How To Write A Recipe

31 Saturday Jul 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food, Recipe Writing, Things To Do, Thought For The Day

Sounds like a simple statement , “How To Write A Recipe”, but when you get into the fine points, it is not all that easy. There are suggested rules to follow. The recipe must be precise and concise. This information was gathered from Cookwork – you do have to join the group, but it is free. I use a program called the Living Cookbook from Radium Technologies, which not only puts the recipe in the correct format – you have to follow the rules listed below – but also keeps all your recipes in a printable or web based file. It’s a good little program and I have had no problems with it. But here are some suggestions from the professionals at Cookwork.

1. Measure ingredients accurately — intuitive but many people don’t. This includes things like calling for chicken with skin or without skin, bone in or boneless — accuracy helps a recipe work and helps if nutrition is to be calculated.

2. Think about how ingredients will be measured. 1 cup walnuts, chopped is different than 1 cup of chopped walnuts since whole walnuts take up more room in the measuring cup.

3. List ingredients in your recipe in the order they will be added.

4. When multiple ingredients are added at once, list the largest amount followed by smaller amount. If all have the same amount, list them alphabetically.

5. If you have to preheat an oven, list that step first in your method. If you have to boil water, that too needs to be listed early.

6. Starting each step in the method with an action verb (stir, mix, toss) makes it easier for the reader to know what to do.

7. Once the recipe is written, read through the steps to make sure that all your ingredients are used and that you haven’t missed any.

8. Be sure to list the size pots and pans you really need — half sheet pan, 4” hotel pan, 8-inch cake pan, 10-inch spring-form pan. This is especially important for baking recipes.

9. If there are tips for success, include them as notes. For example: When baking the soufflé, be sure to only use a non-convection oven. Convection ovens will make the soufflé rise very high and then fall very low.

10. Remember your audience. If you’re writing recipes for non-professional cooks, then they may not have access to all the ingredients or tools that you do. Chicken stock from a can doesn’t have the same flavor as the stock made in many restaurants.

I hope this helps and some of you find it useful. Cheers!

Jaialdi was first celebrated in 1987

30 Friday Jul 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Celebrations, Things To Do, Thought For The Day, What's For Dinner?, Wine and Food

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Cristi and Tom from the Buzz always send some very interesting and timely information. I thank them for sending this information on Jaialdi celebrated by the Basque Community here in Boise. This is really interesting and you may get some insight that you did not have before. Cheers!

Jaialdi 2010

Jaialdi was first celebrated in 1987 as a one time celebration in which the old and new, local and international would celebrate in an educational, cultural, traditional, and entertaining fashion. It was held at the 100 plus year old ex-Idaho State Penitentiary, that is now a state park. Jaialdi ’87 attracted approximately 30,000 visitors who thoroughly enjoyed the location, enthusiasm and high quality entertainment. The festivities included a parade, symposium, mass, street dance, sports exhibitions, dance-song-musical exhibitions, souvenir booths, food, drink, and rekindling of old friendships.

During the Idaho Centennial, Boise requested that the Basque Community once again celebrate with Jaialdi. Therefore Jaialdi ’90 was celebrated. It was then decided that Boise should celebrate Jaialdi every five years. It is always the last weekend in July to coincide with the Boise Basque communities celebration of their patron saint, San Ignacia of Loyola.

The purpose of Jaialdi is to celebrate. Jaialdi describes a week of gathering and celebrating. At Buzz this weekend we will be celebrating by enjoying some good Spanish wines, some tapas, and the music of Mountain Fever. So if you are on your way to the Fairgrounds or back down to the Basque block downtown, stop by and enjoy a Calimoto or a glass of wine with us at the Buzz.

Sincerely,

Cristi and Tom Takeda
Buzz Coffee and Wine

Boise City Club – "Local Foods"

21 Wednesday Jul 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Local Farmers Markets, Local Harvests, Local Markets, Things To Do, Thought For The Day, What's For Dinner?

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On Tuesday, 20 July, Robin and I went to the City Club of Boise to listen to a program about Local Foods. Such a great program and it complimented the PBS program on Outdoor Idaho, Local Food. The panel consisted of Janie Burns, from Meadowlark Farms and Dave Krick, from the Red Feather Lounge and the Bittercreek Alehouse in Boise. The moderator was Marsha Franklin of Dialog on IPTV – Idaho Public Television.

Some very interesting points were brought our during the discussion:

95% of the food in Idaho is imported from other places. We only eat 5% of the foods grown locally in Idaho.
The 20/20 Program. By 2020 in Idaho try to eat 20% locally grown foods
2011 will be the Year of Idaho Food
Cities in the US that have Directors of Food (There are others)

Baltimore
New York City
Salt Lake City

Other points that were brought out so far as what we, as citizens, can do:

Grow something
Teach a child to grow something
Buy local food
Patronize local restaurants that use locally grown foods

Red Feather Lounge
Le Cafe de Paris
Brick 29
Cafe Vincino
Cottonwood Grille

Start a compost
Start a garden – even a small one (Robin and I have utilized the alley)
Subscribe to community gardens – CSA’s (We do)
The Menu for the luncheon is to the right. It’s All Local!!

It was an exciting and very informative program.

Think Local … Buy Local … Eat Local

Boise Market Under Fire From ID Central District Health

14 Wednesday Jul 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Thought For The Day, Vegetables

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Robin pointed me to this article in the Idaho Statesman,
New Idaho health regulations over cut greens cause confusion among some at Capital City Public Market. Here is a portion of the article. Click the link to see the full article.

Inspectors with the Central District Health Department assigned to carry out inspections at Capital City Public Market have been instructed to enforce a portion of the Idaho Food Code that mandates that the greens be stored at 41 degrees or below.

“Any cut, leafy green has to be treated as a potentially hazardous food,” said Central District Health Department’s Dave Fotsch.

The confusion stems from what “cut” means, as most leafy greens sold for food are cut from the main plant at harvest.

Some of the comments listed on by the Statesman are interesting. You should read them. As for me, I agree with one statement that states,

“… Ridiculous. Central District Health better get themselves to every grocery store in the state then since NO ONE stores cut greens at 41 degrees. Fred Meyer, Albertsons, Winco, you’re on notice.” (cblanch)

Is this another restrictive action against the small farmer to try to regulate them? So are the CSA gardens their next “victim”? Who knows and how sad.

Buddy’s Peanut Butter Cookies

10 Saturday Jul 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Adventures, Buddy, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipe By Buddy, Thought For The Day, What's For Dinner?

≈ 1 Comment

OK. I know what you are saying. “Buddy, the American Eskie, has a recipe for cookies? What’s this got to do with Roasted Root Vegetables and Poached Kokanee?” Actually a lot. The roasted vegies and kokanee are awesome and we tried his cookies. Like the old Buster Brown Shoe ad, “My name is Buster. I live in a shoe. My dog is Tag. He lives there too”. Buster lived in a shoe and Tag liked the shoe. Buddy likes these cookies and so will you!! These are his cookies, not yours! You eat the Chocolate Chip cookies and Buddy will eat his Peanut Butter Cookies. (Better than dog bisquits!)

Buddy’s Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c All-Purpose flour
2 c Rolled Quick Oats
½ c Adams peanut butter
1 T Garlic granules (no salt or sugar)
1 lg Banana, ripe and mashed
1 t pure Vanilla
½ c Applesauce, unsweetened

Directions:
Pre-Heat oven to 350°F

Mix together by hand the flour, oats, peanut butter and garlic.

In a separate bowl, combine the mashed banana, vanilla and applesauce. Add this
mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix to combine by hand.

Roll out on a piece of parchment paper to about ¼” thick. Score to the desired size with a pizza knife. Lay on a cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the top is slightly brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Break the cookie apart at the score lines. Buddy loves these cookies and, by the way, we ate one also and they are not bad.

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There you have it. Try one! Cheers!

Time To Make Cherry Jam!

27 Sunday Jun 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Jams and Jellies, Thought For The Day

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Well, it’s time! The cherries are in. I know Williamson Orchards has them. I don’t know about Emmett. Here is a link to Cherry Jam. Actually it’s called No-Recipe Cherry Jam and it looks pretty straight forward to make. I was looking in our cabinets tonight for some of our Elderberry Jam, but no luck! We are out until the first frost. If you make this, let us know how it comes out. Cheers!

Bistro vs Tapas – What Is The Difference?

27 Sunday Jun 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Anthropology of Food, Thought For The Day

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Now here is some interesting information that you may enjoy. Hope so, at least! Cheers.

Bistro

A bistro, sometimes spelled bistrot, is, in its original Parisian incarnation, a small restaurant serving moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting. Bistros are defined mostly by the foods they serve. Slow-cooked foods like braised meats are typical.

Bistros likely developed out of the basement kitchens of Parisian apartments where tenants paid for both room and board. Landlords could supplement their income by opening their kitchen to the paying public. Menus were built around foods that were simple, could be prepared in quantity and would keep over time. Wine and coffee were also served. The limited space for diners in these cramped corners prompted the tradition of adding table service to the footpath. As the idea caught hold, architecture and menus both became more specific.

The word bistro may derive from the Russian быстро (bystro) which means quickly. According to an urban legend, it entered the French language during the Russian occupation of Paris in 1815. Russian cossacks who wanted to be served quickly would shout “bystro.” However, this etymology is not accepted by several French linguists as there is, surprisingly, no occurrence of this word until the end of the 19th century.
Another version is that it is an abbreviation of bistrouille, a French term for brandy mixed with coffee.

Tapas

Tapas is a plural term, so your question should really be ‘what are tapas’. There are a number of myths about what tapas is all about. Here are just a few:

What Tapas is Not:
Tapas is not a particular type of food. Anything can be tapas – paella, croquettes, ham and cheese on toast, truly anything. As long as it is small and served with your drink (either free or at a surcharge), it is tapas. It doesn’t even have to be Spanish – in Granada there are a number of Morrocan bars that offer cous cous, falafel and kebabs as tapas.

Tapas is not a starter. If you start eating tapas, you finish eating tapas, and you don’t stop until you’re full.

Tapas is not a collection of small dishes brought out on a platter and eaten as a main course. The Spanish have a word for this – ‘tabla’.

The Meaning of the Word Tapas:
A ‘tapa’ is a ‘lid’ or ‘cover’. In the early days of tapas, a slice of cheese or ham was given with your drink and placed over your drink. There is some debate over why exactly this was done:
To keep out the flies.
To hide the smell of the bad wine.
To keep the wind from blowing your drink everywhere.
.
A piece of ham will only hide the smell of the wine until you take it off to take a drink, while if there was a strong wind, surely the first thing to go flying would be the tapas!
There is another explanation which differs from the above. It is said that there was once a sick king – which one exactly differs according to who is telling the story – who couldn’t drink alcohol without taking some food with it. He issued a royal decree that insisted that everyone should take food with their drinks. A slight variation of this one is that the benevolent king simply insisted that food should be taken with any drink out of concerns for the health issues associated with drinking on an empty stomach.

Tapas in Spain Today:
So, with all the myths about tapas out of the way, this is what tapas is today. A tapa is invariably a small dish of something edible. It may be a smaller version (normally a quarter version) of something else on the menu or it may be sold exclusively as tapas. The tapas may or may not be free. Unfortunately the days of free tapas are over in much of Spain. If you are invited to “go for tapas”, you’ll be visiting lots of bars and probably only taking a single tapas in each.

Source: About (dot) com

Rudy’s Food Trivia

08 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food Trivia, Rudy's Twin Falls, Thought For The Day

≈ 1 Comment

Ah yes! Another week in the saga of Food Trivia From Rudy’s. Such fun! And this week I’ll even post the Recipe of the Week – It has peanut butter in it. (I think, though, I would change the margarine to butter.)

Recipe of the Week: Celebrate National Peanut Butter Cookie Day (June 12th) with this recipe!

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Yield: 2 dozen

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Margarine, Softened
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/4 Cups Rolled Oats
3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

Directions:
In a large bow combine the softened margarine and peanut butter. Add the sugar or and the egg to the bowl. Mix until smooth, fluffy and glossy. Add the vanilla and stir. Add the salt, baking soda, oatmeal, and flour. Mix well. Add the dry ingredients. Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

These cookies don’t spread very well so flatten the cookies with a fork or the flat bottom of a cup which has been dipped into flour.

Bake at 350°F for about 12 minutes.

Half a cup of chocolate chips may be added to the batter if desired.

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This Week in the History of Food Drink

June 7, 1867: At the Café Anglais, Chef Adolphe Duglere served the now famous ‘Dinner of the Three Emperors,’ for Tsar Alexander II of Russia, his son (later to become tsar Alexander III) and King William I of Prussia. The table service used for the dinner is still on display at the oldest existing restaurant in Paris, La Tour d’Argent.

June 8, 1784: (Author’s note: Sorry for the length of this day in history. Carême is just too huge a figure in food history to pass over lightly!)

Marie-Antoine Carême was born in Paris, France. Marie Antoine Carême was known as “the cook of kings and the king of cooks”. He is the founder and architect of French haute cuisine. His story is one out of a Dickens novel. He was one of 25 (?) children born to an impoverished family who put him out on the street at the age of about 10 to make his own way in the world. Lucky for the world he knocked on the door of a restaurant for a job.

By the age of 21 Carême was Chef de Cuisine to Talleyrand. He also served as head chef to the future George IV of England, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Baron James de Rothschild. He wrote several large books on cookery, with hundreds of recipes and menus, a history of French cooking, instructions for organizing kitchens, and directions for elaborate architectural constructions of food for display (pièces montées). Carême died at the age of 48.

June 9, 1902: Frank Hardart and Joe Horn opened the first Automat on June 9, 1902 at 818 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. The birth date of modern fast food. (My Note: I think Horn and Hardart’s is still in existance. Someone out there should know. I remember going there with my Dad, usually when we went to the Phillies baseball game.)

June 10, 1869: Frozen food was shipped long distance for the first time. Frozen Texas beef shipped by steamship to New Orleans.

June 11, 1742: Benjamin Franklin invented the Franklin Stove. He purposely did not patent it, so that others could freely copy the design.

June 12: National Peanut Butter Cookie Day

June 13, 1789: Mrs. Alexander Hamilton served a new dessert treat for General George Washington. The highlight of the dinner party was ice cream! And all this time you thought Dolley Madison was responsible.

Chili Chart

04 Friday Jun 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food Trivia, Interesting Information, Thought For The Day

≈ 1 Comment

Here is a graphic of the different types of chilies. It will give you a visual reference for them, if you did not already have one. (Left Click on the graphic for a larger view). Cheers!

How To Tell When Meat Is Done

27 Thursday May 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Food Prep, Food Trivia, Party Time, Thought For The Day

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I had a question on the grilled pork recipe below. How do you tell when the pork is done? Do you cut into it to see how pink it is? No!

Answer: Neat trick that works well with pork or beef. Use either hand.

1). Relax the thumb and feel the muscle (on all these tests)- meat is raw (thumb muscle is loose and “pliable”).
2). Thumb to 1st Finger-Rare.
3). Thumb to 2nd Finger-Med/Rare.
4). Thumb to 3rd Finger-Med/Well.
5). Thumb to 4th Finger (Little finger)-Well done.

Remember those feelings and then touch the steak or pork. How does it feel? Relaxed thumb muscle (raw)? Cook longer! Thumb to 2nd finger (middle finger)? Maybe …. Your choice. The meat only gets dryer from here.

Try this trick. It really works. You never want to cut any meat to “see if done”. Cutting it lets all those wonderful juices out. Let the meat rest 10 minutes or so before cutting. That includes your Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey. I know it smells good and you’ve been waiting for 4 hours. Just 10 minutes more ….. Now feast! Cheers!