Drinking Coffee from Elsewhere

So, now that I am back writing, I often need a little pick me up to keep going. Okay, not really. I needed a hook for this post. I have had a few coffee from elsewhere that I have been meaning to try. Many countries have their own obsession with packaged coffee of some ilk. None are more serious than the Japanese.

People I work with know this about me and I had four packages of coffee to try. Two of these came with their own pour over method included.

The first one I tried really should have been the last one. It was the best of the bunch and came with its own filter for pour over. Of course, it was from Japan. Drinkable out of the pack without adding sugar or milk. It had the words Blue Mountain on the package. Not sure of the providence but it is good. It produced a good bloom, That is a fancy way of saying that you pour a bit of hot water to start the process and off gassing will produce a bit of bubbles on the surface and then you can continue to pour the hot water.   It easily beat most standard coffee shop coffee and most perked coffee.

Standard Vanilla Latte from Starbucks. It coats the tongue and has an odd bit of bitterness. It is better than most flavoured instant coffee. But it bears as much resemblance to coffee as most instant coffees do. It is not something that I would drink as a coffee and maybe not as a hot chocolate replacement either.

Yup, that's Starbucks

Sweet Christmas. I think this was an Indonesian find? Like T-Rex's Get It On, this was 'dirty and sweet/clad in black' but I don't want to make this my girl. Like the mentality required to make that type of statement, this is a taste from the 70's and it is not mine. A few sips causes tinnitus and then woopsy on my tongue. (Hey, I'm reading from my notes at the time and putting words around them.) At the end, there was sludge. Lots of it. So, yeah.... Nope.

Indonesian coffee

This last one was earthy and roasty. It tasted like coffee! There was little to no bitterness. It bloomed well but there was a leftover taste of pencil shavings. This may have been due to the temperature of the water. This one didn't need any sugar or milk either. Another Japanese pour over coffee. This one was bought in a gas station but was better than any coffee I have had in Canada from a gas station.

Earthy, toasty

So, I was glad to have tasted a bunch of these coffee from other places. It is strange how it can put what you drink into perspective.

I could talk about the guilt associated with single package coffee and maybe someday I will write that post. These were gifts and meant well. I appreciate the small tokens that are brought back for me from trips. Unexpected. And I can honestly say that the experience was a bit more varied that I expected.

Thanksgiving (Canadian)

So, I got invited to a Thanksgiving by some Americans through my partner. I couldn't help but tweak the noses of the guests. I had an inkling that there were days of thanks that existed before the so-called American Thanksgiving.

I knew about the Order of Good Cheer (L'Ordre de Bon Temps) instituted by Champlain in what is now Nova Scotia in 1605. Basically, it was a drunk fest carried out in the winter to prevent scurvy. Riiiiiiight! More likely a good reason to party to prevent them from going stir crazy. That is before the first Thanksgiving in United States of America in 1621. Was there even an earlier date?

According to some historians, there is a feast of Thanksgiving made by Sir Martin Frobisher in 1578. He is the guy that brought fool's gold to Europe and got a bunch of people excited to go. Also, another fool looking for the Northwest passage. He had tried two times before and was trying again. He was thankful that they got that far and weren't dead yet. That's something to be thankful for, I guess.

There had already been Thanksgiving days before. Monarchs were thanking the Lord for victories in wars and stuff, so it wasn't strictly the harvest festival that we attach to the day now. Even on that strict idea, there were already folks here who celebrated the end of the harvest.  Maybe it was the last big blast before winter. (Nah, see Champlain above. It wasn't all his idea for the feasts. I seem to recall an article in the Believer or maybe Lucky Peach which suggested part of the idea was from the indigenous folk.)

Anyway, that all predates 1621. The argument was that was the first date that a harvest festival by Europeans with the indigenous people exist. I call foul. Hell, there is American contention over that date on whether there was a church service or not. Always moving goal posts. But in Canada, we have our feast earlier in the year and probably earlier in history.

So, from some accounts, if we use Fool's Gold Frobisher, there was a meal of salt beef, mushy peas and biscuits. What the hell could I do with that?

Test Pie. See below for the rest of the story

Well, there is meat pie. Instead of a recipe, I am going to put together the dish in front of you. Couldn't find salt beef, so used corned beef. I already wanted to make it more or less period without adding a lot of modern frills, so no onions. Corned beef does have black pepper but black pepper isn't from the "New World". Seems funny in this day and age to say things that New World, so we will stop with that. Most spices were from North America, South America, and a lot of the islands between the two. So, it was just corned beef. 

Corned beef with a gravy

Remember they used to have barrels of this stuff on ships. I remember seeing corned beef in plastic pails labelled salt beef. Just couldn't find it this time round. I should have went to the Newfoundland grocery store. I'm sure it still has the stuff in stock most times.

The cooked corn beef 

So after that was cooked, I made a gravy with butter and flour roux and added the water that I cooked the beef in. It had salt, pepper and all the good stuff from the beef. 

Tasted good just like that. I could have added mustard and maybe some vinegar but wanted to keep it super simple.

Mushy peas next.

Mushy peas. They aren't quite what I thought they were. They are dried split peas that are soaked and then cooked. Add some salt and butter and there you are. They were starchier that I thought and were very hearty. I could imagine how this could be a feast food when combining with meat and fresh bread. But my, is it heavy. If you cook the peas too much, well, that's your Habitant soup in a can. I have some of that. Homemade but still pea soup. Like it but it isn't something that I would say is a thankful dish unless you are cold, spent a long time on the water and almost died. 

The biscuit topping uncooked

And finally, a biscuit crust. Simple biscuit recipe. Not much to say. I use this often on leftover meats like turkey or chicken. Which reminds me, that is something you can do with leftover turkey. Maybe this isn't a late Thanksgiving post but rather a prescient leftovers post. Hunh! Yeah, you are making this for supper this week. The whole thing takes as much time as to make the biscuit mix and cook it. (350 for 45 minutes plus prep time). About the same amount of time to get your kids away from video games or television. 

After all that. I didn't take a pic of the final coming out of the oven. I could take a pic of the two leftover pieces in my fridge but that is unfair to it. Seriously, try something like this with your leftovers. Really good. 

Liver.

Yup. always appetizing...

So, I had this bit of liver...

Stories I could tell:

Story 1:
Reminder of family: I used three pounds of liver that is one of the few things left over from my separation of three years ago this year. I stopped cooking family food for a while and this is part of me getting brave again. A healing thing as we gear up for the divorce proceedings.

Rejected: Two dismal. Yeah, yeah, another father makes it through separation and divorce by cooking. Boo-fucking-hoo.

Story 2:
Childhood reflections: The coppery smell and taste of liver reminds me of my dad. He liked liver and onions and would make it on occasion. I can remember how he cooked it and how I didn't like the smell. I would recognize that as an ethnic smell  now. And the taste -- even though it shares a flavour with fresh venison, I never got used to it.

Rejected: Maudlin and too often a goto for me.

Story 3:
Health benefits: It is good for you. Especially if it is free range, grass fed and organic. When I was growing up, we just ate the liver from the cows that were raised on my grandmother or my uncle's farm. No such thing as this high falutin' labels. Things were better. Liver is good.

Rejected: It is such a crock of shit with this foodie fascism and the weird sanctimony that comes with the fetishism of organic. The reality is that only middle class and above can really eat like this in the city. It is false to pretend that I would be eating this without the fact that it came from a meat order thrown in because no one uses liver any more.

Regardless. I took the liver and made it into a pate. It was seasoned heavily with allspice. This slab of fat was used in making Bahn Mi sandwiches and used by itself for bread and crackers. The thing is; it made a lot. So much so that there is still some in the freezer waiting for me to try to do something with it. I may try cutting it and frying it while it is still frozen. I think it could work like creton.

It has a strong coppery flavour and it is hard to miss that it is liver but in a good way. I guess I will have to try it and see.

Book Review: Pantry and Palate

This won't end up being a book review so much as a bunch of notes to take away. Full disclosure: this is my partner's friend who wrote the book. It is an Acadian foodways cookbook. I would recommend it for anyone who likes those recipe books from churches but would like a professional eye and curated approach.

This is definitely a foodways book. It is a helpful preservation and understanding of how a particular regional cooking style is rooted in the area. In this case, there is also a sense of history of how the dishes progressed. There is a history of a dish if you know how to read it. For me, it was a bit like stepping back into my childhood with recipes that may seem old fashioned but are really more about how one cooks with a less modern approach. There are techniques and food that have been tossed out because it isn't one that the consumer wants. All meat, no trimmings kind of thing.

It is funny that we go to restaurants to get foodstuffs from recipes that were common and deemed to be so common as to not be worth saving.  By common, I mean the sense of pervasive and of the lower class. Blood sausage (boudin noir, boudin blanc), headcheese, and potted meat being three things that are now often praised in modern restaurants. It is as if a chef has a better grasp of taking bone, gristle and blood and transforming it more safely and in better craft than the grandmothers of old. It is more likely that as we have stopped doing our own butchery from yard to table that the system has made these ordinary and common things dangerous.

This book stirred up a bunch of thoughts as the author worked towards taking the scraps of old recipes into modern recipes. Most older recipes are written with the idea that you have some ordinary skills. A lot of these skills are no longer passed down or taught. Head cheese mentioned above had very little in the way of a recipe or what you do with the head you have. I guess nowadays, there is youtube and the Food Network. But how do you even know these things exist? 

On page 6, there is a cry to bring back home economics in the sense of  "cooking with limited and specific ingredients and techniques". I wonder if part of the reason this has been left out as not being necessary in a largely middle class milieu. If this was framed as a social justice issue combining effects on migrant workers, environment and anti capitalist, would it become a sexy subject again? Could those who are not of the working class get behind this as a necessary skill? Since a high school education is way more common now, these skills would also help those of the working class without creating a destreamed and stigmatizing environment.  Doing domestic duties has gotten the short end of the stick as being not a first choice but it seems to me that is a bit of classist statement. Food Network has done a bit to bring it back into the middle class but I'm not sure it has gone all the way. I'm sure there are many blog posts to be written about cooking and feminism but this isn't the place right now.

Authentic. That word. However, on page 9, the working definition for Simon Thibault is 'Appreciation, observation, and a keen ear for what a dish is telling you...'  Not sure I could add anything here. It is just good to hear that said out loud. 

This book covers:

Preserves and includes pickles. I make a lot of quick, fresh pickles and there is a helpful hint that any fresh pickle can further preserved by canning. I will have to test that theory sometime as my worst fear has always been botulism, especially with low acid goods. My dad's canned meat sometimes worried me. I wasn't worried enough to say no to the meat but I haven't tried canning my own. 

Breads.

There is a recipe for a black bread that rings of stories from my dad about this thing that my grandmother used to make. I had thought it may be closer to the Bavarian black bread due to our history of coming from somewhere in the Austrian empire before the wars during the era when Poland was partitioned but maybe it is closer to this rural Canadian thing. 

Lard.

As it so happens I have some flake fat and suet in my fridge right now, so the idea of making lard has been on my mind. It is nice to see a modern recipe for making it. I should see if I can make this. 

Tete de Cochon.

I remember walking into my aunt's where there was a pig head being prepared. The smell is still in memory and strangely doesn't smell as bad as you would think. In some ways, I connect it to boiling laundry. It is definitely a better smell than boiled cabbage. At the same time, there were containers of blood for blood pudding. This is what was done fairly soon after a slaughter. The seasons tell you what to do. 

Soups, Sides, and Staples

There were meat pies of all kinds.  Fring frangs, fricot, rappie are all regional dishes but are recognizable as concepts to anyone who has subsisted on food that is fresh and farm based. Fring frangs are a version of potato pancakes, fricot is a stew and rappie is a potato and chicken pie. These all seem like a good way to use potatoes and old birds. Maybe that is just my reading but I can see this in a particular way. This reminds me of the chicken industry and the egg industry as being different things. But that is another rant and another post. Suffice to say, when an egg layer has to be culled, it does become supper somehow. 

Desserts

Includes three rhubarb recipes, date cake and a recipe for taffy.

I tried to include enough of the parts that I found interesting so that you could determine your interest level. I do recommend this for anyone who is trying to reclaim their family recipes. It covers off a good way to figure out how to read your family recipes. I must admit that a romantic notion of trying to understand the Kashubian recipes from Wilno came to my mind. I know that so many of the women there are getting on in age and that the young people are leaving without capturing that old fashioned way of eating and cooking. Maybe this is one way out of our odd way of food consumerism that has caused some issues? 

Feed the Resistance: Not a Book Review

Eating is political. A trite statement given the history of food and revolutions. From the army marches on its stomach to breaking bread as a sign of peace; food is connected to big movements. I have been reading a lot lately on an analysis of class and country music and queerness and it has left me with a whole lot of questions and ruminations. This has affected the way I look at many things including food.

A cookbook, "Feed the Resistance" showed up on a feed and I got it out from the library. The recipes are pretty quotidian but largely from different ethnic groups. I suppose it would be exotic but these are from the frontlines of the class battles. So, quick, cheap meals from their different backgrounds are the ordinary meals of the activist. Interspersed are little essays on all sorts of activist stuff. Yes, this is definitely a response to President Donald J. Trump but it is a kinder more measured way to respond. The kind of response that begins around the kitchen table and moves into streets, organizations and any type of response imaginable.

Let them eat cake

Like after a death; there are feeders and the fed. Sustenance is needed to go on when you can't go on. People are worried that things are as bleak as ever. But things often look less bleak after a meal and some tea. At least we can start with that because we have some tea and a meal.

The meal itself presents kindness to be shared or burdens lifted. It is almost as if the communal making of a meal and cleaning up gives us the sense that if we all work together we can change the world starting with our family. In today's age, that family can mean so many things. Families are more than the post nuclear family of a parent or two and whatever amount of kids.

You don't win friends with salad

I am beginning to explore that. A few weeks ago, I made a birthday meal for someone I care about greatly. Friends were invited to break bread. The spread consisted of donair, arugula and roasted veggie salad, potato salad, chocolate cake, and lemon goat cheesecake. The people around the table were all from so called intersectional groups. While that is a fancy way of saying that there is a bunch of shit happening from different directions, it sometimes misses things. Class is one of them. Why bother with talking about class and food? Well...

Activism is often lead by the middle class as the lower class is too busy struggling to go to protests or trying to change the world. What can be done to help? How can we bring in the voices who need the change?

Well, some of the essays in the cookbook have ideas. Ideas that I think could help around the table. In this meal, there were people from different walks of life around the table and there was a way to practice some ideas. The essay "Ground rules to organized activism" suggests four things; Assume best intentions, One microphone, Progressive stack, and Non-Martian clause. Roughly speaking, set a safe place for everyone to make mistakes while having a chance to speak especially those who don't and use plain language. That means everyone gets to speak from their experience. That means EVERYONE. I think I would love to have people from radically different lifestyles sitting and breaking bread.

Out of witty salad quotes

In other words, I am going to start having dinner parties with a variety of people around the table to see if we cannot change some things. Start small and work from there. For instance, this time, one of the guests talked about how she would get extra food from work and not be able to use it. I told her to bring it over here. If there was a lot, then I would cook it all and give back some. So far, there have been some bags of food that show up intermittently but I am keeping in mind one day there may be a bigger pile. I have shared whatever food I make from these bags. It is making a difference to at least two people.

Also, I'm thinking about buying a bushel of tomatoes and making a sauce. I'd like to have some people over for pasta and then sending them on their way with some sauce and a few ideas. We will see if I can make it work but it does seem like a start. Imagine having discussions on sharing while around a table. No pressure to act but rather a human discussion on what could help. It may help the trading of pet sitting for food or a place to stay for a couch surfer. I don't know what could come of it but being open to it would be a good thing.

Another essay exhorts to not to try to do it all: Choose something you can be a leader on, something you can follow and something that is a habit. I'm going to work on this idea for a bit and see if it leads somewhere. In the meantime, maybe I should write more about the politics of eating and preparing food. I'll let the food system issues work themselves out while trying to figure out how to feed my friends and family.

East Coast Donair

Flip, Flop, Fly

Tale of two cocktails (Candy Cane Eggnog on the Right, Homemade Eggnog on the Left)

The weather has turned cold again and I get to writing. Been messing 'round with something akin to eggnog but with a lot of alcohol. I made a few drinks while watching 'The Saint', which is a reboot of a franchise I watched as a kid. I remember the lead character as brash and refined. A smooth show where a thief and rogue worked the fine line of being bad and doing the right thing. It helped that Roger Moore starred and later became Bond, the government version of the Saint. It was romantic and suave.

This might seem like a digression but I assure you that it ain't. On this snow filled night and the descent of the thermometer, I took some Forty Creek and worked it into the experiments I have been doing. I took the modern equivalent of an eggnog, namely PC Candy Cane UHT eggnog, and mixed it with the booze. I also took an egg, some simple made with leftover ham spicing, Fernet Branca and milk and made a flip.

Ham spicing before I simplified it

Okay, hold on, Hold on! what the f star is a flip?

We can go back and talk about this medieval beer drink mixed with booze and egg but that does no one any good. That is just pretentious and precious. I may do it someday to show how douche-y it is but in the mean time, I will try something, at least a little bit more modern.

A flip is basically, booze, egg and some cream. If you omit the cream, it seems that you can't call it nog. At least that is my close reading of the internet recipes floating around. My first flip, other than eggnog, was a few years ago where a bartender made me some type of brandy drink with raw egg. I recognized it and dearly wanted to try it at home.

The recognition came from a time in my teens where I would mix a raw egg into store bought chocolate milk and bask in its luxuriant goodness. In reality, it was probably a few weeks where I wanted to gross out my sisters. I would mix a raw egg into a carton of chocolate milk. After a few inadequate mixings, I stopped because the sliminess grossed me out. Anywho... The bartended drink was pretty good and it gestated or incubated or stuck around like a chestbuster (Alien reference, look it up you kids) and finally came to be this year.

First the basics...

2 oz booze
1 oz simple syrup of some kind
1 egg
.5 oz cream

Take it all and shake it for about a minute.

That is it. Super simple. The variations are endless. I have used rum, whiskey, rye, bourbon, and even mescal as the booze. For simple, I have replaced it with a sweet liqueur such as a coffee liqueur or a fortified wine and most successfully, a simple syrup made with that packet that comes with a ham for glazing. The cream can be replaced with milk. It makes it slightly less smooth but it is very slight in the change.

So. I wondered. Does it matter with this raw egg thing that I am doing? Is this just another move to show that I am some type of bar star? There was this candy cane eggnog at my local Valumart that was half price because, well, Christmas is over and the eggnog market bottom has dropped out. Half price eggnog.

I took 1.5 oz of that and 2 oz of Forty Creek. Added it to some ice and shook it for about a minute and poured it into a glass. The pics show two glasses because I was going all whiskey glass and then took a left to a coupe. Regardless.

I took 85g package of glaze, added twice as much hot liquid to make a simple syrup. That is 170 ml for those that don't like math. I used .5 oz simple, .5 oz Fernet Branca for the mint flavour and .5 oz milk. Added an egg and 2 oz Forty Creek. Shook that up too.

There were some differences. Some were obvious. Take a look at the picture up top.

First, the egg based one was smoother and richer. Made sense. Secondly, the egg one made almost two drinks due to the volume that the egg made. Also, made sense. The other differences were that the spicing was more pronounced in the egg and glaze based drink. I was expecting that the flavours on the store bought eggnog would be better and more pronounced but it turns out that the thinness and the spicing didn't hold up to the homemade.

I have been drinking some variation on this drink through fall and will probably continue to summer. If I was using store bought eggnog, I would adjust the spicing. Really, though... it is so simple to add egg and milk or cream, I can't see myself going back to store bought eggnog. As long as I mix it up enough and don't get salmonella, I'll keep on doing this.

BTW, here is where I got the name of the post from....