Bachelor Gourmet

Okay

tbg — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 15:28:00 GMT

Maybe five weeks...

Apartment Basil

tbg — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 01:20:00 GMT

I wasn't planning to restart this blog for another two weeks, but I want to comment on a food post over at Asymmetrical Information. During her “shameless commercial shilling“ posts, Jane Galt mentions that she'd love to be able to grow herbs in her apartment and linked to the Aerogrow Aerogarden, which is a high-tech aeroponics system. It's advertised as a foolproof way to quickly grow lush crops of herbs and vegetables with little effort. It sounds great, and since I haven't tried it I'm going to restrict myself to a single criticism, that being the size of the unit.

Jane, like all sane people on earth, likes pesto. Though my sanity is debatable, I do too, which is why several years ago I decided to grow basil (among other herbs and vegetables) in my apartment. The experiment was successful, and at the peak of the season (I was using natural light, so there were seasons) I was harvesting enough basil per week for a couple of cuisnart mini-prep sized batches of pesto. The amount of basil I could grow in a limited amount of space impressed me, but it's still a huge outlay compared to the space provided by the Aerogarden, observe:

The two containers closest to the window are italian basil. Keep in mind that this window has a southeastern exposure, and the pesto harvest occurred during the peak of the growing season when the days are 16 hours long in Seattle. Even if you assume that the included compact fluorescent bulb can pump out a comparable level of lumens and if you generously estimate the growing space at two cubic feet, you just aren't going to be able to grow much for the $149 price tag (price tag of my setup? Maybe $20, with lots of surplus supplies for future gardening). Not to mention $20 for each additional seed kit (versus $2 for seeds from your grocery store.)

But, I've been lucky to live in apartments with lots of natural light; Jane, on the other hand, is down on her lux. So what should she do?

I don't know yet. The reason I decided to post this is because I happen to be doing a little amateur research to try and answer that question. Most of the information that I've found on the web comes from gardeners who fall into one of three categories:

* Semi-professional marijuana growers who are willing and able to devote lots of time, space and money into their hobby.

* Gardeners who grow seedlings indoors but plant them outdoors.

* Tropical plant lovers who grow plants like orchids and tropical vines (which are naturally tolerant of low light because they grow under the jungle canopy).

None of these situations exactly meet the requirements of the apartment kitchen gardener: herbs and veggies tend to love light, mature plants have different light requirements than seedlings, and I'm assuming that the average kitchen gardener is unlike the average pot grower in that they don't have space to waste and aren't willing to drop $500 on HID ballasts, irrigation systems and CO2 supplementation.

So, over the next few months I'm going to conduct experiments in homebrew hydroponics to determine if it's feasible to actually grow herbs and vegetables in a reasonable amount of space indoors using inexpensive equipment that you can pick up at your local garden center and home improvement warehouse. Oh and without blowing your electric bill.

In addition to the gardening tips, you can expect to find tea reviews, cooking techniques and lots of recipes. I particularly enjoy sourdough baking, grilling and soup/stew making, and I love to experiment. So check back in two weeks for the official relaunch of Bachelor Gourmet.

Wishing you lots of holiday beer,

-tbg

Thanksgiving Recipe Testing - New Brine

tbg — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 22:57:00 GMT

Scott, Turkeyless...

Cooking new recipes for a large audience can be nerve-wracking: you want everything to turn out great, but you often don’t have the time or the appetite to try the recipes ahead of time. Such was the case for me before this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. Last year I cooked the turkey for my buddy Scott and his wife Kim, and since it turned out well they asked me to cook the bird for a larger family gathering this year. I said sure, since I like to cook, but being a food geek, I didn’t want to use the same exact recipe again. Yet at the same time I didn’t want to mess up dinner for Scott’s entire family. I shudder to think of the consequences (see photo at right...makes ya shudder, don't it?).

So what to do? Cooking a whole turkey would be a waste, and chicken doesn’t quite have the right flavor to act as a stand-in. Cornish hens, however, while not tasting just like turkey do have a stronger flavor than chicken. Plus they’re itty bitty, which means they cook fast, and you can eat the results yourself, so if the recipe turns out to be a flop, no one has to know but you.

What I wanted to test was a new brine for the bird. Last year I used one that was pretty close to Alton Brown’s standard turkey brine; This year I wanted to try my own flavors while still using Alton’s excellent technique.

Here’s the full turkey-portioned brine recipe that I tested:

4 quarts of water
5 quarts of ice
2 cups kosher salt
1 cup honey
3-4 tbl coarsely ground black pepper
2 bunches fresh thyme
1 bunch fresh sage
1 12 oz can OJ concentrate

2-3 lemons

Technique: In a 12-quart pot, combine the water, salt, honey, and pepper. Bring mixture to a boil, then add the OJ concentrate. When the mixture returns to a boil, remove from the heat, squeeze in the lemons, add the thyme and sage, then cover for 15 minutes. Place the pot in the sink and fill it with cold water until the pot begins to float, after 15 minutes change the water once, then let it sit for another 15 minutes. At this point add the 5 quarts of ice to the brine and apply it to the bird for 8 to 10 hours. Be sure to rinse the bird thoroughly before cooking.

To test the recipe, I divided the quantities and brining time by 8, and applied the brine to two Cornish game hens. It went a little something like this:

Step 1. Get My Brine Ingedients Together

Mise Is In The Place

Step 2. Build the brine

Add the water, honey, salt & pepper, bring to a boil and add OJ, return to boil and then take off the heat (quickly).

Step 3. Steep the aromatics.

Add the sage, thyme and lemon, then cover and let sit for 15 minutes, then cool the pot in the sink to room temperature and add the ice to chill it below 40 degrees.

Step 4. Clean the birds

Rinse your birds well, there's no need to dry them though since they'll be in the drink soon.

Step 5. Bag and brine the birds

Bag em and brine em.

Step 6. After an hour, rinse the birds and pat them dry.

See, the blurriness indicates motion.

Step 7. Stuff the birds with aromatics (thyme, sage, and lemon in this case)

Wear latex while stuffing.

Step 8. Roast the birds for 45 minutes, let them rest for 15, and serve.

The author, in between two hot chicks.

By the way, if you like the way I garnish, then check out this site, it's chock full of visually stunning culinary creations.

The cornish hens tasted great, and so did the turkey, which came out flavorful and juicy and so tender you could cut it with a fork. However, the dark meat wasn't done when the white meat was ready, even though I used a digital thermometer and Alton's "turkey triangle" method to slow the cooking of the white meat. I think I know what went wrong so I'm going to try again soon.

I'll let you know how it goes.

-tbg

Bait and Switch

tbg — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:04:00 GMT

Man, the bad thing about the Food Network is that Unilever advertises their pseudo-food there. So you watch, say, Tyler Florence make a pan of roasted artichokes with italian sausage and herbs, then in commercial you have some lady telling you to fry nuts in "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!"

Speaking of the Food Network, it looks like Alton Brown shut down Rants and Raves due to a flood of scary e-mail. The site is still up, but only one entry remains:

Some of you may have noticed that the “contact” button is gone from my web site and that my rant calling for refrigerator pics is gone. Here’s why: although many of you sent in some really nice pics and insightful, fun emails some of you decided to send vulgar, nasty, frightening messages and images. I always knew there was ugliness and meanness out there but you know what, I don’t have to give you a place to put it. So, the portal is closed and will remain so. If you harvested the address, don’t bother using it because it will simply dump your mail into oblivion.

I’m disappointed, upset, disillusioned, and upgrading my security system. To those who wanted to play nice, I sure am sorry but life’s just too short to drink poison.

He doesn't actually say what was said to freak him out, but it must have been bad to prompt that sort of a response. I'm sure a big food network star already has a great security system, with lots of lasers and Emeril seeking missiles. So how will he top that?

I hope he decides to continue posting once the new system is in place.

Aubrey's Salmon

tbg — Mon, 23 May 2005 23:17:00 GMT

Aubrey just posted a tasty and really easy recipe for salmon on her blog. Check it out.

I bet you could get by with fewer scallions though. 1 bushel should work fine.

Weight It Is

tbg — Mon, 23 May 2005 13:00:00 GMT

I've been playing around with that Salter digital scale I mentioned in the last article, and I'm satisfied with its performance, enough so that I've decided to write my recipes in metric mass units (alliteration is fun).

At some point I may create a conversion function to give you standard English volumetric units, but doing that accurately and automatically isn't trivial since it depends on the density and particle size of the ingredient, and if it's an intermediate step where the ingredients are combined and/or cooked, it gets even tougher. But I like tough challenges, and since my day job includes writing back office systems for restaurants, having a really sophisticated recipe management system would be pretty sweet, so we'll see how it goes.

But for now, I'm deviating from two sacred American traditions—measurement by volume and hatred of the metric system—so I feel a need to justify my decision (otherwise all of my imaginary friends out there in Interweb-land will never forgive me). So let me lead you through my thought process. Here are the four reasons I decided to make the switch:

tbg *really* hates to clean

Cleanup. I hate to clean. I mean it. I’ll say it again. I H A T E cleaning. Measuring with a digital scale lets you put everything into a single container. After adding an ingredient, you just zero out the scale then add the next one. It couldn’t be simpler and you end up with far fewer dishes to clean.
Speed. No having to stop and clean a measuring spoon in the middle of a recipe because you’d used it 5 minutes ago to measure something sticky, in fact no having to scoop and level at all, just open the bag/box/jar, hit the tare button, and pour the ingredient in till you get close to the amount you want, then tap in the last few grams.
Accuracy. As you’ll see in my upcoming review of the Salter 2001 Microtronic Kitchen Scale, even inexpensive digital scales are pretty darn accurate. And when it comes to measuring compressible ingredients like flours or herbs, there really is no comparison. Weight is where it’s at.
Because Alton Brown says so. In his baking book I’m Just Here For More Food Alton stresses the importance of measuring by weight:

Take a look at any recipe in this book and you’ll notice that most ingredients are represented by both weight and volume. Were it entirely up to me, I wouldn’t include volume measurements at all—except perhaps for trace elements like baking soda. But I was advised that no one would buy a making book without cups and tablespoons so I gave in.

Since no one is going to pay me anything for these recipes no matter what measurements I use, I get to skip the cups and spoons altogether.

To be fair, there are a couple of downsides to this method:

Hard to remember. When you first wake up in the morning, it’s pretty easy to remember that half a cup of steel-cut oats and one and a half cups of water will make a perfect bowl of gruel. I’m just starting out, but it’s been a challenge remembering to add 87 grams of oats and 340 grams of water. Currently I have it written down on a cheat sheet stuck to my fridge. On the other hand, there really aren’t that many recipes that are simple enough for my perpetually distracted mind to recall verbatim, so I’m usually working from a printout anyway.
Hard to correct. Because you’re pouring in ingredients freehand, it’s a little bit easier to slip up and pour too much in. You can correct this by measuring into a second bowl, or just use a spoon to control the amount you add, but I haven’t found it to be a big enough issue to justify the extra dishes. Remember, cleaning is bad.

Overall, the benefits of weight measurement far outweigh the costs, I may use volume for very small measurements but I'm going to try weight first. And if that doesn't work then in the interest of NOT CLEANING (and just to be a stinker) I may decide to go retro and bring back the “pinch” as a measurement.

fake it till ya bake it,

-tbg

TBG Appliance Smackdown: KitchenAid versus Cuisinart in a mini food processor battle royale...

tbg — Fri, 20 May 2005 16:11:00 GMT

There comes a time in every food-processor’s life when the slings and arrows of outrageous recipes simply become too much to bear. That time came for my trusty Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus several months ago when I attempted to pit a handful of olives by taking them for a spin in the Mini. I learned two things from this: Spanish olive pits are *hard*, and Cuisinart blades aren’t invincible.

A Cheap Bastard (with bed head)

It took me a while to replace the unit because I’ve been busy working on a book and updating my business web site and so have spent less time cooking at home; also I am a cheap bastard.

Last week though my hunger for meatballs got the best of me and I started to do some research on food processors; this mainly consisted of reading the Amazon reviews of two comparably priced machines: the KitchenAid KFC3100BU a.k.a. the Chef Series Food Chopper and my trusty old Cuisinart DLC-2ABC a.k.a. the Mini Prep Plus. The KitchenAid, received an overall four and a half stars from Amazon reviewers, the Cuisinart only three. Score one for the KitchenAid.

Plus, the Cuisinart wasn’t perfect, while I’ve never noticed a drop in power, the motor frequently smells like its burning out whenever I use it for heavy tasks like grinding meat or large quantities of thick ingredients, and sometimes if I loaded it down with too much stuff the ingredients on the top would stay on top and never get chopped up. Some of the KitchenAid reviews mentioned this specifically, and stated that the KFC3100BU had a “reverse spiral action” that pulled the food down into the blade. Maybe it was time to try something new?

Finally though, what made my decision was that my local grocery store carried the KitchenAid. Laziness is one of the defining characteristics of a bachelor gourmet, and so my decision was made. I bought the KitchenAid, and a Salter 5 lb digital scale (to be reviewed at some point later on when I’ve had a chance to put it through its paces). I headed straight home after this so I could try out my new toys, cackling gleefully all the way.

So now the competition begins…

The Competitors

In the blue chassis, weighing in at 4.00 pounds, the Chintzy Chopper from China, KitchenAid KFC3100BU!

In the fake brushed chrome chassis, weighing in at 4.00 pounds, the Silver Slicer, Cuisinart DLC-2ABC!!!!

Let’s get ready to crumble!!!!!!!!

Actually we won’t do that, because as I explained earlier, the Cuisinart went tits up several months ago, so what I did instead is put the KitchenAid through the most demanding recipe that I make: pasta and meatballs. This requires you to grind up bread, parmesan and pork in separate batches and the Cuisinart blows through this recipe with no problems at all (provided you don’t overload it with too much pork).

So first, the bread. I put some old crusty sourdough into the machine and hit the switch. The blade hadn’t spun for more than half a second before it jammed. I loosened it. It jammed again. I tried removing some of the bread to give it more room. It jammed. No matter what I tried, the bread jammed.

But I *really* wanted some meatballs, so I went ahead and crushed the bread in a plastic bag with a meat tenderizer. To be fair, the bread was homemade sourdough French bread, the kind that consists of nothing but flour, salt, water and starter, which tastes fantastic when it first comes out of the oven but turns into a brick in less than a day. So I decided to give the KitchenAid another chance and used it to grind up the cheese.

I cut off several small chunks of parmesan and hit the switch. The cheese immediately caught on the blades, causing it to, yes, jam. So I took the cheese out and cut it up into smaller pieces. It jammed. Finally after three or four “de-jammings” I managed to get the cheese to spin, but after giving it thirty seconds to grind it was obvious that the BB sized pieces of parm' were just not going to get any smaller.

Now, granted, if this test were even remotely scientific, I’d come up with a list of tasks for each machine to complete with identical ingredients. But it isn’t, and the reason for that is because the KitchenAid was such a worthless hunk of junk that there was no need to give it a fair shot, it failed miserably on my favorite recipe. (Also I’m a cheap bastard, see above, and a fair test would require me to buy a new Cuisinart too.) And before anyone tries to tell me that I was doing things wrong, say that if I’d chopped the cheese smaller or the bread in a different shape things would have come out right, let me just point out that the Cuisinart JUST WORKS, whether I put in the pieces big or small, fat or skinny, it chops them all. The Cuisinart did eventually fail, but only due to user stupidity.

So the winner of the inaugural Bachelor Gourmet’s Appliance Smackdown is, of course, the Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus, with a big first round knock-out. If you inspect the picture closely you’ll see the receipt for the KitchenAid sitting on the top of the box, this sucker is going back to the store tomorrow. Anyone know a store in Seattle that sells replacement blades for Cuisinart products?

The Bachelor Gourmet, only 6 years past due

tbg — Thu, 19 May 2005 21:50:00 GMT

Welcome to my blog. I started this to give me an outlet for all my crazy bachelor cooking ideas. I've been working from home for about five years now, and over that time have discovered that it's not only cheaper to cook for yourself, but if you do it right it's easier too (non-telecommuters just don't realize how difficult some common activities are for the people who aren't required to wear pants.)

So over the next few weeks I plan to post plenty of recipes plus the tips and techniques I've developed over the past few years that enable me to cook tasty, fresh food with very little effort. Also pictures of me with no pants (for the ladies).

So check back often and I'll try to give you your money's worth.

-Brian (The Bachelor Gourmet)