Knife Tips – Hot Knives

Tentiquette: Campfire Cooking

Hot Knives — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:42:31 +0000

Whether its desert glamour camping or subzero firewood gathering, we come prepared. Neither of us made Eagle Scout or anything, we just love to plan. Also, we like to eat a fat-ass variety of complex carbs in the wilderness.
So, on a recent three-day camping trip to Los Padres National Forest — a massive pine sprawl east of Santa Barbara, and 6,500 feet up — Hot Knives put some thought to our humble, nerdy tips for proper campfire cooking. Put simply: sturdy vegetables, beans n’ franks, and sealable containers. If you’re looking for more detail, we made some lists below.
This time out, we fixed 4 or 5 real meals in between hanging with rattlers and scoping a watering hole. Sourdough blueberry griddle cakes and flame-grilled bran muffins ruled mornings with cowboy coffee. Hardy veggies like kale, sweet corn and summer squash traveled well. A 2-pound bag of Jalapeños went along way. We used both the cast iron on the campfire – especially awesome for the pancakes – and a propane camp stove for more delicate stews – summer veg risotto and chile. We even harnessned the sun for a snack (more on that, and full recipes, soon.)

As for packing…We like to have oversized storage bins that we can throw the dinner mess in once the sun sets and the booze kicks in. Next in importance is, of course, knives and a camp stove cooking kit. Also, plenty of towels please. The list goes on. It was only when one of our camping companions scoffed at the spice jar of cumin and fennel seeds we were unloading that we realized we might be over-packers. We still don’t think so. Though overeaters is a different story altogether.
Supplies

Storage crates with sealable lids
Clean kitchen towels
Knives
Cutting boards
Plates and utensils
mugs and cups
Water (2 gallons for cooking and cleaning)
Cooler with ice (should fit 4-5 gallons)
Soup pot

Sauce pot
Mixing bowls
Tupperware
Cast iron
Wooden spoon
Garbage bags
Coffee percolator

Staples

Veggie hot dogs
Jalapeños
Watermelon
Pinto beans
Canned tomatoes
Kale
Squash
Potatoes
Garlic
Beurre Échiré

Onions
Crusty French bread
Olive oil
Lemons
Limes
Beer
Sourdough start
Scotch
Bourbon
Tequila
Chips in a bag with foil coating inside

Can people think of anything we’re missing? Stuff you would bring? And does anyone know where we’re going with that last staple on the list?

Booze Infused

Hot Knives — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:10:09 +0000

Like discoveries in other experimental fields, the ones that happen in the kitchen are often rooted in mistakes. When way too many black peppercorns got dumped into hot oil for a pre-bean fry, it seemed they were lost. What to do with a pile of soggy greasy peppercorns?
We got to thinking about pepper and what it is: the aged berries from an epic spice tree originating in Indonesia. Black peppercorns are actually sun cured green peppercorns, and white ones are just black peppercorns that have been soaked, skinned and dried again.
While we didn’t follow through with the initial idea to make our own white pepper, we figured we could re-dry the soggy dudes in a low oven to revive them. The result ruled: the pepper reabsorbed the tasty oil and intensified its new and improved flavor. Ever vigilant for ways to put liquor we love back into the food we eat, we postulated that we could do the same with Bourbon, Mescal, and just about any other type of liquor.
The result is the same; by investing a pony of your favorite sauce, you can elevate the contents of your pepper mill to dizzying heights. You also will make your house smell like a distillery for an hour or two, and your roommates, if you have them, will be wandering round looking for phantom whiskey spills, but this technique will make soups, salads, fresh cheeses and eggs have that hair-of-the-dog flavor that you’ve been missing. Booze infusion is the new Umami!

Liquor’d Black Pepper

Ingredients
3 Tsp. Whole Black Pepper
1 Shot Booze
Equipment
Small Sauce Pot
Baking Sheet
Parchment Paper
1. Heat the sauce pot on medium heat and lightly toast the pepper for 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Dump in your shot of booze. We’ve had great success with Bourbon, and Mescal but use whatever you like. The liquor should begin cooking off immediately, but you don’t want it to burn, so turn the heat as low as you can to keep the liquid bubbling.
3. When the liquid is completely evaporated and absorbed, turn off the heat. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (do yourself a favor and go buy a roll its really indispensable) and spread the peppercorns out evenly.
4. Bake in a low oven, around 250 degrees, for thirty minutes. You want the pepper to be completely dry. During the infusion process the peppercorns will swell with liquid and loose their dried look, when they’ve dried completely they will look exactly as they did before you subjected them to a whiskey bath.
5. You’re done! Let the pepper cool and find something to put them on!

Stew Eggs

Hot Knives — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 11:51:59 +0000

The situation goes something like this: Last week, a fall chill settled and you started getting psyched about the season by fixing a big fat pot of soup, and this week, go figure, it’s 80 degrees. Now what, right? Or… maybe you did an internet search for “hot soup” “vegan” and it brought you to some weirdo recipe page called Hot Knives and you followed the directions for a borscht stew, or an asparagus soup, that looked kind of good but you ended up with enough of the stuff for ten people and you’re pissed because — like most people not in a cult — you don’t live with ten roommates and you hate to see food go to waste. Well, fortunately, you can’t blame us, because there are plenty of good ways to make use of your leftover stews and soups.
One of the best is what we call stew eggs. It’s not vegan, but it is homey and cheap and an easy way to eat your way through an entire batch of soup. Basically you’re going to use some of the stew dregs to turn an egg or two into something fancier, or use a colorful soup to transform beaten eggs into a designer omelet with nothing else but a pan and some butter or margarine.

Stew Eggz

Bring a small sauté pan up to high heat, add a Tbs. of butter and distribute evenly letting it bubble for 30 seconds or so. Then simply measure out your stew with a slotted spoon — about 1/4 cup for each egg — leaving most of the liquid behind. Toss it into the hot pan and sauté the same you would omelet fixings, for about a minute. Add egg, cook and season as needed and serve in a burrito (so good) or on a sammy like the beet-stew egg mcmuffin here.

Soup Omelets

Using leftover soup for breakfast eggs is even easier. You know how sometimes you add a dash of milk or soymilk to fluff an omelet? This is like that, except it spikes it with garlicky broth. Most recently we turned our cream of asparagus soup into “Green Eggs and Ham.” Just crack and beat your organic beauties in a large bowl and mix in about 3 Tbs. of soup for each egg. Beat until you have a soupy mixture. Then bring a sauté pan up to high heat with margarine and just pour it on, watch it cook and flip.
We like to think that if we had a mantra, it’d be reuse, reduce recycle (that, and beer, beer, beer) so obviously this philosophy extends beyond these dishes or these ingredients. Of course there are plenty of vegan options with reusing soups and stews. The most common is using strained soup broth to cook beans or rice. But if you think of something crazy, let us know!

Crewtons

Hot Knives — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:23:15 +0000

Most our homies don’t need encouragement to eat their leafy greens, but hey, it happens. For those who don’t get salad (and they are out there, even amongst vegans), there is one and only one cure: excellent croutons. They can turn a plate of salad into a big bowl of tasty bread that happens to have some lettuce mixed in.
Yet there’s an even better reason to start making your own croutons: We all eat bread, buy bread, and either toss out or kinda make ourselves eat the heels shit. Don’t do it! Simply save the end of each loaf, keep it in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, and when you have a heel of rye, a couple pieces of stale French bread, a pair of squaw bread slices and a hamburger bun that’s about to mold just cut ‘em up and dress up right! The crew will never notice.

Gang Crewtons

(makes 2 cups)
8-10 heels of bread (various kinds)
1 cup walnut oil
2 Tbs. olive oil
5 cloves garlic
1/2 red onion
2 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
2 Tbs. sea salt
1 Tbs. sage
1 tsp cayenne pepper
black pepper to taste
1. Cut the heels of bread into equal-sized pieces, small, about 2 cm by 2 cm. Throw them in a shallow bowl and cover with walnut oil. Let sit (in sun if preferable) for about 30 minutes to soak up oil.
2. Heat a large skillet on high heat, add olive oil and then sauté the garlic, onion and herbs for about 5 minutes. Turn down to medium and add bread pieces.
3. Stir or toss for about 10 minutes: make sure they don’t burn or brown unevenly. Season half way through and keep tossing. Add more oil if absolutely necessary, and turn down heat if it looks too hot.
4. Remove and set on top of paper towels to blot. Cool for at least one hour before serving. Or save for up to one week.

Vegan Bullshit Alert

Hot Knives — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 18:24:29 +0000

Dear Readerz,
Out of civic duty — and not mean spirits — we feel compelled to respectfully call out one of the leading vegan fast food joints in the L.A. area for a sad case of misrepresentation. Orean Health Express, often hailed as the Eastside mecca of realistic meat-like drive through cuisine, is fronting, hardcore.
First, full disclosure: Hot Knives is not a strictly vegan blog, nor have we ever postured ourselves as such. Occasionally we offer vegetarian recipes that hinge on questionable ingredients like cage-free eggs, French cheese and honey (which we’d still love to open up to a discussion about vegan ethics if anyone’s down for helping us hammer out a stance on the subject of said gooey nectar). We prefer to focus on vegan food, because of the challenge posed and the golden politics behind such a diet. We know how much a clean palate and strict diet regiment means to many of our readers. And we think there’s something rotten about false advertising — in this case, posing as a vegan establishment and then serving unsuspecting diners egg and dairy products. It’s not a cardinal sin, per se, we won’t rule out eating there, but it’s certainly worth alerting others who may feel differently…

Since first feasting on the fruits of Orean more than six years ago, we’ve long extolled the North Pasadena fast food stand as being the pinnacle of imitating the vein-clogging American pastime. The fake meats are juicy yet the clover sprouts are bountiful. The cheese melts, and has long been rumored to contain the offending casein. Still, we included them in a “top ten” vegan dish shout-out earlier this year and have used them as inspiration in vegan fast food exploits. A sign posted at the restaurant and on their website, claims to contain “no egg or milk” and to use “non-dairy cheese.” However, recently it came to our attention that many of the products they serve are Morning Star Farms brand, and thereby not only far from healthy, but completely non-vegan.

After repeated requests for what kind of hot dog they serve (they’re scary good) one employee finally spilled the beans to us. So if you eat strictly vegan, we advise you steer clear of Orean Health Express, or better yet ask them to come clean to their customer or else buy products from Yves or other vegan-friendly companies. For any company that makes much of its profit off of vegans, its unacceptable to lie about the ingredients used. That’s our take anyway.

Hot Beet Injection

Hot Knives — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 13:35:45 +0000

We’re always getting letters from readers asking how they can make their soy products drip blood like its raw flesh. Oh wait, no we aren’t.

In any case, there is something to be said for making the off-white, sickly pallet that is pressed soybean a little bit more colorful — be it neon green, orange or red. We plan to start filling our food syringes with all the flavors of the vegetable-based color-wheel. In the meantime, here we’ve gone and tried a sick experiment with blood-red panmade beet-paprika vinaigrette. If you’re ever scrambling to color your tofu for a carnivore, this is the recipe for you. If you’re at all squeamish about blood and/or mock-meats, sorry, this isn’t.

Stuffed Cabbage Wraps

Hot Knives — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:44:17 +0000

Knife Tip # 6

File this one under technik. We’ve often daydreamed about stuffing entire cabbages with fake meats, herbs and vegetable mashes, but never got our shit together. The stuffed cabbage is just a little daunting, it being the size of a large child’s head. But upon recent experimentation, we found that individual cabbage leaves make awesome wrappers, whether it is a replacement for rice paper and wonton wrappers (skewered tempeh shrimp and mint) or just a logical material for some rich Easter European dish (bags of parsnip and vodka creamed potatoes). We plan on trying both. In the meantime, here is a recommended methodology we feel confident standing behind…
1. Boil your head of cabbage for 1-2 minutes in heavily salted water. Remove, rinse under cool water and set aside.
2. Prepare a filling of your choice (suggestions above).
3. Rip off a large leaf of cooked cabbage. Place filling in the center of a leaf and roll up like small burritos and place face down in the greased steamer so that the roll stays closed. Repeat.
4. Steam rolls for about 8-10 minutes and serve.

Stock-ing Up

Hot Knives — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:52:01 +0000

Knife Tip #5: How to make decent stock in 30 minutes

There are two kinds of people: those who make their own stock and those who don’t. This is a generally agreed upon fact in the foodie world, whether its fair or not, and we tend to agree. As the basis for any soup, sauce or broth, stock is kind of an essential building block.
Most chefs worth their salt carefully save any bits and pieces of veggies that can be simmered– mushroom stems, celery leaves, tomato cores etc. — to make a homemade stock. Think of it like kitchen composting.
That said, unless you are said chef, or a happy home frau or an unemployed stoner, you’re not likely to have the 2-3 hours it takes to bubble up some stock. But before you resort to shitty bullion cubes, there is a tastier and more respectable alternative.
When we find ourselves short on time and in need of stock for a recipe, we use this simple shortcut to amp up a bland broth:
Take a commercial vegetable broth, put it in a large pot, and add 2 or 3 choice ingredients (a vegetable and a fresh herb or two) and bring it up to a simmer for about 30 minutes while you prep the rest of the meal. Then just remove the added ingredient and use as needed.
An easy way of bundling up herbs, whether its basil leaves or a bunch of cilantro, is to tie them tight with a green onion, which acts as both a rope and an awesome flavor agent.
Flavor Suggestions
Fennel, Leek and Fenugreek
Coriander, Clove and Ginger
Shallot, Garlic and Chive
Celery, Onion and Carrot
Tomato, Marjoram and Oregano

Zook Shooters Challenge

Hot Knives — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 14:25:53 +0000

Quick tip here: We were goofing around this week with some hollowed out zucchini and stumbled upon what we think is a kick-ass appetizer.Take a medium to large sized zuch, wash it and cut into four pieces about the length of a shot glass. Then take a small spoon and carve out the middle starting from one side. Be gentle so you don’t compromise the structural integrity of the walls and don’t dig all the way to the other side. You’ll end up with a cute little cup.
In a pot of boiling and salted water, dunk the zucchini for about 2 minutes to blanch them bright green. Then immediately dunk ’em in ice water to cool.
For fillings we tried a couple things. We stewed some bite-sized potatoes in New Mexican green chile then popped a potato each into a zucchini shooter. We also made a curried barley risotto with finely chopped green beans and used that as a filling. Then we baked ’em for about 10 minutes.
Thing is, you can fill these party-perfect, no-goo-on-the-hands appetizer holders with just about anything.
So, here’s a Hot Knives Challenge you veggie freaks: Play with a filling recipe, try it out and post it on our blog as a comment to this Zook Shooters post. Or just drop us an email with it.

Frying It

Hot Knives — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:30:22 +0000

If you love that crispy, crunchy fried tofu that most restaurants finesse nowadays, there’s no excuse for settling with the sludgy, watery mess that an un-fried tofu stir-fry can become. Here’s a technique you can use for almost any recipe that calls for fried tofu, from kung pao tofu, to mock fried chicken.

Fried Tofu
1 block extra firm tofu
1 phonebook
1 egg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1-2 cups canola oil
1. Remove the brick of tofu from packaging, being careful not to let it crumble (always use extra firm). Set it on a cutting board draped with paper towels and place another layer of towels on top of the tofu. Then squarely place a phone book, or an object of equal weight and shape, on top of the tofu. Let sit for about 10 minutes and flip the tofu over. This will drain all that gooey water that prevents the tofu from soaking up the flavors you want it to.
2. In a deep dish or flat-bottomed bowl, break the egg and scramble thoroughly. Set aside. Combine the flours on a large plate and season (Salt and pepper may do the trick for some recipes, for others add a touch of cayenne pepper or curry powder). Slice your drained tofu into the desired size pieces for the particular recipe. Then, place a couple pieces at a time in the egg, roll them around until thoroughly covered, and repeat with flour mixture. Pat off excess flour.
3. Heat the oil in a large wok on high. After about 5 minutes the oil will be hot enough to begin frying. Place one round of pieces in the wok and flip after a couple minutes or once the first side seems to brown slightly. Remove when both sides seem to be firm and crunchy, and let sit on paper towels to remove excess oil.