Technique: Peeling a Tomato

It's tomato season. The vines are heavy with ripe red (yellow, orange, black...) fruit. The question often asked at this time of year is: 'How do I peel the damn thing?'



It's a pretty simple process, really. Bring a pot of water to boil. Submerge tomatoes for about 45 seconds. Immediately transfer tomatoes to an ice water filled bowl. This is done to stop the tomatoes from cooking. After a minute remove tomatoes from ice bath. The skin will now have separated from the meat of the tomato, making it easy to peel. Hooray!

Saturday Special: I Love This

My friend Nico found this on xkcd.com.

I would like to add another line on the graph representing happiness of the belly, which would go up exponentially as bacon consumption increased.

Drink of the Day: Tom Collins

Unless you're old enough to have served in the Korean War, it's quite possible you've never had a well made Tom Collins. What you've probably had is a concoction of high fructose corn syrup sweet & sour mix / high fructose corn syrup sprite, and cheap gin. No good.



Made properly, the Tom Collins is a refreshing cocktail, perfect for an early evening drink.

Two Parts Dry Gin
One Part Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
One Part Simple Syrup°
Club Soda/Soda Water/Seltzer
Two Ice Cubes
Slice of Orange or Lime

Pour gin, lemon juice, and syrup over ice cubes. Stir. Add soda to fill glass. Stir again. Twist fruit slice. Use twisted slice as garnish. Drink.


°Simple syrup is a great name to describe what it is. Add one part sugar to one part water, boil. Simple. (Note: Make a decent amount of this for summertime use. Use it to sweeten iced tea.)

Garlic Chicken Delight

Two Chicken Breasts, sliced very thinly
4 Cloves Garlic, crushed and chopped
1/4 Cup Mirin
1/8 Cup Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup Chicken Stock
1 Tablespoon Rice Wine Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Oil

I like this one. It's tasty and, while the garlic is pronounced, it's sweet and mild. The key is to find garlic as fresh as can be. This is a tough task, as grocery store garlic tends to have sat around for awhile. Best bet, as always, is the farmers' market. If you get it there, and you're lucky enough to find heads with stems attached, you're stoked. The innermost part of the stem is edible and wonderfully sweet. Chop that and only use two cloves of the sweet sweet garlic. If you purchase at a supermarket, look for garlic with really tight skin, that will be the freshest.



Begin by sauteing garlic in the oil over medium heat for a minute. Turn heat to high, and add the chicken. Cook for about three minutes, till chicken is done. Add all the other ingredients, and cook two minutes. Thicken with 1/4 cup cornstarch slurry.



For the uninitiated, mirin is a sweet cooking wine made from rice. It has a swell flavor.

Technique: Breading

Breaded treats make the world a delightful place. How does one do such a thing? Well, grab a beer and let your friend Hal B. explain.

Breading is using a liquid of some sort to make a bread-like product stick to whatever it is you're breading. What that liquid is, and what you use to bread it are up to you.

The classic technique goes something like this: dust item in flour, submerge in egg wash (one beaten egg plus a few tablespoons of water), and roll in bread crumbs. This works well, but creates a breading too thick for my taste. Plus, that's three dishes to clean!

A slightly thinner breading can be achieved this way: combine flour and milk at a three to one ratio in favor of the milk. Add two pinches of salt, and a pinch of sugar. Submerge your chosen item into mix, then roll in breading. My two favorites are corn flake crumbs and panko. Panko, for the those who don't know, is a coarse Japanese breadcrumb. It's wicked good. The picture at the top was breaded in this method, then deep fried.

The easiest way to bread something is to simply wet with water, then roll in flour or cornstarch. This will produce a very light coat. The drawback to this is that the breading is pretty unstable- it's the most likely to fall off, and the least likely to produce a tasty crunch. Still, it's nice for light dishes- speaking of dishes, this method uses the least, great for cleanup!

If you want to try something a little different, use beer as your liquid. It's good stuff.

Idea: Don't Worry About Perfection

There are a lot of resources that will tell you how to perfectly cook an egg, or will show you the only way to roast a chicken. Well, I say balderdash.

Look, at the end of the day, eating good food is about what tastes good to you. Perhaps you've noticed my recipes specify things like 3-4 cloves of garlic. That's because there is no right answer. There's a ballpark you need to be in, but maybe you don't love garlic as much as I do. So put in less. It's alright.

The omelet pictured above was made at 2:30AM. I was hammered. I wanted eggs. I didn't think about setting the pan just right, adding the perfect amount of cream, lovingly flipping it over. I had some good cheese and leftover bacon, threw it in there, and scrambled it up. And, my oh my, it was great.

I write this because I feel that a lot of people are intimidated into thinking they can't cook because they don't have the perfect technique. Well don't stress it my friends, you can do it too. The more you cook, the more you'll learn what tastes right together for you.

There is an exception to this: do worry about perfection in the ingredients you use. Buy fruits in season. Get grass fed beef. If you do, the rest is easy.

French Beans With Bacon

1/3 Pound French Beans, use string beans in necessary
2-3 Slices Bacon
2 Cloves Garlic, chopped
1 Shallot, diced
1/2 Sweet Bell Pepper, diced
Salt

Goodness, this is a tasty one. It's a nice compromise dish, too. You get to eat some healthy veg, but there's a little bacon, too.

Begin by dicing two (or three...) slices of bacon. Cook over medium heat until bacon turns a nice mahagony. Remove bacon to a paper towel, and drain off most of the fat, leaving about two tablespoons.

Add garlic, shallots, and beans. Cook for about four minutes, until the beans begin to show a bright green color. Add diced bell pepper, and cook another minute. Add bacon, a pinch of salt, toss, and serve.

Technique: Deep Frying

When I tell people I have a personal deep fryer, I am often met with shock. 'Really, Hal B., why would you want to deep fry something. It's so unhealthy...'

Now, I'm not going to claim that a deep fried delight is healthier than a piece of steamed tofu. However, fried right, it's not nearly as bad for you as you might think. It's also damn tasty.



Let's begin with the oil. Vegetable and canola (soybean) oil are your best bets. They are liquid at room temperature (thus liquid in your body), and have no saturated fats. Be aware that canola oil comes from large monoculture soy farms. Since you're able to reuse the oil for a long time, your environmental footprint still won't be too large, at least. Sadly, you should avoid lard, tallow, and other heavily saturated oils. They taste swell, but should be reserved for an occasional treat due to their general unhealthfulness.

Let's talk about grease and timing. When one complains that their fried food is 'greasy,' it's often a result of over-frying. Here's the deal: deep frying is a battle between oil and water. The oil is trying it's best to get inside what you're cooking. This is prevented by water vapor from the inside trying to escape. The result is the crispy, delicious meeting point that we all know and love. Things go wrong when all the water vapor escapes. Then...oil saturation. Greasy food. Bad bad bad things. To prevent this, use your eyes and ears. A killer golden brown crust is a sign that the battle is over. Even more importantly, you'll be able to hear it. The popping 'fry' sound is a sign things are going well. The reaction is happening. When that sound slows, oil is going to make your food greasy. Remove it, now.



Finally, let's talk temperature. You want to fry somewhere between 325 and 375 degrees. The temperature will depend on the thickness of what you're cooking. The thinner the food, the higher the temperature. Fry any lower, and the water inside won't have time to heat up. Remember, when you add food, the temperature of the oil will lower, so give it time to heat back up between batches.

If you don't own a deep fryer, you can still fry. Use a deep pot. Never fill more than 1/3 of the way. The last thing you want is a grease fire in your kitchen! (If this happens, cover it quickly in flour. Water will make it burn stronger.) Use a kitchen thermometer to judge the temperature, and adjust the heat as needed.

If you do this right, you'll have crispy treats with no greasyness. Check the oil level before and after- you'll see it's just about the same!

We'll talk about breading in another post.

Sunday Special: An Interview With Hal B.

Check out an interview I did with the Walla Walla Wine Woman. We chat about my new film Bottle Shock, in theaters on August 8th. It's a great blog, and a nice preview of Bottle Shock.

Idea: Your Summer Reading List

So, here's your summer reading list, in order:

Pollan is today's foremost food writer.  The Omnivore's Dilemma will undoubtably change the way you think about food.  You'll learn how the food you eat get from the farm, or the factory, to the table, and be amazed by the process.  For me, it provided an introduction into how I could make practical changes to where I get my food, and what I choose to eat.  It's a must read.

Parson's book will make you hungry.  Really hungry.  How to Pick a Peach is an exciting lesson in fruits and vegetables.  Go ahead, read that last sentence again.  Exciting lesson in fruit and veg?  You bet.  If my farmers' market post didn't have you jumping into the market, this book surely will.  It's a quick read, filled with knowledge and recipes for all seasons.

Kingsolver is probably the best author of the bunch.  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle chronicles her family's attempt to spend a year eating only local foods.  Don't worry, it's not a hair-shirted, hippy, change your life by being righteous piece.  It's totally sensible, providing practical ideas about small changes that will make life better.  There is a wealth of knowledge in here.  As an added bonus for us meat lovers, Kingsolver documents why meat eating not only isn't bad, but, if done the right way, the smart way, can actually be beneficial!

Another top notch book by Michael Pollan.  In Defense of Food expands upon his earlier works, and looks into the general Western diet.  He examines how our culture has gone from a society of eating real food to a society of eating over-processed 'nutrients'.   Pollen points out that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers probably wouldn't recognize much of what we eat as food.  And if they wouldn't think it was food, why should we.  This one really made me see the silliness in fad diets, and how it's important to eat real food.

EXTRA CREDIT

In my opinion, MFK Fisher still ranks at the top of America's food writing ladder.  Her works, especially The Art of Eating, have influenced every food writer and cook to follow in her footsteps.  Julia Child, Alice Waters, even Anthony Bourdain would not be who they are without her writing.  Neither would I.  Very much worth the read if you have the time.

BBQ Chicken with Bacon and Cheese!

Chicken Breast

Bacon

Your Favorite Cheese

BBQ Sauce

This one couldn't be easier.  It couldn't be more delicious, either.  It could be less kosher, if you use pork chops, I suppose.  Still, it's pretty unkosher, too.

Cook bacon.  You can use store bough, pre-cooked bacon if you'd like.  Cook chicken.  If you decide to cook the bacon, you can cook the chicken in a little of the bacon fat.  It makes for tasty chicken!

Place cooked chicken on foil.  Spread a layer of your favorite BBQ sauce atop chicken.  Add two slices of bacon to that.  Top with your favorite cheese- I used muenster.  Put it under a broiler or in toaster oven.  Let cheese brown.

See.  Easy.

Technique: Cutting Vegetables, Part One

"There's a lady I know
If I didn't know her
She'd be the lady I didn't know.

And my lady, she went downtown
She bought some broccoli
She brought it home.

She's chopping broccoli
Chopping broccoli
Chopping broccoli
Chopping broccoli

She's chopping broccoli
She's chopping broccoli
She's chop.. ooh!
She's chopping broccola-ah-ie!"

-Dana Carvey

This post is more about terminology than actual knife technique.  I slice and chop well, but there are better resources for that sort of thing.  My purpose is to let you have an idea of what people are talking about when they say 'dice' or 'julianne'.  

Here's something important before you begin: make sure your knife is SHARP.  Nothing cuts a fella faster than a dull knife.  Ironic, I know!

Julianne

Julianne is a fancy-pants word for slicing into small sticks.  Matchsticks.  Now you know.  This is part of the larger category of slicing.  You'll often see "cut into 1 inch slices," and the like.  It means pretty much what it means.  Don't get your ruler, just use your eyes.  No one will be measuring when they eat.  

Dicing

Dicing is, basically, cutting into uniform squares.  You dice when you're looking for smaller chunks than a slice, with more surface area.  Dicing is great when you have a few different kinds of veggies and you want them all to cook at around the same pace.  Again, no need to be exact- but do try to be in on the same playing field.

Chopping

Chopping is fun.  Nothing to worry about.  In fact, it's a great stress reliever.  Take your knife and chop away.  You chop to blend things into other things.  Want garlic in a sauce, but don't want chunks- chop away!  Be advised- when you chop you release more of the flavor, so make sure to taste as you add.

"At a 45 Degree Angle"

Why cut at a 45 degree angle?  Well, to maximize surface space.  More bang for the buck, greater area for browning, it looks pretty.  You can see from the photo above that you get a lot more carrot by cutting at an angle.  No protractor needed, just tilt your knife to what you think is about 45 degrees.  Good times.

Take your time and practice.  You're not going to be perfect straightaway, but who cares.  As long as you're in the general area, you're all good.  Leave perfection for those snotty French chefs, eh?!

Idea: Grow Something

I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm growing a garden.  It's become a little bit of an obsession, in fact.  Even though my brain knows that nothing dramatic has changed with the snow peas in the last three hours, I'll check them anyway.  I'm giddy when the dragon carrots grow new leaves.  (The dragon carrots are going to be purple!)

Now, I'm not saying get out your shovel and build a garden.  You can, and it's rewarding.  It's also a lot of work.  To walk an easier line, just grow a few things in a pot.  Just about any herb grows well.  Peppers, eggplants, bush beans, and lettuce will do great.  Even many varieties of tomato rock the container.

The great thing about doing this is that you'll have a quick bit of killer flavor at your fingertips.  Need to perk up a sauce, snip a little thyme.  Vegetables that you grow yourself will taste immeasurably better than the ones at the supermarket.  You don't even need outdoor space.  A spot by a sunny window will work just fine!

So do this.  Head to your local garden center.  Tell a helpful helper that you'd like to do a little container gardening.   They'll ask you about what you want to grow and how much space you have, and set you up with some seedlings!

Fair warning- the more you grow, the more you'll want to grow.  Trust me!

I've been taking pictures of my garden as it grows, success and failure.  Check it out.

Herb Marinated Chicken Breast

Two Chicken Breasts

3/4 Cup Olive Oil

1/4 Cup Vinegar, Apple Cider or Rice Wine Preferred

2 Cloves Garlic

1 Tablespoon Mustard

Salt

1/2 Cup Your Favorite Fresh Herbs

I Used Italian Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary

Get out your hand blender and your grill!  This is an easy marinade, great on chicken and fish.

Add vinegar, garlic, salt, and mustard to a bowl.  Rev up the hand blender, and add a little bit of olive oil.  Blend, add more oil, blend, oil...you get the picture.  You don't want to add all the oil at once, or it will break up the blend.  Once it's all together, add your washed herbs, and blend again.  Pour over chicken, and let marinate for at least an hour, or overnight.

Remove chicken and pat off excess marinade.  I cooked this on my grill over direct heat for 5 minutes per side.  If you're in the big city with no grill access, you can bake at 425 degrees for seven minutes per side.

Technique: Makin' Bacon

This blog was inspired by my good friend Karen, over at Off the (Meat) Hook. Karen writes a really excellent blog about all things carnivorous. Check it out if you have a minute.

Bacon. Bacon. Bacon. Possibly the most delicious of all meat. Salty, fatty, smoky. Pure goodness. Yet messy, and, for many people, hard to cook right. Here's a good technique from your friend Hal B.

Wrap a cookie sheet in foil. Strictly speaking, you don't have to do this, but it will save you a whole lot of cleaning up! If you have parchment paper, you can add a layer of that over the foil for more even cooking, but, no worries if you don't. After that, place a single layer of bacon. Cover the bottom of another pan with foil, place over the bacon, and weigh that pan down with bricks, rocks, bobble-heads, whatever. I know it seems like a bit of work- trust me, it's going to end up saving you a lot of time in the clean-up. Plus, the bacon will rock.

Put the whole hullabaloo into a 350 degree oven. Cook for 8 minutes, rotate, cook for another 8 minutes. Remove the bacon, pat down with paper towel, sit down, eat bacon. You can strain the rendered fat and use it for lots of tasty things, like cooking eggs to go with your bacon. Do it!

Note: Cooking time will depend on the thickness and quality of your bacon. I'd recommend a thicker cut, and try to avoid the over-processed Oscar Meyer type bacon. If it's undercooked after the cooking time, just take the top sheet off and cook another minute or two.