Lunch For Two

Surviving the International Chocolate Show

It's getting late and I should be heading off to bed soon if I hope to be in any shape tomorrow morning to take my six-year old to school.  Instead, I am furtively unwrapping a bar of chocolate I purchased yesterday at the International Chocolate Show.  You'd think that after I rode the F train home clutching my stomach post-event, I'd never want to see another morsel of chocolate again.  Ha, that's where you're wrong.

I have an infinite capacity for good chocolate, a cup that never runneth over when chocolate is deposited in it.  Yes, I will make myself sick eating it.  When I lived in San Francisco I worked in the building where Joseph Schmidt truffles were made.  We used to go down and ask for the seconds, poor truffles whose signature Barbie Doll breast shape was somehow flawed.  I could easily eat eight of them in a row.  Then I'd get this funny feeling at the back of my throat and my jaw would tense up.

So I was a shoo in for the Chocolate Show.  I brought my kids along for good measure, knowing there would be plenty of samples to provide the fuel they needed to slog through and overcome occasional moments of whininess.  They had no cause to be whiny (c'mon, oodles of chocolate) other than that they had a bloody big crowd to contend with.  Despite the crowds, it wasn't hard to muscle up to the displays to partake of samples and boy did we partake.

The kids were happy because Mars had a booth and was handing out dark chocolate plain and peanut M&Ms.  I was happy because a triumvirate of artisanal bean-to-bar chocolate-makers was there.  Bean-to-bar simply means that these companies bring their cocoa beans into the U.S. and then roast them, mill them, conch them and whatever else to make me my chocolate bars.  However, it's anything but simple to do this well and it's mostly done by the biggies like Mars and Hershey.  Dagoba, Theo and Amano.  Remember those names and seek out their chocolate.

The founder of Dagoba, Frederick Schilling, was profiled in the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago.  He actually sold Dagoba about a year ago, for $17 million, to Artisan Confections (a subsidiary of Hershey that also owns the aforementioned Joseph Schmidt and Scharffen Berger).  Doesn't matter.  They still make great chocolate and Frederick's mom Mary was in the booth at the Chocolate Show to counter my skepticism when I approached with an arched eyebrow.  Theo is out of Seattle and I took a tour of their factory in June.  They have a young chocolatier named Autumn Martin who I believe to be one of the most talented in the US.  At their booth I sampled a juniper infused salted caramel enrobed in dark chocolate.  Oooooh.  Amano was a name I'd heard, but I hadn't yet tried their bars.  They're into the terroir of chocolate and their head, Art Pollard, travels the world seeking out the best cocoa beans with which to make very limited edition bars that evoke their origin.

Just writing about this is making me woozy again.  I was intoxicated when I left and the kids were bouncing off their heads like a couple of Daffy Ducks.  But I'd do it again tomorrow if I could. 

fashion, fashioned from chocolate

Chocolate has recently been found to be a byproduct of beer.  You're scratching your heads.  Just follow this link.

International Chocolate Show

Wondering what to do this weekend? The international chocolate show is coming to New York and it looks like a lot of fun. You can bring your kids for free, too...

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9 TO SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2007

Opening Night Preview & Fashion Show: Thursday, Nov. 8th, 2007

Where Metropolitan Pavillion & Altman Building Entrance: 125 West 18th Street (between 6th & 7th Avenues)

When Opening Night Preview, featuring Fashion Show Thursday, November 8th      6:30-10:30pm November 9-11, 2007 - Chocolate Show Friday, November 9: 11am to 9pm Saturday, November 10: 10am to 8pm Sunday, November 11: 10am to 7pm

 

To Chocolate Show on 11/9-11/11
Advance tickets are available via Ticketmaster.com or calling 212-307-7171, and will also be on sale at the door (cash and checks only!)
Tickets are valid for 1 day, Nov 9-11
Adults: $28
Children under 5: Free
Children, 5 to 12: Free*
*Limit: 2 children per adult.  Each additional child (5-12): $8

for more info click here

An Ear of Corn By Any Other Name

What was it Winston Churchill said?  "America and England are two nations divided by a common language."  I travel to England often and have found this to be true, but could not, until now, proffer concrete evidence.  Here, in the form of an exchange of emails between my mother and Nigel Slater, is proof of the truth of Churchill's statement.

Dear Mr. Slater,

Corn grows in ears, not heads.  I know the British have a penchant for calling it sweet corn.  In the US, it is simply corn, but then we don't confuse corn with wheat.  I am delighted to find your corn chowder and corn fritter recipes and equally delighted that corn is now available in the UK.  Perhaps you could alert your readers to the idea that the sweetness of corn is due to its freshness.  In summer, we Americans buy it the day it is picked to eat that very day.  The next day corn's sugars begin to turn to starch and it is less flavorful (US spelling in this context).  Modern varieties of corn are super sweet and keep their sweetness, but have less complex and distinctive flavors than the old varieties.  Corn should always be sold in its husk.  Why ever would someone shuck it and sell it on a plastic tray with plastic wrap?  That's the equivalent of peeling a banana to sell on a styrofoam tray covered in plastic.  Nature supplies perfect packaging for both.

Sincerely,
Barbara Ambrose

Dear Barbara,

Thank you for your email.  I am perplexed and a little amused by your comment "now available in the UK."  We have eaten what we call sweetcorn here for hundreds of years.  It has been available in greengrocers and supermarkets since I was a boy.  (I am now in my fifties.)  I first wrote about it over twenty years ago.  The point of my piece this week was to encourage people to eat their corn with the benefit of smoke, whether from the grill or with the inclusion of some smoked ingredient such as bacon or haddock.  (Most people here tend to boil it.)  Here though, we say heads, not ears.  There is no reason for me to call them 'ears' as it is not the term we use here.  That would be like me emailing an American writer and telling them not to use the term 'fava' beans because they are called 'broad' beans here.  We just have different words for the same thing Barbara.  We don't sell it ready-shucked in plastic wrap here.  (I'm surprised, we seem to take any shortcut sometimes even if it means losing the flavour.  I actually saw sliced courgettes (which you call zucchini) for sale the other day!  Who, I wonder, could be too short of time to slice a zucchini?)  Here, corn mostly comes fresh with the husk on.  (Some of the cheaper supermarkets do sell it without.)  I don't think I need to alert my readers about the fact that corn loses its sweetness from the moment of picking because it is something they would almost certainly know.  Unfortunately, sweetcorn has been getting sweeter lately.  over the last decade or so, we have been getting the Supersweet varieties which are like eating sweets (which I think you call candy).  Sadly, they lack the true corn flavour so I tend to buy mine from the farmers market or the greengrocer, partly for the increased freshness and partly because it is easier to find the traditional varieties (which I think you call heirloom) as the big supermarkets tend to mostly stock the Supersweets.  The good news is that I do feel there is a turn towards the older varieties again now, but that sort of progress (Funny how 'progress' means going backwards now!) can be quite slow.  In ten years time I really hope I can say to you that we have delicious, complex flavoured (sweet)corn back everywhere, not just at the farmers market.  But who knows?

Sincerely, and thank you for getting in touch.
Nigel Slater

P.S. The racy and beautiful Jennie Churchill, who was once described as having "more of the panther than of the woman in her look" and who would eventually become Winston's mum, was born at 197 Amity Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.  Despite being a Brooklyn girl, she is credited with the invention of the "Manhattan" cocktail.

Recipes for Men

Whoa. David Granger, the editor of Esquire magazine, better be careful. Alice Waters and her tribe of slow foodies are going to come after him and beat him with a bunch of organic Swiss chard if he's going to say things like this:

"I have a theory...that American restaurants have become less tasty in direct proportion to their growing enthusiasm for using meat and vegetables from local farms and wholly organic providers. Its as though chefs have come to fetishize these fresh provisions to such a degree that they are loath to work their culinary magic; they don't do anything to them, and the result is food that doesn't taste like much–and when it comes to food, tasty is where it's at."

Did you just hear the crash of 1,000 copper pots coming from the direction of Napa? (Aside from Mr. Granger's incorrect usage of the word fetishize), I think this is a really interesting salvo and I'm glad it's out there. Also, don't you think Granger may be on to something? Speaking of Esquire, they have started an amazing new feature, called Recipes for Men. Women's magazine used to run such good, creative, inspiring recipes, and in France they still do.  But here, well. Jeffery Steingarten? Really? I guess the idea is that women who care about whatever is in the pages of a fashion magazine are doing their very best not to eat, so why torture them? In any case, the premise behind Esquire's new feature, is that the recipes they feature are simple enough for a man who doesn't really know his way around the kitchen to make and they are delicious. Esquire is getting big name chefs to give them recipes (Batali, Myers, Palmer etc) and they look so good. Also, I love that they are designed to serve two, so they are all intimate-cook-for-someone-you-love-adore food.

My favorite so far is Tom Colicchio's Steak with Potatoes:

My philosophy is to keep preparations simple, allowing the ingredients to shine. This dish started as a one-pot meal at Craftsteak, but I often find myself making it at home. It just requires a beautiful piece of hanger steak -- named because it hangs down between the tenderloin and rib without being connected to a bone. There's only one, which is why many butchers save this cut for their own family. The addition of red onions, bacon, and vinegar hits the classic combination of sweet, salty, and acidic. I cut the steak into 3/4-inch pieces, slicing against the grain. Anything less and the meat will lose its toothsome appeal. --Tom Colicchio

Serves: 2

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

• 1 lb hanger steak
• Coarse salt and ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 6 sprigs thyme<
• 4 oz thickly sliced smoked bacon (four slices), diced
• 10 oz fingerling potatoes (Note: If the fingerling potatoes are pinkie-sized, halve them lengthwise. Larger fingerlings should be cut widthwise into 1/2-inch round slices.)
• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced (about 1/8 inch)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 5 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1. Place 10-inch cast-iron skillet over high heat. Season hanger steak with salt and pepper. Add canola oil to very hot skillet, and when it is almost smoking (the surface will start to shimmer), sear meat for 4 minutes on each side.

2. Reduce heat to medium-low (letting pan cool down a bit) and add butter and 3 sprigs of thyme. (The pan must cool down before you add the butter or it will sizzle and burn on contact.) Using a spoon, baste steak with butter for 2 to 3 minutes, flipping it once halfway through to cook it evenly. (The temperature for a medium-rare steak is about 135 degrees.)

3. Remove meat from skillet and set aside. Discard all fat and thyme from skillet. (Wipe clean with paper towel.) Over medium heat, cook bacon to render fat and slightly crisp meat, about 5 minutes. Nestle in potatoes (cut-side down if using horizontal version) and cook until crisp and golden, about 4 to 5 minutes. Turn potatoes and continue cooking until crisp tender, another 4 to 5 minutes.

4. Add onion and remaining thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion caramelizes and potatoes are cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Lower heat and add garlic, and when you can smell its aroma, add balsamic vinegar and reduce, about 3 minutes.

6. To serve: Carve hanger steak into 3/4-inch slices and return to skillet, arranging atop vegetables.

Tom Colicchio is the owner of Craft restaurants and head judge on Bravo's Top Chef.

Tips from Readers:

Here's an interesting, extremely useful tip that came in today from Ruth:

Before scrambling, frying, doing anything with an egg rinse the pan or saucepan with cold water.  Dry.  Add fat, cook egg.  ABSOLUTELY NO STICK.  NO EGG TO SOAK IN WATER, no YICK pans left around.  Did you babes already know this?/?? I feel so naive!  My mother-in-law passed on this wisdom to me and I am grateful. 

And Nelle adds:

Here's another tip: Wash mixing bowls that have had flour based batter in them in cold water because hot water cooks the proteins in the flour (I think) making the goo harder to eliminate.


Who knew? Have any good tips for us? Send'em in.

Go ask Alice: White Bean and Butternut Squash Soup

You really have to love Alice Water's new cookbook. It's like she took Simple French Food and the New Basics, put them in the blender [I know you don't like blenders, Alice, just use them when you really, really need them] pureéd them and sprinkled a little bit of The Way to Cook and anything written by Jacques Pepin over them and served. It's kind of genius, really. This new book is great, and Alice is reaching for serious relevance with it. You can just feel the ambition bursting out of it: The Art of Simple Food wants to be on your kitchen counter, kind of like Rand McNally want their atlas to be in your glove compartment. In any case, the soup I made today which is now cooling in my fridge and will be served on saturday to my beloved guests:

White Bean and Butternut Squash Soup (with modifications in red)

n.b. I made some modifications to this recipe which I think really help it. I'm guessing Alice isn't that ethnic, and I kind of am. I like a little zing, so I added some zinginess, but anything I did I'm putting in red so that you can follow Alice plain-and-simple if you'd prefer. I, however, humbly submit that I've improved on her recipe...

serves 4-6

Soak in 4 cups of water overnight
1 cup dried white beans [I used organic Navy] such a cannelini, haricot blanc

Drain and put in a large pot with
3 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
2 whole, peeled garlic cloves
Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the beans are tender. Alice says check after 45 minutes, but my beans were falling apart tender after 20 minutes.
Heat in a heavy bottomed pot:
2 Tbs olive oil or duck fat [3 Tbs canola oil]
Add:
2 onions [yellow] sliced thin
3 or 4 sage leaves [10 small fresh sage leaves]
1 bay leaf
Cook over medium heat until tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in:
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Cook for 5 minutes. Drain the beans and add 6 cups [all] of the cooking liquid to the squash and onions along with 2 whole, peeled garlic cloves. Add  1 tsp kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Cook at a simmer until the squash becomes tender. Add the white beans. Purée half the soup mixture. Keep cooking until the squash is very tender. Purée 1 can (15.5 oz) of cannelini beans with some of the soup, and add back to the soup. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper.
Serve in individual bowls, floating with a toasted slice of baguette that has been rubbed with raw garlic and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle chopped parsely and freshly ground pepper over bowl at last minute.

lemon ginger vodka martinis

The amazing thing about ginger is that it works in all four seasons. Ginger is a great appetite stimulant, too, which is why it is a perfect ingredient in your apertif. Of course it's great in a digestif, too. Lemon ginger syrup is easy to make and will keep in the fridge for a week, or freeze it for two weeks. I use it to make vodka martinis but you can add seltzer water to make a bubbly non-alcoholic lemonade. You can also stir it into bourbon, add some ice and top it off with club soda.

Lemon Ginger Syrup
(enough for 8 drinks; easily doubles or triples)

1 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups white sugar (use light brown sugar for a smokier, earthier taste)
grated zest of one lemon
1 cup fresh lemon juice

In a small saucepan, combine the sliced ginger with the water and sugar and bring to a simmer over a moderate heat. Simmer for five minutes, then let the ginger syrup cool. Transfer to a blender and puree. Strain the syrup into a glass jar. Stir in the lemon zest and juice.

When you are ready to make your martinis add 2 ounces vodka and 2 ounces lemon-ginger syrup into a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake. Strain into a martini glass and add a small ribbon of lemon peel as a garnish.

Go Ask Alice: On Roasting Vegetables

I just got slipped a free copy of Alice Waters new book, The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. So far, I am really enjoying it. I'm especially grooving on her discussion of roasting vegetables. All you need to make amazingly delicious roast vegetables is to toss them with some oil and salt, make sure they are all roughly the same size, and cook them – this is important – at a high heat. Here's what Alice says:

"Cook the vegetables in a hot oven preheated to 400. A lower temperature will dry out the vegetables while they cook, making them leathery before they are done; a higher temperature will burn them before they are cooked all the way through. Stir the vegetables a few times while they are cooking, turning those along the edges into the center. Cook them until they are tender and nicely browned here and there. Probe a piece with the tip of a knife to test for doneness, or better still, taste one. Don't let them go too far: a little browning makes them taste sweeter, but if you let them get too dark they will taste bitter."

Alice's list of the best veggies to roast:

Brussels Sprouts
asparagus
carrots
turnips
celery root
rutabagas
parsnips
kohlrabi
potatoes
squash
garlic
broccoli
eggplant
fennel
artichokes
onions

suite: cooking is love

This weekend I'm making dinner for some friends I never get to see. Or, really, more accurately friends I don't get to see hardly as much as I want to. It makes me sad sometimes to think about how much of their lives I miss: new babies have been born, books written, jobs changed, birthdays celebrated, huge projects undertaken. In any case, I've decided to remedy this by having these folks who mean so much to me over to my house for dinner and pretending, for just a few hours, that we have all the time in the world to talk and laugh, argue and debate, tease and flirt and share jokes and most of all eat together. My first, exhausted thought, was to do one of those sneaky things and order gourmet pizza from Oven, throw out the boxes, sprinkle freshly chopped parsley over everything and serve lots of booze. But then. But then I thought how much I want to cook something luscious and intense for these friends of mine.  I'm one of those people who think cooking for someone is a way of communicating with them. So, as much as I don't feel like shopping and chopping, I'm making a real dinner. Most of what I'm making is easy to prepare ahead, not too expensive and very delicious. I've thought about the flavors and textures and seasonality a lot. Everything I'm making I've cooked at least once before, so there will be no scary, unpleasant surprises. I hope. I'll be posting the menu, my shopping list and recipes for everything in the next few days. Stay tuned...

An Early Fall Menu for Six Beloved Friends

cocktails
lemon-ginger martinis
port-laced paté with grilled bread, micro salad, and cornichons
whitebean purée crostini

appetizer
lemon asparagus soup

main course
rosemary beef fillet
salad with roasted beets, baby arugula, and capers in a walnut oil vinaigrette
assorted roast squash
garlicky roast potatoes

desert
poached pears with creme fraiche

Shopping list part I (aka do it tomorrow, girl):

1 litre vodka
1 litre port (the cheapo variety works fine as it will be used to cook with)
4 bottles red wine, 2 bottles white
1 case seltzer water
12 lemons
1 1/2 pounds chicken livers
1 pound unsalted butter
1 lb beets
2 lbs small, organic potatoes
4 heads garlic

stay tuned: tomorrow we make the ginger-lemon syrup for the martinis...

**also, filed under who knew?: peanut butter sandwiches will save the planet

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

This is a recipe I've tripped over numerous times in various cookbooks but had not prepared until a couple of weeks ago.  The slow roasting concentrates the flavor of the tomatoes and renders them little puckered, caramelized gems.  They freeze really well, so on the bleakest days of winter I can recapture summer simply by thawing a batch.  Thus far, I've eaten them atop soup, pizza and pasta and alongside steak and roasted chicken. 

After reviewing all the recipes in my cookbooks, I have settled on this one from Deborah Madison's Local Flavors.  Plum tomatoes, because they are meaty and not very juicy, work best.

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

3 pounds plum tomatoes
4 to 6 Tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano, thyme, or marjoram
2 garlic cloves, run through a press

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Lightly oil a large baking sheet that has a lip.  Slice the tomatoes in half lengthwise.  Set them cut side up on the baking sheet, then brush the tops with the oil, using about 2 Tablespoons in all.  Make a paste with the herbs and garlic, and salt and pepper to taste and put about an 1/8 teaspoon on top of each tomato. The roasting will concentrate the flavors of the herbs, garlic and salt as well, so you don't want to overdo it.

Bake, uncovered for 2 hours.  Check after an hour and drizzle a little more oil over the surfaces if they look dry.  The tomatoes are done when they are well shriveled and browned on their undersides.

Multi Soup

Any recipe of mine that causes my six-year-old to announce, unprompted, "why, this is the tastiest soup I've ever had" is worthy of publication.  That's because she is an exceedingly choosy eater and sticks to proteins and a tiny assortment of vegetables and starches.  She liked my soup so much that she also wanted to name it.  It's a very appropriate name so I stuck with it.

The soup I prepared last night utilized a versatile soup base that I came up with a couple of weeks ago after a trip to my local farmers market in Brooklyn.  I froze it and intend to experiment with several "multi soups."

Soup Base

3 leeks, white part only
1 Tablespoon butter
4 cups chicken stock
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
3 ears of corn

Cut leeks down center of stalk to within 1/2" of root end and wash their interiors to remove any sand, then slice in 1/8" rounds.  Melt butter over a low flame in a heavy, Le Creuset type pot and add leeks.  Cover the pot and sweat the leeks for 20 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure the leeks don't scorch.  While leeks are sweating, snap the ears of corn in half and standing them on their cut sides, run a knife down their sides to remove the kernels.  Set the kernels aside.  Uncover the pot, add the chicken stock and then, holding the corn cobs over the top of the pot, run the back of a knife down the cobs to extract all the corn milk.  Add the cobs to the pot, bring stock to a boil and then simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.  Add potatoes and simmer another 10 minutes.  Add corn kernels and simmer a final 10 minutes.  Remove corn cobs, cool soup base slightly and puree.  Makes about 6 cups of soup base, enough for two different soup recipes that serve 3 to 6.

For last night's soup I used 3 cups of the base and added 3 chicken Gerhard's Sausages (with basil and pine nuts) that I fried up first, 1/2 teaspoon basil, 1 can of rinsed Progresso canellini beans and salt and pepper to taste.  When I served the soup, I drizzled a little extra virgin olive oil on top.

The soup base would also lend itself to a seafood chowder preparation, or any other chowder for that matter.  Try topping it with an assortment of fresh chopped herbs, fried sage leaves or oven roasted tomatoes.  (I tried it with some roasted tomatoes that I made recently and it was delicious.  Maybe I'll publish a recipe for those next.)

Put a Little English On It

Delta Airlines has risen from the ashes and is entreating us to fly with them again.  It can't hurt that they've enlisted the help of chef Todd English to overhaul their in-flight menu offerings.  Every Wednesday from now until November 7th you can sample his food at Delta's SKY360 lounge.  All you have to do is turn up between noon and 2PM, and it's FREE!  So, to all of you trapped working in midtown offices who are, probably right now, pondering your lunch options and, perhaps, deciding between that ragged looking salad or murky mystery soup, I say get thee to SKY360.

SKY360 is located at 101 West 57th Street (at 6th Avenue)