Stumbling Goat's Pastl

I just finished assisting the best cooking class ever. I felt like I was floating out the door after being in Matt Dillon's class. Matt Dillon up until a month and a half ago could be found at the Stumbling Goat Bistro, but has recently decided to foray into the restaurant business for himself. Unfortunately for us, it's going to be a bit of a wait; 20 Birds won't be opening until sometime next year in April in Capitol Hill. The class was a showcase of Matt's intuitive feel for flavors and timing combined with the specialty italian products imported by Ritrovo. I think the word 'heaven' sums it up nicely. The menu included:

Chanterelle, fresh corn, farro (spelt) soup,
Wild mushroom (lobster mushrooms and chanterelles) leek risotto with chanterelles harvested by Matt himself from his secret spots
Trofie Pasta Salad with walnut pesto, olives, tomato vinegar, flageolet and romano beans
Roasted Quail
Lemon chestnut honey tart

*sigh* I have no idea how to recreate the magic that was that meal, but I'll certainly have to try sometime. I feel inspired though to just play around with flavors.

The Science (or Art ) of Cooking

I was having a discussion with a friend last night about the science of cooking and me arguing about why cooking is a science. I thought about it a little more today and am going to use cooking rice as an example of why science helps us. I think the debate stemmed from how much water one would add to rice. How much water depends on a number of variables :

a) what kind of rice are we cooking? Does it have an outer hull? Is it long grain or short grain? What kind of starch is the rice made up of?

b) what temperature are we cooking the rice? It seems to me that cooking rice in a rice cooker usually takes less water than cooking it over the stove. It's possible that less water evaporation occurs while using a rice cooker than with a stove due to lower cooking temperatures.

c) what is the desired end product - al dente, soft ?

The answers affect how long one would cook the rice and how much water the rice will absorb during cooking. With cooking there's also a certain margin of error allowed where we can add 1/4 cup of water here or leave out a couple of tablespoons there without making a significant difference to the final product. Practice (experimentation) allows us generate answers; however it's difficult to record answers without taking measurements in the first place. There's obviously a requirement for creativity in cooking to be in the realm of a being a good chef, but it always helps to know some of the science behind what we're doing so we're not left with guess work and mushy rice.

http://busycooks.about.com/library/lessons/blricesci.htm

K on Maple Pass Loop trail.

Lake Ann from Maple Pass Loop

Lake Diablo

Lake Diablo, Aug 26-28th, 2005

Fri - We camped at Colonial Creek Campgrounds just off milepost 130 along the the North Cascade Highway. I have to say that the North Cascades is an area that I keep going back to because of it's easy accessiblity, but not so easy as to make the area crowded a la Mount Si which seems to have become a long snaking line of people from bottom to top. The first night we got in we set up camp and KC cooked chicken apple sausages on the grill. My new favorite drink has been a lychee martini made with vodka, Soho lychee liquer and a splash of mandarin lime soda. A couple of lychee martinis later and I couldn't make anything longer than a 3 letter word in our game of travel Scrabble (maybe it wasn't the martinis?). After much worrying my friends' J and D finally arrived at camp sometime around 11pm, long after the sun had set.

Sat - After talking to a ranger at the visitor's center we decided to hike Maple Pass Loop. She said it was a beautiful hike that was manageable with only aquasocks. Poor KC had to endure the 6 mile round trip hike while feeling most of the ground beneath him after leaving his boots behind. Thanks for putting up with the pain! The trail had turnoffs for Lake Ann and Rainy Lake with gorgeous views the whole way since the hike started at >4000 ft and took us to about 6500ft. Lake Ann was visible below and to our left for most of the hike to the pass with numerous Cascade peaks. We stopped numerous times for photos and finally stopped for lunch after I promised for the hundredth time that we would stop just around the next bend. We enjoyed roast beef/avocado sandwiches with spicy salami and camembert on crackers while taking in the view.
After picking up firewood at the closest store in Newhalem - an interesting town that's run by Seattle City Light - we hopped into icy Lake Diablo. It wasn't the ideal temperature for swimming in, but felt refreshing and numbing at the same time. There's still some disagreement over who could take the cold better, but I'd have to say it was me ;) KC and I did a repeat jump into the lake the following day as a couple looked on and called us 'crazy kids' :) It's kind of reassuring to know that we aren't completely old yet.
Dinner consisted of grilled lamb burgers with avocados, camembert and muenster, grilled cherry tomatoes, zuchinni and peppers. I think it was one of those meals that I'll remember for awhile. After dinner we snuck off for a brief walk along the Thunder Creek trail which starts off just on the other side of Hwy 20 from the Colonial Creek Campgrounds. Although I don't know the actual history, this area looks like an avalanche/landslide came down and took out much of what used to be a campground. There's an overturned garbage disposal, a raging creek that passes over what could have been a road feeding into Lake Diablo and broken pieces of asphalt at the beginning of the trail before it veers off into the forest. We walked until we came across 3 deer who were grazing along the trail just after sunset. I didn't have a destination in mind when starting out on the walk, but this seemed like the perfect moment to turn back.
*sigh* Can't wait to go back next year!

Egg custard scramble

It's 12:22 am and I've managed to make an egg scramble out of a creme anglais not once, but twice. It think that means it's bed time.