Kettle Corn Emergency

We here at DavesBeer.com take viewer mail quite seriously and also happen to pride ourselves in the level of detail we communicate during our culinary pursuits. A reader said she tried to make Kettle Corn using our method and failed. However, she used a Le Creuset (beautiful cookware) but probably too heavy-duty for this application. I suggested a lighter weight, non-stick pan and she got a lot of unpopped and burned kernels.

Totally unacceptable. We're sorry. We take full responsibility and will refund your money immediately.

In the meantime, I did another run Saturday night while watching a movie about a place I'm familiar with.

What I did this time
I repeated my procedure linked above but made a few more measurements and tried to increase the batch size. I used a 3 1/2 qt. sauce pan with loose fitting lid and added 30 grams of canola oil (2 1/2 T) and placed it with my two test kernels on top of a full-blast 14,000 BTU gas burner and fumbled to find the lid (and then put the lid on). It took a good 2 minutes till I heard the first kernel pop and an additional 20 seconds for the second. I then dumped in 1/3 C kernels (white corn, generic brand) and 1 T white sugar, put the lid back on and waited for popping to commence while the heat was still full blast. Things started going in about 20 seconds and took over a minute to fully pop. During this period I left it on the burner and only jostled it a few times during the entire period. BUT, fearful of burning (from my reader's findings), I pulled the batch off while I still heard popping. I then quickly dumped it from the hot saucepan into a waiting bowl and lightly salted it. It clumps a bit at the beginning and as it cools, it becomes more brittle and easily breaks up. Note: Many of the dimensions here were measured. In the previous post, I estimated and guessed.

Results
The quality was excellent. T had more than half and Suzi wasn't interested. The yield was low though; lots of unpopped kernels but no burned ones. I became timid at the end.

I think this has to be done with really, really high heat in a pan that heats and cools quickly. My next expt on this will make use of a cheap, thin aluminum (not non-stick) pan that I have yet to find (Goodwill).

Don't know if this will help but email me again and we'll figure it out. It's worth it.

Follower of the Toasted Marshmallow

I don't follow a religion to find peace, but if I did, it would involve toasting marshmallows.

I had never toasted them over a fire before. Honest. I learned quickly though and then became obsessed. There are apparently as many preferences in the way marshmallows are done as there are ways bagels can be cheesed - and everyone's preference is the ONLY correct one.

My tactic involved heating the marshmallow until it was uniformly warm inside; an endpoint only gleaned from experience. The appearance helps also. As it puffs, it acquires a type of tiled appearance. Once warm, the marshmallow is lowered closer to the flame to achieve the final browning.

Browning - not blackening.

But, this is the tricky part. Once the marshmallow begins to brown, it loses its hold on the marshmallow stick (another post entirely). Balancing this browning with the weakening grip is the final stage of achieving the perfect treat. Just as it's slightly brown, puffed and hot you must eat it right off the stick. While contemplating the joy of this treat though, you have to start on the next one. It is totally addictive.

Let me know your marshmallow preferences in the comments.
(I recently altered the font size in the comments; should be easier to read now.)

Kettle Corn Lite

I recently broke what I consider to be the cardinal rule of weekend parenting. When the kid naps, rest. This past Sunday, when Frankie napped, I mowed the lawn. In fact, I figured out that my lawn mower (it's a crappy manual push thing) can be adjusted and I mowed it AGAIN. If my lawn were a 14-year old that just had its hair cut, it wouldn't have gone to school the next day. It was mowed that short. Needless, I was a bit tired and settled in for a rest once I sheared my lawn. My rest lasted a good 5 minutes before she woke up.

What in the hell does this have to do with kettle corn?

A while back, I described a method of making my own kettle corn using a funky popcorn popper. Turns out it's even easier, better, lighter in calories and finally - this is where it relates to parenting - is a treat that will keep a toddler in place for more than 35 seconds.

Kettle Corn
My instrument of choice this time: a non stick 3 1/2 quart deep sauce pan. I poured in enough vegetable oil to almost cover the bottom and two test kernels, put the flame on the highest setting on the stove top and covered it. Waiting for the test kernels to pop, I prepared a 1/4 cup of kernels (generic stuff, white corn) and poured over this about a tablespoon of sugar. When the test kernels popped, I dumped in the 1/4 cup measure of kernels and sugar. When the popping commenced, I gently jostled the pan while holding the lid on (to let the unpopped kernels go back to the bottom). Within about 20 or seconds, the popping ceased, I removed the lid and dumped the fluffy nuggets of goodness into a bowl and lightly salted them. Once cooled, the kid and I had our treat. That other gizmo is very cool but kind of silly for this application.

Elephant Ears

Last night, Trish got the urge to make some Elephant Ears. Having just received a trial size sample of some instant active dry yeast from a co-worker (thanks Larry), it seemed like a good place to put it to use. Trish made the dough, I shaped them and she cooked them - all while keeping the kid from harm's way. It's a really slack dough, almost batter-like. In the first image are the balls of dough that were separated and patted into ca. 6" discs. Had to use a ton of flour to work with these things or they'd stick. Then, we dropped them in the Fry Baby and finally coated them with cinnamon and sugar. Frankie absolutely loved them. They were a little like donuts, the delicate kind - not the crunchy cake ones. They were incredibly tasty and MUCH better than we'd had at the state fair. Yes, they're a tad high fat so we won't be doing these often, but it was a fun activity. And, yes, Suzi-q got her share too. And some of Frankie's as well.

Figs

We live in Columbus, OH. Not Sicily. But, a few doors down, a Sicilian neighbor of ours works quite hard to take care of his fig tree, which originated in Sicily. The first crop was harvested last night and we were among the few lucky recipients of the bounty. Trish and Frankie love them. Depicted is one of the figs cut in half. They're purple on the outside, soft, very ripe and sweet. They are heavenly.

I found a site called Adriano's Figtrees, Etc.; it's a site about cultivating fig trees in northern climates. According this site, I think the fig we generously received is called a Bifara (Italian Purple, A large sweet fig with strawberry pulp). My neighbor's going to give me a sprig to start my own. In the meantime, I'll be reading on their care and cultivation. These are too good not to have every year.

Crushed Grains

A few years ago I bought what I thought was a grain mill at a homebrew store. I wanted a mill with knurled wheels that could crush grain. This device does that but it was completely inappropriate for malted barley and its related cousins. Basically, the wheels are too close and it crushes the grain too much, almost into flour.

I found another grain mill for beer malts but kept this one anyway. Someone later informed me it's called a flaker (rather than a mill). It's got a few thickness settings and eventually gets the grains crushed into a very coarse powder. Shown here is a collection of rye berries, wheat berries and flax seed that have been crushed (several times through the finest setting). I can do several hundred grams in about 10 minutes. It's strictly low output. To make some really grainy breads, I substitute 1/3 of the total amount of flour with whole grain. I'll show you an example in the next post.

Parmesan Herbed Biscuits

The other night, while preparing our usual meal in 20 minutes or less, I really had a desire for some fresh bread but just hadn't enough time. Then I thought about the possibility of biscuits. We usually have biscuits for breakfast but I changed a few things to bring them into the savory dinner realm. I made a small batch that had grated parmesan and dried oregano. Including preheating the oven, I think they took about 25 minutes. It's not a good photo but they look pretty cool. The dark flecks are browned cheese I believe.

Parmesan Herbed Biscuits
Makes four biscuits.

1 cup self-rise flour (contains salt and b. powder)
1/4 cup sweet butter
milk, ca. 1/3 cup
parmesan reggiano, grated, 1/4 cup
dried oregano, 1 T

The oven is preheated to 450F. Butter is cut into self rise flour and the resulting powder is mixed with cheese and herbs. This is mixed with milk using a wooden spoon until all the solids form into a single mass. This is dumped onto the counter and kneaded a few times, squashed into a 7-8" disc and cut into 4 pieces and placed on a parchment-lined sheet. The biscuits are then painted with additional milk and baked till brown, about 15 minutes. Yum.

Box Wine?

Sometime ago I posted my opinion on a box wine I tasted. This month, Consumer Reports ran a piece on these brews and I thought I'd give them another evaluation - at least on paper. I searched a bunch of food/wine blogs looking for some reviews. I like blogs because for some topics, an opinion from an amateur is useful. You're never going to get a pompous wine expert to admit, if it were the case that a box wine was palatable.

Finally, I found this review by food writer Carol Emert at the San Francisco Chronicle (NO registration required!) and she seemed to like a few she sampled (and she also hated the Franzia I sampled sometime ago). A recommended wine was 2002 Hardys Stamp of Australia South Eastern Australia Merlot. I thought I'd try to hunt this one down to use for Lenn's Wine Blogging Day. It's a non-US merlot and dirt cheap. I'll keep you posted on my findings.

Also, I contacted Ms. Emert at the SFChronicle and she said she's soon doing a follow-up piece on box wines. I look forward to it.

Sourdough: A Different Rising Schedule

In the context of my recent sourdough attempts I've made a couple observations: 1. I realize a long fermentation is necessary but doing the majority of the fermentation during the third rise using a refrigerator and warming up the dough is inconvenient. Warming it from the fridge takes a long time (ca. 3 hours) and sometimes the warming results in slight condensation and the dough sticks to the linen-lined basket. 2. Rises tend to speed up going from the 1st fermentation to the preshaping to the final proof. It must correspond to rapidly increasing yeast population.

So . . . why not do the really long fermentation first instead of making it the third, retarded fermention? E.g., do the first fermentation over the course of 10 hours or so (work day or during the night) and bake the loaf after a pre-shaping followed by a more brief final proof?

Well, we have a playgroup today and I wanted a two-pounder to be ready for it and wanted to try this new scheme.

Sourdough Boule with a long first rise and no retarding step
1.Dough: Silverton's white starter (200 g), water (300 g, cool), unbleached white flour (500 g), kosher salt (10 g), honey (15 g), butter (1.5 T) and wheat germ (ca. 1/4 C, I enjoy using wheat germ lately by the way).
2. The mixture was machine kneaded for 13 minutes.
3. The resulting firm dough was fermented for 10 hours at an ambient (basement) temperature of 69F; it increased in volume at least 2.5X.
4. The dough was punched down and allowed to rest in the shape of a boule for 30 minutes.
5. The dough was again punched down and shaped into a boule and placed in my linen-lined basket and covered with plastic and allowed to rise at 73F for 1.5 hours.
6. The dough was dumped on a peel (no sticking), docked and baked at 450F first 5 min and then 425F for 40 minutes with initial steam shot on clay tiles.
7. Cooled the loaf for two hours, sliced and ate.

Results
-It was good, darn good. Moist, nice crumb. If I was being picky, the crumb was a bit tight and maybe I could've done the final proof for 2 hours instead of 1.5.

-But, after the long rise, I'm still committed to 3 hours of waiting prior to baking (similar to the refrigerator retarding protocol). What fascinates me is the flexibility when not using added yeast. The doughs seem to be able to tolerate just about any schedule.

-This particular schedule could best be applied in our life by mixing the dough in the morning, letting it rise the entire workday, a pre-shape and final proof at night and, after a cooling period, the loaf would be ready for the next day. Big boules need a long cool down time so it'd be tough to make it for dinner.

-It was an interesting expt, just thought I'd share.

IMBB - Leg of Lamb

Finally, my first Is My Blog Burning. We have Trish's brother, Mike staying for the week and decided to have something a bit special. I got this recipe from FoodTV (Bobby Flay). A leg of lamb (shank, 3 lbs) was coated with a mixture of labne (wicked high fat yogurt, deadly good, 2 cups), minced fresh mint (1/2 C), cumin (ground, 1 t), salt and pepper and slathered all over the lamb. It was wrapped in foil tightly and placed in the fridge for about 14 hours and then tossed on the Weber. The Weber was charged with a mixture of charcoal briquettes and lump and the lamb was placed on the grill offset from the heated fuel (indirect grilling, image 1) monitoring both internal temp of the meat (looking for a medium rare temp of 145F) and a dome temp of 380-425F was maintained (see pic 2, two thermocouples used). During the cooking, a monsoon came up and dumped a few inches of rain on us. But the Weber is invincible. After an hour of indirect, I placed the meat over the coals and covered it. After an additional 45 minutes it was pulled (internal 150F) and let it rest tented under foil for 15 minutes. It was carved up and served with roasted potatoes, squash, bread and salad.

The labne "rub" was unusual and gave a splendid charry, crusty bark on the lamb. The only problem is the cut I used was less than perfect. A bit too much fat throughout cutting down on the yield but overall, a nice way to cook lamb.

Kettle Corn

Well, this wasn't nearly as complicated as I had imagined. I've had this itch to make this stuff for days now. I finally got a couple minutes to give it a whirl. Kettle corn is simply corn kernels popped in oil in the presence of sugar. As it pops, some sugar gets impregnated into the popped corn and once sprinkled with a bit of salt becomes a tasty treat.

I anticipated that once I placed the sugar in the stirring mess of hot oil and kernels, it would carmelize and jam the agitator. My pessimism gleaned from many nights of troublesome reactions in the pilot plant was not warranted. This was a piece of cake and the popcorn was awesome. Sweet and slightly salty and scrumptious. Here's the prep:

Kettle Corn
1. I poured soybean oil (ca. 2 T) into the popper and placed it on medium-high heat (gas) with two test kernels sitting in the oil.
2. Once the test kernels popped, I placed 1/4 cup of generic white popcorn kernels in to the oil and ca. 3 T sugar right on top of that and started turning the hand crank on the popper.
3. Nothing happened for a few minutes. I peaked in several times (Note: This is NOT a good idea; I couldn't resist though and was flecked with oil a couple times). The sugar continued to darken but just slightly. As soon as the corn started popping it was done in a about 30 seconds.
4. I dumped it out, sprinkled the hot treat with a little kosher salt and as it cooled I broke up the resulting lumps. It was slightly tacky when hot but became crisp on cooling. Each kernel was slightly sweet, crisp and tender inside. You all need to try this.

My New Reactor

I saw this special on FoodTV the other night on Kettle Corn. Seems it originated in the Midwest and is usually popped in these huge cast iron kettles and commonly served up at state fairs. I haven't had it yet but will definitely get some this year. It's simply popped corn slightly sweetened and salted.

So what we have is a slightly sweet and salty food with 4 ingredients and its preparation is process intensive. I am so all over this it's not funny. I had to figure out how to make this in my kitchen. Apparently the trick is to get the popcorn popping in oil (usually soybean oil) and add sugar as it begins to pop. The sugar carmelizes, coats the popped corn and when it's dumped out, it gets salted.

The key issues:
1. The amount of sugar. Consensus seems to be equal volumes of kernels to sugar.
2. When to add sugar. If you add it too early, the sugar burns; too late and the sweetness is present only as granules over the corn - bad. I guess you need to add the sugar just as the kernels begin to pop.
3. Equipment. Gotta keep things agitated. I considered one of those automatic stirring poppers but $30 was too expensive to satisfy an urge. I went to the local thrift store and found this $3 3 Liter, aluminum reactor with manual agitator. Perfect! If I destroy it, a cheap thrill. I don't think I will.
4. Stay tuned for results.

Sourdough Boule - again

This time, I'm sticking to the recipe. Can you believe it? I'm actually sticking to a recipe. Anyway, this time the fraction of starter is lower and I'll be using wheat germ in the recipe.

Prep
1. Silverton's white starter (fed only 4 hours ago, 200 g), water (300 g), unbleached white flour (500 g), salt (10 g, kosher) and wheat germ (1/4 C).
2. No autolyse, just machine kneaded for 13 minutes.
3. Let ferment @ 64F for 3.5 hours (while we went shopping and to the feeding troughs of Hometown Buffet).
4. Punched and let rest for 30 minutes at 74F.
5. Shaped into a boule and placed in my linen-lined proofing basket covered with plastic wrap (my banetton) and placed the covered basket in the fridge (8 pm 7/10/04 -> 8 am 7/11/04), internal 49F (I think this 49F is an error, the internal temp of the fridge I used was 42F and I think I didn't get the probe in the right portion of the dough and for some reason got an inaccurately high reading).
6. Warmed for an hour and returned to the fridge for an additional 6 hours (49F, registered "internal") while we spent a day caving and removed it again for a 1.5 hour warming; I got impatient. Internal read 52F before baking, should've waited).
7. When internal reached 52F, docked, put in oven on clay tiles @450F with steam shot.
8. Baked about 35 minutes. Final weight 872 g.

Results
I think I jumped the gun on the baking (I really wanted it for dinner) and baked it about 10 minutes too short. The innermost part of the crumb looked a bit undercooked. Either I baked it with too low an internal temp and/or baked it too short. The exterior was killer though. Deadly crunchy crust (Frankie nibbled on the heel).

P.S.:
By the way, I realize some may be bored by these repeated sourdough loaves, but this blog is essentially my kitchen lab notebook. So, often, these entries are for me more than anyone. Some of you more tedious bakers might appreciate the entries. Also, I'm building to a spectacular multi-grain loaf. I had it in Strasbourg a few years ago and I'm trying to achieve a similar loaf through these trials.

Country White - no yeast

One problem I've always had with a no-yeast-sourdough-starter-only recipe is the requirement of the retarding step. The retarding step is done close to 40F in a fridge, substantially colder than in a commercial retarder. When to bake the final proofed loaf after the retarding step has always eluded me. The only unambiguous endpoint I've heard described is from Silverton (as opposed to some endpoint like poking the dough and having it not spring back which probably has at least 2 hours of error resulting from person-to-person variability). Her prep says to warm the proofed loaf to a temperature of 62F after the retarding stage.

That's the point of this post. To verify that temperature.

I've been propagating a starter made by Silverton's procedure that was given to me by a friend (thanks Gary) and am putting it to use to make a sourdough boule (900 g before baking; starter = 250 g, water = 250 g, unbleached white flour = 400 g, salt = 9 g).
Details:
1. Dough mixed 13 minutes in my bread machine.
2. First rise, ca. 75F, 2.5 hours.
3. Rest, 30 minutes,
4. Shape into a boule and tossed into the fridge for 10 hours (reached 39F).
5. Removed couche from fridge and let warm covered with moistened muslin towel (still with thermometer stuck in the middle of the dough), 39F @ 7 am -> 61F @ 10 am. Pretty amazing. My house was approx 73F in the kitchen and the warming to 62F internal occured at about the time Silverton suggested. Don't know why I never measured this before. Also noteworthy, the final loaf had grown to at least 2x volume. Tough to tell with a boule. Anyway, finally, into the oven.
6. Docked with my usual 4 score pattern and baked in thoroughly pre-heated oven (450F) for 40 minutes on clay tiles with steam shot. Good oven spring in the first 10 minutes.
7. Final loaf = 727 g (20% moisture loss). Let it cool and ate. Pics posted later. It was ok but I still like my poolish method a bit better.

Comments
There's a couple things I did different than the Silverton recipe. I didn't use wheat germ, I used a greater fraction of starter and a couple other smaller things. I think I did finally bake it at the right time after retarding the loaf. All things seemed to be consistent (time to warm up, internal temp and volume increase seemed to coincide with the queue to bake). The loaf tasted great but was a little low in terms of oven spring and overall volume. The crumb was quite nice but I wanted greater volume. Maybe the wheat germ was more significant than I thought.

Petra gave me some great information during this recent quest. She pointed me to a discussion and example of someone else who did the same prep (better/different results than mine). Some people feel retarding at 40F is very different than retarding at 50F. At 50F, the bread rises where at 40F it doesn't and just rises when it warms up.??

Next time, I think I'll try some wheat germ. I'm also going to be sampling the loaf over the next few days. Great breads stay good for a few days (in my opinion). Crappy ones look great and taste mediocre for a day and then suck the second day. I read somewhere Poilane believed his mega boules would be perfect by the fourth day!