Inexplicable Transcendence

You ever have one of those days that didn't go as planned?  Usually when this happens to me, it isn't a good thing, but this time it led to culinary transcendence.

Running

However, first we must talk about running.  I just finished the last miles of my "Rest Week."

Here is how I did:

What I ran 7/28 to 8/3
Day	Activity	Miles
Monday	Rest	0
Tuesday	5km	3.1
Wednesday	10km	6.2
Thursday	Intervals	3.2
Friday	Recovery	5.35
Saturday	Cross Train	3.1
Sunday	Long Run	10.13
		31.08	78.4%

The 78.4% was on target for the mile reduction for which I was striving.  Actually, for a number of reasons I may not hit 40+ miles for a few weeks.  My interval running on Thursday was good, but I strained something in my left gluteal region which slowed me down on Friday.  For the 10 mile run I managed to hold onto a 10:36 minute/mile pace.

For next week I plan on adding a 2% incline to my intervals to work on running strength.  For Tuesday I'm torn between trying to do a pace run on the treadmill or doing an outside 5+k for PR.

I was talking to a friend over the week about minimalist shoes and I may break my trail shoes out again for my 10k run on Wednesday.  I'm still not going to run half marathon distance on Sunday, but I might try for 12.5 miles.

Culinary

Saturday was a long day.  My wife and I made a Belgian Dubbel.  I got in 2 hours at the gym of strength training and elliptical.  I then came home to make ragu and fresh pasta.

Beer

Started at 6:15am and finished with clean-up by 12:15.  A 30 pound all grain brewing in 6 hours is actually pretty good.

We made a Belgian Dubbel as planned.  Transferred the almost finished Belgian ale (single?) to sanitized carboys for aging, leaving a nice healthy yeast bed hungry for more wort.  Here is what we fed them:
10 pounds british pale ale malt
18 pounds great western pale ale malt
1 pound special B malt
1 pound british  crystal malt at 135L darkness
1 pound of raw sugar
4 ounces of chocolate malt
0.75 ounces of Warrior hops for bittering (16% alpha acid)
0.5 ounces of Satiam hops for flavoring (8.2% a.a.)
Specific gravity was 1.077 which will make for a very nice beer that will knock your socks off if you aren't careful.

Pasta and Ragu

I took the pork out of the refrigerator where it has been in an equilibrium cure with about 1.5% salt and spices as mentioned in a previous blog.

I sharpened my favorite knife and cubed the pork, then put it in the big freezer to get it very cold for grinding.  I also put the assembled grinder attachment to my Kitchenaid in the freezer.

I used a finer grind then I usually do for sausage.

This went into a mixture of half a minced yellow onion, 1 minced celery stalk, ~10 baby carrots processed into very small pieces, 3 crushed cloves of garlic, some left over peppers, and olive oil, all simmering.  I cooked the pork until I got some browning and then added about a cup of Opolo Zinfandel (hmm, what to do with the rest of the wine?).

I then processed a lot of tomatoes (~4cups after blending?) with several (~12 ) large basil leaves.  These were both from the garden and completely processed by my Vitamixer into a puree, seeds and skins included.  I meant to add only enough to color the meat veggie mixture red, but I got carried away (mistake? #1)

I made a 3 egg pasta because it was really just my wife, my son and I.  I set-up my pasta board and roller.  The board is VERY sturdy and VERY heavy.

I rolled out the pasta as planned...

It was going so good that I rolled it out very thin - #8 on the Mercato (mistake? #2).

Then I used the pasta cutter instead of cutting it by hand (mistake? #3).  Every time I have tried to use this cutter before (albeit with thicker #6 or #7npasta) it didn't cut the noodles completely apart and I had to pull them apart by hand - very tedious.  Was not a problem this time...

I even managed to cook them perfectly for a transcendent ragu and pasta dinner.  Even the wine I served with it was a perfect match.  The food did not last on the plate, so no picture.  I topped it all with grated Asiago cheese.

It was a long day.  Dinner making started at 3pm and wasn't done until almost 7pm.  My wife who was also tired from the early brewing and her own list of tasks, suggested, as I was getting ready to make the pasta dough, that I just use some of the store bought pasta I had in the pantry.  I know she loves me, but I felt greatness could be achieved this day and store bought pasta wasn't the path to it.

It is a perfect storm when I can make my own ground pork from free range pork, seasoned how I want.  It is even better when I can use it to make a ragu using garden grown tomatoes and basil.  It is truly sublime to match it with freshly made, tender to the tooth, elegantly thin, pasta.  It was a lot of work, but oh the reward was ever so worth it.