Sunday, June 29, 2008

New gadgets necessitates making a complicated food

I recently bought a KitchenAid stand mixer, a Braun 4-in-1 hand mixer, and an Al Dente pasta machine from Amazon's Friday Sale (good deals!).

Regarding my new toys: I bought my stand mixer refurbished. Some people have issues buying refurbished products, but a certain review on Amazon convinced me I could be confident in KitchenAid's refurbished mixers:
KitchenAid gets FIVE STARS, in my books, for never assuming anything. Even if the tape is still securing the box, the unit is removed completely and sent through the entire quality control process-each and every part of the Mixer is scrutinized. If, as another example, a customer returns a unit because one of the covers is missing, the same lengthy process is taken to ensure that NOTHING leaves the factory with the "Factory-Reconditioned" status unless they can stand by the product in the same way they do with the original.
And I'm happy!

What did I make with all my new toys? Raviolo with Egg Yolk and Browned Butter as I saw on the Martha Stewart Show. My version differed a bit as I did not have truffles available to put on top, so I just added a bit of White Truffle Oil to the browned butter. (Aside: I was not trying pass off truffle oil as having come from anything resembling a truffle, I was just giving it a bit of that "umph". For more info on the fakery that is truffle oil, see this NYTimes article.)

I really enjoyed making pasta dough for the first time with my KitchenAid stand mixer. Since it was my first time, I wasn't sure exactly how it was supposed to go. I used the recipe listed along with the raviolo recipe. For the first few minutes in the mixer, the dough seemed way too crumbley to be able to stand up on its own so I added a very small amount of water which definitely helped. The dough kneaded on mix (Level 2!) until it formed a nice ball on the dough hook. After that, I took it out and handed kneaded on a lightly floured cutting board.

Kneading my dough by hand was especially difficult. And since I didn't know exactly what my dough was supposed to be like, I grew concerned that it was too dry, so I added water. I later realized that this was probably a mistake because when I was running the dough through the machine, it was a teesy bit sticky (not enough to cause problems with the pasta though).

While my dough was sitting, I used the chopping attachment of my 4-in-1 hand mixer to chop up the spinach for the raviolo filling - it was sexy fast and awesome.

After rolling out the dough with the pasta machine, we dropped egg yolks into the little spinach/ricotta piped houses. This part was probably the most fun and super cute - just look!





There were definitely some mishaps along the way (pasta sticking, filling escaping from the sides, a huge mess in the kitchen, John's burned fingers), but for my first pasta making I think it went pretty well. You can check out the beautiful results:



I've never been a fan of runny egg yolk in anything, but it was just perfect for this dish. It was rich, creamy and matched the flavors well. I had even wished I had bread to soak it up when I done.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

2004 Domaine Carneros Brut Cuvée

I was just going through old papers that are sitting on my desk and I found the wine notes from one of the wine and cheese pairing classes that I attended at Whole Foods.

The most memorable pairing that night was the 2004 Domaine Carneros Brut Cuvée and a triple cream brie. The cuvée was 61% pinor noir, 37% chardonnay, and 2% pinot blanc. According to the tasting notes, it has "fruit aromas of pears, baked apples, and citrus peel enhanced with hints of caramel, spice...very mouth-filling and with a long creamy finish."

The cuvée was impressive on its own, but paired with the triple-cream brie we had, all the flavored played off of each other amazingly. The creaminess of the wine compliments a smooth brie well and I look forward to trying this pairing again.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

He'Brew Jewbelation Eleven

As I settle in to write this post, my head's still buzzing from the 24 oz bottle of He'Brew Jewbelation Eleven ale I just finished off. Coming in at 11% ABV, this beer is definitely not a pushover. If asked to pick a BJCP category for this beer, I'd say it's a Russian Imperial Stout. Some notes:

Aroma - First impression was a big hit of west coast hops, something like a Cascade hop. Later on, as the beer warmed, the rich, roasty, malty character of the beer really took over. I didn't catch any fruity esters (might have missed them due to the strong malt nose), nor did I catch any of the alcohol warmth that I expected.

Appearance - Very dark, basically black, with some red highlights if held up to a light. Seemed pretty hazy. Tan head, but not very generous and the retention was on the lower end.

Flavor - The same rich, roasty malts present on the nose really come through in the taste. Plenty of malt sweetness to go around. Medium amounts of dark fruity esters. Some really nice dark chocolate and coffee flavors come in as well. All the malty goodness is fairly well-balanced by a medium-high hop bitterness that builds in the middle and lingers long into the aftertaste. I'm still feeling a slight bitterness, and the beer's been done for ~20 minutes now, so maybe a bit heavy on the bittering hops. Nothing much to note for hop flavor.

Mouthfeel - Medium-low carbonation. Big body, this beer will fill you up. Some alcohol warmth comes in, which isn't surprising, at 11% ABV, although it's a very smooth warmth, nothing harsh, no fusels. Slight astringency, definitely doesn't take away from the beer.

Overall Impression - I thought this beer was pretty great. The nose got me excited, since I loves me some delicious west coast hop aroma, and I enjoyed the way the nose evolved as the beer warmed. Taste-wise I was also very happy with this beer. Very complex with all the rich malty sweetness, coffee action, dark fruits, and hop bitterness a guy could ask for. The only thing I'd ask for is less lingering hop bitterness. The hop bitterness needs to be there to balance all the malt and fruit, but I'd be a bit happier if it didn't linger so long. In conclusion, I would absolutely recommend this beer and I'd definitely drink it again.

Alright, so much for beer. I guess I should mention that Theresa's really excited that I decided to get on here and babble for a little while. I have to admit, it's more fun than I thought it'd be. That's all for me tonight. Your mission is to go drink some Jewbelation Eleven. It just might live up to its marketing as the Chosen Beer!

Monday, June 9, 2008

John's Intro

Hi, folks. Not an hour has passed since we started this blog, and already Theresa's getting on me about posting. Since she just had surgery and shouldn't be getting worked up about things like this, I gave in and here we are. Theresa mentioned my new BJCP affiliation in her post, so I'd like to elaborate on that a little.

Late last summer (maybe it was fall), my buddy Jim Furman jump-started his homebrewing career. While buying ingredients at the local homebrew store (More Beer, Los Altos) for one of his creations, Jim happened upon a posting for a BJCP class to be held there. The deal was 1 night a week for 10 weeks, the class gathered, learned about a few different styles of beer, drank some examples of those styles, and learned proper judging techniques by judging the beers. This sounded great, so I hopped on board, and, from late January-early April, I hugely expanded my beer knowledge and met some great folks in the process. Then, in early May, I took the BJCP exam (which the class was preparation for) at the Toronado bar in SF. It was really difficult and I'm not sure I passed, but in the meantime, I can officially judge as an Apprentice judge, learn from other more-experienced judges, and critique other people's fine brews.

Well, that's all for now. Theresa and I are about to sit down and enjoy episode 140 of Likable or Not (a Korean Drama, our latest craze). Later!

Posts about food are coming, but for now...

This is a new blog John and I are sharing. Our intentions are to keep it updated with our thoughts about food, wine, beer, cheese, etc. We originally wanted to just keep track of our thoughts on wine, but I guess it turned into something more. We're not just some yahoos who put a blog together to talk about something we don't know about - we're yahoos trying to educate ourselves so we do know what we're talking about. John is already an apprentice BJCP beer judge. I, well I work at Google so I'm obviously a highly regarded epicurean. In addition to those credentials, John and I have been taking many classes about wine or wine and cheese. I've been reading a lot of books about food, so if I run into any interesting tidbits, I'll be sure to share. Anyway, happy reading.