North Again – the Tradition Continues

[Kerry Beal]

It's the fall and I'm up working up north in Manitoulin again. Anna has come along - as has a copy of Modernist Cuisine at Home. We thought we'd share what we are making and eating with you while we are here.

Oh yeah - we also brought along the Rotovap - hoping we can hook that baby up and make it work - but need to sort out the cold water circulation for it.

We've got some teff flour fermenting in the kitchen - we'd like to try making some injera - a batch of MCAH chicken stock is cooling it's heels in the fridge.

Anna has already made the MCAH parsnip and apple soup, the rather disappointing broccoli and gruyere soup, a batch of mozzarella (she's in her cheesemaking phase), a tea cake (made with leftover tea and little else) and a savoury walnut quick bread.

I've made a lardy cake, banana bread and banana blueberry bakeshop muffins.

We have to make a box full of chocolates (that would be 270 pieces) for the upcoming Luxury Chocolate Show that is happening right after we get back home and work on a recipe for a class at Fortino's later in November. I think for that I'm going to make a coffee orange truffle - need to be sure to work around the products they sell in the store - which does limit me a bit.

Let us start you off with a picture of the breakfast we had on the drive up here on Saturday - we stopped at at restaurant called Fran's in Barrie - seemed like a fairly decent breakfast place.

We were a little peckish by the time we got fed - and forgot to take a picture before we started. I had ordered eggs and a croissant (I read that as eggs in a croissant - so imagine my surprise when the eggs came draped over the uncut croissant) - it did require a bit of effort to turn it in to what I was expecting.

Anna chose sunny side up with sausage - the sausage looked quite strange but apparently tasted just fine.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

We had stopped in Costco in Sudbury enroute to grab some nice steaks, lamb chops and cheese.

Dinner the first night was a couple of rib eyes cooked on the gasser - the mini BGE didn't get set up until today when the rain stopped long enough to allow it.

We opted for a negroni to drink - but it was challenging - having not yet made any ice!

Edited October 16, 2012 by Kerry Beal (log)

[ElsieD]

Looking forward to the posts. I enjoyed them very much the last time. The sausages look like they are missing their casings which makes me think they formed them at the diner. Strange way to serve eggs, draped over a croissant like that.

[Kerry Beal]

So we were sitting around on Sunday morning in our PJ's deciding how we were going to spend (for spend read waste) the day when the phone rang. One of the docs who proceeded to tell me all about the patients in hospital - my response "does that mean I'm on call today?" Apparently I was. So a quick shower and headed off to see what needed to be done.

I came home at lunch time to some lovely onion bhajis -

I spent most of the day in and out of the emerg but did manage to get home for dinner! Of course each time the damn phone would ring.

We managed to make some kimchi pancakes for dinner -

[Kerry Beal]

While I ran back and forth I started a loaf of Lardy Cake - prompted by the discussion in the thread Lard and butter and fat – oh my!

I didn't have any home rendered lard in the freezer here - but I did find some browned butter with extra milk solids made in the pressure cooker a la Ideas in Food. Oh my god - what an excellent choice of fat that turned out to be. I followed this recipe. I forgot to sprinkle the sugar between the layers - but the caramelized milk solids made the loaf perfectly sweet - no sugar needed.

[Kerry Beal]

We had a few minutes on Sunday between trips to the ER to hit the grocery store. I managed to convince the produce manager that a couple of bunches of bananas weren't going to survive for much longer and it would be helpful if he reduced them then so I could make some banana bread.

Monday morning I need to make something for rounds so I sliced up a few of the bananas, added some blueberries, a bit of lemon oil and made the Fine Cooking Bakeshop Muffins for grand rounds. Neglected to realize that rounds start earlier in the fall than the summer - but apparently all is forgiven if you bring food!

Anna meanwhile was using some leftover cold tea to make Tea Bread - nothing more than tea, brown sugar, dried fruit and self raising flour. It was a hit today in the clinic.

Monday night we had a nice chunk of sirloin that had been sousved then finished off on the gasser - still raining cats and dogs.

We had invited a friend for drinks - we made Fog Cutter's - gotta work on the recipe - too much lemon. My god there is a lot of booze in there. No wonder we were so loquacious.

[nibor]

I love it when you two head north.

Please post location photos when you are out and about.

Or "oot and aboot" as my Canadian friends say.

[Kerry Beal]

Today was my birthday - I arrived at the clinic with Anna's tea bread and a loaf of banana bread - to discover that they had made a nice Turtle cake for me. I had to wear the silly hat while they sang happy birthday and took my picture. Fortunately the pink feather boa that they usually make you wear had been eaten by someone's dog! Perhaps not so good for the dog. Farted feathers for a week they say.

Tonight we enjoyed a Maxamillian Affair. A fine drink indeed!

Dinner was the lovely little lamb chops we had gotten at Costco - sousved at 54.5, then finished off on the Egg. One of our welcome presents was a rather large butternut squash along with a small acorn squash. Anna drizzled it with oil, baked - then rebaked with gruyere and served with Devil's Honey (buckwheat honey and hot chili flakes).

[Tri2Cook]

We opted for a negroni to drink - but it was challenging - having not yet made any ice!

An undiluted negroni... I bet that was an eye-opener.

[Anna N]

I was excited to find a copy of MCAH on the car seat when Kerry picked me up on Saturday morning.  As she began the long drive (+500 km) to Manitoulin I used my house key to breach the excellent packaging of this copy of MCAH.  However it did not take long for me to abandon even a quick browse of the contents as the size and weight of the beast in the confines of the car proved daunting.  I waited until we were settled in to our temporary home on the Island to really get into it.

As Kerry mentioned we stopped in Barrie for breakfast and in Sudbury for provisions.  In addition to Costco, we dropped into HomeSense where Kerry got some cookies to dip in chocolate and I found a skimmer for curd-draining and a small slate cheese serving tile.  We also dropped into Chapters where Kerry picked up a copy of Lucky Peach and a copy of Adriano Zumbo's Zumbo and I bought a cheese book (you can tell I'm in my cheese phase can't you?

From MCAH So I have had two successes and one failure.  The pressure cooked chicken stock and the apple parsnip soup were revelatory; the broccoli and gruyere soup not so much.  It tasted scorched and bitter.  There was minmal evidence of some slight scorching on the bottom of the pressure cooker but I was careful to avoid adding it to the blender.  Apparently not careful enough as we had to bin the soup. It was quite inedible.  I am anxious to hear reports from others who attempt it.

A number of members have tried different chicken wing recipes from MCAH and I am anxious to attempt the boneless yakitori wings.  The sauce may have to wait though as this is Manitoulin off-season and even leeks are classed as an exotic vegetable!

My mozzarella, like the broccoli soup, was a complete failure.  I have made it at home with reasonable success but my suspicion is that the milk on the Island, from a fairly local dairy, is pasteurized using HTST (high temp, short time) making it unsuitable for cheese making.

The tea cake, a recipe from my sister in England, went over well with the hospital staff when Kerry showed up with it.  It strikes me as a recipe that shouldn't work but does.  It contains no eggs, no fat, and no dairy.  

The walnut bread is interesting in that it contains no sugar or sweetener and therefore makes a nice accompaniment to cheese.  

Not sure yet what I might get up to today.  

[rotuts]

many thanks for this!

[Kerry Beal]

For breakfast this morning I took the remaining kimchi pancake batter, added and extra egg or two and some scallions. Eating it right now with some hoisin sauce. A very satisfactory breakfast.

[SylviaLovegren]

The two of you really should do a book...The Manitoulin Diaries.

[MelissaH]

No rotovap pictures yet?

(Just kidding.)

In the synthetic organic chemistry labs I worked in, the original setup for a rotovap required two separate sources of water: one for the aspirator to provide suction, and another for the cooling coil. However, over time, it became less acceptable to stream raging torrents of water down the drain for many minutes at a time, especially if the solvents we were removing were low-boiling and therefore not adequately captured by a cold-water cooling system. There were two refinements to counter the water issues. One was a sort of pump that generated the suction. I don't know the exact details, but because I remember needing to add ice to the thing as we used it (and make sure that there was still liquid water in it, that the water hadn't all slid out the drain hose at the top of the box), I suspect it might have been a little pump that used an ice-water bath to stay cool. The other was an alternate coolant system: for most things, we could use a recirculating ice water bath, but when we did reactions in ether, we'd use a cold finger with acetone and dry ice inside or we wouldn't collect anything.

I'll be interested to see what you rig up, because I don't know many people who would be willing to dedicate the gallons of water to a rotovap the way we did in lab, once upon a time.

MelissaH

[KennethT]

The pump you talk about that required ice was an aspirator vacuum pump - works the same way as the faucet aspirator, but recycles the water so you don't waste tons of it. The ice is used because the cold water will result in a stronger vacuum.

I don't know what kind of rotovap they have (I can't wait to see it!) but many modern ones use a vacuum pump that does not use water - like a diaphragm pump since you can get much greater vacuum than you can with an aspirator pump.

Looking forward to what you ladies come up with this week!!!

[Anna N]

[Anna N]

So today began by taking apart a duck that we had brought with us and that has finally thawed.  I want the legs for MCAH's Braised Duck with Steamed Buns, the carcass to make the stock for braising the legs and the breasts for a meal for me and Kerry.  And since steamed buns are unlikely to be found anywhere within reasonable driving distance, the next task was to make the dough for the steamed buns from Momofuku.  While the dough rises I am making some crispy deep-fried shallots for no other reason than that I can!  And because I am of the opinion that crispy shallots, like bacon and butter, improve almost anything.

Someone left us a couple of squashes so we had part of the butternut one yesterday and today I looked around saw the remainder and lots of carrots.  In the fridge is plenty of both store-bought and MCAH chix stock leading me to think soup!  So the squash and carrots are roasting in the oven.  When they are tender and a little caramelized I plan on pureeing them in the Thermomix, adding some flavourful stock and a little garam masala for a curried squash and carrot soup.  It's cold and rainy on the Island so soup can really cheer one up.  

Well it appears that I am a bit lost using the iPad to upload photos and text but bear with me. I am sure you will have no difficulty relating the photos in one post to the text in the next!

[Porthos]

Anna, if your willing to publish the tea bread recipe I have some vegan friends I'd like to serve it to.

[Kerry Beal]

No rotovap pictures yet?

(Just kidding.)

In the synthetic organic chemistry labs I worked in, the original setup for a rotovap required two separate sources of water: one for the aspirator to provide suction, and another for the cooling coil. However, over time, it became less acceptable to stream raging torrents of water down the drain for many minutes at a time, especially if the solvents we were removing were low-boiling and therefore not adequately captured by a cold-water cooling system. There were two refinements to counter the water issues. One was a sort of pump that generated the suction. I don't know the exact details, but because I remember needing to add ice to the thing as we used it (and make sure that there was still liquid water in it, that the water hadn't all slid out the drain hose at the top of the box), I suspect it might have been a little pump that used an ice-water bath to stay cool. The other was an alternate coolant system: for most things, we could use a recirculating ice water bath, but when we did reactions in ether, we'd use a cold finger with acetone and dry ice inside or we wouldn't collect anything.

I'll be interested to see what you rig up, because I don't know many people who would be willing to dedicate the gallons of water to a rotovap the way we did in lab, once upon a time.

MelissaH

No pictures yet - it's still in the trunk of the car.

I did bring a small vacuum pump that I think will work. The day before we drove up here I finally fessed up to hubby that I'd bought the thing (just hadn't gotten around to mentioning it!) and asked what he knew about recirculating cold water pumps. He said he had one buried in our storage locker somewhere that he'd bought from Active Surplus in Toronto years before - he thought he might use it for the boat's cold box. Guess I should have told him well before - he'd have dug it out for me!

I did follow a salt water fish tank water chiller that was on e-bay for a while - thought that might do the trick.

[Kerry Beal]

The pump you talk about that required ice was an aspirator vacuum pump - works the same way as the faucet aspirator, but recycles the water so you don't waste tons of it. The ice is used because the cold water will result in a stronger vacuum.

I don't know what kind of rotovap they have (I can't wait to see it!) but many modern ones use a vacuum pump that does not use water - like a diaphragm pump since you can get much greater vacuum than you can with an aspirator pump.

Looking forward to what you ladies come up with this week!!!

Not one of the fancy new ones sadly!

[Anna N]

Anna, if your willing to publish the tea bread recipe I have some vegan friends I'd like to serve it to.

Really very simple. Can be done in units. To fit an 8 x 4 loaf pan I use

1 cup strong cold tea

1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar

1 cup mixed dried fruit (or suit yourself and just use raisins, craisins or what have you. My nieces like glace cherries)

2 cups self-raising flour

Dissolve the sugar in the cold tea and add the fruit. Let stand at room temp. overnight.

Grease a loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Sift the self-raising flour into the tea and mix just until the flour is all moistened. Put into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 F for 50 mins to an hour or until tester comes out clean

Cool on rack for 5 mins then turn out of pan and leave on rack to cool completely.. Wrap in parchment paper (butcher's wrap) and leave at room temp overnight. Slice and serve with butter (or not).

[maggiethecat]

Man oh man oh Manitoulin! Thanks, Ladies: I always consider your posts from the island as a holiday. (Well, for me, not for you.) I think I can say without fear of contradiction, that you are eating better than any other two people on the island. Love the Lardy cake.

[toolprincess]

Love your trips! thanks for posting!

[Kerry Beal]

Anna is struggling away in the kitchen trying to post from her iPad on Tapatalk - I've got a nice little Macbook air in this room - bet I get my post up first!

Ganache experiment for the Fortino's class - bittersweet chocolate, expresso bean infusion, orange marmalade and orange oil - oops forgot the butter!

[Anna N]

Here are the Momofuku buns doing their first rise:

And even without the help of a single modernist technique lunch was very satisfying: