Thursday, June 30, 2011

A Tale of Two Sins and Communion

Let us discuss two things that I love, freshly baked bread and a well-balanced cocktail.  Ironically, I'm suddenly reminded that Christian Communion consists of bread and wine .  .  . another blog, perhaps.  I speak of these to highlight the concept of ratios.  (I dub them "sins" as neither is particularly gentle on the waistline.) If you learn to cook with ratios, you don't necessarily need recipes.  For instance when cooking grains on the stove, everyone knows that rice is one cup of rice to two cups of water, or a ratio of 1:2.  Fewer people have memorized that polenta is 1:3.  This is not a new concept and has been highlighted by Michael Ruhlman in his book Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.


I also love nibbling on fresh bread and having a drink while making dinner.  Usually, it's a glass of wine.  I love cooking with wine and sometimes I even put it in the food.  (Not original, I know.) But for the purposes of this posting, we're going to highlight the ratios of bread and a couple of standard mixed drinks, the whiskey sour and the margarita.  I know, I know, margaritas go with corn chips and Queso Fundido, but I recently discovered that the ratios of a good whiskey sour and the margarita are exactly the same and it looks like this: (((1:1):1):1).  What Ben?  And the bread recipe looks like this (2:1).  How much simpler is that compared to a recipe that takes up a half a page of type?  Are we starting to get the moral of the story here?  If you are starting to realize you just need to understand proportions instead of recipes, go to the head of the class.  Enough babbling, recipes .  .  . or ratios.

I know people who actually buy simple syrup in stores.  It's true, I cannot make this strange and terrible fact disappear.  Simple syrup is nothing more than sugar and water and it is the modifying agent in many, many cocktails.  Without it, the burn of alcohol would overpower many drinks and fruit flavors would go into battle with ethanol with no support on the flanks.  The flavors would be soundly defeated by the alcohol.  So this is the first step in ratios, simple syrup.  We want one cup of simple syrup.  So, combine 2/3 c. of sugar and 2/3 c. of water in a microwave-proof measuring cup like a Pyrex.  Simply microwave on high for about five minutes or until all of the sugar has disseminated into the water.  If a few granules remain on the bottom simply stir the syrup and it will finish dissolving. What is our ratio here?  That's right 1:1, sugar to water.  I sincerely use the microwave for about two tasks and this is one of them.  If you end up with a little more than a cup, simply discard the slight excess.

Now we want to make our simple syrup into a basic sour, and again, the ratio is 1:1.  This time we're going to use our simply syrup (1:1, sugar to water) and mix equal parts of citrus juice with the simple syrup.  Simply mix 1 c. of simple syrup with 1 c. of citrus.  Here's where the Tale of Two Cocktails diverges, for Whiskey Sours you're going to use lemon juice and if it's margaritas, you're going to use lime juice and perhaps an orange.  You know have your sour mix that was created with the ratio of 1:1, 1c. of simply syrup to 1 c. of citrus juice.

On with  the show.  Finally, the alcohol.  Guess what ratio we're going to use here?  If you didn't guess correctly you should probably just stop reading this now and go have someone else mix you a drink.  Finally, mix one part of sour mix with one part of liquor.  Here again, the beauty of ratios is that you can mix one cocktail or an entire pitcher.

So for Whiskey Sours it's going to be one part lemon sour with one part of whiskey.  I prefer Maker's Mark, and yes, I'm aware that it's actually Bourbon.  I like mine served up so shake vigorously in a cocktail shaker and strain into a cold martini glass.  Garnish with some cherries.  Enjoy.

For Margaritas mix one part of lime sour mix with one part of tequila.  I prefer Jose Cuervo Tradicional. It's slightly spicy and doesn't have that rot-gut whiff to it.  To finish the margarita rim a martini glass with a swipe of lime and kosher salt.  (And for the love of .  .  . please don't buy "margarita salt".  I don't even know what that means.)  Shake your mixture in a cocktail shaker until your hand hurt from the cold, pour into your prepared martini glass.  Now, get out a bottle of Cointreau, Grand Marnier, or any good orange Cognac and float about a tablespoon or more on the top of the drink.  And no, I'm not including this in the ratio.  First of all it would ruin my beautiful formula of (((1:1):1):1) or (((sugar to water) to citrus juice) to liquor) and you have to use intuition sooner or later anyway.  Besides, the amount of orange liqueur or brandy here is very subjective, like sugar in coffee.  Some people like a hint and some like it poured on heavy.

Enjoy your drinks.

What about the bread?  I'm too tired after all that typing and besides, my wife just called me and asked me to meet for dinner downtown.  I'll talk about the bread next time.  

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Happy Mornings and Cured Pork

Some mornings are extra happy, things like your partner next to you, or really good black coffee are the things that can make or break a day.  Or you can be pleasantly surprised when an overnight shipment of pork products arrives from La Quercia.

  • Two 6 oz bags of Prosciutto crumble
  • One 1 lb piece of Guanciale
  • Two 3 oz packages of Pancetta cubed
  • One 1 lb piece of flat Pancetta
  • One 6 oz bag of Speck crumble
  • One 8 oz jar of Lardo
Four pounds of pork, Ben!  What are we going to do with all of this.  Happily, cured pork products will keep in the fridge for 6-12 months of tightly wrapped and stored.  Should any mold assault your piggy treasures, like most cheese, you can simply scrape off the mold, rinse, and use as normal.  

There is a move among foodies these days roughly known as "meat as condiment" instead of meat as "hulking, dripping centerpiece" of every meal.  This is exactly how four pounds of pork is going to be used.  Some things that we might do with all of this:  
  1. Tossed with pasta
  2. Sauteed, cooled and crumbled over green salads
  3. BLT.  Anyone?  Bueller?
  4. Folded into Polenta  
  5. Wrapping a terrine or pate
  6. Sauteed with mirepoix and used in the base of soups or sauces
I'll dispense with giving a lecture about buying and eating sustainably.  Read Michael Pollan.  However, I do recommend that you buy a large chunk of any type of salted pork and let it hide out in your fridge.  If bacon makes everything better, pancetta makes it transcendent, and if that's true prosciutto, lardo, speck, and guanciale can only make it #$%ing awesome.  



Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Bruschetta

I feel as if I start many of my posts this way, that is by saying this is how Americans conceive a specific type of thing.  Quick!  I say sushi you say_____________________! And many people, probably not the ones reading this blog, immediately associate "raw fish" as the definitive feature of sushi.  Sushi actually refers to the rice, not the fish.  Although, we have come to commonly appreciate one type of sushi in the West, primarily that associated with raw fish.  I feel as if we can do the same thing with bruschetta.  Bruschetta to many Americans means, "yummy bread with tomatoes, basil, and olive oil served on bread.  However, bruschetta actually translates as "roasted over coals" and in some parts of Italy its called fettunta which means "oiled slice".  For all intensive purposes bruschetta is generally a garlic toast that has been brushed with olive oil and toasted over coals.  However, I refuse to eat fresh tomatoes unless they are at the perfect peak of season.  All other times of year I eat canned San Marzano or sun-dried tomatoes.  Tip:  Cherry & grape tomatoes are often sweet year round and I will buy them if I need fresh tomatoes out of season.

My wife and I had some lovely new friends over for dinner last night and I offered to make Bruschetta and Vichyssoise for appetizers.  And by the way, Vichyssoise could be made by a five-year old, but that's a different post.  These friends happen to be one of my favorite yoga teachers and her husband and I remembered that she loves kale.  So I decided to invent one for her.  I also made another one out of apricot jam and a summer cheddar cheese which was also delicious, but that doesn't require a recipe.  Use apricot jam and a good mild white cheddar.  And it doesn't stop there think of using sun-dried tomato spread, various beans or lentils, arugula salads, prosciutto, etc.  Here is the recipe for Kat's Kale Bruschetta:


  • 1 lg. bunch kale
  • 1 loaf bread--This can be day old because it's going to be grilled.  I used a Kalamata boule from Whole Foods, but any good bread would work.
  • 1 sm. can Cannellini--I think it's about 14-15 oz?  Any bean will work like chickpeas.
  • 3 heads roasted garlic, less if you prefer (To roast, cut off the top third of each head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and Kosher salt, wrap tightly in aluminum foil and roast in oven at 350 for 90 minutes. I usually do this the day before or whenever the weather is coolest that week.)  
  • Olive oil
  • Lemon Juice
  • S & P
  • Aleppo pepper, regular crushed red pepper flakes will work just as well
Make all the components ahead of time before you start the grill.  (Oven toasted bread works well in the winter months.)

For the Bean-Garlic spread:
Squeeze all the roasted garlic from the heads, taking care to pick out any paper skin that clings.  Drain and rinse the beans.  Please all ingredients if a mini food processor if you have one, other wise you're going to have to use a mortar-pestle or a bowl, masher, whisker, etc. Add a bit of S&P, squeeze of lemon, and a drizzle of oil.  Use whatever means you have at your disposal to make this into the smoothest paste possible.  You don't want it runny. You want a smooth spread that will stick to the bread and act as a "glue" to keep the kale salad on the bruschetta.  

For the Kale salad:
Bring the absolutely largest pot of water that you own, to a rolling boil.  (If you use a smaller pan or a steamer, you risk the kale losing it's bright green color before it's cooked enough.) Add kosher salt, more than you think you should.  (The additional salt helps keep the kale bright green!)  Have a large bowl of ice water standing nearby.  Strip the kale from the stems, and tear into equally medium to large pieces.  Drop the kale into the boiling water and keep testing leaves, you want them to become just softened without losing any of their bright green color.  Ere on the side of less cooking time.  Immediately transfer the kale to the ice water and make sure it is completely submerged to stop the cooking process.  Dry the dale with a salad spinner or paper towels; I use both.  Dress the kale with olive oil, the juice of an entire lemon, S&P, and some type of hot seasoning like Aleppo or crushed red pepper flakes.  

Slice the bread, brush generously with olive oil, and grill over coals, or toast in the oven.  Assemble bruschetta with a schmear of Bean-Garlic paste and arrange the Kale salad.  Serve immediately.  Can set at room temp for a few hours as long as you thoroughly dried the kale leaves before dressing them.  Enjoy.