Thus Far A Fine Fall

I shall always remember the start of Autumn 2010. It began September 29th when me and a student drove to Miami to first, visit sifu (teacher), then meet up again on Saturday October 2nd to see the Rush Time Machine tour at Coral Sky in West Palm; then hit up the 1st Oriental Market for those harder to find items (yuzu mainly but also char siu) and my favorite Banh Mi shop in Orlando. After the return home a trip to Sesame Street Live on Wednesday was on the agenda as was a Saturday of shopping for Halloween decorations and a visit to the pumpkin patch! A man could be in worse situations.

After having read my wife Grace's blog and my sister Tania's blog , and given the coolness of recent events, I thought it was an appropriate time to "resurface".

One of only two signs in the world

I stopped by my sifu's school in Miami to complete the jong (we favor the Cantonese variation). Thus far this has done my kung fu immeasurable good. First the added vocabulary makes it infinitely more fun and interesting to improvise the jong. Second, I know have a point of reference for the way in which mine plays. With mine the arms are considerably more dense and have much less wiggle room at the openings; also I think the trunk may be a bit heavier, actually it just seems more heavy duty in general. What I thought was very cool about the jong at school though, was feeling all the contours in specific areas-- the results of repeated strikes over the years. I wondered if or when (after how long) I'd begin to detect any concavities of the years on mine.
Regardless I now feel as though I am becoming fluent with it. Like someone that can summon rudiments at will, in asymmetric time, while grooving; I am in full exploration mode. Recently my daughter spied me playing with the ideas in section 4 and things were never the same.
"What's that?" She said.
"That's a Jong." I replied.
"Jong." She affirmed aloud.
"Me too?" She inquired.
I immediately lifted her to arm level and she proceeded to "play" the jong. When she'd hit it too hard, she would rub her little hands, then go right back to attempting maneuvers. This was about a week ago. Since then she calls every pole (from swing sets to parking meters) a jong then proceeds to close in and flail about it. I hope this keeps up.

Sifu's Miami Ving Tsun class at around midnight when most people had left

Dahlia on the jong. Filmed on 10/09/10

Mine; debating whether to name it.

Friday October 1st was a great day; morning with mom, lunch at the Shake Shack (which was excellent by the way), a day with my sisters and "The Bot" after procuring my favorite cigars, then dinner at South Garden (more than merely respectable) with Tania.
On Saturday the 2nd, my sisters and I had lunch from La Sandwicherie, (which thankfully have started bottling their dressing) and then drove to West Palm after picking up my student in North Miami.

Excellent burgage, but better frozen custard (not pictured)

The gentleman who hand rolls all of my cigars. He does stellar work!

Later that day
I can go on and on about the show. How it was a little warm but not unbearable. How the obnoxious beer vendors would manifest, with whistles, at the worst possible moments then purposely opt for the route that made the most people move to maximize attention. I was not quiet with my opinions; nor diplomatic (thinking back that was counter productive). Or how Geddy's voice was shaky during Spirit of Radio and Time Stand Still; but came together during Presto and nailed every note since. I think I'll stop now.

Coral Sky used to be my favorite venue. I have never seen a bad show there. Unfortunately the beer vendors ruined some glorious moments.

The next day, Sunday October 3rd, was all about Char Siu and Banh Mi. After spending the night in a Ft. Pierce La Quinta, the next stop was at 1st Oriental Market in Orlando. Their bakery and prepared foods section (where the Char Siu was) were impressive. No luck finding Yamasa brand soy sauce but I did find jellied yuzu (no yuzu juice alas) and the almighty char siu for making my own Banh Mi at home. We then headed to Ba Le Bakery on North Mills avenue for the finest Banh Mi in Florida. It was stellar as usual.

A remarkable Banh Mi from Ba Le Bakery

The baked goods at 1st Oriental Market

Fresh eels.

Minutes later they brought out an entire deep fried pig.

Char siu

The new week had brought with it Sesame Street Live and on Wednesday the 5th; we all went out for pizza and a show. My daughter Dahlia seemed to have a wonderful time and was sufficiently spent for a fitful sleep that night.

Saturday October 9th the look of the day was gorgeous and a family trip to the pumpkin patch, which has become an annual event, was in order. Since we were here early this year we will most likely be back before Halloween as no doubt the Jack-O-Lanterns will have rotted by then. Alas the outside decorations are up and I am armed with a list of seasonally inspired food items (Candy Apple Cake, Graveyard Pudding, Pumpkin Flan, etc..). I actually made the pumpkin flan. I consciously held back on the amount (both volume and varieties) of spices I used since, pumpkin especially, is easily over spiced. The flan is flavored with a dose of vanilla bean, a whisper of mace and a flick of cinnamon. The syrup, is a light-ambered tangerine caramel. The flavor was spot-on perfect; the texture, unfortunately, turned out a little mealy. Next time I shall stick to heavy cream.

At the pumpkin patch. I love The Great Pumpkin theme!


The Pumpkin Flan; molded and unmolded.

Respect the Vegetable: Ratatouille Sandwich

The Ratatouille Sandwich is a bit high maintenance but the results are well worth it. An earlier incarnation was made with a much more superior ciabatta loaf; but this time they were sold out leaving me, instead, with ciabatta rolls. I don't want to flat-out say that they (the rolls) ruined my sandwich, but if I had to do over again, I'd store the components (each vegetable) separately and go back for the loaf the next day.

Why respect the vegetable?
Vegetables had always been an after thought for me; some necessary component to a complete dish. I never really respected vegetables. It all started when I got the idea to marinate some blanched green beans in a soy/mirin/sesame oil/honey/garlic/ginger/scallion/red pepper flake solution. After a brief sauté they were unreal. Long story short: I learned to treat vegetables as you would proteins (try it). I then saw this sandwich. I was inspired to vamp on it.

Here is my version.


Ratatouille Sandwich

1 Loaf Ciabatta Bread
6 Tomatoes (plum, vine, heirloom though preferably local)
1 Eggplant
1 Sweet Onion
2 Red Peppers (Roasted, Seeded, and Peeled)
1 Green Pepper (Roasted, Seeded, and Peeled)
4 Dried Porcini or Shitake Mushrooms
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 Tablespoon Herbs de Provence (My version: Oregano, Basil, Lavender, Rosemary, Thyme)
Mozzarella Cheese
Goat Cheese (or Bleu Cheese)
Balsamic Reduction
Sea or Kosher Salt

Two days before!
Prep Tomatoes
Cut tomatoes in half length-wise, place cut-side down on a parchment-lined sheet pan; brush peanut oil lightly over their skins and place in a 150-200° (F) oven, with the door open, overnight.
Peel and seed tomatoes then place them in a fine mesh strainer, covered with plastic wrap, over a bowl in the fridge overnight.
The next day reserve the liquid and keep tomatoes covered with wrap.

Roast and peel the peppers. Place in fridge after cooling.
Reduce some balsamic vinegar and let cool. Place in fridge after cooling.

On the Day of Consumption
Cook The Eggplant
Cut eggplant into 1/4" discs and assemble them onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Drizzle generously with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Lightly salt and place into a 400° (F) oven and monitor closely until tops are barely dried. Flip them over and lightly salt; continue cooking until, once again, the tops are barely dried. Remove and let cool.

Rehydrate Mushrooms
Place dried mushrooms in a hot, just off the boil, solution that is half chicken stock (preferably homemade) , half red wine, and add a splash of cognac or brandy after the liquid is off the heat but before adding the mushrooms. Let stand for5 minutes, then remove the mushrooms and reserve the liquid.

Caramelize the Onions
Saute the onion in some peanut oil and fresh thyme until caramelized. Salt to taste. Set aside.

Final Reductions
Reduce the liquids from the tomatoes and mushrooms by half to three quarters. Salt to taste. The tomato "juice" will be sweet and intense. The mushroom "sauce" will be only slightly sweet but wonderfully rich and earthy. Set aside.

One Last Condiment
Add chili powder to your favorite mayonnaise to taste. Mix well.

Assemble the sandwich
Place ciabatta cut-side up on a sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and toast in oven set to "Broil" until very lightly toasted. Remove and in the following order assemble the sandwich on the bottom slice.

Drizzle of Mushroom "sauce"
Onions
Mushrooms
Herbs de Provence
Roasted Peppers
Eggplant
Tomatoes
Drizzle of Tomato "juice"
Mozzarella Cheese
Goat Cheese

Place under broiler until cheese is all melty.

Spread chili mayo on top-side bread

Drizzle balsamic reduction over cheeses

Serve open-faced and enjoy.

Formula for Hydration Percentage

The new GQ magazine features a list of what Alan Richman (GQ's resident food critic) believes are the 25 "best" pizza places in the U.S. I won't go into the details of which restaurants made the list (you can find them online already) or why they made the list. The pizza issue did get me thinking about once again making pizza at home. I saw an interview with Anthony Mangieri, owner/pizzaiolo of New York's Una Pizza Napoletana, where his advice to home cooks was to use a very wet dough since home ovens lack the required juice to cook a pizza properly (in excess of 700° F) and will dry out the dough due to its relatively low temperatures (in an excellent resource for pizza making, Jeff Varasano wrote: "Try baking cookies at 75 instead of 375 and see how it goes").

So all this talk about pizza and pizza dough got me thinking about Baker's Percentages and subsequently Hydration. Certain formulas called for hydration to be at around 65-70% (again for the home oven). Immediately I went searching for the mathematical formula for hydration but to no avail. I began to wonder why it was so elusive? I recalled Ruhlman's most recent book Ratio:The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking. I reasoned that where there were ratios, there were percentages. The book states that the basic bread dough has a ratio of 3 parts water to 5 parts flour and the quantity of any other ingredients are negligible.

Eureka!

I have checked the (mathematical) formula against existing dough recipes (formulas) with known hydration percentages and, lo & behold, the numbers work. What follows is a brief excerpt from my personal recipes which I have in HTML format; very much a work in progress but getting closer to done every day. Also, if you spot an error either in concept or computation please let me know. Thank you.

From the file:

"Dough Formulas: Hydration, Measures, & Process

The two most important factors to keep in mind when making bread are Hydration and Process. As far as hydration goes, here's a little equation that explains it all: Hydration = (liquid/dry). Whether you're measuring in grams, ounces, or pounds is irrelevant so long as the units are consistent. Problems arise during inconsistencies in metrics, if you measure your flour by weight and the liquids by volume there is going to be an issue. Without getting too much into the Physics involved (Density as it relates to Mass as it relates to Volume as Mass relates to Weight relates to etc.....) long story short: a fluid ounce of water is close enough to its ounce by weight (an avoirdupois ounce) such that it is negligible for baking if not space travel (1 fl. oz. of water =approx. 1.043 avoirdupois oz of water).
In conventional home cookbooks liquids and dry ingredients are both specified by volume. I suppose the thinking there was a "close enough" approach with respect to varying densities of all liquids and dry goods (both in and of themselves AND how they interrelate!!!!!), and figuring that home cooks will never, ever, need to scale a recipe or formula. What it all leads to is inconsistency. If you measure by volume exclusively and, all things being equal, your breads result in varying degrees of success from batch to batch now you understand why. If you can live with that more power to you and on with the formulae. If you want consistency and the ability to scale up or down, invest in a decent scale and weigh everything. You will yield consistent results and play with hydration to adjust end product to your tastes using the equation above.

Quick example: to find the hydration percentage to Michael Ruhlman's White Bread Ratio (5 flour:3 water)
Hydrtn% = (liquid/dry)*100
Hydrtn% = (3/5)*100
Hydrtn% = .06 * 100 = 60%
Simple algebra will show you how to adjust liquids and/or dry ingredients to achieve a desired hydration (assuming units are in grams for this example)

65% = (liquid/400 g Flour) * 100
.65 = liquid/400 g Flour
400 * .65 = liquid
260 g = liquid "

QED! (well...not really)

Father's Day

When your father dies, say the Irish,
you lose your umbrella against bad weather.

When your father dies, say the Welsh,
you sink a foot deeper into the earth.

When your father dies, say the Canadians,
you run out of excuses.

When your father dies, say the French,
you become your own father.

When your father dies, say the Indians,
he comes back as the thunder.

When your father dies, say the Russians,
he takes your childhood with him.

When your father dies, say the English,
you join his club you vowed you wouldn't.

When your father dies, say the Armenians,
your sun shifts forever.

And you walk in his light.

Thank you Michael Ruhlman (originally posted on his blog).

Crickets and Neglect

Yes yes I know. All I can say is that I promise to have an update shortly. Life has been very good (no tragedies to report) but very busy; I'll tell you all about it...soon.

Song of The Day

Ship of Fools - Robert Plant - Now and Zen

Wishing You A Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Mid-October Weekend Food Extravaganza!

So last Saturday, my favorite day of the week, we went to the McIntosh Florida 1890's Festival with hopes of rewriting history by snuffing out the Sherman Act of 1890 before it started; no avail. The bright side was a booth with homemade jams and preserves made by some McIntosh United Methodist Church congregation members. I only bought one jar just in case it sucked. When I said that I bet their Strawberry-Banana jam would make a vicious Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich the lady behind the table replied with: "You know, I've never thought of that. I mean I love peanut butter and bananas and I love strawberry and peanut butter, but I never thought of that!" Funny how that was the first thing to strike me. Anyway the Strawberry-Banana Jam is superb! Unfortunately they only make it once a year for that festival (argh). Here are some pics (I don't know if that's the church with the jams).

Earlier that morning I had gone to the farmer's market in search of fresh produce for cooking and pickling. I had actually gotten there at about 9:00am and it was almost a different place than to what I was accustomed (usually getting there about 11:00am). For $20.00 I got the most immaculate romaine I've ever encountered, organic grape tomatoes, green onions, sweet potatoes, sweet onions, cucumbers, yellow squash, fresh basil (a strand I never had prior), red and green peppers, and about 2 lbs of green beans!

Here's what 20 bucks got me:

On the way home from McIntosh we stopped at the Gainesville Pride Festival and checked out some Dixie Chicks wannabes and a drag show; both left a little to be desired (though I did live on South Beach for some time so I may have seen some of the better drag shows). Here's a grainy shot of the Pride Festival:

Also over the weekend I made brioche from a recipe that I called Last Ditch Brioche! Every time I attempted brioche in the past, at best the consistency was perilously close to that of Cornbread and at worst it was a desperately-in-need-of-salt brick! While there may have been something more wrong with execution than the recipes themselves, I was about to give up on Brioche entirely. I decided to give it one last shot. If this didn't work it would be over in more ways than one (it is impossible to find real Brioche in Gainesville). I used SteveB's Brioche Nanterre (slow page to load but worth it) recipe from over at Breadcetera.com!
The result? Near perfect! The draw back? When the author states that this will kill your KitchenAid he 'aint kidding. I have the 6 Quart 575 watt KitchenAid Professional stand mixer and it took about one hour of constant kneading until the dough was "satiny". By the time it was complete I could smell the motor! Also I think maybe I just barely over kneaded and I would up the salt by a pinch since I use kosher salt.

Since the author is the perfectionist he is, the formula is, rightfully, represented in weight not volume. I have converted it here, with consideration to the density of each substance, for those of us without the benefit of a scale (soon, yes, soon, it will be).

AP Flour (I used King Arthur Unbleached) ~ 6.85 Cups
Water ~ 4 1/2 Tablespoons
Eggs ~ 6 Large
Salt ~ 2 1/3 teaspoons
Sugar ~ 6 1/2 Tablespoons
Instant Yeast ~ 1 1/2 teaspoons
Butter ~ 3 sticks or 2 ounces

Good luck. Here are some pics:

Close-up to show texture

Toasted with the Church Jam. Unbelievable!

Well it seems like no post is complete without a recipe of some sort; so, I will leave you my burger recipe. See ya' next time!

The Almighty Burger

An important note about burgers

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when making a burger is timing. Timing will either elevate the burger to truly glorious dimensions or condemn it to mediocrity. Here are some general guidelines for timing to ensure proper "burgage":

Rest the cooked patty
Often overlooked but arguably the most important step to an amazing burger is resting the meat. Meats need to rest after cooking and the humble burger is no exception. Rest the patty on a grate or paper towel for no less than 45 seconds and not much more than one minute. Then serve immediately.

Adding cheese
Usually room temperature cheese to the hot side of the patty, just off the fire while resting, is enough to attain an ideal consistency (depending on the cheese). If need be, when just off the fire place the cheesed patty under a salamander (or the broil setting in an already hot toaster oven) until cheese reaches desired consistency. Use thinly sliced or grated cheese of choice. Consider this the resting period.

Adding sautéed vegetables
Sauté while the burger patty is cooking. Begin the sauté either when the patties initially hit the pan, or just after the flip, depending on what is being sautéed and the extent to which it is cooked (caramelized or sweated).

Adding other cooked ingredients
Whether it’s a fried egg, bacon, short ribs, or foie gras make sure the product is just off the fire and the last component added to the burger.

Bread Options
Grilled egg-based rolls are my personal favorite. Usually the first step in making burger is grilling the buns. Heat up equal parts butter and canola oil, cut buns in half, place cut-side down in pan until golden brown. Set aside. While burgers cook, begin "condimensation" (mayo, mustard, etc…).


Giddyup!


Basic Burger Patty

1 1/3 lb Ground Chuck
¼ tsp (about) Kosher Salt
¼ tsp (about) Ground Black Pepper
1/8 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
4 Tblsp Ketchup
3 Green Onions

Yields 3-5 patties

- Mix and cover for at least 1 hour at room temp or over night in fridge.
- Turn on 2 burners to medium and place on them heavy pans (preferably cast iron). Or use the grill!
- On a sheet of parchment paper place a 3 ¾” ring mold and fill with meat mixture until ¾” - 1” high (deep).
- Jiggle the ring mold while lifting it and gently press the meat mixture through the mold onto parchment to extrude.
- Repeat until mixture is gone.
- Place as many patties as your size pan will allow careful not to have them touch each other or the sides of the pan (or they will steam not sear).
- Fry until desired temperature (rare, medium, etc..)
- Add room temperature cheese while resting the patty on grate or paper towel for one minute.
- Assemble Burger

First, October

Alas October! Halloween, pumpkins, vibrant foliage, brisk nights, tolerable days, black and orange and yellow, decorations evoking youth, Haddonfield Illinois (huh?), I'm a sucker for it all! This weekend I shall put up Halloween decorations, including the Autumn wreath on the front door, after an early morning visit to the farmer's market in a last-ditch attempt at the remains of summer's bounty. Recently I'm given to baking so I'm looking forward to perhaps a nice fruit tart and maybe confiting some tomatoes. Over the last two weekends I've made some ciabatta bread which is so delicious that it is usually gone by mid-week! I've modified the Ponsford recipe slightly so that it is easier to work with and yields similar but preferable (to me) results.

Recipe follows but first a pointless rant:

Can anyone please explain how someone as abrasive and clueless as Andrew Knowlton became the restaurant editor for Bon Appetit? His sole qualification (as per wikipedia) seems to be "...worked in the restaurant industry". Yours truly "worked in the restaurant industry" for over ten years, maybe I too can con my way into their hallowed halls?

I'll do the same job for half the salary!

Let's face it, he's nowhere near Jeffery Steingarten (although he's desperately trying to be) and only slightly more reputable than Mo Rocca. He must give good tongue (by that, of course, I mean talking his way into landing good jobs).
And why on Earth is Mo Rocca even sometimes an Iron Chef judge anyway? Why the food media elite's love affair with condescending wannabes? They must give good head (by that, of course, I mean offering insightful and thought provoking view points).

Speaking of food media personas, has Bourdain finally bong-ripped the ultimate most pungent-stickiest-hairiest-chronic-funk-crypt this side of Rasta Nirvana? What else could explain his description of canned seafood as "supernaturally delicious"? Was it a perceived value influenced by the $220.00 price tag (yes for canned seafood)? I refer you to this clip from Penn & Teller's Bullshit for another plausible explanation.

Ciabatta Recipe
The Biga:
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
1 1/3 cups bread flour
2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons rye flour
3/4 cups water

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, stir, and let it stand for 5-10 minutes.
Mix the flours in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Measure 1/2 teaspoon of the yeasted water into the flour mixture and throw the rest away
Add the 3/4 cup room temp water. Dough is firm and resistant to kneading. Add an extra tablespoon water only if absolutely necessary.
Place into a well oiled container, cover completely with plastic wrap and let sit overnight (18–24 hours) at room temperature.

Dough:
2 cups plus 3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
3 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
fermented biga

Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle.
Mix on low speed until a rough dough is formed then increase speed to medium and continue to work the dough until it is fairly smooth, about 5 minutes.
Place the dough into a well oiled roasting pan.

Cover and ferment for 20 minutes.
Knead this way : Instructional Kneading Vid
Repeat above two steps 3 more times

After the last turning let the dough finish proofing for another 70-100 minutes (a total proofing time, with turns, of 2 1/2 to 3 hours).
Heavily flour a couche, tea towels or in my case a clean laundry bag!
Flour the top of the dough and the work surface and turn the dough out.
Cut the dough approximately in half. Gently shape and stretch into rectangles, then loosely fold into thirds like a letter.
Place ciabatte seam-side up on the couche or towels, sprinkle the tops with more flour and loosely cover.
Let them proof until they are very soft and well-expanded, and barely spring back when gently pressed, about 45 minutes.

With a stone or unglazed tile in the oven, preheat to 450 degrees.
When ciabatte are ready to bake, place a piece of parchment paper on a peel. In one fell swoop flip the loaves onto the peel, seam side down, and stretch them very gently to make them rectangular.
Dimple the dough all over with your fingertips, pressing all the way down to the paper (don’t worry—the bread will recover in the oven!).
Slide the loaves on the paper onto the baking stone.
Bake them until very dark brown, 35-40 minutes, rotating halfway through the bake time.
Let cool on a rack.

Here were my results:

Enjoy awesome homemade ciabatta!

Photograph Loaded for Harvest used with permission. Thank you Silliopolous for that wonderful shot!
Also for more on ciabatta and all things baking check out breadcetera.com It really is a wonderful resource (thanks steveb!).
Someday I shall post that "links" section.

Disaster Recovery Mode, Shop Talk and Crossmodal Detour

Disaster Recovery Mode
My hard disk crashed. Thankfully my mac was still covered under AppleCare so after a couple of trips to the Jacksonville Apple store my machine is back and badder than ever!
There were three things that saved me:
1- My iPod and Target Disk Mode (TDM). I backed up the most important things with space leftover to my iPod, then Target Disk Mode let me save everything else to another machine. I was fortunate that TDM worked!
2- MediaFire.com. The ability to remotely store, in unlimited space, backups of backups. Useful for when the backup laptop took a dive! TDM also saved that data.
3- Foxmarks. None of this ever happened as far as my bookmarks were concerned.

I'm still in the process of restoring my machine to former glory (desktop picture, etc..) and once that's done naming it; new hard drive after all.

Shop Talk
Recently I've been given to talking more shop. I devised a unique (I think) revenue model for online publications and with the help of a few friends I'm going to move on this one. It invariably leads to technical considerations which divert thought to things like system architecture and implementation tools. So far I'm leaning toward the almighty open source platforms (Unix/Linux, Apache/Tomcat, Java/PHP/MySQL) but am considering Ruby on Rails and Groovy on Grails; thus talking shop. Also I discovered a tech blog from a former coworker which adds fodder to all the shop talk.

Crossmodal Detour
I've heard it stated that "no art is ever finished, only abandoned". Unfortunately I can't attribute that quote to anyone but I've related to it ever since I started writing my little tunes. However the endless tweaking stage is drawing nigh and the new Nominal Topic album now has a title (you guessed it): Crossmodal Detour. Its release will coincide with the launch of NominalTopic.com which is to be the album's companion web site; layed out like a CD (remember those?) and jewel case print size ready graphics for those inclined. More news to follow.

Intermission

I know it's been a while and now is not a good time either. Here's a quick little humorous something I ran across.

Movie Reviews

The Time is Now Again

Psyched for RUSH tonight in Jacksonville!

Gung Fu of Cooking

Despite the risk of losing both audiences I stand by my title. Let's
start with some definitions. Gung fu (or Kung fu or gongfu): "one's
expertise in any skill." - Wikipedia

Cooking, so far as I can tell, is a skill. In Anthony Bourdain's excellent book Kitchen Confidential he appropriately draws this correlation by citing "Bruce Lee's" (ahem) theory of "economy of motion" when referring to mise en place. But in a more abstract sense, there are certain methodologies which individual chefs have devised that have proven themselves over time. Take Thomas Keller's handling of garlic, for instance, where he blanches and cools the cloves 3 times or Gordon Ramsay's method of using veggies from braising liquid (cooked until on the verge of mush) passed through a china cap or chinoise as a thickening agent for sauces; or Michael Ruhlman's insistence on using water instead of store bought stock. These methodologies are essentially techniques, all of which I've employed with stellar results, from "Grandmasters" of their respective "systems" as it were. They have influenced my own Cooking Kung fu to the extent that upon reaching a critical moment when a decision needs to be made (e.g.: adding the lemon confit before, during or after reducing the blueberry compote) I pause and think: "What would Keller do?" (WWKD). So with these things in mind here is my first picture:

Say No to Packaged Stock

There is really no longer an excuse for this stuff. Stock is so easy to make that the only skill involved is boiling water. Wondering what to do with those leftovers of rotisserie chicken you got at the mega mart 2 days ago or that chicken in your freezer that you haven't quite gotten around to cooking? Make stock! Don't want to take the time to dump some chicken into a pot of water with some veggies you scoured from the fridge? Use plain water for your soups and braising liquids. Don't believe me? Try it first. You'll soon find that using store bought stocks for soups makes about as much sense as using sweetened iced tea in place of water for coffee!

Nominal Topic

Nominal-
Etymology: Middle English nominalle, from Medieval Latin nominalis, from Latin, of a name, from nomin-, nomen name
Date: 15th century
Existing or being something in name or form only <nominal head of his party>

Topic-
Etymology: Latin Topica Topics (work by Aristotle), from Greek Topika, from topika, neuter plural of topikos of a place, of a topos, from topos place, topos
Date: circa 1569
The subject of a discourse or of a section of a discourse

Nominal Topic; more the name of a project than the name of a band despite the linked title. The MySpace page has been severely neglected due to writing more tunes; so new material is on the way. Compositionally and stylistically the album is a bit of a departure (although the latter to lesser degrees). While a tune like The Media Equation off of Context Switch was based on Zimbabwean Chimurenga music, from which many artists have borrowed heavily, this latest one (name under review) has more of a vintage-vibe feel (think Bob Mould meets Stereolab) but still fun (active rhythm sections). The album as a whole? You tell me.