Picture for prior post

The Apollo Space Program and the non-stick frying pan

The landing of a man on the moon is celebrated because it:

• Is a nerdgasm of mankind's greatest achievement; the culmination of the Enlightenment
• Was the pivotal battle in which the Cold War was won
• Was an unsustainable economic drain that along with the Vietnam war led to the collapse of the gold standard and ultimately the economic meltdown of 2008
• was JFK's legacy
• was fictitious
• was really really cool and anyone who thinks it was fake identifies themselves as a bit mad
• invented the non-stick frying pan

Of these points, I've engaged in heated debates on all bar the last. 

The received wisdom is that the non-stick frying pan was an inadvertent byproduct of the Apollo program. Therefore any misgivings about the overall project are allayed by the fact that millions of people have an easier job cleaning their frying pan thanks to Neil Armstrong and countless unsung heroes.

Except... whilst reading Richard Rhodes most excellent account of the development of the nuclear bomb I came across the claim that Teflon was invented by the Manhattan Project.

Say it ain't so Joe! 

This little nugget would be the start of an investigation worthy of a jaded alcoholic detective just shy of retirement - That Goes Right To The Top! 

Here is the truth as best can be established (i.e. wikipedia.org)

1. Teflon, aka PTFE, was discovered  by accident and patented in 1938
2. Yes, it was very valuable, and used in huge quantities by the Manhattan. But they weren't big into PR at that time
3. 1954 Collette Gregoire finally persuades her husband to put some of that slippy stuff he uses for fishing onto a frying pan
4. Tefal frying pan brand is introduced to the market, but it is many years before it achieves global dominance

So the Apollo program had zero influence on the non-stick frying pan. 

Fact. You can check it out on the internet if you don't believe me.

In the mean time, for reasons that are largely inexplicable, I've been replacing my Tefal frying pans with seasoned cast iron pans.(but will try not to contribute the blogosphere on this fascinating topic).

However, even without non-stick frying pans, Apollo was awesome.

 

Best. Noodles. Evah. (part 1)

Thought this blog was dead...

because as a mediocre cook and a  sub par photographer there seemed little point in continuing. However, tonight's meal was so good that the idea is to blog it down in anal detail, sans pictures, then see if it can be recreated with pictures.
Sort of create an online community within myself.

Context

Normal weekday requirement to cater for self and partner + any leftovers for my lunch tomorrow.

Significant amount of corriander  to use and vague hankering for noodles.

Ran an errand  and end up bribing kids with sweets, but also scored some chicken, peppers and spinach - result (+1 for local produce, -1 for sugary treats).

Partner arriving home and reminder she needs to eat before 19:30.

No problemo.

Recipe

Defrost last of home chicken stock in microwave (15 minutes).

Warm up  frying pan to moderate heat (half way notch on half way ring on gas cooker)

Saute for 5 minutes in broth pot:

• 1 onion, cut in half and sliced c. 3mm half moon shapes
• 3 smallish carrots, mandolined c. 4mm width at 30 degrees on the bias
• 1 medium celery stick (5th one from the crown), cut 2mm slices

Once frying pan is hot, add splash of oil, then chick pieces skin side down. Pieces were breast on the bone, so dismembered the wings but left the skin on (the skin stays on till the lower intestine in my book).

While chicken pieces are browning, add 1 red pepper to broth pot (halved, deseeded and sliced c. 5mm),

Check and turn chicken pieces if necessary.

Prepare aromatics - 1 thumb peeled ginger + 1 big clove garlic + 1 deseeded habenero chile, minced.

Strip leaves off coriander and mince stalks to add to aromatics, chop leaves finely and reserve for garnish.

Remove chicken pieces and clean pan if ready.

Add minced aromatics, stir a couple times.

Boil kettle.

Slice 6 mushrooms c. 5mm and add to broth pot. Stir.

Check stock is defrosted and hot, if so chuck the chicken pieces into the broth pot along with

• 1 tbsp nam pla
• 1/2 lemon squeezed
• enough boiling water to cover

Bring to bubble and add half a packet of ribbon rice noodles.

Taste and adjust seasoning using nam pla and lemon juice as first port of call.

Leave long enough to cook the chicken (or kill the salmonella, however you want to describe it), then decant packet of baby spinach. 

Once spinach is wilted,  serve.

To Serve

Scoop 1 breast per serving into bowl. Use slotted spoon to top up with noodles and veg. Sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves and bring to the table.

Result

Nom nom. 2 decent servings, 2 future lunches squirelled away and a cup of broth for later.

Next...

See if similar results can be achieved following the above (part 2).

Octopus, the final frontier part two

ok, so the blog never dies. Here's a few bits that need cleared out of the camera memory,
firstly Halloween
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Scary huh? (and late)

Now for the even scarier, having bought frozen octopus a couple months back it's time to get over waving the frozen packet at people and actually cook it.
First stop is the Globally Ubiquitous Search Engine, where I exercise my free will and select the the fifth link in.
Interesting, this guy seems to know what he's talking about, a wannabe Harold McGee. In fact it is the man himself, so lets get following the instructions, which are to roast the little cephalopods for 2 hours minimum at a low heat with appropriate aromatics.

I can handle that. The intent of this dish is to recreate a memory from my feckless youth enjoying pulpitos in tomato sauce in Barcelona. Not sure which was most memorable, the savour of the dish, the intensely red tomato sauce, the experience of being footloose with friends in one of the most culturally resonant European capitals, or a companion comparing them to shaved spiders.

No matter, I think I can do the red sauce bit.
So first stop is to burn a capiscum. And I mean actually burn it on the naked hob flame rather than accidently burning it in a sauce pan.

Which promptly gets shoved into an airtight container for reasons that remain mysterious to me and possibly even Harold McGee.
So returning to the octopuses (that is correct, I have an implicit Classical education by mere fact of being British and any fule kno octopus is Greek and thus the plural form is ...uses rather than ...i),
they have have been roasting for 2 hours at 175C and should be succulent little morsels swimming in luscious gravy.

 Hmm. The gravy appears not to be playing by the rules and manifested as a  caramelised veneer. No matter,  give it a little soak and simmer and something, albeit slightly carcinogenic,can be salvaged from it.

As to the matter of our precocious molluscs, they taste...okay.  I feel guilty about this as I have an irrational affection for octopus and squid - they will eventually inherit the earth after all, so time to get in the cop outs.

Plus elder son the Epicure has decided he wants some so this novelty dish is now having to feed three hungry people. And is very late.

Back to the comfort zone of the red sauce.  Aforementioned roasted pepper has been skinned and added to caramelised red onion, red chile and (red)carrots.  Bung the last of the paprika (c. 4 Tsp, but oldish) and we're back on track

Simmer with some tinned tomato a bit while cleaning and chopping spinach (NB serious tip here - a bit of grated nutmeg seems to conteract the acidic/tannic nature of spinach. Plus it apparently cost more than gold a few centuries back, so here's a chance to live like a king).

Have to serve with cousous because I'm all out of time. Briefly considered concentric circles of red, green and white but couldn't figure out which should go where. Plus family are about to start shouting at me so adopt the default serving of "fill the plate"

Consumer reaction:  Meh...Any more?
Cook's reaction:  Stick to squid - it's simpler, cheaper and slightly less unsettling. But if unsettling your dinner guests is the goal, go for more octopus and less sauce.

Meringue, the final frontier

Avid readers may have noticed a distinct lack of material recently, and yes it's true, I've decided to formally hang up my hat.
Not about cooking and stuff, but the hassle of taking grainy out of focus pictures of yet another roast pork belly.
But there have been culinary triumphs in the meantime - not exclusively involving slow cooked pork and colcannon  , lamb racks for 20 featured there (with the inevitable root and cruciciferous vegetable melange  ) , gooseberry and foraged elderflower sorbet, at which point I decided my meagre talents were better focussed on dishing the food rather out than photographing it and missing out on the post supper craic.


But one final challenge remains - the meringue.  Faffing around with mayonaise and hollandaise sauces now and again there are surplus egg whites to be dealt with. 
Egg white omelete is not an option, so that leaves the meringue. Which is beloved over all over things by eldest son for some reason.
But, boy, has he had grounds for disappointment.  But not this time, he won't even be aware of this attempt:

• 2 egg whites uncovered in fridge for 7 days
• mixing bowl clean and scalded (but notcooled)
• pinch of salt
• whisked to soft peaks
• 3 tablespoons of caster sugar added
• whisked to stiff peak
• dolloped on to oiled parchment into over at 135c
• (small dollops)
• after 40 mins, still a bit squishy
• turn up to 180 for 20 minutes
• leave with oven door open for 1 hou

Result

Damm close. Texture light and crunchy. Too much caramelisation.  

But they weren't glued to the baking tray, so this is the closest I've come yet.

Bernaise Sauce

Have some decent rib eye steak from Aldi,  the foolproof oven chips recipe
 a recommended Malbec from Lilac Wines, some backup burgers for the boys,  and it's Saturday - what could possibly go wrong?
Time to reattempt the Bearnaise Sauce, since my wife called my bluff and procured some tarragon. Don't know if it is French or Russian, but it's a big pile of tarragon that I don't have many alternatives so the bluff is called and it's time to get cooking.
Stick the oven on with the chip tray and start the hob boiling for the chips, time for one last glass of wine before the cooking starts in earnest.
Half then third the Maris Piper spuds before tippping into the pot. The race is on now. After 5 minutes decant the chips. Allow to dry while putting some olive oil in the dish to warm up.
Tip the chips into the dish along with generous amounts of turmeric, paprika, oregano, salt and pepper. Some more olive oil and mix those chips up with a spatula.

 Thirty minutes till dishing out, so time to start the bearnaise sauce (the steak, needless to say has been out of the fridge and blotted dry for a couple of hours).
Finely chop up 5 shallots, 2 bunches of tarragon.
I saw the lovely Rachael Allen use a technique of holding a bunch of herbs - sage in her case - upside down then slash at them with the biggest chef's knife. Cool!
Anyway, kinda works, looks cools but I still need to pick out the stems and chop further.
So tip that lot into the preheated pan with a good glug of red wine vinegar, some white wine and a few grinds of pepper (the classic recipe calls for white wine vinegar, but this is Aspinall's Organic so it will hopefully squeak by).

While that is boiling away it's time to assemble the bain maire. The secret here appears to be ensuring the bowl isn't touching the water, so I end up using the weighing bowl fitted on top of the stock pot, into which I've put a Tupperware dish with 150g of butter to soften up. 150g of butter! i.e a quarter pound!
I also collect a bowl of crushed ice the fridge in case of emergency - this is highly recommended,whether for physical reason, or just as a mental safety blanket.

Okay, tip the reduction into the bain maire. A bit too  hot? Chuck in some ice.
A 2 egg yolks and whisk. A bit  too frothy? Chuck in some ice.
Whisk away for a bit, meantime the butter has visited the microwave for perhaps too long to melt, so it sits in the ice bowl before going trickling in to the sauce.
Keep whisking

 Chuck in some ice for luck while boiling half a kettle. Use the boiling water to warm a gravy jug. While the jug is warming, rest the steaks in the oven with plates and chips (almost forgot, the steaks got seared in a hot cast iron pan after being brushed with some of the melted butter).
And serve

 Nom nom. Haven't tasted Bearnaise sauce before so don't know how faithful this implementation was, but that much butter, allied with that much protein and starch can hardly fail to hit the spot. 
A week of kale and broccoli beckons.

Spanakopita and Rhubard Icecream

Doing some trial runs for catering for a the eldest boys communion.  Not my idea, being an atheist and a Protestant one at that, but sometimes it's easier to go with the flow. Anyway, I'm happy to inflict my culinary meanderings on wider selection of guinea pigs, so trying to figure out how to feed the greatest number with least  effort or margin for error.
A couple things I learnt from a previous effort along these lines (youngest ones christening - oops, I'm not a very observant atheist) - garlic bread goes down a storm and the oven is the constraining resource. So anything that can be made the day before and served cold is a boon.
Coincidentally the ever reliable Domini Kemp has a spanakopita recipe, so I'll trial that.
The recipe is simple enough, 1 kg of defrosted spinach, which looks like this once you've squeezed the beejeezus out of it

Mix with one pack of feta, a sweated onion, fennel seeds and a handful of pine nuts I fortuitously have available

Domini calls for creme fraiche but I can't find any so substitute sour cream. To be honest cream varieties are not my strong point, I got some double cream earlier by mistake but that will be more appropriate for the dessert coming up.
Ms Kemp also suggests puff pastry, but I want old school with filo pastry. Never having used this before I'm a bit curious, so unwrapping it I find this

 I toy with the idea of making a layered roulade, but not finding anything comparable on the internet. Having been badly burnt by a misconceived spinach and fish bake (pictures thankfully lost, but burnt both literally and metaphorically) decide to follow the mainstream route and simply butter the three sheets together and wrap up the filling in each

nice and easy indeed.  Bake for 30 minutes

 and serve with baby potatoes slathered in the leftover butter

Very tasty, simple and eats well the following day.  But not a goer for party food because it is too messy and   has to be served in generous portions.  Though there may be mileage in making dim sum like individual portions.  Another days work, meanwhile another glut of rhubarb needs to be dealt with, and tarts gets a bit predictable so let's try an ice cream experiment.
Firstly poach the rhubarb in the juice of one orange, a bit of vanilla sugar and caster sugar

I don't have an ice cream maker so this won't be eaten tonight. Instead set a pyrex dish in the freezer for a few hours and let the rhubarb puree cool right down, then liquidize with some frozen strawberries which will further help to cool it down

whip half a litre of cream into soft peaks then fold together in a bowl which has also served time in the freezer

 hmm, a lot more than I intended, so a plastic dish is hurriedly pressed into service. Then it's back in the freezer and a good fork around every hour or when I can remember.  And unfortunately tragedy strikes later on when late at night one fork around too many and I drop the pyrex dish. Anyway, we'll find out how it eats  tomorrow.