Apr 03

Ma’amite – Limited Edition

Marmite have announced a new limited edition called Ma’amite to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. This will be Marmite’s fourth limited edition after their popular Guinness, Champagne and Marston’s Pedigree versions. The new limited edition sports the Union Flag on the jar and says it is made from 100% British yeast, which raises a question about where the yeast normally comes from.

Ma’amite – Limited Edition

Ma’amite – Limited Edition

Ma’amite should be ready to buy from Sainsbury’s after Monday 16th April 2012

Ma’amite Announcement

Apr 02

Texas Crawfish Boil Party

The word crayfish comes from the French word ‘escrevisse’ which literally means ‘to crawl’, though it has been suggested that it may come from the Anglo Saxon word ‘crevik’ which has the same meaning. Whether you call them crayfish, crawfish, crawdads or mudbugs, they are freshwater crustacean cousins of lobsters. In the wild the are usually found in fresh, unpolluted, shallow, warm water and like to eat decomposing plants as well as, small fish, algae, and insects. Rice farmers in Louisiana noticed that crawfish like to inhabit their rice ponds, as it was the perfect environment for them and since they didn’t negatively impact on the growth of the rice, they found ways to farm crawfish at the same time as rice and double their profit. Today Louisiana supplies 98% of the crayfish harvested in the US, half of which comes from crawfish farms and the other half from fishermen in the Atchafalaya Basin.

80lbs of crawfishCrawfish season in the US runs between March and June, and this Saturday we were invited to a Crawfish Boil at a neighbours house. I think Corby had bought about 80 pounds of live crawfish for the pot, which sounds like a lot for about 20 people, but there wasn’t much left after everyone got stuck in.

Though there is no agreed crawfish boil recipe, they always use live crawfish and some, or all of the following ingredient, potatoes, corn ears, heads of garlic, lemons, mushrooms and Andouille sausage. Andouille is French in origin, and was brought to the US through Louisiana by French immigrants, the Cajuns. Most people will buy ready made crawfish boil seasoning, but it will usually contain some mixture of salt, coriander, allspice, dill, crushed red pepper, bay leaves and cayenne pepper for spiciness.

Tipping out the crawfishThe herbs and spices are boiled up first, then the vegetables and sausage are added and then last but not least the live crawfish, before the whole lot is drained and tipped onto a newspaper covered table. There’s no real trick to eating crawfish. You just pinch the tail and suck the head, and if you’re not making a terribly disgusting noise, your not doing it right.

Mar 31

Sausage Making Marathon

Refrigerator Stuffed with Sausage

Six Type of Fresh Homemade Sausage in the Refrigerator

Stuart and I just finished making six different types of sausage today; Uncle Nick Stabile’s Italian Cheese & Pork, Sweet Italian, Hot Italian, British Bangers, American Breakfast and Spanish Style Chorizo. Last night I ground 22.5 pounds of Pork Loin, Shoulder and Fat Trimmings (~70 % Lean). This morning Stuart and I seasoned the ground pork and stuffed the natural casings with the mixtures. Once the casings have air dried for a day, the sausage will either be eaten fresh in the next few days or wrapped and frozen for future use. In the next few months you can expect to read a numbers of posts related to making sausage and the recipes that we used.

Mar 30

Making chicken stock is a great investment

Making your own chicken stock chicken stock offers a better return than an investment in the stock market. Well maybe not, but since the main ingredient, chicken bones, would normally go to waste it is practically free and compared to store bought chicken stocks it is a huge saving. The only real cost of making your own chicken stock is time.

Leading Brand Chicken Stock IngredientsApart for the cost of an onion, some carrots and celery which probably amounts to a lot less than a dollar, everything else is practically free (excluding time and a minimal amount of energy). Also my stock yields about 8 pints, whereas a leading store bought brand costs about $4 per 7 pints.

As well as being extremely thrifty, by making your own chicken stock you know exactly what goes into it, unlike some store bought stocks. Notice the photo of a the ingredients of a leading store bought chicken stock  hardly mentions chicken at all, and even then it is chicken fat and something called chicken powder. However, I’m not against using store bought stocks if I don’t have my own, but from a flavour perspective, home-made stock wins hands down every time. Another thing missing from some store bought chicken stock is collagen, which is a protein that makes up the majority of connective tissue in animals. Once dissolved in water to produce gelatin, this produces the unctuous body and mouth feel for the basis of most soups and sauces. In store bought stocks this is often replaced with guar gum.

One of the tricks to making home-made chicken stock is to start with cold water and heat it up gradually with the other ingredients rather than using boiling water. The aim is to get the collagen within the bones to dissolve out through tiny pores into the water. But if you plunge the bones into hot water first, the collagen proteins can coagulate and block the pores in the bones and trapping it within.

Chicken carcass and vegetablesHome-made chicken stock Ingredients

  • 1 chicken carcass, including neck, wing tips and leg bones.
  • 1 large onion, quartered
  • 2 carrots, peeled and cut in quarters
  • 2 sticks of  celery, cut in quarters
  • 2 bay leaves
  • Bunch of fresh parsley
  • 2 whole peeled cloves of garlic
  • 8 black peppercorns
  • 10 pints of cold water

Instructions

Place all the ingredients into your largest stock pot, making sure that the water is cold. Bring the pot to a boil and then turn the heat down to low, so that it is just barely simmering. During the first hour you will have to skim any scum from the surface of the stock using a ladle or small strainer. The scum is just clumps of proteins suspended in bubbles of water, but by removing them you’ll end up with clearer stock. How long to cook you stock for is variable, but aim for about 4 to 6 hours. To check if it’s ready you should easily be able to break the bones without effort.

Drain the stock through a fine mesh strainer into suitable containers. Unless you plan to use the stock very soon it is best to freeze it as it will only last a couple of days in the refrigerator before turning sour. I pour some of the stock into plastic freezer bags, using a bowl as a temporary mould or use a muffin tray to freeze handy sized chunks of stock that I then transfer to a large freezer bag when frozen.

Chicken stock ready for the freezerMuffin tray with chicken stock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When using the refrigerated or frozen stock in a soup or sauce it is best to bring it to a boil for a couple of minutes first just to be sure that any bugs that might have crept in during the cooling are killed off.

Mar 30

Balinese Style Fish Recipe – An Ode To Mata Hari’s Indonesian Restaurant & Bar

Fish with Balinese Sauce

Balinese Style Fish with rice, steamed broccoli and pickles

My dear friend Regina owned a very successful Indonesian restaurant on the west side of Houston for over two decades. Not only was the food amazing, but the bar was a local watering hole for many workers of the the petroleum industry. On any one night, it was not unusual to hear numerous languages being spoken in addition to a  variety of English accents.

There are many Indonesian dishes that I enjoyed at this restaurant and when living in Singapore. Even though Regina retired a few years ago, I still enjoy good Indonesian food when eating at her house. Of all the meals that I enjoyed, it is the Balinese Style Fish that was on the menu that I miss the most. The fiery, tangy, salty and the subtle sweetness of the mixture on top of the lightly fried fish is an experience that borders on exotic for the complexity and layering of flavors is both foreign and unknown to western tastes.

I was almost hesitant when I asked Regina for the recipe. I did not know if I was requesting a closely held “ancient Chinese family recipe”? Regina emailed the recipe and I quickly viewed the ingredients and instructions. It was not until I printed the email that I realized that the joke was on me. Not only were many of the ingredients not on hand in my kitchen, but there was very little information on the amount of ingredients to use. As with many people who enjoy cooking, recipes they have made for years are devoid of exact measurements. They cook utilizing all of their senses, storing the knowledge and making adjustments each time the dish is prepared.

Although some of the ingredients for the Balinese style fish sauce are likely not in your kitchen pantry or refrigerator, do not despair. Through careful planning, shopping and on-line research for ingredients not readily available, substitutions can be found. Do not be like me and go shopping for the ingredients the evening of the meal during rush hour traffic. Luckily, I was able to find all of the ingredients required.

Balinese Style Topping for Fish

Simmering Balinese Style Fish Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 1 x  Large White or Yellow Onion Diced
  • 1 x Piece of Ginger Diced Small (size of your thumb)
  • 10 x TBSP of Sambal Oelek (many recipes on-line use far less, but I was going for replication)
  •  2 x TBSP of Tamarind Juice (made this ingredient from tamarind paste, but it is available as juice)
  • 2 x TBSP of Kecap Manis
  • 5 x Lime Leaves (I picked mine from lime tree on the patio)
  • 1 x TSP Sugar
  • 1 x TSP Salt

Instructions:

  1. Saute the diced onion and ginger for 10 – 12 minutes
  2. Add all of the remaining ingredients
  3. Cook on low until the sauce thickens

For me, this meal is best enjoyed replicating the way that it was presented at Mata Hari’s Indonesian Restaurant & Bar. A lightly fried fish topped with the Balinese Style fish sauce, placed on a bed of white rice with a side of steamed broccoli and quick pickled vegetables. Further discussions with Regina highlight that this sauce is also good with shrimp and squid (sotong)

The sauce can be made well before the fish, rice and accompanying vegetables are prepared. Reheat the sauce when preparing the other components of this meal. This recipe will make enough for 6 normal size fish filets.

Sequence of Events (before eating):

  1. Prepare the Balinese Style Fish Sauce before hand
  2. 30 minutes: start cooking the rice
  3. 20 minutes: place the steam pot on the stove and turn on high to boil the water
  4. 15 minutes: prepare the fish to be fried
  5. 10 minutes: heat the pan with oil to cook the fish
  6. 7 minutes: place the broccoli in the steam pot
  7. 6 minutes: begin cooking the fish
  8. Plate the fish, and spoon the sauce on top of the fish

Follow Up to the Original Post:

If I had only done more research prior to asking Regina for the recipe, I would have remembered that the Houston Chronicle in 2000 published a review on Mata Hari’ Indonesian Restaurant & Bar and published the recipe for Balinese Style Fish (Ikan Bumbu Bali). When I reviewed the recipe published in the Houston Chronicle, I realized that there were subtle differences. both recipes are correct, but it does go to show you that even personal recipes saved to memory change and evolve over time.