Recipe: Soba Noodle Salad with Tahini Dressing

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Soba Salad

Cold soba noodle salad. You can perk up the appearance with some chopped red bell pepper, but we like the monotone effect.

Cold soba noodle salad is a nice change of pace from macaroni salad, especially when served with other Asian dishes. Feel free to modify it with other mix-ins such as red onion replacing scallions, or some finely chopped celery. Serves 4.

Ingredients:
4 oz (½ package) dry soba noodles
2 T tahini
1 T soy sauce
2 T rice vinegar
1 T toasted sesame oil
½ t salt
1 cube ½ inch square Trader Joe’s frozen ginger, or equivalent amount fresh ginger
½ cup edamame beans out of shell
1 scallion, sliced into rings including some of the green
A shake of red pepper flakes
Furikaki flakes for garnish (optional)

Method: cook the soba noodles according to package directions until soft but not limp. (We used Annie Chun brand and the package said 4 minutes after water comes to a boil.) Meanwhile, mix tahini, soy, rice vinegar, pepper flakes and ginger in a bowl. (If the tahini does not want to blend with the other ingredients, heat it briefly in microwave.) Add the drained noodles and toss well to evenly distribute sauce. Add edamame and scallion and lightly mix. Refrigerate a couple hours and serve cold or at room temperature.

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Taste test: Trader Joe’s Comte Cheese

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Comte Taste Test

Trader Joe’s Comté at the top, coop at the bottom

The cheese monger at my local coop noticed me browsing the Gruyere section and commented that he likes to buy Swiss Gruyere or its French equivalent, Comté, to shred on pizza. About a 50/50 ratio of swiss and mozzarella. The benefit of the Swiss is that is melts beautifully, and also keeps its integrity (instead of separating and puddling) if a slice is reheated. I was sold and picked up a small block of Comté at $22 a pound plus an equivalent block of Gruyere at $19 a pound (the cheese guy says he uses them interchangeably, depending on what’s on sale.)

Comte Taste Test

Other side of the labels shows aging duration.

Then I went to Trader Joe’s and found Comté for $10.99 a pound. Label says it is aged over 6 months vs the co-op cheese aged 6-9 months, so equivalent. (I have tasted the stages of aged Comté at the Gourmino booth at the suspended Fancy Food Show. The longer-aged versions, like 2 years, develop a nutty feral flavor akin to dry aged steaks. But they are rare and expensive and you’re unlikely to find them at retail.) So how do they compare?

To my palate, the two cheeses are almost identical! There’s a subtle note of complexity in the more expensive cheese, and it is slightly darker perhaps due to a darker rind, but these differences are tiny and certainly not worth paying twice the price. Comté from Trader Joe is a winner, just like the Roquefort we mentioned a while back.

Gooey Cheese Sandwich

Gooey Cheese Sandwich made with Trader Joe’s Swiss blend.

There is also a shredded “Swiss blend” at Trader Joe’s which is definitely worth trying. It’s $5 for a 12 oz bag, so less than $7 a pound. I tried it out on a cast iron skillet-grilled cheese sandwich and the results were excellent: lots of that gooey-ness my cheese monger talked about. Check it out.

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Recipe: Pickled Red Onions

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Pickled Red Onions

Pickled Red Onions. Pro tip: choose onions that will fit in your jar when sliced.

Pickled red onions are easy, delicious and oh so instagrammable. They also have a short refrigerator life, turning bitter after a few days, so no reason not to make them often. Unlike most, our recipe contains no sugar, getting its slight sweetness from rice vinegar and warm spices in a pickling mix. Makes 2 c.

Ingredients:
2-3 small red onions (small enough to fit in your storage containers)
¾ c rice vinegar
¾ c water
½ t Kosher salt
1 t pickling spice mix (optional)
1 bay leaf (optional)

Pickled Red Onions

Cross section to show spices in jar.

Method: place half a bay leaf and ½ t pickling spice mix in the bottom of each of two 8-oz canning jars. (Or simply use any container that can withstand boiling liquid.) Peel the onions and slice very thin; a mandoline is recommended. Pack tightly into jars, paying attention to appearance from the sides and top.

Dissolve salt in vinegar in a small saucepan; add water and heat to boiling. Pour quickly over the onion rings in the jars. If you need more liquid, simply add equal amounts of vinegar and liquid till jars are filled to the top. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate. Pickles will be ready to enjoy in 3 hours and last up to a week, refrigerated.

Pickled Red Onions

We tried two preps: pouring the boiling liquid into the jar, and waiting for it to cool first. Hot liquid = marginally better flavor.

Uses: pickled red onions can be used anywhere you’d use raw onions: burgers, sandwiches, salads. Because they’re so pretty and so flavorful, consider serving them on the side and let diners assemble the final product themselves.

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Steak with Five-Spice Asian Marinade

Posted on September 29, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Steak with Five-Spice Asian Marinade

Steak with Five-Spice Asian Marinade

We are big fans of Certified Angus Beef, which gives us permission to borrow this recipe from their website. Technically, we aren’t actually stealing it because we made a couple of crucial improvements. Switched the meat from strip steaks (their recommendation, for obvious $$ reasons) to a less expensive, more marinade-receptive cut. And we added neutral oil so the meat wouldn’t stick on the grill with all that sugar. Portion size is for a 30-ounce top sirloin; adjust as needed for smaller or larger steaks.

Ingredients:
Approx. 30 oz top sirloin steak (flank, flap, tritip and flatiron also good candidaes)
¼ c soy sauce
2 T brown sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 t toasted Asian sesame oil
2 T neutral oil (canola, vegetable etc)
2 t five spice powder
½ t ground black pepper

Steak with Five-Spice Asian Marinade

Best way to serve this steak is sliced across the grain, served with lots of the delicious juice

Method: dissolve the sugar in the soy sauce, in a bag or a shallow dish just big enough to hold the steak. Add other marinade ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add steak and turn to coat all sides. Marinate 4-6 hours, turning frequently. Grill according to your usual method, rest a few minutes and serve.

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Belon Oysters are in!

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Belon Oysters

Our beloved Belon Oysters, ready for degustation.

We encountered Belon Oysters at the wonderful Shucker Paddy’s demo at Fin Your Fishmonger a couple of years ago, and immediately fell in love. Originally from the Belon river in France, Belons are big and flat with shells that are crusty and difficult to open. (Shucker Paddy advised us to work the knife around the shell instead of always going in at the hinge; our experience is that the easiest opening place will be near the hinge but not on it.) The reward is a generous meat with a taste that combines seaweed and copper… transcendent.

At least that’s what we think. Shucker Paddy told us that of the 10% of diners who like oysters, only 10% of those will like Belons. All the more for us, when the short season begins in late September. (I’ve read they are in season from September to May, but in the northeast US at Fin Your Fishmonger they’re only available for a couple of weeks.) Hard to get, hard to open, maybe hard to choke down but if you are Belon material you will be as giddy as we are. If your fishmonger carries them, bring home a bag. If they don’t, ask for a special order.

If you like oysters in general, you’ll learn a lot in our Shucker Paddy video, which comes with written notes. And do consider ordering Shucker Paddy’s oyster knife which really is a genius design.

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Our five most popular recipes in 2020

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Instant Pot Sourdough Bread

Instant Pot Sourdough Bread

Another year has rolled by on Burnt My Fingers, so time for another clips post. Here are the recipes that garnered the most clicks (and hopefully contributed to a number of savory meals) during the pandemic. At least we didn’t all gorge on Bloody Marys and Chili Crisp Ice Cream.

  1. Recipe: Halal Guys White Sauce. In years past, folks gravitated to our expose of the coverup without bothering to read the actual recipe. This year, with nothing else to do, they’ve exhibited more curiosity. Spoiler: no exotic spices or mix-ins required.
  1. Recipe: Instant Pot Sourdough Bread. You can’t actually bake sourdough bread in the Instant Pot but can definitely do a nice job of proofing it. Try this with any number of bread recipes you can find on Burnt My Fingers by searching for “sourdough”.
  1. Recipe: Vinegar Peppers. A perennial favorite and very easy to make, reflecting the Italian-American red sauce tradition of the region where Burnt My Fingers is based. Enjoy Pork Chops with Vinegar Peppers, a local classic in Saratoga Springs.
  1. Recipe: Amish Creamed Celery. Although celery has a lot of symbolism in Amish Country, we didn’t find any in the familiar béchamel sauce when we visited there a while back. So we made our own, and folks seem to like it.
  1. Recipe: The Colonel’s KFC Three-Bean Salad. The Colonel inexplicably discontinued his best side dish, so we had to recreate it. We always make bean salad when canned goods go on sale at our local supermarket, and so should you. Feel free to cut back on the sugar, then add more if needed.

What lies ahead? In our area the virus counts are low and school has resumed with limited in-person attendance, but we’re still cautious about going out to eat. We’re also looking into a replacement for our sickly Thermador Professional stove which should inspire lots of home cooking. Stay tuned.

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Food for Thought: Chef’s Table featuring Tootsie Tomanetz on Netflix

Posted on September 17, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Tootsie Tomanetz

Tootsie Tomanetz in the smoke pit at Snow’s. Photo provided by Netflix.

Google “Snow’s beans” or “Snow’s brisket” and you will find this blog close to the top of your recommendations. I suppose we’ve been there for a while, but this search has become far more popular in the past week since the first episode of the new Chef’s Table season aired on Netflix. The season is all about barbecue, and the kickoff show is based at our favorite spot, Snow’s in Lexington TX.

Chef’s Table is not one of our top food shows, to tell the truth. It’s all hat and no cattle, as we say in TX…. beautiful photography and soulful portraits of chefs staring into space, but little actual food lore and a minimal story line. But when that story involves Snow’s beloved pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz, who just celebrated her 85th birthday, we’re happy to learn about her day job (custodian at the local high school, and she looks to be good at it) and her resilience after losing her husband and later her son.

The episode spends lots of time in the smoke pit with Tootsie and Snow’s owner Kerry Bexley…. always a treat and more so right now when you can’t visit in person. In watching we realized Kerry may have funnin’ us when he repeatedly called Tootsie “Tootie” during our last visit. That was probably reacting to a little kid who had recently visited, because he clearly refers to her as “Tootsie” on Chef’s Table.

There are some excellent cooking shows on Netflix, notably The Chef Show and the various efforts of David Chang, and you can move on to those after you’ve viewed Snow’s Barbecue on Chef’s Table. Check ‘em out.

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Recipe: Improved Fried Okra

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Fried Okra

Fried Okra should look like this when done, golden brown with a bit of green showing through here and there.

For such a versatile vegetable, fried okra generates a lot of controversy. Soak in buttermilk for tenderness, or coat with beaten egg so batter will stick? Dredge in flour for a uniform crust, or cornmeal for a pleasing crunch? How about all of the above! We ran a fried okra recipe back in 2012, but this is way better. Serves 4-6 as a side dish.

Ingredients:
1 lb fresh okra (no brown streaks and definitely not slimy), stem removed and sliced crosswise into ¾ inch pieces
¼ c whole fat buttermilk (or skim buttermilk if that’s all you can find)
1 large egg, beaten
½ c all purpose flour
½ c cornmeal
¾ t salt
¼ t ground black pepper
½ t Old Bay Seasoning (optional)*
Neutral oil for deep frying

Method: soak the okra pieces in buttermilk for half an hour, turning from time to time so the pieces get equal exposure to the liquid. Add beaten egg and mix thoroughly. Heat oil to 375 degrees. Mix flour and cornmeal with spices. Dredge okra pieces in flour/cornmeal and fry a few at a time, turning with a slotted spoon so they brown evenly. Pieces are done when they are a golden brown but not dark. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.

Note: traditionally fried okra is served with black eye peas, collards and other Southern sides–doused liberally with pepper sauce, of course. If you want to get creative, the Jubilee cookbook has a recipe where they are used like croutons, in a salad with a tart lemon dressing.

*h/t to Dave Chang, who puts it in the southern-style fried chicken served at Momofuku Noodle Bar.

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Top non-recipe posts of 2020

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Top non-recipe posts

Lots of people want to make this at home. We show you how!

It’s been quite a year, has it not? The readership of Burnt My Fingers (and probably most food blogs) has more than doubled during the pandemic, as folks look for something to do while stuck at home. And yet most readers find their way here through well-trodden paths laid down by the search engines. In commemoration of the blog’s 9th anniversary in September, here are our five most popular non-recipe posts of the year:

  1. The Halal Guys white sauce mystery… SOLVED! We cracked the code of the creamy white topping offered at the legendary NYC street food stand, while revealing what amounts to a vast conspiracy among food mavens to misdirect the public. By far our most-read post with over 15K views this year.
  2. Test driving the Misen nonstick skillet. The good people at Misen like to tout the science behind their products, so we grabbed an early version of their new skillet and put it through its paces. Over a year later, our skillet is still going strong with non-stick properties virtually intact.
  3. The sauce that made Mr. Durkee famous. In our house we only eat this creamy, eggy topping at Thanksgiving (on leftover turkey sandwiches), but people seem to like to read about it year round. Did Mrs. Lincoln actually invent Durkee’s while in the White House? Was it once made by a paint company? Read the post to find out!
  4. Hacking the Salt & Char Ribeye Cap Steak. Summer in Saratoga means racing, and racing means celebrity chef Bobby Flay is in town, enjoying what he calls “the best thing I’ve ever eaten” at the Salt & Char steakhouse. Their Waygu Ribeye Cap is priced at $78 for a 9-oz serving, We show you how to make it at home—it’s not Waygu, but costs quite a bit less.
  5. How to get big(ger) holes in your baguettes. Everybody’s been baking more, and this post does offer some useful info including pictures, which we usually don’t take the trouble to provide. But don’t stop here—search “sourdough” for many, many recipes and baking strategies including the link at the end of that post on how to generate steam in your home oven for a gleaming, blistery crust.

What lies ahead? Maybe a year from now we’ll be crowding into restaurants and around shared tables once again. (We really, really miss our buffets but suspect that concept is gone for good.) Right now, our several posts on Snow’s Barbecue (do a search) are trending thanks to a recent Netflix show on that fine Texas establishment (which is currently providing its pudding-soft meat by mail order only). While the weather is still good enough to fire up the smoker, check ‘em out.

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Recipe: Italian Seafood Salad

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Italian Seafood Salad

Italian Seafood Salad

This Italian Seafood Salad, or Insalata di Mare, was inspired by Philip Nicolas on the  Cook’s Cooks Community Forum on Facebook. It’s great if you have fresh seafood, but it’s nearly as good made with frozen because of the other strong flavors. Makes about 8 main course servings.

Ingredients
1 lb raw shrimp with shells on, fresh or frozen
1 lb scallops, fresh or frozen
1 lb squid, fresh or frozen, cleaned and cut into sections and tentacles
Dry white wine, for cooking
1 c chopped celery, including some of the leafy tops
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
5 t lemon juice
3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped.
2 T Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 t dried oregano
1/2 t t crushed red pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

Method: prepare a cooking stock with 3 parts water to 1 part wine. Bring to a boil and cook the seafood one type at a time, starting with the shrimp. When they are just cooked, lift the pieces out with a strainer and plunge them into ice water. Peel the shrimp and return the shells to the cooking liquid. Cook the scallops, then the squid, chilling with ice water each time. Reserve the cooking liquid. Drain seafood and toss with other ingredients; add a bit of cooking liquid if it seems dry. Chill for least 2 hours (preferably overnight) then taste and add salt and pepper as needed before serving.

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