Working Class Foodies

Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick's Day & NotEatingOutInNY Contest Entries!

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:19:53 EDT

Here's a PDF you can download of this week's recipes - a traditional, no-frills Irish soda bread, and my chive-studded soda bread biscuits. There are so many great things about soda bread: it's so easy to make, it comes together quickly from inexpensive household ingredients, and it's incredibly adaptable. Probably like many of you, I don't generally keep buttermilk on hand. I've read that an easy 'buttermilk hack' is to add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or distilled white vinegar to 1 cup of regular milk, but I've never tried it. Have any of you? Let us know how it worked!

Here are a couple of entries from our NotEatingOutinNY "The Art of Eating In" leftovers contest. Thanks to everyone who entered, your recipes were all fantastic! If you've got a spectacular way to use up leftovers, let us know, we'd love to see it.

celtwolf:
Main: I made a simple roast chicken. Butter, salt, and pepper rubbed on the outside. A quartered onion, some carrots, and a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary on the inside. Then roasted in the oven for an hour and 20 minutes. I threw in a couple of bulbs of garlic with the tops cut off, and roasted some new potatoes with the chicken. After that was done, I made a simple jus with some wine and butter from the pan drippings. I just microwaved some carrots as an additional side. The chicken was moist, the potatoes were delicious with a little bit of the schmaltz on them, and the roasted garlic was spread on pieces of french bread toast. leftovers: I took the last bits of chicken off of the carcass and put the carcass, with all the roasting vegetables inside it, in a stew pot with about 8 cups of water and simmered for about 3 hours to make stock. Then I strained the stock and put it in the fridge overnight to let the fat solidify. That afternoon, I scooped out the fat, added the reserved chicken back to the pot, tossed in a handful of baby carrots, and about a half of a cup of rice, and let it simmer until the rice and carrots were tender. In the meantime, I took the leftover roast garlic (about 8 cloves) and about 2 tablespoons of softened butter and a couple teaspoons of dijon mustard and made some garlic butter. I spread some on some simple cheese sandwiches and grilled them, then served them with the chicken soup. the first meal was delicious, of course, but i have to say the leftovers were even better!

lunal0veg00d3
I take leftover steak and fry it in a pan with garlic and onions and then stir in beaten eggs for a really good ranchero style (but not really) breakfast! Serve it on tortilla chips like nachos and top with spicy peppers and cheese or even mushrooms when I have some.

Polenta with Mushroom Ragu & a Poached Egg

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:38:20 EST

Sunday Brunch is one of my favorite ways to catch up with friends: a big, lazy meal in a sunny bistro, plenty of hot coffee, maybe a mimosa or two, whiling away the hours over good food and great conversation. But it's February. It's gray and wet and horribly cold. I want to stay in, but I still want the comfort and warmth of a big brunch-y meal. This polenta is the perfect brunch dish. In fact, it's the perfect breakfast-lunch-or-dinner dish.
There are a lot of ways to play with the recipe: use chicken broth, red wine, or, as my friend Cathy so ingeniously did, reach for a bottle of beer. I tried it her way, with an IPA. The peppy beer added an almost lemony kick to the mushrooms; it played nicely against the deep, savory, herby headiness of the mushrooms and the creamy polenta. I imagine a malty stout would work well in an entirely different way.

Here's a PDF of the recipe as I made it on the show. Enjoy!

Poached Pears and Rosemary Cracker Recipes

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:22:54 EST

Hey, Foodies!
Looking for a new, festive recipe to make for a New Year's Party? The Champagne-Poached Pears and Olive Oil & Rosemary Crackers we've included here are simple to make and can be easily transported around town, whether you're hitting up one party or 10. Both recipes are super easy to make and can be done days in advance.
Download the PDFs below and try them out for yourselves! Make sure to send us photos or even video of your results.
Happy New Year and we'll see you in 2010!

Champagne-Poached Pears

Olive Oil & Rosemary Crackers

Christmas Nougat Recipe

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:45:05 EST

Click HERE to download and print out the recipe for Flora Lazar's Christmas Nougat.

Send in your photos or video of the results, and we'll share them here for everyone to see!

Happy Holidays,
Working Class Foodies

Hanukkah Latkes (Potato Pancakes)

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:57:14 EST

Latkes are more of a phenomenon than a dish for me: once a year, I gorge on latkes, going way past the uncomfortably full stage, and then abstain completely for the other 364 days. I associate more happy memories with latkes than probably any other food in the world and they’d be the centerpiece of my last meal on earth, but it’s a one-night-a-year treat. It’s not that having a plate of latkes in, say, April would be sacrilegious or even just wrong; but the thought of doing so would never even cross my mind. Latkes are sacred. Latkes, for me, are Hanukkah.

And, yes, when I say ‘latkes’, I mean ‘my mom’s latkes’. There’s no exception. No substitutes. You may swear that your zadie or bubby or great-aunt Ethel makes the world’s best latkes, and I’ll politely abstain. All latkes are not fried equal.

To be perfectly honest, your great-aunt Ethel’s latkes may be just as good as my mom’s; they may even be better (not a chance). But when I bite into one of my mom’s latkes, the best moments of every Hanukkah past sweep over me: dinner with my cousins; the waffle blocks that were all I wanted in 1988; beating my dad at dreidle; the reflection of the menorah’s candles against the snow outside the window on the last night of Hanukkah. It’s not nostalgia, it’s being there, the sights, sounds, smells of holidays gone by as real and tangible as they ever were. That’s something your bubby’s latkes can’t do for me.

If, unlike me, you quite sensibly want to have latkes beyond Hanukkah, there are some great ways to adapt the recipe. Obviously, one of the greatest things about latkes are that they’re cheap - a sack of potatoes, a couple onions, a few eggs, some matzo meal - and always seasonal, no matter where you are (again - potatoes, onions, eggs).

But why not try mixing in some peeled, grated apple? Or trade in yukon or russet potatoes for sweet potatoes? Maybe forego the potatoes altogether for parsnip & zucchini. Or try this recipe for beet & celery root latkes from the New York Times.

In fact, once the spring vegetables are back at the Greenmarket, I might just try out an herb-laced summer squash variation. If it’s different enough from latkes, maybe I can find a way to make an exception.

Viewer Submission: Stephanie's Hot Sauce

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:07:53 EST

Stephanie sent in her recipe for hot sauce, an adaptation of a sauce in Jamie Oliver’s cookbook, Jamie’s America.

Recipe
Ingredients (for a 350 ml bottle):
- 2 medium onions, peeled
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 12 fresh red chillies, stalks cut off (I used 3 mustard habaneros and 3 red thai chillies)
- olive oil
- 2 teaspoons chilli powder (I use extra hot chilli powder)
- 6 tomatoes, chopped
- 150 ml cider vinegar (half terragon vinegar, half red wine vinegar)
- 2 tablespoons golden caster sugar (dark brown sugar)
- 250 ml apple juice
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Jamie’s explanation:
Blitz your onions, garlic and chillies in a liquidizer or food processor, or chop them up roughly. Heat a good lug of omive oil in a large friyng pan and gently fry the onions, garlic and chillies on a low heat for around 10 minutes, until softened but not coloured. Add your chilli powder and fry further 1-2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, apple juice, 100 ml of water and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a low heat and simmer for around 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want it to be a pouring consistency and not too thick, so add a splash of water to help it along.

Allow your chilli sauce to cool, then blitz until smooth. Pass twice trough a fine sieve to get a lovely smooth consistency, then have a taste, adjust the seasoning and add a splpash more vinegar if needed. If you’re going to use your sauce quickly you can just put it into the fridge in a bowl and you’ll have a bout a week to use it up. If you want to keep it for longer, simply divide your sterilized jars or bottles and store it in a cool dark place until you need it.

Looks delicious! I wouldn’t mind a bottle of that. Definitely a recipe to keep in mind when the weather warms up.

Viewer Submission: Cranberry Pudding!

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:45:10 EST

I know Thanksgiving is now practically ancient history, but I wanted to share with all of you a really unique holiday recipe sent in by Jenn:

For the following recipe the only thing I really had to buy was molasses and cranberries, that’s why I thought it might be good for your show.

My grandmother used to make cranberry pudding every Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was always my favorite and cranberry pudding leftovers are what I used to end up midnight-snacking on during the holidays. Before my grandmother passed away, she gave this recipe to my mother. My mom doesn’t really do a lot of baking, so every holiday season I end up making it and eating the majority of it because I love it so much.Everyone who has ever tasted it has found it yummy, even people who don’t like cranberries (or pudding like my one friend…although i don’t know how you can not like pudding).

Technically it’s two recipes in one, it’s accompanied by a butter sauce. But I practically drown my pudding in the sauce, that’s the best way. It’s the perfect balance of tart and sweet. I’ll stop rambling now and give you the recipe:

2 cups cranberries

1 egg

1 3/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup molasses (mild)

1/2 cup hot water with 1/2 tspn baking soda in it

Combine egg , salt, sifted flour, molasses, and hot water. Alternate the flour, molasses, and hot water.

Add two cups of chopped cranberries (I use a food processor…but one time I didn’t have it and ended up chopping up cranberries by hand…no easy task, haha).

The original recipe says to put it in a greased baking dish and steam for 2.5 hours, but I put mine in a steamer and grease the bowl I steam it in. It takes 2-2 1/2 hours, basically until it has the texture of a bread pudding.

The sauce only takes a few minutes.

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the butter and sugar together in a double boiler. Stir in the cream and the vanilla. Then drizzle or drown your cranberries in it!

I hope you guys try this recipe. I was going to send pictures but then my family and I consumed it over Thanksgiving.

Here at Working Class Foodies, we know that if an entire dish gets eaten before you can snap a single photo, you’ve got a success on your hands.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Leftovers: NotEatingOutInNY.com w/Cathy Erway

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:36:17 EST

Rebecca’s Thoughts

A sad irony of Thanksgiving is that I often get so caught up in the cooking that I barricade myself into solitary confinement in the kitchen and miss out on all the friends and family, the celebration of community that Thanksgiving is supposed to be about.

So teaming up to tackle Thanksgiving leftovers with Cathy Erway was a double pleasure: I’ve long enjoyed her thoughtful blog, and her relaxed and friendly approach to cooking was exactly what I needed after the solitary stress of making Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving is as much about making new friends as it is about celebrating old ones, and there are few better places to build a friendship than in the kitchen.

Now, about the food. I’m a big fan of spicy; I like bold flavors in general. Maybe it’s just my family (sorry, family!) but Thanksgiving fare always leaves my tastebuds as underwhelmed as it leaves my belly overstuffed. In other words, what Thanksgiving lacks in flavor, it makes up for - too much - in calories (deep-fried turkey, anyone?). Cathy’s rich, thick, crimson-hued turkey goulash was, therefore, exactly what I was looking for: spicy, deep, every bite a little different with all the turkey, roasted vegetables, and potato dumplings. The green bean pesto was as refreshing as the goulash was satisfying: grassy, light, and much healthier-tasting than a traditional pesto. I especially appreciated the clean, healthy pesto after the heaviness of Thanksgiving dinner, and as a precedent to the cranberry oat bars: rich and buttery, the tartness of the cranberries balanced by the fragrant herbiness of the rosemary and the bright crispness of the walnuts.

But that’s the point of Thanksgiving leftovers: the meal itself is about the people you love, and the food is just an expression of that. The leftovers the next day are where you get to be you; use that bland-ish Thanksgiving fare as a canvas for your favorite tastes and flavors and see how novel an underseasoned bite of turkey breast can be.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Max’s Thoughts

Thanksgiving leftovers are, for me, where it’s at. I usually loathe next day poultry with an undying passion, but for some reason I love day-after turkey sandwiches. Perhaps it’s because I can load them up with all the leftover detritus: bit of stuffing, some mashed potatoes maybe and of course a smear of cranberry sauce (I’m particularly excited about the sandwich possibilities provided by the chipotle cranberries we made this year). But, shamefully, I admit I never really thought past that standard sandwich melange. Cathy’s green bean pesto was so good we were all dreaming up future green bean pesto recipes. Pasta, pizza, hamburgers - all would be improved with a little topping of that delicious pesto.

I was amazed how quickly those leftover mashed potatoes turned into dumplings, and they were so light and tender it was as if they were made totally from scratch that day. And, okay, how badass was it when Cathy just ripped that turkey carcass apart with her bare hands? Totally badass.

But my favorite part of the leftover feast was definitely the cranberry-rosemary-oat-bar-thingies. The rosemary was just enough of a presence to add a nice floral quality to the dessert and the oat crust/topping added a satisfying crunch.

And we really can’t thank Cathy enough for taking the time to cook with us - it was really fantastic and Cathy, you are supercool.

Viewer Submission: Beeramisu

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST

After seeing our Thanksgiving dessert episode where we made a no-bake beeramisu, Netaly wrote into us with a fantastic gluten-free version of beeramisu/tiramisu:

Since I’m Gluten intolerant, I used the traditional coffee and brandy, and used really good Italian gluten-free cookies instead of lady fingers.
I followed your exact recipe with the rest…
It came out great! i was so happy. Everybody wanted a piece :D
so thanks, and keep up the good work!
Netaly (from Israel :)

We think Netaly’s tiramisu looks great! Take a look for yourselves:

Halloween Candy & Jelly Bean Costumes

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:29:00 EST

Growing up, our dad owned a few candy stores on the Gulf Coast of Florida. We always had the best candy to give out at Halloween, in exchange for which Rebecca spent one day a year waddling around the Brandon TownCenter Mall in an inflatable JellyBelly jelly bean suit. Why? Because dads are all about embarrassing their daughters. Also because she was the only person short enough to fit inside the costume.

Rebecca as a Jelly Belly; a young & beardless Max

What’s this have to do with our homemade candy? A lot, actually. There are only so many jawbreakers, gummy peaches, and chocolate-covered Pop Rocks we could eat before we A) swore off candy completely, and then, B) decided to take matters into our own hands, albeit 10 years later.

Rebecca had a little experience with candy going in: basics like sea salt caramels, decorative sugar webbing, chocolate-coated-this-and-that. Neither of us had made a brittle before, though. And candy apples? We’d probably had one bite, in our entire lives, combined. Our mom - the wife of the guy who called himself “The Candy Man” (no, dad, that is not at all creepy) - always told us candy apples were too sugary. Unlike Sour Patch Kids and those chocolate-covered Pop Rocks.

(This might be a good place to mention that Rebecca went through a cavity phase when she was 12. But she never had a candy apple, so there’s that!)

The pumpkin seed brittle came out so astonishingly well - if you could apply the word succulent to a piece of candy, this would definitely be the time and place. Next time, we’re going to take another cue from Jacques Torres and add some chopped, dried cranberries to the brittle for a tart kick.

And on the other hand, there were the candy apples. Those poor, poor, very gross candy apples.

We got a lot of fantastic suggestions from you guys about why the caramel failed to stick to the apples:

Make sure to rinse apples thoroughly in warm water, especially if they’re store-bought;
Don’t cover the apples until the caramel has completely cooled and hardened;
Refrigerate the candy apples overnight to ensure the caramel will stick;
Try rolling the apples in something ‘abrasive’, like granulated sugar first, to create a surface for the caramel to stick to and to ‘force’ re-crystalization

But in the end, based on some comments on the recipe we found on Epicurious.com, we’re thinking it was just a bad recipe. Which we hate to say, considering it came from Gourmet Magazine, and we wanted to make it in tribute to their demise. We both feel pretty awful that the apples didn’t work out in the end, but that’s just a fact of the kitchen: not everything turns out as you expected all of the time. But that’s part of what makes cooking so much fun, right?

NYC Fans: Come meet the WCFoodies!

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:07:07 EST

Team Working Class Foodies are competing in the Chocolate Cookoff this Sunday! Come by, taste their entry (and about 20 others), try tons of delicious homebrew, and enjoy a free beer and a free afterparty with chocolate, ice cream, and whiskey!

What: The Food Experiments Present The Chocolate Cookoff

Where: The Bell House, Gowanus, Bklyn (click for map)

When: Sunday, 1-5pm

Buy your tickets in advance; these things tend to sell out before the doors open!

Thanksgiving Pt 1

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Rebecca’s Thoughts

Thanksgiving is about tradition. That’s what excites us: remembering the holidays past, the excess, the gluttony, the uncles passed out in front of the football game with their belts hanging limply across their laps. We think of glossy brown turkeys and pillowy stuffing, but how much of those memories are real and how much are they products of time and idealization? When you get right down to it, how much does anyone really love Thanksgiving food?

These days, what I love best about the Thanksgiving meal is coming up with ways to combine tradition with innovation. Ever tried a Peking-style turkey, the big bird treated like a duck so the skin comes out thin and crispy and orange-brown? What about a big heap of mussels, roasted in the oven and then doused in brown butter, garlic, and some hot red peppers as an hors d’ouevre? Or, perhaps best of all, forego the heavy and often overcooked vegetable casseroles entirely; instead, toss together a warm winter vegetable salad of roasted squash, parsnip and potato with arugula, toasted pine nuts or pumpkin seeds, and some dried cranberries. Maybe a little goat cheese couldn’t hurt, either.

Whether you decide to go creative or stay traditional this year, keep copious amounts of these three items on hand:

chicken stock - basting the turkey, rehydrating a dry stuffing, making gravy, making soup;
butter - you need TONS of this. rub under the turkey’s skin, put in nearly everything;
fresh rosemary, sage, thyme, and garlic - cover up any burned bits on anything, intense flavor-booster for everything from Aunt Betty’s wan boiled green beans to even the fluffiest mashed potatoes.

No matter what, have a fantastic Thanksgiving and enjoy your holidays!

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Max’s Thoughts

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to overeat, overindulge - stuff yourself, if you will. And speaking of stuffing, it is often the most disappointing dish for me. I know a lot of people rag on the turkey, but I kind of expect that to be bland and dry - it’s a big piece of meat with parts that don’t cook evenly. Stuffing usually falls short for two reasons: too dry or too bland. Cooking it inside the bird helps the with the first issue, but synchronizing the doneness of the turkey with the stuffing can be an iffy proposition. And the standard bread stuffing without the benefit of those bird juices comes up short in the flavor department. Normally I rectify this by adding lots of flavor and moisture enhancers like sausage and corn bread to my stuffing.

So this year, when I saw Molly Wizenberg’s recipe for the squash bread pudding, I thought it would make a great sorta-stuffing replacement experiment. And I have to say it worked wonderfully. While I would certainly recommend this recipe for a side or vegetarian main (which is the recipe’s original intention), I thought it successfully replaced stuffing because it had the textural balance of a perfectly cooked stuffing: crunchy on top and moist/creamy on the inside. The flavors were really simple, but I actually found that comforting. Thanksgiving is all about big flavors: tart cranberry relish, intensely sweet sweet potatoes - so it was nice to have this rich, dense bread pudding to balance it. Also, since it can be baked ahead and then broiled minutes before serving, it is a fantastic dish to limit the stress that every cook feels on T-day. As for the rest of the meal, though it may seem sacrilegious, I actually didn’t miss the dark meat on the turkey. The bird cooked evenly, and the skin was so buttery and the meat so moist that it was completely fulfilling on its own. The chipotle cranberry sauce was a resounding hit, much better than even anticipated, with the smokiness being a great counterpoint to those big, rich flavors. And for those of you who may be predisposed to dislike brussels sprouts, I encourage you to try this variation. They are crisp, tender and, come on, there’s bacon in it!
No matter if you’re having a large party, or small, with friends, family or both, eating in or dining out, we here at Working Class Foodies hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Bo Ssam: Recipe

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST

Ingredients

1 (8- to 10-pound) bone-in pork shoulder or pork butt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon coarse salt
7 tablespoons light-brown sugar
12 oysters, shucked, for serving (optional)
1 cup Napa Cabbage Kimchi, for serving
1 cup Napa Cabbage Kimchi, pureed, for serving
1 cup Ginger-Scallion Sauce, for serving
1 cup Jalapeño-Garlic sauce, for serving
2 cups steamed short-grain white rice, for serving
3 to 4 heads Bibb lettuce, leaves separated, washed well, and spun dry

Directions
-Place pork in a large bowl or roasting pan.

-In a medium bowl, mix together granulated sugar and 1 cup coarse salt. Rub sugar mixture all over pork and cover bowl with plastic wrap; transfer to refrigerator for at least 6 hours and up to overnight.
-Preheat oven to 300ºF.
-Transfer pork to a large roasting pan, discarding any accumulated juices (or drain accumulated juices from roasting pan that pork is in). Transfer roasting pan to oven and cook, basting every hour with rendered fat in roasting pan, until meat is tender and easily shredded with a fork, about 6 hours.
-Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together remaining tablespoon coarse salt and brown sugar; rub mixture all over pork.
-Increase oven temperature to 500ºF. Return pork to oven until sugar has melted into a crisp crust, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot with oysters, kimchis, ginger-scallion sauce, jalapeño-garlic sauce, rice, and lettuce.

Bo Ssam: A Love Letter by Max

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:38:00 EST

I don’t know if I believe in love at first sight, but the first time I saw the bo ssam, I fell in love. Salt-and-sugar cured pork butt roasted until unbearably tender, covered with a layer of salty, crackling skin? Smother it in spicy, vibrant sauces and let the juices run down your chin? Oh, baby. I still remember the first time I broke off a piece of crisp pork skin, a few meaty morsels clinging on. It was like in movies, when a dying character’s life flashes before his eyes, but all I saw were the good things. Bo ssam delivers me to the very steps of food nirvana. And I still haven’t even had it from the restaurant.

Yes, dear reader, porcine perfection is that close and that attainable in your very kitchen. For such an earth-shatteringly delicious meal, bo ssam requires very little in the way of ingredient or skill. All that’s really needed is patience. The lower you set the oven, the longer the meat cooks and the more succulent it becomes. And because pork shoulder is such an inexpensive cut of meat, it is a fantastic way to feed a party. Though, if you’re like me, you may need a moment of privacy with the bo ssam.

And as for the sauces, even though the meat is juicy and flavorful enough on its own, for me they are an indispensable part of the bo ssam experience. While David Chang provides some great recipes for sauces that he includes at the restaurant, I see this as a great opportunity to experiment. The ginger-scallion sauce was one of Chang’s, but the jalapeno garlic sauce was one I pretty much made up on the fly. A sweet and spicy salsa would also be a great addition, as well as even a homemade hot pepper sauce.

Next time you see a pork shoulder in your butcher’s display case, or the next time you’re throwing a casual party, treat yourself to an incredibly satisfying and deceptively easy homemade bo ssam.

P.S. If you could invite me, that would be awesome.

Max

Halloween Candy: Recipes

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Here are the recipes we used for this episode. Let us know if you try them and what changes or adaptations you make!

Pumpkin Seed Brittle
adapted from Dan Barber

1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups glucose syrup (or corn syrup)
3 cups pumpkin seeds (hulled and raw)
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
Optional: replace 1 cup of the pumpkin seeds with 1 cup of chopped dried cranberries; whole dried currants; or candied ginger
Optional: coat the brittle in tempered chocolate (recipe below)

Bring sugar, syrup and water to a boil over high heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, stirring constantly. When it boils, stop stirring and cook until the candy thermometer reads 264ºF/129ºC.

Add the pumpkin seeds and salt and any dried fruit; return to stove over medium-high heat. Stirring gently, cook until the candy reaches 318ºF/159ºC.

Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla. Then stir in the baking soda.

Pour onto a lightly oiled smooth surface, preferably marble; you can also use buttered parchment paper or a rimmed baking sheet lined with a silicone mat. For a thinner brittle, gently stretch it when it’s just cool enough to handle. Break into pieces and either store in an air-tight container or coat in tempered chocolate.

How to Temper Chocolate (link)
by Jacques Torres with Christina Wright and Kris Kruid
from Dessert Circus at Home by Jacques Torres

Pour the chocolate over the pieces of brittle, or dip the brittle in the chocolate and let stand until hardened. Then store in an air-tight container.

Red Wine Caramel Apples
by Paul Grimes for Gourmet Magazine

8 small, tart apples, stemmed, washed well, and dried
1 1/2 cups red wine
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
6 tablespoons heavy cream

Equipment: 8 wooden popsicle sticks or chopsticks; a candy thermometer

Insert a wooden stick halfway into each apple at stem end. Line a tray with wax paper and lightly grease paper.

Boil wine in a small saucepan over medium heat until reduced to 1/2 cup, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Bring sugar and water to a boil in a 2 1/2-to 3-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved, then wash down any sugar crystals from side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Boil, without stirring, swirling pan occasionally so caramel colors evenly, until dark amber. Add reduced wine (mixture will bubble up and steam) and swirl pan. Add cream and simmer, stirring, until incorporated, then continue to simmer until thermometer registers 238°F. Remove from heat and cool to 200°F.

Holding apples by the sticks, dip them in caramel and swirl to coat, letting excess drip off, then hold apples up (stick end down) for about 15 seconds to allow more caramel to set on apples. Put caramel apples, stick side up, on greased wax paper and let stand until caramel firms up, about 30 minutes.

Viewer Submissions!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:25:31 EDT

So we’ve got some viewer submissions to share with you, and they’re all so different and fantastic. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

First up, Valérie in Montréal sent in her recipe for Fruit Ketchup:

Valérie writes:

36 red tomatoes

6 peaches

6 pears

6 apples

4 Spanish onions

1 whole celery stalk

2 green peppers

1 red pepper

4 cups of sugar

3 cups of white vinegar

45 ml of pickling spices

cheesecloth

approximately 12 jars of 500ml

First, you most peel the tomatoes. I use a sharp knife to cut a little cross on each tomato than I put them in boiling water. After 30 to 60 seconds, you take them out of the hot water and you put them in a bowl that you’ve already fill with cold water and some ice cubes to be sure that it pretty cold. That way it become a piece of cake to peel them beacause the skin roll up a bit.

Then, you dice (like half an inch big) :

the tomatoes (and seeded them too!),

and you peel all the fruits

the celery, peppers and onions

Next, you pour all that in a big cauldron with the sugar and the withe vinegar. After that, you take some layers of cheesecloth and you put the pickling spices in it (wrap it with a thread to make a little bundle) add it to the cauldron but don’t forget to take it out at the end of the cooking.

Cook for an hour (or more if you prefer a more soft texture) uncovered at med-low heat.

Finally, you put your new ketchup in jars and sterilize them. You can use the boiling water technique, but personally I usually put my jars in the oven at 200-250o Celsius for 15 minutes and boil my lids in water before filling them. It works well, just let you jars on the counter for at least an hour (put a clean dishtowel under them to minimize the temperature shock) and you will see them seal one at the time…

That’s it! It’s a bit long to do but it fun! And you have good ketchup for months (or form all you friends and family!). I like to eat it with pork chops, mashed potatoes and for chrismas with what we call a “tourtière” which is a traditional meat pie from Québec. Hope you enjoy!

Thanks for sharing that with us, Valérie! And to the rest of you out there - send in your recipes, photos, and videos to hungrynation.tv/submit, and make sure to select “Working Class Foodies” from the drop-down menu.

Apple Cake: Our Family's Traditional, Fail-Proof Recipe

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:23:45 EDT

What can I say about this cake? It is about as close to perfection as a fall cake can come: grown-up enough to serve for brunch, or afternoon tea, or at the end of a sophisticated dinner, but sweet enough to feel like a good and proper dessert and sate your sugar craving. The only butter in the cake is what you spread around the cake pan, and yet the cake forms a sublime, slightly crunchy caramelized crust on the top and bottom. The apples sink and melt into the batter, keeping the cake moist without weighing it down.

Are you drooling yet?

This cake is also versatile. We kept the apples chunky but our aunt Tracy’s recipe advised us to slice them thin; we stirred them directly into the batter, where aunt Tracy spread layers of batter, then apples, batter, then apples, then more batter in the cake pan; we made it a second time with 2 cups of firmly packed dark brown sugar instead of 2 cups of white sugar, and it was even deeper and richer than the first cake. You could change the cake entirely by adding ginger to the cinnamon, or perhaps a teaspoon of ground cardamom, or substitute a dash of rum or Calvados for half of the vanilla. You can toast slivered almonds and sprinkle them on top of the cake, or make a maple syrup glaze and pour that on top. Possibilities? Endless.

I suggest you stock up on apples and try as many variations as you can think of - and send us the recipes, photos, and videos when you do.

And a HUGE thank you to our aunt Tracy for sending us the recipe - and to our aunt Ann, who’s credited with devising it in the first place.

APPLE CAKE

2-3 large, tart apples, cored and peeled
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

2 cups flour
2 cups white sugar or 2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Powdered sugar, for dusting; or toasted slivered almonds

Optional maple syrup glaze:

maple syrup
powedered sugar

Preheat your oven to 350ºF and lightly butter a cake or bundt pan.

Chop your apples into uniform chunks and toss, in a bowl, with the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine your dry ingredients and stir. Stir in the eggs and the oil. Stir in the vanilla.

Either gently fold the apples into the batter and pour everything into the cake pan, or pour 1/3 of the batter into the prepared cake pan, then 1/2 the apples, 1/3 of the batter, the last 1/2 of the apples, and top with the remaining 1/3 of batter. There should be quite a bit of extra room at the top of the pan; trust me, you’ll need it.

Bake at 350ºF for 65 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool, in the pan, to room temp, then invert onto a plate and flip back over. Sprinkle generously with powdered sugar, toasted slivered almonds, or a maple syrup glaze.

To make a maple syrup glaze, simply whisk together maple syrup and powdered sugar - start with just a little and add more as necessary - until the glaze reaches your desired thickness.

Apple Cake: Our Family's Traditional, Fail-Proof Recipe

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:19:08 EDT

Are you drooling yet?

I suggest you stock up on apples and try as many variations as you can think of - and send us the recipes, photos, and videos when you do.

And a HUGE thank you to our aunt Tracy for sending us the recipe - and to our aunt Ann, who’s credited with devising it in the first place.

APPLE CAKE

2-3 large, tart apples, cored and peeled
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

2 cups flour
2 cups white sugar or 2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Powdered sugar, for dusting; or toasted slivered almonds

Optional maple syrup glaze:

maple syrup
powedered sugar

Preheat your oven to 350ºF and lightly butter a cake or bundt pan.

Chop your apples into uniform chunks and toss, in a bowl, with the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine your dry ingredients and stir. Stir in the eggs and the oil. Stir in the vanilla.

Bake at 350ºF for 65 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool, in the pan, to room temp, then invert onto a plate and flip back over. Sprinkle generously with powdered sugar, toasted slivered almonds, or a maple syrup glaze.

To make a maple syrup glaze, simply whisk together maple syrup and powdered sugar - start with just a little and add more as necessary - until the glaze reaches your desired thickness.

Pickles!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:32:56 EDT

There’s something to be said about people who drop everything to follow a passion. Especially if that passion is making pickles and you’re not an anthropomorphic stork who wears glasses and a funny blue cap. Nick Horman, the man behind the pickle at Horman’s Best Pickles, is one of those people. The company’s slogan of “Think. Question. Pickle.” shows the mentality of this philosophy major. Nick’s desire to bring a critical, philosophical eye to the pickle process results in some of the best damn pickles we have ever had. Those Sweet Cajuns are every bit as good as described - especially on a buttery grilled cheese sandwich. Even Humphrey liked them, and we’re pretty sure dogs don’t normally like acidic food.

As for us Working Class Foodies? Just like most people, we were a little daunted to try pickle-making the first time around. Like many of you, I’m sure, we had the common concerns about processing the jars, storing them properly, the risks of botulism. But with the advice from Nick, our commitment to DIY-or-die food, and the pressure of all the veggies sitting on our counter waiting for the brine, we took a deep breath and dove into the blissfully acidic depths of pickling.

And once we started, we found ourselves quite literally unable to stop. Aside from the pickles that are shown in the episode, we also made: two varieties of quick pickled shallots, one just in vinegar and one in a vinegar-brown mustard brine; spicy sour cucumber spears; dill-pickled string beans; and whole okra with smoked paprika, in honor of another WCFoodies favorite, Rick’s Picks’ Smokra. We haven’t been able to try them all yet – the string beans and the roasted peppers featured in the episode both ferment for 3 weeks – but based on the success of our other pickles, we’ve got a lot to look forward to.

It turns out, pickling is kind of a cinch. Sauerkraut is hands-down the easiest: Wash your cabbage, chop it thin, and toss it with a lot of salt. Pack it in the jar, along with all the liquid it creates, weight it down so it stays in the liquid, and basically forget about it for 6-10 days. Full sours aren’t much harder: make a brine of water and salt (don’t use table salt and don’t use colored sea salt; if you use sea salt or kosher salt instead of pickling salt, you’ll need about 1.5 times as much as the recipe calls for, as pickling salt is denser than sea or kosher. You’ll also have to heat the water and salt to dissolve the crystals, but that’s it.). Pour the brine over your spices and cucumbers in the jar. Weight them down with a brine bag, and forget about them in a cool, dark place for 3 days, then remove them only to skim off any scum that grows on the brine bag or jar rim for another 3-7 days. Screw on a clean new lid, refrigerate, and then enjoy.

And what about processing jars, the method of sealing your pickles and hot brine in the jar by boiling them? That, too, is actually pretty easy. Wash the new lids and soak them in warm water while you pour your brine over your pickles, then screw the lids on, tight enough to seal but not too tight - keep in mind, the jars and their contents will expand in the processing bath. Gently lower your jars into water that’s just under 212ºF (the temp water boils at) and that covers the jars by about an inch, and bring the temp up to 212ºF. Boil the jars for however long your recipe calls for (ours called, generally, for 10 minutes) and then, very carefully, remove them using jarring tongs. Let them cool, then either store your pickles in a cool, dry place or in the fridge, as the recipe specifies. Alternatively, there’s the pasteurization method: instead of submerging your jarred pickles in boiling water for 10 minutes, submerge them in water that’s about 180ºF for 30-40 minutes, as the recipe specifies. This achieves the same effect - sealing the jars and killing off potential ‘bad’ bacteria - but without the boiling, which can - rarely - cause jars to explode.

And if you still find pickling daunting, start with the quick pickle. We’re bummed we had to cut the quickies from the episode because it is one of the easiest and, well, quickest ways to add excitement to a variety of foods. Here’s a breakdown of our favorite quick pickle technique: slice a shallot as thin as you can. Place in a bowl and cover with a good vinegar (we like rice wine or apple cider). Let the pickles sit for 5-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the shallot slices. That’s it. You can add any spices you like to this formula, or sugar to create a sweet-tart pickle, but basically this quick pickle is great because it mellows out the sharpness of raw shallot while adding a nice acidic bite. Beautiful in salads, especially with the leftover vinegar worked into a vinaigrette.

Want more pickling and canning advice? Here are some books and recipes we looked to for inspiration:

Eggless Breakfast (Granola & Compote)

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:32:00 EDT

MAX SAYS:
I said it on the show and I will back it up here: egg breakfasts do not excite me. Scrambled, omelette, sunny-side whatever - eggs just bore me. There are a few egg exceptions, of course: a slightly runny poached egg on toast, a greasy fried egg with bacon, or - better yet - eggy-in-the-hole, that classic egg-and-bread dish that goes by any number of names. I’m not really a huge breakfast person in general. I wouldn’t say no to a bowl of cereal (woo, Peanut Butter Puffins!) or a chocolate croissant, but other than that, I’d rather sleep in than eat breakfast.

So replacing those eggs we used up making the tortilla española wasn’t a big deal to me. I figured I’d get around to it. Eventually. Apparently, Rebecca figured otherwise - and I learned it’s not wise to piss off your hungry, post-run sister, especially when you’re crashing on her couch. I had to scramble (see what I did there?) to come up with breakfast, fast, and without eggs. Luckily, I had some peaches left over from the peach salsa I made to go with the tacos de lengua, and a heaping carton of blueberries from had our last visit to the market. These were some legit blueberries: bright and tart and awesome. We also had a quart of yogurt from Hawthorne Valley Farm, and steel-cut oats and whole raw almonds in the pantry. Breakfast was practically going to serve itself.

Of course, it would have been perfectly acceptable to just rinse and serve the fruit raw on top of the yogurt and Rebecca’s incredible homemade granola, but I really wanted to showcase the fruit’s potential as a cooked item. Plus, I owed Rebecca, and she wasn’t about to let me bow out with a diced fruit cup. Compote was the obvious option.

Making fruit compote is deceptively simple. It can be done with fruit that’s fresh, overripe, or frozen. And it only takes about 10 minutes to make from start to finish. Just cut up your fruit, throw it in a pan with some simple syrup (a 1-1 ratio of sugar and water), a little lemon peel for the pectin, and whatever flavors you desire (vanilla, cinnamon, citrus, spice) and let it reduce. Not only will you have a freakin’ awesome topping for parfait, but you will have a base for a near endless list of desserts: Bake the compote in a tart shell for pie; add butter and brown sugar to the granola and heap over the compote for cobbler; add some whole black peppercorn to the pot for a sweet-savory flavor (just be sure to remove the peppercorns before serving); reduce a little further with some more lemon juice and zest (for the pectin) for homemade jam.

Oh, and if someone figures out how to make a great banana compote, please let me know.

REBECCA SAYS:

I’m going to be honest: I was blown away by how good the granola was. I don’t know why, but for some reason I expected it to be lackluster - as if the combination of oats slowly baked in butter and maple syrup could disappoint. It was crunchy, sweet but not sugary (thank you, maple syrup) and the hint of vanilla and the chopped roasted almonds added depth and complexity. This is the kind of breakfast you can throw into the oven as you shower and dress, and come back 30 minutes later to a perfect bowl of granola. And granola’s as expandable as compote: try a dash of cinnamon with the vanilla; sesame or flax seeds, walnuts or flaked coconut; tiny cubes of apple or cranberries, raisins or currants. Granola with this much latitude, cheaper and tastier than any cereal you could get in a store? I’m never buying granola again.

Max’s compote was so delicious that I forgave him for not living up to his end of the “tortilla española bargain”. The blueberries and peaches remained distinct from each other; the lemon juice balanced the sweetness of the simple syrup; and with the granola and the rich, creamy yogurt from Hawthorne Valley, breakfast felt as indulgent as cobbler and ice cream. I’m still not letting go of eggs poached, fried, and scrambled, but homemade granola and compote are definitely going to be a regular breakfast fix from now on.

GRANOLA RECIPE

1/4 cup natural almonds
4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/4 cup Grade “A” maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roast the almonds in a tinfoil pouch until lightly toasted, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the nuts and set aside; when cool, chop roughly.

Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (in our oven, anyway - you might try 325ºF). Pour the oats in a shallow baking dish. Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave and pour over the oats, along with the maple syrup, vanilla, and salt. Stir well with a rubber spatula and spread the oat mixture in an even layer

Set the timer for 30 minutes. Go take your shower or make your coffee. After 15 minutes, stir the oats around - vigorously if you like them “loose,” more gently if you prefer your granola clumpy. Bake another 15 minutes while you dress.

When the oats are lightly browned, remove from the oven and let them cool and get crispy. Layer in a bowl or tall glass with yogurt and compote and enjoy.

COMPOTE RECIPE

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
3 pieces (about 2” each) of lemon peel
1 cup of peaches
1 cup blueberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Boil the water, sugar, and lemon peel, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Add in the fruit and, stirring, bring back to a simmer. Let simmer for 5 minutes or until the blueberries burst. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice, then let the compote cool and thicken. Layer in a bowl or tall glass with yogurt and granola and enjoy.

WCFOODIES LIGHT UP THE BLOGOSPHERE AFTER THE BROOKLYN CHEESE COOKOFF

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:49:30 EDT

wcfoodies:

Please excuse and allow us a short moment of vanity as we share with you some of the press we got for our 3rd-place-audience-award-winning Homemade Ricotta Cheesecake with Homemade Sea Salt Dulce de Leche at the Brooklyn Cheese Experiment a few weeks back.

from Amateur Foodie Adventures:

The only non savory dish I found was the Ricotta Cheesecake made by the powerhouse sibling duo Working Class Foodies (otherwise known as Max and Rebecca Lando). The dish featured home made ricotta cheese, a shortbread crust, and home made sea salt dulce de leche. The samples were micro sized due to samples running low by the time I got to their table, but the taste was superb and not too sweet. Rebecca Lando had competed in the Brooklyn Beer Experiment…

from Experimental Culinary Pursuits:

Audience Picks:
1. Team Pirate’s Booty – Righteous Bun Cheesesteaks (Looks like my sous chef does have good taste)
2. Bonnie Suarez – Tomato Soup with Cheese Crackers
3. Rebecca Lando – Homemade Ricotta Cheesecake w/Sea Salt Dulce de Leche (Actually it was so good I took 2 extra bites of it. I’m glad it placed

From CHOW:

There were a few mac ’n’ cheese, lasagne, and enchilada entries, but the other standouts included food blogger Dave Klopfenstein’s delicious Morbier-stuffed slider with Gorgonzola mayo on a Camembert biscuit, and a dulce de leche cheesecake with homemade ricotta by Rebecca Lando.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to the event, and be sure to look for us at the LAMB TAKEDOWN this Sunday at the Highline Ballroom!

Variety Announces the Launch of HUNGRY NATION

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:35:32 EDT

Variety Announces the Launch of HUNGRY NATION:

First thing I love about this is that Variety completely ignores the existence of Food2. Which is as it should be, of course.

Second thing I love:

Hungry Nation will launch with two shows - VendrTV and Working Class Foodies.

Go watch!

TORTILLA ESPAÑOLA or TORTILLA DE PATATAS

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:04:00 EDT

It happens to everyone: you hear the name of something for the first time, and suddenly, that thing is everywhere you look.

That’s how it happened with the tortilla española. I could swear I’d never even heard of it, and if I’d seen pictures before, I probably assumed it was just another frittata. What finally wakened my conscious to the tortilla was this photo:

(A classic tortilla from Valdubón, Spain, from www.spainontheroadagain.com)

That’s from the cookbook Spain…a Culinary Road Trip, by Mario Batali, the companion cookbook for his and Mark Bittman’s show, Spain…On The Road Again. What’s not to love about that photo, right?

But what really set the bar for me was this video from José Andrés’s show, Made in Spain. Chef Andrés takes you inside the kitchen of a restaurant in La Coruña, Spain, to see the “Rolls Royce” of tortillas being made.

One of the most popular dishes in Spain, the tortilla is one of the world’s perfect foods: affordable, easy, quick, and utterly adaptable.

If you have eggs, potatoes, and olive oil, you can make a tortilla. You do need a lot of olive oil, so the better yours is, the better the tortilla will be. Add fresh herbs, garlic, cured meats like jamón or chorizo, leftover grilled shrimp, manchego or cheddar or gruyére, bell peppers, onions, peas, roasted tomatoes, baby arugula, leeks, mushrooms, artichokes…the list is nearly endless. The tortilla can be eaten hot or cold, for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and can be delicate and thin or thick as a cake. It’s the perfect brunch after a wild night out, or a great addition to a summer picnic. My favorite tortilla right now is spicy and bold with lots of roasted garlic, chunks of chorizo, and a grating of rich manchego cheese on top.

Now, about that whole “flip and slide” thing. Yes, you have to flip the tortilla over once the edges have set, and cook the raw underside. If you’re deft enough, you can just give the pan a good shake and let the tortilla flip itself. (Email me if you can do that.)The Spanish have a special lid-like plate called the vuelve-tortillas for flipping the tortilla, but I found that any lid with a handle on the back will do. Better yet if the lid doesn’t have a lip or rim.

There are lots of recipes, photos, and videos of the tortilla española around to inspire you, but here’s a basic one to get you started:

BASIC TORTILLA ESPAÑOLA RECIPE

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb waxy potatoes, sliced thin
Salt and pepper
6 extra-large eggs

Heat the oil in a large cast-iron skillet or nonstick pan over medium-high until very hot but not smoking. Add the potatoes and salt them. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the edges of the potatoes are just golden, but not brown. Remove to a bowl.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Stir the cooked potatoes into the eggs and gently pour the mixture into the skillet. Gently even it out and cook for about 1 minute, until the bottom is set. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the edges have set but the very middle of the tortilla is still runny. Carefully flip the tortilla over (invert it onto a plate or lipless lid, then slide it back into the pan, bottom side up). Any runny egg or bits of potato that come off, stick back onto the tortilla, and cook until the center has just set - but no longer. Flip (or slide) onto a clean plate and let it rest a few minutes before cutting into it.

¡TACO PARTY! (TACOS DE LENGUA)

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:08:33 EDT

MAX SAYS:

I am a card-carrying omnivore. Always have been. Though my sister has gone through several bouts of fully-fledged vegetarianism, I have never felt so inclined; I have cuspids and I am going to use them. That being said, I believe it is our responsibility to ensure that the lives of the animals we farm and eat are respected. Not only that they be raised in a humane way – given the proper diet, living accommodations, etc. – but also that when they are (hey, let’s face it) slaughtered, all the work and time and money and resources spent on raising the livestock doesn’t go in vain. This is why offal is so important to me. Utilizing every part of the animal, or as much as possible, is one simple - and, as I am finding - delicious way to uphold my end of the deal.

So what is offal? How do you even say it? Well, offal is basically the internal organs or entrails of a butchered animal. Yum, right? And one way to pronounce it is aw-fuhl. Not a very good start. But done right, offal is extraordinarily delicious and unique, and tongue, in my opinion, is the most accessible offal cut. Although liver is far and away the most common offal cut (I think we all know it goes well with fava beans and a nice chianti), I’ve always found it to taste overwhelmingly of iron; heart can literally be too tough; and sweetbreads - delicious, succulent, sweetbreads - advertise themselves confusingly, as they are neither sweet nor bread, but the thymus or pancreas gland of a cow, sheep, or goat. And brain is…well…a brain. I hear it’s delicious, but I haven’t had the pleasure, as yet.

So tongue, with its beeeeeefy flavor and pot-roast like texture is the best introduction into THE WORLD OF THE OTHER CUTS. It’s almost uncanny, how perfect tongue is: as soft as the best filet minon, but with such an extremely, realistically meaty flavor that it rocks you back in your chair and you think, Damn! So THAT’s what cow’s supposed to taste like. YEEHAW!

Did I get your mouth watering yet? Have I made up for describing some of the other offal cuts? If you’ve never tried tongue, I can’t suggest any place more heavily than a quality taco joint. Pronto. The traditional Mexican flavors of garlic, cilantro, and chilies match so well with the slightly gamey, deeply rich taste of tongue. Add a steaming, fresh-made corn tortilla… my mouth is watering typing this. No joke.

If, like me, you eat a taco de lengua, can’t get enough, and want to try making it for yourself, there is good news: buying your own tongue is cheap. Like, why-haven’t-I-been-buying-this-my-whole-life cheap. Per pound, offal is generally a better deal than its -chop, -steak, and -cutlet brethren. Plus by expanding our edible horizons and eating those less commonly desired bits, we do our part in respecting the animal.

REBECCA SAYS:
I’m not going to rant or lay out a manifesto here, but, yes, I do care about animals. And yes, I have been a fully-fledged vegetarian in the past. I even went vegan for a couple of weeks once. But the thing is - and you might want to sit down for this one - meat is delicious. And I care about it. While skipping meat one day a week is definitely healthy for yourself and for the environment, eating meat is certainly not a sin - especially if you break out of the boneless, skinless, ground lean and other-white-meat world and give offal a shot. If I can go from soy cheese and tofuburgers to pig snout, trotters, tripe, and tongue, then so can you. And once you do, I bet you’ll have the same revelation I did: this stuff is amazing.

It’s also relatively cheap. And offal is a great way to get to know a local farmer. Go down to your farmer’s market and ask a farmer what her favorite offal cut is. Take it home that day or put in an order for next time, and all the sudden, you’re on a first-name basis with a farmer who’s probably on a first-name basis with the animals she raises. That might sound creepy, but I think it’s nice; I like knowing who raised my meat, and knowing that he or she knew her animals.

So what’s it like to cook a tongue? To be honest - it was a little weird. It unfurled like a bumpy, knee-length tube sock and the tastebuds felt like a cat’s tongue. But I knew we weren’t going to be eating those, and once it started boiling, the kitchen filled up with such a wonderfully rich and meaty smell, any objections or queasiness disappeared. That’s a big statement coming from me: I have a distinct memory of my mom, laughing, chasing a much younger and screaming me around a supermarket, a fat, shrink-wrapped beef tongue in her hand. Don’t believe me? Ask her yourself. And anyway, the process of boiling and peeling a tongue, though super easy, is a pretty hardcore notch to have under your culinary belt.

The tongue was everything my brother described: rich, moist, soft, and beefier than anything you can imagine. It had the indulgent taste of bone marrow - my personal favorite bit of offal - but it cut like a fine steak. And if $3 for a fresh tongue taco from the taco truck is a good deal, then wait ‘til you make it yourself: $8.50 for almost 2 lbs of tongue equals an entire taco party. Super tasty, environmentally friendly, and economically sound? Why are you still sitting here when you could be making your own tongue tacos right now? Get going!

MARKET SALAD

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:57:00 EDT

MAX SAYS:

As a kid, it wasn’t uncommon to see a simple green salad on the table as an accompaniment to the steak, or roast chicken, or whatever was for dinner. These salads were usually of the last minute, kitchen sink variety: some bag of pre-rinsed lettuce, bits of spare veggies, perhaps a can of hearts of palm. Oh, and of course, doused in one of those packaged, sodium- and hidden-fat laden dressings. I thought of these salads as an unfortunate prerequisite for dessert (of course with those dressings, the salad was just as unhealthful as dessert).

This scene probably isn’t all that different from other American households. Salad is often seen as the unwanted stepchild of the dinner table. I know I saw it that way. But it can be so much more. And it’s so damn easy, what with the prevalence of farmer’s markets nowadays. . For our salad, we picked an interesting lettuce in rocket. Grabbed some veggies at their seasonal peak (beans and the smallest of potatoes). Made a drop-dead-easy vinaigrette (one easy formula to remember is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar). There’s a reason they call it a simple salad, right?

All of these ingredients alone would have made a beautiful salad to me, but what really threw it over the top were the queso blanc and the duck fat bread we turned into croutons. They added a richness that really set the whole thing off.

REBECCA SAYS:

My memories of childhood salads aren’t quite the same as my brother’s. I’ve always loved salad, but I’ve also always had strict salad rules: the lettuce must be fresh, crispy, and vivid; the dressing must be homemade and applied with a light touch; and the accoutrements must extend beyond raw carrots and celery (frankly, I prefer if you leave those two out altogether). As a broke sometimes-vegetarian in college, I found inventive ways to eat salads on the cheap. A favorite was a variation on the standard Israeli salad: I’d toss together chickpeas, grape tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper, and eat that with toasted pita bread every day for dinner. Sometimes, I’d splurge and treat myself to a few crumbs of fresh Feta.

And then, I discovered the Union Square Greenmarket, literally steps beyond the entrance to my dorm. For as little as $6, I could pick up an overwhelming variety of vegetables and fruits that would turn, almost on their own, into a week’s worth of salads. I grated raw, finger-long summer squash over baby field greens; paired slivered fennel bulbs with lemon and parmesan; and discovered my most favorite salad of all, and the simplest: chopped heirloom tomatoes; shredded basil; fresh mozzarella; cubes of day-old baguette; and plenty of salt. That’s a salad that I still eat almost daily in the summertime, even though, in college, it was an extravagance because the mozzarella doubled my usual spending limit to $12.

But even that salad wasn’t my most significant Greenmarket discovery. That honor falls fully on arugula. I’d had arugula plenty of times before, always in restaurants, and always left with the disappointment of, “so what?” I liked it better than iceberg, and it far outdid lank romaine, but it wasn’t until a farmer at a Greenmarket stand forced a leaf of tender, grass-green arugula into my hand that I really got it. Spicy, crisp, and packed with the grassy flavors of a fantastic olive oil. Arugula was a breakthrough. It was salad enlightenment. And it quickly became the base for all of my green salads.

The salad we’ve made today is the direct product of my salad days (to coin a phrase). It’s filling enough to make your whole meal, and is a great summer-to-fall transitional salad, perfect for those days when you’re too hot to spend much time in front of the stove but are ready to move on from summer’s peak produce. If you wanted a comparison, it’s most like a salad Niçoise, except we’ve left out expensive and unsustainable tuna and foregone the traditional hard-boiled egg. What we took from the Niçoise were blanched beans and boiled potatoes, and we capitalized on the rainbow beans from YuNo Farms and the itty-bitty, baby new potatoes from Paffenroth Gardens. The squash blossoms came from Conuco Farms and added a pop of color and sweetness to the salad. We chose the subtle, slightly chewy queso blanc from Patches of Star Dairy farm as a no-cooking-needed replacement for the texture and fat of the Niçoise’s standard hard-boiled eggs. Because the queso was made from goat’s milk, it was lighter than a cow’s milk cheese, and it’s farmer’s cheese-like consistently meant it stood up to the acids in our Dijon vinaigrette where many cheeses would break down and turn to mush. The roasted garlic duck fat bread from Bobolink Dairy – their general trade is in rich, pungent cheeses, and they got the duckfat for the bread from a duck farm in Sullivan County, NY – as a bold and deliciously indulgent salad pièce de résistance. With croutons made from something as wonderful and flavorful as that, who needs tuna?

RECIPE
¼ lb green beans
½ lb fingerling potatoes, uniform size
¼ lb (or two loose, heaping handfuls) arugula/rocket or other favorite green
4 oz. queso blanc or other mild cheese
4 squash blossoms
kosher and/or sea salt
pepper

1 cup roasted garlic duckfat bread*, cubed
1 clove of garlic, minced
¼ cup olive oil
*This is easy to make yourself. Just cube up any good, crusty baguette-type bread, preferably a day old, and toss in a pan with lots of crushed garlic, salt, and either a good deal of duckfat or olive oil.

DRESSING:
2T Dijon or whole-grain mustard
1T lemon juice or white wine vinegar
3T olive oil
1t chopped capers or cornichons, rinsed (optional)
1 clove minced garlic (optional)
1 T minced fresh herbs, such as thyme or tarragon (optional)
salt & pepper, to taste

For the dressing
Combine everything, the oil last, stirring vigorously all the while. Taste and adjust to your liking, then cover and refrigerate.

For the beans & potatoes
Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a rolling boil. Drop in your beans and bring back to the boil; cook for 30-45 seconds, then remove beans quickly to a bowl of ice-cold water.

When the pot of water has cooled to just above room temperature, add the potatoes. Resalt, if necessary, and cover; bring to the boil. Depending on the size of your potatoes, boil 5-10 minutes; remove heat and let stand, covered, an additional 10 minutes, or until a fork slides easily into the center of each potato without causing the potato to totally fall apart. Toss the hot potatoes in ½ of the salad dressing and set aside.

For the croutons
Toss 1 clove minced garlic into about 1/4 cup hot oil in a skillet. After a minute, add in cubed bread. Toss it all together, and let it cook, tossing occasionally, until the croutons have soaked up the oil and are golden-brown.

For the arugula & squash blossoms
Trim and wash your arugula. Rinse the arugula and spin it vigorously in your salad spinner; if your arugula is from the farmer’s market, you may have to do this 3 or 4 times before the water runs clear off the arugula. It’s worth it.

To wash the squash blossoms, first shake them around in cold water, then fill up the bulbs with water and dump them out. You might have to do this a few times, too.

Once the squash blossoms are clean, cut them in half and remove the pistles – and any ants that weren’t washed out. You can add them to the salad raw, or you can toss them with some olive oil and salt and roast them in a 350º oven for about 10 minutes, or just toss them in the pan you did the croutons in.

Serve the salad by either tossing everything – including the dressing and some crumbled up queso blanc – together in a shallow bowl, or by grouping the various toppings around a mound of arugula on individual plates and drizzling with the remaining dressing and crumbling the queso blanc on top.

SEAFOOD COOKOFF: BLUEFISH VS. MUSSELS

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:54:08 EDT

MAX: BLUEFISH
When I was a kid, my grandpa would take me fishing almost every time I saw him. We were usually pretty successful, too. I always begged him to let me take our bounty home so my mom could cook it for dinner. He smiled and silently released each fish back into the water. I haven’t been fishing in a long time (too long) but I have eaten a lot of fish in my life. There have been the Florida standards of grouper sandwiches and grilled red snapper, bluefin tuna (hey, I was young and reckless) sashimi and salmon maki rolls. And – this one hurts to admit – the favored childhood combo of canned tuna and mac’n’cheese (I have since sworn off all canned tuna).

So when I saw Bluefish – a fish I had never cooked, ordered, or even encountered – at the Union Square Greenmarket, I had to try it. The only thing I knew about bluefish was that it had a bad rap for being too fishy and oily to enjoy. Wade promised me, however, that this large, violent fish was a fisherman’s favorite: as good to eat as it was fun to catch. I was sold.

I got my fillets home and quickly realized I had no idea how to cook a bluefish: would the dark flesh turn out flaky and dry, or would it stay meaty? What flavors are complementary? Should it be poached or grilled? To answer these questions, I turned to Mark Bittman’s Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking, which offered three or four different bluefish recipes. I was immediately drawn to a grilled preparation that called for a marinade of garlic, lemon, and rosemary. The familiarity of those flavors spoke to me, especially against the backdrop of an unknown fish. In Florida, my parents and I made dinner on the grill almost every night, and so grilling the fish really spoke to the Floridian in me. But in New York, I don’t have a grill, so I broiled it instead, a similar method because the fish would be close to the flames, like on a grill.

The end result totally surpassed my expectations. The bluefish was tender and succulent, with just the right amount of bright, herby flavor. It wasn’t fishy or oily at all, and the meat, so dark when it was raw, had turned a much more palatable white color when it was cooked. The skin (my favorite part of a fish fillet) had loads of potential; next time I’ll expose the skin-side to the heat for a little longer to get that nice crispness I love.

REBECCA: MUSSELS
Before we lived in Florida, we’d go down every year to visit my grandparents. One night, when I was about 4 or 5, we went to a fish shack for dinner. At the time, I think I was subsisting on a steady diet of chicken fingers and French fries; outside of that first bite of solid food a couple of years before, I hadn’t exactly had a memorable, life-changing meal yet. Until I tried one of my mom’s mussels.

I don’t know how she convinced me to eat one; maybe it was the luster of the shells or the excitingly different orange flesh of the mussels themselves. Maybe it was the way she was scooping up the broth with an empty shell, the joyous slurping that looked like such fun. More likely, it was the enticing, inviting, intoxicating scent of the broth itself: rich with garlic, wine, butter, and tomatoes, a slight brininess from the shellfish. Whatever it was the drew me in, overpowered me: I climbed onto my mom’s lap and devoured her entire dinner, all thoughts of chicken fingers abandoned, pretty much permanently.

Since then, I’ve never missed a chance to eat mussels. In a lot of ways, they’re a ‘wonder food’: high in protein, low in fat, and easy to raise - they grow naturally in salt and fresh water – and are affordable and versatile. Mussels can be steamed, boiled, smoked, grilled, or battered and fried. But my favorite way to eat mussels is steamed in broth. I’ve had mussels in coconut broth with lemongrass and chiles; with curry, mango, and anise; even with sake, ginger, and scallions. But my absolute favorite way of eating mussels is Belgian-style: a broth of butter, beer, and garlic. When I make this in Florida, for my parents, I add a little orange zest for some local flavor; but really, all that matters is that you use a beer you love and don’t skimp on the butter. We chose a Belgian-style beer brewed in upstate New York to keep things local, but frankly, you could use Guinness or Sam Adams or even Pabst. I just wouldn’t recommend using a pilsner.

Mussels are fantastically unfussy, too. Keep them in your fridge under a damp cloth for up to 2 days before cooking them; then just sweat your garlic in butter, toss in the mussels, and add a beer. Cover them and steam them for 10 minutes and serve them with a good, crusty bread (or, better yet, French fries) and you can eat them right out of the pot. Then immediately start thinking of what kind of broth you’ll steam your mussels in next time.

BLUEFISH
The recipe for Mark Bittman’s grilled bluefish fillets can be found in his book, Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking, which is one of the most useful cookbooks we own. But basically, here’s all you need to do:

1 lemon
2 whole scallions, including green ends (optional)
2 cloves of garlic
½ cup olive oil
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, minced, plus 4 whole sprigs for the grill/broiler
2 bluefish fillets, about 2 lbs total

Mix together everything but the bluefish, then toss the fillets in the marinade and marinate at least 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

Heat a grill or broiler and line with sprigs of rosemary. Lay the bluefish down with the skin away from the heat and cook 4-5 minutes, running a spatula under the fish every now and then to keep it from sticking. Baste with some of the marinade and flip over so the skin side is facing the heat and broil or grill another 4-5 minutes or until the skin is brown and crispy. Remove from the heat and drizzle with olive oil, a little lemon zest, and some fresh rosemary.

Fresh thyme is also a delicious addition to this recipe.

MUSSELS
6 cloves of garlic, minced
4 Tablespoons of butter
16 oz beer
1 ½ - 2 lbs of mussels, cleaned and debearded (just scrub under cold water and pull off the beards)
salt and pepper

A good crusty bread (toasting and rubbing with ½ a clove of garlic is optional, but quite delicious)

Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a large, heavy saucepan. Add in the garlic and cook just past translucent, about 3 minutes. Add in the mussels and the salt and pepper; immediately pour the beer over the mussels, and cover with a lid. Leave covered and cook for about 10 minutes, shaking once halfway through. Remove the cover; the mussels should have opened.

Serve with big hunks of bread or garlic-rubbed toast.