Tacos and Ice Cream

Nothing like the weekend to break out the new Christmas gadgetry.  Today we made beef tacos with homemade tortillas on the new cast iron griddle with refried beans and rice.  For dessert I made banana ice cream.  I love tacos and there is something so good about making the tortillas from scratch.  We use Robert Rodriguez’s recipe from the Sin City DVD.  I’m not a huge fan of the industrialized trash that is sold in the stores, so the work involved in making tortillas is definitely worth it.  The filling is organic ground beef, cumin, chipotle chili powder, garlic, onion, sea salt, pepper, a bit of mole, and a little Roja sauce – something I had in the pantry.  The refried beans recipe can be found over at Simply Recipes.  I used lard (for the beans and the tortillas).  I think lard lends a richness that is lost when other fats or fat substitutes are used.  Aside from the 2 1/2 hour cooking time, refried beans are a simple dish to make – no reason to buy the canned stuff any more.

The banana ice cream was my first frozen treat experiment.  I used an Alton Brown recipe since I tend to think his recipes are usually right on the money.  This particular one, though, called for corn syrup, which I thought was suspect.  It turned out fine, but was too airy and syrupy.   Next time I think I’ll use a more traditional recipe with egg yolks to see if I can get better density.

Tonight’s beer was an Italian Belgian pale ale called Super Baladin.  Super, indeed – this beer is easily the best Italian beer I’ve had and is quite good as a Belgian pale ale.  Sweet, fruity, spicy – all things a Belgian should be.   I received a bottle for Christmas and hope to find more somewhere.  There is also a Super Baladin Sour edition.  I enjoy sours, so finding the sour edition would be nice.  I have a bottle of Rodenbach Grand Cru in the fridge for New Years.  I can’t wait to crack that baby open.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

I finished off my annual 4 pack of Dogfish Head Punkin Ale this evening.  I purchased it back in October and have allowed time to savor each bottle.  Sadly, pumpkin beers are rarely ever made well.  Blue Moon’s pathetic Harvest Moon Ale – an insult to Neil Young and your taste buds – and Kennebunkport’s Pumpkin Beer are two examples of beers that claim to be pumpkin, but are nothing more than soda masquerading as beer with mediocre artificial pumpkin flavor added.  I look forward to Punkin Ale, just like I look forward to many of the Dogfish offerings – Olde School Barleywine, Immort  Ale,  and Raison D’Extra.  Dogfish brews great beer and they do it with style.

What makes this pumpkin beer different is the attention to detail.  If I see pumpkin, I’m thinking clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and maybe even some butter/flour from the crust.  All of these tastes are here and are well done.  Many of the wanna-bes have cloying sweet flavors with faint spiciness.  Dogfish celebrates the spices.

I drink this beer and I can’t help but think of all of the other beers (and foods for that matter) that I think I could do better.  I’ve had an interest in brewing, but haven’t put aside the money to start.  My interest in food and cooking grows each day and may soon culminate with culinary school.  I’m passionate about food and never realized how much until recently.  I went through high school, college, and graduate school without ever giving the culinary arts a thought, but now it is all I think about.  It’s a shame that culinary arts is not a viable option for many students.  I’m not sure if Wayne State is odd, but there is no culinary program there.  I’m not sure I would have entered into the program if it had been there, but for those who are interested, community colleges or culinary schools seem to be the only option.

Making Pizza

Last Saturday I tried making pizza for the first time. I used this dough recipe and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the whole dough making process was, especially with a good stand mixer. My main problem with the dough was the consistency. Upon its initial mixing, I had to add a lot more flour than was in the recipe. This is minor issue, of course, because once the proper amount of flour was added all was fine. I am not keen on following directions/recipes, but in this instance I think it is necessary at least for the first few times making dough. Another slight problem I had was partitioning the dough into equal pieces (I should have used my scale – hind sight). The recipe calls for 6 pieces – I ended up with 8. I imagine a dough cutter would’ve been useful, too.

Oddly, the impetus for my pizza making was Rachael Ray. I was watching an episode of 30 Minute Meals and was intrigued by her “Mega Meatball Pizza” but I had also been wanting to make my own dough. I’m usually not inspired by Mrs. Ray, but there’s a first time for everything. I did make the meatball pizza (right) and it was pretty decent. The problem with this pizza, though, was the number of ingredients in the ground beef mixture. I made this pizza first and was not prepared for the heaviness of the toppings, which tore through the first pie. Sure, it was my fault, but nonetheless the meatball topping was heavy.

My second pizza (left) was a classic American style pie with tomato sauce, aged Margherita pepperoni, and shredded mozzarella cheese. I was much happier with this one. The sauce is crushed tomatoes, dried oregano and basil, sugar, & cracked pepper. The lighter ingredients really allowed the crust to form. The crispness of the crust, the sweet acidity of the sauce, and the melted cheese were a perfect match along with the spiciness of the pepperoni, which I sliced by hand.

I made a third pizza: bacon, blue cheese, and fresh sage. This was extremely rich and did not look as appetizing as it tasted. Also, I used way too much sage, which worked to overpower the already strong blue cheese flavor.

Finally, I tried my hand at a piadina. Tomatoes Apizza, a local pizza joint, used to make this dessert pizza, but they no longer do. It is quite simply pizza dough and Nutella. I used two pieces of dough. Spread a good amount of Nutella on the bottom piece and used another piece to cover – making sure to seal the pieces properly avoiding any melted chocolate in the oven. I baked it at 500 degrees for about 8 minutes (same as the pizzas). I cannot describe adequately how wonderful this concoction is. The chocolate/hazelnut couple with the crusty, chewy dough is tremendous.

With this experiment an all out success, I plan on making pizza again in the near future – next time with more guests and beer pairings! The only beer I had this time around was a Michigan wheat beer called Zoomer from New Holland Brewing. A decent wheat, I guess, but nothing worth seeking out and not something that added any depth to the pizza.