Calling it a "paella pan" is like saying...

that you want your French Dip "with au jus sauce". You're just being redundant (over and over). A "paella" is the pan, a fact that we learned from the always excellent Alton Brown video.

We don't know what inspired us to make paella on "date night", but Peta did the shopping early and got started with this recipe. It took friggin' hours, but it was soooo good (a four forker on epicurious.com). We used homemade stock but we did not grill the chicken and sausages separately. We also waited until the last minute to add the seafood for fear of over-cooking. We cooked them separately but added the liquid into the paella. I think that the only differences in ingredients between what we did and what the recipe called for was the substitution of

• homemade venison sausage with Moroccan spices and homemade preserved Meyer lemon
• black cod for the fish
• the omission of lobster tails (we're not made of money and you'd have to fly them across the country!)

Things were going great, albeit slowly, but Jim felt as though there was something missing, so we went back to our man with a plan, AB here. Ah ha!!! The Smoked Paprika. Ah-nice.

In retrospect, we could save money on the orange and yellow peppers and just go with red. Perhaps not even roasting them would give a bit of bite and crunch to the finished product. Oh yeah, no hacking at the chicken parts with a cleaver. It creates lethal shards of chicken bones.

Jim and Peta

Gingered Carrot Soup

Well, the autumn is clearly upon us here in Marin County, probably with less force than is being felt in New England, but more than in Perth -- our respective "homelands". In autumn, the crockpot and soup making acoutrements come out from hiding. The last of the green chutney has been made and we had an overflow of carrots. What to do, what to do? Here's a simple, quick, easy and healthy soup that we've made before. We "forgot" to blog about it the first time, which is a shame, because it was better then than today. The ginger is a bit too strong (hot), but it still tastes like Thanksgiving. We added salt and we'll discuss what when right/wrong over dinner tonight. Updates to follow. The content below has been copied from the site linked at the bottom of the page.

Jim and Peta

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil [we used a combination of peanut and EVOO]
  
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 1/4 cup minced peeled fresh ginger
• 3 cups (or more) chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
• 4 cups sliced peeled carrots (about 1 1/2 pounds)

• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup matchstick-size strips peeled carrot (for garnish; optional) [bailed on these last two ingredients since it is just for us]
  
• 1 tablespoon matchstick-size strips peeled fresh ginger (for garnish; optional)

Preparation

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and 1/4 cup minced ginger and sauté until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add 3 cups chicken stock and 4 cups sliced carrots. Cover and simmer until carrots are tender, about 30 minutes.

Working in batches, puree mixture in blender or processor. Return soup to saucepan. Mix in orange juice, then half and half. Cook over low heat 5 minutes. Mix in ground cinnamon. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before continuing, thinning with more stock if necessary.) Ladle soup into bowls. Top soup with carrot and ginger strips, if desired, and serve.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Gingered-Carrot-Soup-5811#ixzz13gSRGpDp

Baby's Got Back

Back in the day, Jim's friend Ben would go out to Jesse's Steakhouse in Hanover, NH and order the "Ribbets" appetizer and the rib entrée/main. He liked ribs. Well, so do we. And to make room for all of the venison that's going into the freezer, all weirdly shaped things must go!

We used the Alton Brown oven braising method for the ribs as usual. We use his 8:3:1 brown sugar to kosher salt to chili powder ratio, but never use the jalepeño seasoning. They come out fine. This time, we also substituted red wine for white wine with no ill effects. Jim's mom drank up the last of it! In our opinion, you'd be fine with any sort of marinade without the oil. A vinegar to cut the unctuousness of the pork, a sweet and a salt would work just fine I'll bet. Jim used a gravy separator to remove the fat from the braising liquid after cooking before reducing. Without it, a lot of the flavor was lost. So he added molasses for a depth of flavor, a bit more honey and a bit of cumin. Just eyeballng, really, but after a couple minutes under the broiler, Peta was happy. How the last four ribs are still in the 'fridge is a mystery. They taunt...

Jim and Peta

One Shot, One Kill? Not This Time!

[Because I (Jim) was the only one on this next mission, I'll write in the first rather than the third person for most of this post.]

In addition to the doe that I got recently in Lovell, WY, I got another deer near Meeteetse and skinned and quartered it, for the first time, on the back of the tailgate on a hill while some girl and her grandpa shot a huge rifle nearby. I just finished processing yesterday since I made:

• Bratwurst
• Sweet Italian sausage
  
• Some sort of Moroccan sausage
• Steaks
• Burger
• Venison demi-glace
• Top round sauerbraten

The bratwurst recipe was mainly from this youtube video from Working Class Foodies, where a brother and sister make great food for less than $8 a person. That's a regular occurrence around these parts! I mostly followed the recipe, but added some ground caraway seeds and allspice. I had over-salted big time, but added another pound of ground venison and got the save. [I added 10% pork fat to all of the ground venison used in these recipes.]

For the sweet Italian, I just added salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic and fennel. The Moroccan sausage was made with a Moroccan spice rub that we got for free from the "spice man" in Napa, where we buy our whole spices in bulk. It's a mixture of kosher salt, black pepper, garlic, rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes, California chili, parsley, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, basil and oregano. Not very Moroccan if you ask me. Should have gone with the rub that Joanne Weir uses on her Pork with Moroccan spices in From Tapas to Meze. It's always a crowd pleaser

The demi-glace was made by chopping up the deer leg and shoulder bones, adding the usual carrots, onions and celery and cooking as though you would a stock (oops, just remembered that I forgot to add parsley to the bouquet garni) and then reducing for a good long time. I skimmed off the fat because deer fat is often quite gamey.

For the sauerbraten, I didn't want to bother Peter "the German", but I did remember that he always used juniper berries. So I googled "sauerbraten" and "juniper" and what should I find but our old pal, Alton Brown's recipe. I followed it to the letter so far, but it's only been day two, so I'll let you know how it comes out this weekend.

Cooked a burger last night with the fresh ground and it was super good. Here are some essential learning tips that I found out the hard way during processing:

• I left my new blow torch in Page's truck and, as it turns out, it's essential for burning off hairs.
• The best site for processing a deer is at williescountrymeats on youtube. Excellent video, but I still effed up a lot of stuff.
• Buy a caping knife, a boning knife, a skinning knife and a butcher knife and steel them often. Just do it.
• A gambrel for skinning and quartering would be key. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambrel
• You don't need a hacksaw/bone saw, but it could help.
• A waist-high cutting board is a must for avoiding back strain.
• Natural sausage casing is &*%& expensive and you only need one intestine or two at the most.
• Toasting the fennel for the sweet Italian sausage is a good idea.
• $100 is totally worth getting your deer processed by a pro.

[End "Jim only" section]

We have a bunch of chanterelles drying on the kitchen table and plan to make a Farro "risotto" tonight, an idea that we got from a foraging website called Fat of the Land. We've been using homemade crème fraîche rather than marscapone for the sauce since we haven't motivated to get tartaric acid to make it ourselves.

Jim and Peta

Chocolate Taste Test

This battle was another that we did with Jim's parents. Sean of London had asked if there was anything that Peta was craving during her pregnancy and she emphatically said, "Chocolate!" Well, then. Sean brought a bunch and they are the following:

• Valrhona Guanaja 70% Cacao
• Zaabär Chocolat Noir with Pink Peppercorns from Bahia (Belgian)
• Zaabär Chocolat Noir with Thyme from Lavandou (Belgian)
• Zotter Fair Trade Organic, Bean-to-Bar, Hand-Scooped (Handgeschöpft!?), Coffee Plum with Ham/Bacon (Kaffeepflaume mit Speck)

The Valrhona Guanaja has a "force intensity" rating of 6 (out of 10?), lightly to moderately roasted nuts, light to moderate acidity and moderate to high bitterness. Peta liked/s it the best, so it's a good thing that Sean brought the most of this type. Jim's parents preferred it the best as well, but Jim's dad is really a milk chocolate kind of guy. We all did not like or understand the thyme in the chocolate and the peppercorns were only marginally better. Not many takers for the Plum/Prune Bacon bar, so Jim had to do the dirty work. [He enjoyed it very much]

We still haven't tried the Zotter "Baobab und Bananen" and Jim can't wait. "But it's for Peta and the baby!" Hush now, you!

Jim and Peta

Mushroom Taste Test

When Jim's parents came for a visit, we cooked steak, which is a rare occasion, for Jim's dad because we forced Vietnamese spring rolls on him the night before. We don't think that he was ready for them, but they are just too fresh, healthy, quick and tasty not to do!

Anyway, the mushrooms that we tested were bought by Sean of London, but we didn't have time or stomach to do a tasting when he was here. Perhaps he'll comment on the exact types that he bought, but we believe that we cooked: chanterelles, porcini (not sure if they were king or queen boletes), oysters, shiitakes and cremini.

We sautéed them all in butter in the same pan for comparison. They didn't release much liquid, so there wasn't much flavor overlap. The oysters and shiitakes were too chewy for Jim cooked in this manner, but Peta liked them, and the cremini lent their vague mushroom-like quality to the palate. The flavor of the chanterelle is, of course, unmistakable. It's worth the eight hour detour that Jim takes after deer hunting to go to his patch near Mt. Hood and pick many pounds worth ($20/lb at the store). They are drying on the kitchen table as we write!

However, the show stopper of the taste test was the porcini. Known as "cepes" in France, they are the ur-mushroom. The look, the flavor, the rarity... Jim had never eaten them whole before, due to the fact that they are $40 /lb, just dried and crushed in Page's excellent Meatloaf with Porcini Gravy. Perhaps he'll put up the recipe in the comments section. Not holding our breath!

We are definitely going to figure out a way to forage for these 'shrooms.

Jim and Peta.

Buffalo Osso Bucco

The last dish during Sean of London's vsit that we'll post about is the Buffalo Osso Bucco. Sean had given the buffalo to us over Christmas so perhaps this post should be titled "Sean's Xmas Gift Part III". But no matter.

We used the Osso Bucco recipe here at Epicurious. We didn't change a thing other than using homemade chicken stock and buffalo rather than veal. The buffalo is a little drier than one might like, but it's still a tasty meal. The key is the gremolata, a mixture of fresh chopped parsley, garlic and lemon peel. With it, the heavy meal seems lighter -- fresher. Without it and the meal can weigh you down. It's really a necessary component, so don't skip it. We're still eating the garlic that came out of the garden last year, so we grew at least something for this meal, be it ever so small an amount.

We don't see ourselves using any other recipe for osso bucco any time soon. Thanks again for the gift, Sean!

Ciao,
Jim and Peta

Carpetbaggers

With the penultimate package of ground venison (Jim saved the last for his traditional going-to-bag-another-deer venison meatloaf), we made Carpetbagger burgers. We don't much bother with a recipe anymore, because it's just fresh oysters, bacon and mushrooms stuffed inside a burger. However, we think that we started with this recipe. We have so much venison, that we usually just substitute it for beef.

The cool thing about the dish is the name. Peta asked Jim what a "carpetbagger" was and he gave a decent definition, an exploitative Northerner who came South during Reconstruction after the civil war. But here's the real one and we had no idea that the terms scalawag and copperhead also came from this period in American history!

We hope that Sean enjoyed the luxurious burger during his stay and learned a bit about US history to boot. Fifty-four forty or fight! (Just kidding, you Canucks!)

Jim and Peta

You Say "Sabayon", I Say "Sabaglione"...

Foolishly, Jim introduced Peta to the world of Hulu, AKA TV on the Interweb, not to be confused with TV on the Radio. Specifically, he showed her two cooking competitions, Top Chef and Master Chef. They are a hoot, but can occasionally provide some inspiration. One "battle" that we saw involved a contestant going head to head against famous chef, Cat Cora, with one of her signature dishes, Pan Seared Halibut with a Sweet Corn Sabaglione. That's the Italian spelling of a savory egg and cream sauce, but it's Sabayon in French and the pronunciations seem to be about the same. Whatever!

We found an approximate recipe here, but she was subbing out the cream and oil. No way! So we found this one at Le Cordon Q, and went with it. But we didn't have any truffles or fava beans, so we can't report on those two elements. The dish was fresh and tasty, but expensive, since halibut is not cheap these days. It can't be done by amateurs in 18 minutes, but it doesn't take that long. Not a week day dish, but perfect for Friday "date night".

The main issue with the dish was that the sabayon never really set either time we made the dish and we don't know what to do. We cooked it the first time as a dry run for Peta's brother Sean's arrival and the sabayon was runny. We even added a second yolk the second time, thinking that it would aid the thickening process. Fail. It had the correct color and we had strained the corn and garlic and kept the cream warm just like Cat instructed the contestants, but to no avail. The next time we make it, we'll delve into the Escoffier book and McGee's On Food and Cooking to fix the sabayon.

Until then,
Jim and Peta

Baker and Banker (and Candlestick Maker?)

Jim has been away deer hunting, so we haven't been cooking all that much (or blogging). He cooked up a storm so that Peta wouldn't have to cook while he was gone (and so that she wouldn't forget him). However, before the trip, Peta's brother Sean, visited from London. We did a bunch of cooking, which we will try to blog about in further posts, but we wanted to write about the wonderful meal to which Sean treated us at Baker and Banker, a husband and wife team cooking in Pacific Heights.

Our reservations were late, at 9:30, after a day of museums, cocktails at Alembic and art galleries. However, we were not seated until 10:00. We had some wine from the knowledgeable sommelier (a Spanish sparkling rosé) and skipped the appetizers. Diving into the menu, Sean had the "Soy and mirin braised black cod, foie gras-shitake sticky rice, grilled bok choy", Peta had the Quail which is not on the current menu but was well-seasoned and Jim had "Seared diver scallops, sweetbreads, artichoke and chanterelle risotto, red wine reduction", although the mushrooms were of a different sort if he recalls correctly.

The food came out promptly and looked great. Peta's and Sean's food was lovely, but Jim's was over-seasoned. He had the other two taste the risotto and they concurred. Luckily, Banker came out to check on us. Jim said that the food was over-seasoned and the chef said immediately that he'd re-fire the dish. A few minutes later, the dish re-emerged and Banker said that the food was over-seasoned. Vindication! Nice.

Jim was offered a comped dessert, which wasn't really necessary because of the attention that the chef had payed to the table, but we got one just for the group just because the Aussies needed to know what a Fig Newton was. Recall the Fig Newton cookies of your childhood. So full of promise, but so short of the mark: bland, soggy, stodgy crust and treacly, thin fig paste. Now imagine the best Fig Newton you can: flaky thick pastry, thick sweet figgy paste and a side of vanilla ice cream with a mint sprig. So, so good. We think that they're crazy for keeping as a dessert special!


Jim and Peta

Sauce-pocalypse Now (a tribute to Jay "Chef" Hicks)

EXT. JUNGLE - MEDIUM VIEW - DUSK
Chef and Willard cautiously walk through the dark underbrush.
We SEE fragments of them, LOSE them occasionally, and just MOVE through the jungle.
WE HEAR this conversation throughout

WILLARD: Chef?

CHEF: Yes, sir.

WILLARD: How come they call you that?

CHEF: Call me what, sir?

WILLARD: Chef. 'Cause you like mangoes and stuff?

CHEF: No, sir. I'm a real chef. I'm a saucier.

WILLARD: Saucier?

CHEF: Yes, sir. See, I come from New Orleans. I was raised to be a saucier. A great saucier.

WILLARD: What's a saucier?

CHEF: We specialize in sauces. Gotta be a mango tree here somewhere...Then, I was supposed to go to Paris, to the Escoffier School. But then I got orders for my physical.

They move deeper into the jungle.

CHEF: Well, I joined the navy. Heard they had better food. Cook school, that did it.

WILLARD: Oh, yeah? How's that?

Chef puts down his bucket and rifle, takes a leak. Willard takes a few steps farther in the jungle and then sits by him on a log.

CHEF: You don't wanna hear about that. They lined us up in front of a hundred yards of prime rib. All of us, you know, looking at it? Magnificent. Magnifique. Next thing, they're throwing the meat into these big cauldrons.

Willard has heard something in the jungle during this explanation. He becomes alert.

CHEF: All of it. Boiling it. I looked inside, man, it was turning grey. I couldn't fucking believe that one! That's when I applied for radioman's school, but they-

Chef looks up, seeing Willard standing a distance away, poised with his rifle. Willard signals to him to come cautiously. He motions to Chef to move with him, each covering the other. They walk a few yards from where they have heard something move.

For those of you who know the movie, the next scene is surprising, but I won't spoil it for you. For many years, before he started cooking, Jim thought that Chef was saying the "Scoffier" school. Duh. But since he gave Peta the Escoffier cookbook (translated by Cracknell and Kaufman), he knows better. He decided that he'd make up a few sauces before going deer hunting, since the kitchen would be far, far away for two weeks.

Getting a handle on the "mother sauces" has been a goal of Jim's for a while, so he decided to make a chicken velouté with the stock that he had recently prepared. This flour/roux based sauce differs from a gravy in the time that it cooks. The long cooking time of the velouté allows the starch granules time to explode and gives it a super smooth texture. The Escoffier book also mentioned that velouté could be used to make a velouté soup with the addition of a puréed vegetable and cream. We used the left over garlic and cream from the Cat Cora recipe for Halibut with Arugula and Cherry Tomatoes in a Sabayon. We added tarragon to make a Sauce Estragon and poured it over sautéed chicken breasts. Tasty treats!

While we're on the subject of sauces, we also made a Sauce Paloise out of the same cookbook. It sounds fancy, but it's just Sauce Béarnaise with mint subbing for the traditional tarragon. We served it over small lamb chops along with some beets.

Jim and Peta

Beyond Tomato-dome

Two 'maters enter, one 'mater leave!!, shouted the post-apocalyptically attired crowd at our tomato taste test, where we pitted Cherokee Purples [from the plant that Jim's brother gave him in April and we thought had died shortly thereafter] against Carbons. OK, it was just us two, but it was quick and fun and fairly decisive. The two heirloom varieties are both tinged purple-black with the Carbons being the darker of the two. However, the Carbon won hands down with a sweet flavor, mouth-watering flesh and a nice acid finish for a really round, complete flavor. No wonder it won a Cornell heirloom variety taste test.

The differences in growing conditions seemed to favor the Carbon. We had it in a half wine barrel on casters so that we could maximize its sunny hours and, because it was downstairs, we watered it and cared for it more than the upstairs Cherokee, which was in a very small pot (for a tomato), didn't receive much sun and appeared to be diseased for much of the season. However, the Carbon had to compete with a Fengyuan Eggplant and Red Sails lettuce for nutrients and water.

That said, we are guarding or few Carbons jealously, so don't get any ideas. "Break a deal, face the wheel!!" [That line makes more sense if you've seen the Mad Max trilogy as many times as Jim has.]

Yours (through the Wasteland),
Jim and Peta

Liquid Salad?

The tomatoes are here, finally! Well, actually, they've been ready at the Palo Alto garden for some weeks now, but we don't get there as often as we'd like. We're going tomorrow so that we can load up because, although the tomatoes are in here in Marin, there are still only a few. It's not the cornucopia that we expected. In other words, it may take a bit longer for this garden venture to pencil out financially.

However, we do have a few Carbon heirloom tomatoes, which are blackish/purple and have won a taste taste between ten other heirloom varieties, yet that we have not seen in our stores. We save these for slicing with a touch of salt, freshly ground pepper and basil. The Snow White variety is coming on line and there's even a Cherokee Purple in a small container. But this small amount of tomatoes, however flavorful, cannot quench our need for soups and tomato tarts. We like to be sick of tomatoes by the end of the season so that we can last until the next tomato season with the canned and frozen ones that we stow away.

So the tomatoes that we gathered from Palo Alto have had to do for soups. We started to make Gazpacho Andaluz the other day, but realized that it was a bit to cool for this cold soup, so we switched gears and made a Cream of Tomato Soup from The New Best Recipe cookbook which is reproduced below with our changes:

Cream of Tomato Soup

• 2 28 oz cans whole tomatoes in juice, drained and juice reserved, seeded [we used a variety of fresh tomatoes which we skinned and seeded by putting it through our new food mill]
• 1 1/2 tsp dark brown sugar [because we did not roast the tomatoes, we did not add the sugar]
• 4 T butter
• 4 large shallots, minced
• 1 T tomato paste
• pinch allspice
• 2 T flour
• 1 3/4 c low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 c cream
• 2 T brandy (or dry sherry) [we used the brandy]

Roast tomatoes, sprinkled with sugar, at 450 for 30 minutes on parchement-lined pan. [again , we did not do this step]
Melt butter over medium heat, add shallots, allspice and tomato paste and cook, covered, at low for 7-10 minutes.
Add flour and stir for 30 seconds, then add broth, whisking constantly. Stir in reserved juice and roasted tomatoes. Cover, bring to boil over medium, then reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes.
Strain mixture into bowl, puree solid tomatoes with 1 c strained liquid until smooth. Return to saucepan with remaining strained liquid, add cream and warm over low heat 3 minutes, then remove from heat and add brandy, season with salt and cayenne to taste.

So even with our changes and substitutions, the soup was perfect for a cool end of summer night. We want to do a taste taste against Campbell's. Bring it, soup boy!
OK, now on to the liquid salad part. Today was considerably warmer at lunch time, so Jim went back to the Gazpacho Andaluz recipe. It is terrific! It may have peasant origins, but it is smooth and luxurious. It's not at all like the gazpacho that we've had before, which is merely a soupy salsa. You can use the link to check out the recipe, but the only thing that we did differently was to dust the finished soup in the bowl with cayenne pepper and use a combination of red and white wine vinegar in place of the sherry vinegar suggested. We will pick up some sherry vinegar on the way home from tomato gathering and do a comparison soup as soon as possible. We used hard-boiled eggs and green onion as the garnish, but cucumber and croutons should work very well the next time.
Yours in nightshades,
Jim and Peta

It's Gone All Pear-Shaped...

Apparently, "going pear-shaped" is a bad thing in the UK and in Australia. Things haven't gone completely pear-shaped here, but we did glean two pear trees in Fairfax and came away with quite a haul. Perhaps 200 pears went to the Ritter Center in San Rafael and a few went into our recipes.

Jim made a Pear and Ginger Jam, a Pear Crisp and a Pear and Oatmeal Crisp AKA Crumble.

Pear and Ginger Jam

We can't really point to any recipe for the jam, really. We're getting a bit cocky with our jams these days. We just threw a bunch of peeled, cored, ripe pears and chopped ginger into a large pot with a bit of water and boiled away and then put the mixture through a food mill and added white sugar. Jim tried to get the mixture up to the jellying point of 220 F, but molten pear jam was getting everywhere. Plan to clean the flat surfaces in the kitchen and the floor after "jammin'". To get the jam to coagulate, we added a box of fruit pectin to what would become 9 pints of jam. The consistency is pretty good, but we would have preferred a bit more thickness.

Pear Crisp

While Peta made the tart below, Jim made the crisp. The recipe, from The New Best Recipes book, was average. Apparently, the true "crisp" has nuts and not oats, which make the fruit dessert a "crumble". Against his better judgement, Jim eschewed the whole grains, the only nod to health in the whole thing, and made the recipe to the letter. We won't reproduce the recipe here, but the crisp never really crisped up and the result was a solid "meh".

Pear Crumble

This recipe was a real disaster. Way too wet for the crust/crumble just from the appearance of it. We added more flour and oats ("Whole Grains!!", yells Jim). But couldn't salvage it. Oh, we're going to eat it, but we may have to go begging Jim's brother for his recipe.

Alsatian Pear Tart

Peta made an Alsatian Pear Tart. The pitfalls of this recipe were a very sticky, unrollable crust and a dearth of pears. We'd double up on them at least if we find another source of pears.

Jim and Peta

Cactus Jim and the Poole Horizon...

Gawd-awful punny title. All Jim could hear was, "Mudslide Slim and the Blue Horizon" with apologies to JT. Not a bad album, for JT. It was released the year and month of Jim's birth and he had it on cassette along with "Sweet Baby James" (a "nice price" double album) and it sat in his cars for a million years.

Homemade Guacamole

Tonight, Peta made some guacamole and fried up some corn tortillas for ersatz chips. She used avocados, tomatoes from the garden, garlic from the garden, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and cumin. Tasty tasty! We couldn't wait to eat the main dish, so we sat down to munch and watched an episode of "Master Chef" on the interwebs and had fun making fun of the "fucking amateurs", as the Dude would say.

Grilled Mexican Shrimp with Prickly Pear Cactus

Last week, Jim had begged Peta to be able to buy two prickly pear fruit because "they're only 25 cents!" However, he had no idea what to do with them. So he found this recipe for a Prickly Pear dressing over Shrimp and decided to go with it.

We didn't have xylitol or rice syrup, so we used honey. Unfortunately, the hearts of palm that we had gotten specifically for this dish the day before at our asian market in San Rafael were rotten/fermented/disgusting; we went without.

It was a quick healthy feed to which Peta gave her approval, "I'd eat this again". Good enough!

Jim and Peta

Bam-Bam Flintstone's Baseball Bat

When Jim was a kid, there was always that younger or special neighborhood kid who got to use the double-sized red bat rather than the skinny yellow one when playing whiffle ball. Jim has always called it the Bam-Bam bat due to its resemblance to the bat favored by Fred Flintstone's son Bam-Bam.

Why this story now? Well, after neglecting our zucchini (AKA courgette) plants for a while, what else can you expect but enormous green Bam-Bam bats. You certainly can't fry them up and how much zucchini bread (AKA chocolate chip cake with fleck of green) can one eat. A lot, as it turns out and that's not going to help us with our "livestrong" quest.

Soup is healthier and, with a food processor, a breeze. Jim and Page made this Zucchini-Basil Soup for band practice Thursday night. It was healthy, but boring as hell. He and Peta subbed chicken broth for the water, added more onion, garlic and basil and added a quarter cup of homemade crème fraîche to the mix. Muuuuuch better. Probably pretty low in calories, even with the changes. I wouldn't give the original recipe even three stars, but the new and improved recipe might get three for flavor and four for health.

Jim and Peta

Have You Seen the Muffin Man??

One of Jim's favorite times camping with his family was when his father would make "Dad's Famous" English muffins. Essentially, they were just store bought muffins grilled on both sides in butter and slathered with Food Club grape jelly. But Dad made them and they were a welcome treat from those little individual boxes of Kellogg cereal or variety packs of Quaker Oats (not the red ones!!!) that we ate all summer on our trips across the country.

Peta has developed a fondness for English muffins of late and Jim has always wanted to try Alton Brown's recipe. So when we were at the shops, Jim said, "No Peta, don't buy those store brand English muffins. I'll make them for you!" Unfortunately, Peta has a good memory, so Jim arose early to make the muffins. Imagine his dismay when he read the ingredient list and saw "powdered milk", the one thing of which the pantry is quite bereft. Typing quickly, he found this recipe and, even though he hates the AllRecipe site, was on his way.

But wait, English muffins are not quick breads and take yeast, which means a punch down and rising times. Quick, hurry, while Peta slumbers. The process took and hour and a half and Jim used melted butter rather than the shortening. By using a tuna can, we got 21 muffins rather than 18, so each muffin has only 141 calories, rather than 190. However, the muffins from the second rolling had to be allowed longer to rise. We suggest that you roll them all out, cook the ones from the first roll out (more than half of them), remove them and then put a few more in the pan along with your eggs, eat breakfast and then put the muffins from the second roll on while you clean the dishes.

Good eats for cheap.

Jim and Peta

PS: We also put store bought Mimosa Jam that Monica and Chris gave us on an eggless muffin.

Gaijin Shusi

Maybe we should have written the more PC "gaikokujin" or "foreign-country person", but we're going with "gaijin". Being that Peta is in a family way, the ocean food web is collapsing and farmed fish and practices are pretty grim, we've been limiting our sea-borne top-predator meals. However, we do enjoy the ritual and taste of sushi and homemade can taste good for a fraction of the price. We've both made makizushi or makimono (the omnipresent rolls that serve as "starter sushi") before, but never together, so we wanted to start slowly. Also, we're not big on Krab, so California rolls are "right out". So why not prawns?

Shrimp Tempura
We used the Tyler Florence recipe at the Food Network site. A major change was using plain ol' AP flour rather than the rice flour that was called for. We also bailed on the sesame oil, fearing that it wouldn't go well with the sushi rice. Who knows how true that is? The seltzer water really lightened the batter up. Getting the shrimp off of the bamboo skewers without rubbing the crispy bits was a real pain though.

Sushi Rice
For the rice, we used the Alton Brown recipe. Jim has used the recipe before for sushi with success and this time was not different. However, the first time he made sushi, he did not realize that one cannot merely use Japanese short-grained rice and call it "good" and that one need not cover the entire sheet of nori with said rice. Bland-tasting, pinwheel lollipop-sized sushi is decidedly not good eats.

Roll It Up
With our new bamboo sushi rolling mat (makisu), half of the rice recipe, nine shrimp, one avocado, two scallions and a section of seeded cucumber, we were able to cover four nori sheets and made shrimp and cucumber rolls; two shrimp and avocado; cucumber, avocado and scallion. The two and three ingredient combination apparently put us into the realm of futomaki rather than the single ingredient hosomaki. The wasabi was the powdered kind that comes in the can. Booooo! It's just horseradish, hot mustard and dye. We'll make the pickled ginger once we run out of the store bought. Can't be that hard! No green tea, but definitely next time.

Jim and Peta

PS: Next stop, gunkanmaki. Jim just like that it means "warship roll" and was invented in 1931. If we were paying attention to Japanese foods, perhaps we might have seen what the parlance of the time was and been able to predict what would happen ten years later?

More About Bananas...

This post is not the side by side comparison that was promised in the last post. Sorry to those eagerly awaiting the competition. Problem is, Peta just got a muffin tin and had a hankering for chocolate. So we made Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins from an Epicurious recipe. We didn't change anything and the muffins were (are) pretty good, but Jim would have added one more banana and some toasted walnuts since a few of the muffins were small and those additions would have helped the volume as well as corrected the somewhat dry quality of the muffins.

Still, one could do worse than take brown bananas and make tasty desserts out of them.

Jim and Peta

One Banana, Two Banana, Three Banana, Five?

Peta has been drinking her banana smoothies quite a bit these days, but there always seems to be one that gets too brown. So we've taken to letting them ripen completely to increase sugar content and then chucking them into the freezer. Once we have three bananas, we can make banana bread.

We used different recipes last year, but this year we've settled upon the recipe in our The New Best Recipe book. This recipe calls for three bananas and is good, but the lack of more banana flavor has us wanting to add chocolate chips into the mix. Jim swiped a copy of the new Cook's Illustrated magazine this month and found a banana bread that calls for a whopping six bananas!

The first five are removed from the freezer and strained to collect the juice or microwaved to do the same. The liquid is then reduced by half to prevent a sodden bread and the result is a nice, flavorful banana loaf that does not want for chocolate chips. We added toasted walnuts and we and our weekend guests finished it in short order.

Are the extra two bananas and extra step necessary. Probably not. We'll do a side by side at some point and blog about that one in the future.

Jim and Peta

This Ain't No Pie Eatin' Contest...

The title to this post is, unfortunately, what Jim thinks of when he needs a metaphor for when someone is writing a check that his/her body can no longer cash (another mixed metaphor itself) from the cinematic tour de force that was Rocky V:

[Tommy Gunn and George Duke show up outside the bar before the climactic fight scene]
Overweight Drinker: Yo Rock, you need some help?
Rocky: No, guys; ain't no pie eating contest.

This time, however, he and Peta could have used some help in the pie making contest that went down at the Gallo Wineries "family picnic".

Although we had made a Spiced Plum Pie with Tender Pie Crusts on a trial run to bring down to our friends Peter and Kim's dinner (mango salad, chicken satay and red snapper fresh rolls, yum!) last weekend, we were not sure they the complex flavor of the pie would appeal to the palates of the judges. We got all of these free plums after gleaning the tree of a family nearby and gave some to them, the lion's share to the Marin Food Bank and kept the busted ones with which to make jams, pies and sauces. Maybe if we hadn't run out of cinnamon for the pie it would have been a different story.

Anyhooooo. We made Jim's "go to" naughty pie, Lemon Chess Pie with Tender Pie Crust. We couldn't find any blackberries at the store, so we did the Blackberry Compote with raspberries. The compote was more of a coulis really but it was/is tasty (more on why we have so much leftover in a minute). Here's the non-definitive difference between the two. We also served the pie with whipped cream which we had to the side, on ice, with the coulis. Out of seven pies, we did not even place! And one of the pies was a frozen pie which became a pool of goo in the Sonoma County sun. Ouch.

Well, here is the analysis (AAR for any military people) with what went wrong/right with the pie contest.

• We used a different corn meal that was very coarsely ground and thus gritty. Fortunately, most of this fraction remained in the little bit that we had saved for our mini-pie the next day.
• We put out a demonstration piece to show how to add the coulis and the whipped cream, but no one that I saw, added it. If you need to give instructions on how to eat your food, you are wrong.
• The color of the raspberry coulis did not work as well (or at all) with the bright lemon of the pie. The blackberries would have been much more palatable.
• The crust of the winner was super flaky, not tender like ours, and was definitely (OK, maybe not definitely) cooked with crisco or lard.

We know what to do for next year. Watch that waistline!!

Jim and Peta

The Shanking of the Lambs

Braised Lamb Shanks with Coriander, Fennel, and Star Anise

After the blowout tapas dinner party, Jim was spent but he had promised to cook Peta a great lamb shanks meal. He had cooked it for his friends Amelia and Malinda who liked it enough to bail on going out for Peruvian food and then for his mom and dad. Even Jim Sr., the picky eater that he is, liked it.

This recipe takes a loooong time to cook and we did it on the stove top rather than in the oven. It can also be difficult to find the shanks, but the unctuousness in the final sauce is worth the hunt. Take your butcher up on any offer to crack the shanks.

The only problem with the meal was one of the ingredents. The leeks looked "funny". Does that mean "woody". We're not sure. But the texture of the cooked leeks was all wrong, so we ended up picked them out. We put some in the freezer and will be eating leftover for a while...

Jim and Peta

PS: We'll blog about the party soon. We swear it!!

The First Bounty of Spring

We've finally gotten something other than kale, chard, fava beans and cabbage and this time it come from our garden at home, not the Stanford Organic Farm! It was... wait for it... RADISHES! OK, you can put away the trumpets. Boring, right?

Radishes are always so easy to grow, so fast (24 days) and so different from the winter veggies that you have to plant them. But then, once you harvest them, what do you do with them? Well, here's a recipe, Radishes with Radish Greens and Parmesan over Pasta, that's pretty tasty. Just scroll right past those other, horrid recipes to get this one.

Did we add a Portobello mushroom to this recipe? Oh, yes.
Did we add a bit of ham? Of course we did!
Did we add a bit more parmesan than the recipe called for? Slap the 'cuffs on us. Guilty as charged.

But did we eat through our 14 radishes? Damn skippy.

Jim and Peta

I Don't Care About My Cholesterol...

Here's a super fast, super tasty and naughty yet light weekday meal. It's Scallops with Buerre Noisette and Hazelnuts over Arugula. We've had this meal three times, changed nothing and always enjoyed it. It's pretty cheap, even with the scallops, especially if you grow your own arugula, which is a snap anyway. Maybe about $12 for two people?

The arugula adds bulk and makes this dish "seem" "healthy". Also, in the words of Billy Dee Williams when speaking of Colt 45 Malt Liqour, "Works ev'ry time."

We usually brown a whole stick of butter and use only half. The rest Jim puts on his toast because apparently he doesn't fear an early grave.

Jim and Peta

Korean Bul Gogi

We've had some homemade kim chi in the refrigerator for some time now and Peta wanted to take care of it and suggested a meal that we have cooked before: beef bul gogi. It's a simple sweet/salty dish with scallions served over rice. We used venison in place of beef, as usual and the results were good. It's actually the second time that we've used this recipe and, although it is good, we might try another. There is a comment on the recipe above that states that the recipe is un-Americanized and more "Korean" than others. So we're in the market for a different and perhaps Americanized version of bul gogi.

Drop us a line if you have one!

Jim and Peta

From France to... Greece?

Last night, Peta and Jim decided to make a few cocktails and then cook spanakopita, essentially a spinach and feta pie with thin phyllo dough.

We didn't have any ouzo to match up with the spanakopita and we're in need of a trip to BevMo to get other types of liquor. All we really had was some brandy. Hmm. What to do? We had read about the French 75 and had done a taste test two weeks before. There is agreement as to the meaning of the name: the "75" refers to a popular artillery used in the late 1800s - early 1900s. I like the story of the supposed creator, WWI ace Raoul Lufbery, liking champagne but needed more of a kick -- the kind of kick that you'd get from a Canon de 75 Modèle; however, there is a question as to whether gin or cognac is the liquor of choice. We like them both, but they are totally different drinks. We'll take the original French 75 to mean a cognac/champagne cocktail, although the gin drink is good as well.

For the spanakopita, we used Tyler Florence's recipe here.

Changes made:

• We didn't use any coriander or chives and we didn't sprinkle the oregano in between the layers of phyllo but rather added it into the green mixture.
• We used a mixture of butter and EVOO for spreading between phyllo layers.
• We added wine instead of lemon since we ran out
• We added some aging puréed kale to the green mixture.
• Did not make triangle but went with the lasagna style
  

Observations:
We cooked the spanakopita for 25 minutes at 350, but had to add time and increase the temperature to 375 until the layers had separated (puffed up) and browned.

Pretty tasty in general, but it took way longer than we had anticipated. This is not a weekday meal! Making some fried rice today with leftover rice from the bul gogi we made yesterday.

What to do with all this venison?

Peta was getting home late on Monday night, so Jim pulled out some ground venison and revved up an old stand-by: Sausage Risotto with Greens. This is the third time we've done the recipe and have changed it the same way every time as we recall.

Jim bagged a nice deer in Wyoming last Fall and it netted about 60 pounds of meat, most of which he had ground for versatility, not a great call in retrospect. You can break a glass, but it's much more difficult to un-break a glass. The meat is venison, as we said, cut with 10% pork fat. We added probably twice as much as the recipe calls for, added one chopped Portobello mushroom and threw in some dry vermouth, a usual suspect when we make risotto. We found mustard greens at the store this time but the dish does fine with the even more bitter dandelion greens.

We had a cup each last night because it was late and it made 10 cups total. Jim had two cups for lunch and that lasted until he got home.

We've gotten on the Livestrong website (even though Lance is a doper) and started to track the calories, etc. of the food we eat and prepare as well as our calories burned through exercise. Total calories of the Sausage Risotto with Greens per cup is 371.

Jim and Peta

Old-Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail

Jim's Recipe

• Put a slice of orange, one cube of sugar (or equivalent), three shakes bitters (Angostura, Peychaud, Regan's Orange Bitters NO.6, Blood Orange Bitters, you get the picture), and a splash of water, soda water or bourbon in a cocktail (double Old-Fashioned).
• Muddle with a non-lacquered hardwood muddler to dissolve. Do not pulverise the orange. You are just trying to get the oils out of the peel.
• Add ice.
• Fill glass with whiskey to taste. I use bourbon or rye and fill the whole thing up, but I don't like sweets to much, and I like booze. Eagle Rare punches above its price point, but it was stating to increase as I was leaving DC. Haven't had it/seen it out here. 'Tis a pity.
• Skewer one Luxardo candied cherry on a stirrer and stir.
• Drink.
• Have a glass of water. Have one more OF.
• Do not have another before really thinking about how you want the rest of the evening to progress.

The "original" 1860s OFWC used a lemon in place of an orange and I can do it in a pinch, but I prefer the orange.

Something just right in the morning...

Peta has fond memories of having a quite, shared moment with her dad back in Perth each morning. Breakfast of the working man started with a bowl of muesli, milk and a read of the newspaper. After nearly 5 years of being in the US, Peta decided enough was enough and had to make her own. We are not talking about Granola here - this is more "honest" and better for you. Making our own muesli fits with the idea of knowing where our food comes from, knowing what is in it and how to make it taste just right...

This is delicious served with milk, but Jim is more partial the the thickness of yoghurt with his (see Peta's homemade yoghurt).

Batch for ~ 2 weeks

4 cups of rolled oats

15 dried apricots - chopped up

cup of raisins

3/4 cup of slivered almonds

sunflower seeds

sesame seeds

shaved coconut (optional)

Toast the oats, almonds and sesame seeds in a shallow pan tossing frequently. Note: toasting seperately is best, as they do heat differently. Mix all ingredients and store ready for eating!

Peta is on a bit of health kick right now.. so if you are interested in knowing what the average calorie intake will be, check out the above breakdown. Please note that this does not include a batch with sesame seeds (as we ran out!) Peta will update when she makes the next batch. This serving size is about 2/3 cup.

Jim & Peta

Jerk and Beets

Jim forgot that he already has a pretty good Jerk Sauce recipe on here on the blog, so he reinvented the wheel with this recipe. It was not as good, didn't include garlic, not spicy enough and too green rather than the brownish color we are used to. Perhaps it was the fact that we ground up the amount of whole allspice rather than grinding then measuring. But it was OK.

The beets, however, were like CANDY. We used the Roasted Beets with Horseradish recipe from Epicurious. In addition to the beets greens, which are great, we cooked the chopped stems in the microwave along with chicken stock for 5 minutes or so to soften them and reduce total cooking time. It comes out with this cool pink-purple creamy texture. You won't be disappointed by this quick and easy meal!

Jim and Peta

Chicken Piccata

Dinner on Saturday May 22, 2010

These next few posts probably will be out of order, but what can you do? We wanted a simple dish for the chicken breasts that Jim had carved from the whole chicken that we picked up earlier in the week . We had done Jamaican Jerk legs and wings with Roasted Beets in a Horseradish Cream Sauce on Wednesday and had put the rest of the carcass in the freezer for stock making on Sunday.

We found the Chicken Piccata recipe in the The New Best Recipe (the closest thing we have to a bible). Not much to say here. Flavors were excellent even though Jim dropped the chicken on the floor after putting it in the oven to continue cooking (he pulled it out of the pan a bit too early). We served it with sauteed zucchini and a bit of farfalle pasta. Easy and fast enough to join anyone's weekday rotation.

Jim And Peta

Building Even Better Bread

Back in December, we posted a great recipe for making bread. We have not looked back since this posting. We have made the art of bread making a part of our 'routine' life! We ventured out and purchased a 50lb sack of flour and now have "quick containers" full of the weighed out amount of flour (15 1/4 oz bread flour), in order to make this task even easier. Note sometimes we have substituted some of the bread flour for wheat flour for healthier bread.

We were also loaned a very good book by Blair (Peta's coworker) and we have since learned so much more about building a better bread. Check out 'Crust and Crumb' if you ever get the chance.

NOTE: Ingredients are listed after the improvements that we made to the "No-Knead" bread that was featured in the NYT. It is a hearth bread with only four (4) ingredients: Yeast, Water, Salt and Flour. DO NOT FORGET THE SALT. It retards yeast growth and gives flavor.

So after many months of building our own bread, we wish to share with you some improvements on this recipe. The ingredients and amounts are still the same (see below), but now follow these steps to be even more successful and efficient.

• With the flour all weighed out - it is much simpler that scooping out 6.5 cups
• Using a mason jar, with 3 cups of water in it, place in a microwave for 2 minutes to get the water to 100 degrees. Our microwave is rated at 1.3KW (so you might want to test your microwave the first time, but once you know what to set it to - it really makes life easier).
• EDIT -- add the yeast to the water.
• EDIT -- add the salt to the flour.
• EDIT -- turn on the mixer at a low speed.
• EDIT -- add the wet to the dry ingredients.
• Mix with dough hook for about 6 minutes (so it is climbing up the hook)
• Let rise for the 3 hours (as usual)
• We don't recommend splitting into quarters (as the loaves are too small for normal sandwich eating). We recommend splitting the dough (after the 3 hours) in two (keeping one in an airtight container in the fridge - for up to two weeks).
• NOTE: For a really tall sandwich loaf don't split the dough at all - though just remember that once baked it really only stays "fresh" for about 5 days in a Ziploc bag.
• Once the dough has been split, place in a greased loaf tin and allow it to proof for 45 minutes to an hour. This allows the dough time to rise again in the tin giving the finished bread a more consistent crumb.
• Score the loaf (with a razor or really sharp knife) right before placing in the oven
• Cook at 455F for 37 minutes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast - re hydrated in 3 cups of 100F warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

Make bread making a part of your life too....
With the large sack of flour we have got the cost of this bread down to $0.70/loaf or $1.40 when the dough is not split into two loaves.
It takes 10 minutes to assemble all the ingredients and make the dough - need to allow 4 hours (plus cooking time) the first night and just 2 hours for the second loaf, so planning ahead is a good idea.
Enjoy!

Peta's b-day at Restaurant Picco

It was May 6th and we're a little behind and out of order, but we'll do our best. While working at the Free Farm last week, we started talking to Stephanie about restaurants in our new area. She used to be a food critic and mentioned Picco in downtown Larkspur as being hyper-local.

We had a cocktail before heading to the restaurant and were seated immediately. Peta went with a French 75 (this link shows the "original" which we'll actually have today and blog about in a taste test, but hers was a modern version with cognac replacing the gin) and Jim went with a Dark and Stormy. With dinner we shared an Aviation, our first, which was great, but did not go with any of the food. A strictly drinking cocktail. The cocktails were great, but over-priced.

We ordered the following:

• Chilled lambs quarters (a spinach-like green), pickled wild ramps, radish, crispy shallots, soy-olive oil vinaigrette
• Roasted baby artichokes, la quercia prosciutto, capers, tarragon aioli
• Cauliflower gratin, cheddar cheese, caramelized onion, breadcrumbs
• Pan roasted Alaskan halibut, sweet corn, bacon, fava beans, aleppo pepper butter
• Creekstone new york steak “tuscan style“, arugula, grana, fiordolio olive oil

Our waitress was friendly enough but made the mistake of refering to the lambs quarters as "spinach". Big red flag. Either she didn't respect us, didn't respect the clientele in general or didn't know the difference. That said, the salad was good and refreshing and something that we'll make when we learn to id and forage for lamb's quarters and ramps. Radishes, we grow.

The artichokes were, in our opinion, fried and not roasted and were a bit greasy. It's mean to treat a tasty, delicate artichoke in this rough manner. Meh.

The cauliflower gratin was super slutty with cheese and cream, very tasty and the only thing on the menu that was priced fairly.

The halibut and everything in the dish must have been cooked in the rendered fat of the bacon which made it one-dimensional but slutty (which is good) and, after having cooked fava beans last week (LINK), we were dismayed to see and taste so few of them in this dish.

The rare steak that we ordered came out rare but PRE-CUT. Jim has had Tuscan style steak before. Jim has seen Lidia cook it on TV (Lidia's Itlay) with her son. He understand this dish and he and Peta were appalled when it came out tiny and, again, PRE-CUT. We don't really want to write about this dish anymore. Hiding six thin slices of OK steak under argula and cheese and charging $31 is insulting. Then again, we walked out with a guy who got into a Maserati. Clearly, more money than brains or taste. But isn't that always the way?

Our server brought out what appeared to be soft served ice cream with a candle. Luckily, we were full.

So it turns out that Marin Mondays is the hyper local day and the rest appears to be a semi-seasonal, semi-local smorgasbord. Maybe, but doubtfully, we'll check it out. We thanked the barman on the way out personally.

Rating:
Cocktails

• Flavor 9/10
• Price $$$

Food

• Flavor 6/10
• Price $$$

Is it my destiny...

to be the King of Snake?? OK, it's The King of Pain, but the King of Snake can put a bite on you, if you're not careful. This post will help you to make a wonderful summer cocktail that is well-balanced and powerful without being too boozy.

Here's the Epicurious recipe, but we've modded it a bit and taste tested. When we found the recipe, we had everything except the pepper vodka so we chucked some black peppercorns and red pepper flakes into a 375 ml wine flask full of vodka, shook it up and let it steep for an hour. How could we wait that long for a cocktail. Well, we're not gonna lie and say that we didn't have a pre-cocktail cocktail. Sort of like a "shower beer" back in college?

The results as listed were good, but because we like it spicy, we flipped the ratio of the pepper vodka and the regular vodka. We use Smirnoff vodka; it's cheap and consistently wins or places high in the New York Times taste test. The vodka now has been steeping for days since our dinner party where we featured it as a signature cocktail along with Sidecars (2 part brandy or Cognac, 1 parts Triple Sec of Cointreau, 1 part lemon juice, served "up on the stem" with a sugared rim) and Manhattans (2 parts bourbon, 1 part sweet vermouth, 3 shakes Angostura bitters stirred 30 secs in ice and served up on the stem with a cherry) and the vodka has taken on a reddish-brown hue.

Now, the taste test with Peta's friend Charlotte was not totally fair because it pitted Absolut Peppar and Smirnoff's against home-made Smirnoff's pepper and regular Smirnoff's. Charlotte could tell the difference immediately because of the ginger bite and heat. This drink is clearly NOT mass-produced to appeal to the average boozer. Jim's father's friend Warren use to refer to Scotch as "an acquired taste" which always sound like so much malarkey. Now, we kind of get it.

Peta thought that the store bought had a menthol like finish, which was not unpleasant, merely unanticipated and unnecessary. The home-made version version won out because each of us enjoyed the spice without it being too "clean". We kept a full glass away from Charlotte so that she could make it home. Three of these is a lot.

Cheers,
Jim and Peta

PS: Peta got Jim Luxardo candied cherries for his Manhattans for his b-day and life got a bit sweeter.

Dark and Lonely on a Summer Night...

Ok, not really. We're trying this recipe for home-made non-fermented ginger beer concentrate to put into Dark and Stormies and the King of Snake (terrible name, great drink) cocktails. We'll do a separate blog about the KoS, because we've been infusing our own vodka and it was a big hit at our dinner party. We also did a taste test with Peta's friend Charlotte where we pitted our vodka against Absolut Peppar, our adaptations and results of which can be found at the link above. Both drinks are super tasty in the summer. We like the idea of the brown sugar for the molasses flavor because Jim has always made ginger beer with white sugar.

Many posts to write to fill in the temporal/gustatory gaps in our blog, so caio for now.

Jim and Peta

Sean's Xmas Present to Jim Part 2: Gator

There's nothing worse than saying, "Oh, we have a food blog" and then realize that you haven't blogged in three months. Ouch. Well, we're back and we'll try to back fill some of the things that we've cooked and learned, for example, why you don't cook beets with a white fish. Let's talk gator.

We thawed the gator loin and dressed it in blackened seasoning recipe, which was flavorful. [Incidentally, we used it on the grilled chicken breasts last night and it was still good.] The problem was the chewy texture which may have been the result of the quick cooking and high heat of the barbie. Peta talked to Sean a few nights ago and he was cooking rattlesnake. They talked about remedies for the chewy gator texture and they talked about pounding it out like a scaloppine, which was probably the right call. Next time!

Oh yeah, we served it with dirty rice. It's been so long since we cooked it that we can't find the recipe; however, it definitely had chicken livers. More current, better posts to follow, but we're back!!

Peta and Jim

Sean's Xmas Present to Jim Part 1.

1/25/10

Peta's brother Sean sent a wonderful Christmas present of Elk Sausage with Madiera (along with other treats about which we will blog as we cook them). Jim boiled the sausages until the water was gone and then let them brown and deglazed with even more Madiera. So tasty!

He whipped up some Creamed Spinach as cooked by Emeril. Yeah, yeah, Emeril's a donkey and we that, for once, he'd take it down a notch. But it's hard to find a recipe that doesn't involve milk which Jim cannot eat due to the whole lactose thing (TMI!!!). Emeril uses cream. Muuuuch better, and dirtier!

Gool-ash.

Monday 1/18

So Jim had a lunch of the Hungarian Goulash and Cucumber Salad that we made yesterday along with some homemade Spätzle that he made today. We ate it all week. The goulash was inspired by these recipes: 1, 2, 3

We can't remember everything that we did, but Jim always uses at least a 1/4 cup of Sweet Hungarian Paprika in his Goulash. We think that our recipe was mostly from the "We Are Never Full" site. It was the first time he used caraway seeds, as well. They gave an earthy, musty flavor to the Goulash which was fine, if a bit dominant. So we added more paprika. We also used venison, because we have so much, with presents a problem discussed below.

The nutmeg called for in the Spätzle [German egg and flour noodles] was overpowering alone, especially to Peta who doesn't much care for the "sweet" spices, but it worked OK in concert with the Goulash. However, the spätzle all stuck to the pan when frying it and it was a complete bitch to clean. Plus, Tyler Florence is also kind of a ponce, so we'll find a new recipe next time (probably next year as it gets warmer here).

Cucumber Salad
• 2 cucumbers
• Seasoned salt
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon sweet paprika
• Pinch dill, dried or fresh (optional) (We added)
• Dollop sour cream (optional) (Replaced with yoghurt)

Because venison is so lean, it has a tendency to get either chewy if over cooked or dry (yet tender-ish) if stewed. Because we are the FoodFixers, were going to do a test where we browned the venison and put half into the goulash to stew for hours and the other half in at the end. We got tired and bailed, so the meat was tender, yet dry. Once we get our freezer, we'll have a source of grass-fed beef two towns over. Perhaps a 1/4 cow? Moooooo....

A Fish Stew By Any Other Name...

Sunday 1/17

Today, we made a massive amount of food! We'll blog about the Hungarian Goulash that we made tomorrow, but we also made Boulliabasse with Rouille from Peta's Escoffier Cookbook. The Rouille was from Janet Weir's Tapas to Meze. [we are posting "from the future" and Jim has been using the Rouille with scrambled eggs (along with tomato puree) and Peta has used it as a sauce for venison and wild rice]

Peta thought that the soup was delicious and relatively simple, albeit expensive with all of the Marine Stewardship Certified seafood.

Oh yeah, we bought some Blue Cheese washed with Sauternes (sp?) from the cheese shop at Oxbow next to the Spiceman and the expensive seafood counter. We ate it with a discontinued, but tasty, late harvest Chardonnay from William Hill Estate Winery.

Beef "Stroganoff"

Saturday 1/16

Jerk Chicken and Greens (Kale and Chard)

Friday 1/15/10

We've been using up the chicken parts pretty well these days, especially since Christmas when Peta gave Jim a meat cleaver. Yes! The breasts go for Indian dishes or Italian food such as Chicken Marsala or Milanese, the legs for Peta's Italian chicken, the wings for Jerk Chicken (the link is for Jerk Pork, but the Jerk is the same), the livers for Chicken Paté and the wing tips, back and innards for homemade stock.

We went with Jerk Chicken Wings tonight and, because Peta hasn't worked with much in the way of greens, Jim decided to sauté some kale and Swiss chard he and Page picked from the Stanford organic garden. We can't remember if we've posted about greens before, but essentially, you sauté some minced garlic (perhaps in bacon fat?) for a minute, add the chopped stems of the greens and red wine vinegar and water (or stock) and simmer until tender and liquid is almost gone, then throw in the chopped leaves, let them wilt, add more liquid and simmer for ten minutes. We apologize for the slap-dash "recipe", but it's really just a matter of having a little fat, some aromatics and some acidity to balance the bitterness of the greens.

A super easy and mostly healthy (healthful?) after work meal for pennies. Cheers!

Mushroom, Leek and Pancetta Risotto

Thursday 1/14/10

Homemade Biscuits and Gravy

After Jim's marathon workout (1200 calories burned plus lifting and a bike ride home), he felt the need to cook a massive amount of venison biscuits and gravy by adding fennel, red pepper, black pepper and salt to a package of ground venison that had been cut with 10% pork fat.

As the meat was browning, Jim made the recipe for Cream Biscuits with Cheddar Cheese from The New Best Recipe book. They only took 20 minutes or so. After the biscuits were in, he turned his attention to the gravy. Flour was added and browned then, because he has to add cream rather than milk, Jim added chicken stock. Three eggs cooked in schmaltz and it was a good thing. Then he went down hard.

Peta's Italian Chicken with beets and leftover spelt made a tasty dinner.

Mussels and... Feta?

Jim was reading Joanne Weir's "From Tapas to Meze" to fall asleep last night. Seriously? So when Peta had a hankering for Mussels in the near future. Jim doesn't like Ms. Weir after having seen her cooking show on KQED and thinks that she really talks down to her "students". But we've been getting into a rut with our mussels and Jim wanted to be ready with something new. They didn't have any at Raley's on Friday night, so we put them on hold until Monday night at which time we'll halve the recipe. (It's presented below already halved.)

Mithia Sahanaki (Mussels and Feta)

1/8 cup EVOO
1/4 medium onion, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup Sauvingnon Blanc
1/8 tsp dried oregano
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 pound mussels
3 oz. crumbled feta
*Salt and Pepper
1/2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Sauté onion until soft. Add tomatoes, wine, oregano, red pepper and vinegar and stir. Reduce heat and simmer 20-30 until reduced.
Add mussels and cover. Remove mussels as they open and remove from shells.
Return mussels to pan and add feta for 30 seconds.
Garnish with parsley.

*Do not add salt. The feta makes the dish salty enough. And reduce the cooking time for the mussels. We give this a "meh".

Faux Pho (we know it's pronounced Fuh!)

Southeast Asian Rice Noodle Soup with Beef (Pho)

From 5 cups of the stock that we made last night, we decided to add the Asian flavors that make a Pho-like soup. From the recipe our "The New Best Recipe" book from Cook's Illustrated, we added

• 4 medium garlic cloves, smashed and crushed
• 1 2-inch piece of ginger, cut into rounds and smashed
• 2 3-inch cinnamon sticks
• 2 star anise pods
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp sugar

and we simmered it while Peta cooked bacon and eggs and toast for breakfast. Then we went to Stone's and watched the Pats get crushed by the Ravens. We're having it for lunch tomorrow and will report on the results. To the broth, we'll add and soak rice noodles, thinly sliced, semi-frozen venison, mung bean sprouts, jalapeño pepper, scallions sliced on the bias, basil, mint leaves, cilantro leaves, chopped dry-roasted peanuts and garnish with lime wedges. We didn't list any amounts here because it's an "immediate build" soup and can be made to taste.

NOTE: actually just ate the soup in the future. The noodles took way longer to cook and the broth got cloudy. We discussed this over Mithia Sahanaki (Mussels and Feta) and figured that there was some sort of reaction between the meat protein and something in the broth. But this doesn't happen in the restaurant when the broth is ladled over the meat. The pho broth that restaurants use must be clarified by egg shells or whites or something like a consommé. Jim did a little research and read that the broth is cooked at too high a temperature. "Once it has reached a boil, lower the heat and let it barely simmer slowly for a long time (anywhere from 2 to 24 hours). High temperatures cloud the broth and remember to skim off surface scum once the broth comes to a boil to avoid making the broth cloudy" A more detailed explanation from the same board reads "boiling, in turn, breaks apart the proteins which would flocculate with a gentle simmer. As the flocculated proteins become larger they are too heavy to remain in solution. These broken proteins will not settle to the bottom resulting in stock that is cloudy. The purists may cringe but I cover my stock pot, put it in the oven, and hold it at 220 F overnight. I end up with rich stock that is very clear and flavorful. My best guess is that the gentle cooking allows the solids to flocculate (stick in clumps) rather than be broken into apart by the boiling action. The solids then settle to the bottom of the pot and are discarded. In the morning I still have a clean stovetop and not much to clean up. Also the oven uses less electricity than a burner"

Jim admits that he was pretty bad with respect to skimming and that the above "research" is pretty shitty.

Punjabi Feast

Jim has been champing at the bit to cook Indian food after our wonderful meal at Ajanta last Friday night. Peta picked the Punjabi Feast in the Ajanta Cookbook that we bought after our meal there . We spent a good chunk of time at the spice man at the Oxbow Market and got everything that we needed except the pomegranate seeds. We subbed mango powder to impart the sour flavor, but it may have been lacking in sweet. We'll try to find this ingredient for the next go round. The food was ingredient and time intensive but the results were excellent. The chicken was only marinated for three hours the first day and the second round was better (hotter and more flavorful) the next day.

• Khumb Alu Tikki with Cilantro-Mint Chutney
• Chicken Makhanwala
• Baingan Bartha
• Haldi Chaval
• Gajar Kai Chutney
• Keeray Ka Raita

We did not make the Parathas. But we will for leftovers. Nor did we make the dessert, Aam di Kulfi. No real interest in or taste for desserts with either of us. Less so even for Indian desserts. We were a great team this night. Jim made the Chutney, Peta the Raita. Then Jim butchered two chickens and Peta made the marinade. Then Peta made the Khumb Alu Tikki and Jim made the Cilantro-Mint Chutney. Then we smoked the eggplant and put the sauce together. Then Peta grilled the chicken and Jim cooked the rice. Ho. Lee. Crap.

But what a meal...

Oh yes. After butchering the chickens, Jim put the carcasses and the one in the freezer (minus the livers) into the stockpot with the aromatics and spices.

Brandied Cherries
The cherries that Jim has been putting into his cocktails (we believe that it's the Star brand) have a horrible chlorine-like aftertaste. In an effort to build a better cherry and avoid having to wait for a shipment of Luxardo cherries, Jim went with this recipe.

The first cherries out were a bit too lemony, so we added more brandy and sugar. We'll see how they do after a few days of mellowing...

When you've got pork and you have jerk...

Jim couldn't find mussels at Raley's and he was on his bike, so he wasn't going all over town to find them. He talked to the butcher about cuts of pork and ended up with the fattier, cheaper product (shocker). He brined these in a sugar salt water solution when he returned from the bike ride from the gym. He still had jerk paste from the last round of jerk pork, but he added another habanero and more total paste to the chops ) which were thinner this time.

Peta cooked the chops and we served them with Tropical Mash and something else green.

The chops were juicier (could have been the brine and/or the cut) and then jerk was better. Just a little left for wings this week!

Peta's Italian Chicken

Jim did the chicken this time, under Peta's phone tutelage. Here's the original post. He put parmesan under the skin of the chicken legs and added the "goo" from the last round of Peta's chicken along with another bay leaf and more garlic. Then he removed the chicken and reduced the sauce. Always gotta have the sauce.

Vegetables? Sure.

Unfamiliar Grains

We took a page out of the Fat of the Land blog from this recipe and made Venison Backstrap Medallion in Pan Sauce with Spelt, Chanterelles and Mascarpone. It may have been better if we had chives to garnish and we couldn't figure out why our spelt was so white compared to the FoTL blog. But apparently, you can make your own mascarpone from cream and tartaric acid. We'll look into that soon!

PS: We swear that we had vegetables...

Chicken "Marsala"

There's no real recipe for this one anymore. Jim butchered a chicken with the new Wüsthof cleaver Peta gave him for Christmas. He pounded out the breasts, put jerk rub onto the wings and into the fridge, put the whole legs into a bag for Peta's chicken into the fridge and chopped up the carcass and froze (liver separate).

After sautéing sliced onion and button mushrooms in butter/oil, Jim took the pounded breasts and dredged in salt, pepper and marjoram flour and fried in butter and oil.

NOTE: In retrospect, the breasts must be shaken thoroughly and the fat must be hot to avoid a gluey coating.

The chicken was moved into a warming oven and the pan was deglazed with Madiera (no Marsala in the cupboard) and the mushrooms and onions were added. Jim added a little butter to the sauce and poured over the chicken. Vegetables? Yeah, we had them but who can remember what they were.

Stuffed Eggplant Fail

Peta tried to cook up some stuffed eggplant with ground antelope that had been in the fridge for a while. She tried her best but the product that Jim had provided from last year's hunt was not so good. We choked it down and threw the rest out. Not a banner meal. I had a little posole to tide me over.

Winter is Stew Time

On the 3rd day of 2010, Jim decided that it was finally time for posole, a traditional Mexican pork and hominy stew from Jalisco. Hominy is corn that has been treated with lime which makes them more easily digestable and causes them to puff out like little blossoms. The first posole that Jim had made was his best and the last, from the Gourmet big book, was the worst.

In his "research", Jim found that most recipes call for Guajillo and Pasilla peppers to be re-constituted in chicken broth and that many so-called Pasilla peppers are just dried Poblano peppers or Ancho chilies. In reality, the pasilla negro is the dried version of the chilaca chile. We managed to find those peppers at the local Raley's.

We used homemade stock to reconstitute the peppers and then went on to use variations on these recipes: one and two. We used the garlic, mint, cilantro, onion, oregano, peppercorns and cloves of the latter and cumin, pepper amounts and types and browning of the pork.

We've been eating it for days!

AJANTA: The Amazing Indian Restaurant!!

On the first day of the New Year, we smuggled some leftover roast pork and spinach sandwiches on homemade bread and fruit salad into the airports so that we didn't have to waste money on crap food. By the end of the long day though, we were out and wanted Thai or Indian. Jim found Ajanta, the top rated Zagat restaurant in the Bay Area in the Albany area of Berkeley. They were also Voted Best Indian Restaurant in the Bay Area by SFGate Baylist 2009, San Francisco Focus Magazine, Bay Area Restaurant Guide, and East Bay Express had top reviews by: Diablo Magazine, San Francisco Examiner, Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times and East Bay Express
and are Michelin recommended 2010.

They hadn't understood how quickly we would be there when we made reservations and how upset Peta gets when she needs food. They sat us at the tiny "bar" and we got some Gewurtztraminer, but they brought out papadam lentil crips and cilantro-mint chutney. We looked through a spice rack full of Indian spices, many of which were unfamiliar, and the Ajanta cookbook. Then a kindly old man began to talk to us about the book and Indian food. He turned out to be the owner, Lachu Moorjani and he tried to sell us a book. Yeah, right! We asked where the map was so that we could see where the regions listed were and he got bummed out that the publishers hadn't included one and that they hadn't let him change the color of the actual recipes. We felt kind of bad for him.

But as we went on and saw how excellent and attentive the service was ("Oh, it's too hot. Let me get you some riata (no charge)). We ordered the special dinner and got vegetable and chicken samosas, Baingan Bagarte (Hyderabad), Goa Fish Curry (Goa), Methi Murg (Andhra Pradesh). We now knew that Methi is Fenugreek leaves. Cool! The fish was either ling cod or something else. Jim wasn't sure and didn't ask that question, but he certainly asked a lot of others!

It was a great experience and we'll tell everybody about this fantastic experience.

German breakfast...

On the New Year's Eve 2010, Jim made Eier auf Steinofenbrot mit BratenSchweinelende und Hollandaisesoße. Helmut had given us some "stone oven bread" and we put it to use in this Eggs Bennie variation. I have a feeling that Eggs Nazi (read previous post) would not catch on.

We had Helmut's pea soup for lunch. Good stuff, but I wish that he had left a few of the smoked pig's knuckles in there...

We had the same NY Steak with Shrimp with Remouladish Sauce as we did a few days ago and Beets and champagne that Mom and Dad gave to us. The walk down by the beach to watch the fireworks was a highlight but we were in bed by 10 PM because of the long day of travel ahead.

Cocktails with a Nazi

On the 30th, Peta and I continued our program of serious leisure. She whipped up Welsh Rarebit (or Rabbit) for lunch, but the twist was that she has spread a horseradish mayo combo and a layer of tomatoes under the melted cheese, which she poked with a fork and drizzled Worchestershire sauce into the resulting holes.

Mom and Dad's 85-year-old neighbor, Helmut, introduced himself. Jim spoke a little German and he invited us over for cocktails. It was early, but it was vacation! He spoke of being moved to the eastern front and being captured by the Russians and taken to a camp in Siberia. Not many German troops came out of there in the late 40s. Then he moved to the US knowing no English. Due to these hardships, I had a certain respect for his resiliance. As the Beck's went down though, Helmut began to rail against the "liars" and those who argued with him on what they had "heard". I began to see him 70 years ago doing calesthenics at a Hilter Youth Camp.

And then he said he WAS a Hilter Youth and loved the camps. It got weirder from there and I should write more but I don't have the time right now.

We took our leave and swam for a bit. We knew that we had a pork loin roast brining in salt and sugar water and that dinner would be tasty. We couldn't pass up the deal that we got at Publix. So cheap! We roasted the Brined Pork Loin Roast Rubbed in Spices on the barbie and it was fantastic. MORE HERE?

I just want to Mer-ci, Falletinme...

On the 29th, Jim finally got to make his original creation:

Eggs Merci (Thanksgiving Eggs)
We mixed egg whites into the herbed stuffing from Christmas dinner, made patties and fried them. They were topped with turkey breast slices, a fried egg and Hollandaise sauce. Naughty and tasty...

Surf 'n' Turf
For dinner we cooked up Shrimp with Remouladish Sauce, NY Strip with Béarnaise Sauce and Grilled Zucchini. Jim just whipped up some mayo, horseradish, capers, pickle relish, parsely, Worchestershire sauce, mustard and other stuff 'til it tasted good for the "Remouladish Sauce".

S.K.O.B.

On the 28th, our first day alone in Florida, we went to the Siesta Key Oyster Bar. We couldn't get a table inside, so we stayed outside in the wind and drank vodka sodas (Jim) and G&Ts (Peta) while eating oysters (not as flavorful as others we've had in California) and crawdad's and wings. The wings were tasty but gastrically damaging. 'Nuf said.

Dad's Birthday

Now THIS was a good day of food. The 27th is Dad's birthday, but we got him to cook Dad's Famous English Muffins. It's English Muffins cooked in an ass-load of butter and smushed down. Spread some jam on there and you are good to go.

Homemade Bread and Turkey Soup
With Dad's duty done, we decided to treat him to some decent food for the rest of the day. We woke early to get the Easy Crusty Bread recipe done, and started work on the soup shortly after breakfast. We included barley and the usual suspects and listened to Dad's advice to add a bit of sugar to curb the broth's bitterness. Good call. The bread was a bit undercooked because we doubled the recipe for the amount to cook per loaf and it was a hustle at the end to finish eating lunch before the Pats game!

Sidecars all around and vino for Mom

Stone Crab Claws with Drawn Butter
These were per-cooked and none of us had eaten them knowingly. We steamed them for a minute and served them while Mike wished Dad a happy birthday from CA.

Seasame Ginger Crusted Tuna Steaks with Sautéed Zucchini
The crust was formed from one of the spice mixes that Mom got for him. Jim tied his steaks together and rolled them laboriously in the spices. Peta just coated the whole steak. Victory: Peta. Jim ended up dipping his tuna in more spice mix and soy sauce due to the lack of coating.

Mom's Pecan Pie
We've written about it here. Always a treat. Weird consistency issues though...
We ate the tasty grub with Woodbridge Sauvignon Blanc and Whitehaven (NZ) Sauvignon Blanc. Much higher acid in the NZ wine and we preferred it.

Hey mom, either filet for Wellington or Crown Roast

So Peta, Jim and Jim's dad go to the beach while Jim's mom goes to the store. Don't feel too bad about Mom though, because the beach was super windy and Jim got $200 stolen from his wallet either at that time or the night before. Bummer.

The Publix didn't have either product (we ran into this problem later in the week) so the butcher got Mom to purchase Chateaubriand. Jim had always seen this dish listed on the menu at his favorite steakhouse in Arlington, VA, Ray's the Steaks; however, one always had to order it for two and his friends never wanted it. Now was the time!

Manhattans
Jim's dad seemed to enjoy the Manhattans that Jim made, while Peta stuck to the Sidecar and Mom went with white white. Just a simple 2 parts Knob Creek, 1 part Sweet Vermouth a a couple dashes of bitters. Stir in a pint glass with ice for 30 seconds and serve up in a martini glass garnished with a cherry.

Chateaubrand with Sauce Béarnaise
Peta had received the Escoffier cookbook from Jim, er... Santa. So we cooked it "that way" and went with the more contemporary (by 100 years) Béarnaise rather than the Sauce Chateaubriand. We didn't have chervil and had a make a tarragon vinegar like substance, but the sauce was still good.

Provençal Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes
Dad is a huge fan of a Provençal spice mix that comes in a silver tin. Mom got Dad a set that included the Provençal mix, a Tuscan mix and a ginger, garlic, sesame mix (more on those two later). Dad likes the mix on meats and fish, but we had different plans so we put the mix on the quartered potatoes and baked them in a medium oven. Good stuff.

Steamed Broccoli
Figured that we could dip the Broccoli into the Bearnaise, and we were right!

Caesar Salad (Lunch) with Turkey

Peta, can you remember whence you got the caesar dressing that we really had to fix?