November 2006 Archives
Thanksgiving is hands down my favorite holiday not only because it's an entire day dedicated to eating enormous quantities of special foods, but because it also results in the most premium leftovers. I am, somewhat shamefully, a leftover person. Food always tastes best eaten from a tupperware container or cardboard box, standing in front of an open refrigerator. Even bad pizza is good when it's eaten cold. Many an old housemate (and current lover) has cursed my name while searching for their coveted leftovers that I happened to find first. I publicly apologize to all of you.
If you play your cards right, you can end up with a leftover jackpot on Thanksgiving. But it's important that you not only start out with too much food for your group, but supply plenty of wine and try to invite small eaters. This year my friend Heather and I made a joint-hosting effort, so we split our leftovers 50-50, which gave us ample supplies of brussels sprouts, stuffing, mashed and sweet potatoes, and gravy. We never did get to dessert this year, so in exchange for an entire apple-pear pie, the turkey carcass came home with me. After 2 solid days of enjoying cold vegetables and slices of turkey slathered in best foods mayonnaise (I can never remember to buy bread at the store), it was time to do something with the remainder of the bird.
In years past, I have turned leftovers into turkey pot pie, turkey enchiladas, and a very inventive 'thanksgiving casserole' in which every single leftover is layered in a baking dish, smothered in gravy and covered with mashed potatoes, and baked. But this year I wanted soup. Our free-range organic turkey served us well on Thanksgiving and I felt compelled to utilize every last once of flavor it was willing to yield. As I discovered, it still had a lot to give.
I began by picking off the last bits of meat from the bird, around 1 1/2 cups, and setting that aside. To cook with the carcass I gathered
1 onion, quartered
2 celery stalks, chopped, or a chopped celery heart
2 carrots, chopped
the green top of a leek (base used in soup)
1 clove of garlic
any fresh herbs sitting around (sage, thyme, rosemary, etc...)
2 bay leaves
shiitake mushroom stems (tops used in soup)
a few peppercorns
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But before I was ready to fire up the stock, I decided to give it a little extra help by sautéing a couple of teaspoons of tomato paste in oil at the bottom of my stock pot. Caramelizing the tomato adds a little sugar, a little acidity, and a little char that would stand in for the 'deep roasted' flavor I would get if I started with a whole bird and roasted it. You want to saute the tomato paste until it darkens and the consistency breaks up. It's ok if there are a few black bits on the bottom of your pot, but be careful not to let the whole thing burn, or the whole thing will taste burnt. Place the rest of your ingredients in the pot, add a little white wine or dry vermouth if you have some (I didn't, so I didn't, but I would if I could) and fill the pot with water until all the ingredients are just covered. Set the pot on medium high heat, cover half-way, and let it come to a low boil. A lovely 'scum' will rise to the surface--this is all the marrow and other goodness expunging its flavor and rendering itself obsolete. Use a ladle to remove the scum as it forms. If your hands are steady, you might try ladling some of the pools of fat that collect on the surface once the scum has cleared. Continue to let the stock cook for another hour or so, until its reduced by a couple of inches, and then strain the stock. If this is your project of the day, take the time to let the stock chill in the fridge so you can remove the rest of the fat from the top. If dinner is in an hour, just do your best to skim the fat with your ladle and accept that the first few spoonfuls of soup will be a little extra unctuous.
While my stock chilled, I prepared the soup fixins'. When you're making a soup that involves not only meat but also pasta, I think it's best to keep the amount of vegetables conservative. I love cabbage and beans and root veggies, but they're not necessary here. However, I couldn't resist the draw of shiitake mushrooms, further fortifying the soup with a earthy backbone. Here I have prepared our mushrooms, leeks, celery and carrots. In the left corner is some smoked prosciutto, or speck, which has been a very useful secret ingredient for me lately. I have a chunk vacuum sealed in the fridge, and everytime I want to give a dish a certain je ne sais quoi, some finely diced speck brings everything together. In small amounts, it's neither too smoky or salty, just perfect. So, to pull it all together, slowly saute your leeks in some olive or vegetable oil. Add the optional speck (prosciutto or pancetta would both work well here, too, just keep the dice as small as possible), and then the mushrooms. Saute slowly until both the leeks and mushrooms are soft. Add the celery and carrots, diced leftover turkey, and your reserved stock. I cook this until the carrots are becoming tender, and then turn the heat off while I make the pasta.
Yes, you heard correctly, make the pasta. I half-ass a lot in life, but turkey noodle soup must be taken seriously.
And I wanted the seriousness of real egg noodles in my soup. And believe it or not, making egg pasta is pretty easy.
1 cup flour, placed on a work surface (preferably wood). Make a well in the center which will hold one egg.
This is always the biggest challenge for me, making the hole big enough for my egg (no jokes, please)...with a fork, gently beat the egg and incorporate flour, a little bit at a time, until you have this goopy stringy flour mass. When the fork has done all the work it can do, it's time to use your hands. Gather the mess and begin working it, to the best of your ability, until it begins to take on the qualities of dough. Resist the urge to add more liquid, unless it's really not coming together at all, and then add water by the teaspoon. You will eventually start to knead it on the board, pressing the ball of your palm into the dough, folding it over itself, and pressing again. Do this for 10 minutes. You'll be surprised, after minute 4, how relaxing minutes 5-9.5 can be. It's a good exercise to counter the keyboard jockeying you do all day. At the end of minute 10, you will have a stiff, straw-colored ball. It should be smooth, not sticky and not shaggy. Wrap this and let it rest for 10-30 minutes.
For soup noodles, you don't need a pasta machine to roll out your dough. If you have one, use it if you feel like it. I would have preferred to hand-roll the pasta but I left my rolling pin at work, so I didn't have a choice. A wine bottle is a last resort, only because you're going to kill your wrists rolling out dough this stiff. I made 'fettuccini' noodles and cut them short. You also want your noodles to be on the thicker side so that they will have some tooth and hold up if you feel like keeping the soup around for a day or two.
Bringing the soup back to a rolling boil, I tossed in the noodles and let them cook for around a minute or two. Remember, they're thicker than the fresh pasta you might be used to cooking, but it's easy to overcook any fresh pasta, and it will also finish cooking (and absorbing the soup, so make sure you're adding plenty of stock) as it sits. At this point, taste for salt, and add some fresh pepper. You don't need to finish it with anything but some fresh parsley. And voila! I don't mean to brag, but this was the richest, most fragrant, turkeyist turkey noodle soup I've ever eaten, and a really great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
One of the great things about Digest is that in addition to a blog about food, it's also a valuable resource.
Willow and I used Liz's Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and make great chocolate chip cookies! Having a printed page with the digest header was very satisfying.
A long time ago, my mother was telling me about a cousin of mine who was a bit of a hippie. One of the stories she told me about this person I had never met, was that she had a party with her friends where they ate the placenta from her recently born baby. Not really an unheard of practice, but certainly something to ponder.
Eventually I met this cousin and spent a few days with her, her husband and her son. I quickly came to the conclusion that my mother's story had just been an exaggeration borne out of inter-familial Southern gossip.
This cousin moved to Portland, found it agreeable, and told me I should consider moving as well. A couple years later, I acted on her advice and I've been living in the best city on Earth ever since.
Shortly after my arrival in Portland, I was looking through her refrigerator and saw a large jar with cloth covering the mouth. What was inside? It certainly looked like it could be amniotic fluid, and that thing floating in it was close to what I imagined a placenta to look like. Also, my cousin had given birth to a baby girl fairly recently. Were the rumors true? My wife and I were perplexed. I mean, you can't exactly say to someone, "So, is that a placenta in your fridge?"
We said nothing, and the mystery continued for a short while. One possibility I had in mind was that it might be the "Russian tea mushroom" that someone had told me about a couple years ago, but for some reason that seemed unlikely to me. After all, we were nowhere near Russia.
Of course, this ended up being exactly what it was (much to my relief). The mystery was solved one day when my cousin offered some of the liquid to us and explained what it was.
Most people refer to it as "Kombucha," although this is actually a misuse of a Japanese word for a type of kelp tea. The "placenta" part is known as a scoby, an acronym for "symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast," which is exactly what it is.
The process is not unlike brewing beer (an analogy that helps to get over the "gross factor"). The scoby sits in a large container of sweetened tea and processes the sugar. The product is slightly carbonated, and best described as a sparkling tea with a hint of apple cider vinegar. My wife and I had been drinking a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in water for a few months for its supposed health benefits, so it was an easy transition.
The alleged health benefits of Kombucha are numerous, although the only scientific evidence I could find was in the Wikipedia article on Kombucha, which states that it acts by enhancing the detoxification efficiency of the liver. However, Kombucha enthusiasts claim many more benefits, including increased energy. Read that Wikipedia article for more history and such.
There are several commercial brands of Kombucha tea, including Kombucha Wonder Drink, which is made right here in Portland. They ain't cheap, though, so it's best to just brew your own.
Step one: Obtain a scoby and some Kombucha tea. Some of our friends have grown their own by letting the commercially produced stuff sit in a jar until the scoby forms, but when we tried this it did not work. Fortunately, you can buy a scoby on eBay (natch) for a small price. You will need about a cup of already-processed Kombucha tea because it keeps mold from forming.
Step two: Brew up a gallon of sweet tea with a one and a half cups sugar. Make sure you boil the water for 5 minutes or so to eliminate chlorine. Use green or black tea. Do not use herbal teas. Do not use any metal utensils. Do not keep the tea in anything except glass or cereamic containers. If you do, your mogwai will turn into a gremlin and you will be screwed. (Note: It's ok to boil the water in metal.)
Step three: After the tea has cooled to room temperature (this takes forever), add the scoby and the cup of Kombucha tea. Cover the mouth of the jar with a paper towel or some cheese cloth.
Step four: Place the container in an area out of direct sunlight (does not have to be completely dark), where it will be at a comfortable temperature. It wants pretty much the same temperature of air that you do.
Step five: Wait a week. The scoby will be doing its thing. If fuzzy mold forms, then you will have to start all over again. The scoby will grow and become more dense.
Step six: Bottle most of the Kombucha tea, keeping enough to start the next batch. Leave some room in the bottles or jars because the tea will continue fermenting and carbonating. Refrigerate the bottled tea.
That's pretty much it. You will just use the new starter tea and your scoby to repeat the process. The scoby "mother" will make new "babies" that you can give to your friends or use to increase your output. Eventually you will need to replace the mother with one of the babies because they "die".
Here is a picture of our scoby at the start of its second batch of tea:
And here it is a week later:
So there you have it. It is quite a tasty beverage, and if you believe thousands of years of rumors, it might also be very healthy for you.
What, did you think the Hot Knives had gone on vacation or something? No, Digest blog, while you were comparing peanut butters and dreaming of becoming a competitive eating blog like your younger brother True Fan, our Angeleno friends Evan George and Alex Brown have been slaving, quite literally, over a hot stove, endeavoring to bring more killer breakfast combos, beer-food symbiosis, and DIY flair into your kitchen. Curious? A cursory peek at their excellent blog should have you salivating. For a more visceral experience, check out this short video we made when we last visited our heady homies in Los Angeles. Evan and Alex walk us through a Taiwan-inspired scallion pancake recipe (reproduced here in full text), show off their "killer apps," and introduce the world to the soy-meat triage. Bon Appetit!
Unless you're allergic to peanuts you've been eating peanut butter since you were weaned off those small bottles of Gerber's mushy banana baby foods. Peanut butter is a staple of any kitchen and the national brands have a two titan battle for the cupboards of America. One the one side you have JIF, the Peanut Butter of the Smuckers Spreadable Goliath, and on the other side you have the seemingly David-like Skippy, actually owned by the monolithic Unilever company. But as we grow up we grow tired of the bland tastes of childhood and the mono-culture of the supermarket. We discover that the all-natural Adams isn't just for hippies, but actually tastes better. We might also try the "Grind The Peanut" station at the local co-op and enjoy the pure taste of unsweetened peanut butter.
But at the end of the day, no matter how much we may wish otherwise, we are Americans. And as Americans we demand the best. So what is the best peanut butter? If you are looking to invest in a peanut butter company then you might judge this by sales, but if you are going to eat it, you need more than sales data and popularity to determine which peanut butter deserves to be spread before you.
In order to achieve honest results the tasters did not know which peanut butters they were tasting. Each peanut butter was rated on Taste, Saltiness, Texture, and Spreadability on a 10-point scale.
The four peanut butters tested were Maranatha Organic, Kettle Foods Organic, Grind-To-Order from Winco Foods, and Adams Organic. The results were quite surprising.
Maranatha Organic - Score: 4.95
Kettle Organic - Score: 4.49
Grind to Order Winco - Score: 6.34
Adams Organic - Score: 7.55
While the Maranatha and the Kettle were both mildly disliked, the Grind To Order was a noticeable step up, but the end result was a universal pull to the Adams Organic. It's lowest score was in Saltiness, but was the only peanut butter to average over 5 in that category. One trend noticed was that overall score followed the same order as the saltiness score. Also we found that the older the taster, the more saltiness they wanted from their peanut butter, adding some evidence to our theory that there is a clear difference between a child's peanut butter and an adult's peanut butter.
But in the world of Peanut Butter it's Goliath that ends up stomping on the little David. The best tasting organic peanut butter is owned by Smuckers, so for those of you raised on JIF you can find satisfaction in knowing that your adult tastes are being met by the same company that raised you. Now that's America!
You know how Jones Soda makes the holiday pack of flavors like asparagus and stuff? Those flavors that are very unique, but also incredibly gross? Well, Kettle Chips does something like that but they make GOOD flavors! The new batch of test flavors was recently announced and you get to vote on them at passporttoflavor.com.
Aztec Chocolate, Royal Indian Curry, Island Jerk, Twisted Chili Lime, and Dragon Spice.
I hate to sound like a corporate shill, but this really is one of the best "new flavor" experiences ever. You can order all five flavors for $19.95.
