About 6 months ago I wrote about record restoration and trying to correct alot of youthful indiscretions of abuse on vinyl recordings. Well, the learning curve has been a steep one. Thought I had restored about two dozen or so. But was frustrated with an album a friend wanted me to restore.
Put it aside for a couple of months and returned to the challenge at the beginning of the year. Not a New Year's resolution but a determination to get the job done and git 'er done right. In the ensuing months I did more research and study on record restoration.
Also, visited the online forum site of the software. Enhanced Audio's forum is not a large one but has many knowledgable users who are willing for others to succeed. There have been instances where they will take a small snippet of a troublesome file, restore it and return the snippet explaining each step and why.
One of the tricks I learned during my hiatus from the frustration was a tool in the program that reverses the file. A filter is run to remove the clicks and pops before and after reversing the file. Seems that reversing the file removes some of the nasties that could not be found without the process.( It is also pointed out that if you listen to the track in reverse you might discover any nefarious messages. I believe the Beatle's Abbey Lane was supposed to be imbedded with messages.) ¿Quien sabe?
I not only finished the album for the friend but successully restored some particulary troublesome albums that I would not play on a turn table because the pops and clicks were tooooo distracting. Now the challenge will be to finish the other 350 + albums.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Cacciatore
Some time ago I wrote about Italian chef Marcella Hasan's recipe for cacciatore. It is a wonderful dish that can be made in about 1 - 1½ hours. I use it regularly....that is, until I rediscovered a recipe by Sandy d' Amato, Milwaukees' James Beard award winner.
Sandy published his cacciatore about two years ago and I had clipped the article from the Journal Sentinel where it first appeared. Doin' some cleaning recently, I came across the recipe and decided to give it a try.
Certainly glad I did because this recipe is full of veggies and equally important, flavor. Sandy uses massive amounts of garlic (huzza), red and green peppers, mushrooms and onions. This is truly a one dish meal that is well worth the time (about an hour) and effort.
Sandy uses chicken thighs "as they have a bit more fat and more moisture and so, when they are cooked they hold up well to braising". I use both the thigh and leg. Chicken breasts require less time and still have a tendency to dry out (overcook). However, if you want to use the breasts, cook the thighs for about 20 minutes, add breasts and cook for an additional 15-20 minutes. Then add mushrooms and pepper and cook for 5 minutes more. Complete the recipe.
Sandy gives the option of cooking for the prescribed time just to get the chicken thighs tender or cook longer until they are fork tender. I prefer the latter. He also uses red pepper flakes, just the right amount. Experiment with the pepper flakes...start with half the amount.
When finished, pour yourself a good chardonnay or pinot noir and enjoy the fruits of your labors. Admittedly, sometimes I do not wait that long to enjoy a good wine.
Click the title to get the recipe.
Sandy published his cacciatore about two years ago and I had clipped the article from the Journal Sentinel where it first appeared. Doin' some cleaning recently, I came across the recipe and decided to give it a try.
Certainly glad I did because this recipe is full of veggies and equally important, flavor. Sandy uses massive amounts of garlic (huzza), red and green peppers, mushrooms and onions. This is truly a one dish meal that is well worth the time (about an hour) and effort.
Sandy uses chicken thighs "as they have a bit more fat and more moisture and so, when they are cooked they hold up well to braising". I use both the thigh and leg. Chicken breasts require less time and still have a tendency to dry out (overcook). However, if you want to use the breasts, cook the thighs for about 20 minutes, add breasts and cook for an additional 15-20 minutes. Then add mushrooms and pepper and cook for 5 minutes more. Complete the recipe.
Sandy gives the option of cooking for the prescribed time just to get the chicken thighs tender or cook longer until they are fork tender. I prefer the latter. He also uses red pepper flakes, just the right amount. Experiment with the pepper flakes...start with half the amount.
When finished, pour yourself a good chardonnay or pinot noir and enjoy the fruits of your labors. Admittedly, sometimes I do not wait that long to enjoy a good wine.
Click the title to get the recipe.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
30-Minute Meal?
FoodTV's Rachael Ray seems to have cornered the 30 minute meals TV crowd. But she doesn't have a monopoly on the art of preparing good food in a short time frame.
Gourmet magazine has a section in their magazine called 'Quick Kitchen'. The February issue offers a sautée/grilled chicken breast ala Morocco with a lemon couscous. The recipe is easy to do and the results are very good.
A couple of caveats: the couscous calls for oil-cured black olives. Did not have oil cured so I used the Kalamata olives I had in stock. Also, use imported black olives as they have a much better flavor than any domestic varieties. I use a Micro-Plane to zest the lemon. If you do a Google on the name, you will find a bunch of places to buy. They come in many sizes of zesting capabilities. I use the fine.
The recipe says to pound the chicken breasts to ¼" thickness. ..that's a bit thin. Anywhere from ¼" to ½", closer to ½" will give better results. Sauté/grill the breasts as indicated on both sides. Then cover them off heat for a couple of minutes to complete the cooking process.
The cumin and paprika in oil brushed onto the breasts before cooking, along with good technique in grilling, results in juicy morsels of bird. The lemon in the sauce for the chicken complements the lemon couscous.
Give it a try and let me know.
Gourmet magazine has a section in their magazine called 'Quick Kitchen'. The February issue offers a sautée/grilled chicken breast ala Morocco with a lemon couscous. The recipe is easy to do and the results are very good.
A couple of caveats: the couscous calls for oil-cured black olives. Did not have oil cured so I used the Kalamata olives I had in stock. Also, use imported black olives as they have a much better flavor than any domestic varieties. I use a Micro-Plane to zest the lemon. If you do a Google on the name, you will find a bunch of places to buy. They come in many sizes of zesting capabilities. I use the fine.
The recipe says to pound the chicken breasts to ¼" thickness. ..that's a bit thin. Anywhere from ¼" to ½", closer to ½" will give better results. Sauté/grill the breasts as indicated on both sides. Then cover them off heat for a couple of minutes to complete the cooking process.
The cumin and paprika in oil brushed onto the breasts before cooking, along with good technique in grilling, results in juicy morsels of bird. The lemon in the sauce for the chicken complements the lemon couscous.
Give it a try and let me know.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Minestrone
As noted in earlier jottings, one of my honey's kitchen things is making soup - comfort food - during the frosty months. Of course, it has to be good for you. So, my first pick is minestrone laden with fresh veggies in home made chicken stock.
When we married in the 70's, I brought to the table my collection of cookbooks, including the Time/Life books published in the '60's called Foods of The World. I recently raved about the flan recipe from this series.
I've never been a soup maker, so my sweety fills the gap nicely with a delicious bunch of soups, minestrone and borscht. The minestrone recipe is generous enough for us empty nesters to enjoy for several meals.....and like a good boeuf bourguinon, the flavors get better with time.
Note: she ignores all the stuff about slicing or dicing and lets the food processor do it ... only difference is aethestics.
If you do not have/make your own chicken stock get a box of low sodium stock, place the contents in a pot, along with a handful of chopped onion, chopped celery and carrots. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 min. Voila! Homemade chicken stock.
And toss the green can of parmesan. Pop for Regianno Parmesano and grate your own. The difference is worth it.
Click the heading to get this delicious soup.
When we married in the 70's, I brought to the table my collection of cookbooks, including the Time/Life books published in the '60's called Foods of The World. I recently raved about the flan recipe from this series.
I've never been a soup maker, so my sweety fills the gap nicely with a delicious bunch of soups, minestrone and borscht. The minestrone recipe is generous enough for us empty nesters to enjoy for several meals.....and like a good boeuf bourguinon, the flavors get better with time.
Note: she ignores all the stuff about slicing or dicing and lets the food processor do it ... only difference is aethestics.
If you do not have/make your own chicken stock get a box of low sodium stock, place the contents in a pot, along with a handful of chopped onion, chopped celery and carrots. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 min. Voila! Homemade chicken stock.
And toss the green can of parmesan. Pop for Regianno Parmesano and grate your own. The difference is worth it.
Click the heading to get this delicious soup.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Soups
Starting early December my sweetie begins to talk about comfort foods such as soups. She makes some pretty fine soups, too. Unfortunately, her presence in the kitchen making soups is sooooo seasonal. Soups like minestrone and borscht need to be enjoyed more than once a year.
She also has a hankerin' for chili. Her kind of chili. Beans and hamburger in a watery mess has never been something that I wanted to wrap a fork/spoon around. That is until now. In Sunday's edition of our local fish wrapper, Sanford D'Amato - Milwaukee's James Beard award winner - published his version of chili in the Entree section. She spied this article but demurred from putting it together.
Yesterday, while she was busy being an artist, I looked at the ingredients and found no hamburger. The beans were black beans.... not laden with tomatoes. And clearly no elbow macaroni or spaghetti, which seems to be a Wisconsin favorite. Thought this would be something I might like.
Well, that is an understatement. As Sandy says, "Once you try this chili, you'll never grab for a can again." Right on target. This recipe takes just a little longer to make because the boneless chuck is cut into ¼ to ½ inch cubes. But the labor is worth the few extra minutes.
My forager could not locate achiote paste, one of the ingredients. As Sandy notes, go to the Mexican market for this. The paste and the poblano pepper will become a staple in our larder for our comfort-foods-months.
Click the title for the recipe.
She also has a hankerin' for chili. Her kind of chili. Beans and hamburger in a watery mess has never been something that I wanted to wrap a fork/spoon around. That is until now. In Sunday's edition of our local fish wrapper, Sanford D'Amato - Milwaukee's James Beard award winner - published his version of chili in the Entree section. She spied this article but demurred from putting it together.
Yesterday, while she was busy being an artist, I looked at the ingredients and found no hamburger. The beans were black beans.... not laden with tomatoes. And clearly no elbow macaroni or spaghetti, which seems to be a Wisconsin favorite. Thought this would be something I might like.
Well, that is an understatement. As Sandy says, "Once you try this chili, you'll never grab for a can again." Right on target. This recipe takes just a little longer to make because the boneless chuck is cut into ¼ to ½ inch cubes. But the labor is worth the few extra minutes.
My forager could not locate achiote paste, one of the ingredients. As Sandy notes, go to the Mexican market for this. The paste and the poblano pepper will become a staple in our larder for our comfort-foods-months.
Click the title for the recipe.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Beef Stew
Woke last week to 11°. Fahrenheit, Celsius...... doesn't matter....Seemed a good time to make one of my favorite cold weather meals, boeuf bourguignon. It's similar to our beef stew, but with the addition of some burgundy wine, thus the name beef burgundy. Of course, boeuf bourguignon is also attributed to the burgundy section of France.
There are as many variations to this dish as there are cooks/chefs. I like the one put together by two of the best, Julia Childs and Jacques Pépin in one of their co-authored books 'Julia and Jacques Cooking At Home'. Most of the time spent making this wonderfully robust meal is unattended cooking..... just letting the stew stew.
It has the usual aromatics, carrots, celery and onions, plus garlic (a natural for the burgundy area of France, or for that matter all of France) thyme, bay leaves and parsley. The cut of meat is the inexpensive chuck roast. The top blade can be substituted which requires removing the thick sinew in the middle of the muscle if you are using the cut for steaks. However, for stews, the meat should be cut into chunks in such a way that they contain all of this gelatinous material. It will melt and soften as the meat braises.
The cooking liquid is a bottle of sturdy red wine, preferably a pinot noir, and about 2 cups of dark stock. The dark stock can be made from scratch or take Julia's hint and use some low -sodium canned beef stock. In a saucepan add to the stock a handful of ½" chopped celery, carrots and onions along with a diced tomato. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Strain.
In addition, boeuf bourguignon has small white onions and mushrooms. Try to avoid pearl onions as they are too small and do not have the flavor of the the larger ones. The onions should be about 1¼" in diameter.
Recipe calls for servings of 6. Make extra 'cause this stew gets better with time. In fact, Julia suggests making this recipe in stages letting the flavors meld into one delicious bunch of meals.
Click title to get the recipe. Bon Apetit!
There are as many variations to this dish as there are cooks/chefs. I like the one put together by two of the best, Julia Childs and Jacques Pépin in one of their co-authored books 'Julia and Jacques Cooking At Home'. Most of the time spent making this wonderfully robust meal is unattended cooking..... just letting the stew stew.
It has the usual aromatics, carrots, celery and onions, plus garlic (a natural for the burgundy area of France, or for that matter all of France) thyme, bay leaves and parsley. The cut of meat is the inexpensive chuck roast. The top blade can be substituted which requires removing the thick sinew in the middle of the muscle if you are using the cut for steaks. However, for stews, the meat should be cut into chunks in such a way that they contain all of this gelatinous material. It will melt and soften as the meat braises.
The cooking liquid is a bottle of sturdy red wine, preferably a pinot noir, and about 2 cups of dark stock. The dark stock can be made from scratch or take Julia's hint and use some low -sodium canned beef stock. In a saucepan add to the stock a handful of ½" chopped celery, carrots and onions along with a diced tomato. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Strain.
In addition, boeuf bourguignon has small white onions and mushrooms. Try to avoid pearl onions as they are too small and do not have the flavor of the the larger ones. The onions should be about 1¼" in diameter.
Recipe calls for servings of 6. Make extra 'cause this stew gets better with time. In fact, Julia suggests making this recipe in stages letting the flavors meld into one delicious bunch of meals.
Click title to get the recipe. Bon Apetit!
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Butterscotch
Pop loved all things butterscotch. He would splash, actually paste, some butterscotch sauce on anything that he thought called for a flavor boost... sometimes even if I thought the flavor could not be improved.
I've been experimenting with butterscotch for the past several weeks to find out why he thought this brown sugar treat was so delectable. Searched the web for some recipes...there are plenty. Baked one and didn't like it.
Looking through an old 'The Joy of Cooking', circa 1943, I found a butterscotch pie recipe. The recipes I've seen for this dessert appear similar but this one added another egg yolk to make it a richer filling. The results were a much improved butterscotch over my previous attempts. Also I found some of the techniques unnecessary, e.g., scalding the milk.
Make a single crust pie: combine 1¼ cups all-purpose flour, a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar in a food processor. Pulse to mix. Add 4 tablespoons of chilled butter in pieces and pulse 4 times. Add 2 tablespoons chilled lard in pieces and pulse 3 times. Next add 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water until dough comes together. Add an additional tablespoon ice water if necessary.
When dough comes together place on a floured work surface and roll into a circle 1" in diameter larger than a 9" pie plate. Place into pie plate, line with parchment paper and add pie weights. I use a mess of navy beans. Bake in a 400°F oven for 30 minutes. Remove and brush with an egg wash. Bake for an additional 7 minutes. Cool.
Place butterscotch filling into pie plate, top with meringue and bake in a 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes. Let pie cool for 1 hour and chill for 3 to 6 hours to solidify filling.
Enjoy one of those butterscotch moments that Pop found so delicious.
I've been experimenting with butterscotch for the past several weeks to find out why he thought this brown sugar treat was so delectable. Searched the web for some recipes...there are plenty. Baked one and didn't like it.
Looking through an old 'The Joy of Cooking', circa 1943, I found a butterscotch pie recipe. The recipes I've seen for this dessert appear similar but this one added another egg yolk to make it a richer filling. The results were a much improved butterscotch over my previous attempts. Also I found some of the techniques unnecessary, e.g., scalding the milk.
Make a single crust pie: combine 1¼ cups all-purpose flour, a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar in a food processor. Pulse to mix. Add 4 tablespoons of chilled butter in pieces and pulse 4 times. Add 2 tablespoons chilled lard in pieces and pulse 3 times. Next add 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water until dough comes together. Add an additional tablespoon ice water if necessary.
When dough comes together place on a floured work surface and roll into a circle 1" in diameter larger than a 9" pie plate. Place into pie plate, line with parchment paper and add pie weights. I use a mess of navy beans. Bake in a 400°F oven for 30 minutes. Remove and brush with an egg wash. Bake for an additional 7 minutes. Cool.
Place butterscotch filling into pie plate, top with meringue and bake in a 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes. Let pie cool for 1 hour and chill for 3 to 6 hours to solidify filling.
Enjoy one of those butterscotch moments that Pop found so delicious.
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