gastronomy, et al

New site!

2010-08-13T14:27:00.002-04:00

I've switched to a new blog address: keep up with me here!

When in Branson, do as the Bransonites do.

2010-07-27T17:00:00.004-04:00

Someone had described Branson Missouri as being 'the Christian Las Vegas.' With that in mind, I had very low expectations. I'm happy to report that it isn't that bad at all, though I have been avoiding the strip of constant traffic and congested junk shops full of crap.

I'm here for our Sly Family Reunion, a tradition started when I was about four and has continued every two years ever since. Our family is large and ever growing. We live all over the country.

Why Branson, you ask? It's (relatively) central to where everyone lives (Phoenix, many parts of Texas, Michigan, Virginia Beach, Wisconsin...I could go on...). My Dad and I flew here, but several of my cousins drove.

Of the traditions that we've held over the years, the 'white elephant gift exchange' has been the highlight every time. Every adult that wants to participate brings a 'gift' purchased for around $5. Gifts need to be brought wrapped and put in the middle of a big table. There were 24 contributions this year, and we each drew a number from a hat to determine what order we choose a gift. When it's your turn, you can either 1)choose a gift from the table and open it up for all to see or 2)opt for a gift someone else has already chosen and take it from them. The second option has the stipulation that gifts can only change hands twice- once a third person claims it, it's no longer available.

Some of my relatives use it as an excuse to empty out their closets. I contributed a coon-skin cap that I found in the "Hillbilly Nut Shop" down the road. I don't even remember who first got that cap, but it was a hot commodity. There were a lot of fart or burp themed gifts this year- someone ended up with a keychain that made the sounds of various sounds of burps. My Uncle got a coin bank in the shape of a butt, and when you put a quarter in it makes a fart sound. We're talking high humor here.

I had drawn the last number, and knowing that the last unwrapped gift was brought by my Dad, I opted to take a book of 'brain teaser puzzles' that my aunt got. She then chose to take some windchimes from her sister, and her sister took the burping keychain from her niece. My poor niece decided to choose the remaining gift, the one that my Dad had provided. The room was silent as she unwrapped it, and then burst into laughter: it was a (very large) pair of mens underwear, sewn closed at the bottom with handles on the top, labeled as a 'hillbilly briefcase.'

If you're interested in acquiring your own hillbilly briefcase, you can get one at the Hillbilly Nut Shop up the street. It's bound to impress!

Mid-July in the garden

2010-07-22T10:19:00.003-04:00

The mamouth russian sunflowers have gotten to be about 8ft tall, and have halos of buzzing honeybees circling around them- so much so that it seems as thought they hum.

On the left are charentais melons. The 17th century Saint-Amant wrote that "This melon is firm to the centre, with few seeds like grains of gold," and it's inspired poems and webpages dedicated to it's flavor. I've never had one, but am about to have a lot. I read that they sometimes cut them in half and fill the center with a sweet wine such as Barsac, Marsala, Port or Madeira as an hors d'oeuvre.

There are also some summer squash, and a few small eggplants that I'm not holding my breath for- they never really took off, but have recently started to flower, so there is a glimmer of hope.

In the back are the sunflowers. In front of them are the tomatoes and carrots. Then several pepper plants. The big purple plant in the middle is a red cabbage, which has amazing water-resistant leaves that puddle water (my dog loves to drink from them). A rogue sunflower stands to the right, surrounded by brussel sprouts, a few different types of kale, sugar snap peas, onions and lettuce.

My dog is a regular fixture in the garden, and actively fulfills her (self imposed) post of 'watch dog.'

Summer Sweet Corn Soup

2010-07-21T22:06:00.003-04:00

I was looking forward to posting photos taken in my garden yesterday, but I accidentally ran over my iphone charger/usb cord while vacuuming and it is no longer amongst the living. I hope to have it remedied soon, and photos will appear shortly thereafter.

It's been very enjoyable to walk home with a bag full of salad greens, tomatoes, carrots, onions and peas. Meals of late have been fantastic. I've never felt a closer connection to the food that I've been eating, and I find that it's comforting and rewarding at the same time.

Yesterday I made a sweet corn soup from a recipe so simple, I felt compelled to add a bit more to it. Instead of straight corn, onions, butter and water, I rehydrated some dried matsutake mushrooms that had been sent to me at work as a sample. I saved the water that I used to rehydrate the mushrooms with and used it as the base for the soup, which worked out well.

Sweet Corn Soup
(adapted from Alice Waters)

4T butter
1 diced onion
salt
5-6 ears of sweet corn, shucked
1/4 cup dried mushrooms (more or less depending on desired strength)
1 cup boiling water
3 1/2 cups water
fresh herbs for garnish, like dill or oregano

-Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl and pour the cup of boiling water over top to cover them. Allow them to soften for 20-30 minutes.
-Meanwhile, cut the kernels from the corn cobs.
-Once soft, remove the mushrooms from the water, and reserve the water for the soup.
-Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium heat
-Add the diced onion and chopped mushrooms and cook until translucent, stirring enough to keep it from browning
-Season them with salt, then add the corn kernels.
-Cook the kernels with the mushrooms and onions for about 3 minutes, then add all of the water.
-Bring it to a boil, then immediately lower the heat to a simmer. Allow it to cook for about 5 minutes, or until the corn is done.
-Remove from the heat and puree in small batches in a blender, being careful not to splash hot soup on you when you blend it.
-You can pass it through a medium-mesh strainer to achieve a smooth consistency, or enjoy it a bit more rustic.

Serve it warm, and have salt and pepper nearby so you can season it to taste. Tear a few fresh herbs over top, or add a drop of creme fraiche to finish it off. It occurred to me only after eating that a crispy fried piece of prosciutto might be the perfect accompaniment....

Banana Sorbet

2010-07-06T19:32:00.003-04:00

Banana sorbet is one of the easiest, fail-safe desserts I know of. It has the double advantage of being a great use of bananas that have gotten too ripe to eat. Their ample starch content results in a fluffy, creamy texture.

This is a very basic recipe with only three ingredients. You could enhance it in many ways (a little orange zest, infuse a spice (star anise, cardamom) into the simple syrup, a small splash of dark rum).

*The simple syrup should be a mix of equal parts water and sugar (though often I use a little less sugar), heated until dissolved and cooled. You'll likely have some left over- I usually start with 3000g of water and 2500g of sugar.

You'll need this simple syrup, ripe bananas and the juice of 1/2 freshly squeezed lemon.

Peel the bananas and weigh them. The ratio of bananas to simple syrup is about 1:1.2 by weight. For example, if you have 4 bananas they will likely weigh about 400g. Add 480g of the simple syrup and the lemon, and puree it all together in the blender.

Don't delay: put it in your ice cream machine right away or it'll start to oxidize.

All tied up in a pretty package

2010-06-30T11:07:00.003-04:00

Between a wedding and a death, traveling internationally and a trade show for work, there was Tchaikovsky by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. The soloist Mikail Simonyan was mesmerizing.

The two biggest trends at the fancy food show seemed to be ‘local’ and ‘smart foods’ (aka, foods to prescribe to cure your ailments). And lots of truffles, though that trend has been riding high for a few years now.

Pastificio dei Campi, and Italian pasta company from Gragnano, has gone to great lengths to connect the pasta makers with their customers. Their website features a 'total tracking system' where you can enter the expiration date from your box of pasta and see not only when it was made, but when the grain was seeded, the date of harvest, the faces of the farmers and the field where the grains were gathered, and where the mill and pasta factory is located via google earth. The packaging is really nice- all in boxes (several different serving sizes) with a cover that slides off for easy opening and closing. Their goal was to make it easy for chefs to open a drawer under their station and reach into the pasta box and grab what they need. Though I'm not sure how practical the commercial kitchen idea is, it'll work great for the hope cook who doesn't want to use an entire box all at once.

I also got to meet Susannah Trilling, from Seasons of My Heart in Oaxaca, Mexico. They produce mole pastes and chili jellies. She published a great book back in 1999 about Oaxacan food, which is now out of print. I'm glad I asked about it- they have a stockpile of copies, so I'll be able to get some.

Le Salto de Nogada

2010-06-26T23:58:00.000-04:00

In the sky there was a
deep causeway of black, brightening the white.
The rain was coming.
It blew and blustered and wets itself into rivers in the streets.

We traveled into the country in a car resembling a sewing machine.

It bobbed its way unevenly down the rocks and stones.
We passed eucalyptus trees and cacti,
a small town and the road we were supposed to turn on with
patayas for sale in leave covered baskets,
dogs sleeping or wandering, children holding their parents hands.

The end of the road: a car graveyard. And two confused guards at its gate.

The second day we attempted the same journey, though we made the right turn.
The buena vistas and burros and curious construction made up for our map reading skills,
which were more of a conversation than an outlined directive.

We waved at everyone we passed, and they waved back. We shared the road with
cows and seemingly impassable puddles, but our sewing machine forged on.
We stopped and played charades with a man
to make sure we were headed on the right path
and he implied that our car wouldn’t make it,
to which we responded as if his logic was also in a foreign language that we didn’t understand.

Over a cow grate, down a steep, uneven rocky path that continually brought us to the left:
the end of that road lead to two men and no visible waterfall.

It would be a twenty minute hike on an unclear path.

We thought about the wedding in a few hours,
thought about that decent that we were not sure we could ascend
stopped to stretch, smoke and pee,
and decided that we had seen enough.

Happily caught in the rain.

2010-06-24T18:44:00.005-04:00

We spend the day yesterday in Ferria de Tula, a small village nearby. Oswaldo’s family friends that live there have been caring for the sheep that are going to be the main course at tomorrows wedding reception. Their lovely seven year old daughter Lluvia and several of her friends tagged along with us as we walked through the town. Apparently the phrase ‘uno, dos, tres, queso’ when taking a photo is not in common practice here, so I had the kids in stitches.

As it happens every day around 2pm, it started to rain, but this daily rain was a bit heavier than we expected. As we took shelter in the gazebo opposite the church, the rain picked up and turned into hail. The temperature dropped and we could see our breath. In the deluge we kept warm by huddling together in a big group hug. It was a great experience- old and very new friends all cuddled into a big mass, with Gleb, the biggest man among us, bearing the wind at his back.

When the sky cleared, Lluvia and I wandered off up to the church, which also was the local school. During the revolution it was partly destroyed, but the damaged facade by the entrance didn’t prevent it from being used and cared for. Inside the main hall and the school off to the side were colorful and well cared for. Lluvia gave me a wonderful tour, pointing out all of her favorite things. I didn’t understand most of it. Occasionally she would ask me a question, but after my apology she would continue on, leading me by hand up another staircase or into yet another room.

The group of us here for the wedding is growing by the hour as people continue to arrive. Some old friends and I set out this afternoon to see a waterfall nearby, but the road was nearly impassable by heavy rain. We somehow got off course and the rocky road ended at a junkyard. The rain continued to fall so we turned around, feeling satiated by seeing enough flowing water on the road, and went and had lunch.

Currently I’m sitting here as Karen’s old friend Shannon is practicing the hymns she’ll be performing at the wedding. Gleb, her friend from her days in Russia who is a wildlife photographer, will be ‘shooting’ the wedding. Oswaldo’s sisters and family friends are cooking the food and the wedding cake. I’m impressed by the level of personal engagement of everyone involved in this wedding, and am really looking forward to seeing it unfold over the next day and a half.

Talpapa

2010-06-24T10:55:00.003-04:00

A 4 hour bus ride through every little town between here and Guadalajara and I've arrived. Karen & Oswaldo, and Olga and Gleb from Russia- we had a fantastic time helping get ready for the wedding, running around in the rain, eating tacos, drinking michelada's (a blend of beer, tomato sauce, lemon, chilies, salt, magi sauce & clamato (if you'd like)). It's a beautiful little town in the mountains and we're staying in the central square, near the cathedral that they're going to be married at on Saturday.

The photo of the woman in red is chopping pork cheek meat for tacos, which we're eating in the next photo. The best are the crispy tacos- they fry jalapenos in oil, then wrap them in corn tortillas and fry them again. Then she cracked them open, filled them with carnaza (pork cheek meat), beans, cilantro, chile sauce and lime.

Now, we go to see the flock of sheep that Oswaldo & Karen bought 6 months ago. This is their last day- tomorrow they will be slaughtered for the evening's reception.

Bang Bang y Bling Bling

2010-06-22T19:50:00.006-04:00

The Festival of San Pedro here in Tlaquepaque begins on June 12th and is celebrated nightly until the 29th. I had read about it, but didn't put two-and-two together when I was woken by random loud bangs at 2am. Fireworks, I'm presuming, though I couldn't see them. It's so quiet here at night that they seemed especially loud, and someone nearby seemed to have a bumper crop and was in a particularly celebratory mood.

I visited the Museo del Premio Nacional de la Ceramica Pantalenon Pareduro this morning. It's considered the largest museum in the area of traditional Mexican ceramic art. I lucked out in meeting a guard that took me through the whole museum explaining the regional differences. The collection is very impressive- each piece is a winner of a previous years' national competition. As it happens, this week is the judging of this years competition and many of the competing artists are in town.

They had work from the nearby state of Michoacan, which is identifiable by it's figurines, images of death and devils, and bright colors. Also represented was work from Oxaca, which is fired in presumably a reduction kiln and is all black in color. The details were amazing. Also from Michoacan was the tradition of large elaborate pineapples that function as serving vessels for drinks. Most notably was work by an artist named Avalos Guerrero Abel, whose hand-built, intricately carved vessels were innovative and very impressive. He pushed the media to a level I haven't seen before. My friendly guide mentioned that she had met him for the first time the night before and she was gleeful like a schoolgirl. She told me that he had adjusted the lighting on his pieces as if he were a god descended from the heaven providing light for crops. I was touched by her appreciation for the work and the artists- it's fantastic to be in a community that holds such reverence for it's craftsmen.

Afterward I took a bus into the central district of downtown Guadalajara, whose charms are not immediately visible. It's very big, crowded, loud and dirty. However, the focus on public art and appreciation of it is visible everywhere if you look for the layers beyond the advertising, which is impressive for a city of its size.

I came across a temporary wall with art on it, covering up another mural underneath. I couldn't figure out exactly what was going on (why the first paintings were covered up) but the state of decay and the amount of interplay of the people that put those holes there was intriguing.

In some ways, Guadalajara reminded me of Calcutta, except the two cities have very different histories and are on different trajectories.

I had read about a famous place for pork tacos but never found it. My search took me to an area full of jewelry shops. On one side were the real deal shops, replete with many police officers standing around with big guns. On the other side was a newly built multi-layered mall that had all the cheap shiny bling bling things (and a public bathroom!).

I went to the highly recommended Cultural Institute, whose permanant collection is focused on Orozco, a painter and muralist who was active from the mid 20's through the 60's. His work was very interesting, and they provided a lot of insight into how he was responding to politics and the world around him as his work progressed. The center of the Institute was a series of very large murals painted in a church-like building. He was exceptionally talented, and if you ever get to Mexico City, be sure to look up some of his many public murals there. His work got increasingly dark as time went by- he moved away from realism and his work became more abstract, and often violent to reflect what he saw happening in Mexico. I particularly liked this passage from a grouping of his 1945 work called 'the Truth':

"The pathology of human condition that he depicts in this series is grotesque and abhorrent. Tyrants, matrons, buffoons, devils, headless women covered in mud, jackals, scorpions and other 'fauna' are used by {the} creator to "clarify more the words of the tribe," specifically one, the word 'truth,' which has been so degraded and perverted. From that muck and purification, the artist suggests a redefinition of this essential term- to fix the word, Confucius would say- so that we may again understand each other as a society and civilization."

That, a bus ride back and a nap find me ready to seek out some small place nearby that has reportedly transcendent guacamole and margaritas. The sun is setting and the bang-bang of fireworks are starting. This is my last night in Tlaquepaque- tomorrow: to Talpapa in the mountains.

Muy Sabroso, estoy lleno.

2010-06-21T19:01:00.005-04:00

It took me a while to wrap my tongue around the name of this little town that has been swallowed by Guadalajara, Mexico. Tlaquepaque. (Tlah-kep-pah-keh). The taxi driver asked why I wanted to stay somewhere so quiet and I stumbled through the little spanish that I know to explain that I was actually looking forward to it. He asked "Why not go to the Downtown {Guadalajara} and dance all night?" It's a curious question, indeed, since the main city (the second largest in all of Mexico) is famous for it's mariachi musicians, hat dances and nightlife.

I was attracted to Tlaquepaque because it's an historic artisian community, with good food and a smaller neighborhood feel. After meeting the husband and wife who own La Casa del Retono I felt immediately comfortable. She gave me a list of restaurants and dishes to try and a key to my quiet little room in their historic building, once home to a famous craftsman. It's modest, and slow- presently I'm their only guest all week- and I won't argue with the guide books' description of the garden being 'uninspired'. It's charming, though, and the stone and brick construction in close quarters with trees, potted plants and a water fountain is pleasant. The owners have a young child that keeps their hands full. And an old, blind dog named Benji that sleeps wherever he pleases, most often in the middle of the walkways.

I was intrigued by her recomendation for a dish called 'Chiles en Nogada' at a Restaurante El Patio, a few blocks away. With it's origins in the neighboring state of Puebla, Chiles en Nogada consists of poblano peppers stuffed with 'picadillo' (a mixture of ground meat, aromatics, fruits and spices) and covered with a walnut-based cream sauce. Usually topped with pomegranate seeds, it envokes the colors of the Mexican flag and is considered a representation of their independance. Today, the kitchen must have been out of pomegranate, but it was no matter.

The texture of the ground meat stewed with fruit and spices and the roasted poblano chile was very nice. At first I was questioning the slightly sweet flavor of the sauce, but I enjoyed how it paired with the the occasional hint of spice. I couldn't tell where exactly that spice was coming from, but it was filling and delicious.

I lucked out with a patient waiter (though I wish he would have silenced the busboys' kissing noises). He showed me how to squeeze lime juice and sprinkle salt & chile powder over the sliced jicima and cucumber that he brought out as an appetizer. He also brought me a sweet 'Mexican coffee' with cinnamon, sugar (a bit too much for my black coffee loving palate), a twist of orange and a dash of rum. I was happy.

I was asked three times if someone was joining me, a frusturation I haven't endured since traveling in Spain, but felt as though it was indeed a table for two: a bee took to my cucumber/lime appetizer and spent most of the meal resting on the side of the plate. A few times a bird rushed past my head, and it occured to me that the restaruant only had a roof and walls on two sides. The weather is so temperate here they don't need to enclose the space.

Eslye told me that I can get good tacos and fried bananas in the main square during dinner time. I saw the vendors setting up their carts and the smells were exciting, but I don't know that I have any more room in me after such a filling lunch so late in the afternoon.

I only briefly explored some of the many stores that sell traditional art. It's slightly confusing that they use the same currency symbol $ as in the US, but it's actually in pesos. Logically it's very easy to do the math (the exchange rate is about 11 pesos to the dollar), but I still feel conservative when looking at something priced at $80 regardless of my logic. I'm sure I'll get over that by tomorrow. I saw many colorful, simple still lives in brightly painted frames, day of the dead figures with glittery gowns and skeletal grins, bicycles made of wire with pesos for wheels and a lot of beaded jewelry. I also saw several stalls selling Mexican wrestling masks, which look hillarious hanging from hooks en masse.

The travel time here was shorter than I expected, and it's only two time zones away from home.
I'm looking forward to gaining my footing after a full nights sleep. Tomorrow: downtown Guadalajara, with it's catedral, museums and food.

Lu Zhen Green Needles Tea

2010-05-22T09:08:00.002-04:00

I'm tasting some Lu Zhen Green Needles for the first time this morning. It's a little-known tea from Hubei, China. This current batch from Rishi Tea is the result of a revival of an ancient tradition in that region.

I've learned over the years that when a tea is really fresh, and I get to be the first person to cut open the vacuum-sealed package that contains it, it usually means I'm in for a treat. I get really excited when I hear that rush of air and feel the bag expand.

I have two types: roasted and steamed. This morning I went with the roasted. I enjoyed the first and second infusions, but on the third I noted some orchid notes that made me think of the high mountain oolongs from Taiwan that I like so much. Except, these orchid notes are paired with some unusual green evergreen notes. If I drew you a map of the flavor progression, it would start with orchid and finish long with some green, nutty, almost piney flavors.

The leaves themselves are beautiful. Aptly named 'needles,' this particular varietal of tea bushes leaves are thin and pointed. I'm going to be tasting it again tomorrow morning with some friends and am looking forward to hearing their impressions.

Onion spring

2010-05-19T22:29:00.005-04:00

My garden is just getting started, and the first of many things to pop up have been the onions. I've also planted several types of tomatoes, hot peppers, sunflowers, greens, carrots....and I have no idea if any of it will take. Every time I walk to the garden I get excited to see what's occurred since I was there last.

I've rented a 1/2 plot through Project Grow in a public park near where I live. The other gardeners in the neighboring plots are all just about settled in, though it's still early. With so few plants, it currently looks like a hodge-podge of odds-and-ends fencing and posts.

This evening I walked back just as the sun was setting. The smell of pine trees and the sound of the birds was wonderful- this is a very exciting time of year in Michigan. It's going to be a great summer.

Gourmet Rhapsody, and questions that arrose from the novel.

2010-04-27T19:40:00.003-04:00

Gourmet Rhapsody by French writer Muriel Barbery is the fictional retelling of the life of a highly esteemed French food critic named Pierre Arthen. We begin the story as he is dying, and throughout the book we are shown different vantage points of who he is as a person through the eyes of the people that knew him. Revered by some, detested by others, he was a powerful man who exerted his influence and criticisms on the people of Paris.

Barbery is better known for her best selling book The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Although Gourmet Rhapsody was actually written before Elegance, it was translated and promoted after the second book had gained popularity in the US. These two novels are the first published work by Barbery, who previously taught philosophy in France. They contain many of the same characters, though the protagonists are different.

As Pierre is dying, he is searching for a flavor that he struggles to identify. Each chapter vacillates between his and other peoples recollections of his life. In the end, when he identifies what he had been longing for, the reader is left wondering what the true point of his search was.

I will not spoil the surprise for those of you who have not read it. Rather, I would like to pose a few questions that came up when my friends and I were talking about it this afternoon.

When you're reading this book, consider the dichotomy between gluttony and restraint, and the pursuit of pleasure vs. power. What was Pierre's main objective? Did he enjoy the subject of his writings?

Though some interpretations of his life implied that he only sought his own pleasure, how does that tie in with his genuine treatment of simpler, less complicated things and the world he wrote about in his reviews?

We were curious what had been lost in the translation from French to English, beyond the words themselves- did the writer (or the translator) give enough weight to conveying the French attitudes and values on food and culture to a non-French audience?

Was Barbery's florid use of language when describing foods genuine or was it a satire on French food writing in general? Could she have been trying to prove a point, or were her descriptions fodder for underlying philosophical clues to Pierre's motives?

Many of the criticisms payed to him were based on the amount of power he exerted in his relationships, but did he take away power from the people around him, or did those people blindly assign it to him without being conscious of it?

Closure came up several times when we were discussing this novel. Pierre gained closure in the end when he identified what he had been searching for, but not with his daughter. Was that more another example of him single mindedly seeking his own pleaure or not having an understanding of her feelings towards him? Did he consider his family, and what does it say about him as a person if he didn't? What effected him externally- who had the greatest impact on him, and did he respect them?

What did the final request represent? Is it a commentary on the instability of certainty? If it is not nostalgic, than what is at the core of it's impact on him during his dying moments?

What is the writer's point of view? What is she trying to say about the relationship between people and eachother, and people and food?

Trends in the Specialty Food market

2010-04-10T11:02:00.003-04:00

The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) just released it's annual report. The trends they've found are interesting- some surprising, some not at all. Most encouraging is confirmation of the strength of the local, sustainable and eco-friendly food movement.

The NASFT defines specialty foods as foods of premium quality that are often made by small or local manufacturers or have exotic or ethnic flavors. Of these foods, the top five categories of foods most purchased last year were cheese; condiments; frozen and refrigerated entrees, pizzas and convenience foods; chips, pretzels and snacks; and frozen and refrigerated meats, poultry and seafood.

Specialty food accounts for 13.1 percent of all food sales at retail.
Yogurt and kefir is the fastest growing specialty food category; sales jumped 38.9 percent in 2009 to $830 million.

-Mediterranean, Latin and Indian were named as the three fastest emerging cuisines.

-Retailers report that 23.4 percent of the foods they sell are local, produced within 250 miles of the store.

-85 percent of specialty food manufacturers make or market natural foods.

-56 percent of specialty food manufacturers report sales growth for 2009, but 10 percent saw sales declines of greater than 20 percent.

-Sales to foodservice represented 20 percent of specialty industry food sales in 2009, or $12.75 billion.

-Mainstream supermarkets remain the predominant seller of specialty foods, with 74 percent of sales.

-Local, sustainable and eco-friendly products were identified as the items that will grow the most in the coming years.

Gougeres

2010-03-13T16:01:00.002-05:00

Gougeres are essentially cheese puffs, originating in the Burgundy region of France. We've got delicious comte cheese at Zingerman's right now, so I made some for my Dad's birthday, and served them along side Schwarzwälder Schinken (smoked, cured black forest ham). I bought a bottle of medium bodied red that I've already forgotten the name of, which I drank a bit of before he arrived, as the gougeres grew cold, because he was late.

Either way, they were much easier to prepare than I had imagined and will continue to experiment with them. They're delicious on their own (best served warm), or you can fill them easily with any manner of fillings- mushrooms, beef, ham- by either slicing them in half and filling them like a sandwich, or piping the filling in through the bottom or side with a pastry bag with a small tip.

Gougeres

Ingredients

1/2 cup (125ml) water
3 tablespoons (40g) butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of chilli powder
1/2 cup (70g) flour
2 large eggs
12 chives or 1-2 T fresh thyme, finely-minced
3/4 cup grated comte cheese (or gruyere)

Method

-Preheat the oven to 425F/220C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
-Heat the water, butter, salt, and chili or pepper in a saucepan until the butter is melted.
-Dump in the flour all at once and stir vigorously until the mixture pulls away from the sides into a smooth ball. Remove from heat and let rest two minutes.
-Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring quickly to make sure the eggs don't 'cook.' The batter will first appear lumpy, but after a minute or so, it will smooth out.
-Add about 3/4 of the grated cheese and the herbs, and stir until well-mixed.
-Scrape the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a wide plain tip and pipe the dough into mounds, evenly-spaced apart, making each about the size of a small cherry tomato.
-top each puff with a bit of the remaining cheese, then pop the baking sheet into the oven.
-Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 375F/190C and bake for an additional 15 to 25 minutes, until they're completely golden brown.

My {malted} milk shake brought all the boys to the yard

2010-03-13T15:50:00.003-05:00

I've had cravings for malt-flavored sweets ever since we had a malted vanilla milkshake on the menu back at NoMI in 2004. We were using amber malt, procured from a beer brewing supply company, and bourbon vanilla beans in the ice cream base. What put the milkshakes over the top was that we were blending the malted vanilla ice cream not with milk but with un-spun ice cream base. They were so rich we had to serve them in a shot glass. It was about that same time that there was popular song out, with the chorus of 'my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard' and i would hum it in my head, never sure of what it was supposed to mean in the songwriters context, but certain of how it fit into mine.

Malt is not a common ingredient, but I came across this recipe as a quick fix for my cravings:

This recipe appears in Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2008)

Brewer's Blondies

Yield: 24

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons malted milk powder

14 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 3/4 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup malted milk balls (like Whoppers or Maltesers), coarsely chopped in a food processor

3/4 cup (9 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Vanilla ice cream, to serve

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and malted milk powder together.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until completely combined. Scrape down the bowl, add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until combined.

Add the flour mixture in two batches until just combined. Add the malted milk balls, chocolate chips and walnuts and beat until just combined, about 10 seconds. The mixture will be thick. Turn the mixture out into the prepared pan and use an offset spatula to spread it evenly.

Bake in the center of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the blondie comes out clean.

Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. These blondies taste delicious warm. Cut them into squares and serve with ice cream. They also taste great at room temperature. Once thoroughly cooled, cover tightly with plastic wrap and keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.

For the ultimate snack, place one Brewer's Blondie on a microwave-safe dish and heat on high for 15 seconds. Remove the blondie from the microwave oven and top it with one heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream. Let the warmth of the blondie melt the ice cream for a few moments, then serve immediately.

Buckwheat Crepes

2010-03-02T16:17:00.005-05:00

The sun is finally beginning to shine again, as the winter months are more behind us than ahead. Late this morning I walked over to a friends place and we made crepes. As usual, we couldn't decide on just one filling so we made three. Each of them turned out delicious enough to warrant sharing.

The thought of buckwheat crepes was on my mind when I woke up- one of those random food cravings that pops into my head when I'm dragging myself out of bed and getting ready to go to the gym. It seemed like a good idea, since the batter needs to sit for at least 30 minutes before it's ready. Every time I make crepes I wonder why I don't make them more often- it's a fun process and it takes only a little effort to get a great result.

This version is from The Gourmet Cookbook, which has over the years become one of my 'go-to' books for whenever I'm looking for a recipe that I've never made. It seems to have everything in it, and they are all tested and work well.

Buckwheat Crepe Batter
(enough for about eight 10" crepes)

2 T unsalted butter
3/4 cup + 1 T buckwheat flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 large eggs

Start by making a brown butter: cook it in a small saucepan over moderately low heat until golden brown. This gives a nice nutty depth of flavor to the crepes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool slightly.

Sift together the flours and salt in a bowl. Separately, whisk together the milk, eggs and brown butter. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth. Cover and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes.

My friend has a fantastic cast iron pan from lodge cookware that is the perfect size and weight for crepes (and useful for other things as well). Let the pan get hot enough to make butter sizzle, and run the end of a stick of butter across the top of. Tilting it up slightly, pour about 1/4c of the batter onto one side and quickly roll the pan around so that the entire surface is coated with a thin layer. After a minute or two, flip it over. They taste best when there is a little bit of browning but they're still soft enough to drape and fold. With the oven on warm (250F) we stacked them on top of one another on a plate as they were finished- this keeps them warm. If you're not going to be using them right away, cover them up with a slightly damp towel.

For our first course, we sauteed some spinach with butter, a dash of nutmeg, salt and pepper and piled it in the middle of the crepe, folding the four sides in. We left a little bit of the spinach showing in the middle and topped it with a fried over easy egg. The runny yolk made a great sauce and the overall flavor was at the same time light and filling.

We then moved on to the classic nutella + banana, followed by crepes stuffed with sauteed apples with cinnamon, with a light dusting of powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice on top.

When the fridge is empty, a simple squeeze of lemon juice and a dusting of sugar is a delicious alternative.

The poached and the soft boiled:

2010-01-16T21:43:00.004-05:00

I've been awash by the pursuit of making soft boiled eggs. I like delicately piercing them with a small wire to release the air in them before boiling, and was pleased that my carefully timed 6 minutes this morning resulted in just the right amount of runniness in the yolk. Oh, egg yolk. Please pass the salt and pepper. A bowl of yoghurt with red current preserves on the side, a pot of yunnan at hand.

And tonight's lentil serenade was as much about the rendered pancetta, toasted spices, brown chicken stock, lentils du puy and caramelized onions as it was a vehicle for a poached egg, yolk barely contained by a thin skin surrounded by soft whites. My mistake of too much vinegar in the poaching water turned out to be a blessing in disguise- the overall effect of the finished plate would have not been complete without that hint of bright acidity. Next time I'll poach them with a bit of sherry vinegar.

Bai Hao Oolong Tea

2009-12-30T19:28:00.001-05:00

Bai Hao Oolong is produced in Hsinchu (aka Xinghu) Taiwan. Sometimes referred to Oriental Beauty, White Tip Oolong, or Champagne Oolong, in Taiwan it is often called Pingfang tea. As with everything, authenticity is based on the source of where the tea came from.

While most high quality Taiwanese teas are picked in the spring or winter, Bai Hao is harvested in the months of June & July, sometimes extending out into October. In reading about how it is made, I came across some contradictory stories. One source wrote that it is called bai hao because of the tender white downy buds that are picked along with the top two leaves, resulting in the white 'tips' evident in the dry leaves. Another source wrote that this particular tea relies on insects (like 'Miele de Sapin' fir tree honey) to achieve the white 'tips'. In their explanation, the tea bushes are home to a parasitic leaf hopper that feeds on the leaves and discolors the edges. Their chomping begins an enzymatic process that is essential to flavor and character development in the tea. Farmers wait until they have left their mark on the tea leaves before harvesting, and after picking and drying, the edges turn white causing contrasting strands of white among the black leaves. It could be a little bit of both, but without going to Taiwan and learning firsthand, I can be sure exactly.

Historically this tea is heavily fermented (according to Rishi) and roasted but in recent years they've been producing it with a light fermentation, resulting in a light fruity, honeyed taste. It's smooth with just a hint of tannin or acidity in the finish- my tongue can't quite tell the difference this morning.

This is a tea intended to be brewed and sipped in a gaiwan, a tea brewing method very popular in the east but not often seen here in the states. They're perfectly ideal for oolong teas, and although the setup is a bit different, it's a much more enjoyable way of drinking a cup at a time and brewing as needed. Here's a link to a basic video of how to use one at home. If you want to see the classical ceremonial way of brewing, watch this video.

Local 123

2009-10-05T14:33:00.003-04:00

I'm in Berekely for the week, visiting a friend. This morning I strategically took my run in the direction of a coffee shop called Local 123, at 2049 San Pablo. The love/hate reviews on Yelp! were so enticing that I had to check it out.

For those that love good coffee, the coffee purists, this is your place. However, if you're looking for a shot of hazelnut in your half-caf iced mocha, go to Starbucks- the ladies at 123 won't hook you up, and will tell you stone faced exactly why: icing your espresso ruins the flavor. And they don't carry syrups. While I realize that a business should provide what the customer wants, I salute them for providing the best coffee possible and not giving into requests that deter from their mission.

Their beans are roasted by Flying Goat in Healdsburg, CA. I had a pour-over of the Sumatran and the Don Mayo from Costa Rica via drip, and granola with house-made cherry preserves. And also a croissant. I couldn't resist- they were quite dark and I was so curious!

The Sumatran was interesting- it's usually one of my favorite origins, but this one was unusual compared to what I'm accustomed to. The full body was there, with a nice cedary sweetness, but I was surprised by all the high notes and lack of a strong base. I'd drink it again for sure, but I missed that lingering thick earthiness on my palate.

I consulted with the barista and she said the Costa Ricans were her favorite, directing me to the Don Mayo, which they could only do via drip this morning. Upon first sip it tasted like food- full, like a bacon breakfast. As it cooled it became more elegant and balanced, with a creamy mouthfeel, chocolate notes and a brown sugar sweetness. I'm forever pleased with the way the flavors evolve as the coffee cools- it makes me feel like Veruca Salt experiencing her multi course meal (before she blows up into a giant blueberry).

While I'm still learning to articulately distinguish the subtleties of beans from different origins, I find it easy to identify different roasters' flavor profiles. The Flying Goat coffees were not too heavily roasted and both of the ones I tasted seemed to sing with their high notes- lots of citrus notes. I still love to languish in the complexities of Intelligensia's roasts- they seem to be able to hit all ends of the spectrum without being over-bearing and I've yet to have a bad cup from their coffees. Zingerman's coffees are fully charged, strong, bold and up front. There are many roads to Mecca, and many different roasters to match a mood.

Which leads me to the question that plagues me: at what point, and why, did I switch from seeking out teas to coffees? It's an unfortunate reality that tea is not where coffee is in terms of access to quality, fresh product that is properly made. If I could, I would wave a wand and POOF! all teabags the world over would suddenly disappear. The thirsty masses would be required to use loose tea and brew it at water temperatures that don't damage the flavor of the leaves. They would take their time and treat it not like a quickie espresso but a different class of beverage altogether. They would seek out different harvests, different vintages, different countries of origin. They would fall in love with the orchid-floral aromas of a high mountain Taiwanese oolong, the winey depths of a second flush Darjeeling, the way a Ceylonese tea brightens up with a little bit of lemon juice. Shops like Zen Cha in Columbus Ohio would spring up in cities and towns all across America- a synthesis of good service and tea made and served the way it tastes best. Goodbye to improperly rinsed teapots that make everything taste like peppermint! Goodbye to white tea brewed (and subsequently destroyed) with boiling water! Hello to a thirsty and informed public that forces shops to know what they're selling, how to store and brew it, and demands more than the low-grade 'dust' in bags that we've been being duped with for so long. We'll finally move beyond the stigma that has stuck ever since the Bostonians tossed tea off boats and denounced the British tradition of 'tea time.'

Wouldn't that be nice?

Cauliflower with mustard-lemon butter

2009-09-29T10:05:00.002-04:00

Many years ago, when I was just starting out cooking in Chicago, my friend & co-worker Jerome and I found ourselves alone one Thanksgiving. We had to work part of the day doing prep in the kitchen, and everyone else was with family, so we planned our own feast. I rode my bike over to his apartment, where we usually met up to ride down the lakefront together to work, and he surprised me with breakfast- a version of Eggs Benedict with cauliflower instead of ham. It was the beginning of a love affair- I'll never forget the smell of braising cauliflower when I walked in, the richness of the sauce converging with a poached egg yolk, and the way it filled my belly and kept me warm the entire 7 mile ride along the lake that chilly morning. Before we left, we ate a candied chestnut as dessert- perfect.

Later that day we cooked fondue and I was instructed in the social etiquette of making sure the pot was always being stirred. We took turns dipping potatoes and bread into the thick gruyere and emmenthaler cheese concoction spiked with kirsch, listened to Chopin, and watched the grey lakefront from his Aunt's picture window. The whole day seemed otherworldly.

But, back to cauliflower: the below recipe is very tasty. I cooked it at home last night, using Pommery mustard. The mustard and lemon gave a pleasant bite to the comforting flavor of cauliflower. I do not have (and for sentimental reasons, don't often attempt) the recipe for Jerome's Eggs Benedict, but this one is similarly delicious, as evidenced by the fact that my friend and I ate the entire head of cauliflower in one sitting.

Cauliflower with mustard-lemon butter

1 head of cauliflower
1 t coarse salt
6 T butter
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T whole grain Dijon mustard
1 ½ t zested lemon

1 T chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 400F.
Butter a rimmed baking sheet.
Cut the cauliflower in half, then cut crosswise into ¼” thick slices.
Arrange them in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle them with salt.
Roast until cauliflower is slightly softened, about 15 minutes

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the lemon juice, mustard and zest.

Spoon the mustard-lemon butter evenly over the cauliflower and roast until crisp-tender, about 10 minutes longer. Before serving, sprinkle the parsley over top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Tarragon Chicken

2009-09-29T09:55:00.002-04:00

I've been carrying this recipe around in my bag for a couple of months. Originally photocopied from an old issue of Saveur magazine, I finally decided that the sudden cold snap outside warranted steaming up the windows in the house and warming the air with the smell of browning chicken. It's been an entire season of fresh fruit and minimal cooking between now the last time I deglazed anything and made a reduced sauce with rich stock, so I was filled with glee when I heard the sizzle of the wine hitting the hot skillet.

It doesn't get more french than tarragon and a sauce with butter. Be sure to let your chicken skin brown- I left it entirely alone for the first 5 minutes- and don't skimp on the tarragon, which can be too subtle in small doses.

Tarragon Chicken
(from the Ritz-Escoffier cooking school in Paris, via Saveur magazine)

1 T olive oil
3 T butter
1 3 ½ lb chicken, cut into 8 pieces
salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 stems fresh tarragon
¼ cup white wine
1 cup rich veal, beef or chicken stock

Heat the oil and 2 T of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook, skin side down, until well browned, about 5 minutes. Turn the chicken and add 4 stems of the tarragon. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook until juices run clear when pierced with a knife, 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, blanch 2 stems of the tarragon in a pot of boiling water over high heat for 5 seconds; drain and set aside. Chop the leaves (discarding the stalks) from the remaining 2 stems of the tarragon and set aside.

Transfer the chicken to a platter, discarding tarragon, and keep warm in an oven set on lowest temperature. Pour off the fat, then return skillet to medium-high heat. Add the wine and cook, scraping browned bits stuck to the bottom of the skillet, for 1 minute. Add the stock and reduce by half, about 5 minutes. Strain the sauce into a small bowl, then return the sauce to the skillet over medium heat. Stir in the remaining 1 T butter and reserved chopped tarragon.

Add the chicken and any accumulated juices to the skillet and baste with sauce. Serve garnished with blanched tarragon.

Plums and cardamom, anyone?

2009-09-14T22:55:00.003-04:00

This morning I came across a blog that had the most inspiring photo of an upside down plum cardamom cake that I had to try it.

I broke open green cardamom pods for the seeds and it was one of the highlights of my day- freshly ground cardamom is in an altogether different category than the pale grayish lavender powder that's god knows how old you'll find in the grocery store. The armoa is striking- it always makes my mouth water. I also used a Ceylonese cinnamon, which is a little more nuanced than Vietnamese or Chinese cinnamon. It has a delicate aroma and long flavor that will compliment but not overpower the cardamom.

In case 'Alice's' link doesn't work, I'm rewriting the recipe below. I highly recommend visiting her site, though- the step-by-step photos are great and make the plausibility of attempting the recipe seem that much more reasonable. My photo isn't quite as sexy as her food styling, but you should have been there to taste it :)

Plum Cardamom Cake
Yield: one 9 or 10" cake

Sauce:
3 T melted butter
15-20 small-medium plums, quartered
1/4 c brown sugar
1 t cinnamon (Ceylon recommended, though any varietal will do)
2 t ground cardamom

Cake:
1/2 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 c flour
1 t ground cardamom
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 c orange juice

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Grease & line with parchment a 9" or 10" round tall cake pan.

In a small bowl, stir together the sauce ingredients. Using a pastry brush, cover the base of the cake pan with the sauce.

Starting from the outside perimeter and working your way towards the center, line the cake pan with the quartered plums in concentric circles.

To make the cake batter, cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy- a stand mixer is helpful here, or beaters, or a whisk (and Popeye arms).

Add the eggs on at a time, mixing until incorporated and scraping the sides of the bowl down after each one. Stir in the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt. Add about a third of this mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix just enough to combine them.

Pour in half of the orange juice, stir just to combine.

Follow with another third of the dry mixture, stir, then the rest of the orange juice, stir, and finish with the last of the dry mixture. Ideally you want to minimize the amount of stirring you do once you start adding the flour- doing it in sections will allow the liquids, dry ingredients and fat to come together quickly. I suppose if you're looking for quick & dirty, add the dry ingredients first, followed by the orange juice to finish it off.

Spoon the cake mixture on top of the arranged plums and spread the batter evenly. Bake it for about 50 minutes, or until the top is a deep golden brown and just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Once removed from the oven, allow it to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Loosen the sides of the pan with a knife and flip it onto a plate. Remove the parchment paper, and serve it warm or at room temperature.

Buckwheat Pancakes, Blueberry Compote

2009-09-08T11:12:00.003-04:00

Buckwheat can go both ways: from adding a sublime depth of flavor to being overly heavy hippie food that's more focused on whole grains than good taste. I've had buckwheat pancakes that fall into both categories, but I think I've found a recipe that's worth sharing.

From the Anson Mills website, their buckwheat buttermilk pancakes with lemon butter and blueberry compote is worth the effort. The three parts of the recipe- lemon compound butter, blueberry compote and pancakes- too me a total of 45 minutes to prepare, and I'll be (happily) eating leftovers of the first two parts for the next couple of days.

Compound butters are a simple way of adding a little extra flavor in an unexpected way. Here, you add lemon zest, juice and a small amount of powdered sugar to soft butter and refrigerate it. The variations can be endless. At Eve restaurant, for example, they serve three compound butters with their bread at each table- an herb, a salmon, and a sweet one that I think is honey and cinnamon, though my memory could be mistaken.

I particularly liked this recipe for blueberry compote because the end result has blueberries of different textures- some cooked into a sauce and some that are added right before the end and allowed only to warm up, thus remaining their plump integrity. It calls for cinnamon, but star anise or cardamom would also be welcome substitutions.

The buckwheat buttermilk pancakes call for a slightly different preparation than what I'm used to seeing. The butter is melted, and some of the ghee is reserved for the cast iron skillet- nothing new there- but adding the buttermilk to the warm butter and warming them together slightly was a different approach. It could have the potential to separate if it got too hot, but a little whisking brought it back together, and it never got so hot that it would have scrambled the egg you whisk it into. With both baking soda and baking powder in the mix, the cakes puffed up beautifully.

Overall it was a fantastic Sunday morning breakfast, with a pot of nilgiri tea with cream and sugar nearby, some orange juice and Dr. Arwulf Arwulf providing the soundtrack on 89.1.

3.14....

2009-07-28T19:44:00.006-04:00

I've been immersed in all things pie lately.

The third annual 'Pie Lover's Unite' event was this past Saturday- it was a success, the pies were beautiful and plentiful- and I keep coming across articles about pies in magazines and other blogs. Sheryl Julian, writing for boston.com, wrote a great introduction about crusts, and there are links abound. I decided to tackle the oil based crust first, since it's new to me and reported to be so deliciously, deceptively easy.

I'm directly quoting here:

The crust is as follows-

1/2	cup vegetable oil
1/4	cup milk
2	cups flour
1/2	teaspoon salt

1. Set the oven at 425 degrees. Have on hand a deep 9-inch pie pan.

2. In a 1-cup measure, pour the oil just over the 1/2 cup line. Add the milk to make a good 3/4 cup of liquid.

3. In a mixing bowl, mix the flour and salt. Add the oil mixture (do not stir while pouring). When it is all added, use a rubber spatula to stir the oil in gently. The mixture looks very wet; it’s OK.

4. With a wet paper towel, wet the counter. Spread waxed paper on it. Add 2/3 of the dough. Set another piece of waxed paper on top.

5. Roll the dough into a round about 1/8-inch thick. Gently remove the top waxed paper, working from the edges to the center. Set the pie pan near you. In one steady motion, pick up the paper under the dough and quickly flip it over into the pie pan. Gently remove the remaining waxed paper sheet, working from the edges to the center.

The recipe for blueberry filling associated with this crust was good, and I made it as stated, but I think I'd play around with Alice Water's recipe a bit. She uses a little more sugar (1/4 cup), a dash of salt, lemon zest, and substitutes the flour with 4 T quick-cooking tapioca, pulverized in a mortar. I am encouraged by the tapioca because of it's slight sweetness, and despite the smaller quantity than flour, it would thicken it up just the same without the flour taste.

My pie looks very similar to the one in the link, which makes me wonder if either they were making it look really homey or there is little room for personal flourishes with this type of crust. I'll play around with it some more. The texture was nice and flaky, and (thanks to baking it with a collar around the edges for the first 25 minutes) it browned evenly on top and underneath.

Blueberry-Orange pancakes

2009-07-28T03:33:00.004-04:00

It's blueberry season in Michigan. A friend is about to deliver 10#'s picked across the state in Holland, which has prompted a revival of memories relating to all things blueberry.

One of my favorite recipes is for blueberry-orange pancakes, which I used to make often many years ago in my little college apartment on Park St. I can't think about them without recalling Ella Fitzgerald, mornings fueled with NPR, Simon, and my cat, Bugonia.

The primary liquid is orange juice, which is enhanced by fresh zest, though I've found that store-bought orange juice works best (ie Tropicana) rather than freshly squeezed. Maybe it's just my palate, but I found the freshly squeezed juice to be a little too acidic. I also found it to be too difficult not to drink all of the freshly squeezed juice before using it in the batter.

Blueberry-orange pancakes

1 c flour
2T sugar
1 ¼ t baking powder
¼ t baking soda
¼ t salt
½ t orange zest
1 c orange juice
2 T milk
2 T oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 c blueberries, fresh or frozen

-combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
-in another bowl, combine the orange zest, juice, milk, oil and egg.
-add the liquids into the dry ingredients, stirring just until combined.
-heat a skillet and add either a touch of butter or spray it with oil (no need to do either if it’s non-stick)
-spoon about ¼ cup of the batter onto the hot skillet, and sprinkle some blueberries on top.
-when the edges of the pancake seem dry and small bubbles have formed on the surface, filp it. It should be done when you see a slight bit of steam coming from the skillet.

Missing You-

2009-07-28T03:27:00.003-04:00

Since I was recently stripped from the delicious dulce de leche in my fridge (I don't forgive easily), I've been forced to improvise. It was my pleasure to discover that I could achieve a similar affect (creamy, caramely goodness) by combining maple syrup and cream. It's not nearly as thick, and feels like cheating since so much work goes into dulce de leche, but on top of ranier cherries, plums and strawberries, it tastes divine.

Worth getting up for in the morning-

2009-06-27T20:57:00.001-04:00

I have only one thing to report: Michigan strawberries and raspberries with vanilla sugar is heavenly.

Ortiz

2009-06-07T16:35:00.003-04:00

An abbreviated version of my write up on visiting with Ortiz is now up on the ZMO blog.
http://zmojournal.blogspot.com/2009/06/visiting-ortiz-in-spain.html

Pamplona, day 1

2009-05-17T17:40:00.005-04:00

Flying north of Madrid you could see the grid-like patterns of olive groves dotting the countryside. Flying into Pamplona, it suddenly became hilly- the outermost hills partially excavated for gravel (I'm presuming) in beautiful steeped rows.

This town is very old. It's also very typically Spanish- narrow cobblestone streets with high colorful buildings on either sides. I forgot how beautiful the glass enclosed porches are on the second floors, with their plants and character.

As nervous as i was about not knowing anyone, i've already met some very interesting, friendly people from not only Spain but from the US, Cuba and Canada (and Dubai). It's mostly wine reps, though a couple of them are looking to branch out into 'gourmet' foods because they're hurting for business. Being here solely for food, i've been fielding a lot of questions about salt, olive oil, peppers, ham- whathave you. In exchange, they've been telling me what to drink. Not a bad trade off.

The Navarra Gourmet group has put together quite the itenary for this trip, intended to show off the best of what Pamplona and Navarra has to offer. Tonight was a group dinner at the restaurant of chef Alex Mugica (or Mujica, depending on what text you're reading) in the La Perla Hotel. There are about 60 people in our group from all over the world, so the restaurant was closed and fitted to hold us for the evening. Tables were arranged by language spoken.

We were served two local wines- the red was a blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot called Inurrieta 400 Crianza. It was fruity, a little sweet. The white was a chardonnay from Juan de Albert. Lots of apple and vanilla in the nose, and a buttery oak flavor.

First course was 'ensalada de esparragos naturales con sal maldon, aceite virgen y mayonesa de bonito'. White asparagus over mixed greens, with a syringe (disposable, individual serving) of olive oil, and a tuna foam on the side. It was delectable- i could have eaten two but it was the perfect amount to satiate me for a first course and whet my palate for what was coming.

In martini glasses they served a couple baked rolls of a mix of chorixo (txistorra in the local basque dialect) and queso. The wrap was made of bread, which was frozen, sliced thin on a meat slicer, wrapped around a spoonfull of the filling and then baked. A Cuban gentleman at my table couldn't get enough of them- his enjoyment was visible in all of the hand gestures for 'the best' and he managed to get the recipe from the chef (no doubt- i'll be on his menu at home soon).

Then, in my opinion, the best part of the meal: huevo estrellado, patatas y perrechicos. Poached eggs with the most brilliant deep orange yolk i've seen since I was last in Italy, on top of thinly sliced potatoes and 'perrechios,' the local mushrooms that are just coming up. They're small, white and very flavorful.

The main course was a choice of two options- lomito de merluza al horno con terrina de borrajas y jamon (hake with garlic, borrage and ham) or chuleta de ternera con patata nueva- veal with new potatoes and a roasted red pepper sauce. I opted for the veal. Again the serving size was satiatingly appropriate- just enough to savor the flavor but not too much to overwhelm you. The roasted red pepper sauce was creamy, not too spicy but full of that roasted-over-coals flavor that I love about good Spanish piquillos.

The desserts- i'm sorry, i didn't take copious notes here. Overall they were very sweet, and whereas the portions for everything else seemed right on, these were so rich that the abundance of three different ones on a plate was a bit overwhelming. It was a lactic romp of leche frita (fried milk cube, dusted with cinnamon), cremoso de queso (cheese creem), sopita de citricos y galleta rota de nuez, cerezas de Milagro (the cherries from Milagro were delicious) salteadas con helado de azafran y crujiente de remolacha. You'll have to translate all of that. The beets (remolacha) were shaved thin and oven dried, used as garnish.

More anon.

Grapefruit Curd

2009-04-21T13:16:00.003-04:00

Lemon curd gets all of the spotlight. Yes, it's delicious- richly tart, sweet and buttery all at the same time- but it's not the only citrus fruit that makes a good curd. We've got great lime curd and passion fruit curd at the Deli, but you rarely see anything about grapefruit curd. Maybe it's because it's bitterness is tricky to balance, or it's not as approachable a fruit in some peoples eyes, but I can't get enough of them.

It took me a while to find a recipe for it, and the last time I tried to make it without direction, it didn't set properly. Thankfully, Regan Daley's 'in the sweet kitchen' provided (I love that book!). It's not for the faint of heart- 12 egg yolks! I went an extra step further and reduced the grapefruit juice by about 1/4 to deepen its flavor, which seemed to work out well. I also threw in a dried out vanilla bean. The resulting curd is spoonable but soft, brilliantly yellow, and a good balance between sweet and bitter. I ate it on malted pancakes this morning (or was it afternoon? aahhh, a good day off), but it would be just as nice on scones, angelfood cake, or a buttery croissant.

Grapefruit Curd with Vanilla Beans
(Regan Daily, with a few enhancements)

12 yolks
1 dried out vanilla bean, cut into 3 or 4 chunks
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons grapefruit zest (any more and it'll be too bitter)
3/4 cup freshly squeezed juice (either straight or slightly reduced)
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

-have a double boiler ready, with a medium bowl that fits in the pot but sits above the water level (questions? just email me).
-have a large bowl nearby with a fine mesh strainer resting on top.
-in the medium bowl that fits over the pot, whisk the egg yolks and the vanilla bean pieces until frothy.
-whisk in the sugar and the citrus juices, as well as the zest.
-set the bowl over the lightly boiling water and adjust the heat to barely simmering. Cook, stirring constantly, the curd until it thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. It takes about 10 minutes or so, depending on the temperature of the yolks that you started with.
-remove the bowl from the pot, dry off the bottom, and pour it through the strainer into the large bowl.
-stirring constantly, add the chunks of butter a few at a time until they melt completely.
-place a layer of plastic wrap directly over the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming, and allow it to cool for at least 2 hours before using.
-this curd is best the day that it is made, but it can be stored (well covered) in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Loh Shi Fun

2009-04-14T21:51:00.004-04:00

The challenge: shiitake mushrooms.
The answer: Loh Shi Fun

I wouldn't claim to know anything about loh shi fun other than that I typed in 'shiitake pork shaoxing wine recipe' into google and found this recipe. It seemed to fit what I was craving, and gave me an excuse to try new things from the Asian grocery store that I had never cooked with. I was skeptical until it was about 75% complete, but by the time I plopped a poached egg on top of fresh pea shoots on top of a steaming bowl of pork (two types!) and noodles, I was very excited.

From what I've read, it's Chinese in origin but has been made famous by a street stall in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. It's sometimes called 'rat tail noodles' because of the shape of the noodles, though I ended up only finding frozen Korean rice cakes (which worked fine, however unusual).

The original recipe, from Food & Wine Magazine, is here.

I added sriracha (rooster chili sauce), and had to find a substitute for the kecap manis, which the lovely propritor of the local market recomended (it tasted like a mixture of molasses and soy sauce- I'm still excited to find the real deal that is infused with star anise). Not having worked with Chinese sausage before, I may have bought the wrong one- what I purchased was uncooked, and I think the recipe calls pre-cooked. After a bit of poaching it worked out just fine, though- quite fatty and sweet but very flavorful.

The pea shoots, which we opted to not to add while cooking but use as a blanket between the hot stew and the poached egg, gave a pleasant lightness to the dish. Overall it was a fun experiment- one I look forward to replicating and exploring more.

2009-03-04T21:20:00.002-05:00

I'm thoroughly enjoying the surprising, light tingling sensation going on in my mouth right now- the result of Tasmanian pepper berries.

These small, shriveled, dried black berries are also referred to as Mountain Pepper. They grow in Tasmania on a native shrub that can reach five meters in height. It's leaves are dark green with distinctive crimson stems, and it thrives in cool, wet habitats from sea level to the high altitude regions throughout the island. Hand harvested during their fall season, March through May, they're used locally to flavor everything from meat to breads, pastas, mustards and cheeses. I was surprised by the purplish color that they produced when I ground them in my mortar, and that the center part of the berry contained a small hard seed that would not break down. They start sweet, then gradually increase in intensity. The heat doesn't last very long, but the slight tingling sensation- similar to szechwan peppercorns- pleasantly remains and lingers in your mouth.

I ground them with toasted coriander, cumin, cardamom, mustard seeds and salt- a version of garam masala, I suppose. It's fitting that spices were the first product to become truely globalized; fitting that my particular blend combined spices from 4 different continents. When all said and done, it tasted pretty good on my local carrots, celery, potato and cherry tomatoes when roasted in a hot oven. The piece de resistance was an egg cracked in the center of the hot pan and cooked until over easy- as always, a fresh yolk is the only sauce required.

Salty island breezes, bone warming broth and my favorite of foods.

2009-02-28T12:57:00.004-05:00

I haven’t been posting much because I haven’t been cooking much. I’ve been plagued by a hovering black cloud the past two months that seems to rain on everything I’ve cooked, depriving any joy in the process or consumption. I’ve been consisting on grapefruit, yoghurt with preserves and cereal in the mornings. Rice and salads in the evenings. Lot’s of meals eaten elsewhere. Breakups and challenging times do that to me. I’ll eventually snap out of it and regain my grace in the kitchen, but it’s no excuse to not write about what I’ve been learning. So here goes:

In Mauritius it’s a common treat to pick a pineapple from a tree and dip it in sea water, sometimes sprinkling a little spicy chili pepper on top. The first person to tell me about this was from the island. He was reminiscing about acquiring said pineapple and riding his bike down to the coast with a group of friends to pair it with the salty sea water. It was what they did on a lazy afternoon, with the sun shining and the ocean breeze blowing. It sounded like heaven to me, and I’m excited that he’s started a company that produces preserves and other spices and honeys from his native land. We should be getting them into the Deli in a few months, and my first bite of the pineapple preserves with chilies and salt will be taken with my eyes closed, imagining the smell of the ocean air and warm sun.

I was in my old haunting grounds of Chicago this past week, and my trip wouldn’t have been complete without a steaming bowl of Vietnamese Phở. Dora (ever passionate and knowledgeable about ethnic cuisines) and I piled the freshly torn Thai basil, ngò gai and jalapenos, sweetened it slightly with the hoisin sauce and spiced it with the Sriracha. It has a similar effect on me to how I feel when I’m immersed in a hot tub- it warms my entire body, all my yards of skin and organs from head to toe. It also makes me very sleepy, which was a welcome feeling since sleeping has been eluding me of late. I can never finish an entire bowl, though, and learned a great way of extending the joy from Dora: strain the noodles from the leftovers and warm it for breakfast the following morning. It’s my own version of ‘hair of the dog.’

I have a timeless friend named Brad who has a gracious place at the bar of a lot of the great unsung restaurants throughout the windy city. I always envision him doing a waltz between chatting with the waitress who’s inevitably a good friend, completing the latest crossword in the paper and watching baseball if there is a tele around. Saturday morning he introduced me to 'The Bristol' in Bucktown (2000 block of N. Damen). I ended up having brunch there two days in a row, and would have gone back if I could have. Straightforward and delicious, the small brunch menu features a lot of dishes involving eggs, all perfectly poached with gloriously runny yolks. The eggs benedict with stone ground mustard hollandaise sauce was great, as were the chilaquiles with New Mexican green chilies and lime, and the bourbon manhattans and bloody marys. There was duck on the brunch menu as well, which sounded equally promising. Next time.

A Rich Welcome for a New Year

2009-01-01T16:55:00.004-05:00

It's officially 2009, another year is behind us, and it's been a wonderfully relaxing day here in my rickety little flat. Last night we had a delicious dinner at Amadeus, a Polish restaurant here in Ann Arbor, and then brought in the New Year with old friends. There was a lot of singing and shenanigans, and most of the day today was spent in recovery mode.

Since it's cold outside we decided to cook something to not only warm our bellies but the apartment too. I remembered a recipe that I first made several years ago- I don't even recall where I was living at the time or how I came across it. Beef Bourguingnon from Ina Garten. It's damn good- rich and filling, and I never have a hard time making my way through all of the leftovers. We ate it with mashed potatoes, which were extra good because I'm out of cream and used only butter to bind them together.

For posterity, I wanted to post a link for Brewers Blondies. I've made them twice in the past two weeks and even though I don't have a huge sweet tooth, they seem to have an addictive effect on everyone they come in contact with. No one can seem to eat just one. The best part (and the reason behind the name) is the addition of malt- in the form of powder and chopped up Whoppers candies. It adds a delicious deapth to the brown sugar, chocolate and walnut combo, although if you didn't know it was in there, you wouldn't be able to tell. There is no grandstanding with malt- it's like the person who is behind the scenes making sure everything is organized and running smoothly, but stays out of the limelight. If you can't find it at the grocery store, look for Ovaltine malted drink mix- it works just fine.

Polenta Jacket

2008-12-22T22:58:00.003-05:00

It's bone-chilling, paw-freezing, no-messin' around cold outside. Combined with my usual winter blues, it's hard to want to get out of bed in the morning. Especially when your apartment is drafty and you have no control over the heat.

That being said, the thought of polenta with a lacy fried egg and applewood smoked bacon did the trick this morning. Damn good. Nap inducing, which wasn't entirely helpful, but it thickened my blubber and prepared me for the world outside my door.

I don't have a proper recipe for polenta. I use the coarse ground variety that we carry at Zingerman's and cook it with chicken stock. The ratio I prefer is usually 3 parts stock to 1 part polenta- less stock for a thicker body, more if I want it to be loose. Whisk the polenta into hot stock over medium heat and whisk it for 15 minutes or so on low heat. Easy, straight forward. This morning I added a few tablespoons of demi glace (which is making a rare appearance in my fridge), and it added to the richness.

I fried up a thick strip of bacon with a few leaves of sage, and then added some butter and fried an egg sunny side up over med-high heat. I particularly love the lacy edges that come from cooking an egg in a hot cast iron pan, especially when juxtaposed with a runny yolk. Salt. Pepper. Parmesan. In temperatures like these, blubber building meals like this are a survival technique.

Snowed in w/ coffee and a chorizo tortilla

2008-12-19T10:05:00.002-05:00

We've had a fairly major snow storm, and work just called to tell me that I don't need to be in until 2pm. I hadn't planned on having so much time today, but I'm not complaining. Last week's broadcast of This American Life, "20 acts in 60 minutes," is keeping me in good spirits, and I'm midway through putting together lemon scones, but stopped to take a breakfast break. I reheated some of the recipe below, and brewed a press pot of Intelligentsia's 'El Gallo Breakfast Blend,' which is a blend of Latin American beans. It's getting better as it cools, which is my favorite thing about drinking coffee- the way the flavor evolves as the temperature cools.

Yesterday my friend Marshall and I cooked from Michael Roux's 'Eggs'- a beautiful book dedicated to all things eggs. We chose this book because Marshall has a brood of chickens (affectionately known as 'his girls') who produce some exceptionally delicious eggs. We chose a recipe for a Spanish tortilla with chorizo.

(adapted from Michael Roux)

1/3 cup olive oil
1 russet potato, peeled & cubed
1 medium red onion, roughly chopped
salt & pepper
about a 1/2 pound of hot chorizo
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
2 T flat Italian parsley, chopped
6 eggs

In an 8-inch non-stick skillet, heat the oil. Add the diced potatoes and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add the onions, salt lightly, and cook for another 10 minutes.

In the meantime, chop the chorizo into thin slices (about 2mm). Add them to the skillet with the garlic and parsley. Mix them up well, without crushing the potatoes, and cook for another 2 minutes or so. Tip everything onto a plate and allow it to cool slightly. Wipe clean the skillet with a paper towel.

Lightly beat the eggs in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Heat the remaining olive oil in the skillet. Delicately stir the slightly cooled potato mixture into the eggs, and then pour all of it into the pan. Start cooking over medium heat, stirring gently every few minutes with the side of a fork, as if making an omelet.

As soon as the eggs are half cooked, stop stirring, and cook over very low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until the underside of the tortilla is almost cooked. Slide it onto a lightly oiled platter, then invert it back into the pan and cook for another 2 minutes, until both sides are cooked the same and the middle of the tortilla is still soft.

Slide the tortilla onto a plate and serve it whole or cut into wedges. it is equally good served hot, warm, or at room temperature, but not chilled.

Tomato Tarte Tatin

2008-11-04T13:35:00.004-05:00

My roommate came home with a 5" cast iron skillet a few weeks ago. He was geeked about tarte tatins, French upside-down caramelized apple tarts, and variations on that theme. He bought apples. He bought pears. He bought tomatoes and thyme. The following recipe was what we put together this morning, taken from a NY Times article from last September.

So, this is our election day. Sleeping in, a leisurely breakfast, catching up with the news, and playing around with a new recipe. There were no lines at the polls, despite all the news reports that said otherwise. The weather is oddly warm for November 4th- no jacket required, and everything is warm toned from the sun falling through the yellow leaves that are still hanging from the trees. This caramelized tomato tart, in all it's flavor complexity, was fitting for today.

Caramelized Tarte Tatin
from 9/17/08 NY Times, Melissa Clark

1 sheet of Puff pastry dough, either home made or store bought.
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 red onions, halved and thinly sliced
1/4 cup plus a pinch of sugar
1/2 teaspoon sherry vinegar
1/4 cup chopped pitted Kalamata olives
1 1/2 pints (about 1 pound) cherry or grape tomatoes; a mix of colors is nice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Unfold puff pastry sheet and cut into a 10-inch round; chill, covered, until ready to use.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and a pinch of sugar and cook, stirring, until onions are golden and caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons water and let cook off, scraping brown bits from bottom of pan. Transfer onions to a bowl.
3. In a clean, ovenproof 9-inch skillet, combine 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons water. Cook over medium heat, swirling pan gently (do not stir) until sugar melts and turns amber, 5 to 10 minutes. Add vinegar and swirl gently.
4. Sprinkle olives over caramel. Scatter tomatoes over olives, then sprinkle onions on. Season with thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Top with puff pastry round, tucking edges into pan. Cut several long vents in top of pastry.
5. Bake tart until crust is puffed and golden, about 30 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes, then run a knife around pastry to loosen it from pan, and flip tart out onto a serving platter. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

New Books

2008-11-02T11:21:00.003-05:00

There are a lot of books out there that I'm dying to have the time to read.

Of new note, I've read great things about 'Bakewise' by Shirley O. Corriher. It's a baking related addendum to her older publication, 'Cookwise', which I've not read either but have heard great reviews on.

And then there's my renewed interest in Christine Ferber. She's got two books out that I'm particularly interested in- the first is for her preserves, the second is a book on tarts.

In the case of Christine Ferber and her magnificent preserves, I've cooked from other peoples copies of them, but need to get my own and get busy experimenting with them again.
I'm probably less inclined to make preserves at home, since I've had standing plans with someone at work to make them for the past two summers and haven't done it yet. My kitchen is too small, and I've never canned before (which, to the uninitiated, is quite daunting). But tarts are a thing of glory to me- I dream about making them, I love their complicated, multi-step processes, and would be lying if I said I didn't love how impressive they look when done correctly.

Then there is also 'A Platter of Figs' by David Tanis. Just hearing his biography makes me want to jump into reading this book, in hopes that via osmosis my life will become vastly more interesting (part time head chef at Chez Panisse, part time resident of Paris who runs an occasional supper club). He's got a good bit of recipes for duck in there, which is always a good thing.

I'm still looking for a good, comprehensive book on olives....

Darjeeling- Steeped in Tradition

2008-10-20T23:45:00.001-04:00

A link to an article I wrote for our summer newsletter:

http://www.zingermansdeli.com/content/pages/foodnews/2008/july/foodnews_vanessatea.php

schnitzel kick

2008-10-20T23:19:00.003-04:00

I'm on a schnitzel bender.

It all started with the arugula at the farmers market- so gorgeous and full of flavor that I kept buying it and buying it until I ran out of things to do with it. I could only eat so many arugula, country ham and hazelnut sandwiches (though they're quite sustainable), or saute it and lay it over fried eggs with hot sauce (again, delicious). So, I branched out to my sturdy 'Gourmet Magazine' cookbook- a thick yellow tome of collected recipes from over the years. It hasn't let me down yet, and there are a lot of hidden gems in it. Under arugula in the index was schnitzel with a salad, and I envisioned a greasy cutlet in some dark German bar, but as I read the recipe I became intrigued. Since then I've made it more times than I can count. I clean the plate, and I love that it leaves me feeling full and satisfied without wanting more.

It's pretty simple and efficient. The butcher (Bob Sparrow) does all the hard work of trimming and pounding so that the veal is ready to be seasoned and dipped in flour, than egg and finally bread crumbs. It gets lightly fried in olive oil- for this I've been using a rich, fruity French olive oil, which doesn't have the bitterness that something like a Tuscan might. The arugula gets tossed with shredded carrots and cherry tomatoes in a dijon vinaigrette, and topped with the veal. The piece de resistance is squeezing a lemon over top. It ties everything together beautifully.

Two things that I've found to be important are 1)seasoning the meat before dredging it in flour and 2)being careful to not over-fry the veal- if it's a thin cutlet it should only cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side, turning only once. It is beef, afterall, so medium rare is a good temp to shoot for.

If I had a photo (I usually intend to and then forget until after I've finished), you'd see the beautiful green from the arugula, the orange flecks of carrot, and the yellow cherry tomatoes nesting a thin, golden to dark brown cutlet with a lemon wedge on the side.

El Corregidor

2008-06-08T10:51:00.009-04:00

When I was in Spain this past May, arguably the best meal I ate was at El Corregidor in a small town called Almagro, a half hours drive from Cuidad Real, in La Mancha. The following are a gentler version of the notes I tried to scribble down during the meal:

We started off the eveninng with a bottle of Muga ‘reserva especial’ from '03, a Rioja, and according to Frank '03 was and exceptional year'. It had a big black cherry nose with a full flavor and clean finish. We enjoyed it over a plate blanketed with bellota Iberico ham.

We had brought two small bottles of olive oil that we had picked up at the food expo, in case the house oil was not-so-good. The head waiter saw us and came over to our table- he poured himself a bit of each into separate wine glasses, tasted them, and declaired 'no!' and walked away. A moment later he came back with a bottle of Aceites Oro Balien, a 100% picual olive oil from Jaen, which we had just tasted for the first time at the expo. He declared that it was the best, set it on the table, and walked off. I was really impressed that they take their oil so seriously.

We then ordered a bottle of Mauro Ribera del duero ’05, from Castillo y Leon. Interesting bit with this wine is that the producers did not adhere to the rules of Ribera DOP, so by law it has to be labeled as ‘table wine of Castillo y Leon’. Instead of making a DOP approved Ribera, they altered the percentages of grapes (‘temperinillo and hotras' (others) on the label) to create a slightly different flavor profile. From my notes: Tempranillo grapes differ from region to region- the flavor reflects the terroir incredibly. If it’s grown in 20 regions, you’ll get 20 wines.

Although both wines came bottled with a traditional cork, somehow we got on the topic of advancements in the wine industry- specifically screwcaps. The advantage of screwcaps is that you get a 100% seal, whereas with corks you’ll get an 80% seal at best. They’ve only been in use for 12 years, so it’s arguable how well they would allow wines to age over long periods of time.

Food, as it arrived on the table:

Crema de Guisantes con tallarines de sepia y verduras (12e)
-foie gras (sadly, badly trimmed) with local mushrooms in sauce. The flavor of the foie was good but the veins were distracting. The mushrooms were the local variety, somewhat similar to shittake but not as distinctive. The sauce was nice in that they had mounted in butter for richness, but it would have better had they reduced it beforehand and added more salt.

Pochas saltenades con colas de cangrejo de rio y crujiente de jambon (14e)
- white beans stewed with either shrimp or crayfish (couldn’t tell) and deep fried bacon strips. This was the dish that lingered most in everyone’s head, and I was really sad that I couldn’t eat it on account of my allergy to shellfish.

Papada crujiente de cerdo con gambon y caramelo de vinagre (15e)
- Somehow I missed the notes on this, but would be remiss if I didn't mention it.

Merluza con sopa de mejillones (22e)
-hake, which was bland- needed salt and oil, which made it taste much better. Frank noted that it tasted better when cool- he enjoyed the saffron notes although it's presence wasn’t evident in the color.

Carrillada de cerdo iberico en su jugo (18e)
-Matthew said ‘oh my god’ three times and declared it a ‘pork epiphany’. Fantastic young pig with the most amazingly impressive crispy crust. Not sure how they managed that, because the layers of fat and meat between the crust and the little rib bones were perfectly cooked and moist. The fat layer added a creaminess to the dish- we made sure not to leave any meat on the ribs. The skin was amazing. There was an apple pure (consistency implied that it was passed through a food mill) and a reduced vinegar sauce that added a fantastic acidity. A perfectly balanced dish in both texture and flavor.

(Kitty, holding up the pork)

Magret de Pato con higos agridulces (20e)
-duck seared with apple pure, a poached fig and black and rasp berries. The fig must have been poached in a bit of vinegar and spices and paired awesomely with the duck, which was cooked to a perfect medium rare.

Conchinillo crujiente con pure de manzana (22e)
-pork cheeks that were sadly overcooked and undersalted. The apple pure was the same as on the crispy pork, but the overwhelming impression was that the cheeks were like jerky.

We had a few desserts, none of which were terribly memorable, though it was the first time I had seen a quinelle (an egg shaped portion of ice cream or mousse that is created by rolling a spoon across the surface) since I left Vegas, which brought back a lot of memories. Food just doesn't get that fancy here in Ann Arbor.

We were the first to arrive at the beautiful old restaurant, and to our surprise, when we looked up after finishing our meal, we were the last to still be seated. The waiter was standing by patiently waiting for us to depart. We asked him to call a taxi for us- he came back a moment later and said that there were none available. The 3 taxi drivers in town had gone home for the night. Had I not been tipsy from wine and crispy pork, I would have been more concerned, but in that state of mind I would have been happy to take a nap in their kitchen. We wandered down to a hotel that had a front desk attendant and after 15 minutes or so, he found us a taxi that took us home.

The Beauty of Pork

2008-06-08T10:37:00.003-04:00

...is captured in the book Pork & Sons by French chef Stephane Reynaud from Phiadon press. I first came across this book in Spain, in a specialty food shop called Maison Blanche. Despite the fact that it was in Spanish, I almost bought it on the spot because of it's beautiful photos & illustrations- fortunately I found an English version online. http://www.amazon.com/Pork-Sons-St%C3%A9phane-Reynaud/dp/0714847909/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212936536&sr=8-1

I've just re-read the book for the second or third time and it's a joy to drift through. His antidotes of his family, of which he's the third generation of butchers, and friends, whom he's photographed with love, and illustrations of pigs makes this compendium of all things French relating to pork a great book. And the recipes!

The last one I earmarked is 'tenderloins with maple syrup', which involves rhubarb and tenderloins basted with port and maple syrup, finished off with hazelnuts and black pepper. The 'rack of pork with ginger cooked in a salt crust' and multiple different terrines made my stomach grumble. And there isn't a single recipe in the chapter on ham that doesn't sound fantastic.

Lentil Soup

2008-06-06T22:32:00.004-04:00

I recently made a soup with French green lentils, which are slate colored with dark specks on them (they look like flattened capers). They hold there shape when cooked, unlike brown or red lentils and taste like, well, lentils, which taste like whatever you cook them in. They have their merrits- fine lentils indeed. But what I really love are Castelluccio lentils from Umbria, Italy. They grow on the Castelluccio plain, south of the Sibillini mountains, and ever since I cooked with some over a year ago, I haven't been able to find another type of lentil that's better, or even close to better. It's hard to explain. Yeah, they're really healthy (protein, fiber, etc) and they don't require any pre-soaking and cook in about 30 minutes- all good things. But the flavor of them is what sets them apart- delicate, nutty and slightly earthy.

I'm not versed on what's involved in growing lentils, but Castelluccio's have always been grown in an organic manner, even before the distinction of organic was around. They have a 'protected geographical indication' certification from the Italian Govt. and are worth searching out if you can find them. Specialty foods stores will carry them, but in the states you'll pay a pretty penny for them.

Whichever lentil you choose, this soup recipe is a good one. It's a blend of several different ones I've come across and can be vegetarian if you omit the pancetta (though, as usual, pork makes everything taste better). It also contains a spice called 'grains of paradise', which is from West Africa- it's similar to a peppercorn but with a floral quality. At one point in history they were a cheaper alternative to black peppercorns, but have since become somewhat of a rarity.

Lentil Soup

2 T olive oil
1 thick slick of pancetta, cut into chunks
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 t salt
1 pound lentils, picked and rinsed
1 cup peeled, chopped tomatoes
2 quarts of chickenstock (do yourself a favor and use homemade)
1/2 t freshly ground coriander
1/2 t freshly ground toasted cumin
1/2 t freshly ground grains of paradise
1/4 t freshly ground black peppercorns
fresh squeezed juice from half of a lemon

It's good to have the following on hand for garnishing:
a flavorful olive oil
some hot sauce (such as Piri Piri)

- heat a 6qt cast iron pot to medium
- add the oil, then the pancetta, onion, carrot, celery and salt. Sweat them until translucent
- add the lentils, tomatoes, broth and spices.
- allow it to come to a boil, then reduce the heat to a low and cook, mostly covered, until the lentils are tender (about 35-40 minutes).
- add the lemon juice and puree in batches to your desired consistency.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a touch of hot sauce, or some chopped cilantro and sour cream.

4 pints of frozen goodness

2008-05-29T22:27:00.005-04:00

Some friends were down in Columbus recently and brought back ice creams from Jeni's Ice Cream shop. More accurately, my friends went to Columbus specifically to go to Jeni's and bring back a cooler filled with pints of ice cream and dry ice. I was fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a few of those pints.

I've made a few ice creams in my day, and am rather particular about flavor and texture. I'm rarely impressed. But tonight I just dipped my spoon into four different pints and all were beautiful examples of how good it can be.

I started with the lime cardamom yoghurt sorbet. A ton of flavor- sweet lime up front, balanced by the tang of yoghurt and the cardamom like a silver lining, tying it all together. I had to stop myself. Most impressive was the fact that it had a smooth texture straight out of the freezer- a balance that can be precarious with yoghurt as a base.

Next was the cherry lambic, their featured flavor of the month. The cherry flavor was a bit sweeter than I had hoped (I think they may be using Boiron fruit puree, but I can't be certain) but there was a nice lingering sourness, which I attribute to the lambic. It had a great intensity to it- a little bite had a lot of flavor. Again, the texture was spot on- no iciness at all. It was almost fluffy, which again makes me think that they're using Boiron as a base because it tends to take on more air than other fruit puree flavors while it's spinning.

The butterscotch & coconib ice cream was arguably my second favorite- rich & smooth studded with crunchy bits of nib. This, scooped into a cocoanib nougatine cone, would be fantastic.

I was really excited to see that they had a salty caramel and it is just that- verging right on the edge of savory. Good balances of sweet and salty are so satisfying. I'm curious to know what kind of salt they used. I'm afraid it might be iodized, but I can't say for sure. It's definitely a salty salt. This ice cream would be fantastic on with a dense, dark chocolate cake.

Jeni's is the second place in Columbus that I know of that is worth the 2+ hour drive just to eat. It's also the home of Zen Cha, one of the best tea shops I've seen in the midwest.

http://jenisicecreams.com/
http://zen-cha.com/

Cuidad Real Grocery

2008-05-13T14:43:00.003-04:00

A trip to the local grocery store here in Cuidad Real has provided me with a bag of Lay's 'Grandes Sabores Ibericos Jamon'. Crunchy, meaty, slightly sweet and not oversalted. I'm suprised I like them as much as I do. We also got a little tin of tuna pate, which we ate with olive oil potato chips. And I got some tortas de aceite- olive oil tortas with anise seed, dusted with sugar, which only cost 1.5 euros.

The photo below is from inside the grocery- it's awesome to see their passion for ham here.

Madrid, oh Madrid

2008-05-12T10:54:00.004-04:00

I've been swept up by the tide of Madrid for the past 24 hours and I've been loving every minute of it. I truely mean swept because between the jetlag, an allergy induced sinus headache, wine, and orientating myself in a city whose language I barely speak, it's been a very 'come what may' experience.

I met up with some people that I knew through work- we wandered around city central and had tapas at a place called Vinoteca Barbechera. In the photo above, from left to right: duck foie gras with candied apple; a variety of forest mushrooms with ham; and blood sausage with candied apple. The mushrooms were the stand out favorite- sauteed with ham and glistening with sauce- fantastic! We also ate croquettas (the spinach, with raisins and pine nuts were great) and a plate of Iberico ham and sheeps milk cheeses. I don't know why the rest of the world doesn't do food this way- each tapas ranges from 2-7 euros (with the iberico platter being more like 20 euros) and everyone shares. It's a very social eating experience.

Down the street from my hotel was the newly inaugurated CaixaForum Madrid museum. The architecture of the building was beautiful- an old brick structure (formerly Central Electric) with a rusted metal addition on top that has a pattern cut into it, designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The adjacent wall was a living sculptural instilation (aka 'green wall') by Patrick Blanc, whose work I've always wanted to see. http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/
The pairing of the metal, brick and verdant wall was fantastic.

There's a couple of stores called Museo de Jambon around town- each contained more cured ham than I've ever seen. The decor is cured ham, hanging in tight rows. It's a sight to behold. I didn't have time to fully explore their cases but plan on doing so when I pass back through Madrid on my way home. Currently I'm in Cuidad Real, the capitol of La Mancha, about an hour South of my starting point. Tomorrow marks the begining of Espana Original, a food expo of Spanish producers.

addendum to yesterday's post

2008-05-09T07:22:00.000-04:00

Cornman farms in the news today... http://www.concentratemedia.com/features/ZingermansFarm0007.aspx

Cornman Farms

2008-05-08T23:37:00.006-04:00

Tuesday morning I headed out to Cornman Farms, Chef Alex Young's ever-growing farming operation out in Dexter, Michigan. During producing months it supplies the Roadhouse Restaurant with mouthwatering heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes and a whole host of other bounty. It was a year ago this month that I first went out there, to help plant tomatoes and peppers with a few friends. He's expanded his farming area this year (his fourth in operation), and built a hoop garden to get a head start.

The 'hoop' is a metal frame with a plastic covering that can be raised or lowered on each side. It keeps plants a bit warmer and protects them from the wind, so you can put your young plants in the ground a few weeks earlier and not have to worry about them being damaged from early spring frosts. It also means that he'll have tomatoes ready to eat about 2-4 weeks earlier this year.

My friend Jess Piskor from the Deli has been working with Alex on the farm on a part time basis- he helped install the hoop structure (which wasn't as easy as it seems), and by the end of the day on Tuesday helped get several hundred tomato plants in the ground.

Talking with Mark and Alex is always facinating in that they're so knowledgable about how it all ties together. For example, they started the season by putting down a 'green manure' which has several different plant seeds mixed in. Two of which are legumes (but no the bean producing type), which draw nitrogen up from the soil. The nitrogen stays attached to the plants root structure, and after tilling and preping the lot for planting, provides essential nutrients that the plants will need. In most commercial farming operations, nitrogen and other nutrients are applied topically, since the soil is so stripped from lack of plant diversity.

The Oprah Effect

2008-05-08T23:19:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow will be the first airing of the Oprah episode in which Zingerman's will be featured. We're all bracing for the "Oprah Effect"- our site has been upgraded to a larger server and we'll be 'all-hands-on-deck' for the next couple of days, most likely tackling a ton of phone calls and questions about a certain sandwich that has never received much attention before.

The whole ordeal ititally sprung from an article about great sandwiches in America in Esquire Magazine. Not long after, we got a call from Oprah's offices and her best friend Gayle came (with camera crew) to film a segment in the Deli, featuring the #97 Lisa C's Boisterous Brisket. The story behind the sandwich is totally in line with the sense of humor that prevails at the deli.

"Lisa C = Lisa Cyrocki (pronounced 'sir-rock-y), worked in the Sales & Service department at Zingerman's Deli for a few years, and even put in a couple of years with Zingerman's Mail Order. Lisa is actually a vegetarian, so when the sandwich was invented by former Deli Chef Thad Gillis, it was sort of a joke to name it after Lisa...not only did she not eat the sandwich, she is rather quiet and reserved and not exactly "boisterous."

It's beef brisket that has been dry rubbed with a bunch of spices and then marinated in a red wine vinegar & water mix for 24 hours, then braised and slathered with BBQ sauce. It's served (1/2# per order) on a challah bun with a side of baked beans. As of today I've never tried one, since bbq on challah in the middle of the day=food coma, which is not condusive to getting much done.

I'm very curious to see how it affects business. There have been a few articles about what happens to businesses after being mentioned on her show:
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/08/oprah/index_01.htm
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117366212732533776.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

Kentucky Derby

2008-05-04T08:47:00.002-04:00

The famous horse races in Kentucky occured yesterday afternoon, and once again Mr. Ferrel's yearly party featuring big hats and mint juleps filled his small apartment to it's maximum capacity. The mint juleps were great but dangerous- muddled mint with sugar and copious amounts of Jim Beam, poured over ice. Thomas commented that 'the more you drink, the less strong they seem' and he was dead on, but what put me over the edge was the champagne that followed. The photos say it all...

And who knew that cured ham rolled around peanuts could be so delicious!

Pad Thai dinner (and recipe!)

2008-05-02T17:40:00.003-04:00

Last night I had some friends over for dinner. We had-

Vietnamese vegetable rolls, which we made at the table
Pad Thai
Magic Hat #9, an 'almost pale ale'
Ciao Bella's Blood Orange Sorbet.

Peanuts have been my muse lately. I thought of pad thai and how it's the one dish that tells me more than any other in a new thai restaurant- it's always a good gague of how good the kitchen is. I also have been craving fresh Vietnamese-style vegetable rolls, since we're just approaching warmer weather and better produce. Stewing season is offically over until November!

I found several You-Tube videos showing the process of making the rolls, the best of which is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw-7pYq7wSc
We ended up using thinly shaved carrots, purple basil, spinach, cilantro, thin rice noodles, shrimp (well, everyone but me), hoisin sauce and peanuts. I think I may have a new obession with those rolls- so fresh and simple, and the flavor lingers nicely on the palate.

For the Pad Thai, several months ago I stumbled upon a really solid recipe and the results were quite satisfying. I love the tangy flavor of tamarind so I increased it a bit, and used a bit less garlic than the recipe called for but you wouldn't have known it was missing. The beer had a nice fruity-ness that worked well with the heat of the noodles. I suspect there could be a better pairing out there, but this one was unique and delicious.

And of course, Ciao Bella's blood orange sorbet is the best I've come across- not too sweet, not too acidic and a perfectly refreshing close to the night.

Pad Thai (vegetarian)
Y: 4-6 servings

12oz dried flat rice noodles, 1/4" wide, called 'pad thai' or 'banh pho'
3T tamarind from a pliable block
1c boiling hot water
1/2c soy sauce
1/4c brown sugar (packed)
2T Sriracha (southeast asian chili sauce)
1t garam marsala (anchovy oil)
4 lg. shallots, cut crosswise into very thin slices
1 pkg firm tofu (14-16 oz), cut into cubes and rest on paper towels to remove excess moisture.
1 1/2c peanut or vegetable oil
6 eggs, lightly beaten with a 1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 bunch scallions, cut into 2" piecces and halved
1 garlic clove finely chopped (or more, if you'd like- the original recipe called for 4)
2c thick bean sprouts (1/4 lb)

For the garnish:
-1/2 cup or more of roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped- if you can find 'em, spanish peanuts are the best, but be sure to remove the skins after roasting
-lime wedges
-cilantro
-Sriracha

Soak the noodles in a large bowl of warm water until softened, about 25-30 minutes. Drain them well and leave them in the colander and cover them up with a dampened paper towel.

Meanwhile, make your saucce by soaking the tamarind pulp in the boiling-hot water in a small bowl. Stir it occasionally until softened, which should take about 5 minutes.

Force the tamarind pulp and water through a sieve and discard the seeds and fibers. To this, add your soy sauce, brown sugar and Sriracha and stir until the sugar is disolved.

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat until hot- be sure to have a plate with a papertowel on it nearby. Fry half of the shallots over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until golden brown. This will take about 8-12 minutes, with most of the browning occuring in the last minute or two. Using a slotted spoon, transfer them onto the paper towel and allow them to cool- they will get nice and crispy as they cool.

Carefully strain the hot oil to remove any extra bits and set it aside. Give your wok a good wipe with a paper towel, and pour the shallot-infused oil back in. Return the heat to medium.

The next step is frying the tofu, which should be done in two batches to ensure even browning. When the oil is hot- test it with a stray cube of tofu- if it rises back to the surface within 5 seconds, then you're ready- add half of the tofu and fry it, occasionally turning it gently, until golden, which should take about 5-8 minutes. Transfer the fried tofu to paper towels using a slotted spoon, and repeat the process until it's all done.

Carefull strain the hot oil again, and give the wok a good wipe.

To fry the eggs, add 2T of the shallot-infused oil back to the wok and heat it over high heat until it shimmers. Carefully pour in the eggs and swirl to coat the sides of the wok. Then allow them to cook, stirring gently with a spatula, until cooked through. Break them into chunks with a spatula and transfer them to a plate.

Again, give your wok a good wipe, and set the heat to high. When it's hot enough to instantly evaporate a drop of water, add 6T of the shallot-infused oil and swirl it around to coat the sides of the wok. Stir-fry the scallions, garlic, and remaning uncooked shallots until softened, which should take about 1 minute.

Add the noodles and stir-fry, lowering the heat to medium. It helps to use two spatulas at this point to move the noodles around. After 3 minutes, add the tofu, bean sprouts and 1 1/2cups of the sauce. Redue the heat to a simmer and turn the noodles over to absorb the sauce evenly. After about 2 minutes they should be tender and ready. Stir in additional sauce if desired. Add the eggs. Transfer the whole lot to a large, shallow serving dish.

Sprinkle with peanuts and fried shallots, and serve it with lime wedges, cilantro sprigs and Sriracha.

Everything in a rosy hue

2008-03-29T10:47:00.003-04:00

It's hard to believe that just over a week ago I was leaving Darjeeling and flying back to Calcutta for my remaining few days in India. I'm working on writing about my trip. I'm also taking stock of things, having just turned 30, and developing an outline of things that I hope to accomplish in the coming years. Overall, I feel very fortunate.

My dog and I went on a walk through Miller Park this morning. It was sunny but the ground was still frozen from the snowstorm the other day. When I feel doubtful about being in Ann Arbor, walking through my neighborhood reminds me of why I chose to come back when I did.

air gap dimple

2008-02-12T17:00:00.000-05:00

Good eggs are amazing.

Harnois farm, from nearby Webster Township, produces some really great ones. The yolks are rich and solid, with a brilliant golden hue. You can tell the freshness an egg by trying to separate the yolk from the white- if it separates cleanly without bursting you've got a relatively fresh egg on your hands. Aubrey, who’s family has been on the forefront of trying to make it legal to raise chickens in Ypsilanti city township, also told me that the amount of the air-gap dimple at the bottom of a hardboiled egg is also evidence of freshness- the bigger the gap, the older the egg.

It's exceptionally cold in Ann Arbor of late, so I've been roasting vegetables in efforts to warm my apartment. This morning I roasted fingerling potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, and shallots with rosemary and dried pepper flakes. The piece de resistance was an over easy fried egg on top. The yolk served as a rich sauce (better than any hollandaise I've ever had), which is the simplest, most elemental way of tying it all together.

2008-02-09T15:20:00.000-05:00

My chef & mentor Kriss was always very particular about the difference between standard 'cinnamon' and 'true cinnamon', aka 'Ceylon cinnamon'. I'm afraid that if I don't make this clarification in conjunction with my last post, he'll channel up an evil spirit to come and yell at me in Michigan.

Technically, Cassia cinnamons, or Chinese cinnamons, come from the aromatic bark of an evergreen tree that is native to China and Vietnam. It has a higher oil content and produces a dark brown, thick rolled bark with a strong flavor and scent, with a bit of a harshness to it in large quantities. Most mass produced cinnamon sold in the US is of the Cassia variety, and is what most people in the states are familiar with. If you've ever walked passed a 'Cinnabon' store in an airport, you've passed through a cloud of cassia cinnamon-scented air.

'True cinnamon', on the other hand grows on shorter evergreen trees native to Sri Lanka and South India. It's paler in color and has a smoother, thinner bark that breaks easily in your hands. Distinguishable from Cassia in that it's flavor is more subtle, and the smell is much less sharp in your nose.

Although the trees are related to one another, they are quite different. It's worth tasting them side by side and considering them for different applications. I probably wouldn't use the cassia cinnamon for a delicate pastry, but my food memory of (and occasional longing for) cinnamon rolls wouldn't be saited with the delicate touch of 'true cinnamon'.

2008-02-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

For our Chinese New Year-themed dinner this evening I've made a cinnamon beef noodle soup. My inital inspiration was from a small bag of 'China Tunghing Cassia Cinnamon' that a friend picked up from the Spice House in Chicago- it's got a spiciness to it that stands out from other cinnamons. I needed a savory application, and this soup seemed like a good fit. It's a very aromatic concoction- cinnamon, anise, garlic, ginger, chicken stock & beef- which will flavor the air of your kitchen (or if your place is set up like mine, the entire 2 bedroom apartment). I particularly like the vinegar in the broth- it reminds me of steeming bowls of nameless soups I ate in China years ago. And don't forget about the cilantro- it adds a delicious component to the flavor.

This is the second time I've made it and the minor adjustments of using Shanxi vinegar (as opposed to rice wine vinegar) and two different sizes of noodles were definate improvements.

Cinnamon Beef-Noodle Soup

1T veg oil
2t cinnamon
6 scallions, sliced on the bias every 1/2 inch
1 clove crushed garlic
2T minced ginger
1 1/2 t anise seed
1 1/2t thai chili paste (I use Sriracha)
2t hot chili flakes- more or less depending on desired level of heat

7c water
4c chickent stock
1/2 c soy sauce
1/4 c Shanxi vinegar (made from fermented sorghum, barley and other grains...rice wine vinegar can substitute)

2# beef, cut into bitesized chunks
3 oz soba noodles
3 oz thin asian noodles (sorry for the vagueness- I used 'tomoshiraga somen' Japanese noodles this time)
1 bunch of bok choy cut into bite-sized pieces
cilantro for garnishing each bowl

-When your large stockpot is hot, add the oil and then the cinnamon, scallions, garlic, ginger, anise seed, chili paste and hot chilis.
-Stir them around constantly for about a minute and then add the water, stock, soy sauce & vinegar.
-When it comes to a boil, add the beef and reduce the heat to a simmer. Partially cover the pot and stir it occasionally for an hour and a half.
-As that hour and a half comes to a close, separately, boil the noodles according to their packages' instrution. I first added the larger noodles and three minutes later added the smaller ones to the same pot, since their cooking times are different.
-While the noodles are cooking, add the bok choy to the beef broth- it will cook in about 8 minutes.
-Drain the noodles and give them a rinse to remove the extra starch, and then add them to the beef broth.
-Taste to check the seasonings and add salt & pepper as needed.
-Serve in bowls garnished with cilantro.