Tzaziki

In the previous post, I promised the tzaziki recipe. This one isn't exactly traditional, but pretty close. I should have used yogurt, but I used home-made quark instead. It's what I had in the house and sometimes you just have to make do.

Ingredients
1 cucumber
1t Kosher salt - divided use
2 cloves garlic
1 cup loose packed mint - the fresher the better
1T high quality, preferably Greek, extra virgin olive oil
1 cup quark (or 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt, strained for about an 30 minutes)
juice of 1/2 lemon (more or less to taste)
freshly ground black pepper, also to taste.

Method
Peel the whole cucumber in stripes lengthwise, so that you have alternating peeled/unpeeled surfaces. You could completely peel it, but I likethe color and texture of a little peel. Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Discard the seeds. Chop the cucumber finely (1/4" dice) and salt in a colander for 30 minutes. This removes much of the liquid and makes the tzaziki less watery.

If using plain yogurt, strain it through cheesecloth for about 30 minutes. You should have a little more than a cup of strained yogurt.

Peel and make a paste out of the garlic. Using a press is fine, or simply running your knife over it on the curing board works too. Put the garlic paste into a small non reactive bowl. Add the olive oil. Set aside. Pull the mint leaves off the stems and discard the stems. Mince the mint leaves and add to the oil/garlic in the bowl.

Add the quark (or yogurt if using) to the mint/garlic/oil in the bowl and stir well. Rinse the cucumbers, pat dry (very dry) and add to the bowl. Stir and taste. Add lemon juice a little at a time until you have the flavor you want. Check for seasoning, adding a couple of grinds of black pepper.

Set aside (well covered) in the refrigerator for at last an hour.

Serve with lamb souvlaki, gyros, shoe leather, pretty much anything. It should keep the vampires away for a bit too.

strawberry season

April in North Texas is Strawberry time, so Madame and I always head to Gnismer Farms on Bowen Rd. in Arlington to pick them. Today was this year's pilgrimage, and what a wonderful day it turned out to be.

I had previously decided on Souvlaki for dinner, especially when I saw lamb shoulder at $1.99/lb this morning.

So I bought a chunk of lamb shoulder and boned it, cut it into 1 inch cubes and set it to marinate with olive oil, garlic, mint, thyme and oregano. It is so good having the fresh herbs to hand.

This afternoon we drove down to Gnismer farms to pick our own strawberries. It was a coolish ut sunny afternoon and there were several families already picking theer. It was wonderful to see how wxcited the kids were when they found ripe fruit. Also to see their happy faces and strawberry juice stained clothes. We picked about 14lbs of strawberries - some for freezing and some for eating now. Once we had paid for them, we engaged the farme owners in conversation to find out what else they had.

That opened the motherlode. We bought lettuce (by going down the rows of plants and pointing to the ones we wanted). Also they dug onions and leeks for us, found some honey comb taken from the bees on the property. What a treat.

So for dinner (and leftovers for Madame all week), we had the souvlaki (oh yes I made tzaziki for that, recipe in another post) and grilled eggplant, mushrooms, onions, leeks and cauliflower that I had bought before visiting the farm. A bottle of a Beaujolais Villages and we were happy campers.

It was so good to connect again with the growing of the food we ate and to marvel at the earth's bounty.

Cooking school day 3

If I thought day 2 was intense, I was in for a real shock on day 3. The menu looked straightforward -

• Beef pot roast
• Grilled rib eye steaks with a mushroom sauce
• Perfect mashed potatoes
• Greens and blue cheese dressing
• Green beans with a shallot vinaigrette
• Individual chocolate soufflees
• Blueberry muffins

Again 5 hours from start to cleanup. We missed this one it went almost 6 hours, there was so much to do.

This time the pressure was on to get it all done. Again planning and sequence were keys. Recognizing what can be done ahead and held, what has to be done right then and there, and what kinds of timing/oven collisions there might be so they can be avoided. For instance one of the ovens needed three different temps, with the souuflees being the most critical. They were at the very end of the meal, so we had to the temp. of the oven back to the right place for them. That meant cooking the muffins, then the bacon pretty early in the process to give the oven a chance to cool a bit.

Of course the pot roast was going to take 3 hours in the oven, let alone the amount of prep required. So that had to be done first, oh and the blue cheese dressing needed to chill a long while to let the flavors blend. My head was spinning.

Anyhow off to do it, and it became clear that the pressure was real. 2 potentially disastrous errors - one was I used the confectioner's sugar that had been measured for the muffin glaze instead of the granulated sugar. That meant that the quantity was wrong. Luckily I caght that one added granulated sugar to the muffins and baked them anyway. They came out fine. I was amazed that when recipes tell you that muffins don't require much mixing the really mean it. This was barely a batter. It didn't stay together at all, and when I scooped it into the pans it looked awful. Never mind they came out just fine with a lighter texture than I am used to. The Dallas Stars will have to look elsewhere for pucks.

The second error was that was about to make the world's first flourless soufflee. That probably would not have been a success. Fortunately the chef instructor caught that one and asked when the flour should be added. So good opportunity to see what happens if you add it late. It appeared not to matter, but of course it was a pain to add because I couldn't do it all at once for fear of lumps.

Everyting from that point on was a blur! It was nice to get my hands on a food mill for the potatoes - easier than the ricer I normally use.

Also interesting to use beurre manie to thicken the sauce from the pot roast. It is pretty straightforward to do and adds a nice richness. Another technique to add to the repertoire.

The result of all of this was pretty good, timing was a bit off, so things weren't as hot as I would of liked. However, it shows it is possible to get through this much work in about 5 hours. The extra time was the eating.

All in all, I got a lot out of the classes, thought they were good value and loved that attitude of Dianne and Emily. Of course I was lucky to have them all to myself.

Cooking school Day 2

Day 2 at the Milestone Cooking School proved as useful and interesting as day 1. I was still the only student, so was able to continue to work on weaknesses, while making the dishes that were on the menu for the day.

The pace certainly picked up and was more intense than day 1. Again, the dishes were expected to be made in teams, and probably each team would work on a single dish. Not so for this session.

The menu had the following dishes:

• Vegetable Soup
• Pasta with fresh tomatoes
• Chicken stuffed with Mozzarella
• Pork tenderloin with a dijon mustard glaze
• Rustic apple pie

all to be made, eaten and largely cleaned up in 5 hours.

When planning a meal of this size, the sequence is pretty important, so the first part of the lesson was dealing with just that. Surprisingly (or not if you were already thinking this way), the pastry for the appple pie was the first thing to be made. Followed by prepping the chicken. At least in this class we didn't have to fabricate a whole chicken, although at home I probably would.

None of the dishes was particularly complicated, but they were all fairly laborious - well all except the pork.

Again, lots of learning. Keeping the workplace tidy and clean. Many trips to the sink for washing/sanitization. The pastry was interesting - the tricks there were keeping everything really cold and using a whole lot less liquid than you think. When you turn it out of the food processor it is kind of a shaggy mess which really does come together quickly and easily. Lots of resting time in the fridge and rolling was a cinch. Well, rolling was a cinch once they showed me what I was doing wrong.

Making sure that the pork tenderloin was cooked just enough (I like it at 140, the FDA recommends something much higher, but with modern pork cooking it a little less seems to preserve the juiciness). However if you have any doubts cook it to the temperature your country advises. It was seared to build a nice crust and flavor and then cooked on a rack in the oven (350 or so for about 12 minutes). Your mileage may very depending on oven callibration.

Prepping the chicken meant making a pocket, so of course I tore one. The flour coating helped to seal it after it stuffing it. These needed to be refrigerated as well prior to cooking them. More opportunity to ensure that I used one hand to handle the chicken and the other to dip into the salt/pepper for seasoning. You don't want a chickeny hand in the salt - contamination you know!

Everything therafter was pretty straight forward, but since there was a fair amount going on, it was amatter of staying organized and paying attention.

Seabirdskitchen decamps to cooking school - day 1

This weekend I am attending cooking classes at the Milestone School in the Viking kitchen in Dallas. 3 pretty intense days. The class is supposed to take up to 12 people, but they had no shows last evening. I was therefore privileged to have a private class with a wonderful chef and a culinary school student.

Quite the treat. The first evening involved making 2 main courses (a crispy lemon chicken and an Asian marinated mahi mahi) with a rice pilaf and stir fried veges. For dessert a made from scratch raspberry shortcake. Normally, of course, this would be done in teams, but I got to do it all.

Lessons at several levels. First the reinforcement - especially for the stir fry - that size matters. Getting the piecs even in size so they cook evenly and fit well on the fork is critical. Second, the emphasis on hygiene, hand washing and general sanitization after handling the raw chicken. Third a great tip for pounding the chicken - put the breast into a zip-loc bag and pound it in that. It's a whole lot easier than using cling-wrap.

I got to try using panko for the first time, and yes it is worth it. So I can see that becoming a staple.

Today will be an intense day - I am looking forward to it. More posts to come.

Bread starter

I had been wondering how long my bread starter would keep without the normal care and feeding. So 2 weeks ago I put cling wrap on it and put it in the fridge. I then left town, leaving the starter in a state of suspended animation.

On my return home on Thursday evening, I took it out of the fridge, added a scoop of flour and some water, covered it with cheesecloth and left it to sit out overnight. In the morning I looked at it, it was nice and bubbly - all ready to use. I made up a batch of bread with it, and baked it in time for breakfast today.

Delicious.

So yes, you can keep the starter refrigerated and it works like it should.

The rites of spring

Spring has most definitely sprung. There are so many terrific things in the stores, it is hard to know where to start.

Today Madame was reading at the Easter service at 7pm, and it wasn't clear when she would be home, so dinner needed to be quite flexible with regard to time. It also needed to be light - it was likely we wouldn't eat until after 9.

I had had a mediocre Spanish tortilla a couple of weeks back, and had a hankering for a tasty one. I also wanted to make sure we had some nice lamb for Easter Sunday, so off to Whle Foods I went.

They had some local heirloom tomatoes - and the were as sweet as could be. So dinner was coming together in my head. The tortilla with som eof he left over olive/preserved lemon relish from the Mroccan feast and a simple salad of heirloom tomatoes, a couple of our new, tender, basil leaves, some toast strips, Mozzarella (from the Dallas Moxarella Co.) a hint of balsamic vinegar and some large sea salt crystals. It turned out wonderfully.

Now for the tortilla. There are a couple of keys. Mak sure that the potatoes/onions are pressed tightly together before adding the eggs. Make sure you cook the eggs really slowly. Oh and of course, don't forget the saffron.

Spanish Tortilla
Ingredients
1 large russet potato
1/2 medium onion sliced (leaving bite sized pieces)
4 eggs
6 strands of saffron
a little butter to cook the onions in
salt/pepper to taste

Method
Peel and cut the potato into 8 pieces. Immerse in salted water and simmer for about 15 minutes - or until just cooked through (no rsistance to a knife). Meanwhile soften the onion in a little butter in a small (8") non-stick pan. Transfer the onions to a bowl when translucent and sweet. The onions should not take on any color.

Crack the eggs into a bowl, add a little salt/pepper and the saffron. Beat the eggs with a fork until they become homegenous. Leave to stand.

Drain the potatoes and slice very thinly. Place a layer of potatoes in the bottom of the pan in which the onions had cooked. Cover the potato layer with the onions and another layer of potatoes. Place the pan on a med/low flame and warm them. Press the potato/onion mixture with the back of a spatula to squeeze out any air.

When the potatoes are warm, pour the egg mixture over them. Pull the cooked edge of the eggs away from the pan, allowing more raw egg to come in contact with the pan. Turn the heat to low and leave to cook for about 10 minutes - until set in the center. Invert the mixture in the pan and cook for a further 3 or 4 minutes - until the whole tortilla is fully cooked.

Invert on the serving plate and garnish with some greens. Shake a little smoked paprika over the surface and serve.

Luckily there are left overs!

Spring time in Texas

The danger of frost has not completely past, but we are feeling safe now. The weather has been spectcular this weekend, so I have been filled with the desire to get the herb garden going again. Also the tomatoes . Probably a bit early yet for peppers.

So, I have been playing in the dirt. Lots of young basil, thyme, cilantro plants in. The oregano and mint are coming back nicely and even the parlsey is beginning to wake up.

We are so looking forward to home growwn tomatoes with home grown basil and home made bread. We don't grow olives here, or I might be tempted to make our own oil to go with it. Buffaloes (for fresh mozarella) would look a little out of place too, sadly. Oh well.

OTBN

Open That Bottle Night – Feb 23, 2008

The event

For the Wall Street Journal Open That Bottle Night party we chose to invite some friends over (originally planned to be 12, but because of flu season, reduced to 9) with the following instructions. “Please bring a bottle of a wine that is special to you, an appetizer that goes with it, and be prepared to share with the group why it is special.”

Everyone who came entered well into the spirit of the event with some delicious wines, excellent appetizers and much swapping of stories and general camaraderie.

The guests

· P* Phyllis and Christopher (hosts)

· ** Kat and Dan

* ·* Bette and John

· S* Suzy and Griffin

· C* Kathy

The party of the first part

The evening was divided into three quite distinct sections. The “Party of the First Part” was some general mixing/mingling and getting to know people. We held this in the kitchen with some relatively boring wines (provided by us!) and some appetizers – a caponata with toasts and garnished with olives carved to look like baby rabbits on a some mixed greens, and baked cheesy puffs called gougeres.

We played a variant of the guess who I am game where a label with a name is placed on your back and through elimination you have to figure out who you are. In this case we put grape varieties on the labels so everyone needed to figure out what kind of grape they were. The Gewürztraminer caused the most difficulty.

As people arrived, we placed their appetizers on the dining table which had been tastefully(!) covered with pages of a Wall Street Journal. The wines were sequenced for tasting, and the appetizers assigned sequence numbers. The mixing/ice breaking certainly worked well! After about 5 minutes there were no strangers.

The party of the second part

The “Party of the Second Part” was the main event. It was here that we were tasting the wines and listening to their stories. Now this was not a sophisticated tasting. It was as much about the stories, the reasons why things were special, the sharing of experiences, and the food pairings. We arranged the wines in the optimal (or close to it) tasting sequence.

First Pairing - Phyllis and Christopher

The wine

Domaine Du Duc De Magenta – Puligny Montrachet Premier Cru 2004

The food

A salad of baby spinach, oranges, toasted almonds, tomato, avocado and grilled chicken served as a summer roll in rice wrappers. The salad dressing was a mixture of orange and key lime juice with a little extra virgin olive oil. The wraps were softened in the dressing instead if the more normal warm water.

The story

This specific bottle was not in itself special, but the style and vineyard is. When Phyllis and Christopher were “dating” this was the first expensive bottle of wine that Phyllis had had. In fact it was the first bottle of white wine that benefited from being served warmer than ice cold. The experience of having something that luxuriant opened her palate to the delights that can be discovered in a bottle of wine.

Second Pairing – Bette and John

Bette and John brought 2 wines (one red and one white) from Oregon.

The wines

King Estates Pinot Gris - 2002

Firesteed Pinot Noir – 2006

The food

Bette had made some dense crackers with gorgonzola baked in. These crackers helped prepare our mouths and greatly enhanced the wines.

The story

In the 1960s when John was at the University of Oregon, all the land around was “truck farms”. Fresh peaches, plums and other fruit in the late summer – a really wonderful place to eat from the land. Bette was an East Coast Girl, so when John introduced her to the delights of Oregon, she was amazed. Move on to their 40^th. Anniversary and they went back to Oregon. The area is now planted with vines, and making high quality wine. They tasted their way up and down the valley, settling on the Firesteed winery as a favorite. The story ends with a knock on the door about 2 weeks after the trip, and there is a delivery for Bette – 2 cases of the Firesteed Pinot Noir.

Third Pairing – Suzy and Griffin

The wine

Senorio D Las Vinas Rioja Crianza

The food

Suzy and Griffin brought puffs filled with a little white cheddar and shrimp. The wine was light enough to go perfectly with the puffs. They were much admired and few left!

The story

One of Suzy and Griff’s children had been in Spain last year. On a visit, they had become quite taken with this wine, and wanted to bring some home. Cutting to the chase – 17 bottles of it. So the bottles were packed in checked luggage (of course since security prohibits carrying liquids – especially 12 liters of liquids) on the plane too. Come to customs on reentry to the US, and they nonchalantly admit to having 17 bottles of wine – no problem for the inspector, and they were in – and able to share a bottle with all of us.

Fourth Pairing – Kat and Daniel

The wine

Sister Creek Reserve 2004 – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec blend

The food

Kat cannot eat dairy or wheat, so she always finds innovative ways of preparing things that would typically use bread or cheese. This evening she made stuffed mushrooms – stuffed with hot Italian sausage and topped with crushed tortilla chips – instead of breadcrumbs. The group was pretty quiet (for a change) while chowing down on these!

The story

Kat is a Texas girl through and through. On a road trip she discovered this little winery in Texas (near Sisterville) , and while she didn’t hold out much hope for it, she gave it a go. It was surprisingly well balanced and full flavored. It certainly gave the rest of us a new appreciation for the wines of the second largest state.

Fifth Pairing – Cathy

The wine

Long Meadow Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

The food

Moroccan meat balls with plum sauce. The wine is such a big Cabernet Sauvignon that something with really bold flavors and, as advised by Chef Syre, the Executive Chef at the Four Seasons, without tomatoes. The small lamb balls were spiced with fresh mint, garlic, cinnamon, and cumin. The plum sauce added a little fruitiness without being overly sweet or cloying.

The story

Cathy is a “California Cabernet girl”. One day she was eating at Café Annie in Houston (one of the best restaurants in the state of Texas) and wanted a bottle of the Silver Oak Cab. To the restaurant’s embarrassment they were out of the Silver Oak. The sommelier suggested that she try the Long Meadow Ranch Cab, and that even though it was more expensive than the Silver Oak, he would let her have it for the same price. He thought it was a better wine.

The trouble is that the 2003 is now sold out, so Cathy had to scramble to find a bottle to bring. A few years back she had given a bottle to one of her better customers, so she called to ask if he happened to have any. Now we understand why there is none available, the customer had bought several cases. Fortunately he was delighted to return the favor to Cathy – thus giving us all a terrific experience.

The party of the third part

Now that the tasting was over, the party moved on to the conversation and carousing stage. We had placed some dark chocolate M&Ms on the coffee table – so it seemed natural to drink something bold with them. Since we had not yet had a Shiraz, I pulled one out from the collection – in this case an Ausvetia 1998 from South Australia. It was a bit long in the tooth, but went absolutely beautifully with the chocolate. While Zinfandel is often the chocolate choice, I really like a full-on Australian Shiraz.

Even the clean up wasn’t terribly hard – we had used disposable bamboo plates, so it was easy to toss them. Just a lot of wineglasses to wash!

The Moroccan Dinner

Our Sunday dining group (Sundays at 4) met this weekend for a dinner that had a Moroccan theme. The idea of the event is for all of us to research some things to do that fit with the theme, make the dishes, share them and talk about the food - how we did it, what the challenges were, where we found the recipes, etc. We also settle up at the end of the evening so that we have all paid for everything. A great way to enjoy friends and to extend our food repertoires.

For this event, Bette and John brought some "Moroccan Cigars" and spiced carrots as appetizers. Judy and Rocco brought 2 salads served prettily together in a single large lettuce leaf. The main course was a beef brisket tagine. Judy and Rocco also served a coconut/banana/pineapple dessert that was to die for, and some orange stuffed dates. The dates were not the only things stuffed at the end.

The group has rules about what is allowed to be charged for wine - no more than $20 per bottle may be added into the final total before we split the bill up.

Because the food was pretty bold, and would kill subtle flavours, we served a Beaujolais Villages with the Tagine and a Matua Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand for everything else. Total cost including wine for the dinner was around $90 or $15 per head including wine.

This post has all the recipes that we followed for the dinner. Some as links to other sites, some as inline recipes.

First Judy's Red Pepper Salad:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/109005
ROASTED RED PEPPER SALAD WITH HARISSA
Ingredients
6 medium red bell peppers (2 lb)
1/4 cup raisins
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/4 teaspoons harissa* (spicy North African condiment)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted

Method
Preheat broiler. Arrange peppers on a broiler pan and broil peppers about 2 inches from heat, turning occasionally with tongs, until skins are blackened, 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap, then let stand 20 minutes. When cool enough to handle, peel peppers, discarding stems and seeds, and quarter each lengthwise. While peppers are broiling, soak raisins in 1 cup hot water 15 minutes, then drain well in a sieve. Whisk together lemon juice, harissa, and sea salt, then whisk in oil until combined well. Toss peppers with dressing and sprinkle with raisins and walnuts. Cooks' note:Roasted peppers can be tossed with dressing 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before proceeding.

Moroccan Carrot Salad


http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_31954,00.html


PINEAPPLE AND BANANA COUSCOUS PUDDING
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/106128


Ingredients

3/4 cup water
1/2 cup plain couscous
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 large banana, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon (packed) golden brown sugar1
1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons chilled whipping cream
5 tablespoons sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco López)
1 tablespoon triple sec
1/2 cup candied pineapple, minced
1 1/2 cups diced peeled fresh pineapple


Method
Bring 3/4 cup water to boil in heavy medium saucepan over high heat. Stir in couscous. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Fluff with fork. Melt butter in small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add banana and sugar and sauté until banana is soft, about 1 minute. Cool. Using electric mixer, beat cream in large bowl until soft peaks form. Fold in cream of coconut and triple sec. Reserve 6 tablespoons whipped cream mixture for topping. Fold candied pineapple, couscous, and banana into remaining whipped cream mixture in large bowl. Divide mixture among 6 parfait glasses or dessert bowls. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover whipped cream mixture and puddings separately and refrigerate.) Top each pudding with some of reserved whipped cream mixture. Sprinkle each with fresh pineapple and serve.

Sweet Stuffed Dates

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_86409,00.html

Tagine of beef brisket with a preserved lemon relish, served over plain couscous

I don't have a tagine so I used a slow cooker for the next recipe. It turned out well and the cleanup was a snap (for which Madame thanked me!). The recipe was adapted from several sources. However there were some minor challenges! I had bought the couscous at Whole Foods in bulk and didn't know ahead of time how long it would take to steam. Answer about 90 minutes. I should have bought the instant packet cousous from the grocery store. Luckily I tested it out ahead of time, so it was cooked. The measurements are not nearly as precise as the recipe below describes. I mention 1/2 an onion because that is what we had left over from something else. You don't want to use more than 1/2 a raw onion at the end - the flavor would be too overpowering! So if you don't have a spare 1/2 onion, justadd more to the first step.

Ingredients
3-4 lbs beef brisket - leave most of the fat on
6 cloves garlic - halved
2T Finely ground white pepper
2T finely ground coriander
2T finely ground cinnamon
1T dried ginger
2T finely ground cumin
1/4t freshly grated nutmeg

1cup beef stock
1 cup dry red wine
2 bay leaves
several strands of saffron
2T honey

4 1/2 large yellow onions - divided use
6 carrots
2 ribs of celery
1 cup dried apricots
1 can plum tomatoes (divided use)
5T neutral oil

1 cup pitted green olives
2 preserved lemons
1/2 cup each parsley and cilantro - divided use

1 1/2 cups couscous
up to 1 quart of water

Method
24 hours before serving, mix all spices together and rub 1/2 of the spices onto the meat, rubbing deeply into the fibers. Also stud the meet with garlic cloves. Leave to rest in the fridge overnight (covered unless you want spicy flavored butter and eggs!) 10 hours before serving, remove the meat from the fridge, heat 2T oil in a large pan (dutch oven skillet or whatever) and brown the meat on all sides - total about 8-10 minutes. Remove the meat and set aside to rest. Into the same pan, add 2 more T of oil and the rest of the spice mixture. Stir to toast the spices and then put in the 3 of the onions (sliced), the celery in 3/4" pieces and the carrots in 3/4" pieces. Cook slowly mixing well to ensure the spices are well into the vegetables. Add a sprinkling of salt. You will be salting at various stages, so go lightly at this stage.

Heat the beef stock, and bloom the saffron in it. Add the wine, honey and bay leaf and mix well.

Once the onions are translucent, add 3 of the canned tomatoes diced. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes. Transfer the vegetables to the crock pot. Rest the beef onto the vegetables and pour over any drippings. Place the dried apricots all around (and under) the meat. Pour the stock/wine mixture over the meat and cover.

Set the crockpot to the medium setting (6 hours) and leave to cook on its own.

Heat the remaining 1T of oil in the pan and soften 1 finely diced onion until translucent. Add the remaining tomatoes chopped finely and cook for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, thoroughly rinse the preserved lemons. Take the onion/tomato mixture off heat and add the chopped olives and preserved lemons . Stir in 2T each of chopped parsley and cilantro. Leave to cool. This mixture will be quite salty, so do not add salt to it.

2 hours before dinner, steam the couscous (if using bulk) or 30 minutes before cook it according to the box (if using instant).

1/2 hour before serving, remove the meat from the liquid, slice into 1/4" slices and reserve. Drain the fat from the pan liquid (there will be a lot) reserving the vegetables. Return the sliced meat to the pot and set to keep warm. Slice the remaining 1/2 onion and add it raw to the pot. For serving, place a mound of couscous in the serving bowl, and pile the meat/vegetables over it. The couscous will absorb some of the juices.

Garnish with some sprigs of cilantro and parlsey. Serve family style with the olive/lemon relish handed separately

Bread tribulations

In previous posts, I have described the no-knead bread. (http://seabirdskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/02/more-fun-with-bread.html). We have had our share of hockey pucks and loaves that were too moist. I think we may have finally got to the root of the problem. The standard quantity of dough makes a batch that is really too small for the dutch oven that we use. So it has an irritating tendency to spread sideways until it reaches the edge of the oven while rising. This leaves a strangely domed loaf that looks more like a viking burial mound than a loaf of bread.

Trying an experiment using miniature dutch ovens (actually soup bowls with lids) and small quantities of dough, we were able to get loaves that were more evenly formed and had better texture. So for the most recent normal loaf, we made a double batch of dough and baked it all at once in the standard dutch oven. This loaf rose beautifully, had a nice loose crumb, a delicious crust and will be responsible for us both gaining weight at an alarming rate. It was made, as usual, using a starter, there hasn't been an addition of yeast now for 6 weeks. The flavors are developing to be deeper. All in all this experiment has been worth it.

Carved olive garnish

As a garnish for the caponata (http://seabirdskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/01/caponata.html)

I thought it would be fun to lay out some leaves (basil and cilantro) and then have some carved olives formed into the shape of rabbits.

The end result was much admired.

The best olives to use are kalamatas - you want to choose a kind of olive that has plenty of flesh and a pit that doesn't go all the way to the end. To make a rabbit, slice a sliver off the edge of the olive, leaving a flat surface for it to rest on, Cut a v-shaped notch at one end of the sliver. This will leave the piece that will become the ears. At the non-stem end of the olive, cut a slit across the olive, all the way through to the pit. Place the cut sliver into this slit so that the points of the ears are sticking up.

Valentine's Day 2008

Madame has decided that winter is too long and that she is tired of winter vegetables and hearty dishes. So she muttered something about a sald with oranges and fresh flavors. That wasn't a lot to go on, but I can take a hint with the best of them! I was also thwarted because the gelato store - Paciugos on MacArthur/114 seems to have closed down. I had planned to have some nice gelato to finish our dinner - instead I went to marble slab and got some white chocolate/raspberry swirl with nuts and caramel. The main course had better be light.

As those who know me will testify, I will not generally order a salad but since it was V-Day and Madame had made a specific request, I thought I had better honor it. So some thinking, a trip to Tom Thumb, and an inspection of the wine stocks gave me the following idea:

A salad with chicken strips, avocado, orange, toasted almonds, baby spinach and tomato with an orange, lime dressing served with a bottle of Chassagne Montrachet. Usual goal was for it to be made in less than 45 minutes.

The key to this sald is for the various ingredients (except for the spinach leaves) to be the same general shape as each other, and to keep the size appropriate. The only ingredient whose shape I couldn't really control was the slivered almonds, so they defined the ingredient shape.

The list of ingredients is pretty formidable, bt if you want you can substitute a scant 1T of your favorite rub for the individual spices. It wants to flavor the meat, not pervade it.

Ingredients
1 cup almond slivers - toasted
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded until they are about 1/4" (5mm) in thickness .
1/2t paprika
1/4t ground cardomom
1/4t ground ginger
1/4t ground cumin
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4t finely ground black pepper + extra to taste for seasoning the dressing
1/2t kosher salt + extra to taste for seasoning the dressing
2T vegetable oil
1/4 of a preserved lemon rinsed, skin only, cut in small dice (optional)
2 oranges
juice of 1 lime
1 avocado
1 medium tomato
2T Extra virgin olive oil
Coarse sea salt crystals and coarsely ground black pepper to taste and decoration.
2 cups packed baby spinach leaves (raw), trimmed of stalk ends and washed thoroughly

Method
Put the almonds in a single layer in a non stick frying pan and heat over medium heat, tossing and stirring constantly until they are an even brown. They burn really easily, so watch them like a hawk. This is not the time to multitask! You could do this in the oven, but I did not want the oven on for just this task. Set the almonds aside to cool.

Make up the spice rub by combining the paprika, cardomom, ginger, cumin, pepper, salt, garlic powder in a small bowl.

Pound the chicken flat - easiest between 2 sheets of cling wrap. Use a smooth hammer (I use an empty wine bottle - after all we have plenty of those) - you are pounding it thin not breaking really tough fibers apart. Once the chicken is flat, sprinkle both sides with the spice rub and leave to rest for about 10 minutes.

Peel the oranges and extract the individual segments. Squeeze the juice from the remaining membrane into a small bowl, and add the lime juice. Cut each orange segment in half lengthways. Set aside

Halve the avocado, remove the peel and the pit, slice the halves lengthwise into thin strips. You should aim for about 12 strips per half. Set aside.

Core the tomato, halve longitudinally and slice each half lengthwise into thin strips. Don't worry much about the seeds etc. Some will naturally fall away, others will stay, it doesn't matter. Set aside.

Put 2T vegetable oil into a skillet (preferably not non stick), heat until the smoke point is reached and gently lay the pounded, spiced chicken breasts in the pan. Leave them (don't touch or move them) for 2 minutes over medium high heat. Turn the heat down if things look like they are going to burn. Turn the breasts over and do them for 2 more minutes - until they are cooked through. Remove from pan, turn heat off and add the preserved lemons to the pan (if using). Gather up the lemons and the fond and pour over the chicken - leave to cool.

Add the olive oil to the juices and mix lightly with a fork. Season with salt and pepper.

Put the spinach leaves in a mound in a serving bowl, add the almonds, oranges and tomatoes. Slice the now cooled chicken into thin strips a bit thicker than the almonds) and lay the strips like spokes on the spinach. Lay avocado slices the same way - between the chicken strips so the spinach is mostly covered. Mix the juices/OO one more time quickly with a fork, pour over the chicken/avocado salad mixture and simly let it drizzle through the spinach. Shave a few salt crystals and coarsly ground pepper over the dish and serve. I prperaed it up until the point at which I added the dressing and held it at room temp. for about 20 minutes since Madame was a bit late getting home. It held up fine. I added the dressing as she walked in, so that by the time we were ready to eat, the dressing had been in contact with the salad for about 10 minutes.

Serving
Serve with a nice, complex white wine - it needs a bit more richness/complexity than a Sancerre, the NZ Sauvignon Blancs are too grassy in general for this dish - and the citrusy notes interfere with the orange/lime clean flavors. That's why we used a white Burgundy (a Chassagne Montrachet, Premier Cru) for this. For once we didn't drink the whole bottle! Half of the bottle was enough given the complexity of the wine, the complexity of the dish and the wonderful flavor combinations.

There were left overs, so Madame took them to school next day. Apparently, it was almost as good on the second day as it had been the night before.

Warning
Don't forget that you have been handling raw chicken so please make sure you really carefully sanitize everything - yourself, the board, the hammer, any knives used for trimming, etc.

An unnerving experience with flour

I was setting up yesterday morning to make bread. That was going to be a white loaf with a little pasta flour to give some extra texture and richness. I was planning to use Hodgson Mills pasta flour because it was what my local grocery store had. Imagine my surprise when a newly opened package of pasta flour had all manner of critters in it. Below is my letter to Hodgson Mills.

All,

I called yesterday (Saturday) to describe an issue with one of your products. This mail is just to provide detail that I didn't have handy when I called. To recap, I bought a 2lb package of your "Golden Semolina $ extra fancy durum Pasta Flour" from my local Tom Thumb store a couple of weeks ago. In my phone message I said I couldn't find the lot number on the package. Since then I have found it. It says 0124091 on the top of the package. The issue was that when I opened it to incorporate it into some bread, there was - in the first 1/2 cup that I poured 1 winged insect (probably around 3mm across) and some stick like things - each about 5mm long. The stick like things were about the color of cinnamon bark.

I immediately poured that 1/2 cup of flour into a sealed plastic bag to to return the contents to Tom Thumb. On viewing the product through the window of the package, I see at least one more flying insect and several more of the stick like things and some wiggling larvae - at least that's what they look like. Tom Thumb, of course, did the right thing and refunded my money. I kept the package of flour, wrapped in a zip lock bag so that when you call me, I can fully describe what the packaging looks like, etc.

This is the second time that I have had issues with this flour. I generally keep my flour products in sealed plastic containers to prevent odors, bugs, etc. On a previous occasion, I had the remains (probably around 1/2 lb) of a package stored in a sealed container. When I came to use it in a bread mixture, it had little holes in the surface and on further inspection some of the same wiggly things that I saw in the current package. I thought with the first package that I might have done something to contribute to the issue, but the second, unopened batch convinced me that the problem was likely to be at the production/distribution end and not in my house.


The store at which I bought the product was the Tom Thumb store in the 75038 zip code.

Regards

Chris Bird

I will keep this thread up to date with tesponses from Hodgson Mill.

Butternut squash

With some inspiration from Jamie Oliver (The Naked Chef), I did some butternut squash in the oven a couple of days ago. A quick, easy dish that works well in the winter. I served it along with a flank steak that had been rubbed with Nonya spices from Penderrys (oops spelling might be an issue here) and then grilled to medum rare on the cast iron griddle. It was too miserable to hke to the end of the yard and tun on the outdoor grill.

Ingredients
1 large butternut squash
3 T vegetable oil
1 1/2t garam masala (an Indian spice blend)
a sprinking of large sea salt crystals

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 375F and place a rack on the center shelf. Cut the squash into 3/4" chunks - no need to peel it. Spread the squash chunks on an ovenproof dish in a single layer. Dust with the garam masala, and then sprinkle with the oil. Bake for 20 minutes in the oven, and then turn the heat up to 425 until they are cooked (about another 15 minutes). The dual oven temperature was because I misjudged the time that Madame would be home and needed to speed up the process.
Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with salt crystals. Serve as an appetizer or a side dish.

Note: I like the skin of butternut squash when cooked this way, so I always eat it. Madame does not, so she discards it

Chicken, leek and potato soup

It was cold this evening in Dallas, so a warm soup seemed like a good idea. Also, I wanted it to fit into my tight schedule so it would be ready when Madame came home from school - famished as always. There were some nice looking leeks in the grocery store, so a chicken/leek/potato soup seemed like a good idea. It was! We ate it and Madame did her Oliver Twist impersonation, "More Please". so I guess it was a hit.

Ingredients
2T vegetable oil
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
4 medium leeks
1/2 cup dry white wine
2lbs red (waxy) potatoes
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup half and half (light cream)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Heat the oil in a large soup pan (or dutch oven) until smoking. Place the salted and peppered chicken thighs in the oil to brown. Turn the heat back to medium and allow to cook. Trim and clean the leeks, then chop them into 1/2 inch strips. When the chicken is browned on all sides, tmove from the pan. Add the leeks and stir them in the hot fat for about 5 minutes - until softened. Add the wine and cook until evaporated. Cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces, lay them on top of the leeks, place the chicken and any drippings on top of the potatoes. Cover the potatoes and leeks with the stock, leave some of the chicken exposed. Putthe lid on the pot, bring the contents to a simmer, and then turn down the heat and simmer for about 25 minutes - or until the potatoes are cooked. Remove the chicken from the pan, and dice into bite sized pieces. With a stick blender (or a regular carafe style blender), puree the soup roughly. You want to leave some bits of potato and leek as texture. This is a rustic soup. Put everything back in the pan, bring to a boil and turn th heat off. Wait for the boiling to subside and add the cream. I tempered the cream by adding some hot liquid to the cream first rather than subjecting it to the total heat of the soup. Stir, adjust the seasoning, and serve in heated bowls.

Shrove Tuesday

Where I am from it is traditional to have pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Traditionally it is thought that pancakes were a good way to use up the fat, eggs, etc. prior to the denials of Lent. To my American friends this kind of pancake is a crepe - a thin griddle cooked item, not the thicker breakfast style pancake often seen over here. We always served them with lemon and sugar and had them as a dessert. I hadn't had pancakes on pancake day for many years, so this year decided to do them. Being at home and having the time was a major contributing factor.

Ingredients
3/4 cup flour
1/2 t salt
1t baking powder
2T icing or confectioner's sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup milk (1% in this case)
1/2 cup water
a few drops vanilla essence

Method
Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl
Lightly beat the eggs and add the milk and about half of the water. Make a well in the flour mixture and add the liquids. Whisk until the liquid has been incorporated. The consistency of the batter should be like thin (single) cream. If it is too thick, thin with a little more water.
Heat a small non=stick skillet with a little buttter until the butter just browns. Wipe the skillet. With the skillet still hot, pour in about 2 T of the batter, rolling it around to make a circuloar crepe. When it is cooked on the first side (about 30 seconds, top layer dry), flip and leave on the second side for about 15 seconds. Store the cooked crepes in a warm oven (200F) in layers with parchment paper between the layers. When all the crepes are cooked, fold them into quarters (or roll them up) and place them on warmed dessert plates (3 crepes per person), sprinkle with powdered sugar and lemon juice. Eat immediately!

More fun with bread

We now haven't bought bread for over a month. The no-knead variety has been working well for us - except for some occasional lapses. I used white wholewheat flour one day and ended up with something you could use to go curling with.
However, as I have become more practised and am able to judge the texture better, I have started to use a pre-ferment instead of the yeast. Now, when I bake a batch, I make a little more than the recipe calls for, make sure I use spring water (no chlorine) and keep a little of the dough back. Add some fresh flour to it, a little more water and let it sit in a quiet room for a couple of days. Using that instead of the yeast in the next batch adds an even greater depth of flavor. I have also stopped using a parchment sling. It is easy enough to get the bread into and out of the dutch oven by rolling it off the towel. The crust is more even and the overall shape and texture better.

Caponata

This story goes back a fair distance. Rocco (a Sicilian), Judy, Madame and I went to eat at Daniele Osteria in Dallas a couple of years back. Good Sicilian food with an especially tasty caponata. I figured it should be possible to deconstruct this, so tried for one of our "Sundays at Four" events. It came out well, but of course I have forgotten what I did.
Fast forward to this year. We came home from shopping to find a jar of caponata that Rocco and Judy had bought in Chicago and left for us. It was delicious.
Ever up for a challenge, I decided to make more. There seem to be a couple of keys to this.
First, cook the ingredients separately. Even though the dish eventually comes together, the major ingredients require different amounts and kinds of heat. For example, the eggplant is fried at a high temperature to get some browning, while the onions and garlic are sweated in extra virgin olive oil to develop flavors, but no browning.

Ingredients
6-8 sticks celery, cleaned chopped into 3 inch lengths
4T Extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced finely
some red pepper flakes
1 28 oz can plum tomatoes (I used Muir Glen Organic). Keep the juice handy you may or may not need it
4T Capers - rinsed and drained
8 oz olives (green, Sicilian if possible) chopped roughly into quarters
A few basil leaves in chiffonade
2 T neutral oil for frying
1 1/2 lbs eggplant (Italian preferably)
2T sugar
4T red wine vinegar
Salt/pepper to taste

Method
Put the celery into a large pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes - until tender. Set the celery aside
Meanwhile, in a large pot warm the olive oil gently over low heat, add the onions, garlic and hot peppers.
Drain the tomatoes reserving the juice. Break the tomatoes into a pulp - I used an immersion blender, but you could equally use a food processor or a regular blender.
Cut the eggplants into 3/4" (2cm) cubes. Do not bother to peel them first.
Heat the oil over medium heat until almost smoking. Add the eggplant and fry tossing occasionally until fairly browned.
Meanwhile drain the celery and cut into fine dice
When the onions are translucent, add the tomatoes. Stir and then add the chopped olives and capers. Simmer for a few minutes, then add the chopped basil leaves.
Add the eggplant, celery and stir
Mix the vinegar and sugar together and add the mixture to the cooking pot. Stir again, put the lid on and simmer for about 8-10 minutes - until thickened. If it is looking too thick, you can add some of the reserved tomato juice - otherwise make bloody Marys!
Turn the caponata out of the pan into small bowls and chill overnight. Serve inverted garnished with carved olive rabbits, orange slices, basil chiffonade and some sea salt, with fresh crusty bread or crackers

Chai

Last week I was in the land of the chai drinkers - Silicon Valley. Since I don't drink coffee and I needed to be sociable, I learned to drink chai at $starbuc$. To my surprise, I liked it - maybe a bit sweet but steamed milk and spiced tea was a great combination - except for the price. At $3 for a medium sized drink, I wasn't going to have many of those.

So time for deconstruction. Reading the label told me that there was lots of sugar, but more importantly a nice mixture of spices and black tea. So, on coming home, I thought I would give it a go. I have most of the interesting spices at home, so made up a recipe. If there are no posts following this one, it means I have poisoned myself!

Typically tea in hot water takes 3-5 minutes to brew, and I knew this would not be long enough to extract the flavors from the spices, so I let them stand much longer.

Ingredients - the quantities are not (yet) very precise
4 quarts (that is 1 US gallon, .8 of a UK gallon, a little under 4 litres) of water.
2T whole cardamom - preferably green, they taste stronger than the bleached white cardamom
1T whole white peppercorns
1T whole black peppercorns
5 inch piece of cinnamon - broken up into pieces
6 cloves
pinch of salt
2T whole coriander
2oz crystallized ginger
6T strong black loose tea (English breakfast is what I used).

Method
Lightly crush the whole spices in a pestle and mortar. Put the water, spices and salt into a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes and allow to cool (overnight in my case). Strain out the spices, put the spiced liquid back into the pan, bring to the boil and add the tea. Turn off the heat, and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Strain, allow to cool and serve with the appropriate amount of hot milk and simple syrup.

When Celestina delivers lemons....

Celestina, one of Madame's former students, is a girl from the "Valley" that fertile stretch of South Texas down near the Mexican border. She has provided us with some of the sweetest, juiciest lemons imaginable. So many that we were wondering what to do with them all. After all one can only drink so many gin-and-tonics!

At various times, I have wished I had some preserved lemons to go with some of the middle eastern dishes that we like to eat. Unfortunately when the middle eastern muse strikes there isn' time to make preserved lemons. They do, after all, take about 30 days to mature.

So, with the bounty from Celestina and a bit of forethought, preserved lemons are under way. They are simple to make - you just need salt, some common spices and time (yes time, not thyme).

Recipe
8-10 lemons
1/4 cup of table salt (1/2 cup of kosher salt)
2 inches of cinnamon stick
a few coriander seeds (whole)
a few whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf

Method
Wash the lemons thoroughly

Slice a little off the top and tail of each lemon - enough so it will stand on the chopping board either way up. Stand each lemon up, and make a vertical slice through the middle almost to the bottom. You definitely want to make sure that the halves are still attached. Turn the lemon the other way up and do the same from the other end - at right angles to the first cup. So now you have the 4 quarters still somehow attached, but with their innards exposed.

Sterilize a quart jar, dry it and put a table spoon of the salt in the bottom and a few of the coriander seeds and pepper corns together with a chunk of the cinnamon stick. Sprinkle salt on each cut surface of the lemons, and push the lemons into the jar, pressing down firmly. When the jar is about 1/2 full add the remaining spice bits. Make sure you fill the jar well, and if necessary add fresh (yes I mean fresh...) lemon juice to cover. There should be a small gap between the top surface of the juice and the rim of the jar. Cover the jar tightly and leave to rest in a warmish (i.e. not the refrigerator) place for at least a month. Turn the jar over every week or so to make sure the ingredients are well combined.

When you use them, make sure you rinse them pretty thoroughly. You will be eating the peel, so you can discard the juice/pulp, although I imagine you could reuse that juice for covering the next batch..

Thanks Celestina!!!!

New Years Day 2008

We had a simple celebration of New Year's day. Vince and Gayle, and Steve and Ellen came over. Starting with tea and Christmas cake at 5, moving on to dinner of b;ack eyed peas and a French salad, finishing with a plate of cheese (Lincolnshire Poacher, Stilton, Brie and Manchego) and a bottle of port. This was an excuse to use the new crock pot for the first time. We are now all feeling incredibly lucky for 2008.
The vinegar in the recipe is to keep the contents slightly acidic (hardly noticeable in the finished dish) but it does keep the black eyed peas from going mushy or gummy. According to Alton Brown (and Shirley Corriher), acid in legumes is a good way to ensure that the legumes retain their texture even when cooked for a long time. Hence the use of molasses in Boston baked beans.

Black Eyed Peas
Ingredients
2 12 Oz packets fresh black eyed peas
2 8 oz ham hocks
4 Oz bacon, fried crisp
2 medium red onions sliced (not chopped or minced)
4 cloves garlic (sliced thinly)
1 Bay leaf
3 Cups water
2 Dried cayenne peppers
1t Cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro for garnish

Method
Place black eyed peas in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil and simmer for an hour. Meanwhile in the crockpot place the onions, ham hocks, garlic, salt, pepper, cayennes and bayleaf and 3 cups of water. Bring the crock pot to a high setting and leave on high until the beans have finished simmering.
Stir the beans (without the cooking liquid) into the crockpot and add the vinegar, leave on high until bubbles start to form on the surface. Stir the contents and cook in the crockpot on then turn to low and simmer for 7-9 hours. Once cooked through, shred the meat off the hock bones, discard the bones and serve, garnished with shredded cilantro leaves..

We have some small (12 oz size) individual Staub enamelled cast iron bowls, with lids. They are idea for this kind of dish because they can safely be heated in the oven ubtil they are really hot. They then manage to keep the individual servings piping hot - just what is needed on a raw winter evening.

When will it be cooked?

This posting is a bit technical, but it is all to do with predicting when something will be cooked/ready to serve. Let's assume that we want to eat at 8pm, and the dish is some giant thing like a turkey which is to be roasted. It's going to need to rest for about 30 minutes for the juices to redistribute and while you do the other things that have to get done. That means you want it leaving the oven at 7:20 - to allow for time to carve it. Now the big question, how do you know whether it will be done at 7:20?
I use a "rate of change" based method. I use a probe thermometer, and look at what rate the temperature is rising. Because the probe is deep inside the roast, the temperature will rise very slowly at first. So for the first hour of cooking, you may only see a 5-10 degree increase in temperature. However, now imagine it is 6pm - you want to take the thing out of the oven in 1 hour and 20 minutes, but you notice that its current temperature is 140 and it has risen 30 degrees in the last hour. A quick, back of the envelope calculation suggests that it will be ready in about 20 more minutes - a whole hour sooner than you would like. So, what to do? Turn the heat down - in this case quite a lot! So if you were cooking it at 350, back the heat off to 275 and pay attention. After 30 minutes longer, see what has happened. If it has reached its target temperature, take it out and let it rest longer. If not, see how much it has moved. If it has risen another 15 degrees or so, you are well on track.
So the thinking process is, don't just look at the instantaneous temperature, look at how fast the temperature has been rising - remembering that the temperature rises faster the nearer the thing is to being cooked. If it looks like the temperature is rising too fast, turn the heat down some. If it is rising too slowly, turn it up.
It is better to use a permanently inserted probe than one of the pop-ups. A pop-up will tell you that something is done. What you need is to be able to predict is when it will be.

Oven temperatures

My friend Judy, from Germany has asked that I post temperatures in Celsius and Fahrenheit. She mentioned that she had ruined a dinner because of an error in conversion, so here goes. Oh, and while I am about it, I have added the gas marks that are used widely in British gas ovens. The "Cooking Instructions" column is imprecise, so a bit of judgment is needed if you are to rely on it. Of course, the conversions are not directly accurate - they are all rounded. So if you are using Celsius, you may need to check more frequently/earlier.

Cooking Instructions	Fahrenheit	Celsius	Gas Mark
	500	260
Very Hot	475	245	9
Very Hot	450	230	8
Hot	425	220	7
Quick/Fairly Hot	400	205	6
Moderately Hot	375	190	5
Moderate/Medium	350	175	4
Warm	325	165	3
Slow/Low	300	150	2
Very Slow/Very Low	275	135	1
Very Slow/Very Low	250	120	1/2
Very Slow/Very Cool	225	110	1/4

Warmed plates

At this time of year, especially, when things cool quickly it is so important to warm the serving dishes and the eating dishes too. If things are to be served in bowls, then heating with boiling water does the trick. Otherwise you have to get a bit more ingenious. I use the infra red lamps in the warming racks, but you can also microwave the plates as long as theer is some liquid or gel pack available. It makes such a difference to have hot food on hot plates. It keeps your interest so much longer.

Mashed potatoes - with a difference

For dinner tonight we had some simple grilled steak, steamed carrots and mashed potatoes. One of the best flavors for carrots is ginger, so I thought maybe we should have ginger mashed potatoes.
A couple of weeks ago we paid a visit to Penderry's spice shop in Fort Worth and bought a large bag of crystallized ginger. The fresh ginger on the fridge had grown a bit of a beard and needed to be tossed out anyway!
So the potatoes were simmered, the carrots steaming above them, with a few slices of crystallized ginger. When the potatoes were cooked, I fished out the now soft crystallized ginger and chopped it finely. Rice the potatoes, add some butter, milk, salt, pepper, and the chopped ginger. Stir, adjust seasoning and serve on warmed plates with the carrots and steak. Delicious!

Christmas dinner

Madame and I thought we would be on our own for Christmas this year. Our neighbours, John and Lydia called at the last minute and asked if we would like to eat Christmas dinner with them. When John invites, it would be a very foolish person who turns him down. The food is always good!

So we made some cranberry sauce, a warmed goat cheese salad, green beans and roasted potatoes to go with their appetizers, a beautifully roasted turkey, a light and delicious dressing, and gravy. Lydia had made some rouille which we had as an appetizer - with of all things some peach champagne (Madame's favourite).

For dessert, a cheesecake, with a blueberry sauce made from blueberries, simple syrup and a little cassis. All in all a terrific time.



Cranberry sauce
Ingredients
12 oz package frozen cranberries
1T Seville orange marmalade (the kind made from bitter oranges)
7/8 cup white sugar
1 cup water
2T Creme de Cassis


Method
Bring sugar/water to the boil. Add marmalade and cranberries. Simmer for 10 or so minutes. Take off heat and allow to cool for a few minutes (doesn't have to be completely cooled). Add the creme de cassis. Refrigerate overnight.


Warmed Goat Cheese Salad
Ingredients
4 Rounds of fresh goat cheese 1/2 to 1 inch thick
1 Egg beaten with a few splashes of hot sauce (to taste)
1 Cup fresh breadcrumbs (not toasted)
1/2t Paprika
1/2t Salt
1/2t Pepper
1t Neutral oil
4 Tomato slices - each the same diameter as the rounds of cheese.
Mixed salad greens (try to include some mint, tarragon, basil)
Juice of 1 large lemon.
2T Rice wine vinegar
1T neutral oil

Method
Mix salt, pepper and paprika into breadcrumbs and put into a low bowl. Into another low bowl break the egg and beat lightly with a fork. Coat each round of cheese first with the egg and then breadcrumbs. Leave to sit for 15 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature.
Heat the oil on a griddle or other flat surface until shimmering. Put the rounds of goat cheese flat side down onto the skillet and allow the crumbs to brown (about 2 minutes). Flip the cheese over to the other side and cook until the second side is brown.
Arrange the tomato slices on a large plate, and put one toasted cheese round onto each tomato slice. Mound the greens on the plate separate from the tomato/cheese rounds. Make a quick dressing from the lemon juice, vinegar and oil. Combine thoroughly and pour over the greens.

Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients
2 Large baking potatoes (russets in the USA). Use starchy not waxy potatoes
1T salt
3Oz butter.

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 425F. Make sure that the rack is on the middle shelf.
Peel the potatoes and cut into bit sized chunks. I typically get 8 pieces per large russet. Cover potatoes with water in a large saucepan and add the salt. Bring the potatoes to a simmer and simmer for about 7 minutes. Meanwhile put the butter into a roasting pan and put in the oven to melt.
Once the potatoes have simmered for 7 minutes, drain them and dry them thoroughly. Dry them in the original pan over very low heat. When they have dried, put the lid back on the pan and shake the potatoes vigorously. This roughs up the outsides and helps create a really nice crunchy crust. Tip the potatoes into the melted butter and make sure they are coated on all sides. Put into the oven and roast for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn the potatoes over so that they brown evenly, and put back into the oven for another 25 or so minutes. Depends on the size of the potatoes. They are cooked when the outside is evenly brown and crunchy.

Green Beans
Ingredients
2 slices of bacon across into 1/4 inch strips
1lb green beans topped and tailed and cut on the bias into 1 inch lengths

Method
In a lidded skillet over low heat, gently render the fat from the bacon. Once the fat has rendered, but before the bacon is crisp, turn the heat up to medium and add the green beans. Stir the beans and bacon until the beans are covered in a thin layer of bacon fat. Add 1/2 cup of water to the pan, put the lid on, and turn the heat to low. Allow the beans to stem for about 7 minutes - until the water has completely evaporated. Serve immediately.
Note there is no reason to add any salt, the bacon is probably salty enough.

Eggs

We typically buy our eggs at the farmers' market in Dallas. They seem to taste better and appear fresher. However they don't come with the sell by date on the box - they are in open flats. So when I bring them home, the challenge is to remember which are the old eggs (the stragglers left over from the previous trip) and which are the new ones. An easy way to deal with this is to alternate colors. On one trip I will buy white eggs, on the next trip brown ones, etc. That way I can easily tell which eggs have to be eaten first (or if I want a very fresh egg, which eggs are the freshest).

A trip to the Farmers' Market

In Dallas we have a year round farmers' market and it carries some locally grown produce at the right season. Many of the stalls are just dealers though. We always try to buy tomatoes there - seconds if possible because the taste is so much better and the value spectacular.

Yesterday we went down looking for root vegetables, winter fruits, etc. and were pleased to discover some tomatoes which were local (hot-house). These were at a stall run by a delightful Hispanic family. Many of the stalls cut up some of their better offerings to try. These clever people had made a salad of tomoatoes, apples, vinegar, onions and cilantro to lure prospective purchasers. It was fantastic and was the deal closer. .

For lunch today I tried to recreate the salad. It was well worth it. It needed some tweaks...

Ingredients

1 medium apple (Gala or Pink Lady)
4T Sherry vinegar
6 green onions - whites and light green parts chopped into small pieces on the bias
2 whole tomatoes
1/2 cayenne pepper finely minced
1T light oilive oil
1/2 bunch of cilantro roughly chopped - leaves only
1t sugar (more or less depending on ripeness of tomatoes)
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Halve and core the apple. No need to peel. I use a melon baller to core it Chop the apple into 1/2 inch cubes. Pour the vinegar over the apple immediately to prevent browning. Mix in the green onions. Core and chop the tomatoes into the apple sized pieces. Add the tomatoes to the apples/onions/vinegar and mix. Mix in the chopped cayenne pepper and the cilantro. Taste and add sugar, salt and pepper as desired.

Leave to set for an hour or so. Serve with croutons . We dressed it with a little goat cheese.

No wimpy food!

I have just come back from a few days in Boston - well Cambridge really where everything I had to eat could be summed up in one word - wimpy.

The Marriott used a kind of yellowy offering from a chemistry set to make a rather bland omelet - have they never heard of salt, I wonder? Anyway this yellow egg-like liquid made some of the worst tasting, rubbery breakfast food ever. The last day, I went to Sebastien's across the street - at least I knew they would use real eggs and the eggs were better. The fried potatoes were OK, but the textures were all off - and, again no salt. Anyone would think it had been the Boston Salt Party, not the Boston tea Party back in 1773.

Even the much vaunted Legal Sea Food was off its game a bit. My tradtional favourite there - the baked scrod - was no longer the work of art that it had once been. It now tasted like it was mass produced in some central kitchen where they had again lost the salt cellar.

I was therefore much relieved on Friday evening when our neighbors invited us for Tamales, which of course, are traditional amongst the Latino culture here for Christmas. Aha, at last food that tasted of something! Good hot sauce too, and some wonderful charro beans. Washed down with a couple of beers - ahhhh yes.

The second loaf

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had made a double batch of dough. So, you might wonder, what happened to the second loaf?
I had stored the sloppy dough in a bag in the fridge for 36 hours before attempting to shape it/bake it. When I took it out, it was very cold (37 degrees), and didn't seem to want to spread so much. So, I let it warm up a bit, it became sloppier. I covered it with flour, shaped it, put it onto the parchment paper, into a small skillet and let it rise. This time it rose and didn't just spread!
Followed the usual baking process (450 degrees, backed down to 400 for 30 minutes, took cover off and baked 20 minutes more until internal temperature of 210).
Hallelujah, it rose! No longer a hockey puck, but a real loaf! Fantastic flavor, fantastic crust, fantastic crumb. Only problem was it didn't stick around long! So, I don't feel that I need the vinegar and beer. So, if this is repeatable, I'll be in tall cotten!

The bread saga continues

The first couple of loaves were pretty good - great taste, but the overbrowning was annoying me. I went back to the original NY Times recipe to start again. So I made a double batch of dough - doubling each ingredient, but substituting 5 oz (1 cup or so) wholewheat flower for the equivalent quantity of AP flour.

The consistency of the dough reminded me of being a "bricklayer's mate" - the poor schmuck who has to move barrow loads of wet cement around so the brickie has a ready supply of "muck". The texture of this dough was just like the same texture as the cement. I was not encouraged.

Now I understand why the original recipe calls for towels and not parchment. The towels allow flour to be incorporated into the weave, and they wick a little liquid away. I didn't use towels :-(

After the 17 hour rest, the dough had great bubbles, it shown a propensity to rise, but was still more starter consistency than bread dough consistency.

Dumping onto a floured counter, it immediately spread as wide as it could. So I dusted it with four, folded it a couple of times and let it rest. After it had occupied the whole space, and rested well, I shaped it (more like corralled than shaped) into parchment paper in a small skillet for the final rise.

The final rise was more of a 2-dimensional affair. It did rise vertically a bit, but not enough. However it spread widely.

No matter, I though, all this extra water will create extra steam - gotta be good for the crust So into the pot (this time 450 degree going to 400) dutch oven and it was baking. This time, although it didn't rise enough, it also didn't overbrown. The flavor was excellent, although to my surprise, I think the addition of beer and vinegar in the Cooks Illustrated recipe, gave a deeper flavor. So the result is a loaf that is about 8" in diameter and 2" high. Great crust, good flavor, fairly open crumb, but not what I would call a loaf. More a giant hockey puck.

Major lesson learned here is not to use cooking spray. It seems as if cooking spray actually helps the crust to overbrown. So for this one, no spray and a better crust. However, I changed so many things that I don't know if the cooking spray made a difference or not.

A celery trick

I like to try to do things efficiently in the kitchen. One of my pet peeves is dealing with celery. The ribs are long and cumbersome and variable in width as you go down towards the root. So rather than breaking off a single rib and chopping that, I leave the bunch (head, or whatever the word for the whole celery is) intact and slice crosswise across all the ribs. That way, I can get the pieces even in size quite simply. The main downside, of course, is that you have to guess at the amount of celery you are using. That isn't usually a problem, since most stews, braises, etc. are not that critical. Also you don't get suitable length pieces for stirring your bloody mary.

French Bistro Chicken in a Pot

I tried another recipe from the recent Cooks Illustrated last evening. This was the French Bistro Chicken in a Pot. The idea is that if you cook a chicken in just its own juices inside a dutch oven. It will come up moist, juicy, flavorful and all round excellent. Again the folks at Cooks Illustrated are right. This is extremely straightforward and absolutely delicious. Here's what I did.

Ingredients
1 5lb roasting chicken - innards removed, patted dry inside and out and salted/peppered liberally
1T canola oil
1 Red onion - medium dice
2 Stalks celery - medium dice (more on celery in the next posting)
2 Bay leaves
1 Head of garlic, individual cloves peeled and kept whole
1 Sprig of rosemary


Method
Pre-heat the oven to 275F. Put a rack low in the oven (and make sure it is not on a pizza stone or other heat store). Heat the oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat until smoking. Brown the chicken breast side down in the oil. After 3 or 4 minutes in the hot oil, toss in the aromatics. After another few minutes, turn the chicken over and allow the back to brown. Make sure the garlic doesn't burn by occasionally scraping the aromatics around. You want some caramelization on the onions and celery for extra flavor. Cover the top of the dutch oven with foil and then put the lid on. This provides a better seal than just putting the lid on. Put the dutch oven and contents into the oven and leave it there for 1 hour 40 minutes. It is cooked when the breast meat registers 165 on your thermometer.
Remove from the oven and set the chicken to rest on a carving board. Tent it with foil (I used the foil that had been sealing the dutch oven). Strain the pan juices into a fat separator and press all the liquid out of the aromatics. Discard the aromatics - they have given their all. Leave for a few minutes for the fat to rise to the top. Decant the pan juices into a small saucepan and put over very low heat to stay warm.
After the chicken has rested for 15 or so minutes, carve it. The skin will look awful, by the way, so I serve it without the skin. I removed the breasts whole and sliced them crosswise. Take the juices pan off heat and squeeze in the juice of 1/2 a lemon. Serve the chicken breast pieces on hot plates with a little of the pan juice poured over them.
When I made this, Madame and I shared a single breast (the advantage of a large chicken), and we served 1/2 a spaghetti squash that I had microwaved with salt, pepper and a little butter.
This was a spectacular treatment for chicken - definitely worth repeating.

Note
The dutch oven has to be a pretty big one, since you want to be able to get the whole chicken into it. You can use a pottery oven, but since you can't use that on top of the stove, you have to dirty another pan. The Emerilware cast iron dutch oven that I bought for the bread is too small for this recipe :-(. I reverted to my trusty Le Creuset pan (with the broken knob on the kid)

Leaving comments on blogs

Several friends have told me that it is not obvious how to post comments to a blog. It is a bit weird, and the design of the form is poor. So here are the instructions.

Press the little comment text under a posting and a small pop up window opens. This window cannot be resized (at least not under Internet Explorer). You put the text of your comment into the box. Then you need to scroll down. You are asked for some identification and you have choices. You can put your own blogger id in the email and password combination, but that isn't something most would probably want to do. You can also post anonymously by checking the anonymous button. The other choice is to press the "nickname" button, and put your nickname in there. That should not be an email address or anything that is directly traceable back to you, but is likely to be known by me or the small community of folks reading this. So for example, Madame comments under that name or occasionally as Mme.

You are also asked to enter a security string. This is a collection of characters (sometimes numbers too) that are displayed on the screen in a way that can easily be read by people, and are hard to read by machines. By entering that string of characters, you are essentially saying, "This is a human entering the information, not a bot". Try it and see.

Caraway seeds

When I was about 8 years old, I was living with my beloved grandmother .We lived in a small town in Dorset on the south coast of England. She had a very good friend (an ancient spinster, called Miss Gilbert) who lived next door. Occasionally we would walk to Miss Gilbert's house for tea. There was always cake!!!
On one fateful afternoon we went to Miss Gilbert's house and she produced a seed cake. Seed cake is (was?!) a popular English cake for serving with afternoon tea. It is essentially a pound cake with caraway seeds mixed into the batter prior to baking.
I had never had one of these before - and it tasted disgusting to me. Of course, being the polite child, I thanked Miss Gilbert for the cake, choked the piece down (after even the dog turned up its nose when I offered it surreptitiously). I must have been too enthusiastic in my thanks. Seed cake was now "Christopher's favourite" and offered every time we went there for tea. These visits became steadily less frequent - at least for me.
Fast forward 40 some years. Madame tells me that she likes nothing better than sauerkraut with caraway seeds - or rye bread with caraway seeds. I think that if I pulverized caraway seeds with the sole of my shoe, she would eat that too.
As soon as the bread had been pronounced a success, I heard, "Honey, you can make me some rye bread with caraway now, can't you?" I'll wait until I have a head cold, wear a face mask, and make sure all the windows are open the vent fan on before that happens

The bread

In previous posts, I have been anticipating the making of bread the (almost) no-knead way. After the dutch oven trials and tribulations, we finally made a loaf. Breakfast this morning became a very special occasion as we sliced into the creation. It looked like a little rustic, not quite as perfectly shaped as a professional baker would have done . The crust was quite firm, and nicely browned. The bottom crust was a bit overbrowned and tough, however. The crumb had a nice slightly dense texture with very even air pockets and a really deep, complex, not too yeasty taste. Of course, I immediately shared the crust with Madame, while toasting a couple of slices to try with marmalde (me) or jam (Madame). It was fantastic! Was it as good as the bread from the Breadhaus? No, not quite. But I can at least handle this in pajamas. Emeril's cast iron dutch oven did the trick.

Experimentation will take place. I think I will lower the initial temperature to 475, and cut back the cooking temperature to 400 for the next one.

Some obvious substitutions - add some pasta flour, and coat the loaf with sesame seeds.

Replacing some of the AP flour with wholewheat.

Using bread flour instead of AP - I suspect I may have to adjust the liquid proportions a bit.

Warming the water/beer/vinegar mixture a little. I added them cool which made the lazy yeast take a long time to wake up. Since the recipe only calls for 1/4 tsp of yeast for 1 lb of flour, getting them motivated is probably a good idea.

Trouble with heat

We had a weekend of quite rich food, so Madame was a bit out of sorts yesterday evening. I had made a fairly rich stew that had been simmering nicely in the oven, but come time for dinner and she wasn't interested. It was cold enough overnight so I could leave the dutch oven outside - well covered and weighted so it could cool and allow any fat to rise to the surface and congeal. After breakfast I portioned some of the stew so she could take it to school for her lunch, refrigerated some and froze the rest. At the same time I made the dough for the (almost) no knead bread. All this and it wasn't yet 7am.
I was a bit startled at around noon when Madame phoned and told me that the stew was too spicy hot to eat. So much so that it made her tongue swell. I tasted the portion in the fridge and there was no spiciness at all. Quite the mystery. Since the only seasonings were salt, pepper, bay leaves and reconstituted dried porcini, I couldn't figure out the issue.
At round 2pm, I shaped the dough for the bread, and set it to rest. At 4:30 or so, I followed the directions for the bread recipe, heated the oven to 500 degrees and put my trusty 30 year old Le Creuset dutch oven into it to preheat. Back upstairs to work for a bit. Imagine my surprise when there was a loud pop from the kitchen. On opening the oven door to see if everything was OK, I saw that the knob on the lid of the dutch oven had exploded. The kitchen was full of acrid phenolic smells. This didn't look good for the bread!
So, off to buy a suitable dutch oven. Cooks Illustrated recommended a Tramontina cast dutch oven - but the only one I could find at my local Target had a plastic knob too. So, continuing the search at Linens and Things (nothing suitable), Macy's - a nice Calphalon enameled pan for more than $200, Williams Sonoma had a deal on Le Creuset for close to $300.
Eventually I tried Bed, Bath and Beyond, and saw a wonderful range of $200 pans there too. Over the weekend I had casually remarked that I thought celebrity endorsement was a scam. The Wolfgang Puck's apologies for restaurants in Chicago's O'Hare airport being great examples of such scams. So, I had no intention of buying a celebrity endorsed dutch oven - that it until I saw the Emeril Lagasse branded 6qt. cast iron dutch oven for $49.95. That was it. I needed a pan, the dough was rising inexorably and I didn't know what would happen to it if I didn't cook it.
The stories end happily, Madame brought home the spicy remnants of the stew - and indeed it was extremely fiery. I have no idea how that happened - especially as the rest of the stew was not all spicy. The dutch oven withstood the heat of the oven, and turned out a beautiful looking loaf. It is still cooling, so we won't know until tomorrow what the bread is like. The house smells like a bakery - a great improvement on earlier in the day when it smelled like a plastics factory.

A much anticipated event

Every couple of months the America's Test Kitchen crew publish Cooks Illustrated Magazine. It is my favorite publication - their unrelenting tracking down of the best way to make a dish are like reading detective fiction. So, no surprise, when the latest issue arived last week I couldn't wait to dive into it.
This time I was not disappointed at all. There are 3 must try recipes + some great tips.
The most intriguing of these was a no knead bread recipe. The recipe was first published in the New York Times by Mark Bittman, but needless to say the test cooks had to mess with it. The results, as reported, are wonderful. Anyhow the method is so intriguing that I just have to try it. I'll post the results when I have given it a go.
There is also an interesting way of cooking chickens (French Bistro comes to mind), some fascinating looking oatmeal cookies, and a whole treatise on the making of stew. It looks as if the dutch oven will be earning its keep!
The Cooks Illustrated recipes can be found on their web site at http://www.cooksillustrated.com/. I will see about getting their permission to reprint the bread recipe in the blog.

A seasonal cocktail...

At this time of the year, clementines are cheap and prevalent. They are juicy, have a great sweet/tart citrusy flavor and are seedless. So, how to use them in a cocktail?

Ingredients (for 2 quite potent drinks!)

6 pieces of candied ginger (+2 pretty pieces for garnish)
5 OZ Vodka (being in Texas, we use Tito's)
a few mint sprigs
2 OZ simple syrup
Juice of 2 Clementines

Method

Steep the candied ginger in the vodka for about 30 minutes. Put plenty of ice in the cocktail shaker, and add the mint and simple syrup. Muddle together for a while until the mint has infused the syrup. Add plenty of ice, followed by the vodka (leaving the ginger in) and the Clementine juice. Put the lid on and shake hard until thoroughly chilled - about 6 hard shakes.

Strain into a small martini glass, and garnish with some candied ginger on a cocktail stick.

Note use less mint than you think, the aggressive mint flavor can overpower the Clementine. Yes we did learn that the hard way and had to make a second drink

What to do with left over vege trays?

We hosted a wedding shower a week ago. Lots of food, including the mandatory vegetable tray (lots of cut up raw vegetables with a dipping sauce of some kind). There are always left over vegetables, and even the rabbits get sick of them after a while, it seems.

So, what to do?

They are not cut conveniently for cooking - they won't all cook at the same rate. However with a little ingenuity, something tasty can be done

Ingredients
1 T vegetable oil
3 Oz salt pork/pancetta/guanciale/bacon chopped into small pieces
1 Medium onion peeled and cut into wedges (do not mince finely)
8 Small red potatoes cut into equal sized pieces
1 Sprig of rosemary
The vegetable assortment - long strips broken in half
Put the baby carrots with the potatoes and onions
Other vegetables in a heap together
1 Can Italian tomatoes - flesh only, no juice
Some tarragon leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
In a large skillet heat the oil and add the pork product. Cook gently until the fat has rendered and the meat is a bit crispy - about 5-7 minutes.
Add the potatoes, carrots and onions and fry over medium high heat getting some brown coloring on the potatoes. You will need to stir to prevent sticking, but move the contents around as little as possible.

Leaving the heat on medium high and add all the rest of the vegetables (except the tomatoes). Now you do want to keep the vegetables moving so they pick up the flavors in the pan. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Now add the tomatoes and tarragon. Break the tomatoes up with a spatula, bring almost to a boil, cover and simmer for about 5 minutes. The potatoes should just about be cooked. Leave the dish uncovered, and evaporate some of the liquid - the dish should be almost dry. This will finish the cooking of the potatoes. Season as necessary with salt and pepper - remembering what the FDA has just started telling us about salt!

Serve as a side dish - we did it with some grilled strip steaks that our neighborhood grocery store had reduced to $4.99/lb. So we weren't expecting magic, but they came up pretty tasty!