Amuse Bouche

Presents!

Look at these yummy presents from my friend Beth who sadly deserted us at Create a Cook to move to North Carolina.

Grits!

Mmmm grits.  There might need to be some low country shrimp and grits for dinner one night.

Homemade Sausage: Chorizo, Brats and Chipolata

Those of you who follow me on twitter (joamuse) have heard me mention my 12-year 13-year old foodie friend who I take along with me on field trips.  He started out as a student at Create a cook with some of the other instructors and they all kept telling me you have to meet him. After 1 conversation Alasdair and I became fast food friends.

Let me introduce you to him by saying one of his goals is to get his parents to take him to a 3 Michelin starred restaurant.  At home he has his own personal kitchen set-up in the corner with his Cuisinart standing mixer a portable induction burner and more tools than most home kitchens. He and I can discuss any cooking technique, and cookbook, chef, etc., at length. He's eaten in far more restaurants than I ever have, in fact he's my 'date' for a friend's birthday dinner at Craigie on Main for Whole Hog night next Tuesday. He dined at Stir recently and Barbara Lynch was the chef that night. He schmoozed her up and told her he wanted a pacojet and a thermal immersion circulator so he can start trying out sous vide cooking but that he was having a tough time convincing his parents, Chef Lynch not only came to his defense saying of course they should get it for him, she also told him he was welcome to come spend a day with her at no 9 Park. Jealous! The boy is food mad.

A few years ago we started out by making a traditional Christmas Pudding at his house.  We hit farmer's markets, we went to Baza when they opened to ogle all the unfamiliar ingredients, we went to Kam Man a few weeks ago where I introduced him to banh mi with head cheese and pate and we wandered up and down every aisle investigating while he helped me pick up ingredients for some upcoming Vietnamese, Korean and Thai classes. There were two things he wanted us to make, brawn or head cheese and sausages.  I figured we could start with the easier of the two since finding a pig's head may require a trip to Maine to visit Heritage Hill Farm in October (more about my visit there later!) so sausages were the first choice.  

Through Kinnealey I picked up some fat back, pork butt and hog casings and then a perusal through Ruhlman and Polcyn's Charcuterie to make the final decisions.

I chose Mexican chorizo, Bratwurst and the 3rd recipe would possible be Italian sausage, but in a nod to Alasdair being British, not to mention husband, we went with the chipolata from the book Alasdair brought me as a gift Professional Charcuterie by John Kinsela.  He chose the book because he loved that all the recipes were charts.  I need to get him a copy of Ratio stat!

I knew it was going to be around 85 - 90F in my kitchen and about an equal percentage of humidity so I bought loads of ice, chilled down all the equipment in the fridge, left the fat in the freezer until the last minute and cut all the meat partially frozen. 

Alasdair acted as official Spice mix master.

We ground the meat into the bowl over another bowl of ice to try and keep it nice and cold.

Even with all these precautions to keep everything ultra cold we still had to pause occasionally and let things rest in the fridge before resuming the next step we sat down at the table with 1 fan aimed at us and 1 fan aimed right at the poor Kitchen-aid to try and cool the poor thing down.  You could fry an egg on the motor housing. Since he has been reading Eric Ripert's new book On The Line we were discussing the various stations in the kitchen and he was telling me how long it takes to progress down the line at Le Bernadin, today of course we were working the Garde Manger station.  I told him about Ms. Glaze's Pommes d'Amour and told him he really needs to look her up for a first hand account.

After it rested in the fridge and we gulped down more liquid, the meat and spices would go back under the mixer with the paddle attachment to add some liquid, in the case of chorizo it was ice cold tequila and red wine vinegar!

After we made all three sausage mixes, cooked off little patties of each to test for seasoning and chilled everything down it was time for the stuffing.  Alasdair referred to the hog casings I been soaking in water all morning as 'granny stockings'.

The first batch, the chorizo, took us over 30 minutes to stuff, by the time we got to the chipolata we were down to 10 minutes.  Sure, we overstuffed here and there, there were a few 'blow outs', but we just squished it back in the bowl and started again.

Alasdair took charge of the link twisting.

We started at 10:30 and finished the last of the sausages by 5:30.  We were both dripping and exhausted but it was a great day.   I sent home half with Alasdair and we kept half here to freeze later.  Even though the sausages were twisted when we cut them to cook them I tied each end off to prevent the sausage from oozing out the ends as it cooked.  Husband and I sautéed some onion and peppers from the farm stand we stopped by in Ipswich on Friday and grilled some of the Brats and I made some of the Cooks Illustrated recommended Yukon gold fries that you start in cold oil (novel, but it worked!) and all was well in the world.  I'm not going to give you the recipe here Charcuterie is well worth the investment. Stay tuned for head cheese. YIKES!

A good place to dream

I've always loved to float.  My Mom and I often joke that neither of us ever required flotation devices.  We can spend hours bobbing on the lake without 'noodles' or rafts or any other accoutrement. When we are at the lake I will often sit on the boat to read just so I can bob around on the water.  Rocking chairs and gliders and big farmer's porches always appealed to me as well as place to just sit and read and daydream.

But at home I never really had a great place to just sit and read.  When I worked on Federal Street and took the commuter rail daily I devoured books.  Sometimes taking 2 a day with me just in case I finished one on the train.  I was that crazy person you would see walking down the street with their nose buried in a book just looking up long enough to not trip over the odd tree root.  But once I went to culinary school and subsequently started working in kitchens all of my reading has been based exclusively in recipe development, or food research. There are books on my bedside table that have been piling up for years.  I even promised to dive into this tome with a group for summer reading.  This weekend that all changed.
After a month of rain and cold and rain and cold and mizzle and warm, and downpours and cold the skies finally cleared on Friday as I was shopping for supplies for next weeks classes.

Given my SD's eye surgery and the fact that none of us would be heading to Maine for the 1st time in 22 years for the 4th, I had a little seed in the back of my mind and I knew on the way back from my 3rd, yes, 3rd, trip to Ikea in as many weeks I was going to pull off and hit the Dedham plaza.  I walked straight into Lowe's and loaded my cart with a hammock and a frame.

I brought it home, promptly assembled it and realised the frame took up the entire garden and there was no way I was going to stare at it all summer.  I dragged husband from the basement and pulled out the measuring tape.  There were two trees.  Just two that had any chance of making this dream work.
We measured and drills were obtained and more measurements taken and well....here...

I broke it in gently with this reading...

...thus clearing off the top right hand 1/3 of my bedside table. 

Now I think I am ready to tackle the beast..

I had the added bonus of watching not 1 but 2 hummingbirds in the garden as well as a never before seen, in my garden at least, pine siskin.  All in all a rather spectacular weekend with weather to match.  More of this please and I could just be inspired to hit the kitchens.
Off to make dinner, I hope your 4th was just as lovely.

Peony and Sushi

 

I thought I'd put a photo here of the very happy Japanese peony that greets me every morning in the front garden.  I really wish i remembered it's name so I could buy another or planted it out back where I could enjoy it more.  It really is such a happy, riotous colour combination.  They close every night and reopen in the morning.

Sure, there has been cooking around here, ma po dofu, char siu ribs, dry fried green beans, tonight is a cauliflower gratin with some scored and seared duck breasts, sprinkled with my house spice mix and glazed in ginger marmalade and pepper jelly, but I haven't really had the time to photo and write anything up, life continues at a feverish pace and this time of year the garden competes for my time as well.
The tomatoes are going bonkers in the upside down grower as well as in the earth grow boxes.  in the garden bed are a few kinds of peppers, some zucchini, a few cucumber, some cape gooseberries, and a section of herbs with a few kinds of thyme, lemongrass, rosemary, basil, oregano, marjoram, tarragon, chives, cardamom, Vietnamese Coriander and sage. I would tell you about the Brussels sprouts, but it would seem that the future braise took an interest in them this week DESPITE my leaving him plenty to eat.

I've been trying to get some new chefs on board, all the new book titles selected, some new classes designed and today I spent the day here plotting a sushi workshop.

Don't worry, I had one of these by my side as well.

D.S., you know who you are, I owe you a lengthy email in response to your several recent ones, which, by the way, always bring a smile.  I promise it is forthcoming, and your roses are indeed looking spectacular.  This week was made doubly challenging by my three days of jury duty.  I was chosen for a trial and it was really interesting to watch the process from the inside out.  I really liked the judge and if I ever had to be in that situation I would want him on the bench.  There were a few interesting twists and turns involving gender changes and language translations, but in the end we decided the defendant to be not guilty and sent him on his way.

I'm sitting now awaiting husbands return from perambulations with the puppy, all the windows are open, the braise is eating the cauliflower I left for him, the blue jay's are snacking on the meal worms I picked up saturday, the cardinal is in the bird bath, the night blooming jasmine is heavy with blossoms and ready to bust, I have a cheesy 70's mix on shuffle and a cocktail in hand, when the troops return dinner is on. What a shame it can't be June all year long.

Sweet Home

Karen over at Verbatim tagged me to participate in the Dancing Deer "Sweet Home" Initiative and really how could I resist?

Dancing Deer’s Sweet Home Initiative raises money for scholarships to help educate homeless women and end family homelessness. As a part of this initiative, our CEO, Trish Karter, will be riding her bike 1,500 miles from Atlanta to Boston, visiting family shelters in each city to raise awareness about this issue. She’ll also be recording stories from the women she meets along the way, asking them about their experiences. One question she’ll ask them are what foods remind them of home. (See more here.)

I come from a family that talks about lunch WHILE they are eating breakfast and any time we gather food, the finding it, the cooking it, the smelling of it, the harvesting of it dominates the conversation.  Since I met and started cooking for my husband I have incorporated many of the foods that he misses from his home, never as good as his Mom made them of course, but I do try,  Smelling and tasting things that remind us of home can make us feel connected to a time and place that may never happen again yet they make us remember and feel connected in ways a photograph just can't replicate.

There are family staples like Grandma's 'Oyster Dish" we make every Thanksgiving, the Fairy Banquet Pudding that gets broken out around Christmas time with Great Grandma Dora's Chocolate Sauce.  I make husband steamed puddings like Spotted Dick and Sticky Toffee Pudding, or his favourite Jam Roly Poly or simple liver and onions.  Growing up my Mom made this dish called affectionately "Chicken with Glop" and the smell of dried oregano, peppers and tomatoes brings me right back to Chelmsford, MA circa 1977. Grandma's Rhubarb custard pie and our Fiddlehead Fern Quiche every spring, My Mom's baked beans in the fall, My dad's Chicken Cacciatore, My cousin Fuzzy's Stuffed Calamari at Christmas when we all gather for the La Vigilia, these are the things I remember and love.  They are the things that bring me home again.

What is it for you?

 I won't tag anyone directly, but a few reminisses I would like to see belong to The Sour Dough, Chez Christine and What I Cooked Last Night.  Everyone is welcome to partake in the comments box.  I love a good food tale.

The Annual Dinner Party - With an homage to Maine

Right now I am in the final day of prepping for our annual end of year gathering.  Mom and SD are here from VA and are out today visiting SD's daughters and grandkids. 
I am in the final throws of prepping.  Still need to make port reduction sauce for the duck, vol-au-vent cases for smoked salmon and creme fraiche.

Here is the breakfast Coffee Cake

Cooling is my pithivier.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie pies are assembled. 

The lobster salad is made for the appetizers atop buttered gridded challah.

There are marinated olives in fennel orange and lemon. 

My vacuum machine arrived Friday and I will be setting up the duck breasts soon in their little pouches for their bath in 56C water.

 There is still celeriac and potatoes to peel, leeks to clean, and raclette to grate for the gratin. The playlist on the ipod is ready.  Sparkly things are chilling, bottles of red stuff are breathing, Now I just have to figure out how to get 8 people around the table and then 4 of our friends from the lake will be coming down from their winter homes in Somerville and NH and we will all reminisce about warm days and lazy cocktail cruises.  I hope you are all similarly ensconced in wining and dining with friends and family.

Later we'll talk about the newbook my wonderful Brother in Law sent me for Christmas...I can't wait.

Take a breath, Take a Deep Deep Breath**

How long it has been! I just wanted to come and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, if you celebrate and a general Happy Holiday if you do not. Life has been ramped up to 11 around here lately and I barely have time to cook dinner every night never mind take any pictures. the immersion circulator has been AMAZING, and I have been having a great time trying out different things. Duck breast, I can assure you will never be the same cooked any other way. In fact I have gone loco enough to have ordered this and it will be arriving on my doorstep Friday just in time for my dinner party on Sunday.

I'm excited to cook for friends, but I have one no pork, no beef and one no duck, no venison, nothing exotic.  SIGH.  I think duck will win and I will just have to make something separate for the no duck guest. 

I hope wherever you are tonight you are with friends and family, eating well, drinking and cheering in the spirit of the season.  Husband and I are off to my cousin's for La vigilia and I am looking forward to the stuffed calamari as I do every year.  There will be about 50 screaming Italians wildly gesticulating, 20 kids running around hopped up on sugar and the promise of Santa yet to come, there will be swearing and singing and Elvis, there is always Elvis where my cousin Johnny is concerned, he has never left the building. The photo on the top is my cousin Fuzzy's son and a future Elvis lover as you can see.

Cousin Johnny (8 days older than me and not about to allow me to forget it), who is also head cook tonight, has always sung and more importantly he has always been an enormous fan of Elvis. Years of family gatherings always, ALWAYS, included a Karaoke segment long, l-o-n-g, before anyone stateside knew what karaoke even was. One of his teachers was one of the guys in a local group called Boston Rockabilly.  He finally went in the studio with them and made a CD called "ode to a king".  This is my crazy Elvis lovin cousin Johnny doing my favourite track on the CD, Little Sister.

So as I leave to celebrate Christmas with my crazy family, I'd like to wish the best to you and yours. 

Buon Natale!

**Lyrics in the tilte are David Gilmour from On an Island.  They have been swimming around my head the past week.

Menu for Hope

 

It's that time again.  Chez Pim and a revolving group of bloggers are hosting the annual Menu for Hope fundraiser.  Again this year the money is going to the UN World Food Programme the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good.  Last year donations raised form Menu for Hope totaled over $100,000!  This year the East Coast prizes are being hosted by Jaden at Steamy Kitchen and as always the donations are being collected by Firstgiving.com so you can be assured that your donations are being handled in a safe manner.

Won't you help?  Buy a raffle ticket, heck buy 2, buy them as gifts, give them as stocking stuffers or maybe you can win one of the great prizes on offer this year.  I asked create a cook if they would help out and this is their contribution. Don't make us look like the girl at the prom with no date, BUY SOME TICKETS and give generously.

Dinner Cooking Party at Create a Cook  Prize code: UE18

From create a cook. One cooking party for up to 6 guests at create a cook in Newton, MA. (Valued at $400.00) We supply the chef, the menus, the ingredients, the professional kitchen, a set table, and all the clean up you just bring the wine and 5 of your friends and we have a party! You and your guests can help determine the theme of the party (Asian, French, Italian, Vegetarian, American or Chef’s Choice).  Winner must be willing to travel to venue or can give the gift in kind to a local friend.

If you want to have a great night out with friends, this is all you need to do.

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at Chez Pim
2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope5 and make a donation.
3. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.
For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02
4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win.  Your email address will not be shared with anyone

Finally - I passed!

Not sure if I mentioned it here or not, but ever since I finished at CSCA I had considered taking the CCP (Certified Culinary Professional) exam with the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) but forces conspired against me. 
I filled out the 15 page application, collected all my data, passed it on to the powers that be to approve it and then life got in the way.  I had wanted to take it as close to my final exam as possible so all that STUFF I had crammed into my brain would still be fresh and available for recall instead of tucked in the dark recesses of my musty aging brain.
Finally the man called me and said he had another applicant ready to sit the exam, was I ready?

OH GOD NO was what I thought, but YES OF COURSE I AM was my answer.

I broke out my old flash cards rejigged my brain to recall a long list of small sauces, the wines and cheeses and charcuterie BY REGION for France and Italy.  Brushed up on my Asian ingredients and terms, read Harold and Shirley, Michael and Root.  When we ran errands on the weekends husband would ride shotgun and quiz me on my Servsafe sanitation and flashcards of Baking and Basics and Italian and French.
The week before Thanksgiving I headed over the library at CSCA and cracked the test open and wrote for 2 hours.
Tonight I got the call that I passed the exam.  I'll get my final numbers later, but I'm just so pleased it's OVER.
So as a reward I bought myelf this tonight....and I can't wait to play with it.
Now, will someone please kindly just buy me this book please so I can start the fun??

Thanks!

Thanksgiving around here

This is it fellow cooks, the day we salivate over and await all year.  The day to break out those recipes we've been dreaming of making.  A day to splurge on ingredients.  And often a day to have those famous and not so famous family recipes.

Every year my Grandmother (that's her up there with her dog Butch) would make far too much food.  There was the bird, mashed potatoes, mashed turnip, gravy, cranberry relish, oyster stuffing, creamed onions and on and on.  But the one thing we all waited for were her scalloped oysters.  1 pint of oysters with their liquor, 1 pint of half and half, 1 pint of crushed oyster crackers, 1 small onion, grated, 3/4 cup melted butter.  Stir it up, season with salt and pepper dump it in a shallow dish so there is a wide surface area so that crunchy bits can form bake at 375 for 25 - 35 mins. Serve with a side of Lipitor and enjoy.

Gran would try to serve that as a first course, this is after the appetizers mind you, and then all of those dishes you see mentioned above followed by 3 or 4 pies generally mincemeat, pecan and apple and sometimes Fairy Banquet Pudding, I'll have to show you that one sometime..A WWII recipe if there ever was one involving mini marshmallows.

Since Mom and I both love those oysters dearly we have learned over the years that it is far better to serve these around Thanksgiving instead of on the day so that they can be savored as dinner on their own. I had them last night, Mom is making them Friday night.

As for husband and I we have the 5-hour roast duck in the oven right now.  The original recipe is over here, this is our favourite, foolproof way to cook duck.  This time I filled the cavity with garlic confit, thyme, marjoram, rosemary and marjoram and the skin has been salted. 

I've settled in with the timer for my once an hour flip and it should be ready by 7:00.  There is a tray of yukon gold, cippoline onions and sweet potatoes ready to roast in duck fat and there are some green beans that husband topped and tailed that will get blanched and then cooked with loads of garlic until they are crispy.  I'll make a gravy for the duck and a pear and ginger crisp for dessert.

Simple, but they are all things we love.  We eat turkey all the time, turkey cutlets, turkey roulade, turkey tenderloins, so when husband requested duck I was all too happy to oblige.

The sky has that heavy steel grey snow feel, a fire is going to be lit in the living room and my annual tradition of watching the Grinch and then It's a Wonderful Life will make Thanksgiving complete. 

I hope that you are all similarly happy and healthy with good smells eminating from the kitchen and loved ones all round to help with those dishes.

Who doesn't love Thanksgiving?