I made a couple more dishes from _Smoke and Pickles_ last night, though one recipe was modified significantly and I think the other one should have been modified. CONGEE WITH CREAMED CORN AND MUSHROOMS I thought the concept of congee with creamed corn and mushrooms sounded great. Unfortunately, the dish wasnt as full-flavored as Id hoped, so in the future Id make these changes: 1. Use actual creamed corn instead of just cooking corn kernels in the congee. When the recipe has creamed corn in the title, you expect a particular flavor and mouthfeel, and this recipe didnt deliver. 2. Use beef stock or chicken stock as the congee cooking liquid. Last time I made congee I used chicken bouillon and it turned out delicious. 3. Instead of just adding the raw sliced mushrooms and cooking them in the porridge, cook them over medium-high heat in clarified butter until browned and crisp. LAMB HEART KALBI When we purchased a quarter of a 4H steer in June, we got a beef heart. Lin has told me that she doesnt like beef heart, so I had to wait until she was out of town to cook it. The recipe I used was Edward Lees recipe for lamb heart kalbi, with beef heart instead of lamb heart. I cleaned the heart following the instructions in youtube/watch?v=cfxLptyBQkY, then set aside two-thirds of the heart for other meals. I cut the remaining heart into pieces about one inch wide and two inches long. (This turned out to be a bit too large to eat comfortably; I ended up cutting the chunks into half-inch squares after cooking.) The chunks were marinated and cooking in a very-hot cast-iron pan as the recipe directs, then served with a kimchee-chipotle puree. It was tender and well-flavored; I was very happy with it. Lins dislike of beef heart might have arisen if the heart had not been properly cleaned before cooking; in the video Chris Cosentino mentions that the fat has an unpleasant flavor and the membranes have an unpleasant texture, so both have to be removed (which is just an obscure way of saying, Shes never had beef heart the way *I* make it.) Im pretty sure she would have loved this dish -- maybe to the point of calling me Captain Beefheart.
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 13:03:31 +0000
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