I went on this trip with one of my best friends and the goal was to just relax ad see the sights. If you cant relax in Amsterdam, there’s something wrong…I’ll just leave it at that. Surprisingly, there were some nice food bites I tried, which I would like to share.

I’ll start by exclaiming my appreciation for delicious cheese. There are not that many small scale cheese makers in the Dutch countryside, but the ones who exist do it right. I visited a farm that made those funny wooden shoes AND cheese — crazy I know. The smoked gouda was incredible, and the maker claimed it he ages it and stores it without the need for refrigeration at any point…pretty incredible.

After a few days of wandering around, it was my birthday in early June, so we decided to go all out on a crazy dinner. We went to De Kersentuin, under Chef Michel van Dijk. The cuisine was very good and quite playful…

Amuse Bouche of mint-gel shot, something with yogurt chips (here’s where my memory fails me!), and watermelon puree with some creme.

Next were scallops with brown-butter cauliflower on top of a parsnip (i think) puree with frisee salad and baby shrimp

Alongside we ordered a seafood (don’t remember if it was crab or lobster) salad served between slices of watermelon within pepper wafers served with a few drops of a cream or yogurt sauce. I remember this was excellent, ad surprisingly the dish did not fall apart when I tried to cut it as I thought it would.

The next dish I remember very well — a deconstructed lobster ravioli with a lobster broth. Honestly the way the “wrapper” sort of gelatinized and stuck to the fork, I would leave it. But the lobster and the broth were phenomenal.

Next was a grilled filet of fish — sorry again I forget which kind, but it looks like it could be branzino (I doubt it though because I don’t see the black flecks) or tilapia? Who knows. It was served with a great butternut squash puree topped with white asparagus and halved peas and I believe some potato-type poppers (taro, other root veggie?).

The last dish was duck. I don’t really have to say more than that because…well, I love duck, so it was great. Port wine sauce reduction with the same squash puree and potato thing tied it to the other main.

There was a palette cleanser and desert which was a bonbon shell with cherries and ice cream inside and a dusting of
Pistachio on the rim. When they brought it out they poured a hot strawberry soup on top, which melted the shell thus revealing the treat inside. I do remember the waiter spilling the first batch on his hand and burning his arm — ouch!

All in all a great experience and talented chef. The other cool meal we had was called rijkstable or rice table. We ate at Sama Sebo on Hobbemastraat near the Van Gogh museum. This type of meal is basically a flat fee and they bring you every dish on the menu. It was pretty ridiculous. Everything was delicious and we were too hungry for me to diarize what I ate. I remember I really liked their version of chicken stay with a spicier peanut sauce.

Right side, left side, composed dish how you’re supposed to eat it.

history

I could point you here, but it would be equally kind of me to summarize the page. Apparently, Romans figured out savory flan after domesticating the chicken; they had a sweetened version with honey, but the caramelized sugar one came from the Spaniards. After the timely demise of our favorite empire, the sweet version survived the medieval times and made its way to Spain while the savory version made its way to England. Columbus, also apparently, brought flan over from Spain to the Americas when he sailed the ocean blue, hence why everyone in Mexico is gaga about the desert. The article goes on to talk about the semantics of the word “flan” but I just want to eat it.

recipe

As usual, my first attempt was to follow good old Alton. I must say the theory is quite sound, but there are definitely some things I would do differently next time.

pics

vids

Good Eats Season 3 Episode 3 – Egg Files II – The Man With A Flan

links

flan wiki entry

flan on google images

flan on deviant art

flan history and more information

flan recipe I used

Read on young padawan and when you make the inevitable journey to the sky, hopefully by that time angel’s food won’t be a surprise to you — ambrosia is another story.

Normally, I put videos at the end of the post, but because Alton’s episode analyzing the ins and outs of angel food cake is so absolutely fantastic, I recommend that you watch it before reading the rest of this post.

Hmmm, so there are a few important tips to remember when making this cake. Below, I’ve outlined what I ended up doing in the recipe.

comparisons to other cakes

chiffon cake

Uses vegetable oil instead of butter in traditional cake recipes, so shelf life is longer and cake is moister. For this reason it is used in most shelf-products (Hostess, etc.). The wiki is pretty good.

devil’s food cake

This is a cake in between a traditional chocolate cake and angel food cake. It is much airier than standard chocolate cakes and uses cocoa as opposed to melted chocolate. The wiki entry does justice to the cake.

red velvet cake

If you see the devil’s food cake wiki entry, you will see that the original red tint came from non-alkalized (non “Dutch Processed”) cocoa powder reacting with baking soda. These days since alkalized cocoa powder is more prevalent, people add red food coloring to achieve the redness.

references and other media

sites

1. the wiki
2. alton’s recipe
3. google images

pics

I went to bed after watching Four Christmases with the family (in case you were thinking of seeing it…don’t) and drinking a considerable amount of wine following the Beef Bourguignon.  The next morning, I awoke to a surprise. You guessed it — crêpes!  Biggest secret is you don’t need a crêpe pan!  Any shallow, non-stick will do.  Read on if you want to build up an appetite.

history

Right from Acadie’s website, crêpes started out in the northwest of France (near the English Channel in a region called Brittany) and were originally made from buckwheat, not white flour, because buckwheat was cheaper and easier to grow.  Because of the texture and flavor of the buckwheat, they were originally savoury crêpes, but when farmers became wealthier and experimented using white flour and sugar, desert crêpes were invented.  Nowadays, crêpes are made all over France and are becoming increasingly popular outside of France with some fantastic crêperies sprouting up everywhere.  As far as applications go, here are a few awesome ideas.

basic crêpe recipe

• 1 cup flour (sifted)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 Tbs melted butter (can brown for nuttiness)

Blend all the ingredients for 30 seconds and then let sit (crucial step to making uniform and thin crêpes; 20m-1h) to let air bubbles out. Use nonstick pan (shallower the better) over medium-high heat and butter it. First crêpe will most likely fail, but after that the pan should be correctly lubed for the rest of the batch. It’s important to pour the batter (approx. 1/4 cup per crêpe) on one side and then to swirl the batter around the pan. It’s also better to pour too little batter rather than too much (ensures thinner crêpes; if you pour too little just add some in the non-covered spot). Let the ‘public’-side (as Julia calls the side that is presented) brown nicely and then flip — about 2 minutes to brown, or until the edges start to brown and curl away from the pan’s surface. It should be flippable with your hand, but some use a very thin spatula.

You’ll also notice when professionals make them in crêperies, they use a large flat iron griddle and use a wooden “T” to ensure the uniformity of the thickness of each crêpe after the batter is ladled down.

sweet crêpe ideas

• *batter changes*: adding vanilla/cinnamon/honey/powdered sugar; half and half instead of milk; cake flour for fluffy ones? i don’t know; orange zest or other extracts/oils; juice/water mix instead of just water; flavored liquers
• banana, chocolate (Nutella or likewise), whipped cream, nuts (hazelnuts if using Nutella)
• berries (macerated in small amt of acidic juice — orange/lemon/lime/etc. — and sugar), cream
• cobbler (peach/apple) with syrup and nuts, cream
• ice cream with walnut syrup and/or honey
• layered cake: layer some filling between crêpes to make cake and bake –> slice –> eat

savory crêpe ideas

• *batter changes*: fresh herbs; stock/water mix instead of just water; wheat flour; browning butter or use heartier fat like lard/butter mix?
• duxelles (this is too good) — it’s an onion/mushroom paste (see good eats video at end of post)
• bbq meat – chicken, pulled pork, roast beef / pot roast
• glazed fish with veggies? – almost seems a waste to hide it, but it would taste good
• fruit + cheese + nuts – (as I did, with pears and Brillat-Savarin cheese from whole foods)
• layered cake: layer some filling between crêpes to make cake and bake –> slice –> eat

references and other media

sites

1. Menu - Acadie’s – CA
2. Menu – Flip Happy – TX
3. Menu - Simply Crêpes – NY
4. Menu - The Crêpe Cafe
5. basic crêpe receipe
6. crêpes images on google
7. crêpes images on deviantart
8. crêpe wiki

pics (some of crêpes and some of france i just really liked)

vids

good eats Рs5e3 Рcr̻pe expectations

*update*

Made another batch a week ago and added some corriander leaves and red chili powder to the batter. We also made a modified duxelles by sweating onions and mushrooms (standard), then added some garlic and zucchini and finally a good helping of manchego cheese. We had some avocados lying around so I thinly sliced them and put them down before the duxelles mixture and added a heart of romaine and a line of hot sauce. It was awesome. We also used the same batter (savory batter + sweet filling is fun) to make desert crêpes filled with banana, blackberries, walnuts, almond butter, whipped cream and maple syrup. ooh-de-lally.

hope mine looks like this...

I could rattle on about the history, but it would be easier for you to read the wiki. So, I will instead go over my method (with pics, yay!) and finish off the post after dinner tonight.

a short history

As all google searches for Beef Bourguignon will tell you, the dish started out as peasant food and moved its way up into ‘haute cuisine’ as techniques and recipes were refined. You can generalize this dish as one of many varieties of a fricassee — a dish that starts with browning meat, then deglazing/stewing the meat with aromatics and vegetables in wine and broth and then finally reducing the liquid to make a thick gravy.

I think what definitely sets this dish apart from other fricassees is the meat. Farm-raised cattle always yield some really delectible cuts and as the fires of industry have helped automate farming, meat has become less flavorful. In fact, the ideal cut for coq-au-vin is an aged rooster because of the flavor the meat develops; however, since its not efficient to keep a chicken alive for more than a few months, practical alternatives are limited to thighs and breasts. This is where beef can take its rightful place as the king of meats. With enough connective tissue and spongeability, beef makes an ideal stewing meat (as do goats, lambs and sheep).

julia’s recipe

my method

The alterations I made to dear Mrs. Child’s perfect recipe stemmed from a few sources: Alton Brown’s Coq-au-Vin, minimizing work and cleanup, and madness.  Here’s what I did:

preparation work

1. mushrooms (~1 lb cramini)
   1. wipe with paper towel — don’t wash them or they soak up water…in fact, if you want to wash them, do so with broth, haha
   2. snap off stem and slice — in retrospect I would quarter them; I’m indifferent about using the stems
2. white pearl onions (~35 since we <3 onions)
   1. cut off the base root with sharp knife and make small “x”
   2. ‘blanche’ in hot water for 1-2 mins, take out and shock in ice water — after a minute in ice water you will be able to squeeze them and they pop right out
   3. mistakes I made: (1) I planned on using 24 pearl onions, but my brother said, “you can never have too many onions,” and so I decided to blanche the rest…AFTER blanching the pork rind. BIG mistake, after shocking the onions there was a small film of pork fat which made it hard to squeeze the onions out. Next time, if you buy a lot of pearl onions and are thinking about not using all of them…don’t. You can NEVER have too many onions. (2) When you make the small “x”…and I do mean small…make sure it’s small. If you make a large “X” then when you squeeze the onion, you will end up squeezing a small, small thing out and the rest of the onion layers will fall apart
3. beef (3 lbs chuck roast, 2″ cubes)
   1. dry thoroughly with paper towels
4. pork fat (0.68 lbs salt pork with some visible meat)
   1. Julia likes bacon. Alton likes salt pork. I like both. I picked a piece of salt pork with a good amount of meat on it and sliced off the meat to immitate Julia’s “pork rind” and I sliced up the white salt pork into matchstick-sized pieces, aptly called lardons
5. aromatics
   1. cut white onion into 6 chuncks; snap 2 medium-sized carrots and stalks of celery in half. had small bowl with 1-2 Tb of tomato paste, 1/2 tsp of dried thyme, 2 cloves crushed garlic and 1 bay leaf
6. preheat oven to 450° F

cooking

After all the aforementioned items were assembled, I started cooking in a “casserole dish” as Julia would call it…I call it a “La Creuset”.  Another change I would make (suggestion from my co-worker) is to use a Straub casserole dish because it has a rough enamel coating, which allows for better meat browning and seasoning over time, and the lid has the self-basting stalactites when vapor condenses on the inside of the lid.  Fortunately, the meat was pretty much covered with liquid and I used pork fat, so it still turned out amazingly.

I first sweated out the fat from the lardons over medium-high heat on the stove.  I had it covered for 10 minutes as the dish takes long to heat up and it heats up faster with the lid on.  I removed the lid and waited until the bubbling (oil + water) slowed.  I then removed the lardon to a dish and let the fat heat up almost to its smoking point.  I then browned the beef a few pieces at a time (for 3 lbs it took 4 batches since I didn’t want to crowd the pot) and removed them to the same dish.  With still a lot of fat and fond in the pan, I sautéed the pearl onions for 5 minutes over medium heat and then removed them to a separate dish.  I then sautéed the sliced mushrooms for ~10 minutes over medium heat to soak up all the goodness.  Since the mushrooms left some water, I let that reduce down and re-form the fond.  I then tipped out the fat and returned the now shriveled lardons and now browned beef to the casserole.  I tossed with flour, salt and pepper as Julia recommends and baked in the preheated oven for 8 minutes uncovered (taking it out to toss once midway through).  After taking it out, I turned the oven down to 325° F.

I then took out the dish and added all the aromatics that Julia recommends (I went a little heavier on the tomato paste) plus 3/4 bottle of italian dry red wine (I KNOW — “BURGUNDY”, but Whole Foods didn’t have any — wtf — so sommelier recommended this one that she uses to cook fricassees) and broth to almost cover everything.  I also rearranged the contents so the meat was on top and the veggies on the bottom, and then into the oven it went (covered) for 3 hours.  During this time, I moved the cooled mushrooms and onions to the fridge and then took a nap or something.

I checked up on it after 30 minutes to make sure it was at a simmer (it was a little too bubbly so I turned it down to 315º F) and checked it every hour.  I think it may have benefitted from longer cooking, but this was my first time so I’ll try 4 hours next time to see the result.  I like the beef to fall apart in the mouth, which it did, but it still had some chew to it (which my brother and dad liked).

After removing the dish from the oven and tasting it (SO good), I proceeded to remove the beef to a dish and remove the vegetables and lardons to a garbage bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving the liquid behind.  I cranked up the stove so that I can reduce the liquid by a third (good tip: take a wooden spoon and dip it into the liquid and then take a rubber band to mark off the original height of the liquid…you’ll know 1/3 when you keep poking it into the pan and see the level start to fall).

I put the beef and the reduced sauce into the fridge after they cooled.  To reheat before serving, I tossed the mushrooms and onions, beef pieces and the sauce into a pot and slowly warmed everything over medium-low heat until nice and hot.  I served them over some buttered fettucini pasta; I was going to use linguini, but I found the ribbons were too thin to my liking and opted for a thicker cut.

It was awesome.

pics

vids

julia & julia beef bourguignon report by abc

vintage popcorn

Why is this the case these days with popcorn? It used to be a glorious treat for a job well-done. As a kid I remember my mom bringing down a huge metal bowl with a piping hot bag of salty, crunchy morsels as my brother and I attempted a speed run of Banjo-Kazooie on the Nintendo 64. I remember pulling the diagonal ends of the bag open to release a buttery breeze of steam in my face. I remember the ticks and thuds the popped kernels made as they fell into the metal bowl all the while my brother’s hand grabassing the yellow nuggets, shovelling them into his mouth. Still aiming for the fastest game run, we would pause the game and heed an old adage, “Confucius says many men swallow, but few men chew.” Yes. Following a cathartic *sigh* and a necessary lick of the fingers, we were back on the way to kill that haggardly bitch Gruntilda, but not before popping a few of the buttery, unpopped seeds into my mouth — a prepubescent version of dip.

It’s pretty easy to reminisce about these delights, but digging through all that starch merits some further investigation.

history

From what data scientists can gather, popcorn dates back to New Mexico 4,000 years ago. With the discovery of corn came the pressure to find as many uses as possible for this crop. The act of drying and popping eventually made headway into their cultures, but it’s not as simple as one may think.

There are a few important elements to the popcorn tree (or husk, if you prefer): the kernel, method of heating, dressing.

the kernel

Zea mays averta kernels must be dried before popping. Why? the act of drying out the pericarp (the outer layer) toughens the exterior thereby allowing enough pressure to build up inside before bursting. While all grains have this pericarp, popcorn’s pericarp is especially hard thus allowing it to hold in pressure before rupturing. Each kernel contains some water, oil and starch. Popcorn, again unlike most grains, contains a great deal of ‘hard’ starch which has a higher specific heat again allowing it to reach higher temperatures before going crazy. While there may be many different types of popcorn (thank you Alton Brown: pink diamond, purple amethyst, baby black pearl, southwest gold, baby blue sapphire, baby pearl, red ruby, baby yellow topaz, blue sapphire and petite princess amber). But there are really only four main trees: 1. white pearl, 2. yellow pearl, 3. white rice and 4. yellow rice. Of course, all the aforementioned varietals do have their own flavor and pop size/style, but that is a function of the strain and the amount of moisture inside. Popcorn usually has between 13-15% of water inside.

method of heating

Coming up with a plethora of corn-based dishes was a bit tricky back then. Something as simple as cooking corn with a bit of butter and chili powder required a wee-bit of effort, so the Natives did what any of us would do in that situation — heat the sucker up. And heat we have. Today we consume over 17 billion quarts of popcorn each year, which works out to over 54 quarts per American! But what actually happens inside during heating?

The pericarp is a great conductor of heat thus allowing it to transfer heat to the inside without burning. After enough joules have gone into the kernel, the combination of the vaporized water, hot oil and hard starch creates a lava-like foam of starch, which erupts in very awesome ways. Since the release of pressure is not dramatic enough to tear the pericarp to pieces, the kernel expands around itself as seen below.

Way back in the day, folks used to heat the popcorn in hot sand (like Turkish coffee), but I guess they didn’t like sand in all the nooks and crannies as much as the next person. So back in the day, folks moved up to wire baskets, but that resulted in burned pieces and uneven heating. Today, there are many different varieties of heating, but I tend to agree with Alton (as always) in his selection of the ‘best’ heater — a heavy gauge, stainless steel bowl. With constant shaking during heating, the round bottom allows the heavier, smaller kernels to fall to the bottom where they are heated until they pop and move to the top.

dressing

Since the sticky starch expands in the heating vessel of choice, it only makes sense to put salt in the vessel as well so that the popcorn can stick to it while its hot. It is also paramount to use some oil (lightly colored like grapeseed or peanut because they have a high smoke point) to facilitate the salt-sticking and heat conduction. Because of the rapid depressurization and the way the starch folds up on the pericarp, an awesome amount of surface area is created (and coated in flavor-neutral oil if you’ve been following along), which makes it ideal for some cool tricks. Ideas range from a simple drizzling of unsalted butter to some fresh herbs (thyme & rosemary says Alton). An individual, fed up with the boring combo of butter and salt, even invented those cool powders that you now see in movie theatres (he’s a multi-millionaire by the way). Candy options include chocolate or caramel, but personally I want to try white, lightly salted popcorn with white chocolate and small bits of toffee. =)

references and other media

sites

1. fun facts about popcorn
2. the wiki
3. the governors
4. chocolate popcorn
5. popcorn on etsy
6. popcorn on deviantart

pics

vids

popcorn song by gershon kingsley

good eats – s10e10 – pop art

thanks for reading!