Making Chia Pinole Waffles

Todd is on his second read-through of Born To Run and when he got to the part about the Tarahumara diet he remembered that we had a bag of chia seeds from our trip to Bob's Red Mill. So he went looking for recipes, specifically for iskiate, made with water, chia and lime. But he also stumbled upon this recipe for waffles with both chia and pinole (a native version of corn meal) so we grabbed the few ingrediants we were nissing from Shop and Shop and gave it a go. 

They turned out far better than expected and are highly recommended. They have a great chewy, crunchy texture from the cornmeal and deep nutty flavor. The chia seeds lend an interesting flavor and the waffles are not sweet at all; it's all savory flavors and they didn't need any toppings or condiments. They're also vegan.

And we learned something about waffle making—at least with a thick batter like this you need to wait until the steam stops coming out and ignore whatever your waffle iron tells you about being done.  These took about twice as long to cook as normal waffles.  They would also make good pancakes.

How to Wash a Great Pyrenees

Step 0.  Find two dirty dogs.

Step 1.  Get them nice and tired.  A long walk.  A puppy play date.  Sprints.  Something.
Step 2.  Feed them.
Step 3.  Brush them until your arm feels like it is going to fall off.
Step 4.  Have a snack.
Step 5.  Stock the bathroom with towels, shampoo, a bucket.
Step 6.  Wrestle 100lb hydrophobe into tub.
Step 7.  Wet, shampoo, rinse, condition, rinse.
Step 8.  Leap out of way to avoid soggy rocket exiting tub.
Step 9.  Tackle with towels and scrub, scrub, scrub.

Step 10.  Collapse on floor.  Have beer.  Relax for a bit.

Gather courage and repeat!

Dino's BBQ Returns!

Lately we've been a wee bit obsessed with the Momofuku cookbook by David Chang, but we do have other cookbooks.  We actually have a whole shelf of cookbooks, but we continue to return to a popular facorite: Dinosaur Bar B Que: An American Roadhouse.  Back in college, one of our favorite places to go for dinner was the original Syracuse location of Dino's.  It was only about an hour away and served by far the best BBQ within driving distance.  Jess was the one to first purchase the Dino's cookbook and test out some of the recipes and since we trust her food sense even above our own, we picked up a copy at  some point.

But a lot of the recipes require a smoker, which we did not have available to us until Whitney and Evan were nice enough to give us their old one.

Step 1: Fire up them coals.

Todd has been playing with the fuel to try to get the right mix of charcoal and wood chips and got a pretty good fire going. 

Filet mignon: NOT recommended for smoking because a far cheaper cut of meat will come out just as well. But if you're desperate for some smoked meat and it's been in the freezer forever........

Then we got our tasty Costco sized filet steak meat product slathered up in tasty spices and arranged it on the grill in the smoker.

To go with the tasty smoked meat, we decided to make the Dino's classic Mutha Sauce.  Unintuitively this sauce starts with onions and green peppers but then with the addition of all the other ingredients it turns into a rich red sauce.

Several hours later, the meat came out perfectly.  It was nicely marbled, with the heavy pink line of smokey goodness penetrating about 1/8 inch around the edges.

The tangy, spicy, smokey sauce got slathered right on top.  Here you can actually see the flecks of onion and pepper in the sauce, but they're not at all overwhelming.

And of course what Dino's meal is complete without dessert?  Even if you only get one dessert and lots of spoons it is always worth it.  We went with the classic key lime pie, adjusted to include a little extra lemon juice.

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Charlie, Fred and Ken's Imperial Helles Bock

Hurray for Charlie Papazian and Fred Eckhardt! I don't even remember where we picked this one up.  I have the fuzzy notion that Olivia, Sofia and I were together in a beer store and we went overboard (as usual). I've always liked Sierra Nevada and I put this one in the cart because I thought it was a solid bet to be worth trying, no matter what it turned out to be.

Fast forward to today and Olivia and I were both very thirsty after rollerblading around Henry Hudson park for three hours. We were meandering through the beer collection looking for a sour to suit our tastes when Olivia started reading the blurb on the front of the bottle (see below).  This beer was brewed by Charlie and Fred! And man oh man is it good. It's so difficult to get a double or triple balanced correctly (this beer is 8.3% ABV), but when you do the results can be mind-blowing. I remember the first time I tasted a few of Bog's recommendations for stronger beers and I was blown away away by complexity of what are (by today's standards) relatively simple beers.  Gulden Drak and Piraat come to mind.  The Helles Bock reminds me of my first tasting of those beers. Minimal sweetness up front, but a lasting sweetness on the back of the tongue. Prominent honey notes (and I don't mean that as a euphemism for "this tastes sweet"—it actually tastes like parts of it were made by bees).  Just the right amount of hop aroma and minimal hop profile in the finish. Subtle kick from the strength of the brew, but remarkably restrained malt characteristic and just the right viscosity in the mouthfeel for a heavy beer like this.  Did I mention the color yet? Gorgeous. It looks like a MacAllen 12 and it took far less time to make.

I'm giving this beer a solid 5/5 overall.  Highly recommended.  Released in May 2010 and there is only supposed to be one batch.  Pick it up while you still can.

FNSC: Union Hall, Bark Hot Dogs and Bergen Street Comics

This week we found ourselves in Brooklyn again.  Our first stop was Union Hall where we were snubbed by a rude bartender who served beers that were all foam. 

They had a lackluster beer list consisting of things we've already had or were not interested in trying except for the Donnybrook Stout by Victory (which we'd already had at Pony Bar) and Sawtooth Ale from Left Hand which tuned out to be very drinkable.  While we waited for the kitchen to open and Sofia to arrive I knitted and we watch people play bocci.

The iPhone 4 failed to illuminate this picture properly. The flash-free version was even worse.

The food was surprisingly good and the waitress was much nicer than the bartender.  I'd spotted the steak sammich (steak, gorgonzola, arugula, caramelized onions, horseradish aioli, ciabata roll, Cajun fries) on the menu and that turned out to be a tasty winner, as were the drunken Jamaican wings that Todd ordered on a whim.  The wings came with an excellent vinegary blue cheese dressing which was wasted on the wings because the wings were so good that we barely noticed the dressing.  Oh, and the wings also came with some tasty cucumber spears that went really well with blue cheese dressing.

Our second stop was Bark Hot Dogs where we had a Bark Red Ale, a Rightous Rye, and a Sweet Action—all from Six Point. 

The beers were all tasty.  For food we settled on a Kase Krainer, a Weisswurst, and a Beans and Frank.  The Kase Krainer was the best of our choices, especially since the filling included liquefied Swiss cheese. 

Here I am being made fun of for eating the mustard
right out of the little paper cup.

The sausages were served with tasty (but slightly dry) sauerkraut, very tasty bread, and whole grain mustard that was good enough eat by itself.  The best part of the Frank and Beans were the beans, which were home-made and smokey. 

After Bark Hot Dogs we were lured into Bergen Street Comics by the lovely piles of colorful books.  Comics are really an underrated literary genre because people think of them as a simplistic set of pictures for kids when in fact the illustrations add an additional dimension and layer of complexity to the story.  We narrowly resisted the urge to buy the entire Sandman collection by Neil Gaiman, but did come home with the first Sandman volume, as well as Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi, and Revolver by Matt Kindt.   

Our night ended on a sad note when we hiked over to Four & Twenty Blackbirds only to find that it was closed for a private party, which was not listed on their website.  BOOOOOO to Four & Twenty Blackbirds.