Posts Tagged ‘food’

AGING SPIRITS IN OAK BARRELS AT HOME

Posted: April 1, 2014 in Cocktails, drink recipes, Drinks, Food, mixology, Recipes, travel
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Used to be that only the big distilleries were able to age their finest spirits in charred oak barrels. But now, there’s a movement goin’ on…and hand-crafted oak barrels are available to aficionados at home.

Companies like Redhead Barrels (www.redheadoakbarrels.com) are offering oak barrels for aging that range in size from 1 liter to 20 liters. And that’s where this enthusiast comes in: with a 1-liter barrel, I’m able to age my favorite spirit–vodka, rum, whiskey, bourbon, anything–in just a few weeks, elevating the flavors to levels previously unknown. For example, they claim that Crown Royal will age to Crown Reserve in 14–15 days! Imagine what it can do for any spirit–or wine–you choose.

wood

My  1-liter barrel arrived with the spigot and bung separately. The instructions say that curing the barrel is necessary before using it. You do this by rinsing the barrel out a few times to remove any loose pieces of wood chips or splinters that may still be inside. You hand-turn the spigot into the barrel until it fits snugly and you place the barrel in your sink on the included stand. You fill the barrel with very hot water…and watch. Some barrels are totally watertight and will not leak. Others may take literally a few days of repeated fillings with hot water before it thoroughly seeps into the wood, expanding it to seal the barrel.

Once there are no leaks, you are ready to go. Simply empty the water out of the barrel and fill it with your favorite spirit. Because there is more wood surface area to less liquid, as compared to the large barrels companies like Jack Daniels use, your alcohol will age faster…in weeks instead of years. Once you’ve aged it as much as you want, you simply pour it into a bottle to stop the aging process. Rinse the barrel out thoroughly, and you are ready to age yet another spirit.

I chose to age a favorite cocktail that I first savored at the Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland, Ohio, the brainchild of the insanely talented chef Jonathon Sawyer. The call it a Negroski, their take on a Negroni. It features equal parts Campari, Cocchi sweet vermouth, and OYO stone fruit vodka. They make large batches of it and keep it in a barrel until they serve it. So enamoured my wife and I were with this drink, that I begged the bartender to give me the recipe. He did, and though I could easily find Campari back home, I went on an internet search for the Cocchi vermouth (found it at http://www.drinkupny.com, a great wine and spirits website) and the OYO stone fruit vodka (an Ohio product that I finally found at http://www.thepartysource.com.)

Doing the math, equal parts of each ingredient meant 1 1/3 cups of each to make a quart…which fit perfectly in my 1-liter barrel. Once I corked the top with the bung, it was time to let it age.

A slight daily rotation of the barrel gently rocks the liquid inside, exposing it to the barrel’s charred wood interior, giving it more flavor. And at the end of   a week, I was ready for my first tasting: the wood had a subtle influence, rounding out the flavors. I wanted a little more, so I waited another week.: even better, but not quite there. It took a total of three weeks before the drink reached its flavorful peak.

I poured some of the drink into a cocktail shaker with ice, stirred briskly with a spoon, and strained it into a martini glass, garnishing with a twist of blood orange peel. Delicious!

cask

What’s next for my little wooden cask? Perhaps some of my Krupnikas (http://wp.me/p1c1Nl-lq).

CHIMICHURRI

Posted: March 28, 2014 in beef, Food, grilling, marinade
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Chimichurri is a green sauce usually used with grilled meats. This pesto-like condiment originated in Argentina and is also commonly used in Nicaragua and Uruguay. Though some recipes include cilantro, the original is made with parsley. Chimichurri also makes an excellent marinade for grilled meats.

My buddy Lee, a chemist and avid chimichurri fan, is the one that first turned me on to this wonderful sauce. As usual, I took his recipe and tweaked it just a bit to make it my own. It’s incredibly easy to make. Just make sure you use fresh ingredients, and be sure to wash all the veggies before using.

chimi

Ingredients:

1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1/4 cup water

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

3–4 tablespoons fresh oregano, leaves only (or 1 tablespoon dry)

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon crushed bay leaf

1 tablespoon coarse sea salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

pinch red pepper flakes

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Place all the parsley and the water in a food processor and begin to chop. When parsley is in small pieces, stop the processor and add the remaining ingredients, except the vinegar and olive oil. Start the processor again and slowly pour in the vinegar, then the olive oil. Mix and chop, do not puree. Allow to rest for at least 30 minutes, but overnight in the fridge is best.

I marinated 2 grass-fed beef ribeyes in chimichurri overnight. The next day, I let the beef come to room temperature and I wiped the marinade off the steaks. I discarded the marinade, then I re-seasoned the beef with a little salt and pepper and pan seared them, finishing them in a 350-degree oven until medium-rare. A little dipping of fresh chimichurri on the side.

Grass-fed beef ribeyes with chimichurri

Grass-fed beef ribeyes with chimichurri

SAN MARZANO TOMATOES: REAL OR FAKE?

Posted: March 26, 2014 in Food, Italian, san marzano, tomatoes
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If you do your share of Italian recipes, a common product that you can find in just about any store has many people confused: San Marzano tomatoes. Most good cooks agree that San Marzano tomatoes are some of the best canned tomatoes you can buy.

But unfortunately,  the label can say “San Marzano tomatoes” even if they are not real San Marzano tomatoes.

San Marzano is a region in Italy near Naples and Mt. Vesuvius, and the special combination of climate and volcanic soil make these plum tomatoes world famous. They have less water, fewer seeds and are picked off the vine when perfectly ripe and processed the same day.

But San Marzano is a variety of tomato, too…and so you can have a can of San Marzano tomatoes that are not from San Marzano. And to add to the confusion, there’s actually a brand of tomatoes called San Marzano, with tomatoes grown in the United States. Bet your ass the sellers of these tomatoes are counting on you not to know the difference!

Sold everywhere, but not the real deal. Grown in the USA.

Real San Marzano Tomatoes are a very old variety, extremely limited in quantity, grown and produced exclusively in the San Marzano region of Italy. Because production is so very limited, the Italian Government and the European Union have formed a way of protecting consumers from fraud by having San Marzano tomatoes tightly controlled. DOP, or denomination of protected origin, is the mechanism that the government is using to control the production and marketing of genuine San Marzano tomatoes. Labels for DOP products must be individually numbered and manually applied to each can in specific lots and government officials must oversee this application. So here’s the deal: unless you see “DOP” on the label with a hand-stamped number on the can, it’s not a real San Marzano tomato.

 

Real San Marzano tomatoes. Cento also sells non-certified San Marzano’s, so always look for the DOP on the can.

Another way to tell when you’re in the market is simple. Check the price. Your average can of tomatoes will be in the $2 range. Real DOP San Marzano tomatoes: about $4–$5 a can. It’s all about quality.

FETTUCCINE ALFREDO: THE ORIGINAL MAC & CHEESE

Posted: March 24, 2014 in Food, Italian, pasta, Recipes
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My first foray into serious cooking started when I bought “The Classic Italian Cookbook,” written by the legendary Marcella Hazan.

Like many great recipes, Fettuccine Alfredo is not complicated…but few restaurants that offer it get it right. Most of the Alfredo sauces I’ve had were watery, floury, and salty and had nothing in common with the real deal.
To this day, if I want a great Alfredo, I make it like Marcella.

alfredo2

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter
Fleur de Sel or sea salt
1 lb. Fettuccine, fresh or dried
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground pepper
A very tiny grating of nutmeg

Put 2/3 cup of the cream and all the butter in a large saucepan that will later accommodate all the pasta. Simmer over medium heat for less than a minute, until the butter and cream have thickened. Turn off the heat.

Drop the fettuccine in a big pot of boiling salted water. If the pasta is fresh, it will take just seconds. If it’s dry, it will take a few minutes. Cook the fettuccine firmer than usual, because it will finish cooking in the pan with the butter and cream. Drain the pasta immediately and thoroughly when it’s done and transfer to the pan containing the butter and cream.

Turn the heat under the pan on low, and toss the fettuccine, coating them with the sauce. Add the rest of the cream, all the grated cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt, the pepper and the nutmeg. Toss briefly until the sauce has thickened and the fettuccine are well coated. Taste and correct for salt.

Serve immediately!

CHICKEN AVOCADO BURGER

Posted: March 20, 2014 in bacon, chicken, Food, frying, Recipes
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I love avocado, but I never thought of cooking with it until I saw this recipe. It was a very simple burger that had only a handful of ingredients, and so I thought: “Oh, I don’t need to write this down!” After I made the burger patties and put them in the fridge to chill, I took a look at the recipe on line and realized I forgot one of the ingredients! The original recipe called for a 1/2 cup of Panko breadcrumbs mixed in. My burger tastes fantastic without it…plus now it’s low or no carb. So I will leave it out.

chicken2

Ingredients:

1 lb ground chicken

1 ripe avocado, sliced into small cubes

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

pinch granulated garlic

chicken1

Combine the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly but carefully so that you don’t squash the cubes of avocado. Form the meat into burger patties. It will be a bit sticky, but just make sure you get the avocado evenly distributed. Chill the patties in the freezer for about 10 minutes before cooking to firm them up.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat a little oil in an ovenproof pan, and place burgers in it when hot. Let the burgers sear on one side, then flip them. Place the pan in the oven to finish cooking.

Serve with a slice of bacon and Awesomesauce! (http://wp.me/p1c1Nl-gT)

PLANT YOUR PEAS ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Posted: March 18, 2014 in Food, garden, Rhode Island, Southern New England
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That’s how the saying goes here in New England. I’ve sown my peas in my garden as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring for years with great success. In addition to peas, you can sow arugula, broccoli raab, radishes and onions. Sprouting the peas indoors before sowing by placing them on a moist paper towel for a days or two can speed the process, but I usually just sow them directly.

peas

I also start some seedlings early indoors, including tomatoes. These will go under grow lights for several weeks until the weather outside is warm enough for them to be transferred to my unheated greenhouse.

seedlings

 

 

M.C. SPIEDO: A NEW ITALIAN RESTAURANT IN BOSTON

Posted: March 17, 2014 in Drinks, Food, Italian, pasta, restaurants, travel, Uncategorized
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M.C.Spiedo is a new Italian restaurant in the Renaissance Hotel by the Boston waterfront. It’s a massive, over-the-top (as in a bit gaudy) establishment that features rustic food from Italy’s historic past, dating back to the Renaissance period of the 1400’s. You’ll find no tomato dishes here: tomatoes were introduced into Italy in the 1500’s. What you will find are rustic, flavorful spit-roasted meats, pastas with rich sauces, and robust flavors.

MCSpiedo

This is a huge departure for chefs Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier, who come from acclaimed Maine restaurants Arrows (which just celebrated its 25th anniversary)and MC Perkins Cove in Ogunquit. (They just announced that they are selling Arrows for $1.2 million.)

What’s in the name? The M.C. is from Marc and Clark, and Spiedo means a spit or skewer in Italian. Considering this is still a new restaurant, I was surprised that the two chefs were nowhere to be found on a recent Saturday night. Nonetheless, the staff seems to be knowledgeable, and our server, Daniel ,was eager to guide us through the many menu choices.

The Leonardo's Notebook Salad

The Leonardo’s Notebook Salad

Leonardo’s Notebook Salad, with garlic, fennel, lettuces and herbs was delightfully fresh and thoroughly enjoyable. The house made burrata: fantastic…just not enough of it. The duck rillette was good, but unseasoned. However, the accompanying house made mustard and pickles remedied that. The Grand Tortellini and Meat Torta, a mile-high meat pie featuring more meat than you can imagine, is a must. It sells out every night. The spit-roasted pig with sausage and shelling bean macaroni would have been delicious had it not been for a VERY heavy amount of salt…so much that I had to mention it to our server, who promptly whisked it away, tasted it, agreed with us, consulted management, and returned with an apology and did not charge us for the dish.

Grand Tortellini and Meat Torta

Grand Tortellini and Meat Torta

Thankfully, there are 2 parts of M.C.Spiedo that don’t stick to the rules of only serving ingredients from Italy’s Renaissance period: the bar, where you can find many wonderful house specialty cocktails as well as a wine list with only Italian wines…and the kids menu, which is a welcome surprise to find in this kind of restaurant. My daughter loved the meatballs and the grilled cheese.

Duck rillette with house made pickles, mustard, and Fiore Sardo cheese

Duck rillette with house made pickles, mustard, and Fiore Sardo cheese

There are a few kinks to work out, but that’s to be expected from a new restaurant. And they’ve got to lighten up on the SALT. But I can see myself coming back to M.C. Spiedo for another enjoyable dining experience.

MC4

BURGER VIA ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Posted: March 16, 2014 in beef, burgers, Carnivore!, Food, frying, grilling, Recipes
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Ernest Hemingway loved his burgers…and he loved to put all kinds of crazy ingredients in them. Following the basic guidelines of his recipe, seen below, I put my own spin on it.

Hemingway's burger notes

Hemingway’s burger notes

I skipped the India relish. Didn’t have it in my pantry.

Beau Monde Seasoning is readily available, but I made my own at home:

1 tablespoon cloves

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon Bay leaf powder

1 tablespoon allspice

2 tablespoons black pepper

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 tablespoon white pepper

Combine all these ingredients, grinding to a powder whatever you have as whole pieces: cloves, bay leaves, nutmeg, etc. Store in a tightly sealed glass jar.

And Mei Yen Powder can be replaced with equal parts salt, sugar, and MSG (which I leave out.) To this I add some soy sauce.

So here’s my take on it:

Ingredients:

1 lb. grass-fed ground beef

2 garlic cloves, squeezed through a garlic press

2 tablespoons minced red onion

1 tablespoon capers

1 teaspoon dried sage

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon homemade Beau Monde seasoning

1/3 cup white wine (I use Alice White chardonnay)

1 raw egg

Combine all ingredients and let it sit in the fridge for an hour. The meat may be a bit mushy, but you can form 4 equal sized patties. Place them in a hot ovenproof pan that has a little oil and sear on one side. Flip burgers, and sear on the other side. Place pan in a 350-degree oven and cook until desired doneness.

The verdict: Hemingway was crazy! Though the burger had some exotic flavors–it tasted almost like a burger from the Middle East–my personal choice is still to go with a relatively plain burger of exceptional quality, season it lightly, and cook it to medium-rare. Toppings like caramelized onions or sautéed mushrooms are always welcome, but in many ways, less is more. Hemingway clearly thinks more is more…but maybe his burger meat wasn’t all that good and he need to mask the bad flavor. Anyway…a fun experiment!

SUGAR SUBSTITUTES: MANY CHOICES, NOT ALL GOOD

Posted: March 13, 2014 in Food, sugar
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Remember when the only sugar substitute available was saccharin? Those pink packets of Sweet ‘n’ Low used to be the only choice you had with your cup of coffee at the local diner…and the cause of the nasty aftertaste in your can of TAB.
sweeteners
It was a long time before another sweetener came along, and in the beginning, we all thought Nutrasweet was the answer to our prayers. Sales of Nutrasweet skyrocketed, and one of the most interesting facts to come out of that time was that despite Nutrasweet’s amazing sales, sales of sugar remained steady. We later found out that people were buying Nutrasweet to make things even sweeter, without the guilt of sugar! Equal is the brand name for Nutrasweet, the artificial sweetener that contains aspartame. We now know that aspartame can cause seizures in some people, namely phenylketonurics, and they’re being told to avoid it. It also has an overly-sweet unnatural taste.
Enter Splenda,  the brand name for sucralose, in the yellow packets. Sucralose is a sugar alcohol. It does not affect your blood sugar and it contains no calories. But sucralose is not a natural product: it’s a total guys-in-white-lab-coats creation. Almost no aftertaste, but now there are claims that Splenda alters and even kills important flora in your gut.
OK, so how about that cute little Stevia leaf? The sweetener in the Stevia leaf is natural, and marketing makes it seem like it’s the only ingredient in products like Truvia. But the fact is that the Stevia extract is extremely potent, so they use a very small amount of it.  So to “bulk it up,” they add erythritol, which is another sugar alcohol. The only good thing about this is that erythritol is indeed naturally occurring, so Truvia can rightly claim to be a “natural” sweetener. For me, this is the best choice of all sugar substitutes: all natural and no aftertaste.
Sweetleaf, besides being a song by Black Sabbath, is another all-natural sweetener that combines the extract of the Stevia leaf with a soluble vegetable fiber called inulin. Sweetleaf contains zero calories and does not affect blood sugar.
But the inulin leaves a real nasty aftertaste that had me throwing a boxful of packets into the trash after one sip.
 
 Nectresse is made by those fabulous Splenda people and they claim it’s all natural…a no-calorie sweetener that comes from the monk fruit (combined with “other natural flavors.”) I’d like to know what those other natural flavors are, but I can’t find it on their website. I haven’t tried this one, but when all the reviews about it start with: “It took a while to get used to the aftertaste, but now I kinda like it”….that’s not exactly a rave, as far as I’m concerned!
Sugar itself is not evil, and most people that watch what they eat can probably use it. But if you’re diabetic…or if you guzzle sodas, juices, and sports drinks…and eat packaged and processed foods that have tons of hidden sugar (aka high fructose corn syrup)…a sugar substitute may be a good move.
 

COCKTAIL SAUCE WITH A KICK

Posted: March 6, 2014 in Food, Recipes, seafood, shrimp, Uncategorized
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Freshly shucked oysters and clams call for an equally amazing cocktail sauce…and this sauce kicks butt! And it features a key ingredient that you might not expect: vodka. The small amount of vodka in the mix keeps the cocktail sauce from freezing solid when stored in the freezer. Just scoop out what you need, let it thaw, and put the rest back in the freezer.

cocktail sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups ketchup

4 Tablespoons prepared horseradish

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce

5 grinds of fresh black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon good quality vodka, like Tito’s

Combine all ingredients. Store in a tight plastic container in the freezer.

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