Manual Meat Grinder is my New Toy

I found the kitchen tool I've been coveting for years at a yard sale this morning. It’s a manual Enterprise Tinned No. 10 Meat Grinder. You put various meats or even fruit into the top funnel and as you turn the crank a gear inside forces the meat/fruit through the perforated plate. I think the No. 10 refers to the size of the hole in the plate. You can see on the handle it was produced in 1884 in Philadelphia.

I am really excited to make my own hamburger meat, pate and sausages. The only problem is it needs to be refurbished. There are some rust spots and because it is tinned, anywhere there is rust means the tin has been eaten off of the cast iron. Looks like I have a few options including scouring pads, lye and maybe electrolysis. You can read more about why tin is used as a protective coating for the iron here.

I found a good resource at the Wagner and Griswold Society, an online community for cast iron and aluminum cookware collectors. There were a few posts that deal with how to clean up tin coated kitchen tools. The best part was it was only $5, sold to me by a couple who were having a baby and wanted to trade in knickknacks for Playschool. They never used it in the kitchen, it was just hipster object de art for them.

Grace’s Overnight Pickles
Crunchy, tangy and the little sweet. It’s as simple as bringing a pot of vinegar, sugar and spices to a boil and pouring it down over salted sliced cucumbers. These pickles stay crunchy thanks to the extra step of salting the slices and letting them sit under ice for a bit. After you try my recipe check out the Cuke and Zuke Fest that Deb Puchalla, editor in chief of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine put together.

Actual prep time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
2lb of pickling cucumbers, also called Kirby, you can sub supermarket or English cukes
2 Tbsp kosher or other coarse salt
Ice to cover pickles

Pickling Mixture
½ tsp celery seed
1tsp mustard seeds
2tsp coriander seeds, bashed
2tsp whole allspice, bashed
¼ tsp ground clove
2 bay leaves
¼ tsp turmeric
pinch crushed red pepper
2 crushed garlic cloves

3 cups apple cider vinegar
1 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ Tbsp molasses

Directions:
1. Slice 2 lb pickling cucumbers skin on, also called Kirby cucumbers, into approximately ¼ inch wide rounds. I have a fancy kitchen doodad that gives me a crinkle cut, but there’s really no need.


2. Toss with 2 tablespoons of coarse salt, top with lots of ice cubes and let it sit in the fridge for 2 hours. The salt draws out some moisture and keeps pickles crisp.




3. In the meantime, add pickling mixture to a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and reduce to simmer for 4-6 minutes to dissolve the sugar.

4. Once cucumber slices have sat in the salt and ice for about two hours, drain, remove ice and rinse.

Place in heatproof, non reactive bowl, bring pickling mixture back to a boil and pour over pickles.

5. When they’ve cooled pack them into a clean glass or ceramic container and pour liquid over them and refrigerate. I like to use leftover pickle jars. The pickles are delicious once they’ve chilled, but do taste their best after a few days after marinating in all those wonderful spices and garlic. They’ll keep for a few weeks in the fridge.

If you want to try other simple pickle recipes I highly recommend Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes for Big Flavor by Chris Schlesinger a great Boston chef.

Unfancy is the New Fancy
Grace interviews Tom Mylan cofounder of Brooklyn's Unfancy Food Show about what makes his event so much fun and what kind of noise it takes to cause mass produced pigs to keel over and die.




The amazing photos in the video of Tom giving a Pig Butchering Class at The Brooklyn Kitchen are courtesy of Adam Fields. Grub Street over at New York Magazine have a great interview with Tom here.

Recipes in 140 character


On an almost daily basis I use Twitter.com a microblogging and social media site to post recipes. You can follow @gracepiper. Here are few of the latest.

Sunday, July 06, 2008
EasyEggplant Parm.Dredge slices in beatnEgg then halfBreadcrumb halfParmCheese. Bake375 tilbrown turn, top with SauceMozzParm broil to brown.

Monday, July 07, 2008
Watermelon Blast: TossinBlender 3cupchunked frozen watermelon, mintleaves, 3/4cupRum, 1/4cupMintSimpleSyrup(c my blog for syrup recipe)

Monday, July 07, 2008
Tahini Sauce for Lamb:1/2 teaspoon minced garlic1 cup tahiniFresh lemon juiceSalt Stir in lemon juice will thicken KeepStirring tilLikecream

Blueberry Smash! Cocktail

Learn to make a cool, blue drink for a long, hot summer.




Yield: 1 serving (4 ounces each)

Ingredients:

* 1 1/4 ounces Citrus Vodka
* 2 ounces of fresh mint simple syrup (see recipe below)
* Small handful of ripe, plump blueberries
* Splash of fresh lime juice
* Seltzer water

Method:
Prepare mint simple syrup. In an old-fashioned style glass, add blueberries and about ½ ounce of mint syrup. Muddle (smash) the blueberries against the bottom of the glass until crushed. Add ice, lime juice and top off with seltzer. Stir well. Add more of any ingredient to taste. Garnish with fresh mint and a few whole blueberries

Fresh Mint Simple Syrup

Ingredients:

* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup water
* 1 cup fresh mint leaves

Method:
Combine sugar, water, and mint in a small sauce pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook just until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and cool before using.

My Interview with Blip.tv

Politics at the Fancy Food Show. Who would you vote for?

Fancy Food Show. Who would you vote for?
Originally uploaded by gpiper

MicroRecipes in 140 Characters.

MicroRecipe Chicken: SoakChickenDrums in 1cupMilk1TbspVinegar(makes buttermilk)overnight, Dredge in ParmCheeseGarlic/OnionPowder Bake350~1Hr


This makes a tender, moist piece of chicken with a nice crust. Sometimes I spoon a tablespoon of melted butter and garlic over each piece before baking.

Battle of the Food Shows!
UnFancy Vs. Fancy


I shot some great interviews with the wonderful foodies at the UnFancy Food Show out of Brooklyn today. Tomorrow I shoot at The Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center in Manhattan.

Folks I enjoyed talking to-

Salvatore Brooklyn Ricotta: I hate to admit it, but I've NEVER liked ricotta. This fresh, wonderful, creamy stuff has turned me not only into a convert, but into an evangelist. It is good, it is fresh, it is not the ricotta you might buy in the grocery store with a slightly off smell. This is the real deal.

Scott Gold author of The Shameless Carnivore: It's true, he is a complete degenerate when it comes to how much he enjoys meat products, and that is why he is wonderful. His book is terrific and you should all go buy two copies; one for you and one for your brother's vegetarian girlfriend.

Recipes in 140 Characters or less.

Garlic Spinach: Saute MedHeat1mincedgarlicclove 1TbsnPeanutOil toss in washedFreshSpinach, stir til softened stir in S&P toTaste

Bad Brunch, Bad

If I’m eating at your restaurant and the tastiest item on my plate is the ketchup, you have a serious problem.

When I eat out I have this crazy voice in my head saying things like, “Under seasoned, overcooked, this came out of a can/bag/box, this chef doesn’t give a shit!” I just like thoughtful cooking, it doesn’t need to be great, I just want the chef to have put in a modicum of effort. This past Sunday morning my internal monologue went into overdrive at brunch at Elementi on 7^th Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I ordered the Eggs Benedict and a side of spicy sausages made in-house.

Here are just a few of the problems:

The Poached Eggs: Overcooked. Sad. Congealed yolk. (If you click the photo above you can see it up close in all it's poorly cooked glory.)

The English Muffin: It wasn’t toasted, it was mushy, and a little butter would have been nice.

The Sauce: The only thing the chef got right in this hollandaise sauce is the color. Bland, no flavor, no salt, no seasoning, no acid. Clearly nobody tasted this before sending it out of the kitchen. Really godaweful.

The Potatoes: Insipid and limp. They'd only been browned on one side and hadn’t been seasoned with salt and pepper properly. If they'd been crisp at one point, they weren't by the time they'd gotten to my table. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d sat around for awhile in the kitchen waiting for me to order them. The menu called them hashbrowns. Fail.

The Greens: Clearly bagged bitter greens, which I have absolutely no problem with, if properly dressed. The balsamic vinaigrette's acid, oil, salt, pepper ratio was off, off, off.

The Sausage: Homemade and tasted very good. Nice seasoning, I liked them…. Except for how they looked. As you can see in the photo, there is definitely something turd-like in the appearance. For $3 I got three tiny 2-3 inch by 1/4 inch sausages, for plating 2 larger would have looked more appetizing. In the video below I'd already eaten 2 before it occurring to me I should video it.

Unlimited Drinks for $7: That would be great if my Bloody Mary tasted like more than canned tomato puree with lots of horseradish. Didn't anyone taste that drink mix before sending it out to customers? Doubt it.

Really disappointing.

Elementi ** out of 5
Italian

140 7th Ave, Brooklyn 11215
Btwn Carroll St & Garfield Pl

Recipes in 140 characters: Grilled Peaches

Halve v. ripe peaches, remove pit, brush with equal amounts molasses and lime juice, freshly ground pepper and toss on the grill til charred.

Asian Un-Dumplings

I’m not really a fan of the outside of a dumpling, so here’s my take on tastiest part. It's similar to a Shanghai dish called Lion's Head. Next time I'll add in 4 dried shitake mushroom ( soaked, rinsed and finely chopped ) and 3 canned water chestnuts for more crunch.

1lb Ground Pork

1 Egg

1 cupMincedScallion

3 tablespoon Kikkoman Soy Sauce (La Choy is absolutely the worst soy sauce, bad taste and worse smell)

2 tablespoon Sesame Oil

1 tablespoon each minced fresh Ginger & Garlic

1 tablespoon Dry Sherry or Rice Wine Vinegar

2 tablespoons of freshly ground Black Pepper

Mix together really well, then add in:

2 cups shredded Nappa Cabbage

Roll in walnut size balls and bake about 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Keep your hands damp to reduce its sticking to you. Cut one open to make sure they are cooked through. Next time I may try steaming them.

Serve with equal parts soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.

Recipes in 140 Characters or Less!

Goi Du Du (Thai Green Papaya Salad) 1lbShreddedGreenPapaya, 2clovegarlic 2tspsugar 1/4cupWhiteVinegar 1TbspSriracha FishSaucetotaste

My coverage of The Webby Awards for Viral on Veoh.

The highlights: Tay Zonday serenading me, asking Dir. Michel Gondry(Dir. of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind) who he'd put his money on if David Byrne and Steven Colbert got in a bare knuckles fist fight, and meeting the adorable Alex Albrecht. I was lucky enough to be shot by Adam Quirk of WreckandSalvage, who came up with some great whacked out red carpet questions to ask. My favorite was, "What are you wearing, under what you're wearing?". Unfortunately, it didn't make it off the cutting room floor.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

More winners who rocked my world, but didn't make it into the video. Veoh edited the show, but Sunny is sending me back the tapes. I may take a stab at my own take on the footage.

• Meeting the awesomely funny David Wain of Wainy Days . When your done watching all my videos you should go watch all of his. I also told him he should move to my neighborhood in Brooklyn, and he told me the other douche press had not seen his show, but I did!
  
• Asking one of the creators of The West Side Adam's question, "What are you wearing under what you're wearing?" He was a good sport and his web series rocks. It's an urban western that has great acting, script, and shot and edited beyond pro. These guys are the real deal and doing amazing work
  

My Twitter Cookbook

I’ve been experimenting with using Twitter as a way of microblogging recipes that I cook in my everyday life. If you aren’t familiar with Twitter.com it’s a social media site that lets you stay in with friends, acquaintances and in some cases total strangers in 140 character posts. Here is the best explanation I’ve seen made by CommonCraft in the form of a fun video. My twitter name is my name with no spaces @gracepiper. If you want me to follow you after you've signed up use @gracepiper in a Twitter and ask me to add you back in.

Twitter Recipe One (This on took two tweets)

Best Baba Ghanoush Halve 2Eggplants rubwithEVOO RoastCutSideDown 400degrees tilSoft chopwithskinON Processwith 1/4cupTahini Juice1Lemon 2mincedGarlic

Cloves 1TbspCumin Add more of any of these &S/P to taste.

The Best Damn Turkey Show Ever!

Grace tackles a 20lb Turkey and 2lbs of bacon in her first Holiday Special. Bonus: Meet Zelda the Wild Turkey of Manhattan!






Recipe for Best Damn Turkey Ever
20 lb Turkey, rinsed and dried with paper towels
2 lb Bacon, preferably Oscar Meyer, not hickory or other flavor

Steps

Remove bird from fridge one hour before cooking to come to room temperature, this ensures even cooking.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Slide your hands under the skin and gently tuck one pound of bacon slices between skin and meat.
Cover entire bird with second pound of bacon.
Cover breast with tinfoil and roast. Look here for an online calculator that will tell you how long to cook your turkey.
Remove tinfoil for last hour of roasting to brown bacon.
When done let it rest for 1/2 to 1 hour to let juices go back into the meat.

Pot Roast Done Vloggy-Style
Watch what happen when Grace gets personal and cooks up a big hunk of beef.

My Geek Peeps at the Brooklyn 2.0 Meetup

I was feeling the New Media/Video Podcasting/Blogger love last night at the Brooklyn 2.0 Meetup. This meetup attracted a great crowd to Mooney's Pub in Park Slope thanks to organizer Eric Rochow of GardenFork. Check out his terrific recipe for blueberry pancakes on his video podcast GardenFork.tv; in this same podcast you’ll learn how to fell a tree with a chainsaw.

Old friends, like Caleb Clark stopped in. Caleb challenged me to a FearlessCooking episode using his lox recipe, definitely a -white glove smacked against the face- moment for me. Charles Hope of Blip.tv talked code with David of social networking site Ning, I left them to it after noticing that the conversation started sounding like, “beep, beep, beep” type robot talk to me. John of Google was another code monkey floating around talking smack about Bangor, Maine small town living and telling me about working on iGoogle- lots more cool features rolling out there soon. Yahoo better watch out. Talked with Stephen Kline of Xanga.com about the challenges of doing live video on the net.

Had a great conversation about the merits of Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi in Star Trek. Consensus was - she's hot. Glad I stopped in for another fun night out with my Geek Peeps.

Grace and Christopher Walken in the Kitchen

Raise your hands if you think I should get in the kitchen with Christopher Walken. Exactly. Chris needs some Fearless Cooking in his life. I can tell.

In this video he makes a really nice roast chicken. I'll have to buy one of those upright roaster contraptions he uses. I'd bet he gets more crispy skin on his bird than I do. I also approve of how generous he is with the salt.