Burrito Ends 3 Ways

Food Drama - Burrito End Investigation from wiley rogers on Vimeo.

An investigation into the properties and propensities of burritos. Thank you Wiley!

Carnitas en su jugo
2-3 lbs pork shoulder/butt

Slow cook or braise until fork tender in
liquid:
half pork/chicken stock
half mexican beer
flavors:
salt
chipotle peppers
onion
molasses
cumin
bay leaf


Allow pork cool in juice (optional)
*
Scrape off the fat and put it in a hot pan with more lard if needed
*
Pull apart the meat and then fry until brown and crispy
*
Place juice in sauce pan and reduce, adding sweet or sour elements to taste (molasses, honey, lime)
*
Return fried pork to juice to soak for a few minutes before eating
*
Use juice liberally to soften flour tortilla


***Stay tuned for the final word on how to make a burrito 'all end'.

Los Tres ACheeseGos

Food Drama from the monthly convention of the 3Cheeseketeers: Nate, Gabe, and I. This month Gabe created a thematic tasting session based on sourcing beer and cheese from a specific region of the world. Here we go...

[Ratings: -2: Awful, -1: Bad, 0: Neutral, 1: Good, 2: Ethereal]

Australia: Foster's with an Australian Sheep Feta (1)

UK: Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale and Fuller's ESB with a 5 year English Cheddar (0)

South Bay: IPAs from Drakes and Alimony with a Super Aged Gouda

(rating was impossible due to the utter and extreme intensity of the cheese)

OR: Deschutes Black Butte Porter and Full Sail LTD Lager with Smoked Blue (2 - for LTD, 1- for Porter)

Upstate NY: Ommengang Rare Vos with a pungent Camembert (1)

Ole!

Tropical Fruit Bonanza in Florida!

creamy canistels - sometimes called eggfruits

In this fun article, Tropical Treats Tasting Time, from Cooking Issues, Dave Arnold catalogs the multitudinous delectable treats housed at the Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead, FL. Apparently if you arrange a guided tour through this public park you can sample all kinds of exotic, tree grown jungle foods. 


So next time you are flying to Miami for a photo shoot or brunch with Will Smith, make the hour trip to this garden of wonders. I know I will.

3 Cheeseketeers IV: Round Sampling

A short film documenting the drama.

The Mikkeller was a present (and the best).

3Cheese Stated Purpose:
To taste different beers and cheese. Specifically tonight, to taste groupings of similar beers (i.e. 3 hoppy reds in a row), with cheeses that go well with the general category. This was accomplished by buying singles out of 6 packs, which runs contrary to our typical approach of buying a few expensive big bottles.

The plan sketched out on an envelope.

Highlights/Recommendations:
Cabot Cloth-bound Cheddar with Lagunitas Lil' Sumpin' Ale
Port Salut with Mikkeller Not Your Average Wit
Comparing different IPAs, also comparing different stouts.

All of the beers.

Mistakes/Cautions:
Mikkeller's I Beat youU - not well balanced enough to temper the powerful hoppy alcoholic bite, the first fail from these guys.
Too many beers! We came to a consensus that doing three rounds of tasting is probably ideal. Our taste buds were basically fried by the time we hit the hoppy reds and the stouts. It may be no coincidence that our two favorites came from the first three beers we tried.

Snacks: sweet potato fries with Blueberry Birdseye Chutney

Notes:
Lil Sumpin won a deserved Good Food Award a couple months ago, which encouraged me to take another shot at it (paid off!). Coincidentally, the Grand Teton American Pale Ale that we drink it with did not stand a chance, though it also won a Good Food Award the year before.

Recipe: Blueberry Birdseye Chutney

Heat in a sauce pan:
1 cup vinegar (apple or white)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water

When boiling add:
pint of blueberries
3 meyer lemons seeded and sliced
3-8 birdseye chilis (or any chili) - how hot do you want it?

And:
half inch of ginger finely sliced
tablespoon curry powder
black pepper
salt to taste

Reduce to simmer and allow to thicken and reduce for 1.5-2 hours

Can or put in the fridge in a jar. Or eat hot!

Chez Danforth: Wine and Cheese and Cheese

Clockwise from 12: parm, young blue, ?, humboldt fog/olives. double creme brie, TJs cotswold double glo

 Mark hosted a wine and cheese tasting on Friday. He obtained four botellas de vino and five cheeses. I brought over two more cheeses and some cervezas. Despite the conversation that we had earlier in the week Mark chose not to follow the advice of Drink This author Dara Grumdahl and obtained four different kinds of wine, from BevMo, all under $10.

According to the first chapter of the book (which is all I've read) Grumdahl says the proper way to go about tasting and learning wine is to follow a specific plan, which primarily involves drinking multiple versions of the same grape (ie Zinfandel). Makes sense because as far as my limited knowledge goes, a Pinot Noir and a Merlot could be either very similar or very different, and your conclusions would be stunted because you are comparing apples and oranges (both sweet? one is acidic?). On the other hand if you drink the same type of grape from different vintages, vineyards, etc. you can look for similarities.

Dog tasting?

Grumdahl says to go out and buy 4 Zinfandels, one cheaper, one around $15 from the same vineyard as the cheaper one, another $15 bottle and then a $25 bottle (about $65 total). She also recommends placing scent clues in wine glasses, so that at your tasting table you have dirt, gunpowder, crushed rasberries, wet rocks, and so forth in wine glasses. I like that part.

Wine over beer?

In terms of wine and cheese, I have heard it said, admittedly by beer enthusiasts, that wine has such a complex taste that pairing it with a random cheese will mostly likely not result in a Level 2 taste experience (which is the highest that scale goes). It seems like just pursuing wine alone might be more profitable. In my experience this is true, which is why I stick to beer, as seen in the photo.

Many thousands of props to Mark for buying doubles of cheeses so that when we ran out, he just opened the fridge and pulled out another brick of Humboldt Fog. Cheese and bread makes for a seductive dinner, but next time we agreed we should eat first in order to quell the cheese lust that overwhelmed us for a few couple minutes.

Onion Dipping

Finally, I have to say that the Trader Joe's  Cotswold Double Gloucester with Onions tastes exactly like onion dip. I gave it to a couple of my students, and they willingly tasted and then agreed with the observation. Maybe TJs is riding the wave of the destruction of the low food-high food dichotomy. Soon we'll find it on restaurant menus in the Mission, sold for a premium thanks to its new name: Onion Dip Cheddar.