Culinaria: What's for dinner ?

[Darby]

It's a rare treat when a friend sends me a vegetable I've never had before. Today was giant patty pan squash. I've had small patty pans before, but never one nearly 9" across. It looked like the bastard love child of a zucchini and a star fish, skinned in forest green camo. It's like something you'd see gracing the table of an alien feast in a scifi movie.

I tested it with my thumbnail to be sure it wasnt overgrown and tough, and since all seemed well I cut it into 1" thick horizontal slabs (which would have been perfect for grilling, only it was rainy and therefore indoor saute was a must). The flesh was still tender and the seeds small and equally tender, so I was in luck. I cut the slabs into a 1" bias dice, tossed it with salt and some homemade sambar masala spice, then sauteed it in butter with a few crumbled cayennes and a generous gurgle of sake. I inverted a large steel work bowl over my 12" saute pan, and using a rare earth hook magnet as a handle I periodically lifted the lid so I could give the pan a few flips, and then put the lid back on. After about 4-5 mins it was fork tender, so I took the lid off to let the pan run dry and allow some color to develop, and it was done.

The flavor and texture (aside from my seasoning) was something of a cross between small patty pans and cayote. Nice texture, but very mild flavor ... I was glad I seasoned it a bit aggressively.

Entree was some leftover ravioli with bolognese from yesturday.

[Darby]

Breakfast (and probably lunch) today falls squarely under the umbrella of "trailer trash cuisine", which gets its name from lower income people living in mobile homes who necessarily live on humble inexpensive canned/dried goods prepared with minimal effort and minimal culinary skill.

Today's sacrificial offering was a dusty and humble 15 oz can of Red Salmon, just past it's expiration date. It's hard to elevate something that's already been cooked to death several years earlier and residing in a tin at room temperature ever since, all but invisible, but in lieu of going into the garbage I set out to make something that was at least edible.

Option one was to squeeze out all the liquid, toss it in a food processor with diced onions, diced celery, parsley, mayo, and a small spritz of mustard and seasonings and puree the @#$% outta it, and slather it on stale bread (preferrably toasted), crackers or tortilla chips. I wont lie and deny I've done that before, but the spirit of trailer trash cuisine was upon me, and I resolved to do something that wouldnt squander the murky looking and fishy smelling can liquor ... homeless stray cats around the world would have psychically murdered me in my sleep if I did.

Option two was the humble salmon pattie (something best made, if at all, with fresh salmon). From memory, I drained liquid into one bowl, and flaked the meat into another. To the liquid I whisked in 1/4 cup whole mayo, an egg, 1/2 tsp thai fish sauce, 1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce, the microplaned zest of a lemon and 1/4 tsp hot sauce until smooth. To the flaked meat I added 1/4 cup minced onion and 1/8th cup minced gypsy pepper. Then I combined both bowls with 1 cup panko bread crumbs, stirred well, and refrigerated it for an hour until fully thickened and able to form patties. From there it was a simple step to make tartar sauce (mayo, minced capers, minced sweet pickle, and the juice from the denuded lemon), and pan fry patties ala minute until well browned. Not great, but more importantly not bad.

Personally, I'd much rather have time travelled back to the bumble bee cannery, and eaten the sockeye salmon RAW before it went into it's autoclave bound aluminum tomb, but alas ... Einstein said no to such things.

[Darby]

I've got Mango Sorbet Ver 2.0 in the freezer now.

This time I pressed the puree though a medium strainer (improved texture), reduced the simple syrup slightly, upped the lime juice, and came up with a way to manually assist the churning in the machine to help it churn longer and avoid premature seizing. Longer churning at critical temperature means a smoother and finer grain in the finished product.

I'll post a photo when fully hardened.

[Darby]

Last night I made a northern Indian rice based dish called Vagni Bhat, which is essentially a rice pilaf including sauteed onions, diced eggplant, finely minced lemon, curry leaves, turmeric and garam masala. I've been making it a few times a year for some years now. I also like to add some pan toasted chopped cashews for a little crunch.

This morning, my Wife asked for Matzoh Brei (and no, I'm not Jewish), so I made a 12" pan worth, flavored with sauteed gypsy pepper, jalapeno and onion, plus a little grated cheddar. BTW, leftovers are a convenient grab and go affair for commuters ... just shove a few slices into a pint tupperware, warm briefly in the wave, and you're off. It's finger food when nobody's looking. ;-)

Dinner tonite was a classic of modern japanese fast comfort food: Zarusoba. Couldnt be easier to make, and the ingredients (if properly stored) have a shelf life of many months. Pour about 2-3 fl oz of zarusoba dipping broth (mostly a mix of dashi, soy sauce and a little mirin) and 1/2 fl oz dark sesame oil into a small mug or dipping bowl, then boil some soba noodles for 3 mins, rinse with ice cold water, drain, and place in a serving bowl with some freshly toasted nori (seaweed sheets normally used for rolling sushi) cut into julienne. To eat it, you just dip and slurp. Very fast, very easy. I'm surprised more Japanese restaurants here in the USA don't serve it, because we're a dipping and dunking culture, and since we already do it with bread and donuts why not pasta ?

[Darby]

A little later today, with a tip of the hat to the starch and sugar thread, I'll be using my ICE-21 to make a batch of Lemon Sorbet.

I'll cue Carly Simon's "Killing Me Softly", since sugar is bad for me.

Tentative recipe for first attempt:
> 1:1.3 ratio: Simple Syrup to Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
> Microplaned zest of 1/3rd of the lemons used.
> Chill, churn and freeze.

If it comes out too hard, I might try a little corn syrup to soften it the next time I make it. Another tweak might be to try blending in a little lime and garden mint leaves.

[TheVat]

I wonder if American resistance to zarusoba is the slurping level. Japanese have a much higher tolerance of heavy slurping at table.

My tip of hat to the starch/sugar thread is a solution to the scourge: Dried Up Old French baguette.

Chop up the bread into 1 inch cubes, then mix in a cup or two (you have to experiment, as loaf size and absorbency vary) of vanilla almond milk or soy milk, couple-three tbsp agave nectar or syrup, cinnamon (1 tsp), nutmeg (.5 tsp), and vigorously stir in some oil as the rest turns to mush. If you're not a cook, you can stop here, chill, and serve. Or you can mess around with corn starch and gelatin and heating and so forth, to get a firm pudding.

[Darby]

I suspect you're right on slurping. I always tell anyone I'm dining with when ordering or serving noodles in their presence that in much of the East, audible slurping is considered analagous to the western "mmmmm" of contentment, and is a compliment to the chef, rather than a sign of uncouth manners.

I'm with you on Bread Pudding ... it has a much stronger tradition in Britain than here stateside, but I've never known anyone to turn up their nose at it, cooked or otherwise.

----------------

So, for dinner tonite, I was staring at two kerala (Indian bitter melon), and wondering how to make use of them. My wife detests Bitter Melon, so I was cooking for just me, which left me free of all restrictions, and limited only to what was handy. In order to avoid the tedium of a recipe search, I opted to just do a variant on one of my favorite authentic Chinese recipes, "Beef w/Bitter Melon in Black Bean Oyster Sauce" ... only in this case, I didn't have any beef handy, so I substitued a little browned italian sausage (which I peeled, sliced and browned straight from the freezer), some lightly browned slices of new potato, and instead of dried cayenne I used some finely mined red jalapeno from my garden. Instead of making more rice, I served it over some of the Vagni Bhat leftover from yesturday. Tasted a little busy, but good.

[Darby]

A little later today, with a tip of the hat to the starch and sugar thread, I'll be using my ICE-21 to make a batch of Lemon Sorbet.

I'll cue Carly Simon's "Killing Me Softly", since sugar is bad for me.

Tentative recipe for first attempt:
> 1:1.3 ratio: Simple Syrup to Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
> Microplaned zest of 1/3rd of the lemons used.
> Chill, churn and freeze.

If it comes out too hard, I might try a little corn syrup to soften it the next time I make it. Another tweak might be to try blending in a little lime and garden mint leaves.

Ok, and DONE.

I had to manually assist the churning with intermittant stirring with a silicone spatula (too liquidy to gain traction at first), but so far the texture is good (still hardening in freezer), but it's a bit too strong/puckery. Very Tart/Pungent.

I think I'll cut the zest from four lemons to three, and change the ratio to 1:1:1/2 syrup, juice, water. Oh, and a pinch of salt.

[mtbturtle]

Ursas made lamb bacon mmmmmmmm it makes a good garnish for soups, especially carrot ginger soup I'll make later this fall.
lamb bacon cut by mtb turtle,

lamb bacon whole by mtb turtle

I bought another 25 pounds of tomatoes and so far have processed 14 1/2 pints of bruschetta in a jar. I'll can just plain tomato quarts this afternoon and then start another batch of sauerkraut
bruschette by mtb turtle, on Flickr

[Darby]

The lamb bacon looks awesome. The rolled format moves it into pancetta territory.

Did you cure that yourself, and if so what seasons other than salt and pink salt ? Very cool. I dearly wish there was a local old fashioned charceuterie around that offered training ... I pride myself on being an autodidact, but my self training could only take me so far in this area because I just dont have access to the sort of primals that professional butchers do. In other words, it's virtually impossible to get things like lamb bellies here in suburbia ... there's just no market for it. I also imagine that lamb pancetta would need cuts besides just the belly/flank (or at the least the bellies from several lambs), since they come from a much smaller critter than full size pigs.

BTW, minor correction: I dont speak eyetralian (as my late father in law used to say), but "bruschetta" refers to the finished dish of toasted crostini topped with dressed tomatoes, not to the tomatoes themselves.

[Ursa Minimus]

The lamb bacon looks awesome. The rolled format moves it into pancetta territory.

Did you cure that yourself, and if so what seasons other than salt and pink salt ? Very cool. I dearly wish there was a local old fashioned charceuterie around that offered training ... I pride myself on being an autodidact, but my self training could only take me so far in this area because I just dont have access to the sort of primals that professional butchers do. In other words, it's virtually impossible to get things like lamb bellies here in suburbia ... there's just no market for it. I also imagine that lamb pancetta would need cuts besides just the belly/flank (or at the least the bellies from several lambs), since they come from a much smaller critter than full size pigs.

BTW, minor correction: I dont speak eyetralian (as my late father in law used to say), but "bruschetta" refers to the finished dish of toasted crostini topped with dressed tomatoes, not to the tomatoes themselves.

For the pancetta, the starting recipe for the cure is:

½ cup whole fennel seeds
10 whole star anise
½ cup whole black peppercorns
4 cinnamon sticks
¼ cup whole allspice berries
3 pounds Kosher salt
1 pound brown sugar
1 bunch roughly chopped fresh thyme
½ bunch roughly chopped fresh rosemary
½ ounces tinted curing mix

But I did not use exactly those spices in those ratios, and I made the cure almost a year ago, so not sure what I actually did use. In the style of the above, for sure. Close enough. And I only made a half batch, which should last me for the foreseeable future of baconing lamb.

For the curing process using 2 lamb bellies (and it is best to do that, as they are very small and thin, though I did one the first time):

About 3/4 cup of cure, and an extra scant teaspoon of pink curing salt mixed in. The original recipe cured for days, I did a day the first time, but even that was way too salty. I upped the pink salt in part because the original cure seemed low compared to other recipes, and because I drastically lowered the time of the cure sitting on the meat.

Sprinkle on the lamb bellies. Sprinkle the cure on pretty heavily (not totally covered, but a good amount) and rub in. Cover, in the fridge for an hour or so, turn for another hour or so. I did this one 2.5 hours, and it has a good salt level. More cure, or longer time means saltier of course.

Rinse off, and put on a rack in the fridge, uncovered, overnight. This dries them enough so that they are easier to roll.

On plastic wrap (2 sheets stuck together), set the bellies so they overlap slightly on the long edge, and the thickness will be about the same edge to edge once rolled up. So basically one each way, fat cap down. Roll tightly, and once rolled (you might want to tie it with 5 pieces of string to hold it together, depends on how good you are at rolling), roll up in the plastic, twist the ends. Then roll up in a towel, twist and tie the ends, and put in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight. This will firm it up and make it much easier to tie in a way that looks proper.

Remove towel and plastic, tie up, and hang in the fridge for a week. Hanging it compress as it dries, so I don't suggest laying it flat at this point. I use my basement fridge for beer, and aging meat, so it is in the upper 30's and not opened all the time giving a consistent temp.

If you have access to a cool room (bedroom with the heat turned off in winter, or basement) you can hang it in the open so long as it is dark and you have air movement from a small fan. It will be better in terms of texture and fermented flavor (think prosciutto), but it was so hot when I started this one I just decided to go with the fridge and not worry about it. I would want it in the low 60s for this, at the warmest. Upper 50s would be better, that worked well for me last time.

As it ages, squish it a bit to track progress. At first it will be slightly moist and squish. Then it dries, but still squishes when pinched. Eventually it won't squish much at all, which is when I took it for done.

I hope I am not confusing you with all the technical terms like "squish". :D

I like to keep it in the freezer, as frozen it is easier to slice off paper thin slices to crisp up for garnish. This is a powerful flavor, so not really what I would want for bacon and eggs!

Lamb bellies are hard to get, we got ours when we bought a whole lamb from a local producer. But pork bellies, I think you can probably order those from a butcher or even a grocery store if you like. And I think most people who get lamb get the belly ground into burger, so you might be able to snag a couple from a local producer if you ask ahead of time... and offer them a sample when done. I would think there will be local lamb coming to market soon, or in the spring if not. Depending where you are.

As for "bruschetta", the recipe from the Ball canning book is called "bruschetta in a jar". :) Good on toasted bread, good as a pizza sauce, or quick pasta sauce, or for lots of other things as well.

[Ursa Minimus]

BTW, if any of you do a recipe search and find a hit from StarChefs.com, look at it. I have found some good stuff there. Not easy to browse recipes in the way you would flip through a cookbook, but the few I have tried have been quite good. And you can search for ingredients to turn up recipes. Lentils turns up a huge number of recipes, for example.

The lentil recipe here: http://www.starchefs.com/features/head_ ... tino.shtml Quite tasty. The lamb kidneys, not so much for me personally, but the lentils are great.

[Ursa Minimus]

Deceptively complex topic ... what exactly constitutes "American Cuisine" ?

What constitutes European Cuisine? Big places are diverse.

I think "fusion" cooking is the most American form, and so called "California Cuisine" would be an early emergence. Synthetic, takes and mixes influences, not worried about purity if path just the destination. Kind of like Jazz in a way.

Southern cooking would likely be seen by many in other countries as the most American of regional cuisines, given the fat and sugar involved, as well as the connection to US history. (Thinking about who had to deal with the poor cuts and meager options, and how they took them and ran with it. BBQ being one example.)

[Ursa Minimus]

There are foods I don't eat, but that doesn't mean they stopped looking incredibly delicious. Pistachio-crusted lamb chops would definitely make me rethink. If it was free-range livestock, I would recalibrate my Green meme a bit.

Free range, local. Our lamb lady loves us. Well, at least she remembers us, given that we are not the typical buyer in terms of how we want our stuff portioned, and that we want the neck bones and organs and such.

[Darby]

URSA: Thanks for the detailed info on the lamb pancetta. Mucho gracias. Yes, I may have to get a 2nd fridge for the garage or basement ... something that I could use for mini kegs & a CO2/regulator (read: homemade seltzer and the occasional homebrew), and the occasional charcuterie (mostly gravlox).

[Ursa Minimus]

URSA: Thanks for the detailed info on the lamb pancetta. Mucho gracias. Yes, I may have to get a 2nd fridge for the garage or basement ... something that I could use for mini kegs & a CO2/regulator (read: homemade seltzer and the occasional homebrew), and the occasional charcuterie (mostly gravlox).

Darby,

You're welcome. I type fast so not a big deal really, and any suggestion of hanging raw meat for a week should have a good deal of detail attached I think.

Second fridge? I suggest if your first fridge is not new, you get a new first fridge and make your current one the spare. Since most places will take away the old one, most will move it for you. Though a tip of cash or beer would help in that, if there was any resistance.

Another option is a chest freezer with a "refrigerate" mode. Lots of beer people go that route for their kegs... and/or brewing.

[Darby]

My current fridge is not ideally suited for the task. I'd rather get one that's ideal for my seconday needs.

I'd need to make:
> A custom cut plywood floor insert, to help protect against damage from heavy/jostling kegs.
> An epoxy'd on ceiling loop, to hang stuff.

As for homebrewing & bartending gear, that's well within my wheelhouse. I can buy or salvage most of what I need:
> 5lb CO₂ tank & fittings
> Regulator with the usual hoses, clamps and fittings
> Two 5 gal Soda/Homebrew kegs
> Hose tap.
> Line cleaning kit

[Ursa Minimus]

My current fridge is not ideally suited for the task. I'd rather get one that's ideal for my seconday needs.

Look at some of the chest freezer options out there, that's my suggestion. I have seen low dollar plans to convert regular freezers using an after market temp control unit. The bottom will be wider, and metal. There will be a rack for things to sit in, or hang off of. Less expensive too, as fridges will have features you don't want (like shelves and bins).

Here is one way to go, a 15 minute video. I like the top extension with 2x4s to run the taps, as an idea. Not something you would do with an upright, where you have to drill the door, and so deal with the lines when the door opens and closes so they won't get kinked or pinched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=125&v=zHWy_Vlw3J4

The problem with finding good plans is narrowing them down, because there are a great number of people doing this and posting about it on the net. Poke around, see what turns up.

[Darby]

Good video, clever design, but it's more space than I need. Need more info on the temperature controller however (the video surprisingly glossed over that aspect) ... presumably it bypasses the internal thermostat by controlling everything right at the wall socket ?

[Ursa Minimus]

Good video, clever design, but it's more space than I need. Need more info on the temperature controller however (the video surprisingly glossed over that aspect) ... presumably it bypasses the internal thermostat by controlling everything right at the wall socket ?

https://www.google.com/search?q=chest+f ... lator+beer for options. For easy and cheap, you plug the freezer into the unit, the unit into the wall, hang the probe in the freezer, then the unit cycles the freezer power as needed. Higher end models can be wired into the existing circuits, IIRC.

And some come with a fridge mode already built in. Assuming those work ok, you would not need a conversion. Unless you wanted more accuracy in temp control or more range, as for brewing.

A small chest freezer might be an option. 3, 5, 7 cubic feet, somewhere in that range. Depends on footprint, and just how much space you need inside.

[Darby]

Good video, clever design, but it's more space than I need. Need more info on the temperature controller however (the video surprisingly glossed over that aspect) ... presumably it bypasses the internal thermostat by controlling everything right at the wall socket ?

https://www.google.com/search?q=chest+f ... lator+beer for options. For easy and cheap, you plug the freezer into the unit, the unit into the wall, hang the probe in the freezer, then the unit cycles the freezer power as needed. Higher end models can be wired into the existing circuits, IIRC.

And some come with a fridge mode already built in.

Digital controllers have have come a long way since 1998, which was the first and last time I brewed a lager (a dopplebock actually), and I was looking around for an off the shelf way to control a small fridge with greater precision (digital kitchen thermometers were an expensive novelty back them), and I had to settle for keeping the carboy in my unheated foyer during the dead of winter (where it averaged around 48F ... close enough).

Thanks again.

[Darby]

OK, back to food ... today's experiment will be trying to make a non-dairy pina colada ice cream for my lactose intolerant wife. Technically speaking, the presence of fruit puree and a fat source marks it as a "sherbert", but the higher fat moves it closer to ice cream territory even though there's no cream in it, so there's no clear cut term for it. Ah well, non-dairy ice cream it is. If the linguisitic police try to arrest me, I'll barricade the door and slip the leash on my pet Thesaurus.

Anyway, my first attempt will be with full fat (canned) unsweetened coconut milk, freshly pureed pineapple, and a little honey and salt, as a baseline. Further additions and tweaks will depend on how the baseline version turns out.

[Darby]

I made the base just now, and it looks/tastes very promising (like homemade pina colada mix, sans rum & ice). It's chilling now, to get ready for a spin in the ice cream maker. Recipe below.

Pina Colada Ice Cream (Non-Dairy):

> 1 pint Fresh Ripe Pineapple Chunks (approx 1/3rd of a pineapple)
> 1/2 cup honey (170 gr)
> 2 cans (14 oz ea) Unsweetened Coconut Milk, of the full fat variety (not lite canned or lite carton milk**)
> 1/8th tsp salt

1) Peel, core, dice and then puree chunked pineapple with honey in food processor until very smooth and creamy (3 mins).
2) Transfer to large work bowl and whisk in the canned coconut milk (room temp) until smooth.
3) Chill in fridge until cold & whisk once more
4) Churn in ice cream machine (assisting manually as needed, at critical temp)
5) Freeze.
6) Consume and convert to excess body fat.

-----------
* If you use lite coconut milk, the linguistic police demand it be called "Sherbert" instead of "Ice Cream".

[Darby]

And as half expected, the base has already begun to thicken (currently the heft/thickness of stirred sour cream), even though it's currently only down to 60F, due to the coconut oils (which harden at cool temps due to being mostly saturated fats) and honey (which also hardens at moderately cool temps). I may have to add some pineapple juice or lite coconut milk to loosen it enough to churn properly, because if it seizes before reaching critical-freeze temps, the result could be sub-optimal, or downright messy.

This is one of the drawbacks of using a flimsy countertop model instead of a beefy industrial machine ... textural considerations, before, during and after churning are FAR more critical for the former than the latter, and of course the people who make and sell the former go out of their way to avoid mentioning such vital things.

[Darby]

OK, I'm not sure if it's due to having added an extra cup of pineapple juice (read: fat dilution plus extra acidity), or just the saturated nature of the fats in coconut oil, but the ice cream turned grainy and crumbly during hard freeze.

Next time, I'll skip the added juice (and the honey), and instead add lite coconut milk and/or coconut water, and see if that changes the texture. The current ice cream wont go to waste, since I can simply scoop it into a blender with a little rum and water (or lite coconut milk) to make pina coladas.

------------

On a related note, I'm mildly regretting having bought the Cuisinart ICE-21, since I just noticed there's an attachment I could have bought for my kitchenaid stand mixer that apparently costs less and performs slightly better, and therefore would have taken less counter space.

[Darby]

For dinner tonite, I'll probably throw a 6qt batch of callos into the slow cooker, and freeze half of it. See March 16th post earlier in this thread for photos.

[Ursa Minimus]

Even a tiny bit of corn syrup will help stave off crystallization, somewhat.

On a related note, I'm mildly regretting having bought the Cuisinart ICE-21, since I just noticed there's an attachment I could have bought for my kitchenaid stand mixer that apparently costs less and performs slightly better, and therefore would have taken less counter space.

Being able to turn up the speed at the end does give you the option to put more air in the finished product, which is a good thing for many recipes. Expensive machines will do this, the Kitchenaid will do it, a hand crank machine will do it.

Quisinart? Nope. But at least we got ours pretty cheap.

[Darby]

I'd heard about the corn syrup, but havent tried it yet. Not a big fan of corn syrup in general, but if ya gotta, ya gotta. What's a standard addition for a 1.5 qt recipe, to yeild decent textural results ... I'm guessing 1/4 cup or 25% of total added sugar (whichever is less) for sorbet, and perhaps half that for ice cream. Am I close ?

Just got 4lbs of dried tart cherries in the mail ... looking forward to doing version 3 of my cherry garcia.

[Ursa Minimus]

I'd heard about the corn syrup, but havent tried it yet. Not a big fan of corn syrup in general, but if ya gotta, ya gotta. What's a standard addition for a 1.5 qt recipe, to yeild decent textural results ... I'm guessing 1/4 cup or 25% of total added sugar (whichever is less) for sorbet, and perhaps half that for ice cream. Am I close ?

Just got 4lbs of dried tart cherries in the mail ... looking forward to doing version 3 of my cherry garcia.

The big problem with corn syrup comes from its widespread use as a "hidden" sugar. That, and in large quantities it has a bit of an odd taste, and it is liquid so you have to account for that, and it is not as sweet as sugar. But other than that!

I've never added more than a Tablespoon to a mix, or to caramel for that matter. Usually less. You get a lot of benefit in terms of crystal formation from just a bit.

This person likes all or mostly corn syrup for sorbet, and provides some info on invert sugars in general. Tests 4 versions of a sorbet with different sugar ratios.

http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2013/07/t ... ugars.html

[Darby]

Thanks, very helpful article ... and as he reported, my lemon sorbet came out too icy.

He neglected to include a table for interchanging simple syrup with corn syrup. Will have to search out in the web.