Category: cooking

March 19, 2024 – Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit…

March 19, 2024 /

I like beans. They are inexpensive and store well. They are culinarily versatile and bridge the gap between the omnivore and the vegetarian. So, what is not to like? The people that eat beans, know beans. The process is not hard but it can come with some hidden variables. Let me explain.

The thought of a good pot of beans and a hunk of bread makes a good thought for a winter’s dinner. The last couple I have made didn’t go so well. The reason being is that the beans were from old stock. After a standard amount of cooking, they were still hard. After double amount of cooking, they were still hard. After another day’s worth of cooking, they were edible, but still harder than I would like.

Dried beans are just that. They are shelled after the pod matures and then dried for later use. Old beans are more thoroughly dried. They don’t change materially, they just continue what is natural. My failures were the result of not knowing the status of my beans and mis-planning accordingly. When beans are part of the menu, you want to make sure they are done before your planned dinner.

For this reason, many of today’s cooks just go straight to canned beans. I can certainly understand the consistency factor, just heat. I find canned beans to be easily overly cooked. They also don’t take up the broth and can be a little lifeless as a result. For weeknights, canned beans can help alleviate planning problems. The place where I find the best use is when quantities are small.

In certain ethnic circles, beans are well known. It is not just for Latin and Texmex foods, but African and European foods use different beans as well. Asian foods tend to use the sprouted form because beans are seeds in reality. You are not going to do that with canned beans.

The thing I always think about is the phrase ‘beans, bullets and band-aids’ that refers preparedness minded people buying a bunch of beans for their potential future. It is true that they are inexpensive calories that store well and can be neatly packed. However, if they are not getting rotated, when that time comes to actually eat them a rude surprise is awaiting. This goes back to me saying, those who eat beans, know beans.

One technique that I wish to try is cooking beans using a pressure cooker. If I owned a pressure cooker, then I would. There are two techniques commonly used (on the hard beans, not lentils). One is soaking the beans overnight with a one-ish hour boil. Anecdotally, dump the soaking water the next morning. I swear that it reduces the amount of flatulence that comes with beans. The second is a hard boil followed by a rest and a second boil. I tend to use the first method because when I make beans, I usually use the crockpot. I have heard that the pressure cooker combines the steps into 15 minutes or so.

As I alluded above, not all items found in the bean isle are the same. Lentils, split pea, garbanzo and black eyed peas are some that do not require so much cooking. These are ones to be looked to for the weeknight or days that less planning has been done. Pinto, black, kidney, navy or white beans need that more aggressive and longer preparation. In fact, the former will turn to mush with too much cooking. So, you have to know your beans.

End Your Programming Routine: My black beans turned out great. I got lucky that they weren’t too old yet and had plenty of flavor to go with the tamales we bought from a fundraiser. I started them with four hours to spare, just in case. Learn to cook beans and it will open a whole culinary world.

March 6, 2024 – Did I Invent Something?

March 6, 2024 /

A couple weeks ago, we had our culinary book club dinner. I didn’t plan this on purpose, but I decided that I would bring some of my kim chi to share. It was kind of an easy out for me since I had already made it, I didn’t have to rush to cook before the meal. Predictably, people took a courtesy serving leaving me with a lot of leftover kim chi. I don’t mind, I want to get this superfood lifestyle anyway. It is why I made it after all.

My wife has had some interesting food cravings lately. One of them is that she wants to eat a lot of hotdogs. We bought a pack at Costco at the beginning of the month. She was off with her friends one night and so I decided that rather than investing a lot of time cooking, I would just heat some hotdogs for myself and my son.

I am a fan of lacto-fermented foods. I love sauerkraut on my hotdog. And being a practical person, I was going to take a healthy serving of kim chi because I am going to be the one that eats it all anyway. All of the sudden I got the idea that I would have a bite of hotdog with kim chi. Wow.

It is almost better than sauerkraut. It is not just acidic but has crunch and the chili adds a zing to it. I had never heard of kim chi on a hotdog and my mind started going. It is nearly perfect, but I think adding some kind of sweet plum sauce as well would be the perfect combination of sweet and sour balance.

I did a quick internet search and certainly there is something for anybody out there by now. The truth is, there is very little on the subject. That means that very few people have ever put this combination together. This is a perfect fusion/food truck idea. I know that sauerkraut is not for everyone. But for those that like it, I think this is a twist worthy of consideration. It is also worthy of some experimentation for perfection.

Mind you, my kim chi is a modified version. I didn’t add fish sauce nor did I add extra rice starch liquid. My plan was to dress those things later at the time of serving. I actually think this version is a better compliment for a condiment than the traditional version. Nobody likes a soggy bun and the fish sauce umami is un-needed. But again, those could be added at serving.

End Your Programming Routine: I often find that my best results are the repurposing of ingredients. The more I experiment, the more free my mind wanders. This is a perfect fusion of east and west. It doesn’t look like I invented it, but it sure appears to be unknown. Give it a try.

February 28, 2024 – Repurposing Super Bowl Leftovers

February 28, 2024 /

I hope that you don’t have leftovers from the Super Bowl still. It took me a while to get to this topic. But I wanted to put out mind opener. Let me cover what we had going here. I had a crab Rangoon dip with a bunch of raw crab, queso dip and spinach artichoke dip. So what can we do with this stuff other than eating a bunch of chips, crackers and dip for weeks?

First of all, I had wings on Monday and we did make nachos on the Tuesday after the super bowl. But we did have a lot of queso dip left after that. You have to use your brain here. What is in queso dip? The dip was evaporated milk, white American cheese and a can of green chiles. I found it to be really bland to begin with so why not repurpose this? After all, alfredo sauce is a cheese dispersed in milk.

To combat the slight, wrong cheese flavor, I heavily seasoned shrimp with Cajun seasoning with some to the sauce as well and thinned the whole thing down with cream. I served over fettuccini noodles. You would have never known that this started out as queso dip.

The crab Rangoon dip needed a little more delicate flair. This dip was made with crab, cream cheese, green onions, topped with some shredded cheddar cheese and sweet chili sauce. I love to use this kind of thing as omelet filler so that is what I did.

I purchase crab for the dip in a can. We only needed about half of it so we had probably a cup of crab. That got made into a seafood chowder. It wasn’t enough crab to call it a crab chowder so I supplemented by adding some canned clams. My point with this one is that you can still use up smaller quantities of leftovers by adding other items with them.

The spinach artichoke dip stayed just that. It is a whole lot easier to finish off one dip than three. I really didn’t apply much thought to repurposing this one but may some kind of soup? Maybe I could have even thrown it in with the chowder? Something to think about.

It didn’t hurt that I had nearly a half gallon of cream that was near the expiration point. I had to act quickly with all of these things or risk them going bad. I am pretty happy with my creations and those leftovers will become lunch portions that I will much more likely eat than a big container of dip.

End Your Programming Routine: Making all of these things was my wife’s brainchild. I would have probably made one thing and focused on the game. That being said, we both have our idiosyncrasies. So, it was my job to figure out what to do with the leftovers. Truth be told, I think the re-creations were better than the original. It comes with a second helping of satisfaction as well.

February 6, 2024 – What is Wrong With My Chex Mix?

February 6, 2024 /

We are getting very close to Super Bowl time. My mind is wandering to snack food. But then again, food is always in the background. This one has been simmering a little because I have attempted Chex Mix multiple times since the holidays.

My wife said that she had a hankering for Chex Mix before New Years. On one of my trips to the grocery store, I picked up three different varieties of Chex cereal. If you haven’t made this before, the recipe calls for the corn, rice and wheat varieties.

The official recipe is melt three quarters of a stick of butter. Add 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt, 1/2 a teaspoon of both onion and garlic powder to 3 cups of each variety of Chex, and a cup each of nuts, pretzels and rye chips. You pour the butter over and the mixture and microwave for five minutes.

I should have known that any recipe that involves microwaving is already suspect. This mixture has been around for a long time and I don’t ever remember microwaving it. More so than that, I have made it twice and it is well under seasoned. I even left out the rye chips because I couldn’t find them so there should have been more seasoning per volume.

Over the years many of us have bought the bag of Chex mix. In my opinion it is OK, it doesn’t hold a candle to the home made version. I think it has to do with the butter and the Worcestershire sauce. Plus, I don’t remember nuts in the bag. The commercial version has all dry ingredients plus a soup of preservatives which is a poor substitute to the real tang.

Chex mix is one of my aunt’s staple snack dishes. Every time I have it, I think how I should make it more often. In reality, I should probably ask her for tips instead of complaining online about why mine is not living up to my expectations. Nevertheless, I repeated the recipe twice to verify that the published recipe is not right or at least not what I think it should be.

Honestly, I don’t really know what is wrong. Should I use margarine instead of butter? My gut says to double the seasoning and maybe even triple or quadruple the Worcestershire. I pop popcorn using an air popper all the time and a little butter and salt is plenty for the whole batch. But, that is a simple seasoning, not the tangy and fragrant snack.

What a first world problem; this could have been an episode of Seinfeld. The reason I bring this topic up is that now is the time to perfect your Super Bowl party recipes. I know that I am a risk taker and I often make dishes for the first time at big occasions. But, if you are not a confident as I am or maybe not as skilled, you might want to practice before the big show.

End Your Programming Routine: What I can say is that I wouldn’t serve this recipe at a party. It lacks a lot of pizazz. I will be trying this again with some variation and if I find the secret I will report back. There is an alternate preparation that uses the oven at 250 degrees that I think helps bake in the flavor rather than the microwave. I am looking forward to the testing process.

January 31, 2024 – Risotto, As Easy As 3.141592653589793

January 31, 2024 /

Of course I am being facetious. Risotto has a stigma of being on the menu of fancy restaurants, therefore it has to be complicated or difficult. Not so, and I am going to tell you how. First of all, we have to understand Risotto itself. It is a specific variety of rice that is grown in Italy, not as it is sometimes described as a pasta.

Risotto itself is the name of the dish, you start with Arborio rice. This is part of the confusion. When you go to the store you don’t find anything named risotto and you certainly don’t find it with the pasta noodles. As rice goes, a little goes a long way. I only see it in small packages.

The basic formula is aromatics, Arborio rice, chicken broth and parmesan cheese. Everything after that is optional. I am making shrimp risotto today.

In my opinion, the most important thing with risotto is mis en place. Because technique is really the only thing that makes the dish, everything needs to be prepared and in place so that you can focus on the cooking. It is not like you cannot look away but you better be close and paying attention if you want good risotto. I release the flavor in the shallot.

Put in the rice and brown it up a bit. So far, it is just like Rice-A-Roni. Now, to make risotto, add 1/2 cup of chicken broth and stir it in. Keep the mixture boiling until it is almost gone and repeat. Keep doing this until the rice is cooked. How do you know it is cooked? Taste it. As a guide, this 1 1/2 cup of rice used about 4 cups of liquid.

Proper risotto is slightly al dente, just like pasta. However, my wife prefers that all gone. I am fine either way so I try to go her way. Make it how you like. When the rice is cooked, I added cream and cheese and turned off the heat. I want it to be hot but I don’t want a lot of extra mixing after I add the dairy. That is it, you have made risotto.

End Your Programming Routine: Chef Keith Snow says that risotto is a secret restaurant joke. The patrons think that it is exotic dish that turns out to be premade and reheated rice. Sometimes we get disappointed because when order it, the dish doesn’t deliver as in your head. The nice thing about making at home is that you can make it how you want it. See, it wasn’t hard.

January 10, 2024 – Kim Chi Me

January 10, 2024 /

This is the inaugural fermentation. I picked Kim Chi because I have a large container of the Korean pepper gochutgaru lying around. My wife loves to buy me spicy things and yet many people do not have the same affinity to spicy things as I do, so I do have a backlog of spicy stuff hanging out.

Lactofermentation is very easy. Keep the stuff in an anaerobic environment and it takes care of itself. To do that, add salt and a weight. The salt brings out the liquid from the vegetables and the weight keeps them under the liquid level (created by adding salt). That is it.

If you want the probiotic lifestyle (that is to say benefits), then you need to keep the ferment raw. Canning or cooking will kill those beneficial microbes. The good news is that it can be served directly from the very container it is made in and as long as the end product stays under water, no harm will ever come. Discard anything that molds, that is not anaerobic anymore.

Sauerkraut by contrast is very simple, cabbage and salt. Kim chi has a few more ingredients but not terrible they are as follows.

  1. 4#, Napa cabbage
  2. 1#, Daikon radish
  3. 2, carrots
  4. 1 bunch, green onion
  5. 4 cloves, garlic
  6. 1 inch ginger
  7. 1/4 cup, korean pepper
  8. 4 tablespoons salt

I looked at a number of recipes and it does appear that official kim chi has some sugar and fish sauce as well as a rice flour type gravy. I figure I can add this after the ferment or adjust things later if I choose to so I didn’t add it.

The trick is to layer the cabbage and salt. I have a special tamper that is used to press the salt into the cabbage which helps get the water out quicker. I also used it to mix the different components around as I added them. It is kind of like a tenderizer for meat. It is really not necessary, I have made sauerkraut without it.

Once everything is in good contact, I put the weights in and the lid on. Keep the crock at room temperature while it is fermenting. All that is to do is to wait. You can see on the last picture that there is already a complete layer of liquid. This was only after an hour and a half.

How do you know when it is done? When it tastes to your liking. Expect three days to a week in general. To slow the process, chill.

How will it be stored? It can be served directly out of the crock or it can moved to another container.

How long will it keep? It can easily last over the until the next growing season. Use your eyes and nose as guides

End Your Programming Routine: My three gallon crock is significantly too large for this size batch. So, I plan on moving it into a 1 gallon (or 1/2 gallon or even quart) jar and put in the refrigerator when done. I plan on making a nice batch of pickles later in the spring when cucumbers actually start producing. And I am definitely going to load up with sauerkraut in the late summer. What I am saying is that this is a great size to make a lot of stuff but not as great to store and serve. More experimenting to come.

January 4, 2024 – Did You Get Anything Cool For Christmas, I Did

January 4, 2024 /

As you know, I am not a fan of Christmas. I am not a great gift giver and most of the things that I want are very expensive. Gifts are often a disappointment. It is not that I don’t appreciate a nice, new flannel. In fact I was thinking of buying one as I was wrapping up our Christmas shopping. I didn’t want to spend the extra money at the time, but it is just not fun.

I have wanted a fermenting crock for many years. The older I get, the more I appreciate sour and bitter flavors. In fact, I have made my own sauerkraut before. They are not terribly expensive, about fortyish dollars and I almost bought a handmade one at the state fair this year. I meant to, I just didn’t want to carry it all night and then I forgot by the time we left.

Honestly, this one is a little large. It is three gallons. That is a lot of fermented vegetables. They are meant to be out on the counter. If you think about it, how many pickles are you going to eat in one setting? You take one out each day and this is a way to get those beneficial probiotics. I think a more practical size is one gallon for that purpose. I would call this more of a production size.

Probably like all things, it is one of those things that one is not enough. In reality, you want one fermenting while eating out of one. So, maybe in the future, I will get a one gallon size for that reason. As I said, they are not that expensive. I also have been saying, start where you are. It doesn’t matter how many things you have if you don’t use them.

Sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles are definitely on the agenda. This time of year, there is not a lot of surplus, so I will start with store bought vegetables and small. As much as I like this stuff, it will be hard for me to get everyone onboard meal after meal. Start slowly and see how it goes.

What is nice about a store bought fermenting crock is the accessories. It has a properly sized weight for the vessel and an appropriately fitting lid. This can be done in a pot or a bucket, I have done both. This process is not about the tools, it is more about the acceptability of your spouse. Having a vessel that is approved to stay out on the counter makes it much more likely that it is going to bet used.

End Your Programming Routine: This quarter’s Backwoods Home magazine is all about fermenting. I am looking forward to reading that. It will be inspiration for my new element of fermenting. I would like my first project to be pickles, but I think it is probably going to be kimchi instead.

December 20, 2023 – First Action Movie

December 20, 2023 /

A friend recently gave me a sourdough starter. Actually, he gave it to my wife because she often makes comments to be polite. Well he did it and when I gave it to my wife, she said “He gave me a gift for you?” Anyway, this is one of those things that I find very heartfelt. Now, I have to really take care of it to do the gift justice.

https://youtu.be/nHkYDpDGOTU

I was listening to Keith Snow the other day (“Harvest Eating Podcast”) and he was talking about pandemic fads. Sourdough was one of them. I hear that this particular starter has been around for over thirty years. Don’t be fooled, it is not the starter that makes the bread good but the technique.

I am trying to scale back carbohydrates in our house. I want to get to the point that we can have bread but we need to make it. I know that will significantly limit our consumption. I also believe that the sourdough fermentation is a better starch conversion for those sensitive. I suspect that my family is.

End Your Programming Routine: The best part about sourdough is that when the world collapses, you can eliminate a need. As long as you have flour and water, then you will always have yeast. With a baker in the house, I am surprised at how fast a jar goes when used routinely. Oh, it tastes good too.

November 2, 2023 – I (used to) Love Clam Dip

November 2, 2023 /

We had a fall storm on the horizon. It has been an unusually pleasant October with highs most days in the 60-80s. Hence I still had the outdoor furniture out. In addition, we really hadn’t had many fires this year, if any. I developed this plan for a last hurrah before I put all the furniture in for the season. I was going to build a fire and we would roast sausages and make smores.

I wanted to keep the menu very simple. I wanted everything outside around the fire. So, what goes well with fire roasted sausages, but potato chips. I wanted some dip too so I picked some up at the store. Since my vegetarian son is in Taiwan, I could get clam dip and not feel guilty about not getting a second option.

I while I was starting the fire, I opened the bag and scooped a few chips. We had a late breakfast and I was already planning on getting a late start to dinner. I was also doing some painting at the same time and I needed to get to a stopping point before dinner took over. That dip was terrible. It was bland and gelatinous.

When we finally settled down for dinner, I scooped a few more chips and no I wasn’t imagining it, the dip was downright disgusting. How can this be so bad? I flipped to the ingredients and then the answer was instantly clear. This is a toxic stew of garbage.

Here is an example recipe

  • 8 oz cream cheese , softened
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 clove garlic , minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes (or 1 teaspoon fresh chopped parsley)
  • 1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
  • Dash Tabasco or favorite hot sauce
  • 1, 6.5 oz can minced clams drained but juice reserved

I realize that if I were to expand this list to the ingredients to include those in cream cheese and sour cream, it would become something different, slightly longer. But really there is not excuse for the number of thickeners, extenders and modifiers that is in this store bought dip. I would venture to say that this does not qualify as food even though it may be edible.

I should have known better. About six months ago I purchased a different brand French Onion dip. It was equally terrible. These were not the chip dips of my memory. They were smooth, tangy and slightly addictive, certainly not bland and repulsive.

We very rarely ever had chip dip growing up. When we did, it was Christmas or something like that. So, it could be that my memory of what it was and what it actually was are two different things. Honestly, I don’t think so because just looking at the dip in the container looks wrong. I guess I will never know, but I suspect the contents have changed significantly over the years.

End Your Programming Routine: Honestly, I am going to be polite if I see this stuff put out in other venues. That being said, this is one of those things that you are better off making it yourself or not at all. I am eating some instant noodles as I write this right now. They are also terrible. But I did not expect them to be good. Disappointment is a far stronger emotion than dislike. Don’t buy chip dip.

October 5, 2023 – It’s War!

October 5, 2023 /

We have become soft, most of us anyway. We live in a mostly sterile and sanitized world away from things that we perceive as icky. It wasn’t that long ago that we more or less coexisted with other creatures. In those times, it was more of a cat and mouse game, I will get you if you are in my space uninvited. After all, why do you think there was Tom and Jerry cartoons in the first place?

This goes part and parcel with the ever increasing urbanism. The farther we get from the edges of the wild, the less tolerance we have with interaction of the wild (at least on our terms). I don’t like having vermin in my house anymore than anybody else, but it happens. It is my turn again.

I was helping my dad the other day and we were wandering around his orchard picking apples and other things out of the garden as my ‘payment’. He showed me the holes around one tree and we discussed the particular type of vermin it might be. Was it a mole, a vole, a gopher? It’s hard to say without actually seeing it. More importantly, it better not impact the tree, that would be a death sentence.

This wasn’t the only thing we looked at. We saw where the mice? rat? chewed on the power line feeding the shoreline power to his camper. Then we went into the pole barn and saw droppings on top of the boat cover and speculated whether they were from bats or mice. My point with this was that these things are all around us.

I am an advocate for keeping a good, hunting cat. They will police the basic perimeter and do the day to day work of keeping vermin numbers lower. But, there becomes a certain size that they just cannot handle. Anything bigger than a small rat is too large for a cat. I have had my share of rats, squirrels, racoons etc that I have had to deal with over the years.

I can’t say what my exact problem is right now. I have not seen any droppings only some signs that an animal has gotten into some stuff. It almost makes me wonder if it is coming and going. Nevertheless, I don’t want it in and around my pantry goods. I didn’t start the fight, but it is on now.

I have been successful with both traps and bait. The last thing that I dealt with, I never saw. It helped itself to cereal, so I just mixed some cereal into the bait and that was the last time anything got into the cereal. I had an aggressive rat a few years ago. It was eating onions, peppers and dry goods every day. I used rat traps on that one. But, it was big enough that the trap didn’t actually kill the rat. I had to manually dispatch that one.

I have caught mice with sticky traps as well. The problem with those is humanely ending the problem. The solution that I find is quick is two bricks and a total crush. It is over in a split second for the unlucky mouse.

We had a bit of a mouse problem when we first moved in. Because I was renting a unit, I went ahead and paid an exterminator. He said that mice can get in within the space of fingernail. Rats can get in a hole the size of a quarter. Don’t forget that they also come in when the door is left unattended. The point being is keeping them out in the first place.

For bigger pests, the pellet rifle is a good friend. That of course means that you have to see them. The good news is that when they take up residence in your home, they are often around more frequently. I want to point out that many of these critters fall into the game regulations so do what you will with my recommendations. Also be aware that discharge of air powered weapons are likely not legal within city jurisdictions as well. As always, be mindful of the backdrop and your capabilities before doing anything.

End Your Programming Routine: My home is for invited guests only. I don’t say this with pride but I have had to kick out people that were a threat to my enjoyment of my property. That goes the same with animals that I didn’t invite in. It will end for that unfortunate animal at some point, I just have to be patient.