Kitchen Happenings: Cajun Napalm

Boy, time flies when you're sleeping until noon. I think that's how the old adage goes. I haven't posted anything over here on NOLA Foodgeek since last September. This definitely isn't to say that I haven't been eating well. In fact, I've been eating too well. This is probably to be expected in a city like New Orleans.

I think that I definitely need to get you guys caught up on that stuff. But one thing that I want to share with you guys is one thing that I've been doing in my kitchen. Specifically, it's been cooking flour and fat on the stove until it turns nearly black. A while back, I posted this little nugget on my Facebook wall:

If you've ever cooked gumbo, it's just about the most counter-intuitive thing to anyone who cooks regularly... you cook flour and oil until it looks like brownie batter, and then you cook it just a little longer.

And really, that's what you're doing. They call this process of cooking flour and fat "making a roux." And it's been dubbed "Cajun Napalm" by Paul Prudhomme, because if it gets on your skin, you are going to catch a burn. The stuff will run hot (maybe 350 degrees), so you need to be careful. But it's not something to be afraid of, merely something to pay attention to. Folks take this stuff seriously. Not just for safety, but in how you do it.

Apparently the fat you use matters. Classic French roux calls for butter. Vegetable or oilve oil works, as does a blend of oil and butter. What I've been digging is bacon drippings. Especially since I feel wasteful just throwing out bacon drippings. So I go with bacon drippings, plus some of my homemade chili infused olive oil. Then I add flour. Then you cook it for about 5 minutes longer than you would ever think to cook a roux. The goal is to straddle that line between adding as much flavor (you'll hear the terms earthy, nutty, smoky) to that roux before actually burning the roux. I sort of promised pictures. Here's my picture of my roux.

If I told you that this was dark chocolate ganache, you'd believe me.

Now, as you think about the other elements, of gumbo, you think trinity. Basically, this is the cajun version of mirepoix (carrots, onion, and celery), which differs by adding bell peppers and subtracting carrots. In either case, the point is to use these aromatics to add flavor to your broth. I've never really felt the need to be constrained by a style of cooking, so I use both carrots and bell peppers. When I make soup, I like the idea of cooking some elements separately, so that your seasoning is appropriate. So, as I'm doing my roux, I've also got my veggies going in the pan.

I don't really have a smart-ass comment here. It's friggin' veggies.

I go with a very rough cut on everything. This is country food. No need for perfect dices here. You'll also notice some tomatoes here. The point is to just get everything together. In fact, after the veggies get their sautee on, I actually add the water to the pan to get the cooking started up (since the roux takes so ridiculously long). Also add salt, pepper, some some spices (onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, thyme, cayenne, bay leaves), and a little cheater bullion since I don't have stock on hand.

In any case, start adding the liquid from the cast iron skillet into the pot with the roux. Add a little liquid at a time, and keep stirring. Eventually, the roux loosens up, and starts accepting the liquid. Then the veggies go in. Then you add in some gumbo crabs (basically these small blue crabs that don't have much meat that you add in just for flavor, and then fish out, and maybe gnaw on). Add a little chicken in there. Then, you can start tasting and seasoning. Then add some sliced sausage. Then you taste and season some more. Finally, you add in the fast cooking ingredients. I went with some shrimp and some corn. Then you taste and season some more. And then you're in business. Gumbo is supposed to be this thick, stew. Now, I know that okra is normally a staple (and I like okra, actually), but I don't generally have it on hand. The other option is ground sassafrass (or file, "fee-lay") which is sprinkled on top. I haven't used either. I've been happy with just using the roux to thicken things. Regardless, this stuff is addicting. I'm okay with it over rice, but prefer it straight.

Love this dish. It comes together surprisingly quickly. And it looks like a similar technique will make etouffee, another classic Louisiana dish.

Like I said. I'm definitely eating well. There are some fine restaurants in this town, though not everything's been light's out. But to move from a place like Champaign to a place like NOLA? Wow. Until next time.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Summertime and the Livin's Easy

Summer's here in full force. Down in NOLA, it was 95 and humid all week. And I get back to Illinois, and the weather's, well 91 and humid. But, I'm bringing back something from my trip to NOLA that is a heck of a cooler.

One thing that I've been learning about cocktails is that when you do it right, you end up with a great, balanced drink that isn't too sweet, too sour, or too bitter, but just right. At one of my great meals down there (at Boucherie, which will be getting a write-up), I had a perfect summer cocktail, a Pimm's Cup, which is based on a British liqueur, Pimm's No. 1.

Pimm's No. 1 is a gin-based liqueur, that's infused with some spice and fruit. I've never really had it before, but my exposure was phenomenal. The version of the Pimm's cup at Boucherie was a little bit of a deviation of the classic cocktail. The classic version builds off of 3 parts lemon soda to 1 part Pimm's No. 1, with a little lemon and cucumber garnish. Over at Boucherie, they take a couple liberties with the original recipe, but make a great cocktail. They muddle cucumber, add lemon and a mint-infused syrup, pour in the Pimm's, and then top with ginger ale. Add a cucumber garnish, and you're good to go. Great cocktail - light, not too sweet, a little tart, and a great flavor with the cucumber. You can drink these things all day.

So, what to do when I get home. I don't plan on buying a bottle of Pimm's, so there's the issue of the liquor or liqueur to use. But you can start with the combo of citrus and cucumber. My current take on a summer cooler:

The liquor is the place to start. Since this little experiment was NOLA-inspired, I had to keep it local. Sazerac Rye. There's a definite strong flavor from the rye, but it's nice and gives some body to the drink. But too much rye can overpower the rest of the drink. So, a little bit of rum adds a little extra kick to the drink without overpowering things. And that's the base. Of course, you have to keep the cucumber, and I've always liked how limes taste, so that keeps the flavors on point. But, the Pimm's has some extra depth of flavor. The rye helps. But I decided to go with some more fruit, in this case orange and pineapple juice. I also liked the mint kick that the Boucherie version had, so I went with some mint syrup that I had on hand. I didn't have good ginger ale on hand, but had some lemon-lime soda, so that was good enough.

Here's the rundown:

Get a pint glass.

Dice 2 slices of cucumber (about 1/2" thick).
1/2 lime, cut into 4 pieces.

Muddle the cucumber and lime in the pint glass, and add ice.

Add mint syrup (maybe 1 oz.), one shot rye, and one shot rum.
Add about 2 oz. orange and 2 oz. pineapple
Top with lemon-lime soda.

You can definitely scale this up, and make a pitcher at a time, though I'd add chilled soda to each individual serving, to keep the fizziness. This cocktail is pretty good as is, but I think that muddling fresh mint may be a better choice, so as to keep it from getting too sweet.

In any case, I'l be playing around with some other possibilities, and I'll try to report the hits.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Shakin' and Bacon

In the past, I've always thought that bacon was overrated. The stuff you get in national breakfast chains is generally just thin, salty, greasy, limp, and not particularly appetizing. We never really did bacon in my house growing up. We used to braise pork belly (soy sauce, sugar, star anise, etc.) and eat it with steamed buns, but we basically never did the bacon thing. I've played around a little bit with bacon the last few months, and have decided that I like bacon.

Basically, I saw bacon on sale, so I picked up a package, figuring that I'd do something cool with it, but I wasn't exactly sure what. With regards to the bacon itself, the one thing that figured out was that if you fry it up in the pan, and then right at the end, add on some sort of syrup, you create an extra crunchy, sweet coating on the bacon. Candied bacon, if you will. Incredible. I've had some sage syrup and some ginger syrup. Both work very will for this by adding something more than just sweet. This is sort of that sweet-salty thing that's been in vogue (think salted caramel).

I also figured out that you can make anything better by wrapping it up in bacon and frying it up. People have been wrapping scallops and shrimp forever. I discovered that hot dogs become much tastier once you wrap them up and fry them. Some grilled onions, cheddar cheese, and barbecue sauce finish off something that's really tasty and extra bad for you.

But the most interesting thing that I discovered was that it wasn't just the bacon that was of use. Bacon drippings were also there in abundance. And using the drippings effectively became one of my projects. If you remember from Top Chef a couple seasons ago, they marinated tofu in beef fat, to rave reviews.

I started with the idea of making an improved BLT. The bacon is still there, just like it should be. And you can drop the lettuce, which is just filler, anyway. But the tomato? A nice slice of raw tomato has it's merits. But what I think is even better is a quick sear on both sides, in the bacon drippings, with a quick grind of salt and pepper. You're still definitely eating tomato. But you get a little more flavor out of the tomato by cooking, and you also add on a little of that smoky bacon flavor. I also liked that idea of frying up eggs over easy in the bacon dripping, as well. The runny yolk thing is something that I've always like, and fits in nicely with the sandwich, giving the sandwich a sauce-like effect (in place of mayo). Finally, I added grilled onions, also done in the bacon drippings, with salt and pepper. Put it all between some nice bread (something soft and a little sweet like a brioche or a good bun). Result? Money sandwich.

The other sandwich that I was playing with was a grilled cheese with bacon and grilled onions. Same story as before, with the grilled onions. But the big thing? Using bacon dripping for grilling the sandwich. Finish with a little salt and pepper, and you get an added flavor to the bread that's definitely helped change my position on bacon.

The final verdict? Bacon is definitely not overrated, and figuring out what to do with the drippings makes bacon anything but ordinary.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Faux Sous-Vide

So, sous-vide cooking is basically vacuum sealing food, and then cooking it in a controlled, relatively low-temperature water bath. What this lets you do is to get food to exactly the right temperature, no matter how long it cooks. You can also seal in other ingredients to add flavor to the cooking process.

I buy a decent amount of frozen fish, and a lot of is is packaged in individually sealed, packages. Normally, I take it out, and then steam, bake, sautee, or do whatever to the fish, and it turns out alright. But, the other day, I took a look at the packaging and just thought, "boy, this is like they're taking the work out of sous-vide cooking."

This ended up being the easiest thing in the world. I filled a 2 qt. sauce pot halfway with water. Put it on my burner at high for a couple minutes, covered. Basically, as the water was getting hot (not to a boil, maybe to 180F), I put in the fish, still in the vacuum package. I assumed that the water dropped in temperature, maybe down to 150F, and I wanted to keep the water at that temperature. So, I put the burner to "warm," and then put the cover on the pot. A few minutes later, you see the fish turn opaque, and you're good to go.

Of course, you'll need to season the fish again, but I find that a simple seasoning (just salt and pepper, or maybe some soy sauce and ginger) works great. The fish is incredibly tender, and still has a great flavor to it.

I'd recommend using fish that are a little fatty (I've used halibut and flounder fillets, both of which were great). They tried to sous-vide salmon on Top Chef, which was disastrous, so I'll probably avoid that. But at some point, I'll give this technique a shot for whatever fish that I can find at the store, and see what works. I'm guessing that tilapia and other lean fish won't be so hot, but you never know.

Anyway, it's about to be grilling season, so I'll probably be moving away from this sous-vide thing for a while :-)

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Showing Some Skin

What's interesting is that a lot of folks avoid eating the skin on meat (think salmon or chicken). Salmon skin is absolutely awesome, as is chicken skin, if you get it to crisp up properly. Sushi restaurants make salmon skin rolls, and if done well, they are coveted by folks in the know. When I get the chance, I do my salmon and chicken skins in a pan. You want to season the skin, and cook it in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Some weights over the skins will keep them from curling, and make sure that they cook up evenly. You get this great, crispy skin that's got a great meat flavor. But what I'm writing about is a little different. Today, we're talking pig.

So I was wandering around the grocery store the other day, and I took a peek into the part of the store that contained the smoked animal parts. There was the usual assortment of smoked turkey wings and necks, smoked hog jowls and ham hocks, and all the like. I came across something that I hadn't seen before: smoked bacon skins. Basically, bacon is the pork belly. Whatever fat and meat that they can trim off can get sold at a decent price. The skin? Not so much. But I took one look, and realized that I had just hit the jackpot.

When you roast a pig, one of the best things to do is to take off a little bit of that crispy skin (some folks call them cracklin's), add a little hot sauce, and crunch away. These are like pork rinds you get in the store, only they're awesome, and not Styrofoam. You get a great solid crunch, a meaty flavor, and something that a lot of folks don't ever get to experience.

Now, one of the hard parts is to get the skin crispy , when there's a layer of fat attached to it. The outside dries out and crisps up, but the inside is still being basted by the fat that's melting. So, the skin just burns, before it can crisp. Now, if you can strip off the skin, you can get it to crisp up pretty easily, either in a pan or in the oven. But this is hard to do and sort of messy.

But, if it's already cleaned off for you, you can make cracklin's very easily. And since the bacon skin is smoked, you get a little extra flavor in there. One thing to note is that the skins will curl up on you, resulting in uneven cooking. To quote Alton Brown, "that is NOT good eats." You can either weight down the skins, but I don't have the hardware for that. Instead, I took a number of metal skewers, and wove them through the skin so that the skins would stay flat, with about 1.5" intervals. I put the skins onto a metal cooling rack, over a baking pan. The fat melts onto the bottom of the pan (which you can collect for other purposes, if you like), and the skins just crisp up. If there's still some fat left on the skin, so ahead and score the fat (cross-hatching, lik you would a duck breast). This will let the fat melt out a little more easily.

All of this goes into the oven (250F), until you see the skin start to get golden-brown. I start with the fat-side down, so that the fat melts out. Then, I flip everything, and let it keep baking. I'm guessing that you can go a little higher than 250F, but you want to make sure that the cracklin's don't burn. As I removed the metal skewers, the cracklin's broke into nice-sized pieces. After the cracklin's are ready, you can add a little salt (and whatever other dry spices you like). Splash some hot sauce on the cracklin's and much away.

Be careful. These things are addicting. And I'm guessing that they're not particularly good for you. But boy, they're tasty.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Currying Favor

Okay. I have to say that I'm addicted to spicy, slow cooked foods. Only when I make them in my kitchen, they're not always slow cooked. The current incarnation is a curried fish stew.

So, where to start? The base of the stew is a nice pureed, vegetable soup, based primarily on tomatoes and mirepoix (the standard onion, celery, carrot base in French cooking). Cook it down, season to taste, puree, and strain coarsely. Basically, you want to get the seeds and the long fibers out, but leave some texture to the soup. This is good on it's own. I happened to have a quart left over in the fridge.

I was originally planning on making cioppino, an Italian fish stew, so I sautéed some large cuts of green peppers and onions, while the base started to warm up in a pot. The plan was to add some potatoes, some fresh herbs, and let everything simmer for a while, before adding some fish (tilapia is what I had) at the end. Of course, I was out of potatoes, but had a bunch of left over potato/turnip gratin that was sitting in the fridge. That took care of the starch.

I decided that I wanted a spicy stew, so I started seasoning the peppers and onions, adding chili powder, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and ground red pepper, in addition to salt and black pepper. I deglazed the pan with some red wine, and added everything to the pot. As I was tasting, the dish was OK, but not great. I looked up in my cabinet and saw a bunch of yellow curry powder that was sitting there, untouched for the last 8 months or so. Bingo.

A bunch of curry powder, and some chunks of fish got added to the pot. The result? An incredibly addicting curried fish, with onions, peppers, and potatoes. Served over rice, this was a nice, rich, but not overpowering or overindulgent dish. Can't argue with that.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Giving Thanks

So I have a tradition. I don't go home for Thanksgiving. Home's a little far away. And I'm lazy. Instead, I sleep in, cook all day while watching football, and eat way too much. And then the day after, I do the same thing, minus the cooking part. Back when the entire posse was around, we'd spend the Saturday before Thanksgiving doing some volunteer work, and then have a big Thanksgiving dinner at my place. I'd have leftovers all week, and wouldn't want to do another turkey on Thanksgiving, so I normally don't do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Instead I normally go with a standing rib roast, and build from there. This year, I didn't have a posse around, so no early Thanksgiving dinner, but I stuck with my personal tradition, anyway.

It was pretty sweet. I made a nice warm vichyssoise the day before, so that made for a great opener. Simple as can be. Chicken stock, cooked leeks, potatoes, salt, pepper, all simmering in a pot. When everything's cooked down, you take the ol' boat motor for a ride, and puree everything. Finish with milk or cream, maybe a little garnish, and life's good.

I did go with something new, olive oil poached shrimp and scallops. Incredibly simple. Warm up a bunch of olive oil, and add some aromatics (garlic, sage, rosemary, and parsley, since that's what I had on hand). Cool the oil down to about 130, and add the seafood, and put the whole thing on the stove, over warm. Let it go until the seafood's cooked. You get this really nice, tender seafood that has a gentle flavor. You may need to add a touch of salt to the scallops, but the shrimp should be great as is. Very nice opener.

While this was happening, I busted out an old standby that I hadn't made in a couple years, a potato/apple cheddar gratin. Basically, scalloped potatoes, only with layers of apple in there. A little sweet and a little sour work nicely with the cheddar and potatoes, and makes for something that takes classic comfort food, and makes it just a little different, and darned good. This isn't the simplest dish, because you have to make a bechamel, and then thinly slice a bunch of potatoes and apples, but it isn't rocket science. And it's well worth the time. And if you make a big batch of bechamel, you can make baked mac 'n cheese the next day! The biggest thing is to have a big baking tray under your casserole dish, to catch the sauce that boils over in the oven. That saves you from cleaning up a mess.

After that, I made the classic rib roast, and had carrots and sweet potatoes below to cook in the drippings. Great stuff. I did try a new technique that I read about for the roast. Normally, I prefer to sear, and then go at 300 to finish. Instead, this time I roasted at 550 for 35 minutes, and then turning the oven down to 200 for the next 1:25. The meat turned out great, very rare, almost black and blue, but that's what I'm into :-) If I was having guests, I'd probably bump it up to 250 to finish, to get to a more medium-rare. But it was just me, so I went caveman style on this one. The problem was that the root veggies that were in contact with the pan ended up getting burned because of the time at 550. This technique is much easier than searing, so the trade off may be worth it. Unfortunately, nothing else can really be done with the oven during this time, so you'd have to make sides elsewhere, which isn't that big of a deal.

All of this stuff was pretty standard fare for me, so while it was tasty, it wasn't all that exciting to me. What turned out to be exciting was a little additional side that is going to become standard fare in my kitchen. Popovers (or mini Yorkshire puddings, if you like) from a muffin tin. They have popover tins, but I don't know what else you do with them, and the muffin tins work just fine. Easy to make the batter. Equal parts milk and flour (by volume), with 1 egg for each cup of milk/flour. Seasonings to taste. Add a little less flour for a lighter popover. Add everything to the blender, and blend. While the blender's still on, add the flour. You've got batter in seconds. Do this about an hour before your roast is coming out, and let the batter rest. Take the roast out to rest, and fire the oven back up to 425. Spoon a little bit (maybe 1-2 tsp) of the drippings into each slot in the muffin tin, and put the tin into the oven (you want the tin to be hot). After about 2 minutes, take the tin out, and fill each slot about 2/3 of the way with your batter, and put it back into the oven. Let it go at 425 for 12 minutes, and then reduce the head to 375 for about another 20 minutes. Brush with a little butter (or more of the drippings!), and you're in business.

The funny part was that I was doing a good job of portion control earlier. Instead of devouring the entire rib roast (which I've been known to do), I only punished half of it (though in fairness, it was a 3.25 lb. roast), and was good with the other sides. However, I definitely ate an entire tray (only 6, though) of the popovers. They're like those Pillsbury crescent rolls - just addicting. It struck me that the popovers were a lot like the muffins over at Milo's, so I think that I'll be playing around to see if I can duplicate what they're doing. I'm guessing a little more flour in the batter, and I'll be close.

In any case, I definitely ate well yesterday (and with the leftovers today). However, I think that I do want to roast a bird (probably a chicken, though), and make some stuffing, potatoes, and corn casserole, and drowh it all in gravy at some point soon to make up for my lost Thanksgiving. But I think that I'll be making popovers anyway, because they're too good to skip out on.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: An American Tour

Hey gang. If you're a reader here, then there's a good chance that you were around for some of the glory days in the foodgeek kitchen. Back when we'd have 25 people over to watch the Illini and eat some pretty good food. Let's just say that we probably ate better than most students who weren't in culinary school. Flash forward a couple years. It had been a while since I had a crew over for a big meal. So on a whim, that changed today. I realized that I was in town for Easter weekend, as were a bunch of my crew down here. A plated Easter dinner for 9. The menu was solid, with some relatively modern appetizers, a changeup for the opening course, a old school main courses, and a nice mix of side dishes with roots all around the country.

Appetizers:
Pair of crostini - one was grilled chicken breast, drizzled with basil oil, and the other was an old standby: my two-bean and corn salsa. A nice opener which I knew would be a hit, as the execution was simple and the tastes actually popped in your mouth. I had the chicken breast already cooked and the basil oil is something that I always have on hand. Easy. The salsa can be made entirely with canned or frozen veggies, except for the fresh chopped onion. Easy. The trick is to work heavy on the spices, since the beans can take a lot of additional flavor. Also, adding a little olive oil adds a richness to the salsa that no one expects.

Grade: A-. Didn't feel like getting fancy with the presentation on the chicken crostini, and I made the bean and corn salsa a make-it-yourself thing.

Opening Course:
Fruit salad. I thought about going with a traditional salad, but decided to switch it up. And fruit salad is so easy. I wanted to add strawberries, but the ones at the store were awful, so I improvised. Fresh cantaloupe, fresh grapes (red and green), canned chunk pineapple, canned mandarin oranges. The two canned fruits are probably the canned fruits that taste the freshest - canned pears and peaches, which I actually like, just don't feel fresh. On the other hand, the pineapple and mandarin oranges hold up well. It was light, fresh, and a good transition from the sort of heavy appetizers.

Grade: B+. I wanted some berries, but was thwarted by the grocery store.

Main Courses:
Spiral ham. Store bought - just heat and glaze. Even a caveman can do it.
Baked chicken. Simple - season and brown. Bake until done. One of my solid standby dishes. Mental note - gotta convince people to eat the skin on the chicken.

Grade: B. Timing was off becaues of delays in guest arrivals, so the chicken wasn't hot out of the oven and the skin wasn't as crispy as it should have been. The meat was still tender and darned tasty. Ham is always good.

Side Dishes:
Turnip greens, cooked w/ ham hocks. This is definitely Southern soul food. A bit tricky. First time I've ever made these. These guys are so bitter that you've gotta cook them for a while in just plain water, strain them out, and then add more water and some flavoring to cook down. But after they cook down, they become soft, rich, and take on that smoky flavor that the ham hocks add. Only down side was that it was a bit on the salty side. This will be a future standby.

Grade: C. Next time, this will be much better.

Mashed potatoes. Takes you into the heartland. Credit for these go back to Mrs. C, who gave me the start point for making some incredible mashed potatoes. These were awfully decadent, though I did show some restraint. Low fat cream cheese, fat free sour cream, olive oil, and skim milk were added, as well as the usual spice blend. You got a nice tang, as well as the rich texture, and paired nicely with the turnip greens.

Grade: A-. Need a signature on this dish to make it really pop, like the appetizers. At the risk of being cliche and snooty, I'm thinking white truffle oil next time as a finisher to give depth.

Southwest Corn Casserole: A little Tex-Mex flair here. Again, credit to Mrs. C for the original dish, which I've modified. Incredibly simple. Can of corn, drained. Can of creamed corn. Package of Jiffy corn muffin mix. Half stick of butter (went with the real butter since I had it on hand!). 8oz of fat free sour cream. Some chopped jalapeno peppers. Chopped onion. Spices and a little habanero sauce. Mix it all up and bake. Incredibly tasty.

Grade: A-. Oven spacing issues forced me to bake on the bottom rack at a higher temp than i wanted, so the bottom was a slightly burned.

Honey, Pineapple, and Ginger carrots: Going for a West-Coast fusion sort of thing here. Becca (whose mom is Mrs. C) gets props here, for making a version of these when I was out in Cali. I left the ginger chopped little too big, which made the flavor a little uneven (a little spicy if you got a bigger chunk than intended. But, the flavor was good - a little tang, some sweet, and a little zing with the ginger. The carrots were cooked and then the glaze added the night before. So, the flavors got soaked into the carrots well, but the glaze sort of broke down, so it didn't have that nice sheen. Maybe next time I set aside half of the glaze to add at the end.

Grade: C. This will also improve next time.

To complement my handiwork, one of the gals brought some nice Illinois and Wisconsin wines for us to have with dinner. One of the gals brought a very tasty pumpkin bar sort of dessert which had a soft, yellow-cake sort of crust, pumpkin pie filling, and was topped with a nice strussel topping. This was definitely a winner. And some of the guys brought some ice cream, which is always a winner.

If wasn't out-sourcing dessert, I may have gone with one fewer side, only done ham, and added on my chocolate mousse and raspberry puree napoleon, served on fried won-ton wrappers. Though, as I think more, I may have opted to keep it lighter with a napoleon with white chocolate mousse, a chunky peach-pineapple mixture, and topped with a ginger syrup.

All in all, the food was solid. Would improve the turnip greens (less salt!) and carrots (only use the ginger juice, and keep some glaze for presentation) next time. Once I get a handle on these dishes, I'd need to figure out a way to really own the dishes (just like I need to do with the potatoes, and like I've done with the corn casserole). Would have gotten a smaller ham and found better baking trays for the chicken (space constraints make it a pain in the butt with all of the last-second adjustments you have to make. I'm going to consider easing up on the seasoning on the chicken and finishing with my mild, sweet, pepper sauce for my next go-around. And I wish that I would have done a nice cocktail as an opener with the appetizers, maybe my fresh grapefruit martini shots. Considering that I didn't even think about this until late on Friday night, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. I'll grade myself out pretty well.

Overall grade: B/B+. I sort of wish that I would have done dessert myself. The napoleons would have been a pretty modern way of finishing the meal, which would have given some interesting bookends to pretty classic main courses and sides. And I sort of wish that we had a soup course. I think that I may be better at making soups than cooking, which is a strange thought. Maybe I go back to a soup with turnip greens, white beans, and italian sausage.

Of course, I think that the soup will be a heck of an idea for the leftovers... I'm just happy that I've got a fridge full of leftovers like I used to back in the day. The current task, other than than eating a ton of leftovers, is to get my herb garden back in order. My basil is wretched, my sage needs to be trimmed, and I may need to completely re-do my soil. I haven't changed soil in a while, and it may be leeched. Anyway, until next time.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: More With Less

Well, the restaurant reviews are still on hold. Just not that motivated to write about these places right now. But, I've been opening up my kitchen a little more lately. The current plan is to go old school. I've taken the food trends that we see on the Food Network, and have gone pretty upscale in what I eat. Let's just say that it's time to go a little old school and see what I can come up with using some cheaper and more accessible ingredients.

Last week, I made up my first batch of chicken noodle soup for the season. Still tastes awesome. I'm not sure how it would taste with just plain water (probably not bad), but I think that cooking down the chicken bones is worth it for the extra flavor. Particularly since chicken bones don't cost extra, and cooking down the bones is so easy (I'm not worried about making the clear broth - a little cloudy is just fine with me).

Also, last week, we had some biscuits left over from our Cracker Barrell run, so I just had to make up a batch of sausage gravy. So easy, and so tasty. Brown sausage. Add flour to soak up the drippings. Add milk to turn into gravy. Season to taste. Call cardiologist with a smile on your face.

Currently sitting in my fridge are pork sirloin steaks that are marinated with soy, siracha, sugar, sour cherry syrup, lime juice, garlic, onion, and my Asian spice blend (cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, Sichuan peppercorns, onion powder, garlic powder). These are also very tasty, and have satisfied my craving for Korean barbecue.

Projects on tap:

-I have some chicken thighs sitting in my freezer, which are begging to be cooked up. I'm not sure if I want to go the coq au vin direction, or if I want to get creative and try something completely different. We'll see about that.

-And I also have some very good soy-based braising liquid sitting in the freezer, as well, just begging to be used to create the classic Chinese cold appetizer plates that some of you may have had the pleasure of tasting. I'm thinking drumsticks, boiled eggs, honeycomb and tripe, and maybe some squid or cuttlefish.

-Also sitting in the freezer is some excellent broth for Italian beef. I think that I need to hit the Asian store to pick up some sliced beef soon. Some sauteed peppers and onions, some good bread, and some provolone, and I can probably feed an army.

-There's a butternut squash that has been on my counter for the last 6 weeks. And there are some apples that aren't getting eaten. It's time to roast those guys up, puree them, and add stock, cream, salt and pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and brown sugar for a nice fall soup. I think that I will probably use some of the sage that I have growing nicely in my herb garden, as well.

Anyway, that's what's happening out here in my kitchen. We'll see what works and what doesn't.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Where's the Beef?

A happy New Year to my reader(s?).

Over the last couple weeks, beef has been front and center in the Chairman's Kitchen. Beef, done three ways has made for some fine dining in the ol' apartment. The first, braised beef shanks, sort of leads to the second, beef-vegetable stew. The last is an awesome rib-roast that became Christmas dinner this year.

The braised beef shanks, or osso bucco, is my take of the traditional Italian dish that's generally made with veal. Beef is more affordable for those of us on a budget, but still makes for a tasty dish. Here's the rundown - season it aggressively with salt and pepper. Brown the shanks in olive oil, and place in a roasting pan. I like to sautee a traditional miropoix (celery, carrots, onion) in the leftover drippings to pick up some additional flavor for the dish. This gets seasoned with salt, pepper, a couple cloves of chopped garlic, onion powder, dried sage, rosemary, and some italian seasoning. After some of the liquid has been cooked, the veggies get dusted with maybe a teaspoon or 2 of flour, which needs to be cooked for a little bit. After the flour gets cooked, the addition of some red wine follows. Then, add a can of diced tomatoes. Let this cook a bit, and then pour the liquid into the roasting pan, and taste the liquid, and adjust seasoning as needed. Slightly salty is OK, and you want to make sure that you just cover the top of the meat. Cover in foil, and bake in the oven at 250F for a few hours, and you're good to go. You can serve this over egg noodles, mashed potatoes, polenta, or just about any starch that you want.

So what'll typically happen is that you'll end up with a lot of the braising liquid left. This gives you a great start to an incredible beef-vegetable stew. But set that aside for now. When you want to make the beef stew, go with a chuck roast, and cut it into about 1/2 to 3/4 inch chunks. Season these, and brown the pieces in some olive oil. Pull out the beef, and add the traditional miropoix, as before. Season, cook in the drippings, and add a little flour again. At this point, you've done something very similar to what you had before with the beef shanks. I think that here is where you should diverge. Remember that you're using the left-over braising liquid. If you added more red wine, you end up win an almost too elegant flavor for what you'd want from beef stew. But, you can change it up a little bit and instead add a bottle of beer. This gives you a nice flavor that just seems right for beef stew. Now, add a can of diced tomatoes, and then bring the pot up to a simmer. Then, you can add the beef back in, and let the whole pot simmer for a couple hours. As always, taste as you go, and season as needed. When the stew is just about ready, you can add in some more veggies that don't cook long (corn, peas, green beans is my preferred mix). Let it go for a little longer, and bingo, you've got a nice beef stew.

Over the last few years, I've preferred to make rib roasts, in lieu of the traditional turkey or ham for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter. I think that I've finally gotten it down. The first step is a marinade. Coarse salt, pepper, finely chopped rosemary, finely chopped garlic, and olive oil. You want a nice, thick mixture that you slather on to the roast (that you've already patted dry, of course). Where I think that you can get a nice, flavorful, tender roast is by letting it marinade for 24 hours (or a little more, if you like). When you're ready to go, let the roast come to room temperature (or just don't pre-heat the oven). Roast, covered at 350F until the internal temperature reaches about 100F, and then finish it off uncovered, until the roast hits about 115F. Let the roast rest for about 10 minutes, and the internal temperature will get up to 120F or so. Perfect rare rib roast. Slice that baby up, and you've got some great eats going. Leftovers make incredible sandwiches, as well.

Anyway, that's the latest in my kitchen. I think that the next entry will be a review of The Great Impasta, which should have been done quite a while ago.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Changing Speeds

Wow, it's been a while. I promise that we'll get a few updates in. We've had some reviews sitting on the back burner: Baccaro, Jim Gould's, The Jolly Roger, The Great Impasta, Hickory River, and some others. We've had some nice food experiences over the last few months. We've just been way to busy with this whole PhD thing to get it down in print!

One thing of interest that's been happening in my kitchen is the back and forth between fast and slow cooking. I love the grill. There's nice smoky flavor and tenderness that comes from that whole quick cook, high temperature thing over charcoal. But there's also a place in my heart that yearns for slow cooked, braised, and stewed dishes.

So today, I want to talk about pork loin. Done two styles. One, this southwest, more Tex-Mex, spicy grill. The other, more of a Mexican style braised dish with a pseudo-mole type cooking liquid. The first comes from a little bruschetta party that I had. One of the three types that I made was this awesome Southwestern Pork Bruschetta, which had thinly sliced pork loin, topped with this spicy/sweet white bean, corn, and jalapeno salad. Just FYI, the other two types of bruschetta were the Mediterranean chicken bruschetta that I talked about in a July posting, as well as a fancy Salisbury Steak bruschetta.

THE HARE

For the Southwestern pork, start off with nice, thick pork chops. Maybe 3/4" or so. It's just easier to keep it juicy, and to get it to a nice medium on the grill if it's thicker. Too thin, and you're automatically looking at medium well or better. But, go with a dry rub of onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, black pepper, Cayenne pepper, cumin, and salt. I didn't really measure, but just seasoned pretty aggressively on both sides of the meat after I had cut my pork chops. I have a garlic and chili infused olive oil that I make, so I used that to dress the pork chops before grilling, as well. The whole idea with oil is that it gets hotter than water, so that you can get the surface hotter when you apply that nice, direct heat. Grill until the chops are medium, and then let them rest for at least 5 minutes (which is probably the hardest part for me... I just want to eat!).

The salad topping for the pork is ultra simple. A large can of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of white beans, a bag of frozen corn (I'm sure that canned corn would be fine, too), a chopped onion, some chopped bell pepper, some cilantro, some green onion (which is very underrated, I believe), some jalapenos. Add a similar spice blend that you used for the pork, and some fresh squeezed lemon and lime, and you're in business. Just let everything sit for a couple of hours.

To serve, just have the grilled bread ready, slice the pork chops really thin, on the bias, and top with a little bit of the corn and bean salad. Instant hit. Nice, warm, tender pork, a nice cold salad with some of that contrasting texture that you get from the beans and corn and the crunchy veggies. Some sweet, some heat, and a lot of good times, really fast. I think that pork loin is a perfect cut for this dish. Tenderloin would make for too small of a slice. The other cuts that come to mind wouldn't be quite as good for this fast grill that I want.

THE TORTOISE

The other route is the slow route. Slow cooking. I was flipping through my cabinets and found some dried poblanos and other chilies sitting around. It was sauce time. So, into the pot goes some of that infused olive oil, and these dried peppers. As things were heating up, I got to thinking. And I ended up thinking mole. Obviously, not real mole, but my take on it. I've discovered that a little knowledge can be dangerous, but in some cases, it can also loosen up boundaries. I think that cooking is one of those places where you can loosen up boundaries, and bring in your own flair to some traditional methods and ingredients.

So after the peppers started to smoke up, in went some water and vinegar. Then ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, black pepper, chili powder, paprika, black pepper, cayenne, onion powder, garlic powder, a bunch of garlic cloves, and a lemon, cut in half. I didn't have any stock laying around, otherwise that would've been better for the sauce - stock is always more flavorful than water. So, I just went with some beef bullion. At this point, I let everything simmer, and when I tasted, it was this awesome, smoky, tangy hot sauce. I almost just wanted to bottle it then and there. But the image eating a slow, braised dish later on changed my mind. And hot sauce is it's own column, as well.

I didn't have much in the way of dried fruits and nuts, but I did have some canned fruit laying around. So in went some canned peaches and canned pineapple. I dug around, and found some fresh tomatoes. A large onion, cut into eighths helped out the cause, too. So, all of this just starts to cook down into that nice liquid. As things begin to soften up, I decided to just be lazy. Immersion blender. I did let it cook to the point where everything was fork tender. And then, in went the immersion blender. Strain with a not-too-fine mesh strainer, and you're in business. Let things keep simmering. I added some chocolate (dark, if you have it), as well as some vanilla extract. A little sweet, a little smoky, a little tangy, a little spicy, a little creamy. All sots of tasty.

Now, with the pork loin, I think that you want to leave it relatively whole, but a couple of cuts will help the cooking process move along. Brown off the fatty parts, and then just pour enough of the mole sauce to cover. Cook it down on low heat for a few hours, and then try to break apart the meat with tongs. After it's broken up, let it cook in the sauce for a little longer so that the inner parts of the pork loin get some more flavor. You can just serve it with tortillas, or what we did was on a plate with steamed rice, topped with a warm black bean and corn salad. Again, just really good eats.

In retrospect, I regretted using the pork loin in the braised dish, though it was good. I think that it would've been better with a pork shoulder, or another more fatty, less "premium" cut. The meat would've been a little richer in flavor and a little juicier, I believe. And was it a real, traditional mole? No. But it was pretty good. Especially for a college apartment of two dudes in grad school. And with all of the extra sauce left over, there will be more braised dishes (chicken comes to mind... Coq au Mole?) as well as some enchiladas in the works.

Oh well. Hopefully this will make you guys experiment a little in the kitchen.

Some restaurant reviews will be up soon!

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Yogurt Cheese

Homemade Dairy Products - What Could Go Wrong?

So, right off of Good Eats on the Food Network, I tried to make my own yogurt and cheese. And you know what? It's really good. Basically, a fat free version of creme fraiche that is a clean board for you to flavor as you see fit. Basically, just work some warm milk into some yogurt, and let it ferment for a few hours. After it thickens up, let the curd and whey separate with a cheese cloth. This will take a few hours, but what you're left with is this nice, creamy, tangy soft cheese, which is excellent. If you use fat free yogurt and skim milk, you end up with fat free cheese. Very healthy.

The best part? Excessively versatile. You can adjust it to whatever you want. Some cucumber and spices make it go with gyros. You can add some dill and lemon zest and top it on salmon. Mix in garlic and herbs and spread it on bagel chips. Top it with honey to make a great strawberry dip. Just put it directly on tacos. Or flavor it however you like in place of flavored cream cheese or sour cream.

I don't know how useful this is for everyone else, but I like it

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: A Green Thumb?

Not a restaurant post, but just a general food posting by a college kid about having good food in a college environment on a college budget. Today's note? Fresh herbs.

One thing that I love is my little herb "garden." It's not so much a garden as it is a big, sturdy 15" plastic bowl with topsoil that sits on the railing of my apartment balcony. It's nice. Right now, I've got some basil, oregano, sage, thyme, chives, green onion, parsley, dill, and rosemary going strong. They each have their own little area in the bowl, which is just enough for what I need for my everyday cooking. I even had little 2 basil plants sprout out so I took them up and re-planted in little pots and I'll give them to my friends when they grow a little more.

So what am I doing with all of this? Well the first thing that I did was make a compound butter spread with the sage. Decided to get more flavor out of the sage, so I actually cooked the sage (chopped) along with some chopped garlic in olive oil under low heat for a while, and then let it cool before I mixed it with a small tub of butter. It's really tasty and spreads easily. I can actually just brush it on with a silicon scraper. Tonight's late dinner? Roasted vidalia onions (brushed a roasting pan with the sage butter, then salt and pepper) and cod fillets (salt and pepper on one side, then brushed with just a little bit of butter on both sides). Simple, tasty, and pretty healthy.

While the fresh herbs (particularly the basil) are great for the obvious, up-front uses (like with simple pizzas with fresh tomatoes or just finishing off dishes). They also add a great underlying taste. I had some extra mushrooms laying around, so I wanted to take a shot at some sort of mushroom pate or similar sort of thing. I decided on using softened cream cheese with some seasoning, but it wasn't quite right. So, a little trip out to the balcony gave me some chives, green onion, and parsley to chop up and work into my spread. Just a nice fresh, bright taste that balanced the earthy flavors from the mushrooms. A great topping for bruschetta.

Speaking of which, another great use for fresh herbs is in vinagrettes. Last week, I found half a jar of olives and some canned tomatoes that needed to be used up. So, into the blender they went. Fresh basil and green onion followed along with some red wine vinegar and olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Halfway through making the vinagrette, I had this thick puree. I made a thinner version for my salad that night, but I wanted to hang on to the thick sauce. It had a lot of potential for grilling as a marinade, so I tried it with chicken. And it worked. But where it was so much nicer was as a topping. I had left it in the fridge overnight, which let it get thicker (the olive oil sort of solidified, I think). I grilled up some bread, and put on a little bit of the mix (once it hit the bread, you could see the oil just melt and spread out a little), and then topping it all with some slices of grilled chicken breast and more of the topping. Excellent grilled chicken bruschetta. Nice bright flavor from the tomatoes, a good herb flavor with some richness from the olives and tang from the vinegar. Good stuff.

Anyway, I think that I'll be reporting a little more out of my kitchen and less from the restaurants (I need to shed about 20 pounds in the near future and about 40 pounds down the road). We'll see. I've got at least 2 writeups that need to get done for restaurants from a while ago. And there are a couple of places that deserve visits and writeups. We'll see how much I can stay away from the eateries

-foodgeek