November 26, 2009
Posted by Chichi Wang, October 27, 2009 at 9:15 AM
[Photos: Greg Takayama]
To those who claim there's nothing better than a juicy steak, I offer the stomach as this week's counter-argument. Nose-to-tail eating affords a whole range of enticing textures. We often judge food by its taste, but texture is equally significant.
Chewy, stringy, mushy, spongy: though nothing one would want in a steak, these adjectives take on positive connotations for offal. Consider tripe, which is meant to be chewy and spongy in a tender, slowly-stewed kind of way. Tendon, another underappreciated part, turns soft and mushy after many hours of cooking.
Charred on a cast iron or hot griddle, the different layers of pork stomach become soft, chewy, and crisp all at once. It's the most powerful argument we have for offal: to seek a novel culinary experience, we can turn towards the non-fleshy parts of the animal.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, October 22, 2009 at 5:30 PM
[Photographs: Kerry Saretsky]
When you think of Savoy, think of the Alps. There is something about the chill of a mountain that encourages you to eat your way into a pot-bellied stove, as if eating the food will lend you the experience of baking with it in a very warm and cozy place. Perhaps that is why anything "savoyarde" seems to contain three very comforting ingredients: gooey and smelly Reblochon cheese, potatoes, and ham—like tartiflette. It's hearty and perfect for winter.
Ironically, my first taste of Savoy was in a small seaside town in Provence called Cassis during the height of summer. I parked myself at a little crêpe establishment, and after some consideration, ordered the crêpe savoyarde. The crêpe was stuffed with running Reblochon cheese and potatoes, and on top of the envelope-fold of crêpe was placed a drape of jambon cru, like prosciutto. It was rich and wholesome and far too heavy for summer, so that I staggered back up the hot, hot hill to my house, feeling more like I resembled a snowman than a girl. But the crêpe's flavors worked so well together that I thought to myself instantly, "I want to make this into a pizza."
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Posted by cakespy, October 19, 2009 at 2:45 PM
Note: Jessie Oleson (aka Cakespy) drops by every Monday to share a delicious dessert recipe.
[Photographs and original art: Jessie Oleson]
Have you ever looked at a Frida Kahlo's enigmatic self-portraits and wondered what secrets might lurk behind her signature (and very assertive) brow? Well, I can share at least one, discovered while leafing through Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Frida Kahlo's Pan de Muerto recipe. Pan de Muerto ("bread of the dead") is a traditional Day of the Dead treat. The dough of the rich, sweet bread is twisted into bone and skull motifs to pay homage to relatives and friends who have passed.
Don't forget the 'stache and unibrow when decorating!
While Frida's version lacks the traditional anise, it certainly does not lack in flavor. These mini loaves are surprisingly light for such an egg-rich dough, punctuated with cinnamon and sugar for a lightly sweet and delectably spicy treat. And if you choose (as I did) to add a sweet orange glaze on top, they easily transition from snack territory to that of decadent breakfast or light and sweet dessert. Of course, adding Frida-esque embellishments only heightens the experience—don't forget the 'stache and unibrow when decorating!
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Posted by Caroline Russock, October 12, 2009 at 1:00 PM
"This recipe makes a lot, and I mean a lot—two very hefty loaves to be exact. But given how good it is, I'm not really complaining."
[Photograph: Robyn Lee]
When you work in a restaurant, brunch is a bummer. Everyone is either exhausted from the previous evening's shift or hungover or maybe both. Regardless of whether you are working in the front or back of the house , bad moods are inevitable.
The last restaurant where I had the (dis)pleasure of working brunch shifts was happily located in close proximity to Amy's Bread. Each weekend morning I made a point to stop there and buy a big bag filled with a variety of Amy's goodies to share with my grumpy co-workers. It worked like a charm. Moods improved almost instantly with a few bites of the pastries.
This Pumpkin Walnut Cranberry Quickbread was a particular favorite at the restaurant. Since I no longer work brunch shifts and my trip's to Amy's are less frequent, I decided to make a loaf at home.
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Posted by Carolyn Cope, October 6, 2009 at 8:00 AM
Note: You may know Carolyn Cope as Umami Girl. She stops by on Tuesdays to help us cook through seasonal surplus with ease.
[Photograph: Carolyn Cope]
In the Crisper
Featured Veg: Pumpkin
Prep: Wash well. Prick flesh deeply in several places with a small, sharp knife
Roast: Whole (pricked) at 400° F until tender inside, an hour or more
Purée: When cooled, cut in half, remove seeds and stringy flesh. Scoop out remaining flesh and purée in food processor until smooth
Store: Freeze purée for up to a year for use in a wide variety of recipes
This week I finally got around to patching a gaping hole in my food-literature education by reading M. F. K. Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf. Among other well-told strategies for enjoying the results of frugal cooking, Fisher advocates preparing and roasting a large variety of dishes at once, filling the oven with as many pans as it will hold to conserve energy and money. I love the efficiency of that approach but, to put it mildly, I'm not always organized enough to produce two weeks' worth of meals in one go. Like, ever.
What I can do, and have started doing as a matter of routine (and, to be honest, as a matter of free therapy) every fall, is to collect my weight in pumpkins and other orange-fleshed winter squash, poke the bejeezus out of them with a knife, pack them into a hot oven on sheet pans, and walk away for an hour. Kabochas, butternuts, buttercups, acorns, Red Kuris—they've all been victims of this savagery, sometimes all at once. When they're cooled, I purée the tender flesh, pack it into pint containers, and freeze it for up to a year for use in soups, baked goods, pasta or risotto, curries, you name it. It makes me feel like a slightly deranged Martha Stewart, which is a surprisingly good feeling.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, October 2, 2009 at 8:00 PM
"I took a ten-minute break to wallow in my failure then returned to the grill—but those ten minutes made all the puffy difference."
[Photographs: Joshua Bousel]
Given my rough relationship with bread-making, I had little hope that grilling pita pockets would yield the proper results. But since I'm not one to shy away from a challenge—and determined to take the upper hand in my battle with breads—I ventured forth in a quest to grill delicious pocket pitas.
I made a switch to instant yeast, taking improper proofing out of the equation for failure, and mixed it with flour, salt, oil, and water, letting it knead for 10 minutes in the KitchenAid. Then the dough went into the fridge to rise overnight. I checked on it after an hour and it was already rising. (Hurray!)
The next day, I divided the dough, let is rest while I prepared the grill, then rolled them into rather imperfect rounds one-fourth of an inch thick. Before throwing the dough on the grill, I gave each disc a few mists of water to add some moisture, hoping to create the air bubbles needed to form the pocket.
The first few pitas didn't puff, and although delicious, I was feeling a little dejected.
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Posted by Gina DePalma, September 17, 2009 at 8:30 AM
Few things fill me with more satisfaction than baking a loaf or two of my own bread. Mind you, I'm not an expert, but I've got a stable of favorites I turn to again and again, the best of which are simple, yet full of interesting texture and flavor. Pan Nociato is a cheese-spiked walnut bread from Umbria that never fails to please.
The combination of savory and sweet is what makes this bread so special, which is typically found in the southern part of Umbria, from Perugia to Todi. Walnuts give the bread its name, but its true character comes from the combination of nuts with aged sheep's milk cheese, plumped raisins, and red wine. The wine stains the dough deceptively—it looks like a hearty wheat bread but the texture is soft and slightly chewy.
Umbria is the region that contains Norcia, a town high in the mountains famous for its butchers and cured meats. Pan Nociato is a natural partner for affettati misti, a platter of cold cuts that might include Norcia's sweet prosciutto, wild boar salame, and rustic capocollo, or hearty soup made from farro and lentils from Umbria's hills, flavored with the prized local black truffles.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, September 9, 2009 at 1:15 PM
"Feel free to go crazy with your choice of cheese—goat is just the beginning."
[Flickr: quinn.anya]
Bread pudding is a great way to deal with stale bread laying around and just so happens to be fabulous and very homey dessert. But have you ever tried your hand at a savory bread pudding?
I first started experimenting with savory bread puddings while I was doing a brief back-of-the-house stint in a restaurant that baked its own bread for sandwiches. On slower days we were left with a lot of beautiful house-made ciabatta rolls that couldn't be served the next day. Dinnertime was not as popular as breakfast and lunch so working the p.m. shift afforded me lots of down time to experiment. It was on a slow Tuesday night that I first toyed with the idea of savory bread pudding.
Though a few years ago now, I still remember the first incarnation of my savory bread pudding—it was quite similar to Tracey Medeiros's Goat Cheese Bread Pudding from Dishing Up Vermont. For some reason I was naturally drawn to goat cheese, the soft texture and sharp flavor seemed to make perfect sense with the rich custard-like nature of bread pudding.
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Posted by Carolyn Cope, September 8, 2009 at 10:30 AM
[Photographs: Carolyn Cope]
In the Crisper
Featured Veg: Fuzzy squash, aka fuzzy melon, hairy melon, hairy gourd, Mo Qua.
Prep: Peel. Then dice, grate, or slice.
Eat: Raw, pickled, braised, stir-fried, stuffed.
Substitute: Summer squash (cooked) or cucumber (raw).
Whoever named the fuzzy squash has really got some explaining to do. Possibly even a scholarship fund to establish for retributive purposes. Because how can a vegetable be expected to get anywhere in this world with the weight of that name on its shoulders? If you're thinking that "fuzzy squash" may be the least appealing name a person could give to a perfectly lovely food, well, I regret to inform you that it's the second-least appealing name. Second after "hairy gourd," another name for fuzzy squash. Poor dear.
"Anyone want to share my hairy gourd?"
"Um, no. Are you even allowed to ask me that at work?"
Never mind getting ahead. You'll be lucky to keep your job.
Last I checked, peaches are fuzzy too but I guess they were lucky enough to be named by someone with a knack for marketing. Or at least someone whose mom taught her to accentuate the positive. Hairy Gourd Namer's mom, on the other hand, wore a belt when she was eight months pregnant with him. It's little wonder that this versatile summer vegetable is more prevalent in Chinese cuisine, where it goes by the kindler, gentler name Mo Qua. (It's kinder to me at least, since I don't speak Chinese. For all I know it means "Anyone want to share my hairy gourd.")
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Posted by foolishpoolish, August 25, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Note: Due to pilot error, this recipe post crashed sometime Saturday night after I fiddled with it—only a few hours after taking flight. I just worked with FoolishPoolish to restore it and am bumping it back up in the queue here today for those of you who missed it. —AK
A recent poll on Slice posed the question "Crust, Sauce, or Toppings?"
After much deliberation, I came to my own conclusion that crust is the defining component of pizza. Fitting, then, that my next pizza culinary adventure would be making "Pizza Bianca." In its traditional form, this popular Roman flatbread has no toppings other than oil and salt—just six feet of crisp, chewy, flavorsome CRUST!
Now, I'll confess I have never visited the legendary Antico Forno Campo de'Firori in Rome, or such New York bakeries as Grandaisy or Sullivan Street—or even Spianata & Co. in London. However, if Jeffrey Steingarten's pursuit of the perfect pizza bianca is anything to go by, the results would be worth it. In his book It Must Have Been Something I Ate there are details of his obsessive quest, including measuring oven temperature with an infrared thermometer, laboratory analysis of flour samples, and traveling to Rome to observe bakers practicing their craft before returning to New York to consult with baker Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery.
My far humbler efforts, on the other hand, consisted of 2 weeks researching drooling over Flickr pictures of prime specimens of pizza bianca and getting covered in flour while trying to stretch insanely wet dough in my home kitchen.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, August 13, 2009 at 1:00 PM
Since I am a sucker for anything thing cornmeal-related, I naturally had to try the Jalapeño-Cheddar-Corn Muffins in Elizabeth Barone's Easy Gluten-Free Baking. I already had all of the gluten-free baking ingredients on hand and I always have some cornmeal lying around, so why not?
I made a few minor, improvisational changes: I used heavy cream in place of milk (I figured this gluten-free recipe could use some added richness), swapped the cheddar for some English Cotswold that I had bought earlier that day, and used Thai bird chiles instead of jalapeños.
The results? This cornbread was pretty delicious. It's not the sweet, cakey kind of cornbread, but more of a crumbly, corny cornbread. It was pretty much identical to a traditional cornbread recipe that uses a more cornmeal than flour. The chiles and cheese definitely played a big part in the recipe. The crunch of the cornmeal along with the slight tang of the cheese and the considerable heat that the chiles lent made these corn muffins into something that I would be happy to serve anyone.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, August 11, 2009 at 1:00 PM
Oh noes! What to do with too much zucchini? Photograph from virtualcourtney on Flickr
This past Saturday was Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbors' Porch Day. To help deal with the bounty of zucchini that all of your neighbors surely bestowed upon you, we shared some of our favorite zucchini recipes. What's one more going to hurt? Zucchini is abundant enough this time of year.
Elizabeth Barbone, author of Easy Gluten-Free Baking, is afraid that Zucchini Bread had become a bit of a culinary joke, something we only make when we're overrun with zucchini in late summer. She thnks there's another reason to make zucchini bread: It tastes great.
This recipe is gluten-free and uses two types of rice flour, white rice flour and sweet rice flour. Both can be found at health food stores but Barbone prefers to buy hers at Asian markets, for some reason the texture is smoother. Sweet rice flour is made from glutenous rice and is great for retaining moisture in baked goods.
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Posted by foolishpoolish, August 8, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Note: You may know foolishpoolish from the comments on Slice, where he dives in with abandon--particularly where pizza-making is concerned. Yesterday, he shared this recipe with us. I'm putting it up today, as it takes a while. You should go grab the ingredients and start today. You'll be enjoying this delicious-looking pizza by Monday. --The Mgmt.
- makes two thick-crust 14-by-10-inch pizzas or three thinner pizzas -
Notes
- Time: 2 days (first day making the sauce and mixing preferment, second day mixing the final dough and baking the pizza). Three days if refrigerating the dough
- The recipe for the sauce was inspired by two different Heston Blumenthal techniques featured in his In Search of Perfection... books and television series. One used tomato pulp and seeds to make an umami-rich paste (which I have dubbed "tomami") while the other involves drying fresh tomatoes in the oven to bring out their sweetness
- The recipe for the dough was designed to be flexible enough to use sourdough starter (if you have some available) or just baker's yeast if not. For those using a sourdough starter, there is an optional refrigeration step, which will give the crust greater depth of flavor, make it slightly chewier, and mildly tangy. Use according to taste
- The baking process is very much influenced by Dom DeMarco's method for making the square pies he turns out at Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn. Thanks to all the food bloggers and YouTube uploaders who, between them, have almost the entire process captured on video, although I should clarify that in no way is this pizza recipe intended as a "Di Fara copy"
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Posted by Caroline Russock, June 2, 2009 at 1:15 PM
It was not an easy task to choose six recipes to feature this week. Julie Richardson and Cory Schreiber, authors of Rustic Fruit Desserts, have put together some of the most delicious recipes I've come across in a while. Looking through cookbooks generally sparks cravings, but this one inspired an impromptu trip to a bakery. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but Rustic Fruit Desserts has left me with pies, tarts, cobblers, and crisps on the brain.
This recipe for Apple Cobbler with Cheddar Biscuits immediately jumped out at me. Apples and cheddar are a fantastic combination, combining both sweet and savory, creamy and crunchy. One of my go-to late night snacks is a grilled cheddar sandwich with slices of tart Fuji apple. If you are a fan of apple pie served with a cheddar slice, then this recipe was written for you.
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Posted by Tara Mataraza Desmond, May 26, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Editor's note: Philadelphia food writers Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond drop by each week with Meat Lite, which celebrates meat in moderation. Meat Lite was inspired by their book, Almost Meatless.
As sandwiches go, the egg sandwich earns a versatility ranking right up there with classic peanut butter. Yet it has been suppressed for so long, stereotyped, cornered by its McMuffin identity.
The potential combinations of its simple ingredients--eggs, meat, cheese and bread--are infinite. Here, salty soppressata makes its meaty mark in just one or two whisper-thin slices, and yellow cheese that's usually paired with bacon in typical versions of an egg-and-cheese sandwich is replaced by mild, creamy, fresh ricotta. You can cook your egg any way you like it, but for a sandwich like this, I fry mine, until the yolk is just set, still bright and barely molten when I bite it. A sprinkle of chopped fresh chives sets into the white as it cooks and sheds a bright note on the richness of the sandwich.
It's easy enough to make these for a brunch spread, baking the biscuits ahead of time and letting guests dollop spoonfuls of ricotta and fold slices of soppressata and on top of short-order eggs. But don't let the egg sandwich identity restrict it to the first half of the day. They make a meal at breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
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Posted by Gina DePalma, May 14, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Editor's note: On Thursdays, Babbo pastry chef Gina DePalma checks in with Seriously Italian. After a stint in Rome, she's back in the States, channeling her inner Italian spirit via recipes and intel on delicious Italian eats. Take it away, Gina!
"It's like an extra serving of the best part of bread; the brown, crunchy, sesame-coated crust in concentrated form."
Semolina, or semola, is the pale golden, coarsely ground flour made from durum wheat, the hardest and most flavorful wheat grown in Italy. I love the distinct color and faintly sweet taste it imparts to breads, pastas and biscotti, especially in combination with the toasty flavor of sesame seeds. Semolina-sesame loaves are usually what I reach for when buying Italian bread, and I'm really wild about this combination in a breadstick, or grissini in Italian. It's like an extra serving of the best part of bread; the brown, crunchy, sesame-coated crust in concentrated form.
Hard durum wheat is cultivated throughout Italy, and is an important crop for southern regions of Basilicata, Calabria, Molise and especially Puglia, known as "the bread basket of Italy." Durum wheat fields cover the Pugliese plains, with the gentle breezes of the Adriatic Sea and the fertile soil combining to produce the flavorful wheat that is ground into flour for the pasta mills of Bari and bread bakers of Altamura.
Finding Italian semolina flour is not hard in the New York area, or in any part of the country with Italian specialty stores; you can even shop for it online
. I found my bag in a supermarket in the Bronx, and you can definitely find it, or order it at Buon Italia in the Chelsea Market.
We are big into secret snacking in my house, always poking around the kitchen for an illicit nosh. I'm not entirely sure why in-between meal bites are so taboo, especially since we're all adults, but somehow it still holds the same allure as it did back in the day, when my brother, sister and I would mount full-on searches for our hidden Halloween candy.
These days, breadsticks are the best nibbles to have on hand for secretive munching. When faced with a mini-interrogation, ("What are you doing in there? Did I hear the refrigerator open?") you can easily slide a breadstick up your shirt and calmly walk away with your head held high. Shoving a couple of olives and a hunk of cheese in your pocket helps round things out, but if the breadstick is yummy enough, it stands on its own to satisfy cravings and a gurgling tummy. The only trouble with these is that they may leave a trail of sesame seeds.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, April 10, 2009 at 12:30 PM
To honor his approximately 50 percent Jewish clientele, French chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud has served homemade matzo in his New York City restaurants—Daniel, DB Bistro, Cafe Boulud, and Bar Boulud—during the Passover season since 2004. And people love it, probably because they don't expect to find traditional Jewish bread in an upscale French restaurant. The matzoh served at Daniel Boulud's restaurants may not be kosher, but that Boulud has cooked for many Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs during his career should have some significance.
Boulanger Mark Fiorentino of Daniel is in charge of making the matzo for all the restaurants. Where does an Italian-American chef in a French restaurant learn to make Jewish bread? He attributes a visit to the long established Streits factory in the Lower East Side, where he observed the matzo masters at work, for helping him hone his recipe and technique.
Earlier this week I visited Daniel to watch the matzo-making process, along with a quick blessing from "Rabbi" Boulud. Fiorentino makes his matzoh in batches that use 50 pounds of flour at a time, but he pared down his recipe to just 1 pound of flour so you can make it at home. (You can get matzo at Boulud's restaurants until this Saturday, April 11.) Check out the recipe and photos from Daniel's kitchen after the jump.
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Posted by Michele Humes, March 6, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Cheddar and chile bread rounds off a week of Nancy Baggett's Kneadlessly Simple bread recipes. It's a wonderfully savory, Tex-Mex-inspired bread, shot through with morsels of cheese and chile. The best part? The fuss-free, easily mixed ingredients have earned the recipe a "super-easy" rating.
Use this spicy cheese bread anywhere you might ordinarily serve cornbread: chile, chunky soups, bean stews.
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Posted by Michele Humes, March 5, 2009 at 1:00 PM
According to Nancy Baggett, author of Kneadlessly Simple, four grain-honey bread is the perfect whole wheat "gateway" loaf for avowed white bread fans.
The combination of cornmeal, oats, brown rice, wheat flour, and honey delivers a mild and soothing flavor, with a texture that's just perfect for toasting and making sandwiches.
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Posted by Michele Humes, March 4, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Pain d'épice, or spice bread, is a specialty of northern France. It has the flavors we associate with gingerbread, but the sliceable texture of a very firm pound cake.
As it uses only honey for moisture, with no butter or eggs, the recipe was probably developed for Lent. That's no reason to serve it abstemiously, though—author Nancy Baggett says it's "quite spectacular spread with cream cheese or almond butter."
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