Is It 5 O'Cocktail Yet?

Ever since I went to bartending school, I can't wait for 5 o'clock to roll around so I can have a cocktail. 

Okay, fine.  Keep it down now.  I'll rephrase...

Ever since I went to bartending school, I have a good excuse to indulge in a cocktail every evening.  I need to maintain my skills.  (That's all you're getting out of me.)

Truth be told, since I left my job, the clock slowly ticks along and sometimes I find myself finished with the house work and looking for that drink to start to wind down.  Only to realize it's 10:30.  In the morning.  It's pretty pathetic. 

For everyone who says "it's 5:00 somewhere," there is someone else who says "it's noon somewhere."  I've always been the one to say the latter, but I am fully aware that if I start drinking at noon, at home all by myself, I'm screwed.  So I diligently wait for my husband to come home from work so we can enjoy a drink together before dinner. 

For a while, I was experimenting with martinis.  B is a gin guy, and he's fairly straightforward with his drinks.  He likes his martini up, dry and with three olives.  In the summer he'll switch over to Hendricks, and he'll swap his three olives for a cucumber garnish if they have it.  I got him to give the lemon twist a try as I thought it would be a nice complement to the cucumber flavored gin.  (He's a convert!) 

Me, I'm a vodka girl.  Grey Goose specifically.  I prefer my martinis straight up and dirty, with three olives.  But depending on my mood, I'll mix it up a little.  A very little.  Sometimes I'll ask for it on the rocks, sometimes I ask for it extra dirty (generally that's only at places that seem to think that "dirty" means add olives, not olive brine). 

I've come to the conclusion that the only place I can consistently order a good Dirty Martini is at Grill 23 in Boston.  And to be honest... Adam needs to be the one who makes it for me.  (I'll throw some love Chris's way too, but he moved to the left coast a while back and Adam's the only one I can count on now.)  As a result, I've made my move towards Gimlets. 

Here's another drink that consistently gets screwed up.  I swear on my husband's life that one time I ordered a Grey Goose Gimlet, on the rocks, and it was served to me in a brandy snifter.  A brandy snifter.  (Hello, rocks glass, anyone?) 

But I'm getting off track... the point of this column is to talk about the martini experimentation I've been doing.  And by martini, I mean a martini - not a cocktail.  I do not agree that a Cosmopolitan or a Lemon Drop is a martini.  Just because you serve it in a martini glass doesn't mean it's a martini.  A martini is gin or vodka, maybe with a dash of vermouth, maybe with a dash of something acidic (like lime juice, or olive brine... even though technically lime juice makes it a gimlet, which is not a martini, but it's closer still than a Cosmopolitan, or heaven forbid, an Appletini).  A martini is not pink.  Or blue, or green, or yellow. 

Since I tend to love the acidic martinis, I wanted to see what else I could come up with.  I so far have tried four variations on my beloved Dirty Martini/Gimlet.

·        Dill Pickle Martini:  vodka with pickle brine, garnished with a pickle slice.  Good idea in theory, not so good in execution.  Maybe sweet pickles would work better, but I don't like sweet pickles so I'm not going to try it.

·        Greek Martini:  vodka with kalamata olive brine, garnished with feta stuffed kalamata olives.  Honestly, not too bad, but could be better.  In my haste, I bought a jar of kalamata olives that were pre-stuffed with feta cheese.  I think if I went to the olive bar, and bought some good feta, this could be a real crowd pleaser.

·        Caprese Martini:  vodka with balsamic vinegar, garnished with a petite skewer of cherry tomato, fresh bite sized mozzarella and two basil leaves.  The balsamic vinegar colored the vodka to the point that it looked like bourbon, so it felt like I was drinking a real effed up Manhattan.  Not terrible per se, but I didn't really like it.  I think if I reduced the balsamic into a syrup and dressed the glass with it, it might have been better.  I'll keep working on this one.

But the piece de resistance, my pride and joy, my absolute go to drink, the drink I can't live without, the one that makes me fear getting pregnant and having to quit drinking for the better part of a year and the one that makes me watch the clock all day... 

·        Pepperoncini Martini: vodka with pepperoncini brine, and garnished with a pepperoncini.  (For those who don't know, a pepperoncini is a pickled hot Italian pepper.)

And hold off on the cute names.  It's not a Pepperontini.  Nor is it a Pepperoncini-Tini.  And it's not a Hot and Dirty, as I've heard it is called in places that have had similar genius as I.  (As you can probably glean from my earlier comments, I do not think martini and cute go together.)

The Pepperoncini Martini has ruined me for other martinis, to the extent that I will order a Gimlet instead of a Dirty Martini every time I'm out because the olive flavor cannot hold a candle to the pepperoncini flavor.  At least in my humble opinion.

I'm actually at this minute trying to determine how inappropriate it would be to bring a little plastic container of Pepperoncini Martini fixings to Grill 23 later this week... Pretty inappropriate, huh?  I mean, it is a nice, upscale restaurant.  Let me give it some more thought.

Stuff That Tastes Like Other Stuff

Over the last week or so, I got the urge to mix things up.  You know, make things taste like other things.  For some reason, it started with salt.  I wanted to make salt taste like lemons.  When I was in North Carolina for vacation this summer, I had lunch at a restaurant that seasoned their french fries with lemon salt.  They were delicious.  I also bought this little bottle of lemon lime salt that you are supposed to pour in your beer (it's Corona's new best friend... sorry lime). 
 

Being as optimistic about my culinary skills as I am, I said to myself "self, you can make this at home."  So I gave it a try. 

I wasn't content to just make lemon salt.  My version needed to have something more, something really different.  A-ha!  Lemon PEPPER salt.  Totally unique, truly a seasoning for the ages. 

After a couple of experiments, I came up with a good recipe. 

·        5 T coarse sea salt

·        3 t fresh ground pepper

·        Zest of one lemon, grated with a microplane

Combine all of the above in the work bowl of a food processor or a spice blender and process until the salt is fine and the zest and pepper is fully incorporated.  Add more or less pepper to your specific taste.

I seasoned a lovely piece of cod with this and baked it.  It was quite good, but a word of caution.  Use it as you would salt, not an herb blend.  Or bread crumbs. 

Since I had lemon pepper salt under my belt, I wanted to see what else I could come up with.  And I came up with bacon salt.  Everything tastes better with bacon, right?  Hell knows what I'll use this for (oh, come on - french fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, any kind of potatoes, scallops, pizza, the list goes on and on). 

The recipe for bacon salt was way too easy. 

·        1/2 c coarse sea salt

·        3 T chopped bacon (I used Hormel's real bacon bits... you don't have to worry about making the salt too greasy, and all the work is done for you)

Combine in the work bowl of a food processor or a spice blender and process until the salt is fine and the bacon is fully incorporated.

Careful, you will be tempted to eat this one with a spoon.

Finally, I needed to step up my game.  I needed a real challenge in the salt department.  How about some homemade garlic salt?  Sounds good to me.

I consulted the internet for this one, and found a few recipes that mostly called for combining garlic powder and salt.  Not for me.  Too amateur, even for someone who really can't cook.  Finally I found a recipe that taught me how to use real garlic. 

·        3 T coarse sea salt

·        3 lg. garlic cloves, minced or pressed

Combine the garlic and salt, choppity chop chop until the garlic gets really pasty and is blended with the salt.  Spread on a sheet pan and dry in a 100-125° oven, stirring every 15 minutes for 6-7 hours until completely dry.

So I had a few problems with this one.  First of all, my oven doesn't go any lower than 170°.  Second of all, I had maybe 45 minutes to tend to this - not 6-7 hours. 

I set my oven to 170°, and stirred it every 15 minutes for a half hour.  Then I tossed it into the food processer to better incorporate and crunch up the large salt crystals.  That didn't really work.  So, later that night, I found myself in Williams Sonoma looking for a spice grinder.  $40 later, I'm at home trying to grind up the salt in my new spice grinder (I somehow got B to believe it was necessary and would save us money on garlic salt in the long run... we seriously hardly ever use garlic salt).  This didn't work either.

My conclusion was that garlic is really sticky and needs to be dried out in the oven for 6-7 hours at a really low temperature, being stirred ever 15 minutes.  Better luck next time, right?

At the end of the day, I have a bottle of very yummy lemon pepper salt that I can't wait to try on french fries, some bacon salt that would probably have been really good on that turkey sandwich I made B for lunch today, and a bottle of fairly useless garlic salt.  Actually, I did use some of that very sticky garlic salt in the spaghetti sauce I made the other day, so I'm pretty sure it won't go to waste. 

I'm sure there are many more salts in my future... I'm currently strategizing on how to make buffalo salt.  Do stay tuned.

A Healthier Carbonara

For the last five and half months, I've allegedly been on a cholesterol lowering diet.  I say allegedly, but I probably should say that for the last five and half month, I was supposed to be on a cholesterol lowering diet.  For the most part, I eat fairly healthy.  However, I do have a love affair with foods like bacon, eggs and butter.  And red meat.  I'll find out in a couple of weeks how much trouble I'm really in.

But, I really do need to start taking this seriously, even if the risks are more long than short term for me.  So last night I decided to make spaghetti carbonara.  I know, I know, just hear me out... I took a basic carbonara recipe, and transformed it to a heart healthy recipe. 

And it was really pretty good!  I'd even go so far as to say damn good.  It was also pretty easy to make.  All it took was a few swaps and one splurge.  Here are both the original and my altered recipes:

Original Recipe	Wannabe Foodie Recipe
·        3 large eggs ·        1.5 oz Parmesan cheese, grated (3/4 cup) ·        1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese ·        3 cloves garlic, minced ·        8 oz. bacon (8 slices), chopped fine ·        1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil ·        1/2 cup dry white wine ·        Salt ·        1 lb. spaghetti ·        Pepper	·        3/4 cup Egg Beaters ·        1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese ·        3 cloves garlic, minced ·        6 oz. Canadian bacon, chopped fine ·        1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil ·        1/2 cup dry white wine ·        Salt ·        1 lb whole wheat spaghetti ·        Pepper ·        2/3 cup frozen peas ·        2 T chopped fresh basil

In a nutshell, I swapped out real eggs for Egg Beaters (eliminating the fat and cholesterol), skipped the Pecorino Romano in favor of a high quality parm, used Canadian bacon instead of regular (tastes more like ham, but so much more lean and healthy, sad but true), gave up the white pasta in favor of a fiber reach whole wheat pasta, and added peas and basil.  The peas and basil were added for color, for the most part.  Without that nice splash of vibrant green, the dish would have lacked some visual appeal.  Very bland looking indeed. 

As far as preparing the dish... I sautéed the Canadian bacon in the olive oil until it crisped up and then added the wine, which I let simmer for 3-5 minutes.  The eggs, cheese, and garlic were whisked together.  Once the pasta was cooked, I immediately added both the bacon and egg mixture to the hot pasta, along with the frozen peas (that I let defrost a little on the counter while everything else was being prepped).  Season as you wish with the salt and pepper.

The hot pasta heats the peas and cooks the eggs (which are pasteurized, so they are totally safe if they don't cook thoroughly.  But they do, so stop worrying).  You should also make sure to reserve a 1/2 cup of the pasta water in case the sauce is too thick and needs to be loosened up a bit.  Then, top the pasta with some more cheese and the chopped basil and serve immediately.

You see why I needed to add the peas?  Trust me, it was good!

And there you have it.  A yummy, creamy, heart healthy version of a dish that would formerly kill you.  (But don't tell my doctors that I served it with garlic bread that was not at all good for me.)

Holy Mozzarella

For a while now I've been thinking about making homemade mozzarella.  I read an article in a magazine (I believe it was Tyler Florence's recipe in Food Network Magazine), and it sounded fairly straightforward.  And I did have a successful effort of fresh ricotta under my belt.  So why not?

Naturally, I never got around to it.  I had to order the stuff online, and then I couldn't remember which month's issue had the recipe, blah blah blah.  But the other day while I was grocery shopping, I came across a mozzarella cheese making kit from Roaring Brook Dairy.  The kit was $16 and it included all the internet supplies (plus a thermometer and rubber gloves) to make 4 pounds of cheese.  All I need to bring to the table is a gallon of milk.

I decided to give it a shot.  The price seemed fairly right after all, as long as I donate my time for free.  A pound of domestic mozzarella at this same grocery store was anywhere from $8-$10 per pound.  The gallon of 2% milk, which will yield you approximately one pound of mozzarella, was $4.39.  That makes the kit $8.39 per pound + an hour of my time.  Not too bad.  (Way better than the cost effectiveness of the homemade ricotta.)

I'm not going to get into all the details, but the process involves heating the gallon of milk, adding citric acid and then some rennet, draining, microwaving and kneading the curds, adding special cheese salt and stretching and shaping the mozzarella.  Then let it chill in a bowl of ice water for 15 minutes (unless you want to eat it warm), and there you have it.  Fresh mozzarella. 

In order to judge the results, I whipped up a couple little caprese skewers with basil from my garden and some cherry tomatoes from a local farm stand.  I dressed the skewers with some balsamic vinaigrette.   

And yum.  The cheese was actually really good.  It was a little firmer than the mozzarella I would buy for caprese skewers, but I can solve that problem by stretching the cheese less next time.  Nonetheless, it's the perfect texture to shred for some homemade pizza or yummy lasagna.

Oh, that's it.  I'm going to have to make that fresh ricotta again and whip up some lasagna with the fresh mozzarella.  I already can't stop thinking about it.  (Come on fall, get rid of these 85 degree days so I can bake me some lasagna!!)  Stay tuned for that success story.  That's right.  I'm already calling it.   

All in all, it was a fairly easy process.  The biggest pain was microwaving the curds.  And that was only because my microwave is in the basement, so I had to lug it up to my kitchen.  (Three plus months in the new house, and I do not yet miss my microwave.) 

If you would like to find out where you can buy Roaring Brook Dairy's mozzarella cheesemaking kit,  click here for their website. 

Vacation is Over

Well, it's time to get back to work.  We're settled into the new house, and the kitchen has been organized and re-organized.  With the weather starting to cool down, the kitchen is going to start heating up. 
 

And, since football season is officially underway (the Patriots kick off their quest for the Lombardi trophy tonight and my other favorite team, the Colts, will begin their quest next year - get well soon, Peyton), the Wannabe Foodie culinary adventures can begin.  I can't really explain why, but there is something about football that really makes me want to get in the kitchen and cook big, hearty meals.

Don't get me wrong - I did cook this summer.  My poor husband didn't starve.  We primarily took advantage of our new grill, with the occasional rainy day pasta boil.  I love, love, love cooking on the grill - tender and juicy meat, seasoned perfectly, and with the right amount of char.  Hmm... I'm going to have a hard time using the oven after that. 

But, cooking on the grill can get kind of boring.  Or at least, I got kind of boring.  I opted for lazy straightforward meals (meat, salad and baked potato or corn on the cob), and didn't try anything new.  But, there were a few highlights, a few questions, a few missed opportunities, and a few lessons learned.  Here's a brief rundown:

The new grill has a rotisserie burner, and the rotisserie accessory is one of our new favorite toys.  Rotisserie chicken cooked on the grill is perhaps the best way to cook a bird.  (Sorry, Ultimate Chicken Roaster, I had to say it.)  This will be our method of choice for a whole chicken all year round - even if that means that B has to stand outside in a blizzard.  It's just that good.

Why does everyone always talk about preventing flare ups?  All the cooking shows and cookbooks are always telling you how to cook things without flare ups.  Flare ups are my favorite part.  Flare ups improve the char.  Char is good.  Therefore flare ups are good. 

The grill also has a sear burner, which does a nice job of searing a steak before it goes on the grill to finish cooking.  Only problem is that the rotisserie attachment blocks the lid of the burner from opening, and then we can't use it.  Hopefully B realizes that I removed this part of the rotisserie before he next goes to use it.

Yesterday I made buffalo wings.  And I did them the right way - I cooked the wings and then tossed them in the buffalo sauce.  But they didn't come out so good.  I was disappointed - the wings were perfectly seasoned too, with fresh ground pepper, kosher salt, onion powder and garlic powder.  They didn't get a lot of char (again, my favorite part) and the sauce didn't stick so well.  Next time, I'm going to toss them in the sauce first, which I'm hoping will increase the char and caramelization (seriously - no idea how to spell that), and then toss them in the sauce again.  I'll keep you posted... I have not given up yet.

Our big missed opportunity was beer can chicken.  We have this every summer, down at the beach in North Carolina.  It's a specialty of a family friend, and it is delicious.  According to B, the dark meat (aka the part of the bird that is closest to the can of beer) really takes on the beer flavor, and the white meat (obviously, further away from the beer can) not so much - still absolutely moist, tender and delicious, but not so beery.  We had the idea to inject the white meat with some beer prior to cooking, and ran out to buy a beer can chicken roaster once we got home from vacation (one of those cheapo, $3 contraptions, not the high-fallutin' Williams Sonoma variety).  Sadly, we never got around to using it.  But, fear not, there is still time.  Consider this a delayed opportunity, not one missed quite yet.  And yes, I realize this flies in the face of my proclamation to only ever use the rotisserie to cook a whole chicken.

So that's about it for now.  I've got a lot of great things on the menu this month, along with a decent amount of time on my hands, so you can expect some interesting reads in the next few weeks. 

What's been going on with you guys?  Cook anything good this summer?  What were your grilling highlights and lowlights?  How do you feel about char?  And flare ups?