Okay, so you all know I am not the biggest coffee drinker in the world. I do enjoy coffee quite a bit, but I drink it more like a social drink and not as regularly as many people do. I have seen a bunch of information on how to store coffee, some of it is contradictory, so I went on a mission to find the best information I could on coffee storage. If you are like me and don’t use your coffee as regularly as other people do, then you may want to read the rest of this article.
I went to my favorite source on food science, Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking, and found out what I could. I also read as many independent sources as I could from Martha to Cook’s Illustrated. The general consensus is the longer your coffee sits out on your counter the worse it is for it. McGee, like many other food writers, suggests storing your coffee in the whole bean form. This seems to be the best way to get the most freshness. Whole beans work better for storage than ground coffee from a science point of view. As McGee states, “One reason the whole beans keep as long as they do is that they’ve filled with carbon dioxide, which helps exclude oxygen from the porous interior. Once the beans have been ground, room-temperature shelf life is only a few days.”
Cooks Illustrated did a big test on storing ground coffee this month. They found that ground coffee stored on the counter for two weeks had a bitter flavor. They found frozen grounds (stored in ziplock bags with the extra air pressed out) worked better, but they worked best when allowed to come back up to room temperature.
So, what’s the best way to store coffee? Well, the best way would be to buy whole beans and store them in the freeze in a container with all the air pressed out. When you are ready to grind the coffee, take it out of the freezer and allow it to come up to room temp. and then grind it and brew. If you don’t want the hassle of whole beans, use the same technique with ground coffee and you should still be able to brew a decent cup of joe.
Okay, so it’s no secret that I love to bake. I love desserts and I always make tons of them during an given week. I picked up this cookbook over at William Sonoma. I have to say the price was worth it, even if all I got was my dad’s favorite dessert recipe ever, Caramelized Pumpkin Flan. My dad absolutely loves anything custard and well, he was blown away by this one. He keeps telling me that I need to make it again, I plan to on my next visit home. It is truly a great dessert, especially around Thanksgiving, stay tuned at the end of this review for the full recipe.
This cookbook is a great one. The chapters include cookies, bars & confections, cakes, cupcakes & cheesecakes, pies & tarts, custards, mousses & puddings, frozen desserts, fruit desserts, and basic recipes & techniques. I think one of the best chapters in the book is the basic recipes & techniques section. This is an absolute life safer for those just starting out. They give you step-by-step techniques for making pie and tart crusts, making frozen desserts, and a really great glossary. They have a great section on all the kinds of chocolate and techniques for working with them.
I am a fan of fruit desserts, so I really enjoy that chapter. I also inherited the custard gene from my dad, so I really love that section. I think this is a great resource for anyone interested in trying out some new desserts. The book contains both classic recipes and interesting new twists, so it’s a great resource for the first time dessert baker. Without further ado, Jim’s favorite dessert ever, Caramelized Pumpkin Flan.
Caramelized Pumpkin Flan (from Williams Sonoma’s Desserts Cookbook)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbs. water
3/4 cup light (single) cream
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
Grated zest of 1 small orange
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 325° F.
In a small saucepan over low heat, combine 1/2 cup of the sugar and the water, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to high and cook without stirring until the liquid is caramel colored and has a faintly burnt aroma, 6-8 minutes; do not allow to burn. Remove from the heat and pour carefully into four 1/2 cup (4 oz) custard cups or ramekins, tilting them to coat the bottoms and sides. Set aside.
In a saucepan over medium heat, warm the cream until small bubbles form along the edges of the pan; do not allow it to boil. In a bowl, combine the pumpkin, the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the orange zest, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Stir to mix well, then stir in the eggs. Mix in the warm cream, a little at a time. Stir in the vanilla until smooth, and pour into prepared dishes. Place in baking pan and pour hot water into the pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the cups. Cover the pan with aluminum foil.
Bake until set and knife inserted in the center of the flan comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Carefully remove from the water bath and let rest on a wire rack for about 30 minutes, then cover and chill well.
At serving time, run a knife around the inside edge of each dish and invert each flan onto a small individual plate or into a shallow bowl, allowing the caramel at the bottom of the cup to drizzle over the top of the flan. Serve at once.
I love home fries, especially on the weekend with brunch. If you like home fries, but don’t want to deal with the hassle of doing them on the stovetop, check out this video on quick and easy home fries. The seasonings can be changed up a hundred different ways. Get creative. If you want to check out this video, please click on the play button below.
If you are having trouble viewing this video, please click here to watch it over at youtube.com.
Okay, so we all know what waffles are, but what about the different kinds of waffles? Epicurious does a fabulous job helping us to discern what makes the different waffles special. Here’s the definition from www.epicurious.com.
“waffle [WAHF-fuhl] The honeycombed surface of this crisp, light bread is perfect for holding pockets of syrup. Waffles are made by pouring a light batter onto one side of a waffle iron, a special hinged cooking utensil with two honeycomb patterned griddles. The second side is closed over the batter and the waffle is cooked until browned and crisp. Waffle irons can be electric or designed for stovetop cooking. Electric waffle irons have heating elements in both sides, thereby cooking the two sides of the bread at once. Irons heated on top of a stove must be turned over once during cooking to finish the second side. There are a number of waffle-iron shapes available including square, rectangular, round and even heart-shape. Belgian waffles, which are often heaped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, are made on special waffle makers with particularly large, deep grids. Most modern waffle irons have nonstick surfaces. Waffles are popular not only for breakfast, but for desserts as well. Savory waffles can be topped with creamed meat or vegetable mixtures.
based on THE FOOD LOVER’S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst”
My first rule of thumb on spices is if you can’t remember the last time you used it, then you may want to start with a new bottle. The truth about dried spices and herbs is they can be kept in a cool dark place for 6 months or so. If the bottles in your spice cabinet have dust, then you probably haven’t used it in 6 months. One of the best ways to tell if your spices or herbs are getting old is by looking at the color of them. Spices and dried herbs change color with age, your once bright red paprika now may be brownish. Dried herbs will no longer have a green color, but will appear grayish. The changing color of your spices indicates they are no longer as potent as they once were.
I suggest keeping the spices and dried herbs on hand that you use most frequently and buying the others in the smallest quantities possible. I always have the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, Italian Seasoning, Herbs de Provence, red pepper flakes, chili powder, cumin, etc. on hand. I do not buy dried herbs as much because I find the fresh ones so readily available and relatively inexpensive. If you do spring cleaning each year, it may be a good time to get rid of those old bottles of stuff you last used in 1988.(Oh, come on you know we’ve all have a bottle of something or other that we’ve had for the last 20 years…)
Well, in my never ending quest for more things food I picked up a copy of the latest Food & Wine. I have to admit, I am a foodie, but not a wine drinker, so some of this magazine may be lost on me. To start I really enjoy the indexes that this magazine includes - one for all of the recipes and one for all of the wines. I really think it is great that they link the wines to a recipe in the issue. I think this is a really great feature for anyone just starting out trying wines. It’s one of those simple little features that many people would miss if they were just looking through the magazine at a bookstore. Like most food magazines this one is littered with ad after ad. A feature they include that many magazines include is a section on what is going on at their web site. They are doing a poll this month of your favorite food tv personalities - so, if you are interested in putting your two cents in, you may want to go check it out.
The magazine has sections like news & notes, travel, restaurant trends, reality tv, shopping, kitchens, technology, well-being, tasting and testing, and chef recipes. For any of Julie Powell’s fans (of Julie and Julia fame), they include a section on Julie’s video experiment on youtube.com. This month’s issue also includes a huge celebrity chef recipes section with recipes from famous chef’s like Giada, Nigella, Lidia Bastianich, and Mario (to name a few). The wine of the month is pinot noir, they give you options for good wine at all price levels.
All and all, I think this is a well laid out magazine. The articles are interesting. I would say if you were new to wine then this may be the magazine for you.
So, you want your own cooking show? Here’s the part you don’t see. This is a blooper reel. You get to see some of the screw ups I’ve made while filming these videos for you. I hope you enjoy either laughing with me or at me.
If you can’t see the video above, then please click here to watch the video over at youtube.com.
I saw an article over at Yahoo today that I couldn’t resist writing on it. It seems more and more Americans are looking to add culinary activities to their vacation plans. I think this is a great trend and certainly something I would love to take part in. The number of culinary trips you can take is really quite surprising, as is the varying degrees of intensity. These trips range from taking a bus tour of Napa Valley to spending a week of intensive training in an Italian kitchen. I think there is truly something for everyone out there. You can do something as simple as a tasting tour or actually work in a real live kitchen. Here’s a link to the article, below you will see links to some of my personal favorites.
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Choux paste is a french pastry used in a number of delicious treats including eclairs and profiteroles. The process for making this pastry is quite different from the way in which you would normally create a pastry. Epicurious.com does and excellent job of describing how and what this pastry is made of, so without further ado here is their definition for choux paste.
“choux pastry [shoo] (Definition from epicurious.com) Also called choux paste, pâte à choux and cream-puff pastry , this special pastry is made by an entirely different method from other pastries. The dough, created by combining flour with boiling water and butter, then beating eggs into the mixture, is very sticky and pastelike. During baking, the eggs make the pastry puff into irregular domes (as with cream puffs). After baking, the puffs are split, hollowed out and filled with a custard, whipped cream or other filling. Besides cream puffs, choux pastry is used to make such specialties as eclairs, gougere and profiteroles.
based on THE FOOD LOVER’S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst”
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my little microplane (the original 8.5 inch). I also own the coarse grater microplane. I like this microplane, but not nearly as much as my original. This design has a few flaws. The first problem I had with this microplane is the plastic casing that surrounds the blade. The plastic casing is flimsy and is easy to crack. With the old microplane you could hold the tip blade against the your cutting board and work, when I used this same technique with the coarse grater I actually cracked the plastic casing in half. Now my blade is quite flimsy and has a tendency to flex when I use it. The second problem I have with this grater is the handle. The handle comes off of the blade and occasionally slips. I also find when I wash this tool in the dishwasher, if I forget to take the handle off, I have water running down my blade the next time I use it. The blade is sharp, just like the original. It grates nicely, but the original design is much better. Do you own any of the microplane products? Please leave a comment to tell us what you think
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