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Riesling Part II, racking

Bob — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:01:00 GMT

No, you didn't miss anything these past 2 weeks, except a bucket of juice fermenting. Next step in this process: Stabilizing and Clearing.

As per the wine kit instructions, I took a Specific Gravity reading. Instructions say it should be at 0.998 or lower. We are right at 0.998

Next is to siphon the wine from the primary fermenting bucket into a carboy.

Then comes the fun part of adding the stabilizers and other stuff that they give you. Involves lots of stirring! 1) to mix up the ingredients, and 2) to drive the CO2 out of the wine.

Being the strong brute that I am, I pick up the six gallon glass carboy and place it up on a table. Attach the rubber bung and airlock (to keep the air out, but let any gasses out). Here's what it looks at this stage, then with a nice towel over it to keep out the light. It's next to a cheap window which lets lots of cold air in, so it will be kept at a nice cool temp.

For those that are curious, here's what's left in the primary fermenting bucket. I've tilted it slightly to show it better. Hopefully, none of this got into my wine. The directions say that I need to let this sit for another 4 weeks, but after day 10, I can do an optional "re-racking", which is probably what I'll do to ensure a clear wine and that none of that nasty expired yeasty stuff is in there.

Riesling time!

Bob — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:04:00 GMT

Here is the next wine on the way, a Riesling Auslese. Day one is pretty simple. Clean and sanitize the equipment, add 4 litres of warm water and mix in the packet of Bentonite that they give you, which is used to clarify the wine. These kits have all you need to make wine, except the equipment and sanitizing agents. Equipment consists of things like the primary fermenting bucket (seen here with wine), long spoons for stirring, hyrdrometer....etc. I just bought a bundled kit that had most things I needed.

Next. in goes the grape juice, and enough cool water to bring everything up to the 6 gallon mark. Sprinkle on the yeast provided, and put the lid on (with an airlock). Time to let this sit for about 2 weeks, until it gets racked into the big glass carboy that I have.

Wow, I've been slacking!

Bob — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:51:00 GMT

Just an update! Still cooking! Been making wine, but didn't blog about it...yet! We have a Chianti, and a Barolo working. The Chianti was bottled last night. Waiting at least a month to see how it comes out. Learned a lot during the first two batches, so I'll document the next batch

Also, I bought two pounds of mustard seed, to do more mustard experiments. This time documenting what I use and in what amounts. I plan on being a mustard baron.

Holy cow, that was a heavy CSA bag!

Bob — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:44:00 GMT

The apples weren't part of it. Two pie pumpkins! I hope that's enough for pie! I think it is

Lots of leeks and beets. MORE peppers. omg so many peppers this year. I've already dehydrated a bunch of them. And I have enough onions to last till at least January!

"Buffalo Wing" Fettucine, with a Blue Cheese Alfredo Sauce

Bob — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:53:00 GMT

YES! It actually worked!

Once this idea was spawned, it had to be put into action. We loved it!

Step 1: Make the noodles!

2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
1/3 cup (or so) Franks Red Hot
2 Cups Tipo 00 Flour. Regular flour would do too.
2 eggs

Mix the Red Hot and the butter together, which is a basic Buffalo Wing Sauce. For exact proportions, see the bottle of Franks.
Mound the flour onto your work surface (typical pasta making directions), and create a well. Place the 2 eggs in and start to combine. Here's where the tricky part came in. Start adding some of the wing sauce. I really don't know how much I used, but you don't want to go too far, as then the dough would get all sloppy. If you've made homemade noodles before, it's easier as you know the texture that you're trying to obtain.

When mixed together, you should have a nice ball of dough resembling the following photo. Cover this with plastic wrap, and let rest for about 1/2 hour.

For those truly in to detective work, you can look at the two photos and figure out how much sauce I used

I then ran this through my manual crank pasta maker and ended up with nice red "wing smelling" noodles!

On to the sauce! Phase 2 of not knowing what to expect. I am sure someone has made a blue cheese alfredo sauce before, but this was a first for me.

Again, I wish I measured how much blue cheese I used, but I think it was about 1/3 of this block.

Roth Käse Buttermilk Blue Cheese
However much grated Parmesan Cheese is shown here
1 Stick of glorious butter
1 cup of heavy cream
and a dash of ground pepper. (No white pepper available in the house)
oh, and a small amount of a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce, once I realized it was too soupy)

I melted the butter in a medium sized saucepan, then added the rest of the ingredients in. I let this go over low heat until (adding a bit more blue cheese to get the flavor right), until it was hot and all of the cheese was melted. It was at this point that I added the cornstarch to thicken it up.

I dropped the fettuccine noodles into a pot of boiling salted water, until done...and then SERVE and DEVOUR!!!

Wow, that was good.

Leek Rings!

Bob — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:53:00 GMT

Never attempt to make these unless you have lots of time and are willing to put up with a mess. Yes, Alton Brown made it look sooooo easy on that talking picture box.

I, having a small kitchen (hence the name of this blog), was covered in flour and all sorts of goopy goodness. As expected though (I think) they turned out looking just like on TV! Faaaaaaantastic! Yum. Really. Yum. A little pickling salt on top and time to eat away! Next time I won't use THREE WHOLE LEEKS! I was worried I wouldn't have enough, and also had to use them up.

Pasta with mixed CSA vegges

Bob — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:49:00 GMT

Some things taste much better than they photograph and this is definitely one of them.

For starters, just look how bland everything looks. The purple peppers turn this translucent looking gray. Yet they taste great.

This used:

Purple Peppers
Red Onion
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Cherry Tomatoes
Canned Artichokes
Olive Oil
and Lemon Juice
salt & pepper too.
Maybe a few hot pepper flakes

Stupid uses for cherry tomatoes #1343

Bob — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:27:00 GMT

Having added some cherry tomatoes to our salad (as well as a pepper and one of those funky looking yellow cucumbers), I decided to try to use a few to freshen up a sauce that I had stashed in the freezer. Since these were small, I could do this on a small scale, aka in a microwave. I cut an 'x' in the bottom of each one and threw them into a measuring cup which was boiling in the microwave. I then kept it going for about a minute. Removed the tomatoes, cooled them off , and slipped off the skins.

Next, to crush the little fellows into the sauce. Helpful hint #1, when crushing tomatoes, try to get most of them into the pot. I think I got more on my stove than into the intended sauce.

Chicken with a multitude of vegetables

Bob — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:58:00 GMT

This, as everything grew out of a basic idea of making chicken and snowballed from there. The pic (as usual) doesn't do the dish justice.

I started off marinating the chicken in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, some hot peppers from my garden, basil, oregano, salt, pepper....maybe something else too. Can't recall now! That marinated for about 6 hours or so.

CSA Vegetables used:
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Red Onion
Cucumber (for the cucumber tomato salad)

Into the pan went some olive oil, 1 sliced red onion, sliced tomatoes, and garlic. Then on top of that went the chicken. Cover and cook for a bit. While that was going, I cut up the zucchini and yellow squash and tossed that in when the chicken was ready to flip. That's basically it. Cook till done! I'd post more, but it's too hot to sit here with this laptop frying my legs!

CSA Week 8 2009 Veggies

Bob — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:52:00 GMT

Leeks!
2 heads lettuce
Those yellow cucumber things
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Bell Peppers
Cubanelle Peppers
Tomatoes

Zucchini Quiche

Bob — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:52:00 GMT

I can't take credit for this recipe. I followed it just as written and it's very very good! I was going to add some green pepper to it, but forgot. Did get the chance to use up some zucchini and onion though!

Recipe found here:
Zucchini Quiche 3

Zucchini Quiche 3

3 cups of thin, unpared zucchini (about 4 sm.)
1 cup of Bisquick
1/2 cup of chopped onion
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of parsley
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
A dash of pepper
1 clove garlic, chopped fine, or 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 cup of oil
4 eggs, slightly beaten

Mix all ingredients and put into greased 13x9 pan. Bake 350ºF. for 30-40 minutes.

Shown with a few drops of homemade hotsauce

CSA Week 7 2009 Veggies

Bob — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:48:00 GMT

Our week 7 Veggies to work with:

-zucchini
-yellow squash
-green bell peppers
-cubanelle peppers
-cucumbers
-red onions (very small as you can see)
-assorted lettuce
-bunched beets

Wings and Beet Chips

Bob — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:16:00 GMT

Having struggled over a deep fryer purchase, I decided to save $100 and not choose the one I originally wanted. So, I ended up with a Presto® CoolDaddy® Deep Fryer that I bought at Kohls. Overall, it did a great job frying. It may not have the features for cleaning and filtering oil, but hey, it worked.

First to try...Beet Chips. I took out my trusty V-Slicer and peeled a bunch of beets.

I probably fried them for either 1) too short a time, or 2) in too big of a bunch. I hate doing small batches, as I don't have the patience. Next time I shall allot more time for them! Fry, add a bit of pickling salt and done! Very very tasty! Could have used a bit more crisp, but that was my fault, not the fryers.

On to the chicken wings! 8 full wings, chopped into 16, with the little wingy end removed and fed to the dogs (yes, they get raw chicken wings. NOT cooked. Just raw). For the sauce, I did the ol' basic Frank's RedHot Sauce and butter. Add Blue Cheese and (lacking celery sticks) our little yellow cucumber, all sliced up. These were fantastic! Nice and crispy. Wish I had made more!
Enjoy!

CSA Week 6a 2009 Veggies

Bob — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:37:00 GMT

HOLY COW MORE VEGGIES

Ok, now we're starting to get seriously behind in eating, as I was gone last week.

This weeks bag:
-Green Bell Peppers
-Orient Express Eggplant
-Cucumber
-Lemon Cucumber
-Pickling Cucumber
-Zucchini
-Yellow Squash
-Green Summer Crisp Lettuce
-Red Onions
-Leeks
-Bunched Beets

CSA Week 5 2009 Veggies

Bob — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 01:03:00 GMT

Was out traveling (Hi Fish Market Katie! I hope it was Katie. Forgive me if it's not!) and didn't get to post till now! Week 5?? Veggies..including probably the tiniest kohlrabi evarrrrrr.

Broiled Fish Heads Night.

Bob — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:24:00 GMT

So, having been bestowed with fresh fish heads from our sushi chef, I followed his instructions to broil them. Salt, Soy Sauce and then broil them. Having unwrapped the beautiful little creatures (which were cleaned of almost all the tiny pin bones that fish have), it was time to season and cook. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

I had no idea so much meat was on a fish head! Quite yummy! Tasted like...fish! I have no idea how long I cooked them for, but whatever it was it was the perfect amount of time. One member of the household (who shall remain nameless) refused to eat any. Even the parts that weren't directly connected to the head. Go figure. On to the show! Oh, and forgive the lack of a better finale photo. I was too busy to put together a "proper" meal.

YEA! Fish Heads!

Bob — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:29:00 GMT

So, we go out for sushi to our weekly haunt, Edoya Japanese Restaurant . Came just as they were back from picking up the fish from the airport (flown in from Japan). I was the lucky recipient of two fish heads! The cooking and unveiling will be tomorrow! Here they are still wrapped up. All cleaned. No bones.

On another note, for those CSA followers, here is what we did with the yellow squash we received. Some white wine, garlic, and preserved lemons included, served over spinach fettucine:

Spinach, Beet, and Kohlrabi Salad

Bob — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:32:00 GMT

Yep, nothing like combining two salads while adding a new ingredient to the mix! Then of course, praying that it tastes good. I got a "Two thumbs up!" for this!

Everything was done by a faulty memory and absolutely no measuring. The original intent was to use just beets and spinach, but I remembered we had kohlrabi to use. Knowing I could eat these raw, I put them through my V-slicer and made nice little sticks out of them.

The beets were wrapped in tin foil (is that still made of tin?) and roasted in a 350 oven for about 45 minutes. Slight overkill as they were small, but not too bad. Once these were done, I let them cool a bit so that I could peel and slice them.

Into a bowl went the kohlrabi and sliced beets. These were mixed with (and here's where the hazy memory came in along with the laziness not to check last years blog posts about this recipe) olive oil, balsamic vinegar, caraway seeds, and a little salt and pepper. As these were marinating, I decided to whip up a little spinach salad dressing. Thus came the dilemma...would a sweet dressing clash with the vinegary dressing. No time to stop now though. I'm committed.

Memory test #2, along with no measurements. Get out the ketchup, sugar, 1 onion that I grated up, and vegetable oil. Oh wait. this takes white vinegar too. Maybe the clash won't be too bad. Again. get out the ketchup, sugar, 1 onion that I grated up, vegetable oil, and some white vinegar. Mix everything but the oil for now. Get out the wire whisk and start to slowly add the oil to get an emulsification working. Looks good! Taste. More sugar. Taste. Not bad. maybe salt and pepper. No idea if this is a good idea, so i just added a little bit. Taste. Done!

Wash and tear the fresh (aka last weeks yet still good) spinach. Test time! In a small bowl I added a little bit of the spinach with the newly created dressing. The beets and kohlrabi needed to be drained to go into this, so into the colander it went. Drain and add to the spinach salad. Taste. Whoa! Surprise! Very very good!

CSA Week 4 2009 Veggies

Bob — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:24:00 GMT

No picture for this week, as I was gone all weekend! Here's what we received in this weeks bag:

Green Beans
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Purple Kohlrabi
White Kolhrabi
Romaine Lettuce
and
Red Oak Leaf Lettuce (Or Red Fire Lettuce...I haven't looked to see which yet)

I know that I had some good Kohlrabi recipes from last year, so I may try those or something brand new. We'll see!

CSA Week 3 2009 Veggies

Bob — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:14:00 GMT

Short, quick, and to the point today!

3 Zucchini
1 Yellow Squash
4 Yellow Sweet Onions
1 Bunch Spinach
1 Head Boston Lettuce
1 Head Red Fire Lettuce
1 Head Summer Crisp Lettuce