Fried Pork Cheek

Yeah, well, long time no post. But when you are jostling with the global south for communal kitchen space the product slips. Anyways, I'm going to Basque country tomorrow but decided to post a few pics from when my sister was here.

The first two were from Great Queen Street which is a nice "gastro-pub".

Fried Pork Cheek with Horseradish and Red Cabbage

crispy,unctuous, delish

smoked trout w. beets

 Grilled Raclette and Red Onion Sandwich (from Borough Market)

Raclette under a heater: you can have them melt it on top of roasted new potatoes. 

Bonus, the view from Borough Market across the Thames.

Bonus2: Sharing the rock

on to the pinxtos.

Brussels Sprout and Mascarpone Pizza

I hadn't made pizza in a while, but turned out a few great pies this week.  The key was getting the oven and pizza stone as hot as possible then turning the broiler on high right after putting the pizza in.

I'm still using an approximation of Alton Brown's dough recipe, although I consulted an Alice Waters recipe too this time.  This dough spent a few weeks in the freezer before getting used, which I don't think I'd ever done.  The flavor didn't suffer, but it was a little less pliable than usual.

For toppings, we had canned San Marzano tomatoes seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano and fresh parsley, sliced garlic, mozzarella, mascarpone and brussels sprouts tossed in some olive oil.  The pies were finished with parmesan.  The chunks of brussels sprout were blanched; loose leaves were raw.  Next time I might roast the chunks for a few minutes alone to get some more char.

In

And out.

And again

Before the shaved parmesan

Yes

The Goat of Angora: King of the Mountain

Rich, unctuous, tangy: cheese. It can take so many forms, and yet at its core, cheese has the power to put one into a state of rapture worthy of some of our most potent psychotropics. Not content to experience merely the end product, we recently endeavored to make our own variety of cheese. The end result was a rich but smooth goats milk cheese, laced with garlic and a make-shift Herbes de Provence.

The process is really quite simple. You start with one quart of goats milk, gently simmered until it reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once the milk has reached temperature, turn off the heat and add 1/2 cup lemon juice. Let sit for about 15 minutes as the curds magically separate from the whey. Oh my!

After about 15 minutes, pour the slurry into a colander lined with cheese cloth. The whey will drip off, leaving the curds from which the cheese genesis can begin. If you'd like, reserve the whey by placing the colander/cheesecloth combo over a pot. Then, use the whey to whip up some ricotta. I, unfortunately, contaminated the whey with dish soap. My b.

Expectant cheese makers doing work. 

After a good bit of the whey has drained off, cinch the cheese cloth into a ball, tie it off, and hang it over the sink (or your whey pot, if you please).

After about two hours of watching Big Love, return to your ball and become mesmerized by its metamorphisis from humble milk to a subtle chevre.

Ultimately, we mixed this Manna with a mixture of thyme, lavender, basil, garlic, and sea salt. The result was sublime, whether spread on a baguette or dolloped liberally onto some fresh made gnocchi, as we opted to do. The end result was a an intensely creamy but well balanced sauce, perfect to complement the delicate potato dumplings.

This midday feast, made possible by the generosity of my culinarily inclined friends, was a welcome respite from the 2 feet of snow that had bound us to our humble abode.

More Pickles!

I pickled a pound of crimini mushrooms yesterday with a few porcinis, sage, thyme, parsley, tarragon, garlic, balsamic, olive oil and salt.  I don't have pictures though, so I'll post on those when they're ready to eat in a week or so.

Tonight I finally got around to making pickle pickles, dill pickles as it were.  Except I couldn't get dill heads, or even dill seeds, so really they are imitation kosher pickles, with tarragon standing in (adequately I hope) for the herbiness of the dill.

Here is the whole spread before assembly:

We have:

3 pounds pickling cucumbers, blossom ends removed
4 sprigs of tarragon
8 cloves of garlic, sliced
3 de arbol chiles, split lengthwise
1 tablespoon allspice
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1.5 teaspoons black peppercorns

Close up of the spices:

Assemble the ingredients in layers, kind of like this:

Finally, dissolve 1/2 cup (uniodized) salt in 3 quarts of water and pour the brine until the cucumbers are covered.  Fill a ziploc freezer bag with leftover brine and push the cucumbers down so they are all completely submerged.

Apparently they will be ready in about 2 weeks.  I will update on their progress before then.

I also pickled some more pears, this time of the Seckel variety, which is the traditional pickling pear in America.

One

Two

Three

I used the same recipe as last time, halving the quantities once again.  Really, this is a better size pear to pickle, although peeling them is a bitch.

Nepal Dangia

(Relatively) Recently my gastronomique tourisme brought Your Humble Narrator to the wilds of Surkhet in Nepal with this guy:

Like a boss, he showed me around his wilds, both physical and culinary.

This street/dirt road food is certainly not recommended by Lonely Planet, much less by Ghost Hunters: as you can plainly see, this child is actually a ghost.

But never one to be dissuaded by superstition nor by the prospect of a good ol' fashioned haintin'.

 I enjoyed all the dee-lights I could, including this lil potato dish as well as some piping hot, oil and delicious laden pakora

Check out the hand model in this one - practically pro. And showing off all that is HOLY MOLE!

I'd already eaten one of these flavor bombs out of the expertly wrapped container. My bet is this bounty topped out at 30 nepalese rupees, roughly 43.33 US cents.

Lastly, a photo with the orphans to show I have a heart as well as a stomach - and an abiding love of the Wu

JK

Breaking ground

We are breaking ground on the Boletus blog today by harnessing the power of "new media". I am pleased to announce the first video report (albeit shaky cinematography and frankly piss poor reporting skillz.)

 ZB and I traveled to Brixton in south ldn to a vibrant Afro-Caribbean market. Nestled between the hawker stalls of red snapper, taro, and yam lies perhaps the best pizza place in London, Franco Manca. Unfortunately, ZB and I copped a Jamaican beef patty before hitting up the spot, so we decided to share a pie. The style was decidedly Neapolitan with a very impressive crust (they use a sourdough starter). For toppings we went with the second special that day: roasted potato, spicy salami, gorgonzola, and mozzarella. I know that ordering pizza bianca is probably not the best way to judge a pizza place, but the combination was hard to resist. A really delicious pie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOHRC63WCmQ

ZB = (Andrew Zimmern + Stache) - Orientalism


To Boletus Bloggers, does anyone know how to embed a video on this site? Lemme know.

Thanksgiving in Bath

Yeah, long overdue, I know. Went to Bath, England for thanksgiving with a few ex-pats. We rented an apartment which allowed us to create a proper feast. Menu:

Cheese course:

Two Kinds of Stuffing:

1)Sausage and Apple

2) Alice's Version (Cinnamon, other stuff)

Roasted Root Vegetables (Alice's recipe includes balsamic vinegar. Initially, I was skeptical but it ended up being awesome so I stand corrected.)

Roasted Kale with Red Pepper (Roasting dish, oil, red pepper, salt, high heat, 7-10 min, eat). Amazing, like Kale chips. Credit Baum family.

Mashed Potatoes (No Picture)

Magnum Opus: Three Pheasants

The first two were wrapped in British Bacon. This method results in a moist Bird but perhaps not the crisp skin one would hope for. Nevertheless it was great. The third pheasant was stuffed with lemon and parsley, with lemon and butter strategically placed under the skin.  We also had sausage, parsnip, onions, and carrots in the roasting dish.

Photo would not rotate. Apologies.

My Plate

Lots of good stuff. Hard to go wrong with this menu. I think we had apple pie or crumble for dessert. Poultry and wine cloud the memory.

View of Cathedral from Roman Baths

dG