Two Great Movies

I recently have been feeling the desire to educate myself.... especially in an industry that is constantly changing... you have to keep on top of trends and routinely educate yourself on the past... strengthen your technique and learning the "basics" will only improve your skills... I have a secret fetish with cook books.... not so secretly, i give my self a monthly allowance on books... but i have found that netflix has a wide variety of educational videos along with the box office hits.... two videos i recently watched from them were Inventing Cuisine: Michel Bras and Eat This New York

Feeding The Habit

So, buying cookbooks and self-educating (as i like to call it) can prove to be costly... it is important to keep learning and seeing what food trends are current and classics making a comeback.... two ways to do as little damage as possible to my wallet, i find my self buying books at the used bookstore.... it is fun too treasure hunting for that hidden gem... turns out you can pick them up pretty cheap too.... The other method i been using is pre-ordering my cookbooks... found out you can pre order cook books and pay far less than the suggested retail price...

A few NEW books i got my eye on...

Michael Symon's LIVE TO COOK for only $23.10 (nov. 3) you can learn how to properly season your food, not just a stack of recipes, but details of information to why or how he goes about doing things... add some technique and great recipes to your collection

David Chang MOMOFUKU for only $26.40 (oct. 27)

Thomas Keller AD HOC AT HOME for only $31.50 (nov. 6) the fourth one sure to be a classic with the rest of them

HOME BREW

So, the other day when i got home i received a beer brewing kit... Thank you to Ryan and Kristin... so very nice... Two of my favorite hobbies combined into one, cooking and beer...

A Beginners brew kit where everything is weighted out and easy to follow steps... purchased from Rozi's in Lakewood off of Detroit.... They have a great selection of home brew kits and supplies...The contents of the included a 3.3# plain light malt extract, 2# plain light dry malt extract, 1 1/2 oz vanguard hops (bittering), 1/2 oz vanguard hops (finishing), 5 oz priming sugar, i packet beer yeast...First step is to bring two gallons of water to a boil, soak the can of malt extract in warm water for 10-15 minuter to easily pour out, while stirring pour the malt extract, after combined add the dry malt extract while stirring...Bring to a boil...Boil the bittering hops in the liquid while occasionally stirring for 55 minutesBoil the finishing hops for 5 minutes and chill the wart to 70 degrees FahrenheitUse your hydrometer to measure the original gravity reading, which will allow you to get an accurate reading for the alcohol percentage of the brew... Sprinkle the yeast over the wort in a fermenter ... place in an area between 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit.....Store the fermenter for 3-7 days... you should notice bubbling in the airlock within 24 hours... when bubbling has stopped completely... take off the lid and take the final gravity reading with the hydrometer... if the brew is at the designated reading time for bottling......

side not everything must be sanitized extensively to ensure a wholesome product...

this is my first batch so we will see how it goes and tastes in the end.

BEER

those who know..... know that i have thrown a few back in my days... beer, we see the commercials, we drink it, but how much do you really know about what you are ingesting...

Beers come classified into two categories either an ale or a lager...

An ALE being a top fermented beer in which the yeast used tends to collect at the top of beer throughout the brewing process.. warm temperatures needed for the brewing process.. higher in alcohol and more complex..

i.e. Barley Wine, English Bitter, Pale Ale, Scotish Ale, Belgian Strong Dark Ale, Porter, Imperial Stout,

or

A LAGER being that the yeast collects at the bottom of the beer throughout the brewing process.. colder temperatures needed for the brewing process.. lower in alcohol and more single noted... most commonly sold in the United States...

i.e. American Ale, Pilsner, Bock, Ocktoberfest, Helles, Dunkel,

Four Basic Ingredients are needed for making beer: Water, Malt (malted barley), Hops, and Yeast...

I think Harold Mcgee in On Food and Cooking (pg. 745) explains it the process the best and in the simplest form...

Brewing Beer

• Mashing: ground barley malt is soaked in hot water. This revives the barley enzymes, which break starch into sugar chains and sugars, and proteins into amino acids. The result is a sweet, brown liquid called the wort.
• Boiling: hops are added to the wort, and the two are boiled together. This treatment extracts the hop resins that flavor the beer, inactivates the enzymes, kills any microbes present, deepens the color of the wort, and concentrates it.
• Fermentation: yeasts are added to the cooled wort and allowed to consume sugars and produce alcohol until the desired levels of each are reached.
• Conditioning: the new beer is held for some time to purge it of off-flavors, clear it of yeasts and other materials that give it cloudy appearance, and develop carbonation.

Beer it is delicious and has become just as complex as a good wine.... This is just some brief knowledge about what so many of us consume everyday... don't be afraid to go out and order a beer you have not had before explore the flavors and varieties so many have worked so hard to create and enjoy.... coming from the guy who drinks rolling rock in the corner of the bar...

MEATLOAF

It is an art.. a passion... Your mom's or grandma's recipe is always arguably the best because it is the most familiar to you and they spent years perfecting it... A way to expand the all mighty dollar by adding "filler"... For this is why when i look at my arsenal of cook books standing tall and proud on my shelf i do not grab a french guy, or any "restaurant" book, but i reach for my church cook book or my mom's recipe... which is more a list of some ingredients she might have on hand and mix together, but changes every time... more like loose guidelines to follow...

You can not argue with good solid technique.. Don't be afraid to take some things from the french, using a water bath and cooking your meatloaf in it will result in a more tender delicate product. Always have been a fan of the trio of meats pork for moisture, beef for flavor, veal for texture.... In a perfect world i would hand grind all my cuts of meat ground with day old bread i soaked in milk.... but convenience is convenient.... please do not add any powders to your meatloaf... skip the onion powder saute some onions ahead of time, let them cool and mix them in your meatloaf.... it will also add moisture to keep the meatloaf tender...

Two other valuable lessons are season... mix and taste... cook off a sample piece to make sure you have the right amount of salt and pepper in your meatloaf.... one thing anyone can do to be a better cook is to season with accuracy.... not only season with accuracy, but cook with accuracy... thermometers are just as important in a kitchen as a black permanent marker.... i would cook the meatloaf to 155 F it will carryover cook to the desired temperature of 165 F

Here is my Grandma's Meatloaf Recipe

Ground Meat
Bread Crumbs
Milk - just enough to soak crumbs
1 egg
1 onion

put bread crumbs in bowl, add milk, just enough to wet crumbs, add one egg, salt, and pepper, one onion, chopped fine and ground meat. Shape into loaf, put into roaster, put onions, tomato, piece of celery all quartered around meatloaf and bake....


if you have questions dont ask me call your mom or grandma....

2009 Ohio Pawpaw Festival

September 19 & 20, 2009
reserve the date

The 11th annual Pawpaw Festivel will be taking place at Lake Snowden in Albany, Ohio. Admission $5.00 per day or $8.00 for the weekend.

WHAT IS A PAWPAW?

It is the largest edible indigenous fruit to North America that comes from the same family as the custard-apple. The fruit is actually a large edible berry which can weigh 5 to 16 ounces, tasting notes similar to those of a banana and mango. Also known as the poor man's banana.

LETTERS TO A YOUNG CHEF by Daniel Boulud

If you have not read it, you should. Words of advice from one of the most influential chefs of our time. I had a chance to re-read his book on vacation.... something i found interesting was

The Ten Commandments of a Chef

1. Keep Your Knives Sharp
2. Work with the Best People
3. Keep Your Station Orderly
4. Purchase Wisely
5. Season with Precision
6. Master the Heat
7. Learn the World of Food
8. Know the Classics
9. Accept Criticism
10. Keep a Journal of Your Recipes

The short book is only 166 pages and filled with valuable information, life lessons, recipes, and keys to a successful career....

VACATION PICS

The Drum Fish we caught off the beach

The Fish Fry

Local Crab Boil w/ Old Bay

Dune Burger is amazing visited it twice over a week

Conveniently Keeping Your Edge

Cooking is nothing more than the application of heat to food. To cook well you have to efficiently and effectively apply the heat source. Two ways to become a better cook is to focus on controlling the source of heat or to concentrate on the product being cooked. When concentrating on the product that is being cooked you need to be able to apply the heat to consistent thickness to do it effectively and efficiently.

That means knife skills, a scary and intimidating topic for anyone. The best advice is to be comfortable using a knife and to have a sharp knife. All the rest will fall into place after practice, practice, practice. The hardest part of keeping a sharp knife is the sharpening aspect. Most products are expensive and just do not get the job done as well as one could hope. I have searched and tried many methods and stores to find the perfect edge on my knife. It always comes down to convenience. Having to drive around, drop off, pick up, just to get your knife sharpened to cook is overwhelming. At that point with all the time invested you end up eating out anyways.

The best solution I have found is a mail order service. Netflix meets your kitchen cutlery. You can order a specially made box for knives that get sent to you, you load it up with your kitchen knives, send it back and wait for your perfectly sharpened knives to come back. In the mean time try that restaurant you been hearing about, but have not had the chance to go to. Check out the Knife Guy at www.theknifeguy.com to keep the edge on your blade razor sharp.

Two For the Price of One

THIS FRIDAY (july 3) from 3pm-5pm Laura Taxel author of Cleveland Ethnic Eats will be at Chef's Choice Meats gourmet market celebrating the release of her 8th edition will be signing books. You will have the opportunity to purchase a book there for $14.95 plus tax if you have not done so already (better late then never). The same day Kris Kreiger will be having live entertainment , a wine tasting, and a BBQ from 4-7pm......


Cooking does not always have to be white linens and expensive wine. Good food is good food; it is about sourcing the best local product one can find. Does not mean the most expensive or extravagant item one can get their hands on. Lunch meat gets consumed everyday by people without thinking about where did it come from or who made it. Bacon gets cooked for breakfast everyday from a suffocating plastic packaging expelling more water weight then what is left behind. People are being more conscious about where the food is coming from, since you hear once a week that some factory has recalled mass amounts of product because of possible food borne illness outbreak.

Kris Kreiger from Chef’s Choice Meats gourmet market is here to the rescue us. A man with a passion about what he is doing and executing it with all the right moves. He operates his quaint little shop on the corner of West Street in Berea, Ohio. He features Ohio products from the chicken, to the beef, to the turkey, and also makes his own sausages and cured meats. All of his “lunch meats” are made in house, but tastes like masterpieces from a skilled artist who has practiced charcuterie all his life. Do not be surprised if Kris is at the counter talking to you one on one and slicing your meat for you. Very friendly and passionate about what he does is not afraid to answer any questions you might have.

Before you make your next sandwich think about what you are making it from; what are you really stuffing between your slices of bread and where did it come from.