Tuesday Morning Cheesecake

So I made a cheesecake last night. It was from Epicurious and the recipe is here. I used the crumb crust recipe found here. The purpose was to honor my friend Nick's birthday, as well as my coworker Jason's retirement to take a new job in New York. Enough of that. Scroll below for photos.

 So we ate the crap out of this. I have the four following comments:

• It's gigantic - good for a party of 10 or more. Next time, I will use a half recipe.
• It was a little soft in the middle, so I think I will raise the temp 10 degrees, and bake for an additional hour or so.
• There was a bit too much citrus flavor. Next time an extract will be added to diversify the flavor a bit.
• It was delicious!

Salt Cured Hooligans

So last night I finally put together a container of hooligans for salt curing. Ever since I heard about the south central hooligan runs a few years ago, I've wondered if I could preserve them in the same way that Mediterraneans make anchovies. I really love anchovies, particularly on pizza or on top of a salad. See, hooligans are a type of smelt, which are oily baitfish. In fact, hooligans are so oily that another of their names are candlefish, because people used to dry them out and light them on fire to make candles. One day, I'll try that project but for now I will stick to salt curing and pan frying.

Smelts in Salts

Fun with Hooligans

So I was searching for websites that give you suggestions on how to cook grits in a rice cooker. I found several websites that give advice, tried one out and with some minor tweaks, I think it will work out. But on the way, I found a blog that has a good looking recipe for Roasted Anchovies with Tomatoes. Seeing I have a bunch of hooligans in the freezer from last spring, I thought this might make a good fresh tomato sauce for pasta.
I also hope to figure out how to make salted fermented smelts, a la anchovies. They are tricky to filet when they are raw (although the bones come out really cleanly when they're cooked because of the oil content I think), but maybe I can make them bone-in. I saw some Sicilian fishermen deftly filleting raw anchovies with their fingers on a cooking show once, but I can't seem to do that with smelts.

Frozen Raw Hooligan (with ice crystals)

Foods to make 1

-fish wrapped in prosciutto (cotton string to secure) and grilled from BBQ u.

-Buffalo chicken muffins

-Crock pot Mac and cheese

-Chicken adobo

-Beef Wellington - filet mignon roast

-stonewall kitchen cornbread

-Patis bricklayer tacos -sauté chopped bacon and beef cubes, add onion slices chopped tomato and chopped jalapeños. Add to heated tortilla.

-Two tbsp arborio in soup to make it creamy