Monthly Archives: October 2012

Mushrooms, but not the power-up kind

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I long ago learned that mushrooms are a love-it-or-hate-it food.  Seems that very few people are passive on them; either they wish their meals had more of them, or they never want to see one ever again.  Personally, I’m in the “love them” category, but I have to admit, my knowledge of them could use a ton of work.

Push comes to shove, I really only know four kinds – the button, the portabello, the shiitake, and the oyster.  Of the four, I actually like the oyster the best – I find it has the fullest flavor, and it goes with the most dishes (even my one attempt at pasta sauce used the oyster).  That said, when I make stuffed mushrooms, I end up falling back on the portabello.  You can’t really stuff an oyster properly, which is tragic, but you work with what you can get.

That said, I’ve been tempted to give morels, hen of the woods, and straw mushrooms a try. I’ve even pondered making my own mushroom broth, to be enjoyed much like French onion soup… of course, that’ll be quite the experiment.

Also, sorry for the delay in updating – when the huge storm hits, you worry less about experiments.  I’ve tragically been living on soup and grilled cheese for the past few days.  Unless you consider melting together Port Salud with blueberry jam to be a fascinating experimental sandwich, it’s been extremely dull for me culinarily.  Hopefully, things will be back in full swing shortly.

On various experiments

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As I didn’t want to recommend dishes without having tried them first, I made the soup that I had previously mentioned, inspired by Christine from Phantom Of The Opera.  Perhaps I should have done that before recommending it, but such is life.  Or, at the very least, I should have waited to try it when others were going to be over, because the soup was strong.  Perhaps too strong – while it was an incredible flavor, the various flavors didn’t muddle at all, and it everything came through as bright as day. Having a whole bowl of this was probably not my best move; it overpowered a bit and I ended up wishing I only had a cup of it instead.

Even though I actually added extra stock and wine to the soup, it also came out with roughly the same consistency as mashed potatoes.  Now, it occurs to me that this is still a delightful side dish with that consistency, and I would whole-heartedly recommend it for that purpose.  I just was hoping that, when I recommended a soup, it actually had the consistency of a soup.  Anyhow, as I said at the beginning, not everything is going to work.

It kind of reminds me of when I tried to make cheesy oatcakes.  My idea was to make steel-cut oats, mix in some cheddar cheese, and then fry on a griddle (like pancakes) until they were firmed up.  I discovered that oatmeal doesn’t really firm up when baked like that – gluten plays a much bigger role in the process than I had anticipated.  It resulted in a loose pile of buttery, cheesy oatmeal. I did consequently discover that it meant that you could produce a savory oatmeal that works much like polenta/grits for a side dish to an entree, but it wasn’t exactly what I intended.  I think that’s what I’ve managed to do with the squash “soup”.

Requested recipe – Don Quixote burger

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Yesterday, The Finch came up with a whole bunch of suggestions for recipes.  I can only assume they’re doing a theme dinner of some kind, but I sadly don’t have the time to just throw myself into the kitchen and experiment on doing all of those dishes (don’t forget, I don’t just conjecture – I experiment and make all these foods, and I only have so much room for leftovers).  Between the relative simplicity of the dish and the many avenues I could take it, though, I decided that I could come up with a fun recipe for a hamburger inspired by Don Quixote.  Well, I may have also listened to some Toad the Wet Sprocket while coming up with this burger, but that still makes thematic sense (ask someone who was a teen during the 90′s if you don’t).

First, I knew that the burger would have to be on toasted rustic bread – pain rustique, pane rustico, whatever you want to call it.  Given the rustic setting of most of Don Quixote, it really was the only bread that would do.  I personally would lightly toast it on the stovetop in a light amount of olive oil – you want to give it a bit of crunch and not sponge off all of the toppings, but you don’t want to turn it into a solid piece of toast.

For the burger itself, I actually recommend ground lamb, mixed with minced garlic.  The La Mancha region, home of Quixote, is known for its sheep and goats, and it’s not the best terrain for cattle.  Sure, you can use beef, if that’s all you have available, but lamb makes a terrific burger, and it fits the theme besides.  As for the garlic, garlic mixed in with meat is almost too easy, but Don Quixote was famously once nearly knocked over by a girl’s incredibly garlicky breath – can’t ignore its place in the book.

Now, for toppings, I thought long and hard both about the culinary traditions of Spain and the original story.  I’m going to keep the toppings relatively simple at three, but they’re all very potent and more than enough for a great burger.

The first topping is Spanish ham.  Spain has some of the best ham in the world, which has been famous for millennia.   Seriously, look it up – Romans were praising Iberian ham well over 2000 years ago.  If you want to make a burger that truly calls to mind anything about Spain, including one of its great literary contributions to the global canon, you have to have it.  Plus, to make the bad pun, there were few hams in literature larger than Don Quixote himself.  I personally would select jamon serrano, which is my personal favorite amongst Spanish hams, but jamon iberico is an excellent choice and would make a fine addition as well.

The second topping is Mahon cheese.  Spain is not known for its cheeses, and it honestly doesn’t produce nearly as many as its two neighbors, France and Italy.  My personal take is that you have to be that damned good in order to make it as a cheesemaker in Spain, because I think Spain has some of the best cheeses in the world.  Technically speaking, Manchego should be the cheese to put on this burger (seeing as the name basically is “from La Mancha”), and keep in mind that I think Manchego is an excellent cheese.  That said, it does not melt very well for purposes of a hamburger.  Meanwhile, Mahon, from a small Spanish island in the Mediterranean, is an incredible cheese with a flavor that blends well with nearly everything and it melts just beautifully (I admit, I love Mahon and try to use it as much as possible).  Of course, if you want, you can compromise with some shavings of Manchego with plenty of Mahon – the two blend very well.

The final topping is a tomato jam, preferably a smoked tomato jam.  This isn’t merely a fancy way of saying ketchup.  A good smoked tomato jam is an incredible rustic flavor that goes with meats very well.  On top of that, it’s easy to overlook just how well Spanish cuisine uses tomatoes.  In fact, the only Mother Sauce (of the originals, anyhow) that uses tomatoes at all is called “espagnole” (although there are arguments on precisely why).  It enhances the various flavors here without covering them up.

Also, related to the last post, I picked up the materials to make the champagne butternut squash soup, and that’s going to be made on Tuesday.  Here’s hoping it works out.

Requested recipe – Phanton of the Opera dish

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I got my first request for a dish online yesterday – Dryunya wanted to know if I could come up with a dish inspired by his recent viewing of Phantom of the Opera.  I suppose I should have asked which version, but I was too caught up in the idea to really bother (sorry, Dryunya).

I decided that it should be a meal, and the meal should have three parts – one representing the Phantom, one representing Christine, and one representing Raoul.  It’s not necessarily the fanciest meal, but it’s one that I feel fits the feel and theme of the story.

Phantom: Dusted steak with bleu cheese.

The Phantom feels like a rare steak to me – perhaps not the prettiest to look at, and bloody  when the truth is revealed, but dark and mysterious, something you can’t pull away from even with all that blood.  I think the proper coating is about a teaspoon of cocoa powder (not the Dutch stuff; we want the acidity) mixed with about a tablespoon of ground coffee.  This will develop a very rich and dark flavor that will go well with the caramelization of a  rare steak.

The mask of the Phantom is represented by the bleu cheese, which can be turned into a sauce by melting about 2 ounces of bleu cheese in about 1 tablespoon of milk or cream. Any variety of such cheese would work – in fact, if not for the fact that the story is French and is screaming for a French bleu like Roquefort, I’d probably use Gorgonzola.  At any rate, I would specifically wait until it was done cooking, then put the cheese on one half of the steak and then cover it while it rests, to create sort of a half-mask effect as it melts from the steak’s heat.

Christine: Champagne squash soup

Christine was tricky at first, because I needed her to be able to accompany both of the other dishes well.  Moreover, given her status as a rising star of the opera, she needed to have an ingredient that screamed glamor.  This idea came to me, since it all seemed to come together.

3 pounds butternut squash, peeled and seeded
4 shallots
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup white wine (preferrably champagne)
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Cut the butternut squash, shallots and apples into medium-sized cubes. Place them on a sheet pan and toss with the olive oil and salt. Divide the squash mix between 2 sheet pans and spread it in a single layer. Roast for 35 to 45 minutes, until very tender.

Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock and white wine until it starts to simmer. When the vegetables are done, put them through a blender. (Alternatively, you can place the roasted vegetables in batches in a food processor with some of the chicken stock/wine and coarsely puree.) When all of the vegetables are processed, place them in a large pot and add the chicken stock/wine mix, stirring well.

Raoul: Mustard dill potatoes

Poor Raoul, the boring part of the love triangle.  That said, he’s a solid, dependable guy, and just as the story wouldn’t be complete without him, a dish feels incomplete without a starch.  Also, since we’re going with a bit of a French theme here, it’d be a shame to not involve Dijon mustard, one of France’s greatest culinary gifts.

I prefer to use Yukon Gold potatoes whenever possible, but you may want to switch to a different cultivar if you prefer something else (or you just don’t have Yukon Golds in your area).  One or two potatoes is enough for a single person.  For the baking, merely make large cubes of the potatoes, toss with some oil, and roast at 425 for about a half hour.

When the potatoes come out, toss them in a mixture of the following:

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons dill (preferrably fresh)
1 teaspoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste.

Mind you, I’ve not actually made this dish yet; I cannot vouch for how well the experiment will work.  But I do plan on giving it a spin soon – thanks for getting my mind working on it, Dryunya.

Totally flipping out, but not killing everyone

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First off, I’m totally going to do the limeade for Halloween.  Upon a simple review of everything, it’ll be a nice shock to guests.  Also, I imagine someone will probably have fun turning it into a mixer for some drink.  Plus, I really only have to modify my lemonade recipe a tiny bit, so it’ll be a fairly quick make.

Limeade

1 cup lime juice (probably about 12 limes)
1 cup sugar
Water

In a pot, mix together the sugar, the lime juice, and one cup of water.  Mix well.  Stir over low-medium heat for 10-15 minutes, until the sugar is completely dissolved and the volume of the mixture is reduced anywhere from 25-50%.

Remove from heat.  Pour into a half-gallon container.  Fill the rest of the container with water, and stir well.  Chill, then serve.

For later this weekend, I think I’m going to experiment with making my own carnitas – maybe it’s remembering too many family outings to Mexican places as a kid, but nothing quite beats the versatility of a good batch of carnitas – you can treat it like pulled pork, taco or fajita meat, or do any number of other delicious things with it.

The tricky part, though, is carving up the pork shoulder.  I used to use a chef’s knife for it, but I actually found the curvature of the knife a pain to use in such a fashion.  That said, I now have a santoku knife imported from Japan.  I probably shouldn’t be so obsessed over it, but it’s such a nice blade.  Feel like I’m Miyamoto Musashi or Sarutobi Sasuke (well, if the latter really existed) when I’m using it to chop through food.  Plus, I got a blade with excellent heft in the handle – it always feels weird when I use kitchen knives that have light handles, like I’m going to apply too much pressure to the work.

I don’t know what I’ll include in the carnitas yet – that’s a recipe that just begs to be freestyled.  I’ll post more when I figure that one out.

Brainstorming – Halloween entrees

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I haven’t been cooking much the last couple of days – when you make lots of food, you end up with tons of leftovers, so I’ve really been working through those.  With that in mind, though, it’s never too early to start planning on big meals.  I’m next thinking Halloween.

Now, I know the popular thing is to come up with some apple cider drink, throw in some green dye, and call it a witch’s brew.  Little too predictable, if you ask me.  What might work, though, is if I surprise them with something with a powerful flavor.  Perhaps limeade, since that also is a bit green.

I’m actually thinking of something fun with meatballs for a dinner idea, though.  I usually make meatballs with just beef, but you can really blend all sorts of ground meat together.  I’m thinking a combination of beef, lamb, and pork, and make some kind of awesome Frankenstein meatball.  Maybe come up with some powerful seasonings for it too, to make it really memorable.

Not sure how bold I feel, but I could even come up with a flambe gravy for extra fun – fire bad! Fire bad! Though I suspect I’ll need my trusty fire extinguisher on hand if I try this.

China meets Belgium in the American South

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I had never heard of serving chicken and waffles together until I was in college.  Even then, I thought it was some kind of joke – until I traveled after college and went to a restaurant in Los Angeles that actually specializes in serving them together.  It was so much better than I had anticipated – the chicken wasn’t as overpoweringly savory as I had feared, and the waffles also weren’t ridiculously sweet, so it ended up reminding me of having biscuits, but sweeter.

So tonight, I think I’m going to combine that experience with my fondness of Chinese food.  I don’t know how many times I’ve gotten a scallion pancake with an order of sesame chicken or sweet-and-sour chicken.  Well, waffles use very similar batter to pancakes.  You add brown sugar to the mix when making sesame chicken or sweet-and-sour chicken; why not add maple syrup instead?

Ideally, I’d love to get a genuine Belgian waffle maker; if there’s one thing the Belgians do right, it’s make waffles.  (I’ll leave it to someone from Europe to go into detail about the things Belgians don’t do right… made the mistake once of asking a French person that question, and got an hour-long harangue about Belgians).  That said, I do have a fairly competent waffle iron that at least has deep wells like a proper Belgian waffle maker.  I hope to mix in some scallions, and maybe just a touch of sesame oil, to the waffle batter, and we’ll see how that comes out.

I’ll go with sesame chicken tonight – I think that simply swapping the brown sugar with maple syrup will be an easy substitution that’ll call the original flavors of waffles and syrup to mind while staying true to the flavors of the base dish.  This should be a fast dinner; I have high hopes for it.

After midnight, what else could you do with the coach?

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One of the nice things about the fall season is that pumpkins are finally in season.  All sorts of fun things you can do with pumpkins – they’re like the perfect squash.  Savory dishes, sweet dishes… they’re so versatile.

I picked up a sugar pumpkin the other day, and I’ve been prepping it for making a nice pumpkin apple cider bread.  I considered muffins, but it’s a bit easier to store the bread or take it to others to enjoy.

Now, the important thing this time, I think, is picking the right seasonings.  I’m going to shoot for fresh ground ginger, because that’s always a wonderful flavor to blend with sweet.  Also, thinking of cloves, because those just scream “fall.”  Maybe some nutmeg, for a bit of an earthy flavor (appropriate for anything made with gournds, I think).  And finally, a splash of allspice.  I think I’ll avoid cinnamon; almost too overdone at this point.

Finally, that cake I described yesterday?  Came out great – I used a bit of Scharffen-Berger 99% pure chocolate for a very sharp chocolate flavor (incredible balance of bitter and sweet in the frosting), and the blue curacao offered a mildly tangy flavor to what is otherwise just a straightforward sweet item.

Crazy dreams inspire crazy cakes

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So last night, I had a really odd dream.  It was mostly in a white void, except there was one guy there.  Everything was monochrome black-and-white, which was strange because I usually dream in color.  Anyhow, this guy was in a suit, and probably around 8 feet tall.  At least, I think he was – I do know that I couldn’t clearly see anything about him from around the nose up.  I don’t remember what he said, but he was yelling in this weird, distorted tone.  Really strange was the one splash of color in the dream – he held his hand up like he was gripping something, and some odd blue energy looked like it was forming there.

I woke up around that time, and I thought about the dream… for some reason, I can’t help but imagine a cake when I go over everything.  Probably a clue that I spend too much time baking, right?  Well, to get it out of my head, I came up with the following recipe:

Custard for cake – Make 30 minutes in advance

⅓ cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 cup cream
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon butter

Mix together the sugar and the flour in a small saucepan.  Stir in milk.  Bring just to a boil on medium heat.  Reduce heat to low, stir for about a minute, until it starts to thicken.

In a small bowl, beat together the three egg yolks.  Pour in a small amount of the milk mixture into the bowl, mix well to temper the eggs.  Pour egg mixture into the saucepan, mix well.  Stir in butter.  When the butter has blended with all of the mixture, remove from heat and set aside.

Cake

Custard mixture, as above
2 ¼ cups flour (all-purpose or cake)
1 ⅓ cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (one stick) butter, room temperature
½ cup milk
1 cup Blue Curacao liqueur
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
6 ounces miniature chocolate chips (optional)
20 drops blue food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Coat round cake pans with butter and lightly dust with flour, set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Mix until they’re roughly blended.  Add butter, custard, milk, liqueur, and vanilla (and food coloring, if used).  Mix for about two minutes with a stand mixer or hand blender; 4 or 5 if mixing by hand.  Scrape the bowl, add the eggs.  Mix for about another minute.  Scrape the bowl again, and mix for about another minute.  Blend in the chocolate chips by hand if using them.

Pour the mixture into the cake pans.  Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool on a wire rack; wait until room temperature before frosting.

Chocolate frosting

½ cup (one stick) butter, softened
½ cup shortening
4 cups powdered sugar
4 ounces chocolate, melted (the higher the cocoa percentage, the better)
2 tablespoons espresso powder (optional)

Put butter and shortening in mixing bowl.  Blend together for about two minutes, until creamy.  Scrape the bowl.  Gradually add in powdered sugar, until blended.  Add in the espresso powder and the melted chocolate.  Mix for about two minutes.  Scrape the bowl, mix for about one minute.  Use on a cooled cake.

I think this would result in a pretty exciting cake – the blue curacao would go great with the chocolate, and the flavors would be pretty rich.  I’ll be giving it a run this weekend.

Making Hell freeze over

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I will admit proudly that I’m a pepperhead.  I’m a spicy food fan.  I’ve done all sorts of spicy food challenges, culminating in eating the pulp and seeds of three smoked ghost chilies in a single gulp.  That was easily one of my top five favorite flavors ever, between the smoky hues, the savory texture, and the graceful floral notes… followed by friends taking bets as to whether or not I’d lose consciousness as intense pain combed my body.  It was at least a half hour before I stopped being in unending agony… and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

So, a couple friends and I are currently devising a way to make an all-spicy full dinner, with varying ways to bring the pain.  And I think I’ve figured out dessert – balsamic blackberry habanero sorbet.

Now, it has to be a sorbet, because the fats in ice cream actually soothe away the capsacin in the peppers, making it much less spicy (which is why ice cream and milk are both recommended for calming from over-peppering).  If I want this dessert to be “ice on fire,” I have to make it a sorbet.

I had plenty of fruits I could choose from, but I picked blackberries because it was just the right combination of sweet, tart, and its own distinct flavor.  Also, admittedly, I think raspberries are way overdone.  Beyond that, I also wanted to include some of the complex flavors of a good balsamic vinegar in there – plus, as a bonus, the vinegar helps break down the blackberries and the habanero for better blending.

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Recipe:

2 pints blackberries

4 habanero peppers

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

First, remove the stems and seeds from the habanero peppers.  Slice into thin strips.  Place all of the ingredients into a small saucepan.  Heat all of the ingredients of low-medium heat, stirring regularly.  When the mixture starts to bubble, gently begin crushing the blackberries with your stirring spoon.

After about 15 minutes, remove from the heat.  Allow to cool for a couple of minutes, then place the mixture in a refrigerator for about an hour.

Take the cooled mixture and blend it.  From there, pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove the blackberry seeds.  Occasionally pour a tiny amount of water (no more than a teaspoon at a time) into the strainer to get extra mixture through the strainer.

Pour the strained mixture into an ice cream/sorbet maker and run the usual amount of time. Best if served about an hour after making it.

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The above recipe scales well, and it’s moderately spicy.  Folks who think it’s too spicy will want to pick a less spicy, yet still flavorful pepper like the sarrano or the jalapeno.  Folks who think it’s weak can include the seeds when they boil the mixture together, include more habaneros, or just try a spicier pepper (like the ghost chili previously mentioned).  Other fruits can be used as well, although some water (about 1/2 cup per pint of fruit) will have to be added for some tougher fruits (like strawberries) to make sure it doesn’t just produce a burnt syrup.