Yesterday I was reading an article on the NY Times about Hanukkah recipes, and decided to whip up some latkes for dinner, since even picky eater girl loves a good latke.  I grated a couple of sweet potatoes, salt, pepper and cinnamon (Vietnamese cassia) and mixed with 3 eggs and maybe 1/2 cup of cottage cheese.  They fried up beautifully on the cast iron griddle, and were a big hit as usual.  I like the sweet potato better than standard for these, as they are easier to cook and the sweetness works well with the cottage cheese.  

Anyway, I had hit upon this plan relatively early in the day, and was wondering what to make to go with them, when I remembered the forlorn can of pickled beets in my pantry at home.  Borscht!  Vikki favors a good cold borscht, so I made it so.  I tossed two small diced yellow Finn potatoes and about 5 cloves of garlic into 3 or so cups of chicken broth, and cooked until the potato was soft, then cooled it down with ice.  When it was cool I added the juice from the pickled beets, as well as the beets themselves (chopped), salt, pepper and the juice of one lemon, as well as about 4 more cloves chopped raw garlic, and some fresh dill.  To serve, I added some sour cream (low fat) and some homemade sauerkraut which was very chunky and crunchy.  I'll definitely be doing this one again.  It was fantastic.  Sweet, sour, crunchy, beety goodness with just enough bite from the garlic.  When we were first married, we lived up stairs from a nice Russian lady who really liked Vikki and was always bringing her food.  This was a lot like I remember her cold borscht, only hers was clear.  I used Pacific Foods organic chicken broth which was not clear, and I'm not much for the skimming.  But the flavor was pretty close, I think.  If only I could find some good dark rye...

I had some leftover kahlua pork, so decided to try some kahlua pig and cabbage, which is basically just that.  Leftover pork with cabbage and onions in a little chicken broth.  Very easy, a great way to stretch leftovers, and just the thing to go with kimchi.  I had some from the store that was getting a little old, and yesterday I made up two big batches of napa kimchi with some nice locally grown napa cabbages I scored at Uwajimaya.  Since I was in the mood I hacked up the cabbage I didn't throw in with the pork and made a batch of sauerkraut too.  It's always nice to have a few crocks of something bubbling on the counter top. 

I also had my first taste of full-on poi this weekend.  I've cooked and mashed taro a bunch of times, but never had official poi until I found some at the store this weekend.  It's certainly bland, but it went really well with the pork and cabbage, and is very filling.  And supposedly it's really good for you.  Plus, there's something just plain cool about purple food. 

...unless you happen to be veggie, of cource. :)

Vikki has declared a Tiki Christmas this year, so I decided to start practicing for Christmas dinner and made my first batch of kahlua pork last night.  It worked out super well.  A while back I got gifted this "indoor BBQ" which is basically a big-ass crock pot designed to hold ribs.  That seemed like the perfect vehicle for experimentation.  I got a super-cheap pork picnic roast which came in two pieces.  I wrapped each piece in foil after slathering with a little liquid smoke and Hawaiian red salt, then tossed in the cooker, turned on low, before I left for work in the morning.  By dinner time, the pork was completely falling apart, just like it's supposed to be, and turned out very tasty.  Served with some rice and greens (spinach and mustard greens) cooked in coconut milk with some totatoes and Hawaiian salt.  Mmmm.  The only thing that would have made it better is if I'd had some ti leaves lying around.  You are supposed to wrap the pork in ti leaves before the foil, but Uwajimaya is far from here, and I had to make do without.  

For XMas, I'm thinking of applying the same principle to a turkey instead of pork (since it's Christmas, after all) with maybe some mashed taro and sweet potatoes with pineapple.  And maybe the same greens but made with taro leaves (which are super good, and available at Uwajimaya) instead of the supermarket greens.  Hmmm.  I'll need to come up with some genre appropriate dessert too.  Possibly involving coconut.  The flaming bananas Foster with coconut icecream at the Luau the other day was pretty awesome...

At last night's Tuesday night market, we picked up a mixed flat of cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, red and yellow raspberries, and some boysenberries to boot.  I think the mulberries come later in the season.  The possibilities are endless, but I like either fresh berries by themselves, with some yogurt, or with barely sweetened home made whip cream.  A quick dessert that you can whip up as the mood strikes.

Also at the market was a guy selling game meats (from a ranch in Bend).  He had waterbuffalo, bison, elk, and even yak in a number of different cuts.  I was most tempted by the elk ribeyes.  The elk stew meat started at around $7.50/lb, which isn't too unreasonable, considering the limited market.  There might be some Viking food in there somewhere.

Greek Gods yogurt is a fairly recent arrival at our local New Seasons, and I've got to say, it's the BOMB.  Wonderful texture, firm, not runny.  Not too sour.  I'd been impressed enough with the plain, but today I picked up a carton of the "fig" flavor.  Fantastic!  Honey flavored yogurt with a fig paste at the bottom.  Not too sweet, and very flavorful.  I have yet to try to pomegranate flavor, but I have high hopes.

Last night for Valentine's Day, I made Vikki a batch of tempura soba using (no kidding) pink soba noodles.  I thought it was pretty apropos.  The soba, as it turns out, is plum flavored.  Vikki was worried that they would be sweet, but they were obviously made using something like pickled plums, not at all sweet, but the plum flavor was definitely evident, and they were very fragrant.

The tempura to go with them included sweet potato, green and regular onions, mushrooms, and green beans.

The noodles were good enough that I won't wait until next Valentine's day to try some more.

For my birthday back in December, I got a new cooking gadget from my father-in-law (thanks Terry). 

It's an "indoor BBQ pit".  Hmmm.  Unsafe, you might think.  Can't possibly work, you might assert.  Actually, it's pretty cool. 

True, you won't get any smoke flavor, but there are creative ways around that.  My personal favorite is Spanish smoked paprika, or some chipotle chilies in the sauce.  The thing is basically a big crock pot, with some racks that fit inside to either hold ribs upright, or hold a roast, a chicken, or a brisket off the bottom.  I've done ribs, pork roast, and brisket in it so far, with (I think) pretty decent results.  It's supposed to hold two whole chickens, but I haven't tried that yet. 

The ceramic liner comes out, and is dishwasher safe, although my one gripe with the whole setup so far is that slow-cooked barbeque sauce is nearly impossible to chisel off the interior of the "pit".  Long soaking and serious scrubbing are required, but it's still fun to use.

I took my daughter on her first overnight backpacking trip this weekend, which would have been fantastic had it not been for the mosquitoes.  Other than that, it was a lovely trip, just to the Southeast of Three Finger Jack. 

Anyway, in preparing for the hike I spent some time researching good backpacking food.  One thing I had to work to keep in mind, though, was that much of the literature assumes that you are thru-hiking, or taking longer, more arduous trips that you can with a seven-year-old.  If you are only walking 3 miles a day, you have to watch out for the high-calorie, low space/weight stables common in the hard core hiking literature.  Since my daughter’s a bit “particular” we opted for Mountain House’s freeze-dried mac & cheese for dinner, which went over well, and was tasty enough, although their sweet and sour pork is still my favorite.  I want to try experimenting with some cheaper alternatives, like ramen and freeze-dried veggies/tofu, or instant refried beans and rice, which are pretty easy to come by. 

I also tried “Ultralight Joe’s Moose Goo”, which is 2 parts honey, 2 parts “corn flour” or masa harina, and 1 part peanut butter.  Joe suggests putting it on tortillas, which is what I did.  Tasty, callorie dense, and pretty stable.  Much less gooey than peanut butter by itself, and pretty easy to work with, at least when it’s 80° out.  According to the literature, it’s pretty much immovable below about 40°. 

Also a big success was Alacer Corp.’s ElectroMIX:  basically unsweetened electolite powder that you mix into a liter of water.  It tastes great, with none of the cloying sweetness of Gatorade.  Just the thing for hot weather, and it weighs practically nothing.

 

It’s been a weird time for me food-wise lately, so I haven’t had much to say.  I’m doing an SCA feast this weekend (North Indian/Mughal) which should be big fun, and I’m hoping to get some pictures.  Luckily most of it can be cooked ahead of time and frozen. 

I’ve gone back on the low-glycemic wagon, so expect to see more on nutrition as the days go by. 

I’m also doing some experimenting with lightweight backpacking, so I’ll probably have some pack food experiences to report soon. 

I love turnips, especially the baby ones, so I had to try the Mughal style baby turnips as described by She Spills the Beans.  This one’s definitely a keeper.  I loved it, and my son did too.  I really liked the depth of flavor, and the spicy-sweet combination combined with the bitternes of the turnips.  I didn’t have any spinach, so I substituted some romaine lettuce that needed to go, which worked out pretty well I thought.  I served it with some heat-and-serve bhatura from the local Indian grocery, which were a bit hit.  I’m thinking collard greens would also work well here.  I’m not usually a fan of mustard greens, but they might actuall work in this dish.  Hmmm.  An excuse to experiment. 

Last night, Vikki and I taught the first version of a class on “survival cooking” for our local CERT program.  We talked about scenarios to plan for, what kind of food to store in case of emergency or disaster, and how to cook it once you find yourself there.  If you are interested, the handout from the class (with references) is here.  The class went quite well, and we got to eat the fruits of our labors.   The biggest learning I came away with is that Datrex brand survival rations are much tastier than I would have thought. 

Over the weekend I tried making a few new (to me) snacks.  I made a batch of dahi vada from Kitchenmate.  I didn’t read the recipe carefully enough (mea culpa) and so ground the onions and chilis with the urad dal mixture.  I think this led to the batter being too wet, and I couldn’t get it to make donut shapes without completely sticking to my hands, so I went with just plain lumpy shaped ones.  However, they were still a big hit.  My son liked them so much he begged for the leftovers to take to school for lunch.  Always a good sign.  I can definitely see the usefulness of a “wet grinder”.  I had a hard time grinding the dal in my food processor, and I don’t have a blender.  Could be the next kitchen appliance purchase. 

I also tried a batch of ponganalu, using Indira’s recipe.  These came out really well, and were a really big hit with my wife, who also really liked the accompanying peanut chutney.  I didn’t have a ponganalu pan, but I had one that I bought for ableskiver.  Turns out to be pretty much the same thing, and it worked beautifully.  Again, since I don’t have a wet grinder, I wimped out and used idli rava and urid flour, but hopefully the results are similar.  Definitely something I’d make again.  Very easy and tasty.

I had some time to kill Sunday morning, so decided to try something new for breakfast.  I tried my hand at dhokla, a steamed bread-product native to Gujarat (I think).  You make a thick batter of besan (garbanzo bean flour) and spices, then steam it in a cake pan.  It comes out (at least texture wise) like a really big idli.  I really liked the flavor and texture of it, and it went very nicely with the pepper rasam I made to go with it.  Rasams are, I think, my favorite Indian soups, very brothy and usually pretty sour.  Very pleasing. 

It took me a while to find something big enough to steam the dhokla in, but I finally settled on my (very big) pressure cooker, and just left the weight off the steam vent.  Worked pretty well.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take any documentary pictures.  Maybe next time…

I’ve been inspired to cook a lot lately, and it’s largely due to the increase in the number of food blogs I’ve been reading.  I’m really impressed with the quality and diversity of the food blogging out there.  And I’ve learned that apparently if you want a really sexy food blog, you have to take pictures.  To that end, I’ll try to post more images of stuff that I cook, although I have to admit that looks is not what I optimize for.

I updated the blogroll on this site to reflect the foodie blogs I’ve been reading.  Check them out.  I’m particularly interested right now in the profusion of food blogs written by Indian women.  I love cooking (and eating) Indian food, and I’m also really passionately interested in the food that people really eat at home rather than restaurant of Americanized cookbook food, and these blogs totally fascinate me.  Take a look at a few, and I think you’ll be as hooked as I am. 

Blogging is a great medium for this kind of study, since people mostly post about the food they really eat everyday.  At least I know I do.

I've attached the OPML for these blogs as an Rss enclosure for those who aren't looking at the HTML.

No amount of hours spent in front of Iron Chef and Good Eats will a good chef make, friends, but perhaps one might consider the employment of one MIT Media Lab experiment by Connie Cheng and Leonardo Bonanni: the Intelligent Spoon. This, um, intelligent spoon has zinc, gold, zener diode, and aluminum sensors to detect the temperature, acidity, salinity, and viscosity levels of the human-feed it's currently stirring, which it then sends back to a host computer for processing and direction. We're not sure this would help us to add a certain subtlety or trans-cultural flavor adaptation to the sweetbreads we were planning on whipping up tonight, but it might just do the trick in keeping you from over-salting that pancake mix on a Saturday morning. [via Engadget]

This weekend Vikki and I got a chance to go to a Scotch tasting event put on by the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society of America.  It was held in the very lovely Ranier Club in Seattle.  We had fun getting dressed up and hobnobbing over dinner, lots of Scotch, and cigars (although under WA state law, you couldn’t actually smoke the cigars ).  While not an inexpensive event, it was an oppurtunity to try some Scotches I otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford.  I’ve been known to buy the (very) occasional ~$100 bottle of Scotch, but $250 – $300 is pretty much out of my price range.  Some of the real standouts were the Balvennie and Highland Park 30yr., the Balvennie 25yr., and a Talisker special addition 175th anniversay bottling.  The kind of stuff that would run you $25–$30 a shot in a bar, if you could find it.  The Macallan 17yr “Fine Oak” was also very nice, as was the Glenrothes “Special Reserve”. 

Anyway, much fun, good food, good friends, and some truly amazing Scotch to boot.  What’s not to like.  If you get a chance, and you’re into such things, check out their calendar of events on the website for a venue near you.

The AeroGarden is a little self-contained hydroponic growing system designed to sit on your kitchen counter along with other appliances.  It’s a pretty interesting idea.  They have seed packs for things like salad greens, chili peppers, herbs, and cherry tomatoes along with flowers, etc.  For $150 it’s not the kind of thing I’d jump into right away.  Rainy Day Magazine has a blow by blow on actually growing with one, so I’ll check back to see how it works for them. 

It’s a pretty neat idea to be able to grow food indoors.  Since I don’t have a yard anymore, it’d be fun to grow stuff inside.

Since I’ve been testing out my new iPod the last couple of days, I’ve been checking out some podcasts (the new iTunes/iPod support for podcasts completely rocks), and I found one that I totally dig.  It’s called “Eat Feed”, and it has all kinds of food related content, including recipes and (best of all) food history.  I listened to their latest show this morning, which focuses on winter-time “comfort food” but also has an interview with author Jackie Williams, author of the very good books (I’ve read them both) Wagon Wheel Kitchens: Food on the Oregon Trail and The Way We Ate: Pacific Northwest Cooking, 1843-1900.  Ms. Williams had some very interesting things to say about eating in the Northwest in the latter half of the 19th C.  Very cool stuff.  I had no idea that people in Washington State were exporting oysters to the California gold fields in 1850. 

Anyway, if you’ve got any way of playing MP3 files (iPods included) check out the Eat Feed podcast.

For the first time in years I got a chance to cook Thanksgiving dinner at my house, and it was a blast.  I tried something I don’t think I’ve ever done before, and made an entire menu out of a magazine article.  I made pretty much the whole Thanksgiving menu from the latest issue of Chow magazine, which is rapidly becoming my favorite foody rag. 

I did the “turkey two ways”, which involves removing the legs, brining the carcass, and cooking the legs separately in a confit, i.e. covered in oil in a casserole and baked.  The legs especially were a big hit, as it’s something out of the ordinary.  I’ve never tried a confit of duck before, but I think now I may give it a try some time.  I’ll also never cook a turkey without brining it again.  It came out moist and juicy, with a fabulously crispy skin. 

The stuffing was also a bit hit.  It included some Italian sausage, fresh sage, and chestnuts.  Very flavorful, and easy.

I think the biggest hit with the crowd was the corn dish, which involves heavy cream, roasted red peppers, and chevre.  Very much more interesting than the standard corn with butter, or creamed corn.  (We won’t even talk about corn souflee/hot dish.)  I also made the green beans with bacon (can’t go wrong there) and the acorn squash with red onions and currents, which I liked but didn’t go over with the crowd.  Winter squash can be a hard sell, which I don’t get, as I love it. 

In addition to the magazine recipes, I also made some sweet potatoes, which I chopped into bite-sized pieces and then tossed with some sliced banana and a few prunes in some heavy cream with a little honey, rosewater and cinnamon and then baked until tender.

We rounded out the meal with my Mom’s wonderful pumpkin cheesecake, and her (justly) famous cranberry chutney (which, sadly, is almost gone already).

The menu worked out so well I’m really thinking about trying their Cuban Christmas menu next month.

Scott turned me on to Slashfood this week.  What a great site.  They just finished a whole day of pumpkin recipes, and some of them sound like real winners.  Yay for food!

Having grown up on hippy vegetarian food, I just can’t resist the allure of trashy food.  Many of the American classics that I never got to eat as a kid, I can’t pass up as an adult.  Meat loaf, biscuits and gravy, CFS (Chicken Fried Steak to the uninitiated), etc.  I even have a soft spot (as I discovered eating in the college cafeteria) for chipped beef. 

This weekend I indulged in that most sublime of all sausage-based dishes, the chili cheese dog.  There’s nothing about those that isn’t good.  It’s important to use really cheap ingredients.  I went with Tillamook Cheddar instead of the classic American, since I just can’t bear to buy that stuff, but cheap trashy hot dogs and canned chili are a must.  I’ve tried using home-made chili and good sausages, and it just didn’t do it for me. 

I remember as a kid we’d go visit my Aunt in Anaheim, where they had Der Wienerschnitzel franchises.  Best chili cheese dogs EVER.  Guaranteed to be all over the inside of the bleached white paper bag by the time you’d gotten 10 feet from the drive-in. 

In the summer when I was a kid we’d stay with our grandparents in Sacramento, and one of my Grandpa’s favorite hangouts what a place called Vick’s.  Classic diner.  Homemade shakes, all things grilled, everything came with Lay’s potato chips.  We invariably ordered these hotdog sandwiches that consisted of Oscar Meyer weiners on Wonder bread with American cheese(food) and French's mustard.  With iceberg lettuce for good measure.  The whole thing went into the grilled-cheese sandwich machine.  Ahhhhhh.  Nothin’ like it in the world. 

Quite a change from the bean spread and green onion sandwiches at home. 

OK, call it a niche market, but if you really want it, you can get Hufu, a soy based product that “tastes like human flesh”.  Their website claims that, contrary to common wisdom, human flesh doesn’t taste like chicken.  Apparently it tastes like Hufu.   I’ll take their word for it, I think. [via Strange New Products]

Last night I tried making liver and onions for the first time (never eaten it either).  Why, you might ask?  Well, we bought a half of a cow a couple years back, and lurking in the deep freeze was a package of pre-sliced liver.  So I thought I’d give it a go.  The recipe I found suggested soaking the liver in lemon juice for a few hours before cooking, then dredging in flour, salt and pepper before sauteeing.  So that’s what I did. 

The end result?  I don’t much care for liver and onions, I now know.  You never know ‘til you try. .  My wife, who has had it before, said it was a good batch.  I’ll stick to chicken livers.

This stuff is really good!  I’ve been using it on sandwiches and hot dogs.  Nice, cholesterol free alternative with a very good flavor.  I’m a big miso fan anyway, but I think this has a wider appeal.  I found it at New Seasons.

The party this weekend was quite a success, much food and much fun was had.  Here are some pictures of the spread.

On the far side are some spicy kebabs and some chicken wings, then a few cheese and olives (the small bowls) some kibbeh on the green platter, and various fruits.

more of the chicken and kebabs.

The dessert table.  Baklava, semolina cakes (behind the candle stick), some fried cheese pastries, and a chocolate cake in the background.

At the far end are hard boiled eggs and veggies, in the middle are hummus and baba ghanouj and more veggies, then a great mess of pita.

Feta, olives, felafel and pickles.

In preparation for the party this weekend, I spent pretty much the whole day yesterday cooking, which was a lot of fun, if tiring. 

I made vats of hummus and baba ghanouj, as well as some cheese filled pastries, a semolina-based dessert (think coconut and rosewater brownies) and most labor-intensive of all, some kibbeh. 

In making the hummus, etc. I have rediscovered how much I love my Braun hand-blender.  Love it.  I could make a whole big bowl of hummus at once instead of slopping batches in and out of my food processor or blender.  Goodness. 

This was the first time I’d attempted kibbeh, and now I remember why.    It’s very labor intensive.  You have to puree ground lamb (I actually used beef, since Anne’s allergic to lamb) with bulgur and onions until you get a very doughy meat-porridge.  Mmmmm.  Thank the heavens for latex gloves.  Then you make a separate filling of sauteed meat, onions, garlic, pine nuts, cinnamon and allspice.  The “dough” gets filled and you end up with little football shaped packages that will get deep fried on site.  I’ve had them in restaurants, and they are fabulous, so with any luck mine won’t suck. 

It looks like there’s going to be some serious eating, drinking and being merry!

As lame as it is, I’m getting too much comment spam, so I’m disabling comments until I can find time to upgrade to dasBlog 1.7, which should fix the issue.  I’ll get the comments back on as soon as I can.

I’ve become completely entranced by- and infatuated with kefir. 

Having been raised on hippy vegetarian food, I was familiar with kefir from early on.  Always Alta-Dena brand, preferably strawberry, although my Dad favored the boysenberry.  It’s basically like yogurt with a consistency like a thin milkshake.  Tasty.  Apparently it’s an acquired taste though.  My wife Vikki can’t stand the stuff.  She says if it tastes like yogurt is shouldn’t be drinkable.  Just wrong. 

Anyway, I’ve always been a fan.  And lately I’ve been reading the odd article on the wonders of “probiotic” foods, a.k.a. those foods that contain live bacteria that are supposed to be living in our guts.  “Intestinal flora” as they say.  These can be wiped out by antibiotics and all the preservative-heavy food in the modern American diet, which leads to all kinds of problems.  So now you can buy “probiotic” yogurt and kefir, presumably with extra bacteria.  Or you can take “probiotic” bills that contain dried bacteria.  It’s all good. 

So back to kefir.  I’d always assumed that kefir was just yogurt that had been mixed up with stuff until it was runny.  And for many commercial brands that may in fact be the case.  But “traditional” kefir is made quite differently from yogurt.  It comes from the Northern Caucasus originally, and has been known historically around that region.  The word “kefir” itself comes from Turkish apparently.  The secret is what are called “kefir grains”.  These are actually little colonies of a bunch of lacto-bacteria with some yeasts that form little balls (the “grains”).  These balls grow and divide naturally until they look kind of like a cauliflower.  The kefir making process is quite simple.  You acquire a set of grains from somewhere, and stick them in a jar of milk at room temperature for around 24 hours.  They you pour your newly cultured kefir through a strainer to recover the grains for the next batch.  Very cool. 

I had to try it, so I got some starter grains on eBay and started production.  It looks like there are several suppliers who sell on eBay, or you can try G.E.M. Cultures (www.gemcultures.com).  There are also kefir-grain-sharing networks that you can find on the internet.  The grains grow quite quickly, so pretty soon you have more than you can handle, which is a good time to give some to a friend (or apparently to sell them on eBay).  I’ve only had my grains for a week, and with one batch a day, the grains have more than doubled in size. 

The taste is not nearly as sour as I would have guessed.  Fresh from the 24 hour culturing cycle the flavor is very mildly yogurt-ish, with a very slight taste of yeast.  It makes great smoothies, and is good on cereal.  If you like that kind of thing. You can “cure” it further if you want it more sour, but I haven’t tried that yet.  You can also get it to carbonate, which sounds pretty fun.  I’ll have to try that soon.  Also, supposedly the little critters are just as happy in soy or even coconut milk, which could be interesting. 

For more information on kefir than most people could possibly absorb, check out Dom’s Kefir in-site.  Highly informative, with lots of tips and tricks, and recipes. 

After musing about bread the other day, this weekend I hauled out and dusted off the old bread machine.  Not counting the recent pizza incident, I haven’t done any baking at all in years.  I think maybe it’s time again.  I made a loaf of 100% whole wheat, mostly to see how it would come out.  Not bad overall.  A bit heavy, but as I recall from days of old, bread takes practice.  I just got some “white whole wheat” flour, so maybe I’ll try another batch with that and see how it compares.  The loaf I did make went very well with a batch of lightly curried lentil soup with ham.  The weather’s been pretty crummy around here lately, so soup seemed like a good bet.  Worked out pretty well.  I used French green lentils, which I really like for soup because they hold their shape very well, unlike red lentils which turn to mush.  The regular brown ones hold out OK, but they tend to be a bit squishier.  The green ones stay more distinct. 

Sunday morning I made a batch of yeast-risen pancakes.  (Can you tell I’m on a baking kick?)  Again, I think some practice is involved, but the kids wolfed down enough of them to make me think they weren’t too bad.  I think the next steps in this direction are to get a sourdough starter going, and to crank up the old grain mill.  It, too, has been languishing lately, and I think I finally have a table I can reliably attach it too.  Nothing like freshly ground buckwheat pancakes.  And since you have to work for them, they are all the sweeter. 

This isn’t too food-related I guess, but it struck me as really funny, and well informed.  The guys at w00t are selling a bread machine today, and their copy starts thusly:

The ancient Egyptians knew the value of warm, wholesome bread. No gooey, cakelike Wondercrud for them – they’d sow, tend and harvest the wheat, and then grind and pound it into a fine flour, and finally bake it for hours in clay moulds on an open hearth. The inevitable tiny stones and grains of sand baked into the bread ravaged the teeth of the Coptic panophiles, hastening tooth decay and, ultimately, death.

But not for you. Thanks to the Salton Breadman TR4000 Ultimate Dream Machine Breadmaker, you can smother yourself in fresh, pliant bread with little more effort than it takes to make a cup of coffee. [w00t]

I’ve been thinking a bit about bread lately.  How and why we eat it, how it’s made, etc.  Probably sparked by last weekend’s demo at Champoeg State Park on how the early Oregon settlers harvested and processed wheat.  Bread has been such an integral part of our diet ever since people started organizing themselves into cities.  At least in the Western world.  It’s still a pretty integral part of our diets today.  In fact, most people probably eat way too much white bread now since it’s so easily available.  Cheap calories, my friends.  Don’t do it.  But I digress. 

I’ve been thinking about fermentation a lot lately too.  Kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, and yes, sourdough bread.  I haven’t done any baking in years, but I think I may take a stab at it again.  I want to try some of the cultures you can get from Sourdoughs International.  They have some new ones that work well with whole wheat and spelt flours, so it might just be time to start doing some baking.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

We’re throwing a huge bash for my friend Anne’s 40th birthday over 4th of July, and I got put in charge of organizing the food.  This is a new one for me, as I’ve never tried to come up with “snacks and finger food for 200 people” before.  I’ve done dinner for 50, but this is a bit different.  So now I’m trying to balance time/money/labor to figure out how much is too much.  The biggest challenge is figuring out what can be done ahead of time, how to store it if I do, and how to keep the cost down and still have it dazzle people.  Plus, as with the feast I did, it’ll be at an SCA event, so everything has to be done with camp kitchens. 

I’m going to focus on Arab snack/street food.  I think a lot of it can be done pretty cheaply.  I found a recipe for various spice/nut powders for dipping hard boiled eggs into which sounds both easy and cheap, so I think that one’s a go.  I think in the interest of cost/time/inclination we may end up with some Indian or Greek options thrown in, but hey, the Arabs were/are a pretty cosmopolitan bunch, right?

I’ll let you know how it works out.  If I think of it I’d like to get some pictures too.

It’s been ages since I’ve made pizza from scratch.  Like a really long time.  Back when my wife and I were first married (lo these 13 years ago) I used to make pizza all the time.  Like once a week.  And I’m not talking putting stuff on a pre-made crust, I’m talking from flour and yeast to the pizza stone in the oven.  But I remember it being a lot of work, and ever since I started seeking out low-glycemic foods, pizza pretty much fell out of rotation.

You can probably see where this is leading, but I’ll cut to the chase.  My daughter has been suggesting (forcefully) that she really wants me to make pizza, so last night I dusted off the old peel and went to work.  It wasn’t as much work as I remembered, possibly thanks to the dough hook on my trusty KitchenAid, although it did make quite a mess. 

I decided on one half “just cheese” and half Hawaiian for the kids, and a whole wheat version with mushrooms, olives, red onion and sausage.  Overall, it went pretty well.  The dough came together easily, I found all the tools, etc.  I think the white flour dough was a little too soft, however, which combined with my lack of practice with the pizza peel to pretty much explode the first pie all over the inside of my oven.  There was much wringing of hands and recriminations (all on my part, my daughter was un-phased), but I managed to salvage most of it.  It was an awfully strange shape, but pretty edible according to reports.

The second one came off without a hitch, thanks to stiffer whole wheat dough and way more flour on the peel. 

It was easy enough that I just might have to try it again.  My son’s been demanding a taco pizza, so maybe that’ll be the next round.

Big success last weekend.  I made a big batch of Persian Rice and Lentil pilaf.  You cook the rice and lentils, and separately back some lamb or chicken with onions and spices, then serve them together at the end.  It came out really well, and we had so much rice left over that I cooked up a second batch of meat a few days later. 

Persian pilafs are a lot of work, but well worth the effort.  You boil the rice with lots of water like you would pasta, about 6–10 minutes, then drain it, and pile it in a mound in a heavy pot with lots of butter.  Then you let it steam over low heat for about an hour.  The result should be very light and fluffy rice with a hard crust on the bottom that is the best part.  I’d never tried it with lentils before.  It made a nice contrast in color and texture. 

The meat was super easy.  Throw some stew lamb, shanks, whatever (or chicken parts) in an oven proof container with some salt, pepper, cinnamon, cumin, tumeric, and some onions and garlic and bake at 350 for 2 hours.  Simple goodness!

I have no idea how they got into my house, but I recently discovered a jar of pickled green peppercorns in my pantry, so I decided to use them. 

I’ve been reading Dangerous Tastes: the story of spices by Andrew Dalby (which is a very interesting book, BTW) and he mentions that once upon a time preserved green peppercorns were very popular in Europe, but that they’ve mostly been replaced by the dried form we’re used to.  Anyway, it got me interested, so I put some in a spaghetti sauce last night, which came out quite well, I thought.

I started with some onions and garlic, then added the green peppercorns, maybe a 1/2 tablespoon or so, and healthy amounts of basil, oregano, and some fennel seeds (which I love in spaghetti).  Then in went some celery.  When it all cooked down, I threw in some meat balls, and a few tablespoons worth of capers.  It went over pretty well with the family too.  Ivan even wanted some for breakfast this morning, so it couldn’t have been too bad.   I’ve been using Westbrae Natural’s whole wheat spaghetti, which has a very nice texture.  Their spinach spaghetti is also really good, but Gwyn tends to freak out over the green noodles, so there are days when it’s just not worth it…

So if you happen to come across some pickled pepper (not pickled peppers, mind) give them a shot.  They added a very nice, mellow peppery taste without much heat.

One of the new foodie books I got the other day is “In the Devil’s Garden: a sinful history of forbidden food” by Stewart Lee Allen.  What an interesting book.  It’s all about the history of food taboos, and how we relate to the food we eat.  I’m just about done with it, and it’s been a very fun read. 

The book is organized into the Seven Deadly Sins, and each chapter contains info about food restrictions/taboos that relate to that sin.  So under “Lust” he talks at length about foods that were off limits to various peoples because they might induce impure thoughts (think chocolate, among others). 

I read a few of the reader comments about this book on Amazon, and several people expressed concern with some of the authors research, and the fact that he tends to speculate.  I think they are missing the point.  This book is not meant to be a scholarly research work.  It’s meant to make us think about what we eat, what we don’t eat, and how we relate to our food and the foods of others.  In that context, speculation isn’t really a problem, since it encourages critical thinking.  I appreciate the fact that during these bouts of reflection, the author never tries to convince us that he knows “the facts”.  It’s a very conversational work.  When pursuing this kind of book, I don’t think it matters if the author puts down unverified tidbits of information, or things based on annectdotal evidence.  The fact that they are annectdotes (which came from a person) is interesting in and of itself. 

This topic is a favorite of mine, since I’m continually fascinated by the topic of why people do or don’t eat things, and this book has provided a lot of food for thought (pun intended).  And it’s a very fun read.  Mr. Allen has a fine sense of humor, and doesn’t take himself too seriously. 

One of my other interests (besides food) is disaster preparedness.  I'm a member of my local CERT team and have spent a fair amount of time thinking about how to protect myself and my family (and neighbors) in the event of a major emergency. 

One of the big concerns in time of emergency is food, so I thought I'd share some info and observations on survival food. 

Cans

One of the things people most often think of as "emergency food" is canned goods.  Things like tuna, SPAM, beans, etc. are all things that will keep well are easy to store.  They are also a pretty good food source, having plenty of protein to keep you going.  The downside to cans is that they are both bulky and quite heavy.  Many kinds of canned food are also less appealing cold, although tuna, SPAM, fruit and veggies can be eaten cold and aren't too bad.  Cold chili or baked beans from a can will keep you alive, but not so tasty.  On the other hand, cans stand up to some pretty wild methods of heating, potentially including open fire, or the ever handy engine block.  I keep some canned food at home for cases where we might have no power/running water but don't have to evacuate.  In the case that you have to leave your home for an emergency, you don't want to drag canned food with you.

MREs

There are lots of places now where the public can get hold of military MREs (Meals, Ready to Eat).  They will keep for several years, and provide plenty of nutritional value.  I've never actually eaten one, so I can't comment on their appeal.  They are generally intended to be heated, and you can get water activated chemical MRE heaters that will bring them up to a reasonable temperature (in theory).  One thing to keep in mind, though, is that they do have their full water content, so they are heavy.  Not as heavy as cans, probably, but not light.  A good thing to keep in your house for power outages, but again limited use for evacuations, unless you keep some in your car.

Freeze Dried

Several companies, including Mountain House and AlpineAire make freeze-dried meals for backpackers.  They also cater to long term food storage buffs like survivalists and the LDS.  Both companies sell products ranging from single service pouches (which will keep for 5 years or so) to #10 cans that will keep for 30+ years under the right storage conditions.  I've had several of these meals while camping, and have nothing but good things to say about them.  They are light, easy to transport, and really tasty.  You can get vegetable or meat dishes, pastas, and even eggs and sausage for breakfast and some pretty good desserts.  One thing to keep in mind is that you MUST have a way of boiling water.  If you use these with cold water, you'd stay alive, but they would be VILE!  If you have are setup for an emergency supply of water and a way to boil it, these meals make a great solution.  The big cans make a perfect buy-and-forget solution.  with 3-4 cans you can provide food for 4-5 people for 3-4 days, and it will keep for 30 years.  Very handy.  You can also buy them in pre-arranged packs for a week, month, year, etc. and get a pre-picked set of breakfast/lunch/dinner items that are designed for long term storage.  So far, Mountain House's sweet and sour pork, and their eggs and bacon are my favorites.  My son also really liked them.  The blueberry cheese cake is an interesting experience also.

Energy bars

In just about any grocery store these days you can find a huge selection of energy bars.  These are great for things like your "ready bag" or "disaster kit", since they provide a great source of calories, and most are vitamin-fortified.  They are light, easy to carry, and many of them taste great (although there are also some pretty bad ones).  If you are buying them for emergency food, don't get lo-carb ones.  In the event of an emergency, you'll want those carbs to stay warm.  Plus a higher percentage of the lo-carb ones taste gross.   One thing to keep in mind is that these bars have a limited shelf life.  If you keep some in your ready bag, remember to change them out every so often, or they'll go bad.  However, there are a few companies, such as Mainstay, that make special energy bars for emergencies.  They have a long shelf life (usually 5 years) and are packed to provide all your food for a three day period (for one person).  I have a couple of these that I keep in my ready bag and my car just in case.  I haven't cracked them open yet, so I can't comment on the taste.  They are also Kosher, Halal, and vegetarian, so just about anyone can eat them if you have to share.  One of the big benefits of the energy bars is that they are pretty light, and don't require any water or heat. 

You'll also need a supply of emergency water in case your home water supply is compromised, but that'll have to wait for another post...

 

I’ve picked up several new food history/culinary literature books in the last few weeks that look really good, on topics ranging from the history of coffee and bread to spices and daring eating.  I’ll post more info on them as I start reading.  I found a great one this weekend at the Cannon Beach Bookstore, and I’m almost half way through it already.  “Are You Really Going to Eat That?” by Robb Walsh.  It’s subtitled “Reflections of a culinary thrill seeker”, and that’s a pretty accurate summation.  So far I’ve read about Mr. Walsh’s trip to Jamaica for a cup of coffee, Santiago Chile for conger eel stew, Thailand for the infamous durian, etc.  It’s a great read if you are into eating crazy stuff, of if you wish you were.  Mr. Walsh approaches tracking down these famous food items with a single mindedness that makes me wish I had a lot more time and money to do the same. 

I spent this weekend in Cannon Beach with my extended family, and we had some pretty good eats…

Friday night we ate at the Warren House pub, which is just across from Tolovana Beach (a bit south of central Cannon Beach).  It’s run by the same people as one of our favorite Cannon Beach hangouts, Bill’s Tavern.  The food was very good.  I had some really nice pork ribs, which were well cooked and very tasty.  The biggest hit was the salads that came with our dinners, which were possibly the best side salads I’ve ever had in a restaurant.  An amazing assortment of greens, onions, tomato, kalamata olives, and sunflower seeds.  Yumm.  Their beer is also really good (brewed at Bill’s).  Their holiday beer, “Auld Nutcracker” was really nice this year.  I’m also a big fan of their “Ragsdale Porter” which is a smoked porter after the fashion of the one from Alaskan Brewing. 

Lunch on Saturday saw us at Bill’s, where my son’s very favorite meal in all the world lives.  He always gets a bowl of their most excellent clam chowder (some of the best I’ve had) followed by a shrimp sandwich, which is a toasted sandwich piled high with bay shrimp and melted Tillamook cheese.  I usually go for the fish and chips there, but this time I decided to try the tuna sandwich.  It was very nice, with a hint (but no too much) of curry powder in the tuna, which worked nicely.  Chased with their Golden Rye beer.&n