This is a take on a traditional Caprese salad but with 4 different types of tomatoes and the addition of Lemon Cucumbers. Everything was given to us from our friend's garden (thank you Heather and Steve!), except the Mozzarella, thus the name Summer Garden Salad. If Lemon Cucumbers are not available...
OK OK, so Top Chef Masters ended last night and there's a lot of talk about "what should have" and "what could have." The finale was exciting and more importantly, it was mouth-watering. Hubert Keller and his Michelin star were delightful, Michael Chiarello and his panache were amazing - but personally, I think Rick Bayless was the most deserving, and will appreciate his title of Top Chef Master the most.
Rick was the most humble contestant, and I think he elevated the Mexican cuisine to a level that it isn't well known for, haute. If I were to go without Mexican food for too long, I may have to draw and quarter myself. Most recently...
This luscious martini was a spur of the moment inspiration donned at the farmers market. My friend Heather immediately thought of martinis after tasting samples of the Spicy Heirloom Tomato Juice from The Happy Girl Kitchen Co.
Unlike a Bloody Mary which is made from a puree, this is made from the juice of heirloom...
Roast Your Own! I've been reading much of the database of coffee knowledge accumulated at Sweet Maria's Roasting Supplies and came to the conclusion, "I can do that!" Sometimes these are famous last words, sometimes these are life-changing epiphanies. I hope that in this case they are the latter.
I picked up two pounds of "green" (unroasted) beans; one pound of the Guatemala Finca La Bella JBM (Jamaican Blue Mountain) Cultivar, and one pound of the India Robusta Jeelan Estate Nirali.
The first type was upon their recommendation for a novice roaster, the second...
What are these little green sprigs? Sea Beans? A Sea Bean is the salty, succulent plant called Salicornia that is also sometimes called glasswort, pickleweed, and marsh samphire (I grew up calling Carpobrotus edulis "Ice Plant" pickleweed, but then again, my parents are no Botanists.) True Sea Beans appear during the summer at farmer's markets and specialty food shops for a few weeks and they only last a few days once picked, so eat them as soon as you buy them.
Sea beans have great crunch that bursts a blast of brine when chewed. They taste just like a day at the beach - really, their resemblance to the sea is uncanny. Because they are so salty,
photo by Amy Koch
I was at a friend's house for dinner and we were planning to make some stuffed figs as an appetizer... but upon returning from the store we realized we had forgot to buy the figs. We looked around the kitchen to see what else we could use. There were some perfectly ripe peaches in my friend's fruit bowl which I thought would compliment the saltiness of the prosciutto perfectly...
I met fellow hop-head Brian Yaeger at a local beer tasting about a year ago at San Francisco's world-famous Jug Shop because I overheard someone in his group say something about Isla Vista. "Did you say Isla Vista?"
You know how it goes, you're not paying any attention but all of a sudden you pick up a poignant word out of the background noise and your attention follows. There is a real psychological term that describes the phenomenon, the Cocktail Party Effect; it was first coined in 1953 by Colin Cherry. Anyways...
So, Isla Vista is this very-little town, for which I have very-fond memories of, and we both used to live there. We got to talking, mostly about beer, but also his book, Red, White, and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey
If I remember correctly, I muttered something like, "You bastard! That's so cool." - We have since sipped a slurry of suds together and I more recently asked him for an interview. Here's what transpired:
Me: Let's get this straight, you wrote a book about beer?
Brian: Yes, I wrote a book and that book is about beer. Mostly.
The German soft drink Bionade is taking the world by storm. I'm not joking. Sales started in 1995 and by 2003 they had sold 2 million bottles. They sold 7 million bottles in 2004, 22 million bottles in 2005, and 70 million bottles in 2006. 2007 sales were well over 200 million bottles.
They are posting 300%+ growth year over year and are the #3 soft drink in Germany after the "Big C" and the "Big P" - the Bionade team is showing up at all the industry trade shows now, and there is even a Bionade Flickr pool; but the question remains, what is Bionade?
There is a somewhat fluffy description about how it is actually made from their website:
"In order to produce a non-alcoholic refreshment drink in a purely organic way, “Mother Nature” has to be out-smarted through her own mechanisms. Under purely natural conditions, alcohol is usually generated during the process of fermentation when sugar is present.
It was only after a long period of research and development that BIONADE’s inventor, the master brewer Dieter Leipold, was successful in converting sugar into gluconic acid during fermentation according to brewing principles. An analogous process can be found in the production of honey by bees.
Mini Rocky Road Sundaes
Kristen Tolle is an old friend of mine and has become, in my words, "The Cupcake Wizard." What follows is a short interview with her which highlights some of the nuances of the recent cupcake craze and some of the "wild and crazy" things she's been doing with them lately...
What a perfect summer salad. The sweetness of the watermelon, the meatiness of the tomato, the salty feta cheese and the crisp, herbaceous mint all meld together like people dancing at a reggae concert. Each bite has a different character, unique and delicious...
The definition of a Calorie (note: Calorie with a capital "C") is "the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius." - conversely, calorie with a lowercase "c" is the amount of energy to heat one gram of water. Essentially, a lowercase calorie is 1/1000th of a Calorie.
For all intents and purposes we will be referring to "Calories" here because that is the standard measurement in the United States (that's what is on your food labels). Ironically, we use Calories in the U.S.... but not Celsius. Go figure.
Back to the the question ,"Can I Shed Pounds Drinking Ice Water?" By the definition of a Calorie, yes, absolutely. There's a little math involved, but it's easy, let's go.
Here are the facts:
A) Ice water is approximately 0 degrees Celsius.
B) Body temperature is about 37 degrees Celsius.
C) A kilogram of water takes up one liter (that's the beauty and logic behind the metric system).
D) Urine doesn't come out cold, it's comes out at body temperature.
If you were to drink a liter of ice water, about 32 fl oz (or four cups), it would require your body to burn 37 Calories to bring that liter of ice water up to body temperature.
So the answer is yes, sort of. For every 8.35 pounds of ice water you drink, you would burn the Caloric equivalent of a half-ounce of cookie dough. There are a lot more effective ways to slim down. Stick to the "8 cups of water a day" rule; however, make it ice water every time, and that's burning 74 Calories a day.
Just think, you would only need to drink a gallon of ice water to burn the Calories in 3 tubs of McDonald's BBQ sauce...
The crew of the current Endeavour mission completed what was almost a 5 hour spacewalk on Monday, detached from the space station today, and prepare for a Friday landing. Which begs me to ask... what are they eating up there?
Many of us have had "Astronaut Ice Cream," the freeze dried Neapolitan brick of what was once ice cream. That odd texture of something at room temperature still melting in you mouth always throws me. And then there's Tang of course.
Beyond that however, what those brave souls are subsisting of up there, traveling at 17,000 miles per hour, remains much of a mystery.
There are several concerns with eating on a space shuttle in zero gravity. Liquids can be dangerous. Who knows what would happen if a floating ball of orange-flavored liquid were to slip into the control panel. That and small objects. Just imagine what kind of havoc a fist full of Mike 'n Ikes would create with an onboard air filtration system.
Sometimes this just limits their choices. The serve up, for example, tortillas not bread. Bread crumbs could be dangerous, but tortillas tear nicely - and they make for great frisbies too. They have been on every mission since 1985. In other circumstances, nearly everything they eat is contained in either a plastic bladder, or what they call an "edible coating."
They can Velcro their dining trays to their legs and attach their utensils magnetically. Salt and pepper are delivered to their food in liquid form, airborne salt and pepper could be a nightmare. They rehydrate the food with the waste water from the fuel cells.
Apparently there are no rules against "playing with your food." Many have seen the video of the banana spiraling into the astronaut's mouth...
But what are they eating? Well, pretty much everything that can be freeze-dried, dehydrated, thermo-stabilized, served in a pouch, and eaten with a spoon. That's quite a bit. Common space meals include things like beef stroganoff, brownies, chicken stew, scrambled eggs, granola bars, macaroni and cheese, chocolate pudding.
On the space station, which is a U.S./Russian venture, they eat both American and Russian dishes. Fruit is a luxury, only being available in the space station for a few days after being visited by the shuttle or an unmanned cargo drone. Another luxury they don't ever get... beer or wine.
This is my favorite picture... If you look closely in the photo above you can clearly make out a bottle of the famous Thai hot sauce, Sriracha.
There seems to be issues with fish coming across as too fishy and one swordfish dish was so bad that a few astronauts refused to eat it. Apparently they don't eat the world famous "Space Ice Cream" either.
But what seems to be the most popular dish? Freeze-dried shrimp cocktail, served with horseradish-infused powdered sauce. (Gross)
photo by bashford
photo by Photo Mojo
Ahh Beer Can Chicken, a staple food growing up and always a go-to grill option for my father. The logic is sound, prop up the bird so that the breast meat is not scorched by the direct heat of the grill and thus dried out. The beer gently steams the cavity adding a subtle nuance of malted barley and hops; the liquid also adding to the moisture of the meat. Brilliant.
But wait. Is there a plastic liner in my beer can? What's this about Bisphenol-A (BPA)? Is BPA going to kill me? What about the paint on the outside? Is it true that Aluminum is linked to Alzheimer's Disease? Oh my gosh, is my Beer Can Chicken going to kill me?
This debate sprung up recently and I decided to check the facts. Note: I'm not a doctor but I had a cameo as one in a school play. Let's begin:
Is there a plastic liner in my beer can?
- Most likely. Beer and soda are reactive to metals and would taste horrible out of a can without a liner of sorts. There is a wonderful article on the History of the Beverage Can by the Museum of Beverage Containers and Advertising that states that lined cans hit the market in 1935 - and the industry, basically, never looked back.
This is an image of the plastic liner inside a beverage can that has had the aluminum exposed by dissolving it in acid (photo courtesy of Steve Spangler Science):
What is all this news about BPA?
- BPA is a building block of many everyday plastics. Researchers have correlated exposure to BPA to heart disease, diabetes and possibly cancer. Consumer awareness about BPA hit an all time high last April when news detailed baby bottles that contain BPA and Nalgene quickly removed its water bottles from shelves.
Is BPA going to kill me?
- Maybe. Not from drinking beer it appears [thank god] but a recent study by the Center for Disease Control fount BPA to be present in 93% of the population in the U.S. That's how everyday this stuff is.
In 1995, the Society of the Plastics Industry, ran a study to quantify the migration of BPA from can coatings. They determined that an average adult consumer would have to consume "about 500 pounds of canned food and beverages every day for an entire lifetime to exceed the safe level of BPA set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."
Before you sigh a breath of relief, there are some mitigating factors here... Do you trust that the EPA has correctly determined what safe exposures to BPA are? Do you trust the results of a BPA study conducted by the Society of the Plastic Industry? Why hasn't anyone studied the exposure generated by grilling a can of beer that's been stuffed in a chicken's rear end?
What about the paint on the outside?
- Hmm, I've got nothing for ya - except Little Jimmy used to eat paint chips and we all know how he turned out...
Is it true that Aluminum is linked to Alzheimer's Disease?
- "They" don't think so. The link between Aluminum and Alzheimer's was first put forward in 1965 and aluminum has been shown to be present in both plaques and tangles in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. I know people who avoid antiperspirant because they contain aluminum-based compounds.
According to the Alzheimer's Society; however, "The overwhelming medical and scientific opinion is that the findings outlined above do not convincingly demonstrate a causal relationship between aluminum and Alzheimer's disease, and that no useful medical or public health recommendations can be made− at least at present (Massey and Taylor 1989)."
Oh my gosh, is my Beer Can Chicken going to kill me?
- I am completely unqualified to answer this, but... I don't think so. For what it's worth, this is my logic: As long as beer is still inside the can, the temperature won't reach much more than 212 degrees F, the boiling point of water.
The boiling point of BPA is about 428 degrees F, so whatever BPA there might be inside the can liner, likely won't cook into the food. If it does, it will stay mostly inside the cavity of the bird and considering how unappetising chicken ribs are, no one is likely going to be eating them.
The paint on the outside follows the same rules as far as I'm concerned. Ensure there is enough liquid in the can and the paint probably won't bake off either.
As far as the aluminum goes, just think about how much plastic and paint there is on that can protecting you from that nasty aluminum...
There is a great debate on Beer Can Chicken going on in the Chowhound forums, here is my favorite comment so far:
I think to many people are a little to panicky about these simple heath issues. You never heard anyone say anything back in the day when we all as kids drank from the garden hose. How about putting marshmallows on a tree branch to roast them? Maybe an insect deficated [sic] on that branch, or maybe it was sprayed with mesquito [sic] spray, who knows? - Jimbosox04
Lastly, if you want to see how beverage cans are manufactured, thank How it's Made by the Discovery Channel for making this video.
Spanish Almond Soup
I first heard of Almond Soup on Evan Kleinman's radio show/podcast Good Food. She and her guest talked about Ajo Blanco - a kind of gazpacho from southern Spain. I thought, "cool, I was wondering what I was going to do with all those raw almonds that I just I bought..."
I dug around a little bit online to find a recipe; searching "spanish almond soup" I found a theme, grasped some basic ratios, and set out on making it my soup, albiet not Ajo Blanco. Garlic, saffron, and bread or bread crumbs were present in all of them. Besides those, some had cumin, some had milk, some had vinegar, some even had cinnamon.
In full disclosure and truthiness, three of the recipes I found were completely identical: the one from costadelsol-vacationrentals.com, from ezinearticles.com, and also eatmoreherbs.com. They all started with, "Heat the oil and toast the almonds, garlic, bread and saffron. When golden brown set a few..." and completed the recipe verbatim. I wonder who got screwed.
In any case, this is what I came up with. The key is blending the Jiminy Cricket out of it and running it through a strainer. The yield is less but the result is not nearly as grainy. Almonds don't break down under heat like, say, peanuts or other legumes will.
Ingredients:
Technique:
Heat the almonds and garlic over medium-high heat with the olive oil for about 3-4 minutes, just until the garlic develops a little color and the almonds become fragrant. In another pot, bring the 6 cups of stock to a simmer.
Add the saffron, cumin, and breadcrumbs to the almond mixture and begin to stir them well. This will bloom the flavor of the cumin and saffron and cook any raw flavor out of the breadcrumbs - about another minute.
Add 2 cups of the stock to the pan to deglaze, bring back to a simmer, then transfer the mixture to a blender. Add the chopped parsley, salt, and pepper. Blend thoroughly, 2-3 minutes.
Pour the blended almond mixture through a strainer into the simmering stock. Add the lemon juice, check the seasoning and serve hot.
You can garnish with slivered almonds, and a pinch of the parsley.
Notes:
I used raw, unsalted almonds. I'm sure you can use roasted and/or salted you simply would not need to cook them as long, and adjust the salt accordingly. I would also not recommend an emersion blender, they wouldn't be able to break down whole almonds like a good 'ole stand blender can.
A la Rube Goldberg, this rediculous contraption dubbed "Falling Water" was built by Joseph Herscher who, by my guess, must either not be employed, be an idiot savant, not have a girlfriend, or "D" all of the above. In any case, it is really cool to watch.
This is another contraption he built in order to smash a Cadburry Cream Egg called "Cream That Egg." At the end of the video he states that the video was made, "With Support from The World's Most Tolerant Flatmates, 30 Sticks of Hot Glue, and 480 Pints."
