Potatoes Allrottin

The things we come up with as kids. If only an alternative name for potatoes au gratin was the worse offense I committed while under the age of 12...

I have heard the word all my life, "gratin" or more likely "au gratin" and I always assumed it meant "to smother with cheese and make taste gross".

I blame Betty Crocker. Mom was not at fault. She had 4 kids to deal with over the years and the Potatoes Au Gratin was a moderately quick, cost effective, and fairly simple side dish to prepare. One that even a squirrelly hyper active spaz could make without much direction from Mom.

The big problem for me was that it was and still is made from dehydrated potatoes and powdered cheese.

Well tonight I finally got over my near life long avoidance of Potatoes au Gratin, by making the original or a close facsimile thereof.

Two smallish Russet potatoes sliced about an 1/8" thick
1 large Shitake, 1 average Crimini, 2 small Button Mushrooms sliced 1/4" thick
2-3 tbsp cream
1/4 cup loosely packed shredded cheese
2 tbsp panko bread crumbs
2 tsp bacon fat
kosher salt and pepper to taste

The mushrooms and potatoes should be sliced relatively uniform in size. It's easy to do with a mandolin but I like my good ol santoku.

Did you catch the subtle bragging about my knife skills?

Sauté the potato slices over high heat, until the potatoes are fork tender, with slices this thin it doesn't take long, about 5-8 minutes. They might take on a little color but not too much. Keep them moving in the pan so they don't stick or burn.

Turn on your broiler and put the rack at its highest level. Remove the potatoes from the pan leaving as much of the fat in the pan as possible. Reduce the heat to just above medium high. Add the mushrooms and quickly sauté until cooked through about 5 minutes. Keep the mushrooms moving to avoid burning. 
Add the potatoes back into pan and toss to mix wiht the mushrooms evenly. Add the cream and cook until it just starts to thicken.
The classic recipe calls for a Béchamel sauce but the plain cream works well for this quick method. 
Once the cream has thickened, top the potato mushroom mixture with the grated cheese and panko.

Note* I switched to a smaller oven safe pan for the final step. If you don't have oven safe (all metal) pan, pour into a small casserole dish or big ramekin then top with the cheese and panko.

I used 3 really nice cheeses, about 1 1/4 tbsp of each of the following: Lincolnshire Poacher, Pave de Nord and Pecorino Tuscano.
Broil for about 3 minutes. Until the cheese is completely melted and just starting to color. It might take more or less time in you oven so keep an eye the pan while it is under the broiler. Burning can happen fast. It should look something like this.

My plan was to serve with some nice sausages procured from a "real butcher". I wasn't impressed. I am all for leaner cuts and all that jazz but a sausage shouldn't be like dry white toast... It was a pretty sausage though. Very photogenic.
 

Not to toot my own horn but the potatoes rocked.

Never be afraid to try something you weren't fond of 25 years ago. You might be surprised.

Cheers

Chris

Confit de canard - days 1 and 2

Man have I been slacking... I sorta took the weekend off from the computer, but I am back with a big project. Well not big but a little involved, maybe big. You can judge for yourself after reading this post.

Over the weekend I finished reading Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman (hereafter referred to as MR, just because I am a relatively slow typist) and Brian Polcyn, and I am embarking on what is sure to be an adventure.

MR explains in the beginning of Charcuterie how a particular dish was his introduction to the world of charcuterie and the start of his decade long exploration of the Art.

My interest stemmed from a desire to recreate the smoked country sausage, bacon, and country ham that my Pappy made every fall when I was a kid. His recipes followed him to the grave in the mid 80's. As I started researching sausage and ham making, one book was referenced over and over, the aforementioned volume by Misters Ruhlman and Polcyn.

I ordered my copy on Amazon and had it in my grubby hands a mere four days after ordering... I sat down and started reading almost as soon as it was out of the packaging. After reading the foreword by T. Keller, I was smitten by the idea of duck confit, so eloquently described by MR on the first 2 pages.

I had heard about duck confit for years but never really knew what it was. Being from the land of southern fried chicken, duck was a bird rarely on my radar until recently. I saw an episode of Good Eats by my man AB titled "What's Up Duck". AB steams and then oven sears a duck in a cast iron skillet.

I wanted... But duck is not that easy to find in the Nashville area. A trip to the international market however reveled a ready supply of, what is probably Pekin ducks and no that is not misspelling of Peking. These birds come frozen rock solid with their little heads and feets intact. Not for the squeamish. Watching my mom freak a little when I pointed out the beak through the plastic was rife with sadistic giggles. (Don't be mad at or ashamed of me, I learned that kind of behavior from her, and if you ask her she will eventually admit it). Again I show my tenancy to digress, maybe even to regress...

I prepared the duck as prescribed in the Good Eats episode and while it was very tasty, it was rather chewy.

My second encounter with one of the cryo canards was during Spring Smoke 08', when I brined, then slow smoked an entire bird over hickory and mesquite chips. It was very very good. Smoked duck butt is just as tasty in inverse proportion to how nasty it sounds.

So while firmly in the throws duck ardor, I read the first few paragraphs of MR's book and knew right then and there that when I was finished reading Charcuterie, cover to cover, it would be duck confit I attempted first.

Herein lies my dilemma. I have no frame of reference for what it should taste like. But I am diving in anyway.

On Saturday I found a fresh 5 lbs duck at Whole Foods that looked decent, though a smidge dry on one of the wing tips. Securely wrapped in brown paper it came home with me and was placed in the fridge, on a half sheet pan, to catch any duck juice that leaked out of the paper.

On Sunday evening it began. First things first, duck confit is usually made with just the leg and thigh portions, per wikipedia but since I had a whole duck, and MR says in the book "You can confit the breast as well." I decided to confit the breast too. Breaking down a duck is a little work. A good sharp, heavy bladed knife helps the work go quicker. Intimate knowledge of duck butchery would have made it go even faster but one out of two isn't bad.

So how about some naked duck pictures.

The next picture is a little gruesome, as it is a fully, if inexpertly broken down, duck carcass.
The leg/thigh pieces in the bowl get seasoned with:
3 tbsp kosher salt
4 whole cloves roughly crushed
6 peppercorns also crushed
3 cloves garlic, sliced
3 bay leaves broken in half

I didn't have quite the 5 lbs of duck listed in the recipe but close to 4 lbs I think, (I can't tell for sure because my frackin scale bit the big one last week and I haven't decided on a replacement yet.) so I didn't reduce the spice quantities except for the bay leaf.

I sprinkled the salt and spices on the duck pieces as prescribed and after a picture put the lid on the bowl and retired the meat to the fridge.

So what do you do with all the left over duck detritus? Well I still needed 2 or so cups of duck fat to cook the confit.

Per Charcuterie page 260, paraphrased; combine 1 lbs of duck fat and a quarter cup water in a heavy saucepan and cook over very low heat for a few hours until the water evaporates. Do not over heat or it will be leave a harsh taste to the fat.
I didn't have a pound of fat but what I did have was prepared as described.

I strained the resulting liquid through 4 layers of cheese cloth

Rendering 1 and 1/2 cups of duck ambrosia.

Turns out when you let it cool overnight, covered with plastic wrap in the fridge it separates into roughly equal parts confit jelly and duck fat.

The rest of the carcass joined the other two, formerly feathered fowl ,carcasses already awaiting stock day in my freezer.

I am going to err on the side of caution and let my duck parts cure for a full 36 hours at least before cooking.

I am antsy though and impatience is one of my failings. Publishing this blog does inspire me to restrain my enthusiasm and slow a bit more patience.

Final thoughts... I am glad I am not squeamish.
Duck fat looks a lot like mayonnaise to a camera.
I have no idea what to do with the confit jelly that is left. Anyone have any advice on this one?

Cheers

Chris

Read this!

I am an opinionated, bossy, stubborn, sometimes knowitall, who, until now, never had much appreciation for poetry. I know some of the classic names; Yates, Keats, Poe, the dead dudes, but I don't really know anything about modern poetry, or classical poetry for that matter. I'll own up to it, I don't know diddley poo about poetry, but I do know, that for the first time since I was 6, I have been inspired by a poem. Shuna Fish Lydon at Eggbeater wrote an amazing poem you have to check out.

Oh and that poem that inspired me when I was 6 went a little something like; Bean beans good for your heart, the more you....

I think you know the rest.

Oh yeah as for being a knowitall, if you suspect bullshit, call me on it. There is nothing I love more than teaching, except learning.

Cheers

Chris

Best Lemon Soda Ever!

Alrightly boys and girls, today is a simple but very flavorful post.

I love lemon, but usually savory applications. Lemon soda happens to be one of those few lemony things that I do like sweet, but I am not a big fan of paying 4 dollars a bottle for the Italian Soda at a couple of the local chain stores. I also don't care much for the high fructose corn syrup that floods the canned stuff. So I make my own. You can too...

What you will need:

A 500ml bottle of Perrier or some other carbonated belly wash.
100 ml of simple syrup or some equivalently sweet sweetener (If you didn't know, simple syrup is equal  parts water and sugar heated until the sugar is completely dissolved.)
40ml fresh squeezed lemon juice, seeds bad, pulp good.

What to do:

Mix the lemon juice and syrup in a container large enough to hold all of the liquid such as a 3 or 4 cup measuring cup.
Slowly, so very very slowly, pour the carbonated water into the juice/syrup mix. I also recommend pouring gently. DO NOT STIR. I say this from vast and messy experience. Pour slowly and gently. If you missed the previous sentence it bares repeating, pour slowly and gently. In all seriousness you can have an spill over, if you just dump the water in on the syrup. Because we are using simple syrup, instead of just plain table sugar the beverage will actually mix just by pouring the larger volume of water into the lemon/syrup. The release of the bubbles helps mix also.

My final step is to use a funnel and pour the newly mixed beverage back into the bottle. A little care is warranted here as well. You now have 640ml of soda and a 500ml bottle. For the mathematically challenged 640 is bigger than 500. It's not all gonna fit Once the bottle is full, pour the remaining lemony libation into a glass with some ice and consume.

Final thoughts:
If the lemon/syrup mix and the carbonated water are very cold they mix easier without as much fizzing, saving the bubbles to go up your nose.
Strong flavored juices work well for this beverage... 
(Reduce a cup of fresh orange juice by half over medium heat then chill completely before mixing... Moderate the sweetness by adding the sugar after mixing the orange juice and carbonated water.)

You can do a lot different flavors like this, just remember the flavor will dilute in the water so make it strong to stand up.

Let me know what you like to mix up.

Oh and sorry for the lack of pictures. I was lazy...

Cheers

Chris.

Snout to tail.

Jennifer Justus at the Tennessean wrote a cool article about the guys at City House, a restaurant in Germantown section of Nashville. I won't delve into the article too much, you can read it all here, but I will say: Who wants to go eat some pig with me?

Cheers

Chris

Comments

Someone told me that they would be more inclined to comment if the comments weren't moderated.
So let the commenting begin (and for some of you, let it continue) .

Cheers

Chris

Not for the squeamish. Volume I

As the title says this post is not for the squeamish, faint of heart or strict vegetarian, it involves organs. Kidneys in fact, veal kidneys to be precise. While kidneys aren't a common protein seen here, anything goes and considering I never really know what will be posted here day to day, you should expect anything to pop up.

So kidneys... what to do with about a lbs of kidneys. I bookmarked a recipe that sounded good, "Sautéed Veal Kidney with Dijon mustard and tarragon cream sauce" but the site appears to be a members only site or the guys site is just fu (pronounced "foo"). Having already been thinking about the mustard and tarragon cream sauce I went hunting another recipe on this new fangled Interweb thingy. Google only returned 70,000 results. Most of the  ones I looked at seemed like a simple béchamel fortified with white wine, dijon mustard and tarragon.
I decided to venture out on my own, béchamel being the one mother sauce that I have committed to memory. (For all you southerners, béchamel is biscuit/sausage gravy made with butter instead of sausage grease and no pepper.)

I started by cleaning the kidneys, removing membranes and the like, trimming extra fat... The usual.

I then sliced them in half top to bottom??? Flat wise??? Split??? They were cut...

See the icky bits up in the left hand corner? That is excess fat and membranes. Nice right? You should feel what it feels like. bwahahah (creepy mad scientist laugh)

I started by adding a little olive oil to a 10" sauté pan and commenced to sauté. Which it appears I neglected to photograph... Cooking and taking pictures is a right bitch sometimes with only 2 hands. I had never cooked kidneys before so I reeeeally cooked them. Well done I would guess but until some one can shoot me a recommended internal temp... well done it is.

The sauce was started with approximately 1 tbsp each of minced shallot and tarragon sautéed in 1 tsp of butter.

After 6 to 8  minutes I added another tsp of butter. Once the butter had bubbled off it's water I added 1 tbsp of all purpose flour to bring together a roux.
I am never really very sure how much milk I add. I have been eyeballing it for way too many years, (one of those things that the "gran" and "regular" edition mothers taught me as a small child) but I would guess it was about a half a cup I think, maybe. Bring the new baby sauce to a boil so the roux will do its job, then reduce the heat to a simmer and add 2-3 tsp of good dijon mustard.

I added the veal to the sauce to let it simmer for a bit while I made the side dish, fingerling potatoes with thyme and lemon glaze... This dish is so simple. Precook some waxy potatoes and cut into large bit size pieces. I nuked mine for 5 minutes. Saute in a little tiny bit of butter or olive oil and a pinch of fresh thyme leaves.

Do not salt until after the next step.
Juice a lemon into a bowl or measuring cup and remove the seeds. Pour over the potatoes in a rippin hot pan. It will foam and bubble and look kinda creamy for a minute as the lemon juice reduces really quickly. Toss or stir the potatoes continually to coat as the lemon reduces. It only takes about 45 seconds to a minute. Salt and pepper if needed. Usually it's not.

This preparation works well with flat leaf parsley too or maybe a little chili flake for a bit of heat to offset the sweet tart of the lemon.

I plates the veal and the potatoes with a slice of mediocre tomato sprinkled with a pinch of kosher salt.

Turns out that kidneys have a flavor similar to liver which I like, very firm flesh without being tough. The sauce was missing something. Probably the white wine that all the other recipes had. Next time I will make sure to have wine on hand for this sauce, which I will be making again sometime. A note about the potatoes. I prepare asparagus the same way. Both will rock ya socks off. If you don't dig the veal at least try the potatoes.

It's late and I sleepy.

Cheers

Chris

Inspiration Nation.

Orangette posted a Spinach and Green Garlic Soup yesterday that just killed me. I was so jealous over the availability of green garlic. I have never seen it in Nashville, though I have not been the the farmers market this season nor have I accosted the produce people at Whole Foods. So an visit from Cousin prompted me to try a modification of the soup with available ingredients. I substituted garlic confit for the green garlic, figuring that the mildness of the confit would not be over poweringly "garlicy" like fresh garlic would. Home blanched, frozen spinach stood in for the fresh that she used. The final substitution was the oil from the confit for her butter and olive oil.

Considering that I have no idea what green garlic tastes or smells like, I went easy on the confit to start. Five cloves and 1 1/2 tbsp of highly flavored oil was the base.

Rather pedestrian photo don't you think? That garlic sautéed for about 5 minutes over medium heat... (I didn't take its temperature as I would like to, to give you an accurate heat value, due to a lack of infrared thermometers) I defrosted the spinach for 5 minutes in the microwave and ran through it with my santoku, giving it a rough chop. I added it to the now mashed up garlic then covered with most of a carton (I know, I know... Thou shalt not use commercial broth) chicken broth.

It is sooo very very green... Almost scarily so.

I brought this to a boil to insure that the spinach was completely thawed then reduced to a simmer. While the base was gurgling to itself in the pot, I used the remaining 1/2 cup of broth, brought to a boil, to quick defrost some herb gnocchi. A 3 minute bath is all they got, and it may have been too much. I sautéed them in a little browned Amish Roll Butter with some fresh green onions.

Orangette used a blender to puree her soup, but because I have one and I like to use it, (it makes me feel all chefy like) I used the stick blender.

 

Crème fraîche finished the soup and I served it up topped with the gnocchi and some lightly toasted sourdough and roll butter.

Orangette said "It tasted, I thought, the way the color green would probably taste if you could soften it in butter, purée it with stock, and serve it in a bowl."

I would love to be able to compare the two or even just try hers. This inspired version was one for the book, even though it is so shockingly green that it resembled "puree o' lawn clippings". Green food not leaf shaped tends to worry me, but Cousin and I enjoyed the soup to the bottoms of our bowls and maybe the bottoms of our souls.

Cheers

Chris

Slacker Monday

I am a slacker today. Seems I was one yesterday too.

I had a post brewing about Asian fusion lunch. Then one about the 7 year late house warming gift from my mother.

(Without cookies!!! WTF Mom?)

I think I will just gloat over my new fridge for a minute...
It's not a Subzero or Hobart cause I am not rich nor do I have a cavernous kitchen, but it will do.

Closed

 
Open.

Idn't purty?

Cheers & G' night

Chris

Busy as a beaver

Today was a very busy day... I woke up early (6:30 uuuhg!) I friend had agreed to teach me some of the finer points of making bread at his bakery in Hendersonville. As it turns out the Herb Society of Nashville (not 420 friendly herb but the stuff you can cook with, and yes I know you can cook with the other... tangent...) had their 2008 Herb & Plant Sale. I wanted to head out to acquire tarragon and a new mint plant or two. Some how I managed to kill mint... more tangents... Timing was critical at this juncture as the ad for the sale said it started at 9am and ran until the plants ran out or 2pm, whichever came first... Copy like that leads me to believe it would be prudent to get there right when they are opening the doors. I was justified in my desire to get there early. Luckily, Rick, my baker friend, was very understanding about me not making it at 8. Giving him almost an 40 minute heads-up probably made him more inclined to extend the invitation to reschedule for next weekend. So I headed to the fairgrounds and got there at about 9:10 and was astounded to see a line at the already opened doors, nearly 100 yards long. The venue was packed with both people and plants.
The picture above is a poorly shot and constructed panorama of the show floor. It was like Macy's on Black Friday.

Once I had my mint, tarragon, English and French thyme, and a mature lemon grass plant, plus a few tips from the "Answer Ladies" I was on my way.

So due to the location of the sale (at the fairgrounds close to downtown) I decided to have a coffee at my favorite little place downtown, Crema. After about an hour hanging out with the fine staff and interesting patrons, hunger set in and I decided to migrate over to Hot Diggity Dog and had a sublime lunch of Chicago Dog and extra crispy fries. I didn't take a picture, though I should have. As an apology I am linking another blogger's post from 2006. He has great photos and an interesting story.

After lunch, the busy picks up a little. On the advice of my mother, I headed to the Habitat for Humanities store to look at reclaimed refrigerators for a project I am working on. I struck out and on secondary advice from mom I headed to the Sears Outlet (read as Scratch and Dent) Store in where else but Hendersonville. I found many many models that please-id me but only chose one. Since the original plan for the day did not include purchasing a fridge, I was not prepared with measurements of the fridge hole at the casa. So I ran home, measured, headed to Mom's for a minute to raid her potting shed, dropped off the purloined pots and purchased plants then returned to the fridge store. With measurements in hand, the pleasant sales dude, "Fred", confirmed that the chosen model would indeed fit in the afore mentioned and measured fridge hole... Earlier when heading home to measure, my father had called to invite me to lunch on Sunday and had offered to help install the fridge upon arrival at my abode. I had also procured a rented appliance dolly after the potting shed raid in an effort to reduce the stress of getting the stainless steel monster into the house. Store staff loaded the my truck and I gallivanted back to the house to meet up with dad.... Struggle and stain ensued, fridge door removal was preformed and after considerable internalized swearing we made it into the kitchen. Reassembly and door alterations (handle moved from right side to left and the hinge move left to right) completed, I threw some asparagus in a saute pan with a little butter, same as in this post, and quartered some fingerling potatoes long ways and nuked them for 5 minutes. A quick sauté with a bit of butter and a nice chunk of the smoked leg of lamb, sliced made a tasty dinner if I do say so. Dad seemed to agree saying that he got the best end of the fridge moving deal being fed after not doing much helping. I never could have gotten the Stainless Monster out of the truck without his help. (heh, I just named my fridge. How geeky is that?)
Expect action photos at later date... I just too tuckered out.

So that was my day... Busy eh?

Cheers

Chris

Charcuterie.. huh what?

First a quick note on lunch.

Sour dough toast with Gorgonzola Creamosa and Mostarda Mantovana di Pere. I am not real sure what Gorgonzola Creamosa is, I will check with The Cheese Pimp. I can describe it. It's a really creamy gorgonzola that is a little chunky, smooth like, and just a bit thicker than, cream cheese, with that distinct blue cheese tang. It goes really well with the pear moostaaard (French accent). Chased it with an Ugly Cookie from Country Manor Bakery in Hendersonville.

Charcuterie. I was never hooked on phonics and if I had been I don't think it would have helped, because this is a distinctly french word - from the French chaircuicterie : chair, meat  + cuict, cuit, cooked... so literally cooked meat, is pronounced shar-koo-ta-ree. Its broader meaning typically refers to pâté, sausage, ham, or other processed meats. Bacon for example, or salami. It can also refer to the store were one might find a person making and selling such products.
So what's all the hubbub about. I just received, in my grubby little paws, a copy of "Charcuterie" by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, and I am all flustered by the prospect of smoking, brining, pickling and salting all manner of animal flesh.

I am sooo distracted, like a kid with a new toy.

I have to go read this book now. Preferably cover to cover, more than once. As soon as I have used the skills learnt in this tome I will share.

Cheers

Chris

IHOP eat your heart out...

French toast with fresh strawberries and vanilla whipped cream. Spring time foods... Love it.

Cheers

Chris

Nokia for lunch???

I can only imagine that the similarities in the pronunciation of gnocchi and Nokia , has at some point in time, somewhere in the world (probably in the southeast US) confused someone into asking that question. Maybe it's my twisted since of humor but I can just see "Bubba" sitting in Olive Garden pondering the menu and his cell, while an impatient waitron taps his or her foot in exasperation. Heheh...

Lunch was a nice heirloom tomato with buffalo milk mozzarella, (that's some tasty Italian cheese) basil and a drizzle of olive oil paired up with Herb Gnocchi from Keller's Bouchon cookbook. Today I am afraid I don't have time to list out the full recipe but I did take pictures (surprise!). The usual suspects involved in gnocchi made appearances. Flour, butter, eggs, cheese, water, herbs... you get the picture.
Butter and water come to a boil on the stove, then the flour is dumped in, then you stir like mad for about five minutes. The dough goes into a mixer and you add the cheese and herbs, then mix for a minute with the paddle. Set the mixer on its lowest speed and add 3 eggs, one at a time. Crank up the mixer to medium high and add 2 more eggs. Transfer this rather sticky paste/dough into a pastry bag and let it rest for half an hour. Keller explains how to pipe the gnocchi into the water cutting them into one inch long pieces... I must have done something a little wrong somewhere along the way because it was a bitch to cut them right. I figured out an alternative though.

Original - bite size nuggets

Alternative - creepy pot snakeI figured it would be easier to cut them more accurately once they were not paste. I was correct for a change.

I sautéed a small handfull in 2 tsp of butter until a little browned and plated with the tomatoes and mozzarella and a few olives.

I love spring time food.

Cheers

Chris

 

Oh yeah this is my first post using a new blog authoring tool... I Hope it works

Eating a steady diet of government cheese... down by the river!

Tonight, Whole Foods officially made #1 on my list of cool stores...
I went in actually looking for some high end bread flour for my current experiment in bread making. Sadly, with the exception of the house brand, organic bread flours, and specialty grains in tiny packages, Whole Foods is not much different than Kroger when it comes to flour.
Now, I can't go in there without a trip around the back wall... Seafood - smelly but in a good way, meats - dry aged - assault your wallet - ribeyes... yum, and CHEESE...
The "Cheese Pimp" was there as usual. Pimpin his dairy products from France, Spain and Italy... and not the Government.
He offered me a taste of Mostarda Mantovana di Pere (pear mustard) on a teeny piece of cheese. It was sweet and biting and spicy like good mustard should be. Not something I would slather on a hot dog, but paired up with a nice cheese or charcuterie... NOM!
He pimped the cheese and other products like a good pimp will, even offering me a cheese that was... ummm, how to be polite... pungent... uumm odoriferous... oh hell it was just plain stinky. I declined that particular variety but accepted the offer of Burro di Bufala (buffalo butter).
So I imagine at this point you are asking yourself, "Didn't he make a statement about how cool Whole Foods is?" and thinking all along, that nothing I have said is out of the ordinary for Whole Foods. Having someone try to sell you cheese is pretty standard practice there.
What made tonight stand out were two events.
First Event, after pimpin the Mooostaard di Pear, it turns out they were out... Using his discretionary powers, which it seems all Whole Foods employees have, Cheese Pimp used a common Sharpie to mark out the bar-code on the jar and handing it to me said, "Free. If they have a problem with it up front tell them to talk to me."
The Cheese Pimp rocks!

Second Event I would think at this point everyone within 100 miles of a Walmart has heard or used this tired old joke in a store - "Oh look, it doesn't have a price, I guess it must be free." to which the inevitable but polite response from the less then impressed cashier is "Sorry, I wish that was the case."
Not so tonight at least not in practice. When I scanned the buffalo butter, the self serve checkout station freaked out and asked me to wait on assistance from a cashier. The perky little blond took the butter an attempted to look it up. Turns out its either not in the system or some management type person hadn't entered the price. She asked me if I remembered the price, which I did not. When I said I could walk back and find out she whipped out her discretionary powers and said "Naw, it's free cause it doesn't have a price." You could have knocked me over with a baguette.
Self Service Checkout Cashier You Rock!

And now for an image to finish up the post. Stuff de Gratuits
I haven't tried the butter yet, but when I do I will post if it is worthy.

Cheers

Chris


*UPDATE* - Burro di Bufala doesn't taste like much... Land O Lakes standard offering has more flavor... The Amish Roll Butter on the other hand, that I didn't write about, WOW! Good Stuff.

What's red and green, and bleu all over?

Luckily it's not the punchline of a fifth grade gross out joke, though some of you might disagree if you don't like bleu cheese.
I was rummaging in the fridge today, stalking my lunch like my ancestors did, staring blankly into the void, when I was struck with an idea... Look! There on the top shelf, is that a small piece of very strong bleu? Indeed it is. And look there in the vegetable crisper... Do I spy cabbage? Why yes, red and green varieties as a matter of fact, half a head of each.
So with the main slaw ingredients gathered on the cutting board, I rooted around to find the rest of the supplies I would need - mayonnaise, honey, yogurt, sour cream, a carrot, sugar, cider vinegar, and salt/pepper.
I took my usuba bocho (also know as a Japanese vegetable knife) and started to make a nice julienne of cabbage. In general, I just whacked it into little pieces. I shredded the carrot directly into the bowl holding the cabbage.
I made the dressing in a separate bowl.
1/2 cup mayo
2 oz of really good bleu cheese, crumbled into small chunks, oh say, the side of cottage cheese curd...
1 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tbsp sour cream
2 tsp honey
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar little more if it is too sweet
salt (kosher) and pepper (fresh ground) to taste.
Mix everything in a bowl until well blended, take a taste. Do you like it? If so dress the slaw with it. Does it need something? Figure it out yerself... I like mine the way it is, though I will most likely change it the next time I make it. Last time it was made with bleu cheese salad dressing instead of plain bleu. (Plain bleu... Is that even possible?)
Oh well...
I paired it up with a Hebrew National Jumbo Beef Frank, (unpaid product placement) on sour dough with a sliced up garlic pickle and some, dare I admit it, bacon ranch dressing. It was gooood.
I ate outside in the spring sun at my new pic-a-nic table, Boo Boo
I was watched... Hope everyone else had nice weather today and was able to eat outside... and get watched.

Cheers

Chris

New URL

The blog has a new url... http://www.onthekitchensteps.com
Yes there is a story behind the new name.

Blog titles - a reason for change.

I thought J.A.F.A.R. a clever acronym to use for a blog, however I have since come to think it lame... Especially when every search engine returns a bazillion listing for the Disney character. It was never my intention to form an association with the giant mouse. I have changed the name of the blog to represent something more meaningful.
When I was a small my mother would pull out a drawer in the kitchen and place a board across it to form a step for me to stand on. (points off for ending a sentence with a preposition)
I was probably 5 or so when this started. I remember it as some of the most fun I have ever had... My mother remembers it as slightly aggravating and at least a way to keep my ADHD brain engaged for a while.

I own my love of cooking to my mother, and grandmothers on both sides of my family. Not because they cooked for me, but because they engaged me and let me be involved in something adults did, when I was a very young whippersnapper.

Cheers

Chris

Epic FAIL - Pie Crust

In an effort to truly document the process for making the Mushroom Tart served at that gathering a couple of Saturdays ago, I attempted Cousin's pastry/pie crust... I had the ingredient list and a succinct and incomplete list of instructions. I have a basic understanding of the physics of pastry dough, cold butter holds it's shape better, cold water helps, the dough needs to rest, you don't want it to get too warm while you work it, too much gluten makes for a tough crust, you get the picture. So armed with my book learning and no practical knowledge, I slogged into the quagmire that is pastry dough.
The recipe is rich as and simple as far as I can tell by comparing it to various recipe tomes.
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup all purpose flour
Ice water in quantity enough to bring it together.
Instructions from Cousin include "cut in butter to flour till small pebbles form", "use hands to mix in water...drizzling small amounts at a time, till it just comes together", "knead a couple of times and wrap in plastic and let rest for a couple of hours", and "do not over mix, even if you think it wont hold together, it will". If you bake this might all sound familiar and to me it sounded relatively simple, especially the first part cause I learned how to cut in shortening for biscuits when I was about 5. I think I did a decent job on all the steps provided. I have a dough that came together.I was able to roll it out after an appropriate rest period and get it into a 9" tart pan.

Shape it...
Here is the failure part of todays tale of woe. I didn't have, (didn't, do now) have any pie weights or dried beans to blind bake the crust, so I conjectured that the smallest of the graduated tart pan set would have enough weight to do the job.
I was so vastly wrong it is quite comical. I made a puffed up crust with the impression of the bottom of the small pan baked into the shape. I also didn't until after a conversation with my mother, remember to fork the bottom of the crust to allow steam to escape.
Here is what it should have looked like... A bag of dried red beans did the trick, also forking the bottom.
So thats part of my weekend...
I have more stories of thing not quite going right, but if I tell all now I might not have anything to regale you with later...

Cheers

Chris

Old McDonald had a Barm E-I-E-I-Oh?

Day 1 - 1 cup dark rye or course rye flour, 3/4 cup room temp water.
"Mix the flour and water together in a bowl until they form a stiff ball of dough."... (I didn't get a stiff dough. I got a soupy glop.) Leave at room temp for 24 hours
Day 2 - 1 cup unbleached bread flour, 1/2 cup water...
"The dough should not have risen much, if at all during this time." (Mine bubbled like a fresh poured beer) Combine the Day 2 ingredients the the Day 1 sponge in a bowl and mix with a spoon, spatula, or your hands until will mixed. "The dough will be somewhat softer and wetter than the Day 1 sponge." (Mine was actually slightly dryer that Day 1) Allow to grow for 24 hours.
Day 3 - 1 cup unbleached bread flour, 1/2 cup water...
Discard half the starter and mix in the Day 3 ingredients, ferment for 24 hours.
Day 4 - 1 cup unbleached bread flour, 1/2 cup water...
"The sponge should have at least doubled in size; more is even better. If it is still sluggish and hasn't doubled in size, allow it to sit for another 12 to 24 hours." (Mine needed the extra time.)
The Barm;
3 1/2 cups unbleached high gluten or bread flour
2 cups water at room temp
1 cup of seed culture

"Sift together the flour, the water and seed culture in a mixing bowl." Here is where common sense comes into play as it did for me... "Sift together..." NOT THE WATER AND SEED CULTURE! Sifters do not respond well to wet goopy seed culture, an it is pointless to sift water (screen door on a submarine???) so sift ONLY the flour.


"It will make a wet sticky sponge similar to a poolish." Oh how true. This stuff is like the industrial strength adhesives used to hold the together the Space Shuttle.
Transfer to a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Burp after 6 hours or so to let the fermentation gas escape, "try not to breath it as it escapes - the carbonic gas mixed with ethanol fumes will knock you across the room". Refrigerate over night before using. the barm is ready to use the next day and will be good for three days. If you use more than half in 3 days you will have to feed the little monster.

I have yet to get a good loaf of bread out of this sour dough starter, (completely my fault) but the pancakes... "Oh my various gods!" (Futurama quote)

I actually started 2 barms, one for me and one for Cousin but she doesn't know it... well she does now.

The recipe and quotes (except the last one) for this blog are from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

Cheers

Chris

Whole Lotta Ewwe!

What sounds disgusting, looks revolting but taste amazing?
How about Lamb Salad like ham salad but with lamb... I guess you could call it Lamb Paté but that would be pretentious, plus it wasn't cooked in a terrine, and it's not liver, so I guess not.
I thought I was done with lamb post but in a effort to not waste any of the smoked meats left over from Spring Smoke (yeah I am getting just as tired of writing it as you are of reading it) I decided to make one more quick dish...
No pictures of this one, so you will have to use your imagination.

1 cup rough chopped smoke leg of lamb
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 1/2 tsp dijon moostaard (French accent)
2 tbsp Manchego cheese (amazing how sheep's milk cheese compliments lamb)
3 mini sweet gherkins - you could use sour pickles if you like.
3 green onions trimmed of icky bits but otherwise whole
Salt and pepper if you need it... I didn't

Take everything for a spin in the ol' Cuisinart (yeah right... I wish I had a Cuisinart food processor) until it is a texture you like. I like my kinda chunky, like cottage cheese. Spread it on your favorite bread (sour dough) toasted or not.

The surprise is how good this taste while looking all along like a can of Fancy Feast®.
You should get a leg of lamb, smoke it, then make this.

Well thats all for tonight.

Cheers all

Chris

Cream of Artichoke Hearts

I was inspired to use my artichoke hearts, left over from Spring Smoke '08, by Carol over at "French Laundry at Home". She did a dish from Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook - Pan-Roasted Striped Bass with Artichoke Ravioli and Barigoule Vinaigrette. I didn't get anywhere near as elaborate as that... I have yet to tackle pasta so I will stick to something I seem to be getting better at, soup - "Cream of" style soups to be specific. Today's offering, for your amusement is Cream of Artichoke Hearts .
As with nearly every soup I have brewed up to date, it starts with a sweat. Half a medium white onion. After about 10 minutes I added 4 Garlic Confit cloves and mushed them into the onions.After adding the garlic I upped the temperature a smidge and let the aromatic mixture take on a little color.
Two or so tbsp of all purpose flour was added to soak up the oil and start a roux.
I used too much flour actually as you can see I had mortar not roux.
A scant tbsp of the oil from the garlic confit remedied that issue. Pretty!
This is what 5 artichoke hearts looks like chopped up. I don't have "How to clean artichokes" pictures like Carol does in her Salad of Globe Artichokes with Garden Herbs and Gazpacho post, so you can refer to it if you have never cleaned one...
I slowly added 2 cups of hot beef stock to the roux and watched it bubble and thicken. Remember your basic foodie science... a roux needs to be brought back to a full boil for its thickening power to make an appearance.
Seeing I was out (actually I never buy the stuff) of half and half, I measured up 1/2 cup of cream and 1/2 cup of whole milk in a measuring cup and once the roux had really done its job, added it to the pot. Again... Pretty! The green floaties? 1/8 tsp each of thyme and tarragon minced.
I wanted this soup smooth, so I took it for a ride with my stick blender (love that evil contraption). Salt and pepper to taste. Still Pretty!
Service was with a tbsp of small dice tomatoes for a little acid brightness. I think lemon would have been overkill but maybe a little champagne vinegar. The tomatoes are just barely starting to come into season here... BARELY. A couple of store bought crustini crushed on top and voi-la.
I nearly inhaled this. It has to be one of the best soups I have ever produced... This one goes in the cookbook I intend to write in 20 years, when all I have to do is tell a lackey comb through this blog and copy the recipes... heh... imagine me with a lackey... poor SOB.

Cheers!

Chris