Spaghetti Caprese -- My Favorite Meal

Printable Recipe

Have you heard of Insalata Caprese? If you have been in a decent Italian restaurant, you have probably seen it on the menu.  It consists of fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella cheese, and usually some good olive oil, maybe a bit of vinegar or lemon juice, and salt.  It can be prepared in a variety of ways.  I've seen it diced and tossed together.  I've often sliced the tomatoes and cheese to roughly the same size, and layered them with a whole basil leaf tucked between.  You can use a beefsteak tomato slice and a large ball of mozzarella, and serve a single stack with tiny ribbons of basil scattered over the top, as a first course or lunch in the summer.  Or you can make a platter full, alternating tomato, basil and cheese in rows.  I once even made little hors d'oeuvres by skewering a grape tomato, basil leaf and bocconcini (the little balls of fresh mozzarella that you can buy in a tub or on the olive bar) on a toothpick.  Any way you serve it, it is the most perfect combination of flavors, textures and colors that I can think of.  In fact, pizza Margherita uses these same basic ingredients.  Supposedly, it was first made for the queen, and the colors were a nod to the Italian flag.  Being the corndog that I am, that story makes it even better.

Well, I love pasta.  And years ago, I made a pasta sauce from fresh garden tomatoes.  It was a process, but delicious.  So I figured, why not bring some mozzarella to the party?  The results are fantastic, and this is absolutely my favorite meal ever.  That's saying something, because I loves me some beef, and there is no meat to be found here.  But the freshness of the ingredients, the simplicity of it, and the pure pleasure of the process of creating it, make this my number one.

I should note that this dish, in its simplicity, relies heavily on the quality of its ingredients.  Especially the tomatoes.  Fresh tomatoes from your garden or the farmers market are the best.  However, it is November in Michigan, and there is not a decent tomato to be found, right? Well, I discovered campari tomatoes a few years ago, and they get me through the long, dreary, tomatoless winter.  They come in a clamshell package, and you can get them at Meijer or Sam's Club, at least.  They are not cheap, and they are small, which means a little more work. But they at least taste like tomatoes, which is a far cry from the pallid, rock hard balls with frosty white flesh inside that they label as tomatoes at the supermarket.  Of course, Sam's Club has the better price, but I found them on sale at Meijer this week, and I snatched up a couple of boxes.  As for cheese, I've heard that freshly made mozzarella is the best. Alas, I have never had the pleasure of eating mozzarella that is house-made, so I don't know what I am missing.  Therefore, the stuff you get at Aldi or Meijer or any other supermarket, is just fine. Once again, though, Sam's Club has a great price on a large package.

Alright, let's get started! 

This is all you need, plus some olive oil.  Tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella, garlic, salt, red pepper flakes, and spaghetti.  Get everything together, because this moves pretty quickly.

First, get a large pot of water on to boil.  While you are waiting for that to happen, rinse your tomatoes off.  I use the same pot for the tomatoes and the pasta, so you just want to make sure that there is no dirt or dust on the tomatoes.

Fill a large bowl with cold water, about halfway, and drop in a few ice cubes. Then get a smaller bowl and put a mesh strainer in it.  I've got this down to a science.  I used to use about 5 bowls, but now I only use these two.

Now prep your rinsed tomatoes by cutting a shallow X in the bottom of each with the tip of a sharp paring knife.  You only need to go just through the skin.

I don't know how your stove works, but I was still waiting for the water to boil, so I went ahead and prepared my garlic.  I use a whole head of garlic, and I chop it roughly...no need to really mince it here.  Just no bigger than you mind biting into.

Finally, my water boiled, so I turned it down to a simmer and dropped in some tomatoes, using my handy spider.  You don't want to add too many tomatoes at one time, because it will bring down the temperature of the water too much.  Plus, the timing works out perfectly.  These tomatoes are small, so I did four at a time.  For larger garden tomatoes, do about two, maybe three at a time.

There....see the crack in the skin?  That means that it is done....well, more than done.  It took me a few tries to get a decent picture.  Once you see the X getting longer, you can get them out.  It doesn't take long--maybe 30 seconds, so don't walk away.

Now you can plunge them into the ice water.  Immediately put another batch of tomatoes into the simmering water.  Then get a tomato out of the ice water and pull the skin away.  It comes right off.

Like that.  Of course, if you have ever canned tomatoes, you are familiar with this process.  It's as simple as can be.  The only thing I do differently is to do a few at a time instead of all at once.  I find that the peel comes off more easily if the tomato is still just a little warm.  The longer they sit in the ice bath, the more the skin wants to adhere.  And as soon as you get the peel off of one batch, the next one is ready to come out of the hot water and into the ice bath, so there really isn't any extra time involved.  

As I peel each tomato, I set it into the strainer inside the bowl.  This is just so that any extra water can drip off.

Once all the tomatoes are peeled, you might need to add some water to the pot in order to have enough to cook the pasta.  Once you add the water, you can put the pot on a back burner and turn it back up to high.  Then add enough good olive oil to a skillet to cover the bottom.  I like green, fruity olive oils, but that's just my taste.  In this recipe, the oil is adding flavor, not just lubricating the pan, so use what you like.  Put the pan over medium-low heat and add the garlic.  This will slowly heat up together, and the flavor of the garlic will infuse into the oil.  Your house will smell wonderful, and you will be happy.  If the oil gets above a low simmer, turn it down a little.  You want to hear a mild sizzle, but not much more than that.  

Now finish prepping the tomatoes.  Empty the ice water bath.  Now empty any water from the small bowl, and then drop the tomatoes into the bowl.  Then put the strainer into the larger bowl.  It's like musical chairs, except with bowls instead of chairs, and no music.  You will need to work over the strainer, because the tomatoes are going to drip as you cut them, and you want to catch all the juices in the bowl.  The strainer is to catch the seeds.  Of course, if you don't mind seeds, you can skip all of this and just core the tomatoes, then tear them up.  I don't like tomato seeds, especially in my pasta sauce.  Use the tip of your paring knife to cut a v-shaped circle around the core of the tomato (the stem end).  You want the cut to be shaped like a cone, I guess.  Then reach in with your fingers and grab the little cone and pull it out, taking as little flesh as you can.  Drop the cone into the strainer.  Now just dig your thumbs into the hole and pull the tomato apart.  Slide your fingers along the inside of the tomato wall to push most of the seeds out.  That jelly-like stuff around the seeds will come with them.  That's okay...we'll deal with that in a minute.  The picture above shows what it will look like when you are done.  The empty shell of a tomato goes into the bowl under the strainer.  The seeds have all been captured by the strainer, and much of the juice is collecting in the large bowl underneath.  When all of the tomatoes have been emptied, use your spider to transfer the tomato flesh back to the smaller bowl.  The spider will allow the juice to drain away from the flesh, but you don't have to go crazy.  Now reach into the strainer and grab fistfuls of seeds/gel and squeeze to break up the gel.  Do this for a minute or so, over the strainer, and then you can just swish your hand around to push most of the liquid out into the bowl.  At this point, the strainer should be rinsed off.  Dry seeds will stick, and that's a mess you don't want to deal with. Plus, you can use the strainer to drain the pasta later, and you'll want it clean.

By this time, the garlic should just barely be turning golden around the edges. If that starts to happen earlier, just turn the heat down until you are ready.  Keep an eye on it, because you don't want burnt garlic.  If, on the other hand, you see no sign of golden color and there is no sizzle at all, just turn the heat up for a minute or two, until you see some.  

Then turn the heat up to high and drop in the red pepper flakes.  If you have never used red pepper flakes, I highly recommend that you buy the mild version.  These little puppies pack some heat!  The thing that I have found with pepper flakes is that they seem to get milder as they sit in your pantry.  But you kind of play roulette every time you use them.  If you are sensitive to heat, just use a pinch, or use a bit of black pepper instead.  But I like a punch, so I used about 1/2 teaspoon here.  It was bracing.  

After only about 10 seconds, add the tomato flesh.  Sprinkle well with coarse salt and then toss around, and press the tomatoes to the bottom of the pan.  The combination of salt (which draws moisture out) and heat breaks down the tomatoes pretty quickly.  

At this point, your water should be boiling again.  Salt the water well, and put the pasta in, and don't forget to stir it around well to keep it from sticking to itself.  

After only a few minutes, the tomatoes have broken down to this.  You can help the progress along at this point by pressing on them with your tongs or a spoon.  They are pretty soft, so they will break apart easily.  Don't go crazy, though.  A few chunks are good, and well, I think they make the dish prettier.  Yes, that matters.

When the tomatoes are broken down to this, you can go ahead and add the reserved juice.

Then just stir it around and let it keep cooking away over high heat.  This is a thin sauce, and you want some of the moisture to evaporate, but you want the body and flavor from the juice, so don't skip it.

Somewhere in here you will need to drain your pasta.  I like to pour the pasta into the strainer, and then immediately place the pot underneath the strainer.  It will catch around 1 cup of water as it drains, and you might need that later.

Now it's time to prepare the basil.  Don't do this ahead of time.  It only takes a minute, and the basil will start to discolor if cut and exposed to air for too long.  Tear all of the leaves off of the stems.  Discard the stems, and place the largest leaf you have underneath a stack of all the rest.

This package had an enormous leaf, which was very convenient.  Now just roll up the outer leaf, wrapping it around the rest of the basil, and slice thinly across the roll.

Here's what you end up with.  For what it's worth, this is a chiffonade of basil.  Oooh, French!

Turn the heat off and toss the basil chiffonade into the sauce.  You don't want to cook the basil.  The residual heat is enough to pull the flavor into the sauce without turning the basil to mush.  Seriously, isn't this pretty?

Now add the pasta and toss it around.  I go slowly when adding my pasta.  If I have a little leftover, I can throw it in the fridge and use it for something later.  But I don't want to be left with dry pasta without enough sauce.  If you accidentally add more pasta than you need, go ahead and drizzle in a bit of pasta cooking water.  It will help to loosen the pasta up, while the starch in the water keeps the sauce from becoming too thin.  I realize that this doesn't look as red and saucy as you may be used to.  Again, this is a thin sauce, unlike the stuff you find in a jar.  It hasn't been cooked down to near paste.  But it is more than saucy enough to coat the pasta, and the freshness makes up for the lack of redness.  

Now just cube up the cheese and scatter it over the spaghetti.  Toss with your tongs, and get the cheese kind of covered up.  The residual heat of the pasta will soften the cheese, so that when you serve and eat it......

........this will happen!  Oh, yum.......

Give yourself a little taste of summer!  Get your hands on some campari tomatoes and pretend that we're not on the cusp of snowfall.  I always have fun making this, and I hope you will, too!

All I Want for Christmas.....

Phew.  I'm tired.  So tired that I can't even put the proper exclamation mark after "phew".  It's been a busy fall, and it's really ramped up in the last couple of weeks.  A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday, I told a friend that I had a pretty clear week.  That was a really good thing, I thought, because my house was trashed.  We had pulled out the Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving, as usual.  What was unusual, however, was that we are still working (very, nay....painfully slowly) on the entryway/eventual mudroom.  We found ourselves with a Saturday that Jeff wasn't going to go to work, and we decided to squeeze in a little time to work on the room.  Well, as projects tend to do, the task list multiplied, and we found ourselves at Home Depot a couple of times.  So that ate up more time than we thought it would.  On top of that, there was more decluttering to do than in normal years.  Have I mentioned that this entryway is right next to the kitchen?  The kitchen that is already too cramped and hard to work in?  Well, it is.  And since we have this long-standing project going on, the tools, materials, and other necessities tend to spill out to the surrounding rooms.  We had a shelf set up to hold most of the stuff, but it was right in the dining room window (our basement is only accessible through a trap door....in the floor of the entryway.....so keeping the things that we need there is not practical until this project is finished), and that window is where we put our Christmas tree.  Our house was a bit like those puzzles where there is one spot open, and you have to keep moving the tiles, one at a time, until you finally get all of them where they need to be.  The point is, the Christmas decorations didn't get finished that weekend.  That meant that the bins were taking up valuable space, things were getting moved from one inconvenient place to another, and basically, I was going mad.

Well, I was sadly wrong about my clear week.  Every single day, something came up that caused me to leave the house for several hours. Plus, we had some big decisions to make around here, which took up any mental energy that I had left in the evenings.  Fortunately, I am now beginning to dig out.  The decorations are almost all out, so the bins can go back into hiding soon.  The kitchen has recovered.  I still must address Mount Laundry, but I think that will happen tomorrow.

So that's why I haven't written anything since before Thanksgiving.  I really haven't cooked a whole lot, and the times that I have cooked, I was time-crunched.  Hopefully I will get back to cooking in the next few days.  I miss it.

In the meantime, though, I figured I could start on a series about kitchen tools and equipment that I can't live without.  Well, I could, but I wouldn't want to.  There are several tools that just make life so much easier in the kitchen, and I want to share.  I don't know about you, but there were lots of things that I registered for before I was married, that now reside in my basement.  Things that were all the rage, or just looked cool.  But knives?  Oh, whatever.....I'm sure I can pick a paring knife up for a couple of bucks at Target.  What more do I need?  Oh, I was young and foolish.  It turns out that making bread actually requires nothing more than a large bowl, a wooden spoon, and a stone or bread pan.  Those enormous, precious-counter-space-hogging, unitasking small appliances aren't actually necessary.  But I didn't know that back then.  I want to save anyone who reads this some money and frustration by sharing the things that I have found to be enormously helpful, fun, useful and/or beautiful in my own cooking experience.  And what do you know?  Christmas is coming!

So to start, I want to let you all know about some great seasonal deals at Aldi.  I was just there the other day, and I saw that they have their Le Creuset knock-off Dutch ovens!  I bought two over a year ago for $39.99 each.  I have used them quite a bit, and they are still in fantastic shape.  These Dutch ovens are made of cast iron that is enamel-coated.  So you have the heat retention of the cast iron without the leaching of iron into your food.  They are also easier to clean than uncoated cast iron.  You can't put them in the dishwasher, but they are generally easy to clean with soapy water.  You can't clean cast iron with soap, because the soap will absorb into the metal and make your food taste soapy.  That's not a problem with enameled cast iron.  Don't get me wrong.  I love uncoated cast iron.  I don't even mind the leaching.  I can use all the extra iron I can get.  Never the less, there are times when I use a fair amount of wine or tomatoes and cook them for a long time, and for that, non-reactive pots are the way to go.

As for the Dutch oven in particular, well, what's not to love?  They come in pretty red or blue, and they go beautifully from the stovetop to the oven to the table.  They work well for stews, soups, braises, and one pot meals, many of which can be started on the stovetop (searing meat, bringing liquids up to a boil, etc) and then placed in an oven to continue cooking in a more gentle environment.  It's what I always use for my arroz con pollo, and I never end up with burnt rice!  At this moment, I have some beef simmering in red wine to tenderize it before I turn it into stroganoff.

Now, to be honest, I put off purchasing one of these pots for over a year.  I wanted the real deal.  I couldn't imagine that Aldi carried anything as good as Le Creuset.  And maybe it's not.  I can't say, because I haven't used Le Creuset.  I probably never will, since one pot costs nearly $400.00.  So I could buy a new Aldi pot every year for ten years before working off the cost of one Le Creuset.  However, these pots have already lasted me over a year without showing any significant signs of wear, so they are certainly a good deal.  Of course, if you don't have an Aldi nearby...well, first, I am so sorry!.....but don't worry.  There are actually many knock-offs these days.  Lodge has its own line of enameled cast iron.  It costs closer to $80.00 for the 5-6 quart size, but it's still a bargain.  Whatever you have to do to get an enameled cast iron Dutch oven, I highly recommend that you get one of these pots into your kitchen soon.  I absolutely love mine.

Aldi also has their silicone baking sheets back in stock, just in time for the baking season.  If you have never used them, you will be amazed. Absolutely nothing sticks to them.  I have a Silpat (the brand name of the original), and there is really very little difference between the two. For some reason, the Aldi sheets seem to discolor a bit, where the Silpat sheets do not.  But no worries....you're not serving anything on these sheets.  They just keep you from ruining sticky cookies and the sheet pans which would adhere to them.  Don't imagine that parchment works just as well.  Would you make caramel on parchment paper?  I wouldn't.  But caramel peels right off of silicone baking sheets like wax paper peels off of butter.  I always put it on the sheet pan under homemade granola.  And just the other day, I made cookies that would have been a disaster without the silicone sheet.  Coconut macaroons, which "bled" sweetened coconut cream all over the sheet and would have adhered something fierce to my sheet pan, and lace cookies, which, if you've never had them, are pretty much doilies made out of toffee and nuts.  Both cookies slide right off of the silicone.  I also put the sheets under other foods that might make a mess of a sheet pan.  Anything breaded, and anything that may leak and leave a sticky mess, I put on top of the silicone, and the mess slides right off into the trash.  Wipe off the silicone sheet in your dishwater, and you're done.  Again, I love this product.

I also saw some microplane graters at Aldi.  In fact, I picked one up.  I haven't used it, but it is the type that has a wider, shorter grating surface.  I already had the long skinny type, and it is amazing.  I can't imagine zesting citrus fruit with anything else.  It removes the flavorful zest (the colorful part of the peel) without getting into the bitter pith (the white part).  And it doesn't so much grate parmesan and other hard cheese as it transforms it into a cheesey cloud, which then melts into alfredo sauce beautifully.  It also grates chocolate over desserts, and in a pinch, I even grate nutmeg with it.  However, there are times when the long grating surface is difficult to use, and I have to admit that I have grated my knuckles a couple of times.  So the wider surface and finger guard on the grater that I just bought at Aldi will hopefully help.

I saw a Wilton cookie press at Aldi.  I didn't get it, even though I have been wanting a cookie press for years.  I am just not at all confident that I will take the time to make spritz cookies this Christmas (see above), and I don't want to spend money on anything that I don't need in the short term!

There are several other items that Aldi is carrying right now for a good price, but those are the stand-outs in my mind.

Finally, there is an item on my wish list that is not available at Aldi, and I want to recommend it to the elves in your life, as well.  I am very much hoping to find a Thermapen instant read thermometer in my stocking this year.  It's another thing that I have wanted for years, but could never before justify, since it costs around $90.00.  However, this year's Thanksgiving turkey banished any doubts.

Thermapen is the favorite thermometer of Cook's Illustrated / America's Test Kitchen, which does product testing for kitchen and food items, much like Consumer Reports.  I've read and seen them rave about the Thermapen for years.  Its accuracy, quick register, and ease of use have all gotten high marks, consistently.  But how do you spend $90.00 on a thermometer when you can get one for $10.00 at Meijer?

Well, when your $10.00 thermometer that you thought was accurate  finally registers an internal temperature of 161 degrees in your turkey's breast, and you take it out of the oven, only to notice that the pop-up timer that came in the turkey has popped-up, which happens at 180 degrees, you start to see the sense in a $90.00 thermometer.  That's what happened to me.  Thank goodness I ignored all the current naysaying about brining your turkey, because it was still juicy, though not quite as juicy as what we have become accustomed to.

And here's the thing:  You don't brine beef, so there will be no such protection for the Christmas prime rib roast.  What good timing it would be to find the Thermapen under the tree on the very morning that I cook said roast!  Not that I am throwing out any hints, or anything (*cough* I like the red one because it won't get lost in the kitchen as easily! *cough*).

That's it for now.  Oh, there are plenty of other tools that I highly recommend.  After all, I refer to Sur la Table as my DisneyWorld.  I will try to get some other recommendations on here in time for you to drop hints of your own.

Candied Ginger and Orange Peel

 Have you ever tried candied ginger?  No?  Neither had I.  Well, I have used it in turkey brine, because that's what Alton Brown says to do.  But I have no idea how 1 1/2 teaspoons of candied ginger really affects the flavor of a 14 lb turkey.  I have been trying to remember if I have ever used my stash of candied ginger for anything else.  I have a vague memory of doing so, though I can't remember what the recipe was.

Never the less, I decided that this year is going to be different.  Honestly, I have learned to love ginger root this past year.  I have decided that I love Thai food. Not so much the coconut side of things.  But the garlic, ginger, cilantro, lime, peanut, sweet, salty, sour, bitter complexity of Thai food   is interesting to attempt to cook and delicious to eat.  And at the top of the list of ingredients in the best Thai food I have ever eaten or attempted to cook, is ginger.  Oh, the ginger rice soup at Thai Palace restaurant in Holland is so worth the trip out there.  Yup.  I love the stuff.

So why, I asked myself, have I never really used the candied ginger from Penzey's that I keep in my pantry, other than in Thanksgiving brine? Ginger is a warm flavor, so it goes perfectly with the other warm spices that we use at this time of year.  In fact, most pumpkin pie recipes use powdered ginger.  And what about gingerbread?  So I kept thinking, and it seems to me that ginger would work well with cranberries and apples.  I decided to add some candied ginger to the cranberry sauce.  And maybe the apple pie.  I haven't quite decided if I am ready to mess with the Thanksgiving apple pie.

Of course, this is all experimental.  And when I am doing something experimental, I don't want to blow a load of money on it.  And candied ginger isn't exactly cheap.  Ginger root, however is quite cheap.  So is sugar.  And water is nearly free.  And guess what?  That's all you need to make your own candied ginger.

I have to tell you, this is nothing but fun.  I still don't see myself chewing on candied ginger as though it's a Sour Patch Kid (unless I had an upset stomach--ginger is supposed to be good for that).  But I do see myself tossing a few pieces into many different dishes over the next few months.  So let's get started.

First, this is ginger root.  It's quite unattractive.  But that doesn't matter.  It's fantastic.  By the way, I have read that if you can get young ginger (some Asian markets apparently sell it), it makes better candied ginger.  Ginger has these tough, long fibers in it, and apparently young ginger is less fibrous.  But I just had the regular stuff, and it worked out just fine.

 You have to get the peel off of ginger, but it's really easy.  Use the side of a regular table spoon--the kind that you stir your coffee with.  The peel scrapes right off, and the spoon seems to get into the knobs and crevasses more easily than a vegetable peeler or knife would do.  Of course, you will have some dried out ends where a piece of ginger had been broken off of the piece that you bought.  Just slice those off with a paring knife.

 And that's what is left.  The naked ginger on the left, and the pile of skin on the right.  Now you just have to decide how you want to prepare it. You can slice it thinly and just have some coin-shaped pieces.  I decided to mimic the stuff that I bought at Penzey's, so I sliced it a little more thickly, and then cut those pieces into two to four smaller pieces, ending up with chunks.

 You just have to make sure that the pieces are not so small that they will fall through your drying rack (aka cooling rack).

 I decided that, if I am candying ginger, I might as well candy something else.  I had these pretty oranges around for the cranberry sauce, so I figured I might as well get my money's worth and candy the peel.

 I think that the vegetable peeler works best for this.  I tried the thick part of the little zester that I have, but it dug deeply into the pith--the white part between the zest and the flesh.  The pith is bitter, and pretty much good for nothing, so I knew I wouldn't want it, and I didn't want to deal with trimming it by hand.  The peeler just shaved the strips of zest off, with only a trace of the pith left.  I wasn't worried about that little bit.

 I was picturing thin, maybe even curly little strips of candied orange peel, so I sliced some of the strips in half, lengthwise.  I wouldn't do that again.  They don't curl up, they don't look particularly more interesting, and they are harder to work with.  You can always cut the finished product up any way you want, but the original strips are easier to work with.

 Once the ginger and orange peel are prepped, it's time to make a simple syrup.  Simple syrup is just sugar and water.  The ratio will depend on what you are using it for.  If you want a syrup to flavor coffee, tea or lemonade, probably equal parts water and sugar.  If you want the syrup to be thicker, use more sugar.  Here, I used equal parts.  For three oranges, I used a cup each of sugar and water.  For the ginger, I used two cups of each.  Just pour the sugar in, then pour the water over it.  No need to stir at this point.  Place it on the stove and turn it on medium heat.  After it looks like it is getting warm, just use a stainless or silicone utensil to gently stir the sugar.  Don't use a rubber spatula! This stuff gets hot, and rubber will melt.  Silicone spatulas, however, are heat-resistant and work great.

Don't walk away from this!  It doesn't take long for the sugar to melt, and the syrup will begin to simmer.  It's a big mess if this boils over (not that I have any personal experience, mind you), and it can happen quickly.  So stay close to the stove.

Once the syrup is at a simmer, it's time to add the ginger and orange peel.  I almost dropped the ginger in, straight from my hands.  But then I remembered how hot that syrup is, and how I really didn't want that sticky liquid to splatter up on my hands.  So I grabbed my trusty spider, filled it up, and gently slid the ginger into the syrup.  Accident averted.

 If you don't have a spider, I would highly recommend that you get one.  It is cheap and very useful.  I use it when making pasta dishes that have blanched vegetables in them.  I can blanch the veggies, fish them out with the spider, and reuse the water for the pasta.  I often use the spider to scoop larger pieces of pasta out of water and into sauce, without having to get a colander dirty.  And on the rare occasion that I deep fry anything, the spider is perfect for lifting the finished product out, draining over the pot, and keeping the mess to a minimum.

The ginger will need to cook longer than the orange peel.  My peel cooked on medium heat, at a vigorous simmer, for about 40 minutes before it looked translucent.  So I worked on draining it while the ginger finished cooking.

I used a fork to grab each piece of peel from the syrup and lay it out on a rack set over a sheet pan.  It's not super fussy, but you will want to keep them as separate as possible.  By the time that I had all of the pieces on the rack, it was cool enough to toss in sugar.

Just put a little sugar on a dinner plate, and lay several pieces of peel on top of it.  Press down lightly, and then turn them over and press again.  Then just toss them around a bit to adhere the sugar all over.

Then move the pieces back to the rack, and sugar another batch.  Leave them to dry until the ginger is ready.


 Finally, once the ginger is done cooking (because there's no need to dirty a second rack!), the orange peel will be cool and dry enough to place in a ziploc bag and refrigerate.

I did try a piece, and it tasted good.  But I can't help but think that it would taste even better with some melted bittersweet chocolate drizzled over it all willy-nilly. And I will probably throw some into almond scented muffins and cookies with some Craisins.  I might try mincing some up and tossing it into a salad, too.  Hmmm...possibilities.

I cooked the ginger for probably an hour and 15 minutes, or until it was tender. Just drain the ginger the same way that you drained the peel.  Again, try to keep each piece separate.  It is coated with sticky syrup, and you don't want the pieces to glue themselves together.  Let the ginger dry and cool a little longer than the orange peel.  About 15 minutes should do it.  Then coat the ginger with sugar just like you did with the peel.

 And that's it!  You now have candied ginger.  Lots and lots cheaper than buying it, ready made at the store.

Except.....that's not quite it.  You see, there is a beautiful side benefit of candying ginger and orange peel.  Remember that simple syrup?  You just infused it with orange zest and ginger.  That could be really good in hot or iced tea, or brushed over a piece of angel food cake.  So don't waste it!

 This is the orange simple syrup.  I was thinking about how nice that would be in a hot cup of tea or apple cider, and then thought about the ginger syrup, and eventually, I thought of the words "orange" and "ginger" close enough together to have a revelation of sorts.

I love orange and ginger together!  At least, they smell amazing.  Best shampoo in the world.  It makes me happy every morning.  So I decided to add some of the ginger syrup to the orange syrup and have a nice mix.  It will still be good in tea, and if Bath & Body Works is to be believed, drinking it should give me a boost of energy every morning.  Yeah, I know....wishful thinking.  But it still tastes and smells amazing!  Enjoy!

Brine: The Weird Idea That Works!

Printable Recipe

Okay, I am going to be honest here.  I have no new recipe for you.  That's because I strongly believe that you don't mess with perfection. And Alton Brown's Good Eats Roast Turkey recipe is perfection.

I love Alton Brown.  I learned to cut onions from him, and that made me enjoy cooking.

Plus, he's funny.

Good Eats is a cooking show that everyone in the family can enjoy.  I enjoy it for all the great cooking.  Jeff and Jacob enjoy it because he explains just why (with lots of props) a recipe or technique works the way that it works. Kind of like food science.  The little kids even enjoy it because there is an abundance of silliness.

So when I first saw Alton raving about brining a turkey (and I had never even heard of brining meat before he started talking about it), I thought....yeah....whatever.  But it looks fun, so I'll give it a try.

Let me tell you, it is almost magical.  It was the best turkey I had ever had.  The white meat is so moist, not dry and chewy and desperately in need of extra gravy.  And flavorful!  Who knew turkey breast could taste so good?

So I stuck with Good Eats Roast Turkey for several years.  Then, a couple of years ago, I decided that I wanted more leftovers.  There is an abundance of Thanksgiving leftovers recipes on the net, a way to help you out so that you can use up all that stuff that's taking up room in your fridge.  I had found that I just didn't have enough leftovers to try all the recipes that I wanted to try!  I guess the pendulum had swung the other way.  So I thought, since turkey is cheap before Thanksgiving, I would buy two, and serve one for the big dinner, and just use the other one for additional "leftovers".  It didn't seem that brining was necessary for the second one.  It would be fine to throw into casseroles and for sandwiches, with all those additional ingredients.  It's not like anyone would be just eating a slice of it, right?

Well, let me tell you....if I wasn't a believer in brining already, I would have become one that day.  After enjoying the brined turkey for dinner, I went about carving up the second (unbrined) turkey to put away.  It was obvious, even before tasting it, that this turkey was drier.  And when I took a bite, I couldn't believe the difference.  It was endlessly chewy, dry, and hard to get down.  There was virtually no flavor in the meat at all, especially the breast.  In reality, this was no different than any turkey I had ever eaten before I brined my first bird.  But I had become spoiled by the wonder that is brined poultry, and I now know that unbrined turkey just isn't even worth eating.  I am not kidding.  Other than the little bit that I threw into some soup, nobody touched the white meat from that turkey.  The dark meat was passable for casseroles, but I just didn't look forward to the workout that my jaw would get from the white meat.

So, I never really knew what brining really does until the last year or so.  Well, okay....I still don't know how brining works.  But I do know that it has something to do with osmosis and the law of diffusion.  There is a lot of information that can be found easily through the magic of Google.  For the unscientific among us (since I really don't know what osmosis and the law of diffusion are), here is a pretty simplistic explanation that I found here:

First, the salt in the brine actually starts to break down tough muscle fibers. When cooked, these muscle fibers don't tighten as much as they normally would. This creates a more tender mouthfeel and reduces the chewiness in a tough cut of meat.

(This is also why some brined meats can be a little mushy, especially if they were fattier cuts or have been brined for too long.)

Secondly, the salt interacts with the proteins in the meat to draw in and retain water within the cells. When you cook the meat, a certain amount of moisture still evaporates, but enough remains to give your meat a the 'juicy' texture when eaten.

This is one time when we find our old nemesis "water retention" actually playing a beneficial role!

Well, enough for the science lesson.

While salt is what you might consider to be the "active ingredient" in brine, there are often other ingredients, as well.  The most common is some sort of sugar.  Sugar can add flavor to the meat, though it doesn't make it taste sweet, per se.  However, the main purpose of the sugar is to promote browning.  Caramelization.  This can be important, because one other thing that helps browning is a dry surface.  Obviously, a turkey that has been soaking overnight is not going to be as dry as one that has just come out of the bag.  That's a good thing, but you do want your turkey to be golden brown, not pastey white. So I pretty much always use a little sugar in brine.  Letting your turkey drain for about 5 minutes on a rack set over a sheet pan, and then giving it a good little rubdown with paper towels before applying the canola oil helps browning, too.  Don't skip that.

You will also notice some other ingredients in the Good Eats Roast Turkey recipe.  The big one is vegetable broth.  This ingredient serves two purposes.  For one thing, it has lots of salt in it.  This is the only time that I use broth that is not marked "lower sodium".  It is actually intended to add to the salinity of the broth.  But it also has the vegetal flavor that is so good with turkey.  Onions, celery, carrots....all are in that broth and as the brine does its osmosis thing, it carries that flavor into the meat.  It's like stuffing the bird with those aromatic ingredients, but more effective.  The rest of the ingredients, like the allspice and the candied ginger....well, I don't know.  But again, I don't mess with perfection.

So hopefully, I have convinced you to try brining your Thanksgiving turkey.  I'll probably rave about brining pork chops (our dinner last night) and chicken breasts, not to mention brinerades, eventually.  But for now, here is my recommendation for your turkey this year.