It was time to reap the benefits of yet another crazy experiment -stale bread hooch. The kvass has undergone a slight carbonation, but not enough to be noticeable. The aroma was better then I had expected, it has the unmistakable lemon and mint flavours on the nose, which a touch of yeasty sourdough in the background. What I found most interesting, was the mouthfeel. It felt almost thinner then water. Of the three people that dared to try we all kind of got a different flavour out of it. My palate was comprimized as I had had a smoke and a beer before hand (you need to prepare for this somehow!) What I got out of it was a very weakly made lemonade flavour, with an acidity comparable to that of a sourdough. For me it was good, not great but had potential. I found everyone but me got the flavour of the bread prodominatly, but in different ways. One commented on the yeasty flavour, and the other that it tasted like dough. Needless to say no one was really in agreement with the flavours, and perhaps that is due to the foreign nature of the flavours. No one knew what to think. Did everyone like it? Absolutly not. Two thirds could finish it, and I believe the other person choked it down for postarity sake.

I will try this experiment again (its not like its expensive) but there are a few tweaks I will need to make in succession. This drink could definatly do with some sweetness, and I believe with more sugar there is a chance to bring more flavours out of the lemon and mint -provided it dosent increase the alcohol content, which was virtually undetectable. The flavour base of lemon and mint worked really well together, but I felt there wasent enough of it, next time I throw in some more rind. I am worried the addition of more lemon juice may make the enviroment to acidic for the yeast to florish. Finally, the yeast. Bread yeast has this unmistakable flavour, that I wouldnt describe as complementary. Next I will either make it traditionally from sourdough or purchase a pilsner, or wine yeast to do the dirty work. Was it a success? Yes. Is there work to do? Definatly.

Seasonality is a lost perspective in modern day society. It is important to be able to know the seasons, and see them changing. Many great foods in this world have a very short window of opening its door to delicious consumption. All to often I discover great things researching new foods, but that door has already closed. I have to make a mental note to persue that goal in another year. This one I caught the tail end of. Driving to work one day I noticed a green walnut laying in a freshly mowed lawn, and the wheels began to turn. Technically the very tail end of unripe walnut season I was fortunately to find a relatively young tree still bearing fruit, and a day later might have been too late.

Nocino is a walnut liquor that hails from Modena, Emilia Romanga. It is made by steeping unripe green walnuts in spirits, and usually used as a cold weather, or after dinner beverage. There are many recipes on the web for making this, but I chose to stick very close to tradition. I was scouring my copy off Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well by Pellegrino Artusi, which is the first mass marketed cookbook in Italy published in 1891, and found a recipe for Nocino:

30 Walnuts
1.5L Spirits
750g Sugar
2g Cinnamon
10 Cloves
400ml Water
1 Lemon Peel

Being a cook, I simply cant afford to donate 1.5L of distilled alcohol to a science experiment. The alcohol they used was probably around 80-85%, so I figured with a 40% alcohol I could probably negate the water out of the recipe. If it ends up being to strong, I can always add but not take away (without distillation). Vodka is probably the most tasteless alcohol available in Ontario, we are not able to get Alcool or Everclear (Ontario liquor laws are retarded for lack of a better term). So I decided on a 750ml bottle of 40% vodka. The only other change, is in the form of addition. A very good Chef of mine always paired cinnamon and cloves with star anise, which both marries and adds flavours in a very luscious way. So I added star anise to the recipe as well.

Ingredients

15 Green Walnuts
750ml Vodka -40%
375g Sugar
1 Cinnamon stick
5 Cloves
1 Star Anise
1/2 Lemon rind (cut into strips)

Method

Halve the walnuts, on a plastic cutting board (this stuff will stain badly) and add to a 1.5L jar. Pour in the rest of your ingredients, and shake well. This stuff goes black quick! Leave in a warm place for 1.5 - 2 months. After this strain out all the solids through a coffee filter or cheesecloth, and bottle. Age for six months to a year or more as the flavours mellow.

After only a few hours you can see the fermentation taking place.

Over the centuries stale bread has always found a use: croutons, crostinis, bread pudding, etc. This use of stale bread takes the cake though -alcohol. In many parts of Russia this low alcohol beverage was been drank for hundreds of years. It makes slight cameos in all the great Russian from Chekhov, through to Tolstoy. So needless to say when I discovered it while reading Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz, my eyes lit up, and it was so simple I had to try it. Ive adapted my recipe slightly due to the availability of ingredients. Traditionally hearty rye bread was used, but any will do. I will be sure to do a follow up of this post in a weeks time to let everyone know how it turned out.

Ingredients

½ lb Stale bread (cubed)
7 Mint leaves
½ Lemon
3 tsp Sugar
Pinch of Salt
1 tbsp Active Dry Yeast (or about half a packet)
Raisins

Method

Grab a 1.5L mason jar, and fill it with the stale bread, mint, and lemon. Fill with boiling water, cover and let steep for 8-12 hours. After your waiting period is up, strain the mixture using a fine mesh strainer, or cheesecloth. Clean the jar, and add the mixture back in. I ended up with one litre of liquid exactly. To this add your sugar, salt, and yeast. Cover and let ferment for 2-3 days. Bottle ¾ full using whatever you have available, but be warned the fermentation is still taking place and pressure will build up. Add a few raisins to each bottle before sealing. Im not sure what the purpose of the raisins are. I can speculate that they are added for extra yeast, or sugar for the yeast to feed on, but what I have learned is that when the raisins float the Kvass is ready to drink.

On occasion I may have to opportunity to cook for someone, and in this case for a person who has never had lamb before. Ive never felt the need to experiment too much with the ways that I have done rack of lamb because they just simply work so well. The hardest part about this dish was trying to balance all the flavours out. There is a bit of acidity from the preserved lemons, marinated cucumbers, and salad dressing which offsets the rich creaminess of the potato salad.  Likewise the nasturtium is peppery and kind of bitter which is why I added wildflower honey into the dressing. Overall this dish has some great summery fresh flavours, and was nice and light.

Rack of Lamb

2 - Racks of Lamb
1 - Bunch of Parsley
¾ - L of Breadcrumbs
Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper

It is important when cooking any cut of meat to butcher it properly, meat processing plants often forgo doing the fine butchery because it cost too much money in time and waste. Chances are your rack will already be frenched, but be covered with excess fat, and silver skin. The best approach in to cut a small line into the fat about half of an inch from the beginning of where the meat is. The idea is to keep that top bit of fat near the ribs. After you strip away all that extra fat we don’t want, you will see a silvery lining covering the muscles of the meat -this too must go. There is also sometimes an little muscle near the bottom that conceals some more silver skin underneath it, I like to remove this as well. By doing with we are going to ensure a very tender piece of meat. Keep this in the fridge until we are ready to use it.

Wash your parsley and pick off all the leaves from the stem, add this to a food processor followed by the bread crumbs. It make take more or less of either the parsley or bread crumbs to get the colour you want, which is a nice herby green. Blitz this in the processor until uniform in colour and size (might take a little longer then you think, don’t worry its almost impossible to mess this up.

Take the lamb out of the fridge and get a pan very hot with a dash of olive oil and butter. Liberally season every part of the lamb. Sear until golden brown on all sides, and let cool.

When the lamb is cool brush it with the Dijon mustard (not out of the jar, cross contamination!). Put some of your herbed bread crumbs on a plate, along with a little salt and pepper for seasoning. Delicately place your Dijon covered racks on the bread crumb mix until covered with mix.

Bake uncovered at 350 for about 15-20 minutes depending on preference (I like mine rare), when done let rest for a few minutes then serve.

Herbed Potato Salad


Depending on preference you can use any waxy potato, fingerlings work very well, but in this case I just happened to have plain old white potatoes. Feel free also to use whatever herbs you feel like.

4-5 medium White Potatoes
1 cup Aioli
1 Shallot
3 Sage leaves
4-5 French sorrel leaves
Sprig of Thyme
Dijon mustard

Gently boil your potatoes until perfectly cooked, undercooked is no good, and overcooked will cause the skins to tear away. Allow these to cool for thirty or so minutes or until room temperature. Allowing them to sit in the fridge for awhile will also firm up the starch a bit. Dice these up. Chiffonade your herbs, and give your shallot a fine brunoise. Add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and as much aioli as needed until it reaches a good consistency. Season. Can be eaten right away or allowed to marinate in the fridge.

Aioli

1 Egg yolk
1 cup Olive oil
5 cloves of Roasted garlic
1 clove of Fresh garlic
1 Lemon
1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Add egg yolk, juice of one lemon, mustard and garlic to a food processor. Start blitzing. Slowly drop by drop add oil. Season. For troubleshooting refer to the Rosemary Sage Aioli post.

Marinated Cucumber

½ Cucumber
1 Shallot
White wine vinegar

Cut the cucumber into about two inch pieces cross wise and each of those pieces in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds using a spoon. Gently push the pieces flat and cut in half. Cut these pieces into strips lengthwise. They should be about 2 inches long by a quarter inch wide. Finely dice the shallot and add to cucumber. Just cover with white wine, and allow to marinate in the fridge.

Preserved Lemon

1 piece of Preserved Lemon

Refer to the recipe for this ingredient here. If you don’t have this laying around the skin of ¼ of a lemon will do. Using a sharp knife carefully scrape away all the pith. Laying the knife flat as well as the lemon slice out all the pith (white stuff). Be Careful. Cut into fine strips.

Wildflower Salad

Feel free to use dandelion leaves, arugula, whatever you are comfortable with will substitute. I didn’t really size any of this out, but it was mostly a small handful of things I had growing in the garden.

Nasturtium leaves (the young ones are best)
Nasturtium flower petals
Lemon Balm
Wood Sorrel
1 tbsp Olive oil
¼ tbsp White wine vinegar
Drizzle of Wildflower honey

Wash your greens, leaves the flower petals out. Most of this stuff is delicate, so you must be to. Just before serving combine everything together, and gently toss by hand.

Parlsey Oil

½ bunch Parsley
½ litre Grapeseed oil

Heat up a pan of boiling water with a touch of salt. Quickly blanch the parsley leaves in the boiling water, and then add to a bowl of ice or cold water to stop cooking. Squeeze the herbs together to ring out all the water, or use a salad spinner. Roughly chop the parsley and add to a blender with the oil. Grapeseed oil is a very neutral tasting oil so its very good for infused oil, however feel free to use what you have. Blitz until the mixture turns a dark green colour. Strain this through a fine mesh strainer or coffee filter.