2013: A New Beginning

Today is a new start for Hungry Lindsay.

Home Sweet Home (Photo credit: Fisher College of Business)

Last year, when I started this blog, I intended to dedicate it to my culinary and literary adventures (so to speak; I’m pretty boring), but soon after I began writing, I got a campaign job that took me far from home and left me with too little time to cook, let alone read and write.

And so, today, I begin anew. I’m back at home, and I’m excited to begin writing once again. I’m setting the bar low, because I know myself enough to know that I will not write every day, but I am hoping to write more this year than I did in 2012. I won’t be writing exclusively on this blog, so maybe it’s misleading to say that I’ll be writing more when I won’t be writing more here, but I’m going to do what I can.

Well, it’s now or never. Away I go.

More about writing (and, more importantly, attempting to write):

• Random Thoughts About Trying to Write
• On beginnings
• 10 Great Quotes to Inspire Great Writing

Thirsty Mike Cooks: Boeuf Bourguignon

Boeuf Bourguignon Recipe

Have a big, thick pot

Buy:

• cheap red wine
• 2-3 lbs beef chuck or stew meat or whatever
• 1 box of chicken stock
• 2 bags of ugly, knobby carrots.  Your girlfriend will want you to peel them.  Ignore her.
• 1 bag of the cheap yellow onions
• garlic – I don’t know, three or four cloves?
• maybe potatoes
• butter
• vegetable oil
• salt
• pepper
• flour

Obtain a medium sized glass.  Fill it with ice cubes, then the cheap red wine you’ll be cooking with.  Probably Burgundy, amIright?

Cube 2-3 lbs of beef chuck.  I like to cut out the bigger bits of fat too, but you don’t have to do this.  It probably tastes better if you keep them, but it already tastes pretty good. Just cut ‘em up nice.

Put a cup of flour and a tbsp of salt and tbsp of pepper in a bowl, and dredge the cubes in it.  If you run out of flour, add more.  Pour the excess flour on the pile of cubes once you’re done.  Your hands get all covered in raw meat here, so probably hold off the booze for these steps.

Melt an amount of butter in a big thick pan over high heat.  Pour in a shot of vegetable oil or olive oil or whatever’s around too.  When it’s hot, add the cubes one at a time until you’ve got a layer covering the bottom of the pan. Let them sizzle for a few minutes until they look nice and burnt.  Like, dark brown – almost black.  Don’t worry about your gross hands. Have some wine.  This part always takes longer than you think it will.  Then turn all the cubes and sear all the other sides too.  The more burnt the better.  Take these out, then do the rest of the cubes.

Take the last of the cubes out once you’re done.  Keep the pot hot.  Pour in an inch of Burgundy (or whatever) and get a wooden or silicone spatula and scrape all the burnt bits off the bottom of the pan.

Then, put the beef cubes back in.  Then, put in the roughly chopped garlic (2-3 cloves), diced onions, shallots if there are some around, a big pile of thick unpeeled (UNPEELED!) carrots chopped into 1″-ish cylinders, and whatever else you feel like putting in.  If you’re trying to impress people, just put in onions, garlic and a bunch of carrots, b/c that’s all legit bourguignon calls for.

Pour equal parts (-ish) wine and chicken broth over the stuff in the pot until everything is juuuuust submerged.  Throw in a bay leaf or two also.  I have no idea what they really do, but it feels more like French cooking, doesn’t it?  Bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down low.

Let it sit uncovered for about 4 hours over low heat, bubbling very slowly. Poke at it every so often to break the skin that sometimes forms if it’s cold in the room.  About halfway through, put in potatoes if you’re so inclined.  If you put them in too soon, they start falling apart towards the end.  Also, don’t taste the broth until this point.  Add salt or whatever you think it needs.

To cheat: if the liquid is still thin and soupy after two hours, combine like two tablespoons of cornstarch in a small bowl with a slug of wine.  Swish it around until it’s turned into a slurry, then pour it in the stew.

Yeah, that’ll fix it up nice.  Have a drink.  Don’t tell anybody you added cornstarch.

With about an hour left, get a spoon and try to skim off as much oil and fat from the top as you can.

By the time it’s done, the meat should flake apart with a fork.  I don’t always have the patience to reach this stage, and it’s still pretty good. It tastes better if you finish it, have some, put the rest in the fridge overnight, then heat it up again.

More about this dish:

• Julia Child for the Beginner
• Sunday Supper: Beef Bourguignon

Thirsty Mike Cooks: Pork Dumplings with Spicy Soy Dipping Sauce

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Hungry Lindsay’s better half, Thirsty Mike.

Thirsty Mike loves to cook. He’s a guy who doesn’t believe in following recipes, so feel free to play fast and loose with his directions.

The following recipe is what Mike calls “Lindsay’s Favorite Pork Dumpling.” The name is a bit of a misnomer, since I don’t eat pork, but as you’ll see from the recipe, it’s an incredibly easy change to make these dumplings vegetarian friendly.

And now, without further ado, here is Thirsty Mike’s Pork Dumpling recipe:

Mix Filling:

• 4 cups finely chopped Napa cabbage
• 1 pound-ish ground pork  (for veggies, substitute pork with MorningStar meat bitlets or pressed, chopped tofu)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon sambal olek chili paste (Buy it! Put it in everything!  You won’t regret it!)
• 1 chopped green onion
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• Probably some salt and pepper
• Whatever else it looks like it needs, but cut up really small

Dumpling mix (with pork)

Dumpling mix (with soy crumbles)

Fill a tumbler with:

• Some ice cubes
• 1” gin
• The rest of the way with tonic
• Lime wedge

Refill as needed throughout cooking process.

Mix dipping sauce until it looks right:

• A bunch of rice vinegar
• A roughly equal amount of soy sauce
• More chili paste
• Maybe some green onions
• I dunno, whatever else you think it needs.  Some honey would work.

Get: 1 package wonton wrappers

The setup: dipping sauce, wonton wrappers, and dumpling mixes. (The veg version is in the teal bowl. The pork version is in the blue bowl.)

Put: 1 dollop of the pork mixture in the wonton wrapper.  The dollop should be smaller than you think it ought to.  But not too small.  These still have to be fun to eat.  You’ll figure it out.

Brush: Some water on the edges of the wrapper

Fold: The wonton wrapper around the pork dollop so it looks nice, like a dumpling. I’ve had best results with a diamond shape (if you’re using square wonton wrappers).  Or a half-moon (if you’re using round wonton wrappers).

Dumplings folded and ready to steam. If you’d like them fancy, you can crimp them. We usually crimp the meat ones and flat-fold the vegetarian ones so we can tell the difference.

Pour: Two inches of salted water into a big pot

Put: As many dumplings into a bamboo steamer as you can fit without them touching

Boil: The pot over high heat with a top on it for 10 minutes

Completed dumplings! Want one?

Now you’re all set!  Fun, right?

(As a last note, I’d like to add that these dumplings freeze very well, so you can make them ahead of time and steam them when you want to eat.)

Enjoy!

Related articles

• Sichuan Pork Dumplings
• The Year of the Dragon is Here! How About Some Potstickers?
• celebrate year of the dragon … Homemade Pot Stickers
• Sichuan Red Oil Wontons (红油抄手)

“Pink Slime,” Rejected by Fast-Food Giants, Shows Up in School Lunches

Image via Wikipedia

I don’t plan to use this blog to write about news or politics, but a quasi-food product called “pink slime” is making the news, and I think it’s important to discuss.

The USDA is planning to buy seven million pounds of “pink slime” for school lunches in the coming months.

Pink slime is created by grinding together connective tissue and beef scraps normally used in dog food. It is treated with ammonia hydroxide to kill salmonella and E. coli.

It is “not meat,” according to a USDA microbiologist. McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Burger King have rejected its use, so it’s pretty disturbing that the stuff goes in school lunches.

USDA undersecretary JoAnne Smith, a George H. W. Bush appointee and former president of the National Cattleman’s association, pushed approval of Beef Products Incorporated’s “Lean Beef Trimmings”, despite concerns raised by USDA inspectors.

The USDA allows ground beef to contain up to 15% of “pink slime,” but labeling requirements prevent parents from knowing if it’s being served at their kids’ school.

Aside from the lack of nutritional value, pink slime raises a number of health concerns. The New York Times exposed in 2009 that despite being treated with ammonia, three E. coli contaminations and four dozen salmonella contaminations occurred between 2005 and 2009, during which time school lunch officials three times temporarily banned hamburger makers from using pink slime from one facility in Kansas.

Ammonium hydroxide is itself of course harmful to eat, and can potentially turn into ammonium nitrate, a common ingredient in homemade explosives.

Kids need nutritious food. Many of the millions of kids who rely on school lunches come from low-income families where they are less likely to get a healthy diet. Pink slime is a nutritionally inferior and potentially risky product, and the school lunch program saves only three cents per pound of ground beef by putting this filler in kids’ hamburgers.

Over the past few months, many fast-food chains have rejected the product and say they no longer use it. School lunch officials should follow suit.

Click below to automatically sign the petition to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and Audrey Rowe, USDA Food and Nutrition Service Administrator:
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5538180&id=36394-2219169-g_Jo04x&t=10

Related articles

• Pink Slime, Rejected by McDonald’s, Goes to School Lunches Instead
• Internet Users Flock To Google Search To Learn About ‘Pink Slime’
• Voluntarily Removed from Fast Food Burgers, The USDA Still Plans to Serve “Pink Slime” to Kids in School Lunches
• Banned From Fast Food Burgers, The USDA Still Plans To Serve “Pink Slime” to Kids in School Lunches

 

Technique: 6 Tips for Better Baking

Image via Wikipedia

1. Avoid using cold eggs. You know to bring the butter to room temperature, but it’s just as important for eggs; otherwise, the mixture won’t emulsify properly. If you’re short on time, microwave cut-up butter on low in five-second intervals, checking in between, and placed eggs in a bowl of warm water for ten to fifteen minutes.
2. Measure the flour properly. Spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, then sweep off the excess with a knife. Don’t scoop it directly from the bag with a measuring cup. The flour will become compacted, and you’ll get more than you need for the recipe.
3. Use a pastry brush to butter the pans. You’ll get better coverage than with a piece of butter in paper, plus it makes buttering parchment a breeze. Simply swipe the brush over a tablespoon of very soft butter, then onto the pan or paper.
4. Position the pans as close to the center of the over as possible. They shouldn’t touch each other or the oven walls. If your oven isn’t wide enough to put pans side by side, place them on different racks and slightly offset, to allow for air circulation.
5. Rotate the pans during baking. This will ensure even baking. But wait until the cake is set (about two-thirds of the way through the baking time) to prevent collapse. If you’re using more than one rack, this is also the time to swap the pans.
6. Cool cakes upside down. This will flatten out the tops, creating easy-to-stack disks for layer cakes. If the top of a cake is still too rounded, slice it off with a serrated knife.

A couple of recipes so you can try your new baking techniques:

• Maple teff cake
• Wimbledon Sponge Cake

 

A Piece of Cake: The Cleveland Cassata

Each year, before my birthday, my mom would ask me what kind of cake I wanted. In my early years, I’m sure the answers were along the lines of “The Little Mermaid” or “My Little Pony,” but then there came a time when I cared more about what was under the frosting than what was on top of it.

When that time came, the entire world of cakes narrowed into two choices: cassata cake or ice cream cake.

It is important to mention, at this juncture, that I grew up in Northeast Ohio. This means that during December, the month of my birthday, it is very cold, and people do not much care to eat ice cream cake (also, it was difficult to find, as my town’s Dairy Queen closed annually during off-peak months). As a result, I often ate cassata cake, and it was delicious.

The cassata siciliana. Delicious though it may be, this is not what I wanted to eat. Image via Wikipedia.

I recently decided to make a cassata cake, so I searched online for a recipe. What was this? All of the cassata recipes were wrong! How could every recipe on the Internet be wrong?

I did some searching, and it turns out that I’d been living a lie.

You probably think you know what cassata cake is, and you’re wrong. Well, technically, you’re right, but that’s neither here nor there. According to Wikipedia,

The cassata siciliana consists of round sponge cake moistened with fruit juices or liqueur and layered with ricotta cheese, candied peel, and a chocolate or vanilla filling similar to cannoli cream. It is covered with a shell of marzipan, pink and green pastel colored icing, and decorative designs. The cassata is finally topped with candied fruit depicting cherries and slices of citrus fruit characteristic of Sicily.

If you’re like me, you read that description and think, “Ew. That sounds disgusting.” (To be fair, I have never had the cassata siciliana. It may well be delicious.)

What I have had – and, in fact, what I had eaten my entire life – was the Cleveland cassata, a miraculous culinary creation. Again, from Wikipedia:

In and around the city of Cleveland, Ohio (USA), the term “cassata cake” refers to a sponge cake soaked in syrup or rum, filled with strawberries and custard, and covered with sweetened whipped cream. The “Cleveland” cassata first appeared in the early 1920s at the local Italian bakery LaPuma Spumoni & Bakery. The children of the owners did not like traditional cassata cake, made with sweetened ricotta, chocolate chips, and candied fruit. Using what they had in the bakery, Tomasso LaPuma created what was to become the Cleveland cassata cake. The fifth generation of this bakery still continues to make the original version of this cake at their bakery of the same name on Cleveland’s Eastside.

I have never been to LaPuma Spumoni & Bakery, but the next time I am in town, I will have to detour there to pay homage to the greatest cake known to man.

Cleveland really does rock. Image via Wikipedia.

Please check out the Cleveland cassata recipe below!

Related articles

• Recipe: Cleveland Cassata Cake
• Cake for Dummies: How to Create an Attractive Layer Cake

Movie Review: “Today’s Special”

Aasif Mandvi as Samir in “Today’s Special”

In 1998, Aasif Mandvi performed “Sakina’s Restaurant,” a one-man Off-Broadway play. Now, the movie inspired by it, “Today’s Special,” is available streaming and on DVD.

The movie is about a man named Samir, a sous chef at a successful Manhattan restaurant. Just as Samir decides to move to Paris to move from sous chef to executive chef, a family emergency strikes, leaving him in charge of his family’s dilapidated Indian restaurant in Queens. The plot is formulaic, but watching Samir reconnect with his roots is charming.

If you enjoy cooking, watching cooking television shows, or funny men (the cast includes Mandvi from The Daily Show, Dean Winters from 30 Rock, and Kevin Corrigan from Community), you should check out this movie. It may not be life-altering entertainment, but it is precisely what I ask movies to be: pure enjoyment.

Related articles

• ARTS: In Performance: Aasif Mandvi
• Aasif Mandvi On ‘The Daily Show’
• Aasif Mandvi On Growing Up Muslim-American