Can explosives tenderize a steak?
September 3, 2010
explosives, steak
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="336" caption="Explosions. (These are unrelated to steak.) Picture taken by Wikipedia user pdphoto; you can click the photo for the source page."][/caption]
Since we don’t have cable - or antenna reception - I’ve been going through the TV offerings on Netflix.
Netflix has a lot of old MythBusters episodes, and on one, they test a myth that steak can be tenderized by (a) shooting it out of a cannon, or (b) by subjecting it to shockwaves from high explosives.
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Inter allia
August 29, 2010
chives, garlic, leeks, onions, scallions, shallots
[caption id="attachment_1957" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Onions. By flickr user lady_fox, clicking goes to source page."][/caption]
I was raised not to like garlic and onions; my parents hated them and never used them in cooking. But as anyone who cooks knows, they are completely indispensable in the kitchen, and I have learned to love their flavor (particularly pearl onions)!
This Lifehacker post, which is interesting reading by itself, pointed me to this New York Times article about garlic and onions written by the illustrious Harold McGee.
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Avocado soup, lamb and figs, and a rice fiasco
August 24, 2010
avocadoes, beans, broccoli, chicken stock, figs, ginger, lamb, lime, pepper, rice, thyme
[caption id="attachment_879" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Avocado soup and a delicious cocktail..."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_880" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Lamb; you can see the roasted figs distributed on top. Rice and beans. Broccoli."][/caption]
Now that I actually have a schedule during the day (and a busy one at that), I try to do 2 cooks during the week. A “big cook” on the weekend where I do 3 courses, and a “small cook” during the week where I just make a main dish.
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Tuna, beans and rice, and cilantro salad
August 20, 2010
avocado, beans, cilantro, ginger, rice, soy sauce, tuna, vegetable stock
[caption id="attachment_872" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The completed dish."][/caption]
This seared tuna and cilantro salad recipe is delicious and not too difficult to make.
Not that I had ever heard of a cilantro salad before. It is what it sounds like, which I suppose would be difficult for those for whom cilantro tastes like soap. I served the tuna and salad with with some rice and beans cooked in vegetable stock and a little onion and garlic, and an avocado.
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Beer me, part 2
August 16, 2010
beer, beer me, hops, malt, yeast
[caption id="attachment_644" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A picture, for ambiance."][/caption]
(Note: this is a followup to this post.)
I wrote my last beer post having just finished bottling a new batch of beer.
After bottling, I waited a few more weeks for sediment in the beer to settle, and for the bacteria in the beer to convert the priming sugar (which I added just before bottling) into carbon dioxide.
Then - it was time to try it out!
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Note on turkey
August 3, 2010
turkey
I have always wondered why the word for turkey in French, “dinde”, wasn’t a borrowing from English, e.g. “le turki” - it should be, because turkey is not native to Europe. But actually, “dinde” is short for “coq d’Inde”, i.e. Chicken of India! (I am aware that probably nobody else was confused by this.) Thank you, Brillat-Savarin!
Update August 10: A friend notes that on a similar theme, chicken vindaloo is not an originally Indian dish.
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Hot dog economics
August 3, 2010
entrepreneurship, hot dogs, sausages
[caption id="attachment_851" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A busy downtown corner."][/caption]
I have always been interested in whether hot dog stands are a profitable business. Seems like it would be hard work to run one, but relatively easy to set up. Plus, I imagined, they must be fairly profitable on the basis of food alone - $4 or $5 is not uncommon for a dog and a soda, but the ingredients must cost much less than that.
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Free speech
August 3, 2010
human rights, speech
Here are some notes on the reasons by which, in my philosophical reading so far this summer, free speech is justified. This is very vague and is in no way intended to be comprehensive, coherent, or particularly clear:
Human progress in general
Questioning ideas is necessary in order to improve and refine them. If we foreclose any discussions, we will necessarily foreclose some possibilities of progress toward the truth.
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What is a scallop?
July 30, 2010
clams, oysters, scallops
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="A scallop. Image from Wikipedia"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Bacon-wrapped scallops; picture from Wikimedia Commons."][/caption]
My fiancee asked me: what is a scallop? I didn’t really know, so I decided to do some research on the topic.
Biologically, a scallop is a creature similar to an oyster (and indeed part of a family, Pectinidae, which is closely related to clams and oysters). Thanks, Wikipedia. You should know that (a) they have eyes!
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Cast iron seasoning
July 30, 2010
cast iron, cooking oil
[caption id="attachment_765" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Seasoning setup."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_759" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A triglyceride molecule."][/caption]
Cast-iron cookware has several advantages.
It’s cheap.
It’s incredibly durable, and doesn’t need to be (some might say shouldn’t be) washed thoroughly.
It holds heat extremely well. This is important when the cooking process requires a constant temperature, for example, in frying with oil.
It looks cool and makes me feel like I’m in an old John Wayne movie, e.
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