Food in the time of a pandemic

[Hassouni]

2 (3?) weeks eating eggs, beans, rice, cured meat, potatoes, and other boring foods (not that they're intrinsically boring, but the repetition certainly has been) had me really, seriously craving some fresh meat, especially a burger. So I took matters into my own hands, bandannaed and gloved up, and went to Whole Foods. They didn't have any ground meat that looked suitable, so I got an 11 oz pack of deboned short rib and some brioche buns. When home, I stuck the meat in a freezer for a bit, and went to it with my freshly sharpened gyuto. I have to say, hand-mincing meat is very satisfying and I don't see why I'd ever buy ground meat again.

 

Anyway, I figured I'd use Kenji's double smash burger approach, and made two balls, got some Gruyère sliced thinly, caramelized some onions, and put my Baking Steel Griddle to good use.

 

 

This may be the best burger I've ever made at home, and hit the spot like a MF.

[heidih]

20 minutes ago, Hassouni said:

2 (3?) weeks eating eggs, beans, rice, cured meat, potatoes, and other boring foods (not that they're intrinsically boring, but the repetition certainly has been) had me really, seriously craving some fresh meat, especially a burger. So I took matters into my own hands, bandannaed and gloved up, and went to Whole Foods. They didn't have any ground meat that looked suitable, so I got an 11 oz pack of deboned short rib and some brioche buns. When home, I stuck the meat in a freezer for a bit, and went to it with my freshly sharpened gyuto. I have to say, hand-mincing meat is very satisfying and I don't see why I'd ever buy ground meat again.

 

 

 Gotcha on the satisfaction of cleaver mincing. Better texture as well. But ya did see the LA Times this morning - stay put

[Hassouni]

I've been staying put, only going shopping about twice a week

[kayb]

I have been trying for three days to get an Aldi order placed for delivery. Apparently they only take delivery orders for the following day. Guess Ill wait until after the store closes at 9 tonight and try then. I may have to break down and go; when I was by the parking lot the other day, it wasn't crowded.

 

A friend reported yesterday it took her an hour and a half in line to pick up her Kroger order. I have one of those scheduled tomorrow. With those two, I'm good for the next couple of weeks.

 

Officials are saying here to expect a mid-May peak in the virus. I guess I'll last that long, not that I have a great deal of choice.

 

If anyone has an interest, a Facebook friend video'ed herself getting tested from the virus at a drive through site. It's enough to make you stay home. I'll send it to anyone interested in the process.

 

 

[Kim Shook]

16 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Pascades

 

I had to Google these.  They sound wonderful!  Would you please share your recipe?

[Margaret Pilgrim]

13 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

I had to Google these.  They sound wonderful!  Would you please share your recipe?

Gladly.    From Clotilde Dusoulier.

[KennethT]

2 hours ago, Hassouni said:

2 (3?) weeks eating eggs, beans, rice, cured meat, potatoes, and other boring foods (not that they're intrinsically boring, but the repetition certainly has been) had me really, seriously craving some fresh meat, especially a burger. So I took matters into my own hands, bandannaed and gloved up, and went to Whole Foods. They didn't have any ground meat that looked suitable, so I got an 11 oz pack of deboned short rib and some brioche buns. When home, I stuck the meat in a freezer for a bit, and went to it with my freshly sharpened gyuto. I have to say, hand-mincing meat is very satisfying and I don't see why I'd ever buy ground meat again.

 

Anyway, I figured I'd use Kenji's double smash burger approach, and made two balls, got some Gruyère sliced thinly, caramelized some onions, and put my Baking Steel Griddle to good use.

 

 

This may be the best burger I've ever made at home, and hit the spot like a MF.

 

I've never tried mincing meat by hand, but you have got my curiosity piqued for sure.  About how long did it take?  You didn't happen to take a video of it did you?  What is the general procedure?  First slice into smallish dice, then whack away?

[heidih]

24 minutes ago, KennethT said:

 

I've never tried mincing meat by hand, but you have got my curiosity piqued for sure.  About how long did it take?  You didn't happen to take a video of it did you?  What is the general procedure?  First slice into smallish dice, then whack away?

 

She nails it (flip handing if a leftie)  

 

[BeeZee]

Peeled the ginger that hubs had bought at the supermarket yesterday, one finger was too woody so I sliced it up. Ate a clementine and scraped the pith off the skin. Threw ginger and clementine skin in a small saucepan with some water and one tsp of sugar and let it simmer away for a while. The straight liquid (more dilute than simple syrup) is spicy, but it's nice added to a glass of water or seltzer. The citrus adds a nice note

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

 

She nails it (flip handing if a leftie)  

 

Is it me or does that cleaver seem pretty dull?  Evidently that doesn't make a big difference to the end result.

[MokaPot]

Maybe put the slab meat in the freezer for a while, then slice thin in different directions, like how you would dice an onion (to the extent possible). Then, start whacking it with the cleaver or whatever.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

It's five weeks today since I was in a grocery store.   No, any store.   And I'd never ordered groceries before in my life.   Humans are adaptable people.😂

[robirdstx]

When we picked up our order from Kroger last Saturday, this is the pork shoulder butt roast we were provided.

 

 

When I do the shopping, I usually pick a much smaller roast, but in this time of fewer choices, I’ll take it! Today I broke the roast down into four portions. Three portions went into the freezer and the fourth went into the Instant Pot for carnitas for dinner tonight.

[Hassouni]

2 hours ago, KennethT said:

 

I've never tried mincing meat by hand, but you have got my curiosity piqued for sure.  About how long did it take?  You didn't happen to take a video of it did you?  What is the general procedure?  First slice into smallish dice, then whack away?

 

I actually used a very sharp (5000 grit) Japanese chef's knife rather than a cleaver. I stuck the meat in the freezer for about an hour to make it easy to cut, then started by cutting the meat in half parallel to the board, then into very thin slices, then those thin slices into about 1/4" dice. Then I sort of just lumped it all up and started chopping as if I was mincing garlic or something. All in all it took about 5 minutes, and I really liked how much control I had over the final texture. If I had stopped at a dice it would've worked really well in some applications (maybe burger, maybe not)

 

ETA: my initial steps were a lot finer than in that video, in that I was cutting almost cheestesteak-thin slices on the first pass, and once i had done enough pull and push cuts, I rock-chopped, not just whacking the board.

 

It really helps to have a very sharp knife and very cold meat.

Edited April 7, 2020 by Hassouni (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

11 minutes ago, Hassouni said:

 

I actually used a very sharp (5000 grit) Japanese chef's knife rather than a cleaver. I stuck the meat in the freezer for about an hour to make it easy to cut, then started by cutting the meat in half parallel to the board, then into very thin slices, then those thin slices into about 1/4" dice. Then I sort of just lumped it all up and started chopping as if I was mincing garlic or something. All in all it took about 5 minutes, and I really liked how much control I had over the final texture. If I had stopped at a dice it would've worked really well in some applications (maybe burger, maybe not)

 

ETA: my initial steps were a lot finer than in that video, in that I was cutting almost cheestesteak-thin slices on the first pass, and once i had done enough pull and push cuts, I rock-chopped, not just whacking the board.

 

It really helps to have a very sharp knife and very cold meat.

 

 

I've chopped meat with a knife this way.  Not recently though.  I have seen it recommended to use two identical knives, one in each hand.  The knives have to be identical though or it throws your rhythm off.

 

[rotuts]

ill suggest this , as Ive actually done it myself :

 

slice your meat w a sharp knife of your choice

 

on you take care of and enjoy using.

 

about to 1/4 "  or even a bit bigger , but not too much

 

if you have a  cuisinart

 

I love my 11 cup Prep ++  

 

make sure the Cuisinart blade is very very sharp 

 

you can actually sharpen it your self

 

or maybe have one of those newer ones

 

which were replacements  , remember ?

 

but very sharp.   then put the meat on a sheet pan 

 

in the freezer , @ about 1/4 "

 

chill for how ever long it takes to get  very firm 

 

but not Fz.     pulse small batches of this in the

 

11 cup ++   just for a few seconds.  less is better

 

and less in the bowl is better

 

then return to the sheet pan in the Fz until very very firm

 

again , and not Fz   

 

repeat until your get to the fine-ness you are looking for

 

Why do this ?   

 

you can do a lot of meat , w some patience 

 

and the meat stays vey cold if you do it correctly

 

and your finger tips will be OverJoyed

 

and you can raise a glass w them in tact 

 

remember  : take your time

 

small batches , very very cold

 

and very very sharp for the cutting edges.

 

Q.E.D

[kayb]

Aldi/Instacart finally took my order! So I pick up groceries at Kroger between 11 and 12 tomorrow, and Aldi brings me more groceries  between 5 and 7! We will be set for a couple of weeks.

[Porthos]

We were able to do our Costco shopping this afternoon so we're set until sometime next week.

 

The parts of the quiche have been cooked/baked and I'll start assembling it in about 5 minutes. I'm 66, been cooking for over 50 years, and yet this is my first quiche ever. I'm using Julia Child's basic recipe from her book The Way To Cook.

[Katie Meadow]

5 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

I've chopped meat with a knife this way.  Not recently though.  I have seen it recommended to use two identical knives, one in each hand.  The knives have to be identical though or it throws your rhythm off.

 

Don't even think about it, Jo.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

38 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

Don't even think about it, Jo.

 

No, seriously, it works.  I tried the method with a 9 inch* chefs knife and a 6 inch chefs knife.  I mean, after all, samurai have two different sized swords.

 

 

Edit:  *correction, 10 inch.  And a 6 inch chefs knife is useless, I gave it away.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[Martin Fisher]

I'm set for months with necessities.

The only thing I'm unfortunately low on is tea.

I guess I can order that via Walmart.

 

 

[liuzhou]

6 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

I've chopped meat with a knife this way.  Not recently though.  I have seen it recommended to use two identical knives, one in each hand.  The knives have to be identical though or it throws your rhythm off.

 

 

The double cleaver chop is the norm here. Two identical cleavers. The market or supermarket meat section will do it for you, but I like to do it myself. I get to do my famous Ringo Starr impression!

[Anna N]

Tesco (grocery store) in the UK is making delivery slots available for the most vulnerable. It is interesting to note that the UK can and does identify the most vulnerable among its population and can provide that list to the grocery store.

My source is buried in this article here.
 

 

[weinoo]

 

 

Fancy dancy - donabe cooked rice, with ginger, watermelon radish, carrots, scallions, halibut. Halibut was cut up partially frozen, and it almost didn't cook too much.

 

 

 

Chicken vegetable soup, house-made bread. Side of slaw and pickled red onions.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

"Stay at home" spotlights holes in our cupboard supplies.     Last week for me it was fresh or dried mushrooms.   Dug into my stash of dried porcini, and ordered in fresh shrooms.    This week, it's fresh ginger.    Normally I use it seldom, but it is now an obsession.     I have the feeling these psychological "hungers" will continue will continue as long as corona.