Cauliflower Power

This was the weekend of cauliflower. The restaurant has one off-menu special pie every night, usually something both original and "seasonal" -- I use quotes because some ingredients are technically seasonal, but in truth are available all year round. Sure, cauliflower is in season right now, but we get in imported from South America every day of the year.

Anyway, Chef A has been thinking in terms of soup-pizza: what soups could work well when baked on a crust. He decided on pureed cauliflower, a substance that has an oddly mashed-potato vibe to it. He was riffing out loud, asking for ideas. I've never been a fan of cauliflower -- my most recent experiences with it are when B orders a cauliflower pasta dish that smells like feet. I suggested mellow roasted garlic would be a nice complement.

So I go out to the markets to pick up cauliflower and chives. I steam the florets to soft with a few cloves of garlic, then put it all in the food processor, throwing in heavy cream, butter and salt as I go. Chef A makes a pie with four quadrants, each with the puree and different toppings -- fennel and provolone; cherry tomatoes and chives; mushroom and Gorgonzola; artichoke. Though I liked the tomato one as being the most visually attractive, all the pies were overwhelmed by their toppings, none having a strong cauliflower taste. So Chef A went back to the drawing board. I ran out and got another head of cauliflower, and we sliced the florets thin so we could roast them in the oven.

The next day, I asked Chef A how the special went and he said a customer had complimented the kitchen for producing their favorite pizza ever. I spent the day, outside the usual routine, making a new batch of cauliflower puree. This time I added 5x more steamed garlic, upped the roasted garlic and went lighter on the cream and heavier on the butter. The garlic was still mellow, but their was a creamier aspect happening without the heaviness of actual cream. At the end of m shift, I had A make me a special: first fresh moza is put lightly on the crust, as a layer of heat protection to keep the puree from burning. Then the puree is spread on, then it is topped with small amount of shredded provolone, roasted cauliflower and caramelized onion. It tasted nothing like feet, and the two cheeses and the mellow sweetness of the onions brought out the nicer earthy aspects of the vegetable.


ADDENDA:
On Sunday after work, I met E on bikes, we went grocery shopping, then went home and whipped out six pies, three pumpkin (from actual pumpkin, not cans) and three apple-cheese pie, involving cubes 0f sharp cheddar in the filling and grated cheddar in the crust. For the crusts, we used a vodka dough recipe, which came out perfectly flaky and light as advertised. It was crazy fun, and I noticed a lot of little things that I picked up in c-school as we went along.

I had a bunch of dough left over that went in the freezer, I wonder what pies I should make in the next few weeks....

SATURDAY BREAKFAST: 9:30am, banana, 2 frozen waffles, small ramekin of chocolate ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4pm, roasted potatoes, cheesecake, orange soda, cauliflower pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:15pm, fresh shrimp spring roll, sushi rolls, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, mac n' cheese casserole, 1 bowl. hunger 4/5

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, apple, bagel with homemade hummus, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BRUNCH: Noon, 4 pieces focaccia french toast, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4pm, cauliflower pizza, root beer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, small block of mac n' cheese casserole, half a small Wolfgang Puck frozen pizza, half slices of freshly baked pumpkin and apple-cheese pie, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wolfgang Puck's frozen pizza was surprisingly clownish, thick crust even for a frozen pizza, overcheesed and not fresh tasting. I doubt he ever had anything to do with this commerical blandness, other than give his name to it.

Chumbawumba

There is a cake the restaurant makes for the weekend called (sp) Chumbaloni, a big lemony/anise flavored Bundt that's a little dry and perfect with coffee. The recipe is from the owner's grandma, it's typed on a piece of yellowed parchment, probably from the 1920s or '30s. Chef R translated it, and all the measures are either in cups or 'a little this' and a 'pinch of that'. Among other things, instead of using baking powder, we have these odd packets of vanilla-infused Italian baking powder. As I went along measuring the ingredients in the little old Italian woman-way, I weighed everything out on a scale. If the cake comes out good, we'll replace grandma's measures with the digital measures. Because you want the same grandma taste every time!

Some of the staff affectionately refers to the cake as 'chumbawumba'. A shot of anise-flavored liquor is a nice weighty flavor against the vanilla.

ADDENDA:
I think I'm going to make a slow fermented raw sauerkraut soon for the HVS and myself. She needs it for her vegan cleanse program, and it sounds like a tangy potentially lower-salt kraut thang for me. All I need to get is a bucket with a cover that fits inside the walls, a food-grade weight, and a wife who won't object to a bucket of wet decaying cabbage in the house.

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, apple, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11am, mac n' cheese casserole, 3 chocolate chip cookies, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5 Surprisingly hungry early, must of been yesterday's riding.

LUNCH 2: 5:30pm, slice with mushrooms and onions, Teany tea, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK:9pm, ginger ale

DINNER: 10:30pm, lasagna, flourless chocolate cake, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

PIZZA BIKE!!

After more than a decade of riding bicycles for the purpose of pleasure, commuting, communing, meditation, fitness, sanity, environmental sustainability, and sporting cool spandex outfits, this evening I road a bicycle professionally. The bike I road was probably a full four times heavier than Lance Armstrong's bike, and its purpose was not just to carry the human passenger but also to carry PIZZA!

Due to being unusually short staffed, I volunteered for a delivery shift at the restaurant. After folding boxes and hanging out for a while, the orders started coming in and soon I was pedalling all over Prospect Heights. Lots of brownstones, nice old apartment buildings, some with nice views of Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Museum.

The bike itself was a glorious example of form meeting function. It was a Worksman bicycle, a low-gravity pizza delivery model. The front wheel was a smaller 24" circumference, with a large steel box attached to the frame above it. The box was free of the steering column, meaning when you turned the front wheel, the steel box remained flush straight, similar to the experience of steering a car.

By 8pm, the delivery rush had me hitting 2 and three addresses on each run, with no time to hang out in between. One I had to come back to because I missed a salad, another gave the wrong address and phone number, or at least it was written incorrectly or something. By my last run, a single portion of rigatoni to Eastern Parkway, I was thoroughly enjoying the momentum that can be built up in such a heavy bike -- once you get it moving with a little effort, you've banked a lot of energy in that bulk and...it wants to keep moving -- even up hill. And down hill, well, it's like cruising on a express train, with luxurious padded seats.

The bike was awkwardly front-heavy. I chatted with the owner's wife towards the end of the evening, and seemed surprised that I was swooning over the bike. She was the one who went to the factory to buy the bike, and was planning to get a second one, but the delivery people really didn't like it. They preferred the crappy mountain bike whose basket didn't quite fit the pizza boxes. This Worksman is a classic, over-built and designed for its purpose. It delivers.

The money I collected over the evening went in to a pot. I wasn't really paying attention to tips, but when the count was done at the end of the night...well, I made a couple of bucks more during that one-time dishwashing shift. Now I see why only college kids and newly-arrived immigrants do this job. Still, next time I order in, I'm giving the delivery person an extra buck.

ADDENDA:
Lifted weights for the first time in years today -- but just on the arms, shoulders, and chest. Biking has given me a certain kind of strength, but the strength needed to haul hot heavy trays of pizza and bread out of a furnace of an oven with speed (and yoga's full wheel position and most inversions) require an upper body strength I just don't have right now.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic chex with good millk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, leftover pasta with shrimp, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:3opm, chocolate ice cream, 1 freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, cheesecake, water, couple pieces of bread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, margherita pizza with sausage and broccoli rabe, rootbeer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING DRINK: 11pm, 1 beer

The cook's dirty lil' buddy.

This evening I cooked a three-course meal for B and my friend Y, who was bringing over her new paramour -- and if she felt strong enough to introduce him, well, it could be something. For appetizer, I simply took my leftover butternut squash risotto, balled it up, dipped in flour, then egg wash, then panko crumbs and deep fried them in peanut oil. Once out on a plate lined with paper, a shake of grated cheese and your good.

I cooked off one of two containers of risotto, about 15 balls. Even though they came out pretty crisp and ungreasy, they ALL went. I guess my guests liked them! Deep-fry, the cook's dirty lil' buddy.

For the main course, I was inspired by a food podcast interview I heard while riding my bike out to Coney Island this morning. A woman was describing her food memories of escargot while growing up in France. She recently started eating them again and was surprised how crappy they were compared to the memory. According to experts she consulted, escargots are always kind of chewy and flavorless -- the reason it's such a classic dish is the butter it's served in, which has parsley and garlic in it.

So I took a cup of parsley and a clove of garlic and processed it to a fine dice. Added a cup of soft butter and let it go till it was a nice light green paste. then added salt to taste. Not a fan of snails, I cleaned and deveined a pound of fresh shrimp, brined it a little, then rubbed the parsley butter on it to rest in the fridge.

I didn't use a recipe, just went by taste. I used elephant garlic, which is milder than normal garlic -- so if you use too much, it's garlicky but not unpleasant. The parsley was a nice flavor enlivened by all the butter, but I goofed. In addition to salting the sauce to an appropriate amount, I over-salted the cooking water. The whole dish was about a half-step into overseasoned. Not a salt-trap, but definitely tasted salty. Upon first bite while tasting for doneness out of the water, I also noticed it was weirdly tough. I went into the fridge and -- ah! I used bread flour by mistake, instead of AP. I would of rolled the pasta less if I knew. Still, the guests ate up their plates, so it wasn't so bad. And the shrimp -- despite the brining, weren't too salty and cooked to a nice tender place.

Whipped out a portion of plain linguine, boiled it while sauteing the shrimp in olive oil and a little parsley butter, then put the pasta and more parsley butter in the pan to cook together for a while. Plated, finished with grated cheese and a few sprigs of parsley. Chef Al would of yelled at me if I didn't add that damn garnish.

Desert was some chocolate chip cookies I whipped up from the extra semi sweet chocolate I had on hand from making the ice cream, a nice sandwich o' sweets, very simple and direct, to end a slightly frou-frou meal. Ice cream was pleasantly undersweet, cookies crisp and fresh.

ADDENDA:
Holy crap, the camera on my phone sucks. I swear the plate looked more appetizing than that!

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic cornflakes with organic (but not good) milk, .5 bowl

AM RIDE DRINK: 10am-1pm, quart of WF-brand organic sports drink

LUNCH: 1:30pm, mac n' cheese casserole, black cherry soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM TASTING: 7pm, spoonful of chocolate ice cream
Very rich, but on the edge of not being sweet enough. Weird, unsweet is not a flavor you expect out of ice cream.

DINNER: 8pm, 3 arancini, linguine in parsley butter with shrimp, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate ice cream, 1 beer, seltzer, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

Barack n ' Cheese

Tonight I cooked a dish that I have a long history with. Originally, my dad would cook a simple mac n' cheese casserole, a couple of Kraft boxes of dry pasta and bright orange powder mixed with some butter and milk, and some hot dogs sliced into it. Delicious, simple, comforting. In college, I took it a step further. Into the Kraft boxes would be kielbasa, mushrooms, and onions. I'd "sautee" the veg and sausage, but looking back, I clearly overcrowded the pan and steamed everything to a particular lack of flavor.

As my interest in cooking gained steam in recent years, I still desired the comfort of mac n' cheese, but the visual of the glowing Kraft powder kind of made me think that there must be something real that the fake stuff is based on. Using this recipe, followed to the letter (minus the ham) yielded an authentic if not over-the-top mac-n-cheese. I made it for parties, for relatives, for guests -- all to some pretty nice praise.

So when my wife asked me to make mac n' cheese for her on election night, I looked forward to making this recipe, now that I have c-school behind me. The first thing I changed up was the cheeses. Cheddar and moz stayed, thought I went aged and extra sharp with the cheddar. I replaced jack with gruyere. Gruyere is the basis of mornay sauce, basically the French equivalent of the cheese sauce needed in mac n' cheese. I followed the recipe, this time knowing exactly how to deal with a roux. I didn't measure anything, just tossed stuff in and when it seemed to be too thick, started adjusting.

I did one tray of plain for B, and one with some mix ins. In honor of my dad, I picked up some Nathan's hot dogs, and in honor of college, I caramelized some onions and cooked down some criminis. The final result of my mac n' cheese was good, not great. The cheddar flavor was a bit too sharp, the hot dogs a little bit flacid, and the olive oil I cooked the veg in gave an odd note against the absolute dairy-ness of all that cheese, milk, and butter. My next attempt, though, is going to totally steamroll! Sweet Italian sausage is probably the way to go, with a quick sear then put into the mix in a partially raw state before baking, mmmm...

ADDENDA:
After a yoga class with the HVS, we snickle snacked at the studio's cafe. HVS is undergoing a 3-week vegan cleanse program with a very limited menu, so in solidarity I ordered a porridge dish that is a staple of her new diet. Kitchari is made with lentils, rice, kombu, water, and that's it. Bland as a flat road in Kansas, it had a weird skunky aftertaste that was actually pleasant. I know Ilsa is on the warpath for me to eat simple and bland, I hope this counts!

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 9am, quart of water

AM SNACK: 10:15am, homemade oatmeal bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, fresh potato knish, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ate this at Yonnah Shimmel while riding by. Thank Sheba for society supporting institutions like this.

PM SNACK: 5pm, vegan brownie, cup of kitcheri, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, mac n' cheese caserole, coconut-based vanilla ice cream, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

Look at my fine balls

On the left, balls of dough shaped with my left hand. On the right, balls of dough shaped at the same time with my right hand. They're a little bit rough, but workable. Monday is a slow day, and while Chef A went down to the basement to try to fix some broken chairs, I worked on my dough rolling technique. A 12" pie is 200 grams, cut with a bench scraper (seen above left) from a big blob poured out of the mixer. If you were to take this blob and bang it flat into a pizza, it would be uneven, unround and flat and crisp in one spot and bubbly and airy (and quick to burn) in another.

By rolling the dough into an orb, these things are smoothed out. The motion takes the dough around in a circle on the cold stone surface, with the edge of the hand closest to the surface tucking the bottom of the ball underneath itself, pulling and stretching the exposed surface of the ball into a smooth, even skin.

The evening rolled on, the timer failed, we burned a few sheets of slices. Life goes on.

ADDENDA
B stayed away from work today, so this morning we went to a nice coffee shop for a bagel, then wandered around the aisles of Pathmark together, gawking at the pancake-wrapped sausage on a stick and buying up stuff to make a big ol' Obama Mac n' Cheese thing tomorrow.

BREAKFAST: 10am, lox and cream cheese on a bagel, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: noon, half pint of cake batter-flavor B&J ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4pm, parsnip soup & 1 slice of pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm, black cherry soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, small plate of spaghetti with meatball, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11:30pm, quart of water

An essential step to making frozen pizza delicious

Saturday was a bit hectic when I rolled in at 11am, the time when we opened for lunch. Chef C had been there since 9am prepping, and still had a number of tasks to accomplish. Fortunately, customers were few and far between for a couple of hours, and we were able to bang out chocolate cake and tiramisu while baking off focaccias and slice pies. Chef A came in around 2pm, and before I knew it, it was time to leave to meet B for a dinner party in Brooklyn.

Sunday's brunch service was a lot busier, which gives hope to the thought that this may work out for the restaurant. Chef A was in for the early shift, and we started off with the dough and baking, and finishing up a cheesecake. Chef A gave me a list, and I went around the corner to pick up the basics for parsnip soup. I was given some simple directions (as it's a simple soup), and I chopped a bunch of veg. As I softened the onion, carrot, and celery in the large pot, it occurred to me -- my old c-school friend mire poix! I understood why Chef A instructed me to start with sauteeing these 3 vegetables, rather than just boiling the life out of them like with the parsnip main ingredient. (Sauteeing those 3 vegetables to soft rather than boiling them to soft with the other ingredients gives a very distinct, classic and yummy base flavor that simply boiling will not give.) By the time had all the soup blended, it was 4pm it was time to go to Westchester for my mission o' mercy.

ADDENDA:
My father had an un-ironic button that said, "Better Living Through Chemistry". He was a chemist who earned his PhD in the 60s, but I don't think the button was referring to LSD, but more like new-fangled 'plastics' and fluoridated water.

At the dinner party I attended Saturday evening, a guest contributed a bundt-shaped rum cake, with a butter rum glaze and chopped walnuts embedded in the crust -- very cool and retro. Even more retro was the fact that it was made with not one, but TWO Duncan Hines's mixes, a cake mix and a pudding mix.

I'm sure some colleague of my father was responsible for the formula of the cake I ate Saturday evening.

Sunday, I trekked up to Westchester to visit a recently married friend for dinner and a mission. Her husband has restaurant experience similar to mine, and made a hearty and soulful chicken florentine, was really nice and comfortable hanging out in the kitchen. After, I made two sheets of brownies from scratch in the kitchen. One sheet was straight and the other used butter I cooked up with five, um, 'oregano cigarettes', cough cough. My friend's mom is undergoing chemo and radiation, and all sorts of peeps have been kicking medicinal herb her way, but she has a hard time smoking.

You can't make something like that for someone without trying it to see what they're in for. After such a big meal, I knew it might take a while. I didn't really feel anything till I was riding my bike home around 11:30pm, and all of a sudden Tompkin's Square Park seemed big and and easy to get lost in (it's literally a park where you can see one side from the other.) Despite eating pizza everyday, when I got home, the frozen pizzas in the fridge spoke to me.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, toasted bagel with homemade hummus, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, pomegranate fizzy lizzy, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 4:30pm, 1 slice pizza, root beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, homemade acorn squash risotto, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, pumpkin soup, roasted chicken boob, sauteed mustard greens, lemon orzo salad, rum cake with ginger ice cream, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 9am, apple, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, 1 slice, rootbeer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, flourless chocolate cake, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, chicken florentine, roasted potatoes, 2 pieces bruchetta, 1 beer, water, 3 straight brownies, 1 magical brownie, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

EVENING MUNCH: 12am, Amy's Frozen Margerita Pizza, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I used to eat a lot of Amy's brand frozen pizzas, though can't really stomach that quality of food anymore. It's truism that you really do need to be stoned to enjoy this stuff. I preheated the oven to the recommended temp, placed the frozen disc on the pizza stone, and after the recommended time, was still flibbidy flobbidy. I doubled the time, the top browned a little, but other than the outer rim, was still flibbidy. Upon eating, I realized that they over sauced and over cheesed the the pie, that it would probably burn before firming up. Bready and mushy, ick. The main difference between this pie and a normal Amy's is that instead of being coated in an indeterminate spray of grated cheeses, it had hunks of some sort of moz studded on it's surface. These said hunks melted down into a wet blanket. Bleah.