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A Ham Primer

A ham is a pork cut that's taken from a hog's upper hind leg. There are three types of American hams: city hams, country hams, and fresh hams. City hams are the most common. They're soaked in brine (or injected with it) and then boiled or lightly smoked.  Many gourmets prefer country hams, which are dry-cured and then smoked and aged for added flavor. Fresh hams aren't cured at all and need to be cooked. 

America also imports several dry-cured hams from abroad, including prosciutto, Bayonne ham, Serrano ham, Black Forest ham, Westphalian ham, York ham, and Ardennes ham. These hams are similar to our country hams, except that they're often eaten raw while country hams are usually served cooked.  

Ham is relatively low in fat, but even low-salt hams are high in sodium.   

city ham = brine-cured ham = pumped ham = wet-cured ham Notes:  This is America's most popular ham, the kind that's pink, moist, and sweet.  Fresh hams are soaked in brine (or injected with it) and then boiled or lightly smoked.  Boneless hams = boned hams are easier to carve, but they're not as flavorful or attractive as bone-in hams.  A good compromise is to buy a bone-in spiral-sliced ham, which combines good flavor and convenience, or a ham steak (pictured at right).  City hams usually come fully cooked (check the label), but most people reheat them before serving.   

country ham = dry-cured ham   Notes:  These are made by rubbing salt over a fresh ham and then hanging it out to dry.  They're often smoked as well.  They tend to be salty, but gourmets often prefer them over city hams.  You cook them either by simmering them in water or frying them.  Some people soak them in water first to leech out some of the salt.  Mold often forms on country hams, but it's harmless and should simply be scrubbed off.   Country hams are common in the Southeast; elsewhere you can get them by mail order, or at Chinese markets.  Varieties include Virginia ham and Smithfield ham.   Substitutes:  prosciutto  

 

Ham information from Cooks Thesaurus

Pittsburgh Police Should Arrest Glenn Beck

 

Yesterday's horrific shooting of three police officers should be directly linked to the pandering rhetoric of Glenn Beck. His "grassroots" movement known as 9/12 is undeniably responsible for fueling the fear and paranoia in the mind of the young man who felt it was necessary to set an ambush dressed in a bullet proof vest and armed with ASSAULT RIFLES!!! in order to protect his rights to bear arms.

Glenn Beck needs to be removed from the airwaves. He needs to arrested as an abettor to this crime. Our first amendment rights were never meant to cover someone yelling fire in crowded theater. This arrogance under the guise of truth seen daily on Fox News must stop now!!!

In the essence of fairness, here's a recent Glenn Beck interview with NRA president Wayne Lapierre. Once you get your gag reflex under control from witnessing his smug demeanor...you'll hear the message one young man in Pennsylvania took too seriously.

BBQ Spring Training

The Southern tier of states have been in the BBQ temperature zone for about a month now, though many down south never stop firing their pit even in the dead of winter. For us here in the permafrost zone, the weather is just about to break, so now is the time get your gear ready for some top notch backyard cooking. And that can everything from shopping for a new grill to replacing the spatula you broke when you tried using it to scrape the ice off your windshield. (That long handle did look practical didn't it?)

For many the downturn means spending more time at home, so why not spend it around a smoking grill? You may need to spend a few bucks now to get your equipment up to shape, but it will pay back ten times when that first smoked pork butt or perfectly grilled fish lands on the table.

Here's some resources to find the fuel, and tools your looking for.

 

Charcoal and Wood

Run by grumpy Phil Mueller (actually a nice guy under there), Northwest Charcoal has been the underground source for Chef's and primal cooking enthusiasts for years. Call ahead for hours, prices etc.

Northwest Charcoal

2900 17th ave. S. Minneapolis

612-879-8044

 

For the Internet buyer. The web site is pretty impressive with fuel, tools, gadgets, grill etc. Check out the Smoke Pistol when click on.

Northwoods Smoke of Minnesota 

Royalton, MN

320-584-5025

 

Wood or Charcoal Grills

 

Weber, in my book, is the grill of choice. I've been grilling, roasting, smoking and generally cooking up a storm on Weber grills for about 30 years now. And in that time, I'm only on my third grill. That's how good they are and how long they last. (Even if you abuse it like I do). They're available just about everywhere that sells grills, but a visit to the web site is a lot of fun anyway.

 

Weber Grills

Palatine, Ill

(There are four Weber Grill restaurants around the Chicago area by the way. If your ever in the neighborhood and want to watch your food being cooked on a six foot diameter Weber grill, the foods not bad and it's worth the trip.)

 

I have a buddy who swears by his egg. I mean his Big Green Egg. This ceramic wonder broke into the market in the early 70's, but just a few years back started making a lot of noise on the retail scene and has become very popular with backyard Q'ers. I've cooked on it and do like it's flexibility. It can be a little pricey, but it will last a very long time and make some pretty tasty food. Based on an ancient oven design called a "kamado", it can and will cook anything you want from bread to seared ahi tuna.

The Big Green Egg

Atlanta, GA.

Gas Grill

There is no other gas grill than a Viking. Sure you'll see all kinds of cooking apparatuses down at the big box retailers, but when talking about gas grills think Rolls Royce when you see Viking and Yugo when you see any other grill. The difference is really that great. Viking also makes other household appliances, ranges, refrigerator etc. They even make a ceramic Big Green Egg charcoal burning grill. But their gas grills are like cooking suites for outdoors. Even the smaller ones are a real pleasure to grill on. The only thing they have tough time doing is smoking, but with a little ingenuity even that can be mastered. 

Viking Gas Grills

Greenwood, MS.

That's enough for now. You've got plenty to absorb here and I don't want you to tackle too much so early in the season. You need to stretch a little and get those grilling motions back.

 

Technorati Tags: barbecue,grilling,BBQ,grills,charcoal,wood,smoking,smoker

Time To Wake Up Your Inner Locavore

Besides dodging errant snowflakes or attending State Tourney games, March is an excellent month to start thinking about what your having for dinner this summer. You don't have to plan out the entire menu now...but if you want an inexpensive way to partake in the locally produced bounty of organic foods, you better start thinking about the source. Sure there's always the produce aisle at the supermarket, you see all those organic signs all over the place these days. And there's the hippie co-ops they're a good source of organic foods. Great but both of these can get rather pricey if your interested in doing a lot of home cooking this summer.

The answer is; join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), that is if your ready to commit to receiving about 30 pounds of fresh produce every week. A CSA is cooperative of sorts. Your membership fee acts as a purchase a guarantee for the farm. The catch is most, if not all, the local CSA's depend on you taking vegetables you may know very little or care very little about. There are some programs that will allow you to select specific varieties and quantities of fresh goods, but these can be just as costly as the grocery. There are also some smaller CSA's that poll their members for a list of vegetables they'd like to have grown. But this all takes some work to find out.

Your first step is to go to your local food co-op and talk to someone in the produce department about it. Their generally very knowledgeable about which CSA's they deal with or which ones use their stores as drop off points for members to pick up their weekly allotments. The next step is to go online to the Local Harvest web site (link below). Local Harvest is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable agriculture and acts as a national clearing house connecting farmers and end users.

But whatever you do, you've got to act fairly quickly. Getting produce from a CSA is a commitment you need to make well in advance of the growing season. The process of joining a CSA will vary slightly from group to group, but generally, they all ask for the money up front (to pay for seed etc.). The price of a membership is generally $350 for a half membership, that means taking half a bushel a week and about $600 for a full membership that guarantees you a full bushel of fresh goodies every week. That's about 50 pounds of produce. Now for the average family of four, that's very doable. I know several people, who are too busy to worry about cooking 50 pounds of produce a week, split the membership with one or two neighbors. Most CSA's will start delivering the end of May and continue until the growing season ends or mid October, whichever is later.

Local organic and sustainable food that's reasonably priced is possible. You just need to do a little homework and be ready to make a commitment.

More Info on CSA's :

Local Harvest.org

Minnesota Department of Agriculture

Harmony Valley Farm

Rock Spring Farm

Molecular Gastronomy, Isn't It Really Just Culinary Boredom?

Are we so bored with our food that we need to find new and sometimes freaky ways to deliver the very same flavors we've gotten extremely used to over the last millennium of eating? I understand the artistry behind Molecular Gastronomy but I've always wondered why it was neccessary for the diner to surrender himself to the experience in order to partake in the particular "magic" the kitchen was producing. Now I've yet to make my way to El Bulli outside Barcelona, Ferran Adria's world class restaurant and undisputed Mecca of MG. (It is a primary mission in my life by the way to get there) I gladly join the throngs of culinarians hailing Ferran Adria as a genius. After all, he was the brave and forward thinking first cook to imagine the possibilities of this new way of cooking. I'm not calling all the other disciple of the practice charlatans either. Wily Dufrense and Grant Achatz are among the elite club of molecular practitioners who deserve every bit of praise they've received. They are just a few of the artistic pioneers who truly understand this new art form and have helped pushed it's boundaries like any good visionary artists should. But (and its a big one folks) the process put forth, first by the master himself Ferran adria of El Bulli, was to perform this culinary prestidigitation in a two and sometimes three hour showcase comprised of several dozen tastings, one more spectacular than the other. Each dish a work of art on to itself. In his pictorial journal "A Day At El Bulli", you begin to understand the hard work and dedication it takes to be an artist of his metal. But I always wondered tow things. Why can't the guest order from a menu and why are so many of the dishes artsy analogs of ordinary food.

Jose Andres has finally broken this mold, somewhat at Bazaar. In a recent review by New York Times critic Frank Bruni, he lauds Chef Andres for finally taking that first step showcasing the cutting edge his cooking style side by side with more traditional methods. For instance, Bruni waxes poetically on a dish of old world stuffed olives paired with orbs of olive essence trapped in a thin membrane (of what we're not sure) each orb delicatley placed in its own porcelain spoon. Bruni describes this dish as an attempt by the artist/Chef to allow us to compare the two worlds of cooking side by side. Ok, but what I got out of it was why bother with the orbs of olive essence if all the Chef is trying to do is fool us into thinking these are really olives. Why not just give me olives!! The way I see it it's kind of like trying to make a violin sound like a french horn. Sure it may be possible on some level, but why try. If you want to listen to a French horn, play a French horn. If you want to eat an olive...well you get the point.

So is it just culinary boredom that's opened this window into a world where Chefs try make things taste and look like their real counterparts? Wily Dufesne is famous for his eggs. Concoctions made of coconut whites and mango yolks, ok that's fun but what's the point other than the novelty. Great cooking should be more than just novelty. The last real breakthrough in cuisine was nearly 100 years ago when August Escoffier took us from the pomp and contrived cooking of Careme to the style of cooking we have today. Escoffier's cuisine demanded the Chef must understand the flavors, textures and characters of his ingredients. A cuisine who's simple rules demanded that everything on the plate be edible and the presentation of the food be recognizable as food. As an artistic force Molecular Gastronomy is expected to break these rules. All I've got to say is why? If it's art for art's sake, then I understand. But a cuisine needs to be more than that if it's going to be called cooking. Sure it's beautiful, fun, different and new...but for now I see it taking the same path as Nouvelle Cuisine that made a big splash nearly 40 years ago, then faded into anonymity leaving behind a method for making lighter sauces (good) and a presentation style (bad) that still reverberates like a fading echo through the kitchens of many old school Chefs. Molecular Gastronomy may be hurtling towards the same fate faster than Nouvelle Cuisine ever did because the specialized tools, equipment and chemicals are expensive and inaccessible to the average Chef. Besides in the latest issue of Saveur, their Dining in America issue, they listed their 12 restaurants that mattered. Not one sported a kitchen with a tank of liquid nitrogen.

 

Technorati Tags: Molecular Gastronomy,Ferran Adria,Wily Dufresne,Grant Achatz,Nouvelle Cuisine,cooking,cuisine

All Things Irish

I cant' tell you how often I've seen this twisted nose look on people's faces whenever I talk about Irish cuisine. The general consensus out there, even by some Irish ex-pats, is that there is no such thing. To them an Irish kitchen is where you go to boil your food...and not much else. I can't tell you how far from the truth that is. Irish cooks have a rich tradition of cooking with some of the best local ingredients you can ask find anywhere. Produce of all sorts, fish and seafood from the North Sea, pasture grazed beef, etc etc. Once I started to dig deep into research, I found flavorful, heart warming foods that truly reflected the Irish culture of hospitality. Fortunately we're seeing a growth of Irish pubs and restaurants, not only around the Twin Cities but around the world. Irish food is breaking out of the boiled corned beef and cabbage mold.

So with that and the advent of St. Patrick's day just around the corner, here are some old classic Irish recipes. And yes, one is for corned beef, but it's got a twist. Raise a pint and head for the kitchen, you may see what I see in the flavors of Ireland.

Irish Brown Soda Bread

Makes 1 large loaf

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 cups All Purpose or Bread Flour
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Baking soda
1 Tsp. Brown Sugar
2 ¼ cups Buttermilk

Pre-heat oven to 400°

Sieve the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Scoop up handfuls and allow to drop back into the bowl to aerate the mixture. Add enough buttermilk to make a soft dough. Now work quickly as the buttermilk and soda are already reacting. Knead the dough lightly - too much handling will toughen it, while too little means it won't rise properly.

Form a round loaf about as thick as your fist. Place it on a lightly-floured baking sheet or in a lightly floured 10 inch cake pan and cut a cross in the top with a floured knife. Bake near the top of a pre-heated oven, 400°, for 45 - 55 minutes. When baked, the loaf will sound hollow when rapped on the bottom with your knuckles. Wrap immediately in a clean kitchen towel to stop the crust hardening too much.

Serve warm.

Colcannon

Serves 4

1 lb. Cooked mashed potatoes (season well with salt and pepper and add a pinch of ground nutmeg or mace if you like) Also, make sure your Hot, cooked potatoes have been mashed and beaten till light and fluffy with the addition of 1/2 cup warmed milk.

1 lb. Well cooked (no time for al denté here) shredded cabbage or Kale

2 small Leeks, or spring onions finely chopped
1 oz. Unsalted butter plus some extra butter for serving

Salt and pepper

Fry the leek or onions very gently in the butter until softened. Then add the cabbage, coating them with all the buttery juices. Heat through and then add the contents of the frying pan to the hot mashed potato. Check for seasoning, this dish needs salt and a good grind of black pepper.
Serve in a warm dish, hollowing the center a little and add some extra butter in the hollow to slowly melt into the vegetables

 

Boxty Cakes

(Potato Griddle Cakes)

Serves 8

1/2 pound Raw potato

1/2 pound Mashed potato

2 cups Plain flour

1 ½ cups (approx.) Milk

1 large Egg

Kosher salt and Fresh ground black pepper

Grate raw potatoes and mix with the cooked mashed potatoes. Add salt, pepper and flour. Beat egg and add to mixture with just enough milk to make a batter that will drop from a spoon. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a hot griddle or frying pan. Cook over a moderate heat for 3-4 minutes on each side. Serve with a tart apple sauce: or as part of an Ulster Fry, with fried bacon, fried sausage, fried eggs, fried black pudding, fried bread, fried soda bread...

 

Irish Whiskey Glazed Corned Beef

Serves 8

2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
¾ cup dark molasses
1/3 cup honey
3 oz Irish whiskey
Combine ginger, molasses, honey and Irish whiskey. Heat over low heat to infuse ginger, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and reserve at room temperature.

7 lbs. Corned Beef, Boiled and trimmed

1 cup Whiskey glaze

1 cup Brown Sugar

Coat the beef on all sides with the whiskey glaze. Arrange the beef in a baking pan with about 2 inches of water. Rub half the sugar into the top of the beef. Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, turn the corned beef and coat with more glaze and the remaining brown sugar. Return the pan to the oven, without the foil cover. Bake 30 minutes more. Remove the beef from the oven and tent with foil to keep warm. Slice and serve with Colcannon or Boxty Cakes and Soda bread.

Download and Print  Irish Recipes

Kitchen Knife Essentials

This is the first in a series of guest articles about various kitchen essentials from my friends at Cookware.com.

Posted by; Jon

There are a few essentials that every chef needs.  If you’re outfitting a gourmet kitchen on a limited budget, the first things you put on your list will probably be cookware sets and baking pans.  I would argue that your first and best purchase for an affordable gourmet kitchen should be a good set of knives, and more specifically, a good chef’s knife and paring knife. 

What constitutes a good chef’s knife?  You should look for a knife that provides a good rocking motion for chopping vegetables and mincing garlic and herbs.  The handle should feel good in your palm, and be easy to clean.  Smooth plastic handles are generally easier to sterilize than wood.

A paring knife is another kitchen essential to select carefully.  A small paring knife is perfect for peeling fruits and veggies, cutting tomatoes, or doing detailed tasks with precision, like deveining shrimp.  Look for a flexible, sharp blade and a comfortable handle.  A paring knife doesn’t need to be expensive to be good!

Investing in a good knife requires some maintenance, so be prepared to care for your knives carefully.  Purchase a good knife sharpening kit, or do what top chef’s do and send your knives to a local sharpener at least twice a year, and more often if you’re an avid cook and use your knives heavily.   Be sure to practice safe knife handling, and keep a first-aid kit handy when working with sharp knives.

Good knives should be stored safely so that the blade is protected and maintains its sharp edge.  You can make your own knife sheaths using a piece of cardboard and some staples.  Just fold the cardboard over the knife, with the fold on the blade edge, and staple at the top. 

Starting your kitchen with a good chef’s knife and paring knife will prepare you well for most culinary adventures.  If you’re able to expand your knife collection beyond the bare essentials, slicing knives, serrated knives and a Santoku knife should be your next additions. 

Healthy Food For Everyone

Fix-It and Enjoy-It, Healthy Cookbook

by; Phyllis Pellman Good with nutritional expertise from the Mayo Clinic

It seems that all of a sudden, everybody wants to know the food they're consuming is healthy, comes from a  sustainable source and was dealt in a free trade manner by the marketplace. In this new age of food enlightenment we are also demanding that our food can’t contain trans fats, high fructose corn syrup or BHT either and oh by the way, it should probably taste good too. That's really not too much to ask is it?

Picking your way through this minefield can be tricky and daunting and there's no reason to make it harder than it really needs to be. Phyllis Pellman Good saw this problem and added Fix-It and Enjoy-It Healthy Cookbook to her already successful stable of Good Books volumes. With the help of the Mayo Clinic, she has assembled easy to follow recipes utilizing all manner of fruits, vegetables and legumes as well as all the grains that can be the deal breakers for many novices to the world of healthy cooking. These are recipes from everyday people cooking in their everyday kitchens. The Mayo Clinic nutritionally analyzed each recipe providing each with a graphic key based on their Healthy Weight Pyramid. All of this adds up to a book that Main Street America can pull off the shelf and begin cooking healthy food.

There is a problem though, I found the book a little dull. I appreciate the collection of recipes, but with titles like Spaghetti Pie and Chicken and Rice Bake I find it hard to separate this volume from any assortment of recipes from any one chapter of the Junior League. I know there must be a market for this kind of cookbook…but it's not for the cook with a sense of adventure. If your new to the concept of trying to cook bulgur, quinoa or barley, then this may be a good starter volume for you. But if you’re the cook who needs the challenge of new frontiers or authentic ethnic flavors, this is not your cup of tea.

I applaud Ms. Good for realizing the course of cooking in America, I just know there are more exciting ways to approach it.

Technorati Tags: cookbook,Phyllis Pellman Good,healthy,recipes

Simple Recipes For The Recipe Challenged

The stress of Valentine's Day can be bad enough. But add to that the tardiness of your actions, the lack of space in your favorite restaurant and an inability to boil water probably drove you to this web page. Here are some simple instructions for two simple recipes.

1. Breath...you will survive
2. Add a salad and chocolate dessert to wither recipe to complete the meal
3. Don't forget the wine, candles and Barry White.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Roasted Salmon and Potatoes with Dill
Serves 2

1 pound red new potatoes, halved

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, smashed

Kosher salt and pepper

4 6-ounce pieces salmon fillet

1/4 cup fresh dill

1 lemon, cut into wedges

Heat oven to 400° F.

On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the potatoes, oil, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Arrange in a single layer and roast, tossing once, until golden brown and crisp, about 45 minutes.

When the potatoes have 15 minutes left to cook, place the salmon on a second baking sheet, season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and roast until opaque and beginning to flake, 10 to 12 minutes total, depending on the thickness.

Divide the potatoes among individual plates and serve with the salmon, dill, and lemon

Chili-Rubbed Roast Beef

Serves 2-4

1 4- to 6-pound top-round or eye-round roast
1 tablespoon ground ancho chili (such as McCormick) or chili powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 small sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 2-inch chunks

2 tablespoons olive oil

Take the roast out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature about 45 minutes before roasting. Heat oven to 325° F. Place the roast on a metal rack in a roasting pan, fat-side up, and rub with the chili and salt. Toss the sweet potatoes with the olive oil and place around the roast. Cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers at least 120° F (for rare), about 1 hour and 15 minutes (15 to 20 minutes per pound). The potatoes should be fork-tender. Remove from oven. Loosely cover the roast with foil and let stand 10 to 15 minutes. (The temperature will rise to 125° F.) Slice half the roast. Serve with the sweet potatoes. Wrap and refrigerate the remaining meat for another meal.

Download and Print Simple Recipes

Valentine's To Go

For my friends and colleagues in the restaurant world, Valentine's Day is falling in the wrong part of the week to help anyone's bottom line. When this fairly lucrative holiday falls mid-week, it can add another weekend like day of sales to the restaurant's balance sheet and the pockets of the servers. But alas, in a year full of perfect economic storms Cupid's holiday is on Saturday. Tomorrow in fact. Oh well. The smart operators who have the ability to make some minor changes to their dining rooms are removing their larger tables and replacing them with tables for two in an effort to maximize the demand for tables. And even though we all may be feeling a bit recessionary about now, reservations for dinner all weekend at restaurants all over the Twin cities are fairly robust. In a quick review of Open Table, the web based reservation site for many restaurants around he Twin Cities, it revealed about 56 restaurants with reservations available at or within 2 hours to of my 7:00 p.m. request. Now most of these were the kind of places you wouldn't think about making a reservation for such a special day, but there were a few surprises. Jimmy's Food and Cocktails, Wayzata Eatery, Salut (both locations) and Murray's all showed some availability at some decent hours for dining. Open Table did show 106 other restaurants that claimed no availability whatsoever to take a reservation.

So what is a classic procrastinator (i.e. loser), like me, supposed to do? If you can't postpone the celebration to Sunday or later next week, there are few steps you can take. First, there's always the begging phone call to your sweetie's favorite restaurant. They may have rebuffed your first phone call, but a little hitch in your voice and promises of untold wealth through generous tipping may have an affect. If that doesn't work and you don't want to or can't cook for your honey, order in. My recommendation is to stay away from the usual suspects of pizza and Chinese take-out, this is after-all a special occasion, and stretch out to some restaurants the you may not have thought about for boxed meals. You may be surprised how good a meal you go get and bring home. Especially in today's economy, restaurants are very reluctant to turn down any kind of a sale. If you don't have or know their menu, call ahead and most will gladly fax it to you. Avoid calling during peak business hours, and they'll be happy to spend some time on the phone with you describing the food and helping you with the order. If they don't…you probably should avoid the place anyway. Once that's done, all you need to do is ship the kids off to the relatives and set the mood with candles and Barry White. For extra points though, I would take the food out of the carrying boxes and re-plate it on your best china, or at least don't use the plastic forks. Show a little style, ya loser.

My recommendations for surprising meals on wheels:

112 Eatery

112 N. Third St.

Minneapolis

612-343-7696

 

Chamber's Kitchen

901 Hennepin Ave.

Minneapolis

612-767-6978

 

Osteria I Nonni

981 Sibley Memorial Hwy

Lilydale

651-905-1081

 

The Lexington Restaurant

1096 Grand Ave.

St. Paul

651-222-5878

 

The Strip Club

378 Maria Ave.

St. Paul

651-793-6247

 

Vincent

1100 Nicollet Mall

Minneapolis

612-630-1189

 

Rinata

2451 Hennepin Ave,

Minneapolis

612-374-8998