Freezer hoarding

Posted on May 23, 2019 by Burnt My Fingers
Freezer Hoarding Beef

Freezer hoarding in action: random Certified Angus beef cuts bought on markdown.

My blogger friend Daniel B revealed something remarkable: he has 40 chicken carcasses in his freezer. Talk about freezer hoarding! These are supermarket rotisserie chickens which have been mostly plucked clean of their meat but with some scraps and connective tissue left as well as the flavor and nutrition in the bones. He’s moving out of state and is looking for a soup kitchen or dedicated stock maker to take the lot. If you are interested, contact him at the link above.

Small Freezer Hoarding

This is our small auxiliary freezer below the fridge. It would be ample for most families.

I will be the first to say I am also guilty of freezer hoarding. We have a good size bottom freezer in our main fridge and a dedicated freezer in the basement. We buy a half pig every year which takes up one shelf in the big freezer. Various frozen produce takes up a second shelf…. including a lifetime supply of sour cherries from the tree in our yard. The rest is chaos, and mostly my fault. My freezer hoarding includes:

  • One or more whole USDA Prime briskets purchased on sale on trips to H.E.B. Market in Austin…. Because how could you not? The TSA people recognize the profile of the frozen brisket in the x-ray of your carry-on and wave you through the security line.
  • A whole pig belly (with skin on) marked for porchetta, plus five pounds of uncooked tripe for the pickled tripe experiment I promised nearly two years ago. There is also a pig’s foot in case the tripe needs more collagen to jell.
  • Any number of packages of Certified Angus beef I buy marked down at Price Chopper because they are past their sell-by date. Typically there are half a dozen packages of short ribs I will accumulate and then throw in the instant pot, and several steaks.
  • Multiple sacks of shrimp shells where I peeled the shrimp, then saved the shell for a future stock. As well as several sacks of coriander roots (for Thai seasonings) and curry leaves and Kaffir lime leaves (which we’re not supposed to call that any more) and lots of bacon and the last couple sacks of my Benton ham.

What’s not in the freezer are things nutritionists advise you to put there to keep them in optimal condition, like coffee beans and spices. I don’t disagree, but there’s simply no room.

Part of the problem is that some of my most reliable consumption devices, i.e. teenagers, are absent at school or other activities. Sure, I could make up a whole porchetta, but then that turns into refrigerator hoarding.

Does anybody else want to come forward about their own refrigerator hoarding? Maybe we could combine your frozen pastry shells and my frozen cherries and make a pie!

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Food for Thought: Alison Roman’s Dining In

Posted on May 21, 2019 by Burnt My Fingers

Even though I am a huge fan of Alison Roman’s recipes in the New York Times, I resisted buying her cookbook,  Dining In. Why? Because her salty kitchen essentials, the first items in the book, were all head nodders, things that are already in my pantry at all times: anchovies, capers, fish sauce, kosher salt, parmesan, olives, preserved lemon… well, actually not that last one, so I read on. And found many of the recipes are like what I throw together when I have ingredients and want to combine them in a tasty way.

But…. She’s got a recipe for “Crunchy Chili Oil” which is like Chili Crisp, but without the picture of the Grumpy Housewife on the label. (By the way, the original Grumpy Cat died last week… but I digress.) And makes her own Zata’ar. And her own Everything Bagel seasoning mixture. Interesting.

But what finally sold me on Dining In was her Crispy Chicken Legs recipe in which she comfits the legs in a bath of olive oil then uses the leftover oil, now flavored with chicken fat and herbs, to make other recipes. Yes, you could do the same thing but you haven’t, right? Check it out.

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Eating habits

Posted on May 16, 2019 by Burnt My Fingers
Too Much Sushi

Eating these last few pieces of AYCE sushi was a real slog. Could it be my eating habits have changed?

When I was a kid, I had a health science teacher who told us our eating habits change every seven years. While I no longer hunger for Lik-M-Aid and cinnamon toothpicks, I have always regarded that lesson as fake science. But recently I’ve begun to wonder.

Specifically, this week I have been on my own at dinner time so I made a plan to hit the various Saratoga Springs dining establishments at happy hour. Monday started according to plan. I sat at the bar at Hamlet & Ghost with my Yelp friend Eric T, and we passed two hours watching the master bartenders make drinks with garnish held together with tiny clothespins. However, I found myself unexcited about ordering from the happy hour menu (other than a dozen dollar oysters, of course) and ended up eating a frozen pizza at home.

Tuesday was an off day but Wednesday was set: I would visit Morrissey’s for their half-off Wednesday sushi. If their online menu was correct, I would be eating uni for $2 per piece! But I was really enjoying watching an outlaw country music video (Heartworn Highways Revisited: check it out, as well as its predecessor Heartworn Highways) and I knew how that sushi would taste and decided I would have more fun staying home and eating leftovers. So I did.

Today, Thursday, I planned to visit the Mercantile on Broadway to see if was really true, per various Yelpers, that the food had gone downhill. So I was looking forward to a disappointing meal, and that didn’t sound like much fun. I parked on Putnam and passed by Wasabi, an AYCE place with passable sushi for $15 at lunch, and realized I could satisfy my sushi craving (sans uni, but with a lot of other stuff) for no more than I would have paid at Morrisseys. So I did. Ordered so much that I was warned for the first time that I would be charged for uneaten food. I finished it, but the last few pieces were a slog and I’m shot for eating dinner.

I don’t know if my eating habits have changed, but I do see a trend here. If I’m out with a friend, or in the neighborhood anyway, I’ll hit a favorite restaurant or try something new. Otherwise, I’m more likely to just stay at home. Fortunately, I have a freezer full of tripe, brisket and other treats so I’m not likely to starve.

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How to cook a perfect steak

Posted on May 14, 2019 by Burnt My Fingers

To cook a perfect steak, start with a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. I have decided I prefer this method because the delicious juices accumulate in the pan rather than dripping into the fire. You can use anything that doesn’t require marinating–New York strip, ribeye, filet mignon etc.*

Cook a Perfect Steak

Heat a cast iron skillet very hot, then sprinkle it generously with salt.

Start by heating the empty skillet on a burner set to high. Unless you have a high-BTU professional grade stove you really can’t get it too hot. My burners are 15,000 BTU and I let it heat five minutes, easy.

While the skillet is heating, sprinkle some Kosher salt all around its surface. This will serve as a cushion for the meat. Don’t be shy: mine is a 12-inch skillet and I used maybe ¾ teaspoon.

Cook a Perfect Steak

Drop in the meat, then season the top side to your preference.

Now, drop in the meat. It should sizzle nicely when it hits the hot iron. If it doesn’t, you didn’t heat the pan enough. Not a problem, the other surface will be fine and you can use that for presentation. If the meat practically explodes when it hits, you’ve managed to get the skillet too hot. Good job; now turn it down a bit.

The Hand Test

The hand test: surface of the meat should feel like the heel of your hand.

While the first side is cooking, sprinkle on some seasoning. It’s already salted so sometimes I just grind a little pepper. Or I’ll use a combination of my Burger House seasoning and Cavendar’s Greek Seasoning.

Let the first side cook maybe 4 minutes, then flip it over. The surface should feel like the heel of your hand: tough on top, yielding underneath. You want both sides of the steak to feel like that so let the second side get good and crisp. If it’s a thin steak, it’s now done. For an inch-thick New York strip like this one, you might want to flip it one additional time. Now (after the steak has been in the skillet a total of 6-7 minutes) turn off the heat. It will continue to cook, but more slowly.

Cook a Perfect Steak

Let the steak rest a bit, then use a meat thermometer inserted from the side to confirm doneness.

Transfer the steak to a plate and let it rest a couple of minutes. Because we want to cook a perfect steak, we will cheat and use a meat thermometer to confirm doneness. This one is 118 degrees which, the beef people tell us, should be somewhere between rare and medium rare.

And when we slice it, that’s exactly what it is. There you have it, the best way to cook a perfect steak. Let it rest for a few more minutes which will produce some juicy juices you can sop up with potato or some crusty bread. Enjoy.

*Update: last night I used the same technique, with modifications, to cook a tri-tip that had been marinated in olive oil, finely chopped garlic and soy, worcestershire** and fish sauces with pepper but no salt. Salted the empty skillet then slapped the steak right down, without draining. At the end, I poured in the marinade to sizzle and add to the pan juices. Delicious.

Perfect Steak

Walla, that is how you cook a perfect steak.

**Do you know how to pronounce this word? It’s not “Wooster” as my mother taught me. For a very detailed answer, watch this video.

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Recipe: Josey Baker Seed Bread

Posted on May 9, 2019 by Burnt My Fingers
Josey Baker Seed Bread

Josey Baker Seed Bread

Josey Baker calls his Seed Bread “Seed Feast” but I’ve retitled it because of some changes in the recipe. This was the first of his loaves I tasted and and it exploded from flavor from the crumb, the sour and the toasted seeds. He told me he reuses all his bits and pieces of leftover starter for the next day’s bread and I suspect that is the source of his preferment. Makes two 2-lb loaves.

Ingredients, for the preferment:
125 g refreshed sourdough starter at 60%
185 g cool water (approximate, added in stages)
170 g whole wheat flour (or substitute other flours and adjust hydration per directions below)

For the seed mix:
160 g raw pumpkin seeds
110 g raw flax seeds (brown or gold)
110 g raw sunflower seeds
360 g/1 ½ c (approx) hot water

For the final dough:
750 g all purpose flour
480 g warm water
24 g Kosher salt (about 1 ½ T)
2 T olive oil

Method: mix the preferment 8-12 hours before you plan to start the bread. Add half the water to a bowl and stir to distribute the starter, then add the rest of the flour and gradually add water, stirring, till the preferment reaches the consistency of thick pancake batter. If you’re not using whole grain flour you may not need all the water. Cover and set aside in a warm place to work until bubbles appear.

Seeds for Seed Bread

Seeds for Seed Bread, after toasting

At the same time, prepare the seeds. Toast the seeds in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until lightly toasted, frequently turning with a spoon and/or rotating the tray in the oven so they don’t burn. Pour into a bowl then add very hot water to cover, approximately 1 1/2 cup.

When preferment is ready, mix in water and flour for final dough. Allow to autolyse 30 minutes then drain the seeds and add them to the dough along with the salt. Knead until you get good gluten development, 8 or so minutes of hand kneading or equivalent in rotary mixer, or 5 sequences of stretch and folds at 15 minute intervals. (Instructions for stretch-and-fold and other dough handling techniques can be found in this recipe.) The dough should be pretty flaccid but not so liquid it sticks to your hands or the sides of the mixing bowl; add some more flour as you go if necessary.

Seed Bread Crumb

Seed Bread Crumb

After kneading, pour olive oil over the dough in a bowl and turn so it coats all surfaces. Cover and rise 4 hours or until noticeably risen. Shape into two balls, rest 20 minutes, then shape into boules or batards and proof in floured bannetons or equivalent until noticeably risen, about 2 hours.

20 minutes before you plan to bake, preheat two dutch ovens in a 500 degree oven. Remove the pans from the oven (carefully, using good pot holders, so you don’t get burned) and transfer to a heat-proof surface like a trivet on your counter. Shake a little polenta or cornmeal into the bottom of the pans then flip in the loaves from the bannetons. Score tops of loaves with a sharp knife. Cover, return to oven and reduce heat to 475 degrees. Bake 20 minutes to steam the loaves, then remove lids and bake 25 minutes uncovered, or until nicely browned with an internal temperature of 206 degrees. Turn out on a wire rack and allow to cool at least 2 hours before slicing.

Posted in Baking and Baked Goods, Recipes | Tagged , | 1 Comment

How to present a pickle plate

Posted on May 7, 2019 by Burnt My Fingers
Pickle Plate

My pickle plate (would eliminate either the green beans or asparagus, both at bottom, next time)

It irks me that places are charging $4 or so for a “pickle plate” the size of a saucer with 3 or 4 choices. I would rather go to Tommy’s Joynt in San Francisco, where there is a pickle jar on the counter and you can curdle your stomach to your heart’s content. But the good news is, the current trend gives you license to serve up a pickle plate to your guests with a straight face and even, if there are some bonus proteins and carbs included, call it lunch.

Pickle Plate Lunch

Pickle plate with bread and cheese = lunch

“Pickles” can refer both to lacto fermented vegetables and to items which do not have their chemical composition changed, but are preserved in a vinegar brine. I would serve both of these on a pickle plate. The example shown here has two lacto ferments, the green beans and the asparagus. (They are oddly similar in taste after the fermentation, but not quite the same, so I would serve on or the other next time.) Add to this a pickled egg (there’s your protein) and some beets and onions from Jake’s grandmother’s recipe. I also included some cauliflower chunks that were macerating in leftover pickle juice from Pucker’s, a local brand.

If I had them I might have included some sweetened bread-and-butter pickles or some spicy giardinara. I would not have added Sichuan Pickled Vegetables which are complex enough they need to be enjoyed on their own, or in the context of a bowl of jook or medley of Sichuan dishes.

As it is, I added a piece of toasted Olive Bread with Rye Starter that had been spread with some Stilton from Trader Joe’s. There you go, here’s your lunch.

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

Recipe: Fennel Braised Pork Chops

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Burnt My Fingers
Fennel Braised Pork Chops

Fennel Braised Pork Chops: expect some nice caramelization from the brown sugar

A tweak of the recipe in Alison Roman’s Dining In. Fennel Braised Pork Chops are sweet/sour/crunchy on the outside and throw off a wonderful liquid which you can use to prepare some accompanying greens. Serves 2 with very large portions or 3-4 if you are prepared to partition the chops before serving.

Ingredients:
2 pork loin chops, cut at least 1-inch thick (about 1 ¼ to 1 ½ pound total)
1 T fennel seeds
1 T brown sugar
2 t Kosher salt
½ t freshly ground black pepper
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced
1 t lemon juice
4 c or so braising greens, ideally including half a fennel bulb

Method: toast fennel seeds in a skillet without burning for about 4 minutes, till they are very aromatic. Cool slightly then grind with a mortar and pestle; the toasted fennel should disintegrate into a coarse powder. Mix with brown sugar, salt and pepper and rub on all sides (including the edges) of two large pork chops. Brine for an hour or so until the chops give off a good amount of liquid.

Fennel Chops Brining

Fennel Braised Pork Chops in their brine

Heat a cast iron pan till very hot; add the olive oil then the pork chops and sear both sides. They will be blackened quickly because of the sugar in the marinade but don’t let them burn. Lower the heat to medium and cook, turning frequently, till the center reaches 140 degrees F as measured on a meat thermometer. Reserve the chops and add garlic and fennel (thinly sliced in the long direction) to the delicious pan juices and cook until caramelized, 4 minutes or so. Add braising greens and cover; steam a couple of minutes then add lemon juice. Return pork chops to the pan and cover, heat to serving temperature and bring to table (with appropriate safety measures) in the sizzling cast iron pan.

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Diamond Crystal or Morton’s, which Kosher salt is better?

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Burnt My Fingers
Kosher Salt Boxes

Diamond Crystal vs Morton’s Kosher salt: bigger box, higher price

Most every recipe on Burnt My Fingers specifies (unless we forget) Kosher salt. That’s because we mistrust the tiny crystals of table salt that make it easy to oversalt your food, plus you might pick up iodized salt by mistake which would play havoc with your ferments. However, there are two popular brands of Kosher salt, so which to use…. Diamond Crystal or Morton’s?

Kosher Salt Detail

Look closely and you can see the difference in Diamond Crystal (on the left) and Morton’s Kosher Salt.

Readers have occasionally pointed out that Morton’s Coarse Kosher Salt is produced by grinding down larger salt pieces, whereas Diamond Crystal has a proprietary process for reforming its crystals into fancy fluffy cones. As a result, a given amount of Morton’s by volume contains more NaCl than the same volume of Diamond Crystal. If you measure by teaspoons without knowing that—for example, if you are a lifelong user of Crystal but find yourself in a Morton’s kitchen—you are at risk of severely undersalting or oversalting your food.

As a regular reader of Burnt My Fingers, you can guess which we prefer: Morton’s. That’s because it is cheaper. It’s rare to find the two brands in the same supermarket, but in repeated shopping in my area Diamond Crystal comes in at about $4 and Morton’s at $3 for 48 oz. Which is not surprising—the looser structure of Diamond requires a bigger box, and there’s that extra processing to pay for.

You can find lots of chatter online about how “professional kitchens always use Diamond” but that doesn’t seem right—why have a higher food cost than necessary without getting an extra benefit? One legitimate vote for Diamond is from Stella Parks at BraveTart—she prefers diamond Crystal because it’s pure salt, whereas Morton’s has an anti-caking agent that can throw off certain candy recipes.

I did a poll on Facebook’s Tell Me What You’re Eating group and the votes (mostly from pro chefs) was 14-3 Mortons. Too small a sample to be statistically valid, but I’m calling it for Morton. There was also a sizeable bunch who said Himalayan Pink Salt, which is a topic for another day.

The most important consideration, whether yours is a professional kitchen or you serve a few hungry mouths at home, is to be consistent. Pick your salt and measure by weight, not volume. Err on the side of caution, then taste as you go. You can’t turn back the clock on an oversalted dish, but neither can you make up for that first disappointing bite of an undersalted product.

P.S. Kosher salt got its name not because it’s produced under Kosher supervision, though it is, but because it’s used in the process of koshering meat, which means to draw the blood out.

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Recipe: Cabbage Wedge with Blue Cheese and Miso Dressing

Posted on April 25, 2019 by Burnt My Fingers
Cabbage Miso Blue Cheese

Cabbage Wedge with Blue Cheese and Miso Dressing

Yet another way to eat our favorite vegetable, cabbage! Inspired by a recipe from Lady of the House in Detroit, Cabbage Wedge with Blue Cheese and Miso Dressing has a similar presentation to the iceberg wedge served in fancy steakhouses. Try it with corned beef! The miso dressing is nice on its own and would go well with any salad involving fruit or nuts.
Serves 6-8.

Ingredients:
1 medium head green cabbage
Neutral oil (like safflower or peanut) for roasting
1/2 c crumbly blue cheese

For the miso dressing:
1 T Kosher salt
1 T sugar
2 T honey
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T rice vinegar
2 T soy sauce
1 1/2 T white miso
1 1/2 t fresh ginger, peeled then grated or chopped
1/2 c neutral oil (like safflower or peanut) for the dressing

Method: remove outer leaves of cabbage and cut in 6-8 serving size wedges. Heat oil in a large sauté pan and pan-roast each wedge approximately 5 minutes on each side, until browned. Reserve.

For the miso dressing, mix all ingredients with a whisk (if using grated ginger) or mini-chop (if ginger is chopped). To serve, reassemble a cabbage wedge on each plate, pour over dressing and top with crumbled blue cheese. Serve hot, room temperature or cold.

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My other cookbook is a Kindle

Posted on April 23, 2019 by Burnt My Fingers
Noma Kindle Example

A typical page from the Kindle version of The Noma Guide to Fermentation

Some chef friends had an online discussion about how they like to read recipes. Almost everybody said they preferred physical cookbooks because they like to look at the pictures and see how the food is plated. Number of people who preferred a Kindle cookbook version: zero.

It is worth noting that a beautifully photographed and lavishly printed book like the French Laundry Cookbook has no place in a working kitchen (unless it’s the immaculate French Laundry kitchen, maybe) and if these chefs are inspired by the recipes they likely transcribe them to some other medium.

I have plenty of cookbooks and when I cook from them I tend to take a photo with my iPad then prop the tablet up so I can refer to the picture while working. But lately I have been eliminating the middleman and just buying new cookbooks on Kindle. Kindle cookbooks are impossible to spill on or misplace because the document resides in the Bezos Cloud; if you drop your tablet in the stockpot, just grab your laptop. You can save the books onto multiple devices and browse them at your leisure, like when you are on a plane. And you can take screenshots of the pages if you want to print them out.

And, the Kindle visual translation is not at all bad, assuming you’re reading in color on a high resolution device. Ingredients lists and instructions are easy to read with a quick look, and photos aren’t of gallery standards but fine for looking at what the dish is supposed to look like. (This is forensic, vs. artistic, photography and it’s what we strive for on Burnt My Fingers.)

Right now I’m reading Rene Redzepi’s The Noma Guide to Fermentation and Stella Parks’ BraveTart. Both are eminently readable for entertainment as well as knowledge, and I don’t think I’m giving up anything by looking at a digital version. Your thoughts?

Posted in Cooking, Food for Thought | Tagged , | 2 Comments