Last minute Christmas gifts

So, it's 8 days until Christmas. And you have to get something for that adventurous home cook in your life. But what to get them? Let me give you a few suggestions of things that have entered my cooking life in the last year that I can heartily endorse.

While other lists may be recommending books that came out in the last month, I will only recommend books that I have cooked from.



Momofuku was published in 2009, and I received it as a Christmas gift from Mrs. Dude. Momofuku is a book that's hard to classify - and that is its biggest strength. This is a book eschews words like "authentic" and strives instead for "tasty". When he can't get the right kind of kelp in New York, he substitutes high quality bacon. We keep around his ramen broth in the freezer, and serve it up on weeknights with some veggies and noodles. It's my favourite thing to eat on a weeknight. His rice cakes were unique and delicious.

While I wouldn't say that the recipes in this book are challenging, they do require commitment. The ramen broth is not challenging to make, but it does basically take a full day. And many of the recipes later in the book require things created in earlier recipes in the book.



Seven Fires is an awesome Argentine barbecue book. This is the perfect book for the barbecue enthusiast in your life. Most of the recipes are relatively simple with few ingredients, and bright, fresh flavours. Take the Argentine steak with chimichurri. Nothing could be simpler to prepare on the grill (Cooking steak is easy. Cooking steak perfectly takes practice - so practice a steak tonight!). Or the grilled chapa bread. Start a couple hours in advance, and you can serve it with your dinner. The flavours here are simple, but really great. They emphasize fresh herbs and acids to brighten them. I can't recommend this book enough.



A newer one, Meat: A Kitchen Education was published in October of this year. For such a slim volume, it's really a very complete reference on all things meat, and has recipes for all kinds of cuts. A recent favourite was the beef shank. This book also includes sections on game, and less-common meats (at least in this part of the world) like squab. It's a more ambitious book than Seven Fires, but an excellent addition to any cook's library for simple information like learning how to dismember poultry.

In the "late-night reading" category, the biography of Ferran Adria, Ferran is a good read.



This book takes you from the simple beginnings of the experimental restaurant El Bulli, which started as a pretty sleepy little restaurant in the middle of nowhere that often struggled to have a single visitor in a night, to becoming the hardest-to-get restaurant reservation in the world. (Check out some well-photographed food here). The author is no sycophant, indeed proclaiming that there are dishes he's been served at El Bulli that are "vaguely punitive" or take this quote:

Just your everyday mix of sea anemone, raw rabbit brains, oysters and calamondin (a sour-sweet Southeast Asian citrus) in lukewarm dill broth. I wouldn't go as far as one blog entry I later happened across, which described this creation as "Vile. Vomitous. Nightmare!" But I found it so utterly unpleasant and cacophonous that I wondered for a moment whether Ferran had gone off the rails. It made my teeth ache.

This is a fun read. Even for those of us who will never get to eat at El Bulli, Ferran Adria has affected cooking in ways that we'll be feeling for decades. Fascinating read.

And the final food book that I'm recommending is Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human.



Okay, so this one I will not unreservedly recommend for the foodie in your life. I loved this book. But, you know. I'm a microbial geneticist. I love human genetics. I love hearing about the evolution of early hominids. This book describes how much of an advantage cooking was to early humans, and how much it has shaped our evolution. All animals extract 20-30% more calories out of cooked food. We require *much* less time to chew cooked food, freeing up time to hunt, work and write poetry. (Indeed, it takes so long to chew raw meat, that most meat-eating non-human primates will only eat the intestines and organs of other animals - the meat takes too long to chew).

If you're interested in cooking, and you find human evolution interesting, you'll love this book.

My final Christmas present recommendation is a bit of a surprising one (and a bit of an expensive one). Get a smart phone. I got a Droid this year.



Motorola DROID II is an excellent phone. I use it almost every week in the kitchen. I take my recipes with me to the homes of my friends and my family. And I look up tidbits in the kitchen. I knew that I would find my smartphone useful. I had no idea I would use it in the kitchen as often as I do.

And finally, to me, the best parts of Christmas are about food and family. Spending the day cooking, eating, talking and singing. Watching my son play, and giggle. In the end, the gifts don't really matter. Don't stress. Make something delicious and share it with your family.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays.

Latkes

So in addition to celebrating Christmas this time of year, there are also folks celebrating other holidays.  Like Chanukah (which involves the consumption of copious quantities of latkes).  I'm a little late to be posting on latkes. So sue me.

So, as a Gentile, I must confess, my knowledge of latke-history is poor. But my understanding of the story is something like this:

Back in the day, the Seleucid empire was still stomping through the area currently known as the Middle East.  These folks were descendants of a general of Alexander the Great.  Yeah, that Alexander the Great.  (Incidentally, may I suggest Alexander of Macedon and Alexander to Actium by Peter Green as excellent books about this period?  These are awesome books, I've read them both twice).

Right, back to the Seleucid empire.  So, during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-163BCE), Antiochus decided he wasn't happy with just controlling the Middle East.  From the book 1 Maccabees 17-20:

17 So he invaded Egypt with a strong force, with chariots and elephants and cavalry and with a large fleet.
18 He engaged Ptolemy king of Egypt in battle, and Ptolemy turned and fled before him, and many were wounded and fell.
19 And they captured the fortified cities in the land of Egypt, and he plundered the land of Egypt.
20 After subduing Egypt, Antiochus returned in the one hundred and forty-third year. He went up against Israel and came to Jerusalem with a strong force

Well, Antiochus kicked ass and took names.  And he was very rude about it.  When he took Jerusalem, he tried to make the Jewish people become more Greekish.  So he did things like sacrifice pigs in the Jewish temple.  And tried to get them to convert from their religion to the worship of Greek gods.

Bad call, buddy.  Well, the Jewish people got cranky, and they organized, and whooped some butt.  They tossed Antiochus out of Jerusalem.  But before they could re-dedicate the temple to their God, they needed to prepare enough sacred oil.  That process takes 8 days.  But they only had 1 day of sacred oil.  So while they prepared new sacred oil, they burned their one day of oil.  And it lasted 8 days.  MIRACLE!

So really, Chanukah is a celebration of that miracle of the lasting of oil.  And Jews celebrate this miracle by eating foods cooked in fat.  In Israel, it is common to eat doughnuts (naturally, cooked in fat).  Ashkenazi Jews make latkes.  (Pronounced lot-kehs).  Fried in oil.  Yum.

As a good (Jewish) friend tells me, most Jewish celebrations break down to:

They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat.

Hear, hear. That's something I can *totally* celebrate.

I was first introduced to latkes by another Jewish friend last year at Chanukah.  I replicate them here, using the recipe from Gourmet, circa 2000:

1 pound thick-skinned baking potatoes
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil

apple sauce
sour cream

Start with your 1 lb of baking-style potato.



Convert it into a naked potato (i.e. peel it).  (Some day, I will write a screed about the rudeness inflicted on potatoes in your average grocery store.  Not today).



Shred your naked potato on a coarse cheese grater.



Chop your onion finely.  Mix with the potato shreddings, and place in a tea towel.



Wrap tightly, and soak up the liquid liberated by the shredded potato.



Lightly beat your egg.



Mix with the dried potato/onion mix.



Meanwhile, pour your oil into a pan. You want roughly a quarter inch of oil in your pan. I used a cast-iron pan. Heat over medium-high heat.

I'm not sure who said the best way to handle hot oil. It is imperative that you not be afraid. If you drop material into hot oil from a height, you splash the oil and burn yourself. But if you scoop up roughly 2 tbsp of latke mix, form into a small ball, and gently set it down in the screaming hot oil, you don't splash, and you don't burn yourself.



Latkes should be small. If they're too big, they won't cook through properly. If there are too many latkes in your pan, it'll cool the oil and it won't cook properly. I can fit 5ish latkes in my large cast-iron pan.



Cook until browned on one side (~5 minutes). Then flip, and brown on the other side.



Dry briefly on a plate with paper towel. Season with salt. Garnish with sour cream and apple sauce. Serve.



Crispy on the outside.  Smooth and delicious on the inside.  Salty.  And good fun to eat.

We'll be adding this Chanukah tradition to our household.  Yum.

Novel steak cuts

Spanakopita

I am descended of hearty Scottish and Mennonite stock. Hence, my penchance for wereneke and haggis.  So it may be considered a tad odd that I have in my family recipe folder a recipe for the classic Greek dish - spanakopita.  My mum made this for us when I was a kid, and I've been making it at home as long as I've been cooking.  I bring this recipe out every year, and serve this as an appetizer at our annual Christmas party.  It's a crowd-pleaser:

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil + extra for brushing
2 small onions (minced)
4 tbsp fresh parsley
16 oz crumbled feta cheese
8 oz cream cheese (light)
8 oz Monterey jack cheese (grated)
4 eggs lightly beaten
2 tsp grated nutmeg
2 -12 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 package phyllo/filo pastry - found in the freezer section of most grocers

Make sure you thaw the spinach in advance, and squeeze it well. You don't want a soggy filling. Also, thaw the phyllo dough.

Sauté the onions in the oil until softened and transparent.  Remove from heat.  Mix well with the cheeses, eggs, nutmeg and spinach.



Prepare some oil for brushing the phyllo dough.



Pull out one sheet of phyllo dough.  When working with phyllo, you want to work fast, so that they don't dry out.  The individual sheets may stick together if they've gotten at all wet during the thawing process. Be gentle separating the sheets.

Place the sheet on your work surface, and cut into three equal strips, sliced so that each sheet is as long as the original sheet is.



Brush the strips very lightly with oil. Place a small dollop of filling on one end of the phyllo dough.



Fold the phyllo across the filling to form a triangle.



Fold again, continuing to make triangles with each fold.



Continue folding, until you run out of phyllo dough for that individual spanakopita.  Set aside.



I package the individual spanakopitas in tupperware containers between layers of wax paper.  They freeze well at this point, or you can cook them now.  Raw or frozen, you place them directly onto an oiled cookie sheet.  Bake in a pre-heated oven, 350°F. 30-45 minutes if raw, one hour to one hour and fifteen minutes if frozen until golden brown.



Serve immediately. You won't often hear me praising vegetarian cuisine - but these are delicious. Rich, cheesy, spinachy goodness. Perfect.