A grammarian's lexical choice; It's supposed to hint at the variety of topics I cover in my posts (plus my gender). A little convoluted & punny, but it amuses.
This past weekend we were up in Sacramento visiting our dear Aunt Cathy and Uncle Bill (and their whole family including grand-kids) at their new place. Aunt Cathy made up a batch of play dough for the visiting cousins. I remembered how great it is to have fresh play dough, and since apparently not all recipes are created equal, decided to archive a copy for her here on the blog, just in case she misplaces the other copies that U Bill squirrelled away. The only thing more fun is her pizza dough (coz then you get to eat it...)
2 Cs flour
1 C salt
2 Tbs Cream of Tartar
1Tbs cooking oil
2 Cs water
food colouring
Thoroughly mix all dry ingredients.
Mix all wet ingredients.
Combine wet and dry ingredients, mixing till smooth.
Cook over medium heat until consistency of commercial play dough (I'll try to work on a better description but this is how it was described in the recipe)
Allow to cool then knead until smooth and elastic.
Store in an airtight container.
If young children are helping by making individual portions, let each child:
*pour some mixed dry ingredients into a bowl
*add in some mixed wet ingredients
*allow child to stir to his/her heart's content.
Adult:
*combine contents of all bowls into pot, mix some more and then cook.
Soon-To-fu-Jji-Gye Tteok-Bok-Ki Korean chicken & tofu stew with fish cake & rice sticks in a spicy hot sauce
I've been craving 2 things lately: silken tofu and rice cakes. We normally go to this place called the Pyung Chang Tofu House but since I've started buying groceries at this really inexpensive place in Oakland's Little Korea called Koreana Plaza I'm inspired to make my own. I used 2 different recipes Tteokbokki and Soon Tofu Jigae for inspiration but in the end what I made was kind of a combo thing so I include my recipe below.
Ingredients:
1 onion or leek (white stalk) chopped
1lb ground chicken
3 Cups water
3 pieces kelp
3 shiitake mushrooms sliced
2 Tbs red pepper paste
2 Tbs honey or sugar
1 Tbs garlic black bean paste
1 pack rice cakes (~20 tubular) soaked
2 fish cake (flat rectangular kind) cut into squares
1 tub silken tofu
1 Tbs fish sauce
2 Tbs cilantro chopped
Instructions:
Sauté the onion till glassey, and the mushroom till tender.
Quickly sauté chicken and stir to break into small pieces.
Add water, kelp, red pepper paste, honey and garlic bean paste and bring to a boil.
Simmer rice cakes ~ 15 minutes till just soft but still chewy. The center should not be tough.
Add in the fish cakes and tofu (whole), try to keep the tofu chunks large, stirring will break tofu into smaller pieces.
Reduce to low heat and simmer for 5 minutes until tofu is heated through. Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.
There's a little Vietnamese place down the street from my Aunt's. We go there for lunch, and split everything we order. I love their grated apple salad. I guess it makes sense to use the local fruit rather than trying to ship in green papaya from far away. They serve it with thin slices of grilled beef. The dressing is very simple and oil free so I like it for a low calorie option. They use Fuji apples for sweet but I like to mix in Granny Smith as well for a tart contrast. Standard salady mix of shredded cabbage and carrots, with a sprinkle of bean sprouts. A little bit of cilantro, lime wedges and some toasted peanuts. It's so satisfying. They were happy to share the recipe, the waiter laughed and said everyone in Vietnam could make it. So now you can too.
Ingredients:
6oz flank steak grilled and sliced
2 Apples (Fuji & Granny Smith) grated
1/4 Cabbage shredded
1 carrot grated
1 Cup bean sprouts
6 sprigs of cilantro
1/4 Cup peanuts
lime wedges
1/2 Cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 Cup fish sauce
2-3 Tbs palm sugar
1-3 tsp hot chilli peppers sliced
up to 1/2 cup water
Preparation:
Mix together vinegar and fish sauce, add sugar and chillies dilute with water to taste.
Layer vegetables together top with beef and nuts. Pour over 3 Tbs of dressing.
Dim sum would not be complete for me without Feng Jiao (romantic translation Phoenix talons) aka chicken feet. Another binary selection food, that people either love or hate. Sometimes it's the texture, maybe it's the idea of it, but everyone has an opinion which they are happy to share with you. In general people appreciate it if you refrain from calling their food disgusting, a sensitive quirk perhaps, but I've found that many folk feel no need to edit their feelings of disgust when it comes to chicken feet.
When I was a kid, I came across my Mum chowing down on a bucket of something strange, brown and wrinkly. I was definitely put off by the way it looked. When I asked her what she was eating, she replied "Nothing you'd like"... but she was so evidently enjoying herself. I thought I'd give it a try- Wow flavour explosion, super chewy yet succulent chicken with sweet, salty and spicy hot notes and an evocative hint of mysterious ginger, cinnamon and anise. When Gwynie wandered into the kitchen to find out what we were eating with such relish, I told her it was "Nothing you'd like"... Lol that didn't dissuade her one bit.
So it's safe to say, thanks to Mum, we're fans of the chicken feet. There are a bunch of different methods of cooking chicken feet. One involves deep frying followed by braising/steaming, and I have to point out that deep frying always improves an item- for example twinkies. Altho this method produces a very intact foot, which is considered more appealing, given that most of us can't indulge in those kind of calories very often, that's slightly limiting.
In Taipei I used to pass by a restaurant called Elastic. It served teas and soups made of connective tissue plus special herbs and spices that are supposed to help your joints. At fraction of the price, holistic and tasting infinitely better than that Glucosamine chondroitin, MSM, Sam-E, CoE Q10 etc. I'm definitely sold on the idea, and I try to make stocks from cheaper parts (pig feet/hocks, pork and beef neck bones). The stock has a richer, glossy, more proteiny feel to it and I get to count it as my cartilage supplement, so it works out all round. Hence chicken feet/carcass make a great start to a stock, and then you can dress up the feet and eat them too!
I recognise that the idea of chicken feet can be initially disconcerting. But I urge you to put aside these preconceived notions and give it a try. Maybe sample a tiny bit at dim sum, or use stock made with chicken feet. Well whatever your preference, I include my recipe below. If you don't want to see the process, read no further.
For some strange reason I've been tasked with making salad dressing over the holidays. My default vinaigrette is a meld of salty, sour, sweet and spicy. It should be light enough that you can taste the individual vegetables in the salad, but add a little sparkle that makes you want to keep munching away on your 5-9 serving... I put whatever is at hand in a small jar which I use to mix it all together by shaking. But despite my casual approach to the creation of what seems very simple everyone keeps asking for a recipe. Keep in mind this is all approximate and should be adjusted to your preference.
Ingredients:
1 lemon- juice & zest
OR
1/4 Cup balsamic vinegar
3 Tbs Fish sauce
1 Tbs mustard
1 Tbs sugar/honey
1/3 Cup olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
Optional: adjust to taste
white vinegar or rice vinegar for a neutral acid
ginger grated
shallots/green onion/pickled garlic chopped
cilantro finely chopped
Siracha/hot pepper
sesame oil
Gwynie made this for Christmas. It was so good I thought I'd give it a write up. It's more like French toast than a quiche, with a great contrasting texture of succulent mushrooms and crispy bread. Most of the steps can be done in advance, so it would be a great dish for say a dinner party where you'd rather spend time with your guests. Gourmet magazine talks about using parchment lined ramekins, but I prefer to do it in one large dish. If I were going to serve it in smaller volumes, I'd just use large muffin tins with cupcake papers, and prolly bake for only 10-15 minutes. Alternatively prebake and then broil as discussed below.
Herbed Sausage & Wild Mushroom bread pudding Ingredients
4 Cups (1/2-inch) fresh bread cubes (Acme herb foccacia- missing 4 slices...)
1 large onion coarsely chopped OR
1/2 Cup shallot finely chopped
1/2 lb sausage meat
2 Tbs butter unsalted
1 1/2 lbs mixed fresh mushrooms (crimini, chantrelle and shitake)
1/2 Cup flat-leaf parsley finely chopped
1/2 bunch sage coarsely chopped
2 Cups half-and-half
4 large eggs
1/2 Cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.
Gwynie started eating the herb slab before making the bread cubes... I think a whole herb slab would have been too much? Bake bread cubes in 1 layer in a large shallow baking pan until golden-brown, about 10 minutes. This can be done ahead and stored in a air tight container.
Tear or cut mushrooms lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick pieces. Sauté shallot or onion in butter until glassy ~3 minutes. Add mushrooms, sausage, salt & pepper and cook until dry ~15 minutes. Add parsley, sage and cook, stirring ~2 minutes. Remove from heat. Sometimes I feel that a cycle of heating and cooling helps to boost flavours, if you want that then this step can be done ahead and stored in the fridge.
Whisk together half-and-half, eggs, cheese, salt & pepper in a large bowl. Stir in sausage, mushrooms and bread cubes until coated well and let stand 10 minutes for bread to absorb egg mixture. Mix again before placing in a shallow casserole dish, sprinkle top with more cheese.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, remove and allow to rest for 20 minutes. The egg continues to cook while waiting, making for a very tender chew. Gwynie likes hers served hot, and if you want more crunch, heat under broiler ~5 minutes for the top to crisp up. You can also bake in a large dish and then when serving individual portions toast under broiler for more of an edge effect.
As a child, my Gran in Nottingham made light and fluffy Yorkshire puds, with crisp shells and melting centers- served with gravy and roast beef. Yum! But she could never really articulate how she did it. Now my Mum is a great cook, and super adventurous experimenter when it comes to trying recipes. That said, back home, Mum attempted Yorkshire pudding on countless Sundays. Mum would peek anxiously in through a crack in the the oven door every couple of minutes and watch in horror as it deflated to a limply flat and soggy pud. We supported her attempts with typical scientific interest and critical eating, what factors could be changed? some day we were sure, it would all work out. At school in England, the muffin sized yorkies were tough, chewy (and to my horror- bounced). So for me the search for a reliable recipe was similar to the Grail.
In the USA, people refer to popovers and Dutch babies, where it's all about height with crisp shells and serve them sweet instead of savoury. The first time I experienced the impressive form of the Dutch baby was at a ski cabin in Tahoe where a professional chef whipped one up in about 15 minutes. She made it look so easy, producing crispy lofty peaks of golden pillowy meltingly soft goodness in a massive cast iron pan**. With a dusting of icing sugar and raspberry jam, it was a perfect winter wonderland breakfast. Inspired by her success, I made a note of her recipe which I've tweaked and been using ever since. I've experimented with proportions and have determined the golden secret ratios which will work every time. So you can adjust your proportions based on how many people you're cooking for. The ratios are essentially 1:1 for milk:flour*:egg ie For every 1/4 cup flour & milk you need 1 large egg or about 1/4 cup egg.
Ingredients:
3 Tbs Butter
2 Tbs Grapeseed oil (or lard)
4 eggs
1 C milk
1 C flour (3/4 Cup All-Purpose: 1/4 Cup Bread)
1/4 tsp salt
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425oF. Place butter & grapeseed oil in cast iron pan and heat in oven while you prepare the batter. In a blender or food processor whiz eggs until they are well mixed. With the motor running, add milk, flour and salt, whiz for another 30 secs - 1 minute.
Pour batter into preheated skillet (the butter/oil should sizzle) and return to oven. Bake for about 18-25 minutes until craggy peaks are browned but not burned. It's most impressive if everyone is ready and waiting since it deflates slightly when it comes out of the oven. (I've tried leaving it in for longer to keep the puffiness but then the outside gets tough...)
If serving sweet, dust with powdered sugar and top with fruit, preserves etc. Whipped cream is fun too.
For savoury garnish with chopped chives or parsley, and smother with gravy. I served it with sautéed wild mushrooms and shallots.
Tartine is a fun local San Francisco bakery- the lines out the door attest to this. They make great bread with a dense chewy texture & yeasty nutty goodness and awesome tarts/pies, cakes etc. I recently visited with my friend Jon, who recommended the Almond Rochers as the pinnacle of their baking achievement. Tartine's Almond Rochers are crunchy mounds of almond meringue with toasted flakes creating a 3D effect that creates a meltingly soft and chew center. Since I'm a fan of the Acme pan epi, I have to agree that the rochers are simply deliteful and my favourite item.
During the traditional Christmas cookie baking, my friend Wendy produced her birthday present- Tartine's new book- you can imagine my excitement. I quickly flipped to the Rocher recipe and announced that we were going to make it. We didn't have enough sliced almonds so I substituted almond meal but I think that resulted in a flatter and less chewy center since the cookie was overcooked. I'm going to try increasing the sliced almonds to see if that will help with the 3D structure (lattice effect). I'll post pics later...
Tartine's Almond Rochers
1 Cup + 2 Tbs Almond (sliced + meal)
2 Large egg whites
1 Cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp salt (pinch)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350oF.
Line baking sheet with parchment/silpat.
Prepare a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch (no.6 or 7) plain tip.
Toast almonds in a thin layer on a baking sheet in oven until golden
brown 7-10 minutes. Cool completely. Break almonds into ~1/4 inch
pieces. Tartine warns: Large chunks will clog the pastry tip if you plan to
pipe the forms. I didn't have any trouble with clogging but that may be due to the almond meal substitution.
Over a simmering water bath (saucepan with 2 inches water), in
stainless-steel bowl of a stand mixer whisk together egg whites,
confectioners' sugar and salt. Tartine warns: bowl should NOT touch the water.
Continue whisking 5+ minutes till the mixture is hot to the touch
(120oF). Place bowl on stand mixer and fit with whisk attachment.
Whip on high until mixture is thick and holds glossy stiff peaks when
you lift the beater. (I think I should have whisked for longer since my mounds tended to collapse. Heated egg whites are supposed to be more stable than raw egg whites.) Fold in the almonds and vanilla with a spatula.
Immediately fill the pastry bag with the meringue mixture and pipe
onto the baking sheet, forming kisses approx 1 inch in diameter,
spacing them about 1 1/2 inches apart. Alternatively you can drop the
meringues by the tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet. Regular macaroons are left to rest for 30 minutes creating a "foot" with cracks etc when the cookies are finally baked.
Place the baking sheet in the oven and keep the oven door ajar with
the handle of a wooden spoon to allow moisture to escape. Bake the
cookies until they puff slightly, crack along the sides and feel dry
on the outside but soft to the touch 15-20 minutes. Transfer the
cookies to a wire rack, they will harden as they cool.
Store in airtight container at room temp for up to 2 weeks. After a
couple of days they dry out completely and are still tasty delicious.
I was shopping in the Little Saigon section of Fruitvale on International Blvd (in the 'hood) when I came across a very interesting looking pan. Cast iron with spherical indentations. I didn't know what it was for, but my mind went immediately to Yorkshire pudding and fried eggs. It was only $12, so I bought a pan and for that price Gwynie bought one too. But after a couple of failed attempts at eggs, they were consigned to the cupboard.
Fast forward a couple of years, in Taiwan, Takoyaki is a popular Japanese street snack- fried balls made with a wet batter, chopped squid, pickled ginger and green onion. Covered by a generous hand with sauce/mayonaise and shaved fish flakes etc. They are a little crisp on the outside with a soft almost souffle like center and tasty nuggets of chewy squid. These are a fun finger food, to eat them you have to stab them with medium/small bamboo skewers.
It's pretty exciting to watch the vendors make them too. Of course they make it look super easy. All you need is the right pan, a couple of long skewers, and years of practice...
Here's a video I found that demonstrates the technique.
Then I found a recipe online and thought I would give it a try. http://japanesefood.about.com/od/seafoodfish/r/takoyaki.htm Ingredients
Batter:
1 2/3 Cup flour
2 1/2 Cup dashi soup
2 eggs
1/2 lb. boiled octopus (yaki), cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 Cup chopped green onion (negi)
1/4 Cup dried red shrimp (sakura ebi)
1/4 Cup chopped pickled red ginger (benishoga)
Mix flour, dashi soup, and eggs in a bowl to make batter. Heat takoyaki grill pan in oven or stove top. Brush oil inside cups of pan. On stove top, pour batter into the rounds, you don't need to be too careful about spilling since that will get pulled in during the cooking process. Each cup gets a sprinkle of octopus, red ginger, and green onion. As batter cooks, use 2 skewers to rotate 90o bringing the bottom edge up and allowing batter to fill cup, forming hollow sides. Keep rotating, tucking in rough edges, until you have successfully formed a closed ball. Keep turning, till takoyaki become rounded and evenly brown, remove them from the pan and place in a plate. Put sauce and mayonnaise on takoyaki and sprinkle bonito flakes/aonori on the top.
Every year we get together with our friend Wendy to make cookies. Wendy is a very good baker and she makes brilliant cookies. One of Gwynie's favorites is the Molasses spice cookie from Wendy's Magnolia Bakery recipe book. It's a rich deep flavor, not too sweet with a sharp almost gingery quality, despite there being no ginger. Super easy, they take almost no time at all to whip up AND because it makes a great soft chewy cookie, you can bake these in the toaster oven without a drop in quality.
Magnolia Bakery iced molasses cookies
Ingredients:
2 Cups flour sifted
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs all spice
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 Cup or 1 1/2 sticks butter
3/4 Cup sugar
1 large egg
1/4 Cup molasses
Directions:
Pre heat oven 350 degrees.
Combine sifted flour with other dry ingredients, sifting again, set aside.
In food processor, cream butter and sugar until smooth.
Add egg and mix well.
Beat in molasses.
Add dry ingredients all at once, and pulse to mix ~10 seconds. (For a sturdier snap you can go longer to activate the gluten, but watch out for your teeth!). The debate whether to chill the dough or not...
warm dough spreads quickly during cooking resulting in a flatter slightly more crisp effect. Chilled dough holds the mounded shape and makes for a lighter more fluffy center.
Drop by rounded scoops on to parchment lined cookie sheet leaving 1-inch for expansion
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Cool cookies on sheet for 1 minute then remove to rack to completely cool. Cookies are tender and soft (if you want a crisper cookie, you can extend the baking time by 2 minutes- be careful not to burn them!) When cooled spread a thin layer of icing on each cookie with a small knife or spatula. Let icing set before stacking cookies or they will stick together. Makes 3-4 dozen cookies
I recently had a chance to stay a couple of days with some dear friends Dale and Doreen down in Monterey. They get a farm box every week stuffed to the brim and were struggling to finish before the next box arrived. Luckily they have a male monitor lizard (Daphne) which they feed leafy greens so he helped to cut down on leftovers. While I was there, one of the best dinners was a stew which they jokingly referred to as "Daphne stew". I took copious notes as Dale prepped. The meat was tender, the sauce juicy tomato-based, chock full of veggies. Lest you think we were eating the family pet, Doreen explained that they decided to use stuff from the box in every dish. It was working great, they had delicious stews and they started including more and more veg in the recipe. Dale and Doreen laughed as they told me- one day they ran out of veg and decided to use Daphne's portion of the box, wow adding the leafy greens to the stew added a whole other dimension of texture and flavor. Served over rice- perfection!
This week Morgan and Julie kindly gave me a box of their Riverdog Farm share- Rapini, cauliflower, carrots, turnips, bok choy, apples, persimmons. Daphne stew seemed a fitting way to cook these fantastic fresh veggies. I like to think of it as: Meat, onion, garlic, green veg, root veg, leafy greens, moisture, flavor & tomato paste. But if you need a more structured recipe...
2nd try on left, 3rd try on right (secret ingredients work!)
Here are my latest efforts in baking- Chocolate wafer cookies. The story starts with the fact that I'm in the process of making a base for a chocolate torte/cheesecake, which requires dark black brown chocolate cookies broken into crumbs. (Think oreos without the filling) My friend Doreen points out the ubiquitously available (at least in the USA) Nabisco "Famous" (brand) chocolate wafers are what I'm really trying to emulate. But my allergies of course make these verboten since they contain some sulfites, and based on the fact that I get hives- contain food dyes as well. Here's a picture for calibration purposes. Notice that they also cost a whopping $4.79! Price alone is an incentive to make my own...
I did a little investigating and found a recipe for the chocolate thin mint girl scout cookie @Baking Bites. These sounded like just the ticket. All I'd have to do was omit the mint and dipping chocolate and I was golden! After an afternoon of happy baking and tempting smells. OMG I must have done something wrong. I think it was the volume of milk that went into the dough and the subsequent mixing then activated the gluten... they were tough as rocks! haha the taste was ok, but my jaw! They were also a great brown color, but not that deep devilishly black brown that I wanted. I think the trick to getting them really DARK is Dutch-Processed cocoa powder (Alkalized Unsweetened Cocoa Powder). Again I returned to the internet for more recipes to test.
So far I think that this recipe from smitten kitchen looks to be the right one. I followed the directions exactly with no deviating from the recipe, and the happy result was a delicate chocolate wafer, crunchingly satisfying with a great crumb. Just about perfect in all respects except the depth of dark in the chocolate color and taste. I really wanted it to be dark black!
On my third try, I used the more expensive Valrhona cocoa that Deb suggested (in her pictures the wafers are pretty dark) and it works a charm. I also swapped out some of the butter with semi-sweet chocolate to boost flavor. The last thing that really amped up the flavor, added depth of color and nice texture was replacing some ground black sesame instead of the flour. (I get it at my local Asian grocery store) Wow! So intensely black chocolatey with an elusive nutty crunch.
1 Cup flour
1/2 Cup black sesame flour
1/2 Cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1 Cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate coarsely chopped
3 Tbs whole milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Combine the dry ingredients: flour, sesame, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the food processor and pulse several times to mix. Coarsely cut the butter and chocolate into small chunks and add them. Pulse several times till the mixture forms pea sized sandy grains. Mix milk and vanilla and add gradually while whizzing until the mixture starts to clump and form a rough dough. Use wax paper or clingfilm to form into a log about 1 3/4 inches in diameter OR line a small loaf pan with wax paper and pack the dough in to form a rectangle. Cover with clingfilm, wax paper or foil and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour. (This dough also freezes very well).
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Slice the dough thinly about 1/8-inch and place them at least 1 inch apart on the sheets. Bake, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and back to front at about 5-6 minutes, for a total of 10 to 12 minutes (watch the baking time carefully-if you can smell them, they're very close to being done). The cookies will spread and puff, sliced too thin you might get little air bubbles that break, giving the cookie a more lacy texture.
Cool the cookies by sliding the parchment onto rack, they crisp up as they cool... about 2 minutes. The flavor changes significantly between warm (nutty) and cool (CHOCOlatey); An interesting taste test to try- ok I admit I couldn't really wait for them to cool! You can store these cookies for up to two weeks (but I bet they won't last this long) or frozen up to two months. (IMHO it's better to freeze the dough and bake fresh, unless you like the girl scout thin mint cookies frozen). They are very delicate, you can add a bit of structural integrity by covering the base with (maybe mint?) chocolate...
Note: These cookies should be crisp once they cool. If they are still soft, return them to the oven to bake a little longer, then cool again. You'll soon figure out the time that works for your oven and the thickness that you slice the dough.
Last year Gwynie was advised to bring down her blood pressure- no salt, no caffeine, no wine. By adding oats as a breakfast option, she finds she doesn't need to be as stringent with denial. I'm not sure why oats are such a miracle drug, but they sure do taste good! In the interest of warm breakfasts that meet the hi fiber (5-9 fruits/veg) requirement, I'm cooking up a pot of steel cut oats for the week. Easiest breakfast ever! After spending my early childhood in Scotland, and the last year experimenting with different ways of cooking oats/grains, I feel like a connoisseur of oats. We always called it "porridge" in Scotland, which reinforces the feeling that I'm visiting the Three Bears.
After standing in the supermarket aisle last nite discussing the merits of various types, I realized that even Gwynie and I need to define the oats we like and when we use them. Almost everything you ever wanted to know about oats can be found on the web. Any inaccuracies can be attributed to my vague interpretation of those sources. Typically we have 3-4 kinds of oats on hand
Oat bran is the separated outer hull from the inner oat groat, and as you can see cut into a fine (insoluble fiber) powder. I use this in my smoothies and granola. Generally pretty easy to find in the cereal section. The whole oat berries (aka groats) must be stabilized by steam. During this process the groat can be cut into smaller chunks aka "steel cut" and/or rolled flat. As you can see there are significant physical differences between the various types. Here Steel cut has smallish but 3 dimensional pieces where as the rolled oats are uniformly thin. Quick & Old fashioned refers to the flake size of the rolled oats- "Old fashioned" are larger in diameter (and chewier when cooked) than the "minute" oats but still flat. We normally use steel cut oats in our porridge. I like the 3D mouth feel, sort of like a natural "bobba" (tapioca pearl). I use "Quick" oats when baking (for the nutty flavor & crisp snap) and "Old fashioned" when making granola (they are not really interchangeable)
You can find "steel cut oats" at Trader Joe's and other supermarkets. Cook in water (Oats:Water ratio is 1:4) at a rolling boil for 30-45 minutes depending on mouth feel. Optional salt can be added but we omit this. After initial prep time, made up in advance and stored in fridge- you can reconstitute with 1/3 Cup boiling water or heat in the microwave. It's delicious sweet or savory.
Northern Chinese Hui style Baozi (steamed stuffed buns)
Stanley and Stacy invited us over to their home to learn how to make Northern Chinese Hui style Baozi. The plan was to spend the afternoon cooking and then have a massive dinner sampling all the various types of baozi. First we started the dough and set it to rise while Stacy prepped the other ingredients.
We actually tripled the amount of dough coz we had 3 different fillings. So if you're only doing one kind, this basic recipe is enough. Stacy mentioned that she enjoys the rich flavor of the buttermilk flour, but that too much will make a weak dough.
Dough
1 C lukewarm water
1 packet active dry yeast
3+ C flour (2 C all purpose/1 C buttermilk/bao)
1 t salt
Create a slurry of yeast water and 3 Tbs flour.
Allow to bubble, then add gradually in the rest of the flour.
Mix lightly while flour absorbs the moisture.
Sprinkle flour on a flat surface.
Knead dough till smooth and elastic, adding more flour as needed till no longer sticky.
Wash and dry bowl, oil thoroughly to prevent dough from sticking.
Sprinkle dough with a little water, to keep the surface moist.
Place dough in bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
Let rise in warm space, until more than doubled in size. (~3 hours)
Turn the dough out on to a floured surface.
Split into two, set one aside- loosely covered.
Cut the remaining half into quarters, and half each again till you have 8 pieces.
Roll each into a ball. Flatten each, sprinkle with flour and allow to rest, 10 minutes.
Repeat for remaining dough.
Roll the edges flat using a small rolling pin, making sure to leave the center area mounded.
Place a heaping dinner spoon of filling in the center, cupping your hand.
Pinch the edges together, while using the opposite thumb to push the filling under the fold.
Gradually pull the edges of the circle up around the mounded filling, until you have a raised seam spiraling into a topknot (this is the more traditional shape). For each filling try a different type of seam. You can make half moon shapes and star shapes depending on how you pinch the edges.
Place on a floured tray and allow to rise for 30 minutes to an hour.
Prepare steamer trays, line with cabbage leaves. Place baozi in steamer, topknot up, (take care that they do not touch!) until tray is full.
Cook for 15-20 minutes until done. Dough changes from matte white to glossy sheen. Serve warm with dipping sauces.
Fillings
Shrimp w/ marrow squash and chives
1lb prawns peeled/deveined
Marrow squash grated
¼ C fish sauce
1 bunch chives finely chopped
Coarsely chop shrimp and mix with grated squash.
Add chives & fish sauce and mix well.
Allow to rest.
Beef w/ Daikon
1lb ground beef
½-1 C rendered beef fat or lard, coarsely chopped
1lb daikon peeled and grated
1-2 T salt to taste
6 green onions coarsely chopped
2 eggs
2 T ginger coarsely chopped
¼ C soy sauce
2 T sesame oil
Grind green onion, ginger in a blender with soy sauce, sesame oil and eggs.
Mix with beef and daikon till texture is smooth and silky.
Add beef fat, taking care to maintain pea sized chunks.
Check flavor by cooking a small piece.
Adjust flavor to taste.
Egg & Chives
1 bunch chives finely chopped
1/4 cup oil
4 eggs
½ C milk
Beat eggs and milk with salt.
Heat fry pan and lightly scramble eggs.
Add chives and mix well.
Roll the dough circle flat using a small rolling pin.
Place a heaping dinner spoon of filling in the center.
Pinch the edges together, creating a half moon shape. Flatten into a patty.
Deep fry in oil until crisp and brown.
Dipping Sauces
Soy-vinegar
1/2 C soy sauce
1/4 C vinegar
2 T ginger finely shredded
Hot Sesame Dressing
2T sesame oil
1/2t chile pepper sauce/Siracha
1 T vinegar
2 T soy
1/2t sugar
1/4C cilantro chopped
In Taiwan it was so hot in the summer I tended to pick cold things to eat for lunch. Back in Berkeley where it's normally chilly 72oF air conditioning-like, we've hit the heatwave of the summer. It was 107oF in Healdsburg and 94oF in Berkeley, so I'm feeling a little wilted and less like cooking (or eating). This is a salad inspired by the typical sesame noodles you can find on any corner in Taipei and leftovers in the fridge. If you're feeling salady and not wanting the extra carbs, you can omit the noodles and just double the amount of veg and chicken. Serves 4.
For the sauce
1/3 Cup Tahini
3 Tbs fish sauce
3 Tbs rice vinegar
1 Tbs sesame seeds
1 tsp sesame (toasted) oil
1/4 Cup green onions (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tsp siracha or hot chili oil to taste
salt and pepper to taste
Combine ingredients and mix well. Sauce should be nutty, tangy and spicy.
8oz noodles (cooked, rinsed and chilled) optional
4-6 Cups cabbage (shredded)
1 carrot (grated)
1 Cup sliced radishes (optional)
8oz chicken (shredded)
1/4 Cup cilantro leaves
Toss noodles with 1/3 of the sauce. Toss veggies with other 1/3 of sauce. Mix together and top with chicken and cilantro. Serve remaining dressing on the side.
We ran out of mayonnaise this weekend, and Gwynie put a request in for me to do a homemade batch rather than buying it. We like the idea of knowing everything that goes into our food, and commercial versions of mayo have a long list of chemicals that stabilize the emulsion and prolong shelf life. Bleh! & Hello allergies! Mom used to make it all the time when we were little, I don't know whether it was unavailable in the store or just her Cordon Bleu Culinary School skills coming out. She whipped it together with her hand held immersion blender. The two things I remember clearly was how easy it looked and how much her recipe made- practically 2 or 3 cups of the stuff! Nowadays with an heightened awareness of salmonella/food poisoning I could never make that amount since it takes us ages to get thru a large jar. You prolly don't want to store it for more than a week tops, so I thought I would experiment with smaller volumes for 1 or 2 servings. Basically you need eggs, oil, acid and flavors. In general it's 1 -1 1/2 cups of oil for each egg, and that will make up to about 1 1/2 cups of mayo. I can get the cutest little quail eggs at our local Asian market, which allows me to used the same ratios but in miniature (ie for each quail egg use 1/3-1/2 cup of oil). A lot of recipes talk about dripping the oil in but with the immersion blender that's not necessary. If you can't get it to thicken, keep adding small amounts of oil. (I know- doesn't that seem counter intuitive to add more liquid to something that's runny? Trust me it works!) The immersion blender is what allows these smaller volumes to work. I suppose you could attempt with the whisk attachment in a bowl but this way you only use the blade attachment, and the bottle you store the mayo in anyway...
Ingredients
1 quail egg
1 quail egg yolk
1 Tbs vinegar (I used cornichon pickle juice)
1 tsp mustard
Salt, pepper & sugar to taste
reserve
1 Cup neutral oil (split into 3)
Method
Combine the ingredients in a small bottle using immersion blender.
Add 1/3 cup of oil, blend till mixture becomes opaque and oil is fully incorporated.
Mixture will be runny.
Add 1/3 cup of oil, blend till oil is fully incorporated.
Mixture will start to thicken.
Check flavor and adjust as you like.
Add 1/3 cup of oil, blend till oil is fully incorporated.
Mixture should be thick, glossy and hold it's shape.
Makes about 1 cup.
Voila homemade mayonnaise! If you're feeling super fancy you can add herbs/spices and call it aioli...
Hi it’s Gwynie again. Astrid asked me to do a guest post on my shortcakes/biscuits, which I find damn fine (all modesty aside). I always look it up in "Best Recipes" but sissy pointed out that I've changed the proportions, ingredients and method to better suit my idea of what a biscuit should be- and this in itself merits an entry (plus then I can just use the kitchen computer to check). To me this is a spring dish to go with all the lovely fresh fruit coming in but you could also have clotted cream and jam (yes I cheat and make these instead of scones). I whipped these up for family dinner the other night to go with fresh strawberries and they were a hit.
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees
Baking requires a commitment to accuracy. Measure out the following
125 g all purpose flour
125 g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tps salt
3 tbsp buttermilk powder*
1 stick unsalted butter (8 oz) or omit salt if using salted butter (straight from the freezer and cut up into 8 pieces)
¾ cup water or milk*
*Note if you use buttermilk as the liquid you can omit the buttermilk powder and milk/water but I find the powder gives the best reaction with the raising agents.
I like to use a food processor for speed, less handling of the dough and keeping things cool. To be precise, I weigh everything but in a pinch you should whisk the flour before using a "1 cup" to scoop and then level. Pulse 2/3rds of the butter with all the dry ingredients to a fine cornmeal and then add the last of the butter and pulse till it’s coarsely chopped and odd pea sized. I then add the liquid, pulsing as I go to bring it together. It will be a moist dough. I flour the counter top liberally, turn out the dough, sprinkle with more flour and smoosh the dough together into a rough 1 inch high round (don’t knead too much or your biscuits will be tough). This time I roughly cut it and made triangles (scone style) to lower the amount of kneading but my sister much prefers when I use the round biscuit cutter (1 ½ inch is best, dipped in flour each time). I try to do only 2 rounds to cut the biscuits out and discard the rest since anymore than that the dough bakes tough. I use a cast iron skillet but you can use a baking tray or whatever is handy in your baking world, and bake at 450 for 10 minutes. I like my biscuits break off with soft sides so I space them so they’ll expand and touch but you can space them out 1 inch apart for a firmer bake. You can brush the tops with milk or butter for a glossy finish, but a golden matte is equally pleasing to the eye (and easier).
I also prepared the biscuit dough ahead of time, cut them out and placed in the pan and baked within 2 hours of making them- timed just before dinner had finished so that they were warm straight out of the oven.
At family dinner this week, I cooked BBQ pork ribs. Everyone loved them so much, that they asked for the recipe to be posted. It's kind of a standard marinade for me, mostly random things that I have in the fridge. But repeat performers, so I guess less by chance and more by design. One of the things you can do to short circuit the looong marinade time is making up batches of marinade/ribs and freezing them. That way when you take out a batch to defrost, it's already spent the requisite time.
Marinade for ribs (4 hours+)
2 T Fish sauce
1/4 C Fruit juice
1/4 C Hoisin sauce
1/4 C Oyster sauce
1/4 C sake/rice wine
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 C cilantro (leaves and stems) finely chopped
2 T ground ginger
1 fruit optional (macerated) use for school nite method
Grind all the ingredients and check. Should be salty but not overpoweringly so, adjust if necessary with more fruit juice to taste. Allow ribs to marinade for at least 4 hours.
Overnite- 24 hours is better.
Memphis Spice Rub for BBQ baby back ribs
2 1/2 T hot chili powder (medium heat)
2 T ground cumin
1 T ground coriander
1 T brown sugar (optional)
1/2 T paprika
1/2 t black pepper
1/4 t cayenne pepper
3/4 t oregano
Dust onto ribs.
The Low Slow method- if you have 4+ hours. everyone kept exclaiming on how tender and tasty the meat was. Like other roasting projects, indirect heat makes the difference for tender, succulent and juicy meat. You can do this with a smoker too, but our neighbor's environmental allergies makes it tough to smoke for extended periods. Mostly I do this in the oven and finish on the grill.
Heat the oven to 275 degrees. I don't bother to remove the membrane- it hold the ribs together as they tenderize. Lay the slabs membrane side down and roast for 4 hours. The result is fall-off-the-bone meat. Different thicknesses of ribs cook at varying rates, so keep an eye out and start testing about 3 1/2 hours, some can go over 4 hours depending. Ribs should be flexible but meat will still hold together if lifted with tongs. Competition cut is two ribs with meat on either side of the bone. You should be able to pull them apart but still have a densely toothsome quality.
School nite method- if you have 2 hours.
Add ground fruit (apple or pear are my most favorite options) to the marinade. The enzymes help tenderize the proteins. Higher heat makes for a less tender quality but still flavorful and fun to eat.
Heat oven or grill to 350, and roast for approximately 2 hours. Start checking for doneness around 1 hr 45mins. I found that wrapping in foil (see High priestess of crackling) leads to gray limp soulless meat. So unless you need to use the meat juices for something else, there is no point for that.
If you have less than 2 hours, you should be cooking something else besides ribs!
We're still trying to introduce more veg into the diet. This entry is by Gwynie for Robin who enjoyed the rolls and mum who wants to know what I did this weekend.
Ben, Robin and Noah flew up from San Diego to visit family and friends. We planned on meeting up at Golden Gate Park for a picnic this Saturday. While the weather was clear, it was overcast and a little cold so we ended up at Sara and Sid’s place which was close by. Since it was a picnic and I had wanted to provide something salady, self contained and did not require plates, I made fresh vegetarian spring rolls. They are super easy if a little labor intensive. I washed all the herbs, mint, cilantro, green onion, sliced lettuce (next time I’ll use cabbage, a nod to Robin’s 2 cabbages in her farm box), carrots and radishes (shredded) and bean sprouts. In any case, shred & julienne your veggies into thin long strips. Returning players- cabbage green & purple, carrot, radishes, cucumber (but you can use any veg that's shred-able and not super chewy). It's a lot of washing/rinsing and I find the thing that takes the most time.
Then I put super hot water in a bowl (note either use tongs so as not to burn yourself or let the hot water cool to a point where you can stick the wafer in without burning your fingers). We use the 6" round tapioca flour sheets, there are larger ones that are a mix of tapioca and rice flour. Either will work. I put the spring roll skins in one at a time and dip until the skin has slightly softened. On a flat surface spread the skin and sprinkle the various veggies and herbs lengthwise onto the end closest to you and roll up. I haven’t quite worked out how to get the roll really tight and I’m sure there’s a technique but we’ll go with this method until we use up the 6 inch round skin’s. Now I see why the bigger ones are available if you like to tuck things in and enclose everything, but for munching purposes this works.
The sauce is also easy. See the above picture for ingredients. We use one that Astrid got at cooking school in Thailand. I do like the tart accent so you can substitute in 2 tsps lime juice if you don't have tamarind.
8oz Coconut milk (separated into cream and milk)
1 Tbs Red curry paste (Penang/Massaman are fine)
1/2-3/4 Cup Peanut butter
1 Palm sugar cone (2Tbs brown sugar)
2 Tbs Fish sauce
3 Tbs Tamarind sauce
By now Astrid doesn't really measure things any more, just kind of throws things in until it tastes "right" (altho Astrid and I often debate the "right" amount of heat- I wasn’t sure how hot people could take and 1 Tbs was a good compromise). The first step is important- the cream in the can of coconut milk rises and separates while it sits. So you want to take advantage of that by maintaining the direction of the can, not shaking or jostling it be fore you remove the lid and then scoop off the cream, leaving the thinner milk layer behind for later. Heat the coconut cream on medium high until it starts to turn a beige-y brown and streak glassy as the sugars caramelize and the oils heat up (aka "breaking"). Mix in the curry paste controlling the heat so as not to burn. (For a spicy kick you can add an extra Tbs of curry paste or adjust at the end with Siracha chili sauce). Add the peanut butter and the rest of the coconut milk. Stir well until dissolved into the milk and continue to heat until it starts to thicken again. Then add the fish sauce (for a salty taste, so add more or less depending on how you feel), tamarind for the sour and the sugar for a deeper sweet note. The fat will ooze out of the peanut butter and coconut milk but a quick whisk or stir will bring it back together.
We then dipped the rolls into the sauce but I had a thought that if I put it in a squeeze bottle and was able to not stuff the rolls so big and get them closed I would squirt the sauce inside before finishing rolling to have an even less messy salad roll, plate free and hopefully napkin free.
When I was little my mom made the most killer granola from shredded coconut, cornmeal and oats. It was a weekly production that involved a fresh coconut from the garden, husked and grated plus whatever grain- oats, cornmeal, wheatgerm etc was available. She mixed it with honey and oil and baked it in the oven. Delicious. It wasn't so much the hippie dippie movement as much as there weren't really many cereal options in Jamaica at the time. Plus we had an abundance of coconuts from the trees which made sense in that frugal thrifty developing world scenario.
Now that I've started this hi fiber 5-9 fruits and veg kick, I want a cereal with less sugar and more healthy ingredients. I searched around for a bunch of recipes, and came up with a basic ingredients list for granola that doesn't represent reality at all times but more the potential of being part of the mix at any given instance. I enjoy the oats so I start with a full cup of that. but everything else is kind of ad hoc (no coconut coz here it's a luxury- go figure!)
Pick a couple of ingredients to emphasize, I try to make it in small batches so that it's always crunchy and fresh. Plus if you don't like a batch or flavour, its not endless... The milk powder was something that Cafe Fanny adds to their granola. I find it helps with binding and also raises the protein content (Thanks for the tip Dan!) I've put stars * next to ingredients that pretty much make it into all of my granola. the rest is based on availability (ie do I have on hand in the pantry, or did I forget to replace after the last batch?)
Gwynie asked for a more complete recipe. So here it is.
Grains
1 1/2 C oats
1 C almond meal
2 Tbs flax seeds (coarsely grind)
1/4 C wheat bran
Seeds/Nuts
1/2 C sliced almonds
1/4 C sunflower seeds
1/4 C pumpkin seeds
1/2 C walnuts
Sweetness & Crunch
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C butter
2 Tbs walnut oil
Binders
1/4 C meyer lemon jam
1/2 C tahini
Pre-heat the oven to 275oF. You want a long slow bake. The size pan you use is relative to the amount of cereal you're making. The mix should be about 1 inch deep. I spread the mix out and pack it down, as if making bars. I try not to turn it because that breaks up the clumps which I prefer. About halfway thru I add the small seeds/nuts and fruit. (Any longer and they would burn!) Total baking time is about 45 to 60 minutes, depending on how crunchy you like it. Cut into small squares and use a spatula to lift off tray, these are great as granola bars. Most will have formed smaller chunks and bits that shatter off as you move it. Cool and store in an airtight container. Serve with milk or yogurt and fruit.
Inspired by and mostly the same as Puebla-Style Fiesta Turkey in Mole Sauce Bon Appétit | May 2003 Any changes that were made were due to a lack of ingredients, and I indicated where I substituted something.
Right before the State special election, my twin sister Gwynie decided that we were under-informed about the ballot measures. To further our ability to vote in the election we decided to invite people over to discuss the ballot measures etc. Each person would pick one to be the expert on but everyone should have an opinion. ie no free loading ;^) haha. I think not that many Americans feel comfortable discussing their politics since it's a divisive topic, but in light of the impending budget crisis, it behooves us to talk about it now. A small group is better for discussion, and it worked out that not everyone whom we invited could come, so we had enough chairs to fit comfortably.
Our cousin Monica was moving out of her place, in preparation of her plan to go to school in Boston. Her roommate Jose's mom had made them a freezer full of tamales, which they'd kind of OD'd on. So she donated them to our cause. Thanks Mon! We had no room in our freezer so we stored them with Julie, and picked them up right before the party. They take about an hour to steam. We calculated 2-3 tamales per person.
We also had a bunch of different salsas at varying heat intensities. Mike made a killer spicy one from the Joy of cooking. Gwynie also made a tomatillo and guacamole salsa verde. We all made black beans, so there was a ton of them. Julie brought a mandarin & cabbage salad that Morgan made special for the party. I made a mole sauce. Which actually took several days to construct, mostly coz I didn't have all the ingredients at hand. Also each part of the recipe needs to be processed slightly differently, so I just did it sporadically and kept adding it to my trusty crockpot. It turned out beautifully, and improved over time. This recipe makes about a half gallon, so be prepared to freeze some of it for later. You'll be glad tho that it makes a large quantity, you don't want to go thru all this effort for a one time dish. Also many recipes call for you to strain the solids out and then add a thickener. I omitted the straining step and thus did not need to use a thickener.
Mole sauce
Ingredients
Turkey broth and meat
13 cups water
4 lbs bones turkey or chicken
1 large white onion, peeled, quartered
1 head of garlic, outer skin removed, cut crosswise in half
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
Prepare a stock per my instructions Pull out the turkey meat when it's cooked all the way thru but still juicy. Set aside to cool, then shred meat. You can omit this part of the recipe if you want it to be vegetarian. The broth should have cooked down to about 10 cups of liquid. I feel that the broth adds a depth of flavor to the mole, but it would travel better at room temperature if it were vegetarian.
Chiles
1/2 cup cup lard or canola oil
5 dried ancho chiles
1 cup New Mexico red chile powder (thanks Diego!)
1 can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
I didn't have some of the fancy peppers they mention in the recipe, so I decided just to finish up the last of my New Mexican red chile powder which I had got from Diego (who is from Albuquerque).
Heat the oil and fry all the dried whole chiles, keeping a close eye on the skin. Use tongs to turn them, maybe 20 secs total? They should blister and puff up turning from a dark blackish color to almost jewel red. Don't burn them! Set aside in crockpot. Add 4 cups of broth/hot water and leave whole chiles to steep until soft and pliable (2 hours). The skin should peel right off the flesh, and you can remove the membranes and seeds depending on how much heat you want. I added in a can of chipotle chiles and the adobo packing sauce. I removed the seeds from prolly half these chiles but got fed up and left the rest intact. Make sure not to touch your eyes or nose while working with the chiles unless you are a particular fan of agony. Process all in Cuisinart until a smooth reddish brown puree. Toast the chile powder lightly until fragrant. Mix with puree into crockpot or over low heat in large deep pot and bring to simmer.
Fruit & flavorings
1/4 cup canola oil
1 onion, chopped
12 cloves garlic
1 large ripe plantain, peeled, thickly sliced (I actually omitted this coz I didn't have any)
1 pound tomatillos, husked, coarsely chopped
1 pound plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup raisins
Finely chop all onion, garlic and fry until glassy. Fry plantain until golden and caramelized. Add tomatillos, tomatoes and raisins, cook till raisins are plump and tomatillos breaking down. Grind it all in processor until smooth puree. Mix into crockpot with 2 cups of broth/water.
Nuts and seeds
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup whole almonds (I used almond meal)
1/4 cup pecans
1 tablespoon unsalted roasted peanuts (I used peanut butter)
1/4 cup shelled pepitas (pumkin seeds)
3 tablespoons sesame seeds (I used tahini)
Toast each type of nut separately (different sizes and oils make it difficult to toast together without burning). Then grind finely. Add the almond meal, peanut butter and tahini. Mix in with chiles adding 2 cups more broth/water to keep it smooth and runny.
Spices
5 whole cloves
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
5 whole allspice berries
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp aniseed (I used fennel seeds)
1 1-inch piece canela* or cinnamon stick
1 tbs dried oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tbs coarse sea salt
6 ounces (99% cacao) chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup chopped piloncillo (mexican cone sugar) or (packed) dark brown sugar (I omitted this for a less sweet effect)
Toast all of the spices individually and then grind. Add all ingredients to crockpot. At this point you should add the rest of the broth/hot water if left over (not to exceed the capacity of your pot) You want the sauce to be fairly runny to start. Leave to simmer at least 6 hours until it's about 2 quarts. The longer the better. Allow to cool. Store overnite in the fridge. This will deepen the flavor as it goes thru the cooling cycle. Taste and adjust salt as necessary. Serve heated over meat/tamales.
I love the shattering crunch of fragile tuiles, and most recently made a very satisfying sugar & oats based version for Christmas which were scarfed in seconds flat. But I've been hankering after a savory version and decided to attempt my own. I used an Indian recipe for basic inspiration
but took great liberties for various reasons. A friend is allergic to gluten, and so I while I changed the carbs so that she could eat them, I feel this also helped to get closer to the lacy cheese crunchy goodness I envisioned.
Ingredients
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 tsp sesame seeds
1 Tbs oregano
1/3 cup tahini
4 Tbs butter (melted)
1/4-1/2 cup water (warm)
1 big onion(finely chopped)
3 red bird chillies (finely chopped)
1/2 cup of coarsely chopped coriander leaves
1/2 cup cheddar
1/2 cup swiss
1 cup asiago
4 tsp sesame seeds for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 350oF. Line large baking sheet with parchment.
1. Mix dry ingredients together. Toss with onion, chillies and coriander
2. Add butter, tahini and water to create a loose batter. Lightly mix in cheeses till evenly distributed.
3. Drop spoonfuls onto sheet, spread mixture with fork into thin circles about 3 inches in diameter leaving 1-2 inches between (tuiles will spread as cheese melts).
4. Sprinkle with sesame seeds for garnish.
5. Cook until uniformly golden brown (~20 minutes). Tuiles should be crisp as you remove them from sheet. If they are a little soft and pliable, return to oven for a couple of minutes.
Note: These quickly lose their crunch. so make them as close as possible to when you'll be serving them. If you have to make them in advance, store them in a dish that is oven proof so you can heat them before serving.
Success at last! Yogurt after 20 years of trying...
The other day Julius and Sara were talking about their goat cheese making adventures, and the conversation quickly turned to lyophillized lactic acid bacteria and how easy it made the whole process. From there it was a short segue into talking about yogurt, which requires a bunch of fancy named bacteria (Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus to name a couple, there are other Eurasian exotics... that don't figure in this story) who spend their time eating the milk sugars, excreting lactic acid and forming denatured protein webs until the milk has set.
I remember my mom making yogurt in the oven when I was little. She seemed to have a pretty good success rate, producing tangy yogurt that was too strong for my juvenile taste buds and only a couple times ending up with sad goopy sour milk. I've been experimenting with making yogurt every couple of years or so for the last 20 years. Scalding the milk, adding "live" starter yogurt purchased at the supermarket, putting it in the oven, waiting over night only to find slimy stringy goopy yogurt-like product that to my dismay tasted too incredibly sour to eat.
Then Julius generously offered to give me their packet of yogurt starter culture since they weren't using it. I took them up on their kind offer and went home entrusted with the "special stuff" determined to make a go of it. This time I used whole milk, and rigged up 2 thermometers for a water bath in my rice pot. I heated the milk to 80oC and waited for the temp to drop adding the culture at 40oC, then floated the glass jars in the water bath, whereupon they sank to the bottom mixing the milk with water :{ I tried again with my last 12 oz of milk and another spoonful of starter culture. Sealing it into the insulated rice pot for 7 hours.
SUCCESS! A Firm solid set but still with an ethereal melting mouth feel and a tangy but not bitter taste.
The only sad thing was the very small amount I managed to make.
Next day I got some non-fat milk and milk powder and tried again, this time using the larger crock pot. I mixed in the milk powder, 3 heaping Tbs to 1 quart of milk, then heated the milk to 180oF, whisking to dissolve the lumps. Once the milk had attained the upper temp I cooled the milk in the water bath until it equilibrated at 110oF, mixing in the starter culture. Then left it to sit in the water bath (aka crock pot- I switched it on every so often to maintain temp- it was not as well insulated as the rice cooker) for 6 hours by which time it had set firmly. A comparison between the two versions revealed that I prefer the higher protein content texture of the milk solid fortified yogurt but the creamier taste of the whole milk- the finish is better on the back of the tongue. They tasted the same, but had a slightly different mouth feel. I think for everyday eating the non-fat milk is fine, altho for a dessert option I would use whole milk. Both times I took a small vertical section of the jar (to ensure complete sampling of various layers of bacteria- apparently sometimes they stratify?) for starter next time I make yogurt. You can freeze it for months, thaw and use just like the powdered culture. I won't feel confident until I've managed to do this multiple times, but at least I recognize now that I need a thermometer in my arsenal to truly attempt yogurt.
Good luck with your efforts!
Update: The longer you hold your milk at 80oC the firmer the set is. I've also started putting a teaspoon of yogurt in the bottom of each jar and this helps too. Now I use fat free milk, milk powder & starter culture and maintain heat in the crockpot at 40oC for the first 30 minutes, then I allow it to cool normally over the course of 6-12 hours.
When my mom was here for Thanksgiving, we went to my Auntie Elizabeth's for lunch, it was all very scrumptious, but the stand out dish for me was the almond pudding. Gwynie also liked it, so I thought I'd track it down and attempt it as an interesting dessert option. I like a Thai red rice that I bought at 99 Ranch, and I thought it would obviate the need for blanching and removing skins which is just fiddly.
Here's the recipe as Auntie Elizabeth makes it:
1 1/2 c. almonds, blanched & skins removed
1/4 c. raw white rice
3 c. water
1 c. sugar or to taste
1 c. milk or to taste
Almond extract (optional)
Process almonds with a little water in a food processor or blender until you get a smooth paste. Add rice and process. Bring the 3 cups of water and sugar to boil. Add almonds & rice mixture slowly, stirring constantly or else mixture will stick & burn. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Add milk and almond extract (if adding). Thin mixture with more milk if desired. Spoon into cups and allow to set. Serve warm or cold. Garnish with almond tuille before serving.
We went on an apple kick a few weeks back, but didn't manage to get thru them all before they started looking a little sad :{ I've been making yogurt from scratch for a few days now and wanted jazz up the plain a bit but not too sugary sweet. When I saw rhubarb in the store I was inspired to make a tangy Apple Rhubarb Crisp. Enjoy!
For the Filling:
3 apples (pink lady)
3 rhubarb stalks
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tbs rice flour
Lemon juice
lemon zest
Core apples and chop into large chunks. Split rhubarb stalks and chop. Zest lemon, & juice.
Combine all ingredients, allow to macerate.
Pre-heat oven to 375oF.
Crisp:
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup almond meal
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp clove & nutmeg each
1/4 cup butter
Reserve:
1/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds
1 cup rolled oats
Mix all ingredients in food processor, pulsing till sandy. Then add oats and almonds. Pulse briefly to incorporate but avoid chopping oats.
Lay on top of fruit in oven safe dish. Bake for 30 minutes till golden.
Amazing how delicious this was. Crunchy nutty goodness of the crisp balanced by the sweet melting of the apples and sour ruby rhubarb notes, with the tangy success of homemade yogurt. Deliteful floral notes- was it the rhubarb? or apple? I'll make this again!
A Goodbye Dinner for Bridget – We’re sad to see you go!
Hello it's Gwynie doing another guest entry today.
In honour of our good friend and squash compatriot Bridget’s departure, I made dinner at the Normandy House. Grilled lamb chops with a honey balsamic dressing from the Food Network Giada De Laurentis’ show (I saw this one evening as I pedaled on the bike at the gym) with couscous cakes and a tzaziki cucumber salad. Bridget brought some amazing bottles of wine which we enjoyed tremendously.
2 cups couscous prepare per instructions on box (I used chicken stock instead of water)
¼ cup cilantro chopped
1 egg + 1 yolk
1 ½ tsp ground coriander
1 lemon, zested
¾ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp ground pepper
2 tbs flour
¼ cup olive oil
Mix ingredients, sprinkle flour on top and stir till incorporated. Measure ¼ cup mixture into patties and sit on plate and/or baking tray. Chill once all the patties are made, this can be done ahead of time. I accidentally planned a bike ride with another friend so I had to prepare everything the night before.
Heat oil on medium heat and fry 4 at a time until crispy brown on both sides (3-4 minutes). Drain on papertowels.
The wines that Bridget brought were a perfect accompaniment to the food.
Chateau St. Jean 2007 Sonoma County Chardonnay oaky and round buttery mouth, with generous fruit
2002 Chateau La Coustarelle Cahors Grande Cuvee Prestige darkly intense nose of berries and licorice, chewy mouthfeel and smooth tannins.
2000 Chateau Chasse Spleen Cru Moulis en Moulis a fine inky black Bordeaux smokey and challenging end to the meal. Served with chocolate, apple slices and meyer lemon.
Passover, almond macaroons and Cracktastic Chocolate Toffee Matzo
My friends Adam and Jeanine hosted a seder for Passover. I decided to bring some random stuff for dessert, without really coordinating it with the chef Adam. I knew that I should try to keep things kosher... but should I be trying to make things parve or not? given the choice between butter and parve, I felt obliged to go with the better tasting option. Later when I learned that Adam was agonizing over whether it was bad to serve bacon with every course, my slip into non-parve kosherness seemed less naughty.
The difference between KfP and K according to Adam-No bread, no flour, no corn. No fake Manishevitz stuff. Bacon and shellfish are fine :) Many people reacted quite strongly to the idea- Until bacon gets a long awaited hechscher, then the answer is yes...overboard. Others chimed in with mostly ok- as long as there was one course w/out bacon, we were probably in the clear. They agreed that the dessert course wouldn't have bacon- Well, maybe you have to have TWO courses without bacon, because dessert is just too easy. (That was omitting the dipping matzoh in bacon fat prior to use)
The Passover seder is one of the most interesting rituals- It's a fun party celebrating not getting killed and a prolonged period of singing while nibbling on bitter herbs, salt water and bits of matzoh (which makes you feel like you HAVE been wandering the desert for 40 years) before "let's eat!" Who wouldn't have a good time? Started by a group of only 70 people, imagine that bottleneck effect! Anyway we used the free Maxwell House haggadah (the same used by the White House for their seder). Adam did a great job of officiating the ceremony in between running back to the kitchen to check on and prepare the meal. Adam is still wondering why his bacon foam didn't really turn in to foam, despite the fact that Misty predicted it wouldn't... I dunno maybe God was offended and didn't want blasphemous bacon foam on the eggs?
I made Martha Stewart's almond macaroons, I know that people love to hate her. But really, this was the best almond macaroon recipe I tried. Believe me, and trust Martha- the second batch turned out perfectly, I won't torture you with the other recipe except to say the first batch was rock hard and consigned to the compost heap!! The goal was a crisp nutty exterior with a chewy melting center, full of almondy goodness. Of course I changed the recipe slightly, but Gwynie believes that the changes I made did not affect the ultimate outcome of the product.
4 ounces almond paste (~1/2 tube)
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for dusting
Pinch of kosher salt
1 large egg white
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup sliced almonds (optional)
Preheat oven to 300oF. Process almond paste, sugar, and salt in food processor until crumbly sand. Beat egg white and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Fold almond/sugar and egg whites together and beat with mixers until smooth and thickened, about 3 minutes.
Line baking sheet with parchment paper, drop batter by tablespoons spacing ~2 inches apart. (optional: Place 2 almond slices on each mound of dough. ie I skipped this step) Bake until cookies are golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer cookies and paper to wire rack, let cool completely. Just before serving, lightly dust cookies with sugar. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers but quickly lose the crispness. I say make these guys fresh when you need them.
I checked Epicurious.com
and found a recipe by Marcy Goldman from "A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking" that seemed pretty traditional in the American Jewish Pantheon. Insomuch that chocolate hadn't made it to Egypt when the Jews started their tradition of flatbread. Yet anything that makes matzoh more edible is clearly a good thing. At first I was worried about it being too sickly sweet, but I used a super dark +70% chocolate from the Scharffenberger stash which was deep and rich without adding much sugar. The results were so spectacular that I've made it several times this month. Now we refer to it as Matzoh crack, it's that addictive.
4-6 unsalted matzohs
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1Tbs vanilla
1tsp kosher salt
100g coarsely chopped chocolate
2Tbs kosher salt to taste
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Double line a baking sheet with foil and then parchment paper. This is important if you don't want to be stuck with a ginormous burnt mass of matzoh and sugar. (Pun appreciated)
Matzohs generally have a dark and light side. Lay the squares out, dark side down, leaving as little space as possible between edges. The wafers break approximately along the perforations, so you can get pretty close but not exact matches. The gaps are ok but you will get some seepage around the edges.
In a large pot melt the butter and add the sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir vigorously. The layers of sugar and butter will start coming together as the mixture achieves a boil (~ 2 to 4 minutes). Continue to boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour over the matzoh, covering completely and spreading evenly (It's kind of like nail polish in that you have to be quick before it sets. And you don't want to have streaks or bare spots)
Reduce to 350°. Bake for 15 minutes, but you MUST check frequently. You want it to go from tan brown to a darker caramelly brown but not burn (if it seems to be browning too quickly, remove the pan from the oven, lower the heat to 325°, and replace the pan). The mixture will change texture and develop more of a bubbly lattice structure.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle immediately with the chopped chocolate. Let stand until chocolate is melted (it will look shiny), spread gently over the matzoh. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt. Chill in the pan, in the freezer until set. Break into different sized pieces and store in air tight container.
Note: the salt factor can be bacon in this case also. But I decided not to make something too outre.
I mostly steer away from the rotisserie chickens at Costco and the various supermarkets, due to my allergies. But there's nothing as satisfyingly easy to make as a roasted chicken, plus you have tons of leftovers and the start of a good stock to boot. When I read the latest recipe in the NYTimes: Garlic and Thyme Roasted Chicken With Crispy Drippings Croutons I knew I wanted to give it a spin, I immediately modified it. There are a huge variety of different recipes on how to cook a chicken. Having experimented with a few over the years, I have my own opinion based on the ever so straight forward Joy of Cooking and tweaked slightly to meet my own need for a succulent and juicy chicken.
To wash or not may be a debate for some people. I've found too many interesting things on my chicken carcass to question- wash entirely, pat dry, salt liberally. Preheat the oven to a high temp- 450oF. Normally I make an herb lattice (rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage- whatever is at hand) to protect skin from sticking to the bottom of the skillet. Once in the oven drop the temp to 350oF (cooking time is calculated at 20 min per lb plus 10 minutes resting). This time I'm using bread to stop sticking, altho I wanted smaller portions of the carb, and diced the bread into cubes for greater surface area to volume ratio. My oven runs hot and so there's no way the bread could make it through the whole cooking time. But I did want to take advantage of the drippings to create a crunchy intensely meaty dressing, my solution was to create a hybrid of the two methods- with the added bonus that the herbs add tons of flavor to the croutons.
Time: 1 hour, plus 10 minutes resting
sturdy Acme herb slab, cubed 1/2-inch thick (stale)
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 apple peeled/cored
1 Tbs oregano
2 tsps kosher salt,
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper,
2-3 pound chicken,
12 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1/2 bunch thyme & rosemary sprigs
1. Preheat oven to 450oF. Cut the bread into largish cubes. Macerate the apple, 1 clove of garlic, oregano & olive oil (I use the mini chopper attachment of my immersion blender). Toss with the bread liberally coating each piece. Sprinkle with salt.
2. Rub apple mixture, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 tsp pepper inside cavity of chicken. Stuff cavity with garlic, bay leaf, lemon and thyme. Lay a lattice of herbs down in skillet, place chicken breast side down.
3. Drop temp to 350oF and roast chicken for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, toss bread in skillet to pick up juices. Lay in one layer. Place chicken breast side up on the bread. Return to oven and roast ~25 minutes until it is deeply browned and juices run clear (check the temp it should be ~150-155oF), about 60 minutes total (depending on weight of bird).
4. Let rest for 10 minutes (internal temp will continue to rise to ~160oF) before carving (I actually use kitchen shears, less fiddly). Split the carcass into breasts, thigh/leg combo, back with wings attached. Serve chicken with bread from pan. Deeply flavorful, crispy croutons with chickeny goodness.
Spring roars in like a lion, out with a lamb burger
Well I'm going on record saying that March had some pretty bad weather, rainy miserable days that just made Gwynie regret retiring her winter clothes too early. I told you that was global warming faking you out there!
But as Easter rolled past, it looks like cold clear bluebird days will be easing on towards summer shortly.
As usual, the family dinner was up for debate yet again. With lamb on the menu 3 weeks in a row- there was a chorus of protest and we ended up having ham instead. But my cousin Grace had already bought a ton of ground lamb, some of which she kindly sent home with Gwynie.
As luck would have it, many moons ago I was asked to test a recipe for the Oracle, it turned out so well (with some major tweakings) that Gwynie wanted to use it with the lamb. I've listed it below for your perusal, and encourage you to make use of their online compendium of recipes. Please note that the bread is an essential part of the recipe, trapping the released juices in the meat, making these burgers firm yet succulent. If you skip the bread, they turn out mostly tough and dry...
Mini Lamb burgers with Tatziki Sauce
1/2 medium onion, chopped coarse (about 3/4 cup)
4 tsp lime juice (lemon ok)
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbs oregano leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 slices bread (high fiber coz that's how we get our daily dose)
1 pound ground lamb
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1. Toast cumin & coriander till fragrant, grind coarsely in coffee mill. Whirl onion, lime juice, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic, and bread in food processor into smooth, uniform paste. Mix with spices and lamb in large bowl (gently with hands) until combined. Halve then quarter mixture, finally dividing each into 3- forming 12 balls. Flatten balls to just thinner than 1 inch thick and 2 1/2 inches in diameter.
2. Cook meat on high until crusty, browned and fragrant ~ 3 minutes. Flip patties, reduce heat to medium, and cook until done, ~ 3-5 minutes depending. Allow to rest on a plate, save the juices for a gravy.
The yogurt and cucumber are very watery, and the recipe calls you to drain it for ~30 minutes, therefore make ahead of cooking meat. This also allows the flavors to meld and intensify. Can we say GARLIC?!
Tatziki Sauce
Makes about 1 cup
1 cup plain full-fat yogurt
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely diced (about 1/2 cup)
salt to taste
1 Tbs lime juice (lemon ok)
1 clove garlic
1 Tbs mint & dill (each) finely chopped
1. Strain yogurt using fine mesh strainer or coffee filter for 30 minutes to 6 hours. Cover and refrigerate.
2. Macerate cucumber with salt and lime juice in colander set over bowl for 30 minutes to 6 hours. Cover and refrigerate.
3. Mix yogurt, cucumber, garlic, dill and mint. Add salt to taste
Every week we have Family Dinner, it's actually more a loosely connected group of friends and family at this point. I like to have a theme if possible, and this weekend was Persian New Year. With that in mind, potluck was organized around Persian/Mediterranean food.
Pi day is March 14. Yes Pi is that special number we associate with circles- when the diameter of a circle is 1, the circumference is Pi. If you use the date format DDMM then you don't get a Pi day coz April 31st doesn't exist and that's really sad. But you can celebrate Pi Approximation Day which is observed on July 22, due to π being roughly equal to 22/7. Now if you were truly geeky, you would know that the ratio of circumference to diameter is always Pi. But mostly we don't really care about that, what we really crave is the circle of sweet juicy tasterlicious pastry known as pie. Now pies in general are more interesting when bisected into 8 equal parts called slices. Served ala mode... one's circumference also changes relative to two times the radius of the pie. (Which means if you have 2 slices you're going to get fat!)
Here's a blueberry-apple pie to celebrate Pi day.
The crust is a standard from RealBakingwithRose.com, it was pretty straight forward to make 2 crusts, since I had decided that I wanted a double crusted pie. The filling was three pints of blue berries and an apple plus sugar. This time I didn't use any cornstarch, figuring that i wanted a juicier pie, but in retrospect, I should have coz all the purple middle started leaking out.
3 pints blueberries
1 apple sliced
2 Tbs lemon juice
2 Tbs cornstarch (I should have used)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Basic Pie Crust
1 1/3 C flour
salt
4oz butter chilled
3-5 Tbs cold water/vodka
egg wash
Cut the butter into the flour till it resembles small pea size crumbs. Add 3 Tbs of water and toss till water is incorporated into clumps. Add water as needed till most of ingredients start forming a ball. Knead lightly in the bowl until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Take care not to over work the dough. Shape into two discs, wrap in plastic wrap and rest for an hour. This allows the flour to hydrate and the gluten relax.
Pre-heat oven to 425oF. Grease and flour pie dish. Roll the pastry out into a circle and line pie dish. Add blue berries and apple pieces. Sprinkle with cornstarch, lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar. Brush edges with egg wash. Cover with second layer of crust, trim off excess dough leaving 1/2 inch overlap. Crimp edges and cut steam vent the shape of Pi into the top. Brush with egg wash. Bake 20 minutes @425oF. Reduce temp to 350oF and continue baking 20-30 minutes. Sprinkle with sugar for texture.
Every week we have a family dinner. Sometimes it's a small intimate group, other times it's a large and convivial. Today it was just me and Gwynie, Larry and Kat. To observe St Paddy's I cooked corned beef
cabbage, and beer bread. Truly an immigrant meal to celebrate since people in Ireland don't actually eat this kind of food. Actually it's all they could afford when they arrived.
I changed the recipe for the corned beef slightly, because it was so incredibly salty. First boiled the salted brisket covered with water in a deep pot for 2 hours (save the water for stock and beans). I coated the piece in honey, mustard and spices, inserted cloves into the fat and wrapped it in foil and baked it for another 1 1/2 hours. Sliced on the diagonal, and served with the cabbage and beer bread.
I'm on the email distribution list for Cooks Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen. I used to think that their recipes were the best. Now I always read them for the science behind the cooking but alter things to be more efficient and better tasting. (Sometimes more heart conscious too). I find that they tend to repeat themselves seasonally, so I've stopped the paper magazine but keep my online subscription active so that I can search their archives. Here's a delicious spin on a recent on-demand video they had for 30 minute Chicken Pot Pie
I looked up the 2 recipes they have in archive (You'll need to subscribe to use these links). One is essentially the basis for the video the other is a more traditional version. That said, they both include a flour based roux which I've replaced with cornstarch for a silkier mouthfeel and less total fat. Timing for the filling and the biscuits should be managed such that the filling is ready to go before you start adding the wet ingredients to the flour. Alternatively you can prepare the filling ahead, just make sure to warm it through before topping with biscuits. (Times were determined with a warm filling)
Cooking the biscuits separately allows you to cook the chicken either stovetop or oven as you prefer.
But I like the ease of just shoving everything into the oven. They also talked about shredding/chopping the meat, but I find that a bit fiddly, instead I cut the thighs in half when I started. Any smaller and the chicken cooks too fast and gets a bit tough... You can also do this with leftover roasted meat, just omit step 1.
Filling
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken (I used thighs with skin for more flavor)
2 Tbs unsalted butter
1 onion , chopped (about 1 cup)
2 ribs celery chopped
2 Tbs cornstarch
1/4 C dry sake
1 1/2 C low-sodium chicken broth
1 C heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp fresh thyme minced
1 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary minced
1 C green peas (if frozen-thaw)
1 carrot chopped
1 C mushrooms coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Pre-heat oven to 450oF
For the filling:
1. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper.
Melt 2 Tbs of the butter in an ovenproof skillet over medium heat until the foam subsides.
Brown the chicken lightly on both sides, about 5 minutes total. Transfer the chicken to a clean plate.
2. Add the remaining Tbs butter to the skillet and return to medium heat until melted.
Add the onion, celery, and 1/2 tsp salt and cook until the onion and celery are glassy and softened, ~ 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the sake and cook until evaporated, about 30 seconds. Mix a slurry of broth and cornstarch.
Slowly whisk into the broth, cream, and thyme, stir into skillet and bring to a simmer.
4. Nestle the chicken into the sauce. Stir the peas, carrots, mushrooms into the sauce.
Remove from heat and start biscuits.
Cover and cook in oven ~15 minutes (or until meat registers 160oF).
Season the filling with salt and pepper to taste.
Biscuits
2 C unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces), plus extra for the work surface
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 1/2 C heavy cream/buttermilk
For the biscuits:
1. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
Stir in the cream with a wooden spoon until a dough forms, about 30 seconds.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gather into a ball.
Knead the dough briefly until smooth, about 30 seconds (~25 kneading motions).
2. Pat the dough into a 3/4-inch-thick circle.
Cut the biscuits into rounds using a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter or cut into 8 wedges using a knife.
3. Place the biscuits on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Set aside on a wire rack.
OR (Optional) Leave off cover and
Top filling with rounds/wedges and bake 20-25 minutes.
4. For serving: Place the cooked biscuits on top of the skillet or individual servings.
Garnish with parsley.
Growing up in the Caribbean, the start of Lent (a christian forty-day-long liturgical period of abstemiousness and prayer before Easter, that represents the time Jesus spent in the desert) was a big deal. And because you're supposed to be giving up all things decadent (ie fasting and abstinence for more than a month!), the pancakes and partying were all out. Interestingly, online sources say that Carnival started in JA in 1990 (but since I left before then, my memories dispute that claim...) I just love a food festival, especially one that commemorates carousing and eating. So in honour of Carnival (Mardi Gras here in the USA) we celebrated Shrove Tuesday (aka Fat Tuesday) with pancakes and friends. Several people have asked "Why pancakes?" As near as I can make out, all animal products were proscribed during Lent, so it was a good way of using up all the eggs, milk and butter on hand (since they don't have as long a shelf life as say- cured meat)
The plan was to have a multi cultural mix of pancakes.
The high priestess to the Perfection of Roast Pork Crackling
In the interest of saving money we are shopping at the local Asian supermarket- 99 Ranch in El Cerrito. It gets crowded there during the weekends and parking is fraught with danger (both unintentional bad driving plus tempers frayed over disputed territory). Still for the variety, and some of the best deals in town on Asian groceries, this is a surefire destination. Crowded aisles aside, the other advantage is the type/cuts of meats readily available at rock bottom prices. Here it is assumed that you want the gnarly bits like ears, tongue, tripe, feet, knuckles etc that make one's meals more interesting... When I saw the knuckles and shanks in the pork section, I was inspired to attempt my own version of roasted pork crackling in an homage to the RoliRoti knuckle I devoured at the SF Ferry Building Farmers market the other day.
The criteria were as follows- juicy and succulent meat, all connective tissue rendered into delicate filaments and surrounded by a layer of crunchy crackling with only a thin layer of fat to remind you of the happy pig. The meat should be flavorful and tender, loosely connected to the bone yet hold enough for slicing and chew to be satisfying (ie not pull apart pork).
Traditionally most recipes cook at 475oF/240oC to start and then finished at 375oF/190oC in around 2 hours (allowing about 35 minutes per pound/50 minutes per kg). Others were frustratingly vague "cook it at a moderate heat, loooooong and sloooooooow!" Still more required boiling water poured over to open the skin (Chinese roast duck is prepped this way), a few wanted oil rubbed into the skin, or both. This seemed a little fiddly to me (I mean pigs already have enough fat! Why add more?) and who wants to mess with vats of boiling water (I'd be sure to pour it on myself!). I'd also experienced some of those cardboard roasts and I knew I wanted a surefire recipe to a more succulent and tender meat. I turned again to online resources and found some BBQ sites devoted to getting the meat tender without losing flavor, they also agreed with long and slow. One common recommendation- wrapping the meat in foil to get the connective tissue to cook out. The suggested cooking temps ranged from 185-275 for 6-12 hours. I also found a site for Chinese style roast pork which included basting with lime/lemon juice or vinegar. Hmmm what does the acid do?
My first attempt was with the the knuckle sections which RoliRoti used (however mine were dressed for a long braise with deep slices all the way thru the meat and bone which may have affected the result). I salted the meat, rubbed some minced garlic and pepper all over, encased it in foil as instructed and cooked them at 275oF for about 3 hours. When I peeled back the foil, the pale grey meat was sitting in a generous pool of liquid- almost a good cup of stock & fat (which I saved). The connective tissue was limp, the meat juicy (if somewhat bland) and the skin limp and gelatinous. I parked the meat on a rack and tried raising the temp of the oven to 425oF to crisp the skin, but it became a hard shellacked layer akin to football leather with none of the requisite snap and was pronounced a failure :'^( More salt redeemed the meat, and I then removed the skin and popped it into toaster oven where it gained a little lift but was still densely chewy.
The tragedy of it all aside, many questions were raised that hinted towards an improvement in the methodology. What went wrong? The trapped steam produced from the meat had obviously affected the skin's ability to crisp. (How is that different from pouring boiling water over the skin? Maybe the length of time or the degree of saturation?) The fat rendered and the meat was the right texture, could I save the flavour? Maybe the sectional cuts prevented the meat from trapping the juices, allowing flavor to escape. The garlic was good but a little one dimensional. How could I get the salt inside the roast without turning it into a salt lick?
What can I say, it's not an easy thing to get both the meat and the crackling perfect. All hubris aside and future experiments still pending- I HAVE found the secret to the ethereal crunch of truly great crackling encasing moist and tender savory goodness.
In Taiwan the ubiquitous convenience stores on every corner all carry a black vat of Tea Leaf Eggs (cha ye dan). As I entered the small shop, the smell of these cooking away in the crockpot would hit like a wall, redolent of spices and soy sauce. I got in the habit of picking up a couple for breakfast or a snack on the way to school.
Tea Leaf Egg (Chá Yè Dàn)
8 eggs
1/2 C soy sauce (dark soy sauce makes for darker eggs)
2 Tbs black tea leaves or 2 black tea bags (no need for expensive tea, but I use Pu er or smoky Lapsang Souchong)
4 C water
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 piece dried orange peel
1 tsp whole black or sichuan pepper corns
2 cloves
1 slice of ginger
1 tsp brown sugar
if you don't have the above listed spices
2 Tbs Chinese 5 spice powder optional (can be substituted for other spices)
Combine ingredients in a crockpot and bring to a boil. Add eggs and adjust volume if necessary so liquid completely covers the eggs. Allow to sit on low for 15 minutes. Using the back of a spoon crack the eggshells slightly but do not peel them. Simmer on low for 3 hours, turning the eggs every so often.
The cracks leave a delicate tracery of crackly crazy web-like lines on the surface of the egg, while the spices perfume the creamy interior. Strain out tea and spices to store eggs in the tea-soy brew. The cooling stage in the fridge allows the flavors to intensify and permeate the eggs. They can be served warm or room temperature.
Beer making was fun. Aaron and Dana came over with their entire beer making equipment/supplies and helped us start a batch. I learned a lot about the various components that go into a beer. It's pretty easy, I always thought it would be kinda difficult. Just a bunch of boil this, soak that, wait around, transfer it from this container to that container, add hops, boil it some more. Now I understand more why people call it a brew. It was very much a "Fire burn, cauldron bubble" day.
Aaron and Dana arrived bright and squirrely. First we unloaded their car (hatchback Nissan Versa ~34 mpg), which was packed to the gills with equipment, and set up in our courtyard. Aaron has made gallons and gallons of beer over the years and made this part look super easy. The burner was a purchase from Costco right after Thanksgiving one year. It's heavy duty and looks way more stable than others I've seen for the same job. We open the bag and look at the malt and grains. Wow- they're dry and cool, with a dusty feeling but it smells just like chocolate. The initial batch of water heats to about 160+oF and is mixed in with the grains (malt barley etc) that will supply the sugars for our yeast to turn into alcohol. Then we waited around for 90 minutes for the mash to hydrate and the sugars/enzymes to release and activate.
Meanwhile we got a phone call from Jeanine. They were having a Superbowl party and did we want to head over and enjoy the sunshine on the dock? So we packed the whole operation including the hydrating mash into the car and headed over. This time we were able to set up the interestingly modified cooler on the wall, which gave us a good vantage point for transferring the liquids etc.
While we were waiting for enzymes to do their thing, Gwynie and Dana went canoeing down the channel, watching birds etc. Adam's latest experiment was creating his own version of tonic water. He was trying to approximate Schweppes but less sweet. There were 2 batches to try, each with various ingredients and amounts of cinchona bark (the precursor to quinine). It was very tasty, such that you didn't really need to add bitters to the mix- being plenty sour already. The bubbles come from a kitchen counter carbonator. You can use tap water or filtered water, then hey presto 3 squirts of a button later, you have sparkling water- mineral content based on Alameda EBMUD profile. After sampling the commercial version, the general consensus was that his second batch came very close.
Then we drain the mash into the kettle, which requires constant stirring to keep the filter from clogging. The floral smelling hops are added to the liquid heating in the kettle and then boiled to extract the flavors. We boil for about an hour, adding a second batch of hops- this time more grassy and vegetal.
Next while we wait for cooling, the hi-tek white plastic bucket fermenter is sterilized with a low pH solution. Aaron adds a seaweed extract- I think it's called an alginate; which is supposed to precipitate out the proteins in solution and help clarify the beer of sediment.
Transfer the liquid to the bucket. Securely fastening the lid, plugging in the 3 piece airlock stopper- unidirectional off gassing without allowing contaminants into the brew. We watched the super bowl and hung out with friends. It was fun, definitely a good way to pass the day. Aaron will add the yeast the next day. Then next week we transfer it to a keg, wait a few more weeks- the product of magic alchemy of fermentation will be ready to drink. I'm think BBQ ribs and roasted pork knuckles to celebrate.
*UPDATE*
Misty is pleased to announce the tremendously successful brewing of ~ 5 gallons of Amber Ale... Time for another party!
For those who want the details:
Recipe: Mike McDole's Amber Style: American Amber Ale
Brewer: Aaron, Astrid, Gwyneth & Dana Batch: 5.00 gal
All Grain
Recipe Characteristics
Recipe Gravity 1.068 OG Estimated FG 1.017 FG
Recipe Bitterness 39 IBU Alcohol by Volume 6.6%
Recipe Color 14° SRM Alcohol by Weight 5.2%
Ingredients
Quantity Grain Type Use
10.00 lb American two-row mashed
0.25 lb British chocolate malt mashed
1.25 lb CaraPils mashed
1.00 lb Crystal 40L mashed
Quantity Hop Type Time
1.00 oz Cascade Pellet 10 minutes
1.00 oz Cascade Pellet 0 minutes
1.00 oz Galena Pellet 15 minutes
1.00 oz Galena Pellet 70 minutes
Quantity Misc Notes
1.00 unit Irish Moss Fining
1.00 unit California Ale yeast Yeast
Recipe Notes Based on McDole's Gold Medal Recipie, substituting Galena for Northern Brewer as an act of desperation.
One of my favorite sides during Thanksgiving/Christmas is the cranberry relish. So I thought I'd make some just for fun and to count towards my 5-9 fruits and veg... I found a good recipe at Simply Recipes that sounded really delicious and easy. I don't have my KitchenAid right now (packed away in storage) but Gwynie's Cuisinart did the trick.
I didn''t really pay attention to the proportions, more kind of throw stuff in until it tasted good.
I leave the peel on for the zest and the fiber.
cranberries
seedless mandarin (peel on)
seedless orange (peel on)
tart apple (peel on)
sugar (to taste- but didn't actually use any since I like it quite tart)
Well it started innocently enough as a desire to make ice cream for Wilda (who's allergic to the additives found in most commercial versions). I polled all my friends and found an ice cream machine in the generous hands of Jeanine and Adam (thanks guys!) After several attempts to coordinate pick up, I maneuvered the behemoth into the kitchen. Altho the list of don'ts were quite extensive, it seemed fairly straight forward, until I froze the wet paper towel into the churn by turning on the chiller too early. A flick of the switch and a warm damp kitchen towel later, I was set to go.
Aaron sent me his tried and trued recipe and of course I consulted the oracle. In the end, I chose to use the Cooks Illustrated recipe for my first time thru, altho as usual I altered it somewhat.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups non-fat whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/3 3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 inch piece vanilla bean , slit lengthwise and seeds removed, pod reserved
4 large egg yolks
Instructions
1. Position a strainer over a medium bowl set in a larger bowl containing ice water. Heat the milk, cream, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and the vanilla seeds and pod in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally to break up the vanilla seeds, until steam appears and the milk is warm (about 175 degrees), about 5 minutes. Take care that the milk doesn't boil or scald.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and remaining sugar in a medium bowl until combined and pale yellow. Whisk half the warm milk mixture into the beaten yolks, 1/2 cup at a time, until combined. Whisk the milk-yolk mixture into the warm milk in the saucepan; set the saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until steam appears, foam subsides, and the mixture is slightly thickened or an instant-read thermometer registers 180 to 185 degrees. (Do not boil the mixture, or the eggs will curdle.) Immediately strain the custard into the bowl set in the ice bath; cool the custard to room temperature, stirring it occasionally to help it cool. Cover and refrigerate until an instant-read thermometer -registers 40 degrees or lower, at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours. (Add the vanilla extract, if using) and stir well.
3. Pour the custard into the ice cream machine canister and churn until the mixture resembles soft-serve ice cream. Transfer the ice cream to an airtight container, press plastic wrap flush against the surface, cover the container, and freeze the ice cream until firm, at least 2 hours. (The ice cream will keep for up to 2 days)
Tips that helped me:
1) Take care that the milk doesn't boil or scald. This really means- use a thermometer, milk is notoriously finicky to heat. I kind of messed up here but luckily didn't burn it.
2) Do not boil the mixture, or the eggs will curdle. This really means- use a thermometer; curdled eggs make the texture kind of grainy.
3) Immediately strain the custard- Even if you didn't curdle the eggs chances are you have a little bit of egg white in the custard which of course has become a lump. Straining makes for a much smoother mouth feel, and allows you to get rid of the vanilla pod.
4) Don't start the chiller before you start churning else you may end up with a solid layer of ice cream fixing the paddle to the wall of the bowl.
Other things to consider:
This is really rich ice cream. Next time I'll try cutting back by maybe using half and half instead of heavy whipping cream. Also the reduced amount of sugar made the dessert delightfully refreshing rather than cloyingly sweet. Be warned if you are successful, you could easily gain 5 pounds from enjoying the fruits of your labor.
Just got done reading Gourmet's Cookie extravaganza, which contained a short paragraph on Candied Orange Peel as an ingredient for some cookie (which sounded quite foul- the cookie I mean). The candied peel in contrast sounded lovely and super easy.
1 large navel orange
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup + 1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
If you can, try to use an organic orange coz quite a few different chemicals are used to ensure the orange rind is perfectly unblemished and well, ... orange. Make sure to rinse well regardless.
Cut 1/4 inch off top and bottom, then score peel on orange into 4 vertical segments. Remove each segment (including white pith) in 1 piece. Cut into narrow strips across the grain. Reserve fruit for another use.
Stir salt, sugar and water in heavy small saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil. Add orange peel; simmer ~15 minutes till white pith becomes translucent.
Place remaining 1/4 cup sugar in small bowl. Using slotted spoon, remove peel from syrup and transfer to sugar. Toss to coat. Cool on parchment paper, tossing occasionally. Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep covered) Store in airtight container. Freeze if you plan on keeping it longer than a week.
It's with great sadness that I write to say that my good friend Pilar is leaving us for the sunny climes of Valencia, Spain. A group of friends gathered at Yvonne's apartment to throw the first of many farewell parties. The idea being that by the time Pilar and Tecuani leave we'll have celebrated and commiserated thoroughly. Since Yvonne is a fellow Spaniard and her husband Seb is a chef (albeit French), AND Valencia is the paella capital of the world-Seb's centerpiece of the meal was the massive paella cazuela with a perfectly crunchy soccarat crust.
This represents a modified version, so feel free to blame me if it doesn't work out.
3/4 lb chicken (drumettes or legs)
3/4 lb shrimp
1/2 lb squid (baby w/ tentacles preferably but rings work)
1/2 lb scallops
1/2 lb chorizo
2 bay leaves
1/2tsp thyme
2 sprigs parsley
1 small onion/shallot chopped
red bell pepper cut into slivers
3+cups broth
2 cups rice (short grained)
1 can whole tomatoes
1/4 cup green peas (frozen or asparagus ok)
1/4 tsp saffron
3 cloves garlic minced
small mussels and crabs for points of interest
parsley and lemon wedges for garnish
The essential ingredients are rice, saffron, seafood, chicken, chorizo, peppers, green peas and broth. If your friends don't like seafood you can substitute rabbit and pork ribs. I've cooked paella both the traditional style and covered in the oven. By far the easier way to go is in the oven. The only drawback is the lack of soccarat crust, which can be remedied somewhat easily by crisping the paella over a flame. Start by browning/searing all the meat and seafood. This should be done in the same pot or pan to build a dense layer of fond. Then chop a red bell pepper into slivers, mince an onion and 3 cloves of garlic and cook till soft and translucent. Lift the fond using broth and white wine. Set aside for later.
In the same pan, fry the raw rice until all the grains are glossy and coated, smelling a little nutty. Add the reserved liquid and tomatoes, making sure the volume adds up to about 4+ cups. (If you want to use more rice, the correct ratio is 2 liquid:1 rice). At this point stir in the saffron threads and bay leaves. Pre-heat oven to 325oF. Cover and cook in oven till moisture is absorbed but rice is slightly al dente. Prolly around 15-20 minutes. At this point add seafood, meat and peas, leave off lid and continue cooking till seafood and rice are done.
To build a soccarat crust, place pan on burner and allow to heat on medium high for ~ 5minutes without stirring. To ensure an even browning, rotate pan 180o halfway thru. Remain vigilant, if you smell burning it's too late. Garnish with parsley and lemon. Serve with a white wine and green salad.
The conversation on the 3rd day in a row of Thanksgiving celebration meals turned naturally to leftovers. The aunties debated the correct proportions, agreeing (with my cousin Grace) finally on the proportions 8 water:1 rice. The beauty of this simple rice porridge is that you can make it out of anything, of course this week it's turkey.
Break the carcass down and fill a large pot with (8 cups) water just up to cover the bones and bring to a simmer. Add a tablespoon of soup chi in a sachet and 2 bay leaves. I like to use half glutinous and half plain rice for texture and creaminess, about 1 cup total. Simmer on low for 2-3 hours stirring occasionally. The rice should cook and then reduce till it's a thick porridge, adjusting thickness with water or stock. Add salt to taste.
Serve over meat and veg with a handful of fresh chopped herbs (green onion, cilantro), roasted peanuts, thousand day old eggs (quartered). A little soy sauce, hot pepper sauce and sesame oil round out the profile.
Mmm a simple satisfying meal.
A long time ago, I went to a Thanksgiving meal hosted by my friends Andrew and Trish.
It was a feast where the center piece was a humongous smoked turkey. Normally turkey is dry, bland cardboard which I hide under my marshmallow jello fruit salad. To my surprise the meat was so succulent and fragrant, redolent of spices and fruit with a tangy smokey aftertaste. When I inquired about the secret to the miraculous transformation, Andrew admitted to brining the bird in cranberry juice and then smoking it on the grill.
The generic ratio suggested is 2 quarts water:1/2 cup salt:1/2 cup sugar and 6-12 hours. They adjust it somewhat if there are larger pieces of meat or multiple carcasses.
I decided not to use the sugar since I substituted cranberry juice for water. Then
after reading another site on what gives meat it's flavor I also used some vinegar for acidity to help tenderize the meat. Instead of a whole turkey which is just really too much meat unless you're entertaining 25, I used Cornish game hens which are just the cutest tastiest little birds with the added bonus that they cook well on the grill. I guesstimate about 1/4 bird per person.
* 3 quarts cranberry juice
* 1 quart vinegar
* 1 cup kosher salt
* 1/3 cup chopped ginger
* 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
* 4 bay leaves
* 4 sprigs fresh thyme
* 12 cloves garlic, unpeeled and lightly smashed
* 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
* 2 bunches green onion
* 8 star anise
* 1tbs coriander seeds
* red pepper flakes to taste
Heat the liquids and add salt (and sugar if used) stirring till dissolved, while simmering, add spices. Allow to cool before adding meat. Since the Cornish game hens typically come frozen, I omit the defrosting stage and just pop them in the brine to thaw overnite. Remove from brine and allow the skin to dry in the fridge and then bring to room temperature before cooking. Roast in the oven (325oF/15-20 minutes per pound) or smoke as directed.
Hey everyone, its Gwynie! I'm doing a guest entry, I specifically took this class to make Astrid jealous since she was off to the East Coast to play in the Howe Cup. Well I think she's rather pleased that I know how to make them, so much for sibling rivalry. I made 3 types of tamales: plain with chipilin (a herb), mole negro with chicken and a dessert one,(pineapple with raisins). That evening I had a tamale party to try them. Well worth the effort.
I think the first time I had salsa fresca was in Mexico City when I was 7 years old. The meld of sweet tomatoes with the piquantly spicy peppers was a perfect topping for quesadillas con jamon. My mom recreated this favorite at home, and we learned it early on in our culinary education.
I don't really measure things so the taste varies but if you use a standard set of ingredients you can come up with something that you like after a bit of tweaking. This recipe is for my friend Jenny who misses salsa in Taiwan.
The trick is very ripe tomatoes (some recipes recommend seeding to reduce the juice but i think you miss out on a lot of flavor). I like intense color and texture so I'll also use bell peppers of different colors. The debate is also out for whether to skin the tomatoes/peppers. I generally leave the skin on (for the fiber and it's less fiddly) but if you want to remove the skins, grilling is a quick and easy method. Roast the skins until blistered and black, then pop into a paper bag until cool. The skin should come off in large strips. Any specks of black will impart a smoky flavor. Coarsely chop into small chunks- here the size is up to you, however fine you want it to be. Remember if you use the blender/chopper it will be more saucy paste like and what we're going for is a crudo style. As far as peppers go in terms of picante heat, use whatever's available and adjust your amounts based on the Scoville score of the pepper. The trick is to remove the seeds and veins for less heat and also cut into very small pieces. If you're not sure how hot your pepper really is, add small amounts to the main set of ingredients while mixing in thoroughly and tasting as you go. Dice a small to medium onion. Coarsely chop cilantro (basil is good too). Lime zest can add another note to the complex palate. My mom swears by garlic, which when minced finely can be good, but not too much or too big else it's overwhelming. Toss in some lime juice. Toast coriander, black pepper and mustard seeds, grind with salt. Season salsa to taste.
Use tortilla chips as approved vector.
If you find you have used too much hot chile, you can take it down a notch or two by adding sugar.
Guesstimated proportions:
4 medium/large tomatoes (super ripe)
1 bell pepper (seeded)
2-4 hot peppers (jalapenos/serrano/habanero/bird/thai) depending on heat desired
1 small onion or bunch green onion
bunch cilantro
basil (optional)
1Tbs lime zest
1-2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tsp each coriander seeds, black pepper, mustard seeds (grind)
salt to taste
Allow to sit for at least 40 minutes, the longer it sits the more intense and mingled the flavors are.
Our friend Ben invited us to watch the UC Berkeley Football vs the Oregon Ducks. It was a pretty fun time, since it was my first football game EVER. A friend warned me that one was supposed to be miserable at football games. So I went expecting the worst, but I didn't have a good concept of how bad it could really get. It was so bad that the two rows in front of us left before half time. As you know, I'm now a precipitation expert having sampled quite a few kinds in Taiwan. For the majority of the game it was a steady downpour, and in the 3 quarter it really started to resemble freezing cold monsoon conditions! Luckily we had come prepared with technical dri-weave socks, hats, raingear and large garbage bags to use as skirts shield the legs while we were seated. The only real problem was the wicking action from the bottom up, which did account for some seepage up to the knees. The players splashed around the field, dropping the ball frequently. The game was very close and exciting- Oregon was within 3 points for a long time. Cal eventually won 26/16.
Afterwards Gwynie and I hosted an apre-game tailgate party. We were so glad to warm up with bowls of chili and chili cheese dogs. I was quite pleased with the result, and altho I felt it could have been spicier, Gwynie voted for mild.
Beans
1 ham hock cut into pieces
1 medium onion chopped (about 1 cup)
5 cloves garlic whole
3 chipotle chiles en adobo , minced
2 scotch bonnet peppers whole
1 lb dried kidney beans
10 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp mustard seeds
Rinse and sort the beans. If you are concerned about beans being the musical fruit you can soak them overnite and discard the water. I generally don't bother with that step coz it requires planning, forethought and an empty kitchen counter upon which to place the soaking beans. I haven't personally noticed any difference in the tooting, but some people swear by it (including the oracle). If you do soak then reduce the cooking water by 2 cups.
I throw all the ingredients into my trusty crock pot. Set it on high and walk away for about <3 hours, the beans should be slightly al dente but cooked. You can stir if you like but it's not really necessary. If you let it go for too long (4+ hours) the beans start to lose structure and will disintegrate (good if you're going for refritos style).
At this point cool the beans, & pull out the bones. Shred the pork and return to the pot.
If you used scotch bonnet, make sure to pull them out intact. Cooling allows the flavors to develop more fully inside the beans, so don't skip this step.
Chili con Carne
3 Tbs ancho chili powder toasted
3 Tbs New Mexico chili powder toasted
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp cumin seeds- toasted & ground
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp coriander seeds toasted & ground
2 onions chopped
2 pounds 85 percent lean ground beef
1 can (28-ounce) diced tomatoes , with juice
1 can (28 ounces) tomato puree
2 cups water
beans as prepared above (or 2 cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed)
Fry onions with oil till translucent and soft. Brown beef over high heat, maintaining largish chunks.
Toast and grind herbs and spices. Stir in the herbs & spices making sure that all the meat is coated. Place in crockpot. Add the tomato diced and pureed, top with 2 cups of water. Allow to simmer 2 hours. Add the beans and allow to simmer another hour or so. If you have time, another round of cooling allows a more cohesive melding and will intensify the flavors. Skim any fat that rises.
Heat and serve with crusty bread, corn bread, dogs. Garnish as appropriate
lime wedges
cilantro sprigs
pickled jalapenos sliced
grated cheese
shredded cabbage
One of my most favorite soups in all the world combines the tasty goodness of onion and the universally wonderful cheese on toast (bubbling crispy cheese atop crusty baguette).
I use the standard recipe provided by Cooks Illustrated (the online recipe oracle) combined with my attempts to make beef stew (details are listed in the extended entry). I use a deep heavy (all metal) frying pan so that I can transition between oven and stove top. You can also use a dutch oven if the handles are oven safe.
Ingredients for the onion soup
1 Tbs rendered beef fat (see extended entry)
2 Tbs butter
4 large yellow onions cut into slices across the grain
2 cups water
1/2 cup dry sherry
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (see previous entry)
2 cups beef broth (see extended entry)
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
Roast the onions with the beef fat/butter in the oven at 400oF until caramelized a deep golden brown and soft (stir every 15 minutes to avoid burning). De-glaze pan- add 1/4 cup water and stir till any fond is lifted. On the stove over a medium heat, heat the onions until a fond again starts to form. De-glaze etc. Repeat 3x in total. Finish with sherry- stir till it evaporates off but do not allow a fond to build.
Stir in broths, any remaining water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, for 30 minutes. Discard herbs, then season to taste.
Meanwhile, make crusty cheese on toast. I like to chop this into bite sized chunks before serving. Traditionally this is served on top of the soup, but you can serve separately depending on whether you want mushy bread or not....
I'm just following the grip of the financial meltdown deal. $700 billion US is a pretty significant chunk of change. While I agree that total financial collapse is not good, people (especially my Dad and my friend Adam) have been predicting this for years. I just don't see where it's going to end anytime soon. I mean a little economic stimulus check isn't going to fix this problem. A lot depends on how the bailout is going to be structured. For a while there it looked like Paulson was going to get his way and make it no strings attached for bad assets, then everyone would walk away from the debt that they could and the people that can't walk away would be left holding the basket- which would suck. To say that we live in interesting financial times is prolly a curse at this point. I wonder if the electronic trading is allowing the rest of the world to snap up the US at bargain prices and then you have to ask yourself "would that be a good thing actually?" But when you look around everyone is also tanked!
I went to an investment seminar in San Francisco run by a large online trading company called E*****. It was actually pretty interesting. They talked about all kinds of theories and used lots of buzzwords that I didn't know. But their bottom line was of course "you can still make money trading right now". Then we'd look at graphs where all the stocks had tanked and the guy would say "yeah buy this one!" It was rather what I had expected but I came away with a new respect for their willingness to take advantage of peoples' hope (and dare I say greed?).
With all the finances in the doldrums, I'm busy satisfying my own greed (or should I say hunger?) making my own chicken stock from scratch. I'll include the recipe in the extended entry. It's actually cheaper and tastier to make your own than buy it. I take the time mostly coz of my allergies, I'm finding I can eat less and less processed stuff. But an important byproduct of making stock is the chicken bits.
I strip the cooked carcasses of meat and make up a chicken salad. I'll add what ever's in the fridge, so it never really tastes the same. Then I load it onto a piece of hi-fiber bread, another covered with cheese and mustard; stick both into the toaster until bread is crisped and cheese bubbling. Construct a sandwich and eat with a side of cabbage. And coz it's so totally frugal, you can call this one a "Financial melt"! HeHee Mmmm yum.
At Berkeley Bowl today I spotted something that looked more like a flanged mace or morning star than produce. Intrigued, I decided to buy one for $2.69. Hmm, I avoided brussel sprouts formerly as a child- considering them to be inedible sulphuric hockey pucks. As an adult I've lost enough taste buds to enjoy their delicate texture/nutty taste and use them as a replacement for potato or rice. When I trimmed the brussel sprouts off the stalk, It turned out to have more than 50 of the suckers! Truly a great deal. Works out to about 5 cents per sprout. Not all of them are the same size, which you prolly know means different cooking times. Apparently if you over cook them, they release the dreaded sulphuric compounds; This is easy to do if the sizes are mismatched. So I've split them into different categories and will cook them accordingly.
My favorite is to steam them and then smother with cheese sauce, which as you know is now cheese sauce ala cauliflower in disguise. It wouldn't get through the discerning taste buds of a four year old, but I enjoy it in my attempt to eat nine fruits and vegetables a day. Nine is tough but I'm averaging 7, which has the added bonus of making me too full for other "bad" stuff.
Anyway if you think of any other good ways to cook brussel sprouts, let me know since I have a ton of them.
From my friend Aaron:
Trim & halve your sprouts. Take a large skillet, heat some fat
(olive oil, butter, bacon drippings)... Spread the sprouts cut side down,
leave on medium heat for 4-5min covered. Take off the lid, toss in a
handfull of pine nuts and shake the pan to distribute the nuts and turn
some of the sprouts (they should be browning on the bottom). Let it sit
for another minute or two and toss in a healthy bit of minced garlic,
stir well to take the edge off the garlic and then hit the pan with some
acid (juice of half a lemon or a teaspoon or two of cider vinegar). Salt &
Pepper to taste, serve.
Recently I've been trying to increase my fiber intake. Striving for that elusive 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables. Delicious summer fruit are easy, leafy greens a little difficult and 9 whole servings!- kind of a challenge. In the mornings I start with fruit- apples, pears, peaches, nectarines are all good options, plus a bowl of oatmeal (now seven grain) either sweet or savory and an egg. Or hi-fiber toast and coffee. Or an Almond croissant from Acme (c'mon we can't be good ALL the time)...
Lunch is soup and leafy green salad- including spinach + nuts + meat. OK maybe it's pizza but if you have 2 toppings it counts as a serving of veg.... Plus a snack of homemade granola with flax seed, oatmeal and nuts. But sometimes you get tired of the salads and crave something a little more substantial and warming. Enter the lowly cauliflower, as fairly taste neutral, kid acceptable veg.
Typically served in my childhood covered in lashings of a Bechamel cheese sauce, it's a comfortable dish, satisfying and score 1 for servings of vegetable. I found a great recipe for cauliflower soup which inspired me to create a cheese sauce with cauliflower as a base.
* 1 tsp coriander seeds
* 1 tsp fennel/cumin seeds
* 1-2 bay leaves
* 1 onion
* 2 cups water/stock
* 1 cauliflower (1 lb + 1.5 oz)
* 1 large shallot/onion, diced
* 2 garlic cloves, whole
* 1 celery branch (optional), diced
* 2 cups grated cheese
* Dash of mustard powder
* Dash of nutmeg
* Dash of sherry
* Dash of cream
* Salt and pepper to taste
Start with a cauliflower cut into large florets, a medium sized onion or large shallot, whole cloves of garlic and a spice packet. Cook in chicken stock until very soft. Remove the spice packet and then use an immersion blender to puree everything together. Simmer over low heat and mix in cheese, cream and sherry, salt to taste. Adjust thickness of sauce with stock or potato flakes as desired. Serve as a you would a regular cheesy sauce . Most people can't tell the difference!
The next question is what to serve it on? Luckily I can pretty much eat this sauce on anything. In macaroni and cheese, Croque Monsieur Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, lasagna, moussaka, baked with a chicken in it, as the sauce au gratin, rolled in crepes, crab cannelloni, poured on top of other vegetables...
This weekend I made some sausage rolls as requested by a dear friend. They're the easiest snacky-doodle to make.
All you need is sausages (any flavor- your choice) sheets of flaky pastry and a pair of scissors.
Cut the flaky pastry sheet into 4 inch wide by 11 inch long strips. Cut the sausage casing open and place meat on the long edge of the strip. Roll into tube with seam on the bottom. Snip the rolls into half, then quarters then eighths. Slit the tops to allow steam to escape. Bake at 400oF for 18 minutes or till golden. Serve warm.
Ever since I packed up my house and transferred the most important items to Gwynie's place, there's been a huge stack of chocolate waiting to be used. Ok it was waiting to be used before that but since I hadn't consolidated all the chocolate, I didn't know how much of it I really had... which is a lot! Today I decided to make a version of Clothilde's Chocolate Chili Mini-bites to use up some of that chocolate. Normally I use chipotle chilies in Adobo sauce, where the garlicky smoky flavor adds a subtle hint to the chocolate that leaves people reaching for another to try and identify the elusive taste. I'm all out of chipotle chilies, so I used a couple of tablespoons of the scotch bonnet apricot chutney I made a while back and boy does it have a kick to it. I think in the next version I'll do half chipotle pepper powder and and half scotch bonnet pepper chutney.
I liked the flavor the fruit added, but I don't want it to be too fruit forward, it's more about the chocolate and the smokey heat.
I won't reproduce the recipe since Clothilde has a pretty comprehensive version. However, I did halve the amounts coz I don't need 72 mini-bites! I use a paper piping cone to get the mixture into the cupcake liners. I also shortened the baking time by 1 1/2 minutes because I like them to be more wetly chocolate and they just keep cooking after I whip em out of the oven. For fun you can glaze them with a pepper jelly, but they're easier to handle plain.
Enjoy!
I found a great recipe for a turkish leg of lamb. It was delicious but really ended up being a lot of meat. Perfect when you're entertaining eight, less practical when it's just me and Gwynie. The highlite of the dish was the tomato based gravy, with deep notes of cinnamon, allspice and cumin. With that in mind I decided to riff a stew based on the same ingredients and see how it turned out.
Ingredients
* 1 onion chopped, abut 1 1/2 cups
* 1 pound lamb stew meat
* 1 pound lamb neck bones
* 1 pound lamb shanks
* 2 cans peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes
* 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts (omitted due to allergy concerns)
* 4 tablespoons chopped parsley
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1/2 teaspoon allspice
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* --cayenne pepper to taste
* 1 cup stock (lamb or beef)
* 2 cloves garlic
* 2 bay leaves
Instructions
Roast lamb pieces and onion in a roasting pan @375 for about 15-25 minutes, till browned. Place meat, onion, tomato and other ingredients in slow cooker. De-glaze pan with water or stock and add to cooker, top with stock. Simmer till stew has a glossy red sheen and meat is falling off the bone ~4-6 hours. Serve with parsley garnish, rice and cucumber salad. Let me know how yours turns out.
I was inspired the other day to cook curry from many sources:
My friends declared a desire for curry. Towards that end, we went searching for curry spices Taipei City Hall exit 4. You can find the adventure in my podcast episode: IndianSpice Speakeasy
AND
I stumbled across a Jamaican Curry goat cooking snippet from John Bull's Jamaican Kitchen.
which reminded me of my mom (she makes a mean curry- she grew up in India)...
The recipe is mostly adapted directly from my mom's, but the spice mix is from talking to Sangita (of Monterey-Sunnyvale Little India Adventure fame). This curry is for lamb (which in Taiwan means goat) and so the synergy of my worlds colliding finally has meaning and it is Curry Goat aka Manishwater.
Toast dry over flame or in toaster oven taking care not to burn
(releases the oils of the spices, necessary if you don't want the curry
to taste raw) Grind into fine powder. (Make sure to clean grinder with rice after
use- else the spices left in grinder will go rancid and affect the
flavor of future batches)
Combine with
1 tbs garam masala powder
2 tbs ground turmeric
other optional powdered spices:
cinnamon, allspice (mace), cloves, nutmeg
1 teaspoon cayenne to taste!
Lamb/Goat curry:
1lb cubed lamb/goat
salt & pepper (s&p)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 large onion
curry spices mix
Additionally
2 green cardamom
1 Tbs minced ginger
4 curry leaves
2 bay leaves
4 cups stock (beef or chicken) till meat is just covered
optional
1/2 cauliflower (florets)
2 large tomatoes cubed
2-4 medium potatoes
1 cup green peas
marinate 1 lb of cubed lamb in s&p and minced garlic for 4 hrs or overnight
chop one large onion and shallow fry in oil till soft and golden
add curry spice mix to oil and stir till aromatics release.
add cubed lamb to sear all over,
add two crushed cardamom, 2 cloves whole, one stick cinnamon, and
minced ginger,
handful of curry leaves & 2 bay leaves, add stock
to cover meat and simmer until tender (2+ hours).
add cauliflower, 2 quartered potatoes,
tomatoes or green peas if you wish.
Note: Don't buy expensive meat as it tends to be too lean and dry. Use stew
meat w/ lots of marbling. Serve w/ cucumber and yogurt salad and chutneys, pappadoms, etc.
Dahl:
1 Onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic
2 green cardamom
1 round slice of ginger (silver dollar sized)
2 curry leaves
2 bay leaves
whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 red chili pod
1-2 cups yellow split peas
4 cups stock
Optional coconut milk
Fry onion and garlic until soft, add crushed piece of ginger to oil.
Add Curry & bay leaves, 2 cloves, cardamom and stick
of cinnamon, one dry red chili.
Add split peas and cook in stock (and coconut milk) until soft.
Remove all whole seasoning before serving.
To finish, gently fry some whole cumin seeds, onion*, garlic and chili
in oil. Then pour this mixture into the dahl, season w/ S&P.
sprinkle with chopped coriander if available. Serve over rice etc.
*This is sometimes available in packets ready crisp fried depending on your neighborhood grocery options.
Cook a yellow saffron rice w/ turmeric, garlic, onion, ginger, cinnamon stick, whole crushed cardamom, whole cloves and black pepper corns in coconut cream, curry leaves [sub bay leaves]. When nearly cooked add ready made curry [any kind: beef, chicken, lamb etc] mix into rice, add fried onion flakes, raisins and even roasted cashew nuts [sprinkle on top of rice- no mixing as they would go soft] just before serving.
Appologies for my lack of blogs, I've been super busy. But to distract you from my lack of entries...
Here's a link to a really fun Jamaican cooking site. The chef is pretty hilarious, especially since he keeps dropping thins on the floor. Definitely the quintessential Jamaican line up of food from my childhood. I'll be sure to keep my eye on this site.
I found out about it from one of my favorite blogs ChezPim.
Here John Bull cooks Jamaican Johnny cakes, which I post specially for Gwynie since they're her favorites. Our cook Miss Salmon made the best ones, but these look close enough that I'd be willing to make a carb exception. Let me know how they turn out!
A friend gave me a bushel of cucumbers from his CSA yesterday. There are just so many, I've decided to make bread and butter pickles (coz they're my favorite). But I was hoping to do something more interesting like dill pickles or korean oe muchim. I watched a fabulous utube short on kimchi but don't have a good recipe. So far I've managed to find Barb Schaller's Blue Ribbon Winner at the Minnesota State Fair in 1983, 1984 Bread and Butter Pickles and a fabulous sounding cucumber chutney recipe.
I'm trying the pickles first and then will make the chutney with the leftovers.
I've got masses of cherry tomatoes on the vines so this will use them up.
I've started to get piles and piles of summer squash from my CSA. I've plans for ratatouille- pixar style, but that won't use up nearly enough of the vegetables. Lucikly other people have the same problem and so I got a fun recipe to try from my wine tasting newsletter- WineAdvisor
I might try a sweet version also depending on how this turns out. But it seems a great way to include more fiber and veg in the diet.
I was the last person to pick up my share from the CSA this week. It had been picked pretty bare. All that was left was some slightly bruised green apricots. Ok I'm exaggerating slightly, there were some peaches and figs too. My first thought was- What the hell am I going to do with the apricots? they're to green to eat but too bruised to keep...
Then I remembered making mango chutney with my mom from all the green mangoes when I was little. Here's variation that I got from a friend who teaches Indian cooking classes down in Monterey.
So funny, yesterday GT and I were sitting in the sauna describing breakfast to WW.
Buckwheat Crepes and rabbit Crepinettes with wilted Arugula and baby red onion.
and then WW asked if i could make her buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup (since she's allergic to wheat) and I said "Yes of course, with bacon and a poached egg".
This lady who was sitting in there too, got up to leave and said "You come here to exercise , all you do is talk about food and i haven't heard the word salad yet!" I didn't have the heart to tell her that the reason I exercise is so I can eat more food.
HAHA
kind of like sausage patties but made with rabbit
so delicious
I was at the Ferry Building Farmers Market yesterday, and strolling past the Fatted Calf Charcuterie Stall the rabbit crepinettes caught my eye. I love rabbit so I pounced like the fierce jungle animal I am.
Later on I found some buckwheat in the cupboard and so the obvious conclusion is: A breakfast of champions.
I belong to a totally wonderful CSA in Walnut Creek, called Eat Outside the Box. It's like Iron Chef every week! You get massive loads of in season Frog Hollow Farm's "legendary fruit, organically grown" as well as unusual and diverse crops from a 10 acre farm- Knoll Farms, as part of a bundled CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). It's forced me to try fruits and veg that I would never ahve considered at the farmers market. Both supply Chez Panisse and other top notch restaurants, so you know what you're getting is a good deal. One share is good for a single person or a couple that eats out a couple times a week. If you are vegetarian and cook a lot, the shares are on the small size. They have drop locations in Walnut Creek, Lafayette and Brentwood.
My sister is doing FullBelly Farms CSA since they have a drop off point near her work.
http://www.fullbellyfarm.com/index.html
It's also really great, and a slightly different selection of produce.
But here is a list of other CSAs that I researched that all have
delivery in either Berkeley or Oakland (I think they deliver other
places too but I wasn't paying attention to that):
Terra Firma Farm
www.terrafirmafarm.com
has S/M/L options which are all very reasonable. Our vegetarian friends get the large box which they enjoy tremendously
Eatwell Farm
www.eatwell.com
has member days where you volunteer time on the farm in addition to
paying for your box. a friend of mine does this one and likes it a
lot.
You know when you meet kindred spirits, how comfortable it is to hang out? Well over Easter weekend, I was lucky enough to meet some folk that have the same passion for food. After sampling RM's decadent and creamy flan (she's a genius), we spent the afternoon talking about recipes and favorite dishes. People walking past would exclaim "You're still talking about food?"
Anyway, after hearing that I had no good source for pomegrante paste, RM invited me to Turlock to shop at her local Assyrian market. Little did she know that a week later I would take her up on her offer. I was teaching a class at UC Merced, and I passed through Turlock on the way home. RM very graciously ditched work for a couple of hours to tour me around Turlock's finest Assyrian store, I reviewed Mary Ann's Bakery on yelp.
This place supplies all the other Assyrian groceries in the area with Lavash flat bread and pita bread in both white and wholewheat - hearty and tasty with just the right amount of chew and structure to hold hefty portions of filling.
Non-descript outside, inside the tiny mart stocks interesting and hard to find items on it's dark, cramped and crowded shelves. After a brief browse I found the following:
dried lemons for ghormeh sabzi
date paste
pomegranate paste (essential for fesanjun) & pomegrante molasses
fig molasses
Plus all the standard stuff
rice
rosewater
bulghur wheat
walnuts etc.
This week I'm cooking for the family and I thought I'd use some of my cool new supplies with a recipe I found online. It includes two of my favorite foods- duck AND pomegranate.
My friends Morgan and Julie often host us for dinner. Morgan is a great if interesting cook.
Dessert is always sugar free coz Julie reacts to the "other white deadly powder".
Thus with fruits from their CSA and Berkeley Farmer's market, we always have something delicious.
The following recipe is from Morgan, who doesn't really have a recipe but throws things together.
But it was so scrumptious that I have to share it.
Enjoy!
Mandarin Apple Salad
10 mandarins, peeled diced (satsuma are best)
5 apples, chopped (pink ladies are best)
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts or sliced almonds
3 tablespoons coconut butter or dairy butter
grated peel of 1/2 lemon
juice of 2 lemons
juice of 1 oranges (3 would probably be better, actually)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon each of ground cardamom, cinnamon, and clove
I didn't measure the spices -- I just added & tasted & added more -- so
those numbers might be high.
When I'm at work, I often frequent a Mexican restaurant Las Montanas for lunch. While we refer to it as "the Pozole" place, pozole’s not their signature dish- it's the one that draws us repeatedly. Not cheap, the pozole/posole is a large, tasty, meaty, chunky soup with a very satisfying, nutty chew. The fresh raw vegetables are crisp and clean, adding sharpness and a 3D structure to a slow cooked soup brimming nasal clearing pepper and other spices. That's why I was super excited to get an email from a friend Andrea with a set of totally awesome recipes that strikes a chord of familiarity. Here's the first recipe I'm trying. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/108031
During the winter, I like to do a lot of stews. This is a family favorite that my mom used to make us. We always begged her to make extra sauce to ladle over our rice. When I make it, I make enough sauce to swim in. That way there's enough left over to do another batch...
Here's the original recipe she emailed me:
Braised Pork with Eggs
1.5 lbs pork cut in cube pieces
3 T oil [T=tablespoon]
3 T wine
6 T soy sauce
1 T sugar, 3 5-star anise
1 stalk spring onion
6 slices ginger
2 cups water
Heat oil and fry pork until meat changes colour and shrinks. Add wine
and soy sauce. Continue to cook until soy sauce is absorbed by meat.
Then remove to a deep pan. Add sugar, sp onion, ginger, anise, water.
Cover tightly and cook over low flame for 1 hour. Add boiled eggs and
simmer another 30 mins. Slice eggs in half before serving.
I rebel against the idea of discarding the tops of leeks. It just doesn't make sense to me that my compost heap could possibly enjoy these greens more than I. My Chinese side cringes at the waste that most western recipes demand! I'll allow that it's a little more bitter and grassy tasting, but think of that as character you want to use and display.
How about pork and leek dumplings where the salty meat and the sweet chestnuts balance out the astringency of the leeks? Or as a base for a stock where strong flavors will be supported by the green vegetal flavor? How about as a stir-fry of tiny pieces where it adds some texture and contrast to soft tofu and sweet corn?
I looked online for anyone else who is of a similar mind. I managed to find these brave souls
