Brush Valley Brewer

I was reading Leah’s latest post over at Struggle in a Bungalow Kitchen. She is talking about an article in Newsweek called “Takeout Nation”:

I definitely do not live in Take-Out Nation.� In fact, I laugh to think that I have pretty much cooked myself right into a corner; we almost never want to go out anymore because the food available in this town’s restaurants, fast food or otherwise, is simply not as good as what we can eat at home. [Leah Adams]

Gretchen and I have noticed the same thing. After my parents retired and moved to Florida, we used to really look forward to going down, not only because we would get to visit with them, but because we also got to eat out at so many good restaurants. For various health reasons, they can no longer go out to eat, but we have no complaints when we visit them. My Mother is an excellent cook and they both have excellent taste in wines.

Also, we used to budget eating out once a week. As we learned to make more things better, we cut that back to once a month. Now we almost never go out to eat. We feel that we can make better tasting food, with higher quality ingredients, for much less money, at home than we can find in any restaurant, and we have a great time doing it.

Breakfast this morning was a glass of orange juice. I weighed 154 pounds.

We had a meeting with a networking vendor this morning and they brought in Krispy Kremes. I had two — I think I’ll call that lunch.

I was reading : : mum-mum : : eat-eat : : this morning and saw that Wena has the hots for the new Canon PowerShot S1 IS. I have to admit it is a sweet camera. Unfortunately, I just bought a Minolta DiMAGE Xt. The Canon has a log going for it over the Minolta, but what I was going for was size. The Xt is tiny! It easily fits into my shirt pocket so I can take it with me everywhere. For instance, today when I was out walking over lunch — maybe three miles round trip — I walked by the Nittany Lion Shrine.

Of course, that was planned and since I knew I wanted a picture of it, I could have carried along any camera. Where you need an omnipresent camera is when you are walking along and discover the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile™.

Here is the conversation going on behind me as I took this picture:

“What the…”

“Who would park the Wienermobile next to Thomas building?”

“Are they giving out free hot dogs?”

“My life is complete.”

Literally seconds after I took this picture, it drove away. That is why you need a pocket camera.

As Fortune recommended the other day, Gretchen made a boule on our stone. We used a recipe for Oatmeal Honey Bread. I thought it was a little heavy, but tasty. Gretchen liked it (and gave me dirty looks for saying I thought it was heavy). Dinner was the last slice of that turkey pie with a small green salad and a slice of the oatmeal honey bread.

Breakfast this morning was a glass of orange juice. I weighed 154 pounds.

I walked over to the new IST Building — maybe three miles round trip — and grabbed a Penn State Creamery low-fat cherry yogurt.

Dinner was another slice of that turkey pie with a Waldorf salad and a hand full of peanuts for dessert.

Breakfast this morning was a bowl of steel-cut oats with brown sugar and milk with a glass of orange juice.

Gretchen and I split one of our little turkey pies for lunch with a glass of Bolla Cabernet Sauvignon.

Gretchen and I worked on perfecting our pizza technique tonight. This one is sautéed onions and peppers. We split it with two glasses of Bolla Cabernet Sauvignon and had a handful of peanuts afterwards.

The cheese on this pizza is mozzarella. We find it a little bland. If anyone could suggest an appropriate cheese that was slightly sharper and perhaps a little saltier, please leave a comment. Thanks!

I would like to start with an apology. I am not cooking soup today. Gretchen and I already decided to have another go at our new pizza technique. However, I do have a soup recipe that I’ll gladly present in lieu.

Gretchen and I are developing a menu of our dishes. As we make each dish, we make a value judgment about whether that dish will go on the menu. That is, if it is good enough to keep in our bag of tricks. Since we only came up with this idea a few months ago, the menu does not yet contain all of the dishes we know we love and we have a long list of recipes we already know we want to try again to get them onto the menu. I have already talked about the Soy Braised Chicken recipe that Gretchen and I adapted from Terry Tan’s recipe in his Little Chinese Cookbook. This recipe is from the same cookbook and is another of our favorites.

As presented in the cookbook, this is Crab and Corn Soup, though Terry does suggest that diced chicken or shrimp can by substituted for variety. Gretchen and I have decided that we like the shrimp the best. You have to remember that we live in central Pennsylvania — essentially land locked. So when it comes to seafood, it comes down to frozen shrimp or canned crab. Those of you who have access to fresh seafood may decide differently.

This is one of the easiest, quickest soups you will ever make. It is a rich, tasty, aromatic, comforting soup. Perfect for a cold February evening.

Shrimp and Corn Soup

• 1½ cups Creamed Sweetcorn
• ½ cup Popcorn Shrimp
• 1½ cups Water
• 3 tablespoons Sesame Oil
• 2 tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
• ½ teaspoon Pepper
• 2 Eggs

Beat the eggs lightly and then combine all of the ingredients in a soup pot. Bring to a boil and adjust seasoning to taste. Terry recommends topping it with fresh chopped coriander and croutons, though I recommend a piece of crusty French or Italian bread.

What could be easier or quicker than that? Beat an egg and bring the soup to a boil. You couldn’t make canned soup in less time — and it wouldn’t be near as good.

Good pasta is made with durum wheat, semolina, and water (often spring water). Pastas are graded in small increments of thickness; they are smooth or ridged, tubular or flat. They come boxed in nests or packaged in elongated parcels. Specialty cuts are contorted in twists, shaped like little ears, made with squid ink or spinach. Different manufacturers call the same pasta shapes by different names. Neighboring Italian villages might not even agree on the same name.

But that’s just half the confusion. What about the sauce? Like shapes, the types of sauces familiar to Americans have expanded in recent years. Pairing pasta and sauces takes into consideration the heft of the sauce and size and texture of the pasta, along with regional preferences.

Tubular pastas such as ziti, rigatoni, and penne, which hold sauces in their cavities, are often paired with long-cooked red sauces, as well as savory mixtures simmered with chunks of meat and vegetables. The ribbed (rigati) tubes are more roughly cut, and the sauce seeps into the ridges. They are sturdy enough to hold up in a baked dish. The smooth (lisci) ones work well with oil and cream-based sauces that cling to the surface.

Long, flat linguine, fettuccine, and tagliatelle have enough surface area to hold thick tomato sauces, as well as pesto, cream, and oil-based seafood mixtures. Because long, round shapes — from spaghetti to angel hair — vary in thickness, toss thinner pastas with light sauces, perhaps made from fresh tomatoes; thicker ones stand up well with red or creamy carbonara sauces.

Known as soup pasta, tubettini, mini shells, ditalini, pastina, and rice shapes cook quickly. Any starch emitted during simmering thickens the pot. Some, such as pastina and stellina, are suited to simple broths, while thicker shapes such as ditalini and little shells go well in minestrone and pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans).

Stuffed pastas, like the folded tortellini and tortelloni from the Emilia Romagna region, which are filled with cheese and meat or vegetables, can also be served in broth with a sprinkling of cheese. Their more robust southern cousin, ravioli, is often bathed in tomato sauce.

The only thing more important than matching shape to sauce is cooking the pasta correctly. Use the cooking times on packages as a guide. Many Italians cook it for one to two minutes less than the instructions, then they finish cooking the pasta in the sauce. That way, you get “al dente” pasta — or strands that are tender “to the tooth.” The pasta absorbs the liquid as well as its flavors. Another tip is to save about half a cup of the pasta cooking liquid before draining. Add it to the pasta after draining it. If you stir over low heat, the sauce will give the pasta a shiny coating. Finally, never rinse pasta; you wash away flavor. [Boston Globe]

Breakfast this morning was a glass of orange juice and a serving of hash browned potatoes. I weighed 155 pounds and did 8 good sit ups. Still pathetic, but getting better.

This afternoon I had a glass of Bolla Merlot. Gretchen and I made turkey pies for dinner, with frozen peaches for dessert and two glasses of Bolla Cabernet Sauvignon.

It took us the longest time to figure out how to make really good hash browned potatoes. I cannot tell you how many innocent potatoes suffered unnecessarily in our attempts at finding the perfect hash browned potato. In an effort to stop the needless suffering of future generations of potatoes, I would like to share our technique.

Now the first thing you are going to think when you hear hash browned potatoes is that this is a decadent, fattening dish that should be avoided by people who are watching their calories. Well, let us take a look at that.

First off, remember that with every dish the key to maintaining your diet is portion control. If you were having baked potatoes, you would easily understand that one medium potato was the proper serving size, but for some reason, while making hash browned potatoes, people get the idea that they should prepare two or three potatoes per person. Do you think that because you are changing the shape of the potato that it suddenly has fewer calories? Do you think it is going to cook down? Have you ever seen a potato cook down? No! Plan on one medium potato per person.

Now let us take a look at that potato. Thanks to our friends at the United States Potato Board we know the nutritional information for your typical potato.

Take a look at that. Only 100 calories. No fat. High in fiber, potassium, and vitamin C. Heck, it’s practically health food!

The next question is “What kind of potato makes the best hash browns?” Well, what kind do you have? Wow! What a coincidence. That’s the best kind to use. No, seriously. I don’t think it matters. Use whatever you have. If you try it a few times and you think one kind works better, use that. This isn’t rocket science, after all. It’s just a potato. Our garden was prolific last year, and the root cellar has kept our potatoes really well since the winter has been so cold, so we’re still using red skin potatoes.

One thing to remember when you are making hash browns, or when you are browning anything for that matter, is to avoid overloading the pan. You need to have the pan good and hot in order to get that good brown color on the potatoes and the wonderful flavor that comes with it. If you overload the hot pan with cold food, the pan will not be able to keep the heat up and you will just end up warming the potatoes, not browning them. So, if you are making a lot, make them in batches.

I cannot over-stress the importance of this. Remember that the potato will brown where it touches the heat of the pan. The more you can spread out the potatoes in the pan, the more of it will touch the pan, and the better the browning will be. As such, the pan selection is almost as important. We only make hash browns for two. That is, we are only cooking two potatoes at a time, and yet we want so much surface area to brown our potatoes that we do not trust it to our traditional cast iron fry pan. It’s too small. We actually use a 12-inch chicken fryer. It may sound excessive, but the delicious results say otherwise.

Most hash brown recipes call for shredded potatoes. That’s fine, but it’s not best. The best thing to do is to julienne the potatoes. The thinness of the julienne slices help the potato cook rapidly, while the length helps them bind together into that satisfying mass like you get from the corner diner and fast food restaurants.

So now you are thinking I am truly insane. Who on earth is going to get out their knife and julienne potatoes for a whole family? Nobody, and neither would I. There is an easier way. We use a really cheap mandoline slicer with a julienne blade and we can zip through a whole potato in about 15 seconds, and we are left with a big pile of perfectly uniform, long, thin julienne potato slices, perfect for hash browns. You can pick one up online or at your local kitchen store for around ten bucks — cheap, and worth it!

Before we get too far, let us list our ingredients (per serving):

• 1 medium Potato, any kind
• ¼ medium Onion, any kind, or ½ tablespoon Dried Onion Bits
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil, not extra virgin
• ½ tablespoon Butter, unsalted
• 1 pinch Coarse Sea Salt

Notice that we are using olive oil. Olive oil contains no cholesterol. Around 77% of the fat in olive oil is monounsaturated fat, the highest percentage of any edible oil. Monounsaturated fat is healthier than the polyunsaturated fats found in corn oil and much healthier than the saturated fats found in butter. It is the most desirable type of fat in the diet because it helps to decrease the LDL (bad) cholesterol in the blood and helps to increase the HDL (good) cholesterol. Some people do not like to use olive oil for frying because it has a low smoke point. Remember though, in this case we are not actually frying, we are using a frying pan, but we are only using it to brown the potatoes. The oil is just here to keep the potatoes from sticking. The butter is just for flavor. We are not going to use a temperature high enough to reach the smoke point of the oil. Just enough heat to get the Maillard reaction to occur. You could use extra virgin olive oil if you really like the taste, but we are really just using it here to keep the potatoes from sticking. There is no need to go to the expense of using extra virgin.

A lot of other hash brown potato recipes will have you peel and blanch, or even microwave your potatoes before you grate them. Let’s see… I am going to scrape a hot, slippery ball of starch across a grater with my bare hand. Yeah, right. That’s an accident waiting to happen. At best, an uncomfortable mess. Again, there is an easier way. Just wash off your potatoes and run them through the mandoline with the julienne blade. Leave the skins on. It’s easier and better for you — a lot of the good stuff in a potato is in the skin.

Now that you have your pile of julienne potato slices, stick them on a microwave safe plate, drape a piece of paper towel over them, and microwave them. You actually want them to cook, so that you can simply concentrate on browning them in the fry pan. We have a 1,250 Watt microwave and we use around 2½ minutes per potato. You will have to adjust your time according to the power of your microwave.

While the potatoes are in the microwave, mince a quarter of a medium onion per potato. If you want, you can use those dried onion bits you get in the spice aisle at the grocery store. They will re-hydrate just fine in the fry pan. If you are using dried, a half tablespoon will do, per potato.

When you take the potato out of the microwave, you will notice the they have sweated quite a bit. You want to take some paper towel and pat off as much of that as possible. Wet food will only steam in the fry pan. Dry food will brown. You want them to be as dry as you can get them.

Heat your pan to a good medium high heat. Add two tablespoons of olive oil — two turns around the pan — add one tablespoon of unsalted butter — just for flavor — and add your potatoes¹. Spread them out as much and as evenly as you can. Now let them sit. If you insist on getting in there with your utensil and stirring, poking, and prodding, it is not going to brown. Just be patient and let them sit. They know what they’re doing.

In three or four minutes, start giving the edge of the potato mass a poke and lift it enough to check the underside. When it is brown enough for you, add the minced (or dried) onion, put another two tablespoons of olive oil on top, and use a spatula to flip it over. Again, let it sit for about as long as you did for the first side.

When the second side is browned to your liking, use your spatula to extract it from the fry pan to your plate and add a pinch of salt. We like to use a coarse sea salt so that our tongues can have a unique saline encounter with each individual grain.

Serve it beside your favorite breakfast egg dish and porcine product, or just by themselves. Enjoy!

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¹ In the interest of full disclosure, I must point out that each tablespoon of oil you use adds about 120 calories. The ½ tablespoon of butter adds another 50 calories. As this recipe stands, about three-quarters of the calories come from the oil and butter. However, if you cut down too much, the potatoes will stick. This seems like the ideal balance to us — two tablespoons of olive oil and one half of a tablespoon of butter per potato. That makes about 390 total calories per serving, or a little less since some of the oil will stay with the pan.

We knew we ate more; we knew we had gained weight. Now a new study that looked at 30 years of Americans’ eating habits has pinned down how many more calories, carbohydrates and fats are eaten daily.

From 1971 to 2000, the study found, women increased their caloric intake by 22 percent, men by 7 percent.

Much of the change was found to be due to an increase in the amount of carbohydrates we have been eating. The findings may reinforce the current trend, among those sometimes known as carb-avoids, of reducing or even eliminating foods like breads and pasta.

And while the percentage of calories Americans get from fat, especially saturated fats, has decreased, the numbers might be deceiving. The actual amount of fat eaten daily has gone up. It just makes up a smaller percentage of the total caloric pie now that we are eating so many more carbs…

Part of the problem, some experts say, may stem from the traditional dietary advice to steer clear of fatty foods. This advice, they say, helped set off an explosion of “fat-free,” carbohydrate-laden foods that Americans mistakenly believed they could eat with few consequences. [NYTimes]

As long as I am mentioning food events that you can participate in without even leaving your home, I thought I would mention this event proposed recently by albiston over at Il Forno:

Why not put up a day where, just for the fun, bloggers take up a certain theme and come up with a recipe (original or not) for it? It would be really interesting to see what people from different backgrounds come up with and a great chance to get new ideas. It would be even better if bloggers who don’t usually post about food would take part… surprise us! In honour to cooking disasters (which everyone meets sooner or later) I thought that maybe calling it the “Is my Blog burning? day” would be a nice idea. [Il Forno]

Here is the latest update:

• The theme of the cooking day is soups. I started with a bit more specific idea but it’s better if we just keep it as general as possible. Anything goes: your favourite soup, a personal creation, a recipe you always wanted to try but never managed to… whatever tickles your imagination.
• It would be nice if you could post about your “experiments” next Sunday (8th February) and if you could put somewhere into the post the line “Is my blog burning?” to make it easier to look for those who took part on Google and such. I’ll put up a list of all those who took part.

Have fun cooking! [Il Forno]

I do not know what I am going to make, but I am happy to be a part of this. So, let us recap. The event is Sunday, February 8, 2004. The thing to do is to make some soup, then write about it in your blog under the title “Is my blog burning?” Got all that? See you Sunday!