30 Jul
I think we had a tomato caprese salad, roasted corn and korean barbeque (bool kogi)
Above: caprese salad with garden- fresh tomatoes.
We made it look pretty.
Grilling up some delicious corn
We substituted in a burrata instead of fresh mozzarella.
The corn turned out delicious and roasty.
And the korean short ribs (bool kogi) were beefy.
3 Jul
What do you eat camping?
One sees quite the variety of foods camping. My Mom and I pull out all the stops. On our last trip to the Kern River this weekend, we prepared quite a feast, in my opinion.
As soon as we got to camp we got a fire going and our dutch oven heating up.
Into the dutch oven went some heirloom beans, which we had prepped the night before at the house.
In there you see some onions, bacon and plenty of beans.
We had some delicious, juicy tri-tip.
As well as some corn and grilled ciabatta, onto which we rubbed fresh tomatoes, in the spanish manner.
Above: the ciabatta with tomatoes
The beans turned out pretty delicious, if not gorgeous. They developed this amazingly deep, delicious flavor that was quite rich. I really loved them.
And what is a camping trip without some lucious, delicious berry cobbler, cooked in a dutch oven over the dying embers of a fire?
Breakfast:
While we did need to get out quite early, that didn’t stop my scout master Ken and I from whipping up some breakfast burritoes.
And that was the trip! We had an amazing time and the food was, of course, amazing.
29 Jun
This is an ongoing series of posts chronicling my “rock ‘n roll catering” days…there’s no nutritional value.
These were always fun…kinda. One of the few events that utilized “in-house” catering, i.e., from the Scheman Building. I ended up doing four or five of these at the height of the “ice skating” craze of the 90s. “Champions on Ice” founder and promoter, Tom Collins, spared no cost in making sure a whole bunch of young, spolied skaters from Russia were comfortable and entertained all day. Seriously, entire billiard tables were toted around with their usual production! Viktor Petrenko, Michelle Kwan and Oksana Baiul were all associated with the event. What I’ll always remember is:
1) Tom’s son, Marty Collins, was an arrogant, spoiled brat in his own right. He walked into catering, came up to me and sternly said, “I’m Marty Collins, I make all of this happen.” Perhaps, but he couldn’t spell to save his life – the rider he gave me was ladden with grammatical errors and misspellings the likes of a second grade teacher seldom sees.
AND,
2) I always played music during dinner. The year Oksana was on tour, I had one of my favorite bands, LYCIA (the album wasEstrella) , spinning in the CD player in the background. She commented on the music as she smiled at me while leaving her dining table; though it was in Russian and I had no idea what she may have said, it seemed pleasant.
29 Jun
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While down at my folks’ place yesterday, my father pointed out in the Target ad how cheap pork back ribs were: $1.79/lb. There was a limit of six racks per person, so I went with and we came back with 12. Four racks got cut into thirds and seasoned with Kosher salt, cracked peppercorns, cumin, cayenne and garlic salt. Into the smoker they went for about five hours with a little sauce basting from Big Boned Barbeque for the last 30 minutes. Baked potato, beans and a salad made for a wonderful sunday night with some of the neighbor “kids” from Sugar Valley – I don’t know why I say kids, we’re all old enough to drink. Sorry I couldn’t get any pics of the finished meal; cameras and barbeque don’t go together very well. But trust me, the table looked great!
I met the guys from Big Boned last year at Rib America in Des Moines and got along fabulously with them. (Thanks again for letting us use your oven to bake our beans!) Get a hold of Pat Nelson at Big Boned Barbeque to order a bottle or two for yourself and to see if their professional team of BBQ artists will be rollin’ into your city. And when ya see them, tell ‘em Boonie sent ya!
15 Jun
Okay, so there’s more than JUST one reason to plant a garden. It’s economical for sure. Free of harsh pesticides? You betcha. Another is the sweet contest fellow, and FAR superior, blogger/culinary author Michael Ruhlman is hosting on his site this summer. The “BLT From Scratch Challenge” is a call for entries to those who can put together the best interpretation of an all-American classic. Garden raised veggies, home-cured bacon/pancetta, made-from-scratch bread etc. Winners will be awarded one of Michael’s titles allegedly “signed in bacon fat.” All of the rules, categories and details can be found at Ruhlman’s site. Hopefully everyone has a lush, blossoming garden already. If not, it’s not too late! Turn that soil, get some dirt under your nails and turn those thumbs green!
8 Jun
Photo courtesy Bethany Kohoutek
The forecast for the weekend wasn’t looking so great here in Iowa, so Bethany and I planned to spend our Saturday and Sunday in the kitchen. In preparation for her sister’s baby shower, the plan was to focus on some sweets. Myself, I’m not really into desserts or sugar indulgences. I can be swayed after a few drinks at the end of dinner into ordering creme brulee, though. And it is my affinity for just that dessert that set us sail on a stove.
Michael Ruhlman’s latest effort, Ratio, enticed me to try the versatile creme anglaise. It’s a sauce. Creme patissiere. Ice cream. And…it’s creme brulee. I chose option B, the creme patissiere. The flavor was great, but I think the amount of starch added at the end was a bit excessive at 6 Tbs. It thickened up a bit much, but a little more heavy cream and a spin with the whisk in the Kitchen Aid smoothed out the problem.
It ended up filling the pate a choux cream puffs that were made prior. I can’t begin to stress how fast and simple the pate a choux was to make. THESE are just as versatile as the creme anglaise; and cheap to make as well! Flour, egg, butter, water, sugar. Done. The pate a choux can easily be turned into profiteroles, gougeres, gnocchi, eclairs. Give it a try and you will be laiden with praise and adoration at your next family get-together…I promise.
Photo courtesy Bethany Kohoutek
Not content on just vanilla, chocolate mousse was on the docket for Sunday. The recipe was from The Professional Chef, 7th ed. I value this book like most others do in the kitchen; it’s my security blanket when I doubt myself. BUT, there are a few conflicts between visual instruction and recipe I have a problem with. “Chocolate Mousse” is one of them. Pages 976-977 give a detailed step-by-step process on the construction of said dessert. “Whites generally whip to a greater volume if they are at room temperature,” per the visual instruction. There is no mention of heating the whites (yolks, yes) over a water bath. However, page 978 instructs one to do just that; contradicting what was just explained a couple pages prior and “Whipping Egg Whites and Making Meringues” on page 867. I learned this first time I tried their mousse recipe last year. I received absolutely no volume out of my egg whites, despite my valiant efforts to inflate them. Is it just me? If so, I learned my lesson. I think the photos speak for themselves.
Photo courtesy Bethany Kohoutek
29 May
This show was at Hilton Coliseum in Ames in the winter if I remember correctly. I think this was a Bellybusters gig. I don’t remember a whole lot about this night other than I left early due to an ice storm…I think. This was also my first “jam band” run-in. I can respect bands like Phish for their technical proficiency and free-wheelin’ approach, but it’s just not for me. I think of Phish and all I can smell is weed and B.O. Ugh….This was a clever pass though.
25 May
With the fantastic meal from Phat Chef’s under my belt, I left Iowa for the desert expanses of my home state. However, we had a few wonderful stops. We stopped in Denver, where I visited my cousin and had some fantastic Thai and stayed the night. The next day my Dad and I craved some roadfood. Jumping on my laptop, I found a place not too far off our path called Mom’s Cafe- aren’t we glad we stopped! They had some of the best food I have enjoyed yet on the road- an ethereally light and delicious patty melt, delectable frybread (“scone”) and some pretty fine pie.
Mom’s was not a large establishment, but they had a very considerable parking lot; at least 10 places adjacent to the modest building in downtown Salina, Utah and an overflow lot across the street. I thought it was a tad much, but after I tasted the food I can see why it drew such rave reviews online.
My Dad and I entered with big expectations, especially my Dad. In the course of my travels in Iowa I have enjoyed some really good road-food, most notably at the Suburban Cafe in Ames, Iowa, but this was damn good. Please note that, due to my Dad’s presence, this article will contain some rare photos of me. For your viewing pleasure, therefore, I present: the many faces of Ben Gordon:
Above: Tired and trying to take a picture of himself.
Above: Driving with big sunglasses on.
Above: Surprised, with a little bit of patty melt dripping down chin.
Above: I don’t know what the hell I was doing here. It was a great patty melt.
Anyway, we pulled over in Salina, Utah to go to Mom’s Cafe, and I am so happy we did. From the menu to the pie, it was a slice of old time life. The interior was old-fashioned, in a natural way, and the walls were liberally adorned with newspaper articles which exclaimed its formidable road food status. However, the real proof was in the booths around us: happy patrons digging into delicious looking sandwiches and big slices of pie.
I had a delicious patty melt, which I wield above, and some pie. They also had fried bread, which you slather with honey butter.
Blueberry sour cream pie.
Apple pie.
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