Lucky Mike's The Good Life

February 25, 2011June 4, 2011

52 Foods Week Eight: Lemons

Update: Per Henry’s suggestion in the comments, cooking the lemon low and slow results in even better caramelizing.

I was a little under the weather this week, which put a damper on my enthusiasm for cooking and especially coming up with new ideas. Fortunately, there is one thing I enjoy when I have a cold—a nice hot toddy—that includes lemons, which our generous neighbors have plenty of, and are willing to share.

I didn’t feel it would be right to just make a hot toddy and call the week good, since that would really only entail squeezing a lemon wedge over a cup of hot whiskey, honey and water. I tried to think of something to up the ante, and finally found inspiration in an old memory from college. One night while making mulled wine, a Russian friend showed us a way to eat lemon slices as a snack. She sliced a thin round, covered it in sugar and popped it straight into her mouth, rind and all. We may have been a touch skeptical at first, but we quickly became converts. I figured that I could cover a lemon slice in sugar this way, then caramelize it before adding it to a hot toddy for both a burst of lemon and sweetness.

I sliced a few 1/4 inch thick rounds from a nice fresh lemon. It’s really amazing how good a fresh lemon smells—entirely more fragrant and rich than one that has been sitting in the store. I removed the seeds from each slice, then set them aside to prepare the sugar.

Rather than covering the lemons in just sugar, I decided to mix in some other spices that I like in a toddy, so that they would cook with the sugar and lemons. I chose allspice and cinnamon, but you could use anything you like. I didn’t measure, just tasted the mix a few times until it had the right balance. If I had to guess, I’d say it was about 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon of allspice and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.

I dredged each lemon slice in the sugar until they were well coated, then placed them in a sautÃ© pan over medium-high heat. The sugar and juices melted out of the lemons and began to smell slightly of marshmallow after about a minute and a half. I flipped the slices and continued to cook them for about another minute, then removed them and placed them on a cooling rack with paper towels underneath it. I also immediately ran the pan under water to rinse out the melted sugar, which would have been hell to clean if it had cooled.

As the lemons cooled, I sprinkled more of the sugar mixture over them, flipping them once to coat each side.

They took about 10 minutes to cool, which is plenty of time to heat a pot of water, and place whiskey and honey in a mug. I skewered each lemon with a small bamboo skewer and balanced it over the mug, then poured the hot water over the lemon and into the whiskey and honey. Once served, the lemon slice should be slid into the drink to flavor it more and to use as a stir stick.

Caramelized Lemon Hot Toddy:

2 oz. Bourbon
1 tsp. Honey
1 Caramelized Lemon Round
6 oz. Boiling Water

Mix bourbon and honey in a mug. Place skewered lemon round over drink and pour boiling water over lemon into mug. Steep lemon and use to stir drink occasionally.

More photos of the caramelized lemon process are here.

February 19, 2011June 4, 2011

52 Foods Week Seven: Kiwis

The Farmer’s Market can be an odd beast in winter. It seems impossible that five stands could succeed selling nothing but oranges, yet there they are, week after week, with 5 and 10 pound sacks of citrus. Some do buck the trend, selling only apples, for example, another common fruit which is, perhaps, under-represented at the market. Still others carve out more unique positions, like Frank Stenzel’s all Kiwi table.

There is much to admire in the humble kiwi—which is actually a berry, not a fruit—the hairy skin, the lustrous green flesh, the myriad seeds surrounding the white center like an inverted cat’s eye. Of course there is also the flavor. Slightly tart and sweet. Smooth and never cloying. Distinct but accessible. I would be content to eat kiwis plain, but the rules of this project demand that I prepare each food, and so it was, under duress, that we made a tasty kiwi tart.

This excellent recipe calls for a filling of cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and cream, topped with sliced kiwi and a glaze made from apricot preserves, a roll-call of many of my favorite flavors.

Given instructions this simple and beguiling—”Combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and cream until smooth.”—there was no need to improvise or interfere. We mixed up two L’Ã‰tranger cocktails, followed the directions, chilled the tart for an hour or so, and attacked.

Two hours may have been a more appropriate chilling time, as the center of our tart had a little trouble holding up when sliced, but honestly, I ate my piece so quickly, I hardly noticed. The most challenging part was pausing to take the photos.

February 12, 2011June 4, 2011

52 Foods Week Six: Apples

Sometimes you pick the meal, sometimes the meal picks you. The latter happened this week, when I came upon a gorgeous haul of Pink Lady apples from Mt. Moriah Farms. I quickly filled a bag with 10 or 12, not certain what we would do with all of them, but confident that a plan would become clear. Placing the apples alongside some leeks we had purchased earlier, I realized that the meal I should make—the meal I had to make—involved that most apple-loving of meats, the humble pork chop.

For the meal I envisioned, I needed thick pork chops. Pork chops thicker than any I had seen in Davis. Fortunately, I had a hunch about where these might be obtained: Corti Brothers in Sacramento, a 64 year old Italian grocery that I had heard tales of for years, but not yet had the pleasure of visiting. Corti Brothers did not disappoint, with nearly 2-inch thick pork chops that were a pound each. We bought three, along with some other treats. A plan was coming together.

Back in the kitchen, I submerged the pork chops in a marinade of Wild Turkey Bourbon, sel gris, fennel seed, crushed red pepper and Pernod. The anise aroma of the Pernod filled the room, conjuring thoughts of a robust and complex cocktail. I figured the perfect opener to our pork meal would be a cocktail that offered a preview of the pork’s flavors—apples, anise, whiskey—an apple Sazerac cocktail.

I am a huge fan of rye whiskies, and, with the recent rye shortage, have been stocking up like a squirrel preparing for winter. I believe I purchased the last bottle of Wild Turkey Rye in the Sacramento Valley and recently acquired a dusty bottle of Sazerac Rye, a spirit that has been absent from the shelves of both liquor stores and bars for at least nine months. Bravely, like Abraham acting in faith but against judgement, I emptied nearly half of my Sazerac into a carafe over a chopped apple.

I left the whiskey to infuse overnight, then strained the apples from it. Tasting it, there was a light sweetness, but the apple was barely noticeable, still trapped within the pithy fruit, along with some of my precious rye. I transferred the apples to a measuring cup and muddled them aggressively, then strained this juice back into the whiskey, creating a charming, apple accented rye.

Back to the pork. I chopped the white of two leeks, and sautÃ©ed them in some olive oil, then seared each of the pork chops over medium-high heat. Once the pork chops were seared, I stood them on edge, about half an inch apart, and filled the pot with 4 chopped apples. I reduced the heat to low, and added a couple ounces of water, then covered the pot.

I left the pork to braise for about 2 hours, occasionally rearranging the apple pieces to sit lower in the pot as they softened, and flipping the pork chops once. After removing the pork chops and slicing them, I turned the heat up again, to cook down the apple and leek mixture for a few more minutes. I strained the apple-leek solids out to serve on top of the pork.

While the pork rested, I mixed up a batch apple Sazerac cocktails for our guests, which we served right before the food was brought to the table. The cocktails’ offered a perfect introduction to the pork, which was sweet and fruity with a hint of anisette.

Apple Leek Pork Chops:

3 lbs thick cut pork chops
2 leeks
4 apples
2 tbsp olive oil

For marinade:
1 cup whiskey
1/2 cup sel gris
1 tbsp fennel seed
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
2 oz. Pernod

Combine all marinade ingredients and cover pork for 12-24 hours. Chop leek whites and sautÃ©e in olive oil in large pot. Push leeks to side and sear each pork chop on both sides, 2-3 minutes a side. Chop apples into 1/2 inch pieces. Stand pork chops on edge and fill pot with apples. Add a few ounces of water and cover. Cook over low heat for 2 hours, turning pork chops once. Remove pork chops and increase heat. Cook leeks and apples an additional 10 minutes. Serve strained apples and leeks over pork.

Apple Sazerac Cocktail:

2 oz. apple infused rye whiskey*
1 tsp. 2:1 simple syrup**
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Pernod rinse
1 apple wedge

Rinse glass with Pernod and place apple wedge at bottom of glass. In a cocktail shaker, combine rye, simple syrup and bitters. Stir with ice for 15 seconds. Strain over apple and serve.

* Soak chopped apple in 12 oz whiskey for 24 hours. Muddle apples to release juices. Strain into a clean bottle for storage.

** Combine 1/2 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water and cook over low heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture begins to boil. Let cool and refrigerate.

February 5, 2011June 4, 2011

52 Foods Week Five: Carrots

This week I had intended to cover fennel, but my fennel went bad before I could put something together. Instead I turned to some carrots that were leftover from an earlier meal. Since I hadn’t planned on using these for Fifty Two Foods, I neglected to get the name of the Farmers’ Market Booth we got them from.

A few months ago, I made my first batch of pickled carrots, and I was extremely pleased with the way they turned out. I mostly ate the carrots whole as snacks or palate cleansers at the end of a salmon dinner, but I also tried them in a sandwich, where they added a fantastic zing. I decided to make some carrots especially for sandwiches, and sliced them before pickling so they would be ready to go right out of the jar.

My pickling recipe is still a bit of a work in progress. I wanted the carrots to come out nice and spicy, so this recipe is really heavy on pepper—both black peppercorns and ground cayenne. It also has mustard seed, ground coriander, juniper berries and a bay leaf.

I toasted the spices in a sauce pot over medium-low heat, until they were nice and fragrant. Then I added equal parts water and white vinegar, along with some salt and sugar, and turned the heat up to get it all boiling.

After the mixture boiled, I poured it over the sliced carrots in a canning jar, then let it cool for about 45 minutes before putting the lid on and placing them in the fridge. These should keep one to two weeks in the refrigerator.

The sandwich I mentioned earlier was a fig and chÃ¨vre grilled sandwich, with sliced pickled carrots in the middle. I used a tasty Dalmatia fig spread, which I’ve seen in many grocery stores, and a nice Sonoma made chÃ¨vre from Laura Chenel.

Butter the backsides of two slices of bread, and then spread chÃ¨vre on one slice and the fig spread on the other. Place a layer of carrot slices in the middle, then grill in a panini maker or in a skillet. The spiciness of the carrots plays really well with the sweetness of the fig, and the smooth, cool flavor of the chÃ¨vre brings it all together. You may want a second sandwich, so make sure you pickle enough carrots.

Pickled Carrots:

Scrubbed and sliced carrots
1 tbsp. mustard seed
1 tbsp. ground coriander
2 tbsp. black peppercorns
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. juniper berries.
1 bay leaf
1 1/3 cup vinegar
1 1/3 cup water
2 tbsp. salt
3 tbsp. sugar

Toast mustard seed, coriander, black peppercorns, cayenne pepper and bay leaf in a sauce pan over medium-low heat. When spices become fragrant, add vinegar, water salt and sugar. Cook over high heat until boiling and salt and sugar are dissolved. Pour over sliced carrots in a canning jar. Let cool and refrigerate at least 12 hours before enjoying.

See all the photos here.

January 28, 2011June 4, 2011

52 Foods Week Four: Walnuts

I don’t recall precisely when I first had an Italian soda. I know it was in San Francisco, shortly after getting a haircut. I also know I ordered an almond soda, and was intrigued by the oddly labeled syrup: “Orgeat.” I don’t order Italian sodas much these days, but if I did, orgeat would still be my flavor of choice.

Orgeat syrup seems a curious survivor of years past. It was originally made of barley rather than almonds—orge being French for barley—and, according to the Art of Drink, it was often used in place of milk in the days before refrigeration. Today, it is mostly used in the aforementioned Italian sodas and in Mai Tais.

Seeing the many locally grown walnuts, this winter, inspired me to attempt a walnut syrup along the lines of orgeat. Sweet walnut concoctions—like my favorite Baskin Robbins’ flavor, Black Walnut—really do it for me, and the idea of making walnut cocktails really floats my boat. I bought my walnuts at the Davis Farmers’ Market from McDonald Orchards, in the Capay Valley.

I followed the Art of Drink recipe, though I cut the portions in half, and arrived at a very nice walnut orgeat. I have previously made this recipe with almonds, and I feel like the walnut flavor is slightly less powerful than the almond. In the future, I’d like to try this with a greater quantity of walnuts and brown instead of white sugar.

Making orgeat is not terribly exciting visually, but I do have a few shots from the process.