Colonel Mustard, in the Kitchen, with the Tamis

When I arrived to work on Wednesday, David got me started on picking basil and parsley for a pesto that he would be making later.  This didn't take very long, so I started getting everything together for the Persian Pickled Peaches.  All I needed to find were the white wine vinegar and the ginger (neither of which we had enough of) and as I was looking for these ingredients, I notice that I had met another one of my goals.  I had made it onto the schedule.

Up until this point, my name had never been on the schedule.  I just figured that since my schedule never really changed, that it didn't need to be on the schedule, but now I'm on the schedule, so it's all good.

A little while later, Woody found me and got me working on making the Bloody Mary Mix that they sell at the H & F Bottle Shop.  After ricing a bunch of canned tomatoes (10 large cans), I started gathering all the other ingredients that I would need and found out, yet again, that we did not have everything for the recipe, so I would have to finish making the Bloody Mary Mix tomorrow.  I decided that I would mise (measure and store) everything that I did have out so that I could just throw everything together and bottle it tomorrow.

Ricing the tomatoes (easily the longest and most tiring part of the process)

Now that I had finished with the Bloody Mary Mix for the day, I decided to continue making breadcrumbs.  When I was about half way finished with the breadcrumbs, it was time for family meal.

Family meal consisted of some mexican rice, pulled pork, and sliced bread to make a sandwich with.

After family meal I got some disappointing news.  The pimento cheese fritters will no longer be the amuse boushe.  I was a little bummed to learn this because the pimento cheese fritters were my thing.  I was always the one to make them and I had gotten pretty good at it.  At the same time, though, making the fritters did take a long time, so it was also a bit of a relief that I wasn't going to have to make them anymore.

By the time I finished making breadcrumbs for the day, it was almost time to leave for the day, so I worked on a few odd jobs like slicing prosciutto and cryovacing some lamb bones before heading home for the evening.





First thing I did when I got to work today was get started on the Bloody Mary Mix.  All that I really had left to do was measure out the horseradish and combine everything together.  Once combined, I couldn't help but think that the Bloody Mary Mix smelled and tasted exactly like a really thin cocktail sauce.

I have never understood the appeal of Bloody Mary's.  I mean, who said, "Hey, lets combine some tomato soup, lime juice, hot sauce, worcestershire sauce, sherry, pepper, salt, celery seed, and horseradish together and then add some vodka and stick a celery stalk in it.  Oh, yeah, and we'll drink it in the morning."?  That doesn't not sound tasty to me at all.

Once I jarred all the Bloody Mary Mix, I had to wait for David to get back from the store with the tops for the jars before I could process them.

While I was waiting for the jar lids, I decided to use the last of the bread that I had cubed at the beginning of the week to finish making breadcrumbs.

This may not look like much, but it's actually 6 loaves of bread that I made into breadcrumbs

Eventually I got the lids for the jars from David and was able to process all the jars of Bloody Mary Mix.  Later in the day, I got to take the jars of Bloody Mary Mix to the bottle shop where they would be labeled and sold.  Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal or anything, but David was too busy to deliver the mix, so he let me take his truck.  It was kinda cool to leave the restaurant and deliver something because I have never done that before and David runs errands like that all the time.

Next task for the day was to help david move some jars of various pickled items (bread & butter pickles, green tomatoes, watermelon rind, and peaches) over to Holeman and Finch who use them as functional decorations.  If you have ever been to Holeman and Finch, you may or may not have noticed that they usually have mason jars of pickles and other pickled items lining the tops of the windows and in some glass cases as you walk in.  Well, now the majority of the items that line the tops of the windows were made by yours truly.  So next time you're there, check them out.  Some of them even have my handwriting on the labels.  Cool huh?

After helping David, Woody asked me to make yellow mustard for Holeman and Finch (which is served with their burgers) because the person that started the process the day before was off today.  I gladly started working on making the mustard and had no idea what I was getting into...

PlayFoam anyone?

I started with these mustard seeds that had been soaking for 36 hours (that's why they're expanding out of the top).  I put one scoop of the seeds into a blender with two scoops of a water and vinegar mixture and blended them until smooth.  Then I took the mustard and forced it through the tamis to filter out the seeds and make the final product more smooth.

This is a very small amount of mustard being forced through the tamis

After forcing the mustard through the tamis, I added the spices which give the mustard it's flavor and yellow color.

Final mustard

This doesn't sound like it would take very long, but I assure you it is a time consuming and very messy project (especially forcing everything through the tamis).  After I was finished with making the mustard (which took about half of my day) it took me another 15 minutes just to clean up the mess that I had made.  All in all, I made 12 quarts of yellow mustard and still have 7/8 of the mustard seeds left to make more yellow mustard tomorrow.

Somewhere in all of this Bloody Mary and yellow mustard making, I ate family meal.

Family meal consisted of sauteed spinach and potatoes with baked chicken.

Till next time,

Ben

130 hours left