FlavBlog

I enjoy reading immensely. One can find my head in a book reading on the bus to and from work, at my work commons during lunch, walking the streets of Capitol Hill, or sitting on my couch at home. For the last year, I’ve read a variety of different food books.  A large portion of my nonfiction reading for the past couple of years has focused on food literature. Some reads have influenced me in a way that it altered our purchasing, cooking, and eating habits. Others, I found entertaining and generated fond memories of past and hopefully future food-related travels. The rest were simply informative and helped me add random trivia or food facts to conversations. What food books have influenced you recently?

"Food Rules, An Eater’s Manual." By Michael Pollan:  Easy to flip through health guide for eating. Some of the "rules’ seem obvious- "19. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t (pg.41)," wise but rarely thought about- "27. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well (pg.61)” and necessary- "44. Pay more, eat less (pg.99).” The one we live by in our home: "51. Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it (pg.113)" Recommended to people who should learn about a healthy eating lifestyle.

"Eating Animals," By Jonathan Safran Foer:  Foer’s "Eating Animals” made me conscious think about all the animals I’ve eaten since a kid and will continue to eat as I grow old. He does in a subtle manner push a veggie lifestyle. But to be frank, I will never give up meat. I like it too much. The least I can do is to make a conscious choice to eat ethically treated meat and seafood versus factory farmed. On his website he has a Call for Action. I thought this aspect was missing from the book, which begged for people to act. Recommended to people who eat way too much meat.

"The Edible Series" A Global History. (Hamburger. Cheese. Pizza. Pancake.):  Each subject matter stands alone in roughly 125 pages and there are several other single subject matters in publication. They review the food from it’s origins, focuses on subgroups within the subject matter, and offers a short list of recipes. The books are brief enough to keep them entertaining and yet filled with trivia (e.g. the first fast food hamburger stand in CA selling burgers for a few cents). These books are not for the person who wants an extensive thorough background on a food subject. Recommended to people who play Trivia or watch Jeopardy. 

"Eat My Globe," By Simon Majumdar:  Majumdar spent one year traveling around the world eating everything he could. His descriptions are not for the faint hearted, but for those with tough stomachs. He is raw and brash and at times it can be disappointing because of his fast paced travel schedule. He did hit some excellent food cultures of the world (France, China, and Argentina), but was rather brief and apologetic about other food meccas, specifically San Francisco. Recommended to people that read arm chair travel.  

"Beans, A History," By Ken Albala: Albala offers the most extensive review of beans I have ever seen or read. The legume’s history ranges from various Western nations and parts of Asia. I chose to read the book because I rarely buy, order, or eat beans and thought maybe if I learn more about them…..I’ll want to include them more often in our cooking. Recommended to people who think they know everything about beans.

"Grape vs. Grain," by Charles Bamforth: Bamforth sets up a entertaining debate of grapes (wine) versus grain (beer).  Which one wins?  Probably beer, at least he spends more pages talking about it. I enjoyed the descriptions of the different malts, grains, and hops. However, I found the wine sections lacking in detail and breadth. Regardless, he challenges one to reach out for the variety of flavors and blends a beer has to offer, and brings up an interesting point that beer has amazing complexity. Recommended to people who think they dislike beer.

"The Botany of Desire," Michael Pollan:  Pollan sets out to describe four subjects: apples, tulips, cannabis, and the potato. He nails each one in a picture perfect sense. He sets out to say that there is still hope for maintaining a unique apple species. The largest variety of cut flowers are sold daily at the Aalsmeer flower market. The cannabis bud continues to ignite controversy in both theory and use. The NewLeaf genetically modified potato was stuffed, yet other genetically modified preservative "food" remains on the table.  Recommended to people who desire more truth and detail about botanical delights.

"Salt: A World History," Mark Kurlansky:  Kurlansky explores every aspect of salt: cultural and religious history, chemistry, and economics. This text exclaims the significant use of salt throughout Chinese, British, Middle Eastern, and United States.  Salt’s amazing ability to be used in so many contexts both within and outside the world of food makes it one of the worlds most important minerals. Recommended to people who like history.  

"Fat, An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient with Recipes" By Jennifer McLagan:  McLagan stresses the importance of fat in the diet for a healthy lifestyle. Yes, fat, the part people cut away, throw away, or request to be removed before purchase.  Fat is demonized by our society, and McLagan goes into great detail to contrast many of the preconceived notions about fat.  Her book provides specific examples of fat’s benefits, types, and recipes. Recommended to people everyone who eats and enjoy fat.  

"Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper," Fuchsia Dunlop:  Dunlop took me back to the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of Sichuan, China. This is one of my favorite non-fiction books of the year because it brought back the memories of the hot, spicy numbing Sichuan pepper hot pot, tea in the People’s Park at Chengdu, Buddha’s hands in the Red Sea (pig feet)  at the Chengdu cooking school with Mr. Lee, or the fried bread balls with a sweet sugar sauce at the Wolong Manor Hotel. I laughed out loud as I read Dunlop’s descriptions because many people share similar eating and cultural experiences as Westerners traveling in China. Recommended if you have ever traveled to China or desire to travel to China, this is the book to get you started or to rekindle old memories.

This is a summation of our Taco week with Mark Miller’s “Taco” book. A few basic things to get out of the way first: 1) We needed many ingredients that were not at a standard grocery store, but a specialty Hispanic food store.  2) The tacos require several steps prior to sauteing, sometimes roasting the pepper to peel, multiple items to chop, dice, or julienne, smoking spices,  or squeezing limes or lemons. 3) The actually cooking time is short and so is the eating, since they are small and you basically just pound them down one after another. It was hard not to prevent yourself from popping them into your mouth with only a two large bites. Typically, we take 30-40 minutes to eat each night, but during the taco week we consumed them quickly.  We tried to hit all areas of taco filing, including, egg, vegetable, poultry, fish, and red meat. However, we had to drop one of the chicken tacos because we couldn’t locate nopales. Overall, Miller’s “Taco” book is fantastic and offers a wide variety of options to the traditional American taco!

1st Taco: “Bacon and Egg with Red Chile and Honey”  with the “Tomatillo-Avocado Sauce” for Sunday breakfast. The bacon caramelizes with the honey and red chile powder and sit on a bed of fluffy puffed eggs. It is topped with julienne strips of roast red pepper, chopped cilantro and the chilled tomatillo-avocado sauce. A critique on myself, I could have cooked the bacon a little longer, because it did not provide the crunchy texture contrast that was expected. The key to this taco is the accompaniment, otherwise it would have been similar to something I have previously created. With fresh tomatillos and a perfectly ripe avocado it steps up the average breakfast taco. On a Scale of 1-10, it gets a 6.5.

2nd Taco: “Squash Blossoms with Green Chiles and Cheese” with Tomatillo-Avocado Sauce.” The chilies in the recipe included poblano, jalepeno, serrano, and green. Two of them required the seeds left in which gives the dish a bit of heat. This filling is not for the spice sensitive. A couple of years ago, I discovered the squash blossoms at the farmer’s market and would stuff them with various cheese and herb mixtures. But, this recipe intrigued me because they become part of the taco filling. Epazote was an ingredient, I had never used or heard. According to the source it decreases flatulence after a rough meal. Perhaps this ingredient should be used more in bean dishes!  Unfortunately, I could only locate it dehydrated, but it has an interesting scent. The fresh herbs added to the dish were marjoram, basil, and cilantro. Marjoram created perfume fragrance that dominated the smell and taste of the filling. I found it a bit harsh, so I would reduce the amount of marjoram next time. The filling had beautiful hues of yellow and green with speckles of white from the chile seeds and graded queso Oaxaca. The tomatillo-avocado sauce dripped out onto our fingers as we gobbled up the delicious vegetarian tacos. The yellow squash provided enough substance to a non-meat meal. Scale of 1-10, it gets a 9.

3rd Taco: “Seared Tuna Taco with Roast Pineapple and Habanera Pepper Sauce.” For this we used the fresh albacore tuna, we previously mentioned (plug in previous post). The tuna was sliced into 1/2 inch sections and then rubbed with a dry mixture of red chile powder. It is quickly seared on both sides. The pineapple rings were caramelized on a low stove temperature and then mixed with the lime juice, roasted habanera and fresh coriander. Since this taco contained the hottest known pepper to man-the Habanera, we fully expected it give a kick in them mouth. But, the caramelized pineapple  toned down the heat from the  pepper. While this taco was good because of fresh ingredients, it scored the lowest because of our execution-we overcooked the tuna and could have carmelized the pineapple more. Scale of 1-10, it gets a 6.

4th Taco: “Classic Ground Beef with Guajillo Chile with Salsa Fresca.” What I love about this classic taco is no use of a taco seasoning package. What the hell is in that, anyway? This is what a standard taco should taste like. We used our Kitchen Aid mixer to grind the beef shoulder and cooked until brown. Then, you added the re-hydrated Guajillo chiles, tomatoes, and white onion and create a stew-like texture. There were a couple other red chiles used and some of the mexican oregano. The freshest ingredients of the Salsa Fresca are necessary-heirloom tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lime juice- to make the best topper. Combining all the ingredients makes for the best beef taco. Scale of 1-10, it gets a 8.

5th Taco: ” Chicken with Chorizo”. This taco turned out to be one of the easier tacos to prepare using only a blender and one pan, and also one the most delicious from the book. These tacos contain a green marinade which balances the red chile in the chorizo. We served them with the queso fresco, and you can also garnish them with quail eggs sunny side up. We have included the recipe (adapted) below. Scale of 1-10, it gets a 9:

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 poblano chile

1 jalapeno

1 bunch fresh cilantro

2 gloves garlic

1 teaspoon green chile powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin seed, toasted and ground

1/2 teaspoon coriander seed, toasted and grounf

1/4 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, toasted and ground

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup flat leaf parsley

1 nuch green onions, root ends trimmed and cut into large pieces

1 1/4 lbs of chicken breast (we used de-boned thighs as we feel like they have more flavor), cut into 1/2 strips

6oz Mexican pork chorizo bulk or links

1 tablespoon veg oil

1/2 white onion

8 crispy yellow corn tortilla shells (we used Don Pancho corn tortillas)

In a blender, place the water, lime juice, chiles, garlic, cilantro, green chile powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, salt, parsley, and green onions and puree until smooth. In a bowl pour the marinade over the chicken strips. Let set for 1-3 hrs. If in links remove the skin from the chorizo and break it up, and in a large skillet over med. heat saute the onion until carmelized about 4-6 minutes.

Add the chorizo to the onion and cook, stirring until the sausage is cooked through, around 8 minutes. Remove the sausage pan from the pan and set aside, leave the fat in the pan. Remove the marinated chicken strips and drain off the excess liquid. In the same pan as the chorizo was cooked, saute the chicken, turning once or twice, until the chicken is a light golden color and cooked, around 9 minutes. Remove from the heat or keep warm until ready to serve and stir back in the chorizo/onion mixture.

To serve, divide the filling between the warmed tortillas, top with queso fresco, and Salsa Fresca, then serve. We ate these tacos Hair of the Dog, Blue Dot, Imperial IPA. A hoppy, piney, citrus-like beer which balances the spicy attack on the palette.

This summer we’ve been treated to great tacos at Tako Truk and just last night we enjoyed a repeat of Kye Soon Hong and Eric Vigessa’s outstanding Korean Tacos on Eric and Dawn Wright’s patio (see Gourmet’s recipe and post about the Korean tacos by Matthew-Amster Burton which we missed the first time, and blog post via Rebekah Denn).  Tacos can be fun to make, so differently construed, and be filled with great flavor combos and textures, so I checked out “Tacos,” by Mark Miller at the public library (after an NPR recommendation). A quick perusing and I know we are going to love this cookbook. Rarely, do I buy a cookbook without testing out a few recipes first, but this could be the cookbook for the year and it’s only August. Even before we’ve cooked anything, we are salivating at the 75 options of tacos filled with things like squash blossoms, nopales, wild mushrooms, duck, squid, pork, bacon, or even elk. (Not sure where I can find elk meat in Seattle, but I am sure I could order some).

Saturday midday, we drove to a Pike’s Market, University Market, and Whole Foods to collect all the items we needed. I don’t think I have ever purchased as many dried or fresh chilies in one day as we did yesterday. Our car was filled with the hot spicy scent of capsicum for several hours. Fortunately, Seattle has the true gem when it comes to the purchase of bulk spices, World Spice Merchants. Any spice you want or don’t know you want, they will have it or they will recommend a place to get it. I needed a “few” spices so I created the list and passed it along to the merchants to prepare! My list for chilies included: Ancho, Chipotle, Guajillo, New Mexico, Passilla Negro, and Pasilla de Oaxaca whole and a few more were grounded or flaked. While we waited for the packaging of the spices we headed to El Mercado Latino, a small grocery near Pike’s Market. Surprisingly, we bought all the Mexican ingredients we needed: corn tortillas, queso oaxaca, expazote, and crema Mexicano. Next stop Tonnemaker Family Orchard, at the University District’s farmer’s market. By far, the Tonnemaker Family have the largest selection of fresh chilies and peppers I have ever seen in an open market. Their collection ranges from the hottest to mildest varieties. Vibrant colors of reds, orange, green and yellow overflow the white boxes, small medium and large sizes to choose from. I walked away with 10 different chilies and peppers totaling only a few dollars. Close to the University farmer’s market we usually swing by University Seafood and Poultry for their “fresh-fresh” wild local St. Jude albacore tuna . OMG…we feel this is the best tuna we have had all summer and for $6.95 lb, it’s a steal. The rest of the supplies were from other vendors at the farmer’s market or via Whole Foods.

The menu is now set for the week and we will report on the highlights at the end.

• Bacon, Eggs, Red Chile, and Honey Taco
• Squash Blossoms with Green Chilies and Cheese
• Seared Tuna Taco
• Sonoran Chicken with Nopales Taco
• Classic Ground Beef with Guajillo Chile
• Accompaniments include Tomatillo-Avocado Sauce, Mexican Crema, Roasted Pineapple-Habanero Chile Salsa,  and Salsa Fresca

Most Americans drink milk each day, but very few people understand its history or production. In her James Beard award winning book, “Milk, the surprising story of milk through the ages: along with 120 adventurous recipes that explore the riches of our first food,” Anne Mendelson sets out to demystify the beginnings and current perspectives on taste. She creates an informative approach to the grocery store labeling of raw vs. pasteurized, organic vs conventional. The book contains recipes ranging from homemade yogurt, sour cream, and true buttermilk and it highlights cultural regions around the world (Turkish Style Yogurt, Polish Cold Beet Soup, & Russian Pot-Cheese Fritters). Most of the recipes require non-homogenized milk, which can be difficult for some people to locate. Fortunately, we have a variety of raw milks to select from living in the Pacific Northwest.

While Michael and I did not test out any of the recipes, we did purchase three types of milk for a small taste to determine if we could taste some of her descriptions in “Milk.” Since eating cookies is usually involved with milk consumption, I made the Cooks Illustrated Big Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin cookies as an accompaniment. The Milk selections were as follows:

• Dungeness Valley Creamery Whole Raw Jersey milk ($6.99 64oz, independent privately owned in Sequim, WA)
• Sunshine 2% Reduced Fat milk ($2.99 64 oz, independent privately owned in Portland, OR)
• Organic Valley Family of  Farms Reduced Fat 2% Ultra Pasteurized milk ($3.99 64 oz, family cooperative in Northwest)

We decided to double blind the samples and decode them at the end, so we could be as objective as possible. From the outset, we noticed that there was a clear difference in color of each type of milk. The Organic Valley and Sunshine appeared bleach white, whereas the Dungenness Valley reflected a creamy yellow tone. Sunshine’s texture coated my mouth, more than the Organic Valley’s watery consistency, and had a hint of sweetness. It tasted like the milk from my childhood basic grocery store. Finally, the Dungeness Valley’s buttery, nutty, richer flavor cleared the path as the distinct winner.  Although the most expensive, Dungeness Valley was well above the other two and after reading Mendelson’s “Milk,” you learn why it is critical to seek out the Jersey cow milk for the “real” milk flavor. For example, Jersey cows produce less pounds of milk compared to the conventional cow and the molecular structure (large milk fat globules), density, and texture of Jersey milk results in an earthier, rustic flavor and darker color.

We’re gearing up to add some other local milk into another taste test, including SeaBreeze Farms among others. And, if you haven’t tried the Cooks Illustrated Big Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin cookies, they go perfectly with a glass of Dungeness Valley Milk.