Good. Food. Stories.

Happy Labor Day

Danielle — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:49:22 +0000

Ah, it’s the unofficial end of summer too soon! Many of you may be lamenting the end of summer Fridays while others are doing fist pumps every time they remember that their kid is going back to school next week. For those that don’t have plans for the long weekend, let us make a few suggestions.

Stuck in the city all weekend? Go as far north as the subway will take you for a hike in Van Cortlandt Park followed by a visit to A Mangiare for pizza or a chicken panino. Or go all the way south to Brighton Beach where you can watch Russian men strutting around the sand in their speedos. Since Hurricane Earl is whipping up some nasty rip currents, you’re better off visiting Cafe Glechik for a plate of Moscow Pelmeni. If you have a car, take a drive upstate to gorgeous Philmont and treat yourself to a farm-to-table meal at Local 111. Or join me and pay a visit to Eataly, the new orgiastic celebration of Italian food in Manhattan’s Flatiron district. (I’ll report back next week.)

If you’re home in more rural environs, invite the neighbors over and make spicy raw tomato sauce because we’ve only got two more weeks of good tomatoes left! Or make some homemade vanilla ice cream!

And if all else fails, take your inspiration from Rocco and let yourself relax like this.

Happy Labor Day!

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GUEST POST: A Snack Nerd’s Easy Energy Bars

Good. Food. Stories. Contributor — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:03:27 +0000

It’s always a good day when the delightful Rebecca Peters-Golden has a guest post for us. As a grad student, Rebecca has perfected the art of eating well on a budget, and today she shares her secret to getting through the semester without blowing the bank on crappy snacks. Enter the homemade protein bar!

It’s September again, and we all know what that means. Rather than the childlike glee of new pencils, blank notebooks, and Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers that once marked the beginning of a new semester, September now means figuring out this year’s program of how to keep up your energy during the day without spending a lot of time or money on snacks.

When I’m hungry I simply cannot behave sensibly (read: concentrate, converse, be civil to strangers). This makes snacking an absolute necessity. But it gets really expensive to buy food throughout the day, and, for those of us without easy access to anything better than vending machines, the only options seem to be candy bars, chips, or . . . horror of horrors, The Protein Bar.

I mean, look, I dig the occasional Clif Bar, don’t get me wrong; protein bars do keep up energy and distract from gnawing hunger. Still, whenever I eat one, I always find myself fantasizing about something better . . .

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The How-To Kitchen: Caramel Sauce

Casey — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:24:37 +0000

Please don’t call me a stupid girl, but science was never my favorite subject in high school. Despite childhood obsessions with dinosaurs, the NASA space program, and the process of mummification (yes, they did remove the brains through the nose with knitting-needle-style hooks), my interest in becoming a real archaeologist or physicist faded once I had to memorize more than the behavior of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered that making caramel, a highly scientific process, is one of my favorite kitchen party tricks.

Caramel is basically two ingredients: sugar mixed with cream. Sounds so simple, right? But there’s a clever chemistry that makes the business a bit trickier than you’d think, and here’s why.
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Farm Friday: Raw Tomato Sauce with Chile Peppers

Danielle — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:01:07 +0000

Tomato sauce made from chopped raw tomatoes, crushed garlic, olive oil, and torn basil leaves is simply the easiest and most elegant dish for a late summer evening. When tomatoes and basil are in season, you almost owe it to them to prepare a dish that lets their freshness shine.

Truly, this is something that you can only enjoy in these parts for two to three weeks of the entire year. I’ve done this sauce with beefsteak tomatoes, plums and heirlooms. Surprisingly, heirlooms are too sour for the sauce, beefsteaks too, um…beefy, but plum and cherry tomatoes are just perfect. I just kissed the tips of my fingers.

That said, this is something I’ve made at least a dozen times and as I contemplated what to do with the nearly thirty tomatoes I received with this week’s CSA delivery, I decided to try something new. I wanted to push the sauce beyond mild and sweet and instead make it bold and hot. The answer was right under my nose…

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GUEST POST: The birth of a bakery

Good. Food. Stories. Contributor — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:22:52 +0000

Today we welcome contributor Liz Petruska to the GFS family with her story of three women who up and did what a lot of us dream about: opening a bakery in scenic Maine. Spoiler alert: the Village Bakery and Cafe made its debut this summer, and we hope she’ll be back to share more stories of life as an entrepreneur as the business grows.

Seven months ago, over beer and ping pong, on a chilly January night, our new bakery was born. The idea was to keep it simple, to gather our recipes, mixers and aprons and start…from scratch. Our journey since then seems epic to us, three friends who share a love of baking and love to share tasty treats with others, but really our adventure has just begun.

On July 2, my two partners and I opened the Village Bakery and Cafe in the small coastal village of Waldoboro, Maine. The town was in need of a place for people to gather, and quite simply, to get a decent cup of coffee. Meanwhile, we were looking for an opportunity to pursue our passion for baking.
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Backyard Bacon

Casey — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:57:02 +0000

Curing and smoking my own bacon has been on my to-do list for at least a year and a half. It was always in the back of my mind, even though things like making yet another flavor of ice cream or figuring out a cardoon recipe kept taking precedence. As winter turned to spring, I saw two luscious pounds of Niman Ranch pork belly at the butcher counter and promptly stashed ‘em in the freezer. The bacon day would come soon.

But after testing recipes from the grilling, bbq, and smoking primer She-Smoke earlier this spring, I realized my gas grill just wouldn’t be able to produce the rich flavor that I love so much in Niman Ranch’s applewood smoked bacon. Sigh. I would settle for nothing less than perfect bacon. What to do?

Generous husband Dan, who’s quickly overfilling the basement with Mike Piazza figurines, gave me that opportunity when he let me tag along on a lunch date with fellow sports and memorabilia enthusiast Paul Lukas of Uni Watch. See, Paul is one of two people I know who own a Big Green Egg, one of the best (maybe the best) smoking apparatus around.

Plus, he’s the creator of this shirt—say no more. So over a plate of kolbassi at Clifton’s Rutt’s Hut, we made a vague plan for summer smoking.
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Fried Pickles at Bronx Ale House

Danielle — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:01:49 +0000

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Farm Friday to bring you this public service announcement. Fried pickles at Bronx Ale House are the most delicious fried thing I’ve put in my mouth since the cheese curds at last year’s Minnesota State Fair. And hey…cucumbers are in season, right? Oh, and the chef was a sous chef at Eleven Madison Park for 5 years. This is some haute pub food.

I was advised by Joanne, one of my favorite dog run buddies, that the Bronx Ale House had a great menu. Indeed, she was right and I enjoyed several World Cup games there where I tasted nachos with pulled pork, buffalo wings in Bronx is Burning hot sauce, and jalapeños stuffed with homemade sausage, cheddar and jack cheese. They also have a handcrafted burger that should soon be a serious contender for best burger in the city. Hand cut fries by its side aren’t too shabby either. (Clearly, I should start taking the stairs more regularly in preparation for World Series watching.)

I reported back to Joanne and thanked her for letting me know about this little gem. She replied, “Did you try the fried pickles? They’re really stinkin’ good.” Dutifully, I returned.

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GUEST POST: Cold Borscht, a Russian Classic

Good. Food. Stories. Contributor — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:19:18 +0000

Please give a hearty welcome to new contributor Irene Kopitov, dear friend of the GFS family, Napoleon Dynamite super-fan, and radish addict. Irene was born in Russia but moved with her family to Boston when she was a tiny slip of a thing, and today introduces us to that most Russkie of dishes: cold borscht. Beet fanatics unite!

There is a reason Dwight Schrute has always been my favorite character on The Office. When he steps away from his day job as paper salesman, Dwight pursues his real passion as proprietor of the family-owned Schrute Farms and dedicated harvester of the best beets in Scranton, PA. Most laugh at his ridiculous pride in growing one of the world’s least sexy vegetables. Not me. Beets have a very special place in my heart.

So, when we made plans for yet another monthly gathering of the Glory Salon in the hot and humid thick of summer in New York, my friend Stela made the most brilliant suggestion: cold beet soup, or as the Russians call it—borscht.

This also fit in nicely with my long-standing mission of learning more Russian dishes. Growing up in a Russian family and having a mother who is an incredible cook, I often take the amazing meals she whips up (seemingly in an instant) for granted and have been wanting to spend more time with her in the kitchen actually paying attention. Beets often being a star ingredient in Russian cuisine, our Glory Salon borscht was the perfect place to start.
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Primanti’s: the world’s greatest sandwich

Casey — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:57:49 +0000

Gotta admit that I’m a little nervous today, folks. I’m about to talk about Primanti’s, my favorite sandwich of all time. This sandwich, this divine towering paragon of all that a meal should be, is the one foodstuff I crave more than any other and the one thing I make a beeline for every time I visit the old Pittsburgh homestead.

Though less famous than Heinz ketchup or Klondike bars, Primanti Bros. (although no one says the “brothers” bit and just calls it “Primanny’s,” if you want to get your ‘Burgh accent going) is just as influential to Pittsburgh’s culinary history.

Based in the Strip District—home to the city’s wholesale food warehouses—since the 1930s, Primanti’s now has outposts throughout the greater Pittsburgh area and (somewhat inexplicably) Fort Lauderdale, FL.

The legend goes that the Primanti brothers got into business feeding the truckers who dropped goods off in the Strip during the wee hours of the night leading into morning. The truckers were starving, so the bros packed the sandwich to the gills to give the guys a full meal that they could also hold in their hands while driving. (Although how one person could eat a Primanti’s samwidge and drive is beyond me—it takes me two hands just to get through one half—and the official bio skims past those details.)

However it went down, the Primanti siblings had lightning in a pan—er, on a griddle—and now everyone in Pittsburgh eats at Primanti’s. I remember stopping in before a They Might Be Giants show around the corner at Metropol to see Sally Wiggin, the Katie Couric of the Pittsburgh news anchor scene, wolfing one down with the common folk.

So with all of this background, aren’t you dying to know what makes up a Primanti’s sandwich and why it’s so killer?

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Farm Friday: Tomato Bruschetta

Danielle — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:01:12 +0000

Let’s clear one thing up before we go any further. Bruschetta is pronounced like this: Broos-ketta. You say it with a hard C. I know it’s very Seinfeldian of me to be peevish over such a thing, but it drives me crazy!–especially when I hear waiters at really nice Italian restaurants saying brooshetta. No and no. If you want to pronounce it like Furio from The Sopranos, that is, like a goon with a heavy Naples accent, then you say broosh-ketta. But it’s still a hard C no matter how you slice it.

Tomatoes are finally, gloriously in season. After last year’s tomato blight, I’ve been awaiting their return like I used to wait for the Sears Wish Book as a child. (Have you noticed our header recently? I’m tomato crazy.) They’re just starting to trickle in to my CSA vegetable share with a couple of juicy beefsteaks this week and a dozen or so red and orange cherry tomatoes.

Over the weekend, I stopped by the ever reliable Manhattan Fruit and Vegetable Exchange at Chelsea Market where I purchased the first of the big Jersey tomatoes bearing their fiery, orange-red skin. I also had a few plum tomatoes hanging around at home, so I decided to combine my entire tomato bounty into one meal.

I chopped them into small pieces, adorned them with just sea salt, olive oil, a clove of garlic, and some torn basil leaves from the plant on my window sill. Finally, I spooned the colorful mixture on to slices of bread that had been toasted in a frying pan with a touch of olive oil.
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