More Bacalao!

After the salt cod fritters, which came out great, I made Brandade de Morue. I followed different procedures for the cod re-hab, and realized one needed a much longer cooking time. While normally i would poach cod for 5-6 minutes, with the salt cod 20-25 minutes was necessary. And while overcooking normal fish might make it tough, the extended period worked well for the salt cod.

I think it comes down to what happens to the protein structure of the fish when it dries out in the salt. Something must drastically change to make the structure of the fish change so much.

So while the fritters came out nicely, the brandade came out great. I think, retrospectively, if I had cooked the cod for the fritters for significantly longer, their texture would have radically improved.

For the fritters, a small hockey puck, breaded in panko, pan fried, and served with a herby, garlicky home-made mayo. for the brandade, quenelles on toast points topped with roasted red pepper bits.

Bacalao

I bought some salt cod, mostly on impulse. I'm thinking of codcakes for the Oscars. J. likes fry-up for it and I want something with a bit of umami. I could also make Brandade de Morue. Either way I should start my desalt. I'm not sure how long, depending on how salted the cod was. I have recommendations from 1 to 3 days, So I'm starting today.

Cinnamon rolls

I've been trying various cinnamon roll recipes for a while. I don't like any of them. While normal recipes I can easily adjust, baking is so based in chemistry that I struggle. I mean, I've spent a year working on my bread recipe.

For Christmas I got Baking With Julia andI love it. I made the Pecan Sticky Buns and they might make me cry. Brioche ough that you fold butter into like puff pastry. The ingredients list could give a cardiologist a chest pain, with its 6 eggs and 5 sticks of butter. But crispy, flaky layers on the outside and soft, tender, airy ruffles in the middle.

So I can easily change it to cinnamon rolls, just increase the cinnamon and maybe cut the pecans entirely, and not have to bother with adjusting chemistry. I'd post a pic, but J. took the camera cable to work this week.

Late Xmas Post

I made a Buche De Noel for Christmas at my mom's. The best part was playing without any goal or reason. I tried merengue mushrooms, but had trouble. It didn't matter! Leaves/vines/berries are all marzipan that I kneaded with food coloring. Wish I had a holly leaf cookie cutter, but oh well. Lots of help too, which was nice. Everyone wanted to pitch in, which made my mom's day.

Rabbit Paté/Terrine

I wanted to make rabbit for my birthday. It came from a lot of things; experimenting with different proteins, my mom sent me my Oma's meat grinder, could I make it through the whole rabbit?

To start off with, terminology is hard. I classically think of a paté as a forcemeat, and a terrine as cooked, shredded, molded meat held together with a gelatin binder. I want to call what I made a terrine, but I know that is technically wrong.

I got the rabbit at the farmer's market in Union Square. One of the farms there has rabbit and duck only on Fridays, so I was lucky to find it. They come quartered, whole, and whole with organs and head. While I was wary of the head, I wanted the organ meat so as to add some deeper flavor and fat to my dish, so that is what I got.

Caveat emptor. It was more than I expected. After watching several boning videos on youtube, I finally started. First was head removal, as I didn't want to be looked at anymore. I had boned out half a lamb in culinary school, and since all mammals are built the same, it wasn't far off the mark. The size was what made it more challenging. I got through all of it in about 40 minutes, ending up with 3 bowls; meat and organs i wanted, bones for stock, and waste, of which there was little (except the head).

Following some older textbook instructions, I let the flesh sit overnight to bleed out, which turned out to be a good idea. It went through Oma's grinder easily, and I mixed in some minced carrot, shallot, red bell pepper, pistachios, parsley, salt and pepper, and a couple splashes of cognac. I baked it in a loaf pan that I had lined with overlapping bacon, and laid two bay leaves on top to soak in.

It came out delicious. I served it with some delicata squash stuffed with apples, savory, and thyme and some rainbow carrots pan roasted with butter and black pepper. A lovely meal.

Farmers' Market glory

The farmers' market is stupendous this time of year. There is such an abundance of produce, so I decided to do some batch processing to keep great flavors for the winter. On the list; pesto, frozen in 1/2 cup containers, sweet pepper relish, canned, and tomatoes concassé, a simple sauce with shallots and garlic from culinary school.

Beet salad

I love beets and hate the oven in the summer. Especially during a heat wave. If it is 98 outside it is 105 in our apartment, so roasting beets isn't really an option. So to make a summer beet salad, I just chiffonade-ed them raw, thinly shaved their cousin some radishes, and tossed it all with some parsley, toasted walnuts(done in the toaster oven), and gorgonzola, with a light red wine vinaigrette. It was delicious.