Kombucha

Well, that is embarrassing. First, I make this big announcement that I am revamping the content of my blog to be completely food related and then……nothing. Over two weeks worth of nothing to be exact. Not that I didn’t have other things to do because I certainly did. I had school work to do (which I can’t wait to be rid of), books to read, TV to watch, kids to take care of, etc. What? Don’t food writers have lives, too? Back to the point here. One of those things that I did over the past two weeks was to try the strange concoction of kombucha. This is a fermented tea, which is apparently an ancient Chinese drink and which claims to have a wide range of health benefits. My cousin, who is also a chef, mentioned it in several of her Facebook posts and so, thus inspired, I decided to try it.

I bought my first 16-ounce, certified organic bottle at one of my local “health-foods” grocery stores (of which there are now several in the Austin area – anyone noticed that trend?) on sale for $1.99. The label was colorful and really very pretty, but what intrigued me, beyond anything else, was the flavor: Elderberry Hibiscus. (You can say it with an English/Monty Python accent if you like. You know you want to.) As a southerner, and especially as a southerner with ties to Central Florida, I love hibiscus in all of its many forms, from floral to food. Many restaurants in our area serve an herbal hibiscus tea, which I often drink, and so, when I saw this option, I had to try it. Also, I enjoy saying Elderberry (see the Monty Python reference above), although I have not had particularly good experiences with that fruit (but that is a story for another time).
When I got home, I opened the bottle, not exactly sure what to expect. After reading the label and determining that a 16-ounce bottle actually contains four servings, I poured approximately eight ounces into a glass to check it out. (Yes, I know it was more than one serving, but it was only 40 calories and I was thirsty.) Since kombucha is a fermented drink, I should not have been surprised by the effervescence of the liquid, but I was not really paying attention to the fermented part, so I was slightly taken aback by the fizzy quality of that initial pour. I say “taken aback”, when I mean, “delighted”. I LOVE carbonated beverages. Anyway, I should also mention the smell. It is a little off-putting, to say the very least. It is a mixture of musty and slightly sour, with only the barest hint of the fruits, or in this case, flowers that flavor the drink. That being said, if you know ahead of time, I think you can get past it. The first sip was tart, tangy, bubbly, lightly sweet and oh, so refreshing. I literally guzzled the entire glass and had to stop myself from getting the remainder out of the refrigerator. (I stopped myself for about half an hour and then went back and finished the rest of the bottle. See, I have a little self control.)

So, I am hooked. I do not really know if all of the health claims about kombucha are true, but I also do not really care. I like the taste. I like the effervescence. I like the probiotics that are clearly visible as threads and a general cloudiness in the drink (another slightly off-putting factor, but I say, just man up and chug it). I like the energy I get from drinking it. I like the fact that it makes me feel full (another health claim – weight control and who doesn’t need help with that?). I also like that my cousin, wonderful woman that she is, sent me information on how to brew it myself. I currently have a starter sitting on my counter which should be ready in about a week to start its second fermentation as pomegranate-blueberry kombucha. I will end up with a couple of gallons, all for substantially less than the original $1.99 that I paid for that first bottle. (Since that one was on sale, the price was not too bad. The guava flavored one that I bought last week was a whopping $3.19!) I will let you know how it goes and if I survive my homemade kombucha. If I write my next blog from a hospital bed, at least you will know why.

Specialization

Well, I have decided that random postings on my blog are just not working for me. Honestly, it seems like I am inspired to write only when it is about food, so here is my big announcement for the day: welcome to Central Texas' newest food blog! Yep, I am going to put myself into that little niche, already filled by any number of other gloriously written blogs about a myriad of food related topics. How am I going to stand out? Yeah, I don't really know the answer to that one yet, but I am going to give it a shot at least. I have to keep reminding myself that I got into this purely for the sake of writing for myself. Like I said though, writing for myself has quickly turned in the direction of my other personal/professional passion: food. Anyway, I just wanted to make public what the title of my blog already indicates. Making Every Day Gourmet is not just how and what I write about, it is really how I live and cook, both in my own home and as a soon-to-be-graduating (yay!) culinary student. Whew - announcement done. I am working on a few things right now, some of which I hope to finalize this week and some of which I hope will turn into a journey for me that will yield many, many more blogs in the future. Look for more on this in the coming weeks! Until then, happy daylight savings time and welcome, Spring!

On the Menu for Tonight

Gosh, I love days when I don't have to think about what to make for dinner. This week has magically turned into one of those when I have had a nice run of those kind of days. Now, I say, "magically", but I did actually plan it that way. I just tend to forget how nice it is in the morning to take something that is already prepared out of the freezer and put it into the fridge to await its dinner-time glory. Last night, it was my mother's chicken spaghetti (Mom-cooked food is just about the best thing ever) and tonight it will be pork tenderloin that I spiced and cooked late last week. The original incarnation was served with roasted sweet potatoes and sauteed greens, spiked with pine nuts, chopped dates and fig infused balsamic dressing, which was delicious, but as time consuming as it sounds. Today, however, it is destined for an easy Tex-Mex spin on the evening table. That same tenderloin is going to become pulled pork tacos, probably with some more sauteed greens, some fresh pico de gallo, refried beans and corn. Even at 7:45 in the morning, that sounds pretty heavenly to me. Even better, it comes with minimal effort because the meat is cooked and ready to go.

I do advocate this kind of meal planning and especially cooking extra to make leftovers that work for you, so to speak. I do not often practice what I preach, though, simply because I really dislike meal planning and I am usually on the lazy side by the time dinner preparation time rolls around. My kids are running around screaming, I am exhausted and I don't want to be in the kitchen for more than 30 minutes doing prep for food that may or may not be consumed by the younger set in my family. I can and will cook what I have planned and purchased earlier in the week, but doing that requires plenty of effort, even on the best days. Now, in the case of the pork tenderloin, I didn't really have to do anything extra - the package came with two tenderloins, so I just made enough spice mixture for both and roasted them at the same time. Easy peasy. Cooking more than one meal per dinnertime hour...well, you can forget that.

Long story short, I like it when my "planning" works out so that I have weeks like this. Weeks where the most energy I have to expend is remembering what exactly I was going to take out for dinner that night. Weeks where that same energy is required in some other place(s) in my life. Weeks like this one where I have one more push before Spring Break and a well deserved rest. I guess we will see if I will use that break wisely next week and get some stuff put up for the weeks following. Eh, who knows? I just might surprise myself.

Smart Balance Bechamel

Yeah, that title doesn't sound exactly right does it? Fake butter used to make the epitome of French classical sauces: bechamel, a creamy-rich pool of deliciousness created by the holy combination of butter, flour and milk. It is one of the best bases for any kind of cheese sauce as its mildness easily lends itself to its role as a blank canvas upon which to create any number of flavors. Well, needless to say, I like bechamel - I like eating it (as a base for other sauces; by itself it is a little bland for me) and I love making it. It is one of those classical techniques, that as a budding professional chef, I have learned to make off the top of my head. Impressive? It sure looks that way doesn't it?

Well, anyway, last night, I told my oldest daughter that I would make macaroni and cheese for dinner. (This was based on a recipe that she spotted in her American Girls' Cookbook - Great Depression era foods, to boot.) What I didn't tell her was that I was going to attempt to make it a teensy bit healthier to meet my own dieting needs. Cause, hell, let's be honest here - I sure wasn't going to miss out on macaroni and cheese. So, I decided to test the ability of my Smart Balance spread to hold up to not only a mid-range heat for melting, but also combining with the flour to make that classic thickening agent for bechamel: roux. Granted, this was one platinum blonde roux (for those of you uninitiated out there, roux has a myriad of colors, staring with blonde), but by God, it worked! I will say, that when it came time to add the milk to the cooked roux, I had to work a little harder at whisking out the lumps, but, in just a few minutes time, I had an awesome, thick and surprisingly rich bechamel. I was shocked and very pleased, especially as I enhanced it with a little Kosher salt, dry mustard, white pepper, and finally, a nice sharp cheddar, to make a pretty spectacular cheese sauce for my macaroni. Granted, no American Girl in the Depression had ever heard of Smart Balance and probably couldn't get their hands on anything other than American cheese, but, with whole wheat pasta, fresh, whole grain bread crumbs and a "smarter" and more "balanced" base (see how I made a pun there?), my macaroni was tasty and healthy besides. Nothing to be depressed about at dinner last night. (Ok, I will stop with the puns.) Until next time and the next great food experiment!

Almond Milk

My husband was diagnosed with high cholesterol a couple of years ago and, in lieu of going on some fairly potent drugs to control it, he decided to change his diet by eliminating saturated fats in the form of dairy. He started drinking soy milk, sometimes upwards of 12 ounces a day, in the hopes of also getting the cholesterol fighting benefits that soy products have to offer. Through the diet changes and a fairly impressive variety of herbal supplements, he did manage to get his numbers back to normal. Flash forward to this year and to me having jumped on the soy milk bandwagon. (I originally would not even touch the stuff. I am not sure why - I mean, usually when something is labeled, "chocolate", I don't even hesitate before ripping into it.) I have been drinking it (in both its Lite chocolate and vanilla forms), using it on my cereal in the morning, and generally relying upon it to get me about 2/3 of my calcium requirements for the day. A short while ago, I started hearing rumblings (from fellow culinary students, and then on the morning radio show that I listen to) that perhaps soy was not all it was cracked up to be - especially for men. So, I started thinking.....what would be a good substitute for all the deliciousness that soy milk has to offer, lacking the controversial phytoestrogens? A friend at school suggested almond milk, so I thought I would give it a try. I bought the Blue Diamond shelf stable variety and went for chocolate (big surprise), but made the mistake of choosing the unsweetened package. (It wasn't a mistake so much as trying to save on some calories for myself, but still.) I got home and poured myself a glass, thinking all the while, "well, look at me! Trying something new and finding a way for us all to be healthier at the same time!" By the time I had finished filling my glass, I was not nearly as optimistic. The drink I was so excited about was thin and dilute, with a muddy color that reminded me of silt swollen rivers, only not quite as thick. Determined to make a better showing with this beverage than I originally did with the soy milk, I knocked back a sip and found it less appealing than it would have been to actually drink the dirty river water. Ugh. It was a weird mixture of chalky and watery and had a flavor, completely devoid of almonds, that seemed to be pretty close to what you would get by just mixing cocoa powder with tap water. So, needless to say, after that first glass of disappointment, the box sat in the far back corner of my refrigerator until I poured it out, nearly two months past its expiration date, earlier this week.

Again, flash forward to last week when I discovered that Silk, my favorite brand of soy milk, had come out with two flavors of almond milk, "Original" and "Vanilla". My favorite grocery store even gave me a coupon when I checked out last week for a free 1/2 gallon of the Silk Almond Milk, so when I ran out of soy milk early this week, I ventured out to redeem my gift. I figured that it couldn't hurt to try it, especially since I was not buying it myself, and that, if I didn't like it, I could toss it with little to no guilt. (Guilt is what kept the Blue Diamond box in my fridge for so long. I kept looking at it and thinking surely I can find something to use this in.) Anyway, so I get home and crack the new vanilla-flavored almond milk. Holy cow! Or maybe I should say, "Holy drupe!" I could see the difference the minute I poured it into my glass. It was thick and creamy, tricking me into thinking it actually was soy milk until I smelled the delightfully rich scent of almonds that wafted out of my glass. It was, pardon the pun, silky sip after sip with a flavor that was sweet and rich without being cloying. It was anything but chalky and was so lovely that I chugged the entire glass down with nary a pause. Needless to say, I am very impressed, Silk. I congratulate you.

To be fair, I should probably try the sweetened version of the Blue Diamond product just to compare apples to apples, but I gotta say, I am nothing if not a brand loyalist. I already enjoyed Silk's line of soy milks, so I am glad that their newest product is so deliciously superior. I am also a sucker for packaging and the Silk product looks slick. The carton is pretty and the heft of the 1/2 gallon size really makes me think, "milk", when I pick it up to pour. In any case, I know this was kind of random, but I really did enjoy the almond milk and, because it is not something that many people think to try on an everyday basis, I thought I would share my opinion with you all out there in my little virtual world. All three of you. Because even my husband and my mom don't subscribe to my blog. That's ok. I think I will go soothe myself with a little almond milk. Mmmmmmm........

Fast Blogging

Here is a new trick: let's see how fast I can write something because I am quickly running out of time to work on the computer this morning. I have yet to take a shower after my pre-dawn boot camp and I must be on the road, headed to school in less than 2 hours. Plenty of time yet, I know, but pounding out anything on the computer this morning seems to be taking an inordinately long time, so I am just giving myself a heads up. So, we talked a little about food and we tried to be funny about wine, which must bring us to cakes. Yeah, I know, that is not actually a logical progression, but I am working on cakes for the next couple of weeks and they are on my mind for the time being. I am making an Alice in Wonderland themed cake for a birthday party this weekend and I am pretty excited about it. I have everything all planned out, from the white, red and red/white roses that will adorn it, to the fondant hearts, pocket watch and perhaps some playing cards that will grace it as well. I love it when cake designs just pop into my head and I don't have to fight with them. The cake for next week was one of those fights - I just couldn't get my mind around what I wanted to do with it. I had kind of a general idea for how it would look, but for some reason, the overall composition just wasn't gelling in my head. Finally and thankfully, inspiration struck last night (with a little help from my sister and her best friend) and I think I have everything figured out. It is to be somewhat safari themed (this is for a baby shower for a very dear friend of mine, by the way), but based specifically upon the nursery set that the couple picked out. I don't know what made the design so hard - it was likely a combination of planning for the other cake and trying to write a six course menu for school all at the same time. I guess I just didn't have enough brain space for everything and have found, upon clearing some of the rest of the stuff off of my plate, so to speak, I was able to access some measure of creativity and come up with something. Seriously, that came as quite a relief. I hate not having things organized, planned out, etc. It really makes me crazy. Did I mention that I have a touch of OCD? Self-diagnosed, but still. Anyway, it is all good for right now. I guess I shall go shower and prepare myself for school. I will have to work up some kind of enthusiasm for class today - it helps me stay awake.

The Case for Weird Wines

In light of my last, fairly abysmal blog posting, I am going to start with an actual topic for my first post of February. That, in itself, is kind of ridiculous for a person who insisted that she was going to blog "more than once per week". Silly me....life had other plans. Oh, well, and anyway, I intend to wax poetic about wine this afternoon. As per my introductory post on this blog, I j'adore just about any wine: red, white, blush, what have you, with a few notable exceptions. I do not like sweet wines, unless they are specifically dessert wines, served with....you guessed it....dessert. I abhor White Zinfandels and I have even come to dislike quite a number of German Reislings. Call me a snob for having those caveats to my "flavor profile", but sweet and wine are two words that I definitely do not want describing a wine glass set in front of me. Don't get me started on the propensity of Texans to sweeten their reds (insert exaggerated shudder here).

So, a couple of weeks ago, my husband made his usual pilgrimage to his favorite liquor store (really a liquor warehouse with A LOT of lovely specialty foods and a pretty darn good deli thrown in for good measure). He brought home a wine from a region of the world that I never, not in a million years, would have guessed would have produced wine of any quality whatsoever. This wine, white by color, hailed from "the microzone of the Tsinandali in the Kakheti region" of The Republic of Georgia. Anybody really know where that is? Obviously, it is in the former Soviet Union and, according to an extensive Wikipedia article, this region is considered to be one of the oldest wine producing regions of Europe. Its viticulture history goes back over 7000 years. Who the heck knew?

The wine itself was made from Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane which are apparently two of the most important grapes in Georgian wine production. The wine bottle indicated that the wine is matured in oak barrels for three years, which, knowing absolutely nothing about this region, I can not say whether that is typical or not. Regardless, the wine was a pale lemon color which appeared kind of oddly effervescent when we poured it into the glasses. The nose was very nearly indescribable with a fairly floral component and perhaps something akin to lemon zest. The flavor profile was equally strange - or perhaps I should say "unique" because I am honestly completely unfamiliar with the grapes. At first sip, it seemed almost sugary, but almost immediately translated to a round, full flavor with very sharp acidity. The floral notes translated to the flavor as well and made me think of the rosewater ingredient found in Middle Eastern desserts. My husband described his first taste as an "industrial accident", but, over the course of two full glasses whose temperature came up as we drank it, found the flavor to grow on him exponentially. The flavor grew on me as well, but I found the acidity to become significantly more pronounced as I continued to drink. It seemed like a chardonnay in mouthfeel and somewhat in flavor, but to compare this to a standard chardonnay, especially from France, would be a woeful misrepresentation.

In any case, as this post is titled, "The Case for Weird Wines", I should say that I would, with only a minute amount of hesitation, recommend this wine to anyone out there. It was completely different from anything that I have ever tried and, besides the adventurous drinking component, I did actually learn something about this region of the wine world. Again, who knew The Republic of Georgia was the cradle of European viticulture? I am intrigued and it may just be me that brings something home next time that would certainly fit the description of a "weird wine".