Hot Cocoa

Cold weather has arrived in the Midwest, and with it comes snow, colorful lights, holiday fun, family gatherings and one of the best things ever, HOT COCOA!  There is nothing better after playing in the cold then bundling up with loved ones and a hot cup of hot cocoa.  Pretty much every culture has a hot chocolate type of drink. The Netherlands have chocolademelk made with bitter bars of chocolate which are not as sweet as the American counterpart. The Italians have cioccolata densa, thickened with cornstarch making it a warm thin version of chocolate pudding.  The Aztecs started drinking it 2,000 years ago believing it was a gift from the gods, and it's hard not to agree. Every time I drink it I have a pleasant, blissful feeling that brings me back to childhood.  Chocolate in any form is a holy experience.  Here in the US we make primarily hot cocoa, but in most other countries hot chocolate is the drink of choice.  The difference being that hot cocoa refers to the powder mix which has most of the cocoa butter removed, and hot chocolate is made with melted chocolate which has the cocoa butter.  Pretty much all forms of the drink have the same basic ingredients: chocolate, sugar and cream.  The store bought powder verity of hot cocoa has powder milk in it so you are able to make it with hot water, but personally I prefer the richness and creaminess of whole milk.  I still use a powder mix, but I make it myself.  The store bought stuff can't hold a candle to homemade, that goes with out saying.  For my powder mix I like to use a bitter dark chocolate and I always use a Dutch process chocolate.  Dutch processed chocolate has a much better texture, darker color and a little bit milder cocoa flavor.  This year I made a big container of powder mix, which should last about a week,  but all I have to do is heat up some milk in the microwave or on the stove top, mix in the powder and I'm ready to guzzle!  What's nice about hot cocoa is you can customize it as much as you want.  Add some Cream-DE-Menthe, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla or even a little chili powder to spice things up.  Personally I like a little vanilla and some mini marshmallows.   I suggest making a big container so you can enjoy it all season long.  So this recipe will be for the purpose of making a great big container.

10 oz. Dark Dutch cocoa powder ( about 1 & 1/4 c)
30 oz. White granulated sugar (about 3 & 3/4 c)
1 tbsp Kosher sea salt
Sift all together and store in a air tight container.
To make one cup.
Microwave about one minute for every cup.
Stove top pour a little more then one cup in a small sauce pan heat on a low temperature till milk is steaming.  Stir often and make sure milk doesn't get too hot or you could end up with a pot of sour scolded milk, not tasty at all.
Pour about 1 heaping tablespoon into the milk, mix well, pour in to your favorite holiday mug and smile as you sip.
When you heat milk on the stove top you have opportunity to make hot chocolate as opposed to hot cocoa.  This takes a little more work for about the same outcome as the powder.  The powder is a lot more versatile, you can add some to your morning coffee or sprinkle it over baked goods or even make enough to pour in to jars and give out as Christmas gifts.  If you want to try a stove top version here is a recipe.

For one cup.
1 c Milk
2 tbsp Grated Dutch melting chocolate
1 & 1/2 teaspoons White sugar
Heat all ingredients in a small sauce pan and heat on low till steaming.  Stir constantly!  Milk and chocolate can both scold so you must pay attention to the pot.  This recipe calls for less sugar because of the cocoa butter.

Hot cocoa is one of those things that makes cold weather worth having.  Hot cocoa creates memories. Everyone can remember a time in their childhood when hot cocoa melted away the frost of sledding and building snow men.  Hopefully my daughter will remember playing out in the snow as a child and warming up on the sofa with her family and a delicious cup of her daddy's hot cocoa.  Enjoy this recipe, share it with friends and family. Everyone deserves to feel the warmth and the love of the season.

Food Dance!

Everything today is all about speed and convenience, which is seen mainly in food.  Super markets, whole sale foods, fast food, and cookie cutter chain restaurants have become the unfortunate norm in our society.  It's so normal not to know where our food comes from.  Not too long ago people put food on their table knowing where and who the food came from, and they knew how fresh the food was.   It has become harder to  find fresh locally grown foods. Luckily Kalamazoo has a great local food following with a wonderful farmers market, lots of local chefs supporting the fresh local movement and a great, all local, all fresh restaurant called Food Dance!

Kalamazoo has great restaurants, but not everyone in town uses all local fresh food like Food Dance does.  Food Dance is one of those local gems that really puts a lot of work into their fresh local menu, and when you taste their food you instantly appreciate what the kitchen is plating.  I love Food Dance. I'm always happy with what I order and I really like that they change their menu to fit the local harvest season.  I personally think that the fall season has the best ingredients to offer.  Food Dance did not disappoint with their fall weekend breakfast menu. I ordered their Roasted Butternut Squash Scramble which was perfect for a chilly, rainy, fall morning.  The eggs were nice and fluffy. If you have never 

tasted farm fresh eggs you are missing out. There really is a difference in flavor.  The scramble had green onions, great apple wood bacon, incredibly fresh farm cheese and, of course, butternut squash.  The squash was a great idea for a scramble. The sweetness of the squash went perfect with the saltiness of the bacon and the sour cream-like cheese balanced the whole dish.  A very smart scramble. Everything was put together very well, with every ingredient adding it's own great flavor to the mix and when you get a fork full with every ingredient your pallet has a breakfast experience that it has never had before. Squash for breakfast, what a great idea!  The plate came with a side of home fried potatoes that were so good, I could have eaten them all day they, and the absolute best cinnamon roll I have ever had ever.  The cinnamon roll was super soft and fluffy, perfectly baked.  A lot of places put to much cinnamon on the inside. Food Dance put just enough buttery cinnamon goodness so you could taste everything about the roll and not just the cinnamon.  They topped the whole thing off with an awesome frosting that tasted like the pâtissier married a glazed doughnut with cream cheese frosting, amazing!  

If you read my blog regularly you know how much I love biscuits and gravy, so of course I had to get a side to go with my scramble.  This was some great biscuits and gravy, it would take me too long to describe to you how great it is so I will just say that it is the best biscuits and gravy in town by far.  I have eaten biscuits and gravy almost every where in town and Food Dance has raised the bar.  

Food Dance is a great restaurant and I strongly urge everyone to give it a try, and help support local fresh foods.

http://fooddance.net/restaurant

Pasta

It's time I delve in to making pasta.  I make a lot of pasta dishes, so I buy boxes of pasta.  Of course the convenience factor is nice, but what does the pasta actually taste like?  I can't taste the olive oil or if the flour used was of a good quality.  If I think about the flavor of boxed pasta I don't think of taste at all.  I have had homemade pasta in the past and there is flavor, an actual taste to the pasta itself, and from what I remember it was good. So, why am I robbing myself and my family from this great dining experience?  

When I sit down to write a recipe or make something for the first time I go through the same ritual, Wikipedia, Food Network and Allrecipes.com.  I like to research the dishes history and how it was originally made and what its evolution has been.  I look at about 10 different recipes see what they have in common and what they do differently and why.   Based on my research, I will then adapt the historical points with dish commonalities and mix in my own taste.  This usually takes about an hour or two but in the end I am a lot happier with the way the dish turned out.  I used to just throw stuff together thinking I was creating magic when in reality I was over seasoning, over complicating and underwhelming the food.  Take some time and research a dish some time before you make it. You will notice quite a difference in your finished product.

I decided to use a standard pasta recipe with no frills:

1 lb. All purpose flour (This turns out to be about 4 c)

1/4 c Olive oil 

4 eggs and 1 egg yolk

1 Pinch Kosher sea salt

3-4 tbs. cold water

On a clean, dry surface, pile all of the flour and with your hands. Make a hole about 10 inches wide but keep the walls of the flower high so the well will hold all of the liquid.  

In the well, pour all the remaining ingredients and whisk with a fork, avoiding the flower until all the wet ingredients are mixed well.  Start to add flower as you whisk being careful not to break any walls of the well.  Once enough flour has been incorporated into the mixture to make it very thick, you can use your hands to mix everything into one ball.  If the dough seems really dry and crumbly, add a little bit more water until you have a consistent, and almost smooth dough.  Knead the dough with all your weight over top of it for about 10-15 minutes, this is very important.  If you don't knead the dough well enough it will not have the shine and smoothness that we all love about pasta.  Wrap the finished pasta ball in plastic wrap and let it sit for an hour before you use it.

The only thing I had trouble with was rolling my pasta out.  I don't own a pasta machine so I had to use my rolling pin with my 1/16th inch spacers which are still kind of thick, although it would have been great for fettuccine.  I used my pasta for ravioli which turned out great but the pasta was way too thick.  I really liked making my own pasta and will be making it again.  I want to try to make spaghetti noodles to go with my red gravy.  I will be investing in a pasta machine-I don't think my arms could take rolling out another batch of pasta.  If you’re brave enough, have the time, and love pasta go ahead and give this recipe a try It was very rewarding to know that I made the pasta I was eating.  I hope your experience is as rewarding as mine was. 

http://allrecipes.com/Default.aspx

http://www.foodnetwork.com/

http://www.wikipedia.org/

Studio Grill

I was going to blog the Studio Grill last weekend but I forgot to take pictures of my food.  No worries, I went back to the Studio Grill and had lunch again and this time I took plenty of pictures.  A lot of people requested that I give studio Grill a try, and I am really glad that I did. My whole experience was great.  No one in town has a menu like the Studio Grill, it's definitely not your standard American cafe.  They have a really eclectic menu and when I say eclectic I am talking about Hawaiian French toast for breakfast and bacon burrito dogs for lunch.  I haven't had enough time to fully explore their menu, but the few items I have ordered have blown me away.  I said in one of my early blogs that the best burger in town was the blue burger at Central City Tap House. Sorry CCTH, I love your burger but Studio Grill is the now my nomination for tastiest burger in town, maybe even Southwest Michigan.  I have had two different burgers so far.  On the first trip I ordered their Spicy, Sweet-Pineapple Burger, but I forgot to take photographs, but I think I can do a decent job describing it for you.  Use your imagination, scream "BANG-A-RANG!" and maybe it will appear in front of you, just think happy thoughts.  This burger was fantastic, 7 oz. of fresh (NOT FROZEN!) ground beef stuffed (yes all of their burgers are stuffed) with pepper jack cheese, topped with roasted Serrano peppers, more pepper jack cheese, a thick juicy ring of grilled pineapple, on a toasted honey sweet bun smeared with a mango salsa.  The patty itself was grilled just enough so you can taste the real flavor of fresh ground meat, and it was amazingly juicy.  The true measure of a burger cook comes from patience, someone who can resist the urge to mess with their patties and flip them too early or too much.  The more moist the burger the less the chef trifled with the burger.  This perfect patty is stuffed with one of the greatest things on the planet, CHEESE!  Not only cheese but spicy pepper jack and even more pepper jack is on top of the burger, but that's not the only spice. Roasted Serrano peppers are sitting on top of a slice of grilled pineapple that had to be at least a quarter inch thick.  All of that would have been enough, but no. A mango salsa that when mixed with the pineapple bring to your mouth a snap of sweetness.  The build of this burger is intelligent, pallet wise. The heat from all the peppers invite the cool of the sweetness of the pineapple and mango salsa, and every bite takes you through this experience. It's like a tango of sweet and heat till you reach the last bite and you wonder why people are so mundane that they do a simple two step of mustard and ketchup.

On my second trip I order yet another burger.  As much as I want to try their breakfast I just cannot deny myself the delight that is a Studio Grill burger.  I ordered the Rusty Nail Burger and it was tasty.  This burger really shows their eclectic style,  7oz. burger which was again cooked perfectly (I love consistency).  This burger was stuffed with chopped up breakfast sausage links, sauteed onions and mushrooms, then topped with bacon and cheddar cheese. It's served with a side of buttermilk ranch but I decided to have mine with a side of their incredible homemade Serrano sauce.  Bravo to the person who decided a burger with bacon wasn't enough meat and stuffed the whole thing with breakfast sausage.

This burger pretty much defines savory. Everything about it was completely satisfying the sweetness of the caramelized onions and the sharpness of the mushrooms was just enough balance to cut the salt of the beef patty and the pork sausage and added to the over all joy of juicy mess.  Bacon and cheddar, that's all I have to say about that.  I'm happy that I went with the Serrano sauce, that stuff is amazing!
 I tell people all the time they need to try a place I like, but seriously people you need to try Studio Grill!  It's friendly, comfortable and completely dilettantish  in the way they operate their business.  Thank you Studio Grill for being such a reinvigorating foodie experience.
 http://www.studiogrillkalamazoo.com/index.html