Making your own ingredients

Making your own ingredients:

When we tell people we’ve moved to Marfa, Texas, the response is often “Where the F#@%! is that?” And we

tell them it’s about as middle-of-nowhere as you can get. When they ask “How can you live there?” We say quite easily. Marfa has a great community, some of the most important American art of the late 20^th century, and an intimate food scene. Check out this recent article in the New York Times about it:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/travel/22journeys.html

But despite the great food to be found in the restaurants and gourmet grocery store, my wife and I have found excitement and liberation in making our own ingredients.

Making your own ingredients is simple, and easy, and ultimately not very time consuming. Often these concoctions will need to brew for several weeks or months, but in the end you will have a product that will last you a very long time. Furthermore, there won’t be any nasty additives, and more importantly, it will be the fruit of your own labor; trust me, French Toast made entirely from scratch –i.e. we made the bread, butter, and vanilla- tastes better than any French Toast you’ve ever had before!

Making your own ingredients can also be a political gesture. You can choose to buy Organic and Fair-Trade ingredients, and to eliminate the consumption of High Fructose Corn Syrup and other subsidized, corporately farmed goods. Just google "High Fructose Corn Syrup" and you’ll see how evil and pervasive it is.

Some of the ingredients we’ve made are: Hard Cider, Pear Vinegar, Butter, Jam, Vanilla Extract, Mustard, and Worcester sauce.

Many of our friends have been asking us “How do you know how to make all of this stuff?” The answer comes in two parts:

1) The Internet. I LOVE THE INTERNET! I am always amazed at how much I can learn just by googling things. Smoking cheese, brewing sake, and making crème fraîche - think of anything, and you are bound to find it on the web.

2) Saveur Magazine. I know this will come as no shock to any foodie, but Saveur has become the monthly new scripture in my religion of food. I love it, and the website is totally comprehensive.

Ex: Here is the recipe we used to make our own Worcester sauce:

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Worcestershire-Sauce

It’s a bit of a process to undertake, with ingredients being found in only the most obscure of ethnic grocery stores, but the results are fantastic.

I think the most rewarding ingredient to make so far has been Butter. Making butter is a wonderful experience, and there is no comparison to the creamy, additive-free, hormone-free taste of fresh butter.

To demonstrate how easy it is, I’ve made this instructional video for your enjoyment on how to make the crack of cooking:

A great tweak on this recipe is to make Lavender Butter.

The process is rather simple:

The ratio is about 1 pint of cream to 2 tablespoons of lavender. Warm the cream –i.e. don’t let it boil- to a light simmer and add the lavender. Turn off the heat and let the mixture steep for about 10 minutes. Then put the cream in a sealable container and refrigerate. When the cream is cold again you can add it to your mixer to whisk into butter. The difference in this recipe from the one above is the cream will not go into a whipped-cream state. Be sure you add a generous amount of sea salt to taste, as you more than likely won’t be using this butter to cook. We left the flowers in ours for the look, texture, and taste, but you could easily strain off the flowers prior to whisking. This butter is incredible served with fresh baked bread.

So I know what you’re thinking “Great Mike, but where am I supposed to get some of these spices?” It’s true, if you go to your local grocery store they often won’t have many of the spices needed for your recipe, or if they do they’re way too expensive. My solutions:

1) Starwest Botanicals http://www.starwest-botanicals.com/

Starwest is a great site and is where Rainbow Grocery gets many of it’s bulk goods. The only draw back is you might have to order more than you usually would buy at the store. But the price per weight is significantly less than what you will pay in most grocery stores. Invest in Ball jars, and keep your spices in dark dry places; your investment will last you a very long time. You could also look into a resellers license, as this will dramatically cut the cost of your investment.

2) Ebay & Amazon.com

You wouldn’t believe what you can get between these two sites. I get my duck fat from Amazon, and my Vanilla Beans on Ebay. The savings are astronomical!

Buying and displaying bulk spices, and making my own ingredients really transitioned my mentality as a cook. My kitchen feels more like an art studio, laboratory, and wizard’s lair than a post-modern, domesticated site of food production. Nothing lights the fires of passion in the kitchen more than making one’s own culinary potions. I highly encourage you to try it and find out for yourself.