I had a modest harvest of tomatoes this year, which for a single person is a cornucopia. With some of my extra pineapple tomatoes (sweet and flavorful with good acidity), I made a tomato water. I blended them, squeezed the juice through cheesecloth and then skimmed off the clear part after it settled in the fridge.
Then I added horseradish, Tabasco, Worcestershire and salt along with some ice and Sapphire gin. Stirred and strained and voila! A new style of bloody mary that is super-tomato-y but is super clean and light tasting. Quite spectacular.
Anyone have ideas how to make it even clearer?
I supposed if I were to do it right, I should coat the glass rim with celery salt. Next time.
It’s always fun to rant about the latest food crazes. A decade ago there was welcome backlash against stuffed crust pizza, Asian fusion and the Atkins diet. Today journalist, Jacquelynn D. Powers, railed against the newest trends and she makes some good points:
Food trucks – Here’s she’s spot on. A truck is an easy way to break into the food service business and it’s supposed to be cheap for us gourmands. But when you’ve got places like the Border Grill truck selling tacos for three bucks a pop and Mandoline Grill selling six dollar banh mi, I’m out. I can go down the street and get better tacos and banh mi for $1.25 and $3.55, respectively. Plus I can sit down at a table like a dignified human being and have access to indoor plumbing.
Bacon – Do I want bacon ice cream or bacon martinis? Not really. Would I be happy eating bacon every day? Absolutely.
Truffle oil – I love truffle oil. It’s such a distinctive and earthy flavor that can add amazing dimension to dishes. But chefs these days go way overboard, sprinkling it on fries and mac & cheese, just to inject some exoticism. Lazy. Ironically, almost all truffle oils are made synthetically.
Cupcakes – I don’t know what the big deal here is. Cupcakes are tasty and easy to serve. Just don't give me one with bacon in it.
Farm to table backlash – Powers seems to be upset that restaurants are co-opting the phrase without delivering the goods. I don’t know if this so much a food trend as everyday food marketing strategy. Just like food labeled “all-natural” doesn’t mean anything, “sustainable” and “farm-to-table” doesn’t mean anything.
Sliders – I’m indifferent about tiny burgers. If it means I can have more variety on the plate and they’re made well, then sure. Why not?
But while it’s easy to bash culinary fads, they exist for a reason. I have fond memories of eating tacos in the wee hours on the streets of Highland Park. I made a lackluster squash soup that came to life when I drizzled in a bit of truffle oil. Good food is good food.
The "It" chef
I’m sure it’s only a matter of days before we see David Chang-inspired food on every menu. I’m sure it’ll become tiresome, but that won’t change the fact that David Chang is an awesome, innovative chef. But I am curious: What current eating trends do you find especially annoying?
Dave Arnold and Nils Norén teach cooking and food science at the French Culinary Institute and are uber-nerds. Though they bristle at the term “molecular gastronomy” – Arnold said in an interview, “Either every [chef] is manipulating molecules or no one is.” – it’s the easiest way to classify their work.
Arnold earned a degree in philosophy from Yale and Masters from Columbia but chose instead to geek out with old lab equipment he bought on eBay doing things like distilling individual flavors from complex ingredients like celery, basil or chocolate, slow poaching meats in tepid water baths for hours at a time or making ice cream from liquid nitrogen. In 2005, he was hired as the director of culinary technology at the FCI to essentially codify the avant-garde ciusine pioneered by chefs like Ferran Adrià, José Andrés and Wylie Dufresne. A year later, Swedish chef, Nils Norén was hired on as
Vice President of Culinary and Pastry Arts.
Jimmy Fallon - less annoying than I thought he'd be
They were on the TV a few nights ago. Watch the video and you’ll see why their stuff is so cool – they make food fanciful without being too fancy. The problem is that the equipment they use is prohibitively expensive for the home cook. For instance, a sous-vide set-up – an immersion circulator that heats water at ultra precise temperatures for cooking food in plastic bags – would cost at least a grand. There is a home machine on the market but it’s still five hundred bucks and would eat up a third of my counter space.
But I was intrigued by the quick pickling rig they had where they made instant martini cucumbers. The basic concept is you take a vegetable that has a lot of air packed in its cells and subject it to a vacuum while in a flavored solution, i.e., gin and vermouth. Within seconds, the air comes out and when depressurized, gets replaced by the flavor bath – instant pickle. On sale for $1,099 at Cabela's
I spent a couple hours looking at equipment online and the good vacuum sealers and chambers all start at $1,200 and are huge. The only other option was using a marinating attachment with one of those food bagging things, but it’s not nearly as good and it still costs a lot and takes up valuable space.
Luckily, I stumbled upon a YouTube video where Dave Arnold shows a down and dirty method for doing the same thing with a syringe. I just happened to have a 60ml syringe around (don’t ask) and decided to try it out.
Make sure no air bubbles are in the syringe
I started with a very dirty martini. I figured the olive brine would add some needed salt. I put it in the syringe body with a couple slices of Persian cucumber and, with my thumb on the squirty part, I pulled out the plunger (keeping it pointed down so the cukes stay in the martini liquid).
Keep it pointed down
You can see the air bubbles expanding out of the slices; it just takes a few seconds. Sure enough, the final result tastes like a dirty martini and has almost all of the crispness of a fresh sliced cucumber.
Before and after
I tried the same with just a straight vinegar brine and it made a tasty pickle. Eating Granny Smith slices pickled in a cinnamon-sugar-lemon liquid was like eating a crispy slice of apple pie. I imagine that you could do it with any fruit or vegetable that can be eaten raw and floats (i.e., contains air). Watermelon rind, zucchini, carrots, onions, jicama, etc.
It doesn't actually shrink that much. The slice on the left is just bigger.
Obviously the downside is that you can only do a few slices at a time and they have to be small enough to fit in the syringe. More importantly, what would you use this for? I dunno. Culinary curiosity? Garnish for a dish? When you’re short on time and need a couple tiny pickles? Maybe a tray of cocktailed pickles? Imagine infusing fruits and vegetables with gimlets, martinis, whiskey sours, etc. Kinda sexy.
I’ll admit that a lot of the stuff Arnold and Norén do, like enzymatically peeling a grapefruit, seems like overkill, but it is all done in pursuit of creating delicious things in a creative way, which is the goal of any chef. I bow to them. Check out their awesome blog.
So congratulations to Nina Garcia, owner of Nina’s Food, the roach coach that won this year’s L.A. Vendy Awards. What was critical to her unanimous approval, according to judge Evan Kleiman, was her dry salsa. Tasting Table was gracious enough to disseminate her recipe for said seed salsa. The initial chiles (arbol)
Essentially what you do is fry some dried chiles in peanut oil, take the chiles out, toast a bunch of nuts and seeds in the pan, add back the now crushed chiles with some salt, and voila! Seed salsa. The crushed peanuts and raw pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds
In my case, I didn’t have time to hunt down black sesame seeds (which taste essentially the same as white sesame seeds) but then felt the urge to add in some sunflower seeds, which seemed like they’d add a lot more variation in flavor than black sesame seeds. The finished toasty product
Mine turned out great, if I say so myself. I had scoops of it on quesadillas, on its own, on grilled fish, etc. It’s wildly versatile and it shore looks purty on a plate. How to make a pedestrian quesadilla…less pedestrian.
Like mole (which is also heavily seed/nut influenced), you could add any variety of nuts, seeds, herbs or dry chiles to accent your dry salsa. Why not cumin? Maybe epazote. Cashews. Toss in a crushed chipotle chile. Raisins. My point is it’s a very forgiving recipe and I’m sure that Ms. Garcia has her own secret touches she didn’t let the Tasting Table in on. Heck, I even added a squeeze of lemon to my concoction for a little acidic kick. I also added more seed and nut to dampen the heat. My arbols were hotter than I anticipated. Ha. “That’s what she said.”
Today KFC announced that it would be extending selling its deep-fried meatfest, the Double Down, “for as long as customer demand remains high.” They expect to sell their 10 millionth breadless sandwich by the end of the month. I actually have no opinion about this; I am neither disgusted nor am I more curious about trying one.
It’s really not that surprising that something that combines cheese, bacon, mayonnaise and breaded goodness into one handy package would become a success. It’s basically a fistful of comfort food. I thought I’d try my own version without resorting to an obvious (and admittedly tasty) crutch as bacon. My version takes a much more subtle tack by substituting a thick slab of macaroni and cheese.
In prep, I made a pan of the custard-based mac and cheese I blogged about before. One advantage of this style versus the béchamel style is that it holds its shape when jammed in between two pieces of fried chicken.
I used the hand blender to make some mayonnaise (egg yolk, vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard powder – pour in canola oil while blending until it looks like Hellman’s) and then blended in some red pepper topping and a few dashes of chipotle powder. It’s really, really tasty. Possibly the best part of the sandwich
Lastly, I pounded some (free-range organic) chicken thighs until they were flattish in between plastic wrap. I prefer thighs because they are more flavorful and juicy. Poultry abuse therapy
Come fry time, I seasoned the thighs first with my version of 11 (more like 6) herbs and spices and then dipped them in buttermilk before dredging them in lightly salted flour and baking powder (1 tsp/cup of flour).
Then I just fried them in an inch of peanut oil, turning them a couple of times until they looked like…well, like something from KFC. Then I drained them and sprinkled on a bit of extra seasoning. What isn't good deep-fried?
Assembly is pretty obvious. I suppose I could have added a couple slices of bacon and cheese, but I felt that would have pushed my “sandwich” from somewhat outrageous to wanton gluttony. Instead I added a side of collard greens to give the illusion of a balanced meal and to add some Southern cred. Not easy to eat in the car. Oh well.
So how’d I do? What would you like to see sandwiched between two breasts? I have some ideas, myself. It’s impossible to write about the Double Down without resorting to such obvious jokes so I will not apologize. But seriously, if there's anything you want me to make, deep-fried or not, lemme know.
A fellow culinary adventurer, Dan, and I frequently head to the San Gabriel Valley for Chinese food. But it’s almost impossible to have an entire meal without encountering cilantro, which Dan cannot tolerate in any capacity. Even when we ask for its omission in dishes, about half of the time, it manages to appear on our plates. Dan cannot even stand to have cilantro-laced dishes near him at the table, his revulsion is so great. I understand. As a child, I thought that cilantro was the plant from where Ajax cleanser was derived. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I began to appreciate its herbaceous glory. I suspect this has been Photoshopped Yesterday, Harold McGee explored the biochemical explanations of why people hate Coriandrum sativum to the level that has inspired websites like bancilantro.com and Facebook groups like “I Hate Cilantro.”
Dan believes his intolerance is due to a genetic predisposition, which seems to fit with most people’s love-it-or-hate-it attitude towards cilantro, but McGee says that there isn’t a wealth of data yet that support this claim. He goes on to explain how the herb's soapy aroma could trigger a brain response that perceives it as a threat. “We react strongly and throw the offending ingredient on the floor where it belongs.”
Researcher Jay Gottfried on a cilantro high
He cites the work of Jay Gottfried, a Northwestern University smell-ologist and ex-cilantro hater. Through frequent exposure with good food, he found, “I began to like cilantro. It can still remind me of soap, but it’s not threatening anymore…” Get excited, Dan!
So, despite the article’s headline, it is your fault, Dan. You need to expose yourself to more and more cilantro until you love it. Jeffrey Steingarten did that with all the foods he disliked to become a food writer. Initially, I couldn’t stand beer, but after repeated and multiple exposures, I developed a grudging tolerance for the sudsy stuff. To this day, I regularly ingest pints of ale and lager, stout and pilsner, hoping to my tolerance will evolve into love. So, Dan: if I continue to work on my beer issues, will you work on your cilantro issues?
Everybody’s been talking about the new KFC Double Down, the sandwich that epitomizes American deep-fried decadence. In lieu of bread, the sandwich uses two pieces of battered or grilled chicken breasts to hold together two slices of bacon, two slices of cheese and a mayonnaise-based sauce. Stephen Colbert called the concoction, “The warped creation of a syphilitic brain,” but then one bite later said, “Call me crazy but this is good.” It’s been getting huge press and I’m sure sales among carnivorous stoners have been brisk but how obscene is it really?
Fast food tester: my dream job
Consumer Reports said it was salty and with 1380 mg of sodium (half of your recommended daily intake), it is. But surprisingly – for the fast food world – it’s not off-the-charts fattening. It has the same number of calories as a Big Mac (540) and about the same amount of fat (32 grams vs. the Big Mac’s 29). Leftover prop from a David Cronenberg film
There’s a worse culprit I learned of thanks to snippets.com. The Claim Jumper franchise, whose 45 restaurants are scattered throughout the West Coast and some of the Midwest, offers Beef Back Ribs on their menu that pack in a stunning 4,301 calories and 7,623 mg of sodium. That’s without sides. In-N-Out's chef d'oeuvre - 4x4 animal style (a mere 1,050 calories)
Even on the road trip where I ate an In-N-Out 4x4 and a Double Double (essentially 6 patties, 6 slices of cheese), I didn’t reach half the caloric value of those ribs. They must be awesome! (Yelp members have informed me that, in fact, they range from “good” and “better than average” to “underdone” and “dry…been on the desert floor for years”) This is more fattening than the 4x4
But there are other items on the Claim Jumper menu if ribs aren’t your jam. There are 19 items that contain over 2,000 calories and 57 that have over 1,000. Feeling peckish? Just have the blue cheese wedge salad and the seared ahi appetizer. That’s 1,114 calories in the salad plus 562 for the app. The tuna has more calories than a KFC Double Down. This + 400 calories = Claim Jumper appetizer
So the question is, would I go to the Claim Jumper? Would I have a Double Down? Nah. For me, there is no novelty in eating thousands of calories in one sitting. I do plenty of that at home.
Anyone have ideas how to make it even clearer?
So congratulations to Nina Garcia, owner of 
