Thanksgiving Food Fest

Just a few pictures from Thanksgiving day. Didn't do much but cook brussels Nate Whiting style and follow my mothers directions...I loved cooking with mom and dad it is some of my fondest memories.

One learning experience was seeing the brussels like this! I have never see that before and thought it was really cool getting to cook with them starting like this.

Please extend a sincere 'Thank You' to your Pop

This is an empty bottle of Slap Ya Mama hot sauce.  It was incredible.  Maybe the best hot sauce I've had, certainly my favorite LA hot sauce.  There might be some Mexican ones that can hang, but you know, that is really comparing apples and oranges.  (I haven't gotten too into the seasoning or fish boil yet, but the hot sauce was the JAM.)

Thank your pop for me, it was great.

A Personal Goal

So it is well-known that I don't like bananas.  Famously, the 2 hedonistic (i.e. of or pertaining to physical pleasure) things I can't stand are marijuana and bananas.  So anyway, I am reading this great article in Saveur, about the cuisine of the Garifuna people, who are an enclave of African slave-descendants living in coastal Honduras.  Their cuisine is fascinating.  I am always fascinated by border cuisines, and the one saving grace of colonialism is that it creates new borders. (Case in point: France and Vietnam don't share a border, but thanks to Imperialism, we can still enjoy pho (aka Vietnamese pot-au-feu) and bahn mi (aka Vietnamese pate sandwiches).  Well, the Garifuna people live on the artificial border of West Africa, South America, and the Caribbean.  Their cuisine is creole, but a totally different type of Creole.

Anyway, I am meandering.  The point is, they have a dish called Tapou, that is a whole fried fish served in a tomato-achoite-coconut stew with garlic, ginger, cumin, oregano...  It looks incredible.  But then, I'm reading the recipe, and it gets to the vegetables that are simmered in the stew, and one is green bananas.  Fuck.

So anyway, my goal is to rid myself of my banana problem.  Jeffrey Steingarten did away with all of his food phobias in order to write The Man Who Ate Everything, so if he can do it, I can too.

I will kick my banana problem, and I will make Tapou, and it will be good.

Purple Cape Beans vs Red Beans

Kidney beans

AKA Red beans are of Caribbean origin and found its way to the states when there was a slave rebellion in Haiti and forced the sugar planters to seek haven in Louisiana which was owned by France at the time. These beans are one of the most toxic of the many bean varieties. They must be heated to boiling for at least ten minutes to kill the toxic compound Phytohaemagglutinin which is a lectin and especially concentrated in the (Red) kidney bean. The tradition that started in New Orleans was Monday Red Beans and Rice (at Nicholls red beans and rice day was on monday in the cafeteria ..who would have thought there was a reason for it) because sunday was when ham was traditionally eaten. Then the left over ham bone was put in the red beans that would cook all day while the women did the wash. The bone not only gave the beans more flavor but it was also resourceful way to use as much of the pig as possible.

Purple Cape Beans

AKA Sea Island Beans are heirlooms of the Magwood Family and are grown in the Stono River Valley south of Charleston, SC. They are a little smaller than red kidney beans but have lots of natural smokiness when cooked. I couldn't find much else but if I do I'll let you know. Also here is a pic... maybe by this you can get some for Social. Do beans and wine go well together? I didn't think so because of the smokiness nut your the expert not me!

Robert Moss's pic (@mossr)Sea Island Purple Cape Beans: old heirloom from the Magwood family, now grown by Celeste Albers http://t.co/0zZxcDjz - 2012-04-28 14:16:00

Also here is a pic of Red Beans and Rice I made for Rachel and I.

Nothing fancy but it was pretty good and I didn't put any meat in it!

Dinner at the Wild Olive

So D and I had dinner at Wild Olive.  Among my favorite places in town...

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The entrees were good.  Pastas, all around.  Orichietti with game bolognese, linguine with shrimp, tomato, greens, and chile, and garganelli with guanciale and mushrooms.  All great, but nothing educational.  However, we had 3 appetizers, and each one contained a lesson.

App 1- Charred, Braised Octopus with Creamer Potatoes, Capers, Spring Onions, some kind of spiced mayo dressing.  The lesson here was simple.  If you take the world's best, most exciting potato salad, and top it with octopus, you have a pretty solid app.  The dish was a lot like the octopus/potato salad dish that name makes, but using the little creamer potatoes gave it a textural appeal that was incredible.  (Also, I haven't made 5000 6-pans of the Wild Olive's potato salad, so maybe I could enjoy it a little more).

App 2- Fennel Sformato with Lump Crab Meat, Fennel Pesto, and Chile-  This was good, but not great, and it carried 2 major textural lessons.  Lesson one is that sometimes you need a crunch.  I am not a believer that it is always required, but there are times when it is.  The sformato was yielding and delicate, and the crab meat was really tender, so it was almost like eating a soup that held it's shape.  A dusting of Nate's tiny croutons would have saved the day.  The second lesson was that I don't really like fennel fronds.  They were the only thing on the plate that had any texture, and they were just like eating hair.  Their flavor was redundant, there was already fennel sformato and fennel pesto.  I wouldn't have noticed the texture if everything else in the dish wasn't so soft, but I won't ever use them for soup garnish again.

App 3- Bruschetta with broccoli rabe, grana padano cheese, and purple cape beans: The lesson here is that purple cape beans are really great.  They are small and dark red, almost like a dried red bean, but I think they are fresh.  One thing that Lowcountry cuisine has figured out is that fresh field peas and beans are fantastic.  I've never had cape beans before, but I will favor them the next time I see them on a menu.  I imagine they would make an absolutely fantastic red beans and rice.

Well, that's all for today.  I went fishing for sheep'shead again, and all I got was blowfish.  Lots and lots of blowfish.  (No sign of Hootie.)  Oh well.    

Dukkah and Tomato-ey Soffritto

Ok so its funny you should ask if I know what a tomato-ey soffritto is because YES you are right if I didn't Nate would spin kick me IN THA HEAD! lol I actually made spaghetti today for dinner tonight and my sauce started with a soffritto consisting of tomato, onion, garlic, local green bell pepper (Rachel scored from work!) and fresh oregano and thyme (I scored from the Italian dinner party I had the other night).

For my 1 Billion points:

Dukkah also spelled "Duqqa" originated in Egypt and is a mixture of herbs, nuts, and spices that are "pound" in to a blend. The word Duqqa originated from the Arabic word "to pound". Its simplest form is mint, salt and pepper that can be found on the streets of Cairo. Its range of derivatives is vast because of the many varieties of nuts, spices, and herbs in the area.

The two dishes I found are:

Duqqa Beer Can Chicken

04JUN

During my recent trip to Canada, I was lucky enough to visit one of Edmonton’s indoor farmer’s markets.  We ended up purchasing a few items there for the dinner that we cooked during the freak snowstorm that happened Saturday night.  Fortunately, I was able to bring back a spice blend called Duqqa.  The spice blend that I picked up pretty much sticks to what is referenced in that wikipedia article.  I immediately thought of putting it on chicken and cooking it, which led me to today’s recipe.

After the easter ham, I knew that I was able to cook low and slow on my grill.  I took that approach today with this recipe.  I ran it at about 225 until it was cooked through (safe cooking temp about 180 for chicken before carry over)  The result was one tasty bird.  While this recipe takes some time, it saves you in prep work which takes all of 5 minutes.

Print

Duqqa Beer Can Chicken

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 1 bird

Duqqa beer can chicken is extremely simple and adds wonderful flavors to the bird. The slow cooking ensures a perfect consistency for the bird.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (3-4 lb)
• 2 tbsp dukka
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 beer

Instructions

1. Heat grill to 225 F.
2. Rinse and thoroughly pat dry chicken.
3. Mix dukka with olive oil and slather all over the bird.
4. Remove top from beer can with a can opener and pour out half. Mix in some extra dukka in the can (about 1 tbsp) and sit the bird atop it.
5. Cook until a thermometer positioned in the thickest part of the breast reads 180 F.
6. Remove from grill and allow to rest 20 minutes before carving.

All the ingredients

Duqqa

Mix with oil

Spread on chicken

Cut off top of can

On its throne

Cooking

Finished dish

Duqqa Beer Can Chicken

Photos in your stall

Posted on March 22, 2011 by dana

I always suggest using photos in your stall to help customers envision your products in their own homes. Whether you make fake fur pillow covers, grow heirloom tomatoes, make garden art or sell bedding plants, taking photos of your items in actual use will give customers ideas.

Here’s the trick: Pay attention to customers’ questions. If you’re getting the same questions over and over again, this is a good indication that either your signage is not good enough, you need more information, or your products are really obscure. I should know. I sell a product called Duqqa…if I’d simply called it, An exotic rub of nuts and spices, it would have made my life a lot easier.

What do I have to do to help customers figure out what it is and how to use it?

I cook up recipes using my products, take some nice photos of the finished dishes, then have them printed out on nice quality paper, laminate them, post them on my website atwww.hotchickspicecompany.com, created a recipe flyer and, I display them in my stall. 

Baked Brie with Traditional Duqqa

Having lots of fun with this blog! Thanks for always pushing me : )

Lunch at 2 Boroughs Larder

Awesome.  My favorite restaurant.  And the fact that she always gives us the 20% employee discount now isn't making my crush on Heather any easier to manage.  Luckily, D thinks its cute.

We had:

Thinly shaved porchetta (that's pork belly and loin, rolled and sliced) with persimmons, radishes, and yellow squash

Broccoli Rabe with peppers and garlic (I would have paid $5 just to do a shot of the pot liquor.  Best greens ever)

Roasted Mushrooms with a 'medium poached egg' (it was 64 degree texture, but poached), sourdough crumbles, and sheep's milk feta (total umami bomb)

Brussels Sprouts with Salumi Vinaigrette (I will cover this in my next post)

Pumpkin Soup with Smoked Sausage and Dukkah (1 billion bonus points if you can look of Dukkah and tell me what it is and where it comes from)

and 2 dishes that bear actual discussion.

First: Tuna Conserva with Shishito Peppers and Soffrito

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This dish is cool for 2 reasons.  1, it was incredible.  The tuna was slow cooked in olive oil and then dressed with a spicy, tomato-ey soffrito (you know that one, right?  coz otherwise Nate is gonna spin-kick you), and topped off with whole deep-fried peppers that were just a little bit hot.  

The other reason its cool is that I feel like in this day and age it takes balls to serve fully cooked tuna.  Like, in the old days, tuna came out of a can.  Then, in the eighties, sushi got big and French chef Gilbert da Coze of Le Bernardin got the idea to use raw tuna like beef in tartare.  Fast forward 20 years, and all anybody does is serve tuna raw or just-seared.  Hats off to places like 2BL for showing that the flavor of cooked tuna is what got us all into it in the first place.

****Major Food Engineering Breakthrough*********

The other major breakthrough we experienced was, we figured out how to eat the scrapple sandwich.  FINALLY!!  Its one of our favorites.  Over easy egg, scrapple and cheddar on a really good hard roll.  (Can't remember, do you like scrapple?)

The problem is, when you try to cut it in half, the bread is super crisp and firm (which is why its good) but the scrapple and egg are soft and squishy.  I have used MS Paint to diagram the problem.  Please do not show this horrible picture to any graphic designers you happen to be banging.  I want her to think I'm cool.

So you see, the problem is that by cutting the sandwich in half, you lose all the toppings.  However, D and I share everything when we go out, so we devised a solution.  Remove the top bun.  Remove the egg.  Scrape half of the scrapple onto the top bun, taking care to bring the cheese with it.  Gently cut the egg in half, preserving the yolk, and place half on each side.  Eat open-faced, and use the last bits of your bun to scrape up any errant yolk and scrapple.  Brilliant, right?

Oh well, that's all for now.  I have 1 more post about this lunch, but that can wait.

Winter is here, sort of

So i didn't even get 1 chance to try out my new sheepshead rig.

I was going to put a picture of the great sheepshead dish that I have prepared, only nature didn't cooperate and it was too fuckin cold to even think about fishing.  It has been a perfect storm.  First, Sarah was leaving, so our fishing days became packing/planning/reminiscing days.  Then D's sister Jackie was in town for 3 weekends.  Then Hurricane Sandy blew a bunch of rainy squalls over the harbor on my day off, and then it was great out for a week but I could only get one day  off.

During this time, I get this fine new rig, with a rod sensitive enough for those finnicky fish, a rod holder (that was really expensive, btw, $50!), and a reel to match, and then, on my weekend off, it is like 50 degrees and blowing hard.  Goddammit.  And now its november, and the water temperature is dropping, and I fear I have missed the season entirely.  But anyway, as soon as the spring thaw comes, I am catching some goddamn sheepshead.

The reason you need a special rig is the way they feed.  They have almost human looking mouths, and use their big front teeth to chew hard-shelled barnacles and mussels off dock pilings.  They don't hit and run, like a redfish or a stingray, they hang out in the water and nibble.  What you do, is set your rod holder to hold the rod straight out off the pier, with a 2 ounce weight hanging in the water.  The idea is to have the tip of the rod dip just a little bit.  Then, when the fish nibbles at the bait (i've heard they like fiddler crabs, but I cant find them so I use clam strips), the rod wiggles, and you strike.

So that's what I didn't do on my day off.  How was your dinner party?  And also have you ever worked with sheepshead?

Marcella Hazan

Navel Orange, Cucumber, Baby Radish, Mint, Lemon, EVO

A group of college friends get together ONCE A WEEK!!!??? I know crazy...I might not be able to do that, but I am going to the one they are having tonight. Its classic Italian so what better book to look for guidance then Marcella Hazan that Nate gave me. I was given the salad course...this was the trial that Rachel and I ate last night...I have a few improvements for the salad for the party BUT its was pretty amazing just like this!

Look who got an early CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

I cried...but I always cry lol

First Home Cooked Dinner

Chicken and gravy w/ Jasmine rice and cheese broccoli... I really missed having someone to cook for : ).