Accomplishments: Shiitake, candle

[squirrelitude]

Today I cooked with fresh shiitake mushrooms for the first time (and I've only used dried ones once before, I think.) I roasted them with sweet potatoes, olive oil, red wine, salt, black pepper, and thyme, then blended it all fairly smooth. Pretty nice! The mushroom is mostly a background flavor, where it belongs. :-P

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This weekend I also took the fatty bits from some goat loin chop that elusiveat cooked, chopped them up fine, and boiled them with water. Once it was cool, I took off the fat layer, reheated it, and strained out the chunks. Then I prepped a wick (taken from a candle dismantled for other purposes) and the metal wick tether from a used up tealight, poured in the tallow, and let it set. I made a candle!

(The stored energy of the tallow is offset by the energy that went into rendering the fat, but this was an experiment, and if we had been making stock with the leftovers, that energy would have been "free". We have some beef tallow from a while back that we acquired that way.)

The candle sputters a bit, so I guess I didn't separate out the water as well as I could have. I might set it on the stove next time I bake something to remelt it. Maybe I can get some of the water to separate out at the bottom.

Comments

[moem]

All ingredients in the shiitake dish sound good to me. But I'm not sure that I agree with the blending.
Was there any garlic involved?

[squirrelitude]

I would have mashed the sweet potatoes, but it turns out we don't own a potato masher! I might do something like this again (to experiment more with shiitake); I'm curious what you would suggest trying next time.

No garlic. I was trying to keep it pretty simple, and limiting ingredients because I wasn't sure which food sensitivities were in play at the party I was bringing it to. Otherwise I likely would have included garlic and butter.

[moem]

I might have tried breaking them down with a wooden spoon. But if I'm honest, I can't imagine what it's like not to own a potato masher. I'm Dutch, Dutch people eat mashed potato based dishes all winter long. We all own potato mashers. I recommend the one that Ikea sells.

[squirrelitude]

It turns out I'd always lived with other people who owned a potato masher (housemates or parents)! We moved to a 2-bedroom apartment a year ago, and I was quite chagrined when I discovered during an attempt at mashed celeriac that we didn't have one of our own. The spoon was pretty unwieldy.

We eat fairly seasonally for New England, which means a lot of root vegetables, but it tends to take the form of stews or roasted vegetables.

[elusiveat]

The projects were, indeed, exciting, especially the candle, which we haven't made before.

However, I continue to not be sure that a candle with water at the bottom is the best plan.

[squirrelitude]

Hah! I wouldn't leave the water at the bottom. I would melt it, leave it liquid for a while, let it cool, heat it again slightly (hot water) to unstick it, and scrape the bottom clean.

[elusiveat]

With your talk of "self dousing candles", it was hard to tell.

[nablacdotu]

I find that fresh shiitakes and dried shiitakes have distinctly different tastes.