I recently posted an attempt to make an ice cream suitable for a diabetic. Here is another popular flavor, strawberry.

There were some pitfalls in the last batch, namely the graininess after the ice cream was spun. There were a few great comments to how to avoid that scenario, and it got me to thinking.

What if I used a natural thickener to set my ice cream? One could use stabilizers, algae, or gelatin to set up the ice cream. The idea is to replace the structure of the sugar in the ice cream so it does not freeze into a solid block.

Today I thought I would try my hand at using yogurt. The milk is naturally thickened by the bacteria in the yogurt, and it would also have a creamier profile.

I make yogurt regularly, and I have a great post on how to do that. There is a little fore planning for this recipe, unless you replace it with commercially prepared yogurt. Be careful to use a Balkan style though, as you don’t want a yogurt that is thickened with gums and gelatin. Look for something around 6 to 10% milk fat.

The other key to this recipe is using local fruit. If you just buy those disgusting huge strawberries that are pure white when you cut into the center, you need to add more sugar to coax the flavor out of them. I prefer to eat my sugar naturally, thank you.

I am lucky enough to live in Quebec, and I have a bit of strawberries growing in my back yard. I supplemented the amount by going to the local market. This year is a bit expensive for strawberries, as it has rained like crazy. In the end though, I ended up paying less than half than for the fake strawberries you see at the grocery store.

Blend strawberries, eggs, cream, yogurt, and Sugar Twin together with a hand-blender

Since I was going to use a hand blender today, I made this into a 1 bowl affair. It worked out pretty good, and my other half was not as vexed with the amount of dishes.

No graininess, and a couple of spoonfulls missing.

The mixture spun up really good, and there was no sign of the graininess like before. My son could not wait, so I had to give him a few spoonfuls to tide him over. That was a good sign.

Here's a trick: cover the top of your ice cream to prevent a skin from forming.

The ice cream held its own, and was a sucess. I was not so sure of the Sugar Twin, but in the end it turned out great. If you knew it was in there, you could tell. My wife and son ate it without complaint, so speaks volumes.

Wow, good enough for a Diabetic!

The next ice cream I am going to try out will have Stevia leaves for sweetening. For that, I will be making the most popular flavor of all, Vanilla!

Quebec Strawberry Ice Cream

Inspired by Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book pg 54

Serves: 8

Calories per serving: (4 ounces): 123.99

Carbohydrates: 7.26 grams

Ingredients:

• 1 pint fresh Quebec strawberries, hulled, chopped (you can use your own local strawberries, just please… local only!)
• 1 cup Sugar Twin
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 cup yogurt (preferably homemade or at least 6% milkfat)
• 2 free-range organic eggs

Method:

1. Combine strawberries, Sugar Twin, and lemon juice together in a large bowl. Toss together, and place into the fridge to macerate for at least an hour, (or overnight.)
2. Take out the bowl, add the cream, yogurt, and eggs. Grab your hand blender and blend the works until it is smooth. Some people prefer to have chunks in their ice cream. If that is you, go ahead and take out half first the strawberries at first, then add them back  in the next step.
3. Add your ice cream to your maker according to the manufacturer;s instructions. When the ice cream is ready, taste a few spoonfulls, then place it into a container, covering the top with plastic wrap before putting on the lid.

Why can’t a Diabetic enjoy ice cream?

Something that bothered me about my Diabetes diagnosis was the things I had to give up. Ice cream is one of those things. Nothing says summer like a nice bowl of ice cream. Today’s post will attempt to bring back what Diabetics are forbidden to have: Ice Cream!

I recently had the displeasure of eating what passed as “ice cream” for diabetics at an ice cream stand. Trouble was, it tasted like plastic. The experience wasn’t all that great, but it got me to thinking:

What is ice cream?

Basically: air, cream (or milk for those misguided fat-free crowd), sweetener, and eggs.

Of course, it goes without saying that sugar as a sweetener is what gives us Diabetics the most trouble.

What if we used another sweetening agent instead? There are so many different products to sweeten with that I decided to make a Facebook Page just for Diabetic Ice Cream experiments.

What follows is today’s experiment, using an awesome ice cream machine, the Cuisinart ICE 50-BC (link goes to my Amazon store page). Of course, you don’t need a fancy machine to make this ice cream, but it sure helps.

Here is the experiment:

Today I will experiment with Splenda. The results will be at the end, with the recipe.

Start with 2 free range eggs

Here you see an action shot! Whisk those eggs until they are frothy!

Wait! You mean you are not going to cook them? Before you balk at not cooking the eggs, remember that if your eggs are fresh, it’s okay to eat them raw. For example, you would eat raw eggs when you eat mayonnaise.

Why not cook them like all those other recipes say? The reason is the mixture would thicken like a custard, and have a cooked flavor. There is enough fat in this mixture that we can enjoy the fresh taste of the cream and milk. Besides, I don’t like to heat Splenda from the packets. In coffee it is fine, but I have never had success with other heating applications with the packets. Perhaps the bulk Splenda is different.

In another bowl, 1 Cup of half-and-half

Some recipes will call for milk. I replaced it with half-and-half to up the fat content. Understand this people – the fat in ice cream is not what makes you gain the weight. It’s the sugar!

Add 2 cups heavy cream to the half-and-half in the bowl.

A quick aside here… I love Martha Stewart! Seriously, I love her magazines. I recently took a quiz on her site to see if I was a “master chef or a novice cook?” I got 9 out of 10! One of the questions was on how you measure liquids. You can see I did not really measure this at eye level. I will tell you a secret though – we don’t use liquid measurements in a professional kitchen. We use a scale. But I digress… back to the ice cream at hand!

Add 2 tablespoons of Premium freeze-dried coffee to the cream mixtures. Yes, that is bacon in the background! I was eating my breakfast while preparing for this post!

Yes, it’s a shortcut. Thing is, I could probably make some double strength espresso, incorporate it into the mix. Truth though, this way isn’t so bad. Sometimes you can make a compromise and not affect the flavor. In this case, the flavor is superior to the espresso.

Add in 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the bowl.

My favorite cacao powder is Barry Extra Brut. You can get it by clicking on that link that goes to my Amazon store. I like to put it into a plastic container so it will keep almost indefinitely.

Add in 18 packets of Splenda to the bowl.

Wow! You’re asking yourself, “Why doesn’t he just add in the baking Splenda?” Good question. I didn’t feel like buying a whole box of the stuff, and I had some leftover for my morning coffee before I discovered Stevia, so why not use them up? Find out how that turned out later…

Whisk everything together to blend ... sort of.

Don’t get too carried away about blending the mixture. The eggs are coming next, you’ll get another chance. The main problem is incorporating the cacao powder with the liquids…

Pour and whisk the eggs into to the chocolate mixture.

Pour the eggs into the chocolate mixture. Why use another bowl to whip the eggs WDC?

I think it is only to annoy my wife. See, she hates it when I have so many different dishes for one recipe. I really can’t think of another reason.

Whisk for all your might!

Here’s your second chance to mix the works up. Once the mixture is homogenized, you can stop. (I just had to slip that big word in there!)

This is why I am fat - I can't resist the tasting of food!

Taste the mixture. Keep in mind that it might be a little sweeter than you are used to cold. The sweet sensation will dissipate with the cold, so keep that in mind. You may have to adjust the sweetness with another packet or two of Splenda. Of course, I always use that as an excuse to “test” things out. See if it works for you!

The Monster Ice Cream Machine!

Worth every penny folks! This machine will pay for itself in, uhh, 2 or so years. The best part? You don’t have to freeze the bowl to make ice cream. It has it’s own refrigeration unit inside. The downside? It weighs a tonne, and can’t exactly go on your counter.

Another bad point is your significant other might curse it when they trip over it in the kitchen floor. But… back to this post!

Turn the motor on, then add the ice cream mixture in a thread through the hole.

The machine is loud, but if your significant other just turns up the T.V., all will be well in the household. Alternately, you could put the machine in the bathroom with the door closed. Excessive, but if it avoids an argument? Why not!

Spin the ice cream mixture for 30 to 60 minutes.

The number 1 ingredient in ice cream is air. The reason it tastes so light and fluffy is because of the air that is worked into it. If you don’t have a machine, the ice cream won’t be as nice because the ice cream mixture will freeze into crystals. The paddles on the machine break the crystals as they freeze, and incorporate more air into the mixture as they swoop through the mix.

The amount of air added into the ice cream is called “overrun”, and is the main reason you see gums and thickening agents added to commercial ice creams. Enough theory!

Of course, if you don't have that huge monster machine, you could just put it into a bowl for the freezer

If you don’t have a fancy machine, you can opt for the freezer method. Put the bowl into the freezer, and set a timer for every 5 minutes. When it goes off, pull out your bowl and whisk the ingredients together. Repeat those steps until the mixture resembles a slightly melted ice cream. It will not be as nice, and it will be a major pain in the ass. (Especially if your significant other is trying to catch up on their PVR shows and the alarm goes off every 5 minutes!)

Put the ice cream into a container with a piece of plastic touching the ice cream's top. Then place a lid over it.

No, your ice cream is not ready yet! It will need some curing time in the freezer first. If you must, you could give out a few tablespoons here and there as a taste, but avoid eating too much. It will be too soft!

After a couple of hours, your ice cream will be hard enough to scoop, and you will have this deliciousness to eat!

The results:

The ice cream turned out a little bit grainy. I think it was due to the Splenda. The cream base just did not lend well to the smoothness that I usually like with ice cream. It could be that I left the mixture too long in the bowl as well. Overall, the ice cream was not bad, certainly better than plastic! I think I will try with some Sweet n’ Low next time and see what happens.

The recipe:

Diabetic Mocha Ice Cream

Inspired by Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book pg 72

Serves: 8

Calories per serving (4 oz): 275

Carbohydrates per serving: 6.37 grams

Ingredients:

• 2 free-range chicken eggs
• 1 cup half-and-half cream
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons Barry Extra-Brut cacao powder
• 4 tablespoons freeze dried coffee
• 18 packages Splenda

Method:

1. Whisk eggs together until frothy. In a separate bowl, combine half-and-half cream, whipping cream, cacao powder, instant coffee and Splenda together. Whisk the mixture until incorporated, then add in whisked eggs. Whip the mixture together until the mixture is homogeneous.
2. Set up ice cream maker according to instructions; add the ice cream mixture to the bowl while it is spinning. Process according to your ice cream makers instructions. (It should take almost 30 minutes to an hour.)
3. Alternately, if you do not have an ice cream maker, you can put the bowl into the freezer with a whisk inside. Set a timer for 5 minutes, whisk the mixture, and replace it into the freezer, resetting the timer for 5 minutes. Repeat as necessary until the ice cream mixture is soft.
4. Remove the ice cream from the maker, and place it into a container with a tight-fitting lid. Make sure to put a layer of plastic on top of the surface of the ice cream to avoid ice crystals from forming. Freeze for a couple of hours to let the ice cream set.

Angela from Spinach Tiger writes:

Regarding the tomato tart, I believe they had cooked in a super hot oven (in Paris). If I blind bake crust, how long?
As it was, I baked the tart for double the time he said (60 minutes) and it was cooked.

Great question Angela. Let’s get into a bit of theory for blind-baking:

Pre baking your crust is the key

Have you ever wondered why your pie or quiche had a soggy crust on the bottom? The answer lies in a little theory.

When make a pie or tart with a filling that is a custard, liquid, or something that cooks quick, you are faced with a bit of a problem. In the case of an egg filing, the liquid is not a great conductor of heat. It actually protects the crust from cooking, leaving you with an unbaked, soggy mess.

What if we used that theory to help us?

Enter in blind baking.

To blind bake a pie or tart crust, you roll out your dough, then form it into your container, cover it with foil,  and fill it with a pastry baking weight. You pre-bake the crust until it is finished. The weight does two things: evenly distributes the heat, and prevents the crust from bubbling up.

How long to bake the crust? I can’t give you a real fast answer. It depends on the size of the shell you are baking, the thickness of the crust, and the heat of your oven. I will give you the same answer every time:

The best way to tell the doneness is to lift up the foil, and check through the center of the pastry shell. When it is cooked, you are ready for the next step. My pastry chef makes tart shells every day, and she still checks the doneness of the crust each time. It is simply the best way to know.

Remove the foil and weights, and allow your crust to cool. Fill your pie or tart with the filling, and if necessary, finish baking it. If you are using a cream or a custard, simply fill up the pie, chill, and serve.

If you are thinking about purchasing those specialized pastry beads, think on this: I recently posted on how to re-purpose a lid for a burger press. I prefer to use dried beans. They cost about 1.50$ per kilogram bag, and can last until the apocalypse if needed. Why waste your money needlessly on a kitchen gadget that you really don’t need?

Do you have a question for the Well Done Chef? Visit my Ask the Chef! page and fill out the form.

image courtesy of snowpea&bokchoy of Flickr under Creative Commons by Attribution 2.0

You want to grill burgers on the barbecue tonight, but you don’t have a fancy burger press? By the end of this post, you will be a burger pressing ninja, astounding your friends with your mad burger making skills.

I am going to give you a little secret here. I don’t use those fancy burger presses. I would not pay a dime for one, when I could have the same thing for nothing.

I am talking about a lid from a giant spice container. I would have recycled the thing anyway, so why not?

How do you get hold of one? Just go to a restaurant and ask about the lid to their spice jars, olive tubs, or pickle jars. All restaurants have them in giant format. They usually end up in the garbage and recycling anyway.

You need something that is circular, (about 4 to 5 inches in diameter,) that costs you nothing. The large format jars have lids that are perfect for the size you need.

Follow me, and I will show you the amazing burger ninja trick:

It all starts with knowing a reputable butcher. I am not talking about the pimply-faced kid at Safeway, or the local supermarket dude with the dirty apron that appears once in a while to re-date the meat on the shelves.

I am talking of your local butcher.

He may be hard to find, but well worth the trouble. Ask him or her to grind up your meat so you can make burgers. If the butcher is worth their seal, they will grind it once through the medium die. (The reason? The texture of the meat. Grind it finer and you end up with something like meatloaf patty.)

Make sure you shoot the shit with the guy as well. He will be more than happy to educate you on different cuts, and will give you some pointers on the best meat to use. Nudge the conversation into scoring some of that peach paper he uses for his meat. You will see why later.

Your meat should look like this:

Beef and pork, ground through the medium die, only once.

Portion out your burger meat. If you do not have a scale, just eyeball it. You want 5 to 6 ounce portions. Try to keep them all the same size. Work the meat a little as you roll them into balls to eliminate air pockets inside. Do not mash the meat until it is smooth, or will have a tough burger.

Once you have rolled out all of your balls, set up your lid with a little plastic wrap, and get ready for the secret lost art of of burger pressing.

All your items are laid out for pressing. Balls, lid, plastic wrap.

Cover your lid with plastic so you can easily remove the burger once it is pressed. The plastic can be used over and over until you are finished.

Do not worry about how the plastic looks here, I snapped this after doing a couple of test runs.

Place your ball in the center of the lid.

Press down evenly with your hand, squeezing the burger to the edges of the lid.

Do not mash it down, the idea is to evenly distribute the meat.

You will now have a burger that looks like so:

All pressed out, ready for the next step.

Now, for the extra ninja-master technique: poke a hole in the center of the burger with your finger.

Poke a hole in the burger with your ninja finger of doom

The reason for poking a hole in the center is so the burger won’t swell up like a meatball when it cooks. The hole relieves the tension of the contracting meat while it cooks, and retains the juiciness. You will have a flat burger for this extra step, and adoring fans who wonder why your burgers are so juicy.

This is what your burger will look like:

That burger didn't know what hit it!

Lift the lid up, and gently shake the patty out.

Gently now, don't wreck your handiwork. It will be a little fragile.

A thing of beauty

Gently place it on peach paper in your container on the peach paper.

Peach paper works best because it is treated with a food grade wax, and the meat will not stick.

There you have it. You truly do not need a fancy burger press to make your burgerst.

Pork and Beef Burgers

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 3/4 pound pork shoulder, ground medium
• 3/4 pound beef chuck, ground medium
• plastic lid
• plastic wrap
• peach paper

Method:

1. Have the butcher grind the pork and beef together once through the medium grind. Stand and watch him while he does this, shooting the shit. Nothing beats a little comraderie between you and your butcher. The guy is full of knowledge, and is more than willing to pass it off to you.
2. See if you can’t score some peach paper from your new-found friend.
3. When you get home, set up your station. Measure out your meat into balls of 5 to 6 ounces each. The picture above had me do 35 burgers, so you can imagine that was a lot.Make sure to gently work out the air pockets in the balls, but do not overwork the meat.
4. Cover the lid with plastic wrap; place a ball in the center of the lid.
5. Press down and push the meat to the sides of the lid. You want the surface to be even, not lumpy like a badly risen bread.
6. Poke a hole in the center of the burger so your handiwork will not resemble a meatball when you grill it.
7. Gently shake the burger out of your “press” and lay it on the peach paper that is set into a container.
8. Refrigerate your meat until it is ready to cook on the grill. You need at least an hour for the meat to rest. If you just go and cook them right away, they will fall apart.
9. When you cook these burgers, use a seasoning mix like the Montreal Steak seasoning I posted a while back. Use nothing else, and people will almost disbelieve when you tell them there is nothing else in the burger.

Now you have mad ninja burger pressing skills. Use your new-found powers responsibly, and remember – you don’t need a fancy gadget in order to cook!

Special thanks to Nick from Macheesmo for his guidance on this post!

I often get asked the question, “What spices do I need to cook?” By the end of this post, you will have a great start.

Here is a picture of my spice cupboard:

A bit of a gong-show, I know

I have this dirty secret – I collect spices.

Before I get into the confession mode, I do need to clarify one thing. I am not like certain members of my family, (whose names I have changed to protect the innocent,) who hoard spices in jars from 20 years ago. Spices need to be fresh to be good. They have a life expectancy of 6 months to a year at most. If it smells like dust, throw it out!

Wide-mouth Mason jars are perfect containers, and are easy to stack. Better, you can see your spices and the shape that they are in.

Unfortunately, I keep my spices in the worst spot. (Above the stove.) I can’t help it though, I like to have them right at hand. I know I should find a better place for all of them, and perhaps one day I will try.

For now, here are the top 11 spices I think you need to get you cooking the WDC way:

1. Kosher Salt – Don’t let anyone tell you that this is not a spice. Romans were paid in salt way back in the day. You meed to have the best kind, and I like the Diamond brand.
2. Whole Peppercorns. Please, don’t buy the pre-ground stuff. All you get form that convenience is a dust that has some heat. The peppercorns store easier in whole format, and they taste so much better when they are freshly ground. If you do not own a pepper mill, you can use your coffee grinder. (For those of you who don’t know how to clean it after, perhaps that can be a short post.) I like a blend of 5 peppercorns; the dark baritone flavors complimenting the sweet suprano flavors.
3. Smoked Paprika - This is a definite must. I introduced this to the Mother-in-law, and now she swears by the stuff. La Chinata is the best brand I have come across. The combination of the sweet cayenne heat, and the oak smoke aroma is an unbeatable combination.
4. Chili Powder – You can buy it, or you can make your own. I personally prefer the latter, (another post on that one day.) Why buy it when you can make it yourself? You will find a million uses for chili powder, especially for some much needed comfort food heat, and low earthy bass notes in your food. It pairs fabulously with coffee as well.
5. Oregano – You need to have this dried herb on hand through the winter. I prefer the strands that you dry yourself, but that is getting a little far ahead. (At the end of the season I will be looking to do that as a post mortem on the garden.) Oregano is great in use for your own home-made dressings, sauces, gravies, roasts and other fantabulous concoctions. You can taste and smell the sweetness of the soil it is grown in.
6. Thyme - Come on, this is a staple of the kitchen! You just cannot make stews, stocks or other foundational preparations without it. Grow your own in a container, (thyme spreads worse than most weeds,) snip it, and dry it yourself. If you must buy it in the store, look for thyme that still has a bit of color left on it. Stay away from the packages that look like they have been swept up from the floor. Don’t bother with ground thyme either. The spice should give you a woody taste, with a healthy helping of – you guessed it – earthy tones.
7. Bay Leaves – Another staple of base preparations. I am currently looking to get a bay leaf tree, for the fresh leaves. Avoid the big bags of leaves that resemble the leaves you rake up in the fall. You know the ones – they look broken, shattered, olive-green and full of wrongness.
8. Cumin Seeds - Nothing beats the smell of cumin grains beat up in a mortar and pestle. Avoid ground cumin, as it is basically just dust. Cumin is great for stews, chilies, breads, curries, and anything else that needs an earthy, full-bodied overtone. Toast the seeds in a dry pan before using, and grind them up. The smell will move you. Add it to your pork loin, and the smells will draw even that sullen teenager from his Playstation 3 to the table.
9. Star Anise - I tend to use star anise in a lot of dessert preparations. It is the basis for 5 spice powder, and goes well with citrus. You can grind them up for use in stir-fries, give your sauces another dimension. A great preparation is roasted chicken with star anise, orange marmalade over steamed baby bok choy. Ethereal, with slight licorice tones that carry to a slightly dark, cinnamon tone.
10. Cinnamon sticks (Or Cassia bark) - Put the ground cinnamon down. Stop paying for dust. Once you have the sticks, it is hard to go back. Cinnamon is the refined bark of the tree, where cassia is the scrap part. I prefer cassia, for its more honest flavor. It has a bit of a bite, and a peppery, sweet earthy finish. People think cinnamon or cassia is only good for dessert. I find it adds a new dimension in almost everything that you can cook. In savory applications, it ramps up the volume to 11. When I was younger, I found that a small amount in spaghetti sauce put that “je ne sais quoi” factor into the dish.
11. Turmeric - Despite being a bit of a wallflower to this dance, this spice has potential to be the super star. The problem is we buy a crap-load of it, and don’t know what the hell to do with it. It sits there, biding its time, wishing we would smarten up. Turmeric has antioxident qualities, and has the penchant for transforming things into neon becons in the night. It is the base for many curries, is useful with chicken, salmon, vegetables. Why do you need this spice? Again, earthy tones. (Are you seeing a trend with this post yet?)

Which spices do you like to have, and why?

Spatchcock [?spæt??k?k]

No, you do not have to run and get the soap to wash out your kid’s mouth when they say it. You can even say it in public – alternating various levels of voice to get a real rise out of people. (Perhaps they may even give you a wider berth, thinking you have gone nutty!)

I have no idea where the word originated, but rumor has it that it is a bastardization of “spitchcocking” – grilling an eel that has been split down the middle for easier cooking. I am not sure of the origin, but I am sure that after our little demonstration today, you will be a pro at this technique.

First, let us talk about what we are trying to accomplish, and why it is better to cook the bird this way.

Spatchcocking is a fantastic way to prepare a bird for grilling. The idea is to even out the cooking surface of the bird so that the meat cooks evenly. The advantage is that the thickness of the bird will remain uniform throughout, and you will have plump, succulent, juicy breasts at the same time as you will have tender, silky, buttery legs and thighs.

The method is usually used with game birds, after you have brought it down with your gun. Instead of trying to pick feathers and shot out of the bird, we will translate it to the next best thing, a free-range organic chicken. There are a lot of people out there opposed to killing, but somehow messing up a bird that is already dead is okay. Besides, why would you want to crack your teeth open with shot?

You can use this on any fowl, and in any cooking method. The uniform size and shape lends itself well to the cooking process. I might suggest it for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but you would probably get a few road kill comments. Not worth it at that point!

Here is how:

Start with the free-range organic chicken.

Don’t balk at the cost though, it is better than picking the feathers off yourself!

Grab a pair of poultry shears. They will work the best here. You could use a pair of regular scissors though. Don’t tell my wife I told you that. I am in enough trouble using these scissors as it is!

Start from the tail end and do your thing!

The goal is to cut out the back bone, so follow the spine up with your scissors.

Cut through the wishbone so you can lay it flat

Pry open the carcass, and slip your scissors through the wishbone and cut it. Don’t worry about taking it out, the goal is to allow the meat to lie flat.

Season the inside with BBQ spice.

A lot of people don’t do this. It is one of those things that drives me bonkers. Why would you not put salt here? It doesn’t come seasoned, does it? Why should only one side of the chicken taste good?

Lay it flat and pose, err... arrange the carcass nicely

Sorry, I have been watching too much Dexter as of late… It does make for a nice presentation though?

Add some extra-virgin olive oil and season with the BBQ chicken spice

Some may question why I did not put the olive oil on the other side. Well, if I did that, it would just drip down. No sense in that. Season liberally.

Here it is in all its glory, before the oven

Doesn’t that look nice? I was going to grill the chicken to show what it would be like, but then Mother Nature decided to punish me and open the skies up. Buckets of rain crashed down and the ground soaked it up like a parched sponge in a desert. Great for the garden, not so much for this demonstration. No problem, this method lends well to other forms of cooking too.

Into the oven it went. I won’t get into specifics about what temperature, etc. That would be a recipe, and this is a method post. I will show you the end result though:

A thing of beauty!

I didn’t even want to wait to pull it out of the oven first. I had to snap the picture. A juicy, awesome roasted bird, in a fraction of the time. Start to finish, it was 30 minutes.

I would show you what it looked like after, but alas, nothing left. Make it for your family, and you will be blessed with my problem as well.

I have passed an anniversary of sorts. 2 years with an amazing program. I am speaking of Living Cookbook 2008. (The link goes to the product page in my Amazon Store.)

For those of you that have followed me for a while know that I have just been diagnosed with Diabetes. Living cookbook is a godsend – it helps me to figure out the carbohydrates of my menu choices. More on that later. Let’s get into why I think you need to get this program, now!

Support

The problem I had with other programs is that they usually ended up not being supported. They are released, kind of work, and their life cycle ends. You are then left with a buggy program that works, (some of the time.)

With Living Cookbook 2008, Lee Granger is active in his forums, and is always there to help. If there is a problem that you are having managing your data, he is there to help. If there is an update to fix a major bug, it is there.

I did have a little snag with the license key (mainly I did not have one after buying it from Paypal), but a reminder on the forums got me the key within a day.

To me, this is the most important selling feature of the software. I have used other software (like Mastercook) where the program simply would not do what it was supposed to do.

Recipes

If you only used the program for this feature, it would be worth all of your investment. You are greeted with a tree-view of your recipes on the left hand side. I like that feature because at least you can see all of your recipes at a glance. That feature is in use for all tabs later, and comes in handy.

Data entry is a snap. While that aspect is always no fun, at least the interface is intuitive enough to respond with you as you are typing. I find it best to use the tab button to navigate through your ingredient lists.

In entry, there are a myriad of things that you can enter in for recipe. Nutritional information, links to media files, pictures, etc. The best part of this program is the “capture” ability for recipes. (Also ingredients, but that is later.)

You can copy and paste a recipe into the same recipe entry window – from the “capture” tab. Like other programs, you can then highlight the text and press the corresponding button for what it is. The best part is you are not in an entirely separate window – you can go back and check your progress as you go. If the ingredients did not enter in correctly, you can go back and fix it.

You also have the ability to create new cookbooks, ingredients, measures, etc from the recipe entry window. While that may seem cumbersome at first, it becomes a powerful asset later when you are getting into multiple recipes.

The ability to link ingredients is the key to the whole works. You can link to ingredients or recipes. Better yet, if the program does not understand you at first, you have the option of searching for the ingredient to get an exact match. Again, it seems a little cumbersome at first, but the ability to be on the same page as your program is priceless.

Ingredients

I will say one thing about this program: there are about a million ingredients already pre-loaded into the program. If you are an average user, this will not really affect you as much. For the professional, it is a little unwieldy. The reason is that the ingredients are so precise. An example is Tuna. If you are looking for it, it is called, “Finfish, Tuna, All Grades”. The saving grace of the program is the ability to use “common words”. You can instead call it “tuna” and the links will all work. The problem comes from multiple items that use the same common terms. I wish that the common terms could be more like a tag structure, so multiple common terms could be used for that.

That being said, Living Cookbooks is the most powerful program for ingredients that I have ever come across. The database is well though out, and almost every aspect a chef could want is there.

Entry of ingredients is a snap. (Even editing ingredients is a snap!) You have space for the name, common name, description, picture, nutritional information, etc. Most importantly, (here is where the power of this program shines!) is the measure and shopping tabs.

In the measuring tabs, you can add a measure to the ingredient with all the standard formats, (lb, kg, gram, etc,) and you also have the ability to add your own custom measures. That means if you routinely buy a 20 lb bag of onions, you can add it to the measurements pad. Thing is, you need to add the weight in grams. Best still, you can even estimate the weight of the ingredient based on common weights of other items. Better yet, you can even compare it to weights already in the database by searching for the item. If you can understand the awesome power of that, then you are on the same page as me.

Shopping is more for the professional user, like a chef. If you are at home using this program, chances are that, unless you are super anal, you are not going to update prices on an ongoing basis for all the stores in your area. As a chef though, I have all my suppliers as separate “stores” so I can keep track of their prices. You can even opt to have a default buying place. Better still, the program does all the costing for you behind the scenes. If you buy your eggs from a supplier at X cost, then you can also automatically see what the cost of 1 egg is. (Remember you put in the grams earlier on for the custom measures? Here is where the accuracy shines!)

Menus

The ability to make menus based off of recipes, and ingredients is another powerful aspect of this program. The average user may not use this feature; for my banquet menu, I can just add recipes, ingredients and come up with a menu that is costed, and the portions are costed. As a bonus, there is even nutritional information supplied. There is not much more to say except that the interface is flawless, and the interactivity between the other tabs is nothing short of amazing.

Calendar

I don’t use this tab very much, but for those of you into that, you have the ability to drag and drop recipes and ingredients to the calendar to plan your meals. There are spots for Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and night cap. Best of all, nutritional information is calculated for the whole day, and the cost can also be displayed. Part of the reason I do not use the calendar much is that you only have one to work with. If there were multiple calendars, I would use them.

Shopping

This tab has both stores and inventory lumped together. I would prefer to see the two separate, but I can deal with it. The best part about this section is you can link your ingredient items with their respective inventory items. Then you can even maintain a large inventory, and remove inventory items as you are prepping them. (You do this from the context menu of recipe/menu items and selecting “remove from inventory”.) I have not gone as far as to use this feature, but I can see the raw power. When I slow down a little, I may start to incorporate the inventory feature of the program a little more.

Reference

I never use this tab. However, there is a plethora of information available at your fingertips. There is an alphabetized glossary, and a reference section of cooking techniques.

Adding a glossary term is a snap, and we also enjoy the same “capture” ability as in recipes and ingredients. This is awesome if you are searching through the Internet, and find a term that you want to remember for later. Best yet, you can also link techniques inside recipes in case you need to refer to a technique later. This comes in handy for me sometimes. An example is for sushi. I have a video on how to roll a tiger roll. For the recipe, I can link the technique (and even the video!) for reference later!

Internet

I never use this tab. I am not the type that likes browsing inside an application. I prefer having a separate window for that. If you like the feature though, it is there for you, and I am sure the ingredient capturing is even easier from that.

What about printing?

Finally, the printout format is infinitely customizable through a print options screen. There are so many bells and whistles there it boggles my mind. The only gripe I have is I have no way to add an image to the header of the document, so I can have the restaurant logo on the top of the page.

Final Verdict:

Here’s the deal: As of this writing, this program is $34.95. You will get more than your money’s worth if you put some time into it.

Living Cookbook 2008 (Link goes to my Amazon store) will not solve every problem you have as a chef. Hey, if that was the case, some monkey in a suit could sit behind the program and run the kitchen. It is excellent in its execution. There are a few things I would like to see though, as a chef only:

1. Integration with Excel – This is super important to me, because there are a lot of cost calculations and what if’s that I use on a daily basis. I keep records on what has been sold, and how the items are doing. Right now the best workaround I can get is exporting out in the .fdx format, change it to an .xml extension and try and go for that. It is clunky, and sort of workable.
2. I would love the ability to do basic culinary calculations. I can get a portion cost out of the program, but the amount is set off 100% yield. If I could be able to put an average yield on an item (like an apple for instance, the yield is 85%) it would help me to determine the real cost.

Winter's icy grasp can drain you - recharge with this!

What do you do when you have no seasonal produce? Fear not! By the end of this post you will know what to do!

A lot has been said about easting seasonally, locally and organic. If your neighborhood is anything like mine though, seasonal means snow drifts and street salt. (Snow cone anyone?) Even if you are hardcore, Winter can be tough on you. All those roots, meats, warming stews.

Worse, you might even see pictures of people eating other stuff that you are craving. You know how it is – your friend goes down to South America and posts about a million pictures on Facebook of beaches and sun. That alone should mean her demise, but her eating fresh berries and peppers and all others is the final straw.

I get it. You are chomping at the bit for summer – but it is about a million miles away.

I know, you are chewing at your knuckles on what to do. The solution is really not as hard as you think.

A lot of people might scorn off the frozen foods aisles; the irony is delicious. (Pardon the pun.) The truth is, a lot of those items were picked at their seasonal best (read: cheapest) then flash frozen in IQF form. (Individually Quick Frozen.)

It boggles the mind that the item you are buying in the freezer bag might be more fresh than the “fresh” stuff in the produce aisle. Those raspberries won’t have enough miles to take a free trip to the Bahamas after all.

Behold! 5 Fruits and Vegetables to get you through Winter!

Raspberries. Sweet and juicy, they lend themselves well to the IQF process. They are frozen, so you need to change it up a little bit. Smoothies, muesli, yogurt. That is the way to do it.

Blueberries. Try to find the wild version. They won’t party on and puke on your couch, but they will be a LOT tastier in things like your waffles, pancakes and such. Worst case scenario, you could make a compote with them.

Peaches. The frozen peaches in your frozen section are awesome. You know what is good about the peach? After you get past the peach fuzz, there is that acidic taste, tangy and succulent. The IQF process is great at capturing that. Best yet, you are pretty much guaranteed that you will not be biting into a stone unripe peach.

Corn. I have said it before. Forget canned corn for a minute. It is packed with a lot of salt. Search for the one that is IQF and you will not be disappointed. Goes great in soups, salads, served as a side, offered up to the gods of Spring.

Peas. I hate canned peas. Seriously, there ought to be a law! My wife disagrees with this wholeheartedly. You can’t have fresh peas in February, but you can have the IQF peas from last summer. You know what really rocks? A pea and mint soup with prosciutto. With IQF, that is possible.

Those are 5 to get you started. It might sound like cheating, but remember, when purchasing those items, look for a source local to you. (For me, it is Canada – either Quebec or Ontario.) The produce you buy will be FRESHER than the “fresh” produce at the produce aisle.

What do you look for in the frozen aisle to get you through Winter?

Photo courtesy of epsos of Flickr under Creative Commons by Attribution Generic 2.0

Coffee is very personal. There are about a million ways that one can do it, and usually those ways are so steeped in ritual, a crowbar could not pry you from them.

That said, I am going to show you what I do to get going. In short, here are 9 steps I think will make you a super cup of coffee. Use these steps with company carefully, unless you really like making a lot of coffee!

1. You must use a Bodum or another brand of French press. There is just no way around it. Stick with me here.
2. Grind your beans to a medium course setting. It really helps to have a burr grinder, but you could use a blade one. I am saving up for the burr grinder right now. You do have to grind your beans each time you brew. If you use a store-bought can of pre-ground coffee, it will taste like shit. I am sorry, there is just no way around it. How much? Depends on your strength preference, and the size of your bodum. I look for 30 mL of ground coffee per 250 mL of coffee.


#3 Add a pinch of salt

3. Add a pinch of salt. Okay, before you go accusing me of being a Chef and over seasoning everything, I find that the pinch of salt helps to offset a little of the bitterness of the coffee. There, now you know my secret.
4. Heat your fresh water to just before boiling. I mean it. The second your tea kettle starts spitting and whistling, it is all over. You have just taken your water to the flat stage. Get to it when it is right before that stage, and you will get the full flavor of the water as well. (I did tell you it is a ritual, no?)


#5 add 250 mL of the almost-boiling water and stir. This will make a sort of slurry.

5. Add about 250 mL of water to the beans; stir to make a “slurry”. Now there will be those who swear by filling the coffee Bodum to the top, then stirring. I find that you “start” the coffee, then the grains have a chance to better settle on the bottom of the Bodum.
   

   #6 Add water to the top of the Bodum. Look at that Crema!

6. Add the rest of the water to the top of the Bodum press.
   

   #7 Steep for 4 minutes. You should not see through the Bodum.

7. Let the coffee mixture steep for 4 minutes. No more, no less. Time it people! You should not be able to see through the press at this point.
   

   #8 You wouldn't want it prematurely shooting out, would you? Go slowly!

8. Press the plunger slowly down. This is usually where people really mess up. What usually happens is they jump the gun, and like an eager teen boy, they have an “accident” complete with coffee spewing forth prematurely. Do yourself a favor; press the plunger down slowly. The wait will be worth it.
   

   #9 Crema equals goodness. Look at the foam on this one!

9. Look at the crema! Pour and enjoy!

What is your ritual for coffee in the morning?

I neglected to mention that I absolutely love Bon Appetit magazine. I was just catching up with my reading the other day, and I came across a fabolous article on the merits of Italian cooking. I was so impressed, that I feel I need to share with you these laws, and my commentary on them.

Items in quotes are directly from the magazine. The italics are mine. Enjoy!

Can you see the 7 simple laws at play here?

Pay Attention: Find out what foods in your area are seasonal, buy local. “In Italy, the kind of cooking that chooses the local over the exotic is faithful to the seasons and wastes nothing.” This is best shown in the various regions that have their specialty. The locals used their ingredients to make traditional dishes that just cannot be messed with.

Love the Leftovers: “Just about anything can live happily in a frittata.” Amen!

Keep It Simple: “Let the ingredients speak for themselves.” Don’t overcomplicate cooking. A summer tomato really does not need more than a little salt, pepper, and basil to bring it to life.

Taste and Savor: Take more than 10 minutes to eat your meal. Actually speak to the people you are dining with. Actually give a shit about what goes on in their lives. Reconnect with them while eating, and you will find no matter what the fare is, it will be great.

Cook Creatively: “There is comfort in working with the most humble ingredients, and pleasure in being resourceful in whatever is at hand.” Any asshole can cook with the best ingredients… foie, tenderloin. It takes a true culinarian to work with something simple, and to execute it well.

Grow Something: It could be a small pot of basil or parsley. It could be a DIY tomato container. The point is that you are in control of what goes on your plate, and it would be something of which you are proud of.

Practice Generosity: “Now, more than ever, we need to eat together. Whatever there is to eat, it’s enough to go around. We come together at the table not because of what we do have, but despite of what we don’t.” Have you ever wondered why that Italian Grandmother was commanding you to eat? It is all about the law of reciprocation. You get WAY more out of it than you put in.

Photo courtesy of TinyDelights under Creative Commons by Attribution 2.0