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.

Coconut Shrimp with Peanut Sauce


I was really impressed with this recipe and I don't even really like coconut that much. The recipe, from Good Eats: The Early Years, incorporates some Asian flavours with some from the tropics. The Asian flavours are courtesy a very nice peanut sauce that complements the sweetness of the shrimp nicely. As you may have guessed it is based on peanut butter, with some soy sauce, cilantro, fish sauce and a few other ingredients. This was my first experience with fish sauce and boy does it stink, but it adds body that I think would be missed if it was not there. The tropical flavours come from the coconut crust on the shrimp. Pan fried to perfection, gives the shrimp a nice crunch.

I have to thank my mom for helping me out with this recipe.

Here is the link: Coconut Shrimp with Peanut Sauce













Since I was home for reading week and didn't want to study I thought I would fry/bake up a couple of things. These aren't from the random recipe list so I won't spend much time on them, but I have to say homemade doughnuts are awesome!

Cake and raised doughnuts, tortilla chips and oat fudge bars

Procrastination never looked and tasted so good!

Don't forget next week (insert epic music here:Epic Music(ignore the video)) ...  beef tongue.

Beer and Cheese Dip in a Bread Bowl

This one would be great for a party, or you could just eat it for dinner like I did. A pretty simple recipe, from the Joy of Cooking, with some excellent results. It basically consists of melting some cheese and then pouring it into a hallowed out loaf of bread. The inside of the loaf is used for dipping; veggies are also great for dipping! I was a little concerned about the bread bowl's structural integrity but it held up fine. It should be interesting to see what it is like as leftovers, I'm excited! One note of caution for people inexperienced with blue cheese, like myself, its pretty potent stuff so add it carefully.

If you read the first blog in the series the moment I'm sure you have been waiting for will soon be here. The grocery store finally had beef tongue. Its in the freezer for the time being as I will be going home for reading week next week but when I get back, it will be time to try one of the more interesting commonly available meats.

I couldn't find this recipe online, so if you want it go buy the Joy of Cooking, even if you don't want this recipe you should buy the Joy of Cooking. Best cookbook for the buck!

Soft Pretzels 


This recipe coincided with Super Bowl weekend perfectly, although the pretzels didn't make it to Sunday. In other words they were pretty awesome! Pretzels can be dated back to 7th century Italy, where a monk decided to reward the local children with a snack in the shape of praying hands (people used to pray with their hands crossed from what I've read). He added salt, a sign of purity, and one of the most beloved snack foods was born.

Pretzels are actually closely related to bagels in construction. A yeast dough is briefly dunked in boiling water and then baked. The only real difference is the shape and the salt. One thing about home made pretzels is that they will not have the dark brown colour of store bought pretzels. There are two techniques that can be employed to get homemade pretzels to their signature colour. The first is a dip in a basic solution, the high pH will instantly gelatinize starch on the pretzels surface and denature proteins and yada yada yada. Commercial operations use a solution of lye (sodium hydroxide, NaOH) and this could potentially work for the home cook but it is pretty dangerous and requires goggles, gloves etc. There is an alternative though baking soda is the most common kitchen base. With a pH of around 9 it is 1,000 times less alkali than lye (pH around 13), but it won't make you look like the guy at the end of Raiders of the lost Ark if you splash a little. The second technique is a simple egg wash. I'm curious to see how much of an effect the baking soda really had, something to experiment with next time I guess. One thing I learned the hard way was: add the baking soda to the water before it boils, or else you will end up with a huge column of bubbles spilling out of the pot, not fun trust me! Other than that little mishap its a pretty straight forward and delicious recipe.

Recipe link: Soft Pretzel Recipe

Culinary insight curtsey of Alton Brown and Good Eats 3: The Later Years