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Category : Food and Drink

TGRWT #14 – Seared Barley Malt Encrusted Ahi Tuna

January 29th 2009 Posted at Food and Drink
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Joe and I have been emailing back and forth about creating a dish for this challenge and this is what we came up. The idea for this dish came from Malt Vinegar on fish and chips. That got us to thinking, why not put the malt right on the fish?



Seared Barley Malt Encrusted Ahi Tuna

1 Nice chunk of Ahi Tuna (We used Sashimi Grade)
1/2 Cup malted barley (Lightly roasted – still yellow)
1/4 Cup roasted malted barley
1 tsp salt
Soy Sauce
Wasabi Paste ( optional )

1. Pre-heat a cast iron skillet – get it hot.
2. Cut the Tuna into planks that are about 1 inch thick
3. Combine 2 types of barley and salt on a plate. Press tuna into mixture, coating 2 opposite sides.
4. Sear the Tuna for 1-2 minutes per side. If you watch the side of the tuna you can see the progress of the searing. Be careful to not over-cook it.
5. Slice the tuna into bite sized pieces and serve with soy sauce and wasabi.

We cooked several different versions of this dish, adjusting the amount of roasted barley each time. Too much roasted barley was too overpowering, not enough was not interesting enough. The final addition of salt (both in the coating and a sprinkling of French Sea Salt on the plate) really added to the flavor.

We thought that the sweetness of the malt and the saltiness of the soy were essential partners. The balance that we struck with the roasted malt helped to make a number of the darker flavors come out in the soy.

Sources
Coastal Seafoods,Midwest Brewing Supplies

Best Donuts In The City

February 29th 2008 Posted at Food and Drink
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I have not tried every donut, so this is a bit of a stretch, but the best donuts in the city are the chocolate donuts at A Baker’s Wife’s Pastry Shop. Almost weekly, I wake up early and drive over to pick up 2 donuts. One for me and one for my wife.

A Baker’s Wife’s Pastry Shop
4200 28th Ave. S., Minneapolis; (612) 729-6898
Hours: 6:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 6:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Sunday

I met the crazy owner’s old boss on a plane once, what a hoot. Different story for a different time.

The Happy Gnome and Bell’s Brews

February 18th 2008 Posted at Food and Drink, Slarty Wisdom
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If you get one thing out of reading this too long post it is this: St. Patrick’s Day is on Saturday, March 15th this year not Monday, March 17th. Praise be to God.

corcopper.jpg

A blog that I have been enjoying recently is MN Beer. It has clued me into a number of cool happenings in the local beer world (such cask night at the Bulldog NE on Wednesdays). Through this blog I have become aware of a pub in St. Paul called The Happy Gnome. They have a huge beer list and even host beer dinners. All good things, fer schur.

I went there the day before Valentine’s Day for the Bell’s Big Ale Night. I was excited to go, because the thought of trying 8 different beers for $10 seems like a no-brainer. Not to mention visiting the beer drinking paradise known as The Happy Gnome. I was not impressed. We tried 8 different Bell’s specialty ales and did not find one that we wanted to drink a full pint of. At the end of the night, I had to have a Gin and Tonic, just to clear my palate. Here is a list of the types we tried:

    Java Stout
    Cherry Stout
    Expedition Stout
    Double Cream Stout
    Third Coast Old Ale
    Sparkling Ale
    Hopslam
    Batch 8000

Of these, the Batch 8000 was the most palatable. A few of the stouts had such a strong coffee flavor that they might have ruined my taster for the rest of the night. And the “beer” called Hopslam was so hoppy that I felt like I was fellating a copper pipe. When I got back to a computer, I looked at the Bell’s website and found that the beers we tasted were all very limited run. In fact, some of them should not even be available now, so they were just putting on this shindig to get rid of unwanted beer.

The highlight of the evening was when we left, there was a guy asking people for money. One of the fella’s that was outside when I was leaving told this beggerman to go bug the busty woman outside smoking. Real class shit.

My mind is not made up on The Happy Gnome. A great name and a great variety of beer is awfully tempting. I can’t comment on the food, the waitress never gave me a menu. A few more quirky things from their website is that they are having their 1st Annual Firkin Festival, which, until I looked it up I thought was one of those lawn gnomes, on March 16th, the day after St. Patrick ’s Day. Did you know that it is on the 15th of March, not the 17th this year?!? I guess the Catholic Church changed it this year to prevent drunk parishioners on Holy Monday. Lastly, The Sweet Colleens are playing at the Gnome on the 15th. Because of these things, I will reserve judgment on the joint.

(Do you like the bottom line?)

Encaff Products

January 23rd 2008 Posted at Food and Drink
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A year ago, I wrote about about this amazing new discovery about being able to make caffeinated donuts. I thought it would be interesting to do a small update about the company, Buzz Donuts. Not too suprising how long it is taking to get this idea to market – since this is something we will be ingesting. Micro-encapsulated caffeine in fired donuts might sound like a natural fit to you and I, but I bet the FDA will want to get its grubby hands on this first.

The company was mentioned in Popular Science in May of 2007; at that time, the due date for the product was six months. If that were accurate, we would have seen the product by now. There is no real mention of this event on the company’s web site – so I am guessing that it is still a ways away. (The pictures of the donuts and bagels on the site are not very appetizing either, I hope that caffeinated donuts in the final form look better).

Master of Grayskull, errr, Wine – Tim Hanni

January 21st 2008 Posted at Food and Drink
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I was directed to a Wall Street Journal article about Tim Hanni’s life around wine(see The Wine Antisnob) by reading Dr. Vino’s wine blog. I think it is an interesting article and addresses a number of subjects near and dear to my heart. In particular, you should eat and drink what tastes good to YOU, not what people of consequence say should taste good.

snob.jpg

This is not to say that you should not try the latest and greatest or that you cannot be picky about the food you eat. Here are a few points from the article.

Mr. Hanni has developed a short quiz that predicts your taste profile for wine. Take the Budometer quiz I am interested in how accurate the quiz is, so post a comment when done. The science of taste buds is fascinating to me. The thought that I taste something one way and you have a completely different take on it is pretty neat. (Of course, I am not sure you exist…)

Mr. Hanni was one of few that passed the Masters of Wine test, having to solve problems “such as identifying the region, production method and alcohol levels for wines from a blind tasting.” This blows my mind. I can tell the difference between red and white wine, and maybe between a few major sub groups of each. I suppose you can determine the alcohol level by tasting the sweetness of the wine or the smell, but the region has to be based on absurd amount of tasting.

He also had to come to grips with being and Alcoholic. Particularly of note is that he used to be able to drink a few bottles of wine and not feel drunk, but at some point he did feel drunk and he would experience blackouts. He ended up going to treatment and is still working in the industry – dry. Must be hard and I would guess he would never be able to do it unless he had drank an absurd amount of wine before he gave it up. It also interests me because of the change in his alcohol tolerance. I wonder if it is because your body slowly loses it ability to process it as you punish it with spirits.

Guinea Fowl Encounter

April 17th 2007 Posted at Food and Drink
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I ended up having many close interactions with Guinea Fowl throughout my trip, mainly when sleeping by the pool. Most of the time I did not have my camera with me, but I did get a few shots. The shots were at range, so they are not of the greatest quality. Aren’t they lovable?

Joe made Guinea Fowl stew which was quite good and simple. What was amazing is that he added no water. He simply sauteed 2 onions in oil and then added the cut up guinea fowl, covered and cooked under medium heat. Then he added a few veggies that he like, in this case peppers (which added great flavor). Salt, pepper, and paprika and a great simple stew was born, with a surprising amount of wonderfully flavored liquid.

Guinea Fowl Profile

Guinea Fowl Mug Shot

Guinea Fowl for Dinner

April 11th 2007 Posted at Food and Drink, Science and Technology, World Politic
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Vacationing in rural Dominican Republic is an adventure to say the least. We are staying at a nice place with some friends, but it takes a bit to get used to all the facilities in the small towns and such. For instance, if you go to the beach, they have restaurant shacks that basically all serve the same thing. Then when you arrive, men come up to you and ask if you need a beach chair, or an umbrella, or a drink. Once you agree to get something with one, he is around you for the whole time. Sort of your personally assistant. He does not take money until the end, so it makes you a bit nervous that there might be a confrontation at the end.

pleasant beach

Another interesting tidbit is that they are trying to aggressively deal with the problem of drunk driving. The legal limit if you drive a taxi or public transport vehicle is 0.15. The legal limit for a standard driver is 0.25. From Slarty’s perspective, I am glad that they are protecting the public.

I have wanted to see a guinea fowl for as long as I can remember. The day we arrived, our hosts mentioned that we will hear them in the morning. And sure enough, there are 4 or 5 of them outside trailing along. Weird looking birds – I will try to get a photo of one for the site, perhaps I could add it to my barnyard collection. To top it all off, we are having guinea fowl stew for dinner tonight! A neighbor that we were drinking with last night is making it. This French-Canadian neighbor last night want to look up on my computer stories about the discovery of the hexagonal poles of Saturn(I have known a few Poles in my life and they are not hexagonal for sure). His son had alerted him to the story and he was concerned that there was some “weird shit going on.” A discussion pursued about whether space aliens would be aggressive by nature. Good discussion points – perhaps we should do some pre-emptive strikes!

Competition in the Face of Tragedy

March 31st 2007 Posted at Food and Drink
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A very good friend of mine has been struggling through Leukemia. It really is a pain the ass for him, in the hospital, out of the hospital; major victories, big setbacks, etc. It really is a roller coaster. It has caused me to think more about maximizing my living – but that is a story for a different post.

We have been friends for a long time. Our families interact quite a bit and we are all close. I have noticed recently that some of the newer members of our circle of friends seem to have a competitive spirit about knowing, learning, and disseminating updates in regards to his health or situation. I have have a paranoid/pessimistic spirit which I constantly battle with, but it almost seems like it is more important to appear to the rest of the world as the #1 supportive friend – rather than just being a supportive friend. Makes me questions a person motives a little bit.

I get similar feelings when there is competition among family members. When I was young, I never really felt much pressure or pride about who embraced the family functions the most. But as I have grown older and have decided that I enjoy entertaining people and enjoyed having people over, I have noticed that there is an unspoken egocentric competition to hosting family gatherings. Particularly ‘official’ ones. Who is having Easter, who is having Thanksgiving, how are we going to fit everyone in at Christmas? It no longer is about entertaining or about having a good time, it is more about who is the person that can prove to the rest of us that they care the most or that they honor tradition the most. I would prefer to just get together with no pretense, with no pressure to have a superlative time. Then if you have a superlative time you can be relaxed enough to enjoy it.

Ay, Capybara

March 21st 2007 Posted at Food and Drink
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If you have a chance, read the times article about how Venezuela is nutso for the Capybara. It is always a good time to discover a new animal, particularly one that is edible. I might have to hit a friend up to get the Capybara added to the Slarty header (next to the lemur). Another cool trick is that when reading a NY Times story on the web, it appears that you can double click on any word in the story and it will open a new window with the definition of the word. How cool is that?!?

NY Times: In Venezuela, Rodents Can Be a Delicacy

Capybara

Two Fingers down the tubes?

September 29th 2006 Posted at Food and Drink
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I was at the liquor store (MGM Liquor Warehouse near Lake Calhoun) looking to get a new bottle of cheap, but good tequila. Normally, Two Fingers tequila fits the bill, however, this day changed everything. I used to like the tequila because it was very reasonably priced and it was 100% agave. Two very good qualities for a tequila. I was shocked to find out that the 100% agave label was no longer on the bottles. So I was either dreaming in the past or they cheapened the product. Of course, they might still make it the same and just don’t list it on the label (which would be really dumb). Maybe this is the result of the much hyped blue agave shortage that people keep talking about.

I have called the US distributors and they have not returned my calls. I have not tried the new, agave-free labeled bottles, so there are no report on any quality changes. Until they return my call or I go to the Jalisco Province of Mexico to find out myself, I might be in the market for a new, cheap favorite tequila. Any suggestions?

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