Day 306 - White Beef Stock

Martha asked me on the show if I blogged while I was cooking, and I had to laugh. My response was something like "I can barely cook while I'm cooking."

If anyone could watch me preparing a dish, even one as straightforward as this one, they would know how outrageous that idea is.

First of all, while I'm cooking, my kitchen is pretty much a tornado site. There's almost nowhere to rest a spoon, let alone a laptop.

My fingers are usually covered in something, if not soap and water, then oil or spice or garlic juice or flour or butter or lemon zest.

Not to mention, I'm usually scrambling to get to the next step in the recipe, dicing or washing or measuring or stirring. There's not nearly enough time or presence of mind to communicate anything worth reading.

No, Martha, I blog a day later, when I can sit and reflect and express myself "eloquently," as you were so kind to say. As you all may have noticed, each blog entry is dated the day after the actual day of the cooking. (Confession: sometimes I get lazy and write an entry two or more days after the fact, and then backdate it. Naughty, I know...)

I thought I should mention a feature on my blog that you might not be aware of: a search function. See that box up there on the top left of this page, right next to the orange "B" box? You can type in there to find occurrences of words on this entire blog. For instance, if you're about to cook Pear Chutney and you want to know what experience I had making it, type "pear chutney" in quotes in that box and then click on the magnifying glass icon, and that should bring up any mention of pear chutney in my entire blog.

Now, on to the food...

White Beef Stock (p. 42)

My memory of making "Basic" Brown (beef) Stock is not a happy one. It's smelly and time-consuming, and you don't end up with very much. I was so happy to discover later that I could substitute Brown Chicken Stock in most instances, which is somewhat easier to make.

The good news about White Beef Stock is that because you sidestep the whole browning process, the smelliness is not as big an issue. (For the record, I loved the way the Brown Stock smelled while it was cooking, but when I opened my gym locker the next day, and that cooked beef smell came wafting over me, and I realized it had seeped into all my clothes and furniture, it was not a pleasant experience.)

This recipe is a variation on the Basic Chicken Stock recipe substituting beef bones for chicken parts and including some other extra add-ins (garlic, parsley, and thyme).

Beware - this recipe calls for a lot of water, so you'll want to use a nice big pot. If you look closely at the picture, you can see that my eight quart pot was completely full once I'd added the vegetables.

This is a classic stock routine. Put the bones in, cover with water, bring to boil, skim, add aromatics, and cook for a week or so.

Just kidding. This stock requires a mere eight hour simmer.

I always feel bad about throwing away the solids. The vegetables are pretty dead, but there seemed to be some nice tender meat in there from the short ribs, so I tried eating some of it. It wasn't terrible, but it's nothing I could ever serve to anyone. Plus, I had to salt the heck out of it to get it to taste like something.

After straining, I ended up with not quite 3.5 quarts, just a little less than Martha predicted. Most of it is going to be used for Beef Consommé in a couple of days. The rest went into my near-capacity freezer. (!)

I didn't bother tasting it, because my experience with these stocks is that until they're salted, they don't taste like much. The color is darker than I expected, definitely brown and slightly cloudy, but not as dark and cloudy as the Brown Stock. I'll be curious to see what it looks like once it becomes clarified in the consommé....

Jeff: A
Martha: A

Until we eat again....

Day 305b - Diced Ham Omelet and Wilted Greens Omelet

So after my thrilling morning on 26th St., my posse and I retired back to my place on 30th St. to have some celebration omelets and watch the show on my DVR.

Diced Ham Omelet (p. 89)

These are my last two omelet variations, and although Alysha is not a big pork lover, I strong-armed her into this omelet because she was even less interested in the wilted greens one. David is on one of his extra-crazily-restricted eating binges and there was nothing I could make that he would eat. (He's going to be appearing shirtless in an Off-Broadway show soon and he wants to look superhuman, so he's pretty much only eating egg whites, oatmeal, chicken, and brown rice, which he'd brought with him. Have fun with that....)

Alysha, who's going to be appearing clothed in a Broadway show this season, relented, and I gave in a little, too, acceding to her request for some cheese in there, as well as a majority of egg whites. The whole egg white thing is much healthier, yes, but it does wreak some havoc on the stickiness of the eggs to the pan. That yolk really makes scrambled eggs easier to work with.

Again, I ran into that same situation with the cold filling. Martha doesn't talk about this issue in the book, but what I've been doing is setting the eggs and filling the omelet, then covering the pan for a minute or two to heat the filling through. It seems to get the job done without damaging the omelet too badly. This omelet got a little brown on the bottom, but not horribly so. I think if it had been made from whole eggs, I might have even escaped that.

No matter. Alysha loved it.

Here she is with David, her omelet, my new cake stand (thanks Martha!), my Orange-Almond Cake (thanks Mary and Tomas!), and the cake stand gift ribbon tied around her head. What a kook!

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Wilted Greens Omelet (p. 89)

For my wilted greens omelet, I decided to pick up a bunch of dandelion greens. I thought they might be a good fit, but I was really, really wrong.

I've had dandelion greens before, but I'm thinking that they might have been baby dandelion greens, because these were big and tough and BITTER!

I wilted them per the instructions for spinach on p. 297. It took a little longer, but it worked. Then I squeezed out the water from the wilted greens, chopped them, and put them in an omelet.

Blech. These greens might work as a side dish for a really rich meat dish, but inside an omelet, they are waaaaay too assertive.

Spinach would have been so much better...

Jeff: C (dandelion was a bad call)
Martha: A

Until we eat again....

Day 305a - How to Frost a Cake with Martha on TV

I could never have imagined a better souvenir of this yearlong project than the experience I had today: meeting and getting a lesson from Martha, herself, on her TV show!!

How to Frost a Cake with Martha on TV (p. [not in the book])

Where do I begin??

It all started in August when Mary Forrest, one of Martha's producers, found my blog and contacted me to discuss the possibility of my appearing on the show. Was I interested? she wanted to know.

Um... yah.

I'd been completely immersed in Martha-ology for months - why would I pass up the opportunity to be in the same room with her, let alone together on national TV??

Not to mention, I live literally five minutes' walk from the studio. This couldn't be more convenient!

Finally, right before Christmas, I got an email from Mary about their upcoming blogging episode, and it became official: I was booked for the January 14 show. Yay!

I was easy and breezy about it until yesterday, when the nerves kicked in. What would we talk about? What if she stumps me? Will she hold it against me that I gave her an "F"?
I'm terrible with frosting - what if she yells at me for doing it wrong? Why did I tell everyone to watch this?

Arriving at the studio this morning, the first person I met was Andrew Ritchie, fellow guest blogger (check out his amazingly comprehensive Martha Moments blog) and dressing roommate. (Well, actually, we shared the green room, since there was an overflow of guests today. The green room is also where all of Martha's Emmys live, a fact that was clearly not lost on us. See right: We'd like to thank the Academy....)

It was great to finally meet Mary, "my" producer, who is a complete gem. She briefed me on my two segments (the opening group chat, as well as my lesson with Martha) and answered all my questions. (When's the photo op? Do I wear the blue shirt or the black? Can I wear the apron? Can I give Martha the apron on the air? What happens if I swear? etc.)

And then I met a cavalcade of awesome staffers: producers, assistants, stage managers, makeup, sound, camera crew, kitchen crew - nice people with great sense of humor who were truly fun to be around.

I had a quick rehearsal on the set with Mary playing Martha, which went well. OK, I thought, I'm going to be able to get through this.

The set is really beautiful and bright. Lots of color and light wood. The audience sits in cute wood chairs, vs. your typical theatre seating. And off to the right of the set is the glass-walled kitchen, where the crew was making probably ten (or more) copies of the cake I was about to learn how to frost. I got a mini cake-orientation from the adorable Tomas, one of Martha's staff chefs, whom I'd like to nominate for having his own cooking show. :-)

Then it was back to the green room, where my posse (i.e. David and Alysha) was waiting. For the next hour or so, we chatted with Andrew and his posse and whoever else stopped by. I went to makeup, I did my "bumper shot" (I think that's what they called it) - i.e. the ten-second clip of me being goofy with props while the voiceover says "Coming up next - Martha shows Jeff Blumenkrantz how to frost a cake... etc."). Just call me Hammy von Hammerstein!!

I was relieved to meet Martha briefly in the makeup room at 9:45, because once we got close to air time (10AM), everything started happening so quickly! I forgot how heart-thumping live TV is. How do these people do it every day?? Yes, I've been an actor for many years, but most of my work has been in theatreland, where you don't perform in front of people until things are quite well-rehearsed, possibly even over-rehearsed. Here, things happen so on-the-fly that there's absolutely no room for error. Not my comfort zone....

For instance, we didn't even walk out onto the stage until one minute before airing live. We could have ambled out relaxedly at 9:56, chatted with the audience for a few minutes, etc. But no, it's whiz bang, head-spinning, hey what just happened?

I'm sure they do this on purpose to keep the energy up, which I guess is smart. I just think I'd get an ulcer if I had to do this every day. Maybe one gets used to it....

So we had our little group chat, which was fun. I hadn't met Alexis beforehand, and I was unprepared for her unique... persona. I actually think she's really funny and dry, but if I were her mother, I might have to slap her. Jennifer was a good time, on camera and off. And Pim is very sweet, as I'm sure you could tell. (Andrew and I were old cronies by then.)

We had been prepped to answer a series of questions about blogging for this segment, which we never got around to. We were too busy chatting with Martha about our respective blogs.

I was surprised that Martha called me out right away about my having given her an F. I didn't know she was aware of my grading system! We never did get to discuss the problem with the Mango Sorbet, but if you're curious, you can click on the link.

Once that segment was over, we had our class picture taken, and I went back to the green room to wait for my next segment.

As they ushered me back to the stage twenty minutes later and I stood next to Martha in front of that counter of cakes, I was simultaneously calm about the talking part and panicked about the frosting part. What followed next, I only remember because I've seen it on video. At the time it was happening, it was sort of an out-of-body experience.

All I remember thinking while our segment was going was that I'd never get that cake frosted. It was like the birthday candles that you blow out and they keep relighting. No matter how much frosting I put on, my cake kept going bald.

It's an interesting thing about learning how to cook, probably learning how to do anything. When you're first starting, you're incredibly slow at it. It takes you an hour to do what a professional might do in five minutes. And that's how I felt as I attempt to frost that cake. I wanted to say, "Just give me an hour or so, and I'll have this thing completely worked out."

But no, it's TV. It has to happen quickly. Mercifully, they have scores of understudy cakes to replace the ones that I massacred and to move the process along.

My friends assure me that my cakes looked OK, but I was there, and I can tell you that they weren't very cute.

Meanwhile, Martha's waiting for me to finish and she's putting swirls and curlicues on top of her cake, which you couldn't really see in the shot, but that's why I accused her of getting fancy and zooming ahead of me.

I have to confess, if I were given a list of cake flavors to put in order of favor, Orange-Almond Cake would probably be close to, if not in, the bottom slot. But damn, that cake tasted good! Moist and rich and full of flavor. And of course, the frosting is "to die." And this, coming from someone who hates frosting.

I didn't get to spend much (any) time with Martha outside of my on-camera segments with her, but I found her to be kind and generous and good-humored at all times. It was a great honor to get to spend even those few minutes with this woman who is so accomplished and beloved and is making such an impact on the world and, specifically, on me.

After the segment, I posed for my photo with Martha (can't wait to get my hands on that!) and then headed back to the green room, where I was greeted by cheers from my posse. (Thanks, guys.) Eventually, I floated back down to Earth, and Mary came in to congratulate me and send me home with one of the understudy cakes and an inscription from Martha in my book. She wrote: "For Jeff, thanks for visiting with us and cooking. Your cake was great! Martha Stewart."

Martha, it was my pleasure entirely. And you really are too kind.



Now that I've had this little taste of Martha, I can't stop thinking of more reasons to be back on the show:

•Martha helps Jeff cook his final recipe and gives him his "degree."
•Martha and some of the people who worked on the book (Sarah Carey? William Van Roden?) come over to Jeff's apartment for "The Last Supper."
•Martha interviews Jeff about the highs and lows of his "year of cooking fabulously."
•Martha pits Jeff against [some other Martha-phile] in a cooking competition.
•etc.

You know the old joke:
How does a blogger screw in a light bulb?
He just stands there holding it, and the world revolves around him.

I'm pretty sure the good people at The Martha Stewart Show aren't wracking their brains trying to figure out ways to get me back on the show, but if you think that that would be a good idea, you can email them emailmartha@marthastewart.com and let them know.

Thanks for reading this terribly overwritten account of my unforgettable morning with Martha. It was the icing on an already wonderful experience. No pun intended.

Jeff: A (for the talking part)
Jeff: C- (for the frosting part)
Martha: A (for the whole thing)

Until we eat again....

P.S. My frosting segment video is now available on Martha's website!

Day 304 - Lardons and Orange Sorbet

It's the night before my public tutorial with Martha, and Alysha's here to distract me (and to watch American Idol - hey, isn't that what we were doing the night of Day 1 of this project?).

The soup is a repeat (Winter Squash and Pear) but the garnish is new. I tried something a little different this time with the soup: I roasted both the acorn squash and the Bosc pears, and I used half onion and half shallot for the aromatics sauté. I think the result was quite good! It was somewhat watery, but before pureeing it, I reserved a fair amount of liquid, and I was happy with the ultimate consistency.

Lardons (p. 75)

Lardons, if you don't already know, are cut up and cooked pieces of bacon. In this case, the bacon is cubed, but in Martha's recipe for Beef and Stout Stew (p. 195 - haven't done it yet), the lardons are cut in rectangles.

Instead of trying to find slab bacon, I asked the Fairway deli counter guy for VERY thickly sliced bacon, and that worked out really well. I cubed it up, threw it in a pan, stirred it a few times over medium heat, and pretty much on schedule (8 minutes), they were done.

Have you ever noticed this thing about cooking bacon, particularly sliced bacon? It looks limp and not quite done in the pan, so you cook it for a really long time, and then you take it out, and while it's draining on paper towels, it magically becomes very done? We Blumenkrantzes, like all good Jews, want our bacon extra-crispy, so I always wait for it to get dark, dark brown in the pan, and then I take it out, and I've basically charred it.

So now I know: the perfect moment for me to take bacon out of the pan is when I'm thinking to myself that it needs another few minutes. And these lardons were just perfect: crispy little cubes of salty, smoky, pork goodness, an ideal accompaniment for my rather sweet and simple soup.

Alysha had a little, but I pretty much ate the whole pot myself.

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Orange Sorbet (p. 485)

Knowing that I'd be appearing on Martha's show tomorrow, I got to thinking that it's time I start cooking a little more adventurously, now that I'm entering the final stretch.

And as I reread the sorbet recipe, I knew this was a perfect opportunity to get a little... shall we say... creative. Martha suggests various herbs and spices and other ingredients that one can mix and match to spruce up a sorbet, so I thought I'd experiment.

My orange sorbet is going to get a little spice kick. I just bought a bottle of star anise - it's been coming up on a lot of cooking shows, and I've never cooked with it and was curious. When I smelled the spice, it seemed like it'd be a good fit with orange. Then, I started thinking, what else can I put in there? And here's where I went a little overboard... first, it was a cinnamon stick, then I thought, How about some fresh ginger? And since we're going there, maybe some cloves, and some orange peel, just for good measure? Oy.

I steeped the syrup with all the extra goodies, so the flavor would be relatively pronounced. Then, I strained the syrup, strained the fresh squeezed orange juice, stirred it all together, used the egg test (success this time - no "F" for Martha), churned it, and froze it.

I have to say, it turned out really well! When you get sorbet just right, it manages to have a creaminess to it, even though there's no dairy whatsoever. This sorbet has great consistency and a flavor that reveals itself with each bite.

As Alysha says, at first you think it's going to be just orange-flavored, and then it starts to taste like Christmas.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was aiming for: Christmas.

Jeff: A
Martha: A

Until we eat again....

Day 302 - Vegetable Stock and Minestrone

Happy New Year! (I know, it's a bit late, but I've been away.)

I'm now back from my amazing vacation in Spain with Tracy. It was an Art and Architecture Extravaganza, and all I can say is, if you're interested in either of those things, then you absolutely MUST visit the Gaudí buildings in Barcelona and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao ASAP.

As for the food? Meh. I'm happy to be home and cooking from the book again.

Marcy's here tonight, and I'm making something healthy and wholesome....

Vegetable Stock (p. 56)

Well, this is a whole lot easier than all those other stocks!

This one starts with the usual vegetable suspects (onions, carrots, celery), although I'm curious about the use of onion here. Half of the onion is chopped and sautéed, the other half is left whole. Anyone know why that would be?

Then, instead of meat or chicken, there are a ton of fresh herbs added. So not only is it easier, it's also faster.

However, the flavor isn't nearly as complex as a chicken or beef stock, so there's the trade off.

Still, it's going to provide some nice body in this vegetable soup that's coming up. I'll have a quart left over for freezing. What should I use it for? Hmmm....

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Minestrone (p. 57)

I've been a little dismissive of minestrone through the years. I've written it off as a tomato soup, which is not my favorite soup base, but in fact, there's very little tomato involved! In the scheme of things, the tomatoes are but a fraction of the multitudes of vegetables that occupy this interpretation of minestrone.

I should mention right up front - this soup took me longer to make than I expected from reading the recipe. I got waaaay behind schedule, keeping Marcy sitting there for over an hour as the soup simmered. All that slicing and dicing and mincing adds up. (I've come to dread the word "minced.")

Also, don't forget (like I did) that the dried cannellini beans need to soak for 8-12 hours/overnight. I remembered just in the nick of time this morning.

I tried to get prosciutto ends for the soup, but the deli guys at Fairway said they don't deal in ends. So I bought a thick slice of prosciutto, because I love that flavor and I wanted it in there.

First you cook the soaked beans in water with onion, some prosciutto, and a bay leaf. Don't forget to reserve the cooking water! It gets added to the soup later! (That would be just like me to throw it out, but I actually remembered!)

Then, the cooking of the soup, proper, starts with a soffrito, aka mirepoix, aka onions, carrots, and celery. All minced. Argh.

Martha says to cook this over medium-low heat for 20-25 minutes, until it's deep golden brown, but I have to confess: mine went for 30 minutes and never browned. Eventually, I just had to move on and add the leeks and garlic. Then, when I added the celery, carrots, potato, zucchini and green beans and turned the heat up, things started getting "golden."

As I added the liquids and the rest of the vegetables, I started thinking I might not be able to fit everything in one pot! Martha says to use a "large stockpot," and I assumed that my 5.5 quart dutch oven would be sufficient, but it was verging on bubbling over the sides. I'd recommend using at least a 6 quart pot for this one.

After an hour of simmering, the cannellini beans go back in, and then it's another 20-30 minutes before it's all done.

Since I had added the optional prosciutto and Parmigiano-Reggiano rinds, I decided to skip the optional pesto and grated Parmigiano topping and serve it straight.

It's a great soup to look at - lots of colors and textures, everything from the almost-black kale to the occasional red pop of a tomato to the white potato and beans.

The taste was surprising. When hot, I was very aware of the spiciness of the red pepper flakes, even though there was only a 1/4 teaspoon added. Then, as the soup cooled, I was struck by the sweetness that dominated. Was it the carrots? The onion? In any case, it was delicious.

Marcy questioned the absence of pasta. According to Martha, both pasta and rice are common ingredients in minestrone, but she didn't choose to include them here. I like it without pasta. I don't think it needs the extra weight. I'd rather eat a piece of bread, anyway.

This is truly a one-pot meal. All those vegetables and the beans make for a very hearty and complete eating experience. Only thing missing was that big loaf of Italian bread.

Jeff: A
Martha: A

Until we eat again....

Special Alert!

Hello Friends and Readers and whoever else happens to stumble across this blog:

It looks like it's really happening - I'm scheduled to appear on The Martha Show this Thursday!

I don't know what Martha and I will be cooking, but I'm getting very excited!

Thanks for all your support and readership and comments! Wish me luck!!

Until we eat again....

Day 300 - Tenth Tally

Oops! I was in Spain when this day passed, so I'm backdating it! :-)

As of today, ten months into this project, I proud to report that I have completed 285 recipes and lessons. Which means I have 65 days and 73 recipes and lessons yet to complete. :-O

Ah, yes, I remember the days when I was waaaaay ahead of schedule. Now, it's going to be a scramble to finish by March 16!

You can look forward to hearing about dinner parties with some crazy menus items, i.e. all the disparate things I have yet to complete.

Fasten your seat belts!

Until we eat again....