Greenman Cooking

How's This For a Pickle?

2012-01-26T21:27:00.000-08:00

Lately I’ve been drawn to pickles and the whole pickling process.
This may have been brought on by the Guerilla Chef spending time with his new tsukemono press or perhaps his mention of various middle east pickles he enjoys.
Whatever the reason, when I saw a used copy of Quick Pickles, Easy Recipes with Big Flavor by, Chris Schlesinger, John Willoughby and Dan George, I had to pick it up. As luck would have it this is one of the pickling books the Guerilla Chef recommends in his recent post regarding the cooking books he finds the most useful.

Wandering through the book turns up a whole raft of recipes that just plain sound great. I had to do it!

Choosing which recipe to begin with was actually rather difficult, they all sounded so good. I finally settled on Famous Back Eddy House Pickles. The Back Eddy is a restaurant owned by one of the authors and this dish is said to be very popular with the restaurant’s patrons.

For the full recipe you’ll have to find the book. I don’t want to violate any copyright protections by giving the complete recipe here. They developed it, they deserve to be compensated for it.
Besides, the book rocks, you’ll want to have it anyway.

Here are the basic vegetable ingredients to this dish. We've got pickling cucumbers, a couple onions, carrots, garlic (I put in a few more garlic than the recipe calls for - if you read this blog regularly you know that I love garlic), and a couple bell peppers.

Hiding in the sidewings is apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, coriander seed, allspice, mustard seed, ground cloves, salt, and bay leaves.

The first thing to do is slice and salt the cucumbers. I found this great large crystal sea salt at the dollar store and have been having some fun with it. I typically use Kosher salt for a step like this but these big salt crystals are pretty cool.

The salted cucumber slices get covered in ice and put into the refrigerator for an hour or two. I'm kind of embarassed to say that we didn't have any ice on hand as the freezer is too full of other stuff. I had to treat Fayme to an ice cream cone at the corner Dairy Queen so I could beg a large cup of ice from them.

Here are the other vegetable ingredients ready to play with. The garlic is hiding in the bottom of the bowl under the onions.
There's my favorite knife, too. I gather that there are some high end kitchen knives being marketed these days that are being made from a revolutionary "new" material called carbon steel. Heck, these carbon steel knives have been around for a very long time and some of us have been using and enjoying them all along. It's not a kitchen without a good sharp knife and this one is mine.

Here's an artistic photo of the sunshine coming in the window to light up the pan full of sliced vegetables. This step is sauteeing them lightly to soften the carrots.

Now for the serious stuff - apple cider vinegar and all the spices. We'll bring this to a boil and then cook it for a few minutes to infuse everything together. As the vinegar and spices heat up a taste bud squeezing aroma is filling the kitchen, and the whole apartment!

I've taken the cucumbers out of the refrigerator and drained, rinsed, and drained them again. Now they're being mixed with the sauteed vegetables and we're just waiting for the spiced vinegar to cook a little longer.

Just a little bit longer...

Pouring...

And poured...

And bottled!

Now's the hard part. After the pickles cool to room temperature they'll be put into the refrigerator where they may be kept for up to one month. But after sneeking a couple tastes I don't think they'll last anywhere near that long.
They're ready to eat now but I think they'll be best at refrigerator temperature. I'm looking forward to giving these a real taste test tomorrow morning.

Happy pickling!

Update:
A number of days have passed and I have to say these pickles have turned out really wonderful. We've been snacking on them and also having them with many of our meals.
My pickles don't look like the ones in the book's photo. Those look really clean, crisp, and are still their natural color. Mine have taken on a brownish hue from the brown apple cider vinegar I used and they look somewhat wilted. But they are still crisp with a great snap in the mouth. The taste has a good vinegar bite that isn't overwhelming.
The next time I make these I'm going to see if sauteeing the vegetables a shorter time improves their look and I'll also use a good quality vinegar that hasn't sat in my cupboard for who knows how many years.

Chili Verde, Second Edition

2011-11-16T01:05:00.000-08:00

This past Monday we went out to visit good friends Rick and Lynn at the Synergy Art and Design Studio. I took along the goods to make chili verde for our dinner and Fayme was kind enough to take pictures through the day so I could write about it.

Our hosts...

We had visited Jon’s International Market in Garden Grove, CA on Sunday to get all the parts for the chili. Most of the ingredients may be purchased at any good grocery store but Jon’s had pork on sale and I wanted to find a good piece.

First off I had to cut the pork in half so it would fit in the browning pan.

After seasoning with salt and pepper on both sides the pork was browned in a stainless steel pan with a little bit of olive oil. Vegetable oil will work fine, too.

While the pork was browning I put the big pot on the burner with three cans of chicken broth so it could begin to heat up. When the pork was browned it went straight into the pot. After the second piece of meat was browned and in the pot I put a rough chopped white onion in the pan to brown a bit in the remaining oil and fat. When the onion was almost done I deglazed the pan with a bit of broth from the pot. After that everything went into the pot.

With everything in the pot it was easy to see the liquid level and I added some water to bring the liquid up to barely cover the meat. The pan was covered and left to simmer for some time.
While the pork simmered to tender we began prepping the other ingredients.
First was removing the husks from the tomatillos and washing them.

Next the tomatillos were cut in half and put cut side down on a cookie sheet. Accompanying them were a few jalapeno chilies and a number of garlic cloves. The full cookie sheet was slid under the stove broiler and a close watch was given since I’m not familiar with this broiler. When the tomatillo skins were brown the sheet was removed and set aside for everything to cool. These could have done with some more time under the broiler.

Fayme has become really good at fire roasting chilies on the range top so she took over that task. As each chili was done it was placed into a glass bowl and a clean plastic bag was pulled over the bowl. The chilies will continue to cook inside a covered container like this and that’s just what we want.

When you look out the kitchen window this is what you see. That's Roxy on the left and Jet on the right. They love watching the strange goings on in the house.

The jalapeno chilies hadn’t browned very well under the broiler so Fayme gave them an additional blast on the range top to finish them off.

After these chilies were cool enough to handle I rubbed off the skins, cut off the stem ends, and removed the seeds.

This is probably a good time to remind folks that rubber or latex gloves are recommended when handling chilies like this. I always forget to use them and usually end up paying for my indiscretion. It may be hours later but rubbing my eyes or visiting the restroom will remind me that chilies can be HOT. There are some places you do not want chilies to go; your eyes are only one of them. You’d think I would learn…

As I was cleaning the Anaheim chilies I also gave the roasted jalapeno chilies the same treatment. Jalapeno chilies can have some good heat to them but it can also vary quite a bit from one chili to another. It’s always tricky determining the right number to add. Too little and the dish is bland, too many and everyone is breathing fire. I don’t know how but this dish turned out just about right.

By now, enough time has passed that the simmering pork has become wonderfully tender. I fished it all out of the pot with a pair of tongs and put it on the cookie sheet to cool a little.

After removing and discarding the fat, bones, and any other inedible bits the meat was shredded into bite size pieces with a fork and the tongs. The now very mouth watering meat was returned to the simmering broth in the pot.

When things start smelling good you never know who will drop in. This old girl lives up the road and occasionally wanders down to see what the neighbours are up to.

The skinned and de-seeded chilies were combined with the roasted garlic (peeled), tomatillos, and three bunches of cilantro (I chopped off about half the stem length). Whirled through a blender in a couple batches we ended up with a beautiful green sauce that was poured into the pot on the stove.

We’re almost ready to eat!

A second white onion was chopped up and the pieces added to the pot. When the onion is cooked we’ll be ready.

Right after adding the onion was a good time to do a few other herbs. Dried oregano, dried ground cumin, and dried ground coriander were added to the pot in what seemed to be good quantities. After test tasting I added a bit more cumin and some salt. We're really close now.
These little packages of herbs are available in all the grocery stores I frequent and I really like them. They're far less expensive than the name-brand stuff in jars and the quality seems to be right up there. Best of all, when a package gets too old for the spice to still be vibrant, I don't feel bad about dumping the old one and getting a new one, most of these are less than two dollars a package.

The broth was a little thinner than I wanted so I made a paste of corn masa and water and added it to the pot. When you do this be sure to mix the water and masa into kind of a thin slurry. I made it a little thick and spent the next ten minutes chasing down and squashing chunks of masa in the broth. The masa has to cook a bit to thicken the pot so be sure you don’t add it right before serving the dish.

To accompany the bowls of chili verde I chopped up some cilantro and a few green onions. There was also sour cream and some Mexican cheese. You’re on your own for what kind of Mexican cheese to use. There are a lot of different kinds and they all look very similar in the store refrigerator. I don’t know what’s what so if I pick a good one it’s purely by chance. We also had warm flour tortillas on the side.

This batch of chili verde was voted to be a resounding success. It turned out a bit spicier than the first batch but Fayme was still able to eat it. Although, I have to remember to have milk on hand for her when chili is served. It really does help control the heat.

This was really a great day with some good friends. Many thanks to Rick and Lynn for hosting us and for taking some of the leftovers. With four people the amount I made was just about right for a couple meals for everyone.

Postcript...
Our neighbour, Morgan, has used this recipe to make her own version of chili verde and she did something that never occured to me. It's certainly worth passing along here.
Morgan used a cut of pork that had quite a bit of fat on it. Now, fat can help the meat stay moist and flavorful but too much of it makes for a greasy dish. Morgan simmered the meat in the broth and when it was done she refrigerated the broth overnight. The next day it was easy to pick the cakes of solidified grease off the top of the broth and dispose of them. From there she picked up where she left off and continued making the dish.
The cut of meat I used had fat but not a great amount of it. It never occured to me that de-greasing the broth would be desirable for other cuts. Depending upon the cut of pork you use, and the time you have available to make the dish, this step could be something you want to do.
Thanks, Morgan!

Happy eating!

Chili Verde For The First Time

2011-09-26T02:44:00.000-07:00

I made a mistake today:
I made a dish I’d never done before and I forgot to get any pictures other than one right before I started eating. I hate it when I do that.

Let me start at the beginning…

This past Saturday we went to a friend’s wedding up in Ventura, CA. Our good friends Sal and Aimee let us hitch a ride along with them so we got to visit with them, too. Once at the wedding we all sat with Ken and Barbara and their young son, Jack. Unfortunately, Jack began to get a little vocal during the ceremony so Barbara took him outside the building and she consequently missed much of the ceremony.

The reception and dinner was held immediately after the ceremony in the same room. One of the meat courses was a sliced pork roast. Sal brought up the idea that the leftover pork would make a great chili verde. He went on to describe the chili verde his grandmother makes and it really sounded pretty special. While I’ve made more than a few gallons of chili con carne I’ve never made chili verde (green chili for non-Spanish speakers) so I paid close attention to what Sal said. I asked a few questions along the way and got an idea for how the dish is made.

After dinner we weren’t fast enough to snag any of the leftover pork but by now I couldn’t let that stop me. I hit the grocery store Sunday afternoon.

We already had four pork chops that needed to get cooked and to them I added a couple small pork roasts that were on sale. About 1 3/4 pounds of tomatillos, two white onions, two bunches of cilantro, a number of garlic cloves, three jalapeno peppers, and a handful of Anaheim chilies gave me a bunch of good stuff to work with.

For the pork chops I de-boned them and diced the meat into somewhat large chunks. Those chunks got tossed into an oiled skillet in a couple of batches to brown. The second batch was accompanied by a diced onion. When the pork chunks were browned they went into my big pot where some cans of chicken stock and some water were heating up over a low flame.

On the two small pork roasts I roughly boned them and cut the meat into big chunks, about four inches square, or so. These chunks also went into the skillet to brown. The bones still had quite a bit of meat left on them so after they were browned everything went into the pot to begin simmering. Somewhere along the way I dropped in about five or six peeled and smashed garlic cloves.

While the pork was happily simmering I peeled the husks off the tomatillos and washed them. After cutting them in half I put them on a foil lined pan with the cut side down. After adding the jalapenos and a handful of garlic cloves (unpeeled), the pan went under the broiler until the tomatillo skins were browned.

Moving right along… After the tomatillos cooled they went into the blender in a couple batches. Each batch also got a bunch of cilantro, washed with most of the stems chopped off. Also included were the jalapenos (seeded) and the garlic that had been roasted (now peeled). The pretty green slurry from the blender got dumped into the pot with the simmering pork and now things were looking really good.

Somewhere along the way Fayme volunteered to roast the Anaheim chilies for me. Since she enjoys it and also does it better than I do, how could I refuse?

After the chilies cooled off a bit I peeled them and took out the seeds and stem. The chilies went into the blender and got a very rough chop there. At least it was as rough a chop as a blender can give. We’ll just say they weren’t pureed.

Now it was time to relax and let the pot simmer and tenderize the pork. Somewhere along this step is a good time to taste the chili broth to check for spices. I added some salt, oregano, and cumin. Oh, and the second onion, diced.

When the pork got tender I fished out all those larger chunks and shredded them with a fork. The bone pieces got the meat pulled off and shredded, bones were discarded.

Put the meat back into the broth, add a bit of corn starch to thicken things up, we’re ready to eat.

Thanks, Sal!

I’m glad you put the idea into my head to make this dish, it really turned out good. When I make it again I’ll see if I can remember to take more pictures so the story will be a little more interesting.

Happy Cooking!

Salsa Fresca for Pasadena

2011-04-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we’re going to our monthly gathering at the Pasadena archery range. It’s nothing formal, just a bunch of friends who get together to practice somewhat primitive art in various forms.

Some people work on bows, some on arrows, a couple people will usually flint knap. There are always folks working on and throwing atlatls. We have folks interested in fiber arts and at least one very talented bead worker.

We never go hungry at these gatherings because someone is always bringing stuff to munch on. It may be a tray of cupcakes, jugs of homemade pineapple drink, cookies, homemade cheese, or a big jar of pretzels from Costco. There’s always something.

I thought it’s been some while since I made salsa so at the store yesterday I gathered up the ingredients. I want to make a decent sized batch so I can take it to Pasadena to share with everyone.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes, I used Roma tomatoes this time but they’ll all work.
Anaheim chilies
Poblano chilies
Jalapeno chilies
White onion
Garlic
Cilantro
Lime
Salt, spices

How much of each one to use?
Well, this is going to frustrate some people and I’m sorry for that, but I make salsa by look and taste so I don’t have specific measurements. It’s kind of chancy to do it this way. A couple times I’ve put in too many chilies and had to run to the store to get more tomatoes to even out the tomato/chili ration. This time I almost used too many tomatoes but stopped cutting them just in time.

Making this salsa isn't difficult. The chilies are fire roasted and that takes a little bit of time but for the rest you pretty much just chop everything up and mix it together.
It's really easy to fire roast chilies on the kitchen range but since I had a pretty good amount of them I used the gas bbq on the patio.
As the chilis came off the grill I put them in a plastic shopping bag so they'd continue to steam and cook. When they cooled off enough to handle I peeled the skin, removed the stems and seeds, and chopped them up. Be sure not to rinse the chilis in water as you peel them. Doing so washes away a lot of the wonderful flavor.
The Guerilla Chef has a great tutorial for roasting chilies and he remembered to take pictures (I forgot when I did mine).

Here are the pictures I did remember to take...

Why yes, I do like garlic...

White onion...

I cut a corner on the jalapenos and roasted them in an iron spider on the range. I didn't peel the jalapenos but did remove the stems and seeds before chopping them.

Freshly fire roasted Anaheim chilies and Poblano chilies...

Readying the chilies for dicing by removing the stems and seeds. I've already peeled them at this point.

The bowl of diced chilies...

By this point I've already gone to the biggest container I have short of a 5 gallon bucket. I just need to finish by chopping the cilantro and adding salt, chili powder, and ground coriander.

Oh, yeah... lime juice, too. I didn't use all these, just to taste.

Done and ready to eat. I hope everyone enjoys it tomorrow.

Something to keep in mind when taking on a project like this: you've got to have good tools!
That means a knife designed to chop and dice and the knife has to be sharp.
Cutting tomatoes can be frustrating if your knife isn't sharp. Cutting this many tomatoes with a dull knife is begging for a slip and an injury.
The chef's knife is probably my most used tool in the kitchen. I keep it sharp because it works better that way. If you've got dull knives your time in the kitchen isn't going to be nearly as enjoyable as it could be.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for reading!

A Simple Mid-Day Snack

2011-01-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

I was looking in the refrigerator yesterday to see what I could dig up for lunch.
There were lots of possibilities: tuna sandwich, lunch meat sandwich, leftover chicken curry, Japanese noodles... and probably much more that I didn't notice.
But after thinking about it I decided on something simple and light.
I decided on a mixed bowl of... stuff. That's the best way I can think to describe it, stuff.
I cut a cucumber into strips and sprinkled it with Kosher salt. A nice tomato got the same treatment. Some blu cheese and feta cheese with herbs went into the mix along with a small handful of Kalamata olives. Pepperoncini peppers rounded out the dish.

Feeling the need for something crunchy I added a bowl of crackers but ended up not eating very many. The bowl of mixed stuff was so good I just forgot all about the crackers.
This may not have been a very orthodox lunch snack but it sure was good.
I encourage you to give a look past the regular sandwiches and other lunch foods to see what you can come up with. You could well surprise yourself.

Thanks for reading!

A Visit to the Himalayan Grill

2010-12-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

A post on the Guerilla Chef blog recently alerted me to a restaurant in Sunset Beach that I had to visit.

The Guerilla Chef goes to The Himalayan Grill where he lives in Flagstaff, Arizona and it turns out there is one near me in California, too. After reading his description of the lunch buffet I just had to go.

Fayme and I met a good friend of ours, Robert, at the restaurant and cruised on in.

I have to say, my first reaction was disappointment. The Guerilla Chef recommended the lunch buffet, the restaurant’s web site said they have a lunch buffet, my menu said they have a lunch buffet...
They no longer have the lunch buffet.
Damn it!

Business owners, please take note: if you have a website, don’t build it and then forget about it. When things change in your business, change the website!

Anyway, once I got over my initial disappointment we checked out the lunch menu and made our orders. Robert ordered chicken masala, Fayme opted for tandoori chicken, and I decided on lamb curry, I just can't pass up lamb. For an accompaniment we got garlic naan bread.
The meals started off with dal soup, a lentil soup prepared with Himalayan herbs and spices. Now, brand me as a heathen if you must but I’ve never cared for lentils or other members of the legume family. They’re just not my thing, which raises hell with my love for Mexican food.
But I wanted to give these guys a chance so I dug into the soup.

Well, I may not like lentils but I guess I do like dal soup. You couldn’t have drowned an ant in what was left in my bowl.

Our meals arrived in very cool looking steel pan/plates: entrée, Basmati rice, side salad, and an unidentified spinach dish that was delicious.

My lamb curry...

Robert's chicken masala...

Fayme's tandoori chicken...

Garlic naan...

The meals were great and there was little left on any of our dishes when we pushed them away.
The atmosphere in the restaurant was very nice, staff was great, and the background music very enjoyable. Robert is a professional musician of no small talent and even he approved of the music.

Happy and full, Fayme and I...

And Robert...

Will I go back? Good question, I may. The food was very good and I’ve only touched the bare surface of what the Himalayan Grill has to offer, but that lack of the promised lunch buffet just rankles me. Once I get over that I imagine we’ll visit again. The quality of food certainly will make return visits worthwhile.

Many thanks to the Guerilla Chef for pointing me in the right direction. I highly recommend taking a look at his blog, he's a great writer covering some wonderful subjects in the food world.

Thanks for reading!

Chicken, Shrimp, Udon, Tofu, and Vegetables... MMmmmmm

2010-06-29T21:53:00.000-07:00

I wish I'd gotten pictures of tonight's dinner but when I was putting it together I wasn't thinking of a blog post.

I wish I had been because, wow, did it ever turn out good!

I had a family pack of chicken thighs ($ .79lb at the new local Jon's Market, woohoo!) that needed to be addressed before they went bad.

I put five of the thighs in a pot of water and set it to boiling lightly. I also added a small peeled and quartered onion to the pot.

As I boned out the rest of the chicken thighs to ready them for the freezer I added the bones to the boiling pot.

After getting the meat into the freezer I cut up a few vegetables into thin slices: a carrot, a couple florettes of broccali, one yellow squash, and a small handful of snow peas (not cut). One at a time I put these vegetables into the simmering stock and pulled them out with a slotted spoon when they were cooked. I set them all aside in a bowl.

Somewhere along the way I pulled out the whole chicken thighs that were in the boiling stock. I wanted them to cook through but not loose all their "chicken" to the pot. Once these pieces were cool enough to handle I pulled off the meat, set it aside, and tossed the bones back into the pot to boil a bit longer.

I had pulled out a few shrimp from the freezer and set them aside to defrost. Once they had I peeled the shells off and put the shells in with the boiling stock. The shrimp were cooked in the stock just like the vegetables had been. Once cooked I set them aside with the vegetables.

After the liquid in the pot had reduced a bit and it seemed as if all the flavor was out of everything I ran a strainer through the pot and discarded the chicken bones, shrimp shells, onion, and anything else the strainer caught.

Keeping the stock boiling I put in two packages of Japanese udon noodles and cooked them per the package directions, about two minutes, adding the sauce packets at the end of the cooking.

All the cooked vegetables, the chicken, shrimp, and a handful of cubed tofu were in a big bowl and I poured the noodles and broth over it all. Ready to eat.

Holy cow, was tonight's dinner ever good. I was actually a little surprised it turned out so well.

While the process sounds as if it was somewhat complicated, it really wasn't. It turned out to be a great way to use the chicken bones and get use from what I may normally have discarded.

For some reason all this reminds me of why I took a cooking class in high school. I figured that if I wanted to eat good food it wasn't fair to rely on a girlfriend or wife to make it for me. I should learn how to make it myself.

30 some years later, I'm damn glad I had that foresight. Now, if only I'd thought about saving more money...

Happy eating!

The Horror of a Magazine Recipe

2010-06-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

During a recent visit to my Mom's she gave us a couple magazines that she was finished with.

One was a cooking magazine and reading the cover got me a little excited: Step by Step to Authentic Paella.

I don't know what it is about paella. I've never cooked it, never even eaten it. But any dish with paella's ingredients just has to be wonderful and I'm absolutely fascinated by it. I imagine I'll have to try making it pretty soon.

You'll notice that I haven't mentioned the name of the magazine. There's a reason for that.

Reading the article I saw a section on "making the shrimp-mussel broth." In this section the shrimp shells and some mussels are used to make... you guessed it... a broth. Here's an excerpt:

Add the remaining mussels to the boiling water. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain the broth into a 2-quart liquid measure, discarding the shells and mussels.

Wait... do what? Discard the mussels?

I was horrified!

Mussels aren't cheap and I'm supposed to throw these away? This author is nuts!

I do my best to not waste food. If I've got chopped pieces of something in a container so I can introduce them into a pan, they all go in. There isn't a chunk of carrot or sliver of chicken thigh that gets washed down the drain. To simply throw these mussels away with callous abandon is a sin against Mother Nature and goes completely against my principles (and wallet).

You want a seafood-type stock or broth for the dish, use fish scraps. Don't have any? Get some clam juice and make it work. But don't waste food.

You want a good recipe for paella? Don't get it from this magazine. Get it from a site like The Spanish Table. While you're there check out their paella pans. I'm lusting after one of their carbon steel models.

You know what would be even better? Make up your own recipe. Take a look at a recipe like the one linked above and then have fun from there. Paella is a country dish that should use what you've got available. Have clams but not mussels? Ok! Have rabbit but not a shred of chicken? Ok!

Sorry, Nike. I have to do this...

Just make it!

You Never Know What You'll Find

2010-05-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since I posted to this blog. I guess it’s about time I got off my butt and got something in here.
I haven’t been doing a lot of cooking lately. I’ve been too busy making arrows for people. But, heck… that’s a good thing!

Here’s something food related that happened recently:
My mom and her partner love to go to yard sales. There’s just no telling what they find and sometimes they get some pretty good deals on various things. She picked up a bread machine for Fayme’s older daughter for an incredibly reasonable price.
We went up to visit my mom a couple weeks ago and she told me she had something for me. This is what she set in my hands…

And this is what I found inside the bag…

Holy cow, I’ve hit the jackpot!
Never again will I complain about bland food. Now I can take a couple bottles of lovely Tobasco in my pocket and be assured that anywhere I go I’ll be able to assure my tongue doesn’t fall asleep during the meal.

Happy eating!

Jerky, part 2

2010-02-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

London broil went on sale this week for $1.99 lb. Since I have a Pasadena gathering coming up tomorrow I thought I'd get a couple pieces and make some more jerky.
I did things a little differently this time, kind of kept it simple.
I used the teriyaki marinade again for the base and added a minced onion, crushed garlic (about 5 cloves, I like garlic), ground garlic (did I mention I like garlic?), ground coriander, ground chili, dried oregano, pickled chilis, chili sauce, smoke flavoring, and some dried parsley. That last item, the parsley, was a mistake. I thought the bottle had oregano in it. Didn't hurt, though, this was The... Best... Jerky... EVER!

Now that I know our oven has challenges at low temperatures I kept an eye on it and turned it off and on to keep the temperature low. As soon as the jerky was dry enough to stop dripping I turned the oven off entirely and put a 75w light in with the oven door shut. That worked like a champ, the jerky is dry without being too crisp.

Happy snacking and thanks for reading!

Homemade Beef Jerky, you'll want to read this one

2010-01-07T19:32:00.000-08:00

I've been making beef jerky for quite a few years. I don't remember when I first made it but it must have been sometime back in the late 70's or early 80's. I've never had a smoker or dehydrator, I've just used the kitchen oven on a low setting to dry out the meat after I've marinated it.
I've made lots of different jerky recipes over the years. In fact, I doubt I've ever made it the same way twice. Partly this is because I keep trying new things and partially because I always have different ingredients available in the cupboard. I've never made a batch that wasn't snapped up immediately upon offering it to folks. I don't know if this is because of the way I make it or the fact that few meat eaters will turn down free beef jerky. Whatever the reason, I get pretty good reviews.
Wait a minute. Now that I think about it I did get one kind of negative reaction to my "recipe." In an internet forum I visit once in a while someone asked about beef jerky recipes. I posted up how I make it and thought that would be the end of it. Shortly thereafter someone else kind of chastised me for putting all the stuff into the marinade. Seems this individual thought dried meat should be made the way the native folks made it with nothing added to it, or just a bit of salt added. Well, that's fine and I'm sure some people like it that way. But I didn't think that's what the original recipe seeker was looking for and it's not what I'd be looking for if I was asking about jerky recipes. I'm not drying meat as a survival food or to see me through the winter, I'm not making it as an exercise in paleo cooking. I'm making it because I like to eat it and enjoy sharing it with my friends, and most of us like some seasoning with it.

Ok, enough of that! Let's make some kick butt Clan Taylor Beef Jerky!

Meat - I just get what's cheap. When the London broil cut comes on sale, that's what I use. I've used flank steak and brisket before and both work great, but they are a little costly. The London broil is a good slab of meat, relatively free of fat, and it goes on sale fequently. Remember, I almost always buy my meat when it's on sale.
Marinade - For convenience sake I generally get a big jar of teriyaki marinade to use as my base. I've also used soy sauce with great results. If you choose soy sauce you may want to consider mixing it with water so it's not too salty. I don't generally have that issue with teriyaki.
Spices - Use whatever you want.
No, seriously. Use whatever sounds good to you. I tend to pick the spices I use in two ways: it sounds good or I'm tired of looking at it in the cupboard.
I usually like to make my jerky a little (or a lot) spicy. I've used chili powder, salsa, fresh chilis, taco sauce, Tabasco sauce... it's all good.

Here's what I used this time.
Teriyaki marinade, onion, fresh garlic, black pepper, granulated garlic, Tabasco sauce, ground chili powder, cayenne powder, oregano, coriander seeds, dried chili flakes, Jamaican jerk seasoning, Vietnamese hot chili sauce, liquid smoke flavoring.
Here's an example of how I arrive at some of my seasonings decisions:

The ground black pepper has been in the cupboard for a long time and I don't use it since I started grinding it fresh, use that stuff up.
I've got four bottles of Tobasco, let's use one up.
Can't have too much garlic, let's go for fresh and granulated.
Coriander is used on South African biltong, must be good - in it goes.
Jerk sauce is seriously good stuff, can't miss that.
Vietnamese hot chili sauce... oh, yeah. 'Nuff said.

I'm going to toast the coriander seeds in an iron skillet to bloom out their flavor.
After toasting the seeds I crushed them with the bottom of a jar. Seriously fine smell in the kitchen at this point.

To bring all the flavors together I'll simmer the marinade for a short time. First picture is all the dry stuff, the second is with the marinade added.

Hmm, I may have went overboard on the coriander.

Here's what I got for meat. Two good pieces, not a lot of fat to trim off and lose. If the fat is left on it can go rancid after a bit. On the other hand, a little fat does taste good. I'm not really picky when I trim the fat. I get the big stuff off but I don't worry about small pieces.

The meat needs to be sliced into somewhat thin strips. Partially freezing the meat will make it easier to cut but I've found that good sharp knives make this pretty unnecessary.

The sweeping blade design of these knives is great for cutting slices. I can get a whole slice off with one motion. Sawing back and forth with the wrong knife or a dull knife will give ragged edges on the meat. The jerky will still taste great but won't look quite as nice.

I got that bottom knife at a flea market or in a junk shop somewhere. It's good quality carbon steel and takes a fine edge. It's a seriously big knife and I don't use it very often, but when I reach for it it's the best tool for the job and a real pleasure to use.

If you cut the meat across the grain, like these pieces have been, the jerky will be more tender for chewing.

These pieces were cut with the grain. They'll be a little tougher to chew but won't fall apart if I have them in my pocket while I'm hiking or hunting.

Really, either way will work fine.

Here's what I got from those two pieces of meat. This should make a pretty good amount of jerky.

There's that ugly green bowl again... still taking donations for a prettier one. I'm up to $ .75 ( found it in the washing machine).

The cooled marinade is poured over the meat and everything is mixed well. Now it's into the refrigerator for an overnight marinade.

Here's what it looks like the next day.

At this point I can't begin to describe how incredibly good this smells.

Just so the meat isn't quite as drippy as I get it into the oven, I've poured it into this colander to drain a bit.

A very rare self-portrait of the mad chef. Would you eat food from this character?

To prep the oven I've removed one rack and moved the other to the top position.

The bottom of the oven has been lined with aluminum foil. Until the meat reaches a particular levl of dryness the marinade will drip onto the bottom of the oven. Without foil down there to catch the drips I'd have a heck of a mess to clean up.

This step can be a little messy so I do the work over the bowl and have a paper towel down to catch other drips. Each piece of meat has a toothpick poked through one end and it is then hung on the rack. The meat dangles below and the toothpick keeps it from falling down.

Alrighty, the meat is all hung to dry. The oven is put on the lowest temperature. If you have an older oven with a pilot light that's probably just about perfect. Ours is temperamental so I go for the lowest setting and leave the door partly open so it doesn't get too hot inside. Remember, you're drying the meat, not cooking it.

I'll probably leave this in overnight. It should be done in the morning and I'll continue with this then.

One thing I'm interested in is the yield from this meat. I've saved the meat package information so after the jerky is done we'll be able to see how much I've ended up with as well as how much it costs per ounce to compare with store bought jerky.

Thanks for reading!

Ok, the night has passed and the jerky is done.

I had a little bit of a challenge last night. Our old stove was being persnickity and wouldn't hold a low temperature. By the time I realized this the jerky was a little dry already. I turned off the stove and put a 75watt light inside with the door closed. That seemed to do the trick for the rest of the night because the jerky looks great today.

Out of the oven, toothpicks removed, and in that old green bowl. They don't stack well in the bowl but that's still a pretty good sized pile of jerky.

It turned out to be 27 oz.

The meat was $1.99 lb for a total of $8.32.

Supplies for the marinade were about $7.00. I didn't keep good track of how much I used of what spice so I'm guesstimating on the generous side.

Total of $15.32. I am not going to factor in the cost of gas or electricity.

We're looking at $ .57 per ounce cost for the jerky. Last I looked, store bought jerky was quite a bit more than that so this looks like a pretty good deal financially.

This can also be a great family activity, especially if you have kids.

Besides, how cool is it to make your own beef jerky?

Happy cooking and thanks for reading.

Croutons!

2010-01-04T00:03:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make:
I've never made croutons.
I know, they're so easy, why have I waited so long? Well, truth to tell, the store bought croutons satisfied me, I thought they tasted good.
But, the other day I pulled a box out of the cupboard to put some on my dinner salad. The box was at the back of the top shelf and had gotten forgotten since I bought it. It must have been fairly old because when I opened it up it had moths in it (we've been having a moth issue lately and they have infected more than a few items).
Since I uncharacteristically had a partial loaf of white sandwich bread available I decided that that was the night I would learn to make croutons.

After some internet searches and came up with a basic recipe:
De-crust five slices of white bread and cut them into cubes.
Saute a couple minced garlic cloves in olive oil and butter.
Toss the bread cubes in the butter/oil/garlic mixture and let things cool a little.
I made a mixture of Parmesan cheese, thyme, oregano, and parsley and tossed the bread cubes in a paper bag with the herbs.
Bake the seasoned bread cubes at about 300° in a black iron spider, stirring occasionally, until brown.

The results were great!
However, I will do a couple things different next time.
For the Parmesan cheese I only had a tub of shaved cheese. While I tried to break it up to approximate grated cheese I had limited success. Excess cheese baked into chewy globs in the pan. They didn't taste bad but a smaller amount of grated Parmesan cheese will be better.
Rather than mince fresh garlic I will try using powdered garlic to toss with the rest of the herbs. I think this will get into the bread better. Although, it won't flavor the oil/garlic. I'll have to see which one I like best.

Bread, 5 slices, about to go under the knife.

The aftermath.

Sauteeing the minced garlic in olive oil and butter.

Tossing bread cubes in the garlic/oil/butter. I did end up adding a sprinkling more olive oil when it looked like some cubes didn't get any.

Herbs, from left, thyme, oregano, Parmesan cheese. The parsley flakes were camera shy.

Partway through the toasting. You can see the lumps of cheesy herbs that are forming from the excess Parmesan cheese.

Done!

If we're going to talk about croutons we may as well talk about the salad they're going on.

This is a good example of the extreme salads I like. Lettuce, bleu cheese, tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, anchovies, and rotisseried chicken breast. I forgot to add the salami... dang it.

I picked up the bleu cheese at Jon's Market recently when I was in that area and it absolutely rocks! It's creamy and delicious, not at all dry and crumbly. All I remember is that it was made in Germany. I'll definitely be getting more of this.

It doesn't look like much but it's sure going to taste good.

Sorry I don't have a more photogenic bowl. I am accepting donations to get one.

Tossed, croutons added, we're ready for lift off.

Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the empty bowl. you've seen one dirty dish you've seen them all, eh?

I'm very pleased to add croutons to my skills. Fayme really enjoyed them (she ate the ones I didn't use like popcorn), I liked them, and they're easy and fun to make. I guess now I'll have to buy white bread once in a while.

Thanks for reading!

Japanese Pickled Cabbage - Hakusai no Shiozuke... this is good stuff!

2010-01-02T15:39:00.000-08:00

I love Japanese food. Given a chance I will eat that over any other international food type.

One of the dishes I particularly like is generally called tsukemono, pickled vegetables. When I have had it, tsukemono is typically served as an appetizer at the beginning of the meal. One of the types I really enjoy is a pickled Napa cabbage, called hakusai no shiozuke in Japanese.

It took me a long time to track down a recipe for this tsukemono. For a long time I had no idea what it was called. Finally, one day, a Google search turned up something good in my search for this simple dish. The Instructables site has how-to directions on a lot of things but I didn’t really expect to find food, and especially not my cherished pickled Napa cabbage. Yet, here it was. How could I not try making it?

I find it rather amusing that this dish differs from sauerkraut only in the type of cabbage used and how long it is allowed to ferment. If I’d known it was so easy to make I’d have made gallons of it by now.

You can visit the Instructables site for the hakusai no shiozuke recipe here, and you can also read my brief synopsis of it:
Cut the cabbage, layer it in a container and salt each layer. Put a plate on the top layer and use a weight to hold it down. The salted cabbage will develop a liquid that should cover the cabbage after a day or so. Let it ferment for a couple days and give it a taste. Refrigerate when done and start eating it.

The recipe is a little vague on how much salt to use. It seems as if it’s a personal preference thing. After tasting my dish I think I’ve used a little more salt than I like. It’s better when I rinse the cabbage in fresh water before eating it but I think I’ll use a bit less salt the next time I make this.
After a day had passed the cabbage still hadn’t made enough liquid to cover itself so I mixed a bit of salt water and poured that into the container. Next time I’ll probably use a slightly weaker salt solution if this is necessary.
After rinsing the cabbage and drying it in a salad spinner (new toy!) I sprinkled on a bit of soy sauce and some furikaki (dried fish flakes, sesame seeds, and seasonings - very tasty). I also tried it with some seasoned rice vinegar sprinkled over it. Both were very good.
If you get as caught up with the possibilities of tsukemono as I have you may wish to get a recipe book and a press. Amazon has Quick & Easy Tsukemono: Japanese Pickling Recipes available as well as Tsukemono presses available in various sizes. When I have a bit of extra money on hand I’ll be getting both.

Here is where we start: fresh Napa cabbage, salt, a fermenting container, and a nice sharp cleaver... hurray, I get to cut stuff!

Laugh all you want about me enjoying cutting things in the kitchen but good tools really makes it a lot of fun. This Chinese pattern cleaver is one of the sharpest tools I have and makes things easy.

We've put the cabbage into the container by layers and salted each layer as it's put in.

It's difficult to see here but I found a clear glass plate to be the best size for this container. I used another plastic container full of water to rest on top of the glass plate to hold the cabbage down. The big secret in fermenting vegetables like this is to keep the vegetables beneath the layer of salt water. You don't want them to be exposed to the air. When the cabbage didn't form enough of its own liquid to cover I just aded in a bit of salt water to cover.

Done and about to undergo the first taste test. The whole cabbage packed into that little seaweed container to put into the refrigerator. If you look closely you can see the furikake I put on top of the cabbage.

Tsukemono is a great little side dish and it's incredibly easy to make. I will certainly be making more hakusai no shiozuke in the future as well as other types of Japanese fermented vegetables.

Happy eating!

Soon to come - Beef Jerky

2009-12-21T15:09:00.000-08:00

At the monthly PaleoPlanet gathering yesterday in Pasadena, CA I put a couple fruitcakes out to share as well as a gallon bag of home made beef jerky I had stashed in the freezer.
Once folks realized that the fruitcake was the same as I'd brought last month it went really fast. Of course, the beef jerky went fast, too. I think jerky would have to be really bad to not get eaten and this stuff was pretty good.

As usual, I got a lot of questions about how I'd made the jerky. Most people think you need a dehydrator or a smoker to make it and I have neither, I just use the kitchen oven to dry the meat. After explaining the drying process to a couple people and the marinade to a couple others, I realized that this would be a great subject for a blog post. So, as soon as the London broil beef cut I use comes on sale (remember, I'm all about buying meat on sale), I'll get a couple pieces and document the steps I use for making some really good beef jerky. You'll want to watch for this one, it's an easy recipe to adapt to your family's tastes and something that anyone with a basic kitchen can do.

A Couple of Updates

2009-12-18T00:48:00.000-08:00

A little while ago I wrote about some fruitcake I made (What do you mean you don't like fruitcake?) and a recipe I found to replicate Boston Market's cranberry relish (A Thanksgiving Side Dish).
My mother was so taken by these two recipes that she's been making them herself. To date I think she's made four batches of fruitcake and one batch of the cranberry relish.
The first batch of fruitcake was made with dried fruits from Trader Joe's just as I wrote about. Subesquent batches saw her using dried fruits she purchased at her local grocery store. She's been very happy with how all the fruitcake has turned out, and so have the recepients of said fruitcake. I think that's why she's made so many, because she's gotten so many requests for it!
One thing my mom mentioned to me while a batch was in the oven was that she thought she'd put in too much fruit. Remember, I mixed fruit in "until it looked right" so it was difficult for me to tell her how much to use. As it turns out, fruitcake with too much fruit is just fine. I think that to a point, the batter is simply there to hold all the fruit together in one pile. So if you make fruitcake and think you may have put in too much fruit, bake it up anyway. You'll probably love it.
Mom's comments on the cranberry relish were that you do need to cut up the cranberries.
Perhaps I should explain: the recipe says to cut all the cranberries in half. With two cups of the little rascals that's a lot of tedious cutting. A good friend told me that when she makes cranberry relish she never cuts the berries, they pop during the cooking anyway.
Based on my mother's experience I think I'll continue to cut them. She said the relish tasted fine but that it didn't look nearly as nice. Since we eat with our eyes as well as with our mouths, I'll cut the berries when the recipe calls for it.

Keep on cooking!

A Just and Noble Cause

2009-12-04T21:52:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while you run across special organizations that grab your attention.
These groups are passionate about what they believe in and do everything they can to support and promote their cause.
When the cause is just and noble it's difficult to not get behind these groups and add our own enthusiasm.

Dear readers, I introduce you to an organization born from the heart of a believer. I share her passion and want to spread the word to the world (or at least the 5 people who read this blog). I give you:

The Society for the Protection and Preservation of Fruitcake

Putting forth and promoting the noble Society for the Protection and Preservation of Fruitcake is completely appropriate for me tonight. For tomorrow I will gird my loins to enter our little kitchen and make another double batch of fruitcake such as I described a few lines down... I can hardly keep up with the demand.
Feel the love this season, not the love of buying presents, but the love of fruitcake!
Make a fruitcake!
Eat a fruitcake!
But never condemn a fruitcake... unless it's really a crappy one. If that's the case give them my recipe.

A Thanksgiving Side Dish

2009-11-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago my mother asked me if I could find a cranberry relish recipe for her. She's a big fan of cranberry relish as it's served by Boston Market and wanted to serve it at Thanksgiving dinner.
I did a quick Google search, found something that looked good, and emailed the link to her.
Well, she got busy, one thing led to another, she never got a chance to even get into her email to see the link. When she told me a couple days before the dinner that she was just going to serve regular cranberry jelly I decided to make it and surprise her with it.
Here's the link to the recipe and here's the recipe itself:

Ingredients -
1 pound can of jellied cranberry sauce
10oz jar Smucker’s Simply Fruit orange marmalade
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 cups fresh cranberries coursely chopped
1/3 cups walnuts finely chopped

Directions -
In 2-qt saucepan, over medium-low heat, stir together jellied sauce, marmalade and ginger until melted (6-8 minutes). Add coursely chopped fresh cranberries and reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring frequently until cranberries pop. They will be slightly softened (not too crisp). Stir in walnuts and set aside to cool. Once lukewarm, cover and refrigerate. Serve cold.

That doesn't sound too bad, does it?
Then I couldn't find Smucker's Simply Fruit Orange Marmalade in either of the two stores I shop at. I ended up simply getting a good quality orange marmalade and it worked fine.
Have you ever had to cut 2 cups of cranberries in half? Holy cow, that took a few minutes!
Actually, though, the recipe was pretty easy to make.
Since I'd never had the original cranberry relish at Boston Market I had to wait until Mom tried it to see if it was right.

Here's all the ingredients ready to be put to use.
You know, those little bags of spices are way cheaper than the big bottle. I just save bottles from other spices and use those for storing these. Works great.

Cutting the cranberrys, one of the few times I have opted for a small sharp knife rather than a big sharp knife.

Finally, the last one goes under the knife.

1/3 cup walnuts finely chopped, back to the big knife!

Cooking... ah, this isn't hard at all.

And finally, the taste test... look at that happy smile!

Thanks for making dinner today, Mom. Everything was great. I'm glad everyone liked my little contribution.

What do you mean, you don't like fruitcake?!

2009-11-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

Well... to tell you the truth, I don’t either… mostly.
Most fruitcakes I’ve seen are either heavy and dry or heavy and soaked with some kind of alcohol. And then there are those candied fruits… the less said about them the better.

The traditional fruitcake actually does have some centuries of tradition behind it:
They were carried by Roman legionnaires and Middle Age crusaders as travel food.
Fruit candied in sugar helped preserve it.
Soaking fruitcakes in rum or another spirit helps preserve it for consumption at a later time.
Fruitcakes were a good way to keep fruits from the summer so they could be eaten during the winter.

While fruitcakes are popular, and even enjoyed, in many countries, they seem to have a different reputation here in the US. Here they are the brunt of jokes. Even Johnny Carson jumped on the anti-fruitcake bandwagon when he quipped, "The worst gift is fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other." There are even fruitcake tossing contests to be found during the holiday season.

Someone must like them, though. There are a few bakeries about the country who sell out their entire production of tens of thousands of fruitcakes each season.

Me, I’ve got issues with normal fruitcakes. I personally don’t care for the taste of alcoholic beverages and I’m not real fond of candied fruits. But for some reason I was fascinated with fruitcake and was determined to find a fruitcake recipe that was not only edible, but actually enjoyable.

For awhile I scanned through cookbooks in used book stores hoping to find something good. When that didn't work I began looking for recipes on the internet. Nothing was really looking good until Fayme found a “golden fruitcake” on a Disney website. Upon further research, I discovered that this is a rather famous recipe. It’s called Mrs. Harvey’s White Fruitcake. If you do a Google search you'll find this wonderful recipe spread all over the internet.

Photo of Mrs. Lucille Harvey courtesy Jeff Houck and The Tampa Tribune

Update 11-24-09:
A couple people have asked me, "where's the recipe?" I guess I didn't make the link to the recipe very clear. Mea culpa and my apologies. You can still click the link above but here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
4 cups shelled pecans
1 lb. candied cherries
1 lb. candied pineapple
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 lb. butter
1 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 to 2 oz. vanilla extract
1 to 2 oz. lemon extract

Instructions:
Chop the nuts and the fruit into medium-sized pieces and dredge with 1/4 cup flour.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy. Add well-beaten eggs and blend well.
In a small bowl, sift the remaining flour and baking powder together. Fold this mixture into the egg and butter mixture, and mix in the vanilla and lemon extract. Blend in fruits and nuts.
Grease pan and line the pan(s) with parchment, foil or waxed paper. Pour the batter into prepared pan(s). Place in a cold oven and bake at 250 degrees for 1 to 3 hours (the baking time varies with the size of the pan).

Mrs. Harvey and I do differ in a couple areas: I don’t use candied fruits and I don’t put nuts in my version. I like nuts, and I like cookies, brownies, etc. - but I don’t like nuts in my cookies, brownies, or etc. So, no nuts or candied fruits in my version.

Rather than use those green cherries and other odd candied fruits I get some really good quality dried fruits from Trader Joe’s. Their selection can change depending upon what their suppliers have available so I get whatever dried fruit looks good when I visit: strawberries, cherries, cranberries, blueberries, apricots, raspberries, pineapple (unsweetened), golden raisins, etc. If it’s a dried fruit you like to eat, toss it in!

Prior to mixing these fruits into the batter I always reconstitute them with an overnight soak in apple juice. This keeps the fruit moist and juicy. Large pieces like apricots and pineapple get cut into smaller pieces before soaking.

When mixing the soaked fruit into the batter I use an amount that looks right. My apologies to those of you who really want to know exactly how much to use, I just don’t normally cook like that.

Here is the photo journal of the making of my version of Mrs. Harvey's White Fruitcake:

First up are the fruits I used this year. Those dried mangos looked really good so I grabbed them.
The dried papaya was camera shy... actually, I found it stashed in a cupboard after I took the picture.

The mangos, papaya, apricots and figs needed to be cut a little smaller. The mangos seemed a little tough so I cut them into relatively small strips. After soaking in apple juice they were fine.

Mix in the apple juice to reconstitute the dried fruits; I probably used about a cup and a half of juice.

Ready to soak overnight.

All the ingredients gathered together and ready for assembly. It may look like a lot but I'll likely be making two double batches.

All mixed and ready for the tins.

We had a minor panic when I couldn't find the tins where I thought they were. Glad that got resolved.

Out of the oven and cooling off.

Let's see... I need to send one to Dad in Oregon, I'm sure Mom would like one, Uncle Teddy in Canada may want one, definately need to send one to a particular redhead in Texas, I think a cherished friend in New Mexico would like one, Fayme's already asking if she can have some for dessert tonight... Jeez, I'd better get busy on the second batch!

Correction: I have been informed that Fayme doesn't want the fruitcake for dessert, she wants it now!

Sourdough... oh no!

2009-11-13T01:48:00.000-08:00

Fayme recently gave a go at making a sourdough starter and baking with it. You can see her chronicle of the process at her blog The Witchery of Cookery. Things were looking really good until the last rise of the first loaf, which actually didn’t happen. We’re not sure what caused the failure but it really disappointed her and she’s about given up on sourdough.

Now, I’m not a bad cook but Fayme is a much better baker than I am. Even so, I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I gave it a try. It bugs me when things like this don’t work well and sometimes I get a bone between my teeth trying to figure it out.

I am not sure I have a lot of faith in a home grown sourdough starter so I (as usual) turned to the internet. The website Sourdoughs International has a number of great starters available for order as well as what looks like an excellent book dedicated solely to sourdough cooking.

The problem is, I’m cheap. Rather than spend money on these starters and the book I elected to send a SASE for Carl Griffith’s 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter. I have no doubt that the starters and information found at Sourdoughs International and other webpages is good, and there is an excellent chance that I will avail myself of them at a later date, but I wanted to try the free stuff first.

We just sent the SASE off today so it will be a little bit before we get the starter. Once it’s here we’ll have to grow it to a useable state before it we can think about baking. The website has a brochure available for free download that explains how to do that.

Once we get it going… we’ll see if we can’t get something tasty. I’ll let you know what happens.

Check This Out...

2009-11-10T01:39:00.000-08:00

What do you think? Do I have the stones to try this recipe?

I'm sorely tempted...

I Guess Sometimes Plain is Better

2009-11-09T22:51:00.000-08:00

I had a salad for dinner tonight and enjoyed it more than usual.
Typically, I put the kitchen sink in my salads. A normal 'kitchen sink' salad for me will consist of lettuce mix, tomato, cucumber, cheese (sometimes two kinds), meat of some sort (lunchmeat, salami, tuna, etc.), avocado, anchovies, baby corn, and whatever else looks good like marinated artichokes, if I have a jar of them. For a dressing I turn to a good quality Italian dressing.

Tonight I made a pretty simple salad and it pretty much buried what I normally make. Tonight's salad was made of lettuce mix, avocado, cucumber, tomato, and anchovies. The really big difference was the dressing. Taking a clue from one of the cooking shows I watch I used a small bottle to mix together brown mustard, minced garlic, extra virgin olive oil, wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and the olive oil from the can of anchovies that went into the salad.
Wow. It turned out great. I am definitely going to do that more often.

Forget Chicken Soup for the Soul - This is for the Stomach!

2009-11-06T16:23:00.000-08:00

I have it on pretty good authority that the chicken soup I make rocks.

I’m not sure what’s so special about it. The ingredients are actually pretty basic:
Chicken
Carrots
Celery
Mushrooms
Onion
Chicken bouillon
Chicken stock
Seasonings

That’s about it. I do have one special ingredient that seems to add a richness to the soup: soy sauce.

There are five components to what we taste: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. The first four speak for themselves. The last, umami, is something special. It’s the savory part of what we eat, the richness. Soy sauce is laden with umami and I think it adds something really special to the chicken soup I make.
An interesting aside, anchovies are just about pure umami. No wonder I like those little fellows! I am devastated that the local .99 Cent Store hasn’t had anchovies in stock for a few months. Now I have to buy them at full price in the grocery store.

Chickens were on sale this week for $.69 lb when you buy the family pack. One will go into this chicken soup and I can always figure out something good to do with the other chicken. In fact, as I write this Fayme is putting that chicken into the rotisserie oven. Say what you want about those silly Ronco commercials you see on TV, I wouldn’t be caught dead with a Pocket Fisherman, but we’ve gotten a lot of use out of the rotisserie oven.

To get started I plop the whole chicken into the crock pot along with a coarsely shopped onion and a few chopped carrots. The onion and carrots will be cooked to within an inch of their lives so they’ll be strained out in the end after they’ve given up their flavor to the stock. Add a few seasonings, salt, black pepper, oregano, thyme, and we’re all set for a few hours on the low setting. Although I won’t use them in the soup itself, the neck and giblets are in the crock pot, too. For a cooking liquid I put in a can of chicken stock and a bit of water.

After the chicken has cooked long enough that the meat is coming away from the bone I take it out of the crock pot and put it into a separate bowl so it can cool enough for me to take the meat off the bones. This is a challenging evolution because at this point the chicken is falling apart at the seams. Go slow and be careful lest the chicken end up splashing hot broth all over you or end up on the floor.

When the crock pot has cooled a little the cooking broth is poured through a strainer to get out all the chunks and the resulting liquid is refrigerated so the fat will rise to the surface and be easy to skim off.

Once the chicken has cooled enough to handle it’s pretty simple to just go through with your fingers and take all the meat off the bones. I don’t worry too much about getting a little chicken skin along with the meat but I am careful to take out all the gristle, small bones, and other non-edible parts. As you can see in the picture, I like big pieces of chicken.

Now we’re on to making the actual soup. For quantities on all these vegetables you’ll have to live with, “just use the right amount.”

The onion I used was way bigger than I originally thought so I ended up adding in more celery and carrots to even out the ratios. Ultimately I used the entire celery stalk and the whole 2 lb bag of carrots as well as 4 or 5 cloves of garlic.

I like a fairly rustic soup so the pieces are cut large. For the celery, when I get down to the tender stalks in the center I really don’t even bother to cut them or take off the leaves (good flavor there).

A bunch of mushrooms made it in there, too. They cook quicker than the other vegetables so I put them in later.

Here is where I discarded the fat off the stock from the crock pot and added the stock to the pot of vegetables. There’s lots of good flavor in this stock and we don’t want to lose that. Since it won’t be enough liquid for cooking I added in water and canned chicken stock to get to a good level.

I also added in some additional spices like oregano, thyme, salt, fresh pepper, etc. whatever sounds good to you will work well.

After the vegetables have cooked it’s time to add in the chicken meat. This is also where I put in some chicken bouillon to taste and the soy sauce. Be careful not to make things too salty. Both the chicken bouillon and the soy sauce are fairly salty so just be sure to taste as you go. This is a good time to add in the mushrooms if you haven’t already. Once the chicken has been added you won’t want to cook too much more. Keep cooking and that wonderful chicken meat is going to break down and get mushy.

I like noodles and since this has ended up being a pretty good sized pot of chicken soup I’m going to use this whole bag of extra wide egg noodles. Cook the noodles per the package directions but leave them slightly under done. They’ll continue cooking in the hot soup and you don’t want them to get too mushy.

That’s it, we’re done, let’s eat!

That’s it, I’m done and stuffed. No, I didn’t eat both bowls, Fayme is full, too. Hopefully our neighbor and her teen age son are full as well; they got a good sized container.

Thanks for reading!

Coming Soon to Greenman Cooking

2009-11-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

Chicken Noodle Soup -
I have it on very good authority that my chicken noodle soup rocks. You'll have to bear with me, though, this is one of those recipes where I don't measure very much.

Tamales -
I've never made them before but always wanted to. This time I'm going to take the plunge and see what kind of trouble I can get into. A special treat: my Mom is going to help me, she's never made them either... this will be fun!

Fruitcake -
What do you mean you don't like fruitcake? I searched a long time for a fruitcake recipe that didn't use alcohol and sounded like it would be edible. Fayme actually found this one on a Disney website. Naturally, I put my own twist to it. I haven't found anyone who doesn't like this fruitcake.

O, No! More PBS Cooking Shows!

2009-11-01T11:22:00.000-08:00

I’ve got to quit watching cooking shows on PBS.

Friday I was working on a gourd project and had the TV on in the background. It was a great day for cooking shows so I was kind of watching them out of the corner of my eye.

Mexico, One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayliss came on and I gave the TV a little more attention. Most of the recipes Rick prepared in the beginning of this show weren’t of that much interest to me so I went back to the gourd I was working on.

Then, Rick walks into his garage, climbs a ladder, and gets a paella pan out of rafter storage. This really got my attention. Not only do I have a fascination with paella, but he pulled down a pan that was three feet across! Check it out here.

Now we’re talking my language. Paella, for lots of people.

I put down the gourd.

As Rick and his daughter unloaded shopping bags they pulled out pounds and pounds of ingredients for just this one dish. I was in too much of a worshipful daze to note all the ingredients and their quantities but the ones that stick in my mind are 8 pounds of rice, 30 chicken thighs, 4 pounds of shrimp, 7 pounds of mussels, 3 pounds of chorizo, I was beginning to drool.

They used bricks to build a kind of raised ring out on their patio and built a wood fire inside it. The raised brick ring was sized just right for the three foot paella pan to fit across the top over the fire.

The rest of the episode showed Rick cooking the paella right there in front of his guests and then everyone’s happy faces as they got to eat it.

Do you remember me mentioning that I hate Rick Bayliss? The guy is doing everything I want to do and I’m just so jealous… I love him.

Later that night a show came on that I’ve never seen before. Adventures With Ruth, by Gourmet Magazine had this episode set in Seattle, WA. If you follow the link this episode is called "Jon Rowley’s Seattle." Early in the show they filmed commercial salmon fishing on a small boat and that was very interesting, but what really got my attention was the mussel farm and then the clam, oyster, and green harvesting right on the beach and in the woods.

If you’ve never had the chance to get your own food in the wild and then prepare it and eat it right where you got it, you’re really missing something incredible.

Going to the grocery store, buying the food, taking it home, cooking it, and eating it is fine. But there is something deeply satisfying to our soul found in working for our food. Grow it and pick it yourself, dive for it, dig it up, hunt for it, fish for it… you wouldn’t believe how incredible the food is when you catch it yourself. That’s what they did in this show.

The mussels were harvested from a raft floating in the middle of the bay. Oysters and clams were taken from the mud and gravel flats as the tide receded. Fiddlehead ferns were collected in the woods. Edible shore plants were gathered while walking along the beach. And it was all cooked over an open flame right on the beach. Man, you talk about good food. I about drooled all down the front of my shirt.

When I was in high school I worked in a bait shop on a southern California pier. One winter night it was cold and windy with hardly any customers coming in. The older fellow I worked with asked me if I’d ever eaten mussels. When I said no he said he’d just pulled some from the pier pilings that morning and we should see what they’re like.

I went out to the restaurant on the end of the pier and begged some melted butter from them. Danny and I pulled the mussels from the refrigerator and we scrubbed a bunch of them clean in the sink. We pulled down a little camp stove the shop owner used to make her morning tea and set some mussels to steam in a little pot.

Wow… I was in heaven eating those steamed mussels with melted butter. That may have been one of the first times I’d eaten “different” or “strange” food and it got me on the road I’m on today where it’s pretty rare for me to pass up on food just because I’ve never had it before.

If you get the opportunity, gather your own food. Hunt for it, fish for it, dig for it, feel where it came from… work for it. Eat it in the field if you can. You’ll love it.

Vegetable/Spinach/Shrimp/Water Chestnut Dip

2009-10-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

Using that Knorr Vegetable Soup mix in the meat loaf a few days ago reminded me of a dip that can be made with that same mix. Seeing that I had an additional box of soup mix in the cupboard decided me to put some together.
Of course, as you may have come to expect, I have to add my own touch to the excellent recipe on the box.

A suggested variation on the recipe is to add sliced water chestnuts. We had a can of whole water chestnuts but no sliced. No worries, mate. I have sharp knives and I know how to use them.

After mixing in the suggested amounts of sour cream, mayonnaise, soup mix, and shrimp (that's my variation tonight, tastes great!), I realized that I'd need a bigger bowl before adding in the newly sliced water chestnuts and the last ingredient, frozen spinach.

Since I needed to thaw the spinach in a seperate bowl and press out as much moisture as I could, I just used that bowl to finish the mixing.

Next, I wanted to make this a little more special than just plopping it into a bowl and diving in with potatoe chips. The grocery store today had some great olive oil and rosemary artisan bread. Kind of surprised me because we're not in a neighborhood that appreciates things like that.
To get that ready I cut the top off and dug out some of the bread inside to make a nice little bowl. Because I knew we'd be eating the bowl I also sliced the sides a bit to make it easier to tear the pieces out.
I'm pretty short on fancy serving plates (donations accepted) so a round cake pan had to stand in for that duty.

It must have been pretty good, we laid waste to that field.

I'm wondering how this would be with some fresh roasted garlic added to the mix, and maybe some finely chopped cilantro to give it a little bit of a kick... I'll bet a fire roasted jalapeno would be good... and a fire roasted red bell pepper would really add a nice splash of color. Lots of variations to keep in mind for next time.

One suggestion... a really big suggestion: when you buy frozen spinach for anything you want to eat, buy the good stuff. Frozen spinach is cheap, spend the extra dollar and get a well known brand. The store I bought the frozen spinach for this dip at only had one brand, the cheap crap. The spinach was stringy and I found a couple of crunchy bits in it. I don't want to think about what could be crunchy in spinach so I didn't examine those closely.
Save yourself some grief, buy the good spinach.

Enjoy!

I Love Tri-Tip

2009-10-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

Remember how I buy meat on sale? Well, this week a local grocery chain had tri-tip on sale for $1.97 a pound. Oh, man... you can't beat a price like that for a cut of beef that is so easy to cook and tastes so good.
I bought 2.

The tri-tip cut has a pretty good layer of fat on one side. I like to leave most of it on as it contributes to the taste and juiceness of the meat. If it's really thick I'll trim it down a bit.

On top of that fat there is usually a membrane that should be cut away. If it's left on it can get pretty chewy. Trimming away the membrane also gives an easy opportunity to take of some excess fat.

There are lots of ways to cook tri-tip. One of the most popular is on the barbecue. In fact, Santa Maria Tri-Tip (this is just one recipe, Google will show you dozens more) is one of the absolute best barbecue meals you'll ever have. If you ever get the chance to have that at a county fair, carnival, flea market, etc., take it! Your taste buds will be doing somersaults.
But, I don't always feel like starting the barbecue grill. Sometimes I just want to throw the roast in the oven and not do a lot of fussing.
For those times I drag out that faithful cast iron frying pan, pop the roast into it, coat both sides generously with a good seasoning like Lindberg-Snyder Porterhouse and Roast Seasoning, and get it into the oven.

About 40-45 minutes later...

Dang it, I'm drooling. Gotta go get some leftovers... thanks for reading.

What's on sale today?

2009-10-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

I need to make a confession and an observation: I'm cheap and meat is expensive.
These two combined mean I buy meat on sale.
I hardly ever buy meat at the regular price. But if it's on sale... I am there.

Earlier this week I had to go to Sam's Club for cat litter. Of course, I had to wander through the meat department while I was there. Lo and behold, there is a package of ground beef marked down for quick sale.
I love seeing those stickers on Sam's Club meat. They've usually got pretty good prices on ground beef in the first place but that sticker brings it down even further and the package is still well within its sell-by date. Into the cart it goes. What will I do with it? Beats me, I'll figure that out on the way home. Ground beef is one of those staples that we can always figure out a use for.

As it turns out, one night we have simple hamburger patties with cheese melted on top. Last night I made a meat loaf and put the rest of the ground beef in the freezer for later.

Meat loaf is one of the simplest dishes there are, and it's difficult to screw up.
Here's what I did: mix meat with two raw eggs, seasoned bread crumbs, chopped onion, ground pepper, salt, and some dry soup mix. Usually we use onion soup mix but I neglected to get any after using the last one a few days ago. Rummaging through the cabinet found some Knorr Vegetable Soup mix. What the heck, let's see how that works.

Now comes the fun part: dive in there with clean hands and get that stuff mixed up.
After that I form the loaf in a cast iron skillet. I used to use a loaf pan but I've found the iron spider works really well and gives a nice crust on the bottom of the meatloaf.

Some time in the oven and Bob's your uncle, dinner is ready.

I am happy to say the Knorr Vegetable Soup mix turns out just fine in meat loaf.

Pass the ketchup!

What are you making that smells so good?!

2009-10-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

When I went to Sam's Club today I found some pork stew meat on sale. Couldn't resist, looks like we'll have chili for dinner tonight... and tomorrow night... and maybe even the next day, too.

For chili spices I've had really good results using a pre-packaged mix from the grocery store. It's Carroll Shellby's Original Texas Chili mix. To write this post I looked up their website for the first time. I was hoping for some good info and additional recipes. Alas, no such luck. It's just a corporate site for the company that markets the mix, pretty dissappointing but at least you can see what the package looks like in case you want to find it in the store yourself.

I don't usually follow the package directions for this mix. I just use it to season my own recipe. So, let's see what that is...
Note: I'm not always a cook who measures things. I do when it counts, but this isn't one of those times. You're going to have to bear with me when I say it "looked about right" or "season to taste."
First, I browned the pork stew meat in a frying pan on the range. As it browned I transfered it into a deep casserole dish in the oven (my mom gave us this casserole dish last night and it was just begging to show me how well it would work). I also tossed in the leftover London broil from the rib dinner the other night. It was a little bit too tough to just eat as-is so I wanted to take advantage of its flavor here.
The one problem I saw with this pork is that it's pretty lean. I usually use pork shoulder or picnic shoulder when I make chili and shred the meat after a few hours in the slow-cooker. Those cuts have plenty of fat so the meat is juicy and tasty. This meat I got today is dryer and not quite as tender, even after a long cook in the oven.

After everything was browned and in the casserole dish I poured in two cans of chicken stock and dumped in a large onion that I'd cut rather coarsely. Oven temperature was set at about 250 degrees.
Once the meat had a couple or three hours to get tender I put in a can of diced stewed tomatoes and a larger can of whole stewed tomatoes. For the whole stewed tomatoes I crushed them in my hand before dropping them into the chili. This is a great way to break these up, just be sure your hands are clean and watch out for the inevitable squirt of tomatoe from between your fingers. I didn't do too bad this time, I only needed two paper towels to clean up afterwards.

Ok, here's where it gets fun... I use fire roasted chilis in my chili.
For this chili I got a bag full of Anaheim chilis and one red bell pepper so there would be some nice color. Roasting chilis is really easy but it's something a lot of people are leery of. Just turn on your range burner and set a chili or two on the burner ring. As the chilis blacken you'll want to turn them with a pair of kitchen tongs until the whole outside is charred. Drop the roasted chili in a paper or plastic bag and close the top. This lets the chili steam and continue to cook. Now do the rest of the chilis.
Once all the chilis are roasted and cooled enough to handle, I cut off the stem end, slice up the side, remove the seeds, and scrape off the charred skin. If you've done the roasting right the skin will slide right off. I don't worry if I don't get it all off but most of it should come off. Sometimes a rinse under the tap will aid in getting the skin off. After all this I diced the cooked chilis. The red bell pepper got cooked the same way but I cut it into thin strips rather than dice. At this point all the chilis got dumped into the pot of chili and I finally remembered to put in the chili seasoning.

I have to be careful when I make chili or salsa. I like them with some good kick but if I do that then Fayme can't eat any. I really enjoy cooking for her so I try to tone things down so she can enjoy them. For this batch of chili I used all the cayenne pepper in the chili mix. The amount I was making was way bigger than the mix is meant for so I didn't think it would be too hot. As it turns out, I was right. This was a one glass of milk bowl of chili for Fayme.
Actually, this is a picture of the whole batch in the new casserole "dish." I didn't mean to imply that this is the bowl of chili Fayme ate. Wow... can you imagine eating that much chili?

To go along with the chili I decided to make some garlic bread. I typically keep a butter and garlic mix in the 'fridge so I dug that out and spruced it up. I added about 4 more cloves of minced garlic, some fine chopped fresh parsley, and another stick of butter. A few seconds in the microwave and everything was soft enough to mix and then spread.

If you'd like to make this mix for yourself it is simplicity itself. Grab an old jar and put in butter, minced garlic, and mix it up. I also add in oregano, chopped parsley, and sometimes some garlic powder if I don't feel it's garlicky (is that a word?) enough. I keep this jar in the refrigerator and pull it out whenever garlic bread sounds good. When it gets low I just top it off with more butter and garlic.
A quick trip under the broiler for the garlic bread, a little green onion, cilantro, and sour cream for the chili, and we're good to go!

The only problem now is who is coming over to help us eat all this chili? You know, way back when I was a kid my mom and dad had a coffee shop in southern California. I think that "cooking for crowds" thing really sunk into me because I find it almost impossible to cook an amount reasonable for two people.
I really need to open up a bed and breakfast in Arizona so I can cook for more than just Fayme and I.

Thanks for reading!

Tried a New Rib Marinade

2009-10-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

Pork ribs were on sale at the grocery store yesterday so I got a small rack to bbq.
Watching BBQ University the other day I saw a marinade made with hoisin sauce that sounded pretty good (search for Chinatown Ribs on the BBQU site). Of course, being who I am I didn't look up the actual recipe but went off memory. I used about 3/4 jar of hoisin sauce, some soy sauce, chopped green onions, crushed garlic, light brown sugar, and fresh ground black pepper. I missed a few ingredients so definately look up the recipe on the site. I cut the rib rack into three pieces and put them into a plastic bag along with the marinade to sit overnight.
This evening I started the grill and put the rib pieces off to one side for what is called indirect cooking. Every once in a while I lit the burner under the ribs at a low setting to help them along.
When the ribs were just about done I also plopped a London broil over the lit burner.
Unfortunately, I never thought of taking any pictures of all this until Fayme reminded me just before I sat down to eat. So we've only got one picture of some ribs and sliced London broil on my plate.

That little bowl of purple things is pickled onions. I've wanted to try those ever since I saw them served on Mexico, One plate at a Time. They were great. Again, I didn't find that particular recipe but did a quick Google search for one that sounded good. And, of course, now I can't find that one to link to... damnit.

The ribs were really good and we'll definately have those again. But I'm still struggling on London broil. I know I undercooked it a bit but I always seem to have tenderness issues with this cut. Although, it makes great beef jerkey. I really need to look into cooking this cut better, it's a great value when it's on sale.

Happy cooking!

Cooking Shows on PBS

2009-10-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

I mentioned recently that regular broadcast television bores me and I watch a lot of public television, PBS. Since the advent of digital broadcast the selection of programs has really grown. One PBS channel in particular has really caught my attention: the Create channel bills itself as “the TV channel for cooking, arts & crafts, gardening, home improvement, and travel.”
As appropriate for this blog, the cooking programs have just sucked me in. Here is a rundown of those I enjoy the most:

Mexico, One Plate at a Time - Rick Bayliss
In a sense, I hate Rick Bayliss. The guy has it all: he’s got a great presence on the screen, he gets to travel all over Mexico eating foods from the most humble street vendors to the fanciest resorts, he’s a great cook and author, he wears the coolest super hero t-shirts, and he’s living the life I would have wanted for myself. But even if I hate him (and I really don’t… much) I love watching his show.
If you think Mexican cooking is limited to burritos, tacos, and enchiladas, watch Rick and expand your horizons.

America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country
By the editors of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, these two shows are kind of the Consumer’s Report for cooking and kitchen activities; but they go so much deeper…
Rather than just test a recipe and say it’s good or bad, America’s Test Kitchen figures out how to make it better and easier. Cook’s Country does the same thing but concentrates on American home cooking. They know where to cut corners to save time, calories, or cost without affecting flavor or convenience, and they know when to leave well enough alone. These two shows will never give you something that has been so reduced in calories - and flavor - that you’d rather eat a brown paper bag.
Along with their recipes and cooking you’ll also find equipment testing and taste tests. Which tabletop mixer is worth the money? They have that. Is real vanilla better than artificial vanilla? They have that, too.
I can’t recommend these two shows highly enough.

Food Trip with Todd English – Todd English
India, Bangkok, South Africa, Peru, Thailand, Italy… Todd English travels the world looking at regional cooking to meld with his own talents to develop dishes.
Todd English is very talented and creative and one of America’s top chefs. Even with his lofty achievements he still has respect and enthusiasm for street food and the simple home food he finds in his travels.

Lidia’s Italy – Lidia Bastianich
As the name suggests, Lidia Bastianich focuses on the Italian food she grew up with as well as that which she finds on her trips to various parts of Italy.
The pace of the show is good, the recipes and techniques are easy to follow without being overwhelming, and the food is great. Along the way you’ll also be introduced to some Italian history and culture as well as professional and home Italian cooks sharing their recipes and techniques, many of them passed down through generations of family.

BBQ University – Steven Raichlen
If it can be cooked on a grill, gas or charcoal, you’ll see it on this program, and even if you don’t think it can, you may still see it! This show is a carnivore’s dream.
Cooking meat over coals may be man’s oldest cooking method, and Steven Raichlen does it good. But he still finds room to cover grilling vegetables, seafood (grilled mussels, anyone?), rubs, sauces, and desserts.
Watch this master of grilling do his thing and you will be visiting your butcher for something special.

Simply Ming – Ming Tsai
Ming Tsai obviously grew up with a good influence; his mother, Iris Tsai, visits and cooks on many of his show’s episodes. With her dry wit and great cooking skills, she is a real joy to watch.
Many of Ming’s shows focus on two basic ingredients that change from one episode to another. It may be soy sauce and olive oil on one show or thyme and ginger on another. Some of Ming’s recipes are a little expensive for my pocket book – scallops, lobster, sushi-grade tuna – but I still love to watch for ideas and because it’s so obvious that he just plain loves what he’s doing. Ming’s enthusiasm for cooking is infectious.

So, there you have it, some of my favorite cooking shows. There are some others that are good, but these are my favorites.

One show that I did not list but that absolutely can not be passed up is anything with Julia Child in it. While Ms. Child passed away in 2004 her shows are still run with great frequency. A ground breaking and talented cook, her wit and humor is a real joy to watch. Many people don’t know it, but Ms. Child was a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a forerunner of the CIA, and served overseas during WWII.

New Batch of Sauerkraut

2009-10-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

I just took the latest batch out of the bucket this morning. It tastes great.
The big bottle is for my refrigerator, the middle size bottle will go to the Pasadena PaleoPlanet gathering with me this coming Sunday, and the small one is for my mother. It's too bad we can't have a grill at the range Sunday, some Polish dogs would really go well with the sauerkraut. Unfortunately, fire restrictions say no open flames due to fire danger... better safe than sorry.

Happy cabbage!

The Adventures of Curry

2009-10-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

For some unknown reason I got thinking about curry a couple months ago.
I’m not sure how it’s slipped by me over the years but I’d very rarely had curry… yet here I was thinking about it.
We visited Mitsuwa Marketplace in Costa Mesa and had lunch in their food court where I had curried pork cutlets over rice and really enjoyed it. But it didn’t satisfy my craving for more.
Then, when we went to Super King Market recently for the pickle ingredients I found a great selection of curry mixes. One of the packages was labeled ‘mild,’ was less than a pound, and had a recipe on the back. Into the shopping cart it went.

Now, I figured that following the recipe on the back of the curry package would work good and we’d have a great dinner. I mean, if the company that makes it doesn’t know how to make a good meal with it, who does? Well, all I can say is that perhaps something was lost in the English translation. For starters, the recipe had me putting eight tablespoons of curry into the pan. That seemed a little excessive even to my un-curried eye. Then there were no liquids added to the dish. At this point I had a pan of rapidly browning onions, garlic, and chili that were all coated with a thick curry paste – and I was supposed to let it sauté for another ten minutes before I added the browned chicken back in and let cook until tender. This wasn’t going to work at all. I added some water and made the best out of the dish as I could but this was far and away not the best dinner I’ve ever made.

I turned to my reliable Google and found this recipe for Pakistan Punjabi Chicken Curry that sounded good. A package of chicken thighs that were on sale and we’re ready to do battle.

Let me interject here, if you don’t know how to bone chicken you’re really shorting yourself on the kitchen experience. I usually use whole chicken thighs because they are more flavorful and don't dry out like chicken breasts can, and they are a whole lot less expensive. Upon occasion, like this one, I want boned chicken meat. A couple swipes with a sharp knife and chicken thighs are boned and ready to go. If you've never boned chicken thighs you owe it to yourself to at least look at a site like this one from allrecipes.com and give it a try. It really is easy. Almost as easy as cutting up a whole chicken, another valuable skill.

If I was truly thrifty I'd save the bones and skin to make a nice chicken stock. But to tell the truth, I pitch them in the bin. I buy chicken stock by the case at either Costco or Sam's Club. I just don't have the room to store home made stock until I need it.

This meal turned out pretty good. This was a two-glasses-of-milk dish for Fayme so it wasn’t too terribly spicy, and the curry flavor itself was not overwhelming. However, it left me somehow unsatisfied. It didn’t really reach out and grab me by the scruff of the neck. I think next time I’ll try this with some chopped cilantro sprinkled over the top and also use some Mahatma Saffron Rice instead of plain white rice. Just those two items alone may brighten this dish into something more special. If they don’t, I’ll think of something else to try.

Happy cooking!

New Batch of Sauerkraut Started

2009-10-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

I was speaking with my mom on the phone this morning and finally remembered to ask her if she likes sauerkraut. After hearing that she does I said I'd bring some along when I see her next Sunday.
There's not a lot left from the last batch I made so I ran down to the farmer's market and got three heads of cabbage to get some more going.
These cabbage heads are about 1 1/2 times the size of the last ones so I'm going to have a lot more sauerkraut when this batch gets finished.
Mom, I sure hope you do like it because I'm going to need to get rid of some!
Come to think of it, I think I'll also take some of this new sauerkraut and some pickles to the Paleo Planet gathering in Pasadena next Sunday. Snacks are always welcome there and the gang may get a kick out of home made 'kraut and pickles.

Cautionary Note

2009-10-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

When working with dried herbs it is frequently advised that the herbs be rubbed between the palms of the hands to release their oils and flavors before they are put into the dish. I've been doing this a long time with no adverse effects... until tonight.
While preparing a rub for a chicken dish I poured a quantity of dried oregano into my palms and proceeded to rub my hands together to crush the pieces. After dumping the oregano into the bowl I felt something odd in my palm and took a close look. I was surprised to see a splinter of some kind sticking out of my skin. I grabbed it to pull it out and couldn't get the danged thing to budge. I finally had to get a pair of tweezers for a really good grip and managed to tug the little bugger out. Imagine my surprise to find that it wasn't just a splinter but something akin to a cactus spine! The reason I had such a devil of a time removing it was the tiny barbs on the spine.
Upon showing it to Fayme she suggested that I use a mortar and pestle next time instead of my palms. The only mortar and pestle we have is pretty tiny so I think I'll be on the lookout for a larger one. That little spine hurt and I don't want to repeat that experience if I can help it.

Jeez... I know to be careful with sharp knives and I don't cook bacon naked... but I never expected to get hurt by oregano!

Do You Know Where Your Food is Coming From?

2009-10-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

I was watching a PBS show, Craft in America, tonight and an artist mentioned that one of the things she loves about the art she creates is knowing where it came from. It’s not something mass produced or made by some anonymous company, it’s something she has made with her own hands, her own skills, and her own love.
That really struck a chord in me. It’s one of the reasons I love cooking and making my own food. It’s why I’m trying new things like making sauerkraut and pickles. It’s because I know where the food is coming from and what has gone into making it. Not just the ingredients, but the skill, the work, and the love.
As a side note, this is also why I very rarely use a food processor. I enjoy using a knife that I have cherished and sharpened over the years to cut my food. I value the skill with my knives that I have developed over time. When I make two gallons of salsa I know how much time and effort has gone into cutting all the ingredients with my own hands and a sharp knife. It makes it taste all the better to me.
We don’t have cable TV. Frankly, I’m too cheap to pay for it. Regular broadcast TV programs bore the hell out of me so with the exception of Star Trek re-runs we tend to watch a lot of PBS. I’ve been seeing quite a few programs that show people getting back to the Earth; people who are growing their own food, in both small farms and urban gardens. These people are keeping alive heirloom varieties of vegetables and fruits that do not do well in commercial settings. They also know where their food is coming from. Big city famous chefs are patronizing farmer’s markets for their restaurant’s dishes and building relationships with small growers in their area. They know where their food is coming from.
Additionally, “carbon footprint” is a popular phrase these days and while I don’t necessarily agree with all its permutations it has to be better for the Earth and us to not use so many trucks and processing plants to get food to our tables.
Do you know where your food is coming from?
When you open a bottle of sauerkraut do you know how it was made? If you think too deeply on this do you get factories and giant stainless steel vats in your mind’s eye and end up putting the jar back on the shelf? Or, do you remember the joy of chopping heads of cabbage and the excitement of seeing and smelling it ferment and turn into something beautiful?
Instead of running down to the fast food place during lunch do you open your lunch cooler and pull out a pickle from your own kitchen?
What, bringing lunch to work isn’t cool?
Maybe a peanut butter and jelly sandwich isn’t cool but how about if you have a small loaf of artisan bread from the little bakery where the guy behind the counter remembers your name, and you know he’s the one who got into the bakery at 3 o’clock in the morning to make that bread, and you’ve got a couple things from the farmer’s market last weekend to put on the bread, and you’ve got some thin sliced roast pork for that sandwich ($.87 lb on sale and you do have a sharp knife… don’t you?)?
Now you’re not just that strange person who doesn’t go out to eat with everyone else. Now you’re that connoisseur who enjoys making things. Now you’re the craftsperson who cherishes skills and good tastes. Now your workmates are wishing they were on your small invite list for those little dinners you put together.

Now you know where your food is coming from.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

2009-10-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

While gathering the ingredients for the fermented pickles I got a jar of grape leaves. I only needed a few for the pickles so now I had a whole bunch of grape leaves left over. I've never made stuffed grape leaves, but what the heck? Here's a good enough reason to give the little rascals a try.
Google came through for me again when I found this recipe for Lebanese Rolled Stuffed Grape Leaves.
Now, I've got to tell you how I look at recipes... I see them as guidelines. If I want to replicate the dish exactly or if there is a necessity for something in particular, then I follow the recipe closely. But many times I use a recipe as a general guide rather than as a strict formula. Such was the case here.
Here are the basic ingredients for this recipe:
16 oz. jar grape leaves or fresh grape leaves
3/4 c. long grain uncooked rice
3 tbsp. fresh dried mint
1 c. water
2 lbs. ground lamb, beef or pork
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
3 lg. garlic cloves
2-3 lemons
I picked up some ground beef at the store so we're good there. I don't care for mint or cloves that much so those two were axed. I added onion, garlic, and oregano to the meat as they all sounded better than relatively plain meat.

Everything got mixed into the meat and it was looking a lot like meatloaf.

I wrestled a handful of grape leaves out of the jar and got them rinsed off and ready to wrap.

Now came the fun part: wrapping the meat into the leaves.

And into the pan they go!

I poured the garlic, lemon juice, water mixture over the pan's contents and set them on the range. After bringing things to a boil I reduced the heat to a low simmer, covered the pan, and set the timer for one hour.

After about 45 minutes I tested to see if the grape leaves were tender. They were so I removed the pan from the heat and got out the plate.

When I cut one open I could see that the meat and rice are both cooked.
I am happy to report success with our first stuffed grape leaves! Between Fayme and I there were only about half a dozen left to put away.
Things I'll try next time:
Ground lamb would really be good in this. The ground beef was a little bland.
A little less lemon juice. I used 2 1/2 lemons and it was just a little bit too tart.
I may try chicken stock instead of water, that feels like it would be a good idea.

This was a really good dinner and it was fun to make. I got to try something I've never made before and it's always nice when that sort of endeavour turns out well. Fayme mentioned that this would be something good to take to pot luck dinners. I absolutely agree with her. If you feel guilty about just bringing a loaf of Trader Joe's bread when you attend a pot luck, give something like this a try. It's way easier than it looks, tastes great, and you'll really impress people with your culinary skills and international flair.

Thanks for reading - Good Cooking!

Pickle Update

2009-10-06T15:32:00.000-07:00

It's been three days since I started the fermented pickles so I checked them today.
There was a bit of a bloom on the surface of the water, I skinned that off with a spoon. The two spots of mold I thought I saw turned out to be two errant peppercorns that had escaped from beneath the pickles, nothing to worry about.
I took one pickle out and cut the end off to give it a taste. I've never had a fermented pickle so I need to be careful about judging these against the supermarket style I'm familiar with.
Verdict: they're a little salty, very crunchy, taste great and are very much on the way to being a true pickle. I think this is going to be another winner!

Sauerkraut Accolades

2009-10-03T21:10:00.000-07:00

Remember the mention I made about doing a batch of sauerkraut?

Earlier this week I went down to Laguna Canyon to David Brunetta's studio to do some work with him. Since I'd been bragging to David about the sauerkraut I took along a bit for him to try.
Tonight I received an email from David with nothing in it but this picture:

Now that's the kind of feedback a cook likes to get!

First Post, Fermented Pickles... MMMmmm...

2009-10-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I made some sauerkraut. I've made sauerkraut at home before but this turned out so good it kind of got me interested in taking another step: fermented pickles.
So today, using a recipe and instructions from Wild Fermentation, I got it started.
First, I had to find some pickling cucumbers. This may not always be as easy as it sounds. After checking a couple of our regular grocery stores and one farmer's market, Fayme and I visited Super King Market in Anaheim, CA.
Note to self: never, ever, visit a new market at 4:00 pm on a Friday afternoon. The place was packed with people getting food for dinner and for the weekend. And I mean really packed!
Super King Market is a great store that reflects our ethnically diverse area. I found the pickling cucumbers I was looking for, some olives I craved, some curry mix for a later dinner, and Fayme got pita bread, humus, and tahina sauce that she's been looking for forever. For the future, I also found a good source for lamb in their butcher department.
So today I got the cucumbers all washed off, the garlic peeled, and the water and salt mixed.

I ran into one possible problem. The recipe calls for fresh grape leaves or a variety of other fresh leaves as the tannins help the cucumbers retain their crispness. I was unable to find any fresh leaves so I got a jar of grape leaves in the hopes that they will do the job. If they don't, I'll know better for next time. And in any case, now I have most of a jar of grape leaves so I can try making stuffed grape leaves in the near future. That'll be another post.
I mixed the salt in an empty apple juice bottle for the sake of convenience. After getting the seasonings into the big jar I packed in the cucumbers and poured in the brine.

Now I've run into another problem that I should have foreseen. In order to ferment properly the cucumbers need to be under the brine solution. Typically this is done by putting everything into a ceramic crock and putting a clean plate on top with a weight of some kind to push it all down. Having packed things into this jar there was no way for me to push the cucumbers down.

For Plan B I just transferred everything to the bucket I used for the sauerkraut and put the cut-down lid on top with the jar full of water to hold it all down.

Now, we wait. As the fermentation process starts I'll keep any mold that forms skimmed off the top. After three or four days I'll take out a cucumber/pickle and see how they are going. At some point I'll put everything into the jar and make room in the refrigerator.
Pickling is a preservation process for food so I could leave it all out of the 'fridge. But I live in a rather warm climate so the fermentation may get to a point that the pickles won't taste as good to me and I can stop the process at a good taste with the refrigeration.

I'll make updates as this project runs its course.
If you'd like to read about the sauerkraut I made just click on Something Fun That Tastes Good and read all about it.

Thanks for reading!