Our take on the “Mock Porchetta” from the Zuni Cafe cookbook.  Winter 2008.

We added a wide variety of root veg to the pot including carrots, turnips, parsnips, and potatoes.

Braised Oxtails, Winter 2008.

For this dish you’ll need:

Veal sweetbreads
Pancetta (any kind you like)
Potatoes (many kinds will work…fingerling, yukon gold, etc)
Eggs

- Prepare sweetbreads as per any number of online guides–this one is the one we learned from.  I recently saw a method whereby they are blanched in milk, which sounds great and I plan to try it next time.

- Dice up your prepared sweetbreads and your pancetta–I like to leave my sweetbreads a little larger than the pancetta as I am a huge fan of this offal meat and like to showcase it.

- Dice up your potatoes, same size as your pancetta.

- Begin by frying your potatoes (this can be done a little in advance of the rest of the prep) in a bit of canola oil until lovely and browned.

- In a thick bottomed pan, brown your pancetta and remove the pancetta, keeping the fat in the pan.  Now fry your sweetbreads in the oil for a few minutes.  Add in your pancetta and your fried potatoes and give it all a toss and sprinklings of sea salt and freshly ground white pepper–let it all cook together for a couple of minutes until sweetbreads are cooked through (don’t overcook them, it is a very delicate offal organ meat, meltingly tender).

- Meanwhile poach your egg.

- Serve saute in a bowl, topped with a poached egg.

Once every Fall or Winter, we make a massive Le Creuset dutch oven full of Casssoulet.  The yearly tradition started several years ago via a dare from our friend Matt.  At the time, we had never actually tasted cassoulet, so a challenge it was indeed.  This is one of the few places we tend to follow fairly closely to a recipe, ours being that of Anthony Bourdain in his Les Halles Cookbook.

This feast requires several days of well-worth-it effort, which includes confit’ing the duck legs (a very straightforward and useful skill to master).  Getting authentic ingredients can be challenging.  The beans we typically use are called Coco beans by Saboret.  These ones on top crisp gorgeously and will remind you a little of the eating popcorn.  The sausage is also tricky in the US — uncured garlic sausage from Toulouse is what you’re after.  If you have a meat grinder, best bet is to make your own — the ingredients are just pork and garlic.  Avoid using Italian pork sausage as a substitute if it has fennel in it (you can sometimes get it without fennel and that’s not a bad substitute)!  If you have any extra duck fat, cover it and save it for cooking with in the refrigerator.

This summer we decided to play around a little more with the

new ice cream maker. We found  some roasted, unsalted macadamia nuts

at our local nut shop, and they got us thinking:

Roasted banana, brown sugar and macadamia ice cream

8oz roasted, unsalted macadamia nuts
4 ripe bananas
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1.5 teaspoon lemon juice
few drops vanilla essence

1) Slice bananas in half, lengthwise, and place in 250 degree covered with the brown sugar. Bake for 15 minutes, flip over, and cook for 15 more (may take longer or shorter depending on the bananas you use)

2) Mash up / puree bananas, set aside. Remember to add the yummy sugar / banana syrup which is left on the baking pan.

3) In a bowl, heavy cream, lemon juice, vanilla, bananas. Put in fridge until chilled.

4) Smash up macadamia nuts. Add to liquid just before you toss everything in the ice cream maker.

It’s very, very tasty. If you’re not a fan of very textured ice cream you may want to cut down the amount of nuts by about a third, and crush those nuts up pretty finely.

Recipe stolen from our good friend Matt – these are incredible.  And simple.  And quick.

1lb medium shrimp (peeled / cleaned), leave a quarter whole, cut a quarter in half, cut a quarter in thirds, finely slice the rest.

Toss shrimp with one egg (gently beaten first), half (or more) of a jalepeno pepper, 1 shallot, salt, pepper, handful of breadcrumbs.

Divide into 5 cakes. Cover with a mixture (half and half) of breadcrumbs and fine cornmeal. Cook in oil for around 3-5 mins each side (depending on thickness of cakes).

Serve with sweet chili sauce.

The list below is the bare minimum you’ll need to make a scented, colored soap.

Base
The soap base you choose is a choice you’ll have to make based on what you want to use, if the soap is for you, or what will work well with the idea for a particular soap you have in mind. Keep in mind that any color you add to a non clear base will never come out as vivid as if you add it to a clear base, since you’re always adding that color to white.

I quite like the Crafter’s Choice soap bases, through Wholesale Supplies Plus. For your first soap project I’d suggest the shea butter base, or the crystal clear base.

I also recommend the soap bases offered by Peak Candle Supplies.

Scents
For several reasons I prefer to use fragrance oils in my soap making (more information on fragrance vs essential oils can be found here).

WholeSale Supplies Plus has a great range of fragrance oils, however if you’re not sure exactly what scents you wish to try out, Peak Candle Supplies have a great sample pack deal, where they ship you 10 1oz bottles of scents you choose.

When selecting scents it’s incredibly important that you pick fragrance oils which can be used in soaps (all sites should say whether that scent can be used for candles, soaps, waxes, etc), and it’s important to know if a certain scent contains vanilla. Vanilla will discolor the soap over time, slowly turning brown over a few weeks.

Colors
I like to use the Crafter’s Choice liquid lake dyes. They’re simple to use and mix, great for someone new to soap making.

Molds
There are millions of soap molds out there, more molds than you could possibly shake a stick at.

I would strongly suggest starting with a silicone mold, since they’re the easiest to remove the finished soap from, are easy to store and clean. The mold you wish to use depends on the shape you have in mind for the final soap, however a great starting mold is a basic rectangular silicone mold.

Accessories

Droppers
You’ll need plastic or glass droppers to measure out your fragrance oils, I’d suggest either these or these.

Alcohol
When you pour your soap you’ll frequently get small bubbles on the surface. To get rid of these you can either poke them with something, or spray them with a tiny amount of rubbing alcohol.

Something to melt base in
An aluminum pouring pitcher works great if you’re using the stove top, double broiler method to melt your soap. If you think you’ll be melting soap in the microwave, a Pyrex jug works for both methods.

Stirring spoon
A basic wooden spoon is all you really need for this.

Knife
You’ll need something to slice up your soap base with, I use a basic chef’s knife.

Wax paper
I find a roll of wax paper absolutely invaluable for home crafting. Lay a sheet or two down on your work surface, tape it down to hold it steady, and it makes clean up many times easier.

Next up: making your first bar of soap.

BRAISED SHORT RIBS WITH A TOMATO RAGU REDUCTION OVER RICOTTA RISOTTO
Serves 2

Ingredients:

Olive oil
Mirepoix:
¼ cup carrot, small dice
¼ cup celery, small dice
½ cup onion, small dice
1/3 cup basil, chopped
1 Tbsp thyme, minced
½ tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp condensed veal demi-glace dissolved in 1.5 cups hot water
1 large glass red wine
16 oz chopped tomatoes
2 ‘flanken cut’ short ribs
1 Tbsp basil, minced (garnish)

For risotto:
½ cup minced onion
1 cup Arborio rice
4 cups fresh chicken stock
3 – 4 Tbsp good quality, fresh ricotto (not the mass produced commercial kind)
sea salt
1 cup dry white wine

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F / 121 degrees C

Season ribs with salt and pepper and sear over high heat until browned all over (not just grey) and remove to rest on a plate.

In a heavy, cast iron pot, over moderate heat, add olive oil and add garlic, basil, thyme, red pepper flakes and cook for 3 minutes.

Add Mirepoix and cook until onions soften.

Add demi-glace, wine, tomatoes, and return the ribs to the pot.  Bring to a boil.

Tightly cover pot and immediately put in the oven for 3 hours.

Remove the meat from the pot and throw away the bones.  Carefully remove gristle / connective tissue from the meat (tidy it up basically, the thick fat isn’t nice to eat or look at).

Cover the meat tightly in foil, shiny side in, to rest (you can let it rest in the still warm oven, turned off).

Strain the sauce through a strainer a couple of times.  Then set it back on the stove and reduce the liquid by half over high heat, skimming off fat.

Meanwhile, prepare the risotto:

Heat chicken stock in a small sauce pan.

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a heavy, deep sauce pan.

Add minced onion and sauté until translucent

Add 1 cup Arborio rice and toast – let the grains of rice lose most of their opaque quality, an opaque ‘dot’ remaining on the grains when its ready.  Should take a couple of minutes.  Don’t let the rice burn!

Add white wine and allow rice to absorb, stirring occasionally.

Add hot chicken stock, one ladle at a time.  Each time, let the rice absorb most of the liquid.  Don’t stir it constantly, that’s a myth.  Better to cook over moderate heat and let the rice absorb the liquid naturally…stirring makes the liquid evaporate too fast on the hot pan instead of getting absorbed.  Stir ‘occasionally’.

The risotto will be done when it still has a slight ‘bite’.  Just prior to that point, add the ricotta and salt/pepper to taste.

•    To serve the meal, slice the short ribs into a few pieces and serve over risotto, with sauce lightly glazed over the meat.  Sprinkle with basil.

It’s very, very simple.

You start with a soap base, which will typically be delivered to you as a large lump, contained in plastic.

You cut down the soap base using a knife (or whatever you have handy, do this carefully since after a few seconds your hands and the knife handle will be covered with soap) into small chunks, to increase the surface area and reduce how long it takes to melt down the base.

You place the required soap base in a glass or metal container, and start to melt the soap. This is done typically on the stove top in a double broiler, or in a microwave.

When the base has melted, you add the scent and give everything a stir. This is either an essential oil or fragrance oil. Some scents will color the soap slightly, so you do this before adding color. At this stage you can add any additives you want in your soap.

Next you add the color you wish to dye your soap. These are typically liquids or powders.

When the soap base is smelling and looking lovely, it’s time to pour it into a mold.

When the soap has solidified it’s time to pop it out of the mold, and admire your creation.

Next: materials and tools.

And it’s at this point that many people stop, turn around and run the other way because they get to words like “lye”, “rubber gloves”, “outdoor or very well ventilated space” and “chemical burn” and decide that this may not be the best hobby for someone with limited indoor space, no outdoor space, and a small child. These types of soap making are called Hot Process (HP) and Cold Process (CP).

Luckily there is a third option for soap making called Melt and Pour (MP for short). With MP soap making you start with a soap base which has already gotten past the whole “volatile chemical” stage, and is ready to be colored, scented, mixed, poured, layered and otherwise manipulated to make something wonderful. When purchasing additives and other ingredients for your MP soap projects please make sure that they’re not designed only for use in CP and HP soap making.

Melt and Pour is a great way to make soap in an urban apartment, minimizing the dangers of chemicals and very hot liquids as much as possible.

1830 Breakfast
Gin, Apricot, Rock Candy, Bacon and Cinnamon Chocolate

Pigs Ear and Split Pea Soup
Smoked Ham Hock, Onion

Ramps “Pata Negra”
Garlic, Prosciutto, Poached Egg

Roasted Pig’s Heart with Spätzel
Thyme, Butter, Brussel Sprout Leaves, St. John’s “Green Sauce”

Tongue-in-Cheek
English Cider, Crackling, Risotto “Rumbledethumps”

Exploding Pig
Apple, Graham Crackers, Pop Rocks, Vanilla Meringue Dusting

Pig Heart

Ramps “Pata Negra”