The Salted Lemon

Pita Madness

2011-10-04T21:06:00.001-07:00

Becky-

Can't wait to see you tomorrow- wedding countdown clock at T-4 days (it's annoying now, but in a week, you'll read and smile).

In the meantime, I'll tell you a little story about a girl named Banana, who went to Israel 2 years ago. A sucker for any kind of local spice, Banana went to the market in Jerusalem and stumbled across a fragrant green spice called za'atar (see photo). The stuff has been around for thousands of years, but it took a trip halfway across the world to notice. Turns out, the spice was a mixture of thyme, marjoram, oregano, and sesame seeds- fragrant in an earthly, mildly musky way.

And it was commonly used to season thin, crispy, chewy flatbread...

Thinking she'd hit the jackpot, Banana waltzed out of the market with a 1 pound bag of za'atar and visions of homemade pita.

Fast forward 2 years. Banana is Anna, the bag of za'atar still weighs one pound, and no pita had been produced... until Sunday. Blame it on guilt, lack of pantry space, or the fact that I owed Matt a birthday dinner... regardless, a full kebab dinner was produced, with homemade za'atar pita to boot:
Here are the recipes- all worked pretty well with a few modifications.

Pita: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread
*1/4-1/8 of an inch will get you a pita as thick as War and Peace... roll those suckers till they're paper thin. If you have za'atar, sprinkle pita dough with olive oil, then rub with za'atar and salt right before baking.

Shawarma: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/lamb-shawarma
*spice mixture worked well. I used a cut of lamb leg, but it was tough... recommend using the method in the recipe. Skip the sauce.

Tzatziki: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/gyro-meat-with-tzatziki-sauce-recipe/index.html
*skip the gyro meat recipe (the meat will fall apart), but the tzatziki is awesome. If you use plain greek yogurt, no need to drain.

Eggplant Fries: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/08/eggplant-fries
*Changed my life, follow this one exact

Let me know if you try this out... I'll bring za'atar with me tomorrow.

Pasta for Posterity

2011-09-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

A ten month hiatus... at least you have an excuse with wedding planning. I've just been lazy :) So much good food from Portugal and Korea to write about, but in the meantime, I need to document my ravioli recipe. Dug my trusty recipe out of the box today only to realize it was stuck to another recipe. Several minutes of prying and praying, and it came unglued- barely. So if you don't mind, I'd like to document electronically :)

Anna's Ravioli

Pasta
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup semolina flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs
2 tblsp oil
1 tblsp water (if dry)

Combine all ingredients in Kitchenaid mixer with paddle attachment. Mix on speed 4 for 1 minute. Turn off mixer and knead by hand to gather up dry bits- there should be dry bits, and if there aren't then you've added too much liquid. Add a bit of semolina in this case. If the dough crumbles in your hand, then add 1/2 tsp of water- the dough should be a firm, grainy ball. Add Dough Hook and mix on speed 4 for 1-2 more minutes. Dough should look smooth and somewhat shiny. Allow dough to rest up to 30 minutes in plastic wrap before rolling. Roll to desired thickness with roller attachment, making sure to place on a floured surface.

Ricotta
8 cups whole milk
4 cups buttermilk
Pinch of salt
strainer lined with cheesecloth

Combine whole and buttermilk in a pot over medium high heat. Stir constantly. As milk reaches boiling point, the curds will separate from the whey. Skim off curds and place in cheesecloth- there should be roughly 2 cups. Allow to drain anywhere from 5-20 minutes, depending on how firm you prefer your ricotta. Dump drained curds into bowl and season with a pinch of salt. Fantastic when served warm over crostini (stir in basil and honey). For this purpose... we're making ravioli filling.

Ravioli filling
1 cup cooled ricotta cheese (above)
1 large egg, whisked
1/2 cup shredded pecorino
fresh cracked pepper

Combine all ingredients in bowl, stirring until just combined

Assembly
Floured counter
Boiling pot of water

On a flat sheet of raw, floured pasta dough, dollop ~1tsp filling at 1 inch intervals. Take a 2nd sheet of pasta dough and lay ontop. Press all around the edges and between dollops to begin formation of ravioli. Cut with ravioli cutting wheel (a knife will do the trick too, but the wheel makes fun edges). After cutting with wheel, gently separate ravioli and examine edges. Odds are they won't be perfect, so pinch closed to seal any popped edges. Cook ravioli in boiling water for 3 minutes. DO NOT add pasta to water until it has reached a rapid boil- otherwise, the noodles will stick together. Drain after 3 minutes, and enjoy! Really good tossed with olive oil and topped with shredded parm... or with Trader Joes vodka sauce (after this much work, you won't want to make sauce too, trust me)

Happy eating!

2010-11-16T20:30:00.001-08:00

Hey Becky-

Would have been nice if I checked the blog first before sending you the harassment email about reunion. As usual, you're a step ahead ;) The Cornell chicken recipe sounds amazing- but to be honest, I'm not sure I have the patience to grill for 45 minutes on indirect heat. Maybe a job for the boys- they like to mess around with gas barrels and fire, I like playing with my knives :)

Salt potatoes are totally an upstate New York thing. Every Sunday at Mimi's (my grandma's), we'd go to the local fire pit and order two spit-roasted barbeque chickens, a few ears of corn, and a styrefoam container of salt potatoes covered in clarified butter. The chicken was so smoky, sweet, juicy, and crispy all at the same time- nothing like a smashed buttery potato to round out the experience. Dessert was always strawberry shortcake. With real whipped cream. I've never heard of grape pie- likely because my grandmother lives in a town of 1000 people... imagine grape pie is more common near the wineries in the Fingerlakes.

At any rate- the reunion food fest sounds like a date to me!

Next time, remind me to tell you about my pumpkin ravioli experiment. Everything from the pumpkin itself to the ricotta and pasta dough were scratch made. It was fun, but I'm thankful for Trader Joes during the week- no wonder my great grandmother spent her life kneading bread dough!

Cornell Reunion Via Food

2010-10-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hi Anna,

So I got to doing some date-related math the other day, and next May, we will have been graduated from Cornell for 5 years. Eeek! When did this happen?

I'm probably not going to be able to make it to reunion, since a) I'll be graduating from my master's program, b) I'm planning a trip to China in May so that my grandparents can meet Boy before we get married, and c) I already keep in touch with the people I want to from our class.

I saw this recipe on Huffington Post, and thought it would be a great meal spread to make in honor of Cornell, Ithaca, and all things upstate New York. Check out the article link at the end.

~Becky

Bob Baker's Cornell Chicken Recipe

Makes. 16 chicken quarters
Preparation time. 20 minutes
Cooking time. About 1 hour

Ingredients
1 egg
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups cider vinegar
1 tablespoon table salt
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning (click for recipe)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 broiler chickens cut into quarters

About quartering the bird. The original recipe calls for cutting the birds in half, but I think it is better to quarter them since the breast and thighs cook at different rates, with the breasts being thicker, but less forgiving. You can overcook thighs and drums a bit and still have moist meat, but not breasts.

About the sauce. It is very close to a mayonnaise, so you can store the sauce in the fridge for a couple of weeks, even though there is raw egg, because the vinegar, salt, and cold will prevent salmonella from multiplying. Cooking, of course makes it perfectly safe. You can cut the recipe in half by discarding half the egg after whisking it.

About the salt. I found Dr. Baker's original recipe just a bit salty at 3 tablespoons, so I cut it back to 1 tablespoon.

Do this
1) In a large bowl, whisk the egg white and yolk together with a balloon whisk or a hand mixer. Add the oil and whisk until it gets thick, homogenous, and a bright yellow, for about 2 minutes. A balloon whisk is the best tool for this job since the wire strands really do a good job or emulsifying (mixing together) the two ingredients, one oil based, the other water. Now whisk in the vinegar, salt, seasoning, and pepper.

2) Stab the chicken skin several times with a fork or knife so the marinade can get in and so fat can get out when cooking. This will help make the skin crispy. Marinate the chicken for 3 to 24 hours in zipper bags. You can do this in a bowl or pan, but you need more marinade than if you use zipper bags. Every hour or so, turn the meat a bit so all surfaces get well coated.

3) Set up the grill for 2-zone indirect cooking. This is an important technique. Click the link if you are not familiar with 2-zone grilling. Place the chicken over the indirect zone and close the lid. Every 5-10 minutes baste, turn the chickens on both sides, and move the ones closer to the heat away and the ones away closer.

4) Cooking about 30 to 45 minutes until the internal temperature of each part is 150F and stop basting. Then move them over the hot direct heat side of the grill, skin side down, and crisp the skin without burning it for 10-15 minutes. Flip and heat for about 5 minutes more. This step is important to finish cooking, crisp the skins, and make sure the meat is sterile since raw egg can contain salmonella. When the skin is crisp and the joint temp is at least 165F, take the meat off. For the dark meat stick the probe of a good instant read thermometer in the joint between the drumstick and thigh. That's the place that takes longest to cook. Even if it is a bit red in there when you cut in, it is safe at 165F according to USDA. I strongly recommend you use one of the fine new digital thermocouple thermometers available nowadays to make sure your poultry and other foods are cooked properly for taste and safety.

**Copied from article on Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-goldwyn/crispy-cornell-chicken-recipe_b_771375.html

Corn Pesto

2010-08-30T20:46:00.001-07:00

Hey Becky-

Normally my weeknight dinners are pretty boring- pizza, pasta with red sauce, soup... anything I can throw in the oven or a pot and heat. But I'm still pretending that I'm on vacation (and paying for it now as I type this at midnight). After digging through my cooking magazines, decided to try the pasta with corn pesto recipe from last month's Bon Appetit... except I made my own pasta :)

The pasta itself was an accomplishment this time- my dough generally varies from dry and gritty to sticky. This time, I combined 4 eggs, 1 tblsp oil, 2 tblsp water, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 c semolina flour, 1.5 c all purpose flour in the mixer and mixed 30 seconds with the flat beater and 2 minutes with the dough hook for a smooth, even consistency. And then- I actually let the dough rest. What a difference! The gluten must have had a chance to chill and lengthen- the dough was much more pliable than normal. Rather than beating it into submission with a rolling pin, we only had to feed it through the pasta roller a few times. Phew.

And the idea of creating a pesto with corn? Genius! Creamy, sweet like honey, and coated the pasta noodles evenly. The sweetness can be offset by either bacon (super salty, crunchy, totally out there like a swimsuit model in a thong) or by smoked salmon (smooth, smoky, mellow like a French model smoking a cigarette)- harmonized by clean, cool basil and salty sharp Parmesan.

One of my best weeknight dinners that I can't make every night because it took 1.5 hours. Started by chopping 4 pieces of bacon and frying till crispy. Remove bacon, wipe fry pan. In the meantime, cut corn off 3 cobs (~2 cups of corn), which is surprisingly easier when the corn is raw vs. cooked. Smash 1 garlic clove. Add garlic, corn, pinch salt, few grinds of pepper to pan and heat till crisp/tender. Then, make the pesto- use 3/4 of the corn, 1/4c pine nuts (or a nut blend if you don't have those- cashews and almonds are fun), 1/2c Parm, and combine with olive oil- I usually need to stir in between pulses or half my pesto looks like baby food and the other half is unprocessed. Dump ontop of pasta with remaining corn, bacon pieces, and basil. Stir to combine, and serve with more parm. If you have it, smoked salmon adds an entirely different smoky layer.

2010-08-28T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hey Becky-

Where the hell did the summer go- September already? What have you been up to? Like all good foodies, I've been earmarking time based on what I've eaten. Trip to Seattle? Nah, it was all about that crab omelet that I ate at Pike's Place Market and the Senegalese food in the family owned restaurant. More to come on that later- I'll spend the next few days trying to catch you up on my food adventures, and I hope to hear about yours too!

Starting with today... Taste of Blue Ash is our favorite local food festival. Blue Ash is a small suburb with a few thousand residents that looks like the Pleasantville movie set- streetlights, brick sidewalks, manicured street signs, and a propensity to compete with downtown's festivals by holding their own. Small restaurants offer $3-$5 portions, and with ~20 vendors it's enough variety to be entertaining without being completely overwhelming. Granted, the restaurants aren't the most popular by chain or by locavore standards, but a few dishes stood out: Cajun scallops on field greens with vinaigrette from La Petit France. Simple, well executed (the scallops were firm yet tender with a crispy glaze), and healthy (unheard of during a street fair). Parker's Blue Ash Grill always comes to the party with a firecracker stick- a tortilla stuffed with shrimp, sausage, and onions then rolled/deep fried and dunked in a cheesy tomato sauce. It's almost cheating because of the deep frying- but something about the spicy sausage setting off the crispy shell doused in cheesy, creamy goodness puts all pessimism to rest. And hell, everyone was walking around with one, sweating bullets no less (it was hot this afternoon)! There was a pork taco stand, though it didn't hold a candle to our local taco truck, Senor Roy's. I know, a taco truck in Cincinnati! Who would have thought that this was a cool enough city to merit a food truck?! Ach, so much to catch up on!

Weekend Blitz

2010-06-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

Hey Becky-

The title of your last blog makes me want to gag. The idea of sangria and schmaltz mixed together- while completely amusing in your entry- is a visual nightmare. *Shudder*

But yes... I am absolutely pro-sangria. First thing Matt and I did upon landing in Barcelona last year= walk to the beach, plop down at the most touristy cabana out there, and order a clay pitcher of the good stuff. I actually like the variation that's topped off with a splash of club soda or champagne... fizzy drinks are more fun. For my birthday, we went to a place in town that has three kinds of sangria- a white, a red, and a blue. How very American. Anyway, the blue sangria was champagne with curacao and blueberries. Didn't taste much like sangria but that also didn't stop us from downing a whole pitcher in less than an hour. And then consuming the red one in the next hour. Sadly, it is possible to have too much sangria... mmm but still so delicious. Unlike schmaltz.

I did have a food victory over the weekend. After several weeks of failed attempts to make bread, I successfully produced (wait for it)... hamburger rolls. That's right, homemade hamburger roles, thanks to a June 2008 issue of Gourmet. God I miss that magazine. Anyway, the instructions below. Seriously, any bungling bread-maker can successfully pop out a pile of hot, crunchy on the outside/moist and fluffy on the inside hamburger buns with this indestructible recipe:

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2008/06/hamburgerbuns

I've also found a food completely local to Cincinnati- well, apart from Cincinnati style chili. Goetta is a sausage that, according to Wikipedia, is of German origin. Really, it was invented by poor German immigrants to the Cincinnati area in the 19th century. How did I find this goetta? Well, it's sold all over the grocery stores and markets here... but the hell if I'm going to buy a pound of white grainy sausage just to try it. There was an entire festival dedicated to this stuff over the weekend that included the following applications: omelets, burritos, fried balls, sausage patties, pizza, sandwiches, etc. One food made that many different ways- AND I didn't have to cook it? Ech, why not. Wikipedia and most local food blogs describe goetta as: "ground meat combined with pin head or steel cut oats. Usually goetta is made from pork shoulder or "Cali", but occasionally contains equal parts pork and beef. Goetta is typically flavored with bay leaves, rosemary, salt, pepper, and thyme. It contains onions and sometimes other vegetables."

Sounds nice, right? Ok, let me break this down for you. Ground meat with spices, check. Then mix in Irish oatmeal- that's right, the thick, grainy oats (not the flimsy processed oats). End product= goetta. Eating goetta is like consuming a bowl of oatmeal with a little sausage mixed in. Kind of weird- I can see eating a bowl of grits with sausage, but oatmeal- especially Irish oatmeal- is supposed to be sweet, or at least buttermilk-y. Not meaty. It wasn't bad... just strange. I'm not sure why the Germans in Cincinnati were harder up than the Germans in New York, but they sure knew how to stretch a buck by adding the thickest oatmeal known to man in their sausage. What mystifies me is that this sausage stuck around... how many piles of slosh that people invented to get through Depressions ended up becoming local food icons?

Schmaltz and Sangria

2010-06-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Anna,

I must have had schmaltz when you took me to Seder at Cornell during senior year, but I don't remember the taste. However, I can imagine remembering the taste though, and it doesn't seem pleasant. The image reminds me of Depression-era people's Jar o' Random Oil and Fat that bully children dare wimpier children to eat a spoonful of.

On duck fat, I think it sounds great in theory because people imagine the fat and drippings off of a hot Beijing style roast duck (at least I do) or maybe a duck a l'orange for you Frenchy people. =P But the reality must be like the solidified white stuff on your duck and chicken leftovers after a night in the refrigerator. Talk about a morning after, eh? The mascara's smeared, the glitter's off, and it's just what it is. Schmaltz.

If you are out there searching for food epiphanies, I must be in a phase of secular foodieism. It's just too effin' hot to turn on the oven here, and I'm just not as hungry when it's over 100 degrees. I'm having fun with the bounty of summer fruit, though.

My latest thing is making sangria, and I can't remember if you were in the pro or anti sangria. Certainly, I am anti-sangria at Spanish tapas restaurants; $7 for a puny goblet is outrageous. Anyway, since we have a house now, we get to import all the kitchen toys we've been given over the past three years and storing in my parents' house and actually keep them in the same dwelling as us. This includes a pitcher that my brother and his wife had given us 2 years ago.

The following is a recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

2	large juice oranges , washed; one orange sliced; remaining orange juiced
1	large lemon , washed and sliced
1/4	cup granulated sugar
1/4	cup Triple Sec
1	bottle inexpensive, fruity, medium-bodied red wine (750 milliliters), chilled

1. Add sliced orange, lemon, and sugar to large pitcher; mash gently with wooden spoon until fruit releases some juice, but is not totally crushed, and sugar dissolves. Add in orange juice, Triple Sec, and wine; refrigerate for at least 2, and up to 8, hours.

2. Immediately before serving, add in some ice and stir to redistribute fruit pulp.

Cook's Illustrated says that a cheap merlot works best for this recipe, but whatever you use, the key word is CHEAP. I've used the $5 Lambrusco red table wine with fantastic results, and I figure you can't go wrong with a Spanish wine like a tempranillo for sangria.

I've also thrown in mangoes and peaches into the mix for a fruitier taste.

Also, since I can't be drinking alcohol for all the days that Arizona is hot this summer, I've taken to adding chunks of fruit and mint leaves to my lemonade.

Best,
Becky

Double Dare

2010-06-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

You're right, that was totally a Far Side comic, and a fair point. How many times in your life can you say that you've tried a new food, independent of any outside influence (watching someone else eating said food, etc). Probably never...

Speaking of new foods- I've been dying to try duck fat fries and finally had the opportunity tonight at a place called Senate. The way they've been talked up in food articles and blog posts, I was expecting the holy grail of all french fries- some subliminal, crunchy, meaty experience that transcends any possible potato experience on this earth. As a Jew, I should have known better. Have you ever had the pleasure of trying schmaltz? If not... it's the most commonly used ingredient in traditional Jewish cookery. Keeping kosher means no bacon, but butter and oil don't seem to recreate the meaty base in stews and casseroles. Ever wonder why matzah ball soup has that funky, musky aftertaste? That's right- schmaltz. It's actually a little gross to look at in pure form, all clear, giggly, and wibbly (ugh, you can actually buy it in the store).

But- I digress. My point on the schmaltz tirade is that the duck fat fries tasted like my Jewish grandmother's roasted potatoes. Don't get me wrong- they were good... definitely had a mellow aftertaste. But duck fat tastes nearly identical to chicken fat, and I'm plenty familiar with that flavor. So- the "organic," "fresh," "straight from the heart of France," flavor that duck fat imparts upon fries? In reality, it wasn't nearly as impressive as it sounded. Tasty- but not an epiphany.

On a Dare

2010-06-09T08:05:00.001-07:00

Hi Anna,

Your last comment on cheese being made in an animal bladder got me thinking: who was the poor forgotten soul way back when who TRIED [insert odd food here - cheese, beer, etc] for the first time? Think about it - we don't go around scraping our fingernails into crud in the corners of our tupperware, do we?

For some reason, I imagine cavemen fraternity boys were the first, some band of roving testosterone with a penchant for groupthink. There is some mushy white stuff oozing out of one of the packs. One of them pokes it with a grubby finger. "EAT IT, Og!" another hoots, and a chorus rises up (OG! OG! OG!) and echoes over the rocks. Undaunted and spurred on by the dare of his band, Og picks up the mush and gives it a sniff before scooping it into his mouth.

*voila!* We have cheese.

BTW: I've been reading a lot of Far Side comics over summer break.

Becky

The Rut- Broken!

2010-06-06T17:12:00.001-07:00

Hey Becky-

As of this week, it's safe to say that my 8 week cooking rut has been broke... there has been seriously awesome food made in this kitchen. I'll post a few entries describing each, but right now I'm most excited about my home-made ricotta cheese! The recipe was in a Bon Appetit from March, and I just now got around to trying it out. And for how easy it was to make, you'd think all the celebrity chefs on the Food Network would use it as a parlor trick. The end result? Fresh, creamy cheese- I like it best when it's still warm :)

Start with 8 c whole milk and 2 c buttermilk in a big pot on high heat. Stir for 7-8 minutes...when the liquid is nearly at a boil, the curds will separate from the whey. Take it off the heat, skim the curds off the top with a slotted spoon into a layer of cheesecloth over a strainer. Squeeze very gently (or you'll have dry cheese, ew)... then drain 20 mins. Put in a bowl with a dash of salt, chill, and you have home-made ricotta. It takes more time to heat an instant lasagna than to make this cheese.

Curious- ricotta in some form was probably one of the first cheeses. Isn't it urban legend that cheese was discovered when nomads stored sheep's milk in animal bladders. Rennet from the bladders separated the curds from the whey... and now we're using buttermilk as rennet :)

The Happiest 3 Hours...

2010-05-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

Becky!

Ok, well no hard feelings about the blog... I apparently just matched your record of not checking a post. No updates so far on the bread, as I just unpacked my KitchenAid. But my, oh my do I have a story to tell you!

Last Sunday, my mom and I decided to splurge on brunch at the Four Seasons hotel- And this wasn't just any breakfast/lunch combination. The hotel itself is nice, finished with marble and such... but had eyes only for the table wrapped all the way around the terrace- and that didn't include the dessert room (yes, room). After briefly purveying the area, we decided to start with the seafood- light, expensive, and well, why would you want to end a massive brunch with fish? Then we moved on to salads, sushi, risottos, raviolis, carving stations, and of course, dessert.

Most shocking item of the morning was a lobster boil- hunks of lobster in white bowls with potato and andouille sausage, topped with steaming fish stock. Surprising both in quantity and quality... really, the lobster was amazingly sweet, with the telltale "firm yet chewy" texture. And the shrimp- piles upon piles of shrimp- were cooked perfectly. Juicy, and sweet. The sheer number of salads was also ridiculous- and the amount of work! Everything from heart of palm with seafood... to cold thai peanut noodle... to shredded beef in tostada.

My favorite of the day was a sweet corn risotto with shrimp. The risotto, of course, was smooth, creamy, with pops of crispy sweet corn at intervals between the teeth. And the shrimp... no, these weren't cooked in the risotto but pan friend and placed ontop- a piece de resistance.

There was also an entire breakfast line- you name it... biscuits and gravy, fruit, yogurt, waffles with 10 toppings, omelets with 20 toppings, bagels and lox... but we skipped the whole area. Figured we could find breakfast items like that on other days.

But no! The pontificating has only just begun... we both grew second stomachs to tuck away dessert. At first glace of the perfectly glazed custard petit fours and French macarons, I thought I was sitting in L'Aduree in Paris. Honestly- bravo to these guys for putting out a more impressive, higher quality dessert spread than others offered in shops with pastry chefs. Sweets were literally stacked on my plate. Simply couldn't choose between the chocolate dipped passionfruit profiterole that popped in the mouth like a creamy, tangy explosion... or the triple layered panna cotta, each tier with a completely distinct flavor profile (strawberry, lemon, mango) that tasted more like custardy cream than buttermilk panna cotta. The French macarons alone are telling- even the best bakeries in Paris can't make them right, and somehow, The Four Seasons Atlanta stands up firmly next to L'Aduree with the perfectly round build, crunchy exterior, mildly chewy interior, and creamy fillings. Other details- like the custard inside the petit fours and the mango sticky rice that actually tasted like mango- were simply icing on the cake.

Every condiment, sauce, and dressing was home-made- the food tasted better than "as it should"... really, the sign of an amazing meal.

I think you would have loved it... maybe sometime?

MIA

2010-04-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

Hi Anna,

I just decided to check the blog and have come to realize that for the last 3 weeks, you were having a fascinating, articulate conversation on food...with yourself. School has been crazy lately. I have 5 papers due in the next 2 weeks, on top of prepping for internship interviews for the fall.

Do you remember certain times in your life where at some point in the day, you go - "Oh yeah, food!" Or you're so busy, you don't realize what you're eating? That's been me.

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles with bread. I'm not the breadbaker, Rob is, but all of his stuff has turned out scrumptious. I've heard of The Bread Bible, but you might also want to look at The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.

Also - check out this link: http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knead-bread-revisited.html

This was our first bread back in California. A successful, no fuss bread ought to make you feel better. Put on extra butter for me.

Back to researching suicide statistics in the elderly. What fun, eh? I'll talk to you soon!

Becky

Eat Your Heart Out... or Work Your Ass Off...

2010-04-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ok Becky- the meal I just made topped Thanksgiving. Seriously. I cooked for 8 hours and ate for 6, and now I can't move. Matt's family stopped by for dinner and requested seafood pasta, so what do we do? We make (in no particular order): grilled calamari with aioli, bruscetta, a parade of Trader Joe's appetizers, salad, *the* seafood pasta, and a ricotta cheesecake.

The most difficult part of the meal? Nope, not cleaning the clams or cooking the calamari. It was the caramel orange sauce that topped the cheesecake- literally an hour segmenting oranges, simmering sugar water, cursing over broken food processors and hardened caramel... all for 3/4 cup of sauce that was, while much appreciated, admittedly a disposable part of the meal.

Surprises?
1) The cheesecake survived in the the oven without a water bath- you know, I sometimes think that recipes are designed to scare people away. "Don't bake this without a water bath, or it will most definitely be dry." Well, we hesitated for a minute, after realizing that we didn't own a roaster pan- but what the hell are you supposed to do with a half finished cheesecake filling? Replace the water bath with a small pan of water on a lower rack, and reduce the cook time 15 minutes. Voila, moist cheesecake.
2) Matt has mad pasta rolling skills- pounding the daylights out of semolina pasta ain't easy, and he slammed 1.5 pounds into submission in 15 minutes flat. I actually felt like a jerk feeding the already rolled dough through the automatic press, me standing idly against the hum of the machine, while sweat glistened across Matt's forehead.
3) Bread flour is evil, and I will never bake another loaf with it again- another failed, entirely too dense loaf of French destined for croutons.

How's your weekend going?

Life Moving On

2010-03-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

Hey Becky-

Was great talking to you tonight :) After this weekend, I feel like life moves really fast for some people. Take my grad school friend as an example. In 3.5 years, she met her husband, got engaged/married, moved to Canada, and is about to have a baby. I know her life is an odd benchmark, but it's really starting to feel like a long time since we've lived in the same city- we both still watch Lost (for 7 more weeks) and I think we both still nosh at night. Food, even then, was such a huge part of our friendship... the more I think about it, food was our excuse to get together- hardly ever a meeting without a pan of brownies, a pint of ice cream, or a brunch. There was good conversation and the occasional study session, of course- but always with an accompaniment. I haven't changed much- am still attached to popcorn- total comfort food, reminds me of Sunday nights at my grandmother's house when we used to replace dinner with home-made popcorn and a movie. Just had a bowl tonight- like a replacement friend, in a way. What are you up to?

Little Italys

2010-03-28T20:02:00.001-07:00

Hey Becky-

Did you see the basketball game last Thursday? I was so excited the first 3 minutes, then downhill from there... at any rate, a highlight for Cornell :)

Was in Toronto for the weekend for a friend's baby shower and ventured over to Little Italy for dinner. I know- Italian two weekends in a row- ridiculous. In Atlanta 2 weekends ago, we celebrated my sister's birthday at a restaurant my dad worked at for 10 years... I remember playing tag and coloring pictures in the courtyard as a little kid, between parent shifts. Anyway, the place looked the same as it did when my dad left in 1996 (and probably when it opened in the early 80's). Purple walls, dim lighting- felt like I was starring in the Godfather. Good food, choked down an entire plate of beef carpacio- note to self, never order that dish for one.

So- Toronto- Little Italy- Marinella. The maitre d' owned the restaurant, and his mother was the chef. The food was amazing because it tasted like it should- perfectly seasoned sauces, nothing overly greasy. I ordered lamb 3 ways: 1) braised lamb shank that tastes just like when I braise at home but with the added benefit of a spicy sauce that I can't figure out how to re-create, 2) grilled lamb chop- juicy, seasoned with salt and lime, 3) hand-made lamb tortellini, stuffed with ground lamb and topped with mild tomato sauce. Restaurant had a simple design, great service. The house marinella sauce (tomato sauce, cream, white wine sherry, bruscetta tomatoes) was really a show-stopper... friend ordered it with handmade fettuccine with lobster tail. Something about the sauce- it was creamy, spicy, punchy- so well-balanced and smooth! Hate to say it, but I might have enjoyed the Toronto meal a bit more... then again, I'm a sucker for cream sauces and absolutely anything braised...

The Sweetest End

2010-03-09T20:04:00.000-08:00

Chocolate macaron with chocolate ganache, espresso gelato, and port soaked cherries. The macaron itself would have been a huge treat- the good ones are practically impossibly to find outside of Paris (sometimes even inside Paris). Crispy exterior set off by a moist, chewy interior that sticks and simultaneously melts to the roof of your mouth... all made even more insane by the rich creaminess of the ganache and the milky bitter gelato- set off by the sweet tartness of cherry. We ate this like greedy children attacking a box of chocolate- no mercy, no survivors... the pretty macaron was crushed and the gelato smeared into submission 1.5 seconds after this photo was taken... and we savored every bite :)

Moo

2010-03-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

This was my favorite dish- officially called Beef Stracotto with Tomato Concasse, Seasonal Mushrooms, and Sage Butter. More like a beef symphony in a creamy, earthy buttery explosion. The raviolis were impossibly delicate, encased in a transparently thin pasta shell. Seriously, when I roll pasta at home, setting 4 out of 8 is as thin as I go... any thinner, and the dough shreds in my fingers. This dough was at least a 7 out of 8. The filling itself, I know, must have taken hours to prepare. It wasn't just braised beef- it was the marrow bones and overtones of veal stock... rich, deep, complex with a superfine texture that resulted from shredding and pureeing. All finished with the light (but oh so heavy) sage cream sauce and salty ricotta salata.

This one was the boy's favorite- caramelized so well that he called it "beef candy." I honestly don't like filet usually... too tender, lacks flavor. But this one was so well marinated and seared- and the demi glace enhanced the natural flavor of the beef, which was meaty, deep, and soft as butter. Beneath the steak are asparagus and spaetzle. Nothing like a doughy, buttery spaetzle to complement a melty slab of beef. Yum.

St. Louis part 2

2010-03-04T20:18:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted to try salmon on blinis with creme fraiche... well, here we go: House-smoke salmon with caviar on buckwheat crepes with craime fraiche and pickled onion. Alone, the salmon was like a bite of salt water- but together, all the ingredients combined and flavors melded, and the coolness of the craime fraiche cut the saltiness of the salmon.

St. Louis part 1

2010-03-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

Hey Becky-

Had a fabulous dinner at Cielo in St. Louis last weekend. As much as I love food... it's also really nice when the restaurant also has good service. I'll post one course a day over the next few days, starting with the Raw Bar Plate. Included three different sections, starting with three types of raw oysters with apple vinegar and cocktail sauce. The slippery oysters were salty but the lemon and vinegar cut through to the flavor. Ignored the cocktail sauce. Also, crab claws with saffron aioli (tender, cold meat). Housmade spicy tuna- large chunks of tuna soaked in spicy sauce, though the deep flavor could have been spicier. I've probably been spoiled by sushi places ;)

2010-03-02T20:16:00.001-08:00

I need to check the blog more often! I saw this article... can't blame Adria for shutting down, what an insane amount of money to lose- museums are more profitable. That still doesn't mean I'm jealous of anyone who's had a chance to go... must be one of those food epiphany, once-in-a lifetime experiences. But really, with a 4000 person waitlist- what were the chances?

Have you been to the El Bulli website? It's a culinary library in and of itself, full of articles, recipes, and writeups on cooking methods... mwahaha, a food writer's repository! This should be enough to keep us entertained for a while.

Ps on the dinner party- all 15 people showed up, and there were actually 5 loaves of bread, 5 lbs of pasta, and 7 nights of leftovers. And yes, I rolled my own pasta. Would have been worth it had I estimated the recipe properly... instead, I made double the necessary amount and found myself rolling (sweating) for an extra 2 hours. Followed up by 3 very much needed glasses of wine... had a great time at the party but not sure I remember a single conversation ;)

El Bulli is Closing

2010-02-14T15:51:00.001-08:00

Hey Anna,

Check out this article from the NY Times.

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/el-bulli-to-close-permanently/

The Dinner Party

2010-02-08T20:04:00.000-08:00

So after my Israel trip, I felt inspired to host a Shabbat dinner for Birthright alumni in Louisville. What the heck, great excuse to cook and I might meet some other Jewish people my age along the way- seriously, I think they've been hiding the last two years.

A week after the initial invite, and the guest list was 6... nice, manageable number... I have enough plates for 8. The menu will be pretty simple- fettuccine alfredo with green salad. The fun part is that I'm making everything, pasta included, from scratch.

It's T-minus 4 days until the party, and I just found out that my guest list has grown to 15. That's 5 pounds of pasta, 2 loaves of challah, and 4 bags of salad. Not to mention, where the hell are they all going to fit in my one bedroom apartment? If I cook the pasta in two pots and put some people on the couch, I guess it can work. Thank god for my new mixer. Will keep you posted.

Becky's new house

2010-02-07T17:01:00.000-08:00

So- have you found a way to eat in your new house yet?

Amazing how difficult it is to cook and eat without dishes ;) Such a shame that the lack of a salad bowl prevented you from eating gooey, crunchy spanakopita. Ugh, you're making me hungry right now thinking about it.

I haven't moved, nor do I have hidden dishes- but I have been eating the same pot of chili for 8 days in a row... hazard of dinner party leftovers and no roommate to share with. Not gonna lie, the chili was amazing the first three nights- an ancho steak variety that braised 4 hours in a handmade paste. But after 8 days... I'm done. And dreaming about the spanakopita that you almost ate the other day ;)

Cooking in my new house

2010-02-01T19:21:00.000-08:00

nothing is easy anymore.

Boy and I wanted to heat up some spanikopita and make a salad for dinner in our new house. simple, right?

1) new gas oven smell freaked us out. Is this going to kill us in our sleep? poison our food?

2) we need to take out the spanikopita. where are potholders? shit.

3) alright, where are towels? shit.

4) is your sleeve going to be long enough to take the food out of the oven?

5) where is knife?

6) do we know where cutting board is?

7) plates must be cleaned from being wrapped in newsprint so we can eat off them. I think we're out of dish soap and sponges.

8) I think if we rinse them off, they should be okay.

9) do we have another towel that does not have a burning hot tray resting on it?

10) no longer hungry. this house thing is going to be harder than I thought.

~Becky

2010-01-05T20:42:00.000-08:00

Ok Becky, I think I just fell in love. There is a brand-new Empire Red KitchenAid stand mixer sitting on my kitchen counter- after 5 years, I practically need to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. Oh, this isn't any regular stand mixer... I bought the 575-watt professional grade sucker that supposedly makes 13 pounds of mashed potatoes and 8 loaves of bread.

Speaking of bread- tried to make challah with my new baby this weekend and failed. The end result was dense and flat. After root causing, there could have been two issues: 1) over-rising the dough, or 2) pushing the dough at the last minute.

Possible Issue 1- Dough over-rose
The cause of my flat bread was not dead yeast... I've killed yeast before, which usually means it doesn't proof. Not only did the yeast proof, but the dough rose twice so much that it spilled out of the bowl. Upon shaping, the dough was warm, soft, and pliable. Yet when the bread rose after shaping- it expanded outward rather than up. So... maybe I let the dough rise too much the first two times, and the gluten broke down?

Possible Issue 2- Pushing dough
As mentioned above, my shaped challah expanded out rather than up. Meaning it expanded clear off the cookie sheet. Couldn't bake it like that, so gave a gentle nudge. Sadly, I think the nudge deflated the bread.

What do you think? I'm venturing to guess that a certain guy who is doomed to chew on pounds of deflated bread would be much appreciative of your opinion ;)

Coq au Vin

2009-12-10T19:13:00.000-08:00

For my dinner party last night, I had the brilliant idea of making coq au vin. How hard can it be, chicken in wine sauce, right? Ok, lesson learned.
Coq au vin is NOT a weeknight dish... 30 steps later, and I remembered why I never attempted it before. Literally more work for one bird than preparation of an entire Thanksgiving dinner. First- there's the marinade. No wine in a baggie for this bird- the wine was simmered for 10 minutes with celery, carrot, onion, and peppercorn. Sufficiently aromatic, it is then acceptable for the bird to meet the wine (for the first time). In the fridge it goes for two days, until it's time to fry more bacon than I wish to think about, brown the chicken, separate the marinade (usually mine hits the disposal, much less getting separated for use). After sufficient chicken browning, then the veggies are browned, mixed with flour for a roux, and combined with the liquid marinade, chicken stock, shallots, and garlic. Do not burn the flour.... quickest way to ruin a coq au vin. Chicken returns to pot for a little swim, while a pound of mushrooms are fried in as much butter (yum). After 45 minutes, call the chicken done- then separate the sauce AGAIN, but make sure to keep the liquid not the solids. Boil sauce for the last time, add the mushrooms, spoon over the cooked bird and voila- coq au vin. At this point, I was sweating... but damn, it was worth it. As with any piece of meat, the French cooking has a way of making it more tender, more flavorful, and more juicy than simply baking, grilling, frying, or poaching. Seriously, if they can make chicken, the most bland and dry of all meats, taste like a delicacy... imagine the wild game (mwahaha).

Arepa!

2009-11-22T19:32:00.000-08:00

When scouring Manhattan a few weeks ago for an interesting place to go to dinner, I ended up not at the trendy new restaurant in Meatpacking... but at the tiny Caracas Arepa Bar in East Village. Becky, I'd never heard of an arepa before- have been seriously missing out. The corn cake is slightly thicker than a tortilla and ten times as crunchy. Normally I'd say the filling is the best part but really, it was the hot cake that tastes like cornbread with the texture of a tortilla (kind of). Sadly, no arepas at home... hoping someone will open a Venezuelan or Colombian restaurant soon!

(L-R)- Pork arepa, chicken and avacado arepa, black bean/white cheese arepa.

Salted Lemons

2009-11-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

So I tried a salted lemon last weekend... it was sliced around my plate of braised lamb shank at a Moroccan restaurant called the Sultan's Tent in Toronto. The meat itself was the melt-in-your-mouth variety, with underpinnings of cinnamon and paprika. So I thought a bite of lemon would be a complement. I should have known better... I don't like olives because of their saltiness... what did I think a salted lemon would be? Actually, it was worse than salty- it was sour, salty, pungent in almost a sickening way. Honestly, it was easier to eat pig lung in China...

2009-10-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

Hey Becky-

Tried a new recipe today... lamb ragu. It's amazing how a $4/lb shrink wrapped appendage can be transformed into such a richly delicious stew. Anthony Bourdain wrote in The Nasty Bits that "any cretin can grill a steak after a few tries. It takes a cook to transform a humble pig's foot into something people clamor for"(20). Think about it... the steak in the grocery store on display beckons hungry customers to purchase it's cleanly cut and trimmed slab, an orb of red bloody perfection.
Meanwhile, the lamb legs, beef cheeks, and calf livers are piled into a cooler like the leftovers that they are. I tried beef cheek pierogis at a restaurant called Lola in Cleveland a few months ago... rich, marrowy flavor that I've been dying to recreate. Then I found the package of beef cheek not at Whole Foods or Fresh Market but at WalMart- $2/lb and it was enormous... literally half of a cow face trimmed. "How in the hell am I supposed to cook that?" I pondered. I don't even own a pot large enough to cook the monstrosity. A package of flank steak hit my basket.
So there I was yesterday, reading the recipe for lamb ragu- and it called for "lamb shank." Ok, leg of lamb, how bad can it be? Said leg of lamb was located in the requisite cooler next to the other parts... shrink wrapped five times and on sale. Covered in a layer of skin and fat, no less. It's amazing what slow cooking for three hours will do to even the most offending cuts. The fat dissipated, the marrow created a deep, flavorful broth and the remaining meat was tender. Ok, so it probably doesn't take a real cook to prepare unsavory cuts of meat... it just takes one to have the nuts to do it.

RIP, Yuca, and Becky's First Post

2009-10-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hi Anna,

I always hoped that my first post on the blog would be a thoughtful and well-written piece that would herald my entry into the food-writing world. Alas, you'll be getting a slapdash post that was cobbled together in between my studying for 2 horrifying midterms this week. Oh well.

This is probably bordering on food-blasphemy, but I've never actually read Gourmet magazine, though I know how much it means to you. Our house subscribes to Cooks Illustrated, Cooks Country (by accident) and Food and Wine. We own one issue of Gourmet that highlights Latino cooking from 2007, but we haven't read it (...yet. It's on the list.)

On my chili...for the life of me, I can't remember the story about the knife. I recall that I fed myself on chili for a good part of our sophomore year and that I paid an outlandish price for the knife (a cleaver, really) at Wegman's.

I haven't really been up to any food adventures lately, mostly because grad school and my internship are sucking out any culinary creativity I might have had. My food world has consisted of oatmeal, Starbucks, and Trader Joe's frozen entrees lately. On the other hand, The Boy has been having fun with The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart; he made pizza dough from scratch last weekend, and it turned out awesome.

Well, this social policy and human behavior material isn't going to study itself. Talk to you later.

Becky

RIP

2009-10-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hey Becky-

Can you believe Gourmet is shutting down? Found out at work today when a co-worker sent the below via instant message:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/conde-nast-to-close-gourmet-magazine/?hp

Responses I've seen have been succinct:

"Noooooooo."
"Why?"
"Wtf"

Really, it's worse than if Pepsi swallowed Coke or NBC merged with ABC. My food magazine choices will now be limited to Bon Appeptit and smaller publications like Food and Wine and Saveur. Granted, both Gourmet and Bon Appetit are owned by Conde Nast, with the latter beating in circulation by 400,000 issues each month. But who didn't wait in breathless expectation each month to crack open Bon Appetit and Gourmet to decide which magazine had better content.

In the late 1990's, it was definitely Gourmet that boasted more interesting recipes, prettier photos, and more attractive menus. Actually, reading Bon Appetit was like reading a dowdier, more cluttered version of Gourmet. Then, the magazine took Gourmet by storm in January 2008 with a redesign that suddenly made it the more useful, practical, and interesting of the two publications. Even I- among the most die hard Gourmet fans- began gravitating toward Bon Appetit's newly sharp, luscious covers that highlight the details of the featured dish while simultaneously crafting the shot into focus (ancho beefsteak chili with butternut squash, anyone?)... its aptly organized recipe spreads (mix and match Thanksgiving, by course)... and its punchy, entertaining articles (good call on featuring blogger Molly Wizenberg).

Hence, Gourmet became the dowdier version of Bon Appetit. But I really don't understand why Conde Nast would shut the door on a magazine that has accumulated 68 years of brand recognition... surely that is worth more than a few subscriptions? And I'll miss Ruth Reichl's uplifting Letter to the Editor... there's always an anecdote about food, life, enjoying both... hope she keeps signing book deals.

You Say Yuca

2009-09-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

Hey Becky... this one might sound familiar... the whole situation just makes me chuckle. Reminds me of the first time you made chili. Not the yuca part, but the knife struggle.

~Love from, Anna

“What is food to one, is to others bitter poison”

--Lucretius (96 BC - 55 BC), De Rerum Natura

My Wüsthof knife quivered through the sluggish flesh, apt to slip at any second and turn my relaxing evening into a bloodbath at the emergency room. In a moment of frustration, the knife was flung as an attempt to dislodge the perpetrator… how dare it not slice? No movement. The offender was pummeled against the counter to separate its thick starchy hold from my precious blade, resulting in a “thud” on my kitchen floor. There was a showdown in my kitchen, and it was time for the big guns—my hair-splitting cleaver smuggled from Shanghai. One whack and it didn’t stand a chance. My first attempt to cook cassava root at home sounded more like the beginning of a CSI episode.

If I hadn’t known better, I would have questioned why on earth people willingly enter such hell to prepare a root vegetable. The appearance of cassava isn’t particularly appealing (it looks like a long piece of withered ginger root), the thick skin is coated in wax (to keep the vegetable moist), and the amount of starch makes removing gum from the bottom of your shoe look like a cake walk. All this, without mention of the woody, invisible core, which is capable of breaking teeth if not removed. Also note that raw cassava contains trace amounts of cyanide, 40mg of which is sufficient to kill a cow. It must not want to be eaten.

In spite of its best efforts, cassava became the main food source in parts of Central and South America well before the Spanish conquest. Its toxicity might even be referenced in the creation story of the Taino, a Pre-Columbian Caribbean tribe. Deminán, the tribe’s Adam-equivalent, sprouts a painful cyst on his back as punishment for stealing cassava bread. The cyst becomes a female turtle with which Deminán cohabitates. What exactly is the story’s moral—creation of humankind… or don’t eat that poisonous undercooked cassava?

Not to be confused with the Southwestern agave perennial shrub “yucca,” cassava’s popularity in present time rages globally. While visiting Brazil, I stumbled upon an amazing fish stew in a viscous tomato broth and pão de queijo (buttery cheese puffs). According to my Portuguese-speaking friend, manioc flour was the main ingredient in both recipes. Not knowing what the hell manioc was, I inquired at a local market. It’s amazing how much can be understood by the pitch in one’s intonation. The ignorant inquiry “Manioc?” resulted in three ladies pulling me toward the large display of long, brown roots. Light bulbs flashed in my head.... Long brown root equals manioc flour equals Brazilian cuisine. Brilliant.

In Africa, cassava root acts as a staple for 30% of the population[1], due to its high level of “food energy” per cultivated area. Ever tried Chinese bubble tea or sneaked a spoonful of grandma’s tapioca pudding? That’s right… tapioca pearls, flakes, and powders are derived from cassava root paste. And really, have you tasted a more satisfying fry than the yuca frita? Bite through the thick, super-crunchy exterior coating only to have the profuse pulp stick to the roof of your mouth. Though not in the potato family, cassava is like a French fry on steroids—it’s crispier, it’s five times starchier, and it’s sweeter to boot.

So—back to the question of why the hell anyone would risk an appendage to cook cassava root? Because, it’s delicious, versatile, and embedded in the cuisines of multiple cultures. But honestly… my kitchen is not a tapioca factory, and I am not a villager subsisting on home-grown crops. My fingers and knives are too important to risk damage. Thank goodness for the Whole Foods frozen food section. Next time, preparation of this particular root will be limited to snipping the freezer bag with a pair of scissors.

[1] http://www.idosi.org/wasj/wasj4(6)/16.pdf