Experiment 15: Roasted Corn, Red Pepper, & Tomato Chowder

Figure 1.  See the little dots in the soup?  That's perfection.

Introduction
A little while back, we tried our hands at tomato soup.  As you hopefully don't remember, it wasn't one of our proudest moments (we provide you with the link to the associated article not to remind you of our results, but merely for the sake of continuity).  It was a bit of a disaster.  It took a good day or two to admit it, but we screwed up the recipe pretty badly.

But alas!  We are graduate students!  We are used trying and failing!  We can't give up!  Without the discipline of our graduate education in our back pockets, we may have succumbed to defeat.  But no, for us, the next logical step was to try something even harder, and prove to ourselves that it can be done.  Yes!  We can make tomato soup!  Tomato, roasted red pepper, corn, delicious!  LET'S DO IT!

Don't stop reading!   We didn't write this to flaunt our achievements.  We promise this one is a better story.  Actually, this soup was actually pretty delicious.  We even had a third, unbiased person taste it, and she loved it.

NFPA Ratings:

Figure 2. Our NFPA ratings for roasted corn, red pepper,
and tomato chowder.

Prep time: 2 hours.  This recipe took forever.  For something disarmingly complex despite its simple appearance, as this soup was, we felt that it took more time than it should have. Tons of chopping, too many steps, lots of places to mess up.  Fortunately, after all that, the result was super delicious.

Difficulty: 7.  Perhaps this ties into our rant over taking two entire hours to cook this.  It felt like a never-ending recipe with a million steps.  And then the blender issues....Oh, the blender issues.  Maybe we should take the difficult up to 8 or 9.  On the other hand, it might be better to just get a blender that has a lid (See Results).

Course: Dinner, lunch, whatever.  Soup is a side.  We tried eating this as a main course because we didn't feel like cooking anything else after putting so much effort into this soup.  Honestly, it was lucky that we also made sea salted caramel brownies that evening, because soup, no matter how many veggies you stuff into it, is not a main course.

Materials

Figure 3.  Photo cropped on purpose to hide pathetic grill.

Red Bell Peppers - 3 halved and seeded
Shucked Corn - 3 ears
Tomatoes - 1.5 lbs (about 4) halved, seeded, and peeled
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil - 2 tbsp
Chopped Onion - 4 cups (about 2 medium)
Fat-Free, Low-Sodium Chicken Broth - 3 14 oz. cans
Salt - 0.25 tsp
Freshly Ground Black Pepper - .25 tsp
Crumbled Blue Cheese - 0.25 cup (1 oz)
Chopped Fresh Chives - 2 tbsp

Methods
1) Set your grill on to medium  heat.
2) Arrange bell peppers, skin side down, and corn in a single layer on the grill rack.  Grill for 5 minutes, turning occasionally.
3) Add tomatoes to the grill, skin side down.  Grill for 5 more minutes, or until the vegetables are slightly charred.
4) Remove from heat, cool for 10 minutes.
5) Coarsely chop the tomatoes and peppers and place them in a medium bowl.  Cut the kernels from the corn and add them to the bowl.
6) Heat oil in a large Dutch oven (or pot with a well-fitting lid).
7) Add the onion and cook for 7 minutes or until the onion is tender.  Add the tomatoes and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

Figure 4. Tomato, corn, pepper, onion, sliced and seeded.

8) Increase the heat to high and stir in the broth.  Bring to a boil.
9) Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.  Cool for 20 minutes.
10) Place 1/3 of the tomato mixture in a blender, PUT THE LID ON, and process until smooth.  Put the pureed mixture into a large bowl.
11) Repeat step 10 twice (until the whole mixture is pureed).
12) Wipe Dutch oven (or pot) clean with paper towels.
13) Push the tomato mixture through a sieve/colander/strainer and discard the solids.
14) Place Dutch oven (or pot) over medium heat and cook thoroughly
15) Stir in the salt and pepper

Yield: Six 1.5 cup bowls of soup
Top each with 2 teaspoons of cheese and 1 teaspoon of chives (optional...aka we forgot this part.  We bought chives, but then forgot to use them.)

Results
Here's a useful tip: when you're cooking something, read the entire recipe carefully before you start.  When the recipe asks for a blender, don't just say "oh, I have that."  Make sure you have all of the components, including the lid.  When we reached step ten, we casually pulled out the blender, set it down on the counter, then stepped back in horror upon realizing that the lid was not present.

Figure 5. The effect of lid presence on the total kitchen
surface area splattered with boiling hot tomato-infused
chicken broth, as a function of the angular velocity of the
blender blades.

See, this is where being a scientist doesn't help.  Engineers build working systems from scratch, but as biologists, we are taught to take
the opposite approach, that of taking a whole working system and manipulating it in some way to see what changes.  Therefore, in this case, our graduate education does not apply to this sort of dilemma.  Don't worry, we don't lack quite enough common sense to "test" what happens when you use a blender without a lid and swirl sharp blades at a very high velocity through a boiling hot mixture contained within it (See Figure 5 for the predicted results from such an experiment).

No, we tried to come up with other kitchen supplies to substitute for a lid.  It was definitely one of our worst ideas thus far.  Enter: cutting board.  A small, smooth (minus a few slice marks), thick, plastic, board with rubber edges for a no-slip grip.  A perfect substitute for a blender lid?  Not hardly.

It was a beautiful piece of teamwork: one of us applied pressure to the cutting board while the other managed the controls.  Bzzz..bzzz..bzzzzzzzz.  It was working.  With every turn of the blade came greater confidence in our last-minute lid substitute.  But all of the sudden, "SPLOOSH!"  The blender hiccuped, and sprayed boiling hot tomato corn pepper soup puree through the air onto every surface in a two foot radius.  None hit the skin though, fortunately.  No, that happened during the first repetition of the first part of step 10.  It was only a minor burn.  It's all better now.

Don't try this at home.  Seriously, don't.

Figure 6.  Yummy in our tummies!

Where there is no harm, there is no foul.  Who is thinking about 1st degree burns anyway when they're eating such a delicious chowder?  It provided the taste buds with an immaculate mixture of flavors, with each ingredient making its presence known in a subtle but succulent fashion.  We forgot to peel the tomatoes, which produced a bit of a texture in the soup.  It wasn't bad; in fact, it added a little character to the dish (bowl?).  All in all, we feel that we redeemed ourselves from our previous effort at cooking tomato soup from scratch.  While the process itself could have used much refinement, the final product outscored and conquered our first iteration, wiping it clean from our minds (but not from the counter).


Discussion The kitchen is full of hot surfaces and substances, e.g. the pots on your stove, the racks in your oven, the boiling hot oils in your frying pan, and the silverware straight out of your dishwasher.  It is sometimes a wonder that we made it this far in the first place.   In this case, the burn came from transferring boiling hot chicken broth from a pot on the stove to a blender sitting a foot away.

So...this is kind of gross, but if you follow our recipe exactly, then it's only fair that we tell you a little about how to deal with a burn.  First of all, a first degree burn is a surface burn of the skin, and it can be caused by heat, radiation, chemicals, friction, or electricity.  In this case, the burn result from concentrated heat exposure.  Generally, with a minor burn, the affected skin will turn red and hurt.  Rest assured, these minor burns should heal in 2-3 days (Granger 2009).  For anything more serious, you would probably need medical attention.  However, unless you pour the entire pot of soup on yourself, you shouldn't worry about that.

Figure 7. Layers of the Skin

Your skin layers include the epidermis, which is the outermost layer, the dermis, which is the middle layer, and the hypodermis, which is the innermost layer of skin (Figure 7).  First degree burns usually only affect the epidermis.  Anything lower than the epidermis (muscles, blood vessels, etc.) would only be affected by a more severe burn.  Throughout these layers, for example in your fingertips, you have sensory receptors that help you feel things you touch.  These receptors indicate properties like temperature, texture, and pressure.  These properties are integrated in your brain, which allows you to identify things by touch alone.  Some receptors give you information about the onset, offset, and changes of these properties, and still others respond to prolonged, ongoing stimulation.

In the case of painful extreme temperature contact, the role of these receptors is to help you move away from painful stimulus in order to prevent injury.  The process is pretty cool, and doesn't even require your brain to get involved until after you're safely away from harm.  For example, think about accidentally touching a hot frying pan.  You jump back right away without even thinking about it.  Sensing and responding to the heat of the frying pan with a retraction of your hand is all mediated in the spinal cord.  It is only later (milliseconds later) that this sensory information is sent to your brain for you to become aware of what just happened and say, "Ow!  That hurt!"  The same thing happens when you blend boiling soup without a blender lid and it goes flying everywhere.  The soup hits skin, the skin burns, and you jump back in alarm, thus allowing even more soup to escape from the blender.  Yeah...we're awesome cooks.  :)

References
1. Weir J. "Roasted Corn, Pepper, and Tomato Chowder." myrecipes.com. June 2009.
2. Granger J.  "An Evidence-Based Approach to Pediatric Burns". Pediatric Emergency Medicine Practice 6 (1). January 2009.

Experiment 14: Red Velvet Cupcakes

We're back from our hiatus!  

Figure 1. A deliciously red velvet cupcake.

Introduction
For our birthdays, it was between cheesecake and red velvet cake.  Upon finding a cheesecake pan on sale, we decided on cheesecake.  Now, even though both of our birthdays have passed, we still sort of had a taste for red velvet cake, so we decided to revisit it, but this time in cupcake form.

Figure 2. Our NFPA Ratings for red velvet cupcakes.

NFPA Ratings:

Difficulty - This recipe was pretty simple, especially for how well it turned out.  We were afraid we were doing it wrong the whole time, because our mixture looked goopy and oily until it was cooked.  Additionally, all that red made our uncooked cupcakes look like blood.  Fortunately, our cupcakes puffed up in the oven, thus validating our process.

Course - Dessert, or sugary snack if your id compels you.  Also an acceptable midnight snack.

Prep time - It took us about an hour, but looking back, we are not sure why.  The recipe just involves mixing a large variety of ingredients together, pouring the mixture into cups, baking them, and frosting them.  In reality, it will probably take you 45 minutes.
  
Materials

Figure 3. The dry ingredients.

Cupcakes
1) All-Purpose Flour - 3/4 cups
2) Cocoa Powder (no Dutch Cocoa) - 1 tbsp
3) Baking Soda - 1/3 tsp
4)  Salt -1/4 tsp
5) Buttermilk - 1/4 cup
6) Red Food Coloring - 1/2 tbsp
7) Milk - 1 tbsp
8) Olive or Vegetable Oil - 1/3 cup
9) Applesauce - 1/8 cup
10) White Vinegar - 1/4 tsp
11) Vanilla Extract -1/4 tsp
12) Cupcake foil holders

Figure 4. The wet ingredients.  This is where it starts
getting creepy.

13) Muffin Tin

Frosting
1) Unsalted Butter - 4 tbsp / 1/2 Stick, softened
2) Cream Cheese - 1/2 bar (4 oz)
3) Confectioner's (a.k.a. Powdered) Sugar 2-2 1/2 cups
4) Vanilla Extract - 1/2 tsp

 
Procedure
Cupcakes
1) Preheat your oven to 350º F.
2) Put the buttermilk in a mixing bowl.
3) Add in the food coloring, milk, oil, apple sauce, vinegar, and vanilla extract, and mix it all together (Figure 4).
4) In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa  powder, and baking soda (Figure 3).  Add salt and mix in.

Figure 5. The final mixture.  Yum....NOT...yet... 

5) Combine the wet and dry ingredients in one bowl and mix with a spatula just until combined
(Figure 5).
6) Line a muffin tin with foil cupcake holders.
7) Divide the batter evenly among the wrappers (Figure 6).
8) Place your muffin tins on the top shelf of your oven.  Cook large cupcakes for about 20 minutes, and mini cupcakes for approximately 10 minutes.
  
Frosting
1) Whip the butter and cream cheese together for 3-4 minutes
2) Add the sugar in small increments and the vanilla extract.  Mix until it's not too thick, but before it becomes to soft.

Figure 6. Don't pour to the top.  Leave room for puffiness.

Cupcakes
9) Remove the cupcakes and let them cool completely (Figure 7).
10) Pipe on or spread frosting
11) Store in refrigerator.

Recipe will yield 6 large cupcakes or about 15 miniature cupcakes. 

Results
Before we get into our results, we have to admit to a tiny indiscretion.  Instead of making the frosting as described in the recipe, as easy as said recipe looks, we decided to use store-bought cream cheese frosting.  We won't lie...it was goooood.  All things considered, actually making the frosting ourselves would not have been much more of an addition to our responsibilities.  Whatever, this was faster.

Figure 7.  Baked cupcakes.
They look brown...but it's the lighting

Anyway, these cupcakes were tasty!  They were soft, moist, and delicious!  Unfortunately, they turned out a bit more rust-brown than red, even though the blog that owns this recipe guaranteed this wouldn't happen.  Regardless, steps 2-4 resulted in a murder scene-esque mess on all of our utensils.  Adding that much red food coloring into something of that viscosity makes whatever you're cooking look like a mixing bowl filled with blood.  Truly, everything before the final product of this recipe looks very unappetizing. Don't be afraid; just go with it.  It will turn out fine.

Note: While these are delicious straight out of the oven, these are equally, if not more, delicious straight out of the refrigerator the next day.

Other noteworthy points about this recipe are that 1) it has way less sugar than other stuff we've baked, and 2) you don't really need the sifter.  We don't have a sifter and our cupcakes were still light and fluffy.

Figure 8.  The final product, complete with our store-bought frosting.

Discussion

You may think that all you have to thank for the red velvet cake's rich redness is the food coloring it contains.  Big deal, right?  Add a few drops of red food coloring into anything, and voilà, you have red velvet everything you ever wanted!  Red cookies?  Food coloring.  Done.  Red pancakes?  Food coloring.  Done.  Red celery?  Food coloring.  Done.

But wait, red velvet cake contains something special that brings the redness forth independent of the food coloring.  Part of that red color comes from a chemical reaction that happens right in your mixing bowl.

Cocoa contains a chemical called anthocyanin.  Anthocyanin is an antioxidant and natural pigment that is found in plants.  It is present in all sorts of berries, purple grapes, red cabbage, pomegranates, several flowers such as violets and pansies, and, of course, the cacao tree.  The color anthocyanin emits depends on the pH of the environment in which it is found.  In low pH conditions (i.e. in acids), anthocyanin emits a bright red color.  As you raise the pH, it shifts to purple, takes a turn past blue and green, and ends up at a bright yellow (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Anthocynanin over a range of pH values.

How are you going to lower the pH to get that bright red color for your cupcakes?  The buttermilk and vinegar of course!  Buttermilk is acidic because bacteria in the milk ferment the lactose and turn it into lactic acid.  Vinegar, the prototypical acidic agent in your kitchen, is composed of acetic acid and water.  Acetic acid comes from the fermentation of ethanol.  You probably thought it was weird that this recipe called for vinegar, but now you know why it did.

It is absolutely wrong to use Dutch cocoa for your red velvet cupcakes.  Why?  Dutch cocoa is alkaline because of how it is processed.  If you use Dutch cocoa, your cupcakes will turn brown.

Figure 10.  The leftovers...

References
1. Beaird A. ""Chemistry in Cake: Putting the Red in Red Velvet Cake". ChEnected.  October 2012
2. Lassi(e) C. "Eggless Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting".  Pan Gravy Kadai Curry: Tasty Tales from a Flexitarian Foodie.  July 2012.