Mustard Bonanza

Yesterday's post was the bacon showdown between the Czech and English bacon with the results being a dead on tie. Today it is another showdown. This time its mustard. 

In this corner we have Caraway Seed mustard. Weighing in with ingredients including caraway seeds, beer, white wine, salt and "spices".

Caraway Mustard

In the other corner we have Bavarian Sweet mustard. Ingredients include mustard seeds, beer, dark cane sugar, salt, and "spices". 

Sweet Bavarian Mustard

Just like the bacon challenge both mustards were from Kocurek Family Charcuterie. As a matter of full disclosure I receive no compensation from Kocurek.

Though I would like to. 

Seriously, free sausage would rock my world. 

Just saying. 

The first time I tasted the mustard I just about choked. It had nothing to do with the mustard and everything about expectations. My loving wife who said she was getting some ice cream and wandered off into the kitchen came back with two spoons and told me to open my mouth. Being a good blindly obedient husband I opened my mouth anticipating a cool creamy treat. Instead she had put the mustard on a couple of spoons. My reaction was instant and repellent.

I know those with a refined palate can easily taste condiments by themselves. OK, well my palate is not that refined. I think the initial shock of the ice cream/mustard substitution stuck for a few minutes because even when my wife put a little on wheat thins the taste didn't agree with me. 

So I though about what fine dining dish would best allow me to analyze and break down the flavors and subtle undertones of the two mustards. Would it be prosciutto, roast beef, braised pork belly? No, I knew I would need something more substantial. I would need something that hands down would be the true measure of mustard. 

I knew there could only be one food I could use....

Hot dogs with Caraway Mustard (left) and Sweet Bavarian Mustard (right)

That's right. For me, regular ole' hot dogs are the true measure of any mustard. Again, I make no pretensions about having a super refined palate. In this case I just used Ball Park beef franks. Over the last couple of months I've tried to steer more away from processed foods but when we got the mustard I knew I needed regular processed hot dogs. 

I could have gotten frankfurters from Kocurek also ( I hear they are really good) but I was concerned having both new hot dogs and new mustard wouldn't let me sample the mustard. I wouldn't know how much of the taste came from the franks and how much from the mustard. 

Looking at the pictures above it looks like I caked on the mustard and you might have expected the mustard to completely overwhelm the hot dogs. Surprisingly not. The taste of both was remarkably restrained considered how much I put on. I liked both. You might also suspect (based on the pictures above) that both would be "seedy" to the point of ruining the texture of whatever was eaten with mustard. Also, surprisingly not. Neither was seedy to the point of being distracting though the Caraway mustard was slightly more seedy than the Bavarian. 

Both have that slightly bitter taste with the Bavarian having a stronger bitterness than the Caraway. Probably (or maybe) because the Bavarian has both beer and vinegar. In many cases the beer substitutes the vinegar instead of both being used. 

The Caraway taste in the Caraway mustard really comes out when eating it and sifting through the mustard with your tongue. That sounds kind of gross and what I really mean is rolling the seeds aside while swallowing then really tasting the Caraway. 

Both were good and I would recommended both but if I was on desert island with only one mustard (and hot dogs) I would probably go with the Sweet Bavarian. The great thing about the Bavarian was it was only slightly sweet and not the overwhelming sweetness you find in store bought brands. 

Overall I would give both mustards a big spoon up. 

Baconfest

This weekend at the Pearl Brewery Farmer's Market we picked up two different kinds of bacon from Kocurek Family Charcuterie. We got Czech bacon and English bacon and decided to have a BLT off between the two.

The picture below shows the Czech bacon on the left and English bacon on the right.

The Czech bacon was definitely more akin to traditional bacon than the English bacon. Even looking at the picture above you can see the difference in the marbling. The English bacon seemed more like slices of ham when a thin cut of fat along the outside. The Czech bacon though had the same traditional streaks of fast.

Smelling both bacons before pan frying them it was apparent these were definitely not Oscar Mayer over processed cuts. They both smelled truly smoked and cured. It was a distinct heavy smokiness that made my mouth water. I started cooking the Czech bacon first since I felt like I needed to cook it more like traditional bacon. I heated it up slowly so I could avoid the inevitable under cooked curls that pop up when you throw cold bacon into a hot pan.

Taste wise the Czech bacon didn't have the over powering saltiness of store bought bacon. Some might say that lack of saltiness is a minus. I would disagree and say the lack of saltiness is a plus. It lets you actually taste the bacon instead of eating a fatty piece of salt lick.

I wasn't sure how long to cook the English bacon. Since it was more like a slice of ham than traditional bacon I didn't cook it nearly as long. I just waited until it got some good brown spots and the whole piece started to curl again. The thin trim of fat around the English bacon disintegrated within a minute or two of putting it in the skillet.

The taste and texture of the English bacon was exactly what I expected based on how it looked. It tasted like a slice of ham minus the heavy salt. The texture though was more "meaty" than sliced ham from the grocery store.

We tried both hams on BLTS and as individual strips. Both were good but my personal preference was the English bacon. It may just be the fact that I've been conditioned to salty bacon but (as a sandwich topper) the Czech bacon didn't quite do it for me. I think some of that may have been that I just overcooked the Czech bacon.

As a side with eggs I would probably lean more towards the Czech bacon. Both bacons were great and it was really fun to try something other than Oscar Mayer processed pork.

Oh, A Blog.

Well, as I wrote in my first post I got kind of distracted and wandered off from the blog. I have some extra time this week since I'm on vacation so I thought I might touch base with everyone again. 


Since my last post my wife and I have started going to the Farmer's Market at the Pearl Brewery every Saturday. I'm really starting to enjoy the fresh vegetables and getting to actually know and be familiar with the farmers we're buying our food from. I'm not a hippy type at all. I don't insist on purely organic and completely pesticide free food. For me the best part of the Farmer's Market is a combination of the freshness and kind of fun aspect of trying to use the food that is currently in season. 

There is an odd mix of people at the Farmer's Market. They generally fall into one of a couple of categories. There are the hippy types. Most easily identified by their long hair, minimal make up (on the ladies), tie dye, and the baby wraps they carry their younguns in. A good 99% of them have t-shirts that somewhere somehow some way include the work "green" or "eco" on them. They aren't full blown Haight Ashbury hippies but they are as close as San Antonio conservatives get. 


Then there are the yuppie types. While the hippies use the minimalist baby wraps the yuppies go with the full blown over priced European baby strollers. I know they are overpriced because my wife who works retail constantly points them to and says "that one cost $700" or "oh my gawd, that piece of crap is $1200." They are also spotted because they roll up in their SUV's with a "Think Green" sticker on the back. 


I tease though. It really is a good mix of folks and I wouldn't want it any other way. It is actually that odd mixture of folks that makes the Farmer's Market a good time. 


I've made some discoveries since we started going to the Farmer's Market. 


One being that despite an unfortunate and tragic experience with Hickory Farms smoked sausage when I was 11 I am finally at the point that I can eat and enjoy sausage again. 

Kocurek Family Charcuterie, who makes a weekly appearance at Pearl Brewery, makes some absolutely fantastic sausage and pates. They offer a terrific variety of sausages, pates, mustards, terrines, and other items. We haven't bought anything from them so far that we haven't loved. I think the only exception is the pork belly boudin we got but I don't blame that on them. We hadn't ever had boudin before and I think it was just a little different than we expected. We've gotten everything from spicy Italian sausage, coq a vin sausage, czech bacon, andouille, and a crazy good Currywurst that they told us Germans eat as street food. 


I've also learned that (at least at Pearl Brewery) the Farmer's Market is equal parts market and an event. The market runs 0900-1300 every Saturday. At least every other Saturday there is some type of event.


There are cooking demos from local chefs most Saturdays at 0930. Chefs from some of San Antonio's best known restaurants show up to teach us a little something. 

Even more often there is live music from local musicians. Well, I assume they are local. They range from the adequate to the very good. Folk, zydeco, bluegrass, and country tend to dominate. There is often a little jazz thrown in as well. 

Overall the farmer's market at Pearl Brewery is a terrific time. A hodge podge of personalities, amazing fresh food, entertainment, and delicious samples. 

Deviled Eggs and Salmon

I have a long history with eggs and salmon. Our history goes back almost 13 years to when I was visiting my girlfriend (later to be wife) in her home city of Oslo, Norway at Christmas time.

It was our first appearance as a couple in public and it was at an employee breakfast. I was served cold scrambled eggs and salmon. My reaction to tasting it and the subsequent embarrassment that reaction caused both of us is still etched in our brains. Despite cold salmon sandwiches being a Scandinavian staple I can not wrap my brain around.

By the way if I spell Salmon wrong (as in Salman) it because of Salman Khan being stuck in my head.

So the whole eggs and salmon thing came up because of an article at Serious Eats about a Deviled Eggs with Salmon recipe. I want to have a more refined palette. I want to be more open and eat a wider range of foods. I want to be able to tell the difference between well prepared and poorly prepared food.

So I kind of, sort of, followed the recipe. Actually I varied quite a bit. A little out of necessity and a little out f preference. As usual creme fraiche was nowhere to be found at the grocery store. So I substituted sour cream. I discovered to my dismay that we were out of lemon juice and used a little lime juice. I don't know how the wife uses an entire container of lemon juice on a single bunt cake. And finally because of my reaction all those years ago, I used maybe a quarter of the salmon the recipe called for. I wanted to get some of the taste of the salmon and some of the smokiness but not enough to make me gag.

Overall, I think I liked it. I had to get past the fact there was some salmon in it. Once I really tried analyzing the flavor it definitely tasted better. The mustard flavor really came out. I don't know if I (personally) would like it with four times the amount of salmon that the recipe calls for. I think I may make it again.

I would recommend it. Eric Riper is pretty awesome.

Eggs Cocotte

This morning I made Eggs Cocotte aka Oeufs Cocotte Bressane aka eggs with heavy cream.

There are a lot of recipes for eggs cocotte on the web (like this one) but the majority of them call for placing the eggs in the oven. I made mine on the stove top per Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques.

Eggs Cocotte are essentially eggs that are indirectly heated to the consistency of soft boiled eggs. It is an incredibly simple recipe and process which of course took me several hours to master. Hey, I said I was a beginner cook.

Simply butter the inside of a ramekin, put a little pepper or salt in there, then put the ramekin in warm (almost simmering) water. The water shouldn't be so high that it will spill into the ramekin if it (the water)  lightly boils. Cover and bring the water to a light boil. The recipe from Pepin's book I was following said to only have it in there for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes but it took my eggs a little longer to set. I think they were in there maybe 2-3 minutes.

The first time I tried it I had the water in the pan too high and probably let the water come to too much of a boil because the water tipped over the edge of the ramekin and into the eggs. The result was watered eggs, a burnt finger, and a mess.  The other mistake I had made was putting an itty bitty bit of crunched up bacon in the bottom. The egg had trouble setting over the bacon. I don't know if it was moisture of the bacon (because it was pretty crisp) or if it soaked up the heat under the eggs in the center. I opted on my second try to add a little bacon on top instead of at the bottom of the ramekin.

I waited (and I don't know if this was right) until the egg had just barely set so I didn't see any clear egg white. But I did take it out the very second I didn't see white because remember the heat in the ramekin continues to cook the egg a little. I tried taking one out of the water before it had set and had maybe half a tablespoon of clear white left. I had hoped it would continue cooking enough to set the white but alas I was left with clear egg white on top of the set white.

I added about a tablespoon of heavy cream to one of the eggs. I was worried the texture would be slimy or that I wouldn't like it but it actually tasted great.

The flavor was remarkable. I really like it. It had a more delicate taste than a traditional soft boiled egg. You could really taste the egg flavor without it being too much. It definitely had more flavor than you might get with an over easy or sunny side up egg. It was almost like an egg yogurt. I know that may sound gross but it really was pretty good.

On a side note, I've always teased my wife about the ramekins (or ramma-khans as I mistakenly called them). I've been known to bemoan they are just another item for the kitchen that takes up needed space. Of course today I realized I actually use them more than her and I am occasionally happy we have them. Between panna cotta and the eggs cocotte I will be using them quite a bit.

So what's next? I have no idea. My whims in the kitchen are as unpredictable as the weather. Ok, maybe not the best analogy.

The Master's Tome

The little lady purchased Complete Techniques by Jacques Pepin for me and I couldn't be happier. The book is comprehensive to say the least with over 800 pages and over 1000 techniques. It covers everything from folding napkins to the basic of making a variety of stocks to decorative techniques with fruits and vegetables to much more advanced techniques.

I have been lamenting to my wife my need for focus on techniques overs recipes for a long time. It's not as technical as On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of Kitchen which goes in depth into the molecular reactions and history of foods and ingredients. On Food and Cooking is, by the way, fascinating and does provide a lot of the "why's" behind gastronomy. But Pepin is thorough and writes at my level as a beginning cook. He provides plenty of pictures at most steps and has dishes and food that seem both delicious and fun to make.

Having the book for only a couple of days I have already tried my hand at making a variety of different croutons (even a bread basket) and made some potato balls. Using a melon baller to get almost perfect balls of potato that are blanched then sautéed to give them a little crunch was both fun and tasty. It's not the most efficient use of the potatoes but the presentation of it certainly makes up for the waste.

I hate that as a forty year old man I still find myself giggling when I say potato balls out loud. Of course my wife and I have to go through the whole "Schweaty Balls" (see below) routine half a dozen times. I mean seriously, at what point to I stop acting like a high shool freshman? Am I still going to be giggling every time someone says their toasted nuts are a little salty when I'm sixty-five?



Next couple of items up on the agenda include cucumber turtles, apple swans, some cauliflower soup maybe. These all being the side dishes I have either spaghetti or Chicken Unitarian (from Allrecipes.com) on the agenda for dinner tonight. Spaghetti seems so "Chef Boyardee" compared to the stuff I have been making recently. But, alas, I have some ground turkey that needs to be consumed soon before it goes bad. I might run through Allrecipes though and see if there is something I can do with it.

Let's talk Bacon. I bought Hormel "Thick Sliced" bacon the other day and I put the quotes around "Thick Sliced" because while it is sliced it is hardly "thick". Before this I had bought the Oscar Meyer thick cut bacon and it was excellent. The Hormel bacon (while maybe thicker than standard bacon) was both very thin and very fatty (you know the white bits that don't fry up well). I think I'll stick with the Oscar Meyer next time. Stick with your sausage, Hormel.

Tee hee, I said "sausage".

Aw, dang it. There I go again.

My question to the interwebs this week is what type of tomatoes have the most flavor? Last week I had made a Caprese salad and it was good. But not as good as I remember them. I blame the tomatoes. The tomatoes (regular medium tomatoes from the grocery store) didn't have the real twang I was looking for. Yesterday I bought "vine ripe" tomatoes so I could try again. I don't know if they are going to taste any better or if "vine ripe" is just grocery store talk for "hey, let's throw on the vine ripe label so we can charge an extra dollar per pound."

So what did I learn this week?

• Don't try making croutons with bread unless it is good and stale. 
• Oscar Mayer thick sliced bacon is superior to Hormel "barely an itsy bit thicker than regular bacon thick cut bacon"
• Pepin knows how to write educational cookbooks
• Potato balls look great but taste pretty much the same as boiled potatoes
• I have the maturity level of a twelve year old boy (who is really immature)

Awesome Artery Blocker

Since today was another weekend day I got plenty of time to mess around in the kitchen again today.

Ever hear of a tomato sandwich?

I don't know how common or rare it is. I think its Iowan comfort food since I inherited the sandwich from my Dad. It's super easy to make and oh so yummy if you're in the mood for tomatoes.

It has toasted bread, plenty of mayonaise, and thick (or thin, your preference) slices of tomato. Boom! Sandwich made.

So tonight for dinner I made smothered chicken breasts from Allrecipes.com. As sides I had simple boiled potatoes and my attempt at glazed carrots.

I did do a little switcheroo on the recipe based on what I had in the cupboard. I was out of lemon-pepper and the wifey-poo had suggested regular pepper and a little lemon juice. Dang! No lemon juice either. I would up seasoning the chicken with salt, pepper, and about 1-1/2 tablespoons of ground dijon mustard. It turned out fantastic.

The recipe also calls for cooking the chicken then the bacon then onions. I figured that bacon was easier to keep warm than chicken and that bacon rendering would give more flavor to the chicken than vice versa. So I cooked the bacon first, then the chicken, then the onion and brown sugar. It also gave the the bacon time to dry, stiffen, and get that perfect crunch.

I was a little worried about using an entire quarter cup of brown sugar but amazingly it was definitely not overly sweet. I don't know if it was the bacon grease or chicken fond or what it was that soaked up the majority of the sweetness. It really did give a great slightly sweet taste.

I didn't have colby-monterrey jack cheese so I used some Mexican blend cheese I had left over. Still turned out great.

Early I said I attempted glazed carrots. The carrots were perfectly cooked (if I do say so myself) the problem is they weren't glazed (just boiled). I don't know if I didn't heat them fast enough or if I brought things to a boil too quickly. The problem was they were done cooking (by taste and softness) well before the sauce had reduced to a glaze. I had to make a judgment call of perfectly done or perfectly glazed. I went with perfectly done (especially after yesterday's eggplant overcooking fiasco). The recipe called for 6 tablespoons of butter for a measly 1 1/2 lbs of carrots. Coronary anyone?


By the way, I love my meat thermometer. It has saved me either 1) from overcooking plenty of proteins and/or 2) slaughtering the appearance of many a piece meat by trying to cut it open and see if its done 3) allowed me to worry less about the cooking times in recipes because I know the true measure of being done. I don't have to worry about some arbitrary number chosen by someone who has absolutely no clue how hot (or not) my stove is.

The little lady made desert today. It was coffee roasted pears via Jacque Pepin. They were delish. The recipe starts at about 20-21 minutes in (so you don't have to sit through the whole thing.



So what did I learn today?

• Pans are measured from inside rim to inside rim.
• The French love butter (6 tablespoons? Really?)
• Bacon makes everything better. 
• Coffee and pears can actually go together. 
• I don't know how the heck to reduce sauces or liquids.