Category: Food

OOPS!!!!! I Just Pepper Sprayed My Entire Family

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Today is Sloppy Joe night. My wife and kids were not yet home, but would be shortly, so I put the old cast iron skillet on the burner, and get it hot, and get to chopping the garlic, onions, and the cayenne peppers from my wife’s garden.

After I finish, I toss about 2 TBSP of olive oil into the pan, and toss in the peppers.

Pan was a bit hot, and we got a bit of a cloud off the peppers. It didn’t effect our eyes, but we were all coughing like a bunch of 70 year old 3 pack a day smokers.

Everyone(but me, I had to cook) took refuge in the basement.

STUPID

Culinary Crashing and Burning

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Well, yesterday was a small SCA event* called Trial By Fire. It’s a cooking competition.

The idea is that people present dishes in a number of categories that are prepared on site under Pennsic War†, and to prepare them in a 4 hour period, along with accompanying documentation of their use in the years covered by the SCA‡.

Well, I went with two, or maybe two and a half recipes. The first was a chocolate recipe, which was translated from the 1631 Spanish treatise into English in 1652, called Chocolate, an Indian Drinke. Which has the oldest, at least the oldest that I could find, recorded chocolate recipe.

The second was a recipe for a meat pie from a history/cook book called A Drizzle of Honey: The Life and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews, which uses records of the inquisition, which frequently used food as evidence that people were secretly practiced Judaism.

I actually combined two recipes, one for sausage, and one for pie, because the filling for the pie combined meat and milk, and my deliberate use with my wife’s cookware would result in a serious case of acute heavy metal poisoning§.

I had done the sausage, though not the pie before, and I did a test run of the chocolate drink in our percolator about two weeks prior, so I thought that it would turn out OK, but I was unduly optimistic.

With the chocolate, I made a small but significant change at Trial by Fire, I toasted the cacao nibs before grinding, which made the cocoa butter flow out of the nibs, so when I packed it into the basket of the percolator, it created a wax-like structure that the hot water did not effectively penetrate, so I ended up with weakly flavored sweet water.

As to the pie, the the sausage was fine, as was the filling that was made from it, but due to time constraints and poor fire management, I attempted to fry them at too low a temperature, and they became oil sponges.

On the brighter side, my wife€, won best dessert with her sage fritters, which were quite yummy.

My recipes:
Chocolate Drinke

  • Cacao Nibs 1.5 cups
  • Cinnamon, 2 tsp (about two small sticks)
  • Chile Pepper, 2 TBSP
  • Anise Seed, 1 TBSP
  • 12 Almonds
  • 12 Hazel Nuts
  • Roses of Alexandria, 1 tbl (Apothicary Roses, I just use 1/4 cup rose water, available from any middle eastern food store, instead)
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • Vanilla de Campeche, (Vanilla) One bean
  • Achiote, ¾ tsp. (More commonly called Anatto)

Grind everything up but the pepper and vanilla, which you mince, and put in a pot with about 12-16 cups of water (including the rose water) and boil until it is the color of Coffee with about 1 cream in it. One caveat, the author claims that among its health benefits is:

It vehemently Incites to Venus, and causeth Conception in women, hastens and facilitates their Delivery.

As such the I maintain no responsibility for romantic entanglements, pregnancies, general soreness of body parts, goofy smiles, or intemperate marriage.

Sausage Pie
To make the Sausage:

  • 1 pound ground lamb
  • 2 eggs, beaten

Spice Mixture

  • 1 tsp grains of paradise
  • ½ tsp fenugreek
  • 1 tsp caraway seeds
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 2-3 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
  • 3-4 tsp chopped fresh oregano
  • 2 TBSP pine nuts

Place the lamb in a medium bowl. Add the beaten eggs and mix well.

Grind all of the spice mixture, except for the caraway and pine nuts ingredients together in a grinder or mortar. Add the spice mixture, including the caraway and pine nuts to the lamb and mix thoroughly.

Allow the flavors to meld for two hours.

To make the filling:
Finely chop two onions, and sweat in a skillet until just translucent with a pinch of kosher salt, then add the sausage, and cook until done (about 3-4 minutes) stirring to keep a consistency of a Sloppy Joe.

To make the pie dough:

  • 1/3 cup water
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1½ cups unsifted flour
  • 2-4 TBSP olive oil

Bring the 1/3 cup water, oil, and salt to a boil in a medium pan. Remove from heat.

When the liquid is tepid, add the flour all at once to the water mixture. Stir until all is well mixed.

Place an egg-size lump of dough on a lightly floured bread board. With a rolling pin, shape it into a 1/3 inch thick oval.

Place 1 tablespoon of meat mixture onto a piece of dough. Fold and pinch the fold to seal the pie.

Fry the pies in a skillet with about 2 tbsp of oil.

*Truth be told, it’s not an official SCA event, and as SCA, Inc. has no connection to, or liability arising from, this event.
†Basically, imagine camping conditions, where there is no electricity, but water from a garden hose.
‡About 450 C.E. to 1650 C.E.
§My wife would shoot me.
€Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Deep Thought

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In the midst of a post about real estate crashing and foreclosures, Rich Toscano mentions his, “Partner in dim sum consumption crime and occasional Econo-Almanac guest contributor Ramsey Su.”

My first thought was OH MY GOD!!!!! What restaurant, I have to know. Real estate is ephemeral, but the love of a Jew for Chinese food, that’s forever.

The weird thing is, Toscano is in San Diego, and I’ve never been there, and I have no urge to go there…well maybe…if there is some really good Chinese food.

What the Other Matt Said

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Matthew Yglesias has a very good comment on the lunacy of fashion copyrights. (I’ve talked about a bit earlier and called Chuck Schumer names).

On a loosely related note, if you’ve been to a bookstore lately at all you’ll notice there’s a remarkable vibrancy in the cookbook section as the popularity of things like the Food Network, Top Chef, etc., seems to be driving more chef-types into the public consciousness. Cookbooks, of course, can be copyrighted. But the actual recipes they contain can’t be. And one suspects that this non-copyrightable nature of the recipes is integral to the cookbook industry’s vibrancy. Without it, the bulk of the market would already be locked-down by older cookbooks, and to publish anything new you’d have to be prepared to lawyer up and fight off a thousand lawsuits alleging that your recipes are too derivative.

This is true, and applies everywhere. IP is public interest law, and it is a restriction on individual freedoms (not having IP does not prevent one from creating) and as such, these laws should be limited in scope.

There should be restrictions placed on IP only to the degree that there is reasonable proof that the public is receiving benefits in excess of the restrictions placed upon.

I would note that under the current US IP Regime, the works of Shakespeare would be lost forever (the folio that was found would still have been under copyright, and would not have been reprinted or preserved), and most of us would never have read Moby Dick (a failure when first published, and it only became recognized as a classic after Melville’s death, when it was reprinted because it had entered the public comain).

Love at First Fry

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Or actually grilling…
It’s Chefmate® Reversible Griddle.

It fits perfectly over two burners, and this Sunday did grilled cheese for Charlie and me, and scrambled eggs for Natalie and Sharon*.

Damn, they turned out good. I loves cast iron.

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED, my wife.

FDA Once Again Kowtows to Industry

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An FDA task force is recommending that no notice be given to consumers about the use of nanotechnology in their food and drugs. Big surprise, Bush toadie and FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach said he endorsed the report and its recommendations.

The AG department has done the same thing with genetically modified organisms, and forbidden testing for Mad Cow in the US.

These organizations should be about protecting the consumer first, but nut in a Republithug administration.

Things I Really Hate

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Number 773 on the list:

The fact that Coca Cola® has come out with a number of new flavors, New Coke, Cherry Coke, Lime Coke, Chocolate Coke, Beer Coke, etc. that have packaging almost identical to Coke Classic®.

I think that part of their marketing scheme is to get people to try the new varieties by mistake.

The special today came with a 20 oz bottle of Coke, and I just got a mouthful of something like Anchovie Coke®.

Blech.

The Chinese Ecological Disaster That is the 3 Gorges Dam

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Many of you have heard of the scramble in China to catch the millions of displaced rats from the 3 Gorges Dam to serve in Gourmet Chinese eateries.

The rising water below the structure evicted the rodents from the banks of Dongting Lake, “a series of wetlands and lakes”, into neighbouring farmland, where they quickly decimated 6,000 square miles of crops.

Desperate farmers at first deployed poison, but that simply killed the cats and dogs “traditionally use to combat the menace”, while doing nothing to reduce rat numbers.

However, they soon realised there was another, money-making solution to the crisis – a “major uptake in supply and demand for rat meat”, reported by live food traders in Changde at the western edge of the lake. One dealer told local media: “People there [Guangdong] are rich and like to eat exotic things, so business is very good.”

The economics are as follows: farmers pocket around six to ten yuan a kilogram (20 to 35 pence a pound in old money, the Telegraph helpfully adds), while Cantonese restaurants knock it out as delicious rat stew for up to four quid a pound.

But while the solution to the problem may lie in part in Guangdong’s saucepans, the reasons behind the rat plague are rather more complex than a simple rise in water level. Initially, the Three Gorges Dam held back enough water from Dongting Lake’s “marshy banks” to create an improved environment for the animals and provoke a sharp population rise.

Simultaneously, a “sudden fashion” for snake meat in Hunan – with residents of the capital Changsha working their way through ten tons of reptile flesh a day, according to local environmental groups – has done for the rats’ main predator.

The whole sorry state of affairs is, these groups claim, fulfillment of their dire predictions about the environmental effects of the Three Gorges Dam project.

While there is clearly a humorous aspect to this story, the underlying story is very troubling.

The rat infestation is simply the first of many troubling manifestations of this.

The Yellow River is so named because it is Yellow. With no lakes for sediment to settle in, the river flows quickly, carrying its nutrient laden cargo to the ocean.

The periodic floods serve to replenish the breadbasket of China. The estuary is fertile ground, and the where many fish in Asia spawn.

The dam will change all that, and other things too, in unanticipated ways, like the rats in this story.

Only in Wisconsin

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Maybe only in Green Bay, but Milwaukee would be likely too.

I can’t imagine this in Madison. I can see a Merlot Mania race there.

19th annual Beer Belly Two goes over without a hitch

1,800 to 2,000 take part in charity run

By Kelly McBride
kmcbride@greenbaypressgazette.com

SUAMICO — A beautiful morning provided the perfect excuse to get moving — and drinking — for an estimated 1,800 to 2,000 participants in Sunday’s Beer Belly Two.

Final participation totals won’t be tallied until later this week, but a last-minute registration push likely will mean a high turnout for the 19th annual event, organizer Bob Mayer said Sunday.

In fact, the number of last-minute registrants translated to a slight delay for the start of the 10:30 a.m. race, he said.

“Just about 20 after 10, there were hundreds of people signed up to register yet,” Mayer said. “There were, I think more (spectators), too.”

In keeping with Beer Belly Two tradition, runners and walkers had their choice of water, beer or root beer at water stops along the course. After the race was over, organizers held an awards ceremony in the parking lot of the nearby post office.

No injuries or health concerns were reported during the race, Mayer said. But as in years past, there were some participants who preferred the slow and steady approach to getting to the end.

“You always get the people who stop at the beer stops,” Mayer said, “and hardly make it to the finish line.”

….