Come What Mayo

After the ridiculous failure of the habanero risotto/rice concoction that tasted like fire rice, I needed to make something slightly easier with less prep time and a more immediate result - noticeably good or bad.

I decided to try my hand at making mayonnaise using a recipe from Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie.

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup olive oil
1 lemon
salt
pepper

After whisking the egg yolk and mustard together in a mixing bowl, I added the vegetable oil a few drops at a time, fully incorporating it before adding more. Eventually, after using all of the vegetable oil, I began to add the olive oil. The mixture began to separate, which, using Oliver's recommendation, I fixed by adding a little hot water. Apparently this will not always work, but it did for me this time. Score: Stoy - 1, Separating Mayonnaise - 0.

After whisking in almost all of the olive oil (I left about a tablespoon or two out because I prefer my mayonnaise to be more creamy than oily), I squeezed the lemon juice into the mixture and then seasoned it. This was truly mayonnaise - move over, Hellman's!

Now, I will admit that I really do not care for the taste of olive oil (extra virgin olive oil especially). Apologies to Rachael Ray - EVOO is not my thing. The mayonnaise is really rich as a result of using the olive oil. I will probably stick with all vegetable oil or canola oil in the future. Also, if you like Miracle Whip, as I do, you might consider adding a tablespoon or two of sugar to your mayonnaise to sweeten it. I have no idea how long this homemade mayonnaise will keep in the refrigerator. I will update that timeframe once I figure it out.

WARNING: Consuming undercooked/raw egg may be potentially harmful to your health according to the FDA. However, it cannot be any more harmful than watching An Inconvenient Truth. Let me put it this way: If you eat raw cookie dough, you are exposing yourself to the same risk. (I know you all eat raw cookie dough - everyone does!)

Habanero Peppers = HOT

Today, I decided to experiment in the kitchen with some basmati brown rice, bleu cheese, tomatoes, onions, habanero peppers, and basil. I was going to make a risotto; however, risotto requires a special type of rice - arborio. I, making the mistake of shopping without a specific list, bought the wrong type of rice, which brings me to the scoreboard: Habanero - 1, Stoy - 0. This error was probably the largest and most costly in the end. Risotto is a creamy rice dish that usually incorporates a cheese (planned bleu cheese in this case) and a vegetable or meat along with the standard onions and (sometimes) garlic. (Herbs are always a preference - you can add them or omit them as you choose.) My thoughts ("Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids!" moment here) were that the creaminess of the risotto would balance the heat of the habanero, but since I was not making a risotto at this point, I thought that there was still a good chance the bleu cheese would balance the heat from the habanero.

I was wrong.

I brought and equal mixture of one-part white wine and one-part chicken stock to a boil before adding the rice, which simmered for about 40 minutes. Usually, the rice and all of the other ingredients would have been cooked together in a risotto, but, again, this dish was way beyond risotto at this point. I caramelized the onions and peppers in a pan before adding the tomatoes and basil. After the mixture was thoroughly caramelized, I added it to the rice, which was finished at this point, and mixed in the bleu cheese. I sampled it. Habanero - 2, Stoy - 0.

In a desperate attempt to cut the heat, I squeezed a whole lime into the mixture. Habanero - 3, Stoy - 0.

While this rice dish tastes great, the almost unbearable kick from the habanero that hits your palette after you have swallowed brings tears to your eyes. The moral of the story: Habaneros should be used sparingly - if at all. Dante, your Inferno has nothing on these little devils!

Books About Cooking (Formerly "Cookbooks")

Before I delve into this entry, I need to mention that I work at a book store. (It is one of - if not the - largest bookstores in the United States, so take a guess as to which one I am referring.) From working at a book store, I know that there are shelves and shelves of books about cooking, which until recently were called "cookbooks." Of course there are the old standards: Martha Stewart, Julia Child, Betty Crocker (who is not a real person!), et al. However, there are now a plethora (yes, plethora) of others out there thanks to the advent of The Food Network and modern publishing/marketing in general. I have purchased two books about cooking recently - Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook by Jamie Oliver (the "Naked Chef") and Basics: The Foundations of Modern Cooking by Filip Verheyden. I am not going to give a full review of Cook with Jamie in this post because I want to do justice to how spectacular I think it is, but I have a few problems with Basics that I will share with all of you.

I do not pretend to be an expert chef, nor do I even presume to play one on television. I would classify myself as someone who has a basic understanding of how to cook and how to navigate the kitchen - an "intermediate" level if you will. Verheyden's book, Basics, is very basic - in its presentation. Explanations are relatively brief if Verheyden has been kind enough to include them at all in some cases. For example, Verheyden explains what a roux is, but he neglects to explain how one should go about creating it. The photographs in the book are beautifully done - if I were looking for food art to hang on a wall. Practicality is lacking. All of the pictures in the world of what a roux should look like are not going to make it any easier for me to actually make a roux. (In case you are wondering, a roux is a butter-flour mixture used to thicken sauces.) This book is virtually a compendium of food pornography for cooks to reference for definitions - not techniques/methods!

I purchased this book without looking through it first, which of course is a cardinal sin of book-buying, but I was short on time. Believing the "review" blurbs on the front of the book, I purchased it, thinking that it would be a valuable resource to me. As you can see, I have been greatly disappointed. Tomorrow, Basics returns to its shelf in the bookstore waiting for another unassuming cook/chef to purchase it under false pretenses. If you read this post, please do not make the same mistake that I did. Avoid Basics by Verheyden and look for another book about cooking to suit your needs. No one - chef, cook, or guru of microwave cuisine - needs a cookbook that functions better as a mini coffee table book, regardless of how nice the pictures are. (Then again, if you have coffee table books, you have the money to burn on books such as Basics.)

On a lighter note, I will write about Oliver's Cook with Jamie in my next post to share a glowing review of a great book about cooking.

Welcome

Stoy
- noun
1. Nickname for Jeff Stoyanoff, a twenty-three-year-old male graduate student in English with various interests including (but not limited to) reading, writing, cooking, friends, the outdoors, movies/film, and teaching pigs to fly (only on Sundays).

fare
- noun

1.	the price of conveyance or passage in a bus, train, airplane, or other vehicle.

2.	a person or persons who pay to be conveyed in a vehicle; paying passenger.

3.	a person who hires a public vehicle and its driver.

4.	food; diet: hearty fare.

5.	something offered to the public, for entertainment, enjoyment, consumption, etc.: literary fare.

6.	Archaic. state of things.

Now that I have defined each word separately, perhaps I should go further in depth and explain what the combination of the two spawns. What I hope that this blog will become is a chronicle of various things that I enjoy, including books ("literature" if I am feeling especially intellectual), film, food/beer/wine/liquor, and people (namely family and friends). This blog will become the way I "keep track" of my world; as a result, it is a little window through which you can peer into what exactly is going on in my life.

Even though I listed all six definitions for the word fare, it is likely that only the last three will truly apply to the regular posts on "Stoy's Fare":

Food, diet:
Believe it or not, I have always had a knack for cooking. While I have no professional training whatsoever, I have managed to teach myself a few things through reading and one of the greatest channels on cable - The Food Network. I have also managed to utilize trial and error, which has brought me to understand why it is trial and error opposed to trial and success! However, with each passing day, I learn something new, and once I move into my new apartment, I will have my own kitchen (albeit small) to use as my laboratory.

Something offered to the public, for entertainment, enjoyment, consumption, etc.: literary fare:
This definition is exactly what a blog is! Everything that I post is an offering to the public - this is the internet and the world at large awaits! Moreover, everything that I post will fall into any of those categories - entertainment, enjoyment, consumption, or (a slightly different connotation) literary fare.

Archaic. state of things:
Again, this blog is all about the "state of things." Additionally, the use of the archaic meaning relates to my own studies in English as one of the eras that I enjoy the most is the Medieval Period.

So. Without further ado, welcome to "Stoy's Fare"! Bon Appétit!