Tea & Biscuits

July 9, 2014
by kaysdad
0 comments

Basics: Freezing Food

A question came up in another post about freezing stock. Phil noted that previously frozen food (food frozen in your home refrigerator’s freezer box) looses some quality after thawing and cooking. That being so, how does chicken stock fare after freezing? It’s true, foods do loose a lot of their flavor and texture after freezing. How much depends on what is frozen, how fast it takes to freeze it and how long it is kept frozen.

Without getting too deep into the science of it, what happens is this (we are talking about meat proteins here): As the meat freezes, water crystals form in the muscle fibers. The slower the freezing process, the larger the ice crystals. These large ice crystals are sharp and they poke holes in the meat’s cell walls. When the meat thaws the crystals melt and unplug the holes they made in the cells allowing all the juices to escape. You will often see thawed meat in a puddle of red liquid. This is the meat juices pouring out of the ruptured cells. (Incidentally it is not blood. The protein in blood that turns red when it comes in contact with oxygen is called hemoglobin. The protein in meat juices that also turns red is called myoglobin so don’t get grossed out when you see the red juice; you’re not eating blood!) So, the first thing to suffer is texture. Instead of nice tender meat it becomes dry and spongy.

Another negative effect from freezing meat is rancidity. When the liquid water freezes, the natural salts and trace metals in the meat are brought out of suspension and become concentrated. They react with the meat’s saturated fat and cause it to oxidize and become rancid. And so flavor also suffers from freezing.

The texture thing from ice crystals happens pretty much right away, but the rancidity issue takes some time. Poultry is OK and doesn’t develop any “off” flavors up to about 3 months in a home freezer, while beef should be good up to a year. Pork is somewhere in the middle. I do not recommend freezing fish at all. Aside from the flavor and texture issues, all kinds of other things are going on with fish that makes it smell and taste, well… fishy, in that unpleasant way old fish smells. I only ever buy fish the day I am going to use it (or at the most, late in the day before) and keep it on ice/refrigerated till the last minute.

Bacteria that contribute to meat spoilage need water to be active. When the water in the meat is frozen, biological processes are halted. In the frozen state meat will remain unspoiled pretty much indefinitely. Would you want to eat it after 1000 years? Probably not!

So then, what happens to chicken stock when you freeze it? Nothing much. There are no cell walls to rupture with ice crystals and it is virtually fat free so rancidity is not a problem either. I have used 6 month old frozen stock that tastes just as good as the day I made it.

Commercial enterprises flash freeze their products. In the home freezer it can take some hours to completely freeze a lump of meat, thereby producing large, destructive ice crystals. Commercial equipment freezes the product in seconds rather than hours. The ice crystals formed are very small by comparison and therefore less destructive.

What about freezing fruits and veggies then? Bad idea!

Remember that ice crystal thing in meat? Well, it does a real number on delicate vegetable cells, turning them to mush. You can buy the frozen fruits and veg at the grocery store which have been flash frozen but thawed, they do not retain their original form or texture. They are always a bit mushy and less intensely flavored.

Refrigeration, although not as severe as freezing, can also negatively impacts some foods if you are not careful.

The fridge is the ideal place for short term storage of meat, butter, cheese, etc. But when it comes to fruit and veg, well, that’s a different story.

Produce native to temperate climates can tolerate the cooler temperature of the fridge and will, in fact, keep longer. Produce from tropical or sub-tropical climates do not do well in the fridge and keep longer at room temperature. Delicate cell walls are damaged by uncontrolled enzyme activity at cooler temperatures and flavor suffers. Whenever I see tomatoes in someone’s fridge, I always try to persuade them to keep them on the counter at room temperature.

Onions are an odd one. Fresh onions picked out of the ground are very perishable and need to be refrigerated. I don’t know if onions are native to cooler climates but they certainly grow well there. Onion producers take the newly harvested onions and put them in a heated room to dry out the surface layers and develop that papery skin we typically see. This makes the onions shelf stable for longer at room temperature. A cut onion will dry out in a day on the counter, even wrapped in plastic wrap. Double wrapped in plastic (to prevent the onion smell from contaminating other food) a cut onion will keep a week or more in the fridge.

Another question that often crops up is, “Is it safe to re-freeze food once it has been thawed?”

I have heard two different answers to that: One is, if you can eat it you can freeze it, keeping in mind the texture flavor problems will be more pronounced. The other answer is, no, it is not safe to re-freeze food that has been previously frozen and thawed.

My own feeling on the subject (and this is just my unscientific opinion) is that the first answer is probably correct provided the food has been properly handled while thawed. From a food safety point of view, the second response is the correct one. I guess the best response I have is, “If in doubt, don’t”. And anyway, if the taste and texture are going to suffer even more after a second freezing, why would you?

kaysdad

July 1, 2014
by kaysdad
2 Comments

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Roasted Beets and Goat Cheese

It’s summer time and that means lots of salads on the menu. Salads can be a meal unto themselves or served as a side dish. This one can be either/or depending upon your appetite.

I was at the Farmer’s Market one Saturday morning a while back and I picked up some beets and some lovely heirloom tomatoes with no clear idea what I was going to do with them. I met a friend at the market and as we talked about what we were buying she saw my beets and said, “Ah, I see goat cheese with that!” “Good idea”, I said to myself, and so I came up with the idea for this salad.

Our daughter’s friend, Jenny, was over for dinner that day and she loved the salad. She told her family about it and her mom asked me for the recipe. That’s always tough for me because mostly there isn’t one and I have to try and remember what I actually did. Fortunately I was able to recall this this one well enough to write it down. Jenny’s dad liked the salad so much he insisted on it at almost every meal for about a month after before they surely got sick of it. I hope you enjoy it just as much but please, don’t eat yourself sick of it!

As fruits and vegetables ripen on the vine/branch they produce a gas called ethylene . It is the ethylene that turns red skinned fruits red. Tomatoes reach their full color and flavor at the end of the ripening process which only occurs when the fruit is on the vine. Once picked, the ripening process stops. Unfortunately the shelf life of tomatoes after fully ripening is very short and they are quite delicate which makes them difficult to transport to market without being bruised.

To get around this problem growers harvest their tomatoes when they are still green and quite hard. In specially designed chambers they spray the green, flavorless tomatoes with ethylene gas to turn their skin red prematurely. What you end up with in the supermarket is an artificially red, unripe and completely flavorless tomato.

If you have ever grown a tomato plant you will know that it produces tomatoes of different sizes and at irregular times during the season. In the commercial tomato world this presents a problem in that the farmer cannot depend on a consistent and predictable crop. Some time in the 1920’s farmers bred a tomato plant that produced tomatoes that not only developed and ripened all at once, but were also more or less the same size. A much more convenient and profitable outcome for them. Unfortunately, in the process they also bred out much of the flavor!

Summer is tomato season and only the best, vine ripened tomatoes are worth eating. Heirloom tomatoes, in my opinion, have much better flavor and texture than your basic supermarket tomatoes and are preferred for this recipe. If heirlooms are not available where you live, choose the best tomatoes you can find.

When choosing beets, try to get ones that are no larger than 1.5-2″ (4-5cm) in diameter. They are sweeter and more flavorful that the very big beets (and they cook faster too.) My childhood memory of beets is of sliced, pickled beets out of a jar. In spite of that I actually grew up liking them. Roasting beets brings out their natural sweetness with a deeper, more complex flavor.

Bon Appetite!

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Roasted Beets and Goat Cheese

A richly flavored salad, perfect for lunch on a summer day

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20

Roasting Beets 1

Total Time 1 20

Servings people

Ingredients

Salad

8-9 red beets – no larger than 1 ½-2" (4-5cm) diameter
4-5 heirloom tomatoes – or other good vine ripened tomatoe
¾ cup crumbled goat cheese – *See note below

Dressing

1 TBS shallot – finely chopped
1 TBS red wine vinegar
3 TBS olive oil – extra virgin
2 Tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Instructions

Roast the Beets

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Trim the tops from the beets leaving about 1” of the stems – do not remove the “tail”. (keeping an inch of the tops and the tails prevents the beets from “bleeding” as they roast)
Wrap the beets, 4 or 5 at a time in a large sheet of foil, closing it tightly.
Place the foil packages on a cookie sheet and roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on the size of the beets. The tip of a sharp knife should slide easily into the beet with little resistance.
Remove the beets from the oven and set aside to cool.
With a small knife cut off the tops and tails and scrape the skin off the beets. (it is best to wear an apron for this job because beet juice stains don’t wash out!)
Cut the beets into ¼” slices or ½” cubes and set aside in a medium bowl.
Slice the tomatoes ¼” thick and place in a large bowl. **See note below

For the Dressing

Place all the ingredients except the EVO in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Slowly pour in the oil, whisking continuously to form an emulsion. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
Adjust the seasoning and balance. Add more vinegar or oil by teaspoons; too mild for you? Add more vinegar. Too astringent? Add a little more oil.

Assembling the Salad

Dress the beets with half the dressing.
Toss the tomatoes with the remaining dressing. Gently mix in the beets. Do this just before serving and be gentle with it. The beets will tend to stain everything a uniform pink color if you are too aggressive.
Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
If you are serving guests, transfer the salad to a clean bowl before sprinkling the crumbled goat cheese over the top. (Family is generally not so fussy about having a clean serving bowl!)

Notes

*Goat cheese is not everybody’s favorite. You can use feta cheese instead, if you prefer.

Feta can be made from sheep’s milk or cow’s milk; the sheep’s milk feta having more personality. If that’s still not to your liking, go for the cow’s milk feta which is much milder.

**If your tomatoes are very watery you will want to seed and juice them first. Watery tomatoes will dilute the dressing which will end up in a puddle at the bottom of the bowl rather than cloaking the tomatoes and beets.

If you are not familiar with removing the seeds and juice from tomatoes, start by cutting them in half through the equator. (Imagine the tomato is a globe and the stem end is the North Pole.) Gently squeeze each half to get out the seeds and gel-like substance. Poke into the crevices with your finger to remove any stubborn seeds then slice the tomatoes.

Incidentally, if you are using the so-called, Plum or Roma tomatoes – those that have a long, oval shape rather than spherical – cut them pole to pole (sticking with the globe analogy) and cut out the tough white-ish core.

July 1, 2014
by kaysdad
2 Comments

Basics: Salad Dressing

You can buy a decent salad dressing these days with an ingredient list that is not too terrifying. There is an obvious convenience factor to buying a bottle of dressing I guess. I mean, there you are at the store buying your bag of salad greens, you might as well stop by the condiment isle and pick up a bottle of your favorite salad dressing to go with it, right?. And if you choose your bottle of dressing carefully, reading the label, rejecting those with questionable ingredients, why not? Why would you want to make your own?

I can think of several reasons : First, it is so easy to do, it really is. It does not require any culinary skill whatsoever, just a little knowledge which I will give you here. Second, you, the cook, get to determine what is in the dressing. You get to choose what’s not in it, like “natural flavors”, gums and other extraneous ‘stuff’. Third, you get to make only the quantity you need for the immediate salad, tailoring the ingredients to compliment the greens you are using. With your bottle of dressing you are stuck with the same flavor profile until the bottle is empty, regardless of your salad greens. And forth, there is the satisfaction of creating your own delicious dressing from some very simple pantry staples.

So, what about those ingredients. Pretty much all salad dressings have an oil and an acid. In commercial dressings the oil is often a vegetable oil and/or safflower oil. The acid is usually one or more vinegars including wine, balsamic or plain white vinegar. Surprisingly, water is a common ingredient in commercial dressings; sometimes the primary ingredient. Other ingredients may include onion, herbs, garlic, salt, stabilizing gums, etc., depending on the dressing.

Home made dressings by their nature tend to be simpler in construction; typically oil, vinegar or citrus juice, salt and pepper. Often times an emulsifier is included to hold the oil and vinegar in a semi stable emulsion. Garlic, herbs, honey and onion are some common additions to home made dressing. The two essential ingredients in a dressing though are oil and an acidic component; most commonly some kind of vinegar or citrus juice.

The Oil

Since it is a major player the oil should be a good quality extra virgin olive oil (abbreviated to EVO). You can use a lesser quality olive oil (often sold as ‘pure’ olive oil) or even a vegetable oil but good EVO is preferable by far.

And beware, not all EVOs are created equal with some having questionable provenance. You should check the label to see where and when it was produced and, ideally what olive varieties were used. The quality of the oil depends on a number of factors including the age of the oil and how it is bottled and stored. Olive oil is highly susceptible to heat, light and oxygen, all three of which will cause the oil to turn rancid much sooner than it would otherwise. It should be in an opaque container or a dark green bottle to protect it from UV rays and it should be stored in a cool place, away from direct sunlight or heat from the stove. When you are shopping for EVO avoid the ones in clear glass or plastic bottles. It might be OK for cooking but it won’t make a good salad dressing!

The Acid

The most common acid in home made dressing is vinegar and may include red wine, white wine, cider, sherry and balsamic because they are the ones you are most likely to have on hand. Fruit based vinegars such as raspberry, pomegranate, etc, can make interesting dressings too. (There is a shop in San Francisco called Olive This Olive That which sells a huge variety of olive oils and balsamic vinegars, many of which are flavored with herbs, citrus, chili peppers and more. The permutations of oil and vinegar combinations are almost limitless.) But really, any vinegar will work except white distilled vinegar which has no flavor of its own that would contribute to a dressing so it’s best to avoid it. Just be aware of the vinegar you are using as it relates to your salad greens and other salad components.

The other acid option is citrus juice. Lemon and lime are popular choices. Oranges are generally sweeter than lemons and while they can be used (especially if it is a sour orange) you are probably better off sticking with the lemon/lime option. If you are using citrus don’t forget the rind. Citrus zests have different flavor molecules than the juices and they add another flavor dimension to a dressing. Before juicing the fruit grate a teaspoon or so of the zest using a rasp style grater to add to the bowl of dressing ingredients.

Other flavorings

Whatever else you add to your dressing is a matter of personal taste and is limited only by your imagination. Don’t get too carried away though; less is often times more. If you go overboard with add-ins you can muddy the flavors to where you can’t identify any of them.

Chopped fresh herbs are always nice. If you do add herbs, use the so called fine herbs. That is, herbs with soft leaves like thyme, savory, tarragon, etc. Coarser herbs like rosemary are not really suitable in a dressing for what may be pretty obvious reasons. OK, if you haven’t guessed why, because the leaves are too tough. A light hand is needed here too; some herbs like tarragon can overpower the dressing.

Same with garlic. If you are using it, 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic is enough to flavor the dressing without having an aggressive, in your face garlic flavor. The exception to that being Caesar Salad dressing which is assertively garlicky.

You can finely chop a teaspoon or so of shallot or red onion or green onion tops or chives. A nice addition but by no means essential. If you don’t have any suitable onion on hand or you simply don’t want to chop it, by all means leave it out. Indeed, that’s true for any add-ins; don’t have it? don’t like it? don’t want it? don’t use it!

Oil to Acid Ratio

As a general rule the ratio of oil to acid is about 3:1; that is, 3 parts oil to 1 part acid. However, this is just a guideline. The actual ratio for any given dressing will vary depending on the kind of acid (an astringent red wine vinegar, a sweet balsamic or a mild lemon juice, for example), what salad greens you are dressing (peppery arugula, sweet spinach, bitter endive) and any add-ins you may want (honey, mustard, herbs, etc.). The best way to know if the dressing is properly balanced is to take a leaf of your salad greens and dip it in the dressing and taste it. You can easily tell if it needs more oil or acid or salt and pepper.

Emulsifiers

I mentioned emulsifiers earlier. That sounds a bit ominous, like one of those mystery ingredients in commercial dressings. Fear not, I wouldn’t do that to you.

So, what happens when you mix oil and vinegar? You put it in a bowl and whisk it to combine the two or you put it in a jar, shake it vigorously to mix it and then what? As soon as you stop shaking it begins to separate out with the vinegar on the bottom of the bowl and the oil floating on top. If you pour this on your lettuce and eat it, you will get a mouthful of either oil or vinegar. Actually, most of the vinegar will have drained on to the plate because there is nothing to make it cling to the salad greens. What we need here is an emulsifier; something to hold the oil and vinegar together. Mustard with its emulsifying superpower will convince the oil and vinegar to bind together, at least temporarily.

Any kind of mustard will do. If you use just a little, say 1/4 tsp of dry mustard it will hold the emulsion but you won’t get much mustard taste. If you like a mustard dressing, use a generous amount of prepared mustard like Dijon, say about generous teaspoon. Or for a different taste/texture, how about whole grain mustard.

Another good emulsifier is lecithin. “Who’s got lecithin lying about in the kitchen?”, you want to know? You’d be surprised. Lecithin is a combination of fatty acids found in egg yolks among other foods. (In fact, up until WW2 most of the lecithin used was extracted from egg yolks. Today it is mostly plant based, extracted from soy beans.) Although you could use an egg yolk in the dressing (think Caesar salad) there is a ready made convenient alternative. Mayonnaise! If you check the ingredient list on the jar of mayo in the fridge you will see it is made with egg yolks (if you bought the good stuff). A dollop of mayo in the dressing will hold the emulsion (better than mustard, actually) and give you a nice creamy dressing if that’s what you like.

Seasoning

Like any food you prepare you will want to season it. You want to season your dressing with a pinch of salt and a spritz of fresh ground pepper. Do this before you add the oil. Salt will not dissolve in oil so if you add salt later it will just sit suspended in the oil.

In a Nutshell

Home made dressing is very easy to make from pantry staples in most kitchens. You shouldn’t have to go to the store for ingredients to make a dressing.
You get to choose what goes in it – no mystery ingredients.
Use a good quality extra virgin olive oil.
Your choice of acid; wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice or whatever you have on hand.
Start with an oil to acid ratio of 3:1 (3 parts oil to 1 part acid) and adjust to suit your greens and any add-ins.
Season your dressing with salt and pepper before adding the oil. Salt does not dissolve well in oil.
You can absolutely go with a straight up oil and vinegar dressing but if you want an emulsified dressing, add a little mustard. For a creamy dressing use mayonnaise to emulsify it instead of mustard.
Don’t go crazy with add-ins; less is more!

The Recipe

What follows is a basic recipe for you to build upon. If you haven’t made salad dressing before, I suggest you start here and get comfortable with the process before getting more adventurous.

Salad Dressing

A basic dressing as a springboard for for myriad variations

Course Salad

Cuisine International

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 0

Servings people

Equipment

1 whisk
1 small bowl – or a jar with a tight fitting lid

Ingredients

2 TBS (30ml) red wine vinegar – or whatever is in your pantry
pinch salt
a few gratings of freshly ground pepper
1/4 Tsp dry mustard – or 1/2 Tsp prepared Dijon mustard
6 Tbs (90ml) good quality olive oil

Instructions

Pour the vinegar into a small bowl or a jar with a tight fitting lid. Season with a pinch of salt, a sprinkle of freshly ground pepper and the mustard. Whisk to dissolve the salt.
Slowly drizzle in the oil whisking vigorously to emulsify the dressing.
Alternatively, pour the oil into the seasoned vinegar in a jar, close the lid and shake the jar until the dressing is emulsified.

Notes

See the head notes for some ideas for variations on this very basic dressing.

If you do not use the dressing right away it may begin to separate. Don’t fret; just give it another quick whisk (or shake) to bring it back together.

Dip a lettuce leaf into the dressing and taste for balance and seasoning. If necessary, add a dribble more of oil or vinegar, salt and/or pepper to get the taste you like.

Any leftover dressing will keep in the fridge. Let it come to room temperature before whisking (shaking) it again.

When dressing your salad add just enough dressing to coat the lettuce leaves. There shouldn’t be a puddle of dressing in the bottom of the salad bowl.

Dress your salad just before serving. Dressing it too early will cause the lettuce to wilt and you want it to remain nice and crisp.

June 25, 2014
by kaysdad
4 Comments

Welcome to Tea & Biscuits

Welcome to Tea & Biscuits, a blog about food and cooking.

So why this blog? I mean, there must be thousands of cooking blogs out there. What would inspire me to start another one?

On a recent visit home to the UK I spent a day out in Cambridge with my brother-in-law while my sister and niece went off to do something else. As the afternoon wore on the inevitable conversation about “what’s for dinner?” came up. Eat out? Take out? No, I’ll see what’s in the fridge and make something at home. And so I did. Rooting around in the fridge and cupboards I gathered enough bits to make stuffed chicken breast with a mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes and glazed carrots. The family was mightily impressed that I could “make something this good out of nothing”. “Well, not quite ‘nothing'”, I said.

In the conversation that followed we talked about how the meal came about and my brother-in-law suggested I start a blog for family and friends spread across the globe. (I live in San Francisco and I have family and friends in the US, UK, Hong Kong and Australia.) With one exception (another BIL in Scotland) none of them cook the way I do but all of them enjoy good food. My hope is that this blog will encourage some of my family and friends (including friends I haven’t yet met) to practice and expand their cooking skills and most of all to enjoy the adventure.

So, why this blog? Well, it is primarily directed at family and friends so I hope they and others will read it when they want some advice or inspiration. And so it doesn’t matter much to me how many other blogs there are. I love all things food and cooking and I am most happy when I am sharing the knowledge I have gained over the years – especially with those who want know.

I live to cook. It is what I was born to do. Devoting an inordinate amount of time to practicing my craft is time well spent for me. However, I recognize that not everybody shares this passion; some are quite happy to enjoy the good food others have prepared for them and there is nothing wrong with that. Each to his own and all that. If you are one of those people this blog probably isn’t for you. For those reading this who share my passion (or at least have an active interest), I hope we can learn from each other. If you just want to try new recipes or processes with a better than even chance of success, please feel free to take from my ramblings what you will.

When I began my (amateur) cooking career, lo these many years ago, I had many more failures than successes. I tended to tackle projects that were perhaps a little ambitious for a novice but I was undeterred and kept plugging away at it. As time went on the balance shifted to more successes (although not always raging successes) than failures and as success feeds upon itself, I became more confident and proficient. The “time” I am talking about here is measured in years, not days or even months.

My point is this: you watch TV chefs do their thing and they tell you how “easy and delicious” this is because it probably is easy and delicious. What they don’t mention is that it takes a long time and lots of practice before it becomes so. There is no shortcut to success in cooking, no “secrets” to get you there faster. It takes a lot of focused attention and most of all, practice, practice and more practice.

That being said, one of the things I hope to do with this blog is to help cooks understand the ingredients they are working with and how cooking works, and perhaps to reduce the frustration that often comes with cooking disappointments. Such disappointments and attendant frustrations will often discourage further attempts to break out of the same old, same old choices for dinner. Armed with the knowledge I hope to impart, readers will have a better chance at success but make no mistake, it will still involve a lot of trial and patience. I mean, you can talk about this stuff for days but absolutely nothing beats strapping on an apron, picking up your knife, pots and pans and other cooking paraphernalia and diving in.

The goal though, is well worth the effort. Feeding family and friends good, wholesome food that satisfies the body and spirit is an expression of love and a joy for both the cook and guests.

One final thought: I think a little humility in a good cook does not go amiss! There is a well known chef called Jacques Pepin who began his career as an apprentice in post war France at the age of 13. In a recent interview he said of today’s celebrity chefs, “The trouble with young chefs today is that people tell them how great they are and pretty soon they start to believe it”. Pride cometh before a fall, as the old biblical quote tells us. So, by all means bask in the glow of the compliments on a fine meal made from ‘nothing’ but don’t forget to reset the dial on your ego for the next meal you prepare.