Culinaria: recipes, memories ...

[Hunter B]

He says to freeze them using dry ice. And, to refrigerate them before you start the freeze, as it will help to freeze faster and help prevent the formation of ice crystals. Pretty much flash freezing. I've done it, and it works pretty well. While there was some difference in some of the berries, overall there weren't that many notable differences.

DAETARA: Please correct me if that isn't what AB said (it's been a while)

[daetara]

i haven't seen it in a while, either, so it sounds like you got it pretty much right. in fact, you mentioned something i'd forgotten.

i haven't ever tried it on berries (why freeze them when you can eat them fresh? ) but i have tried using dry ice to re-freeze my ice cream-maker bowl. worked so well, the second batch of sorbet was stiff enough to stand. of course, that was also the day of the dreaded watermelon sorbet, which is a whole 'nother tale...

[Kvetch]

Now, I *know* I'm going to get odd looks for this question, but hey.

I'm the chair of Imperial College's Meat Appreciation Society, and the task of organising a 'Fresher's Meat Trip'. Although I've already had Bodean's recommended to me, and intend to get more recommendations of my peers when I get back ot London, I want to do a little preparation now, while I'm not piled up with jobs to do.

My question is, is there a decent metric whereby I can judge where to take society without actually eating there? The only requirement is that "there is lots of tasty meat" (and it is vaguely affordable) If anyone actually knows London steakhouses, all the better!

[Darb]

A vegetarian in charge of a meat appreciation society ?!

/me sprays tea

Do THEY know that, or is that just your personal dark secret ? If the latter, what's it worth to you to keep that sorry fact out of the university tabloid ?

Ok, seriously ... I dont know any restaurants in your area. However, my advice on doing a little research would be to start with local published restaurant rating guides, to come up with an initial hit list of restaurants to look deeper into. And then you winnow the list still further with web surfing (restaurant websites and local 'foodie' epicurean groups) and phone calls to those places that have superior quality meat, a menu that fits your needs, and a price range that fits your group's budget.

One option you might consider is places that specialize in slow-cooked BBQ, or even Brazilian BBQ ... unlike high end steak houses, such places tend to be reasonably priced, and college-student friendly. Also, if you're on a bit of a budget, look for places known for their beer list, and chips ('fries' for Americans) than for their wine list.

Last, read up on your country's quality rating/grading system for meat, and after doing so, dont be afraid to ask places you're considering for what grade of meat they serve. If they use highest quality meat, you can be sure they'll brag about it, and price accordingly. Here in the States, if I want a great steak, I look for places that serve "USDA Prime". If I want a steak that will give me a beefgasm, I'll look for places that serve Prime that's been dry aged for 21 days (to concentrate the flavor, develop flavor intenisity, and also to tenderize it). The latter typically costs 1.5 - 2x regular USDA prime.

I'm happy to provide additional tips, my friend.

[Kvetch]

Me and my entirely vegetarian committee* will follow your advice. It is a long time since I've eaten meat, so I really don't know what I should be looking for.

The tip about beer and chips is one that I hadn't though of, and asking about meat grades hadn't occured to me. Thanks! At least now I actually have some idea of what I'm looking for...

And I'm not really sure what 'reasonably' priced actually is (not that you can really help there, living in a different country). Something else to look into.

A related question - I believe I have about £20 (about $39, although it might be half that - the finance regs are complex) to spend on Fresher's Fair. Observationally, this usually goes to buy a big tub of sweets, and I thought it would be interesting to offer lumps of dried biltong, or whatever the stuff is called. Do you think it would a) be within my budget to give a lump to say 40 people and b) be hygenic (the stuff could be sitting in the open for a few hours)

And yes, any more tips that occur would be welcome - I'll be coming back here with my shortlist.

*There is a very sensible train of logic behind this. The M.A. society was created a few years ago, as a joke, and in order for a pot** to be created, the society has to last 5 years - so it goes on, wobbling its way along the edge of closure until the fifth year is up. The only requirement for existance is three club officers and at least 20 members - the members are easy since all you have to do is fill in a form, but even for a no work society like MA, being a club officer has certain requirments - like financial liability, for starters.
So I (who said I wanted a committee position because it would be funny) got told I was going to be Treasurer - only the other two (Chair and Secretary) turned the position down, and I persuaded last year's chair to make me chair, and fill the other spaces with some other vegetarians, for a laugh. To my surprise, she was convinced, and now I'm running the meat appreciation society.
The flip side to the coin is that I've decided to take the jobs with rather more seriousness than my predcessors, and actually organise stuff - but the people at college try and discourage this, hence !

**The student union has a tradition of 'Pots', ie. Pewter Tankards. Every chair of a club/society, the sabbatical officers, and various other entities have a right to drink from their pot at the union bar, unless of course there is a previous holder also in the bar***

***Which leads to the delightful tradition of 'potting', whereby an older holder can claim the tankard, at which point you have to down your drink, and buy them one.

[Darb]

Most of my narrative above was focused on the restaurant scene, for those who like premium beef ... that's barely the tip of the iceberg, if you want to take this sort of thing seriously.

Other idea to explore, that are easier on the wallet:

* DRIED SAUSAGE / CURED MEAT TASTING: Another low-cost option for an MA excursion is a pilgrimage to a old time and much loved successful butcher with a big selection that specializes in sausage making ... particularly dried sausages. The more popular the store, the bigger the turnover and generally speaking the better the quality. German and Italian delis in particular tend to specialize in pork sausage ... the latter stores are called "Salumerias". There are whole books devoted to the topic of Charcuterie. Consult your local phone book under meat, butchers, or salumeria, and you'll find scads of offerings ... particularly in/near big cities. Not exactly kosher friendly, but possibly the biggest bang for the buck you can manage for such a club. All you have to do to make a sausage party is get 10-20 people to pony up $10-15 each, in advance, tell everyone to bring an appetizer (breat, cheese, salad, dip, chips, etc) or side dish (you can have a signup list to minimize overlaps) and/or a beverage (preferrably dry red wine, but a good dry beer will do almost as well), and appoint 1 person to go to a good german or italian salumeria, and buy an assortment of 8-12 different selections ... figure about 1 ounce of each, per person. That works out to 8-12 oz of dry sausage per person. Divvy up whatever's left afterwards. Minced sausage goes great in stir fries, soups, stews, casseroles, and in salads. I've done it myself - it's a lot of fun.

* DRIED MEAT TASTING: Having a dried meats sampler night works the same way ... if dried and salted properly, and stored properly, most types of dried meat will keep for many days, at cool room temperature. That was the whole premise behind dried meat - to make it shelf stable. Beef jerky is commonplace, but if you look around, you can also find dried game meats ... especially on the internet, or in specialty stores.

* COOKOUT: Another inexpensive option is to provide a grill, and beverage, and invite friends over to a cookout. Start a signup list, and have everyone bring a different kind of meat or sausage to grill - figure that each person should bring enough so that everyone present can have a 2 oz tasting tasting portion. Late signers will face a bit more of a challenge on what to bring. If you play your cards right, you might find a well-to-do member who has "tailgating" equipment, or a house with good quality cooking gear, or you can even look for a local park that has grilling equipment available to the general public. If run well, word about such parties tends to spread fast, and before you know it, you become a popular kinda guy, and events are invitation only.

* FOOD FESTIVALS: Here in the states, there are regional food fesitvals all year long, all around the country - you just have to look for them. Pick an ethnic cuisine, or a Catholic Saint, and there's invariably a food festival, or a culinary contest/expo in the works, on any given weekend all spring/summer/fall long. Such things are fairly cheap - you go booth
to booth and try stuff, with a beer in hand, and a pocketfull of low denomination money ... and there's usually live music. Cell phones and/or walkie talkies, loud easily recognized hats, or a special club-only T-shirt with loud colors, are helpful for spotting each other as you work the event. Be sure to enter any local eating contests, so you can get into the university newspaper ... you dont have to win - you just have to enter and make a good spectacle of yourself, while having fun. Been there, done that, makes for a great date with the ladies. Gluttony, alcohol, dancing, and (afterwards) sex is a truly classic itinerary for a bright summer day.

I can keep going if you wish.

[mccormack44]

I couldn't figure WHERE to post this, and finally decided here was as good as any.

Today was our 33rd wedding anniversary — and also a workday for Bob — so we'll go out to celebrate on Saturday or Sunday. But, more by accident than design we had a super scrumptious meal at home. I adapted it from a 1981 paperback cookbook called "The International Cheese Recipe Book" which a friend gave to me a while back (she was clearing her shelves). Here is my FIRST version of Baked Blue Chicken

Dip 1 pound chicken breast pieces
in 1 egg, beaten
and then in 1 cup crumbled crumbs. (You can lightly salt the chicken first, but it doesn't need the salt, so I skipped this.)

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil
and 2 tablespoons butter
in skillet; brown the breaded chicken on both sides. Place the browned chicken in baking dish and set aside.
(I used a margarine called Canola Harvest, which is healthier than butter in our diets. I split the chicken breast halves in two, making thinner pieces of chicken. The crumbled bread crumbs were some home prepared buttered croutons which I had flavored with garlic and parsley.)

Mix together 1/2 pound Blue Cheese, crumbled
1 pint low fat cottage cheese, puréed to consistency of sour cream
4 cloves garlic, pressed
(The puréed cottage cheese replaces a pint of sour cream. I had already guessed that we would be in nutritional trouble, so made this standard substitution. The blue cheese was plenty tangy with the milder flavor of cottage cheese.)

Pour this mixture over the chicken; COVER and bake @ 350° F for 40 to 50 minutes.

I served this over brown rice with a Birds Eye® stir fry and a salad of chilled canned French-Style green beans. We found the meal totally delicious.

BUT we need to make adjustments to the recipe; it is too expensive (not only to the pocket book — although 8 times the cost of the chicken for the Blue cheese is rather excessive — but because it is out of line nutritionally for our dietary needs).

Also, Bob suggests serving the chicken over pasta instead of rice.

When we get an adjustment we love, I'll post a second version of this recipe, but in the meatime, this is really, really good.

Sue

[Darb]

Say, that looks pretty spiffy.

Hmmm. If the blue cheese you're using is on the pricy side, perhaps try some pre-crumbled gorgonzola, which some supermarkets carry in their salad fixings aisle ... it's in the same general category as blue, flavor wise, and it's cheaper.

Pasta wise, creamy sauces usually like wide noodles, to give the sauce something to cling to - so perhaps some egg noodles, fettuccini, or (in a pinch) whatever's been kicking around in your cupboard for too long. If you slice the chicken after browning it, you might also try making it sort of like a casserole - put it over pre-cooked starch of some sort (ex: shells, orichette, orzo, rotini, penne, whatever), add the sauce, top with a little fresh parm, and then bake it.

Plenty of room to play with the recipe - have fun with it !

[mccormack44]

Thanks for the tip about Gorgonzola, we'll look into it. A large part of our problem, though, is the nutritional analysis of a recipe using this much cheese. What we'll try to do is to cut back on the amount of cheese while retaining the bite of the original recipe.

As you suggested, there are many ways to play around with this; don't expect an revised version real soon, since I'm anticipating several months of experiment.

Sue

[laurie]

Sue - I've sometimes used a thick blue cheese salad dressing as the "sauce" for baked chicken. You get the taste but not all the cheese (or the calories if you use low-fat dressing). I use Marie's dressing, but there are others just as good.

[tollbaby]

Laurie's right. Blue Cheese salad dressing is phenomenal on pasta (add a little bit of lightly steamed asparagus, some mushrooms, and either cooked chicken cubes or cooked shrimp, and you have a complete meal). I have a selection of low-fat salad dressings (blue cheese is a special treat, since there's no such thing as a "light" version) that I keep on hand specifically to serve on pasta.

[mccormack44]

Thank you Laurie and Tollbaby for your suggestions. We get to eat the original recipe one more time before I start experimenting. I'll be sure to consult these suggestions before I start the new version.

Sue

[tollbaby]

For Daetera: Martha Stewart's step-by-step instructions and recipe for preparing risotto (granted, I have pictures, and y'all won't, but it's still pretty clear).

First, the step-by-step process

Step 1 - Risotto begins with the soffrito, a flavor base of finely chopped onions or shallots, sautéed in butter or oil until transluscent. Add the rice next: cook and stir it until it makes a clicking sound.

Step 2- With a large saucepan of heated stock nearby, add the white wine and stir until rice releases some of its starch, turning the liquid slightly milky. Once wine is absorbed, start adding stock. Its flavor will permeate the dish, so use high-quality stock.

Step 3- Add stock 3/4 cup at a time while you stir rice constantly, at a moderate speed. Stirring rice too vigorously will make your risotto slightly gluey; stirring too little makes it watery.

Step 4- Rice should have only small amounts of liquid pooling on the top during the stirring process. You know it's time to add more stock when rice mixture is thick enough to leave a trail behind the spoon.

Step 5- After 15 minutes, taste the rice. Remove it from heat when it is a tiny bit firmer than it should be, as the rice will continue to cook, and should be al dente when you serve it. Total cooking time should be about 20 minutes.

Step 6- After removing the rice from the heat, stir in butter, finely grated Parmesan cheese, and chopped parsley; season with salt and pepper. Let the risotto rest for a minute or two before serving, to allow the flavors to come together.

And now, the recipe

Parmesan Risotto

6 to 8 cups of homemade or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
1 cup Arborio or Carnaroli rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 to 6 Tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1- Heat stock in saucepan over medium heat; keep at a very low simmer. Heat oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and cook, stirring, until transluscent. Add rice and cook, stirring, until rice begins to make a clicking sound like glass beads, 3 to 4 minutes. Add wine. Cook, stirring, until it has been absorbed.

2- Add 3/4 cup hot stock to rice. STir constantly at a moderate speed (rice should be only thinly veiled in liquid during the stirring process).

3- When the rice mixture is just thick enough to leave a trail behind the spoon, add another 3/4 cup stock.

4- Continue adding stock, 3/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding the next, until rice is mostly transluscent but still opaque in the center. Rice should be al dente but not crunchy. As rice nears doneness, watch carefully and add smaller amounts of liquid to make sure it does not overcook. The final mixture should be thick enough that grains of rice are suspended in liquid the consistency of heavy cream. The risotto will thicken slightly as it cools.

5- Remove from heat. Stir in butter, Parmesan cheese and parsley; season with salt and pepper. Divide the mixture among 4 shallow bowls, mounding risotto in the center, and grate or shave additional cheese to taste over risotto. Serve immediately. Serves 4.

[Darb]

A well described recipe, except for 2 glaring errors:

1) The amount of rice should be 1 PINT (roughly 1 pound), not one cup. That's a big goof.
2) It calls for too much butter and oil, IMNSHO. I'd cut the butter and oil by 1/2 (or 1/3), and increase the cheese by about 1/3.

BTW, there are endless variations you can do on the basic recipe:

Risotto Verde: Mix in some pureed green peas towards the end.

Risotto Porchini: Replace chicken with beef broth, and part of the broth with the soaking liquid of dried porchini mushrooms.

Seafood Risotto: Replace chicken stock with shellfish stock, and fold in some diced leftover shellfish meat towards the end.

[tollbaby]

yikes, that would be a big difference! GLad you spotted that (I agreed that the oil & butter sounded like a bit much - you want risotto, not rice swimming in grease), but everyone has their own tastes. I figured I'd start with the 4 Tbsp option of butter, and modify the recipe to my taste from there.

[Darb]

BTW, you can easily double check my correction on the rice to stock ratio for yourself. I know it by heart, but if you google the web you'll see that most home recipes are typically sized for 1 lb of arborio (roughly 1 pt), and usually call for 5-8 cups of liquid, total (usually some combination of stock, water and w/wine) ... and you don't necessarily use all of the liquid called for - only what's needed.

That's easy to memorize as 1:2.5+ (rice to water, where the '+' means as a little extra, as needed). Knowing the magic ratio lets you multiply recipes with ease, without being limited to recipe sizes that don't match your needs.

I keep a summary table of such ratios, and cooking times, in my recipe file, for a wide variety of grains and lentils.

[Kvetch]

I keep a summary table of such ratios, and cooking times, in my recipe file, for a wide variety of grains and lentils.

any chance you could post that - my pulse cooking can be a little hit and miss...

[Darb]

Unfortunately, it's a large multi-column table in Word, which doesnt convert to phpBB format at all.

I'd have to e-mail it to you ... sometime in the next few days. Gotta finish filling in a few columns first, as I recently re-did it.

At some point, I'll try to export it to PDF for people.

[Darb]

Unfortunately, it's a large multi-column table in Word, which doesnt convert to phpBB format at all.

I'd have to e-mail it to you ... sometime in the next few days. Gotta finish filling in a few columns first, as I recently re-did it.

At some point, I'll try to export it to PDF for people.

Here's a few rows excerpted, so you can see what I mean about the format not translating well:

Grain Method Ratio Yeild Rin/Sk Simmer Stand Gr/Cup
Quinoa Pilaf 2 3 Yes 15-20 -- TBD
Rice, Arborio Pilaf 2 ½ + 3-3 ½ -- 20 2 TBD
Rice, Basmati Pilaf 1 ¾ 2 ¾ Yes/Opt 8-10 12 TBD
Rice, Brown Absorb 2 – 2 ½ 3-3 ½ TBD 45 10 TBD
Rice, Wild Absorb+ 2 3 Yes 35-45 drain varies
Rice, Cream of Absorb 4 5 -- ½ 1 TBD

KEY:
METHOD: “Absorbâ€

[wolfspirit]

Unfortunately, it's a large multi-column table in Word, which doesnt convert to phpBB format at all.

I'd have to e-mail it to you ... sometime in the next few days. Gotta finish filling in a few columns first, as I recently re-did it.

At some point, I'll try to export it to PDF for people.

If you email me the word file, I can convert it to PDF.

steven at scripko dot org

Scott

[Darb]

My table actually isn't finished yet (I've been a bit lazy), but there's some info in there that some should find helpful ...

{e-mailing to wolfspirit}

[wolfspirit]

http://www.scripko.org/cooking_times.pdf

You may have to right-click and "Save Target As..." to open it. For whatever reason, the webhost is acting funny about pdf's.

Scott

PS: Brad: Yield not Yeild. I fixed that for you.

[laurie]

Opened fine for me - Thanks Brad and Scott!

[Darb]

Right now, the table is currently good for things like oatmeal, amaranth, quinoa, and rice (all of which are spot on). I'm in the process of improving and expanding it.

In particular, I need to flesh out and redo the sections on pasta and dhal. I'll try to fix that later today.

[Darb]

I just forwarded Wolfspirit an updated and expanded copy. It's still not finished, but it's quite a bit more complete than the one posted earlier.