I’m not Catholic, nor did I grow up Catholic, but ever since I started working for the Catholic Church I’ve noticed oddchanges in my behavior. Like saying “God Bless you” to people in contexts not involving sneezing. Also as a result of work, I am well aware that yesterday was the first friday of Lent; that means no meat. So in observance of Catholic laws of abstinence, I decided to make some fish. Thai-curried cod, to be exact.

Anybody who knows me probably finds this odd for two reasons; the first addressed above in reference to my not being Catholic. But the second, more substantial cause for surprise and amazement is that for most of my life, in addition to avoiding eggs, I have refused to let the flesh of fish pass through my lips (with a few exceptions). As of a year or two ago I decided it was time to grow up and start eating our friends from the sea and stream. Not having eaten much fish, though, I still don’t have much of a taste for it, so it’s rare that I get the urge to make it. And when I do get the urge I am at a disadvantage from inexperience cooking fish. Poorly cooked fish does not breed desire to eat fish.

The most important factor in my enjoyment of fish is not overcooking it. Overcooked beef is a waste but not the end of the world, overcooked chicken gets dry but can still be eaten, but overcooked fish is disgusting. Once it starts to get on the medium side of medium rare the mealy texture is unbearable and all those bad fish flavors of my childhood nightmares start to come out. Too raw is not a problem, in fact, nigirizushi is probably my favorite way to eat fish. So when I am making fish I am vigilant with my paring knife, looking for the point when the flesh just begins to lose its translucent sheen. Notice the level of opacity of the bite on the left, and the overall texture, on the right.

The cod was very mild so this dish was mostly about the curry, which was very good, if a little rich since it was mostly coconut milk; I woke up the next morning feeling a little polluted. That might also have had to do with the (copious amounts of) Michigan wine this was beautifully paired with: Good Harbor Fishtown White.

Since this is a “recipe” post, here’s a recipe:

• 1/2# cod filet
• flour
• oil
• salt
• pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 t ginger, minced
• 2 t red curry paste
• 1/2 t brown sugar
• 1 c coconut milk
• 1 1/2 T lime juice
• 2 t fish sauce
• 3 T water
• 2 t minced cilantro

Heat some oil in a saucepan until it shimmers. Take off heat and add garlic, ginger, curry paste and sugar and stir till fragrant. Add coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce and water then bring to a boil. Reduce to one cup. Off heat stir in cilantro and season with salt and pepper, then lid to keep warm.

Divide the cod filets into a couple of pieces of equal thickness. Salt and pepper the pieces, then coat with flour. Heat oil in a non-stick skillet until shimmering, then add the cod. Cook without touching it for 2-3 minutes, then flip. Cook for about 1-2 minutes more, making sure to check carefully after the first minute for the moment when the fish is perfectly cooked.

Cod on plate. Sauce on cod. Rice on side.

We keep our bikes in the basement… but I wish we had two of these.

CYCLOC Bicycle Storage, $135 at Design Public and available in three four excellent colors.

*Image source: Design Public

I have often sung the praises of Cook’s Illustrated‘s Multigrain Bread, and I have made their “No-Knead Bread 2.0″ more times than I can remember (I stopped making it after I decided it was too easy). Suffice to say, Cook’s Illustrated publishes great bread recipes, so when a new one comes out I take notice. In the latest issue there is a recipe for ciabatta. Ciabatta is a rustic bread with a big crumb, and since I am a fan of all things rustic and big-crumbed, I had to try it.

Reviewing the article and recipe, most notable was how wet the dough is. It calls for a starter with 5 oz of flour and 4 oz of water, and then a final dough of 10 oz of flour with 6 oz of water and 2 oz of milk (the milk inhibits gluten formation, preventing the crumb from getting too large). That’s 15 oz of flour and 12 oz of liquids, for a hydration of 80%. In my standard bread recipe I shoot for about 68% hydration, so this was ridiculously wet dough, practically batter! This makes kneading and shaping the dough very difficult.

Cook’s gets around this problem by using a stand mixer to mix and knead the dough. That’s all well and good if you have a stand mixer, but I don’t. I like kneading! Since a machine was not an option, but kneading was necessary to make sure everything was mixed and gluten strands were long, I turned to a technique frequently used by Peter Reinhart: with the dough in a bowl, use a hand continually dipped in water to squeeze and rotate the dough, basically simulating a dough hook. Dipping your hand in water prevents the dough from sticking to it. Unfortunately, it also adds even more water to an already very-wet dough, making it even harder to work with. Cook’s also says to fold the dough over itself a few times with a rubber spatula to further develop the gluten. Here’s what I ended up with:

The key to shaping a dough this wet is using a lot of flour. I put a pretty thick bed of it on the board, poured on the dough, and then threw a few handfuls on top. This allows you to touch the dough without immediately having your hand sucked into the giant dough monster. In spite of all this flour it was still pretty difficult to contain the dough; eventually I wrestled it into two rough rectangles.

The dough rested on parchment for a half hour, then I baked it at 450° for 25 minutes. The breads came out pretty well, although I would have liked them to rise a bit higher in the oven.  It was very difficult to get the necessary surface tension for vertical rise with such a wet dough. Had I used a stand mixer I probably would have had a stronger dough since I could have kneaded it longer without the addition of water. Still, I certainly couldn’t complain about the crumb:

The bread was nicely crusty and but still soft and chewy, really a first-rate ciabatta. Without a stand mixer, it may be more of a hassle than it is worth, but if you do have a KitchenAid gracing your counter, I would recommend giving this recipe a try.

UPDATE: In fact, this was so worth giving a try that I gave it another try. Still no mixer, but using less water during the mixing process made for an easier time with a consistent result.

One of the great things about where I work is that I often have the pleasure of observing workshops as the classroom space is very close to my desk area. Right now there is a knitting-focused exhibit on view for another month or so, so naturally workshops have focused on knitting as well! I was responsible for taking photos during the adult workshops, and I’d like to post those separately. This weekend was the last day of the ongoing children’s workshop on the many ways of knitting without needles. Having been curious about it for a long time, I finally asked the instructors to teach me to spool knit.

Here is my creation. So far I have made two like this and a third which is considerably longer.

Ever since I found Terrines, Pâtés, and Galantines in an antique store in Red Wing, I have been itching to make a terrine. But for whatever reason, I could never muster up the enthusiasm to assemble the various meat products required to make what the book describes as “the apotheosis of meatloaf”. It was the delicious duck terrine at the Red Stag Supper Club that finally convinced me to stop just talking terrine and start terrining terrine. Terrine.

Browsing the recipe section of T,P&G I found a recipe that was simple and rustic, two words that I like. The ingredient list for “Liver Terrine” was short:

• 1# chicken livers
• 1# pork
• 1 small shallot
• 2 T parsley, chopped
• 2 1/4 t salt
• 2 t pepper
• 3/4 t ground ginger
• 1/4 t ground cinnamon
• 3 T brandy
• 6 slices bacon

You begin to see what they mean by “apotheosis of meatloaf”! I didn’t have brandy on hand, so I planned to substitute bourbon, which I like better anyway. When I got to the butcher’s counter, I ran into a more serious deficiency: no chicken livers. Normally, the Wedge has a nice little bucket of the livers but, today being Valentine’s day (I guess?), they were out. My cashier suggested people might be buying Valentine’s for their cats. Luckily, the butcher was able to suggest an acceptable substitute:

As it happens, lamb liver is delicious, perhaps even more so than chicken livers. It has almost a piney taste, but in a good way. Of course, I didn’t know this yet, so I just went ahead with terrine assembly hoping for the best. Terrines are very easy, especially if you have a food processor. First I diced the liver:

Then I gave it a few pulses to catch it up to the already-ground pork, which I added and pulsed a bit to mix and grind further. The texture of a terrine can vary, from huge chunks of meat to a smooth paste. Since I was going for a rustic touch I left everything pretty coarse. After grinding the meat I mixed it with the rest of the ingredients, except for the bacon. The bacon is used to make a delicious little trough:

To which the meat mixture is added. I covered it and put it into a 350° oven for a couple of hours, until the juices ran clear and the internal temperature is at least 160°. After the terrine cooled I weighted it (for proper shape and texture) and put it in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, we had terrine bliss:

The perfect meal for a sub-zero picnic on the shores of Lake Superior! All you need is good bread and mustard (and cornichons, which the Wedge was also out of). The lamb liver was a pleasant surprise and gave this terrine an appropriately gamy flavor that has been missing from terrines I have made in the past. When dealing with something as high-fat as a terrine, a little gaminess can be a good thing. 

This was my first time using Terrines, Pâtés and Galantines and I was very encouraged by the result, even though I wasn’t able to follow the recipe exactly. I am looking forward to more exploration: especially if I can get my hands on a baby pig…