The Food in my Beard

Purple Curry

2010-09-02T03:32:17Z

Last week, I posted a snide remark on a post on Macheesmo's site claiming that I could make a curry any color of the rainbow. I mean, I have made red, green, and yellow, massaman is sort of orange and panang has a pinkish hue. What's left? I got this email from Nick 3 minutes later: "Can you make a purple curry?! Because I think you should." He called my bluff! I replied back with:"hmmm, should I use cabbage or blueberries" "I'd go blueberries" was his reply. At first I shrugged this off as a casual joke amongst friends, but it's like Leo says, once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. It was all I could think about all week! Tuesday I hit the farmers market on my way back from work, because it was the only place I knew that I could find purple basil...

The purple stuff. Why arent they called purpleberries?

Cabbage for in the curry paste.

The paste ingredients are below.

Frying the paste.

The purple against the red beef is a cool contrast.

Coconut milk to bring everything together.

Blueberries add the tang that limes give to green curry. I was really unsure about this but they actually made the dish! I should have added a few more. Also, why does this picture remind me of pancakes?

So pretty, and delicious!

I'm glad to eat leftovers at work today.

The idea was that this curry should be similar to a massaman, with a little green curry influence. I think I achieved that goal, and it was really tasty, but at the same time, it had a lot of potential to be much better. I was kind of rushing it and also am not fully used to my new kitchen setup. What I am saying here is that the meal was good, but if I followed the same recipe paying a little more attention to technique and taking my time, the meal would have been great.

Paste was approx:

2 inches of ginger
8 cloves garlic
10 to 15 thai chiles, seeds removed
2 tablespoons cumin seed
2 tablespoons coriander seed
1 teaspoon black pepper
4 stalks lemongrass, prepped like this
1 bunch purple basil, stalks and leaves, save some leaves for garnish
1 small purple onion
1/4 of a large head of purple cabbage
Zest and juice from half a lime
Fish sauce
Oil

Blend up the paste, prep your other ingrendients. I used purple potato, eggplant, blueberries and beef. I thin sliced some sirloin tip against the grain, salted it, sprinkled a little palm sugar, and a few splashes of fish sauce, and let it sit out for 30 minutes before cooking. I cooked the paste for 5 minutes until it was smelling really nice, then added the beef. Next I added the potatoes, followed by 2 cans of coconut milk. This simmered about 15 minutes before I added the eggplant and blueberries, and 15 more until the potatoes were tender. I added some more palm sugar, salt, and fish sauce to taste. Serve with jasmine rice and garnish with more purple basil and some cilantro.

The only thing I might try next time would be to marinade the beef in the paste for an hour or so, then just dump it all into the pan.

Hope you guys enjoy the long weekend! I will be back Tuesday, rested, refreshed, and all moved in.

Boo Berry Ice Cream at Tablespoon.com

2010-08-31T12:00:53Z

Things are going to be a little slacky (that insn't a word) around here this week because I am in the process of moving (yet again, and this time seemingly along with every single person in Boston) and it is taking some time getting the kitchen together. For the summer I was subletting with some girls, so the kitchen was already ready for me when I got there. Now I am moving in with a couple guys and they have nothing! Good thing I have 5 boxes of kitchen gear ready to roll. In the mean time, Check out this awesome Boo Berry "Cereal Milk" Ice Cream Recipe I posted on Tablespoon.com today. Boo Berry is awesome, and so was this tasty dessert!

Sauerkraut Pizza

2010-08-27T04:28:51Z

My friend Lorraine has been bugging me to cook sauerkraut for a few weeks. I was looking through some of her family recipes, and saw something her grandmother used to make called "kapushniki" (mostly referred to as "pagach" on the web), that was lovingly known as sauerkraut pizza to her relatives. This was a savory pastry dough filled with potato or fried sauerkraut and usually served on holidays, particularly Christmas. I thought I would use the kapushniki as inspiration, and combine the 2 varieties into one awesome pizza at my latest pizza party. I told some people what was on the menu as they arrived. Pizza margarita, salami with arugula, mac and cheese pizza, BBQ chicken, steak with roasted red peppers, and of course sauerkraut pizza. This was greeted with a strange reaction by most of my friends, and even a few "I will have to pass on that one" comments, but at the end of the party, 10 out of 12 said that the mash potato sauerkraut pizza was by far their favorite of the night!

I mixed the potatoes with a ton of cream and butter so it almost became a potatoey cream sauce for the pizza.

Rinsing the sauerkraut.

Frying the sauerkraut in butter with some thinly sliced onions.

At this point, it was pretty obvious that this pizza was gonna be amazing.

And yes, it was.

"the food in his 'stach" loves taking big bite pictures.

I'm surprised I even got pics of this thing it went so fast.

Thanks for the idea Lorraine, and have fun in SF this weekend! Tell Sean and Michelle I said hi and wish I was there.

No-Knead Pizza Dough

2010-08-26T04:07:56Z

Everyone on the internet knows about and has made the no knead bread recipe, but what about the pizza dough? Since I have had some success recently with the no knead bread, I decided to try the pizza version out. I went to Co. last time I was in NY, and loved the pizzas there, so I figured it could work. (Co. is where the no-knead guy Jim Lahey makes pizza). There was one main thing I was worried about. I have made a lot of pizza, and my recipe for dough is very involved. If this no-knead method works, does it mean I have wasted over 20 hours of my life making pizza dough with a double knead-autolyze period?

The short answer is yes, it works, but this recipe isn't for everyone. The dough is VERY wet. I normally use a wet dough, but this thing is soaking. I would almost go as far as calling it a batter instead of a dough! Because of this, you need to be a pizza expert to be able to make pizzas. (good thing I am). The time saved not kneading, was wasted later swearing at the dough trying to get it to cooperate. This dough would not have gone over well at my more hectic pizza parties in Bermuda, and more pizzas would be in the trash than in the oven. I even threw away about 4 of them, one sad one had the toppings on it and everything. My friend at the party made pizzas for years professionally and couldn't even get the thing shaped. The pizzas came out great though. But were they better? That is a hard call to make. I was using my normal dough in Bermuda with my sick wood fired brick oven. These were just on a pizza stone at 550. For now I am going back to kneading, but i may revisit this recipe again in the future.

Flour and yeast. Add water, mix, walk away. 10 times easier than my other way.

Halfway through the rise, I split it into two containers because it was overflowing.

Bubbly awesomeness. Normally my pizza dough rises 2 days in the fridge. This rose one day at room temp.

So wet you could pour it.

You need to make it into pizza sized balls to rise longer.

Rare shot of my room, there was no space in the kitchen! Note the dirty laundry and pile of assorted colors of sunglasses.

The pizza on the stone.

Very tasty!

Here is that no knead pizza dough recipe, proceed with caution!

Chicken Tikka Ravioli on Tablespoon.com

2010-08-24T11:44:59Z

As I mentioned last week, I will be doing some weekly writing on Tablespoon.com. These posts come on Tuesdays. Sometimes they will be new recipes, and other times I will be revisiting some of my favorites. This week I posted chicken tikka masala ravioli, one of the most delicious things I have made this whole year! There is a new write-up with it, and ... can you believe it? A printable recipe!!! Something I have been too stubborn to implement on TFIMB for years!

Also Foodie Fights is up today, The last battle of the summer, then there will be a 2 week hiatus. Battle Corn and Tomato is on!

Korean Spicy Marinated Pork

2010-08-23T04:10:02Z

I ate this meal last weekend late night in Chinatown. Some of the best meals seem to be when I least expect them. The meal is actually very simple to make, the hardest part is finding the red pepper paste. It is sort of the pork version of bulgogi, in fact, the Korean name of the dish is "Daeji Bulgogi". In Chinatown, I skipped all the veggies and just ate the meat piece by piece with my chopsticks(It was late. hah). Making it myself, I decided to have it the way they had meant for me to eat it.

I made some quick pickled carrots to go in the lettuce wraps. Just pour hot vinegar, water, salt, and sugar over these.

This is that hard to find pepper paste. It's so tasty!

Pork marinade.

To slice the pork nice and thin, throw it in the freezer for 15 minutes before slicing.

Just dump the pork, marinade and all, into the skillet. Normally I would like to sear things, but most of the recipes I saw did it this way, and it came out great. I think I would like to try this again though with bigger chunks of meat and put them on the grill.

Served with lettuce to make little taco wraps.

Super delicious.

No joke, I probably ate 15 of these.

I pretty much followed a recipe on this one! Crazy huh?

Sausagefest 2010!

2010-08-20T06:04:51Z

Normally, when a party is a sausagefest, it is not a good thing. In this situation however, it was awesome! Here is some fun pics of my friends enjoying an array of sausages and good times on the beach last weekend. Happy B-day Kim!

The sausages all frozen in the morning ready to go to the party.

At the beach I laid them out to thaw a bit. What an awesome sight!

Kim rocking the Frisbee horseshoe solo cup game.

Bill is prepping the coals

It had been so long since I cooked on the beach! It felt great. What am I doing in this picture? I am going to guess using 2 grill grates as tongs to move flaming coals from one grill to the other.

Very pumped about the links. These are the mash potato green bean ones.

There was also pasta salad, but no plates yet! They arrived shortly after.

Checking the grill for heat. If you can leave your hand there for 1 second only, it is on high. 2/3 for medium and 5 for low.

Missy controlled the grills for awhile. Here she is focused on one lonely hot dog.

Get that dog with its friends!

Again, very excited about the links.

Caught off guard stuffing your face!

point a camera at this guy, and this is what happens.

Who eats burgers at sausagefest?

I love Kim in the background of this picture. Scowling and drinking from an amazing chalice.

Missy was so focused! Great work!

We kept having to do the flip off the grill method cause there were no tongs.

John called this move "the snatch and grab" which doesn't make sense at all.

John loves doing the face-stuff shot for me, but this time it backfired on him!

No, seriously. What is it.

I feel like I walked around this party asking for face stuff shots.

The green curry sausages.

What a good time! Kim we should do this again before it is too late! How about labor day? hahah.
sausages were:
green curry
green bean mashed potato
and maple-chipotle dogs.

Maple Chipotle Hot Dogs

2010-08-19T04:35:00Z

I have wanted to make hot dogs pretty much forever, so I made sure to finally check that off my list when I had access to the sausage stuffer. These hot dogs came out soo good! Next year, I want to make a huge batch of these at the beginning of spring, freeze them, and use them all summer! As awesome as they were, I would change a few things for next time. They definitely weren't dry, but they also weren't juicy, next time I would up the fat content. Secondly, the chipotle maple was subtle in these dogs and needed to be turned up a bit. Despite these shortcomings, they tasted great with an unmistakable beefy hot dog flavor and the natural casing had a perfect snap when you bit into it. Not bad for my first time!

If I added another skirt steak, that might have been enough fat.

Who uses real maple syrup in hot dogs?

Mmmm, just like your morning pancakes. Lots of paprika and salt in here, with a little bit of garlic, pepper and coriander.

I'm not sure if casings come in hot dog size, but where I bought them they didn't, so I just filled them less and shaped them individually.

In between this picture and the last one, I cooked the dogs in a 200 degree oven for 3 hours until cooked through, then froze them because there was a few days before the party. They probably would have been fine in the fridge, but i didn't want to get everyone sick!

Who is eating a burger with all these awesome sausages around?

At one point in time I was worried that these would not look hot dog-y, but I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Missy helped on the grill. Here she is about to hand one out. That is the green curry sausage from my tablespoon.com recipe on the right.

Perfection. No other condiment needed.

I used one skirt steak, 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, 3 lbs chuck, and 3 pieces of bacon. I ground these to a paste. Added paprika, maple, chipotle, coriander, garlic, salt, and pepper. I stuffed them into natural casings and baked at 200 for 3 hours or until cooked through. Grill or freeze! if you are unsure about the seasonings, cook a small piece before you stuff them, and adjust to your liking.

Garlicy Green Bean Mash Potato Pork Sausage

2010-08-18T05:25:39Z

There are a few reasons for sausage week this week. One was because the green curry sausage was hitting Tablespoon yesterday. The Second reason is because I suddenly have access to an amazing professional sausage stuffer. This thing is awesome! It totally beats stuffing sausage with a pastry bag! It is really easy and fun to use. The third reason was my friend Kim's Birthday was this weekend so sausages were a good thing to bring to the party. I could cook for the party, but not have to do any prep there. This sausage variety came about because green beans and mash potatoes are two of Kims favorite foods, so why not combine them with pork and into a portable/edible form?

Sausage casings. These things might be gross to you if you have never worked with them, but you get used to it really quick.

Green beans. In a sausage. Unheard of.

Garlic and coriander, little bit of anise, salt and pepper.

Grinding the pork.

It was then that I knew this would be awesome. Before this moment I was worried that the mash potato would be weird in there.

So this is the sausage stuffer I speak of. I love it!

Like loading a cannon!

The casing all bunched up over where the meat is about to come out.

Beauties.

It's hard to take pictures of this, and do it at the same time. This is not really how it should look!

I filled the whole casing, then twisted off individual sausages.

I can assure you that these explosions are not from the sausage, but from the crazy heat I put them on on the grill. I wasn't exactly in the best condition to hold a steady grill temp, combined with a lack of utensils. Even with these setbacks, it was awesome to be grilling on the beach for the first time in a whole year! I used to do it every other weekend.

Kim stuffing one in her face.

Yum. So in an ideal world, these would be topped with a little gravy and some onion straws, but who lives in an ideal world?

I used a box of mash potatoes, a whole head of garlic, one bag of steam-in-bag green beans, 1/2 cup of sugar, lots of salt and pepper, 4 lbs boneless pork spareribs, and 3 slices of bacon. loose grind on the pork, but grind the bacon and extra fat from the ribs to a paste. (by grind i mean food process)

As I mentioned, onion straws would be a key sandwich topper. I actually didn't get to try these!!! can anyone talk about the taste? I was kinda bummed I didn't grab one. The other 2 sausages from that day I ate ahead of time to be sure they were good before serving to the crowd.

More sausage tomorrow, and more beach and party pics Friday.

Green Curry Sausage on Tablespoon.com

2010-08-17T11:22:09Z

I am proud to announce that I am going to be doing some freelance writing for Tablespoon.com. My first recipe is on their blog today! Sausage week will be continuing over there with a really tasty green curry sausage. Make sure you all check it out! Also they "introduced" me a few days ago, but you guys already know me right? So I kind of need a favor from you all. I don't want to look like a loser on my first post on another website right? Make sure you go over there and comment to make me look cool! Unfortunately you need to sign up in order to comment, but it only takes a second. Be back tomorrow with more sausage!

Also Foodie Fights is up today, and the contestants really crushed it with creativity this week. Check out Battle Tamarind-Brown Sugar and cast your vote!

Sausage Week!

2010-08-16T03:39:32Z

Sausage week is here! I have some great homemade sausages for you guys this week, but before we start, I wanted to recap some of the past sausage recipes I have made. The first one is making sausage without a sausage stuffer, then there is some homemade sausages that aren't stuffed in casing, then some recipes with store bought sausage.

Apple Fennel Sausage - Without a sausage stuffer!!!

Grilled pizza with herby sausage.

Pasttata with homemade breakfast sausage.

Homemade sausage is perfect on pizza

Green Mac and Cheese

Of course the epic timpano has sausages in it.

My favorite Italian soup.

Cherry sausage grilled pizza. Yum.

Italian sausage dumplings. One of the best meals I have ever

eaten.

Sausage - quinoa stuffed peppers. Somewhat healthy and fantastic.

Also of note, my rival macheesmo made some breakfast sausage this weekend. Looks awesome.

Fried Pickles

2010-08-13T04:38:04Z

Two of my good friends go to Hooters every sunday at the same time, and I am not invited. Apparently I might mess up the delicate balance they have with the waitresses. See, they think that the waitresses actually LIKE them and want to hang out after work. What the waitresses actually like are the enormous tips they leave at the end of the 3 to 4 hour sessions they have there on the weekly Sunday funday. SERIOUSLY JOHN AND SAL STOP IT! Notice that she canceled your date last week? (oh dip) Maybe I am just jealous though since they won't let me come. If I DID go, what I would get is the fried pickles, cause they rule. Much different from your standard fried pickle, these are breaded, not battered, and cut into chips, not spears. I made them this past Sunday to drown my sorrows while my friends were enjoying themselves at Hooters again.

Seasoned breading.

The pickles I made the other day.

Sorry for the deja vu, same 2 images in 2 posts in a row.

Lookin good!

Horray for some nice lookin photography on TFIMB!!! I am finally getting settled and feel like I am about to have a decent kitchen/studio setup again! In a few weeks every picture is gonna look good like this.

The dip is mayo, sriracha, paprika, and horseradish

I just love the crunch, followed by the vinegary explosion. As you can see in this image, some of my cornmeal was too coarse grain, If it was a finer grain this would be spot on, but a little less salty spice than the Hooters version. If you want to change that, add a little more salt and spice than the amount listed (there is no amount listed)

Next week is sausage week. All week. Sausages. Get pumped.

Quick Pickles

2010-08-11T04:28:56Z

The other day, my friend Amy emailed me asking for a recipe for some delicious pickles we had eaten at my place in Bermuda a few years back. Hmm, let me just find it in my archives to give you the recipe. Nope! Not there. This was a pre-website recipe. I didn't think i had any more of those left! This isn't really a recipe so much as it is throw a bunch of stuff from your fridge and pantry into a jar and eat something delicious the next day. I like it because you get the flavor of pickling without the scary botulism of canning and jarring! (someone might yell at me for that one, I'm mostly kidding!)

I think that sliced cucumbers have to be the most ascetically pleasing thing for my eyes. I can stare at them all day.

Salted and left to sit for 45 minutes.

I added garlic, ginger, jalapeno, shallot, coriander, salt, and pepper. On the stove is vinegar mixed with cider vinegar and some brown sugar. Dump when it comes to a boil.

Yum. The next day. These had a slight Asian flair from the combo of ginger, coriander, and brown sugar.

Really good and they had a nice kick from the jalapeno. Tasty on their own, but these pickles aren't through with their journey...

Foodie Fight

2010-08-10T12:10:15Z

Hey guys, Battle Skewer is up today on Foodie Fights. It is a fun battle idea, and the contestants made some really cool stuff. Check it out. Also battle Tamarind Brown sugar is available for sign ups today. You guys know how much I love Tamarind. Hopefully one of my readers can sign up and really crush the competition!

Vegan Chili

2010-08-09T04:29:01Z

A few years back when I worked in the Back Bay area of Boston, my favorite lunch spot was The Otherside Cafe. I would head there weekly to escape the corporate world, enjoying the indie sounds blasting from the stereo, off color art, hipster staff, and unique beer selection. These days I consciously cut back on my meat intake, but back then it was unheard of for me to order a vegetarian item at a restaurant. I got the veggie burrito (a wrap filled with cheese and their vegan chili) on a coworkers suggestion, and totally forgot that it was meatless by the time I was eating it! After that I got it every time I went to Otherside.

Well I stumbled into Otherside this past Friday night with some friends. They ordered the vaguely titled "Nachos", some chips with a generous helping of the vegan chili and some cheddar cheese on top. When they were halfway done eating, I said to them, can you believe there isn't meat in there? "What do you mean? There is ground beef right here" Someone said pointing to the chili. That's when I remembered that I had always wondered what was in the chili that was so beef like! A glance at the menu confirmed that it was bulgur wheat, so I set off to make my own version the next day.

I made a TON of the chili. I am planning on taking it to work all week, and making some burritos and nachos with it. Without meat in the chili, I felt like I should start with raw beans. Plus I wanted this to be as healthy as possible, so this reduced the sodium and preservatives caned beans would add.

Dried chiles for the base. I think theirs is more of a tomato based chili, but I like my chilis to be a tomato-chile hybrid.

Pouring hot veg stock onto the dried chiles.

I think it is key when you cut corn off of the cob to scrape the cob to get all the extra pulp and juices from it.

You can see the pulp just below the cob in this image.

I made soo much chili.

I browned the peppers and onions really well, and the mushroom/zucchini a little less. Next in goes the garlic and tomato paste. Then crushed tomatoes, the blended chile-veg stock mixture, and the beans.

Beans have soaked and then cooked on their own for 45 minutes. They are going to spend their final 45 minutes of cooking in the chili pot.

Beans are just becoming tender, in goes the bulgur.

Yum, soo soo tasty. "Meaty" and delicious.

Super healthy too!

Recipe makes a crazy ton of chili that you will feel guiltless about stuffing your face with all week.

Soak Overnight:
1 cup dried pinto beans
1 cup dried black beans
1 cup small white beans

Fine Dice:
3 jalapenos
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
2 onions
3 large portobello caps
2 summer squash
1 zucchini

Mince:
Whole head of garlic

Remove seeds and pour 1 box boiling vegetable stock over:
10 dried guajillo chiles
8 dried ancho chiles
10 dried arbol chiles

Remove kernals from:
6 ears of corn

Toast then grind:
2 tablespoons whole cumin
2 teaspoons whole coriander
1 teaspoon black mustard
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Gather:
2 28oz cans diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
a few tablespoons Chipotle tobasco
1/4 cup brown sugar
cup and a half bulgur wheat

Strain and rince beans. Put in a pot of new water and bring to a boil about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, hot oil in huge pot. Cook onions, peppers, jalapeno for 15 minutes until fairly browned. Salt and pepper. Add mushrooms and squash/zucchini. Cook 5 minutes. Add garlic. Cook 1 minute. Add tomato paste. Cook 2 minutes. Add diced tomatoes. blend up the stock-chile mixture and add that. Taste/add salt and pepper. Add about 3 large tomato cans worth of water. Strain your beans and add to the chili pot. Add spices, sugar and chipotle tobasco. Taste and adjust seasonings. Should be spicy cause corn and bulgar and beans will chill it out a bit. Lightly simmer. When beans are just tender, add bulgur and corn. Lightly simmer till bulgur is tender. Serve!