Grilled Beef Kidneys (who knew?)

While visiting Los Angeles recently, I was sitting in the Tea Room of the Museum of Jurassic Technology when I received a call to the Emergency Food Hotline. I definitely haven’t received a call like this before –it concerned the grilling of beef kidneys, specifically what color they should be when they’re safe to eat. Kidneys in general are something I haven’t eaten or cooked, and the fact that they were beef was even more intriguing.

I had an idea about how long they should be grilled (depending on the thickness) and what color would equal safety, but I wanted to be sure. Since I wasn’t sitting in front of my computer, I called my mom, who is almost always near her computer, but of course she was busy. So she passed the phone to my sister, who followed my directions to get answers from a few internet food authorities. The overall response was 10-12 minutes total, firm to the touch, and still pink in the middle. If they’re overcooked, the kidneys will become very tough.

When I called the questioner back, the kidneys were already on the grill. I asked him to cut one open and let me know how much of the middle was pink—also what was the thickness? They weren’t more than a couple/few inches thick, so the center pinkness shouldn’t be more than a half or three quarters of an inch. It turned out that they were nearly finished. While I didn’t ask the caller what he was cooking them for or would be serving them with, I have done a bit of research to determine what the norm is. If the caller happens to see this post, I would love to hear what the outcome of the experiment was and how it tasted!


photos from August 2006
Meanwhile, my teatime at the Museum of Jurassic Technology (mjt.org) was wonderful, and since I do not have any photos of beef (or any other) kidneys, I will leave you with the two above photos of the lovely Tula Tea Room. If you live in Los Angeles and haven't been there, please, make it there soon.

Late night L.A.

I keep forgetting to mention...
The best ceviche I've had pretty much ever:

photo from lataco.com

LA Playita
3306 Lincoln Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90405-5741

There's a ton of great taco stands in Los Angeles, but the last time I was in town some friends took me for some incredibly delicious eats. There's a review of La Playita on a great blog here, it says it better than I possibly could.

Sweet Potato Sauce + Pasta

The other night when we were planning dinner, I intended to make some type of fresh vegetable and oil dressing for the remnants of a box of bowtie pasta. There was some veg in the garden that we wanted to use (eggplant, cherry tomatoes, various peppers) and some onion and a sweet potato in the kitchen. Instead of the veg and oil sauce, I came up with something quite different (and better, I think):

Sautee ¼ white or red onion, add 1 habanero pepper, finely chopped in butter or olive oil (I enjoyed the butter). Toss in a bit of salt and pepper.

Separately, boil one large sweet potato* (sliced into chunks to cook faster) and let cool slightly. You can peel the potato before or after, some people believe peeling before allows nutrients to escape, but the amount that may be leaking to the water is not going to have any lasting affect. Boil until fork tender. Blend or puree the potato, adding the sauteed onion and habanero, ½ cup cream, milk or soymilk, ¼ cup oil (give or take), and a few dashes of balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste, continue blending until creamy and just pourable.

Return to your pan and add another ¼ onion to some butter or oil. While that’s getting golden, dice up 1 medium fresh eggplant into 1 or ½ inch chunks. Add salt, pepper, garlic, cumin and sweet yellow curry. The habanero makes everything pretty spicy, but if you like extra heat you could add chili powder or smoked canned chipotles (chopped).

Depending on the type of pasta you have on hand, this is the ideal time to set that on the stove. Then it’ll be ready to drain about when your veggies are done.

Once the eggplant is tender and browned, add fresh orange or yellow cherry tomatoes, sliced in half, to the sautéed vegetable mixture. This way their flavor and texture won’t get lost in the rest of the sauce.

Drain pasta, and you’re ready to plate. You can toss the eggplant and onion with the sweet potato sauce, or you can sauce up the pasta and arrange the eggplant on top, whichever pleases your eye more. We ate this out of doors, with a nice Malbec alongside.

Today, around lunchtime, I heated up the leftover potato/veg mixture in a pan, added ¾ cup water, and ate it as a soup. Delicious!

* lots of substitutes could work in this recipe. You could use carrots instead of a sweet potato, mushrooms instead of eggplant, zucchini instead of tomatoes...and if you had some squash blossoms, those would be incredible sauteed lightly (separately) and served on top of everything else.

Cheap and Delicious in South Bristol, ME

For a delicious and ridiculously reasonably priced meal, please head over to Harborside Grocery and Grill. This place is the real deal. All the necessities for South Bristol natives, truckers passing through, summer dwellers and the like. Everyone is friendly, (especially if they know your family or who you're staying with), the prices are beyond reasonable, and the photos on the walls give good distraction if you're eating alone.

I enjoyed the Egg Salad Sandwich, with a side of chips and a Root Beer, for something like $3. From what I've gathered, all the food is prepared when ordered and tastes like your mom or dad made it when you got home from school after a day of tiring playground fun. And when you've finished eating, the staff will try to talk you into whatever homey dessert they've made that morning. I don't particularly like bananas, so I didn't try the banana cream pie, but I hope to be back there soon to sample what's next.

Stains (from fire, not food)

I haven't often met a stain I couldn't cure. I have no training in stain removal or other home-ec type processes, but I like to solve problems and stains are problems. When one of my best friends and her fiancé recently lost most of her belongings in a horrible fire, I went down to attempt some stain removal with her. She was able to salvage a couple of bins of clothing that had been clean in a hamper when the fire happened. Starting with a recipe from the Red Cross (who, along with the Chicago Fire Department were incredibly kind and helpful to my friends), we concocted a recipe that was sure to help at least a little bit.

The Red Cross recommends:

2 tablespoons Sodium Hypochlorite
1 gallon of water
Use in combination with Clorox, Purex or Lysol

We used:

1 gallon cheap vodka (apparently gets the smell of the smoke out more than the stain)
1/2 bottle Lysol
1/2 bottle dish detergent
a few generous scoops of OxiClean (intense!)
a couple gallons cold water (cold water opens up the fibers in the fabric, theoretically allowing the stain to escape)

After pouring all of the ingredients into a large plastic bin, we soaked the smoky clothing for a couple of hours. Immediately the water turned black, so we were very hopeful (and disgusted) about what would be coming out of the clothes. After the soak came the scrubbing, which, in retrospect, could really have benefited from some gloves. The Oxi plus Lysol was pretty rough on the hands, but the fact that it's so granular and harsh really helps while you're trying to scrub out the smoke. Some items were not too badly damaged to begin with, and the scrubbing brought the stains right out. Others were more difficult--it seemed like across the board synthetics held the stain more permanently, while cottons and cotton-blends were forgiving once we really got to scrubbing on them.

My friend and I discussed trying bleach on some of the white items, but I don't know if she's had time to attempt it. Obviously there are some more important things than testing bleach when putting your life back together after a fire. I really enjoyed the stain removal experiment though, it was a great learning experience in the stain department, and the process allowed for some quality friend-helping time.

Seaside Discovery

While staying a while in South Bristol, Maine this last June, I had a confectionery discovery. South Bristol is a small fishing village about an hour or so north of Portland.

One afternoon I walked into town and found Island Grocery, a self-proclaimed "country store" full of specialty groceries, everyday necessities, appetizing deli selections and (my favorite) homemade baked goods. There was a new pie on the counter every day, never the same flavor, and always a variety of freshly baked cookies. The cookies had excellent texture and were always moist. In the deli case was usually a combination of chicken salads, potato salads and other nice side dishes, along with pre-packaged ready-to-grill chicken breast and salmon or house-baked ham.

But the confectionery discovery I made had nothing to do with the home-made pastries or cookies. My favorite thing that I found there was Bequet Caramels. I'm always crazy about caramels, and love to try the freshly made candies at any stand or grocery that I can--the same way I like to try the pie or ice cream. I think it's a good measure of the place. And though these caramels were not made on site, they are made by hand in small batches. You can read thoroughly than what I've provided here and order them online. I highly recommend the Celtic Sea Salt and the Chipotle. Both are subtle and the added flavor does not overpower the texture or natural flavor of the caramel. The aftertaste is excellent, in fact I think it's the best I've ever had. There's no sugary sweetness rolling around the mouth, just a salty, buttery goodness.

Another nice surprise at Island Grocery was the fresh Frozen Custard. Growing up in Wisconsin, my taste for all things dairy and frozen is pretty snobby and I was excited to find it had the right density, intensity of creamy texture, without sacrificing flavor over to sugar. The flavor of the day the second time I went was something like Toffee Chip...I'm sure that wasn't exactly what it was called, but it was excellent. The staff was even kind enough to turn the machine on for us and get it ready, even though no one else was asking for it. It only took about 7 minutes, and it was worth every second.


Frozen Custard at Island Grocery

The only downside to the Island Grocery seems to be that the cost of many items caters more to the summering guests with a little more cash in the bank. There are little treats and mixes, sauces and condiments, sometimes at $16 a pop--which is hard to imagine spending on a container of cookies that might only last a day. In this area, Island Grocery should really be approached more as a gourmet grocery rather than a country store. But as long as you walk in knowing your adventure will be a treat with a little more on the price tag, you'll be happy with what you get!

Ham on the Bone

Well it has been quite some time since I've updated here. I've been all over the country and eaten a lot of food.* Here's a quick update, more to come soon.

The Emergency Food Hotline had an interesting call a while back about freezing meat, specifically ham on the bone. The caller wanted to know how long ham on the bone could be in the refrigerator before it needed to be thrown out, and, if after being in the refrigerator for nearly a week if it could be frozen and thawed later.

After comparing my own thoughts (my dad always had a ten-day rule for leftovers) with the FDA standards (7 days refrigerated if on the bone/whole, less if cut into slices) I've concluded that the simple answer is that yes, the ham is still good after a week, and yes, you can still freeze it. I think most foods are usually good for a bit longer than we might think, and a day or two longer than the FDA standards. After all, they have to be more careful than I do, since they're a lot more liable for their advice than I am.

Here is a link to a great resource from the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. It includes tips on how long to store eggs and other animal products. Vegans, this site isn't for you. But Veggies and Omnivores alike will benefit from taking a look at the FDACFSAN's Safe Food Chart for fruits, veg and juices.

But if you are going to freeze meat, you want to be sure that you are wrapping and sealing it properly so as not to give it freezer-burn or lose all of the moisture naturally present. There are a variety of methods and opinions on this, but I think most people I have discussed this topic with have concurred that the following option is effective (if little overzealous):

Seal leftovers in plastic wrap, this helps to hold in the moisture. Then wrap in tin foil, which helps to insulate from freezer-burn and keep any liquid in that might sneak out of the plastic wrap. Then place in a ziploc, and don't forget to write the date on it!

Oh, and IF you have leftovers in the fridge for a while, and decide to freeze them, be sure to use them as soon as possible after thawing. Keeping leftovers in the freezer does extend their life quite a bit, but the overall amount of days they have been refrigerated (outside of freezer time) should not exceed 10 days if you can help it.



This nice meal, if it had gone unfinished (which it did not), could have lasted in the refrigerator for up to about 5 days (3-4 according to the FDA).


*apologies to anyone who I may have missed a call from--I think there was one--while I was out of cell phone range for many days on the coast of Maine.