Food Tip O' The Day

Stuff You Might Not Otherwise Know About...


For a few years now I've been cooking a good deal of stuff based on Eastern and Southern Mediterranean recipes...

Stuff from Turkey and Lebanon and Morocco specifically.

Needless to say they do things a little differently over there and some of the ingredients are hard to find here in the US at your local Kroger or Publix Grocer.

Tonight I made a Crisp Rrosemary Flatbread made based on this recipe...basically flour and water and baking powder and some oilve oil and salt and rosemary.  I added a little white pepper for a little kick.

Then I put together a plate around my bread with some Green and Kalamata Olives and the
Moroccan Pepper spice blend called Hharissa sold on line and here locally in a specialty Grocer by a company called Mustaphas.

The other ingredients on the plate was some Cultured "Labne" Kkefir Cheese which beats the heck out of sour cream and cream cheese and whole milk ricotta cheese.

My mouth is burning in a good sort of way and my eyes are watering a little but MAN...

I'd pay money for this kind of stuff if I could find it in a restaurant.

But then again...why pay restaurant prices when I can make it myself here at home in the middle of the night?

(by the way if you are not paying attention anything I write published in RED is a link to a website and all you have to do is click on it to go there...)

Happy New Year...EARLY

The Month Is Over With For All Intents and Purposes...


Dang it but time is flying by on the calendar these days.  Before we know it it will be 2011, and I have a ton of stuff to accomplish between now and then.

I spent part of yesterday doing yet another home improvement project...enclosing the "portico" entrance to our basement under the front porch.

I'm installing one sash of the window I tore out of the back of the house when I put in a French door going out to the Turbo Pup's deck along with the old front door from the living room into a new short segment of wall so that we will in effect have a little vestibule area about 6' x 10' where I can keep some yard stuff and possibly store some plants inside in the winter.

I'm also looking at grow lamp options now and possibly some form of thermostatically controlled heat capability.

Somebody somewhere once said that "being a homeowner means that no matter where you sit and what you look at you can't help but see something that needs doing..."

I AGREE.

Meanwhile, back in my kitchen, I made my first test batch of Chocolate Truffels this week using some flavoring oils I bought last year and didn't have a chance to try out before.  I'm afraid I'm going to hurt myself this stuff is so good.

Pat and I have been walking into places and people are actually questioning me as to when my truffles are going to be available.  Apparently they remember that cold dry weather means Truffel season at our house.

I wish I had the patience to put my original scheme into operation and make Truffles for profit, but it's either just too hard or I'm too lazy so once again this year I'll just settle for making ten or twelve dozen and handing them out to friends and acquantences.

Feel free to stop by about 2 PM today and you might be able to get a few samples...

Southern Snow

Missed Us Again...


So I'm sitting here watching as my Mom's getting 3" to a foot of snow today in LOWER ALABAMA within 110 miles of the Gulf Coast of Florida.

A giant swath of land between there and Atlanta...extending all the way to our little Island on the Georgia Coast to Savannah and Charleston are getting weather they only see every ten or fifteen years, and yet...

I've spent the last month and one half freaking out because I don't have a fireplace in my house and although I have a small electrical generator still in the box...left over from living in the occasional paths of summertime hurricanes, I have nothing to make heat with here but a blow dryer and a heating pad if we finally get the two degrees and 100 mile shift in the moisture and cold air needed to really dump some winter weather on top of our heads and onto our electrical power lines.

All of that said, I'm pleased to report that I just returned home from Home Depot with a lovely kerosene fired heater and a Five Gallon Kerosene container...both of which are now resting happily on top of my unused Electrical Generator in the Basement.

I also received my Chocolate flavoring and coloring oils a day early, so when I'm not banging around on pneumatic valves in the basement or entertaining company I might just throw together another batch of Truffles just for fun with Valentines Day approaching.

Hope every body's warm and safe and enjoying the winter weather if they can, I'm having a L A R G E time all day every day if you haven't noticed...

My Forty Cent Slice Ball Of Heaven

Shipping And Handling Extra...


I'm sitting here waiting for my Ganache to set up in the Fridge so I can move further into the production mode, and like any good injuneer/businessman it occurred to me to do a cost analysis of the process to see where the production budget was going.

Guess what?

I can make a Truffle that's almost as pretty and tastes every bit as good as something from Godiva for...

About $0.40. If you add in the packaging (box and little ruffled cup) the price rises up to about $0.55 each.

The professionals get about $2.15 each as far as I can tell.

Maybe I should quit my new day job and get off my ass, don my Chef's attire, and get into this stuff full time.

I like the mark-up/profit margin...You Know?

I'm Making A Ganache?

Somebody Pass Me My Double Boiler...


So this weekend I was stumbling through the Godiva Chocolatier website looking at all of the fancy boxes of stuff they want to sell me in anticipation of St. Valentines Day.

I've been getting at least one e-mail per day from them and Proflowers and FTD for the past six weeks.

Any way, looking at my schedule this week I have to wait on rebuild kits for the new valve order so I have a couple of days to fool around with the "Jamaican Me Cajun Green Butt Chili Shack" design, and I figure that since Pat had perfected the recipe for home made truffles over the past couple of years that it was time for me to show her how to do it better to use all of the tools we have special purchased to handle chocolate in our kitchen.

I even bought one hundred fancy foil covered boxes last year sized to hold two truffles each in their little paper cups.

Getting back to my title, a "Ganache" is the French term for what you get by combining boiling heavy cream and melted chocolate.

Depending on the proportions you can get something which can be used to ice a cake, or by making a thicker mixture you get that rich, soft stuff you find inside Truffles and other candies.

The thing about making your own truffles is that you have to have cool temperatures and low humidity or they won't set up properly. Winter in Knoxtown must be good for something, and truffle making is one of those things.

So any way, I'm thinking about making four kinds of Truffles this week...plain chocolate with a powdered coco dusting on the outside, a chocolate raspberry flavored truffle with a hard dark chocolate coating, a chocolate amaretto truffle with toasted almond crumbles on the outside, and probably an orange liqueur flavored chocolate truffle with a hard white chocolate coating.

Each has to be processed in individual batches because you have a limited working time and don't have time to be fooling around adding stuff while things are cooling off and setting up.

On that note, I guess that it's time to finish some paperwork and go dirty up the kitchen I guess...

photos to follow...

MORE:...2:00 PM

I've discovered the secret of the PERFECT Truffle!!!

Ready?

Go into your Kitchen.

Get out your credit card.

Dial the 1-800 Godiva phone number (or go on-line)

Place your order.

The other way is to melt about twenty dollars worth of fancy chocolate in a bowl, dump scalding cream over it, stand around outside the refrigerator for an hour and one half, then utter these sounds before you begin...

"Ah hu eeh haah aaahh hhuuu eeh hoo eeh hoo aaaaahhhhhhhhhhHHHHH."

(you're going to end up screaming something and at least that phrase is rated PG...)

You see, everything goes well until you start scooping out your cold set Ganache from your refrigerated bowl...then the process degenerates up there in complexity with things like solving Differential Equations and herding cats.

Seriously, as far as I can tell it's nigh onto an impossible task getting the stuff out on a sheet of waxed paper in uniform sized balls that don't melt and stick to your hands and the the inside of closed cabinet doors and your eyelids and every other surface within a 6 foot perimeter.

I've got to go back now and mop the ceiling and try to wrestle this stuff into some sort of presentable form.

Wish me luck

Progress

Construction & Cooking Moving Along...


Per fan/friend requests (that would be you Roy) and prior threats by your lovely and talented blogger, here's a look at the goings on here the past five days at the Turbo Pup Compound:

This first image is near the end of day one with all the fence post, support column, and plant holes done and one of two primary support beams ready to be lifted into place and lag bolted in...



Here's things at the end of day two with all the structural framing in place and squared up nice and plumb...



Saturday ended with the decking in place...


...and this one aggravating board sitting there about 2-1/2" too short:



I built all of the giant step frames and re-hung most of the fence panels before the rain set in last evening (including climbing on the roof to clean my gutters with my new extension ladder) but there are no photo's available of those antics.

Finally, here's my Butt seven pound Boston Butt after it has been seared on the outside and rubbed all over with my soon to be famous "Butt Rub" ready to go into the oven for about four hours at 250 degrees F...



Stop by with your fork about 5 PM if you will...

McDonalds To Discontinue Dollar Menu?

Introduces Euro-Menu


Oh I don't know...where to start this morning?

I guess it all depends on how many of you have been paying attention to the so-called "news" over the past decade.

A couple of things are on my mind today, optimally tied together by this AP story.

Follow along with me as I read a little:

AP
Food Costs Rising Fastest in 17 Years
Monday April 14, 4:10 pm ET
By Ellen Simon, AP Business Writer

Food Costs Rising at Fast Clip, Squeezing Poor, Forcing Food Vendors to Explain Higher Prices

NEW YORK (AP) -- Steve Tarpin can bake a graham cracker crust in his sleep, but explaining why the price for his Key lime pies went from $20 to $25 required mastering a thornier topic: global economics.

He recently wrote a letter to his customers and posted it near the cash register listing the factors -- dairy prices driven higher by conglomerates buying up milk supplies, heat waves in Europe and California, demand from emerging markets and the weak dollar.(emphasis mine-VRRIII)

The owner of Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies in Brooklyn said he didn't want customers thinking he was "jacking up prices because I have a unique product."

"I have to justify it," he said

Yeah, Mr. Tarpin, I think that you would be absolutely correct when you attribute rising food costs to "emerging markets" and the "weak [American] Dollar."

As the Chinese, India, and the third World continue to grow in population at a faster rate than the US and gain economic strength, at the same time they are using things like FOOD at a faster rate just like they use more OIL--thus higher Gas Prices (no, it's not Oil Company profits to blame...)

As to the veracity of your worries about giant corporations of wild eyed rich dudes trying to corner the market on milk and Owl Gore's Global Warming induced crop failures costing your customers money...I have to claim ignorance and ask you to provide me with some more reference materials before I can agree with your assertion.

As far as I know they don't grow many Key Limes in Europe and California...

Regardless, I don't doubt that it costs more to make a Key Lime pie these days than it did ten or twenty years ago, but I also believe that New Yorkers won't start having to decide between affording brain surgery or making their rent controlled apartment payment versus downing a wedge of the Conch Republic's (the Florida Keys') most famous export food after a $10 cheese burger any time soon.

Regarding the weak Dollar, you have a chance to look to Washington and make some substantial changes in November--Republican & Democrat alike--if you don't like the lower confidence the world has in our currency.

The borrow and spend, spend, spend policies that support the liberals beloved social programs are at least partially responsible for the increased cost of financing government debt and the lower purchasing power of your Lincolns and Franklin's in your wallet.

Also, you have to realize that the consolidation of the European currencies, in the form of the Euro, has at least partially accomplished their original goal--to COMPETE economically with the United-By-God-States of America.

Still, if you're paying attention you will know that the European Union and the Euro are wobbly alliances at best, and the British people's refusal to abandon the Queen's Pound and the French rejection of the EU's deep socialist underpinnings (pot calling the kettle black?) provides plenty of evidence of the potential long term problems they face.

Now, having at first apparently excluded Owl Gore and the Global Warming Eco-weenies from this argument, I have to bring them back in and reference the collateral damage caused by government response to their policies.

Can you say E-T-H-A-N-O-L?

That's right, do a Google search and look at the effect that making fuel from corn and other grain products is having on animal feed prices and by default--meat and dairy prices.

I read somewhere (I can't find the reference) that it takes something like 400 pounds of grain to make 40 gallons of ethanol.

Four HUNDRED pounds of corn--enough to feed a human in Ethiopia for an entire YEAR.

All for a couple of tanks full of gasoline equivalent (actually one tank in my Suburban.)

How can that possibly be efficient?

Another fact I've read is that Iowa--the so-called "Breadbasket of America," is now a net IMPORTER of CORN.

That's right, they're HAULING CORN to Iowa because Iowa is now full of Ethanol plants churning out Owl Gore's "Elixir of Energy Independence."

I'm smart, but I'm happy that I'm not THAT SMART...





How about YOU?

Collard Greens

I'm Happier Than A Pig In Mud


It's truely amazing the things that life will throw at you when you least expect them.

Take what happened to me at the theater last Friday as an example.

Out of the clear blue, Rob, one of the Ritz Theater employees, walked up to me with two grocery bags full of fresh home grown Collard and Spinach greens and just GAVE them to me.

One of the other theater employees had grown them and everyone in the building was either crazy else they didn't cook, so by default I inherited the sacks of green treasure.

I acted like Wyle E. Coyote, "Super Genius", and ran away with them as fast as I could, but Pat made me wait until tonight to cook them.

After lovingly being hand washed in cold water to remove any bugs and most of the sand that was present, they're now sitting comfortably in some 212 degree F water simmering away with the Pork Ham Bone left over from Thanksgiving.

The house is starting to stink nicely smell good as I write...

MORE

Pat's really gonna hate me now, because there's a big pot of Black Eyed Peas soaking in cold water on the stove top right now, and I'm planning a early morning trip to the grocery store for a few things including some thick sliced bacon.

I'm pretty sure that a nice pone of my soon to be famous "low cal" cornbread made with low colesterol bacon grease is likely to ensue.

It's just a matter of deciding between fried chicken or fish and tonight's dinner is finished.

Excuse me while I let my belt out a little...

Got Holiday Leftovers?

Here...Try This...


When you finally get tired of eating leftover Ham and Turkey sandwiches this week and next month after your Christmas celebrations, you should consider making some White Chili like I'm making this morning. All you need is:

1/2 large Onion, diced how you like it
5 cloves of Garlic, diced fine
1 carrot, sliced & diced
3 tbsp olive oil

2 cans chicken stock
1 can beef stock

2 19 oz cans white Cannellini Beans
1 pound of diced ham, turkey, or chicken (whatever you got left over...)

1 4.5 oz can of Old El Paso diced Green Chili Peppers

Put your olive oil in a large deep pot over medium heat, then add your onions and cook them until they are clear, adding your carrots about half way through the process and your diced garlic a few minutes later.

Doesn't that smell good?

Now dump in one can of chicken stock and cook a little longer, then add the beans, chicken/pork/turkey meat, the rest of the stock, and the peppers, bring everything to a nice simmer, and cover it all up with the lid to your pot.

Now step away from the stove, stopping back by every half hour to check and adjust the heat.

Cook it until you can't stand it any more or it's done or you're hungry, then ladle a few big globs into your bowl and EAT!

(I'll be dining on my White Chili later this afternoon after putting in another four hours working on the set at the Ritz Theater.)

MORE...

After you've cooked everything down real good, do this:

Add another whole can of beans.

Now you have a nice mild soup.

Do You Really Want White Chili?

...then add 1 tsp cayenne pepper, 2 tsp chili powder, 2 tbsp Chrystal Hot Sauce, and 1 tsp Cumin.

Cook everything another half hour or so, then put a couple of rolls of your toilet paper into the freezer...

E N J O Y...

EVEN MORE

Cornbread...you got to have cornbread with your chili:

Toss 1/2 cup of plain flour in a mixing bowl along with about 1/2 cup of plain corn meal, add a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of baking powder and baking soda, a pinch of sugar, two well beaten eggs, two tablespoons of vegetable oil, a handfull of diced sweet onions, a half can of creamed corn, and enough whole milk to make a nice smooth batter (between a one-third and one-half cup.)

Stir, stir, stir...

Now melt a 1/4 stick of butter in a 6-1/4" cast iron skillet in a 425 degree oven, pour your batter into the skillet, cook it for twenty to twenty five minutes, chow down on the results, and call me when you wake up from your nap...

Here...Try This

A Quick Pasta Dinner--Vodka Tomato Cream Sauce


I'm still working my tail off trying to catch up with my obligations for the upcoming Canadian Technical Seminars, while at the same time being sick and tired of eating every meal out in a restaurant (I know, I know…boo hoo hoo.)

Here is what I did to solve my dilemma for last evening's dinner for two (double the amounts for four meals) :

Heat a large, heavy skillet and add:

2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 stick of butter

Sautee:

1/4 medium onion, diced fine

Once the onion is cooked clear, add 1/2 of a 14.5 oz can of pureed tomatoes and a 1/4 cup of beef stock (or chicken stock) to the skillet.

Simmer over medium heat for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a pot of water to boiling, add a teaspoon of salt and a splash of olive oil, and cook yourself a batch of Penne Pasta (or any other small tubular pasta) and cook until it's "al dente" (that's French for the Redneck term "Done")

When your pasta is almost ready, sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper flakes into your sauce and pour about a ¼ cup of vodka and a ¼ cup of half & half into the mix, then turn up the heat a little and stir, stir stir.

Keep stirring…

Pour your pasta through a colander to drain well, then toss it into the skillet with your sauce and stir everything up real nice.

Dump your pasta and sauce out into two big preheated bowls on chargers, grate some good Parmigiano Reggiano or Parmigiano Localetti Cheese on top, grab yourself a fork and napkin, and EAT.

Now feel free to entertain yourself, because I'm busy...

Ghee Whizz

Should I Buy a Motel 6, Or A Seven-Eleven?


Anybody out there know what “Ghee” is? I’m proud to say that I do now…

“Ghee” is the Indian word for a batch of carefully clarified unsalted butter, and I had no idea until last night what the heck it was myself.

You use it in cooking Indian cuisine, and I used some of my Ghee to make a variation on this version of Chicken & Vegetable Curries.

I lightly steamed some broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and celery, then cubed up some boneless chicken breasts, and cooked up a nice batch of Basmati rice to serve everything with for dinner.

The other fun thing was that I did everything from scratch, including making my own batch of Garam Masala--the spice blend that puts the “Curry flavor” in your Indian Curry.

Garam Masala includes things like coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, black cumin seeds (shahjeera), dry ginger, black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and crushed bay leaves.

Turmeric powder and coconut milk finishes off the sauce and gives it it’s characteristic yellow/green color.

The house still smells fabulous right now.

The only things I didn’t have on hand was the black cardamon and black cumin seeds, but the resulting flavors of my mixture--even without these two items--roasted and pounded by hand to a fine powder in my mortar/pestle, were quite acceptable.

I'm gonna try to find those two additional spices and then I’m going to repeat my efforts again next week while trying my hand at making some Indian parantha flat bread to go with it all.

In the mean time, I have some other meals planned featuring Turkish delicacies and possibly some Egyptian dishes, thereby completing my tour of cooking my way around the Mediterranean --having already completed my French, Italian, Greek, and Moroccan studies earlier this year.

Don't you wish that you were eating dinner at my house these days?

Goober Peas

They're Finally Ripe...Here...Try This


Two pounds of green peanuts, a quarter cup of Kosher salt, a teaspoon of cayanne pepper, and enough water to keep them covered while they slow boil for about 12 hours.

Taste them after six hours of cooking and every hour thereafter, and don't let them boil dry, then get yourself a roll of paper towels, a bowl for the shells, a cold beer, and EAT.

That's what I'm doing about midnight tonight.