tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202101498970455252024-02-07T20:06:24.759-06:00Mr. Onion's NeighborhoodHowdy, neighbor!Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-18802976910318581742012-07-05T10:37:00.002-05:002012-07-05T10:39:50.280-05:00Shrimp, Duck, Turkey and Quail Egg Gumbo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white;">I feel like I might as well list all the ingredients in that title but I wanted to make sure everything was included.</span><br />
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I received in the mail a sample of some fresh caught Louisiana shrimp from the <a href="http://louisianaseafood.com/" target="_blank">Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board</a> (specifically Anna Marie Seafood Company) and wanted to make something special with it. I thought it would be best to use a recipe that showed off not only the local seafood we have, but also the local meats I'm growing on <a href="http://www.hightailfarms.com/" target="_blank">HighTail Farms</a>. Shrimp, eggs, <span style="background-color: white;">turkey,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">and duck, all caught or raised close to home.</span></div>
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Most of you know I'm not from the south. I feel like I came into my culinary adulthood (translates as "figured out which end of the pot to cook in") while here, but I'm always hesitant when it comes to sharing my "southern" recipes. However, since there are as many different recipes for gumbo out there as there are stoves in Louisiana I'm less afraid to share my own version with you. Gumbo is something that makes sense to me: it's a great way to extend your leftovers and feed yourself and perhaps a small army. It scales easy and it reheats well to make for good leftovers. </div>
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<b style="background-color: white;">Ingredients</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">For the roux:</span></div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white;">118g equal weight duck fat and flour - roughly 1 cup each</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white;">For the gumbo:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">4-6 quarts turkey stock</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">1 whole duck, quartered</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">12 oz. andouille, sliced into 1/4" pieces</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">12 boiled and peeled quail eggs (or 5-6 boiled chicken or duck eggs)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">5-6 stalks celery, chopped</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">2 green bell peppers, chopped</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">2 medium/large onions, chopped</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">1 lb. large Louisiana jumbo shrimp (or smaller, but the big ones look great!)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">1 lb. cut okra (ain't nothing wrong with frozen!)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">spices (see step below)</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white;">For serving:</span><br />
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<li><span style="background-color: white;">Cooked rice</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white;">There are a few steps here and it may get confusing. Simplified, this is the plan of action:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"> 0) Admire the shrimp</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span>1) Get fat from duck meat</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"> </span>1.5) If you have no stock, make some<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"> </span>2) Make roux with duck fat<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"> </span>3) Add stock and other ingredients<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"> </span>4) Cook all day<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"> </span>5) Add the shrimp<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"> </span>6) Enjoy!<br />
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<b>0) Admire the shrimp</b><br />
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When you get some high quality shrimp, you need to do this before doing anything else. I'm originally from New Jersey (I'm sure I've said this before) and we don't often eat a lot shrimp. Crabs and mussels are more common up there. Trying to buy shrimp with the heads on in Yankee Land is awful. (Once I tried when I was making gumbo for a Christmas party and the grocery store employee said, "Why on earth would you want the heads? Ew.")<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">These are, hands down, the biggest shrimp I've ever seen. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Just look at those shrimp!</span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white;">1) Render down the duck fat</b></div>
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Every Louisiana recipe seems to start with "first you make a roux". Well that's wrong. First you need some good fat to make the roux. You can use butter (clarified butter, if you want to be properly French cuisine about it) but since just tossing the meat into the pot will still render out the fat, it's best to remove as much of it from the meat beforehand, otherwise you risk a greasy pool on top of your gumbo.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Take your duck and quarter it. In a wide pan, put your duck pieces skin side down and set on low. Do this while making your stock, because you'll need about as much time. We're not trying to cook the duck or even crisp the skin here: we just want to render out the fat. After about 20 minutes I covered the pan and let it go a bit longer, then removed the duck and poured off the liquid. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">I got about 2 cups of duck fat from one medium sized duck. You can see above the layer of non-fat at the bottom. Easiest way to deal with this is to refrigerate it and pop out the fat and remove the juices (probably a gelatin at that point). I might sound preachy since I raise my own on our farm, but this is seriously best if you use a pastured duck </span><a href="http://www.hightailfarms.com/" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">like we raise</a><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></div>
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In that same pan I tossed in the andouille and cooked until slightly brown, then removed from heat.<br />
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<b style="background-color: white;">1.5) Make a stock</b><br />
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I mentioned the turkey I cooked for my family in my previous ice cream post. Never one to let something go to waste I had picked most of the carcass and bones clean and set it aside to make some stock.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Carcass and bones go into a pot with enough water to cover, a whole onion, some salt, and the aromatics I had shoved inside the carcass when I roasted it. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to something just above a simmer for about two hours, uncovered.</span></div>
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When done, strain the liquid and set aside. Let the bones cool, then go through and pick off all the meat you can.<br />
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Set that meat aside. Also, I like to save any large pieces of vegetables that might still be in there, so in this case the onions and garlic also were set aside. Stock should really have it's own recipe, but it's pretty simple. This made almost three gallons of stock. If you can, freeze leftovers in an ice cube tray. (Each cube is about 1 oz or 1/4 cup, roughly.)</div>
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<b>2) Make a roux</b></div>
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Measure out 1 cup of fat and weigh it. Put it in your pot and then add an equal <i>weight </i>of all purpose flour. You can easily just do 1 cup of each, but I can guarantee that you will make a better roux if you use equal weights, not equal measurements.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Set your burner on medium, grab a wooden spoon, and settle in for about thirty minutes of non-stop stirring action. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">You can make your roux ahead of time -- if that's the case, remove it when it reaches a "natural peanut butter" color and continue to stir until it cools a bit, then pour it into a bowl. When ready to use just bring up the temperature gradually and continue!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Ready to store for later!</span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white;">3) Add stock and other ingredients</b><br />
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Now the fun begins! The combination of onions, bell peppers, and celery are often seen in a lot of Creole dishes. These ingredients make up a Creole mirepoix (pronounced "meer-pwa"), which would normally consist of onions, celery, and carrots in typical French cuisine. I used more onion than normal, but I can't help it. It's in my name.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">When you reach that color that's just slightly beyond "natural peanut butter", add in the celery, bell pepper, and onions and cook for a bit until they feel soft. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">It will look like a clumpy mess. </span><br />
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Add in your stock at this point and stir. The roux is acting as a thickening agent, so make sure the flour-encapsulated fat molecules end up well dispersed. </div>
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Add in your reserved duck pieces. <span style="background-color: white;">Add in the eggs. Add in the leftover turkey and vegetables from making the stock. Add in the okra. </span><b style="background-color: white;">DO NOT ADD THE SHRIMP.</b><br />
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<b style="background-color: white;">Note: </b><span style="background-color: white;">If you actually do use boiled quail eggs, don't waste your time trying to peel them like you normally peel boiled eggs. Put them in a bowl with enough distilled white vinegar to cover and let them sit for 12 hours. The shells will soften and peels off much, much easier.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Alternatively, you can enlist your father to peel them. (Thanks, buddy!)</span><br />
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Now for the spices. Below is what I used, but this is a great time to be creative. K doesn't like black pepper, so I substituted with white pepper. I bought huge amounts of coriander (one of my favorite and most under utilized spices) and mustard seed, so I ground them up with the mortar and pestle and threw them in. Bay leaves are a standard. But don't be limited to what's below, and certainly don't go buying a whole shaker of ground coriander just for this one recipe. A pre-mixed Cajun seasoning would probably do just as good a job (although I'd call you a cheater).<br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">2 bay leaves</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">2 Tbs. mustard seeds, loosely ground</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">1 Tbs. coriander, loosely ground</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">1 tsp. crushed red pepper</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">2 tsp. cayenne</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">1 tsp. thyme</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">1 Tbs. white pepper</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">salt to taste</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Mix everything together, reduce to a simmer, and cover.</span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white;">4) Cook all day</b><br />
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I honestly have no idea how long I let this cook, but it was for at least three hours. The best thing to do is to check the duck: if the meat is easily pulled from the bones, you're done. If your gumbo looks too thin, let it cook with the lid off for awhile to remove some moisture.<br />
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<b>5) Add the shrimp</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">When your gumbo is close to done, turn off the heat. Remove the heads and legs from the shrimp (you did get them head on, right?), and peel off the rest of the shell. Set aside for later use to make shrimp stock. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Since I only had a pound to work with I cut them into chunks. (I did set one aside for the top photo, though.) Toss the shrimp in the gumbo, mix well, and put the lid on the pot. I kept it closed for about 10 minutes, stirring once in awhile. As hot as your gumbo is the shrimp should not require anything beyond a 10 minute rest in there.</span><br />
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You don't have to remove the shells. You can stop at just removing the heads and legs, or even just the heads. I wanted to make sure that everyone got some shrimp, so I thought peeling and cutting into chunks was the best option -- do what you please!<br />
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<b>6) Enjoy</b><br />
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Put some rice in a bowl and spoon over some gumbo. Make sure that everyone gets a little bit of everything, even if they have to do it in two trips! The okra will have fallen apart and act as a thickener for the gumbo. If you've let it gone long enough it should be completely obliterated.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">I love knowing where my food comes from, so I was glad to know that this shrimp was locally caught by Anna Marie Seafood Company. As stated earlier, this shrimp was sent to me by the <a href="http://louisianaseafood.com/" target="_blank">Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><br />
The LSPMB was created in 1984 by the state of Louisiana to support their vast historical commercial fisheries industry. The Board is composed of 15 members and each member represents a sector of the industry: harvesters, processors, wholesalers, restaurateurs/retailers, fisheries resource managers, public health officers and marketing specialists.<br />
To find locally caught seafood, use the LSPMB's <a href="http://louisianaseafood.com/seafood_finder_home.php" target="_blank">Seafood Finder</a>!<br />
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Also, stay tuned. I got more shrimp in the mail and decided to do a small shrimp boil. It's an easy one, but it was too incredibly tasty to not blog about!</div>Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-82335028654725195982012-05-24T12:00:00.000-05:002012-05-24T12:00:10.418-05:00Udderly Delicious: Lemon Ice Cream with Blackberry Sauce<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(pardon my chipped bowl)</td></tr>
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I'm torn on how to label this. It's part <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/search/label/udderly%20delicious" target="_blank">Udderly Delicious</a>, part <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/search/label/quick%20eats" target="_blank">Quick Eats</a>, and part <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/search/label/homegrown" target="_blank">Homegrown</a>. Regardless of the label, it's really freaking tasty.<br />
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Sadly I didn't take any photos of the process, so this will be a relatively wordy post. My family was in town for their first visit to the farm and, after K and my father went on an epic berry picking expedition which ended with about three pounds of blackberries being collected, I figured we should put them to use.<br />
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The next night I was going to cook up a turkey that we had raised. My sister from over at Fancypants Tris suggested making a blackberry and chipotle sauce for the turkey, but I decided to do a straight up brined and roasted turkey. While the turkey was roasting, I figured I might as well put some more of our goat milk to use and thought some ice cream might be worth trying.</div>
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<a name='more'></a>Before getting into this, I just wanted to plug a fellow <strike>New Orleans</strike> Louisiana blogger. If you're into homemade ice creams, by all means go spend a day or more reading through <a href="http://www.scoopadventures.com/" target="_blank">Scoop Adventures</a>' ridiculously thorough and ever-growing list of recipes. If anything just go look at the pictures. If you're not an ice cream lover you'll soon be one.<br />
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I don't own an ice cream machine and eat ice cream so rarely that I don't think I'll ever get one, but I didn't think that should stop me. I found <a href="http://www.scoopadventures.com/ice-cream-info/2010/10/27/how-to-make-ice-cream-without-an-ice-cream-maker.html" target="_blank">this post from Scoop Adventurer</a> and <a href="http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/07/making-ice-crea-1/" target="_blank">this set of instructions by David Lebovitz</a>, both of which basically have you freezing the ice cream mixture in 30-45 minute increments and using a stiff spatula or spoon to keep the ice crystals from forming. A machine does this same thing, essentially, but usually uses a crank-powered paddle and a bowl that maintains the temperature.</div>
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I used the <a href="http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/02/vanilla-ice-cream/" target="_blank">vanilla ice cream recipe on Lebovitz's site</a> as a starting point since it was a shorter list of ingredients and I actually had (most) all of it handy. My original idea was to add the berries to the ice cream. I also wanted to make use of some lemons we had acquired. Thinking they might not combine together in the ice cream, I set aside the berries to use as a topping. I added the zest of one whole lemon to the first step in Lebovitz's recipe.</div>
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For the eggs I obviously used our lovely duck eggs with their yolks so large and yellow. I had them out at room temperature which made the yolks easier to separate. Tempering eggs -- the act of adding hot liquid to raw egg in small increments so as not to cook them -- always drives me crazy, but it went really well. I cooked this down until it was extremely thick.</div>
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I didn't have any heavy cream from the goat's milk, so I had to improvise a little. The heavy cream you get in the grocery store is made from the cream that settles on top of fresh milk. In cows, the fat molecules are large and globular and separate easily. Goat milk, however, does not separate so easily.</div>
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So I cheated. I'm ashamed, but I need to be honest: I added powdered milk. Since powdered milk is essentially milk solids, my assumption was that it would thicken the milk and add some fat. I added about 3/4 cup of powdered milk to 2 cups of goat milk where the recipe called for heavy cream. Looking back, I'm not sure that adding the powdered milk was even necessary, but what's done is done. I mixed this with custard and put it in an ice bath to cool.</div>
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Now comes the time consuming part. I poured the whole mixture into a Tupperware container and every thirty or so minutes went in and stirred it up with a hard spatula. I did this four times. You can probably do it more if you want an even smoother ice cream. Remember, you don't want the custard to have an opportunity to form large ice crystals: Lebovitz even recommends using a stick blender to make sure they stay small. I'm thinking it might work to use the mixing bowl from my Kitchenaid and just do it directly in there using the paddle attachment. I may give this another shot.</div>
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For the blackberry topping, I took a couple handfuls of rinsed berries, about a cup of sugar, and about a cup of rum and heated it over a low flame for about an hour, only stopping to stir, mash some berries, and add a touch of water if it seemed too dry (probably added only a few tablespoons). I strained it and then let it sit in the refrigerator to thicken up a bit more. </div>
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The end result? Ice cream that tasted like lemon cake and a wonderful sweet berry sauce. A perfect ending to a fantastic dinner.</div>
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We're in the process of drying up our goats, so we savor each bit of milk we get from them. We have a few gallons frozen, but starting in the next week or so and going until Josie kids in mid-July we won't be adding to our supplies at all. I have one more Udderly Delicious post to share with you to honor our gals. Keep an eye on the blog for another post before then: I received an awesome gift in the mail and can't wait to show you what I did with it.</div>Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-47267389331242663102012-05-07T12:47:00.001-05:002012-05-07T12:48:15.575-05:00Udderly Delicious: Mac and Goat Cheese<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Mac and cheese is probably the ultimate in comfort food. Warm, rich, satisfying. Nothing says "home" quite like a hot bowl of mac and cheese and, since we're still discovering the joys of our new home, it was perfect.<br />
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This is a fun recipe, full of room for experimenting and very forgiving. I use homemade pasta made with duck eggs from our flock, and three kinds of homemade goat cheese and milk from our wonderful little goats that we're celebrating in this series.<br />
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Before I get started, I want to give a little shout out to our goats, Jenni and Josie, not just for being awesome but because of some good and bad news we received. <br />
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The <a href="http://www.hightailfarms.com/2012/05/bad-news.html" target="_blank">bad news</a> is that Jenni was diagnosed with CAE, or caprine arthritis encephalitis. It's a fairly common goat virus that has a variety of symptoms: if it's the encephalitic form of the virus, they usually don't make it past a few months old. With the arthritic form, they end up like Jenni: stiff legged, sore, and in pain. Think rheumatoid arthritis.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.hightailfarms.com/2012/05/good-news.html" target="_blank">good news</a> is that Josie is definitely pregnant, and probably due in July. While this is good, we're still waiting to hear back on her CAE test. If she's positive we'll need to remove her babies from her the second they are born. Since CAE can be transmitted through the milk, we'll need to pull the kids off immediately and bottle raise them. (As a note, there is no issues with humans consuming milk from a CAE positive goat, so even if Josie does have it there isn't an issue with us using her milk.) Josie isn't showing any signs of CAE, so hopefully she's negative.<br />
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Due to both reasons, we're drying up both girls, so we'll be relying on frozen milk we've reserved until Josie kids in July.<br />
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Ok, back to food!</div>
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Obviously you don't need to make your own pasta. Not everyone owns a KitchenAid, let alone the pasta extruder attachment. However, if you do have it I highly recommend using it and making a full recipe of dough (3 1/2 cups of flour / 4 eggs / salt). This makes an equivalent of one and a half pounds of pasta and was a good amount for two people with plenty of leftovers (about 9 servings, total ... 6 if you're hungry). If you don't have it, no worries!</div>
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For the cheese, use what you have. This is where this recipe shines. Did you have a wine and cheese party recently? Have a bunch of cheese leftover? This is the perfect place to use it. I use fresh chèvre (made a couple of days ago) and fresh mozzarella (made just a few minutes before I made the pasta), as well as some marinated feta from my previous post. I've made this before with brie, gouda, and cheddar. Harder cheeses aren't perfect, but will definitely work. You can be very intentional with your cheese selection, or very random, but that's entirely up to you. I love cheese and am not usually picky, but my cheese selections for this were based off of what I made from the milk of our wonderful little goats.</div>
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<li>1 1/2 lbs. pasta, cooked</li>
<li>8 oz. pancetta or bacon, diced (optional, see below)</li>
<li>1/2 onion, diced</li>
<li>1 Tbs. garlic</li>
<li>2 Tbs. butter</li>
<li>4 Tbs. flour</li>
<li>3-4 cups milk (raw goat milk in this recipe)</li>
<li>1 lb. cheeses (chèvre and mozzarella in this recipe)</li>
<li>topping (see recipe below)</li>
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Preheat your oven for 425 degrees F. </div>
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First, cook your pasta. This is easy, and if anyone has a real need for it I can do post under The Basics to cover boiling pasta. I would recommend not rinsing, though, to keep some of the starches on the pasta for their thickening power.<br />
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Since I had just made the mozzarella I had a large pot of whey. I added a few cups of water. The best part about this was the little bits of curds that I didn't get out when I made the cheese. After draining the pasta I had little bits stuck all over. Delicious!</div>
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Put your pancetta in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Render slowly until you have about two tablespoons of fat. Add in the 2 tablespoons of butter and stir until melted. </div>
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Make a roux by adding the flour. I've been working on a post dedicated to roux, but the short description is a combination of equal <i>weights</i> of flour and fat (typically clarified butter). Keep the stove on medium heat and whatever you do you must <b>not stop stirring</b>. You want to make a light roux for this recipe, so only cook it for a minute or so until the color just starts to darken a bit. Add in the onions and garlic and stir until softened. In a roux, the lipids (fats) encapsulate the flour particles. The idea is that when you mix in a liquid the flour is released and dispersed in an even pattern, creating a thicker liquid.</div>
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Pour in about half of a cup of milk and stir stir stir. Pour in the rest of the milk. Turn up the heat and bring it to a boil, then immediately drop the heat down. You'll see it begin to thicken. </div>
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At this point, add in your cheeses, making sure to crumble or shred anything that is in whole chunks. At this point I added the chèvre and mozzarella. (For those of you "in the know" of cheese making, you can probably tell that I overdid it while stretching the mozzarella, so it came out very hard. This was my first time doing it so I'm not beating myself up about it, but now I know!)</div>
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Now is also a good time too add some herbs. Besides the cheese, this is a great place to make this recipe your own. I added some rosemary and crushed red peppers, and a little bit of thyme and oregano. If you want to flavor it with rosemary, consider using a fresh sprig, letting it cook in the sauce for awhile, then pulling it out. (Not everyone likes to chew on pieces of whole rosemary ...) Stir the herbs in and let it cook for about 15 or so minutes. Check the consistency: if it's too thick, add a bit more milk. Too thin? Let it cook down for awhile.</div>
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Pour the sauce over the pasta in a sufficiently sized baking dish and stir it all up.<br />
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Now for the topping, which is essentially a mixture of some kind of fat, some breadcrumbs, and some more cheese. Here's what I used:<br />
<ul>
<li>1 cup breadcrumbs</li>
<li>1 cup mozzarella, shredded</li>
<li>1 cup marinated feta with some oil</li>
</ul>
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Combine the ingredients. If it seems too dry you can add in a bit more oil but it's not completely necessary. Some recipes I've seen call for adding melted butter. With the amount of cheese and milk in this recipe, it really isn't necessary. Spread the topping over the pasta and sauce mixture.<br />
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Bake for about 20 minutes, uncovered, until the topping is nice and toasty looking.<br />
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For the love of cooking, <b>let it cool</b>. Underneath that crunchy topping is molten lava cheese and unbearable pain waiting to happen. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes. This is a dish that also makes amazing leftovers, so be sure to enjoy them within a few days.<br />
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Enjoy!</div>Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-66960294492261875912012-04-09T20:18:00.000-05:002012-04-09T20:18:01.948-05:00Udderly Delicious: Marinated Feta Cheese<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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According to European Union law, I can't technically call what I made feta cheese. But you know what? It's feta cheese. So I'm calling it feta cheese. (Go ahead, bring it on EU.)<br />
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Feta is one of my favorite cheeses. I like the strong flavor and I love the texture of it a lot. It's like a blue cheese without the blue. More importantly, I like how flexible it is. It's good in salads, with eggs, on burgers ... the list goes on. However, for this post and for the cheese that we made, I wanted it to stand out on its own.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Making cheese is fascinating to me. I love the idea of <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/2011/06/basics-whipped-cream-and-butter.html" target="_blank">making butter</a> -- separating the butterfats from the buttermilk -- but this is completely different. There are many ways to separate the milk solids from the whey, usually using an acid or an enzyme. You'll see in some upcoming posts how to use an acid; in this case, calf rennet was used. <br />
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Rennet is an enzyme found in the <a href="http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Rennet/rennet_preparation.html" target="_blank">stomach lining of a baby cow</a> (warning, graphic photos of offal in that link). The enzyme causes milk to curdle, aiding in the digesting of the milk during the calf's youth. I'm not sure how someone figured this out, but essentially the stomach lining can be harvested during slaughter and dried, and a small square of it would traditionally be mixed in with milk to make some simple cheeses. This enzyme also exists in nature elsewhere, such as in fungi or <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/01/serious-cheese-creamy-thistle-rennet-cheeses.html" target="_blank">in certain plants</a> (thistle contains this enzyme -- I'm planning on harvesting some as we have many growing all over the property), so you do have an option of purchasing vegetable rennet if you're a vegetarian (who obviously isn't vegan, if you're making milk) or looking to make a kosher cheese (so that no meat product touches the milk).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feta in a brine of whey, salt, and water</td></tr>
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The recipe I used was from the <a href="http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/feta.html" target="_blank">Fias Co Farm website</a>. I was able to pick up some <a href="http://brewstock.enstore.com/item/mesophilic-cheese-starter" target="_blank">mesophilic culture</a> (I used the starter culture so I could keep producing my own), <a href="http://brewstock.enstore.com/item/liquid-animal-rennet-2oz" target="_blank">rennet</a>, and <a href="http://brewstock.enstore.com/item/lipase-powder-italase-mild-2oz" target="_blank">lipase</a> from <a href="http://www.brewstock.com/" target="_blank">Brewstock</a> in New Orleans (always amazing prices there -- if you're into beer, wine, or cheese making you should check them out). The process was pretty simple and merely took time. Those of you who know me know that I don't mind waiting for food, so the week wait was well worth it.<br />
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Marinating feta is one of the easiest things you can do. (Actually, you can do this with a lot of different cheeses.) The olive oil pulls flavors from the herbs and the cheese pulls the flavor from the oil. Once the cheese is gone, you can put the oil to good use.<br />
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I was happy that when putting this together it <i>almost</i> reached "homegrown" status. We made the cheese from milk from our goats, and the rosemary and thyme came from our little herb garden. The crushed red pepper was a mixture of some store bought and some leftover from last year that I had dehydrated and crushed for easier storage. If only I had pressed the olive oil myself and harvested my own black pepper it would have been 100% homegrown.<br />
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For this recipe, you a nice hard feta cheese. Use fresh herbs if you can, but as usual don't feel limited by what you see here! Other fresh herbs might do some good here. These are some estimations. If you love rosemary then you might want some more. I found that two sprigs each of rosemary and thyme in each pint jar gave a great flavor.<br />
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<li>1 lb. feta cheese</li>
<li>4 sprigs fresh rosemary (about 3-4 Tbs. dried)</li>
<li>4 sprigs fresh lemon thyme (about 1 Tbs dried)</li>
<li>4 tsp. crushed red pepper</li>
<li>black pepper</li>
<li>olive oil</li>
<li>2 pint jars </li>
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Cut the feta cheese into small cubes. I was planning on using this like a bruschetta so I went for fairly small sized cubes, about 1/2" on each side.<br />
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Start by putting some feta cubes in the jar, then sprinkling with a little crushed red pepper. Then more feta, then some black pepper (optional, since K isn't a big fan of pepper in our house). Continue in these layers. Once you reach about halfway, put the rosemary and thyme in around the sides. Again continue with your layering. Give it a shake once in awhile to make sure the cheese is settling.<br />
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Once done, fill to the top with olive oil. Try and poke down anything that might be sticking above the oil. It's unlikely you'll be keeping this for a long time, but the whole thing keeps longer if there are no herbs poking through the top surface.<br />
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Let this sit in your fridge (not on the counter!) for at least a couple of days. The flavor gets stronger with age. Try some of the cheese on a small slice of warm bread. Add it to some scrambled eggs or an omelette. When it's done, <a href="http://allrecipes.com/recipes/salad/dressings-and-vinaigrettes/vinaigrette/top.aspx" target="_blank">use the oil to make a vinaigrette</a> or use as a dip for some bread! And, speaking of bread ...<br />
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Since I eating warm, fresh bread, I've been keeping a tub in the fridge with some of the dough from <a href="http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/" target="_blank">Artisan Bread in Five</a>. Essentially you mix the ingredients in a container, let it rise, store it in the fridge, and pull off a lump whenever you need it. One morning I was able to pull off a piece, let it come to room temperature while the oven was preheating, and had hot bread ready for the ride to work! It takes very little effort, especially if you have to work hard to manage your time like me. If you have a hard time navigating their site for the recipe, read <a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx" target="_blank">this article written about them</a> in <a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/" target="_blank">Mother Earth News</a>.<br />
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<br />Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-17134114636840101832012-04-02T13:19:00.000-05:002012-04-02T13:21:45.483-05:00Udderly Delicious: Coming soon!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is Josie, one of our dairy goats. From her and Jenni, another goat we purchased so she wouldn't be lonely, we get about half a gallon of milk each day. That's way more than we drink, so we decided to try our hand at some cheesemaking.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Goat milk is different than cow milk. With cow milk, the fat globules are larger and easily clump together. You don't often see this in store bought milk because it's been homogenized, which means the fat globules have been broken up and distributed evenly through the milk. Goat milk, on the other hand, has much smaller fat globules. They're spread out because of their size, so goat milk is (essentially) naturally homogenized. What does this mean? Well, it's very hard to make butter out of goat's milk. Making butter requires cream, and to get cream from fresh milk you need to wait for it to rise to the top or use a cream separator. For cow milk the waiting may only be a day. For goat milk it could take up to two weeks. Cream separators are fairly expensive (about $400) and unless you have a lot of milk to process it's not worth it.<br />
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However, this milk does make some excellent cheese, as we have found out. The chèvre is soft and smooth, a little bit tangy, and the feta has that perfect texture. I've never had paneer before, but I was surprised I was actually able to put it in a pan and fry it! It reminded me quite a bit of tofu, as it didn't have much flavor on its own. We'll hopefully get into doing some hard cheeses, like cheddar, but for now we're making these fresh ones.<br />
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The other night, K picked some blackberries from out in the field and cooked them down with some sugar, then drizzled them over some of the chèvre. Amazing. Homemade cheese. Blackberries from the yard. If you'll remember my post from last year I asked, <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/2011/03/homegrown-pork-parsnips-and-greens.html" target="_blank">"Do you know where your food comes from?"</a> It thrills me to be able to point out the window and answer, "Right here."<br />
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In the coming weeks I'd like to honor our wonderful pair of goats who work so hard to provide us with milk (and by "work so hard" I really mean "eat a lot of fancy food") so I will be posting some recipes using homemade goat cheeses: chèvre, feta, mozzarella, ricotta, and paneer. I'm planning on some marinated feta, a chèvre and mozzarella mac and cheese, some lasagna (maybe with some homemade pasta), and perhaps a curry dish using the paneer.<br />
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Stay tuned!<br />
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(And yes, I know I owe you a Beef Stroganoff post to finish up <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/search/label/to%20russia%20with%20love" target="_blank">To Russia, With Love</a>! Please head over to <a href="http://www.hightailfarms.com/" target="_blank">HighTail Farms</a> and you can see why I haven't had a lot of free time to post! I'll try and get that up soon.)<br />
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<br />Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-82840014223835465872012-02-11T12:43:00.000-06:002012-02-11T12:45:37.327-06:00A new neighborhood?Hello, neighbors!<br />
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Well, it's been awhile since my last post (and I still have yet to do one more <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/search/label/to%20russia%20with%20love" target="_blank">To Russia, With Love</a> post write-up) but a <b>lot</b> has happened since November. Yes, November. I've left you all hanging for nearly three months. Three months with no food! No recipes! No pages upon pages of my rambling!<br />
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My dear readers, I apologize to you. You see, Mr. Onion's Neighborhood has changed neighborhoods.x<br />
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On December 23, my better half and I closed on a house with some property in Hammond, about an hour outside of New Orleans. This place is fantastic: nine acres of mostly pasture, mostly fenced, a creek running through it, two ponds, and a whole bunch of outbuildings already constructed. Not to mention a really awesome house! As soon as we closed we packed up our first couple of loads of boxes and planned to spend the night.<br />
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Now, I had been planning something for awhile that I couldn't really share. So that night, this ended up happening, too:<br />
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The ring was designed with some help by one of her good friends, cast by another good friend, the stone was from her grandmother, her uncle did the setting and her cousin did the engraving. I tried to involve as many people as I could and it all came together beautifully.<br />
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I wanted to make my own ring box and thought an egg-shaped box would be very fitting for us and our duck raising, so I ended up taking a crash course in chip carving. If you have any interest at all in learning this really interesting craft, check out Marty Leenhout's site <a href="https://mychipcarving.com/" target="_blank">My Chip Carving</a>. The platinum membership is pretty low cost and gives you access to a large amount of patterns and video tutorials. I honestly could not have pulled it off in the three weeks I had to finish it without his site.<br />
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(And, in case you were wondering, she said yes and loved the egg!)<br />
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Since then, we've been working on starting a small business for our side projects and building up our inventory of livestock. We formed <a href="http://www.hightailfarms.com/" target="_blank">HighTail Farms, LLC</a> and I have spent the last month navigating the legality of establishing a poultry/game bird and small animal processing facility on the property.<br />
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This is more difficult than I thought and it's become clear that a lot of state agencies don't communicate with each other very well, although that shouldn't have surprised me. It will be some time before we can process and sell poultry and other meat, but I'm confident we'll get there eventually. For the time being, though, we are permitted to sell duck eggs!<br />
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We've filled a lot of the already existing coops and pens with our original flock of ducks (nearly 30), a bunch of <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=crested+pekin+duck&hl=en&site=webhp&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=sFQ1T5CGJYuCtge12KTCAg&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=1195" target="_blank">crested pekin ducks</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guineafowl" target="_blank">guineafowl</a>, turkeys, various chickens (broilers, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyandotte_(chicken)" target="_blank">Wyandottes</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ameraucana" target="_blank">Ameraucanas</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkie" target="_blank">Silkies</a>), geese and meat rabbits. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quail" target="_blank">Quail</a> eggs are in the incubator and should be hatching this weekend, and we have over 40 duck eggs collected to incubate as soon as they are done. We hope to obtain some <a href="http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/katahdin/" target="_blank">Katahdin sheep</a> (hair, not fleece!) soon for lambing, and hogs will be on the list for a little later in the year. We're learning a lot of new things very fast, but we were very lucky that the property came prepared for so many things.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP75aaILlORkhbf8cHfrB2-KQrbiD9upw3eT225jmkwqGHITkIwBXCPoxbaN3cpKiez2d6mGDr1WRzhdwb2KHgWcJVeQCWlbEiBC8_S21eNyjQF3SXfnpqmcY4aUhk0M5mik5Tmz5J2nQ/s1600/DSC_0077.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP75aaILlORkhbf8cHfrB2-KQrbiD9upw3eT225jmkwqGHITkIwBXCPoxbaN3cpKiez2d6mGDr1WRzhdwb2KHgWcJVeQCWlbEiBC8_S21eNyjQF3SXfnpqmcY4aUhk0M5mik5Tmz5J2nQ/s320/DSC_0077.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Silkie chickens</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rabbits getting some pasture time</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Goslings (up front) and crested Pekin ducklings</td></tr>
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So what does this mean for Mr. Onion's Neighborhood? You'll probably see a bit more expanding on the content here. Rather than just food, I may occasionally explain some farm-related projects in detail. We'll be posting a bit over at the <a href="http://www.hightailfarms.com/" target="_blank">HighTail Farms</a> blog, but I'm going to make a concerted effort to keep those posts a bit more to-the-point, rather than my usual long-winded posts.<br />
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Some things on the agenda:<br />
<ul>
<li>Finish setting up the HighTail Farms website/blog</li>
<li>Build rabbit tractors (nature's lawn mowers!) and mobile chicken coops</li>
<li>Put up electric fencing for sheep/hog enclosures</li>
<li>Repair fencing in back pasture</li>
<li>Renovate the front shed as poultry/game bird and small animal processing facility</li>
<li>Obtain licensing, permits, etc. for facility</li>
<li>Prepare the front and back garden areas for planting</li>
<li>Find a slaughterhouse for sheep and other larger animals</li>
</ul>
My good neighbors, even in my months of posting abstinence many of you were still visiting and for that you have my thanks! I'm looking forward to the adventures to come and I hope you are, too!Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-463427736520362762011-11-18T00:24:00.001-06:002011-11-26T11:11:12.830-06:00To Russia, With Love: Borscht<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On our next installment of <i>To Russia, With Love</i>, a celebration of my Russian spam-bot visitors that have finally boosted me over 10,000 visitors since Mr. Onion's Neighborhood's first recipe post is a traditional recipe for borscht, we'll be making a wonderful soup of beets and cabbage.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Borscht (also spelled as borschsh) was likely made as a means of making use of root vegetables that were nearing the end of their shelf life. After a pot was collected, some kind of stock was added to the pot and it was cooked up make use of any leftovers. While borscht is considered to be a Russian recipe, its roots are in the Ukraine. <br />
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Speaking of roots, the main root vegetable used in borscht is beets. Beets are wildly underrated. These wonderful root vegetables, originally praised only for their chard-like greens before the value of their roots were found to be delicious are wonderfully full of vitamins and antioxidants.<br />
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There are a wide variety of borscht recipes out there, each one claiming to be more traditional than the next. Over at <a href="http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodsoups.html#borscht">Food Timeline</a>, they quoted a recipe from <i>Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovets' A Gift to Young Housewives</i> from 1861, which is the recipe we'll be following. Old recipes are often the most basic and give us a great platform from which to personalize our own versions of the dish. You'll notice a lot of modern recipes (or some claiming to be traditional) are based on this very simple yet delicious recipe.<br />
<blockquote>
Perepare bouillon #1 from 3 lbs of fatty beef or fresh pork, or from beef with smoked ham. Omit the root vegetables, but add a bay leaf and allspice. Strain the bouillon. An hour before serving add a little fresh cabbage, cut into pieces. Cook, stirring in beet brine or grain kvass to taste or about 2 spoons vinegar. Meanwhile thoroughly wash and boil 5 red beets, but do not peel or cut them; that is, boil them separately in water without scraping. Remove them when tender, peel, and grate. Stir 1 spoon of flour into the beets, add them to the bouillon with some salt, and bring to a boil twice. Put parsley in a soup tureen (some people add the juice of a grated raw beet) and pour in the hot borshch. Add salt to taste. Sprinkle with black pepper, if desired, and serve with the sliced beef, pork, or ham; or with fried sausages, meatballs, or mushroom buns. The borshch may also be served with fried buckwheat kasha, pancake pie with beef stuffing, or plain pancakes.</blockquote>
This recipe has two distinct parts: the stock (our bouillon) and the vegetables.<br />
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It's possible that the author is referencing a specific bouillon recipe when she says "bouillon #1": since I do not own the book and since Google Books only had a portion of the book available for previous, I'll assume the bouillon is as the recipe states.<br />
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<ul>
<li>3 lbs. meat (beef, pork)</li>
<li>water</li>
<li>5 allspice berries</li>
<li>2 bay leaves</li>
<li>salt</li>
</ul>
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This can be done well ahead of time. I used a couple of meaty shank bones and some smoked ham hocks we had in the freezer. Fill a pot with about a gallon (four quarts) of water and bring to a boil. Add in the meat and spices, cover, and simmer for about 3 to 4 hours. If the liquid looks low, add another quart or two of water. Strain, reserve any meat (optional), and store in the fridge.<br />
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For a more modern take, you can add some aromatics like celery and carrots, and can improve on the flavor profile with some additional savory herbs. I found the allspice berries to have little effect on the overall flavor, and added a second bay leaf halfway through the cooking. Another way to improve the flavor would be to roast the bones in the oven before making the stock.<br />
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Remove the stock from the fridge and skim off any fat that has solidified on top of the stock. Depending on which meats you put into the stock, it may have gelled. No worries! As soon as heat is applied it'll return to a liquid. Place in a pot over low heat and allow to warm up.<br />
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<ul>
<li>1/4 cabbage, shredded</li>
<li>3 beets</li>
<li>1 quart water</li>
<li>white pepper</li>
</ul>
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When cutting beets for storage always leave a little bit of stem on the beet. They say this will help them maintain color.<br />
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Put three beets into a separate pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Allow the beets to boil for about an hour. Use a skewer to poke into the center of the beet. The beets are finished boiling when it is relatively easy to poke the skewer into the beet. Drain and set aside to cool.<br />
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Shred the cabbage. To do this, first cut the cabbage in half (from the top, not the side), then divide one half into two pieces. From one quarter, slice off the core (the solid white part) and then cut into very thin strip. Toss this in with the stock. If you made some kvass from my previous recipe, add some to taste. I ended up using about a cup of kvass, but depending on the strength of its flavor you may need more or less. Instead of kvass you could use some vinegar; I assume apple cider vinegar would work well since it has a somewhat similar flavor profile to kvass.<br />
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After the beets are cool, use a small knife or peeler and remove the tough outer skin of the beet. Shred the beets. There is no way around it: your hands, cutting board, bowls and sink will make it look like you murdered a Muppet. Beet juice can stain, so don't do this dressed in your Sunday best!<br />
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Mix a hefty tablespoon of flour in with the shredded beats. <br />
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By now your stock and cabbage should have been simmering for about an hour. Check and make sure the cabbage is cooked. It should have a bit of a crunch to it, but be somewhat tender.<br />
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Increase the heat slightly and add in the beet/flour mixture. Bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that comes up, then cut the heat for a few minutes. Add in any leftover meat (shredded or chopped) from when you made stock and bring to a boil again, skimming any foam. Add some salt a little bit of pepper (we found white pepper to work well) and then cut the heat and allow it to rest.<br />
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To serve, put some diced parsley in a bowl then ladel a couple of good spoonfuls into the bowl. While I could not find any <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smetana_(dairy_product)">smetana</a>, we did have some sour cream and added a big dollop. It was pretty fantastic! The beet flavor wasn't overpowering, and the stock gave it a nice meaty flavor. I made some fried kasha as a side dish (hint: you may see this in an upcoming post) but any kind of grain or carbohydrate would go well with the borscht.<br />
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I'm always surprised that sometimes the most simple recipes yield the best results. You can add other root vegetables to this, extra meats and vegetables, or whatever else you might have handy. We added some egg noodles to help stretch the leftovers the next night: wonderful stuff!<br />
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Enjoy!Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-30811566101018555442011-11-14T17:00:00.000-06:002011-11-14T17:00:04.468-06:00To Russia, With Love: Kvass<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was hoping to start off early in the To Russia, With Love series with a borscht recipe since borscht seems to be so stereotypically Russian, but when I came upon <a href="http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodsoups.html#borscht">this old recipe from a 19th century book</a> I saw "kvass" listed as an ingredient. Indeed, a number of recipes called for it. So, anticipating I'll need it for more than just borscht I figured this would be a good one to try and make!<br />
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Kvass is a lightly fermented beverage made from a dark bread, usually rye. It's described as tasting sour and sweet, and sometimes can be slightly carbonated. The process is pretty simple: toast some bread, soak it in some water, drain it out, add some sugar and yeast, and in a couple days it's done. I thought it might be interesting to add some flavor, so this has some berries mixed into it. (A lot of recipes I found called for raisins for some added flavor, but I used what I had on hand.) <span style="background-color: transparent;">This is a multi-day project.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: transparent;">1 lb. dark rye bread (small loaf)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: transparent;">3 quarts (12 cups) water</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: transparent;">1 package of instant yeast</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: transparent;">1 cup sugar</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: transparent;">berries or raisins, herbs, etc.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="background-color: transparent;">Cut the bread into small pieces and toast in the oven at 200 F until they easily crumble. This might take about 30 minutes. Place in a pot when done.</span><br />
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Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil and pour over the croutons. Allow this to soak overnight.<br />
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In a large jar (such as a pickle jar) put down some fruit and a cup of sugar. I used strawberries and some dried cherries. I've seen some recipes that add some mint at this point. Might not be a bad thing to try! Put on the lid and let it sit overnight.<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent;">Strain the soaked bread using a cheesecloth (best choice) or a fine mesh sieve. A lot of recipes say to be gentle or you end up with cloudy kvass. Get as much liquid as you can and toss the mush bread in the compost or give to your livestock.</span><br />
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I ended up with 5 cups of liquid. I added another 5 cups of filtered water to stretch it out a bit. Pour this all into the large jar with the fruit and sugar, put on the lid, and give it a few good shakes to dissolve the sugars. Allow this to settle for a few hours.<br />
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There's a couple of schools of thought when it comes to yeast. Some people are comfortable just pitching the yeast into a liquid that they know contains a good environment for the yeast to multiply, especially if they know their yeast is good. Some prefer to proof it first.<br />
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<ul>
<li>If you want to proof your yeast, scoop out a cup or so of the liquid (with the sugar dissolved) and place in a small cup or jar. Add the yeast, give it a good stir, then let it sit. If it starts to bubble then you know the yeast are multiplying. This can be poured right back into the big jar after about 30 minutes.</li>
<li>If you're sure your yeast is good (and if you recently bought the yeast it probably is) then go ahead and just add it to the jar.</li>
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Regardless of your method, after you add it to the jar make sure to mix it up well. I like to use a spoon and introduce a lot of air into the mix: yeast do better initially when a lot of oxygen is available to them. Give it a good mixing, then cover with a thin towel and wrap a rubberband around the rim. Do not put on some type of air-tight lid. Yeast consume sugar and produce alcohol and CO2. If the CO2 cannot escape pressure will build up in your container. If you've done homebrewing before, you probably have a jug with a stopper and an airlock that you can use, which you can see pictured above. If not, covering it with a thin cloth should be fine. (If you want to purchase a stopper and airlock, I highly recommend <a href="http://www.brewstock.com/">Brewstock</a>!)<br />
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Let this sit for 2-3 days. You may see some pretty vigorous activity, then it'll die down a little and seem relatively calm. You may at some point see a bit of a white film on top of the liquid. Don't be too concerned about this. Because of the way it was made, there was probably some wild yeasts and bacteria that found their way into the kvass. They add that sour taste to the kvass and are nothing worth worrying about, given the time frame of the recipe.<br />
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At this point you have a choice: you can give everything a mix, strain the fruit, and enjoy it (added nutrients from the yeast!); or you can siphon off the top and keep the sediment in the bottom. If you do this, you can use that sediment as yeast for a new batch. To save the yeast I would recommend reading <a href="http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/08/homebrewing-reusing-yeast-how-to-reuse-yeast-for-brewing-beer.html">this article on yeast washing</a>. I siphoned off the liquid and ditched the yeast as I didn't see myself making more of this for some time. This recipe made about three 750mL bottles. (I like to use the Old New Orleans Rum bottles: the labels peel off without leaving any gunk. Blue painter's tape makes excellent labels!)<br />
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I can only describe the taste as ... odd. It's a bit bready, a little sour, and has a bit of a berry flavor to it. I don't think I would down a glass of this on its own. If I do this again, I'll treat this as more of a regular homebrew recipe and eliminate any opportunities for wild yeasts or bacteria to be introduced, just to get a better idea of what effect the yeasts and bacteria might've had on it. For now, I'll stick to using it to make the borscht in an upcoming post!<br />
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This is a fermented beverage so there is some amount of alcohol present. I didn't do any specific gravity measurements, but after just a few days you're probably looking at 1% ABV (alcohol by volume) on the high end. If you cannot have alcohol for health or personal reasons you can boil the liquid for a few minutes and the alcohol should cook off. I'm not sure how this would affect the taste, however.<br />
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<b>Note: A lot of recipes on the internet for kvass mention bottling it and capping it with a raisin or two added in to lightly carbonate it. I would not recommend this without having some knowledge of homebrewing and bottling, otherwise you risk exploding bottles. While I've never had it happen, it sure as heck can't be fun to clean up. </b>Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-71627595108815040122011-11-12T20:08:00.001-06:002011-11-12T23:00:06.105-06:00Pasta alla Carbonara<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My good neighbors, you all know how much I love pork. I make my own pancetta, love the taste of slow cooked brined pork, and have been known to make thirty pound batches of sausage.<br />
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Carbonara is one of my favorite dishes. It's simple, tasty, filling, and is a great way to come off looking like a great cook even if you don't think you know what you're doing. (Seriously, it's not that hard!) A quick trip to a local farmer's market and you can probably obtain most of the ingredients from local producers. Even better!<br />
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I've often talked about taking chances. If you're usually a hesitant cook -- sticking to box mixes and two step recipes because you're afraid you'll screw it up -- I challenge you to give this recipe a try. Those of you out there who might be intimidated: I know you can do it and I think deep down inside you know you can, too!<br />
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Carbonara has become sort of a generic term for a certain type of pasta dish that includes pancetta (or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanciale">guanciale</a>, if you can find it), egg, and cheese. If you order this in a restaurant there's a good chance they've added cream to make a sauce, but I think it tastes best when made without cream. It's hard to say what the "true" traditional recipe is; I get the feeling if you asked 50 people how to make carbonara you would end up with 50 different recipes. </div>
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<ul>
<li>1 lb pasta (spaghetti works best)</li>
<li>4-6 oz. pancetta, diced</li>
<li>2 eggs</li>
<li>1 cup grated cheese (divided into two 1/2 cup portions)</li>
<li>handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped</li>
<li>1 Tbs butter</li>
<li>2 cloves garlic, minced</li>
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Start boiling your pasta. For my more timid neighbors, this shouldn't be intimidating. Bring about two quarts of water with a generous pinch of salt to a boil. Add in your pasta, mix it up to make sure it doesn't clump, and let it go. We'll come back to the pasta in a moment.</div>
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While the water is starting to boil, dice your pancetta. I strongly, strongly recommend getting a good <i>pancetta tesa</i>. This type of pancetta is sold straight and is coated with herbs before drying. The coating is called a <i>concia</i> and could be any mixture of herbs. Typically you'll find black pepper, crushed red pepper, and maybe some bay leaf. I've been making my own and have tried a variety of different mixtures. By using a pancetta that has been coated in herbs you essentially have all of your spices in one go: salt (from the curing), pork (deliciousness), and other flavoring herbs and spices. Additionally, rendering it down gives you a good amount of fat. I was lucky enough to have obtained a slab of <a href="http://woolypigs.blogspot.com/">Mangalitsa</a> pork belly, which is known for having some of the most amazing fat, to make this pancetta. This stuff renders down so well it's almost ridiculous.</div>
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Now, if you can't find a good artisan pancetta (check with your local butcher), don't bother with the stuff you can find in the regular grocery store, especially the pre-chopped stuff that looks like diced ham. (I'll give you a hint about how it tastes: it's just like diced ham.) Get a good bacon and just count on adding in some extra spices (black pepper and crushed red pepper would be good for this recipe). Those of you in New Orleans can probably find some at <a href="http://www.rarecuts.com/">Rare Cuts</a>, <a href="http://www.cochonbutcher.com/">Cochon Butcher</a>, or <a href="http://steinsdeli.net/home/">Stein's Deli</a>, although I would guess they are more likely to have pancetta arrotolata (rolled pancetta) than pancetta tesa.</div>
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Put the pancetta in a pan and set it over a low heat. Stir it occasionally, but you want to try and render out as much of the fat as possible. Once you see a little layer in the bottom of the pan, add in the butter. Once melted, add in the minced garlic. Turn the heat up to medium-high and watch the garlic: as soon as it starts to brown, cut the heat. </div>
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Whisk two eggs in a bowl and set aside. Measure off a cup of grated cheese. I prefer using a Pecorino Romano, but Parmesan or a combination of the two would be fine. </div>
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By this point your pasta should be just about done. Take out a piece and give it a taste: if it's got a little bit of a crunch to it (and I do mean little bit) this is called <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_dente">al dente</a></i>, which is Italian for "to the tooth". Not everyone likes this, so feel free to cook it for just a minute longer and it should be soft throughout.</div>
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Dump the contents of the pot into a colander but <b>do not rinse.</b> Put the hot pasta into a bowl and pour the pancetta, garlic, and rendered fat over the pasta. Give it a quick toss, then add in the whisked eggs and half of the cheese. Stir it thoroughly. The heat from the pasta and the oil will cook the eggs which will combine with the cheese to make a nice, saucy texture. Add in the second half of the cheese and then mix in the parsley.</div>
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And that's it! Top it with a little extra cheese after it's been plated and get ready for plenty of compliments from your friends and family. This, like most dishes I like to cook, is one that lends itself well to additions. In the past I've added diced onion, peas, or whatever else I've had on hand. Don't ever feel limited by what's in print; if we all did exactly as we were told the world would be a very boring place indeed.</div>Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-37645530124088999592011-11-09T17:56:00.000-06:002011-11-09T17:59:11.163-06:00Spirits: Cuffs and Buttons, the Original Southern Comfort Liqueur<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One can't live in New Orleans without, at some point, discussing alcohol. While I love a good, hearty beer, or a nice cold High Life after a hot day of working in the yard, my evenings are best ended with a nice cocktail. The only thing that can beat a good cocktail is a well crafted liqueur.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Back in the day I used to consider myself a connoisseur of vodkas. I stayed away from tequila, figured rums were only meant for some sort of punch, and generally believed the harshness of bourbon or whiskey to be barbaric. My tastes have certainly changed over the years: dark rums, with heavy molasses notes and aged nicely; a good bourbon, neat; a smooth tequila, without the frivolity of lemons and salt. As a fan of science, the act of fermentation and distillation completely fascinates me. After spending some time studying the process and learning about what actually happens in an oak barrel, one picks up a certain appreciation for the art of distilled spirits.<br />
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The grain makes a huge difference. The source of sugars, such as molasses for rum or agave for tequila or mezcal, and the method in which it was distilled has a really unique effect on the final product. I found my favor of vodka declining. What I thought to be barbaric became beautiful, and the vodka that I once thought to be elegant became ... simple and boring. Don't get me wrong now, I do love a good vodka now and again. But ... so much flavor in a whiskey!<br />
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It was during my "studies" that I found myself more frequently drinking something -- a cocktail, a liquor, a liqueur -- and considering, "How is it made?" While I haven't had Southern Comfort in some years, I figured that was an applicable question to a liqueur that is rooted in the spirit history of New Orleans. It didn't take much searching before I came across the original recipe for Southern Comfort, which was developed by Martin Wilkes Heron right here in New Orleans at <a href="http://cocktailmuseum.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/southern-comfort-birthplace-exposed/">McCauley's Tavern</a>. Heron was known as a "rectifier", or someone who would add other ingredients to liquor to make a bit more palatable. I've read that he developed this drink, originally called "Cuffs and Buttons" to compete with another popular liqueur of the time called "White Tie and Tails". ;(I'm still on the search for a recipe for that, so if you find it please let me know!)<br />
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Chris Morris, the master distiller for the Brown-Forman Corporation (which produces Southern Comfort) and spirit historian, explained on The Thirsty Traveler the original recipe that Heron used.<br />
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I love finding original recipes. For the <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/2011/01/gateau-de-boeuf-royale.html">Gâteau de Boeuf Royale</a>, I dug up an 1800s recipe for a lard-based pastry dough that was used in the White House. For an upcoming borscht post I have another 19th century recipe that I found on a pretty amazing site: <a href="http://foodtimeline.org/">The Food Timeline</a>. We have a way of mass producing goods today that really takes away from the small batch intricacy that made some of the products we consume so popular so long ago. After reviewing the recipe and thinking back to my Southern Comfort experiences, I couldn't quite grasp how that ridiculously sweet and almost cough syrup-flavored liqueur could possibly have had its roots in something so simple.<br />
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Morris stated that Heron would start with a good quality bourbon, then add "an inch of vanilla bean, about a quarter of a lemon, half of a cinnamon stick, four cloves, a few cherries, and an orange bit or two. He would let this soak for days. And right when he was ready to finish, he would add his sweetener: he liked to use honey." Fruit, spices, and honey, added to some good bourbon. That's it!<br />
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Look around some more on the internet and you'll find a number of places where Southern Comfort is described as a "peach liqueur". While their recipe may be a secret the original recipe is not, and there's no peach to be found in this list of ingredients. <b>You'll notice I've made some changes to the original listed recipe.</b> After following the original recipe I found it to have too much of a citrus and cinnamon flavor, which overshadowed the cherry and vanilla. <br />
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So, let's give this a try:
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<ul>
<li>1 inch of vanilla bean, split</li>
<li>1 inch of cinnamon stick</li>
<li>4 cloves</li>
<li>12 dried cherries</li>
<li>a quarter of a lemon</li>
<li>3 small pieces of orange</li>
<li>1 bottle of good whiskey or bourbon</li>
<li>honey (at the end, see below)</li>
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I used a bottle of single distilled, sour mash whiskey, slightly aged. It's got a heavy corn flavor, but use what you like; I happen to like the corn flavor! Evan Williams or some other lower cost bourbon or whiskey would be a good choice. I wouldn't use a $50 bottle of something fancy, however. That's just my preference.<br />
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You'll notice all of those ingredients won't fit into a full bottle, so you might as well pour yourself a measure to make some room. You may need to cut the citrus into smaller pieces so they will not only fit but can be removed easily, as well. Another option is to get yourself a big jar that can fit at least a liter and macerate in there. If doing this in a large jar you can put the ingredients in a mesh bag for ease in removing, but I would still recommend straining. Everything in, capped, and let it sit for a few days.<br />
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I encourage you to take a sniff and a small taste each day. You'll be amazed at how the flavor progresses. Even after 12 hours it took on that characteristic Southern Comfort odor, but it tasted ... fresh. Check the taste and if the cinnamon flavor is too strong, remove it after a few days. Filter the contents of the bottle using a fine mesh sieve, then run it through a damp paper towel to remove any smaller particles. <br />
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Heat a cup of good honey. We have plenty of sources of local honey and I can almost guarantee you that no matter where you are you can find some locally produced honey as well. For the extra dollar or two you spend, it's well worth it. Stir until the honey is less viscous (no need to boil), then add small amounts to the bottle until it tastes right for you. Southern Comfort is typically bottled at 35% ABV. To get this from a 40% ABV bourbon or whiskey you would need to add about 100mL of liquid to 750mL of whiskey or bourbon. You can cut the honey with water, if you want the lower percentage without over sweetening it.<br />
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At this point, you can sit and enjoy. Try some neat, then try some over rocks, then try some with a measure of water before you go adding lime juice or some other mixer. I like to squeeze a little slice of lime into some, as pictured above, and think about Mr. Heron making this 137 years ago right here in New Orleans, and imagine myself being in that old pub and taking a swig of his spiced alternative to straight bourbon. Cheers to you, Mr. Heron!Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-49498128067673343432011-11-07T14:37:00.001-06:002011-11-08T15:25:27.204-06:00Quick Eats: To Russia, With Love: Baked Chicken Kiev<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was taking a look at the stats for Mr. Onion's Neighborhood and was surprised to see that I have a large number of Russian visitors. While I'm sure many of these are spam bots (I can never figure out what the referral sites actually are) I'd like to give a shout out to my most frequent visitors! In their honor, I'll be trying out some Russian recipes throughout the month labeled as "To Russia, With Love".<br />
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We'll start this off with a Quick Eats post, since this is a pretty basic recipe for Chicken Kiev. I learned that this is typically referred to as a Ukranian recipe, but that some have argued it is Russian in nature. <br />
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<a name='more'></a>Chicken kiev is simply a piece of flattened chicken, stuffed with butter, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried. I stepped it up, slightly, with the addition of some pancetta (of course) and chose to bake this rather than fry it. You can do it however you like, but traditionally it's fried in oil (although more likely some sort of rendered fat or butter). This recipe is, more or less, based off of Alton Brown's recipe from <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/chicken-kiev-recipe/index.html">Good Eats.</a> He fries; I baked.<br />
<ul>
<li>chicken breast</li>
<li>butter (about 2 tablespoons for each breast)</li>
<li>herbs</li>
<li>egg</li>
<li>breadcrumbs</li>
</ul>
I made the chicken pictured using some cultured butter I had gotten from the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/141466729261200/">New Orleans Food Swap</a> event. Cultured butter is made the same way as regular butter (churned) except you use a cultured heavy cream. (To do this, mix a spoonful of yogurt into a pint of heavy cream and let it sit at room temperature, or use some kefir made with cream, then make some <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/2011/06/basics-whipped-cream-and-butter.html">homemade butter</a>.) This cultured butter already had some herbs mixed to it, but you could let some butter sit out until soft then mix in your own combination of herbs, a little salt, and maybe a little pepper. This is a good time to stimulate that inner creative spirit and make this dish your own! After mixing your own herbs, place in the fridge to let it set.<br />
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Pound the chicken breast flat, then place on a large sheet of plastic wrap. Form a small "log" of butter, using about two tablespoons for each chicken breast. Fold over the sides of the chicken breast, then roll it into a log shape making sure there's no openings. Wrap tightly with the plastic wrap in this log shape and set it in the fridge for a few hours to make sure it holds its shape. You can do this the night before.<br />
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If baking, preheat your oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Beat an egg with a splash of water. Unwrap the chicken, coat in the egg wash, then roll in breadcrumbs. As much as I love to make my own everything, I have no problem using store bought breadcrumbs. Panko might be an interesting change here, but that's entirely up to you!<br />
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To bake, place in a baking dish with the seam down and pop it in the oven for about an hour. I checked it every 20 minutes or so and basted it with some of the butter that had leaked out. Partway through I had topped it with some finely diced pancetta that I had lightly cooked in a pan. Purely optional. Internal temperature should be 165 F.<br />
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Remove from the baking dish, allow it to cool, then slice in delicious, buttery medallions. <br />
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To fry, you can just heat some oil in a pan and fry it on each side (I know, it's round, but consider it to have four sides for the sake of being thorough) for about 5 minutes or so.<br />
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This makes the best leftovers. I honestly don't remember what we served it with, but it really doesn't matter: I'd eat this all by itself.<br />
<br />Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-88785341961189976202011-09-14T13:14:00.000-05:002011-09-14T13:14:44.256-05:00Pickled Cherry Tomatoes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHZaweicVFZJXXzrFDqOIgbZv_6-eMuXYK8e2cKzuFOuSfkJeEhWj04rh1PfKyBIRpovBKmAbQVZm-gz-JXlubsTbcxkraHwRSRY_Nmlj5FKi0jIWf6koP-fRrC96a1T7BLfoNifJaIPo/s1600/DSC_5207.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHZaweicVFZJXXzrFDqOIgbZv_6-eMuXYK8e2cKzuFOuSfkJeEhWj04rh1PfKyBIRpovBKmAbQVZm-gz-JXlubsTbcxkraHwRSRY_Nmlj5FKi0jIWf6koP-fRrC96a1T7BLfoNifJaIPo/s400/DSC_5207.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I love pickled things. Okra, cucumbers, eggs. They're great with a good light beer: I have some fond memories of the Acadia Brew Pub, chomping down on some pickled eggs from this big barrel that I think had been there since the "War of Northern Aggression" (as it was once explained to me there). <br />
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These are super easy to make and they don't require any knowledge or experience of canning (which is what I initially thought). The only thing you need are some ingredients and a little common sense. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
I put this recipe together using my lowest common denominator approach: I scoured the internet for pickled tomato recipes and put together a base, then added a bit to it.<br />
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<ul><li>4 pint jars</li>
<li>cherry tomatoes (enough to fill the pint jars)</li>
<li>1 cup water</li>
<li>1 cup vinegar (white, apple cider, etc.)</li>
<li>3 tsp sea salt (or 4 tsp kosher salt)</li>
<li>2 tsp sugar</li>
<li>1" strip of lemon peel, no pith, for each pint jar</li>
<li>1/4 tsp garlic, minced, for each pint jar</li>
<li>spices (see below), 1 heaping tsp for each pint jar, about 2 Tbs total</li>
</ul><br />
For the spices, I used my favorite 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe's in some, and a generic Italian seasoning blend in another. This is where you can get creative and come up with a spice blend that matches what you want. Make sure you have enough for a heaping teaspoon per pint jar (about two tablespoons for four pints). If you want it spicy, also add in 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper per jar.<br />
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Make sure your jars are nice and clean!<br />
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In a small saucepan, heat the water, vinegar, sugar and salt until it begins to boil, then set aside to cool while you prepare everything else. The amounts used here are enough for about four pint jars. I had to make another batch for the fifth jar I made, but it's pretty easy to make more.<br />
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Fill each jar with tomatoes, leaving a little bit of room, and tuck the lemon peel in there somewhere. Add the spices, crushed red pepper, and garlic, then pour the liquid over everything. Screw on your caps, and put them in the fridge for about a minimum of a week. They are best after two weeks.<br />
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Besides using them as a delicious garnish these are amazing in a pasta salad or in a regular salad. Don't expect anything too crisp coming out of those jars (unless you used green tomatoes), but they'll have some great flavor. It never occurred to me that a pickled cherry tomato just might make the most perfect garnish on a bloody mary, but I'm starting to think that's the case.<br />
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Now for the common sense part: remember that these aren't properly prepared for storage outside of a refrigerator, so make sure to keep them cold. They won't keep indefinitely in the fridge, so make sure to keep an eye on them and if they look or smell off, toss them. <br />
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Otherwise ... enjoy, neighbors!<br />
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PS: If you want to learn more about proper preserving, head on over to one of my new favorite blogs to read, <a href="http://wellpreserved.ca/">Well Preserved</a>!Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-80676944319360827412011-08-29T12:00:00.001-05:002011-11-08T15:25:40.236-06:00Quick Eats: Slow Cooker Pulled Pork<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9cLU182wyd0/Tlfj6KuQOaI/AAAAAAAABqE/x9RECQ5aiwY/s1600/P8268973.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9cLU182wyd0/Tlfj6KuQOaI/AAAAAAAABqE/x9RECQ5aiwY/s400/P8268973.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Today's post is brought to you by the letter F, for Fire Marshall. (I'd tell you the whole story, but let's just say our oven at work was disconnected and we had no way of making our usual Friday frozen pizzas.) So in order to make sure we could maintain a happy office I offered to make one of my favorite things: slow cooker pulled pork.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>This is probably one of my favorite recipes, only because of its simplicity. It's a great way to make a lot of food with little effort. Pork made like this comes out juicy, flavorful, and best of all reheats well for a lot of leftovers. You'll need to make a brine, very similar to the <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/2011/08/brie-and-pancetta-stuffed-pork-chops.html">stuffed pork chops</a>, and let it sit overnight.<br />
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For the brine:<br />
<ul>
<li>2 cups water</li>
<li>1/2 cup salt</li>
<li>1/2 cup sugar (substitute with brown sugar, honey, molasses, etc.)</li>
<li>1/2 cup vinegar (apple cider vinegar works best)</li>
<li>1 tray of ice cubes</li>
</ul>
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For the meat:<br />
<ul>
<li>pork shoulder (Boston butt)</li>
</ul>
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Depending on the size of your pork you'll need to double the amount of brine. Heat in a saucepan until the salt and sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat, add the tray of ice cubes (which is typically about 2 cups of water, giving you 1 quart of water total) and allow to cool to close to room temperature.<br />
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Place your meat in a pot then pour the brine over. Top off with a little water to make sure it's covered and refrigerate overnight.<br />
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The next morning, remove the pork and discard the brine. Rinse the meat and place in your slow cooker and set it to low. (If you have a large piece of pork you may want to set it on high.) With brined meats there is little chance of drying out. After about 8 hours of cooking a good amount of liquid will have accumulated and the meat should fall apart easily.<br />
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Remove meat from the slow cooker, taking care to separate out the bone and any large pieces of fat. Using two forks, pull apart the pieces of meat. <br />
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You can eat this as is: if you like the taste of pork, you'll love it. I like to mix in enough barbeque sauce to give it some color and a little flavor, then leave extra sauce on the side for people to "fix" it themselves. <br />
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Any meat will work for this <i>as long as it has a good amount of fat</i>. Something like turkey breast or a very lean roast would need some sort of added liquid, such as stock, broth, beer, etc. Anything with a good amount of fat or connective tissue would work well.<br />
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One final tip! For leftovers we like to use our vacuum sealer and create little pouches of meat. To reheat, all you have to do is boil it in water for a few minutes.Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-57322385282885707352011-08-28T12:00:00.001-05:002011-08-28T12:00:02.994-05:00The Basics: Hard Boiled Eggs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkp6VpA8sKWq6QyDpSMLftycMm2gW97ZCy4boTJcC71KNjREsvHv-ElGyz_iYi1Uw5-6aRyDa_JiR4xmIa5hWievgyR8Te_vpfSZP30GuY30OlK5517sZg44uuvoPR0pES4SJ9mK2O188/s1600/DSC_5030.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkp6VpA8sKWq6QyDpSMLftycMm2gW97ZCy4boTJcC71KNjREsvHv-ElGyz_iYi1Uw5-6aRyDa_JiR4xmIa5hWievgyR8Te_vpfSZP30GuY30OlK5517sZg44uuvoPR0pES4SJ9mK2O188/s400/DSC_5030.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
This is probably the simplest of recipes I'll ever post unless there's a need for a how-to on boiling water. <br />
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<a name='more'></a>All we need is:<br />
<ul><li>Eggs</li>
<li>Water</li>
</ul><br />
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Place your eggs in a small pot and add enough water to cover them plus a little more. Place over high heat and bring to a boil.<br />
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Once the water is boiling, remove from heat and cover for 10 minutes. For larger eggs you'll need to slightly increase this time. Since I'm using duck eggs from our yard, I'll let them go for 15 minutes.<br />
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After 10 minutes (or 15 minutes, depending on your eggs) have passed, carefully remove the eggs using a slotted spoon or some tongs and place into very cold water. You can use a bowl of cold water with some ice in it, or just some very cold tap water. Allow eggs to sit in cold water for 5 minutes. (If you use cold tap water, dump it and replace after 5 minutes then let it go for 5 more minutes or so.) <br />
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At this point they can be refrigerated, or can be peeled and used immediately. Surrounding the white of the egg is a thin membrane. Start at the bottom of the egg and crack it on the base, then carefully start to peel away the shell and membrane from the egg. We find that chicken eggs peel cleanest; the duck eggs we have tend to "stick" sometimes. <br />
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One method for separating the white of the egg from the membrane and shell is to poke a small hole in the bottom of the egg and run it under cold water. The pressure from the water will sometimes separate them in one go, making peeling a bit easier. Another method is to crack open both ends of the shell and blow in one end. In a chicken egg it would likely just pop out. (Duck eggs are stubborn.)<br />
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Your leftover pieces of shell make great additions to your compost heap; we try not to waste much in our house. The eggs can then be used for salads, eaten on their own, or pickled for something a bit out of the ordinary. If you've never had pickled eggs they're quite amazing. We've been toying around with some pickling recipes, so be sure to stay tuned for the results!Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-82638533422721861982011-08-27T12:08:00.001-05:002011-08-27T12:33:56.776-05:00Brie and Pancetta Stuffed Pork Chops<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZIpowCBkdig/TlHxQPYCxwI/AAAAAAAABoE/91dDubxB4mA/s1600/DSC_4934.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZIpowCBkdig/TlHxQPYCxwI/AAAAAAAABoE/91dDubxB4mA/s400/DSC_4934.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
You all know by now that I like cheese and I love meat. We found these wonderfully thick pork chops for sale and my first thought was, "STUFF THEM!" <br />
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<a name='more'></a>First things first: I brine most meats (especially pork and chicken) whenever I can. Brines are easy to do as long as you plan ahead and require only a few ingredients. At the bare minimum some salt and sugar is needed, but I like to add a sour component to round out the flavors. For about six thick pork chops, the following brine would work pretty well.<br />
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You can swap out the sugar with honey or molasses, and I prefer to use apple cider vinegar rather than a red wine or any other. I also add in a handful of spices: honestly, not a lot of the spice flavor comes through, but if you're cooking the meat without a rub or sauce then you'll be able to detect a hint of it there.<br />
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For the brine:<br />
<br />
<ul><li>1/2 cup salt</li>
<li>1/2 cup sugar</li>
<li>1/2 cup vinegar</li>
<li>2 cups water</li>
<li>1 tray of ice cubes</li>
</ul><br />
Combine first three ingredients in a pot with and heat until dissolved. There is no need to boil the liquid. Force cool by dumping in a tray of ice cubes, which should give you just about the right amount of salt content. Once it's cooled a bit, place your meat in a plastic container or Ziploc bag and pour the brine over. Let it sit overnight for the best results.<br />
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I hadn't thought beyond that at all and found myself staring at the fridge, contemplating what they could be stuffed with. I initially figured a mixture of breadcrumbs and pancetta would be a good start. Then, <a href="http://teamhightail.com/">K</a> suggested some of the brie that we had just picked up. <br />
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<ul><li>thick cut pork chops</li>
<li>1 cup pancetta, diced</li>
<li>1 cup bread crumbs</li>
<li>1/2 cup onions, diced</li>
<li>1 cup brie, diced, rind removed</li>
<li>3-4 Tbs oregano or other spices</li>
<li>olive oil</li>
<li>butter (optional, see below)</li>
</ul><br />
Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F.<br />
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I had a bit of a small rolled pancetta I had made leftover, so I diced it up into small cubes. Put this in a small pan over a medium-low heat and allow the fat to render. Occasionally stir or shake the pan to keep things moving. <br />
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While this is going, cut off a sizable chunk of brie and carefully remove the rind. This is very easy to do when the brie is cold, so don't let it sit out to long. Then, dice the brie and allow to warm to room temperature.<br />
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In a bowl combine the bread crumbs, onion, oregano (or other spices), and the now cooked pancetta and rendered fat. Mix thoroughly.<br />
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Add in the brie and mix, almost like a dough or a thick paste. You could keep the brie in larger pieces, but I wanted more of a solid stuffing rather than something that would ooze out. If you'd rather keep the brie intact, I would suggest slicing it into a sliver. In this case you may need to add some extra liquid (melted butter) to the bread crumb mixture.<br />
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Now to stuff the meat. Start by slicing a pocket in your chops. I decided to just butterfly them since they were ridiculously thick, but if you want to try and fashion an actual pocket you can do that. <br />
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Fill the inside of the pork chop with some of the stuffing and lay on its side in a baking dish. If you are using a sliver a brie, tuck in the back of the pocket and put the bread crumb stuffing in front of that.<br />
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Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour. I find that brined meats are hard to overcook since a lot of the moisture has been incorporated into the muscle fibers, but you don't want to push it. We served this some cheesy potatoes and a cucumber salad that K whipped up. <br />
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For me this was slightly a lesson in restraint ... before I put them in the oven I turned to K and said, "What about covering it with a thin slice of mozarella?" A line has to be drawn somewhere. Pork, pancetta, and brie seemed to be a good stopping point for this Onion, bu<br />
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<i>LAGNIAPPE!</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MZE_JPWx_2U/TlkjW2MuwBI/AAAAAAAABq4/PvQCvxHDYb8/s1600/DSC_5045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MZE_JPWx_2U/TlkjW2MuwBI/AAAAAAAABq4/PvQCvxHDYb8/s400/DSC_5045.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
It's been awhile since I had a little bit to add to a recipe, but this one came by surprise and I felt it worthy of sharing. Since I made about 6 of these chops we had plenty of leftovers. One "side effect" of ingredients for the stuffing is that it gives you the precursors of a sauce: just add water.<br />
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Dice a leftover pork chop into bite-sized chunks and warm in a small pan over a medium heat. Add a couple tablespoons of water and stir, making sure the water and the stuffing mixture combine. I ate this by itself, but I bet this would be great over some white or brown rice, or tossed with some steamed vegetables!Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-6233174453603865082011-08-22T15:58:00.000-05:002011-08-22T15:58:58.699-05:00Braised Beef Cheeks, aka Beef Butter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dkC52m19GUk/TlHwvvF_gqI/AAAAAAAABmk/Qx_-FYOhhNE/s1600/DSC_4574.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dkC52m19GUk/TlHwvvF_gqI/AAAAAAAABmk/Qx_-FYOhhNE/s400/DSC_4574.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I have a philosophy about new foods:<br />
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<center><i>Try anything once, twice if you like it, three times to make sure.</i></center><br />
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<a name='more'></a>I've eaten a lot of meat over the years, but never before have I heard of beef cheeks. I've had all kinds of strange cuts, offal, and "mystery meats", but never beef cheek, so when we saw it on sale for $1.98/lb we jumped on it and bought a giant pack.<br />
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It was basically a pile of some of the most well marbled meat I've ever seen. I figured with all of the ruminating a cow does it might be kind of lean, but I was kind of surprised. The pork fanatic in me was expecting something more fatty. While there was a lot of fat, there was also a good amount of meat. I trimmed off some of the meat before I went to work.<br />
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For this I made use of my cast iron dutch oven. I need to use this more often. It doesn't quite have the wonderful seasoning that my smaller cast iron frying pan does but it's getting there. If you're not a fan of cast iron, find yourself a used well-seasoned pan (good luck finding one) or borrow one from someone. It's not the perfect tool for all things, but then again I wouldn't bring a knife to a spatula show. (If you want some wonderful tips on seasoning, check out this post: <a href="http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/">Chemistry of Cast-Iron Seasoning</a>.)<br />
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I'll be braising the beef cheeks. The basic idea of braising is slow cooking in liquid to break down connective tissue, giving you a tender end product (think "low and slow with liquid"). <br />
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<ul><li>4 beef cheeks</li>
<li>diced tomatoes</li>
<li>wine</li>
<li>cocoa powder</li>
<li>diced tomatoes (either canned or by hand, do not drain)</li>
<li>onions, celery, bell pepper</li>
<li>salt and pepper</li>
</ul><br />
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First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Put some oil in the dutch oven over a medium-high flame and brown the cheeks on all sides. Take your time with this. We're not trying to "seal in moisture": we want to get as many brown bits as we can in that pan. Let each side go for a minute or two, and don't worry if they stick a little bit to the bottom of the pan.<br />
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Pull them out and set them on a plate for now. Add in about 1/2 cup each of onions, celery, bell pepper, or whatever other vegetables you might to put in here (except potatoes). These will cook for hours, so don't worry about dicing hard vegetables like carrots small. Cook until until the onions start to brown a little bit.<br />
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Next, pour about a cup or two of red wine in the pan and using a spatula or wooden spoon make sure to scrape up any bits that might be sticking to the pan. Add in 1/2 teaspoon of cocoa powder, mix well, then put your beef cheeks into the pot, arranging them so they're not stacked on top of each other.<br />
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Pour in your can of diced (or fresh) tomatoes with the juice and bring to a boil. Give a little taste and if it seems like it needs some salt now is a good time to add it. If you're using fresh tomatoes you might need to add a little water or stock.<br />
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Put the lid on the pot then move it to the preheated oven. Let it go for about two hours. The liquid will have reduced down a bit, forming a nice, thick sauce, and the meat will be extremely tender. At this temperature for that long of a period of time the fat and connective tissue will have nearly completely broken down.<br />
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The texture I can only describe as being like butter. I think this could easily be removed from the thick sauce, piled into a ramekin, refrigerated, and used like meat butter. The cocoa added a very subtle flavor -- if at all possible, it made it taste even more savory than it would have been without it. After it cooled we stuffed it into a container, and with the strength of Hercules were able to spoon it out a day or more later. Reheated it was amazing.<br />
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I believe this would work well with any well marbled meat. Anything, even a pork shoulder, would probably do well cooked like this. Some day soon we'll see about a pork shoulder cooked a similar way using a slow cooker, but for now go and find yourself some beef cheek and try something new! (And then try it again if you like it, and once again to make sure!)Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-63783279947894011172011-07-20T08:47:00.001-05:002011-07-20T08:50:51.473-05:00Quick Eats: Flatbreads<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlFQDnNF_yFbVGPT9zS2b-hXwt_Mqz6XRFG-CYcTKuJoOcyGpwnZ_3NuWlLWAcOWlbV7lCdNoZKv3GdEx4Po23nXUBOluQVVmVKAp8X1fBDWQJUPS9gxVjCZmoB_KRRmW3FpbfpPVZJhQ/s1600/DSC_4407.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlFQDnNF_yFbVGPT9zS2b-hXwt_Mqz6XRFG-CYcTKuJoOcyGpwnZ_3NuWlLWAcOWlbV7lCdNoZKv3GdEx4Po23nXUBOluQVVmVKAp8X1fBDWQJUPS9gxVjCZmoB_KRRmW3FpbfpPVZJhQ/s400/DSC_4407.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Howdy, neighbors! I apologize for leaving you hanging for the past few weeks. Summer school has been a tour du force and I haven't had much time to myself. I have quite a few posts pending, so expect to see some catching up in the next week.<br />
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After a rough day of work I needed to decompress a little bit before jumping into writing a final paper <i>and</i> writing up the take-home final exam. <a href="http://www.teamhightail.com/">Ms. Hightail</a> had made some amazing cucumber dip and we had nearly run out of my favorite flatbreads from <a href="http://www.worldmarket.com/home/index.jsp?ab=header:logo">World Market</a> that went so well with it. I poked around on the Internet a little bit and found a recipe over at <a href="http://stresscake.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/something-easy-and-unlikely-homemade-saltines/">Stresscake</a> that seemed pretty easy to handle. (And the site seemed fitting!)<br />
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<a name='more'></a>It's a simple recipe of flour, <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/2011/06/basics-whipped-cream-and-butter.html">butter</a>, salt, and water. They suggested using a pasta roller, but I thought it would be a little more therapeutic to do it with a rolling pin, rather than dig out the pasta rolling machine which has always been the bane of my existence.<br />
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Rather than top with kosher salt, I had some sea salt and go-to seasoning blend from <a href="http://traderjoes.com/">Trader Joe's</a>: 21 Seasoning Salute. I rolled them out paper thin, carefully cut them into strips (rather than squares), brushed with water, then sprinkled on some sea salt and some of the seasoning blend. Into a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes (I had to rotate the pans a couple of times). As soon as they started to brown a bit around the edges or the bubbles I took them out and let them cool.<br />
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The actually hands-on process only took about 10 minutes (there is a 30-60 minute wait after the dough is mixed) and the cooking only took 10 minutes.<br />
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It was the perfect way to calm down before I jumped into more work, and a great little snack. Thanks for the great and quick recipe, <a href="http://stresscake.wordpress.com/">Stresscake</a>!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I do a lot of cooking in general and don't often have time to snap photos of the whole process. I'd like to start a new little series called <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/search/label/quick%20eats">Quick Eats</a> that might involve only a photo or two, and a brief run down of the recipe, rather than the usual step-by-step rambling you get from me. </span>Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-61812823524513039352011-06-27T12:15:00.002-05:002011-06-27T12:21:16.981-05:00The Basics: Whipped Cream and Butter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mIZ02ub2Z9Q/TgQhfJU_2nI/AAAAAAAABZg/uT5qVX0OtWA/s1600/DSC_3841.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mIZ02ub2Z9Q/TgQhfJU_2nI/AAAAAAAABZg/uT5qVX0OtWA/s320/DSC_3841.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Milk is amazing. It's just as simple as that. <br />
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<a name='more'></a>From it we can obtain all sorts of different products: creams, cheeses, butters, ice creams. It's some impressive stuff. We tend to use milk in the manner in which we buy it: When we want cheese, we buy cheese. When we want ice cream, we buy ice cream. Sure, there are those of us out there who like to start from the simplest of ingredients to make the more complex products, but that's not all that common. If you're of the former of that group, I'd like to challenge you to change that and join the ranks of the latter.<br />
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It's nearly impossible to obtain milk right from a cow, unless you are good friends with a farmer or have a cow in your yard. (Although we have quite a bit of livestock in the yard these days, a cow is not among them.) It's often referred to as "raw milk" or "non-homogenized milk". In order to obtain cream from its simplest ingredients we would need to start with milk from a cow, and skim off the heaviest layer from the top, leaving behind the low-fat milk layer. Food Renegade has a <a href="http://www.foodrenegade.com/how-to-separate-cream-from-milk/">post on separating the cream from milk</a>, but it is worth knowing that most commercial producers do this using centrifuges. <br />
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Whole milk is made by homogenizing the raw milk, mixing until the cream is distributed throughout. Reduced fat and skim milks have little to no cream in them. If you remember back when we were discussing <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/2011/04/egg-ikura-reconstructing-breakfast.html">agar agar</a>, we talked a little bit about hydrocolloids and how the agar agar (namely its gelling properties) was dispersed in water. Somewhat related to that, milk (with any butterfat content) is considered a emulsified colloid since the butterfat molecules are dispersed throughout the milk. Keep this in mind.<br />
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Today's post is specifically about working with cream. By cream I'm referring to what the store sells as "heavy whipping cream". Wikipedia defines this as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream#United_States">cream containing 36% butterfat</a>. We'll be doing two things here which require nothing more than a whisk, but can be greatly helped by using a hand mixer or stand mixer: whipped cream and butter. Both processes are related, and one eventually leads to the other during the processing.<br />
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<b>Whipped Cream</b><br />
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It's pretty simple: mix the heck out of some cream and you get whipped cream. The process of mixing it incorporates air into the cream, forming a colloid of air and cream. It is important that the cream have more than 30% butterfat, otherwise you won't get the stable structure required to form the whipped cream. I once tried to make whipped cream using skim milk before I understood what was going on with it. Let's just say I wasted a lot of time. Since the accepted minimum is 30%, you can also make do with light whipping cream.<br />
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I like to use my stand mixer, mostly because I spent the money on it and it makes my life easier. If you want to be hardcore, grab a whisk and go to town: it's a great arm workout. A hand mixer will also work wonderfully well. <br />
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<ul><li>1 cup cream</li>
<li>2 Tbs confectioners sugar</li>
<li>1 tsp vanilla extract</li>
</ul><br />
At the bare minimum you need the cream. Although it's sometimes referred to as "sweet cream", it won't contain enough sugars to make it taste like anything other than thick, airy milk. Adding some sugar and vanilla will do the trick, although I don't feel the vanilla is absolutely necessary for making a basic whipped cream.<br />
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Also recommended, but not necessary, is to make sure everything is cold. If you can put your beaters and bowls in the freezer for a bit you'll find that the process goes quicker than with hot or room temperature bowls. <br />
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Begin by whipping the cream. I like to start at a middle setting on the mixer and work my way up gradually. You'll find little instruction here as most recipes just call for you to "whip the cream". For whipped cream? Really? Thanks for the detail! <br />
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You are looking for "peaks". This means almost exactly what it sounds like. Turn off the mixer and pull the beaters out of the whipped cream. If it pulls up and forms a peak (like a mountain) and does not immediately collapse down then you have sufficiently whipped the cream. Whatever you do, don't overdo it. However, if you do overdo it just skip on to the next section of this post ...<br />
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At this point you can add the sugar and vanilla. <br />
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But why stop there? Grocery stores are selling high priced "spiked whipped cream". Why not make your own? Here are some alternatives, based on using 1 cup of heavy cream:<br />
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<b>Spiked Whipped Cream</b><br />
<ul><li>1 Tbs alcohol <br />
</li>
<li>2 Tbs confectioners sugar (if using a sweet liqueur, reduce this amount)<br />
</li>
</ul><br />
Rum works great, but don't stop there. How about a nice cognac? You won't be getting drunk off of this, but if you don't feel like <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/2011/02/rum-spiked-baklava.html">spiking the baklava</a> then you can make some of this with some Old New Orleans Cajun Spiced rum on the side and allow your guests to top their dessert. <br />
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<b>Chocolate Whipped Cream</b><br />
<ul><li>1 Tbs cocoa powder</li>
<li>2 Tbs confectioners sugar</li>
<li>1 tsp vanilla extract</li>
</ul><br />
Whip the cream with the vanilla, then add the cocoa and confectioners sugar towards the end. I made mine with 2 Tbs cocoa powder and it was much too strong. I think just 1 Tbs would give a nice chocolate flavor without being completely offensive.<br />
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I know heavy cream be a little on the expensive side and doesn't necessarily lead to experimenting, so take some time and peruse the internet to see what has worked for people ... or just think outside the box and see what you can do! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oAZxpJmGWn0/TgQhhVtbBoI/AAAAAAAABY4/pzqRoIdA2qo/s1600/DSC_3861.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oAZxpJmGWn0/TgQhhVtbBoI/AAAAAAAABY4/pzqRoIdA2qo/s320/DSC_3861.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I felt like going out on a limb and taking an odd chance, so I diced some homemade pancetta and rendered down the fat. I let it cool, then added the fat to the cream along with a little bit of paprika and some cayenne. <br />
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Behold, pancetta whipped cream. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I think it would pair well with some pancakes, or maybe a big dollop of this on a cauliflower soup. It's very smooth and has a subtle meat flavor, but I found it a little too salty.<br />
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<b>Butter</b><br />
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Hopefully you've reached this section on purpose, and not because you left the whipped cream mixing too long. Butter is made by separating out the butterfat from the buttermilk in the cream. When you whip the cream you incorporate air into it, but at some point the butterfat molecules are no longer separated. The beating (churning) of the cream damages the protective walls of the butterfat and allows it so gather into a solid mass. <br />
<br />
<ul><li>1 cup cream</li>
<li>3/4 teaspoon salt (optional)</li>
</ul><br />
For a simple unsalted butter, all you need to do initially is whip it until it resembles whipped cream, then keep on going until it almost looks like it is starting to curdle. For a salted butter, add about 3/4 teaspoon or 1 teaspoon of salt. <br />
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Continue on and keep watching. What you're looking for is a thin liquid to start splattering around the bowl. <br />
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Once this happens, go a little further. Scrape down the sides, and keep going. At this point you might want to wrap your whole mixer in a towel, especially if you're doing a full pint (2 cups). <br />
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What you have in your bowl now is butter and buttermilk. You can toss that buttermilk but you would be a very wasteful person if you do. We'll get to that in a little bit. For now, pour it off. <br />
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I like to run the mixer again on high, just to make sure as much of the buttermilk is separated from the butterfat <br />
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Using clean hands, gather up as much of the solids as you can. Form a ball and squeeze it, then smoosh it up and squeeze it some more. What you're doing is wringing out as much of the buttermilk as possible. At this point you can "rinse" the butter. Put the bowl in the sink and let the water run cold and at a trickle. Continue to knead the butter. <br />
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Pack it into a container, stick it in the fridge, and you're done! One cup of cream (8 oz) makes approximately 3 oz butter (3/4 stick of butter) and 5 oz of buttermilk (a little over half a cup). You can use this buttermilk in any recipe that calls for it. This is not the cultured buttermilk you get in the store -- the only way you can obtain this "traditional" buttermilk, as it's called, is to make the butter from scratch. It doesn't keep all that well, so make sure to use it. It's loaded with nutrients (supposedly). I think the best use for it would be to make some pancakes or biscuits to use with your new homemade product! You can read about the differences between cultured and traditional buttermilk on <a herf="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttermilk">the Wikipedia article</a>, but the short of it is that cultured buttermilk is milk that has been inoculated with certain bacterias, and traditional buttermilk is the liquid remaining from removing butterfat from cream. <br />
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But of course ... I couldn't just stop there. I still had some pancetta and rendered fat leftover, so I had to give this a try. Add about half a tablespoon of rendered fat to the cream before mixing, then mix in the cooked meat bits. The buttermilk also has a strong pancetta flavor. I'd recommend trying this with regular smoked bacon, since the pancetta was pretty salty. You can see it below.<br />
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From 2 quarts (half a gallon) of cream I ended up with three types of whipped cream, 3 oz of pancetta butter, 9 oz of regular butter, and 15 oz of traditional buttermilk. We ended up making a breakfast of duck eggs from the yard, homemade black bacon, warm buttermilk biscuits (made using the butter and traditional buttermilk above) with some pancetta butter and a little dollop of some homemade pear preserves we were given. I ate it too fast to take a picture of it. <br />
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Rest assured, it was quite the awesome meal.Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-15866536997978814512011-06-13T23:55:00.003-05:002011-06-13T23:57:04.820-05:00Möbius Steak: Accepting Delicious Defeat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4R4PcCzeMG0/TcJNnbFMRkI/AAAAAAAABJA/UjvvONP4FVk/s1600/DSC_2021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4R4PcCzeMG0/TcJNnbFMRkI/AAAAAAAABJA/UjvvONP4FVk/s320/DSC_2021.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<i>I didn't fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.<br />
<br />
— Ben Franklin</i><br />
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Not everything goes as planned. You study something, follow the directions, and you find your end product is a total flop. I always think it important to refer to them as "learning experiences" and to try and find something positive despite the lack of success. <br />
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<a name='more'></a>Do you recognize this formula?<br />
<blockquote>x(u,v) = (1 + .5v cos .5u) cos u<br />
y(u,v) = (1 + .5v cos .5u) sin u<br />
z(u,v) = .5v sin .5u<br />
where 0 ≤ u < 2π and −1 ≤ v ≤ 1</blockquote>Probably not. It's a means of representing a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobius_strip">möbius strip</a>. I love the concept of the möbius strip so much that my thesis for my master's in music composition was titled "Möbius". The fact that you can trace a path and end up on the opposite side amazes me. Absolutely amazes me. Want to know what's even crazier? When you divide a möbius strip. You would think that if you divided it in half you would end up with two, but that's not the case. (You end up with a larger loop with two twists!) Dividing the strip off center gives you a small möbius strip and a larger loop with an extra twist, interlocked. I was watching <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mdEsouIXGM">this video on Youtube</a> by the ever amazing <a href="http://vihart.com/">Vi Hart</a> and was struck with what I believed to be an amazing idea. Mixing science and cooking got me thinking that to involve some mathematical concepts would be a lot of fun. This question came to mind almost immediately:<br />
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<br />
<center><b>Why not make a möbius strip out of meat?</b></center><br />
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The awesome folks over at <a href="http://rarecuts.com/">RareCuts</a> still had a solid supply of meat glue, so I thought it might be fun to give it a go. I picked up some flank steak from there, since it was a nice long cut, and went about trimming and fashioning the shape I needed.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrHQMD4GqNalyAKvJKvvLkrvBYLmLrMcv2IrLN-zOYhzL9Hu0kB1Y01ATbkjp4SzLzI3kR2tB7VK83bdrgvJrlHA8eIQ-s9QQ5J0O5jsUPjGKyzjNLObXxkJ0SLy0SbJ-IHggFpQzCeyM/s1600/flankmobiuscombined.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrHQMD4GqNalyAKvJKvvLkrvBYLmLrMcv2IrLN-zOYhzL9Hu0kB1Y01ATbkjp4SzLzI3kR2tB7VK83bdrgvJrlHA8eIQ-s9QQ5J0O5jsUPjGKyzjNLObXxkJ0SLy0SbJ-IHggFpQzCeyM/s400/flankmobiuscombined.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I trimmed the meat to a nice long strip and beveled the ends that would be connected. Next I sprinkled on some of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transglutaminase">transglutaminase</a>, then pressed the ends together. (Almost immediately you can feel the bond being created.) Next I wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to set overnight.<br />
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My plan was to sear it (remember, it only has one side!) in a hot pan with some butter ...<br />
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... but as soon as it hit the pan the bond broke. Someone informed me that flank steak has large muscle fibers that swell when cooked. Even if it had a good bond, when the muscle fibers swelled it just tore apart the bond, much like Chris Farley <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IolqkwNSmfA">putting on a little coat and flexing</a>.<br />
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Not to be deterred, I thought I'd give it another shot with some of these skirt steaks I got from <a href="http://www.rarecuts.com/">RareCuts</a>. (Note, the pictures below are made up of a combination of two different pieces of skirt steak. I had the same results with both pieces, so I pick and chose the photos that showed each step best.)<br />
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Trimmed, glued, sealed. (Note the glove: transglutaminase can be sticky.) I had two skirt steaks to try out. I was thinking that maybe some added pressure would help make a stronger bond; sadly, I ran out bags for my vacuum sealer so some Ziploc bags with a weight on top would have to do for now.<br />
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After a day, I rubbed them with some salt and the same <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbs_de_provence">herbs de Provence</a> blend I used for the meat sphere. I used some olive oil I had that infused with cardamom, lavender, and juniper.<br />
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Skirt steaks don't need a lot of time cooking, which I thought would be perfect for this. A dry rub and a quick sear was all this tasty little piece of meat needed. Now, since the möbius strip has only one side, if I continued to rotate it around then I would have theoretically seared all sides. Since it's thin this was actually really easy to do. (Cue foreboding music; you can see one of them starting to come apart, right near the pan.)<br />
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And it held! Or at least I thought. The minute I started to divide the möbius strip, the bond began to fall apart. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh6bK7hYUs4NE2dvsovizbMoQ2mN04goBZiS_-IFrsE2lnvrZYvY2hRk3GUnbm2Bct-frsWvhsVNYftjwgu61xPQgyZ_I0ZlpQatm1zwnmnlwRsoEhZVlHH719ASG6izJKjzyz-70Uw58/s1600/DSC_2938.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh6bK7hYUs4NE2dvsovizbMoQ2mN04goBZiS_-IFrsE2lnvrZYvY2hRk3GUnbm2Bct-frsWvhsVNYftjwgu61xPQgyZ_I0ZlpQatm1zwnmnlwRsoEhZVlHH719ASG6izJKjzyz-70Uw58/s320/DSC_2938.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
In an effort to still demonstrate the results of dividing a möbius strip made of meat I forced a bond: let's say it was with something inedible that was later discarded along with the meat pieces of meat it was touching. I think that bond might've held had I put more pressure at the site of the bond by vacuum packing the cut of meat, but I couldn't afford to keep trying this. After three attempts (one flank steak, two skirt steaks), I decided to put this one to rest with an assumption that I could <i>possibly</i> do this if I were to give it another try.<br />
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I always try and take a lesson from my failures and if anything the only thing I learned was that I can be extremely stubborn. And that skirt steak is amazing. Determined to find another interesting use for the transglutaminase, I persevered through more failure, then turned my gaze to seafood ...<br />
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<i>... to be continued.</i>Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-18966382463086736872011-05-31T16:29:00.001-05:002011-05-31T16:30:38.574-05:00The Basics: Mashed Potatoes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMqQkb4mFgf4EprNA3vLR-tVfcUAvMLIa9dBg9p-rBPfK8qMntZ50fFHiItdbBnmdXvKySOmB0Cer9bBDBSkKwJ1FSjWfCKTsFNEQoRzdYhSzcAdZc_BZPv2U7uBml9ViCeZJfJw5hOs/s1600/DSC_2910.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMqQkb4mFgf4EprNA3vLR-tVfcUAvMLIa9dBg9p-rBPfK8qMntZ50fFHiItdbBnmdXvKySOmB0Cer9bBDBSkKwJ1FSjWfCKTsFNEQoRzdYhSzcAdZc_BZPv2U7uBml9ViCeZJfJw5hOs/s400/DSC_2910.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Mash. Mashers. Taters. Mashed-a-taters. The perfect white canvas of the food world. They go by so many names.<a name='more'></a><br />
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While posting the 1/(Shepherd's π), I thought that doing a post on another simple-yet-flexible recipe would be a good way to give instructions on making the mashed potatoes used. Sure, you can buy a box of flakes. Some of them actually aren't that bad in a pinch, but if you have a little bit of time you can make these mashed potatoes pretty quickly. <br />
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Potatoes are fascinating vegetables to me mostly because of how versatile they are, not to mention the fact that you can eat the entire thing. If you don't want to get a little technical on what happens when you cook potatoes, feel free to skip ahead.<br />
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It's pretty well known that potatoes are high in starch. Starches are made up of two polysaccharides: amylose and amylopectin. When potatoes (and their starches) are heated, the amylose is released. Amylose has the ability to bind water, making it a great thickener. However, in mashed potatoes, this thickness can show itself as the kind of gummy texture you usually get from the boxed or flaked potatoes. <br />
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There are a lot of recipes out there for "perfect" mashed potatoes, and if you want to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2004/apr/17/weekend.hestonblumenthal">use a thermometer to maintain 70C degree water</a> or turn a simple process into something ridiculously complex with boiling, steaming, and rinsing, then by all means go ahead. We're trying to keep it basic here, and I can assure you as long as you are paying attention during the cooking process you'll be okay. Basically, we'll be stopping the cooking process before too much amylose is released, and rinsing the potatoes to try and eliminate as much of it as we can.<br />
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For the most part you need:<br />
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<ul><li>4-6 small or medium sized potatoes, washed</li>
</ul><br />
Honoestly that's it for literal mashed potatoes. Here are some additives you can use to give it a smoother, richer taste (use any combination of these):<br />
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<ul><li>1/2 c milk</li>
<li>1/2 c sour cream</li>
<li>2 Tbs butter</li>
<li>2 Tbs olive oil</li>
<li>herbs or spices</li>
<li>bacon/pancetta bits</li>
<li>cheese</li>
</ul><br />
Take note that different potatoes may require different amounts of milk or sour cream. Russet potatoes are great for making mashed potatoes because of their high starch content, but I love the flavor of mashed potatoes made with Yukon Golds. Sweet potatoes also work, but they have a completely different flavor profile so try starting with just milk and see where it takes you.<br />
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For the herbs and spices, I like to use some garlic powder and salt, but feel free to get creative here! Try adding some thyme or chives, or an interesting store bought spice blend you might have. If you're serving a more simple meal, like steak and potatoes, take this opportunity to really add some flavor to the mashed potatoes. If you have some pancetta or bacon, you can incorporate those cooked and crumbled or cut bits into this as well. <br />
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First you should decide if you want the peel on or off. If you want pristine looking potatoes, go ahead and peel them. Cut them into slices or small cubes.<br />
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Place potatoes in a pot and bring the pot to a boil. After about 8-10 minutes, start poking at the potatoes with a fork. If they give a lot of resistance, then they still need more time. When a fork can piece them easily they are ready. Don't overcook them! Drain them and give them a quick rinse with some cold water.<br />
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Now you have a couple of options. You can either mash them with a potato masher, a ricer, a food processor, a stand mixer or a hand mixer. I prefer attacking them with a hand mixer: it's a good balance between manual (masher) and automatic (stand mixer). <br />
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Start mixing or mashing the mashed potatoes on low. Do it enough to really get the chunks of potato broken up and starting to form thick mashed potatoes.<br />
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Add in your additives. Most of this is really to taste or to texture. Milk, olive oil, spices, sour cream. Play around here! Got a spoonful of sour cream leftover? Go ahead and toss it in. Tiny bit of green onion you didn't need? Give it a dice and invite it to the party. <br />
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This a chance to make a simple food interesting. I haven't tried it, but while writing this I'm thinking of trying some avocado and diced pancetta, and maybe a little bit of feta cheese. Why? Why the heck not?! Cooking is very much an adventure, and mashed potatoes are the ultimate Choose Your Own Adventure book. By themselves they are the neutral carbohydrate canvas. Go ahead and throw some paint on it and we'll call it art ... then eat it!Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-15411367380644835662011-05-17T16:00:00.004-05:002011-05-17T16:45:48.333-05:001 / (Shepherd's π)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhluVwKIwcWfoICBs2RrUQdNBBiOMprxremmmgjS1dL64eXSHDhouKQ4W2SXGByoBb_WlenioCY9u51MTdsMQiLVZmlPw4sI7muGzex1wYBBaG3JYo1-YhfAbkVL96vQzikQBiTY9MQ5u8/s1600/DSC_2638.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhluVwKIwcWfoICBs2RrUQdNBBiOMprxremmmgjS1dL64eXSHDhouKQ4W2SXGByoBb_WlenioCY9u51MTdsMQiLVZmlPw4sI7muGzex1wYBBaG3JYo1-YhfAbkVL96vQzikQBiTY9MQ5u8/s400/DSC_2638.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
This was not the post I originally intended when trying to showcase some things you could do with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transglutaminase">transglutaminase</a>, aka meat glue. Since this one was a success and the other was an epic failure (something that I plan on attempting again soon), I thought I'd start with the success.<br />
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Before we get into the food, let's talk very briefly on transglutaminase. Without going into some of the more gory details of its use in the human body, the short of it is that transglutaminase forms protein polymers, bonding proteins together. <a href="http://www.cookingissues.com/">Cooking Issues</a> has a very thorough and detailed explanation of how it works and some ways to use it in their post <a href="http://www.cookingissues.com/primers/transglutaminase-aka-meat-glue/">Transglutaminase, aka Meat Glue</a>. I won't regurgitate too much of their information here, but let's just say it's amazing stuff that has a variety of applications. I'm more interested in its novel uses ... obviously.<br />
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It took me awhile to find a source for small amounts of transglutaminase. After sending multiple requests for samples to Ajinomoto, the company that manufactures Activa RM (the most commonly used transglutaminase), I realized my only options were to find someone to share or to just give in and <a href="http://willpowder.net/transglutaminase.html">order a kilogram of it online</a>. Given the cost of a kilogram and the small amount I was hoping to get for my few experiments, ordering it online wasn't an option. Enter <a href="http://rarecuts.com/">RareCuts</a>: my saviors. Intrigued by its usage, they ordered it in bulk and are selling 2 oz. portions from the store for only $8. This was the perfect amount and a reasonable price. Their goal is to supply folks with not only great cuts of the usual meats (their strip steaks are <i>amazing</i>) but also with hard-to-find items like this, or other exotic meats. (Rattlesnake, anyone?)<br />
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A lot of molecular gastronomy plates end up being small and eloquent. They're beautiful, but I could hardly call it a meal. While I appreciate creative plating, if I'm making something at home I can't justify spending a lot of time for something so small. (The <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/2011/04/egg-ikura-reconstructing-breakfast.html">Egg Ikura</a> was an exception to that rule, obviously.) Some days, especially with cool weather (which we've strangely been having), I'm more of a meat and potato kind of guy. Something hot, delicious, and smothered with nostalgia. So how could I use meat glue for something more hearty than gluing a piece of bacon to a scallop?<br />
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One of my favorite foods from growing up was shepherd's pie. My mother made it with ground beef (which would technically make it cottage pie), vegetables, and mashed potatoes in a big casserole dish. It was the kind of thing that was delicious even the next day. Despite the structure of it, the combination of meat, potatoes, and vegetables is a pretty standard "American" meal. In trying to come up with a method for combining these ingredients, my standard train of thought (filled with meat, wrapped with meat ...) came to mind. A meat sphere, filled with potatoes and vegetables! (And cheese! Why the heck not?)<br />
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First, I mapped out my plan.<br />
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I decided to coarsely grind a fairly lean roast I had picked up. I have this plate on my meat grinder called a <a href="http://www.onestopjerkyshop.com/meat-grinder-stuffing-plate-stainless-steel-1/">stuffer plate</a> (sometimes referred to as a kidney plate, because of the shape) that is normally used when stuffing casings for sausage. When used just for grinding, it makes these wonderful lumps of meat. I thought these chunks would be better glued together than a finer grind and would give a more substantial and "whole meat" texture. The goal was to create a shape that seemed as if it was "grown" that way, not ground and smooshed together.<br />
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Here is the meat glue, as well as a balloon. Wait, what? A balloon?<br />
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I needed something to help hold the shape of the sphere that could easily be removed from the inside without a lot of effort. Knowing from childhood experiments that a balloon full of air and placed in the refrigerator will deflate (air molecules contract in the cold, etc.) I filled it partially with water.<br />
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Next I spread out the meat and sprinkled it with the transglutaminase, then mixed it thoroughly. <b>Wear gloves.</b> This stuff is funky and will try and bond with the skin on your hands ... not quickly, of course, but you'll feel it start getting sticky and it's hard to easily wash off. <br />
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I then sprayed the balloon with some olive oil from my mister, wrapped the balloon in a layer of meat mixture, making sure there were no open spots (a brightly colored balloon might've been a better choice), and then wrapped everything very tightly in plastic. This went into a Ziploc bag and sat overnight while the transglutaminase worked its magic.<br />
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The next day, before dealing with the meat, I prepared my fillings. The mashed potatoes were a fairly simple recipe, something I decided I'll be covering in an upcoming post on <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/search/label/the%20basics">The Basics</a>. For the vegetables we had some in the freezer that I cooked with some chicken stock in a pot. I added a little roux to thicken it up and let it cook down for awhile.<br />
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Next came the meat: I unwrapped the plastic and cut the balloon to drain the water, then slipped out the balloon. Knowing what I was planning on putting inside, I decided to open up the hole a bit to give me some space. I know this is pretty awful looking (I've heard it compared to a number of unpleasant things), but the main thing was that it held its shape <i>and</i> was actually waterproof!<br />
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I followed my map and filled it first with a layer of mashed potatoes using a piping bag so as not to damage the sphere too much, then a layer of shredded cheese, then vegetables in their sauce, then topped it off with a bit more mashed potatoes. <br />
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Cooking this was going to be interesting. I decided I would wrap it foil, bake it for awhile, then open the foil and let it brown a bit. I figured this way it wouldn't cause a lot of "trauma" to the meat sphere while still making sure the meat cooked enough through. I rubbed it with some olive oil, salt, and an herbs de Provence blend that a colleague of mine at work had put together, and wrapped it loosely in aluminum foil. It went into a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes.<br />
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After this time I opened it up, turned up the oven to 500 degrees, and let it cook for awhile longer to brown a bit. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6TNl0togicRKvqLHwm3vL9QQsbSI-QgMYbgWrO-I3x3F9TQuqS6-Us9_Bb-7xKo48tMPbh6wovfDYvguA11vVaNiFtHETGLYLs-IGkTGyfPvmzk1MJa97ESfdDfkJPuDGbYsTyfWYCnk/s1600/DSC_2627.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6TNl0togicRKvqLHwm3vL9QQsbSI-QgMYbgWrO-I3x3F9TQuqS6-Us9_Bb-7xKo48tMPbh6wovfDYvguA11vVaNiFtHETGLYLs-IGkTGyfPvmzk1MJa97ESfdDfkJPuDGbYsTyfWYCnk/s320/DSC_2627.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
In order to make it look a little more presentable, since it resembled a meat volcano, I topped it with more shredded cheese and let it go a little longer until the cheese started bubbling.<br />
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And there it was: meat, potatoes, vegetables, and cheese. All in a small little package. The meat was thick enough that it was still pink on the inside. The insides sort of liquified, but I realize now that I should have made the potatoes drier than I did so they could soak up some liquid. There were plenty of juices in the tinfoil, however they ended up making a great little sauce to poor over top of the slices.<br />
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I wasn't sure what to call this, really. Is it an inverted shepherd's pie*? A meat version of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boule_%28bread%29">boule</a>? A stuffed meat ball? (No, no. <a href="http://www.mronionsneighborhood.com/2011/03/cheese-stuffed-meatballs.html">Already did that one.</a>) I have no clue what to really name it, but let's just call it delicious and leave it at that.<br />
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* <small>Obviously, I went with this one ... more or less. Heh.</small>Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-19118722034624943392011-05-05T12:48:00.001-05:002011-05-05T13:54:35.549-05:00Tapioca Maltodextrin: Sprinkle on the FatNext up in the molecular gastronomy bag of tricks is <a href="http://www.agcommoditiesinc.com/articles/tapioca-maltodextrin.php">tapioca maltodextrin</a>!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmKpdaPJyOe_LwMrFwKjqxFcrMttW0IOwQW_npadChzXGYtSmg3P9I6akSNRumWKqQ5e3ososIhd464njKlobF1JEYPevIYNHIgLWb9IZBJLuU7q_VNPEDxtl7XLSkPkCeIoZLBxBbXo/s1600/DSC_2039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmKpdaPJyOe_LwMrFwKjqxFcrMttW0IOwQW_npadChzXGYtSmg3P9I6akSNRumWKqQ5e3ososIhd464njKlobF1JEYPevIYNHIgLWb9IZBJLuU7q_VNPEDxtl7XLSkPkCeIoZLBxBbXo/s320/DSC_2039.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
This stuff is pretty amazing. <a name='more'></a>It's a "food grade dextrose made from tapioca" and comes in a very, very light powder. Maltodextrins, a kind of polysaccharide, are pretty commonly used as food additives, sometimes referred to as "stabilizers" for thickening liquids. If you've done any beer brewing, you might recognize the name: maltodextrin is added to some thicker beers to improve mouthfeel and add some head retention. (This reminds me I should get back to brewing some beer one of these days ...) This is a maltodextrin, but made from tapioca through a magical enzymatic process that I'm not all that inclined to research. And yes, the same tapioca you find in your bubble teas and tapioca pudding. The tapioca itself is flavorless, so using it as an additive does not contribute towards flavor at all.<br />
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In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Food-Carbohydrates-Chemistry-Properties-Applications/dp/0849315743/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304614750&sr=1-1">this lovely book that I'll probably never read</a>, they state the following:<br />
<blockquote>"When polysaccharide concentration is sufficiently high, the viscosity of the continuous phase becomes so large that the droplets cannot move. In such situation polysaccharides form a three-dimensional network through intermolecular entanglements that entraps the oil droplets and effectively inhibits their movement, therefor prolonging the stability of the emulsion system." (211)</blockquote>In short, the tapioca maltodextrin encapsulates the oil. In liquids, such as salad dressings, this would keep the oil and water from separating. What we'll be doing here, though, is using it in an extremely high ratio, to the point where the combination of oil and tapioca maltodextrin is no longer a liquid.<br />
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I bought a pound of tapioca maltodextrin from <a href="http://willpowder.net/">Willpowder</a>, who also sells all sorts of molecular gastronomy materials. I expected it to be a small bag or container, and instead got a giant tub, as you can see below.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOf1npAjxm7XwrLzCuTiihq2kEJp2qZOEDclH5TcMSZ7KnEB68gyqCNrSp40ac7Aep4TgLZPoAojXjT7T6rXudRBX3SrlDeEAMlUTrsToTpU-2-jkU15JXzs1wAg2TA2K57XdzqHMTy1Q/s1600/DSC_2035.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOf1npAjxm7XwrLzCuTiihq2kEJp2qZOEDclH5TcMSZ7KnEB68gyqCNrSp40ac7Aep4TgLZPoAojXjT7T6rXudRBX3SrlDeEAMlUTrsToTpU-2-jkU15JXzs1wAg2TA2K57XdzqHMTy1Q/s320/DSC_2035.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Here's what you'll need: <br />
<ul><li>olive oil</li>
<li>tapioca maltodextrin</li>
<li>salt</li>
<li>kitchen scale</li>
</ul>I wanted to try out the <a href="http://www.molecularrecipes.com/transformation/oil-crumbs/">Olive Oil Crumbs recipe</a> on <a href="http://www.molecularrecipes.com/">Molecular Recipes</a>, so I used their measurements of 80g olive oil, 25g tapioca maltodextrin, and 3g of salt. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmKpdaPJyOe_LwMrFwKjqxFcrMttW0IOwQW_npadChzXGYtSmg3P9I6akSNRumWKqQ5e3ososIhd464njKlobF1JEYPevIYNHIgLWb9IZBJLuU7q_VNPEDxtl7XLSkPkCeIoZLBxBbXo/s1600/DSC_2039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmKpdaPJyOe_LwMrFwKjqxFcrMttW0IOwQW_npadChzXGYtSmg3P9I6akSNRumWKqQ5e3ososIhd464njKlobF1JEYPevIYNHIgLWb9IZBJLuU7q_VNPEDxtl7XLSkPkCeIoZLBxBbXo/s320/DSC_2039.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Whisk it together until crumbs form. I used a fork, as I found a whisk to be troublesome. <br />
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Next, heat the crumbs until they brown. Make sure the pan is dry. I originally used a spoon to stir them around but ended up just shaking the pan to keep them moving. As you can see, I overcooked them a little bit.<br />
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I sprinkled them over some little <a href="http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20071011082947/http://www.sunsetproduce.com/campari.html">Campari tomatoes</a>. As soon as the crumbs are introduced to a liquid they'll start to breakdown (releasing the oil molecules, I presume), so this isn't something meant to be put on a food and set aside. Serve it immediately. The crumbs quickly dissolve in the mouth, leaving the flavor of the olive oil. I used olive oil that I had infused with lavender, cardamom, and juniper berries, and the salt was a very finely ground sea salt with herbs. It was an interesting eating experience, for sure.<br />
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The above amounts come out to about 76% oil and 24% tapioca maltodextrin. Molecular Recipes and Willpowder both recommend using a starting ratio of 60%/40%, but you may need to experiment to find a good balance. I presume the 76% oil was to help the crumbs keep their shape by not encapsulating too much of the oil. If you want to make a powder, try using 60%/40%. <br />
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I had rendered some fat from some of my homemade pancetta and wanted to give this a shot. I didn't record my measurements, but it actually ended up being closer to 50%/50%. If you use a food processor you can easily obtain a powdered consistency. Most recipes I've seen for this recommend pushing it through a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamis">tamis</a>, which is a very fine meshed sieve. I don't own one, so I used the finest sieve that I had. <br />
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Strangely enough, I ended up with what looked like grated cheese.<br />
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You can do quite a bit with tapioca maltodextrin, but as far as molecular gastronomy goes it seems as though the common usage is for making powders. Anything with a high fat or oil content, such as peanut butter, Nutella, or even butter (I would suggest clarified butter, from my own experiments) could work. Keep in mind that the oil is released when the powder comes into contact with moisture. I have yet to try "rehydrating" the oil, but I presume that doing so would really just release the oil molecules and allow the maltodextrin to combine with the water, rather than just turning it back into oil.<br />
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How you use this knowledge is completely up to you. I used recipes that were already out there, but I have enough of this stuff to try and find some new uses for it. I can promise you, neighbors, that I'll share anything interesting that I come up with as long as you promise to do the same.<br />
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Next up ... meat glue! I finally got my hands on some and learned to deal with epic failure at the same time!Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-90802636839965003452011-04-12T12:30:00.124-05:002011-04-12T12:40:04.543-05:00Egg Ikura: Reconstructing Breakfast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiULRtsyjt-1YZVeidcnPJlI3eOXQh9_hgFR8UOdDI8gUKiRovazj_QPWmX1vdyPDrXSs2l2bgW1cOonAg17_3up77kcoLolcIwuqwIHVq6_sls3X-ZA9Rn8_Vm62pgxOpUcGf94RVO34/s1600/DSC_1601.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiULRtsyjt-1YZVeidcnPJlI3eOXQh9_hgFR8UOdDI8gUKiRovazj_QPWmX1vdyPDrXSs2l2bgW1cOonAg17_3up77kcoLolcIwuqwIHVq6_sls3X-ZA9Rn8_Vm62pgxOpUcGf94RVO34/s400/DSC_1601.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<i>I think it is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus we do not know what goes on inside our soufflés.<br />
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—Nicholas Kurti<br />
</i><br />
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<a name='more'></a>Howdy, neighbors! This is the first of a short series of posts on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_gastronomy">molecular gastronomy</a>. If you've never heard of this before, plant yourself in front of the Food Network for a couple of hours and you're bound to see it in some form. You can also watch <a href="http://www.syfy.com/marcelsquantumkitchen/">Marcel's Quantum Kitchen</a> on Syfy, but to be honest there's more drama and less cooking done on that show.<br />
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For a history of molecular gastronomy, read through the Wikipedia article. It has its roots in some hardcore science and, as a lover of both science and food, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to learn something about this form of cooking. I stumbled upon a great site, <a href="http://www.molecularrecipes.com/">Molecular Recipes</a>, that had a load of information and recipes to explain a lot of the processes.<br />
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Today we're going to use the ingredient<span id="goog_1398993695"></span> <a href="http://www.edenfoods.com/store/product_details.php?products_id=108940&eID=6284a6e6e9d80863ab1fc115565763d3">agar-agar</a><span id="goog_1398993696"></span>. This is made from sea algae and is typically used as a vegetarian substitute to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin">gelatin</a>. Its use is very similar to gelatin: add to liquid, boil, allow to cool. It is considered a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrocolloid#Hydrocolloids">hydrocolloid</a>, meaning that the colloidal properties (that cause the creation of the gel, in this case) are dispersed in water. Maintained at a certain temperature it has the appearance of a solid. Heated, it can return to liquid state. (Ever notice Jell-O melts in warm temperatures?)<br />
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Agar-agar is used in a couple of different ways in molecular gastronomy. One of the more common uses is to create a "noodle", such as <a href="http://www.molecularrecipes.com/gelification/tomato-agar-spaghetti/">tomato agar spaghetti</a>. To do this, the agar-agar is combined with a hot liquid, then injected into tubing and immediately cooled in an ice bath, then forced out of the tubing. You can read more on that process at <a href="http://www.molecularrecipes.com/gelification/agar-agar-spaghetti/">Molecular Recipes</a>. Agar-agar powder is easier to dilute in water than the flakes, but if you have flakes you can grind them in a coffee grinder or spice grinder.<br />
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<a href="http://www.molecularrecipes.com/spherification/">Spherification</a> is another technique used in molecular gastronomy. A common example of spherification would be when a liquid is combined with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_alginate#Sodium_alginate">sodium alginate</a>, then dropped into a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_chloride">calcium chloride</a> bath. When the liquid and sodium alginate contact the calcium chloride solidification occurs, creating a jelly-like coating around the liquid. Left too long, the entire sphere will turn into jelly, but if served immediately the effect is described as something similar to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_Gushers">Fruit Gusher</a>, or if made small like caviar or roe.<br />
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There it was: Immediately I thought of turning an egg into caviar. Then I immediately thought of how gross it would be to have liquid egg burst into your mouth upon breaking the membrane. I thought to combine the two ideas: using a hydrocolloid to solidify a liquid and shaping this into spheres. <br />
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<i>Note: For this recipe I used 1.6% agar-agar of the total liquid. I've read that some have had better luck with 2.5%. If you use 2.5%, the amounts needed for the whites and yolks would be 6.25g and 3.125g, respectively.</i><br />
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<a href="http://www.cipolone.org/files/eggikura.pdf">You can obtain a PDF of this recipe by clicking here.</a><br />
<ul><li>1 egg white</li>
<li>250g (less weight of egg white) stock</li>
<li>4g agar-agar powder</li>
<li>1-2 cups canola oil, kept in freezer</li>
<li>ice and ice cream salt (optional)</li>
</ul><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuP2PUSFVfSeONXI6DV9nDUZNfaO1EJetUroNPe7bsQq57XHhTgQmMmrPn5kwblluPenqU3dGbV1Wamt43FpcRrF0TkovTdShRQzKHh8FgETZFo6QXfwvXTTJRrGIa3pVMyUXuczweEgg/s1600/DSC_1506.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuP2PUSFVfSeONXI6DV9nDUZNfaO1EJetUroNPe7bsQq57XHhTgQmMmrPn5kwblluPenqU3dGbV1Wamt43FpcRrF0TkovTdShRQzKHh8FgETZFo6QXfwvXTTJRrGIa3pVMyUXuczweEgg/s320/DSC_1506.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
First, separate the egg yolk from the white and measure both. Subtract this amount from 250. You want the total of egg white and stock to equal 250 grams.<br />
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Weigh out the stock. Remember, 250 grams minus the weight of the egg. (I was 1 gram off.)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiG03FbwbjE5KIN0XlKhy-3EDp_LZts3St0dUfHa-BPbpJ6hEY0G5uTyFOsQoMxx5RwlcVbNxDu7xJsu_TItrSwyi2IdHvrg-iHUNm9ttxLaTDQZga4gLppMggSzP6e23u5QuIVLHxSv4/s1600/DSC_1524.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiG03FbwbjE5KIN0XlKhy-3EDp_LZts3St0dUfHa-BPbpJ6hEY0G5uTyFOsQoMxx5RwlcVbNxDu7xJsu_TItrSwyi2IdHvrg-iHUNm9ttxLaTDQZga4gLppMggSzP6e23u5QuIVLHxSv4/s320/DSC_1524.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Next, bring the stock to a boil. Add the agar-agar and whisk vigorously to combine.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY2qkrCExTmyFqrb02GMsKvqTahjPuhb4W70YFkvazzisrL0Xo8x5WZZHb00qwOYH3-zquaTvnTmCue6DsMuqrkchuAdnftunmH437z3xkWLS2ypO9QFD3sv6CN2LoS-Q9KLMbzP6EI3o/s1600/DSC_1532.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY2qkrCExTmyFqrb02GMsKvqTahjPuhb4W70YFkvazzisrL0Xo8x5WZZHb00qwOYH3-zquaTvnTmCue6DsMuqrkchuAdnftunmH437z3xkWLS2ypO9QFD3sv6CN2LoS-Q9KLMbzP6EI3o/s320/DSC_1532.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Now, work quickly. Using a small ladle, spoon in a small amount of the hot liquid to the egg white and whisk. We are <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/05/how-to-temper-eggs.html">tempering</a> the eggs here so that they don't immediately cook as soon as they hit the hot liquid. Add small amounts at a time until about half of the hot liquid has been incorporated into the egg whites.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ctmw-XfeL_E/TaPZBPjpmxI/AAAAAAAABC0/MOf83tDIQpw/s1600/DSC_1543.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ctmw-XfeL_E/TaPZBPjpmxI/AAAAAAAABC0/MOf83tDIQpw/s320/DSC_1543.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Slowly pour the tempered egg whites back into the rest of the stock. Bring to a quick boil, then remove from heat. Give another whisk.<br />
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NOTE: As you drop the hot liquid into the cold oil, the temperature of the oil will rise as it attempts to reach an equilibrium. To combat this, I put ice, ice cream salt, and some water in a bowl and put the container of oil in this. The ice cream salt causes the ice to melt faster, dropping the temperature and keeping it lower than just ice and water would. <br />
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Take the canola oil from the freezer (and nestle it in the ice, ice cream salt, and water bath if you wish) and very quickly start adding in the egg white liquid, one drop at a time. I used a syringe and moved more quickly than I should have, but you can use whatever method works for you. <br />
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As soon as it hits the cold canola oil it will solidify. Try and keep the individual drops a uniform size.<br />
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Pour the oil through a fine sieve and run the egg spheres under cold water to wash off excess oil. Note that not all of them are perfectly shaped. If the solidification does not occur immediately, and two droplets touch in the oil they will combine and form an oddly shaped lump. I liked the variety, but you could probably use a spoon or colander with equal sized holes to "sort" the spheres, if you wish. These can now be set aside while the yolks are handled.<br />
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<ul><li>1 egg yolk</li>
<li>125g (less weight of the yolk) stock</li>
<li>2g agar-agar powder</li>
<li>1-2 cup canola oil, kept in freezer</li>
<li>ice and ice cream salt (optional)</li>
</ul><br />
The same process will be done with the yolks, just using half of the stock and half of the agar-agar.<br />
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Since these reminded me of roe so much, I thought it would be best to present them in a familiar way. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikura">Ikura</a> sushi is usually presented as a small cup made out of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori">nori</a> (seaweed sheets) with a rice base and filled with salmon roe. Egg on its own is always a breakfast food to me, so I thought replacing the rice base with a quick potato and pancetta hash and the nori with a dehydrated ketchup sheet would be an interesting take on it.<br />
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I made the ketchup from scratch using the <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/02/homemade-ketchup-from-scratch-recipe.html">Sauced recipe</a> from <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/">Serious Eats</a>. I'm not a big fan of ketchup since it usually overpowers the flavor of any dish, but this ended up being a very flavorful and spiced ketchup. Dehydrating is another commonly used molecular gastronomy technique. I've made jerky and dried fruits before, as well as some fruit leather, so I thought this could work the same way. Using my dehydrator, I followed the instructions for making fruit leather: essentially spread it out on the liquid tray and set the temperature to 135 degrees. After about 5 or 6 hours, I was able peel the sheet from the tray.<br />
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<i>Unfortunately, the camera decided not to save the photos of the strips being cut or the egg ikura being assembled and I didn't have enough of the dehydrated ketchup to redo this step.</i><br />
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For the base, I took half of a small potato (<a href="http://www.teamhightail.com/">K</a> was making a slow cooker chicken with potatoes, but boiled would work fine) and mashed it with a fork. In a small saucepan I cooked some diced pancetta, then mixed it with the pancetta and formed two small patties and fried them in some of the leftover canola oil. (Alternatively, you can make a more complex hash with some very finely diced onions and peppers.) I measured the strip of dehydrated ketchup, about an inch high and six inches long, and wrapped it around the small patty of fried potato. Then I spooned in egg white spheres until it was just about full, and topped it with a smaller spoonful of egg yolk spheres.<br />
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The taste was kind of surprising! I thought the ketchup strips would be too tough but with the heat from the potato they were softened and easily melted in my mouth. The egg spheres gave the impression of "popping" but were solid all the way through. They didn't add much to the flavor, but I felt the texture was more important than anything. The potato helped add substance and more flavor (especially with the pancetta) to the whole thing.<br />
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Obviously this is very time consuming. As you can see, creating uniform spheres using this method is pretty difficult and the payoff is pretty minimal. I liked experimenting with the agar-agar and certainly plan on using it again in the future. Something I love about this whole style of cooking is the ability to change the way a food is presented. The quote in the beginning of this post stayed with me throughout this process: We understand so much about the world and the universe, but so little about the processes involved in cooking. <br />
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We should never stop asking why and never stop trying something new with the answers we're given. Until next time, neighbors.Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-1228996683277551822011-04-04T12:30:00.022-05:002011-04-04T12:46:00.786-05:00Coming up soon: Science in the kitchen! And some changes ...Howdy, neighbors!<br />
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I have a couple of very cool things planned that I wanted to mention, but hope to not give too much away! The start of <a href="http://www.syfy.com/marcelsquantumkitchen/">Marcel's Quantum Kitchen</a> on the <a href="http://www.syfy.com/">Syfy</a> Channel* has gotten me interested in some various <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_gastronomy">molecular gastronomy</a> techniques. I've been doing some experimenting and have a meal planned out, but I'm still trying to get my hands on some "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transglutaminase">meat glue</a>" (transglutaminase) without having to spend $90 on buying a 1 kg package. I requested some samples from <a href="http://www.ajiusafood.com/">Ajinomoto</a>, who sells the <a href="http://www.ajiusafood.com/products/enzymes/activa.aspx">Activa</a> line of transglutaminase products, but we'll see if they actually send it to a non-chef/non-retailer. What I have in mind for it's use isn't something you would normally do, but I think it would be a good way to show how modern science can be used to create interesting dishes. I'll also be showing you some spherification (more or less) techniques, making <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agar_agar">agar agar</a> noodles, and converting oils/fats to powders. Expect a different post for each of the four, with the "meat glue" ending the series.<br />
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Also, I understand that not everyone has an hour to read my quite lengthy posts. I'll do my best to keep them short and from now on I'll also be attaching a link to a PDF of the simplified recipe for those of you who might be in a rush.<br />
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In the couple of months since I started posting somewhat regularly on Mr. Onion's Neighborhood I've had almost 1,700 site visits. A huge thank you to my followers and to all of you who come by and read, even if it's only to look at the pictures! My only hope is that you've been inspired in some small way to try something new, adapt something old, or just appreciate the good food that can come with a little bit of time and a lot of love from your very own kitchen! <br />
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Keep on cooking, friends. Until next time!<br />
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* <small>I hate the new name, Syfy, for the record. Bleh.</small>Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220210149897045525.post-79373745634520228512011-04-01T12:30:00.003-05:002011-04-01T13:41:00.837-05:00The Basics: Tomato Sauce<i>This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of "basic" recipes. So much good food is based on the simplest of recipes, such as a good tomato sauce. I promise not to insult you by teaching you how to boil water or peel a potato. Let's get to it!</i> <br />
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My grandmother, Edith Nero, passed away last year. She was 84, had a small portion of a functioning lung left (she had tuberculosis as a child) and was an awesome lady. She watched a lot of soaps during the day and, if you had the chance to sit with her she'd tell you all of their stories, using phrases like "the girl with the boobs" to describe the characters. She was a funny lady and is certainly very missed.<br />
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Some years ago when she first moved in with my parents I had her show me how she made her sauce and meatballs. (Yes, I call it sauce. Let's just let the whole sauce vs. gravy thing go for now, or you can <a href="http://www.cheftalk.com/forum/thread/8098/gravy-or-sauce">read more on it</a> here and make your own decision.) My older sister, from <a href="http://missfancypantstris.blogspot.com/">Ms. Fancy Pants Tris blog</a> (for you running folk) learned how to make her <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzelle">pizzelles</a>, something that my family still makes every Christmas. I was more interested in the meat ... and the sauce, of course. <br />
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For the sauce:<br />
<ul><li>1 can of tomatoes (see below)</li>
<li>1 onion, chopped</li>
<li>grated cheese</li>
<li>olive oil</li>
<li>garlic</li>
<li>spices (salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, etc.)</li>
</ul>I use a lot of dried spices for this. Because of the time it takes to cook you're better off tossing in the dried spices and just letting them go. If you want to use fresh herbs, go ahead and use them closer to the end or just before serving. For the grated cheese, I'm a huge fan of Locatelli. It's a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecorino_Romano_cheese">pecorino romano cheese</a> that has a great flavor and was something that was a staple in our house growing up. Most grocery stores sell it grated in a small tub for a pretty reasonable price.<br />
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For the tomatoes, you have some options. I prefer to use crushed tomatoes, like my grandmother. You can, if you want a thinner sauce, use just a can of tomato sauce. You can also use a can of whole tomatoes run through a blender. I find the crushed tomatoes to work great. I don't use tomato paste; it's a good thickener, but if you're able to cook your sauce long enough you won't need it.<br />
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My grandmother, for some reason, liked to saute the garlic until was almost burnt. I found it works a little better if you heat some oil (a tablespoon or so) and saute the onions first until they are soft. Add in as much garlic as you like and saute until fragrant.<br />
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Pour in the can of crushed tomatoes, dry herbs, some salt and pepper and stir to distribute everything.<br />
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Bring it to a boil, then set it on a very low simmer. <br />
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Not many people like tomato sauce on their ceiling. I'm one of those people. I like a thick sauce, so I prefer to cook with the lid off. Since an open pot usually means ceiling sauce, you can put the lid on crooked with some space open for moisture to escape. As the water cooks off, the sauce will thicken, and the pot lid will keep your ceiling from looking like a Jackson Pollock painting. If you want a thinner sauce, keep the lid on but be prepared to watch it closely: a lidded pot boils a lot harder than one with the steam escaping, which leads to ...<br />
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<i><u><b>STIR YOUR SAUCE OFTEN</b></u></i>. (Is all caps, bold, italics, and underline too much?) More often than I'd like to admit I've had sauce burn. It starts at the bottom of the pot and you might not notice it right away. Stirring is a good way to get a feel for what's going on. Check the consistency. Taste it. Smell it. Does it feel like something is sticking to the bottom? Then turn the heat down. Did it go for too long and get too thick? Add some water. (Yes, water. It'll be fine.)<br />
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<i>Good cooking uses all senses: if you blindly follow a recipe without using your other senses you'll end up with some mediocre food.</i><br />
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I think this is a great base recipe. Add whatever you like, remove whatever you don't. It's great for pasta and fantastic with pizza. It freezes well so you can portion it into small zip-top bags and use them as you need them. <br />
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If you want a more flavorful sauce, add meat to this recipe (of course). I grew up with pasta sauce having chunks of pork neck bones, or whole pieces of sausage, or pieces of chicken mixed in. They all bring a different flavor to the party in the pot. Pork bones can be thrown in at the same time you add the canned tomatoes. I like to brown sausage a little bit in a pan, just to help it holds it's shape, before putting it in; towards the end of the cooking process you can go in and cut them in half or into pieces, or leave them whole. Leftover chicken seems to work best: just remove the skins, unless you feel like fishing out gooey lumps. Just make sure that whatever meat you put in there has some time to cook thoroughly, <i>and then some</i>. <br />
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My only suggestion is to avoid adding sugar. I feel that adding sugar is a means of cheating by cutting out the sweetening process that happens as the sugars in the tomatoes work themselves out. I suppose if you're cut for time you can do this, but letting it happen on its own seems to create a natural balance of sweetness and acidity. A lot of people may disagree with this, but when sugar's added I can always taste it ... and not in a good way.Big Onionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15828663940095148052noreply@blogger.com5