Damn Good Ham

Motivation
This recipe is based on Alton Brown's City Ham recipe.  I've removed a few of the hoop-jumping BS steps.  I've been making it for years now and it has been a very reliable recipe.  After making it for one of my friends he declared that it was "damn good ham" and the name stuck.

I've taken to exclusively making this ham in a disposable aluminum pan because it makes clean up much easier.  If you decide to use a regular roasting pan the brown sugar and ginger snaps will glue themselves to the bottom of the pan and there will be much soaking and scrubbing in your future.  Just be careful not to poke a hole in the aluminum pan when your working with the ham.

This recipe is a project, so be sure get started about 6 hours before you want to eat.

Ingredients
Ham, hock end (bone in)
Brown Sugar
Brown Mustard
Ginger Snap Cookies
Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil
Disposable Aluminum Pan

Method
Heat oven to 250 degrees F.  Remove ham from bag, rinse, and place in aluminum pan.  Using a paring knife, and being careful not to puncture the bottom of the pan, score the skin on the outside of the ham.  Diagonal lines one way then the other work best.  You ideally want 1 inch diamonds of skin when you're done.   Tent ham in aluminum foil and place in oven.  Cook 3-4 hours.

While ham is cooking place ~2 cups of ginger snap cookies in a gallon zip lock bag and crush them with a rolling pin.  (Or you can invent some other methods of making ginger snap cookie crumbs.)

Take ham out of the oven and remove aluminum foil.  Raise the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

Using a paring knife, and being careful not to puncture the bottom of the pan, remove the diamonds of skin you made earlier.  Smear entire ham with mustard.  I usually just squirt it on and them smear it around with the back of a spoon.  Then sprinkle brown sugar over ham while patting it lightly so it coats the ham.  Lastly sprinkle crushed ginger snap cookies over ham while patting them lightly to coat the ham.

Place coated ham back in the oven uncovered.  Cook for 1 hour then remove and let rest for 30 minutes before carving.

Scalloped Corn

Motivation
This corn casserole was give to me by a friend.  It's the perfect dish when you want something between cornbread and cream corn.

Ingredients
1 can Cream Corn
1 can Whole Kernel Corn
2 Eggs
8 tbsp Butter
1 cup Sour Cream
1 box Jiffy Corn Bread mix

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Mix all the ingredients together and pour into greased 9"x13" baking dish.   Bake for 55 minutes.

Clam Chowder

Motivation
This recipe is based off the "Quick Pantry Clam Chowder" variation of the New England Clam Chowder recipe in The Best Recipe Cookbook.  I've mutated the recipe into my own thing after making it repeatedly over the years.  This is a soup that Dawn will request a couple of times a year.  I don't think I can really call it New England Clam Chowder anymore because New England Clam Chowders typically have cream in them and stopped adding the cream when I realized that it didn't add anything to my version of the soup.

My problem with the original recipe is it never produced a chowder that was thick enough for my liking.  I want a nice thick chowder for cold weather.  Adding cream didn't do anything to appreciably thicken it up.  Then one day when I was making a squash bisque and I suddenly had an inspiration on how to fix my chowder: blend the cooked potatoes into the broth to thicken it.

Ingredients
2 x 8-oz bottles Clam Juice
4 x 6.5 oz cans Minced Clams
6-8 slices Bacon
~4 medium Potatoes (you need enough that you can blend some and still have chunks left over)
1 large Onion
3 tbsp Flour
Dried Thyme
Back Pepper

Mise en Place
Peal and dice potatoes into bite-sized pieces.  Chop Onion.  Dice bacon.  Keep these three items separate because they are added at different stages.

Save the juice from the four cans of minced clams in a container so you can add it with the bottles of clam juice later.

Method
Place small stock pot over medium heat.  Add diced bacon to the pot and stir occasionally until fat has rendered out and bacon is starting to crisp.  Add onions to the pot and cook until softened.  Add flour to the pot and stir to absorb all the bacon grease.  Congratulations, you've just made a roux.  Cook the roux for a couple of minutes.

Add reserved clam juice from cans to the pot a bit at a time.  The roux will dissolve and form a thick liquid.  Continue to add clam juice from clans and then the two bottles.  Once all clam juice is added, add potatoes and thyme to the pot and bring to a simmer.  Simmer until potatoes are soft and crumbly (like for mash potatoes) around 10 minutes.  I usually test them with a fork to see if they're ready.

When potatoes are ready use a slotted spoon to remove 3/4th of the bacon and potatoes from the pot and reserve in a bowl.  This will be the potato and bacon chunks that will be in the final soup.  We're going to blend the rest to thicken the chowder.  I use an immersion blender to blend the remaining quarter of potatoes and bacon right in the stock pot, transferring the contents to a blender would work too.  If the chowder isn't thick enough after blending potatoes and bacon into the broth you can always add a few more potatoes from your reserved stash.

Once desired consistency is reached add reserved potatoes, bacon, and minced clams into chowder.  I usual add a healthy dose of ground black pepper at this point too.  Stir together and serve.

Italian Everyday Soup

Motivation
This is my spin on Italian Wedding Soup.  It's a quick weeknight soup that I make fairly often.  Basically I've extracted what I think are the crucial elements of the soup: broth, orzo, spinach, and parmigiana and reformulated it.  A few years ago I would have added meatballs to that list, but I have since become enlightened and realized that there is no reason to restrict oneself to meatballs.  Currently I favor shredded chicken (not only because it's good, but because I can buy a rotisserie chicken precooked on the way home).

I say it's a quick weeknight dish because you can stop on the way home and pick up all the ingredients at the grocery store and make it in less than half-an-hour.  If you happen to have some home made broth on hand, you know the good stuff, the kind that wobbles once its cooled - this dish becomes especially delightful.

Ingredients
~4 cups Chicken Broth (or stock if you have it)
~1 cup Orzo Pasta
1 bag Pre-washed Spinach
1 large Onion
1 Rotisserie Chicken
Shredded Parmigiana Cheese

Mise en Place
If you don't have a lot of broth you might want to make your orzo pasta first in a pot of water.  If you have a bit extra broth (or stock!) I am big proponent of cooking the orzo in the broth so it absorbs the flavor (plus there is one less pot to clean).

Dice the onion.

Pick the meat off of the rotisserie chicken and set aside.  I usually cut up anything that I don't happen to pull off in pieces down to bite size chunks.  This step can be done while the broth is heating and the pasta is cooking.

Method
Place a bit of olive oil in a small stock pot and heat on medium.  Soften onions.  Add broth and bring to a simmer.  Add orzo.  If orzo is already cooked move onto the next step.  If the orzo is cooking in the broth wait until it's almost done to continue.

Add chicken and any other seasoning you think the soup needs (black pepper, thyme, etc).

When the orzo is ready dump bag of spinach in the pot.  It will look like too much spinach, but it will quickly cook down to almost nothing.  I will occasionally push the spinach beneath the surface of the liquid to speed things along.

Once spinach is cooked down add shredded parmigiana cheese to the soup.  I keep sprinkling it in until it feels right.  Stir and give it a second to melt, then serve.

Cranberry Sauce

Motivation
First off, the wobbly stuff from the can is disgusting.  This is not that cranberry sauce.  This is more of a cranberry chutney than sauce.  This recipe is from the venerable Kenny Shopsin's cookbook, Eat Me (seriously, buy this book).  It's dead simple and easy to dress up.

Ingredients
12 oz bag of Cranberries
1 orange
1 cup Sugar

Mise en Place
Peel the orange.  Remove any really offensive pith.  Break orange into a couple of sections to place in food processor.

Method
Place orange and sugar in food processor and process for about 40 seconds - until orange is totally destroyed.  Add cranberries and pulse until berries are broken into smallish chunks but still have texture.  Transfer to bowl and chill for at least half and hour (after a bit of time the sauce gels a bit and becomes more homogeneous).

Options
There are lots of variations of this simple recipe.  If you want the chutney to be a bit more tart you can hold back on some of the sugar.  You want to pair the chutney with another dish you can add similar or complimentary spices.

I've had good results adding a bit of port to the finished sauce and then gently heating it to incorporate the flavors.

Vietnamese Coffee

Motivation
Vietnamese restaurants make a coffee that is essentially espresso and condensed milk over ice.   Making at home is pretty simple if you have a means of making espresso.  I'm really just adding the recipe here because I can never remember the ratio of espresso grounds to water.

Ingredients
7g Espresso Coffee grounds
4.5oz Water

Method
Make espresso.  While espresso is brewing pour condensed milk into a mug or glass.  I don't usually measure (maybe 2 tbsp), obviously the more you add the lighter and sweeter the coffee will be.

Add hot espresso to mug or glass and stir to combine with condensed milk.  Once combined, add ice cubes and serve.

Quail Leg with Foul Mousse and Pear Foam

Motivation
I need to make an appetizer with the theme of "12 Days of Christmas" for a supper club.  I decided to focus on partridge in a pear tree.  This is actually the very first thing I thought of, mostly because it's the combination of two dishes I had during a very excellent dinner at Bo Innovation recently.

I ended up making up this recipe, although I did get a bit of guidance from two sources.  The Professional Chef cookbook suggested to make a savory mousse you just need to get meat to the consistency of pastry cream then add whipped cream until happy.  The Hydrocolloid Recipe Collection had a recipe for watermelon foam which I patterned my pear foam after.

Ingredients
8 Quail
2 Cornish Game Hens
1 Duck Breast
Duck Stock
1/4 cup Honey
3 tsp Soy Sauce
Butter
Heavy Cream
500 ml Pear Juice
5 g Gelatin

Mise En Place
For Quail Legs:
Remove the leg and thigh as one piece from the quail.  I often got a very small (and sharp!) bone connected to the top of the thigh that I had to carefully remove after dislocating and removing the thigh.  Season leg and thigh with salt and pepper then vacuum seal in bag to prepare for sous vide.  Heat sous vide to 175 degrees F and cook for 4-5 hours.

For Remaining Meat:
Heat Charcoal Grill.  Season quail (minus thighs and legs), Cornish game hens (I removed the backbones and halved mine), and duck breast with salt and pepper.  I then basted them honey and soy sauce.  I heated honey and the soy sauce in the microwave for 20 seconds then brushed it over everything.  I grilled everything over medium-low heat until it looked done.  I pulled the different birds off at different times.  Once the birds cooled down I picked all the meat off the carcasses and broke it into bite sized pieces.

For Pear Foam:
I used sheet gelatin (160 bloom).  Bloom gelatin in water for a few minutes until soft.  Squeeze out water then add sheets to pear foam and heat until dissolved.  Pass through fine-mesh sieve and transfer to iSi whipper.  Charge isi Whipper with N2O cartridge.  Place in fridge until chilled (at least 2 hours).

Method
For Foul Mousse:
Take reserved grilled meat and place in food processor.  Process until it resembles meat sand (I know, I know, but that's what it looks like).  I added about 3/4 cup of duck stock (the good kind that's all wiggly) to a blender and a 1/3 of the meat sand.  Start to blended and add duck stock as needed to keep blender contents moving.  Gradually add the rest of the meat sand.  Keep blending until you have a meat paste.  Pass meat paste through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any larger pieces that survived the blender (this important for a good mousse texture).   It will take a bit of work to coax it through the sieve.

Chilled mixing bowl and whipped heavy cream until you have whipped cream.  Fold whipped cream into meat paste until desired mousse consistency is achieved.  I transfered the mousse into a gallon zip-lock bag so I could easily pipe it into martini glasses for service.

For Quail Legs:
Add butter to a pan and heat on medium high until butter foams and just starts to brown.  Place sous vided quail legs (and thighs) in the pan and quickly sear on each side.  Place seared leg in martini glass with end stuck into the mousse.

For Foam:
Spray foam from iSi Whipper into a bowl then place dollops of foam on top of mousse and next to the quail leg.

Verdict
I'm not going to lie, this recipe is a whole lot of work.  Fortunately it was warmly received and I hope people picked up the vibe that they were eating something special.  I was very gratified that I was able to start with an idea and I was about to create a finished product that articulated that concept with a minimal amount of trial and error (I only did one test run).

Mint Julep Appetizer

Motivation
This drink is inspired by the molecular mixology recipe for a Mai Tai 3000 I read at this cocktail blog.  I bought my agar-agar at an Asian market.  From reading on the internet you can buy agar-agar in three forms: sticks, flakes, and powder.  I think I bought the sticks.  It was very light and my digital scale didn't seem to be accurate enough to accurately measure it (I would need fractional grams).  Since I couldn't get a good measurement I ended up with using roughly two inches of agar-agar stick.

Ingredients
~2 inches of Agar-Agar
3 oz Water
4 oz Bourbon
Mint Leaves
Course Sugar

Mise en Place
Place water in small sauce pan then break agar-agar into flakes and add to the water.  Heat over low to medium-low heat and whisk until the agar-agar has dissolved in the water.  This may take 5 minutes or so of stirring.  If the agar-agar is not well dissolved the resulting jelly will have chewy bits in it.  Once agar-agar is dissolved add bourbon to pan and stir to integrate well.  Pour mixture into glass container such that it will form a layer about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch thick.  Cover and place in fridge until set (this sets pretty quickly - maybe a half-an-hour or so).

Method
To serve place a large mint leaf on a big shallow spoon.  Place roughly a tablespoon of bourbon jelly on mint leaf.  Sprinkle course sugar over jelly and serve.

Yeasted Waffles

Motivation
These are my favorite waffles recipe.  They come out crispy on the outside and are soft and fluffy on the inside.  Unlike most waffle recipes they are risen with yeast which means you have to start the night before to give time for the yeast to do its thing (make CO2).  I think it's worth the little extra effort.  Especially since it means you only have to ladle batter into the waffle griddle in the morning while you're still half asleep.  The recipe is originally from Cooks Illustrated (March 2004).  I modified the procedure to remove some of their prescribed hoop-jumping bullshit.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups Milk
8 tbsp Butter
2 cups Flour
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Instant Yeast
2 Large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract


Mise en Place
The night before cut butter into 8 pieces and microwave just enough to melt it.  If there are a few lumps let the heat of the melted butter finish the job.  You want the melted butter to be as close to room temperature as possible, so avoid heating it up more than necessary to melt.

Measure all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk together.  Measure milk,  I usually add vanilla and crack both eggs into the milk measuring cup, then lightly beat them together.  Add warm butter to milk mixture and make sure its cool enough that it won't kill the yeast when added to the dry ingredients.

Mix all the moist ingredients with the dry and stir until smooth.  Cover and place in fridge overnight.

Method
In the morning take out batter and stir it once or twice.  Preheat waffle griddle.  Ladle batter onto hot iron and  cook according to griddle instructions (about 4 minutes for my waffle griddle).  Serve immediately or place in a warm oven.  Hot waffles are the most crisp.

Breakfast Burrito

Motivation
This recipe was created after making the Country Scramble recipe in Kenny Shopsin's Eat Me cookbook.  The Country Scramble is a seriously good breakfast dish, but it looked a complete mess on the plate.  I decided that it had a "face for radio" and instead turned it into the filling of my breakfast burritos.

What I love about this dish is it's a classic use up whatever leftovers you have on hand to make breakfast dish.  All that is really important is having a bit of greens, meat, eggs, cheese, and a flour tortilla on hand.  The particulars don't really matter.  I've made breakfast burritos with leftover fried chicken, pulled pork, stew meat, etc.  The ingredients I've included below represent my typical rendition of the dish.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups Meat (left over fried chicken)
4 eggs
2 handfuls Salad Greens (~ half a bag)
Cheese, shredded
2 Burrito-sized Flour Tortillas
2 tbsp Butter
Frank's Hot Sauce

Mise en Place
The meat should be in small pieces, so you might have to dice it small enough that it will work will in a burrito. If the meat is cool from the fridge you might want to microwave it first so it won't suck all the heat out of the skillet when you add it.

Method
Place non-stick skillet over medium heat and add butter to pan.  Once butter is melted swirl pan to distribute butter evenly, then scatter salad greens over butter.  Once greens start to wilt, scatter meat over greens, then break eggs and slide them into the pan.

Sprinkle cheese and Frank's Hot Sauce over eggs.  I usually place my tortillas in the microwave for about 20 seconds to get them warm and flexible so they'll roll without breaking.  Once egg whites start to set, break egg yolks with the corner of the spatula then stir the whole mass a few times to evenly coat with yolks and remaining unset egg whites. Continue to stir until remaining egg whites are cooked, the mixture should still be moist.  Place filling onto tortillas and roll.

Peking Duck with Plum Sauce

Motivation
Duck.  Roasted, crispy, duck.  What other motivation would I need?  I saw an article on how to make Peking duck from scratch on the Serious Eats blog and I decided to give it a shot.   While I've eaten a good deal of duck in my time, to be honest I've never actually had Peking duck.  So I didn't have a good mental target of what I was shooting for besides awesome crispy duck.

The original recipe called cooking the duck in the oven.  I decided that I wanted to cook my duck on the egg (grill).  The egg is pretty good about holding temperatures on its own, but I also have a Stoker temperature controller to improve my precise grilling.  The recipe also called for slathering the duck in maltose syrup, but I couldn't find that ingredient so I ended up using honey, which was the suggested substitution in the original recipe.

Ingredients
For the Duck

1 Duck, thawed
1/4 cup Honey
2 tsp Soy Sauce
2 tsp Kosher Salt
2 tsp Baking Powder

For the Plum Sauce
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup White Vinegar
4 Plums
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
2 tsp Fresh Ginger, grated
1 tbsp Chili Garlic Sauce

For the Mandarin Pancakes
2 cups Flour
2/3 cup Water, boiling
1/4 cup Sesame Oil

Mise en Place
For the Duck
Chances are you're going to buy your duck frozen so let it thaw in the fridge for 4-5 days.

The day before you plan on cooking take the duck out, rinse off, and remove whatever presents have been hidden in the central cavity.  Using your fingers and/or the smooth back of a long handle spoon gently separate the skin from the meat.  Be careful not to tear the skin or poke through.  Combine honey and soy sauce and microwave for about 20 seconds to soften.  Mix well then slather all over surface of the duck, both sides.  Combine salt and baking powder in a small bowl and sprinkle all over surface of the duck, both sides. Place uncovered duck back in the refrigerator and let sit 12-24 hours.

Right before you put duck on the grill.  Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil.  Place I wire rack in the sink (I used one from my roasting pan) and place duck on the rack.  Pour 2 quarts of boiling water over one side, flip duck, and pour the remaining 2 quarts over the other side.  The skin should shrink and hug the duck firmly.

For the Plum Sauce
Halve the plums and remove pits.  I then sliced plums into smaller sections - maybe 1/8ths.  You can measure out soy sauce, ginger, and chili garlic sauce and add them to the bowl with the prepared plums.  All these ingredients are added at the same time.

For the Mandarin Pancakes
Combine flour and boiling water in medium bowl and stir until dough forms. Knead dough until it become smooth and elastic (~ 5 minutes). Cut dough into 24 even pieces about 1 tablespoon each. Cover with damp towel.

On floured surface (I used parchment paper), roll one piece of dough into three-inch circle. Repeat with second ball. Using pastry brush, coat top of first ball with thin film of sesame oil. Place second ball on top of first. Roll balls together into 8 to 10-inch circle (the thinner the better). I separated each pancake with a piece of plastic wrap.

Method
For the Duck
Set the grill to 350 degrees.  Figure out way to stand the duck up vertical.  The recipe recommends a large beer can.  I have a perforated grill pan designed for the task.  Place duck on grill.  After about 30 minutes rotate duck.  After another 30 minutes reduce grill temperature to 250 degrees.   I had already inserted a probe thermometer into the duck so I waited until the interior temperature of the breast came up above 170 degrees F.  That took another 45 minutes or so.

For the Plumb Sauce
Combine sugar with 1 tablespoon water in heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepot. Melt over high heat and continue to cook, gently swirling pan, until sugar is deep golden brown (about 3 minutes). Immediately add all of vinegar in one go (sugar will bubble rapidly) and cook until sugar redissolves (about 1 minute).  Add plums, soy sauce, ginger, and chili garlic sauce, reduce heat to medium low, and cook, mashing plums with back of wooden spoon until plums are completely broken down, about 10 minutes. Blend sauce with immersion blender or in standing blender until smooth.

For the Mandarin Pancakes
Preheat heavy-bottomed 12-inch cast iron or non-stick griddle pan or skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Place pancakes on griddle and cook until lightly browned in spots on first side, about 1 minute. Flip and repeat on second sides, about 30 seconds longer. Transfer to plate lined with clean kitchen towel and carefully peel pancakes apart.

Verdict
The duck skin was not mahogany and it was not crispy.  This was a big disappointment.  I suspect this had something to do with my grilling method.  I placed the standing duck rig inside a disposable aluminum pan to catch all the delicious duck fat.  I suppose this was being too greedy.  Only the very top of the duck got mahogany and crispy and I think it was because the aluminum pan prevented the hot air from flowing directly over the whole duck and it ended up being cooking indirectly.  I'll know better next time.

As it turns out, the failure mode was smoked grilled duck - which is not such a bad thing.  The plum sauce had a nice complex flavor and was spicy.  It beat the pants of the sweet premade stuff by a mile.

The mandarin pancakes were good, but a lot of work.  I suspect flour tortillas would have be an acceptable substitute.  Unless I started to add some other seasonings to the pancakes to make them more special.

I think the recipe deserves future attempts to perfect the grilling method.  The plum sauce definitely will be made again.

----- Update ------
I remade the peking duck portion of this recipe.  This time I stood the duck upright using a perforated grill pan pan directly over the charcoal of the grill (no indirect heating due to pan).  The results were everything I was hoping for.  A gorgeous mahogany duck.  This may be my new favorite way to grill whole ducks.

Technique: Hand Ground Coffee

I recently decided to replace our beloved coffee grinder - Tom Servo.  Actually, I'm the only one that ever showed any love for Tom Servo, everyone else radiated frustration and despise in his general direction.  Tom Servo is based on an old school coffee maker design.  According to KitchenAid, that model was originally designed in 1937 and was the world's first electric coffee grinder.  Our Tom Servo isn't 70+ years old though, at some point KitchenAid resurrected the model and I was attracted to his retro design.

I know he had his problems.  Most people seem to want their freshly ground coffee collected in some sort of container and presented to them.  Tom Servo doesn't play that way.  He has a spout on his side.  I suspect that his designers imagined coffee would issue forth from this spout and the force of gravity would then collect ground coffee in a waiting glass jar beneath.  Perhaps modern 200 watt motors are more powerful than back in 1937, because in practice Tom Servo ejects a beam of ground coffee out of his side at a surprising velocity and it takes awhile for gravity to catch up.  The unsuspecting and uninitiated operator typically flips his switch and is surprised to find they are standing point blank in front of a geyser of ground coffee that will deflect off of them in to the kitchen at large.  

Over the years I've devised some tools and techniques to help tame Tom Servo.  Primary of which is a flexible plastic wall I set up around his spout when I grind to help direct most of the grounds downwards.  But he has never been fully civilized and domesticated.  In his solid cast iron frame still whirls a feral motor that would just as soon turn gravel into flour as operate on something so dainty as coffee.  

The chances are that given that task of replacing a belligerent coffee grinder designed in 1937 most people would look for something a bit more modern.  Perhaps even a grinder designed in the current century.  Bah! You disgust me most people.  Instead of looking forward I decided to look even further back - and I opted to replace Tom Servo with a hand crank manual coffee maker.  

You see, in our household coffee is either about convenience or luxury.  I brew our weekday morning coffee at the office, so the home coffee makers or called into service when we really need a cup of coffee in the evening or on the weekends.  When convenience is the primary motivator we have a single cup Keurig brewer that quickly and efficiently serves up a decent cup of coffee with minimal effort.  When time and effort or not limiting factors we opt for luxury and we brew via a French press. 

 (I really like that French press in the link. It's a replaceable glass beaker the fits into a rubber and polycarbonate sleeve.  The sleeve does a good job insulating the beaker while the glass beaker is replaceable if we ever drop it.  Most importantly, the plunger is all metal construction so the whole thing is pretty rugged.) 

One of the things that drew me towards a manual grinder is the ability to control the coarseness of the grind.  Most electric grinders give you some latitude when comes to coarseness, but I think they generally expect you to brew using a drip coffee maker and most of them don't grind coffee as coarse as I would like it for our French Press.

The new manual coffee grinder has a huge range of coarseness values that need expiration with.  Instead of a number setting, the coarseness of the grind is controlled via a threaded washer.  To try and record and replicate grinds I've decided to measure how far the inner section of the grinding mechanism protrudes from the outer section on the bottom on the grinder.  I first started with a measurement of about 1/4".  This proved to actually a bit too coarse.  I reduced it to ~3/16" and that seems to be a pretty good setting.  The resulting coffee is robust and favorable without being bitter.

The other nice thing about the manual grinder is its ability to handle oily beans.  Different roasting methods can produce oily beans.  I used to avoid oil beans because after awhile they tended to gunk up Tom Servo and require more frequent cleaning.  The manual grinder seems to handle the oily beans with greater ease.  I suspect this may be a good thing, being that oil on freshly roasted beans may well carry flavors I usually opt out of (or so I hope).  Did I mention that there is now a coffee shop that roasts beans on the premises not a mile from my house?

Current coffee recipe:
Grind beans with ~3/16" setting.
Steep in hot water for 5 minutes in French press.

Food, Eated: Scallop and Butternut Squash Bisque + Butternut Squash Pasta

• Scallops and Butternut Squash Bisque
• Roasted Butternut Squash Penne Pasta

The Breakdown
I pared these two butternut squash and sage dishes together to make one awesome fall inspired feast.  I was very happy with the results.

Roasted Butternut Squash Penne Pasta

Motivation
I made this dish as a fall inspired side dish to accompany a butternut squash bisque.  The recipe is from the October 2010 (Issue 83) if Cuisine at Home.


Ingredients
2 cups Butternut Squash, diced (about 1 large squash)
8 oz Bacon, diced
8 oz Penne Pasta
2 tsp Garlic, minced
1/2 cup Parmesan, grated
2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
2 tbsp Sage, mined
2 tbsp Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Mise en Place
Bring water to simmer to cook pasta.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Peel, halve, de-seed, and dice butternut squash into bite-sized pieces.  Toss squash in oil, salt, and pepper.  Place on cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil.  Roast squash for 15 minutes, turn pieces about half-way through.

Mince sage. Dice bacon.  Cook pasta.

Method
Use a skillet large enough to add pasta to once it's done cooking and place over medium heat.  Add bacon and cook until crisp.  Then add garlic, roasted squash to the pan and cook.  (I meant to add spinach here, but forgot).  Add pasta to the pan and stir to coat.  (The magazine recommends adding some starchy water from the pasta pot if you want to build a bit more of a sauce - add 1/4 cup at a time - I didn't end of needing to do this.)  Add sage and Parmesan to pan then toss.

Scallop & Squash Bisque

Motivation
This recipe if from the October 2010 (Issue 83) of Cuisine at Home magazine.  The recipe suggested searing the scallops first, then building the bisque in the same pot.  I guess that would mean leaving the seared scallops sitting around for an hour while your making the bisque.  Instead of doing that we sous vide the scallops ahead of time and seared them after the bisque was prepared.

Ingredients
(for scallops)
1 tsp Kosher Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Cinnamon, ground
1/2 tsp Nutmeg, ground
1/2 tsp Allspice, ground
12 Sea Scallops

(for bisque)
8 cups Butternut Squad, diced (about 2 large squash)
1 cup Onions, diced
1 tbsp Garlic, minced
2 tsp Sage, minced
1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
2 bottles Clam Juice (8 oz each)
2 cups Chicken Broth
1 cup White Wine, dry
1/4 cup Heavy Cream
Olive Oil

Mise en Place
Sous vide scallops at 140 degrees for at least 30 minutes.  We did this a day a head of time, left the scallops in their vacuum bags and chilled them down in a ice water bath after cooking then refrigerated.

Peel, halve, and de-seed the butternut squash then dice.  Everything is going to be pureed in a blender so the squash needs to be diced into a pieces that are easy to blend.  Dice onion and garlic (I used a garlic press).  Mince sage.

Measure and mix together all the spices for the scallop dry rub.

Method
Pour a couple table spoons of olive oil into a small stock pot and set to medium heat.  Toss onions, garlic, sage, and red pepper flakes in the oil and sweat for about 5 minutes.  Add clam juice, chicken broth, and wine to the pot and bring pot to a simmer.  If you sous vide the scallops you should add any scallop broth reserved in the bags.  Simmer for about 20 minutes.  Puree soup in batches in a blender then return to pot and add cream to the soup.  (The magazine recommends adding warm cream to the soup to prevent curdling - I didn't bother though.)  Keep bisque warm while you sear the scallops.

Blot scallops dry then dip each side in the spice rub.  Add oil to a pan and set on medium-high heat.  Once oil is very hot sear scallops on each side.  Since the scallops had already been cooked via sous vide I just seared them for a minute on each side to get a nice crust on the spices.

Ladle bisque into a wide bowl then place scallops in the middle.  Ideally the scallops will not be covered by the bisque.  (The magazine recommends drizzling a little maple syrup over them, but I didn't this time).

Verdict
Very tasty bisque.  The scallops were perfectly cooked and the spice rub was surprisingly spicy.  Once you get the butternut squash diced this is a pretty quick and easy recipe.

Nutella Powder Tartlets

Motivation
I wanted to play around with the powderfication texture technique I've read about.   Dawn suggested placing Nutella powder into little tartlet shells.  For variety we prepared the tartlets three ways.

Ingredients
Maltodextrin
Nutella
Tartlet Shells
Maple Syrup
Cacao Nibs

Method
Combine Nutella and maltodextrin.  Blend in food processor until thoroughly incorporated.  Spoon into tarlet shells.  Drizzle maple syrup over one tartlet.  Sprinkle cacao nibs over another tartlet.  Serve third tartlet as is.

Verdict
As a texture experiment it was an interesting light and feathery powder.  Taste-wise it was good, but there was definitely and element missing.  I thought the maple syrup tartlet was the clear winner.  Dawn filled a spare tartlet shell with actual Nutella paste then added the powder as a topping and reported it was the most interesting and tasty of all.

The next night I repeated the powderfication process with peanut butter then mixed the resulting peanut butter powder with the remaining Nutella powder to make a Reese's peanut butter poweder.  This would make an interesting topping or garnish.

Technique: Powderfication

This in an interesting technique pulled from the realm of molecular gastronomy to alter the texture of pastes and liquids with a high fat content (think peanut butter, Nutella, and such).  Maltodextrin is added to the paste to form a flavored very fine powder.  When the feathery powder hits the saliva in your mouth it reverts back into a paste.

Maltodextrin is a modified food starch (polysaccharide) that stabilizes fatty substances.  You combine maltodextrin with flavor substance at a ratio of 40:60 and blend in food processor until integrated.  A 40:60 ratio makes it sound like you'll be adding more flavor substance than maltodextrin, and by weight that true, but by volume you'll have way more maltodextrin than other thing.  So I recommend you start weighing out the maltodextrin first, then add the paste second, so you don't overfill your container.  (Voice of experience talking).

Further reading here and here.

My source for maltodextrin was here.

Chicken, Chorizo, Tortilla Soup

Motivation
This recipe is actually a Rachael Ray recipe that I tried years ago that has become part of my Autumn food repertoire.  With the temperatures dipping below 80 this weekend I was inspired to get a jump on Autumn comfort food cooking and pulled out this old chestnut.

Ingredients
1 lb Chicken
3/4 lb Chorizo Sausage
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Medium Onion
6 Small Red Potatoes
1 can Kidney Beans
1 can Diced Tomatoes
3 Cloves Garlic
32 Oz  Chicken Stock
2 tsp Hot Sauce
Tortilla Chips
Shredded Cheese (pepper jack, cheddar, or similar)
Olive Oil

Mise en Place
Dice bell pepper, onion, and potatoes and set aside.  Cut chicken bite-sided pieces and season with salt and pepper.  Cut chorizo into bite-sized pieces.  Mince garlic (I used a garlic press) and add to chorizo.  Drain and rinse kidney beans.

Method
Pour 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil into a small stock pot and set on medium to medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until pieces are browned - about 2 minutes.  Add chorizo and garlic to the pot and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.  Add red pepper, onion, and potato to pot - stir and cook another 5 minutes.  Add can of diced tomatoes (including juice), rinsed kidney beans, and hot sauce (I used Frank's) to pot.  Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 10-12 minutes.

Presentation
Ladle soup into bowls and cover with crushed tortilla chips.  Sprinkle cheese over chips.  If bowls are oven safe you can place them under a broiler to melt the cheese.  I used my brulee torch to melt the cheese to good effect.

Food, Eated: Pork Tenderloin and Roasted Potatoes

• Grilled Pork Tenderloin
• Apple Gastrique
• Oven Roasted Potatoes
• Green Beans

The Breakdown
The pork tenderloin was a pre-marinated black pepper pork tenderloin.  We don't usually buy the pre-marinated variety, but this is what all the store had so we decided to give it a try.  I grilled the pork tenderloin following the Best Recipe recommended method, which is to treat the tenderloin like a rectangular log and grill each side for 2 1/2 minutes then move pork to cooler section of the grill and wait until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F.  I threw some fresh rosemary sprigs on the grill with the hopes that the smoke might flavor the meat, I couldn't detect any rosemary notes in the finished product.

The potatoes and gastrique were a hit.  Overall I'd say the meal was a success.

Apple Gastrique

Motivation

I decided to make this gastrique since my peach one was such a big success.  I played with the vinegar and used half balsamic to give the gastrique a bit more tang.  I also added a bit of crushed red pepper to give a bit of spice.  Both were good additions. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar

3 Tbsp Water

3 Sprigs Thyme

1 Sprig Rosemary

2 Apples, cut into into bite-sized sections

Mise en Place

Peel apples and cut into sections.  Measure out sugar and vinegars.

Method

Add sugar to pan with water.  Apply medium heat and stir to get sugar to start to dissolve.  Once sugar has dissolved stop stirring or you might recrystallize the sugar (if it does recrystallize you can add more liquid to dissolve it again).  Once sugar starts to caramelize add vinegar to pan.  You might not want to inhale for a second.   The sugar will momentary solidify then start to dissolve again.  Once dissolved add apples, herbs and/or spices to the pan.  Reduce until gastrique reaches desired thickness.  This is a reduction step so you might want to have a plan for keeping the rest of your food warm while you wait for reduction to occur.

Oven Roasted Potatoes

Motivation
This is my goto roasted potato recipe that was pulled from the Best Recipe cookbook.  I've used it on different kinds of potatoes with good results.  Small "butter potatoes" seem to come out best.  It takes a while to cook, so be sure to start an hour in advance of when you want to eat.

Ingredients
Potatoes
Olive Oil
Salt
Black Pepper
Chili Powder

Garlic Powder

Cayenne Powder
Rosemary

Mise en Place
Wash potatoes.  I never bother to peel them.  Cut potatoes into halves or quarters depending on size.  It is important that all pieces have a flat side because the flat sides will develop a crispy crust.  Place all the cut potatoes into a bowl.  Drizzle olive oil over them, you only need enough to thinly coat (~3 tbsp).  Season potatoes to taste.  I usually use salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, a bit of cayenne, and maybe some dried rosemary.  Toss potatoes to cover evenly.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Method
Line the bottom of a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  Spread potatoes out on cookie sheet.  Take the time to flip individual potatoes around so that their flat sides are touching the bottom of the pan (this is this side that will develop the crispy crust).  Then cover potatoes with another sheet of aluminum foil - in effect you're sealing them in a aluminum foil bag to steam.  Place in oven and cook for 20 minutes.

Remove potatoes from the oven and remove the top layer of aluminum foil and return to the oven to roast for another 15 minutes.

Remove potatoes from the oven.  Flip potato pieces over.  Return to oven for an additional 10 minutes.

Remove and serve.

Food, Eated: Rib-eye with Peach Gastrique and Potatoes Lyonaise

• Rib-eye via sous vide
• Peach Gastrique
• Potatoes Lyonaise
• Salad with Garden Tomatoes

Breakdown

I made the steaks via sous vide, saved the broth to de-glaze the pan and build a peach gastrique.  Being I had a bit of a French theme going I decided to do a French preparation for the potatoes I had.  This was a very happy meal.

Rib-eye Steak via Sous Vide

Motivation
There is something profoundly less cowboy about cooking rib-eye steaks in a sous vide instead of over a hot charcoal fire.  Be that as it may, it's hard to argue with results.  I pulled this recipe from the my very reliable sous vide cookbook.  I was actually surprised to see how different the cooking times were for rib-eye steaks compared to those of beef tenderloin.  A thick beef tenderloin takes about 3-4 hours to cook via sous vide, the same cookbook recommends cooking a rib-eye for 6-8 hours.  Obviously breaking down the connective tissue in a rib-eye takes a bit longer.

An interesting consequence of cooking your steaks via sous vide is pasteurization.  Steak is generally considered most tender when prepared medium-rare, but not everyone is comfortable eating meat that hasn't been thoroughly cooked.  This is a win-win situation because the meat has been held a high enough temperature for hours to pasteurize it without getting so cooked to make it tough.

Dawn has informed me that it's lucky that food cooking via sous vide emits exactly zero aroma, because forcing her to endure 8 hours of steak cooking would inevitably end in someone being mauled.   Good to know.

Ingredients
Rib-eye Steaks
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper
Butter

Special Equipment
Sous Vide
Vacuum Sealer

Mise en Place
You need to vacuum your steaks and get them in the sous vide about 8 1/2 hours before you want to eat.  So, you know, plan ahead.  Season both sides of the steak with salt and pepper then vacuum seal.

Method

Set sous vide to 130 degrees F.  Place in sous vide and wait 8 hours.  Remove steaks from water bath.  If you're planning on making some sort of sauce you might cut the corner off each bag and pour out whatever broth that has formed in the bag (this stuff is a magic elixir).   Then remove steaks from bags.  Heat butter in a skillet over medium-high heat (I went with stainless steel pan because I think it forms a better crust).   Once butter is done foaming and just starting to smoke place steaks in pan and sear on each side for 1 minute.  Remove, plate, and enjoy.

Verdict
While it's true they were missing the charcoal fire taste, they made up for the fact by being super tender, super beefy, and all around awesome.

Peach Gastrique

Motivation
I enjoy working fruits in to savory dishes, so when I read about making gatriques at the Serious Eats food blog I decided to try it out as an additional option for a finishing sauce.

Ingredients
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Red Wine Vinegar
2 Tbsp Broth (or water)
3 Sprigs Thyme
2 Peaches cut into bite-sized sections.

Mise en Place
I decided to build my gastrique in the pan I just finished searing steaks in, so I knew I needed to be ready to build it in a smoking hot pan.  I measured all the ingredients out first and had them standing by.  The peaches were cored and cut into sections.  I decided to leave the peach skin on and I didn't seem to effect the outcome of the sauce.

Method
De-glaze the pan, I used the magic elixir that is the reserved broth from a sous vide bag.  With a couple of tablespoons of liquid in the pan add sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved and starts bubbling.  You want to let the sugar caramelize.  If you're working in a clean pan you can watch for a golden brown color.  If you're working in a pan you de-glazed the chances are the sugar is already brown so you'll have to rely on the smell of carmelization to due the trick.  Don't let it cook too long or the sugar will burn.

Once sugar starts to caramelize add vinegar to pan.   You might not want to inhale for a second.   The sugar will momentary solidify then start to dissolve again.  Once dissolved add fruit and thyme to pan.  Reduce until gastrique reaches desired thickness.  This is a reduction step so you might want to have a plan for keeping the rest of your food warm while you wait for reduction to occur.

Verdict
Sweet, sour, and awesome.  I thought the sauce turned out really well.  Next time I might try to add some cayenne to the sauce to make sweet, spicy, and sour.  Should work will with other fruits as well.

Potatoes Lyonaise

Motivation
I had potatoes and I wanted to try something different besides cutting them up, tossing them in olive oil, and roasting them.  This recipe is adapted from the Professional Chef cookbook.

Ingredients
2 Baking Potatoes
1/2 Large Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
Olive Oil
Thyme
Chili Powder
Black Pepper

Mise en Place
Peel potatoes and cut into 1/2 cm slices.  Add potato slices to boiling salted water to parboil.  I cooked them for 10 minutes.  Remove potato slices from water and pat dry.  Thinly slice onion and mince garlic (I used a garlic press).

Method
Add olive oil to large skillet and set to medium/medium-high heat.  Add onion slices to pan and sauté until fragrant, maybe a minute or so.  Add potato slices, garlic, and spices.  Use spices to season to taste.  I just chose thyme, chili powder, and black pepper on a whim.  I maybe added a teaspoon of each.  Stir potatoes occasionally so they all make contact with the bottom of the pan at some point.  Be sure to let them sit long enough to start developing a crispy brown crust.  You may have to add additional oil or butter if crust is not forming.

Verdict
Pretty great.  I might have parboiled them for a couple minutes too long because they were already starting to fall apart when I started to sauté them.  The flavor and texture were good.  While excellent, they could easily handle more aggressive seasoning.  Maybe add rosemary next time.

Mojito Experiment

Motivation
The garden has mint and we just bought a bag of limes, it seems like mojitos might be in order.  This is also an excellent excuse to play with the nitro infusion technique the we tried out the other day.  I'm not much of a mojito aficionado, but I suspect its one of those drinks Dawn wishes I was better at concocting.  I thought it might be fun to make mojitos two ways: Method A will use traditional mudding, Method B will use pressure to infuse the mint into the drink.  I don't really have a goto mojito recipe, so I pulled one out of cocktail book as a starting place.

Ingredients
2g Mint (a couple of sprigs)
1/2 Lime, Juiced
2 1/2 oz Rum
1/2 oz Simple Syrup (a.k.a. Gomme Syrup)
2 oz Soda Water
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Method A (Traditional)
Place mint in glass and muddle.  Add the juice of half a lime, rum, simple syrup, and bitters - stir.  (I also threw the spent lime half in the glass.)  Add ice then top off with soda water.  Garnish with additional mint.

Method B (New Fangled)
Place mint, lime juice, rum, simple syrup, bitters, and spent lime half in the whipper canister.  Charge with nitrous oxide.  Wait for 3 minutes, swirling every 30 seconds or so.  Vent off gas.  Pour contents of whipper canister into glass, top with ice and soda water.  Garnish with additional mint.

Verdict
The mojitos were OK, but I think the basic recipe needs tweaking.  We like our drinks tart rather than sweet, so next time I'll up the amount of lime juice and use less sugar.  Both of us selected the nitro infused mojito as better, but just slightly so.  The flavors were cleaner and the appearance more attractive.  In practice I'm not sure its worth expending a nitrous oxide cartridge for the slight improvement.

Update!! 
I ended up making mojitos again after getting some advice from a friend.  Here is the much improved recipe.

Ingredients
Mint
1/2 tsp Sugar
2 1/2 oz Lime Juice
2 1/2 oz Rum
2 dashes Bitters (hey, I like bitters)
2 1/2 oz Soda Water

Method
Put mint in the glass, add sugar and muddle.   Add lime juice and rum to glass (I also added half a spent lime that was then quartered to give the cocktail that rustic look).  Add soda water and ice, then stir.  Garnish with additional mint.

This was much more tart and way less sweet.

Red Cabbage Gazpacho with Mustard Ice Cream

Motivation
I've been reading Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck Cookbook lately and I like cabbage.  So imagine how excited I was when I found a recipe for a chilled cabbage soup that I could actually make.  The Fat Duck is a three star Michelin restaurant and Heston doesn't pull any punches.  The recipes in the book have not be altered to accommodate for the home cook.  If he uses liquid nitrogen they call for liquid nitrogen.  If he uses a PacoJet machine, the recipe calls for a PacoJet machine.  Seriously, a PacoJet!  Fortunately I had the ability to juice red cabbage and make ice cream (ice cream!) so I was all set to make this cabbage soup.  The recipes are all in grams so it's a good time to break out your digital scale and get some use out of the tare weight function.

Special Equipment
Fruit/Vegetable Juicer
Ice Cream Machine
Digital Scale.

Mise en Place
Mise en Place is actually making the following three separate recipes to they'll be ready to combine into the finished dish.

Red Wine Mayonnaise
Ingredients
36g egg yolks
15g Dijon Mustard
180g Grapeseed oil
15g Red Wine Vinegar
30g Red Wine

Method
Combine egg yolks with the mustard, then slowly whisk in the grapeseed oil to form an emulsion.  When the mayonnaise is very stiff, in the vinegar and red wine.  Refrigerate until needed.

Red Cabbage Gazpacho
Ingredients
450g Red Cabbage Juice (1-2 red cabbages worth)
80g Red Cabbage Juice (used right before service)
30g White Sandwich Bread (1-2 slices)
40g Red Wine Mayonnaise (see above)
60g Red Wine Vinegar
15g Salt (too damn salty)

Method
Remove cores from red cabbage and juice 450g into a container.  Add the bread and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Strain the cabbage juice through a fine sieve.  Press out as much juice as possible from bread.

Blend juice and mayonnaise, then season with the vinegar and salt.  Strain the liquid into a clean container and refrigerate until needed.

Add an additional 80g of red cabbage juice right before service!

Mustard Ice Cream
Ingredients
85g egg yolks
40g caster sugar (powered sugar)
500g whole milk
25g skimmed milk powder
70g grainy mustard (the stuff with seeds in it)

Method
Put the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk together for 5 minutes and set aside.

Put the milk and skimmed milk powder in a pan and heat to ~140 degrees F.   Pour the milk mixture over the egg yolk and sugar mixture then return to the pan.  Heat to 160 degrees F for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.  Cool the mixture quickly in an ice bath.

Once mixture is cool, stir in the mustard and refrigerate for 8-24 hours.  Transfer to an ice-cream machine and churn.  Place in freezer until needed.


Service
Mix the last 80g of red cabbage juice into the gazpacho.  Finely dice a cucumber into 2mm x 2mm cubes.  Place cucumber into bowls and add a scoop off mustard ice cream.  Then surround ice cream with gazpacho.


Verdict
Yuck!  The soup was way too salty.  The recipe calls for 15g of salt but I stopped adding salt after 5g and I'm wondering if its a misprint all together (1.5g maybe?)  This took hours to make and was pretty much inedible.  A huge disappointment.

Still there were redeeming qualities of the individual components.  The color of the soup was very cool.  How often do you get to work with naturally purple food.  For that reason alone I'll consider making future dishes with red cabbage juice.  I think if the soup hadn't been so salty it might have been good.  Surprisingly the strangest part of the recipe, the mustard ice cream, ended up being the big winner.  It was my first experience with a savory ice cream and I think it was pretty positive.  It turns out that sweet and mustard work well together - like honey mustard.

Pancakes

Motivation
Pancakes have always been one of those foods that instantly makes me think of lazy weekend mornings.  This is actually the pancake recipe my parents have used as far as I can remember.  I think its superior to Bisquick or other instant pancake batters I've tried.  Over the years I've called them up multiple times to get another copy whenever I've lost it.  For the last few years I've had this written down on an upside-down red Post-It Note in the front of a cookbook.  Hopefully transcribing it here will avoid having to ask them for another copy of the recipe in the near future.

Ingredients
3 tbsp Butter, melted
3/4 cup Milk
1 Egg
1 cup Flour, sifted
2 tbsp Sugar
2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 Kosher Salt

Special Equipment
Flour Sifter

Mise en Place
Start by measuring and melting the butter so it has time to cool down while you're measuring out the rest of the ingredients.  Like-wise, measure out the milk and let it start to warm up while your measuring out everything else.  I try to avoid adding hot butter to cold milk because the fat in the butter instantly solidifies and makes the batter grainy.  I don't know if that really hurts the end product, but I try to avoid it out of habit.

I also usually start the griddle or pan heating up while I mix the rest of the ingredients together because it doesn't take very long to make the batter.  I set the stove to medium/medium-low heat.

Method
Place all the dry ingredients into a flour sifter and sift into a bowl.  I usually crack the egg into the measuring cup containing the milk and mix them together with either a small whisk or a fork.   Then I add the milk-egg mixture and butter to the dry ingredients and mix them until a batter comes together.

Pour a small amount of batter onto a hot griddle or pan.  I usually use a 1/4 cup measure cup to spoon the batter from the bowl onto the pan.  Let cook until bubbles start to form in the batter the edges start to look a little dry.  I usually use a spatula to peak under the edge of pancake to see how brown it is on the bottom side.  Flip pancakes and continue to cook on other side until golden brown.  Reduce heat if pancakes are cooking so fast that you're accidentally letting them brown too much.

If I'm doing pancakes add-ins like pecans, blueberries, or chocolate chips I don't add them to the batter bowl because they always seem to end up on the bottom. Instead, after I pour the batter onto the hot pan I press in the add-ins on the top side.  This allows me to control the concentration of the add-ins and ensures that every pancake gets a nice and homogeneous amount.

Nitro Powered Infusions

I bought a new toy this week, an iSi Creative Whip.  Ostensibly the Creative Whip is for making whip cream via gas cartridges, but even the gadget's creators recognize that its capable of additional tricks such as "cold espumas, foams, creams, soups, sauces, desserts, batters, dips, toppings, and fizzy garnishes."  I look forward to exploring some of these many uses in the future.  (I've already had it produce a chocolate mousse in a matter of minutes with a pretty amazing texture).  Tonight I was more interested in the possibility of using the gadget to facilitate flavor infusions instead of producing cream or foams.  This has been a hot topic in a couple of food blogs lately.

The key to the technique is to overlook the gadget's ability to produce whips and foams and focus on the fact that it's really just a pressurized canister that you can chunk ingredients into.  According to the Khymos blog:

The science behind this is quite simple: in the pressurized canister nitrous oxide (N2O) dissolves and penetrates the food. When the pressures is suddently released (and it is important to release pressure as fast as possible) the sudden pressure drop causes the dissolved gas to nucleate and form bubbles which expand and disrupt cells, thereby releasing flavor compounds. The physical phenomenon is known as cavitation.

To experiment with this technique I decided to try and infuse a liquid with a couple of different herbs and spices I had laying around the house.  I wanted to go with something neutral to appraise exactly how effective the infusion technique was, so I decided to try it with vodka.  Normally I despise vodka.  I don't really see the point of a liquor that is praised for it's ability to taste like nothing.  However in this case it's inherent blandness was an asset.

Dawn supervised the experiment and helped provide tasting notes.  We selected following items to try and infuse the vodka with: basil, lemongrass, anise, juniper berries, and cacao nibs.  We also decided that we'd prepare the basil two ways - with a pressurized infusion and with a more conventional non-pressurized muddling (kind of like you'd do with mint in a mojito).  At first we tried to infuse the basil under pressure for a minute (the amount of time suggested in one of the blogs above) but we found the resulting infusion to be weak and hardly worth the effort.  We were using both a different sized iSi whipper and different volume of liquid than the aforementioned blog, so that may have made a difference.  Once we increased the infusion time things started to get a bit more interesting.  In the end we opted to go with 50 ml of vodka infused under pressure for 3 minutes.

Here are our tasting notes for our 6 different infusions.

Basil, fresh (muddled: non-pressurized)
A strong basil aroma.  The darkest infusion in terms of color and also a bit cloudy.  Tastes strongly of basil, this could be considered a good thing or perhaps a bit harsh.

Basil, fresh (pressurized)
A fainter basil aroma than the muddled version.  The color is considerably lighter.  The flavor is much more delicate but still definitely basil.

Lemongrass, fresh (pressurized)
A very pleasant lemongrass aroma.  The color is the lightest of all the infusions attempted, almost completely clear.  To spite little change in appearance, the vodka has taken on a very pleasing lemongrass flavor.

Anise, dried (pressurized)
The vodka definitely smells like anise.  The color was in the middle of the pack - darker than the lemongrass infusion but lighter than the muddled basil.  The vodka has been infused with a definite anise flavor but it wasn't nearly as strong as traditional anise flavored liquors such as ouzo, raki, or absinthe.

Junpier Berry, dried (pressurized)
Almost no discernible aroma.  The color was nearly as dark as the muddled basil infusion, but the juniper was clear instead of cloudy.  The vodka acquired a pronounced and pleasing juniper flavor.  I was wondering if we could use this technique to turn boring old vodka into exciting gin.  Not quite.  The infusion was missing gin's other herbal notes.  However, the resulting infusion was very tasty.  Dawn, who dislikes gin, declared that it was happy and "better than gin."

Cacao Nibs (pressurized)
A very faint aroma, I'm not sure I'd be able to place it if I smelled it without knowing it was suppose to be cacao.  The color was by far the most interesting of the infusions we created.  It was pink and rose and almost hinting at violet.  I had read that this was a good infusion, but I was still surprised at just how good it was.  It had a definite chocolate flavor, but it wasn't bitter, or sweet, or creamy.  Just chocolate.  It was quite unlike any chocolate liquor we've ever tasted (probably because it wasn't sweet and creamy).   I find it to be superior to other chocolate liquors.

Verdict
Of the six infusions we made we decided that three had promise.  The lemongrass, juniper, and cacao nibs infusions were both tasty and unlike other liquors we've previously tasted.  The basil infusions were interesting but lacking.  We decided that they needed an additional ingredient to help round them out.

I'm not completely sure the technique is worth the effort for ingredient that easy to muddle (like basil).  I suppose it will produce more delicate flavors and clearer liquid.  It seems to have definite advantage of being able to quickly infuse flavors of difficult to incorporate ingredient such as things that are dried or naturally hard.  (I've tried to make lemongrass martinis in the past with very little success achieving discernible lemongrass notes.)

And no, we did not end up finishing all the infusions we made.  It wasn't that kind of evening.

Food, Eated: Pork Kabobs, Caprese Salad, and Grilled Peaches

• Pork kabobs with mixed veggies (onion, eggplant, okra, and green pepper) on rosemary skewer.
• Caprese salad (tomato, basil, cucumber, and mozzarella).
• Grilled peaches.

Breakdown
I marinated the pork in an Italian dressing for about an hour or so then threaded it and veggies on rosemary skewers.  I found it helped to pre-puncture the meat/veggies with a regular skewer then push the rosemary stem through the pre-made hole.

I left rosemary leaves on the end of the skewers for garnish, but the grill burned them all off.  If I did this again I'd probably wrap the leaves in aluminum foil to protect them during grilling.  I would also accompany the kabob with a dipping sauce.  During the meal it occurred to me that a sweet-and-spicy peach chutney would have been ideal.

The cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, okra, green peppers, basil, and rosemary were all from our garden.

Food, Eated: Beef Tenderloin and Vichyssoise

Beef tenderloin medallion cooked via sous vide and garnished with fried garlic.

A spinach salad topped with pecans and dried cranberries.

Vichyssoise soup garnished with minced basil.

Fried Garlic

Ingredients
Garlic
Olive Oil

Special Equipment
Garlic Press

Motivation
There was this Italian restaurant in Lafayette, Indiana called Spageddies.  It was very similar to Olive Garden, but I liked it better.  When you sat down at a table they would give you bread and this little white ceramic dish filled with toasted garlic bits and spices.  The idea was that you were to add olive oil to the dish and use it to dip the bread in.  I loved it, especially because of the little toasted bits of garlic. I would hunt down every single one of the garlic bits and clean that dish out.  This "recipe" is really just a technique you can use to make your own garlic bits to add to dishes.  I like to use them as garnish on the top of soups, salads, meat, even in olive oil (like god intended).

Mise en Place
Break a bunch of cloves of garlic off a bulb and peal the paper off of them.  I used a rubber tube that is "specially designed" to peal garlic that a friend of mine recommended.  It works really well.  Alton Brown would call it a uni-tasker, and he'd be right.  While it's true that there are lots of ways to peal garlic, this is way I currently do it because it doesn't get my hands sticky.

Method
Pour a couple of splashes of olive oil into the bottom of a small skillet (I use a non-stick one, I don't if that matters or not though).   You don't have to cover the entire bottom of the skillet, you just need enough to coat the garlic bits.

I used a garlic press and press the garlic right into the olive oil puddle in the pan.  I expect that you could probably mince your garlic by hand or some other means and that would work just as well.  Once all the garlic bits are in the pan, stir them up a bit so the olive oil with coat them.

Turn the heat on to medium.  After about 2-3 minutes you'll start hear the moister in the garlic begin to sizzle and you'll smell it starting to toast.  This will smell amazing.  If there are hungry folks milling about you might want to have a snack ready to fend them off.  Once it starts to toast I usually back the heat off to medium low to make sure I don't go past toasting and straight into burning.

Stir the bits occasionally to be sure to toast all sides.   At some point your bits will start to clump together.   Don't worry about it, that's natural a means you're almost done.  I usually try to break the larger clumps apart with the spatula to get more garlic in contact with the bottom of the skillet.   Any clumps that you can't break apart you'll take care of later.

Once your garlic bits are golden brown transfer from skillet to a waiting dish.  After they are cool break apart any remaining clumps.

Beef Tenderloin via Sous Vide

Think about starting to marinade medallions about 5 hours before you want to eat!

Ingredients

Beef Tenderloin Medallions (a.k.a Fillet Mignon)

Moore's Marinade

Black Pepper

Special Equipment

Sous Vide

Vacuum Sealer

Cream Brulee Torch

Mise en Place

About an 45 minutes to an hour before you intend to vacuum seal the meat, transfer meat into large ziploc bag and add enough Moore's marinade to coat the surface.  Return to fridge.

Method

Set sous vide for 132 degrees F.  Remove meat from marinade and generously coat both sides of each medallion with fresh ground pepper. Individually vacuum seal tenderloin medallions in plastic bags.  Place bags in sous vide water bath.  Allow to cook for at least 4 hours.

After 4 hours remove plastic bags from water bath and remove medallions.   I transferred the medallions to a cookie sheet coated with aluminum foil.  I then placed a pad of butter on each and hit them with a creme brulee torch to try and do a last minute sear.  It smelled good, but I don't think the technique worked especially well.  I probably won't bother torching them next time. 

Verdict

Awesome.

Vacuum sealed beef medallions

Technique: Sous Vide

Sous vide is a fancy French word that means "under vacuum".   The cooking technique gets the name because food is normally vacuum sealed in a plastic bag and then placed in precisely controlled water bath.  Though sous vide has been utilized in high-end restaurants for a few decades, it's a relative new method of cooking available to the home cook.

I'm almost embarrassed to even call this a technique, truth be told it's actually pretty hard to screw up cooking sous vide.  Can you put food in a bag?  If so, congratulation!  You are an expert sous vide practitioner.

The only real skill required for successful results is planning.  Sous vide cooking is slow.  You better be thinking ahead if you want to have food ready at a certain time.  Cooking sous vide can take anywhere from 3 to 24 hours.  As a general rule, the thicker the thing you're trying to cook is, the longer it's going to take to cook.

As a method of cooking, sous vide offers a couple of really impressive benefits.  First and foremost, meat comes out moist and tender.  Like, super tender.  The most tender cut of meat you've ever had (trust me, I'm not over selling this).  That's because you set the water bath to the internal temperature of perfectly cooked meat and plunk the bag in there and wait until the entire cut of meat reaches that temperature.  Have you ever had a 2 inch thick fillet mignon medium rare from edge-to-edge?  I have - it's a transcending experience, truly sublime.

You can't overcook food using sous vide.  While it may take awhile for the contents of your bag to reach your target temperature, there is no way the contents of the bag are going to get hotter than the water bath.  This makes sous vide a pretty forgiving method of cooking.  If you start a bit early and end up leaving your steaks in there for five or six hours instead of four they're still going to come out perfectly cooked.  It's no big deal.

Since the food is vacuum sealed in plastic no flavors get out and no flavors get in.  This is kind of a double edge sword.  Whereas most cooking methods rely on chemical changes at high temperatures to add new flavors to food (a.k.a. maillard reactions), sous vide does not reach high temperatures and therefore gets no benefit from those changes. On the other hand, nothing drips away and is lost either.  Whatever you put in the bag is going to have a long slow intimate cook time with your food.  We're talking truer flavors and literally cooking in their own juices because they got nowhere else to go.

Speaking of the juices.  After cooking meat sous vide there are often juices that are naturally released but captured in the plastic bag.  Under no circumstances should these juices be discarded!  It turns out in addition to tender meat, sous vide makes small quantities of super broth.  Taking a moment to turn these juices into a gravy is a very wise thing to do.  Very wise indeed.

It's not all upside.  Turns out that a lot of food benefits greatly from maillard reactions, so sous vide is not a recommended way to cook everything.  Meat, seafood, and eggs are the most obvious candidates.  However  anything that  benefits from precision might be worth a try via sous vide.

If something is not the same without a bit of searing, you can always do a quick sear after the meat has been cooked via sous vide.  I'm especially interested in what happens when you cook meat sous vide, then chill it back down, and use the searing step to warm the meat back up.  More experimentation is required.

There are a few recipe souces for sous vide dishes, but as of yet, they are not all that extensive - meaning if you get a sous vide you probably should expect to do a bit of your own recipe adaptation and/or inventing.

There is a pretty heavy initial investment in equipment up front.  First you need to buy a sous vide (or a commercial immersion circulater if you got really deep pockets), then you've got to buy some means of vacuum sealing.  These are the two that I have, and thus far, I've been pleased with them:

Sous Vide Supreme
FoodSaver V2240