Evolution of Taste

How many of us have memories of our childhood, throwing a fit over something on our plates because it is new, weird, or "icky"? I know I was a particularly shitty eater as a kid, having had a few memorable nights of bellowing while I stormed upstairs that baked ham was, " TOTALLY DISGUSTING!!!! " I didn't believe my mom when she assured me that my tastes would change. Of course, I also thought I'd grow up to be a teacher, or movie star. (I was banking on movie star, obviously)

To my own surprise, my mom happened to be right! I started discovering my culinary tastes changing when I started working for Richard's German Restaurant in Brunswick, ME. I had fallen in love with their desserts, and begged the owner, Richard, to teach me how to make them. That spun into my first real job in a kitchen, and it grossed. Me. Out.

German food, beyond being a lot of sausage and cabbage, has a myriad of other dishes and techniques many people aren't familiar with. As a 14-year-old girl, it was downright bizarre. Richard and his sons would try to get me to try things, and for the first few months, I absolutely refused. But after a few shifts working doubles and starving myself, I started to notice the sauerkraut smelling sort of... Well, not awful. I tried it. And the shock of sweet and sour vinegar goodness blew me away. I finally started to let the boys teach me how to eat.

Edible discoveries never stop. Food and beverages are always changing, for better or worse, and it creates mini-adventures for me. In a couple weeks, I'm going to forage for snails and try escargot for the first time. It's just so fascinating to me, to never know what I'll discover next. And knowing what I know now? I fully intend to raise my future kids in a kitchen. The number of opportunities I skipped because I was terrified to step out of my comfortable little box? My kids will never have that fear. I am so much happier now, ready to step out and really seize life by the balls, and that is entirely attributed to my taste buds and the boys at Richard's. I can't thank them enough.

Revelatory Rosemary Lemon Cream Sauce
*I usually can't stand cream sauces, as they usually are too heavy and burden my palate. Dicking around today, I actually found myself licking my plate after stumbling on this*
*1 tsp unsalted butter
*1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
*1 tbsp minced shallots (white onion would also work)
*2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, or 1/2 tsp dried
*1/2 tsp chopped green onion
*Juice of 1 Meyer lemon (or 1/2 regular lemon diluted with a tbsp of water)
*1/2 c heavy cream
*salt to taste

-Put the butter and olive oil in a sauté pan and get the pan nice and hot. If you're preparing the sauce to go on top of a protein (I recommend chicken or white seafood), sear your protein off in the pan first and finish it off in a 200°F oven while you make this sauce
-When your pan is hot, add your shallots and rosemary. Let the shallots get a nice brown without burning, then add the green onion, lemon juice, and cream.
-Let the cream reduce until it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Salt it, then serve over whatever. Bread, noodles, protein, veggies- it's really freaking versatile!

A Tale of Two Civilizations

I've had an exciting almost two months! December and the holidays flew by with minimal fanfare,  and once January hit, I  shook things up a bit more.

I have a good friend, V. I have known this girl my entire life, she is one of a small handful of girls I really truly trust. In the beginning of January,  she got in touch- she was engaged to a guy who has enlisted in the Marines. He is currently in boot camp, and she was having a rough time adjusting. Now, she and I are both Marine Corps brats- we grew up in the military lifestyle. So, if she's having a hard time, I'm going to be there. She asked me to visit her in Southern California, so I quit my job and moved down for a bit. (I take this "friends" business seriously. )

I did not realize just how much of a hippie NorCal had made me. I had gotten so used to readily available fresh, local produce, friendly neighbors and proprietors,  and fresh air. Down here, I am far more aware of judgemental suburban stares, botox everywhere, and grocery stores grating on meine nerven. I don't mind it, I know it's only temporary, but it did have me feeling lost for a while. My saving grace was finding Underwood Hills Farmer's Market. And their PYGMY GOATS. OH MY GOD THE PYGMY GOATS. Cutest furry twats on the planet. I am in love with those suckers.

I can't even pretend I know what I want to do when I grow up. However, this latest adventure back into civilization has given me major insight into what makes me happy. So, I applied to the James Beard Foundation Women in Culinary Leadership grant in order to hopefully educate myself to hopefully educate others on how not to depend on Del Taco five nights a week. And if I can one day own a small parcel of land and raise pygmy goats? Being around that much adorable will make me the happiest woman on goddamn Earth.

I won't hear back about the grant for a few weeks or so. But until then, I've been cooking more. This is a fun lamb recipe I concocted while I've been going stir crazy!

Herbed Roast Lamb Leg

Chopped Tarragon
Chopped Rosemary
Chopped Shallots
Salt and Pepper
Boneless lamb leg, tied or netted into an even roast shape
Merlot

Set your oven for 350 degrees farenheit. Lay the lamb in a roasting pan, fatty side up. Chop enough herbs and shallots to completely cover the outside of the lamb, and rub them in with the salt and pepper. Douse that sucker in about 2 cups of merlot. Roast for about an hour and fifteen minutes, adding 2 more cups of merlot about a half hour into the process. The lamb is done when its internal temp is 140. Let it rest, covered, for 10 minutes prior to carving. Use any leftover liquid in the pan as a sauce.

This shit is delicious with a pomegranate-arugula salad and cous cous.

Fishy! (In A Good Way!)

J cooked for me Saturday night! Hell, J stayed over that night! I suppose I should back up...

I recently moved into a new apartment, downsizing my life to a comfortable, manageable degree. My place now is easy to maintain, I get to spend more time with my dogs, and ultimately it isn't a Shame Shack of a residence as I had taken to calling the former. And, since I still talk to J (I know, I know, really ought to quit that cold turkey already!), I mentioned i was in a new place that I was actually proud of and he was welcome to visit anytime. He decided to come over Saturday.

Now, I know him. I highly doubted he'd show- after all, he was coming over after he left work (late-ass o'clock) on his restaurants' busiest service night. In fact, I was convinced he wasn't coming. So when he told me he was going to bring food and cook for me, I made alternate plans.

I made Forelle Blau, also know as Trout au Bleu based off of a Lower Saxon recipe. Live-tweeted it the entire time as well (follow me @andiwredonkulus). It turned out really well, and I flipped on reruns of 'A Cook's Tour' to doze off to. 10:17pm, I got a text- "Just left 15 min ago"

I was flabbergasted. He was actually going to show up? Hell, I was getting a second dinner?? (Food shows make me hungry) And show he did. With food. At about 12:30am. I didn't care, I was over the moon and starving at this point.  He wound up making me a shortrib dish that is popular at one of his restaurants, and I can see why- granted, it wasn't my thing necessarily (it used whole grain mustard, which I am nooot a fan of), but the fact that he cooked for me was incredibly sweet. And even better? In the morning we collaborated on a frittata, and that turned out goddamned delicious. I'm feeling really good about things with J! I might even have hope for a future with him again.

In other news, going to be spending my morning making a couple different condiments- a special German hot mustard that my former boss taught me, and Jägersauce for schnitzel that I'll be making later in the week. I'll live-tweet the Jägersauce around 12pm EST if you are interested! In the meantime, here's the Forelle Blau recipe I used.

Forelle Blau
*serves two*

2 whole trout, cleaned
1pt stock (fish preferably, but chicken works too)
1c white wine
1/4c white wine vinegar
Salt
Black peppercorns

Boil your liquids together. While those are getting started, tie your trout into a u-shape by tying their lower jaw to the tail. Put the fish in a deep, roomy pot. Pour your boiling stock mix over it, then season with the peppercorn and salt to taste. Cover, let simmer for 15 min, then serve. Quick, easy, and pretty tasty!

Homey Homies

I recently had the pleasure of cooking with a friend.  Not, I-cook-for-him or He-cooks-for-me, but an actual collaboration meal that we planned together,  shopped for, and executed as a team. I can't remember the last time I did that. I forgot how nice it was. 

It really hit home why I enjoy food so much- aside from the incredible flavors you can unearth,  it brings people together. I'm far too lazy to do any kind of real study, but I doubt I would be remiss in saying that people who live to eat vs eat to live are exponentially happier.

Plus, cooking together is just plain fun! Nobody is bored, and conversation doesn't stop. Add wine, and it damn near becomes a party. This entire experience has made me happy enough that, when I am in a position to do so again, "family meals" are going to be a regular occurrence at my place. Friends, family, train hoppers- whoever has time and is hungry will be welcome at my table. No exception. 

In the meantime, I find myself working crazy hours this weekend, so Saturday night/eeeeearly Sunday morning when I got home, I threw a crapload of stuff in a crockpot I found at Salvation Army for $3. I'm calling it SoCo Stewp.

Stewp is what I'm calling the watery stews my father specialized in.  Stew-soup, get it? This particular one is made with:

1 lb stew beef
1 russet potato, small diced
2 long celery stalks, sliced small
2 roma tomatoes,  diced
1 cup of grated carrot
1/2 medium white onion, small diced
1 qt veal stock
Juuuuust enough water to cover all of the ingredients
Salt to taste
Lemon pepper to taste
1 oz Southern Comfort 100 Proof

Directions:

1. Gather all of your shit together that you'll need
2. Put it all in the crockpot
3. Keep the crock pot on high heat for 2 hours, then go work or fuck off for 14 hours with that sucker on low heat. Stewp's done when the potato pieces are tender and or mushy. Again, to taste.

Simple, pretty basic, and the booze gives it complexity and me an excuse to get rid of that godawful liquor. Everyone wins!

Stewed Mood

Got into a developmental mood last night. Decided it was time to work on my German cooking again and test out a recipe that I haven't tried before.  So, I busted out my Culinaria: German book, called up my hungry friend, and grabbed wine.

Decided to do a recipe based out of a region of Germany called North Rhine-Westphalia. The dish? Münsterländer Töttchen, aka Münsterland Veal Stew.  I picked it because for one, the ingredient list is relatively easy to find products. Two, I will readily admit I usually suck at making stew. In the past, I generally wind up with crappy thin soup with stringy, tough meat much like my father does. I wanted to see if I am genetically predisposed to shitty stew-making. For a side item, I chose spätzle, egg noodles I made time and time again when I worked in a German kitchen. The biggest difference with that would be instead of using an arm-busting noodle press like I had in the past, I would be attempting to use an old-fashioned "shaving" method.

The stew had me start off by essentially making a quick veal stock. Simple enough. Carrots, celery, onion, a bit of parsley and green onion simmering with some veal for an hour or so- child's play. The oddest part about that was the recipe called for the onion to be 'spiked' with one bay leaf and two cloves. What the fuck is a spiked onion? The book didn't say and Google just wanted to give me soup recipes, so I opted to just throw the cloves and bay leaf in with the rest of the stock veg.

While that was working,  I got my spätzle dough together.  Spätzle is a very simple noodle, just eggs, flour, a smidge of spices and salt, and water. The kicker is that the dough has to be incredibly thick and sticky, which can make it a beast to work with and a bitch to clean up. My dough ready, I got a pot of very salty water boiling and began to attempt to shave the dough off a wet cutting board to create noodles.  It was doable, but what a load of crap. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would much rather use the arm-buster. Shaving resulted in a lot of inconsistent sizing, which made pan frying later a bit sketchy. Anyway,  once the dough hit the water, it only took a couple minutes for it to cook and float to the top. Skimming the noodles out, I dropped them into a mixing bowl with ice in it to keep them from overcooking.  Once all of the noodles were made, I rinsed them and strained them, then coated them in olive oil to prevent sticking while I finished the rest of the stew.

Once the stock was finished,  I strained it and removed the meat, putting that to the side while I chucked the rest of the veg in the garbage. Grabbing a new pan, I proceeded to sauté chopped onion in clarified butter. The onion was supposed to cook until translucent,  but I got distracted and they wound up caramelizing a bit- oops. Whatever,  wasn't burnt! I then sprinkled flour over the onions, whisking it in, to essentially create an onion roux. Threw in some wine, a bit of the stock, the veal, and voila! A couple minutes reducing and I had a sexy looking stew. Seasoned it with a bit of salt, pepper, sugar, and mustard, and it was ready to eat.

Using the rest of my clarified butter, I pan-fried the spätzle umtil it was lightly crisped, then put the noodles in bowls and topped it off with the stew. A quick refill of the wine, and bam- chow time!

I was overall happy with the outcome,  though now that I've done it once, there's definitely stuff I would do differently next time. For starters,  have stock made ahead of time,  and make it really concentrated for a more robust flavor. I'd simmer the meat in the stock all day, get it really melt-in-your-mouth tasty, and then once dinnertime was actually on me it'd tuen into a 5-10 minute pick-up. Suuuuper easy. As for the spätzle,  I'm wishing for an arm-buster for Christmas. 

If you want to try this yourself,  look for the cookbook Culinaria: Germany. The stew is on page 214 and a good spätzle recipe is on page 330. Or e-mail/message me and I'll send it to you.

Prost, dahlings!

Stone Soup Stock

Well! Solved my "free time" dilemma- picked up a second job today while I was enjoying the sunshine. By far the tiniest kitchen I've ever been hired to, but it'll be a nice, easy way to earn a smidge more cash. The place is a cigar lounge, so food isn't as important as it is in a lot of normal restaurants.

In other news, I made stone soup stock! Chefs swear by stock in a variety of different recipes, and I always pre-prep a lot and freeze it for later use. The trick with that is, I usually never have bones, or meat scraps, or anything that generally constitutes a good base for meat stocks. So, I make what I call stone soup stock- it's creation is based on the old story, and it's very simple:

• Open your fridge, pull out anything out that is about to 'turn', or go bad. Avoid starches like potatoes, rice, or pastas.
• Ask yourself, "is this a green? Is it supposed to be?"
• Throw it in a pot with as much water as you want stock. Make sure your ingredients are covered.
• Boil everything for an hour per gallon of water, then take it off the heat and let everything steep until it's all room temperature.
• Strain and save the liquid, throw out your leftovers. Boom, stock! Freeze it for later use.

It's only vaguely similar to stocks made in restaurants, but depending on what you throw in it, it'll give your home recipes really cool, unique flavors. The stock I made had kale in its production, so it's got this cool peppery aspect to it. Try different combinations of flavors, makes for great experimentation!