Sep 07

Kitchen Pyrotechnics

Why is it that men seize on massive firepower to do tasks that more moderate temperatures can do just as well? Is it the need for speed, or just a love of gadgetry?

Example du jour: Julian bought an item called a Searzall. This is a flame diffuser that attaches to a home propane blowtorch. According to the videos, one can sear steaks and fish, roast peppers, and caramelize crème brûlée. He had to go to the hardware store to get a blowtorch and propane tanks so he could try it out.

I have serious concerns about the use of powerful blowtorches in the kitchen, and ours in particular. It’s a glorified galley with way too much wood. It’s one thing to use one of these suckers in a commercial kitchen, quite another in a condo. In addition, I did a week’s rotation in the Parkland Memorial Hospital Burn Unit many years ago. One doesn’t leave that setting without a deep respect for fire and what it can do to the human body.

Julian assembled the blowtorch-Searzall. The instructions called for breaking in the apparatus by running it for exactly two minutes to oxidize the palladium diffuser screens. I made him do it in the driveway well away from our wood-frame abode. (Our neighbors were no doubt relieved.)

The first test of the Searzall followed shortly thereafter. I needed to roast and peel some Hatch chiles. Julian set a chile on a baking rack over a cookie sheet on the kitchen counter and turned on the burn. It was slow going. After several minutes of blasting when only a few charred skin bubbles on the chile had appeared, I asked, “Should I start the gas grill?” He nodded.

The Searzall may be fine for crème brûlée or other small tasks that don’t take much time, but I wouldn’t trust it to do bulk items like a mess of chiles or several steaks that had been cooked in the sous vide.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/09/07/kitchen-pyrotechnics/

Sep 01

Simple Questions

I’ve been on a slow burn all year between the unjustified murders of Black people and the inadequate response by all levels of government to these murders. The shooting of three people at a protest rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin by a teenaged vigilante finally sent me over the edge. Here are a few simple questions that require answers. I’m not holding my breath that I’ll ever hear them.

  • What the hell was a 17-year-old kid doing with an AR-15 rifle that he wasn’t old enough to purchase?
  • Who purchased this rifle and the ammunition for him?
  • Why did this kid believe that he should cross the state line from his home and play cop with a deadly weapon?
  • Where were the responsible adults in this boy’s life who could have talked him out of going to Kenosha?
  • When will these shootings end?

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/09/01/simple-questions/

Aug 23

Flinging Flour

Yeast Mode earned its keep this week. (And a good thing, since I feel as if I’m buying five-pound bags of flour every time we go grocery shopping.) Thursday I made a batch of blueberry muffins with it. Julian was happy, especially since we have plenty more in the freezer.

Friday night I started a batch of bagels with the starter. I adapted a recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible. Instead of making a predough from scratch, Yeast Mode did the honors. The resulting batch was very chewy, suitable for teething tots or testing the tenacity of dental implants. I think we’ve gotten used to the poofy bagels sold in grocery stores hereabouts.

Saturday Julian decided to make mussels for the first time in over a year. As we were walking out of the grocery store, he said, “We forgot to get some crusty bread to go with the mussels. Although you could always make some…” Yes, I could. I found a recipe for Cuban bread from my well-worn copy of The New York Times Cookbook. The beauty of this recipe is that it’s fast. You go from flour to bread in about two hours. I added a little of Yeast Mode to the dough for flavor rather than leavening. The interior was quite fine-textured, with a sturdy crust – perfect for sopping up the mussel liquid.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/08/23/flinging-flour/

Aug 20

Lamb and Figs

We bought some cute little lamb chops at Costco last week. My traditional sauce for lamb chops in the summer contains fresh figs. Unfortunately, the price was prohibitive, so I used dried. Here’s what I did:

Quarter 10-12 dried figs. Dice about 1/4 cup onion. You can also use a shallot. Sauté the onion in a little olive oil. Stir in the figs, along with some port and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Let the figs soften up. Let cool. Just before serving alongside the lamb chops, stir in some chopped fresh mint.

Julian approved. Then he asked, “Was this sauce is a fig-mint of your imagination?” Where’d I pick up this guy?

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/08/20/lamb-and-figs/

Aug 16

Clean out the Fridge Time

Little bits and pieces of stuff accumulate in our refrigerator. They may not be enough to cobble a new meal from on their own, but in combination they can. This was last night’s gemisch:

  • Earlier in the week Julian made chimichurri (garlic cut with a little parsley, carrot, and olive oil) to serve with steak. Later I made some pesto. I consolidated the two sauces into one dish and puzzled how to use the combination. Pesto-churri?
  • We bought some halibut on sale yesterday. As we were waiting to check out, I tossed a can of quartered artichoke hearts into the cart.
  • I had some grape tomatoes that were rapidly turning into raisin tomatoes. I also had some pitted black and green olives that needed to be used.
  • I wound up broiling the halibut. The artichoke hearts, tomatoes, olives, and pesto-churri were mixed with some white wine vinegar and served alongside the fish with orzo.

The end result worked for me. It also reduced the number of bowls and dishes in the fridge so we could stuff more food in.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/08/16/clean-out-the-fridge-time/

Aug 15

Pandemic Plans

“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!” – Robert Burns, To a Mouse

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon, Beautiful Boy

The pandemic threw many plans into the abyss. Our vacation to Italy. Social gatherings with friends. Annual traditions such as parades, fireworks, and street festivals. About the only plans we can successfully execute these days are menu plans.

Before Covid-19, our menu planning was half-baked. We’d look at what we had in the house, what was on sale at the grocery store, and supplement with midweek trips to the market or go out to a restaurant. Now we try to limit our supermarket shopping trips to once a week; therefore, our menus for the week need to be thought through before we leave the house. Julian will grab a piece of paper and ask, “So what are we making this week?” We go through a litany of items that we’re willing to make, after perusing what’s on sale and what recipes we may have seen browsing through cookbooks, magazines, and the web.

Today was a good example of menu planning. Julian had looked at Central Market’s specials last night and formulated a tentative list – halibut, chicken, pork, eggplant. We also needed to go to Costco, which meant I could get some of its tasty little lamb chops. He’d originally put kalbi ribs on the menu, but they were prohibitively expensive so we got pork steaks instead. We’re at least set until next weekend.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/08/15/pandemic-plans/

Aug 08

Supermarket Slog

In the days of Covid-19, it’s preferable to get in and out of public spaces quickly. So why are grocery stores still hellbent on making your shopping trip as long as possible, potentially exposing their workers to a larger virus load?

I went to a nearby supermarket this morning to get a few things. I must have traversed every aisle looking for a particular item, which I concluded it didn’t stock. While I was searching the baking aisle, a woman asked me where she could find pancake mix and syrup. I conjectured that they might be in the same aisle with the cereal. (Luckily, they were.)

In normal times, grocery marketing logic is to rearrange stock on a regular basis so customers spend more time in the store and pick up impulse buys. These are not normal times.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/08/08/supermarket-slog/

Aug 02

Get (Neuro) Fuzzy

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the small kitchen appliance that we use the most is the rice cooker. We bought our simple on-off device 17 years ago for $50. It’s served us long and well. I’d say that paying $3 a year for an appliance that’s used 3 times a week was a good investment. Unfortunately, the inner bowl’s coating was wearing off. The search for a new rice cooker began.

A search of rice cookers on amazon.com produced over 1000 results. I just looked at the first page. Our old trusty cooker was featured, along with more sophisticated models. More recent rice-cooking technologies included pressure cooking and the multi-cooker. Neither of us has much use for pressure cooking or slow-cooking, so those machines were ruled out. I even saw one cooker that promises the coveted Persian tahdig crusty-bottomed rice. We’d get that from time to time with our old cooker without a dedicated machine.

Julian (obsessive-compulsive recovering physicist that he is) then did research. He consulted Cooks Illustrated and the New York Times’s Wirecutter series. Last week he announced his decision: A Zojirushi model with the neuro-fuzzy logic feature, which received high ratings from both sources. I went along, even though it was three times the cost of our original model. [There’s a strategy to this: If he makes the decision, he can’t blame me if the product’s a lemon.] It’s also a bit larger than our old one, which could come in handy whenever we’re able to have guests over again for dinner.

The box arrived on Thursday. The first test came the following night when I got takeout from a local Chinese restaurant. (This restaurant, like many others in the area, charges extra for rice.) He followed the rice-rinsing recommendations to the letter, then added the appropriate amount of water. He pressed the on button, then we settled on what to order. The rice was done by the time I got back from picking up the food. We noticed that the rice was a bit softer than what we’d get from the old cooker. We should have turned off the keep warm function, because the rice dregs took on the appearance of tahdig. It worked well otherwise. Tonight’s test will be when he makes feijoada.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/08/02/get-neuro-fuzzy/

Jul 23

Social Distancing Woodinville Style

Seen on my bike ride earlier in the week:

Sage advice.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Woodinville hosts a Basset Bash in normal years. Alas, this is not a normal year.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/07/23/social-distancing-woodinville-style/

Jul 17

Primary Follies

Washington has vote by mail elections for all offices and initiatives. They work very well. One can sit at the dining room table with beverage of choice and the Voters’ Guide. This year my primary Voters’ Guide-reading beverage may be iced tea spiked with Everclear, for reasons that will soon become apparent. Although our final results don’t come in for a week or so after Election Day, it’s a better way to vote than standing on line at a school or megachurch for hours to cast a vote. In state offices, the top two vote getters go on to the general election regardless of party. This means in some races two Republicans or two Democrats may face off against each other.

Our primary ballots arrived in the mail yesterday. I opened mine up to see which races feature our perennial loser candidates. (Every state I’ve lived in has these folks. Texas was crawling with them. Sad thing was, in Texas they often won.) It looks as if the perennial losers are ALL running for Governor. THIRTY-SEVEN CANDIDATES. The names are listed in random order, so I had to hunt to find the incumbent. The Lieutenant Governor post attracted a crowd as well after the incumbent decided to leave politics to join the Jesuit order. (A higher calling, indeed.)

The Voters’ Guide arrived today. It’s slightly thinner than the September issue of Vogue magazine, with worse clothes. The candidate party affiliations are all over the spectrum. There are the usual Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and Greens. Republicans come in multiple shades: Trump, Pre 2016, and GOP. (In previous years, several candidates used the GOP Party as their affiliation because they thought Seattleites would be turned off by the Republican label. Most of them lost anyway.) Then there is the Fifth Republic Party. I thought, what does the French government that went into effect in 1958 have to do with a Washington primary? It turns out that the current iteration of Fifth Republic is a Democratic Socialist party in the mold of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Some of the parties listed may consist of the candidate alone. At least the nominating conventions aren’t “super spreader” events in the Covid-19 era.

To my fellow Washington voters: Please fill out and return your ballot by August 4. No postage needed.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/07/17/primary-follies/

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