How to eat Joey, or kangaroo meat saves earth from global warming...

I was reading an article on the New Scientist, that said that a lot of meat eaters such as cows produce a great deal of methane, which contributes a great deal to global warming (the site claims 18%). Microbes break down the food into hydrogen, CO2 and fatty acids. Some microorganisms called methanogens consume to hydrogen and CO2 and produces the methane that is then excreted out.

Supposedly they are developing vaccines as well as feed additives that can reduce methane production (by absorbing the hydrogen with sunflower oil or coconut oil). There's also the possibility of using legumes to slow the growth of methanogens.

Something that was suggested is to eat kangaroos, which is supposedly a flavorful meat, that is low in fat. This means that you shouldn't really cook it beyond medium or even medium rare otherwise it becomes tough. I found a site that had a bunch of kangaroo recipes. It's hard to think that in Australia that kangaroos are a pest.

Interesting, if global warming becomes a real great issue, would it behoove governments to force people to become vegetarians?

Gaston Lenotre

In discussing pate de fruit on chowhound, it came up that Gaston Lenotre a famed pastry chef from Paris had pate de fruit that didn't use pectin. I

Chef Gaston was born in Normandy and the son of Eleonore, the first woman chef of Paris, and chef of the Rothschild family. He founded a bakery dynasty and a school (Ecoles Lenotre), which has produced some books that I have. I believe he's retired and still living in the Loire valley.

I think Nita said that she went to the school to learn some pastry things.

Anyway, almost all pate de fruit recipe I've seen attributed to Chef Lenotre, has references to Certo which is a liquid pectin. I know someone visiting Paris, and I'll ask her if she has some time that she can look around for some cookbooks.

Panna Cotta

I made panna cotta for my niece and nephew Aurora and Alex respectively, when the family came over for family dinner. I cut down the ingredients because I only had 1 pint of hc. The kids loved it and wanted more. Maybe I should have added a coulis but I felt lazy and didn't want to add too much to sugar.

1 cup of milk
6 tablespoons of sugar
2 3/4 teaspoons of gelatin
3 cups of hc
3 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Heat milk with sugar, until sugar is dissolved, add gelatin
Mix hc and vanilla extract and pour into ramekins.

The texture was great, but I'm not sure if it set long enough because when I plated it it couldn't retain it's shape. I had only chilled it and placed it in the refrigerator for about 4 hours.

Tres Leches Cake

Will have to try this, the cake seems to be a milk sponge cake.
Pastel de Tres Leches
This version makes 10 generous portions.

CAKE:

1 cup sugar
5 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

MILK SYRUP:
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy (or whipping) cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp dark rum

GARNISHES:
Fresh whipped cream or good quality vanilla ice cream
Cocoa powder
Sliced fresh mango (or the fruit of your choice- tropical fruits pair nicely with this cake)

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350oF. Generously butter a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.

CAKE:

• Whisk 3/4 cup sugar and the egg yolks until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
  
• Fold in the milk, vanilla, flour and baking powder.
• Whisk egg whites to soft peaks, adding the cream of tartar after 20 seconds. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating until the whites are glossy and firm, but not dry.
  
• Fold whites into the yolk mixture.
  
• Pour this batter into the buttered baking dish.Bake the cake until it feels firm and an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 30-45 minutes. Let the cake cool completely in baking dish.
  
• Pierce the cake all over with a fork, taking care to not tear it up.

MILK SYRUP: Combine the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, cream, vanilla and rum in a mixing bowl. Whisk until well blended. Pour the syrup over the cake, spooning the overflow back on top, until it is all absorbed.

All the Buttery Goodness.....

I didn't realize that there was a difference with american butter and european butter, where european butter is made with slightly fermented cream. This was reported in the New York Times

Also when creaming butter with sugar, the temperature of the butter shouldn't rise above 65F since at 68F it will melt and the water and butterfat separates. This might explain why warm dough is a problem with some pastries.

Some butter that is recommended is "Kerrygold from Ireland, unsalted Kate’s Homemade Butter from Old Orchard Beach, Me., and a “limited edition” cultured butter from Organic Valley, made from May to September, when cows are outside at least part of the time, eating grass rather than feed."

Chocolate and Wine tasting...

Some had asked about wine tasting with chocolates which is something that I was trying to do by coming up with chocolates formulated for wine tasting... specifically red wine as opposed to dessert wine.

The chocolates couldn't be particularly sweet, which could clash with the wine (making it more appropriate for dessert wine) and wines that are very acidic can cause problems. A lot of times the wines true acidity can be masked by it's sugar levels and flavors, which would make it a problem to pair with chocolate.

I haven't made chocolate in a while but I should do something soon.

Biodynamics

I was curious about biodynamics and looked it up... it is more stringent than an organic label, and appears to be used mostly for wine though you'd think it'd work for farmed food as well. I guess that for groceries the premium is too high... sounds like it's time for fancy marketing...

Anyways, most of the work appears to have been done by an Austrian philosopher named Rudolf Steiner. Besides crop rotation and composting, stuff that organic farmers tend to use, biodynamic farmers use special plant, animal and mineral preparations as well as the influences of the sun, moon, planets and stars. It believes that the farm is an organic unit and tries to keep it in harmony. Seeds are used from last years harvest, composting utilizing parts that are not used.

Supposedly it's affects on crops is tremendous, but some of the rituals, especially with the lunar calendar seems rather hocus-pocus.

Doughnut Plant

Had gone to the doughnut plant today on Grand Street, haven't been there in like 2 years and it was great. As soon as I arrived with my friend, the place got packed... they had some interesting doughnuts available.

Cake doughnuts- Blackout, Pomegranate, Tres Leches
Yeast doughnuts- Valharona, Blackout, Pomegranate, Tres leches, Marzipan.

All very tasty but I think rather sweet, except for maybe the blackout. The blackout has a chocolate cream center and some sort of chocolate dirt on top. Most of the flavors for the doughnuts are in the glaze, though the tres leches has three types of creams (which I didn't get to try). The flavors were good.

Course if I was to make something like a marzipan doughnut, I'd put almond paste into the dough, same with pomegranate, etc. I guess one question would be would the flavor survive baking.

But they're certainly much better than dunkin doughnuts!

Chai Tea

Just found this recipe for chai, which is a nice mild flavored tea...

• 2 whole cloves, lightly crushed
• 1 4-inch cinnamon stick
• 1 (1/2-inch) piece fresh ginger, sliced thinly
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed
• 6 whole cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons unflavored loose black tea (such as Darjeeling)

Another recipe

• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger root; grated
• 1 whole star anise; broken up
• 1 teaspoon orange peel; grated
• 4 pieces cinnamon sticks; 1 1/2 inch
• 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
• 10 whole cloves
• 5 whole peppercorns

With a quarter cup of black tea and a teaspoon of vanilla.

Both use milk (3 cups for both) water (3/5) and black tea (3tbls/1/4 cup).

I don't like milk so I will try it without it... also there are different types of cardamon green and black (I think). Green is usually used for pastries... maybe I'll try it with that.

Quinoa

Quinoa is an interesting seed that can be substituted for grains such as rice and barley. It was the main staple of the Incas. It cooks much like grain requiring 2:1 water ratio and plumps up about 3x to 4x it's original size, and cooks in about 15 minutes.

It has a high protein content (about 12-18%) and balanced set of amino acids, and is high in magnesium and iron. For nutrition info see here.

Once cooked the bran forms a tail like structure which gives quinoa it's fluf and crunchy like textures. It has a slightly nutty taste and can add some flair to food.

Only drawback is that it can be expensive at $4-5 a pound in a store. Healthfood stores carry it in bulk at about $2 a pound.

Ceramic non-stick

Cuisinart has a ceramic non-stick line called Green Gourmet which looks interesting. It has the benefit of being nonstick but not a coating that has been applied, which can wear off over time like teflon or others like it.

Ceramic, depending on the type can be very durable and non-porous, the trick is to get it to bond to a metal surface and make it durable (a lot of ceramic can just crack).

Supposedly, I think Todd English has a non-stick ceramic line but I haven't seen it, and it's suppose to not wear well.

Also confusing, Cuinsart has a greencuisine line which seems to be made from similar ceramic technology, however the build quality of the pots and pans are lower it seems. The handles and the shell of the pots and pans are thinner.

An annoying factor is that Bed Bath and Beyond has a special on a griddle for only 29.99 but it never seems to be in stock! Was hoping to get to try one before Christmas.

Applesauce, Baking and you

Scrounged around on Chowhound and the like, looking for information on applesauce. It appears that the pectin in applesauce behaves a little like oil, surrounding flour and can give the moistness, like when oil or other fats are used.

Applesauce is not a replacement for oil though. Some people say to use measure for measure of oil with applesauce, others say use half and add a little oil to keep the same texture.

It seems that it can be used as a replacement for eggs (1/4 cup), but not butter.

In baking I've emulsified sugar with butter at times (for orange tea cakes) otherwise the teacake will be too sweet. I don't think that applesauce would necessarily work there.

Problems using applesauce is that it can make the goods dense and chewy (good maybe for brownies?)