Ambrosia

The taste of the holidays is the taste of home.  My mom pulled out a stack of recipes inches thick that we prepared for the big Christmas dinner (from which we are only now waking up from).  In addition to ham and turkey we had casseroles, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, spinach salad and green beans to name just a few.  The desserts and treats table were there own feast including cheesecake, date nut balls, strawberry confections, peanut brittle, fudge, cookies, candied popcorn, orange fruit cake and cranberry mold. 
The familiar tastes were augmented with some local flavors on a trip to Ralph's Burgers.  In high school I worked for Ralph along with many of my peers and it is hard to beat a DPCAW. (Double Patty Cheese all the way)  My son was impressed as he fell victim to its awesome power.  We also went to a local Bar-B-Que place operated by a guy I knew in high school.  It's called Bubbaques and in addition to being able to sit in a boat in the restaurant they hand out 'bubba' teeth at the end of the meal so you can have the full Bubba experience.

You got your X in my peanut butter.

There was a series of old Reece's peanut butter cup commercials in which some calamity would occur and two individuals would find their favorite snacks (chocolate and peanut butter) mixed and would be very near to blows until they tried them together and realized that the world could sing in harmony if only we had a Coke and a smile.  OK, so I'm mixing commercials there but the idea was that these seemingly different food products made a great combination.

Peanuts are originally from South America and for versatility may be one of the greatest treasures to make it back across the pond.  What we think of as peanut butter (crunchy or smooth) may better be described as peanut flavored vegetable shortening.  So called 'old-style' peanut butters tend to be much thicker and don't spread like the soft stuff.  From a flavor and health standpoint the choice is obvious but it is hard to argue with the convenience of the stuff off the shelf.  Many devices are sold that try to make the 'real' peanut butter easier to use and I have also used a nut butter mill.  These are fantastic for trying out things like Cashew or Pistachio butter but in some cases you may need to add a little extra moisture in the form of oil or honey to keep things moving with dry nuts.

We all know the ubiquitous PBJ and in a previous post I mentioned one of my favorite snacks of peanut butter cheese and banana.  Many Thai dishes are known for peanut sauce and peanuts in the sauce.  I'm not sure what the original flavor was for these dishes but the peanuts add a nice dimension.  Some other non-standard peanut uses include on a hamburger or part of my stepfathers peanut butter and gherkin pickle sandwiches.  What do you like on your peanut butter?

Ques-idea

I love flour tortillas.  They are so versatile you can make practically anything a handheld mobile feast.  While the corn and 'flavored' tortillas (spinach, tomato...) are also tasty and have their place, I like that my peanut butter cheese and banana roll-up is not adulterated with additional tastes.  If you haven't tried peanut butter cheese and banana I highly suggest it and I think I'll do the next post on the many uses of peanut butter.  All that said today's topic is an easy breezy dish most folks call a quesadilla. 

The folded tortilla is loaded with good melting cheese and vegetables and meats are grilled in to taste for a handy meal that goes in your hand.  It is the grilled cheese sandwich from south of the border.  As such it pairs well with tomato salsas, sauces and soups.  From my vast landscape of experience I have a couple tips to relate.

Most people expect a soft mild cheese as the base.  Make it stand out with shard cheeses like a strong Cheddar or Parmesan with ham or try Blue or Stilton with bacon.  Go dessert style with a thin layer of Cream or Neuchatel with thin apple slices or peaches but be careful as these will want to leak and get mushy really fast.

For a vegetarian version cook up some wheat berries in taco seasoning as a ground beef substitute.  Whole wheat can be cook pretty much just like rice and readily accepts external flavors.

Instead of making a bunch and serving, set out ingredients Mongolian BBQ style with a big griddle and let people complain about their own cooking for a change.  It's hard to go wrong when there are so many ways to make them.

Experimentalist

I think a lot of people take recipes as a sort of gospel with chapter and verse to be followed rigidly.  This has its place certainly with the resulting food having a consistent reliable taste and texture.  I am one of those that likes to experiment.  I use that word now but as a teenager may sisters called my creations, 'concoctions' for which I became somewhat known for.  One of the downsides of making it up as you go along is that it is hard to make a successful dish the same as before.  Fortunately, with the advent of the Internet I can memorialize these experiments and maybe be able to do it again.

A bit more than a dash of curry powder

Today I made mashed potatoes.  Nothing special to begin with, it is about as common as bread.  What I did though to make it special was add quite a bit of curry powder.  The powder we have is a mix of Turmeric and Pepper mostly.  Now, as an experimentalist, I was mixing this up on a side dish and not the lot of the potatoes.  Using a liberal amount of the spices, I finally got a good strong curry flavor and the color looked a bit like mashed squash.  While I was pleased with the outcome, I think next time I might add in some more butter or cream.

All mixed up

I also added some spices to a pancake mix.  Pretty standard holiday spices, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.  Unfortunately the mix was a bit old and the pancakes ended up on the heavy side.  No pictures because they look like pancakes.  So the to dos for next time is to use fresher base ingredients and perhaps a bit less nutmeg and cloves.  With these two, a little really does go a long way.

Oven Temperatures

Trust no one.

Especially your oven.  Your average electric and many modern gas ovens have a thermostat to control heating and attempt to keep a uniform internal heat.  Many times, they are wrong.  What happens is that the controller tries to add heat or back off adding heat as it detects temperature changes inside.  So the heat is going like a yo-yo while the food cooks.  Better ovens keep the fluctuations narrow but if the detector is off to begin with then the temperature you think you are using isn't what you are using and you have crossed over into the realm of going up against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

Many cooks will use a dial oven thermometer in their ovens to get independent verification of the temperatures they are using.  Now these, can go wrong or are off as well (and often are) but at that point you could simply toss it and get a new one.  If you are truly wanting accurate temperatures, you can look into quality remote reading thermometers but look for the kind that range in the warmer temperatures enough for an oven.  An added benefit of these is to be able to at a glance see the current temperature which can help with determining cooking times overall and even overcooking as discussed a few days ago.   If you have been wondering why your casserole is soupy or the brownies rock hard, you may be dealing with an off oven.  I have also added not One but Two handy links to helpful site s that deal with repairing and adjusting your thermostat but just keep in mind that an oven is not something that you can simply fire and forget.

One more thing, I would say the refrigerator temperature is suspect to.

Overcooking

Overcooking is not when you have burned the pie or dried out the pork chops.  Conceptually it is the process of allowing foods to finish cooking outside of having direct heat applied in oven, grill or range.  To dig into the science Alton Brown style, the process of cooking is more than just making something hot/warm.  The structure of the material actually changes and mixtures combine differently at higher temperatures.  This is why raw meat changes color and stiffness as it cooks and also why you can 'cook' some things with acid as well as heat.  The mass of material also affects cooking process.  Finely chopped material cooks faster than larger chunks.  This is why cooking schools start by focusing on  getting consistent sizing of cut vegetables and have specific terms for sizes and shapes (i.e. diced, minced, cubed, batonette)  and this is where the delay of heat transfer comes into play. 

Think of a potato.  If you cut a potato into slices or fries, they cook up petty fast but to bake a whole potato takes much longer even for the same 'amount.'  Putting a potato into a cold oven and then turning it on makes that process take even longer than from a pre-heated unit.  If you take that same potato as you bake it and look at the temperatures in cross section, you would see the outside skin quickly spike in temperature while the inner core stayed cool for much longer.  Even after you take the potato out of the oven, heat is still traveling into the core and the cooking action is still happening.  THIS is what is called overcooking.  Large hunks of meat benefit from this technique most since you can avoid exceeding your preferred cook point (rare, medium ...) and retain the inner moisture.

Various strategies may be employed to convey heat to cook.  Using gas ranges and ovens gives the cook a faster temperature control than electric and pre-heating pans and ovens also start that heat transfer process faster than a cold start.  Using cooking stones and cast iron can slow the process of heat loss after the object is removed from the heat since the mass of these vessels retain heat very well.  Foil wrap and clean towels can be used to retain heat in a cooking object while it finishes off.  Some recipes will specify the method and timing of overcooking you need to use but so long as you make sure to cook meats enough to kill bacteria, it is something to experiment with.  So don't get insulted the next time someone tells you that you overcooked the ribs if you did it right.

Why Yes, Yes it is nice

A Catered affair

Sometimes when I describe some of the places I've gone and seen, I get a response of, 'Must be nice.'  The unspoken comment being that the described scene is not for the unwashed masses but only for a select group.  Maybe I'm lucky but I like to try and find the opulent in the everyday.  That said, I do enjoy a good soiree.  As a case in point, My wife and I were invited to a Christmas party at my bosses house.  Technically I suppose I shouldn't say boss as he is one of many partners but I tend to work directly for him so thus he is my boss.  He and his wife hosted about 40 to 50 people in their garage.  Now, this is not your typical garage.  It is about 2,100 Sq ft and is heated and has finished interior walls.  We call it the Garage Mahal.  He uses it to store his RV, boat and other toys accumulated for this night these get shoved gently to the side and carpets rolled out for a nice diner. 

Potato-tinis

Caterers where brought in who had prepared a number of delights.  Smoked salmon swirls, Almond cranberry cream cheese balls, spicy chicken purses, and assorted cheeses and meats to make your own mini sandwich accompanied hot mashed potatoes both sweet and regular varieties served in large martini glasses.  Toppings were provided to taste.

The decorations were nice as well with subdued lighting (which made pictures hard to take and grainy).  One centerpiece was a vintage 50's aluminum Christmas tree complete with kaleidoscope light.  This particular setup had been my bosses grandparents who had bought it originally for less than $5.00.  A later repair to the light had cost him about 7 times that amount.  It's hard to put a price on heritage and nostalgia and I'm sure he would spend much more on this treasure.

It was a nice evening, good food, good company, and a little white elephant gifting to complete the festive spirit.  Was it nice?  Yes, yes it was.

Herbs an Spices

Common Spice Rack

I must admit to feeling out of my depth sometimes when it comes to herbs and spices.  If pressed I can name a fair number of these flavor enhancers but would find it more difficult to be able to tell you what they do and how to use them.  I, like many people, used to see those trees of spice jars sitting on counters and home stores and kind of assume that I needed each and every one of them.  I say used to because I have recently had reason to rethink this paradigm.  I co-habitat the kitchen with my lovely wife and so not all of the decor and organizational decisions are unilaterally mine to make.  A recent discussion topic was a vintage milk glass spice rack.  I believe these to be what is left of a largish set of Griffiths Laboratories spices from the 40s/50s.

Our set has no labels, are missing a couple of bottles and are empty but they appeal to certain individual tastes so they will remain in the kitchen but in the interest of maintaining a functional kitchen, we will be refilling them to make them useful. As far as functional spice storage goes, the bottles aren't bad.  The opaque glass protects against breakdown from exposure to light and doesn't react with the spices themselves.  Most of the bottles also have the shaker insert which will work well for powdered products but may cause issues with the larger herbs and spices.  The small size is also good because it will help keep the spices at hand from becoming stale.  The idea there is that the quicker I run out and have to replenish, the less likely it is that the amount on hand goes flat.  So this brings me to the big paradigm shift.  What spices do I want to keep in them?

In what I believe to be a logical course of action, I first try to name the spices that I have actually used recently.  At the same time I am trying to think about how a spice rack close at hand to the preparation area will get used and for what.  We use Cinnamon a lot and have a dedicated Cinnamon and Sugar filled shaker for easy cinnamon toast in the morning.  We have supersize GFS containers of Cinnamon and Ground Nutmeg (see comment on container sizes above) that we need to work through and so these will take some space.  To digress briefly, it is said you can wake up stale spices with heat for one last grunted hurdle but you still can't beat fresh.  I've used some Ground Cloves recently as well so this would take another slot.  I grew some Basil in the garden this year but it has all been turned into pesto at this point and basil doesn't keep well dried.  Dried Oregano would get the nod but I may need to use a jar without a shaker and am concerned that in this case the jar may not be big enough for the amount used on a regular basis.  I could make some flavored salts but haven't experimented to much with that yet.  I'll probably shift the powdered ginger over even though I use it rarely.  And that is it, the end of the rope.  My current plan is to label the refilled bottles and leave the rest open for expansion as my repertoire of flavors increase.  So what spices would you keep if you had the option?

Tools and Gadgets

Part of the fun of kitchen work has to be using the various objects used to make a meal.  To my mind these objects fall into the two categories of Tools and Gadgets.    Tools are those things that are typically used for multiple projects while Gadgets tend to focus on doing one particular task very well.  This distinction can get a bit gray for things like vegetable peelers when you start to wonder if each type of vegetable peeled should be considered a single task or does it do just one task, peeling vegetables.  My line in the sand is drawn on how often I reach for an object so to me a peeler is a tool.  While I find that tools are more useful, I think that gadgets have their place in the kitchen as well.  They make me feel like batman reaching for that Deus Ex Machina on his utility belt.  Gadgets, because of their focus, are great when you need to do one job A LOT.  A cherry pitter is an easy example of a gadget while a measuring cup is a tool.  As part of this blog I will occasionally focus on examples of these objects and today I will consider three.

The Mouli Julienne

I have come to realize that some objects do their jobs better than others.  Today, I am going to risk the ire of my wife by specifically mentioning her beloved Mouli Julienne as a tool that does not work for me.  The idea is to pack in the cheese or vegetables and use a rotary action cutting disk to quickly shred or slice the material.  Rotary slicers and shredders do this task very well and tend to keep delicate fingers away from the cutting action and a great many people use their salad shooters every day for these reasons.  The problem I have with the mouli is not in the function but in the design.  In an apparent effort to minimize the storage space taken up by the device, the legs fold into the body and the handle detaches also allowing the cutting disk to be changed.  The legs are simply to short.  As fast as the slicing and shredding goes, I find that I have to frequently move the mass of cut material or the mouli itself to continue working.  In terms of ratio, I have to do this 2 - 3 times for each filled top chamber because the cut material takes up more space than the solid bits.  The setup, breakdown and cleanup time is not insignificant when you compare it to a conventional box shredder which is ready the second you put your hand to it.  Also, the cutting disks are on the flimsy side and are easily bent which means they have to be re-bent back into shape or replaced to keep the device useful.

Gourmet Cooking Retrospective

When I was about the age of my younger son (about 8 at the time of this writing), I asked my mom what gourmet cooking was.  She informed me that it was very particular and to her mind wasteful since it tended to focus on specific parts of food and not the whole piece.  At least that was how I interpreted what she said at the time.  I have since learned more about cooking and expanded my view on gourmet cooking but I still find that I am reluctant to 'waste' food.

That thar's a mess o' greens (but just leaves)

With the advent of this years garden this has been my one and only problem with the Swiss Chard that has grown so well.  Almost every recipe focuses on the leaves and has you 'trim' the stems.  I tried treating them like celery for a Mirepoix with some of my but this was only partially successful and still left me with a ton of stems.  I've also consoled myself with the benefits they have in being added to the compost pile but still searched for that one great use for them.

Chopping Station

I finally found what seems to best fit the bill in a middle eastern dip recipe.  It is similar in taste and use to the better known Hummus and Baba Ghanoush varieties.  In this version the multicolored stalks are chopped and steamed to soften them.

Chopped

Steamed

Blender

Then run through a food processor (I only have a blender) to a puree and mixed with Garlic, Tahini, Lemon Juice and Olive Oil.  In the final harvest of the chard (its cold loving so this was really late) I had to multiply the recipe I use by 6 but the dip has been much enjoyed by the family and friends.  I guess I need to figure out a way to preserve this stuff.

That's the good stuff

Cowboy up

It would be easy to believe that the basic food groups in Amarillo are Steak, Mexican, and BarBQ.  It starts to get hard to keep track of which one you like.  In my continuing adventures in the alternate plane of existence I tried to branch away from the known.

The Combo

Robinson's

First however was a familiar spot.  Just as every journey begins at home, my foray began Wednesday afternoon at Robinson's.   I have come here at least once every trip to Amarillo as the flavor and portions are hard to beat and there is a certain nostalgia to eating from styrofoam on wobbly tables in what kind of looks like my Grandma's garage.  Mason jar cups would have made the set complete but alas these where styrofoam as well.  I had the combo platter which  included a rib, sausage link and super tender slice of brisket.  Add on the cole slaw, mashed potatoes and beans and we have a stick-to-your-ribs lunch to lay the foundation.

Adobong Manok

That evening we went to a place none of us had heard of before called Menche's.  This claimed to be a Filipino restaurant and my cohorts where a little apprehensive.  I had spent some years in the Philippines but also had a small butterfly of fear hoping that they would not fail to impress.  They did not.  While it had been almost 20 years, words and phrases in Tagalog re-formed in my head to describe those smells coming from the kitchen.  They had thoughtfully prepared a picture book to supplement the menu which made helping my companions decide what to order so much easier.  I went for the classic Adobong Manok (Chicken Adobo).  Our waiter picked up quickly that I was much more familiar with the lingo than your typical American and it seemed we got a bit more attention than others.  The food was served more for an American palate which means the chicken had been cooked deliciously but that just the meat had been placed on a bed of steamed rice.  I asked for subow which is the oils and juices that the chicken had been cooked in and enjoyed the most nostalgiac trip in my head.

Halo - Halo

I had also ordered a Halo-Halo which is a shaved ice treat enjoyed on warm days and nights.  It is a symphony of taste with corn flakes on ice cream on shaved ice sitting in sweetened condensed milk on top of mango bits, Coconut gel (Nata de coco) and sweetened beans and corn.  I vividly recall many sticky nights stirring in my Halo-Halo looking out on the ocean or up into the stars.

Biko

With a small twist of fear I went to speak (in Tagalog) with the namesake Menche who was in the kitchen.  On a lark I asked if she had Balut which she quickly apologized for not having.  we spoke a bit more about where i was from and how long i would be in town which was too bad because over the weekend they do a Lechon Baboy (roast pig) which I'm sure would be great.  She must have thought this was great because at the end of our meal she sent over Biko which is a sticky rice cake with Caramel topping.  It was tremendous and was certified a winner by my compatriots.

Green Chili Willie's

Chicken Fried Steak with Green Chili Sauce

Thursday Lunch was at a new place called Green Chili Willie's.  They seemed to specialize in peppers specially the Hatch Green variery which of course reminded me of how close we were to the New Mexico border.  I had the Chicken fried steak topped with Green Chili sauce.  It was great.  The steak was very well cooked not being too greasy, bready or tough. 

Calf Fries are the ones on the left that don't look like sticks

The adventure continued Thursday evening with us going to a just re-opened that day steak house called the Country Barn.  The appetizer menu had an intriguing empty so I asked the waiter what calf fries were.  It took him a second before he explained that it was the south end of a north bound bull.  I've heard these called rocky mountain oysters and other such but I realized I had never tried them.  I like to pride myself in being an adventurous eater but I must admit here again to a knot of fear when ordering these.  These were cooked much like fried oysters with a thick batter and tasted a bit like oysters actually. 

Steak Dinner

I had ordered a sirloin steak which was certainly good but a bit of a let down from the beginning exotic fare.  I have to now make an exception to normal practice and talk about the bathroom.  The overall decor in the place was cowboy lodge but as soon as you open the door to the bathroom corridor, you are almost blinded by light from floor to ceiling (and on the ceiling) mirrors.  For a half a second I was concerned I wouldn't be able to get out of the fun house maze.  The real icing on the cake though was the thoughtful placement of shaved ice in the urinals into which I could playfully 'write' my name.  What a great cap to the evening of new experiences.