Top Chef: Rosemary Powell

Thanks to Paul's mom for jumping right in there and letting us know what's on her cooking mind. I particularly enjoyed her spot-on description of an ear of corn and her helpful hint about bad days... there truly is a connection between food and caring. Who will you cook for next?

Favorite to make: Platski - Polish pancakes, hand shredded, fried paper thin in light oil, lightly salted and enjoyed with a cup of tea. Major comfort food!

Least Favorite: Meatballs - forever hard, crusty on one or more sides - don't have the meatball genome.

Kitchen must have 'Great smells'!

I'd like to be an ear of corn - laze in the sun all summer; cozy up inside my husks; grow sweeter by the minute; and I wouldn't have to set my tassle of hair!

Favorite memory: summer at Nana's - a small, pheasant of a woman; she was ever-perched on her kitchen stool; I would pick fresh fruit from her peach, apple cherry and pear trees-she would stew the fruit - picking (and munching) fresh beans from her garden. Poppop making kidney stew for breakfast.

My outfit must be loose, light and NOT white - I am a 'spot magnet.'

Advice: 'Love the process' - Feeding others is a sacred ritual of life.

Restaurant name: 'Mange Avec Moi"

Favorite cooks: Mom, Jim, Paul, Nikki, Michael, Danni

Helpful hint: If you're having a bad day, let someone cook for you...

An Unlikely Way to Save a Species: Serve It for Dinner

From flying squirrels to Bronx grapes, this article explains Gary Paul Nabhan's quest to save our national endangered foods. His new book, Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent's 100 Most Endangered Foods, is said to be a celebration of our national cultural identity through food. This article also mentiones the Slow Food Movement, which, if you don't know about already, is worth looking into.

What food will you try and save?

Today's Article Suggestion is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/dining/30come.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

We're Back!

It's been a long while since Paul & I have posted, but now we're back in the kitchen and ready to share our ideas & recipes once again!

We're also starting up a new feature for the blog: Food Issues in the News. Articles about food abound. Whether they're as simple as a quick new recipe for roast chicken or as important as world food shortages & the impact of water irrigation, there certainly isn't a lack of ideas to read about.

Let's feed our curiosity together!

Today's suggestion is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/business/worldbusiness/26food.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1209218537-XgcfxeYPHA3HmUCI44RqVQ

Gingersnaps

Paul and I got back to our apartment late last night. Hungry and bleary-eyed from our long vacation of driving across the state, we had started discussing options for dinner around 2 pm (a usual occurrence for two food obsessed individuals). Still, we couldn’t decide on what we wanted to eat.

Just when we had almost resigned ourselves to eating nothing at all I heard a quiet voice inside my head. It was my dad and he was saying, wholeheartedly, that “We’re going to make all of our cookies from here on out.”

I’m not really sure why my dad said this to my brother and sister and I when we were younger. Maybe it was his horror at the prices of packaged cookies or something about us getting fat. Or, maybe it was something about the cookie aisle itself, so clean and crisp. So bright. So far removed & foreign to an actual lived-in kitchen. Or, maybe it was just his desire to return to something basic-baking from scratch and enjoying cookies with the ones you love the most. The true definition of home.

Regardless, what seemed to be such an abhorrent idea when I was a kid: “What! Why would we eat homemade chocolate chip cookies when we could eat O-r-e-o’ s instead?” was the perfect solution for this very moment. So, I whipped up some quick gingersnaps and Paul and I enjoyed their crispy outside and chewy inside with a glass of red wine...and with a cup of coffee for breakfast the next morning.

Memories and food. They just go together.

Aunt Big’s Gingersnaps

Thanks to:
How to Cook Everything
Simple Recipes for Great Food
Mark Bittmen

about 30 min, plus time to chill…
makes around 4 dozen

On food…

for the cookies
½ pound or 2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons hot water
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 heaping teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

hints
After you take the cooled dough out of the fridge, roll your wax paper logs on the counter a few more times to try and get them as even & round as you can.

If you prefer a perfectly round cookie roll each slice into a ball in your hands & then place on baking sheet.

On Baking...

1. Use a Kitchen Aid fitted with a paddle attachment or an electric mixer to cream the butter, sugar and molasses until smooth. Mix baking soda with the hot water and beat into this mixture.

2. Combine the flour, spices, & salt into a bowl and beat into butter mixture.

3. Lay down 2 sheets of wax paper and scoop out dough into both. Shape into a long roll with your fingers, doing your best to make it even, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, slice the cookies as thinly as you can & place on ungreased baking sheets (see hints about cookie shape). Bake for 9 minutes-watch them carefully because nothing is worse than a burnt gingersnap! Cool on a wire rack and enjoy.

Valentine's Day Chocolate Truffles

Paul is in charge of the dinner tonight, Valentine’s Day, and I’m in charge of the dessert. And what better way to show your sweetheart you love them then with homemade treats! It’s a sure way to that special someone’s heart…I promise. Now, I know you all know what truffles are: they’re those little chocolaty indulgences packed with sweetness that usually cost a pretty little penny, sound familiar?

Well, here’s the great news: they are also surprisingly simple to make at home! Truffles are essentially melted chocolate and cream, yum. You don’t even need a mixer to make these delicious chocolate delights. So go grab some basics from your kitchen and get started…there’s still time to make them for tonight!

Be sure to check back tomorrow for Paul’s fantastic Valentine’s Day Indian meal!

Chocolate Truffles

Thanks to:
Barefoot in Paris
Easy French Food you Can Make at Home
Ina Garten

about 10 minutes, plus 1 hour to chill & assemble...
makes 20 truffles

On food...

for the truffles
3 ½ ounces bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao)
3 ½ ounces semisweet chocolate (not chocolate chips!)
½ cup heavy cream
1 ½ tablespoons Grand Mariner liqueur
1 tablespoon prepared coffee
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

for the decorating
cocoa powder
confectioners’ sugar

hints
Use high quality chocolate.
Chocolate will melt a little once you start to roll truffles...so work quickly & don’t get frustrated.

On cooking...

1. Chop the chocolate and place in a bowl.

2. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it boils. Pour the hot cream through a fine-meshed sieve into the bowl with the chocolate. Whisk the chocolate and cream together until it’s completely smooth.

3. Whisk in the Grand Mariner, coffee, & vanilla.

4. Cover and chill in the fridge for 45 minutes to an hour. You want the mixture to be malleable but firm enough to work with.

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and dust with cocoa powder. Then, scoop out each truffle using a spoon & begin to roll across the baking sheet in cocoa. Finally, sift some confectioners’ sugar over the top of each truffle. Keep refridgerated until serving.

Book Review: My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme

My Life in France is a wonderful tribute to Julia Child and the adventurous and tender life she lived. Its unique mix of personal letters, anecdotes, and actual recipes (a knock-out Beurre Blanc!) keep you engaged from page to page. Along with tracing her path towards becoming a master chef, this book is just as equally a call to action for readers. After reading this book you’ll want to do, do, do…go out and accomplish all of those ideas you’ve been mulling over in your mind. Dust off those dreams from their shelf and get to making them a reality!

Filled with phrases like “a curry of a life” and “sans regret” this book will make you think about what you’re filling your time with and how to enrich yourself and the ones you love. Just as Julia had to complete many revisions in order to finally create Mastering the Art of French Cooking, so too is the reader encouraged to reflect upon his own ability to revise and rework his life.

Fascinatingly so, the book is just as much a tribute to the beauty of France as it is to the wonders of cooking. Many of the chapters are devoted to images of winding Parisian quays and Provencal fields of mimosa flowers. La Peetch, the house Julia and her husband Paul buy near Cannes, is lovingly referred to as “the reverse hornet-sting.” With descriptions like “the-sea bottom taste of Belon oysters” and “volcanic mountains jutting up out of the glittering sea,” a sting is the last thing on anyone’s mind, even the reader’s! Local French characters also abound-from the cold and calculating mistress of the Cordon Bleu to the boisterous fishermen of the Marseillaise harbor, everyday people are sprinkled in like the spice that they truly are.

My Life in France leaves you with the notion that we all can do whatever we put our minds to. Passion is the first step to fulfillment. Live life to the fullest, toujours bon appetite!

PS: Anyone who lives in NYC, or wants to make the trip, Julia Child’s editor (Judith Jones) and the co-author of this book (Alex Prud’homme) are speaking at Symphony Space on February 6th. Check it out if you can! http://www.symphonyspace.org/

T-Bone Florentina with Sauteed Spinach

Paul and I have always disagreed about steaks. I prefer the simplicity of the meat alone, sprinkled with just enough salt and pepper to bring out the juices. He loves to experiment in the kitchen, so most of his steaks came out with sauces, a reduction of balsamic vinegar and shallots being our favorite. All of these are wonderfully rich and delicious in their own right, but I longed for the meat to outshine the sauce, not compete with it.

Then we stumbled upon this recipe for T-Bone Florentina with Sauteed Spinach, and thanks to Mario, we’ve reached a compromise. The seared beef flavor of this dish shines through the herbs just enough and the lemon in the spinach is the perfect compliment to the rustic, earthy seasoning of the steak. This meal is delightful enough to serve for a dinner party and simple enough to eat on a weeknight. Bellisimo!


T-Bone Florentina with Sauteed Spinach
Bistecca alla Fiorentina
Florence, Italy

Thanks to:
Molto Italiano
327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home
Mario Batali

about 40 minutes…
serves 2, with leftovers

On food...

for the meat
1 t-bone steak, at least 1-1 ½ in. thick, 1-1 ½ pounds
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground back pepper
2 tablespoons of pure olive oil

for the spinach
10 ounces of fresh spinach, stems removed, washed and dried
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, Filippo Berio
3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 lemon, juiced
2 teaspoons coarse salt
pepper to taste

hints
Let steak sit at room temperature for 2 hours.
Remove stems from spinach ahead of time (it takes longer than you think!).

On cooking...

1. Preheat your grill pan.

2. In a small bowl, mix together the rosemary, sage, thyme, salt, and pepper until well blended. Pat the steak dry and coat the entire steak with the herb mix. Brush gently with the olive oil. Place on the grill and cook until well charred, about 5 minutes on the first side, and 3 minutes on the second side (traditionally served rare). Transfer to a platter and let stand for 8 minutes.

3. While the meat is settling, use a 10-12 in. sauté pan to heat ¼ cup of the extra-virgin olive oil over high heat until smoking. Add the garlic and cook until light brown. Add the spinach and stir just until it wilts. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice and salt and pepper.

4. Carve the meat from the bone and slice. Divide steak onto four plates and enjoy with spinach.