Rice Pudding


Last week's random recipe from the Joy of Cooking was rice pudding. I had really only had rice pudding once before this so I didn't really know what I was in for. The Joy of Cooking presented two recipes: baked and a stovetop verison. I opted for the stovetop version because I was short on time. Turns out rice pudding is ridiculously easy to make. Cook rice, add milk and sugar and cook until thick, that's it. I added some cinnamon and nutmeg to mine, just to up the flavour a bit. We drink skim milk so that's what I used but I bet it would be a lot better with whole milk or with some cream added.

I mentioned I was short on time this week hence
this crappy picture

This entry seemed way too short so I thought I would google rice pudding and see what comes up. Turns out rice pudding is prevalent in almost every culture. Wikipedia lists several varieties from Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America. The majority have the typical rice pudding backbone of rice cooked in milk, while some use ground rice to make more of a porridge then a pudding. The differences come in the form of the extra flavourings that are added. Cinnamon is an overwhelming favourite and shows up in rice pudding in almost every part of the world. I was hoping to see some really interesting ingredients added to rice pudding around the world but flavourings seem pretty standard. Besides cinnamon some other common additions are: nutmeg, ginger, raisins and orange zest. There are however some interesting Christmas rice pudding traditions in Scandinavia. An almond is hidden in a big bowl of rice pudding, whoever gets the almond in their portion has good luck for the year. Rice pudding shows up in so many places around the world because it is really easy and really delicious... so go and make some, you won't be disappointed.

Gyro with Tzatziki Sauce


I printed off the recipe for this dish last summer and never had the chance to make it so I was very excited when its page number came out of my random recipe generator. Gyro is basically a meatloaf made from lamb that is usually cooked on a rotisserie. Our barbecue doesn't have a rotisserie so I opted for the oven.

Though gyro is synonymous with Greek cuisine the best guess says that it hails from New York City, where it was first mentioned in print in the 70's. The word gyro comes from the Greek for rotation, like gyroscope, although gyroscope is pronounced with a "j," gyro is pronounced with a "y." Tzatziki on the other hand is very old and very Greek. A sauce made from garlic, cucumber and Greek yogurt. On a side note I highly recommend Greek style yogurt, despite its high price point. It thick and creamy texture cannot be matched by traditional yogurts.

Technically my gyro wasn't really gyro at all since it didn't really do any rotating, but as a meatloaf I would still give it high marks. I am pretty new to lamb so the flavour was new and different for me, a nice departure from the usual ground beef. The loaf came out a little under seasoned but I think that was the chef's fault not the recipes. On a warmed pita with tzatziki, onion and some feta it was a winner in my books. I find gyro at restaurants gets bogged down with too much lettuce and tomato, leaving be thinking "where's the beef?" (or in this case lamb). So I left them out all together, the more meat the better!

Homemade Tzatziki 

As usual the recipe link: Gyro Recipe. Again if anyone has any comments please leave the below.

Common Food Additives 


Unfortunately this is a very busy weekend for me school wise so I doubt I will have time to make my recipe for the week. So I thought I would write a quick entry about something cool from another book I got last Christmas, Cooking for Geeks. Its a great read for anyone interested in science and cooking. It has lots of graphs and charts as well as some science humour, that I very much appreciated. This is sounding way too much like a sales pitch for the book, so I better get to the point. One of the most interesting parts of the book deals with common food additives and what they are used for. I have selected a couple to talk about, it sure makes reading the ingredient list on foods a lot more interesting if you know what all those crazy sounding chemicals actually are for.

Carrageenan
Seaweed in your chocolate milk? Well kind of, carrageen is a polysaccharide that is derived from seaweed. The seaweed is dried in the sun and then ground into a powder. This powder shows up in many common foods, especially dairy products, where it improves creaminess. It can also be used to create gels like those found inside Gushers and it is even used in some beer to remove proteins that cause the beer to go cloudy. Carrageenan is not a new kid on the culinary block, as far back as the 15th century it was being used to thicken dairy products. Following World War II the manufacturing process was industrialized and its been an extremely popular additive ever since.


Maltodextrin 
A starch that dissolves in water but not in fat, why is this important? Maltodextrin is mainly used to create powders from fatty foods, when the powder is in your mouth it dissolves back to its original form. A quick check of the Doritos bag shows maltodextrin as the third ingredient. It is used to turn cheese into a powder that will stick to the chip. This is one example of many, imagine powdered butter, peanut butter or olive oil, the possibilities are endless.


Lecithin
Commonly from soy beans (sometimes listed as soy lecithin on packing), lecithin can be used as an emulsifier or lubricant. An emulsifier helps to combine two ingredients that don't normally mix, like oil and vinegar in salad dressing. It is a common additive to salad dressings and mayonnaise. In home made dressings, like caesar, and mayonnaise the lecithin comes from eggs, another good source but not as useful for mass production. Lecithin is also used to help stabilize those foams they have severe in fancy gourmet restaurants. Finally, lecithin is also a main ingredient in non-stick sprays as it is very slippery stuff.


Transglutaminase
This one is really cool but some of its applications make be cringe. Transglutaminase is basically meat glue, it bonds certain proteins, allowing pieces of meat to be effectively "glued" together. This is how such delights as McNuggets and deli ham are created, a kind of Frankenstein's monster of meats all glued together into a hunk. Granted McNuggets and deli ham are quite delicious it just a little scary where they come from. There are some more appetizing applications like bacon wrapped scallops where transglutaminase is used to keep the bacon from falling off. It also can be used to thicken dairy products by binding some their proteins.

According to Cooking for Geeks these additives are all available online, I would really like to try some of them but I think that will have to wait for another blog.

Beef Tongue 


This one is not for the squeamish. After two months of waiting I finally have made the recipe that inspired the random recipe challenge. When I got the Joy of Cooking for Christmas the first page I opened it to was beef tongue and from then on I was really curious about what beef tongue tasted like. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised about both the flavour and texture of the meat, it was very tender and had a nice beefy taste. I would bet that in a blind taste test most people (myself included) would not be able to pick out that they were eating tongue.

Cooked tongue with skin on

Sliced tongue. BBQ sauce was a nice addition

Despite all positive press I just gave it above I have to admit it was a little weird. Taking it out of the pot it looked like some kind of alien coming out of the black lagoon. To make matters even more interesting the tongue still had the skin on it which included prickly little hairs type things. If you have ever been licked by a cat you will know what I am talking about. The skin actually came off pretty easily after being cooked, I didn't even need a knife it just pulled right off.

As for the recipe it was zen simple: veggies in a pot (I cheated a little and used a slow cooker), add the tongue, cover with water and cook low and slow for at least 3 to 4 hours. I would encourage the more culinarly advertuous to try it, I would definitely make it again.

If anyone has any comments on the recipes or the blog they can be left by clicking the comment link below, I would love to hear from you.