Slow And Sew

Now that she’s more than a month old, it’s time to get around to blogging about her.  Lilly is a cute little baby born to our poker buddy Dan and his lovely bride Michelle. I got to hold Miss Lilly when she was about 3 weeks old and cute as a bug’s ear.  Here’s her present from me- a finished workshop project!   I made this quilt in Sue’s Mystery Workshop in February, and I finally finished with the quilting and binding about a week or so before Miss Lilly arrived.

I hand-quilted this one, which I don’t normally do for baby quilts (I’m usually in too much of a hurry), but I needed something to keep me off the streets, or to justify watching TV this year.

Here’s the tag I made for the back.  I knew I’d find a good use for the large gerber daisy fabric I bought a couple springs ago.

I’m pleased to say that this was a big hit with Michelle, who loves the oceany color scheme.  

One of the best things was to get a great thank you letter, complete with a picture of Miss Lilly lying on the quilt, bawling her head off.  Makes the heart sing to know it’s well received.

On the eve of Bacon Day, we (DH and I) tried out yet another Cook’s Illustrated recipe, with our own modifications.   DH was responsible for the final trimming of crust, baking and glazing, so I wouldn’t be late for a meeting, so it appropriate that the apple of my eye be here with some other lovely apples.

This recipe was demonstrated on America’s Test Kitchen, and I thought it a bit more fussy than I wanted to deal with at the time. Don’t we all have laziness moments?  But finding myself with the new power tool and an abundance of apples, I was drawn again to this recipe.  It’s not big like a pie, and it doesn’t overwhelm with cinnamon (which isn’t a bad thing, really, just not always what you want). And it was something pretty to serve to the people who helped with the bacon.

Apple galette is as much or more about the crust as it is about the fruit.  This is not about one more than the other, as it might be in a deep dish pie. This crust is crisp, buttery, and flaky. I can say that the eaters found this delicious, and it was delicious over several days, though the recipe suggests it’s best the first day. This is also a recipe where it’s worth slicing the apples in the food processor (rev up your power tools, folks!), so you get nice even 1/8 inch slices. All the easier to “shingle” them on the crust.

This is so elegant and tasty, you might even make it more than once!

Here’s a link to the Cook’s Illustrated site, where they have video of how this is done.

Apple Galette

Equipment:

• parchment paper
• plastic wrap
• baking sheet (preferably with a rim)
• rolling pin
• food processor
• mixing bowl
• bench scraper
• apple corer (optional)
• knife
• cutting board
• peeler (optional if you peel your apples with your paring knife)

Ingredients

Dough:

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces)
• 1/2 cup Wondra flour or Pillsbury Shake and Blend instant flour (2 1/2 ounces)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter , cut into 5/8-inch cubes (1 1/2 sticks)
• 7-9 tablespoons ice water

Apple Filling:

• 1 1/2 pounds apples (3-4 medium or 4-5 small)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons apricot preserves
• 1 tablespoon water

Procedure:

1. Combine the flours, salt and sugar in the food processor with three 1-second pulses. Scatter the butter pieces over the flour, and pulse to cut it in until the butter pieces are the size of 1/2 inch pebbles. This should take about 6 1-second pulses.
2. Sprinkle 1 Tbs water over the mixture and pulse once quickly to combine. Repeat, 1 Tbs water at a time until the dough begins to form small curds that hold together when pinched with the fingers (dough should look crumbly and not form a cohesive ball).
3. Empty dough onto work surface and gather into rough rectangular mound with the dough scraper. Your mound should be about 5 inches wide and 12 inches long.
4. Do the Fraisage- Starting at the farthest end of the rectangle, use the heel of your hand to smear a small amount of dough against the work surface, pushing firmly down and away from you, to create a separate pile of dough (flattened pieces of dough should look shaggy). Continue until all the dough has been worked. Gather dough into the same size rectangle again, and repeat fraisage. This shouldn’t take as much work, and at the end you should be able to form a cohesive ball of dough. Form the dough into a 4 inch square, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until cold, firm, but still malleable, 30 min. to 1 hr.
5. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut a piece of parchment paper 16 inches x 12 inches.
6. Peel, core, and halve apples. Cut apple halves lengthwise into 1/8 inch slices (go on, use that slicer blade!)
7. Flour the piece of parchment paper. Place dough on parchment, and dust with more flour. Roll dough until it just overhangs all 4 sides of the parchment, and is about 1/8 inch thick, dusting rolling pin and surfaces with flour to prevent sticking, as needed. Trim the dough so the edges are even with the parchment paper.
8. Roll up 1 inch of each edge and pinch firmly to create 1/2 inch thick border around all sides of the dough. Transfer dough and parchment to rimmed baking sheet.
9. Starting in one corner, shingle sliced apples to form an even row across the bottom of the dough, overlapping each slice by about half. Continue to layer apples in rows, overlapping each row by half. Dot apples with butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar. Bake until tart is golden and apples have caramelized, 45 to 60 minutes.
10. While galette is baking, combine apricot preserves and water in microwave safe bowl. Microwave on medium power until mixture starts to bubble, about 1 minute. Strain mixture through fine mesh strainer to remove any large apricot pieces. Brush baked galette with glaze and cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

And, now on to the pancetta, which I confess, is my favorite.  It’s more work than regular bacon, and there isn’t the smoky flavor, but I love the smell of the cure (pepper, salt, garlic, thyme, juniper berries, nutmeg), and the end result is delicious and versatile.  Each time we make it, we get a little better at it.  We is a very important term in pancetta.  I can’t see myself wrestling with the rolls and tying them successfully on my own.  Another good reason to make a lot at once, and make a party out of it!

We’re starting here after the bellies have cured for a week in the fridge, with overhauling every other day.  The photo below shows two full pork bellies (each cut in half, and trimmed) after being rinsed and patted dry.

At this point, it’s time to start the rolling and tying process, which involves butcher’s string, and a bunch of grunting, trying to get the rolls as tight as possible.  This is the hard part. We’ve tried using cable ties to hold the rolls while we tighten the string(quasi-successful), but we’ve since learned that the best thing to do is invite a friend with strong forearms, and give him some gloves, so the string doesn’t cut the skin on his fingers. (Because it can take weeks for the grooves in your fingers to heal back up if they cut and bleed)  If anyone can tell me of a better method, I’m eager to hear.

This time, we had a 3 person team- one to cut the strings, one to hold the roll tight, and one to tie the strings and crank on them.  Here’s a shot of us trying to look like this is easy.

Matt L, me, BDB tying the pancetta.  In the lower right is one we’ve already tied.

After we got all of the rolls tied, to prep them for their three weeks of drying, we peppered the outside, and wrapped them in cheesecloth.  The main reason for the pepper is to keep away bugs, which don’t like pepper.  The added flavor is a nice bonus, too.

Here is where some real chef/butcher skill is helpful- tying up the covered rolls so they can be hung from hooks to dry cure.  I unfortunately never really learned how best to do this, though I’ve seen several chefs and butchers whip this out in seconds.  Anyone know of a place that gives lessons in tying a roast?

Here’s Matt L with his handiwork, on the first of four rolls:

And here are Matt L, BDB, and I with our attempts on the other three:

We hung two of these rolls from hooks in the basement, which is cool and about 60% humidity, and we put the other two rolls in our little wine fridge, based on something I read on Kevin Weeks’ blog, Seriously Good, which reminds us that wine fridges are good at maintaining constant temperature and humidity (DUH! that’s what they’re for!).

Now that the drying time has passed, yesterday I took a roll out, unwrapped it, and trimmed it into pieces for my friends who assisted:

Now that’s PRETTY.  And more than pretty tasty.

This is a post about a span of more than three weeks, timewise.  This was an annual event- the curing and smoking of bacon, and the rolling and drying of pancetta.  Now that we’ve done it a few times, we’re getting better at it, and each time we learn a few things, and quality appears to be improving.  Or maybe that’s just because we’re more comfortable with it all, and it doesn’t seem quite as new.

Like many other foodies around the country, I’ve found the Charcuterie book by Ruhlman and Polcyn to be an inspiration for fun in the kitchen, in the yard by the smoker, and at the table.  I am blessed to have a patient husband who appreciates my interest in cooking and odd food-related hobbies.  I am lucky to have married an adventuresome eater who is willing to babysit charcoal while the rest of us wrestle with rolls of pork belly in the kitchen.

This time, ended up doing the basic curing myself.  After an unfortunate mixup at the butcher, my pork bellies were frozen when I picked them up, so the curing I was going to start on Saturday got moved to Sunday.  :(    But since meat curing is an exercise in patience, I just got a bit more practice than I intended.  I think I used the time I didn’t spend with meat making a Torta di Caprese (dense chocolate torte with ground almonds).  Not a total loss.

I don’t have any photos of the process of making the cures, and putting the meat in the zipper bags, and doing the overhauling in the fridge for a week, but I do have photos of the day we smoked the regular bacon (1 pork belly), and rolled and tied the pancetta (2 pork bellies).

Though the activities were going on simultaneously, I will separate the bacon smoking from the pancetta, for continuity.  We’ll start with the smoking of regular bacon.

First, we needed to prep the smoker, clean out the firebox, and get the chimney starters loaded up.

Here’s our barrel smoker, with the clean firebox on the left. Note the hoe and metal can to the left, which are the key tools for the cleaning operation.

Then, we started with the ceremonial lighting of the first fire, which includes a toast with our favorite (inexpensive) bubbles, Segura Viudas Brut Reserva.  Since Matt L. was the newbie this year, he did the ceremonial lighting.

And here’s a picture of DH and Matt L, waiting for the charcoal, after the ceremonial toast:

Once we finally got the fires going (it was pretty windy when we started), here’s what our bacon looked like when we first put it in the smoker.  We did two trays at once, on the upper and lower racks.  We put the pans as far away from the fire box as we could, to prevent melting of the fat.

the little trimmings are pieces we trimmed off the pancetta bellies to make rolling easier. Might as well make little smoked treats for tasting, no? (And BOY were they TASTY!)

We smoked the bacon for an hour or two, with applewood chips providing the smoke.  Here’s a photo of it in process.

Note the bowl of chips soaking in water.

And here’s what it looked like after we smoked it, and let it cool. MMMMM…. BACON!

Ok, so I’ve been busy both with my outside life, and with my cooking lately, and I’ve not had much time for blogging.

Time to catch up.

We recently smoked bacon and made pancetta, and last night was what I would consider a culinary triumph- the completion of a 6 course meal (well, 5 courses started with an amuse bouche)  for 8 that I’d offered as a silent auction item for the UU Fellowship of La Crosse, WI.  Some very dear friends bought the dinner, and I am it all came off well.

Of course, this doesn’t even touch the trip to Maine in September, where we had great fun at R & H’s wedding, a wonderful experience at Fore Street in Portland,  and great lobster rolls and seafood chowder at Phil’s in Boothbay.  So much to discuss.  I guess I need to get to it in separate posts…. we’ll see how much catching up I can do.

This is a game that’s been started over on the Very Good Taste blog, and I can’t resist joining in.  My first interblog experience.  Jill and Andrew have created quite a stir with this.  Basically, here’s a list of 100 foods, and we are to mark which ones we’ve managed to eat, as per these instructions:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

THE VGT Ominvore’s Hundred

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - mine was raspberry
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream - I’ve mentioned this before
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

On last Friday, via UPS, I received a new power tool… a Kitchen Aid Food Processor!

Due to the fact that a black one cost significantly less than a white one that would match my Kitchen Aid mixer, I have a black one. You can see how important matching tools are in my kitchen…..   I picked this one mostly from the reviews from Cook’s Illustrated Magazine, and the pricing, vs. a Cuisinart, which a few of my trusted foodie friends swear by.  OK, call me frugal, or even cheap, but that was my logic.
This new tool replaces a GE food processor I inherited from my grandmother, which was serviceable, easy to use, etc., but a bit smaller.  I’m going to send it along to my sister J, to see if it’s big enough for her needs.  I think it’s about a 6 or 7 cup bowl, which works for lots of jobs.  Kitchen Aid, Cuisinart, and many vendors sell this size.

So, of course, this weekend, I needed to make some things to try this out.  So far, the biggest differences from the previous processor, other than size:

1. Easier to attach bowl and lid-  my old one sometimes required both hands for setting and removing the top.  This one I can do either with just one hand.

2. QUIET motor-  This is one of the finest features, as noise tends to annoy me more and more over time.  I love how quietly powerful this new one is.

3. More blades - a thinner slicing blade, which I used this morning on some apples, as well as a standard slice that’s about a quarter inch.  The new one also has a shredding blade, a standard metal blade, and a dough blade, as well as a small blade for the smaller bowl.  We’ll see if I actually use most of these, or if I tend to mostly use the standard metal blade.  I think the dough blade will get some use, since pie crusts are a favorite use for the processor.

What I’ve used it for so far:

1. Tomato Consomme’ - (there’s a post on this), where I blitzed the tomatoes with other ingredients, using the basic metal blade.  Worked quickly and quietly.  As with any other food processor, I still need to watch out for how much volume goes in, so liquids don’t leak out.  However, doing this recipe in 2 batches sure beat the 4 batches I needed in the old processor.

2. Pie Crust - this is one of the best uses for food processors, IMO.  I made the basic flaky pie crust in Rose Levy Berenbaum’s The Pie and Pastry Bible.  Of course, it worked like a charm.

3. Slicing Apples - I normally wouldn’t bother to slice my apples in the processor (thickness issues with the old slicing blade, getting the thing out again, etc.), as I would usually do it by hand as I peeled and cored each apple.  I decided to try out the thin slicing blade on the new machine for a couple reasons: first, it’s a new toy, and second, one of the two varieties of apples I’m using gets softer when cooked than the other, and if the slices are thin, I’m hoping to avoid large gaps between the apples and the pie crust when it bakes. The thin slicing blade makes about one-eighth-inch-thick slices.

Here’s a photo of the results, with just a slight bit of juice bubbling up:

So far, I’m delighted with my new power tool, and it sits proudly next to the mixer on the counter.  What can I make next???

As you may have figured out, I like the cooking of Jamie Oliver. I find his approach to food on his television programs and in his books to be accessible and encouraging.  His love of good ingredients, good vegetables, and good Italian cured pork products make him seem like a kindred spirit.  In his Jamie At Home program on Tomatoes, he demonstrated a recipe that he described as more posh restaurant food than his normal home cooking.  The recipe is for a tomato consomme’, a clear cold soup to be served as a first course, in bowls garnished with celery leaves and basil leaves and Jamie’s ubiquitous drizzle of olive oil.

Given that we’ve got plenty of tomatoes right now (see Earthbox related posts), I gave it a go.  The first time I made this consomme’, I took it to a party of foodies, and we tasted it as I would serve it-  in little glasses as an amuse bouche.  It surprised many of the guests, which included some food professionals, and some pretty experienced palates.  It’s refreshing, and just smells and tastes like summer.

I’ve since found a reference to the same technique in Paul Bertolli’s Cooking By Hand (which, by the way, is a lovely book- I’d love to do a stage with him, making salumi), though without the vodka and horseradish. Bertolli has this under the heading of Essence, a lovely serendipity as I chose the title for this post before I read his article.

Tomato Consomme, modified from Jamie Oliver

Equipment

• food processor
• colander
• butter muslin or other muslin (cheesecloth is too coarse a weave)
• chef’s knife
• cutting board
• liquid measuring cup
• large bowl (to hold at least 12 cups)
• refrigerator

Ingredients

• Tomatoes- 2kg, or 4.4 lbs  (any variety, as long as they are good fresh ones)
• Horseradish - Jamie used the root, but I can’t find it here.  I used the ground stuff in a jar, WITHOUT CREAM, approx. 2 tsp.
• Vodka- I used Belvedere, 2 shots
• Basil - Jamie’s quantity was “a handful” of leaves.  I got mine from my Earthbox in the yard- a curly variety.
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled or not
• 1 slice of raw red beet, for color (optional)

Procedure

1. Roughly chop the tomatoes.
2. Drape the butter muslin over the colander, and place the colander over/in the large bowl.
3. Put half of all of the ingredients in the food processor, if you have 12 cup capacity.  Otherwise use a quarter at a time.  Blitz until you get a slushy consistency.
4. Pour the slushy stuff into the muslin.
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until all ingredients are pureed.
6. Tie the opposing corners of the butter muslin, so you get a kind of hobo sack.  The tomato water will have already started draining through. Notice how clear it is.
7. Place in the fridge.  Jamie hung his muslin ball from a hook on the wire rack in his fridge.  I don’t have wire shelves, so I used the colander.
8. If you want your consomme to be colored pink, put a slice of raw beet in the bowl.  You’ll remove this before serving.
9. Let the consomme drain for 3-6 hours in the fridge.  At this point, discard the beet, and the contents inside the muslin.
10. Serve well chilled, in bowls or juice glasses.

I finally got around to trying a recipe from The Kitchen Detective, by Christopher Kimball. My dear sister gave this to me as a Christmas present several years ago, and, of course, it is only this year that I’ve actually made something from it. Now that we’re getting near Tomato Inundation, the cherry tomato pasta sauce that is in the book was a perfect way to use our cherry tomatoes from our CSA box. This sauce can be made in the time it takes to cook the pasta if you are quick with your knife and food processor. Mr. Kimball prefers to use penne or farfalle (aka bow ties), as they tend to hold the sauce.

Our personal observations were that this pasta sauce is quite runny, but delicious. It is somewhat different from what I was expecting in the taste, but I think the fresh ‘clean’ flavor is due to that tiny bit of vinegar. As I am wont to substitute, rather than run to the store again, I made some modifications from Kimball’s original recipe. He called for white wine vinegar, I used white balsamic. He called for 1/2 tsp. of minced garlic, I used 1 clove.

Here is the variation that DH and I made (we used penne for the pasta) yesterday. Delicious, and as darling nephew might say, it’s Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy! According to Mr. Kimball, the sauce gets better as it sits, so you don’t need to cook the pasta at the same time, but we did because we were hungry. DH and I will vouch for its deliciousness right away. I’ll be doing this again soon, I’m sure.

Ripe Cherry Tomato Sauce, modified from The Kitchen Detective, by Christopher Kimball.

Equipment:

• Cutting board
• chef’s knife
• serrated knife for tomatoes (optional)
• pasta pot
• colander
• food processor
• large bowl
• Pyrex measuring cup
• slotted spoon

Ingredients:

• 4 cups ripe cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 cup olive oil (Pull out the good stuff, since this won’t be cooked)
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp white balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
• salt
• pepper
• 1 pound box of dried pasta (penne are good for this recipe, but not crucial)

Procedure:

1. Put water (say, 4 quarts?) in the pasta pot, add a couple Tbs. of salt (I use kosher salt), and bring it to a boil.
2. Take 1 cup of the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half. Place the tomato halves in the bowl.
3. Put the remaining cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil, and vinegar into the food processor, and pulse a few times until it is well mixed. Be careful if you don’t have lots of extra room in your food processor, as this may leak out a little if you pulse it too fast. Add this to the tomato halves in the bowl.
4. Sometime in this process your pasta water will boil. Add the pasta, and cook it until al dente, stirring occasionally so the pasta won’t stick. The package may give you a guideline for timing, but use your own taste as a preference.
5. Add the sliced onion to the sauce, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. When the pasta is done, drain it using the colander, but don’t shake it too dry. Pour the pasta into the bowl with the sauce, and mix it up.
7. Serve in bowls. I garnished mine with a little extra pepper. Jamie Oliver might drizzle a little more olive oil over the top. Serves 4.

Here’s a picture of another of our Friendship Circle Fracture quilts, this one belonging to Kathy.  She was very pleased to have gotten the picture put together.  Given the amount of time she spends volunteering as Guild President, I’m glad she still has some time to sew.

The actual dimensions of this quilt are much smaller than Sue’s or mine, which are about 36 inches by 48 inches for Sue’s, and about 48 inches by 60 inches for mine.  I’ll see if I can get actual dimensions from Kathy, but I would guess it is more like 24 inches by 36 inches.

Kathy’s helps demonstrate how different all of our pictures are, and how we’ve all used a lot of different techniques.  We agreed the last time we met that this has made the project really fun.

To add a little more background, here’s Kathy’s original photo.   I apologize to the author of the photo, but I don’t have more credit information to cite.  Please don’t hate me for posting your picture!

And here are all of our fractured pieces when we revealed them at Mary’s house in June.

(Since this is my blog, I’ll point out that the piece of the fracture that I did is the left hand piece on the bottom edge, with the left side of the large window sill.)