Food for Thought: Acme Bread

Acme Olive Bread

Acme Olive Bread.

I don’t know how long Acme Bread has had a website, but here it is and it’s quite a robust reference for home bakers who want to emulate their products. We learn, for example, that Acme’s preferred flour is from Keith Giusto Bakery Products in Petaluma CA, which distributes flours milled at Central Milling in Utah. I’ve been there when I still lived in CA and they will happily sell you flours in small retail quantities. (Confusingly, there’s still a Giusto Vita-Grain in South San Francisco, and as I recall they are the source of the bulk flours sold at Rainbow Grocery.)

Cheese Wheels

Acme Cheese Wheels (our version).

I also found out that the cheeses on the Sourdough Cheese Wheel are Asiago and Gruyere… something we’ll keep in mind next time we follow our own recipe. (Which we will soon, because the cost of a single wheel had risen to $4.45 when I was in SF last week.)

And, it turns out that the olives in their Olive Bread are Greek Halkidikis… a green variety which I’m sure is packed in brine vs the heavily flavored oil preferred at your supermarket olive bar. I’ve done well with olive bread yet have not come close to replicating the Acme product. Halkidikis (also called Mt. Athos) are big and often stuffed with cheese or peppers; it’s hard to find an unstuffed, pitted version but now I have to try.

Similar discoveries await the experimental home baker on each page of the Acme Bread website… check it out.

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Pizza dough with sourdough discard

Parchment Pizza

Hawaiian Pizza with sourdough discard prepped on parchment paper.

I have been craving a Hawaiian pizza and, since no one is going to serve me one, I knew I would have to make it myself.  I was inspired somewhat by this King Arthur recipe though my dough was closer to the Jon in Albany version I’m most familiar with.

I’m baking less frequently at the moment which means I need to refresh my sourdough starter a couple of times before it is ready for use. I mix up a 150g batch and discard most of it the next day before adding a new tranche of flour and water. It hurts to throw away that much product and this is a way to make use of it.

Parchment Pizza Prep

Pizza is prepped on parchment paper then transferred to pizza stone by picking up the corners of paper.

Jon’s dough is at 62% hydration and I make it with 500g APF and 310g water to keep things simple. I had 250g of discard after 2 batches and, since I keep my starter at 60%, I knew it contained 150g APF and 100g water. So I needed 350g more flour and 210g water and I also added 1 ½ t salt (should have been 2 t which Jon’s recipe calls for), ¼ t active dry yeast and 2 T olive oil. If I did it again I would add 1 T sugar to set off the sweet topping.

The dough got a 30 minute autolyze followed by a stretch-and-fold and was then covered and left on the counter overnight. It was a good 36 hours before it saw significant rise, thanks to the small amount of yeast. I then transferred the dough to a plastic zip bag and refrigerated for a couple of days, then brought out 2 hours before baking. It was easy to handle but could have used some kneading for more gluten development. I’ll do that next time.

Pizza was cooked on a stone at 525 F, the max of my oven, for about 10 minutes. My peel had gome missing so I tried a trick I had picked up on another King Arthur article: prepping the pie on a square of parchment paper. The recipe makes 2 rounds each of which is expanded to around 13 inch diameter with fingers and a rolling pin, then dressed. This size can be picked up by the corners of the parchment without tipping over and transferred to the stone. After baking, the paper is brittle so you need to carefully transfer it to a plate.

5/5, would do again with mods as noted.

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Morsels from the Winter 2024 Fancy Food Show

Vegan Shrimp

Plant-based shrimp, in the Japan Pavilion at the 2024 Winter Fancy Food Show.

The 2024 Winter Fancy Food Show was held in Las Vegas January 21-23. It’s smaller than the summer show in NYC, which makes it easier to take a deep dive into a category or spend more time with exhibitors. When we weren’t tasting cheese or exploring Japanese aquaculture, here are a few tidbits that caught our eye and teased our palate.

Plant Based Nugget

Looks (and tastes) like chicken, but it’s soy with a realistically muscly texture.

Plant based “meats” were everywhere, and getting more sophisticated. We tasted an imitation chicken nugget that would be quite acceptable to a carnivore. The developer stressed the research they had done (it’s made out of soy) to achieve a “muscle-like” texture.

Pickled everything was another strong trend. Pickled vegetables, of course, but also pickle-flavored popcorn, nuts and even cotton candy.  Pickle-flavored potato chips are not new, but boosted by the overall popularity of the salty snacks category which has now, by the Specialty Foods Association’s definition, overtaken sweets as the most popular category.

Pickle Cotton Candy

Pickle Cotton Candy, from Chocolate Storybook. (The product is not yet on their website so ask.)

Our favorite discovery: Cold Case Ice Cream. These guys were offering tastings in an outer aisle, and the product was superb. Imaginative flavors, great textures, creative mix-ins. Where can we buy this stuff? It turns out Cold Case ships direct to your home, presumably in a dry ice pack, with six assorted pints, appropriate mix-ins, and a “game” for around $110 with shipping included. That’s not cheap but it’s not outrageous for a decadent luxury at a party or maybe a sleepover. It wasn’t until we went on the website that we realized “Cold Case” refers to detective work which is also the subject of the game. Fun, but hardly necessary to enjoy the product. There’s also a “luxury” selection for $150. Check it out.

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Japanese aquaculture at Winter 2024 Fancy Food Show

Hiroo Nagahara Demo

Hiroo Nagahara demo of Japanese aquaculture-raised fish

Japan had a powerful presence at the 2024 Winter Fancy Food Show, including a large booth offering examples of Japanese aquaculture for tasting. The highlight of my experience was a 90 minute demo by Chef Hiroo Nagahara, a renowned kaiseki master. He was born in Japan but has spent most of his life in the US and is fluent in American tropes with a bit of a David Chang potty-mouth.

Hiroo Sashimi

Sashimi made with tai and scallops.

In the demo, chef prepared three dishes of which we got to taste one, a sublime sashimi with Miyagi scallops (more on that in a moment) and tai, a “good luck” fish which is often presented to new restaurants by their fish supplier upon opening and also is a gift at weddings. The prep included white soy sauce (which tastes like “regular” soy sauce of high quality but is clear) and a variety of veggie accents. Chef noted he places a kombu plank on top of the prepared tai fillet to add umami through a 30 minute infusion.

The second dish was a tempura made with amadai, also called red tilefish. He shared that his tempura batter is 2 parts AP flour, 1 part cornstarch, with zata’ar as a seasoning, and beer (light not IPA or stout) as the liquid. Mix to a nappe texture or to coat a spoon and chill until use. Amadai has scales which stand up when you pour hot oil on them so he holds the fish fillet in a sieve over the cooking oil and ladles oil over it to get this effect, then dips the other side only in batter before frying. This was served with artichoke slices prepared by removing choke and outside leaves then slicing the artichoke top to bottom into sections that look like a giant fish hook; these are treated with ascorbic acid (assume you could use citric acid?) so they don’t discolor before frying. The dipping sauce for these was made from soy, dashi and mirin thickened with arrowroot.

Hiroo Shabu Shabu

Shabu Shabu had the liquid poured over, vs immersing ingredients.

The third demo dish was a shabu shabu featuring buri, a fish that is the mature form (after hamachi) of yellowtail. Rather than leaving the ingredients in the boiling liquid he dunks them for a few seconds or a minute then reserves and repeats with another ingredient, then plates the dish and pours over a little of the poaching stock. The buri had a citrus taste that was not accidental; in Japanese aquaculture the fish are fed tangerines which make the fish last longer after harvesting while influencing the taste.

Hiroo Burnt My Fingers

Your proprietor with kaiseki chef Hiroo Nagahara.

Most of these specialty seafoods were available for tasting at the Japan pavilion, where we also enjoyed abalone in the shell, uni and Hokkaido scallops (so we could compare them to Miyagi). There was a significant language barrier and I realized during Chef Hiroo’s demo that most of them represented products of the very tightly regulated Japanese aquaculture industry. Miyagi scallops, for example, are grown through aquaculture while Hokkaido scallops are harvested from the ocean floor; flavors were slightly different but both were delicious. All the other fish I tried were superb in flavor and texture and if this is the best sustainable and regulated (vs dumping antibiotics into the open sea as is done at many shrimp and salmon plants) aquaculture can do then I’m a fan.

Hiroo had lots of wonderful side talk and trucs; he’s worked in many prestigious kitchens and also trained as a physicist which helps him to understand how foods are altered by heat and ingredients. Umami ideas: drop an anchovy in your carrot puree. Add soy to balsamic vinaigrette. Put a piece of kombu in chicken stock.

His favorite comfort food? Oreos. In Japan, dorayaki bean cakes. There are many variations and his favorite comes from a bakery in Osaka. Favorite food his mother made? Japanese-style curry. Favorite rice variety? Golden Wind; the grains are shiny when they come out. (This product seems to be unavailable in the U.S.) His own perspective on Japanese aquaculture: we farm beef, pork and chicken so why not fish?

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Flavored cheese tasting at Fancy Food Show

Flavored Cheese Tasting

Flavored cheese tasting, clockwise from high noon: Point Reyes Truffletoma, Provencetoma and Tomarishi; Beehive Barely Buzzed and Red Butte Hatch Chili; Deer Creek Moon Rabbit and Rattlesnake.

Flavored cheese, according to industry research, now accounts for 20% of all cheese sales. I attended a tasting session with 3 veteran cheesemakers at the Winter 2024 Fancy Food Show, each of whom said “no way!” when initially approached about using anything other than dairy products and enzymes and cultures but eventually came around in response to customer demand.

Point Reyes COO Lynn Giacomini Stray presented three cheeses based on Toma, their flagship cheddar. Tomatruffle responds to today’s trend for truffles in everything; she said the biggest challenge was finding the right balance so the truffles could be tasted easily but were not overwhelming. Tomaprovence uses an herb mixture similar to herbes de provence. Tomarashi is a play on togarashi, the Japanese seasoning mix, and includes chili flakes, nigella, chili powder, orange peel, ginger powder and nori. The effect of the flavor mix-ins was subtle; they are interesting and approachable vs whacking you in the palate.

Oliver Ford is director of sales at Beehive in Utah, where his father is the chief cheese maker. He brought us two cheeses based on Promontory, their signature cheddar. Barely Buzzed is infused with lavender and rubbed with espresso which seems like an odd combination and I couldn’t really taste the lavender. Red Butte Hatch Chili is infused with bits of fresh Hatch chili and rubbed with a red chili powder. This had just a gentle kick and was my favorite of the tasting.

Flavored Cheese Panel

Chris Gentile, Lynn Stray and Oliver Ford with moderator Kyra James.

Chris Gentine is a cheese grader (which is different from cheese grater, he emphasized) who makes his own cheese at Deer Creek Cheese as sort of a side hobby. A lot of his flavored cheese experimentation is based on getting together with other cheesemakers over beer. Moon Rabbit is bathed in Chartreuse liqueur (which he said was hard to find during the pandemic, when it got a reputation as something of a serum) providing “hints of cloves, citrus, rosemary, and thyme”. Rattlesnake was by far the spiciest cheese of the day (we were warned to save it for last) and came from a desire to make cheese with tequila (after much enjoyable experimentation he settled on Cuervo Gold) and habanero peppers. It’s the cheese that bites you back.

All these cheeses are available by mail order at the website links above, and you may also find them at your local cheesemonger. Another great source of flavored cheeses is our friend Trader Joe. Check out the white Stilton with apricots (cranberries are substituted during the holidays) and Cotswold, a semi-sharp English cheddar with onions and chives mixed in. These are approachable price-wise as well as palate-wise and I’m eating some right now, to get me in the mood for writing about flavored cheese.

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Misen replaced my broken knife

Broken Misen Knife

My broken Misen knife.

My original Misen Chef’s Knife, which I had purchased way back in 2017, recently suffered a fatal accident. I wasn’t there when it happened, but you can see from the photo that the edge showed no sign of abuse and the damage was in the body of the blade. Might this be covered by Misen’s “Lifetime Warranty Against Defects“? The answer was yes!

I contacted Misen support and sent them the above picture of the broken knife. They said they couldn’t find my purchase in their records and asked if I had ordered from a different email which it turned out I had. Walla! Misen apologized for the inconvenience and a replacement knife was in my hands no more than a week later. This is good to know if, like Kenji Lopez-Alt, you turn your back on an old friend after a single negative experience.

Caveat Emptor: if you take our advice and order from Misen’s Amazon store for faster delivery and possibly a lower price, the lifetime warranty may not apply. So if you are concerned about possibly needing the guarantee, with a heavy heart and a lighter, commission-less wallet, we would advise you to order from Misen directly.

Replacement Misen Knife

Walla! A replacement knife was in my hands a few days later free of charge.

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Recipe: Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Garlic Mashed Potatoes with a nice chuckeye steak.

You don’t really need a recipe for garlic mashed potatoes, but last night’s rendition was the best I’ve had and I happen to have kept track of the proportions so I’m sharing it. Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:
1 lb yellow or white potatoes (I avoid russets which are too crumbly)
2 T unsalted butter
½ c sour cream
2 t minced garlic
Salt for the cooking water, plus more salt (probably 1 t) for seasoning
Couple of grinds of black pepper

Method: peel the potatoes and cut bigger ones in half or quarters while keeping small ones (2 inches in diameter or less) whole. Boil in salted water until tender when pierced with a fork, but not falling apart. Drain. Mix with other ingredients, mash with a potato masher, adjust seasoning and serve with a nice chuckeye steak or similar.

P.S. My helpful SEO tool tells me I’ve listed a recipe for garlic mashed potatoes once before, as an accompaniment to Pork Chops with Vinegar Peppers. That recipe had buttermilk, this one sour cream.

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Making poke with Trader Joe’s ahi tuna

Trader Joe Poke

Poke made with Trader Joe’s ahi tuna.

We bought and accidentally defrosted a brick of Trader Joe’s ahi tuna. What to do? Make some poke! Don’t try this at home (unless you want to) because the fish, which you will eat raw, needs to be absolutely fresh or at least flash-frozen. But we had been in control of our product from freezer to home which gave us confidence to proceed.

A generic internet recipe told us we should chop the tuna into small pieces and mix with soy sauce, sesame oil and green onions. Not good! The salty soy overpowered the other ingredients. Having a second 8 oz tuna steak we cubed it and tried again, with a marinade that included more or less:

2 T toasted sesame oil
1 green onion, sliced into rings including some of the green part
Half a shallot, chopped, about 2 T, standing in for Maui sweet onions
½ t pink Hawaiian sea salt (if we didn’t have it would have used Kosher)
1 T Trader Joe’s Furikake

The result? Onolicious but, more important, approximating the good poke we’ve had on our trips to Oahu. Sesame oil is viscous and clings to the tuna pieces in a way that makes for a cohesive product you can easily eat with chopsticks and combine with rice or other mix-ins. Next time (and there will be a next time, as soon as we get back to TJ) we might experiment with a bit of ginger or a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds (though those are incorporated in the TJ’s furikake) or we might enjoy it just the way it is.

The internet wants you to use very fresh tuna-grade ahi for poke and eat it right away, but that doesn’t make sense to us. Isn’t poke a way to use up fish that is a bit past its prime? The excellent Onolicious Hawaii blog has thoughts as well as links to places on Oahu which sell her favorite poke varieties. She likes to pick up several 8 oz containers (so marinated, not fresh) and serve them with hot rice. She casts shade on the mainland trend of mixing poke with a lot of ingredients to create a healthy bowl with the fish taking a supporting role. We agree, though we are thinking of a couple spoonfuls of edamame (out of the shell) as an accompaniment next time.

Sushi Stack

Sushi Stack by caloriesandcocktails on TikTok.

Onolicious Hawaii would certainly scoff at the TikTok trend of sushi stacks (poke stacks with alliteration added) in which a can opened at both ends (or a special mold, if you want to waste money) is used to create a mini tower with a layer of rice, a layer of poke and a top layer like avocado. We’re okay with this; it is essentially a stateside poke bowl with more dramatic presentation. But we insist that the poke itself take center stage.

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Recipe: Instant Pot Hot and Sour Soup

Instant Pot Hot and Sour Soup

Instant Pot Hot and Sour Soup.

Yes, you can make Hot and Sour Soup in the Instant Pot that’s a pretty good facsimile of your favorite takeout Chinese. We started with this recipe from Jamie + Jacky and were initially disappointed but then we added lots more white pepper (hot) and white distilled vinegar (sour) and that did the trick. Note that our recipe does include a number of ingredients you’ll need to get from your Asian market or Amazon; once you have them on hand the recipe comes together quickly. Makes about 8 servings of hot & sour soup.

Ingredients:
A generous handful each of: dried shiitake mushrooms, dried black fungus/tree ears and dried lily buds
1 lb pork shoulder meat (we used country style spare ribs)
1 T neutral oil
Salt and pepper
1 T Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
4 c chicken stock
2 t grated ginger
1 T regular soy sauce
1 T dark soy sauce
4 T distilled white vinegar* plus more as desired
1 t Kosher salt
1 T ground white pepper, plus more as desired
1 t toasted sesame oil
½ brick tofu (any firmness)
1 egg
¼ c water
2 T cornstarch

Method: soak the mushrooms, fungus and lily buds in three separate bowls with 2 c hot water for each until soft, about 45 minutes. While they are soaking, set Instant Pot to Sauté, add 1 T oil and brown the pork shoulder on all sides. Reserve. Still on the Sauté setting, deglaze the pot with wine/sherry and soaking water from shiitake mushrooms. (You can discard the other two waters.) Turn off the Instant Pot.

Return the pork to the pot with chicken stock, ginger, regular and dark soy sauces, white vinegar, salt, white pepper and sesame oil. Cut the shiitakes into thin slices, discarding the hard core; chop tree ears coarsely; cut off ends of lily buds and slice in half at the center; add all to the pot. Seal and pressure cook on High for 18 minutes followed by natural release for 15 minutes.

Fish out pork pieces and, when they are cool enough to  handle, shred the meat, discard bones if any, and return shredded pork to the pot. Add tofu, chopped into small cubes if firm otherwise just crumbled in. Use Sauté setting to bring soup to the boil. Beat egg and swirl into the soup, mixing with a spoon so the tendrils of egg are well distributed. Mix 3 T cornstarch with ¼ c cold water till smooth and add to soup; stir until the soup is thickened.

Now, TASTE FOR SEASONING. We predict you will add a good amount of extra white pepper and vinegar to get the taste you want: pungent, aromatic, with a deep note of flavor from the pork. Serve hot.

*Jamie and Jacky use Chinkiang black vinegar, which we love, but white distilled vinegar creates the flavor profile we’re looking for in a Chinese takeout hot and sour soup.

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Recipe: Everyday Pate

Everyday Pate

Everyday Paté.

Everyday Paté is inspired by a red sauce place in South Glens Falls, NY called Massie’s. Their Italian entrees came with a pasta side, a cup of minestrone and a “relish plate” including celery and carrot sticks, mild pickled cherry peppers and a small tub of paté. Times have changed and the relish plate is gone but this recipe captures the essence of that paté… nothing fancy but a flavor pleasure spread on crackers or maybe some crusty Italian bread. Makes maybe 1 ½ lb total, plenty to share as I did at a New Years Eve potluck.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
1 tart apple, peeled, cored and quartered
3 T unsalted butter
1 lb chicken livers, picked through to remove connective tissue (those yellow bits)
5 T unsalted butter
¼ c brandy
2 T heavy cream
1 ½ t Kosher salt
1 t lemon juice
¼ t ground black pepper
2 T or more additional butter which has been softened and separated into small pieces*

Method: pulse the onion and apple in a food processor (which is mandatory for this recipe) until chopped medium-fine. Sauté with 3 T butter at medium heat until the onion and apples are just starting to brown, about 7 minutes. Return the apples and onion to the food processor; add 5 T butter and chicken livers to the sauté pan. Sauté until chicken livers are browned all over but still pink inside, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add brandy to pan and flambée, shaking pan so the flaming liquid is evenly distributed and continuing to shake and turn pan till the flames go out.

Massies Pate

A rare 2014 Yelp photo of Massie’s actual pate, served on a crostini it looks like.

Cool the livers somewhat (so the cream won’t curdle) and return to food processor along with cream, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Process till sooth; adding softened butter in a couple of  batches*.

Transfer the pate to a small loaf plan which has been lined with plastic wrap; smooth surface with a spatula. Chill until firm, at least 3 hours, and serve with crackers or crusty bread.

*The original recipe, from this source, called for an additional 8 T butter which is far too much.

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