Articulated

Dauphine, part 2

I got a present in the mail today: a 4 oz. package of lavender from Penzeys spices. Four ounces of lavender is a enormous amount. All together, it’s over a cup of whole lavender spice that is incredibly potent.

Because I’m impatient, I immediately went to the store and purchased some of the items I’ll need to create my snack mix: walnuts, dried blueberries, banana chips, and crystalized ginger. I forgot to purchase coconut flakes, but I already had some sweetened coconut flakes at home, so I thought I would be okay.

The lavendar comes as little pellets that look like grains of wild rice. For this mix, I very very finely minced 1/8 of a teaspoon until I had a fine powder. If the spice has a strong aroma when whole, it’s a whole other level of strong when it’s chopped up – even this small quantity. The lavender was added to the following:

• 2.5 oz. walnuts
• 0.75 oz. dried blueberries
• 0.75 oz. banana chips, broken up
• 0.25 oz. flaked coconut (the sweetened kind, minced up into tiny flakes)
• 1 T. crystalized ginger, minced up
• 1 T. honey with a drop of vanilla mixed in
• 1/8 t. white pepper
• pinch of salt.

I mixed all these items in a plastic container with a lid that seals tightly. Once all the ingredients were in, I shook it vigorously to distribute the spices and the honey.

I probably should have put the mix onto a tray to allow the honey to dry, but I was in a hurry. I’ve been eager to try this so I simply stuck my hand into the sticky mix and tried it. My impatience was rewarded. My worries about the strength of the lavender were mostly unfounded. It was nicely balanced by the ginger, honey, vanilla, and pepper. The pepper might have been a bit stronger than in the packaged product sold by Sahale. The mix had a spicy bite to it; good thing I like spice.

Next time, I’ll need to be more patient. Alton Brown has some ideas on how to make snack mixes with nuts, and I should look at how he dries out the mixture so it isn’t super sticky. But I’m definitely on the right track. The real challenge is what to do with all of that lavender.

Dauphine, part 1

I have an obsession to admit to: Sahale Snacks‘ Dauphine snack blend. I posted about this product a while back (see the link) and since then, Sahale has discontinued the product. At first, I thought it was just hard to find. I searched everywhere. I tried to order from Amazon. I tried to order it from OrganicDirect. I walked around to all the little grocery stores in all the upscale neighborhoods. I tried supermarkets in other towns when I was traveling. No luck. Eventually, my fiancee wrote to the company and learned that they stopped making it. Mention of it has been taken from their website.

The Dauphine blend is a fascinating mix: walnuts mixed with banana chips, coconut, ginger, blueberries, lavendar, and white pepper. From Amazon, where the product is still listed (though unavailable) I was able to grab the actual ingredient information from the packaging:

Walnuts, Dried Blueberries (Blueberries, Apple Juice Concentrate, Sunflower Dill), Banana Chips (Unsweetened Bananas, Coconut Oil), Coconut Flakes (Unsulphured), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Tapioca Syrup, Dried Ginger (Unsulphured Ginger Root, Sugar), Spice, Sea Salt, Natural Vanilla Extract.

Okay, so I now know what’s in it. How hard can it be to duplicate it? Not for retail purposes, of course. It’s for personal use. Like I said, I’m hooked.

Most of the ingredients can be easily purchased. Walnuts are easy. I can get those at the supermarket. Dried blueberries, while expensive, are the kind of thing that Whole Foods will carry. Banana chips are inexpensive and sold in many places. Coconut flakes – as opposed to the sticky sweet stuff people bake with – it a little less common but can still be found at Whole Foods or other natural markets. Dried ginger (especially crystalized ginger) has become pretty common. My dad mixes it into his ice cream. How about cane juice and tapioca syrup?

By asking the oracle and poking around a few different websites, I am finding that evaporated cane juice and sugar are not all that different. The differences are in the amount of processing and the results of that lack of processing (more molassas, varying levels of fructose and glucose, trace nutrients, etc.) on the end product. I could probably use a good organic Turbinado sugar and not have to go find some exotic sweetener. Likewise, tapioca syrup appears to be another sweetener alternative for persons or producers who don’t want to use corn syrup or who are looking for a neutrally flavored sweetener that is produced in a manner consistent with vegan food rules. One website I visited suggested that tapioca syrup could be used as a substitute for honey or maple syrup, so I could conceivably sub the other way. I have honey in my pantry and maple syrup in my fridge. No need for another sweetener.

The tricky ingredient in the list is “spice”; this word could cover a multitude of sins. The packaging for the product says that lavender and white pepper are included, so I have that to go on. White pepper is often used in my kitchen. Lavender? Not so much, no.

My fiancee and I received some wonderful spices from good friends as a Christmas gift. They are from Penzeys, and I have enjoyed using them. Since they’re a name I know, I gave their website a try. Sure enough, a search for lavender yielded this: Lavender, 40z. bag, $8.95. It’s not cheap. Reminds me of buying saffron (another spice from flowers). But this is the one tricky ingredient separating me from my Dauphine. Time to order some flowers.

Feast plan

Time for a pleasant task: planning Thanksgiving dinner. This year there will be 4 of us. I hope that will be enough people because I’ve planned an ambitious menu. In order to prepare all of the food on time, I’ll need to begin a day or two early and get the big items (like the bread) done to make sure there is enough kitchen space on the big day.

One of the first things to make will be the sweet potato pie. I decided to make this instead of the typical pumpkin pie. I’ve been meaning to make something with sweet potatoes. I’m attracted by that beautiful, orange beta-carotine. The mad-genius-scientist Alton Brown has a SPP recipe on the Food Network website that looks perfect. I wonder if he’ll be remembered as the Julia Child of our generation.

Another unusual item we will prepare this year is a broccoli soup. Originally, we were going to make an onion soup as that is one of my girlfriend’s favorite items. However, in order to have more “green” (read: healthy) items at dinner, we visit the Food Network site again. Michael Chiarello (whose show I’ve never seen) has a recipe for a Very Green Broccoli soup. The soup actually incorporates a number of vegetables (including spinach, probably for color) and will satisfy our requirement for something healthy at the dinner table. I will pair this soup with fresh baked bread. The Professional Chef has a Soft Dinner Rolls recipe that makes 144 rolls. I think a 1/5 recipe will suffice.

In a nod to tradition, we’ll make boxed stuffing. I know, I feel a little guilty about it too. However, it’s what we know, and we like it. I’ve made my own stuffing before, and Saveur has a great Oaxacan stuffing recipe in the latest issue, but Thanksgiving is about comfort food. I won’t try to swim against the stream.

Saveur does have something else I would like to try: a chili rub for turkey. They’ve published a whole article describing a Mexican-style Thanksgiving feast, and the turkey (rubbed with a mixture based on toasted pasilla chilies and a toxic amount of garlic) is an attractive spin on a traditional bird. They also stuff their bird with an onion and an orange, but we’ll probably only roast a half-bird since I’m not serving a whole platoon of thanks-givers. I guess you can still stuff half a turkey, but physics, anatomy and geometry say the stuffing might fall out.

That leaves me with one last item: the veg. I cooked Brussels sprouts last year and that was pretty good. I’m willing to make them again this year, but perhaps I should try something different. A salad? Sweet corn? Asparagus? Fortunately, I have a few days to figure it out. Perhaps there’s some obscure Chinese vegetable my girlfriend would like to stir fry.

As a side note, the All Recipes website has a really great “print” feature. When you choose to print a recipe, the site displays several options for how you want to print the page. You can select a page (or card) size, text size, and whether or not to include some of the ancillary content (like nutritional information or photos of the dish). This is a great example of how to present printable pages to a user.

All is Pork

The Big Apple BBQ Block Party (and associated congregation all available letters “b”) is going on right now in New York’s Madison Square Park. For blocks around (depending on which way the wind blows) you can smell the sweet, low grey smoke that instantly gets the mouth watering. Meat is being cooked nearby. Follow your nose.

This, to me, is a really good idea. The only passable BBQ restaurant that I went to in New York – The Lookout, formerly in Park Slope, Brooklyn – inexplicably closed down. Monica dug into the internet rumor mill, and scuttlebutt has it that it wasn’t very popular. This only serves to reinforce my notion that New Yorkers have no clue about real BBQ. What’s doubly disappointing is that The Lookout was also a very fine restaurant. They had one of the most imaginative drink menus I have ever seen (top prize in that category continues to reside with Employees Only) as well as very fresh food. Oh well, it’s Brooklyn’s loss if they couldn’t appreciate what they had. Still, it’s damn frustrating for a real food lover to live in what is widely considered one of the world centers of fine dining and I can’t get a decent pulled pork meal.

Since we’ve been watching quite a bit of The Food Network, my better half and I have seen lots of different kinds of BBQ being made. Ed Mitchell, a pit master from North Carolina, was featured on an episode of “Throwdown with Bobby Flay”. As luck would have it, Mr. Mitchell brought his smoke rig to this year’s BBQ Block Party and I was able to verify, for the record, that he is cooking up the real thing. It was like being back in North Carolina, digging into that unique sweet/sour/spicy meat. Eastern North Carolina’s style of BBQ – whole hog roasted, pulled, and mixed with a vinegar-based sauce – is a singular style and clearly not for everyone. His stand at the Block Party was one of the least active. I suppose that disappoints me a little bit, since it is sooooo good, but hey! That made it easier for me to get some.

The most popular (and most marketed, based on all the signs) was Big Bob Gibson’s pulled pork shoulder. The pit master, Chris Lilly, was hawking his book and various sauces but the real attraction was the meat. I will grant that I have not had a wide variety of BBQ in my lifetime. I’m pretty partial to the North Carolina stuff. But this guy really did have the best meat at the event. It was smoky, with good moisture and flavor, and despite all the sauce options, really didn’t need any. It was a special treat. It’s too bad that I have work to perform at home tomorrow, or I would go back and get more.

Pink

Something interesting I saw today on the Food Network: pink peppercorns. I actually saw them used in two different shows. They can be used for a really beautiful effect. There is one dish in particular, a chicken and waffle dish from Bar Americain, that is made mouthwateringly attractive with these tiny berries. I’m not sure where around here I can find them.