Expedition to Terra Ingonita

Latitude 48.4895899, Longitude 120.1431384, Altitude 2,096 feet, Attitude 100%.

The coals glow, becoming ashen in their pyramid while the biscuit dough with it's musty flour is mixed and kneaded. Flip, push, turn, push, flip. No rolling pin so I mash the dough with floured hands, more organic, more feel. I find a suitable biscuit cutter in the form of a Tupperware cup and cut a dozen round dutch oven ready pieces of dough, ready to be set inside the 12 inch cast iron heavy pot over the coals. The Lodge branded oven, new out of the box is being pre-heated, pre-seasoned and oiled for the biscuits. Eight briquettes under the oven, seventeen on the rimmed lid, same ratio for any Dutch oven baking, 1/3 under, 2/3 on top. Heat rises.

I quickly realize that dutch oven cooking is slow. Cooking which you have to pay attention to and yet leave alone at the same time. You have to pay attention to the heavy pot and it's temperature - do you have enough coals?  Do you have extras at the ready in case you need to raise or maintain the temp?  No turning a dial out here. Then when you have it set and your meal is cooking away, you need to be patient - don't lift the lid to check on your progress, you just let your valuable heat escape. Smell. Does it smell like baked biscuits? Certainly over time you will get a feel for it.

Cooking with a dutch oven is very much a different type of cooking, different in time and different in method. You, your pot, the food and the fire are all, hopefully in sync - each one doing their designated part.  It requires big spoons, tongs, a heavy oven mitt (many use welding gloves).  And camp cooking is different all together, usually you are outside, the campfire smoke wafts, a breeze blows the quaking aspen leaves to life, you hear people fidget with squeaking camp chairs - vying for the spot of their choice, sun or shade or view. Someone is reading, others have taken up a game of Yacht-zee. The cook, sipping a choice of beverage from a plastic cup, slices and dices at the picnic table and leaves it for to find more ingredients, he leaves it for the breeze to add it's own earthy-ness. He drops a piece of food on the grass, a feast for the ants!

Dinner is ready as paper plates are set around. Cheap white and brown plastic salt and pepper shakers.  "Hurry...eat, it's getting cold".  Slap!, "dang!...I'm getting eaten alive!" The meals is over, usually in a tenth of the time it took to make. It's getting chilly, distant peaks are becoming purple and pink in the summer dusk.  Someone puts on a sweatshirt, others pull on jeans, some for warmth, others for fortification against mosquitos. "Who's on dishes?"

"Wanna go on a walk?".

Music of choice to cook by: Laughter around the campfire.

...and the answer is...

as I said, the new version is slightly changed:

(and only one right answer)

Remain seated please; Permaneced sentados por favor

This post is a bit of a departure for me, as I am not blogging specifically about anything I have cooked, but rather a combination of two subjects I like…one is still cooking and the other is Disneyland.  And please see the quiz to the right -->

Growing up in So Cal, my family often visited Uncle Walt’s little backyard playground many times a year. Sometimes my brothers and I were fooled by our parents...”get in the car, were going to drive aimlessly around for hours on end looking at houses”. At least that’s what I heard, I am not sure if that is what they said. But on rare occasions…because if they did it too many times we wouldn’t get tricked…they would say those words, we pile in the Ford LTD and off we go. What seemed like weeks of driving non-stop, we would get near the Magic Kingdom, maybe my brothers weren’t fooled as easily as I...someone would blurt out: “I see the Matterhorn!”  Those many visits combined with a few trips with my high school marching and jazz band to play and march inside the park and my stint in the summer of 1980 as a dishwasher at the now (and sadly) defunct Tahitian Terrace make it an extra special place.

Nice Prices!

I am sure there are people who could care less about food at Disneyland, some who eat their way though the park and some are in between. I am the latter. For me there are a few places that are in my mind, unique experiences or opportunities. My big bro and sis would probably vote for Club 33 as their most memorable spot, but you have to know some who knows someone to get in, but here are a bunch of pictures in case you were wondering whats inside.

Right off the bat, it would have to be the Blue Bayou Restaurant in New Orleans Square as my hands down winner for most memorable spot to grab some grub at the park. The cool atmosphere…out of the heat in a sit down restaurant being waited on. Monte Cristo.  Those two words bring salvation, salivation and a salutation to the chef. Crunchy, cheesy…just don’t eat too many unless you are a quart low on oil. They are also offered across the “street” from the Blue Bayou at Café Orleans, a bit cheaper at $17 versus $25 at B.B. but you won’t get the atmosphere. Someone has to pay for the fire-fly’s wages! A monte cristo is pain to make, I have tried a couple of times but here’s the recipe.

Next on my list would have to be a churro. Basically a long donut rolled in cinnamon and sugar. You can find them other places, even Costco but why take the fun out of someplace special?

A lot of people are crazy for the Dole pineapple whip served up at the Tiki Juice Bar, next door to the Enchanted Tiki Room entrance (left side of the picture under the Adventureland sign), to be honest I have never had one but a lot of people sure like them.

Another spot I like is the Bengal Barbecue also in Adventureland. They sell a few items at this grab and go place, most notably a few skewers, cheap and different.
















What I don't recommend and luckily you won't be able to do this anymore, is to drink an entire serving of Welch's grape juice and immediately ride the Tea Cups with your high school buddies, spinning somewhere around 12,000 RPM, but the Fantasyland juice stand closed in 1981, however you can still flirt with danger with some other treat and the Tea Cups!

Who hasn’t made Mickey Mouse pancakes? Who has had them at Disneyland? On road trip a few years back we went to Disneyland for 3 days and were able to slow down and enjoy many things it’s hard to do in a one-day-er. We got up, got to the park and went straight to…no, not Indy…no not Big Thunder, but to the River Belle Terrace in Frontierland for pancakes!...looking out over the Rivers of America as the Mark Twain chugs by.

Many times we would grab lunch at the Hungry Bear in Critter Country. Nothing special about the menu, just typical burgers and chicken, but the reason we like it is it's next to the river, it's quite-er, out of the way at the end of the road so to speak and we have always been able to find a table. 

Well, those are my top choices!...and remember to...

Bonjour! Bienvenue!... s'il vous plaît venez dans notre bistrot, s'il vous plaît avoir un siege...

...Notre soir spécial est moules dans une sauce à la crème de safran, frites et un petit morceau de saumon au pesto avec l'ail germent.


Oh, umm… désolé, vous ne parlez pas français?

Ok, permettez-moi de traduire.  Our special tonight is mussels in a saffron cream sauce with a side of fries.  That is also served with a small serving of Copper River King Salmon with a garlic scapes pesto.

Mussels served with “French Fries” are very common in France and the crunchy, salty fries pairs well with the soft, savory mussels.

I can not take credit for the mussel recipe, it came from a cookbook which I picked up at a book-signing event at the Palace Ballroom hosted by Tom Douglas.  At the event, various local chefs sell their books, sign them and offer appetizers.  One I picked up was Thierry Rautureau’s cookbook “Rovers” from the restaurant of the same name. He offered a delectable slow braised pork belly (basically uncured, uncut bacon) with some type of wonderful sauce...and he's a nice guy!

I bet a lot of you, like me have thrown mussels in a pot, steam them in wine with garlic and red pepper flakes…maybe pour the whole thing over noodles, and it’s quite good. In Seattle, we are lucky to be able to get wonderful Penn Cove mussels from Whidbey Island quite easily.  Going into it, I thought this recipe would be very similar... Je me suis trompé!  This was amazing! Aromatic, silky, packed with layers of flavor. Well worth the effort.

I decided if I were going to the trouble of this recipe, I would make homemade fries…pomme frites.  The key in making crunchy, perfectly cooked fries is double cooking them. I have a fryer that I am able to set the temperature so no need for a thermometer.  Cut the fries to the desired size and soak them in cold water while you go on to do other things, such as setting up your “mise en place”  [miz ɑ̃ plas], or putting in place or everything in it’s place. I find it well worth the effort to pre-prepare your recipes. Most times you will need measured ingredients immediately. You don’t want your sauce boiling over while you are pawing through your spice rack for Herbes de Provence or whatever.  Slice, dice, mince, chop, measure and find all of your ingredients first before doing anything else…other than sampling the wine of course! By using this method all you need to focus on is your assembly.

So, back to the fries, after soaking, drain and pat as dry as you can. Your fryer should be ready at 325 F, your tongs and or bamboo strainer and a paper towel lined sheet pan are also at the ready. Be sure to have on hand whatever you will spice them up with, mine I went with sea salt, coarse ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary. Toss in a handful of your julienned potatoes, just enough so they are all submerged in the hot oil. Cook until they are blond in color, just soft. Mine usually take about 7 minutes, removed and drain on the paper towels, repeat to finish round one. Crank the fryer up to 365-375, cook until your desired color is achieved, again mine is another 7 minutes. Remove and place them in a large bowl and immediately toss with your spices (which are ready!, remember kids? mise en place?) so they will stick to the hot oil. The first round cooks the interior and the second on higher heat cooks and crisps up the outside. Time these well as I find keeping them warm in an over doesn’t work well.

So now the mussels…oh, the mussels!  Saffron, Pernod, butter (of course, it's French!), shallots, garlic, fresh herbs, crème fraiche (fancy sour cream)…all burbling and steaming away together, waiting for those mussels to open their "mouths" to drink in the sauce and for their liquor to ooze out and mingle with the sauce.

I spotted some garlic scapes at the Sunday farmers market and picked up a bunch. Garlic scapes are the green tops of elephant garlic. There are many uses for them and when putting together the nights menu, I figured I could whip up some sort of pesto using them and I did.  I grilled/smoked some small portions of Copper River King on the Traeger using apple pellets, smeared some pesto on a plate and topped it with the salmon.

BON APPETIT!

Music to Cook By:  Cafe de Paris, various French pop artists. How can you cook French food without listening to Edith Piaf's "La vie en Rose"?...Des yeux qui font baisser les miens...Un rir' qui se perd sur sa bouch'...Voila le portrait, sans retouch'...De I'homme auquel j'appartiens...

I haven't made it to France (yet!), but tonight I pretended I was there...

What the...

I thought I would just write a short note to those who are saying what the heck is the “Better to Burp” all about?

That was a saying my Dad would say…”Better to burp and bare the shame than not to burp and bare the pain”…and he would usually say it so fast, as a kid I could not figure out what all the words were.

Behind that in the black, the top saying is from an old record I would listen to over and over, Disney’s Mickey and the Beanstalk.  Goofy is singing this phrase as they are near starvation and he is wishing for all of this food.

“Turkey, lobster, sweet potato pie, pancakes piled ‘till they reach the sky,. Oh I wanna eat and eat until I die. Lots of starches, lots of green, lots of fancy covered beans!”

The bottom saying is from a saying my Father-in-law would say to my wife, something she has also remembered over the years.

“Ham and eggs, chicken legs, a big fat juicy roast, sliced tomatoes, French fried potatoes and a thousand pieces of toast.”

Fricatum, Fumificus, Aspergo, Pertersum...

Rub, Smoke, Spray, Mop.  Essentials of Barbecue.  A previous post I mentioned I was the lucky recipient of a Traeger smoker grill for an early Fathers Day present...and now I plan on putting it to the test. What to cook for the first trial was easy. I made ribs using my now old method...pre-Traeger, of using my Weber briquette grill, wood chunks, indirect heat, adding more heat and/or wood as needed in an attempt to maintain 225 degrees. I took a picture of one rib and now I had the chance to compare that to my new way.

Usually I use baby back ribs, easy to find and they don't take very long to cook, which is what I used before. This time I would use a St. Louis cut of ribs. I went over to the local butcher and picked up three racks, about 3 pounds each, enough to feed 5-6 people. These are what you typically see in a rib cookoff competition. They are spare ribs cut down to a uniform rectangular size which enables even cooking and people don't need to fight for the best pieces. Baby backs are higher up on the hog, spare ribs are lower. They are meatier, thicker which requires a longer cooking time.
I put together a rub mix which includes brown sugar, cumin, garlic and onion powder, chili powder, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper. Washed and patted dry, I sprinkled generously the rub using a spice shaker held high to let it rain down which will ensure I get even coverage.
Now some people boil their ribs first, ooh, in beer even! Egads man! Wake up! You just made some nice pork stock...would you first boil your t-bone?


So these St. Louis will take about 5-6 hours. I got my smoke on at 11 AM at 225 using maple pellets , perfect. This is going to be great, I don't have to fool with adding heat or chips, nothin'. It will stay regulated regardless of outside temp or wind. I will spritz them every hour or so with apple juice for an extra layer of subtle flavor and moisture. Hickory, mesquite, fruit woods tend be a bit harsh.  Maple is not over-powering yet it will add a nice sweet smoke flavor layer. I will use the 3-2-1 method, 3 hours on the grill, 2 hours on the grill, wrapped in foil with a bit of apple juice then 1 hour out of the foil with my mop sauce going on. I did not use this method on my baby back comparison ribs so it's not a true side by side. 


While they are basking a way in the smoke, I will prepare my sides. To me, BBQ must have a slaw of some sort, or something like it. I got out my madoline, no not that kind, it's a slicer doo-hicky, perfect for making a lot of thinly sliced veggies evenly and quickly. This salad is great for mixing things up, a substitute for your normal slaw or green salad. Take all sorts of veggies which can be eaten raw, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, fennel bulb is great, radishes, even beets but add those after you have mixed everything or everything will turn red. With the right combinations it looks fabulous, all the different colors really pop. I made a topping for it made with 1/2 cup cider vinegar and 1/4 cup sugar, salt & pepper, almost like a pickle brine. This works great against the intense smokey, bbq saucey ribs, it cleansed the pallet, fresh and crunchy.  I also threw together some baked beans, another "must-have" with barbecue with a bit of the rub mix and bbq sauce I used on the ribs mixed in to tie it all together.
I got a great bbq sauce recipe from a guy at work, he made it from memory of his grandfathers recipe. It's a Carolina vinegar sauce made with white vinegar, Tabasco, ketchup, pepper, cayenne, pepper flakes...and yes, it has a definite kick.  I used a store bought sauce when cooking the ribs, this other sauce was added as you go per person from a squeeze bottle.

The top rib is the Weber version, basically one color. It tasted fine. 

The one on the bottom is the Traeger, the pink is not under cooked meat...is it?...could it be?...YES!, it's a smoke ring, yeah! Mission accomplished! These ribs were miles above the Weber version, a huge difference. They didn't fall off the bone, they came off the bone...just where you took a bite and nothing else. :-)

    Well worth the new smoker honey!

Music of choice to cook by: Elvis, blues.

Hello, you've been Spammed...

Those of you who have been lucky enough to travel to exotic or far away locals, you are lucky.  When I travel, I really enjoy digging and searching out what the locals eat and like.  Take Hawaii.  Most might think of teriyaki, pineapple or that ever popular side...poi.  No thanks.  But by paying close attention you will find those may be a typical part of meals, other lesser known items are very much a big part of the island's food stuffs.

"Plate Lunch" is a mainstay in the islands, consisting of a protein such as fish, pork or chicken, always a scoop of mac salad and always "two scoops rice". It's fun to find some hole in the wall place, off the tourist trap area.  If you see cops, construction workers and/or area restaurant crew eating there, pull over. Although this place is not one of those, it's one we like, beachside, good food and cheap-"er" than most places.  Another staple is "poke'", which means "small pieces"in Hawaiian which is raw fish mixed with other ingredients, typically ahi tuna with perhaps onions, seaweed, spices, soy sauce.  The tuna could be substituted with raw salmon or cured "tako" (Hawaiian for octopus).  Another popular food is Spam musubi, what looks like a form of a poor man's sushi, made with seaweed, rice, spices and grilled Spam in a sauce.  Spam is huge in Hawaii, made popular after WWII when the GIs ate it and it became a local staple.  Spam musubi is so popular in Hawaii, it is the only place where you will find it for sale...in McDonalds!

Today, we have a special rare treat as I was lucky enough to contact a world traveller who has spent much time on the Islands, and I asked her to come into the studio as a guest blogger.  All the way from Pullman Town, Miss Kayla.

Me: "Welcome Kayla, thank you so much for stopping by"

Kayla: "Well thanks! Glad to be invited."

Me: "So I understand you are going to make something for us today"

Kayla: "Ya, this one's an adventure for the taste buds! We're going to be cookin' up Spam musubi."

Me: "Spam?...um, greeaat.  Where do we start?"

..... Alright, well just to start us off let's not have any preconcieved notions about Spam. Think of it like a hotdog! Riiight?! Now you're coming around to it. You will need sticky rice, nori (seaweed), low fat and low sodium Spam, furikake, and teriyaki sauce mixed with sugar (to fry the Spam in). Furikake is an asian spice that is traditional to use on musubi's but can be replaced or added to. Basically you'll want to lay down a piece or nori and in the middle of it layer some rice, sprinkle that with furikake, slap on a piece of fried Spam, and then add more rice. Wrap the ends of the nori around it and you're good to go (the sicky rice will hold it snug)!

Me: "Fantastic...but how does it taste?  I mean, Spam...and seaweed? Really? Sounds like a salty, fishy, gotta grow up with it taste.  Us haoles gonna like it?"

Kayla: Well I too was nervous at first, but because you fry the Spam in the teriyaki and sugar mix that is a big factor to what the musubi is going to taste like. In terms of the seaweed, it is definitely a salty/ocean taste but is very subdued in this dish because of the Spam, while the rice adds nice texture to pull it all together. A motto I like to live by "don't knock it till you try it".

Me: Sweet. Totally awsome. My bruddas are gonne like da chow and get a chock of Span mushubi, poke' for da beach...latta.

I served this up with a plate lunch...for dinner.  Some teriyaki kalbi ribs on the barbie which are beef ribs cut across the ribs, macaroni salad and of course, two scoops rice.


Music choice to cook by: Jake Shimabukuro. We saw him at a Jimmy Buffet concert in Maui one year, a fantastic ukulele player...ever heard Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" on a uke?