welcome to my pantry

Salty sweetness.

2009-03-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

There's not much I need to say about this tart other than it made the top ten list of things I've ever had in my mouth. I think the pictures can convey the rest.

The recipe originally appeared in The Last Course by Claudia Fleming but the version I used comes from the Diner Journal from the guys at Marlow and Sons' in NYC.

Salted Caramel Tart

For the dough:

4 oz. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. confectioner's sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. flour
1/4 unsweetened cocoa
pinch of salt

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolk and vanilla. Sift the flour and cocoa and add to butter mixture. Mix until just combined. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for about an hour. Roll the dough out and press into a 12 inch fluted removable bottom tart pan. (I found the dough hard to roll out but it's easy to press back together. Just do the best you can to make it look pretty!) Prick the dough with a fork and refrigerate again while preheating the oven to 325 degrees. The recipe says to blind bake the tart shell with pie weights but I did it without and the tart didn't really shrink at all. You choose... Bake until dry and set, about 15-20 minutes. In the meantime, make the caramel.

For the caramel:

1/2 c. water
2 c. sugar
1/4 c. corn syrup (optional-see below)
4 oz unsalted butter
1/2 heavy cream
2 Tbsp. crème fraîche or sour cream

You can get away with not using corn syrup- just up the sugar by 1/4 cup. Invert sugars help caramel from crystallizing as you cook it. If you don't have much experience making caramel, I suggest using the corn syrup because it's one less thing to worry about. Put the water, sugar and corn syrup in a large, light bottomed saucepan (I say this because some have a black coating and then you can't see the caramel color so be sure to use a silver pot). Cook on high heat until the sugar starts to brown, without stirring. Turn the heat down and watch carefully at this point until the caramel is dark brown. Adding the cream will stop the cooking of the cream so have it ready to go but add it in a slow stream because it will cause the sugar syrup to bubble and spit like crazy. Add the butter and sour cream and stir over low heat until smooth. Pour the caramel into the baked tart shell and cool in the fridge until set.

For the ganache:

1/2 c. cream
3 1/2 oz. high-quality bitterseet chocolate, chopped

Put the chocolate in a bowl. Scald the cream and pour over chocolate. Let sit a few minutes and then whisk until smooth. Pour over the tart when the caramel has set. I had some leftover ganache from another project that I used for this and looking at the quantities here, I think I used more than called for- you might want to double the ganache recipe. You could always roll a few truffles if you end up with too much.

The recipe in Diner Journal doesn't mention the salt but it's key to the whole experience. I think Maldon is the perfect salt for this because it's crunchy but won't break a tooth. You can use any course sea salt. Use more than you might think is prudent. You won't be sorry.

Have your cake and your sanity too.

2009-03-03T18:17:00.000-08:00

If baking freaks you out, you might want to try my favorite alternative to a traditional cake- a crêpe stack! The traditional crêpe cake (or Mille Crêpes) has pastry cream between the layers and the top is gilded with sugar and torched like a Crème Brulèe. I don't know when I first heard about this dessert but I know when I first decided to give it a try. I used to have a food cart and on market Saturdays I would cook up breakfast for the hungry hordes. One option was crêpes with local mascarpone chese and seasonal berries. For some reason, the breakfast burrito always way outsold the crêpes and sometimes I'd come home with a vat of crêpe batter. Pastry cream has never been my favorite so I used to fill my stack with whipped cream and apple butter.
I recently made a batch of citrus curd with lemon, key lime, grapefruit and orange juice for a local restaurant. Left with an extra pint for me, I had to come up with something to do with it besides watching it disappear one spoonful at a time. Lucky for me my favorite local coffee roaster indulges my need to bake by trading treats for coffee. I knew they'd love a curd crêpe cake! If you already have some fillings on hand putting one of this together is a cinch. My favorite crêpe recipe is Julia Child's.
You can make the batter in the blender and it needs and hour to rest. You don't NEED a crepe pan but it sure makes things easier. I didn't even mess up the first crêpe this time! If you want a truly impressive stack, I recommend a double batch of crêpes. For a single batch, I went through less than a pint of curd and almost a pint of cream for the whipped cream.
My original intention was to stack the crêpes between parchment and then assemble the finished product after I made them all. Lacking parchment, I assembled as I went and it seemed not to cause problems. I just cleared a space in the fridge to cool the cake so the crêpes wouldn't melt the cream. Really, it's a piece of cake!

Snow Day for adults.

2008-12-10T06:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first major accumulation of the season. Technically, we were both supposed to be working from home. We had good intentions and started with some laundry but mostly there was a lot of lazing around with extra coffee, multiple shoveling sessions, and a finished pair of knit socks while watching Fargo for the umpteenth time. But this brunch was the highlight of the day.
Homemade corned beef hash and fried eggs with my best loaf of no-knead bread yet, according to Sam. This is my second time making corned beef from scratch. It takes some planning, since you need to brine the beef for 8 days, but it is not difficult and well worth the effort because you can make boiled dinner, reuben sandwiches and hash for breakfast all from one piece of meat. Here's a link to my flickr set when I did exactly that back in March.

All these recipes are available on Epicurious (search corned beef, March 2008), which is my go to recipe source on the web. It has all the recipes from Bon Appetit and Gourmet and reading the reviews of the recipes is sometimes helpful and often hilarious.

I did venture out once the snow stopped for some tp (when you got to go, you got to go!) and took the opportunity to buy a tree.

Believe it or not, this is the first tree I've ever bought as an adult. I never had enough ornaments and I was usually not home on Christmas so I never bothered. I'm also not a fan of chopping down trees for short, one-time use. If you lived through winter in the mid-west last year, though, you might understand my desire to seek out ways to keep things cheery around here. As I dragged it in the house and that pine scent permeated, I instantly felt a lot more festive. I also ordered some bright red snow boots. Wheeee! I say, let the snow come. I'm not letting winter get me down!

I finally gave wordle a whirl.

2008-12-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

I love it! Now you try.

Buttery biscuits.

2008-12-07T17:46:00.001-08:00

Nothin' says easy like Sunday morning like a batch of warm biscuits. Especially when your significant other is kind enough to make them for you. Yesterday, we were all up while it was still dark ready for a busy day of working market and selling my preserves at a holiday fair. "I'm sooooo tired!" Lili said when I tucked her in last night. "Well, at least you get to sleep in tomorrow. And Maybe we can get your Dad to make biscuits." She squealed and clapped her hands and this morning all she had to do was ask.

Look at those layers! I'm not giving the recipe for biscuits because I don't think there's anything special about it. Like a lot of baking, it just takes a little practice. Sam has gotten really good at it over the years so he's the official biscuit maker in this house. I just make the toppings.

Paradise Jelly

~This was kind of a hard sell at the holiday fair because even though its color is gorgeous (see photo at the top of the page), most people have never had quinces. They look like a mix of an apple and a pear and they are fuzzy like a peach. Oh, and they smell like pineapples. "But how do they taste?", you ask. Their flavor is hard to describe. A little flowery? Exotic? I don't know! You'll have to try it for yourself.

This was my first time making this jelly but having it on warm biscuits this morning convinced me it won't be the last. I ordered a case of quinces today.

10 pounds tart apples

5 pounds quinces

2 one-pound bags fresh cranberries

sugar (see instructions)

juice of 2 lemons

Quarter the apples and put in a large pot with the cranberries and just cover with water. Boil until apples are partially dissolved. In the meantime, quarter the quinces with a sharp knife (those suckers are hard!) and put in a second pot. Cover with water and boil. My quinces never dissolved and I kept adding more water and boiling until the juice looked viscous and tasted quince-like. Quinces are really high in natural pectin so you are just trying to extract that. Put them in another jelly bag and strain. It's best to do this the day before so you extract the maximum juice from the pulp.
Measure out the juice and put in a preserving pan. For ever cup of juice, you can add 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar, according to your taste. Boil to 221 degrees and pour into hot jars. Boil jars for 15 minutes.

Serve to your loved ones with hot, buttery biscuits and make them happy.

Imperfect; not for everyone.

2007-07-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

A few summers ago, I was lucky enough to live on an organic farm and cook lunch and snacks for the crew and dinner for the farmers and their family. It was a fantastic opportunity and it might always live on in my memory as the best job I ever had.
I knew I wanted some sort of record of the things that I cooked that summer so I made a journal and clipped or photocopied the recipes that I used.
This system was imperfect and time consuming but I stuck with it. As a result, I can flip through the pages and remember every meal I ate that summer. I had never heard of blogs back then but if I had, I'm sure I would have started one. When I pull out my journal today, though, I'm glad it's hand written. I just wish it had a search function!
Because of the journal, my memories are still so vivid. In April, I picked dandelions with my rubber boots on because there wasn't much growing in the fields. My job included feeding the cows and although sometimes I resented getting up early to take care of this task before heading into the kitchen, I'm grateful that I had the chance to raise an animal that I would consume. We traded veggies for eggs from the neighbors (who just happened to be the CEO of Organic Valley) and I'd walk around Saturday market with a bag of food to trade for honey, cheese and trout.
I tried many new things that summer and came away with some favorites: homemade rhubarb schnapps, whipped cream sweetened with strawberry syrup, elderflower ice cream, the best plum pie EVER. Hmm, can you tell I like dessert? I also made asparagus soup with Parmesan custards, learned to like rutabagas, fried up homemade root vegetable chips and on the 4th of July we had fried chicken from farm raised chicken that had never been frozen. So incredibly juicy!
Possibly my favorite discovery of the summer, however, was homemade ginger beer. As many times as I flip through my journal, though, I can't find any trace of a recipe or even a mention of when we drank it. I've searched the web in hopes of finding something that resembles this elixir but have had no luck. I remember it had A LOT of ginger in it and I think it sat at room temperature for a day or so and then went into the cooler for a week. I remember this part well because I could not wait to try it. But wait I did and I was well rewarded. It was unlike anything you could buy at the store. Perfectly sweet and so spicy that it warmed the stomach. Not everyone who tried it loved it, but I sure did.
This summer, I gave up on finding that illusive recipe and decided to work with what I had. I found a super easy recipe on Instructables and gave it a go last week. In less than 24 hours, I had a tasty beverage. It was not the drink of my dreams but as I drank glass after glass, I started to fantasize about how to make it better. My imagination really took off after I read Married with Dinner's post on the Gin Gin Cooler. I didn't have all of the necessary ingredients to make their cocktail so I ended up just mixing the ginger brew with Death's Door Gin (local gin, woohoo!) and added a slice of lemon.
I was so busy thinking about how to improve the ginger beer- more ginger for sure...hmmm, some vanilla?....how about lime instead of lemon juice- that I don't think it hit me until the next day that this method of quick brewing had far reaching applications. I've brewed beer and mead and made homemade liqueur out the wazoo and while they are all delicious, none of them are easy or quick. It can be weeks or months before you get to taste anything. But put a flavor agent in a two liter bottle with a smidge of yeast and some sugar and the next day you have a delicious, fizzy beverage to enjoy. The mind boggles at the potential. With a little nudge from Shuna, I decided to start with chocolate soda.
I used Dagoba Xocolatl cocoa powder, which is slightly sweetened and has a hint of cinnamon and chilies. I admit that my concoction smells a little weird. When you get past that, it has an interesting, complex flavor. In the ginger beer, there was no hint of the yeast but in the chocolate soda, the yeast and the chocolate are making friends. I haven't had the chance to share my latest creation with anyone yet but here's the recipe for you. It may be imperfect still and the finished product may not be for everyone, but I'm still excited about the potential for this method. Try your own homemade soda and let me know what you come up with. I'm gonna try coffee soda next.

Homemade Chocolate Soda

1 empty 2 liter bottle
1/4 c. Dagoba Xocolatl cocoa powder
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. wine yeast
water

Put the cocoa, yeast and sugar in the bottle. Add water to within an inch of the top. Shake to distribute ingredients. Put on top of fridge. Approximately 24 hours later feel the bottle. If it feels like it's going to explode, put in the fridge. When its cold, drink it. If it doesn't feel like it's going to explode, let it sit at room temp until it does. DO NOT forget about it or it will explode all over your kitchen and make you very, very sad.

Beets for dessert?!

2007-07-10T06:42:00.001-07:00

Even though I have not been buying much produce lately, our fridge was starting to seem uncomfortably full. Friends who left on vacation told us to pick up their CSA box, I was the willing recipient of gifted veggies from farmers who brought too much to market, and my back porch herb garden is overflowing. I have a lot of guilt about wasting produce so I decided not to wait another day to eat some of this bounty.
What I created was an unexpected treat. I will preface this by saying this is for beet lovers only but I will add that if you try this, you might find you are a beet lover after all.

My favorite way to prepare beets is to roast them. Boiling only seems to dilute the flavors, while roasting makes them more intense. Put your unpeeled beets in an glass baking dish with a little water, oil, salt, a few bay leaves and a sprinkle of black peppercorns. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees until they are easily pierced with a fork. This could take up to an hour if you beets are big. Let them cool and their skins should slide right off. Be careful not to get any juices on you or your countertop You are now ready to use your beets in all manner of dishes.

Yesterday, I was in a hurry to make dinner and short on ingredients so I used whatever I had on hand. Luckily, I have a well-stocked pantry. I chopped the beets in bite-sized chunks,added a splash of cassis vinegar, clementine olive oil, a drizzle of honey, salt and pepper and topped it with tiny lemon verbena leaves. Oh, and while I was out picking those, I noticed that my gooseberries were ripe and since they are similar in color to the beets and I was creating a kind of fruity salad, I threw those in too. Trust me, I was a little skeptical about the results. It could have been really weird with all those different flavors. I was pleasantly surprised. It seemed more like a dessert fruit salad than anything but that's okay. I figure we are supposed to eat so many fruits and veggies that the more courses we include them in the better right?

You may not have these exact ingredients lying around and although this salad was delicious, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that you go out and buy them to make it. I would encourage you to play with your food though. Try new things. Be bold in the kitchen. The worst that could happen is that you spit something out and you never have to try it again.

I was inspired to share this after months of ignoring my blog because I was so surprised and delighted by these new flavor combinations. I have recently started selling preserves at a local farmers' market and I give out samples. It is discouraging the number of people who will turn down a free taste because of an unfamiliar ingredient or one they haven't liked in the past.

"Passion fruit. What's that like?"
"Would you like a taste?"
"No."

It could be your new favorite thing but now you'll never know...

Worth a thousand?

2007-03-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

I am unsatisfied with my attempts at capturing, with words, the wonderful experience I had in San Fransisco at the end of February. Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip which will hopefully do the job for me.
Thanks to Tea and Shuna for your your hospitality!

Bits and bites

2007-02-19T22:31:00.000-08:00

Here are some food related highlights of the past week.

1) I'm not a fan of dining out on Valentine's Day so instead I surprised Sam by whisking him off to Le Chardonnay for all you can eat Moules Frites (Mussels and Fries) on Tuesday night. We don't try new restaurants often, prefering to stick with old favorites rather than risk a disappointing meal. The restaurant is more attractive on the inside than it looks from the street. We had a cozy table for two and while the view of Johnson St. traffic wasn't that appealing, the atmosphere of the restaurant made up for it.
We started with a bottle of Vovray and I'm sad I forgot to write down the brand because I loved it. When you order the moules, you choose from 4 sauces and they arrive almost immediately, a boon for the hungry diner. It takes awhile for the crispy shoestring fries to catch up but they are worth waiting for. Sadly, the spicy harissa mayo that came with them tasted like Hellman's to me. (Many restaurants don't make their own to get around the serving raw eggs issue.) Fortunately, the fries were good enough to eat plain.
We tried all 4 sauces but our favorite was the first; the Ardennaise which had bacon, mushrooms and cream. There is a basket of crusty bread for sopping up the delicious sauces. Le Chardonnay makes 28 sauces in all and offer 4 each week. I can't wait to go back but next time I will opt out of dessert ($9 for a so so dessert when dinner was only $14.95?!) and get an extra dozen mussels.
Mussels are cheap and easy enough to make at home but when are you ever going to feel like creating 4 sauces and making homemade fries to accompany them? Go to Le Chardonnay instead, you won't be disappointed.

2. Fraboni's- This Italian Deli anchors one corner of the old Greenbush neighborhood. Greenbush was once an enclave for all things Italian within Madison but there's not much left to remind us of this historic area. Fraboni's is the kind of store that is threatened by the Whole Foods, Walmarts and Trader Joe's of the world. If you take the time to make an extra stop on your shopping itinerary, you will be richly rewarded.
I always come for one thing and leave having spent much more money and time than I had intended. They have an amazing selection of olive oils and if you are lucky, Steve, the owner, will lead you through a tasting of his favorites so that you can find your new favorite. We often go here for Italian sausages and sliced deli meats (mmm...soppresata). Their selection of artisan pasta is unparalleled. Last weekend I had Lili in tow and she found this beautiful sun pasta.We were having friends over for dinner and the menu took shape as I wandered the aisles. I picked up a three lb. tub of ricotta, shell pasta and proscuitto ends (these were in the freezer section and came in thick, meaty slices at a deep discount from what the regular proscuitto costs) I made stuffed shells, ravioli nudi (naked ravioli- I love saying this so much, I couldn't resist making them!) and rosemary foccaccia.
I made these with locally grown winter spinach from Snug Haven. The recipe called for just butter as a sauce but that seemed a little boring so I cut my proscuitto ends into little nuggets and fried them up with some sliced garlic. Perfect.

3. Sunday dinner was Mexican at M&B's. They made Venison and Chicken Tinga and Sam made Tortilla Soup. I can't be bothered to type out recipes today but leave me a comment if you are interested.4. Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday and I am going to a Chocolate Party. My friend M made gallons of gumbo and I made 16 qts. of soup and everybody else will bring their best chocolate concoction. Lucky for me, I ordered The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharfennberger and and Robert Steinberg from the library and it came just in time! I am in love with this book. It doesn't just have incredibly tempting recipes, it also tells the story of how their company came to be. This is very interesting to me as I try to get my fledgling preserve business off the ground. This is a great read for anyone who has ever thought of starting a small business. More on what chocolate treat I made for the party later...

5. Tea and Mrs. B. both tagged me for the 5 Things About Me meme so I thought I'd give it a go.

1) I don't have a t.v. except for this beauty.
It's not that I don't like t.v. I just lack the will power to turn it off. Now, of course, the computer has replaced the t.v. so I am pretty much doomed.

2) I hate shopping. I tend to be frugal and I find that the best way to save money is to never go shopping.

3) I used to be a pretty hard-core biker. For the first 6 years I lived in Madison, I only had a bike. I biked through one or two winters. I even rode my bike from Seattle to San Diego by myself. Good times!

4) I could easily retire tomorrow and never be bored. I really hate the fact that I have to work for money. I would love to volunteer full-time with groups that do things that I am interested in. I'd garden and cook and take pictures and read books and knit and bike around the world. Sigh.

5) I've wanted to be my own boss since I was very young. When I was about 8, the plan was to own a restaurant called Sizzles. My dad would cook (he always did the cooking in my family), my mom would set the tables (she collects dishes and makes killer flower arrangements), my sister would be the waitress and I would man the cash register. Perfect, right? The dream has changed a bit but it still remains.

Happy Birthday Blog!

2007-02-08T10:42:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the unscheduled blog vacation. It started as a simple mechanical difficulty.
I practically killed myself by tripping over my laptop cord and destroyed it in the process. It held on for a few days and I got used to reduced computer usage. I read entire books, I finished long overdue knitting projects, and I tried a recipe I've been wanting to make for about 10 years.
That's Tourte Milanese from Baking with Julia. It's homemade puff pastry stuffed with herbed scrambled eggs, spinach, swiss cheese, ham and roasted red and yellow peppers. It tasted even better than it looks!
What I really need to do though is concentrate on my business. I just found out that I have to sign up for farmers' markets by March. Gah! It all takes longer than you think and I leave for SF for the marmelade class in just a few short weeks.
Anyway, I am unfocused and slightly crazed but I couldn't miss posting today because it is my Blogiversary AND to think I missed World Nutella Day! Here's a tower of cupcakes with nutella buttercream frosting to celebrate one year of blogging and the frosting recipe for you, my faithful readers. Please leave a comment if you read this post, it would make my day!

Nutella Buttercream Frosting
(based on Classic Egg White Buttercream from Rose Levy Bernbaum's The Cake Bible)

4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 c. sugar
2 c. butter, slightly softened
1 jar nutella (I don't know the size I used but I think it would be condsidered "medium")

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form and then begin adding butter by the Tbsp. If the mixture begins to curdle, increase the speed and beat until smooth. If this doesn't happen, all is not lost. I just added the rest of the butter and then added the nutella. I was a little afraid I was wasting all that precious nutella but buttercream magic prevailed and it all came together in the end. This is a really easy buttercream. If you've wanted to get away from store bought frosting and want to try your hand at "real" buttercream (this is in a whole different league than frosting with confectioner's sugar) then this is the frosting for you.

I won't be posting very often this month but if you still want to check in with me I have started a photoblog as a side project. ( I know! I have way to many hobbies to be an entrepreneur!) I got tired of posting crappy pictures to my food blog so decided that I wanted to become a better photographer. See how it's going...

Pamplemousse @ My Expressions

A day late and a dollar short.

2007-01-23T21:51:00.000-08:00

I'm not good with deadlines. Especially when it's for something that I consider a hobby. I really wanted to participate in two recent blog events, SFH #27 Chocolate by Brand and Waiter, there's something in my...Stew but I failed to make it happen. The sad part is, I made the food and took the photos but when it was time to write it up, the pull of Sam snuggled under two down comforters was too strong. These recipes deserve to be shared, though , so here they are.
Hedonistic Fudgies -
Once you've had these, you will be able to retire all other chocolate cookie recipes. I fed these to several coworkers and friends and comments ranged from "awesome cookies", "all the best parts of brownies" and "those are the richest cookies ever".

2 c. chocolate chips
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/4 c. butter
4 eggs
1 1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 c. chocolate chips

Melt chocolate and butter together. Mix eggs, sugar and vanilla until just combined. Stir together dry ingredients. When chocolate is melted, stir in egg mixture. Add dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Scoop onto cookie sheets and bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies. Timing is important here. This batter cannot really sit or you will not get the pretty crackly crust you see in the picture. If you only have one cookie sheet, you might want to halve the recipe so you can bake them all at the same time recipe. I used a commercial oven and large sheet trays for these. As for baking, do not overcook these. The edges should be set but they should be pretty soft in the middle when you take them out of the oven. They will set quite a bit upon cooling and you definitely do not want to miss out on biting into the perfect mix of crisp edge and squigy middle with melted chips. Have a big glass of milk at the ready and a plan for how you are to dispose of the extras. I ate one in the car on my way to work and then gave the rest away. They are too dangerous to have around!

Clamizo Stew- I hardly ever make up recipes and when I do, they are rarely worth repeating. This stew is an exception and a good example of how sometimes simple is best.

2 Tbsp. olive oil
2-4 leeks, chopped (white parts only)
Spanish Chorizo, chopped in small dice (I used 1/2 of a U-shaped link)
6 medium potatoes (I used the purple vikings and I thought the potatoes would just bulk it up but they were actually my favorite part)
51 0z. can chopped clams
28 oz. can Muir Glen Fire-Roasted tomatoes (diced)

Saute leeks in oil. Add the chorizo and fry until starting to crisp (3 minutes) Add the potatoes, clams and tomatoes and cook on medium until the potatoes are tender. Serve with warm, crusty bread. I know this may sound like a weird combo of ingredients but it just works. The smokiness of the chorizo is echoed in the fire-roasted tomatoes and the whole is definitely equal to more than the sum of its parts.

Don't read food blogs in the morning...

2007-01-19T08:57:00.000-08:00

or you might end up eating oatmeal with passionfruit caramel, a drizzle of buttermilk and a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt. Delicious, but next time I'll save this for dessert!

Top Ten

2007-01-17T18:57:00.000-08:00

I have tons to blog about but I'm obviously spending (wasting) my time doing other things so I thought I'd do a little round-up of things that have turned my crank this week.

10. By far the cutest croissant-
With a quarter for scale! These delicious apple pastries with cinnamon glaze were made by L'Etoile for the Friends of the Market breakfast last weekend. The breakfasts are mainly staffed by volunteers and use products sold at the market to support the market and you get a tasty breakfast. Sounds like a win/win to me. If you haven't been-GO!

9. Madison is getting its own restaurant week.
Read more here.
I'll hopefully be going to Harvest since I have a gift certificate.

8. Purple Viking potatoes.

I used to deliver produce to Chicago area restaurants. It was mostly organic and many chefs balked at paying what we charged for potatoes. They claimed that they needed to allocate their dollars toward produce that their customers would really notice. How much better could an organic potato taste, really? I delivered brown paper bags full of sample potatoes from Butter Mountain that shone like jewels and maybe changed a few minds. Sadly, I don't have a picture of John with his lovely potatoes but here is one from a tasting he did at the Willy St. Coop. (Lisa-be sure to check this link!) He is clearly passionate about his potatoes, as well he should be!
Tonight for dinner we had my favorites, Purple Vikings.
They are streaked with purple and pink on the outside, creamy white on the inside and taste like a potato dreams it should. You may not be able to find these particular potatoes but there is a larger point here. I've been reading a lot of articles lately about when buying organic or local is important and when it isn't. I submit that organic food sometimes tastes unexpectedly better. I buy local not beacause I'm hoping to save the planet but because these people are my friends. Get to know a farmer today- you won't regret it!

7. Key Lime marmelade-
I have have been in a marmelade making frenzy and have been pretty happy with the results so far. This one tasted a tiny bit bitter to me so I let some friends sample it. Yup, too bitter. I could have viewed this as a negative (Crap! I'm going to have to eat all 20 jars myself!) but instead I viewed it as a call to action. I had recently noticed that one of June Taylor's Marmelade classes had openings but I was waffling about whether I could justify the expense of flying out to California just to take a preserving class. This convinced me that I NEEDED to take the class. So SF readers, I'll be in your town Feb. 23rd throught the 26th- do you want to go to the Ferry Plaza Market with me?

6. Saveur 100-
I will probably (hopefully) write a complete post on this soon, but for now just let me mention my that I love the January issue of Saveur because it caontains their top 100 food inspirations of the past year. Some would even argue this is where I stole the idea from for this post. (Note to Saveur- online access to the list would be mighty nice. Thanks!)

5. Cocktails-
Thanks to Kevin (my boss), the Saveur 100 (#30- Classic Cocktails), and even perhaps the latest 007 flick, I have broken out the cocktail shaker and have been enjoying an occasional tipple. Here's Sam trying our new fav the Kir Noir.
I was surprised by the lack of Google hits for Kir Noir. It's supposed to be a Kir made with red wine and cassis. I used wine, cassis syrup from Ikea and Absolut Kurrant vodka. A twist of lemon is awfully nice. When you first taste this it's kind of like homemade sangria but the it gets more complex the longer it sits.

4. Food Podcasts-
This one also links to the Saveur 100 because my 2 favorite podcasts related to food were mentioned ( #64 Eat feed, #81 Good Food- KCRW). There is a strange feeling of six degrees of seperation here too. I have been asked to Fuel Eat Feed and that is my main reason for trying to get the website running.

3. Bucatini all'Amatriciana-
Awhile back I bought a smoked pork jowl from the farmers' market and declared I would make this dish. I finally got around to it and I wasn't sorry. Sam declared it "pretty much the best thing ever" when I asked him if he was sick of it after eating it for 2 meals a day several days in a row. He even used the sauce for a gourmet meat lovers pizza which had smoked jowl, sopressata, and pepperoni. Sam doesn't even really like noodles (I KNOW!!!!) but bucatini has become a new favorite. They are essentially hollow spaghetti and they have a special alluring chewiness from their lack of middle (does this make any sense?).

2. Citrus alert!
Okay, this doesn't turn my crank at all. I ran out and bought a bunch of citrus in anticipation of prices going up. I feel bad for my California farming friends. They had such a hard Spring and now this. Do we need to get used to this freaky weather? I just got used to the idea that I could buy Meyer lemons in the store and now they all froze to death while it's 70 degrees in NYC. What's next? Who knows but it's certainly encouraging me to live in the moment.

1. Beef Stew for a cold day-

We finally have snow on the ground here, and the lakes are threatening to freeze so I thought it was time for winter classic- Beef Stew. The recipe was swiped from The Meat Club Cookbook [Girl's only] by Vanessa Dina, Kristina Fuller, and Gemma DePalma. I picked it beacause it called for Guinness (Mmmm....) and juniper berries and allspice; two unappreciated spices that inhabit my spice cabinet. I fully intended to reprint the recipe but I am beyond tired ( and drinking my third cocktail) so here is the abbreviated version. Find a beef stew recipe. replace the liquid with beer (I actually ended up using Furthermore Three Feet Deep) Add 1 tsp. ground allspice and 1 tsp. ground juniper berry. When I tasted this while cooking, I thought the spices were too dominant. By the end though, it achieved savory cohesiveness that was a pleasure to eat on a cold January day with a bottle of Valpolicella Ripassa.

Bonus. I have a logo!
Thanks for everything Sam.

Byproducts- Part I

2007-01-11T08:44:00.000-08:00

I am happy that I have chosen an industry (preserving) in which the bypropucts can be as useful and tasty as the preserves themselves. Although it is possible that head cheese would taste better if I made it myself I'm surely never going to find out.

Recently I made grafefruit jelly that called for using the zest of only one of the grapefruits. I couldn't bare to throw all that beautiful peel away so instead, I candied it.
Now I know you've read a million times that you don't want to eat the bitter white pith that lies just below citrus peels but when you are candying the peel, you are going to use the white part. That's how you end up with thick, succulent candied peel. The way to get around the bitterness is to boil the peels in fresh water for 5 minutes three seperate times. You end up with flaccid, mellowed out peels that are then ready for a final dip in sugar syrup before laying out to dry. You don't really need a recipe, just know that the sugar syrup should be a ratio of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. It shoulld cover the peels in the pan and you should slowly boil the peels until they are translucent (about 30 minutes if memory serves). These keep indefinitely and can be used in all manner of baked goods (candied orange peel and craisin scones anyone?) And if you were wondering, once candied, you can't really taste the difference between candied orange and candied grafefruit.

I used my peel to make stollen. Last year was the first time I'd ever had stollen and I quickly fell for this not to sweet bread full of nuts, candied fruit nuggets and a marzipan surprise. "I come from German heritage!" I thought. Where has this bread been my whole life? I vowed to make it this year for Christmas. That didn't happen but I did have the candied peel waiting patiently for me so here I am in January, baking stollen.
I found one recipe for it on Epicurious and as with other traditional recipes, the comments were full of tips and edicts about how to make real, traditional, authentic stollen. I am as big a fan of authenticity as the next girl but in my kitchen, I am American and I do what I want! Besides, what are the chances that I'd create an authentic version of a bread that I had only ever tried once and not in it's native surroundings? So I give you:

Rainbow Bread- aka Stollen My Way (based on a recipe from Epicurious)

I call this Rainbow Bread because I chose red cranberries, orange candied peel, yellow candied citron, green pistachios and purple dried Black currants. Feel free to use your own favored mix of dried fruits.

Note: This bread takes almost 7 hours from start to finish. With dumb luck I managed to work this around making preserves all day and going to a movie but you might want to plan better than I did!

Sponge:
1 1/3 c plus 1 1/2 tsp. lukewarm milk
1 1/2 tsp. lukewarm water
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
1 fresh yeast cake
2 2/3 c. flour

Dough:
3 1/2 c. plus 3 Tbsp. flour
1 c. golden raisins
1/3 c. candied citron
1/3 c. candied grapefruit peel
1/3 c. mixed dried cherries, cranberries and black currants
2/3 c. pistachios
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/4 c. rum
1 Tbsp. ground cardamom
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tube marzipan

For sponge:
Stir together the 1 1/2 tsp. milk, water and sugar. Add the yeast cake and mix until smooth. Let sit until foamy (note: It will not be as foamy as dry yeast). Add flour and and 1 1/3 c. milk and mix well. Cover and let rise for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

For dough:
Mix the fruit and nuts together in a bowl. Stir in the 3 Tbsp. flour. Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, rum, spices, vanilla and salt. Add the sponge and mix well. Stir in the fruits and nuts. Start mixing in the flour 1 c. at a time until a slightly sticky dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Put in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise for 2 1/2 hours.

The recipe calls for dividing the dough in half but next time, I would divide it into quarters. The marzipan surprise was sort of lost in such a large loaf (it's the whitish circle toward the top of the photo). So, divide dough in 4 equal parts. Shape each piece into a rectangle. Divide marzipan into 4 parts and roll into a rope the same length as tha bread is wide. Lay the marzipan across and swaddle it with the dough. It will look like this:

Cover and let rise for two hours. (Perfect amount of time to go to a movie Woohoo!)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake until brown, about 50 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar. I prefer mine with orange passionfruit marmelade. There will be plenty to share and people will appreciate that you are not trying to give them head cheese.

Preserving year round.

2007-01-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

People sometimes ask how I got into making preserves and I don't have a very good answer. I can't remember the first time I made homemade preserves. It was probably strawberry freezer jam with mom when I was a kid. My mom didn't really cook. She would sometimes bake, and there was a little bit of canning going on, but for the most part my dad was the cook in my family. I don't have memories of my grandmothers making preserves either. When I started canning on my own, I made that same strawberry freezer jam and the family recipe for bread and butter pickles. For several years, that's all I did.
Then one day, I was out running after a big storm and I noticed that a huge tree branch a neighbor had dragged to the curb was covered in plums. I couldn't believe someone would throw out that bounty! I ran back home and got a bag, picked all the fruit and took it to the neighborhood store to get it weighed. I knew if I was going to make jam, I'd have to know how much fruit I had. A clerk at the store asked where I'd gotten the fruit and upon hearing the story asked if his friend could interview me for a newspaper article about urban gleaning. (If you have never seen the movie The Gleaners and I by Agnes Varda, go right now and rent it. It is one of my all time favorites.)
Those plums were a turning point, I think, or maybe just one of several factors that led to a deeper interest in preserves. At the time I was working at a stand at the Saturday Farmer's market and delivering produce for a collective of organic farms to Chicago restaurants. I only worked 3 days a week which left ample time to play in the kitchen and I had access to the best that Wisconsin had to offer. I had a cute little pantry off my kitchen that had built in wooden shelves. The shelves didn't quite reach the ceiling so I began stacking my jars of jewel toned preserves on top. Just looking at them made me happy.

The real turning point was the summer I lived on the farm. I was in charge of making lunch and dinner for the farm crew but I took it upon myself to preserve the farm bounty. I made everything from pickled broccoli (there's a reason you can't buy this at the store!) to triple currant jam to a hundred quarts of canned tomatoes in one day (that's the last time I'll ever do that unless I borrow someone's Italian family). I went a little crazy. Traditionally, the point of preserving was to make enough to get you through the winter until fresh produce became available again. I kind of lost sight of that goal. That was 3 years ago and I bet they still have shelves full of my preserves at the farm because I made more than a neighborhood of families could eat in a year.
I remember one night after dinner, sitting out back enjoying the cool evening air before heading back into the steamy kitchen for another round of jamming, musing that maybe I should make preserves for a living. If I loved it enough to be doing it on my own time after being in the kitchen all day, maybe I could make it a business.
When I left the farm, I already had tentative plans to buy the food cart. I thought I could do both. Ha! I convinced several people to sign up for my fledgling value-added CSA. Instead of produce, they would get canned goods. I scrapped this plan pretty quickly when I realized that I would essentially be canning the same amount as I always had but at the end of the summer, I'd have none left for me. The little bit of money I'd asked for didn't seem worth it. I gave the money back and concentrated on the food cart instead.

But all the while, I've been squirreling preserves away in my basement. I used to bring friends down to show them the beautiful rows of jams, jellies, pickles and chutneys. I was still making them faster than I could eat them.
Around this time I heard about Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber. This book changed my preserving life. I have collected preserving books for years but this was something new and amazing. The old-fashioned books were full of boring combinations and WAY to much sugar. Christine Ferber doesn't use commercial pectin to set her preserves. This allows them to have a softer, more pleasing jell and it allows the true flavor of the fruit to shine. I rarely use pectin anymore. She also has exciting flavor combinations and figured out how to make chocolate preserves. She makes preserves for Pierre Herme for pete's sake!

Around the same time that I found out that I was losing the kitchen space that I used for the food cart, I had a lead on another kitchen that I could use for preserves. It felt awful at the time but now when I look back, I think that the timing was perfect. Maybe everything does happen for a reason, you just can't see it at the time. And that, my friends, is how Pamplemousse Preserves came to be.

I've been having so much fun in the kitchen lately. Usually, by the end of the summer I am burnt out on making preserves and I take the winter off. Not this year. For the first time I have my own commercial kitchen to use so I have been trying many new things. Orange Passionfruit Marmelade, Dolgo Crabapple Jelly, Key Lime Marmelade, Chocolate, Orange Banana Preserves...

Bye Bye Chinese take-out!

2007-01-04T20:28:00.000-08:00

I made only one real resolution this year. The rest are still in my head because if I wrote them down I'd actually have to follow through and what fun would that be?
This year, Sam and I made a joint resolution to eat out no more than twice a month(this includes take-out). There have been times when we really couldn't afford to eat out but now that we have a little wiggle room, it's all too tempting to take the easy way out when I'm tired and hungry at the end of the day. Since eating out is one of our favorite activities, we are bad influences on each other and as soon as one of us brings up the idea, the other has a coat on and is heading out the door.
I need some easy recipes. I have no problem spending hours in the kitchen, making elaborate dishes from scratch but I'm not very good at the throw-dinner-together-in-20-minutes-or-else- we're-going-out type fare. This recipe for Kung Pao shrimp is my new best friend.

Kung Pao Shrimp

from The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman

1/2 tsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
2 lbs. peeled raw shrimp
3 Tbsp. oil
5 small dried chiles
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp. grated ginger
1 tsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. dark sesame oil
1 scallion, chopped
1/4 c. roasted peanuts, chopped

Mix together the cornstarch and wine. Marinate the shrimp in this mixture while you prepare the other ingredients. Heat oil in a wok. Add the chiles and stir until they begin to blacken. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add the shrimp and cook until they are pink. Add the sugar and soy sauce and cook for 5 minutes, until the sauce has cooked down a little and the shrimp are evenly coated. Turn off the heat and stir in the soy sauce. Serve with rice and garnish with scallion and peanuts. We had this with an eggplant-edamame dish but it would be great with simple wilted spinach with sesame oil, tamari and toasted seeds.

In sickness and in health.

2007-01-02T17:43:00.000-08:00

I've spent the better part of this new year curled up on the couch, gut churning, moaning quietly. I blame Sam. I rarely get sick but since we've been together, the pattern has been set. He catches something and then a few days later I get a less virulent strain of whatever he had. He was sick with a stomach bug all day Saturday and then we rallied for New Years Eve but when I awoke before dawn on January 1st, I knew my stomach wasn't protesting from too much drink. The good thing is, this year can only improve from here. Still, it'd be hard to top 2006.
Happy New Year y'all!

Food related X-mas haul.

2006-12-28T07:31:00.000-08:00

Along with an All-Clad food mill, a lovely ceramic pie plate and a Japanese manga book about bread baking, I also received this letter just in time for Christmas. After 3 years on the waiting list, I now have a spot a the Dane County Farmer's Market. Yeehaw! I got on the list without actually having a plan about what I'd sell. I knew it took 3 years to get a spot and that seemed like plenty of time to think about it.
It seems like perfect timing with the fruition of my preserving business right? There's only one small problem. The rules of the market are such that in order to sell my preserves there, I would need to grow the produce that went into them. Seems a bit overly strict, no? I do appreciate the theory behind the rule. Our market is a growers-only market. Everything sold there is grown in Wisconsin and the person who grew it must also be there to sell it. This makes the market special. I really can't say enough about how amazing this market is.
The thing is, I buy my produce from local farmers. I would be willing to sell preserves made with ONLY Wisconsin produce. This isn't good enough, though. Instead, I will have to sell baked goods. When the market first started in the 70's, the bakers actually grew their own wheat. Over the years the rules for farmers and bakers have diverged and now bakers don't even have to use local fruit in their pies. There are fantastic baked goods already at the market but I am hoping there's a niche left for me. Any ideas?

Tradition.

2006-12-26T20:23:00.000-08:00

I'm not big on tradition. Especially when it comes to food. There are so many things I've never made before, why stick myself in a rut by making the same old thing for theholidays every year? This year, I offered to make the Christmas Eve feast for my husbands family because my mother in-law recently underwent surgery and wasn't feeling up to it.
I chose Italian (hmm, maybe I'm already in a rut with the Italian thing!) and spent a lot of time contemplating menu choices. The main course wasn't hard. Both Sam and I read Heat by Bill Buford and became intrigued by his description of a beef stew called Peposo Notturno. Just throw some beef in a pot with a bottle of Chianti, a head of garlic, salt and 4 Tbsp. of coarsely ground black pepper and bake it overnight at 200 degrees. In the AM we seperated the meat from the sauce and cooked the sauce down to thicken it up and concentrate the flavors. After another hour in the oven to reheat the stew, the meat is rich and spicy but not overwhelmingly peppery. It is unlike any other beef stew I have ever had and so easy! For photos of the entire meal, check out my flickr page.
What I really want to talk about is dessert. I thought about making many things but in the end, I went with tradition. Many years ago my Dad discovered the ultimate flourless chocolate cake. I know, we've all been beaten over the head with hundreds of flourless molten lava decadence cakes by now but this was BEFORE all of that. The recipe comes from Julia Child and the original name has way too many words. We just call it Gateau. We usually serve it with a basic raspberry sauce and a pillow of whipped cream but I knew when I wrote the post about syllabub not too long ago that this might well be the ideal accompaniment to my favorite chocolate cake. I was right.
I will share the recipe here for selfish reasons. We were packing up the seemingly endless boxes of food to bring to the festivities when I realized that my notebook with the gateau recipe was at the new kitchen and there was no time to go pick it up. What did I do? I called my parents, of course. It's actually become something of a joke in my family that I can NEVER find the recipes for our few family favorites when I need them. This cake is so good, that even though my parents are retired and traveling around in an RV, they still had the recipe with them. From now on, as long as I am near a computer, the recipe will be at my fingertips. Try it this New Year's Eve and maybe it will become a Holiday tradition for you too.

Gateau- based on a recipe from Julia Child

1 Tbsp. instant espresso powder
4 Tbsp. water ( I usually just use espresso)
4 Tbsp. rum (or try Grand Marnier, Frangelico, Kahlua, etc.)
14 semi sweet chocolate
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate (or use 1 lb. bittersweet)
6 eggs (warmed in a bowl of hot water)
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. heavy cream, whipped

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate with the espresso and rum. Be sure to add the liquids before you start melting the chocolate so that the chocolate does not seize. If you have only one Kitchenaid bowl, whip the cream first and store it in the fridge while the chocolate melts. Clean the bowl and add the warmed eggs and begin beating on low. Slowly add the sugar and vanilla then whip on high until eggs have tripled in volume. This could take 8-10 minutes and is the secret to this recipe so don't give up too soon!
When the chocolate is melted and the eggs are whipped, fold 1/4 of the egg mixture in the chocolate to lighten it. This makes it easier to combine it with the rest of the eggs. Fold the lightened chocolate back into the rest of the eggs and fold gently until homogenized. Now fold in the whipped cream. Pour into a lightly greased 9 inch square pan and bake in a water bath at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, until the center is slightly springy to the touch. You can underbake this cake if a molten center is what you are looking for . I don't recommend it though because this cake firms up overnight and is almost a new and different cake the next day. If there's any left, I can never resist having a few bites with my morning coffee.
One more thing, this cake is not for slicing. Just scoop it out and garnish attractively. Beauty isn't everything, you know.

Too busy to blog.

2006-12-20T06:40:00.000-08:00

My preserve business hasn't even launched yet and I'm already having a hard time keeping up. This past weekend I had an open house at the kitchen. Cookies were baked and eaten, nog was spiked and drunk and I sold many jars of preserves to friends looking for last minute Christmas gifts.
We had gingerbread men, Mexican wedding cookies, dream bars, brownies with dried cherries, pfeffernusse, jam thumprints and these jam cutouts filled with my apricot vanilla butter, plum jam and black currant preserves.
With many of my favorites depleted, I am scrambling to make more preserves. I'm working on more Pears Belle-Helene, baby agro-dolce cipollini onions, crabapple jelly and pink grapefruit jelly. I guess everybody is getting preserves for Christmas again this year after all!
Yeehaw! This year Menu for Hope 3 has already doubled the amount raised last year. You have two more days left to figure out which prize you want to bid on so don't dilly dally!

Giving Back- Menu For Hope III

2006-12-13T17:40:00.000-08:00

It's easy this time of year, while we plan celebratory parties and shop for presents and gorge ourselves on sweets, to forget that we are very, very lucky. Many people around the world are hungry (oops! can I still call it that?) I for one am happy that Pim is once again harnessing the power of food bloggers to give something back.
Last year, a Menu for Hope II raised 17,000 dollars for Unicef. This year we are raising money for the United Nations World Food Program. To sweeten the deal, for every $10 you give, you have a chance to win some amazing prizes. From incredible dining experinces, to cook books (some signed) to photography lessons to naughty tours of Paris, there's something for everyone. I can't do justice to the prizes here so check out Pim's blog for the whole list.

Or check the blogs listed below for the regoinal roundups which include in-depth descriptions of the prizes:

US West Coast: Becks and Posh
US East Coast: The Amateur Gourmet (new prizes added)
US (the rest): Kalyn's Kitchen
Canada: Cardamom Addict
Europe and UK: Davidlebovitz.com (new prizes added)
Asia Pacific/Australia/New Zealand: Grab Your Fork

I am personally donating a Trio of Chocolate Preserves to the cause. Do not let the quality of the photo fool you into questioning the deliciousness of these preserves. They are all based on recipes from Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber, the jam goddess from France. Included is an 8 oz. jar each of Chocolate Raspberry, Chocolate Banana and Pears Belle-Helene (pear chocolate). These preserves are divine on ice cream, waffles, crepes or just spooned directly into your mouth. The code you will need to bid on my prize is UC11. U.S. residents only please!

Here's what you have to do to donate:

(We are still in the process of adding prizes. Check back frequently for updates!)

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope.

2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIII and make a donation.

3. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code—for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 for EU02. (Please use the double-digits, not EU1, but EU01.)

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 for the results of the raffle.

Thank you!

Two weeks until Christmas...

2006-12-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

...and I'm already exhausted. I tend to lean toward hand-made gifts for the holidays. I've already done preserves, homemade liqueurs and homemade hard cider so this year I planned to branch out and make knitted gifts. I am not a quick knitter, though, and what with the posting every day in November thing, I am way behind.
I'm already backed up several posts because I couldn't see my blog over the weekend for some unknown reason. So today I have some photos and a recipe and then I'm going to call it a day so I can get back to the knitting.

I was invited to a brunch on Sunday and when I offered to bring a baked good, the hostess said she was going to make a pear-mincemeat tart. Strangely enough, I had been thinking about making a tart with a jar of mincemeat I had lying around so I offered to make it for her.

The Making of a Tart

This recipe would take a lot more work if you don't have a jar of mince lying around so feel free to buy some from the store or make the mince ahead of time. It will be fine in the fridge for up to a week. I served it with whipped cream with a little Mandarine Napoleon (orange liqueur) mixed in and to glaze it I used homemade apple spice jelly. Unfortunately, I don't know who to credit for this recipe. If you do, please let me know and I will add it.

All the fruit in this tart was sourced locally.

Pear Mincemeat Tart

2 firm pears, such a bosc
¼ cup raisins
1/3 firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup dry white wine
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
2/ tablespoons butter
1/ tablespoon brandy

Pastry
1 ¼ cups flour
1/ teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
¼ pound cold unsalted butter
3 tablespoons cold water

4 to 5 firm pears, such as bosc
½ lemon
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup strained ginger preserves or apple jelly for glaze
1 cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon brandy

Nutmeg for sprinkling

Preparation: FOR THE PEAR MINCEMEAT: Peel, core, and chop pears. In a saucepan combine pears, raisins, brown sugar and wine. Bring to a boil and simmer, partially covered, until pears are tender and liquid is reduced by half, about 40 minutes. Add cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, butter and brandy. Cook 5 more minutes. Mincemeat can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator for at least 5 days.

FOR THE PASTRY: Combine flour, sugar and salt. Cut in cold butter or work with your hands until mixture is the consistency of meal with some pieces of butter still the size of peas. Sprinkle in the cold water and stir until dough just begins to clump together in the bowl. Turn into a mass, using plastic wrap and your hand to help gather dry parts of dough and press them into moistened dough. Wrap dough in plastic and chill at least 20 minutes.

Peel and core pears and cut lengthwise into ¼ to ½ slices. Squeeze lemon juice over slices and toss.

On a floured work surface roll out pastry. Fit dough into a 10 – inch tart pan with a removable bottom and chill 10 to 15 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Prick bottom of tart shell thoroughly and spread mincemeat over it. Arrange pear slices in concentric circles, starting from outside edge and overlapping slightly to form 2 or 3 rings of pear slices, using smaller slices toward center. Sprinkle with 1 ½ tablespoons sugar.

Bake in preheated oven until crust is golden brown and pears are tender, 55 to 60 minutes. Cool.

Melt ginger preserves or apple jelly and brush over cooled tart. Whip cream with remaining 1 ½ teaspoons sugar and brandy until it holds soft peaks. Refrigerate cream if not using right away.

SERVING: Serve each slice with a dollop of whipped cream sprinkled with nutmeg.

P.S.- If there are any graphic designers/web designers out there who want to help me create labels and a website for Pamplemousse Preserves, please contact me.

Victory!

2006-12-05T16:12:00.000-08:00

As of today, my kitchen is certified and I am licensed by the state to make preserves. YeeHaw!! Here is a virtual tour:

Oh, and the name is Pamplemousse Preserves. Soon there will be a website where you can order your very own.

I'm a fool for syllabub.

2006-12-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

I served this at the end of a Morrocan feast but I think it would be a great way to finish Christmas dinner. I've made flavored whipped cream before but there is so much liquid in this recipe that I couldn't believe the cream would still whip.
As you can see by the picture, I did not end up with a soupy mess. (I read that the traditional way to serve this is to let it sit in the fridge overnight so it seperates a little and then you drink it.) This dessert defies description. I've been sitting here way to long trying to think of a clever way to describe the texture and flavor (like whipped cream but DIFFERENT and BETTER! Like the best creamsicle ever!). You can see my problem. I'm just going to leave it at this: I have never made something this easy that tasted this good. It has to be tried to be believed.

Turkish Delight Syllabub from Nigella Bites

3/4 c. Mandarine Napoleon (or other orange liqueur)
juice of 2 lemons
8 Tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 c. heavy cream
2 Tbsp. orange flower water
2 Tbsp. rosewater (optional- I forgot to bring it but didn't miss it)
2 Tbsp. shelled pistachios, finely chopped

In the bowl of a Kitchenaid mixer, combine the liqueur, lemon juice, and sugar. Begin mixing on low and slowly add the cream. As it begins to thicken turn it up to medium speed. It will take much longer to whip than regular whipped cream. When the cream is thick enough to hold its shape, add the orange flower water. Continue mixing until the cream holds soft peaks. Serve in decorative glasses with pistachios sprinkled on top. An Anna's orange cookie on the side makes an ideal vehicle for scooping this into your mouth.

Check out these syllabubs from other bloggers:
Lemon Raspberry from The Domestic Goddess
Lime from Habeas Brulee

Winter Market Report II- Metaphoric vegetables.

2006-12-02T18:27:00.000-08:00

Find Part I here.

Elephant trunk burdock root.

Michelin man crosnes.
Firecracker tatsoi.
Watermelon radish (oh yeah, that's it's name!)
We also got some normal veggies.
And some eggs and pears for more Pears Belle-Helene!

Cannibal Pigs

2006-11-30T20:35:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the end of NaBloPoMo, Sam and I went out for ribs. Smoky Jon's is our favorite and has the added advantage of being one of the few restaurants worth patronizing near our house. Sam loves Smoky Jon's graphics. In the picture below the pig appears to be pouring BBQ sauce on his own belly while he lounges in the fire. In the photo above, he is salivating at the thought of chomping on some ribs. This is not a vegetarian friendly joint. After a thorough exploration of their offerings over the years, I've decided to just stick with the ribs. It is what they do best. Whatever you do, do not get the burrito. I don't know what I was thinking when I ordered this but this leftover meat wrapped in the saddest excuse for a tortilla I've ever seen will never pass my lips again. But the ribs, oh the ribs!Smoky Jon has won numerous national awards for his BBQ (and Emilio Estevez and Paula Abdul have eaten here, woohoo!) and though I've never been to Kansas City or Memphis, I think these ribs could compete with the best of them. His sauce sauce has that perfect balance of sweet and tang. The meat falls off the bone as you pick them up and has that pink tinge characteristic of well-smoked meat.
The only disappointment is the sides. I've thought about getting take-out ribs and coming home to eat them with my own baked beans and tasty coleslaw but instead I'm lazy and opt for the fries and usually the corn which has enough "butter" and black pepper to make it stangely tasty.
And now here's a picture of me because The Amateur Gourmet claims I can boost my readership by putting my picture on my blog. Hey, Amateur Gourmet are you looking?! I changed my masthead too! (Thanks to Sam for the html help.) I'm still in my hat and reserved-for-the-coldest-days-of-the-year-down-jacket because today it is COLD here. Yesterday, it was 40 degrees, today 16 degrees. Gotta love Wisconsin in the winter!

Whew! It's over! I don't quite know what I'll do with myself now that a good portion of every day is not spent cooking so that I have something to write about, taking pictures of food and reading what everyone else is writing about. Hmm...Maybe I'll finally get the preserving business off the ground? Stay tuned, the health dept. inspection is coming up.

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog this month. Special thanks to those who keep coming back. Witout you, I'd be nothing. And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

F**k, I only have 9 minutes left to post!

2006-11-29T21:51:00.000-08:00

I admit it, the time stamp at the end of my posts is wrong. I figured I'd change it after NaBloPoMo in case I got in trouble with this challenge. I was only late once this month and it was by 1 minute. So today, I am not ready to blog about the no-knead bread so here is a photo essay of the Pears Belle-Helene (pear chocolate preserves) I started making today.

P.S.- Are my pictures getting better or is it just me? I got a photograghy book out of the library. I LOVE the library!

No need to knead.

2006-11-28T21:16:00.000-08:00

Looks good doesn't it? The only problem- I FORGOT THE SALT! I know those crazy Tuscans like their bread without salt but to me bread without salt is like eating without tastebuds. Anyway, I didn't plan to post about this today but now I have spent so much time reading the exhaustive coverage of this bread phenomena that I had no other choice. A new salted batch is underway and I will post about it tomorrow with all the tips I've gleaned along the way. I can already say that everyone needs to try this bread. Thanks Jim Lahey and Mark Bittman!

Bibimbop and Bulgogi.

2006-11-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Don't ya want to eat Korean food just for the names? Last night we went to Molly and Brent's for dinner. I said we'd bring the fixings for Bibimbop and they countered with Bulgogi. They didn't even know that I'd been wanting to try this dish for years. You know what's better than making a dish you've wanted to try for years? Having someone else make it for you! Thanks guys.The first time I made BibimbopI was cooking at a farm for the summer. Some of the people I fed were real meat and potatoes types and they weren't thrilled with lunch that day (they preferred the cows tongue salad I made on a different day to this!). Part of the problem is that they wouldn't eat anything hot AT ALL and we all know that the success of a bowl of bibimbop lies with a liberal dose of Rooster sauce. I don't blame them, really, I wouldn't get excited about a bowl of rice with spinach, cucumbers, carrots and mushrooms with an egg on top either. It's the hot sauce that ties it all together and makes it special. I got the recipe from Cooking Light.
Brent made the bulgogi recipe from an amalgamation of online sources. It seems like a pretty basic marinade so maybe what made it so delicious was the grated pear? I don't know but I can't wait to have it again. And then I'm going to try this bulgogi burger.

What do you eat with Ajvar?

2006-11-26T20:08:00.000-08:00

I picked up a jar of this incredible Serbian salsa, if you will, and quickly became enamoured of its red-hot color, silky texture and complex flavor. I came up with many ways to use it even though it was pretty good spooned straight from the jar into my mouth.
I began to wonder how it was really intended to be used. That's where Google came in handy. I found this post and learned that it's used as a condiment for a meaty sandwich called cevapcici. In August I tried my hand at making homemade ajvar (pronounced eye-var) but discovered I liked the store bought version better. Instead of canning it, as I had originally intended, I threw it into the freezer in small portions because this stuff is HOT. I knew I needed some cevapcici to go with the stuff but it took me until now to round up all that meat. I generally buy meat at the farmers' market because it's more reasonably priced for local, humanely raised meat. I'd buy the beef but the lamb lady wouldn't have any ground meat that week but then we'd use the beef for burgers and then the pork people would only have pork sausage left, etc.
After market this Saturday, I knew I'd scored the trifecta and had all the meats I needed. The recipe I used is from the Frugal Gourmet and can be found here (it's pretty different from the recipe mentioned in the post above so there are two from which you can choose) I served them with homemade pitas, ajvar, and the yogurt sauce mentioned in by the Frugal Gourmet. These were so good. The hot ajvar was balanced out by the cool yogurt and the meat was very flavorful. I can't wait to try this next summer when we can cook them on the grill and serve them on grilled bread.

Winter Market Report. *Edited

2006-11-25T20:44:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite podcasts is Good Food from KCRW. They begin each program with the market report and it is always fascinating. They are in California and I love hearing about what's available at markets in warmer climates. This week they were talking about chestnuts and in the recent past they've talked to avocado and persimmon growers. I hereby state that before I die, I will live somewhere that has tropical fruit growing on trees. I want my own mango tree! In the meantime, I'll stick with Good Food's market report.
I thought I'd also start my own market report. I would imagine that not many places with a cold climate like Wisconsin have a farmers' market that continues year round and I thought other people might be interested in seeing what's on offer at our winter market. Everything at this market is produced right here. The rules are very strict about this. For those of you concerned with eating locally, if you don't have a winter market, start talking to farmers and market managers in your area about it. If they know that there is a demand, they may begin looking into extending their season by using hoop houses and finding a venue to sell these products. The Dane County Farmers' Market has been around for 34 yrs. and has around 300 vendors (no that's not a typo!) This is only the 4th year (I think) for the winter market and it just keeps getting better every year. Here's a list of what's available at the market and some pictures of my purchases this week. Too many leeks are never enough!Snug Haven's glorious winter spinach. One winter I worked for them picking spinach in the hoop houses. My second day I had to call in sick because I could barely move. Picking spinach is HARD work! I'm glad someone else does it so that I can enjoy the bounty.Cute little shiitakes from Matt Smith of Blue Valley Gardens. These will probably used in Bibimbop (a Korean rice dish).Ground beef and smoked pork jowl from Fountain Prairie Farm and ground lamb from Rainbow Homestead. I got the smoked pork jowl so I can try my hand at Bucatini all'Amatriciana. We have this at work and now I'm hooked so I have to try making it myself. More on what I did with the ground beef and lamb next post...

*Edited- Tana from I Heart Farms just wrote a post about a new year-round market in Santa Cruz.

Buy nothing day.

2006-11-24T20:30:00.000-08:00

In an effort to combat the crazed shopping that begins today and ends at Christmas, November 24th (November 25th outside North America) has been declared Buy Nothing Day.
I did my part and took a long nap, read a book, ate some leftovers and did NO shopping. If you haven't heard of BND before, keep it in mind for next year.

And now that I'm back home and reunited with my camera cable (it was fun discovering that I had carted the camera and the laptop but had no way to post pictures since I fogot the cord!), here are some pictures from yesterday's feast.The last photo is of the apricot crostata the I made for dessert. We also had a pumpkin pie and apple crisp. Here's the recipe for the crostata because this one is a keeper.

The recipe comes from the New York Times Magazine and I knew I had to make it when I saw that it called for apricot preserves. I am always looking for new ways to use my homemade preserves. The crust is more like a sugar cookie than pie crust, in fact I think this could be adapted as a cookie recipe. I couldn't find my pie pan so I did not follow the shaping instructions.

Crostata con Marmellata di Fruta

9 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla
zest from 1 lemon
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
14 ounces apricot jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until they are mixed well. Add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla and lemon zest. Continue mixing then add the flour, 1 tsp. salt and baking powder. When the dough begins to clump, shape into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour or overnight.
Lightly grease a pie pan and roll out 3/4 of the dough to fit the bottom and sides of the pie pan. Fill the crust evenly with the jam. Roll out remaining dough and cut into thin strips. Weave the strips ito a lattice pattern on top of the pie pan. Bake until the pastry is golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Serve at room temperature.

Thanksgiving Haiku

2006-11-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

I tried to write a
Turkey Day haiku for you
but I must sleep now.

A food lover's holiday, right?

2006-11-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

A lot of holidays revolve around food, I know, but Thanksgiving is sort of the Grand Poobah of them all don't you think? The problem is, the food kind of sucks. Have you ever wondered why no one eats turkey at any other time of year unless they are on a diet and they make turkey burgers? Don't even get me started on the stuffing. It's a pile of soggy bread, people! Mashed potatoes are all well and good. In fact, if I had my druthers I'd eat a whole plate of those and just call it a day. I'm truly thankful that I have a mother in-law who knows how to make good gravy. Gravy is what saves this meal.
When I was a kid we had like 7 vegetable side dishes including brussel sprouts Finkleburg, creamed onions and mashed rutabagas (which we called turnips for some inexplicable reason). All those choices and we still didn't have the yams with marshmallows. Now that's a vegie side I could've supported as a kid. And we were expected to eat 5 out of 7. Maybe this is why I hold a grudge against this holiday to this day even though I am a grown woman and I love my veggies.
There was a time in my 20's when Thankgiving was the celebration it deserved to be. I moved to Madison to live with Sue, my high school BFF (that's Best Friend Forever!), and we decided to become vegan together. A brilliant move considering we were moving to the dairy state and I became a baker four days after I moved here. Of course we instituted the vegan Thanksgiving. We composed a 10 course feast to be prepared on the day of by just the two of us. It was a little ambitious. Somewhere there is a picture of me with a crazed look in my eye brandishing a salad shooter. We were going down in flames and the salad shooter that we'd previously laughed at became the key to quickly mincing tons of mushrooms for duxelles to go in the phyllo pie stuffed with concentrated tomato puree, mushroom duxelles and sauteed spinach. The pie was incredible and the meal was a success.
I guess I miss cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

Salad Theory

2006-11-21T20:59:00.000-08:00

I was never really a fan of salads , until I figured out what it takes to make a salad great. This recipe came from a Nigella Lawson article in the New York Times and it changed my salad making ways forever. When I ate it, a light bulb went off and I came up with my salad theory. What you need for a really stellar salad is some distinctive greens, a cheese, a nut and a fruit (or a sweet vegetable like beets or roasted squash). Nigella's recipe is lost but you don't really need one anyway. Just chop up a head of radicchio, roast some butternut squash, toast some pepitas, crumble some feta and add your favorite dressing. Today I made mine with fig balsamic and some of the oil from the feta yummies (my friend Sue and I came up with this name when we were young and poor and these were a splurge. I know now that I could make my own but then they wouldn't feel like a treat.) This is a visually stunning salad and it's delicious too. The flavors and the contrasting textures combine to make a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Next time you are stuck for a salad idea, start with a green, a cheese, a nut and a fruit. You won't be disappointed.

In an effort to stretch out our stomachs before Turkey Day...

2006-11-20T20:38:00.000-08:00

We ate at the Old Fashioned. I know I blogged about them before but this time I was able to snap a picture of the elusive "fried cheese curd". Behold...Sam had the two-for-one burger special and I got the walleye sandwich which is really like two sandwiches in one. Check out the size of this thing!
I tried to give away the second half of my sandwich at work since a fried fish sandwich doesn't strike me as a leftover to be savored. I ended up giving it to woman on the street who tried to scam me into taking money out of an ATM and giving it to her. I hope she liked it.

Welcome baby Theron!

2006-11-19T20:13:00.000-08:00

I have a new nephew! Since there's not much food news, I'm going to unveil the baby sweater that I am making for him over on my knitting blog. I'll add a photo of the baby to this post as soon as I get one.

Tough choice

2006-11-18T22:07:00.000-08:00

Tonight I had the choice of waiting on the local food critic or my in-laws. I chose my in-laws.

Pancakes in the afternoon.

2006-11-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

I have no idea why but for several weeks now I have been craving gingerbread pancakes. I have never had gingerbread pancakes before but it sounds good doesn't it? While flipping through the latest issue of Gourmet, I was pleasantly surprised to find the recipe I was looking for. I decided to pair them with creme fraiche (man it's dangerous having this stuff around the house. So many things are improved with a dollop!) and homemade spiced quince preserves. Yes it's another Christine Ferber recipe. Quinces are all but impossible to find in the store so last year I had the chef where I work order me a whole case. I was a little tired of them by the time I got done dealing with them and so I had never even tried the spiced quince.
The preserves are a little disappointing right out of the jar. The large slices of fruit are firm and candied. I dumped them into a pan hoping they would soften up if I warmed them up a bit. The syrup in the bottom of the jar was certainly delicious.
I am not that impressed with the pancake recipe either. Part of it is my fault. I didn't have any ginger (gingerbread with no ginger?!) but there was also no molasses called for which I think is necessary for deep, dark gingerbread.
In the end, I added extra nutmeg and some 5 spice powder to the batter and the pancakes went perfectly with the quince. I didn't even mind the firmness of the fruit.

More photo goodness.

2006-11-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

I believe this is a photo of Thanksgiving from the early 70's. I love this picture because of the look on my mom's face as she glances back at my dad. I can only imagine what he said to get that look. On the right is my Aunt Sue and then my Grandpa Dave and Grandma Edna. I'm not sure who the woman with her back turned is but it might be my other Grandma.
As I was looking at this photo today I studied it more intensely than normal and noticed that the wine glasses appear to be filled with milk! My parents have always drunk wine (as long as I can remember, at least) and I can't believe they'd have big glasses of milk for Thanksgiving. I also wonder which house this is and where my sister and I are. We moved to upstate NY when I was only 1 because my dad no longer wanted to commute into the city. I think this is in the new house but maybe soon after the move because I remember the wall behind the buffet covered with pictures.
I haven't spent Thanksgiving with my family for years due to distances and lack of funds. Currently my parents are driving from New York to Washington, hoping to make it for the birth of their second grandbaby. I have to say, I wish I was going to be there for Thanksgiving this year.

Pretty pictures.

2006-11-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

Today was a leftover day so I don't have much to say. I did update my flickr (sign up, it's so fun!) food pics, though. Click here if you want to take a peek. Click on "view detail" if you want to see my captions.

It's not called welcome to my pantry for nothing.

2006-11-14T21:36:00.000-08:00

I recently loaned my friend Jami the Joy of Cooking. I think it may have changed her life. She claims to be reading whole sections and trying recipes almost daily. She fondly refers to it as "The Joy". She came over today and wanted a curry recipe using squash and potatoes. I gave her World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey and when she found a recipe she began asking about ingredients.

"What's fenugreek?"
"An Indian spice. I have some if you need it."
"And curry leaves?"
"Maybe in the freezer but I might only have kaffir lime leaves"
"Desiccated coconut..."
"Yes I have that, too."
"You have desiccated coconut?"
"Jami, I have sweetened coconut, unsweetened coconut, and frozen fresh coconut."
She asked about a few more things and finally I had to put my foot down, "Jami, I am not your pantry!"
She was still flipping through the book later and she said, "I can't believe you have desiccated coconut."
"What do you think desiccated coconut is? It's just dried coconut."
"Oh."

Italian Feast

2006-11-13T19:21:00.000-08:00

We started with an appetizer idea that we stole from Lombardino's. Dates stuffed with an almond and blue cheese on sopressata with sylvetta arugula and fennel oil. This may sound like a strange flavor combination but when you get a little of everything in one bite, the flavors are all distinct but they don't fight each other. You warm the stuffed dates in the oven so the dates soften a bit and the cheese gets oozy. Lombo's served it with pistachios on top. I've also made it with pine nuts. Whatever nut you choose, be sure to toast it first. I'm not someone who's always trying to recreate restaurant meals at home but this is really easy.
When I was planning all of this in my head, I was sure the gnocchi would be my favorite course. And maybe it would have been if I had executed it properly. I'm not going to nitpick, though, because everyone liked it. I'm just glad I have some left in the freezer because I'm going to try this again sometime this week and next time I'll get it right.
The entree was my favorite. It was from the Babbo cookbook by Mario Batali. Skirt steak marinated overnight in parsley, rosemary, thyme, garlic and olive oil. We grilled the steak, some bread and treviso radicchio. Then I chopped up the radicchio and sauteed it with a little onion and lemon peel. I was skeptical about the lemon peel but it added a bright note to the radicchio's bitterness. I served it family-style on a big platter with the meat heaped on top of the radicchio. On the side we had pickled red onions and salsa verde made of parsley, mint, basil, dijon, anchovies, red pepper flakes, salt and a TON of black pepper. This is my new favorite condiment. I've had other versions of this before but they didn't beg to be consumed the way this stuff did.
Then it was time for some grappa. The grappa was a little harsh so we added some black currant syrup to go with the dessert. Maybe I invented a new drink. A kir Luxardo?
Sam enjoying the panna cotta with homemade black currant preserves.

Enchiladas of my dreams...

2006-11-12T20:38:00.001-08:00

These are filled with black beans, chorizo, corn, creme fraiche and cheese. I made the sauce and I don't want to brag or anything but it's AMAZING. On top we had beauty heart radishes and cotija cheese. I can die happy now.

*Edited- Please note that I wrote this after the Italian feast last night after drinking a lot of wine and Grappa! Note to self: Don't drink and blog!

Not a Saturday too soon.

2006-11-11T15:45:00.000-08:00

Here in Madison, our farmer's market is so popular that it goes on perhaps longer than it should. As a former market worker, I can't say that I miss those late October, early November Saturdays. I had to get up before dawn and even if we wore mittens they would get wet from the produce so we'd try to warm our frozen fingers under the heat lamps. Sometimes it was so cold the produce would freeze. Not exactly the best way to attract shoppers!
Outdoor market ended last week and I'm sure everyone who made it to the Terrace this Saturday was happy not to be trudging around the square.
Lucky for me I found Jones Valley Farm. They had several Italian vegetables that I was interested in for my dinner party tomorrow night. I got two of the treviso radicchio (those are the ones that look more like a burgundy romaine lettuce) and some wild arugula. I was too busy listening to Michael explain that the treviso is more expensive than the round radicchio because it is pretty rare and hard to grow and I didn't even notice the that they had 2 types of sylvetta arugula. My mom was just telling me how hard it is to find arugula in the stores where they live (upstate NY but not exactly a small town) and I get to choose from 2 types of wild arugula! I think I got the regular because he charged me $2.25. Jean showed me a bag of gorgeous salad mix but it was already sold. You got there early to get the best stuff. Hopefully they'll have more next week.
Madisonians, don't forget to go to market in winter. We are so lucky to have it.

Cupcakes rule.

2006-11-10T15:16:00.000-08:00

I certainly didn't feel that way last night. Sam needed to bring something for a thing at work and I assumed (yes I am an ass) that I was getting paid. Needless to say, I was a little grumpy when I got around to making the cupcakes last night. Instead of sucking it up and doing a good job, I let my bad attitude ruin my cupcakes. Here's how it went:

Instead of using the tried and true recipe for White Velvet Butter Cake from The Cake Bible, go with the Buttermilk Country Cake because you have buttermilk in the fridge and why not?

Realize that you have no cake flour and figure All-Purpose should work just fine.

Instead of using a spoon to scoop and sweep method of measuring flour, just dip the measuring cup in the bag and shake off the excess.

When the recipe calls for 4 large egg yolks, fail to double check that this matches the weight and volume measures that Rose has so helpfully included for you.

Sure Rose's cake mixing is different, none of that creaming business for these cakes! But even though you are very familiar with how her cakes mix up, ignore the fact that it looks more like dough than batter in the first step. Chalk it up to using a different recipe. Even Rose makes mistakes sometimes. Her advice? "...follow the instructions in The cake Bible, especially if you wrote it."

Fail to go to the store when you realize that you only have 9 pretty foil cupcake wrappers and you're supposed to have 10 cupcakes. Sam can live without a cupcake.

Feel guilty for thinking that and dig out mini pans and little pink and blue wrappers so you can make adorable baby cupcakes with the extra batter. (They are for a baby shower, how perfect!)

Fail to notice that the recipe is for a single layer cake so you end up with 9 regular cupcakes and 2 baby cupcakes. Doh!

Undercook the cupcakes.

Since you have no corn syrup, use honey in the passion fruit curd buttercream (it's worth buying the book for this recipe alone!!!) and learn that even though passion fruit is a powerful flavor, honey is even stronger.

The one thing I didn't do is make the mistake that Top Chef wannabe Emily did- if there's something wrong with your food, fix it or don't serve it! I also don't make creme brulee in a bikini, but that's another story. (Thanks for the links Pim!)
I got up at 6 AM to go to Woodman's for cake flour and cupcake wrappers (is there another word for these?) and the second time was the charm. Sam said a co-worker declared it possibly the best cupcake they had ever had.

Oh, and even though I went running in shorts yesterday and took my fleece off half way through, Today it looks like this: Thanks a lot Indian Summer!

Let the prepping begin!

2006-11-09T18:31:00.000-08:00

For three years running we have cooked Sam's parents a fancy dinner as a Christmas present. For some reason we never get around to making it until the following November. This year's cuisine of choice is Italian.
Last year was French because my MIL had never had a souffle. Sadly, my souffle sucked. It was only the second one I had ever made but the fatal problem was that I discovered at the last minute (like when they were already sitting at the table!) that I did not have the right size cooking vessel. My souffle did not stand tall and proud, peeking over the rim of the French White. It was a little tough, too, and the Earl Grey creme anglaise was just okay.
The lesson learned is not to stress myself out the day of the dinner. I'm all about making things ahead this year.
Tonight I made the gnocchi. I used to be indiferent to gnocchi but then there was that fateful day in L.A. where I had the most amazing gnocchi that had been crisped in a pan after the necessary boil. It transformed them from potato lumps to pillows of deliciousness. I then decided to try my hand at making them and found it it was pretty easy. Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to give homemade gnocchi for Christmas presents. I think I made a triple batch of potato gnocchi and a double batch of spinach and ricotta gnocchi. In one day. I don't think I've even thought about making gnocchi since then and it was probably 8 years ago.
This time the gnocchi will come with brown butter and crispy sage. Maybe with some little squash cubes? Or should I gild the lily and throw in some pancetta?
I also made creme fraiche to use in the dessert. But that's all I'm gonna tell ya. You'll have to come back to see the rest of the menu...

Traitor Joe's

2006-11-08T19:14:00.000-08:00

I admit it, I was excited that Trader Joe's was finally opening a store in Madison. Quality food for cheap, what's not to love, right? Well now I've been and I think the only thing I'll go back for is the pound block of dark chocolate for about $4. I knew they wouldn't be supporting local foods but I hadn't really thought about the fact they don't really support cooking per se. Most of the stuff is processed and sold under their Trader Joe's label. That's fine, I'm all for the convenience of buying a bag of frozen shelled edamame but the item that really made me mad was the "instant" miso soup. How much more instant can miso soup be? Heat some water (I think you are not even supposed to boil it), stir in some miso and maybe add some green onions and tofu cubes if you're feeling fancy.
Why not work on packaging some really tasty cassoulet instead of taking something that's already easy to make and jacking up the price for your benefit alone? Every generation our knowledge of food and cooking diminishes and Trader Joe's is not helping.

Oops, I did it again.

2006-11-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

I currently have three large pumpkins in my living room (Okay, one is actually a Cinderella squash but let's keep this simple shall we?). Carving pumpkins is not my thing so I just keep them around for decoration. This photo was taken around this time last year.The problem is that eventually you need to cook your decorative squashes. Like the Christmas lights that stay up all year, they become less and less charming as time goes on. Squash like these usually have a shelf life of a month or two. I was reading an old Martha Stewart mag where she mentioned saving one of her heirloom beauties for six months before eating it. Well, I've got Martha beat. I just cooked one of the beasts in that picture recently. Yes, it was probably over a year old. It only had a small bad spot but otherwise behaved just like its younger siblings.
I like squash alright, but it's definitely not a favorite. So what to do with a quart or more of the stuff? I tend to stick it in the freezer and think about it later. This is why I was happy when I saw Heidi's take on Pumpkin soup because not only did it sound tasty, it also seemed like a way out of my endless squash overabundance.
I can't remember the last time I made Thai curry but I was sure I had a jar of the paste in my fridge. It turned out to be green curry paste and on further inspection looked a little old and dry. Hey, at least it wasn't moldy! I didn't think it could stand alone as the flavoring in my soup so I sauteed some onion, added in the can of coconut milk and dug some kaffir lime leaves from the freezer. The only lemongrass I could find was desiccated and smelled vaguely of fish sauce. I chose to throw it in the trash instead of into the soup. I scooped the lime leaves out after 10 minutes of simmering in the coconut milk and added the squash puree. It needed only a few minutes in the pot before it was ready for blending.
I served the soup with papadum and my favorite cilantro coconut chutney. Another multi-national meal that just worked.

Cilantro Coconut Chutney from The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi

1 tsp. cumin seed
3 Tbsp. sesame seed
1/4 freshly grated coconut (I have found this in the freezer section but I've also
successfully used dried, unsweetened coconut in this recipe)
1 c. cilantro, lightly packed
1-2 hot green chilies, seeded
1/2 inch piece of ginger, chopped
2 Tbsp. water
1/4 c. yogurt
1 Tbsp. jaggery (Indian sugar- you can sub brown sugar)
1 tsp. salt

In a dry skillet toast the cumin and then the sesame seeds until they are fragrant and beginning to brown. Put in a blender or food processor with the rest of the ingredients. You may need to add a bit more water but it should remain thick, not watery.

I try to have this on hand whenever I eat an Indian feast.

Fusion cooking at my house

2006-11-06T18:19:00.000-08:00

I got home from running errands tonight and Sam had scarfed down the roasted sweet potatoes sitting on the counter. I can't really blame him since they are tasty nuggets but they were a crucial ingredient in my roasted vegetable enchiladas.
I have wanted to make enchilada sauce ever since we got back from the honeymoon. While in Homer, Alaska we ate at the Cosmic Kitchen three times and I fell in love with their over the top Huevos Rancheros con Chorizo.For some rason their ranchero sauce seemed more like enchilada sauce to me and I thought I could recreate this (in a smaller I'm-not-on-vacation-anymore serving size).
Sadly, by the time I got around to making the sauce, we'd eaten all but a little of the chorizo. Sigh.
There's no meat in the house and no time to cook beans so I figured roasted vegetable enchiladas was the way to go. Now, sweet potatoless, I was back to square one. That's when I remembered a dish I had in Oaxaca, Mexico. They take tortillas and dip them into a sauce made of beans (enfrijoladas), tomato (entomadas) or chiles (dobladas). It is essentially an unfilled enchilada and I wasn't that impressed with them even when I ate them at the source. But what's a girl to do if her filling is gone?
I scoured the fridge for tasty sides and came up with roasted sunchokes, fennel salad, and mexican rice my way. This was definitely not a cohesive menu but who cares!If you haven't tried sunchokes yet, what are you waiting for? If you are unfamiliar with them check out wikipedia. The picture of the plant in that entry shows young plants. They grow to be about 10 ft. tall with an itty-bitty sunflower at the top. When I lived on the farm we liked to hide in the sunchokes. A field of them makes a pretty picture.
Anyway, I've found my favorite way to prepare them is to cut them in half and lay them on a greased pan. Sprinkle with salt and pop in the oven. Bake until they are really soft and the cut side is very brown. You don't have to peel them so the skin becomes chewy and the insides melt in your mouth (they are made of a different starch than potatoes which accounts for this intriguing mouthfeel). They also make excellent chips if you're in the mood for deep fat frying.
For the salad, I shaved the fennel on a mandoline and dressed it with olive oil, salt, pepper, and the juice of half a lemon and half a blood orange.
I have no photos of the finished items because I was tired of my amateurish attempts, but aren't these baby fennels cute?
I am in love with my rice cooker. I used to scoff but no more. I put in some oil, a little ground annatto seed, 1/2 an onion, 1 c. fire roasted tomatoes, one cup rice and water. I think this was my favorite part of the meal.
Sam was a little disgruntled with the empty enchiladas until I reminded him that it was totally his fault. By the end of the meal though, he was wishing we could eat such healthy and delicious meals every night. I think it was the Negro Modelo talking.

Chocolate banana, mmm...

2006-11-05T14:32:00.000-08:00

This morning I had my good friend Jason over for coffee, scones and preserves. I'm dying to try some of the new kinds I've made but I can't really justify opening new jars until I work through the many that are already in my fridge. I made basic vanilla buttermilk scones so we could freely slather them with many flavors of jam or jelly.The options were Meyer lemon marmelade, strawberry, banana-coconut and the new pear-lemon-ginger. As predicted, the pear-lemon- ginger tastes much better on something other than straight from the spoon. I'm still not sure I'd make this again.
The problem with so many choices is that you don't use much of any one flavor and all of those jars still reside in my fridge. I'm thinking that when I start making stuff to sell, I need to look into some smaller jars (2 oz.?) because I can't be the only one who likes jam but doesn't want to eat the same flavor for months on end.
And then to complicate things, I made more.It may seem a little unorthodox to put chocolate in your jam but the recipe come from Christine Ferber and I have come to trust her completely. After the success of the pears Belle-Helene (pears and chocolate) and the chocolate raspberry, I am committed to making all of her chocolate concoctions. Even my friend Molly, who doesn't like fruit and chocolate, liked the chocolate raspberry. Next up, chocolate orange.

I am feeling a little unloved with the lack of comments so to sweeten the deal the fifth person to leave a comment on this post will receive a jar of chocolate banana (or another flavor if that doesn't suit you). The only rule is that you can't comment more than once in order to make yourself the winner.

Road Trip

2006-11-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

Sonja was in Wisconsin to participate in a conference and since she had a room with 4 beds at the beautiful Lake Lawn Resort in Delavan, Wisconsin, Thomas and I decided to go along. One of the highlights was the drivethru liquor store. The pictures are not the best but I have to share them so you have some idea of what this was like. This was Sonja and Thomas' second year at the conference and last year they stumbled across the joint by accident.
Thomas remembered how to get there with laser precision and we could see the flashing lights as soon as we turned onto the street. It appears to be in someone's house.Here's one of Sonja and Thomas.
You drive around to the back of the house and order your beer (I think you can get other liquor too) from the nice man who agreed to submit to a photo.
We got a some Tecate and Negro Modelo Dark. The owner is an enterprising fellow and cuts his 12-packs in half.We decided to stick with the Mexican theme and went to Hernandez Mexican Restaurant. I had a tasty skirt steak with poblano peppers and a cheese enchilada.Then it was back to the Resort for some cerveza and jelly bellies. After that I needed to brush my teeth and noticed this:Who has matching toothbrushes and toothpaste?! (You can't really read it but the toothbrush on the left says Crest and the one on the right says Colgate). Apparently Sonja and I do. At least we don't brush our teeth with beer anymore.
Thanks Sonja and Thomas, it was a blast!
P.S.- Ali, we wish you were here.

Short and sweet

2006-11-03T11:16:00.000-08:00

My fabulous friend Sonja is in town unexpectedly so here's a photo essay of the jam I made this morning .The pears are from my good friends at Future Fruit Farm. The variety is moonglow. Ellen says that the ring around the pears formed when they were wee baby pears and there was a late frost.Sam's mom found a recipe for pear, lemon, ginger jam from Cooking Light and of course I agreed to make some for her. The picture above is after the initial boil. Then you let it rest for 12 hours (or overnight if you foget about it. Haha!) This is how it looks after cooking down for 1 hour and 15 minutes.Done! It's a lovely color but I'm not sure I'm sold on the flavor. It may be my fault though. The recipe called for one large lemon and I used two small ones. The lemon flavor overshadows the pear ginger and reminds me of those hot lemon drinks that you take when you have a cold. Hmmm... I think it may be good on a scone (but what isn't, really?) I'll keep you posted.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2006-11-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

While thinking of a title for this post I realized that I forgot to call my dad to wish him a happy birthday. Sorry Dad. I thought about you all day. It was this day 2 years ago that Bush was re-elected. I remember talking to my dad that day and after listening to the exit polls saying wouldn't that be great birthday present? To be rid of him? As we know, that didn't happen...
I'm not very political and this IS a food blog so enough of that. It was two days later when Sam whisked me off to our favorite restaurant. I thought he was just trying to cheer me up but instead he asked me to marry him. Yay!
I wanted to continue celebrating the anniversary of our engagement even though we are now married (the more reasons to celebrate the better, right?!) so we went out tonight to a new restaurant called Cafe Porta Alba. It's a little pizza joint with a wood fired oven. They are one of only 16 places recognized by the Verace Pizza Napoletana. Yeah, that means their pizza is the real deal. For $8.50 to $13.00 you get your own pizza. I got the funghi, Sam got the margherita con prosciutto. The crust was superior with the blackened blisters from the oven. The red sauce was tasty (imported San Marzanos, baby) and the amount of toppings was just right (i.e.- not overloaded like a lot of American pies). Sam didn't like his as much. It came draped with two substantial slabs of prosciutto and he thought it would be more enjoyable if they were sliced into smaller pieces. Also, the basil was minimal and it's flavor was missed.
To end our meal I ordered the nutella pizza. I KNOW! Resistance was futile. Why have I never seen these paired before? It's like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup- two great tastes that taste great together. The heavenly spread came sandwiched between a pizza crust that had been sliced in half. More like a nutella quesadilla, if you will. They didn't skimp on the nutella which was my one concern. Better than a chocolate croissant.
Next stop, the Local Tavern. Another new place. They were having an open house and we stopped in for a free Furthermore beer. The Proper was quite tasty but we decided to hit the rode without ordering another round when a group of conventioners convened complete with name tags and luggage.
Two doors down sits Maduro a cigar bar which is the only legal place to smoke in Madison. Um, yeah but only cigars and pipes. You'll have to take that stinky cigarette outside. I had my favorite Bell's . It was "on the firkin" and when I queried the bartender it was described as cask-conditioned, blah, blah, blah. A Wiki search didn't help except to explain that a firkin is an Old English unit of measurement. Oh and there are many firkin pubs in England. Yeah, I don't really get it either but MAN was that a delicious beer! Anything that makes my favorite beer taste even better is okay in my book.

Cafe Porta Alba
15 N. Butler St.
Madison, WI

The Local Tavern
102 King St.
Madison, WI

Maduro
117 E. Main St.
Madison, WI

No Excuses

2006-11-01T14:12:00.000-08:00

The wedding is over, as is the honeymoon to Alaska (check my flickr for a few photos). Sam even fixed my computer so I can once again blog to my hearts content from the comfort of my broken easy chair. So why am I not blogging? I have no excuse but I guess it's going to take motivation from another source. That's why I've decided to participate in NaBloPoMo. That's National Blog Posting Month. Yes, I am not crazy enought to attempt writing a novel in 30 days, but I will try to post every day this month. Sometimes the post will be on my knitting blog.

Sadly, my contest did not result in a name for my preserves. I am being very picky and have yet to find the just the right thing. Thanks for all the suggestions and special thanks to Allison and Stephanie for linking to my post. Allison is already enjoying her jam and Stephanie's will be in the mail soon. If there is anyone else I forgot please let me know. Since no one technically won the contest, I decided to choose a random commentor to receive a jar of jam. And the winner is Trek! Thanks for playing everyone.

Preserving the harvest

2006-09-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all of the ideas.
For awhile I was ignoring the strong urge I have to make preserves in the interest of getting my kitchen up and running. The sink is in, I borrowed a friend's freezer, I have a fridge, stove and shelves. It's almost ready. Sadly, summer is almost over and since I mainly preserve local produce, my time was running out.
In a rush this week I made mainy things. Delicious pear butter which is still not as good as that made by the Ellen From Future Fruit who grows the pears.
I made a couple batches of apple jelly to use as pectin in other recipes. The first batch cam out fine but my ability to read directions got in the way of the next batch and instead of jelly I ended up with something with the texture of honey but with a distinct apple tang. I made a nutella and apple honey pannini with it. Yum! Sam thinks it will be perfect on biscuits. We will be at his parents this weekend and will give it a go.
I tried home made ajvar but the moral to that story is that if the store bought version blows your mind and is $3 for a big jar , you might as well get it at the store.
I picked raspberries at Blue Skies Berry Farm and had enough to make plain raspberry (enjoyed on an english muffin this AM- it is SO intensely flavored) Raspberry Peach and Raspberry Chocolate. I haven't finished the latter two yet but will hopefully post about them next week.
Keep the ideas coming and you may be rewarded with your very own jar of Raspberry Chocolate!

Oh, for the love...

2006-09-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

I am terrible at naming things. When I bought the food cart, I had a contest with my friends- whoever came up with the best name got a case of beer. The cart became A La Carte and I was happy until later when my 8 yr. old step-daughter came up with the name Future Taco. Yup, that was better but it was to late.
Now the food cart is no more (anyone want to buy it?) and the time has come to name my new venture. I am going to sell my preserves and I need a name. For days I have been thinking about a name but it's getting a little ridiculous with ideas like "Fruitastic Preserves", etc. Can you help?

Here are the rules:

1) It can't have my name in it.
2) It needs to be relatively short and end in preserves- i.e. "Naked Berry Preserves"
3) I do jams, jellies, pickles, chutneys and syrups using fruit and vegetables so it should be inclusive. Naked Berry is actually my favorite so far but I have nixed it for this reason.

That's it. I'm thinking that since I haven't blogged regularly since May, I don't have many readers left so to sweeten the deal, if you link to this contest on your blog, I will send you a jar of preserves of your choice. Please leave a comment so I can contact you!

You don't need a blog to win, though. If I choose a winner from comments left on the blog, the winner will get a six-pack of my favorite preserves from this season. Apricot vanilla butter, yum!

In the future, I will have a website where you can place an order.

Entries need to be in by October 15th- the day I get back from my honeymoon. Thanks in advance for your help.

Back by popular demand...

2006-09-07T18:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry, tomorrow turned into a month. I've been busy getting married. And ending one business (the food cart) while trying to start a new one (selling my preserves). I've rented my own commercial kitchen but it is a lot of work getting started. Cross your fingers for me.
Our camera has been missing since the wedding and I still have no wireless hookup which makes blogging less likely to happen for me.
We are off to Alaska in a few weeks for our honeymoon and hopefully after that things will get back to normal...

Best Summer EVER!!!!

2006-08-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

Yup, it's the Best Summer EVER!!! and now we've made the t-shirts to prove it. More on this later, I just needed to jump back in the game or I feared I would never blog again. Horrors! I had over 200 pictures on my camera and it seemed funny to me that instead of making me think about what great times I've had this summer, they reminded me of all the blog posts I had intended to write! There have been great times, glorious food and big news...but I'll have to start tomorrow.

uh oh!

2006-05-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. My internet connection has had issues for awhile now. We are switching providers but it won't be hooked up until the 31st. Grrr... See you on the other side.

Local AND patriotic?!

2006-05-09T06:11:00.000-07:00

Our internet connection was wonky all weekend, I'm sick with some sort of summer cold and my business is kicking my a## so I don't have much time to post but I did want to show you some of the local treats we've been enjoying. Here's a shot of the potatoes I served on the food cart last Saturday. Aren't they beautiful? (The photo is taken through the plastic container the potatoes were in so sorry for the poor quality.)
And when you are sick, there's nothing better than a little locally grown comfort food.

Sorces:
eggs- New Century Farm
potatoes- Engel Bros.
ramps- Harmony Valley Farm

Since we can buy asparagus in December these days, it's becoming harder and harder to figure out what is available seasonally in your area. My favorite things are the remaining hold outs that are still truly seasonal because they haven't figured out how to grow them in Brazil. Ramps fall into this category. A ramp is a wild leek. It grows in forests and it's leaves look sort of like those of a tulip. You can eat the entire thing and they have a special flavor all their own. They are usually around at the first farmer's market in April and will last throughout May if it doesn't get too hot. During their short season, I eat as many as I can. They are amazing grilled and can be used in place of onions in any recipe. Try 'em, you'll like 'em.
I didn't get a shot before we ate them but if you Google "wild leeks" and click "images", there are many pictures.

Eat Local or else!

2006-05-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

I have SOOOOOO many things that I could write about but Sam was away all weekend and wants some attention so I will keep it short.
Today the Eat Local Challenge for 2006 begins. For more info check out Life Begins at 30.This is an issue near and dear to my heart. I eat locally as much as possible but I know that I can do more. My focus has mainly been produce, meat, dairy and eggs but I've gone so far as to buy local vinegar and mustard. I refuse to give up coffee. I have tried and I now accept that I am a much happier person with coffee in my life. So the challenge for me will be to dig deeper and search out things that I have assumed couldn't be found locally. Hopefully I will find new local pleasures and I will try to limit my intake of out of area treats. I once read somewhere that Alice Waters no longer eats mangoes. That's why she is a Saint and I am a mere mortal. For the month of May, though, I will eat the berries I froze last season.
We are very lucky in Madison. Our farmer's market has already begun. I hope to spend much of the month writing blurbs about some of my favorite local producers. (Sadly, that may not be many posts so I may continue this feature throughout the summer.)
I did no advance planning for the Challenge so today was not the best but here's what I ate:Breakfast was leftover bread from my adventure with fellow Madison food blogger The Foppish Baker. We made Vietnamese Banh Mi yesterday, but that's another post... Slathered on the bread is homemade Black Currant Pinot Noir preserves made with local fruit.Lunch was a taco salad. This is something Sam and I made several times this winter when we craved something junk foody but not really horrible for you. We make homemade baked chips from corn tortillas. When I can't get local, I fall back on organic. Of course local and organic is the ideal. This lunch is a good example.

Organic ingredients:
Tortillas
cheddar cheese
red onions
radishes
iceberg lettuce (yes it does exist and it really is ideal for certain uses!)

Local ingredients:
cheddar cheese
tomatoes (more on these in a later post)

Neither:
pork
cotija cheese
avocados
cilantro
chipotle hot sauce

I didn't take a picture of dinner. We had beef tips in tomato jalapeno sauce, which wasn't local except for the corn tortillas we ate it with (yes, we currently have both local and seperate organic tortillas in the fridge. We usually buy the local kind but the organic were new and I thought I'd try them out). On the side we had local watercress which I got for free from the Engel Bros. because no one else was buying it. And to wash it all down? Homemade hard cider and mead made from local cider, honey, cherries and black currants. Below is a picture of the cider.

We have a long way to go...

2006-04-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

I was at the farmer's market this morning picking up potatoes from the Engel Bros.when a customer stopped, picked up a potato and said, "Is this a "new" potato?" Noah said, "No, it's from last season". "Yeah, I know that but there's this kind of potato called a New potato."
We tried to explain to him that new potatoes are just the first harvested potatoes of the year but he walked away still insisting that a new potato is a variety of potato. Please don't argue with the potato grower! He and his brother have been growing potatoes since they were 9 and 11. They are younger than I am but I'm sure they know more about potatoes than you and I ever will!
It always catches me off guard when I am outside my small circle of foodie friends, restaurant cronies, and food bloggers how little general food knowledge there is out there. It's getting worse all the time. So keep cooking- or better yet, show someone else how to cook!
Since I have no other picture, here is the view from the food cart this morning at the farmer's market. Okay, so I was actually standing on the hood of my truck that was parked on the sidewalk next to the food cart, but you get the idea. Today was the Crazylegs 5 Mile Run and this is only a small section of the 13,000 runners. It was COLD today and even though I have run this race before I was very happy I wasn't running today. Check out the reflection of the capitol in the glass building.

I love the perks.

2006-04-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

One of the things I like about working in fine dining restaurants is that you get to try foods, often for free, that you might not otherwise have access to like foie gras, truffles, grains of paradise, etc. If you're willing to spend some of your hard earned cash you can also purchase all kinds of things (quinces, cassis vinegar, etc.) that you'd be hard pressed to find in your local supermarket. They may be available online, but I usually find shipping is prohibitive. For example, I was once a click away from signing Sam up for the Bacon of the Month Club until I noticed that the shipping cost more than the bacon!
This week, I received an unexpected perk from my obsession with food. I have written a few short food related articles for the Isthmus, Madison's free weekly newspaper, and I received an email asking if I'd be a judge at the Big Eat. Now, even without knowing anything else about it, doesn't that sound like fun?
The Big Eat is a benefit put on by the Isthmus to raise money for Family Centers. Local restaurants donate food and people pay to come and sample their wares. I've been to the Big Eat once but tickets are fairly spendy so I was thrilled to get to attend for free (and I got to bring Sam). Here's a picture of only part of my haul:That's Island Wheat beer from Capitol Brewery, part of a chicken burrito from Pasqual's, a cassis truffle from Monona Catering, and a huge serving of ice cream from the Chocolate Shoppe.
There were also tastes from Bandung, Casbah, Curry in the Box, Fyfe's, Java Cat, Marigold, New Orleans Take Out, Pedro's, Quaker Steak and Lube (surprisingly good chicken wings), Starbucks (bad green tea concoctions-just stick with the coffee please!), Willy St. Co-op, Wisconsin Cheesecakery, and Wollershiem Winery. Of course, as a judge, I had to try everything.
Thanks for the invite, Isthmus!

All this and a social life too...

2006-04-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

The first week starting up the food cart again was crazy hectic but I can tell already that this year is going to be much smoother than the last two. Much of this has to do with the kitchen I use. See, I am not allowed to actually prepare food in the food cart. Funny, huh? I can assemble pre-cooked items like burritos, but the prep has to be done in a certified kitchen, i.e. a restaurant kitchen or any other facility that serves food to the public and is inspected by the health department. I know people will wonder so I'll answer up front. Yes, you can have a certified kitchen in your house but then you can't cook food for yourself in the certified kitchen so you'd have to have 2 kitchens. This is only one of the many, many rules that rule my life.
This is my third year in business (2nd full-time) and I have changed kitchens every year. This entails paying the health dept. $450 everytime they need to check out a new kitchen for you. I mistakenly thought that since I had worked in restaurants in Madison for quite a few years that it would be no problem finding kitchen space to rent. Ha! That's before I knew all the regulations. If the kitchen doesn't have a diswasher, they need a seperate prep sink, handwashing sink, mop sink and three basin sink for dishwashing. This is a fairly new regulation and some older restaurants have been grandfathered in and do not need to upgrade. Unfortunately, If I want to come in and use their facilities, I would have to upgrade because I am NOT grandfathered.
The point of this diatribe is that I think I have finally found a good fit as far as kitchens are concerned. In the new kitchen, I can get things delivered, they do my dishes for me sometimes, parking is not an issue, they make really fabulous food and it's nice to be around good cooks, I can prep before and after I am out selling my food so I don't have to get up ridiculously early, the list goes on and on...
So Saturday morning was the first day that I had to let myself in before anyone else was there. Farmer's market starts at 6 AM and I try to be in my spot on Capitol Square as early as possible. I went in and started my blueberry sauce for crepes and went out to the storage room to grab my spice mix for potatoes. Click. The door latched behind me. I reach for my pocket and knew instantly that my keys were in on the prep table. I was locked out. With something cooking on the stove. And the only person who's full name that I knew was the one who had given me his key. Gaaahhh!!!!! I won't bore you with the details but it was 45 minutes before I got back in and the bluberries were cinders and the kitchen was completely filled with smoke. Not the best way to pay someone back for graciously allowing you to use their kitchen! Hopefully the summer can only get better from here.
I went to bed on Saturday at 7 PM and slept for 12 hours but it's a good sign that I felt like hanging out on Sunday night. We went to a cookout with the Sunday Night Club. (Hi guys!) Here's some pictures of the grub.

Vietnamese Lemongrass Shrimp and Grilled AsparagusCorn Salad with pepper, garlic and jalapenos
Lime meringues with Mango Passionfruit Gelato and Blueberry Sauce (Luckily all the bluberries didn't go into the pan the first time!)

I promise to tell you more about the food cart logistics and further thoughts on mahlab, ect. so please be patient and check back...

Caramel Delight

2006-04-18T05:03:00.000-07:00

The food cart season starts for me today and I literally feel like I'm getting on a roller coaster and I won't be able to get off until October. I am hopeful that things will be a little easier this year (knock on wood) since it is my second full season. I'm going to try to keep up with the food blogging but I can't make any promises. There will definitely be some posts about the cart.
For now, here's a little blurb about the ice cream I made with my new KitchenAid attachment. I used a recipe from Dana at Phat Duck but I chickened out. You are supposed to caramelize your sugar almost to the point of scorching blackness. This is a hard spot to reach and I have had many caramel disasters in my time, including burning parts of my own flesh, so I backed off too soon and my ice cream is only lightly caramelized. It was still delicious, though, and made perfect ice cream sandwiches on triple-chip cookies.And what to have with these treats? Hotdogs with cheddar, white onions, beer mustard and homemade corn relish and sandwich-sliced dill pickles on the side. Now I just want the 2 qts. to disappear quick so I can make more flavors. Who wants to come over for ice cream?

Greek Easter Spiral

2006-04-17T04:31:00.000-07:00

I have a bad habit of collecting exotic ingredients. I don't mean to do it. It's just that I read about food all the time and I think "Hmm...that sounds good. If only I had blank, I would make it." Then sometime later I will come across that ingredient and buy it. Unfortunately, by that time, I have no idea where I saw the recipe that inspired the purchase of the ingredient in the first place. Months, or even years, can go by before I run into a recipe that calls for the ingredient again. This is why my pantry contains such things as pomegranate molasses, Chinese rock candy, three sizes of tapioca balls, szechuan peppercorns and mahlab.
Mahlab is the pit of a sour cherry tree found in the Mediterranean. It is used in Greece and Armenia as a spice in baked goods and imparts a mild bitter almond flavor. This bottle of Penzey's mahlab has been in my cupboard for about a year so I was happy to find a recipe for Greek Easter bread that called for it.
Mine isn't as pretty as the one in the book because I was lazy and did not use an egg wash. (The random sprinkles of sesame seeds aren't very attractive either!) This bread smelled so divine when baking that I didn't want to leave the house to work outside in the sunshine. The taste of mahlab in the finished product is subtle but you can definitely tell there's something special about the bread. I may increase the amount next time. This made delicious french toast on Easter morning. I think it'd be fun to use this dough for Hot Cross Buns too.

Greek Easter Spiral from Home Baking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Starter Dough
1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 c. milk
2 c. flour

Bread
2 Tbsp. dried orange peel or 1 Tbsp. minced candied orange peel
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. yeast
1 1/2 c to 2 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. mahlab
pinch of mastic powder ( I didn't have any and by the time I acquire it, I will have forgotten about this recipe!)
1 egg mixed with one Tbsp. milk
sesame seeds for garnish

Make the starter 12 to 24 hours before you plan on making the bread. Put starter ingredients in a bowl and mix to form a smooth dough. Loosely cover and let sit overnight or for up to 24 hours.
If using dried orange peel, boil for 20 minutes, drain and repeat. If using candied peel, rinse with warm water and finely chop.
Put the starter in the bowl of the stand mixer. Add the butter, eggs, sugar and yeast. Mix until ingredients are incorporated into the starter dough. Add the peel, 1 1/2 cups flour, salt and spices. With the mixer on low speed, mix for 5 minutes. The dough should be firm but slightly sticky. Add more flour if needed to achieve this consistency. Transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl and let rise for 2 1/2 hours.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll into a 20 inch cylinder, slightly tapered at one end. Starting with the fatter end, coil loosely 1 1/2 turns. It is supposed to have a hole in the middle but mine dissapeared during the second rise.
Transfer dough to a floured baking sheet or pizza peel. Cover loosely and let rise for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush the risen dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool on a rack.

This is my entry for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge- Easter edition. My thanks to Sara and Alicat for hosting! Maybe I should start the Exotic Ingredient Challenge?

What to do with all the egg whites...

2006-04-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

I made the first batch of ice cream and I will post about that soon but for now I wanted to write about a favorite cookie of mine. Most restaurants have a glut of egg whites lying around from ice cream making, creme brulees and custard sauces. Despite our best intentions, they often sit in the walk-in fridge until their time is up and we throw them out. Such a waste.
Instead, you could make lots of cake with Italian meringue buttercream but if you're looking for something a little bit lighter, these cookies are the way to go. We made these at a restaurant that had a cookie plate as one of the dessert options but I don't think these every made it onto the plate because we ate them all as soon as they were made. Walnuts are not my favorite nut but they really are the best for these- something about the amount of oil in them. Other nuts do work, though, as you'll see in this pistachio version.

Walnut (or pistachio) and Chocolate Chip Meringues

4 lg. egg whites, at room temperature
2 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
6oz. toasted walnuts (or pistachios), chopped fine
8 oz. mini chocolate chips
large pinch Maldon sea salt (optional)*

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Whip egg whites until they begin to froth. Slowly add the powdered sugar on low speed. When all the sugar is added, beat on high until thick and shiny. Stir in the vanilla, nuts and chips. Scoop heaping tablespoons (I used a small ice cream scoop) of batter onto cookie sheets and bake for approximately 20 mins. The point here is for them to be crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside and not really brown at all. Keep in mind that they become crispier after they sit out of the oven for awhile. You may have to mess with your oven temp. and baking time to get it right. But you'll know when you get it right!
*I added the salt because after trying this chocolate bar, I am in love with what the crunch of salt can do to sweets.

Look what the UPS man brought for me!

2006-04-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

Do you like how I made that sound like it was a complete surprise? As if I have a secret admirer out there who knows my desire for an ice cream maker and bought it for me?
I wasn't aware that KitchenAid had an ice cream attachment until Sam sent me a link about it. He claims it was just a joke but he knows me well enough to know that I wouldn't pass this up. Of course, it's not my dream machine. There are some things that are spoiled for you after working in a restaurant kitchen, like the fact that someone else does all the dishes. I once worked at a place where they had a $5000 ice cream machine that could crank out 4 qts. in 12 minutes. That is a little excessive for home use but if I had the money I'd surely buy a Musso.
The thing is, I did my research and even though I haven't used my new toy yet, (it needs to freeze for 15 hours first so I'll be up at 6 AM tomorrow making the first batch) I am happy with my choice. Stephen Metcalf from Slate recommends the KitchenAid over other gel-type makers and only gives higher ratings to significantly more expensive ice cream makers (including the Musso).
Amazon was kind enough to give me $30 off for signing up for their credit card (which I will never use again) so the attachment was only $50. The other night we went out for ice cream and it cost $8. How could I NOT buy my own ice cream maker? It's going to save me money in the long run.
Actually, the real reason I've held out so long is that I don't need to eat any more ice cream than I already do, even though it really isn't that much. However, I think I'll be just as happy with homemade low-cal lemon verbena sorbet as I would with ice cream so I may end up saving some calories too. Ha! You can only fool yourself for so long...

Hope Springs Eternal

2006-04-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

For years i have read about the fabulous flavor of lemon verbena but had never seen even a sprig in person. You can understand why I jumped for joy when I discovered an entire verbena bush at the farmer's market last summer. I snapped it up but didn't manage to carve time out of my schedule to use it except for crushing a random leaf between my wrists for natural perfume. The verbena lady had warned me that my bush needed to come in for the winter and that it would lose most of it's leaves by Thanksgiving. It did lose all the big leaves but until about January it had numerous small green leaves. Even though I managed to kill many vintage houseplants (some I bought as babies at a Brooklyn supermarket in 2000) this winter, I had hopes for the verbena. Then, toward the end of January, it became all brown. I refused to give up though. I left it in my living room and continued to water it. Today I decided the weather was nice enough to move it outside and when I picked it up, I noticed a new green sprout toward the bottom. Yeeeeehawwww! I promise not to take my verbena (quick tangent-am I wrong for wanting a daughter named Verbena and a son named Basil?) for granted this year. So far, nothing has made me feel quite as springy as moving this dead looking tree out of my living room!

Winter Market

2006-04-10T06:46:00.001-07:00

Would you believe that Madison, in the heart of the frigid Midwest, has a year round farmer's market? It does seem improbable but around here, we love our farmer's market so much that we just couldn't bear for it to go away for 6 months. The winter market is now in it's 3rd year and it just keeps getting better. You can get cheese, cider, apples, whole-grain breads, seasoned salts, honey, maple syrup, wool, eggs and all manner of meats (bison anyone?). As the market becomes more successful, the farmer's have stepped up and now produce things you would not expect to buy locally when the landscape is blanketed with snow and summer is a distant memory.
The leader on this front is Snug Haven Farm and their spinach. They grow it all winter long in hoop houses (like greenhouses but you actually plant in the ground under them) that are generally unheated. Spinach actually improves in quality if it is allowed to freeze and thaw. It is thick and sweet and altogether irresistable. You can have your whimpy baby spinach, I'll take Snug Haven's winter spinach any day.(Please ignore the Cal-Organic box in the background. Everything at this market is locally grown or produced and the grower/producer is required to be there to sell it to you.)
This winter I was able to buy fresh arugula and salad mix most Saturdays and now we are barely into April but Blue Skies Berry Farm has an impressive array of fresh vegies available.The thing that makes this market special, though, is the breakfast. The market is held in the Madison Senior Center which is not the most attractive locale but it does have a full, cafeteria- style kitchen and for three years now The Friends of the Dane Counnty Farmer's Market have served breakfast at the market with the help of volunteers and donations of locally grown food to raise funds for their educational programs. Their mission is to "encourage children and adults to think about how the food they eat got to their fork." I think that would be part of my mission, too, if I had one! This week's breakfast was hearty and delicious, as always, and a bargain at $6.50!

Copycat

2006-04-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

I got to this food blog party a little late and sometimes I wonder what I am contributing. Hasn't it all been said before? It reminds me of a time when I was visiting my friend Ali in NYC. It was one of those rare days where the temperature was perfect. We picked up picnic supplies from a few fancy gourmet stores including a little chocolate cake for two. We got to Central Park ready for a relaxing afternoon and were amazed to find that it was hard to find spot to put our blanket. Seemingly everybody in NY had decided to picnic in Central Park that day!
So I was amused to find this post about making limoncello and Meyer Lemon Marmelade by Lindy over at Toast. I recently made Limoncello and this weekend I made Meyer Lemon Marmelade. It's hard to be original. In my post about canneles, I sited three other blogs and read at least three others who had tried them too. The thing is, I guess that's not why I am blogging. I've always wanted to teach people to cook (if only I could overcome my terror of public speaking!) but that's not it either.
I think what it is for me is just being part of the community. I used to shop at farmer's market, come home and make elaborate feasts and invite whoever could come on such short notice. I'd often proclaim "No one's eating like us today!" Ha! Through food blogs, I have found my people. People who are crazy about food and can't wait to tell everybody about what they made for dinner or the great new restaurant down the street.
I still make feasts for friends but I also look forward to future trips to Seattle, San Fransisco, and beyond because I know I could meet up with people who share my passion and can lead to me to the good stuff. Until then, I will continue to invite you to pull up a chair at my table even if it's only virtually. And if you're ever in Madison, let me know.For my marmelade, I used a recipe from from Mrs. B at Eating Suburbia. She's another Meyer Lemon lover who even has her own trees! I tried adding some lemon grass but you couldn't detect it in the finished product. I also put in a ruby grapefruit because I was short on Meyers and I love how this affected the color and the flavor- a surprise burst of grapefruit every once in awhile.
To go with the marmelade, you've got to have good bread. Hazelnut-Currant Boule from Homebaking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

2 C. lukewarm water
1 tsp. yeast
2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. light rye flour
2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. butter, softened
1/2 c. toasted hazelnuts, finely chopped (I left mine whole)
1/2 c. dried currants
2 to 3 c. all- purpose flour, preferably unbleached

Sprinkle yeast in the water. Stir in the whole wheat flour. Cover and let stand for 2 hours.
In a medium bowl mix together rye flour and salt. Rub the butter in with your fingers. Add the yeast batter to the rye mix and mix thouroughly (this can be done in a mixer or a wooden spoon until the batter is thick enough to turn out and knead by hand). Stir in the hazelnuts and currants. Add 2 c. of flour, one cup at a time and mix until you have a stiff dough. Knead for 8 minutes, incorporating only as much flour as needed to prevent sticking.
Put dough in a large bowl and allow to rise for 2 hours, until doubled in volume. Form dough into a round loaf and let rise on a baking sheet or in a floured dough-rising basket, (right side down). If you have a pizza stone but not the basket, flour a linen kitchen towel and lay it in a big bowl to imitate the shape of the basket. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for 50 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
When the dough is ready, put the baking pan in the oven or turn the dough out onto the baking stone. Quickly slash the bread with a razor blade. Spritz bread several times in the first 5 minutes. Bake for a total of 5o minutes. Cool on a rack before slicing. For breakfast, toast the bread and slather with marmalade. Serve with strong coffee.

Ice Cream Innovation

2006-04-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

MooBella
Originally uploaded by Somewhat Frank.

Holy Crap! Have you heard about MooBella? On demand ice cream with 96 different options made to your specifications and in 45 seconds you have freshly made ice cream in your hand. And it's NOT soft-serve.
There's probably not an organic option (though they do have low-fat and low-carb) but it does fit into the buy local philosophy in a strange way. Think of all the fuel we'd save if we weren't shipping already frozen ice cream everywhere. I'll reserve final judgement until I get to taste it but in the meantime I remain excited to try it. It's got to be better than the last ice cream innovation.

Photo originally uploaded to Flickr by Frank Gruber.

Home Alone on a Saturday Night

2006-04-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

I could be in Chicago. Sam and I have been talking about going for awhile now. I have a seasonal business which kicks into high gear in two weeks (more on this in a later post). This was pretty much the last chance to get away and there won't be another until October. On days like this I question my sanity over picking a business that takes up my entire summer. I guess that's the way it has to be when you work with local/seasonal food.
But I'm not in Chicago. I couldn't find someone to cover my shift at work. Sam went by himself. I could have called up some friends as I won't be seeing as much of them this summer either but instead I chose to sit home and drown my sorrow in a bowl of noodles.
That's right- Lindy over at Toast is hoasting a one-shot blog event. The challenge is to create something out of nothing. Lacking funds or the will to go to the store is not an excuse for eating poorly. (Okay, sometimes it is but not when you have a blog challenge!)
I decided to make an old favorite that I haven't had in a long time. It's basically an adaptation of pasta with garlic and oil. I'm not going to post an actual recipe because this is something you should make with what's around, just like I did today.
I had no garlic (horrors, a cook without garlic!) so I used the last few shallots that had not succumbed to the Spring sunlight and sent out shoots. I also like to throw in some preserved lemon. This may not be a staple for everyone but these have been resting in the far recesses of my fridge for about two years and still give up their special lemony bite when needed. This is my favorite kind of condiment- one that lasts forever and never goes bad!I don't eat much pasta these days. I'm trying to stick with whole grain options and while I usually prefer brown rice to it's pale cousin, I'd rather eat no pasta at all than to suffer through the whole wheat stuff. Since I can never throw food out, though, I still had this in my pantry.While the pasta boiled I fried the shallots, threw in the preserved lemon and grated copious amounts of cheese. This is my favorite (and it's local).I also threw in an artichoke heart that was leftover from a feast earlier this week. When the pasta was done, I threw it in with the shallots added the cheese and a bit more oil. Toss until mixed and serve it in your favorite bowl with a grind of black pepper and a sprinkle of pepper flakes. Cheap comfort in a bowl. Thanks for the inspiration Lindy!

The Cult of the Cannele, Part 2

2006-03-31T07:11:00.000-08:00

Have you ever made something from a recipe following the directions to the letter and it comes out great and then you make it again using only the gist of the recipe and you fail miserably?
Yeah, me too. That's what happened when I made canneles for the second time this week. Circumstances were against me. I made the batter late at night after some wine and liqueur (Hey! It was my birthday!) I thought I'd avoid having to strain the batter by making it in the blender. It seemed to work just fine.
I dragged myself out of bed at the crack of dawn to get the canneles in the oven because I had friends coming over at 9AM and with the 2 hour baking and recommended resting time of 1 hr., I didn't have any time to lose. In my hurry, I forgot to add the vanilla and rum to my batter. Once they were in the oven, I realized I had also forgotten the salt. Doh! I sensed disaster but as that special honey scent started wafting through the house I crossed my fingers that they would be edible. At the one hour mark, I went to take the first few out of the oven. (After my first cannele baking experience I decided to try pulling a few out of the oven at a time.) Hmmm, their tops were rounded and they looked much different than my first attempt. Could it be the difference in mixing methods? I tried to pop one out but it stuck (last time they all popped right out with ease and you can see that these are not as perfectly shaped). Once I pried one free, I noticed that they were as dark as the canneles I had baked for 2 hrs. the other day. Crap! I pulled them all out of the oven.
I'd be horrible at conducting experiments. I screwed with so many variables that I have no idea what happened. I used larger pans as well as the bitty-bundts and I put the large pans on the top shelf, which also holds the pizza stone. Last time the pan with the bitty-bundts went on this shelf. Had the pizza stone shielded them and allowed for the 2 hr. baking without incinerating? Who knows, I'll guess I'll just have to make them again. Life is hard.
The surprising thing is that even with all my screw ups, these canneles were delicious! Even Emma, who is three, kept begging for more. I think I'm finding that canneles are like pizza, even when it's bad it's good.
Here's the recipe I have used so you can attempt your own cannele experiments. My changes are in parentheses.

Canneles de Bordeaux- adapted from Paula Wolfert
1/2 vanilla bean (I just used extract)
1 c. superfine sugar (I used regular organic)
2 c. whole milk
3/4 c. cake flour
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, diced
4 egg yolks
1 Tbsp. dark rum (I used brandy and can't wait to try Grand Marnier)

Combine sugar, flour, salt and butter in mixer and mix well. Add the egg yolks one by one (I thought this seemed like a bad idea so I tempered the eggs first by adding a little of the warm milk and then I added them slowly to the flour). Heat the milk to 183 degrees and add to the flour mixture. Mix until batter forms. It will be very thin like crepe batter. Pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. Add rum (and vanilla extract if that's what you are using) and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease the pans with butter mixture*. Place pans upside-down on a pan and put in the oven so that the extra coating can drip out. Remove pans from the oven and flip over. Fill each cup almost to the rim. Bake for 1 to 2 hours, checking often. Be sure to take one out of the pan when you check them as it is hard to tell how done they are just by looking at the tops (bottoms?).
For the record, the rose shaped bundt pan worked too. The larger canneles were very custardy in the middle. Of course now I need to buy the real molds so I can achieve the perfect crust to custard ratio!

*Butter mixture- I think beeswax is more important to cannele making than having the right molds. The taste and sheen just wouldn't be the sam without it. I tracked some down at the farmer's market. I asked the honey guy if his wax was food grade and he said, "Well you don't eat it". Ha! I beg to differ! Here's my recipe for a waxy blend.

Melt 1 oz. beeswax with 2 Tbsp. butter in the microwave. Watch carefully as beeswax is apparently flammable. Stir in 2 Tbsp. of safflower oil. Be sure you do this in a container you don't care too much about as wax is not the easiest substance to get rid of. I think I'll be baking canneles often as I have a lot of this mixture left and I've already ruined my only pastry brush.

Rhubarb Smoothie

2006-03-30T12:35:00.000-08:00

With farmer's market just around the corner, it's time to start using stuff up. Corn relish and frozen tomato sauced can hang around until the new crops come in but the rhubarb had to go. I pulled a bag from the freezer and defrosted it in a covered pan on low heat. When it was soft and juicy, I threw it in the blender and added sugar to taste. I had some buttermilk that was on the brink so I mixed that in. It was pretty thick but I like'em that way. You could thin it with oj or even just milk or water. It was tangy and delicious. And it'll be even better when the local strawberries are ready...

DIY Birthday Dinner

2006-03-29T09:33:00.000-08:00

My birthday was the 27th. Sam surprised me and we went out to dinner here. Since I had already planned out my own dinner, we had it last night. To start, we had steamed artichokes with Meyer lemon-thyme butter sauce for dipping. I made lobster bisque loosely based on this recipe and guilded the lily by serving it with seared sea scallops. With it we had a bottle of de Lorimier 2001 Spectrum which is predominantly sauvignon blanc with a little semillon and viognier. We had rolls to sop up the soup and I had planned a salad course but we were pretty full. Not too full for dessert, of course. I made Sableuse with my apricot preserves (from Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber). To drink with dessert, we had Moscato d'Asti. The pairing was sublime.
Sableuse from Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef by Jean Georges Vongerichten- This is what butter would taste like if it came in the form of cake. It melts in your mouth.

9 egg yolks (room temperature)
1 egg
14 Tbsp. sugar
2 sticks butter
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cornstarch

Combine eggs in a mixer with sugar. Beat on medium for 20 mins. Melt butter and let it cool a bit. Butter a 9x5 inch loaf pan and cut a piece of parchment to fit the bottom. Brush with butter or coat with spray oil. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. When eggs are done, add flour and cornstarch on low until just combined. Add butter and beat for 10 seconds on high. With a spatula, make sure the batter is completely mixed. Pour mixture into pan and wrap competely with tinfoil. Bake 45 to 50 minutes. Immediately invert cake onto a plate and unwrap. Cover and cool.

Not a bad birthday, if I do say so myself!

The Cult of the Cannele, Part 1

2006-03-26T18:15:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things to do in NYC when I lived there and now when I visit is to eat breakfast at Balthazar. (If you have Quicktime be sure to take the virtual tour on their website.) The first time I think I went by myself. I got a cafe au lait in a bowl and the bread basket all to myself. It comes with an assortment of sweet breads, croissants and spreads. It's very simple but when the bread is this good, it's enough. Balthazar is beautiful and it reminded me of being in Europe even though I don't think I ever had breakfast in a cafe like this when I was in Europe.
One thing not included in the bread basket sampler was the canneles. I'm not sure if I had read about these before or if I was just seduced by their burnished exterior but on one of my visits I bought one to go. Nothing prepares you for your first bite because it's not like anything you've had before. And now I know why, because I have made my own (more about this in Part 2).
I had never really thought about trying to bake them myself because I new they required fancy copper molds that I wasn't willing to purchase. Then I read of other food blogger adventures in cannele baking here, here and here. I gave in to the desire for homemade canneles when I learned that they can be made in mini bundt cake pans- an underused piece of kitchen equipment that I already own. Yeeehaaaw!
The thing is, I have two sizes of mini bundt pans. I used the extra-mini bundt pan but I think it may have been the wrong choice. Don't get me wrong, they were very tasty but the crust to custardy filling ratio was a little off. Also, I baked them for almost two hours which I think is a bit much for these babies. However, I was interested to read in this essay by Louisa at Moveable Feast (the paragraph about canneles is near the end) that in some French bakeries canneles come in three varieties- light, medium and nearly burnt. Mine were definitely the latter but my friend Molly declared she wouldn't change a thing. Next time I am going to try taking four at a time out of the oven- 1 hr. for the light, 1 and a half for the medium and 2 hrs. for the almost burnt. Stay tuned for Part 2...

Meme me!

2006-03-25T16:24:00.000-08:00

Like Tea, I have read of other bloggers loathing of the ubiquitous memes while thinking "Pick me! Pick me!" So thanks, Tea, for inviting me into the cool kids club.
How many cookbooks do you own?
I'm scared to actually count. The bookshelf in the picture is the main stash with one more shelf in my room and usually a modest stack next to my bed. If I wasn't as frugal as I am I'd have at least twice as many. Instead I tend to get new ones out of the library, read them, drool and return them.
Which cookbook did you buy most recently?
That would be Homebaking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. Its kind of a given that when I have a gift card to a bookstore that I will buy a cookbook. This last time though, I decided to buy a knitting book since I only have two of those. I spent probably an hour combing through the knitting books trying to find the one with the most patterns that I would actually use. I had narrowed it down and stopped by the cookbook section on my way to the register. Homebaking was on one of those tables where they pile the new releases to taunt you. I flipped through it for approximately 2.3 seconds before putting back the knitting books and going home with my new favorite cookbook.
Which is the cookbook that you read most recently?
The cookbok I consulted most recently was The Joy of Cooking this AM for the buttermilk waffle recipe. I ate them with banana coconut preserves that I made from Christine Ferber's amazing book Mes Confitures, As far as actually reading a cookbook, I have cut back considerably since I got sucked into food blogs!
Name 5 cookbooks that mean a lot to you.
1) Eat More, Weigh Less by Dean Ornish
This was the first cookbook I ever bought for myself. I was probably 19 at the time, vegetarian and always looking to drop a few pounds. Who wouldn't want to eat more and weigh less? The funny thing is that I remember choosing this particular book because it had a lot of eggplant recipes in it. This was the height of the low-fat craze and Dr. Ornish had discovered that you could reverse heart disease if you ate a diet of 10% fat instead of closer to 40% which is SAD (Standard American Diet). I was sabotaged in my efforts because I was also an ice cream truck driver at the time. This wasn't the kind of ice cream truck that sold popsicles. We had soft serve and made sundaes, shakes and cones. I used to stop and pick wild blackberries and make myself milkshakes. Could you diet under such circumstances?!
2) World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey
This is probably my favorite and most used cookbook. If I could only have one cookbook, this would be it. I could cook out of this book for years and never get bored. I love the chick pea Doubles (a Trinidadian sandwich of chickpea curry between golden fried breads served with peach chutney) and panisses (chick pea flour "french fries").
3) All the Chez Panisse books by Alice Waters and others
For anyone interested in seasonal eating, these books cannot be beat. When I worked as a cook on a farm one summer, these were a constant resource. With Alice by my side, I even had the confidence to try cold beef tongue salad from the Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook. The dish was surprisingly delicious.
4) Home Cooking and More Home cooking by Laurie Colwin
Laurie Colwin is my favorite food writer. If she is new to you, run to the nearest bookstore and buy these books. They are essays that she originally published in Gourmet ( I think) and are full of love for food and life. She is charming and funny and makes you want to cook everything she writes about RIGHT NOW. You also wish she could be your friend but it is a sad wish because she died of heart failure in 1992. She was only 48. I am not one to read books more than once (so many books! so little time!) but I have read these two over and over and over...
5) All the books by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
I loved Homebaking so much that I looked into what else they had written and was soon consumed by Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, Seductions of Rice, Flatbreads and Flavors and Mangoes and Curry Leaves. These two met on the roof of a teahouse in Tibet and have been traveling together and writing fabulous cookbooks ever since. Their books are a pleasure to read from and to cook from. Part travelogue, part recipe book and the pictures are beautiful too. I want to be them.

I'll tag Allison who's a knitting blogger who also posts recipes and The Foppish Baker who is one of the few Madison food bloggers that I've been able to track down. (If you know of others, please let me know in the comments.)

Homemade elixirs

2006-03-23T13:07:00.000-08:00

I go a little crazy in the summer. I'm friends with a lot of farmers and I just can't say no when they tempt me with produce. They know I love to make pickles and preserves so it's not rare for me to go home with extra tomatoes that would otherwise be composted or a strange new variety of something that they want people to try. Last year it was Mexican sour gherkins. These baby cukes are just so cute that I had to take them home with me. They taste pretty much like a cucumber with maybe a bit more bite. The plan was to pickle them but I eneded up eating them in salads with baby fresh mozzeralla balls, cherry tomatoes and basil. It's almost too much to think about when it looks like this outside. Sigh.
When summer finally gets here, it feels like a race to me. How much can I put away for later? It's not enough to go to market and just buy for the week. No, I have to buy that bushel of peaches because the farmer said this is the last week he'll have them!. So I end up eating tons of fresh produce, canning and freezing more than I can eat or even give away, and still there always seems to be more.
One way I've learned to deal with this glut is by making homemade liqueurs. If those peaches are about to go bad but I don't have the time to make another batch of five-spice peach butter, I just buy a bottle of vodka, stuff a jar with fruit and submerge it in liquor and sugar and in 6 weeks I have my own elixir. In my cupboard I currently have peach, apricot, blueberry, black currant, Dolgo crab apple and cranberry.
This spring is feeling awfully wintery so I decided to grab some Meyer lemons while they last and make some homemade Limoncello. Maybe someday I'll live where they grow on trees and friends give me bagfuls like some people.
Limoncello
17 lemons (preferably Meyer and organic)
One 1.75 liter vodka
5 1/2 c water
6 c. sugar
4 qt. jar

Thinly slice the lemons and put in the jar. Add the vodka. Store in a cupboard for 2 weeks. On the fourteenth day, strain the vodka and discard lemon slices. Heat the water and sugar in a pan until the sugar disolves. Add to vodka.
I got this recipe from my Aunt and didn't think to research on the internet until I had already begun. From a more authentic recipe I've found, it's recommended that you use only the zest of the lemons and use Everclear instead of vodka. It seems like the recipe above has an awful lot of sugar. I know lemons are tart but so are cranberries and I know I didn't add anywhere near this much sugar to those. When my lemons are done steeping, I'm going to make the syrup and then add it to taste so that it doesn't end up too sweet.
Store your finished limoncello in the freezer and sip in small glasses after standing over a hot stove and canning all day.

For the Vegie Less Travelled- Go CSA!

2006-03-20T09:14:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. Time to pick a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and what it means is that in the spring you give a farmer some money and in turn, throughout the growing season, you get a box of vegetables every week. This is a win/win situation because the farmer has some capital to buy seeds and can plan what to grow and you get the freshest produce available and maybe some fun farm events to attend.
Each CSA is different, though, and sometimes it's hard to choose. Here is a list of factors that can help you make a choice.
We have an embarrassment of riches in Wisconsin when it comes to CSA farms with only California, New York and Pennsylvania having more choices. The Robyn Van En Center will help you find a CSA farm near you. If you live in the Madison area, the best resource is Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (MACSAC). Every year they host an open house where CSA farmers get together and the public is welcome to ask questions about their farms. (The pictures are from this event). On their website, MACSAC provides all the information you'll need to pick a farm and they also sell a locally produced cookbook to help you prepare delicious meals with the vegetables you will receive.
I probably sound like a hawker but it wouldn't be exaggerating to say that CSA's have changed my life. When I first moved to Madison in 1996, my best friend Sue and I decided to join a CSA and picked one that we could bike to because we didn't have a car. We bought what are called worker shares - every week we spent about 4 hours working on the farm in exchange for our vegetables. Fighting off the mosquitos and sharing a meal of just picked veggies with the other workers instilled a love for organic local produce in a way that buying it in the store never could. In fact, I have left Madison three times but every time I have returned, in part because of the amazing farmer's markets and abundance of CSA farms. If you want to support small farmers, eat great food and maybe get your hands dirty, CSA is the way to go.

Where Wisconsin is king

2006-03-17T07:41:00.000-08:00

I had been looking forward to the opening of The Old Fashioned for months because it's a partnership between the owner's of some of the best restaurants in Madison. While there are a number of good or even great places to eat in our city, there's a definite shortage of really good mid-priced restaurants; especially those that focus on quality, locally sourced ingredients. In fact, everything on the menu that can be acquired from a Wisconsin producer is acquired in state. From the trout to the sausage, from produce to beer and soda, it's all local all the time.
The Old Fashioned was packed from the moment the doors opened. (See? Madison needed the Old Fashioned). I personally have been 5 or 6 times. It is a tavern so the emphasis is on fried appetizers, sandwiches and nightly specials. Taco Tuesdays, Prime Rib on Saturday and this wouldn't be Wisconsin without a fish fry on Friday.
Seeing as I'm not from around these parts, I've never understood the Wisconsin native's love of cheese curds. (If you've never heard of a cheese curd click here). I just don't understand why you'd want your cheese to squeek.
However, the first time I popped a fried cheese curd in my mouth, my first thought was "I'd really be better off it I didn't know these existed." They are irresistable and my thighs have paid the price. Imagine the smaller, tastier cousin to the fried mozzerella stick. Of course fried cheese curds were my first indulgence at The Old Fashioned. I was not disappointed by THE BEST FRIED CHEESE CURDS EVER! Be sure to eat them fast, though, since they do have a tendency to disintegrate into a molten puddle if left to sit. Also, get the tiger sauce. I know there are other options but I don't remember what they are since I was smitten after my first taste of this creamy, horseradish concoction.
I've also tried and loved the Macaroni and cheese with ring bologna, spinach salad with salmon (possibly the best salad I've ever had in a restaurant) and the fish fry. It wasn't until I tried the OF burger, though, that I was ready to declare my undying love for this place to anyone who would listen (i.e.-you).

First, as you can see from the (bad) picture, it comes with a fried egg on top. This is right up my alley but I've talked to some people who were turned off by the whole egg-on-a-burger thing so before you get grossed out, they also have the build your own burger option so you can have it your way.
This burger is a perfect illustration of what is possible when you use quality ingredients. You know how it is when you get a burger and it tastes pretty good but the cheese is the kind that comes wrapped in plastic or there's so much stuff on it that the bun had no chance of surviving? Every element of this burger would stand out on it's own and thus comes together to yield the perfect burger. The bun is a rich brown on the outside and toasted on the inside. It tasted buttery. The beef is so good that our resident 9 yr. old picky eater LOVED her kid's burger even though it was (horrors!) pink inside. There's perfectly caramelized onions, that luscious tiger sauce and the bacon was a shining example of the form. I was actually sad after my last bite that my burger eating experience was over. I do recommend getting the salad instead of the fries. The fries are not stellar and this leaves you more room to focus on the burger. Besides, the salad is the best side salad with a burger that you're ever going to get.
My only complaint about The Old Fashioned is the lack of real entrees. If you are not in the mood for a sandwich and the special of the night isn't calling to you, the pickings are actually a little slim. There's the mac and cheese, entree salads and trout, but at 18.95 (I think) it's a bit spendy for what I want to shell out at a place like this. (I'm not saying it's not worth it but if I want to spend close to $20 on just my entree I'd more than likely go somewhere else.)
I'd like to point out that this is just a blog and not an official review (I know that's obvious but I still think it needs to be said). I haven't gotten into the lazy susan's, the various cheese plates, or the selection of Old Fashioned's (the drink for which the place is named) so be sure to check it out for yourself.

Taco night * Edited *

2006-03-13T17:54:00.000-08:00

The first time I had Mexican Chorizo, I was staying at a hostel in Baja. It was out in the middle of nowhere but we were very happy to arrive there after a car ride where everyone had someone in their lap so that we could all fit. It was a lovely place, close to the beach with a special honeymoon suite. The "suite" was a seperate room perched on top of the building, barely larger than the king-sized bed it contained, with huge windows on all four sides. We opted for the much cheaper bunk beds.
There wasn't an option to go back into town to shop so we were pleased that the hostel had a food sharing policy. Anything left behind by other wayward travelers was fair game for anyone who wanted it. After perusing the fridge and pantry, we decided on chorizo tacos. I didn't have much experience cooking Mexican but I thought I could handle this with ease.
I squeezed the chorizo out of it's plastic package into the hot pan. I figured it would cook like ground beef. I broke it into smaller pieces and stirred it as it fried. It was hard to tell when it was done because it was so red. Grease filled the pan. I cooked it some more. Eventually I decided if I cooked it anymore there'd be nothing left. It was definitely cooked but there wasn't much to eat. I think we burned the rice too. That's probably the only night I went to bed hungry in Mexico.
I never tried store bought chorizo again but I have tried making my own. The first time was from venison that I helped butcher- quite an adventure for a recovered vegetarian! I used a Rick Bayless recipe from this book.
Last night we had friends over for tacos and I tried this simplified recipe. It's not authentic but when it's this easy to make and tastes good too, who cares?

Chorizo from 1,000 Mexican Recipes by Marge Poore
1lb. ground pork
2 1/2 Tbsp. ground ancho or pasilla chili powder
1 tsp. dried Mexican oregano
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 Tbsp. unseasoned rice vinegar

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mash up with your hands. Cook as you would ground beef.

We had a make your taco bar with the chorizo, shredded chicken, spicy shrimp, avocado, tomatillo salsa, hot 'n smoky red salsa, corn relish and pickled red onions. There was green rice, black beans and red cabbage slaw on the side. For dessert we had pineapple cake with mango caramel sauce, coconut crema and toasted coconut.
To wash it all down, I made White Sangria. I think it's much tastier than any red sangria I've ever had.

The recipe was also from 1,000 Mexican Recipes. My changes are in parentheses.

Sangria Blanca
1 bottle dry white wine
1/2 c. orange flavored liqueur (1/3 c. tequila)
1/2 c. orange juice (mango puree)
1/2 c. sugar
1 orange, thinly sliced (I added a blood orange too)
1 lime, thinly sliced (I used 4 key limes)
1 lemon, thinly sliced (mine was a meyer lemon)
1 1/2 c. club soda
6 clusters seedless grapes (I didn't have grapes or mint)
fresh mint sprigs

In a pitcher, mix wine, juice, sugar and citrus. Refrigerate until ready to serve. When ready to serve, add ice and club soda. Pour into 6 glasses and garnish with grapes and mint sprigs.

*Edited* Ah, the wonders of technology! I went through my photos and found this picture of us piling out of the car at the hostel and scanned it. You can see the honeymoon suite at the top. It's hard to see but there is a beautiful mural of a whale on the side facing the sun.

2006 Independent Food Festival and Awards

2006-03-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

Over at Taste Everything, food bloggers are nominating their favorite foods and producers who deserve recognition. I couldn't let this go by without giving props to one of my favorite things. (Besides, it seems that the Midwest is underrepresented in the awards!)
Without further ado I give you:
The Best Fruit Beer for People Who Don't Like Fruit Beers
Belgian Red by New Glarus Brewing Co.
Okay, maybe they don't need more recognition. You'll find a list of all the awards they have won here. I can't remember the first time I had New Glarus cherry beer but I know I was blown away by it's luscious cherry flavor. Each bottle is made with 1 lb. of Door County cherries which is no surprise when you take a sip. It bursts and bubbles on your tongue with sweet tart cherry juiciness. I was in love.

Now I use any excuse to buy a bottle. Need a housewarming gift? Buy cherry beer! Homesick friend now living in NYC? Send cherry beer! Need something special to drink with dessert? Get some cherry beer! Need pictures for the blog? Yup, cherry beer. If you are in Wisconsin, don't forget to track down some New Glarus cherry beer- currently, it's only available here. New Glarus Brewing Co. is a family business run by Deb Carey (founder and pesident) and Dan Carey (brewmaster). At one point, they were distributing in Illinois but stopped when they realized they couldn't even keep up with demand in Wisconsin. They don't want to contract out out the brewing of their beer so that they can produce more.
I went for a tour a few years ago when Deb was still leading them herself. I remember asking what the row of Nesco cookers was for. Turns out they use them to melt the red wax that coats the neck of the bottle. Each one is dipped by hand. It's that kind of personal touch that makes New Glarus products special.

I can't stop thinking about sushi!

2006-03-06T13:53:00.000-08:00

Last night we had trashy fun while watching the Oscar' s on a 42 inch plasma screen tv and rolling sushi.

The menu :
Tempura with onions, snow peas, mushrooms, carrots and zucchini.
Fried calamari with tomato horseradish sauce
Seaweed Salad (recipe here)
Edamame salad (from 101 Cookbooks)
Sushi rolls with tuna, avocado, cucumber, scallions, unagi, crab, spicy tuna, shiso, enoki mushrooms, etc.
Sake
Mango and lychee sorbet with mango caramel and kiwi

I loved the salads with the sushi. I used a mix of arame, wakame and hijiki for the seaweed salad. I left out the apple and cilantro. I've been looking for ways to eat more seaweed and this is a winner. The dessert was declared lick-the-plate worthy. Here's the caramel recipe.

Mango Caramel
1 c. sugar
1/4 water (enough to moisten all of the sugar)
1 c. mango puree (you could make your own but I like Swad canned mango puree)

Cook the sugar water on high heat. Once it starts boiling, do not stir. When it starts to brown, turn the heat down as it is very easy to overcook at this point. Cook until evenly brown. I recommend a lighter caramel for this sauce. Turn off the heat and add a little bit of mango. It will bubble madly at this point. When this subsides, add the rest of the mango. Stir until you have a smooth sauce. If some of the caramel has hardened, put the pot over low heat and stir until it melts. This sauce can be altered endlessly depending on what liquid you add- cream, white wine, other fruit purees. Have fun, go wild!

The Price We Pay

2006-03-01T08:14:00.000-08:00

"One of the reasons Lori and I are so dedicated to gardening is that it allows us to afford to buy responsibly raised meat and poultry and wild-caught fish."

When I read this quote from Michel Nischan in Homegrown Pure and Simple, I could relate. I've never made very much money but my priority has always been to buy the best food that I can afford. I was a vegetarian for five years but what brought me back to the other side was working a restaurant whose meat was locally and sustainably raised. It may sound harsh but I have no problem with something dying for my dinner as long as I can be certain that it didn't have a horrible life. Now, most of the meat I cook and eat at home is raised by farmers that I have come to know. When I cooked on the farm, I even fed the cows myself.
Besides gardening, the thing that allows me to afford locally raised, usually organic meat is my giant reach-in freezer. In the last year Sam and I have bought a whole pig and 1/4 of a cow as well as numerous chickens. Putting money down on a whole animal allows farmers to plan better and in return you get a nice price break. And sometimes home delivery. Our freezer stash has dwindled, though, and for diet and cash flow reasons we have decided against replenishing at this time. Besides, we still have some of the "less desirable" cuts waiting for some love.
Sam decided it was time to eat some liver. As a kid I was never forced to try liver because my parents hated it. I came at it with an umprejudiced palette but in the end I was not won over. The recipe was good but I guess I just don't like liver. I had my two bites and that's all I could take.
I didn't take a picture of the finished product because, as my friend Sue pointed out, fried liver dredged in flour bears a striking resemblance to cat turds straight from the litter box. Mmmm...
Here's the recipe for all you liver lover's and sustainable eaters out there.

Liver with Onions, Raisins and Jalapenos
from 1,000 Mexican Recipes by Marge Poore

1/4 c. raisins
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
freshly ground pepper
12 oz. calves liver, thinly sliced
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 to 3 pickled jalapenos, thinly sliced

Soak the raisins in warm water for 10 minutes. While heating the oil in a large skillet, combine the flour, salt and pepper. When the oil is hot, dredge the liver slices in the flour mixture and place in the skillet. Brown on both sides, approximately 1 minute per side. Remove from pan and add the onion. Cook until soft and brown, about 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the drained raisins and jalapenos. Return the liver to the pan and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Serve with polenta or wrapped in corn tortillas.

EDITED* We also had pig liver. See what Sam did with it here.

Holy guacamole!

2006-02-27T10:27:00.000-08:00

I don't know how much this guacamole boat costs, but I know that it's a deal. It's perfect too. Just enough onion and tomato to add interest but not enough to water down the unctuous avocados.
Even though it wasn't good for the diet, I couldn't resist ordering a torta. They are my favorite and Taqueria Marimar doesn't mess around.
They bake their own rolls and this thing is so big you probably won't want dinner.
I had never had a torta before I went to Mexico but it's no suprise that looking back on my 2 month trip my 2 favorite cities are where I ate the best tortas!
We stayed at a Hotel on the main drag in Guanajuato and didn't get much sleep because of the restaurant on the main floor. Right next door was a sidewalk stand where a guy was making tortas for the never ending line of ravenous torta fans. They came on a small crispy bun and they sliced the pork before your eyes. Pickled jalapenos and thick slabs of avocado crowned the pork. I shouldn't be writing about these with an empty stomach!
Guadalajara had the best market and I seem to remember I stayed in town an extra day so I could wander through one more time and stop at my favorite torta stand. This was our first torta experience and my friend Fiona ordered 2 figuring they were like tacos. Her jaw dropped when they set the 2 heaping sandwiches before her. Luckily I hadn't ordered yet. These came on big soft buns with a scoop of beans, carne al pastor and guacamole. So messy but so worth it. Finding a quality torta in the US is a challenge but if you see it on the menu , it's definitely worth a shot.

Excuse me, would you happen to have any Grey Poupon?

2006-02-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

Sam and I have been trying to whittle our waistlines. We try not to snack and often by the time dinner rolls around we are ready to chew each other's arms off. The fridge is uncharacteristically not stuffed to bursting but one thing we do have a lot of is mustard-mustard judging has some benefits.
The other night when the wait for dinner proved to be to much for him, Sam started eating mustard with a spoon. I decided it was time to make soft pretzels. I was short on time so went straight to the internet for a recipe. I blended a few ideas and came up with these:

Hmmm...more like pretzel shaped bagels. What makes a pretzel a pretzel anyway? And how do you get that lovely brown sheen? An egg wash might have helped but we forgot. As a vehicle for mustard, though, they did not disappoint.

Frozen Gold

2006-02-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

On a February day like today, with enough snow that not only schools were closed but Sam got to stay home from work, it's nice to have a well stocked freezer. Sungold tomatoes are a favorite summer treat. Sweet like candy, it's always a joy to feed them to a sungold virgin and watch their eyes light up. Lucky for me, I just happened to have a bag in the freezer. They sound like marbles as they hit the pan waiting with hot oil and crushed garlic. In the time it takes to cook pasta, I saute the tomatoes down with salt and a splash of vinegar. While the juice is reducing, I toss some chopped spinach in with the tomatoes. When the pasta is cooked and drained I throw it in the pan with the tomatoes, basil chiffonade, a few grinds of black pepper, french feta and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Summer can wait, it's time to go cross-country skiing.
Pssst! I'm not the only one who loves sungolds.

Winter Fruit Salad

2006-02-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid fruit salad meant one thing and only one thing. We'd buy a pineapple. Cut it up and throw it in a big bowl with frozen blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. Quick and easy no matter what season it was. Who cared that it all turned into a mushy purple mess. We though it was delicious.
Times have changed. While you still don't want to mess with strawberries in winter, it's now possible to find tasty fresh fruit year round. Last night I had a mix of blood oranges, kiwis, dates and candied kumquats topped with maple yogurt (not pictured).

Golden Nuggets

2006-02-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

Even though I sometimes wish that I was born in the 50's so I could stay at home and cook all day, I hate to clean my house. This winter I'm trying a new tactic. I have friends over once a week which forces me to at least clear off the table and as a reward I get to cook all day. Sounds like a win/win to me. Today Jason came over and I made homemade falafel and pitas.
I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and delicious they were.

Tahini Sauce- from The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman

1/2 c. tahini
1/2 c. yogurt
juice of one lemon
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. ground cumin

I made mine in the blender because the tahini was a bit chunky. Very thick and tasty.

Falafel- from The Best Recipes in the World

1 3/4 c. dried chickpeas
2 garlic cloves
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. cayenne
1 c. fresh parsley, chopped
2 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 egg
oil for deep-frying (awww yeah!)

Soak the chickpeas overnight. Strain and combine with the rest of ingredients (except oil) in a food processor and pulse until minced. I don't have a food processor so even though I thought it was a bad idea, I decided to try bashing up the chickpeas in the blender. It worked like a charm. Who knew?
I put the chickpea bits in a bowl and mixed in the the rest of the ingredients by hand. This reminded me of making meatloaf as a kid. It was one of the first things I learned to do in the kitchen. I guess I found the squish of ground beef, eggs and ketchup irresistible. The thought of that now kind of grosses me out.
Heat 2 inches of oil in a wide pot until a small pinch of the chickpea mixture sizzles vigourously in the hot oil. Roll golf ball-sized falafels and fry until golden brown. I recommend cutting one in half and dipping in it in the waiting tahini sauce before popping it in your mouth to check for doneness- cooks privilege.
Serve in warm, homemade pitas (or storebought if you must) with mixed greens, cucumbers, roasted red peppers and big globs of tahini sauce.

World Wide Mustard Competition

2006-02-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am a mustard judge. This was my second year tasting my way through more mustards than I knew existed. I'd like to say I was chosen because of my skills as a supertaster but really I think they take anyone who shows up.
We arrived at the Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb, WI and after some schmoozing with Barry Levenson, the quirky curator, we decided what kind of mustard we wanted to sample. There are too many entrants for the judges to try them all so Barry had divided them into categories such as sweet/hot, deli, honey, horseradish, garlic, pepper hot, Dijon, and exotic. We all sampled two of these groups and a third if time permitted. I chose sweet/hot, horseradish and garlic. The first surprise as a mustard judge is how bad a lot of the mustards are. Overly sweet and gloppy or pasty with no mustard flavor, what were these people thinking?

I remember some of them from last year and wonder why my constructive criticism was not taken to heart (we're encouraged to give comments because they will be shared with the mustard makers.) Out of the 20-30 in each category, there were only a handful I'd ever want to have in my mouth again. The horseradish mustards were my favorites. I actually bought two of those.
By the end, my palette was reeling but you can bet I'll be back next year.

Welcome to my blog!

2006-02-08T19:52:00.000-08:00

I've been dying to jump into the fray of the food blogging world. So here goes...