Author Archives: Biggles

A Meathenge Cottage Pie

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editor’s note: This post’s purpose is more for the author’s personal diary of ingredients and ratios for future use. American Cottage Pie recipes are as ubiquitous as pet hairs, nearly everyone has one or nine million. Do we really need another variation?

Yesterday found Biggles wandering aimlessly throughout the local mega mart attempting to come up with something, anything for dinner. We’ve had ground beef for the previous 2 days, why not another? This time topped with mashed potatoes?

Yup, 3rd day in a row for ground beef.  I couldn’t believe it myself, but I just couldn’t come up with a better solution. In the past months I’ve run myself even stupider with chicken thighs and pork steaks. Covering a meat & gravy slurry with mashed taters seemed to be my only salvation.

Holy gravy Batman! I have no idea why this dish came out so light, tasty and perfect in every way, but it did.  And brother or sister? I wanted to make sure I put down the basics here so when the hankering comes up again, I can whip this out. My ability to remember even the largest of details has long since bid a farewell.

Ground Meat – 1 pound
Onion – White and small dice
Garlic – Mooshy and as much or as little as one wants
Thyme – Heaping teaspoon full
Mushrooms – Minimum of 16 oz slice – variatize them
Beef Broff – 1 & 1/3 cuppa
Tomato Paste – Heaping Tablespoon full
Salt & Pepper – To taste ya foo
Flour – 1/4 cuppa
Veggies – I used frozed mixed
Mashed Potatoes – Enough for 6 hungry people, give or take

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F with rack in center position.

Brown everything in large, wide fry pan. You’ll need the surface area to make browning easier.

The few key points I need to remember are to start the mashed potatoes first, get them boiling before you start on the filling.  Then brown the meat, onion, mushrooms together or separately depending on your fussiness level. Then toss in the frozen veggies to warm them. Add the flour and heat for no more than 3 to 4 minutes, just get everything coated.  Add the tomato paste, stir in. Then add the broth, simmer for 15 minutes give or take.  This will set the flour and reduce the liquid just a tad. Set aside until potatoes are tender and ready to be mashed. Use only real butter and milk/cream with as much butter fat as you have on hand or are willing to purchase. We used manufacturing cream with a fat content of maybe 38 to 40%. Install filling to appropriate baking device, smoove taters over the top with love.  Coat with butter or baking spray and install to oven for 30 minutes until golden brown.  Yank, let sit for 10.

Hooboy!  At first bite I couldn’t believe it turned out this good, so delectable! Yes, I impressed myself. I can hardly wait to make this again, with a few additions of course. Not sure what those changes might be though, it’ll come to me.  Probably while meandering through the store attempting yet again to come up with something for dinner.

xo, Biggles

ps – Chilebrown, please do not scroll downwards.  It’s a dessert and it was bucktoothed evil good. A homemade apple cake with Uncle Ralph’s tree ripened Granny Smiths, home made apple syrupy with bits and once again, whipped manufacturing cream.

 

Meathenge’s Whip Cream Journey or Merry Christmas !!!

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A way back in the early ’90s I stopped off at Fat Apples restaurant in El Cerrito for a cup of coffee. 9 million years ago this was the place that was originally named Fat Albert’s, but was quickly shut down due to the illegal use of a trademarked name. I had grabbed my coffee, and poked around for the half & half. None to be found! What I did find was a container of Manufacturing Cream. Real cream in coffee?  Count me in!

Whatever it was, left a long lasting impression on me. Even today I can remember the euphoric experience in nearly detail. I searched for it over the coming day, weeks and months. But never could I find it, not even a glimmer. At some point I was told that it was a food service product, only available to restaurants, bakeries and wherever else I clearly wasn’t.

A few weeks ago I was grabbing my ubiquitous gallon of 2% at Smart & Final, a commercial type grocery store that is “open to the public”. I looked up and to the right, there she was. A half gallon of Manufacturing Cream. I wanted, no needed this magical, loaded with butter fat, container of love.

So far, everyone here at Meathenge Labs finds that whipped cream made from this stuff totally eclipses anything it’s put over.  Not only that, it’s stable as gosh.  A day later, on the counter or in the fridge, it doesn’t separate or go south. I suppose being 40% plus on butter fat probably has something to do with it, eh?

Go now, find this wonderful elixir of the gods. Make your holidays, make your Christmas extra special and make some whipped cream from Manufacturing Cream.

xo, Biggles

The Great Potato Conspiracy of 2011

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At first I thought it was just me. But then after more than a few months and an observation, I’m convinced it’s a conspiracy. I have doubts about my personal abilities, surely.  But brother, or sister, if there’s one thing I can do is cook. And one of the dishes I do exceptionally well, is a good serving of creamy mashed potatoes.

Starting more than a few months ago, and even up until last night, I’ve been failing at cooking potatoes. What I mean by this is that both baking them and boiling them to mash isn’t working like it used to.  400 degrees for an hour on 1 medium potato is rendering me a mostly uncooked potato.  A large rapidly boiling pot of whole medium potatoes for 45 minutes is rendering me uncooked potatoes.  Sure, poke them with a fork and it glides in and out without resistance. But when it comes time to open the suckers up, when it comes time to mash them?  Hard as a rock.  So far, 9 out of 10 times is a tear jerking failure.

For the first dozen times, I thought that maybe I was just off my game. Maybe I set the the timer wrong, maybe the oven was off, maybe I’m just getting too old to boil a potato. I’ve even gone so far to try russets from different stores, ones in bags, tubers hand picked from the bin. Nothing rendered me success in the arena of baking or boiling potatoes.

It wasn’t until last night that I remembered a recent episode of Top Chef, can’t remember which one exactly.  A chef went home because her gratin wasn’t cooked.  She served raw potatoes. And at her level, this should never have happened.  Even if she had chosen to cook them on the day of and not the day before. Making a gratin is Cooking 101 for anyone. How could this be? I’m not the only one cooking and serving raw potatoes!

I am now solidly convinced that there is a potato conspiracy going on here in these United States. From large to small, from bulk to a la carte, we have a problem. It’s not going away, in fact it could be spreading across our great nation.  Is it international? I don’t know yet, but I can tell you for sure, I’m now doing research in this field. This needs to be unearthed, we need to locate the root of the problem and halt this Great Potato Conspiracy of 2011 at any and all costs!

xo, Biggles

Meathenge’s Smoked Crop Circle Chicken

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Happy Monday!  We did up this whole chicken in the Charbroil Smoker Roaster Grill last night.  Came out absolutely stunning in 1 hour, crispy, smoky skin action included. Trussed and rubbed well with kosher salt is all one needs.  I got the nifty crop circles by cooking it upside down with the breast portion resting on the bottom of the meat holding basket. Way cool, eh?

xo, Biggles

Steamy Lemon Pastry Filling

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Yeah!  And a solid, Yahoo!  Am in the middle of making a poppy seed cake from The Joy of Cooking.  The poppy seeds are supposed to soak for a few hours in milk before you put the cake together.  At the bottom of the recipe I noticed that you’re supposed to make Lemon Pastry Filling, even gave a page number for the recipe.  Took a little perusing because on that page, it’s called Lemon Filling, leaving out the word “Pastry”.  That wasn’t cool because there are several other lemon filling recipes and I had to figure out which was which for what excuse. Again, reading and comprehension.  Ug.

In any case, decided to make the lemon filling while the poppy seeds did their deed.  And guess what?  I got to separate my first egg !!!  That’s right, it’s taken Biggles 47 years to separate a yolk from the white.  Pretty scary, eh?

So far, all is well.

xo, Biggles

Roasted Veggies? Egads !!!

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I say, if you must eat your veggies, roast the suckers.  Or juice them, I like that too. But roasting them gives some enough flavors wherein I am able to choke them down.  Toss with good oil, s&p, favorite herbies, 425 degrees in a large roasting pan with lowish sides until done, about 30 to 40 minutes.  EAT.

xo, Biggles

Aluminum-free baking powder good – Double acting baking powder bad?

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I can run with the ingredient snobs all day without breaking a sweat. It comes second nature to me and I enjoy it. Nothing like self-proclaiming that you’re better than everyone else, right?

Welp, yesterday my friend Jeffrey Davila and I were chatting via email about his recipe for some savory scones.  He was kind enough, later on the in the day, to forward over the recipe. I smiled as he noted Organic this and Fresh that, OH Jeffrey.  Well, one of the notations on his recipe was to use Baking Powder with no Aluminum. Aroo?

At the time I was thinking about the packaging, some reaction with an aluminum container.  Well, after a 2 second search on google, I received my answer. We gots our baking powder with no Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, and we have our Double Acting Baking powder that has it.  Mmmmmkay.

As near as I can tell, the Double Acting Baking powder rises in the mixing bowl, then again in the oven. Sounds fine, but as it turns out, if you really want to dial in a noticeable taste in your baked goods you must use the NO aluminum baking powder. And, no mosey action on getting your batter in to the oven.  Move along little doggy!

I’m on my way to learning the ins and outs here.  Good thing this here can of baking powder didn’t cost me 52 million dollars. I can just toss the sucker and buy Rumford or similar.

xo, Biggles

Happy Turkey Day with Scones Day of Love

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From everyone here at Meathenge Labs, we wish you a happy Turkey Day!

By the closing of this last work week our family related plans all feel short. A major cooking holiday and all we have to do is hang around in our jammies and bake treats?  Count me in!

Earlier this morning found Tami Numnums and myself in the kitchen.  I purchased the ingredients a week ago and it’s taken me this long to get in to the kitchen and knock these suckers out. Cutting in butter or lard to a flour mixture correctly has always eluded me. I’ve had enough of that and it’s time that Biggles learn how to bake, and bake well enough to at least be edible.

The recipe came from The Joy of Cooking, added 1 cup of frozen blackberries.  Not fricken bad for a first try, came out pretty well.  However, 1 tablespoon of sugar was not nearly enough.  I need to try this again and double it, see what that does.  If I can get a little more sweetness in there, they’ll be perfect and ready to go in to daily if not weekly production.  Easier to make than cookies!

xo, Biggles

Reading versus Comprehension

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Have you ever spent so much time watching cooking & food shows on tv that you begin to salivate, daydream, then move along to actually getting off your ass to cook something similar? I wanted something gumbohey, something with bold flavors, something I could cook for a Tuesday evening.  Chuck Taggart’s Simple Chicken Gumbo was a clear choice.  I used it once before years ago, what could possibly go wrong?

Me.  I spent an evening, then the the morning after making my lists.  I wanted to make his Creole Seasoning too, wanted it oh so special. I got the veggies all neatly diced, got the meats all browned and set aside.  Heated up the cast iron French oven and made a badass roux, all dark and smoky. Dumped in the veggies for the 4 minute sweating, stirred and scraped. Then fell stupid quiet, jaw on ground.  The realization hit me, while looking at the nearly full pot of veggies only, “It’s not all going to fit”.

Dumbass.  Duh, 4 quarts of liquid, huge amounts of veggies and 4+ pounds of meat going in to a 5 quart pot? Dumbass.  I was all ready to put everything together and get it in to the oven!  Nope. And you know what?  I had no other oven-ready pot to put it in. Dumbass.

Then I remembered I have several shelves of cookware in the garage, a-way out in the back, that might contain something I could use.  I dragged in my camp dutch oven, the one with the 3 legs. It didn’t sit so well on the stove, all cattywompus.  But it was good enough to get everything up to temperature, then get it in to the oven, on the pizza stone. Good thing for the stone, eh? Without that I would have had another problem with those legs sitting all funky.

Instead of 1 hour, I did 1.5 hours at 375.  And even after my goof, dinner came out wonderful and on time. Remember, simply reading a recipe is completely different than actually paying attention to what you require to get the job done.  Dumbass.

xo, Biggles

Cookin’ – Recycled Gourmet Appurtenances

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Back in March when Meathenge Labs hosted a small, impromptu Dutch Oven Gathering a used cookware store in San Francisco was talked about.  Me being the backwoods hillbilly that I am hadn’t heard of it. I was promised that some day in the future we’d all go and have some fun.  It took more than a few months, but we finally did it!

Tiny E and I headed out from sleepy little Richmond with hope in our hearts and a whopping 10 dollars in our pockets. Was fine though, it was more about the adventure than coming back with a truckload of jewels, goblets and fry pans.  We found and parked at Kajsa’s & Cameron’s apartment with fair ease. We had to hike in about 9 million miles, but such is the burden of living in a large city with very little available parking.

Cookin’ is housed in a bitchen old building with rough wooden floors directly located on Divisadero. While it’s organized to the teeth, it’s an exceptionally packed solid type of organization.  Floor to ceiling type of packed.  Floor to ceiling with probably more than 80 years worth of kick ass cookware and related implements.

Need a Griswold cast iron skillet? Enamel cast iron oven or pan? Solid copper sauce pan? A Farberware whatever to fill a hole in your mother’s collection? It’s there in spades. Huge spades, huge bucktoothed spades.

I noticed it was going to take probably 2 to 3 runs through the store before my eyeballs and brain were able to make any sense of what was and what it might be. To discern if there was anything there that I just had to have, something I couldn’t possibly leave behind.

Nah, ol’ Biggles’ kitchen is pretty well stocked and I wasn’t able to find anything I had to have.  I was interested in a few of the old cake holder container rigs.  You know the ones, right?  Put cake on platter, then a nifty cover goes over said cake to keep it fresh for a day or two?

The owner had half dozen or so, but they were priced way, way, way out of my price range. We’re talking a thrift store find for 8 to 15 dollars and she was asking 40 dollars and more.  Not interested. In fact, the entire store is priced at maybe solid ebay prices for collector pieces.  I looked, but wasn’t able to find one deal to be had. She knew what she had and priced it accordingly. That’s fine, it’s not as though you can walk down the street to the next recycled cookware store and buy the same thing for less. She’s got a corner on the market and is acutely aware of it.

All in all we greatly enjoyed the afternoon out and I would certainly stop by again in the future.  If you truly need something soon, then by all means stop by and get it!  It just has to be in there, somewhere. But if you’re not crazy hot to have it right now? Give yourself a breather and keep your eyes peeled at local thrift stores, garage sales and deals on the internets. That and gifts from friends and family is where most of my gear came from.

xo, Biggles

Cookin’ – Recycled Gourmet Appurtenances 339 Divisidero San Francisco 415.861.1854

Meathenge Labs – A Trek in to the World of Baking Treats!

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Hmm, let’s see here.  I’m 47 and have been cooking since I was about this tall. But as close as I’ve ever come to baking was helping my grandmother and uncle at a tender young age. Sure I’ve put together maybe 2 batches of cookies and there’s one wheat bread post here on Meathenge proper since then. But I’ve always been someone who stoutly vocalized, “I am not a baker!” For me, cooking and baking are not the same. I do not enjoy following recipes, exactly. And brother? For baking, there are rules.

This Meat Enthusiast was laid off after 21 years this last July. Nah, don’t cry for me. No love lost there. It has given me some much needed time to rethink my self proclaimed status of a non-baker. Today I consider myself someone who has embarked on a lifelong journey in to baked goodies. And what better way to start off on such a journey, than cookies? Banana bread? Eh?

I can still remember my grandmother and uncle giving me a few pointers about measuring dry goods, bringing unsalted butter n eggs to “room temperature”. So, armed with that knowledge and a few copies of The Joy of Cooking, I’ve been making a wonderful mess in the kitchen. And you know what?  I’ve been nailing the recipes! No burning, great crumb, moist n rich, perfect in every way. Nestle’s bitter-sweet morsels fell very short of my adult expectations though.  They were quickly swapped out for the Ghirardelli counterpart and promptly scored a 10.

No recipes today, no special procedures. Only a nudge to consider knocking out some baked love while the smoker or grill is hard at work in the blustery fall weather. The smell of fresh bread wafting from your oven has a very similar effect that bacon and burning mesquite does.

xo, Biggles

ps – I did end up having to buy a thermometer for the oven. A baked chicken doesn’t care much if it’s roasting at 450 or 475. But a cookie does, a loaf of bread does. Must have an accurate oven brother man.

 

Warehouse Cafe – Port Costa California

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Bikers, Pirates, Gypsies & Artists, oh my. Have you ever been to Port Costa? It’s a tiny town nestled in low rolling hills on the Carquinez Strait between Crockett and Martinez in West Contra Costa County. The only way in or out is 1 little two lane road that winds its way in and around.  It’s absolutely stunning and considering it’s been there since 1879, the architecture is absolutely badass.

Other than people, homes and character, there isn’t much going on in Port Costa. And it’s clear the populace likes it that way.  Don’t count on any cell connection either, ain’t gonna happen. Unless you’re at the bar, they have wireless action for everyone. Bikers & Gypsies need wi-fi too, eh.

Down at the end of the main street, nestled at the waterfront, is a dirt parking lot that’s usually populated by Harleys, 30+ year old American cars & trucks and whatever else the locals have drug in.  Park here.  Head back up and make a left turn in to the bar or restaurant, don’t matter which door you use, it’s all connected.

The Warehouse Cafe and biker bar has been around for years  and the decor is heavily eclectic to say the least.   On Friday and Saturday evenings their kitchen opens up and as my sister says, “They serve Steak & Meat”. And brother, or sister, that’s exactly what they do!  New York Steak, 1 pound. Prime Rib, 1 pound. Lobster?  I forget, but I’m sure it’s huge. Along with the meat, taters and delectable simmered mushrooms you get a happy salad bar option, home simmered pot o’ chili and clam chowder. Need to wash it down with something cool and refreshing? They tout 400 varieties of beer, that’s a lot just so you know. They don’t deny the chillin’s a menu either, it goes like this: New York Steak, 1/2 pound. Prime Rib Dinner, 1/2 pound. Lobster …, well you get the idea.

The chile was pretty darned good! Solid chile pepper flavors, hunks of well simmered tasty beefs, beans had good tooth action. I’d offer up a shot of the salad, but who cares?  I don’t. You’re lucky you get this funky shot of the chili.

And now?  The piece of resistance!

Yup, you guessed it, I ordered the Prime Rib dinner served medium rare. It was perfect in every way.  The bark had caramelly rosemary additions, fatty goodness throughout and bloody red from edge to edge. If I remember semi-well, each dinner was about $25 bux and worth every fricken penny.

Everyone at the table thoroughly enjoyed the surroundings, the food and the waitstaff couldn’t have been more attentive and hooohot. I was able to get a few bites of my neighbor’s new york 1 pounder and next time I come for dinner, this is what I will be ordering.  While the prime rib was awesome, as with the standing rib beef roasts, they’re on the mild side. Their new york cut was grilled well and had a mouthful of beef flavor explosions that blew the mild yet tasty rib roast out of the water.  Pow, just like that.  See?  Boom!  Beef flavor explosions!  MmmMMm, steak and meat.

xo, Biggles

Warehouse Cafe

5 Canyon Lake Dr
Port Costa, CA 94569

(510) 787-1827

Jalapeno Poppers via 11 year old boy & youtube

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I’ve got 2 boys, 1 of which will eat pretty much anything and enjoys it all.  The 11 year old however, ain’t quite as easy to please.  So, when you-know-who found a recipe for the J Poppers on youtube and wanted to make them?  I backed him up 110%.  He selected Jack & Mozzarella made in to a slurry with cream cheese.  Even sliced open the peppers and cleaned them out himself.  I’d always done them by slicing off the top, but he did it lengthwise so they made a cheesy boat.  Wrapped with bacon and in to a pre-heated Char-broil Smoker Roaster Grill set to maybe a little under halfway on the volume knob.  Dang boy!  They were good.

xo, Biggles