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Duck Done!

2012-02-05T20:23:03Z

I've decided that it's done!

Two things that I realized:

1) I should have taken the weight of the duck before the salt cure to use for my weight loss percentage.
2) These are pretty fatty pieces of duck, and that fat isn't going to get the weight loss.

I grabbed one of the smaller ones and cut it open. Looks good. Tastes.....great! Yes!

perhaps a tad too dry, but not bad at all! Did the same for the larger guy, and absolute perfection. Just the right amount of saltiness and texture. Overall, very pleased! +++++++ Will make again!

Duck update #2

2012-01-27T02:29:06Z

We are now at weight loss of 24% for the smaller of the two, and 17.5% for the larger, started a day after the others.

Duck update

2012-01-21T16:41:34Z

The two smaller ones (after 6.5 days) have lost 19% of their starting weight. The larger has lost just over 11%. Stay tuned!

Duck Prosciutto !!!!!

2012-01-16T02:35:55Z

And off we go! On to the next interesting thing to try. Right out of my latest gift book Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn is Duck Prosciutto. Apparently very easy looking. Of course...it is easy!
Not to replicate the recipe here, I'll basically show this in photo stages.

The end result should be in about 7 days, or when my duck has lost about 30% of it's weight (which I'm assuming is hanging weight, not starting weight before the duck breast got bathed in a mound of kosher salt).

I've actually used two duck breasts. The first, I didn't cover completely in salt, then panicked and cut in in two, and re-packed. I'm thinking that this is going to be over-salted, so...I bought another duck breast.

Packed it into Salt:

And waited 24 hours. What you see here is Duck Breast #2. The others are already hanging.

Out of the salt, you can already see the deep red color that's developed.

Ok, so the pictures could have been better.

*Edit: Forgot to add that I dusted the two smaller ones in white pepper, and the larger one in a white pepper, paprika combo before wrapping!

Next is to wrap in cheesecloth, tie, and weigh. Since I'm determining the 30% weight loss while it's wrapped, I think that I need to do the initial weigh-in while it's wrapped. 1 lb 3/8 (463 grams, which is what I'm really using as a weight.

And finally, here they are! Hanging away in the cool breezeway, with a special water-soaked Sham-Wow hanging along the wall. That's my humidity test/provider. I figure if the Sham-Wow dries out fast, then it's too dry. Either way, it's providing some moisture. I think.

According to Michael Ruhlman's blog, the temperature and humidity don't factor too much into the Duck Prosciutto, as it has such a short aging time.

So, here they are hanging away. Hopefully ready for tasting next week!

Toodles.

wow

2011-12-09T01:26:59Z

I really need to update!

Pepperoncini Pickling Ptrials

2011-08-09T00:38:46Z

Oh, the things one learns from experimentation!

First, we had the early spring decision to grow Pepperoncini Peppers. Yum! Then, we have the excitement of a nice, hot summer, which peppers love! Finally, we have the harvest. As a wise man once said "First you sow the seed. Then you grow the seed. Then you eat the seed."

Time to eat the seed!

Plenty more of these babies coming too, so I can afford a little mess up. Who doesn't love those nice, crisp, little salad adornments? I mildly hot pepper, which when bitten in to gives a throat-gagging shot of spicy vinegar into the esophagus!

After searching many internet sites and such, I decided to go with a recipe from ehow.com.

After hand harvesting (yep, no farm machinery here!), I washed the peppers, gave two little slits in each to allow the juices to flow in, and soaked in a brine solution for....oh, I think I gave it 16 hours or so. One didn't look quite right, so he was a raw taste test specimen. Rating...6? Good, not bad. Not hot. Basically, a tough little pepper.   The cute little fella is here:

Whoa, I have a nice thumb!

Since peppers float, they needed a little help in staying down. I think that's where my Italian heritage comes in.

After brining these shiny little jewels of the clay pot, (at which point, they already looked and smelled better), it was time to bring them to their final resting place. A tiny little jar. They love it there. Really. No vegetable activists please.

So, according to the recipe, I mixed the vinegar, garlic, horseradish, sugar, and some water. Cooked that a bit, and prepped my jars for canning. I crammed the peppers into the jars (note, next time cram some more in), and added the pickling liquid stuff.

In to the pressure cooker to hopefully not blow up my house! No fears, all was well. I processed for 35 minutes, as per my pressure cooker instructions. After, the came out looking fab!

As you can see...1) I didn't add enough peppers, and 2) I don't think I hand-tightened the bands enough. I just know that I had more liquid in there than I ended up with!

After waiting one whole day (hey, I need to try them in order to improve for the next batch), it was time to crack open a jar.

They (again) look fantastic!

Problem is...they are MUSHY! They taste ok, but they are MUSH.   The stems fall right off, and the peppers (still in there skins) are MUSH inside!

Time for some more research to figure out how to get that "authentic" texture. Overall, a fun experiment, which hopefully provides better results next time!

July 4th - Red, White, & Blue Hot Dogs.

2011-07-04T22:58:15Z

Yes, it's that time of year again for all things patriotic. And what's more American that Hot Dogs? Well...red, white, & blue Hots, of course! Simplicity at it's finest (One of my favorite quotes, from the movie Valley Girl).

All you need are:

1) Some Zweigle's Red and White Hot Dogs (or any other brand, if they exist).

2) Blue Food Coloring, and some water. That's it! Nothing more needed! Simplicity at it's finest!

Add a good squirt or two of blue food coloring to your water.

Get your Hot Dogs open. Red, White, & White.

Take one of the White Hots, and add it to your now blue water.

Let that baby soak for a bit. I think that the hots in the natural casing take a bit longer to absorb the blue color., but when all is done, you have a beautiful blue hot dog!

Time to get these puppies to the grill !

Step (whatever number we are on) is to NOT, I repeat NOT drop your hot dogs after removing from the grill. Especially, the ONE solitary beautiful BLUE hot dog that you created.

Then again, where your guests may be squeamish about eating a blue hot dog, the family dog won't have any problem at all. Even if it was dropped, and covered in grass clippings.

Grouper time!

2011-05-18T00:45:00Z

Grouper, served with green beans, and Hen of the Woods mushrooms! Yum!

I made a mistake in preparing my grouper tonight.   Don't get me wrong, it tasted great, but it wasn't what I was looking for!
Exhibit 1. Le Grouper:

One thing that I did differently from last time, was I ended up marinating the fish. I really did not intend to do this, but....in the heat of the moment, that's what I did. I wanted to sear the fish with a nice crust. I mixed some flour, wasabi powder, and ground ginger together.   Then..THEN...the switch. I added soy sauce. Lots of soy sauce! I stirred it all up, and plopped the fish in ! Yes! Nooooooooo! Too late now! Deal.

Resigned to the fact that I'm not going to get that nice crispy coating that I wanted, I decided to pan sear it still, and then finish off in a 350 degree oven. I did this until the fish hit 140 degrees.    A glorious picture of the pan (not) searing is shown thus:

Looks great kids, doesn't it!!? Ok, maybe not.....yet.

On to the mushrooms! I'm going to skip the whole green bean cooking thing. Basically cooked green beans, salt, pepper, butter. Simple yet delicious. On to the mushrooms! (again).

Our lovely little bunch of Hen of the Woods mushrooms:

For these, I just cooked per package instructions. Some olive oil, garlic, shallots, and parsley. I think that was it! A bit bland I thought afterwards. Maybe could have used a little something else. Not sure yet. I know that mushrooms can really soak up any flavors, so I was a bit hesitant.

When all was said and done, the finished product arrived! Not too bad after all !

Spiced Rum Experimento !

2011-04-29T01:13:00Z

Going with what I think are some of the usual spices, and one oddball..Fenugreek!

I used the Fenugreek very sparingly. I love it's nice maple-scent, and thought that it would go great with my spiced rum experiment! Oh, and Experiment it is! There are quite a few different recipes out there, so I decided to combine a few and see what happens. The Rum being used is one bottle of Trader Vic's.

All of the above spices were used. Well, not in those amounts necessarily! I used a sliver of the ginger, a wisp of the fenugreek, all of the vanilla beans (split), the orange zest, cinnamon stick, then some allspice, black peppercorns, and cloves! That's it!

From what I have read, things can overspice the mix very quickly! I anticipate pulling the cinnamon stick tomorrow. Maybe the ginger too...not sure yet. The vanilla is sticking around for the long haul !

Day 1 has begun!

International night brings us toooooo...South Africa!

2011-03-02T01:37:00Z

Courtesy of a find at Wegmans, of a Cape Malay Curry sauce pouch!

Apparently a Cape Malay Curry is a Coconut-Ginger South African curry.

First step...decide what ingredients to add. Since I have no clue at all as to what South Africans eat, it's up to a bit of experimentation.

Ingredients:
Cubed up chicken breast
a variety of sweet peppers
Baby Bok Choy
and some dried Paddy Straw mushrooms, which I've never heard of before (and I have at least 3 mushroom books here).

ON TO THE COOKING!!!!!! (sorry, it's the 2nd blog post this week, and I get carried away).

First step, cut up the chicken breast into neat little dice-sized cubes. Into a pot of about 5 TBS of olive oil these go. Some salt and pepper and let those suckers sizzle. Sizzle suckers, sizzle!. Once the chicken is mostly cooked through, I take it out, and add the peppers. Let those suckers sizzle a bit too. Add the some chopped up Baby Bok Choy, the (now reconstituted mushrooms) and cook that for a minute or so. Then to add back the chicken and slice open the bag of curry sauce.

Hmm...... smells kind of good!

Better put some rice on. Texmati Rice to be specific.

I put the a lid on the chicken, lower the heat, and wait. Oh, and cook the rice.

Excelllllllllent!

Tuna Capellini

2011-02-28T01:53:00Z

After years of hearing the Cento commercial on the radio during the Sounds of Sinatra radio show every Sunday, one thing always stuck out....the singing of Tunaaaaaa Capelliiini. Well, it just so happened that I was given a can of Ortiz Bonito Del Norte tuna, and from then on the recipe just had to happen. So..where to find this recipe. Well, how about...........yes........ the Cento website! Of course!

There, the recipe for Capellini with Tuna and Anchovy Sauce was listed. Yes, I had Anchovies laying around. In a jar. Ready to go. The entire recipe is just a few ingredients:

5 tbsp Cento Imported Olive Oil
1 dried Cento Hot Chili Pepper, diced (optional)
1 oz Cento Flat Anchovies
2 tsp Bellino Minced Garlic
2 - 28 oz Cento San Marzano Peeled Tomatoes, hand-crushed
2 - 5 oz Cento Tuna in Olive Oil
1 lb Anna Capellini

Ok, so I didn't have San Marzano tomatoes, but I did have another brand sitting around.

This recipe was halved, as I only had 1 can of tuna fish. Good tuna fish. Which, on that note...tasted about the same as cheaper tuna fish. When cooked in a tomato sauce, I'm thinking that any darn white tuna would do. but I digress. On to the food!

I also have lots and lots of dried peppers, courtesy of my garden. For this recipe I used two of my cherry tomatoes. Nice and spicy. Overall a very very easy dish of which my wife said (in this order)
1) It's ok, I guess
2) I'm really hungry
3) This is growing on me.

Yes, she went back for seconds

Le finished product:

Growing my own food - Sea-Monkeys edition.

2011-01-16T14:19:00Z

Yes, you heard right, and I need your suggestions.

Everybody is in the whole "grow your own" movement. Here in the middle of winter, my options are a bit limited. Yes, my Aerogarden cranks out the herbs, I need more. So I decided to grow a protein. Sea-Monkeys specifically.

I'll begin from scratch. and raise these from little Sea-Monklets to full grown beasts, ready for slaughter.

But, I'll need your ideas. I know that I haven't posted in quite a bit, but I know someone out there reads this!

The obvious choice seems to be Sea-Monkey Scampi, but I need to think "outside the box" a bit more.

Suggestions??

Peanut Brittle

2010-12-06T13:35:00Z

Yum.

Bagel Bagel Bagel!!!!!!

2010-12-05T15:39:00Z

This should make for an interesting Challenge...Bagels!! For those not paying attention, I am slowing going through the recipes in The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart, part of the friendly challenge that was found here at Pinchmysalt.com

So, on to the Bagels!

One interesting note is that I used some locally milled flour. The bag said White Bread Flour, but I'm not so sure. Looked more like whole wheat or something!

Step one, make the sponge. Simply a combination of yeast, flour and water. The ratios used for the sponge are supposed to make it come out looking like pancake batter, which it did:

After a couple of hours at room temperature, this lovely mix starts to bubble and rise. When this happens, it's time to add the rest of the ingredients (aka more yeast, more flour, more water, some salt, and some malt powder (which scarily, I happen to have)). I think my photos of all of this got lost somewhere. Probably because I had to spend a much larger time kneading this dough that I thought I would have to!

First, to try to knead by hand. Knead, knead, knead, knead. Finally some structure to the dough, but it's taking on a LOT of flour. Just like with my Greek Celebration Bread. At this point it still isn't getting to the point that it should be, which is to stretch a portion of the dough out and perform the "windowpane test". Basically stretching it out so you can see through it, without the dough breaking. My dough kept breaking. Next I tried to put it in the mixer. No good. The dough was way too stiff for my mixer. I would have fried the motor in a minute. After kneading by hand for a bit more, I thought..."hey, why not just knead about 1/2 of the dough in the mixer?!" It worked! Somewhat. The motor wasn't dying, but my dough still wasn't developing. Maybe it's that flour. I have to go talk to that guy today at Small World Bakery .

So, after having assumed it was good enough, it was time to shape the bagels. Start by forming 4.5 oz pieces of dough into rolls as shown:

After letting these beauties rest for 20 minutes, it's bagel formin' time! Simply poke a hole in the middle of the ball, and stretch out about 2.5 inches across. These now have to sit for at least 20 minutes, or until they pass the next test....can they float? Yes, float. Place one of the bagel doughs into a bowl of cool water, and it should sink and rise within 10 seconds.

However, I was getting hungry at this point, and decided that the dough would be ok if I left the house for a bit. Probably about an hour later I was home to these babies and decided to float them now. No sinking. Just instant float! I don't know if that's good or bad! Too late to do anything about it now.

Into the fridge overnight to retard the dough, and prepare them for a horrible death by boiling.

Pot o' water + 1 Tbs baking soda to a boil and in go the bagels! Three at a time are fitting. Boil for 1 minute, then flip and boil the other side for a minute.

The swell up a bit as this photo shows. More importantly it shows what my "white flour" looks like when it makes bagels.

Once they come out of the water, they are ready for whatever toppings you desire.

I made the following bagels:
Plain
Sesame
Salt
Onion (finely chopping some onion and mixing it with some olive oil)
and
Panko-Onion (same as onion, but adding Panko bread crumbs to the mix)

I think I undercooked them by a couple of minutes. I followed the recipes guidelines of 5 minutes at 500, rotate, and 5 minutes at 450. Well, I baked 7 minutes at 450. Until a couple of the bagels started to develop cracks. Here's my sesame! Overall, a good bagel. I think I need more practice at them. Surprisingly easy to make, but still need some work on my end!

Greek Celebration Bread! Whoa

2010-11-29T02:08:00Z

This baby is HUGE!

Forgive me for the lame post. Bad photos, uninspired text that doesn't really explain anything....etc. It's late.

And it took forever. Of course, that was my fault. First, on to the bread!

Greek Celebration Bread. Lots of ingredients! Lots of spice! This is the 2nd installment in my Bread Bakers Apprentice challenge! I think bagels are next. Can't wait!

This called for some spices, so being the freak that I am, I decided to use fresh ground.

Allspice, Cloves, Nutmeg, and Cinnamon. Yes, the photo is dark. I need a more user-friendly camera!

The allspice and cloves were (individually) placed into my spice mill (aka, coffee grinder that I bought on sale at Kohls) and then finished into a mini mortar and pestle that I happened to have laying around.

From there, the cinnamon and nutmeg were ground up on my rasp. The cinnamon was further sifted, and there tends to be larger woody pieces that splinter off, and I don't want those in my bread.

My pre-ferment for this bread was a poolish, made from 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cups water, and 1/4 tsp yeast. Allowed to sit for 3 or 4 hours until it started bubbling, and then put in to the fridge. This pre-ferment then gets added to the rest of the ingredients. Which I did. Blah blah blah.

This dough...was becoming enormous in size. Not sure if it was supposed to be this big. I had to keep adding flour to get a nice ball of dough to form. It was wayyyy to sticky before that. I started to knead it with my KitchenAid mixer, but soon realized that this beast would kill the motor. Then I remembered that I wanted to knead the breads in this challenge by hand anyways, so all was good.

Well...good until I realized that I FORGOT THE YEAST! I added the yeast and kneaded and kneaded some more! Of course, this meant that it would take a LOT longer to rise. And it did. Probably about 6 hours longer than it should have.

I think this weighed 3 lbs, 14 oz.

Yea! It's doubled!

You can see the olive oil that was used to coat the dough and the rising bucket sitting at the top. Maybe too much oil? Tough to tell as it all gets pushed to the top.

Here is the almost 4 pound beast shaped into a nice boule, in the proofing stage.

While I'm waiting for this to rise a bit more, it's on to the glaze (which by the way really made the bread !)
2 Tbs water, 2 Tbs Sugar, 2 Tbs Honey and 1 Tsp lemon zest.

The bread, once proofed, takes about 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven, when done it looks something...ok....exactly...like this:

Anadama Bread

2010-11-14T21:44:00Z

We are off and running with the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge !

1st up, Anadama Bread. Lots of cornmeal, lots of molasses. Let's get baking! (oh, and still getting used to the new camera).

1st step was an overnight soak of 6 oz cornmeal mixed with a cup of water. This soaked mix gets combined with bread flour, yeast, and more water, and allowed sit for about an hour to begin fermenting.

Fermentation and photos don't go together well, apparently.

Next, mix in some more bread flour, salt, unsalted butter (when given a recipe option for shortening or butter, I go butter), and what seemed like LOTS of molasses. 4 ounces. 6 tablespoons. I used Brer Rabbit, Mild for this recipe. Time to knead! Or in this case, use my KitchenAid mixer to knead for me.

About 7 minutes later and we get this lovely golden beast:

It passed "the windowpane test" which helps show when the bread was kneaded properly (or enough I suppose), and it should register between 77 and 81 degrees. ahhh. 80.

Time to put this into my dough bowl and wait for it to rise. It should double. Book says 90 minutes, but I'm banking on a bit longer. I can't recall now how long it took, but it wasn't too much past 90 minutes to double in size.

oooo fluffy!

Here's where the tough part came in. The recipe says to divide evenly and put into 2 9x5 inch pans or 3 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pans. As luck would have it, I have 3 pans. Not all of equal size though! 1 larger and 2 smaller. time to eyeball the dough and divide it up as best I can.

These were shaped and placed into the bread pans to proof. At this point I should have misted the tops with water and dusted with cornmeal. I didn't do this step until after they had risen to the tops of the bread pans (which took about 45 minutes longer than it should have)

These now go into a nice toasty 350 degree oven, on a sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes, rotated, and baked for another 20-30 minutes. I baked mine for an extra 25 minutes, and registered about 203 degrees in the center when I pulled them out. Initial taste impressions = great! Especially with butter

On to the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge!

2010-11-08T00:02:00Z

Since I have started baking Italian bread loaves for my mother (Due to Wegman's not selling a white flour Italian bread anymore), I've decided to delve further in to the pages of The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart.

Bread by bread, starting at the beginning. Just out of memory, I've made the Italian Bread, the Pain de Campagne, the Kaiser Rolls, and the recipe for crackers.

The Pain de Campagne

and the Italian Bread Face

Red Kabocha Pie

2010-10-25T01:22:00Z

Ahh... a Red Kabocha Squash. Yum! I think. What to do with this?? Pie of course! Yes, it kind of looks like a pumpkin, so why not. Let's carve this baby up and bake him in a 350 oven (with some water in the pan, and covered in aluminum (almost said "tin") foil.

No, I didn't roast the seeds.

(New Camera...sorry for the out of focus. I didn't read the instructions yet)

Now...for the recipe. What else, other that some obscure little cookbook I have of Pennsylvania Dutch recipes! I figure that a pumpkin pie recipe should work. I have actually made this once before and learned that unlike the last time I made pumpkin pie, this kabocha squash has nowhere near the moisture that the pumpkin did. No straining needed. Just mash that baby up!

It smells just like the squash that you always find in the frozen foods section.

See how happy they all are?

I made only one small substitution. The recipe called for 3/4 cup of brown sugar. I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar + 1/3 cup of molasses. Seriously, I never have a chance to use my molasses. I just had to.

Oh, and of course, the homemade pie crust!

ahahaha!

I put all of the ingredients into my food processor and whipped those babies up! wooooooooooooo! Then chilled (I have NO idea why) and put into the pie crust. Another out of focus pic:

Bake for what seemed like a couple of hours, and .......................PIE! Served with (yes, really this time) homemade whipped cream. Made of course with homemade vanilla extract (the rum version.).
Until next time, pie!

Leek Soup

2010-09-08T00:13:00Z

This started innocently enough. I have at least 4 large leeks to use, so I need something to do with them. I've done the beef stroganoff, but tonight...it's soup time! I decided to use a nice simple Wegmans recipe.

First step was to cook down the leeks. Easy peasy !

Just some olive oil and leeks. Looks great!

Next, the recipe called for chicken stock, and to let it boil
(again, ignore the crappy photos..new camera coming soon)

Now, comes the fun part! 1/2 tsp A. Vogel Herbamare Herb Seasoning Salt (Nature's Marketplace). Hmmmm. I don't have that! Seasoning Salt. Can't be that tough to find. I have some Udon Noodles. Those have those seasoning packets. Probably too salty though. Besides, I need the seasoning for my noodles. Whoa! What have we here!?! Instant Miso Soup! Yep throw that baby in!

Need something else to thicken it up.. oooooo. yes. Been waiting to use some of these! What's a soup without little stars?

Overall a great great soup (of course with the addition of some grated cheese). Will make again. +1 !!

Crab Cake Time for real this time!

2010-09-04T21:58:00Z

Ok, this time I am actually making them. Having come to the startling revelation that they are nothing but crab with some binders and spice made it a bit easier. But I still needed a starting point. Who better than a Maryland Senator ?!

So of course, I still bastardized the recipe. I did follow the general guidelines....I think. Instead of two pieces of white bread, I used one. Then added some bread crumbs, then some Panko, which I used to coat the cakes after I had formed them.

I also used the dijon, but only 1/2 of what she called for. I used some English Mustard Powder as well. Who am I kidding with "English Mustard Powder"?   Of course, it was Colman's. I mean, is there any other?

Oh gee, I also added a bit of Bell Pepper.   I guess that I didn't follow any recipe at all! Broil for about 6 minutes per side.

and don't forget the flounder.   I won't get into the Kale that I somehow managed to burn. Who burns Kale??!