Share Our Strength is a great organization work to help child hunger. Between last weekend and this coming weekend there are going to be bakesales across the country as part of the Great American Bakesale. Check to see if there is one near you, hopefully you didn’t miss it!

I am posting because I contributed this year to a bakesale in DC put together by local food bloggers. It is happening tomorrow ( Thursday 4/26 ) in Downtown DC. Here are the details:

DC Food Bloggers Bake Sale for Share Our Strength and No Kid Hungry.
Thursday, April 26 from 2-6pm
1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC (Washington Post Building, 1st floor)

 

I baked Mexican Chocolate Chewies from theHomesick Texan cookbook. I got the book from the library and love it. This is the 3rd recipe I have made from it and they have all been great, I think I may need to buy a copy.

The “Chewies” are really more like meringues, with lots of nuts and chocolate in them, which is a great addition. Since there is no flour, I am pretty sure they are gluten free, the are definitely delicious. I couldn’t find the Chipotle powder the recipe calls for so I just copped up a couple of dried chipotles I got from Safeway. A minced chipotle from a can would work too.

Anyhow, stop by the bakesale and buy my cookies! Or some other tasty treats! Or visit your local “Bakesale” Or just a make a donation online, you don’t get cookies but you will be helping a great cause!

Lamb is of course the focus of our Lamb Supper Clubs. However, the apps, sides, desserts and drinks have all been getting more and more elaborate each time. Our final one, where we served Braised Lamb Shanks, was no exception.

This time we had two fabulous batches of bread, which were absolutely critical for sopping up all of the braised lamby goodness. I baked a very large country miche and someone else brought a couple of no-knead breads, cooked using the Cooks’ Illustrated recipe.

Even though it has been a mild winter, it is still winter. What better to take the chill out, than a nice spiced rum punch? Of course, having a real punch set only makes it better.

What makes a cheese (hello Humboldt Fog!) and pate plate even better? Why homemade crackers, made using Thomas Keller’s secret recipe of course!

You may remember this tiny tea cups from our last Lamb Supper. We used them to sample the variety of Greek Liquors we had all accumulated. Turns out they are also perfect for serving small samples of delicious squash soup. Pinkies up!

Of course a little greenery is always needed. This salad of butter lettuce, shined with grapefruit and sunflower seeds sprinkled throughout.

If I didn’t make it clear earlier… we had a lot of very good bread, and everyone was happy.

Clearly we went out of our ways to put together a complete meal. A meal wouldn’t be complete though without dessert and we went all out. We had apple galette, chestnut ice cream, hazelnut meringue cookies made with the left egg whites from the ice cream and chocolate dipped cherry biscotti. Better yet, the ice cream was made with candied chestnuts that from one of the guest’s family chestnut grove in France. Best of all, there were left overs so everyone left with a bag of cookies. I ate mine for breakfast.

I suppose it is only appropriate that the Tri-Lamb Group arranged for three Lamb Suppers. I am sad that we have reached the end though. Unlike the Godfather, the final chapter of this trilogy may have been the best!

The Braised Lamb Shank is an excellent winter recipe. The dish is warming and hearty, and very satisfying, even if DC’s winter temperatures are unusually high. Since this dish is finished with a long braise in the oven, it is also the perfect dish for a large crowd.

This was actually our largest dinner yet, with a total of 10 people enjoying delicious lamb. We had so many dishes that I am going to have to do another post to cover it all.

Elena wanted to help pitch in and used her toy knife to help “cut-up” the lamb. Very helpful indeed!

I always love to tinker with recipes, so I of course couldn’t leave this recipe alone. Instead of using canned beans, I made my own batch of canneli beans. Making your own beans makes it much easier to get a nice soft texture. You can also use the bean broth as part of the braising liquid, it is packed with flavor. To get the best possible texture, soak the beans the night before. Also add lots of salt to the beans.

One step that the original recipe left out is removing the silver skin from the shanks. The silver skin is membrane on that holds muscle groups together. It is pretty easy to remove, simply slide a knife between the muscle and the membrane and go to town! I also trimmed off most of the fat.

The first step was to salt and brown the meat. The recipe is a little optimistic on the amount of meat needed per person. We had eight shanks for ten people and we had one left over at the end of the night. It seems like a lot of meat, but the bones weigh quite a bit.

Since I was dealing with so much lamb, I used two dutch ovens, but I still had to do two batches.

After that you have to sauté the vegetables with the tomato paste and herbs. I went all fancy and diced everything. It was a pain. I am sure a good chopping or slicing would have worked just as well.

Finally you add the wine, broth, diced tomatoes and the beans. I also added in the bean broth. Once you add the shanks back in, it is time to get the dinner party started. All of the work for this dish is done, you just have to let it braise in the oven for a couple of hours.

One of the reasons that dish comes out so good is because it is cook with the bones. Having them in there adds a lot of body and flavor. It probably has something to do with the marrow or something like that. Either way it is good.

Our downstairs neighbors recently got a new puppy. Luckily one of the guests was extra thoughtful and brought lamb flavor treats. No one goes without lamb during a Supper Club!

One of the perks of living in DC is the international flair. Every year or so, the different embassies hold open houses and let the public come in for tours. They also usually put out little treats. While the rums & cokes from were awesome, I really loved these choco-banana candies from the Serbian Embassy. After doing a little bit of Internet research, it looks like they are made by Takovo SwissLion. They have a fluffy banana center and are dipped in chocolate. Unfortunately I haven’t seen them in stores, but I did come across a distributor who had them at the Fancy Food Show.

Does anyone know where to find them in the DC area?

The Bitten Words posted on this recipe and gave it high marks. Being a northerner, I am no BBQ expert. So, when these guys say this is the real deal, it counts for a lot.

This recipe isn’t quick and there are some tedious bits, but the results are great. It calls for first brining the pork, applying a rub, roasting it covered for 3 hours and then roasting it uncovered to crunch up the outside. All that may seem like a lot, but you get tender, flavor packed pork that tastes like the real deal.

With all the roasting, you end up with a pan full of delicious pork juice. This goodness is used as the base for the sauce you toss your pulled pork in. There are recipes for a bunch of different sauces, but we just tried out Tangy and Sweet Sauce.

We used it to build some tasty sandwiches, but the pork would also be great on nachos, or baked potatoes.

Are you envious of our Lamb Awesomeness? Was your New Year’s Resolution to get more Lean Protein in your diet? Or do you just like looking at nice food photos?

Well, you are in luck! The nice people at the Tri-Lamb Group who have been hooking us up with lamb, sent a bunch of extra copies of their Lamb Cookbook. If you would like a copy, and you live in the US, send me an email at: luke@cookography.com with your address. (Well those went quick! Thanks for all the interest. Apparently there are a lot of you out there even though you don’t leave comments :)

Live outside the US or are in too much suspense to wait? You are in luck! They have a PDF copy online you can download.

While I am always happy getting Christmas presents, I am extra happy when I can eat or cook with them. Our fun little condo is starting to get a little cramped with all of the stuff for Elena, so we don’t have much room for new toys for us. One of the great things about food and ingredients is that they generally don’t stick around too long.

For me, this year was the year of seasoning! I had recently run out of Smoked Paprika, luckily Santa brought me a sampler of smoked paprika. I am a big fan of Paprika and it is great in lots of dishes.

The only thing I love more than freshly popped popcorn, is popcorn topped with Kernel Season’s. I have only been able to find the White Cheddar flavor in stores near me. Sprinkling on popcorn you end up with fresh tasting Smart Food. This year Santa was extra good to me and brought a variety of flavors:

• Chili Lime
• Sour Cream Onion
• Cajun
• Barbeque
• Kettle Corn
• Pumpkin Spice

One dish which I really enjoyed in Taipei was xiaolongbao. They dumplings, but very much unlike dumplings you would usually find in the States. The filling in the dumpling is made with an aspic, gelatinous soup, that turn into liquid when cooked. The end results is a dumpling that is magically filled with soup.

Din Tai Fong is most the most well know place to get them in Taipei. It is also very popular and has turned into an international chain that even has locations in the US. I ended up going 3 times and managed to eat at a different location each time.

The dumplings are served in a bamboo steamer and come out piping hot. To eat a dumpling, you first dip it in a combo of black vinegar and ginger, then poke holes in it to vent the steam and finally slurp up the yummy soup before eating the dumpling.

If anyone knows a place to get xiaolongbao in the DC area, let me know!

For those of you unaware, Keith’s is from Nova Scotia and is one the one of the oldest breweries in North America. According to wikipeida, they became distribution in the US back in April. While Keith’s may not be Nova Scotia’s best beer, they have a soft spot in my heart ever since Carolyn and I went on the brewery tour when we were in Nova Scotia.

To me, Keith’s is a lot like Yuengling. An old brewery that is still putting out some good beer. It is not as good as the craft beers coming out, but it is a lot better than the mass market varieties. It is a good beer, with an old tradition and it proves Canada brews more than Molson.

If you are looking for something a little fancier, Nova Scotia still has you covered. I really liked the beers from Garrison and Propeller. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen them stateside yet. Here’s to hoping, and I will keep on enjoying my Keats even if they do.

I stumbled across the local wet market while I was out wandering one day. It is in a long single story building and looks like it has the freshest meat, fish and vegetables you can find. A local cooking instructor has a good overview of the markets. I wanted to take a class from her, but didn’t have time.

It was amazing how much closer people were to their food in Taiwan. I think people wanted to see the meat cut right before them or the dish they were going to eat prepared in front of them. Maybe they are more concerned that they are getting what they paid for and that it is high quality, where as here we would rather be removed from the process and would prefer for everything to happen in the back in a supposedly sterile environment. It was really interesting seeing the preference for being involved rather than removed.

Tong Hua Night Market
Tong Hua Street, Taipei, Taiwan 106

Cheng Gong Market
成功市場 臺北市大安區四維路192巷內 上午7時30分至下午2時 
Lane 192, SìWéi Rd, Da-an District, Taipei City
Near Far Eastern Hotel
7:30am – 2:00pm

Night Market

Wet Market

The nice folks on the Tri-Lamb Council recently sent us our next shipment of lamb. The seasonal recipe this time around was a lamb flatbread with arugula and goat cheese. It is ground lamb, which is a fun switch from the large roast we had last time. They sent the lamb, along with everything needed to make the flatbread. We again teamed up with our downstairs neighbors and decided to go with a Mediterranean theme.

I am always a fan of making your pizza dough, since it is super easy if you have a food processor. However, they included some frozen pizza dough, so I gave that a shot and it turned out good. If you are holding off making your own pizza because you don’t want to deal with the dough, give frozen dough a try, it seems to work pretty good.

I cooked the lamb ahead of time, which made it really easy to put the flatbreads together later. With the prep work done ahead of time and the oven preheated, we were able to prep and bake the pizza’s in 25 minutes or so and most of that time was just baking them. Everything was easy to put together and required minimal attention, I would definitely recommend this dish if you are having people over. You get to have fun hanging out and you still impress your guest with a delicious dish.

Lamb may not seem like a normal pizza topping, but really it is a natural fit. On pizza you want a strong meat, like pepperoni or sausage, and seasoned ground lamb delivers perfectly. While this recipe has more of fancy, Mediterranean flare, you could easily take it in a different direction with some Italian seasonings and a tomato base.

The Mediterranean theme really came out in the dessert and our drink selection. One of our guests brought Galatoboureko, which is a Greek phyllo custard and is extremely delicious. Between the eggs, butter and phyllo, it may not seem that healthy, but the recipe makes a lot of servings and it is really good, so who cares. We also had a nice assortment of Greek liquors, all of them were pretty strong. Metaxa is a Greek brandy, which if you are a fan of brandies, is supposedly pretty good. No one was too keen on it though, it might be better mixed with something as opposed to straight up. Kitpon Naeoy is a lemon liquor that is produced on the island of Naxos and is made with the fruit and leaves of the citron tree. Since citron taste sort of like a lemon, it tasted a bit like lemoncello, but was a bit more mild. It used to be popular, but went out of style and most of the citron trees were cut down. It is pretty rare now and almost impossible to get anywhere besides on Naxos. This was a much bigger hit and everyone was a fan. The final liquor Carolyn and I brought back from Crete, where we got it from a random honey vendor on the side of the road. It is a honey liquor that was about the same strength as citron one and quite tasty too. Unfortunately, we have no idea what it is called and can’t read Greek.

One of the best parts of the evening were the pun filled place cards that came with the Lamb kit. Here are a few of our favorites, along with some educational lamb tidbits.

• What is a lamb’s favorite protest movement? Flock-upy Wool Street
• What do lambs do if they can’t sleep? Take a Lambien
• How do lambs get to the hospital? In a Lambulance

Facts:

• On average, a 3-ounce portion of lamb contains 25 percent of the daily value of niacin, necessary for processing nutrients and proper enzyme function.

For the past month we have always come back from the farmer’s market with a nice bundle of Swiss Chard so we can make our new favorite pasta dish. We still love Putanesca, but this dish offer a nice alternative. It has the same pungency from the garlic and anchovies, but the substitution of breadcrumb and chard for the tomato sauce completely changes it attitude.

You can just use store bought crumb, but it is pretty easy to make your own if you have some bread lying around. Simply cut it into cubes and microwave it on half power until it is dried out. You could also dry it out in the oven if you have it already going. The simply toss it in the food processor and process away. Keep them in an air tight container and they should last a while. If you do use store-bought ones, reduce the amount you use. Try only using 1/2 a cup.

I picked up this snack from my favorite grocery store in DC, Hana Japanese market. They have an amazingly good selection of Japanese products given the size of the store and staff is nice and helpful… and they are on Twitter!

It is pretty easy to figure out what this snack is… it is very clearly octopus. The mysterious thing about this snack is how they managing to preserve them. The octopus have a texture similar to cooked ones and are definitely not dried. They are sold on the shelf though and don’t have any indication that they need to be refrigerated. Clearly the Japanese have managed to create a shelf stable, cooked octopus snack. Ever more impressive, it is still tasty.

If anyone has any insights on how they are preserved or the name of this style of snack, please let us know!

So here is a conundrum: “Do I not cook 7lbs of meat because I don’t host dinner for 10?” or “Do I not host dinner for 10 because I don’t cook 7lbs of meat?”

Luckily, the Tri-Lamb Group helped me break out of this Catch-22 with an offer of a Lamb Dinner Kit for 10. We are big lamb fans, as we have posted previously, and even had Lamb for Thanksgiving instead turkey a couple of years ago. The offer of free lamb was just what was needed to help us break this stalemate and overcome our hesitations for having a large dinner party.

Just pulling off a nice dinner for Carolyn and myself is a bit of challenge with Elena running around. In order to pull this off I realized we needed a Team approach. Luckily, our awesome neighbors who live downstairs, Matt & Natalie, were game for helping out and more importantly, hosting.

We scheduled the dinner for Saturday and a large, insulated box stuff with a lot of lamb and all the necessary recipe ingredients arrived on Friday. While it is not to tough to cook large amounts of meat, it can take a lot of time. If the meat is left in one large piece, the heat has to penetrate all the way through. However, if you butterfly or flatten it out, you are able to cook it much quicker. Butterflying a portion of meat exposes more of the surface to any marinade or rub and also gives it chance to brown; both of which add lots of flavor. the challenge in creating more surface area is that you need a larger pan. If you have a grill, that is not much of a problem. Unfortunately we are stuck in a condo without a good place to grill. A broiler does make for a good grill substitute though and worked great. There was an alternate recipe included for indoor cooking, but it called for searing the butterflied lamb in a pan before roasting it in the oven and we didn’t have a pan which could fit all that lamb. I butterflied the lamb in the morning and let it marinate all day in the fridge. It was very easy to butterfly, the only challenge was trying to get all the lamb in to a ziploc bag.

The Dinner Kit also came with what I thought was an absurd amount of green onions, to be grilled and served with the lamb. The onions get tossed with oil, salt and pepper and then grilled (or broiled). The funny thing with onions though is that they cook down… a lot. I had to cook the 4 bunches of onions in 3 batches and they ended up yielding a couple onions per diner. I made them ahead of time, along with a batch of herbed and roasted potatoes. We reheated everything downstairs while the lamb cooked upstairs. The green onions were delicious, they had a slight char but a sweet flavor from the roasting. They would be a great addition to any meat you are grilling or broiling and worked particularly well with the lamb. Natalie also put together an Asian slaw that had red cabbage and apples. Its brightness and crispness provided a great contrast.

Since the marinade for the lamb had ginger in it we made some cocktails which had ginger in them. Matt made a bourbon based one with ginger which he put through their juice along with a dash of orange bitters. I made a slushie drink that had a frozen lemon, ginger and mint simple syrup which was blended and frozen ahead of time. Everyone came over around 7pm and we started by sampling the drinks. Meanwhile, I started the lamb going upstairs under the broiler. One of the benefits of butterflying lamb, is that it cooks much faster. The only drawback is that it means it can get overcooked more quickly if you are not watching… perhaps because you are enjoying drinks downstairs. Even with my inattentiveness, the lamb ended up being medium-well instead of medium. Since the butterflying leaves some portions thicker than others, you end with different amounts of doneness. This is good because not everyone like the same The smaller portions were a little overcooked, but the larger portions were just right.

Another valuable lesson for cooking large portions of meat for lots of people: always prepare a sauce. A little bit of sauce can cure almost any amount of overcooking. Since the marinade was little Asiany and because I had a ton of Shiso growing in our garden, I made a pesto out of it. The flavor of the shiso pesto and acidity from the lime juice into worked great with the lamb and give a nice little flavor boost.

Of course what dinner would be complete without a little dessert?! Carolyn made a fruit salad that continued the ginger theme with a ginger syrup. We served it on pound cake, topped with toasted coconut and a side of vanilla ice cream.

While the thought of cooking a large portion of meat or hosting a dinner for 10 seems a little daunting, both are pretty easy, especially with a little teamwork.

While I was out in San Francisco last month, I was able to get brunch at Blue Bottle Coffee. They are very persnickety about brewing coffee and make a pretty mean brunch too. Since I was luckily on East Standard Baby time, I got there right as the started serving food and right before the lines started forming.

While they can do extra fancy espresso drinks from their human powered, lever driven machine, the true jewels are there cold brew and vacuum pot machines. Both of these beauties were imported from Japan and are a marvel of persnicketiness.

The cold brew machine is similar to method we use to make iced coffee. However, instead of letting the grounds and coffee to sit, they slowly let the water drip through the grounds. Very slowly. And precisely I should add, roughly 88 drops per minute. The result is a very strong cup of coffee that is full of flavor without much acidity. It doesn’t have the cardboard taste that the coffee we cold brew sometimes does, but I am sure they are using better coffee than Folger’s.

Their other amazing machine is a set of halogen powered vacuum pots. Vacuum pots are nothing new, but they are sort of finicky and not very common. The pot has two bulbs, connected in the middle with a valve. There is water in the bottom bulb and coffee in the top. When you heat the water filled bulb, it boils and expands up to the top bulb mixing with the grounds. You then take it off the heat; the lower bulb begins to cool creating a vacuum and sucking the coffee back through a filter. The standard pot goes for about $40 or so, and gets heated on the stove. The Blue Bottle folks use the same style pot, except they heat theirs with a $20,000 computer controlled, halogen heat lamp. I didn’t get a cup of this style because: I already had a cup and become twitchy with two and the price wasn’t listed, which scared me.

One of the advantages of going on the weekend is that they serve breakfast. They only have 6 or so dishes, but they all sounded great. I went with the poached eggs, served over braised greens and a catalan style tomato sauce. I like my eggs a little runnier than they made them, but they were awesome mixed with greens and sauce. By the time I was heading out, the caffeine was just kicking into high gear and the line was out the door.

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend a reception for the Fort Barnard Community Garden in Arlington Virginia. The garden works to contribute fresh produce to the Arlington Food Assistance Center, which helps needy families in the county. They have dedicate a plot to growing produce specifically for the center. Gardeners are also participating in the Plant a Row program, where they set aside a portion of there plot and grow seeds provided by the center. In total, the Fort Barnard garden donated over 700 pounds of fresh produce. This is a very important contribution because the Assistance Center mostly receives canned and packaged food and the fresh vegetables help provide a more balanced diet. Even cooler still, they have 3 beehives in their garden. I am jealous!

Allison Kindler discussing the garden

The Fort Barnard Garden was being recognized through the Giving Through Growing program from Woodbridge wines by Robert Mondavi. The program is run in partnership with the American Community Gardening Association and looks raise awareness and interest in gardening. As part of the program they are highlighting Community Garden Hereos and Allison Kindler, the chief gardener at Fort Barnard, was chosen as one of four being recognized across the country. As part of the recognition, Woodbridge is providing funding to improve the garden. It is being used to create raised beds, which make it easier to practice “square foot” gardening, and also purchase compost tumblers, making it a little easier to compost gardening waste. While Allison was identified as the spokesperson, it was clear that there was a real community around their garden and many people had contributed to make it the amazing place it was.

Quite the spread!

Build your own Crepe

The reception featured vegetables from served up as crudite along with a nice selection cheese and delicious cured meats. It was held at the Zola Wine Kitchen, which if you haven’t been is a great place to grab lunch. They have a rotating lunch special and a variety of sandwiches. For the reception they also have a “Build Your Own Crepe” station where you got to choose various savory items to add to your crepe. I had flashbacks to the make your own omelet bar they had in college… ahh the memories! This was all accompanied by wine of course.

Candice explaining the Giving Through Growing program

Candice Kumai is the “Ambassador” for the Giving Through Growing program. She was on the first season of Top Chef and currently has own show and just released her own cookbook. In addition to learning more about the Fort Barnard garden and the Program, I also learned that I probably don’t have what it takes to be on TV. Candice was amazing personable, relatable and fun, and made it seem like she had known everyone forever. She was also amazingly good at remembering names, something I am incapable of. I think I will stick with the blogging since it requires little social interaction. There are a number of her recipes up on the Giving Through Growing website, along with write-ups of the other Garden Heroes.

Yea Wine!

The crew from Fort Barnard

If people go and put fish on their pizza, it it usually anchovies. However, my favorite fishy pizza topping is Bottarga. It is cured fish roe, made by taking the roe pouch from tuna or grey mullet and preserved by curing it in salt for a couple of weeks. When cured, it forms a hard log which can be shaved on top of pasta or pizza, or served thinly sliced as an appetizer.

I came across two different producers offering it at the Fancy Food Show. Trikalinos, from Greece, offers traditionally prepared grey mullet, packed in beeswax. It is distributed in the US by the Rogers Collection. It is not cheap though, a 1/2 pound stick is over $100. Luckily it keeps forever and a little bit goes a long way. Still, that is a lot of money for what was traditional a peasant food. Bottarga is traditional Mediterranean ingredient and I also found a producer in the Italian pavilion. Su Tianu Sardu is located in Sardinia and produces both mullet and yellowfin tuna Bottarga. They offer it in both preserved blocks and pre-ground jars, which is a little more convenient. While their prices are much more reasonable, the unfortunately do not ship to the US. Luckily Amazon carries Sardinian Bottarga, is there anything they don’t have?

Bottarga Di Muggine (Grey Mullet Roe) From Cabras, Sardinia

Of course if you are feeling bold, you could always try making it yourself. In the US you can try making it with Shad Roe which is available seasonally.

If you are just looking to give it a try, head over to Pizzeria Paradiso in DC and order a Bottarga Pizza. It has Tomato, Egg, Garlic, Parsley, Parmesan, Bottarga on it and is baked in their super hot oven so that the egg in the center sets, but the yolk is still runny. It is utterly delicious.

One of the best surprise at the Fancy Food Show was to find Derek Brown mixing drinks in the Mexico pavilion. Derek is genius behind the Columbia Room and one of the best bartenders in DC if not America. He was putting together cocktails to showcase Tequila and Mezcal, and of course doing a little innovation.

I tried the Mezcal Watermelon Punch he was mixing up. It perfectly balanced the sweetness of the watermelon juice with the smokiness of the mezcal and the heat of the pepper. This was my first time trying mezcal and I am impressed. Mezcal has the bad rep of being the liquor with the worm in it (most likely a marketing ploy in the 40′s). Good tequila and mezcal are both made with 100% agave, however in mezcal the agave hearts are smoked and the liquor is only refined once. This makes mezcal a little rougher, but its got character and clearly in right hands makes a mean cocktail.

So how do you know if you are getting a good mezcal? Well, I have never bought a bottle, so don’t ask me for recommendations. Luckily there are some things you can look for. First, make sure it is made with 100% Agave. Second, make sure it is made in Mexico and has a CRT number. This means it meets all the guidelines to be a traditional mezcal. If you find both of these, you should have a pretty good mezcal. Now you must choose between Blanca, which is aged for only a couple months after distillation, Resposado, which is aged for 2 – 9 months in oak barrels and Añejo, which is aged a minimum of 12 months.

Derek was nice enough to send me the recipe for the Mezcal Watermelon Punch he was making. Fun trivia, a Tincture is an extract made by putting something in a high proof alcohol. Another fun fact; the Tasmanian Pepper, also known as the mountain pepper, is native to Australia and has a strong peppery flavor. While it is fun to make fancy cocktails at home, it is even more fun to have someone make them for you, other wise you end up lots of random bottles. Ask me about my Stinging Nettle Infused Vodka. If you do give it try, let me know how the punch turns out!

One of the more interesting parts about the Fancy Food Show ( I swear I almost done with posts on it ), was getting to meet the people behind different brands. It is even more finding out that products you like have a genuine heritage instead of being some corporate creation.

I was really excited to come across the Bar Harbor Foods booth at the show. I have been getting their canned fish from Whole Foods, mostly because it is delicious, but also because I really liked the packaging; it looks simple, clean and honest. Maine has a long tradition of packing sardines and other fish, but as tuna fish became popular Maine’s canneries began closing. Most of the large canneries have closed which is why it is great to see Bar Harbor taking a fresh approach to this product space.

I met the company’s owner, Mike Cote, at the booth. He had most of his career working for large food specialty companies and wanted to start his own. In 2003 he bought the 86 year old East Machias Canning Company and transformed it into Bar Harbor Foods. It is a small company, I think he said they have less than 20 people. His experience in industry shows though, the branding is very well done and it seems like a much larger company.

They are coming out with a new product which looks like it could be a little different and fun, Smoke Sardines in Maple Syrup. They suggested actually having them at breakfast instead of bacon or sausage. It sounds a little crazy, but I think it could actually work. They are a little sweet and a little salty, but not too much and the sardines don’t have an overpowering fishy taste. Next time I am at Whole Foods, I am going to pick up a can and give it a try. It would definitely be a lot more healthy.

There is something reassuring about getting to meet the people that make what you eat, especially when they are great people like the folks at Bar Harbor. If you see a can of their fish on the store shelf, give it a try. Canned seafood that is sustainably harvested are better for the environment and sardines and other “oily” fish have a lot of health benefits. Most importantly, it can be really tasty. They also make authentic chowders and beans, which I am going to keep an eye out for.

Out of all of the producers at the Fancy Food Show, I was most excited to see Grafton Village. They had teased on their Facebook page that their new head Cheesemaker was going to be at the show. Dane Huber had recently joined the crew and is in charge of putting together a new line of cave aged cheese. These cheese are not only a change in style from their traditional (and excellent) cheddar, but also a change in type of cheese. Some of the new cheeses are made with sheeps’ milk instead of cows’ milk.

There were 3 cheese at the show to try from the new Grafton Cave Aged Line:

• Vermont Leyden
• Vermont Barn Dance
• Vermont Truffled Bismark

I think my favorite was the Leyden, which is made with a mix of Sheeps’ and Cows’ milk. The cheeses in this line are going to be made in small batches, so you will probably only find them in the higher end shops. They are also not going to be cheap. I think they will probably be in the high end range, $15 – $20. However, the nice thing about good cheese is that it packs so much flavor that you don’t need a lot of it.

Grafton has also redesigned their packaging for the cheddars. The older cheddars (3 & 4 year) are going to be sold under the Tavern Select line. They are finally making enough of them too, so they should have a wider distribution. This is good news because I haven’t seen any 3 year Cheddar down in DC for a while. The cheesemakers are also signing the packaged wedges, which is a nice touch. The other cheeses have also had their packaging spruced up too.

I am really excited about these changes. I think the new design better reflects the high quality cheese they make. Not only do they make great cheese, but they are a great group of people. It was a lot of fun to hang around the booth with them… and sample cheese. Hopefully the new cave aged cheese line will be in stores soon. Let me know if you spot it anywhere. I just hope that the prices stay the same. I am hooked on the 2-year cheddar, at $10 a pound it is a very affordable luxury.