Eat at Joe's!

Merry Christmas

Only three foods, two sauces (one of which came with the ham, but wasn't horrible), one more person, and a partridge in a pear tree [click to embiggen]:

But it was special.  :)

Merry Christmas.  Hope it was great.  

From Tybee Island, Georgia

Got out a bit this past weekend (click to embiggen):

Housemade Lard

Thank god someome still makes stuff:

FWIW, the cookies they make with this stuff are DELISHUS.  :)

Attention Math/Food Geeks

Attention math/food geeks (T.Rev, DurhamFood, and Paul, I'm looking at you, among others):

Flavor network and the principles of food pairing

What really sucked me in to this was the, er, map:

A link to an even larger version is on the click-through page.  

The article is a bit intimidating in places, but I suggest reading through it anyway: it's not that long.  Feel free to skip any math you don't get.  ;)  I particularly like the idea of establishing metrics for "contribution" and "authenticity" for ingredients in a cuisine.  It may or may not be real, but it's neat.  :)

Mystery Photo

Our Midwest correspondent, code-named "Suzz," sent us this picture of a super-secret hot dog place somewhere in the interior of the country:

[Click to, um, embiggen.  :)  ]

Unfortunately, she left off the address, but our on-crack research team thinks they've found it.  Looks like it used to be a Taco Bell — my heart bleeds.  ;)

Getting In Touch With My Inner Redneck

The pig pickin' cake I made last night:

[As usual, click on the image to embiggen it.]

The recipe linked to is not what I did.  In particular, I did not use non-dairy whipped topping: I used $5 worth of heavy cream, of which probably $4 wound up on the cake.  ;)  I also don't use nuts: to me, they don't seem to go with the mood of the cake.  The coconut, however, would have worked well with the cake's almost tropical theme.  I would have used it if I'd had it. 

Upon Unpacking For The Nth Time

"Slow roasted ribs. From Children"

Via my friend st_rev:

Please do click through for the full-size version.  And read every delightful menu item and description.

Peach's Pie

My friend Peach from Canada recently shared a recipe for a chocolate pie of sorts.  I needed a quick dessert tonight, so why not:

Click to enlarge, of course.  The napkin is there because it seemed to fix the crappy white balance for the iPhone I used for the picture.  Sure would have been nice if I'd thought to take that picture before we started scarfing it.  :)

I made a 10" version of the recipe because I had a 10" vessel.  I also made a few other adjustments, but here's the basic recipe as I got it:

Chocolate Lovers’ Pie

Makes one 9” pie.

Servings:  Last time I made this, I cut it into 14 pieces and no one complained.  There were no leftovers, either.

This is an old recipe from Fry’s Cocoa.  For those not familiar, it’s basic grocery store cocoa.  I’ve made it only with Fry’s, but I lost the recipe for years and have since discovered the darker, richer and more decadent “dutch” cocoa, which I use exclusively now.  I just found this recipe again and I want to make it, but it is so rich when made with Fry’s that I’m concerned my beloved dutch cocoa would make it positively explosive.  Then again, I’m willing to throw myself on that grenade.  (Just in case I chicken out, I have some grocery store cocoa on hand.)

** Cocoa Nut Pie Shell -- makes one 9”/1 L pie shell

3/4 cup (175 mL) icing sugar
1/3 cup (75 mL) cocoa
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
1/3 cup (75 mL) butter
1 cup (250 mL) finely chopped toasted nuts

1.    Sift together icing sugar, cocoa and salt.
2.    Melt butter in a saucepan.  Cook until bubbly.  Remove from heat.
3.    Blend in cocoa mixture.  Stir in nuts.
4.    Press into 9”/1 L pie plate.  Chill.

** Filling

1 envelope unflavoured gelatin
3 Tbsp (45 mL) cold water
2 Tbsp (30 mL) instant coffee granules
1/4 cup (50 mL) boiling water
1 cup (250 mL) sugar
1/2 cup (125 mL) cocoa
2 cups (500 mL) whipping cream
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

1.    Sprinkle gelatin over cold water. Let stand 5 minutes to soften.
2.    Add coffee granules and boiling water to gelatin. Stir until dissolved. Cool.
3.    In another bowl, combine sugar and cocoa. Stir in cream and vanilla.
4.    Whip cream mixture until softly stiff.
5.    Slowly beat in gelatin mixture to whipped cream mixture.
6.    Spoon into Cocoa Nut Pie Shell. Chill.

Cut this pie into as many pieces as you can manage. Loosen belts a notch. Enjoy pie.

Now We're Cookin'

So because of all the moving, I haven't been cooking much.  I think the last time I made any bread was in October 2009, if not earlier.  But thinks are finally settling out.  I'm getting things organized and getting used to the new kitchen.  And several days ago, I made the first substantial thing I've made in the new kitchen -- a pot of bolognese sauce (click to embiggen):

I used the recipe out of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, but doubled it (the picture above is after we ate about half of it).  Bittman's recipe is interesting, as he adds dairy near the end of cooking.  The recipe I've used before was from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.  Hazan adds the dairy (milk) early on, and claims that's to protect the meat from the acid in the later additions of wine and tomatoes.  She also eschews stock.  Bittman uses stock, and adds half-and-half or cream toward the end of cooking.  FWIW, Charlie Deal told me once that bolognese should always have a little bit of liver in it.  I didn't have any liver, but I did chop up some leftover salame and throw that in too [sorry, Charlie ;) ].  Anyway, good stuff.  We killed it with our faces.  :)

Guns, Grub, & Guzzling

I'm really not sure what to say about this Easter meal:  

"My First Dinner Pic" at AR15.com, "Home of The Black Rifle"

but I would certainly scarf it, and feel relatively safe while doing so.  :)

Never Did Find Out Exactly What That Was

A photo from this year's N.C. State Fair that I almost lost (click it to embiggen):

The only pigs I've ever licked were dead, and I only licked pieces that were cooked, or mostly so.  Please feel free to enlighten me, O fairgoers.  

Doorway... To HELL!!!

Scary pumpkins at Pop's BacKDoor:

Scary religious figures pouring blood at Wine Authorities:

Happy Hallowe'en from Eat at Joe's!.

This Is Why You're Fat, Eat At Joe's Commercial Chocolate Version

Yes, this is disgusting.  In a good way.  Maybe I'll send it to This Is Why You're Fat:

[Click on picture for enlarged chocolatey goodness.]

Contents:

• Ben & Jerry's chocolate dipped waffle cone
• Ben & Jerry's "Chocolate Therapy™" ice cream ["chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookies and swirls of chocolate pudding"]
• Pepperidge Farm "Soft Baked Captiva® Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies," broken up to make things, um, more convenient
• Oreo "Chocolate Creme" sandwich cookies
• topped with Cocoa Puffs.

I would have put some Nestle's Quik on there if I'd thought of it.   

You're jealous, aren't you?  ;)

It's Squirrely Bacon!

Because I'm trying to be hip:

Bacon and squirrels!  How hip is that!  :)

Edit: Squirrelizer.  Bacon. 

Oops

see more Fail Blog

"Heavy is the head that wears the sausage crown…"

From Picture Is Unrelated:

For those of you wondering, I'm guessing the "Zion" headband refers to the Kosher Zion Sausage Company of Chicago, which is apparently no longer around.  

Zomg

Well, this one had too much cheese, not enough sopressata bits, and could have used a bit more mustard.  OTOH, it was #3 of 3 loaves: they went very quickly.  :)  No flash on this picture, so the color balance is different, FWIW.

Salami Bread

Or perhaps I should say "JLMBBC bread -- 100% bread flour, sweet sopressata, and crushed flax seed."  :)  Click to enlarge in a pop-up:

Frozen Monkey Love On A Stick

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Shortbread

(Click photo to enlarge.)

This is what's left after I took it to potluck, anyway.  :)  It's another Cook's Illustrated test recipe, and contains oat flour I ground out of oatmeal.  I've only made shortbread like twice in my life, so I have no idea whether that's typical or not.  Everyone said they liked it....

Wow, I really would love a quarter's worth of Spam squirted thru a little metal tube

http://gastromatic.net/

[Via Wine Authorities, after they clearly had too much to drink.  Dude.]

Happy Birthday To Me!

Eat at Joe's! is 5 years old today!  Yay! 

Another Example Of My Not Cooking

I thought this was so nice looking that I took a picture (click to embiggen):

In case you're interested, look down the menu to the #12. 

Caesar, Bloody Caesar

To the left: a Caesar, also known as a "Bloody Caesar" (recipe).  It's a lot like a Bloody Mary, to be up-front about it.  If you're hardcore, you can use clams or your own clam juice.  Otherwise you'll need to buy some Clamato or equivalent. You'll also need some vodka.  Worcestershire sauce is nice, and you can spice the drink up as much as you want with added horseradish, hot sauce, or the like.  The glass is traditionally rimmed by wiping it with the lime and dipping in celery salt.  I used my much less expensive celery seeds and my own salt.  You can also adjust the acidity of the drink with additional lime or lemon juice. 

Garnish:  I wish I could figure out some way to garnish this thing with capers, because I think that would taste really good.  But if you don't feel like garnishing with the depicted celery or lime, use some olives (boring, but I like olives, and people often have those hidden away somewhere), a shrimp or three (oooh, fancy!), or perhaps some bacon.  :)

If you have a designated driver, click the pic for a super-sized drink.  The picture would have looked better had I not taken a sip first though. 

Edit: Read an explanation of why the Caesar is the "National Drink of Canada," along with why non-Hispanics in the U.S. don't drink Clamato (may take a bit to load). 

(Apologies to U2 for the title.  And thanks, ak!)

More Filler

I recently saw some pictures of other folks' cookbook collections.  So...why the hell not. (Click to try to read spines in teenie-weenie eyestrain-o-vision.)

Christmas Presents!

Someone knows the way to Joe's heart:

Minestrone

When I haven't been eating enough vegetables, or when "the fleshpots have gotten too rich for your blood," as Julia puts it, I pull out my copy of Moosewood Restaurant's first cookbook, called simply Moosewood Cookbook, and make the minestrone:

There are a number of things I like about the recipe:

• It's simple.
• It has lots of vegetables.
• Most of the ingredients are either pantry staples, or are vegetables I'm likely to keep around anyway (like mirepoix vegetables).
• It's flexible: there's no reason one can't add other vegetables one likes, or meat, as I did in this case: I had some "Italian sausage" I wanted to use up.  I also often use different beans than the suggested garbanzos.  This time it was kidney beans; next time it might be cannellini.
• It's an excellent repository for leftovers.  This batch got about a cup of leftover peas and a half-cup or so of leftover corn kernels.
• It keeps well, like a lot of soups.  But the pasta will absorb as much water as it possibly can, and become gargantuan.  The pasta in the above photo was originally orzo.  It's now as big as small macaroni.  :)

---

Edit:  I'm beginning to appreciate how difficult food photography is.  I took about 50 shots of that damn soup in maybe three different bowls and in the pot, with different lighting and flash settings.  Even after editing the one photo I used, I'm still not happy.  And then TypePad cuts down the size of the thing.  Argh.  At least you can click on it to see a bigger version. 

While I'm venting:  I've occasionally tried to submit Eat at Joe's! to various food-related engines and link listings.  Something always goes wrong:  They fail to answer.  They tell me I need to link back.  Once someone told me I didn't have enough links to other food blogs, because she only saw one; I had about five links up at the time.  Or they tell me I don't fit into their scheme, even though it seems to me like I do when I submit my request.  The last person told me I didn't have enough recipes or pictures.  I'm not going to ask that person again, but I tried to stick a big-ass picture on this post as sort of revenge.  And of course it didn't work.  D'oh. 

I get the impression that while I think my blog is clearly a food blog, it's neither fish nor fowl as far as food blogs are concerned, so it just doesn't fit into other folks' ideas of what exactly a food blog should be.  Oh well.  You folks just keep linking to me instead.  That'll show them.  ;)

No-Pullman-Pan-De-Mie

I've been privately kvetching for a few years now about not having any Pullman pans.  Pullman pans, with their square sides and lid, allow one to make a loaf with square slices for sandwiches (not that you can't make a sandwich out of a non-square piece of bread, but you know what I mean).  My kvetching level increased when I started doing JLMBBC bread, because I thought maybe a Pullman pan would seal well enough to let me use the JLMBBC technique with one.  Alas, I never found one nearby within my price range. 

So yesterday I'm perusing my copy of The Bread Bible, looking at recipes for small rolls and the like.  Ms. Beranbaum has an entire section devoted to soft sandwich style breads, and includes rolls in that section.  I've certainly been spending plenty of time over the past few years making loaves of bread; the thing that's missing are the smaller items: rolls, buns, crackers, flatbreads....  Hence my making crackers and small rolls lately.  Anyway, I'm looking at the pain de mie recipe, which started my Pullman kvetching again.  But this time I thought, "Hey, there's no reason I can't make a Pullman-style loaf: it just won't be square."  Also, Ms. Beranbaum's pain de mie recipe goes very quickly.  So....

I mixed and kneaded the recipe.  The volume for the Pullman pan she recommended was way more than the volume of one of my "footboule" pans, so when I got ready for my final shaping, I weighed out an amount proportional to my smaller-volume pan.  I took the rest and shaped little balls for rolls, which I cooked first in a muffin tin. 

The bread came out fine.  White sandwich bread has very little structure compared to other bread, so having a pan that's essentially a mold helps get you the loaf shape you want.  Also, having all sides pretty well cooked gives you a little more structure to hang the airy bread off of.  As you can see, the footboule pan worked fine.  I oiled the pan and the inside of the lid, just as one would do with a Pullman pan.  The directions called for the baking to be done half with the lid on, and half off.  The loaf did want to hold on to the lid a bit, but it came off with only a little coaxing. 

One interesting thing:  If you look closely at the pictures (all the pictures link to bigger versions, so go click), you might notice that the top of the loaf is slightly concave.  It's certainly not domed like the lid itself is.  I think that air was trapped in the top of the lid  and had nowhere to go, and may have actually decreased my loaf volume a bit.  I guess I need have no worries about how tightly my pan closes.  :)

This bread, as intended, is much less dense than, say, the JLMBBC footboules I've been making.  One of those usually weighs just under 1½ pounds.  This loaf weighed about 18 ounces, or almost 6 ounces less.  But it had maybe 50% more volume.  And as you can see from the picture on the right, the crumb is much more fine and even -- maybe not so much as a loaf of store-bought sandwich bread, but certainly nothing to be ashamed of.  The thin-well done crust all around helps hold together the slices, whose crumb has not much more cohesiveness than a slice of cake. 

The taste: pretty good, and about what I wanted.  Milk, butter, and a little honey give the bread that barely sweet, tender taste I wanted out of white sandwich bread.  There's also a pleasant, acidic note; I have no idea how it got there.  The bread toasts well, browning a little more quickly with the added honey.  The honey also helps the loaf stay soft. 

And the rolls?  I wound up handling their dough a lot more than that for the loaf, so they were a bit firmer and more resilient, but not at all objectionable.  I ate most of them last night -- some hot out of the oven, and a few more with dinner last night.  But fortunately, I did have a few left for the pictures this morning.  :)

By the way, there are Wikipedia pages for both "pain de mie" and "Pullman loaf," but they're both sub-par for Wikipedia articles.  They do have smidgens of information I don't include above, so I've linked to them.

So there you go -- a non-JLMBBC bread post.  Woo-hoo!  :)

I've Finally Cracked

I love crackers, but figured I was insane to do anything but buy them.  I mean, rolling out and cutting all those little pieces of dough?  And I'm not much good at rolling things out anyway.  (I need to take lessons from scratchbake.) 

Well, I got over all that stupid crap.  :)

I whizzed together 2 cups of durum flour, about a teaspoon of salt, a few grinds of pepper, and maybe a half-teaspoon of fines herbes in my food processor.  After that was blended well, I added 1/3 cup of lard, and processed it until the mixture looked like fine cornmeal.  Then, with the processor running, I drizzled in buttermilk (maybe 4 to 6 tablespoons?) until the mixture started to mass on the blade.  The dough then came out and went onto a floured board.  I shaped it up a little with my fingers, then I rolled it out as thinly as I could.  I then docked the sheet of dough with a few forks held together.  Then I wet the dough slightly, sprinkled on a little kosher salt, and took one more pass with the rolling pin.  Then I cut squares that I carefully moved onto cookie sheets.  The cookie sheets went in a 350°F. oven for 20-25 minutes.  Any early browners came out separately.  All the crackers cooled on a rack until I put them on a plate and ate them.  :)

[Click picture to embiggen.]