automated garlic peeling

This goes down as one of the greatest kitchen parlor tricks I've ever seen.  I was absolutely sure this wouldn't work but I had to try it.  Well. It does work.  Amazingly well. No more expensive pre-peeled garlic for me.  I now do it in batches and store it.

knife wrapping reverse engineering

I took my knives to be sharpened recently at Korin in NY. It's a Japanese knife store. I could go on about their $1,000 sushi blades but that's for another time. Instead I'll talk about their sharpening service. The knife sharpener sits inside this odd glass cage while he works making it seem like you are in a zoo. Regardless he does a great job. And they also offer free classes which is something I might do at some point.

What I noticed when I got knives back was that he elegantly solved a problem I've had with transporting knives. In particular how do you wrap them so the knives stay protected. When I've wrapped them they always come out of the newspaper sleeve I make. He overcame this problem by taking advantage of the lip of the knife where it meets the tang. See below (Pic #1):

How does he do this? He does this during the initial wrapping by placing the blade at an angle to the newspaper sheet. First wrapping up the bottom edge (Pic #2) and then wrapping over the left side (Pic #3) to secure the knife. He then rolls the knife up in the rest of the newspaper.  Clever.

chicken soup

I used to think I was a really good cook.  Mainly because the things I cooked tasted good to me and people generally agreed.  I realized at some point a few years back that I wasn't a good cook.  I was a good recipe follower.  Without a recipe I couldn't cook jack.

I've spent a lot of the last few years trying to be a good cook. In other words trying to understand cooking principles at their core so that I could cook without recipes.  To a large extent I can do this now. Another thing I did was start to make my own recipes. Basically by taking something I really wanted to know how to make well and trying different things each time.

The most recent one I've kind of peaked out on is chicken soup.  I've probably made this about 25 times now trying different ways to make it better.  Almost everything I do now doesn't make it much better.  So here it is.  And my recipe will be a little different from other recipes because it won't have exact quantities where it isn't needed. And there will be more context around why you do something.

1. Debone a chicken (see how to do that here; it is a great skill to have)
2. Into a large pressure cooker add the bones from the deboning, mirepoux (onion, carrot, celery), and a tablespoon or two of brown sugar or honey (it doesn't matter).  Plus add any bones you have lying around.  My freezer is stocked with bones from everything I eat now.  Whether we go to a restaurant or eat in, the bones go in the freezer.  Fill with water to cover the bones.  Trader Joes sells awesome prepackaged tubs of mirepoux that I use.  It doesn't matter how much.  One tub is maybe 2 cups.  Use more or less.  Use what you have.  (Note you'll need more later.)  The mirepoux will add some flavor but also some sugars in addition to the brown sugar/honey to facilitate a Maillard reaction (see here).  Get the water to a boil and watch it for a few minutes to see if any scum collects.  If so skim this off.  Once the scum is gone put the top on and cook it for 1-2 or more hours.  It doesn't matter how long.  1 is pretty good.  2 is great.  Any more and I'm not sure you are doing much.  The bones will be powder at the end of 2.
3. While that is going on, take your Ed Gein boneless chicken mass and put it skin side up onto something that is large enough that the chicken can be spread out and can go into your oven.  Cook it in the oven at around 350 plus or minus 25 degrees.  Again doesn't matter.  How long?  Again it doesn't really matter.  I usually take it out when the skin as crisped up a bit and is easy to remove.  The skin will help baste the chicken meat as the fat renders and will stop it from scorching if you leave it in too long.  Even undercooking is fine because you can finish it in the stock.
4. Uncork your pressure cooker and strain EVERYTHING out. Everything. The liquid should be a nice golden brown. Put it into a new pot and turn the heat on. Dump everything else in the trash. I usually just strain it through a sieve right into the new pot.
5. Add another helping of mirepoux. Again it doesn't matter how much. It depends on how vegetable-y you like your soup. I'm guessing 2 cups worth of the stuff in 1:1:1 ratios.
6. Take your chicken out of the oven and let it cool off a bit. Remove the skin, cut it into the size pieces you want in the soup and dump it in the pot.
7. At this point you are kind of done.  Just salt and pepper it to taste.  It'll take a lot of salt by the way. As it stands this will be a darn good chicken soup.
8. [update] FYI, the soup tastes better on day 3 than just after making it.  I think this is true of most braises, stews, soups.  It's never lasted beyond day 3.

Optional.  I usually do a couple of additional things.

1. Add cooked rice.  I generally add a lot turning it almost into a congee.  My kids pester me for this chicken soup often so I like to make it last and they love rice.  You can also use raw rice and cook it into the stock but it's hard to gauge how big the rice will get.  It could be less of a congee and more of a rice cake if you're not careful
2. Add noodles. I don't like to do this. The noodles will get limp after sitting in the soup and I just don't find them appealing. You could add them just before serving though.
3. Add more vegetables.  I'll add minced garlic.  Corn goes very well and doesn't need cooking.  I also add cubed potatoes which will need a little cooking.  I'm sure leeks would add to it as well.  Cut everything small so it cooks quickly.
4. Add spices.  I generally add rosemary, sage if I have it, oregano, and maybe basil.  I put them in at the end either finely chopped or plunk them in to stew a bit.  Put them in last otherwise the aromatics will burn off and the flavor will be diminished.
5. Add condiments/sauces.  I'll also add sherry vinegar.  It beefs (pardon the pun) up the flavor a little more.  In a pinch I'll add soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and/or worcestershire sauce.  Not a lot.  You won't be able to taste it.  But it makes the soup seem beefier as I said.

That's it.  Hopefully the lack of measured amounts won't throw you off since I really don't think it matters much.  And hopefully you'll remember how to make it in a pinch without a recipe list or instructions.

To recap, pressure cook chicken bones, mirepoux, sugar for 2 hours and strain.  Roast chicken and cube.  Add new mirepoux, chicken, and maybe other veggies to broth.  Add rice, herbs, and a brown aromatic condiment.  Salt and pepper to taste.

mmmm bacon

A winning recipe from Rachel Ray on making "Late Night Bacon". Not sure how the early morning bacon is different but I'm sure it's quite involved and not something you'd want to try without first consulting an expert.

Place 2 sheets of paper towel on a microwave safe plate, lay the bacon out on the paper towel not over lapping the slices. Place 2 more sheets of paper towel on top. Place in the microwave on high for 6 to 13 minutes.

For the record the reviews of the recipe are priceless.

That's not what "late night bacon" means in my house.

and

Does anyone have a good recipe for Banana? I typically take one from the bunch, peel it, discard the peel and eat it. But I feel like I am missing something. Any recipe for Orange would be helpful too.

and

My bacon kept overlapping. I will not be remaking.

deboning a chicken

Wow! Totally doing this next weekend.



Update:

• Not as easy as he makes it look; not as hard as you think it might be
• Making meat lollipops is a little harder than you'd expect.  I had a tough time getting the joint to break and to get the bones to pop through the skin.  They were a little too flexible.  The final product was less a spherical lollipop and more a oblong thingamajig with pieces sticking out.  We'll see what the kids make of it.
• Removing the main skin/meat coat from the carcass is easy except when you have a broken carcass.  When the chassis is in parts, those parts come off when you're tearing away.  I needed to go back in and cut those out
• Removing the drumstick bones was both easier and hard.  The scraping is easy although I managed to get a few nicks.  The cutting around the articulation was trickier.  I wasn't sure how far down to cut
• Removing the fillets wasn't as easy.  They basically came apart into a few pieces as I tried to remove.  Not a big problem though.

I suspect some of these problems are related to the quality of the chicken and how fresh it is.  Although I used a Dartagnan. Although raised well, I'm not sure how fresh (frozen?) those are and if it makes a difference.

raw deal

I finally took the time today to actually search for regulated documents to answer a question that's been on my mind - "Can fresh fish (unfrozen) be served raw?"

The answer with some general exceptions is NO.  It must be frozen.

This may be different in countries other than the U.S.  But here, it's true.  All fish eaten in raw form (sushi, sashimi, tartar, etc.) MUST be frozen before it can be consumed. The U.S. FDA requires that fish be frozen according to regulations "3-402.11 Parasite Destruction." The only exception is with fish species where parasites are not a natural hazard.  Freezing requirements are:

1. -20 degrees Celsius for 7 days
2. -35 degrees Celcius for 15 hours

The fish that are exempt and can be served both raw and fresh are shellfish, most species of tuna, aqua-cultured fish, and fish eggs.  The full list:

• Molluscan Shellfish
• Thunnus Alalunga (Albacore tuna)
• Thunnus Albacares (Yellowfin tuna)
• Thunnus Atlanticus (Blackfin tuna)
• Thunnus Maccoyii (Southern bluefin tuna)
• Thunnus Obesus (Bigeye tuna)
• Thunnus Thynnus (Northern bluefin tuna)
• Aqua-cultured fish (like salmon) must be raised in net pens if raised in open water or fed formulated feed such as pellets that contain no live parasites infective to the fish culture if raised in ponds or tanks.
• Fish eggs that have been removed from the skein and rinsed

The tunas that need to be frozen are Thunnus Orientalis (Pacific bluefin tuna), Thunnus Tonggol (Longtail tuna), and Thunnus Karasicus (Karasick tuna).

Now go out and impress your friends at your next sushi outing.

"and noodles..."

Syd Mead has designed a restaurant in New York - Bar Basque. Yes that Syd Mead. The one who did Bladerunner's set design. This place will be inundated with photographers for the next few months.

landslide

Interesting results of a poll - Which celebrity chef would you most like to meet.

It's obviously missing some interesting choices like Jamie Oliver, Anthony Bourdain or Nigella Lawson. Ming is actually a close second. Go read his bio. He has an amazing background.

Also some funny quotes

Can I give Guy Fieri a negative rating? I'd like to avoid him as much as possible.

da best foo

Funny Wendy's restaurant review joke that is ongoing.

This place is BAWLIN' yo. Chicken nuggitz be crispy like you never SEEN. I tasted one and I was like "WHAAAAT! Are you serious Wendy?" Mean girls workin the friers, tho. This one chick wouldn't even let me holla. I was like "please you ugly anyway."

And this clever retort.

This place is upbeat and enjoyable. You will find that the chicken nuggets are amongst the crispiest that you have ever tasted. I sampled one and exclaimed "Pardon me Wendy, but I can't help but feel that you're being facetious". The ladies tending to the deep-fry machines are, however, quite disagreeable. I tried to court one in particular but she rejected my advances. I tried to save face by declaring "I don't really mind, your appearance unsettles me as it is".

taim

Pronounced "tah-eem".  Another must visit restaurant in New York.  Their specialty is falafel.  Now falafel is not something I really like.  It's usually dry.  The pita it comes in is dry.  And the tahini sauce is chalky and pasty.  But Taim's is remarkable.  It's all made fresh when you order (including the pita).  It's not dry and flavorless at all.  The pita is also sprinkled with olive oil and Za'atar and could be eaten plain they are so yummy. The falafel comes in three flavors,

• Green - traditional made with parsley, cilantro, and mint
• Red - made with roasted red pepper
• Harissa- made with Tunisian spices (mild kick to it)
  

If I were vegetarian this would be my weapon of choice.  It's mouth wateringly good.  The stuff cravings are built from.  I get a Taim attack once a month.  The store is diminutive and acts mainly as a take out vehicle.

The thing to order is the falafel platter which goes for $10; a crazy good deal in New York. One pita, 3 falafel balls of each of the 3 flavors sitting on top of hummus, tabouli salad, a cucumber/tomato salad, and 3 crazy good sauces including a tahini that won't invoke your gag reflex. In the words of my friend who just went,

I am speechless. That was fucking unbelievably good.

chicken soup

Interesting post over at the Paupered Chef - "How To Make Superb Chicken Stock In About An Hour". What's interesting is that he argues, via a recipe by Heston Blumenthal, that chicken stock should be made in a pressure cooker rather than slow cooking in a pot. It is both better and quicker.

And the reason it is better is because it creates a Maillard reaction.  I thought this was a unique insight.  Because I always think of that reaction as occurring on hot dry (or oiled) surfaces.  But there is no reason the reaction cannot occur in water.  All you need are heat, proteins, and a reducing sugar.  In fact I would venture that adding a little bit of sugar to the stock ingredients would help although a mirepoix brings some of these sugars.

The proof is in the pudding (stock).  I tried it out this weekend with noticeably better results than I usually get.  And take a look at a picture of his results.  My stock was also noticeably darker suggesting that the reaction did occur.  Awesome stuff.

grifola frondosa

Also known as the maitake.  I thought I had never had one before but they are also called Hen of the Woods.  And I have indeed had those.  I spotted them at our local Asian grocery store, Mitsuwa.  I declare it the best mushroom ever.  The bacon of mushrooms.

The Wikipedia entry also has some interesting facts:

• It can grow to 50 lbs in weight.
• Medical research has shown that it stimulates the immune system
• Medical research has shown it can inhibit cancer cells
• It has a hypoglycemic effect.  So it's an Atkin's superfood.  It not only has very little carbohydrate but it has a calming effect on your insulin response. 

Note to self:  Buy more maitake.

sandra lee

I'm actually going to go there.  Sandra Lee.  Making the rounds right now because of a funny YouTube video,



I had a good laugh. And in general Sandra Lee is the target of a constant barrage of hateful press. Just do a search for "I hate Sandra Lee". And it's not hard to find the source of all this vitriol. She generally cooks really bad food by most foodie standards. 70% of the ingredients are pre-made foods. But I'm going to do something here. I'm going to stick up for her. Here are my points:

• She FUCKING cooks. Meaning she actually shows you how to cook foods. Food Network, in my estimate, can go to hell. It used to be a great station... when people fucking showed you how to cook food. Now it's all reality show, all the time and hyperbole. I personally blame Iron Chef for all of this. That's another blog post though. Sure she cooks badly by foodie standards. But then again, like Chris Rock said in response to the comments of a bunch of balding white male senators, "It's not for you."
• She comes from a rough background. Mom divorced twice and suffered from depression and medical ailments. Ms. Lee had to take care of her mom and her 4 (count 'em four) younger siblings. I can kind of relate to why she cooks what she does. It's what she knows.
• She's more successful that you or I will ever be. She has sold 16 books with some of them on the NY Times Bestseller list. She has her own cooking show. She's dating Andrew Cuomo. She used to be married to the CEO of KB Homes. She won a Emmy.

So lay off.

burger bliss

I finally got around to trying one of the Pat La Frieda burger patties that is being sold through FreshDirect in NY (see orginal article here). I have one thing to say. Oh my God. This is clearly the way to go when making burgers. A couple of points,

• NY generally suffers from poor produce that I'm guessing is related to the increased length of time to get food into the city and distributed to an appropriate storage area. I've seen food sit outside on the sidewalk on a hot day for ages in NY. The Frieda burgers are really well packaged and looked remarkably fresh when they were delivered. They were just beautiful looking.
• There are 3 blends and I chose the beef short rib blend that is highly regarded and sells for a premium. The fat:meat ratio must be close to 30:70. Cooking a patty releases a lot of juices and when I bit into my first, medium rare, patty it literally dripped like a wet sponge
• I prepared it much like a steak; medium rare on a Lodge griddle with lots of salt seasoning. And I served it plain except for a slice of American cheese. It really doesn't require any ketchup, mustard, onions, etc.
• It tastes like eating chopped steak as the old commercial goes. Really good succulent juicy beefy steak. The taste is concentrated and intense like a well aged steak. I would say that it tasted better than almost all the other hamburger joints I've frequented.

mmmmm burgers

Pat La Frieda to sell burger patties to public. Nice. I think this only applies to NY but perhaps they'll have other distributors. Pat La Frieda basically does one thing in NY; makes custom blended burger patties for restaurants. I can't think of a single top rated burger joint in the city that doesn't use them. Until today the only way to get any of their blends was to go to the restaurants that use them. La Frieda's general approach with burger patties is to use a much higher fat to meat ratio and to use a blend of meat cuts rather than say just chuck. They also tend to use prime beef.

I'm sure it'll be pricey I've been meaning to experiment with making burgers recently and I went so far as to secure a butcher who would make my own customer blends (Lobels). This will make it a little easier.

I think the NY philosophy on burgers is radically different from most others. There are a few key elements.

• Charbroiling is looked down upon. High heat, flat top griddle cooking is preferred.
• There is a huge amount of attention paid to the bun. Both the type and the size. Most would say, and I agree, a potato hamburger bun works best. Burger to bun ratios are a hot topic
• Simplicity in toppings. Adding bacon, weird cheeses and sometimes even ketchup and mustard are frowned upon. A slice of cheese is okay but much more takes away from the burger

porchetta

The culinary trend in NY over the past few years has been towards restaurants that specialize. Restaurants that only serve mozzarella, only serve desserts, only serve banh mi sandwiches, only serve cupcakes, etc. It's a nice movement because if a restaurant can't excel at that one item then it won't survive.

The latest one I tried this weekend was Porchetta which makes (wait for it) Porchetta. It's an appropriate and smart branding approach to name your restaurant this way when specializing in something. Wikipedia describes it as a savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast of Italian culinary tradition. Where do I sign up? They basically take the pig, debone it, season/stuff it with things like garlic, fennel, rosemary, etc. and wrap it up in a thick skin of fat. This then gets oven baked. The fat liquifies and drains through the meat cooking it. The outside turns to crackling. Porchetta (the restaurant) serves it two ways. On a Sullivan Street Bakery roll and on a platter with greens and beans. It's as good as you'd imagine.

house of pane

I don't know how I missed this. The picture above is the Sullivan Street Bakery. And the only adjective to adequately describe the products coming out of this bakery is sublime. The name has popped up on my radar a few times but I've managed to put off going for a while. Primarily because we have a fantastic French bakery run by a crotchety Frenchman in our neighborhood. Last weekend I finally made the detour out to the far west side of Midtown to pick up some bombolinis from there along with an olive loaf.

Immediately after tasting the olive loaf I declared it the best bread I have ever eaten. It wasn't even close. On Friday we had dinner at Irving Mill and immediately on tasting the bread there I said, "is this Sullivan Street Bakery" rhetorically to the waiter. Of course it was. What other bread tastes this good. He confirmed my guess.

And today I picked up another loaf (pugliese) along with a Cuban pressed sandwich and some other treats. Amazingly good. The breads are not only perfectly crispy on the outside but deliciously moist on the inside. It's really a hard duality to attain in bread. And beyond that the bread has this exquisite taste. Their yeast is cultivated from Tuscany and I presume this has a significant influence on the taste. This guy seriously cares about his bread.

Anyway. I would definitely add this to the list of must see/taste stops on any New York's foody tour.

blue hill at stone barns

Blue Hill Restaurant at Stone Barns is an interesting experiment. Stone Barns, as they describe themselves is a farm, a kitchen, a classroom–an exhibit, a laboratory, a campus. One that is focused primarily on sustainable farming by actually doing it, teaching it, and for lack of a better term, marketing it. Blue Hill is a way of showcasing that work.
The farm and restaurant are located about 45 minutes north of Manhattan. After a long wait, our reservations finally came up. There is about a 2-4 month reservation wait depending on if you want lunch or dinner. One question I have regarding the barn is whether it is economically sustainable. I believe there is some kind of tie in with the Vanderbilt family and they may even have an endowment. It was such an impressive operation that it seemed unlikely that membership, produce sales, and the restaurant could actually carry the expenses.
The setting is fantastic. The farm itself is beautiful and it's nice to see the different pastures with Berkshire pigs, cattle, chickens, sheep, turkeys, etc. roaming freely and open for all to see. It was clear they used a farming technique similar to that outlined in the book the Omnivore's Dilemma where you try to set up a virtual cycle. One animal's waste byproducts are another animal's feedstock. The 'barn' is actually an extremely pretty, well designed campus and features a cafe, a market for the produce, the Blue Hill, restaurant, and what I presume are classrooms for the various educational programs there.
Blue Hill, located on the campus, is a gorgeous barn-like structure, tastefully decorated. It was pretty clear from the outset that the entire organization is focused on excellence. And excellence in everything. How the food is grown, how it is prepared, how it is presented, how it is served. Nothing seemed half-hearted. The bread was some of the best bread I've ever had. The butter was clearly made from the milk they get from their dairy cows. Coffee was individually brewed. Everything was served on beautiful tableware. These small things tell you how seriously they take their craft.
A number of times interesting raw ingredients were trotted out along with an interesting story about them. The strange picture picture above is a 'hen of the forest' mushroom. It was huge. The lady carrying it talked about how they work with local mushroom hunters to secure theirs. I'd never heard of the mushroom let along tasted it before. It was used in a scrambled egg salad that was remarkable.
Afterwards we walked around the campus which reminded me somewhat of the vineyards of Northern California. It's a serene setting and everything has the feeling that significant thought and effort went into it. Again, excellence at every corner. We eventually wandered into their small market area where they sell residual produce that isn't used at the restaurant and cafe. We picked up a couple dozen eggs that I'm excited to use tonight.

All in all I would have to say it was one of my top 3 dining experiences. There was little you could point to regarding improvement. I expect we'll be back soon.

is it bacon day?

See this is why New York is such a fantastic city.

1. Bacon night at Jimmy's No. 43. That's right. Bacon night. Or rather a bacon tasting paired with a beer tasting. Beer and bacon. Bacon and beer. Come on! No way! That sound you hear is Homer Simpson having a heart attack.

2. Permanent Brunch. Not a concept. Rather a new restaurant that serves brunch all day. Awesome! But it gets better. It will have an 'artisinal bacon bar'. That sound you hear is Homer Simpson's heart exploding.

He promises that Permanent Brunch will offer what must be a first in the city: a bacon list. It will offer bacon dry-cured and wet-cured, hickory smoked and cob smoked, some made by artisans in New England and some from supermarkets.

From the smokehouse in Bremen, Ky., where he makes highly regarded hams and bacons, Charles Gatton Jr. took in the news that a New York chef was offering a bacon list instead of a wine list. “I guess I’m a little shocked at it,” Mr. Gatton said. “But the gentleman, if he plays his cards right, I think it will go well for him.”

Assuming, of course, that Mr. Alevras’s circulatory system is up to the challenge. “In a week or two we’ll have a full-on bacon tasting orgy,” Mr. Alevras said. “It will probably be pretty scary. We’ll taste four or five things and then do a shot of Lipitor.”

For all non-New Yorkers out there, it is perfectly reasonabe to utterly hate me now.

That is all.

jamón ibérico de bellota

The jamón ibérico de bellota is a cured ham from Spain or Portugal. There's been a lot of writing about it lately because until early 2008 you just weren't allowed to sell it in the States. The reason for this is that no abattoirs were USDA approved. For the simple reason that they didn't need to be. They would always sell out of their ham allotment. Why go any extra trouble?

That is until recently when a group of investors built a abattoir specifically for sale into the US. Why might they do this? Well the ham is supposed to be superb. It sells for about $80 a pound.

The ham is made from the black Iberian pig and the bellota version of the ham is only fed acorns at the end of its life. The hind legs are then cured for 18-36 months.

This weekend I popped by my favorite cheese shop, Stinky, to pick up some cheese. Low and behold there was a large ham leg sitting on the front desk. I was pretty sure I knew what it was. So I picked up a 1/4 pound to try. It's a pretty cool piece of meet because the hoof and the whole leg is intact. They just slice it right off the leg. It definitely makes a statement.

The verdict? Well to be honest, nothing special. To be sure, it's a very nice piece of ham. Less like what we'd think of ham and more like a proscuitto. Very fatty and the meat is a deep red almost like a bresaola. But at the end of the day I didn't think it was worth $80 a pound. I was expecting a much deeper and richer taste but it's actually quite subtle.