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.