Yes, its true - I've been working on a new project, and I can finally talk about it.
The friendly folks at Cook Local are expanding to the Bay Area, and have asked me to come on as editor and run the site as well as produce all content.
This is very exciting - John and Patricia have done great things in the northwest and have made a name for themselves, and it's going to be awesome to do the same in my new home under the Cook Local brand.
I'm not closing down Foodbat so no worries - if I have recipes for posts that don't showcase local ingredients as a majority, they will be going on here. There might also be some overlap from time to time.
I'll also be tweeting as CookLocalSF as well as from my Jeters account.
Check out the new site! It looks awesome and this should prove to be a really fun project.
Cook Local - Bay Area
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Meal for one: black bean chili
I'm Sick. It sucks. I have a pretty good immune system so something like this hits maybe once every six months, maybe less. You know the kind - the sore throat that turns into sniffles that turns into that chest cough that won't go away. Yeah, fun. Today is my sick day. It is the day where I don't change out of my pajamas, where I get to be alone to sniffle and cough and fall asleep on the couch while watching The Biggest Loser.The problem with being sick - especially when there is no one around to take care of you during the day - is that ultimately you get hungry. Hungry, not for peanut butter on toast or something that you could whip together out of leftovers in the fridge, but for REAL food. Comfort food. Chili.
But chili takes hours...right?
This is not the kind of chili you lovingly simmer for hours - it is the kind you throw together on the fly from stuff lying around, because simply nothing else will do. It's not the worlds best chili. But, hey, its pretty good, and it took about fifteen minutes to make.
half yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 can black beans, drained/rinsed
1 serrano pepper, minced and seeds removed
2 small heirloom tomatoes, chopped
spices to taste: cumin, coriander, ginger, hot chilli, tumeric, cumin seeds
spoonful of tomato paste
lemon wedge
roughly a cup of chicken stock
In a heavy saucepan, heat up some olive oil and add the onion. make a hole in the middle of the onions and add your spices - fry for about 30 seconds then mix with the onion. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until the onions become translucent.
Add tomatoes and Serrano pepper, cook for a few minutes until tomato starts to break down. add spoonful of tomato paste and half the chicken stock. After a minute, add the beans.
simmer until the liquid is nearly gone and the onions are soft. Mash slightly with a potato masher to break up some of the beans, then add the other half of the chicken stock and stir.
when the chili is back up to temperature, serve. I like to season at the end with juice from a lemon wedge, maybe some cilantro or extra cayenne mixed in at the end. Spicy food is great for stuffy heads.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Goodbye to the northwest
Those who know me have found that I always like to eat and live local - shopping at farmers markets, foraging around the neighborhood, growing my own and discovering all of the interesting little intricacies of life in Seattle and the northwest. Where the best croissant is. Where the blackberries and sweet peas grow wild on my street. Stuff like that.
It turns out that when one makes an effort to live local, it is much harder to uproot oneself.
For the last several years, I have moved to a new city every two years or so- for college, for jobs, for love. It is with great regret that I find myself moving once again, to San Fransisco this time. In the last few years I have completely fallen in love with the northwest, and despite the fact that many of my childhood friends and all of my family live in the bay area, this move is particularly painful.
I really hope that my husband and I find ourselves in the northwest again, someday.
I should be excited for many things that come with living in california - backyard lemons, for one. A much wider variety at farmers markets. A year-round growing season. Nearly perfect weather (where I am living, anyway). Great restaurants within walking distance.
It's not Seattle, though.
You might hear about Seattle N-ice, but the truth is that Seattlites have a heart and soul that you don't miss until you move somewhere else. They are profoundly connected, to the earth, to the seasons, and to each other. I'm going to miss it. I am already.
Let's put it this way - I've moved to a place on the peninsula with endless sunshine and big front yards, and I'm the only one growing anything that wasn't landscaped by somebody else.
I plan to give it the old college try as far as reconnecting - and I daresay that once I am settled living local is going to be a heck of a lot easier than it was in Seattle, for the reasons I mentioned above. At least I'll have oranges this winter.
Mark my words though, PNW folks - it may be a while. But, I'll be back.
It turns out that when one makes an effort to live local, it is much harder to uproot oneself.
For the last several years, I have moved to a new city every two years or so- for college, for jobs, for love. It is with great regret that I find myself moving once again, to San Fransisco this time. In the last few years I have completely fallen in love with the northwest, and despite the fact that many of my childhood friends and all of my family live in the bay area, this move is particularly painful.
I really hope that my husband and I find ourselves in the northwest again, someday.
I should be excited for many things that come with living in california - backyard lemons, for one. A much wider variety at farmers markets. A year-round growing season. Nearly perfect weather (where I am living, anyway). Great restaurants within walking distance.
It's not Seattle, though.
You might hear about Seattle N-ice, but the truth is that Seattlites have a heart and soul that you don't miss until you move somewhere else. They are profoundly connected, to the earth, to the seasons, and to each other. I'm going to miss it. I am already.
Let's put it this way - I've moved to a place on the peninsula with endless sunshine and big front yards, and I'm the only one growing anything that wasn't landscaped by somebody else.
I plan to give it the old college try as far as reconnecting - and I daresay that once I am settled living local is going to be a heck of a lot easier than it was in Seattle, for the reasons I mentioned above. At least I'll have oranges this winter.
Mark my words though, PNW folks - it may be a while. But, I'll be back.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
The never-ending cycle of Leftovers
So, as some of you may know I am currently in between jobs at the moment. Everyone has their own approach to dealing with this change in schedule and particularly the huge amount of free time that is suddenly available. Some go on long walks, play video games, work out or simply mope around and be depressed. I especially want to avoid that last one, so I keep busy. I cook.
Being unemployed also brings to attention the need to slash our budget wherever possible, and make do on much less (if we want to make our rent, anyway). So, this week has become a Saga of Leftovers - I take a chicken, a stale loaf of bread, and the contents of my fridge, and see how far I can take it. These two main components are not only cheap but serve as the foundation for several fine meals for two people - the trick is using every bit, maximizing flavor and adapting it to what's on hand. Our grandparents had this technique down pat, and I get the feeling that my generation is re-discovering these talents.
Just as a note, I grow herbs, zucchini and tomatoes, so for me those items are free - I would probably do something else if I didn't have them. The other stuff can be bought cheaply - a few onions, a carrot, a lemon.
These are the actual meals I've made this week - it doesn't count the mini-meals that were made of cold chicken.
Meal one:
Roast chicken and dripping bread.
This turns out a really gorgeous roast chicken with plenty of flavor, and a minimal amount of work - no turning, no basting is necessary. The onions become part crispy, part melty and the bread becomes pure rich and toasty goodness, too rich in fact to eat at one sitting. That's okay - the leftover bread and drippings become part of the next meal. This is best done in an oven safe skillet or other vessel that will fit in the refridgerator.
Heat your oven to 425 degrees.
Take a whole chicken (don't forget to remove the liver and giblets inside), pat dry inside and out, and rub generously with pepper and kosher salt. Prick the skin over the fat deposits with a knife. Run your finger under the skin of the chicken breast to loosen it (be sure not to tear anything), and stuff a sprig of rosemary up each side. Stuff with a lemon cut in half, some kosher salt, and some rosemary, and put in the fridge to hang out until you are ready to cook.
Slice up about half a loaf worth of stale bread into cubes - a crusty loaf like sourdough works well but any bread will work. Also, slice up half an onion. Line your roasting pan (I use an enameled cast iron skillet which works wonderfully, because it's the perfect size and because washing roasting pans is a pain in the ass) with the bread and onions.
Place the chicken on top of the bread. Slather the chicken all over with about two tablespoons worth of softened butter, and roast for about an hour fifteen, or until the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh reads 175 degrees.
Check after about half an hour in to cooking - if the pieces of bread are beginning to look pretty toasted, you can lower the temperature to 375 - be aware that the cooking time will be longer.
Serve the chicken with part of the bread and some of those crispy onions. Whatever you do, DON'T WASH THE PAN. All of those drippings and pieces of bread and onion are the foundation for the next meal - cover the pan and stash in the fridge for the next day.
After the chicken is eaten, remove the rest of the meat and store it in the fridge, as well as the chicken carcass - these will form the base for soup later on.
Meal two:
Dripping gravy over egg noodles
This gravy is rich, delicious, and seriously easy - almost all you need is already in the pan. the leftover dripping bread bits act as a thickener for the gravy.
get salted water boiling for the noodles.
heat up your dripping pan, scraping up all those bits from the bottom. Add a chopped up peeled tomato, some vegetables if you want - I added a sliced zucchini to it as well. The tomato should have enough juice to deglaze the pan, but if not add a tablespoon or so of the boiling water. bring the mixture to a simmer.
Once the noodles are boiling for about a minute, add about a cup and a half of the pasta water to the gravy mixture. Bring back to a simmer, still stirring and scraping the dripping pan. It should take about 7-10 minutes to thicken (it should be thick enough to cover the back of a spoon). Drain the noodles, and serve with the sauce.
Meal Three (and basis for more): Spicy chicken and vegetable soup
This meal uses stock from the carcass, and whatever leftover chicken meat you have.
Chicken stock.
One should never throw away the leftovers of a roasted bird if one can possibly help it - not when making stock is so easy and can form the basis of so many other meals. Just cover the chicken carcass with water in a stock pot, and throw in whatever else you have lying around - a carrot that's withering, a leftover bit of onion and onion top, maybe some oregano or parsley from the garden.
I made a spicy soup from part of the stock, but I have several quarts left that I will either build into other soups this week, or freeze for use later. My husband likes to just season it and drink it straight.
This is a perfect example of a fridge and pantry meal - a lot of the stuff I used can be substituted for whatever you have around. I'm the sort of person who saves her bacon grease, but butter or olive oil is also fine.
Spicy chicken soup:
take three tomatoes and two hot peppers such as serrano or jalapeno (or for me the little ones in my garden), and put them in a pan under the broiler until thier skin blisters and they are easily peeled. This takes about 5-7 minutes. Peel the tomatoes and peppers (don't forget to remove the seeds from the peppers as well).
Bloom your spices in a bit of oil in your hot stockpot. I made a spice mix of cayenne, cumin, coriander, garam masala and hot chili, but use whatever you have on hand. fry the spices for no longer than thirty seconds.
Chop a sweet onion and sautee in your stock pot in some oil, butter or bacon grease. I also added a piece of cooked bacon I had in the fridge for some extra smokeyness. add salt and pepper and cook until the onions are soft and golden. Add the tomatoes and peppers to the mix, along with a sprig of oregano if you have one, or a shake of dried. Add four cups of the stock, along with your the leftover chicken meat and whatever vegetables you like - zucchini or other squash works well. Stir in about a teaspoonful of tomato paste.
Bring the soup to a simmer and let it go for about an hour and a half or so, until the soup is slightly thickened and the flavors are melded together. You can always season it to taste, but if you must, do it at the end about ten minutes before you serve, as flavors concentrate while a soup is simmering.
It is possible to eat (VERY) well, for the better part of a week, on only a few dollars worth of ingredients. Time is the major factor, and care- and while I may not have a lot of anything else, time I have in spades at the moment. I'm making well use of it, and keeping sane.
Being unemployed also brings to attention the need to slash our budget wherever possible, and make do on much less (if we want to make our rent, anyway). So, this week has become a Saga of Leftovers - I take a chicken, a stale loaf of bread, and the contents of my fridge, and see how far I can take it. These two main components are not only cheap but serve as the foundation for several fine meals for two people - the trick is using every bit, maximizing flavor and adapting it to what's on hand. Our grandparents had this technique down pat, and I get the feeling that my generation is re-discovering these talents.
Just as a note, I grow herbs, zucchini and tomatoes, so for me those items are free - I would probably do something else if I didn't have them. The other stuff can be bought cheaply - a few onions, a carrot, a lemon.
These are the actual meals I've made this week - it doesn't count the mini-meals that were made of cold chicken.
Meal one:
Roast chicken and dripping bread.
This turns out a really gorgeous roast chicken with plenty of flavor, and a minimal amount of work - no turning, no basting is necessary. The onions become part crispy, part melty and the bread becomes pure rich and toasty goodness, too rich in fact to eat at one sitting. That's okay - the leftover bread and drippings become part of the next meal. This is best done in an oven safe skillet or other vessel that will fit in the refridgerator.
Heat your oven to 425 degrees.
Take a whole chicken (don't forget to remove the liver and giblets inside), pat dry inside and out, and rub generously with pepper and kosher salt. Prick the skin over the fat deposits with a knife. Run your finger under the skin of the chicken breast to loosen it (be sure not to tear anything), and stuff a sprig of rosemary up each side. Stuff with a lemon cut in half, some kosher salt, and some rosemary, and put in the fridge to hang out until you are ready to cook.
Slice up about half a loaf worth of stale bread into cubes - a crusty loaf like sourdough works well but any bread will work. Also, slice up half an onion. Line your roasting pan (I use an enameled cast iron skillet which works wonderfully, because it's the perfect size and because washing roasting pans is a pain in the ass) with the bread and onions.
Place the chicken on top of the bread. Slather the chicken all over with about two tablespoons worth of softened butter, and roast for about an hour fifteen, or until the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh reads 175 degrees.
Check after about half an hour in to cooking - if the pieces of bread are beginning to look pretty toasted, you can lower the temperature to 375 - be aware that the cooking time will be longer.
Serve the chicken with part of the bread and some of those crispy onions. Whatever you do, DON'T WASH THE PAN. All of those drippings and pieces of bread and onion are the foundation for the next meal - cover the pan and stash in the fridge for the next day.
After the chicken is eaten, remove the rest of the meat and store it in the fridge, as well as the chicken carcass - these will form the base for soup later on.
Meal two:
Dripping gravy over egg noodles
This gravy is rich, delicious, and seriously easy - almost all you need is already in the pan. the leftover dripping bread bits act as a thickener for the gravy.
get salted water boiling for the noodles.
heat up your dripping pan, scraping up all those bits from the bottom. Add a chopped up peeled tomato, some vegetables if you want - I added a sliced zucchini to it as well. The tomato should have enough juice to deglaze the pan, but if not add a tablespoon or so of the boiling water. bring the mixture to a simmer.
Once the noodles are boiling for about a minute, add about a cup and a half of the pasta water to the gravy mixture. Bring back to a simmer, still stirring and scraping the dripping pan. It should take about 7-10 minutes to thicken (it should be thick enough to cover the back of a spoon). Drain the noodles, and serve with the sauce.
Meal Three (and basis for more): Spicy chicken and vegetable soup
This meal uses stock from the carcass, and whatever leftover chicken meat you have.
Chicken stock.
One should never throw away the leftovers of a roasted bird if one can possibly help it - not when making stock is so easy and can form the basis of so many other meals. Just cover the chicken carcass with water in a stock pot, and throw in whatever else you have lying around - a carrot that's withering, a leftover bit of onion and onion top, maybe some oregano or parsley from the garden.
I made a spicy soup from part of the stock, but I have several quarts left that I will either build into other soups this week, or freeze for use later. My husband likes to just season it and drink it straight.
This is a perfect example of a fridge and pantry meal - a lot of the stuff I used can be substituted for whatever you have around. I'm the sort of person who saves her bacon grease, but butter or olive oil is also fine.
Spicy chicken soup:
take three tomatoes and two hot peppers such as serrano or jalapeno (or for me the little ones in my garden), and put them in a pan under the broiler until thier skin blisters and they are easily peeled. This takes about 5-7 minutes. Peel the tomatoes and peppers (don't forget to remove the seeds from the peppers as well).
Bloom your spices in a bit of oil in your hot stockpot. I made a spice mix of cayenne, cumin, coriander, garam masala and hot chili, but use whatever you have on hand. fry the spices for no longer than thirty seconds.
Chop a sweet onion and sautee in your stock pot in some oil, butter or bacon grease. I also added a piece of cooked bacon I had in the fridge for some extra smokeyness. add salt and pepper and cook until the onions are soft and golden. Add the tomatoes and peppers to the mix, along with a sprig of oregano if you have one, or a shake of dried. Add four cups of the stock, along with your the leftover chicken meat and whatever vegetables you like - zucchini or other squash works well. Stir in about a teaspoonful of tomato paste.
Bring the soup to a simmer and let it go for about an hour and a half or so, until the soup is slightly thickened and the flavors are melded together. You can always season it to taste, but if you must, do it at the end about ten minutes before you serve, as flavors concentrate while a soup is simmering.
It is possible to eat (VERY) well, for the better part of a week, on only a few dollars worth of ingredients. Time is the major factor, and care- and while I may not have a lot of anything else, time I have in spades at the moment. I'm making well use of it, and keeping sane.
Monday, June 15, 2009
BBA: Bagels
Okay, so I have to apologize - I got caught up in this challenge and completely failed to document any of the things I've made so far. As my first bread (anadama) was an utter failure, and my second (Artos) was only so-so, I feared that none of my endeavors would end up being post-worthy.
Enter Bagels.
These bagels are Good. As in, you can't buy anything close (at least in Seattle) kind of good. As in, I might open up a bagel cart and devote the rest of my life to making them good.
As part of the challenge, I wanted to tackle another area of baking that I'd always wondered about and semi-feared, which is cultivating wild yeast in a sourdough starter. It always seemed like something tricky and difficult. Turns out, not so much. A scale helps. All you really need is a portion of water and flour in equal parts (I kickstarted mine with part rye flour and part bread flour), keep it out on the counter, and feed every 12 hours. I followed directions from WildYeastBlog. Sure enough, within a few days I had a bubbly mass of yeasty little monsters, ready for breadmaking. I named him Bob.
Bob lives in my fridge when I'm not using him for delicious sourdough things. Under chill he only needs to be fed once a week or so. (I've decided yeast cultures are male, despite off-color jokes you could make to the contrary - they smell, and they fart alot)
I've modified the Peter Reinhart BBA challenge bagel recipe to incorporate Bob. Sorry for giving weight instead of volume, but seriously, buying a scale has changed the way I bake. No more measuring! Yay!
Salt and Poppy Bagels
Starter:
35 oz starter with sourdough (about 200g of pure sourdough starter fed with equal parts bread flour and lukewarm water to equal 35oz, goosed with a teaspoon of active dry yeast and left to rise on the counter in a large bowl for at least an hour)
Dough:
17 oz (3.75 cups roughly) bread flour
.7 oz (3 tsp) of salt (I use kosher)
.5 oz (1 tbsp) of honey
To finish:
a pot of water
1 tbsp of baking soda
1 egg, beaten (egg wash)
poppyseeds and kosher salt
Once the sponge has gotten nice and bubbly (should take just over an hour), add the flour, salt and honey, and mix up until the ingredients form a ball. The dough will be very dry and shaggy at first - if you mix with wet hands you'll add just enough moisture to bring it all together. The product will be VERY stiff, as in probably break your stand mixer stiff - if you did use a stand mixer up til this point, I recommend switching to your hands.
transfer the dough to the counter and knead until the dough is satiny and pliable, but not sticky or tacky. add a few drops of water if it seems too dry (for example if it breaks easily when you stretch a piece between your fingers) or sprinkle on some flour if the dough is too sticky.
Once the dough is ready, devide into 4.5 oz pieces for large bagels, or 2.4 oz pieces for small ones.
Form the pieces into rolls and cover with a damp towel. Rest for 20 minutes (both of you!)
Line a pan with baking parchment or silpat, and spray with oil. Shape the bagels. I do this by sticking my thumb in the middle to make the hole, then working my way around with both hands to make a good "O" shape. You can also make a snake with the dough and wrap it around your fist, pinching the end to fasten.
place the shaped pieces on the pan, mist the tops of the bagels with oil, cover with plastic wrap, and let them rise for another 20 minutes.
Next, it's time for the float test - fill a small bowl with water and put in one of the bagels. if it floats immediately, they're good to go. If the bagel sinks, more proofing is needed - try again every 10 to 20 minutes. Once your bagels pass the float test, pop the pan in the fridge until you're ready to boil and bake them. I suggest waiting at least overnight, but they should be okay in there for three days.
When you are ready to bake the bagels, set your oven to 500 degrees and get a pot of water boiling (the wider the pot, the better). Once the water is boiling, add 1 tbsp of baking soda. It will stop boiling for a moment. This is normal.
Working in batches, boil the bagels a minute on each side (you can extend the time to make the bagel more chewy, but I dont recommend too long). Once a bagel is out of the water bath, immediately brush on some egg wash and sprinkle the salt and poppyseed mixture over the top.
When all the bagels are boiled, bake for five minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees, lower the temperature to 450, and bake for another five to eight minutes or until the bagels are golden brown. Let them cool for 15 minutes at least. They are worth the wait!
Mm. Bagels.
Enter Bagels.
These bagels are Good. As in, you can't buy anything close (at least in Seattle) kind of good. As in, I might open up a bagel cart and devote the rest of my life to making them good.
As part of the challenge, I wanted to tackle another area of baking that I'd always wondered about and semi-feared, which is cultivating wild yeast in a sourdough starter. It always seemed like something tricky and difficult. Turns out, not so much. A scale helps. All you really need is a portion of water and flour in equal parts (I kickstarted mine with part rye flour and part bread flour), keep it out on the counter, and feed every 12 hours. I followed directions from WildYeastBlog. Sure enough, within a few days I had a bubbly mass of yeasty little monsters, ready for breadmaking. I named him Bob.
Bob lives in my fridge when I'm not using him for delicious sourdough things. Under chill he only needs to be fed once a week or so. (I've decided yeast cultures are male, despite off-color jokes you could make to the contrary - they smell, and they fart alot)
I've modified the Peter Reinhart BBA challenge bagel recipe to incorporate Bob. Sorry for giving weight instead of volume, but seriously, buying a scale has changed the way I bake. No more measuring! Yay!
Salt and Poppy Bagels
Starter:
35 oz starter with sourdough (about 200g of pure sourdough starter fed with equal parts bread flour and lukewarm water to equal 35oz, goosed with a teaspoon of active dry yeast and left to rise on the counter in a large bowl for at least an hour)
Dough:
17 oz (3.75 cups roughly) bread flour
.7 oz (3 tsp) of salt (I use kosher)
.5 oz (1 tbsp) of honey
To finish:
a pot of water
1 tbsp of baking soda
1 egg, beaten (egg wash)
poppyseeds and kosher salt
Once the sponge has gotten nice and bubbly (should take just over an hour), add the flour, salt and honey, and mix up until the ingredients form a ball. The dough will be very dry and shaggy at first - if you mix with wet hands you'll add just enough moisture to bring it all together. The product will be VERY stiff, as in probably break your stand mixer stiff - if you did use a stand mixer up til this point, I recommend switching to your hands.
transfer the dough to the counter and knead until the dough is satiny and pliable, but not sticky or tacky. add a few drops of water if it seems too dry (for example if it breaks easily when you stretch a piece between your fingers) or sprinkle on some flour if the dough is too sticky.
Once the dough is ready, devide into 4.5 oz pieces for large bagels, or 2.4 oz pieces for small ones.
Form the pieces into rolls and cover with a damp towel. Rest for 20 minutes (both of you!)
Line a pan with baking parchment or silpat, and spray with oil. Shape the bagels. I do this by sticking my thumb in the middle to make the hole, then working my way around with both hands to make a good "O" shape. You can also make a snake with the dough and wrap it around your fist, pinching the end to fasten.
place the shaped pieces on the pan, mist the tops of the bagels with oil, cover with plastic wrap, and let them rise for another 20 minutes.
Next, it's time for the float test - fill a small bowl with water and put in one of the bagels. if it floats immediately, they're good to go. If the bagel sinks, more proofing is needed - try again every 10 to 20 minutes. Once your bagels pass the float test, pop the pan in the fridge until you're ready to boil and bake them. I suggest waiting at least overnight, but they should be okay in there for three days.
When you are ready to bake the bagels, set your oven to 500 degrees and get a pot of water boiling (the wider the pot, the better). Once the water is boiling, add 1 tbsp of baking soda. It will stop boiling for a moment. This is normal.
Working in batches, boil the bagels a minute on each side (you can extend the time to make the bagel more chewy, but I dont recommend too long). Once a bagel is out of the water bath, immediately brush on some egg wash and sprinkle the salt and poppyseed mixture over the top.
When all the bagels are boiled, bake for five minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees, lower the temperature to 450, and bake for another five to eight minutes or until the bagels are golden brown. Let them cool for 15 minutes at least. They are worth the wait!
Mm. Bagels.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
On Bread and Challenges
My first major bread-related memory involves my first trip to Paris, as I'm sure it does for many well-travelled foodies out there.
Mine probably deviates a bit though - it is of sitting in my hotel room, too afraid to go out into the city, eating my way through a loaf of bread so delicious that even as I cry my eyes out I am unable to stop consuming it.
I was eighteen, travelling with another young female friend, and we were both terrified of Parisians. I should mention that on the first day a rather nasty specimen of a Frenchman had followed us a good eight blocks asking loudly for a blowjob from we "American Whores," so our experience had not been good. In fact, the entire three days we were there were mostly spent in the hotel room, watching horrible french television, venturing only as far as the bakery down the street. That bread was the single memorable thing about Paris for us- of sitting on our hotel bed consuming great chunks of it. It was that experience that really opened my eyes to how incredible bread can be.
(FYI I've since been back and although it wasn't as horrible, I still can't stand that city and the demeanor of its inhabitants to strangers. Sorry foodies.)
For the majority of my life I felt that really good bread was something I could never myself make - that bread making was some occult process that I could never hope to master. It is the antithesis of the way I normally cook,off the recipe, on the fly. All that weighing, math, patience, steps to follow - I'm not good with these things.
Well, I've decided to face my fear of bread baking and master the style of cooking that I am weakest at.
PinchMySalt has started a Bread Bakers Challenge, in which we work our way through every recipe in the Bread Bakers Apprentice, a fantastic book on baking by a guy who knows what he's talking about. I feel this is one of my culinary fears, something I should get over. Bread is essentially flour, water, and yeast - it is something people have made for thousands of years, and there is no reason why I should hold it on a pedestal. I'm entirely sure the first few attempts will be utter disasters, but this is something I should face.
Mine probably deviates a bit though - it is of sitting in my hotel room, too afraid to go out into the city, eating my way through a loaf of bread so delicious that even as I cry my eyes out I am unable to stop consuming it.
I was eighteen, travelling with another young female friend, and we were both terrified of Parisians. I should mention that on the first day a rather nasty specimen of a Frenchman had followed us a good eight blocks asking loudly for a blowjob from we "American Whores," so our experience had not been good. In fact, the entire three days we were there were mostly spent in the hotel room, watching horrible french television, venturing only as far as the bakery down the street. That bread was the single memorable thing about Paris for us- of sitting on our hotel bed consuming great chunks of it. It was that experience that really opened my eyes to how incredible bread can be.
(FYI I've since been back and although it wasn't as horrible, I still can't stand that city and the demeanor of its inhabitants to strangers. Sorry foodies.)
For the majority of my life I felt that really good bread was something I could never myself make - that bread making was some occult process that I could never hope to master. It is the antithesis of the way I normally cook,off the recipe, on the fly. All that weighing, math, patience, steps to follow - I'm not good with these things.
Well, I've decided to face my fear of bread baking and master the style of cooking that I am weakest at.
PinchMySalt has started a Bread Bakers Challenge, in which we work our way through every recipe in the Bread Bakers Apprentice, a fantastic book on baking by a guy who knows what he's talking about. I feel this is one of my culinary fears, something I should get over. Bread is essentially flour, water, and yeast - it is something people have made for thousands of years, and there is no reason why I should hold it on a pedestal. I'm entirely sure the first few attempts will be utter disasters, but this is something I should face.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Foodbat digs creature out of sand, eats it: Razor clams!
This past weekend I got the opportunity to do something singularly northwesty - dig for razor clams! I had never done anything even approaching something like this, so when Naomi of GastroGnome invited me to go, I jumped at the chance. Neither of us had any idea of what we were doing, but we did have a clam gun, and it sounded like an interesting experience, so why not?
We left at an ungodly early hour on sunday morning, and after getting lost somewhere around Aberdeen finally made it to Copalis beach. The state only opens certain beaches for clamming at certain days of the year, coinciding with very low tides. The season opened at 8am so we had to make sure to be there in time.
Other clammers were scattered up and down the tide flats, digging and seemingly plucking clams from the sand as easily as picking apples from a laden tree. Easy, right? We found a divot in the sand and stuck in the clam gun, which is essentially a piece of PVC pipe with handles. Push in, pull out, all the sand slides back out of the pipe and into the hole. No clam. Try again, hole fails, no clam. We are obviously Doing It Wrong.
We end up wandering around at the surfline for about 45 minutes, looking like fools among all the people happily digging up thier little mollusks. We had an Epic Clam Fail on our hands - a two and a half hour drive out, and it was clear that we had wasted our time and were going to drive back empty handed due to our noobishness.
After yet another failed attempt, Naomi noticed the little hole on top of the pipe, and wondered if maybe it was supposed to be covered. Eureka! We push in the gun, cover the hole and...SUCTION! A large divot of sand comes out with the gun. And there, in the hole - yes, a little thingy, poking out! I squeal like a little girl and grab for it. I go in up to my elbow, and come out with our first clam!
We dance around in excitement. There is this amazing rush of euphoria that comes from erasing the barrier erected by restaurants, supermarkets and other middlemen of the human food chain, pulling something wriggling out of the ground to be eaten. We certainly felt it.
From there, it was easy, more or less. Look for a divot. Dig in the clam gun. Cover the hole, pull out the sand, grab the clam. We each got our limit of fifteen, and headed home with the load.
I've done some foraging before, but this was hands down the most fun and rewarding venture I've ever had doing it.
Once my clams were home, I washed them of sand as best as I could and put them in a bowl under some wet paper towels. I was a little nervous about the next part, and was exhausted anyway, so clams went in the fridge for the night.
I should probably mention that cleaning razor clams bears very little resemblance to cleaning the hardshell clams that most of us think of when we think of clams - with hard shells, all you have to do is rinse off the outside and steam them until thier shells come open. Not so with razor clams - these suckers are BIG, and cleaning them is a process that requires, well, shelling and butchering the thing. I already am pretty squeaming about killing things - I don't kill spiders, I avoid ants, I carefully move snails to another part of the yard. (Thank god I dont have to deal with roaches). Clams don't whimper or make any sound, but they do pull back when you touch them, and wriggle. Anyway, I'd grown a little attached to my clams, so the thought of killing them weighed heavily upon me.
When the time came the following night, and the clams were in a colander in my sink, I ended up coming to terms with what was about to happen by saying a little prayer for them. I understand it's pretty rediculous, but it helped me feel better.
It went something like this:
O Razor Clams,
Please forgive me for bringing about your demise,
but unfortunately, you are Delicious
and would probably die pretty soon anyway.
I hope that until now your clammy lives have been pretty good
and that if you reincarnate you come back as something that doesn't get eaten
or at least live a bit longer.
Amen.
Please forgive me for bringing about your demise,
but unfortunately, you are Delicious
and would probably die pretty soon anyway.
I hope that until now your clammy lives have been pretty good
and that if you reincarnate you come back as something that doesn't get eaten
or at least live a bit longer.
Amen.
Actually it went on for quite a bit longer than that but my husband told me to quit stalling and get it over with already.
Here is how you clean a razor clam:
First, pour boiling water over them for no longer than five seconds. Immediately rinse in cold water. If its any longer the flesh will be tough. this should make the shells pop open and help release the clam from the shell.
Using a spoon or your fingers, shuck the clam from its shell. make sure to cut through the four muscles that are attaching the thing and not tear them.
With a pair of scissors, snip the end of the neck part off. I should probably mention that even after they die, mollusks have automatic twich responses - so yes, it will pull back and wriggle in your hand as you are cutting it. THIS IS INCREDIBLY FREAKY. You just have to squeal when appropriate and deal with it as best as you can. They really are dead at this point.
Cut up the zipper and up the ventricle. then located the second ventricle (there will be a little hole) and cut up that as well. the idea is to butterfly the thing so that it lays flat.
make a cut across the dark bit in the center, and gently pull the digger (thats the foot thing) away from the body.
scrape off any dark bits - the gills in this case - from the body, and put aside in a bowl of water.
Make a diagonal cut across the dark bit of the digger. there will be a little glassy thing in the middle that pops out - pull it out and toss it.
butterfly the digger as you did the body, removing any dark bits and pulling out the small intestine (you know, the poop shoot). I recommend doing all this under running water. The fluffly looking stuff should stay on.
I think the most disturbing part of this was not the little (nonharmful) crabs that would scuttle out of the clamshell, or the way the thing wriggled in my hands long after it was dead. Rather, it was the fact that after squealing and squirming through the first couple of clams, I started thinking less about what I was doing and more about how my back hurt, or whatever else came into my head. At one point I even started singing a song about clam poopshoots. How quickly we become numb!
Anyway, I didn't take any pictures of the fried clams I made, but they were delicious. You can find a similar recipe here or on GastroGnome's excellent post on her experience.
I made sure to freeze most of them for chowder or frying later on in the year. Anyway, if you are in the northwest, razorclamming is a ton of fun and well worth the work for this delicacy.
You can read all about razor clams and how to dig for them, as well as where to buy a license, on the Washington State Fishing page.
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