Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Bolognese Bonanza

I had been craving a rich, hearty bolognese sauce for some time, and with snow and frigid temperatures setting in, I knew Sunday would be a good day for it. I'd read in the New York Times about a couple of bolognese recipes almost a year ago that changed my view of the stuff -- elevated it in some way. Ever since, I've been trying to perfect my recipe. This Sunday's attempt was no different...except that I was working with Cotton and I was terribly under the weather. I guess now is a good time to point out that I'm not necessarily going for a traditional bolognese -- just a tasty variant on classic bolognese.

Cotton minced up some onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and herbs and spices (probably oregano, basil, red pepper) and sauteed it in a bit of olive oil. I would have used butter, but whatever. Next, she added the meat. We had just under 3 lbs of 'meatloaf mix', which, at my grocery, is equal parts beef, pork, and veal. I don't think you can brown the meat properly if there are onions and whatnot in the pan, and I think browning of the meat is absolutely essential to a great bolognese. Nevertheless, we cooked down the meat and I added milk -- maybe 2 cups. I cooked that until the liquid was gone and then added white wine -- maybe 1 cup -- and the liquid and juice from 2 large cans of plum tomatoes. We reduced that down until nearly gone, then added tomato paste and fried it up a bit until it got dark and rusty. I should mention that this took about 2 hours just to get to this point. Then we added the diced tomatoes that produced the juice mentioned earlier, as well as two cans of crushed tomatoes. Yes, we were going for leftovers.

If I was cooking on my own, I would have browned the meat and removed it, sweat the vegetables, added the paste and fried it, then put the meat back in, then the wine to deglaze, then the milk. I'd reduce that, add my plum tomatoes (diced and crushed) with their juices and reduce the whole mess. This time, it didn't matter because I CAN'T TASTE ANYTHING due to my Cold.

Tragically, the sourdough Cotton and I made did not rise. Luckily I had some whole wheat bread from yesterday on hand, but I was hoping for lots of extra bread for stuffing. (This coming weekend is family Thanksgiving because Cotton and I missed real Thanksgiving.) I'm trying to rehabilitate my starter in hopes that I can make more bread soon.

Photo credits: avlxyz

Monday, December 08, 2008

Braised Breast of Veal

I picked Cotton up at the airport Friday night. She's home from college for winter break. We fought our way home from La Guardia, made small talk with the family, and then fulfilled Cotton's urgent need for chicken parm at Piccolo. Fed and watered, we made our way across the parking lot to the grocery store, searching for inspiration for Saturday dinner and gathering supplies for Sunday's bolognese.

We started in the meat department, since all great meals start with meat. Okay, not really...but I kinda wanted to braise something. Or else roast something. Or something. I perused the usual suspects and considered them carefully when...what is this wedged between chicken thighs and pork chops!? Why, it's none other than the elusive Breast of Veal! I've never seen that in our grocery before, so I bought the biggest piece they had: nearly 4 lbs for a mere $6.

While some people were dreaming of dancing sugar plum fairies Friday night, I was dreaming of the baby goat I had recently at Scarpetta. How tender and unctuous it was! Its perfectly rich jus bathing small dice of fingerling potatoes! This is what I wanted from my breast of veal. I awoke and drafted some braising plans.

Cotton and I started a biga Friday night for Saturday's dinner. I got her up at about 9:30, which I consider a massive triumph. We got the bread going and commenced work on the veal, but...the phone rang. It was Mom, letting us know we were +2 for dinner. By this point, I had actually looked at the meat I bought and realized it was virtually all bone and other...stuff. Good tasting, probably, but not much meat. So back to the grocery store we went, hoping and praying there was still some breast of veal left. Success! There was, and we picked a pretty piece, a little smaller than the original.

Back at the ranch, I rubbed the veal with a little vegetable oil, kosher salt, and black pepper. I carefully browned ALL surfaces in my favorite Le Creuset dutch oven. Retrospectively, I could have browned the meat a bit more, but I was battling the clock. I took the meat out and added some sliced onions. I had great dreams of browning half of them a la French onion soup and then adding the rest, but remember the clock? I did, so I just cooked the onions down a little in some bacon fat. I added some tomato paste and cooked it until it got beautifully rusty, then added garlic, carrot, celery, herbs, and beef stock. I brought it to a boil, covered it, and then put it in a 350F oven. I had to finish it on the stove because we had to bake the bread.

Once the veal was fall-off-the-bone tender, I took it out and let it cool down. I figured slicing it was out of the option, so I pulled it off the bone and chunked it. I strained the liquid and did my best to reduce it, but I was concerned about it getting too salty from reducing the stock. I put the meat back into the gravy and served it over egg noodles along with some sauteed root vegetables (beet, turnip, parsnip, potato, carrot).

The verdict? The veal was good, but not amazing. It just tasted like pot roast, which I guess isn't a bad thing. The flavors were very rich though, and I'll bet that leftover gravy is all gelled up. I wouldn't bother with that piece of meat again unless I know it had more...meat. It was a lot of work pulling all the little bits of meat off the bones, fat, and other junk. Plus, it kind of grossed me out just a little. It would probably make a great veal stock though, or could be used to flavor a tomato sauce or something.

Breakfast: 2 fried eggs & hash browns
Lunch: leftover Chinese
Dinner: braised veal, egg noodles, sauteed root vegetables, whole wheat bread & butter
Snacks: buttered popcorn, tea with honey

Head Cold '08

All week long, it's been building up strength, growing, replicating, incubating until...WHAM! Head Cold '08: 7:13 PM EST 2008-12-5.

I've been lucky enough to avoid a serious, debilitating Cold for a couple of years. Not this time. This is an old-school Cold. It's extra-strong and resilient, resistant to modern Cold therapies like steamy showers, Tylenol Cold, and Vick's. Nope, all that can help you out of this mess is time...and maybe sleep and vitamins.

My father, who never gets sick, introduced this Cold into our home and so far, it has claimed three victims: Dad, Mom, and me. Sore throat, stuffy AND runny nose, mild coughing, aches, fatigue...CLASSIC. So far, Sunday has been my worst day. My nose was running like a faucet, rubbed raw from standard Kleenex. Thankfully, Mom's worst day was Saturday, so she got some Puffs Plus with lotion Sunday afternoon, but tragically, the damage was already done.

Life will go on.

Photo credits: nicora

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Caramelized Onion Pasta

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a meat-free meal as it was a Friday during Lent. I recalled a recipe I had read about by Martha Stewart -- Caramelized Garlic and Shallot Pasta. It was rainy and I didn't have the arse-load of shallots the recipe called for, so I used onions instead -- a combo of white and red onions.

As you can see from the photos, I used a ton of onions and a lot of garlic. Also, I got the onions beautifully caramelized. However, I HATED this dish. It was terrible. Now, when my mother saw what I had made, she was confused because I don't ordinarily like onions. But these were beautifully caramelized onions and they'd be perfect on a steak. But on pasta -- no way. This is one of the few dishes I've made that I really, really didn't like at all. It just didn't have much flavor, and what flavor it did have was disgusting.

Do you think shallots would have made all the difference?

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

First Sourdough Bread...Blah

Note: I'm having trouble with images. I'll get them up ASAP.

I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth (quite literally) since I baked my first sourdough boules, and that’s why Ihaven’t blogged in a while. I followed the basic country white recipe from Nancy Silverton’s book. I was unimpressed with the first rise, but the bread seemed to proof well enough in the basket.


Nevertheless, I put the boule in a 500F oven, then turned it down to 400F after 5 minutes. I misted the oven during the first five minutes as well.


I guess my cuts in the top were not sufficient, because the loaf split in a couple of places. Also, it smelled like burning – because it was. Check out the bottom. I baked it for 35 minutes.


I did let it rest for quite a while (maybe a couple of hours). The interior didn’t have irregular holes and had a sort of dense texture. I actually made two boules and the second was worse than the first. Sad. Also, the crust was very thick and did taste a little burnt. Finally, the bread was actually kind of dry. It just wasn’t something I really wanted to eat.

But I think I know what one major problem was:

This weekend, I made a non-sourdough white bread. It turned out great! It was really tasty and had a great texture. Not too crusty, but that was okay. Now, I think this was useful for my sourdough because although my oven was at the right temperatures (500F, then 400F just like the sourdough), the bread cooked in 15 minutes less time than the recipe said (30 mins instead of 45 mins). I measured it with my new thermapen – the recipe recommended a temperature of 210F. I actually took the bread out at 205F, and was not disappointed. It did continue to cook.

So I think this weekend I’m going to try to bake the sourdough again. I need to make sure my starter is really going strong and this time, I’m going to take the temperature of my sourdough after half the cooking time. If not, I’m going to make my other bread again and hope to have photos either way.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Friday Night Dinner: Homemade Pizzas!

This Friday was the first Friday of Lent. For us good Roman Catholics (What? Why are you laughing?), that means no meat on Fridays from now until Easter on March 22nd. Incidentally, my family gives up meat on Wednesdays also -- but this isn't a rule of Lent -- it's just kinda something we do. But I digress...

We end up eating a couple of standby dishes during Lent including Tuna Noodle Casserole (oh-so-good), pizza, and grilled cheese with tomato soup. So in honor of this first Friday (and inspired by my bread baking desires), I decided to make my own pizza crust.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an episode of Julia Child: Lessons With Master Chefs featuring Roberto Donna. This is what actually inspired all this bread baking nonsense to being with. He was making pizza, among other things. I'd have really liked to have made his dough, but I had to work on Friday and he was doing stuff every two hours for several hours, which would have meant pizza at around midnight. Then I found a Cook's Illustrated recipe for a 75 minute pizza dough. I was a bit wary of this recipe though, because I didn't think it'd have much flavor, so instead, I made a biga Thursday night with regular old Fleischman's yeast (not rapid rise), water, and flour. This idea was actually inspired by yet another Cook's Illustrated recipe I almost followed for an Italian bread. Basically, I added half the flour and water to a bowl with the yeast. I set it out overnight, covered lightly. In the morning, it was bubbly and stuff and I put it in the frigo. When I came home from work at about 6:30PM, I pulled it out and added the rest of the flour and water. I kneaded AND mixed completely by hand (I think I'm giving up on my mixer -- I thought it would burst into flames when I made those rolls) and then allowed the dough to rise in a warmed-but-not-on oven (this is why I didn't worry about my biga being cold).

In the mean time, I went to the grocery store and picked up some Muir Glen organic whole peeled tomatoes, some fresh basil, processed mozzarella (actually this was recommended by Donna!), and I could swear I bought something else. The total was about $12, but I bought two cans of tomatoes, not knowing how much I'd need. Anyway, again I digress.

I seeded the tomatoes and put them in a bowl. I tore in about 5-6 large basil leaves and added one minced garlic clove. I added a drop of olive oil (maybe 1 tbsp) and some salt and pepper. I threw in a pinch of red pepper flakes, though I think maybe I should have left them out or added a bit more -- I didn't even taste 'em. I crushed the tomatoes by hand and let this raw sauce marinate.


As you can see, there's still a lot of liquid left in the sauce. Next time, I might set the tomatoes over a strainer. But don't worry -- I'm saving the juice. I'll probably use it for a cooked tomato sauce.

Next, I turned out the dough (which had risen BEAUTIFULLY) and beat it down a little. I then cut it into four pieces with my bench scraper and rolled each into a ball. By this time, I had the oven going as hot as it could with my stone in there. It's winter and between the dry air and the oven, I was afraid my dough balls would skin over. So I covered them with a dish towel and misted it with water every so often. I really got it pretty damp, with no adverse effects whatsoever.

I stretched my dough the way Donna did on Julia's show. I was alone, so I don't have pictures, but I'll try to explain (but also, I think you can watch the video on the website linked above). First, I flattened the dough a bit with my whole hand. Then, with all of my fingertips, I gently jabbed into the dough disc down its center towards my body, then came up around the outside of the circle back to the "top" or furthest point from my body. I repeated this and then flipped and rotated the dough. I did this a couple of times until I thought it wasn't doing anything anymore, and started gently stretching the dough. I held the center down with one hand and lightly tugged on the perimeter. Once the dough had stretched a bit, I picked it up and stretched it gently over my fists. I had a problem where the center got too thin (I could literally see through it, but it never broke), so I tried to really just work the edges and let the center catch up on its own. This is a skill I need to practice. I was so happy because my dough didn't shrink when I put it down. This alone was a huge success.

I topped the pizzas with very little sauce, although there was still too much moisture in general. Here's my first pizza -- just sauce and cheese.



My pizza peel hasn't come in from King Arthur yet, so I worked on parchment on an upside down half sheet pan. It worked great, and the parchment can go right on the stone in the oven. (However, this might have prevented the stone from doing its best work -- I'm not sure if the parchment formed a moisture barrier. My crusts got soggy really quickly after coming out of the oven.) It's also super easy to pull the pizza out -- just grab a corner of parchment and slide onto the sheet pan. I thought this pizza was beautiful. It's a little pale, but I'm okay with that. In fact, I kind of prefer a more medium-rare pizza to a well done one. But I did want to taste the differences and get a truly magnificent pie, so I tried a couple of ways to brown it up more.


Here's a cross section of a slice from my first pie. I like the thicker crust a lot. Notice the nice holes. It was a really flavorful crust -- I think because of my overnight fermentation.



This is just that first pie cut up.


Here's what the bottom of the first slice looked like. Not bad, but not crackery-crisp.



Here's my second pie -- unbaked, obviously. This one is just tomato, basil, olive oil, mozzarella, and salt and pepper. It was my favorite, even with the sub-par tomatoes one finds at the market in February on Long Island.

I let this one cook a little longer and was happy about the results. It was still a bit pale though.


At my brother's request, I made a white pie. This one has olive oil, salt, pepper, a pinch of oregano, mozzarella, peccorino, and ricotta. It was divine. My brother's favorite.

I decided my oven was not hot enough. But it was already at the max. I had been letting the oven have about 10 minutes to reheat after each pizza. Maybe this isn't enough, I don't know. But in an effort to make everything a bit hotter (and browner), I put the pizza in the oven on "bake", then closed the door and turned on the broiler. This moves the flame from the bottom of the oven to the top and also keeps the flame on constantly, rather than cycling on and off (which I think it was doing, despite being at max temp). The stone and pizza were in the bottom third of the oven, so I wasn't too worried that the pizza would burn from the broiler. I think the was a good move, although I might just turn the broiler on for the second half of baking. By the way, the cook time for these was about 8 minutes.


Here's my last pizza. This one has mozzarella, sauce, peccorino, and a tiny bit of ricotta. This was the prettiest pie, and pretty damn tasty too.

I think I'm going to work on these pizzas again this Friday. They were really delicious -- I don't have any complaints. But I think I can make them better. Not too shabby for my first attempts though.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Best Pancakes Ever!

On Superbowl Sunday, my mother decided she wanted to follow a recipe for cole slaw that required buttermilk. Not wanting to throw the remainder away like we usually do, she asked me to come up with some use for the 3/4 of a quart of buttermilk. Now, I don't know about you, but when I hear buttermilk, I think...PANCAKES!

I've kind of been craving pancakes lately. I don't really know why. It might actually have been a maple syrup craving because waffles sounded great too, but no need to over-analyze...wait, that's what I do best -- over-analyze. How'm'I doin'?

I decided to check out Cook's Illustrated's website for a suitable recipe. I also looked for buttermilk biscuits, but I'm way too lazy for that. I found a really simple recipe.

It required:


1 EGG WHITE! Whipped to soft peaks. I did it by hand cuz I was too lazy to go downstairs and lug up the KitchenAid. Which is funny because it would have been a lot faster with the mixer, even counting transport and cleaning. Also, today is Tuesday. I made these pancakes Saturday morning. My arm still hurts. I need to work on my prolonged whisking skills.


I gently folded (why isn't it feld?) my egg white into a mixture of buttermilk, 1 egg yolk, some flour, some baking powder, sugar, and melted butter. I also threw in a pinch of cinnamon and wished I'd actually used my vanilla sugar. See how nice a folding job I did?


Now, I don't give my brother credit for much, but Dolores does make some fine pancakes. He uses Bisquik, and I don't actually have any problem with that. But Bisquik doesn't use buttermilk, so...yeah. But I think I know why I like my brother's pancakes so much...GREASE! My recipe said to lightly oil a griddle. Heh. I added a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil to my nonstick skillet. My pancake got a really delicious, greasy crust of golden-brown awesome-ness. Pour on the Aunt Jemimah!


Here's a cross-section of my magical pancake. It's a lousy photo, but I think you can see the fluffiness and airiness and other lightness synonyms. Yeah, synonyms. Funny cuz there was cinnamon in the pancakes. Oh, and I'm serious about the Aunt Jemimah. Actually, it was AJ lite. I actually hate real maple syrup, but pretend to love it when I'm in Vermont.
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Sourdough Starter: Day 10

Finally the starter is done fermenting. Day 10 involves removing the grapes, throwing away most of the culture, and then feeding the rest with flour and water. That's just what I did today.


I started by removing the grapes and really squeezing them out into the starter. I was able to extract a lot of liquid from them. I was surprised when I opened the sack of grapes -- some looked just like grapes, others looked like rot. Curious, I thought.


Then, I mixed the culture really well with my hands. I wanted to make sure I got everything off the bottom.



It took a couple of minutes, but wasn't a big deal, really. When everything was mixed, the consistency was kind of like milk. Perhaps you can tell from the photos...

I then poured off 1 lb 2 oz of culture. Silverton says to throw the rest away.
I saved a small container for backup. I popped that in the deep freeze with a note that says "Do Not Throw Away". Hopefully I never need it, but if I do, it'll be there waiting for me. It's probably a good idea to stash away a little every few months.


I washed and dried my culture bowl, then added the small amount of culture back to it. Then I added warm water (78F) and flour and again mixed with my hands. Many of the lumps didn't break up, despite my best efforts. I really tried to squeeze the little pearls of flour, but there were just too many! This mixture was thicker than the previous culture, and not even all the flour dissolved. This was more like heavy cream.


The smell is still horrific. The family is describing it as cheese, but I'm smelling vinaigre. Hopefully now that the grapes are out, it won't be so vile. Although, I did smell the grapes closely and they smelled like.....grapes! I wanted to eat one. I have to keep feeding until day 14. I'm supposed to feed thrice daily, but I don't see that happening. I am supposed to wait 4-6 hours between feedings, but I'm not getting up in the middle of the night. I'll feed twice probably -- before and after work. And on the weekend, I'll try to do it three times. But I might skip ahead and bake bread on Friday, especially if my supplies arrive in the mail. Oh yeah, I dropped $200 on supplies (including a $100 thermometer -- of my own choosing). This bread better be great.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Sourdough Starter: Day 09

I've been slow to post about the starter lately. That's because there's nothing going on. It just sits on my counter and stinks. Here are a few photos from tonight of what it currently looks like. I smell nothing yeasty per se, although I do smell fermenting grapes when I mix everything up. Notice the two phases. I flip the bag of grapes over each day when I stir it up. Tomorrow I begin feeding this beast.





Superbowl 2008: Pulled Pork on Homemade Rolls

Every American knows what the Superbowl is really all about: food. Really tasty, not-very-good-for-you food. I decided I was going to make pulled pork and homemade sandwich rolls from the La Brea bread book.

My pork recipe came from Gourmet Magazine originally (here's a copy), but I wanted to do a barbcue-style pulled pork, so I adapted the recipe by adding in some smoked paprika (or pimenton), some chili powder, and one habanero. I slow-roasted a pork shoulder for hours and hours on Saturday because I'd need the oven Sunday for rolls and other tasty treats.

I chilled the pork and its drippings overnight. Here's a photo of the pork after it was chilled. You might see that it has been disturbed -- that is from Tackle Box and me pulling off the skin and a few morsels of marbled meat. It was amazing. But I could feel my arteries clog. But who cares.

Before shredding:



After shredding:



Here are the drippings from the meat that I refrigerated overnight. I didn't add anything to the pan itself but a little water.



I scraped the brown gelatinous layer off and melted it in a pot. Into that, I shredded the pork and added some barbecue sauce. I cheated and used K.C. Masterpiece. I felt like a sellout. But the pork was phenomenal. I think I'll use the fat for some hash browns.

I started working on my sesame semolina sandwich rolls at about 8AM Sunday morning. I calculated that they'd need about 5 hours and wanted them done way before 4:30PM when my dad had to go to work. I combined my flours (12.5 oz white bread, 14 oz semolina, 10 oz durum), water (5.5 oz at 70F), starter (6 oz; yes, even though it's not done yet), and yeast (0.5 tsp). I was supposed to use packed fresh yeast, but Silverton says early in the book that you can substitute dried yeast, but to use about half as much as a recipe says because fresh yeast is more than just yeast. I put this mess in my Kitchen Aid mixer and turned it to stir. I stirred and stirred, but it was really just a powdery disaster. This dough wasn't going to come together. So I added more 70F water -- maybe 1/2 cup more, which I thought was quite a lot. I was petrified of adding too much liquid, so it took me 10 minutes to get the dough to come together. Then I added the salt. Silverton says to mix on medium, but I don't think my mixer had it in him (or her?). I had it on stir and the mixer was struggling -- it was getting hot and I smelled a burning smell. Retrospectively, maybe it needed a bit more water, but I was afraid. Silverton says to knead until the dough reaches 74F, but this wasn't happening. I gave up and shut down the mixer. I put the dough in an oiled bowl and allowed it to ferment for at least 2 hours. It was supposed to double in volume -- it didn't.

Here's the before and after. They look oddly similar, don't they? It only rose a little.



Then I shaped the dough into rolls and allowed them to proof. They really didn't. So I baked them.

Needless to say, these rolls were sub-par. They were quite dry and chewy -- gave my jaw quite a workout -- but I think they looked damn good. They needed more salt, but maybe if my starter was ready, they'd have more flavor. I really need to be patient. I shouldn't have any deadline whatsoever. I have to remember that when I make my first real loaf.



The pork was great and the rolls weren't bad. When all was said and done, I only ate half of a pulled pork sandwich. Here's a list of what I served at my Superbowl party:

Friday, February 01, 2008

Sourdough Starter: Day 05

This project has now been going for five days and things are still pretty funky. The slurry that is my culture separates into a liquid phase and a goo phase. The liquid is sort of brownish-purple, but transparent and only lightly tinted. The smell: putrid. It is horrible. But, since I'm keeping it tightly sealed with plastic wrap, it really only stinks when you open it or come really close.

Here's a pic of Tackle Box tasting it.



He nearly refused to try it, but I assured him it doesn't taste nearly as bad as it smells, and in the end, he agreed. There's not really any activity -- no bubbling or anything. It's just rotting.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Sourdough Starter: Day 04

I walked into the kitchen this morning while getting ready for work and my mom was making a face. It was her something-stinks-in-here face. I smelled it too. She spied some ravioli on the top but she was pretty confident that ravioli were to blame. I didn'tof the trash and decided that was the source of the stink. It did smell a bit like cheese, afterall. I suggested maybe it was my vat of rotting stuff, argue.

I was pretty nervous when I saw my pitcher of goo this morning. It had really bubbled up a lot overnight and I was afraid it was going to overspill its bounds. Unfortunately, the Long Island Rail Road waits for no one, and I had no time to transfer my muck to the one-gallon vessel Silverton suggests using in the first place. I asked my dad if he would do it, or at the very least, put it on a cookie sheet or something. He put it on a dinner plate. Good enough.

When I came home from work, I saw the bubbling had subsided a bit. The volume had actually decreased slightly. Everyone kept touching the plastic wrap I had on top, so I'm not sure if the volume decreased on its own, or because of all the poking and prodding. I don't think it matters. Since I had to add another 4 ounces of flour and 8 ounces of water, I was definitely going to move to a larger container. The best I could do was a 4-liter Pyrex mixing bowl. Good enough, though I'd have preferred something taller.


I knew taking off the plastic wrap would expose us to the funky aroma, and I was kinda looking forward to it. Then I did it. I removed the wrap. Wow, was that vile smelling goo. It smelled like rotting cheese, really. And the texture was spongy, but very sticky -- not too wet

I mixed up my flour and water. My scale has the pesky habit of losing mass if you leave something on it for a minute or two. For example, when I first added the flour, the reading was precisely 4 ounces. When I went to add the water, the reading was 3 7/8 ounces. Damn! So I added flour until it read 4 1/8 ounces, then added the water to 8 1/8 ounces -- which then dropped down to 8 ounces. Beautiful. But really annoying.

I dumped the whole lot of culture into the bowl with the fresh flour and water and saw that my cheesecloth sack-o-grapes was inflated just as Silverton said it might be. That means the grapes are still actively fermenting, thus filling the bag with gas (presumably CO2 and maybe some methane). The grapes themselves were very plump -- surprising because I squeezed each grape individually when I added them to the paste. Silverton says one must add new food (flour) on day four to keep the balance between yeast and bacteria. Apparently, if one does not feed one's culture, the bacteria out-compete the yeast, which is a bad thing indeed. I'm not sure about the logic here (why don't the bacteria eat the flour also, or is it that the bacteria would gang up on the yeast with no other food source available, or something else entirely?), but I do believe it works. I trust Silverton. Bread is her life.

I mixed everything thoroughly, though I did not stick my hand in and mix everything up, swooshing around the grapes. I relied on my trusty green spatula to do that. I may have done it if I didn't think my spatula was up to the task, but I had no reason to doubt him today. He performed beautifully. Then, despite my better judgment, I licked the spatula. I made sure I was next to the sink, just in case... Well, I had an audience (just my mom -- she was both repulsed and attracted to the stink, and her curiosity got the better of her), so I dramatically licked the spatula, then flipped it over and licked the other side. Truth is, the second lick was completely unnecessary. The mixture still tastes kind of raw (although I did add fresh flour today, so it probably still should) and had a mild fruity flavor. I could definitely taste the grapes. I got a hit of alcohol, and still fish. I decided the fish must be acid -- probably lactic -- because it also reminded me of vinaigre.

I'm still really optimistic about this. I can't wait for that first loaf of bread. Though Silverton says it won't get really good until about the fifth loaf. Is that because of the culture or improved technique, or both?

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Roast Chicken and Other Stories

I just finished reading this book. Yes, it is a cookbook. Yes, I read it cover-to-cover. It is the first time I've set out to do that (I think it's happened on accident before), and I'm not sure I'd do it again. More about that at a different time, perhaps.

I offer the following, as some background:

I received this book from my foodie-uncle on Christmas Eve. I was a bit over-served at the time (to put it mildly...) and I don't know if I properly displayed my gratitude and enthusiasm. Nevertheless, Uncle Steve: this post is for you (and the next one's for my homies). I know. I should never speak or write again. So anyway, he made me a lovely basket (actually, a gift-wrapped cardboard box, but it's all good) containing this book, some arborio rice, nice olive oil, a 22-year-old balsamic, white truffle oil, a spatula (although this was apparently for my sister -- something I'm still struggling to understand), and a silvah plattah (translation: silver platter -- but it's more fun to type it with my Long Island accent preserved). Best gift this Christmas, hands down. Still don't know what to do with the truffle oil, but that's another post. This one's about the book, remember?

So, as I said, I read every page, in order. I quite liked the setup of the book. Hopkinson devotes a couple of pages (and maybe four or five recipes each) to a variety of ingredients. For instance, he has a chapter on brains, one on tripe, and one on sweetbreads. Mmmm-mmm. He also discusses different herbs, onions, eggs, lamb, and many other common foods. Each chapter starts with a whimsical image -- maybe of the highlighted food item, maybe not. I quite liked these little pictures -- there are no actual photographs in the book though. Minus 1 point. He leaves the reader with a couple of paragraphs talking about the featured ingredient, sometimes with anecdotes and fond memories. In that sense, it's kind of enjoyable to read. For the most part, however, it is a cookbook, and so I never found myself waiting with bated breath to see what Hopkinson would do with the offal next. (There's lots of offal.)

I should fully disclose that I haven't prepared any of these recipes. However, they all seem fairly simple, if not a bit time consuming. And as any good British chef would, Hopkinson puts cream and onions in almost everything -- and prepares a complimentary French sauce for topping. These recipes are not for the faint of heart -- I might've had a couple of heart attacks just reading them. But a lot sound really good.

In some ways, I'm thinking of this book as an encyclopedia. If I find myself with some Anglophilic ingredient, I feel that I can turn to Hopkinson's book and figure out what to do with the smoked haddock. However, there weren't many pages I was dog-earing for easy preparingation later on (what's wrong with that sentence? -- my English is poor from lack of use).

I think this will be a good book to keep around for reference, but not something that will reside close at hand with Bittman's tome and the ever-reliable Joy of Cooking. There are a few things I'd like to try (like its namesake roast chicken), but nothing moved me to go to the market straight away.

Next on the reading list: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Sourdough Starter: Day 03

It's been almost exactly 72 hours since I first combined my flour, water, and grapes to begin my sourdough starter. I was really nervous yesterday (really -- I felt a little nauseas -- sad, right?) because absolutely nothing was happening. Okay, well, actually all that happened was that the flour and water began to separate. I thought I saw some white mold, but it was really just the cheesecloth floating up.

I came home from work today at about 6:30PM and didn't see much going on again. I was really disappointed. I realized my kitchen is a little cold, so I convinced myself my starter was retarded (as in slow to get its groove on, of course) and that maybe I'd fallen a day or so behind. Well, I went into the kitchen a couple of minutes ago to take some photos for the ol' blog (I felt guilty I didn't yesterday -- sorry my zero readers!). I was totally expecting nothing again -- or, rather, still. Boy was I surprised.

As you can see from the photos, the total volume has increased quite a lot. Lots of yeast and bacteria lovin'. Oh yeah. The color is a bit more yellowish-brown. The vat o' crap is bubbling quite a bit -- it's not exactly edge-of-your-seat excitement, but if you watch for a couple of minutes, you can totally see the bubbles float to the surface, overcome surface tension, and pop. And it's o-so-satisfying to actually HEAR the bubbles pop. I have a renewed enthusiasm here. In just about 3 hours, things totally turned around. My flea-like patience just got a little boost. Maybe now I can have cat-like patience. Better not count on it, though.

Oh, and for the record, I did taste it as reccommended by Silverton. I was surprised by the raw flour taste, because I'm a doofus. (Did I cook it? Of course it'll taste raw.) It's got a nice funk going -- my refined palate detects flavors of alcohol and fish, with a mild yogurt finish. Mmmm-mmm good. And check out the picture with my finger in it. How good does that look? Remind you of anything? God, I hope not. But it is interesting that the texture has changed quite a bit. Or, at least interesting to me.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Sourdough Starter: Day 01

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I baked some bread. It turned out pretty well, but is lacking a bit in flavor. Truth be told, I think the bread would have benefited from much more time proofing and rising. My yeast was a bit sluggish. ...And I forgot the salt. Yeah. Bland. Yeah...

Well, I did a little research and decided I'd like to follow Nancy Silverton's recipe for sourdough starter and make a couple of breads from her book Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery. This requires a 14-day process, but you theoretically only have to do it once in your lifetime...or until you forget about it...or otherwise murder it. SO TAKE GOOD CARE OF IT!!!

Okay, so I ordered the book online and also checked it out of the library because I just can't wait for it to arrive. I didn't read the foreword or intro yet, but it's pretty dang long. I do plan to read it, but the way I see it, I have 14 days to catch up. I flipped through the recipe for the starter in the library and stopped at the market on my way home. I bought 20 pounds of bread flour, some grapes, cheesecloth, a large container (actually this is to store my open bread flour, not for the culture), and a jar of wheat germ. The wheat germ isn't needed until I actually bake some bread...in 14 days...but I'd be pissed if I'm missing ingredients when bread-day arrives.

Day 01 requires just flour, water, and grapes. I couldn't get organic grapes, so I bought regular red grapes and rinsed them gently. I wrapped 'em up hobo-style in cheesecloth and added them to my mixture of flour and water. I squished the fruit and dunked it a bunch of times, then sunk it to the bottom of my pitcher (you can see 'em in the photo above). I covered it tightly with plastic wrap and walked away. Tomorrow I should see some bubbling. I don't actually have to do anything until day 04, unless mold starts to grow.

P.S. You can see some bubbles here, but they're in there just because I whipped some air in when I mixed my flour and water.