eG Foodblog: Chris Hennes - Pork and chocolate, together at last!

[Chris Hennes]

I dunno about a Wegman's or Whole Foods, but when I went Googling to see if there were any food co-ops in OKC, I found this intriguing organization. Looks like a hybrid between a CSA and an old-school food coop. And they do carry peanut butter ... 

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Yeah, according to my wife OK actually has a lot of co-ops. What do I know...

[markemorse]

They really are friendly (despite occasionally threatening to beat you with a large stick )...

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Sorry, I'm just catching up....the Herwig's folks sound like every other Austrian I've ever met...friendly, funny, and not unwilling to use a stick to make their point. The food looks awesome! Almost makes me wish I had a hangover, it looks like the perfect grub for it....

[Chris Hennes]

OK, this morning I decided to go to Starbucks to give the new Pike Place Blend a try. It's not bad---reminds me of the Dunkin' Donuts coffee, actually. It is a definite improvement, in my mind, to their previous roasts: I don't take cream or sugar in my coffee, so I always found their original style too roasted to work in anything but espresso drinks. This stuff is more drinkable straight.

I still owe you pictures from yesterday's lunch, dinner, and chocolate adventures: hopefully sometime today IG will be happy again. Last night's dinner was BLTs, and I also made some taco/nacho meat to freeze. Then I coated the truffles I started earlier in the week. I also started some pbjs from Greweling. So, lots of catching up to do, and this weekend is going to be a culinary roller coaster ride of pork and chocolate insanity!

[rooy1960]

and this weekend is going to be a culinary roller coaster ride of pork and chocolate insanity!

Can't wait!!!!

ever best,

Leslie

[Chris Hennes]

Before the weekend extravaganza hits, better finish off the kitchen tour: OK, here come the cabinets. If you reference back to the original photograph of the kitchen in this post, we are starting above the refrigerator and working our way around:

Above the fridge: misc. seldom-used dry goods

Next to the microwave: oils, vinegars and the all-important fish sauce

On the counter right below that: citrus and sea salt

Above the oven and microwave: sugars, salt, starch, etc.

Next to that, the main dry-goods cabinet

Phew. More in another post...

[JanMcBaker]

Phew. More in another post...

Phew is right! And you actually use your label maker!

[Tsulli1]

When I get to my office and get my laptop hooked up, this is what greets me every morning:

You might think based on this that I like bacon... you'd be right! The image on the left monitor is here, and on the right is from here.

Obviously, then, one of the charcuterie items this week is a fresh batch of bacon: here is the mise en place (I did this on Saturday so I could smoke next Sunday and you would get to see the finished product)

I'm actually only curing half the belly this week: the other half will be used in another, yet-to-be-determined, cooking project.

Depending on when my l'Epicerie order comes in, I may also make some Hungarian Paprika Sausages, as well as some Hot-Smoked Andouille. These are all recipes from Ruhlman and Polcyn's Charcuterie (eG thread here).

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I seem to remember hearing about another aerospace engineer turned charcutier (or whatever the italian word is for it). I believe he had a relatively famous son. Batali was his name, I think...

[Chris Hennes]

I seem to remember hearing about another aerospace engineer turned charcutier (or whatever the italian word is for it).  I believe he had a relatively famous son.  Batali was his name, I think...

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lol, I have a few years to go before I can retire to my own "Salumi" ...

Lunch today doesn't really need any photos: I had a chicken queso burrito from the Qdoba across the street: they are a lot like a Chipotle, if you have those where you live. Basic chain burrito place. We have a local "taqueria" a few blocks down that makes burritos, but they are crappy, so when I need my fix, Qdoba is where I go. I think the queso sauce has crack in it: that's the only explanation for its addictive nature. I have to be careful not to eat the whole burrito, though: it has your bad stuff quota for the week, all wrapped up in one tasty tortilla . I prefer to get my bad stuff at dinner...

[dockhl]

Chris~

Does your wife think that we are all nuts, since we clamor for pix of your cabinets (and really care!) ? My husband does.

[nibor]

Chris - honestly now - are your cupboards always that tidy?

[Chris Hennes]

Chris~

Does your wife think that we are all nuts, since we clamor for pix of your cabinets (and really care!) ?

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Chris - honestly now - are your cupboards always that tidy?

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Yes, and yes . The refrigerator is another story entirely...

[Chris Hennes]

Speaking of the cupboards: here is the last batch---Picking up where I left of in my previous cabinet post:

Above the sink: potatoes, onions, nuts, bread

Here is a closeup of the nuts: they deserve it!

Next to that is just plates, etc. After that is the Band-aid cabinet. There is other stuff in there to, but the important thing is the Band-aids:

Finally, the spice rack I put in when I ran out of cabinet space for them:

And I think that's pretty much it where it comes to food in my apartment... did I miss anything?

[lancastermike]

Speaking of the cupboards: here is the last batch---Picking up where I left of in my previous cabinet post:

Above the sink: potatoes, onions, nuts, bread

Here is a closeup of the nuts: they deserve it!

Next to that is just plates, etc. After that is the Band-aid cabinet. There is other stuff in there to, but the important thing is the Band-aids:

Finally, the spice rack I put in when I ran out of cabinet space for them:

And I think that's pretty much it where it comes to food in my apartment... did I miss anything?

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Dude,

You are one organized man. Even your spices are neat. My kitchen was, and never will be, that in shape. We do have the same brand of baking powder. Great blog, Chris, great blog.

[Smithy]

Hmm. Engineer. Aerospace engineer! With tidy shelves! Chris, you're doomed. I foresee a life of being the design engineer who sets up his plans and specs just so, then shouts at those crazy R&D types who tack on impossible additions, and those wild test pilots who try things your designs were never intended to do.

Doomed, I tell ya.

But I do admire your cupboards!

[Chris Hennes]

Dinner tonight was tacos: I was going to make the shells from scratch, but my masa harina smelled off (I haven't used it in months), so I used store-bought shells. I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe for the filling (surprised? ): I made that in advance last night and stored it off in small ramekins in the freezer: one double-batch makes a half-dozen or so dinners. I like mine with red onion, avocado, lime, and sharp cheddar. I also had some Rancho Gordo posole. I'm not sure I made it correctly though: it ended up pretty firm. What is the texture of posole supposed to be? I soaked it for three days in the fridge, then simmered it for two hours today, and it seemed a bit too al dente, but maybe that's what it supposed to be like. Thoughts?

[heidih]

I also had some Rancho Gordo posole. I'm not sure I made it correctly though: it ended up pretty firm. What is the texture of posole supposed to be? I soaked it for three days in the fridge, then simmered it for two hours today, and it seemed a bit too al dente, but maybe that's what it supposed to be like. Thoughts?

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Chris- great blog, amazing kitchen especially considering you are in an apartment, and love the labels.

I think of posole as the stew/soup and hominy as the corn ingredient, but I see Rancho Gordo calls it posole corn. Perhaps more "corn for posole". Anyway, I have not done it from scratch but all the versions I have tasted the corn is definitely not mushy, but has tooth resistance. RG mentions 3 hours of simmering on their site, so maybe just more time, next time. Missed you on the EG server down day!

[MarketStEl]

I got ZERO results for Wegman's, but the City Planning Commission is doing studies for a Whole Foods downtown.

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AFAIK, Wegmans is strictly a Mid-Atlantic phenomenon -- New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. They (and Whole Foods Market, BTW) regularly land on Fortune's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list.

Oh, grind-your-own peanut butter is a time-honored staple at just about every food co-op I've ever visited or belonged to, and many natural foods groceries as well. For instance, the OB (Ocean Beach) People's Co-op here in San Diego has their peanut butter grinder set up in their bulk foods section. The routine is usually just like that for grind-your-own bulk coffee--you dump the (pre-roasted) peanuts in the top, catch the freshly-ground butter in one of the supplied containers as it comes out the spout at the bottom, then you bring your container to the cash register to be weighed and priced. Because the co-op does a brisk business in this stuff, and you grind it on the spot, you know it's super-fresh, with nothing in it but peanuts--plus whatever else you might decide to mix in once you get it home, of course.

At the other end of the spectrum, another purveyor of gourmet nut spreads with all sorts of interesting stuff mixed in is Spread, here in San Diego (which also runs a very avant-cuisine vegetarian restaurant in addition to its nut spread business.

Re: peanut butter gone savory--the idea may take some getting used to for us Americans who think of peanut butter as sweet, but just consider savory peanut sauces from Southeast Asia, such as Indonesian gado-gado or Vietnamese nuoc leo, and then the idea will be much easier to swallow. So to speak.

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Can't even imagine these sauces. Sounds like it's time for a visit to one of my local Vietnamese restaurants. What dishes would I find nuoc leo in?

(The one Indonesian restaurant I'm aware of in Philadelphia is the local outpost of Penang, an East Coast chain of Indonesian restaurants. It's in Chinatown. But I do have a friend -- a retired Drexel math prof who's also a native Kansas Citian -- whose partner is Indonesian, so maybe I could impress upon him to give up the secret...)

The spice shop I patronize, The Spice Corner on 9th Street, has a peanut butter grinder too. Otherwise, I'd probably have to travel all the way up to Mount Airy in the northwest part of the city to find one.

(most of the tour of Chris' precision-engineered kitchen deleted)

Next to the microwave: oils, vinegars and the all-important fish sauce

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Unfortunately, as partner and roommate both have blood pressure issues, fish sauce is an absolute no-no in my repertoire. Given what I've seen of the sodium content of most Asian sauces, I'm beginning to wonder whether anyone on a sodium-restricted diet can eat most East or Southeast Asian cooking. (I don't recall this subject coming up in our tag-team foodblog, mizducky.)

[Katie Meadow]

Chris, when I lived in New Mexico, the families I knew made fantastic posole, using dried corn that was slow-cooked for several hours at least, until it "pops." Lots of them used rice-cookers and had the corn simmering in broth with pork and red chile from morning til dinner. I think some posole corn is "half-cooked" and may take less time, but my memory is that with the real thing you have to cook it until it bursts, which was usually a matter of five or six hours.

[Chris Hennes]

Chris, when I lived in New Mexico, the families I knew made fantastic posole, using dried corn that was slow-cooked for several hours at least, until it "pops." Lots of them used rice-cookers and had the corn simmering in broth with pork and red chile from morning til dinner. I think some posole corn is "half-cooked" and may take less time, but my memory is that with the real thing you have to cook it until it bursts, which was usually a matter of five or six hours.

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OK, thanks for the tips. I thought I had read someplace that 2 hours was the time to shoot for, but I don't know where that was. I will know better next time: I have a lot of posole (the ingredient) left!

I don't know the names of any of the sauces I make, but I have a couple that use peanut butter as the peanut flavoring agent. They are primarily Vietnamese and Thai-inspired, I think. Nothing on the menu this week, I am afraid.

[Chris Hennes]

OK, I just finished pre-bottoming and cutting the PB&Js. Holy cow, those are going to be a real adventure to dip tomorrow! (For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, PB&Js are a two-layer chocolate-covered bon-bon. The top layer is a raspberry jelly and the bottom layer is a peanut butter and chocolate mixture called "gianduja." They taste remarkably like a rich peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To "pre-bottom" is to pre-coat the bottom with chocolate to make them easier to handle. And they have to be cut because you make them in a large sheet, then cut them apart before dipping in the chocolate coating.) The jelly is softer than I expected it to be: I don't know if I screwed it up, or if that's the way it is supposed to be, but I am worried that when I try to dip them the jelly will start to slide around or dissolve into the chocolate.

Well, to calm my frustration, I am currently enjoying a 5:1 gin martini: Tanqueray, Noilly Prat, 8 drops of Fee Bros. orange bitters, and two olives from the olive bar at Wegmans (I don't recall the variety). It is helping...

Mise en place:

Finished martini:

Edited April 12, 2008 by Chris Hennes (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Time warp!! It is now lunchtime on Thursday...

Despite the name, I almost never get sushi there. Stay away from the sushi this far from a body of water... instead, I get the lunch combo, which comes with soup:

Katsudon, and four banchan (that is the term, right?):

The Katsudon is a breaded pork cutlet on rice with a bunch of veggies. Total cost (not including tea): $6.95. And that's a big bowl of Katsudon. If you're in SC and you're hungry, cheap, and picky, this is your place.

[Chris Hennes]

Continuing our time travel, this is last night's dinner: BLTs. Alas, the bacon will not be done until Sunday, so I used store-bought...

Prep and construction:

Final assembly:

Me:

[Chris Hennes]

Phew, we are almost to the present! Here is tonight's dinner... tacos! I have loved tacos since I was a kid. Taco Hell, Ortega, Store Brand, you name it, I love them. Of course, as you might image, when I make them at home I use the Cook's Illustrated recipe for the meat, fresh ground, of course (and aggressively trimmed---who wants greasy tacos?), and I love avocados and red onions, to say nothing of the Cabot extra sharp cheddar. What's not to like?

I include this shot of avocados because avocados are wonderful, and they deserve the attention :

Here is the finished posole:

And finally, the tacos (or at least, the fixins'):

[Chris Hennes]

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I have been working on the Gingerbread truffles from Shotts' book: I finished them last night (they took me three days to finish!). They taste better than they look, I promise!!!

The basic mise en place for the ganache:

I watched "Top Chef" while I coated:

And some more action shots, courtesy of my wife:

Finally, the finished truffles:

I really need to work on how to coat them: the tempered white chocolate set up almost immediately, but I was hoping to roll them all in the puffed rice at one time, at the end. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. Doh! I need practice!

[Domestic Goddess]

Chris, I just love this pic of you (with your BLT dinner)...

You have this "I-can't-wait-to-get-a-bite" look. Adorable!