Food Fascination

Follow Bart’s 7×7 Adventure

A challenge has been issued - my friend Bart signed himself up for the 7×7 challenge - a competition where 8 guys will eat only 7 ingredients for 7 days. Each gets to choose their own list of ingredients, and each tries their darndest to undercut everyone else. So - in an effort towards the positive (helping him survive and not get bored on 7 ingredients for 7 days) as opposed to the negative (sending the competition links to this blog ) Jackie and I came up with a list of suggestions for his list of ingredients.

His 7 are:
Corn tortillas
Portobello mushrooms
Cheddar cheese
White rice
Avocados
Eggs
Bananas
with freebies of salt, pepper and water.

Here were our original thoughts on the ingredients:

Make up a lot of white rice at a time, and keep it in the fridge. It’ll be a good source of starch, and even when it’s cold it’s easy to mix in with other things. This, along with eggs, will probably be the staples.

Bananas have a higher sugar content than anything else on the list. Make use of this! Not only to satisfy your sweet tooth, but also to caramelize and sweeten more blasé combinations.

Corn tortillas are especially good when warmed - put them in a dry skillet and let them warm over low heat. It’ll help them be more flexible and pliable, too.

Portobello mushrooms are practically a meal all in themselves. Sprinkled with a little salt and pepper, they’re amazing grilled. The longer you cook these mushrooms, the firmer and “meatier” their texture is

Cheddar… mmmm, cheese. Get some shredded, or shred some so it’s on hand and easy to use. Also, keep some chunks around to snack on when you need munchies.

Avocados have the fat and oils you don’t really have anywhere else in your diet - so make use of this. Smash them with a little cold water for a spread-like paste, or literally eat them whole (once you’ve halved them).

Eggs, in addition to providing a lot of nutrients you need, act as binding agents for other ingredients. So don’t be afraid to throw one in when things are (literally) falling apart.

Learn to love your Teflon. Because you don’t have oil or fat to cook in, Teflon and low heat will become your friends.

And original menu suggestions:
Breakfast:
Slice an avocado in half, poach an couple of eggs, and cradle the eggs in the avocado.
Scramble eggs, layer them on corn tortillas with cheese, leftover grilled or baked mushrooms, some avocado and/or rice. Breakfast burritos!
Peel and slice a banana in half, put them on some tinfoil, and broil them in the oven. Warmed bananas are sooooo good.
Fried eggs over a tortilla with some cheddar cheese melted on top with the broiler

Lunch/Snacks/Dinner
Melt a bunch of cheddar cheese over rice, stir in up, throw in some pepper. Slice some avocados on top if you care to.
Grill or bake a mushroom, spread cheese and avocado over it
Wrap mushroom pieces and cheese in a tortilla
Stir together some eggs, avocado, and cheese (add white rice if you’d like), then bake in an oven-safe bowl or pie plate lined with tortillas
Hard-boiled eggs with some salt. More info on boiling eggs Try drawing a face on the shell before you crack it
Crack a couple eggs into a hot frying pan, then scramble with white rice and mushroom bits or sliced bananas for stir-fry.
Quesadillas! Over low heat, melt shredded cheese and mushroom bits between two tortillas, then eat with avocado smash for a dip/spread
Meringues - whip up a bunch of egg whites and a touch of cold water with a whisk or electric mixer until they’re stiff - you could even fold in some thinned, smashed bananas for flavor.
There is also a food I have heard of, but never tried called a chupaqueso - basically turning cheese into a fried shell. I’ll let those that know what they’re doing explain this one: chupaqueso.com/original-howto/
Modified Rice Pudding - recipe to follow

How would you do a 7×7? What ingredients would you use?

Why does sour cream always turn into little lumps when I mix it into my hot soup?

To add marbled color, of course! Ok, so maybe those whitish balls of sour cream floating around in your otherwise creamy soup isn’t exactly appetizing, which is a shame because the creamy mouthfeel and bit of tang that sour cream adds is so darn good.

Dairy can be a double-edged sword when you’re cooking. The creamy mouthfeel, rich taste, and wide range of possibilities make milk, cream, sour cream, half and half, cream cheese, and even buttermilk great additions to your ingredient list. However, the protein structures that give dairy products these very features are what make it a little more difficult to deal with.

Milk is made up of two major things - protein that acts like a “net” and lightly binds things together, and fat that coats other ingredients and fills in the molecular “spaces,” making your food creamier. To test this out, blow bubbles in your milk with a straw - the proteins are what make those bubbles stick around so long.

However, that protein net is very sensitive to temperature. When it’s shocked with heat, the proteins seize up and hold onto each other, jealously guarding the fat it wraps around. It’s not that the milk doesn’t want to play nicely, it just doesn’t like being thrown in with a group of strangers. When this happens, it’s known as “curdling.” While curdling is also a sign of milk going bad, it is just the proteins seizing up and “protecting” the fact. This is how cottage cheese and regular cheese are made - the controlled curdling of milk using heat, bacteria, or other agents (such as vinegar).

Of course, the last thing you want is cottage cheese in your creamy tomato soup. Preventing this is as easy as planning ahead a bit. If you are adding anything dairy to your warm food, during cooking or during serving, then simply let it warm up a bit. There are two ways of doing this - one, set it out on the counter while you’re doing the prep work. I promise - it won’t go sour in the 45 minutes or so that it’s sitting out. Your other option is known as “tempering.” Put your dairy in a small container, then whisk or stir in a very small amount (2 Tablespoons or so for each cup of dairy) of the hot soup or hot mixture. Do this once or twice, then immediately stir in the dairy. This raises the temperature of the dairy without throwing it into a very hot environment - which gives the proteins a chance to relax and get ready for their hot bath.

As a “Day Job,” I work in the creative department of a mediumish company in Spokane. More often than not, we end up having conversations that may as well be titled “Cooking With Creative” - because to some extent and at different levels, all of us in the department are foodies. Today the question of seasoning a wood bowl came up.

Wooden dishes, unlike glass or metal, do need a small amount of attention and care to get the longest possible useful life out of them. This is also true of wooden cutting boards and butcher blocks. Because wood begins as a living plant instead of a static material (such as metal ore or sand), it’s cells continue to react to the environment it’s placed in. Wood will warp, expand, contract, crack, and absorb odors, especially if kept in a kitchen. However, an easy way to protect against this and extend the life of your woodware is to season it.

Much like you would season a cast-iron pan, seasoning wood is about filling the pores with something of your choosing, rather than allowing the cells to absorb whatever they come in contact with. Oil repels both odors and liquids while helping to maintain a moisture balance in the wood, preventing warping and cracking. However, please, as someone speaking from unfortunate experience, do not use your usual cooking oil! Olive oil, vegetable oil, and most cooking oils all go rancid after time, and you end up with a very sour, fairly bacteria-filled substance that has seeped through your woodware. In the end, your options are to either grind it down and basically start again, or throw it away and buy a new one - neither option is very inexpensive or fun.

So what do you use? There are several schools of thought out there as to what, exactly, to season the wood with, but I have always (and continue) to prefer mineral oil. This is a food-grade oil that does not go rancid, has no taste, and no smell. There are some who say walnut oil is another option, and it is - however, I am hesitant to use it because there are those with very severe nut allergies, and should they eat something prepared on or served in a walnut-oil seasoned dish, it could be dangerous. Walnut oil is also significantly more expensive.

So, start by heading to your pharmacy section at the grocery store. You’ll find the mineral oil in with the laxitives. Now don’t get scared! You won’t get the runs from seasoning your wood with this oil - it takes several tablespoons for that effect to be noticed, and a very tiny percentage of the oil, if any, will actually get on your food.

Throughly wash and dry your woodware. Let it dry for a day or two. Then gently spread a very small amount of the mineral oil in and on the wooden surfaces. Let it dry for a few hours, and if it’s your first time seasoning it, then add another layer or two, letting it dry between each layer. Re-season the wood every month or two.

This, of course, is the not-fanatical-about-it method. There are those who season every week. There are also those who refuse to use soap on seasoned wood. While it’s true that most of the time your salad bowl needs little more than wiping out with water, I am a HUGE fan of actually washing your cutting boards - too much nasty bacteria to kill if you cut meat or unwashed greens on those puppies.

The other option you have is mineral oil with a bit of beeswax mixed in. While this will add some water repellency to your wood, the extra expense and effort doesn’t really outweigh the barely-noticeable benefits. Beeswax also leaves a slightly sweet smell, which could transfer to foods.

Once your woodware is seasoned, be sure to keep it out of water unless you’re washing it (store cutting boards on their side so the bottom doesn’t soak in dishwater as it’s drying). Re-season it occasionally - the wood will slightly darken and the grain will stand out more as you go, but this is entirely natural.

And above all, enjoy! Having beautiful (or even “just functional”) utensils for serving and preparing food is no good if you don’t actually use them!

Why can’t I add pineapple, kiwi, gingerroot, papaya, figs, oranges, or guava to my Jell-O?

Because carrots are too darn tasty.

OK, I kid. Kind of. I grew up very close to the Green Jell-O capital of the world (Utah, for those of you playing at home) and was sadly exposed to the “we can put anything in Jell-O and it qualifies as a dessert!” mindset. Thus we had green Jell-O with carrot shreds and marshmallows on top (because mini-marshmallows make anything a dessert too).

Enough, however, about my childhood torture. Despite those inauspicious beginnings, I actually rather enjoy the jiggly wiggly gelatin treat, be it brand name or otherwise. I even like it without alcohol mixed right in! As carrots taught me, however, there are some things that simply could not or should not go into gelatin, because it ruins the wonderfully odd texture.

The way gelatin does its work comes from the protein it is constructed of. The structures of the protein are easily broken down and rearranged, mostly based on temperature. Thus hot water melts the powder and breaks down the protein structure, and when the gelatin is cooled, the proteins grab onto one another again and create the gel - like substance that we call Jell-O.

Gelatin is made from collagen (not the hooves and horns of cows, although it is an animal-based product - vegetarians and vegans beware). Collagen is very sensitive to acids, because the protein structure is so fluid, they are easily broken down. All the fruits listed are very acidic, and so the proteins won’t be able to find each other and form bonds, no matter how long you leave them in the fridge. However, if you *do* want to be able to add fruit to your Jell-O, try sliced bananas, apple chunks, or grapes. Basically any fruit that doesn’t make you slightly pucker when you put it in your mouth (it’s the acid that does this) should be OK to at least try.

On a slightly related side note, having a box of gelatin around is not a bad idea. Just the unflavored stuff - it will do amazing things for the texture of your meatloaf. Don’t believe me? Here’s the deal - collagen is that gristly stuff in most meats - the stuff that, other than fat, makes up the white marbalizing streaks in full cuts of non-ground-up meat. Pot roast (rump… cow butt) cuts are famous for this. When you cook collagen for a long time at a low temperature (as you are supposed to do with pot roast) the gristly stuff turns into gelatin, which gives roast beef and pot roast that smooth, almost creamy fall-apart texture. So don’t turn up the heat, and don’t force it, and you’ll love the texture.

Of course, cooking meat loaf for a long time at a low temperature would lead to a brick for dinner. However, a teaspoon or so of unflavored gelatin in your meat loaf recreates this effect. Don’t go overboard, or you’ll end up with what appears to be Jell-O with meat. Even worse than carrots.

Oh, and for those of you who imbibe and are still stuck on my “alcohol mixed in” comment a few paragraphs above, try the college-student thing and make flavored gelatin according to box directions, but replace the cold water with cold liquor - rum and vodka make good choices - pour into small once-sized cups, and refridgerate for the classic Jell-O shot.

What is a potato bar and can I go there to pick up chicks?

“And I knew, as I gazed into her deep green eyes from the other side of the chafing dish full of beef stroganoff, that I could ask her something I’d been dying to ask for hours… if she could please pass me the sour cream.”

OK, so this probably isn’t quite what will happen to you this holiday season (or maybe it is, who knows) but potato bars really are one of the best solutions for a busy ChrismHaunaSolstiKwanzzaka season - or anytime you need to feed a large, fairly varied group of people. They tend to be a favorite of catering services because they’re fairly easy to set up, everyone gets an option as to what they eat, and the preparation can be as complicated or as simple as you want to make it.

The basic idea of a potato bar is baked potatoes with a wide variety of toppings, set up so each person - even vegetarians - can choose what goes on their spud. Usually the toppings will include some combination of butter, sour cream, bacon bits, cheese (or cheese sauce), steamed vegetables, chili, and beef stroganoff.

Of course, the most important element of a good potato bar is a good baked potato. Now, I admit, I’m an Idaho Girl. And at some point, I will probably go off on every different potato type and what they are perfect for (because even I admit russets aren’t the ideal spud for every use). However, for a good, basic baked potato, a russet really is one of your best options. It doesn’t have the waxiness of Yukon Gold or New Red potatoes, and is exceptionally easy to prepare and bake without paying too much attention to. The 16% (average) starch content makes them nice and fluffy, and the relatively low water content means they bake easily. I won’t even say that you have to use Idaho taters (the tuber cops are on my door for this), but a good russet is the way to go.

So, how to bake them? Two options - oven and microwave. I recommend the oven for this - you’ll get more than 2 taters done at a time, and the skins will be much much more tasty. Save the microwave for your one-or-two spuds for breakfast or a weeknight dinner.

Wash the spuds. Use a veggie brush if you’ve got it, or the roughest, scratchiest washcloth you own. You don’t have to scrub off the skin, but you do want to get the dirt off. Pat the taters dry. Now comes the fun part - pull out your can of vegetable shortening and spoon out a few teaspoons into a separate bowl. Get a very small amount of it on your hand, then rub it all over each potato until they are coated. Then stick them in a 400 - 450 degree oven for about an hour, or until you can easily stick a fork in one. The grease provides a very thin layer of protection for the skin and helps keep it soft during baking, without hindering the ability of the potato to evaporate water. DO NOT wrap potatoes in foil to bake them! When you do this, you seal in all the steam, and you end up with a wet, mushy, soggy potato instead of a light, fluffy potato.

If you are microwaving, just wash the potato, stick it with a fork a few times (to allow the steam to escape) and microwave on high for 5-10 minutes (10-15 for two, 15-20 for three), or until you can easily stick a fork through it.

To set up your own easy potato bar, bake a bunch of potatoes, heat up some of your favorite (even canned) chili, microwave some frozen vegetables, and set out pre-shredded cheese, sour cream, and butter. Spend the remaining 45 minutes while you wait for the potatoes to bake actually enjoying your own party!

After dinner, save any leftover baked potatoes. After a night in the fridge, they are practically perfect for *real* hashed browns the next morning! Just shred them with a cheese grater (or cut them into chunks) and cook in a frying pan with butter, salt, onion powder, and pepper.  Yum!

I love pomegranates, but I can’t stand getting covered in purplish red juice everywhere. Help!

I, too, used to have this problem! Pomegranates are wonderful to eat, and the shot of juice in a ruby-red seed is amazingly happy. However, digging the seeds out can be a messy, sticky fiasco.

Easy solution - use the specific densities of the different bits of the fruit. Translation - slice into the skin enough to get a grip enough to crack it open. Submerge the entire thing in a large bowl full of water, then crack it open and begin to peel apart the seeds and pith. The seeds are heavier than water, because they contain natural sugars, but the rind and pith (the white stuff) is lighter than water, and will float to the top. The water rinses away any seeds you manage to break.

Once you’ve torn apart the pomegranate, simply skim the pith and rind off the top, drain the water, and you’ve got a bowl full of fruity gems!

Try using them as garnish on fruit salads, or eat them as an afternoon snack. Either way, it’s worth the effort.

What’s the best way to cook chicken breasts in a hurry?

Honestly, this entirely depends on what you plan on using the chicken for. If you’re looking for a quick lunch, you’ll treat the chicken differently than if you’re throwing together some enchiladas.

First thing to remember is that the thicker meat is, the longer it takes for the heat of cooking to penetrate deep enough, long enough, to actually cook. If you’re going for a quick meal, you’ll want to get that heat in the cells, quickly. First - have it defrosted. Do this in the microwave if you must, but DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT cook the chicken entirely in the microwave!

This is because the microwave will cook through the chicken by vibrating the water molecules already in the chicken - without evaporating any of them. This turns into rubbery, all-but-inedible meat. Defrost on low power.

Second - slice it up. The thinner and / or less mass each piece of the chicken has, the faster it will cook.

To cook the chicken - your three fastest options are:

1- Poach. Boil water in a saucepot with a bit of chicken stock or cube of bullion. Drop either a full breast or, more ideally, slices of the chicken, into the boiling water. Let boil away for at least 7-10 minutes (for slices) or 12-15 minutes (for a full breast). Pull out and cut into the thickest part of the chicken. If there is pink, cook for a bit longer. If not, you’re done! This will not caramelize any of the exterior, but it will cook the meat through. This is best used in soups, pastas, anything where color isn’t a big deal.

2- Pan-fry. In a hot frying pan, drizzle a small amount of oilve oil and whatever spices you’d like to use (garlic, paprika, and salt make up most poultry seasoning mixes). Drop in the raw chicken, and stir quickly. This is, in effect, stir-frying the meat. You should continually stir if you’ve got the heat on high on pretty much anything, in order to prevent burning.

3- Grill. I know, I know, the contact grills are over-hyped. However, a contact grill can save you time and effort. Throw some spices on the chicken, put it in the grill, and worry about the rest of dinner. Just be sure to cut into the center to make sure it’s done!

Good luck, and enjoy!

Q: How do you extend the life of spinach or other greens? They seem to go bad SO quickly.

The two things that make leafy greens spoil quickly are moisture and air - they work in tandem with bacteria to break down the cell walls and create the “slime” that coats greens after a few days in the fridge. When vegetables look fresh from the store (or better yet, the garden) the cells are full of water and push out against their cell walls (this is, honestly, known as “turgid”). As soon as a plant is cut off from it’s water source, the cells start to very slowly lose water via evaporation. When this happens, the cell walls start to collapse in on themselves and the leaves begin to wilt.

Eventually, the cells have lost enough water that the cell walls start to break down and create that “slime” that shows up after a few days in the fridge.

The first instinct most people have is to seal up leafy greens in an airtight container in order to prevent evaporation. However, this usually leads to them spoiling even more quickly. This is because the water still evaporates from the cells, but with nowhere to go, it hangs out in the air near the leaves and adds more moisture and “weight” to the air, which encourages the cells to break down even more quickly.

The best way to store leafy greens in the short-term (up to a week or so) is to wash them in cold water, pat them mostly-dry, and wrap them in paper towels (no more than one or two layers of greens - if you have more, layer them with more paper towels). Then put this paper-towel-greens layering into a plastic grocery sack, and store it in your fridge (the “veggie” drawer if you have one.) The slightly damp paper towels get a degree or two colder than the fridge and help slow down how fast water evaporates from the cells. The grocery sack protects the greens from the breezes in your fridge while still allowing what moisture does seep out to actually evaporate.

If you want to freeze your leafy greens, however, you’ll need to treat them a bit more harshly. If you just throw the leaves in the freezer, then the water inside the cells will freeze, expand, and burst. Burst cells equals plant mush. It’s easiest to process leafy greens for freezing in medium to large batches, because you’ll need to get a few things set up.

First, get a large bowl and fill it with half water, half ice.
Second, wash your greens. Don’t worry about drying them.
Third, in a large, wide-mouth pot, boil some salt water (about 1 tablespoon salt for every 2-3 cups water)

Using tongs, take a bunch of the greens and dunk them in the boiling salt water for about a minute. Pull them out and immediately dunk them in the ice water. The boiling water kills bacteria and softens the plant fibers. The cold water stops the cooking process, so you don’t have fully cooked (and therefore mushy) greens on your hands. Once the greens are nice and chilled, either 1- wrap them in paper towel, seal in an airtight zip lock (evaporation isn’t an issue in the freezer) and freeze; or 2- chop them into small bits, seal in a small zip lock bag, and freeze. You won’t want to use these frozen greens for salads, but in dips, baked dinners, or soups, they are amazing.

However you choose to store, process, and use your leafy greens, they’re worth enjoying. Thanks to Laurie, my beloved plant geek, for making sure I remembered my basic cell biology correctly!

This is from a chat I had via the “Ask Me” box - give it a try if I’m online - I can’t *promise* I’ll respond right away, but if I miss your question there I’ll answer it here.
Q: I need help with baking bread - my quick bread loaves always end up soggy in the middle of the top. I’ve tried extending the bake time and it doesn’t seem to help. Any suggestions?

A: There are three possible culprits when a quick bread goes soft in the middle, all of which should be fairly easy to fix with a little bit of trial and error. When baked goods start going wonky (and that is the official term) - I would say first and foremost, if you don’t have one, buy an oven thermometer! Ovens can vary by as much as 30 degrees, even when they are on the *right* setting. Once you are sure you’re baking things at the right temperature…

The first possible guilty party in soggy quick bread is that the batter is sitting for too long before you bake it. At the point you combine the liquids and dry ingredients the leavening starts to act, and if it’s all used up before it goes into the oven, there is nothing left to create “new” airspace in the bread. Those little air pockets help bake the batter around them by acting as an insulator. So put the batter in the oven as soon as you can.

The second possible miscreant is not enough or not powerful enough leavening. If you have old baking powder / baking soda, then it may have lost its effectiveness. If you can’t remember the last time you bought a new container, throw it out and go get a new one. (Usually 2 years is about the longest you want to keep this stuff around.) If you are using new leavening and still having this problem, then the recipe may not have enough leavening in it. Try increasing it 1/4 teaspoon at a time.

The third possible transgressor is too much liquid. Especially if you live in a humid environment, or have a humid home / kitchen, the flour you are using could already have more moisture in it. When your “dry” ingredients contain more moisture, than you don’t need as many “wet” ingredients to get the proper balance of moisture. Try reducing the liquid in your recipe in 1/4 cup increments (either all the main liquid, such as milk; or, try 1 tablespoon of the oil and 3 tablespoons of the main liquid).

Good Luck!

Q: I just bought a dual-mode (convection and standard) oven, and the user’s manual says cakes are best done in standard mode. Why is this?

The short answer: Because they’ll look better

The long answer:  A convection oven is an oven that uses a giant fan to circulate the hot air inside an oven, baking things more evenly (and more quickly) than a standard oven. In fact, they are so much more efficient that when baking convection, it is recommended that you both shorten the baking time and reduce the oven temperature by 25-50 degrees. Put simply, a convection oven is “hotter” than a standard oven.

For most things that most people bake, this is a good thing. However, when you start combining this even, forced-air heat with more delicate baked goods, it can get tricky.

Cakes (and for this case, lighter quick breads such as muffins) rely on baking powder or baking soda to get their airy feel. These two ingredients are simply chemicals that react with the chemicals in the other ingredients to add air to the mix. It’s like in third grade when you put baking soda in orange juice to create “orange soda” - the acid in the orange juice mixes with the baking soda and creates carbon dioxide. When this happens in a batter, the air gets trapped and gives the cake lift. When the batter begins to solidify, the air bubbles are “baked in” and stay there. This allows the uncooked batter to lift even higher, because there is a base for it to grow on - kind of like climbing a ladder.

In a regular oven, the heat rises from the bottom of the oven, through the batter, cooking the bottom first and lifting the cake as it goes. In a convection oven, the batter is bombarded with heat from every direction. This cooks the cake from the edges in rather than bottom-up - so when the leavening does its job and the cake tries to rise, it starts building on itself from every direction. The result of this is a cake with a top that rises a bit at the edges, falls a bit in the middle, and then puffs up in the center. It won’t affect the taste of your cake at all, but if you are going for the classic, even dome appearance, switch your oven over to standard mode.

The other option, especially if you’re planning on decorating the cake, is to level it out manually. Freeze the cake for anywhere from 20 minutes (in the pan) to overnight (turn it out of the pan and wrap in plastic wrap). Then use a serrated knife* to cut off the top of the cake and create a level surface.

Then put the “leftover” cake you just cut off in a bowl, top off with a bit of milk, and enjoy the favorite of caterer’s daughters everywhere!

Have a question? Email jadetater (a) yahoo [dot] com!

* Serrated knives are those knives with edges that look like waves - lots of little points. When you use these in a sawing motion (rather than cutting straight down) they cut breads and deicate foods (such as tomatoes) much more evenly.