in the crockpot with some hard cider and seasonings. I've got plenty of BBQ sauce to make some tasty pulled pork. (I think I'll roast it on high high for about a half hour first to get some nice crusty stuff outside first...if I've got enough charcoal, I might even grill it to get some smokiness in it before popping it into the crockpot.) I even found a frozen duck in there too, so that's eating high on the hog! I've got some frozen seafood and broccoli, though I fear the latter has gotten freezer burned. I've got plenty of frozen chicken too, plus enough cheese to make the four cheese pasta dish that I made for Torey and Alison and Co. That's enough to feed an army, so making that should last me for at least eight meals or so.
It's high time I used these up anyway. It's easy for me to let stuff in the freezer go south before I can use it. I encourage you all to follow my lead--dig deep and see what's lurking there, ready to be dinner tomorrow.
I'll be fine...if I completely put the brakes on any more purchases for the next week and a half before the next paycheck comes around. As a way to do that, I'm going to view it as a challenge to use every ounce of food that's already in my house. Here's my goal: I'm going to try to eat for less than $10 until my next pay check, and if I can keep the momentum going, I want to put a freeze on spending on anything other than gas and utilities until the pay check after that. I'm convinced I can do it, and I'll be able to clear out the freezer while I'm at it. I don't think I'll be eating like a pauper either, and thinking about it has got the creative juices flowing. I've got a pork shoulder in the deep freeze just waiting to be put in the crockpot with some hard cider and seasonings. I've got plenty of BBQ sauce to make some tasty pulled pork. (I think I'll roast it on high high for about a half hour first to get some nice crusty stuff outside first...if I've got enough charcoal, I might even grill it to get some smokiness in it before popping it into the crockpot.) I even found a frozen duck in there too, so that's eating high on the hog! I've got some frozen seafood and broccoli, though I fear the latter has gotten freezer burned. I've got plenty of frozen chicken too, plus enough cheese to make the four cheese pasta dish that I made for Torey and Alison and Co. That's enough to feed an army, so making that should last me for at least eight meals or so.
It's high time I used these up anyway. It's easy for me to let stuff in the freezer go south before I can use it. I encourage you all to follow my lead--dig deep and see what's lurking there, ready to be dinner tomorrow.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Dinner, two days hence
I'm getting excited about dinner two nights from now. That's the way I operate often. I'll see a recipe, and then figure out when I'll have time to fix it, then pick up all the ingredients. I don't have time to cook it until Tuesday, but I think it will be worth the wait. And the bonus is that it's naturally low carb.
It's from a James Beard award winning cookbook I bought at the bargain bookstore that's all about using food processors. A food processor could be the most useful tool in anyone's kitchen but few people tap into its full utility. If a cookbook gets the stamp of approval from the James Beard Foundation, you know that it will feature great recipes and that the techniques will be ones you can bank on. As I thumbed through it, a recipe for a sweet red pepper and leek flan caught my eye and that's what I'll be cooking for dinner Tuesday.
It calls for slow roasting the peppers and leeks for at least an hour, adding some garlic, chicken broth and cream, then combining all of that with eggs and cooking it like you would a custard. I think it will be very tasty, and I'm going to be testing this out as a starter for any dinner parties I might be having sometime soon.
Since I'm thinking about eggs, I might make a cheese souffle for dinner tonight.
It's from a James Beard award winning cookbook I bought at the bargain bookstore that's all about using food processors. A food processor could be the most useful tool in anyone's kitchen but few people tap into its full utility. If a cookbook gets the stamp of approval from the James Beard Foundation, you know that it will feature great recipes and that the techniques will be ones you can bank on. As I thumbed through it, a recipe for a sweet red pepper and leek flan caught my eye and that's what I'll be cooking for dinner Tuesday.
It calls for slow roasting the peppers and leeks for at least an hour, adding some garlic, chicken broth and cream, then combining all of that with eggs and cooking it like you would a custard. I think it will be very tasty, and I'm going to be testing this out as a starter for any dinner parties I might be having sometime soon.
Since I'm thinking about eggs, I might make a cheese souffle for dinner tonight.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
An experiment in the kitchen
I'm doing a low carb bootcamp for a week or so. I've been circling around the 50 lb. mark since the middle of December and I'm determined to break through. When I jump into Atkins, I like to great a bit creative so I'm not just eating grilled or sauteed meat all the time.
Things I like to have at the ready are prosciutto, mozzarella cheese sticks, "hot shot" sausages from the local meat market, and boiled eggs. They're all at the ready when I get hungry, and they're all pretty low carb and fairly low calorie. A great snack is a cheese stick wrapped with prosciutto. Tasty!
While I was working out today at the Y, I started thinking about what I should make for lunch. I knew I had the prosciutto and the boiled eggs at home, and so I began thinking about what I could do with them, sort of in a tapas style. I decided I'd make some cheesy egg and prosciutto sandwiches.
I stopped at the Mexican market on the way home and picked up some queso fresco cheese. Have you ever heard of this amazing stuff? It doesn't really melt, so you can season a piece and throw it directly on a hot skillet and it will brown quite nicely without oozing all over the place. I cut out some two inch rounds, seasoned them and set them aside.
I then pulled out the prosciutto and an egg. I cut up the egg, then put a tiny dollop of mayo in the prosciutto, then a little bit of egg. I wrapped it up into a little ball, then wrapped that again with another slice of the prosciutto and skewered it with a toothpick.
I then turned on the heat, put some oil in the frying pan and went to town. First in went the two discs of cheese, seasoned side down. When I flipped them over, I put the prosciutto/egg bundles in and tossed them around to brown a bit and warm up.
When everything was done, I placed the two cheese circles on a plate, then placed the prosciutto/egg skewers on top and dug in.
It was very tasty.
It made me think that I want a deep fryer. What I think would be an amazing appetizer would be a take on an egg sandwich, my favorite breakfast food. What I would do is this: boil an egg until it was still very soft in the middle--probably with some of the egg white still soft. Pull it out while it was still hot, then wrap it with prosciutto. I think the heat in the egg would ensure that the prosciutto would adhere to the egg. I'd then dip that in an egg wash and batter it, and drop it into the hot oil. The heat from the oil would finish cooking the egg, though I'd want to make sure that the yolk stayed soft. Meanwhile, you'd be grilling up some of these cheese discs and when everything was done, you'd put the egg prosciutto croquette on top of the disc of browned cheese, and then have some sort of tasty cream sauce on the side.
You'd have the crunchiness of the batter, the taste of great ham, an egg that's got a soft yolk that oozes all over the place, and then to top it all off, great grilled cheese. I don't think you could go wrong.
Yum.
Things I like to have at the ready are prosciutto, mozzarella cheese sticks, "hot shot" sausages from the local meat market, and boiled eggs. They're all at the ready when I get hungry, and they're all pretty low carb and fairly low calorie. A great snack is a cheese stick wrapped with prosciutto. Tasty!
While I was working out today at the Y, I started thinking about what I should make for lunch. I knew I had the prosciutto and the boiled eggs at home, and so I began thinking about what I could do with them, sort of in a tapas style. I decided I'd make some cheesy egg and prosciutto sandwiches.
I stopped at the Mexican market on the way home and picked up some queso fresco cheese. Have you ever heard of this amazing stuff? It doesn't really melt, so you can season a piece and throw it directly on a hot skillet and it will brown quite nicely without oozing all over the place. I cut out some two inch rounds, seasoned them and set them aside.
I then pulled out the prosciutto and an egg. I cut up the egg, then put a tiny dollop of mayo in the prosciutto, then a little bit of egg. I wrapped it up into a little ball, then wrapped that again with another slice of the prosciutto and skewered it with a toothpick.
I then turned on the heat, put some oil in the frying pan and went to town. First in went the two discs of cheese, seasoned side down. When I flipped them over, I put the prosciutto/egg bundles in and tossed them around to brown a bit and warm up.
When everything was done, I placed the two cheese circles on a plate, then placed the prosciutto/egg skewers on top and dug in.
It was very tasty.
It made me think that I want a deep fryer. What I think would be an amazing appetizer would be a take on an egg sandwich, my favorite breakfast food. What I would do is this: boil an egg until it was still very soft in the middle--probably with some of the egg white still soft. Pull it out while it was still hot, then wrap it with prosciutto. I think the heat in the egg would ensure that the prosciutto would adhere to the egg. I'd then dip that in an egg wash and batter it, and drop it into the hot oil. The heat from the oil would finish cooking the egg, though I'd want to make sure that the yolk stayed soft. Meanwhile, you'd be grilling up some of these cheese discs and when everything was done, you'd put the egg prosciutto croquette on top of the disc of browned cheese, and then have some sort of tasty cream sauce on the side.
You'd have the crunchiness of the batter, the taste of great ham, an egg that's got a soft yolk that oozes all over the place, and then to top it all off, great grilled cheese. I don't think you could go wrong.
Yum.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Time to get crackin'
Lately I've been thinking a lot about dreams and what I'd really enjoy doing with my life. I think I want to be a chocolate maker. Or a baker. Or both. I've got two things in store that I'm planning to do. First, for a charity event the musicians in the symphony are putting together, I'm going to auction off 100 hand made chocolates for the silent auction portion of the fund raiser. I had a heck of a lot of fun working on the chocolates I made for Christmas, and some of them were really darn tasty. The Irish cream dipped chocolate is something I really think people would pay money for. I'll bring about 100 or so samples to the charity auction, and make sure they're perfect, which is the kind of obsessive work that I really enjoy doing. As to the auction, you never know who might try my chocolates and urge me on, you know? What I'll do is offer 100 chocolates, with four different flavors or varieties to be determined with the winner of the auction. I've become convinced that if I were given a flavor of a chocolate to make, I could make it, and it'd be pretty darn tasty after a few tries. I think chocolate is very forgiving, just so long as you follow the basic guidelines. And for me it's really, really fun.
This is the other thing on my mind: take a year or two experimenting with different styles and flavors, and then take a new variety to work each week for all of my colleagues to try. I'd probably even make little cards with questions for them to answer and bring those little golf pencils along. Here would be the deal: you can have a chocolate if you answer the questions, honestly. Final question would always be this: would you buy this chocolate, if you had a choice? Talk about market research! Musicians have a very discriminating palette and are harsh critics. If they were impressed, and I had a lineup of about 20 different kinds of chocolates, I'd be ready to go into business. And I'm already thinking of a boatload of fun flavor combinations, some I've never heard of before. That's the fun part!
The other thing I want to do this summer is put up a stall at the farmer's market. I've tried the pies and pastries you can buy at the farmer's market and they're really pretty mediocre. As they say, there's always room at the top, right? I'd sell mini pies and regular sized pies, probably in the following flavors: mom's cherry, brandied cherry/pear, blueberry, and three berry. Those can all be made ahead of time and frozen, then just baked the day before the market. Hopefully this summer I'll have two ovens in the house, if my kitchen remodel gets done when I want it, though I may just buy the new oven even if the kitchen isn't finished. I'd also sell some of my mint chocolate cookies, along with a variety of cupcakes or cakes and some other cookies, as well as some brownies. I'd have samples out there for everyone, and of course make sure that my stall was the nicest looking stall in the market, with cool looking signs talking about each of the products. Start relatively simple, but I think it wouldn't take very long to develop a very loyal clientele. My goal would be to be the talk of the market, which I think is what you need to do in anything you plan to succeed at. And man, I get fired up thinking about the idea!
I've been circling around the idea of doing something in the food business for years. I'm tired of circling, and I've developed enough skills that I think it's time to test the waters.
Full steam ahead!
This is the other thing on my mind: take a year or two experimenting with different styles and flavors, and then take a new variety to work each week for all of my colleagues to try. I'd probably even make little cards with questions for them to answer and bring those little golf pencils along. Here would be the deal: you can have a chocolate if you answer the questions, honestly. Final question would always be this: would you buy this chocolate, if you had a choice? Talk about market research! Musicians have a very discriminating palette and are harsh critics. If they were impressed, and I had a lineup of about 20 different kinds of chocolates, I'd be ready to go into business. And I'm already thinking of a boatload of fun flavor combinations, some I've never heard of before. That's the fun part!
The other thing I want to do this summer is put up a stall at the farmer's market. I've tried the pies and pastries you can buy at the farmer's market and they're really pretty mediocre. As they say, there's always room at the top, right? I'd sell mini pies and regular sized pies, probably in the following flavors: mom's cherry, brandied cherry/pear, blueberry, and three berry. Those can all be made ahead of time and frozen, then just baked the day before the market. Hopefully this summer I'll have two ovens in the house, if my kitchen remodel gets done when I want it, though I may just buy the new oven even if the kitchen isn't finished. I'd also sell some of my mint chocolate cookies, along with a variety of cupcakes or cakes and some other cookies, as well as some brownies. I'd have samples out there for everyone, and of course make sure that my stall was the nicest looking stall in the market, with cool looking signs talking about each of the products. Start relatively simple, but I think it wouldn't take very long to develop a very loyal clientele. My goal would be to be the talk of the market, which I think is what you need to do in anything you plan to succeed at. And man, I get fired up thinking about the idea!
I've been circling around the idea of doing something in the food business for years. I'm tired of circling, and I've developed enough skills that I think it's time to test the waters.
Full steam ahead!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Pork Tenderloin
I really am finding that the one place where I can be happiest these days is in the kitchen, creating something new. It's the one area right now where I can get so caught up in the creative process that I can momentarily forget about everything else. I believe that when we're going through something difficult, hobbies and interests can be a gift to us since they help ameliorate the pain we might be going through without resorting to something that is self-destructive or a historic crutch we've clung to in the past. I suspect that for awhile, the only non-depressing posts in my blog will be related to food, so I'll try to keep a smattering of these throughout my entries.
Because it's fall, I really like cooking with apple cider. I bought some pork tenderloins the other day from Costco and since brining's on my mind, I put them in a brine with about a half gallon apple cider, a half gallon of water, a cup of salt, 1/2 cup of smashed garlic cloves, a bunch of fresh thyme, about a dozen bay leaves and a couple tablespoons of peppercorns. It's a modified recipe I use from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Cookbook.
I popped the pork in the brine before I left for work yesterday and let the brine work it's magic. A brine is much more than marinating. With the large amounts of salt included in a brine, a chemical imbalance is created between the moisture in the meat and the high salinity of the brine liquid. The imbalance forces the salted water into the pores of the meat, bringing with it all the flavor you've introduced into your brine. Given enough time, the flavors will permeate the meat and also make the meat much more moist when it's done cooking. That's why people recommend brining turkeys at Thanksgiving. In this case, six hours was enough time and so when I got home, I fired up the grill and then made a dry rub to put on the pork. I started with some paprika, then added some ancho chili powder, some chipotle powder, a little smoked paprika, a boatload of cracked black pepper, kosher salt, then some dried onion and garlic, a little ground mustard, thyme, dried sage and the surprise ingredient that took it to a different level, and made it very tasty: about a teaspoon of cinnamon. This rub is a keeper and I'm going to try it again and actually come up with measurements so I can have a recipe for it when I need it.
I rubbed that all over the tenderloin, oiled the grill and got it grilling. I saw that it was getting a little more charred than I hoped, so I bopped into the kitchen and mixed up a little quick sauce with apple cider and a lot of spicy ground mustard. I threw a bit of my spice mixture in for good measure, and then added some oil. I started basting the pork with the sauce until it was done.
It was tasty, and one of the easiest meals in the world! This one's a keeper, and it made me happy. When I grin from ear to ear with the first bite, it doesn't matter what cards life deals me--I forget about anything but the food. This is a recipe I'm going to try and recreate sometime, and the addition of the apple cider mustard sauce made it better, so I'm keeping that one. Besides the pork, I fixed a little broccoli to go alongside which made for a happy camper.
I grilled two tenderloins last night which will be dinner for the rest of the week. I had two others that were in the brine. I put them each in a ziploc bag, covered them completely with cider, and placed them in the freezer. I think when I pull them out in about a month or so they're going to be even tastier.
Because it's fall, I really like cooking with apple cider. I bought some pork tenderloins the other day from Costco and since brining's on my mind, I put them in a brine with about a half gallon apple cider, a half gallon of water, a cup of salt, 1/2 cup of smashed garlic cloves, a bunch of fresh thyme, about a dozen bay leaves and a couple tablespoons of peppercorns. It's a modified recipe I use from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Cookbook.
I popped the pork in the brine before I left for work yesterday and let the brine work it's magic. A brine is much more than marinating. With the large amounts of salt included in a brine, a chemical imbalance is created between the moisture in the meat and the high salinity of the brine liquid. The imbalance forces the salted water into the pores of the meat, bringing with it all the flavor you've introduced into your brine. Given enough time, the flavors will permeate the meat and also make the meat much more moist when it's done cooking. That's why people recommend brining turkeys at Thanksgiving. In this case, six hours was enough time and so when I got home, I fired up the grill and then made a dry rub to put on the pork. I started with some paprika, then added some ancho chili powder, some chipotle powder, a little smoked paprika, a boatload of cracked black pepper, kosher salt, then some dried onion and garlic, a little ground mustard, thyme, dried sage and the surprise ingredient that took it to a different level, and made it very tasty: about a teaspoon of cinnamon. This rub is a keeper and I'm going to try it again and actually come up with measurements so I can have a recipe for it when I need it.
I rubbed that all over the tenderloin, oiled the grill and got it grilling. I saw that it was getting a little more charred than I hoped, so I bopped into the kitchen and mixed up a little quick sauce with apple cider and a lot of spicy ground mustard. I threw a bit of my spice mixture in for good measure, and then added some oil. I started basting the pork with the sauce until it was done.
It was tasty, and one of the easiest meals in the world! This one's a keeper, and it made me happy. When I grin from ear to ear with the first bite, it doesn't matter what cards life deals me--I forget about anything but the food. This is a recipe I'm going to try and recreate sometime, and the addition of the apple cider mustard sauce made it better, so I'm keeping that one. Besides the pork, I fixed a little broccoli to go alongside which made for a happy camper.
I grilled two tenderloins last night which will be dinner for the rest of the week. I had two others that were in the brine. I put them each in a ziploc bag, covered them completely with cider, and placed them in the freezer. I think when I pull them out in about a month or so they're going to be even tastier.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Joys of Food
No matter what life brings, I seem to always find solace in cooking and eating well. I had a fun evening tonight with Dave and Torey, watching a three episode marathon of Monarch of the Glen--great fun, and I'm very grateful to my westside buddies. In the back of my mind the whole night, I kept thinking about what I needed to do when I got home. I left at around 12:15 tonight, and before I went to bed I wanted to make a brine for the pork tenderloins I bought today and am planning to roast for dinner tomorrow night.
I love brines--they make dry meat moist. I modified the brine that Thomas Keller uses at Bouchon, which incidentally is the source of the best roast chicken on the planet. The secret to the best roast chicken on the planet? A salt water brine. For the pork tenderloin I decided to use a half gallon of apple cider in place of a half gallon of the water the recipe calls for. The result will be pork tenderloin infused with apple cider. The rest of the brine calls for a cup of salt, 12 bay leaves, lot's of garlic, two tablespoons of peppercorns and a sprig of thyme, rosemary and parsley. I just have thyme in my garden right now, so that's what I used. I'm letting the brine get filled with flavor overnight, and in the morning I'll pop the tenderloins in and let the brine work it's magic. The result should be well worth the time: moist, flavorful tenderloin. And easy as can be. I'll probably put some sort of a dry rub on the pork before I pop it in the oven. This is an amazingly tasty meal that couldn't be easier, and I can't wait for dinner tomorrow.
I bought a bunch of apples today too. I see an apple pie in my future on Sunday. You've got to have something to look forward to, right?
Thank God for food! I think it might keep me sane.
I love brines--they make dry meat moist. I modified the brine that Thomas Keller uses at Bouchon, which incidentally is the source of the best roast chicken on the planet. The secret to the best roast chicken on the planet? A salt water brine. For the pork tenderloin I decided to use a half gallon of apple cider in place of a half gallon of the water the recipe calls for. The result will be pork tenderloin infused with apple cider. The rest of the brine calls for a cup of salt, 12 bay leaves, lot's of garlic, two tablespoons of peppercorns and a sprig of thyme, rosemary and parsley. I just have thyme in my garden right now, so that's what I used. I'm letting the brine get filled with flavor overnight, and in the morning I'll pop the tenderloins in and let the brine work it's magic. The result should be well worth the time: moist, flavorful tenderloin. And easy as can be. I'll probably put some sort of a dry rub on the pork before I pop it in the oven. This is an amazingly tasty meal that couldn't be easier, and I can't wait for dinner tomorrow.
I bought a bunch of apples today too. I see an apple pie in my future on Sunday. You've got to have something to look forward to, right?
Thank God for food! I think it might keep me sane.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Some birthday pies...
Alison and Torey had their birthdays this week, and so I whipped up a couple of pies. The top is a peanut butter cream pie, using a mixture of recipes and ideas from some people over at Food Network--the crust from Emeril, with shaved chocolate placed on the bottom, which is an idea that came from Gale Gand, while the filling is from a recipe of Paula Deen, with the addition of Reese's Peanut Butter cups, an idea of mine. It's tasty, but really rich. Though I like it, I'm still more of a fruit pie kind of guy, so the other one is the one I liked more. That one's a cherry/blueberry pie, based on a recipe from this month's Gourmet. I decided to go with adding some blueberries, though the recipe didn't call for it. I'm not sure if I enjoyed the cinnamon in the pie so much, and I don't think cinnamon really belongs in a cherry pie. In a blueberry pie maybe, but not cherry. I did add some things to the recipe: two tablespoons of blueberry port, and a teaspoon of cherry wine vinegar, as well as a dash of black pepper, all three of which I think add some interesting dimensions to the finished pie.
I made my own crust, using the 3-2-1 method which the Culinary Institute of America teaches. The last time I tried this, it didn't work at all, and I wanted to give it a whirl again. I looked back at my blog to read the directions I had written last summer, and realized that I had made a fatal error in my description. This method is based on weight (1 unit of water, 2 units of fat, 3 units of flour), and I mistakenly wrote that a stick of butter is 8 oz., instead of 4 oz., which led to not having enough butter the last time I tried this. This crust turned out just fine, but it's not the best I've made, though it certainly got the job done.
I see a few more fruit pies in my future this simmer. I'm jonesing for a straight up blueberry pie, and around the corner, I'm sensing some peach pies being churned out. One of those is going to be a peach/raspberry pie. I've never made a nectarine pie, and I think that should happen too.
I think it's the summer of the pie. (And ribs.)
Friday, May 11, 2007
Perseverance
I'm going fast and furious on trying to create the perfect cookie. The skeleton is there, and so is the concept, but tweaking it and getting it just where I want to is a bit maddening, but enjoyable at the same time.
There are a lot of variables, and every recipe I'm trying is slightly different. I'm varying the amount of ingredients, the brand and type of ingredient (such as Dutch processed cocoa, vs. normal cocoa, and baking soda as opposed to baking powder), as well as varying technique. The perfect cookie is eluding me, but I am learning as I go, studying the science behind every element that goes into a recipe, and discovering how each ingredient impacts the final product.
My guides in learning are two excellent books: On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee, and Understanding Baking: The Art and Science of Baking by Joseph Amendola and Nicole Rees. The McGee is the standard text on the science of food. His book covers all facets of cooking, while the latter book deals solely with the science involved in baking. There's an entire chapter dedicated to cookies, and how the standard ingredients in cookies work together. When I'm done, I'll tell you what I've learned. (Not that anyone gets as geeked about this as I do!)
I'm not there yet, but I hope to be. I think I'm at around my sixth batch, with the two batches I made tonight. I suspect I'll be making at least two recipes tomorrow, and maybe one Sunday evening. I've got two weeks left to figure it out.
I'm going to have a lot of cookies floating around in the freezer. Any takers?
There are a lot of variables, and every recipe I'm trying is slightly different. I'm varying the amount of ingredients, the brand and type of ingredient (such as Dutch processed cocoa, vs. normal cocoa, and baking soda as opposed to baking powder), as well as varying technique. The perfect cookie is eluding me, but I am learning as I go, studying the science behind every element that goes into a recipe, and discovering how each ingredient impacts the final product.
My guides in learning are two excellent books: On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee, and Understanding Baking: The Art and Science of Baking by Joseph Amendola and Nicole Rees. The McGee is the standard text on the science of food. His book covers all facets of cooking, while the latter book deals solely with the science involved in baking. There's an entire chapter dedicated to cookies, and how the standard ingredients in cookies work together. When I'm done, I'll tell you what I've learned. (Not that anyone gets as geeked about this as I do!)
I'm not there yet, but I hope to be. I think I'm at around my sixth batch, with the two batches I made tonight. I suspect I'll be making at least two recipes tomorrow, and maybe one Sunday evening. I've got two weeks left to figure it out.
I'm going to have a lot of cookies floating around in the freezer. Any takers?
Monday, May 07, 2007
A new kitchen?
So after I made these cookies the other day, a friend of mine told me about a cookie competition in Frankenmuth, with a grand prize of $500. I decided to google "cookie competition," and lo and behold, Mrs. Field's is having a 3oth Anniversary Cookie Competition. The Grand Prize? New GE Profile appliances for your kitchen, the complete works: fridge, range, microwave and a dishwasher. GE Profile are exactly what I was hoping to have in my kitchen after the remodel.
I'm going for it!
I've got until the end of the month to develop and tweak my recipe. I know I have some willing taste testers in Torey and Ren, and I'll be corralling Paul and Alison too.
The website says, "You too can become a Queen of the Kitchen." Well, I'm planning on a palace coup. Shock and awe, baby!
I'm going for it!
I've got until the end of the month to develop and tweak my recipe. I know I have some willing taste testers in Torey and Ren, and I'll be corralling Paul and Alison too.
The website says, "You too can become a Queen of the Kitchen." Well, I'm planning on a palace coup. Shock and awe, baby!
Culinary Experiments
I did a little mad scientist routine in the kitchen today. Two things on tap: ribs and mint chocolate cookies.
I think I've stumbled upon a quick and easy rib method that I'll use from now on, with a few modifications here and there. Here's my rib technique: rinse the ribs, then pat them dry with paper towel. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper, and a dry rub of your choice. I used Penzey's Southwest Seasoning, which I think will become my standby rub.
Then it's easy: just throw 'em on a grill set on low, flip every 20 minutes or so, and cook them like that for at least an hour and a half. At that point, you can start basting every ten minutes or so with the BBQ sauce of your choice, being sure to flip them each time you baste. A store bought sauce works just fine, but today, I cooked up a quick and easy BBQ sauce, simply because I love making something up. This one was pretty tasty, so I want to remember what I put in it this time around. (This is one of those blog entries that's more for me than anything else.)
Ingredients for the sauce:
1/2 of a red onion, minced
minced garlic--about four cloves
Can of diced tomatoes
Ketchup--probably 1/3 of a cup or so
Gulden's mustard--probably two or three tablespoons
chipotle pepper--maybe 1 and 1/2 tsp
ancho chile pepper--probably 1/2 tsp
cumin--probably a teaspoon
smoked Spanish paprika--about 1/2 tsp
cherry wine vinegar
raspberry wine vinegar
(enough of both to give it a nice zing, though could've used red wine vinegar)
liquid smoke--probably 2 tsp or so
brown sugar--probably 1/4 cup, maybe less
maple syrup--probably a tablespoon
plenty of black pepper
juice of half a lemon
Method: saute onions and garlic, then mix in the rest. Let simmer for awhile, then season with salt. Blend it all together to form a thick sauce.
The second experiment was to create some Mint Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies.
I made up a tasty recipe, but decided to delete here, since I'm going to be entering a contest. Don't want anyone using Google to stumble upon the winning recipe! :-)
It was immensely satisfying for me to make these today. Experimenting in the kitchen could just be my favorite hobby.
I think I've stumbled upon a quick and easy rib method that I'll use from now on, with a few modifications here and there. Here's my rib technique: rinse the ribs, then pat them dry with paper towel. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper, and a dry rub of your choice. I used Penzey's Southwest Seasoning, which I think will become my standby rub.
Then it's easy: just throw 'em on a grill set on low, flip every 20 minutes or so, and cook them like that for at least an hour and a half. At that point, you can start basting every ten minutes or so with the BBQ sauce of your choice, being sure to flip them each time you baste. A store bought sauce works just fine, but today, I cooked up a quick and easy BBQ sauce, simply because I love making something up. This one was pretty tasty, so I want to remember what I put in it this time around. (This is one of those blog entries that's more for me than anything else.)
Ingredients for the sauce:
1/2 of a red onion, minced
minced garlic--about four cloves
Can of diced tomatoes
Ketchup--probably 1/3 of a cup or so
Gulden's mustard--probably two or three tablespoons
chipotle pepper--maybe 1 and 1/2 tsp
ancho chile pepper--probably 1/2 tsp
cumin--probably a teaspoon
smoked Spanish paprika--about 1/2 tsp
cherry wine vinegar
raspberry wine vinegar
(enough of both to give it a nice zing, though could've used red wine vinegar)
liquid smoke--probably 2 tsp or so
brown sugar--probably 1/4 cup, maybe less
maple syrup--probably a tablespoon
plenty of black pepper
juice of half a lemon
Method: saute onions and garlic, then mix in the rest. Let simmer for awhile, then season with salt. Blend it all together to form a thick sauce.
The second experiment was to create some Mint Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies.
I made up a tasty recipe, but decided to delete here, since I'm going to be entering a contest. Don't want anyone using Google to stumble upon the winning recipe! :-)
It was immensely satisfying for me to make these today. Experimenting in the kitchen could just be my favorite hobby.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
A man I'd like to meet...
Whoever it was that first had the bright idea to lean food against a fire, where it received only smoke instead of flames, was perhaps the world's first genius. Can anything not be improved upon by smoking it? I love it all smoked: cheese, fish, tomatoes, garlic, red peppers, beef jerky, onions and pretty much anything else under the sun.
I cooked a smoked pork chop on the grill today for lunch, and just now, I finished breaking down a smoked chicken, sampling quite freely as I did my work. I'm going to whip up a chicken salad with it, and add some smoked almonds for some more smoky goodness and a nice bit of crunch.
I cooked a smoked pork chop on the grill today for lunch, and just now, I finished breaking down a smoked chicken, sampling quite freely as I did my work. I'm going to whip up a chicken salad with it, and add some smoked almonds for some more smoky goodness and a nice bit of crunch.
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