Recently, I passed around this video from Sweet Maria’s, which is one of the bean providers the most enthusiastic of said co-workers shops with.

The Sweet Maria’s gent claimed as an aside in that video (which really raises the bar on coffee geekery, truly impressive) that one should always weigh one’s water, as the volume changes when it is heated.

I get that the volume changes, but it seemed to me that it can’t change that much. I realized this weekend that I had a way to find out exactly how: WolframAlpha. I just had to ask it Volume of 1kg of water at 90 degrees Celsius and, lo and behold, it knows!

Curious, I punched in a few more numbers, and made the following chart:

So the water expands a pretty impressive 3.5% on it’s way from “very cold” to “coffee temp”. Assuming you start with water which is not totally chilled, however, the expansion starts to become less of an issue.

So, does it matter to most of us — no. We probably don’t measure our water within 3.5% accuracy on the best of days, anyway. (And if you have a hot water machine, like we do, which happens to dispense perfect temp water anyway, you’re measuring pre-expanded.)

But if you’re making any kind of serious volume, 3.5% might actually start to have an impact. It’s at least a sip out of a cup.

I’d say we have to call this geek “Plausible.” But I’m still not weighing my water.

Aside: if anyone knows how to use WolframAlpha to actually make a chart like this, let me know. It seems like it should be doable, I just couldn’t finesse my query in such a way to make it happen. OmniGraphSketcher to the rescue.

It was a ’5×5 Chefs Collaborative’, meaning 5 local chefs (and 1 guest chef, Alex Stratta) hung out together and handled one course each.

They gave us a menu to take home that I’ve attached. All the chefs signed it, which was a nice touch I’d never seen before.

The menu: Providence 5×5 Signed Menu.pdf

Every course was incredible. Our favorite courses were probably the amuses, the hamachi sashimi, and the best testament to the power of sous vide I’ve had in a long time — Alex Stratta’s duck.

Yum.

In any case, here’s the essence:

When you’re cooking something that has it’s own residual moisture, use that moisture (instead of additional fat) to help cook the items by putting a lid on your pan.

2 good examples I’ve used this on recently are mushrooms and onions. Toss a bit of olive oil or butter in a pan, add the veggies and cook for a bit, then lid the pan. Because the environment gets so steamy you’ll actually be able to cook the vegetables more than you would have (for the things like mushrooms and onions, where ‘cooking more’ is more virtue than crime) without them starting to stick and burn.

Mushrooms in particular are known for absorbing any fat you throw in the pan, then, as you cook, spitting it back out, and getting greasy.

Capturing the water vapor (deliciously flavored water vapor, I might add) and using that to keep everything nicely lubricated solves that problem.

Then, at the end of the process, when you’re close to the texture you want, pop the lid off, and let that little bit of fat you added in the beginning do it’s magic and brown things all up.

I’m curious to see if this works with other ‘superabsorbers’ like eggplant, but that’s for another day.

• I have a new favorite mashed potato trick. After mashing and seasoning to taste, dump into a baking dish, top with a hard cheese, then toss under the broiler until crispy. Slice, scoop out of the pan, and serve as crispy-topped squares. Got Amber's coveted “best mashed potatoes ever” rating.
• I'm going to have to spend more time with Mario Batalli's recipes. The sauce in this recipe blew my mind. Dates, reduced balsamic vinegar, anchovy paste, olive oil, thyme and red wine marry explosively well together.
• I picked up some grassfed bison steaks from Santa Monica Farmer's Market. (It's a new stand.) De-licous. I liked it more than Amber did, she would have preferred the equivalent cut (New York) of cow. It made me want to try some grassfed beef!
• I very much enjoy the wines of Qupe.

(The rest of this post got lost in a blog upgrade.)