Fill 'er up.

Today we had our first semi-public house cupping.  We blind-cupped four coffees–our own Red Tail & Benevolence as well as two competitors’ offerings.  Went great!  Get in touch if you want to come next time.

A lonesome holdover in our garden space.  I almost want to let this kohlrabi keep on rockin’ for another year.  I think I just might till around it instead of hacking it out.

I actually think it’s kind of cute.

Bottle Brick…changing the world one bottle at a time – Home.

Instagram.

After my last post regarding Kiwi-marinated fajitas, my friend Nathan noted that the meal didn’t sound very Asian.

True Nathan, but I have a few responses to your observation.

One: The Month of Eating Asian doesn’t start until 3/1/12.

Two: The kiwi is native to & the National Fruit of the People’s Republic of China–Which is in Asia. Wheat is believed to have evolved & then initially cultivated for agricultural production in southwestern Asia.  The Month of Eating Asian will take us from the Mongolian Highlands to the South Philippine seas.  From the western-most edges of the Pacific, through the multifaceted cultural-cargo-lines of Afganistan, India & parts of the former USSR, westward all the way to what’s traditionally been known as Asia Minor, including but not limited to Jordan, Syria, & Turkey.  Asian people also eat cow’s meat & vegetables.  I think we’re covered here.

Three: The Month of Eating Asian is about Asian Fusion foods. We’re not going to be dogmatic on this, we’re not going to be religious in our adherence to a particular country’s ethnic foods. This would be an impossible task, as the globalization of agriculture has existed for nearly as long as agriculture itself.  We’ve not been nearly as isolated, culturally–culinarily– speaking as we may seem.  As Sanskrit & Latin are traceable to a common Arian ancestor, so Indian food & Greek can be inextricably linked to Chilean, Inuit, Celtic & Swahili.  This experiment is about experiencing all of what the plate in Asia has to offer today.  We’ll absorb what was, as readily as what is.

The Month of Eating Asian will not be tied down.

Today Claire, Kim & I sorry of tag-teamed on lunch.  An adaptation of a recipe I saw on a favorite foodie-blog of mine, La Kocinera, steak fajitas with a kiwi-assisted marinade.

Yer gonna like this.

I’ve seen meat tenderizer powder in the grocery aisle, & I’m not sure what that is, chemically speaking.  And I’ve often used citrus as a componant of marinade to tenderize. I think the basic concept of tenderizing meat is to make tough meat palatable via decomposition.  But this recipe uses the natural enzymes found in the kiwi fruit to tenderize, (begin to decompose) the meat.  Incidentally, papayas have a similar set of enzymatic properties, & I can’t wait to use them for something like this.

The juice of a lime, did I put into a bowl, along with a half-bunch of cilantro, (sans-stems), followed by a tablespoon each of olive oil, sesame oil, honey, and ground black pepper. Then to that I added a teaspoon of cumin, a half teaspoon of cardamom and two tablespoons of salt.  Hoodalolly.  Golly, what a day.

So then I cut my meat up into strips, trimmed as much fat as I could, got rid of the T-bones, mashed up four nice-sized cloves of garlic and stirred it all together.  All of this I did about three hours ahead of lunch time.

About two hours ahead of lunchtime I added three kiwis, cut into thin sticks.  Think French-fry sized. I peeled the kiwis, and soured them well into the briny lunch-to-be.  My kiwis were organic. I liked that about them.

You have to be a little careful with these enzymes–they’re like a Mike’s Hard Lemonade’s alcohol content–they’re really more potent than they seem. Leave them in the sauce, or rather, add them too early to the sauce & you’ll end up with mush-meat. Like alien-steaks, all pasty & grey from sedentary space-travel.

An hour later, add a diced habanero to the mix. Now this, this I was concerned about. I’ll be honest, I’m a spice wimp. I mean, not the wimpiest, but pretty wimpy overall. This habanero was the first habanero in my house. Ever. In my whole life, I don’t think anyone living in a house with me has cooked with a habanero. That statement makes me feel like one of those “first generation to finish college” guys. Like I’ve really crossed a boundary here, really driven a stake for the Walton name. Whatever.

Anyway, I added the habanero, & I’m glad I did! Pleasant spice, added substance & thought provocation without detracting with horrifying spice.  It also makes for a really attractive operation, and as we’ve established–

attractive looking food can be good food.  I wore gloves to cut up the habanero, and I was careful to wash tools well & quickly.  I got rid of the seeds & ribs, and it went great!  It makes me wonder if there’s another whole arena of cooking with heat, via peppers & other spices without just being hot for hot’s sake.  Anyway, the habaneros I used today were vibrant & beautiful, look at the way it pops out of the rest of the marinade!

So now, the habaneros have a hour before lunch time to do their worst, Claire & I stopped for a cuppa.  We used an Aeropress, as is our way.  This, for the infrequently uninitiated among you is probably my favorite way to make coffee at home, pound for pound.  Oh there’s better ways, in the $2k range.  But for about $30 you can pick up an Aeropress, & make some dynamo coffee.  It’s fun.  Its attractive.  It’s quick & affordable.  What’s not to like about the Aeropress?

We made our coffee–Yes I let my daughter drink coffee from time to time– & set the table–the time was drawing near!  It was time for tortillas!

Okay, some of you have heard my idea to do a “Month of Eating Asian”. I think we’re going for it, we’re not going to be too crazy about it.  If we go someplace for dinner–we’ll just eat whatever.  But for the most part, whenever we’re eating in, & whenever it’s possible when we’re eating out, March will be a month of eating Asian.  In preparation, we decided to take this fusion-food a little further & attempt some Delecate Sesame Wraps.  These are cool.

We’ve been learning a lot about baking lately, and today we read about pre-cooking glutenous flour–with water at rolling boil–before kneading.  You take 2 cups of sifted flour in your mixer, (gitcher dough hook on), and add a single cup of supper-duper hot water.  We took boiling water & dumped it from the pot to the measuring cup, over the mixer, and got it going.  Essentially we wanted the water to go from pan to mixer in one motion.  Quick as we could.  Okay, so then you end up with a sticky dough, and you get it out on your breadboard and knead in another cup of sifted flour.  why do I keep italicizing sifted.  Another time.  Another post.

You shape the dough into a roll, a cylinder & chop it into 24 equal-sized pieces.  Okay, so then this is the only complicated part.  You take each chunk & form it into a nice ball, and then flatten that ball to about 3″ across.  Lay them all out that way & then brush the tops liberally with sesame oil.  Then smack them all together, two at a time, oiled-sides together and wrap each pair in plastic for a half hour.

Now drink your coffee, take a minute, and chop up one whole green bell pepper & a half a
red onion, & half a white onion.  Set those aside for a minute.

After 1/2 hour, get those wraps out & roll them flat, together.  Get it?  Roll the dough pair out to about an 8 inch diameter.  They’ll end up being less than 1/8 inch thick.  You want them thin, thin.

Grease up your medium-hot pan with sesame oil and fry those babies up.  When they’re brown in all the right ways, pull them off the heat, give them a second to think about what they’ve done & then find the seam–the crack betwixt the two original doughs.  Get a knife or a finger under there & gently but satisfyingly pull them apart 90% of the way, put them back together as before, and keep warm under a towel.

Meanwhile, back on the range, while the tortillas are cooking, pour off most of the remaining marinade’s liquid, (keep it!) and drop the meat & other into a hot cast iron skillet.  Use a little more sesame oil, there.  Get that stir-frying, and heat up a third pan.  Half way through the meat & tortillas cooking, (you’re probably cooking each of the 12 tortilla pairs one-at-a-time), begin stir-frying the onion & bell-pepper using the remaining marinade as a sauce.

Cook long enough to be safe, but don’t go mushy.  Al Dente, as the Italian-speaking might say.  This sort of thing takes a little planning & practice, but everything should sort of be coming off the stove at the same time.  You’re going to want to serve these with some fresh cilantro, some thin-sliced fresh kiwis, a little sour cream and maybe some sort of fresh cheese, like Queso Fresco.

Okay, that’s my advice for today.  Delicious lunch!  Fun to prepare, easily tag-teamable.  Great for preparing with daughters.

This is beautiful!  Read all about it.—>Porcelain Espresso Machine | iainclaridge.net.