Month: April 2020

I followed the recipe in Ms. Karlin’s book (not that I am in any way blaming her), and things went okay. I overcooked the curds, and had to press them @ 10 lbs. overnight, whereas the recipe doesn’t call for any pressing.

Clue #1: It didn’t look right. That didn’t especially bother me — some of my cheeses don’t look like they do in the photos, but turn out fine.

Clue #2: It STANK. I hadn’t noticed this when it was in my “cheese vault,” but it definitely did not smell good.

Clue #3: When I went to brush it, a piece broke off, and inside was what?

Cut it open:

Not sure what that is. Possibly cheese mites? I have quite a heavy infestation of them.

Needless to say, I didn’t taste it . . . straight into the trash bin.

They can’t all be winners!

-R

Ever wonder what to do with the chicken skin? Turn it into a salty, crispy, (somewhat) greasy snack!

Place parchment paper on a baking sheet (mine was previously used for cookies, that’s why it’s a bit discolored):

Stretch out the skin (from fresh or boiled chicken) on the parchment paper. Sprinkle it with salt, pepper, and your choice of herbs (I used thyme and oregano):

Cut/lightly score the skin into strips about 1″ wide. Add a layer of parchment paper on top:

Place another baking sheet on top, and add a weight:

Bake at 325 for 35 minutes, or until browned. It may not be crispy at this point, but will crisp up as it cools:

Break into strips and drain on paper towels:

Crispy Chicken Skin:

Yum!

-R

See my previous post (https://tiabr.com/?s=epoisse) for how this started . . .

I was unhappy with my époisses after the recommended aging period. The paste was extremely inconsistent, some okay but much of it unpleasant. I thought about trashing them, but then decided I had nothing to lose by bunging them into the fridge for a while.

. . . now it’s six weeks later. The recipe (from Ms. Karlin’s book) recommends that after six weeks or so of aging, they should be eaten within two weeks. It has now been four months:

The rind has a nice growth of geo.

The paste has firmed up nicely. It looks like a bit of blue got into the top, which I cut off along with the rind.

But, you ask, how did it taste? Actually pretty darn good. The inconsistencies in the paste have evened out, and it has a nice, tangy flavor, with some depth, and I didn’t taste any blue. I definitely broke the rules on this one, but with a happy result.

-R

For the first time in over a month, I finally went grocery shopping. I went to my usual three stores (Aldi, Super A Market, Safeway), which may not have been the best idea, but you have to go to all three to get the best prices, and besides, it was great to get out of the house and do something fun (I love grocery shopping).

But I’m really paranoid about anything I get at the grocery store. Luckily, I have this Fogmaster Jr. from back in my greenhouse days:

It puts out anything from a light fog to a heavy mist.

All the pre-packaged items were spread out, then heavily misted with a 75 ppm bleach solution, turn over, repeat:

All the fresh produce was soaked in a 50 ppm bleach solution, then rinsed and allowed to dry:

Nothing will be touched until tomorrow . . . I’m a little bit excited thinking about all the things I can make – – I’ll probably just start with a simple salad, a real treat!

-R

This is another of the first cheeses I made, a washed-curd Edam/Gouda type. From before I had cultures, and inexplicably (one cocktail too many?) added yogurt (thermophilic) instead of buttermilk (mesophilic).

After six months, it was with much trepidation that I cut into it.

The paste in much softer than it should be, and filled with holes (if anything, they should be round).

But, you ask, how did it taste?

Surprisingly good, with a nicely balanced lactic flavour, more like a young Cheddar than an Edam/Gouda (probably due to the thermo), and some butteriness. This is nothing like an Edam, but is pretty delicious.

Sometimes your screw-ups work out 🙂

-R

It’s hard to make Chinese food without garlic and ginger. Luckily, for some Sichuanese recipes (a few!) that’s less of an issue. This is a variant on a recipe I’ve made before. Simple (if you have the ingredients) and a good opportunity to use up some things in my freezer and pantry.

Do you know zha cai? It’s the preserved tuber of something in the Cabbage family, I forget which species. If you’re a Lucky Rabbit, you can buy it in a can:

But I’m lucky enough to live close to not one but two (!) Chinese groceries where you can buy it in bulk.

Perhaps the ugliest vegetable ever? It looks like something that should have been removed from your colon.

It keeps forever in your fridge, like this one, maybe six months old.

It’s salted, dried, rubbed with chile, and fermented. Delicious, soft/crunchy, but very salty, so it needs to be sliced thin and soaked in water before use:

It’s the first time I’ve used Sichuan pickled peppers:

They are nicely sour, but hellaciously hot, so I only used three, chopped:

Too much meat!

So, half sliced into 1/8″ strips, the rest back into the freezer.

This step is completely optional: Mix one egg white with 1 tsp. cornstarch and add the beef:

The yolk, with a bit of thyme and salt, was cook’s treat:

Heat two Tbsp. oil, then add 1-1/2 Tbsp. chili bean paste (or to taste) and the pickled peppers (but not a whole peck):

Add the beef and stir for a minute or so, until it isn’t completely done:

Remove to a bowl. Drain the zha cai. Heat another 2 Tbsp. oil in the pan, and cook the cai ‘n’ peppers until done.

Add the meat and stir until well combined and hot:

Beef with Peppers and Preserved Vegetable:

Yum!

-R

Is this the best comfort food ever? I think so. I hadn’t made it for decades, then three times in the last few months. Grammy made it for us when we were kids. Am I reverting to my childhood?

This recipe involves more steps that some other ones you can find on the net. But it’s delicious, less sweet than many, and only takes about 15 minutes.

It’s an “Amish” recipe but you need a hand mixer. Go figure.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (mine is 25 degrees low):

Beat four large eggs on medium-slow speed for 30 seconds:

Add 1/2 C. sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. vanilla extract, and whisk to combine:

Scald four cups milk, which means heating it up to 180 degrees. You can do this in a saucepan or the microwave. If you use the micro, it will take about 5-7 minutes, and it’s a good idea to stir it every two minutes or so.

It you don’t have a thermometer, no worries, just heat the milk until it’s steaming quite a bit, but not yet boiling.

Slowly pour about a cup of the milk into the eggs, whisking furiously, so you don’t get scrambled eggs:

Add the rest of the milk, continuing to whisk, then beat it for 20-30 seconds.

You can use six 10 oz. ramekins, but I don’t have those, so I use a loaf pan.

Whatever you use, find a pan that fits in an outside pan, so that you can put almost-boiling water around the inside pan (or ramekins). The water tempers the heat of the oven, so the eggs cook consistently.

(Optional) Sprinkle some nutmeg or cinnamon over the top. I love nutmeg, but can’t find my lovely little lumps (the spice fairies must have carried them away in the night for their nefarious activities), so tried cardamom, which I love in Indian desserts.

I don’t know if cardamom and vanilla will play well together, but we’ll see.

Bung the whole into the oven. Whether you choose to add nearly-boiling water before or after putting it into the oven, be careful! Second-degree burns won’t add to anyone’s enjoyment.

If you are using ramekins, they will be ready in about 50 minutes. With my pan, it takes more like 1-1/2 hours. Just check it every half hour or so.

It’s ready when you insert a knife and it comes out clean. It will still be a bit jiggy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JcmQONgXJM) in the middle, but the residual heat Will continue to cook the eggs and they Will become firmer.

Soft, silky, creamy with a slightly denser crust. One of the things I love most about custard is that it leaks out a slightly sweeter liquid, and that’s all I have to say about that.

The cardamom was okay, but I don’t think it and vanilla were the best of bedfellows, so won’t try that again.

I’ve managed to make this sound a lot more complicated than it is . . . you can’t really f*ck up any baked custard recipe, and it will probably be delicious.

-R

Day 7, Dinner.  In Mexico City a few years ago, I had a really good hamburguesa (no need to translate that!) from a food cart in the street, and wanted to try one in Oaxaca to see if that was a fluke or not.  It wasn’t!

Here’s the hamburger guy at work.  He starts with a fairly thin patty of beef, a slice of ham, bacon, and onions:

On top of the slice of ham is, yes, what looks like a Kraft Single, but then he adds Oaxacan cheese….we saw this before! Sorry, the pic’s blurry.

Then, on the toasted bun, he puts the beef patty, the fried ham with the melted gooey cheese, the bacon, the onions he’s just fried, plus more sautéd onions, chopped lettuce and tomatoes, a healthy dose of mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup and chile sauce (luckily he asked, because I only wanted “un poquito”).  The result is yummy, but very drippy.  No pics of the end result — I forgot to take one before starting to eat it, and didn’t dare to touch my camera once I’d started eating such a deliciously gloppy mess  🙂

If you need some vegetables to accompany your hamburguesa, you can go to the “Cara de Papa” (Mr. Potato Face) stand, and buy some potato chips fresh out of the fryer — here’s the guy slicing the potatoes: 

or the ultimate in curly fries:

We didn’t try them, but you always gotta leave something to look forward to for your next visit!

Day 8, Lunch.  B & I went our separate ways, and I wanted some mole negro (black mole), the most famous mole of them all, and the only one I had tried before. So I went back to the 20th of November market, which has loads of little eating places.  I had no clue as to which of them would be good, so fell back on that tried and true principle — pick one that’s popular.

..and had my mole negro.  Black sauces aren’t especially visually appealing, and once again I forgot to take a pic before I started eating, so this doesn’t look very appetizing!

It was good, certainly better than the other examples I’ve tasted, but I’m with B on this one — mole negro is not my favorite.

Day 8, Dinner.  *Sigh*, our last night in Oaxaca, so we decided to treat ourselves to a more upscale meal, in a restaurant with tablecloths, where the cutlery didn’t come wrapped in a paper napkin.  So we went to Casa Abuela, on the second story of one of the buildings that surround the main square.  A random choice that turned out to be a good one!

Going up the stairs, here’s the entrance to the restaurant, which for some reason had a metal gate that the servers had to open to let customers in or out.  Curses! our last chance to dine ‘n’ dash foiled:

and the interior:

B started with bean soup w/ chunks of cheese, which was very good:

and we shared an order of quesadillas with chicken in mole amarillo – yellow mole, our third and unfortunately last mole of the trip. 

Not as complex as the two other moles we’d had, but still very good.

B’s main course was fish (I forget what kind).  That’s roasted garlic on top, but surprisingly it wasn’t overpowering, and the fish flavor came through. The fish was cooked well, very flaky and moist.

For my main I had tasajo con chilaquiles, thin-sliced beef, accompanied by tortilla chips in tomato sauce topped with queso fresco and a dollop of cream, the latter being a common breakfast dish.  The beef, although well-done (based on what we’d seen, probably the best way to have meat in Mexico), was surprisingly tender and flavorful, and the chilaquiles were also very good.

So although there was a hint of sadness in the air because it was our last meal in Oaxaca, the food was really good, a fine and fitting end to our Oaxacan food journey.  Even though we did pay the relatively enormous sum of $28 US for two people 🙂

A few pics from the markets to finish…..

A stand selling churros, the Mexican equivalent of doughnuts:

Typical fruit stand:

Deep-fried pork products stand:

Typical butcher stand. Two things to note, the pigs’ feet in the lower right, and meat left out with no refrigeration, even though afternoon temperatures were typically around 30 degrees C/upper 80’s F.

That’s why you should always order your meat well done in Mexico 🙂

Typical selection from a grasshopper stand:

Of course I came back with some souvenirs, a few bags of dried grasshoppers (“CALIDAD EXPORTATION” – export quality, although one wonders where to), some quesillo (Oaxacan string cheese),  dried squash seeds, and the chocolates that were left every night on the pillows in my hotel room:

-R