Recipe: Monsoon Chili

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you know that one of my most often used cookbooks in my kitchen is the Nantucket Open-House Cookbook by Sarah Leah Chase. There are some seriously good recipes in there. Several of her Thanksgiving ideas turned into traditions last year. A couple of days ago, I got in the mood for chili, so I took a look at the recipe for Rainwater Chili and gave it a shot. Turns out it's some darn good chili. Much like Chase said in the book, it was even better the next day and makes for incredible nachos. There were a couple of things that I felt like changing a bit with the recipe, so I've taken those liberties and christened it for Arizona's most beloved source of rainwater, the monsoon.

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large Spanish onions, chopped

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 jalapeños, seeded and minced
5 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup chili powder
2 Tbsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp sweet paprika
1 Tbsp hot paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
3 Tbsp cocoa powder

2 lbs chuck roast, cut into 3/4 inch cubes (or 2 lbs ground chuck roast if you don't feel like cutting up all that meat)
3/4 lb sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
3/4 lb hot Italian sausage, casings removed

1-28 ounce can whole tomatoes
1-14 ounce can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup reposado tequila
1 bottle beer
2 cups chicken broth (or you can do what I do and cheat this with 2 teaspoons of chicken base)

Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a big pot (at least 5 quarts, preferably 6). Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until very soft, about 10 minutes.

Add peppers, jalapeños, and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 7 minutes. Add all of the seasonings and cocoa and cook, stirring occasionally, until aromatic and dark, about 3 minutes. Remove pan from the heat.

While vegetables are cooking, brown beef and sausage, crumbling the meat up with a spoon, until no longer pink. Strain off excess fat, and add meat to pot. Return pot to medium heat. Stir in tomatoes (crush the whole tomatoes with the back of a spoon or your hands), tequila, beer, and chicken broth. Simmer uncovered for 60 minutes if you're using the chicken base, 90 minutes if you're using the broth. Check the seasonings near the end of the cooking time, and add salt and black pepper to taste.

Accompany the chili with your choice of sour cream, shredded cheese, diced onion, diced tomatoes, and diced avocados.

Why the chain disdain?

In the comments on my post about The Greek Wraps in Peoria, I got an excellent question from Sean of South Bend, Indiana. I think that answering a thoughtful question deserves a better fate than getting buried in a comment thread. Sean writes...

I wonder, though; do you have any favorable opinion of any of the chains? I've always thought that Chevy's did a servicable interpretation of TexMex and was a better experience overall than some of the local places and regional chains (ie Soranos in Mesa or Ajo Als). I still love Blue Nile Cafe any time I'm in town, and would tend to privilige an independtly owned, and especially chef driven, restaurant over a chain but chains (at least some of them) still have their virtues.

The main problem with most chain restaurants is that they are publicly held companies. Once a company does that, the big food decisions are no longer being made in the kitchen by the owners. They're being made by stockholders in boardrooms. The absolute best example is Cheesecake Factory. I still remember the first time I went to one. I got orange chicken, took a bite, and my very first thought of any food at Cheesecake Factory was "This used to taste better". You could just tell that anything someone might not like about the dish got tossed ("It's too spicy!" "It's too tart!"), and the end result was a pale ghost of what the dish could have been. Since the major decisions are now being made by marketing wonks who run focus groups, everything interesting about a dish gets tossed in favor of something safe. To me, it's a little bit like American Idol: The person who wins isn't necessarily the best singer, but the singer with the broadest mass appeal. Sure, the record may sound like every other pop record on the rack, but they know it's going to sell.

That right there is why massive chain restaurants are so popular: They're safe. You can walk into any Olive Garden in the country and know that the fettuccine Alfredo there is going to be exactly the same as the fettuccine Alfredo you have back home. The thing is, within ten minutes' driving time from each of these two Olive Garden locations on opposite sides of the country, the odds are good that there's going to be a mom-n-pop neighborhood red sauce joint that not only serves up Alfredo that's a million times better than the Alfredo at Olive Garden, but also happens to make a really mean veal scaloppine... or pizza quattro stagioni... or some other fabulous dish. And you know darn well that the mom and pop behind the restaurant can't believe that the line goes out the door at Olive Garden while there's always a table available at their place.

All this isn't to say that all chains suck... just the vast majority of them. There are some chains I do enjoy. In-N-Out Burger and Chik-Fil-A are both very good restaurants. Mimi's has been reliable for a great many years, especially at breakfast. This is one of the exceptions to publicly owned chains. This is because when Bob Evans bought them out, they didn't screw with the already successful formula very much. Moral of the story: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I've heard Mimi's is shooting for a more upscale angle lately, but I haven't been in to check it out yet. As long as they keep serving mimosas, I'll be a happy camper. I will readily admit that I enjoy the occasional late-night breakfast at Waffle House. Yes, Waffle House. I wouldn't be caught dead there during the day, but going at 2 AM, getting taken care of by the world-weary chain-smoking waitress with a hair color not known in the natural world, while you tuck into a double order of hash browns topped with chili, tomatoes, cheese, onions, and god knows what else... there ain't nothing like it.

Like Sean said, Chevy's is pretty good, certainly a step above most chains. The problem around here with Chevy's is that good Mexican restaurants in Phoenix are a dime a dozen. Why bother with imitations when the real deal is right around the corner? I will agree that Chevy's is better than Serrano's and Ajo Al's, but then, I've always thought that Serrano's was the redheaded stepchild to other local chains such as Mi Amigo's and Macayo. Ajo Al's is solamente para las turistas.

Review: The Greek Wraps, Peoria AZ

Settling into the new house is going pretty well. The kitchen is ready for prime time, as is most of the house. The big game room in the back is currently finding use as an enormous walk-in storage unit. All of this busy work left me ready for a vacation, but those take a little planning and I wanted one NOW. Well, it's now past tense, so I suppose it would be better to say I wanted one RIGHT THEN, but that doesn't have the same punch as wanting it NOW, n'est-çe pas? Anyway, for the first time in several years there's actually a movie in theatres that I want to go see: Coraline in 3-D. I looked up movie times for it and it turns out that it's playing in 3-D at places all around the edge of town, plus Arizona Mills. Since I have friends up towards Peoria that I haven't seen in a while, I fired off an invitation to come see the movie with me and headed on my merry way up to the area of Arrowhead Towne Center.

A few moments after I picked up tickets for the late showing, my friends called to let me know that they already had people over but I was more than welcome to join them. Since I already had my ticket for the show, this was not an option. I now found myself with close to two hours to kill, and a completely open dance card. I stopped by the mall and made a beeline for See's to pillage the post-Valentine's Day chocolate. A couple of oversized chocolate Bordeaux hearts later, I found myself getting quite hungry. The food court looked as unappealing as ever, so I trekked out to survey the surrounding area.

A few moments of reconnaissance showed that selections in the area are awfully bleak. Turns out the Arrowhead area is the third circle of chain restaurant hell. Cheesecake Factory, PF Chang's, Chevy's, Buca di Beppo, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, you name it. Since I was on my own, I didn't want to succumb to mediocrity. I knew of a couple of places on the other side of the 101 along Union Hills, but I decided to see what I could find that was interesting and new. It turned out I wouldn't have to look for as long as I thought I would. There, tucked away in a strip mall (It's Arrowhead, there's nothing but strip malls and tract housing for miles!) on the southeast corner of 75th Avenue and Bell, was a decidedly non-chain looking sign for a place called The Greek Wraps. I pondered for a moment, decided gyros sounded like a tasty idea, and brought the Jestermobile in for a landing.

I arrived just in the nick of time, 15 minutes before closing. The place looked vaguely chain-y, but not overly so. I'd almost be willing to bet that a failed franchise (maybe two) didn't take root in the space, and all the new owners had to do was put up framed prints of the Greek isles. You wouldn't have guessed they were winding down the business day from the business level in the restaurant. There was a slow but steady stream of people coming in either for take-out or a quick sit-down bite. A look at the menu hanging over the counter showed the usual suspects: Shawarma, hummus, falafel, gyros, et cetera. The different offerings were available either as a sandwich (with sundry toppings, wrapped in pita bread; fries and drink are an optional extra) or as a plate (served with rice, hummus, and a small salad). The menu also showed something I was absolutely thrilled to see: They make their own pita bread. Not only do they make their own pita bread, they bake it fresh to order.

I perused the menu, and thought that steak shawarma ($6.99 for the 10" wrap; a smaller 7" pita is $5.75) sounded absolutely delicious. It's hard to resist when the menu says they use "The original recipe from back home". Turned out everyone else that day thought it sounded delicious too, as they were all out of it for the night. The chicken shawarma ($6.25 and $4.99, respectively) was made by the same recipe, so I went with that instead. A little extra nibble sounded nice, so I added on a falafel appetizer ($1 for two pieces). I put together an Arnold Palmer from the self-serve beverage machine (my only quibble is the iced tea is the pre-made Gold Peak instead of fresh-brewed), checked my watch to make sure I had enough time to make it to the theatre (I still had an hour to go), and a few minutes later my shawarma was ready.

The falafel was piping hot out of the fryer, just the way it should be. I think the fryer could have been a wee bit hotter as they were just a little bit oily, but not unpleasantly so. The shawarma was utterly divine. Their use of chicken thighs kept the meat flavorful and juicy. The shawarma marinade was vibrant, and the pita... oh, the pita. I can't even begin to tell you what a difference freshly made pita bread makes. I may have to come in for some hummus and a huge stack of pita bread some time soon, never mind that the place is 15 miles from my house. The fries were the archetype Greek restaurant fries, same ones you'll find at every other casual Greek place in town. They were hot and crisp, really can't ask much more than that from a fry, can you? All told, I was absolutely thrilled with the meal I had at The Greek Wraps. The people who run the place care about the product they put out, and it shows. I'm looking for any excuse to get back up towards Arrowhead just so I can try more things on the menu. Maybe I'll go see Coraline again...

Oh, speaking of Coraline, go catch it in theatres while you can... especially in 3D. It's a trip and a half.

Stopping for a drink: Hanny's, Phoenix AZ

I recently got together with a friend for dinner in downtown Phoenix, and remembered that I'd been wanting to stop in at Hanny's to check out the place. The food menu does look tempting, but as I'd just finished a rather hearty dinner, more sustenance was not on the bill. The place used to be a men's clothing store back in its day, and the new owners wisely kept some of the decorative touches, giving a certain urban sophistication that was much appreciated. As with the owners' other local restaurant, AZ88, the restrooms are almost worth the trip on their own. I can't imagine how much of a nightmare it would be to navigate one's way to the loo if you're three sheets to the wind. After perusing my surroundings, I sidled up to the bar and perused the cocktail selections, only to be promptly dismayed that there were no after-dinner libations. There was some temptation to try ordering a Stinger or a Rusty Nail (either of which would certainly befit the atmosphere), but I have a feeling that our bartender who appeared barely of drinking age would have given me a blank stare.

Further observation of the boy behind the stick leads me to believe that anything more than what was on the menu would be met with the aforementioned blank stare, as he proved himself to be out of his league. I ordered a Cosmopolitan, and watched him go to work. Out from the chiller came a pleasantly small Art Deco era size cocktail glass. I'm glad to see a cocktail glass that size. Huge drinks are a bad bet all around. The last half of the drink is room temperature, and you can't have more than one without having to be poured out the door. A cobbler shaker was produced, and was filled with ice. His hands were all over the ice in the shaker. I was tempted to give him a hell of a tongue-lashing about it, but I was with genteel company. Le sigh. He then continued to show his ineptitude by using the glass for my friend's gin & tonic as the ice scoop. I don't really need to mention this faux pas to the bartender. He'll learn his own lesson on a busy Friday night when he tries to scoop the ice with the glass, and it breaks into the ice. I've had to clean up that mess, and to say it is not pleasant is mild. With the freshly handled ice in the shaker, he then started pouring for a modern sized cocktail, i.e. too big for the small glass. He gave it four shakes. Bartenders, heed me well: Shake the hell out of your drinks! They're supposed to be freezing cold! If you think your hands are stuck to the shaker because it's so cold, you're doing it right. The cocktail was then poured to the brim in my glass, and I watched about a third of the potion go down the sink because there was no more room left in the glass. This was absolutely a crying shame. You made that much booze for me, why is such a significant portion of what should by MY drink going as an offering to Bacchus? The drink itself was, as is almost always the case, too sweet. It tasted less like the heavenly potion it should be, more like limeade. On the bright side, he didn't stub his toe on the cranberry juice like so many bartenders do.

I am tempted to return some time for the food, but after watching the bartender I'm not sure if I can bring myself to do so. If the people making things in the front of the house are either green behind the ears to the point that they should still be doing backbar (or worse, just don't care), I'm not sure I can trust the back of the house to do a significantly better job.

Peoria: A Lee Lee That's New, and Churros, Too!

Over the last few weeks, I have embarked on the adventure of home ownership. There's so much to do! One of the things I have recently done is upgrade the audio in the living room to a 5.1 surround system. To do this, I ended up going out to Arrowhead Towne Center on the northwest end of town. I decided to go have a little adventure on the way back and take arterial streets instead of hopping on the freeway.

As I ambled down 75th Avenue, I was most pleased find on the southwest corner of 75th Ave and Cactus the second location of Lee Lee Oriental Supermarket. They are already a favorite destination of mine when I'm in Chandler; it's great to know there's a new one just as far from my house in the other direction. That night, the only thing I really needed to stock up on was soy sauce. My favorite brand right now is Lee Kum Kee Double Deluxe, and I was thrilled to see that they carry it in the 500 milliliter bottles for $2.99. If you haven't tried the Double Deluxe, it's a great product. Only five ingredients: Water, salt, soy, sugar, and wheat. The depth of flavor is noticeable compared to, say, Kikkoman. I also picked up some great looking lemons and limes (20 cents each! Take that, Fry's and Safeway!), and nearly bought some flank steak and beef tenderloin for a song ($3-something and $5-something a pound, respectively), but the kitchen here at the new place isn't quite up to having people over for dinner yet.

Once I was done at Lee Lee, I continued south on 75th Avenue. My eyes scanned the horizon in search of new culinary delights in what is considered foodie wasteland by quite a few chowhounds. If things didn't pan out in search of dinner, there was always a decend sandwich to be had Which Wich? at Westgate. I didn't make it that far. There, on the southwest corner of 75th Avenue and Peoria, was a new place called Churro Station. A new eatery that specializes in churros? Count me in!

A scan of the menu told me that this was a pretty simple operation. The two main items are churros, and sandwiches. They do also have ceviche tostadas and smoothies. While I wasn't in the mood for a sandwich, they should be pretty good... the meat is from Boar's Head, the bread is from Simply Bread, how can you go wrong with a combination like that? I had myself a ceviche tostada, a regular churro, and a churro filled with cajeta. Everything was nice. The tostada was quite messy to eat since the tortilla cracked, and the shredded cabbage base tried to keep everything together, but I'd almost certainly order one again. The churros were decent. The batter was lighter and crunchier than the garden-variety frozen churros, but I'd love to see them come fresh out of the fryer instead of from under a heat lamp. All told, it was well worth the six bucks, and if I was in the area again I'd almost certainly stop in for at least a churro.

Now that my appetite had been sated, it was time to head back to the house. I don't know when I'll be back in the Arrowhead area, but at least now I have a good excuse to go that way with the new Lee Lee location up there.

Fiddling With the Test Kitchen

The current issue of Cook's Illustrated features something they have done in the past: Omelets. I tried out the recipe and whaddya know, it turns out a nearly flawless omelet. While I was making a few for friends, I couldn't help but think that the recipe became too fiddly for its own good.

The big idea this time was that adding little bits of frozen butter to the beaten eggs would slow down cooking and keep the whole thing from browning on the outside (which with this style of omelet is something to avoid). I tried melting down all the butter at the beginning and the end result was exactly the same as with frozen butter. I also found the idea of using 2 whole eggs and one egg white to be just plain silly. I'm never going to use that extra yolk for anything (and the time I need an extra yolk I'm going to forget it's in the freezer), so I tried making the omelet with three whole eggs and it's just fine. The last thing I wondered about is the use of black pepper. When making something such as an omelet where nothing is supposed to get browned, black pepper shows through as little specks, making the diner wonder what you spilled into said omelet.

One thing I would like to work on is tenderness. I know that cold eggs and eggs handled with a heavy hand both contribute to a tougher end product. Will room temperature eggs make the omelet overcook? Will gently pushing the cooked egg with a spatula make for a more tender omelet than one stirred vigorously with chopsticks? If my memory serves me correctly, adding salt toughens the egg proteins too, so that may have to wait until later instead of getting stirred in at the beginning.

I'm currently having problems with excess fat on the plate once the omelet is served. It's entirely possible I'm using too much cheese, but too much butter is the more likely culprit. I'll try weighing the cheese to get a more precise amount than "2 tablespoons shredded cheese"; are you supposed to pack the cheese in or leave it kind of loose?

Anyway, here's the working recipe:

Soon To Be Perfect Cheese Omelet
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/8 tsp regular salt)
Pinch white pepper
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons shredded Gruyère cheese (1 ounce?)

Warm an 8 inch nonstick skillet over low heat for about 10 minutes while preparing ingredients. In a medium bowl, beat eggs, salt, and pepper just until combined. Add butter to skillet, and melt until foam subsides. Swirl butter around sides of pan. Add eggs, and stir with two chopsticks (hold them like you normally do chopsticks), pushing cooked egg toward center of pan until eggs are set on the bottom and still liquid on top. Turn off heat (or remove from burner on an electric stove), sprinkle cheese on top, cover tightly, and let sit for 2 minutes. Remove cover and return to heat for 20 seconds to warm, then fold omelet, turn onto plate, and serve.

Someone heard me...

Apparently the folks at Cook's Illustrated can read minds. I just got the last issue of my current subscription, and lo and behold, they did a whole bunch of stuff like what I wish they did! There's French omelets (I'm having one now and it's flawless), Swedish meatballs, braised short ribs, chicken noodle soup, French toast... and all of it looks sanely done. I just may work my way through the entire magazine this time.

Thanksgiving Aftermath

(or, Holy Crap, He Updated the Damn Blog)

First off, your calendar is correct, Thanksgiving is this coming thursday, the 27th. Since I work in the hospitality industry, it's a lot easier for me to move a holiday to a more convenient date than to try and actually get the holiday off. By some miracle I actually have the big day off this year, so I get to do Thanksgiving twice! I'm rather glad I'm not doing the whole shebang twice in a row... For me, Thanksgiving is a three-day cooking marathon. I don't care if there's only six people over, I'm going to make dinner for sixteen. The bird should be big enough to make people worry that it's going to eat them this year. There should be enough sides that you aren't sure where the turkey is supposed to fit on the plate. There should be enough desserts that a diabetic goes into anaphylactic shock five paces from the dessert table. Hey, you have your special holiday traditions, I have mine!

The main event is, of course, the turkey. For the last several years, I did the Morton Thompson Black Turkey, which is quite the exercise in old-fashioned cooking methods. It also requires more attention than my roommate's cat, who only requires about as much attention as a six month old baby. You really need an assistant to pull it off, and I was flying solo. I went back to my old standby of turkey recipes, the one from the November 1995 issue of Martha Stewart Living. I did make one change, and that change is the one that's going to be on everyone's lips next year... dry brine. Brining is a good thing to do to your bird, making a normally dry, tasteless piece of protein come out flavorful and juicy. It's also a major league pain in the ass, requiring either a cooler chest or half the space in your fridge, along with half a box of kosher salt. The dry brine is what Judy Rodgers does to her incredible roast chickens at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. A couple of days before the chickens get cooked, fresh herbs are slid under the skin, and are rubbed down with salt (about 3/4 teaspoon of salt per pound of bird) and pepper. The birds then rest in the fridge for a couple of days while the salt makes its way into the meat. The drying effect of leaving the bird uncovered also gives you incredibly crisp skin. Martha and Judy worked together brilliantly. The bird was deliciously juicy, and you could almost cut it with the back side of the knife.

Of course, there were tons of sides. Mashed potatoes are de rigueur, and after going with a trusted recipe, I've now broken it down in my mind into a simple formula that can be multiplied to however many people are coming to dinner.


The Jester's Perfect Mashed Potatoes (Per Person)
1/2 pound Yukon Gold potatoes
1-1/2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt

Peel the potatoes, and cut them into 3/4" dice. Rinse them under cool running water for about 30 seconds to get rid of excess starch, then put into a pot and add enough water to cover the potatoes by 1 inch. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until the potatoes are tender (about half an hour). While the potatoes are cooking, mix the butter and cream together, heat until the butter melts, and keep the mixture warm. When the potatoes are done, drain them well and let them sit for a couple of minutes to let excess moisture evaporate. Run the potatoes through a food mill (or a ricer, or just mash them with a hand masher). Add the dairy mixture and salt, stir well to combine, and serve.


Something new for me this year was the stuffing recipe, from The Nantucket Open House Cookbook by Sarah Leah Chase. If you don't have a copy of this book, run out and get it RIGHT NOW. It's helping me fall in love with cooking all over again after getting out of the Cook's Illustrated mindset of "It Must Be PERFECT". Speaking of Cook's Illustrated, I find lately that their recipes aren't nearly as good as they used to be. Five or six years ago, the reaction I got when making one of their recipes was "Oh my God, this is the best [insert food here] that I've ever had!", and anymore I just don't hear that when I make their recipes. I think it's sort of like New Math, where exotic, complex techniques were much more important than actually getting the right answer. I tried the pumpkin pie recipe from the latest issue and for all of the tweaking (maple syrup I could deal with, but CANNED YAMS?!), it was just a meh pumpkin pie. But more about dessert later.

Now where the hell was I... ah yes, the stuffing! It was the one from the Thanksgiving part of the book, with some minor changes to fit the local palate. It was a sausage stuffing with pecans and brandied apricots, and it was some of the best stuffing I'd ever had. The only things I changed from Chase's original recipe were pecans instead of chestnuts (I don't think AJ's even carries 'em around here, and pecans are very much an Arizona thing), and the use of sage and thyme instead of rosemary (the rosemary in the test batch was like eating pine needles). It's so good that I may very well forget that there's a big turkey to be eaten and just happily nosh on the stuffing for breakfast, lunch and dinner... I may have to stock up on some bubbly, Champagne goes with it extraordinarily well.

Creamed spinach from Cook's Illustrated was an utter dud last year, so this year I went with the home version of the recipe from Lawry's The Prime Rib restaurant up in Vegas. The secret of better creamed spinach was simple: Bacon. This was utterly divine creamed spinach. I'll have to make a special trip to Lawry's the next time I'm up that way so I can have someone else make it for me. Another recipe from Sarah Leah Chase was a sweet potato-pear casserole. It was very delicious, but I think next time I may try cutting the sweet potatoes and pears into smaller pieces, and I'm also tempted to leave the lid off the casserole dish to see if that helps the sauce reduce some. Cranberry sauce was pretty close to the back of the bag, with two twists: Champagne instead of water (I used Freixenet cava, don't tell anyone), and some currants thrown in. I hereby christen it Cranberry Sauce à la Kir Royale, and I think I shall make it a regular part of the Thanksgiving table. Speaking of a regular part of the table, I'm adding pumpkin biscuits (from Sarah Leah Chase again) to the regular repertoire. These were simple to make (and freeze well), and absolutely bursting with pumpkin flavor. I'm strongly tempted next year to do the entire Nantucket Open House Cookbook menu; everything from the book was nothing less than terrific.

There were three desserts to be had. The smash hit winner was pecan pie, made from a Cook's Illustrated recipe from their earlier days. It was easily the best pecan pie I've ever had; rich, caramelized, buttery, nutty... I may have to go sneak a slice here in a moment. Or maybe I'll wait until I can snag some vanilla ice cream to put on the side. The pumpkin pie... was enh. Cook's Illustrated made a whole lot of "improvements" to the recipe, and I think that if I was to taste the new recipe side-by-side with the one on the back of the can, I'd pick the can. There just wasn't much oomph to it. The CI pumpkin cheesecake, however, was very nice, truly one of my standby recipes for something delicious to bring to a dinner party. Now all I need is one of those new auto-scrape beaters for my Kitchenaid so I don't have to scrape the bowl down eight times while mixing the batter.

The one dud this year was Pommes Anna. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious. It just doesn't hold for squat, and making it in advance is really the only way you're going to pull that one off. So next year, I think I'll be going for a casserole type thing. Maybe tater-tot hotdish to please the Midwesterners. I know you're supposed to use the canned cream of chicken soup, but... do I have to?

Sad day for Arizona

It makes my blood boil that Proposition 102 passed. I thought Arizonans would be smarter than that. Instead, the people of Arizona have now written bigoted discrimination into the state constitution. I guess gay is the new black.

Five-Minute Bread: Broa

I had been eyeing the recipe for broa, a rustic Portuguese yeast-raised corn bread, in Artisan Baking in Five Minutes a Day for quite some time. Tonight, I baked my first loaf of it. Halfway into mixing the dough, I found out too late that I was about a cup of flour short. I almost ran out to the store for more flour (speaking of which, since when did Wal-Mart start carrying King Arthur all-purpose flour? Whoever is doing the buying for Wal-Mart is being slow but increasingly thorough in wooing my shopping dollars!), but when I was reading up about broa on Wikipedia, I found out that the bread is commonly made with rye flour. I have plenty of rye flour around here, so in went the missing 4.5 ounces of flour as rye instead of all-purpose. The bread turned out very good, one of the best I've made with the five-minute recipes. The flavor is very complex, and the texture looks like it will hold up well for making sandwiches. There isn't as much rise as with the regular boule, and the crumb is pretty tight. I think that because of this, I'll make this one a double loaf at a time on future batches. Next up, I think I'll do the challah, and make some French toast with it.

UFCW Pot Calling Fresh & Easy Kettle Black

Last week, a new Fresh & Easy location opened up in Tempe on Baseline and Kyrene. Like all of the other F&E locations I've been to, it's a great store. Several days before it opened, a friend who lives down the street from there received a letter in the mail entitled "Fresh & Easy Facts" with "Don't be fooled by Tesco's Fresh & Easy" as a very large tagline. Inside was a list of things that are apparently reasons not to shop at this new grocery store. I was struck by the amount of things they claimed about F&E that I had noticed in several large grocery stores. It turns out that the large grocery stores were behind the letter, courtesy of the United Food and Commercial Workers union! Looks like one of two things is happening: First, F&E isn't going union and of course the union has their panties in a wad. Second, Fresh & Easy is doing very well and the unions don't like the competition from a clearly better product!

Here's the UFCW's reasons why I shouldn't shop there:

First, F&E should have a record of meeting food safety standards. Of COURSE they don't have a record of this, they're brand new! The describing paragraph mentions that Tesco, the parent company of F&E, "has been fined for selling expired and spoiled food". Guess what? Last time I was in Safeway, I almost bought some blue cheese, but then saw that the expiration date had passed by over THREE MONTHS. Eeeeeeew! Every time I've been in F&E, I haven't seen *anything* past the expiration date. In fact, they're some of the best at making sure nothing goes past date. The day something's sell-by date comes up, it gets a bright red sticker mentioning it's half off. If it isn't sold, it gets donated to a food bank. I've noticed they built in quite a bit of leeway with their expiration dates; I've had things accidentally sit in the fridge longer than they should, and they're still fine. Their expiration dates on milk are some of the longest I've seen, meaning that they have much better turnover rates than at regular grocers.

Next up was how F&E must reduce its environmental impact. They're doing more than Safeway and Fry's have, as far as I can tell. F&E is making all of their stores with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification in mind. Several years ago, Safeway made an LEED-oriented building, but hasn't made any strides in making their older buildings over. Safeway has also made a big point that they purchase wind-based power, but Fresh & Easy has done one better and installed solar panels on the roof of their Riverside distribution center. Those solar panels have so far provided 74 percent of the building's operating power! If that isn't reducing one's environmental impact, I don't know what is.

The third paragraph suggests that Fresh & Easy doesn't provide good jobs because they don't pay their American employees as much as their British counterparts. Friends, the British employees make minimum wage over there: £5.52 (currently $9.93) an hour.  Fresh & Easy employees start at $10 an hour in California. Yes, that's right, the UFCW LIED about this! There's a word for this: Libel.

The last one is that Fresh & Easy should meet high standards of customer service.  I can say from personal experience that they FAR exceed any experience I've had at Safeway or Fry's. The staff at Fresh & Easy is helpful and friendly, while Safeway and Fry's staff are indifferent at best. The letter goes to claim that I should have "check out stands staffed by a checker who scans and bags your groceries".  Fresh & Easy has them for people who want them.  The only time I've had to bag my own groceries at Fresh & Easy is when I've willingly dismissed them because they needed to help another customer.  The last time I was at Fry's (a UFCW store), the only lanes open were the self-checkout lanes, and the checkers didn't offer me ANY help at all, just a cursory, barely mumbled "good night" on my way out the door.

Shame on you, UFCW, for not fixing your own problems before pointing out others' percieved faults! Because of this union bullying, I hereby refuse to shop at the union-run Safeway, Fry's, and Albertson's stores of the greater Phoenix area until they can practice what they preach.  Fresh & Easy has better quality food, greener stores with natural light streaming in, and some of the friendliest grocery staff in town.  And their prices are WAY better too.

More Five-Minute Artisan Bread

The mania over freshly baked bread has slowed to the point that I have some dough still in the bucket coming close to the two-week mark. It really does improve over time! The later loaves have a nicer chew to them, and a much improved sourdough type flavor. Since I just baked off the last loaf of a batch, I started two more batches: One is a full size batch of the European Peasant Bread, which replaces some of the flour in the regular loaf with rye and whole wheat flours. The other is the Brioche, which both the roomie and myself are greatly looking forward to trying.

Quick Review: Culver's, Mesa AZ

After hearing much ballyhooing from homesick Midwesterners, I went to the fairly new Culver's over on Country Club just south of US-60 for the first time earlier this summer. The dining room doors were locked 10 minutes before posted closing time the first time I went, leaving me just the drive-thru. I know that Mesa and Gilbert practically roll up the sidewalks at 9 PM, but come on, if you're going to say on the door that you're open til 10, STAY OPEN TIL 10! It was certainly not the best first impression. At least the girl at the drive-through was perky. Burger was... salty. Onion rings were OK. Root beer float had not nearly enough root beer for the ice cream, er, I mean frozen custard. Fast forward to tonight. I got a patty melt and cheese curds. The patty melt was one note: Bland. No, wait, two notes, it was greasy as hell too. The bread used was allegedly rye, but didn't taste much like rye and the caraway seeds were just there for looks. The cheese curds tasted more of salty breading than cheese. Neither was worth the calories. A return trip is highly doubtful at this point, especially with In-N-Out and Chick-Fil-A two exits down the road.

One of those things about living in the Phoenix area is dead obvious to anyone who lives here: It's damned hot in the summer. Sometimes, you just have to get out of town. Las Vegas has awfully tempting hotel rates, but there had best be a great pool where you stay since it's going to be just as hot. San Diego has tons going on, but with gas prices where they are, one gives pause to travelling there during their peak hotel season. Northern Arizona looks more and more tempting, doesn't it? I've had friends and family up in Prescott for all my life, so when someone from up there called to catch up on things, I jumped at the chance to pay them a spontaneous visit. Two hours later, I found myself up there under a blanket of stars, with lightning flashing further north on the rim.

Something I have noticed about Prescott is that while it's still a sleepy little town, the quality of restaurants up there has dramatically improved in recent years. Case in point is Esoji, a relatively new restaurant on Gurley just a stone's throw west of Whiskey Row. I never would have guessed that one of the best Japanese restaurants in the state would open its doors in such a picture-perfect slice of small-town Americana as downtown Prescott.


My friend J (no relation to Seth Chadwick's J., congratulations to you both on the wedding!), his wife Keely, and their kid Kidlet had a great time catching up on things as we strolled around the square under the blazing hot 85 degree sun. As we approached Whiskey Row, we all noticed it was about time for lunch. We were all disgusted by the presence of a Quizno's franchise at the south end of Whiskey Row (It's great when a downtown area is completely dominated by independently owned shops and eateries like Prescott!). We nearly stopped at a new hole-in-the-wall Mexican place on Whiskey Row called Annalina's, but in the end Esoji won out for getting a visit this time. Annalina's looked like it would be a promising little place, so I'm looking forward to giving them a try the next time I'm up there.

When we entered Esoji, we were given the standard table-or-booth choice. We were a bit torn; booths always have a more intimate feel, but with Kidlet along and his need for a high chair, it would be a lot easier to sit at a table. The hostess quickly offered a banquette at the end of the row of booths, and it turned out to be a great idea. For some reason, the inside edge of the booth side of the banquette was considerably more firm than the rest of it, leaving yours truly sitting off-kilter.

We perused the menu, and went with relatively basic choices. Keely hadn't been to a Japanese restaurant before (J is working on opening her up from her once sheltered life diet), and went with teriyaki chicken donburi. J and I both selected the bento ($13.50), a combination of grilled meat, shrimp and veggie tempura, vegetables, California or spicy salmon roll, miso soup, and green salad. I went with teriyaki salmon, J had the teriyaki chicken, and we both had the California roll. If I was thinking about it, I would have selected the spicy salmon so we could have some of each. I'll have to do that next time. J is allergic to shellfish, so I offered to eat his shrimp tempura, but alas having the crustaceans touching something else on the plate would set him off, so he requested no shrimp tempura.


The waitress went off to place the order, and a few minutes later arrived with my and J's green salads. An added surprise was a little teddy bear face made out of sushi rice and veggie bits for Kidlet! Kidlet couldn't enjoy it as much as the itamae hoped since Kidlet isn't quite up to solid food yet, but it was still a very welcome touch. The salad was unusually good; there was some traditional iceberg for crispness, mixed in with spring mix for complexity. The dressing was an eye opener, definitely not your usual Japanese ginger dressing that I swear doesn't change no matter where you are. It was vibrant and citrusy, with ginger, a little soy, and goodness knows what else. You could tell that they made it there. You could also tell they were very proud of it since they sold it by the bottle. Miso soup was executed just as it should, with flavorful broth and a couple of small bits of seaweed and tofu.

A short while later, our entrees arrived. As you can see in the pictures, they were nearly works of art. Colors played off of each other beautifully well, shapes were attractive, and everything just looked well thought out. The teriyaki sauce was definitely not the sticky sweet bottled glop used at so many places, and was applied with a modest hand. It truly complemented the meat instead of taking center stage. Vegetables were all cooked to a perfect degree of doneness whether sauteed or tempura. Speaking of the tempura, I have never had a tempura this incredibly light. My shrimp was tender, juicy, and tasted like... shrimp. We have some wizards of the deep fryer where I work, but they don't hold a candle to the person manning it at Esoji. Since J passed on the shrimp, he instead received tempura sweet potato slices, and they were so good that he didn't miss the shrimp one bit. A small nest of noodles were dressed in a light sauce that took me by surprise. I had a feeling they would be a little spicy since you could see flecks of togarashi, but there was also a contrasting sweetness with a hint of tart that I'm pretty sure was provided by a splash of citrus. The California roll was a good California roll; nothing to write home about, but even the best California rolls play second fiddle to pretty much every other kind of sushi out there. The sushi rice was perfectly balanced; not too much rice vinegar, nor too little.

I had already planned to stop by the crêperie on Gurley for dessert, but that plan was dashed when our waitress mentioned green tea crème brûlée. It came attractively presented, along with a surprise of a miniature scoop of green tea ice cream, presumably for Kidlet. We were all enthralled with the crème brûlée. I thought that the crust could have been thicker (I like mine to crack when hit with a spoon, this one didn't), and I would have appreciated it if the sugar on top had been melted by blowtorch instead of broiler; the custard part had started to cook more than it should from the broiling. Still, it was delicious and creamy, and the green tea paired well with the creaminess of the custard.

The total bill for three lunches and one dessert came to just over $56. This is pretty pricey by Prescott standards, but very well worth it. Esoji is head and shoulders above any other Asian food I've had in northern Arizona, and is easily in the top tier of Japanese restaurants in all of Arizona. Indeed, Esoji may well be the best traditional Japanese restaurant in the state.

Mmmmmm

Croque Monsieurs made with the master recipe bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day absolutely ROCK.

Love Great Bread? Of Course! Get This!

I love making homemade bread. So much of the whole process just connects on a deep level. It feels great, from the smell of the yeast getting started, to the feel of kneading dough, to the incomparable sensation of biting into a slice of bread still barely warm from the oven. However, for something that is so simple (just flour, water, salt, and yeast), fresh home-made bread is an absolute pain in the ass to make. Even though you don't have to proof the yeast (thanks to quick-rise yeasts) and knead the dough for 15 minutes (thanks to the trusty Kitchenaid on the counter), the dough takes quite a bit of babysitting, and somehow the entire kitchen ends up covered in flour.

In November of 2006, cookbook author Mark Bittman released a recipe for something new called No-Knead Bread. In normal bread, kneading is what develops gluten, which gives the bread its structure. In No-Knead Bread, kneading is replaced by a very wet dough (87 percent of the flour's weight in water; a traditional recipe is closer to 55 percent) and a very long rest (at least 18 hours in the fridge). There is an Achilles's heel to the No-Knead Bread, and that is that you have to start the bread 18 to 24 hours before you actually want the bread.  What's a bread lover to do?

Enter Dr. Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François¹, authors of the new book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. He's a bread-loving physician, she's a CIA²-trained baker and pastry chef.  Boy, that sounds like a movie waiting to happen, doesn't it?  They realized that a wet dough not only doesn't require kneading, but also keeps for a good long time in the refrigerator... up to two weeks.  Now all you have to do is mix up the dough, let it rise, and then toss it in the fridge.  When you're ready for bread, you just shape the loaf, let it rise, and put it in the oven.  That's it.  The only part of your kitchen that gets dirty is a spoon to mix the ingredients.

The bread is wonderful stuff... nice crumb, crackling crust, and great flavor.  Apparently, the longer you let it sit in the fridge the more complex it tastes.  I'm looking forward to finding out, but I don't know that I have the willpower to let the bread dough just sit for that long!

1) Just have to say I love how easy it is to do accented characters on a Mac... option-c gets you the ç, where on Windows it was Alt-some four digit number.
2) Culinary Institute of America.

I Call It Spaghetti alla Fata Verde

I had some friends over for dinner tonight. I was in the mood for spaghetti and meatballs. I started out with the Cook's Illustrated recipe, and CHANGED IT! Yes, Christopher Kimball, I didn't feel like buying ground pork, so I made meatballs with (gasp) all BEEF.  They were better that way.  And since I didn't have basic white sandwich bread, I used sourdough.  Then, I thought that their Quick Tomato Sauce could use a flavor boost.  I remembered my favorite thing to add... red wine.  Nice meaty Cabernet, to be exact.  Then, that got me thinking about what else I could add to give it a twist.  I remembered the nice new bottle of absinthe sitting on my extensive bar shelf.  Italian sausage often has lots of fennel in it, which gives a bit of a licorice-y flavor.  Absinthe has similar notes to it.  So, in went a little splash into my tasting bowl along with a little of the sauce, and... magic.  The two went together splendidly.  I added a couple of ounces of the infamous spirit, and everyone was thrilled.  Try it the next time you make spaghetti sauce.  I'd give you my recipe, but I already know you have your favorite and not much is going to sway you from it.

Review: Haru Sushi, Tempe AZ

love the concept of kaitenzushi, conveyor belt sushi restuarants. At first it looks like a regular sushi bar, but there's a little belt that goes all the way around the bar area, with little plates of all different colors moving up and down the line. To start eating, you take a seat, and if something looks good, you snag it off the belt. It ends up feeling a lot more casual and social this way, and something about pulling the food off the belt before it moves too far away is mildly interesting to the normally latent hunter-gatherer part of my brain. Admittedly, this is about as close as I'm going to get to catching food while it's moving, but it amuses me nonetheless. The first place to do conveyor belt sushi in town is Sushi Eye In Motion, over in the historic district of downtown Chandler. I've been going there whenever I can practically since they've opened, which isn't nearly as often as I'd like since I live 45 minutes away. Now, there's a newcomer to the field: Haru Sushi, on the northeast corner of Priest and Ray in Tempe, not too far east of I-10. Naturally, comparisons between the two abound.

The room has two separate areas. The sushi bar has three sides, with two sides dedicated to standard counter style sushi bar seating, and the third with booths so that groups can still sit at the sushi bar. These booths do have access to the conveyor belt. I think this touch is a very nice one, and I would love to see more places in town have seating like this available. There are about six more booths available, but service at these is only from the waitress. The decoration of Haru is noticeably less trendy and hip than that of In Motion, but colors and light are bright and cheery, they made a good effort to make the place look nice with various Japanese things stuck to the wall, and you can play one of my favorite restaurant games, "Spot The Stuff That Came From IKEA". This is one of the few places I've seen that pulled off having a warehouse-style ceiling. They did it by dividing the vertical space twice over; the top third of the room vanished with a matte black paint job, and the rest of the cavernous space was bisected by enormous wicker-shaded pendant lamps. I would imagine that volume levels would be acceptable even during very busy times, as the booth seating area does have a dropped ceiling (did someone just snag both spaces in the strip mall and knock down the wall?), and I do have two quibbles over the decor; one is the flat screen TVs on opposing walls (one was tuned to Telemundo, the other to ESPN), and the other is that the radio was tuned to hip-hop station 104.7 FM. I found that hip-hop and sushi really don't go together all that well; I would have much preferred peace and quiet like one can find over at Sushi Ken.

Places are set with a fast-food issue paper napkin, and good quality wood chopsticks. We naturally took a seat at the sushi bar, and ordered hot tea ($1) and ice water. Moments later, the tea came, along with the requisite soy sauce boats (with the dollops of wasabi in them) and a big plate of pickled ginger. With equipment in hand, we dove in. I like the style they do for their conveyor belt. There is a small place marker with the name of a type of sushi, and that type of sushi follows it. This is good for someone who isn't familiar with various things; you don't really need it to tell you that shrimp is shrimp, but on the complex rolls so popular stateside (such as Las Vegas rolls, which are about six different things rolled and then fried in tempura batter), it's nice to know what they are so you can get them again if you want. It's a different system than at In Motion, where everything is scattered all over the place so you don't have to wait for one specific thing to come back around if you decide too late to grab it, but if you're curious about something you have to ask the staff what it is. At Haru, they also have a selection of other things going up and down the little catwalk, including gyoza (I promise I'll try them next time), Ramune sodas (a popular brand of soda in Japan that comes in a glass bottle sealed by a marble; if you haven't tried one, it's worth doing at least once), little pre-packaged fruit cups for the kiddies, and a couple of sweets. If there's something that you would like to try that isn't on the belt, you can always ask the itamae (sushi chef) to make something from their (very short) menu for you.

The sushi itself was merely OK. The selection was all pretty standard, not much of anything truly exotic, but it covered the bases of nigiri, hand rolls, and maki rolls. It was leagues better than what I've had at Ra and Stingray, but that's not really saying much. The rice had a proper amount of rice vinegar added to it. The fish was a step below what I'm used to at In Motion (Such deep red tuna! Such vivid orange salmon!) but was certainly acceptable; nothing showed any signs of being old. The servers were friendly and willing to help, but that was only when you could find one. For the most part, you don't really need anybody around, but beverage glasses did sit for quite a while unfilled. It looked like we came in at the tail end of a rush when there were only two servers on the floor (most of the seats at the sushi bar were empty with plates stacked up in front of them when we came in), so I should likely hold back on saying anything firm about the service until I've been back.

Thankfully, they don't charge nearly as much as In Motion. Plates range from $1.25 for simple things (such as tamago or avocado roll), up to $3.25 for the fancy rolls (Rainbow, Las Vegas, Caterpillar, et cetera). It's easy to tell the price on something by the color of the plate; white plates are the least expensive, black plates are the most expensive, with other colors coming somewhere in between. It seemed like most of the plates that were going around were either the mid-range green (this was most of the nigiri, I believe it was $1.75 for two pieces) or black plates. My friend and I both ate quite well; we had about a dozen plates stacked up, and the bill came to about $37 including the tea. For a similar amount at In Motion, the bill would likely have been close to twice that.

As for which one is better overall... Sushi Eye In Motion wins that hands-down. It's better across the board: The sushi is higher quality, the sushi chefs are more creative and know what they're doing with a knife better, the atmosphere is more fun, and the service is much more accommodating, making you feel like you've known them for ages from your first visit. However, Haru Sushi is still competent sushi, and their bargain price point makes them very hard to resist. As far as value goes... I feel that both Haru and In Motion are a very good value. Which one I end up going to in the future is going to be flat-out determined by how much money I have in my wallet when I get a craving for sushi. Since it's the slow summer season for this bartender... I'm going to miss my friends at Sushi Eye In Motion for a little while.

Late Night Cooking: The 65° Egg

I just got done with the night's Wii Fit.  It's a terrific game, and wildly succeeds in its mission to get my tush off the couch and moving more.  Go get a copy if you can find it.

But anyway, this blog is about my culinary adventures, so on with those.

When I was reading through Lynne Rosetto Kasper's excellent new book How To Eat Supper, I saw mention of a little bit of molecular gastronomy from Hervé This that one could easily do at home: The 65° egg.  You see, proteins in eggs set at different temperatures, starting at 142 degrees Fahrenheit.  So, if you cook an egg at a low enough temperature, say around 65° Celsius (149° Fahrenheit), you can get the white to softly set, and the yolk to be still soft.  As a bonus, you can cook the eggs as long as you want, even overnight.  So, tonight, I've decided to try the 65° egg.  Before I started up the Wii tonight, I set my oven to right around 150 degrees, and rather unceremoniously placed some eggs in there to cook.  This was about an hour and a half ago.  Now that I'm getting hungry, I'd say it's about time to get them out of there.  I just fixed up some toast to go along with them (Archer Farms whole wheat from Target, good stuff).  The eggs are a bit tricky to get out of the shell; they're set, but very soft and quivering.  I have to dig around the inside with a spoon to get the whole thing out in one piece.  It looks pretty much like any other hard boiled egg.

Now, for a taste.

*munchmunch*

Mmm.  These eggs are good.  I think the oven has a cool spot near the front, as the yolk is set firmer than the recipes I've seen suggest.  Still, the yolk is tender, and the whites are ever so softly set.  I'll definitely be making these again.

Went to Sprinkles today

One of these days I'll write another real article, I swear.

One of the managerial folk at work had his last day today, so I couldn't resist springing a mess of cupcakes from Sprinkles on the whole gang.  I figured it would be a good excuse to try out the cupcakes that chowhounds all over town have been swooning over.  The setup in the store is simple.  Behind a wall of glass are wooden cupcake racks holding the day's 11 flavors of the 21 that they make throughout the week.  To the right of that is the counter where you place your order, and to the far right is the cash register hiding behind wood paneling.  On the side wall is a selection of retail items, including DIY cupcake mix ($14 for enough to make a dozen) and T-shirts ($25 to $40, ouch!)  Six flavors are made all week long, and the rest have a regular rotation, always appearing the same days every week.  So far, I have tried the Cinnamon Sugar, Red Velvet, and Peanut Butter Chip, and can say that these are some of the best retail cupcakes around. Their Red Velvet borders on legendary.  They're very moist cupcakes, almost *too* moist: After a couple of hours in the box, the fat in the cupcakes managed to soak through not only the wax paper cupcake liner, but also the waxed paper lining the box, and the cardboard box itself.  I'm starting to think that their recipe starts with lots of butter, adds just enough sugar to make it sweet, and then only adds enough flour to keep everything held together through the oven.  A few minutes after eating one, I feel sort of like I just ate a stick of butter.

Alas, Sprinkles falls squarely into the same trap as gourmet peanut butter sandwich purveyor PB Loco: The price is absolutely ridiculous.  It's $3.25 for *one* cupcake.  If you get a whole dozen, they have the decency to drop the price to $36, only $3 each!  If it was, say, $2.50, you would likely find me there two or three times weekly.  At their prices, once a month tops.  I'll leave Sprinkles to the chichi Scottsdale Desperate Housewives crowd with their bleached blonde hair and oversized sunglasses with white plastic rims, and just make my own cupcakes at home.