Eating on the Go / The Easy Path of the Chocolate Challenge

Every once and a while I have a moment (sometimes a whole year) when I cannot come up with a topic for this blog – at least one that really has some oomph.  Well, this week it finally came to me as I sat in my living room with my Christmas tree sitting to my right, my littlest children to my left, and boxes and bins filled to the brim with disarray.  This very same day was the day that Maggie and I decided to get almost all of our Christmas shopping done. That means finding a quick bite to eat while on our mission. Since Maggie and I are both using Weight Watchers (successfully) we are keeping a close count of what we are eating.  This is much easier to do when we are at home and have our carefully selected arsenal of health choices. The problem arises when we are out and about like during our shopping excursion.  There are so many choices for food while running around but nearly all of them are empty calories.  They are high in calories and offer very little in the way of health benefits. It is easy for many of us to fall into the fast food trap with all of the smells and truer-than-life pictures of Colossus-like burgers, and Bourbon chicken (try a sample).  So, the answer to our dilemma was to treat our shopping excursion as if it was a kind of date.  You know the kind; one of those dates with 1000 other strangers.  We decided to make it a sit down diner instead of fast food. We decided on pho and banh mi.

I detailed my emotional connection for pho a few weeks ago but let me describe banh mi.  This is the ultimate in sandwiches and this is coming from a Cuban sandwich aficionado.  Banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich that has barbequed pork, cucumbers, pickled daikon and carrot slaw, peanuts and hot peppers on a nice, crusty, airy, loaf of bread.  It is fast and it is heaven.  The combination of the soul-massaging pho and the taste bud kicking of the banh mi was exactly what the doctor ordered.  In addition to being a dream meal it was light and, save for a little fat in the pork and the soup stock, it was incredibly healthy.

We all have to deal with eating on the go at one time or another. What is your killer sandwich of choice?  What is your on-the-go healthy choice? Or, do you just go for the great looking fast food?

I got the opportunity to work with chocolate this weekend. The entire family does something we call chocolate dipping.  We all choose another food to dip and coat in chocolate.  We do not get too weird but that does not mean that we don’t experiment.  This year we chose nuts, raspberries, marshmallows, Oreos, and spicy trail mix. My choice for chocolate dipping was to make chocolate cups filled with Godiva liqueur. This is not as easy as just filling some poured chocolate with a little booze.  There is a lot of chemistry and physics working against you when you try to combine the two treats with out getting them mixed together. The only request that we didn’t grant was my three-year-old’s request to dip pizza.  The only reason we did not do it was, strictly, due to a lack of time. I think I will actually try this over the Christmas break. It might be the perfect combination of savory and sweet.  Consider it added to the challenge.

This year during chocolate dipping I had the opportunity to use a fantastic automated chocolate tempering machine. This made what is usually a somewhat tedious task a really fun time and very easy. If you are not aware of what temering chocolate does here it is in a nutshell; Chocolate (real chocolate) consists of a blend of cocoa particles, cocoa butter, sugar (and milk powder or liquid milk in the case of milk chocolate. The fat portion – the cocoa butter consists of a bunch of molecules that form orderly structures.  In order to form the chocolate into another shape you need to melt the chocolate. This makes the fat become a liquid, which means that the fat molecules are in disarray and all over the place. If you just heat chocolate up to any random temperature there is a very good chance that when it cools off the molecules will form in a very disorderly fashion and that will allow for some of the fat to seep out from between the molecules. This gives the chocolate the appearance of being dull, greasy and soft.  If the chocolate is melted under controlled heat and to a precise temperature then raised to another controlled precise heat those molecules will line up neater than a military drill.  When the chocolate cools the outcome will be a fantastically shiny, crisp and solid piece of chocolate. 

To me, this is an amazing bit of culinary science and the kind of thing that keeps me yearning to learn more and more.  The next thing I will try for the holidays (and report back on) is candy making – sugar work.  Maybe I will try the impossible – making Christmas ribbon candy that actually tastes good.

Until next week,

Keep it tasty my foodie friends and happiest of holiday wishes,

FoodSciGuy

Thanksgiving is Over / Leftover Use / Turkey Day Food Safety

Well you made it - Thanksgiving is over, the nutty shoppers are on the rampage at the stores. (Editorial: Black Friday should NOT start before Friday! Rally the troops and take back our Thanksgiving!) I started prepping our family meal Wednesday at 5pm and then started the cooking at 5am on Thursday. Maggie and I made a pact to keep the holiday a very stress-free one.  We accomplished this by keeping the menu exceptionally simple.  An applewood-smoked turkey anchored bill of fare.  The turkey was supported by basic side dishes such a pureed potatoes (cheesy and garlicky), raspberry Jell-O, shredded carrots marinated in balsamic vinegar and ginger, roasted sweet potatoes, corn and a very basic stuffing with cranberries.

Along with all of that delightful food comes a great deal of leftovers.  It seems that the only thing that the Internet is inundated with more than recipes for the big meal is the cornucopia of leftover recipes. There are turkey potpies (which are on my menu this week), turkey cacciatore and even some seriously decadent sandwiches with toppings like; turkey, cranberries, stuffing, potatoes, and anything else that the dinnertime scavengers left behind.  There are some exceedingly delicious dishes doled out on the web.  However, what I really hope to do is elicit the really unusual and, in turn, memorable creations that you readers have developed, stolen or maybe have only dreamed of.  Who knows maybe I can even find a way to work some of the leftovers into the Chocolate Challenge. So, gather up those patented recipes and send them my way and we can share like the great big happy family I hope we can all be someday.

There is, however, one very big issue when it comes to using up the leftovers – food safety. (You knew it was coming from me, didn’t you?) I know at least a couple of families that eat their Thanksgiving meals in the afternoon and leave the food out for their guests to graze on all day.  This practice is like playing Russian roulette – a practice that screams for a serious outbreak of a food borne pathogen.  How long do you leave out your meal while you are serving it?  The USDA states that leftovers should not sit out for more than two (2) hours at room temperature before being refrigerated. Here is the very useful link from the USDA FSIS that I used to get my info. It not only tells about leaving food out but also things like how freezing and refreezing, microwave cookery of meats as well as the safe way to cool down and store soup. (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/help/faqs_hotline_preparation/index.asp#6).   

Even if you take care of the amount of time that you leave the food out, you still have the issue of how long they sit in the fridge. You see, leftovers only last so long before they become dangerous. Our home has a very strict three-day rule. In fact we have even turned to keeping a Sharpie right in the kitchen so that we can apply dates on containers of leftovers.  I am not saying that we do not have a tendency to “collect” leftovers in the fridge but at least we know the state of each constituent.  This comes in extraordinarily useful when the kids go looking for the leftover hot dogs. 

So that is this week’s entry. Please keep the chocolate challenge ideas coming and do not forget to send me your best ideas for the use of Thanksgiving leftovers.

Keep it tasty, Cyberspace,

FoodSciGuy

Way Beyond Comfort Food / Hello, Again

I know of nothing, material, that evokes greater feelings or fonder memories than food.  We have all heard of comfort food, but the feelings I am talking about go beyond comfort. Sure, comfort might factor into the equation, but the feelings drawn out of you by that one or two certain foods are deeper than that almost visceral.

Have you every eaten some dish that made your heart melt or your knees weak? For me it is sometimes just the smell, or even the thought of certain foods. One of the foods that reaches down to my core and speaks to me is Pho (roughly, pronounced: fuh).

Pho, for those of you that are not in the know, is a Vietnamese soup. It usually a beef (or chicken) based broth that is imbibed with a spice blend that is very unusual for most western soups (star anise, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, and coriander).  Yet these spices provide a delicate balance that helps to meld together the flavors of charred onion, burnt ginger and the pungent but compulsory fish sauce into a beguiling medley.   It is this magical marriage of flavors, a combination of which I never knew existed, which gives this ethereal serum its powers. I mean pho reaches deep down into my soul, grasps it, massages it, and instantly makes me feel safe and at peace. This is way beyond the reach that comfort food can obtain.

This feeling that I am trying to describe escapes words. The dilemma that this elusive word creates is very similar to the one I have when I try to find the words to describe my truest feelings I have for my best friend and soul mate. To say “Love” is what I feel for her seems so feeble an attempt, yet this is the word I default to for lack of a better term.  When it comes to the feeling that pho gives me I, again, have produced nothing but feeble attempts.  The feeling is almost Zen. It is like my body and mind know that even one sip of the broth will heal me from the inside and reset my gimbals, evening out the balance within my universe.

I know that it sounds a bit convoluted, but that is how blown away I am at the power of these types of foods. They are on an entirely different plane than “comfort” foods yet they do provide a comfort and so much more.  They reach out to the soul of the Do you see what I mean? What do we call these foods? I just do not know.  I guess I will have to continue on the quest for the elusive word that describes this feeling of food Zen.  It is a tough job but someone has to do it.

So now, dear reader, it is your turn. What is the food or foods that gives you that feeling?  What dish grabs you by the spine and captivates you, sooths you, tells you that you are right with the universe? Comment to this post and share. Maybe you will enlighten someone who has never felt that rare but oh so powerful feeling.

Chocolate Challenge & Food Safety Update:

Well, hello out there.  I know you all may have given up on me but I swear to you, I missed you all more than you can imagine.  I have been very busy with my career and with school not to mention life in general (six children really keep you running in case you were wondering). In that time I was away, not only was I way busy but I was trying to find myself in the blogosphere. What is my niche? Is it chocolate? Is it family cooking?

Is it outdoors cooking?  Is it the food science angle (look out A.B.)? Do I bring my work home and make it a blog about food safety?  The answer to all of these questions is – “Yes”. I figured this out with the help of my soul-mate/best friend/lovely wife, Maggie (check out her blog – Looking Through a Mommy’s Eyes).   While listening to one of my hundreds of, “What was I meant to do?” whining sessions she stopped me mid whine and reminded me that I write best when I write what I want to write about.  She continued to say that the readers that really want to follow me are the ones that want to follow “me” and all of my crazy food tangents. So that is what you will get – ME.  I will keep writing what I feel is the thing.  The way I see it is, if I was meant to do this it will shake out and find itself.

            So, all of my features like the food safety info/stories and chocolate challenge will start up again (hopefully it will fare better than the lasagna – a 4 on a 10 scale) and I will add any other new features that I come up with. That might even include some you readers think up.

Until next posting, (later this week), God’s speed to you all.

Take care and stay hungry my foodie friends.

Flavorfully yours,

Eric – The FoodSciGuy