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Posts Tagged ‘Food’

Consommé

Posted in Food, Low Tech, tagged , , , , , , on 26 Oct 2012| 8 Comments »

Obey the Kitty!(All the puns I could have used to title a post on stock, consommé, and au jus are terrible, so I refuse to pain you with them. Besides, you’re hearing them all in your head right now, anyway.)

Egg whites and I have a long, antagonistic history. I don’t “get” them, and they don’t do much for me. It all goes back to my attempt, at the age of about twelve, of making an angel food cake, from scratch, while my family was out for the day. “Whip the egg whites until they form peaks,” the recipe said. So, bowl in arm and whisk in hand, I beat them until my wrist was ready to crumble. What’s a “peak” anyway? How does one judge”peakiness”? I poured the resulting froth into the cake pan, presuming it would rise during cooking (don’t all cakes rise during cooking?) I took it out of the oven just as my family arrived home. The resulting half-inch high hard-pan custard…jerky…would forever be known as my Angel Food Flop. Egg whites and I have never gotten along, since.

One of the things I’ve always wanted to be able to make is a nice, flavorful, crystal clear beef stock. A consommé, to be precise. Years ago, I went to my copy of La Varenne Pratique to find out how to do it. Great. Egg whites. I tried again and again, and all I got was cloudy stock and a couple of wasted eggs. Or worse. Enter Julia Child.

(more…)

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We Have a Winner

Posted in Food, Low Tech, tagged , , , , , , on 21 Sep 2012| 5 Comments »

Note: This post originally discussed stoneware versus porcelain. I’ve since learned that the “stoneware” I have been purchasing for decades is really “earthenware,” despite what it said on the box. Earthenware and stoneware have some qualities in common–like weight–but stoneware (real stoneware) is stronger and more durable. I’ve updated this post to accurately reflect what it was I owned. Be warned, though: a lot of the “stoneware” dinnerware sets you’ll find out there are probably just earthenware. With that in mind, here’s the updated post:

—————————-

While I am stuck in the spin-cycle that is “The Typesetting of FC:I“, let me share the results of a test I have been conducting.

A year and a half ago I asked the question: Which is better/more durable, porcelain or earthenware?

I got many responses, I read many posts/articles, but nothing… nothing …gave me a definitive answer. I mean, you’d think I was asking about the relative air speed of swallows or something.

But then I had a stroke of luck. I had my 20th year anniversary at the place where I work (yes, Virginia, some people still work at the same company for decades), which entitled me to a “thank you” gift. Now in the past, these have been cheesy tie-pins or cheap wireless weather stations, but this time, they actually had something I could use: porcelain dinnerware.

I leapt at the chance, and so, a year ago, we began our experiment. (more…)

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On Plums

Posted in Food, Writing, tagged , , , , on 11 Sep 2012| Leave a Comment »

I came across this yesterday. The work of a master.

This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

—William Carlos Williams

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Clafouti: I Just Love Saying It

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 03 Sep 2012| 1 Comment »

Say it with me: Clafouti!

This time of year, the fruits of summer are coming thick and fast. If you have a tree in your yard, you’re probably trying to figure out what to do with umpteen pounds of <insert fruit type here>.

For us, it’s Italian plums, aka “Italian prune plums.” This year, it’s a bumper crop. All our friends who also have Italian plum trees in their yards are complaining that the branches are bending near-to-breaking under the weight of all the fruit.

What do you do with a hundred pounds of Italian plums? Well, here’s one thing I found this weekend: Clafouti. (more…)

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No-Knead Bread, with IPA

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on 12 Aug 2012| 2 Comments »

As a follow-up-follow-up to my No-Knead Bread recipe, this addition.

I carried through on my threat to replace all the moisture in this recipe with a more robust beer. And, in my tradition of not doing anything by halves, I used some Ninkasi Total Domination IPA. This is one of the hoppier beers you’ll find in non-specialty groceries, and I thought it would be a good test to see if there was an acceptable outer limit to the hops flavoring that this recipe can take.

As usual, I went with 500g flour to 308-310g liquid. The long rise went well, and it baked up (in a covered pot) as well as any other variation I’ve tried. What we came up with was a very beery bread, with good texture and nice big artisanal bubbles inside. The crust was chewy without being tough or crackly. In short, another good bread.

Except for the hops. This experiment proved that there is, indeed, an acceptable outer limit to the hops flavor a bread can accept, and as much as I like this IPA as a beer, it is outside that limit for bread making.

The intense hops flavor imparted a delayed but lingering, top-of-the-palate bitterness that just didn’t work. I even wondered if, properly paired, it might be a good addition to a meal and decided, no, it isn’t. It was just too much.

So, lesson learned. Nice malty beers or clean, lightly-hopped pilsners/lagers all work fine, but the strong, knock-your-teeth-out IPAs are to be avoided.

k

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A Moveable Feast

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , on 03 Aug 2012| Leave a Comment »

FYI, I’m moving my recipes over here, from their less friendly location in GoogleDocs. Go to the Sustenance page for links.

k

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La Casa Azul

Posted in Food, tagged , , , , on 29 Jul 2012| Leave a Comment »

Seattle’s offerings in Mexican cuisine are usually pretty pedestrian, but if you look off the main tracks and take a chance, sometimes you can find something fresh and interesting.

La Casa Azul is a small but clean little restaurant right up along the northern Seattle city limit. The decor and ambience are intentionally reminiscent of Frida Kahlo’s home, covered with deep blues and bright yellows, and the walls are filled with examples of Frida’s artwork, and photos of her and her beloved Diego.

The menu casts a wide net, leaving behind the standard fare of chimichangas, tostadas, and fajitas, and offering instead some more unusual items, such as tlayudas, lomito puerco ala parilla, and alambres.

The service was exceptional. Our server (the only guy working the floor) switched flawlessly from English to Spanish, provided quick and friendly attention to our desires, was helpful with the menu without condescension, and worked prepping juices and such behind the counter in his free moments.

The sauces were excellent. The mole Coloradito on my wife’s enchiladas was especially good: a stunning melange that hits the palate with the syrupy sweetness of a plum wine, moves smoothly to the charred base and fruity flavor of chiles, and then backs you up against the wall with the threat of biting heat (but not too much). The cream sauce on the gorditas was a pleasant addition, and the salsa (though thin) was flavorful, tart, and zesty.

The presentation of the dishes was top-notch. In short, the entrees were beautiful to the eye and well-proportioned. We left sated but not stuffed. The tortillas and gorditas are made fresh, daily, and the quality shows there, as well.

On the not-so-good side…

The fillings need work. The chicken in my wife’s enchiladas was dry and bland, while the pork filling in my gorditas was both sparse and flavorless.

The sides also need work. The rice was starchy and bland (though that worked out well on my wife’s dish, as a contrast to the mole Coloradito). And the black-bean refritos, though excellent in flavor, needed a bit more body as they were more suited to eating with a spoon (which we didn’t have) than with a fork.

Overall, I would have given La Casa Azul four stars, had the fillings been better, but we’ll definitely go back and give it another try, just to try some of the remarkable items on the menu.

k

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