Dining Room Renovation

I built a pantry cabinet into the kitchen mostly because it was the only thing that looked right next to the fridge. It was briefly used as food storage, but the plan all along was to store room temp food and some small appliances in another place. We though about the living room cabinets, mentioned in a previous post, but decided they would be inadequate for that purpose. Hey, we had a dining room wall just standing around being lazy. Maybe we could build something there.

There were challenges, of course. Why is there always an HVAC register where I don't want it? Looks like I would have to do a little duct trickery to coerce said register under the new pantry. And
how hard could it possibly be to find a right angle piece of duct-work that fit the geometry of my current system. Turns out, I'd have to wait three months to source the proper part. After having a very good experience finding replacement windows that fit the rough openings in my house, I was slightly over confident about the availability of finding material for my other projects. This was one of those cases. Luckily there were plenty of other tasks I could work on while I waited.

Billy bookcases from IKEA gave us approximately 56sqft. of pantry space. We like to eat. They fit the space perfectly and take nicely to being modified. Toss in some trim and crown molding and wallah, it looks built in. I'll admit, there is more function than form going on here but the costs were supper low and it provides such an invaluable service to our daily lives. Part of the barrier to entry for cooking is assembling the equipment and ingredients in a timely manner. Having everything you need at your fingertips is key.

You say potato, I say evil

I implored onto my friend, and that day's frymaster, that there was evil in the bag of smiley face potatoes he was preparing to dump into the cauldron of boiling hot peanut oil. "Nonsense" he exhausted as droplets of the oil nipped at his un-gloved hand. He would be sorry...

My first foray into the modern cooking movement

Holding steady at 140° F

I started cooking a lot more when I met my wife. And by that I mean I helped her when she cooked. I was still a relative novice but wanted to learn. The really tricky part was figuring out where to start. We realized early on that our styles where quite different which led to a few clashes in the kitchen.  Mostly because I asked way too many questions. Deb cooks more on taste and feel and I want to know what's going on under the hood. I discovered a book called Cooking for Geeks which, as you can probably tell, spoke to me immediately. It dives into the chemistry and physics of cooking right away and delivers it in an easily understood manner. I was particularly enthralled with the chapter on Sous Vide cooking. Not only was the science noteworthy but the hardware involved was also of particular interest to me. Unfortunately the cheapest commercially available unit costs in the range of $400. Okay, I was gonna build one before I even knew the price tag.

Sous Vide, pronounced "Sue Veed", is a way of cooking food by submerging it in a very accurate temperature controlled water bath. The food is vacuum sealed in a plastic bag to keep the water out and keep the moisture and aromas in. This method eliminates any chance of overcooking the meal and ensures that it is heated evenly throughout.  You get a perfectly done steak or piece of fish every time. More about that later though.

With pretty much all of my projects, I like to start off by scouring the internet to get a good idea of what's already out there. I found this little gem on Make and figured it was a great place to begin. The design revolves around a PID controller which continually reads in the water bath temperature with a k type thermocouple and cycles three heating elements either on or off based on the current temperature, rate of temperature change and distance from desired temperature.  Normally it would be a lot cooler if I made my own controller but for $30, it was hard to beat the off the shelf unit they spec'd.

Sheet Metal Work

I was't a fan of the enclosure they used so I leveraged my meager metal working skills and made my own.  Making cut outs in 1/8" aluminum is not fun. After cutting a series of smaller holes on the drill press, I filed down the inner edges to make them flat and smooth. To make the box, I bent all the side walls toward each other and used epoxy where they met on the inside to secure them in place. More grinding was necessary to round off the joints.  This was the most time consuming portion of the project. Took a few iterations of sanding and priming to get the edges just right.  I was quite please with how they turned out.  Like the paint job?  Gotta thank my pal Tommy S. for the inspiration. How better to paint a slow cooker than with racing stripes. Check out the nod to the French racing blue Renault Clio 182.

I think it's time to talk performance and results. The controller and associated thermocouple kept the water bath temperature within two tenths of a degree of the set temp.  That's more than accurate enough for the purpose of this machine. And when heating up room temp water, it can add enough energy to increase the temp of about two gallons of water approximately 2°F per minute. That's not great but considering the water coming out of the tap can reach about 130°F, you really don't have to wait too long.

Perfect medium rare steak

I decided to start the real testing with something easy, a couple of 5oz filet mignon steaks. Flanked the meal with some roasted yukon golds and sauteed broccoli. I set the immersion cooker at 140°F, vacuum sealed up the meat (covered in a little garlic, thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper) and let it cook  for an hour and fifteen minutes. As a result of cooking at a relatively low temperature, the browning reactions normally associated with a steak will not take place. This is easily overcome with some quick searing action on a smoking hot cast iron skillet. Around 45 seconds a side should do it. As you can see in the picture above, the steak is cooked evenly throughout. I also verified with a thermometer that the meat was a perfect 140°F. A little moisture was left over in the bag but not enough to really matter. The resultant steak was extremely tender and juicy.  

The obvious drawback to this style of cooking is the long cook times necessary to neutralize any bacteria present in the food. Bacteria will die within minutes at 160°F but it takes considerable longer at lower temperatures. There are many guides available to aide you with these calculations. I don't mind the long lead.  My thinking is, where's the fire baby? Life is to be simmered and enjoyed.  Sous Vide isn't for every meal but it does add another interesting preparation option in the kitchen and a good one at that. I'm looking forward to further experimentation and more delicious food.

Watermelon Gin Jalapeno Limeade Spritzer

On a trip out to Cosi a little while back, I sampled their Watermelon Habanero Lemonade and was thoroughly impressed.  Sweet, spicy and very refreshing.  I really needed to make this into a cocktail. On a recent sunny Sunday afternoon I sequestered myself in the kitchen endeavoring to do just that. I was going to start with store bought lemonade but my wife suggested that I take a look at Emeril's Watermelon Limeade recipe before I do.  Always with a good idea up her sleeve, I listened and whipped up a batch.  Start with 8 cups of loosely packed watermelon (seeds removed) and blend until liquefied. Strain until all the pulp is removed. You should be left with about a quart (4 cups) of juice.  Add one cup of fresh lime juice along with a half cup of sugar and you're done.  This in itself is very tasty but it's not a cocktail just yet.  Cosi used Habanero peppers in it's drink but I'm a huge fan of Jalapenos so I went that route. Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and scrape all the seeds and pulp out with a spoon. That's where most of the heat is and I'm looking for taste not bite.  Slice the pepper into 1/8" pieces and set aside.  A little pepper goes a long way so when building your drink, start with about 4 half moon slices and add to taste. I associate Gin with summertime cocktails so that was a no brainer. I prefer Hendricks but that can be a bit pricey so Beefeater is just fine. To finish things off I added an equal amount of Club Soda for that carbonated kick.  Tasty drink and fun to make. Though I think I need a better name. Suggestions?

Watermelon Gin Jalapeno Limeade Spritzer
   
     - 1 oz. Gin
     - 1 oz. Club Soda
     - 5 oz. Watermelon Limeade
     - 4 slices Jalapeno halves (1/8" thick, seeds and pulp removed)

Add Gin, Club Soda and Jalapeno to rocks glass, let sit for about a minute.  Add ice till about 3/4 full.  Top with Watermelon Limeade and stir. Enjoy!

Always drink to world peace

I've been gearing up to brew some beer at home for some time now, so when Maz and White Noise asked if I wanted to make a batch at Shenandoah Brewing Company I decided to join in figuring it'd be a good place to ask some questions. Indeed it was. SBC provides everything you need and takes you through the whole process from deciding on a recipe to bottling.  They must have a few dozen different varieties to choose from. They range from ales to lagers to hefeweizens and they'll gladly work with ya if there's something you'd like to experiment with. We decided on a India Pale Ale (IPA) made primarily with Centennial Hops. I don't have much information about that particular strain of hops other than it hails from the pacific NW and it's popular as well as tasty.  As you can probably infer from our label, we brewed this IPA on Groundhogs Day.  Boy, that hog sure is dramatic.  Took a bit of photoshopping, but I think the labels came together nicely. I Lifted the "Gobbler's Knob" right off a picture of the actual Punxsy Phil sign.

The brewing was pretty straight forward. The only part of the process that was prepared for us was the wort.  Wort contains the sugars that will later be fermented to make the all important alcohol content of the beer.  As I understand it, wort is made by steeping a mixture of ground up malted barley and grain adjuncts. The steeping creates an environment favorable for enzymes to convert starches into sugars. Apparently to make home brewing easier, malted barley extracts can be added to the grain tea mixture in lue of embarking on the malting process yourself. Good to know.

We started off by precisely weighing each stage of hops and gathering them into bowls. We took the bowls over to the kettle where the next hour or so of boiling would take place.  The wort is added to the boiling water first followed by the various stages of hops at predetermined intervals.  Boiling the wort accomplishes a few things.  It sterilizes the mixture, coagulates proteins and stop enzyme action.  Basically kills all the stuff living in the wort while extracting the desired color and flavor. The hops are added in intervals to balance out the taste and aromas.  Resins in the hops are broken down slowly and add bitterness to the taste while the oils from the hops evaporate quickly and add aromas. Adding the hops had to be done slowly because they threatened to boil over if done without care. A little bit of kettle tech came in very handy here. Instead of having a single heating element at the bottom, steam is funneled into jackets surrounding the kettle to add energy more evenly which gives you fine control over the temp of the kettle contents. There was no problem backing off the heat at any point because you can regain your previous temp very quickly. After the boiling is complete, the liquid is filtered and run through a heat exchanger where the temp is lowered to a point that is not hazardous to yeast cultures. We added a packet of yeast and rolled the plastic keg around on the floor for a bit to oxygenate the mixture.  Around 6 weeks later, we came back to bottle up our creation and take a taste test. The yeast gobbling up all the sugar will create a little carbon dioxide but a little more was added to give it that extra carbonated kick.  It was recommended that we store the beer in a dark place for at least two weeks before cracking one open. This gives the beer a chance to settle down and balance out after being carbonated.

Turned out to be a pretty typical IPA. Crisp and hoppy but not overly bitter. It's gonna be nice to drink on a warm spring day. The one major takeaway from this experience is that the world of beer brewing is immense. There are just about a million factors that go into the taste, smell, alcohol content and look of a beer. The hardness of the water, temp of brewing, species of yeast, type of hops, variety of grain adjuncts, process of malting, and a host of other factors all really matter. Kind of intimidating at first glance. Don't think that's gonna stop me though. I'll most likely try to recreate the Knob at home with my own equipment and see how that goes. Can't wait to blog about that.

I'm crazy bout those cupcakes cousin.

There are many places to find out about local/popular eateries around town... weekend insert, internet, word of mouth, doorknob hangers, etc. Personally, I prefer Lonely Island SNL Digital Shorts for all my foody info. Check out "Lazy Sunday" to see what I'm talking about. Deb and I hit up NYC recently to see some friends and do some exploring. While there are many cultural and historic sights to see, Magnolia was definitely on the top of my short list of things to do. If you ever find yourself in the city, do me a favor. Get yourself some cupcakes and a carton of milk. Pick a cushy swaft of grass and chow down. You can't go wrong, I promise you. But be prepared to stand in line. The place can only fit like eight people, six if they really like cupcakes. Wasn't too bad though, well worth the wait.