OCTOBER 2011
Sunday 2011.10.30
Playing With My Food
One of my favorite cookbooks is Jo Bettoja's Southern Italian Cooking, for the simple reason that almost everything in it is wrong. It's like solving a difficult and challenging puzzle. In November I will publish my recipe for Genovese Savory Pastries. I made them many times until I solved all the problems with the recipe. Once solved, the final pastries are fantastic.
This week I experimented with a savory chicken pie (on page 135 for those unfortunate few who might have the book) that is made with almonds and pistachios. I didn't even bother with the pie shell recipe. That is always the worst part. I bought frozen puff pastry dough because I had never experimented with it and a fan of this web site recommended it.
The playful part involved the formula, or ingredients. As I assembled my mise en place my mind wandered. The filling is nothing more than chicken meat, stock, bread crumbs, nuts, and some seasoning. Not a whole lot of interest there. In my cupboard were two jars of artichoke hearts that I bought for making Pasta Fagioli (see below). I dwelled. Eventually I could not resist the urge to add artichoke hearts to the formula. And why just bread crumbs? How about a mixture of bread crumbs and ground rolled oats?
Before long a rather plain savory pie turned into something a little more interesting. I made the pie, exactly as I planned, and interesting doesn't mean delicious. The pie turned out to be dreadful. The filling tasted simply awful. My taste buds have not yet fully recovered, but I can taste well enough to know the filling was wretched. The puff pastry, which I will probably never use again for a pie shell, stuck tightly to my nonstick springform pan. I wondered about using parchment paper, but for the first experiment I chose to test without it.
The entire pie went into the trash. The SXS memory cards in my video camera were formatted (the files destroyed) and I also formatted the memory card in my digital SLR camera. Normally I would save these shots, attempt the recipe again, with fixes, and then use the best files from both sessions to compile the video and recipe PDF. This recipe, however, won't get a second attempt. It is beyond repair and it doesn't even inspire any creativity.
As for puff pastry: I would use it as a top crust on something like a pot pie or to make stand-alone pastries that bake on a baking sheet. It bakes up thick and flaky. But it is expensive. It took two packages to make my pie shell. They were $6.49 each. I much prefer using fyllo dough or making pie crust from scratch. I have two baking textbooks that give detailed instructions for making puff pastry from scratch. I am tempted to attempt it.
As for Bettoja's cookbook: I am opposed to writing in books, but that recipe was clearly noted never to try again. I'll continue to work with her book. I enjoy the challenge. I am more determined, however, to experiment with small, inexpensive tests before committing nearly $20 for all the ingredients that were wasted in this pie.
Wednesday 2011.10.26
Pasta Fazool
Every fall I look forward to the weather turning cooler. Here in Southern California we don't have winter. We have only two seasons: Summer and sort of summer. Nonetheless, the cooling temperatures herald the time for making soups. My favorite will always be pasta fazool, otherwise known as pasta fagioli or pasta e fagioli. It means pasta with beans and originated as an Italian peasant dish in which beans were an inexpensive substitute for meat. There is a recipe for Pasta Fagioli in the Recipe Archive.
When I was a boy of about five years old my Italian grandfather lived with us. He made pasta fazool, which was a task to watch because he had only one arm (the other was lost in a factory accident). He would stabilize a cutting board with his wooden arm and use his good hand to chop a one-pound block of hard pork fat with a cleaver until he reduced it to the texture of corn meal. All this fat went into the pot. I loved my grandfather's pasta fazool, but there is little reason to wonder why he died of a heart attack at the age of 63. You won't find chopped pork fat in my pasta fazool.
This also brings another thought to mind. I studied Italian cooking for a while under the tutelage of an Italian chef. She often started each term by asking her students if there were any favorite Italian foods for which they would like a recipe. I asked for pasta fazool. "Fazool?" she responded indignantly. "Fazool? There is no Z in the Italian language!" She could be an abusive Atilla the Hen sometimes. I guess she never heard the Dean Martin song, That's Amore:
When the moon hits your eye
Like a big pizza pie
That's amoreWhen the stars make you drool
Just-a like a pasta fazool
That's amore
I think her abusive behavior was because she recognized I was a better cook than she was. She could follow a recipe, but she couldn't invent one like I could. One student at the beginning of a quarter asked for a recipe for cioppino, an Italian fish stew that actually originates from San Francisco. It took her a long time to come up with a recipe, which turned out to be plagiarized word for word from the latest issue of Bon Appétit magazine. She gave no credit to her source. Some of us quit the course after that incident. There is no point in being taught to cook by someone who can barely cook.
I normally make my pasta fazool in a pressure cooker because the beans only need to cook for 10 minutes, but in the recipe on this web site I use a regular soup pot. As for the origin of the word "fazool," it supposedly comes from a region of Italy where the locals pronounce the word for beans, fagioli, like fazoli or fazooli. "Pasta fazool" was quickly adopted into American slang. My Italian grandfather pronounced it pasta fazool.
I make this soup—without the pasta—every fall, in large quantities, and freeze it in one-cup portions. Later I will cook and drain some small macaroni, add some thawed soup, and then heat and enjoy a bowl of comfort. Sometimes I add some chopped artichoke hearts, and for a really gourmet touch I'll use a 15 bean blend rather than the traditional cannellini beans. It's worth waiting all summer for.
Sunday 2011.10.23
Recipe Sources (or Resources)
A friend visited from Portland, OR recently and she asked me where I get my ideas for recipes for the web site. With more than three dozen cookbooks on the shelf, the Internet, ideas sent in by email, magazines, and restaurants, the steady stream of ideas is daunting. I keep a written list of ideas I want to try. There are never more than about two dozen ideas on the list. Having a small list from which to choose keeps the task from becoming overwhelming.
A few of my recipes are purely home-grown—that is, I created them myself without using any source for ideas or instructions. My Linguine With Clam Sauce is an example. I was tasting caramelized shallots one day and thought the flavor would be good with clams. I then started working on the recipe. Although I have made it many, many times, I still use my first recipe.
Some recipes are part creativity and part research. I was thinking about smoked salmon one day and thought it might be good in a quiche. I researched quiche recipes to find a basic one and then started working with the salmon. I had to make that Smoked Salmon Quiche five or six times before I got it right.
Most of my recipes are adaptations from cookbooks or Internet recipes. Some are "repairs" rather than adaptations because the original recipe had so many mistakes in it. I swear, some recipes are never tested before being published. Someone just recited something they thought might be a good idea and it was written down and published in a cookbook. I struggled with my Genovese Savory Pastries for weeks before I finally solved all the problems. I plan to publish that recipe in November.
This past week I purchased The Cooks Illustrated Cookbook, published by America's Test Kitchen. I like their recipes because they are tested, again and again, until everything is correct. I also have a subscription to the magazine. It's a good source when doing research.
Way back when I got my recipe for Seafood Fettucine, I asked the chef in a seafood restaurant for the recipe and he said, "I can tell you how to make enough to feed 40 people." I asked for just the ingredients and came up with the proportions myself.
One of my favorite sources is videos. I have on DVD the full set of BBC eipisodes of Two Fat Ladies. They were the inspiration for my Trout with Tomatoes recipe. I also published Clarissa's Clam Chowder recipe, which I have make more than once since. I really like it. And then, of course, there are my Julia Child French Chef DVDs. All those DVDs helped me to appreciate the importance of not only writing and photographing for a published recipe PDF, but also recording the procedure in a video.
There are so many sources for ideas that I can't keep them all in my home. This past week I downloaded a cookbook in EPUB format that I can view on my Nook Color ebook tablet. One less book taking up room on a shelf. I have an early Julia Child cookbook in ebook format too. There are dozens of cookbooks in EPUB format, just waiting to be downloaded.
The resources seem endless.
Wednesday 2011.10.19
Statistics Revisited
We are not near the end of the year yet, but already I'm playing with the statistics for my site. In my most recent analysis I was trying to discern the types of recipes that most interest my visitors. The most popular in a single month was Egg Rolls, with French Bread a close second. The overall popularity contest winner so far this year is Chinese Dumplings. That number is a little misleading because that recipe has been available since January whereas many recipes have been available for only a few months. My Finger Lickin' Chicken recipe made it to the top two months in a row. It is the only recipe that garnered the top position twice.
In most cases the clear winners have been traditional recipes, such as Egg Rolls, French Bread, Cannelloni Florentine, and Pain de Mie. A few original recipes floated to the top. My Lamb and Pappardelle, which is a recipe I created, did really well in September when I posted it.
The numbers provided by my hosting service are not comprehensive. The stats program only lists the 30 most popular URLs each day, which can be recipe PDFs, html pages, images, and my CSS files. My site has over 60 recipe PDFs. There are currently 175 URLs, even though my web site has only a dozen pages and 14 archives. So, the "top 30" doesn't tell me a lot.
I figured out that the "webalizer.current" file has everything in it and it's just a matter of culling the data I need to get full stats for all my recipes. That file is replaced by a new file at the beginning of each month; therefore, the comprehensive statistics will be lost if I don't capture the file before it disappears.
When to be Honest With Your Dentist
Yesterday I had my semiannual dental cleaning and exam. The hygienist once again congratulated me on the excellent way I take care of my teeth and gums. Before I left the office I mentioned that the oral surgeon I was seeing for the bone graft (done on June 5th) said he thought I had three abscesses in various stages of development—even though I had no symptoms. I had even given my dentist a copy of the x-ray taken by the surgeon. The dentist looked at the x-ray, decided to take fresh x-rays, and then told me one abscess was so advanced I would need to come in the following day. The root canal was done this morning.
Had I not said anything, I would have spared myself a root canal. Then again, had I not said anything, who knows how bad the infection might have advanced before symptoms became apparent? I might have ended up spending thousands of dollars out of pocket again for another implant next year. Even though the ordeal of a root canal is not a pleasant experience, I'm glad I said something.
I think I surprised the dentist. During one point in the procedure he could see I was getting fidgety. He stopped and asked me if I was in any discomfort. "No," I said. "I'm just bored." He laughed. Really, I can fall asleep in my dentist's chair.
Sunday 2011.10.16
Magical Mystery Mouthwash
I like it better when my doctor tells me to drink plenty of liquids. I stock up on liquor.
Every year when the weather turns cooler I start getting nosebleeds. I've had them since I was a teenager. Twice I've had my nose cauterized and it helps for many years. Last week I had a nosebleed every day, and two in one day. I don't dare sneeze, blow my nose, or even touch my nose. In the shower I washed my face and when I looked down there was blood dripping onto my chest. I decided it was time to get my nose cauterized again; so I went to my doctor for a referral to an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist.
As is standard procedure, the specialist asked, "Has there been any change in your health recently?" It seemed like an opportunity. So I told him my tongue lost all ability to taste. He looked at my tongue and said, "You have advaweadvcawdafasd" (some medical term that I don't remember) and he told me it was caused by a virus. He asked me what I was doing about it and I told him my doctor told me to take ibuprofen four times a day. "Don't do that," he said. "It causes nosebleeds." He also looked in my ears, told me to stop using Q-tips, cleaned out my ear canals, and recommended an over-the-counter ear wash to be used once a month. And he told me the neurologist I am supposed to see next month wouldn't be of any help because my taste buds problem isn't in the nerves, it's on the surface of my tongue.
After cauterizing my nose he gave me a prescription for a mouthwash that is created only in their own in-house pharmacy. It's called Magic Mouthwash #7. I'm serious. It's on the label. Evidently they have at least seven different concoctions of magical mouthwash (or this is their seventh attempt to find a mixture that works). If it had cost over $100 I would have been suspicious, but it was only around $16. I don't believe in miracles, but at that price it's worth a try. And by not going to the neurologist I'll save the $15 copay; so it was almost free.
It surprised me that it makes my mouth a little numb, as if it has some sort of topical analgesic in it. I still can't taste much of anything, but I can taste the mouthwash. It's nasty. I can only imagine what it would be like if my taste buds were working.
So that's the latest with my taste buds. I'm supposed to use the Magical Mystery Mouthwash for 7 to 10 days, twice a day. He said it would take a month or two for my tongue to recover.
And on a different subject: Last week I posted my video and recipe for Toffee Date Cake, based on a Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe I saw in a restaurant trade journal. While I was waiting to see the ENT specialist I thumbed through a magazine and saw, yet again, another Sticky Toffee Pudding, this one baked in small brioche molds and served in a restaurant in Houston, Texas. The caption said, "Everyone is doing it." So, if everyone is doing Sticky Toffee Pudding, it surely must be passé, right? I'm glad I named mine Toffee Date Cake. No one is doing that (as far as I know).
Finally, I do enjoy seeing the humanity in others. I was watching a cooking show featuring Sandra Lee. I hadn't seen her before. She was making something with mascarpone, but she pronounced it MARS•kah•pohn rather than mahs•kahr•POH•nay. I made a similar mistake in one of my videos. I knew the R was in the second syllable, but I didn't know about that long A sound at the end. I was duly corrected, and for that I say "Thank you." We all make mistakes.
Wednesday 2011.10.12
Post-Production
This is part 2 of the blog I started on Sunday. Post-production is the sit-down part of my job for this web site. I have, thankfully, a full set of programs that I was allowed to put on my home computer because I used it when I was working from home.
The photographs get processed first, adjusting brightness, contrast, and color. I set my camera's white balance before each session, but the photographs often have too much yellow in them. One of these days I'll paint a slightly yellowish wash over a white board and experiment with that for white balance. The photographs are also cropped and sized for the recipe PDF, each one always set to 4½ inches wide. The best shot of the finished dish is edited separately and it gets labeled as "Royal." The Royal typically goes on the web site's home page, not in the recipe PDF.
Then the recipe is written with all the Step-by-Step photographs and explanations added. A PDF can sometimes run eight or more pages long. I've received a lot of positive feedback from my recipes, people telling me the Step-by-Step photographs help them to see how a recipe is supposed to look through the stages from start to finish. Before I publish the recipe I print it, lie on the sofa with a clipboard and red pen, and proof everything, noting the corrections to be made. The recipe goes through a final edit before getting a "Done" checkmark on the Production Schedule or the In The Vault sheet.
All the video clips are off-loaded from my camera to this computer's hard disk. I usually do a backup before I start working on the video. Even then, I typically do not erase the camera's memory cards until I am certain I no longer need the clips. Then the clips are loaded into the video project I am creating, along with some standard video, audio, and graphic segments that are used in every video.
Editing the clips involves deciding where each clip should begin and end, sometimes dividing clips into several segments, especially when there is a passage of time, and using cross-dissolves to cover the time span. If a dissolve is invisible because there is no change in the clip, such as when a pan sits on the stove without moving for half an hour, then I use a clock wipe to express the passage of time. When I think of it, I rotate the pan a little so that the handle is in a different place, allowing some change that would make a cross-dissolve visible.
Covering my mistakes is a challenge. No one is perfect. Sometimes I can simply put in some text to correct my error. Sometimes I can splice the audio track, cutting out the mistake. When the camera is on the food, you can't see my lips moving, and so you won't see the audio out of sync with the video. For the worst cases, I record a pick-up shot to replace the bad one.
When all the edited clips are assembled into a finished video, I encode it to my computer as pre-DVD files. I use a different piece of software to assemble the DVD. Then I use yet another application to encode the DVD's VOB file to XviD format, selecting "highest video quality" as the output. That's the video that is uploaded to YouTube. Finally, the video is backed up again.
On publishing day—each Sunday—I update my web site as the video is uploading to YouTube. There are over 20 steps to do each time. I have a laminated checklist on the wall above this computer and I put a checkmark in each step's box as it gets done. The last step is to embed the video into the home page. This can only be done after the video finishes uploading and YouTube gives me the URL and Embed codes.
A few last checks: Run the text through a spell checker. Check all the site's links. When those are done, the web site updates are uploaded to my hosting service using the software's built-in FTP utility and the computer files are backed up. Ta-dah! I'm done for another week.
Sunday 2011.10.9
Doing Videos
One of my goals for retirement was to put many videos in the vault. Some weeks I just don't feel like cooking. The weather might be too hot, or I'm sick with a cold or something, or there is some important project that needs to be done. Sometimes I want to get in the car and visit friends out of town or go out to lunch with my friends. Whatever the reason, there are times when doing a video is out of the question. Having extra videos complete and stored on my computer allows me some freedom. During those weeks when I haven't been productive, I can just pull a recipe and video from the vault and upload it to the web site.
Doing a video requires a big time commitment. I usually start around 8:00 in the morning because it takes about two hours to set up my home for a video. The windows get covered with blackout cloths to block out all outside light. (The color of the light changes throughout the day and this distorts the colors in the video.) Then I need to assemble the ingredients and the equipment I'll be using. I write an instruction sheet with all the steps for the recipe and when to take photographs for the recipe PDF. This is taped to the wall out of view of the video camera. I write up an ingredients list and this is put on the tripod below the camera so that I can read it as I discuss the various ingredients in the dish I'm about to make. Move the dining room table and chairs to make room for the camera. Set up the tripods and cameras. Set up the microphone system. Set up the lighting. Get white balance readings. Take a shower. Cement my hair in place with a stying get. Brush face powder on my face to reduce shiny reflections. Choose the clothes I want to wear. Finally, rehearse my introduction a few times. Then it's show time.
The cooking is slow and methodical because I need to set up the camera to video each step in the process. Sometimes I move the camera to the stove. Most of the time the camera is in front of me where I set up a temporary counter in the archway that leads from the kitchen into the dining room. I also need to stop for photographs. The goal is to accomplish everything in one day—all photographs and all video clips. That's not always possible. Sometimes I need to do pick-ups to get something I missed. When I was doing the Toffee Date Cake video I missed an important clip because I thought the camera was recording, but it wasn't. Now, when I start each clip, I check three things—battery level, sound level, and the recording indicator.
Sometimes a recipe doesn't allow for videoing everything in one day. My Pesto Lamb requires preparation one day and roasting the following day. I sometimes cheat by prepping the food in front of the camera and then pulling from the refrigerator the food I prepped the previous day.
It all takes time. A quick recipe that would take less than 30 minutes to prepare might be done by noon. That's four hours from setup to tasting. A larger meal that might take an hour or two with baking time might not be ready until 5:00. The craziest time is getting that final photograph of the finished dish. There is so little time before the food starts to fade as it cools or dries out. And the setup is entirely different, which means pulling down a blackout cloth and just tossing it aside, to be folded and put away later. I try to set up the shot and have my camera lens ready before the food is cooked, so that there is less to do during the hectic few minutes before the photography.
That's an entire day of camera work. However, I love every minute of it. In another blog entry I'll go through the post-production steps of preparing the photographs for the recipe PDF and the video clips for the final video.
Wednesday 2011.10.5
Enjoying the Challenges
When I first started this web site I worked with foods I had prepared many times. These were tried and true recipes. I had made them so many times, I knew how to avoid the difficulties without hardly thinking about it. Now I am working with recipes that have not been tested—not even by the authors who wrote the cookbooks, let alone by myself. It's fun.
Being retired, I have every day for cooking. I can return to my childhood, playing with my food again. It really is like play. Some recipes get made three or four times, sometimes more, before I work out all the problems. Almost every recipe can be improved. Case in point: the Toffee Date Cake that I plan to upload on Sunday. I found the recipe in a restaurant trade journal. You'd think it would be perfect if it was intended for restaurants. Nope.
When I first prepared the cake it was only about an inch high. When pouring the batter into the cake pan I knew there was going to be a problem. There wasn't enough, even though the recipe called for a 9x13x2-inch pan. So I ordered a rectangular springform pan and doubled the cake ingredients. The second time I made it, the cake came out perfect. Exactly what I wanted. After using one piece for the "tasting" that I do at the end of each cooking video, and two pieces to do the final photography, I brought the cake to my ex-job and gave it to the people with whom I used to work. It made for a fun afternoon, sharing cake with them.
Problematic recipes used to frustrate me. I only had Saturday and Sunday to cook for a video. Problems could waste an entire weekend. Sometimes it was a real scramble trying to get a video and recipe ready for Sunday. Vacations were the best times because I could put two or three videos together, having extras "in the vault."
Another pastime I enjoy is doing research. Now there is plenty of time for that. While working with this recipe for Toffee Date Cake a did a little research on baking cakes. How much baking powder? Ideal is 1 teaspoon per cup of flour. (This cake recipe also uses baking soda; so I used half the baking powder.) How much baking soda? ¼ teaspoon per cup of flour. What is the difference? Baking soda is just bicarbonate of soda. It works with the acid in food to create bubbles. What if the food has no acid? Baking powder has bicarbonate of soda and an acid, such as cream of tartar, for the soda to work with. What is the ideal internal temperature of cake when done? Usually you test by inserting a toothpick. It if comes out clean, it's done. The temperature at which it is done is between 195°F and 205°F (91-96°C). I prefer accuracy, so I work with an instant-read digital thermometer.
So I've been enjoying my retirement. I'm still busy, but I'm busy doing the things that I love.
The tongue, by the way, is slowly recovering. Sugar still doesn't taste sweet, but it tastes less like pepper. Hopefully that's a good sign.
Sunday 2011.10.2
Still Cooking
Despite not being able to taste much of anything (the condition has improved slightly), I am still cooking.
This week I did an experiment with lamb chops. I was shopping in the local warehouse store (thankfully within bicycle distance of my mobile home) and I saw lamb chops. On a whim I bought a package and when I got home I lied on the sofa for about an hour, thinking about a way to prepare them. I came up with a stuffing for inside the chops, and plenty on the side.
I prepared them for friends. They liked them very much. These are honest people who can, and will, tell me exactly what they think of my food. Personally, I didn't care for the stuffing. I made them a second time, making adjustments to the ingredients, and the result tasted the same. So I am going to trust my friends and assume the flavor was more a result of my dysfunctional taste buds rather than my selection of ingredients. The recipe for Stuffed Lamb Chops will be posted on this web site some time in the near future.
I am going to do this recipe again, but I will make a different kind of stuffing and rather than using lamb chops I will buy a rack of lamb and cut them into chops, two ribs to each chop. That will give me the meat I need for cutting and filling a pocket. The recipe will be a little on the Moroccan side. Also, the rack of lamb is much, much less gamey than the chops, which are more gamey than the leg of lamb. I don't mind the gamey flavor of lamb. If you work with the flavor, rather than trying to mask it, the results can be delicious. But some people are put off by the strong flavor of lamb.
I also saw veal in the meat case at the warehouse store. They don't usually carry veal. So I went to my cookbooks to search for a recipe. I haven't settled on one yet, but I will probably go with a traditional Veal Scaloppine. It is easy and quick, and it would give me another excuse to use my Whacker Spoon (no longer available).
Speaking of which, I am uploading the video I did that demonstrates the Whacker Spoon being used to make pesto. It is, by far, the best method I've found for making pesto. The rubber mallet I used works, but if I hammer too close to the edge of the plastic bag the basil might break the seam and squirt out through the hole. I didn't have that problem with the Whacker Spoon. In the Recipe Archive there is a recipe for Four Pestos.
Last week I ordered a rectangular springform pan, a good one, and rather expensive. I like good stuff. I am going to make the Sticky Toffee Pudding again, making double the cake (and thus the need for the springform pan). I will probably change the name to Toffee Date Cake. I think that describes it better. It will be posted during the fall.