North Again – the Tradition Continues

[janeer]

nice crostada. What's the fruit? raspberry?

[Kerry Beal]

Strawberry with other mixed fruits. One of those jars of jam that is more fruit, less sugar.

[FrogPrincesse]

Kerry,

You are killing us with all these beautiful pastries. Everything looks incredible. Chocolate croquants - brilliant idea. Never heard of crostada before. Is that more or less like a crumble in tart form? Or do you use pastry cream in there?

[Kerry Beal]

Nope - idiot simple just a push in pastry with jam - link to David Lebovitz's recipe here. Great way to use up old jam.

[FrogPrincesse]

Nope - idiot simple just a push in pastry with jam - link to David Lebovitz's recipe here. Great way to use up old jam.

Thanks; just checked and I have a long forgotten jar of spiced asian pear in the fridge that will be perfect for this recipe!

[Kerry Beal]

Fair to say it was an unsuccessful experiment in separating the liquid - but a successful experiment in terms of getting all the various parts explored. For circulation of water I used a fountain pump immersed in a bucket of ice water. Amazing how quickly the ice melts and the water warms. We kept plenty of towel around just in case something blew!

The vacuum pump was an old Gomco suction pump liberated for the week from the hospital. It will be returning to it's dark corner tomorrow, unlikely to see the light of day until I next liberate it for something.

The water bath heated, the glassware turned, we seemed to have a vacuum in the system, but in spite of that the receiving flask didn't contain a drop. And it wasn't getting sucked into the vacuum pump - because that has a jar between and it didn't contain anything either.

Not sure if it just needs a stronger vacuum or whether there were leaks in the system that I just can't detect.

There will be more experiments when I get back home to investigate further.

[FauxPas]

Ha, if someone were to wander in to your condo and see that varied equipment, they might think you were working on a meth lab or something! Ha.

I love it that you two share details on the failures as well as the successes. You give some very useful info for others trying to work with those recipes or those (like me) who are just thinking of venturing further in terms of equipment and approaches.

And I love your sense of humour!

[Anna N]

Slowing down a bit now as we are heading home tomorrow and buying groceries doesn't make a lot o f sense.

Yesterday I finished up the pork adobo.

Here's the pork:

.

And the luquid, strained, defatted and reducing:

And finally the rest of the liquid with fresh aromatics:

We had the pork over rice for dinner:

Neither me nor Kerry were terribly impressed.

Kerry made our drink:

Intro to Aperol made with (mostly) Genever and we both loved it.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Anna N (log)

[Shelby]

You're already going home tomorrow???? I've loved reading this.

[rotuts]

smart on the Gomco. Ive used systems just like this in the past, and distilled a number of things over time.

What were your precursor(s)? were you able to monitor the temp at the tip (top) of the condensing chamber? if you got a good vacuum and I thought I saw some boiling, your 'still' was probably not cold enough for condensation of the vapor.

interested in your further studies.

[lancastermike]

Fair to say it was an unsuccessful experiment in separating the liquid - but a successful experiment in terms of getting all the various parts explored. For circulation of water I used a fountain pump immersed in a bucket of ice water. Amazing how quickly the ice melts and the water warms. We kept plenty of towel around just in case something blew!

The vacuum pump was an old Gomco suction pump liberated for the week from the hospital. It will be returning to it's dark corner tomorrow, unlikely to see the light of day until I next liberate it for something.

The water bath heated, the glassware turned, we seemed to have a vacuum in the system, but in spite of that the receiving flask didn't contain a drop. And it wasn't getting sucked into the vacuum pump - because that has a jar between and it didn't contain anything either.

Not sure if it just needs a stronger vacuum or whether there were leaks in the system that I just can't detect.

There will be more experiments when I get back home to investigate further.

Am very impressed with this rig and sorry to hear it did not produce. I hope mad Dr. Frankenstein, I mean Dr. Beal will be able to beat it into shape.

As an undergrad we managed to cobble together a working still with parts mostly "borrowed" by my roommate, who was conveniently enough, chemistry major. And distillation of alcohol was indeed out goal.

Staying on the topic, if it does produce a distillate how do you know when it gives you want you are looking for? Perhaps I am wrong, but if you go to long won’t you get things in the distillate that you do not want?

Edited October 26, 2012 by lancastermike (log)

[Kerry Beal]

smart on the Gomco. Ive used systems just like this in the past, and distilled a number of things over time.

What were your precursor(s)? were you able to monitor the temp at the tip (top) of the condensing chamber? if you got a good vacuum and I thought I saw some boiling, your 'still' was probably not cold enough for condensation of the vapor.

interested in your further studies.

Not sure I should tell you! Don't think it was really boiling you saw - think it was the movement of the liquid as it spun. No ability to measure temp at the tip of the condenser except with the use of my IR thermometer. My water going in was about -13 C and coming out about -8 C.

Got a hubby at home who used to build vacuum systems in physics labs - I suspect he'll be able to help me sort this out.

[Kerry Beal]

Fair to say it was an unsuccessful experiment in separating the liquid - but a successful experiment in terms of getting all the various parts explored. For circulation of water I used a fountain pump immersed in a bucket of ice water. Amazing how quickly the ice melts and the water warms. We kept plenty of towel around just in case something blew!

The vacuum pump was an old Gomco suction pump liberated for the week from the hospital. It will be returning to it's dark corner tomorrow, unlikely to see the light of day until I next liberate it for something.

The water bath heated, the glassware turned, we seemed to have a vacuum in the system, but in spite of that the receiving flask didn't contain a drop. And it wasn't getting sucked into the vacuum pump - because that has a jar between and it didn't contain anything either.

Not sure if it just needs a stronger vacuum or whether there were leaks in the system that I just can't detect.

There will be more experiments when I get back home to investigate further.

Am very impressed with this rig and sorry to hear it did not produce. I hope mad Dr. Frankenstein, I mean Dr. Beal will be able to beat it into shape.

As an undergrad we managed to cobble together a working still with parts mostly "borrowed" by my roommate, who was conveniently enough, chemistry major. And distillation of alcohol was indeed out goal.

Staying on the topic, if it does produce a distillate how do you know when it gives you want you are looking for? Perhaps I am wrong, but if you go to long won’t you get things in the distillate that you do not want?

I think that IF I were after alcohol I'd probably have to measure brix to estimate the percentage. I think once the ETOH is off then it required a whole lot more energy to move the water phase over - but it's been a long time since I did any of this stuff.

The guys at Cooking Issues have hooked up a peristaltic pump to their outflow - that way the can sample in real time what's coming out. I don't have a peristaltic pump but I did pick up some tubing for one in one of the lab drawers - all nice new stuff for an instrument they don't have any more.

[Kerry Beal]

Headed out this morning to Burt's Farm to pick up my thanksgiving turkey (thanksgiving being 3 weeks ago), but if you get on the list for a Burt's Farm turkey you don't want your name to fall off that list! They were fortunately a little smaller this year than the average 24 pound behemoths they raised last year.

On the way back we stopped in M'chigeeng (formerly West Bay) First Nation for lunch. We went to a restaurant called Season's. Much to our surprise they allow smoking in the restaurant. I can barely recall the last time in this country I was in a restaurant that allowed it.

A toasted western for Anna

Pastrami on rye for me

Poutine to share. Wish we could find a place that makes their poutine with curds rather than shredded mozzarella.

After an afternoon of packing a whole lot of stuff into a very small closet - we felt we deserved a libation. A Little Italy - but no rye available - so bourbon.

[rotuts]

Poutine! Yar!

[Porthos]

2 weeks went by so quickly. Thanks for sharing your time there. And Anna, I finally get to try the Tea Bread recipe today. I'm going to try golden raisins for the fruit since I have some left over from something else.

[Anna N]

2 weeks went by so quickly. Thanks for sharing your time there. And Anna, I finally get to try the Tea Bread recipe today. I'm going to try golden raisins for the fruit since I have some left over from something else.

Do let us know how it goes. I love golden raisins.

[Kerry Beal]

Last pictures from the road! We stopped in Nairn Centre at Jeremy's Truck Stop - always good for breakfast. The waitress asked if we wanted home fries or potato pancakes - our first impression was that potato pancakes would be typical stodgy pancakes but we decided to take a chance. Instead we got lovely little herbed fried grated potato bits. Served with sour cream. Not quite latke but not a bit stodgy.

[janeer]

Thank you; have a final drink for me! I enjoy those cocktail photos almost as much as the food.

[Kerry Beal]

Thank you; have a final drink for me! I enjoy those cocktail photos almost as much as the food.

Getting a little late for me - but I'm pretty sure Anna was threatening to do something with the leftover Lemon Frizzante that we brought home and some Pimms tonight.

My only task for this evening aside from an early bedtime is to dig out my copy of MC@H.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Porthos]

Anna, I used 2 tea bags of Bigelow's Constant Comment for the strong tea and I put the raisins into the tea as soon as the tea bags came out to help re-hydrate them. Both my DW and I enjoyed the results and we will be trying out different dried fruits very soon.

Because of how we will be serving this next fall, needing to cut it into individual bite-size servings, we will be experimenting with differently shaped pans. And my DW, who is the very much better baker, wants to try dusting the bite-size pieces with powdered sugar.

Thank you again for sharing this recipe.

[Porthos]

Id be very much interested in the Rx for those hermit like cookies. I love a 'chunky' cookie!

Here you go - basically I started with the sour cream recipe that I got from the lady who lived next to my granny on Vancouver Island and added the brown sugar in place of the white, a bit of molasses, the spices mentioned and the dried fruits.

Sour Cream Cookies

• ¼ cup butter
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 ½ cups flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp soda
• 1 cup sour cream or yogurt
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup raisins, soaked
• lemon and orange rind
• Hermit Variation
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp cloves
• ¼ tsp allspice
• 1 cup raisins, soaked
• ½ cup chopped nuts
• ¼ cup peel
• ½ cup chopped dates
• lemon and orange rind

Alternate liquid and dry ingredients. Bake 12-15 minutes at 375

These are going in the cookie tins we do at Christmas:

I did change up the flavors a bit:

Sour Cream Apricot Cookies

1/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sour cream

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1 Tbsp orange zest

1 cup chopped dried apricots, macerated in cream sherry

Pre-heat oven to 375F

Cream butter and sugar, then beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour, salt, and baking soda. Add in sour cream, lemon and orange zests, then apricots.

Bake 12-15 minutes.

I will use a little more zest next time.