Food for Thought: What’s Annie Cooking

Posted on July 25, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Annie Tuna Salad

Mom’s tuna salad from What’s Annie Cooking.

What’s Annie Cooking is a hobbyist food blog written by Annie Slocum, a home cook in Denver who says she was heavily influenced by time living in San Francisco. She loves to read and collect cookbooks, and the typical recipe is one in which she borrows from a cookbook (with credit) and adds her own variations.

Annie Curry Shortbread

Curried Shortbreads from What’s Annie Cooking.

The recipes are really appealing and match the flavor sensibility of Burnt My Fingers readers (at least this one) quite nicely. We discovered the blog searching for the recipe for Annie Somerville’s corn stock in Fields of Greens (our own copy is in a box somewhere after a move) and found her recipe for the stock on its own, then converted to Green Corn Soup.  Next up was her mother’s tuna salad which includes frozen peas, stuffed olives, hard boiled eggs and chopped nuts… a winner. We are also tempted by Curry Shortbreads which are just what it sounds like… a savory treat like classic shortbread but with curry flavors.

Annie is not very prolific: she posted one recipe in July 2023 and one in June after a hiatus since March 2023. But the blog has been going on a long time, back to 2011, so there’s plenty to choose from. Maybe if we try some of these recipes, and comment on them, she will post more often. Check it out!

Posted in Eating, Food for Thought | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

In search of the elusive chuck eye steak

Posted on July 20, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Chuck Roll Schematic

To find the elusive chuck eye steak, look for a roast matching the configuration of Rib 5.

I was lucky in my experiment breaking down a chuck roast that I got one with a nice chuck eye steak included. This is by no means guaranteed. According to this source, there are no more than 2-3 chuck eye steaks per side and you can expect that some of these will be harvested and sold as such. That’s one reason the chuck roasts I saw on sale were so mysterious to me: couldn’t find the elusive chuck eye steak because it wasn’t there.

Also lucky, this week Certified Angus boneless chuck roasts dropped to an irresistible $3.99 a pound at my local market. You can’t go wrong at that price because if you don’t get the cuts you want you will still have some nice stew meat or you can turn the scraps into a pot roast. I took the attached diagram from Texas A&M to my butcher case and spent a good hour perusing the roasts (to the irritation of the butcher who was restocking).

It’s now clear I’m looking for a roast with a cradle of fat and a clear separation below a steak at the top. I’d lucked into such a roast previously and found another today. A roast without such delineation is going to be from further forward on the animal and will provide some good eating (the roast I grabbed yesterday somehow yielded a nice flatiron) but not the elusive chuck eye.

If you want to research further, here is the scholarly article that yielded the above diagram. This article ranks beef muscles for tenderness. This industry fact sheet has another tenderness ranking. (The longissimus, which makes up the chuck eye steak, is oddly not among them.) Or you could just do what I did: buy a bunch of meat, get out your knife and your cutting board, and dig in.

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Breaking down a chuck roast

Posted on July 14, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Chuck Roast

This is the chuck roast we’re breaking down. Note the seam between the eye and the denver where we’ve already pulled it loose by hand.

I used to sell meat for a living (Allen Brothers, Niman Ranch mail order) yet for the life of me I cannot reliably break down a larger cut of beef. Part of the problem is that the roasts marketed by butchers tend to be irregular and look nothing like the neat diagrams you might find on a website like Certified Angus Beef; the best stuff is separated into steaks and chops and the roast is what’s left over.

But, with spare ribs $10.99 a pound (bones included), chuck eye steaks $7.99 and boneless chuck roast $5.99 a pound at my local supermarket, it was time to give breaking down a chuck roast a try. With the roast pictured above (this is a crosswise cut looking toward the front of the animal) it’s easy to visualize it being attached to its more costly neighbors, the rib eye and the short ribs. You can see the chuck eye in the middle, and at least one denver (the butcher’s term for boneless short ribs) at the bottom. At the very top is the (not at all tender) mock tender and that long piece at the bottom might or might not qualify as a second denver.

Chuck Roast Separated

Chuck roast, separated.

And here’s what we got after we broke it down. At the top is the chuck eye, which we immediately fried up and enjoyed. Below that are the two denvers. At the right are the mock tender and other bits that will go into stew or be ground into burgers. The very modest amount of fat and silver skin (from the top of the denver) which we removed is at bottom right.

Next time I might try a bone-in chuck roast, which is in some ways more difficult but also easier because the bone gives you a reference point. I am inspired by the Bearded Butchers videos on TikTok, though lately they’ve been into waygu and various gadget cuts. How about you?

 

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Recipe: Crab and Corn Fritters

Posted on July 11, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Crab and /corn Fritters

Crab and Corn Fritters.

Why dilute perfectly good crab meat with cracker crumbs when you can make Crab and Corn Fritters? This recipe is particularly good right now, when fresh corn is in season. Makes about 20 fritters.

Ingredients:
Corn kernels from 2 ears fresh corn, about 2 c
½ lb lump crab meat
1 c all purpose flour
1 ½ t baking powder
1 ½ t sugar
¾ t Kosher salt
2 large eggs
1 c whole milk
1 t Tabasco
½ t Worcestershire sauce
Oil for deep frying

Method: beat eggs and combine with other wet ingredients; mix thoroughly with whisk. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly then make a well in the middle and pour in wet mixture; whisk or stir to combine. Gently fold in corn and crabmeat, taking care to keep crab pieces intact.

Crab Fritters Racked

Recipe makes about 20 fritters, or 4-6 appetizer portions.

Heat oil to 325 degrees and add fritters one at a time, using a tablespoon or scoop to make 2 T portions. (Mound the batter high in the spoon to do this.) Fry 2-3 minutes till the bottom is golden brown; flip over and repeat. Drain on a rack or paper towels.

Serve hot, with garnish of Kewpie mayo, tartar sauce or lemon juice. Leftover fritters can be frozen and reheated in oven with little loss in quality. For best results, freeze individual fritters on a sheet tray then transfer to a storage container.

Posted in Eating, Mains, Recipes | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Okay, not all frozen pizza is terrible.

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Frozen Pizza

We tried all these frozen pizzas. With one exception, they weren’t terrible.

Last week’s post produced a number of comments from people who have found decent frozen pizzas at Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s. After trying them, we have to agree that not all frozen pizza is terrible and the problem is the low expectations that supermarkets have for their customers when stocking the freezer case. Here’s what we tried:

Roasted Garlic and Pesto Pizza with Deep Fried Crust from Trader Joe’s. Good flavors and an addictive chewy crust. (One commenter said he liked the crust so much he wished he could buy it plain and add its own toppings.) It didn’t have enough toppings for us, but that’s our general complaint about Neapolitan-style pizzas.

Pizza Parlano from Trader Joe’s. The Trader features this pie proudly on his website and several readers recommended it, but it’s a hard pass for us. Crust and toppings have the mediocre taste and texture of the frozen pizzas that prompted our original outrage, in spite of “Italian sausage, uncured pepperoni, roasted peppers & roasted onions”. Actually, we think the inclusion of green peppers may be a key to the frozen pizza problem as they turn watery when heated up.

Artisan Style Crust Pizza: Pepperoni with Mushrooms and Black Olives from Aldi’s.  Really good sharp flavors, especially the black olives, on a crust that was neither too crackery or too bready. Readers had recommended several Aldi’s pizzas, but our local store was out of most of them. We also tried:

Carolina Inspired BBQ Thin Crust Pizza from Aldi’s. The most cracker-y crust of any we tried, but redeemed by a generous and juicy topping with a sweet barbecue flavor. A lesson to other makers who keep their toppings light because they think the thin crust won’t stand up to thicker layers of cheese and sauce.

PICS Artisanal Pizza

A surprise in our supermarket pizza case!

Semidried Tomato & Brie Pizza from Price Chopper. A sleeper! We found this in the freezer case in our local supermarket alongside other thoroughly mediocre pizzas with the PICS house brand. The toppings were juicy and flavorful and the crust was just right; wouldn’t be upset to be served this at a pizzeria. Sadly, this is the only “Artisanal Hand-Crafted” pizza in the case. The awkward title (and the fact it is not included in the pizza listings on their website) suggests some marketing experimentation at work. We hope it is successful because we would buy more pizzas like this one.

Posted in Eating | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

July 4th Barbecue

Posted on July 3, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
4th of July Burger

4th of July burger with cheese between two patties.

We have a “Firecracker 4” run in our town that attracts thousands of visitors and our friends’ son Shea Weilbaker has won it twice in a row. We’ll go downtown to see if he three-peats, then turn our attention to serious 4th of July business: barbecue.

Our smoker is on hiatus so, though we have several racks of baby backs in the freezer, we’ll probably go with a double grilled hamburger (our recipe has lots of mods for this simple repast), Jack Daniels-style baked beans and some Better-than-KFC Cole Slaw. And maybe some nice mustardy Texas-style potato salad.  Dessert might be pecan pie, Mom’s chess pie or we might get lazy and go for a double scoop at our nearby Stewart’s.

Mom's Chess Pie

Mom’s Chess Pie with whipped cream, an excellent addition. Photo by Becca Oppenneer.

And, no 4th would be complete without fireworks, which have been in short supply in recent years due to civic budgetary problems, COVID and other distractions. But now there’s a big display planned from the roof of our local parking garage so we’ll hope the rain stays away.

While you’re partying, remember that the holiday is not actually about beer and sunburn but liberty and justice for all. In fact, if you have a Penzey’s store near you you can get Justice (or another half-cup spice or blend) for free by buying $5 worth of something else. Saving money while celebrating… now that’s the American way!

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Why is frozen pizza so terrible?

Posted on June 27, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Cape Cod Cafe Pizza

Cape Cod Cafe Pizza.

Last night I was at my local supermarket and, on a whim, decided to have frozen pizza for dinner. Looking for something different, I went for the Cape Cod Café Pepperoni Pizza which, according to the label, is made by the founder’s grandsons who “carry on the tradition of hard work and the mentality of never cutting corners to make sure the pizzas today are the same as Papa made them over 80 years ago.”

I cooked the pie according to the package directions and it was just awful. Unpleasant to eat, unpleasant again when it haunted me in the middle of the night. And it made me realize how unsatisfactory frozen pizzas are in general because of a Hobbesian choice: the producer can use a prebaked crust, in which the pie is dry and cracker-y, or a “rising crust” which bakes in the oven and is doughy and bready. In both cases the crust insults and overwhelms the toppings.

Have I ever had a frozen pizza I would eat again? Vicolo’s is a brand with a thick cornmeal crust you can buy on the west coast. In this case the crust becomes a benefit, but the frozen pizza can’t hold a candle to the fresh pies that were sold in Vicolo’s now-closed restaurant. Actually, turns out we did a frozen pizza taste test back in 2017 in which we tried 3 different brands and found them all woeful.  If anyone has a frozen pizza they would recommend, I would like to hear about it!

Cape Cod Cafe Pizza

This picture is from the Cape Cod Cafe website and also appears on the Goldbelly page. Now that looks like something I might eat…

Getting back to Cape Cod pizza, the claim that my frozen hockey puck was made the same as 80 years ago is probably not true; a third party processing plant is likely involved though it is not identified on the package. Goldbelly will ship you 4 actual pies from the pizza shop for $99; they look quite different on the website from my supermarket product.

And according to a Google search result“[Cape Cod style is] a specific kind of pizza — a 10-inch pie with a flaky, buttery crust that has sauce and cheese to the edges. They’re usually topped with a combination of mozzarella and cheddar cheese and can have “laced” — or burnt — edges.” Sounds interesting. If I get to Cape Cod I just might try one.

Posted in Eating | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Food for thought: Chinese Food & History blog

Posted on June 22, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Biryani

Biryani, or is it? From the Chinese Food & History blog.

After the Chinese culinary history class I reported on at my college reunion, Professor Maddalena Poli referred me to Miranda Brown’s Chinese Food & History blog which I suspect may have been an inspiration for her own course. The blog reports on a variety of topics but the most interesting to us are those including ASIAN 258 in the title and especially this introductory post. From the context we can gather that Asian 258 is a very popular elective with a sizeable waiting list; during the pandemic Professor Brown opted to teach the course online through blog posts and related materials.

Being a modern academic, Brown is very concerned about cultural appropriation. She gets into this topic at the end of the above post then wades deeper in The Great Noodle Debate, in which she provides evidence that not only was pasta invented in China, Europe was a late comer to the rolled dough game. Take that, Marco Polo.

In Eating Tempura, Living Dangerously: Nagasaki 1600 (AS 258), she demonstrates that Japanese tempura actually came from Portugal along with a number of other dishes. (The “danger” came from the fact that if you became overly enamored of Portuguese culture in 1600s Nagasaki and converted to Christianity, you were likely to meet a bad end.) Examination of the origins of curry, churros and kimchi in later posts yield similar results. The posts are full of links, to scholarly references, other Asian food blogs and, most important, recipes using the foods she talks about.

Homemade Dry Gluten

Gluten sponges from scratch.

By now we’re very deep down a rabbit hole, but the rabbit is delicious. And then, just like that, the semester is over and the blog comes to an end. The final post is simply a recipe, Gluten “sponges” from scratch. Eating meat substitutes has never appealed to me, but now I want to make it at home. Cultural appropriation at work? Check it out.

Posted in Eating, Food for Thought | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Recipe: Avjar Red Pepper Spread

Posted on June 9, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
Ajvar

Ajvar Roasted Red Pepper Spread.

Avjar is a condiment used through the Balkans made with ground red peppers plus some eggplant to stretch the recipe. Serious Eats did an exhaustive experiment to find the best avjar recipe and we followed their method. The result was good and went great with cevapcici, but it was too mild made with domestic red bell peppers so we added a bit of cayenne for a kick. It turns out you can order Bulgarian avjar on Amazon for a very low price—currently $14 for a 2 kilo can—so we’ll probably do that next time. Makes 2 c.

Ingredients:
2 lb red bell peppers (about 4 large ones)
1 small eggplant (about 3/4 pound)
2 T minced garlic
½ t cayenne, plus more to taste
¼ c olive oil
1 T white vinegar
1 T kosher salt
¼ t ground black pepper

Method: roast peppers on stovetop, under broiler or over a charcoal fire, turning frequently until all sides are black and blistered. Transfer to a paper bag, seal and wait for the peppers to cool. It will then be easy to peel them by hand, removing stem and seeds as you go. Transfer peeled peppers to a food processor. Poke holes all over eggplant with a fork, cut it in half, brush the cut side with olive oil and roast cut side down on a silicon pad or parchment paper in a sheet pan in 450 degree oven for about 35 minutes or until soft and deflated. Cool and scoop as you would an avocado, scraping a spoon against the skin from the inside to extract as much meat as possible.

Transfer eggplant meat to the food processor along with garlic and blend to a paste. Add with all other ingredients to a saucepan and simmer until liquid has evaporated, about 30 minutes over very low heat. Taste and add cayenne, salt and pepper as needed. Serve with grilled meat or maybe on burgers. Leftover ajvar will keep a couple of weeks in the refrigerator, or indefinitely in the freezer.

Posted in Condiments, Eating | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Are Trader Joe’s Savory Thins the world’s best cracker?

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Burnt My Fingers
ThinsWithCotswold

World’s best cracker? Trader Joe’s Savory Thin Crackers.

We always have a box or two of Trader Joe’s Savory Thin Crackers around. Luckily, they keep for a very long time. Boxes found after a year in the back of the cupboard do not taste stale. Even open packages will be crisp and flavorful for weeks. (But store in a zipper bag, just to be safe.)

The flavor is mild but pleasant: salt, and a bit of sesame. Trader Joe’s Savory Thin Crackers are best with cheese (any cheese) but the taste will not clash with patés or vegetable spreads. They’re sturdy enough to handle a spread but be careful adding a hard cheese because they may crack in half. (So apply that hard cheese while the cracker is on the plate, not in your hand.) Once the topping has been added, it will stay in place on the way to your mouth. When it encounters teeth the cracker neither resists or disintegrates but breaks apart just when you want it to.

CrackersNCotswold

Trader Joe’s Savory Thin Crackers with Cotswold cheese, a favorite combo.

Storage, usability, texture, flavor all get high scores when you are looking for a cracker that plays well with toppings instead of asserting itself. Really, we can’t find anything not to like. Oh, and they’re gluten free. We can’t claim they’re the world’s best cracker because that statement is impossible to prove, but Trader Joe’s Savory Thin Crackers are the official cracker of Burnt My Fingers.

Posted in Eating | Tagged , | 4 Comments