Thanksgiving 2010- a Vegetarian Version of Thanksgiving

This year it was all about My Thanksgiving Battle Plan. My Plan was a strategic and tactical thorough scheme. The overall concept- a Vegetarian Version of Thanksgiving.

My Plan, which I had carefully been considering for 2 weeks so that the ingredients I purchased would all be wholly used, so

  1. I picked recipes that together would result in using overall packaged amounts of ingredients that came in pints and 16 oz and such,
  2. planned for post-holiday meals that would finish them off too,
  3. made sure to include the calculations to reduce recipe portion sizes while also accounting for how many leftovers I wanted for the long weekend
  4. while everything would of course play well with each other for the initial Thanksgiving meal and leftover meals for the rest of the week.
  5. My Plan would be settled in advance, which meant I bought everything the weekend before at Trader Joe’s, Fred Meyer, and Safeway.

Well, actually the main course for Lobo and Mew was purchased at Petco. Because My Plan included the pets’ thanksgiving experience.

Lobo was soooo excited his face was in the bowl vacuuming the food before I had put half the can into the two feeding bowls (I had to use two since Lobo’s head was in one and Mew couldn’t even see what was going on). Overall, Mew was more on the confused side of what was this stuff, and not so interested it turned out (he licked it for flavor but didn’t really eat much of it at all). So Lobo needn’t have eaten like a pig stuffing his face so fast we were afraid he was going to choke inhaling it all as if he didn’t eat it all ASAP Mew would get it.

First course. Ever since I took that Hip Cooks cheese class, I can’t help but want to make my own chevre as an appetizer if I happen to be in Trader Joe’s, one of the few places you can buy the necessary goat milk. I started the cheese on the Sunday before Thanksgiving because I wanted to give it time to age, like the last batch. However, this batch did not use a culture or rennet like the last one (the recipe I learned at Hip Cooks), just citric acid and the other instructions by Urban Cheesecraft.

The result was still a fresh light tasting cheese, but it wasn’t as creamy- it was more crumbly and firmish closer to a soft feta- and would have been better topping a summer salad then as an appetizer- I let it marinate in a pinot noir jelly and served it on oven toasted 10 grain bread. Their recipe was easier though, so maybe I would try their cheese recipes on something harder like the mozzarella.

We started snacking on the cheese while tasting a 12 oz Hair of the Dog Matt Commemorative Ale as we were waiting on the potatoes and “meats” and souffle. Matt was just released during Hair of the Dog’s anniversary last Saturday, and is made with two Munich malts, two Smoked malts and two types of Belgian candy sugar then aged in Kentucky Bourbon and Apple Eau de Vie barrels from Clear Creek distilling.

The description from the brewer was that the taste profile would be “deep and lush with notes of apple, chocolate and smoke”. We both thought it was a great beer, though thicker and more chocolatey than we anticipated. But, worth $15 for each bottle? Not so sure about that, though we also have some bottles to age

Main and Side courses. I had made some cornbread on Wed in anticipation of making the stuffing. So on Thursday around 11, and for the next four hours, I made the rest of the meal, minus the mashed potatoes and chestnuts. First up based on oven temperature needs after toasting the bread was the Green Bean and Portabella Mushroom Casserole (topped with crispy onions and parmesan) and Cornbread stuffing with onion, carrots, celery, Thai chili peppers and diced “ham”. Both of these would also emerge super hot from the oven, and could stand a little cooling off while I finished the rest of the dishes. I started the stuffing first since I needed time to sweat the vegetables, and as soon as that was done I started on caramelizing the onions for the casserole.

This was only my second foray into green bean casserole. Last time I had made Campbell Soup’s green bean casserole and was not a fan: however the Trader’s Joe’s recipe features mushroom more because not only is a mushroom broth used but it called for sauteed onions and mushrooms as equal part to the green bean inside the casserole. I am a big fan of mushrooms and caramelized onions, and then add all these crispy fried onions and parmesan on top and this turned out great for my tastebuds. I also thought the texture was much more balanced- not just mushy green beans and crispy onions, because the portabella mushrooms still had a bit of soft shape to give just a slight bit more structure to the dish.

 

Meanwhile, the cornbread stuffing. I modified a recipe I had seen on Michael Symon on Food network. For some reason I had watched him make this in an episode- unusual because I don’t watch him at all- but what I saw was so intriguing for a stuffing I looked it up to print his recipe.

As mentioned, the cornbread I had made from a mix the day before, but when it came to the smoked ham I used a smoked veggie version, and for the vegetables I replaced his call for red peppers with Thai red chilis (though obviously in less quantity), and removed the corn (I thought there was enough corn in the cornbread which had kernels already in it, and also the fact I had a corn souffle) so also reduced the amount of cornbread because of that. I also did a lot of winging on the seasoning. I’m not a fan of parsley and cilantro, so I went with dill, sage, and rosemary. Rosemary is such a holiday time appropriate seasoning.

The stuffing turned out visually quite pretty, and was even better the next day as a leftover. The “ham” even in the veggie version gave it a hint of smokiness, and the Thai red chilis a bit of extra zing.

Most of what I made used the stove, and by the time he was entering the kitchen to prep these, the range was completely free. Actually, until he entered the kitchen, I had even done a pretty good job of cleaning up dishes and pans and utensils as I had gone. During the rest of the prep for the recipes following this sentence though is when the sink started to stack up. I’m not sure why the photo shows it a bit greenish- these were the last to the table so it was already getting a bit darker by then. The mashed potatoes, not prepared by me, were made with garlic, skim milk, and skin still on red potatoes. No mentions by me about how there was leftover cream in the fridge still would yield any changes.

What’s Thanksgiving cooking without some misadventures in the kitchen? This time around, it first appeared while baking the corn souffle, following a recipe I had cut out of some newspaper several years ago and don’t even remember which newspaper was. It was taking longer to cook than anticipated because the middle was still wet. There were a lot of little toothpick holes suffice it to say as I kept maniacally checking it because I also didn’t want it to be overdone.

Meanwhile, the higher oven temperature required for finishing the souffle was also throwing off my meat cooking temperatures and times. Also, I had used a Food.com recipe for Almond crusted chick’n breasts drizzled with rosemary dill lemon butter (well, hers was basil butter but I was sick of basil after this summer. And I like dill.)- and the chick’n wasn’t picking up the flour and egg dredge well so the almonds didn’t stick as well as hoped. I got all 10 fingers messy in trying to somehow cover up those cutlets with almond on both sides- every place I can fit an almond I tried to.

I don’t usually eat chick’n so I’m not sure what it tastes like normally, but to me the whole thing turned out dry, though that might have been a characteristic of the chick’n and if I had used real meat chicken (or perhaps not Quorn brand chicken cutlets) this might have turned out better. Another option might be pan frying the chicken so I can season more flavor then drizzling the rosemary dill infused butter offered.

The rebellious food:

I also used a Kittencal recipe for the Parmesan Melt turk’y which I hesitated on adding the salt the recipe called for (not big salt fans) but did it anyway- and what do you know, it was too salty for our tastes. But I did love how much the turk’y round looked like a lot like turkey! The saltiness of the parmesan melt around it almost was like turkey skin in a way. And this Quorn fake meat version that was turk’y wasn’t dry like the chick’n, so some of that salt probably helped retain the moisture.

In the end, my Thanksgiving 2010 plate doesn’t even look like its missing out on options just because it is a vegetarian version.

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Cheese practice

Examples of the pao de queijo… I decided to try a new version of the recipe I found because it is less fat (uses olive oil, less cheese) then the version I usually make. It also uses a blender instead of hand-kneading, which resulted in much more fluffy version.

However, I think I may still make the other version which is denser and chewier, and offers more savory cheesiness.

 

                                              

Current homemade chevre progress… just unmolded yesterday morning after 12 hours of curdling, 24 hours of draining in mold. Then it needs 24 more hours of draining through the bamboo. 12 hours to go, and we'll wrap it tonight! We haven't decided what we wanted to roll it in yet. We do have sweet basil, mint, and sage in our herb garden.

 

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Cheese Whiz: A Cheese Class with HipCooks

I woke up at 6am this morning, excited that today I was making cheese. Actually, I did that on Thursday too, but then realized I still had to go through Friday. But, today was the day!

HipCooks
is a studio located in Northeast Portland, actually tantalizing only a few steps away from Tasty N Sons and  Pix Patisserie. The Cheese Whiz class, taught by Cheyenne, ran from 11am to a little past 2pm, but she made sure to let know in advance that as we were classing through lunch, we should plan to have eaten beforehand. I found out later that most of the classes they teach there's a lot more eating apparently and this one is more "workshop". Have breakfast and you'll be good.

We made 5 fresh cheeses,which included from easiest to hardest, fromage fort, mascarpone, ricotta, goat cheese, and mozzarella, though actually we made the fromage fort last as it took the least amount of prep time and waiting until it was ready to eat. The cheeses were made in a shared hands-on experience of generally groups of 4-5 and a total class size of 14. We also then ate each of these cheeses in her suggested recipe for serving, though at that point with the breaking out of the wine, a light effervescent white Vinho Verde, we also broke out into more socializing and conversation subgroups during actual recipe/eating time and she had to recruit single/pairs of helpers for the "using the cheese in a recipe" preparation.

BTW, the Vinho Verde is an easy to drink wine that would please anyone with its light flavor with little bubbles, and has low alcohol content so everyone can drink freely with less worry about quantity! During the class, they also had water and a pitcher of minty tea to keep us hydrated. After class, she had put together some small cheese starter kits that were optional for purchase, a great idea since otherwise you might have to stop at a few locations. I almost wish they stocked everything they used equipment, and the wine. Particularly I strongly feel the need for a Creuset.

Fromage fort is the meatloaf equivalent to using a bunch of random cheeses, and is more assembling and putting together then real preparation of cheese, though you need a food processor and some already existing cheeses (though whatever leftover cheese you use doesn't matter). This was garlicky cheesy goodness that we spread onto some baguettes that had just been toasted in the oven. It takes longer to toast the bread then it does to do any of the prep/putting together! Awesome hat trick to pull out for easy entertaining snacks if you like to have cheese in the fridge to snack on anyway.

Meanwhile, the mascarpone only needed a few steps, literally heat the milk, add the acid, flavor, and chill. We talked about different options for flavoring mascarpone since so many mascarpone you can purchase in the store already come somewhat flavored… and we all got passed spoons to taste virgin mascarpone right then and there, and then after flavoring, and then it went to the fridge for a couple hours and that's it. The particular recipe for this class was to use the mascarpone, sweetened with vanilla paste and lemon zest, into mini-sandwiches between sliced poached apricots and rolling the outside with pistachios to make very light dessert bites.

 

The ricotta was our first visit into really seeing the curds and whey separating after heating, and using the cheese cloth to assist in that separation over time. It was funny as we passed the bowl around to poke the curd (with clean fingers!) to get a feel for it. The final recipe for the ricotta was to pipe it into roasted tomato halves and drizzle some olive oil and fresh basil.

The goat cheese was only more difficult because it was more a test of patience. Unlike the fromage fort which had no wait until you could eat it, or the mascarpone which would sit in the fridge chilling, or the ricotta which would sit draining, the goat cheese includes putting the curds into molds and waiting for the whey to drain. As the whey drains, the curd compresses into the mold, which means you can fit more curd… so it was almost like watching water boil in the sense that you had a bowl of curd still and really wanted to stuff it all into the mold, but had to wait for draining. 

 

After the molds are finally really full and you've got all the curd you can fit, the goat cheese can be left to age much longer then the other fresh cheeses we learned about- more patience testing. The cheese below was made using the molds in the photo above- look at all that compression, it's like half the size! Although Cheyenne was using a fancy mold she had been gifted with, she explained we could use anything as long as there was drainage for the whey- including empty yogurt containers with holds punched in. We talked about various ways to flavor the goat cheese, both during the making of it or as we did in this class, by rolling it in extra flavor such as freshly chopped herbs. After that, the spreading of the herb goat cheese chevre onto toasted crusty bread is super easy.

 

The fresh mozzarella took the most steps, and is apparently a fussy fresh cheese. She explained how many times she failed in trying to make it, how she kept a cheese journal on all her attempts trying to track her attempts, and how to tell it's not turning out as it's much more temperature sensitive and milk sensitive, and what to do if the mozzarella doesn't quite turn out (put it in lasagna/treat it like ricotta!)

Everyone in class all made a watery mess everywhere on the counter in forming our mozzarella balls as we kneaded and stretched by hand cheese that had just been poached in hot whey. Mozzarella also has an extra complication in which after you have separated the curd from whey, you then return the curd to hot whey later in order to make balls step… which leeches out whey which you want somewhat but you don't want the mozzarella to be dry either, which can be based on how much handling of the cheese you do or the temperature of the whey. Temperate mozzarella!

The shape of the balls and size didn't matter though in this case, since they were then cut to be used for pizza bianca (just on top of dough with olive oil and basil).

This class was really fun, and the entire 3 hours well thought out to keep everyone interested. Her teaching style is laid back but also detailed because she had a lot of knowledge and experience, and explained in a way understandable to anyone. She emails after class out all the instructions, including where to buy various supplies/ingredients and tips for preparation/Plan B if the cheese making didn't work out, and the recipes as an initial idea of what to do once the cheese was finished. This makes you less focused on reading a list of instructions or writing notes and more on just listening and watching and feeling and tasting, like a bunch of little apprentices. It was like she was a friend you have that knows how to cook but also knows better then to try to impress you with techniques or references to what others in the professional industry do- she knows you care about putting together good food not being fancy, so focuses on teaching in a very practical way, including her own personal stories from the everyday attempts. The entire format made this Cheesemaking 101 very approachable and seemingly easy.

I would recommend this Cheese Whiz class to anyone who loves cheese and is interested in getting a good basic introduction to what is the cheesemaking process and foundation of some easy make at home cheese with very little time, effort, or equipment. No special terminology of French words that have you looking for a dictionary or chemistry science in this class beyond reading a thermometer- just practical DIY cheese loving that includes making and eating and is a mix of demonstration by the instructor as well as a little hands on, sampling and touching mid process to get a feel, and then enjoying samples of the fruits at the end of class.

Despite telling us to eat beforehand, everyone left really stuffed from tasting milk and cheese as we were working, and then the final products which included basically 3 appetizers (on bread or tomato), a main (the pizza) and a dessert (the apricot and mascarpone) from the 5 fresh cheeses we had practiced creating.  In fact, I was so full after this class I couldn't make it back to the Bite… though admittedly we got distracted exploring Mississippi Avenue as well. I do plan to go tomorrow.

 

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A Valentine’s Fondue: Champagne Fondue Recipe

We did these over 2 days to try to distribute the fat content 🙂

The recipes come from Fondue It! 50 Recipes to Dip, Sizzle, and Savor by Silvano Franco. It’s not the best fondue cookbook out there, but I think it was in the sale section of a bookstore and I happened to see it, so there you go. What is interesting about this book is that the book also provides sides to try to prepare to dip into the fondue, not just fondue recipes. I can never get tired of cheese fondue. I got french bread, forgot to get mushrooms (but really what you see below is already too much food), cauliflower and broccoli florets, and Braeburn apples. We did the cheese in the electric fondue pot, but the chocolate fondue was one of those fondue pots you can buy where you put a tealight candle underneath it. Yeah, the tealight candle totally cannot keep it warm. If you don’t have a fondue pot, I highly recommend the ones that are first, easy to clean (especially dishwasher), and if you can do electric, that’s easiest. If not, use sterno. Tealights look romantic, but just aren’t functional.

Champagne Fondue

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of champagne or fine sparkling wine
  • 7 ounces of soft crumbled goat cheese
  • 7 ounces sliced camembert
  • 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoons of French brandy
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

  • Pour 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of champagne or fine sparkling wine into the pot and heat gently.
  • Add the 7 ounces of soft crumbled goat cheese and the 7 ounces of derinded and thinly sliced camembert.
  • Stir until everything melts together, do not let the mixture boil.
  • In a separate bowl, dissolve 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, 2 tablespoons french brandy. Add to the fondue.
  • Bring to a boil, stirring, until thickened and then season with salt and pepper to taste as desired.

The quality of the cheese you choose and the champagne are what make the difference here.

Tiramisu Fondue with sponge drops
(which he made into heart cakes, aww)

  1. Preheat the oven to 325.
  2. Separate 3 eggs (yolk and egg whites): you will be using both.
  3. Beat 3 egg yolks with 2/3 cup superfine sugar until pale and thick.
  4. In a separate bowl, sift together the 2/3 cup all purpose flour and pinch of salt, then fold half into the egg yolk mixture.
  5. In another bowl, whisk the 3 egg whites until stiff, then fold into the egg yolk mixture with the remaining flour.
  6. Drop spoonfuls onto a lined, nonstick cookie sheet (or into whatever tin you want to make mini sponge cake shapes- he used hearts)
  7. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
  8. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove from oven, cool slightly.
  9. While it’s cooling… make coffee. Pour 2/3 cup of the coffee into a fondue pot and stir in 2 3/4 ounces of confectioners sugar.
  10. Break in the 3 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate and heat gently, stirring, until melted.
  11. Add 5 ounces of marscapone cheese and stir until melted.

This chocolate fondue was going to be accompanied by brownie and the sponge drops, which is what went best with this because the liquid actually is pretty watery which was great since the brownie and sponge hearts soaked it in, but the fruit could not keep the liquid on it- it would run off. We could have added more chocolate easily, but ended up enjoying our fruit on its own because it was fine without the chocolate.

Actually, the best part was not the fondue… it was that he drew me a card. He did it at work, and he got mad because he smeared some of the ink. How cute is that? On the other hand, he also draw PedoBear as part of the theme of the card, ha ha. We have tickets to go see Max Raabe and Palast Orchester at the Arlene Schnitzer concert hall next Wednesday.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Kate Davis @ Jimmy Mak’s

I've heard several good recommendations for Jimmy Mak’s, a jazz club in the Pearl district area, and it did look pretty cool when I passed it one night riding the streetcar to Bridgeport Brewery. When I also heard it was smoke-free (most jazz clubs are not since Portland does not have its smoke-free ordinance starting until January), that sealed it as a place I wanted to check out now rather then later. I would definitely go again- I didn't make reservations, which was fine because instead of sitting at a table on the main floor, I was able to sit upstairs in the balcony where they have a row of stools with a small table space jutting from it, which allowed a great view still. The club is actually also a Greek restaurant- I wasn't hungry this time around, but maybe next time I'll sample the food. The only review I would have is that the martinis are better than the margarita.

Last week Saturday, playing were the The Kate Davis Band and The David Friesen Band. I'm actually pretty ignorant of jazz musicians besides Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and my favorites John Coltrane (in his somber spiritual period before he entered his what I think of "screaming sax" techniques before his passing), Ella Fitzgerald and Ernestine Anderson.  But, from my list of who I do remember, you can see that I overall tend to like the more singer-oriented jazz as opposed to the more lively or the technical execution of jamming styles of musical instruments. I like jazz music to be sad- I like the nostalgic and simple combination of just live, acoustic music with a good voice that is relaxing, thought-provoking to all sorts of vein of conversation, and tinged with a bit of heaviness that is communicated through the very personal style of a voice and just a handful of instruments. As much as possible, somber, emotional, melancholy. Kate Davis fit this preference of mine perfectly- her website includes a few samples that she did perform that night, and she is extremely young but was able to express an amazing amount of maturity and emotional style with her clear voice

 
Last weekend I also tried the gougeres recipe again, and you can see what a difference not putting in too much butter is. I wish I hadn't snacked on some of the cheese before I grated it though, because this time around I didn't find the gougeres cheesy enough, though they certainly had the right amount of light fluffiness:

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