Brined Zucchini = A Pickle?

In a prior post, I was wondering if a bitter zucchini could be brined prior to cooking to remove bitterness. Here are some (inconclusive) results.

I didn't know if the fruit I chose was bitter or not; it's tough to tell when they're raw but decided to try the brining expt. on half of two small zucchinis that I recently purchased. I made a standard brine of 2T kosher salt in 500 mL water. I cut two zucchini lengthwise and brined half of each one for about 2 hours and cut them into thin semi-circles. The fruit, after brining, looked no different than their appearance pre-brining. However, tasting it raw, it tasted surprisingly like a cucumber pickle! I think I turned a zucchini into a pickle. Anyway, onward.

I then sauteed them in two batches in olive oil, with a little salt pepper and some rosemary and served them in separate bowls aside our baked cod and rice.

Results of my single blind study
I served both batches to my best critic, my wife. She could immediately tell the brined batch. The sauteed fruit was pretty salty. I found this interesting since brined food rarely tastes salty; it's more a means of hydration than seasoning (e.g., pork and poultry). But, as I tasted above, I shouldn't have been surprised. Turns out the control batch wasn't bitter, so it wasn't a good test case.

I may, however, revisit the zucchini to make pickles.

The Culprit of Bitter Zucchini

One of our favorite meals is sauteed zucchini, toasted pine nuts, fresh basil, coarsely chopped Uglyripes and pasta (and salt, pepper and olive oil of course). It's lightning-fast to prepare, is eaten slightly warm to room temperature and the leftovers make a killer frittata. However, recently our local market has been selling us zucchini that's pretty darn bitter.

I poked around the web looking for the cause. Apparently, a class of steroids called Cucurbitacins (depicted is Cucurbitacin E) are responsible for making eggplant, cucumbers and various varieties of squash bitter. Produce Pete (who, incidentally, should put up a blog) suggests selecting zucchini that are small and shiny. The larger the fruit the more likely they are to possess these bittering agents.

We here at Dave's Beer are contemplating soaking a split zucchini in brine (akin to the treatment some give Eggplant) to remedy the situation. Anyone ever try this? Leave your experience in the comments. Thanks.

Merry Christmas!

Nothing says Christmas to us like raviolis on Christmas Eve. Trish and I belted out about a hundred of these babies the day before Christmas Eve with a wild toddler bobbing about the kitchen and everything. Total mayhem, but it was worth it. We had these with some baked cod that set off the smoke detectors, oh well. Wouldn't be the holidays if it weren't a little crazy.

Today, a standing rib roast (not done on the infamous Weber, sniff) and all the sides. Have a good food holiday all!

Cantuccini

There's no shortage of biscotti recipes out there. My Mom makes an amazing one but my preference for this timely cookie has veered to the traditional. I made mine this year from a recipe in the 2001 Jan/Feb issue of La Cucina Italiana. This recipe is so simple, it's like a biscuit. Just a few ingredients, but its success depends on the process in which it's made. Took a few practice runs to get into a groove but finally made some good runs.

They're hard cookies begging for a dip in some hot drink but at the same time tender. I believe this tenderness is derived from gently working the dough once mixed; again, like a biscuit. Our good friend Amy makes the best I've ever had. I only hope mine are a fraction as good.

Slightly modified* recipe reprinted here for my convenience:
Cantuccini, makes about 30.
Self-rise flour, 200 g (1.5 Cups)
Sugar, 1 cup
Almonds, slivered and toasted, 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract, 1 t
Eggs, large, 2

Mix the wet with dry, divide and spread the sticky play-doh-like mass into 2 globs. Further shape the globs into ca. 12-15" logs on a parchment-lined sheet and bake in a 375F oven for 25 minutes. Cool briefly and cut diagonally and stand the cut cookies on another sheet and bake at 375F for an additional 15 minutes. Click the image for a larger image hosted at Flickr.

*The original recipe called for unbleached white flour and baking powder. Whenever I see this combination, I substitute self-rise flour. Usually the flour in such mixtures has a lower protein content (appropriate for most baked sweets) and it already has the chemical leavener in it (and a trace of salt). It's more convenient too.

Someday I'll return

This is a reflection of Frankie and I looking in the oven door at a baguette baking. I don't know when I'll post more kitchen adventures; I guess I'm on semi-permanent hiatus. I'll leave up the archives. Raising a kid sure takes a bunch of work.

Click on the image for a larger version.

Miserable Failure

I thought preparing Clare Crespo's Jell-O Aquarium recipe for after-nap treat time would make me the coolest Papa in the Penguin room (and, it seemed irresistably neat). I bought a 1-gallon polycarbonate cylinder for it and gummy eels because an aquarium of eels just seemed more apropriate for a gang of toddlers. I was totally psyched when I got the time to put it together.

Save your precious time and file this away as a miserable failure.

1. Berry Blue Jello is pretty cloudy and dark, both big problems for visualizing floating items.
2. Berry Blue Jello is pretty expensive and no generics exist because of the apparent challenge finding blue-hued food.
3. Fruit cocktail, drained, DOES NOT SINK!

Clare, you're creative but you gotta test your recipes instead of having an expensive photographer shoot what the creation should look like. That's why food blogs are so valuable, they're essentially tested recipes. I should've known this looked a bit too good to be true.

At least we have jello for a few nights for dessert.

Palm (soap)

Alright, I'm just not cooking anything interesting but I have a quick 10 minutes to whip together a soap recipe here and there, so I did:

palm oil, 340 g
coconut oil, 136 g
olive oil, 68 g
water, 288 g
NaOH, 75 g
lemongrass oil, 8 mL

Aqueous base prepared and allowed to cool. Then, the fats were melted and everything mixed around 120F. Mixed with an immersion blender and when the mixture thickened, I poured into two disc-shaped molds lined with plastic wrap and covered the surface with additional plastic wrap. I intend to slice these into 4 semi-circle bars.

The critical factor to this soap is according to the recipe, I should have only added 68 g NaOH, but according to the MMS calculator, it should be 75 grams for a superfatted soap. We'll see how it turns out. It traced kind of quick. This recipe size was perfect to fill 2 x 400 mL molds (enough for 4 good sized bars).

Soap was popped out of their molds after about 12 hours, very firm and cut to shape and allowed to cure in air. No visible carbonate on the surface. I think the MMS Calculator is pretty good in getting the right amount of NaOH in the mixture.

Update 13-Sep-2005
One day after unmolding, and cutting into bars there's no trace of carbonate formation. Years ago, when I made soap, I had problems with carbonate formation on the exterior surface of the bars. These are really clean and already very firm. I suspect they'll be ready to use within a couple weeks. So, get ready readers, some of you just might be reading about the development of your xmas gift. Sorry to ruin the surprise.

Honey (soap)

First in an occasional series.

In the years p.f. (pre Frankie), I used to mix up soaps; mostly they were cold process. Last night, I resumed my soap-making activity with a small batch of Honey Soap that I got from Diana's Sugar Plum site. I'll post a pic when it finally cures. So far, Frankie and I mixed the following:

vegetable shortening, 340 g
coconut oil (mp 76F), 114 g
beeswax, 28 g
water, 240 g
lye, 56 g
honey, 2 tablespoons measured by two squirts.

All the fats were combined, melted and brought to ca. 120F. The lye solution was mixed and cooled to 110F and combined. Frankie stirred a while and then I charged the honey and sped things up a bit using my (dedicated) immersion blender. We poured it into a plastic wrap-lined mold and placed an additional piece of plastic wrap on top while it did it's initial reaction to prevent carbonate formation on the surface. We'll unmold it in another day and let it cure for a couple weeks before trimming it for gifts and use.

Update (7-Sep-05)
I unmolded the block of soap in two days. It was kind of soft and let it rest on each of the bar's sides. According to the recipe, it should be cured in about 2-3 weeks. Everyday it gets a bit more firm and there's no carbonate on the bars at all. It's got quite a bit of excess fat (superfatted) so that's not too surprising. Keep you posted as it cures.
soap honey soap

I hope you can't overdose on lycopene

It's that time of year. Trish and Frankie go out to the garden every afternoon and bring back a bowl of "red gold". Tomatoes. The most perfect fruit in the world. Today Trish skinned a bunch for me to turn into pizza sauce.

Every night we have a bowl of coarsely chopped tomatoes dressed with a touch of oil and balsamic vinegar salt and pepper and sometimes we just slice and eat 'em with a spec of salt. It's a great time of year.

I think we'll be pressure-canning a bunch in the next couple weeks if the harvest continues and we become all tomatoed out.

food tomatoes

Lately

Still nothing much to write home about with regard to interesting new adventures in the kitchen but the wife and kid made the best cookies ever Saturday. Toll house cookies. Recipe from the bag of chips and no skimping on the butter. These cookies present me with a vigorous challenge every time I walk by them. They're wrapped in plastic stacked on a plate in our kitchen.

The first time I walk by the dish, I sneek into the plastic wrap and grab a half of a cookie because half is better than whole - right? Well, the second pass by the cookie plate I feel must take the second half because then I won't get caught leaving just half a cookie. Well, you can see where this is going. Let's just say these wonderful little miracles don't exactly get stale sitting on the counter. I look forward to their future efforts. Frankie seemed to help quite a bit. At the age of 2 yrs and 5 months, she's becoming quite comfy in the kitchen.

Aside from that and a tasty focaccia recently (I might elaborate on it in a future post), not much going on. But we're not exactly going hungry. Hope you're all keeping cool.

food toll house cookie

Intermittent efforts

Like many bloggers who are lucky enough to find themselves chasing down a 2 year old, my experimental food projects have taken a lower priority indicated by my frequency of posting. I'll always enjoy experimentation in the kitchen but haven't had the time to do as many of these experiments nor assemble the outcome for presentation here (I frequently fall asleep about a minute after Frankie). This is just a note to say, I'll be getting back to it soon, but when I get a chance.

On queue: I'd like to share my mega granola recipe (Frankie loves granola); this is utilitarian and good. I'm going to use my oven to try to make some sweetened, dried sour cherries from a neighbor (trick is how to sweeten them?). I'm totally into flax seeds lately - more with them later ...

In the meantime, I've been logging my food shots for recipes already covered on flickr. It's a good repository for me to put photos of stuff I do routinely but aren't worth a blog entry.

Hope you're all enjoying the Summer!

Viewer mail: pork shoulder cooking time

Lately, we've been eating light. Salads, bread, cheese, veggies ... lite fare for these humid days; not much to blog about. However, that doesn't mean 'Q emergencies don't exist. This one was from a man I'll call Jack:

I was going to smoke a pork shoulder picnic roast, and the recipe I have says to smoke it for 1 1/2 hours per pound. My roast is close to 9 pounds and if my addition is right that makes it close to 14 hours of smoking time. My question is: could I stick it in the oven at about 200 degrees for about 5 hours then move it to the smoker after I wake up in the morning? I really don't want to keep my smoker up to temperature by staying up all night.

A 'Q purist would've passed Jack's email address to the nearest online Viagra salesman and been done with it. But, I saw a person with a busy schedule, not unlike a busy parent, trying to achieve great results on a busy schedule and thought this was actually a great idea. Some oven, some smoking.

He was using a picnic roast (my personal favorite for pulled pork) and cooked it 8 hours in the oven at 200F and 9 hours in an offset smoker. Despite a few ups and downs regarding the temperature of the smoker (tending to other work-related duties, we'll forgive you this time Jack) he achieved a final internal temp of 180F (I believe that's as good as it gets for pulled) and said he got a roast that "cut like butter". Kind of driving you nuts isn't it.

He did comment on the fact it didn't pull with a fork, but I've observed similar results on some outstanding "pulled pork" myself. The picnic cut is a bit different and may not lend itself to a texture that pulls. So, once again, a reader comes up with a pretty darn good work around to the low 'n slow cooking that can sometimes challenge one's schedule. Good job Jack.

food bbq pork methodology

First time for everything

In my many years of cooking outdoors, I've never used a gas grill. I got one free from my few minutes of fame and finally got the nerve to take the helm the other night.

One of our favorite meals is a simple mix of roasted zucchini, fresh tomatoes, thinly sliced basil, lightly toasted pine nuts, cooked pasta and salt, pepper and olive oil. The residual heat of the cooked pasta gently cooks the tomatoes and the dish is best served at room temperature. And, it has hand size pieces for Frankie to grab (if you use amusing shapes of macaroni).

This time, the only difference I made to the recipe is I grilled the zucchini and summer squash. I cut them in quarters, tossed them with oil and grilled them for a while on medium on a cast iron platform. It required 60 grams of propane (in case you were interested in ridiculous details). It was fun, quick and I might even use my gas grill with some regularity. Totally inappropriate for the low 'n slow thing but quite handy for the lightning fast dinner preps.

food grill zucchini vegetarian desperation dinner

Lentils, peas, rice

A while back, Sasha posted this simple recipe of lentils, peas and rice. I barely modified it but re-posted it as an endorsement if nothing else. A great contribution as a room temperature potluck dish. It's a regular part our nighttime scramble to get healthy food to the table. I simmer 1 cup dry green lentils in in (ca. 3 C) stock and about a teaspoon of fenugreek, caremelize thinly sliced onions, cook about a cup of basmati rice and combine everything into a bowl containing a 10 oz bag of frozen peas (the residual heat of the lentils, rice and onion warms the frozen peas and the frozen peas stop the lentils from further cooking, or, as a chemist, I can't resist saying the whole mess equilibrates nicely). I add a liberal slosh of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and let it set for a while and serve with yogurt/lemon juice on the side. We love it and I hope our gathering today does too. Thanks Sasha!