The chicken experiment

Today during our longish walk along the bay I contemplated what to make for supper. Flavors of the memorable chicken I had at the NoMad in NYC came to mind. They flavor the chicken with a mixture of foie gras, truffles, and brioche, an equivalent to flavor nitroglycerine. If you are in NYC and do not mind spending $80 on a chicken for two, I highly recommend the experience.

So here I am, salivating over the memories of the chicken and going over what was in our fridge and pantry. Somewhat not surprisingly, we had no foie gras, no truffles, and no brioche. Ah, the disappointments of the first world.

However, the NoMad experience got my brain going. We did have some chicken drumsticks, which are pretty much my favorite part of the chicken. What can I use to make tasty seasoning for the chicken? There is not much skin on the drumsticks, so how can I get the flavorings in?

The plan formed. We did have some truffle oil. Note that we do keep truffle oil in the pantry, even though some famous chefs claim everyone should avoid it. I claim that it has its place and laugh at the snobbery. Next, tasty fat was needed: Butter will do! Mixing softened butter, some truffle oil, and some salt would give the chicken the flavor.

Without a copious amount of chicken skin, making a favoring paste with brioche crumbs made no sense. This meant that roasting the chicken drumstick made no sense, the flavoring would simply run off. Sous vide, however, allows one to baste the meet continuously in the pouch. That was it, the supper plan was formed.

Not bad at all for the first try. Next time, I will use the torch. Brush the chicken with some butter if you wish.

Here is what I did:

• Set sous-vide circulator to 149F and turn it on.
• If you are using chicken breasts, set it to 147F.
• Prepare a sous vide pouch.
• Mix 1/2 stick of softened butter with a tablespoon or two of truffle oil.
• Using chopped garlic and some herbs like thyme, rosemary, or sage would lead to spectacular results.
• Season six or so chicken drumsticks liberally with salt an pepper.

  

  Chicken really needs seasoning

• You can use chicken breast if thighs if you so desire. I suggest to stick to dark meat only, or white meat only, because they cook at different temperatures.
• Smear the chicken with the butter-oil mixture and place the chicken in the pouch.
• Add any leftover butter-oil mixture to the pouch.
• Seal the pouch. I use the settings for wet food, gentle vacuum, and I use pulse vacuum so that no liquid is sucked out of the bag, clogging and contaminating my vacuum sealer.
• When the sous-vide bath comes to the set temperature, submerge the chicken and cook it for 90 minutes to 2 hours. I went with almost 2 hours.

  

  Chicken sealed in a pouch

• When done, take the chicken pieces out of the bag and set them on a broiler pan and broil at high for 3-5 minutes.
• Alternatively, you can crisp the chicken with your trusty torch and you get to play with fire.
• Server with a nice salad. Or whatever else your heart desires. We had some quinoa pilaf and some lentils, so that was what we used, along with a salad from shaved fennel and apples.

I think the look of the chicken would have been improved if I used the torch. The flavor, however, was spot on, rich and deep, yet not overpowering.

While we are at it, until this point, my favorite way of making chicken drumstick was to simply BBQ them on a medium heat for about 15 minutes, turning by 90 degrees every 4 minutes. It is important to seasons the chicken sufficiently, only salt and pepper are needed, and it helps to toss the chicken in some high-smoking point oil such as avocado oil. The result is on par with a great steak, at least I think so. Of course, having good quality chicken helps - make sure you get at least free-range bird that did its share of roaming around if getting pasture-raised chicken is a challenge. Which it tends to be.

Bacteria at work: Sauerkraut and sauer turnips

My grandparents were farmers and each year they would make a large vat of sauerkraut, and a somewhat smaller but still large quantity of sour turnips. Sour turnips, in particular, were needed for bujta repa, a traditional dish that is not nearly as fatty as Wikipedia claims, that we always made when we would slaughter a pig.

Bujta repa, translated as "killed turnips". Maybe one should try to modernize it...

When we lived in Waterloo, Ontario, we were always able to buy decent sauerkraut from local Mennonites, so making it yourself seemed like a waste of effort. In California, however, the story changed. For the longest time, the only place where we knew to find sauerkraut was Dittmer's, a local mostly German deli. Sadly, the only sauerkraut we could get was canned in jars. It was OK, but a motivation for trying our hand at fermentation of some cabbage grew stronger.

Remnants of braised sourkrout

Once we made our first batch of sauerkraut, there was no going back. Making it is really trivial in the most basic sense, and the results are even better than what I remember from Slovenia. In fact, today we eat a good amount of sauerkraut and sauer turnips straight, maybe we wash it a bit, and on a splurgy day we add a touch of pumpkin seed oil. Yum! Besides, now I can make fun of our Korean friends that we make European-style kimchi. Of course, the good old fashioned braised sauerkraut with its fair share of smoked pork is a dish that tends to mellow out even the toughest of days. Let us leave that one for later, first we need to make some sauerkraut.

The process for making sauer turnips is the same as the process for sauerkraut so let me just tackle the cabbage, and highlight the one and only difference in the beginning: Cabbage is sliced thinly, and turnips are grated. For both I use my food processor - this is where a wide feeding tube comes in play. Just the attachments are different, a slicer for sauerkraut, set to the smallest thickness. For turnips, I use the grater attachment on the coarser side. If I used the fine side, fermentation would pretty much dissolve the turnip shreds.

The process is really simple - basically one shreds the cabbage, mixes it with salt, packes in a crock, and waits until the fermentation has done its deed. More precisely:

• Buy green cabbage: For my 2 gallon fermentation crock I go with 6 to 8 cabbage heads, 2-3lb each.
• I am not fond of red sauerkraut, but you may be.
• Remove outer leaves and the core, and slice the cabbage thinly
• Mix sliced cabbage with salt, 2.5 to 3 TBS per 5 lb of cabbage
• I slice some cabbage and mix it with salt in a large bowl before transferring to the crock
• Pack the cabbage into a clean vessel, preferably a fermentation crock
• Press the cabbage down, it will release water
• Weigh the cabbage down with a plate, and put some weight on the top
• I procured "proper" weights, Before, I would use a plastic container filled with water, and sometimes I would put in an additional heavy object such as a stone.
• If the cabbage is not completely submerged in water, add filtered water to submerge cabbage
• I seal the crock with plastic wrap because I am not too fond of the fermentation smell, and top it with a spiffy lid for the crock.
• I found an in-depth discussion and experimentation report about the jars one can use for fermentation and how one should close them.
• Move the crock/jar to a warm place and leave it there. The length of fermentation depends on the temperature:
• 6 weeks for 60F-65F
• 3-4 weeks for 70-75F
• above 80F the cabbage will spoil
• About once a week check to make sure the cabbage is still covered with water. After 3-4 weeks also start checking whether the cabbage has fermented to your taste.
• Transfer sauerkraut to plastic containers and keep it in the fridge. This way fermentation will stop or seriously slow down, and you will be able to enjoy sauerkraut for some time.
• Share the result of your work and patience with friends. They will appreciate it.

Remember that you are letting bacteria eat away sugars in your cabbage. I found the process quite robust, so have no fear. At the same time, it is good to be careful. Make sure your cabbage ferments for long enough at a high enough temperature, make sure you keep the cabbage away from oxygen, and if any molds develop, or anything odd happens, such as your cabbage turns brown, throw it away and start from scratch. 

Here are the cabbage and turnips in my crocks before the final packing.

My old setup

Notice how the cabbage is sliced and turnips are grated

After packing the cabbage, I put a weight on the top and skimmed as much of the floating cabbage shreds as I was able to.

Having the nice weights made the whole process easier

Note the water level is above the weights

Here are the results from the previous batch. The turnips are almost gone, but we still have an abundance of sauerkraut.

Keeping these in the fridge extends the shelf life nicely

Kitchen knives (outdated)

This post is outdated.Please find a newer version here.

For some reason, I am fond of kitchen knives. It probably started many years ago when Jasna was so kind to get me my first high-quality chef's knife and I realized how much more pleasant it was to use really good tools. I have obtained many knives since then, but I still keep those first knives around and sharp. Most I still use.

I wrote the text below after I helped prepare food at a company picnic and had to field many questions about knives. I appreciated the questions and uncertainty people faced. Good knives can be very expensive, though one may be surprised to find out that one absolutely does not need to break the bank. The number of options are bewildering, so even finding a starting point tends to be hard. When you find articles and reviews of knives, many people have strong opinions about how a knife should feel, what properties it should have. Not sure any of that contributes to the comfort level when someone is just trying to get some basic information.

Below, I am trying to present a simple story from my personal perspective.
Apologies for formatting issues, copy-paste from Google docs into a blog post had some challenges.

Summary

One really needs 3 knives only:

• Chef’s knife - an all-purpose tool that one uses for almost everything
• My go to knife is a 12-inch Zhen chef knife. It has a nicely curved blade and is supposed to be made of the same VG-10 steel as much pricier Japanese knives. The finish, while not perfect, is good enough, making this knife an incredible value for your hard earned coin.
• Cheaper yet very good is Victorinox 12 inch knife, I also like the 10 inch version
• Fancier options are Global 10 inch chef's knife, or maybe a Shun 10 inch chef's knife
• Paring knife - for finicky jobs
• I use Henckel's 4 inch paring knife, Global 3.5, and Global 4 inch paring knives
• Serrated knife - for bread, pineapple, some vegetables, etc.
• My go-to choice is Victorinox offset bread knife
• A sharpener and a steel are a must
• A super simple sharpener will do for starters, I use it in a pinch
• Japanese waterstones are really the way to go for sharpening and not all that hard to use. You need several stones - see below for more.
• A simple steel works just fine, or one goes with the best of the best

Some people also like a utility knife. The one I have is pretty much a large paring knife, so it gets lots of use. Santoku knives have become very popular lately. I find them too short for cutting anything large. If you do your own butchering, get a boning knife - start with a flex blade for chicken and fish, and use a sturdy blade to butcher larger animals.

One can spend an unlimited amount of money on knives. Order a customized gyuto from a Japanese master and some thousands of dollars later you will have an awesome tool that you may not want to put to daily use.

Size matters

Large knives tend to intimidate people. Try one for a while and you will never go back. My preference is a 12 inch chef's knife, but that does not have to be the case with you.

An enormous, yet so useful knife. Cabbage, watch out!

Technique really matters

It is not hard at all to use a knife properly. It does not take all that much practice either. It is an investment worth making as the experience will be much more satisfying, you will be much faster, and your use of a knife will be much safer. In the days of YouTube, your free lesson is one search away.

Handle and balance

You may hear people be very particular about the handle and the balance. The reality is that one can and does adapt to the tool they have available, especially if you are not using it for 10 hours every day. I have yet to meet a sharp knife I did not learn to enjoy using. Some knives have an asymmetric handle, so knives can be different for left and right handed people.

This being said, knives do feel differently. Chances are you will not notice or not know what the difference means. Even more likely, if a knife is sharp, you will get used to it and will not care.

Hardness matters less

Many web sites cite hardness of the steel on the Rockwell scale. The higher the hardness, the longer your knife will stay sharp. Every knife dulls, though, and the harder the steel, the harder it is to sharpen it. Too me, the ease of sharpening matters more - I don’t chop or slice for 10 hours every day, so the frequency of sharpening will be low in any case.

Best Value

Victorinox knives are in general the best value out there. They are widely used in commercial kitchens for a reason - good quality yet relatively inexpensive. They are dishwasher safe, though Victorinox recommends hand-washing, which is what I do.

I have recently discovered Zhen knives, which I think may be an even better value than Victorinox. Definitely that is the case for the 12 inch chef's knife - the steel is exactly the same VG-10 used in japanese knives. It is reasonably easy to sharpen and holds the edge quite nicely.

I dislike Victorinox paring knives to the point I gave all of mine away. I prefer paring knives to be sturdier.

The awesome offset bread knife

Here are some options:

• The 10 inch chef knife is your basic workhorse. Their new series has a reportedly better handle and is more expensive, but still very affordable. If you want to try a really large knife, the 12 inch chef knife from Zhen is definitely the way to go, it is the most used knife in our kitchen.
• My go-to bread/serrated knife is Victorinox offset bread knife, and their 10.25 inch serrated knife is excellent.
• I use the 4-inch paring knife by Henckels an awful lot, somehow I find good use for that extra inch, and it does not seem to get in a way. The 3 inch paring knife by Henckels is also great, very sturdy and strong. Each has advantages so it’s hard to recommend one over another. I think I am leaning towards having both.
• For a utility knife, I use the 7-inch serrated (wavy edge) chef’s knife. It is a superb tomato knife, and is useful beyond that. Victorinox also has a 6 inch option, or just use a 6 inch chef’s knife.

If you want to get a block, this one from Victorinox will give you every knife that you can ever dream of using.

Going a bit fancy

Going fancier will give you some improvement at a significant price hike. Personally, I believe this is a waste of money unless you are a knife nut like me. 

So pretty

You also get knives that start looking like pieces of art that you and your guests will marvel at. Here are some suggestions if you feel like splurging:

• 10 inch chef knife by Global remains my favorite even though I splurged on the 12-inch forged version. The one drawback of the 12 inch version is that the curved part of the blade is very short, which makes it excellent for cutting large things, but less good on a smaller scale. A slightly heavier equivalent to the 10-inch Global is the 10 inch chef knife by Shun, or you can try a lightweight 10 inch chef knife by MAC. There are many Japanese companies that are in this class, like a 10.5 inch gyuto by Torijo, or gyuto by Yoshihiro. I find Korin a nice web site for window shopping.
• The 8 inch bread knife by Global leaves any bread knife I have ever used far in the dust, but it’s serrated edge is a bit too brutal for general use. The 10 inch bread knife by Wusthof is awesome, a little sturdier than the Victorinox equivalent, and also 3-4 times the price. I get refreshingly lots of use from my 15+ years old Henckel’s 8 inch bread knife that is a bit more maneuverable and is great for slicing a pineapple and hard cheese. I would get that one in addition to the 10 inch Victorinox or Wusthof. While have never tried the  Kai/Shun bread knife, I assume it is very good.
• 3.5 inch paring knife by Global may be my top choice for a paring knife, though the 4-inch Henckels is right up there.
• I find the 4 1/2 inch utility knife from by Global increasingly useful for smallish jobs, or as a tomato knife. I used to use an 8-inch chef knife from Global as a utility knife as it is pretty small. This one is pretty nice, too - the thin blade is kind of neat.

Really fancy

A knife made by a Japanese master sets you back several thousand dollars, and you will acquire a true piece of art. Consider making a charitable donation instead.

Knife sharpening

I have been fiddling with knife sharpening tools for quite some time, trying to find a way to take shortcuts. At the end, I decided to bite the bullet and use japanese waterstones, which are the ultimate in knife sharpening and allow you to get knives as sharp or sharper than new. Using the waterstones is not hard, and there are plenty of YouTube videos explaining the process. The whole thing does take some time and is a bit messy: One needs to soak the stones for at least 10 minutes, and for several hours if at all possible. One needs to remember that paper towels had been invented, and use them to collect the sludge that will form and that is key to sharpening. Finally, one needs a steady hand to maintain the angle, and patience to enjoy the meditative experience of sliding your knife up and down the stone.

For a complete set, one needs about 3 stones: A coarse one, 250 grit or so for emergency situations when you nick a blade. A medium one, 1000 grit, and a finer one, 4000 grit is common. If you like your blade polished - not really necessary for kitchen knives, then you go to higher grits, 8000 or more. Going even further, one would finish the process with a strop. My setup doesn’t have a coarse stone given that my blades are in a good shape. Here is what I have used for a long time:

• stone holder
• 1000 grit King stone. King is a good value brand of waterstones. No need to spend much more on Global or other knife-brand high-markup stones.
• 4000 grit Norton waterstone. Norton is another solid brand.

I got a pair of sharpening rails to learn the angle, but I do not use them any more as I find them cumbersome. Because I am a knife geek I have since migrated to a set of Shapton ceramic stones and sometimes I break out a strop for the final touch.

Maintenance

• You need a honing steel to align the edge after use. F. Dick makes the very best your money can probably buy, but you will get good use out of any decent steel, like this one from Henckels, for example.
• In a pinch I admit I use this little gadget which works surprisingly well, just touch the knife with a honing steel after your have it sharpened and you are good for a short while. Then sharpen the knife properly as the edge is barely passable and will not last for long.

Cucumber soup, finally!

There are probably only two dishes that my mom makes and likes, and I would go very far to avoid them. One of them is called "mlečne ugorke", which translates directly into "cucumbers with milk". The dish is considered a specialty in Prekmurje, the small flat part of Slovenia where I come from. Basically, one slices cucumbers thinly, then you mix them with yogurt and spices, maybe a touch of sour cream, and that is it. It is eaten cold and is considered super refreshing in summer months. That is, unless you are like me and cannot stomach it.

Ranting aside, this cucumber dilemma has been nagging me for years, and both my parents and I accepted that there is no point in fighting laws of physics here.

Then I went to NYC for work, Jasna came along, and one day we went for lunch together to a brand new cafe in our NYC office. When a new cafe opens, the staff is super motivated and the food is usually superb. That was definitely the case in NYC, anything we tasted well exceeded expectations.

One of the soup choices was of a surprisingly appealing pale green color. Cucumber soup! Jasna loves cucumbers, so she immediately got a bowl. There was something about the look of the soup that made me try it, too.

Ingredients remove much of guesswork

Wow! The taste had a nice hint of spice, sweetness and sourness were nicely balanced and it was supremely refreshing. The soup made me realize how good cucumbers with milk could have been. Jasna and I decided that we could eat this soup regularly.

The challenge was on: How to replicate the recipe? Our kitchens tend to be very generous when it comes to sharing recipes. There is only one catch - they give you an industrial-size recipe which can be challenging to scale for home use. Thankfully, every dish has a label listing the ingredients so that people can obey their dietary restrictions. I took a picture, and the rest was to be a process of trial and error.

Yesterday, I decided to give the soup a shot. I used three regular cucumbers, peeled, one apple, peeled and cored, a thumb size piece of fresh horseradish, peeled and chunked into smaller pieces, fat-free yogurt, a tablespoon or two of sour cream, a quarter of a large sweet onion, four cloves of garlic, juice of two small lemons, a teaspoon or so of dry dill, and a good pinch of salt.

I put all the ingredients in the blender and blended them at a slow to medium speed. I eyeballed the amount of yogurt needed so that the soup was of a nice thick and a bit chunky consistency. I highly recommend to put the yogurt in first, at the bottom of the blender jar,  to help the blending process.

The soup was even better then next day 

The result was quite stunning. I think it is the horseradish and apple that make a huge difference. The horseradish does add a deeper flavor and just the right hint of heat. If you remember to make and refrigerate the soup a day ahead, you will be rewarded as the flavors will meld nicely. 

Hazelnut gelato

After returning from a trip to Slovenia and Croatia, I have been wondering why it is so difficult to get good hazelnut gelato in North America. Or at least so it seems. And when you do find it, detecting hazelnut flavor requires some imagination. Not so back in Slovenia. There, one can even purchase prepared hazelnut filling for potica, which our friend transformed into a delicious ice cream. After trying that ice cream, the quest was on. Am I able to recreate the same intense hazelnut flavor with ingredients available to me in SF Bay Area?

Proper atmosphere for enjoying the gelato

It turned out I already had a collection of recipes for gelato, so it was the matter of choosing one as a starting point. I decided to go with a recipe from Martha Stewart's haydays, probbaly beause it seemed most hazelnut intense. However, each and every recipe requested that one grinds hazelnuts, brings them to a boil in milk, let them steep for 2 hours, and then to strain out the solids. If all I needed was some hazelnut flavor, I would have simply used hazelnut essence that one can buy at Whole Foods. I decided to put my Vitamix to work, just like when I make hot chocolate. And I could still add some hazelnut essence!

Start by blending 1/2 lb roasted hazelnuts in 3 cups of whole milk. This time I used roasted Oregin hazelnuts from Trader Joe's. It would have been even better if I roasted some fresh hazelnuts myself. Run the blender at the highest speed for a couple of minutes until the hazelnuts are completely emulsified, what you get is hazelnut milk.

Transfer the hazelnut milk into a saucepan, preferably one with rounded bottom edges, but any good pan will do. Bring the mixture to a simmer, occasionally scraping the edges with a heat-proof spatula. Remove the pan from heat.

In a bowl whisk 5 egg yolks with 2/3 cup of sugar. Continue whisking when the sugar has dissolved and the mixture turns pale yellow. I find it that taking a short break here and there lets the sugar dissolve faster, which speeds up the process.

In the next step we need to mix the hot hazelnut milk with the egg mixture and make sure to avoid scrambling the eggs. Start by adding a small amount of the hazelnut mixture to the eggs while stirring the egg mixture - I use my Supoon. This way the mixture will warm up and the temperature shock will be smaller. Add some more hazelnut milk, keep stirring. When you have added about 1/2 of the hazelnut milk to the egg mixture, pour the egg mixture into the remaining hazelnut milk in the pan. Now you have a custard mix that you need to warm up so that it thickens.

Purists and Michelin-star restaurants would, at this point, strain the mixture to remove any scrambled egg bits. I did not want to remove any of the hazelnuts and I did not want to make additional mess, so I skipped the straining part. I always make this choice and it always works out well.

Cook over medium heat, stirring and scraping constantly until the mixture thickens and will coat the back of a wooden spoon. Do not let the mixture boil. For this step I believe one needs to be pedantic. I really do stir continuously with my supoon/spatula, and I use my instant thermometer to make sure the temperature does not go over 175F. The truth is that 180F or 185F is still OK, but I like to maintain a comfortable margin for error.

Hazelnut gelato mixture chilling in an ice bath

Transfer the custard back to the bowl and stir in a cup of heavy cream (optional) and a couple of tablespoons of Frangelico (optional), and a few teaspoons of hazelnut essence (optional). Now you have the gelato mixture that is ready to be cooled down.

Place the bowl in an ice bath for an hour or so until it is cold. Walk by every now and then and stir the mixture, but do attempt to restrain from snacking on the mixture, unless your design is to consume the custard. It is ridiculously tasty. This way it will chill faster than in your fridge. If you are not making gelato right away, transfer the bowl in a fridge or even a freezer for up to an hour or so.

Gelato ready for consumption

You can freeze the mixture as is and get a tasty frozen brick. Even a simple ice cream maker to finish the gelato will mix in some air and the mixing will prevent large crystals from forming. The result is a smooth and light texture.

I wonder what would happen if one cooked this custard in the oven and chilled it. Are we marching towards hazelnut creme brule?

Burgers from the Balkans - čevapčiči

I am learning that BBQ is traditional for memorial weekend. So it is time to pay tribute to čevapčiči or ćevapi, as they are commonly called in Serbia and Bosnia, where they consider them a national dish. Chances are you have heard of Korean BBQ, and chances are that you have not heard of Serbian BBQ. Which is unfortunate, the pleskavica burgers, simply have no competition, period.

Čevapčiči and pljeskavica are pretty much the same dish, just that the meat is shaped differently. But first, how does one pronounce it? Chevapchichi is my best guess for transliteration. To hear the pronunciation and to see what I believe is a traditional way to make them, there is always a YouTube video available. Note, the comments in that video are embarrassing, it will take forever to forget the wars in the past.

One can get very wrapped up in a debate about what kind of meat to use. For example, in Muslim parts, minced pork would definitely not be a good candidate. My favorite combination is to combine ground beef, ground pork, and ground lamb, one part each. But sometimes one doesn't have the three kinds of meat available, or maybe you want to make čevapčiči a bit leaner. Using just ground beef will do just fine.

I used 2lb of 85% lean ground grassfed beef. I added one finely minced onion, a 3-4 minced garlic cloves, and a bunch of spices. Note that my spices are anything but traditional! I use about 2 tablespoons of each korean chili, california chili, ancho chili, and ground cumin. I also added about 1 tablespoon of ground coriander, and around 1 tablespoon of salt. I have learned that adding a bit of liquid helps with the mixing and also with cooking - I usually add a few tablespoons of water and a bit of vegetable oil. Mix it all up well and you get a mixture looking like a well seasoned hamburger.

The one and only way to make sure you seasoned the meat well is to make a small patty and pan fry it in a small pan. It will only take a minute or so per side, and it totally worth doing. Correct the seasoning if needed, but remember you cannot take spices away, so it is better to start with less salt and then you can add more if you wish.

Next, let us shape the meat into a small rolls. Having your hands wet will help prevent the meat from sticking to your hands and the shaping will be easier. For one čevapčiči roll you need a few tablespoons of meat - try out and you'll see what works for you. Making čevapčiči too large will make cooking harder, so going on a small side is just fine. I think I made them too large this time :)

At this point you can let the meat rest for a while, or let it in your fridge for a day. If you kept čevapčiči rolls in the fridge, let them warm up to the room temperature, it will help them cook more evenly. That will help the flavor, but you can also cook čevapčiči right away. Preheat your grill, set the heat on medium and cook them about 3-4 minutes per side. The time really depends on the size of čevapčiči rolls, temperature of the meat, and your grill. If you grill is too hot you will burn the meat on the outside and have it raw in the middle. The same can be the case if the meat is too cold.

I like my steaks medium rare, but minced meat I cook well done, and create juiciness by adding spices, onion, and liquid to the meat. It's all about salmonela and other nasty bacteria. On the steak, these will grow on the top of the meat, so grilling will kill them. For ground meat, it is all mixed up, so the bacteria may be everywhere, so the only way too cook it is to make the meat well done. Or to use sous vide, which I have not tried yet for cevapcici, but I do intend to.

Back at home we would consume čevapčiči with ajvar and kajmak and vegetables. And some crusty bread, of course. If we made them in the patty form, they would be called pljeskavica, which just had to be eaten in a special bun called lepinja. Here in the US, ajvar is very easy to get, kajmak is possible but harder, so you can recreate the exeprience if you wish. Or you use them as a meat part of your dish. For example, last time I added čevapčiči to gnocchi in tomato sauce, and the result floored our Korean friend.

The wonderful celeriac

I was looking at my food pictures and decided it was time to do some catch up. Celeriac is out of season now, unfortunately. But the fall is coming, and with it the goodness of root vegetables.

Jasna introduced me to this strange root. Her family would make celeriac salad as fllows: Boil celeriac root, peel it, cut into small cubes, mix with dressing made of lemon, oil, and heaps of garlic. Let is stand in the fridge for about a day or so, and then eat. Extremely tasty, highly recommended.

That was the only use of celeriac that we have known of. As much as I liked it, peeling the cooked celeriac was a bit messy, and it was kind of hard to find. so we made it only occasionally. What a giant mistake that was!

Cooking experimentation became more of a norm for us, and I got into a habit of calling on my pal Google to help me explore what one can do with certain ingredients. We also discovered Milk Pail market in Mountain View, which carries all sorts of great things in addition to their sinful collection of cheeses. They seem to be a reliable source of celeriac!

Here are two ways to prepare celeriac. First, we will peel it. The simplest way is to make a cut at the top where the leaves/stalks grow, and create a flat surface. The flat surface will keep the root stable on your cutting board while you use your large knife to cut off the skin. You can't really peel it too thin. It seems wasteful, but the surface is not smooth enough for that. The same peeling technique works great for other things such as squash, though for butternut squash there is no substitute for a vegetable peeler.

Peel our celeriac root

Now we have our root peeled, looking white and great. One easy way to consume it is to eat it raw. We were surprised how tasty it was, so this is now our favorite way to eat celeriac. We grade it with the food processor, and mix it with our favorite dressing, and when we have the time we let it stand for 1/2 hour or so, so that the root strands soak up the dressing. Leaving it in your fridge overnight works great too.

Our standard dressing consists of the spectacular pumpkin seed oil from my uncle's farm, salt, and lemon. That is it. Here is the result.

Celeriac salad

If you want to cook celeriac, you can sautee it. First cut it into small cubes - if you have two flat surfaces, you can cut the root into slices, then stack the slices and cut them across:

Then cut it cross-wise, and the cubes will appear. Alternatively, attack one slice at a time. It will be slower but therapeutic.

Heat up your favorite pan, use your favorite oil or butter, and at a medium heat saute the root, stirring periodically. Here I sauteed it with some onion and garlic, and I also added some cut up king oyster mushrooms. Season with salt early in the cooing phase - the salt will help draw the water from the veggies and will aid caramelization. The dish is done when you decide it is done, and before the vegetables are burned. You can cover the pan if you wish. This will speed up the cooking process, but will yield a different texture because the lid will trap the water in the pan. Let me repeat - do not crank up the heat way up, medium to medium-high heat is what you want here.

I made this for breakfast along with some scrambled eggs. You can use it as a side dish for almost anything, or mix it with quinoa or buckwheat groats, or pasta.