col klink

D'oh! I posted under my girlfriend's login! Actually Varmint, that's Nightscotsman's party, I'll only be attending and bringing some hors d'oeuvres.

Hey folks, here's a little teaser for y'all: D'oh! There's no drink! Just to let everyone know, there might not be enough for samples to be distributed. I only made nine pounds and some's going to the folks when I fly out tomorrow, some's going to the grandparents and I'm sending some to go home with Batgrrrl's for her folks. There's also the New Year's Eve party at Nightscotsman's place (who's coming over here to help in about a half hour) that I need to save some for. As I found out with the first batch, 14 pounds didn't go very far at all, I had maybe 4 links total for myself. However, some exceptions might be made. But don't worry folks, come January, I'll really step up production and will be able to send out more of that sweet, sweet sausage y'all so desperately need.

Another update. Last night I started on batch 2 of my kielbasa and finally opened up the kielbasa that my Grandfather sent me. HOLY COW! That is some amazing sausage! It was like nothing I've ever had before, at least not that I can remember. I may have had some of the good stuff back in the day before I knew what kielbasa was, but I sure don't remember it. First of all, there's no paprika and the pepper flavor is rather strong. That coupled with a chewy texture and you're in heaven. It was definitely smoked but that isn't the first thing you notice, it's more of a background note that easier to smell than taste which might be hard to nail down. I've altered my recipe by doubling the amount of beef and dramatically raising the amount of pepper but keeping the amount of garlic about the same. All right, I'm running out of time, I need to case what I have and start the smoker! When I get back from the holidays, I should have DSL and I'll be able to post some pics in a new diary.

My favorite way to end sushi is with some albacore nigiri. My favorite place tops it with a little green onion and his garlic/ginger sauce. Most recently he started putting albacore toro on top of that for some of the most divine sushi you can imagine. So, so decadent. Anyway, a new term that I just learned is for a certain type of presentation for items without structure, like masago or other roes is "gunka." There's a bed of rice and nori is used to make a little cup to hold uni, spicy scallops, etc. It's pronounced "goon-ka" and I believe it's spelled gunka but I could very easily be mistaken as I'm guessing on the spelling, any help out there? It's Japanese for "battleship."

Thanks Really Nice! for the tip and welcome! I bet the Cash and Carry by the Safeco and the one in Ballard might have the same price. Which I would've known that this morning! I just picked up a 16lb untrimmed whole brisket from Don and Joe's in Pike's PLACE Market (is that what a local calls it Laurie? ) for $1.99lb. It's absolutely gorgeous, I can't wait to smoke it up.

I found another turducken web page that includes a song about turducken! Click me for the webpage. Here's an excerpt: I was thinking of making a turgoducken, a turkey stuffed with a goose stuffed with a duck but realized that I'd have the second Valdez in my smoker from the goose and the duck so I'm only going to do the standard turducken.

To answer my own question about the little rice finger wrapped with nori to make a cup for sushi that has no form, it's called a "goonka." But it's probably spelled gunka. Batgrrrl and I went out for more happy food at Hisago's and I asked the chef what the name is. It's Japanese for "battleship." I felt really cool tonight because as Steve the chef was talking about shiso to another customer at the bar, I mentioned that I liked shiso with mackeral and he asked me "do you make your own sushi?" "Of course, though it doesn't quite look as professional as I'd like." When we left he asked our names and remembered that we there last week! Of course I didn't mention that I got the idea from Mashiko's. By the way, we tried a really cool roll at Hisago tonight called a "Maryanna" roll. It's an inside out roll with sesame seeds filled with uni, orange, cucumber and avacado. The orange and uni combination was absolutely fascinating. This was the first time I've really had citrus in sushi, sure I've seen plenty of lemon, but there was actual pieces of orange in the roll. At first I thought the uni would overpower everything else, but the orange and the uni went very well together, a salty, sweet and sour combination and the avacado was the keel that kept the roll upright. I tell you, there is some really neat stuff going on at Hisago! Tighe, while Batgrrrl and I were at Mashiko's and after one of the many sublime courses we ate I thanked the Lord above to which Hajime was almost startled and Batgrrrl says "he only gets religious in two places and your sushi restaurant is one of them."

Saturday the 7th was my birthday and to celebrate, Batgrrrl and I went to none other than Mashiko’s for omakase. The abbreviated version is that the meal was not only the best sushi I’ve ever had, but the best meal of my entire life. The previous time I went there his wife Kirsten prepared a 7 course meal that had the best roll I’ve ever had (the albacore toro roll!) and was an amazing meal and I thought that that meal couldn’t be beat. Boy was I wrong. Hajime used his Saturday party to introduce his new menu but of course it was lost on us as we always order omakase, or chef’s choice. The DJ came about an hour and a half late but that was fine with us, personally, I was a little worried that there was even going to be a DJ. When he and his entourage finally showed up they played some nice house music off of his Apple laptop and hooked up an overhead projector. He started off with the usual mp3 visuals but eventually went with MacMAME and played 80’s video games like Pac-Man, Q-Bert and Kung Fu much to our enjoyment. Later in the evening he even played some scenes from the old Prisoner show but enough about the ambience. We showed up a couple of minutes before they opened but Kirsten let us in and we had Hajime all to ourselves for the first half hour. Here are the courses we enjoyed: 1) Seaweed salad topped with marinated baby octopi. The menu now actually includes the octopi whereas sometimes we had to ask for the octopi previously. 2) Another small salad with what we’re told is leftovers of making tofu. It was mixed with sautéed onions and carrots, dressed with a vinaigrette and served cold. It was pretty good and interesting but I probably don’t need to order it on my own. 3) Sawagani! Yeah! Seems almost heretical not to have sawagani when going out for sushi. 4) Shrimp ceviche with fresh taro root chips. This was really cool and something I’d never expect from a sushi restaurant. Wonderfully fresh, the shrimp in lime, onion and cilantro were a real treat, let alone the taro chips. Sliced on a mandolin and quickly fried, they provided a subtle sweetness and were perfectly crisp without being greasy. 5) Rockfish sashimi marinated for 10 hours in a special seaweed which I believe is called kobu, but I’m not sure. The meat was served with a ponzu sauce and was very tasty. The rockfish is a white fish and had a delicate flavor that is hard to explain. 6) Ankimo! Yeah! I’ve been missing ankimo for so long, thank the stars it’s finally back in season! There were seven, YES SEVEN, slices of the precious liver placed on a bed of seaweed salad and topped with green onions, sesame seeds and garlic sauce (which Hajime hasn’t started bottling yet). I thought at first that this much ankimo was too luxurious but it was so heavenly and creamy and wonderful that it was perfect. I could really go for some more ankimo right now. 7) Real crabmeat in a spicy mayo sauce on a bed of sliced tempura maguro and topped with Hajime’s own hot sauce (similar to Siracha, but spicier), curry and black sesame seeds. First a decent sized piece of maguro is wrapped in nori and then very quickly dipped in the fryer to set the tempura batter. This is sliced and was the bed for the spicy crab. This was a fun dish and as you can imagine, very tasty. At this point I truly regretted not taking my camera. I guess I’ll save that for next time! 8) Albacore nigiri topped with green onions, garlic sauce and chopped albacore toro. Ever since the last time I went to Mashiko’s, I’ve been absolutely in love with albacore toro, or the belly meat of the albacore. It is so succulent and it’s my favorite of all fish. I’ve always said that Hajime’s albacore is the best in the city, but he truly one-upped himself with the addition of the toro. There should be laws in place that make it illegal to cook toro and they should include it in the three strikes law. 9) Fresh uni served in the rice and nori cups. It was very fresh but uni is not everyone’s cup of tea, luckily for me, I love it. By the way, does anyone know the word for a small finger of rice that nori is wrapped around and used as a cup, like for roe? After we ordered the uni, we gave Hajime the uni challenge! We told him we love uni and asked him about other ways of serving uni and he took this as a challenge but more on that later. 10) A very special tuna roll with albacore, albacore toro, and flying fish roe all wrapped around a sprig of asparagus tempura and held together with a soy wrapper. There was no rice. Talk about an extravagant roll! 11) The uni challenge! Since we also mentioned our love for scallops, he had the kitchen incorporate them as well. They seared the scallops in butter with garlic and shitake mushrooms and topped with warmed uni. This was a very distinctive dish and a wonderful experiment and although I still prefer my scallops raw, we really enjoyed it. The warm uni was particularly intriguing. 12) Two cuts of flounder sashimi. The first cut is from the edge of the flounder at the base of the fins that as Hajime said, the French throw away and is very reminiscent of fugu in texture but as I’m told, tastes much better. The other cut is your standard flounder and provided an interesting change in texture. The first cut was more chewy and had a briny flavor, very cool. Both were served with a twist of lemon and flecked sea salt. At first when Hajime talked about the first cut, he called it “the” muscle of the flounder but then was nice enough to make a drawing to clear up any issues. 13) A very large spider roll, cut into four pieces. A standard nori wrapper but instead of being rolled along its length, it was rolled along the much narrower width giving the roll a greater diameter. This was done to incorporate an ENTIRE DEEP FRIED SOFT SHELL CRAB. Totally cool but extremely difficult to eat the end pieces with the legs sticking out as I found out when I lost half of it in my first bite. This surprised me because as others will attest, I have a big mouth! 14) Four unagi nigiri, wonderful, sweet and warm fresh water eel. 15) Dessert! Regular chopped toro with green onions and garlic sauce topped with curry powder, flying fish roe and chives presented on tempura’d slices of yams and eaten like chips and dip. Toro is so decadent! 16) Of course we couldn’t leave without having some more albacore nigiri, replete with albacore toro on top. This is proof that God intended man to eat fish and eat it raw. We also asked for a special sake to be had with dessert and they gave us the same sake as the last time which is incredibly interesting. This time however we were smart enough to ask for Kirsten to write the name down, it’s called Sato No Homane. I’m not sure which is the name of the brewer, but as I said in the last report, they have been brewing since the 1600’s and follows the strict rules which state you may only use rice to make their sake yet their sake has wonderful fruit flavors like pear. They must have magical barrels. Batgrrrl and I sat at the end of the bar for almost 2 ½ hours and every moment was shear bliss. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday meal. I’d like to note that although the presentation of Mashiko’s sushi has always been top notch, they’re doing even better presentation now. Both Batgrrrl and I noticed that they’ve taken it to a new level, not only combining new and interesting ingredients, but in elaborate and beautiful ways. I certainly don’t know of any sushi restaurant that can compete at Mashiko’s level. Maybe I should start a thread in General talking about favorite omakase experiences and get a feel where in the spectrum of sushi Hajime and team perform. As a side note, this thread should be renamed to a more Onionesque: “OBSCENITY DELETED! Hajime walks on OBSCENITY DELETED water!”

This is what cracked me up: "Salumi's expansion — and its new curing room, designed to meet USDA standards — should be completed by next summer. " At first I laughed, then I realized that along with bringing in more help, they're probably planning on making salumi not just for the restaurant but more than likely, expanding into high end supermarkets or mail-order. Though it's just a guess, I'm betting on the former.

Hey folks, today there's a party going on at Mashiko's:

It's not just adding more sugar, sure you need enough sugar to ferment, but the alcohol byproduct is at some point poisonous to the yeast. Most ale and lager yeasts start dying at 8% alcohol. So to get higher percentages, the brewers will typically start with their main yeast and when they die off, they'll add something like champagne yeast which if I'm remembering correctly, can go as high as 18% alcohol. Champagne yeast is desirable because it doesn't add much flavor to the ale or lager and won't corrupt the primary yeast's flavoring very much.

Here's another update:

Funny you should mention that, two weeks before I started my from now on, lifelong experiment, I made some venison sausage which triggered me making my own. I might be coming into some bear meat here shortly but I doubt it'll make it into sausage. Jason, the week after next I'll be making more sausage, right before Christmas. How much of your initial supply have you eaten? I was going to do mostly Italian (something I know *nothing* about) and at least 2 lbs of kielbasa but I'm far more interested in the kielbasa especially since I'll have some of the real thing to gauge my own on. Split it down the middle? 10# kielbasa and 10# Italian? And should I start a new thread on what makes a good traditional smoked Italian sausage to germinate my own?

Sweet, sweet news folks. As you know, I've been corresponding my grandfather about the kielbasa he used to make with his grandfather and I just received this: Woo hoo! Reports to follow!

I should probably mention that they're one of the few sushi joints that are open on Mondays but only for dinner, this is very valuable information. As far as I'm concerned, Hisago is the only gem in Northgate. I'm so happy I no longer live near there. Also, I don't think I noted anything about the quality. Though none of the pieces were of the highest quality, everything was at least good if not great. I'd certainly put this place in my top ten list of sushi joints.

Just tried a new sushi place (new to me that is) called Hisago in Northgate nestled behind a Tony Romas. I was a little leary about getting sushi in this section of Seattle, but since I saw a sign mentioning that they're open on Mondays, I couldn't resist. Batgrrrl and I arrived around 5 and of course the place was empty and we didn't have any problem sitting at the bar. Looking at the menu and I was really surprised at the number of intersting rolls. We started with an "alligator" roll which had tempura shrimp inside and topped with avacado, eel and tobiko and it was pretty good. More interesting however was the "crispy" roll which was an inside out roll containing albacore and avacado and on the outside was the "crispy" deep- fried rice. This was the first time I've had deep-fried rice outside of Chinese quisine. Next we ordered nigiri: albacore, scallops topped with flying fish roe (roe was free add-on!), hamachi, saba, stripped sea bass (mm, mm good) and the finale was wasabi tobiko topped with a qual's egg (egg was a free add-on!). The wasabi tobiko didn't actually have any wasabi in it, it referes to the color of the roe, green! That too was also a first. We ate a lot of sushi and with one large sake ($5.75) the bill came to under $50. Definitely a good deal and a place I will be going to again. The chef is very nice and kept giving us free stuff like a sample of his salmon skin roll, an inside-out containing salmon skin and avacado and the outside had the deep-fried rice, a pretty tasty roll. I can very easily recommend this sushi joint. Here are the particulars: Hisago Japanese Restaurant 543 Northgate Way N.E. Seattle, WA 98125 (206) 363-1556

Congrats Tommy! My brined turkey was more popular than the goose I smoked which was also brined. Man do I love a good smoked turkey. Next time I smoke up a goose though, I'm pulling it off around 150 to 160. This was my first time and I pulled it off around 170 and although it was tasty, I think you'd get better texture at a lower temperature. I was really amazed at how fatty those birds are. nyfirepatrolchef, yes, definitely brine your cut chicken parts, they will taste infinitely better. Cut pieces don't need to be brined as long as whole birds but they'll do well brining for an hour to 24 hours.

If my recollection is correct, I believe the sweet shrimp we had over at Shiki's were spot prawns. At least they look like the spot prawns I've seen sold elsewhere. Oh were those good.

Porkpa, how did your turducken go? I'm planning on smoking one here in a couple of weeks. My turkey-day meal went as follows: chips and salsa (ad hoc, most of the guests hadn't arrived) smoked turkey (18.5#) 2 smoked geese (15# and 10#) breakfast sausage dressing with mushrooms and cranberries candied yams (no marshmellows or nuts!) mashed taters goose giblet gravy 2 assorted salads basil, feta and tomato salad pear/cranberry crisp (mmm, mmm) 2 store bought pies, blackberry and pumpkin booze and everflowing wine for 12 people.

Good news! The butcher next to Flying Fish Seafood in Pike's Market has untrimmed brisket in cryovac for only $1.99/lb. As soon as I buy one and smoke it, I'll let y'all know.

The old picture had did indeed have Black Velvet but I've replaced the picture to show Rum and Crangerine (it's so versatile!) and this pic shows the other half of the coaster. That's the problem when you post and drink, sometimes you don't pet the sweaty stuff, no wait, I didn't sweat the petty stuff and obviously overlooked certain items on my desk. This pic also shows how vigilant my cat Grace is at sniffing out trouble whilst stepping on my worthless World Series tickets. Heron, the kielbasa was a version that Kroger sells through Fred Meyer. I have yet to find a decent kielbasa here in Seattle. Tell you what, the next time I'm at A&J's up on Queen Anne, I'll try their apple smoked kielbasa and report. But I imagine it won't be smokey enough since their meat and sausage usually aren't. It's not their fault, they use apple wood. Whoopsie doodle: heh, heh. "As the tree said to the lumberjack, I'm stumped!"

Sausage Diary, Day 24, 11/22/2002 I’ve now had three weeks to think back on my kielbasa project and I couldn’t have been happier with the outcome, my local friends were all really pleased with the outcome as well as my grandparents and the recipients on the East coast. If it wasn’t for the fact I’m moving this weekend (don’t worry Pac NW folks, just to another part of Seattle) I would have already have done another batch or two. But don’t worry, more sausage and my new smoker is eventually on the way. So this diary entry basically summarizes the results of the first batch of kielbasa. First will be my thoughts then I'll follow them with a professional's opinion. I felt that the unsmoked kielbasa’s flavor wasn’t strong enough and this feeling applies to the smoked links as well since the smokiness was the most predominant flavor even with the second batch and soaking the first batch. Now for a comparison: a week later all of my cased sausage was gone (this is a good thing) so I purchased some commercial “smoked” kielbasa for some red beans and rice. If the package didn’t say smoked I never would have guessed, but this is a national brand that is produced and distributed on a national level and I’m sure they comply with whatever regulations stipulate the minimum amount of smoking to be declared “smoked.” Anyway, the biggest difference I could detect aside from the smokiness is the strength of pepper. My kielbasa was definitely under peppered; I credit jhlurie for noticing this on his own. And of course, I thought that my kielbasa could use at least 50% more garlic and will probably use 100% more garlic in the next batch. Hopefully I can overshoot! As for the rest of the sausage, I thought the texture of the ground meat was perfect though the first batch’s casing/skin was too tough. But the tough and wrinkled skin was due to smoking that batch too long, resulting in the pork fat rendering out and leaving too much casing. I was quite happy with the mouthfeel of my kielbasa and am quite proud of how smooth it was. But forget the amateur’s opinion, my Grandfather received some of my kielbasa and my Grandmother prepared it, both of whom used to make kielbasa back in the day. Here’s his response: Not only that, my Mother and I have been talking about the kielbasa as well: As she has always told me, the kielbasa was basically pork , beef and garlic, but here’s her most recent email regarding the kielbasa: Great, NOW she tells me. (sssh! she’s reading this, don’t tell her!!!) So in summary, I had a tasty product but a product that wasn’t exactly kielbasa. I still have at least 2lbs of uncased kielbasa sitting in my freezer and (hopefully) the week after Thanksgiving I’ll start on my second batch of sausage and I’ll make an attempt on round 2 of the kielbasa chronicles as well as take a stab at a whole new sausage paradigm which is at this point Italian sausage. Oh, I really don’t have any new pictures but I thought I’d at least show you where I’ve been writing all of these journals: That and this picture taken less than 15 minutes from where my parents live in Upper Michigan, an area that is serious about it’s deer hunting: FYI the new deer hunting season is about to start! << Previous Installment edited for content, basically somebody didn't like the fact I was drinking Black Velvet so it's been replaced with Rum and Crangerine.

I have sharp knives that I can bring and would love a knife skills course.

I can come up with better sushi than Musashi prepares but it doesn't look as good. I should probably mention that Musashi is on the low end of what I'm willing to spend on sushi, so it basically makes the grade. It's somewhere where I'd take somebody who's trying sushi for the first time or where I'd go if I just needed a sushi fix and didn't have $40 or $50 to blow, I'd be comfortable going there. It's better than every other sushi joint in Wallingford or the U district.