MOCK EEL

MOVING THE BLOG

2008-10-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, for the sake of simplicity, I'm compiling all my blogs into one at blog.nermo.com.

Everything from this food blog - past and future - can be found at http://blog.nermo.com/?cat=13 so bookmark that link if you want to keep up with the Mockeel food blog, or just read it all if you have the patience.

JOURNAL: Dairy Aisle Dating

2008-10-09T14:59:00.000-07:00

There’s nothing better than listening to a conversation between a food-blogger and a relationship-blogger, constantly trying to fit what the other is saying into their own framework.

I was out to lunch with my friend Amanda today, discussing the pig roast we’re going to on Sunday, and as I recounted the menu, she perked up when I mentioned the “three-cheese” mac and cheese, and I had to interject.

"People get so excited when they hear 'five-cheese mac,' or 'seventeen-cheese mac,' but it isn’t an indication of quality. It just shows that the cook lacks commitment."

Amanda asked if that means an ideal mate makes mac and cheese with only one variety of cheese, and I said, “no, as in dating, you wouldn’t want someone who has only ever been involved with one cheese, but at the same time, you don’t want to end up with someone who’s already been up and down the dairy aisle."

PHOTOJOURNAL: Morning After Parents' Dinner

2008-10-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

iPhone Photo

Those bacon wrapped asparagus were too good not to make more. They're a perfect breakfast when dipped in the yolk of a soft-boiled egg with a toasted roll on the side.

PHOTOJOURNAL: Birthday Breakfast

2008-10-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

I woke up, an hour after turning thirty (if my mother is correct in her recollection that I was born at 6:03 am… and if we ignore the time difference between where I live and where I was born) craving a rare roast beef sandwich.

Here’s what I ate:

That’s ciabatta with
(in descending order):

Sambal Oelek Mayo
Peppadew Peppers
Roma Tomatoes
Butter Lettuce
Rare Roast Beef
Red onion
Provolone
Horseradish Mayo

RECIPE: Misfortune Cookies

2008-10-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

For guests at my 30th birthday party, I threw together a batch of "misfortune cookies." They are fairly conventional cookies, except for the fortunes. I tried a few recipes, but they didn't satisfy me, so I made my own.

Favorite fortunes included:

"No matter what you do in life, you’re still screwed thanks to global warming."
"See your doctor. It’s not 'just a rash.'”
"Made in Taiwan."
"This fortune will self-destruct in 5 4 3 2 1…"
"Nobody loves you. They only tolerate you."
"Despite what you’ve been told, you actually do look fat in those pants."
"Allergy Warning: cookies are processed in a plant that manufactures products with dairy, peanuts and raw sewage."
"Congratulations! You chose the poison cookie."
"It’s just a matter of time before you get caught."
"Your thighs won’t appreciate you eating this cookie."
"It’s not me; it’s you."
"As you read this, small Gypsy children are picking your pockets."

Fortune Cookie Recipe

2 large eggs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon triple sec
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar

1. Heat an ungreased, non-stick griddle pan to between 350 and 375 degrees.
2. Whisk together egg, oil, vanilla, triple sec and water.
3. Continuing whisking, while sifting remaining ingredients into bowl.
4. Whisk until batter is consistent and transfer into a measuring cup or other item with handle and spout.
5. Pour 4-inch circles of batter onto griddle (see note).
6. Flip cookie when the first side starts to turn golden and remove when golden on both sides.
7. You’ve got about 15 seconds to make the fold before the cookie gets brittle.
a. Place a fortune in the center of the cookie and fold the two opposite sides together, pinching where the edges meet between your left thumb and index finger.
b. With the cookie hanging down from where you are pinching, pull down the two corners with your right thumb and index finger.
c. Place in an empty egg carton to hold its shape while cooling.

Note: I found the easiest way to get a perfect 4-inch circle was to pour batter onto the griddle pan, spread it thin with the edge of a spatula to just larger than needed, and after about 15-seconds, place a 4-inch round cookie cutter into the batter and tear away the excess. Even with the waste pieces, I was still able to get over a dozen cookies from this recipe.

MENU: Dinner For The 'Rents

2008-09-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

here's what I made:

Amuse Bouche: Maple glazed nuts
Appetizer: Crispy bacon-wrapped asparagus
Salad: Caprese
Main: Roasted Chicken
Side: Mushroom Mac and Cheese
Dessert: Granola-topped blueberry compote and yogurt (made by TSB)

Notes:

Maple glazed nuts were obscenely easy. I tossed six cups of mixed nuts in a mixture of 1/4 cup Vermont pure maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of herbes de Provence, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne and some salt and pepper. Baked at 350 for 15 minutes and stirred half way through.

The chicken roasting technique, learned from Jacques Pepin, was a blessing. At more than 4 pounds, the bird was cooked to perfection in just over a half hour! The trick is to cut out the spine (I used a cleaver, but recommend shears), lay it out flat, seer the “inside” of the bird over high heat for 5 minutes and then throw the sauté pan into a 450 degree oven for a half hour.

JOURNAL: Planning Dinner For My Parents

2008-09-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

My folks are visiting from Vermont for the first time and I am making dinner for them and TSB (they like her very much) tomorrow.

I need to come up with a menu. They have more traditional tastes, and when I visit, I end up making wacky Asian-inspired feasts that they like, but would never order, so this time I am trying to tone it down a bit.

All I know for sure is that we're starting with crispy, bacon-wrapped asparagus. After that, I am thinking a warm salad and a cold salad, some meaty entrée and dessert. Let’s take a look and see what is in season right now…

A google search for “produce currently in season northern california,” led me to this chart, which was less than inspiring, but interesting. Apparently everything BUT asparagus is in season right now.

I also learned that September is National Mushroom Month, so maybe I’ll dig around for some recipes…

Mushroom Risotto Recipes from Tyler Florence, Emeril, Wolfgang Puck, Giada De Laurentis, Rachael Ray, Bon Appetite, Gourmet, Gourmet and Gourmet. Emeril does a great looking Pumpkins stuffed with mushroom risotto and roast duck recipe, but my dad doesn’t eat anything in the squash family.

Mushroom Mac and Cheese would be good. Maybe I will mess with my magical mac to add a few fungi for flavor.

San Francisco Summer Menu

2008-08-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

This won't be anything like what you are expecting. It's really cold here during the summer. Last night TSB was buried under paperwork, so I offered to make a hearty spread of comfort food to help sustain her working into the night. Without a plan upon reaching the grocery store and without really realizing it until I started to cook, I made all sorts of traditionally fall foods. Ultimately it makes sense, considering that it will be cold and damp here for the next few weeks, but it feels odd to make this stuff in the summer.

Rustic whole-grain bread
Steamed artichoke with garlic butter
Salad of arugula, grilled peaches and goat cheese with a balsamic vinagrette
Mashed sweet potatoes and squash with roasted parsnip and grilled apple
Penne in a cream sauce (loaded with shallots, sun-dried tomatoes, red belle peppers, mushrooms and chicken apple sausage)

In an attempt to motivate each other to blog, TSB and I decided to both blog our SF Summer menus. Read all about her's here.

JOURNAL: A Proper Cheese Plate

2008-08-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

Cheese plates, like the one I am eating now, are simple elegant and delicious, but there is a formula for maximum enjoyment. Here's my first draft of the perfect cheese plate.

CHEESE
Texture	1 soft	1 semi-soft	1 hard
Flavor	1 strong	1 medium	1 mild
Source	2 cows	1 sheep or goat

STARCH	1 white bread	1 dark bread	1 cracker or other

FRUIT	1 stone fruit	1 berry	1 other
	1 fresh	1 dry	1 processed

PROTEIN	1 hard, salted meat	1 nut

ADDITIONAL ITEMS	honey, balsamic reduction, herb butter, maple butter, olives, pickled vegetables, etc.

As an afterthought, I dug up some articles on making a cheese plate:

Wikihow says have a theme [disagree], go with odd numbers [agree], Arrange your cheeses from mildest to strongest [lame], Add accompaniments [duh], and Pick a drink to go with it [to which I must ask, "only one?"]

Chow says diversify by regional origin as well as texture and source [good point, but not as crucial unless you are trying to impress someone, and it won't work], choose 4 cheeses including a semi-firm [I still like odd numbers and am fine with a semi-firm or semi-soft], plate according to strength of flavor [still lame, and I'm not going to arrange my cheese in a straight line regardless].

Artisinalcheese.com is broad but boring and commercial.

Food Network divides cheeses by production style (fresh, washed-rind, bloomy, pressed, and blue) which I found thought provoking.

LINK: Molecular Mixology

2008-08-11T17:15:00.000-07:00

Forbes posted an article about a month ago on using molecular gastronomy techniques in cocktail creation (with recipes). I've toyed with this a bit myself, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they have and stealing some of their ideas.

Thanks to Catlin for sending me the article.

JOURNAL: Miracle Fruit Resource Compilation

2008-07-31T15:55:00.000-07:00

Info:
Wikipedia
NY Times Article
Miracle Fruit Facts
Magical Fruit Info Site
The Old Sweet Lime Trick
Wall St. Journal Article
Freedom to Tinker

Sales:
Miracle Fruit Man
Miracle Fruit Tab

Note: I think I am going to order a Miracle Fruit Tree tomorrow.

JOURNAL: Flavor-Tripping

2008-07-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

I was tragically too late to buy tickets to the Flavortripping SF party at Prana on Monday.

Essentially, you pop a Miracle Fruit (Sideroxylon dulcificum), and for the next hour or two it makes everything bitter or sour taste sweet in mind-bending ways. They serve a variety of food and drink that, under the influence of miracle fruit, take on the characteristics of sweet delights. According to Thrillist:

Upon arrival. you pop your berry and hit Sup' and 'Stache's largest buffet to date: puckering garnishes, wretched fruit, sauces, etc, painstakingly picked to showcase dulcifuma's transformative powers, from cheeses that evoke frostings to grapefruit that tastes of pixie stix (you don't even want to know what an actual pixie stick would do to you). Beverages also get the treatment, with unsweetened juices that'll taste like Five-Alive, plus a bevy of lambic beers and stouts that'll go down like milkshakes and tequila that'll taste so much like lemonade, you'll be tempted to sell it to neighborhood moms for a quarter.

I'm jealous that they sold out before I could buy tickets, but I have resolved to do a little research and design and host my own Miracle Fruit Dinner Party. Look out San Francisco.

JOURNAL: Grumpy Non-Griller

2008-07-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

I spent most of last week camping at Big Basin with a half-dozen other people. I brought a huge pile of tri-tip to grill on "our night" to do dinner, and I was looking forward to it. I bought the meat, TSB marinated it, and then I totally got bumped off the grill when it was time to cook.

I'm not the territorial type, so I tried to let it go, but these guys had absolutely no idea what they were doing and it was killing me to watch them butcher my meat (figuratively). I thought I could step back, but I found myself hovering, saying things like, "you really don't need to flip it so often," and, "you want coals under the grate, not flaming, smoking logs," but to no avail.

Here are a few tips for campfire grilling. Please memorize them if you ever want to go camping with me and intend to hijack my tongs.

Coals, not Carnage:Let the wood burn until the flames are gone but the coals are hot. You want the heat without the sooty deposits that seriously spoil the flavor.
Flip a steak ONCE. No more, no less.
No stabbing: Don't poke it, squish it down with a spatula, or cut into it. Squeeze it if you need to see how well done it is.
Let it rest: Don't cut into the meat until it's been off the grill for 10 minutes. You'll survive the wait and the meat will be juicier for it.
Bank the coals so that there is a hot side and a cooler side so you can seer the meat and then move it over, but not immolate it.
Relax:There's no hurry. You're in the woods. There's nowhere to rush off to after dinner, so relax and let the meat cook a little more slowly than your primal instincts drive you to do.

RECIPES: Platter of Brain Matter

2008-07-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I hosted the Backyard Zombie Film Festival and Obscene Barbecue at my place. We fired up the grill, filled the cooler and set up a projector to watch a couple of zombie flicks.

We promised a “three-corpse meal,” and my contribution to the appetizers was a platter of brain matter. I made Olive Tapenade, Baba Ghanouj, Red Pepper Hummus, and Edamame Hummus, served with tortilla chips and pita wedges. Each one, ultimately rather grey and mushy was labeled with a toothpick flag as one part of the brain. I think I served them as “Medulla,” Cerebellum,” “Cerebral Cortex,” and, “Frontal Lobe.”

I brought some into work for the office picnic too, but decided to just use the traditional names. People in both groups asked for the recipes, so here they are.

Olive Tapenade
2 c pitted Kalamata
1 cups pitted nicoise
1 large shallot, finely diced
¼ garlic clove, finely diced
8 sun dried tomatoes, finely diced
Juice of one lemon
1 tablespoons capers
½ teaspoon black pepper

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor.

Baba Ghanouj
2 medium eggplants (about 1 pound each)
Juice of two lemons (about ½ cup)
¼ cup or ½ cup tahini (I forget)
¼ cup olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Halve eggplants from end to end and lay open side down on a greased baking sheet. Bake 45 minutes.
3. Peel while still hot, squeeze out some of the moisture and cut into several pieces.
4. Combine all ingredients in food processor and pulse until almost smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Refrigerate until room temperature or cooler before serving.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
2 16-ounce can of chickpeas
½ cup tahini
¾ cup roasted red peppers
juice of 2 lemons
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper

1. Combine chickpeas, tahini, ½ cup peppers, garlic and lemon juice in food processor. Pulse to combine.
2. Add olive oil while pulsing until smooth, and desired consistency (you may not need all of the oil). Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Add remaining peppers and pulse until chunky.

Edamame Hummus
1 pound shelled, cooked edamame (don’t work too hard; buy a bag of cooked, shelled beans)
½ cup tahini
4 tablespoons soy sauce
Juice of 1 lemon ( ¼ cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, finely minced
¼- ½ cup olive oil
pepper

1. Combine edamame, tahini, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic and shallot in food processor until chunky but consistent.
2. Add olive oil while pulsing until it reaches your desired consistency (It’s better left a little chunkier). Season with pepper to taste.

NOTE: Martini Is The Name Of A Drink, Not A Category

2008-07-01T11:57:00.001-07:00

While I'm on the topic of common misconceptions in contemporary American culture...

I went to a wedding reception last weekend which featured a martini bar. To me, that's bottles of gin, vodka and vermouth with a couple lemons and a jar of olives. These items were relegated to the bottom of the placard as, "traditional martinis also available," right below the appletini, chocolate martini, cosmo, lemondrop, etc, etc, etc.

Let’s clarify: PUTTING A COCKTAIL IN A MARTINI GLASS DOES NOT MAKE IT A MARTINI.

It seems that of late, any cocktail that is composed entirely of alcohol, more or less translucent and served in a martini glass is getting a “-tini” tacked on the end or being called a (descriptive noun) Martini. Just call it a cocktail.

-----
Good radio show about the recent cocktail revival/renaissance on KQED:
Download (mp3)

NOTE: Barbecue vs. Grilling

2008-07-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

While I am on the topic of barbecue, let’s talk about the difference between barbecuing and grilling.

I, like so many, use the words interchangeably in conversation, but really barbecue is meat cooked over low heat for a long time, while grilling is what you do to steaks and burgers in the back yard.

The event where meat is grilled is called a barbecue, so that’s where I think it all got muddled, but I don’t want to be the poindexer who invites friends to a "grilling" on my patio.

Speaking of muddled, I could go for a mojito right about now.

Here, watch an irritating video on the topic:

JOURNAl: Asian BBQ Menu

2008-06-30T22:51:00.000-07:00

Motivated by an article in New York Magazine about a new Asian barbecue spot in the West Village, I’ve started planning an Asian BBQ menu of my own for a party in the not too distant future.

A couple familiar items from the Chinese New Year Dinner Party will necessarily be present. Here’s what I am thinking so far:

• OMG Ribs
• Whole tea-smoked chicken or game hen stuffed with rice, herbs and dried fruit
• Vietnamese-style BBQ duck soup dumplings (maybe soup isn’t right for the occasion. I wonder if I can steam then grill the dumplings)
• BBQ pork steamed buns
• Asian variations on macaroni salad and potato salad
• Ceviche (I know it isn’t really Asian or BBQ, but I think it would be a great accompaniment. I can always dress the fish sashimi-style in yuzu juice, soy sauce, cilantro and scallion)
• Japanese-style pickled veggies
• Haupia with mango pearls and grilled lime wedges
• The Hiro-Jito
• Thai basil or shiso lemonade (recipe below)

Thai Basil or Shiso Lemonade

1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 bunch Thai basil (about ¾ cup) or Shiso (Japanese mint) leaves
1 ½ cups sugar
7 cups water
2 cups lemon juice (about a dozen lemons worth)

1. Muddle lemon slices, leaves and sugar thoroughly in bottom of pitcher.
2. Add water and lemon juice.
3. Stir until sugar has fully dissolved and chill.

JOURNAL: Iron Chef Vindication

2008-06-15T22:23:00.001-07:00

Nearly a year after the last Iron Chef challenge, where I lost Battle Mango, I have redeemed myself in Battle Pillsbury Crescent Roll Dough.

My Spanakopita Pockets won best overall dish (pre-cooked filling and an egg wash were key) and combined with my fruit tarts, I was crowned Iron Chef. The tarts were made by baking squares of dough in muffin tins and filling them with vanilla ice cream, raspberry peach compote and topping them off with Kumquat-cello whipped cream.

TSB made some tasty samosas and apple pie pockets and tonight I finished off her samosas by adding a couple eggs to the last two cups of spiced potato filling and frying it like a pancake. I topped it with a little spicy ketchup (1 part sriracha to 5 parts ketchup) and called it dinner.

TSB just started her own food blog. Check it out, but try not to like it better than mine. She's a lot cuter, both in person and in her writing, so I may regret sending you to her. Who am I kidding, she's the only one who reads this. Hi, Schatz!

JOURNAL: Cupcake Bake-Off Preparation

2008-05-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

I just signed on for a charity cupcake bake-off that's about 3 weeks away. I'm thinking of a few different entries, including ginger-peach with cream cheese frosting, something Mojito inspired, and something chocolate with an edible wrapper (maybe wrapped in puff pastry instead of the paper cup or totally surrounded like beef wellington). I'll update as things progress.

RECIPE: Bacon Wrapped Dates

2008-05-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

A good breakfast snack for the days when you start drinking early.
I guess that makes it a brunch snack.
Whatever.

1 pound Medjool dates (about 30), pitted
1 pound bacon (about 15 slices), cut in half
30 Pecans (pieces work just as well as whole nuts though.)
3 wooden skewers, soaked in water for an hour

Replace the pits with pecans, wrap each date in bacon and slide ten on each skewer. Grill 3-5 minutes on each side until bacon is crispy.

Tip: remove pits with a chopstick. Most are easy enough to remove just by sliding the point in at one end, lining up with the tip of the pit and pushing out the other side. Tougher ones require stabbing a hole in both ends with the point and then pushing the pit out with the blunt end of the stick. Either way, it's much less sticky and slow than doing it by hand.

RECIPE: Bloody Buddy

2008-05-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

I've was never a fan of the bloody mary until I had a pre-brunch bloody at Finnegan's Wake while waiting for a table to open up at Zazie. I'm not quite sure what the old man put in my drink, but I now love the occasional (very well made) bloody mary.

As temperatures in San Francisco have reached week-long record highs, and my apartment is ecologically AC-free, the only thing that's putting me comfortably to sleep is an ice-cold bloody mary. My off-color recipe follows:

1 ounce firewater
1 ounce good vodka
4 ounces V-8
1 dash Pickapeppa sauce
2 teaspoons meyer lemon juice
pinch very coarsely cracked pepper
pinch celery salt
3 cubes ice, cracked
Celery stalk or dill pickle spear for stirring

Pairs nicely with a tall can of PBR.

JOURNAL: Latin-Japanese Fusion

2008-05-03T22:44:00.000-07:00

I’ve been out of the kitchen for a while, but I want to jot down a few ideas before I lose them.
OK, so there are only two items on the menu right now, but I’ll keep working on it. It would probably be easier if the dishes weren’t inspired by their quirky names.

Tako Taco
Tako is the Japanese word for octopus.
Taco is the Mexican word for taco.
Right now I’m picturing either a tangy octopus salad (Tako salad?) or breaded fried slices all wrapped up in a tortilla with avocado, shredded veg, spicy sauce and a squirt of lime juice.

Hiro-jito
Shiso is one of the primary aromatics in Japanese cuisine and a relative of mint.
Mojito is Cuban cocktail made with rum, soda, sugar, lime juice, and mint.
Hirohito was the 124th Emperor of Japan.
Enough said.

I’m also thinking of a high-class street food. Offal Falafel anyone?

DISCOVERY: Canned Chipotle in Adobo

2008-04-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is my newest fascination, ever since I tried TSB’s stepmom’s twice baked sweet potatoes at Easter. She mashes the baked sweet potatoes with chipotle and adobo sour cream, folds in cheese and then bakes them again. So delectably rich and piquant! I managed to replicate it pretty well, so I'll post the recipe soon.

Last night I made a chipotle mayo for a grilled turkey sandwich with some of what was left in the can, but I wish I had found these links before I threw away the dregs. Chowhound Epicurious

RECIPE: TSB’s Pizza Sauce

2008-03-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago, TSB came over to make pizza with me. I’m a big fan of buying dough at the pizzeria or grocery store (Trader Joe’s has decent whole wheat dough), rolling it thin and grilling it on my Griddler, before covering it with cheese, sauce and toppings. A few minutes in the oven at 400 degrees to melt the cheese and warm it through, and you have a great pizza.

Last week’s homemade ravioli experiment taught us that she and I are not the best culinary collaborators without a designated leader, but when one of us takes the helm and they other plays sous chef, we make a great team in the kitchen.

We built one pizza with grilled turkey ham, sautéed shallots and leeks, and goat cheese and another with sautéed mushrooms and goat cheese, and based on the remaining ingredients, we made a shallot, leek, mushroom and goat cheese pie.

I was assigned to grill the dough and prep the veggies, while she took the lead on designing the menu, creating the toppings, and cooking the sauce. This was the first time she had made pizza sauce, and had recently decided she wanted to create her own recipe. That night she engaged in what we expected would be a long and arduous process of revamping and fine tuning, but by Jove, she nailed it the first time! This sauce is incredible, and despite my foolhardy urging, has no added sugar, so it is far better for you than what you can buy in a jar.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
½ can tomato paste
3 stewed Roma tomatoes from a can
¼ cup cabernet sauvignon
2 tablespoons dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf

1. Heat olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat.
2. Smash and peel two cloves garlic and add to pan, removing when they start to brown.
3. Add remaining ingredients and let simmer and thicken, stirring frequently.
4. Remove bay leaf before using.

JOURNAL: Firewater

2008-03-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon, I was searching the Ferry Building Farmer's Market in San Francisco for something new and unique to infuse in vodka. There was little that thrilled me, so I settled on a packet of dried spicy peppers that seems to include habanero, Thai, cayenne and maybe pepperoncini (I am guessing based on looks, but I wouldn't expect it to be so hot).

I softened one of each in a half cup of Stoli for a day and then poured it all into a bottle and topped it off with another half cup or so. As I was transferring it into the bottle, I dipped my finger into the vodka and it was so hot after only a day that I felt the burn in the back of my throat an hour later and I am sure I will need to do dilute it quite a bit.

I'm planning some serious bloody marys and have started to ponder where else spicy vodka might be suitable. For some reason, my mind keeps going back to grapefruit juice. Is that wrong?

If you have any suggestions for hot cocktails, leave me a comment.

JOURNAL: Vietnamese Sandwiches (Bánh mì)

2008-03-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

I would hate to imply that colonialism could be a good thing, but when I bite into a Vietnamese sandwich (Bánh mì), I have to catch myself. People were oppressed, enslaved and killed, but when potent Southeast Asian flavors are intertwined with pâté and mayo on a crusty, toasted baguette, it’s enough to make me forget the atrocities. Whether it’s barbecued chicken, meatballs or shredded pork on top of those pickled veggies, spicy peppers and tangy sauces, my moral fiber begins to weaken as soon as I start chewing.

RECIPE: Garage Sale Curry

2008-02-17T19:01:00.000-08:00

As necessity is the mother of culinary innovation, I just MacGyvered a new curry for dinner and it is surprisingly tasty. I was craving the coconut curry sauce from last week's Lunar New Year party, but lacking some vital ingredients, I got creative with what I could find around the house (ok, really just around the kitchen). What I ended up with was a scrumptious and spicy pineapple coconut shrimp curry. Oddly, this pairs well with Orange Fanta, but a dry white wine would be nice as well.

2 tablespoons oil
3 large shallots, diced *
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon red chili flakes (optional, but good if you like spicy)
1 red bell pepper, seeded, ribbed and julienned
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, ribbed and diced
1 20 ounce can pineapple chunks, drained *
1 14 ounce can coconut milk *
1-2 cups medium size, raw shrimp
1 lime, juiced and zested

* items that everyone should always have on hand, but so few people do.

1. In a stir-fry or other large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil until shimmering over medium high heat. Add shallots and garlic and sauté until soft.
2. Add all but the last three ingredients and stir fry 3-4 minutes more before adding the coconut milk.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes to reduce.
4. While curry simmers, heat remaining tablespoon of oil in another pan over medium heat. Add shrimp and cook two minutes on each side, then add to the shrimp to the curry and remove from heat.
5. Finish sauce with lime juice, serve over rice noodles and garnish with zest, but not too much zest.

JOURNAL: Party Report And Menu With Recipe Links

2008-02-11T18:16:00.000-08:00

The dinner party went off without a hitch, other than my being chained to the stove more than half the night. That was to be expected and my kitchen is open to the main party room, so I got to visit with all 18 guests as they munched and mingled. Several friends also stopped into the kitchen to lend a hand with stuffing wontons, stirring sauces, wrapping spring rolls and washing dishes.

What I served:

First Course: Dim Sum Starters

Shrimp and pork potstickers
Crab Mangoon
Vietnamese spring rolls
OMG ribs

Second Course: Noodle Bar

Noodles: glass, rice and egg
Sauces: Peanut Sauce, Coconut Curry, Asian Pesto
Veggies: snap peas, cucumbers, beets, carrots, broccolis, tofu, peppers, sprouts, mushrooms
Seasoning: Sriracha, soy, hoisin, chili paste, rice vinegar, mirin, sesame oil
Toppings: sesame seeds, scallion, lime wedges, cilantro, mint, basil, peanuts
Meat: rare, thinly sliced beef

Dessert

Oranges
Wonton Cannolis filled with Haupia and mango caviar
Ginger bacon cookies

Special thanks to TSB and her lovely roommate for secretly cleaning my apartment while I was working at the museum Saturday.

RECIPE: Haupia (Hawaiian Coconut Pudding)

2008-02-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

It's easy, it's traditional, and it's delicious. My only concern is that, like a cornstarch-thickened gravy, it's hard to get out all the lumps.

1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
Vanilla (I scraped out about 1/5 of a bean, but I would guess that a few drops or a 1/4 teaspoon extract would do the trick)

1. Whisk together all ingredients in saucepan over low heat, whisking occasionally until thickened.
2. Chill.

ANNOUNCEMENT: To all grocery clerks

2008-02-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

Just because I bring my own reusable grocery bags, please do not assume that I would like to bag my own groceries.

JOURNAL: Potstickers

2008-02-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

My dear mother wanted to make my potsticker dumplings for a family dinner while I was visiting Vermont. Annoyed that I couldn't give her a recipe more precise than a grocery list, she stuck out a measuring cup every time I reached to add a fistful, pinch, splash or squirt to the mixing bowl, and then carefully recorded the recipe.

In transcribing the recipe, it hit me that traditional potstickers are steamed and then fried, but I fry mine first and then braise them. I have no idea how or why I began cooking them this way, but as far back as I can remember, I have filled wantons with raw ingredients, fried them to crisp the wrappers, then poured in broth and cooked them until the liquid was reduced by about 80%.

Actually 80% is a guess. Like my lack of measurements in this dish, I also don't time the cooking or go by sight to determine doneness. I think it bothered my mom a bit when she asked me when they would be done and I told her she didn’t need to lift the lid because I would be able to hear when they were ready. The best way I can describe it is to say that when the bubbling noise first turns to a sizzle sound, they are perfectly cooked and ready to be served.

If nothing else, my process saves time and dirty dishes, because it all happens in one pan without removing the dumplings.

RECIPE: Potstickers

2008-02-07T16:39:00.000-08:00

2 pounds bok choy
2 pounds pork, finely chopped (almost to the point of looking like ground meat)
1 pound raw, shelled shrimp, finely chopped
1 small can water chestnuts, ¼ inch dice
1 small can bamboo shoots, ¼ inch dice
6 scallions, cut to ¼ inch rings
3 shallots, fine dice
2 large carrots, shredded
2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 cloves garlic, fine dice
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
5 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons Sriracha
1 cup panko flakes (optional)
1 package Wonton wrappers
2 cups chicken broth

1. Combine all but last three ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour to overnight.
2. Put a couple of drops of cooking oil in a large, hot sauté pan and add 1 tablespoon filling. Stir fry until cooked through and taste. Adjust seasoning accordingly. If filling is very wet or loose, or on a whim, add ½ to 1 cup panko flakes.
3. Lay out several rows of wontons, and place a round tablespoon of filling on each.
4. Wet one finger (no, not with spit) and moisten the outside edge of the wonton, then fold it in half to make a triangle and pinch along the edges to seal. Use a fork to crimp the edges.
5. Heat 1-2 tablespoons oil in a large, heavy-bottom sauté pan, and fill with dumplings, being sure they don’t touch. Once golden brown, flip the dumplings and brown the other side.
6. Add ½ cup broth to the pan, keeping in mind that if the dumplings didn’t absorb enough, you are essentially pouring water into hot oil, which is dangerous and stupid…but no recipe devoid of danger and stupidity could ever be as fun.
7. Shake pan back and forth until all dumplings slide freely, then cover. Shake occasionally and wait until the broth has reduced to the consistency of maple syrup.
8. Repeat until all potstickers are cooked, keeping them in a warm oven until all are ready to serve.

RECIPE: Orange Maple Ginger (OMG!) Ribs

2008-02-06T18:51:00.000-08:00

4 pounds pork spareribs, cut to 2-inch lengths and separated
¾ cup soy sauce
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and minced
8 scallions, roughly diced
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 cup chicken broth 1 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoon orange zest
2 cloves garlic, minced

1. Combine ribs, ½ cup soy sauce, ½ of the ginger, scallions and star anise in a large pot. Add water to cover. Cover and simmer until cooked through, 20-30 minutes.
2. Cool to room temperature in cooking liquid, then drain, or just refrigerate covered, in the liquid overnight.
3. Combine ¼ cup soy sauce, remaining ginger, broth, syrup, zest and garlic in an oiled stir-fry pan or large skillet over high heat and cook down to thicken (3-4 minutes).
4. Add ribs and stir-fry about 5 minutes until ribs are coated in a thick glaze.
Note: Alternately, follow steps 1, 2 and 3 but brush the sauce onto the ribs as a glaze on a hot grill.

RECIPE: Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls (draft)

2008-02-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

15 Rice paper rounds
½ cup Hoisin Sauce
1 tablespoon chili garlic paste
3 tablespoons chopped peanuts
1 pound firm tofu, cut into ½ inch thick spears and flash fried
or 1 pound shrimp, cooked and shelled, or ½ pound of each
1 large carrot, shredded long (cut lengthwise into strips almost to the top, then use a peeler along cut side to make long shreds)
1 medium cucumber, seeded, long julienne
1 fist-full of romaine Lettuce (I haven't decided how much lettuce to use)
2 or 3 Scallions, cut into long ribbons
1 cup cooked rice stick noodles
½ cup cilantro leaves
½ cup mint leaves

1. Soak the rice paper in warm water until soft but not limp. Layer between damp paper towels and set aside.
2. Mix hoisin sauce, chili garlic paste and peanuts in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Right before serving, combine 1/15 of the remaining ingredients on each of the sheets of rice paper, roll like a burrito and cut in half at a diagonal. Serve cold with sauce for dipping.

SURVEY: New Party Menu Considerations

2008-02-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

New considerations for Saturday's appetizer menu are listed below.

If you want to see them served or prevent their production, leave a comment!

Deviled Eggs topped with Uni (sea urchin roe)
Mock Eel
Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings
Gongee
Mango pudding (actually, that would be dessert, huh?)

RECIPES: Noodles Sauces

2008-02-03T00:12:00.000-08:00

Peanut Sauce

1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons Sriracha
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 cup veggie (chicken if you aren't feeding vegetarians) broth
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
4 scallions, finely chopped

1. Mix all ingredients.

Asian Pesto Sauce
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup lime juice
1 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup Thai basil
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/4 cup scallion
1 green chile, seeded
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper.

1. Combine in blender.
2. Blend.

Coconut Curry Sauce
1 tablespoon oil
1 large onion, diced
2 gloves garlic, minced
2 inches fresh ginger, minced
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups canned chopped tomatoes
1 14-ounce san coconut milk
1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1. Add oil to large pan over high heat. Add onion and garlic, stir-fry until softened.
2. Add all but the last three ingredients and fry 2 to 3 minutes more, until aromatic.
3. Add last three ingredients and simmer to thicken, about ten minutes.

PHOTOS: Carrot Caviar Pearls

2008-01-31T13:54:00.001-08:00

JOURNAL: I hate to be so harsh...

2008-01-30T21:40:00.000-08:00

...but Trader Joe's frozen Potato & Cheddar Perogi are utterly awful. I figured this out first and only time I made them, but TSB didn't get the memo and left a box in my freezer one night when I offered to make her something else.

I broke a tooth this morning on my way into a meeting, and combined with my lack of time, money and food in the fridge this week, I decided that the pillowy soft perogi could be my dinner solution.

I boiled them, fried them in butter and smothered them in cheese I smuggled back from Vermont, but they were still horrible. I should have just skipped dinner.

To lighten my spirits, I’m going to use my new toys to make a fried egg out of mango juice and coconut milk. I’ll let you know how it turns out...

Not too shabby, huh?

JOURNAL: Party Planning Calamity

2008-01-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

I was just reminded that the art museum where I work is having a community open house, and that I am, of course, expected to be there all day, but it’s the same day as my Lunar New Year dinner party, which means I might have to reconsider what I am serving and I definitely need to plan preparations that starts this weekend, working on it every night so I will be ready by next Saturday.

I suppose this is the lifestyle to which I need to become accustomed, if I want to have a social life. For those of you that don’t know, as of this week, I am working three jobs: 40 hours a week at the art college, plus teaching another class there beyond full time, and I am the Visual Arts Educator at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which involves teaching an after school printmaking class, among other responsibilities, like the open house.

I love the irony! Literally, as I finished writing that last paragraph, my boss walked into my office and asked if I could work this Saturday (don’t worry Ryan, it was during lunch. I’m not blogging on the job).

Before this weekend, I need to: choose recipes, clean my apartment, finalize my guest list, send invitations

JOURNAL: Lunar New Year Party Menu Refined

2008-01-29T12:58:00.000-08:00

First Course: Dim Sum Starters

Shrimp and pork potstickers
Crab Mangoon
Vietnamese spring rolls
Steamed BBQ duck buns
BBQ ribs

Second Course: Noodle/Soup Bar

Noodles: glass, rice, egg
Broth: vegetable, chicken
Sauces: peanut, curry...
Veggies: snap peas, cucumber, beet, carrot, jicama, broccoli, pumpkin, tofu, cabbage, peppers, sprouts, carrot, spinach, mushrooms...
Seasoning: Sriracha, soy, hoisin, chili paste, rice vinegar, mirin, sesame oil...
Toppings: sesame seeds, scallion, lime wedges, cilantro, mint, peanuts...
Meat: chicken, beef...

Dessert

Oranges
Wonton Cannolis filled with fruit, nuts, something creamy
Steamed lotus nut buns

JOURNAL: Molecularly Gastronomical Advances

2008-01-29T09:23:00.000-08:00

Here’s what I have discovered since my first experiment:

Carrot Juice requires less sodium alginate. I could have gone with ½ teaspoon per cup.

Rather than pour water back and forth between bowls through a strainer, I added another cup of water to the bowl and set the strainer inside, so that once I had dripped in enough juice, I simply lifted the strainer and rinsed the pearls within.

With a smaller tipped syringe, I can drain the “noodle” and then refill it with something else, potentially making a many-layered tube.

You can make larger “ravioli” by pouring a big glob of juice in a little bowl and then pouring calcium water over it.

The ravioli can be drained, inflated and resealed, making balloons of carrot juice jelly. They don't stretch particularly well, but can be inflated at least to their original size. Yeah, I have no idea what practical purpose this could serve, but hell, I had fun figuring it out. I was like a 12 year-old kid with a chemistry set.

Once the pearls gelled all the way through, they reminded me of Orbitz, a fad soft drink from the late 90s that had little gel balls suspended in it. I think that it may have been the same thing, but wikipedia says it contained gellan and a Perdue chemistry class page said it was xantham gum.

Carrot Pearls mixed with mango juice and Veev makes for a cocktail that is neither particularly good nor particularly bad. I think that goes for Veev on it's own as well.

RECIPE: Mango Caviar Pearls

2008-01-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

1 cup mango (or other) juice

1 teaspoon sodium alginate

1 cup water

1 teaspoon calcium chloride

1. In a small saucepan, add the sodium alginate to the juice, gradually sprinkling while whisking vigorously over medium heat. If you have one, use an immersion blender instead of the whisk before turning on the heat.

2. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for one minute.

3. Remove from heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl and let cool to room temperature. A short stint in the freezer will expedite the process.

4. Combine water and calcium chloride in a bowl, stirring to dissolve.

5. Pour cooled juice into a plastic squeeze bottle or large syringe and drip it into the water until the bottom of the bowl is covered in a solid layer of spheres. Let sit one minute while you clean the goo out of your strainer.

6. Place strainer over a second bowl, then pour the contents of the first bowl through the strainer.

7. Rinse the pearls in the strainer and transfer to a kitchen towel to dry.

8. Repeat until you run out of juice.

Serve within an hour, because when I nipped one the morning after, it had gelled all the way through. Not bad, but not as exciting.

Note: another interesting variation is the mango noodle. Rather than dripping, I put the tip of the syringe into the water and pressed the plunger steadily while moving the tip back and forth. The resulting strand was over three feet long, but I could only lift out foot-long lengths before it broke. Like the pearls, it was liquid in the center, essentially a gummy straw filled with juice.

JOURNAL: Mango Caviar Pearls

2008-01-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

I expected the process to be highly exacting and scientifical, but my first attempt at fake-it-‘til-you-make-it molecular gastronomy was spot on. Should I have hyphenated "spot-on"? It seems like the sentence already has too many little lines.

I mixed a cup of mango juice with a teaspoon of sodium alginate (not as scary as it sounds. It comes from seaweed… well, maybe that sounds scary too), turned on the heat and whisked the hell out of it. Once it started to boil, I let it go for a minute, strained it and dripped it into a bowl of water and calcium carbonate (it’s the main ingredient in Tums and a calcium supplement often added to soymilk). The result was a mound of shiny little pearls composed of a thin gummy layer surrounding a core of juice that popped when bitten into.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with my new creation. I think it's time to make some funky cocktails.

Blurry Camera-Phone Photo (must replace)

Weekend Gastronomer

2008-01-25T17:18:00.000-08:00

Seeing the chemistry sets at Blue Bottle yesterday has inspired my first foray into molecular gastronomy. I was reading a blog about how hard it is to come by the chemicals needed to make carrot juice caviar, and it turns out that the writer's mail-order supplier is only a couple blocks from my office, so I will be checking out Le Sanctuaire this weekend. Khymos seems to be a good starting point for some fun experiment ideas.

I’m hoping to host a Chinese New Year dinner party in a couple of weeks, so perhaps by then I will have devised something fun and strange to add to a couple of the dishes.

BRAINSTORM: Menu For My Next Chinese New Year Dinner Party

2008-01-25T16:44:00.000-08:00

I’m hosting a dinner party in a few weeks and currently trying to decide what to serve. Based on how this event went three years ago, I will need copious amounts of food, most of which to be prepared ahead of time, and a main course that can assembled individually to taste.

I think I will start with dumplings and rolls and then lay out a spread based around noodles, so each person can assemble a bowl of noodles and sauce or make a bowl of noodle soup, pho-style, with a huge assortment of fixin's from which to choose. Dessert needs to be simple because I want to be completely out of the kitchen before the apps have been devoured.

Here are my thoughts for the menu so far. Any suggestions?

First Course: Dim Sum Starters
Shrimp and pork dumplings
Crab Mangoon
Veggie spring rolls
Vietnamese spring rolls
Steamed buns filled with something (BBQ duck maybe?)

Second Course: Noodle/Soup Bar
Noodles- glass noodles (mung or sweet potato), rice noodles, egg noodles
Broth- beef, chicken, fish, pork, veggie
Veggies- snap peas, cucumber, carrot, broccoli, pumpkin, green beans,
Seasoning- Sriracha, soy, hoisin, chili paste, vinegar, mirin, sesame oil
Sauces- peanut sauce
Toppings- sesame seeds, scallion,
Meat- chicken, pork, beef, crab, fish shrimp, duck, tofu

Dessert
Oranges and pomegranates
Cannoli made with wontons filled with fruit, nuts, something creamy
Steamed buns filled with something (lotus nut paste maybe?)

Cocktails
I’ll be picking a few drink recipes to go with the menu, but like the “Flaming Mao” and “Cultural Rev-O- Licious” of ’05, I would like to throw together something unique and give it a fun, topical title.

I’ve been playing with recipes for the MAOjito, MAOgarita, CosMAOpolitan, TiananMINT [ ] Julep, Beijing (variation on the Manhattan) and the Acupuncture Needle. I'm thinking of dropping a shot of plum wine into a beer and calling it a Belgrade Embassy Bomb.

RECIPE: Sweet Potato Gnocchi Upgrade

2007-11-19T16:55:00.000-08:00

As I’ve mentioned, frying any filled pasta with a parmesan crust is a great way to elevate any humble lump of dough. For Sweet Potato Gnocchi, it becomes a whole new dish.

1/2 cup finely grated parmesan or other hard cheese
salt and pepper to taste
unsalted butter
sage
1 batch Sweet Potato Gnocchi

1. Place cheese, salt and pepper in a bowl with tight fitting lid and shake to mix.
2. Combine 1 tablespoon butter and a 1/4 teaspoon of sage in a sauté pan over high heat.
3. In batches, toss a dozen or twenty damp gnocchi in the cheese mixture until coated.
4. As the butter begins to brown, add the batch of gnocchi, shaking the pan constantly and loosening with a spatula if they begin to stick. Flip as needed and remove from pan as soon a both sides have browned.
5. Pour any remaining butter over the gnocchi and serve immediately.
6. Repeat steps 2 through 6 until all gnocchi have reached enlightenment.

RECIPE: Sweet Potato Gnocchi

2007-11-19T16:37:00.000-08:00

2 pounds sweet potatoes
2 pounds russet potatoes
2 large eggs
1/2 cup finely grated manchego cheese (or substitute pecorino, romano, parmesan, etc.)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups all-purpose flour

1. Bake all potatoes (sweet and russet) at 375 for 45 minutes or until very soft and the sugars in the sweet potatoes have begun to caramelize.
2. Peel and grate or rice potatoes. Combine with egg, cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Sift in flour, incorporating gradually.
3. In a large saucepan, bring 6 cups water to a boil. Salt and taste water (TSB says it should “taste of the sea.” I just think it should taste as salty as you would like your gnocchi to taste).
4. Fill durable zip-top freezer bag with dough and snip one corner to create a half-inch diameter hole.
5. Over the boiling water, squeeze dough out of the bag with one hand, while using a knife in the other hand to cut it off in 3/4-inch lengths. Skim off dumplings as they rise to the surface and shock them in cold water. Cook pasta in batches, changing water mid-way if it becomes too cloudy and sticky with flour residue.
6. Optionally, gently press each gnocchi with a fork before shocking it to give it the characteristic ridges of gnocchi that are not possible to make before boiling because of the soft, sticky nature of the dough. This flattening is also advantageous if you intend to sear or otherwise fry the gnocchi.

Serve with alfredo sauce or brown some unsalted butter with sage in a sauté pan and pour over warm gnocchi.

JOURNAL: Sweet Potato Gnocchi

2007-11-19T16:34:00.000-08:00

Ever since I made my first great batch of gnocchi, I have been trying to develop a sweet potato variation, but baked sweet potatoes are so much wetter and stickier than potatoes that it has been a struggle.

The ratio for my regular gnocchi is:
4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
2 large eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 cup grated cheese

Simply substituting sweet potato for Yukon Gold yielded nothing recognizable as gnocchi.

Substituting sweet potato for half the Yukon Gold was a step in the right direction, but required 4 times as much flour to achieve the same dough consistency, which yielded extremely dense dumplings.

I did a little research and found recipes that used comparably large amounts of flour, but were critiqued for their brick-like density and I feel strongly that gnocchi should be light and fluffy. Other recipes used as much flour but added other moist ingredients such as ricotta, a direction I did not want to take.

I found one recipe that used less flour and rather than rolling the dough it instructed the cook to put the dough into a pastry bag and squeeze it into the boiling water. Last week I attempted this with the ratio listed above (but half of the potatoes were sweet potatoes and the other half was russets) and the result was delicious and light but did not hold together well. When fried, they resembled sweet potato pancakes but the inside was still the consistency of mashed potatoes.

For last night’s batch, I doubled the flour and once boiled, they were precisely the consistency and flavor I desired. Oddly, when fried, the middle again became a bit looser, nearly as much like mashed potato as pasta in texture, but I think this is as close to perfect as I have the patience to reach, so I will post the recipe now.

RECIPE: Pumpkin Bisque

2007-11-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

Serves 4 (I think).

1 small pie pumpkin (2-3 pounds)
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
2 shallots
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 splash dark beer (optional)
2 cups chicken broth (boxed broth is preferable to canned and vegetable broth can be substituted for a vegetarian recipe)
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup heavy cream

Note: The pumpkin weight and herb measurements are guestimates, and I may have used one cup of broth equivalent instead of two in my initial trial, but I can't be sure. I'll update this next time I make it, but either way should yield good results.

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Hack the pumpkin into 8ths like longitude lines on a globe and remove the fibrous/seedy part with a spoon. Slice off the shell and cut into 1 inch cubes. Place in a covered baking dish with 1/4 inch water and drizzle with maple syrup. Cook until easily squished with a fork, about 20 minutes.

3. Cut carrot into 1/2 inch lengths and pulse in food processor (approximately five 1-second pulses). Cut celery into half-inch lengths, peel and quarter the shallots and add both to food processor for another five one-second pulses.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat in a large, heavy bottom saucepan. Once the butter stops foaming, add the vegetables from the food processor and sauté, seasoning with salt and pepper and stirring occasionally until soft. If the pan gets a little dry, add a splash of beer rather than more butter.

5. Add broth, rosemary, basil, thyme and bay leaf to pan and bring to a boil.

6. Pour off any remaining liquid from baking dish and add pumpkin to simmering soup, mashing gently with a fork or something.

7. Simmer 5 minutes, add cream and remaining butter. Remove from heat as soon as soup returns to boil.

8. Discard bay leaf, pour soup into food processor and pulse until combined and visibly chunk-free, but some texture and bite remains.

9. Pour into four bowls and garnish with sour cream and fresh basil or parsley or something.

10. Serve immediately with crusty bread or croutons.

JOURNAL: What To Do With This Pumpkin? A Peek At My Process

2007-11-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

I was chatting up my new roommate over beers in the kitchen, and without really thinking, I grabbed a chef knife from its magnetic wall-mount and chopped into eighths the little organic pie pumpkin I had picked up on a whim. I mused, “What I am going to do with this pumpkin?” and my roommate offered only “I love pumpkin seeds!” before she scuttled off to get ready for a date and I continued to ponder the pumpkin as I scooped the gunk from the slices and separated the seeds.

I roasted the seeds on an oiled baking pan with a quick shot of olive oil-flavored cooking spray, sea salt and Garam Masala spice mix (cinnamon, cumin, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom) which I added at the half-way shake, as it tends to scorch. Toasty and tasty! Lindsay, if you are reading this, there is a bowl of seeds for you on “the white thing” by the stove (she’ll know where I mean).

Still unsure of what to make with it, I tossed the pumpkin into the oven in a covered Pyrex dish with a half inch of water and some maple syrup and put it in the oven while I looked around the kitchen. It was a cool night so I decided on soup. I had a carrot, celery and shallots left over from a gravy experiment and I was hoping to find a box of broth or some stock in the freezer, but there was none. Always the innovator, I decided to substitute a bullion cube and a Knorr Herbes de Provence cube that a friend picked up in France and left for me when she moved to Switzerland.

I minced the veggies and sautéed them in a stir-fry pan with butter, salt, pepper and eventually a splash of my 4^th beer. Once everything was soft, I added water and the cubes and while it worked its way up to a boil, I sliced the pumpkin flesh from its shell, diced it quickly and added it to the simmering soup. When everything seemed well integrated, I added heavy cream, finished it with a dollop of butter and pulled the whole thing off the stove about a minute after it returned to boiling. Everything went into the food processor (where I should have started it with those veggies) and I pulsed it until the chunks were gone, but the bisque still had some texture.

Results: Nearly amazing. The texture was ideal and while the cubes were crucial to the flavor, since I didn’t have broth or know how to season it, I didn’t consider the overall salt content, so the end result was delicious except for an overpowering saltiness.

JOURNAL: Burned At The Grilled Cheese Invitational

2007-10-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

Not literally burned. The results came out last night. I knew before we left that bar that I didn't come in top three, but at least I finished 5th. The real heart-breaker came when I got a misdirected email from the organizer Monday asking me, as one of the winners, for my recipe [see transcript below]. I was proud of my creation, it came out how I wanted it to, and I received some compliments, so no complaints.

On 10/29/07, Timothy Walker wrote:

Hey, nice work, winner!

As part of the follow up to your victory, I need to get a description of your sammich so that we can let the world know what led you to victory.

Please get back to me as soon as you can, as the Oakland Tribune wants to run a story and they need a description of all the winners.

Yours in Bread, Butter, Cheese and Victory,

Tim Walker
Chief Instigator
Grilled Cheese Invitational

On Oct 29, 2007, I wrote:

Hi Tim,

My sandwich, The Ol' Vermonter, was apple pie filling made with Macintosh apples, Vermont maple syrup and crushed pecans, encased in sharp Cabot cheddar between slices of cheap white bread slathered in maple butter and grilled until crusty.

As I recall though, I didn't win.

Best,
Quinn

On 10/29/07, Timothy Walker wrote:

Jesus, you're right, my apologies. That sammich sounds awesome, though.

I'll be publishing the scores later today/tomorrow.

However, just to let you know, your score was 25.60, which is a great score. The difference between 1st, 2nd and 3rd was 1.54 points, so it was an awfully close race.

-=t=-

On Oct 29, 2007, I wrote:

Way to get my hopes up, just to destroy them. Thanks for hosting such
a ridiculously fun event. We had a blast.

On 10/29/07, Timothy Walker wrote:

It's my specialty, actually!

Thanks for participating. It's great to see how such a crazy thing is enjoyed all over the place.

UPDATE: Grilled Cheese Invitational Tonight

2007-10-25T12:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the GCI in Oakland. I'm entered in the Honey Pot category, featuring dessert grilled cheese sandwiches.

I'm grilling up the Ol' Vermonter. I made an apple pie filling with Macintosh apples, finely chopped pecans and lots of maple syrup, which will be encased by two kinds of cheddar pressed between two slices of standard white bread and grilled in maple butter.

Crusty maple apple cheddar = The Ol' Vermonter

RANT: Don’t Buy Silly Single-Use Gadgets

2007-10-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

They're bad for your kitchen, your wallet and the environment.

Someone once gave me a Spätzle maker. I used to live in Austria and love to cook, so it made for a lovely and thoughtful gift. I was excited. I even used it…once. I feel bad, but how often does anyone make Spätzle and can’t one do the same thing with a box grater and a little ingenuity?

There are a million ads offering the next best thing for your kitchen, and most of those items get tossed in a drawer and forgotten. Chances are, there is a long-established device that will meet your needs and more. Most often, this device is an 8-inch chef’s knife or your oven.

Here is a simple test:

1. How many tasks can this gizmo take on? If less than three from your usual repertoire, fuggedabowdit.

2. Will another tool do the job, and better and other chores to boot, and do you already own it? Probably, and if you don’t own one, you might want to get that multitalented tool instead of the brass-plated lychee peeler or the battery-powered Arbor Day cookie extruder.

3. How often do you actually attempt whatever this tool does, and honestly, how often would you use it if you had one? If you really need to make an apple pie to impress the in-laws at Thanksgiving, but will likely not make another until next November, a little extra time with a knife is probably a better investment than the $30 apple corer/peeler.

There are so many great tools that pass all these tests:

Food Processor: I use a 14-cup Cuisinart, and I use it a lot. With just the blades that come standard, I can grate 3 pounds of cheese, chop all the vegetables for a vat of stew, make a couple pounds of dough, and each in less than a minute. I use it to emulsify vinaigrettes, to blend smoothies, to sift dry ingredients, to puree hot soup, to chop fresh herbs or nuts (or both at the same time for pesto), to turn a stale roll into breadcrumbs, to make sauces smooth, and for just about any job that involves bulk prep work.

Stir-Fry Pan: I use my Joyce Chen stir-fry pan for just about everything. from (potato leek) soup to (candied) nuts. I use it to make omelets, crepes, scrambles, pancakes, Hollandaise sauce, bacon, sausage, hash and boiled eggs, and that’s just breakfast. It is the most versatile pan I have ever had, and covers just about every stovetop dish you can imagine. I even made a stir fry in it once. It has a wide, flat bottom which provides ample frying surface, rounded sides for easy flip-tossing, adequate depth to hold over a gallon and all it really lacks is a metal handle for moving it from stove-top searing to oven finishing. Maybe it is time for me to get an upgrade.

Mesh Strainer (sturdy, all metal, 6-8 inch diameter): I use the $3 strainer that I bought in China Town for its intended purpose and a variety of other jobs. In place of a ricer or food mill, I rice potatoes by pushing them through with a wooden spoon, and do the same with cooked apples to make pink sauce sans skin. For a really fine straining job, I drop a coffee filter into the strainer basket and let only the liquids through. I also use it to lift and drain things from deep-fry oil and boiling water.

Note: Now that I am thinking about it, this might be the perfect replacement for my Spätzle maker, to drip the dumpling dough into boiling water.

Tongs: I use the same pair of 12-inch OXO “Good Grips” tongs for moving steaks on the grill, chicken in the frying pan, asparagus from the steamer, cooked spaghetti to the plate, biscuits around the oven, ramekins under the broiler and everything else everywhere else. Tongs are easy to use, easy to clean, serve myriad purposes and are easy to store.

Tip: in the backyard, there’s no need for BBQ a fork when you have tongs, unless you like dry, punctured meat. I improved and simplified cleaning by replacing my grill brush with a steel wool pad which I use to scour the hot grill by holding it in my tongs. I head out to the grill with only tongs, a spatula, steel wool and an instant read thermometer. That’s really all you need.

Plastic Squeeze Bottle: like the ketchup and mustard bottles you might find at diners, but clear, they are great for storing, dispensing and serving anything liquid. I infuse olive oil with woody herbs and spices right in the bottle and keep it by the stove to squirt into the hot pan. When I make a sauce to be be drizzled on fish or adorn a dessert with swirls and stripes, the sauce goes straight from pan to bottle. It won’t work as well with thick frosting, but if you are decorating a cake with ganache or jam, the bottle works better than a pastry bag, allowing more control and less mess.

Tips: I’ve had better luck with plastic squeeze bottles bought at art supply stores than kitchen stores. Test the bottle in the store by covering the tip tightly with your finger and squeezing. If air leaks out where the cap screws onto the bottle, so will the liquids you put into it. If you are making a sauce ahead of time, but intend to serve it warm, just reheat the bottle in a pan of hot water.

I would definitely say that one high-quality, versatile tool is worth the cost of a whole drawer full of gadgets, and worth making an investment. Good knives, just three or four will do everything you could want from a set of ten Ginsu Knives, except maybe cutting through a tin can, but really, who doesn’t have a can opener (with built-in bottle opener and triangular hole puncher)?

RECIPE: Mac and Cheese 2

2007-09-28T23:18:00.001-07:00

1 pound elbow pasta
8 tablespoons unsalted butter plus more for dish
3 cups panko flakes
2 pounds extra sharp cheddar, grated
8 ounces Monterrey Jack, grated
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 cups whole milk
1 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Note: the only salt I used was in seasoning the water for cooking pasta, so don't forget to salt the water before you add the noodles.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, butter a large baking dish and grate the cheese while pasta is cooking. (For the love of God, buy a food processor. The 11-cup Cuisinart is the perfect size for grating two and a half pounds of cheese)
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and integrate panko and two cups of cheese. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Return pan to heat and melt remaining butter.
4. Add flour, red pepper flakes and pepper and stir constantly over medium heat for three minutes.
5. Whisk in milk, bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly and simmer for 3-5 minutes to thicken.
6. Add cream, cheese and mustard and turn off the burner. Stir until sauce is a uniform consistency.
7. Incorporate cooked pasta and pour into the buttered baking dish.
8. Spread panko mixture across the top and bake 20 minutes or until golden brown on top and bubbly throughout.

JOURNAL: Mac-sterpiece

2007-09-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

There was wisdom on those post-its stuck in the book next to the elBulli 7 Bowl System (my birthday is this week, wink wink). I made a batch last night, and it was ggggooooooooooddddddd. That's "good" not "god" by the way.

I only had a pound and a half of Cabot extra-sharp Hunter Cheddar, so I had to supplement with a half-pound of Tillamook Extra Sharp and a half-pound of Tillamook Monterrey Jack. The notes called for 5 tablespoons of butter in the roux, so I went with five of flour, like I planned and I bumped the dijon up to a tablespoon. I really should have gone with more red pepper flakes and remembered black pepper, because it was surely under-seasoned, but it is so tasty.

My only concerns are that the sauce might just be too dense, and that some of the topping clumped, so the bigger chunks browned and hardened faster. Simple solutions: 1/2 cup of reserved pasta cooking water in the sauce next time and taking an extra 30 seconds to chop up the topping before I put it over the mac.

My mother makes a mac and cheese from four ingredients with a recipe that takes all of five minutes to prep, and I can't say that mine is any better, but if nothing else, it's thicker. This one is my best yet, if you want to give it a shot. I'll post the recipe soon.

RECIPE: Cran-Pear Chutney

2007-09-25T15:48:00.000-07:00

1.5 pounds bosc pears (about three on the larger side of average), peeled, seeded and diced
3 cups water
1/2 lemon, seeded and diced (rind and all)
1.5 cups brown sugar
1 medium sweet white onion
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1.5 cups cider vinegar
1 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon cayanne
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1. Heat water to a boil in medium saucepan and add pears, cooking until soft (10-15 minutes).
2. Strain pears, and set aside in a mixing bowl, returning cooking water to saucepan.
3. Bring water back to boiling and add sugar and lemon. Cook down to a syrup on medium heat (20-30 minutes).
4. While syrup simmers, grate ginger, dice onion and combine all ingredients not currently cooking.
5. Mix everything into the saucepan and simmer for about 1/2 hour, until liquids have reduced, cranberries have plumped and onions have become translucent.

It's great on poultry or fish, sandwiches, with a cheese plate and of course with Indian food.

JOURNAL: Indian Weekend

2007-09-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I got my cooking mojo back and made a little Indian feast for a small group of friends.

I created two kinds of chutney (the cran-pear went over much better than the peach-pepper), vegetarian samosas, and Chicken Tikka Masala (with a vegetarian tofu variant). We bought naan from Trader Joe’s, and somehow I forgot to make rice.

I will put up the recipes soon.

JOURNAL: Feast of Fools

2007-09-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

In an online discussion, someone asked, should I be forced to choose, what single food could I not live without. Unable to narrow it down to a single dish, my first response was Chicken Tikka Masala over Mac & Cheese, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought that my humor/horror show of an answer might have actual potential.

I'm hoping to make both this weekend, so we'll see how well they combine and in what way. I am hypothesizing that Chicken Tikka, without the sauce, would be an easy addition to the Mac and even a little Masala integrated into the cheesy sauce with chunks of chicken might just work. I'll let you know how it goes.

ARTIFACT: Lost Mac And Cheese Recipe

2007-09-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

Of all things, I was flipping through a book on ecologically sound design practices, and between the pages, stuck to a drool-stained magazine page featuring the 7 bowl system from elBulli designed for Ferran Adria, was a pair of post-its labeled Matt's Mac. I can't be sure how many refinements and tests went into this recipe, and it isn't complete, but I think it is the ingredients and measurements that I used to love, so I am going to compare and integrate it with recent attempts next week.

PHOTO JOURNAL: Beige Food, Blue Plate

2007-08-17T10:12:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a month of four day weekends. It started this morning with pepper-crusted home fries, and omelet with shallots and mozzarella, and olive toast.

Can I still call it toast if I "toasted" it in a pan with butter? The potatoes are already called fries, so I guess I 'll let it be.

JOURNAL: Vegan Jell-O Flop

2007-08-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

With the summer semester finally coming to a close, I thought I would get back into the kitchen and play around. I’ve gotten rusty. I sought to improve on past attempts to make cocktail aspic, or fancy jell-o shots, or whatever you want to call them. I used Agar agar, the seaweed-based, and thus vegan, alternative to Jell-O, which is made of hooves and has a less interesting texture. Agar agar also holds up better when mixed with liquor in my experience.

My attempt at Cosm-O Shots yielded less than impressive results. They don’t taste like much of anything and the red color was not as saturated as I hoped. They had not set when I tried to pull them out of the freezer, but set quickly when spilled all over the kitchen (the key is maximizing surface area). OK, that last part is not the fault of the recipe, so much as the clumsy cook.

I had previously made a cranberry agar agar, substituting juice for half of the water and found the flavor to be very weak, so I thought it would be perfect if I added cranberry juice concentrate to the water, thus creating a stronger flavor, but it was still pretty bland and extra chewy to boot (actually, not unlike chewing a boot).

Next batch will probably be 12 ounces of water to 12 ounces of concentrate, less agar powder and all of the alcohol. I will also combine the boiling agar water with the rest of the ingredients in the mixing bowl, specifically one with a lip designed for pouring, and not in the hard-to-aim saucepan.

Recipe (For archival purposes ONLY - DO NOT attempt to duplicate):

4 ½ cups water
1 pouch agar agar powder with sugar added (enough for 6 cups)
2 cups vodka
½ cup triple sec
1 ½ cups Cranberry juice concentrate (11.5 ounce jar)
Juice of 4 limes

1. Bring water to boil in a medium saucepan while combining the booze and juice in a bowl.
2. Upon realizing that the other ingredients are too cold to combine, and that you were supposed to bring the water and agar agar to a boil together, turn off the heat and replace the pot lid with the mixing bowl.
3. Go outside for fifteen minutes.
4. Return to kitchen, add agar agar to water and return to a boil, whisking constantly.
5. Remove from heat, and whisk in other ingredients.
6. With little regard for safety or sanitation, proceed to cover the stove and floor in sticky pink goo while trying to fill ice cube trays, baking dishes and plastic containers.
7. Put in freezer because you are too impatient to wait for it to gel in the refrigerator.

JOURNAL: Five Minute Sauce for Pasta

2007-07-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

The summer has been hectic. I am teaching a course at twice the speed I taught in the spring, I'm taking a class as a student, also double-time, plus I've been traveling, so there has been little time for cooking and even less time for writing about it, but I need to remember to make time to eat at least.

I have been cleaning my apartment like a madman tonight, the imminent return of my lovely roommate at my heels, and around ten thirty I realized that I hadn't eaten yet…today. Well, a fistful of edamame around noon, but that was it. In five minutes, plus the time it takes to boil linguine, I MacGyvered a surprisingly delicious sauce out of the random things I had discovered while tidying the kitchen.

It went like this: I sautéed the mushrooms left over from New World Tempura (Oops, I still need to write about that) in a quarter stick of butter that I found behind my food processor and a teaspoon or two of (what I assume was) dalmatian sage from an unmarked bottle of what looked like green-gray lint. I killed the heat and mixed in a 6-ounce tub of creme fraiche with an expiration date that must have been a typo, because it looked fine to me, and a little sea salt. It was really satisfying and surprisingly delectable. I will gladly make it by choice next time, rather than out of necessity.

JOURNAL/TIP: Fry It

2007-07-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling less than inspired today, but I was thinking back on the quick dinner I made of Trader Joe's perogies a couple nights ago. They were not good. Mediocre at best, but I figured that any sort of boiled, cheese filled dough could be given the same invigorating treatment: pan fry in butter with a parmesan crust.

I think I stole the concept from the restaurant I worked at in college, although I don’t honestly remember how they made their fried ravioli. Essentially, spice up store bought ravioli by boiling as per the instructions, dredging them while still damp in a mixture of salt, pepper and grated parmesan (or another hard cheese) and then frying them in butter until golden brown and crusty. I usually only coat and fry them on one side, but make sure you serve them fried side up. A puddle of sauce is a nice touch, but not necessary, as they are pretty zesty on their own.

On another note, I recently got my digital camera back from the shop and I am taking a photography course this summer (which I may start blogging about soon), so hopefully I will start shooting some fine-looking food photos to post on the blog. TSB has been hounding me to put up a picture of the Burberry Pancake, so I really should get on it. Much to her mix of chagrin and delight, I used the last of the raspberry sauce last night to make a cocktail with lemonade and some homemade kumquat liqueur. It was some succulent swill if I dare to boast, and if nothing else, TSB can be guaranteed more crepes for the photo shoot in the near future.

JOURNAL: Burberry Pancakes

2007-07-07T23:09:00.001-07:00

TSB was over for breakfast this morning, and while she lounged reading a magazine, I sneaked into the kitchen and got to work on a meal to appeal to her sense of humor, flavor favorites and sartorial sensibilities.

While the pan was heating up, I stopped back into the room to ask, "How about B[mumble]berry pancakes?" knowing that she would never suspect what a pain I was being just by asking. She got excited, and fully aware of her love for blueberries, I worried that she would end up disappointed.

The Burberry Pancake, as I soon revealed to her, was actually a crepe painted plaid with thin lines of brown Nutella ganache, white vanilla yogurt and red raspberry sauce, using the beige of the crepe as the base color to create the classic Burberry Check.

The end result was good, so I'll add the recipes soon, but I used a sweet crepe that was a little too cakey in flavor for my taste with all the sweet toppings, so I need to dig out my own crepe recipe from the archives before I post.

If you are wondering, TSB liked the crepes. Actually, she more than liked them. She finished breakfast, put down her fork and spoke those three little word to me for the very first time.

REFLECTION: My First Gingered Duck Cookies

2007-07-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

I got impatient. Before I split the unsweetened dough in half, I decided that it would be too dry, even though I had yet to add the molasses or maple syrup. I hastily incorporated an extra quarter cup of fat and not until the two halves were whole did I realize the error of my ways. The dough was a little slimy.

I am not yet sold on the duck. I will try it again with 3/4 of the fat and maybe substitute butter for some of that. The free radicals were too numerous in this debacle to be sure that the altered fats were the cause, but the spices in these cookies were so muted when compared to my last batch of bacon cookies, despite comparable amounts of all other ingredients.

The texture of the flat duck cookies was very similar to that of the bacon cookies, regardless of sugars, but they seemed to puff up more cake-like in the muffin tins than their porcine counterparts.

The maple syrup flavor was a superb touch, which also seemed to slow the cooking, while the molasses got more of a burned sugar flavor that went from sweet to bitter.

TSB liked the molasses better than the maple and said she could taste the duck, which worries me, since she is the one with the incisive palate. I made her test the cookies before we uncorked the smuggled absinthe, in which she noted a citrusy finish, but I could barely get my tongue past the anise.

REFLECTION: My Most Recent Batch of Mac And Cheese

2007-06-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

Concerns: low mac:cheese ratio, thinness/soupiness of the cheese sauce after stove-top cooking, sharpness/bitterness of cheese flavors, lack of density and stringiness in final product.

Successes: elimination of the roux/flour flavor, overwhelmingly cheesy flavor, excellent topping, leftover potential, overwhelmingly positive feedback from TSB and my roommate.

Mistakes: I was so irritated by the sauce to pasta ratio as I was incorporating the noodles that I scooped two or three full cups of sauce out of the mix and threw it in the fridge (which reminds me that I still need to dispose of it). In retrospect, I should have left it in, as it seems that it would have been a non-issue once baked.

Strategy: Next time, I will maintain the amount of cream but reduce the milk to a pint, maybe fatten it up from 2% to whole milk, raise the roux by a tablespoon each of flour and butter (leaving 1 tablespoon from the stick left to butter the dish), and spend more time getting the initial béchamel to thicken before adding the cheese. I'm going to return to Cabot extra-sharp cheddar and monterey jack as well, even if I do have to have my cheese smuggled in from Vermont. I might play with the cheese blend some other time, and in the future, I may attempt the inclusion of reserved pasta cooking water, once I figure out why it is so prevalent in other recipes.

RECIPE: Mac And Cheese 1

2007-06-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

1 pound elbow pasta, cooked
6 tablespoons unsalted butter plus more for dish
2 cups panko flakes
2 pounds sharp cheddar, grated (about 7 cups)
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups 2% milk
2 cups heavy cream
8 ounces gruyere, grated (about 2 cups)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, butter a large baking dish and grate cheese while pasta is cooking.
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and integrate panko and one cup of cheddar. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Return pan to heat and melt remaining butter.
4. Add flour and stir constantly over medium heat for three minutes. Season with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
5. Whisk in milk, bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes to thicken.
6. Stir in cream, cheese and mustard until sauce is a uniform consistency. Remove from heat.
7. Stir cooked pasta into the sauce and pour into the buttered baking dish.
8. Spread breadcrumb mixture across the top and bake 25 minutes or until golden brown on top and bubbly throughout.

JOURNAL: New Mug Love

2007-06-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a coworker's campaign to cut down on paper waste in the office, I did some research to find the best-bang-for-the-buck travel mug and on a tip from Cook's Illustrated, I ended up buying the OXO LiquiSeal in gray plastic at Cole Hardware for ten bucks. I've been using paper since the travel mug that came with my public radio donation stopped keeping the liquid on the inside and the lid seemed to become magnetically repulsed by the base.

This thing works like a dream. The cap screws on, so it won't fall off when I thoughtlessly carry it by the lid; there is an easy push-button seal so that I can carry it upside down or in my pocket if I want; the lip is designed in a way that I don't spill down the sides of my face when I tip it back too far; and coffee doesn't pool on the lid, so when I push the button, all of the coffee is already inside the mug. Wow, I should not be admitting to the entire Internet what an absent-minded slob I am. Seems fairly well insulated and did not taint the flavor of my house blend. I might buy another to use as a cocktail shaker. My only complaint is for the lack of a handle.

JOURNAL: Black Absinthe

2007-06-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

The Sexy Blonde called me last night to see if I would like her to bring back a bottle of Spanish wine from Barcelona. As I pondered my options, it occurred to me that she is in one of the few countries where Absinthe is not banned, and so I asked if she would be comfortable sneaking a bottle back across the border for me. She said she thought she could indulge me.

Not only did she buy me a bottle, but followed up to say that she had stumbled across black absinthe in some cute little shop, which she had never seen before and wondered if I would like some. I haven’t encountered it either, and after a few minutes of research, I have not been able to dig up a whole lot of info other than it most likely comes from France, where absinthe may be produced for export, but not sold domestically, and it probably doesn’t have a strong anise flavor, if any. As to any significant differences between the green fairy and the black, I have been able to dig up nothing.

STATE OF THE BLOG ADDRESS

2007-06-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

I have been writing here for about a month, and it has been a fun, cathartic and productive creative outlet for me, but as of yet, I think I am the only one reading it (Funny, but I actually gave out the very first link to my blog as I was writing this paragraph). Really, this was created to give me an opportunity to reflect on what I have been doing and to keep all of my thoughts in a central, reliable and easily accessible location. I have been a lot more prolific than I expected and really I think that has led to some long and rambling entries, but I was not expecting this to turn into a food writing career, so I am not so worried. However, if you happen to be a cookbook publisher, wealthy patron of the culinary arts or have some connections, don’t hesitate to contact me. In the meantime, I will just keep blathering on and updating the recipes as they evolve.

JOURNAL: Marvelous Mac And Cheese Chaos

2007-06-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my mac & cheese recipe for a while. Last week's manifestation, as prepared for the pleasure of The Sexy Blonde was one of my finest, although in a misguided attempt to appeal to her sophisticated tastes, I decided to reinforce the sharp cheddar with gruyere, which she seemed to like, but I thought was too much sharp on top of sharp and the gruyere was hard to incorporate into the sauce. There were a few other issues with the sauce that I need to hammer out, but it came out well and the leftovers seem to have improved with age.

My fascination started with my dear mother's gorgeous baked macaroni and cheese, a straightforward and divine dish made with sharp Cabot cheddar that we anticipated each holiday season and fought ruthlessly over the crispy corner sections. I love this family recipe for its simplicity and high cheese and butter content as a side to accompany a robust holiday meal, but when I want mac to be the centerpiece, I tend to go for something stickier and more complex.

Unfortunately, I have overindulged my desire for complexity and the mac and cheese fascination has taken on a life of it's own. It's like the Michael Mina Mac, or "macaroni and cheese served three ways." This isn't just three variations, but an evolutionary development in three courses that I should never serve all together.

I'm trying to devise a single recipe that will function first as a stove-top mac right out of the pot, equivalent to Kraft, but actually made with cheese; thinner and more fluid, hot on the side of your plate. From there, with minimal alteration to the compound, I'd like to be able to pour it into a baking dish, add a crispy cheese and breadcrumb topping and bake it to a more dense and sticky consistency. Third, I would be able to leave the baked mac in the fridge overnight to solidify, slice it up, bread it and deep fry it like a mozzarella stick.

I would also like to see the flavors evolve as the dish becomes more complicated. It starts out seasoned simply with salt and pepper, red pepper, nutmeg and mustard, served like you would the boxed variety. I am thinking of making the baked dish more savory with bacon or prosciutto and scallions or shallots, and spicy peppers would be added to a portion of the leftovers and then chilled, cut into chicken nugget (or fish stick) size pieces to be breaded and deep fried. I could even spoon dollops of warm mac and cheese into emptied jalapeños, and fry them up as poppers. Fried mac could be served with dipping sauces like marinara, ranch or an avacado & sour cream concoction. All that I have left to discover is a 4th incarnation. Could I come up with a macaroni and cheese dessert? Maybe something with pears. It seems kind of evil, but it could work.

I've been playing with my recipe for a while, inspecting a combination of recipes including those online from Charlie Palmer, Giada De Laurentiis, Martha Stewart, Alton Brown, Bon Appétit, Emeril, The Icon Grill, Paula Deen, and Cooks Illustrated, but my favorite recipe comes from the New York Times, but is not the one that shows up online so often, which ran with this article. In fact, I have not been able to find it online at all, but this one from Gourmet is pretty close, and I have photocopied the page from my Sunday Times Magazine several times when friends ask me for a reliable, remarkable recipe, but it still has yet to meet my three-in-one requirement...and you thought I was taking it too seriously before the Holy Trinity allusion.

JOURNAL: Gingered Duck (Cookies) III

2007-06-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

I have gathered the ingredients and I am going to make the test batches of Gingered Duck Cookies in the next few days. The Sexy Blonde is in Barcelona on business, so I have fewer distractions to deal with (sadly). On the upside, she’s offered to smuggle back a bottle of absinthe for me, and just when my reserve is dwindling dangerously low.

The recipe should yield about 4 cups of dough, and I'm substituting Vermont maple syrup for molasses in a quarter of the batch (mix the rest of the ingredients, quarter the dough, add 1 tablespoon of maple to one quarter and 3 tablespoons of molasses to the rest) and then running tests of unaltered molasses against unaltered maple on cookie sheets and in muffin cups. Ginger and maple is a personal favorite combination and there was more than enough burned sugar flavor in the original recipe.

I'll set aside the rest of the maple, unless it is an unfettered failure, and look to alter the molasses with combinations of lemon zest, almonds and carrots. I'm going to dig through some ginger bread and carrot cake recipes to see if there are other ingredients I may want to play with.

JOURNAL & RECIPE: Ginger Infused Vodka

2007-06-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

While all of the recipes I’ve found online are raw root infused, I prefer to take an extra twenty minutes to make a ginger vodka variation using roasted ginger, which tastes infinitely better, and I am really surprised that I couldn’t find another infused vodka recipe out there with roasted ginger.

It’s great in a number of cocktails or as a shot, and is the ultimate addition to lemonade on a hot day or a glass of ginger ale. Alternately, you could add a sugar to the mix and make a ginger liqueur, but I will get into that in a future blog.

Notes: I usually make a double batch using a 1.5 liter bottle and two inches of ginger root. I prefer Smirnoff for making infused vodkas, as it yields the cleanest flavor and is the highest quality you can get for a moderate price, in my opinion. I might add some cloves to the next batch. I'll let you know how it goes.

1 750 ml bottle of vodka
1 inch piece of fresh ginger root

1. Preheat oven to 300degrees.
2. Pour one shot of vodka from bottle and drink.
3. Wrap ginger in aluminum foil and place in oven for an hour.
4. Allow ginger to cool only as long as you must in order to handle.
5. Peel ginger and slice thinly across the grain.
6. Cut again so that pieces will fit into bottle without being forced (important for getting the ginger out of the bottle later).
7. Add ginger to bottle, replace cap and leave in freezer for two weeks.
8. Strain vodka with fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth.
9. Rinse remnants from bottle with cheap vodka (not water).
10. Use a funnel to return infused vodka to bottle and discard ginger.

MENU: Last Night

2007-06-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

My gratitude for The Sexy Blonde and her tasting tour assistance in wine country last week prompted me to prepare a hearty meal of comfort food for two last night, and I was so appreciative that I found the time to make everything from scratch.

Crostini with olive tapenade and goat cheese
Salad of butter lettuce, golden beets, walnuts and goat cheese with a shallot vinaigrette
Baked macaroni and cheese (sharp cheddar and gruyere with crispy topping)
Chicken schnitzel (with carbombbq sauce on the side)
Swedish ginger cookie cups with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce
A bottle of Carignane that we picked up around Healdsburg

She seemed happy, but complained that I was going to make her fat, but she is the last person to need to worry about that. We joked about what a great story it would make for a chef to seduce his women with his cooking, fatten them up and then cast them aside and move on to the next conquest, but then what will the chef get as his just des(s)erts?

JOURNAL: Gingered Duck (Cookies) II

2007-06-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the Gingered Duck Cookies, I made a few dozen traditional Swedish ginger and bacon fat cookies to help me consider my adaptation scheme. I think I can just swap out the fats, but I am going to do a little melt test and some Internet research before I make the first batch.

Based on flavor, I was thinking that they would make a killer ice cream sandwich with vanilla or lemon gelato between, but they are sort of hard, so I don’t think the structure of the cookie would be conducive to a sandwich. To bring them from delicious to amazing, I am considering the addition of lemon zest and/or almonds to enhance the flavor. I would really love to find a way to get them to fluff up more too, rather than spreading and crisping so much, so I will experiment with not pressing them, adding more baking soda, etc. but the science of baking is something I do not understand. To prove it, the following paragraph illustrates how I tried to use physics to solve a chemistry problem.

While trying to counteract the cookie’s tendency to flatten, I discovered a fun trick that circumvents the ice cream sandwich issue. I figured that if the cookies would have no room to spread out, then they might take the path of least resistance and rise, so I dropped a dozen dough balls into a cupcake pan. I should have figured that you can’t use force to coax dough into rising, since really it’s a chemical reaction issue. Rather than rise, they spread up the sides of the cups, resulting in flat-bottomed, bowl-shaped cookies, which would perfectly cradle a scoop of ice cream. Next time I am going to use a bigger ball of dough in the cup and see if can make a larger cookie cup. I love the happy accidents, and the cupcake pan cookies actually are a little fluffier and softer than the cookie sheet variety. Brute force and ignorance triumph again!

RECIPE: Belfast CarbomBBQ Sauce 1

2007-06-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup diced shallots
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup Pabst Blue Ribbon beer
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder

1. In medium saucepan, cook shallots in oil over medium heat until golden (about 7-10 minutes).
2. Stirring constantly, add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 1/2 hour stirring frequently (which can be tricky because this stuff spatters like you would not believe. I swirl the pan a few times before lifting the lid).
4. Remove from heat and allow sauce to cool five minutes.
5. Puree in food processor (optional).

JOURNAL: Belfast CarBomBBQ Sauce Experiment

2007-06-04T11:09:00.001-07:00

It's finally edible! Until last night, I had never been able to concoct a good barbecue sauce that incorporates a shot and a beer, but I think I have finally found that saucepan full of gold at the end of the rainbow.

This recipe is a tribute to my Irish roots and a personal grilling ritual. When I lived in Vermont, where the weather is generally less than hospitable to a backyard barbecue, I made a tradition of breaking out the Weber on March 17th. Although there is rarely clement weather on St. Patty's day in Burlington, I couldn’t hold out any longer, so I used the holiday as my excuse to fire up the coals and declare the official start of grilling season.

The Belfast Carbomb is a St. Patrick’s Day tradition, wherein a shot is dropped into a pint of stout and swallowed at high velocity, which got me thinking (hazily) that the flavors of Irish whiskey and stout would give a great spark to barbecue sauce, but my early attempts were lousy and so the idea was forgotten until I stumbled upon some old notes a few days ago.

This time I decided to go with a KC style sauce, which relies on a strong tomato flavor rather than the TN style, which is heavy on vinegar, I would simplify the ingredients and the process and I would switch to an Irish red ale from the overly dense, sweet and heavy stout. There were some complications, but it came out well nonetheless and I am looking forward to tweaking this recipe soon. I didn't have a red ale on hand, so I used PBR to replace all of the water and I meant to go with a shot of Jameson’s and a shot of vinegar, but I forgot and used a full quarter cup of vinegar, but I think I like it.

For the next batch, I am going to use the red ale instead of PBR (although the lager did work remarkably well, so I may come back to it), cut the sugar from a third to a quarter of a cup, and use a quarter cup each of whiskey and vinegar instead of shots. I may leave out the 1/2 tsp salt as well, and cut the shallots and oil in half (by volume). I am trying to think of what other flavors I might add, and am considering cloves at the moment.

Once I get the flavors hammered out, I would like to create a recipe that offers substitutions of canned tomatoes for ketchup and shallots or onions and garlic for onion and garlic powder with the caveat of needing to puree and more cooking time if solids are used. Ginger powder will probably never be replaced by fresh ginger, but if I can figure out how to do it, I’ll try.

JOURNAL: Bathtub Gin and My First Hangover

2007-06-01T16:51:00.001-07:00

I’m, not the hard-drinking type; I drank little before I came of age; and even though I celebrated my 21st birthday with three trips to Oktoberfest in Munich in the span of a week, and can recall a number of other over-indulgent days in the seven years since, I’ve never had a hangover… until today.

I think perhaps it’s genetic, as my maternal grandfather, Bill Ledoux, claimed to have never had a hangover one single day in his life and he attributed this blessing to the purity of single malt scotch. He was known as something of a drinker however and a master storyteller, so nobody believed his claim.

Last night I went to a party at a new club in the SoMa district and the event was sponsored by a distillery. The gin was flowing free and freely, so I ordered G+T by the pair like I had someone to pass the second drink to and mingled with a glass in each hand. Here’s the problem: It was gin from a local distillery that I had never heard of, and despite the pretty label it drank like the batch had just been bottled in someone’s back yard. I knew right away that it was not a quality libation, but it was gratis gin so I kept drinking. I’m a connoisseur, but not a snob. I like good gin more than cheap gin, but I also like drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon and am not averse to ordering cocktails with well liquor instead of call.

I knew that this stuff was simply wicked beyond the flavor and the bite, but I just couldn’t place my concern, so I kept drinking. It wasn’t the clean drunkenness that I appreciate from a gin binge, and I felt less clear-headed than I would expect from comparable consumption, but it was not until 6:30 this morning that I knew for sure that something was not right. I woke up with a headache, upset stomach and a sensitivity to light that I have never experienced after a night of drinking. Sometimes I wake up with a very dry mouth and strong thirst and I call that ‘my hangover’ because that is as bad as it gets. So I got up well before my alarm went off, took a leak and drank two glasses of water before I went back to bed for another half hour. I woke up again at 7:30 feeling altogether better, but those thirty minutes of conscious hangover were not pleasant.

I’m far from an alcoholic, but I have always appreciated the way that a drink can lighten my mood, loosen my inhibitions and compliment a meal. Beer, wine and cocktails all have a special place in my culinary canon, both for the memories that I have of foods paired with drinks and for the influence they have on my cooking, whether that be making a dish with alcohol in the recipe, barbecuing a chicken with a PBR crammed in its cavity, or borrowing flavor combinations back and forth between food and cocktail recipes.

JOURNAL: Doritos X-13D and The Sexy Blonde

2007-05-31T14:26:00.000-07:00

This is one culinary experiment gone horribly awry.

In an intentionally plain bag, which Tim had picked up at the grocery store, sat the Doritos X-13D experimental flavor tortilla chips. The label claimed that the new flavor was an all-time American classic, and the four of us sat around the coffee table on a Friday afternoon staring at the mystery with which he presented us.

We each popped a chip into our mouths and almost everyone reacted in the same way - instant recognition followed immediately by horror and then confusion. We each knew that we knew the flavor, but couldn't name it. Everyone that is, except for The Sexy Blonde. Known for her fantastically accurate palate, she had determined the intended flavor and broken down its components before I had even gotten one chip past my lips, and it was torturing her to wait for the rest of us to figure it out or give up.

She held her tongue while the rest of us pondered and grimaced, but was chomping at the bit to declare her findings. One by one we gave up and chugged anything within reach that would wash the flavor from our tongues and finally she announced it, "McDonalds Cheeseburger! You can taste the onions, pickles, cheese and beef." She was absolutely correct although we all wished that it had remained a mystery. I immediately asked The Sexy Blonde if she would accompany me to Sonoma next week, because I could surely use a super-taster like her on my wine tasting excursion.

JOURNAL: Gingered Duck (Cookies)

2007-05-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

The classic Swedish holiday cookie involves two of my all-time favorite ingredients, neither of which I usually associate with cookies, or each other. The appearances, flavors, aromas and textures of ginger and bacon fat seem so diametrically opposed that I was both horrified and intrigued by the thought of combining them into one sticky biscuit.

It works. It works as well as I imagined it possibly could, and the flavor and texture of these cookies is hard to rival, but I thought I might be able to come up with a little trick to make it work even better, a twist to put it over the top, and that got me thinking about other favorite fats and ginger dishes, and it all fell right into place.

Rendered duck fat is probably the most amazing thing on Earth, up there with Bose-Einstein Condensate as a substance that both perplexes and amazes me, so impossible to wrap my head around how it can do what it does. I have found that in the kitchen, anything that benefits from a richly flavored fat like bacon grease can become ten times more tantalizing when substituted with rendered duck fat. Ginger duck dishes also work very well in Asian cuisine, so I think I might just have devised a winner.

Experiments will follow soon and I will update with a recipe and results in an impending posting.

RECIPES: Manic Mango Refined

2007-05-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

Crab Mangoon

2 (8 ounce) packages softened cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese
2 mangoes, seeded, peeled and finely diced
1 (8 ounce) package faux crab legs, broken into pieces (real crab or lobster if you are feeling fancy, but really the fake works better)
2-3 scallions, white end half removed, cut into thin rings
1 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Won ton wrappers
Oil for deep-frying

1. Combine everything but the wrappers and frying oil and leave the mixing bowl in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours to allow the flavors to meld and the cheese stiffen.
2. Scoop about a tablespoon of filling onto each won ton, wet two adjacent edges and pinch them together to make a pregnant triangle.
3. Use a fork to crimp the sealed edges.
4. Submerge in hot oil until golden.
5. Drain on paper towels for five minutes, but serve them quickly or else they will become flaccid and soggy.
6. Serve with duck sauce, sweet chili sauce or both...or something else.

Frozen Ginger Mango-Rita

Serves: 1
Don't bother making a half recipe.
You will regret it when you run out.

1.5 cups Simple Ginger syrup*
6 ripe mangoes, pitted, peeled and cubed
3 limes, two juiced and one cut into wedges)
4 cups ice
1.5 cups tequila
1/2 cup Grand Marnier or Cointreau
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cayenne pepper

1. Combine mangoes, syrup, and lime juice in a food processor. You might have to do this in batches if you don't have the 14 cup model.
2. Add liquor and ice and blend until smooth.
3. Combine sugar and cayenne, stirring thoroughly on a small plate.
4. Wet the rim of a glass with a lime wedge, and dip it in the dish to coat the rim before filling. Repeat with every glass.
5. Garnish with a wedge of lime.

*Simple Ginger

I like to keep this on hand. I store it in squeeze bottles for use in cocktails, desserts and sauces. It will keep for a couple weeks.

1 cup H2O
1 cup sugar
3 inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan.
2. Stir Constantly over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer for five minutes.
4. Remove from heat and let steep for 1-2 hours.
5. Pour through fine mesh strainer and discard ginger pieces.

JOURNAL: Manic Mango

2007-05-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

I had the lowest scores out of four competitors at the Iron Chef (sorry about the trademark infringement) Battle Mango in Glen Park last week.

Things to remember for next time:
(1) Read the rules on the evite before you start cooking or at least before you go to the competition/dinner.
(2) Don't be like that girl who started cooking after everyone else arrived and their food was getting cold. Even if she did win.
(3) The judges care about presentation (seemingly far more than taste), so make it pretty.
(4) They will not care if you make 4 dishes instead of the assigned 2.
(5) They will not consider the world's most kick-ass frozen ginger mango-rita to be a "dish" no matter how much they love it. Fools.
(6) Just make buffalo wings in lettuce cups. They will be content.

What I learned:

(1) My frozen ginger mango-rita is a crowd-pleaser, but would be even better with more ginger (maybe roasted rather than raw), should be made in obscenely large batches, and the leftovers make a good granita when forgotten in the freezer. Cayenne and sugar on the rim was a great last-minute addition, but better to wet the rim with a lime wedge than in a bowl of mango juice, because the rim ends up slithering its way down to the stem in a matter of minutes.

(2) My classic crab rangoon is fantastic, replacing the crab with mango and keeping the other spicy and savory ingredients is also good, and calling it "mangoon" is funny, but adding the mango while retaining the crab and having a fruity dipping sauce (duck sauce or sweet chili sauce) would have been sublime.

(3) Serving mangoon to the judges while still hot and crispy would have been good as well.

(4) It is really hard to find Asian staples in my new neighborhood, and when I can, they are absurdly overpriced ($8 for a packet of agar agar flakes, which cost $1.39 at Asian markets in the Sunset District or Chinatown for a bag at least 8 times the size).

(5) Organic corn syrup serves no purpose and has no place in this world. The things that call for corn syrup are not for the organic grocery buyer, and the stuff is so thick, chewy and odd that it doesn't function in a recipe the way conventional corn syrup does. It literally took 45 minutes with the bottle tilted at a 45-degree angle to pour a half-cup, and the mouth of the bottle was too narrow to fit even a butter knife inside in order to promote flow.

(6) Don't try to make mango gumdrops from scratch. It's silly and you have no idea what you are doing. Make mango pâté de fruit and then everyone will have a happier experience and be more impressed by the fancy name.

LINK: My Restaurant Reviews

2007-05-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

The other side of my food writing can be found here.

It's a link to my profile on Yelp.com, a site for restaurant (and business) reviews, and my venue to elevate entirely consumptive experiences into creative acts. Truly, I would love to write that I only consume in order create, but that is more an aspiration than my current state. I'm working on it. I like the juxtaposition with the way I cook, creative acts for the purpose of consumption. It's ephemeral art.

SIMULACRA OF A SIMULACRUM: The Foundation Of My Food Fascination

2007-05-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

I chose Mock Eel as the title for my culinary blog, because it was one bite of that dish that fomented my first foray into culinary experimentation, which over the past few years has become a consistent passion and occasional obsession. It’s funny to me, thinking of how many times I tried to recreate an entity that was itself pretending to be something altogether different.

It all started when Steve Bogart opened his unique Northern Chinese restaurant, A Single Pebble, in Burlington, Vermont. The bill of fare read like a fairytale to this small town boy, and my already budding passion for Asian cooking was piqued by the delicacies on offer. Before putting a second awe-inspiring spiral into my mouth, I inquired as to the mock eel’s ingredients, embarrassedly implying a potential allergy, but to no avail. The server informed me that the recipe was a secret, leaving me with only the menu description of,

"Braised shiitake mushrooms in a ginger sauce.
A delightful, crispy flavor and texture.
9.50."

Until that point, I had been content to obediently follow recipes scavenged from friends, family, books and the Internet, recreating each with such reverence for exact specifications that one might think they were holy scripture. I feared the mystical voodoo science involved in cooking (as I still do of baking) and had yet to embrace the art. I was young in my culinary development and I could only grasp the potential for tasting new flavors, the satisfaction of creating and the impact it had on how pretty girls perceived me.

Intrigued by this mysterious dish, a mound of sticky over crispy fake-fish ribbons, I started on my quest with nothing but the description torn from a menu and my underdeveloped palate. I knew that the "eel" was shitake and I could tell by sight and crunch that it was fried, not braised. Garlic was palpable, as were the scallions and the sauce was thick and viscous like a glaze and exceedingly sweet, yet dark and salty.

I tend to over-think things, so when I retreated to my kitchen with leftovers and a bag of fresh shitake caps, I began to scheme about the sorts of ingredients and techniques that I could employ. After fruitless web searches, numerous charred and reeking saucepans and with hands cramped into grotesque contortions from spiral-cutting mushrooms with a paring knife, I was eventually sautéing shitake strips in a citrus and tamari reduction that resembled the original in essence of flavor, but approached it neither in texture nor appearance. I continued to experiment, to tinker, to sample the original and to look for inside information on Bogart’s baby, and I thought I was gradually narrowing in on the master.

Years later, having long since moved on to other projects, I asked the sister of a dear friend, who waited tables at A Single Pebble, how mock eel was made. She told me that dried mushrooms were spiral cut with scissors, reconstituted, deep fried and then tossed in a wok with a 50-50 mix of boiling cane sugar and soy sauce along with ginger, garlic and scallions. Essentially, he was deep frying mushrooms and tossing them in soy sauce caramel!

She also informed me that the task required the sort of heat that my electric range could never provide, and since that day, I have never been willing to move into any apartment without a gas stove.

I have come to like my own evolving sauce variations more than the sickly sweet original, and it works just as well with the fundamental techniques. The sugar, although I dread to meddle with the chef of provenance, is a little too much after the first few bites and swapping some of it for fruit juice gives it a more robust character and a little more complexity of flavor.

So that is the story of the fascinating flavor that sparked my obsession with culinary experimentation and just the tip of an expanding iceberg that I hope to chip away at here. I see this blog as a chance to archive my thoughts and replace my tattered folders filled with crusty scraps of paper, recipes that have been drawn on and written over, oil-soaked articles torn from culinary magazines, illustrations for utensil designs or procedural diagrams and my logs of ongoing projects that document the many manifestations of each new trial. I suppose it may not be interesting to anyone other than myself, but on the off chance that you are reading any of this, post a comment so I know I'm not alone.