Speed demon

I cannot yet confirm this works, but... damn!


How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.

Edit to update: @drricky forwards this post that describes how this technique may work. More as soon as I have a chance to attempt this technique.
By Bbq Dude

Lavender rice pudding with blueberries

Holy moley, with Labour Day come and gone, the summer's over. And I didn't smoke any meat. The combination of moving cross-country and changing jobs means that I've eaten a lot of PBJ sandwiches this summer, and done precious little cooking (and even less blogging). But we have taken a little of the local delicousness into our (sub-let) kitchen. Fresh-picked blueberries. Lobster.

And as we frantically pack our things to move to our fourth temporary home in Boston, we empty out the remaining frozen blueberries from our picking trip. I modified a rice pudding with blueberry sauce recipe. For the pudding:

2 ½ cups leftover cooked short-grain rice
½ tsp salt
2 cups milk milk
2 cups heavy cream
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ tsp culinary lavender, in a tea strainer

Mix the rice with all the other ingredients except the vanilla. Bring to a simmer.



Simmer gently for 20-30 minutes. It'll still be pretty soupy. That's okay, it will solidify considerably when you chill it. If you overcook it, it'll solidify into cement. Stir in the vanilla and remove from heat.



Pour into individual servings, and chill in the fridge, at least 2 hours.

Shortly before serving, make the blueberry sauce:

2 cups frozen blueberries
½ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
½ tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp cold water

Mix the blueberries, sugar and lemon zest. Heat over low heat until they simmer gently.



Add the corn starch slurry, and continue to stir over low heat until you get the desired level of thickness. Serve hot over the rice pudding.



Delicious.

By Bbq Dude

Hurricane

It seems topical, what with hurricane Irene visiting us here in Boston, to have a post on the Hurricane. The cocktail that anyone who has spent more than an hour in New Orleans has had.

I had my first hurricane in 1997. I was an impoverished graduate student, and I paid $8 for this drink, and when I first sipped it I was sure I had been ripped off. I couldn't taste a whiff of alcohol in it. 30 minutes later, as I staggered down Bourbon Street, I felt differently.

For one hurricane:

1 shot light rum
1 shot dark rum
½ shot Galliano liqueur
2 shots orange juice
2 shots pineapple juice
1 shot passion fruit juice
¾ shot lime juice
3 dashes Angostura bitters

Mix and serve over ice. This isn't exactly the cocktail I had in New Orleans (I'll let you know when I find the recipe for that) but it was a pretty popular cocktail to survive a hurricane that was toothless (by the time it reached Boston).

Happy Hurricane Sunday.



By Bbq Dude

Lobster

My dad was the anti-foodie. Almost every dish my mother ever served was a "B+". He would stroll away from the dinner table, not full. Food was merely fuel. The enjoyment at the dinner table was found in discussion and debate, not on the plate.

There was only one food I can remember that made him excited. In the 1950s, he spent time in the Cape Breton region of Nova Scotia. It is there that he learned to love lobster. When he brought me there in 1989, he introduced me to one of the most fabulous sources of protein on earth.

I have spent as much as $40/pound to have the pleasure to cook lobster in some of my other homes. Imagine my surprise, then, to drive through southern Maine and see signs advertising $4/lb lobster. It turns out that those signs are teasers, to get 3 x 1.5 lb lobsters cost us $28. That's right, something a little more than $6 per pound. We suffer.



My wife picked up three lobsters on a Wednesday at the Maine Lobster Outlet. So after work, I heated up two pots of water (one per lobster - we're in a sublet and don't have a big pot). Each pot had:

4 quarts water
8 tbsp salt

Alternatively, you can use fresh seawater if it's handy.

Bring to a rolling boil while you play with your lobsters.



When the water is boiling, pick up the lobsters. Some people like to make the lobsters sleepy by having them hang out in a fridge for a while. Not necessary. You just need to act swiftly, so the lobster doesn't have time to think about his impending doom. Open up the pot, pick up the lobster and hold him head (and claws) pointing down. Then swiftly move him over the pot and drop him in. If you hesitate, all is lost. The lobster will sense the heat, and recoil. You want to drop him in there head-first so that he is killed instantly and has no time to react. The benefit here is that this is more humane, and it's less disturbing and wiggly to try to get the lobster in the pot if you do it quickly.

Let the pot return to boiling. As soon as it does, start the clock (watch carefully, there's nothing more sad than an overcooked lobster). A 1 ½ lb lobster does well with about 11 minutes of full-on boil time. Really, don't overcook the lobster. Overcooked lobster is tough and bitter.

Remove the lobster from the boiling water at the end of your counter.



Let cool a few moments. Serve with a dish of melted butter. It's not a terrible idea to wear a raincoat while dismembering the lobster. There will be a mess, be forewarned. Dab the meat into the butter. And don't forget, the claws have the best meat. The knuckles, second best. And the tail has the most meat (though a bit tougher).

This is a simple way to make lobster, and in Massachusetts, it even makes sense on a Wednesday night. Ridiculous.




By Bbq Dude