eGCI Team

Post your questions here -->> Q&A Smoking Meat at Home Author: Matt Treiber (col klink) INTRODUCTION Disclaimer: Smoking meat involves fires. Always take precautions not to injure yourself or others. Always do your smoking outdoors and away from flammable items like dry leaves and grass. Destructive fires can result from errant sparks. Be careful and aware! As a precaution, you might want to have a hose handy, especially if you are working near dry grass or combustibles. Likewise, fire is hot. Make sure to use oven mitts or other protective gear when handling hot equipment. This course will teach you how to smoke a turkey and a Texas-style brisket that will come out juicy, tender and full of flavor. I will cover brining the turkey, dry-rubbing a brisket and smoking them both. Smoking is not a mysterious process, it is just another method to cook and I won't be surprised if you come out of this course wanting to smoke every one of your meals. Smoke is created when wood is burned. When it comes into contact with food, it adheres to the surface and acts as a preservative. Before modern day preservatives, smoking was used in conjunction with other methods to preserve foods. There are two type of smoking, cold and hot. This course is for hot smoking, which cooks the meat while it is smoked. Cold smoking is done at less than 100 degrees and is used for meats like bacon or fish as well as cheese. Hot smoking can be done easily in a Weber grill or a device specifically made for the task, like the Weber Smokey Bullet. Hot smoking operates from 180 F to 350F but most of the time 225F is the ideal temperature. With a temperature so low, cooking takes longer. This is perfect for tough cuts of meat like pork shoulder and beef brisket which tend to have plenty of fat (a good thing) and collagen between the muscle fibers. If either of these cuts were grilled, the result would be as tough as leather. If these cuts were cooked at traditional roasting temperatures, the result would also be tough and as dry as leather. Turkey isn’t traditional BBQ, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good and since it cooks so quickly, it’s a great meat to start smoking with. Most people are afraid of turkey because of family Thanksgiving nightmares where the breast meat is dryer than chalk. This is a perfectly legitimate fear, but I’m here to let everyone know that turkey is great and once you know how to prepare it, you’ll be hailed as a family hero. The only drawback to smoking your turkey instead of roasting it in the oven is the lack of juices for gravy. But that’s not a problem:- by smoking a turkey now, you can save the carcass to make stock for gravy for your turkey at Thanksgiving. The other meat I’ll be teaching is brisket, which most people are afraid of as well. It’s tough, and if you’re not careful, can be really dry and chewy. Meat becomes dry when you overcook it (driving the juice out), or when there isn’t enough fat. If you buy briskets whole in a cryovac, you will have more fat than you know what to do with and as long as you don’t trim it, you’ll have juicy brisket. Equipment This lesson assumes that you already have a smoker or at least a charcoal grill. It is possible to smoke with a gas grill, but it’s very inefficient as they are designed for quick grilling. Smoking takes hours and will quickly eat through your propane. Wood burning smoker My smoker is a traditional barrel type with a side firebox, shown below: The firebox is the smaller barrel; firewood burns in the firebox, exhausting into the smoking chamber (larger barrel) and finally out the chimney. There should also be an aluminum (it’s cheap) water tray under the meat to collect the juices and fats coming off of the meat. It will save you cleaning it later off your deck with a pressure washer. Water smokers The Weber Smokey Mountain (the WSM and similar smokers are called water smokers) is shaped like a regular Weber grill but with a large extension holding a couple of grates between the lid and the base. At the bottom, charcoal is burned. The first level holds a water tray and there are two levels for holding meat. Smoke is created by placing wood chips or chunks on the briquettes where it rises around the water tray and envelopes the meat. Vents at the bottom and on the lid control airflow and thus, combustion rate. The image above shows a WSM without its lid or top grate. A pork shoulder is being removed. Though the food is directly above the heat source, the water tray acts as a heat buffer, shielding the food from the higher temperatures of the coals. Charcoal grills If you don’t have either of the previous smokers don’t fret, you can smoke with a Weber-style grill. By using smaller amounts of charcoal and woodchips, you can smoke by putting the coals off to the side of the grill for indirect heating. If you haven’t smoked with your grill before, you might consider getting charcoal rails from Weber (#3901, www.weber.com), they are great at keeping the coals off to the side. Likewise, a replacement hinged cooking grate (#70615 for the 18 1/2" kettle or #70915 for the 22 1/2" kettle) allows access to the coals without disturbing the meat. Wood This brings up the question of which wood to use. Any hardwood will work -- alder, oak, maple, mesquite, hickory and fruitwoods like apple, peach and cherry are all fine woods to smoke with. The woods differ in density, burning rates, fire temperatures and their ability to impart smoke flavors. Hickory and mesquite are the strongest, followed by oak and maple, alder and then the fruitwoods. I find that oak and maple provide a nice balance for most meat but if you’re using woodchips, hickory and mesquite are better since there isn’t as much wood burning as in a firewood fire. Feel free to mix and match if you’d like. If you drop by the BBQ store they’ll have a number of different woods to choose from in different form: firewood, chunks, chips, pellets and sawdust. Unless you have a smoker specifically designed for firewood, you’ll be using one of the others. I recommend chips, as they are the most versatile and easiest to find. Chunks last longer than chips but are more difficult to wield if your smoker is small. Pellets and sawdust are for industrial smokers that are specifically designed for them and most probably computer controlled, taking out all of the love. Also, there are wood burning furnaces that use pellets which might contain softwoods, which you definitely cannot use. Softwoods like pine and birch, when burned, produce off flavors and taint the meat. Likewise, burning treated wood will create all sorts of nasty chemicals that you don’t want near anything you might possibly eat. Only use untreated, hardwoods for smoking. Charcoal and charcoal accessories This course assumes that if you’re using charcoal, you are using the chimney starter from Weber (#87886). It is larger than most other brands so adjust accordingly. The Weber website says their chimney starter “holds enough briquettes for a 22-1/2” Weber kettle.” I’m not sure exactly how many briquettes that is, but it’s not too terribly important and once you’ve smoked a couple of times, you’ll get a good idea of how many you need for whatever you’re smoking. This course also assumes that you’re using standard Kingsford type charcoal and not lump. You’ll see a lot of people swear by lump charcoal, but they’re mostly grillers. Lump charcoal burns hotter than standard and is more temperamental to smoke with. Until you’ve figured out how to smoke with regular charcoal, save the lump for the grill. Charcoal chimneys are a must have if you ever cook with charcoal. Not only are they efficient at starting coals, but also they allow you to start more coals while you're already cooking so that a fire that's dying has an immediate boost. Yes, lighter fluid is very popular in parts of the country, but a) it tastes horrible, b) it smells horrible, c) it's bad for the environment, d) it's dangerous and e) it costs money. Yes, it's fun to play with Boy Scout water but if you haven't switched to the chimney, you should. This also applies to the folks who use the electric element starters as well (like my Grandfather, may he rest in peace). Why pay for electricity when you usually have paper around that you can burn for free and which does a better job? Before starting charcoal in the chimney, make sure to have a sturdy, heat-resistant material for the chimney to rest on. The chimney gets very hot! If necessary, you can place the chimney on top of the cooking grate of your smoker or grill. Water tray You will also need a clean aluminum roasting tray under the meat. Fill it with at least an inch of water when you are ready to smoke. This applies to all smokers. If you'd like the smoker to come up to temperature more quickly, boil the water first so the fire doesn't work so hard to heat it. I like to use a whistling teakettle that I can hear when I'm outside working on the fire. The water acts as a heat sink so when the smoker is opened and heat escapes, the temperature won't drop as much. Likewise, if the fire flares and gets too hot, the water holds the temp of the smoker down because it will stay at 212F until it boils off. Even if you don't want to put water in, you'll need the tray to collect juices and fat from the meat. Brisket and turkey (as well as most meats) will loose half of their weight during smoking and a lot of that is fat rendering out. Do you want to clean that out of your smoker? Below is what happens when you forget the tray once or twice or your tray isn’t large enough (the latter has happened to me on numerous occasions). All of the fat is eventually going to leave your smoker. Either by melting and leaving through cracks or holes or go up in flames, as shown above. Thermometers and taking temperatures Last, but definitely not least, you will need a digital probe thermometer, especially if you’re smoking for the first time. You could probably get by with an analog one, but you really should move up to the digital world. It’s not only that it is digital, which I’ve found to far more accurate on average than analog models commonly seen in kitchen and grocery stores, it's that there’s also a probe. You can leave the probe in a roast or turkey breast and watch the temperature rise or you can even set an alarm, either high or low. Let’s say you’re smoking on a cold day or in the rain and you’ve been having a hard keeping the temp up. With the probe, you don’t need to open the lid and release all of that precious heat or let rain hit your coals. You can monitor the temperature and raise or lower the fire without opening the lid. To take the temperature of the meat, insert the probe as far as possible into the flesh, making sure not to hit bone and not coming out the other side. Bone doesn’t heat as quickly as the flesh and will lower the temperature reading. Be aware that the proximity to the fire or coals can also alter the temperature reading. If the base is close to the fire, it can read that heat instead of the meat and also possibly cause damage to the probe. To smoke effectively, you will need to know the relative temperature inside your smoker. Many smokers have a thermometer built in. Yes, I know some of them only say "warm" or "hot" but even those have a use once they’re calibrated. Even if your smoker has a thermometer calibrated in degrees, just like any thermostat on your oven, it too needs to be calibrated and that's exactly where your digital probe thermometer can help you out. Whenever you go to check on the fire, before you have put the meat in there, place your temp probe near where your meat is going to be and see how closely it corresponds to the smoker thermometer. After a few smoking sessions, you'll be able to smoke with confidence. If your water smoker doesn't have a thermometer, find the analog meat thermometer (the one you replaced with you new digital probe thermometer!), and use it as your new smoker thermometer by letting it rest in one of your exhaust vents. Most charcoal grills don't have a thermometer but you can use the probe thermometer to gauge the temperature at the grate where the meat is going to be. Remember, it is no use to measure the temp above the coals, that location is for grilling. When you measure the temp at the grate, make sure to also check the temperature of the exhaust smoke with your hand . Be careful, don’t immediately slap your hand on the lid, it could be very hot. Gradually draw your hand to the exhaust vent and see how hot it is and then you correlate the grate temperature with the exhaust temperature. Eventually you’ll get to know your smoker and be able to tell how it’s operating without all of the constant checks. If you’d really like to get fancy, you can purchase a digital thermometer with two probes or get multiple probe thermometers for measuring both your roast and the grate temp. If you’d like to graduate up to “fancy pants” you can purchase one of the remote digital probes on the market. There’s a monitor at your smoker and you keep the RF remote monitor on your belt or near and dear to heart. These probes also have alarms like the lesser-priced models. Whatever probe thermometer you use, it’s always a good idea to make a sanity check and take the temperature of boiling water. At a theoretical 212 F, it’s pretty close to the ideal of what your smoker should be. If it’s not close, and I’m not talking about changes in elevation close, make sure that the probe isn’t submerged or the cable pinched. If you still can’t get a sensible reading take it back and exchange it for a working one. SMOKER COMPARISON If there are so many ways to smoke, which one is best? There have been tomes written about this so I’m only going to scratch the surface and say that it’s up to you and your situation. If you own a house with a yard, you can easily have a wood burning smoker. Then all you would need is time and firewood. But not everyone lives in a house or has the free time to properly work a smoker like that. If that's your situation then a Weber Smokey Mountain is the perfect smoker. Except for the industrial smokers, nothing is easier to use - it holds its temp beautifully and spits out great BBQ - what more could you want? (By the way, cheaper versions of the WSM exist and are far more difficult to use but can turn out an equally well-smoked end product and all of the pain and hardship acquired using these products can be worn as a badge of courage.) If you’re in an apartment or a condo, you’ll definitely want to talk it over with management, or throw a party, invite everyone and give them a sample of your wares before you tell them about it. Just hope that your deck isn’t wood and that the smoke constantly goes in your neighbor’s windows- not yours. If your neighbors start a "beef", give them exactly that and see if they complain anymore. If you are considering buying a smoker and you’re not ready to drop $200 on new equipment then definitely try smoking on your Weber grill first. So how do the three compare when you only look at the end result? Well, it depends on the situation. I am partial to my wood-fired smoker and I do believe it turns out a better hunk of meat when in the right hands. It also has more capacity than a water smoker. I wouldn’t call its capacity vast but it is staggering how much meat I’ve put on my smoker at one time. When I say “in the right hands” I mean an expert on a water smoker can easily beat a novice on a wood-burner. Smokers consistently win BBQ competitions with a WSM. Smoking on a charcoal grill can yield results as good as a water smoker and in some cases, better than the other two. Smoked poultry skin is notorious for being rubbery and chewy. With the grill however, you can cook indirectly for most of the time and then finish above the coals to the crisp up the skin. But if you really take a fancy to smoking, I suggest moving up to the WSM or even better, a wood-fired smoker. There’s something to be said about smoking with a wood fire (and it’s possible that I might have said it once or twice here on the boards). If you don’t have access to the out doors to cook, you really don’t have much of an option other than stove top smokers. They’re basically closed vessels where chips or sawdust are burnt to give off smoke. They are shallow and are only good for smoking fish for short periods of time. I don’t have any experience with these so I can’t help you. However, you can still participate using your oven and you’ll still have juicy and tasty meat but it won’t be very smoky. Well, hopefully not. DAY ONE: Preparing the meats Turkey Before you can start cooking your turkey, it needs to be brined. I won’t be covering brining in as much detail as Dave the Cook did on eGCI, but there will be enough to get by. If you have a chance, read Dave's course. Brining is the simple procedure of placing whatever meat you are going to cook in a salt solution. Brining pre-seasons the meat and brings extra moisture into the cells of the muscle fibers throughout the cut of meat. Brining differs from marinading in that a marinade is topical, only adds flavor and does not make a cut of meat juicier. This is not to say that marinades are bad, they just don’t make meat juicier. Turkey is definitely a meat that greatly benefits from brining. I brine just about everything except for red meats like beef and lamb. Since I only cook these to a rare or medium- rare doneness, they naturally retain enough moisture. Before you brine your turkey, make sure it’s completely thawed. If you thaw your turkey in the brine, the wings and legs of the bird will be saltier than the breast, sometimes even too salty. For a 14 to 25 pound turkey, you’ll need about two gallons of brine and room in the refrigerator to store the turkey and the brine. I like to use a five-gallon, food grade plastic bucket and usually need to take out a shelf from the refrigerator. If you don’t have enough room in the fridge, a cooler can be used. Just make sure to put plenty of bagged ice in the cooler along with the turkey. Below is my bucket for brining. There is a spout at the bottom because I purchased the bucket at a homebrew supply store. The hungry cat behind the bucket is my cat Grace, but she also goes by the name "The Tinkler" and more recently, "Killer". This brine is darker than the recipe below because I also added two cups of brown sugar which of course is optional. Brine recipe: 2 gallons water 2 cups kosher salt Warning: Do not substitute table salt in equal amounts! Table salt has a far smaller grain than kosher salt meaning there’s more salt in a cup of table salt than a cup of kosher salt. If you substitute table salt in equal amounts, your turkey will be too salty. If you cannot get kosher salt, use one cup of table salt for 2 gallons of water. Let your turkey sit in the brine overnight. Some brine recipes call for all sorts of spices and herbs, but I’ve found that it’s just a waste of money as the effect of the herbs are minimal at best. If you’d like to flavor your turkey with herbs, do it after your bird has been brined. Rub the spices and herbs on the skin or under the skin or even in the cavity. Just make sure to dry the bird first. You can also inject your turkey with flavorings as well, but I prefer the taste of straight up smoked turkey. If you are smoking your first turkey, try it straight first before you start playing around so you have a base line to compare further endeavors. If your smoker is too small, or you can't find a container large enough for holding the turkey while it sits in brine, you can cut the turkey into parts. It's a relatively simple procedure as long as you're not squeamish about handling a raw turkey. Make sure to have a sharp boning or filleting knife and poultry shears or a stout chef’s knife. First cut the wings off at the joint where they meet the breast and next, the legs. Cut the skin between the breast and the leg all the way to the back, then cut the thigh meat as close to the back as possible on both sides of the thigh bone and cut through the socket. Separating the breasts from the back is more difficult and requires either poultry shears or a good chef's knife. Cut through the ribs, at the backbone. Start at the bottom and work your way up to the neck on both sides. There's no need to separate the breasts. Save the back and smoke that as well, you'll want it to make stock for gravy for your next turkey. Brisket If brining is so great for turkey, why not brine brisket? Well-- done right it’s called "corning" but that calls for far more salt than the brine for the turkey. I’ve found that brisket and red meat in general, doesn’t need to be brined -- they’re juicy enough as long as you don’t overcook them. That’s why marinades and dry rubs are more appropriate for brisket. If you want to make Texas style brisket it’s a dry rub or nothing. There are a number of commercial dry rubs on the market and many of the BBQ joints down in Texas even sell their own dry rubs (www.saltlickbbq.net. I like to make my own and here’s my recipe (it’s also in the eGRA): Klink’s Dry Rub 1/2 c Kosher salt 1/2 c brown sugar 1/2 c coarse ground pepper 1/2 c dried garlic 1/4 c paprika 1/4 c sumac 3 T turmeric 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp dried parsley 1 tsp dried basil Everyone has their preference and many joints in Texas just use salt and pepper. It’s really up to you, but work generous amounts of the rub into the brisket the day before you smoke it. Let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. Your grocery store butcher will often have brisket in the meat case or already pre-packaged but this is nearly always the flat of the brisket and it will also have all the fat trimmed off. It is still good brisket, but not for smoking. You want as much fat on that brisket as possible -- fat = juiciness and flavor. Not only is brisket fat delicious, but it’s very important to a juicy and edible brisket. You need that fat to baste the meat as it’s smoked for hours on end. At the end the fat is not like gristle on steak, it’s very soft and melts in your mouth. If you’re concerned about fat intake, for Pete’s sake wait until the brisket is finished smoking to remove the fat from your own portion and let others eat the fat; it’s too precious. The best brisket you can get is untrimmed and still in a cryovac plastic bag. You'll have to ask around to find it -- try looking up meat purveyors in the yellow pages and ask for untrimmed brisket. Weights will range from 10 pounds to 18 pounds. Yes, this is a lot of meat so you need to have a lot of friends or be very hungry. If you are lucky enough to have a choice of briskets, look for bright red meat with plenty of white fat. When you cut open the bag, make sure it smells fresh and rinse it off thoroughly. Above are two whole, untrimmed briskets, fat cap down. The can of PBR is there for sense of scale and BBQ isn’t BBQ without something to drink. To give you another idea of how big these guys are, the chopping block on which they are resting is 20” square. The “points” are on the left of chopping block and the “flats” are on the right side. With these briskets, the flats are about half as thick as the points. You can smoke brisket whole, as is, but often they are too big for water smokers and if your smoker can handle it, it will take upwards of 12 hours to smoke. Luckily, there is a solution. I cut my brisket in thirds before I smoke it. Cut into thirds, each piece only needs 6 to 8 hours on the smoker. Also, the point of the brisket can be up to three times thicker than the flat end of the brisket. By cutting the brisket into thirds, you have better control on how each piece of the brisket is smoked, allowing you to pull the flat off before the point if necessary. If you are smoking for yourself or a small party, you can bag and freeze two of the three brisket pieces and save them for another time. If you have a vacuum sealer, that is even better, your brisket will last for months in the freezer when it’s vacuum sealed. If you don't have access to untrimmed brisket and flats are all you can find, don't despair, you can still smoke them and have a good result. Typical flat cuts range from 3 to 4 pounds in size and are trimmed of all fat. When smoking a trimmed flat cut, you'll have to mop the brisket as it's smoked so it remains juicy. A mop is a liquid used to add moisture to meat as it's smoked. I make mine with whatever I have available, mostly a mustard vinaigrette, usually with some hot sauce. You can use whatever you'd like but make sure not to add sugar, as it tends to burn. DAY TWO: Smoking! Luckily smoking is the easy and fun part. It's also the part where I get to drink and play with fire. What can be better than that? Procedures for smoking the turkey and the brisket are basically the same. The only difference is the length of time in the smoker. I will list instructions for starting and running the wood-fired smoker, the Weber Smokey Mountain and a standard Weber grill followed by tailored instructions for turkey and brisket. Before you get all excited about firing up your smoker, I have a small procedural instruction for those of you smoking a turkey. Drain your turkey from its brine and pat it dry. Slice the skin between the legs and the breasts and legs and let the legs splay out so it looks “paws up.” The breast meat is going to be done at 165 F and often that will leave the inner thighs underdone. By opening up that skin, you’re allowing heat to get into thigh more easily and you’re able to pull the whole bird off at the same time without overheating the breast. If you've cut up your turkey, you don't have to worry about this. For those smoking a brisket, don’t worry, go ahead and start a fire. As soon as your smoker is ready for meat, you can take your brisket straight from the refrigerator to the smoker. You’ve probably heard a lot of experts say that roasts and steaks should come up to room temperature before cooking. Well that’s all well and good if you’re grilling or cooking at high temperatures, but to get the most smoke flavor in every bite, the meat needs to stay in the smoker for the longest period of time. By bringing brisket right out from the refrigerator, you’re letting it pick up even more smokiness. Wood-fired Smoker Remember to have an aluminum roasting tray filled with an inch of water in your smoker before you put the meat on. I only mention it here because I’ve forgotten this step a couple of times and that’s why I had to rent a pressure washer to clean off my deck when I moved. Before you light your fire, open both the firebox lid and smoker lid. Start with two logs that preferably have one or two flat sides and place them in the firebox with the flat sides facing each other. Crumple newspaper between the logs and place a couple of pieces of kindling on top of the paper. As the fire starts, heat bounces back and forth between the two flat sides of the logs, reflecting the heat back into the fire, helping it along. When the fire is stable (most of both logs are cleanly burning and the kindling is completely consumed--around 20 to 30 minutes) you can close the lids and let the smoker come up to a temperature of 225 F and then you're ready to add the meat. I should make a note about the kindling. Although you can't smoke with softwoods, their use as kindling is acceptable as long as you don't close the lids before the kindling is consumed. This gives the contaminants lots of time to burn off and not intrude into the smoking chamber. When you do throw the meat on, place it as far away from the fire as possible. The object is to leave the meat on as long as possible to get as much smoke as possible. Plus, most of the time the grate nearest the firebox is too hot anyway and you risk charring or even worse, drying out the meat. -- Operation and Troubleshooting -- The fire will burn at different rates during different parts of the year but you really don't have to worry about that. If your temperature is dropping, open up the damper more. If it's running too hot, close the damper. Never close off the chimney as that allows for creosote to build and give the meat off flavors. You should always have at least one log burning in the fire. Typically with maple or oak, that is all that is necessary, but if your fire is having trouble keeping temp, don't be afraid to toss another log on. Usually a fire will consume about one log every 30 minutes (alder) to an hour (maple or oak), but this will change with the seasons and whether or not your smoker is in the sun or in the rain. Be aware when you throw a new log on, more than likely the fire will heat up forcing you to close the damper. When I'm smoking in cooler weather I like to place the next log on top of the firebox to preheat, this way the fire doesn't have to struggle as much to get the new log lit. This is especially important if your fire is struggling. However, never put the next log on the firebox unless you have a safe place to put a burning log in case you need to remove it to lower the heat. Be careful! Having the next log on the firebox smoldering can also be an indicator that your fire is too hot! This is yet another reason why a wood-burning smoker needs more attention than a grill or a water smoker. You just don’t have the opportunity for events like this to happen with the other smokers. The above image indicates clearly that the fire (in the firebox smoking the meat) is too hot. If your fire runs too hot (greater than 250 F), there are a couple of things you can do. First, close the damper to the firebox to close off access to oxygen. Second, open the lid on the smoker and let some of that heat out. A third option is add cold water to the water tray. If your fire starts to die on you (let's say you're in hour 9 of a 12 hour smoking session and beer/bourbon number 8 and you've been neglecting the fire), open up the damper as much as you can. If it's still dying on you, throw another log on (hopefully it's been sitting on the firebox). Only as a last resort should you throw some more newspaper on the fire. Newspaper is light and after it's spent, the ashes tend to fly rather easily, that's why you should open up the lid to the firebox. Also, you don't want any odd fumes from weird inks or the paper itself to touch the meat. Water Smokers Conventional instructions say to soak your wood chips in water for one half-hour before use. Some say that aids creosote production and some say it prolongs the life of the chips. I haven't noticed a difference in taste between the two, so I soak my chips to last longer but there are times that I don't. Basically, it doesn't make much of a difference that I've been able to tell, so do what your heart tells you. Before you put briquettes in the chimney, remember to put the fuel in the bottom of the chimney. It is a lot easier that way. Typically a full-page section of newspaper is enough, but on windy days more may be necessary. If your newspaper isn't giving you enough oomph, you may want to try mixing in part of a brown-paper grocery bag which burns longer, but does not burn as hot as newspaper. Start with about 2/3 full chimney of briquettes for the turkey and a full chimney for the brisket. When the briquettes are about half done -- the coals on top have started to burn but are still half-black -- empty the chimney into the smoker and wait for the smoker to come to temp. If you let your coals go until they are all covered in white ash, then they will be too hot and your smoker will spike too high. By putting them in the smoker early, you're reducing the amount of oxygen available and the coals can easily come up to the ideal temperature without going over. When your smoker has come to temp it's time to throw on the wood chips. Either pull the top half off the smoker or open the access panel so you can easily place the chips on the coals. If you've been soaking them water, now is the time to grab a handful and drain them in your hand. Before you exuberantly throw the chips on, remember that water does a pretty decent job of putting out a fire so shake the chips a couple of timesto get rid of as much water as you can. Throw them on and put the smoker back to together. It's now time to put on the meat. -- Operation and Troubleshooting -- Operation is pretty simple with the WSM as the temperature doesn’t vary that much. Likewise, there isn't nearly as much to troubleshoot with a water smoker as there is with a wood-fired smoker since charcoal doesn't react as quickly as wood. Toying around with the lower and upper vents should be sufficient to correct any temperature fluctuations. Just remember that changes can take up to 15 minutes to make themselves evident. If you're finding yourself tensing up, grab a beer or a drink and don't worry about it. Worse thing that can happen is that you have to order out or your house goes up in flames. Probably the biggest thing to worry about is whether or not smoke is coming out of your smoker. If there’s no smoke, you’ve exhausted the woodchips and you are no longer smoking -- you are now just slow cooking and it’s time to throw on more chips. Check every 20 to 30 minutes to see when to add more coals. The above image shows the access panel to an WSM after more chips have been added to the coals. On average, chips are added every 45 minutes to an hour. For smoking the turkey or the brisket you shouldn't need to add any more coals unless you've underestimated how many you needed in the first place. However, if you're running a little cold, and you've opened up all of the vents, you can always add just a couple of coals but, be prepared to wait 15 minutes before you see a change. If you're running really cold, start up another batch of coals in the chimney and add them when they are fully going to give the temperature a nice shot in the arm. If you're running too hot, close the bottom vents first, then the upper vents but always leave one upper vent partially open; there should always be an exhaust vent for smoke otherwise you risk creosote building up. If you're running really hot, above 275, you can just remove the top or even the top and the section holding the meat while you wait for the coals to cool down. Don’t forget that you can throw more wet chips on the coals without doing a great job of shaking off the water as well or just throw a little water on the coals. Charcoal Grills If you choose to soak your wood chips, do so before you start the coals in the chimney. Since smoking doesn't cook at the high levels of a grill, you don't need as much charcoal at the start. Like the water smoker, start with about 2/3 of chimney and let them ash completely over so no black is visible. Grills don't hold their heat like water smokers do, so it's safe to let the coals get plenty hot. However, if you throw the coals on before that, it's not a problem, the coals will still get lit eventually. Normally you'd spread the coals out evenly on the charcoal grate but that is for direct grilling. For smoking, you need to place the coals off to one side. Weber’s charcoal rails work well here. Ideally, the coals will be right above one of the lower vents. The meat goes on the opposite side from the coals and the vent on the lid should be right above the meat. This way air comes up through the vent, hits the coals and the wood chips taking smoke with it and travels around the meat and out the top vent. After you add the coals to the charcoal grate, place the main grate on the grill. When the grill/smoker comes up to temperature, it's time to add the chips. It's at times like this where the Weber replacement hinged cooking grates come in very handy. They allow access to the coals without having to remove the entire grate. Oh yeah, the grate gets hot! Use tongs to open the grate (or oven mitts you don’t mind getting dirty). If you don't have a cooking grate with a hinge, you'll have to remove the entire grate to add the wood chips. Later on when there is meat on the grate, you'll need an extra hand to add more chips or some place to set the grate on such as bricks or cement blocks. Make sure there are at least three for the best support -- the last thing you want is for your meat to hit the ground. You're now ready to throw on the meat. -- Operating and Troubleshooting -- Operation of the grill is similar to the WSM: there are vents on the bottom and on the top. Leave the top vent at least a little open at all times and mainly work with the lower vents. To increase the temperature, open the vents; to lower the temperature, close the vents. As with the WSM, if there is no smoke coming out of your grill, you are not smoking - it’s time to throw more chips on the coals. If you don’t have a hinged cooking grate, you’ll have to take the whole grate off. Either have somebody to help you throw more chips on or have a safe place to stow the grate, like a trio of bricks or cinder blocks in a triangle pattern. If you’re running cool and you’ve opened your vents to their maximum, there is a trick you can use before resorting to starting more coals in the chimney. Fires need oxygen to burn and the more it gets, the hotter it burns. Now a Weber kettle isn’t a wind tunnel but one way to increase airflow and not loose all of the heat by completely taking off the lid, is just to leave about an inch or two open near the meat. You’d be surprised how well this works. I use it often when I’m finished grilling or cooking with charcoal to help the coals burn out so I have less of a mess to clean up the next time. If you’re running too hot the first thing to do is completely close the lower vents and then just take the lid off. 30 seconds will dramatically drop the temperature. If it’s still too hot, you can always throw more chips on without being diligent about shaking off all of the water or you can just throw a little water on the fire. Just be aware that’s possible to bring up ash when coals sizzle. Time for Meat That didn’t take long did it? The cooking style for both the turkey and the brisket is really the same. Cook them in a 225 F environment in the presence of smoke until they’re done. Well, there is a little more to it than that-- unless you’re smoking with the WSM. You have the easiest job since there isn’t a temperature gradient across the cooking grate and hardly any work to do keeping temperature. But for those with a wood-burning smoker or the grill, we have to rotate the meat as it smokes. These smokers have hot spots and the meat needs to rotate in and out of it. Smaller pieces, if possible, need to be in the cooler sections of the smoker and pieces that can handle warmer temperature need to be closer to the heat. Depending on how warm the smoker is, the meat should be rotated every 15-30 minutes. I stated at the beginning that the ideal temperature of the smoker should be 225 F and I’m still sticking to my guns. However, with the grill and the wood-burning smokers, it’s possible that though general temperature may be 225 F, spots in the smoker are going to be higher. This means it’s necessary to know when it’s too warm for the meat. Basically, if your meat is sizzling, it’s too hot. This is easiest to tell with meats like brisket where there isn’t a skin and it’s easier for moisture to leave the meat and so it’s going to be more visible at the surface. But there’s also some common-sense involved. Thin or small pieces of meat will dry out before large hunks of meat, so rotate them often and watch them carefully. If it looks like nothing is happening yet it’s still warm, then everything’s all right. -- Turkey -- Place the turkey breast side up and, if you’ve already cut your bird into pieces, skin side up. Which side is up really won’t affect the flavor or texture of the meat, but it will end up looking better if the skin side is up and this applies to the entire smoking process. The above image shows the turkey (on the right, the other bird is a goose) with the top of the breasts towards the firebox. It has been smoking for approximately an hour. If you were to roast the turkey in the oven at 225 it would still take as long as on the smoker, but it would look like the goose on the left. Not only that, you wouldn’t get the nice crispy texture on the skin or the crispy turkey goodness on the bottom of the pan. Luckily with smoking, the skin picks up a lot of color. Notice that the skin between the breasts and the legs is not opened. As a consequence, the inner thighs on this particular turkey were not quite done and had to go back on the smoker after the breasts were removed. Turkey is really simple once you realize that you cook it to a specific temperature and not for a specific time. For Christmas I gave my family a digital probe thermometer and after I flew back home, my brothers wanted to throw a beef roast in the oven but they wanted to try out the new toy. I get a call and they ask me “how long does it take to roast beef with the thermometer?” Granted, my younger brothers are under 20 and just starting their journey into cooking, but the mentality is pretty much that of mainstream America, or at least the Midwest -- most people cook meat by time instead of temperature. Turkey breasts are done at 165 F. If you’ve already cut your turkey into pieces you can easily leave the legs on longer if the breasts finish early. If you didn’t, not to worry, especially if you’re smoking on a wood-burning smoker or a grill. Since there is a temperature gradient across the cooking surface, you can place the legs closer to the heat for the majority of the time and your legs will finish before the breasts and everything is done when the breasts are done. Usually a 20 lb bird will be finished in 2 1/2 hours time. This may be surprising to those who’ve never cooked a brined turkey because a bird this size would normally take about 3 1/2 to 4 hours in a conventional oven and that’s usually at 350 F, not 225 F. What does this mean? You need to keep a close eye on the progress of the meat. Start taking temperature readings of the breasts after an hour or so and do it regularly (3 to 4 times an hour) as the bird smokes. Obviously you’ll need to pay more attention as you get closer to 165 F. For those of you with a bullet, there’s a good chance that your bird wouldn’t fit onto the top grate in one piece and you had to cut your bird up beforehand anyway. If you bought a bird small enough to fit, pull the turkey off when the breasts are done even if the legs are not done. Let the bird rest for 10 minutes then separate the breasts from the rest of the bird and keep them warm in the oven at around 150 degrees, covered with tinfoil. Put the rest of the turkey back on the smoker to let the legs finish. It’s a little higher maintenance, but well worth the effort. When the legs are done you pull them off and take the breasts from the oven for carving and serving. It isn’t as necessary for the legs to rest as it is for the breasts since the legs have more fat. Some turkey traditionalists prefer to bring the whole bird to the table to carve but I’ve never really cared for it. It’s primarily for show and if your guests want that, show them the fire in the backyard and give them another drink. Once they try the smoked turkey, they will never question your judgment again. I prefer to carve the turkey on my cutting board where I have a stable and soft surface for my knife and I can get clean slices. Before you dive into a whole turkey with your carving knife, let your turkey rest for at least 10 or 15 minutes to let the juices be reabsorbed. For carving, I first separate the breasts from the breastbone and then carve slices like you’d get at the deli. The leg meat however, I just pull or slice off the bone and serve the pieces chopped up because by then I already have people stealing pieces of breast meat off the platter and time is of the essence. At this point, my guests don’t care what the leg meat looks like. The one drawback to smoking a turkey is that you don’t get the pan juices to make gravy as you do with a roasted bird. Don’t worry. For once your turkey will not need gravy to make it palatable. It will be juicy and tender and won’t leave you feeling like you’re in the desert. However, what if it’s Thanksgiving dinner and you can’t live without gravy for your mashed potatoes? Luckily, you just smoked a bird and with this carcass you can make stock for gravy at Thanksgiving. Look to the end of the course for the best gravy you’ve ever had. -- Brisket -- Place your trio of brisket pieces on the smoker fat cap up. I am of the school where the fat cap should always be up, primarily because as the fat renders out it bastes the meat. If you flip it over you’re just losing all of that beautiful fat to the water tray. Some folks like to sear the fat cap at the beginning of the smoking session to get the fat to start rendering as quickly as possible. I’ve tried this a couple of times though mostly because the grate near the fire can get really hot when the smoker is coming up to temperature and it’s a lot of fun to throw the cold brisket onto the really hot cast-iron grates. I really don’t think that it helps the fat render any more quickly but if it does then I don't want it! I want the fat to last as long as possible! The time your brisket needs its fat the most is when you pull it off the smoker, not at the beginning. Like the turkey, brisket needs to be rotated in and out of the warmer regions of your smoker so that no one piece has to bear the brunt of the hot side. Do let the flat third of your brisket spend the least time in the hot zone since it has the least amount of fat of the three. Rotate the pieces every 15 or 20 minutes (when your smoker is hot) to 30 or 45 minutes (when your smoker is a steady 225 F or lower). This is more important in the first few hours of smoking than at the end because usually your fire cools as you continue to smoke. The image above shows three 1/3 portions of a whole untrimmed brisket along with a pork shoulder in the lower left hand quarter. The yellow bowl has a mustard-based vinaigrette (with plenty of hot sauce) that I was using to mop the shoulder. The flat of the brisket is directly in front and furthest from the fire because it has the least amount of fat, and thus requires protection from the heat. I keep my flat in that location for the duration of the smoking but I do rotate it in place so one side doesn’t cook more than the other. Those of you with a water smoker don’t need to rotate nearly as often but once every other hour or so is good just for peace of mind. There will be a temperature gradient from top to bottom but it is not as great as in the wood-burning smoker or the grill. The brisket thirds will need at least 6 hours but not more than 8. You could probably get away with 5 hours on the flat portion but will it end up being chewier than it should. If you’re smoking with a grill, at some point you will definitely need to add more charcoal. You can do it a couple briquettes at a time every half hour or in fell swoops with the chimney, but either way you will have to add more. When I smoke briskets I rarely take their temperature. Brisket, like pork shoulder, is more about letting the collagen and the fat break down to get the right texture in the meat; usually this is around 190 to 210 for brisket. I know what I said about temperature and the turkey and that’s still relevant and completely true along with almost any other small or large roast, but not so with brisket or pork shoulder. When the brisket is done, you can tell by poking with your finger and a carving fork with long thin tines. To the touch it will be resilient and the crusty exterior pieces will easily come off, usually along with a good portion of nearly rendered fat (“oops, that sometimes happens, shame ain’t it?”). When you poke the brisket with a carving fork it should go easily through, almost like the brisket wasn’t there. The cut of brisket where this is most likely to happen is the point, which has the most fat however. A fork should still easily go through the flat as well. Brisket also needs to rest before it is carved. 15 minutes should be quite sufficient. If you weighed it before and after it came out of the smoker, you would notice that it lost about half of its weight. Carve the brisket against the grain, which runs diagonally along the length of the brisket. If your brisket isn’t as tender and juicy as it could be, cutting with the grain only amplifies the situation. However, if you’ve done everything right, this is what it looks like: There will be a pink ring around the perimeter of the meat and as you can see, it should be moist and very juicy. If you smoked it right, this is what your guests do: Brisket is easier to cook than turkey primarily because you never really have to take its temperature and it’s more difficult to overcook, though it does take two to three times as long to smoke. Sure, you can overcook brisket, but if you picked up an untrimmed brisket and didn’t trim off any of the fat, you won’t have to worry about dry brisket. Unlike turkey breast, where even if it had enough fat to last for 6 hours of smoking, it would still end up very chewy and pretty much inedible, most of an untrimmed brisket is marbled with fat and collagen holding it together and keeping it moist. If you were to grill brisket to rare or medium rare you would have juicy shoe leather. Brisket is not just muscle fiber, that’s why brisket can last so long at 225 F and not dry out or turn into rubber. If you’re willing to wait (and watch TV, read a book, drink beer in the back yard on a sunny day, listen to the ball game), what you’ll get is a juicy and tender piece of beef that can compete with the pit masters of Texas. Please don’t be afraid of eating the fat. I remember the first time I truly understood what good brisket was; I sat down with a whole mess of brisket on butcher paper and I noticed the fat on the outside edge and thinking, uh, no, that’s not for me. I’ve always been told that fat is bad for you. But for some reason I was overcome by the situation and I thought “what the hell?” I ate some and I had an epiphany! I realized then and there that brisket is nothing without the fat because that’s where most of the flavor and the the smokiness rests. This isn’t gristly fat like that on a steak, the fat cells break down, on the verge of completely rendering and as soon as they hit your tongue you’re in heaven. The closest non-smoked fat experience I can think of is biting into a crispy roast duck. You break the crunchy exterior and there’s a gush of fat that melts in your mouth and rushes everywhere it can. It’s then you realize why you eat meat. These luxurious lipids coat every portion of your mouth and reach down inside you and you say to yourself “despite everything happening in the world, I am happy.” This is where you realize that somebody on this Earth hasn’t known the extreme pleasure that I know, and I must spread the Gospel. This is how good brisket fat is, only better. Hopefully you’ll love brisket as much as I do and Texans do. CONCLUSION I truly hope that I didn't scare people away by the size of this course, because once you go through it, it becomes second nature and the work really isn't that difficult. Most of the time spent smoking is actually doing something else, smoking is actually in the background. If you can plan ahead, you can smoke. By now you're a pro at turkey and/or brisket and it's something to be proud of. Most people don't know how to prepare a turkey and even more don't know a thing about brisket. Both can be very delicious or supreme disasters, but if you follow my steps you can avoid the usual pitfalls that accompany these two meats and never be afraid to cook them again. Like any other endeavor, if you want to be good at smoking meat or preparing meat in general, it takes practice. If you think that smoking is right up your alley, make it a weekly event and try to find friends that will come over for it. If you've smoked before, you probably won't have a problem. However, to get them back week after week, you may want to schedule it around something like the Sopranos, Sunday Football or how I learned, around Friday Night Fights on ESPN2, the deuce. There is no way I'd be able to eat all of the meat I've smoked if it wasn't for hungry friends -- I can't imagine how bad my cholesterol would be otherwise! Now, go forth and spread the Gospel of meat. For the Next Time You Smoke a Turkey Don’t even think about throwing away the turkey carcass, it’s time to make stock. Save every non-meat leftover piece from the turkey and throw it into a stockpot and make your stock as you normally do. If you’ve never made stock before, check out the eGCI course on stocks and sauces. The short version is to simmer the carcass for at least four hours, skimming the scum as it comes to the surface. Strain stock and put it in the refrigerator overnight. The next day separate the fat and store separately. If you'd like to add aromatic vegetables and other spices, feel free to do so but not salt. Once there's salt in a stock, it can never come out and since most stocks are reduced when making gravy, the salt builds and builds. Come Thanksgiving, you’ll now be ready to serve gravy along with your smoked turkey, the likes of which you have never seen. Smoked Gravy 1/2 cup smoked turkey fat 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 3 - 5 cups of smoked turkey stock salt to taste If you don’t have a half-cup of smoked turkey fat, add butter until you have a total of a half-cup of fat. Warm over medium heat and add flour. Mix flour until it is golden brown or the shade of your preference. Make sure to keep stirring so the flour doesn’t burn. When the flour and fat mixture is at your desired color, add stock in half-cup intervals. When the stock is incorporated, add additional half cups until you reach your desired thickness. I like a thick gravy which usually ends up being around 3 cups of stock and easily hangs on to the back of a spoon. Sources and Other Resources http://www.virtualweberbullet.com The BBQ Faq http://www.bbq-porch.org/faq.asp Kansas City BBQ Forum http://ww.rbjb.com/rbjb/rbjbboard Weber's website http://www.weber.com copyright © 2003 Matt Treiber Post your questions here -->> Q&A

Post questions for Matt's Smoking course here.

Post your questions here -->> Q&A Introduction To Lebanese Cuisine Author: Elie Nassar (FoodMan) Hello and welcome to the class. In the following sections I offer an introduction to Lebanese cooking, especially home cooking. After taking this class and participating in the Q&A, you will hopefully have a better understanding of and more familiarity with Lebanese food beyond Hummus and Tabboulli. The sections below are divided into the following: Lebanese Pantry Basics Pita Bread Tabikh (Comfort Food) On the Grill Kibbeh Falafel Dessert Beverages One thing to keep in mind while reading the material, is that the Arabic names of the recipes and ingredients are spelled phonetically, so you might see them spelled differently elsewhere. One example that comes to mind is clarified butter which I spell Samen. Others might write it as Smen, Semen, or Samneh. Lebanese Pantry The following are the most common Lebanese food items found in almost every home. You certainly do not need to have all of them as this list is meant to give you an idea of the items typically used in Lebanese cooking. Spices and Herbs: The two major herbs used are Mint (fresh and dried) and Parsley. Parsley is only used in its fresh state, never dried. Spices include Cinnamon, Cumin, Allspice and Coriander. Sumac, with its nice tangy taste and wonderful maroon color, is also a very popular spice. Sumac is used to flavor salads as well as grilled meats and sauces. Tahini: Tahini is a paste made from toasted sesame seeds. It is used in many dishes and sauces such as Taratoor Bi Tahini and Hummus Bi Tahini. It is also mixed with grape or carob molasses to make a sweet snack with flat pita bread. Bread: The “bread” here is not your everyday American white or wheat bread— it is flat Pita bread. This is a staple and makes an appearance at almost every meal. No Lebanese home is complete without it!!! Lebanese bread is a round thin flat bread about 10 inches in diameter and it has two sides, a red one and a white one. The two sides can be pulled apart to create a pocket that can be stuffed with all kinds of foods. It is used to make “sandwiches” or wraps. It is also used as a “scoop” for dips, meat, or any food on the table. Legumes: These include chickpeas, white beans, red beans and lentils (red and brown). Burghul: Another Lebanese staple, it is basically wheat kernels that are boiled, dried and then ground into small crumbles. The two textures of Burghul I use are the medium grind (for pilafs) and the fine grind (for stuff like Kibbeh). Rose water (ma warid) and orange blossom water (ma zahir): These are mainly used in desserts. Rose water is extracted from a very fragrant pink rose called wardi el Jooriya. Orange blossom water, as the name indicates, is extracted from orange blossoms. Plain Yogurt: Needs no introduction and is usually found in all homes. Yogurt is either homemade or store bought. It is used as-is, in cooking, as a sauce base or to make a delicious yogurt cheese called Labneh. Rice: Mainly white rice. Fats: Olive oil, butter, Samen which is clarified butter and is used for cooking everything from rice to meats to scrambled eggs. It has a delicious nutty buttery flavor. Flour: White flour, Semolina. Basics (fillings, sauces, sides) Just as in any cuisine, a good knowledge of the basics will enable you to be a more efficient cook. Here are the basic recipes that could be used as bases, sauces, sides or even meals by themselves. Laban (yogurt) Yields 2 Quarts Yogurt. Yogurt is found in all Lebanese homes, large or small, rich or poor. It is one of the cornerstones of Lebanese cooking. Even though decent plain yogurt can be bought, you should try to make your own at least once. It is very satisfying and the sweet taste is just unequaled, especially if you are going to use it to make Labneh. • 2 Quarts (1.9L) Milk (usually 2% or whole) • ¼ cup Starter (plain yogurt with active cultures, either store bought or saved from the previous yogurt batch.) If using frozen yogurt as a starter: Remove it from the freezer and allow to defrost in the fridge for a few hours or put the container in a hot water bath for about one hour (that’s what I do) but NEVER microwave it. Heat up the milk until almost boiling, then let it cool slightly. I know when it is ready by administering the "index-finger test": The milk is ready if it is cool enough for me to keep my CLEAN finger in it for no more than 10 seconds (it should still be quite hot and not lukewarm). Pour the milk into a glass container with a lid, stir in the starter and wrap the whole thing with a wool shawl or a thick sweater and leave it overnight (or about 10 hrs) on your kitchen counter. The longer you leave it wrapped, the more the sour taste will develop. I prefer a sweeter tasting yogurt, so 8-10 hours is enough. The yogurt produced is sweet with a slight tang and a soft custard-like texture—absolutely fantastic. Remove a quarter cup of the fresh yogurt to freeze in a small plastic container for use next time as a starter and refrigerate the rest. Perfect Homemade Yogurt Labneh (Yogurt Cheese/Drained Yogurt) Labneh has always been one of my favorite snacks. Mixed with a little salt and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, it is heavenly. It could be eaten as a dip for pita bread, or as a spread, or mixed in with a myriad of flavorings (garlic, hot chili, mint, olive paste,…) to make an excellent mezze item. Although you can buy Labneh, a couple of the decent brands I used to buy have cream added to make it well…creamier. So, while the taste is great the addition of cream makes it fattier than butter!!!! Make your own, have the real fresh thing and control how much fat you want in your cheese. • 1 Quart (1L) Yogurt You can really use as much yogurt as you want provided that you have a colander large enough to accommodate it. Place a large colander inside a slightly deeper bowl with the colander’s handles resting on the edges of the bowl. The colander’s bottom should be a few inches higher than the bottom of the bowl. Place three layers of cheesecloth inside the colander. Put the yogurt in the cheesecloth, cover with a plate or plastic wrap or more cheesecloth then place in the refrigerator overnight. Check it after 8 to 10 hours:- the Yogurt should be set and it should have the consistency of whipped cream or soft cheese depending on your yogurt and on how long you let it drain. Remove it from the colander, and store in a sealed container in the fridge. Discard the whey that is left in the bowl. Fresh Labneh still in the cheesecloth Traditional way of serving Labneh: mix in a pinch of salt and drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil Samen (Clarified Butter/Ghee) Yields about ¾ lb (336g). Along with olive oil, Samen is the most often used cooking fat in Lebanese cuisine. Samen is nothing but clarified butter, traditionally made from sheep’s milk. In today’s world Samen is made mostly from cow’s milk and could be purchased at major grocery stores as well as middle eastern shops. Butter can be substituted for Samen in most recipes, although one should be careful not to burn the more delicate butter. • 1lb (450g) unsalted butter In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and bring to a gentle simmer, skimming any “scum” off the surface (reserve the “scum” in a small bowl). Let cook for 4-5 minutes without letting the Samen take on too much color. Remove from the heat and let cool for about an hour or until it is barely warm and the milk solids have collected in the bottom. Strain through a fine strainer into a clean jar and store in the fridge. Do not throw the butter sediment (cooked milk solids) away. Remove them from the strainer and add to the reserved butter “scum”. Add salt and you will have what is called Raybit Samen, a tasty treat to spread on bread. Plain Burghul (cracked wheat) Pilaf Yields about 2.5 cups This basic pilaf makes a great side dish to any meal. If you prefer to make it more substantial and have it as a meal, try one of the variations below or create your own, the variations are endless. • 3 Tbsp olive oil • ½ cup diced onions • 1 cup medium grind Burghul • 1 cup chicken stock (To make it vegetarian use vegetable stock or even water) Heat the oil in a medium sized pot. Saute the onion until just colored. Add the Burghul and a couple pinches of salt and stir so that the burghul is coated with the oil. Add the broth and bring to a simmer. Cover the pot and cook on medium low heat for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes check for doneness. By now the bulghur should be soft with a little bite. If not, cover and cook for a couple more minutes. Once you get this texture, turn the heat off, keep covered and let sit for another 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve. Perfectly cooked burghul should not be mushy or clumpy, the grains should be fluffy and light Burghul Pilaf variations: - Add some shredded cooked chicken meat at the end and serve with some yogurt. - Add one ripe diced tomato when adding the Burghul and you have red Burghul with Tomato (burghul bi banadura). - Make Mujadarra. Double the diced onions and add half a cup of brown lentils when adding the burghul. Garnish with fried onions and serve with tomato salad. - One of my favorite variations is to add sautéed zucchini and eggplant along with cubed Halumi or Feta cheese to the cooked Burghul. Mix everything real good and eat as is with a drizzle of evoo. Rice with Vermicelli (Riz Mfalfal) Yields about 2 cups When I think of any dish served with rice, this is the rice preparation that comes to mind. I love the flavor of Samen in this rice but butter will work just as well. • 1 Tbsp Samen • ¼ cup very fine vermicelli crumbled into ½ inch pieces • 1 cup white rice • Salt • 2 cups water Heat the Samen in a pan and add the crumbled vermicelli. Cook until it turns light brown in color. Add the rice and salt and cook for two minutes making sure everything is coated with the Samen and the rice is turning a little opaque. Add the water and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let it cook uncovered until the liquid is a little reduced and you can barely see the rice under the water. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low and cook for another 20 minutes or until the rice is tender. Fluff and serve. Meat Stuffing Yields about 2.5 Cups This meat stuffing (or a variation of it) is used as a filling for veggies, pastries and pies. Feel free to personalize it by adding more spices or a dash of cayenne or maybe some fresh herbs. • Olive Oil • 1lb (450g) Ground Beef or Lamb • 1 Medium Onion diced • 1/3 cup Pine nuts • 2 Tbsp Pomegranate Molasses (or to taste) In a pot, heat 2 Tbsp of oil and sauté the pine nuts until lightly colored. Add the onions and cook till soft. Add the beef and cook till browned. Season with salt and pepper and add the pomegranate molasses. Taste and adjust to desired flavor. Let it cool. It is now ready to be used. Meat Stuffing Garlic Sauce Garlic sauce is normally used with grilled chicken, whether chicken kebabs or chicken pieces (Djaj Mashwi). If you are a garlic-lover, this sauce will go great with anything. When a Lebanese family makes grilled chicken, the garlic sauce is used both as a marinade and as a dipping sauce for the cooked chicken. The sauce that many people in the US are familiar with is the white-mayo-like garlic sauce used in chicken sandwiches or as a dollop on the side of the plate. Indeed this white sauce is the restaurant type garlic sauce and you would be hard-pressed to find it in any Lebanese home. You would however find it in Lebanese restaurants and Shawarma vendors. Homemade Garlic Sauce: This is the easiest of the two. Mash up as much garlic as you want, preferably in a mortar and pestle (or you can use a food processor), then mix it in with enough extra virgin olive oil to make a loose paste. Add lemon juice to taste and season with salt. Restaurant (white) garlic sauce: For this one you need to use a food processor or a blender. • ½ cup peeled garlic • 1 Tbsp Mayonaise (optional) • ¼ - 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil • Lemon juice to taste • Salt Process the garlic with the mayonnaise, if using (most restaurants use it but I do not like it too much) to a very fine paste. With the motor running slowly, add vegetable oil till you get the desired mayo-like consistency. Add Lemon juice and salt to taste. Tahine Sauce (Taratoor) Yields about 1.5 Cups One of the most frequently used sauces in Lebanese cuisine. It is used for fish, Falafel, Kibbeh, grilled lamb or Kafta, to name a few. • 1 cup Tahine • ¼ cup Lemon juice (or more if you like) • 1 tsp mashed garlic • 2 tsp ground Cumin • Salt Mix all the ingredients together with enough water (about 1/2 cup) to make a nice and creamy (NOT PASTY) mixture. The Tahine sauce might seem as if it is going to turn pasty at first but with enough water it will loosen up. Variation: A very tasty variation on this is to use half the amount of Tahine and substitute a ½ cup yogurt for it. Finish with some fresh chopped parsley if you like. This goes great with Kibbeh. Cucumber and Yogurt salad This is a tasty and refreshing accompaniment to most dishes, especially grilled items. • 3 cups Yogurt • 1 10 inch long cucumber • 2 tsp mashed garlic • 1 Tbsp dried mint • Salt to taste Peel and seed the cucumber then dice into ½ inch pieces. Mix the cucumber with all the remaining ingredients and serve cold. Pita Bread (Khobz Arabi) Lebanese (Pita) bread is widely available in most major cities in the US and around the world, so obtaining good bread should not be a problem. When buying Pita bread make sure it is not the “thick” kind which I find is hard to use for making wraps or for scooping food. Good Pita bread should be soft and pliable (sort of like a tortilla), not brittle or dry. To store, keep it in the plastic bag it came in and put it in the freezer. Remove one loaf at a time (or more) as needed and defrost by either cooking in the microwave for about 10 seconds or leaving it covered at room temperature for about fifteen minutes. Never leave Pita bread uncovered lest dries out and become brittle. Always store it in a plastic bag. If however, you cannot get a hold of good Lebanese bread in your city, then the following recipe produces good results even though the end product is a little thicker than I prefer. Pita Bread Makes 5 6-inch Pita loaves • 3 Cups Bread flour or All Purpose flour • ½ tsp Instant yeast (or 1 tsp Active Dry yeast combined with a Tbsp sugar and ¼ cup warm water till foamy) • ½ tsp salt • 1 Cup warm water (reduce the water by ¼ Cup if using Active Dry yeast) Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, then add the yeast (or yeast/water mixture) and add the water slowly while stirring with a plastic or wooden spoon until everything is combined into a ball. You might need more or less water than the 1 cup. Once the dough comes together, transfer it to a floured surface and knead for a good ten minutes until it is soft and elastic. Roll the dough into a log and cut it into five equal parts (cut into fewer pieces if you want bigger loaves). Form each piece into a ball and put them all on a floured baking sheet. Cover with a damp towel and let them rise in a warm place for about an hour or until almost double in size. Dough balls ready to be rolled Preheat your oven to 500F (270C). If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven to pre-heat thoroughly. Flatten each dough ball and with a rolling pin form it into 1/8 inch (3mm) thick round about 6 inches (15cm) in diameter. After rolling all the dough, cover and let them rest on a floured surface for 15-30 minutes. If you have a baking stone then bake them on the stone by sliding the dough rounds onto the stone and baking till they puff up like balloons (about 2-3 minutes). Leave them in the oven no more than one minute after they puff up even though they might not have much color on them. This will insure that the bread will be soft and pliable once cooled. If you do not have a baking stone in your oven, place the rounds on a baking sheet (making sure they are not touching) and bake in the oven until they puff up. Ready for baking Pita bread ready to be taken out of the oven As soon as you remove the baked bread from the oven, place in a container, flatten gently and then cover with a damp towel. Keep stacking the flattened baked bread on top of each other and covering them. Store the baked bread in a well sealed plastic bag. Never let the baked bread cool uncovered or it will harden. These last two were left in the oven a little longer. They were tasty but pretty brittle Tabikh (Comfort Food) In Arabic Tabikh literally means “cookery” or even “cuisine” so you would hear that so-an-so’s mom’s Tabikh is excellent or her Tabikh needs more salt. However, the word, at least in the home I grew up in, took on a much deeper meaning, namely the quintessential Lebanese comfort food. It is the meal that mom cooked during weekdays, the one I thought about all day at school especially if it was something I loved like the Shaikh el Mahshi. Tabikh is usually some kind of stew or a bake made with stewed meat and one or two veggies. It is almost always served with rice, although flat pita bread can also, and is often, used. A basic, general recipe would look something like this: Brown your meat of choice in olive oil, add garlic and onions, and cook till the onions and garlic are soft. Now add your vegetable (eggplant, white beans, green beans, okra, potatoes,…) along with any seasoning, other aromatics or dried herbs and stir everything. Add water to barely cover and simmer covered. You should end up with a stew-like mixture with plenty of sauce and juices. This description is certainly a simplified version, but after cooking many similar recipes the only differences I’ve found are in the condiments or prep work. For example, if cooking white dried beans you would add tomato paste AFTER the beans are soft. If cooking eggplant you would add fresh chopped tomatoes with your eggplant, while okra requires you to fry it before it added, and so on. Another point to keep in mind is that the vegetable is usually the star of the dish, not the meat. You should therefore have a larger proportion of vegetables to beef, lamb, or chicken. This is clear from the names of the recipes, such as “eggplant stew”, “okra with meat”, “rice with peas”, so in most cases the veggies are the dominant ingredient. Below are a few of my favorite comfort food recipes. I do realize that the Shaikh el Mahshi does not really conform with the above general description for the Tabikh process. It is nevertheless a wonderful recipe and one of my all-time favorite comfort foods. Shaikh El Mahshi (stuffed eggplant) 4 Servings Traditionally Shaikh el Mahshi refers to the stuffed eggplant portion of this recipe. However my mom once had some extra tomatoes and she decided to use them as well. It was a big hit and since then she never makes this recipe without the stuffed tomatoes. The traditional method of prepping the eggplant is to fry it and that is what I demonstrate here. However, brushing with olive oil and broiling also works great and produces less oily eggplant. • 12 Thin slices of eggplant (~1/4 inch) • Oil for frying • 4 firm, small, round or plum Tomatoes • 1 recipe Meat Stuffing Preheat the oven to 375F. Heat 1 inch (2.5cm) of oil in a deep pot to about 350F (190C). Fry the eggplant slices a few at a time until browned on both sides. Move to a rack to drain and season with salt and pepper. Cut the stem end from the tomatoes and, using a spoon, remove all seeds and pulp to create a hollow bowl (reserve seeds and juices and the cut “caps”). Slice a piece from the bottom of the tomatoes to form a flat surface on which to stand straight (take care not to make any holes in them though). Season with salt and pepper. Fried eggplant and prepared tomatoes In an oven-proof baking dish, make 4 eggplant stacks by placing one slice in the dish and topping with about 2 Tbsp of the stuffing. Top with another slice, then stuffing and then a third slice. Repeat three more times and you should end up with 4 stacks. Stuff the tomatoes with the meat stuffing (pack them real good) and place in the dish as well. Put the stem end “caps” back on them . Spread the reserved Tomato seed and pulp and juices all over the eggplant and tomato. The dish ready to go into the oven Place in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft but not mushy. Finished Dish Serve immediately with rice. Eggplant Stew 6 Servings • ½ lb (450g) Stew beef cut into cubes • 1.5 lbs (670g) eggplant • 1 large onion, diced • 2 Tbsp finely chopped garlic • ½ lb fresh tomatoes, diced Peel and cut the eggplant into 1 inch dice. Season the beef with salt and pepper. In a large heavy pot, heat some olive oil and brown the beef. Add the onions and garlic. Cook till soft then add the eggplant. Cook for a few more minutes until the eggplant is covered with the aromatics and oil and meat drippings. Add the tomatoes and season with more salt and pepper. Stir everything together, add water to barely cover everything and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about one hour or until the eggplant is cooked through and very soft. Correct the seasoning if necessary. Serve over rice or burghul. Riz w’ Bazilla (Rice and Peas) 4 Servings I could never figure out why this recipe is called rice and peas. Granted, it has peas and it is served with rice, but it also has an equal amount of carrots as well as ground beef. Why not call it “rice and carrots” or “peas and meat”. No matter what you call it, this recipe is easy and definitely good eats. • 1 cup diced onions • ½ lb (225g) ground beef • 1 cup frozen peas • 1 cup diced carrots (or use ½ lb (225g) whole baby carrots) • 2 Tbs tomato paste • Salt and pepper Heat 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil in a pot with a lid and sauté the onions till soft. Add the beef and cook till browned. Add the peas and carrots with salt and pepper and stir well. Add water to barely cover the mixture. Bring to a slow boil and add the tomato paste and stir it until dissolved. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until everything is cooked and the mixture has thickened slightly. Taste, adjust seasoning and serve hot over rice. Koussa Bil Zait (Zucchini in Olive Oil) Makes 4 Servings This recipe represents a certain type of Tabikh, that which is cooked with plenty of olive oil and eaten, in most cases, at room temperature or even straight out of the refrigerator. This type of food is very common during Lent since it utilizes no meat products. Pita bread is used to scoop the food rather than serving it with rice. • ¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil • 1 cup chopped onions • 1 lb (450g) mixed green Zucchini and yellow Squash • 1 cup chopped ripe tomatoes • 1 Tbs tomato paste (optional: if the tomatoes are a little under ripe) • Salt and Pepper to taste Wash the squash and cut into ½ inch cubes or half rounds if they are very small. Heat the olive oil in a pot with a lid and sauté the onions until soft but not browned. Add the squash and cook for a couple of minutes then add the tomatoes and tomato paste (if using). Season with salt and pepper and add a splash of water (a few Tbsps, enough to create some steam) then cover the pot and cook for about 10 minutes or until the squash is barely cooked but not mushy. Serve hot or at room temperature with Pita bread. Variations: - Green beans in olive oil: Substitute green beans cut up into 2 inch pieces for the squash and zucchini and omit the tomato and paste. Serve it with a cucumber and tomato salad. -Dried beans in olive oil: Substitute dried red or white (I love the white ones) beans that have been soaked overnight for the squash and zucchini and omit the tomato. Cover the beans with water instead of just a few Tbsps. Cook till soft (about 1 hour). When the beans are pretty much done add 1 generous tablespoon of tomato paste. Serve it with a heavy sprinkling of fresh black pepper. -Okra in olive oil: Substitute okra that has been cut into rounds and deep fried for the squash and zucchini. Add 1 tablespoon chopped garlic and a teaspoon Cayenne when sautéing the onion. Add ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro before adding the water and tomatoes. Kibbeh Kibbeh is the national dish of Lebanon. The basic Kibbeh is made with minced lamb, mutton or beef mixed with spices, minced onion and burghul. It can be eaten raw, fried, baked, or grilled. Another type of Kibbeh is Potato Kibbeh which uses boiled mashed potatoes (instead of meat) and adds fresh mint to the mix as well. Below, I provide recipes for two of the most common Kibbeh preparations - the Fried (which many of you will recognize) and the baked. Kibbeh • 1 cup fine burghul • 1 meduim onion, peeled • 1lb (450g) ground beef or lamb • 2 tsp Salt Put the burghul in a large bowl and cover it with cold water. Let it soak for about 30 minutes then drain in a strainer while pressing down to remove as much water as possible. Return to the bowl. Cut the onion into quarters and puree in the food processor. Add the onion, beef (or lamb) and salt to the burghul and knead the mixture with your hands till smooth. If it becomes too sticky, add a little ice cold water till it gets smooth. NOTE: For Raw Kibbeh cut the burghul amount by half and add 1tsp of ground Cumin to the mixture when you add the salt. Fried Stuffed Kibbeh Makes about 20 pieces • 1 Recipe Kibbeh • 2 cups meat Stuffing • 1 small bowl of water with ice cubes in it • Oil for frying Making these stuffed torpedo shaped pies takes some practice and the first few you make will probably look odd or fall apart. Keep trying, and once you get the hang of it, it will become quite easy. Here are the steps to making a perfect fried Kibbeh. Make the shell by forming a piece of the Kibbeh into a small ball, the size of a golf ball. Rub your hands with a little ice water if the ball becomes sticky while you are rolling it between your palms. Using an index finger and holding the ball in your other hand, make a tunnel in the ball. This is where the stuffing will go. Rotate the ball while “digging” the tunnel to make it an even thickness. The trick is to get the shell as thin as possible without breaking it. You should end up with a hollow, cone-shaped shell. Spoon about 2 tsp of the meat filling into the prepared shell, leaving enough room to close it. Using both hands gently close and seal the shell over the filling and, using the ice cold water as lubricant, form it into a football shaped pie. Heat about 2 inches (5cm) of oil in a deep pot to 375F (190C). Fry the Kibbeh a few at a time until they are deep brown on all sides. Drain and serve with “Yogurt Tahini Sauce”, “Cucumber Yogurt Salad” or “Tomato Salad”. Baked Stuffed Kibbeh Makes one pie, about 4-6 servings • 1 Recipe Kibbeh • 2 cups Meat Stuffing • 1 small bowl of water with ice cubes in it • ¼ cup Samen (or melted butter). Preheat your oven to 375F (190C). Prepare a baking dish or pie pan by rubbing the insides with a tablespoon of the Samen. Build the first layer of Kibbeh. The easiest way to do this is by building it in patches. Pat a piece of the Kibbeh between your palms until 1/8 - 1/4inch (3 - 6 mm) thick (depends how thick you like it). Lay the Kibbeh disc in the prepared pan. Keep doing this, placing the discs next to each other till you cover the bottom. You will have several “holes” which you need to patch with small Kibbeh pieces. Wet your hands with ice water and smooth the first layer till it looks uniform and with no holes. Put your stuffing all over the first layer of Kibbeh, then top it off with another layer of Kibbeh using the same technique you used to build the first one. Close all the holes and smooth it out. Using a sharp knife cut the unbaked stuffed Kibbeh into wedges and make a small hole in the center where the cuts cross. Drizzle the remaining Samen (or Butter) all over and make sure it goes into the cuts and the hole in the center. This will give it a beautiful color and amazing flavor. Put the stuffed Kibbeh in the oven and bake for 45 minutes or until it is nice and golden brown in color. Remove from the oven and serve the slices with “Cucumber Yogurt Salad”. Fried Kibbeh, Baked Kibbeh with Tahini Yogurt Sauce and a salad On The Grill Like most American households, the grill in the Lebanese home is a symbol of family get togethers, weekends, and nice summer afternoons. The fuel of choice –at least in my household- is always lump natural charcoal, never gas. Certainly it is never “briquettes” which is something I had never seen till I got to the US and mistakenly thought it was charcoal. The three most common items put on the grill in the Lebanese kitchen (or back yard, balcony or front porch) are lamb kebabs, garlic marinated chicken pieces with potatoes, and of course Kefta. Other grilled items include Kibbeh, and grilled vegetables such as mushrooms, cauliflower and sometimes fish. Usually at the end of the meal my grandmother would place a kettle (rakwi) between the leftover coals and she would make the best after meal coffee. Here I list recipes for these three simple grilled items. Probably the most complicated one is the Kefta. It is a little tricky to get them on a skewer but you can just as easily form them into patties instead. Kefta (ground meat Kebabs) Makes 6-7 Kebabs • 1lb (450g) ground lamb or beef or a mixture of both (use meat that is about 85% lean at the most). • ½ cup finely chopped parsley • ½ cup finely diced onion • 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh mint • 2 tsp ground Cumin • Salt and pepper to taste Soak 6 or 7 bamboo skewers in water for about 30 minutes (or use the metal ones). Mix all the ingredients in a bowl using your hands until everything is well incorporated and the mixture is smooth. To make the Kefta Kebabs, form a short 2 inch piece of the meat mixture into a fat sausage shape. Pass a skewer through the small sausage lengthwise. Now start rotating the skewer with one hand while cupping the meat with the other and pressing it to create an elongated kefta sausage on the skewer. Rotating the skewer helps you distribute the meat evenly which reduces the chance of it falling off. Kefta ready for the grill Grill the skewers till the desired doneness. Serve with pita bread, onions tossed with sumac, Hummus, rice, and turnip pickles. Djaj Mashwi (grilled chicken) Makes about 4 servings • 1 Chicken cut into eight pieces • 1 lb (450g) potatoes peeled and sliced crosswise into ¼ inch thick rounds • 1 cup Homemade garlic sauce Wash and dry the chicken pieces. Put them in a bowl and add ¼ cup of the garlic sauce. Mix everything really well and marinate covered in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Do the same with the potatoes. Remove the chicken and potato from the refrigerator. Season both with salt and put on the grill. The potatoes will need about 5 minutes per side on a hot grill and they will come out cooked but still firm, if you like them softer then cook longer on a cooler side of the grill. Serve with the remainder ½ cup of garlic sauce for dipping, pita bread and a nice salad like Fattoosh or Tabbouli. Lahm Ghanam Mashwi (Lamb Kebab with Sumac) Makes about 6-7 Kebabs The lamb is traditionally skewered along with cubes of lamb tail fat (Liya). The lamb used in Lebanon is typically without a tail- instead they have a large lump of pure fat dangling where the tail is supposed to be. That is called the Liya and is very tasty. Since I’ve never seen it in the US I usually use very nicely marbled leg meat. • 1 lb (450g) Lamb meat from the leg cut into ½ inch cubes. • 10-12 small onions not more than 2 inches in diameter • Salt and pepper to taste • 2 Tbsp Sumac Soak 6 or 7 bamboo skewers in water for about 30 minutes (or use the metal ones). Peel the onions and trim the stem and root ends. If your onions are too big to put on the skewer, halve or quarter them, making sure that they do not fall apart. Put two pieces of lamb on the skewer then one onion, then two lamb and one more onion and finish with two more lamb pieces. Repeat with the remaining meat and onion. Season the skewers with salt and pepper and grill over high heat until done. Once removed from the grill, sprinkle the kebabs with Sumac and serve with Pita bread, Tahini and yogurt sauce, cucumber and yogurt salad, or with rice. Falafel My fondest memories involving Falafel are the ones of our weekend trips to my home town. It is Friday afternoon, I do not have to be back to school till Monday which seems so far away and we are driving along the Beirut coast towards our home town. Inevitably my father would pull over at a small Falafel shop in Tripoli to get some hot steaming Falafel sandwiches. Stopping for Falafel in Tripoli was a much loved tradition in our family. Nostalgia aside, Falafel is one of the most popular middle eastern foods anywhere in the world. This should come as no surprise, as anyone who has tried it knows that it is absolutely delicious. The proper way to eat Falafel is in a sandwich or wrap. The fried falafel patties are wrapped along with all their garnishes in soft Pita bread and eaten on the go. I’ve never really seen a “Falafel platter” until I came to the US. It is not a fancy food that should be eaten with silverware, it is rather the ultimate street food eaten at sandwich shops that seem to be at every street corner in Lebanon. In my recipe I use a mixture of Fava beans and chickpeas because I believe this gives the best results in terms of taste and texture. However, you can use just chickpeas if you prefer or even just fava beans. Falafel Makes about 20 Falafel patties • 1.5 cup dried peeled fava beans (Ful Majroosh) • 1/2 cup dried chickpeas • 1 cup chopped green onions • 2 Tbsp minced garlic • 1 Tbsp Cumin • 1 tsp Baking Powder • 2 tsp salt • 1 tsp Black pepper • 1 tsp hot chili powder (or to taste) • 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley • Oil for frying In a large bowl, soak the Fava beans and Chickpeas for 12 to 20 hours. They should be soft enough to eat without cooking but still crunchy. Drain the beans and try to get as much water out of them as possible. In a food processor chop the beans till very fine. Add all the remaining ingredients to the food processor and process to a nice coarse paste. To test, take a piece and squeeze it in your palm. It should stay together and not crumble much. If you think the mixture is too dry, add a few teaspoons cold water while the processor is running. Heat 2 inches (5cm) of oil in a pot and using the Falafel scoop, form the falafel into discs and drop directly into the oil. Fry on both sides till deep brown. Remove and drain on a rack. If you do not have a Falafel scoop use your hands to form the falafel into thick patties, they will come out just as good although a little uneven in shape. Falafel scoop and spatula Use the scoop’s spatula to pack the mixture in the scoop Serve the falafel with Pita bread, Tahini sauce, chopped parsley, tomatoes, pickles, or any other veggie or dip you like. The Falafel sandwich (wrap) Across Lebanon, the proper way to eat Falafel is in a Falafel sandwich. The Falafel patties are put in a pita bread and topped with greens, veggies, pickles and Tahini sauce and then wrapped with the bread. The following explains step-by-step how a Falafel sandwich is made: Split the Pita bread open into two pieces (a light one and a darker one). Cut one of the two Pita pieces in half and lay that half down the center of the whole Pita piece. This extra piece will add support and strengthen your wrap. Put three Falafel patties down the center (on top of the pita half you laid there) and crumble/mash them with your fingers. Top the patties with your selected condiments. Fold the pita in half "lengthwise" covering the Falafel and condiments, then wrap tightly forming a nice Falafel wrap. Dessert Most Middle Eastern desserts fall into two groups: Cream stuffed and nut stuffed. Almost all Middle Eastern desserts are served drizzled with fragrant rosewater syrup. I do realize that these are broad generalizations and that there are other kinds of desserts, but these two groups are certainly the most prevalent. Another fact about Lebanese desserts in general is that they are rarely consumed at the end of a meal. An interesting aside (and this occurred to me when I was trying to type a title for this section in Arabic), is that there is no Arabic word for dessert!! Sure, we have words like Halwayat or Helu, both of which mean sweets or pastry but there is no word whose literal translation would be “Dessert”. A Lebanese host is more likely to offer you some fresh fruit and, a little later on, coffee rather than a plate of Baklava. These desserts, including the two recipes below are actually very common breakfast items especially Kenafi which is usually eaten stuffed into a sesame-studded bread called kaak. Cream Filling (kashta) Yields about 2 cups Kashta is one of two basic dessert fillings used in many Middle Eastern desserts, the other being a nut filling. It is normally made from the cream that floats on top of whole cream milk when simmered. I have never managed to make the real Kashta. In Lebanon one would buy already made Kashta from pastry shops or buy the canned clotted cream variety (which I am not too crazy about). This recipe gives excellent and tasty results every time and is the best substitute for the real thing. • 2 cups Heavy Cream • 2 Tbsp Corn Starch • 2 tsp Orange Blossom Water • 2 Tbsp Sugar In a saucepan, bring the cream to a gentle simmer. Meanwhile make a slurry with the corn starch and some of the cream. Add the slurry to the cream in the pan and bring to a boil. Add the orange blossom water and the sugar and keep stirring until you get a very thick spreadable mixture resembling cream cheese in texture. Cream Filling Nut Filling Yields about 2 cups The nuts used are just an example. You can use just one or the other or substitute any other nut such as pine nuts or pistachios. • 1 cup finely chopped walnuts • 1 cup finely chopped almonds • 1 cup Sugar • 1 tsp Orange Blossom water • 1 tsp Rose water Mix all the ingredients together. Fragrant Syrup (Atr) Yields about 1 cup Pretty much ALL middle eastern desserts are doused with this fragrant syrup. • 1 cup Sugar • ½ cup Water • 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice • ½ tsp Rose Water • ½ tsp Orange Blossom Water Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat until it boils and all the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, cool and store in a jar. It keeps for 2 weeks without refrigeration and for months refrigerated. Kenafi (Semolina pastry stuffed with cream) Makes 10 Servings • 2 cups Semolina Flour • 2 tsp salt • 1 stick (1/4 lb/125g) butter melted and cooled • 1 recipe Cream Filling • 1 recipe Fragrant Syrup • Orange Blossom Jam (optional Garnish) To make the pastry: Preheat the oven to 375F (190C). In a bowl mix the Semolina with the salt. Add the melted butter and stir to create a semi-homogenous, crumbly dough. Turn the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and form roughly into a disk shape. Cover with another piece of plastic wrap and wrap the disk tightly. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Take the dough out of the fridge and, on a clean work surface, divide it into two equal pieces. We need to create a thin rectangle of dough, working with one part at a time while keeping the other one wrapped. The best way to do this is to flatten the piece with the palm of your hand, top with a piece of wax paper and use a rolling pin and roll it to a 1/8 inch (3mm) thickness. Once this is done, transfer the dough to a rectangular shaped baking dish. Since the pastry is very crumbly, the method I use is to cut it into smaller squares and, using a spatula, transfer the smaller squares to the baking dish . Once the first layer of pastry is in, use your hand to pat it and smoothen it and use any extras to close any gaps. First layer of pastry Using a spatula, put the cream filling on top of the first layer of pastry and level it out. Top the cream with the second half of pastry using the same method as the first layer. Cream Filling in place and the second layer of pastry going on top Place the dish in the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes or until the pastry has a nice golden-brown color. Baked Kenafi Serve warm or hot topped with some Fragrant Syrup and orange blossom Jam for garnish. Asabih El haroos (nut-stuffed phylo rolls) Makes about 25 little rolls The Arabic name for this dessert literally means “Bride’s Fingers”. These flaky, nutty and delicious Baklava-like pastries are very easy to make and very addictive. After making them you will never settle for the mushy, cloying store-bought Baklava. • 2 cups nut filling • ½ lb (225g) phyllo sheets • Melted Samen or butter • 1 cup (or to taste) Fragrant syrup Preheat the oven to 350F (190C). Cut the phyllo sheets into rectangles (about 10x4 inches / 25x10cm). I use a pizza cutter for this to avoid tearing. Working with one phyllo rectangle at a time brush it lightly with the Samen. Place about 1 teaspoon of the stuffing on one end. Use your fingers to compact the stuffing into a sausage shape (this will make it easier to roll). Roll the phyllo with the stuffing like a jelly roll. About ¾ of the way up, fold the sides inward so that the roll is sealed and the stuffing will not fall out. Brush a baking dish lightly with Samen or butter and place the rolls close together in it. Brush the rolls generously with Samen and place in the oven. Bake for about 30-45 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for about 30 minutes and drizzle with about ½ a cup of the syrup (use less if you like). Serve at room temperature with more syrup on the side for those who like it extra sweet. Beverages In this section I introduce three major beverages that are common in a Lebanese home: Coffee, Tea, and Arak. Coffee (Ahwi- Lebanese/Arabic Coffee) Makes 3 servings Lebanese coffee is a strong brew served in small cups very similar to espresso cups. The coffee grind is very fine, almost powder-like and the roast is usually very dark. Coffee beans are not indigenous to the Middle East and are imported- the Brazilian ones are considered the best. A good Lebanese host always makes coffee for his or her guests –usually without asking if they want any- and it is considered bad manners not to. So, if you visit three different homes on any day, count on drinking coffee at least three times. My wife was so sick from drinking Lebanese coffee during our visit to Lebanon that she never touches the stuff now. Arabic coffee is available at middle eastern grocery stores and some ethnic sections of major grocery stores. It is usually vacuum packed. The brand I use is called Café Najjar and it is made in Lebanon. The recipe for making coffee below is of course based on my taste, so feel free to make it stronger or lighter if you like. The scale I use is 1 heaping teaspoon of coffee for each small cup of water (cup here refers to the small espresso coffee cups –maybe three ounces- NOT a measuring cup): • 3 small espresso cups of water (about ¾ Cup) • 3 Heaping tsp of Arabic coffee (or a good dark finely ground coffee) In a small kettle or a small pot bring the water to a boil. Remove the kettle or pot from the heat and gently add the coffee. Stir to combine and put back on the burner (DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK ON IT). In a few seconds the coffee will start rising and it will boil over if not removed from the heat. You want it to rise to the point where it ALMOST boils over. So let it rise and just before it boils over, remove it from the heat and stir gently. Repeat this “boiling” three more times. Remove from the heat, cover and let sit for a minute so that the grounds can settle. Slowly pour the coffee into small espresso cups in a thin stream to disturb the sediment on the bottom as little as possible. You can see the ground coffee in the left side of the picture Variation: Cardamom is often added to Arabic coffee especially when you buy it from street vendors. I normally enjoy mine without it but every so often I do like to add some cardamom. Simply add some ground Cardamom when you add the ground coffee. For the above recipe a ¼ teaspoon is enough or else the Cardamom will overpower the coffee. Tea spiked with Cinnamon (Shai) Makes 2 tea cups If your host does not serve coffee, you will surely be served tea. Actually, in some Lebanese communities and regions you are more likely to be served a good cup of strong tea rather than coffee. Tea is the beverage of choice with most breakfasts whereas coffee is more a stand-on-its-own beverage. So, if you walk into a Lebanese home during breakfast time, chances are that they will be drinking tea. We used to go hunting in a small mountain town in North Lebanon about three hours drive from my home town. We would usually spend the weekend staying with a family of shepherds and farmers who were old family friends of ours. On their front porch, under a huge walnut tree, usually at about four in the morning or so, still dark and chilly outside, we would have a simple breakfast with small cups of steaming sweet hot tea before we would go hunting. That, unquestionably, is the best tea I’ve ever had. Every time I make tea I am trying to re-create what these nice farmers make everyday. • 2 cups water • 3 Tbsp sugar • 1 stick cinnamon about 2 inches long • 1 Tbsp loose black tea leaves In a tea kettle or small pot bring the water to a boil. Add the sugar and bring to a boil again. Add the cinnamon and tea and stir to combine. Remove from the heat and cover. Let it steep for a minute or two. Pour the tea into tea cups and serve piping hot (If loose tea leaves in your tea cup really bug you then you can pour it through a small strainer). Variation: Try substituting different spices or herbs in moderate amounts for the cinnamon stick. My favorites include a fresh mint sprig, Fennel seeds and Star anise. Arak Without a doubt, Arak is the national alcoholic beverage of Lebanon. No real get together or celebration is complete without Arak. This strong spirit is made from fermented white grapes and flavored with fennel seeds (yansoon) so it has a distinctive licorice taste. It is distilled three times. Out of the bottle, Arak is colorless (like Vodka) but when served, water is added, turning the Arak milky white. It is then topped with some ice cubes. Even though Lebanon produces very good quality wine and a delicious pilsner beer, Arak always takes center stage at important events. It is the one and only companion to Kibbeh, especially in its raw form, as well as to anything cooked on the grill. The Arak I use is distilled three times by my family from my grandfather’s own vineyards and for our personal use and this is the best kind you can get. However, good quality Arak is available at some liquor stores. Good Arak brands include “Ksara”, “Kefraya” and “Al Masaya”. Pour Arak into a small glass until it is quarter full (or more if you want it stronger), top off with ice cold water, leaving an inch at the top to make room for a couple of ice cubes. Add the ice cubes and enjoy. References If you enjoyed this class and would like to expand your knowledge of Lebanese and middle eastern cooking then check out these two fantastic books. Pretty much all you need is in there and I refer to them often. “The New Book of Middle Eastern Food” by Claudia Roden “Recipes and Remembrances From an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen” by Sonia Uvezian Post your questions here -->> Q&A

Post your questions for Elie's Introduction to Lebanese Cuisine here.

Post your questions here -->>Q&A "DRIVE-IN" COOKING -- AKA "Quintessential American Fare" Author: Holly Moore I don't know from quintessential. This course is about "Drive-In" fare. Basic American eats. Hamburgers. Hot Dogs. French Fries. Onion Rings. Milk Shakes. How to prepare them. How they used to be made before the corporations took over and shrunk the burgers, blanded out the dogs, froze the fries, prechewed the onion rings and undairied the shakes. THE HAMBURGER Assembling the ingredients: Most important to the hamburger is the ground beef that goes into it. The cooked burger should have good flavor and be nice and juicy without being overly greasy. 80% lean to 20% fat is an ideal beef blend. Avoid the 90% and 95% lean ground beefs found at the supermarket. Not enough fat for flavor and juiciness. In fact, avoid the supermarket meat counter all together. Their ground beef always seems mushy and watery. And it pales once removed from the special supermarket meat case cosmetic lighting. For home use I favor Black Angus ground beef from one of the higher end markets. Or the grindings of a good local butcher I can trust. On eGullet there has been a lot of talk about adding brisket to the ground beef mixture. They say it gives a good beefy flavor. I haven't had any luck locating that blend here in Philadelphia. But if you grind your own or have a cooperative butcher, go for it. eGulleteers recommend a 75% chuck and 25% brisket blend. Key to the bread is what McDonald's technologists once christened the "meat to bread ratio." Too much bread and the burger gets lost. There is no inverse. McDonald's has never had to worry about their burgers overpowering the bread. Classic hamburger buns work fine. As do English muffins, kaiser rolls and variations there upon. Nothing wrong with plain ol' bread. Supermarket white bread soaks up burger juices quite nicely. I'm partial to an artisan, multi-grain wheat. For this class I'm using the traditional hamburger bun - buttered and caramelized on a griddle as opposed to toasted in a toaster. Toppings. I'm going to be making a cheeseburger. The cheese a good, sharp, aged cheddar that can still be sliced without crumbling. Cabot's works fine. As does Kraft Cracker Barrel. Also onions, fried or fresh. I'm going with fried, using the center, unused portion from the onion rings. And a good brown mustard, though French's yellow is more typically drive-in. The Recipe: Yield 4 hamburgers Sliced Onion (Centers from the Onion Rings - halved and then sliced medium thick) Butter or a butter/cooking oil mix 1 1/4 lb 80% lean ground beef 4 each Hamburger Buns Mustard Salt and Pepper Optional: Fresh sliced tomato, sliced raw onion, grilled bacon. And all manner of cheese and anything else that sounds good. One of my all time favorite chain burgers, Roy Roger's Double R Bar Burger - a quarter pound cheeseburger topped with sliced ham. 1. In a skillet, sauté the onions in butter until soft - longer if you wish for a caramelized brown. Remove and set aside. Keep warm. No reason not to fry up a bunch and keep them in the fridge for the next time. Adding some cooking oil to the butter keeps the butter from burning/browning. 2. Form the ground beef into 5 ounce patties. These patties should be loosely packed not firmly pressed into shape. About 1/4" thick. Maybe 3/8". And the diameter of the bun. I'm not a fan of super-sized 8, 10 or 12 ounce burgers. Harder to cook a perfect medium rare and too unwieldy a burger once topped with lettuce, tomato, onion and such. Then again, from his Q&A, Evan Lobel's burgers weigh in at 10-12 ounces. I won't be saying no to one of Butcher Lobel's burgers. 3. Pull apart the buns and spread on a light coating of butter. If the butter is cold, slice it thin and spread a few pieces on each side of the bun. By the time to toast the buns, the butter will be soft and spreadable. 4. Preheat a cast iron skillet for the burgers and a second skillet or griddle. Medium high flame for the burgers, medium for the buns. Toss a tablespoon of butter into the burger skillet. You don't need to fry the burgers in butter; the grease from the burger will suffice. But butter seems to bring out the beef's flavor. It's the way I've been doing it since my parents let me near a stove. 5. Once the butter has melted, add the burger. The goal is to fry the burger to a medium rare. Nice brown freckled crust on the outside, pink leading to red inside. Since e-coli has become trendy, health departments want the patties to be cooked to medium-well. I've been lucky I guess. Have been eating rare to medium rare burgers all my life and have never once been knocked about by e-coli. But if you're worried, or cooking for kids who are evidently more e-coli prone, grit your teeth and cook the burgers over a lower heat to medium well-done. 6. Once the burger is nicely freckled, about three minutes, flip it. Here is where the skillet, as opposed to a griddle, comes in handy. After the burger has cooked on the second side for about a minute, top it with the cheese and cover the skillet. The steam heat will melt the cheese. With a griddle you can achieve the same effect by inverting a stainless steel bowl or if you have it, topping the burger with a pot lid that has some height. 7. After you've flipped the burger, place the buns, buttered side down, onto the second skillet. The goal is to have the entire bun flat against the surface of the skillet. I weight the buns down with a glass casserole lid to get a nice even golden browning. The downside is that this flattens out the buns. Less photogenic, but more drive-in verite. 8. Time to assemble the burger. Cheeseburger onto the bottom (heel) of the bun. Then some of the still warm fried onions. Tomato and onion if so inclined. Spread the mustard on the top (crown) of the bun. Mustard isn't really a northeast thing. You see it mostly in the midwest and the south. Give it a try at least once. 9. Place the crown on the cheeseburger and enjoy. THE HOT DOG Assembling The Ingredients: Like burgers, it's all about the hot dog itself. And again my prejudices show. All beef, nice and spicy. I'll be grilling the dogs, and all beef dogs fry up better. For steaming or boiling, go with regular hot dogs. eGullet's Hot Dog John has offered volumes on the various dogs. John and I seem to agree that Usinger's in Milwaukee makes one of the best, if not the best, hot dogs in the country. They sell them over the internet at http://www.Usingers.com. Usinger's is best known for their Black Angus hot dog which was chosen for the Utah Winter Olympics and was picked as outstanding stadium dog by the Baseball Hall of Fame. But their regular all beef wieners and franks have the same flavor and are available in more varieties with a natural casing. Hot dogs are sold by count - the number of hot dogs to a pound. Most common are 8-10 to a pound. I wouldn't go anything smaller than 8 to a pound. Meat to bun ratio again. Usinger's also sells thicker 4 and 5 to a pound dogs. The hot dog bun is one of my biggest frustrations. I don't live in New England so have no regular access to the top split (cut) or New England style hot dog bun. My local markets only offer the bun that is standard for the rest of the country - side split. What makes the New England bun ideal is that it has both inner and outer surfaces that are butterable and toastable. The side split has only an inner toastable surface. A hot dog tastes better when the bun can be buttered and toasted on all sides. Just does. Occasionally, in Philadelphia at least, Pepperidge Farms New England style hot dog buns show up on supermarket shelves. The dogs I'm going to be cooking are Texas Wieners - a common Philadelphia and North Jersey variation upon a dog. Split and grilled hot dogs, topped with mustard, onions and a ground beef and chili based sauce called Texas Wiener Sauce, Coney Island Sauce or All-The-Way Sauce. It's a simple sauce - ground beef, minced onions, chili powder, cumin and paprika. I've seen recipes with ketchup and Coke, too. My guess is that Coney Island sauce is a combination of whatever was handy near grill that combined to taste ok. To top the dogs, some chopped onion and mustard. The Recipe: Texas Wiener Sauce 12 oz Ground Beef ½ each Minced Onion - Chop the other half to top the dogs. 2 tbs Chili Powder 1 tsp Cumin 2 tsp Paprika Salt and pepper to taste. Water as needed (Approximate 2/3 cup) 1. Brown the ground beef. 2. Stir in all the other ingredients except for the water. 3. Thin with water until reduced about 50 percent. The Recipe: Texas Wiener 4 4 or 5 Count All Beef Hot Dogs - I'm using Usinger's Black Angus 5/Pound 4 Hot Dog Buns, buttered Texas Wiener Sauce Mustard - Your Choice Chopped onion 1. Split the hot dogs, but don't separate the halves 2. Place the split side onto a well heated skillet or griddle. Fry till nicely browned 3. Flip and fry on the other side until done 4. While frying, fry the buttered side of the buns to a golden brown. 5. Assemble the hot dog. Place the dog in the bun. Top generously with Texas Wiener Sauce. Top with chopped onions and mustard. Hot dog common law. The dog goes on the bottom. Everything else on top. FRESH CUT FRENCH FRIES A pain to make at home, but so much better than frozen. Proper fries are cooked in two steps. First at a lower temperature to cook them through but not brown them. Then, just before serving at a high temperature to brown and crisp them. Do all this in one stage rather than two, and the fries turn brown and are limp and greasy. When I first tried to do my own fresh cut french fries I bought a home deep fat fryer. It went out with the next week's trash. Two problems - it wouldn't get hot enough and it would not recover fast enough. Recovery is the time it takes for the oil to get back to the desired temperature once the potatoes have been placed in the fryer. It's not all that important for the initial frying but critical for the second. Nowadays I use a pasta cooker (pot with stainless steel pull out insert / drain. There are also stovetop fry set-ups available at most kitchen stores. Assembling the Ingredients: The potatoes - Idaho Number 1 - good sized and burly as opposed to lanky. Some people use Yukon Gold, but they don't produce a long enough fry for my taste. Idaho's are the classic American fry. The cooking oil: Way back when, the potatoes were fried in lard. McDonald's cooked theirs in a mixture of 75% vegetable oil and 25% lard. Nowadays most potatoes are fried in vegetable oil. I'm using canola oil. Peanut oil works quite well too. The Recipe: French Fries 4 Idaho potatoes Salt Cooking oil to fill your frying apparatus. 1. Peel the potatoes. This is optional. I like the clean look of peeled potatoes. Some maintain it is healthier to leave skins on. Some maintain it is easier to leave skins on. Restaurants leave them on because it minimizes the labor cost and improves the yield. 2. Cut the potatoes into fries. I have a french fry cutter that gives me a quarter inch french fry. Others may be able to figure out how to achieve this on a mandoline. Or it's the cutting board and french knife. The goal is a consistently sized, thick french fry. I am not a fan of shoestring cut fries. Too thin to achieve perfection in two step frying. 3. Chill the cut potatoes in cold water for at least two hours. Spin or thoroughly pat dry before cooking so the moisture won't spatter when potato hits the oil. 4. Preheat the oil to 275 degrees for the first cooking. Use a fry thermometer for all temperatures. The proper temperature is crucial. Place the fries into the basket (or in my case the pasta holder and immerse into the oil. Cook for approximately 4 - 5 minutes. If they clump together, separate them with tongs as they are cooking. The object is to cook the fries through, but not to brown them. The fry is cooked when it is the palest of yellows or still white and it is limp. Spread out on paper towels to drain and cool off in the refrigerator. 5. Remove the chilled fries from the refrigerator. Preheat the oil to 375 degrees. Place 1 -2 portions in the fry basket and cook to golden brown, about 4 minutes. Remove from fryer, shake off the excess oil. (Note: If the oil is fresh, the first few batches of fries may not brown well.) 6. Salt to taste and serve immediately. BREADED ONION RINGS Onion rings can be fried in a beer batter, or floured and re-floured without being breaded. Breaded is the way we did them at the Sip and Sup Drive-In in Parsippany NJ, back when cars had fins. Assembling the ingredients: Seek out giant yellow or Spanish onions - the bigger the better. Ideally, colossal size. Breading will be a standard three steps. Flour, egg wash (eggs and milk) and breading (bread crumbs). Same oil as for french fries. Same cooking apparatus. The Recipe: 4 each Giant yellow onions 2 cups Flour 1 tsp White Pepper 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper 2 tsp Garlic Powder 2 each Eggs 1 Pint Whole Milk Bread Crumbs 1. Peel and slice the onions into 1/4 inch slices. Separate the slices into rings. Put the slices in a bowl of water. (Only use the large ones for onion rings. Use the inner portion of the slices for other things like fried onions for the cheeseburgers.) 2. Prepare the flour mix by combining the flour with the white pepper, cayenne and garlic powder. 3. Prepare the egg wash by combining the eggs and the milk. Buttermilk is a nice substitution. 4. Set up your breading station. Bowl of onions in water to the left, then the seasoned flour, egg wash next, bread crumbs to the right. 5. Using your left hand remove a few onion rings from the water and shake off the excess moisture. Place in the flour. Use your right hand to toss til coated and then transfer to the egg wash. Using your left hand, remove the onion rings from the egg wash and drop into the bread crumbs. Then use your right hand to toss the rings in the bread crumbs until coated and place on a cookie sheet. Repeat until all onion rings are breaded. The basic theory is left hand for liquids. Right hand for solids. Keeps your fingers relatively unbreaded. 6. Preheat the cooking oil to 350 degrees. Drop the rings into the oil one or two at a time. Cook 1 or 2 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the fryer and let drain on a paper towel. 7. Season lightly with salt (optional) and serve immediately. CHOCOLATE MILK SHAKE Assembling the ingredients: Whole milk is fine. I've been messing around lately with half and half and light and heavy cream. These do make smoother shakes. Also much more expensive shakes. Light cream struck me as the best of the alternatives. I'm using Hershey's syrups. One of these days I'll make my own which will be more bittersweet. But Hershey's is the milkshake standard. Philadelphia is lucky to have a great ice cream - Bassett's, which I always use for shakes. Hate the stuff sold in the supermarket half gallons. Way too much air whipped in. At the same time, a super premium ice cream would be wasted on the shakes, but if it fits within your disposable income, why not. For mixing the shake - I invested in a modern day Hamilton Beach mixer. Overkill, but I've never been able to make a good thick, creamy shake in a blender. If that's all you have available, maybe you'll have better luck. The Recipe: 2 oz Chocolate Syrup 5 oz Milk or Light Cream or whatever 3 #24 Scoops (about 1/2 pint) of a good quality Chocolate Ice Cream (use coffee for a mocha shake or vanilla for black and white) 1. The colder everything is, the better, so consider prechilling your mixing container. 2. Add the ingredients to the mixing container in the order shown. 3. Mix at a lower speed to start. Then increase the speeds. My blender has three speeds. Mixing takes about three minutes for silky smooth maybe a little longer. 4. Serve immediately. Makes a 16 oz shake. Post your questions here -->>Q&A

Post your questions to Holly regarding Drive-in Cooking here.

Post your questions here -->> Q&A Brining Author: Dave Scantland (Dave the Cook) Brining is a process used to season and tenderize animal protein prior to cooking. The meat (including fish and shellfish) is immersed in a salt-water solution for a period of time that depends on the strength of the brine, the type of protein, the thickness of the meat, and the effect desired. Use of the technique has become more common over the last decade as pork and poultry have become leaner and less flavorful. It is a way to introduce seasoning deep within the muscle, and when done properly, results in well-seasoned, tender and juicy meat. Unfortunately, the one thing brining cannot do is replace that which breeding has taken away: fat. The best it can do is substitute additional water and seasoning for the missing succulence, but in many cases this is sufficient, if not entirely satisfactory. Does it work? Of course it works; this is science. However, whether or not you like the result is a matter of taste, and to some extent, a matter of application. But for you doubters out there, let's try an experiment. Brining Lab 1 Ingredients 1 whole turkey breast, boned if bone-in (remove pop-up thermometer if present) 1 tsp. food coloring, divided 1/2 cup Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or 6 tablespoons Morton kosher salt, or 1/4 cup table salt) 2 quarts water 2 cups ice Equipment Scale A two-cup or larger measuring cup An additional two-quart container Two heavy-duty, one-gallon zip-lock bags Permanent marker 1. In a two-quart container, dissolve salt in two cups hot tap water. Put the ice into the liquid measuring cup and add water to make two more cups. Add it to the brine. 2. Stir 1/2 teaspoon food coloring into brine. 3. Stir the other 1/2 teaspoon food coloring into another quart of water. 4. Split the turkey breast, then cut each side in half crosswise, creating two pairs of meat chunks. Take the thinner pieces and reserve them for another use. Decide which of the remaining pieces will go into the brine, and which will go in the water. Weigh each piece and record the weights (they should be approximately one pound (0.5 kg) each). 5. Using the marker, label one bag "Brine," and the other "Water." Using the container to hold each bag, add the appropriate liquid and meat. Seal each bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. They should look something like this: 6. Place the bags on a rimmed cookie sheet or in a large bowl (in case a bag springs a leak), and refrigerate for two hours, flipping bags halfway through. 7. Drain the liquid from each bag (never reuse brine) and rinse each breast piece. Dry each one thoroughly. When you're done, they should look like this: 8. Weigh each piece and record the weights. Obviously, the expected effect of this exercise was to demonstrate that brine penetrated the meat by turning the meat green. Just as obvious now is that this didn't happen. What did happen (because I used green food coloring) was that the skin of the meat in the water turned green, and the skin of the meat in the brine turned, well, is that teal? I think that's teal. But the meat itself is still pristine pink. So we didn't prove a thing. Or did we? Let's turn to the weights. Here are my results: Brined breast before: 17 ounces after: 18.75 ounces Unbrined breast before: 16.5 ounces after: 16.75 ounces That's a weight gain of 1.75 ounces, or a little over 10%. The unbrined breast gained on quarter of an ounce, or 1.5 %. So brining does result in a significant weight gain. How does it work? Brining actually comprises three processes: osmosis, diffusion and denaturing. Osmosis is the movement of a low concentration solution through a semi-permeable membrane (like a cell wall) into a high concentration solution. Inside the cell is a high-concentration soup of protein and dissolved solids. Nature dislikes inequalities, and osmosis is nature's attempt to equalize concentrations on both sides of the membrane. When you drop the cell into a brine, the water that now surrounds the cell will move through the membrane to equalize the internal and external concentrations. Meanwhile, diffusion, another weapon in nature's equilibrium arsenal, works on the relatively small numbers of chlorine and sodium ions inside the cell, forcing salt (a molecular combination of sodium and chlorine) through the cell walls, again seeking a balance -- this time a balance of ions on either side of the cell wall. An easy way to observe diffusion at work is to toss a teaspoon or so of salt into a quart of water and go away for a while. When you come back, you'll notice that some or all of the salt is gone - well, not gone, but dissolved in the water. This is diffusion at work: the tendency of molecules to distribute themselves over time. Since (remember?) nature dislikes inequalities, the tendency is for the distribution to equalize itself. In brining, salt performs one more function. This one is not fully understood: it enhances the cell wall with additional flexibility. This allows the cell to swell, which in turn allows it to hold more liquid. Swollen, water-filled cells make for more tender meat. Denaturing is the unraveling of proteins. In their normal state, proteins are lightly coiled balls, held in shape by bonds along their lengths. Salt is a powerful corrosive, as anyone who drives a car over salted roads or near the ocean can tell you. Salt severs these bonds; consequently the protein ball loosens and the strands become entangled. The tangled strands form a matrix not unlike gelatin that traps additional moisture. When the meat is cooked, the proteins coagulate, the matrix stabilizes, and most of the water is caught inside. To further illustrate this principle, here's: Brining Lab 2 1. Get a package of those dried pasta nests - they're available at just about any grocery store. (Don't get fresh pasta, and don't spend a lot of money. There's a good chance that all you'll be able to find are nests made from spinach pasta, and that's fine - if fact, it's in keeping with our green theme.) 2. Take the nests out of the package and drop them in a colander. Set the colander in a large bowl and pour two quarts of water over them. Remove the colander from the bowl and set it in the sink. Pour the water back into your pitcher and note how much water you got back-- almost all of it. 3. Now cook the pasta to al dente (you don't need to be precise; this is not an edible lab). 4. Dump the pasta in the colander. Set the colander over your bowl and pour another two quarts of water through. Measure the water in the bowl. 5. Let the pasta dry in the colander, or set the colander in a warm oven, if you're in a hurry. 6. When the pasta has dried, repeat the water pouring exercise. Measure the water that comes through. The pasta right out of the package was analogous to protein in its natural state - coiled balls in a fairly rigid configuration. Almost all of the water came through, except for that little bit that clung to the pasta or was trapped in the convolutions of the nests. During cooking, the pasta nests became loose and tangled, just like denatured protein. When you poured the water through, much more was retained in the pasta - not only was the pasta stickier and gelatinous, it formed a matrix that held more moisture than the coiled configuration. Finally, when you let the pasta dry, you ended up with a tight, almost woven bowl of pasta, very similar to the denatured, coagulated proteins in cooked meat. Differences between brining, marinating, injecting and salting Brining is often confused and/or compared with marinating, injecting and curing. While they may appear to be similar in terms of procedure, they are in fact quite different techniques designed to do different things. However, they can be used in complementary ways. A marinade acts principally on the exterior of the meat. The aim of a marinade is to tenderize and flavor, which it can do to some extent, but because it usually contains a high proportion of oil and complex molecules, and because it lacks sufficient salt, it will not work the same as a brine. If you combine marinating with brining, moderate the use of salt in your marinade to accommodate the increased salt in the meat. Most forms of injecting attempt to add fat back into the meat. The typical injection is an oil base that has been infused with seasoning. It is injected with a (usually) plastic syringe a number of hours before cooking, to allow the injected fat and seasoning to disperse throughout the muscle. This technique can also complement brining, since it introduces fat-soluble flavorings directly to the interior of the meat. (Since brine is water-based, it is very inefficient as a delivery vehicle for fat-soluble molecules.) Again, seasonings should be adjusted so as not to over-salt the meat. Although curing, the external salting of meat, sets up a situation similar to brining (salt on the outside of the meat, water on the inside), the circumstances are sufficiently different that the result varies as well. As in brining, a high concentration of salt sits on one side, and a low concentration on the other: the salt and surface moisture combine to create a highly concentrated solution. This means that there is a an imbalance: more water is on the inside of the meat than the outside. In an attempt to equalize the concentrations, water moves to the outside of the meat. (Along with it come water-soluble proteins, which will later be responsible for browning, but that's another lesson.) But as long as the surface of the meat is exposed to air, the water evaporates, and more water is drawn out of the meat to replace it. In brining, since the entire surface of the meat is submerged, evaporation never takes place. In effect, the entire liquid contents of your brining pot attempt to reach equilibrium. Meats and meat cuts that benefit from brining Brining is most effective with bland meats that will be cooked using dry heat: roasted, sauteed or fried turkey and chicken, pork roasts and tenderloins, Cornish hens , and the like. Red meats (lamb and beef) are not usually brined, because they contain sufficient marbling and interior moisture to withstand dry heat and still be juicy. Meats cooked in moisture won't benefit from brining because the long cooking times and interface with concentrated braising juices will cause the meat to release its moisture into the cooking liquid. Remember, osmosis is mainly about water; if the water concentration outside the meat is lower than that inside the meat, water will move out of the cell to try and rectify the situation. This is not to say that you shouldn't try brining on other things, or as a substitute for marinating. Less expensive beef steaks, for instance, can benefit from a salty bath before grilling. And despite the usual caveat about wet cooking, shrimp plumped up and seasoned in a brief brine retain the additional moisture, since they are in water for such a short time. The same would go for steaming. Since the water concentration of steam will not be higher than the liquid water inside the meat, osmosis won't kick in. So, an incomplete list of brinables: - Chicken, especially breasts - Turkey - Cornish game hens - Domesticated rabbit - Duck (Yes, it has lots of fat, but almost all of it is subcutaneous rather than intramuscular. The meat itself is relatively dry.) - Shrimp - Salmon (especially for smoking) - Tuna - Pork chops, roasts, shoulders, bellies and ribs - Dry or tough beef or lamb for grilling How to do it Well, you dissolve some salt in water, and . . . OK, it's not quite that simple. But almost. Types of salt For brining purposes, salt is salt. A basic brine is not a subtle affair, and regardless of your affinity for designer salts, you would be wasting your money to use them here. That leaves table salt and kosher salt. Either will work in terms of providing the desired effects, but kosher salt (and particularly Diamond Crystal kosher salt) dissolve more easily. The important thing to remember is that these three salts measure quite differently from a volume standpoint: a given weight of Diamond Crystal takes up nearly twice the volume as the same weight of table salt. Of course, the answer is to always weigh your salt. I'll provide weights and volumes in the basic formulae, but the weights are what you want to commit to memory. If you don't have a scale, here's a good excuse for getting one. Equipment You probably already have all the equipment you need, unless you're going to be brining multiple pork shoulders or 20-pound turkeys. All that's required is a non-reactive vessel large enough to immerse the item to be brined. "Non-reactive" means: no untreated aluminum and no cast iron (I wouldn't even use hard-anodized aluminum; I've noticed that brine tends to leave a hazy white residue that's very difficult to remove). For small items like individual steaks, chicken parts and pork tenderloins, 1- or 2-gallon zip-lock plastic bags work well, and they're disposable (though you should put them in a bowl or a pot, or on a rimmed sheet pan, in case they leak). For whole (3- to 4-pound) chickens, you need a two-gallon container. Use a big zip-lock if you dare. Large pots or Dutch ovens also work well; Cambro polycarbonate containers are ideal. For pork shoulders, small (10- to 14-pound) turkeys, and multiple chickens, a five-gallon stockpot is great (if you've got one), though many are too narrow. In this case an insulated cooler or even a five-gallon plastic paint bucket (well-scrubbed, of course; these are available at do-it-yourself stores) can be employed. And of course, whole pigs can be brined in your bathtub. If your brining container is too big to go into your refrigerator, you'll need a cooling method. If your ice maker is up to it (remember that large items might need many hours in the brine), pack ice into small zip-lock bags and drop in your container. Alternatively, cold-packs (the blue kind you keep in the freezer) also work. Just make sure you have enough on hand to rotate them from freezer to brine to freezer without running out. Temperature Brine works best when it's close to freezing. Actually, the brine doesn't give a damn; it's the proteins that care. The peak temperature for extracting meat proteins is 34 F. The closer you can keep your brine to this temperature, the more moisture the meat will absorb. Saline environments are not amenable to most bacteria and/or spores. However, some bugs are perfectly happy in brine, so keep it chilled to minimize the possibility of contamination. In addition to the tips in Equipment, above, you can pre-chill your brine by substituting up to half your liquid with an equivalent volume of ice: fill your measuring cup with ice and add water to the appropriate level. How much brine Well, a whole chicken takes about two quarts. You can do two thick chops in a quart, with liquid to spare. But rather than guess at quantities, let me tell you how to figure it out for yourself. Put the item(s) to be brined in the container that you will be using. Cover them with water. Remove the items and measure the water. Make an equivalent amount of brine. Since a "quart" of brine is actually a little more than 32 ounces (because you're adding a volume of salt to a quart of liquid), you'll have a little extra. The Brine Formula For a basic brine: 2.5 ounces (70 grams) salt (1/4 cup table; 6 tablespoons Morton's kosher; 1/2 cup Diamond Crystal kosher salt) per quart of water. This proportion of salt to water constitutes the "recipe." It is infinitely expandable. Consider this a starting point. As you use the technique, feel free to alter the proportions to suit your taste. You can also adjust the strength of the brine to match the amount of time you have, though there's no denying physics: you can speed it up a little by increasing the concentration, but it's much easier to slow it down by using a weaker brine. The effect is not linear, so you'll need to experiment. As for time, 30 minutes per pound of food is a good starting point, but this can vary according to shape and density. Five pounds of spare ribs will take less time than five pounds of pork shoulder, for instance, and three pounds of shrimp will go a lot faster than three pounds of boneless chicken breasts. Like any other craft, you have to use your judgement, and you can expect to get better at it the more you use the technique. Timing is actually quite flexible; it's not unusual to run across recipes that brine things for days. Don't brine anything for less than 30 minutes. Shrimp will be done at that point, and don't let 'em go much longer; but a big pork butt can go all night, and then some. Here's a table to get you started, but don't feel restricted by it. Experiment and adjust to suit your taste: Shrimp: 30 minutes (I really wouldn't go longer than this, unless you've got mondo U-10 or U-8 shrimp) Chicken, whole or spatchcocked (3- to 4-pounds), or duck, whole (5-pound): 2 to 3 hours Chicken parts (bone-in):1-1/2 hour Chicken breasts (boneless): 1 hour Cornish game hens: 1 hour Turkey, whole (12- 14-pounds): 12 to 18 hours Pork spare ribs or back ribs: 2 hours Pork chops (1-inch thick): 4 to 6 hours Pork, whole loins: 12 to 18 hours Pork shoulder: 24 to 36 hours Other ingredients Many brine recipes include sugar - so many that you might be forgiven for thinking that it was a requirement. It's not. Only salt is indispensable, and only salt can do the protein voodoo that makes brining a valuable technique. The fact is that in some dishes, sugar is an attractive enhancement, and in some it's not; this is strictly a matter of taste. But, sweetness aside, there is one reason to use sugar. If you want the tenderizing benefit of brining, but you find the overall effect too salty, adding sugar can mitigate the saltiness to some extent. Beyond sugar, you can add almost any other water soluble flavoring, or substitute other liquids for the water. Some work (juices, vinegars, wine and other alcohol-soluble flavorings like vanilla), and some don't. Again, experimentation can be illuminating (and remember that alcohol will not likely cook off, since it's trapped in the protein matrix). As for herbs, spices and aromatics, their contribution is controversial, at least from an anecdotal perspective. Many people swear by them; just as many say they're a waste of time. The fact of the matter is that the key flavor components in many of these ingredients are fat-, not water-, soluble. And while fat-soluble flavorings can go along for the osmotic ride, they definitely lag behind the rest of the tour party. However, some fat-soluble flavorings can be extracted using other means (as an example, look at Tabasco sauce. Many capsicum flavoring agents are fat-soluble, yet pepper sauce is fat-free). If you want to include spices and herbs, your best bet is to make a tea from them by steeping them in water, then using the tea as part of the liquid component of your brine (after it cools, of course). Then carefully check the final product to make sure the contribution your tea made was worth the effort. Finally, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, both quite salty on their own, can make great contributions to brines, adding some depth to the basic formula. Cooking tips One of the great benefits of brining is that it mitigates overcooking. Take the overdone breast/undercooked thigh phenomenon. Turkey breast is typically done at 165 F. But a brined breast can easily accommodate the 175 F that the thigh needs to get done and still be juicy. Pork also benefits from an expanded definition of "done," so you can accommodate your relatives who can't stand pink pig meat, and still keep it juicy. Even shrimp, so easily overcooked, can tolerate a few more minutes on the heat without sacrificing succulence. One caveat: brined items, especially poultry, often cook faster than their unbrined peers. Always cook to temperature, and be prepared for a shorter ride than you're used to. FAQs Isn't this brining thing kind of, well, weird? Yes, it does seem odd to drop a hunk of meat into a vessel of salt water, unless you're making corned beef or pastrami. But in the grander scheme of things, is it any stranger than eating live oysters, treasuring the concentrated product of coagulated milk or savoring meat that's been hanging unprotected in a cooler for a month? Get used to it. What if it comes out too salty? There are three possibilities here: either your brine is too concentrated for your taste, you simply don't like the effect, or you've brined something that's already been treated with salt: either a kosher bird or something that's been treated with a seasoned brine before you purchased it (often called, erroneously, marinating or "deep basting"). There's nothing sacred about the brining formula in this unit -- adjust it to your taste. Even a small amount of salt will precipitate the water retention and tenderizing effects of brining. As for pre-treated poultry and pork: use them if you like; the effects will be similar to brining you would do yourself. Just don't brine them again. And remember, based on our results in Brining Lab 1, you're paying meat prices for water and salt - the actual meat in that $1 a pound chicken is really costing you $1.10. Why does the brine turn pink? Those are dissolved solids from the meat. Diffusion works both ways. What this ought to be telling you is how important salt is. If you soaked your meat in plain water, all this stuff would have come out, and been replaced with plain water. You might have made your meat a little plumper (again, recall our results from Brining Lab 1), but you would have replaced this pink stuff, which is mostly proteins and few other things (including some salts, actually), with plain water. Why didn't the turkey meat in Lab 1 turn green? I don't know. If I had to guess, I'd say that the molecules in the food coloring were too large to pass through the cell membranes. I did some checking, and found out that there are some pretty healthy-sized molecules involved: propylparaben, ethylene glycol (otherwise known as anti-freeze) and aluminum salts. What's a U-8 shrimp? A really honkin' crustacean -- 2 ounces, at least. Sources and resources BBQ Porch Salt Story I'm Just Here for the Food, Alton Brown Cookwise, Shirley Corriher What Einstein Told His Cook, Robert Wolke Post your questions here -->> Q&A

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Post your questions here -->> Q&A JAPANESE CUISINE Author: Kristin Yamaguchi (Torakris) This course will help familiarize you with Japanese foods, especially the homestyle foods that the Japanese eat day in and day out. For the Japanese nothing is more important than SHUN, or the foods of the season. Not only do they make a point of eating what is the freshest, but they also try to enjoy the food in as natural a state as possible. Heavy sauces and long simmering times are almost unheard of in traditional dishes. Sauces are used minimally or are served as a dipping sauce to be applied just seconds before eating so as to retain the purity of the individual dishes. While fish and some meats are regularly eaten in the raw state, vegetables are almost always briefly blanched (to remove the "raw" taste yet still retain the crunch) or pickled with salt. The idea that foods should be eaten in the freshest state possible is one reason the Japanese love to travel. Where better to eat the food then its place of origin. Every region of Japan has its local dishes that it is famous for—everyone knows that the best crab come from Hokkaido, you can't get yuba (tofu skin) any better then in Kyoto, the only place to drink awamori is in Okinawa and no trip to Kyushu would be complete if you didn't have the oysters. I have chosen to introduce 4 dishes, selected because they are very typical of the foods the Japanese eat every day in their homes, are very simple to prepare (not really requiring "exotic" ingredients) and because they should be appealing to even the pickiest of eaters: Nikujyaga - Simmered beef and potatoes Goma-ae - Sesame dressing Unagi Okawa - Rice with eel Ton-jiru (Buta-jiru) - Soup with pork NIKUJYAGA (Simmered beef and potatoes) I will start off with Nikujyaga a dish of beef and potatoes that is probably one of the dishes most frequently requested by children in Japan, second only to curry rice! This homestyle simmered dish is a prime example of ofukuro no aji¡ or mother's taste. It is a simple dish that is seasoned just a little differently in each house. Those with roots in Kanto (Tokyo and surrounding areas) will prefer it heavy on the soy sauce while those from the Kansai area (Osaka and surrounds) tend to prefer it milder. The additions are numerous- shirataki, carrots, green peas, green beans, etc. Like most Japanese dishes that combine meat and vegetables the focus is on the vegetables with the meat playing a supporting role. I prefer it simple, nothing but potatoes, onion and beef, heavy on the soy and with a hint of sesame oil. While the new spring potatoes are wonderful in this dish, any boiling potato will do. Avoid starchy baking potatoes that will fall apart during the simmering. The right meat can turn this from a good dish to a great dish and the right beef can be hard to find outside Japan. You want something that has very good marbling and will not become tough during simmering. It also needs to be paper thin. If you have a good Asian grocer nearby that sells meat (either fresh or frozen) look there. Try looking for something that might be labeled for sukiyaki as that will have the best marbling (the shabu shabu cuts tend to be leaner). This is what you want to look for: Ingredients (for 4 people) • About 8 smallish potatoes (about half the size of a baseball) or the equivalent, chopped into large bite size pieces. • 300 grams/ 10 oz of thinly sliced beef (cut into strips about 2 inches x 3 inches) • 1 medium onion, sliced. • 1/4 cup soy sauce • 2 tablespoons sugar • 2 tablespoons mirin • sesame oil • water 1. In a frypan heat the sesame oil over high heat, add the onions and cook until they start to soften. 2. Push them to the side and add the beef. Keep cooking over high heat until the beef just loses its pinkness. 3. Add the soy sauce, sugar and mirin, give it a stir, then add the potatoes and stir again. Now add enough water to come about 2/3 of the way up the potatoes. 4. Cover and slightly lower the heat to strong medium and leave it at a very strong simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Give it a stir a couple of times while it is simmering. You should be left with just a tiny bit of liquid. If there is too much, remove the lid and let it evaporate. If it seems as if there isn't enough during the simmering, then add a little more. The finished dish! This is a really simple dish that should take no more than 20 minutes. It is also great to eat hot or at room temperature and tastes even better the next day! GOMA-AE (Sesame dressing) This next dish is goma-ae, is actually a recipe for a dressing that can be used on a multitude of vegetables. This is especially popular in the spring when the greens are at their peak. In Japan spinach is the most popular followed by green beans and broccoli. I especially like it on broccoli rabe and okra. It is sometimes made with a little vinegar that seems to match the root vegetables that are at their peak in the fall and winter. This is really all to taste, so taste as you go along. I don't really use a recipe so these are approximations. INGREDIENTS (for about 1 lb of (blanched) vegetables) • 6 tablespoons white sesame seeds • 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons sugar • 2 teaspoons soy sauce • 4 tablespoons dashi (homemade or instant) or water 1. Toast the sesame seeds. This is what the toasted ones look like in comparison to the plain ones: Place the hot seeds into a suribachi and crush until about 75% are pretty well smashed. Add the sugar and mix again. Then add the soy and dashi and mix with the pestle with a fast, almost whipping action to blend it. Taste and add more sugar or soy if needed. 2. Add the blanched vegetable. If using a leafy vegetable, mix with the pestle very gently bruising the vegetables to allow the flavors to penetrate. When using chunkier vegetables I mix with a rubber spatula. The finished product, shown here with broccoli rabe I vary the taste depending on the veggie. For broccoli rabe I like it sweeter to offset the bitterness, whereas I prefer a little more soy in the spinach version. VARIATION To make a sesame-vinegar dressing that is more common with root vegetables such as carrots or burdock (gobo) you use the same recipe decreasing the soy and dashi by a little and adding 2 to 3 Tablespoons of rice vinegar. The vegetables should be boiled first. UNAGI OKOWA (Rice with eel) The third recipe is called unagi okowa. Unagi is the Japanese word for eel and about 95% of the unagi eaten in Japan is kabayaki style which is grilled with a soy based sauce. This product is often sold pre-cooked and frozen in Asian markets around the world and this recipe is a good way to introduce others to eel for the first time. Summer is the season of the eel and they are eaten in incredible numbers during the hot months. But, because it is available frozen, this rice dish can be eaten all year round. Okowa is a type of rice dish that uses a mix of regular Japanese short grain rice and mochi-gome (Japanese sticky rice). Traditionally it is steamed in a bamboo basket, but it can also be made in a rice cooker or in a pot on the stove. A LTTLE BIT ABOUT RICE I use a rice cooker, along with 99% of the Japanese, and find it makes quite good rice, but you can also make good rice quite easily on the stove. However they are many variables in the rice that can make it less then perfect each time. Things to pay attention to: All rice is different! Japanese style rice grown in the US needs a little bit more water then Japanese-grown rice, because most American rice farmers use the dry field method, while in Japan everything is grown in wet fields. If the bag is marked shinmai (new crop) the rice needs a little less water as it is fresh out of the fields. When cooking more then 3 cups, the water to rice proportion gets slightly less. If you like your rice a little harder (firmer) add less water, if you like it softer add more. If you are using a made-in-Japan rice cooker read the manual carefully to find out the size of the cup! In Japan when they refer to a cup of rice, it is only 180cc (an American cup is 250cc), so the cup lines on the inner bowl of the rice cooker may refer to the Japanese cup! (180cc is the old cup measure of Japan, and I think it is pretty much used only to measure rice , the common everyday cup is 200cc). Washing the rice This is a very important step that is often overlooked. The rice needs to be washed until the water is no longer milky. Place the rice into a bowl (I use the bowl of the rice cooker) and add enough water so that it is covered about twice over. Give it a couple swirls with your hand and then dump out the water. Next put in a little water (just enough to cover the rice) and mix it around with your hand (lightly rubbing the grains together) for a good 30 seconds. Pour it out and repeat until the water is clear. This can take a couple of minutes. Drain the water completely or pour the rice into a colander and let sit for 30 to 40 minutes. This "rest" can make all the difference between a decent rice and a really good rice. In general you want to use about 10% to 20% more water than rice, so if you are cooking one "cup" of 180ml, you would add about 200ml of water. Or you can measure the old fashioned way: place your hand flat on top of the rice and add the water until it just covers your hand, using a little more or less for the different variables mentioned above. INGREDIENTS • 200cc Japanese short grain rice (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) • 200cc Japanese sticky rice (mochi-gome) (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) • 1 piece of unagi kabayaki (purchased), cut into bite size pieces, sauce packet reserved • 10 leaves of shiso, shredded • 1 sheet of nori, ripped into small pieces • 450ml water (1 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) • 4 tablespoons sake • 1 tablespoon mirin • 1 tablespoon soy sauce • Sesame seeds (toasted ) for garnish • Sanshou Unagi, kabayaki style: Cut into bite size pieces. The rices (Japanese short grain on the left, mochi rice on the right). The bag of mochi rice. Other ingredients 1. Combine the two types of rice and wash and set aside (following the directions above). 2. After the rice has rested, place it into the rice cooker with the water, 2 tablespoons sake, mirin and soy sauce, give it a stir and turn on the rice cooker (set for white rice if applicable). If using a pan (a 3 to 4 quart saucepan is best), add the ingredients and cover the pan. Place over a medium high heat and bring to a boil. Let it boil for about one minute and then turn the heat to low for 10 to 13 minutes. 3. After the rice is cooked (by either method), let it rest for at least 10 minutes. 4. Place the unagi onto a microwave safe dish, sprinkle with the sake and warm in the microwave for 1 to 2 minutes. 5. Add the unagi and its "juices" to the pot of rice along with, the shiso, nori, sesame seeds, and reserved pack of kabayaki sauce (about 1 to 2 tablespoons) and mix very gently. 6. Allow the guests to sprinkle additional sesame seeds and sanshou as wanted. The finished dish, still in the rice cooker TON-JIRU (BUTA-JIRU) Soup with pork The final dish is called either ton-jiru or buta-jiru depending on what part of Japan you are in. Ton and buta are words that mean pork and thus pork is the main flavoring of this hearty soup. This is a wonderful winter dish that uses a variety of winter produce. First a little information on the hearty soups of Japan. SOUPS THAT MAKE A MEAL Most people are familiar with the simple miso and clear soups of Japan and while soups are pretty much a given at a Japanese meal, there are a couple soups that are meals in themselves. These homestyle soups are rarely found in restaurants (outside of Japan) and are one of the simplest things to make at home. The wonderful thing is that you can't do it wrong. These soups are as individual as the homes in Japan. Vegetables are the base of these soups and they can be made with whatever is on hand. Here is a run down of some of the most common ones: Ton-jiru. "Ton" or pork is the base of this soup. The pork and vegetables are sauted together, often with sesame oil for additional flavor and the dish almost always include the addition of miso. This is also referred to as buta-jiru in certain parts of Japan. Kenchin-jiru. This is based on tofu rather than pork and the vegetables in this soup also are sauteed with sesame oil. It can be served either sumashi style (plain broth maybe with a little soy and sake) or with miso. Nopei-jiru. This soup tends to include just vegetables (not sauteed) in a sumashi style seasoned with soy and often thickened with a little cornstarch. It is occasionally served cold. Ozoni. This is the traditional New Year's Day soup and can include any type of meat (pork, beef, chicken). Its distinguishing ingredient is a cake of mochi (often grilled first). It can be served either sumashi style (most common in the Kanto region) or miso style (in the Kansai region). Kasu-jiru. This soup uses kasu (the lees or leftovers from sake making) instead of miso, as the seasoning. It almost always includes some type of fish, salmon and yellow tail being the most popular. Satsuma-jiru. Named after its city of origin, this soup normally contains chicken (cut up, bone-in pieces) sauteed together with the vegetables and then miso added as the seasoning Here are some of the most popular vegetables/ingredients for these soups and special preparation methods where necessary. • Carrots • Daikon • Satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato) - should be placed in a bowl of water for 10 minutes before using • Satoimo (type of taro) - if using fresh they should be peeled, rubbed with some salt and then rinsed before using. Some people experience itchiness when working with satoimo, if you feel you may be sensitive wear gloves. • Renkon (lotus root). If used fresh they should be peeled and placed into acidulated water as soon as they are cut. • Gobo (burdock root). If used fresh they be scrubbed well (no need for peeling) and placed into acidulated water as soon as they are cut. • Shiitake. If dried they should be reconstituted before using. • Tofu. Should be slightly pressed before using (add at the end of cooking). • Konnyaku. Should be gently boiled for about 3 minutes, drained and then pulled into bite sized pieces with your fingers. Doing this helps increase the surface area helping the flavors penetrate (add at the end of cooking). • Aburage (tofu pockets). Should be placed into a colander and hot water poured over to help rid them of the oil (add at the end of cooking). • Atsuage (thick deep fried tofu). Same as for aburage. • Negi (Japanese leek). Cut into bite sized pieces (add at the end of cooking). See also garnishes below. Garnishes for the soups Though these soups can go un-garnished, the Japanese like to add what they refer to as aomi ("green-ness"). Some examples are: • negi, thinly sliced. • scallions or other thin onions, thinly sliced. • mitsuba (trefoil,) chopped. • kaiware. • snow peas, slivered. They may also be sprinkled with shichimi (7 spice mix) or sanshou (Japanese pepper). INGREDIENTS • 100 - 200g (4 to 8 oz) thinly sliced pork, the fattier the better • any of the ingredients listed above in any amount that you like • about 4 to 5 cups of water or dashi • 3 to 5 tablespoons of miso (Normally brown miso or a mix. White miso or red miso are rarely used alone in these soups). • Sesame oil or other oil ABOUT DASHI This recipe calls for either water or dashi. In these types of soups, filled with a variety of flavors including miso, a lot of Japanese cooks don't feel a dashi is needed. This is also an instance where I feel it is fine to substitute a good instant product as well. I was going to explain dashi making, but since there are not too many ways to do it, I will link you to a good site (with nice pictures) as I probably would end up quoting them verbatim anyway. Look here for the various dashi types: Dashi Types An example of ingredients for tonjiru. Carrots, daikon and gobo cut into bite size pieces. Konnyaku (white refined type) pulled into pieces with fingers. 1. Heat the sesame oil (in the pan you will use for the soup) over medium high heat, add the pork and cook until it just loses its pinkness. Add the heartier vegetables and cook for a couple minutes without browning. If they start to brown turn down the heat. 2. Add the dashi or water, bring to a boil then turn the heat down so that the soup is just at a simmer. Simmer until the vegetables are just tender (this will depend on the size you cut them into, so try to cut them uniformly). Skim when necessary. 3. Next add the ingredients that require little cooking (tofu products, etc). 4. Place the instant miso into a bowl and add a cup or two of the simmering liquid to dissolve it. Once it is completely dissolved, carefully pour it back into the soup. 5. Taste and adjust, adding more miso if needed. To add more miso always place it into a cup and add some of the simmering liquid, stirring it well to make sure it is completely dissolved. Adding it directly to the soup can occasionally result in a mouthful of undissolved miso. 6. Pour into the individual bowls and garnish with "green-ness" if wanted, and pass the shichimi or sanshou at the table. The finished dish. Enjoy! Post your questions here -->> Q&A

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Temp C Temp F L.sf Yeast (C. milleri) 2 36 0.019 0.004 4 39 0.026 0.008 6 43 0.035 0.013 8 46 0.047 0.021 10 50 0.063 0.033 12 54 0.084 0.052 14 57 0.11 0.078 16 61 0.14 0.011 18 64 0.19 0.16 20 68 0.24 0.23 22 72 0.30 0.30 24 75 0.37 0.37 26 79 0.45 0.42 28 82 0.49 0.42 30 86 0.61 0.35 32 90 0.66 0.20 34 93 0.66 0.05 36 97 0.58 0.00 38 100 0.39 40 104 0.1 41 106 0.00

Brief diversion on the history and microbiology of sourdough Since antiquity, people have sought to leaven a simple mixture of flour and water by leaving it to ferment over many days. As this mixture fermented, yeasts (either introduced or present on the surface of the utensils and ingredients) would multiply and release carbon dioxide, aerating the final dough, producing a crumb that was soft and pleasant to eat. The remains of loaves leavened with these ferments have been found in the Pharaoh's tombs in the pyramids in Egypt. Similar breads are still crafted in the region. Yeasts and bacteria are essential to our life on earth. They have helped shape what we eat and the way we eat for as long as man has cooked food. We have used these organisms to change the taste and texture of the foods we eat, and to preserve our foods through the leaner winter months. In baking, they are essential to many of the breads we cherish. For all of us, our ethnic baking practices are part of our cultural heritage, and replicating the traditional methods used to create them helps us maintain those links with our past. One of the most famous breads, and the loaf that is held as the symbol of artisanal baking excellence, is the San Francisco Sourdough. The sourdough culture used to leaven this bread, and to give it its unique texture, aroma and flavour, is extremely stable. The method used to initiate and maintain the sourdough culture of yeasts and bacteria used in San Francisco Sourdough is typical of early, traditional baking methods. The bread made today is very similar to those ancient breads. Its stability made it the yeast of preference to take into new and remote places. Miners took it along on the Yukon Goldrush and early homesteaders of the US carried on their long treks to new territory. If we provide the right environment, this culture will grow and thrive, and make our bread rise. Sourdough culture is a yeast living symbiotically with a friendly lacto-bacteria. We need to start with enough of the right organisms so that they can become the dominant culture, food and water and the right temperature. Given the right organisms, the optimum temperature is just over 80F/27C. Much hotter and the activity of the yeast declines. Above 95F/35C the yeast is effectively dormant or dead. The bacterial activity peaks at 93F/34C, so some bakers choose to ferment at 90F/32C to get a sourer bread. At 70F/21C the activity of the yeast has roughly halved, so the fermentation will take twice as long. You can chose to ferment at cooler temperatures - you may not have reliably warm place available - but if you do so you will need to compensate by increasing all the times in the recipe correspondingly. Temperature control is critical (within a few degrees) for optimum results. A thermometer is a baker’s best friend. Our task is to create an environment that promotes optimal growth, but then starts to slow just before we put the bread into the oven. This is why the starter culture is built up in stages, (starter, then dough) roughly tripling in volume each time. (Some recipes for bulk production call for more stages: Starter, Clef, first leaven, second leaven, bulk fermentation, proof.) Why not dump all the flour and water in at once? We want to ensure that our culture is the dominant species! Our kitchens, our flour and our water are not completely sterile. They, too, may harbour spores and if our culture is too diluted, some of these less desirable cultures could get a foothold. Roughly tripling the volume each time (1 of starter, 1 of water, 1 of flour) ensures that our starter is dominant. Varying the hydration and temperature of each stage gives some control over flavour as well. A sourdough culture consists of a whole lot of little critters. There are maybe a several hundred different strains of yeast and friendly bacteria in there, some from the starter, and some carried in on the air and via the environment, or from the water or flour. In studies by Sugihara and colleagues on San Fransisco sourdough cultures, the dominant yeast was found to be a version of bakers yeast called Candida milleri species. They christened the dominant lacto bacteria (called a lacto bacteria not because it lives on milk, but because it secretes lactic acid, which is also found in milk) Lactobacillus sanfrancisco species. These two have learned to live well together, and like the best marriages they form a symbiotic relationship, supporting each other and keeping strangers out. The yeast has evolved to live in a highly acid environment, and breaks the starch in the flour down into sugars. The LB keeps the environment acid, breaks down some of the more complex sugars, such as maltose into simpler sugars that the yeast can feed on, and secretes a sort of anti-biotic to kill competitive bugs. You can read more in the Web resources referenced in the lesson. The stability of the starter means that, providing we provide about the right environment, the culture will grow and thrive, and make our bread rise. Sourdough culture is a yeast living symbiotically with a friendly lacto-bacteria .We need - To start with enough of the right organisms so that they can become the dominant culture. - Food and water. Normal dough provides more than enough. - The right temperature. The right temperature is the single most critical variable. Michael Ganzle and his co-workers did some studies on this. They found the following growth rates of L. sanfranciscensis and C.milleri as function of temperature. Growth rate is ln2/generation time, i.e. a growth rate of 0.7 is a generation (doubling time) of about 1 h. The generation times measured in laboratory media are different from that in rye / wheat / white wheat dough. If the generation time at 20 C is 1/2 of that at 30 C in my medium, the organism will also grow 1/2 as fast at 20 C compared to 30 C in dough (we checked). So, it's not the absolute numbers that matter, but the ratio of growth rate to growth rate at optimum temperature. here is a table illustrating growth rates at varying temperatures. When the environment changes, the culture does not react immediately but after a lag. Spicher defines the phases of growth as 1. Lag Phase: The organisms need to adjust to the new environment before growth can resume. This depends on the vitality of the inoculation. The time can be significant with dried cultures, which need to re-hydrate. In this phase, the greatest danger exists that a spontaneous flora from the organisms present in the flour will be able to alter the existing flora. 2. Acceleration Phase: The organisms are now adjusted to the new environment and start to multiply. The end of this phase is reached when the highest multiplication rate is reached. 3. Exponential growth Phase: The organisms are at their optimum growth rate, repeatedly doubling their numbers by binary fission. 4. Transition Phase: The growth rate decreases from the optimal rate. Possible reasons are exhaustion of nutrients, waste products accumulating acidity increase. 5. Stationary Phase: The number or newly generated and dying organisms is equal and it will not increase any further. 6. Death Phase: Initially, the number of dying organisms exceeds the number of newly generated. Later on, no new organisms are generated. Existing organisms die in increasing numbers for various reasons as mentioned in Phase 4. Yeast food The process of fermentation is the yeast feeding on simple sugars, like glucose and fructose, and turning them to into alcohol and acetic acid (vinegar). The sugars come from the starch being broken down by enzymes released by yeast cells. One enzyme is amylase (by convention, enzyme names end in –ase), which breaks down a component of starch, called amylose, into the sugar, maltose. This process is called amylisation. The yeast in sourdough can’t digest maltose, but our friend, the lactobacteria can, and they break it down into the simpler sugars, which the yeast can digest. Commercial bread flours often contain small amounts of diastic malt, rich in enzymes, which helps break down the starch more quickly and make more sugar available to the yeast. Rye flour is sometimes used, but the rye enzymes, although more heat stable, are inhibited in the acid sourdough environment. Ascorbic acid, Vitamin C, is also used as a yeast growth promoter. If your flour does not already contain Vitamin C (read the small print on the bag) you could consider adding some. 1/2 tsp of Vitamin C powder (not the fuzzy kind) per bag should do it. Ordinary sugar, sucrose, promotes the growth of ordinary yeast in competition with the sourdough yeast. The sourdough yeast can’t utilise it directly, but the lactobacteria convert it to glucose and fructose, and then reduce the fructose to acetic acid (vinegar). The result is a sourer tasting (but not smelling) bread. Ordinary baker’s yeast and sourdough don’t mix well. The sourdough environment is too acid for the ordinary yeast to thrive, and they compete for the available sugars. Some recipes use both yeast and sourdough, but this results in an ordinary yeasted bread, with the sourdough added for flavour, rather than for an acid ferment. A small amount of oil or a knob of butter can be added to the dough. Its effect is to make the strands of gluten slip over each other more easily and the finished bread is “shorter” with a softer crumb. About flour and gluten Gluten is the protein that holds dough together. If you take a piece of raw dough and wash it repeatedly under the tap, or keep chewing it, you will end up with a rubbery substance. This is the gluten. It acts like the rubber in a balloon. When the yeast ferments and produces gas, the gluten blows up into bubbles. It is these bubbles that determine the texture of the crumb in bread. There is some evidence that the bubbles form around the nuclei of tiny bubbles of air beaten into the mixture when it was originally mixed, so beat the dough well when first mixing. If there is not enough gluten the bubbles leak or burst, and the bread does not rise well. Flour with a lot of gluten is called “strong”. Pastry flour is low gluten (weak), since the gluten would make the pastry tough and hard. Gluten content is not measured directly, but some idea can be gained from the amount of protein in the flour. Bread flour is typically around 12%. Acidity The natural acid in the loaf is primarily made up of lactic and acetic acid (vinegar). Acetic acid tastes more acidic, but lactic acid smells sourer. How acidic the loaf tastes depends on many factors, including the ash content of the flour being used. But as a rough rule of thumb, if you want it sourer, ferment the starter for longer, or at a higher temperature. Bakers percentages Bakers express recipes (called formulas) in Baker’s percentages. In this formula, flour is always 100% with the other ingredients reckoned as a percentage of the flour by weight. Thus the starter, which is half flour and half water by volume, in our recipe consists of : 150g of flour = a baker’s percentage of 100, and 225g of water = a baker’s percentage of 150. The main dough consists of: Flour - 450g (100%) Water - 225g (50%) Starter - 200g (40%) Salt - 9g (2tsp) (2%) Total - 884 g Roughly 15% of weight is lost in baking (mostly water) giving a final loaf weight of about 750g Total flour (starter + main dough) 75g+450g=525g Total water (starter + main dough) 112+225 = 337g or about 65% hydration Hydration is a measure of how wet the dough is: Stiff & Dry- 58 to 60% water Content Firm & Tight - 60 to 62% Modestly Firm - 62 to 63% Malleable - 63 to 64% Soft - 64 to 65% Slack - 65 to 67% American style breads usually are about 60 to 62% hydration, French style breads between 62 to 65%, and Italian style (ciabatta) breads upwards of a 68% range. Our dough is on the slack side because it has a relatively high percentage of water. But notice how little extra water is needed to change from firm dough to a soft one: 3% is 15cc or 3 teaspoonfuls for our amount of flour. References Sugihara/Kline/Miller, Microorganism of the San Francisco Sour Dough Bread Process, Applied Microbiology, Mar. 1971, 458 Gänzle et al., Modeling of growth of Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis and Candida milleri in response to process parameters of the sourdough fermentation, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 1998 Spicher, G., Handbuch Sauerteig, 5th edition 1999, Behrs Verlag, 61-64

Post your questions here -->> Q&A Sourdough Bread by Jack Lang (jackal10) Acknowledgements Dan Lepard, for inspiration and and contribution. Charles Lang, whose hands are in the photographs. Brendel Lang for the painting. The Members of the eGCI team for considerable labour and expertise. Samuel Lloyd Kinsey (slkinsey) my fellow instructor. Jill Grey, my partner, for putting up with the mess. Introduction The object of this lesson is to teach you to bake better bread— bread that will be the envy of your non-baking friends—bread so good that people will wonder where it came from! The recipe is archived here. Why sourdough? Because it tastes better. This is the real stuff; not some machine-made pap. You will make bread you just can’t stop eating, and that will spoil you for mass-produced bought bread. Once you have mastered basic white bread, you (or we) can go on to whatever variations you like or request. This is daily bread, fragrant with tastes of the yeast and the grain, and with a crisp crackling crust. Perfect on its own, or with good butter, or jam, or cheese and maybe a ripe tomato. It keeps (in a paper bag, not in the fridge) for close to a week, although you may need to toast it toward the end of the week. Toasted it makes magnificent bruschetta. You can bake weekly, or less often as the bread freezes well. This recipe and technique may seem straightforward, but it contains the results of years of experimentation and optimisation. We’ll make plain, white bread. Once you have mastered that, you can go on to fancier loaves. However (unless you really need the bran) you will come back to this basic bread just because it is so good and so pure. Bread comes in many shapes. English bread shapes European bread shapes This lesson will teach the basic French boule or flattened ball shape. We will also look at baguettes. But you can make any shape you fancy. The same dough works well in a tin, too. You can find more technical details regarding the history of sourdough bread and the composition of the starter by clicking this link. Reading this background history and science is not essential, but very helpful. It will give some insight into why as well as the how. Where to get your starter You basically have three options – 1. Buy a starter off the web or from a local artisanal bakery. One place is here. 2. Order the eGullet starter. You can obtain the special egullet starter by sending a PM to jackal10 with your snail-mail address. The starter will be sent out free, although the cost of the starter and postage is about $10. Please donate at least that much to your favourite charity, and we would appreciate it if you could include the name of the charity and the amount in your PM. Your egullet starter was collected originally in the vineyards of California, but has travelled extensively since. It produces a light, mild bread. When it arrives, it will look like raw dough in a plastic bag How your starter will look when you unpack it. You can leave it in the fridge until you are ready, or better, turn it into your own starter. To do this, add one cup of flour and 1 cup of water and mix to a smooth batter. You can do this by hand or in a food processor. Put the batter into a basin, cover and leave in a warm (80-85F/27-29C) place for 4-8 hours, or until you see bubbles on the surface. Ideally refresh it a couple of times, and you are ready. You can store the starter in a jar in the fridge. 3. Make your own. You can make your own starter and harvest the local wild yeasts with some patience. The key is the remarkable stability of the yeast-lacto bacillus pairing. If you keep almost any fermentable mixture of flour and water at about the right temperature, and when it begins to bubble, feed (refresh) it regularly, you will get the right bugs. Some people add grapes with bloom on them (yeasts live on the surface), rye (high in enzymes), or other things, but that is mostly superstition. How to roll your own starter a) Mix 1 cup flour and 1 cup water to a smooth batter. b) Cover and leave in a warm (85F/29C) place until it starts to bubble (12 hours or so but it can take several days). Don’t worry about off smells or colours at this stage. Skim any obvious muck. c) Refresh it by adding another ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of water and stir. If the volume gets too much for your container, throw some away. Cover the rest and put it back into a warm place. d) Repeat the last step for 4 times at 8-12 hour intervals. The starter should be active, and smell wholesome. Starters can be kept in a closed jar in the refrigerator for months. They may separate into two layers, but just stir them together before use. They will, of course, keep best if used and refreshed regularly. If the starter seems sluggish, refresh it a couple of times (step c above) before use. Starter doesn’t freeze well, but can be dried for a reserve supply. If you need to ship it, make some into a lasagna sheet, or stiff dough. For best results always use the same flour, so the bugs can get used to it. Some people keep separate starters for white, rye and for wholemeal (whole wheat). I use white unbleached flour, which has added Vitamin C as an improver. As mentioned above, if your flour does not already have Vitamin C in it, you can add 1/2tsp Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid) but it is not critical. Recovering a sick starter If your starter smells off (cheesy or of peardrops), or has gone sluggish you can recover it by following the procedure for a new starter above, but inoculate the initial flour and water mix with a tablespoon or two of the old starter. Practical Section A typical bread-making timetable is Day 1: 09:00: Refresh starter - Starter ferments - 13:00: Make dough 13:15: Dough kneaded (by hand) -Amylisation- 13:45: Add Salt 14:00 Finished dough - Bulk fermentation- 16:00: Shape -Retard overnight – Day 2 Pre-heat oven, and bake for 40 minutes. Ingredients for 1 loaf or four baguettes. To refresh the starter: 1 c sourdough starter 1 c Strong white bread flour 1 c water For the dough: 1 c refreshed sourdough starter 3 c Strong white bread flour. 1 c water (you may need more -- see below) 2 tsp salt The dough in the illustration is ordinary unbleached supermarket (Tesco) strong white bread flour, 11.7g protein, with ½ cup of spelt flour added for flavour. This supermarket adds Vitamin C and amalyse to their bread flour. Different flours may adsorb different amounts of water. This flour needs a bit more water. The object is to make a very soft dough -- one that has only just stopped being a batter and just holds together. Sourdough Bread Instructions A. Refresh the Starter 1. Mix together 1 cup starter, 1 cup strong flour and 1 cup of water. It should be the consistency of very thick cream. Starter just mixed. 3. Cover, and allow to stand in a warm (85F/29C) place for 4 hours. Starter after 4 hours. After 4 hours or so, it should be bubbly. Temperature is fairly critical, as discussed above. Any hotter than 85F/29C and you start to kill the yeast; any colder and it will not be as sour and will take longer to rise. What we are making here is a sponge starter or poolish. Starters (pre-ferments) can be roughly divided by hydration into wet, batter-like pre-ferments, often called poolish from their origin and dry, dough-like pre-ferments, often called biga, as the technique is typical of Italian bread. Some bakers call a poolish a sponge; others use sponge to refer to all pre-ferments. B. Make the Dough Assemble Ingredients as listed above. The storage jar with the rest of the starter is at the back right, ready to go back into the fridge for next time. The easiest way is to whizz together refreshed starter, flour and water (but not the salt yet) in a food processor for 20 sec. Alternatively mix them in a large bowl: Ready to mix Dough after mixing. Should make a softish dough. The wetter the dough the bigger the holes in the final bread. Different flours need different amounts of water – add more water or flour to get the right consistency. You may need to add up to another ½ cup of flour so that it just stops being a batter and holds together as a dough. On the other hand if it is too stiff then add more water. Plenty of loose flour will stop it sticking too much. If you are making the dough by hand then knead for 10 minutes by the clock. Be rough with it. Lose your temper with it. Take out your frustrations on it. Slam it about. When it is properly kneaded it should feel resilient to the touch. It has been described as feeling like an earlobe, but I describe it like feeling a soft breast or buttock. You should be able to take a pinch of dough and stretch it so thin you can see through it – called the “windowpane test”. When kneaded the dough will stretch without breaking You cannot over-knead by hand. It is possible (but quite difficult) to over-knead if you are using a mixer or a food processor, as the dough can get too hot, and if worked too long and hard the gluten will begin to break down. Finished Dough Gather it together, and wipe a little oil over the surface to stop it sticking, cover it and leave it in a warm place for 30 mins. Resting This pause, before the salt is added, is for several reasons: - It lets the enzymes do their stuff. They begin breaking down starches into sugars to feed the yeast to make a better crust colour. Salt tends to retard this reaction. - It lets the dough (and you) rest and relax after the exertions of kneading. - It allows the flour to complete its hydration, High levels of salt can interfere with this. - It allows time for you to prepare your “banneton” to receive the finished dough. See Preparing Your Banneton below. After 30 mins add the salt and whiz for another 20 sec, or knead for another 10 mins. Oil, cover, and leave for 2 hours or so in a warm (85F/29C) place. The exact time is not critical – anything from about 90 minutes to 3 hours will work. Temperature is more critical than time. Rested Dough The dough will have expanded a bit. Don’t worry about whether it has doubled or not. A lot of nonsense is written in some cookbooks, resulting in much overproved dough. The dough will also have got a bit softer and wetter. Turn out onto a floured board. Dusting the board with flour Now handle gently - don't knock all the air out. The time for rough handling is over. Take the sides and fold to the centre. Folding the dough Folding the dough like this (you can also fold top to bottom as well) gently stretches the gluten and the bubbles forming in the bread. Dan Lepard's technique for his wonderful bread is to repeat this folding operation every hour for up to 5 hours during an extended bulk fermentation phase, resting the dough between times. When the dough is ready for shaping bubbles are clearly visible if you cut a small slit in the top of the dough with a sharp knife. Turn the dough over and shape into a ball. As you shape it try and stretch the surface a bit so it is taut. Shaping the dough Put it upside down (on its stretched, taut surface) into a cloth lined basket (called a banneton). The top of the dough in the banneton will be the bottom of the finished loaf. Preparing Your Banneton Traditionally, bannetons are made of cane or wicker, lined with linen, but you can improvise from a basin or a basket and a tea-towel or a piece of muslin. Ideally they are porous, so the outside dries slightly to help in crust development. Dough in the banneton Don’t worry if the top surface of the dough in the banneton is uneven: it will even itself out. Put into the fridge, covered with a cloth, overnight. In the fridge The dough is soft and needs the support of the basket. You could bake it after letting it rise for a hour or so, but its easier to handle, and gives a better crust if you keep it in the fridge (retardation) for between 8 and 24 hours. The cold will practically stop the fermentation, and so timing is not critical, and it gives you back control in that you can bake the dough when you want, rather than when the fermentation dictates. I’m lucky enough to have a brick bread oven that has a brick floor that holds the heat. The shell of this one I imported from France, from a company called Four Grandmere. If you are inspired to build your own, Dan Wing’s and Tom Jaine’s books are given in the references My oven Inside the oven You can approximate a similar environment in a domestic oven by putting a pizza stone or a layer of quarry tiles or engineering bricks on the lowest shelf to provide bottom heat. You are aiming for 440F/230C or even 500F/260C, as hot as most domestic ovens can manage. Heat the oven at least an hour before you want to bake to allow time to stabilise, and for the heat to soak into the tiles or equivalent. (If you have a wood fired oven you will need to light the fire about four hours before baking.) My oven heating up If you have an oven thermometer, check the temperature of the oven. You are strongly advised to do this as oven thermostats are surprisingly inaccurate. Thermometer When ready to bake, take the dough out of the fridge. Some advise letting the dough return to room temperature --a couple of hours or so, but I find I it better and easier to cook these very soft doughs straight from the fridge. The cold dough is stiffer, handles easier and spreads less. The dough from the fridge Again, don’t worry that it does not seem to have expanded much. Most of the expansion will be in the oven (called oven-spring). This will result in a lighter and better-shaped loaf than if the expansion is from proofing when some of the gas may leak out. When ready to bake, turn the dough out onto a baking sheet and remove the cloth. (For the wood fired oven we use a peel, lightly dusted with dry polenta meal so the dough does not stick.) Slash the top firmly with a very sharp knife. Professional bakers use a razor blade on a stick, called a “lame”. Slash quickly and decisively – it is a slash not a cut. Don’t mess the dough about. Spray the knife blade with cooking spray to prevent it from tearing the dough. The slashes allow the dough to rise in a defined way, and lessen the resistance to expansion by making weak points in the crust. In ancient times the pattern of slashes identified whose bread it was in the communal oven. Here a slightly careless slash has caught the dough on one side, so the finished loaf will be a bit uneven and rustic. Into the oven: Just loaded: 20 minutes later, and halfway through the bake. Most of the expansion has happened. Our loaf is the one on the left. The pattern on the rye bread on the front right is created by using a banneton made from coiled cane. No cloth is used in that sort of banneton. Bannetons can be obtained from any good baking supplier. The ones shown come from Four Grandmere and the San Francisco Baking Institute. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until it is a good colour. You might need to rotate it after 30 mins. Let the bread cool to warm before you slice it. Hard to resist the temptation to slice into the loaf too soon, but it needs time to finish cooking and for the structure to firm up as it cools. I like an open texture, as it gives more room for the butter. The crust is a little thick as the bread was slightly over baked. That completes the basic bread lesson. Variations on the basic recipe/technique I’d advise practicing plain white bread before trying variations. When you get that right you can get fancier. You might not get it completely to your satisfaction the first time, but as you go on your baking will improve. There are infinite variations possible. Crust Variations: My brother prefers a flour dusted crust. These were the other loaves in the bake: To get this effect, lightly dust the banneton and the top of the dough with flour before putting in the dough. The legs in the top of the picture are my sister-in-law, painting the scene. I’m the one sitting down; my brother is loading the oven. The dough is slashed in a feather pattern. To achieve this, make alternate slashes from each side of the loaf to just over halfway across. This pattern was tought to us by Ian Duffy, then of the San Fransisco Baking Institute. This is a loaf with 25% rye flour. For a shiny, thinner crust, put an empty pan in the bottom of the oven and pour a cup of boiling water into it after you have put the bread in the oven (be careful of the hot steam), and shut the door quickly. The idea is to provide a burst of steam, which gelatinises the outside of the dough. Professional ovens have steam injection for this purpose. Alternatively (but not as good) you can paint the bread with water before it goes in the oven, or use a garden sprayer. (Be careful not to get cold water on the oven light or it might shatter.) The baguettes below are made like this. Other crust variations you can try: Brush with milk or cream Brush with egg glaze (egg yolk+milk) Toppings (stick on with egg-wash or water): Porridge oats (oatmeal) Muesli Poppy seeds Sesame seeds Grated cheese Flavours and additions Add with the salt, but you might want to chop them and then hand-knead them in – the food processor chops them a bit too fine Onions (soften in butter first), Hazelnuts, walnuts Olives, Sun-dried tomatoes (oil-packed?) Caraway seeds Dill weed Raisins Smarties or M&Ms Seeds: Pumpkin, sunflower, sesame Flour variants: I’d recommend replacing only 1/3-1/2 of the plain strong white flour with: Wholemeal (whole wheat) (will not rise as much) Granary (has added malt) Rye flour (makes a sticky dough) For dark rye add 1 Tbs black treacle (molasses). Some like caraway seeds as well. Spelt (ancient wheat) (Poilane is reputed to use 1/5th Spelt. This was the example bread). “Mighty White” (steamed, corned grains) For a sweet bread: add sugar and butter with the fruit. Saffron for Easter. Baguettes Baguettes, that typical French loaf, are long thin loaves made with a soft, white dough. Because they are thin, they are baked at a higher temperature but for less time. The dough is delicate, and needs supporting continuously during proof and baking. You can get special pans for this. I’ve now thrown away my tin baguette pans (the ones in these pictures) and instead use a silpat baguette form (from www.demarle.com). You can just see it in the crust variation photo. Much easier and no sticking. To Make Baguettes from the Finished Dough Divide the dough into four, at the shaping stage: Roll and stretch into long cylinders, tucking the end in neatly. Cover, put into a large plastic bag, like a dustbin liner so that they do not dry out too much, and put in the fridge overnight. Next day take them out, and slash the tops. Put them in the hottest oven you can, and throw half a cup water into a pan or onto the oven floor. Beware of the hot steam! Bake until golden, say 30 mins Let cool on a rack. Enjoy with cheese and a glass of wine, or maybe some good soup. References Dan Lepard Baking with Passion - Dan Lepard - A great book. Website: www.danlepard.com. Joe Ortiz The Village Baker ISBN 0-89815-489-8 wonderfully evocative. Bread Builders. Hearth loaves and Masonry Ovens - Daniel Wing and Alan Scott. The definitive book on building and using brick bread ovens. The Bread Baker's Apprentice - Peter Reinhart Breads from the La Brea Bakery - Nancy Silverton Elizabeth David English Bread and Yeast Cookery ISBN 0-14-046791 is, like all her books, masterly for its time. Tom Jaine, Building a Wood Fired Oven for Bread and Pizza. Prospect Books ISBN 0907325 Web resources www.danlepard.com www.fourgrandmere.com (Click on the Union Jack to get the English version). www.sfbi.com www.demarle.com www.sourdoughhome.com http://samartha.net www.sourdo.com www.faqs.org SLKinsey is a contributor- a good resource. Post your questions here -->> Q&A

Post your questions for the Sourdough Bread course here.

Please post your questions here Q&A Risotto -- Rice in the Spotlight Author: Craig Camp (Originally published on Craig's website.) Like individual gold nuggets they sparkled on the table. Everyone else in the room looked at me with jealously. They wanted what I had. "Tough," I thought. "They could have ordered the Risotto Milanese too. It was right there on the menu." Risotto is rice in the spotlight - the star of the show. This is a very different concept than the way rice is usually used in the United States, as a backdrop, something to fill up the plate. Risotto is a classic dish of northern Italy and there are as many variations as there are ingredients available. Flooded Arborio rice fields in Piemonte. What’s the big deal? Rice is rice, right? Wrong. Everything is special about Risotto. The rice, the ingredients and the way it is cooked makes it not only delicious, but the most elegant rice dish in the world. Risotto, like all Italian cooking, is first based on the quality of the ingredients. To make wonderful risotto you have to have just the right rice and a fresh tasting broth that brings out the flavors of the other ingredients. The right technique is also essential. Without it you end up with a rice mush. Forget those who argue for shortcuts like pressure cookers. There are no shortcuts to great risotto. Why would you want to take a shortcut? Making risotto is like therapy and much cheaper than lying on your shrink’s couch for an hour. The rhythmic and peaceful nature of making risotto has a mantra like effect. Perhaps this is the start of a new self-help book, Kitchen Therapy, the way to spiritual enlightenment through stirring. Risotto takes time. It is not hard to make, it just requires patience and a little care. Like all things involved with fine dining, risotto is not about speed. Not that it takes that long, only twenty minutes form the time you start, but in that it requires your undivided attention for those twenty minutes. Unfortunately there is a lot of poor risotto sold in restaurants at high prices. If your risotto arrives at your table in less than twenty minutes you know they are cheating in the kitchen. Risotto made using shortcuts never has the texture and complexity of risotto properly made. Risotto is much more than rice carrying other flavors. If you can’t taste each grain of this special rice dish keep trying. The goal is to learn the technique and then start creating your own recipes. Risotto is rice in the spotlight. The Rice No you can’t use that big bag of rice sitting in your cabinet to make risotto. Risotto can be made from only three types of rice – all from Italy. Sometimes you see Arborio or one of the other types of Italian rice grown in the USA, but I say avoid them. To get stellar risotto you have to seek out the best Italian brands. Yes, that inexpensive box of Arborio at the Italian grocery will work just find, but with a little more investment in time and money you will find brands that cook and taste better. The secret to risotto is in the way these types of Italian rice absorb liquid – in our case the broth. Each piece of the rice used for risotto has two characteristics: 1. A very soft starch on the outside that melts away from the kernel and makes gives the creamy texture to risotto. 2. A very hard inner starch that stays firm and gives the risotto its backbone – the ability to have in the finished dish an ‘al dente’ or firm texture to each grain of rice. This combination of creaminess and an individual bite for each grain is what makes risotto so special. You can only create this unique combination with three types of rice. I recommend using and experimenting with all three until you establish your own personal preferences. With experience you will probably want to use all three depending on what kind of risotto you are making. La Diversione It is cold, raining and totally dark. Our car is bouncing along a gravel road, filled with potholes and without street signs or lights. The road continues to get worse, muddier and bumpier until we miraculously arrive at our destination. In the dark and wet we can see the rice fields stretching out around us – we have arrived at what seems like the middle of nowhere but is in fact one of the most renowned restaurants in Italy, Pila Vecia. Here lost in the rice paddies of Veneto, just thirty minutes from Verona, world famous chef Gabriele Ferron offers his nightly tasting menu – every course based on the unique rice grown in the fields around you and milled in his water driven mill. Here rice is everywhere, the breads and grissini are made from rice flour as is the pasta. Multiple courses of risotto arrive each distinct and delicious. Desserts include Torta di Riso and Gelato di Riso. This is a totally unique restaurant combining the experience of a great restaurant with a master class in rice cookery. chef Gabriele Ferron of Pila Vecia That’s broth not stock! Cookbook after cookbook suggests using chicken broth for risotto. I say NO, NO and NO again! With few exceptions a delicate beef broth will give you a far more complex and interesting risotto. Some chefs argue that chicken stock can give a bitter flavor to risotto. I have used chicken broth with good results, but greatly prefer the flavor of risotto prepared with beef broth. This is true for all except seafood risotto which is often cooked with plain water using flavors from the seafood itself to flavor the rice. First an important definition, the broth you use for risotto is not stock. A stock is made by simmering meat or fish with bones and vegetables the resulting liquid is strained and often reduced to concentrate flavors. An Italian broth is often the byproduct of making a main dish like Il Lesso da Brodo, a boiled beef main course that creates a wonderful broth. To make a beef broth for risotto you use a piece of meat, add a couple of bones if you have them, and some aromatic vegetables. This broth is much more delicate than the classic French style stock made with many bones to create the rich flavor that is the basis for sauces. A stock would produce flavors too intense for risotto as the flavors are concentrated as the cooking proceeds. The easy broth recipe - In a 6 to 8 quart pot of cold water add: - 2 carrots peeled and halved. - 2 stalks celery with leaves if possible. - 1 onion, halved. - Bring the water to a boil. - Add a 4 to 6 lb. chuck roast or other inexpensive cut of beef and return to boil. Make sure the meat is covered by at least of two inches of water. - Reduce heat to a simmer, cover loosely and skim any scum that comes to the surface. - After two hours add 1 tbl. sea salt. - Simmer gently for about 4 hours in total, or until the meat is very tender. - When done serve the beef with your favorite condiments – like extra virgin olive oil and lemon or horseradish and mustard. Though not very Italian the beef makes great hot or cold sandwiches. - Strain the remaining broth and refrigerate overnight , discard the vegetables. When cold remove the congealed fat. If you don’t have time to refrigerate strain the broth through a cheese cloth that has been in the freezer for at least a half an hour. If you prefer to use chicken stock use the above recipe replacing the beef with a 4 to 5 lb. whole chicken. For the decadent version of Risotto Milanese replace the beef with meaty beef shanks with marrow. Basic Risotto Serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a first course (primo). Preparation time: 45 minutes (20 minutes cooking time) The basics -- The basic technique 10 or more cups HOT beef broth - Yours!!! See the easy broth recipe on page 3. TIP Keep the stock hot, almost boiling, over heat throughout the preparation. 1 small onion -FINELY chopped (the sweeter the onion the better, use Vidalias in season, but red onions are not recommended) TIP Take the time to dice the onion very finely. I do not recommend a food processor. 1/4 pound UNSALTED butter. I recommend Pulgra or a European style unsalted butter as it has a richer flavor than commercial American butter. Use the American butter if you can't find the European style butter it will still be good. TIP Feel free to use a little more butter- the dish will be that much richer. 2 cups - Italian Arborio or Carnaroli Rice - do not replace. You HAVE to use these unique types of rice imported from Italy TIP The rice is critical because these type of Italian rice absorbs a huge amount of liquid. 2 glasses good dry white wine. TIP If you won't drink it don't put it in. The beginning In a large, large heavy sauté pan, melt all but 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium high heat DO NOT LET IT BROWN! TIP I use a 5 quart Calphalon sauté pan as the handle helps steady the pan while stirring. I don’t like using a pot with sides that are very high. TIP Keep the pan as hot as you can throughout the process without burning or browning anything! As you add the hot broth it should come to a light boil in the pan with the rice. Once the butter is melted put the chopped onions in the pan and lightly sauté until just translucent DO NOT LET THEM BROWN! FROM NOW ON YOU MUST STIR RISOTTO CONTINUOUSLY UNTIL FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!! TIP I recommend a broad flat wooden spatula. Stirring should be slow and make sure to reach all parts of the pan. Once the onions are just cooked add the rice and toss with the butter and onions. Cook and toss like this for about a minute. Add 1 glass of the wine and cook until evaporated, drink the other glass while cooking the risotto! You have now reached the point of variations! The beginning and the finish is the same only the middle changes. TIP You must have made up your mind before you get to this point which risotto you are going to make as the process must be continuous, not stop and go. Now for your next step go to one of the variations to the basic technique below. Finishing both But when is the rice done? You have to taste it frequently after you have been blending in the broth for 15 minutes. The rice should be firm to the bite - not crunchy but also not soft like the steamed rice we make in the United States. The risotto should also be quite moist - not dry at all. It will look and taste creamy in your mouth. When the rice is done remove from heat and blend in what is called the mantacare, the remaining butter and cheese: the remaining butter and 1/2 of a cup grated Italian Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese TIP The American versions of this cheese are all terrible. Please after all this work use real Parmigiano Reggiano. Sprinkle with a bit of freshly chopped parsley, preferable Italian flat leaf. Serve immediately with additional freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano! Variation ONE -- Risotto con Funghi (foon-ghi). Italian rice with mushrooms The basics plus: Dried porcini mushrooms soaked in a bowl of warm water for 4 hours (I use just over half of the 1/2 oz. package), then chop half of them finely and half coarsely reserving the mushroom broth. Strain the mushroom broth through cheesecloth and reserve– heat before using. Dried mushrooms can be sandy and this sand will fall to the bottom of the bowl where you soaked—try to leave the sand in the bottom of the bowl when you strain the mushroom broth. TIP No, you can't use the bland fresh mushrooms they sell in the USA and fresh porcini are not available. TIP OK, if you forget you can put them in very hot water (microwave?) for 30 minutes but I think the flavors are better and there is less chance of sandy risotto if you soak it longer. I like to do it for at least 6 hours. This makes an excellent mushroom broth that adds a lot of flavor to the dish. Salt to taste (don't forget when you add the cheese at the end it also adds salt). Continuing from the beginning above Once the wine has evaporated and you are drinking the other glass... Add the hot mushroom broth and the chopped mushrooms. Once the broth is absorbed by the rice began adding the HOT stock one ladle at time. REPEAT patiently adding one ladle of hot broth at a time waiting until it is almost absorbed before adding the next ladle. TIP To make really good risotto you have to stand there and stir it slowly but continuously. I really mean it! Everything must be prepared and organized in advance. From here to the finish is simple - keep stirring and keep adding the hot both as it cooks into the rice and keep drinking the wine in your glass. The process now takes about 18 minutes from the time you add the first ladle of broth to the rice. Start tasting the rice after 15 minutes to check the cooking progress. Each grain should retain just a bite—not a crunch. When almost finished return to the “Finishing broth” section above Variation TWO -- Risotto Milanese Italian rice with saffron The basics plus: saffron powder (at least 125 mg.) mixed with one cup of the hot broth for 5 minutes or saffron threads (at least 300 mg.) mixed with a cup of the hot broth and soaked for at least 30 minutes (60 is better). TIP Saffron threads are best and are prettiest in the finished dish. Continuing from the beginning above Once the wine has evaporated and you are drinking the other glass. Once the broth is absorbed by the rice began adding the HOT broth one ladle at time. After you have added one ladle of broth add either the saffron powder mixed with a ladle of hot broth or the saffron thread that have been soaking in a cup of the hot broth for at least 30 minutes. REPEAT patiently adding one ladle of hot broth at a time waiting until it is almost absorbed before adding the next ladle. TIP To make really good risotto you have to stand there and stir it slowly but continuously. I really mean it! Everything must be prepared and organized in advance. Salt to taste. From here to the finish is simple - keep stirring, add keep adding the hot both as it cooks into the rice and drink the wine in your glass. Start tasting the rice after 15 minutes to check the cooking progress. Each grain should retain just a bite—not a crunch. The process takes about 20 minutes from the time you add the first ladle of broth to the rice. When almost finished return to the “Finishing broth” section above/ Decadent Risotto Milanese Luxury. Risotto Milanese is a luxurious dish. However, if you want to indulge yourself even more there is another twist you can add. Those of you who love Osso Buco know that the midollo, the rich marrow in the veal shanks is the delicacy everyone is waiting to savor. Here is a way to add that delicacy and richness right into a risotto destined to be served as a main course. When serving the Risotto Milanese along with the Osso Buco I find this luxury version too much of a good thing, but when the risotto is the main dish of the evening this is the ticket. This is the perfect dish to show off that twenty year old bottle of Barolo you have been waiting for an excuse to drink. Make the broth as described on page three except replace the chuck roast with 5 or 6 meaty beef shanks and make the broth as described. When the broth is done carefully remove the shank bones without losing the marrow. Remove and keep the marrow. Finish the broth and the meat from the shanks as in the basic broth recipe. After you have finished chopping the onions, chop the reserved marrow and add the onions and marrow to the butter in the pan to sauté before you add the wine and the rice. Then follow the basic Risotto Milanese recipe. The marrow gives the risotto a wonderful richness and complexity. Luxury. Luxurious Risotto Milanese Serving Risotto Primo or secondo? Risotto can fill both roles with style. Following the traditional Italian manner of eating; first would come the antipasti (appetizers), followed by the primo (the first course usually a starch like pasta or risotto), which would be followed by the secondo (main course usually fish or meat). However we find risotto such a satisfying dish we often serve it as the main course. If you are having a formal Italian meal and going through all the courses, any of the these risotti as a first course will help make your dinner an elegant occasion. Because these are relatively rich risotto recipes, I would recommend a secondo featuring meat as fish may seem a little delicate after either of these risotti. Also if you follow with a meat course you can easily continue with the wine you matched with the risotto. In Milano, they often serve Risotto Milanese in a way that breaks the normal rules of primo and secondo. Instead of a first course the risotto becomes side dish (more equal partner) to Osso Buco, the famous braised veal shank dish of Lombardia. Of course this risotto is also served as a traditional first course both in restaurants and at home. Serving risotto as a main course is also a great opportunity to present a more elaborate cheese course to top off the meal. The textures and flavors of the cheeses are a great counterpoint to the risotto. Primo or secondo? It’s your choice and you can’t lose. Risotto Milanese con Osso Bucco Risotto and Wine This is the moment. Go down to the wine cellar and get that special bottle of red wine you’ve been saving for just that right dish. Now is that moment. Risotto Milanese and Risotto con Funghi are the perfect dishes to show off your finest mature red wines. These risotti are elegant dishes with complex, but not strong flavors that make them the perfect match with the refined flavors of mature wines. Classic accompaniments would be Barolo and Barbaresco and I could not agree more. I would caution against pairing the ultra-modern style of these wines with these dishes as overt oaky flavors tend to bury the subtle flavors of the risotto. Great Bordeaux and Burgundy wines will also find themselves quite at home beside these recipes. However, I like to stay with the wines of Piemonte with these two recipes. If you happen to be fresh out of mature Piemontese wines don’t worry. There are many current choices available to enhance your meal. Barbaresco is somewhat more restrained than Barolo and is a good choice for earlier drinking. Don’t forget Nebbiolo d’Alba as it is produced from the same grape that makes Barolo and Barbaresco and drinks well much earlier. Even ready to drink younger are Dolcetto d’Alba wines. Richer Dolcetto styles match very well with Risotto con Funghi. In general I find many Barbera wines to be too acidic or too oaky to show their best with these dishes. California wines I find generally too fruity to match well with risotto, but more elegant wines like the Pinot Noir produced by Iron Horse go very well with both recipes. Washington State Merlot and Oregon Pinot Noir can also work very well. Piemonte has been blessed by a string of good vintages since 1995 and it is hard to find a wine available that is not from an outstanding vintage. The 1997 vintage looks to be the earliest maturing of this string. For current drinking you do not need to go after the top single vineyard wines from these and the many other good producers. The basic bottlings are more ready to drink today than the big guns. For best results with these wines decant them at least two hours before serving. Your time will be well rewarded. Some suggested wines in current release: - Marcarini Barolo La Serra - Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco - Ca’ Rome Barbaresco - Produttori del Barbaresco, Barbaresco - Ceretto Barbaresco Asij - Poderi Colla Barbaresco Ingredient Sources A.G. Ferrari—Parmigiano Reggiano, Arborio, Carnaroli, Vialone Nano including the rice produced by Gabriele Ferron. Vanilla/Saffron Imports—thread and powdered saffron Earthly Delights—dried porcini mushrooms (AA grade), Arborio, Carnaroli Esperya—Carnaroli and Vialone Nano, Parmigiano Reggiano. The shopping List - Carrots - Celery - Onions - not red - 4 to 6 lbs. chuck roast or 5 or 6 beef shanks - Sea salt - 2 cups risotto rice - Cheese cloth - Dry white wine - European style unsalted butter - Parmigiano Reggiano - Saffron—300 mg. threads or 125 mg. power or 1/2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms Copyright 2003 Craig O. Camp. All rights reserved. Please post your questions here Q&A

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Please post your questions here -->> Q&A Hot and Spicy Author: Mark Stevens (=Mark) Welcome! During the past 25 years there has been an unprecedented change in eating habits around the world. Improved transportation systems have allowed for the marketing of a much more diverse selection of foods than at any other time in history. One specific change in national tastes is the sweeping tide of hot and spicy food that is moving across the US and parts of Europe. Fiery cuisine is taking on a life of it’s own, with specialty stores and restaurants devoted to the burn. There is even an Internet mailing list of ChileHeads with close to a thousand subscribers worldwide who use it to discuss every aspect of this spicy food subculture, centered on the hot chile pepper they adoringly refer to as “El Grande!” Interest in hot & spicy cuisine is due in part to the availability of them resulting from a world wide distribution system, as well as the incorporation of large numbers of immigrants from tropical climates, where a love of spicy foods seems to have always been a culinary tradition. Large communities of people migrating from the Caribbean, Central America and tropical areas of the Pacific Rim such as India, Thailand and Malaysia have contributed to the popularity of their fiery foods. A Long Strange Trip The chile pepper itself is a New World vegetable. Like corn, tomatoes and potatoes, they were unknown outside the Americas prior to Columbus’ discovery of the new world. The early voyages to the Americas started as a means of locating a western route for the spice trade and it is felt that this is why chiles were mistakenly named for the pungent fruit of the tropical vine that produces black pepper. Interestingly, even though chiles had their origin in the Americas, after being introduced to the old world around 1500, there would pass centuries before they would become truly popular in the Americas outside of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean basin. Even in Europe, hot chiles would only become somewhat popular in Hungary and around the Mediterranean basin. Such would not be the case in Southeast Asia. From India to Korea the pungent powers of chile peppers was embraced within 10 years of being introduced to the old world. Can you imagine Malaysian, Thai or Chinese cuisine prior to the introduction of chiles around 1500 AD? Ironically, it would be the immigrants from these countries 400 years later that would rekindle interest in hot, spicy cuisine in the US and Europe. Many varieties of peppers, also known as members of the capsicum species, are not hot, or pungent. Most bell peppers grown in the US have little or no pungency. These varieties are used fresh, or often used to color other foods. The wilder varieties, on the other hand, range from mildly to extremely pungent. This is entirely due to the substance capsaicin, or, actually, a group of similar substances called capsaicinoids. These chemicals are found mostly in the ribs of the peppers, and especially the placenta, which are the light colored membranes that attach the seeds to the inside of the pepper pod. Pure capsaicin is a whitish powder, soluble in alcohol but insoluble in cold water, which is why drinking water to help alleviate the burning won't work. Drinking whole milk or other dairy products will help alleviate the burn, as will bread or other starchy fare. Several people on the ChileHeads mailing list swear by bananas as the ultimate rescue! A popular misperception is that those who indulge in lots of hot, spicy chile peppers can somehow ruin their sense of taste; to somehow “burn out” their tastebuds. Nothing could be further from the truth. Chileheads are able to detect many more flavors than their mild mannered brethren, whose senses have been overwhelmed by heat. Capsaicin itself does not interact in any way with the tastebuds, instead these chemicals stimulate the pain receptors that cause the sensation of pain, and in particular, heat. Capsaicin, like any other substance that affects the nervous system can be made to develop a tolerance, requiring larger and larger quantities to elicit the same effect. The fact that capsaicin does not interact with taste buds can be demonstrated simply by recalling instances where after chopping peppers you have neglected to wash your hands and inadvertently touch the eyes or other “sensitive” parts of the body. I’ll guarantee those heat receptors will be signaling “Hot! Hot! Hot!!!” to your brain. I’ll further advise you to consider whether those particular body parts happen to be sporting taste buds… As for whether chile aficionados can taste more or less than those more moderate folks, consider the cuisines that feature lots of hot and spicy dishes such as Thai, Indian and some parts of China. Many of these foods besides having staggeringly large quantities of hot chile peppers, also have many layers of flavors from various spices, herbs and condiments. To those who are not used to even moderate heat, these secondary nuances of flavor are overwhelmed by the sheer fiery blast. To those who have cultivated a taste for hot, spicy foods, all of these flavors can be detected and appreciated. After developing a resistance to capsaicin, it takes much more of it to cause further stimulation of the heat receptors. People who enjoy hot peppers have not learned to endure the pain, the truth is they don’t feel it as much. They can even appreciate the different flavors of different peppers such as the citrus-like flavor of habaneros or the smoky rich flavors of a smoke dried jalapeno, or Chipotle chile. What’s with these Fools? Why do people insist on subjecting themselves to this pain? There have been many theories, one being that since the indigenous cuisines that make most use of chile peppers are located in tropical parts of the world, that chile induced sweating aids in keeping the body cool. Others would claim that the reason that chiles are found in the tropics can be explained by the fact that these are the areas that provide the best growing conditions for chiles. Some researchers have theorized that the pain induced by capsaicin can stimulate the brain to release endorphins, the bodies natural pain killer. It is thought that the feelings of euphoria, similar to that of runners who experience what is referred to as “runners High” are responsible for the Chileheads yearn for the burn. Chiles are used in a wide variety of ways. They can be chopped and used raw in salsas and salads, or used along with citrus juices to marinade seafood in a dish called ceviche. They can also be cooked into a large number of Southwestern, Asian, Caribbean, African and Indonesian dishes. Chiles are also often dried and/or smoked. A smoked Jalapeno is called a Chipotle, and adds a pungent smokey heat to many soups and stews. Chiles 101 The capsaicinoids are unique compared to other "spicy" substances such as mustard oil (zingerone and allyl isothiocyanate), black pepper (piperine) and ginger (gingerol) in that capsaicin causes a long-lasting selective desensitization to the irritant pain by repeated doses of a low concentration or a single high concentration dose. This effect has been taken to its logical conclusion in that many pain killing salves and creams now use capsaicin as their active ingredient. This is also manifests in 'Chile-heads' as an increasing ability to eat hotter chile peppers and foods. Another effect of capsaicin is that although it fools the nervous system into believing that it is being burned, that no actual physical damage occurs Back in the early 1900s, a chemist named Wilbur Scoville, developed a method to measure the heat level of chile peppers. it's called the Scoville Organoleptic Test, and is a dilution-taste procedure. In the original test, Scoville blended pure ground chiles with a sugar-water solution and a panel of testers then sipped the concoctions, in increasingly diluted concentrations, until they reached the point at which the liquid no longer burned the mouth. A number was then assigned to each chile based on how much it needed to be diluted before you could taste no heat. The Scoville heat scale is measured in multiples of 100 units, with the lowly bell pepper rated zero, to the scorching, fruity tasting Habanero which rates at 300,000 Scoville units. One variety of Habanero, the Red Savina, has been tested at over 500,000 units, and has been listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the worlds hottest chile! These days the Scoville method of tasting diluted chiles has been replaced by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). This has allowed a more precise measurement of the actual amount of capsaicinoids in a sample of chiles. The resulting measurement is usually related back to the Scoville scale for comparison. 0-100 Scoville Units - most Bell/Sweet pepper varieties. 500-1000 Scoville Units - New Mexican peppers. 1,000-1,500 Scoville Units - Espanola peppers. 1,000-2,000 Scoville Units - Ancho & Pasilla peppers. 1,000-2,500 Scoville Units - Cascabel & Cherry peppers. 2,500-5,000 Scoville Units - Jalapeno & Mirasol peppers. 5,000-15,000 Scoville Units - Serrano peppers. 15,000-30,000 Scoville Units - de Arbol peppers. 30,000-50,000 Scoville Units - Cayenne & Tabasco peppers. 50,000-100,000 Scoville Units - Chiltepin peppers 100,000-350,000 Scoville Units - Scotch Bonnet & Thai peppers. 200,000 to 300,000 Scoville Units - Habanero peppers. Around 16,000,000 Scoville Units is Pure Capsaicin. Marketing the Burn One of the first commercial condiments to be used to add a little fire to ones life was Tabasco cayenne pepper sauce. Originated in southern Louisiana just after the civil war, it was used on raw oysters, scrambled eggs and gumbo. Until the early 90s this and a few other cayenne type sauces were the only game in town. The hot sauce industry is now approaching $200 million a year in business. Now there are over 1000 different varieties of hotsauce sold, some milder than Tabasco, many scorchingly hotter! The Tabasco Company itself now markets several varieties of sauces, one flaming version made with Habanero peppers, considered by many fiery foods enthusiasts to be the hottest chile on earth. Another product that has made deep inroads into popular culinary circles in the US is salsa, which surpassed the previous favorite condiment, catsup, in the early 90s. Generally a tomato based product with chiles, onions and cilantro, there are hundreds of varieties offered with diverse ingredients such as mangos, papaya, Vidalia onions, jicama, corn, tomatillos and olives. Once reserved as a dip for tortilla chips, salsas are now served as an accompaniment to a variety of meats and fish Yeah, They’re Nuts… ChileHeads don’t merely like the bite of these pungent pods; they yearn for it. The chile pepper adds a certain sensory element to a dish, however elaborate or delicate it might be. The ChileHead is addicted. They start collecting different concoctions including hot sauces, salsas, fresh or dried chiles and ground chile powders. In what some might consider obsessive, the pepper eater may begin to turn his or her nose up at foods that cannot be enhanced by the addition of some sort of spicy condiment. That a third of the world’s population has become so enamored of a fruit that bites back with such a vengance is remarkable. They will seek out others of their faith and trade chiles, sauces and stories. When they have stopped sweating and fanning their mouths they will reach for another taste of El Grande… Recipes Piquant Salmon Rolls 8 oz. cream cheese 1/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped 1/4 cup green onion, chopped 1/2 tsp ground coriander 1/2 tsp cayenne (or more, to taste. For Chilehead events I’ve used dried habanero powder) 1 stalk celery chopped 2 tsp lemon juice 8 oz. (3/4" by 2") thin slices smoked salmon thinly sliced cucumber freshly ground pepper your favorite crackers (I use wheatsworth) fresh dill sprigs hot sauce 1. In a bowl, soften cream cheese and stir in chives, green onion walnuts and celery. 2. Add lemon juice and spices and mix well. 3. Spread mixture on salmon slices and season with pepper, roll up to form neat rolls 4. Place a cucumber slice on each cracker and place a sprig of dill and a salmon roll on each cucumber. 5. Drizzle with remaining lemon juice and garnish with chives if desired. 6. To add some more heat you can add a couple drops of habanero sauce to the top of the cucumber during assembly. The sauce I use has cloves and honey which seem to compliment the flavor of the salmon. You might want to play around with the seasonings. Salmon rolls may be prepared several hours in advance, and assembled just before serving to prevent the cracker from getting soggy. Bun Bo Hue (Vietnamese Hot and Spicy Soup) By Lyn Belisle of the FoodWine mailing list 4-6 pork feet 1-1 1/2 pounds roast beef 1/2 tsp. meat tenderizer 1-3 stems lemongrass, cut into 3" pieces 1 tablespoon chili powder 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 teaspoon chopped dry onion 1 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon shrimp paste 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon MSG 1 package rice vermicelli noodles, cooked and drained 1. Boil the pork feet 10 minutes, then drain. 2. Cut the beef into bite size cubes, boil for 10 minutes, then drain. 3. In a deep saucepan half filled with water, add pork feet and meat tenderizer. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes. Add the beef cubes and continue to cook over medium heat. 4. In the meantime put oil in a small skillet, heat until very hot, remove from burner and immediately throw in the dried onion and the chili powder. Stir well and pour into soup. 5. Add the shrimp paste and seasonings to taste. Let soup simmer for 30-45 minutes until pig's feet are well cooked. 6. Soup is ready to serve. Fill bowls half full of rice noodles and ladle the soup over them. Serve with chopped green onion, cilantro, sliced peppers, and lime. Serves 4-6 Chinese Hot & Sour Soup 6 cups chicken stock 1/4 lb julienned lean pork or chicken 2 tbsp garlic & red chile paste 2 tbsp soy sauce 3/4 tsp ground white pepper 4 eggs, beaten 5 tbsp cornstarch 1 cup sliced shittake mushrooms 1 can peeled straw mushrooms 1 can sliced bamboo shoots 1 can sliced water chestnuts 1 can baby corn ears 1 cake soft tofu, sliced into 1/4 inch cubes 1/4 cup white vinegar 1 tsp sesame oil 1/4 cup dried black fungus (cloud ears), soaked in water for one hour, drained and sliced. finely chopped scallions for garnish 1. Bring stock to a simmer, add soy, pork, mushrooms & chile paste, simmer for 10 minutes. 2. Add pepper, vinegar, bamboo, baby corn, water chestnuts, fungus and tofu, simmer 10 min 3. Mix cornstarch with 5 tbsp water and add. bring back to a simmer and pour the eggs in a very thin stream over the surface. Let stand for 10 seconds before gently stirring in the sesame oil. Serve with a garnish of chopped scallions. The pepper, vinegar and chile paste can be varied to taste. You're a chile-head, you know what to do! Chipotle Chicken & Veggie Soup Got the idea for this after sampling a couple bowls of a regional style soup during a trip to the Firey Foods Festival in New Mexico, just substituted Chipotles for the green chiles. 1 6 lb. roasting chicken 1 32 oz can chicken stock 1 cup coarsley chopped celery (Save all veggie trimmings for stock) 1 cup diced red bell pepper 1 cup sliced carrots 2 medium onions coarsely chopped 1 cup corn kernels 1 16 oz can diced tomato 1 14 oz. can chipotles in adobo sauce 1/2 tsp thyme cracked black pepper to taste salt to taste (I use heavy chinese soy sauce) 1. Roast chicken in oven till done, cool overnight. 2. Debone chicken and save all the bones & scraps. Cut meat into bite size bits removing fat & gristle. Refrigerate. 3. In a large stock pot add bones and carcass as well as veggie peelings, carrot butts and onion skins etc and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 to 3 hours, skimming and stirring occasionally. You could use all canned stock and one of those rotisserie chickens from the store, but my life is dull and I got nothin' better to do... 4. Strain through a colander and add stock back to pot. Add celery, bell pepper, corn, onions and carrots as well as the canned stock and bring to a simmer. Cook until veggies begin to turn tender. Add chicken and canned tomato. 5. While soup is coming back to a simmer, take about a cup of it and put in a food processor with the chipotles & adobo. Whirr it up for about 30 seconds or untill the peppers are well pureed. Add salt, pepper and thyme to the soup, then start adding the chipotle puree about a quarter cup at a time, stirring and tasting for the desired pungency. Using all of it makes for a chileheads delite, but may be too much for some gringos to handle! This makes a big old pot full, which would probably serve 10 or 15 people. Good for freezing and serving at a later time. Please post your questions here -->> Q&A

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Post your questions here -->> Q&A Cream Sauces - Béchamel and Hollandaise Author: Jack Lang (jackal10) Béchamel Marquis Louis de Bechameil (1603–1703), was a 17th century financier who held the honorary post of chief steward of King Louis XIV's (1643-1715) household. He is reputed to have invented Béchamel Sauce when trying to come up with a way of eating dried cod. The Duke of Escars, is reputed to have said: "That fellow Béchameil has all the luck! I was serving breast of chicken á la crème more than 20 years before he was born, but I have never had the chance of giving my name to even the most modest sauce." There are, however, no historical records to verify that Marquis Béchameil was either a gourmet, a cook, or the inventor of Bechamel Sauce The more likely origin is Chef Francois Pierre de La Varenne (1615-1678). He was a court chef during King Louis XIV's reign, during the same time that Bechameil was there. La Varenne wrote "Le Cuisinier Francois," which included "Béchamel Sauce." He may have dedicated it to Béchameil as a compliment However others dispute the origin, variously crediting it to the 14th century Italian chefs of Catherine de Medici, or to Duke Philippe De Mornay (1549-1623). Duke DeMornay is also credited with being the creator of Mornay Sauce., Sauce Chasseur, Sauce Lyonnaise, and Sauce Porto. Béchamel is a white cream- or milk-based sauce, thickened with a starch. It is the basic white sauce of classical cuisine, and one of the “mother” sauces. It is the white equivalent of veloute (covered in the brown sauces section), being made with milk rather than stock. For 1 pint/600ml milk, you need 4oz/100g white roux which we made in the brown sauces lesson. Escoffier advises flavourings of half an onion and thyme, together with salt (a good pinch) and pepper. Strictly, a Béchamel sauce always has these flavourings. Without them you get an English white sauce. Some prefer the flavour components of an onion stuck with cloves, others add a bay leaf. If you don't have a ready made roux available, take 2oz/50g of unsalted butter and 2 oz/50g of flour and put them in a saucepan. This recipe is scaled for ordinary white (wheat) flour as the source of starch. There is some debate as to which white flour is best for béchamel. Strong bread flour is advised by some, as it has greater thickening powers, but for the non-commercial cook the small differences are undetectable, Food manufacturers use starches from a number of sources (corn, potato, tapioca etc) that have differing proportions of amylose (straight chain) to amyl pectin (branched chain) starches to achieve different mouth feels. Other properties of starches are important to food manufacturers including the ability to freeze the finished sauce without fear of it separating. Conventional béchamel does not freeze well, but tends to thin and separate if frozen. Even Escoffier remarked …starch being the only one from the different constituents of flour which really affects the coherence of sauces, there would be a considerable advantage in preparing roux from a pure form of it, or from substances with kindred properties such as fecula [potato starch], arrowroot etc. It is only habit that causes flour to be used as the cohering element of roux, and indeed, the hour is not far distant when the advantages of the changes I propose will be better understood – changes which have already been recommended by Favre in his dictionary. (Joseph Favre founded The Academie Culinaire de France in 1883. He was the author of “The Universal Dictionary of Cooking and Food Hygiene”) Stir over moderate heat until the flour is well coated with the melted butter, and you can’t see any flecks of flour. You are trying to get each and every grain of flour coated in the hot butter without cooking it so long that it browns. Infuse the flavouring (if used) in the milk and heat until just below boiling: There is much debate as to whether you should add the cold roux to the hot milk, or the cold milk to the hot roux, or have both hot. Traditionally you add the cold roux to the strained hot milk, but I find it often most convenient if both are hot , This is because the milk is hot from being infused, and the roux is hot from just being made. It is important to add the milk all at once and this is best accomplished by it pouring through a strainer into the pan containing the roux. This way, the infused flavourings will be strained out at the same time. Stir well and return to the heat. Keep stirring. The lumps will even out. Now something magic happens. As the mixture reaches boiling point, the flour grains explode, releasing their starch into the mixture, which thickens quite suddenly. If it is not well mixed, you will get lumps. If you try and add the milk bit by bit, stirring in each time, as if you were making an emulsified sauce like hollandaise, you will get lumps. Dump it in, and stir until it is all smooth. Let it simmer very gently for a while (Escoffier advises an hour but ten minutes will be enough) to even out and to cook out the raw taste of the flour. Strain again as insurance against lumps and to ensure the smoothest possible sauce. Check the texture. If it is too stiff add a little more milk. It should be a nice sauce consistency with an almost neutral taste. To prevent a skin forming, melt a knob (1oz/25g) of butter over the top. When it is time to server the sauce, stir in the melted butter. This sauce can be reheated but does not freeze well. What can go wrong? Lumpy sauce: Roux not incorporated, Not mixed enough – add all the milk at once, not in stages; Sieve the lumps out. Tasting of raw flour, or gluey: Not cooked enough. Simmer for longer. Add more milk or cream if getting too thick. Burnt or brown flecks: Cooked too hot, especially when the milk is infused – Milk burns easily. Too thick: Dilute with cold milk. Sieve Too thin: Not cooked enough, or not enough flour. Make some more roux, and stir in the sauce. Uses and derivatives Although starch-thickened sauces have gone somewhat out of fashion, béchamel is fantastically useful and versatile. It has the great advantage that it can be heated without separating, unlike egg-based sauces such as Hollandaise. It can be served hot or cold, and can be reheated, unlike beurre blanc. This makes it convenient for restaurants or dinner parties, as the preparation can be done mostly beforehand. The starch is stable, even when boiled or grilled, and so béchamel forms the base of many fish, dairy and vegetable dishes needing a creamy sauce. Some derivative sauces: Cream Sauce Add ¼ pt (150 ml) heavy cream per pint (600 ml) of béchamel. Strain. Egg Sauce Add chopped hardboiled eggs to the béchamel. 3 eggs per pint (600 ml). Cheese Sauce Stir in 2oz/50g or more of a well-flavoured grated cheese, such as Cheddar, to a pint/500ml of the hot Béchamel. Stir until the cheese is melted and incorporated. You can add a little mustard or Worcestershire sauce as well. Use for everything from Welsh Rabbit (pour over toast or and English muffin (crumpet) and brown under the grill; (A Buck Rabbit is a Welsh Rabbit with a poached egg) to Cauliflower Cheese (cooked, drained cauliflower, and hard boiled egg halves, covered in cheese sauce and browned in the oven) and Cheesy Leeks (same as cauliflower cheese, but with cooked leeks). Cauliflower Cheese Mornay Sauce is the classical cuisine version: Make the cheese sauce with half gruyere and half parmesan Enrich with an egg yolk and spoonful of cream per pint. Great soufflé base. Good with oysters, browned under the grill. Sauce Soubise or White Onion Sauce; Add 2oz /50gof chopped onion, first softened by simmering in water or in butter without colouring to 1pt/500ml béchamel. Finish with a spoon or two of cream. Adjust seasoning – may need a little sugar. For Sauce Soubise sieve out the bits of onion. A modern way to make Sauce Soubise is to omit the Béchamel and simply make an onion puree with cream. Mustard Sauce Stir in 3 tablespoons of ??made mustard per pint/500ml. Grainy mustard is particularly good. Cardinal Add fish stock, truffle essence (oil), lobster butter, cayenne See note on butters. Lobster Sauce Anchovy essence, dice of lobster, cayenne. Add chopped truffles for Sauce Victoria. Huitres (Oyster) Add oysters the their juice. A little lemon and cayenne. Nantua Sauce Finish with 3oz/75g crayfish butter per pint/500ml and 2 Tsp small cooked prawns Try with white fish or fishcakes or fish quenelles. See note on butters. Parsley sauce Stir in 1oz/25g of chopped parsley to béchamel or cream sauce. In the English tradition this is served with gammon, or as the basis for a fish or root vegetable pie. Note on Compound Butters for grills and for completion of sauces Escoffier again: With the exception of those of the shell-fish order, the butters, whose formulae I am about to give, are not greatly used in kitchens. Never the less, in some cases, as for instance in accentuating the savour of a sauce they answer a real and useful purpose, and I therefore recommend them , since they enable one to give a flavour to the derivatives of the veloute and béchamel sauces which these could not acquire by any other means. All the butter is unsalted. These butters keep well if in a sealed container in a fridge, and freeze well. Shell fish butters (lobster, shrimp, crayfish etc) Cook 4oz/100g of Mirepoix (cubes of carrot and onion) in 4oz /100g ( ½ stick) butter. Flame with brandy, if feeling spectacular. Add shelfish remains ( the heads, shells, coral etc after extracting the meaty parts) and pound in a mortar, or process in a food processor if it is strong enough. Add the same weight of melted butter as the puree and stir. Strain off the melted butter, and filter twice through cheesecloth or fine chinois to remove any fine particles of shell. Maitre d’Hotel butter Blend together 8oz/250g/1 stick of butter, 2 Tbs chopped parsley, a little salt and pepper, a few drops lemon juice. Use this for grills. You can use other soft herbs (e.g. Tarragon, Mint, dill, chives, lemon balm, fresh ginger etc) for their respective butters Garlic (or other members of the onion family) Butter 1 head of garlic (etc) to 8 oz /250g(1 stick) butter. Peel the garlic, crush, blend with the butter. Can add 1 tsp chopped parsley and quite a lot ( ½ tsp) black pepper. Spread on a loaf of good bread sliced, reassemble the loaf, wrap in foil, warm in low oven for garlic bread ; use it to garnish grills, fish etc. Saute shrimps in it for instant garlic shrimps., Freeze it and stuff chicken breasts with it, egg and breadcrumb then deep fry for Chicken Kiev Hollandaise Hollandaise is one of the classical mother sauces, from which many others are derived. In a classical kitchen this would be a stock sauce, made by the gallon. Hollandaise is a lovely sauce on its own, mayonnaise for hot dishes. Fantastic with asparagus, or salmon, or indeed any fish. Hollandaise is essentially a hot version of mayonnaise, made with butter instead of oil. The same principle of making an emulsion applies, but it is a little easier since the butter starts as an emulsion. As with mayonnaise, you want to get the fat portion to dissolve and expand the fat globules in the egg yolk, rather than sit and pool together, making the sauce split. The other danger is that you get it too hot and cook the egg, then you end up with buttery scrambled eggs. If you can make an egg custard (such as Anglaise), then Hollandaise is easy. To start take 1 Tbs white wine vinegar (or lemon juice, or even water if preferred), some salt and pepper, and boil together until the vinegar is reduced by 1/2. This makes it less sharp. Cool slightly, and add 2tsp cold water, and an egg yolk. Have 4 oz of cold unsalted butter cut into roughly 8 cubes standing by. If all you’ve got is salty butter, use that, but don’t add the salt to the vinegar. Reduce the heat - you want to proceed over a gentle heat to prevent the egg cooking. The pan should be slightly warmer than is required for butter to melt. You are making a savoury custard at this point. Stir together vigorously over a very gentle heat until it begins to thicken. Remove from the heat immediately, or you will get scrambled egg. Add a single knob of butter and stir like crazy until it has melted and incorporated. The cold butter will cool the mixture a bit and stop the egg cooking. Do NOT add any more butter until the first knob is incorporated, and the sauce again looks shiny. Keep stirring and adding the cubes of butter one at a time until they are all incorporated. Be sure to let one merge in before adding the next. You should get a nice sauce texture, coating the back of a spoon. Check the seasoning. You can dilute it a bit if too thick, or add more butter if too thin. Sieve it at this point through a fine sieve to get rid of any overcooked bits of egg. If it all goes wrong and turns into a grainy mess, don’t panic. Probably it got too hot and cooked the egg, or you added too much butter at one time. To rescue it we need a new supply of emulsifier from a fresh egg yolk, and can beat in the butter strained from the split from the previous attempt, but this time do it more slowly, and over gentler heat – use a double boiler or put it in a basin over a pan of boiling water if you are in doubt. The procedure is the following: a) Sieve the mess gently, while still warm and the butter is still melted to separate out the solid bits. Those are the cooked bits of egg. Thro them or eat them on toast later, as cooks perks, maybe with a little smoked salmon. b) Take a clean basin and put it over a pan of boiling water, or very gentle heat. Add a new raw egg yolk, and a tsp of vinegar. A little mustard can help as well. Stir them together until smooth. Add the buttery liquid from the first attempt, a teaspoon at a time. Beat each teaspoonful in well, until it is fully merged, and the sauce looks shiny before adding the next. You now have Hollandaise. You can attempt to make hollandaise in a food processor, but I think it is a much more difficult technique. Melt the butter, whizz the egg and the vinegar, then pour the hot melted butter into the runnning food processor in a thin stream. It is important not to add the butter too quickly. If it seems as though it is not incorporating into the mixture, pause before adding more and make sure that it is drizzled into the processor in a thin stream. The butter should be cooled down to the point where you can just tolerate keeping your finger in it. You need the butter to be hot enough to cook the egg, but not too hot so it burns or overcooks. I personally prefer to do it on the stovetop, stirring, as you can more easily control the temperature and also produces a creamier hollandaise. Hollandaise is a mother sauce. Derived sauces include: Bernaise Tarragon Hollandaise. With the vinegar add 1 tsp chopped shallot (or the white part of spring onions if you don’t have shallots), and the cut up stalks of 2oz of tarragon. They will get strained out with the bits of egg. When the hollandaise is finished add the chopped tarragon leaves, and 1 tsp of chervil or parsley. Delicious with steak, or grilled chicken. Choron Tomato Hollandaise. Stir in 2tbs of tomato puree to the finished hollandaise. Divine Mousseline with a glass of sherry added to the finished hollandaise (reduce the sherry by half to concentrate the flavour). Foyot or Valois Bernaise with 3tbs meat glaze added to the finished hollandaise Maltaise Orange hollandaise. Traditionally made with red (blood) orange juice. Add the juice of two ranges and ½ tsp grated orange rind to the finished sauce. Try it with broccoli. Mousseline Add half the quantity of whipped cream. Noisette Stir in 2oz hazel-nut butter (butter heated in a frying pan until it goes light brown) when the hollandaise is finished. Serve with salmon, or boiled fish. Paloise Mint Hollandaise. Follow Bernaise but substitute mint for the tarragon. Perfect with lamb, and makes boiled potatoes a luxury. Quenelles make elegant dishes on their own. We made Chicken Quenelle in the Consomme section. Here they are shown with sauce Mousseline. Serve warm, as a starter or light lunch. et voila, Quenelle de volaille, Sauce Mousseline. Post your questions here -->> Q&A

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The eGCI Team would like to thank David for an amazing class. He is truly an amazing instructor and we thank him for his time and commitment to this class. This class is officially over -- which means that this concludes the formal Q&A for this course. You may continue the discussion, but please realize that the instructor will no longer, formally, be available to answer questions.

Please post your questions here -->> Q&A Cooking for One By: Ya-Roo Yang (Bond Girl) General Comments Cooking for one can be the most rewarding and challenging of tasks. Most recipes make around four to eight servings and quite often they cannot be cut down. Solo cooks also find that a lot of food goes to waste even when they purchase the minimal quantities needed for a recipe. And, if you live in New York City, you can probably factor in the challenge of a pint size kitchen, which means limited storage space and mobility. That said, there are lots of advantages to cooking for one. The first and foremost is money. During my early years as a grad student, cooking for one was a survival skill. I learned to exercise my innate creativity on my repertoire of rice and cabbage recipes. These days, even though my diet has expanded to include other food groups or at least other vegetable groups, there’s still no arguing on the money you can save by cooking at home. The other reason for cooking for oneself, and perhaps a better reason, is that sometimes when you want something done right, you just gotta do it yourself. This is true even for urbanites like me. While you can practically get anything your taste buds desire on the island of Manhattan, that “anything” may not include decent Cajun food, decent Mexican food or your grandmother’s famous chicken stew that you happened to have the recipe for. So, if you want a bowl of gumbo, you may just have to make it yourself. Bio I started to cook for myself when I was a young starving reporter. Later as an extension of my adult education, I trapeze through several cooking schools in Europe, but couldn’t remember learning anything useful. Now I am a banker living in New York City, and believe cooking for myself as one of the greatest pleasures in life. Introduction So, you want to cook for yourself. Well, the good news is that anyone who can follow a recipe can cook reasonably well. If you screw up, there is no one there to judge you on your culinary skills but you. Additionally, when you are cooking for yourself, you can afford to buy more expensive ingredients. Early this spring, when I was experimenting with sea beans ($20/lb) and raw tuna, I was able to get away with spending less than $1 for all the sea beans I needed and maybe $2-$3 for small pieces of Sushi grade Tuna, since there is only so much one person can eat. The bad news is that cooking for yourself is a lot harder than cooking for you and five of your friends. Just open up an issue of Gourmet or Bon Appetit, and you will find that most recipes serve four to eight people, and cutting down a recipe seems to require an advance degree in Mathematics. What do you do if a recipe that serves four calls for one egg? How do you beat that quarter eggwhite into stiff peaks so you can enjoy that goat cheese soufflé on top of your frisee salad? Go to a supermarket, and you will find that most foods are packaged for a family. You may buy the package of four lamb chops for a dinner, but what do you do with the other three? This is a simple course that will help you navigate issues like living with a small kitchen, purchasing and planning for minimal wastage, storing excess food, scaling recipes and reinventing spares and leftovers. Objective While you may not achieve the culinary stratosphere of four-star cuisines every night, you will probably learn enough to get to the mezzanine of some pretty good home cooked meals at your leisure. Strategies for Cooking for One There are basically two ways you can go about cooking for yourself. One way is to plan a week’s worth of quick, efficient dinner menus and shop accordingly. This is great, if you know what you like, and don’t often change your mind, or if you live in an area or work in a job where a trip to the supermarket is a special effort. The other way is to shop more spontaneously, and prepare for a dish you really want to try, or experiment with whatever catches your eye at the market, and cook your way around it. This is usually how I like to shop, but it will only work if you have a well-stocked pantry, and are willing to make a few additional trips to the supermarket for spur-of-the-moment inspirations. Here is how this strategy may work: On Saturday, I get an incredible craving for a cioppino, which requires: - 1 Onion, - 1 clove of garlic, - a stalk of leek - 1/2 a large chopped green pepper or 1 very small chopped green peppers - 1 or 2 potatoes - 1 tbs of tomato paste - 1 large tomato - 1 stalk of carrot - Some orange rind - Clam Juice (or fish stock) - A bouquet garni - A pinch of saffron - Assorted fish and shellfish. While I can get away with buying one of everything and maybe about 1/4 lb of shrimps, squid, scallops, and about 1/2 dozen clams, I decide to get a quarter pound each of squid and scallops and half a pound of shrimp, and a dozen clams. And, anyone who’s visited the supermarket knows that the leeks are three stalks to a bunch and the carrots came in a large bunch. On Sunday, I may make a vichyssoise soup to use up the leek and the potatoes since this keeps in the freezer. I may make a big batch of it and keep it in the freezer (as a side note, you don’t want to heat up anything that contains cream, so if you are making a creamy soup, make everything only up to the point that you would add the cream, and finish it with the cream when you are re-heating it). Monday dinner is Pasta alle Vongole to use up the extra clams. Tuesday night, I’ve had enough of fish and decide to get some duck. A quick poached duck and citrus-spiced carrots is easily assembled. On Wednesday, there are still some baby carrots left and the green pepper is starting to look watery, so I get some some string beans and Asian vegetables and throw the whole thing into a Thai curry. On Thursday, I discover the shrimp in the back of my freezer, and decide to pan sear it with some chili powder and toss that with a few orange slices on a bed of greens. Friday, the remaining duck gets roasted, and I can pair it with the rest of the Asian vegetables I have from Wednesday night. Or, may be I’ve earned the right to eat out? If you are short on time, a little bit of planning helps. Certain foods can be pre-cooked to save time. A long complicated recipe may be prepared over several days and assembled when you want it, components of which can be used in other foods. Consider, for example, a recent recipe that appeared in Food Arts: Grouper Huchinago with arroz verde, cilantro sauce and tomatillo salsa. The recipe is split into four parts: It includes the grouper, which is marinated for four hours, tomatillo salsa, the chimichurri sauce and green rice. I may make the green rice and chimichurri sauce one day, and the grouper and tomatillo on the day I want to assemble them. Extra green rice is then recycled to make a vegetable burrito a few days later and the remaining salsa is then kept in a jar to use on other fish or meat. One thing I learned from my restaurant friends is that you can save a lot of time and agony by pre-cooking certain things. For myself, I usually spend my Sunday afternoon making sauces and side dishes that I can use during the middle of the week. What I make depends on what’s in season. On a typical summer Sunday I might make the following: - Mashed potatoes - Roasted baby carrots - Minted sugar snap peas - Blanched spinach. None of them takes much time, but they make great sides to a piece of roasted chicken or pan-seared fish. Or you can toss them on a salad. They keep pretty well in the fridge. You can flavor the mashed potatoes by stirring in some basil or parsley puree, and the spinach can be heated with some garlic and olive oil. If I feel like spending a bit more time in my kitchen I might even make some vegetable couscous or ratatouille and keep it in the fridge. Pre-cook food will also make living with a small kitchen easier; as you will have less going on at once and can assemble dishes at your leisure. Another timesaving tip is to use fresh pasta. While it costs a little more, it cooks in two minutes and a typical box, which sells for $3.00, can be divided into four servings. I don’t recommend planning more than a week in advance as, unless you have a cryo-pack or tons of freezer space, food loses its flavor when it sits in your refrigerator for too long and you are more likely to encounter spoilage. Whatever you decide to do, try to think about a series of dishes that share ingredients. For example, if you have lamb stew on Sunday night, you might want to have pasta with spicy tomato sauce on Monday night, which will use the extra tomatoes and onions you bought for the lamb stew, and pan seared skate with glazed carrots on Tuesday night, to use the spare carrots you have on hand... Well, you get the idea. Scaling the Recipes As most recipes are designed to serve an even number of people, scaling down a recipe is basically an exercise in arithmetic. Typically if the recipe is for a whole fish or a whole chicken, I will substitute with either a filet or a cutlet of proportional weight. For example, if a three-pound chicken serves four people, I might use a 3/4 to 1/2 pound piece of chicken cutlet. If the recipe calls for an egg and you only need 1/2 or 1/4 of it, take one egg, beat it and measure out the proper amount. Unless, you have the palate of Alain Ducasse, a reasonable approximation in cooking usually won’t yield disastrous results -- as long as what you are making does not require transforming anything into airy freestanding custard form. Anything that changes liquid into airy freestanding custard forms like a freestanding puddings or soufflés usually requires precision in the proportion of dry and solids. So, unless you are obsessively compulsive about measurements, leave those things to when you have company. The same goes for most desserts. With the exception of pies, tarts and cookies, most things that require baking in the oven – or, worse, baking in a water bath -- cannot be scaled down. This is not to say you can’t add desserts to the mix. You can scale down desserts like Panna Cotta, Puddings that sits in cups or glasses, and Parfaits to two servings, if not a single serving. Most pies and tarts can be scaled down to two serving portions and baked into single- serving tartlet pans. If you absolutely must have a certain cake, make the full portion and bake it into individual cake forms and freeze what you don’t eat immediately. Cakes usually keep in an airtight container for up to one month. As for soufflés, you can spoon the prepared the soufflé batters in individual ramekins and freeze them. The trick here is to make sure your oven temperature is up to par before you put the soufflé in to bake. Here is how an 8-serving tart recipe can be scaled down to serve two: Santa Rosa Plum Galette from an NY Times article by Melissa Clark, adapted from Aqua at the Bellagio Original Recipe (serves 8)..................Scaled Down Recipe (serves 2) Crust:.................................................Crust: 1 cup + 1 Tbs cake flour.....................1/4 cup + 1/2 tsp cake flour 3/8 cup + 2 Tbs all purpose flour........1/8 cup all purpose flour 1 tsp sugar.........................................1/4 tsp sugar 1/4 tsp salt.........................................Small pinch of salt 1 cup unsalted butter.........................1/4 cup unsalted butter 8 oz cream cheese (1 pkg).................2 oz cream cheese (1/4 pkg) Filling:.................................................Filling: 1 1/4 cup blanched sliced almonds.....1/4 cup blanched sliced almonds 1/2 cup + 1 Tbs sugar.........................1/8 cup + a pinch of sugar 1/2 cup butter.....................................2 Tbs butter 3 large eggs........................................1 extra egg 1/4 cup flour........................................1/8 cup flour 1 tsp vanilla extract.............................1/2 tsp vanilla extract Pinch of salt.........................................Pinch of salt 10 ripe Santa Rosa plums....................2-3 ripe Santa Rosa plums depending on size Raw sugar for sprinkling......................Raw sugar for sprinkling The proportions are not exact, but the differences in results are minimal. Storage The solo cook cannot avoid storing ingredients. Also, certain foods have such short seasons that you want to preserve them. I spend most of my late summers roasting and canning tomatoes, so I can have roasted tomato sauces on my pasta all year long. The same goes for shucked corn, which stores well in double Ziploc© freezer bags, so I can have sweet corn well into the winter. Even though chefs like Norman Van Aken tout the virtues of roasted chili, I am usually too lazy to look for scotch bonnet peppers in the middle of the winter, so there are usually some frozen ones in my freezer and pickled ones in my fridge. Typically, anything that is acidic will keep its color and last longer in your fridge. So, if you want to keep food for a while it is best to stick to a citrus or vinegar marinade. When it comes to fresh food, how long your food will last typically will depend on where and how you buy your food. A quick survey at the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan yielded the following opinions and observations: - Milk in a glass bottle will typically last a week if you minimize the time that it spends outside the refrigerator. - Chicken and eggs can last up to a month in the freezer if you double-wrap them.. - Beef and other meats will last two weeks in a Ziploc© bag in the freezer. - Fish is best stored on a plate covered in a plastic wrap. It can last up to three days in a refrigerator, and up to a week in the freezer, but it may lose some flavor. - Shellfish like clams, oysters and mussels will last up to a week in the refrigerator but should not be covered. - Bacteria forms in fresh fruit juices very quickly so don’t keep fresh juices around for more than two days. - Vegetables like squash, cukes and eggplants will last three to four days when refrigerated. - Hard cheeses typically last longer if stored in an airtight Ziploc bag - Fresh herbs (and many otherwise fragile vegetables and some leafy greens) can last up to a week stored inside an airtight Ziploc-type bag made of a special porous plastic. - Soft cheese will last three to four days if you change the plastic wraps frequently. Hard cheeses typically last longer if stored in an airtight Ziploc© bag. - Fresh herbs (and many otherwise fragile vegetables and some leafy greens) can last up to a week stored inside an airtight Ziploc-type bag made of a special porous plastic. The recent issue of Cooks Illustrated has a review of all the popular storage containers, including including the VacSet line of storageware that comes with a pump that removes the air from a sealed container. This is great if you have a large fridge with plenty of storage space, which I suspect that most of us city dwellers lack. Therefore, when it comes to storage, a little bit of common sense goes a long way. Cooked food will last longer than raw food. When in doubt, put it in the freezer, and double wrap it to prevent freezer burn. If it looks spoiled, chances are it is, and tossing it out may save you a trip to the doctors and some pretty undignified conversation with the porcelain bowl. Reinventing Excess Supply or Leftovers Being from extremely frugal Taiwanese stock, I am of the belief that nothing should go to waste. As a solo cook, you will often have excess food and not know what to do with it, or you may make a lot of something, like a huge leg of lamb, and grow tired of it before you have consumed it all. The first issue is easier to deal with, as uncooked food will give you more flexibility. Here is a general rule of thumb: The longer the food stays in your fridge, the more you have to do to it to make it edible. A case in point is the Southern dish, Smothered Chicken, which came from the plantation days when slaves would get old chicken that they had to smother or cook for a long time to make it edible. My advice in reinventing old excess supply is to look for recipes from tropical places, where food spoils faster than in cooler climates. Leftover chicken cutlets may be turned into Jerk Chicken. Fish and shrimp can be tossed into a seafood gumbo. Vegetables can be tossed into chili or made into a vindaloo. While this is not the place for me to give you specific recipes, here are some progressions of transformations you might find helpful in re-inventing the excess: ............................Fresh......................After a few day..........After a week Fish/shellfish.......Tartar or Tiradito.....Pan seared or...........If frozen, canned or ...........................................................roasted.....................smoked or make fish ............................................................................................stew Poultry................Poached or pan......Baked, barbecued......Smothered in sauce ...........................seared....................or spice-rubbed..........or stews. Meat...................Pan fried.................Roasted, marinated....Ground into patties, .............................................................................................soups and stews Vegetables.........Eaten raw or...........Stir-fried, braised........In a curry or ...........................steamed.....................................................marsala sauce. Of course, anything really old, with the exception of fish, belongs in a stock (see FG’s course of stock and stock making). If you cooked too much food, like a large ham hock or a huge roast, reinventing leftovers becomes a totally different issue. Firm fleshed fish or shellfish can usually be ground or picked apart to make Bacalao, Quenelles, or wrapped into a dumpling. You can make sandwiches or salad from meats like venison or beef. Michelle Bernstein of Azul in Miami once published a wonderful recipe that puts pieces of oven roasted beef on grilled bread with avocado and corn salsa. Poultry are best when thrown into your udon noodles or tossed with olive oil and pasta or wrapped in wonton wrappers and deep fried. The key here is to look for recipes that require you to pre-cook the food. And, you can always make stews, but that would be boring. Small kitchen My current kitchen measures 7 feet by 7 feet, which many New Yorkers consider a normal size. Living in a small space means that any excess clutter is out of the question, and that goes for kitchen gadgets as well. So here is my list of basic equipment, assuming that you plan to leave desserts to the power of Hagen Daaz: - A chef’s knife - A paring knife - A steel to balance the edges of your knives. - A cutting board or a set of cutting boards. - A frying pan - A stock pot - A sauce pan This is what I started with when I first moved into my own apartment. If space is no issue and you like to make desserts, you may want to add: - A food processor - An electric mixer - Some individual sized soufflé dishes, cake rings and tartlet forms. In addition you might want to have a well-stocked cupboard. My idea of a well-stocked cupboard contains: - Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Vinegar - Dried spices and herbs: thyme, bay leave, oregano, rosemary, curry powder, turmeric, cumin, paprika, cloves, cinnamon. - Sea salt - Pepper - Rice and grains - Flour - Cornmeal - Sugar In addition, you might want to keep butter and cream in your fridge. One last word, when living in a small space, shopping for one means exercise discipline. It’s a little like dieting or spending $800 on a pair of shoes, ask yourself (1) what can you do with it? (2) Do you really need it, (3) Can you store it? Therefore, just because the chicken is on sale of $0.65 a pound, it doesn’t mean that you should buy it. Spend the money instead on a bag of fleur de sel -- it will last you forever, won’t take up too much space and will work wonders for your food. When disaster strikes/When you have visitors No disasters really. You can always order take out or make extra trips to the supermarket. Follow Up Now I’ve given you the general outline, I hope I piqued your curiosity. I will be available all day on 8/28 for Q&A. Please post your questions here -->> Q&A

Post questions here regarding the course :Cooking for One

Please post your questions here -->> Q&A This is Part 2 of the lesson, continued from Part 1 here Part 2 of Evolving Cocktails Glassware Proper glassware enhances the cocktail and experience. Balancing a snifter of cognac in your hand adds to the pleasure and enjoyment as well as follows a specific function. Some stemware is designed to keep the beverage cold and should be held by its stem. The snifter’s design is to be held in the palm of your hand to warm the liquor gently to release its aroma. A narrow champagne flute is to help retain the bubbling effervescence. Here are some of the basics and descriptions: The Tumblers: Pony -- 1 ounce shot glass, usually, although I’ve seen 2 ounce sized ones too. Rocks -- Usually a 5-ounce glass, as the name implies for say, vodka on the rocks. Old Fashioned -- This tumbler is around an 8 to 9 ounce tumbler used for, say an Old Fashioned! Often for other cocktails such as one shot of booze and wash (rum and Coke, gin and tonic, etc.) "Juice" glass (sometimes referred to as a “Collins”) -- 10 ounces; this is used for the usual one shot booze and refreshing fruit juice, like a Screwdriver. Highball (also referred to as a ”Collins”, at least from the folks at Libbey who are the manufacturer of our restaurant/bar glassware) -- Most often this glass is a 12 ounce tumbler. I've seen places cutting costs and getting by with a 10 ouncer for this and even others that are big as 14 ounces. This is perfect for ... how about a refreshing Long Island Ice Tea? Beer Service -- Stein, pint, mug, yardstick, pilsner, hour glass …I’m sure there are more out there, but these are all that come to mind. Glasses Left to Right: Rocks, Old Fashioned and a 12 ounce Collins The Stemmed: Cocktail -- varied in ounces. Size is everything with this one. The wide surface area is to hold the mixed ingredients without separation. Hold this one by the stem to keep the cocktail and/or Martini cold, please! Hurricane -- This is somewhere around 14-16 ounces and is the sleek and shapely curved one. Pretty frozen tropicals for pretty glassware. Hurricanes, Rumrunners, Pina Coladas, etc. Treat these with great care, like as you would for a lovely lady! Daiquiri -- This is a cross between a Classic Cocktail glass and a Margarita glass. The base of the bowl is “V” shape, like the Cocktail glass, but half way up it shapes similarly to the cylinder top half of the Margarita glass (Think of a funnel with a base to stand upright). Margarita -- (or Coupette) This is a tiered stemmed glass. Often the lower tier of the bowl, much smaller than the mouth, and connects to the glass’ stem, is curved sort of bubble like, but I’ve seen them somewhat squared shaped too. (Think of an upside down wedding cake with only two tiers). I love the ones with a cactus as the stems or those thick, bubble filled glass from Mexico with the dark blue rims. Footed Coffee -- Usually tempered glass and for those great Keoke coffees and whatever other way to drink your coffee while getting a buzz. The handle permits easy handling while enjoying a satisfying hot drink. To reduce the risk of the glass accidentally shattering, pre-warm the mug by filling it with hot water, allow about a minute to pass while glass absorbs the heat and then discard the water. Refill with desired warm, spiritous beverage. Fish Bowl -- An old way to serve up draft beer with a hefty type of glass that could be also used as a decent weapon too, which is probably why they seem scarce now... Well, it is stemmed and looks, with the thickness of a super nerdy pair of eyeglasses, like a fish bowl. Brandy Snifter -- Where would Grand Marnier be without this? These range greatly in size and; this is a simple matter of preference. The mouth is narrower than the base of the glass so as to retain the aroma of the alcohol. Cordial -- A nice, refined way to serve up a sophisticated single malt scotch neat or for those frilly after dinner cordials. These no longer appear to be a part of regular dinner service and it seems like a product of the etiquette crazed 1950s with those ladies in hats, gloves and matching purses at the country club for a Saturday night supper. A lovely addition to the well appointed bar if this is something one enjoys. Glassware Left to Right: Brandy Snifter, Cocktail, Margarita Basic Wine Service There are quite a few of these, but here are some basics: White Wine -- Small to keep the portion cold. Red Wine Goblet -- This breaks down to a large number of types, almost as many as there are types of red wine. See the experts at Riedel crystal who have devised dozens of glasses. Champagne -- Flutes and saucers (remember those great 1920/30/40's silver screen hotties holding these?) As mentioned previously, the flute is designed to retain the bubbles, while the saucers were oppositely designed to release the carbonation! Recipes, and a Couple Techniques How to Chill a Cocktail Glass -- Fill cocktail glass with ice water. Continue on to mixing the cocktail. Discard ice water and shake out any excess water; rim -- if applicable, strain cocktail into glass. Enjoy! How to Muddle -- Muddling means mashing. This is usually done with sugar, fruit and/or herbs. Gently mash your ingredients in the bottom of your glass (for Martinis, often in the mixing glass) to release and extract flavor. Dessert Inspired Carrot Cake 1/4 ounce Goldschlager Cinnamon Schnapps 1/2 ounce Bailey’s Irish Cream 1/2 ounce Butterscotch Schnapps Combine in an iced filled shaker; shake and strain into a shot glass. Cherry Cheesecake Martini 1 1/2 ounces Dr. McGuillicuddy’s Vanilla Liqueur 3/4 ounce Vodka Dash of Cranberry Juice Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry. Chocolate Chip Cookie Martini 1 1/2 ounces Grey Goose 3/4 ounce Just Desserts Chocolate Chip Cookie Cream Liqueur Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Chocolate Éclair Martini 1 1/2 ounces Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka 1/2 ounce Godiva Chocolate Liqueur 1/2 ounce Verpoorten Advocaat Egg Liqueur Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Crème Brûlée Martini 1 ounce Stolichnaya Vanil 3/4 ounce Frangelico 1/2 ounce Cointreau A splash of Cream Fill a cocktail glass with ice water. Combine ingredients in an ice filled shaker; shake to chill. Discard water and rim glass in brown sugar. Strain into the chilled cocktail glass. Espresso Martini 1 3/4 ounces Stolichnaya Vanil 1/2 ounce Kahlua 1/2 ounce cooled Espresso 1/2 ounce Dark Crème de Cacao (add Bailey’s for a Cappucino Martini) Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnished with coffee beans. Jello Martini 1 1/2 ounces Finlandia Lime Vodka 1/2 ounce Cointreau Mix some Lime Jello following package directions and subbing half of the water, the cold water called for on the package, with the lime flavored vodka. Pour small amount into the bottom of cocktail glasses and place into the refrigerator to chill and set. Combine liquors in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into Jello prepared cocktail glasses. Serve with a sundae spoon. Key Lime Pie Martini 1 1/2 ounces Stolichnaya Vanil 1/2 ounce Dr. McGillicuddy’s Vanilla Schnapps 1/2 ounce Bailey's Irish Cream A splash of Rose’s Lime Juice Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with graham crackers -or- 1 1/4 ounces Stoli Vanil 1 1/4 ounces Ke-Ke Key Lime Liqueur Prepare as above. New York Egg Cream 1 1/2 ounces Goldenbärr Chocolate Vodka 1 teaspoon Hersey’s Chocolate Syrup 2 ounces Milk Soda Water Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into an ice filled collins glass. Top with soda and a sundae/ice tea spoon. Oatmeal Cookie 1/2 ounce Jägermeister 1/2 ounce Bailey’s Irish Cream 1/2 ounce Butterscotch Schnapps 1/4 ounce Goldschlager Cinnamon Schnapps Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a shot glass. Pineapple Upside Down Cake 1 ounce Vodka 1 ounce Bailey’s Irish Cream 1 ounce Butterscotch Schnapps Splash of Pineapple Juice Splash of Cream Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with pineapple and cherry. Pumpkin Pie 1 ounce Dr. McGillicuddy’s Vanilla Schnapps 1/2 ounce of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum Splash of Cream Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain in a shot glass. S’Mores Martini 1 ounce Frangelico 1 ounce Kahlua Rim glass with finely crushed chocolate graham cracker crumbs. Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with toasted mini marshmallows. Tiramisu Martini 1 shot of Espresso 3/4 ounces Coffee Vodka 1/2 ounce Bailey’s Irish Cream 1/2 ounce Spiced Rum 1/2 ounce Godiva Chocolate Liqueur Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Candy Inspired Almond Joy Martini 1 ounce Absolut Vodka 3/4 ounce White Crème de Cacao 1/2 ounce Captain Morgan’s Parrot Bay Coconut Rum 1/2 ounce Amaretto Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Bit O Honey 1 ounce Bailey’s Irish Cream 1/2 ounce Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur 1/2 ounce Butterscotch Schnapps 6 ounces of Coffee 1 ounce of Cream Pour the three liquors into a footed coffee cup, add coffee and cream; stir. Garnish with cinnamon sticks nutmeg and honey. Bubble Gum Martini 3/4 ounce Zone Banana Flavored Rum 3/4 ounce Zone Melon Flavored Rum Splash of Grenadine 1/2 ounce Sour Mix 1/2 ounce Orange Juice Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Butterfinger Martini 1 1/2 ounces Bailey’s Irish Cream 1 ounce Butterscotch Schnapps Splash of Milk Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Good N Plenty 3/4 ounce Sambuca 3/4 ounce Amaretto Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a shot glass. Jolly Rancher 3/4 ounce Crème de Banana 3/4 ounce Melon Liqueur 3/4 ounce Pineapple Juice Combine in an ice filled shaker, shake and strain into a shot glass. Milk Chocolate Martini 3/4 ounce Stolichnaya Vanil 3/4 ounce Godiva Chocolate Liqueur 1/4 ounce Vodka 1/4 ounce Bailey’s Irish Cream Splash of Crème de Banana/Banana Liqueur Splash of Chambord Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Mounds Martini 1 3/4 ounces Goldenbärr Chocolate Vodka 1/2 ounce Kalani Coconut Liqueur Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Snickers Martini 1 ounce Stolichnaya Vodka 1/2 ounce Bailey’s Irish Cream 1/4 ounce Frangelico 1/4 ounce Amaretto 1/4 ounce Kahlua Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Tootsie Roll Martini 1 1/2 ounces Goldenbärr Chocolate Vodka 1/4 ounce Stolichnaya Ohranj 1/4 ounce Grand Marnier Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Turtle Martini 1 1/2 ounces Stolichnaya Vanil 3/4 ounce Godiva Chocolate Liqueur 1/2 ounce Sazerac Praline Pecan New Orleans Style Liqueur Rim cocktail glass with caramel sauce and dip in chocolate or rim with toffee pieces. Squirt a small portion of chocolate syrup in bottom of glass. Combine liquors in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Just for Fun Dirty Banana Martini 1/2 ounce Crème de Banana 1/2 ounce Dark Crème de Cacao 1/2 ounce Kahlua 1/4 ounce Bailey’s Irish Cream Splash of Cream Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a single playing piece from a Barrel of Monkeys game. Las Vegas Martini 1 3/4 ounces Finlandia Vodka 1/2 ounce Goldschlager Cinnamon Schnapps Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a playing card. Pretty, Sparkling Jewels Key Lime Martini 1 ounce Stolichnaya Vanil 1/2 ounce Midori Splash of Sour Mix Splash of Pineapple Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with graham crackers. Lavender Orchid Cosmopolitan Consider opting for white cranberry juice to help retain the pretty purple color. 1 1/2 ounces Absolut Citron (or Mandarin works too) 1/2 ounce Bols Parfait Amour Dash of Lime Juice Splash of Cranberry Juice Chill cocktail glass with ice water. Combine vodka, Parfait Amour, lime and cranberry juices in an ice filled shaker. Shake. Discard ice water, shake out excess, rim the cocktail glass with violet colored sugar. Strain into the chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a floating edible orchid. Violet Martini 1 3/4 ounces Finlandia Vodka 1/2 ounce Monin Violet Syrup Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with violet petals. New Apricot Caipirinha This is a Queneau, an outstanding Barman and Friend Extraordinaire, creation. 1 3/4 ounces Germana Cachaça 1 Lime, quartered 1/4 ounce simple syrup 1 1/4 ounces Apricot purée In the bottom of a mixing glass, muddle the lime with the simple syrup. Add the remaining ingredients; shake and strain into a rocks filled with crushed ice. Basil Grandé 3/4 ounce Ketel One Vodka 3/4 ounce Grand Marnier 3/4 ounce Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur 2 ounces Cranberry Juice 4 hulled Strawberries 5 Basil Leaves Muddle strawberries and basil leaves in a shaker base. Add ice and combine liquid ingredients in the shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a dusting of black pepper and float a basil leaf. Blueberry Smash 1 1/2 ounces Bacardi Limón 1/4 cup Blueberries 8 Mint Leaves A good squeeze of Fresh Lemon Juice 1 tablespoon sugar Soda In the bottom of an Old Fashioned glass, place sugar, blueberries and mint; muddle. Add a scoop of crushed ice. Pour Bacardi Limón Rum over the crushed ice and top with soda. Garnish with a sliced swizzle stick of fresh sugar cane and mint leaves. Blueberry Sour This is a Queneau original Bourbon (!) creation. 1 3/4 ounces Maker’s Mark 3/4 ounce Joseph Cartron Myrtille Liqueur 1/4 ounce Simple Syrup Juice of half of a Lemon Shake all and strain into an ice filled Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with fresh blueberries. Citric Acid 1 1/2 ounces Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum 3/4 ounce Pineapple Sourz 2-3 Kumquats sliced in half 1 sliced Lime Drizzle of Acacia Honey Tablespoon of Sugar Dash of Orange Bitters Place sugar into the bottom of an Old Fashioned glass and top with a dash of orange bitters. Next add the kumquat halves, lime slices and Acacia Honey. Muddle. Add a scoop of ice. Top with the Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum and Pineapple Sours. Gently stir to combine. Emerald Martini 1 1/4 ounces Zubrowka Vodka 1/2 ounce Joseph Cartron Pomme Verte Liqueur 1/4 ounce Lime Juice 1/4 ounce Pistache (pistachio) Syrup 3/4 ounce Apple Juice 8 Basil Leaves Gently crush basil leaves in the bottom of your cocktail shaker. Add ice and combine all ingredients in the shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Japanese Mary This is a recipe created by my lovely friend Queneau. It’s his idea of a Bloody Mary. 1 3/4 ounces Vodka Lemon Juice to taste Half a teaspoon prepared Wasabi Salt and Pepper to taste 6 Basil Leaves Dash Worcestershire Sauce 4 ounces Tomato Juice Squeeze lemon into a mixing glass filled with ice. Combine all; shake and strain into a ice filled Collins glass. Garnish with fresh basil and lemon. Lemonpap Martini This is an original Queneau creation. 1 1/2 ounces Lemongrass infused Vodka 1/2 ounce Coriander (Cilantro) infused Simple Syrup 1 ounce Papaya Juice Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Lymoncello Another delicious cocktail devised by Queneau. 1 3/4 ounces Vodka 1 1/4 ounces Lychee Purée Dash of Ginger and Lemongrass steeped Simple Syrup 1/2 ounce Cointreau 1/2 ounce of fresh Lime Juice Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lime zest. Opium Martini 1 3/4 ounces Lemongrass infused Vodka 1/2 ounce Ginger infused Simple Syrup 1 ounce Lychee Purée Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Oriental Red 1 3/4 ounces Shoku (Thai clear whiskey, but sake is an excellent substitute) 1/2 ounce Yellow Pepper Purée 3 1/2 ounces Tomato Juice 8 Sorrel Leaves Gently crush sorrel leaves. Combine all ingredients in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a ice filled Collins glass. Strawberry and Basil Martini 1 3/4 ounces Wyborowa Vodka 1/2 ounce Fraise Liqueur 1/4 ounce Simple Syrup 2 Basil Leaves Gently crush basil. Combine all ingredients in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with strawberries. Strawberry and Rose Petal Martini 2 ounces Absolut Kurrant Vodka 1 ounce rose petal syrup (i.e., Monin’s Rose Syrup) Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with strawberries. Strawberry Mojito Yet another lovely Queneau original creation. 1 3/4 ounces Havana Club Three Year Rum 3/4 ounce Joseph Cartron Fraise des Bois Liqueur 6 hulled Strawberries 2 sprigs of Mint In an Old Fashioned glass, muddle the strawberries with the mint and the Joseph Cartron Fraise des Bois liqueur. Continue to fill the glass with crushed ice, add the rum. Muddle together with a bar spoon. Garnish with fresh mint and a strawberry. Thai-Tanic Martini This is a fabulous Queneau original, who is by the way, is a native Northern Irishman. A very clever name indeed! 1 1/2 ounces Lemongrass infused Vodka 1/2 ounce Coconut Cream (i.e., Coco Lopez) A teaspoon of Red Pepper and Sweet Chili Jam Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Tea Rose Daiquiri 1 1/4 ounces Bacardi Light Rum 1 ounce Monin Rose Syrup 2 ounces Simple Syrup 1 ounce Sweet and Sour Mix Dash of Grenadine 1 1/2 cups of ice Pour liquid ingredients into blender pitcher, top with ice. Blend until smooth. Pour into a glass and garnish with a strawberry. Warsaw Pakt 1 1/4 ounces Krupnik Honey Vodka 1/2 ounce Poire Williams 1/2 ounce Apple Juice 1/4 ounce Lime Juice 1/2 ounce Ginger Cordial (i.e., Canton Ginger Liqueur) A drizzle of Honey A dash of Pear Purée Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lime zest and a drizzle of honey Wild Jasmine Daiquiri 1 1/2 ounces Bacardi Limón 2 ounces Sweet and Sour Mix 1 ounce Simple Syrup 1 ounce Monin Jasmine Syrup 1 1/2 cups ice Pour liquid ingredients into blender pitcher, top with ice. Blend until smooth. Pour into a glass and garnish with a pineapple slice or a fresh jasmine flower. Fusion Berry Nice 1 ounce Absolut Kurrant 1/2 ounce Chambord A good squeeze of fresh Lemon Juice Ginger Beer Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Top with Ginger Beer and garnish with fresh Blackberries. Blackberry Violet Champagne Cocktail 7 ounces Champagne 1/4 ounce Monin Blackberry Syrup 1/4 ounce Monin Violet Syrup Champagne Fill a champagne flute with champagne; slowly stir syrup into glass; garnish with a violet petal. Papa Doble 1 ounce Melon flavored Vodka Splash of Papaya Purée A good squeeze of fresh Lemon Juice A good squeeze of fresh Lime Juice 1/2 ounce Simple Syrup Chardonnay Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Top with a splash of Chardonnay. Raspberry Champagne Cocktail 1 ounce Stolichnaya Razberi 1/2 ounce Cointreau Chambord Brut Champagne Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Fill near to rim with Brut champagne/sparkling wine; sink a few drops of Chambord along the side of the cocktail glass by very slowly dribbling liqueur (will go to the bottom if done correctly) and serve with skewered raspberries. Russian Spring Punch 1 ounce Vodka 1/2 ounce Crème de Cassis 1 ounce Raspberry Purée 1/4 ounce Fresh Lemon Juice 1/2 ounce Simple Syrup Champagne Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Top with Champagne. Sake-Tini 1 3/4 ounces Vodka or Gin 1/2 ounce Sake Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with desired vegetable cutter shape daikon slice. Zentini 2 ounces Premium Sake 1/2 ounce Cointreau 1/2 ounce fresh Lime Juice 1 ounce Cranberry Juice Combine in an ice filled shaker; shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a craisin. Shots with a Process Blow Job 3/4 ounce Bailey’s Irish Cream 3/4 ounce Butterscotch Schnapps Build in a champagne glass. Garnish rim of champagne glass with whipped cream. Tell your guest this must be consumed without the use of their hands. Irish Car Bomb 1/2 ounce Irish Whiskey 1/2 ounce Bailey’s Irish Cream 1/2 pint of Guinness Irish Stout Bacardi 151 Rum Build in a small pony shot glass. Float a small amount of Bacardi 151 rum on top. Carefully ignite the Bacardi 151 topped shot and drop entire glass into Guinness Irish Stout. (Flame should extinguish). Exclaim ‘Cheers!’ (or any other appropriation toasting phrase) and consume quickly in one, gulping motion. Sex with an Alligator This is one that is the process for only the bartender and was wildly popular on the resort island, Put in Bay, South Bass Island, Ohio where I worked a couple of seasons. However, recently I’ve seen bars making this in a different version as a Martini, up, with using pineapple juice mixed and chilled in a cocktail shaker with the Melon Liqueur. 3/4 ounces Melon Liqueur, already chilled (leave in freezer and/or refrigerator) 1/4 ounce Chambord 1/2 ounce Jägermeister, already chilled (leave in freezer and/or refrigerator) In a tall “chimney” shot glass pour chilled Melon Liqueur; slowly dribble Chambord down the inside of glass which should, if done correctly will sink to the bottom. Using a maraschino cherry or the back of a small spoon, pour the Jägermeister so that it will layer on top of the Melon Liqueur. The end result should be a triple layered shot that oddly tastes similar to Bubble Gum. Resources: Very Special Thanks: Frank J. Musial, Jr., General Manager Chris Kneeland, Bar Manager Shooters Without their large array of resources (bartender training materials, digital camera -- all supporting hardware and software, backdrop and liquor inventory), this project would not have been possible. Tom Kneeland, General Manager Liquid Café/Fusion Martini Bar Queneau -- My lovely, dear and extraordinary friend. Wally, proprietor, and nephew Dan, General Manager (For the Bols Parfait Amour, and hosting a wonderful pub to unwind and enjoy a cold one.) The Harbor Inn 1219 Main Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44113 Telephone: 216.241.3232 In the Biz These are a few of the fine establishments I sought out my quest for the new cocktail trends. Some great places! Be sure to check them out! Apartment 2 Donegall Square West Belfast, Northern Ireland Telephone: 028 9050 9777 Irene and Nan’s 12 Brunswick Street, Co Antrim Belfast BT2 7GG Telephone: 028 9023 9123 The Lab bar 12 Old Compton Street SOHO London W1V 5PG Telephone: 020 7437 7829 The Living Room London Liquid Café/Fusion Martini Bar 1212 West Sixth Street Cleveland, Ohio 44113 Telephone: 216.479.7717 Opium Bar Skipper Street Cathedral Quarter Belfast, Northern Ireland Telephone: 028 9034 2448 Shooters 1148 Main Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44113 Telephone: 216.861.6900 Web Webtender Miss Cheryl Charming -- Serving Up Your Ultimate One Stop Bar & Cocktail Source DrinkBoy -- Adventures in Cocktails CocktailTimes The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States HotWired’s CocktailTime Distillers, a Manufacturer and a Shopping Resource Absolut Vodka Bacardi Rum Cabana Boy Rum Charbay Vodka Just Desserts Cream Liqueurs Cruzan Rums Finlandia Vodka Goldenbärr Chocolate Vodka Grey Goose Vodka Ketel One Vodka Hangar 1 Vodka Dr. McGillicuddy’s Vanilla Schnapps Monin Syrups Skyy Vodka Smirnoff Vodka Stolichnaya Vodka Three Olives Vodka Türi Vodka Van Gogh Vodka Vox Vodka Zone Vodka Popsicle Martini The LiteCube Specific Articles “Sweet creations make drinkable after-meal treats,” by Mike Butts, The Idaho Statesman, March 5, 2003 “What Color Is Your Cocktail? A Rainbow Is the Limit When a Bar Concocts a Drink to Call Its Own,” by Candy Sagon, Washington Post, April 9, 2003; Page F01 “Too Marvelous for Words: The Martini May Be The Comeback Cocktail of All Times,” by Michael Harrelson, Nightclub & Bar Magazine, July 2003 “Gulp! Mercury goes up, summer drinks go down,” by Ashley Frank, The Daily Camera, June 4, 2003 Periodical Publications of Interest For the On Premise Innovator: Nightclub & Bar Magazine, Oxford Publishing, Inc. Bartender Magazine: The Authority on Bartending and On Premise, Foley Publishing Corp. +++ Please post your questions here -->> Q&A +++ Copyright 2003 Victoria Lynn Vozar. All Rights Reserved. Any unauthorized duplication or use is strictly prohibited.

Please post your questions here -->> Q&A This is Part 1 of the lesson, and is continued in Part 2 here Evolving Cocktails by Victoria Lynn Vozar (beans) “The culinary world is exploding with innovations in recipe, ingredient, technique. The bar has to follow suit.” - Dale DeGroff, eGullet Q&A, December 21, 2002 Martini Renaissance Disclaimer: This discussion is not for the faint of heart, Gin Martini purist! Concepts like a S’Mores Martini may cause uncontrollable shivering tremors! So, beware and be forewarned! Sometime during the 1970’s and early 1980’s the Martini’s popularity waned to that of an older, conservative, staid crowd. These drinks were customarily served straight up with olives and consisted of either gin or vodka. That began to change around 1986 when Stolichnaya revived the Martini with the release of six flavored vodkas. Absolut was quick to follow. Chic nightclubs and Martini bars flourished in the 1990’s all proudly offering their own signature cocktail menus. Rapid success resulted -- flavor sparked a newly found interest, along with a surge of an ultra-premium spirits category not previously available to the consumer. Seeking Out Flavor First, A Few Basics Flavoring is usually extracted either by infusion, maceration, percolation or distillation. Steeping crushed fruits, spices or herbs makes infusion and maceration similar. Infusion is steeping ingredients and maceration is soaking an ingredient in a liquid, usually alcohol. Flavor and color is directly absorbed from the ingredient. As with brewing coffee, percolation is a process that the liquid trickles through the flavoring ingredient. This process is often repeated throughout a length of time to achieve the desired result. Distillation utilizes a heat process to extract flavoring. Flavor Creating the New Breed of Martinis There are several reasons this topic intrigues me. First and foremost, I am thrilled by a growing trend of chefs having a larger role and interest in the design and creation of cocktail menus. Joint collaborations of the barstaff and chefs have produced exciting and uniquely different concepts to creating delicious, refreshing drinks. Chef Roger Ruch, of 1220 and The Terrace (located in the Tides Hotel, in South Beach, Florida) uses lychee fruit or seasonal melon sorbets, frozen onto cinnamon sticks, as popsicles to garnish, chill and add flavor to various tropical Martinis. New exciting flavor combinations of the freshest, seasonal fruits, herbs and spices are combined with spectacular results. With the expansion of the cocktail flavoring options one cannot help but notice the rapid and increased responsiveness of distillers to produce new flavored vodkas, rums, gins and tequila to keep up with the growing interest. Creative energy has sparked and stretched the boundaries of the tried and true traditional drink recipes and opened up an acceptance of using a wider array of fruit, herb and spice combinations not usually considered in cocktail preparation. Exciting use of fresh, seasonal fruits, juices and/or purées, i.e., Meyer lemons, blood oranges, key limes, mango, lychees, passion fruit, blueberries, etc., are the hottest trends. So, why shouldn’t these be considered for use in a Martini, Daiquiri or Margarita application creating an unusual variation, an interesting new twist on a lovely original classic? Distillers Providing Flavored Spirits There are literally thousands of vodkas. These are only a handful of the distilleries that produce flavored vodka, rum, gin and tequila: Vodka Absolut: (Sweden) Citron, Kurant, Mandarin, Peppar, Vanilla Absolwent: (Poland) Banana, Citron, Morela (peach) Absynt Vodka (Poland) flavored with Absinthe and herb extracts Canel Vanilla Vodka (Sweden) Charbay: (United States-Napa Valley, California) Blood Orange, Key Lime, Meyer Lemon, Ruby Red Grapefruit Citronu Citron (Latvia) Cytrynowka Lemon (Poland) Czarna Porzeczka Blackcurrant (Poland) Danzka: (Denmark) Blackcurrant, Grapefruit, Lemon Citrus Dobra: (Poland) Dobra Clear Orange, Clear Peach Dzervenu Cranberry (Poland) Finlandia: (Finland) Lime and Cranberry; once had Pineapple, but was discontinued Goldenbärr Chocolate Vodka (Ukrainian) Goldwasser Herbs (Poland) Gordon’s: (United States) Citrus, Orange, Pepper, Wild Berry Grey Goose: (France) Le Citron, L’Orange; Vanilla soon to be released Hetman: (Ukraine) Apple, Blackcurrant, Cherry, Cranberry, Gorilka Touch of Honey Hangar 1: (United States) “Budda’s Hand” Citron, Kaffir Lime, Mandarin Blossom Impuls: (Poland) Clear Cherry, Clear Honey, Clear Melon, Clear Pineapple Jonogu Red Currant (Latvia) Ketel One: (Netherlands) Citroen Kosher Passover Slvovitz Plum (Poland) Krupnik Honey (Poland) Kubanskaya Touch of Honey (Russia) Lanique: (Poland) Grass Bison, Rose Petal Likier Rozany Rose Petal (Poland) Okhotnuichaya Hunters Spicey (Russia) Pieprzowka Pepper (Poland) Polska: (Poland) Wisniowa Cherry, Ziotowa Herbs, Zubrowa Bison Polstar: (Iceland) Cranberry, Cucumber, Sitrona Puschkin: (Germany) Red Sweet Orange, Timewarp Caffine Rose Petal Rose (Poland) Shotz Flavoured Vodka: (I couldn’t find a country of origin for this one) Black Jack, Blueberry, Cherry Lips, Chocolate and Mint, Orange and Chilli, Passion Fruit Orange and Lemon, Strawberry Cream, Tiramisu Skyy: (United States) Berry (raspberry, blue berry and blackberry), Citrus (orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit and tangerine), Spiced (cinnamon, clove and nutmeg), Vanilla Sliwowica Plum (Poland) Smirnoff: (United States) Citrus Twist, Orange Twist, Raspberry Twist , Vanilla Twist Sofskaya: (France) Blackcurrant, Lemon Soplica Dry Fruits (Poland) Starka Fruity (Poland) Stolichnaya: (Russia) Cranberi, Citros, Ohranj, Persik (peach), Razberi, Strasberi, Vanil; once had Pertsokva (pepper), Limonnaya and Zinamon but are hard to find, if not discontinued Three Olives: (England) Cherry, Raspberry, Vanilla Upenu Blackcurrant (Latvia) Van Gogh: (Holland) Wild Appel, Dutch Chocolate, Vanilla, Raspberry, Oranje, Citroen, Pineapple Vox: (Netherlands) Coming soon -- a berry flavour (can’t remember if it was blackberry or raspberry) Wishna Cherry (Poland) Wisniak: (Poland) Cordial Cherry, Liqueur Cherry Wisniowka Cherry (Poland) Wyborowa: (Poland) Lemon, Melon, Orange, Peach, Pepper, Pineapple Zlota Jesien Calvados Apple (Poland) Zone: (Italy) Banana, Lemon, Melon, Peach, Tangerine Zubrowka Bison (Poland) Rum (Not including the numerous spiced rums) Bacardi: (Puerto Rico) Coco, Limón, O, Razz, Vanilla Cabana Boy: (Virgin Islands) Banana, Banana Strawberry, Citrus, Coconut, Orange, Pineapple Coconut, Raspberry, Strawberry Kiwi, Vanilla Spice, Wild Cherry Captain Morgan’s: Parrot Bay (coconut) Cruzan: (Virgin Islands) Banana, Citrus, Coconut, Mango, Orange, Pineapple, Vanilla Kuya Fusion Rum: (United States) golden rums combined with spices and citrus Malibu: (Carribean rum produced in Canada) Coconut Gin Seagram’s: (United States) Grapefruit Twisted and Lime Twisted Tequila La Pinta Pomegranate Tequila (Mexico) Creating a Cocktail Based On Flavor Flavored liquor tickles the creative and talented bartender’s fancy. My European cohorts are fashioning and serving up very exciting flavor combinations of herbal and spiced infusions to coordinate with various flavored syrups and purées. The results are nothing short of a well-constructed cocktail that is satisfyingly spectacular. These marvelous drinks are entering into a very decided non-sweet, almost savory category of cocktails. Innovative/creative European bartenders are looking to classic cuisine’s tried and true flavorful combinations -- i.e., herbal infusions served along with tomato and pepper purées for inspiration. Also prevalent are Thai influences of hot peppers, lemon grass and ginger as well as the usual love affair with loads of fresh, seasonal berries and the sublime tropical fruits such as mangos, papayas, lychees and passion fruit. Even homemade flavored sugars (usually vanilla) and soft, sweet brown sugar appears in cocktail preparation recipes. These professionals are the best at what they do -- again, all from scratch and made with the best, seasonal and freshest ingredients to order! To benefit from these trendsetters, and given the various options available to introduce and enjoy new flavors in cocktails, consider the following: Flavored Spirits: Flavored liquors are fun and easy to make. Combine the fruit, spice or herb of choice with the liquor of choice. Neutral vodkas and clear rums work best, although using complementary ingredients with bourbon whiskey, like vanilla or mint, works quite well too. Also using fresh fruits with brandy creates a subtle and sophisticated liqueur. Similar to putting up fruit preserves, use fruits at their peak season for maximum flavor and sweetness. To flavor, gently crush berries or cut fruit into small pieces to expose more important surface contact area resulting in a more intense flavor. Steep for approximately three days, or longer (taste test!) at room temperature. When using citrus fruits, avoid the pith and only use the zest. The white inner peel (pith) will impart a distinct undesirable bitterness in taste. Due to the high alcoholic content, generally it is advised to discard the used fruit, unless of course you’re up for adventure…. I understand that it is a nice accompaniment to a bowl of ice cream! However, you may find some of the color has leached out and the fruit becomes an unattractive whitish gray. To sweeten a tart berry: (entirely optional and to taste) use sugar, honey, simple syrup or an exceptionally sweet fruit combination (raspberry and mango). <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> This is my recent raspberry vodka infusion before it is racked (filtered) off into the original vodka bottle. It's hard to see the sediment, but it's there!</span> Fruit Juice(s) and Fruit Purées: Fruit juices and purées follow the same golden rule of fresh is always best. The results of using a sour mix made from scratch and squeezing fresh citrus makes the effort all very worthwhile. Infused/Steeped Simple Syrups (Gomme): The fresh is always best saying is also true of creating a flavor-infused simple syrup. Think about some ginger, lemongrass, spice or herb combinations. However, if convenience is a priority, a store bought brand (i.e., the “coffee” syrups produced by Monin or Toriani) will work as well. Homemade, Flavored Sodas and Seltzers: Creating homemade sodas and seltzers are yet another unique and creative way to flavor a cocktail. Using a soda siphon makes the carbonation of a homemade mixture fun and very easy to do; and as a huge bonus, you control what goes into it, making it fresher and perhaps healthier than a store bought alternative. Use various combinations of flavored syrups and fruit juices for a desired taste. Liqueurs: The sky is the limit with liqueurs, both homemade and commercially produced. In conclusion, homemade has many advantages: variations are endless, are custom tailored and suited to your own taste, satiates creative urges, possibly less expensive and of higher quality than the commercially produced store bought brands. This presents numerous options! For example, take ginger, a great cocktail flavoring agent -- it can be steeped into vodka, steeped into simple syrup, the syrup could be carbonated with a soda siphon, (as an alternative to store bought commercially produced ginger ale) or use Canton Ginger Liqueur. Sweet Cocktail Trends Many of the newer breeds of Martinis are the dessert and candy like inspired beverages. With the popular sweet tooth and creativity of the mixologist it is no surprise restaurant/bar customers have grown accustomed to enjoying their desserts in the form of a cocktail. These cocktail desserts in a glass sell quite well as they have universal appeal for the flavor and attractive presentation. This begins is my approach to constructing cocktails. I look for a combination in various flavors for a desired particular taste. The Absolut vodka website advises well-constructed cocktails begin with a base flavor, a secondary flavor and an accent. The base provides the foundation and full bodied undertone that comes with every sip. I could not agree more! Specifically, my interests of the new breed of Martinis are a combination of flavor, appearance and presentation. This is entirely my preference and opinion, I look to a cocktail as a beautifully crafted, sparkling jewel to enjoy and savor languidly. Appearances Are Everything Beautiful gemstones catch one’s eye and hold their attention. I have always been fascinated and captivated by bright tourmaline pinks, intoxicating tanzanite purples, gorgeous aquamarine blues, seductive garnet or ruby reds and stunning emerald greens. And who can ignore a sparkling, crystal clear, firey diamond? These are the drinks that fall into the “pretty” category and use glistening, luminous color to make their mark in popularity. They are flavorful, translucent and shimmering gorgeously in the hands of the cool and hip cocktail hour crowd. So, with the various routes of adding flavored/infused liquor, steeped simple syrup, fruit juices and/or liqueur, let’s examine this while constructing a Cosmo by flavor or by color: Ordinary: Absolut Citron, Cointreau, cranberry juice and lime juice; or Flavored: Finlandia Cranberry, Absolut Citron, Cointreau and lime juice; or (Both of these create an undesirable pink color for all of those pink hating gentlemen who still enjoy the drink, I offer you a solution to your dilemma!) Colorless: Absolut Citron, Cointreau, white cranberry and lime juices -- garnished with a craisin (may be cloudy, but at least it isn’t pink!) The Newest Cocktails These exciting drinks are popping up on many Martini bar menus, making the menu fun to read while you consider which cocktail to order! Within the Dessert Martini category, I have seen some featured within the restaurant dining room’s Dessert Entrée menu. On an interesting bartending note, many cocktails are comprised of the most unlikely of ingredients making startling combinations that are sure to surprise you. Who would guess that a neutral vodka and hazelnut liqueur when combined with a hint of lemon tastes like chocolate cake? (* Denotes recipe is included). Have Your Dessert and Drink It Too: These are the cocktails that sound and are as yummy to eat as they are to drink! *Carrot Cake, *Cherry Cheesecake, Chocolate Cake, *Chocolate Chip Cookie Martini, *Chocolate Eclair Martini, *Crème Brûlée Martini, *Espresso Martini, *Jello Martini, *Key Lime Pie Martini, *New York Egg Cream, *Oatmeal Cookie, *Pineapple Upside Down Cake, *Pumpkin Pie, Root Beer Martini, *S’Mores Martini, Strawberry Shortcake, *Tiramisu Martini Candy Inspired: Some of these reach back to nostalgic childhood favorites. *Almond Joy, *Bit-O-Honey, *Bubble Gum, *Butterfinger, Candied Apple, Caramel Apple, Creamsicle Martini, *Good-n-Plenty, *Jolly Rancher, Lifesaver, *Milk Chocolate Martini, *Mounds Martini, *Snickers Martini, Sour Apple Martini, Swedish Fish, *Tootsie Roll Martini, *Turtle Martini Pretty: These cocktails are the colorful, sparkling jewels sure to catch your eye. *Key Lime Martini, *Lavender Orchid Martini, Cosmopolitan, Turquoise Blue, Sour Apple Martini, *Violet Martini, Washington Apple Martini Funny: Combine creative imagination with a sense of humor. Vampire Proof Martini (using olives stuffed with garlic), *Chocolate Chimp/Dirty Banana (A single monkey from the Barrel of Monkeys toys hanging off the edge as garnish), *Las Vegas Martini (sparkling 24kt gold leaf flakes and a single playing card) Duh: This is creativity overload, and perhaps when it has gone awry. Tequila-tini: a Margarita; Hangover-tini: a Bloody Mary New: These are the creations of my European friends and are my current interest and fascination -- some are chef inspired while others are the tried and true classic food and flavor pairings. Make friends with and dust off your muddler! *Apricot Caipirinha, *Basil Grandé, *Blueberry Smash, *Blueberry Sour, *Citric Acid, *Emerald Martini, *Japanese Mary, *Lemonpap Martini, *Lymoncello Martini, *Opium Martini, *Oriental Red, *Strawberry and Basil Martini, *Strawberry Mojito, *Strawberry and Rose Petal Martini, *Tea Rose Daiquiri, *Thai-tanic Martini, *Warsaw Pakt, *Wild Jasmine Daiquiri Fusion/Champagne Cocktails: While the Champagne Cocktail is not new, something old has become again new. Here are a few cocktails -- using chardonnay, champagne, sake or ginger beer. *Berry Nice, *Blackberry Violet Champagne Cocktail, *Papa Doble, *Raspberry Champagne Cocktail, *Russian Spring Punch, *Sake-tini, *Zentini Frozen/Tropical Types: Having fun with your blender. Take a classic such as the Daiquiri or the Margarita and change it to suit a different, seasonal favorite fruit. You’ll be glad you did. All American (layered one third of each: Strawberry Daiquiri, Pina Colada and Blue Hawaiian); Various coladas (adding different liqueurs, purées, syrups - mango, lychee, peach, passion fruit), Daiquiris (ditto), Margaritas (honeydew, watermelon) Shots with a Process: For the occasion when celebratory fun sneaks up and calls upon a jovial group of adventurous friends. *Sex with an Alligator, *Blow Job, *Irish Car Bombs Simple Rocks: These are still classics, but some of them are quite popular in some locales, wildly “new” to others. Give consideration to taking a classic and adding a twist of your favorite seasonal fruit/purée. Caipirhina/Caipiroska/Caipirissima, the mighty Mojito inspired *Blueberry Smash, Basil Mojito, fruit Caipirinhas (kiwi, strawberry, mango, banana, pineapple, pear) Consider Margarita variants: “Windex” – Substituting Blue Curaçao for the Triple Sec, “Golden” subbing Grand Marnier, and adding Cointreau, a small splash of orange juice and the traditional lime juice, Choosing a Golden Margarita “up” with gold tequila, Cointreau, Grand Marnier and a dash of fresh lime juice), or Change the fruit to any of the following delicious combinations: Ruby Red (grapefruit juice), Blackberry-Lime, Raspberry-Orange, Papaya-Guava-Coconut, Watermelon-Strawberry; Pomegranate. Bartender’s Notes: The shooting star of the flavors for new Martinis: Apple. Cheers! Garnish Garnish accessorizes the cocktail and in some cases, actually makes the drink (think of the classic Old Fashioned). In fact, a Gibson would not be a Gibson without the cocktail onion. Garnish may even be considered as a condiment. Just like with your hot dog or burger, condiments add to the overall taste. Also, proper garnish demonstrates a careful attention to details, which is something your guests would enjoy. It is that one last finishing touch that is noticed if it is forgotten. Cocktails Must Look and Taste Good Garnish and presentation are of much consideration when creating the elusive signature cocktail. Bar managers know a lovely, well-presented drink can create tremendous customer interest. Take these two beauties as examples -- created by The Washington Plaza’s wp international: The Goldfinger Martini, constructed of Stolichnaya Gold vodka and garnished with 24 karat gold flakes, or the $100 President Martini -- really two 10-ounce martinis made of small batch, Lithuanian rye vodka (I think it’s The President’s Vodka brand) served in Cartier crystal upon a Tiffany’s silver platter and accompanied with one ounce Osetra Caviar, toast points and all of the fixings for luxurious canapés. Here’s some garnish for thought, but don’t be limited by it: use some imagination! Veggies: Thin cucumber slice, daikon (Sake-tini), dill pickle spear, pickled green bean, pickled mushrooms, gari, celery stalk, jalapeno pepper, olives, cocktail onions, fresh sugar cane (for a Mojito) <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> Top: Thin cucumber slices; Bottom: Decoratively cut daikon.</span> Fruit: Carambola, berries, pineapple, lemons, limes, oranges, cherries, cranberries; a coconut shaving, puréed fruit ice cubes Spices and Herbs: Cloves, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, basil, cilantro/coriander, mint leaves Stuff of Substance: A piece of beef jerky, shrimp (add either to a Bloody Mary for fun) Just for Looks: These are all in playful fun and for decoration. Who wouldn’t enjoy a Pina Colada or Mai Tai with the requisite little bright paper umbrella? This can also be taken to another level, as I have located one supplier of a non-toxic re-freezable gel based, sealed, battery operated illuminating, colorful “litecube” that does both light up and cools your cocktail. Here are others for thought: A single playing card (Vegas Martini), unusual picks, additional straw(s) stuck at an angle into a thick frozen tropical drink, edible flowers (orchid, rose petals, jasmine blossom); a single piece from a Barrel of Monkeys (a funny child’s toy/game). Just for Looks food-wise -- Why not apply a pastry decoration approach and try “marbling” contrasting syrup, or sprinkling crumbs/powder? Candy: Chocolate chips, turtles, truffles, gummy candy shapes, Oreo cookies (whole or crumbs) Rimming: Granulated sugars (flavored, or tinted with food coloring), powdered sugar (Daiquiris), brown sugar (Crème Brûlée Martini), salts (tinted with food coloring works here too, and flavored, i.e., celery salt), syrups (chocolate, caramel) Whipped Cream: After dinner coffee drinks are garnished with whipped cream swirled around a stabilizing stir stick straw, topped with a maraschino cherry and an additional stir stick. Whipped Cream is also a unique finishing touch on a “Blow Job” shot. New! This one is a bona fide luscious show stopper. Try using frozen fruit purée on cinnamon sticks to form flavorful and chilly popsicles as a swizzle stick in your cocktail. What about some adult fun by using a little bit of Jello? Preset your guests’ glasses with a little Lime Vodka Jello in the bottom of their cocktail glasses, when they arrive and cocktail hour begins, top with a chilled shot mixture of lime flavored vodka and orange liqueur. Serve with sundae spoons. The Garnish Basics <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> The usual suspects. Olives, Celery "Trees," Cocktail Onions, Oranges, Lemons, Limes and Cherries</span> <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> The skewered.</span> Olives: I prefer the Queens. They are easy to stuff. They should always remain in their own brine. (I’ve worked with those that strain them out of the jar and leave them to sit in the garnish tray, only to find them wrinkled, collapsed and possibly spoiled.) These can now be purchased stuffed with blue cheese (Warning! Yummy but leaves an unsightly oil slick in your cocktail); garlic, anchovies, or almonds. I tend to stuff my own to order and guest preference. The Türi vodka website suggests using large black olives stuffed with red caviar for a Türi Baltic Sea Martini Cocktail. Olive Brine: Adds a saltiness that softens the gin or vodka’s hard edge. Cocktail Onions: These are crisp little white pickled onions and can be found in small jars as “Tipsy Onions” where the brine has been replaced with vermouth. When shopping around for these, take a moment to note the sodium content as some can be salty/bitter while others are sweet and crunchy. Maraschino Cherries: Be forewarned! These will stain your cuticles for several days! These are used in “flags.” Citrus: Lemons, Limes and Oranges. Various Cuts: Wheels/Half Wheels: Used most often on sweet drinks, i.e., tropicals. These can be made with any citrus fruit. Beautiful when cut neatly. Lemons and limes: One-quarter of an inch width is recommended; Oranges: Usually three-eighths of an inch thick slices. How to Cut Wheels: Place fruit so that ends are left to right and cut cross wise. Make one small slit in each wheel so that garnish may fit onto the lip of the glass. Discard ends. <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> The wheel has a slit cut into it to rest upon the rim of the glass. Make sure fruit is firm. Also, note the shapely Hurricane glass.</span> How to Cut Half Wheels: Slice fruit in half lengthwise. With tip of knife, score a small slit lengthwise on each half. Turn fruit flat side down and cut one-quarter inch slices (lemons and limes) or three-eighths inch slices (oranges), horizontally. Discard ends. How to Make a Flag: Take one half-wheel orange slice and a cocktail sword pick and wrap the orange slice around maraschino cherry, stringing each end, through the cherry, onto the pick. Also, this is another option for a flag garnish. Skewer the maraschino cherry and push the sword through the orange half wheel. Artistically and gracefully balance on the side of the glass. Squeezes: These tend to be mostly lemons or limes used in drinks to round out the overall cocktail by adding that little bit of fresh fruit juice. Lime squeezes are essential to the Gin and Tonic. How to Cut Squeezes: Place fruit so that the ends are left to right and cut into half, lengthwise. Place flat side down on to the cutting board and proceed to slice each half lengthwise once again, and then across, horizontally into six, quarter inch-slices (depending upon overall size of fruit). Ice Tea Lemon Wedges: These are out of preference, I generally do not use these. How to Cut Lemon Wedges: Place fruit so that the ends are left to right and cut in half lengthwise. Turn each half over and make a shallow horizontal slit. Place fruit flat/slit side down, and depending upon the lemon’s width cut the halves lengthwise into half, again, or into thirds (making 4 or 6 wedges per lemon, depending upon its size). Twists: These are strips of zest that are twisted to bring out the flavorful and fragrant essential oil that brightens the cocktail it graces. How to Make Twists: Best way to make long, flexible twists -- use whole wheel lemon slices and carefully cut away white bitter pith and fruit. Twist, curl around a straw or tie into a decorative knot if desired. -or- Using a channel knife, gently press the pointed sided into the surface of the fruit and rotate slowly, applying a consistent amount of pressure to avoid thin spots, to the desired length. An Obscure Twist: The Horse’s Neck. This is one continuous, spiral zest of an entire lemon. It “stretches” to the very end, so to speak. Rimming: Using a colorful and attractive rimming type of garnish is easy to create and also adds great taste. This is often done with sugar, salt, cookie or cracker crumbs. How to Rim a Cocktail Glass Using Plates: This can be accomplished with a couple of appetizer/bread plates. One plate is for the simple syrup or Rose’s lime juice (if you use that product) and the other is filled with your rimming substance, i.e., salt. Dip the rims of your glassware in succession from the sticky to the salty (do not double dip, one good swirl of each is sufficient) place glassware upright and allow to dry. Whipped Cream: This is the crowning touch to a lovely after dinner coffee drink. The whipped cream garnish is a tad over the top, but why not? After all it is dessert! How to Garnish with Whipped Cream: Lay a short, plastic stir stick across the top of the coffee filled, preheated, footed, glass mug. This stir stick will add a structural support for the soft and melting whipped cream and heavy maraschino cherry over the top of the piping hot coffee. In a swirling motion squirt the whipped cream to desired height; drizzle liqueur in a zigzag fashion, if applicable. Top with a maraschino cherry and place an additional stir stick, in an upright manner, into the coffee. Bartender’s Notes: What sparks my interest in garnish is the use of candied violets, gold leaf flakes and fashioning spun sugar for Crème Brûlée (I’m still working on that). Hmmm. Crème Brûlée Martini garnish: a brown sugar rimmed cocktail glass, a decoratively marbled caramel syrup design or a spun sugar creation? Bar Equipment ”A naked bar makes for a bumbling bartender.” - Jane Parker Resnick, Author Tools are important. Without them, even a simple drink can become complicated. Make barware purchase decisions from a need/want/drink preference perspective, all are optional! Enjoy Martinis? Then the cocktail shaker, strainer and possibly a Martini pitcher should be considered if you wish to make them for yourself and guests! Enjoy a frozen Daiquiri or Margarita? The blender and long bar spoon are serious considerations! Whatever your desired poison, there are a few basics you may already have within your own kitchen. Kitchen multi-taskers: (Yes, I adore Alton Brown!) Long handled wooden spoon, zester, grater, paring knife, citrus reamer, cutting board, wooden rolling pin (the end can muddle quite nicely, as does the back of a wooden spoon). For Constructing the Cocktail: Jigger -- This is either made of stainless steel or glass and is used to measure the amount of alcohol in cocktail preparation. They vary by increment and are most helpful, however measuring spoons can work (see Bar Reference below). Often the thimble-like cap on a cocktail shaker will be marked for measuring liquid ounces. Also, check the small cylinder-like removable top of your blender lid. Often this is marked for easy liquid ounce measuring as well. The most common size of the jigger is 1 1/2 ounces on one end and 1/2 ounce on the other. Shaker -- The Boston styled shaker is comprised of a stainless steel “tin” and a pint sized glass. In some sets, the pint glass is marked for measurement and has a convenient rubber gasket for a secure fit and seal when shaking. These tins come in 16 and 28-ounce sizes. The three part, stainless steel shaker consists of a mixing “tin” a lid with built in strainer and a thimble shaped cap. Often this cap is marked for easy measurement of liquid ounces. The mixing tin portion of the three part cocktail shaker is usually found in a mini 16-ounce size and a regular 30-ounce size. Some cocktail shakers also have four parts: a mixing tin, a strainer cover, a small cap and a liquid measuring cap that snugly fits over the cap. <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> Left to Right: Jigger, Mixing Tin, Pint/Mixing Glass, "Cobbler" 3 part Cocktail Shaker</span> <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> Three "mini" cocktail shakers and one regular sized cocktail shaker (far right).</span> <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> Detail of a four part cocktail shaker.</span> Hawthorne Strainer -- This is stainless steel and fits over the mouth of the mixing tin and is used to prevent ice from entering a cocktail glass, i.e., when straining a Martini into the cocktail glass from the cocktail shaker. Julep Strainer -- This is used to strain cocktails while blocking the fruit and/or herbs. Beer Bottle Opener -- No kitchen should be without this tool. Bar Spoon -- This has been called the “giraffe of spoons”! It is a long handled, stainless steel spoon used to stir such drinks as Martinis or Manhattans when they are prepared in a mixing glass or pitcher. Also most helpful when extracting frozen blender drinks from the blender pitcher. Trivia tip: it is twisted to assist in creating the layered effect while making pousse-cafés. Muddler -- Usually made of wood, but I’ve seen a few plastic ones, and it is used to crush herbs or fruit, for example, an Old Fashioned or Mojito. (Think mortar and pestle). <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> Top, left to right: Julep Strainer, Can Opener/Bottle Opener, two flat die cut Bottle Openers (one is rubberized); Bottom, left to right: Hawthorne Strainer, Garnish Cutting Board, Paring Knife, Channel Knife/Zester, (lemon!) wooden Muddler, and lastly, a Barspoon</span> Citrus Juicer or Reamer -- This is used to extract fresh juice. This effort does wonders for taste appreciation when making cocktails with fresh fruit juice. Blender -- A variable speed appliance to create frozen ice cream based or tropical cocktails. Horsepower is everything. For Serving -- Coasters/beverage napkins, stir sticks, picks. These can be fun shapes, themed (Luau, classic cocktails/very Deco, Holiday or Picnic inspired), and colorful. Basic Wine Service: Wine Opener -- These come in various sizes, shapes and styles. There are counter mounted (best for a bar), a lever style called “The Rabbit” and a two pronged extractor that are not pictured. The lever styled models make opening wine very easy. The two-pronged extractor releases pressure within the bottle. (Beware, a fine, miniscule stream of wine may on occasion squirt out onto your clothing, linens and/or carpeting. I know. I wore the stain proudly throughout the remainder of one party). Also not pictured, is one that uses air pressure to remove the cork. Pocket Styles are usually that little plastic and metal corkscrew that you screw into the cork and pull hard. More work than I care to expend when opening a bottle of wine, but it will do the trick given no other option. This one has a tendency to be too short for some of those long white wine corks. Other pocket sorts are the hinged winged opener (top row, right) and the basic Waiter’s “wine key” (both on the bottom row). The Waiter’s wine key also provides a foil-cutting knife. The Winged Corkscrew (pictured top, center) is popular, and fairly easy to use. It also serves double duty as a beer bottle opener. Work with the style you are most comfortable with, but have an extra back up on hand that’s easy for travel! <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> Top, left to right: pocket opener, Winged Corkscrew, Hinge Winged Opener; Bottom: two Waiter's Wine "Key" Openers</span> Wine Bucket/Chiller -- Made of either stainless steel, glass, marble or porous clay. The stainless steel type can double as a champagne cooler and is large enough to be filled with ice to keep the bottle chilled. Marble ones are snug cylinder shaped devices that chill quickly in the refrigerator. The exterior glazed with interior unglazed porous clay/ceramic type of wine chiller work best if submerged in cold water and then chilled. Champagne Bucket -- These are beautiful and come in every shape and size. A bonus is to have one on a stand so that the champagne bucket rests carefully balanced on top and at the perfect dining room table height. <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> Various wine/champagne chillers. Note: Bottom right corner is a stainless steel Champagne Stopper.</span> Extras The following items are very optional, but you may find they become helpful and valued gadgets depending upon your interests. Bar Mat -- A long rubbery/plastic strip with a reservoir to collect excess or splashed liquids when constructing cocktails. These are exceptionally handy, however it depends how often you make cocktails or if you have full working home bar. Store n Pourers -- Are large plastic containers that have a long “neck,” pour spout and a cap that screws onto the top of the container portion. It allows for easy storage of excess juices; place the flat screw top on prior to replacing it into the refrigerator. The pour top makes pouring fruit juices easier than from a large jug of Ocean Spray Cranberry. These come in pint, quart, half gallon and gallon sized containers. (The Store n Pourers we use have long since lost their pour spouts and lower compartment threaded/screw on lids!) Pourers (stainless steel v. plastic v. pausi pours v. screened v. hinged) -- These are either stainless steel or plastic and allow measuring liquor easier; and, well, looks cool. The “pausi pourers” are designed to pour a specific amount of liquor over a predetermined amount of time, however these are often inaccurate in timing and in handling the various densities of differing liquors. Personally, I find these frustrating. Screened, plastic pourers are a nice convenience and an excellent hindrance when fruit flies or pesky yellow jackets wish to get into the bottle and enjoy your booze. The hinged pourers, if found, are not worth the effort. They are stainless steel with a little hinged flap that covers the opening spout of the pourer. Often these clog with the sticky and sugary liquors causing havoc with splattering and spillage. <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> Left to Right: Plastic Free Pourer, Pausi Pour, Stainless Steel Speed Pourer</span> Ice Utensils -- Tongs, bucket, scoop, pick, mallet always helpful. Small Designated Garnish Cutting Board and Paring Knife -- This is quite useful and handy. Oneida has come out with a sleekly designed line of sturdy home barware made of stainless steel. There is a coordinating small plastic cutting board that has a hole for easy hanging to promote air-drying and colorful rubber coated ends to assist in preventing slippage while cutting garnish. These are ideal, attractive and functional. Salt and Sugar Rimmer -- A tiered, multi compartment plastic caddy that assists in a rim garnish for glassware. Because this is made out of plastic it is more gentle treatment of your glassware than using a couple of small plates, so depending on how much the Margarita with salt is a staple within your household, it may be a worthwhile investment. On a tidiness note: Often the liquid substance used for the sponge disk, usually soaked with Rose’s Lime Juice, is forgotten during clean up and becomes a disgusting, sticky or hard mess, depending how much time transpires between uses. Don’t forget it is there! Seltzer Bottle/Soda Siphon -- These are great, but are an investment. The best are usually those that are made of stainless steel with a brass head and a lifetime warranty. A carbon dioxide charger cartridge injects carbonation as it dispenses liquid from its carafe. Funnel -- You never know when it will be useful! Glass Pitcher -- Perfect for a batch of Sangria or Margaritas. Tall thin ones are great for stirring up Martinis and Manhattans. Foil Cutter -- These slice through the foil seal on bottles of wine and liquor creating a single, clean edge. Wine Drip Collar -- This rests near the upper portion of a red wine bottle to absorb any that may drips. These will help protect both tablecloths and carpeting alike! Wine Bottle Cradle -- This serves as a decorative rest for the wine bottle. These are both fun and decorative. Wine Bottle Coaster -- This protects delicate linens from stains and gives the bottle a place to rest upon the dining room table. Coasters are both practical and an attractive complement to a table setting. Wine Decanter -- This is a must for the oenophile with a vintage wine collection. It allows fine wine to breathe before being served. Wine Decanting Funnel -- These are usually made of glass and aid in removing sediment and bringing oxygen into the wine as it is decanted. Wine Cellar -- Another must for the avid wine collector to maintain the proper humidity and temperature for long term storage and aging of vintage wine. Wine Vacuum/Air Removal Pump -- A small hand pump with rubber fitted stopper that will pump out taste destroying air from the remainder of an opened bottle of wine. It will delay oxidation for up to two weeks. Champagne Stopper -- This has two hinges and a fitted rubber gasket that snaps over the opened champagne bottle to assist in preserving the carbonation. This works fairly satisfactorily if the champagne is to be consumed within 24 hours. Some Bar Reference 1 Tablespoon = 3/8 to 1/2 ounce Jigger (most) 1 1/2 ounces = 4 Tablespoons 1 Liter of alcohol (33.8 ounces) equals Twenty Two 1 1/2-ounce drinks Twenty Seven 1 1/4-ounce drinks 750 ml bottle (25.35 ounces) equals Sixteen 1 1/2-ounce drinks Nineteen 1 1/4-ounce drinks +++ This has been Part 1 of the lesson, and is continued in Part 2 here Please post your questions here -->> Q&A