Pasta Variations: Semolina, Whole Wheat, Mix

I wanted to see how taste and texture changed depending on the wheat so I made three variations: all semolina, all whole wheat, and half of each.  Spoiler: the whole wheat was the least favorite.

For each pasta dough, I used the classic ratio of 1 whole egg to 100 g of the flour: first 100 g semolina, second 100 g whole wheat, last 50 g semolina plus 50 g whole wheat.  Whiz the egg in a food processor, while spinning add the flour, and process until it comes together in a ball.  The semolina came together quickly, and was quite wet.  The half-n-half took some more processing but came together. I had to add a couple teaspoons of water to get the whole wheat batch to come together. Shape each by and into a tight ball, cover with film, and let sit in a fridge for an hour to hydrate thoroughly.

Roll each dough ball into sheets with a  manual Mercato Pasta Machine to thickness #7 (of #9), dust with flour to prevent sticking; I had to add quite a bit of flour to the pure semolina dough to keep it from sticking. Run each sheet through the fettuccine cutter.

Whole wheat, mix, semolina

Boil each in salted water until toothsome, drain, and taste.

 

You can see the color differences; left-to-right: whole wheat, mix, semolina

The semolina pasta was light and delicate, and the egg flavor may have come through a bit.  The semolina/whole wheat was more toothsome. The pure whole wheat was more toothsome but a bit like cardboard in texture; it also reminded us in taste of everything we hate about "health food".  I preferred the combo for its body, but Irene preferred the semolina for it's delicacy. Served naked, it also became painfully obvious which was boiled in properly salted water (the mix, in this case; the others were under-salted).

You can still see the color differences, semolina's the lightest, whole wheat the darkest

We served each in separate nests, topped with a sauce we made from tomatoes, some chili, and baby octopus that had been hiding in our freezer. Not too shabby. Our favorites remained unchanged with the sauce.

Sauced with spicy baby octopus and tomato sauce

Octopus Terrine #2

In Octopus Terrine #1, we added gelatin to capture the juices from the cooked octopus, but we didn't like the texture. This time, we used large legs, strained the juice and wrap the octopus tightly to let it set in its own gel.

We found large Spanish octopus at a restaurant supply store for under $7/pound, usually we see $10/pound and up. It was a good sized beast, costing $55, and we used 4 legs for this. We added  the legs to a sous vide bag with about 1/4 red bell pepper, diced fine; a touch of pimenton; some lemon zest; a little salt and black pepper. Like before, we cooked this at 77C for 5 hours, which is what Chef Steps recommends for "silky but tender".

When done, we strained off the liquid (it makes for an excellent risotto), and were left with legs that were much smaller than they went in; we lost at least 50% by weight. Alternating thick and thin ends of legs, we wrapped them tightly as a cylinder in cling film, then rolled to twist the film as tight as possible. It rested overnight in the fridge to let the internal gel bind the whole thing together.

When we took it out, it was a bit more lumpy -- less cylindrical -- than ideal. As we cut it with a very sharp thin knife, the terrine started coming apart. The texture was excellent, tender but not mushy, a little bounce, and the taste was very enjoyable.

Next time, I'd season and cook the same, but try to find a better way to compress the terrine. Do I really need a spring loaded terrine press like these?

 

Octopus sous vide and grilled

We've had some excellent octopus at Dino's and Zaytinya in DC -- tender and charred. When we enquired, both said they were first slow cooked, then charred over open flame; Dino said he then sautés his quickly for service. We wanted to replicate that at home and figured sous vide would be the way to cook until tender, and the barbecue would give it a good char.

We found 1.160 Kg (2.5 Lb) frozen Spanish octopus for $10/pound at Mediterrafish. We defrosted it overnight, then cut off the legs and head (already cleaned), tossing the middle containing beak and eyes.

We bagged it with some frozen olive oil, then chilled in the freezer an hour before vacuum sealing to prevent sucking out all the water.

Typical tenderization methods include smashing the octopus on rocks, beating with a mallet or even a daikon. Cooking techniques usually are to bake in a covered pot (to collect liquid and self-braise) at a very low temperature for a long time, or to boil (with the old wives tale addition of a wine cork, debunked by Harold McGee).  Boiling would lose any liquid that would be released from the octopus, so we used sous vide to keep the beast immersed in its own liquid while slowly cooking at a low temperature.

Different folks seem to sous vide octopus for 3-8 hours between 74-83c (165-180F), some reporting chewiness at lower times and temperatures. We went with 75c (167F) for 5 hours.

We'd read that octopus releases a lot of liquid when it cooks, and it sure did. Our long fat legs seemed to lose half their length and girth, and the vacuum bag was full of a reddish liquid.  We let the bag cool slowly on the counter in hopes the legs might reabsorb some of the liquid, before chilling overnight in the fridge.

The next night, we drained the liquid and weighed the octopus: 315 g.  We'd ended up with 27% of the weight we'd started out with -- that jacks up the price for the meal quite a bit!  What we figured might feed four or more would not be barely enough for two for dinner.  We strained the liquid and will make risotto from it: at least it's not going to waste.

At the barbecue, we brushed the legs and head with olive oil and dusted generously with pimenton, like a pulpo a la gallega presentation. I used skewers to keep the octopus parts from falling through the grates, and grilled for a few minutes a side.

What worked, what didn't

The octopus turned out tender enough, with a slight mucilaginous-ness which may be due to not rinsing off loose skin after cooking.  We didn't get the crisp char we wanted at all, and the octopus stuck a bit to the grill: these may be connected, as I didn't scrub and oil the grates.

The skewers worked well at holding things together and removing them to plates quickly.

It's also disappointing that $25 worth of octopus barely fed two people. I'll look around the Asian markets, and our local Brazilian/Portuguese store says they carry it.

Next Time

If I could determine a way to reduce loss to liquid I would, even if I sacrificed a bit of tenderness.

Thoroughly rinse off the loose skin after cooking so we don't have any mushiness on the outside.

Get the coals really hot and close to the grill grates, then clean and oil them before adding the octopus. Use the skewers for cooking again.

Daily Dinner #3

Our friend Shannon challenged us to post about our regular meals, not just the eloaborate ones we sometimes to. We're trying to do a weekly post.

2015-07-26 Sunday

I find rolling pasta therapeutic: after a long day of coding, it  helps me relax.  Irene makes the dough with half and half all purpose and a coarser semolina for texture and bite. You need to let it rest to hydrate, and it can happily live in the freezer.  I divide the dough into a manageable size and start running it through the roller, folding it over itself several times on the widest setting to knead it.

Then pass it through successively finer settings to thin it and stretch it out. Dust with flour if it tries to stick to the rollers.

For fettucini, we run it down #7; if we were doing spaghetti, I'd only go as far as #5 to give it some body.

 Dust the sheet well with flour and run it through the cutter.

We sauced it with a pesto made from garden arugula.

Irene made a salad of different varieties of garden tomatoes that have good acid, and some sun-dried tomatoes as a counterpoint, with bright tomato juice, some good oil, Maldon sea salt, and sumac.

2015-07-27 Monday

Irene's riff on a Salade Niçoise including the last of our cold-smoked pork loin and a soft-boiled egg, beans and tomatoes from the garden.

2015-07-28 Tuesday

Packing for a trip, we raided the freezer for whatever we could find: home made meatballs, garden tomatoes, shaved parmesan, and (not home made!) spaghetti. The  tomatoes, fresh off the vine, had an intense flavor.

2015-07-29 Wednesday

Our stores are depleted so we went out to Kapnos in Arlington. Cocktails, the one in front was Don't Worry About It with rye, fernet and spices was a bit ... well, sweet-spicy for summer, the other, The Hannibal was  a mezcal marguerita with spots of harissa.

We've rarely seen navajas (razor clams, in the US called jack-knife clams) in the states so jumped on these. The were outstanding: fresh, vividly flavored, with a great texture. This was the stand-out dish of the evening.

Lamb tartar with smoked egg yolk, but we really couldn't discern any smokiness; the lamb was brightly seasoned, a good texture, and refreshing. Unfortunately, the grilled bread felt a bit stale, like it had been sitting around too long.

Octopus was tender was pleasantly charred, but not as flavorful as we would have liked.

2015-07-30 Thursday

My parents, who are staying at our house while we're away, took us out to Water and Wall (our choice) in Arlington and we were underwhelmed by the menu: the description of the dishes was intriguing but the food didn't live up to the promise. It was short but had two chicken dishes, and many were inappropriate for the season. The porchetta came with cold ramen, but it wasn't integrated into the dish in anyway. The duck confit was the only other adventurous dish on the menu, but too heavy for a hot July day. The steelhead trout was overwhelmed by a spicy sauce. 

On this quiet night, with less than half the tables occupied, the service was way too slow. We finished our cocktails and sat around for 10 minutes before the waitress returned to ask if we'd like another round of drinks: no, we'd like the appetizers, please! I can't imagine how this restaurant would fare on a busy night.

2015-07-31 Friday

Airplane food, baby!  An overnight flight from Toronto to Barcelona offered the usual "pasta or chicken".  My Mac and Cheese was OK, I figure pasta's a safe bet on an airplane: it had a bright sauce base, and was cheesy enough. Irene's chicken came with Israeli couscous studded with fava beans, sweet corn and carrots. The chicken was tender and juicy in a sweetish tomato sauce. The bread, as always, was too cold and gummy. The salad was made with cabbage rather than the usual iceberg lettuce, and the tomatoes were surprisingly flavorful. We were separated by 16 rows and I had to pay for my wine but Irene got away without paying. :-)

2015-08-01 Saturday

We picked a flat in Barcelona with a roof-top terrace and are really enjoying it. We hit the Mercat de Sant Antoni, about 5 minutes from our place, and picked up some sausage, and stopped for a liter of wine right from the cask and some bread for an alfresco dinner; since our body clocks were confused, we needed a pre-dinner much earlier than the Spanish 9-11pm time.

Since we'd spent the morning roaming the east side of Las Ramblas, we decided to wander the west side before returning for a dinner near our flat; that never happened :-). After drinks at a couple gothic bars (no, not the type with goth kids), we stumbled upon Bar Celta; this was a delight as it's the first place our friend Ann took us to on our first visit to Spain.  We knew it was a fish tapas place, but didn't realize it specialized in octopus (pulpo, so it's a pulpería).

So of course, the first dish was an outstanding octopus. They bring out steamed octopus, whole, and let them cool on the counter. When you select it, they take it back to the kitchen where they cut it up, sauté in good olive oil then anoint with lemon juice, garlic, and pimentón (smoked paprika). 

Woo hoo, we're in Spain, we can get razor-clams (here, called navajas). These were grilled in their shell, and were smoky and a little crunchy, again with good olive oil, garlic and lemon. They had a definite sweetness and a taste of the sea. 

More octopi, baby ones this time, cooked whole. They had a crunch to them, a little chewy, but not like rubber bands: a really pleasant toothsomeness then a yield as we bit through them. They also waited in the cool display case, and were grilled from raw (not pre-steamed) to order.

For a little variety, we rounded out the meal with a garlicky chorizo (sausage), redolent with pimentón. It was somewhat dried then sliced and cooked to order, it had an engaging chew to it.  Irene can't resist croquetas, so we had bacala (Catalan, "bacalao" in Spanish, salt cod) "fritters": creamy on the inside, with a thin shell -- not bad but not as stunning as the seafood dishes; something we should have expected from a pulpería, I suppose.

We ordered a couple glasses of a local rosé wine: you order a glass and they put the bottle on the bar and you fill up as needed; at the end of the meal, you're only charged for how much you drink. Of course we finished it. :-)

This was an outstanding casual meal, a steal at about $50, and I really enjoyed closing the loop with our first visit to Spain.