(y)our food choices

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We cook a lot in our tiny kitchen and love it! Baked bread, simmering soups and homemade pizzas are just a few of the staples in our apartment. We are constantly experimenting with recipes and love a challenge. We’re not Iron Chefs but we do respect the men and women who are and their dedication to the craft. We’re just two men who are trying to get back into the simple ways of life. We’re all about farmer’s markets and grass fed beef. We believe that the food we eat is sacred, even if we are not of the religious state of mind, and that with every bite we take or every drink we consume we can all make a difference, for good or not so good. We hope you enjoy reading about what we are eating, peruse the pictures we take of our food, and tell us about what your eating and drinking. In the future we will be linking this blog to a new blog called Your Food Choices where we hope to get some lively discussions about food and how it affects us all. Cheers! Steve & Jason

Steve: I have far too many food obsessions. I indulge most of them far too often as evidenced by the strain my belly puts on the waistband of my jeans. You should never put your hand near the cheese plate, for instance, because you might lose a finger. I can’t get enough cheese – it’s an obsession – and when it’s in front of me, I want it all. Chips? Forget about it. It takes an act of god to keep us from eating an entire bag in a single sitting.

Jason: In fact, we rarely buy chips anymore for that reason, although occasionally we splurge, and since chip bags are all plastic it just seems a waste. If only some company would make a bag that is compostable, or that could be recycled, we would eat them daily. Oh, and Steve loves to exaggerate about his waistband.

Steve: While I have my regular food obsessions, some of the craziest are seasonal, triggered by the strong visual cues of farmers market tables overflowing with the season’s bounty. At the moment, blueberries are everywhere teasing and taunting me with their gorgeous powdery navy blue skins. I love them … a lot! We eat them raw in cereal and atop pancakes. We cook them into the pancakes when the urge strikes. Jason just made some blueberry jam that is out of this world. We’ll be eating it on everything this summer.

Jason: A few weeks ago at the Sunday Farmer’s market, Steve wanted more blueberries. We already had some sitting on the counter, uneaten, but Steve wanted more. I was all for buying them if he had a plan, but he didn’t. He wanted me to make a blueberry buckle but it had to be put on hold until I purchased a springform pan– he didn’t want to hear that. He pouted like a little boy being told “No, you can’t have that candy bar.” To compromise, I told him I would go pick up the springform pan and visit the Wednesday Farmer’s market in the Castro to pick up the blueberries for him. Steve isn’t one for delaying gratification. When he wants something he wants it now!

Steve: I’ve been driving Jason crazy whining for one of my all-time favorite blueberry treats – blueberry buckle. We discovered this delicious cake while flipping through the July/August 2000 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine a few years back. My first taste of blueberry buckle rocked me to my core and set off an addiction that remains unabated. Since the beginning of this year’s blueberry season, I have been begging for buckle and Jason finally gave in this weekend. Yummy cake loaded with juicy berries and covered in a buttery crumb topping drives me crazy! The leftovers drive me to distraction which means I can’t rest until the last crumb has been licked from the plate.

Jason: However, Steve was all for tossing the last piece because he thought it wasn’t good any longer. Not being one to waste anything, but also knowing the shelf life of cookies and cakes, I told Steve that if he did not eat the buckle I would never make another one for him again. I also told him that if he gets sick I would take full responsibility. Alas, both of us are healthy and all is good. Nothing went to waste and we enjoyed the very last crumb–at least I did.

Steve: It might be wrong for me to tempt others to indulge in one of my crazy addictions, but I’m an enabler. As they say, misery loves company!

Blueberry Buckle
[From the July/August 2000 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.]

½ cup butter (1 stick), plus more for pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup milk
5 cups wild or cultivated organic blueberries
1 recipe streusel topping (recipe follows)

Heat oven to 350. Butter and flour springform baking pan, and set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low, and add egg and vanilla.

When combined, alternate adding reserved flour mixture and milk to mixer, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Remove from mixer; gently fold in berries.

Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle topping generously over cake. Bake 60 to 70 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Remove cake from oven; leave in pan 10 minutes on a cooling rack. Remove from pan; let cool 15 minutes before serving.

Streusel Topping

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup unbleached all-purpose four
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature

In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients together; cut in the butter using a pastry blender or fork until fine crumbs form.

Using hands, squeeze together most of the mixture to form large clumps. Store, refrigerated, in an airtight container, or sprinkle directly onto cake.

Toss out the toxic red cherries. Home canned Maraschino cherries make the perfect cocktail garnish.

We love cocktails! There’s nothing better than a frosty glass with 2-3 ounces of a shaken potion to celebrate the beginning of the weekend, or just the end of a workday. Bourbon, the sweet brown all American elixir, makes wonderful concoctions that will turn any vodka drinker into a whisky fan after their first sip.

Depending on the origin of the brew, whisky is spelled with or without the “e” – as in “whisky” or “whiskey.” American whiskey includes that “e” but that isn’t the only difference between it and it’s counterparts across the Atlantic. American whiskies tend to be sweet by Scottish standards. Most are made from a mix of corn, rye and wheat and aged in oak barrels, though the time a particular whiskey spends on oak will vary from bottling to bottling. Of course, there are differences in the malting and distillation processes – the use of peat fired drying kilns and the smoke flavor it imparts to Scottish whisky comes to mind – differences that result in delicate nuances that make one whiskey best served neat, while another one may be mixed to make an ice cold cocktail and served up. While we could go into far more detail about the differences between whisky styles, and the whiskey making process, this post is about cocktails. More specifically, this post is about our holy trinity of whisky cocktails: Manhattans, Sazaracs, and Rob Roys.

I love a cocktail...

Manhattan

Makes one and can be doubled.

Our favorite bourbons for this cocktail are Bulleit, Woodford’s Reserve, and Maker’s Mark, in that particular order. What makes the best Manhattan, aside from the one of the great bourbons mentioned, is the use of our own homemade maraschino cherries. We no longer buy those toxic red ones – they should be banned! It’s easy enough to make your own with a good bottle of Luxardo’s Maraschino Liqueur and some fresh seasonal cherries. Spring is the perfect time to can a few jars of them to keep year round. All you need to do is pit the cherries, add them to a sterilized mason jar (leaving enough space at the top so it’s not overfilled), pour in the maraschino liqueur and process in a water bath. You can also make a simple jar that will last a month or two in the back of your fridge. Pit the cherries add the maraschino liqueur and refrigerate for a day or two before using.

2 ounces Bourbon

½ ounce Sweet vermouth,

Dash or two Angostura Bitters

Homemade Maraschino cherry

A half hour before making the cocktail put the cocktail glasses in the freezer. Fill a cocktail shaker half way with ice. Add the bourbon, sweet vermouth, and bitters. Shake gently until the cocktail shaker becomes frosty. Place a maraschino cherry and 1/2 teaspoon of Maraschino liquor in the bottom of a chilled cocktail glass. Strain the drink into the glass and enjoy!

Sazerac

two at the most...

Makes one but can be doubled. If doubling, mix each drink separately.

We love this classic New Orleans cocktail! Our first experience of the drink came at the hands of the masters at Alembic and we’ve been hooked ever since. We regularly use bourbon in our sazerac recipe, but purists will tell you that this is a drink best made from pure rye whiskey. We’ve tried it with Wild Turkey’s 101 proof Straight Rye with great success. We’ve alternately coated the cocktail glass with absinthe and green chartreuse and like them both. The absinthe adds a spicy sweetness to the finished cocktail. The chartreuse is herbaceous and bitter making the cocktail slightly more complex but with a clean finish. The “official” recipe for the sazerac is an historical mystery, but most agree that the original sazerac was a cognac-based cocktail. The absinthe or pastis came later as did the Peychaud’s Bitters most believe to be a necessary ingredient. When you do your research on the sazerac (and we know you will) you’ll find far too many opinions on what is and isn’t the right way to make the drink. Grain of salt, people! Stick to the basics but experiment where you want. For example, we’ve abandoned the Peychaud’s because we don’t like them – they’re artificially colored and they lack complexity – opting instead for good old Angostura bitters. But what do we know?

2 ounces Bourbon or Rye

1 tsp sugar

Several dashes of angostura bitters

A dash of Absinthe or enough to coat the bottom and sides of the cocktail glass without dripping out

Lemon twist

Note: This is a labor intensive cocktail that requires a little planning. It’s worth every second it takes to prepare!

Set serving class in freezer to chill. In a rocks glass, add sugar and bitters and stir until sugar begins to dissolve. Add bourbon or rye and muddle them until the sugar is completely dissolved (this takes time). Remove cocktail glass from freezer and add absinthe, turning glass on its side to coat the bottom and inside of the glass. To the bourbon sugar bitters mixture, add 2 or 3 ice cubes and stir until chilled. Strain into frozen cocktail glasses. Garnish with lemon twist using a citrus zester. Be sure to remove the twist of lemon peel over the surface of the cocktail so that the oils from the zest “spritz” over the top of the drink. Serve!

Rob Roy

after three I'm under the table, and four I'm under the host.

Oh, to mix Scotch with anything other than a little water. Alas, there are several classic Scotch-based cocktails and we’re not entirely averse to pouring some Johnnie Walker Red or Black label over ice and then adulterating it with any number of mixers. With this cocktail you’ll use Scotch whisky and we recommend Johnnie Walker Red, sometimes Black, but never Gold, Green, or Blue, and don’t even think about adulterating a single malt Scotch with vermouth and bitters! If God doesn’t strike you down for such a grave transgression, a Scotsman surely will! Traditionally, the Rob Roy is served “sweet” hence the use of sweet vermouth. But the cocktail may be made “dry” by substituting dry vermouth for the sweet. The “perfect” Rob Roy uses equal parts of both!

2 ounces Johnny Walker Red or Black Label Blended Scotch

1 ounce Sweet (or Dry) Vermouth (half an ounce of each for a “perfect” Rob Roy)

Dash of Angostura Bitters

Add ingredients to an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake until the shaker turns icy. Serve up in a cocktail glass with a cherry (or lemon twist if using dry vermouth).

Cheers, Jason and Steve -hic