Weekly Special 3/17-3/23

Chicken

Boneless skinless chicken breast: $2.99 @ Lucky, Safeway

Chicken breast (bone-in): $0.99 @ Safeway

Thighs or drumsticks: $1.29 @ Safeway, Lucky

Boneless skinless chicken thigh: $1.99 @ Nob Hill

Beef

Top Sirloin $2.99 @ Safeway

Ribeye: $4.97 @ Nob Hill (USDA Choice, Black Angus)

Pork

Pork shoulder strips: $2.29 @ Safeway,

Misc

Asparagus: $0.86 @ Safeway, $1.27 @ Nob Hill
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Lucky ads

Nob Hill ads

Safeway ads

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Gelatin

One secret to good soup is gelatin. As the tough connective tissue in meat (collagen) denatures, it forms gelatin and becomes tender. This gelatin leaks out into the surrounding liquid and enhances it -- It contributes a mouthfeel of richness and is often used as a healthy fat substitute (gelatin is just denatured glycine-rich, triple-helix protein strands -- I know I'm nerding out).

A soup that has been slow cooked for a long time will have tender meat as well as a gelatin rich base. When you open a can of good soup, it may appear thick and gelatinous (like jello) but becomes thin once you heat it. Another example is the jelly found in the bottom of Spam. What if we want to mimic the quality of a good soup but not spend all day cooking? Why not just add unflavored gelatin to soup, gook, or jigae? -- Do NOT add flavored JELLO!

So what does it taste like? It doesn't really change the flavor, but makes it feel less water-y and more substantial. A gelatin rich soup sits well in your stomach and gives you that warm comfortable feeling. I debuted a recipe at the A2F snow trip last year and after playing in the snow, this beef barley soup was really popular (I made 15 gallons!)

You can purchase packets at Safeway or you can buy a 16oz can for about $10 at smart and final. I'll post recipes using gelatin in the future -- keep an eye out for them!

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Knife Honing

Knife honing does 2 things: it keeps the blade flat and straight. A knife should be sharpened as needed (about every 6 months or so). Ideally, a knife should be honed before every use. Over time the blade dulls and becomes misaligned. Honing a knife is not the same as sharpening, which applies a new edge. Honing just maintains that edge. It appears sharper because a straight edge cuts better.

Some people say diamond dust coated and ceramic steels sharpen knives. My opinion on this -- yes and no. You use a coarse sandpaper to remove paint. Fine sandpaper will not take off much paint but rather smooth it out. Ceramic and diamond steels are so fine that they really just polish off the blade rather than take off enough steel to sharpen. It does sharpen technically, though very little. I personally think a rougher ceramic, like a coffee cup, will sharpen much more effectively.

Unfortunately a honing steel isn't always available. Another option is to use the spine of another knife as a steel. Basically, use the thick and blunt end of another knife and run your blade over it as a steel.

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Knife Sharpener

One of the most frustrating things is cutting with a dull knife. I wouldn't write with a very dull pencil so why do I cook with a dull knife. I think most people are too intimidated by knife sharpening but it's really easy. Here's a quick way to sharpen knives using the unglazed, rough bottom of a common coffee mug:



The reason this works is because ceramic is harder than steel. Diamond is 100 on the hardness scale and cheap steel is about 50-60. Good, expensive steel is about 60-70. Ceramic (like the kind on your coffee cup) is about 85. This means that ceramic will actually scrape steel off your knife. It's like sharpening a pencil by shaving off a new edge. The gray material that forms on the cup is actually fine particles of steel being shaved off.

Like sharpening a pencil...

My take on this -- It actually works. I've done the knives at NL and they really are sharper. Good knives will maintain sharpness for a long time while cheaper knifes will require it more often. It's not as precise as using a whetstone with different grits. For an expensive/quality knife, I would take it to a skilled professional to make sure it's done right. For an average dull knife about 10 swipes each side will do nicely every once in a while. Just keep it parallel to the table and keep the blunt end lifted at about 20-30 degree angle and swipe it across the bottom of the cup. If gray marks appear, you're doing it right. It can't replace professional sharpening -- true sharpening has more steps and creates a smooth, sharp, and polished edge.

In what circumstance would I do this? On the fly cooking at someone's house and I don't have access to proper tools and want a sharp knife. When visiting family and they have DULL knives and I want to do something nice for them. I do this to my steak knives instead of taking out the full sharpening tool set. It actually works wonders on scissors. Spread the blades open and take each blade and swipe against the angle (sharpen only the existing sharp edge). My kitchen shears and the scissors at my work desk are very sharp now.


The next post will discuss honing a knife using a steel.

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Beef Barley Soup pt.1

Quick Look_______________

Vegetable beef barley soup is easy to make and great for a filling, hearty snack/meal. It's perfect for a post bible study snack or a camping/snow trip. We served this at the a2f snow trip last year. Here's an easy, classic recipe. This soup cooks for about 2-3 hours; the next post will feature a recipe that takes 1 hour with similar results.

• Prep time: 10-15 minutes
• Cook time: 2-3 hrs
• Difficulty: Easy.
• Labor Intensity: You can do on your own very easily!
• 30 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

• 8 pounds beef (brisket, chuck, cross rib)
• 2 cup barley
• 4 bay leaves
• 12 carrots, chopped
• 12 stalks celery, chopped
• 4 large onion, chopped
• 4 (16 ounce) package frozen mixed vegetables
• 2 gallons water
• 16 cubes beef bouillon cube(enough for 1 gallon broth) -- add more to taste if necessary
  
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 (28) ounces cans chopped stewed tomatoes

Directions_______________

• Cut meat into 1/2 cubes (if necessary)
• Add water, beef bullion cubes, sugar, pepper, chopped stewed tomatoes and bay leaves
• Boil the meat until very tender (usually 2.5 hours on high).
• - - - -
  
• Add barley, carrots, celery, onion, and frozen mixed vegetables during the last hour of cooking.
• Discard bay leaves.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• (Pearl barley will absorb the liquid and expand a lot, so don’t add more than you need.)

Tom's Tips and Tricks_______________

This is as simple as it gets. Just toss everything into a stockpot, get it boiling (this takes the longest), reduce heat to a simmer --watch out so it doesn't flow over and burn, and let it simmer for about 1.5 hours. Toss in the rest of the ingredients.

You could substitute beef broth, but bullion tends to be cheaper.

[Possible side dish] Serve with french bread slices

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Teriyaki Tri-tip Wraps

Quick Look_______________

This recipe comes from Matt Chan, a Junior in acts 2 fellowship (one of our Berkeley college groups at Gracepoint Fellowship). He made this for some sophomore and junior guys one night and emailed me this. If you have a recipe you liked from hotspot or home group, email me. (It may take a while for me to respond and test it out depending on how busy we get).

• Prep time: 30 minutes
• Cook time: ~30 mins
• Difficulty: Easy.
• Labor Intensity: Easy enough to do on your own
• 30 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

• 12 Pounds Tri-tip (~$3/lb)
• 2 bags of the 30 small corn tortillas
• 1 bag frozen corn
• 2 can diced tomatoes
• 2 onion
• 1.5 cups teriyaki sauce
• 1/2 cup honey bbq sauce
• 3 TB lemon juice
• 2 TB salt
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper or paprika
• 1/4 cup hot sauce (Any kind, I personally used some louisiana hot sauce)

Directions_______________

• Take Tri-tip and place on cutting board lean side up. Take a knife and cut 1/8" thin slices into the meat, making sure to stop right before the fatty side. By the time you are done, the tri tip should look layered, but still held together by the fatty side.
• Mix the teriyaki, honey bbq, salt, pepper, black pepper, lemon juice and hot sauce together and spread over the tri-tip, making sure to get into the crevices that you just made.
• Put glazed tri-tip into fridge for 1-2 hrs.
• --
• Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.
• Take out glazed tri-tip and put into oven FAT side up! The layered side should be facing down.
• Broil for a few minutes until golden brown, watch out so that it doesn't burn! (you can broil at the beginning or the end of roasting)
  
• Let the tri-tip cook for ~30 minutes
• As it cooks, dice the onion and boil the corn.
• Heat the corn tortillas. (pan fry with a little oil if you can)
• Take out the tri-tip, cover with foil wrap and let sit for at least 10minutes.
• After 10 minutes, remove foil, flip the tri-tip over, slice and serve

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New Template

I thought it was time to update the template and I liked the look of this one. Enjoy!

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Happy New Year!

Happy 2010 from Dishgracepoint!

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In the works....

There's always lots to do here at Gracepoint Berkeley and I tend to juggle different ideas/topics in my head about future posts, but I never really get the time to really develop them. I thought it might be nice to post what I'm currently thinking about and you can submit feedback through comments.

1. Formula or chart for roasting. The #1 question I get through text msg, emails, and phone calls goes something like this: "how long should I cook a 10lb roast and at what temp?" A lot of times it's a guess or I draw back to a time when I done something similar and I realize how useful posting information like this could be. It's kinda tricky and there are so many things to account for. I've been wrapping my brain on this one for a couple of months.

2. Turkey write up. I've been wanting to post turkey stuff and what I learned this past thanksgiving. Still need to get around to this.

3. Turkey/chicken suspension system. I'm thinking of a novel approach to roasting turkey. I'm taking a few existing products and incorporating some theories to produce some juicy birds. Preview: I'm thinking of doing a reverse rotisserie.

4. Injections and seasonings. A new experiment I want to try is the efficacy of milk injections into beef to maintain juciness in medium to well done roasts

5. New recipes. I have some stuff backlogged but it's been lower priority lately. I'm looking into some tri-tip recipes, smoke infused meat, gelatin injected meat, salads, dressings, roasts.

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Dishgracepoint! Whether you're in Berkeley or back home, we hope you are enjoying this time with friends and family.

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DIY Martinelli's

Here's a quick and easy recipe:

Whenever we get together for the holidays it's nice to have a bottle of Martinelli's. The only problem is that it's not too practical for a large gathering. It's kinda pricey and there's only 3 cups in each bottle. Why not make your own?

Go to the freezer section and get a can of frozen apple juice concentrate - the kind you add 3 cans of cold water to. It's about $1-2 on sale. Buy enough seltzer water, sparkling water, or club soda. It should be about $1 for a 2liter. Thaw the frozen concentrate until it's a thick syrup and chill the carbonated water. Mix together and serve immediately.

The nice thing about this is that you're not limited to apple. You can try cranberry or a mixture like cranberry and apple, apple peach, cranberry pomegranate...etc by mixing syrups. I would not recommend carbonated orange juice -- I doubt it'll be good.

If you want the authentic Martinelli's experience, you can add cider mix to make sparking cider.

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Turkey - Dry Brining

At Dish Gracepoint, we're all about streamlining and saving time/work. Brining is great, but it adds extra steps (and it's a bit messy). Jim Kwak sent me this article on dry brining and in theory it's an excellent technique: http://www.latimes.com/theguide/holiday-guide/food/la-fo-calcook18-2009nov18,0,6560622,full.story. You could do this in about 5 minutes.

Application:

• Unwrap the frozen turkey (at least 3 days before use), you probably want to do this as soon as you get it.
• Measure 3/5 tsp salt per lb turkey. (a 15lb turkey would be 3 tablespoons).
• Measure about 1/4 tsp dry herb/seasoning per lb (15lb turkey = 1.5 tablespoon).
• Mix salt & herbs in a bowl and rub onto the turkey. It'd be nice to get the herbs under the skin, but you can just rub it on the outside of the skin to save time.
• Double bag 2 large trash bags and place the turkey in the bags.
• Try to seal the bag as best as you can (to prevent juice from leaking into fridge)
• Thaw in fridge for 3 days or so. Rotate the turkey once or twice during this time.
• When the turkey is fully thawed, it will be seasoned/brined from center to skin.

I personally like an herb mix called Poultry Seasoning. You can pick it up at Safeway. It's a mix of Thyme, Sage, Marjoram, Rosemary, Black Pepper and Nutmeg.

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Turkey - how to carve

It's pretty simple, but for someone who's never done it before it may seem intimidating. Here's the first result I found on google. It gives a quick visual on how to do it.

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Turkey - brining

Brining is a good way to make a juicy turkey. I personally like to inject saturated salt-milk solutions into the meat, but brining is a classic/proven method of adding flavor and juciness. Here are some tips on brining your bird:

• 1 turkey, about 12 pounds

The brine:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups kosher salt
• 2 1/2 gallons cold water

(the ingredients below are optional, but add a nice touch)

• 2 bay leaves, torn into pieces
• 1 bunch fresh thyme
• 1 head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
• 5 whole allspice berries, crushed

To prepare the brine:

• Remove giblet bag from turkey, along with any extra internal fat and pin feathers.
• Rinse well under cold tap water.
• Combine sugar, salt and 3-4 quarts of the cold water in a large bowl. Stir until sugar and salt dissolve. Add remaining brine ingredients except for the remaining 1 1/2 gallons water.
• Use a special brining bag or double-bag two heavy-duty, unscented trash bags and put them in an ice chest that is large enough to hold the turkey.
• *you can also use a large stockpot if it fits - just keep this in the fridge
• Place turkey in bags, pour in brine and remaining 1 1/2 gallons water - there should be enough liquid to completely cover the bird.
• Press out air in bags; tightly close each bag separately.
• Keep turkey cold with bags of ice, which will also help keep it submerged in the brine.
• Brine for 12-24 hours.

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Thanksgiving recipes

Every so often I hear about so and so's "famous ____."If you have a good thanksgiving (or just any) recipe you'd like to share, email me at tomkim@gpmail.org and I'll post it.

BTW -- it doesn't need to be an original recipe. If you use a recipe from allrecipes.com or something that's fine too. Just as long as you been using it successfully and can vouch that it's good.

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Braised Turkey

Quick Look_______________

This post comes from Jim Kwak. Braised Turkey based on Mark Bittman's NY Times recipe published: November 12, 2008. In order to soak the turkey, it's cut into pieces. Braising is a good way to cook evenly and get juicy meat.

• Prep time: 30 minutes
• Cook time: 3 hrs
• Difficulty: Easy
• Labor Intensity: Could do by yourself
• 10 servings, adjust by 1.5x if your group tends to eat multiple servings.

Ingredients_______________

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound Italian sausage, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1/4 pound bacon, cut into 1/2-inch dice [optional]
• 4 turkey thighs
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 turkey breast, boned to yield 2 halves
• 1 ounce (more or less) dried mushrooms [porcini or shiitake work best]
• 1/2 pound carrots, peeled and diced
• 1/2 pound celery, trimmed and diced
• 1 large onion, sliced
• Several sage leaves and/or rosemary
• Stock or water as needed [2 cans of stock recommended]
  
  reference:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/dining/12mini.html?_r=1&ref=dining
  video:http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/12/dining/1194832745140/braised-turkey.html?scp=3&sq=turkey&st=cse
  

Directions_______________

• Rub salt and pepper into turkey.
• In a large skillet over medium heat, heat olive oil.
• Add sausage, bacon and as many thighs as will fit comfortably, skin side down
• Brown all well, removing bacon first(it will brown first), then sausage; set aside.
• Turn thighs when they are well browned and cook a minute on skinless side. Remove them, too, and repeat with remaining thighs if necessary. Add breast to pan and brown it well, skin side down, then flip and cook for just a minute and remove. Set pan aside.
• Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Soak mushroom in hot water and cover.
• In pan used for turkey, cook carrots, celery, onions, sage and rosemary in leftover fat.
• When all vegetables are tender and beginningto brown, add drained mushroom, reserving liquid. Return bacon and sausage to pan. Cook another minute and turn off heat.
• In a large roasting pan, place turkey, browned side up
• Fill space between turkey with vegetables. Add mushroom soaking liquid, leaving any sand and grit behind.
• Add stock or water as needed to come about 3/4 the way up sides of thighs and breasts, or just under the browned skin.
• Put in oven and roast, uncovered, for 3 hours, checking occasionally to make sure liquid level remains sufficiently high and stirring vegetables if they threaten to brown too much.
• To serve, put vegetables on a platter; slice turkey and lay them on top.

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Turkey Q/A - fresh/frozen

Is there a difference between fresh and frozen turkey?

I don't have a definitive answer on this one, but our house made fresh and frozen turkeys in the past and we think the fresh turkey is juicier and more tender. However, when done right, it's hard to tell the difference between the two. It's more important to not mess up the turkey rather than the type you get. Since frozen tends to be much cheaper, I get frozen.

Tip: Make sure you give enough time to fully defrost or you might have to resort to this: http://www.disgracepointonline.org/2008/11/dishgracepoint-recipe.html

5 hrs/lb is a minimum for thawing a turkey in the fridge. If you are cooking for this Sunday, Thursday would probably be the absolute latest for thawing.

30mins / lb is a minimum for thawing by submerging in cold water. Replace the water every 30 mins. It'll take about 8hours on average with this method.

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Turkey Q/A - how many people

I've been getting this question often in the past few days:

Q:"How many people can a turkey feed?"

A:For a co-ed college group: I'd do 1-1.5lbs/person (depending on how much you eat)

For praxis/post-grads: I'd do 1lb/person

Does this sound like a lot? A turkey has lots of bone/skin/fat and other non-meat portions to it. In my experience with cooking whole chicken, I usually do 1.5lbs per person.

For a second opinion, check out the bottom right corner of http://www.butterball.com/en/index.jsp -- they suggest 1lb/person and 1.5lb/person for big eaters. I would err on the side of too much cause it's nice to have leftovers instead of running out.

Also keep in mind how much side dishes you are making when you estimate the food. My experience is there are bags and bags of leftovers taken home in gallon ziplocks

---Again, this is true if the turkey is good. A dry, bland turkey might be closer to 0.5lb-0.75/lb (child size portions)---

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Turkey!

Here's the post that Tim So wrote a year ago.

http://www.dishgracepoint.com/2008/11/turkey.html

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Peaches and Cream Pie

Quick Look_______________

The following recipe comes from David Dip. The holiday season is quickly approaching and with family gatherings and other special dinners it's nice to have good desserts. This recipe was used for many potlucks and has been a hit evertime. It doesn't seem too difficult from the look of it.

• Prep time: 20 minutes
• Cook time: 30 minutes
• Difficulty: Easy
• Labor Intensity: Could do by yourself.
• 1 pie = 8 servings?

Ingredients_______________

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 (3 ounce) package non-instant vanilla pudding mix
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 (29 ounce) can sliced peaches in heavy syrup, drained and syrup reserved (you can buy peaches in lite syrup too, but don’t buy the peaches in syrups flavored from other fruits)
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Total: fairly cheap, you should have mostr ingredients already.

Directions_______________

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease sides and bottom of a 10 inch deep-dish pie pan.
• In a large mixing bowl (bowl #1), whisk room temperature butter until it’s has a smooth consistency. Then mix in flour, baking powder, and pudding mix. Mix together to get a semi-homogeneous mixture.
• In another mixing bowl (bowl #2), use a hand mixer or a whisk to beat cream cheese or Neufchatel until ‘fluffy’ (to a smooth consistency is fine). Then beat in sugar and 3 tablespoons of the peach syrup. The syrup makes the mixture more liquid-y and easier to mix. Then mix in 1 tsp of ground cinnamon.
• Mix together ½ cup of milk and 1 egg and pour into bowl #1. Mix together by folding the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients. Don’t over-mix; lumps are okay.
• Pour contents of bowl #1 into pie pan and place peach slices on top of this in any arrangement you want. Then pour contents of bowl #2 into the pie pan making a concentric inner circle with a radius of 1 inch smaller than the pie pan. (so the outer crust can rise and brown)
• Top it off with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.
• Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool before serving

Tips and Tricks_______________

I usually make double this portion at one time, so I like to have a mixture of cream cheese and Neufchatel.
The original recipe had ½ tsp of salt, but I don’t think it adds to the flavor. It might even turn out too salty if you don’t take into account types of salt. So I just don’t add it all.
I like to microwave my cheese for 10-15 seconds in the microwave to soften it up before beating.
Instead of using a whole 29 ounce can of peaches for one pie, I usually split the can amongst 2 pies or use a 16 ounce can per pie instead.

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