Danny Trejo's Breadanimals

Danny Trejo is a badass. After several stints in prison, and overcoming an addiction to drugs, he has become one of the most prolific actors working today, appearing in "Desperado", "Heat", "Con Air", "Breaking Bad", and my personal favorite, "Machete". But when he's not portraying a criminal or an anti-hero, he apparently likes to make animals out of baked goods. I'll let the man explain it himself.

Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science - Week 5

As I posted in my October 13th blog entry, I've enrolled in an on-line course about the relationship between science and cooking.  Yes, I'm still plugging away at this, luckily I decided to do this for the knowledge as opposed to the college credit.

• This week the focus is on gelation, diffusion and spherification. Appearances will be made by Nathan Myhrvold, José Andrés, and Ferran Adrià, who popularized spherification, the ability to create a small shell of gel around food.
• Spherification happens when sodium alginate, a polymer that comes from seaweed, reacts with a salt like calcium chloride. The polymers, when in solution, are negatively charged. Electrical charges that are negative repel each other. Calcium ions have two positive charges, which allows the calcium ions to stick to the alginate molecule, as one of the positive charges will cancel out the negative charge, but still leaves a positive charge left. That positive charge can then stick to another alginate molecule, thus allowing the two molecules to stick to each other. If the number of such cross-links becomes high enough, you then create a gel.
• Got some clementines laying around? This is what José Andrés would do with them:
  
• A common example of gelation - making jell-o, or cooking eggs. They consist of polymers with cross-links holding the polymers to each other.
• Polymers are long strands that are intermixed with each other.  Think of them as being like a bowl of spaghetti.  When you form a gel, you stabilize the cross-links between the strands, the cross-links being the places where the strands overlap. Only a tiny part of the material actually are the molecules that cause the solid to hang together. Most of it is actually liquid. That's why it's not as solid as your hand.
• The equation E equals kT over l cubed, can be used to find the elasticity of a gel.
• There are two categories of how cross-links can form. In the first category, the polymers come from some protein component of the food. This is what happens with eggs. The proteins unfold because of heating, and then they stick to each other forming cross-links.
• The second category involves some other binding agent being added, like a type of glue, that causes the polymers to stick to each other.
• Nathan Myhvold comes on to talk about modern thickeners, like agar, xanthan gum and gellan gum.
• A great practical use for all this knowledge of gels is make great scrambled eggs. Dan Souza demonstrates:
  
• Harold McGee talks about the history of gels and jellies, and mentions an imitation egg recipe used during the time of fasting during Lent in 1600.
• Ever wonder why your homemade coleslaw gets watery? A cabbage is about 93% water, and some of this water dilutes the dressing used on it.  It's the salty ingredients in the dressing that are drawing water out of the cabbage and ruining the coleslaw. When salt is applied to any vegetable, including cabbage, it creates a higher ion concentration at the surface than exists deep within the cells. The salt slowly diffuses into the vegetable while also drawing moisture out.  To equalize the concentration levels, the water within the cells is drawn out to the permeable cell walls. This process is called osmosis.
• To get rid of that moisture, toss your shredded cabbage with a teaspoon of salt in a colander, and let the cabbage sit for at least an hour or up to 4 hours until it wilts. Rinse the cabbage under cold running water, and press, but not squeeze, to drain, and then pat dry with paper towels. Then combine your dressing as normal.

Soup of the Day

Last Wednesday Ottawa was hit with another blast of snow and ice after a winter full of them. Hopefully, that was the last of the polar vortex, but just in case, I've decided to stock up and make some hearty soups for any remaining chilly nights. I've decided some on white bean and garlic soup and a basic chicken stock so I can make a quick chicken soup in the future, and some creamy goodness in the near future. So Old Man Winter, do your worse- but spring can hurry up and make an appearance anytime now.

Ingredients: White Bean and Garlic soup
2 cups dry white beans
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 medium yellow onion, diced and sautéed
3 slices French bread, coated in olive oil and toasted on both sides
1/2 head garlic
salt, pepper

1. Soak the beans in water overnight. After soaking, drain the beans, put them in a pot, fill it with water, bring it to a boil, and let everything simmer for at least 15 minutes.
• If you want your beans to be a less musical fruit, be sure to soak and boil your beans. A protein called phytohaemagglutinin causes all that farting and boiling the beans denatured this protein to produce a more silent meal.
2. Remove the beans from the water and put them in a food processor. Add whatever stock you're using, the onion, the French bread, the garlic, and the salt and pepper, then purée until everything is blended.

Ingredients: Chicken stock
1.8 to 2.3 kg. poultry parts (ie. chicken back, neck, and wing bones), or a 1.8 to 2.3 kg. whole bird
cold water
1 unpeeled onion, coarsely chopped
1 celery rib, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
8 black or white peppercorns
1 bouquet garni

1. Place the poultry parts in a stockpot, and cover them with cold water. Slowly bring everything to a boil.
2. Once at a boil, reduce the heat, simmer for about 30 minutes uncovered, skimming often. Add the vegetables and the spices. Continue simmering and skimming for about 3 to 4 hours.  Add water to cover everything only if necessary.
3. To cool, place the stockpot uncovered in the sink, partially immersed in ice water. Refrigerate covered. The fat that rises is a protective coating, so don't remove it until just before you reheat the stock for serving or use.
   
   Makes about 10 cups, and keeps for about 3-4 days refrigerated, and up to 6 months if frozen.

The recipes featured in this blog came from:

• Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food
• Joy of Cooking

Beer and cheese pairing guide

Ever wonder what cheese would go well with your favorite beer? Wonder no more with the handy guide created by the good people at RedEnvelope.

The Trailer Park Sandwich

One of my all-time favorite Canadian TV shows is "Trailer Park Boys". If you're unfamiliar with this show, it's a comedy mockumentary about the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts, living in the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. With pre-production beginning on a ninth season, and a third movie, "Trailer Park Boys 3: Don't Legalize It", to be released on April 18, this clip will gets fans ready for the continuing adventures of Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles.

   

Human Library - Chef

Happy 2014 everybody. Hope that the last twenty-four days of the new year have been good to you...

Have you ever wanted to pick the brain of a chef, but don't know one personally? If so, you will want to head to the Ottawa Public Library this Saturday between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to take part in the Human Library event. The Human Library allows you to have a 20-minute conversation with a person to learn about them and their experiences, essentially turning them into a human book. One of people appearing at the Main Branch is Luke Campbell, an Algonquin College trained chef who has cooked for diplomats, senators, and prime ministers, and is credited with bringing Jamaican cuisine to the nation's capital with his legendary Jamaican patties from his old restaurant Spicy Luke's. He probably won't share with people his recipes for this sorely missed treat, so this recipe from jamaicatravelandculture.com/ will have to do.

Ingredients - pastry

 1 lb flour
 1/2 cup ice cold water
 1/2 cup melted butter
 1/2 cup shortening
 1 tsp salt
 1 Teaspoon of baking powder
 1 Teaspoon of curry powder medium hot
 1 Teaspoon on turmeric or 1 drop of annotto

Ingredients - filling
 1 lb ground beef
 1 medium onion
 4 scallion (or 1 more medium onion)
 2 stalks fresh thyme or 2 tsps ground thyme
 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
 1 scotch bonnet pepper (or 1 tbsp curry powder / chilli sauce)
 2 cloves garlic
 1 cup water
 1 tsp salt
 1 tsp pepper
 1 tsp paprika
 1/2 tsp sugar
 1 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Pour the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in baking powder, curry powder, salt and turmeric.
2. Work the butter and shortening in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly drizzle in the water until the mixture has a dough-like consistency (it should only be slightly sticky).
3. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
4. Cut the onion and scallions into fine pieces. Gently fry so they do not quite get time to brown.
5. Add the ground beef, thyme, garlic, peppers (finely chopped), salt, pepper, paprika, sugar and nutmeg. Fry until mixture is fairly dry, drain off excess fat if necessary.
6. Add water and breadcrumbs, and cook until the mixture has a thick, saucy texture. Set aside.
7. Roll the dough on a floured board until it is about 1/8 of an inch thick. Cut as many circles (about the size of a saucer) out of the dough as you can.
8. Place 1 tablespoon of the meat filling on one side of each pastry circle. Moisten the edges of each patty with water and fold the pastry over to make a crescent shape. Seal the edge of each patty by crimping with a fork
9. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place the patties on aluminium foil, and cook for 35 minutes (or until golden brown) Serve the patties hot or cold. 

2013: Random food thoughts

Hope the holidays were good to you and yours. As we head into 2014, let's look back at some of the things that happened over the past year that I didn't get a chance to talk about:

• Despite it being the hottest pastry mash-up of the year, I never got the chance to try the cronut, or croughnut, if you prefer the Canadian spelling. I heard that Boko Bakery and Atelier Restaurant were making a version of croissant/donut hybrid, but I don't know if that's still the case.
• When did Sriracha become the end-all/be-all in hot sauces? I know that people are panicking about not getting shipments because of stricter health guideline enforcement in California, but this sudden outpouring of love in the form of clothing and documentaries is a bit much.
• Check out this new instant sushi Asian candy:
  
• Vegans got angry at Starbucks for not having a vegan option for its pumpkin spice latte - all because the latte mix contains condensed milk. The petition is still available for signing, and with over 4000 signatures still needed, can use all the support it can get.
• Even without reading Ottawa Magazine's best restaurants issue, I knew I haven't eaten at any of them  - having a two-year son can do that. I still haven't even had a chance to check out places like Union Local 613, Stone Soup Foodworks, or the supper club at Mellos. I'm sure my wife will agree it's time to arrange a date-night.
• Beer connoisseurs who spend more time looking for the next new craft beer instead of drinking the great beers already available to them, need to re-examine their priorities. It's not necessary to become Captain Ahab in order to find a satisfying malted adult beverage. Stop turning it into the new wine and let beer just be beer.
• We've been eating salad the wrong way for all our lives. Using chopsticks is the way to go - get your lettuce, your tomato, and your crouton without all that stabbing at the plate.
• Gwyneth Paltrow writing a cookbook shouldn't make anyone upset.
• I've only eaten breakfast there once, and had a pint or two in the pub in the back a handful of times, but now that it's gone, the Mayflower on Elgin will be missed.
• Other bloggers have said it better, but it still needs to be repeated - brunch is bullshit. Sure, meeting up with the gang for a meal sounds great when you're still high from leaving the club, but is crawling out of your warm bed on Saturday/Sunday morning when you're hung over, to wait in the cold, in a long line, just to eat eggs with orange-flavoured champagne really worth the effort?
• Pepsi-Flavored Cheetos (Frito Lay Cheetos x Pepsi Shuwa Shuwa Cola Corn Snack) exist...as does hash oil-infused Nutella. I'm sure the Cheetos would go over big with the 4:20 crowd, and that the weed Nutella would give "magic brownies" that much more of an extra punch.
• The word "foodie" is dead. It means nothing and everything at the same time. A foodie is someone really likes food - you know who else likes food a lot? EVERYBODY. My New Year's resolution is to stop using this term to identify myself and this blog. While knowing about food and appreciating it is important, at the end of the day, it's just cooking and eating.