The Golden Log

This is a recipe for my "Golden Log" which is basically like a calzonne but with a sushi like roll to it. I was thinking of a way to use what I learned from the Cobbler Roll and apply it to something savory, here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

Biscuits:
2 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. coriander

1 tsp. turmeric
1/4 C. cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 C. milk

Filling:

1-2 Chicken Breasts

1/2 can of chic peas (or dried)

1/2 can of black beans (or dried)

Tomatoes

Cilantro

Onions

Potatoes

Sweet potato (or yams)

(FROM Jeff's previous post):

"To make biscuits: sift together the dry ingredients. Cut in the cold butter either using a stand-up mixer or a pair of hands (you can use your own or somebody else's, as long as they're ok with that kind of thing) until everything resembles coarse crumbles. Leave some pea sized chunks of butter scattered throughout, this will make the biscuits a little more flaky.

Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk or milk all at once. Stir a few times to wet the dough, then let it all sit for about 10 minutes to rest. Turn the very sticky dough out onto a heavily floured surface and fold over on itself five or six times. Use plenty of extra flour if you need it to keep yourself from getting DOUGH-HANDS!! Uhh....disgusting."

While you are working on the dough get the chicken and the potatoes/yams cooking. Once the chicken cooks up a bit put in the chick peas and black beans. Try to mash that mixture up a bit. Kinda shred up the chicken, and mash up the ligumes. Doesn't need to be crazy, but get rid of the big chunks.

Mash the potatoes/yams up, add milk, some butter, some salt, some pepper. Also, chop up some cilantro, tomatoes and some fresh onions.

Roll out the dough on a HIGHLY floured surface. Try to get it as thin as possible without losing the integrity of the dough. The thinner it is, the more times you can roll it, the more times you roll it, the smoooooother the inner parts of the Golden Log will be.

Make a simple cilantro, tomatoes, and onion salsa.

Place the whole log into the oven at ~350F for about 30mins - 1 hour or until the outside is good and crispy. Check the bottom of the log before consuming to be sure that it has cooked all the way through. Cut lengthwise to try to see the roll, and add the salsa to the top. It is a spicy, savory, and very hardy meal that will last days.

Fresh Caught Mussels

A couple of weeks ago I went on a nice camping trip to some cabins on the ocean. A friend of mine Kate and I like to get mollusks from the sea whenever possible as we are divers. She suggested that we try to snatch some mussels for dinner one night. The tide was low enough on Saturday morning and we were successful at extracting a number of pounds of these delicacies. We actually caught more than we could eat with 20 people (tho many veggies), so it really is easy to get a bunch. The only thing is that you cannot collect mussels between May and Augustish because you can get red tides which makes the filterers toxic to your brain.

To cook:

Scrub clean (doesn't do much good luck)

Pan + Butter + White Wine + Garlic

Let them steam and open up. The ones that don't open are duds. Grab the fiberous material they use to hang on to the rocks and pull it out of its shell. Eat around the fiberous bits and enjoy!

PS

There is really something deeply satifying in hunting/gathering your own food.

pineapple spiral

The Spring and Summer seasons of Beijing meet with street intersections laden with vendors selling wares of pottery, services... and fruit.

oh, pineapple quarters: real sweet treat

For the affordable sum of ¥1, the common people pause on a typical afternoon to enjoy a quarter of a pineapple on a stick - a cooling and tangy refreshment to ward off the dryness and heat of Beijing.

The vendors wheel their goods up to the street curb, pull off a tarp that covers a bounty of fresh fruit, and set blade into action...



...With this in mind, it was time to try my hand at this art of carving pineapples and see if I could tame this flowering fruit in my very own kitchen.

[click here to learn how you, too, can carve your very own pineapple]

eggs benedicite

"Making eggs in Beijing can be an exciting deviation from the regular breakfast duty..."