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So What’s Next?

Jun 25th, 2010
by Dan.
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Today marks the end of my 12 week internship at America’s Test Kitchen. As discussed in my last post, I’ve had a good experience at ATK over these last few months, feeling like I’ve taken some real steps towards becoming a better cook. Coming off of my short lived ‘restaurant experiment’, it was really interesting to see firsthand that there are opportunities available for people that like to cook and write while keeping to the ’9-5′ schedule that I am a bit more accustomed to. Knowing from the very beginning that this internship would only last so long, lately I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching and research to determine the next steps for me. As I’m slowly learning, even when you’re an adult, it can be hard to figure out what to do when one grows up. While I haven’t found any easy or immediate answers or solutions to this great mystery, I do have some exciting news to share.

At the end of the month, the wife and I will begin to slowly make our way back to the West coast, setting our eventual sights on the San Francisco Bay Area. In some ways, this move has always been in the cards for us. With the wife finishing business school in May and me finishing my culinary school training in March, besides my internship, there hasn’t been much to keep us tied to Boston. Not to say that living here hasn’t been an interesting experience for us, but we just never really felt bonded with the city in the same way that we always (and not so secretly) longed to be back West. I am thrilled to be heading back to the San Francisco Bay Area, a place that I called home on-and-off from 2001 – 2008, with a new focus on finding ‘my way’ in the world of food. With year-round access to a smorgasbord of incredibly fresh produce, a budding food cart/truck scene, lots of incredible restaurants, plus all sorts of other cool things, like the Underground Farmer’s Market, there will be countless opportunities for me to immerse myself in a thriving food scene.

The wife and I are in the midst of putting our lives into cardboard boxes as we prepare to vacate our Somerville apartment in less than a week. Beginning on July 6th, after spending nearly a week in New Jersey visiting with my family, we will be hitting the road for a two-week cross country adventure. Never one to turn down an opportunity to take an extended road trip and see something new in this great country of ours, this will be my fourth such journey. From NJ, we will be working our way south along the Eastern seaboard, with stopovers in Nags Head, NC (the Outer Banks), Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. From there we will head west towards New Orleans and Austin. We’re still working on the itinerary for the rest of our trip but as of now we are looking at heading to Alomogordo, NM (home of the White Sands National Monument) and Santa Fe, NM. We’ll probably head into Utah after that to check out Canyonlands National Park, Glen Canyon and Bryce Canyon, then we’ll head across central Nevada via US 50 (aka ‘the loneliest road in America’) before spending a night in Lake Tahoe, crossing into California somewhere around July 21st or 22nd. Our trip details may change but our commitment to eat as much as we possibly can and document our entire experience will not. If all goes according to plan, I will be posting frequent updates from the road.

Posted in: Job Stuff, Road Trips.

Internship Update

Jun 20th, 2010
by Dan.
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As I enter the final week of my 12 week internship at America’s Test Kitchen, I realize it’s been a few weeks since I’ve provided any kind of update. To make a long story short, as a result of some of the things that I’ve previously blogged about, current ATK employees are no longer allowed to blog about specific recipes that are in the development, testing or evaluation stages. Only after a recipe has been published are we free to discuss our experiences during that whole process. This stance does make sense to me because there is generally a lengthy lag time between the testing and publishing phases. There’s always that possibility that an ATK competitor could read the details  of an upcoming recipe or book on an employee’s blog and then rush their own version of that recipe or book to the market before ATK has a chance to do so. While I do understand this ‘media blackout’, its immediate effect has left me with a severe case of ‘internship writer’s block’. In my eyes, my own contributions to a recipe’s development through a constant cycle of tasting, testing and tweaking are the more interesting parts of my internship.

I can say that over the last few weeks I’ve been working with the ATK book team. The book team operates a bit differently than the Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country magazine teams in that each book released usually has an overarching theme, as the recently released titles of “The Best 30-Minute Recipes” and “The Best Skillet Recipes” would suggest. Individual test cooks are responsible for different chapters within a book, a task that includes recipe development and testing as well as authoring all of the chapter’s content. In my tenure on the book team, I’ve been relieving some of the test cooks of their recipe testing duties while they focus on writing. I’ve been enjoying this tremendously as the constant testing provides me with an opportunity to chop and cook all day. After I prepare a recipe, myself, the test cook, and the other members of the book team will taste and critique the dish, discussing what we like and what we don’t like along with any potential errors or corrections that need to be made to the recipe’s list of ingredients or procedures. My input in this phase is critical; as I am often the first person besides the test cook that executes a given recipe, I can catch any errors relating to cooking times, temperatures and procedures and relay that information back to the test cook who will incorporate those changes into their next version of the recipe. As I hone my own palate and become more confident in my ability to taste the different components of a dish, I also can make suggestions for enhancing the flavor and texture of a dish. One example of this is a recent noodle dish I was testing, which was yielding gummy noodles. I suggested altering the cooking time for the noodles by adding them to the rest of the ingredients at a later point, thus shortening the cooking time for the noodles and improving their texture dramatically.

With the end of my internship in sight, it’s natural to begin reflecting on what I’ve learned and how I’ve developed over the course of the last 11 weeks. I’ve certainly learned just how much behind-the-scenes testing (a lot!) happens before any ATK-branded recipe can be published, with some recipes that I’ve tested having been through 10 or more iterations before being finalized. More than that, this experience has  made me a better, if not, much more organized and astute cook. Unofficial ATK operating procedures state that all ‘mise en place’ for a recipe must be completed before any cooking begins. This means that all ingredients need to be cut, diced, chopped, trimmed and measured before one starts to cook. Because ATK is a stickler for accuracy (especially when it comes to measuring out ingredients and cooking times), a scale and kitchen timer are absolute necessities in the test kitchen. When a recipe calls for something like a cup of chicken stock, I will weigh that out to ensure I have exactly 8 oz of liquid. Since it’s not a natural act to for me to be measuring, weighing and timing as I go, it took me some time, but I now feel like I’ve hit my stride in the kitchen over these last few weeks, finding a good balance between working accurately as well as efficiently.

Some of these behaviors have carried over to my home cooking adventures. While I’m not as particular about times and weights when cooking at home, I strive to be organized and work as efficiently as I can, feeling strangely compelled to have as much ‘mise en place’ for any dish completed before I actually begin cooking. Some recipes may have long cooking times between steps (i.e. a pasta dish that requires cooking the pasta for 15 minutes before tossing it sauce); I have embraced the fine art of multi-tasking, using those longer times to prepare ingredients for other dishes that I intend to cook. I’ve learned that having a cluttered and dirty workstation can bring my entire operation to a halt so I’ve become even more anal about keeping things clean and organized as I cook, both at work and at home. Being exposed to the daily act of picking apart the flavors of a dish has also made me a much more critical home cook and restaurant diner. I also find myself much better equipped to objectively evaluate the cooking procedures spelled out in a recipe, allowing me to determine if something will or won’t work, or sounds fishy, before I’ve begun any actual cooking. Having feel like I’ve made some big strides in my own development as a professional cook, I’d say that this experience at ATK has been extremely valuable for me.

What’s next once the internship is over? Well, that will just have to wait for another post.

Posted in: Internship, Job Stuff.

Achaari Murg

Jun 15th, 2010
by Dan.
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I was introduced to this Northern Indian chicken dish at a hole-in-wall restaurant in one of the sketchier parts of San Francisco and it totally blew me away. I had eaten Indian food before but had never tasted anything so bold, complex and yet mysterious at the same time. I’m at a loss to compare the flavors to anything else because I can’t think of any other dish that comes close to having a similar flavor profile. Achaari murg translates to pickle chicken; while this dish contains no actual pickles, it is cooked with many of the same spices used to make Northern Indian-style pickles (which are much more flavorful than their distant cousins found in the U.S.). Just do yourself a favor and order this dish when you see it on the menu next time you’re at an Indian restaurant. Hopefully you’ll have a spiritual awakening just like I did.

In an effort to demystify this dish and unlock its secrets, I did some research, compiled some ingredients from a few different recipes, and took a stab at making it in the home kitchen. Preparing this dish at home necessitated a trip to an Indian grocery since some of the ingredients are fairly exotic and not available at my local megamart. Kalonji, the slightly nutty and peppery seeds of the nigella plant, is one of those ingredients. Here’s the full list of ingredients used, with an asterisk next to the ingredients purchased at the Indian grocery:

6 small, fresh green chiles
Juice from 1 lemon
5 tbsp canola oil
3 onions – roughly chopped
1 tsp kalonji (aka nigella seeds)*
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds*
1 tbsp grated garlic
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tsp turmeric
Chicken parts – I used 2 thighs and 2 drumsticks
1/4 c plain yogurt
3 tomatoes – finely chopped
1 tsp toasted and freshly ground cumin seeds
1 tsp red chile powder*
1/4 finely chopped coriander leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Begin by slitting the chiles in half lengthwise and placing them into a small container with the lemon juice. Put this container into the ‘fridge for later use. Note: I went with fresh Thai green chiles for this dish and they can pack quite a punch so feel free to cut back on the number of chiles if you want to keep the heat down.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium heat until it begins to shimmer, then add the onions.

Cook the onions until they take on some color; this should take about 25 minutes or so.

Next, the first round of spices are added to the pot. This includes the kalonji, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, and both the yellow and black mustard seeds. Mix these spices in with the onions, then add the garlic, ginger and turmeric and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the chicken pieces to the mix* along with the yogurt, tomatoes, ground cumin seeds and red chile powder. As with the green chiles, the red chile powder can also pack a good wallop so if you’re not a huge fan of spicy foods, you’ll definitely want to add this sparingly. You may also want to add about a 1/2 cup of water to ‘loosen’ up the sauce, but that’s optional.

Cover the pot and cook over medium-low heat for about 45 minutes or until the chicken is fork tender. Add the green chiles/lemon juice mixture, the chopped coriander and continue to cook covered over medium-low heat for another 5 minutes or so.

Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with some rice.

As much as I love spicy food, I will say that the combination of the 6 chiles and the 1 tsp of red chile powder made for a rather incendiary dish. I may cut back on the heat by just a few degrees when I make this again. Then again, I may not because I am a glutton for punishment and I was really quite happy with the way this came out**. So much so that I ate the leftovers the following evening.

*Right after I mixed the chicken in with the rest of the ingredients, I realized that I probably should’ve browned it first in order to give it some color and to add additional flavor to the finished dish. Next time I make this, before I cook the onions, I’ll brown the chicken on all sides, then remove it from the pot and set it aside until needed. The onions will be cooked in any fat that renders out of the chicken and will be flavored by all of the little bits of browned chicken that will be stuck to the bottom of the pot. I also think it’d be a good idea to marinate the chicken prior to cooking it, perhaps tossing it with the yogurt, turmeric and some salt for a few hours before it hits the heat.

** Though pleased, I feel that there is still room for improvement. Traditionally, as Indian pickles are cured in mustard oil, this dish can also be cooked in mustard, as opposed to, canola oil. Apparently it is not that hard to make your own mustard oil and now that I have an abundance of black and yellow mustard seeds, I may try to do that. It would bring additional flavor to the dish that canola oil doesn’t provide. I also think toasting the spices prior to adding them to the browned onions would also be a good thing, as would some additional ginger and garlic.

Posted in: Chicken, Home Cooking.

Lamb’s Head Empanadas

Jun 10th, 2010
by Dan.
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This is kind of a funny thing to say, but this really is the perfect thing to make if you ever find yourself with both a lamb’s head and some lard at your disposal. Those of you that have been following this blog will realize that preparing something like this shouldn’t seem so far ‘out there’ as evidenced by my well documented previous experiment with Lamb’s Head Soup and my reasons for even cooking such a thing in the first place. This time I’ll spare you the details of how I prepared the lamb’s head and focus on the empanada dough. For those of you that are interested, to make the empanada filling I basically followed the same steps for making the lamb’s head soup, with one major difference; because I wanted something that could be used as a filling and not eaten as a soup, I cooked with much less liquid this time around. I also cut way back on the wine and used beef stock as a primary liquid…no real reason for that change, I just happened to have lots of beef stock sitting in my ‘fridge.

So why empanadas? Well, why not. I didn’t want to simply rest on my lamb’s head soup accomplishment and make the same thing again. I had also been thinking about ways to repackage such a dish into a more acceptable, less-intimidating, and portable delivery system. Plus, having never made empanadas at home, I thought that it would make for a fun project.

The empanada dough begins with 3 cups of all-purpose and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, placed into a large bowl and mixed well.

Add 6 tablespoons of cold lard to the flour and salt.

Using your finger tips, ‘break’ the lard into the flour-salt mixture until the whole thing looks a bit like wet sand.

We are going for a tender, as a opposed to flaky dough, so you don’t want to see any huge pieces of lard in the mixture.

Next, form a well in the middle of the flour-salt-lard mixture. In a separate small bowl, beat 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of white vinegar and 1/2 cup of cold water, then pour this mixture into the well.

Using a fork and working around the edges of the liquid mixture first, begin incorporating the dry ingredients into the wet until the dough begins to come together. It should look something like this:

Pour this loose dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough becomes homogeneous and you can form a semi-smooth ball out of it.

The less kneading you do in this step, the better. Once you’ve formed a ball, using your hands, flatten it out a bit, then wrap it in plastic and place it in the ‘fridge for an hour or so. After an hour, remove the dough from the ‘fridge, split it in half and roll it out until it’s about an 1/8″ thick. I like to split it in half because a smaller quantity of dough is easier to work with. Stash the second half of dough back in the ‘fridge while you’re rolling out the first batch.

I used a 5 1/2″ bowl as a template and cut circles out of the dough by using a small knife to trace around the circumference of the bowl. Extra dough scraps can be combined together, re-rolled and cut. When it comes time to filling your empanadas, it is better to err on the side of using less filling. Too much filling will make it nearly impossible to seal the empanadas and you also run the risk of having your empanadas bust open when they cook. I used about 2 tablespoons of filling per 5 1/2″ round.

The filling should be placed on one side of the dough, then fold the non-filled side around the filling. Use the tines on a fork to seal in the filling. If conditions are right, you shoudn’t need any ‘glue’ to hold the empanada closed, but if you do, some water or beaten egg will do the trick.

Place the empanadas onto a baking sheet and using a small brush, apply a thin coat of lightly beaten egg to their surface. They should be baked in a 375 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Alternatively, you can deep fry your empanadas. They can also be frozen and baked/fried at a later date (make sure to freeze them before the egg wash is applied).

The beauty of this creation is that I bet you’d have no idea if I didn’t tell you that these innocent little doughy pillows were filled with the meat and juices from lamb’s head that had been braised until it literally fell apart.

I don’t know if I’d ever want to mass produce empanadas – the whole rolling/filling/sealing thing can be a bit labor intensive – but these would certainly make for a fun appetizer the next time we have people over for dinner or we have a party to go to. Hey everyone, who wants to try lamb head?? All joking aside, I was actually quite pleased with the way these turned out and would make them again in an instant, though I might opt for a slightly less adventurous filling next time.

Posted in: Home Cooking, Lamb, Stillman's.

I ‘Heart’ Cast Iron

Jun 6th, 2010
by Dan.
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While it might not be as sleek, svelte, or even sexy as my trusty stainless steel skillet, lately I’ve been finding myself reaching for my 12″ cast iron skillet more than ever. Cast iron offers many advantages over stainless steel; it’s inexpensive (I could buy four of these for the price of one similarly sized All-Clad skillet), it heats evenly and retains heat well, and it’s virtually indestructible.

So why doesn’t everyone immediately think of cast iron when shopping for new cookware? I like to think of stainless steel as a car equipped with an automatic transmission and cast iron as one equipped with a manual transmission; both will get you to your destination but the 5-speed will require some additional know-how and expertise. All cast iron must be specially treated before it can be used for cooking. In this ‘seasoning’ process, oil (or shortening) is baked into the cast iron skillet as a way to produce a non-stick cooking surface and protect the metal from rusting. In the event the factory doesn’t season their cast iron ware prior to packaging, the home chef must go through this process prior to using the pan. Additionally, cast iron pans require a longer time to heat up and are much heavier than pans made from stainless steel. Cast iron also requires special care during cleaning and may need to be reseasoned periodically to maintain the integrity of its non-stick surface.

Being someone that refuses to give up his manual transmission equipped car, I think the extra effort involved with cast iron almost makes cooking with it more fun and rewarding, plus I like embracing old-school technology. If you’re still not ready to jump on the cast iron bandwagon, have a look at some of the great things one can do with cast iron, starting off with homemade, stovetop-baked English Muffins:

When I need to make a dark roux for anything Cajun related, cast iron has become my go-to pan of choice:

The even-heating properties of cast iron are an asset because flour is prone to burning, especially during the long process required to make a dark roux.

Because it retains and conducts heat so well, cast iron is great for searing things, like this handsome Porterhouse steak:

I cooked the whole steak and made a pan sauce using my cast iron skillet, a perfect example of a one-pot meal.

While cast iron requires special care, once you know what’s involved, the process of caring for one of these pans shouldn’t seem so daunting. If your new cast iron skillet is unseasoned, it may have a thin layer of protective wax applied to the surface of the pan that will need to be removed. Using a brush with nylon bristles (or any non-metallic and slightly abrasive surface) and lots of hot water is the best way to remove this coating. Dry the pan thoroughly, then apply a thin layer of canola oil to both the outside and inside of the pan. Place a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom of the oven, then set the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the pan upside down in the oven on a middle rack and bake for 1 hour (the foil will catch any oil that may drip from the pan). After an hour, turn off the oven and let the pan cool inside the oven. Remove the newly seasoned pan when it is cool enough to handle and store it upside down in a dry place.

To clean a cast iron skillet after using it, simply wash it in hot water while scrubbing it with a nylon brush. The use of soap is not encouraged as it will degrade the non-stick surface faster than just the hot water. Always towel-dry the pan, as opposed to letting it air dry (this will promote rusting). Once the pan is dry, a thin layer of canola oil should be applied to both the inside and outside of the pan while it is still slightly warm. This will ensure that the non-stick coating remains intact. Eventually you may need to reseason the skillet following the steps detailed above, but as counterintuitive as it sounds, the more you use your cast iron skillet, the better maintained (and longer lasting) its cooking surface will actually be.

Posted in: Home Cooking.

Tamales Night!

Jun 1st, 2010
by Dan.
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I had never really given much thought to making tamales at home until one fateful day during culinary school when we covered the cuisine of the American Southwest (with its heavy influence from its neighbor to the South, Mexico). On this day, my partner and I were assigned to scratch-make tamales, the popular and portable Mexican comfort-food classic that one can now find at any decent Mexican food joint here in the U.S. Like any good sandwich, tamales are designed to be eaten on the go and are made up of a few components; a dried cornhusk wrapped around a doughy filling called masa, along with some other kind of meet, cheese or vegetable filling. On this day in school, I prepared the tinga filling (basically, a stewed and shredded pork dish) while my partner prepared the masa and coordinated the assembly duties. We had fun making the tamales and I thought that it would make for a festive dish to replicate at home, especially when the kind folks at Stillman’s Farm provided me with (through my CSA) another bone-in section of pork shoulder to work with.

I began by cutting the pork, a 5lb Boston butt, into roughly 2″ inch chunks. Lacking a band-saw, there wasn’t much I could do once I reached the bone, so I just cut around it as best as I could. Don’t discard that piece; there’s lots of flavor in that bone and it should be cooked along with the rest of the pork pieces.

An hour prior to cooking, the pork pieces were tossed in a dry rub.

I prepared the dry rub by stemming and seeding a few dried New Mexico and California chilies. I toasted the chilies in a small skillet for a few minutes before placing them into a spice grinder, along with some Ancho chile powder. I ground this mixture up and added it to some freshly toasted and ground cumin and coriander seed, along with some paprika, salt, garlic and onion powder.

Cooking can sometimes be quite the dirty job.

Over medium heat, I browned the pork pieces very well on all sides. I used my trusty dutch oven for this step.

Once all sides were browned, I removed the pork from the pan and set it aside.

Some fat will render out of the pork as it browns. To this fat, I added one roughly chopped onion and cooked it until it softened, about five minutes. Next, I added a few smashed garlic cloves and cooked the mixture until I could smell the garlic, about a minute, then I poured in a bottle of beer. I’ve experimented with cheap domestic lager and fancier porters and really any kind of beer works here. After the beer, I added dried oregano, a few bay leaves, cumin, some of the leftover chili powder I used for the pork rub, a chipotle pepper (the kind that are canned in adobo sauce) and a few roughly chopped tomatoes. I added the pork back to the pot and brought the liquid to a boil, then covered the pot and placed it in a 325 degree oven and cooked the pork until it was fork tender (roughly two hours in my oven).

While the pork cooked, I prepared the masa, which is prepared using a special kind of flour called masa harina. Masa harina is made from corn that has been put through a process designed to ‘unlock’ the niacin found within the corn’s kernels, thus permitting our body’s digestive system to absorb this valuable nutrient. After this processing, the corn is dried and ground in order to make masa harina, which can then be reconstituted to make masa. There, that’s not confusing at all, is it?

When we made tamales in school, we used a ratio of two parts masa harina to roughly one part liquid and roughly one part shortening or lard. I decided to experiment here and used my reserves of rendered pork fat. I only had about 1/2 cup of this homemade lard, so I cheated and added in a few tablespoons of rendered chicken fat. Store bought lard would’ve worked out just fine except that none of the three stores that I went to had lard in stock.

I placed the fat into the bowl of my stand mixer and beat it until it was light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, I combined two cups of masa harina with some cumin, chili powder, baking powder and salt, then slowly worked these dry ingredients into the beaten fat.

Next, I slowly added about a cup of chicken stock.

Using my mixer’s paddle attachment, I worked the mixture until it resembled wet cookie dough, then I covered it and placed it in the ‘fridge until the pork finished cooking.

Once the pork was fork tender, I removed it from the dutch oven and set it aside. I then reduced the liquid in the dutch oven until it was nice and thick. When the pork was cool enough to handle, I shredded it using a pair of forks.

I added the shredded pork to the reduced cooking liquid, then prepared my kitchen countertop for tamale assembly. In addition to not being able to find any lard, I also couldn’t find any dried cornhusks at any of my local megamarts. I suppose that I could’ve just gone to a Mexican grocery store, but that would’ve been too easy. Fresh corn is in season now and where there is fresh corn, there are also fresh corn husks. When most people buy fresh corn at the supermarket, they peel away the husks and immediately discard them. Figuring that the supermarket was just going to dispose of them anyway, I helped myself to a large bag of discarded fresh corn husks, much to the amusement of some of the supermarket’s employees. As an added bonus, since they were fresh, they were also pliable; normally the dried cornhusks must be soaked in order to roll them without tearing.

To make a tamale, lay out a cornhusk and flatten it out as much as possible. The wider the husk, the better, though if you have a few narrow husks, you can overlay them on top of each other as needed. Spoon out a small amount of masa onto the husk. The wife was kind enough to offer her assistance here while I documented the tamale production process.

Use your hands to evenly distribute the masa across the cornhusk.

Add a small amount of the pork filling on top of the masa, then roll up the cornhusk, using butcher’s twine to keep it closed. When rolling, you want to try to keep one end totally closed and one end open.

Arrange the rolled up tamales into the basket of your favorite steamer, closed end down.

Steam for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the masa is cooked through and the pork filling is hot. Cut away the string and serve immediately.

While I was pleased with the pork filling and the taste of the masa, my masa was way too dry and chalky. Next time I prepare it I’ll be sure to use more liquid perhaps a bit more lard, just for good measure.

Posted in: Home Cooking, Pork, Stillman's.

Pastrami (AKA The Great Sunday Smokeout)

May 27th, 2010
by Dan.
1 comment

I can say with the utmost confidence that growing up in New York City, the nexus of the universe when it comes to Jewish delis, has made me somewhat of a (self-proclaimed) expert on all matters pastrami. A homemade version of this smoky and peppery staple of any decent NY-style sandwich shop has always eluded me because in order to make a decent and ‘authentic’ pastrami, one needs two very important things; time and a smoker. Time is something that I have in abundance but a smoker is one piece of essential kitchen hardware that I am lacking. Enter my pal Fishman, who was kind enough to not only recently invest in a smoker but to play host this past Sunday afternoon to the wife and I. Fishman, who has become quite the accomplished smoker, offered to prepare a few of his signature dishes and asked me to make something, thus finally giving me a chance to bring my pastrami dream to life.

I did a ton of research before embarking on this journey. What I present below represents a work in progress. For a first attempt, I was pleased, but there is much room for improvement. More on that later. Unless you’re Michael Ruhlman and you use short ribs (pure genius), most pastrami begins with corned beef and corned beef begins with brisket, specifically what’s referred to as a brisket ‘flat’. Typically, this is what you’ll find at most mega-marts, though the whole brisket, in addition to the flat, will also contain a second section referred to as the ‘point’, which is much more irregularly shaped and contains more fat than the ‘flat’. For this project, I selected a 3 lb flat from my local butcher shop.

I tried to choose a brisket with uniform thickness all the way around. My specimen had a pretty thick layer of fat on the surface, which should be trimmed away until it is only about an 1/8 ” thick. Some fat on the surface is desirable as it will help ‘baste’ the meat during cooking, but if the layer of fat is too thick, it can impede the next step, the curing process. Uniform thickness is also good to have as a way to encourage even curing.

Curing can be done in one of two ways, dry or wet. In the dry curing method, salt and other spices are rubbed on the surface of the meat and it is allowed to sit in the refrigerator for anywhere from three days to three weeks. In the wet method, the meat is submerged in a brine, also for three days up to three weeks. The ‘wet’ method felt a bit more authentic to me, so that’s what I went with. To make the brine, I filled a large pot with 4 quarts of water and added the following:

1 c kosher salt
1 c light brown sugar
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
3 tablespoons pickling spices (a mixture of coriander, juniper berries, peppercorns and a bunch of other goodies – this can be found at any major supermarket)
4 teaspoons thyme
8 bay leaves

Stir the water and spices to combine and heat the mixture just until the salt and sugar are dissolved, then let it cool completely, ideally to a temperature between 36 and 40 degrees F. I like to do this the day before so that the brine can chill overnight in the refrigerator before I use it though you can cut back on the amount of water and add ice to the mixture once the salt and sugar are dissolved.

Once the brine is cool, pour some of it into a plastic container (it must have an airtight lid), add the meat and make sure that it is completely submerged in the brine before putting on the lid. It is important that the container is actually big enough to allow the brisket to be totally submerged in the brine. Since I didn’t have any containers big enough to allow that, I made the executive decision to cut my brisket in half and use two containers.

I had just over a week until my date with the smoker, so I went with a six day brining period. Not ideal as I would’ve preferred a lengthier brining time, but six days would have to do. In order to reduce the chance of spoilage during a lengthy brining period, some folks also include some kind of preservative, in the form of a curing salt (pink salt, for example) along with their brining spices, but this is not totally necessary. Pink salt, which is salt that has also been fortified with trace amounts of sodium nitrite for food preservation and bacteria eradication purposes, can be used and is often what provides pastrami (and tons of other cured meats) with its characteristic red hue. I figured that a six day brine wouldn’t be long enough to introduce any unwanted bacteria into the meat, so I skipped it, opting instead to make sure that my hands were squeaky clean every time I handled the meat and the plastic containers.

Once the meat is placed into the refrigerator, the only thing that you’ll need to do during the brining period is ensure that the meat remains completely submerged. I checked on the meat once a day and also shook the container around each day to ensure that the brine came into contact with all surfaces of the meat. After six days, the meat was removed from the brine (which was then discarded) and allowed to soak in cold tap water for an hour in an effort to remove any potential residual saltiness.

After its hour long bath, I dried the meat off and it was ready for the next step, the application of the spice rub. In an effort to keep things as ‘traditional’ as possible, I made my rub out of freshly ground black peppercorns and coriander seeds, to which I also added a few dashes of garlic powder. Note that the spice mixture is ground relatively coarsely.

I liberally applied the rub to every surface of the meat, then wrapped the meat up tightly in a few layers of plastic wrap and aluminum foil, then parked it in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, I packed up the car and headed over to my friend’s house.

Here she is in all of her glory, the Char Griller Smokin Pro, pictured with the add-on side fire box, an absolute requirement if you want to utilize all 830 square inches of available grill space for indirect, smoking goodness.

In short, the fire box is fed with hot charcoal briquettes, then a layer of soaked wood chips are laid on top of the coals. The heat from the charcoal causes the chips to release smoke, which then travels from the smaller chamber through the larger chamber (with aid of vent holes) and permeates the meat within. I wasn’t taking any chances here; even though the main chamber of the grill is equipped with a temperature gauge, I wanted to be absolutely sure of what was going on within the soon-to-be pastrami, so I relied on my probe thermometer to let me know when the meat reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.

Smokin’!

After about two hours in a 225 degree smoker, the meat was pulled and allowed to rest.

After a lengthy resting period, it was finally time to slice into pastrami…

…and pile it high on some toasted marble rye.

As far as the taste is concerned, I think I nailed it. Appearance-wise, I didn’t miss the bright red color of traditional deli pastrami. Where I missed the mark was in the overall tenderness of the final product; my pastrami was much tougher than what I was hoping for. I think there were two factors at work here, brining time and cooking method. Even though I was constrained by time, a longer period of soaking in the brine probably would’ve done some good. Also, had I opted for a hybrid cooking method in which the pastrami was flavored by the smoking process for part of the cooking, then steamed in order to complete cooking, the moist heat generated by the steam would’ve served to more effectively break down all of the connective tissue contained deep within the brisket. Because of the toughness of the meat, I also had a hard time slicing it thinly and cleanly without actually tearing through the individual slices. But like I said earlier, for a first attempt, I’m quite encouraged by my results.

In addition to the pastrami, Fishman contributed some really tasty smoked wings and a ginormous turkey, along with a small side of salmon and some sausage (unfortunately, neither of which are pictured here).

I’m not going to divulge his secret recipe for wings here, but I will say that I would’ve been happy eating nothing but these all day long.

That is of course, until I tried his smoked turkey. That Fishman sure is a clever bugger; he strategically injected his turkey with beer, garlic oil and cayenne pepper prior to smoking it.

I will go on record as saying that it was the most flavorful turkey I’ve ever had. As good as my own roasted turkey is, I may insist on a smoked turkey come Thanksgiving this year.

Doing what we do best…manning the smoker.

Good work, men!

Aside from the little bit of smoking action that I’ve seen at work, I must say that this was my first real experience with any kind of large scale smoking operation. I am quite impressed with the capabilities of the rig that Fishman purchased. After reading up on the pros and cons inherent in the offset smoker design, I was concerned that it would be hard to maintain a constant, smoking-friendly environment of around 225 degrees inside the main chamber, but it didn’t really seem like Fishman had any trouble doing just that, provided that he had a steady supply of hot coals to feed to the beast once its temperature began to drop below 220 degrees. Perhaps it is finally time to the bite the bullet and invest in a smoker of my very own. Any recommendations?

Posted in: Beef, Home Cooking.

Internship Recap – Week 7

May 21st, 2010
by Dan.
1 comment

Week 7 of my internship has come and passed, with this week marking the end of the three week filming period for the America’s Test Kitchen TV show. As far as I can gather, filming went off without any major glitches or snafus. I imagine that after 11 years of doing this, the film crew, test cooks, hosts, writers and everyone else involved probably have this whole TV filming thing down to a science. Still, after seeing all of the planning and manpower that goes into filming 26 episodes in a three week period, I am quite impressed. Here are few more shots taken during different parts of filming, beginning with me cooking up a beef dish while on the set.

Across from me, Kevin is also on set doing some cooking.

For every dish that is filmed, the last step is to shoot the completed version of the dish, up close and personal. The dish must look perfect because it will be the main opportunity for the audience to see what the final dish should look like. Here the TV crew prepares for yet another so-called ‘beauty shot’.

Crew members hover around Yvonne, one of the show’s co-hosts, to provide her with some last minute instruction.

I saw it countless times over the last three weeks, but I still don’t know how all of the show’s hosts can just stand there and look so confident and comfortable in front of all of those prying eyes and TV cameras. To increase the ‘degree of difficulty’, the hosts also have no scripts in front of them and they must cook on camera, all the while, talking effortlessly about what they’re doing; it’s no easy task.

Located in another part of the building, is the makeshift control room. This is where the director sits, running the show kind of like a submarine commander mans his own vessel, cut off from the outside world, relying on instruments to guide him from point A to B.

A rare moment of quiet on the set between takes.

Once the test kitchen returns to normal next week, it will look something like this, except it won’t be as dressed up for TV and it will be filled with test cooks, eager to return to their normal testing activities after their three week hiatus.

All of the equipment behind me will be gone by the beginning of next week.

I was on set during filming a lot more than I originally expected to be; there should be a good chance of spotting me in the background once these new episodes air on PBS. I will let you all know exactly when that will happen as the time gets closer.

Posted in: Internship, Job Stuff.

Shrimp and Grits

May 19th, 2010
by Dan.
1 comment

When the wife and I were in Portland, OR at the beginning of the year, we ate dinner at a very well-reviewed ‘Southern’ inspired restaurant called Screen Door. I ordered shrimp and grits for dinner that night and was served easily the best interpretation of that dish I’ve ever had; the shrimp were perfectly cooked and seasoned and the grits were a rich and creamy masterpiece. I was inspired to replicate something similar at home, however, after doing some research, I came across countless ways to prepare this dish, which originated in the ‘low country’ of South Carolina as a means to provide sustenance to fishermen before they headed out to ‘work the water’ during shrimp season.

Deciding that the robust and complex flavors provided by my own shrimp etouffee recipe would complement the grits somewhat neutral flavor, I knew that the shrimp wouldn’t be a problem for me. My research didn’t provide me with a definitive method for cooking grits; some cooks suggest a 3 to 1 liquid to grits ratio, some said 4 to 1. Some cooks use water exclusively while some use milk, cream or some combination of all three. Some cooks use ‘instant’ grits while some use a coarser ground product. Ugh, a perfect case of there being too many cooks in the kitchen! Since this was to be my first foray into making grits, I combined bits and pieces from different recipes and blazed my own path to grits mastery – sort of.

Good grits begin with corn. I had lots of coarsely ground cornmeal on hand just waiting to be called into action.

The grits are poured into a saucepan filled with a mixture of water, milk, half-n-half, salt and pepper that has been brought just to a boil.

Once the grits have been added to the saucepan, reduce the heat to low and slowly cook until they have absorbed most of the liquid and thickened considerably. Here they are after about 2 minutes of cooking.

While constant mixing is unnecessary, you do want to stir often to prevent the grits from clumping.

After about 30 minutes of cooking and whisking, I was initially happy with the consistency and doneness of the grits. At this point, I added cheese, butter and additional salt and pepper to taste.

Here’s the full list of ingredients for the grits:

1 c coarsely ground cornmeal
2 c water
1 c milk
1 c half-n-half
1 c sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 tbsp unsalted butter
salt and pepper, to taste

While this was a good first attempt, I was a bit unhappy with the final taste and texture of the grits; they were a bit too ‘milky’ tasting and at the same time, not quite creamy or buttery enough. I will definitely be tinkering with this one in the near future.

As mentioned, I paired the grits with a shrimp etouffee recipe that has become a regular feature on our home dinner menu. For the first time, I employed my 12″ cast iron skillet for etouffee-making purposes. The first step for making etouffee is to make a roux -  a thickening agent comprised of equal parts of fat (in this case, canola oil) and flour, cooked over moderate heat until the desired color has been reached.

After about a minute of cooking, the roux hasn’t taken on much color yet.

It’s a very different story after 45 minutes of cooking (and near continuous stirring to avoid burning). This dark brown roux provides much of the complex flavor that is at the very core of Cajun cuisine.

The ‘holy trinity’ (onions, celery, green pepper, all diced into approximately 1/4″ pieces) is added directly to the roux.

After about 10 minutes of cooking, the vegetables will have softened up quite a bit.

Next, liquid, in the form of about 2 cups of shrimp stock, is added.

From what I’ve read on the internet, the adding of tomatoes is somewhat of a ‘controversial’ step. Some cooks do make this addition while others claim that tomatoes, because they were not available to early Cajuns, have no place in an etouffee. Personally, I like tomatoes and I had a bunch of sweet grape tomatoes that I wasn’t going to use for anything else, so I halved them and threw them in with the rest of the ingredients.

I cooked the etouffee for about 30 minutes before adding shrimp. Once the shrimp had cooked through, I added in some chopped parsley and green onions.

The See Dan Cook home kitchen requires lots of multitasking. In addition to the etouffee, the grits are cooking on the back burner and some kale is braising.

Dinner is served.

Please pay no attention to the bandaged finger – it was a minor injury (if you call severing a small portion of one’s thumb tip minor) sustained when I was chopping up some dried apricots while chatting on my cell phone. Knives and electronic devices don’t mix – a valuable lesson learned.

Hooray for shrimp and grits!

Inspired by my experiences at America’s Test Kitchen and based on all of the great feedback I got from my Facebook friends, I may take my grits-making to a whole new level by coming up with a series of different grits recipes to trial and test. I’m not exactly sure why, but I feel compelled to nail this one, thus further substantiating my claim that a Jewish guy from NYC can cook anything if given an opportunity to do so.

Posted in: Home Cooking, Shrimp.

Internship Recap – Week 6

May 14th, 2010
by Dan.
No comments yet

The end of my sixth week at America’s Test Kitchen means that I am now halfway through my internship; I really can’t believe how quickly it has flown by so far. TV show production continued this week, the highlight of which included a full day devoted to filming a number of outdoor grilling segments. Here are Chris and Bridget filming a scene for an upcoming episode featuring grilled steak.

Zooming out a bit, we can begin to see the array of cameras and equipment that was moved from the test kitchen and set up outside during the wee hours of the morning.

And zooming out even further, one can really get a sense of just how much man and machine power is needed to produce a glossy and professional looking television program.

For the outdoor grilling segments, filming takes place in the alleyway adjacent to the test kitchen facilities.

In addition to the all of the TV cameras and equipment, it also takes a lot of kettle grills to bring a television program all about grilling to life.

Lots of grills also means lots of chimney starters.

ATK’s preferred method of grilling involves using a chimney starter to light charcoal briquettes. Once hot, the briquettes are then distributed in the grill in a number of different configurations (for example, they can be arranged in a single level or in some kind of offset arrangement where one side of the grill has more coals than the other) depending on what meat will be cooked.

Count  ‘em…10 grills, with almost all of them fired up and ready to be used for cooking the meats that will be displayed during filming. Matt cooks the first batch of steaks while intern Dan supervises in the background.

After seeing ATK produce some incredibly handsome looking and tasting meats using nothing more than charcoal, I have decided to formally swear off of propane.

There I am, the next star of America’s Test Kitchen!

Actually, Theary and I just decided to have some fun on set between takes.

The view that the show’s hosts see while on set. I think it looks a bit intimidating; imagine when you’re on set and you’re staring into all of these TV cameras and everyone is watching over your every move.

It kind of feels a bit like being in a doctor’s office awaiting a physical, where you’re surrounded by a bevy of strange and mysterious equipment and you’re not exactly sure which ones he will probe you with first.

TV cameras are much more complicated looking than my own digital still camera. I’ll stick to photographs for now.

So far, in my own unprofessional opinion, I’d say that filming has been going well. I think that everything is on schedule to wrap up at the end of next week and it seems as though people have been pleased with the filming. I can’t wait to see the finished shows that will begin airing early next year.

Posted in: Internship, Job Stuff.

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