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eG Foodblog: Adam Balic - An Australian in Scotland


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Everything looks wonderful (and I really enjoy the pictures of the shops, please keep them coming, since joining E-Gullet I've realized that I'm a shop-voyeur :biggrin: ) but the lamb really fascinates me. Oh it must smell lovely with the cinnamon and the cumin and the nuts! Can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done.

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Well, breakfast is a couple of dry biscuits with vegemite, cofffe and pain killers.

Dinner was only for six last night, which is unusual. Cooking for six is as much work as 8-10 (but my wife claims it is easier to clean up after), but you get to cook less things, so it isn't as interesting.

We started with dips and a few bubbles...

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So here is the fish. People really, really liked the Lebanese stuffing and I should have made much more. The fish had a good flavour, but there was very little of it. For a 45 cm fish, it had very little flesh, being mostly spines, spikes and fangs.

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Not a good image of the lamb. The lamb was braised in lamb stock (made from the bones), tomato and a few spices for 6 hours at 120.C. At this point I added the burghul (which was toasted in oil/butter), sealed the lid and cooked it like a pilau. Lamb was pink and tender etc, wheat was really tasty, so I was happy.

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We had this salad. Next time I would cut up the pitta into smaller pieces. My original idea was to use the bread as a scoop, but this was stupid.

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Dessert was very simple, melon marinated in white port, orange flower water and mint. More drained yoghurt with Tasmania Leatherwood honey and raspberries.

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Right I am off to Birmingham to watch a game of cricket. Guess what dish created in this city that I will be eating tonight.

As I am cooking for guests on Monday I have one cooking task to do, that is to marinate some ox-tail in red wine. I will put this in the oven on sunday night to slowly braise.

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Just a splendid blog, Adam. Wonderful pictures -- and yes, I think one of the most interesting things aboout recent blogs is the peek into grocery shopping round the world.

I have to ask -- I don't know this expression, I love it, want to use it correctly:

I can't be arsed. When I have been arsed,

I can't be bothered. When I have been enthusiastic....Something like that?

Brum I know, but Balti?

Margaret McArthur

"Take it easy, but take it."

Studs Terkel

1912-2008

A sensational tennis blog from freakyfrites

margaretmcarthur.com

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Maggie, to my understanding, "arsed" simply means "bothered" or "taken the trouble" (i.e., bothered to) ...it also works as a verb: "Arse yourself!" something between "Move your ass!" and "Get a move on!" and "Stop being so lazy, you stupid lout!"

...or I may have been reading a bit much into it :raz:

Agenda-free since 1966.

Foodblog: Power, Convection and Lies

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Right I am off to Birmingham to watch a game of cricket. Guess what dish created in this city that I will be eating tonight.

As I am cooking for guests on Monday I have one cooking task to do, that is to marinate some ox-tail in red wine. I will put this in the oven on sunday night to slowly braise.

To watch THE cricket?

Don't expect any posts for at least 24 hours.

(edit: I am still recovering from watching it on TV. England won by 2 runs. The most exciting test match I have ever watched.)

Edited by balex (log)
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Right I have made a few dips for dinner tonight. I was going to make a few other things (I always over cater, sometimes dramtically so), but have been out of for most of the day. What we have here is Baba Ghannooge, Hommus bi-Tahineh (a bit lumpy) and drained (for 48hrs) yoghurt with mint. I will dress them later. Dip for punters: Blow torch works real well on eggplant for Baba Ghannooge.

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Adam. really enjoying your blog. If you want a solution to a slightly lumpy hummus, Paula Wolfert has some wonderful advice on this thread:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=70271&hl=

Apparently the key is leaving the skins out.

The shoulder of lamb sounds wonderful.

We await your return.

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Well back from Birmingham, where I saw possibly the best game of test match cricket for a decade and I went to a Balti house.

As far as I can tell it is a way of making curries which originated in Birmingham, not sure of the exact details, but it is named after the dish it is cooked and served in. Sort of a sizzling hot plate type effect in the end. The Balti houses are quite interesting, ranging from pretty modest places, to more up market joints. However, the vast majority are BYO and amazingly cheap.

While making our minds up, we were given these onion bhaji.

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In the end we chose a 'chef's special' (loads of coriander and lemon) and a more traditional Madras curry. Both good and long with naan, rice and a jug of Lassi, this cost us £11 a head. Bargin.

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Our other meals in Brum were this Curry Laska from the startling in appearance Selfridges. I love curry laska and have had it only once in the last 2 years. This one was OK, but not quite right. I really must make it myself.

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Infact, the only really bad food we had was the Full English Breakfast, were my request for a poached egg was met with complete confusion "Chef doesn't know how to do that". Well chef did attempt it and chef fucked it up quite royally, my plate was swimming in water.

And the airport dinner. This is what I got after waiting in line for half an hour. It represented one very few choices of hot food (other then Burger King). In a city that has invented the Balti, why do they serve this crap? There was no Balti at the airport or any Sub-Continental food at all. What a crime.

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Right plane was late, it is after 12:00 and I have just browned some oxtail, put it into a pot with red wine and aromatics and poped into the oven at 60.C. Hopefully, it will be done by dinner tomorrow.

Edited by Adam Balic (log)
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Well after 8 hours at 60.C the meat on the oxtail pieces is still contracted and far too tough to eat. This is to be expected as the collagen in the connective tissue should not have broken down yet. The stew is now cooling and after work I will defat the liquid and cook the stew at a higher tempeature to break down the collagen to lip smacking gelatin. I am hoping that the very high connective tissue will buffer the texture of the meat, so that it doesn't feel dried out. I wonder if a shorter (3-4 hours) cooking time at a higher temperature would be better (not a popular theory at the moment) for this particular cut of meat.

One interesting thing that seems to happen at this low temperature is that all the colour is extracted out of the red wine and usually complexs with the protein scum that floats to the top of the fat layer. The remaining liquid is extremely clear (most likely due to the lack of aggetated movement in the liquid which would incourage tiny particles to become suspended in the liquid) and if I fussed about enough I guess you could have a clear broth that tasted of red wine, but what I think I might do is to reduce the liquid, colour it with chocolate and thicken it with butter at the end to give it a nice shine and some body. With all the dissolved gelatin it should 'feel' thick on the tongue, but if I make it look a more luscious then this should add to the effect. That's what I am thinking anyway.

Edited by Adam Balic (log)
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Too late she cried waving her wooden leg. But thank you (looked at your eGCI course an made at 'best guess' at the oxtail)

The problem is that the dynamics of the reactions horribly complicated an knowledge of how one cut of meat cooks, doesn't nessarily translate to another. Collagen breaks down at at set temperature, but I it also takes energy to do this. With really collagen rich cut like the tail, that is a lot of energy that has to be put it, mean while the muscle fibres get more dried out.

I have a really neat temperature probe, which I have been using to note down how various cuts cook, but as this was an overnight cooking, there was no point.

Edited by Adam Balic (log)
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Just a splendid blog, Adam. Wonderful pictures -- and yes, I think one of the most interesting things aboout recent blogs is the peek into grocery shopping round the world.

I have to ask -- I don't know this expression, I love it, want to use it correctly:

I can't be arsed. When I have been arsed,

I can't be bothered. When I have been enthusiastic....Something like that?

Brum I know, but Balti?

Tah Maggie. Re: "Can't be arsed". It could be an Australianism ("I don't give a rat's arse" and "Running around like a blue arsed fly" definately are), but it seems to be popular in the UK as well. For more tips on how to use this phrase on the internet click here (only if you can be arsed). :wink:

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Collagen breaks down at at set temperature, but I it also takes energy to do this. With really collagen rich cut like the tail, that is a lot of energy that has to be put it, mean while the muscle fibres get more dried out.

I

Not quite. Collagen breaks down at any temperature, but the speed of breakdown is very temperature dependant. Nathanm discusses this on the the sous-vide thread, for example cooking ribs at 55C for 24-36 hours.

In BBQ there is a stall in the even temperature rise at around 75C/175F, which is attributed to the collagen dissolving, but think might just be the fat melting

Edited by jackal10 (log)
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Well I am a complete amateur in regards to this, so all advise is most welcome. My understanging was that collagen denatures at about 60C/140F? Are you saying that it will break down at lower temperatures as well. In otherwords I had though of the break down of collagen to gelatin as having something of a typical S shaped curve, are you saying it is linear?

What I find difficult is the application of detailed chemisty like breakdown of collagen to gelatin with application at a macro level. Can knowing how a cut of meat cooks, help in knowing how another will react, without empirical testing?

For instance doe the large amount of collagen and bone in a oxtail insulate the meat more then in other cuts?

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I guess that the S shaped curve is measuring the rate of denaturation v temp, rather then % of denaturation v temp as well, which complicates things.

I would never have guessed that my grandmothers had such an intuitive grasp of mathematics. Next time I see them I wil have to ask them about what level quantum uncertainty they find in their bread making. No wonder grandma Balic never liked Schrödinger. :smile:

Edited by Adam Balic (log)
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Well I am a complete amateur in regards to this, so all advise is most welcome. My understanging was that collagen denatures at about 60C/140F? Are you saying that it will break down at lower temperatures as well. In otherwords I had though of the break down of collagen to gelatin as having something of a typical S shaped curve, are you saying it is linear?

What I find difficult is the application of detailed chemisty like breakdown of collagen to gelatin with application at a macro level. Can knowing how a cut of meat cooks, help in knowing  how another will react, without empirical testing?

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

Oh, sorry.

You, too, Jack.

Please, do, the two of you, write a book on How to Cook an Oxtail. Please. "Mathematics and Uncertainty In Meats". Oh! I would not understand a word of it but it would be lovely. . . :biggrin:

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The thought has not escaped me that I really should have thought throught this announcing what I am going to cook.

Just forget about all that discussion which demonstrates my obvious cack-handedness in the kitchen and imagine that I said:

"Tonight I will be cooking Oxtail. Was quite happy with the result, but I think I can do better next time"*

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* Applogies to tomcbell for nicking his excellent image. :wink:

Edited by Adam Balic (log)
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Your food has been astonishingly lovely and amazingly tasty-looking, Adam.

Quite impressive it is. . .whether the road to it comes from mathematics and biology or "wherever". Quite impressive indeed (said without the least hint of silliness).

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Can knowing how a cut of meat cooks, help in knowing  how another will react, without empirical testing?

And to continue in a serious manner for a moment, my own answer to this, (not phrased in the elegance of scientific language). . .is yes, "knowing" how a cut of meat cooks can help in knowing how another will react, without empirical testing. . .in an broad-based sort of way. As long as you know the basic similarities and differences in the meats, as you obviously do.

But problems can and do arise sometimes when one depends on this method to be sure-fire. Because the oxtail (for example) (although oxtail is probably less subject to general differences than perhaps other cuts might be) that comes from one vendor, or from one steer, can actually be different than the one from another vendor or another steer. Differences in feed, in breed, in age at butchering time, in handling along the way to the consumer. . .all these things can sometimes make a difference.

We don't see that too often for standardization is so across-the-board in general.

But it does happen once in a while, to the consternation of the cook. And then of course, the "empirical testing" has to come into play right at the moment in the form of adjustments.

You are not "cack-handed" (whatever that means :biggrin: ) in the kitchen at all.

Betcha there is not a professional chef in the world that has not had the same thing happen at one time or another. . .

Food can be mysterious occasionally, much as one would like to be able to pin it down. Well. . .at least it is to me. . .but I adore the concept of mystery. :wink:

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Alrighty then. For better, for worse the oxtail has completed it's cooking. Collagen broken down, check; Pinkness retained, check; Meat not dried out, check. Will now have to do something with the sauce now. Mental note to self: All those times that you considered making a stockpile of demi-glaze and didn't do it? You were right to think that you would regret it later.

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All those times that you considered making a stockpile of demi-glaze and didn't do it? You were right to think that you would regret it later.

I hate it when THAT happens...

"I took the habit of asking Pierre to bring me whatever looks good today and he would bring out the most wonderful things," - bleudauvergne

foodblogs: Dining Downeast I - Dining Downeast II

Portland Food Map.com

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