I have been exploring an alternative to syrup which is a bit easier and brings a different flavor profile to pancakes and waffles.

Instead of a juicy topping, I used this new product from the butter people Land o Lakes – its a whipped butter with cinnamon already in it.

To learn more and also enter to win the kewl stuff below in a giveaway visit this page on this blog!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER

Giveaway Details

To Enter:

All you have to do to enter to win this cute prize pack is to leave a comment on this page telling us what new sort of butter you think Land O Lakes should make next!

click here for more details

Contest starts today August 24, 2011 (when this posts) and ends August 31st, 2011, at 5 pm Pacific time (8 pm Eastern time) – that is one week!

Please comment only once. You can enter one more time by tweeting this link – http://bit.ly/oLf79I – and adding this hashtag #myblogspark.

Thanks to the generosity of the CSN Stores, their site Cookware.com and their great social media outreach people I have been given an opportunity to review several kitchen tools that are basic but, in my mind, are “good things to have.”

The one I am going to share with you today is a piece of technology that can be enabling for even the most novice of cooks – a pasta maker.

This one, a CucinaPro Imperia, is a step up from the most basic in that it can be attached to a motor as well as a variety of pasta cutting accessories. I am reviewing it without the motor and I find that using it without a motor is not at all difficult (as some might suggest if you look around on the web).

I have written about making pasta before:

• Simplicity – homemade egg pasta
• Homemade Sprouted Whole Wheat Pasta

In each of those cases (and the many many times I have made pasta without blogging about it) I rolled the pasta dough out by hand and also cut it by hand.

There is a qualitative difference in process between making it by hand (the way I did it anyways) and by pasta machine.

I minimized the amount of folding and kneading of the dough to the very minimum because I am generally the sort to do just that (my hands only have so much strength).

This leads to a heavier thicker dough and also same with the finished pasta.

When you use the pasta maker, as I describe below, you get a much more homogenous pliable dough and you can get thinner pasta strands (if you wish).

These both have their good points. Hand rolled and cut is thicker and “meatier” with more “dente” to it while the pasta machine gives a more standard pasta experience.

The biggest advantage to making your own pasta is that you have 100% control over the quality of the basic ingredients and also, somehow even if made with bargain ingredients, it always tastes more delicious – much more savory and bursting with flavor.

When it comes to pasta – fresh is best!

Spinach Basil Pasta (1 pound)

Ingredients:

• 8 oz cooked spinach greens, well drained and squeezed
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon water

Directions:

Puree the spinach in a blender VERY WELL – you want to molecularize the spinach as much as you can (I use my Vita Mix).

Add the two eggs, oil, and water and mix well.

In a bowl or in a stand mixer, add liquids to the flour and mix until you have a dough.

Wrap with plastic and allow to rest 30 minutes or longer. Overnight is good. You can also freeze it down at this point! To thaw take out in the AM, put in the fridge, will likely be ready for you to shape by evening. I found that my thawed dough was simply fantastic because it had time to meld and hydrate well.

Once the dough has melded/rested, its time to either roll out and cut or to begin to use your pasta maker.

You have to run the dough through the machine to condition it before you make your final sheets and then final pasta shape.

First you make a log of a part of your dough, run it through, fold into thirds, rotate so that its 90 degrees from the direction you fed it in previously. Roll through. Repeat with the folding and turning.

Do this 6-7 times or until the dough takes on a very even pliable consistency – a bit of practice will get you there.

Now you begin to thin out your dough. You will no longer fold your sheet in third but run it through with successively thinner settings on the adjusting button on the side. If you are making ravioli, go for thin. If you are making other types of pasta like fettucini then do not let the sheet get too thin – its again a matter of practice for you.

Once its a thickness you like/need, you can run it through the detachable pasta cutting accessory to get your finished product!

You can now hang it all up to dry a bit and then use immediately (cook in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, depending on your tastes), dry it more for later, or freeze it down for later.

I wanted to test out my new FoodSaver vacuum system that I bought because we have a new freezer (we bought it from Sears – its awesome).

I learned one big lesson – do NOT vacuum pack fresh raw pasta – you will get this:

It mushes your fresh pasta back into dough.

The solution is to freeze it FIRST and then vacuum seal it and then put it back in the freezer.

Product Details:

• 6in wide roller
• Includes double cutter for spaghetti and fettuccine
• Optional motor and attachments

Today I am sharing the results of an experiment I recently did while I had access to a trial Sous Vide Supreme unit.

To the point, I wanted to see what happened when I used this hot water bath for making bread, something that would not take advantage of quite a few aspects of oven baking.

Some of those are:

• dry heat of the oven evaporating moisture from the surface of the dough which leads to gradual drying of dough surface but also, initially, cooling of the dough surface by evaporative cooling
• the slow raising of temperature as is requested in my original recipe (put dough in cold oven then turn onto 400, allowing for final proof/loft in the oven which gives excellent bread)
• the creation of a temperature differential between the surface of the bread (crust zone) and the interior
• the creation of a brown crust due to the Maillard Reaction (where high temperatures cause intermolecular bonding between proteins and sugars and gives rise to the browning), absent in sous vide cooking

This is not the first time that I have played with this machine, I wrote previously about Sous Vide here – St. Patricks day brisket – sous vide style. That brisket was simply amazing! Sous vide cooking is excellent for applications where long slow cooking or really finicky temperature regulation is needed (fish, rare meat preps, etc).

Just as a reminder, sous vide means “under vacuum” and when people refer to this method they usually mean the use of vacuum and hot water bath cooking.

To do this experiment, I used a recipe that I have used many many times before from the Joy of Cooking and specifically the Whole Wheat bread Plus recipe found on page 559 of the 1997 edition.

JoC Whole Wheat Bread Plus

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/2 cup sugar (optional)
• 4 cups unbleached white flour
• 4 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:
Set the sous vide bath temperature to 190 F (if you set it a bit higher, let it get there, and then set temperature to final desired temperature you may have better results). This is the temperature mentioned by bakers as the target finished internal temperature.

Add yeast and sugar to 1/2 cup warm water, allow to rise 10 minutes. If it doesnt get foamy and smell yeasty, do not go forward with this recipe until you get fresh yeast.

After 10 minutes, add everything but the flour and beat until incorporated.

Add 4 cups unbleached white flour and incorporate.

Add 4 cups whole wheat flour and incorporate. At this point you will be kneading the flour into the dough. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth.

Rise in a warm place for 90 minutes (doubled) just once.

Bunch down dough and then form smallish baguette shaped loaves and then proceed with experimental part of this recipe, below.

Put dough into sous vide bag.

Seal bag and pull a vacuum.

Put into sous vide machine and leave for about 1 1/2 hours. You will have to prod your bread at times, perhaps even open the bag and check the internal temp or moistness of the bread to get a feel for what is going on.

Remove bread and this is what you get.

I sliced them in half and then toasted them to make a sort of garlic bread concept.

The bread came out like bread which was the main hack. The exterior doesnt have a nice crust because of the method but it didnt come out slimy, just sort of springy. Might be a great way to make bao?

The crumb was dense and not as flavorful as this recipe can yield.

So, I made bread in the sous vide but I wont again because the baking in the oven yields a superior result that cant even be recaptured via toasting.

Does the idea of mixing pomegranate juice with iced coffee make your eyes bug out like the cute little lamby slippers above?

POM has done this craaazy thing with their POM iced coffees.

.. (click for more) ..

I recently received a case of really cute 8 ounce POM pomegranate juices sent to me by the kind people at POM Wonderful.

Pomegranates are the mythical or iconic symbol of fertility…… To read more of this review, please visit the Papaya Ice Cream with POM syrup review.

This is an event that the ministry is vigorously promoting – Oishii Japan. I was given a few delightful minutes to chat with, via interpreter, the Deputy Director of the International Trade and Tariff Team in the International Affairs department of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr. Masashi Itoh.

He was very kind to give us the time he did and he was very patient with our many questions about their efforts, Japanese food, and cultural things like the proper way of handing one another their business card.

The take home message that I really appreciated was that Japanese food is about more than just sushi (it really is!) and that the Japanese government is interested in promoting the exquisite quality and breadth of variety that typifies their food and cuisine.

I would give hen’s teeth to be a food blogger in Japan, exploring the ancient as well as new cuisines that Japan has evolved.

There was a great variety of samples provided that included salmon, hamachi yellowfin tuna from Dainishi company, wasabi avocado by Kinjirushi, delicate crab, unagi, salmon roe by the Nomura Trading Company, and a resplendent wakame salad from The Marine Foods Corporation.

Here are a couple shots of the crab dish. A fellow photographer who was competing with me all night to shoot things decided she needed a shot of me eating this crab morsel. Somewhere out there in the Japanese web-o-sphere is a cheesy image of me scarfing this down. Hope I never run across it!

Here are a couple of shots of the wakame salad that I could NOT get enough of. It has this plump crispiness when you bit into it, the flavors (sesame, wakame, other more mysterious aspects) explode in your mouth. It was fantastically refreshing.

They shared delightful unagi.

We had this composite fish ball sort of food that is really quite delicious. This is something that is common in asian cuisine but we do not tend to find it here as part of the Japanese restaurant food cuisine.

Hamachi teriaki (yellowfin tuna)

Sashimi yellowfin

Salmon roe

It was a delicious (did I say that before?) and entertaining evening. I look forward to possibly attending again next year!

As with any event relating to Japanese customs, they provided us with gifts, including this cute shrimp sushi pen!

First, I would LOVE to hear from you all how you personalize your ramen!

What IS in your ramen?

Are you Ramen-Orthodox who likes it plain?

Are you a Ramen-Liberal who likes to make it different every time?

I am not ashamed to say that there are times when the family just wants a certain sort of food and no “healthy” alternative will do. For some families this might be mac & cheese or frozen pizza or twinkies, for us its ramen noodles.

Ramen noodles are ok, if its an occasional treat. (ok, I have a hard time eating them because I had WAY too much of them in college and grad school)

My problem with ramen noodles is that I get bored with it, easily. Until this iteration, I had only experimented with ramens insofar as adding a beaten egg to the noodles after boiling and seasoning to add some protein. This has never appealed to my family so its not been made much.

With the family members crying out for ramen and my being crazy-bored with the unfortunate limp things, I decided to branch out a bit and have the ramen travel to a new and, hopefully, exciting land.

What I came up with was an odd combination of artisanal sustainably-grown ground beef raised on the Golden Acres ranch in Waterloo, New York, homegrown organic tomatoes, organic green onions, and organic oregano, MSG-loaded Del Taco taco seasoning, MSG-loaded ramen noodle flavoring and MSG-loaded ramen noodles. If I make this again, I might need to either simply use carbon monoxide treated ground beef and pesticide and MSG treated veggies from the grocery store or organic MSG-free ramen and my own mix of organic taco seasonings so that there is not such a karmic clash!

This recipe is not earth shattering, its obvious! I just thought I would put it together like this to make it easy.

Mexi-Cali Ramen served in mini-pumpkin bowls

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 packet Taco Seasoning
• 1 tomato, cubed
• 3 green onions, confetti dice
• sprig of fresh oregano
• 5 packets ramen noodles, chicken flavor (more or less, up to you)
• 1 pat butter per noodle batch
• 5 mini pumpkins

Directions:

Brown the beef and then prepare as per the taco seasonings packet, adding in the fresh tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano, and the white part of the diced green onions (save the green part for garnish).

Prepare the ramen noodles such that you remove the noodles from the boil-water, drain, add a bit of butter and a sprinkle of the MSG flavoring packet. Toss in a bit of the green onion dice and more chopped fresh oregano too.

Hollow out the mini pumpkins.

Put ramen noodles in the pumpkin bowl. Spoon some of the taco meat on top. Garnish with diced green onion and a bit of fresh oregano.

Related Posts:

• Ramen: Nothing lost in translation

Technorati Tags: personalize, ramen, Orthodox, plain, Liberal, twinkies, ramen noodles, college, grad school, egg, protein, artisanal, sustainably, ground beef, homegrown, organic, tomato, green onion, oregano, MSG, taco, seasoning, carbon monoxide, pesticide, karmic, Mexi-Cali Ramen served in mini-pumpkin bowls, butter, pumpkin, onion

I would like to introduce you to a product made by the Tiger Tiger company that I found at my big box grocery store here in Massachusetts (USA) that has wowed me to such a degree that I am actually writing about it here. If you are a regular reader, you would know that I don’t usually do this sort of thing.

I have used several of their Indian Sauces:

• Kashmiri Mild Korma Sauce
• Peshwari Murgh Tikka Masala
• A creamy butter sauce I can not find listed on their site

Tiger Tiger makes much more than these three sauces. They make Thai, Japanese, and Chinese sauces.

Their product range is wide, including:

• gluten-free noodles and nutty snacks
• many more coconut, wasabi, rice snacks
• cooking sauces
• salad dressings
• asian dipping dressings and sauces
• marinades
• soups
• various noodles and rices
• Indian and Thai spices and pastes
• all sorts of chutneys
• preserved exotic fruits and vegetables
• coconut products
• gift baskets (which they oddly call hampers)

One thing I know about Indian food is that the sauces, which can make or break a recipe, are long labors of love. I do not keep the whole Indian spice arsenal on hand at home so I never cook Indian recipes.

These Tiger Tiger Indian sauces taste so fantastic and are so useful to make just about any protein seem like a meal from the finest of restaurants.

If I had known that their product photography was so fantastically woeful, I would have shot the jar before I used it. For the purposes of immediacy, I have put one of their photos of the Kashmiri Mild Korma sauce here.

I am not at all certain what they are thinking using photos like this on the web. You can see from the packaging that they have done a professional job of branding and packaging but it is not well conveyed on their site.

What matters to me is the taste but its hard to blog such substandard hazy fuzzy photos!

The other night, I pulled out the Kashmiri Mild Korma sauce and, while crossing my fingers, poured it over some browned ground turkey. I usually never buy ground poultry but the price was right.

The korma sauce transformed the vague ground turkey into a resplendent delightful sauce that I poured over some authentic basmati rice.

For the basmati rice, I bought a tiny package of real basmati rice from Tilda.

Visit the Tilda site for sure. Their site is the diametric opposite of the Tiger Tiger site. Its beautiful, functional, evocative.

Try this link within the Tilda site for some Indian Recipes.

The directions were completely different than regular rice – boil one cup of rice in 6 cups of water for 8-10 minutes and then RINSE with boiling water.

Wild huh?

I let go of my “ingrained” Colombian rice-training and followed the directions to yield knock-out basmati rice.

I apologize for not having photos of any of this but it was night and we ate it so fast, there was no chance to shoot.

Bottom Line:

If you can find the Tiger Tiger products, buy some and try it.

I can see using this with anything from ground beef, pork, poultry, and small pieces of such meats, to tofu.

I am going to get another jar (or 10!) and use it on some cod and also some shrimp.

I just can’t wait!

Let me know if you try it too!

Where to buy online:

• Tiger Tiger

Technorati Tags: Massachusetts, Kashmiri, Korma, Peshwari, Murgh Tikka Masala, butter, Indian, spice, India, Tiger Tiger, Indian, sauce, resplendent, authentic, basmati, rice, Tilda

I received a sample of the 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar some time ago and it has been quite a journey as I developed recipes for this interesting product.

The Partida Tequila company makes their tequila, as you might expect, from blue agave plants, a succulent that dwells in the arid lands around Jalisco, Mexico. One can also make nectar from these interesting plants and let me assure you, this nectar is quite a wonder. For one, it is sweeter than table sugar. It looks like a thin honey as it is less viscous. It tastes a bit like honey although it’s flavor is not a dominant thing. The most important thing, ok – to me, is that it is fantastically low on the glycemic scale.

Get this, pure agave nectar has a GI of 11 while white sugar is 100. A 10th of the glycemic impact of sugar!

Today I have two drink recipes and one food recipe to show you just a very few possibilities for working with agave nectar.

The first is one I tested just today. Its a nod to the south of the border origin of the nectar as it uses chocolate and it’s consistency is something Montezuma would love – thick and potent.

Blue Agave Nectar Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

• 1/4 C chocolate powder
• 1/2 C hot water
• 4 tablespoons 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar
• Pinch of cinnamon
• 3 squares Ghirardelli 100% Cacao Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
• 3/4 C Fat Free 1/2 and 1/2

Directions:

Combine agave nectar, cinnamon, chocolate powder and hot water in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Mix until incorporated. Add Ghirardelli chocolate squares and then the fat free 1/2 and 1/2, heat until its smooth. Froth with an immersion blender. Do not not add marshmallows if you want to keep the GI low.
I had my rather fussy toddler give it a try and she loved it, even though it was made with grown-up unsweetened chocolate. She liked it with and without the marshmallows.

The second recipe is one that you will see all over the web and I will repeat it here but, since I do not drink tequila, I have not taste tested it. Its not hard to imagine that it is delicious!

Partida Agave Margarita

• 1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
• 3/4 oz 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar
• 3/4 oz spring water
• 1.5 oz Partida Tequila Blanco, Reposado, or Anejo

Mix it all up in a bucket (or your favorite container), and serve over ice or chilled in a margarita glass.

The third and final recipe is one I developed a couple of weeks ago and, as you likely remember, covered in more detail at this post here.

Irish Steel Cut Oatmeal sweetened with agave nectar and passion fruit gastrique

Ingredients:

• 2 passion fruits
• 3 unsulfered dried organic apricots, sliced thinly
• 1 tablespoon 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar
• 1 teaspoon Alessi White Balsamic Fig Infused Vinegar
• 3 tablespoons water

Directions:

In a small pan over medium heat, combine the scooped out pulpy seeds of the 2 passion fruits, the sliced apricots, 1 tablespoon of the Agave Nectar, 1 teaspoon of the fig vinegar, and 3 tablespoons of water. Simmer this down until it thickens to your desire consistency. You may need to add some water to thin or simmer longer to get it thicker, up to you! I put the syrup through a strainer to get rid of most of the midnight black seeds (which have these very interesting little divots across their surface) as they didn’t seem very edible to me.

When I served this all up, I put some agave nectar in the oatmeal and stirred it up. I put the oatmeal into the bacon round (secured with a bit of wooden skewer) and then drizzled it with the gastrique and added a bit of apricot. The remainder of apricots were put into a passion fruit rind. Do NOT eat raw passion fruit rind (has cyanide compounds in it).

I hope that these three recipes opened your eyes to the possibilities of agave nectar.

I plan on doing more work with chocolate because when I was making the hot chocolate, I saw how perfectly agave nectar married/melded with the chocolate (I feared it might seize but it didn’t).

Low GI chocolate sauce, oh how thou callest my name.

Products of Interest:

• Partida Tequila Blanco, Reposado, or Anejo
• 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar
• Alessi White Balsamic Fig Infused Vinegar
• Ghirardelli 100% Cacao Unsweetened Baking Chocolate

Sites of Interest:

• Partida Tequila

Technorati Tags: The Spirit World, Well Fed Network, 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar, recipe, product, Partida Tequila company, tequila, blue agave plants, Jalisco, Mexico, nectar, lycemic, agave, glycemic impact, agave nectar, chocolate, Montezuma, Blue Agave Nectar, Ghirardelli, cinnamon, Ghirardelli chocolate, marshmallow, Partida Agave Margarita, lime juice, Irish, Steel Cut, passion fruit, apricot, Alessi White Balsamic Fig Infused Vinegar, oatmeal, gastrique

This soda had several good things going for it:

• The grapefruit flavor is very delicate, not overpowering or astringent. I am a great lover of ruby red grapefruit so a stronger flavor would have been fine by me but I appreciate the delicate nature of this drink’s flavor profile.
• Even though this drink is spiked with a variety of energy-promoting substances, it didn’t taste like a chemistry experiment.
• I definitely felt energetic as I did my modest walking workout.

I have tried other energy drinks, especially the sugar-free types, and I never cared for their face-puckering brain-walloping extreme nature. I recently picked up one on my drive to what promised to be an energy-zapping photo shoot and I had a hard time finishing it. By the time I got to the bottom of it’s slim little can, there was a sort of acidic, ascorbic, horrifying sludge that was worse than just about anything I have ever drank.

This Hi Ball grapefruit energy drink is like the polar opposite of that experience.

They make:

• Orange
• Wild Berry
• Lemon Lime
• Grapefruit
• Club soda
• Tonic Water

The ingredients you will find in the Ruby Red Grapefruit flavored drink includes:

• Taurine
• Caffeine
• Guarana
• Ginseng
• Vitamin-B
• No sweeteners – no sugar

You will also see a page on various athletes who are spokespeople for this company. I mention this because its a trip reading about these people and then thinking how I am so NOT like them. I have no illusions that this drink will turn me into a global-class olympic skier or skateboarder, but I do think its a good choice for the adult who needs some energy in the short term without the sugar crash that you get after the loathesome energy bars and drinks that are thrust at the public as if they were actually GOOD for the body.

I would not recommend any of these caffeine and herbal amended drinks for kids and young adults. There is time enough later for them to become addicted to caffeine. They should have enough energy to do the kid things they need to do.

Give the Ruby Red Grapefruit Energy drink and the other flavors a try!

Technorati Tags: taste test, bubbly, drink, treadmill, grapefruit, astringent, flavor profile, spiked, energy, chemistry, experiment, workout, sugar-free, sludge, Hi Ball, polar opposite, Orange, Wild Berry, Lemon Lime, Grapefruit, Club soda, Tonic Water, Taurine, Caffeine, Guarana, Ginseng, Vitamin-B, sweetener, athlete, olympic, skier, skateboard, crash