Ran up Tiger mountain in a downpour the other day. I loved that there weren’t any crowds, but it kicked my ass. Took 44 minutes. That’s 22 minutes less than the last time I hiked the 2,000 vertical feet mound of dirt. Spent about half the time jogging half the time fast walking. Hope to do it soon.
Running Tiger
October 17, 2010Gnocchi, Gnocchi, Gnocchi, I Made You Out of Clay
September 22, 2010This recipe is a good one from the big man TD. A bit of a deadly one, but who didn’t see that coming. Tom Douglas hasn’t met an artery clogger he didn’t love. The recipe has three main players: gnocchi (which I bought fresh from a local pasta store), gorgonzola cream, and roasted tomatoes.
The gorgonzola cream is easy: simmer it down until it reduces by a third and then toss in some gorgonzola and black pepper. It’s really about winging it – taste it. I recommend mucho black pepper.
The roasted tomatoes really bring the dish together. The Pièce de résistance really (spoken in a true chach voice). Take a pint of cherry tomatoes, halve them, toss them in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place cut side up on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven. Bake them until they are slightly browned.
Toss the gnocchi with the gorgonzola cream and roasted tomatoes. Bon Appétit.
Blackfish Lodge Salmon
September 14, 2010Earlier this summer I went on a salmon fishing trip to British Columbia. Needless to say, our guides eat a shit load of salmon; ergo, they have a shit load of salmon recipes. This is the easiest salmon recipe I’ve ever cooked. It also might be the best. Here’s the recipe, right from one the guides himself:
Ingredients:
1. Whiskey
2. Lemon juice
3. Soy sauce
4. Brown sugar
5. Mayo
6. Dill
7. Capers
8. Parsley
9. Cracked pepper
Lay salmon filet on a double layer of tinfoil (face dull surface down) sufficiently large that you can eventually wrap around the salmon filet. Apply ingredients in following order. First rub into the fillet a moderate amount of whiskey. Then combine mayo and lemon juice and apply. Next drip a thin sprinkling of soy sauce. Then rub in a thin layer of brown sugar (you judge the amount). Add dill, capers, parsley and finally cracked pepper.
Wrap the entire fish in foil and then place on a hot BBQ or oven (375). Cook for 15- 20 minutes. Peel back foil to test doneness.
The Ultimate Meal for a High School Football Player
September 9, 2010Gosh, this is a meal I’ve been dreaming about making for awhile. I loved bolognese growing up, but I had an inkling the dish could be more than my standard mixture of ground meat, tomato sauce, onions, and few herbs. When I found this meal in a cookbook I’ve owned for over five years, I practically slapped myself. Actually, that happened after I tasted it I think. But seriously, if you like bolognese, this meal is incredible. Do yourself a favor by putting in a little care sacrificing a few arteries; it will be worth it.
Give yourself about 2 hours of cook time (less prep time). The ingredients are simple:
1 pound of spaghetti (fresh is best), 1/2 a cup of parmesan cheese, olive oil, 1 onion, 1 garlic clove, 2 slices of bacon (optional), 1 carrot (optional), 1 celery stick (optional), 1 pound of ground beef, 1/2 a cup of red wine (do not skimp here), 1/2 a cup of whole milk, a touch of grated nutmeg, 13oz can of chopped tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of sugar (optional), and 1 teaspoon of oregano.
First, heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan and then saute the diced onion, carrot, celery, and bacon at medium heat until they are soft. (Note: I only go with one slice of bacon and no carrot and celery.) Drain off some moisture if need be. Then add the beef and brown. (It might require you up the heat from medium to high.) Add the red wine, bring to a boil, and cook off. Then do the same with milk (although focus more on getting the meat to absorb the milk). Add some salt, pepper, and a touch of nutmeg. Finally, add the tomatoes, sugar, and oregano. (I prefer to blend the tomatoes in a Cuisinart so that the mixture is a bit finer.) Cook this thing uncovered for an hour. Trust me, the longer the better.
When you’re ready, cook the pasta, get it onto a plate, ladle the bolognese on top, grate some parmesan cheese, and inhale. Serve with a 1984 Opus One if you absolutely have to.
Third Time is a Charm
August 25, 2010For those who know me, I’m a super die hard, socks in Tevas, PNW guy. Not really actually. But sometimes I wish I were. I do love PNW food, though, which is why I bought Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen. The cookbook is great. Lots of Asian dishes, quirky Seattle stories, and plenty of opportunities to cook with local fruits, vegetables, and fish. My favorite recipe from the book thus far is also one of Tom’s trademark meals: Etta’s Salmon with cornbread pudding and shittake relish cooked at Etta’s Seafood in Pike Place Market.
I’ve had ample opportunity to cook this recipe since our salmon fishing trip to British Columbia. With 50 pounds of King Salmon in your freezer, you better be prepared to experiment with salmon dishes. The first time cooking it, the cornbread pudding wasn’t especially creamy since I used whole milk instead of cream. The mushrooms sucked, and I also overcooked the salmon. The second time around, the cornbread pudding still wasn’t right and the mushrooms sucked again. I did cook the salmon correctly, though. The third time, the pudding was perfect since I used cream, I left the mushrooms off so there was nothing to suck there, and the salmon was cooked perfectly. Fantastic meal. I’d serve it at restaurant too Tom. Good job old chap.
Here’s the Clif notes of the recipe:
For the cornbread pudding, preheat your oven to 350. Then, cut cornbread up into 1 inch cubes and line the bottom of a buttered 8 inch square baking dish. Beat 4 eggs and mix with 2.25 cups of cream (no wonder T. Douglas clocks in at 300+), .75 cups of jack cheese, some fresh herb s (just a tsp or so of parsley, rosemary, and thyme will do), 1 tsp of salt, and .5 tsp of fresh cracked black. Pour the heart attack potion onto the cornbread in the baking dish and cook for 40 minutes or until golden brown in the oven.
For the salmon, fire up your grill. Then sprinkle a rub consisting of 3 tbs brown sugar, 2 tbs smoke paprika, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, and 1 tsp fresh thyme on the salmon. Oil the grates of the grill and cook the salmon, flesh side down, for a few minutes. Then flip it back onto its skin and finish off until it’s medium rare.
Place the cornbread pudding onto a warmed plate and lay the salmon on top. Bob’s your uncle.
[Edit from 6/5/11] Going with 1 cup of half and half and 1 cup of whole milk made no difference in the creaminess of the cornbread pudding.
Before Wet Tiger There Was Wet Rainier
August 4, 2010What is Wet Rainier? Wet Rainier is when you train for 3 months. Wet Rainier is when we try to get epic on Memorial Day Weekend. Wet Rainier is when Greg V. (and whoever else wants to tag along) makes his way to Seattle for some man cuddling and climbing. Wait, that’s actually not Wet Rainier. That’s just my favorite weekend of the year. Wet Rainier is when it has rained for the last 2 weeks straight in the PNW, yet you want to make a weekend out of nothing. So how did Wet Rainier actually go down? Like this.
Greg V. and Ken D. show up at Eric F.’s house Saturday AM. Avalanche danger is considerable up at Mt. Baker, our original target for the weekend. Contingency plans are throw down and tossed out. We end up defaulting to the thing deep down we always want to get down with: Mt. Rainier. So we pack up the CRV, pick up some groceries, and make our way down to Paradise.
First stop, Ranger station, 3pm. We look like idiots. ”Hey umm, what’s it look like up there? Any chance we could, uh, try to summit tomorrow AM?” Oddly, the Ranger was not fazed. ”Sure, man. Go for it.” After a 5 minute explanation of some archaic weather diagram and 120 dollars for summit passes, we head back to the car to gear up. Light we decide. Real light. It’s nearing 5pm now, the rain is coming down harder, and we’re gonna try to make Camp Muir. Yeaaaa fucking right we all say to ourselves. But hey, it’s Memorial Day Weekend and we gotta make this epic.
5pm we depart into a whiteout. But there’s some willow wands and a boot pack. Sorta. Eric and I make the call to go right. Ken says left. Ken is quiet so we overrule him. Whoops. An hour later we are breaking trail up a 30 degree slope in an ever worsening whiteout. Finally, and smartly, we choose to turn around.
An hour later we find ourselves a campsite near the Paradise lodge. A ranger tells us we can’t camp there. We give him two beers, and he leaves us alone. For the next couple hours we cook, melt snow, drink the rest of the case, and shoot the shit. These are always the best parts of our annual trip.
The morning light wakes us at 7am. No ranger busted us for camping below 7,000 feet. We pack camp quickly and start climbing. Conditions still suck. Thankfully the wands are still in place leading us to Rainier’s base camp and mini city, known as Camp Muir. The climb is long, as usual, but a bit windier and colder than the standard mid-summer shorts and tshirts climbs. But it was still fantastic. The clouds broke occasionally revealing the majesty of Rainier. Nothing is more motivating. About 4.5 hours later we arrived in sunshine having broken through the clouds at around 9,000 feet. I was about to get the torching of a lifetime.
We hung out for about half an hour before heading down in the best Muir snowfield skiing conditions I have experienced. We were able to rip down to the car in about 45 minutes. So sick.
Shortly after the trip I saw a colleague at the gym. He asked how the trip went. I gave him the skinny. He tried sympathizing with me, saying things like “man too bad that training went to waste.” I set the record straight: training for a climb is fantastic. You get an excuse to work out and you have a light at the end of the tunnel. Some would argue that the light doesn’t burn that brightly after an unsuccessful trip like the one I just had, but I’d argue the opposite. Somehow we managed to take a rainy, cold, and otherwise shitty Seattle weekend and made it absolutely sick. Bring it boss.
Wet Tiger
June 6, 2010Tiger Mt. was wet Saturday (6/5/10). Really damn wet. It was the first sunny day in few weeks, though, so we had to hit the trails. Apparently cross fitness does exist, as the 30 minute slog to the top barely fazed me. That was about the only positive note on the ride, however. Coming down kicked my ass. I’m not a fantastic rider, so if you throw a few wet roots, muddy ruts, and sloppy corners my way, it will gradually wear at my confidence. By the end of the ride I was spent; that is, I was pusillanimous. (See mama, I’m not swearing anymore!) Given that, this post will be cut short as I have nothing epic or interesting on which to report. Hopefully the weather turns around, so I can ride more… and potentially grow a pair. Out!
Expanding My Horizons
May 25, 2010I’ve been meaning to attempt a novel non-French/American/Mexican dish for a long time, but always defaulted for whatever reason. Finally, Jamie Oliver helped me break through this invisible barrier. Who wouldn’t want to cook an asian noodle dish when the Brit in his entertaining TV show says things like, “and smell all of this fresh ginger!”
On Sunday, I was set to entertain my family. Here’s what I knew: First, I wanted to grill. Second, I didn’t want to cook my standard grill fare (sausage, chicken, burgers, etc). Third, I wanted something clever to accompany my grill eats. After mulling over the second and third issues for a few minutes, for whatever reason, salmon burgers popped into my mind. And then Jamie Oliver and his fresh ginger popped into mind. “Salmon burgers and asian noodles it would be,” I declared!
For the salmon burgers, I went with Whole Foods’ pre-mades. I would have considered making them from scratch, but with 400 veggies to julienne for the noodle dish, I decided I’d save some time by getting the pre-mades. And call me lazy, but man I really enjoy dem puppies.
I usually make some sort of aioli for salmon burgers, and in this case, I wanted an asian style aioli. I’m a wasabi fan, so why not a wasabi aioli? Get a little wasabi powder, some mayo (homemade if you’re a Julie Child wannabe), and a touch of water. Bam. Bob’s your uncle.
Now for noodles, I really didn’t know who’d be the best source of information since I can’t remember Alton Brown cooking a noodle dish and Julie Child operated on the other side of the world; thus, I went to foodnetwork.com. Guy Fieri’s dish struck a chord, so I decided to give it a shot. As guy would say, “it was money.” Damn those noodles were good. Thank goodness I made extra, because I can’t wait to eat the leftovers.
Ed Viesturs and Me Are Like Totally Best Friends
May 2, 2010See!
F*%$ Trophy Cupcakes – Make Alton Brown’s
May 2, 2010Trophy Cupcakes are bomb. Don’t get me wrong. But there’s something wrong about paying 3 dollars for a cupcake. The funny thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever actually paid for a Trophy cupcake. And I don’t think I will. Especially now that I found Alton Brown’s Carrot Cake recipe.
The recipe isn’t a cupcake recipe, but the end result is so similar in flavor to Trophy’s carrot cake cupcakes, who cares? I followed the recipe pretty closely, but here were my deviations, which didn’t seem to matter:
- Replace all purpose flour with whole wheat flour. The only difference is that whole wheat flour doesn’t hold together like all purpose. I don’t really care though.
- Cut the sugar in half and then taste. Go with what ends up tasting right, both in the cake and in the frosting. I probably ended up using about 2/3rds of what was called for. I would have hated the recipe had a used all of the sugar.
