Tuesday, September 25, 2007
A Little Food for Thought ...
... at Forgotten Classics podcast where we celebrate food writing with Eat, Drink and Be Merry.
Friday, September 14, 2007
The Rise of the Food Police
A city councilwoman is proposing a moratorium on fast-food restaurants in south Los Angeles, which has more such eateries than any other part of the county.Big Brother casts his eye on the populace and decides that less freedom is better. So much easier to slap a negative law down (or to propose one) than to look at something positive ... such as reworking the city to create walking friendly neighborhoods, etc.
The ordinance proposed by Councilwoman Jan Perry would stop new fast-food restaurants from opening in the area for up to two years while the city establishes a long-term plan to deal with the restaurants that have been linked to health problems.
What's next? A stop on the scales before you can buy some Oreos?
National Cream Filled Doughnuts Day
9. In an episode of "The Simpsons," what did Homer trade for a doughnut?This is the only question I knew the answer to in this doughnut quiz (well, ok, I knew the answer to #5 also ...). Celebrate by taking the quiz. Via Serious Eats.
a. Bart
b. A piece of pie
c. His soul
Fine Art Friday
He is today's featured artist in the Fine Art Festival. For more of his featured paintings, go here.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Fine Art Friday
Die Schwarze Pump (The Black Pump)
Check out the Fine Art Festival which will run for at least seven days, which features this artist today.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
The Crush is On
First, I must say that de-stemming and crushing a bucket of grapes is an absolutely wonderful experience. I sat outside on a stump, pulling clusters from one bucket and plucking them into a second bucket, one after another, just enjoying the solitude and allowing myself to get lost in thought. As I began crushing handfuls of grapes, making sure none of them eluded my fingers, I imagined these grapes as being my own sacrifice offered to God. All my work, all my difficulties, all my life...broken open and poured out, so the Winemaker could use the juice to make something far greater.So says The Yeoman Farmer who has a number of fascinating reports and ruminations up about grapes, harvesting, and wine. Via Catholicism + Wine.
Cooking for the Beautiful People
Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Cote d'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella
by David Shalleck
Somehow David Shalleck pulled off the feat of making his book suspenseful. The difficulty of achieving that is explained when you realize that the book is about cooking for some supremely privileged people aboard their yacht.
Shalleck is trying to find himself as a cook. He has failed what he sees as "tests" from culinary authorities Alice Waters and Nathalie Waag. They understand the essence of cooking and being a chef in a way that he does not even begin to comprehend. In an effort to close the gap, he then embarks on a series of apprenticeships in different Italian kitchens, sponsored by Faith Willinger.
Finally, he becomes the personal chef for a couple we know only as La Signora and il Dottore. He has a series of challenges to overcome. First of all, though the yacht, Serenity, has been completely refitted, no one ever had a cook give the specs for the kitchen so the limited facilities seem extremely daunting. Indeed, at time, such as when a floating party of over 100 people are expecting a many-course meal, one wonders that any chef could overcome such limiting conditions.
The greatest challenge, however, is pleasing his employers who do not want any dish to be repeated, want to experience the atmosphere of their various ports of call along the Mediterranean, and do not give very much feedback, which Shalleck intensely desires. The employers are not made out to be bad people. Quite the opposite, Shalleck has respect and a degree of liking for them. As shown in the book, they become their own personalities, albeit strong ones, and we also can respect their desires. I found myself in suspense after each situation to see if La Signora would give approval to a meal.
As well, we see Shalleck's more limited interaction with the crew, his journeys every morning to the markets where he will get inspiration for meals, and get a bird's eye view toward living aboard a ship as an employee.
If this sort of reading is your cup of tea, as it is obviously mine, you will enjoy this book. Highly recommended.
by David Shalleck
Somehow David Shalleck pulled off the feat of making his book suspenseful. The difficulty of achieving that is explained when you realize that the book is about cooking for some supremely privileged people aboard their yacht.
Shalleck is trying to find himself as a cook. He has failed what he sees as "tests" from culinary authorities Alice Waters and Nathalie Waag. They understand the essence of cooking and being a chef in a way that he does not even begin to comprehend. In an effort to close the gap, he then embarks on a series of apprenticeships in different Italian kitchens, sponsored by Faith Willinger.
Finally, he becomes the personal chef for a couple we know only as La Signora and il Dottore. He has a series of challenges to overcome. First of all, though the yacht, Serenity, has been completely refitted, no one ever had a cook give the specs for the kitchen so the limited facilities seem extremely daunting. Indeed, at time, such as when a floating party of over 100 people are expecting a many-course meal, one wonders that any chef could overcome such limiting conditions.
The greatest challenge, however, is pleasing his employers who do not want any dish to be repeated, want to experience the atmosphere of their various ports of call along the Mediterranean, and do not give very much feedback, which Shalleck intensely desires. The employers are not made out to be bad people. Quite the opposite, Shalleck has respect and a degree of liking for them. As shown in the book, they become their own personalities, albeit strong ones, and we also can respect their desires. I found myself in suspense after each situation to see if La Signora would give approval to a meal.
As well, we see Shalleck's more limited interaction with the crew, his journeys every morning to the markets where he will get inspiration for meals, and get a bird's eye view toward living aboard a ship as an employee.
If this sort of reading is your cup of tea, as it is obviously mine, you will enjoy this book. Highly recommended.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Chocolate Festival Cake
One person took a bite and said, "Peanut butter! I love chocolate and peanut butter!"
Another sampled his slice and said, "But it isn't just peanut butter and chocolate. There's some other flavor in there."
I told them, "Bananas. It has bananas in it."
Yet a third person said, "Is this technically difficult to make? Because I really want the recipe."
The first two people chorused, "Us too. We want that recipe."
What makes this an unusual conversation is that this was at a birthday party and the speakers were all college sophomores. If you don't have any college aged kids, just think back to your own late teens to realize how unlikely this request for a recipe actually is, to say nothing of the entire conversation. Needless to say, this cake was popular.
Hannah's friend, Jenny, picked out this cake from Maida Heatter's Cakes. I had never seen a cake with such a combination of dominant flavors: chocolate, peanut butter, and bananas. We were all intensely curious to see what it was like.
It is hard to describe the taste, as you really can taste all those dominant ingredients, however, as reported above it was a huge success. Give it a try.
Notes:
Heatter is well known for exhaustive instructions in her recipes. I revised a few of her technique notes for simplicity's sake ... and have adapted the recipe below to reflect those changes.
The icing contains a raw egg which would have worried me about salmonella if all I listened to were the sound bytes of major media. Here is a link which talks about food risks and raw eggs, which are much slighter than you would know from the way it is generally presented.
Serves 24
For the cake:
Step 1:
3 cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 10 x 4" tube pan by buttering pan and then dusting all over with unsweetened cocoa powder. Tap excess cocoa out of pan and set aside.
Combine above dry ingredients and set aside.
Step 2:
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 pound (2-1/4 cups, packed) dark brown sugar
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 cup (about 2) finely mashed, fully ripened bananas
6 eggs
1 cup strained unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Beat in the peanut butter and vanilla, then the sugar, scraping bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula. Next, mix in melted chocolate, then bananas, and then the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition. On lowest speed, add cocoa, still scraping bowl as necessary, and beat until smooth.
Step 3:
1-1/4 cups milk
On low speed, beating until smooth after each addition, gradually add about a third of sifted dry ingredients, the half of milk, then another third of dry ingredients, then remaining milk, and then remaining dry ingredients.
Turn mixture into prepared pan. Briskly rotate the pan a bit, first in one direction, then another, to smooth the top.
Bake for 1 hour, then cover the top loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning, and continue to bake for an additional 25 -30 minutes until a cake tester gently inserted into the cake comes out clean (total baking time 1 hour, 25-30 minutes). The top of the cake will crack during baking.
Cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes. Then cover with another rack, turn the pan and rack over, remove the pan and let the cake cool upside down on the rack.
For the icing:
16 ounces milk chocolate, broken up
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped coarsely
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 egg
12 ounces (1-1/2 cups) smooth peanut butter
Melt both chocolates. Add butter a few pieces at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg just to mix, then add the peanut butter and the chocolate mixture (which can be warm or cool) and beat until very smooth. As this mixture cools it will thicken; you might want to chill it quickly by putting it in the freezer or by placing the bowl in a larger bowl of ice and water. Or just let it stand a while. When it is thick enough to hold its shape beat it again for a moment.
This is a lot of icing and makes a thick layer. Spread it first on the sides and then on the top of the cake. With a long, narrow metal spatula, smooth the sides first and then the top.
Another sampled his slice and said, "But it isn't just peanut butter and chocolate. There's some other flavor in there."
I told them, "Bananas. It has bananas in it."
Yet a third person said, "Is this technically difficult to make? Because I really want the recipe."
The first two people chorused, "Us too. We want that recipe."
What makes this an unusual conversation is that this was at a birthday party and the speakers were all college sophomores. If you don't have any college aged kids, just think back to your own late teens to realize how unlikely this request for a recipe actually is, to say nothing of the entire conversation. Needless to say, this cake was popular.
Hannah's friend, Jenny, picked out this cake from Maida Heatter's Cakes. I had never seen a cake with such a combination of dominant flavors: chocolate, peanut butter, and bananas. We were all intensely curious to see what it was like.
It is hard to describe the taste, as you really can taste all those dominant ingredients, however, as reported above it was a huge success. Give it a try.
Notes:
Heatter is well known for exhaustive instructions in her recipes. I revised a few of her technique notes for simplicity's sake ... and have adapted the recipe below to reflect those changes.
The icing contains a raw egg which would have worried me about salmonella if all I listened to were the sound bytes of major media. Here is a link which talks about food risks and raw eggs, which are much slighter than you would know from the way it is generally presented.
Serves 24
For the cake:
Step 1:
3 cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 10 x 4" tube pan by buttering pan and then dusting all over with unsweetened cocoa powder. Tap excess cocoa out of pan and set aside.
Combine above dry ingredients and set aside.
Step 2:
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 pound (2-1/4 cups, packed) dark brown sugar
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 cup (about 2) finely mashed, fully ripened bananas
6 eggs
1 cup strained unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Beat in the peanut butter and vanilla, then the sugar, scraping bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula. Next, mix in melted chocolate, then bananas, and then the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition. On lowest speed, add cocoa, still scraping bowl as necessary, and beat until smooth.
Step 3:
1-1/4 cups milk
On low speed, beating until smooth after each addition, gradually add about a third of sifted dry ingredients, the half of milk, then another third of dry ingredients, then remaining milk, and then remaining dry ingredients.
Turn mixture into prepared pan. Briskly rotate the pan a bit, first in one direction, then another, to smooth the top.
Bake for 1 hour, then cover the top loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning, and continue to bake for an additional 25 -30 minutes until a cake tester gently inserted into the cake comes out clean (total baking time 1 hour, 25-30 minutes). The top of the cake will crack during baking.
Cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes. Then cover with another rack, turn the pan and rack over, remove the pan and let the cake cool upside down on the rack.
For the icing:
16 ounces milk chocolate, broken up
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped coarsely
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 egg
12 ounces (1-1/2 cups) smooth peanut butter
Melt both chocolates. Add butter a few pieces at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg just to mix, then add the peanut butter and the chocolate mixture (which can be warm or cool) and beat until very smooth. As this mixture cools it will thicken; you might want to chill it quickly by putting it in the freezer or by placing the bowl in a larger bowl of ice and water. Or just let it stand a while. When it is thick enough to hold its shape beat it again for a moment.
This is a lot of icing and makes a thick layer. Spread it first on the sides and then on the top of the cake. With a long, narrow metal spatula, smooth the sides first and then the top.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Coming Soon ...
The cake that made three college students ask for the recipe. And if you know college students, then you know how rare that is.
Now I just have to find the time to type in the recipe, amidst prepping for Hannah's birthday celebration en famille tonight and last minute purchases to prep her for going back to college tomorrow.
Now I just have to find the time to type in the recipe, amidst prepping for Hannah's birthday celebration en famille tonight and last minute purchases to prep her for going back to college tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
The Nut Museum
"In the outside world, nutcrackers are the nuts' mortal enemy," she explains. "Here, nuts and nutcrackers can be friends."I am so sorry that the Nut Lady died before we got a chance to visit her museum. She really sounds like she had a great sense of humor. Though her museum is closed, the virtual museum lives on on the internet. Check it out.
Friday, August 10, 2007
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