Month: April 2009

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Birthday Baklava! version 3.1

BAKLAVA 3.1 an outstanding variation!
BAKLAVA 3.1 an outstanding variation!

I wanted to do something for my birthday this year that was a little different. The lunch will be a rather straightforward menu of sushi … but the dessert I wanted something wonderful.

The fun thing about special desserts is to try new variations and I wanted this Baklava to be a bit more… zesty!  No pun intended, there is plenty of zest (orange and lemon in the sauce) in this recipe already… but I wanted to play with the flavors. Traditionally, the most expanded Baklava recipe will add cinnamon, cloves and allspice to the mixture of nut filling… but that leaves out some delicious possibilities.

Something exciting happens to the Baklava nut filling when you add to the previous basic spices… a little ginger, mace, nutmeg and — my favorite — cardamon. I kept the ‘sauce’ stayed much the  same process...  but with the addition of honey brandy to replace some of the liquid… yum!

Isn’t this much better than a plane ol’ birthday cake?

Roger

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a great heavy roll

ready to bake!
ready to bake! the roundish marks on the dough are from the Quinoa

Laura is a tough customer and I have been working quite a while to find the perfect hard roll for her to enjoy. She’s very fond of breads from Germany and Scandinavia… particularly  rye.

So after some fussing with good breads… I found one that meets her expectations.

So what do I have in this roll? Rye flour (loved by Scandinavians and early New Englanders) , wheat flour, Quinoa ( the favored grain of the Incas — although it is a seed), wheat germ, millet ( the original grain of ancient China), gluten, egg, dried diced onions, garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper.

So why go to all this work you ask? Love and the heart, after all, were introduced over a meal.

Roger

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encore for pastrami

Can You really have too much Pastrami?
Can You really have too much Pastrami?

Oh, I think most folks have marinated meat and many have seasoned meat and tossed it into the freezer for a version of  ‘dry curing’… however, I have to confess that curing my own meat was new to me and I took my time to study what everyone else had done before making my first corned beef.

There are quicker ways that the 3 week method I adapted, but I can’t think I would like any recipe better. In fact, I always liked corned beef… but now I LOVE it!  The difference is — of course — all the wonderful things you can do that most commercial folks leave out due to time or expense.  Making the corned beef only gets you half way to making a finished Pastrami ( smoked corned beef is now called Pastrami)… which I have to tell you was really superb!

In the first “In laws” movie, they discussed a recipe where the pollo (chicken) had to be marinated for 6 weeks… well we’re talking only 3 weeks or so for corned beef. Obviously, there are a wide variety of food safety issues that you need to become familiar before you attempt this… but once you have it down… it is a wonderful experience!

Here are the basic ingredients for the corned beef step …

5 cups water, 2 Heineken beers
1 1/2 cups salt
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Prague Powder (a preservative and really not good for you… oh well!)
1 crumbled cinnamon stick
12 allspice berries, 8 cloves, 9 juniper berries
1/2 tablespoon each of: ginger and mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon each of: red pepper flakes, caraway seed and coriander
3 bay leaves crushed

After three weeks or so, I will drain soak in fresh water to reduce the salinity and rinse several times before I re-season and then smoke the beast!

So, why do I go to the effort? Laura loves Pastrami… now she loves mine, better.

Roger

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famous bird thief of aberdeen

Seagull has a hankering for chips
Seagull has a hankering for chips

This is the famous alleged bird thief of Aberdeen, Scotland. I can’t blame the poor ol guy, the chips look mighty tempting. Here’s the story as it is circulated: “A seagull in Scotland has developed the habit of stealing chips from a neighborhood shop.

The seagull waits until the shopkeeper isn’t looking, and then walks into the store and grabs a snack-size bag of cheese Doritos.

Once outside, the bag gets ripped open and shared by other birds.

The seagull’s shoplifting started early this month when he first swooped into the store in Aberdeen , Scotland , and helped himself to a bag of chips. Since then, he’s become a regular. He always takes the same type of chips.

Customers have begun paying for the seagull’s stolen bags of chips because they think it’s so funny!”

Roger Freberg

( Good PR. ,  maybe Frito Lay hired the bird ?)