The flavor of blue moon

Blue moon is not a flavor I would want to have every day. It’s not like mint or cinnamon, which are universal and no one ever gets bored with. But every once in a while, I crave blue moon. And I found out in other parts of the country, it’s hard to come by. In Wisconsin it was something I could get at any ice cream store, and as a child I usually got a scoop of bubble gum ice cream to compliment it. However outside the midwest, no one seems to have heard of it.

I found a chain called Kilwin’s that originated in the midwest that does sell it. We drove over an hour last weekend to get some, and it was a welcome relief. People in Wisconsin always brag about the cheese, but really any cheese in any country in Europe is better than Wisconsin cheese. What Wisconsin should really be proud of is the ice cream. I wish there were as many Babcock dairy’s as their are Starbucks in the US. I would be very content to have ice cream every day.

So I had my blue moon ice cream, and it was good. But I discovered a way to “bring home the flavor” without having a melting tub of ice cream in your back seat. You see, blue moon is a very strange combination of almond and citrus, so trying to replicate it is usually pretty difficult. In fact I believe there aren’t any real “food” ingredients to it, it’s just a chemical additive that someone thought made a pretty good ice cream flavor. But I think I did pretty well considering.
I have created a Blue Moon mixed drink. It’s simple yet satisfying if you ever get in a blue moon mood. All you do is fill a tall glass with crushed ice, add 3/4 oz. of blue curacao and 1 oz. amaretto liquor (I used Disaronno but I don’t think the brand matters as much) and let it melt the ice a little before you start drinking. It needs to be very very cold, and it’s incredibly smooth and creamy as it is. I have also tried this with a splash of milk, which makes it look more like blue moon ice cream, and blended with vanilla ice cream to make an ice cream drink.

My second Bearnaise sauce

Well, I made the required changes. I bought a nice metal mixing bowl from Wal-Mart that would fit over my double-boiler, made the chicken in the oven so I wouldn’t be distracted, and whisked constantly. Because I halved the recipe and used 2 egg yolks instead of the 1 1/2 that would have been a perfect half, the sauce turned out a bit thicker than normal. However, it did not curdle, and made a perfect emulsion. It was all nice and smooth and I’m satisfied that I can make Bearnaise sauce without screwing it up again.

Here’s a picture:

My first Bearnaise sauce

We don’t have a grill, but I thought maybe if I pan-fried a steak with bearnaise sauce, maybe it would come out like some pro steak anyway. Here’s the recipe I used:

1/4 cup dry white wine (I used a riesling I like because it’s not oakey and it goes with a lot of foods)

1/4 cup white wine vinegar (I don’t know much about this, so I bought one of the more expensive bottles they have at Kroger)

1/4 cup finely chopped shallots (they actually had shallots at Kroger, they are like a small red onion. I suppose substituting a red onion is fine if you don’t have access to shallots. Also in my recipe I ended up using 1/3 cup because my eyesight is poor and I need to wear glasses or get new surgery on them)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon, divided (Kroger actually had fresh tarragon too, yay! But how do you measure out 2 tablespoons when it’s all fluffy and chopped?)

3 large egg yolks

1 stick unsalted butter (I used salted because it’s all I had, oh no!)

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (I did not add because 1. I had no lemon juice and 2. WTF am I making Hollandaise now? jeez….)

So as I was pan frying the steaks, which btw turned out poorly because I cross-cut an already thin rib-eye, which tore it to bits, then left the other one whole which didn’t get cooked to medium as I intended, I made the sauce.

First I boiled the wine, vinegar, shallots and 1 tablespoon of the terragon til only about 2 tbsp of the liquid was left. I strained out the rest into the double broiler top part, then put the flavored vinegar/wine back over the original saucepan which now had hot water in it. I whisked in the egg yolks and all was going well. BUT! I was so distracted by cooking the steaks and shoestring potatoes (which were just oven french fries because I was overwhelmed already) that my egg yolks curdled. I think they were too hot, as you’re not supposed to actually “cook” them but I know my husband would freak over raw eggs. So as I added the butter, it seemed ok but lumpy… after it was done cooking I threw in the rest of the terragon and some salt and seasoning.

When I was done I poured the sauce over the steaks, and to my horror the nice eggy part completely seperated from the butter. So now I had a nice bearnaise sauce over the steaks, and about a quarter cup of melted butter all over the rest of the plate.

It didn’t taste horrible. My husband ate his entire steak, despite that it was undercooked for his taste and the look of it was just awful. I give him credit for putting up with my learning opportunities. But I really feel bad about the way it all turned out. When I make tiramisu I can manage to fully cook my egg yolks while still keeping the mixture an even texture because the sugar keeps it smooth, but this was just a lumpy mess. Looks like I need to venture out into dangerous waters to make this right.

Tomorrow I will try again, this time with a metal bowl instead of a double-boiler sauce pan, so my whisk can reach every last inch of the sauce. I will also make sure that the heat is not to high, and the sauce is never left unattended. I will be cooking up chicken (blasphemy!) in the oven so I can keep an eye on the sauce, and I pretty much spent most of our food money on the steaks from last night so I can’t make those again. My hopes is that with these changes, I can make a Bearnaise sauce that will be smooth and even, and I really think if I can manage that it will turn out fine on the chicken.

Tortilla Soup (2001)

This movie popped up when I searched for other food movies, so otherwise I didn’t know much about it.  However, as soon as I began watching it, I thought it was exactly like another movie I had seen, “Eat Drink Man Woman”.  Ordinarily I would have just popped it out of the Playstation and sent it right back to Netflix, because basically it was the exact same movie scene for scene, with English and Spanish instead of Chinese.  The only reason I watched it was because this time I got to see it with Mexican food being made instead of Chinese.

Overall, I thought this version was more comical and lighthearted, except for the part where the youngest daughter goes apeshit on poor Andy’s apartment.  I was waiting for him to tell her to GTFO but unfortunately it went into some stupid introspective moment for Maribel.

Having already seen “Eat Drink Man Woman”, I wasn’t at all surprised by the little twists and turns they throw in, especially at the end.  I was just as displeased with the ending of this one as with the ending from the original.  Why, during the whole movie, do Martin and Yolanda never share a single tender scene together?  Just to surprise the audience?  It’s a cheap trick, almost as cheap as “It was all a dream!”.

On a side note, when I saw Raquel Welch on the cast I thought “Why isn’t she in more movies?”.  Well I guess it’s because she got fat.  I mean “curvy”.  Whatever.  Honestly, if your entire career is based around your sexy body, you might as well stay in shape.  Or you could go the Audrey Hepburn route and just retire from movies while you’re still beautiful and devote your life to trying to make the world a better place.  I can imagine Angelina Jolie going this route…

On a side note, I started getting Gourmet magazine yesterday.  I found a few recipes I’d like to try, but honestly I wouldn’t be able to get half the ingredients most of those recipes call for.   Hell, I can’t even get a decent cut of vegetarian-fed meat around here.  But seeing as how I messed up last night’s cod, no one would probably notice if I used dried mint instead of fresh mint.  The only thing I’ve ever been good at when it comes to cooking is doing a recipe until it’s perfect, and then never straying from that.  But if they ever had me on Iron Chef where I needed to do something for the first time, well, things would not go very well.