The Juicy Details

(Or: How to easily juice a lemon, lime or other citrus fruit.)

If you're like me, it was a mystery (pre-YouTube) on how to easily and/or effectively juice those pesky citrus fruits. Every time a recipe called for "the juice of one lime" or "the juice of half a lemon," I resorted to roughly estimated squirts from those plastic fruit-shaped bottles of juice that you find slightly hidden in your grocer's fresh produce department. While this is certainly not the worst way to address such ingredients, it's not nearly as good as that from fresh fruit.

So, I turned to YouTube. I was astounded that all it took was a simple spoon to make this process easy. Or, was it? The first time I tried the spoon technique, I was rewarded with a lot of juice. And, disappointingly, a lot of pulp. Thus, I purchased a strainer (a fine mesh one, not the one I use for pasta, etc.). This actually worked really, really well. I was happy. I was content. I was not searching for a better method.

Until the day a better method accidentally presented itself.

As anyone with the internet & modern convenience devices certainly knows, the best way to extract the maximum juice from a citrus fruit is to give it a dozen or so seconds in the microwave. (You didn't now this? Well, now you do.) So here I was, strainer & spoon ready, when I popped the recipe-required lime in the microwave for a bit of warming.

But...
I hit the "minute-plus" button on the microwave (instead of the actual seconds)...
and walked away to complete another step of the recipe.
Oh, dear - what happened next!

At about 50 seconds, I heard a loud "pop" followed by a "hiss." I ran to the microwave and hit the stop button, expecting total disaster. Instead, I found an intact lime with a tiny bit of juice underneath it. I carefully pulled it out (it was REALLY hot), and put it on the cutting board to cool.

After I'd let it cool, I went to cut it and discovered a small hole. For some reason, I just picked up the fruit and started to squeeze, and wow... it was like the plastic lime-shaped bottle, only easier & fresher! The juice came out, the pulp stayed in - it was amazing - so much juice! (And, no strainer or spoon required - bonus.)

In case it was a fluke, I tried it again - with the same results (this test was a lemon). I began to think DANGER, this thing could explode! - so on the next try I pre-cut an exit hole. Don't do this. It did NOT work as expected. The lime picked it's own exit hole and now I was left with 2 holes to extract from. It still worked, but it was a bit messy, plus I don't think it cut down on the explosion risk much - just saying.

So, now you know, you can juice your citrus easily with just the microwave. Put it on, stand by (from a safe distance, because sometimes they probably will just explode) and when you hear the "pop" hit stop. Please, use CAUTION, CAUTION - I have no scientific knowledge of when or how this could go wrong, but I'm sure it could. Plus, they get REALLY HOT (use oven mitts!). In the meantime, your microwave will never smell better.

Bakin' with BACON!

Recently, I've become obsessed with Bacon. Not normal "bacon is wonderful with all things" obsessed, but "what can I do with bacon that most people don't do with it" obsessed.

I blame Bacon Fest 2013. It was filled with such promise, and while everybody - both attendees and vendors - were great, the food was, well, greatly disappointing. In fact, it was just plain BAD.

I knew I could do better. And that's what I've been working on ever since.

There are several things up my sleeve; I've got a major science experiment going on in the kitchen right now. Stay tuned for the "sizzling" developments!

This Old Dog Learns a New Trick: The Superior Pot Roast

We love roasts. Pork roasts, beef roasts, weenie roasts, celebrity roasts - we love them all. My personal favorite is the old-fashioned Beef Pot Roast. It's sleeting outside and since Winter looks like she's just around the corner, it seemed like the perfect night for a fork-tender, melt in your mouth Pot Roast.

Like most cooks, I've been making Pot Roasts for years, never varying from the standard "water, flour, veggies, seasonings, all dumped in the crock pot" method. And I've always had good results. But one day, I was faced with a non-standard cut of meat and went in search of the proper way to cook it. And boy oh boy, did I come up with a total winner.

The Basic Method:

• Take your cut of meat and place it in a hot, dry pan (cast-iron is ideal, if you have one), giving it a quick sear on all sides. (Don't skip this step! Seriously, it makes all the difference.)
• Place 4 beef bouillon cubes in the bottom of your crock pot. Place the browned meat on top of the cubes like they were little trivets.
• Cook on Low in crock pot for 6-8 hours. Serve & enjoy!

That's right - 3 steps & 2 ingredients. Does it get any easier than that?

But what about the seasonings? The vegetables? The LIQUID???

I know, I know - but the first time I made this I wanted some Au Jus for French Dip Sandwiches, and I didn't want to taint the juice with any additional flavors. And my oh my, was I glad I did it that way.

Tonight, I complicated the recipe a bit, but it turned out to be THE BEST POT ROAST EVER (yes, EVER - I didn't know that the meat could have so much flavor without any of the added liquids or my standard Worchestershire sauce or anything else - not even salt or pepper!), so I'll share what I actually did.

The Best Pot Roast You'll Ever Eat - Promise!

• Take one roast (I used a standard "Pot Roast" but tonight, but you can use whatever hunk of meat you have.
• Heat a large skillet (cast-iron is best, if you've got one) over medium-high heat.
• Using tongs or a meat fork or whatever you have, give each side of the meat a quick sear - you'll know it's enough when the meat gets a little brown and kind of shiny. Like this:
  
  
  
  
  
• Make 3 or 4 little slits on the least fatty side of the roast (we'll call it the "top") and slide a small, peeled whole clove of garlic into each slit. (This turned out to be one of the major flavor success factors - try it, you'll never skip this step after you do; use two smallish cloves per pound of meat - try and get them near the center. If your roast is thicker, feel free to put some into the sides.)
• Place 4 Beef Bouillon cubes in the bottom of your crock pot like little trivets to hold up the meat. (If you're trying to reduce your sodium intake, look for sodium-free bouillon cubes.)
• Place your meat on top of the bouillon cubes, set crock pot on low, and set a timer for 4 hours.
• What if you don't have a crock pot? Just use any deep, oven-safe cooking vessel (a Dutch Oven is perfect for this!) and know that the average crock pot temperature on low is 200°F and on high is 300°F.

Now you've got a dirty pan. What to do, what to do? I know - we'll deglaze it!

• Reheat your pan over medium-high heat.
• Add a small amount of liquid (about 1/4 cup) to the hot pan. (I used sweet white wine, but you can use ANY wine, some liquid broth or even just water).
• Use a pan-appropriate utensil to scrape up the brown bits and basically scrape the leftover meat bits from the bottom of the pan.
• Pour from pan and set aside - we'll add it to the crock pot later (yes, LATER).

Meanwhile, for your veggies...

What, you mean we're not going to just toss them into the crock pot with the meat? Nope, not if you want a truly flavorful roast. Today we're going to go the extra mile and make this dish truly special.

Here's how:

• Take that "still-dirty" pan and add 1 Tbl. Water, 1 tsp. Worchestershire and 1 Tbl. Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
• Add whatever vegetables you like with your roast. I used 2 whole baking potatoes, washed, skin-on rough chopped; 3 large carrots, cleaned and rough chopped; 1 stalk of celery, washed and cut into about 3 pieces. (I also used 1 whole yellow onion, peeled and cut into about 1" wedges (like quartered, but smaller quarters), but if you like onions, don't add them to the pan yet.)
• Sprinkle with 1/8 tsp. Beef Bouillon Granules, 1/4 tsp. Harley's Seasoned Salt (Never tried Harley's? You should - it's addicting.), and just a bit of fresh-ground Black Pepper and some good quality Sea Salt (here's a place that sells ONLY 100% natural salts, in case you need a source - spoiler alert: It's me!).
• Give it a quick "toss" (I personally stir it, because otherwise it ends up all over the kitchen), and add more Olive Oil, if it seems like it needs it.
• Put over low heat with some kind of cover for about 15 minutes.
• Remove from heat, add the Onions mentioned previously, stir and place in a cold oven, uncovered. (You can transfer to an oven-save vessel if your pan has a plastic handle or is otherwise not oven-safe.) Set oven for 350° F and let cook for 1 hour, stirring a time or two.
  

When your veggies have been in the oven for an hour, or at the 4 hour mark on the crock pot if that hasn't happened yet, add the roasted veggies to the crock pot. Try to maneuver everything so that the root veggies are on the bottom, then the meat, most of the onions on the top. (It doesn't have to be perfect.) Also add the liquid you set aside from the pan de-glazing.

What if you still don't have enough liquid? How much IS enough?

The perfect amount of liquid in your crock pot, assuming that most of the veggies are on the bottom and the meat is on top, is enough so that the liquid line - now that the meat is mostly cooked and it's given up all it's going to contribute - about halfway up the hunk of meat. You don't want it fully submerged (that's called stewing, and it leaches the flavor from the meat), but you don't want it out of the liquid entirely.

Tonight, I do NOT have enough liquid, so I'm adding some restaurant-quality Au Jus mix & water to bring the liquid level up to midway up the side of meat.

Continue to cook on low for 2-4 hours, or until you're ready to eat.

I'm watching my carbs, so all I had was the meat. I have NEVER had meat with so much flavor. THIS IS THE WAY TO DO IT - I'm convinced!

Try it and you'll be convinced too.

Is it Chile in Here, or is it Just Me?

Recently I've been "hatching" up a plan for Red Green. No, not the Canadian comedian you see on PBS if you're a night owl. This Red Green refers to the most common question heard here in New Mexico restaurants, "Will that be red or green?" What they are referring to is chile, specifically that which grows in a little town called Hatch. If they're grown anywhere else, they are called Anaheim peppers and even though the ones grown in Hatch are the same variety, they have a distinctive taste due to both the climate and soil in the town.

This time of year (August-October) every grocery store, Wal-Mart and produce stall in the state of New Mexico has a huge "raffle cage" out in front of them. There will be a line of customers waiting for their turn at the cage. What are they doing, you ask? They're waiting to get their Hatch chile roasted. See, they toss 40 lbs. of it into that cage, light up a propane burner underneath it and the employee who drew the short straw gets to turn, turn, turn that cage until the chile within is blistered and blackened. Why would you want to torture the chile like this? First, it brings out some of the sugars (think carmelization). And, second, it's the only way to peel the darn things.

The problem, for me (and thus the reason for this post), is that they only roast it for you when you buy a 40 lb. sack. And while we do eat a LOT of chile, we have no way to store 40 lbs. of it all at once. Not only that, but the flavor tends to change over the season, so if you have 40 lbs. of early chile and it's ridiculously hot (which happens far too often), you're stuck with it. But if you wait, they can run out (which also happens far too often). My solution was simple: Buy a pound or two every couple of weeks - and roast it myself.

Chile roasting is supposed to be easy: Take raw chile, apply dry heat until skin is blistered, drop into bag to steam the skin loose & freeze until ready to use. But there seems to be as many ways to roast chile at home as there are ways to consume it.

1. The stovetop in-a-pan method. In a dry pan, over medium-high heat, place chiles, heat & turn until skin is blistered and blackened. THE PROBLEM WITH THIS METHOD: The chiles are not really flat, so getting heat to all of the skin just doesn't happen. This makes them really hard to peel.

2. The stovetop open-flame method. Hold a chile at a time over your gas burner until roasted. THE PROBLEM WITH THIS METHOD: Incredibly time-consuming. Plus even though I use tongs, it's uncomfortably close to the flame AND I inevitably drop every single one several times.

3. The grill method. Place the chiles on a grill set to high-heat. Flip every so often until done. THE PROBLEM WITH THIS METHOD: I'm not allowed to touch my husband's grill. Otherwise, this method would probably work very well.

4. The oven broiler method. Cover pan with foil. Place chiles on pan. Broil 7-10 minutes per side until roasted. THE PROBLEM WITH THIS METHOD: I had to have my husband point out where the broiler was on the oven. (I thought this drawer was specifically designed for storage - seriously, I've never used it on any stove, ever.)

So, here's how I'm doing it tonight...
5. The high-heat oven method. I am placing my Hatch chiles directly onto my top oven rack, setting the temperature to 450°F and counting on 20 minutes for the first side (which takes into account the oven warm-up time).

You may notice that the two chiles in the back are fairly red. The longer the chile ripens on the vine, the redder it gets until it's fully red (that's the difference between green & red chile). While the red is "sweeter,"it's also hotter. Also, note the aluminum foil lining the oven floor - these guys can and will drip while they roast.

After 20 minutes, they look like this - dry & starting to blister all over:

A quick flip (with tongs or mitts, guys - don't touch the chiles with bare hands after any heat is applied; the oils released will irritate your skin & Heaven forbid you forget and rub your eyes), and back in the hot oven again for 10 minutes...

Voila! Home-roasted Hatch chile.

If you aren't sure if they are roasted enough, feel free to give them a minute or two more; you can't really overcook chiles like this. Don't worry if large areas are seriously black; it's just the skin and it will come off when you're ready to peel them. Just make sure that about 75% of the skin looks like an Irish descendent who fell asleep on a Caribbean beach.

Now, while they're hot, drop them into a sturdy plastic bag...

A freezer-type zip bag works great. DON'T use a "sandwich" thickness bag, it could melt. However, a nice clean grocery store bag will also work, or a roaster bag, or even a brown paper bag / lunch sack or glass casserole dish with a lid if you worry about plastic chemicals getting into your food. The key here is to hold in the heat and the resulting steam; the steam helps pull the skins off and it's a critical step.

After 15-20 minutes of steaming, you're ready for storage. Depending on how soon you plan to use the roasted chiles you may want to store in the refrigerator or the freezer, freezing being the recommended method for storage past 2 weeks. Separate the individual chiles into zip bags, 1-3 chiles to a bag (depending on your use; we use a chile at a time, about 3 a week, so we put about 3 chiles into each bag - your use will vary). Label and freeze the individual "serving" bags and store for up to a year.

To use each bag, thaw by placing a bag in cool water for 20-30 minutes. Under cool, running water, use gloved hands* to pull the skin off each chile (it will just slide off), then pinch off the stem end and dispose of it, and if desired, split open the pod portion and rinse the seeds out (the seeds add extra heat and bitterness). [*If you do not wear gloves while handling roasted chiles, beware; you cannot rinse off the chile oil with water or soap. Using milk, lard or vinegar may help, but until you know how you will react and until you build up a tolerance, this stuff is seriously potent.]

How to use it when it's ready:

Chop or slice and add to, well, just about anything. Eggs, Mac & Cheese, Burgers, Spaghetti, Salads (Tuna, Pasta, Potato). Turn it into Jelly or Preserves. Add it to Bread! If a recipe calls for celery or bell peppers, consider substituting roasted chile and open up a world of flavor!

Now, if I could only figure out how to bottle that fresh roasted chile smell! 

...Pulled Pork Perfection

When we parted back in January, I was pondering how to cook a huge pork roast.

I'm pleased to report that it was a raging success! I decided to get a jump on cooking and I put it in the oven before I went to bed. It ended up cooking for 18 hours before the thermometer read 160° F. (Yes, I know that pork is generally considered safe at 145°, but I'm always wary about pork.)

The result... 6+ lbs. of the juciest, tastiest pulled pork you've ever tasted! The kids couldn't get enough - I was sick of it by about the third serving - but it froze beautifully & now we've got pulled pork "on demand".

We will definitely be doing this dish again!

The Recipe for PERFECT Hard-Cooked Eggs - EVERY TIME!

The Method ("recipe," if you will) for Perfect "Hard-Boiled" Eggs:

• Pick a pot with a tight fitting lid.
• Fill pot with approximately 1" water.
• Place eggs IN A SINGLE LAYER on a vegetable steamer basket that will sit just above the water. (Don't have a steamer? No problem! Neither do I :) Just crumple up some aluminum foil to keep the eggs above the water line. Still - single layer of eggs only!).
• Cover the pot.
• Bring water to a boil, then lower to a simmer.
• Steam 15 minutes*.
• Plunge into waiting ice-water bath. (Or just dump a few trays of ice cubes right into the pot with some cold tap water - that's what I do.)

Ta-Da!

*Time given is for standard Large eggs AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. Additional time may be necessary for eggs straight from the refrigerator, and other adjustments may be needed for larger or smaller eggs.

The result?

Delicate egg whites (no rubber here!), yolks done just to firm, no green ring (unless you skip the ice bath thing), and best of all - super easy to peel.

And I was going to buy Eggies for Momma K for Christmas! Silly me. I guess she'll be getting jingle socks again this year.

Along with a copy of this recipe, of course :)

Hard-Boiled Egg Failures... and Success?

My youngest stepdaughter decided to move in with us back in July (good news!), but she LOVES hard-boiled eggs (bad news - for her, anyway). When she went to boil up a few, I wanted to mention the altitude (she'd been living in Nebraska, aka "sea-level", with her mom), but I kept my mouth shut; maybe she'd have beginner's luck, maybe she knew something I didn't. I just stood back and watched.

Guess what happened?

Failure. Again. That left two of us greatly disappointed.

But I love my (not-so-little-anymore) Samii, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for her, including thinking about stealing my Mom's antique Sunbeam egg-cooker, which shielded me from this issue for so much of my life - lol. (I didn't do it, just thought about it - ha!)

I set out to get it right, once and for all - for Sam...

Without going into too much science, there IS a reason that eggs don't cook the same at high altitudes as at, or near, sea level. Here it is in brief: higher altitude = less sky. Sky = atmospheric pressure. Less pressure = longer cooking time. But 200 degrees is 200 degrees, right? Wrong! The pressure actually plays a role in "pushing" the heat into the object to be heated. (Which is why it takes 20 minutes or longer to cook pasta here - no joke.) With everything else, you just cook it longer, no big deal. So why doesn't longer cooking work with eggs???

I found no specific explanation behind why longer cooking doesn't work with eggs, but we all know that eggs are a very delicate structure. They don't like high heat. They also don't like long cooking times. In fact, eggs don't like being boiled at all! They appear to tolerate it at the times needed at sea-level, but they become a pouty and impossible child (no pun intended!) at the cook times needed at 7,200 feet. And much like a difficult child, when things aren't working out, it's time to try a different method. And that's when I discovered...

...Steamed Eggs!!! (Dramatic, movie-type booming music plays in the distance.)

It turns out that steam isn't affected by altitude (although the time it takes to create steam DOES change). But once you have steam, you have the perfect environment for the best "hard-boiled" eggs you'll ever make - at any altitude. And best of all, it's easy to steam cook eggs!

In Search of the Perfect Hard-Cooked Egg...

Our family LOVES eggs - scrambled, poached, "fried" - but, most of all: Deviled Eggs. At any family gathering, there was always a fight over the last deviled egg (a friendly fight, usually ending up with the last creamy ovoid of deliciousness being split). Thanksgiving before last, Momma K - the family's official deviled egg-maker - announced that she was no longer up to the challenge; the buying eggs well in advance so they'd be "old," then having to fight them out of their shells anyway, ending up with ugly shells that didn't live up to the promise of her beautiful deviled egg serving tray. (They still tasted awesome! But we understood where she was coming from.)

After two consecutive family gatherings without deviled eggs, I decided to be the next bearer of the eggs. The event was Easter; eggs went on sale well in advance and I searched out the oldest dates in the case that I could find. I left the eggs on the counter for two days before I boiled them, to help age them further. I cooked them exactly according to the precise instructions provided by my personal cooking icon: Alton Brown. Everything was going perfectly according to plan.

Easter egg coloring was a total hoot! We didn't have any small children, so all of the adults joined our two teenagers and the eggs went fast. Yoo-hoo! A few quick pix of our artistic creations, and it was time to whip out a batch (or three) of the devil'd bad boys.

What a total, complete disappointment! Despite my planning, cooking to the letter and high expectations, the eggs were nearly impossible to peel (even under running water), but WORSE: the whites were rubbery, there was a green sulphur ring around the yole AND, the centers weren't fully cooked. Yuck!

The next time, I tried the method recommended by my go-to "how-to" cookbook, The Joy of Cooking (every kitchen needs this gem). Again, failure, even though I followed the instructions for high altitude (we're at 7,200 feet or so above sea level).

The time after that, I searched the internet for "how to cook hard boiled eggs" and discovered there were basically three schools of thought for "hard-boiled" eggs (the proper designation is "hard-cooked," since at least one of the methods does not involve boiling the eggs - just so you know):
1. Place eggs in cold water, bring to boil, turn off heat, cover & let cook for designated time [the "Alton" method];
2. Place eggs in cold water, bring to boil and boil for designated time [the "Joy of Cooking" method]; and,
3. Bring water to boil, place eggs into water, and boil for designated time [another "Joy of Cooking" method].
Some sites said to add salt, some to add vinegar - tried each and both. I even bought an egg timer that gets placed in the pot with the egg and thus experiences everything that the eggs do and changes color to show what's going on inside the eggs. I tried less time, more time, faster cooling, no cooling. And I tried every possible combination of the above that I could think of. (I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, one night, I took a dozen eggs and cooked each one with various methods and combinations, then peeled each and opened them up; I ended up with a dozen failures - and a huge batch of egg salad.)

And that's when I GAVE UP.
Until last month...

The Tablespoon vs. Teaspoon notation equation

Is it just me, or do recipes make it really hard to differentiate tablespoons from teaspoons.

Here, once and for all, is my solution to this problem. Please use these notations from here on out.

Tablespoon = Tbl.
Teaspoon = tsp.

Note the caps for Tablespoon yet the lowercase for teaspoon. Use these notations and you will never mistake one for the other again. So simple, yet so effective.

Spread the word!