Holy Smoker!

So, I got a smoker.
I like it a lot.
The bad thing about it, is the restraint that I need to put forth to not smoke everything on the menu.
I've been smoking the home made chocolate and ancho sausages for 5 to 7 hours and they are awesome.

Chocolate Ancho Beef Sausage. Recipe.

Sometimes...you just want to, make something.
Regardless of what you know about the subject or cooking style.
I feel like I haven't given enough attention to the art of charcutirie and know it's do to intimidation and the constant urge to just jump right in.
Patience is not a characteristic of mine.
For instence, I didn't want to spend $100 on a sausage stuffer so that I can learn more about making sausage. Instead, I melted down the size of a plastic attachement ($10 Gander Mountain ) and attached it to our existing Hobart mixer. It worked.......kinda. It seemed to puree the sausage too much as it was trying to force it through the tube.

The sausage came out pretty good though for a second attempt

8# Beef chain, cleaned of silverskin and cut down
3# Beef fat
2 Ancho Chilis, Cleaned of seeds
.5 ounce Curing Salt
1 Tbs Chili Powder
.5 Tbs Curry Powder
.5 Tbs Ground Cumin
.25 tsp Ground Nutmeg
.25 cup Coco Powder
.25 Chocolate Chips
.25 cup Brown sugar
.25 Cup Salt
1 Tbsp Black Pepper
1 Small Onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed
These items are mixed together and covered allowed to marinate over night.
Ground through medium dye, fed into natural pork casings, poached at 72 degrees C then pan seared.
Ironically, the texture given to the sausage from the make shift stuffer was almost perfect, pate like, but the time given to force it through the extruder is unforgiving.
I purchased a real sausage attachment for a smaller kitchen aid and have also purchased an upright smoker.
So, many things will be smoked from now on.
Like everything maybe.

Korin Knives

I've written before about purchasing a new knife, how there are very few things as great as a new knife. Things like: clean sheets day, new car smell, new socks, that kind of stuff.
Well,....nothing compares to this knife. For so long, so long, I've wanted a real sashimi knife, a knife that would slice with 2% effort from me, a knife that wants to give perfection in it's movements, a knife that has it's own goal and purpose already built into it.
Wilson had a Misono knife last time he was in my kitchen and we talked about how important a good knife is, I mean a really good knife. He told me about a store in NY that had an old man that sat on a plank of wood with another plank in front of him and wells of water around him, in these wells where sharpening stones that he would use to personally put an edge on your knife.
Korin is the name of that store.
"The oldest known Japanese chef knife is over 1200 years old. However, even 1200 years ago, individual knives and special cutting techniques were employed for cutting different types of food. Today’s Japanese chef knives are fashioned by techniques that were originally developed for making katana or traditional samurai swords. The shift from sword-crafting to knife-crafting began in the mid-nineteenth century in response to Commodore Perry’s forced opening of Japan’s borders to Western trade. After World War II, General MacArthur totally banned Japanese sword-making, which forced large numbers of highly skilled craftsmen to turn their skills and attention to the fashioning of kitchen knives. So, for inspiration, the dedicated sword craftsmen began to look to the ambitious creations of creative chefs. In this way, they soon elevated Japanese knives to a state of universal renown. Many centuries later, the "unforgettable sharpness" of the katana is still the distinguishing mark of the Japanese knife." (source: korin.com)

New York, New Life

We got back from www.starchefs.com congress on Wednesday night. The whole experience is just amazing and completely reinvigorating.
I'm still having huge problems with my computer and have no time to fix them, I've given up on trying to fix it myself and am taking it to a shop on Monday.
One of the seminars I went to was on Food Blogging. I really want to make this site work and get some traffic through it. I've been slaking really bad over the past couple months, but I am going to work harder at this once my home computer is fixed. I even have plans to buy a better camera to help with the over aesthetics of the page.
So, stay with me a little longer and hopefully this will become a great source of information sharing, with feedback and an openness for all things food to evolve with everyone involved.

"Come To Where Fresh Is"

We hired a new PR company about three months ago. It's a good thing I'm sure. It's just hard when someone else starts making the ideas for you. It's hard to be given an idea to finish or to be redefined by someone that really doesn't know you. It's a blow to the ego. I know that's not the intention, but they don't know me and how I perceive things and how I conceive things. Ideas from my mind are hard enough to get to the bottom of and get onto a plate and into someones mouth with wondrous enjoyment.
I tend to take a lot of time, a lot of time, coming up with what I want to serve. So much time, due to research and learning about new ideas and new approaches, time to establish what could go wrong and what could go better. But, there never seems to be enough time (nor space) to get it perfect. Perfection can be so far away sometimes it hurts.
When that feeling comes on, it's really hard to get and stay motivated. It seems to be a vicious cycle I fall into, when I think that this career will kill me, drive me mad, or keep me from a life of family and time to spend with them I start looking at my options. "What else can I do?" "What else can I make a living at that will allow me the life I want?"
I always come back to cooking, it called to me at a young age and even though I'm getting older and may never reach the fame that so many people associate with it now, I still love to cook and get my ass handed to me on a busy night.
The creative aspect to it is what can drive me crazy and reward me at the same time. I walked around for a week (that's all the notice and time I was given) with a little light bulb in my pocket, looking at everything food oriented around me and trying to figure how to get it inside the bulb and how this item would stand up to being mailed out to 20 or so members of the local media. And, how to represent our new tag "Come To Where Fresh Is" in a vessel that absolutely requires a 2-3 day shelf life.

It's a marketing Ad Lib.

Basil and Banana Bubble Gum.
That's all I could come up with. Nothing else was clicking. Not that I'm unhappy with the gum, I'm just a little worried that nothing else (nothing) was coming to mind. Nothing that I thought I could complete and package within one week.

If you received this gum, I hope you enjoy it. It was fun to make and I think it taste pretty damn good. The Basil and Banana thing's been on my mind for months now.
And as far as what else I can do to make a living? I think I'm ready to start thinking about owning my own place. It's a process, one that can put me into debt for my grandchildren to pay off.
But, the Basil and Banana will have a place on the menu, I'm thinking "Smashed Banana, Basil, Bacon and Peanut Butter Paninnis".

Dead Computer

So, in the process of trying to install a new security program, my computer was completely corrupted. To the point that (I think this is connected) my bank account was hacked into and my Internet is not working at all.
I can't even install the security program now, it just freezes up and I can't get online help with it unless I'm on thee infected computer.
Non of my pictures are available on my work computer, so the blogging may be stalled for a while.
Thank you to everyone for reading and your comments.