Burnt My Fingers

Albany Food and Wine Fest for the Arts… SOLD OUT!?

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Burnt My Fingers

I am covering this event on Friday, but it appears the tickets may be already 100% gone. Go immediately to the Festival website and scoop up any sessions that may still be available. If tickets are sold out, and you can’t bribe or beg a friend to part with one, then mark your calendar to try earlier next year (it’s on MLK weekend, as always).

I spoke with Donna Purmono, president of the Festival, asking what makes this event so special and wildly popular. It started 5 years ago with a dream of her husband Yono to recognize that the Albany arts and restaurant scene is every bit as vibrant as Boston, Manhattan or Toronto. Good friends pitched in with the idea they’d raise a few dollars with a food event and donate it to a local arts organization. $39K later an institution had been established.

The founders and supporters (too numerous to name here, but I’ll talk about them in a longer article before the 2015 event) worked from the principle that “there is no more parsimonious group than ours,” according to Donna. Participants donate their time, food, serving setups and the space itself (while the main events are at the Albany Hilton, it’s expanded to other facilities for some sessions) so every dollar raised—nearly $300K through the first four years—can go to the arts organizations it supports.

This also means that attendees are guaranteed a quality experience with the tastings capped at 850 tickets and the chefs asked to prepare 900 servings (which is far more than adequate since no way you are going to make it around to every station). “We don’t want to turn away dollars that could go to the arts,” says Donna, “but we also don’t want you to be an arm thrusting through other arms with your wineglass at the end of it, and no conversation with the chef. We want you to have a great experience so you’ll come back next year and bring five friends.”

That means extremely attractive pricing (the $60 price for the grand tasting is all-inclusive and includes wine/beer and all seminars and judgings that happen during your session). The event is chef-driven and chefs have free rein in presenting dishes that showcase their talents and that of their institutions. There are 70 total, including six “Rising Star” chefs who were selected through a competition managed by the Albany Times-Union’s Steve Barnes.

I will be attending the Grand Tasting on Friday and will report back on the experience. But if you’re interested, don’t wait. Grab those tickets and Wine & Dine for the Arts.

Posted in Drinking, Eating, Events | Tagged Albany, Albany Wine & Food Festival for the Arts, Purmono | Leave a comment

Two formidable e-cookbooks from Inkling

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Burnt My Fingers

Free preview chapter of Modernist Cuisine at Home, eBook version

My promised post on best paid cooking apps will have to wait, because the folks at Inkling contacted me with a bunch of free content to promote two cookbook powerhouses that are available in electronic form through them, Modernist Cuisine at Home and The Professional Chef. Both of these deserve serious consideration from any serious cook, and you can sample the content and the format through the links below.

I’ve just started exploring Modernist Cuisine at Home (the print edition) after struggling through the massive, multi-volume Modernist Cuisine last year. The home version is far more accessible, with scores of recipes you might actually prepare. Inkling is offering a preview chapter called “A Modernist Meal at Home” which includes a number of recipes, and also individual recipes for Mac & Cheese, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, and Potato Puree which are not available on the web.

The Professional Chef is published by the Culinary Institute of America and has been an esteemed reference for decades. The available free chapter is a very valuable one on soups; to make soup you need stock and stock recipes are available in pop-up windows, so this chapter ends up providing much of the foundational knowledge you’d get in a hot kitchen class.

Both the books make excellent use of the eBook format, including instructional videos and links to related content that are a lot more manageable in the kitchen than flipping back and forth in a printed cookbook. As it happens, both are also available as apps but Inkling’s Amelia Salyers convinced me you’re better off buying them directly from the website because then you can access them both on your mobile device (through the Inkling app) and on your computer. I noticed that reading books through the Inkling app involves quite a bit of memory, so you’ll have to clear out some of those old videos and photos and games your kid sneakily installed. But it’s worth doing. Go check it out.

Posted in Cooking, Something Else | Tagged Inkling, Modernist Cuisine, The Professional Chef | Leave a comment

Top free iPhone cooking apps for serious cooks

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Burnt My Fingers

In honor of this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, here are a few cooking apps worth having on your iPhone. None of them is perfect, but the price can’t be beat.

BigOven: huge aggregation of recipes, with very little curation so you’re on your own as to whether they’re worth trying. To make the most of it, start at “get ideas” then “search 250,000+ recipes” on the next screen. You can include or exclude specific ingredients, and also filter for dietary restrictions. As a point of reference, there are 31 recipes for Pho, some with peer reviews and some not; some recipes have the sources identified and others are apparently submitted anonymously.

Epicurious: ignore the clever categories (“Decadent Desserts”, “I Can Barely Cook”) and go right to the search box at the bottom of the home screen where you can search by name of dish and add a number of filters. There are only 5 recipes for Pho, but each of them is from a recognizable publication. By the way, both Epicurious and Big Oven have a useful feature where you can transfer the ingredients for a recipe to a shopping list. Epicurious is a bit irritating because there’s no way to get back to the recipe so you have to start over and search for it again.

Chef’s Quiz: the folks at Futura Publishing have sliced and diced the Escoffier Cook Book (which should be in the public domain, since it was published in 1903, but I can’t find the ebook online) to create a number of products, including this one. Lots of fun interactive questions that really will test your food knowledge.

Cook’s Companion: also from Futura Publishing, this one has a great interactive measurement converter and a voluminous ingredient index (with pictures) and glossary developed from Escoffier’s body of work. It also has some extremely irritating ads for paid apps which pop up every few screens. But the features are good enough that the irritation is worth it.

Follow the links for more information, or just look them up on the App Store. Next: three paid cookbook apps worth your attention.

Posted in Something Else | Tagged apps, iPhone | Leave a comment

Recipe: Vietnamese Pickled Daikon (Do Chua)

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Burnt My Fingers

Do Chua (Vietnamese pickled radish)

This is the crunchy condiment found in bahn mi. It’s supposed to be an equal amount of carrots and radish, but carrots are hard to shred so I use just enough for color. Can also be eaten as a slaw.

Ingredients:
1 whole daikon, approx 2 lbs
1 lb whole carrots
2 t salt
2 t sugar
1 1/2 c water
1 1/2 c white or rice vinegar
2 whole garlic cloves, peeled (optional)
1/2 jalapeño, sliced (optional)

Method: peel and trim the daikon and carrots. Shred using the fine blade of a mandoline, taking care not to bloody your knuckles. Rub the salt into the shredded vegetables and allow to sit about 30 minutes until a good amount of liquid is released. Rinse and drain out most of the water. Dissolve sugar in water/vinegar mix and pour over vegetables. Add optional garlic and/or jalapeño if you like. Cure in refrigerator for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. This will keep about 2 weeks under refrigeration; after that it becomes too sour to eat.

Note: daikon tend to release an “old shoe” odor when you shred them, so don’t do this right before that special someone is arriving for your first date.

Posted in Condiments, Recipes | Tagged pickle, Vietnamese | Leave a comment

Recipe: Baked Beans from Scratch

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Burnt My Fingers

Baked beans made with dried lima beans

It isn’t hard to make a pot of classic sweet-and-sour baked beans starting from dried beans. This is a base recipe which you might make once, then fine-tune to your preferences on future renditions. Serves 8-12.

Ingredients:
1 lb dried beans (some variety of white beans preferred, but I’ve also used limas)
1 14-oz can crushed tomatoes OR 1 c ketchup and 1/2 c water
2 T cider vinegar
2 T brown sugar
2 T molasses*
1/4 c olive oil or bacon fat
2 t dry mustard
1/2 t Tabasco
1 t salt
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 small onion, sliced
1 small green pepper, chopped (optional)
2 cloves garlic, chopped (optional)
4-6 slices bacon (optional)

Method: cover beans with a generous amount of cold water in a large pot, bring to boil, cook 1 1/2 minutes, turn off heat, cover and leave in a cool place overnight. In the morning the beans should be well expanded but not tender. Add (or subtract) water if necessary so beans are just covered; simmer 1 1/2 hours until beans are just tender. Add water if necessary; discard any excess when finished. Add all other ingredients except sliced onions and optional bacon; stir well to combine. Cover top with sliced onions and optional bacon. Bake in 350 degree oven for 1 hour, covered; remove lid last 1/2 hour to crisp the top. Serve at the table out of the cooking pot.

*If you don’t have molasses, increase vinegar and sugar to 3 T each.

Posted in Recipes, Sides | Tagged baked beans, beans, comfort food | Leave a comment

Cooking with koji

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Burnt My Fingers

Koji Bread

On a recent trip to San Francisco I enjoyed a number of preparations involving koji at Bar Tartine. I also picked up some fresh koji and koji products from Mariko Grady at Aedan Fermented Foods, a wonderful resource which may be able to send some items mail order in cool weather; contact her through the website with inquiries. And, I picked up two tubs of commercial Cold Mountain koji for further experimentation.

Koji is rice that has been inoculated with aspergillus oryzae, a fermentation agent that turns the grains a snowy white. It is the base ingredient in making sake and amakazi as well as shio-koji, a salt marinade. The first thing I did with it was to make some koji bread, using the Cold Mountain base koji, following a recipe in the new Tartine 3 cookbook.

Bar Tartine chef Cortney Burns says this is the same recipe they use in the restaurant. It’s one of Chad Robertson’s new “porridge breads” in which adds a porridge made with a grain at 50% of flour volume; that porridge is typically 2 parts water and 1 part grain, simmered about 15 minutes till the liquid is absorbed and the grain becomes tender. It’s cooled, then folded into the dough after the second stretch-and-fold using the overall method in my Kettle Bread. I followed this recipe to make my koji bread but cooked at 15 degrees lower temperature because the sugar produced by the koji can cause the bread to burn if you’re not careful.

I tasted this bread fresh (shown above) and also as koji toast, which is how it’s served at the restaurant. I liked it but wasn’t overwhelmed by the result. The koji contributes a very mild sweetness-without-being-actually-sweet that reminds me of the effect of MSG, actually. But the texture and crumb is wonderful and Robertson says the porridge makes it last longer than regular bread, so there’s no reason I won’t continue to play with this recipe. (Next time I will ferment the koji before I use it, for one thing.)

I next made some vegetable pickles using the 385 marinade sold by Aedan Foods. (She also shares the recipe so you can make your own: 3 parts salt, 5 parts koji, 8 parts cooked rice, mixed then fermented for 7-10 days.) The method is to slice or chop vegetables such as carrots or cucumbers into serving-size pieces, mix the vegetables with a little salt and rub between your fingers to distribute the salt thoroughly, let it sit for 30 minutes until some liquid drains off, then wash and drain the vegetables. You then add marinade in the amount of ½ the weight of the vegetables and allow to cure overnight.

I did this with some daikon I had around, and also some broccoli. The results were, again, pleasing but mild. The “pickles” were more like vegetables in a salad dressing than something that had undergone a chemical transformation.

Later, I used Aedan’s shio-koji (a slurry made by adding water and salt to koji and fermenting a few days) as a marinade for salmon filets. The salmon was marinated overnight, then broiled. Yet again, the results were pleasant and mildly salty but not distinctive.

Have you tried koji cooking or eaten recipes prepared with koji? I’d love to know about your experiences since for now this trending ingredient is not knocking it out of the park for me. But I’ve got an awful lot of koji in the fridge, so my own experiments will definitely continue into the new year.

Posted in Cooking | Tagged Aedan, koji | Leave a comment

Recipe: Brussels Sprouts with Vinegar

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Burnt My Fingers

Brussels Sprouts in saute pan

My late father-in-law loved brussels sprouts with vinegar. He’d probably consider the addition of anchovies a nutty stunt, but the flavors go very well together. Serves 4.

Ingredients:
1 lb. brussels sprouts
1 T bacon fat
2 salted anchovy fillets
2 T white vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Method: Trim the base of each brussels sprout and cut a cross-hatch into it so the thicker part will cook evenly. Remove any discolored or wilted leaves, leaving sprouts whole. Melt bacon fat over medium heat, in a saute pan with a lid. Add anchovy fillets; mash with a fork to distribute the bits and pieces. Add brussels sprouts and roll around to coat with fat and brown slightly. Cover and cook on low heat 10 minutes. Add vinegar; taste for seasoning and add a bit of salt and pepper if you like. Serve as a side dish with grilled meats.

Posted in Recipes, Sides | Tagged brussels sprouts, comfort food | Leave a comment

Recipe: Holiday Sourdough with Figs and Hazelnuts

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Burnt My Fingers

Fig and Hazelnut holiday sourdough with a cross-section of a roll made with the leftovers

This is a nice bread to serve and give around the holidays—it’s not overly sweet so you can eat it with cheese as well as with butter and jam. Adapted from the non-sourdough recipe in Hamelman’s Bread. Makes two large loaves, or three 1 ½ lb loaves, or some combination of loaves and rolls.

Ingredients:
680 g water
125 g firm levain*
500 g whole wheat flour
500 g all-purpose flour
1 T salt
2 T fennel seeds
2 T dried rosemary or 4 T fresh rosemary, chopped
150 g hazelnuts, roasted and skinned then chopped**
150 g dried figs, chopped

Method: Mix levain with lukewarm water; add flours, rosemary and fennel and stir to mix; autolyse 30-60 minutes. Add salt and begin to stretch-and-fold at 30 minute intervals until the dough starts to feel firm and cohesive with good gluten development; add chopped figs and hazelnuts**. Do two more stretch-and-folds to evenly mix in nuts and fruit, then bulk ferment 2-3 hours at 76 degrees. Shape into 2 loaves and transfer to bannetons. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof 2-3 hours or more until dough has risen somewhat and is a little puffy to the touch.

Bake in cast iron dutch ovens which have been preheated in the oven to 450 degrees. After 20 minutes, remove tops and lower heat to 435 degrees. Bake another 20 minutes or until the loaves are nicely browned but not burned. (For rolls, bake on a cookie sheet; they’ll be done in about 30 minutes total.)

I used the whole wheat/APF starter from my kettle bread, at 60% hydration.

** To toast the hazelnuts, preheat oven to 350 degrees then roast on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes, till they start to color and give off a nice aroma. Cool then rub the hazelnuts between your hands to remove most of the husk (you won’t get all of it). Chop along with the figs before mixing with bread.

Posted in Baking and Baked Goods, Recipes | Tagged bread, Christmas, Hamelman, holiday | Leave a comment

Recipe: Dark Chocolate Biscotti with Chipotle Chili

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Burnt My Fingers

Dark Chocolate Biscotti with Chipotle and Hazelnuts

First of my 3 holiday bakes. Dark Chocolate Biscotti is adapted from davidg618’s recipe which appeared on the wonderful baker blog, The Fresh Loaf.

Ingredients:
1/2 c (one stick) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 c sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 c cocoa powder (Hershey’s Special Dark preferred)
2 t baking powder
1 3/4 c all purpose flour
1/4 t Kosher salt
1 t Chipotle chili powder or other dark chili powder
1/2 c hazelnuts, toasted (see note below) and coarsely chopped
3/4 c dark chocolate chips (or use regular chocolate chips)

Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly mix the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, chili powder and salt) in a bowl. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar on first speed until well-blended, about 1 minute. Add eggs and beat on first speed for about 2 minutes until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and beat on first speed until just incorporated, about 1 minute. Remove paddle; fold in toasted hazelnuts and chocolate chips with a spatula or large spoon.

Turn out onto a flat surface, shape into a ball and divide into two logs each about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Flatten the top slightly by pressing with your fingers, and press in the sides so it is a cohesive mass without loose pieces sticking out. Note: the dough is very sticky and it will be easy to handle if your hands are wet.

Transfer logs to parchment paper on a half sheet pan and bake 20 minutes or until the top is barely firm to the touch. (Logs will still be jiggly and jello-like.) Remove from oven and cool until firm; you might want to put the sheet pan in the refrigerator if you have room. When the dough is very firm, slice on the bias into 3/4 inch thick biscotti using a serrated knife or sharp chef’s knife.

Reduce oven heat to 300 degrees. Return the now-biscotti to the parchment paper covered pans and bake 20 minutes on each side or until dry and firm. (I turned off the oven and let them cool inside, but you could also transfer to racks.)

TO TOAST THE HAZELNUTS: Place the nuts on a pan in a 350 degree oven and roast 10 minutes or until they give off a nice aroma and color slightly. Allow to cool, then rub between your palms to remove the husks. (This will get some of the husk off, not all.) Chop coarsely, so the pieces retain their identity as hazelnuts.

Recipe has been edited and re-published to add some better dough handling technique.

Posted in Baking and Baked Goods, Cooking, Recipes, Sweets | Tagged biscotti, chipotle, chocolate, cocoa, The Fresh Loaf | 1 Comment

Friends and Family tasting menu at Bar Tartine

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Burnt My Fingers

Bar Tartine’s Friends and Family Menu for December 10, 2013

Bar Tartine, the restaurant offshoot of the bakery that inspired my Kettle Bread, has been getting acclaim for its menus under chefs Nick Balla and Cortney Burns. Balla is from Budapest, and for a while the preps had an Eastern-European tilt (eg lots of sausages and root vegetables) but now they’re more cuisine-neutral.

This week I got to try the Friends and Family tasting menu, an excellent value at $62 considering the amount and diversity of food. Common themes were robust breads, of course (many of the dishes either came with bread or went great with bread) and the absence of external spices so the flavor magic was provided by reductions, fermentations and combinations of the ingredients themselves. There was also imaginative use of koji, a fermenting agent I’ll be working with in the new year.

Here’s what I ate: