Scary Needles!

I'm afraid of needles. Really scared ... not sure why. Just am. Can't even watch someone getting an injection in a movie. It's not about the pain. Compared to some of the less-than-intelligent things I've done to myself by accident, a little needle pales in comparison.

Still, when this thing came in the mail, I got a quick twinge of EEEK. While it looks like something out of a bad low-budget zombie movie (probably holds the liquid goo that made the first brain-loving zombie) ... it's not. This is a meat injector.

This particular model holds two ounces (that's a quarter cup) of material. Either liquid or very small solids. You can inject the contents deep into a piece of meat to get better flavor inside.

Why do I care about this? Because in my quest to make as much as I can myself, I want to make ham, Canadian bacon, and other cured items. Those really like to have cure, flavorings, and other goodness injected.

My only problem right now is finding the right cuts of meat. Yes, honestly, that's not always easy here. For example, pork ribs are very hard to get because most are snapped up by the local restaurants long before they might hit the retail fridges.

I think we've solved that problem, though. There's a meat shop we're going to visit later this week that butchers daily. Getting my greedy hands on pork ribs, whole loins (Canadian bacon), pork butt ... real cuts of pork!

Very exciting stuff. Yes, yes, I realize that I'm saying that getting normal cuts of meat is exciting. This seems rather minor. Let me relate a little story.

My brother-in-law and I were driving to a nearby town (while it was near, the road made it effectively very, very far ... what should have been three hours round trip turned out to be eight) in search of the local version of queso blanco, a simple farmer's cheese.

My brother-in-law asked "Kuya," that's the Filipino word for "older male brother/cousin", "why is finding cheese so important to you?"

I, being the wise old man that I am, replied with a question "If you were in a place that had no rice would you do?"

He replied immediately ... no thought required ... "I'd look for it, kuya."

"There you go ..."

It's the little things that make us happy. Enjoy all the minor victories.

Cheesemaking Beginning

Recently, I began looking into making my own cheese. Seems like a lot of effort at first. But, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of controlling the process, the ingredients, etc. So, I ordered a few ingredients and a good book ... but that's another post.

I have the supplies to potentially make some mozzarella. A very simple cheese to make. It only requires milk, citric acid, and rennet. You can add salt, but I'm not going to. I'll add more salt to whatever I cook if I feel that the salt is required.

See that little beige-colored ball on the right? That's the cheese that I managed to produce. A whopping 84 grams!

Seems small? Yeah, it is. I was hoping for 350-400 grams of cheese.

Disappointing? Sure. Surprising? No.

See, I'm using powdered milk as my base. Not exactly the fresh lightly pasteurized milk that cheese really wants to start with.

I followed the instructions to the letter (except the part about starting with 55F (12C) milk ... since I was using room temperature water and milk powder. This means the milk started at 82F (28C) today.

Then, the instructions said to wait until the whey was clear when making the cheese. I waited the stated amount of time. The instructions said if the whey looked a little milky to wait a few more minutes. Well, the whey didn't look milky ... it looked like milk.

So, we seem to have a bit of a problem in the curdling process ... the whey and the curds are just too attached to each other. Likely, I need to use more rennet. Rennet is a culinary pry-bar for milk. It helps the milk solids (curds) separate from the liquids (whey).

Now, beyond the whole separation issue, my little ball of cheese didn't want to behave at first. The instructions called for a little kneading to get it to a smooth and creaming consistency. Honestly, it never reached that point. But, it got close.

I stopped before getting to the final stage because I figured there was no point. There was so very little cheese ... things just hadn't gone quite right.

I still have the ball in the fridge. I'm going to see if it'll shred like a good mozz. I'm hoping so.

Either way, I'm eating it. All issues aside ... it tasted good.

Good Pizza ... Oh My!

Good pizza. Such a simple pair of words. Pizza itself seems so simple. Just some dough, a little red sauce, and cheese ... in its most basic form. Toppings are nice, but optional. A good cheese pizza is heaven unto itself.

Pizza is a balance of its ingredients: crust, sauce, cheese, toppings. Too much of one and the others suffer. If one is bad, the others cannot make up for it. This makes good pizza hard. And, great pizza near impossible. There are just so many places where one can go wrong.

I've had great pizza. It is amazing. And, surprisingly, it is not some giant pie heaped with toppings and dripping with cheese. It was a well-balanced pie with high-quality toppings, cheese, crust, and sauce. Not too much or too little of any.

As I've written before, many commercial pizza places fall short on one or more of the basic aspects of the pizza. I think it would be better to be mediocre at all four ... rather than good at three and bad at one.

This recipe yields a decent crust. For the amount of effort required, it's pretty good. Still, not great.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2-1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 60g grated Parmesan cheese
• 250g shredded Mozzarella cheese

Procedure

Preheat your oven ... now! You want it as hot as possible for this. Mine gets up to about 460F (238C).

Mix the yeast, sugar, and water together. Set aside.

The original recipe calls for whisking the dry ingredients together, setting on the counter, making a hole in the middle, then pouring in the yeast-sugar water. Here's where I say ... no!

I put the dry ingredients into my mixer bowl and whisked them a bit by hand to properly disburse the salt. I'm told this aerates the flour, too. Not sure I believe this.

I poured in the olive oil (be sure to use good olive oil ... it makes a difference) and the water mixture. Then, I used the bread hook to mix slowly for a minute or so. I ended up adding an additional 1/2 cup of flour to get the right consistency. The dough should be slightly sticky.

Once mixed, I turned the mixer on medium to knead the dough. I let it knead for 10 minutes. When done, the dough will still be slightly sticky and quite smooth.

I put the dough in another bowl and tossed in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Put a clean kitchen towel over it and let the dough rise for about an hour.

I split the dough into two equal parts. For each, I rolled into a ball using my hands. Then, pat it down into a disk on the counter (with some flour down). To the amazement of my son, I tossed the disks into the air to get to the right size. Never done that before, it was rather fun. Easier than I thought it would be! Harder than those pizza guys make it look.

I used the pizza sauce that I made (and froze). Just put a big dollop in the middle and spread it outwards in a spiral motion using the back of your spoon. You want less sauce on the pie than you think. Too much sauce makes your cheese and toppings fall off. That's no fun!

Finally, I put on the cheese. Notice it's not all that much. It's the combination that makes it good. The bit of Parmesan adds a nice slight bite that I like.

I put these in for 10 minutes each at about 460F (238C). They came out looking amazing. I was shocked.

Pretty easy for a pair of 12-inch pies!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Loved it. Some even giggled when they got a second slice.

Test Group C: Very good! Bring more whenever you like. Was surprised that it was just a cheese pizza (good surprise, thought it had more on it).

Test Group M: Good!

Potential Improvements

Alton Brown has a crust recipe that involves slow-rising the dough in the fridge for 12-18 hours. This sounds like a very good idea. Let the dough have the time to develop a good flavor.

Potential Variations

With the addition of toppings, there are too many variations to mention.

I think I'll try freezing a crust or even a completed pizza. Let's find out if I can make my own frozen pizza designed for later quick-and-easy resuscitation.

Conclusions

It was so good to eat pizza that tasted good, had a good crust, and used decent cheese. This one is definitely a winner.

That said, there's room for improvement. The crust was present, had tooth, but wasn't great. With practice and probably a different base recipe, I'm sure I can do better.

Still, it was really nice to have my first good pizza in 15 months.

Deconstruction? Reduction?

I'm not sure what to call the concept, perhaps someone with a better culinary vocabulary can help me out. This is something I've been considering for a long time.

I want to get to the point where most things I make are made from the base ingredients. What I mean by this is that rather than adding ketchup, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce to ground beef for basic Sloppy Joes, I add their components: tomato paste, ground mustard, vinegar, spices, etc.

I'm fairly realistic about this, things like Worcestershire sauce are already in a basic enough form as is. As are hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, etc. I don't need to get into manufacturing those.

What I do want to do is get my recipes to the point where they are not reliant upon a single brand of a finished product to get the right taste. Ketchups are different, mustards are different. I want some degree of consistency and control. I also want to know what is going into the food that I serve my family and friends.

Yes, opening a can of Cream of Mushroom soup, pouring it over chicken and rice, and baking that for a bit is very easy. And, really quite tasty. However, its sodium content is through the roof. And, these days as I rail more and more against all foods industrial, the thought of just popping open a can of creamy goo and pouring it over our food becomes less and less appealing.

I understand that this is a fantastic time-saver. And, having had a busy life in the past I certainly understand. Right now, I have the time. I should take the time to prepare better for my loved ones.

Just need to learn how now.

Care Package Frustration

Yesterday, a care package arrived. In it were a few innocuous items:

• citric acid
• rennet tablets
• fennel seed
• digital thermometer

With them, I plan to do fun, yummy things. The fennel seed will lead me to pepperoni and Italian sausage. The rennet tablets, citric acid, and digital thermometer will be used to make cheese ... first, probably mozzarella and ricotta.

What does that all spell? Pizza and lasagna. With good ingredients.

I'm drooling already.

Only one problem: I'm bed-ridden with a fever, nasty cough, and stuffy nose. Here I have the ingredients to help me try to make culinary heaven and I can barely walk ten feet without my body kicking off a world-record coughing fit.

Life is so cruel ...

TWD - Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

After my emotionally damaging experience with the Daring Bakers, I approached this week's Tuesdays With Dorie selection with trepedation. What would it be? Would be pride take another serious beating?

Oh my, it's cookies! Hooray! Oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chip cookies, to be exact.

So easy to make, too! Just use the normal cream method for cookies ... slam it all together ... bake ... eat.

I read the recipe and it said not to use natural peanut butter. Yeah, right. Like I'm going to use some brown-tinted industrial goo in good cookies. No thanks.

I used the peanut butter I made earlier this week. The cookies turned out amazing. Really very good. Lots of peanut flavor.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Delicious. At them all quickly.

Test Group C: Bring more next time.

Test Group J: Really good!

Test Group M: Doesn't like peanut butter cookies.

Conclusions

Glad that it was something where I could coast a little.

Natural Peanut Butter

I grew up with peanut butter. My mom made the best PB&J sandwiches. Often, we'd have blackberry jam or raspberry jam made from berries that we (read: my parents) picked. My favorite was when mom made it on Oroweat Oatnut bread. They were, at the time, a large local Seattle bakery that sold to the grocery stores ... now, I think they sell all over.

Mom liked to buy Adam's peanut butter. I was a natural peanut butter. Ingredients: peanuts, salt. We had to stir it before use because the oil would separate. So very yummy.

Over the years, I'd buy peanut butter at the health food stores when I could. Pick up a pound or two of roasted peanuts and use their grinder. Fresh, good, nothing bad for you in it (besides the fatty goodness found in peanuts).

After a while of being in the Philippines, I started to crave a little peanut butter. I tried a couple of local brands. They were bad. Well, not bad. Really quite awful.

I recently looked at the ingredients lists on them. One has a nice, simple ingredients list. Listed in plain English ... how very kind. Proudly, the number two and three ingredients are Dextrose and Sucrose ... ah, sugars. No wonder the thing tastes sickly sweet. Oh, and right after that? Hydrogenated vegetable oil. That's a nice code-phrase for "trans fats inside". No thanks!

The other brand ... not quite so user friendly. Many of their ingredients are, again, in plain English. But a few ... words so long and complex that I couldn't pronounce them if I tried. Even with nearly two years of college chemistry and a full year of just studying Greek and Latin roots to words. Yes, long and nasty chemical names.

As I advance in my years, I've gotten lazy. I used to look those up out of curiosity. I'm no longer so curious. I just translate long chemical allegedly-eatable food names to "industrial goo" or "slow poison".

Oh, did I mention that neither local brand really tastes like peanuts? Or, that they seem to have so much sugar that they should be relabeled as "peanut-flavored sugar paste"? Not only that, they're relatively expensive.

At the local mercado (open-air market), there's a gentleman who spends his day grinding peanut butter. He's got a little stall and he grinds your roasted nuts for you as you wait. The price is very reasonable (P10 per kilo) and it's fun to watch.

Roasting some peanuts and getting fresh peanut butter? Oh yes ... I must.

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 kilograms peanuts

Procedure

Spread the peanuts out on a roasting pan. Bake them at 350F (175C) for about 10-15 minutes.


Let cool.

Take to the mercado (market) and pay the friendly peanut grinder to grind them for you.

Done.

Enjoy.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Very peanutty! Yum! Marasa! Delicious!

Potential Improvements

The results were very, very good. Room for improvement? Little.

I might try adding a little bit of salt next time. Not a lot, as I don't want to ruin the great peanut flavor.

Conclusions

So easy. No excuse for me not to do this. Given that the cost to grind is P10 (about US$0.22) per kilo, there's no excuse not to get peanut butter this way. That makes the peanut butter P95 (US$2.16) per kilo.

Very reasonable by any measure ... and really very good.

Again, it's worth taking the little bit of extra time to make it myself. So glad I did.