Recently in Random Musings Category

Rather than live blogging tonight's event, I'm going to be taking copious notes and posting to http://twitter.com/cooklocal.  Come on over and follow along, or check back here later for a more thorough review (unless I can figure out where stuff is on my wife's computer enough to just liveblog this).

Can you digg it?

We've recently introduced two new categories here at Cook Local. The first, is the CSA category. We subscribed to a CSA this summer and we've been getting tasty local choice food boxes each week from Growing Washington. If you belong to a CSA (and especially if you belong to Growing Washington's CSA), these recipes feature ingredients that you will likely get in your weekly boxes.

The second category is for all those people out there who want to cook, but just don't have the patience or the confidence for a complicated recipe. The EASY category contains recipes that are just that. Easy. Some of them will have only a few ingredients, some of them will have more than a few. However, none of them will use a complicated technique, or require you to recognize when whipped cream is at the soft peak stage or force you to clarify butter or go through fifteen steps just to get ready to put something in the oven.

The EASY recipes are designed for people new to cooking or for people who just don't want to think much about cooking. The most we'll ask you to do in an easy recipe is chop up some stuff, cook meat until it isn't pink, set a kitchen timer, or stir a pot a few times. I've added a few recipes to this category already, but it might take me a week or so to go back through all of the recipes we've posted over the past couple of years and update them all. Keep checking back for new easy recipes.

Can you digg it?

A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, was complaining to me the other day. He watches a lot of Food Network TV and his complaint was that he could never make any of the recipes he saw on these shows because he didn't have twelve different types of pans, four whisks, parchment paper, three mixers, two blenders, ten different knives, and a corn cobber.

That got me thinking. What do I consider are the basics of home kitchen equipment? If you're going to be setting up a new kitchen, or have decided after years of takeout to finally start cooking, what do you need?

Well, here's a list from someone who cooks at least 5 days a week.

1. Kitchen-Aid Mixer: Yep. The big stand mixer. While you can get by with a hand mixer, the stand mixer will let you do a lot more without having to stand there holding the thing the whole time. I use mine to make cookies, bread dough, butter, whipped cream, and just about anything else that can be mixed.
2. Two good prep knives: All you really need are two knives. Your first knife should be a paring knife. Useful for cutting in a small space, like taking the tops off of peppers or tomatoes for stuffing. The second good knife should be a chef's knife. This can be used for cutting meat or veggies and is particularly good for mincing garlic and onions once you get your technique down. I made fresh pesto with it just tonight (look for that recipe tomorrow!).
3. A cheap bread knife: Sometimes you just need a serrated knife. If you're cutting bread or even cake, a serrated knife will cut very well.
4. Two cutting boards: Sure, you can get by with one, but really, it is a lot easier to have one to use for meat and one for veggies. Ours are inexpensive Ikea cutting boards that come in two colors. Red is for meat/chicken/fish and white is for veggies/breads/anything else. Wood is best, but plastic will do.
5. Wooden spoon: Plastic or metal are fine, but I like the feel of wood. It won't scratch your pots and pans, it can be used to scrape up little browned bits when deglazing, and it just looks classic. I love the fact that after you've used one for a while it gets a little discolored and "worn".
6. Measuring cups and spoons: No need to get all fancy here, although I'm partial to the angled measuring cup and the collapsible measuring cups and spoons. You do actually need both wet and dry measuring cups though. While you can use one type for everything, using a liquid measuring cup for dry ingredients can actually cause some inaccuracies in measurements.
7. Three types of pans. Non-stick pans are a lot easier to work with, but there have been some concerns lately about their safety. I still use mine, though I do need to do more research. If you choose non-stick for the soup pot and sauce pot, go with stainless steel for the skillet or fry pan. Why? So you can make sauces and reductions that utilize browned bits of just about anything. It is difficult to have the ability to deglaze a pan when the pan is non-stick.
1. Skillet or fry pan: Great for toasting nuts, omlettes, morels, or even a grilled cheese sandwich. If you get one that has a lid and is oven safe,
2. Soup pot: This one's pretty self explanatory. Soup. Get at least 5-6 quarts.
3. Sauce pot: Again, pretty self explanatory, although a 2 qt sauce pot can also be used to steam vegetables and boil pasta.
8. Two large prep bowls: If you're making cookies, you'll need a bowl for the wet ingredients and a bowl for the dry ingredients. Don't bother with smaller prep bowls unless you want everything to match well, just use your serving bowls for smaller things like egg whites or yogurt.
9. Cookie Sheet: The air-pocket cookie sheets are all the rage, but while they are a great idea in theory, they just don't work out very well. Then get water in them quite easily and once that happens, when you put them in the oven, they will actually distend while cooking. Just get a cheap cookie sheet. If you end up replacing it in three years, you're only out $7 or $8 dollars.
10. Pyrex or Baking Dish: You can use glass or stoneware, but a baking dish will let you make fish, chicken, or vegetables in the oven. A small square one is perfect for one person, but for a family, go for a larger one. Many come with lids, so that can double as a storage dish.
11. Cooling Rack: Whether you're making bread or cookies, a cooling rack is a lot of help.
12. Trivet: Otherwise known as a hot pad. Something you can set on the counter under a hot dish.
13. Pot Holders: Yes, this seems self-explanatory, but get a few. If they get wet, they don't insulate as well from the heat, so you'll need a backup.
14. Instant Read Thermometer: It doesn't have to be digital, or the remote type that you can leave in the meat. But a cheap instant read thermometer will help you determine whether your steak is rare, medium, or well done (or raw).
15. Fire Extinguisher: Get one rated for kitchen fires (aka grease fires). No matter how good of a cook you are, I will wager that at some point in your life, you'll set something in the kitchen on fire. I know I have. Whether you turn on the wrong burner, let something go too long, or get a dish towel just a little too close to the stove, it will happen. Kitchen fires can spread quickly, so have the extinguisher somewhere handy and check the expiration date every year, probably when you check your smoke detectors.

Next week I'll go into some of the more specialty tools that you might want if you're moving on from some basic recipes to more advanced things like pureed soups, sauces, and souffles.

...

My wonderful husband has taken over the keyboard to add the following four items, although you won't be able to get them in a store...

1. A measure of patience.  Cooking takes time.  Even the best of recipes won't be immediate.  Trust me, you'll want this.
2. A sense of adventure.  The joy of cooking isn't just in making what you know how to make, it is in discovering new and wonderful things to cook and bake.  Be ready to jump out of your element and make something new and different.  Which leads to...
3. A sense of humor.  You will fail.  I fail.  My beautiful and talented wife, excellent cook that she is, fails.  It happens.  Be ready to laugh at those failures and, if they are totally and complete inedible....
4. The phone number to your favorite delivery restaurant and their menu.  Because when you fail, you probably won't feel like cooking something else.  Unless, of course, it was only part of the meal that you failed at.  But you know what I mean.

Can you digg it?

Let me get this off my chest.

I can't really stand Alton Brown.

Well, that's not entirely true.  He's not that bad.  He's personable, he gives good information, he's generally on point.  He (or his writers) has a sense of humor. 

Actually, I'm not entirely sure why I don't like him.  He's too smug maybe?

One of his drives is to 'banish the unitasker.'  At one point, I jokingly said to someone who is more in tune with Altonism 'I wonder... does Alton Brown own a waffle maker?'

Turns out, yes, and he admitted on a show that it was his secret shame, that one unitasker that he owns because, frankly, it just isn't something you can multitask with.  A pizzelle maker, sure.  You can make ice cream cones, rolled cookies, flat cookies.  But a waffle maker?  It is pretty much just a waffle maker.  He also admits that a fire extinguisher is a unitasker everyone should own.

At this point, there's probably two questions, maybe three, you're asking yourself.

1)  What in the hell does Alton Brown have to do with this post?

Good question.

Recently, we came into possession of a kitchen gadget called the GarlicZoom from Chef'n.

And, frankly, it's amazing.

It took:

and, about 10 seconds later, gave me:

Now, my knife skills are slowly getting better.

But not *that* good.

I was astounded.

And amazed.

And, to be honest, it's not that uni-function.  I used it to mince some red onion last night.  Unfortunately, you have to chop up the onion pretty small to get it to fit in the capsule, so while you can do it, really this thing is designed for garlic.

And it works in spades.

2)  And this is local... how?

Well... uhh... the company who makes it is actually based in Seattle.  In fact, the owner is the brother of our landlady's home assistant.  So, there.  It's local.  Ish.

We have a few other Chef'n products.  A PepperBall and SaltBall, a PalmPeeler, a VeggiSteam. 

And, in the interest of fairness, we received the GarlicZoom for free as a gift by way of our landlady.  It wasn't expected that we'd be reviewing it, it was simply a nice little gift from our landlady and her assistant.

3)  So where's the recipe?

You got me there.  No recipe here. 

...

Really?

...

You want a recipe and won't leave until you get one?

Fine.

1. Go buy a

Amazon.com: Chef'n Garlic Zoom: Kitchen & Dining

2. Wait until it arrives.
3. Wash the GarlicZoom.
4. Peel a garlic clove or two.
5. Put the clove in the GarlicZoom.
6. Run the GarlicZoom like it's a matchbox car.  Making VroomVroom noises is optional.  If you want a video lesson:

7. Open the GarlicZoom and empty it into a hot frying pan with some olive oil (or whatever oil is local to you).
8. Cook until garlic odor wafts up and it smells cooked.  Seriously.  You'll know it when it hits.
9. Pour oil and garlic into a cruet.  Add enough oil to get you 3/4 cup of oil.
10. Add a few pinches of oregano, rosemary or thyme.
11. Add in 1/4 cup of vinegar, red wine, white wine, balsamic, pear cider.  Use your imagination.
12. Shake and pour over your salad.

There's your damn recipe.  Hope you enjoy it.

No, really, I do.  Sincerely.

Geez, stop looking at me like that, I'm just giving you what you wanted.  A recipe.

Can you digg it?

Well, I think I've gotten most of the bugs out of the new software. The site will be undergoing some tweaks over the next few days as I configure the search box and possibly tweak the Google ads and add some other links on the side columns. If you have any feedback about the new look and feel, or find any bugs, please let me know by leaving a comment.

Our plan is to post here at least twice a week with new recipes and even potentially some cookbook reviews and author interviews. So please stay tuned.

Can you digg it?

Well, we're more or less back. It's been a while since we posted here on Cook Local. We have a good excuse... we got married! So now that the wedding is over and we're back from the honeymoon and we're back cooking. So I promise we'll be back to posting recipes very soon. In the mean time, enjoy a picture of one of our favorite meals from our honeymoon.

Can you digg it?

J and I are spoiled. We've managed to create this wonderful and fulfilling relationship. We not only love each other, we like each other. We can see Puget Sound from our living room. We have both committed to living a greener lifestyle. We both enjoy cooking. We both enjoy food. And we live in an area with such amazing farmer's markets that we can support these habits.

We visit at least one farmer's market every week. Most weeks, we visit two: the University District Farmer's Market and the Ballard Farmer's Market. During the summer, we buy enough at the markets to need two large canvas bags every week.

One of our favorite market vendors is Skagit River Ranch. They sell organic grass-fed beef and pork, as well as pastured chicken and eggs. Eating locally (and organic) is more expensive than shopping at the mega-supermarkets, but we've decided it's definitely worth it.

I'm going to get onto a short soapbox here for just a bit and talk about a few differences between grass-fed beef and grain-fed beef. I've compiled this information from the book The Omnivore's Dilemma as well as my own research and information from Skagit's website.

Cows have evolved to eat grass. It's why they have those ruminating stomachs. Much of the beef sold today however, is grain-fed beef. Grain-fed cows grow faster. A grain-fed cow can reach a weight for slaughter in a year. Grass-fed beef often takes two years. So a farmer's return on investment is quicker for grain-fed beef. Unfortunately, feeding a cow grain - a food for which its body was not designed, presents a few problems. The cows often suffer from health problems, including bloat and infection. Grain increases the acidity of the cows' stomachs and digestive track which can foster the growth of E.coli. This requires the cows be dosed with antibiotics along with their food. I'll skip further gory details, but I encourage you to read The Omnivore's Dilemma. Just don't read the first few chapters right before dinner out at McDonald's.

Feeding a cow grass instead of grain, helps maintain the health of the cow. This should be pretty obvious. Cows evolved to eat grass. Cows eat grass. Cows are happy (at least, as happy as a cow can be). The amount of saturated fat in grass-fed beef can be as low as 10%. Grain-fed beef can contain up to 20% saturated fat! In addition, grass-fed beef contains almost 6 times more Omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed or grain-finished beef. Omega-3 fatty acids are the same fatty acids found in salmon. Grass-fed beef also contains higher levels of beta-carotene and CLA (both anti-oxidants).

The end result of these differences is that grass-fed beef cooks and tastes differently. If you typically buy grain-fed beef, try a taste test for yourself. The grass-fed beef should taste cleaner, with less pasty mouth feel. That pasty feel is from the saturated fat in the grain-fed beef. Make a note of how the beef smells when you cook it. Even the smell should be cleaner and meatier.

Now, off the soapbox and back to Skagit River Ranch.

We've bought a wide variety of beef and pork from Skagit and one thing we've always noticed is that there's very little fat when the beef is cooked. If we're making a recipe that calls for us to "drain off any excess fat", there is usually no excess fat to drain. The beef also cooks faster. This can be a bit tricky as we've overcooked their beef more than once. Even overcooked, though, their beef is still tender and flavorful.

They sell more than beef and pork. They also sell whole chickens and eggs as well. If you want eggs during the summer, you'd better get to the farmer's market early (like possibly right when they open) as there's always a line for Skagit's eggs.

This year, we're planning on buying beef bones from them as well to make beef stock.

If you live in Seattle and have access to the University District Farmer's market, the Ballard Farmer's market, the West Seattle Farmer's market, or Madison Market, I highly recommend you pick up some of their beef, pork, chicken, or eggs.

If you live elsewhere, look for grass-fed beef in your area. It's well worth it.

Can you digg it?

If you made it here from the old Cook Local blog, congratulations! We've only been up and running for a couple months and we've already moved! We've also been remiss in posting lately. I'm sorry for that, but sometimes life just gets in the way.

If you're just finding your way here from a link or word or mouth or web search, welcome! Let me introduce myself and tell you a little bit about this blog.

I'm P and he's J. Or as he writes in one of his posts, I'm Cook and he's Local. We're in love, so just as fair warning, there might be the occasional bit of sappy commentary here and there. We're like that, or at least, I'm like that.

I'm a writer by trade, but I think he's a better writer. He's currently between jobs at the moment, so he's doing more of the cooking, which I love. Let me tell you... there's little better than coming home after a long day and finding out that your love has cooked you a great dinner! Well, ok, the only better thing is finding out that your love has not only cooked you a great dinner but has also cleaned the entire house. Or maybe finding out that we won the lottery.

I started this blog because we're on a mission to cook more and use as many fresh, local, and organic ingredients as possible. This often means that we spend a bit more, but the taste and the benefits to the environment are worth it to us.

J's diabetic, so many of these recipes will also be low carb and low sugar. I'll be migrating the old posts over to the new site over the next few days. I hope you enjoy our postings. Feel free to let us know what you think!

-P

Can you digg it?