Lemon Basil Creme Brulee

I have an Aerogarden, it was given to me as a gift several years ago.  For the most part it has worked out pretty well, although I've had to replace the pump twice and the rear arm once (the metal tabs that send power to the pump corroded away).  Even with the occasional replacement parts needed the garden has been worth it, I usually have more herbs than I can use.  Such is the case with the latest herb kit I ordered, the "Gourmet Herb Seed Kit".  One of the herbs included in the kit, lemon basil, is one that I haven't had much experience with and is growing like gangbusters.  So fast that it will shade out the rest of the herbs if I don't keep it trimmed down.  That means I have a LOT of lemon basil to find a use for.  I had considered using it in several savory applications, but for the Fourth of July menu I was in need of a dessert.  The thing I eventually came up with was a lemon basil creme brulee.

The custard in a creme brulee is your basic creme anglaise, a stirred custard that is often used as a pourable sauce or as the base of french style ice creams.  The recipe I used is...

16 oz heavy cream
1 cup lemon basil
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
pinch salt
1/4 tsp vanilla
5 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar

 First, the basil was cleaned, dried, cut in to strips (chiffonade) and put in a saucepan with the cream and lemon zest.  After being heated to a simmer I used a stick blender to puree the basil in the cream.  Meanwhile, the egg yolks and sugar were whisked together.  The hot cream mixture was tempered in to the yolks and the mixture returned to the sauce pan, then put over a medium low flame.  The custard was stirred constantly with a wooden spoon until it began to thicken, then it was poured through a fine mesh strained in to a quart sized liquid measuring cup.  Some of the basil caught in the strained was forced through using the back of the wooden spoon just because I like having a few specks in the custard.  The custard was poured in to ramekins and cooked in a water bath at 300 degrees (convection) until they just began to set (the center still jiggles).  The custards were removed from the water bath and allowed to cool for 30 minutes before being placed in the refrigerator to cool completely.

Our Fourth of July dinner consisted of porterhouse steaks cooking in my favorite sous-vide method (135 degrees for 2 hours straight from the freezer then cooled, unbagged and seared over a screaming hot charcoal fire on the grill), grilled corn on the cob and roasted beets.  This was my first use of my Mangrate which I heard about on The Morning Stream podcast, ordered and received a few weeks ago  It seemed to work pretty well.

After dinner was over, the custards were removed from the fridge and sprinkled with sugar.  I used a plumbers torch to brulee the sugar on top of the custard.  We then garnished with mint sprigs and a few blueberries. 

 This dessert turned out fantastic, the light green custard had a wonderful lemon flavor with just just a hint of vanilla.  The flavors melded beautifully with the caramelized sugar and blueberries on top.  Definitely one I'll remember and make again.

Homemade pepperoni, homemade italian sausage pizza.

The pepperoni Italian sausage I made were good on their own, but they were made for a pizza!  On Friday I started the process by making my pizza dough.  It consists of...

100 ml beer (I had Sam Adams Boston Lager on hand, so that's what I used) 
250 ml cold water (Beer + water come to about 70% hydration in this formula)
2 - 3 grams instant dry yeast (IDY) (about 0.4% to 0.6% flour weight)
500 - 550 grams bread flour (I used Weisenberger Mills high gluten bread flour)
10 grams salt (2% flour weight)
10 grams extra virgin olive oil (again, 2% flour weight)

The beer and water are added to a mixing bowl and the IDY sprinkled over.  Then the flour goes in followed by the salt.  This is allowed to sit until you see cracks forming in the flour, which means the yeast has started producing carbon dioxide.  The dough is mixed for 2 minutes, then the mixer stopped and the oil added.  Next the half-mixed dough is allowed to sit for 15 - 20 minutes, this is called the autolyse phase.  During this step the flour absorbs all the water and the proteins that will form gluten hydrate, the end result is a shorter mix time and better flavor wheaty in the final crust.  After the autolyse the dough is mixed until it forms a smooth, elastic mass.  The dough is then balled, coated with oil, covered in plastic wrap and allowed to slowly ferment in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours to develop the desired flavor and texture.

The next day I removed a portion of the dough for one crust and allowed it to come to room temperature.  The oven (with pizza stone inside) was heated to 550 degrees for one hour prior to baking.  Once the dough was warmed up I started stretching out the skin until it was about 12 inches in diameter with the nice lip you only get from hand stretching and tossing.  The skin was placed on a piece of parchment and dressed with a simple pizza sauce (canned tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper) followed by some store bought cheese (four cheese blend by Lucrene), the Italian sausage (cooked) and pepperoni.  The pizza, still on the parchment paper, was slid on the the stone and allowed to cook for about 6-7 minutes until the crust was set.  Then the parchment was removed and the pizza allowed to complete cooking directly on the stone.  Once removed from the oven, a little extra virgin olive oil was drizzled on the pie, since the homemade pepperoni and sausage were pretty low in their own fat.  This is the result...

I was very pleased with both the pizza and the toppings.  The pepperoni, which was fairly dry and firm when eaten by itself, seemed to soften when cooked on the pizza.  This is also my go-to formula for crust, it has a nice yeasty flavor and good texture with lots of large holes inside the lip.  Great for dipping in garlic butter or ranch dressing.  Making the pepperoni and sausage at home may have taken a little extra time, but it was worth it in the end!

Homemade pepperoni

The Italian sausage turned out pretty good, so I thought I might as well make some of my own pepperoni also!  After doing some recipe research online, I settled on one to start with and made a minor modification.  The recipe I used is...

1 lb ground beef
1 1/2 tsp Morton's Tender Quick
1 tsp liquid smoke (omit if you intend to naturally smoke the pepperoni)
3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3/4 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp anise seeds
1/4 tsp granulated garlic

The Tender Quick was a little tricky to find, my normal grocery stores didn't stock the product.  Luckily, the Morton Salt webpage has a product locator you can use to find out who sells what in your area.  The product locator pointed me to a grocery store named Strack and Van Til located at 2627 N. Elston Ave. in Chicago.  I'd been by this grocery store many times when going to Micro Center, but never actually gone in.  It's a pretty nice place with a HUGE produce section.  Anyway, after grabbing the Tender Quick I also picked up some of the spices.  The recipes I looked at while researching pepperoni suggested using ground beef with no more than 15% fat content.  I picked up a small package (1.5 lbs) of 85/15 ground beef and headed home to start making sausage!

After making the Italian sausage, I thought it would be a good idea to crack the whole spices this time.  I measured out all of the seeds, peppercorns and crushed red pepper (increasing the amounts by 50% for the extra 1/2 pound of beef) and ran them through the coffee grinder I use as a spice mill.  The cracked spices, powdered spices and the liquid smoke were added to the ground beef and mixed throughly.  This would probably be easier done with a stand mixer, but I didn't want to clean up another thing for such a small amount of sausage.


The next step is to allow the meat mixture to chill for a while in the fridge, this makes forming the rolls easier but can be skipped if you're in a hurry and don't mind being a little messy.

To make the rolls I put a piece of plastic wrap on the counter and placed a portion of the meat mixture on top.  The meat was formed in to a loose log shape and then I started rolling it up in the plastic wrap until I had a nice, round log o' meat.  To force the meat in to a more compact shape I twisted the ends of the plastic wrap using a rotating motion with my wrists to force the meat in to a more compact log and force out as much air as possible, then the ends were tucked under to prevent the plastic wrap from loosening.  These were allowed to chill for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

The next day when I made it home from work I set the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit pulled the pepperoni rolls out of the refrigerator.  I set up a half sheet pan with a wire rack, it's important that the fat be allowed to drain away from the sausage as it renders out.  Since the uncooked pepperoni was still a little soft I initially placed it on strips of parchment paper to prevent it from sticking to the rack.  After an hour when it was time for the first turn the pepperoni was firm and had coated with rendered fat, i rolled the rolls off the parchment directly on to the rack.  This seemed to work perfectly.


While I was looking at recipes online, I found quite a few that had the same ingredient list but with wildly varying cooking times.  Some called for 8 hours at 200 degrees while others only cooked for one hour at 375 degrees.  Since I didn't want to be up til the wee hours of the morning playing with my peperoni, I decided to go convection at 200 degrees, then increase the temp to 225 after a few hours.  The total cooking time was around 5 hours with the rolls being turned about every hour or so.  Since the temperature was so low this could easily be done with my bare fingers.

 When I removed the pepperoni rolls from the oven I used paper towels to pat the remaining fat off the surface.  The surface of the rolls was a little sticky at this point, so I used a pepper mill to coat thew outside with a little more black pepper.  The pepperoni was allowed to cool for a little bit, then placed in the refrigerator on a rack to chill completely.

I sliced some pepperoni off one of the rolls the next morning when I woke up.  Pepperoni is, after all, the breakfast of champions.  The sausage was dry, firm and the surface tackiness that was present when it came out of the oven was gone.  I was able to cut some very thin slices with my santoku knife and finally taste the results of three days effort.  The resulting pepperoni is fairly spicy with much less fat present than the commercial versions I'm used to buying in the supermarket.  It tastes like, well, pepperoni.  This holiday weekend I plan on making a pizza with homemade pepperoni and the homemade Italian sausage from last week.  So far I've made fresh and dried/cured sausages, I've been looking in to fermented sausages like Spanish chorizo but that will have to wait until another day...

Homemade Italian Sausage

My parents say they can't find any good Italian sausage where they live, so each time I go down for a visit I always make it a point to pick up some good sausage and take it down to them.  I don't get to visit too often, so I thought it might be a good idea to develop a good recipe for homemade Italian sausage that they could make on their own whenever they have a taste for some.  I've been perusing various websites for ideas on the spices to use.  This page has several sausage recipes and looked like a good place to start.  Since they won't need to make a lot of sausage at a time, I made a spice mix that can be added at a rate of 15 grams per pound of pork shoulder before grinding.  The mix I've started with is...

115 grams kosher salt
40 grams fennel seed
40 grams ground black pepper
8 grams smoked paprika
5 grams ground coriander
5 grams red pepper flakes
7 grams granulated garlic
8 grams sugar
5 grams caraway seed
4 grams MSG
1 gram dried oregano

I bought a boneless pork shoulder from Whole Foods, which true to form was VERY expensive ($4.99/lb)  The 4 pound shoulder was cut in to 1/2" cubes, and mixed with 60 grams of the spice mix and 6 oz red wine (I used shiraz in this case).  I tried a little microwave trick I learned while researching a pizza sauce recipe, it involves combining the herbs and spices with the liquid, then micrwaving it at low power for a few minutes.  This process intensifies the flavors if done properly, but I added way too much liquid.  It is supposed to be a paste of spices but was more of a soup.  Next time I'll just try toasting them instead.

Once the pork had time to chill down in the fridge for a few hours I set up the grinder attachment on the Kitchenaid with the coarse plate installed.  The dice size of 1/2" worked out great, the grinder screw was able to pull the pork through without requiring any extra help.  One thing I will change for the next try is to put the liquid in AFTER the first grind and let is absorb in to the meat.  The cubes of meat just got wet with a lot of the liquid pooling at the bottom of the bowl, this cause liquid to shoot out the front of the grinder as the pork went through.  Next time I'll wait until after the first grind at least so the meat can absorb it all.  The pork was put through the a second time to get a finer grind.  I tried to use the medium plate at first, but things were going through so slowly that I changed it back to the coarse grate.  This time I did need to use the push rod to keep the meat going down to the screw.  Once ground, I put the sausage in the fridge to allow some of the moisture to evaporate out for a few hours then packed it in vacuum pouches.

I fried up a few pieces of the sausage a few hours later just to try it out.  It was good, better than most of what I've found in grocery stores, but didn't have the intensity of flavor I'd like.  It may just need more time for the flavors to marry, could be because some of the spices I used were not as fresh as they should have been and would probably benefit from toasting the spices before using them next time.  I'll try some again tonight to see if a day to 'cure' has improved the flavor.

Dawali Mediterranean Kitchen

For quite a while, Old Jerusalem at 1411 N. Wells has been the only middle eastern restaurant within walking distance of our home.  It is OK, but I can't say that I'm a real fan of the place.  I'd often drive all the way up to Pita Inn in Skokie (3910 Dempster) instead of walking the 3/4 mile to Old Jerusalem when I wanted my shawerma fix.  So last year when I heard that Dawali Mediterranean Kitchen was opening a second location in the neighborhood at 1625 N. Halsted I couldn't wait for it to open.  But I waited, and waited, and waited.  The original opening date was scheduled for March, but that came and went with the windows still papered up and no evidence of work being done.  But work was being done, I guess the build out just took a little longer than expected.  Dawali Mediterranean Kitchen has finally opened their doors, and last night we walked through the rain to give it a try!

The restaurant is well decorated on the inside and much larger than you would expect from the street.  Everything is wood and earth tones.  Walls are adorned with middle eastern art along with a wooden shelf supporting various pottery and metal vessels.  The wooden tables and chairs sit atop hardwood flooring and the restaurant is well lit with pots and lamps hanging from the rather high ceiling.  All in all, a very attractive space.  Even the bathrooms (at least the one I went in to) are well decorated, they owner obviously put a lot of thought in to how he wanted this space to look.



  


I haven't seen anything advertising that the restaurant had opened and their website still says "Opening Soon", so there weren't many people there when we arrived.  A lot of restaurants do a "soft" opening like this to work out the kinks that are inevitable at any new establishment.  We were seated immediately and out drink orders taken.  No alcohol is served, but our waitress did tell us that they are BYOB is anyone wants to enjoy an adult beverage with their meal.

When our beverages arrived, we were ready to order.  My dining companion ordered the Hummus with Portobello (Diced and sauteed mushrooms on a bed of our famous hummus served with pita) and I ordered and appetizer of 6 falafel (Chickpea fritters highly seasoned and fried to golden perfection) and a combination plate.  The falafel was very good, crispy on the outside with a moist, flavorful interior.  My dining companion reported that the hummus topped with the sauteed portobellos was also top notch.






 
The combination plate is a little different that what is listed on their on-line menu.  Instead of the fixed selection on that menu, the menu at this location allows you to select either two or three items from a list to create your own combo.  The list of options has about 10 items to choose from, I asked for beef shawarma, chicken shawarma and lamb kebob.  They apparently didn't have the lamb kebob, so I opted for the beef kebob instead.  I didn't get a list of the other items available, but they did have various kebobs (chicken, shrimp, salmon, kufta and chicken kufta are ones that I remember off the top of my head).  The combo comes with basmati rice, grilled veggies, pita bread, a salad (romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomato, mint and a tahini (I think) dressing)  and two types of sauces (a tahini sauce and a thicker garlic sauce).  I thought all the items in my combo were well done, the chicken shawarma (which in many places is dry and overcooked) was tender and juicy.  Same for the beef shawarma and beef kebob. 


Both of us really enjoyed our meal at Dawali and I'm sure we will be returning soon and often.  Hopefully next time we will save enough room for a desert or two, but the portions are so large that it may not be possible!  As it was, we took home enough food for another meal tonight.  This stretch of Halsted is becoming one of our favorite areas for restaurants in the city, made even better by the fact that it is within easy walking distance of our home.  Besides the new Dawali Mediterranean Kitchen there is Landmark Grill, Boka, Alinea, and (a couple blocks north) Taco Joint.

Redflame Pizzeria

We tried out Redflame Pizzeria at 2417 N. Clybourn last night after driving by it multiple times over the last few months.  They have about 8 or so interesting microbrews on tap, I had a Dogfishhead 60 minute IPA and a Lagunitas Dogtown Pale Ale with diner.  There was also what looked like a pretty good size wine list but we weren't in a wine mood so I can't say much about that.   

We stared out with a bruschetta trio, one was whipped goat cheese and caramelized onion marmalade, one had sundried tomato pesto and one had tomato, basil and parmesan.  The topping were very good but the bread was not toasted much at all.  Didn't have the crunch I expect when eating a bruschetta.  

  

The pizzas were excellent though.  They use a two step cooking process, first the dough is grilled then the pizza is put under a broiler to cook the toppings.  The result is a pizza with a nice char on the bottom and a crust that has a great crispness on the outside but is nice and chewy on the inside.  Unlike NY or Neapolitan style pies, the crust is thicker and can support the toppings all the way out to the end of the slice.  Compared to other thin crust pizzas I like such as Coalfire or Sono Wood Fired pizza, there was a LOT more toppings.  I was expecting something along the lines of Sono Wood Fired, where I can easily eat one pizza by myself, so we ordered two.  By the time we were stuffed there was still the equivalent of an entire pie left.  The pizzas we ordered were the big MART and the wild SHROOM pies.  Big MART comes with a red sauce (choice of regular or spicy, I ordered mine spicy), house made Italian sausage, pepperoni and cheese.  The spicy sauce had a nice kick to it, the meats were top notch and it was topped with a lot of a good quality cheese.  Wild SHROOM had a base of whipped garlic goat cheese, mushrooms, thyme and topped with the same cheese as the big MAR.  Both pizzas were excellent, we do plan on going back soon!

Dinner at Alinea

Alinea is considered many many to be the best restaurant in the country.  A few months ago I took my girlfriend there for her birthday, we enjoyed a fabulous meal during which I made a complete ass of myself by snapping pics of each course with my iPhone.  I have been negligent in posting to my blogs lately, so I thought this would be a good subject to get started again...

The first course consisted of three small creations based on famous cocktails.

LEMON - luxardo bitter, luxardo amaro, grapefruit
APPLE - laird's apple brandy, grenadine, thyme
SQUASH - cynar, carpano antica, flor de cana 7                    year

GOLDEN TROUT ROE - coconut, licorice, pinapple

 

YUBA - shrimp, miso, togarshi

CHAO TOM - sugar cane, shrimp, mint

HALIBUT - black pepper, vanilla, lemon

APPLE - horseradish, celery

RABBIT - parfait

RABBIT - rillette

RABBIT - consomme'

PHEASANT - green grape, walnut, burning leaves

SHORT RIB - olive, red wine, blackberry

HOT POTATO - cold potato, black truffle, butter

PIGEONNEAU - a la Saint-Clair

BLACK TRUFFLE - explosion, romaine, parmesan

PINEAPPLE - ham, freeze dried cherry

BACON - butterscotch, apple, thyme

CARAMEL POPCORN - liquified

EARL GREY - lemon, pine nut, caramelized white chocolate

BUBBLE GUM - long pepper, hibiscus, creme fraiche

CHOCOLATE - blueberry, honey, peanut