Looping back...

... to an earlier post. This isn't about food... directly. But a good sharp knife is essential to a good sharp cook.


A few weeks ago, my son and I attended a knife making class hosted by Tom McGinnis, owner of Ozark Knife Makers just outside Springfield, Missouri.


Tom and crew are world class craftsmen who put on one heckuva two day class. The class itself is oriented to the novice who thinks knifemaking is some mystical art. As the following post will reveal, even a computer geek like me can do it... with a little help from someone who knows the ropes.


The following photos were taken when my son and I attended a knife making workshop at the Ozark Knifemakers Shop in Ozark, Missouri, March 21 and 22.During this class, the students were all given a typical drop point knife pattern, made of Damascus Steel. If you've never seen a Damascus Steel blade, you're in for a treat.

These first few were taken with my cell phone, which explains the odd size and lower resolution. Apologies for some of the photos... the camera was having some issues focusing close up, and I had better things to do (like make my own knife) to really take the time to do good photos. I tried to get these more or less in order, but there's no guarantees....

Here's my son and Tom working on his knife.



















Here's my son adjusting the blade blank in the knife vise. This knife vise is a very handy gadget made by one of Tom's crew and available for sale.



















Here Ethan is doing some initial sanding on the rough blade.



















Here's the blade after being shaped and rough polished.



















Here's Tim McGinnis providing some help and oversight to Ethan as he works on the scrollwork on the spine of his knife. For this class, we used a scroll pattern called a 'thorn and vine'.



Here's some shots of the thorn and vine filework.

Here's a better shot with the digital camera, although the lens was a little fogged over. It was about 45 degrees outside, and we'd left the camera in the truck.

Here's my blade. I screwed up my filework... can you tell?
I actually did my 'thorns' bassackwards, but the final result still looks pretty awesome, for a first timer.

Still more detail. You can clearly see the 'vine' and the 'thorns'




Here's Ethan's blade with the bolsters dry fitted. The bolsters are pre-made to make the class flow a little easier.


Here's the cleaned and shaped blade, stamped with Ethan's initials, and the polished bolsters. The bolsters undergo a lot more shaping and polishing before we're finished. At this point, we're pretty much finished with day one.

The instructors then heat treat the blades in a furnace to 1550 degrees F, and oil quench to harden. Then, they drop the blade temperature to below freezing in a deep freeze.

Once the temp is cold enough, they get a bath in liquid nitrogen for about an hour. This drops the steel temp to about -300 degrees F.

Next, the blades are removed from the nitrogen and allowed to 'warm up' in a freezer, then warm up again to room temp.

Last, the blades go in an oven for a trip back up to 350 degrees for an hour or so, to temper the steel. Last step is to acid etch the blades. This is the step that really brings out the grain pattern that Damascus steel is so famous for.
Since this is all potentially dangerous stuff, the instructors do this after class on the first day. With the exception of the liquid nitrogen, all of this can be done in your own shop with nothing more high tech than an acetylene torch setup.

Tom takes care to point out that once the steel reaches 1550 degrees, the carbon molecules realign to form carbide, which is non-magnetic. So, if you don't have a furnace or kiln, just keep a magnet close to hand when you're raising the temperature of the blade. Once it's non-magnetic, you're there.

Day two starts with oohing and aahing over our freshly etched Damascus blades. The bolsters are given a preliminary shaping.

In the picture below, Ethan's knife has had the scales rough cut on a bandsaw and the mosaic pins installed (you'll see those in a few pictures too). The holes were drilled through the scales on a drill press, and the scales set with a 5 minute epoxy compound, with a black coloring added. The scale materials we selected were African Water Buffalo Horn, purchased from Jantz Supply before class, hence the black epoxy. One guy in class used ivory scales, so his epoxy was tinted white. Not only does the epoxy hide any imperfections or misalignments, but it forms an incredibly strong bond between the scale and the tang.

Here is John Fulks (one of the instructors) and Ethan mixing the tinted epoxy to secure Ethan's scales to the blade. That super awesome blade just in front of John is the one I made. John pretty much took us under his wing and made sure we had a great weekend, and a couple of beautiful knives to take home. I can't say enough good about John or the rest of the instructors.



Here, John is checking Ethan's blade to make sure the epoxy has properly cured and is ready for shaping.



Using a pair of vise grips to pressurize the epoxy during the curing process. Everything still gets shaped and polished, so no worry about scratches from the vise grips.



A closer, if not blurrier picture of the curing blade. You can make out the two mosaic pins in the handle.



Here's Ethan's blade all ready for the sharpening. At this point, everything is done except the sharpening of the blade edge. Note the details of the mosaic pins. This is a design called a 'Dogwood Blossom', due to it resembling the five petaled flower of the Dogwood Tree.
The masking tape around the blade was to keep it from being scratched by the sandpaper used in shaping the handle and bolsters.

Here's some detail on the pins. Not as much as I'd like though. I used the flash, and it overexposed. However you can see the undercut on the bolster, and the corresponding angle on the handle material. It doesn't really do anything to add strength to the knife or handle, but it really adds a degree of aesthetic that's hard to beat.
It makes the knife look tremendously more complex to build, when in fact, there really wasn't a lot more effort involved in the undercut than there would have been a straight butt joint. Cool, huh?

The other side of Ethan's blade.

Here is Ethan's blade, along with the one I made (on bottom). Due to the fact that I'm such a wonderful person, Tom let me make one a little different from the rest of the class. Note that my blade isn't the true 'drop point' design, and it's about an inch longer.

Here's a good shot of the mosaic pin. The pins were handmade in class as well.

And here's a great shot of the Damascus grain in the steel. This particular bar of steel had around 200 layers of steel. Damascus is made by layering multiple types of steel, with different carbon, nickel, etc. percentages. The sandwich of steels is heated, hammered flat and folded.

This process is repeated as many times as the forger wants to achieve the desired result. If the forger starts with 10 layers of steel, once it's heated and folded, he then has a bar with 20 layers. On the next fold, this is doubled, for 40 layers. The next folding gets 80 layers, and so on. Obviously, the more layers in a bar, the more work the forger put into process, and the more expensive, and potentially intricate the blade will be.

Here's some finished touches of my blade. I'd take some of Ethan's but I can't get it away from him.....

And lastly, a profound word of thanks and appreciation to Tom McGinnis and his instructors, John Fulks, Tim McGinnis and Mike McGinnis.

These gentlemen are not only craftsmen and artisans, but 'good people' in every sense. They took every effort and went well beyond the 'extra mile' to make sure every student walked away with a knife that they could be proud of and consider a family heirloom.

If you have the slightest interest in learning the steps that go into making a really fine high quality knife, and you're in the region, I highly recommend giving Tom a shout. I won't quote rates or anything like that, since it's Tom's company, not mine.

But he made us the guarantee that if you weren't satisfied with your knife, you could leave it on the workbench when you left and he'd refund your money.

He has yet to issue any refunds.............

So... what's all this got to do with food?

Well, nothin' really... and everything.

Besides the fact that it was a darn cool weekend that I felt like sharing, I learned a heckuva lot about knives, caring for them, and how to sharpen them myself, which does relate to food. If you don't believe me, try carving up a cured pork belly with a dull knife.

However... Jantz Supply has a lot of kitchen cutlery blades in their catalog... all they need is finishing off by someone who knows what they're doing....

Jerkin Around...

In an earlier post (okay, okay... a couple of days ago) I snuck in a shot of some beef jerky I was making with my new handy dandy electric meat slicer.

Not only was slicing the meat an absolute breeze, but the ability to carefully dial in the thickness was pretty dang cool.

I love jerky. No, I mean I LOVE jerky. I can eat this stuff for breakfast. In fact I sometimes snag a piece out of the jerky jug before I hit the road in the morning.

The only thing I don't like about jerky is the sore jaw. You know what I'm talking about... after 4 or 5 hours of not stop jerky noshing, your jaws feel like you've gone ten rounds with Ali. I'm sure there's some theraputic benefit to my teeth and gums, but it's still a pain.

A few months back, I was making some jerky, and I noticed that the last few pieces I sliced up were almost paper thin (okay, not really, but they were really, really thin) when they went onto the dehydrator.

Next day, I snagged one and started to chow down when I noticed the texture was almost like a potato chip. Literally. It was crispy, crumbly, yet still beefy and flavorful. It was like eating a jerky chip.

SO.... that got me thinking... if I could get the meat sliced down thin, say about 1/16 of an inch, would I get it to dry to the chip-like consistency?

Enter the electric meat slicer. Thanks to modern technology, I was able to get nearly wafer thin slices. A quick bath in the marinade, and onto the dehydrator.

Another side benefit was about a 12 hour dry time instead of the usual 18 to 24.

Was it good? oh yeah baby.... goooood.















Here's some on a plate.















Here's a jerky 'chip'. Kinda hard to see just how thin this is, but when it hits your mouth and you bite down, it just crumbles apart and all that beefy flavor hits you.

I did some slices with the thicker cuts as well, but this wafer thin style is definitely a keeper in my book.

And here's my marinade, just in case anyone cares.

1 cup soy sauce
tsp black pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
6 tbs molasses
2 tbs liquid smoke
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbs fajita marinade
2 tbs Head Country dry rub (if you don't have this, no sweat)

Mix it up and marinate for 5-10 minutes.

Only problem is.... if you're not a jerky jerk yet... this stuff is worse than crack.
So begin at your own risk!!!!!

The newest addition to the tool cabinet...

... is my new Chef's Choice Model 610 electric meat slicer.





Got this little gem last week on the day we departed for knifemaking school, so it sat all weekend... boxed up and waiting... until tonight.


Stopped by the store tonight to lay in provisions for the hungry horde, and while I was there I snagged a couple of rump roasts that looked pretty nice. I had jerky on my mind... especially since I didn't have to slice that crap by hand anymore.


But, I digress, and this post isn't about the jerky. That might come in a day or so, depending on how it turns out.


The slicer performed extremely well. For a device in the 100 buck price range, I was very impressed. It sliced through the roasts equally well, whether they were near frozen, or just cold. Thickness control is really nice, with a clearly labeled knob that go as far as 7/8" thick. And let's face it... if you want it thicker than that, then you need to get a knife.


Here's the blade set to shaved thickness....



And here it is maxed out....



Cord storage is kinda cool... it just pushes up into the base, except for the plug...




The throw distance on the slide tray is pretty nice too... almost a foot with the slide locked on the transport, which should for for most anything, except bacon.




But I'm betting that if you get the bacon good and chilled, you could slice it without the slide tray...


Internal gears are plastic, but this unit got a lot of good reviews on Amazon, so we'll see how it goes. Cleanup is pretty fast and the unit breaks down and reassembles pretty quickly.


All in all, I'm pretty happy for the first use. Like anything, time will tell... but so far, it's looking good.



Oh... and here's the jerky drying out...

Knife Making Class....

... more to come. Just got back home a little while ago, and dead tired.



Top one is my son's... bottom one is mine. Handmade (from scratch) Damascus Steel Knives.

It's ALL about the bacon....

... just as it should be.

Hey y'all... I'm back from the dead. Strep is gone (along with about 20 pounds). It's amazing what holing up in bed for 4 days with no food and just a few sips of water will do to jump start a diet.

Whilst looking for a possible source of fatback without having to travel the 30 miles up the road to my favorite packer, I came across this link....

http://www.gratefulpalate.com/

The main page says this:

".. it's a bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon world..."

Not only do they have the requisite MUST haves like:

• bacon Christmas tree ornaments
• bacon toilet paper
• bacon air fresheners
• bacon gift wrap
• and the ever popular fake pig nose

but the have a really nice selection of all kinds of artisanal bacons and WHOA..... a Bacon of The MONTH club! Shuh.... I just open the mailbox each month, and there's bacon there? There IS a God after all!

They also have various edible gifts such as bacon flavored sea salt, bacon chicarrones, and Bacon Brittle... condiments, sauces, oils, sweet and savory treats and t-shirts.

Looking forward to checking these guys out from time to time and maybe tasting some of their bacon.

Getting in a cooking mood slowly, so hopefully some more posts to come soon.

Peace y'all.

Strep sucks.

Going back to bed..... fah.

Kickin' It Old School...

Or at least getting back to basics for tonight's meal.

Seems like the menu has seen a lot of pork this week, not that that's a bad thing...

It's seen Pork in Red Sauce, Parmesan Herbed Pork Chops and bacon and sausage (yep, breakfast for dinner one night), so tonight, when I opened the fridgedator and saw a couple of pork tenderloins.

What to do... what to do...

I didn't really feel like getting all wound up on something, so I decided to fall back on one of my oldest favorites, the Pork Tenderloin Sandwich.

Sliced it up, pounded the slices flat, egged and dredged and fried em up. Garnished with a little lettuce, tomato and mayo on bread and added some fries.

Sometimes the simple things are the best.

Hey baby, it's still cold outside...

and to top it off, we got hit with a winter storm that dropped about a half an inch of ice, and now it's snowing. For all you Northerners, don't start... I know, I know... that's a flurry where you come from... but down here, it's enough to make all the idjits on the road act like it's Armageddon.

So... schools were closed today, and we closed the office to work at home. Which wound me up in the kitchen early this morning. My neighborhood Mexican food joint has two dishes that I regularly order up... Enchiladas Chile Verde, and Puerco con Salsa Roja, which if you don't do espanol, is Pork in a red sauce. Much like the Chile Verde, this dish had me intimidated for quite a while. Until, that is, the Verde fell prey to my dogged determination and my measurable quantity of luck at making something edible no matter how lost I am when I start cooking.

So I deconstructed the basics...

• Pork
  
• Red Sauce
  Chili Powder
  Tomato
  Onion
  Cumin
  Garlic

So, I started out with a pretty stable base of ingredients, including Chilebrown's enchilada sauce.

Here's how it went:

• 4 pounds pork shoulder, cubed about 1", excess fat removed.
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• 3 cups red enchilada sauce
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4-10 cloves chopped garlic (to taste)
• 2-4 tablespoons ground Ancho chile powder
• 4 tablespoons chili powder
• 1-2 tablespoons cumin
• 1-2 tablespoons oregano
• 1-2 teaspoons salt
• fresh cilantro (unfortunately, I didn't have any)
• Sour Cream to garnish

Get a big ol stockpot, or really big dutch oven, whatever as long as it can hold 4 pounds of pork and 2 quarts of stock. Sweat the onion and garlic in a tad bit of oil. Add the chili powders, cumin, salt and oregano and cook together for a few minutes, until onions are soft.

Add the stock, enchilada sauce and pork to the vessel. Bring to a boil, drop to a medium roll, and cook it till you can't wait no more. In my case, it was about three hours.

The pork will probably stay together unless you do like I did and beat it around the pot with a big spoon to break the pieces up.

Serve it up, top with a dollop of sour cream and cilantro, and go to town.

Odd thing is, in spite of cooking this, understanding what ingredients I was using, it didn't dawn on me until I got my first taste... that this was basically chili with diced pork instead of ground beef. And a little more thin than a standard chili.

But good? heck ya it was. Looks like my local Mexican place might be in trouble.....

Hey baby, it's cold outside...

... darn cold... last time I checked it was about 20 degrees, with the wind a blowin'. So, what's a guy to do when the wind's howlin', the temps are droppin', and his belly's a growlin'?

Make some comfort food.... shuh....

Today's venue was something I stumbled onto whilst perusing this internet thing for something totally different.
Funny how life's like that, huh?
Anyway, while looking for some recipes for Pork Salsa Roja (yep, found one, and yep, it's gonna get cooked), I stumbled on a nice little blog ran by a fellow culinariast (is that a word?) who seems to know her way around the kitchen.

While looking at one recipe, I noticed a link for Shrimp Chowder. Now, I love chowder almost anyway you fix it... and I loves shrimps too... so I figured this was worth checking out.


The recipe she posted was pretty good for a starter, but I definitely took several liberties.


Here's how hers started out:

• 3 lbs head on shrimp
• 1/4 oz slab bacon, cut into 1/4" pieces
• 3 medium russet potatos (approx 1 pound) quartered lengthwise and sliced
• crosswise into 1/2" pieces
• 1 large leek, white part only, cut into 1/4" pieces
• 3 tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp snipped chives for garnish

Add shrimp shells to water to make a stock. You can also add celery carrot and onion to stock for extra flavor.
Make the base by sauteeing the bacon with potato and leek. Add shrimp stock. Simmer until potatos are just soft. Remove from heat and set aside
Melt butter in pan, add shrimp and cream, and boil until shrimp are barely cooked and cream is slightly reduced.
Stir into base, along with seasonings.

I made a little less than a half portion, and here's where I deviated:

• 1 pound shrimp
• I used about 3 slices (3 oz) of my homemade bacon. Only 1/4 oz is just offensive to the bacon gods.
• 1 large russet
• 1-2 tsp dill weed instead of chives
• 1/4 cup finely diced carrot

Prepared as called for, making shrimp stock, etc.


Once the base and the butter/cream/shrimp were added together, it just didn't look like a chowder to me. Very runny... very soupy. So I made a quick butter/flour roux (1/2 stick and 1/2 cup), and added it to the mix, along with a cup and half of chicken stock.


Hit the heat for a couple of minutes, and it thickend right up, just like momma always said it would.


The end result? A mighty fine chowder of chowdery consistency. The potatos were done perfectly, with the leeks and carrots imparting a slight sweetness. I sliced the shrimp up into thumbnail sized pieces for better distribution, so nearly every bite served up a nice little bite of shrimp. Obviously creamy, what with all the butter and cream. And the dill provided just a touch of a savory, herby layer.



If the rest of GG Mora's blog yields up recipes this good, I'm gonna be a happy (if not fatter) camper.

This Verde's for Chile....

Chilebrown that is...

After reading his thoughtful and insightful blog, I came to the realization that he and I both share an intense and uncompromising love of the green stuff... Chile Verde.

I've had various permutations of CV over the years, some good, others not. There's a local place close to where we live that does a pretty good take on it, and you can even get it wrapped up in enchiladas. Menu shows chicken and beef verde enchiladas only, but if you're smart enough to ask for Senor Puerco, they'll gladly accommodate.

Inspired by Senor Chile's tireless efforts during the last month to find the nirvana of verde-ness, I decided to try it at home. The fact that I also made a New Year's resolution that I would learn how to cook one new food that I love every month was also a motivator.

So... I did a little looking around on the web... Googled numerous recipes, forums and searched my two go-to resources: Food Network and Epicurious.


I found a bunch of recipes. Everything from Pork and canned chiles to epic numbers with more ingredients than your average produce department and requiring a PhD to digest. Eventually I settled on one that seemed to have the basics covered, and wasn't a week long task to make.

So, last night, I started off with a nice four pound pork shoulder.





Next I deboned it, and cubed it into roughly inch-sized chunks. Sprinked with salt, pepper and cumin, tossed it all up and bagged it for the night to let the spices do their thing.

This afternoon, I started in...

...here's the mise... Diced pork... Chopped onion... chopped bell, poblano and jalapenos, cilantro... roasted tomatillos, garlic and chicken stock.

Lightly floured and browned the pork in batches. Removed to one side, and sweated the aromatics for a few minutes.



Put the stock in a heavy pot along with the meat, cilantro and toms. Once the onions and peppers had cooked enough, those went in as well. Brought it all to a boil then dropped to a low simmer. Then came the hard part... the wait.



The recipe called for a three hour cook time. Mine wound up being about 5 (had to run an errand), but I honestly can't say that it hurt anything.


Made up a nice pan of basmati rice to go along, and dished it right up.






Not to toot my own horn (but don't we all?), but this was seriously good. I was impressed with the recipe. The chiles were present, but not hot. (I purposely dialed the heat down for this first go round). The pork was fall-apart tender, and everything tasted exactly like I expected it would. The subtle flavor of the roasted tomatillos was there as well. Makes me wonder how much the flavor would change if I roasted the peppers as well....

The only thing I'll change next time is to not use so much chicken stock. The recipe called for 4 cups, and I used about 5 and a half. When I got everything in the pot, it just didn't look like enough liquid. Turns out 4 cups would have been plenty. But the rice soaked up the extra liquid when I served it up, so everthing turned out fine after all.

So... Culinary Compadres and Compadrettes... this one goes in the win column with a nod to Senor Chilebrown for the inspiration.

And.... here's the recipe