I'm a jerk and so can you!

So I've been a fan of Jamaican style jerk food and sauce for some time. Now I am not going to start going on a mad island grilling session (my dwelling is owned by a capitalist), I only eally want a Sweet Baby Ray's jerk sauce equivalent. I'm not sure I will achieve this goal in round 1, but maybe in time? I know capital_prototype isn't the biggest fan of all things jerk, but maybe Sawsheezle sauce can win him over?

Here's some ingredients I acquired.

Ok I'm supposed to the famous scotch bonnet pepper, but I decided on just buying some serranos since they are a known commodity. Here's the rest

Allspice
Nutmeg
Cinnamon (not pictured)
Black pepper (not pictured)
Ginger
Thyme
Some tomatoes
maybe too many green onions
Some molasses and brown sugar for sweetness
Soy Sauce
Vegetable oil
The juice of 1 lime
Apple cider vinegar ended up making it in here too

So most recipes say to take all of this and blend it fresh...not roasted or boiled first...just blend...ok...also I had no intention of going off a real recipe...Ijust wanted to feel this out for my first time.

Post blend. I tasted it and it was granular. I then put it on the stove top and simmered it for an hour.

At this point I added in some more brown sugar which darkened and sweetened it along with some vinegar since I decided to can it. I put it in the blender one more time and pureed the shart out of it.

Here it is post jarred. It's green. When you put it to fire I think it turns black. Anyways, I will test it out in a few weeks once it settles in the fridge. I'll marinate a brisket in it.

More to come...

Let's Make Tofu

Tofu is good, but you need to do some prep. 

Step One:

Cut the brick of tofu (extra firm) in half.  

Step Two:

Put a couple paper towel sheets down. Lay the tofu on the paper towels. Then put a couple paper towels on top.

Then put some heavy objects on the tofu and leave it for about 30 minutes.

Step Three:

Next stop, flavor town. All aboard, woo-woo!

Remove your heavy objects, and cut the tofu in cubes. Briefly admire the wetness of your paper towels before discarding. Then places your cubes in a marinade for another 15-30 minutes.

This marinade consists of equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar and a dash of toasted sesame oil.

Get some on top too. Touch the tofu as little as possible as it's still fragile at this stage.

Step Four:

Sprinkle about a teaspoon or tablespoon of corn starch over the top of the tofu. Lay the tofu out on a baking sheet on the opposite side from which they were marinating and coat the top which is now facing up with corn starch. Place in the oven at 350 degrees for 25-40 minutes (depending on the size of your cubes), flipping them half way through baking.

And here they are pulled from the oven.

Ready to be tossed in a stir fry.

Sourdough pizza, got to start somewhere

I went to Anju Above in sunny Bloomington, IL over the holidays and enjoyed a nice Neapolitan style pizza. The crust was flavorful and crispy. While I would like to enjoy Naples-inspired 'za on the reg at home, I do not possess as oven that can achieve the desired temperature (~800 F) and so I am left to just have unsatisfying flavor in my dough. Or am I? I have recently thought about sourdoughs. It turns out you just need to ferment things for an extended period of time. I read I could just make a sponge and sit out on the counter...so I did.

Here's what I did:

Take 1 cup of water, some whole wheat and bread flours, a smidge of yeast (maybe 1/5 or 1/10 of what you would normally use), and mix them in a bowl until you get a pancake batter type consistency. Then wait.

Here it is after 24 hours:

Gratuitous zoom-in:

Interesting hole structure no? It certainly smelled a bit sour which was encouraging.

At this point I added more flour, some more yeast, a bit of salt, some olive oil, and finished the dough. It is rising in the fridge for a few additional days now. I hope it's yummy.

.5 Bath Remodel

Finished the 1/2 bath remodel. The budget was $1,000 and we came in below that.

Here is the before:

And here is the After: