Food Blogs

I've been forgetting my duty to mantain a comprehensive food blog list, but I've managed to find a few more.

backyard grub exploring the idea that you can find, make, or grow good food anywhere

christine's culinary canvas

domestic bliss

ginadapooh's recipes

shenanchie this one is a fairly new blog, but there's a ton of good content going back aways behind it.

banlieusardises.com French, I can't read it, but i love this Lézard aux épinards et aux lentilles dish. If that won't make your kids eat lentils, I don't know what will.

Pine Nut Encrusted Salmon

If this was going to appear on a menu it would read: Pine Nut Encrusted Salmon with Cerely Root, Parsnip, Cucumber Salsa, on Wasabi Buttered Somen.

Okay, so it's not technically a salsa, but it was damn good.

I bought one of those big slabs of salmon that are always on sale at Dominick's, and while not the greatest quality, they're still very tasty. The salmon is the 'meat' of the dish, but the earthy and snappy, but slightly crisp and cool salsa, is an awesome compliment. The somen, buttered with wasabi and ground pine nuts gives the dish a satisfying fullness. Something about this dish seems very healthy too.

1 celery root, peeled and cubed

1 medium sized parsnip, peeled and cubed

1 cucumber, peeled and cubed

7-8 oz. cut of salmon

2-3 T pine nuts

white wine or mirin

wasabi (either tubed or dry made into paste would work)

2 T butter

rice flour (arrowroot would be a good substitute)

somen

First I prepped the root veggies, peeling and dicing the celery root and parsnip, boiling them separately until just soft. The parsnip takes a bit longer, which is why I did them in separate pans.

Meanwhile, in a dry saute pan, I toasted some pine nuts. Pay close attention and move them aorund constantly when you do this, because burned pine nuts are unusable. I just browned them slightly, then ground them quickly, in a small food processor. I cut 2 good size pieces (6-7 ozs each) from the salmon slab and coated it with the ground nuts and a little salt. Since pine nuts are oily and moist, don't expect an honest-to-goodness 'crust'. Dry roasting the nuts in an oven first might give you a crunchier crust, but I really just wanted a brown coating. The salmon went skin side down into a very hot non-stick pan, and then was browned on all sides. Now a purist would finish the fish in an oven, but the nasty secret is that finishing the cooking in a microwave is the best way to cook the fish all the way through, without drying it out, overcooking the outside or steaming the crust into mush. I just put the fish on a plate and gave it a minute in a regularly powered microwave. Microwave cooking is tricky, and is better done in stages, each stage under a minute, checking by feel and heat each time.

While the fish is cooking, the salsa is browned just slightly in a hot pan, adding cubed cucumbers at the last minute.

The wasabi butter was just a bit of butter, a tiny bit of rice flour, a shot of wine (a had a bottle of Black Swan Chardonnay, a pineapply Aussie, on sale for about 5 bucks), a couple of pinches of left over ground pine nut, and about two inches squeezed from a tube of wasabi, sauteed a bit until the flour was cooked. The somen (very thin noodles) only take about three minutes in boiling water. The somen goes into a bowl, mixed with some of the wasabi butter, the fish goes on top, followed by another sprinkle of wasabi butter, followed by the side of cubed veggies piled around.

Army food history

Obvious distractions have kept me from cooking more than chicken legs and rice.

But Matthew helps out with this link: Subsistence and Army Cooks History Page. The history of the army food service program, including a 'history of rations' and different menu's offered by the services to soldiers operating in different theatres of war. Pretty darn thorough.

Foodlink

Weight Watcher Cards circa 1974

Just go. Oh, and make sure you're not drinking anything when you read the commentary. This makes it into my top ten funniest things on the Web. By Wendy a local Chicago weblogger.

via Metafilter and a tip from Andrew .

Nothing to Do with Food

I always seem to wait until the very last minute to announce these things. But I have to mention that Ben and Mena Trott, the creators and engineers behind Movable Type, the wonderful content management system I use to run this Food Blog, will be giving a presentation on Weblogs and Community Building, in my hometown of Evanston. It's tomorrow night, 7:30 p.m. at the Seabury Theological Seminary in the Northwestern Campus

AKMA is hosting the presentation and has more info on how to get there and find it here.

Come on up, if you're in the area and are interested in weblogging in any sort of form. They'll be a contingent of Chicago webloggers attending, and we plan to turn the evening into a social event afterwards by visiting Nevin's Pub.

Squid, squash and mushrooms over somen

On Sunday I found a Japanese market in Wilmette called Sea Ranch, (3217 W. Lake, Lake and Skokie Blvd.). While not a replacement for Mitsuwa, this place has a good assortment of Japanese hardware, packaged stuff, including candy and snacks, frozen stuff and strange produce, both fresh and packaged (pickled burdock root for example). I resisted going in the fish market they own in the same strip mall. That market had a big 'sushi to go' sign. I fully intended to go back and check it out the next day, but never made it. In the grocery I bought my usual supply of nori, wasabi, somen noodles, dried black mushrooms and black fungus. But I also bought a big honkin' frozen squid, about 14" long. I also picked up some tofu, and some enoki mushrooms. I fully intended to attempt to stuff the squid with mushrooms, and broil it, something I've had in the past. But when it came time, I didn't feel up to the challenge, both intimidated by the creature, and knowing it can take a delicate touch to cook.

So I wimped out, cleaned it, cut it up and stir fried it with the mushrooms, some yellow squash and the tofu and piled it onto the delicate somen noodles. The variety of ingredients and textures really appeals to the mouth.

1 yellow squash, halved and sliced

6-8 dried black mushrooms

3-4 black fungus pieces, also called 'mu er' or wood ear

enoki mushrooms

1 package tofu

1 big whole ika (squid)

House of Tsang brand Wok Oil

(or your own garlic and ginger seasoned oil)

rice wine vinegar

1 lemon

good quality soy sauce (soyu)

butter

somen (thin noodles)

I cleaned the squid first and left it to sit in a bowl of water, the juice of half the lemon, salt and vinegar while I prepped the rest of the ingredients. Cleaning a whole squid can be a little intimidating, especially for first timers. I've cleaned lots of the smaller ones, but this big fella was full of stuff. Its not hard to do, just cut off the head, pull out the transparent spinal cartilage, and squeeze out the insides. Cut tentacles of at the base as well.

I like to reconstitute and cook dried mushrooms and black fungus by putting them in a pot of water and bringing the water up to a boil for 5 minutes or so. (rinse them first). The fungus may take a little longer. After boiling them until soft and moist all the way to their centers, reserve the water and slice the shrooms. I let the water sit for a bit to let any sediment settle before using the liquid.

I browned the mushrooms and fungus in butter and seasoned oil in one pan, and the yellow squash in another, just to speed things up. When everything was nice and brown they were combined and some soy (a dash or two only) and a 4-5 T of rice vinegar went over them.

In a large skillet I started browning the cubed-up tofu in butter and oil, while I sliced up the squid. The squid pieces went into a very hot pan, with some butter, oil, and the juice of the other half of lemon, put the tentacles in about ten seconds after the thicker body pieces. I can't tell you exactly how long it takes to cook squid, but its not much more than a minute or two. They should turn white and lose its translucency. The squid will be chewy, but it shouldn't have too much of a rubbery resilience. I cooled the pan down by pouring in some vinegar, then some of the reserved mushroom liquid and dumped in the other cooked ingredients except for the tofus, which got seasoned and dried on some paper towels after they were browned on both sides.

The somen went into some boiling water for a minute and a half and the enoki went into the pan and was heated through at the last minute.

This how-to-coook somen page offers a presentation tip: "In order to serve somen beautifully particularly for your guests, tie the tip of somen bundle with a cooking thread before boiling. Boil somen in the saucepan with the knot downward." I guess this allows you to lay out the somen threads flat, rather than in a tangled bunched.

As you can see my presentation isn't that fancy, everything got dumped onto the somen.

Some food links

Vegemite for morons, from the great and powerful Grudnuk "You cannot do this with Marmite. Marmite is weak and feeble."

New foods Hitting the Shelves - vegetarian alternative to gelatin snacks and rainbow goldfish snacks. I wondered how you make gelatin without animal products and found out its the combination of agar and carrageenan.

Roux Reviews to Savoring Savory Flavors An article about food formulation and acheiving a slow cooked taste in processed food. "Many brown flavors such as meats, roasted coffee, cocoa and nuts obtain their flavor, color and aroma nuances from the Maillard reaction where proteins and sugars (i.e., pathways between amines and reducing sugars) lead to a complex mixture of products with varying degrees of 'brown' flavors. "

Caffeine content in soft drinks On the list is something made by Planet Java called 'Tremble'.

Topher's Breakfast Cereal Character Guide "This guide was created as a fun and educational reference on all your favorite cereal box characters from the early 1900's to the present. It is full of great images and information on over 750 characters."