Lemonade, with vodka, fizzy not flat

Yesterday, I got taken in by the $2 Full Flight.  A nifty weekend marketing shtick at Weiland's Gourmet Market.  In sync with the lovely warm weather, they featured 4 sips of summer libations.  It began with a couple wheat beers and proceeded into a couple Smirnoff products.  The Tuscan Lemonade depicted here was 3rd on the agenda followed by some kind of Mojito knock off.

I don't like wheat beers much, I was just whetting my appetite and talking to the locals.  But, when I got to the Lemonade, I was ready.  Not quite the umbrella drink I imagined, this thing had a refreshing taste and a kick.  Yes, sign me up.  Hook, line, etc.  A little stronger than wine and $16 for 2L, move over asparagus.

I couldn't leave it alone though.  I wanted a fizz, it needed a fizz.  I poured some into a spare fizzy water bottle, attached my nifty Carbonator Cap and pumped about 40 psi into it from my 20 pounder in the basement brewing facility, chilled and ...

This one time I'll let you ask me about my affairs

Weekends are low 'n slow, proper fuel, execution, temperature monitoring - serious bbq.  Weekdays are a bit different.  We pull a few shortcuts which we'd rather not disclose.  Shameful shortcuts.  But this one time, I'll share.

Tonight, I knew I'd get home a bit late, so I had the game plan rehearsed:

• marinate chicken in spices and oil
• make dipping sauce: yogurt, lemon juice, scant crushed garlic, tahini, salt, mint
• chop, season and skewer vegetables 
• confession: toss Match Light into kettle with a match - whooosh (sound of the ozone escaping)
• skewer chicken (See those ultra cool saber-like Sadaf skewers?  Mediterranean Imports - the flat blade enables easier turning.)
• grill direct with the top down
• let cooked flesh rest
• eat

Not  bad for a quick meal.  Served with some short grain brown rice.

Been a busy couple weeks, once in a while, I ran into the kitchen ...

Grilled tilapia and brown rice for dinner.  I tried roasted napa cabbage as the veggie. A light sprinkle of sesame oil, salt and 450°F for 15 minutes.  Not bad, the crunchy bits were a nice contrast, but don't know if I'd do it again.  I'm in a veggie slump.  Need a Greener Grocer fix.

For the past 24 hours, my kettle's been about 225-300°F.  Cooked a butt and smoked some almonds (see below).  Had the pulled pork on homemade corn tortillas with salsa and a bit of cheddar and pintos on the side.  Absolute heaven.

Across the ravine, a resident has a cherry tree about to go ripe.  We want them ALL.  The Mrs - pies, me - dried.  I'm contemplating a deal where we take them and return to her a batch of lovely dried cherries.

Menu In Progress is a cool site.  They make special foods that appeal to me very much.  I tried their recipe for smoked almonds (linked).  The only problem is they don't last very long.  My qa effort has taken quite a toll on the final yield.

Weilands Gourmet Market has some killer melons.  Go get one while they last.

Saucisson: 18 days: White, fuzzy, cute, more firm.  I'm getting a little bit antsy waiting to see if my best run yet is my best run yet.  Maybe another 2 weeks??

Temperature probe repair (works!)

The simple Taylor probe thermometer is an inexpensive and versatile piece of equipment.  I have a bunch of them.  It's the thing labeled as TruTemp (a knockoff) on the left in the above image.  The temperature probe, not certain if it's a true thermocouple, fits a variety of devices and is capable of cold temps to about 490°F. However, these things fail a lot and are too pricey to replace; cost as much as the entire two piece unit to replace.  What happens to these, if they get immersed (for an extended) period in water, is they stop working or read consistently low or high.
Andrew, unable to remember where he saw it, recollected these probes could be reconditioned by immersing them in hot oil.  Too lazy to wade through all the noise that would attend any search including the keyword probe, I set out to investigate.

I hypothesized that maybe at the juncture of the braided wire and the metal probe, some moisture may have been sucked in upon cooling, thus altering the measurement.  I immersed the probe, including that boundary of braded metal sheath, in 300&degF vegetable oil.  For about ten minutes, I noticed a steady gurgling as water being expelled from the deepest darkest bowel of the probe (no way I'm going near Google with these terms).  Once the gurgling stopped, I removed the probe, cleaned off the oil and checked the temperature of a 70°F bath of water and ambient air temp; it was spot on (corroborated with another insta read).  The Taylor type unit lasts forever and now, I'm feeling better, because the probes are likely more robust than I knew.  Thanks Andrew for the tip.  Saves me a bunch of cash and I get to reuse my old Taylors.  I despise the throw-a-way aspect of our society.

Good run so far

I'm trying really hard to resist excessive use of the expression 'my sausage' in this post, but, you should see it!  We're about a week into a run that went the best so far, despite a few complications.  I really liked using the beef middles for stuffing, it was nice to work with a casing not so susceptible to tangling and generally irritating performance.  The big problem in this run resulted from being too conscientious of air pockets in the meat.  This will kill the cured sausage final product.  That concern manifested in overly stuffed sausage in which the casings kept bursting.  So much so, that I could not hang them without tearing the casing.  So I ended up laying them on their side atop stackable cooling racks.  They are sitting in a cooler with a slush of salt and water in the bottom and covered - about 85% relative humidity and low 60s in there now.  I sprayed them with the mold suspension and voilá.  Luxuriate in that creamy white fuzziness!  Keep you posted of further developments. About 3 weeks to go.

Another run of saucisson sec, part I

I've had limited success with Ruhlman's Charcuterie recipe for saucissson sec.  Certainly no fault of the process described in the sacred tome, just my inexperience.  Today, I'm older, wiser, have a daughter who explodes with giggly delight to help rather than hinder ... it's all coming together.  Got my environment set, large beef casings, mold and nothing better to do on the sabbath, so I decided to take my ground pork (grinding is always done on the eve of the sabbath) and stuff it into beef casings.

I finally broke down and got a piston-type stuffer.
Frankie could operate this thing no sweat!

Beef middles, ca. 62-65 mm from Butcher-Packer.com  Suggested for use
by the good people at Menu in Progress.

Rinsed the beef middles a lot with water to remove some of the smell and salt.

Stuffed the piston with the spiced pork (garlic, s&p, cure #2)
Only used about 120 grams of casings for the 5 lbs.

With Frankie at the helm, stuffing went swimmingly.  NO AIR pockets in the sausage.
Only problem is we stuffed a bit too tight.   Don't know how to regulate that.

Stuffed, sectioned into little guys (for a small meal) and sprayed with a
suspension of Mold 600.  Ruhlman (by personal communication on Twitter) said mold
could be sprayed on/inncoulated on the casing anytime.  Thanks!

Final product before curing.  Cool Huh?

Now they rest in 70-80% relative humidity and low 60s.
At the really big risk of showing this post before the final goods are in, I'm crossing
my fingers and will give updates as the mold forms, etc.  Wish me luck.

References:

Menu in progress, saucisson sec post, thanks!

Me:When do I  spray on mold?  Ruhlman: whenever you want to!
My first attempt
My dog ate it.

Snack

I'm not a big gas grill guy, but my Weber Q comes in handy. I prepped and grilled some salted and lightly oiled eggplant slices. I also had a lump o dough in the fridge. Tossed it on and voilá, pita and eggplant sandwich.  Bit of Egyptian feta on it and I'd be in heaven.  Think I know what's for dinner soon.

Grilled chicken patties, I think

zucchini side

Had an itch for some grilled meat tonight. Last night bought some chicken thighs and ground 'em up coarse. I was planning on making kefta, ground meat with spices, grilled up. I wanted to use chicken thighs for a while and this seemed a fun way to use them.

After looking through the net for kefta recipes, I gathered there may be no "recipe" for them. Some had grain (cracked wheat), some just spices, some milk, some bread crumbs... about the only consensus I found was ground meat (usually lamb or beef), spices and grilled on skewers.

A bit overwhelmed with the recipes and time running too short to check an actual book - I have a great mid eastern book I got from a friend, I tossed in the most antithetic Kashrut mixture there ever was. But, they were killer! Not one left for a pic. I served these with grilled, lightly seasoned zucchini strips, and a yogurt dip. Here's the recipe for the little nuggets from heaven.

Chicken "kefta"

Ground chicken thighs (skin and all), 300g

bulgur soaked in milk an hour, 60 g in 60 g milk

allspice, 1t

cardomon, ground, 1t

salt, 5 g

pepper

cumin, 1t

egg, 1

dried parsley, 1T

bread crumbs, ca. 1/2 C

I lightly kneeded the mixture and made silver dollar diameter sized patties and stored them in the freezer for about 10 minutes while the grill heated up. Grilled them about 1.5 minutes per side on direct heat. Let cool and served with yogurt dip (greek yogurt, lemon juice, parsely and garlic). I want more!

TJ Goddess Dressing, deconstructed and reconstructed

Trader Joe's Goddess salad dressing is a favorite of ours.  I took it out the other night and was disappointed, almost gone.  The label, however, actually had ingredients I understood!  So, I plopped it on my kitchen balance and took a shot.

TJ Goddess Dressing Recipe
vegetable oil, 30 g
cider vinegar, 10 g
tahini, 10 g
soy sauce, 10 g
lemon juice, 10 g
Shake, yum.  A keeper.  I think it's even better than the original.
Enjoy.

Dry curing humidity control: I don't know why I complicate things this much

Over the past few days I've purchased about 3 humidifiers (all used, about $11 total) and experienced a bit of frustration. I thought this was the best time of the year to cure sausage because my basement humidity increases during the midwest's rainy season and continues into the upcoming months (ca. 60°F and 60% RH). Now, I realize I was an idiot. After reading Ruhlman's post on sopressata (it's a fermented sausage, but the dry cure part should be the same for saucisson sec), he uses a simple dorm fridge with a salt bath for curing. The salt in the water (sat'd) only serves to bring down the humidity if it gets over 75% (a museum curator's trick).

With my previous set up, I was shooting for more airflow and humidity. Then I learned that evaporative wick-type humidifiers have a tough time breaking 55%. They work well when the humidity is winter-low, but not so well after that. They operate with a type of theoretical humidistat based on the method of water evaporation. I also tried a centrifugal humidifier where the water is sprayed and atomized in front of a fan. This was another cheapie and worked well, but pegged at 62%. After reading Ruhlman's post, I gave up on airflow and went with the near perfect plastic cylinder you see here (it is not a trash can). A dry run, no sausage suspended - just a humidity meter and I'm getting 70+% RH.

In hindsight, I learned a lot, only blew $11, and have an 8 gal humidifier that can probably humidify the entire house next winter (only $7.13, operates for about a dime a day and, it's very quiet). I guess I've had more expensive lessons.

I now have my curing environment worked out, my 2" dia. casings, and only need to order some mold (Andrew, need anything from Butcher-Packer.com?) and I'm ready.

It's saucisson sec (curing) season

Please see end of post for updates

Inside the enclosure is my remote humidity sensor.

 It's saucisson sec season, but the humidity is still a tad low, around 55% in my basement.  I want to get started on curing since I have my larger casings and all (beef middles, about 62 mm), so I decided to put together this enclosure to maintain a higher humidity; a kind of microenvironment within my basement.  So far, it seems to be working.  I don't know how often I'll have to refill the humidifier, but it seems to be giving a high enough humidity.  After monitoring a few days, I'll be getting a batch together.

24 hours later, after all equilibrated:
Outside the enclosure - 58% RH, Inside - 65% RH, not as good as I'd hoped.

Replaced humidifier with stockpot of 2 gal water at approximately 100°F. I'll wait another 24 hours for equilibration and see how the readings go. I also put a Kill A Watt meter on it to see how much it would cost per day to run a hotplate, they pull a lot of juice.

Popovers. Little help please?

Before the collapse

The other night, I was able to get home a bit early and make some beer-braised short ribs and noodles for dinner. Totally psyched, but I made a mistake and didn't make enough noodles and wanted to add a bit more starch to the meal. Popovers. Perfect. Could any bread be more straightforward?

milk, salt, egg, flour, mix, rest, drop into buttered, preheated muffin tin, poof, voilà. After baking 450°F for 5 min and 400°F for 20 min they looked wonderful. I took them out of the oven, a quick photo, turned my head, flop. Within a few seconds they were limp blobs of dough, not the huge, crisp popovers they were a minute before. This is the second time it has happened to me.

Update
Rachel commented that maybe I should've cooked 'em longer. The recipe I followed was from Ruhlman's Ratio. In Ratio, the cooking temp/time sequence is 450F/10 minutes, followed by 375F/20-30 min. In Ruhlman's blogpost, the baking instructions are "450 till done."

Mrs. Dave's Beer, an accomplished but oft-bullied-out-of-the-kitchen baker herself recommended the Better Homes and Gardens recipe. "It has never failed" she declared (she's right, she makes killer popovers). The recipe from BH&G is nearly identical with the exception that the muffin pan is lubed with shortening and there's a tablespoon of oil per 200 g of dough and the baking instructions are significantly different. BH&G prescribes 450F/20 minutes followed by 350F for 15 to 20 min or till very firm." The BH&G recipe continues to say (I'm sorry for violating all kinds of legal stuff, but this is important)

"If popovers brown too quickly, turn off oven and finish baking in the cooling oven till very firm. A few minutes before removing from oven, prick each popover with a fork to let steam escape."

With that much commentary after the baking temperature and time, I gather the recipe has produced a sunken popover or two prior to publication.

My take on this? The initial high temperature is needed for the oven spring and then the rest of the baking is for stengthening the exterior, yet not burning the outside. So, I'm with the more careful version of baking provided by BH&G. Don't know if the pricking with a fork is necessary, but I'll do it. Let you know how it goes.

Deep frying (with the Virgin)

Few are as mindful of the food we eat. Food Network must be supported by the cardiovascular drug industry.  Eating healthy need not require one to eliminate all fatty foods. To us, it's making those little forays into the dark side high quality.

Today's post prescribes leaving those limp little greasy potatoes under the lamp and use your allocation of fat wisely. Frankie, and a handful of other kids I know, seem to be passionate about chicken nuggets. When I told her I was making some for dinner - she dutifully ran away, got the ketchup, sat down and readied herself for a special treat.

Deep frying is about correct temperature, clean oil and good coating. My general formula for a delectable, tenacious coating is: dry the protein, coat with flour (knock off excess), dip in egg and coat with breadcrumbs seasoned thusly: 1 lb bread crumbs + 15 g salt + any other seasoning you please (feel free to prep and freeze at this point). I made chicken nuggets the other night with plain boneless breast pieces. I brined 'em a bit, cut them into nuggets, coated them and fried them. I fry with a Fry Daddy (common thrift item, ca. $3). Yum. Served with blanched asparagus and lightly spiced black beans. An odd combination, but good.

Food just plunged in and the moisture bubbling away from the oil

A real chicken nugget (to the left of the oil stain in the image of the Virgin Mary)

The blotting paper will go up for auction on Ebay tomorrow.