Winter IS for cooking

Carne Asada Brava

http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=rickbayless

Technique is...

Realizing anything can be great.
I love fine cuts of meat and seafood. They are so great to cook with. But the chef that takes the item that has nothing to do with gourmet cooking and makes something awesome is the one with technique. I am of course talking about Spam. OK wait! I see you trying to leave but hear me out.  Chef Jacob Burton of Stella Culinary said gourmet chefs go home and eat spam and eggs too.  Its not all lamb and steak. So the saltiness of the (you know what) actually plays nicely off of the hot carbon steel of the wok. It is surprisingly good.

Fishing with the boys Saturday made for a nice lunch

Trout wrapped in bacon

Shark Mc Nuggett Memories

It was late June 1984. I had not seen my father for 4 years until yesterday when I drove the 2279 miles from Connecticut to Port Aransas Texas. We met Captain Rick Gaston at Woody's Boat Basin.  His Charter Boat, the Orca had just arrived.  Word was that Rick had a large Tarpon on a line that he was fighting to land. They all said it was unusual for Rick to call anything in. He was not a man to cry wolf. When I met Rick he was a small guy with a big personality. Standard 1984 South Texas look. Jeans t shirt ball cap with wrap around sunglasses on. Rick did not come back with a tarpon but he did have a story about how a girl jumped out of the boat because he pulled the shark into the boat and it was flipping around. He told us how he's very excitedly explained to her that there were a whole heck of a lot more of them in the water than there was in the boat. Rick filleted a shark right there on the dock for us and we took it home and hence my first shark McNuggets experience happend. My father had 1 of those woks that had the grate on the side to set the fish on after it's cooked. The batter with a sweet light beer batter and it was delicious. I do wish I had his recipe today. So why am I thinking of my dad and his famous shark McNuggets? I took shark out of the freezer yesterday and it looks like I'm going to have to cook it tonight. I'll let you know how that goes.
... well made the shark last night. I use my usual quick pancake mix and sirracha method. Well I could say it wasn't bad it wasn't great either. Perhaps dad famous shark McNuggets recipe is gone forever or maybe Brooke has it.

Maybe some things cannot be duplicated. A hot June evening in South Texas, a couple of ice cold Lonestar beers, 1984 MTV playing in the background, and of course a father and son forging a new friendship. It's the kind of day that would make even my shark McNuggets from last night taste good.

Time For Beef Jerky!!!

Wandering around the kitchen looking for something to marinade with. Teryaki, Soy Sauce, Liquid Hickory Smoke, Serrachi, Brown Sugar, Pepper, Olive Oil, Lemon Juice, Brown Malt Vinegar, Nutmeg. It's got to be good! I'll Let you know later. Just put it on the racks...

Flank Steak Fajitas Southwest Egg Benedict Wraps Braised Chicken Thighs-Jacob Burton's Death Row Meal Tryout Homemade Pesto Steamed/Roasted Chicken and Leaks

Why is Emergency Food Worth Mentioning?

In 1991, I lived in a truck in the deserts of Saudi Arabi, Iraq and Kuwait.  All we had to eat was MRE's and a few other things that came in cans and packages.  It was possible to combine the individual components and come up with something edible.  Once the wiring is there, you sort of keep thinking of that after that phase is done.  Today there are so many above average things you can do to make things taste great on the fly.  I would not consider them as a way of life, but it's good to know how to do it.

When I was a commercial truck driver, I hated the food that was available on the road.  Any place you could park a 70 foot long tractor/trailer meant fast, greasy and tasteless food worthy of having your brain removed and strapping on a feed bag to bear it.  I decided to pick up a Burton Stove to Go down in North Carolina one Friday night.  There are cook books that drivers have written for this, but I found that common sense questions such as:  "How can I do this with the least possible cleanup?"

I figured out that if I shopped at Super Walmarts accross the country because of adequate parking, I could but meat and vegetables to keep in the fridge in the truck. I would set up a cooking bag in the afternoon with a couple of country style ribs, asparagus and marinade. Place the bag in the foil pan, foil pan in the stove, which was insulated. Then about 3 hours before stopping for the night I would reach down to the stove on the floor, plug it into the cigarette lighter and when I stopped for the night, that little stove opened as sweet as a single serving crockpot on the kitchen counter. Cleanup consisted of carrying the oven bag to the nearest trash can. I guess the point is, we don't have to eat crap even though statistically our situation suggests we are supposed to.

South African Biltong

  Anyone that knows me knows that I love the back to basics practicallity of living.  I have been making beef jerky since 1992.  For nearly 10 years now I have been taking dehydrating to all new levels.  Today my cupboard is full of canning jars with dried vegatables that I dried when I determined that I would not be able to use before they would go bad.  At first, the did just sit there and make me feel smart for doing it.  But let's face it, when you see that same jar untouched for 2 years you realize that perhaps, I am supposed to do something more with these.  I have been experimenting with using these goods and have been pleasantly surprised with their taste texture and usefulness.  More about that later.  So you cannot be surfing the net in this subject without inadvertantly colliding with other drying methods.  The one that really intrigued me is South African Biltong.

  Wikipedia defines Biltong as:
Biltong is a kind of cured meat that originated in South Africa. Many different types of meat are used to produce it, ranging from beef through game meats to fillets of ostrich from commercial farms. It is typically made from raw fillets of meat cut into strips following the grain of the muscle, or flat pieces sliced across the grain. It is similar to beef jerky in that they are both spiced, dried meats, but differ in their typical ingredients, taste and production process; in particular the main difference from jerky is that Biltong does not have a sweet taste.
The word biltong is from the Dutch bil ("rump") and tong ("strip" or "tongue").^[1]

Oncethe beef is sprayed with vinegar, (my choice is apple cider vinegar) it is sprinkled with coarse salt, cracked pepper, and freshly cracked corriander seeds.  It then sits in the fridge overnight and then is hung in a dry area to dry out for 3 to 7 days.  At this time of year, I can just hang it from the kitchen ceiling as shown in these photos.  Once spring comes and the heat doesn't run so much and the humidity raises, hanging like this will no longer be practical.  There can also be no flies around this meat while hanging for obvious reasons.  To be able to still make the biltong then, it can be done on a dehydrator.  While this method is not too bad, it dries the meat faster and something is lost in doing that.  There is no substitute for the slow drying process that creates this easier to chew than jerky, prosciutto like meat.  The most common way to dry biltong is in a biltong box which consists of a upright cupboard looking box that has a section on the bottom with a light bulb in the bottom, then above that is a wooden shelf that separates the bulb from the rest of the box.  Holes are drilled in the shelf to allow the light's heat to rise to the upper compartment.  This keeps the air dry.  Then the top section has holes drilled in the sides of the box to allow the heat to flow through past the meat.

 Friday night I did "repurpose" and old HP computer case into a biltong box.  There is no lightbulb but there is a fan in the back that I hooked up to a 12V transformer.  Then I put the cover back on.  Now 2 days later our biltong is drying away in an enclosed box.  I have heard it said that if you have biltong, you need to eat it under a heavy wool balnket with a flashlight so that no one else knows you have it since it would be instantly gone.  I have also heard that if you have any left over you made it wrong.  This is all ironic, since cured, dried meat is a way of preserving meat for long term storage.  All of this was proved true with my kids when once my boys got a taste for this. Next thing I knew they were standing on stools trying to pull the strips down from the ceiling.

 

Food, Libraries and Adventures Still Rule

Last night we did took a culinary journey to Africa.  This was done because despite the Internet and Kindle and iPhones etc, we still go to the library.  (We do not have iPhones or a Kindle, but I do have a disconnected cell pone that I carry as a stopwatch, flashlight and iPod, but that's not important right now).

There is nothing like finding a book at the library and embarking on the tactile journey into enlightenment.  This is even better when it involves cooking.  My Wife Donna found the book Passport on a Plate by Diane Simone Vezza.  A Round-the-World cookbook for children.  My son's love to cook, create and generally make huge messes in the kitchen, just like me.


Donna and Liam decided to chose African food last night.  Three recipes in all.  The first was luku (Chicken Stew)  It is an Ethiopian Dish.  I am not going to go into detail since Liam is going to be blogging about this himself.  This is a very inexpensive dish to make and is mild tasting which gives it a great home in a cookbook for children.  And yes, those are hard-boiled eggs in with the chicken.  I may have thought at first that they would be out of place, but they certainly were not.

The next recipe was from Nigeria called Akara (Black-eyed Pea Balls).  As you can see, they did not retain the shape of balls but were delicious nonetheless.  The book stated that these are often eaten with sweet custard.  I realized as we had a whole bunch of cilantro that I had not done anything with, I quickly made 2 batches of cilantro pesto and 1 batch of Avocado Cilantro Mayonnaise.  These were awesome dipped in either of these.  The balls consisting of beans, cayenne, onion had nice rich almost meatiness about them.


Avocado Cilantro Mayonnaise is NOT African, but it is one of those things that can work on many international dishes.  It is the design of the finest Mexican chef in the universe, Rick Bayless and is a regular staple and the Frontera Grill, Topolobampo and Frontera Fresco all in Chicago.  It is a simple mixture of 1/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro, 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise and one mashed avocado.  I have yet to find something that this does not taste good on!




The third recipe that Donna and Liam chose was, a Nigerian Fruit Salad.  This was mixed with a nice blend of fruit and seasonings then baked in the oven to draw the sweetness of the fruit to the forefront.  Everything was very good and what a nice adventure for a Wednesday night.  I think I overheard that the next adventure is going to be Russia.  It is a great way for your child to explore social studies by creating and tasting the food that children from other parts of the world eat.  I kind of wonder if the version of this book on the other side of the world has miscellaneous chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese and french fries for the American recipes.  Can I please say that I am from some other country?  Although Donna did have a box of Kraft Mac-n-Cheese on stand by in case the boys did not like the African food!

Jalapeno Poppers

I cannot eat a store bought popper again after these.  These were inspired by cooking with Caitlin and seasoned my own way.

chile rellenos

January was Mexican Month for me.  Here is my interpretation of Marcela Valladolid's Chile Rellanos.  Pablanos stuffed with Monterey Jack and Oregano and roasted and batter dipped and fried with a nice chunky tomato spice spooned over.  Absolutely awesome.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Creamy Mussels Portobella in Vermouth

This is a recipe of my own design.  I loved the Mussels in White Zinfandel recipe that my wife makes.  But she fell in love with these.  2 pounds of mussels cooked in sauted onions, garlic, butter, cilantro, portobella Mushrooms, sun dried tomatos and Vermouth with a nice cream stirred in at the last minute.

  This is really a favorite in our house.

George Stella's Low Carrb Pizza's

These pizza's showed me that the sky is the limit.  Just like a song does not need to have the chorus sang until the last 30 seconds of the song, a pizza does not need to be constructed traditionally.  These were good but from here on out, I'd settle for the REAL dough instead of soy.

Getting a blog started is not so easy...but

I was asked at work the other day, what I like to cook.  It was strange, because other than my signature Spinach Artichoke Dip, I couldn't really think of anything.  This is funny because there is so much.  It makes me think about how all of this happened.  While the pop culture of cooking that last 15 years has made ideas accessible to me, I am not a Food Network Foodie.  I am inspired in the wake of the memory of my father who died in 1996 at age 50.  He cooked like I do, like a mad scientist (as my wife calls me).  My sister Brooke who embraced cooking before I did inherited my Dad's cookbooks.  Rightly so.  I had two recipes that I had perfected in 1986 when I was 20, almost 21.  These were the Mc Cormick black cooking bag for pork chops and the strange but tasty, upside down spice-dome cake that I made in Port Aransas, Texas.  I mention Port A because it is or rather WAS a different kind of place.  Smoking in grocery stores was fine and you did not need shirts or shoes in them either.  Mufflers on cars are optional too since vehicles rust VERY fast there.  I digress. 

The dome shape of the cake was because the closest thing I had to a cake pan was a stainless steel bowl.  So Brooke shared a love of more comprehensive cooking with my Dad, whereas I, shared music with him.  In the summer of 1996, as I was going through smaller items of my father's I found an index card of a recipe that he cut off a package in October 1984 one night called "turkey stuffing bake."  At 1 8years old I was surprised that I liked this since in 1984, my tastes really revolved around the fast food industry.  I also liked Shake and Bake for Pork, (as I suspect this may have been pureed and put in my baby bottles years ago).

In 1996 when I found this little yellowing index card, I immediately made the Turkey Stuffing Bake.  Not only did this bring back memories, but it opened a door I could not close.  There was something so sweet about making a meal.  Following a recipe at this point was sort of like mapping out a trip.  I loved to travel and cooking was like that. I played around with different recipes and most of the time in the early years my experimentation was restricted to grilling.

In 2000 during a 6 week medical leave from work, the final tumbler fell into the chamber.  By this point I had tried a good deal of food all over the country and even around the world and with the power of the Internet, I decided that I was going to enjoy these things in my own kitchen.  Since I was newly single, I had nothing to cook on.  So I went to the local 2nd hand store Sclafani's and picked up a used set of Farberware from the 1970's for next to nothing.  I began researching all kinds of recipes, especially Korean and Chinese and some basic french techniques.  These were awesome days.  I would go to the grocery store with something new in mind and that evening, it happened.

I knew then I was on to something and I pulled out all of the stops.  I would coast along on this Internet fed cooking discovery through 2005 when we got cable TV and found the well established Food Network.  Practical ideas from Rachel Ray, Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, George Stella and Juan Carlos fueled an already burning desire to create culinary experience.  All of this happening and yet I lacked technique.  In years to come I became acquainted with Rick Bayless, Alex Gaurnashelli, Jean Christophe Novelli, Cat Cora and many other greats.  These people inspired me and the more I cooked something began to happen, technique which is the beginning of self awareness and where your talent becomes living and breathing. 

To celebrate this coming of age, which I feel has only began I will post some photos of meals made during this time.