playing with fire and water

burrata peaches agastache

To a cook, food is a kaleidoscope of things: art, science, history, identity, religion. Sometimes food is just fuel; sometimes life itself. Every once in a while we encounter a food that is pure magic.

Take burrata, for instance: an impossibly thin skin of mozzarella encapsulating a filling of cream and curds. Surely (I thought), it's the work of an otherworldly being; the conjuring of a generous sorcerer, or a sleight of hand by a milk magician with an enormous heart. 

I said as much (or something like it) to a complete stranger upon tasting a particularly ethereal specimen, to which he replied with a humble "thank you". It took me a moment to understand that he was telling me that he had made the burrata himself, perhaps because his earthliness threw me off. But after listening to him describe the process with reverence and passion, while the whole time his deft hands traced the motions, I knew that I was at least half right.

If a mere mortal can make burrata, can we cooks do anything to make it better? To subject it to temperature or tools would only destroy its texture— and burrata is all about texture, the flavor is only as good as the milk from which it's made. No, the best we can do is to pair it foods that will act like magician's assistants, whose role is to enhance the performance of the magician.

My peaches were a disappointment this year. The ones that didn't rot on the tree weren't even worth picking. After the magic of last years harvest, I want to blame it on the incessant rain but that wouldn't explain why the local peaches weren't so affected. In fact, the ones I picked up at the farmer's market displayed remarkable balance and aroma for such a wet year. They made a wonderful fresh peach and mascarpone tart, flecked with spicy, citrusy Agastache "Desert Sunrise" flowers, but paired with burrata, as they are here, the dish was enchanting. 

kefir

I have a friend who claims that regular consumption of kefir will provide her with a long, healthy, disease-free life. I hope she's right.

It seems that most kefir enthusiasts drink it for the health benefits (which are substantial) but almost apologetically claim that the flavor is an acquired one. Sure, if you're not open to the taste of sour milk, kefir can be offputting. But, by making it yourself, you can control the degree of sourness— from mildly tangy to sharp and effervescent.

For the uninitiated, kefir is fermented milk, cultured with kefir grains. The gelatinous grains are a matrix of sugar, protein, fat, and ash that harbor a garden of yeast and bacteria. It is the yeast that sets it apart from other milk cultures that are predominately bacteria.

Making kefir is as simple as adding the grains to milk (about 1 tablespoon of grains per 2 cups of milk) and allowing it to ferment at room temperature for a day or two. When the desired texture and flavor are achieved, the grains are strained from the kefir and recycled to start a new batch. If those directions sound vague, they are intentionally so. Even with careful weighing and control of temperature, the results are not always consistent. I've come to believe that this is because kefir grains are living organisms that operate with dual microbes and that the speed and efficiency with which they culture a new batch of kefir is largely dependent on their active state at the time of introduction. For example, I've found that after straining the grains from a completed batch of kefir and immediately adding them to fresh milk, fermentation (detected by the onset of a sour flavor) begins more rapidly than when a batch is started with grains that have been stored in the refrigerator between batches. 

With so many variables, I no longer bother with weights and temperature, I just set it out on the counter and let it do its thing. Sometimes I catch it when it turns creamy and just begins to acquire a tang. Sometimes I let it ripen until it curdles and precipitates whey, at which point the curds can be drained to form a soft, tangy cheese. My favorite thing is to cover it tightly while it ferments to trap the CO2 released by the yeast until it gets fizzy. Milk champagne is a wonderous thing!

jelly ice cream

"His ideal of dessert is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."  She offered that as an explanation right after she said there would be no birthday cake.

"Maybe ice cream and cookies... something we can stick some candles in."

So I set out to make a special birthday dessert for someone who doesn't like cake, but likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and, apparently, ice cream and cookies. Easy, I thought, I'll make peanut butter cookies and grape ice cream sandwiches. As luck would have it, I had a concord grape puree in my freezer that would serve as the base for the ice cream. And I had a recipe for killer peanut butter cookies that I had refined over the years and recently tweaked to include miso. But you know what they say about the best laid plans...

Unpacking in the client's kitchen, I had a sudden vision of the grape ice cream... still sitting in my freezer at home! I wanted to panic but there was no time. My schedule was tight even before I was asked to move dinner up a half hour. 

As I began preparing dinner, my attention turned to a replacement for the ice cream. With a kitchen full of professional appliances, but no cooks in the house, I knew there was little chance of finding an ice cream maker tucked away in a cupboard. I had plenty of cream, but nothing for a flavor base or sugar. A search through the kitchen produced neither, but I did find three jars of grape jelly. I assessed the situation: no equipment to churn— but I had cream and a sweetened flavor base. A plan was quickly put in place: melt the jelly, blend in the cream, freeze in a shallow tray, whisk often, hope for the best, and pray that I wasn't turning into Sandra Lee. I got the base in the freezer just as the first guests arrived. They were hungry. And impatient. And I had to focus on dinner.

It wasn't until dinner was on the table and I returned to the kitchen that I remembered the neglected ice cream base. I opened the freezer expecting to find a solid block of grape-flavored ice crystals. To my surprise (and relief) it yielded easily to a spoon and out came a scoop of creamy smooth ice cream!

Since then, I've made this ice cream several times with both commercial and homemade jellies. I've tried churning it in an ice cream machine to test the difference. It was slightly creamier, but not dramatically so. I've even kept it uncovered(!) in the freezer for 4 days with no loss of texture or ice crystal build up. I believe this works because jelly is largely invert sugar and pectin, a combination with a high freezing point that stabilizes texture by preventing it from freezing solid and forming ice crystals.

While it may not be the most refined of ice creams, it comes together with only two ingredients and minimal effort. That alone (and that it saved my ass) is worth adding it to my emergency food kit.

stupid-simple jelly ice cream

measure by weight:
7 parts jelly
10 parts heavy cream 

Melt the jelly until it is completely fluid. Add the heavy cream, a little at a time, while whisking. Pass through sieve into a bowl or container. Freeze thoroughly.

a new beginning

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."
                                ~Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Wishing you a delicious New Year.

Cheers,
Linda

new beginning
makes 8 drinks

Tuaca is a brandy-based Italian liqueur, subtly flavored with citrus and vanilla. Infusing it with the perfumed zest of buddha's hand citron gives it another dimension of flavor.
This is a drink to linger over, to enjoy the layers of flavor as the bay-infused eggnog sphere melts into the liqueur— a perfect libation to contemplate a new year and a new beginning.

150g heavy cream
2g fresh bay leaves
.15g fresh grated nutmeg
2 egg yolks
5g sugar
30g mascarpone 

350g Tuaca
15g buddha's hand citron zest strips
50g Patron XO Cafe 

frozen eggnog spheres: Place the heavy cream in a small pan and bring to a simmer. Add the bay leaves and nutmeg, stir and cover. Set aside for 20 minutes to infuse. Remove bay leaves and bring back to a simmer. Whip the egg yolks with the sugar on high speed in a mixer bowl with the whisk attachment until light in color and slightly thickened. Slowly drizzle in the hot infused cream while whisking on low. Stir in the mascarpone. Pour eggnog into 8 sphere molds and freeze until solid.

citron-infused Tuaca: Place the Tuaca and citron zest in a .5 Litre iSi whip canister. Screw on the lid and charge with 1 N2O cartridge. Swirl the contents gently for 1 minute. Discharge gas quickly, remove lid and set aside for 15 minutes.

To serve: Place a frozen eggnog sphere in the bottom of each of 8 glasses. Strain infused Tuaca into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Add XO Cafe. Shake vigorously and strain over the eggnog spheres. Serve immediately.

 

 

tomato milk and cornflakes

More bottom-of-the-bowl goodness: tomato milk.
Tomato milk is the lovely elixir that occurs when tomatoes mingle with bufala mozzarella and basil. 
It is liquid essence.

 

Late-summer native corn has no peer. 
When we're not eating it straight off the cob, I'm juicing it for sauces and soups.
As is often the case when juicing vegetables, the remaining pulp is dry, flavorless fiber that is discarded. A wonderful by-product of juicing just-picked corn is that the pulp is juicy, tender, and full of flavor.

 

corn flakes

Note:It is important to use the pulp from corn that has been juiced on the same day that it is picked, before the sugars convert to starch and the pellicle toughens.

After juicing corn kernels, remove the pulp from the juicer basket and saute it over medium heat with 1 Tablespoon of butter for each cup of pulp until it just begins to brown. Season with salt and scrape pulp onto a baking sheet that has been lined with silpat. Compress corn pulp into a 1/4" thick even layer, using fingers or a spatula. Dehydrate at 65C/150F for 2-3 hours or until uniformly dry. Break off a segment of dried pulp and gently crumble into flakes with hands, letting flakes fall back onto silpat. Repeat with remaining dried pulp. Spread flakes evenly on silpat and bake in 82C/180F oven for 30 minutes-1 hour, until crisp and lightly toasted.

 

 
 

lamb coconut yogurt garlic

Garlic scapes are the flowering seed heads and stems of hard neck garlic varieties. It used to be that farmers removed them to direct the plant's energy into developing the bulb rather than the seeds, and would discard them. At some point, an enterprising farmer thought the mildly-flavored scapes were a marketable novelty, and now they are popular seasonal treats at farmers markets. Incidental crops like these are often a win-win situation.

 

When harvested just as they begin to curl, the stems are tender and mild. By the time that the seeds begin to form, they harden and become tough. At that stage, I like to use them as skewers for grilled meats and vegetables, allowing heat to release their aroma and infuse the food from within.

This dish is loosely based on souvlaki, with deliberate Greek flavors. Instead of the ubiquitous oregano, I used winter savory (Satureja montana), an under-utilized perennial herb that tastes like a blend of thyme, pine, and lemon, to season the lamb and tzatziki.

 

The tzatziki was made with yogurt curds, which readily form when yogurt is gently heated to 170F/76C. The process is identical to making ricotta, but as the yogurt is already acidic, it doesn't require the addition of buttermilk. The curds are folded into coconut milk, along with savory, garlic and cucumber.

The ground lamb is blended with minced aromatics (savory, onion, garlic scapes) and coconut powder, then wrapped in a blanched fig leaf and grilled.

  

   

I know that gif's are sometimes annoying, and even though these shots are overexposed, I thought that it effectively demonstrated the leaf-folding technique.
 Actually, I'm kind of mesmerized by it. I'm alternately disturbed and amused by the furling and unfurling. As it folds up, I think "Silencing of the Lamb", then it pops open, exposing itself like a Cypriot burlesque queen. 

 

 
 

crispy cream

 

Heating heavy cream in a pressure cooker produced some interesting results— most notably this airy, crisp texture which bears a remarkable similarity to aerated chocolate in appearance, flavor and texture.

Notes: 

• accelerated heat from pressure cooking causes fat to separate from solids 
• solids brown and form matrix around bubbling fat
• fragile when hot  
• pliable while warm
• hardens upon cooling

appearance: spongy, light to dark brown

texture:  crisp , dry but perceived moist from retained fat, melting

flavor: deep, toasty, nutty, chocolate, roasted coffee, beurre noisette

smoked buttermilk ranch dressing

 Butter is a ubiquitous staple in my house. There is always a soft stick on the counter and a pound or two waiting in the refrigerator. On the rare occasion when the supply dwindles, a quiet panic takes over when I unwrap the last stick-- kind of like running out of toilet paper.

It's been fun— to say the least— having infused butters on hand to play with. Instead of inspiring new dishes, they proved their usefulness by elevating the everyday food that I cook for myself and my family. Whenever I questioned whether it was worth the extra work to make my own butter— whether cultured, flavor-infused, caramelized (or should I say Maillardized?), or smoked— I had only to swirl a knob into a pan of steamed or pureed vegetables, pasta, or rice. Sauces were transformed. Ordinary baked goods took on flavors and aromas that seemed to breathe new life into them. Even a morning slice of toast gave cause to linger.

And if there were still any doubt, having fresh buttermilk on hand sweetens the deal. Chicken, marinated in smoked buttermilk prior to frying, convinced me that smoked butter should will be a staple.

Maybe I say that now because the imminent cold equates the flavor of smoke with the warmth of hearth. 

Or maybe it was the chocolate chip cookies made with smoked butter? 

Naw, I'm pretty sure that the salad with the smoked ranch dressing and bbq cornbread croutons cemented the deal.