From Joy of Cooking to Modernist Cuisine

[Kerry Beal]

Had two places that required goodies this am. Grand rounds at the hospital then I was off to Wiki for the day.

Hospital got mini blueberry oatmeal muffins - should have put less batter in the muffin wells, had lots of overgrowth and trouble getting them out of the pan.

For Wiki I took the remainder of the red current PDF's and a loaf of the semolina bread.

Drink before dinner was a Pegu cocktail - thanks to the suggestions over on this thread.

Dinner was sous vide baby backs - finished on the egg, with potato salad and pickles.

Since I had spilled most of my preprandial drink I made another after dinner - a 20th Century which uses gin, lillet, lemon and creme de cacao. Thought I might not like it - but did!

[prasantrin]

What blueberry oatmeal muffin recipe are you using? I love muffins that look like they have crunchy tops!

[Kerry Beal]

What blueberry oatmeal muffin recipe are you using? I love muffins that look like they have crunchy tops!

That would be the old Robin Hood flour Blueberry Oatmeal Melt Your Heart Muffins that were in one of those little Robin Hood flyers a bunch of years ago.

1 cup oats

1 cup buttermilk or yogurt

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¾ cup brown sugar

1 egg beaten

¼ cup melted butter

1 cup frozen blueberries

Combine oats with buttermilk and let stand. Add egg and melted butter. Stir in dry ingredients just until moist. Add berries. Bake at 400 F for 15-22 minutes.

[bmdaniel]

I second Sam's advice and will also say it's a very foolproof way of making hollandaise as well (just microwave the butter)

[Anna N]

This is as ambitious as I am likely to get today:

[Kerry Beal]

Today's offering - the Fruit Crumble bars from Smitten Kitten.

Our preprandial drink - Intro to Aperol - yummy!

Dinner tonight - tocino grilled on the egg, and a couple of eggs over easy.

[rotuts]

there is a good chance Ive already posted this ref.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/dining/the-cult-of-the-big-green-egg-united-tastes.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=big%20green%20egg&st=cse

if so, you can blame it on the Young, but Amusing Meursault I tend to enjoy later in the day.

(TJ's 4 $$)

I havent seen a Petit GE but what do I know.

a long time ago I was intersted in this:

http://www.traegergrills.com/shop/grills/BBQ055

its quite small as Ive seen it at My Wood Stove Place.

this might be better:

http://www.traegergrills.com/shop/grills/BBQ07E

but the smallest ive seen does not have the Ht. for Beer Can Ckicken.

when those internest's ask you how many glasses of wine you drink /day, just say 2

they wont ask you how big they are !

Edited July 20, 2011 by rotuts (log)

[Anna N]

This morning I finally bit the bullet and attempted the American Cheese Slice from Modernist Cuisine. Later this evening I will see how it turned out.

For a quick lunch today I roasted some cauliflower with some bacon and served mine with a shower of grated parmesan. Kerry had to eat hers rather quickly in order to return to emerg so she missed out on the shower of cheese!

(Really must consider upgrading my camera soon!)

[heidih]

Roasting the cauliflower with the bacon - such a simple yet brilliant idea, and of course one I have never thought of. I find that at high temp of 400 or so, my cauliflower takes around 45 minutes with lots of opening the door and flipping around to avoid burned bits. How did the bacon factor into the timing?

[Anna N]

Roasting the cauliflower with the bacon - such a simple yet brilliant idea, and of course one I have never thought of. I find that at high temp of 400 or so, my cauliflower takes around 45 minutes with lots of opening the door and flipping around to avoid burned buts. How did the bacon factor into the timing?

Most of the bacon which was rather thick-cut survived but next time I might add the bacon a little later in the game as some pieces were definitely over cooked to the point of being almost cremated. Still it made for a very tasty lunch.

The idea is not mine but was adapted from a blog - I am sorry that I cannot give you an original source but I do know that it called for garlic which I left out of mine.

[heidih]

I suppose I see the dilemma in adding it later that I will be doubling up fats - if I lube up the vegetable to get it going because the bacon has not rendered.... well I am sure you see where this goes - I shall experiment when weather and cauliflower availability & loveliness are in synch

[Kerry Beal]

This morning's offering - some dipped oreos, bark made with Spice House Caribbean Calypso, and some giant marshmallows dipped in some dark chocolate. You can see what a good insulator a marshmallow is - throws the chocolate out of temper.

A had a bit of time at home over lunch - and broke out the smoking gun for some experiments - the first smoking butter, the second smoking some bourbon. Pretty smoky bourbon let me tell you. I'm going to let the butter sit a bit to mellow before tasting it.

I'm sure the tubing we used is food grade - we put it through people's chests all the time.

For our drink this evening we made Old Fashioneds - hadn't realize there was so much controversy - tried to keep it simple.

Fired up the egg with the little wok I'd brought up and seasoned for the occasion - made Rona's moms beef and onions - rib eye seasoned with garlic and toyomansi. A little wok with a lot of stuff in it - isn't the most desirable combination.

[rotuts]

I hope that Chest tube wasnt "Pre-Owned" if it had a trocar what did you use that for?

[Kerry Beal]

I hope that Chest tube wasnt "Pre-Owned" if it had a trocar what did you use that for?

Definitely not preowned - actually just a length out of the box. But I do find there are lots of handy things around that can be repurposed in the kitchen.

[Anna N]

As promised a report on the American Cheese Slice from Modernist Cuisine.

The process went rather well although the rather anemic stick blender we have up here was barely up to the task and my arm was pretty tired by the time I finished. But the cheese sauce was smooth and poured into the mold without too much trouble. (The mold was an empty "Arizona" drink can made of really thin aluminum.)

However, the resulting roll of processed cheese is very, very "squishy" and cutting a slice is pretty much impossible without distorting the slice rather badly. I would describe the consistency of mine as very close to "Laughing Cow" cheese triangles and the taste not too different.

I am guessing that this recipe depends a great deal on the cheese you choose and generic "sharp cheddar" and "Swiss cheese" is probably insufficiently explained to reach the same results as did the Modernist Cuisine team.

Still I considered the experiment worth the time and the ingredients and it made a very tasty breakfast:

[judiu]

Anna, did you try the "dental floss, cross hands and pull" technique? Usually works on extra soft cheeses...

[rob1234]

I froze my leftover american cheese and it was easy to slice after letting it defrost slightly.

[Anna N]

Anna, did you try the "dental floss, cross hands and pull" technique? Usually works on extra soft cheeses...

Would have gone this route but used up my last stretch of dental floss the night before and besides it was mint-flavoured.

Will be looking for more dental floss and stressing the need for the unflavoured kind.

Thanks for the tip though.

[Anna N]

I froze my leftover american cheese and it was easy to slice after letting it defrost slightly.

Will be trying this tactic soon. Thanks.

[christine007]

I got beat to it, but I was logging in to say you wouldn't believe the things I slice with dental floss, regarding the surgical tube in use!

This thread is so much fun, thanks to both of you for taking the time to share.

[Kerry Beal]

Crostata from David Lebovitz's site - used 70 grams of oatmeal that I made into oat flour in the TMX in place of the cornmeal. Used the remaining Fig Butter from the Figgy Buckwheat scones, topped with a bit of the citron tea mix. Very well received at work.

Tonight we had eG'er Beth Wilson join us for dinner - made some Ward 8's using a small hit of the smoked bourbon I made yesterday - disappointing to say the least. Over the balcony they went - to be replaced by a couple of Intro's to Aperol (which is quickly becoming my newest favourite beverage). Little crisis of ice however! If you are going to get into this cocktail world - you need an unlimited source of good ice. We had to break in to our big chunks of ice that we use for cooling our sous vide stuff.

Before I got too many sheets to the wind - started working on dinner - fajitas. We had brought skirt steak with us - Anna liberally applied Penzey's southwestern blend to it yesterday and it's been waiting in the fridge since. A few minutes on the egg and it was perfectly cooked.

We'd done some peppers and some cipollini onions first.

Assembled - skirt steak, some crispy chicharrones from the pressured cooked pork skin, plus all the usual suspects made for a tasty dinner.

[ChrisZ]

... just ensure you're not using mint flavoured floss! (some things you learn from experience)

[Anna N]

While Kerry worked yesterday I sat back on the balcony, watched the boats and sipped this dark lager:

Then I roused myself to make a couple of pre-dinner nibbles:

potato skins

and

cherry tomatoes with a creamy basil dressing.

Found myself challenged for the dressing. It is a very small amount and I usually mix it in my Magic Bullet. Not even the stick blender was really up to the task so there were rather large pieces of basil still in evidence. Didn't seem to matter too much as most of the tomatoes disappeared rather quickly.

Today I am making spanakopita triangles, Kentucky BBQ sauce from MC and sweet and sour cipollini onions also from MC.

We are past the halfway point in our month up here on the Island so it behooves us to try and use up our perishables!

[Kerry Beal]

Forgot to take pictures of my Andouille Puffs this am before leaving - so about an hour after I got to work there were a couple left to get a picture of.

Drink this evening - Jungle Bird - made with aperol in place of the campari. You'll notice the 3 glasses - we have another friend visiting - a friend since high school - just a couple of years back (LOL).

We picked up a nice chunk of pork belly, brined overnight, cooked sous vide for 12 hours at 82º C. Tried to brown in cast iron - all the good bits are still in the bottom of the pan! Celeriac puree, made in the TMX - steamed in the varoma, pureed with some butter, salt and a bit of the pork gelee from the belly. Sauced with the Kentucky BBQ sauce from MC made with the smoked bourbon - perfect!

[mkayahara]

We picked up a nice chunk of pork belly, brined overnight, cooked sous vide for 12 hours at 82º C. Tried to brown in cast iron - all the good bits are still in the bottom of the pan!

Did you go straight from the water bath to the skillet? I've always heard the recommendation that pork belly be chilled/pressed after heating and before browning. When I did pork belly sous vide, that's the approach I took, and it worked well.

Of course, I also browned in a Teflon pan, and that might've helped too.