Baker. Crafter. Carnivore. High Kicker.
I’m ridiculous, I know. This was from the day at the Astoria Beer Gardens, which was filled with brats ‘n beer. Thought this would be a good Friday post, just looking forward to the weekend and am thankful that I’m not this guy. I didn’t realize that they publicly executed the Chinese dude in charge of food safety. I’m sure the same fate is in store for the guy in charge of the lethal baby formulas. Yikes.
I am feeling a little guilty lately about my eating habits and food choices. I am pro-local, but at the same time, I’m also pro-good food. Does it make me a hypocrite to preach about buying from CSA’s and neighborhood farms and yet I eat chocolate from Africa and avocados from Mexico? I ponder this as I sip a cup of tea from Careme knows where. That’s the other disturbing thing, I know that certain foods are shipped from afar, wasting precious fossil fuels, but other morsels I haven’t a clue where they actually hail from. This is particularly upsetting after the most recent findings of melamine in Chinese baby formula, the chemical responsible for the death of American pets and now Chinese babies. I also found out that America tests less than 1% of our cattle for Mad Cow Disease and the Bush Administration is fighting to make sure that we DON’T test all our meat. It really makes you wonder, what are we eating? It makes me want to be more cautious and raise my own livestock, grow an even bigger garden and get laying hens. If only we could all be farmers!!
In other news, I finally saw those hideous commercials saying hey kids, High Fructose Corn Syrup is totally fine for you! It’s just like sucrose. I mean, it’s probably even better for you than sucrose since it’s in every God-forsaken bit of junk we cram into our big fat American faces. Nothing gets me going like the subject of HFCS!
I went to visit my Poppy & Fran yesterday before they holiday in Germany. Since he’s been busy canning, I scored some tomato soup, jalapeno jelly & his garden-grown tomatoes and jalapenos! I’m finally going to pickle my cherry bombs with jalapenos today. And since I have so many of dad’s peppers, I’m also going to try this recipe for Cowboy Candy, which was fortuitously sent out in the Chowhound at Home newsletter today. I like the idea of eating a “cowboy” food (cowboy cookies rule!), but the Cowboy Candy has me a tad afraid.
Ever the provider, Poplicious also made me some deer filets and pierogies for dinner. I can’t even tell you how perfect this deer* was; it melted in your mouth and actually tasted like meat. Store bought meat these days just doesn’t taste like anything, probably because all the animals are being fed crappy #2 corn and not the grass and silage they should be. But, I won’t get on my soap box about that right now. There is this awesome farm near me, Hendrick’s, that has outstanding grass fed meats (and cheeses); I’m a lucky gal. I also scored some dried deer slices, which are made from meat off the hind quarters. Mmmmm, dried deer butt. Popperoni’s hunted meat stores are running a little low, but archery season opens at the end of this month!! Happy hunting….
*I always say deer just because I have been around and eaten so many game animals like elk, antelope, bear, etc. and “deer” helps to specify what mystery flesh we’re consuming. Besides, the word venison comes from the Latin “to hunt/pursue” and used to refer to any animal that was hunted, not just deer.
I just spoke with my Poppy last night and he is on a canning blitz, which sort of inspired me. He’s made tomato soup, pickled jalapenos, salsa and is about to make jalapeno jelly. Right now in my overgrown garden I have far too many banana peppers and cherry bomb hot peppers (I don’t think that’s the actual name, but I like it), so I think I’ll pickle some, too. But instead of lacto-fermenting them, I’m just going to do them like my Popsicle says:
Take equal parts of water and vinegar and throw in some salt, boil that. Get yer peppers chopped how ever you’d like them (de-seeded and de-veined) and throw them into a clean mason or jelly jar, but leave about 1-2 inches at the top. Throw the boiling mixture on top and seal and wait for the top to pop. Ta-da! Pickled peppers for Peter Piper.
Something about that seems like cheating, so I can’t wait until October to do some real pickling with my Grandfather — kraut making!! Which will be fermented and done just in time for new year’s day!! I’m totally going to make brats and kraut again. I’m getting way too ahead of myself, but I’m just so darned excited!!
I’m sad to say that I’m back from my vacation in the Outer Banks. We had amazing weather and the water was the perfect temperature. We did have a bunch of jellyfish in the water one day; ones that I have never seen before but that didn’t sting. I didn’t take a single photo while I was there, so I can’t show you, but they looked like bottle caps with blue fringe. I couldn’t help but wonder if you can eat these jellyjerks. I found out that, indeed you can eat them and it’s quite common in Asian cuisine, particularly in seaweed salad (which I’ve actually never enjoyed). Here’s a recipe from Starchefs.com (below) and although I didn’t find an online source where one can purchase jellyfish, the chow boards let me know that you should be able to pick them up at any Asian market.
Marinated Jellyfish with Chili Oil with Green Apple Tea
Chef Angelo Sosa, formerly of Yumcha - New York, NY
Adapted by StarChefs.com
Yield: 2 Servings
Ingredients:
Jellyfish:
4 ounces pre-sliced jellyfish strips
1 Tablespoon chili oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
1 teaspoon salt
Green Apple Tea:
4 green apples, juiced
2 limes, juiced
1 teaspoon sugar
Garnish:
½ ounce red onion, sliced into slivers
6 romaine lettuce hearts, trimmed down
Method:
For Jellyfish:
In a small bowl, lightly dress jellyfish with chili oil. Season with toasted sesame seeds and salt.
For Green Apple Tea:
Stir ingredients together in a container until sugar is dissolved.
To Assemble and Serve:
Scatter jellyfish onto a serving plate and sprinkle red onions and romaine hearts on top. Pour the apple tea tableside.
Wine Suggestion:
A delicate white such as Chardonnay
Thanks, starchefs!
Tonight I’m leaving to go to the Outer Banks, NC for vacation. Whenever I go south of the Mason Dixon line, particularly to the beach, I think about crabs. No, not the ones you got from that sailor during Fleet Week, I’m talking Callinectes Sapidus (beautiful/savory swimmer) The Blue Crab.
Because I was a marine biology enthusiast and nerd back in high school, I went to Wallop’s Island not once but twice for a class trip. There, we investigated, studied and ate our friend the blue crab. I thought the most interesting place we went to visit was to the soft shell crabbery. There, the newly-molted crabs would meekly sit and wait for their shell to come back, which of course would never occur. Instead, they would be packed a certain way in ice to ensure that they would arrive at their ultimate resting place still alive, soft and delicious. Typically in nature a blue crab would be highly vulnerable during molting and would make a tasty and easy snack for predators. The lady crabs will molt and a strapping young crab dude would come along and protect her and carry her in this fragile state. This seems sweet and almost romantic, until the crab man spawns with her while she’s still getting her shell back then goes his own way. Just like a human man. Dang, I’m salty…just like the Atlantic that I’ll be frolicking in by this time tomorrow.
Note: It’s been a while since high school, so please forgive me if my recollection of the biological details is fuzzy.
I’ve always had a problem with “Belgian” chocolate. After reading this article about the Belgian Chocolate labeling code, I’m even more irritated. I mean Belgium is not an origin for cocoa beans!! When you say Hispaniola (Dominican Republic) or Ghana or Ivory Coast, these are all chocolates whose beans actually grew and were harvested and semi-processed in their country of origin. And to say “Belgian” suggests a country of origin when in fact:
“‘Belgian Chocolate’ is defined as a mixture of ingredients that are refined and moulded in Belgium. This means the grinding of the beans does not necessarily have to take place in Belgium,” as per the article and its code.
So basically, as long as the very final steps were performed in Belgium, it’s a Belgian Chocolate. They have quite the ego over there, thinking their chocolate is far superior to the rest of the world. There are plenty of countries making it just as delicious if not better, so save your lame little label, dorks.
I can tell that I’m out of it at work lately because I’m just not in tune with my chocolate! I have not been tempering very well at all lately and it’s bumming me out.
Tempering is the process of cooling down liquid chocolate while agitating it in order to encourage the growth of Beta crystals in the cocoa butter. Then heating it slightly to destroy bad crystals. The end result is a glossy chocolate that has snap and a smooth mouth feel. If you’ve ever left chocolate in your car and it melted, then cooled off and solidified, you would likely notice that is has a white look to it and feels weird when you chew it. That white appearance is known as “bloom” and in the case of too much heat, it’s a fat bloom. The cocoa butter got hot and out of temper and showed itself on the surface of your chocolate. Tempering is tricky and frustrating at times, but when it’s done well — it’s amazing. I am usually so good at it, but my head’s not in the game. Each chocolate has its own “personality” when it comes to temper and I’ve just been ignoring them. Need to get back in the game!!!
I went to NYC this weekend and went to the Astoria Beer Gardens, which totally ruled and I love the outdoor grill/drinking experience. They had brats and “klobasa” and beer, beer, beer. Of course I enjoyed it. It’s apparently the oldest outdoor garden in the city, so really you can consider it an historic site, not just a place to get sh*t-canned.
The other highlight, besides seeing all my fabulous friends, was brunch at Alias on Clinton & Rivington. I had a meat I’ve never had before: Goetta. Pronounced “gedda.”
This is made from the steel cut scraps of meat, then blended with oats. They made a thin patty out of it and fried it until it was crispy. Sort of like a cross between Hagus and Scrapple. It tasted like a meat granola bar — delicious, but I’m not sure how much of it I could it at a time. But with my cheddar-smothered grits and over-easy eggs with biscuits, it was absolutely perfect. Nice work, Alias.
My birthday came and went this year and it was a pretty good one. But I couldn’t help but think back on last year’s, which was way cooler if only because of this cake:
Jean ordered it for me and it was seriously delicious. The best part is that the whole decoration of it was real icing, no fondant!! That is what made it even more impressive (and tasty). Nice work.
