Februrary Postmortum

Everything keeps getting busier and busier.  Just want to get everything down so I can make comments later.

Made dinner for friends one last time before we have the baby - went sort of Asian.  I don't think I could make traditional or authentic Asian food, but when considering how to handle the root vegetables available right now, I thought about the ingredients and flavors I really like.  Plus - Korea really has a climate close to ours, and we can get pretty good Korean ingredients in our neighbor hood so it just kind of made sense.

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 Duck Confit (Star Anise, Clementine, Cinnamon Cure) - Got this ready for dinner later that month.

Buckwheat Pancakes - Our new stove has a griddle attachment; it's heavier than my double burner griddle; so it's much better - but it's a little smalll.

Rye/Whole Wheat sandwich loaf (wild yeast) - I'm still getting used to the new convection oven - this was okay, but had a blow out issue on the one side.  My slashes are not deep enough.

Potato Chips - Need to fry these chips at a lower temperature (350 instead of 375).


Margarita Pizza (local flour, kolsch yeast) - I'm out of italian pizza flour, so this was an adventure - using the FGF flour.  It was a little sloppy, the gluten wasn't developed enough or something.  The toppings were missing something.

Chicken/Duck Wings
These both came out pretty good.  Since ducks actually use their wings, they're much tougher than chicken wings so I braised them, cooled them, dusted them with a little cornstarch and fried those.

 
Kimchi - I've made sauerkraut a bunch of times, but I finally made cabbage kimchi.  I think it could have fermented for longer, and could have been hotter, but it was good.

Potato Latkes - Making latkes has become a new obsession - these came out better than the beet/carrot latkes.  I added more flour to the mix.


Onion, cheddar, Duck Cracklings Omelet - delicious, delicious cracklins. Rendering your own fat/lard always pays off.

Smoked Rye/Beet Sausage - Yet another failed attempt.  I smoked rye berries, cooked them and added them to the beet puree.  Maybe I should have ground up the whole thing because the texture was odd.

Hickory Smoked Bacon - Used less sugar/fructose in cure, herbal notes (basically rosemary, coriander, black pepper, something else....see I need to write this down). Probably the best bacon I've made so far.

Bao (commercial Yeast) - A test run; this recipe (from Momofuku cookbook) has yeast, baking powder and baking soda; and sugar - it's steamed so really the intent is it to be light and taste like nothing.

Daikon/Carrot Cake - Again a quick test run of this for dinner later - I wanted to make a turnip cake, but not really a traditional steamed gelatanous kind.  I really wanted it to be a hash brown or giant latke (but without the egg)- kind of a network of shreds that are still slice-able

This take was okay, used AP flour with some shredded daikon and carrot that I sauteed.  To make it a little more interesting I carmelized some onion in a pan and then put the veg/flour mixture over it - then baked it; so it was kind of an 'upside down cake'.

It tasted good; I just wanted to adjust the texture the next time. 

Bao (Saison Yeast) - This was the 'production' run of the bao for the following weeks dinner.  On gretchen's suggestion I made them thinner and slightly larger, but they probably could have been larger.  There was a little more yeast flavor and the texture was still light.

Braised Short Rib, Smoked Beet Sausage, 65 degree egg 
w/ Polenta


A sunday Lunch - was pretty tasty, although the beet sausage is still a problem - this is a painful reoccurring theme.  Short rib was braised in beer and duck stock....and standard european seasonings, rosemary, oregano, bay, thyme....

Grilled Chicken/Skirt Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Peas - I get accused of making only crazy foods - it's just not true.  G's Chicken was overcooked - but pan sauces tasted good.  My skirt steak (from Ottomannelli here in Woodside, was really beef-y - I'll take anything with that much fat marbled in it.


Sloppy Joes, Roast Cauliflower (w/ mustard vinegrette) , Sweet Potato Oven Fries - It been a month of clean up in the freezer/fridge.  I thought I had taken out chicken livers....turned out it was some pieces of bottom round....who knew.  I ground them with some back fat and made sloppy joes - although there was an issue of expired ketchup (January 09?); so I couldn't really make the thicker barbecue type sauce that goes with sloppy joes - so I had to wing it with a lot of spicing, tomato paste and whatever.  Served that open faced with some melted cheese and something else...damn can't remember.

Corn Pancakes-  I bought a new bag of corn meal from FGF, and it tasted great in these pancakes - I feel like their product has become better and more consistent.  I guess that's why you try to stick with new companies, you hope they improve.

Soju Pickled Cauliflour (two types - Honey/Star Anise and Hot Pepper) - These came out pretty good.

Soju Pickled Daikon


Smoked Paneer, Green Onion Beet Terrine  - Since the beet sausage didn't seem like it was working out, I tried to come up with a backup plan.  I was planning on making some fresh cheese and layering roasted beet slices and grilled green onions between two layers of cheese - pressing that, cut out squares that I would then smoke.

It seemed like a good plan - a bs take on beet salad - Everything seemed to come out ok, albeit a bit of a mess until I smoked the squares.  Basically I let the heat get too high, and the wood started giving of that bad burnt smell.  The terrine was basically un-servable - so I had to go with plan c for this component of dinner.


Korean Style Pancakes -
Duck Confit/Leek and Cabbage Leek  w/Sesame Soy dipping Sauce

Used half rice flour half AP - probably should have stuck to all AP - it needed the Gluten

BBQ Lamb Shank -
Citrus Soy Barbecue Sauce on Bao
w/ Kimchi  or pickled cauliflour/scape relish

Rubbed the lamb with a combination of basically 5 spice, chilis, garlic and ginger - smoked over pecan chips.

Unfortunately (but expectedly) this tasted great coming out of the smoker, but only okay when I reheated it for dinner.   Tasted a lot like pastrami (thanks pepper).

I should have chopped up the meat more and mixed in more of the barbecue sauce (which was passed). .

The bbq sauce was pan drippings, a stock made from the smoked bones, lime, clementine,  pepper paste, some spices (star anise, cinnamon, clove, etc), brwon sugar.  It was okay, tasted a little salty so I cooked it down with some beer too.

Rutuabaga Carrot Cake -  Basically I went for a similar recipe to the daikon/carrot cake from before - but swapped out AP for Rice flower. It was more gelatinous - so it had the opposite effect.  I ran the whole thing under the broiled to heat and crisp the bottom.  The crispy parts tasted really good - other than that it was just okay.

Grilled 'Smoked Tofu'
- Soju Honey glaze with grilled green onions and pickled beets and cauliflour- 
Plan C- didn't taste smoked or honey/soju....had some decent grill lines?  The tofu from H-Mart is really great though....so that's okay.  The pickled beets were fine but not great


BBQ Lamb and Smoked Golden Beet Sandwich  -
I actually really liked this sandwich-

Smoked Beet Ravioli 
A recovery suggestion by Gretchen that turned out pretty good.  I pureed the leftover terrine into a filling for pasta. I wasn't really feeling rolling out all of that pasta dough at the time, but at least I managed to freeze some

BBQ Lamb Udon Salad - 
with roasted black radish, smoked beet croquettes and fried tofu.

Just trying to use up the leftovers here.  I think the lamb was better with more of the BBQ sauce.  I wish I had dressed the meat instead of letting people decide how to top their bao.

The croquettes and the fried tofu (dusted in rice flower) both tasted pretty good; and texturally successful.


Pan Fried Tofu -
Potato, Watermelon Radish, Carrot Hash, Vermouth onions, and sauteed Arugula.  A pretty decent use of the leftover 'smoked' tofu.  The hash was tasty - these purple potatoes from the CSA have been very earthy/potato flavored.
 
Grilled Sausages - Meat(fresh keilbasa/G and Curried Goat/T) and beet sausage
Roast Carrot and Spelt Berry Pilaf over Roasted Watermelon Radish.  Paprika and herbed Pilaf/G -Curry Pilaf/T

Bacon, Egg and Grits/Bacon and Egg Bao

Pork Cheek Confit Bao - OK so last month I said the jowl confit was a failure.  I was wrong.  I cut up a piece of the confited cheek and crisped it up - had it on some of the leftover bao with kimchi. I t was pretty great.


Apple Pie Ice Cream - Trying to finish some heavy cream that was in the fridge - added typical spices (cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg), and sweetened with a combination of apple cider molasses and brown sugary

Multigrain Bread (Buckwheat/Pale Ale)

Chicken Stock - Finally getting a feel for the oven - and this stock turned out really rich.

Corn Biscuits - These turned out okay but not how I wanted them (layered, so it was a failure)


Chicken and Gravy Biscuit  - with ham hock red beans and baked sweet potato with pea/parsley pesto

Purple Potato Frittata  w/ Pea/Parsley Pesto and Carmelized Onion