a test kitchen dossier

It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.
– Alistair Cook

Foodstuff: Cranberries

Etymology: From craneberry, probably because the plant’s flower resembles the head of a crane.

Area of Origin
Slightly different species originated in Northern Europe and Asia, the Northeastern area of the United States and Canada, and the Southeastern part of the United States. The definitive origin is unknown.

Description
We say cranberry, you say Thanksgiving. Don’t worry, we’re not going to suggest anything crazy like not having cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving; we’re only suggesting that you look beyond cranberry sauce to all of the wonderful flavors and textures this pretty little berry can create. Powerful, even overwhelming, cranberries can begin to seem a little unapproachable; but cranberries are not meant to play alone. Just as red berries appear more beautiful against a background of green leaves or fresh snow, the flavor of cranberries truly comes alive when combined with other autumn and winter delights.

It is now common knowledge that a little orange juice and orange zest really make a simple cranberry sauce sing, so why not doctor up a holiday orange cake (or better yet, an orange-spice cake) with chopped fresh cranberries? Or toss some baby spinach with mandarin oranges, dried cranberries and a blood orange vinaigrette. You could even simmer some cranberries (dried or fresh) in red wine and a little sugar, then spoon the sauce over vanilla ice cream. Cranberries also pair beautifully with apples, chocolate and nuts, so let your imagination run wild (and don’t forget to take a look at our cranberry recipes below!).

Remember, cranberries helped Native Americans and European settlers make it through torturous Northeastern winters, so this wonder-fruit is a potent little reminder that even in the chilly weather there are plenty of fresh, seasonal delicacies to enjoy.

History
Cranberries have a lot to live up to. According to common mythology, they are not only one of the three fruits native to North America, but they were also served at the first Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, these myths are less than accurate. Cranberries weren’t solely native to North America, and the Native Americans ate many fruits besides the cranberry, blueberry and Concord grape. While it is true that the Native Americans introduced European settlers to cranberries, there is no specific evidence that they were served at the first Thanksgiving.

Ironically, this oh-so-American fruit has actually been eaten all over the world for centuries; cranberries have been eaten in the Arctic for thousands of years. A closely related fruit, the lingonberry, is extremely popular in Russia, Norway and Sweden. Wild cranberries once grew in Scotland, but have become almost extinct there.

Many Native American tribes ate cranberries, and sometime around 1620 they introduced them to the European settlers. While the settlers clearly took to the fruit — cranberry sauce was an early Thanksgiving staple, even if it was absent from the original day — it did not become extremely popular until sugar was readily available. In recent years the cranberry’s popularity has only grown as nutritionists have begun to proclaim the benefits of eating this “super-fruit.” More evidence for what we already knew: Anything that tasty had to be good for us!

Forms of Cranberries

Fresh
Fresh cranberries are generally available from September to December.

Frozen
Fresh cranberries can be frozen at home, and will keep up to nine months; they can also be used directly in recipes without thawing.

Dried
While you can make your own dried cranberries, they won’t be as sweet as commercially available versions. Dried cranberries are great in salads, baked goods, sauces, or as a snack. Just think of them as raisins with a little extra “zing!”

Juice

While unsweetened cranberry juice is available, the cranberry juice you typically drink is either sweetened or mixed with other juices. Cranberry juice is a bar staple, used in classics from the Cosmopolitan to the Seabreeze.

Recipes

Caramelized Napoleon with Sage & Cranberry
Cranberry Couscous
Chocolate Cranberry Jam
Provocachic (SM) Cosmopolitan
Sage Stuffed Pork Chops with Cranberry Glaze
Spiced Cranberry & Orange Relish
Upside-Down Cranberry Cornbread

Sources
Larousse Gastronomique
Steven Raichlen’s A Celebration of the Seasons
www.cranberryinstitute.org

Photo: Kelly Cline
Dossier by China Millman

We knew it was coming. In October it seemed far off in the distance, so we put it out of our minds. Now we look at the calendar and start to freak out inside…just a little bit.

The holiday season is upon us, so it’s time to get organized for the revelry ahead. Given that a normal holiday gathering with my immediate family means 20-25 guests, we’ve got this thing down to a science. We also have an industrial meat slicer, so I realize that we are a bit…unusual. But that doesn’t mean you can’t pull this off, too.

I joined Marsha Collier and Mark Cohen on KTRB Radio in San Francisco today to talk about tech tools to help manage the chaos, and wanted to give you an expanded list here as a handy reference tool.

Planning:
You’ve heard me say it before, but a little Type A goes a long way. Get it out of your head and on to paper (or your PDA/iPhone/latest gadget). We’ve created a whole section on Culinary Media Network to help you get started, from the number of guests to the style of your party.

I also discovered an amazing planning resource whose bells and whistles go far deeper than I imagined. You’ve likely received an invitation from eVite…but did you know what else is under the hood? Their tools enable everything from managing your guest list to creating a detailed timeline and checklist. They even have decor suggestions.

Calendar:
Set up a Google calendar for yourself with the title “Thanksgiving” or “Holidays,” and you can have e-mail reminders sent right to your inbox each day. You can also sync it to your other calendars so your tasks are like any other items on your to-do list. There are lots of tools online for this, so choose the one you like best, preferably one that is already part of your routine. If your form of organization and planning includes Post-It notes all over your desk, hey, I won’t judge.

Menu:
If you need menu ideas, there is no shortage of resources online for finding recipes, from our full recipe list to sites like allrecipes and Epicurious. If you would rather have a book in your hands, there is still time to order The Gilded Fork: Entertaining at Home to have at your disposal for menu ideas.

Shopping

Ingredients:
Believe it or not, I don’t particularly enjoy grocery shopping, particularly if I’m feeling rushed. Thankfully there are now plenty of online delivery services to take care of that piece for you. The downside? If you like fondling your vegetables (the part I actually enjoy), the control freak in you will have to let go and accept that someone else will be picking out your potatoes. If you’re on the east coast or in Chicago, check out PeaPod (or your local supermarket’s web site). West coasters can take a look at Safeway, which has created a whole Thanksgiving section just for you.

Turkeys:
I’m not a big fan of the frozen bowling balls known as supermarket turkeys, but use them when necessary. If you prefer something a little tastier, here are some options:

• D’Artagnan: Gorgeous fresh or frozen turkeys that are delivered to your door, with 14-16 lb frozen turkeys for $65.
• Lobels: An NYC staple for Thanksgiving, they ship fresh organic and free-range turkeys for $75 and up

Wine:
Now this is a favorite, and not just because it was started by some friends of mine. Called the “Netflix of wine,” WineQ is a wine-delivery service that lets you queue up your favorites, start your own wine club, and discover what your friends are drinking.

Hostess Gifts:
If you are the lucky recipient of an invitation to a holiday party, please remember good etiquette and bring along a gift for your host. He or she is working very hard to entertain you, so a little reward is in order.

We’ve got some lovely gift ideas in the Gilded Fork Boutique, especially our Tondo flavored vinegars, so you can peruse gift options there, or at some other favorites including Dean & Deluca, Harry and David, or iGourmet.

If you want to dress *yourself* up a little, take a look at what The Hip Hostess has on display. She also features some gorgeous home decor finds.

But What If I Can’t Cook?!
Ah, the age-old dilemma. Guess what? There are solutions for that, too. Now, you could make a restaurant reservation, but I’m a huge proponent of welcoming people into my actual home for the holidays. The good news is that we have an entire country full of personal chefs, and you can find them all on the U.S. Personal Chef Association web site. Chef Mark is right here in NYC, so don’t forget to see his offerings at ReMARKablePalate.com.

Most importantly, remember to take deep breaths and not to panic. Worst-case scenario, open another bottle of wine and pour some more cocktails. It will all be just fine.

CHIC202: The Buffalo Guys

Buffalo is one of the most flavorful and nutritious foods you can consume. I talk with Ken Klemm on what is great about buffalo. He’s one of the buffalo guys. He is very knowledgeable about everything buffalo. He’s a true Western gentlemen.

ReMARKable Palate #220: Innovative Japanese Cuisine

This week, I go from Maui to New York City as we speak with 2 restaurateurs about their modern Asian style eateries. First, I chat with Chef DK Kodama of Sansei and other restaurants all over the state of Hawaii about his modern Pacific Rim style cuisine, and his support for local farmers in the state of Hawaii. I then speak with James Du, co-owner of Akai Lounge on New York’s Upper West Side, which is doing it’s part to offer innovative sushi and interpretations of Japanese classics.

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

I travelled to Hawaii as part of The “So Much More Hawaii” Press tour sponsored by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, and my travel expenses were paid for by the HTA. My meal at Akai lounge was a complimentary tasting menu. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

There are as many ways to roast a turkey as there are grandmothers to teach us their cooking secrets. Everyone seems to have their favorite method for turkey, and while we do not zealously advocate one over another, we are partial to the high-heat roasting method, which produces a crisp and brown exterior without cooking the bird so long it dries out. To ensure a moist bird, buy a kosher turkey, which has been salted to draw out the blood. Otherwise, use a brining technique to ensure a moist bird. Below is one of our favorite brine mixes, which you can use for any kind of meat.

Fruit and Spice Brine Mix

Ingredients

For the fruit and spice brining mix (makes about 3 cups):
1 cup sea salt
¾ cup sugar
3 or 4 star anise
1 tablespoon whole black or pink peppercorns
6-8 cardamom pods
1 tablespoon dried orange peel
1 tablespoon dried lemon peel
2 tablespoons dried rosemary

8 cups water
8 cups apple cider or water

Combine all dry ingredients and mix well. This brine mix will keep indefinitely in a plastic bag. To brine a 15 lb. turkey, use the whole recipe above. Add the brine mixture to 8 cups water in a large pot and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve completely. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. It should be cold before you immerse the turkey.

In a tub or bucket large enough to hold your turkey and copious amounts of liquid, combine the brine solution with 8 cups of water or apple cider. Carefully submerge the turkey in the brining solution, making sure not to spillover. (Chef Mark has learned the hard way that large birds displace a lot of liquid).

Cover and refrigerate for 6-12 hours, turning the turkey halfway through the brining time.

Before roasting the bird, remove it from the solution and rinse it thoroughly with cold water. A chef friend of ours says “I don’t mean a little spritz! Wash that bird thoroughly for a couple of minutes and pat dry thoroughly with paper towels.”

[Chef’s Note: For brining smaller amounts of meat, up to 5 lbs., use only ¾ cup of the dry mix and reduce the proportions of water and apple cider by half. If you’re short on time, you can make a very simple brine with just salt, sugar and water. The salt opens the pores of the bird and allows the moisture to be drawn in. The sugar is hydrophilic and helps to keep the moisture in the bird.]

High-Heat Roasting Method

Ingredients

1 turkey, 8-12 lbs.
Salt (if not using the brining method above)
4-5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (or compound butter – see variations below)
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 orange, cut into wedges

[Chef’s Note: This method is great for achieving a nicely browned bird with a crisp skin and moist breast meat. You should use a relatively small bird, since it requires flipping the bird. Well, you know what we mean…

As much as we love stuffing, we generally don’t cook the stuffing inside the bird. In addition to the food safety concerns, it’s just too much trouble for us. We prefer to stuff the cavity with onions and orange wedges, which help to keep in moisture and flavor.]

Equipment

Heavy-bottomed non-stick roasting pan

Preparation

Place a rack on the lowest level of the oven and preheat the oven to 425° F. Thoroughly dry the turkey with paper towels, and if you haven’t brined it, or you’re not using a kosher turkey, generously rub the body and interior cavities with salt, then brush with the melted butter. Place the chopped onions and orange wedges inside the cavity.

Place the turkey on one side, with the drumstick sticking up. If necessary, use onions or balls of aluminum foil to help keep the bird on its side. Roast it at 425° for 30 minutes, then remove and carefully turn on its other side. You can use bunched up paper towels to help you grasp the hot bird, and keep your potholders clean.

Baste the newly exposed side with the butter and pan drippings, then return to the oven and roast for 30 minutes more. Repeat this process so that the bird roasts on each side twice, for a total of 2 hours. Turn the bird with the breast facing up and baste once more, roasting until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reaches 165° F.

[Chef’s Note: Food safety requires that the bird reach 165° F for a couple of minutes to be sure that any harmful bacteria is killed, but if you leave the turkey in the oven until it reaches this point, the carryover cooking time may take it well above this temperature, and dry out the breast meat. You can remove the bird when it has reached 155-160° F.

Important note! The pop-up timers that come with most turkeys will cook the meat to oblivion to ensure no one is going to file a lawsuit for an undercooked bird, resulting in cardboard-flavored turkey. Trust your instant-read thermometer above all!]

Remove the turkey from the oven, loosely tent with foil, and allow to rest for 20-30 minutes before carving. You can prepare your favorite gravy with the pan drippings.

Variations

Sage Butter

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons fresh sage leaves, finely minced

Finely mince the fresh sage leaves and combine with the softened butter until thoroughly combined. Lay a sheet of cling wrap on the counter, and scrape out the sage butter onto it. Wrapping the cling wrap around the butter mixture, gently shape it into a log shape. Twist the ends of the cling wrap in opposite directions to enclose the log like a sausage. Place in the refrigerator until service to firm up.

[Chef’s Note: You may double or triple this recipe, and store the compound butter wrapped in plastic in the fridge or freezer for anytime you may want a tasty, buttery topping. You may also experiment with other variations, such as rosemary, thyme, or other herbs, or even blend the butter with blue cheese for another great steak topping.]

You can use any fresh herbs, alone or in combination, mixed into a compound butter, and rubbed over the skin, or even placed underneath the skin before roasting. As you know, we are also partial to truffles, and if your budget allows, you can go all out and make a turkey “in mourning” by placing a veil of sliced black truffles underneath the skin. See how we did it with hens for this recipe.

Recipes by Mark Tafoya

a test kitchen dossier

I hate turkeys. If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys. There’s turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. Someone needs to tell the turkey, man, just be yourself.
-Mitch Hedberg

Foodstuff: Turkey

Etymology
Europeans enjoyed the African Helmeted Guinea fowl, a bird that was imported from Madagascar by way of Turkey. Visitors to the New World encountered the bird we now know as the turkey, but mistakenly identified it with the helmeted guinea fowl that reached Europe in the hands of “Turkey traders,” and hence the turkey was named. In other languages, the word for turkey reflects the bird’s exotic New World origins (and often mirrors the fact that Christopher Columbus thought he had reached India when he had in fact reached the Americas). In French, for instance, the word for turkey is dinde, abbreviated from poulet d’Inde (chicken of India).

Area of Origin: Mexico

Description
The turkey is a large bird with a mild flavor that can be found either domesticated or running in the wild. Domesticated turkeys cannot fly, but wild turkeys are quite agile and can fly and run at high speeds (we know this from personal experience – don’t ask). The female turkey is smaller and less colorful than the male, and also less vocal, as only male turkeys can make the famed “gobble” sound (females make a clicking noise). Turkey meat is approximately 70% white meat and 30% dark meat, and while in the United States white meat is more popular, in most other places in the world the dark meat reigns supreme (we find it far more delicious, too).

Incidentally, whoever said bigger breasts make for better sex clearly has not spent time as a turkey. Given white turkey meat’s popularity in the U.S., many domesticated turkeys have been bred to produce large breasts. Now, most males would not object to such attributes in their female companions, but sadly these large breasts prevent the male turkey from properly bending the female forward for insemination, so today many turkey eggs are fertilized artificially. Bigger isn’t always better, folks.

Turkeys are also rumored to be rather simple-minded birds, and it is said, in fact, that if they look up while it’s raining they will drown. They also have weak hearts: Scores of turkeys reportedly dropped dead when the Air Force tried to break the sound barrier in a nearby testing area. All in all, it’s not great to be a turkey. To their credit, however, turkeys have excellent peripheral vision (270 degrees), which often helps wild turkeys to outsmart human hunters. Thankfully evolution gave them something to work with.

History
The turkey originated in Mexico, and archaeological evidence hints that the bird was domesticated as early as 200 B.C. By the time the Spanish conquistadores arrived in the Americas, the turkey had spread throughout Central, South and North America. Around 1520, explorers in the Americas brought the turkey back to Europe, and from then on it rose steadily in European popularity, often taking the place of the goose in traditional holiday meals. Later European explorers and settlers thought they were crafty in bringing turkey with them to settle in North America, and were often surprised to find the bird already living there in the wild.

Enjoyed for almost as long as there have been people around to eat them, the turkey has held a celebrated place in the United States’ history and culture. When it came time to pick a national bird for the United States of America, Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey as the official bird, and when the bald eagle was chosen instead, poor Mr. Franklin was dismayed. He believed the bald eagle had “bad moral character” for poaching other animals’ kills, and thought the turkey was “a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.”

The turkey even has a special place in modern White House politics: Since 1947, it has been an annual tradition for the President of the United States to “pardon” a turkey each Thanksgiving. The turkey, spared from becoming dinner, peacefully lives out the rest of its life in a petting zoo.

In the past half century, thanks to improvements in breeding and disease control, turkey consumption has been steadily on the rise in the United States, with annual per capita consumption reaching 16.7 pounds in 2005. Each year, about 46 million turkeys are eaten at Thanksgiving (compared with 22 million at Christmas and 19 million at Easter). Approximately 96% of Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving.

Buying Turkey
Turkeys are available fresh and frozen all year long, and you can buy them either whole or in separate parts. Turkey can be used in almost anything, thanks to its mild flavor. The bird’s large size often leaves behind a generous proportion of leftovers, so it is a comfort to many chefs that turkey works wonderfully in everything from soups and stews to salads and sandwiches. In recent years, the Southern method of deep frying the turkey has risen in popularity, while the traditional roasting of turkey remains ever-popular. The gizzards of the turkey can be used to make a flavorful gravy.

Although male (tom) turkeys can reach 70 pounds, those over 20 pounds are becoming less and less available. The female (hen) turkey usually weighs from 8 to 16 pounds. Gaining in popularity is a smaller version of both sexes (sometimes called a fryer-roaster) which weighs in at about 5-8 pounds. The trend toward these compact turkeys is the result of both smaller families and the desire of turkey producers to make turkey everyday rather than exclusively holiday fare. Turkeys are available fresh and frozen year-round, and sold both whole and as separate parts, such as breasts or drumsticks.

Cooking with Turkey
Some words of caution: Many turkeys come with a built-in plastic thermometer that pops up when the internal flesh has reached the proper temperature. Please do be aware that given our litigious society, these often cook the bird well past the point of being done to “so cooked no one can sue us” land, resulting in a dry, unappealing bird. Do yourself and your guests the service of purchasing a good thermometer and keep track of the bird’s temperature with that instead. Once the turkey reaches 165° F it is ready to come out of the oven and rest for 30 minutes.

Another important note: “Self-basting” turkeys have been injected with vegetable oil to make the cooking process “foolproof”. Unfortunately, this is big business taking us for fools. The best way to keep a turkey moist is to brine it yourself prior to cooking, or to buy a kosher bird, which has been salted to draw out the blood. To brine, make a simple solution of water, salt and sugar, and feel free to add any other aromatics you like to add flavor. The salt opens the pores of the flesh to help it draw in the moisture, and the sugar is hydrophilic, meaning it helps to keep the water inside those pores. Brine the turkey at least a day ahead of cooking, and BE SURE to rinse it off well before cooking. We don’t mean a little spritz: Wash it out very well under running water for several minutes to get rid of any saltiness. Pat dry inside and out, and then proceed with your favorite way to cook it.

Our Approach
Rather than craft an overdone array of turkey preparations merely for the sake of overdoing them, we’ve decided to give you some very straightforward yet elegant preparations for your holiday meals. We’ve also crafted a few recipes for the leftovers, because we know how tiresome that turkey starts looking on Day 3.

Happy holidays!

Recipes

Turkey Preparations: Brine, Compound Butters and High-Heat Roasting
Turkey Gumbo (perfect for leftovers!)
Turkey and Wild Mushroom Sauce (also perfect for leftovers!)

Other ideas to consider for glazing and dressing poultry:
Apple Cinnamon Glaze
En Demi-Deuil (with truffles)

Dossier research by Ava Tramer

CHIC201: Wrapped Foods

This week, two of my best students join me to talk about tamales and pierogis. These are some of the best wrapped foods you can enjoy. Sergio and James bring a special perspective to talking about their respective foods. What are your favorite wrapped foods?

[Ed: This article has become a perennial favorite. Karen Resta is one of the most engaging food philosophers I've ever met, and her writing hits me in that special place.]

by Karen Resta

The wind blows dry leaves into bursts of dance, trailing its chilly fingers down the back of your neck. Dusk wraps its muffled blanket around the trees, houses, and street, but for a dim streetlight here and there. Silence is anchoring children’s feet to the sidewalks in fear of what might be around the corner on this yearly night of enchantment.

It is Halloween night, the night we save for spooks and witches, monsters and devils, cartoon characters in plastic masks, ghosts and goddesses; the night we walk out into the darkness with those who are not real, not of this earth. We enter into the dusk in search of treats, showing ourselves in trickery, fun or frightening. Yet what is it that awaits us on the porches of the homes we approach in our determined efforts with our sacks, awaiting candy, sweets, or maybe the odd granola bar?

A familiar face greets us, and it is glowing! It is glowing from within with a light that looks like the warmth of a loving soul. Orange, bittersweet orange, bright, happy, in-your-face orange sits in the place of honor on each porch step, orange pumpkins grinning from ear to ear with delight at our presence. It is our friend the Jack-O’-Lantern.

The pumpkin is set proudly in that place of honor on Halloween night. It completes the triad of vegetables we tend to remember as first nurturing the Native American, then the Pilgrim upon arrival to this country: the fat, round, orange pumpkin; the tall, rustling, blonde cornstalk; and the merrily curling mahogany vines of beans. This jolly squash that sits on the porch on Halloween night can offer so much more than a welcome inside from the dark. Pumpkin is not just for pie.

Look closer at that glowing face on the porch this shivery Halloween night, and dream perhaps of bringing the magic of this round orange offering into the bright light of your own kitchen. How, you ask?

Here are some ideas to spark the taste buds of your imagination: tortellini, perhaps, filled with pumpkin tossed in a sweet tomato-herb butter, all dolloped into a deep round bowl; pumpkin cheesecake studded with candied ginger, towering sideways, shapely and rich; pungent broths with chunks of pumpkin and slivers of deep green, fragrant in small, round, earthenware cups; a creamy rich purée of baked pumpkin gathered next to ladles of sweetened chestnuts, nestled next to a fine garlic-studded roast; sweet pumpkin butters spiked with Caribbean rum and zests of citrus, spread thick on nutty whole-grain bread; a bite or two of herb honey-candied pumpkin melting on the tongue; mouthwatering risottos dabbled with shiny triangular bits of  soft pumpkin and sharp cheese; a flaky strudel exploding into the fine softness of puddles of nutmeg-scented cranberry pumpkin sauce; the hot fragrant crunch of a long thin spike of pumpkin tempura, dipped gently into a soy-chili sauce, transported to mouth accompanied by murmurs of sensual pleasure.

Consider, please, giving a wee smile back — with quite serious intent — when that glowing warmth of the grinning pumpkin greets you in the dark on this fearful Halloween Eve.  Inviting the Jack O’Lantern into your home as the guest of honor just might bring a taste of ethereal pleasures and mouthwatering illuminations to the feast.

Karen Resta has had an…interesting…career history, one part as Executive Chef for Partners Dining at Goldman Sachs in NYC, and another as VP for Goldman Sachs NYC. Her final career choice: Avoid the word career like the plague and refuse to talk about the juicy parts for money or fame.

This article was originally published on 10/31/05. Since then Karen has launched a fun new food blog, Postcards from the Dinner Table.

We are huge fans of risotto, as we welcome the return of cooler temperatures, when once again rich, hearty dishes return to favor.  This is a variation of a spring vegetable risotto, and the addition of the caramelized Bosc Pears, plus a hint of fall spices, serve as autumn’s calling card.  This is an ideal on its own as a main course, or as a side to slices of pork tenderloin, roasted or grilled duck, or a perfectly cooked veal chop.

Serves 4 as a main course; Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish

Ingredients

For the vegetables:
½ cup fresh carrots, small dice
½ cup frozen or high-quality fresh peas (See Chef’s Note)
2 large leeks(white and light green parts only, sliced lengthwise, then sliced on a diagonal), rinsed and drained
Kosher salt

For the caramelized pears:
6 firm (but ripe) Bosc pears (about 2 to 3 pounds), peeled, cored, and cut into a large dice (¾”)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt
1 tablespoon light brown sugar

For the risotto:
2 quarts chicken broth (can substitute vegetable broth)
½ cup coarsely chopped applewood smoked bacon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium Vidalia onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups arborio rice (risotto)
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh sage
½ cup white wine (Riesling works well here, though a Chardonnay is fine)
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, or more to taste
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Asiago cheese shavings, for garnish
Fresh sage leaves, for garnish

Preparation

Place the chicken (or vegetable) broth in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat to low, and keep the broth hot for the risotto preparation.

Blanch the vegetables:
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat.  Prepare an ice water bath by filling a large bowl with ice and filling it with cold water.  Add the carrots to the boiling water and blanch them for about 3 minutes, just until they start to soften and become bright orange.  Remove with a slotted spoon and place in the ice water bath.  Return the water to a boil and add the peas, blanching for 1 to 2 minutes until bright green.  Remove with a slotted spoon, add to the same ice water bath as the carrots.  Add the leeks to the boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes until just tender.  Remove the leeks and add to the ice water bath.  Once the leeks have cooled, drain the vegetables and set aside.

[Chef’s Note: At this time of year, unless you can find excellent fresh peas, we recommend using frozen ones, both due to their texture and sweetness.]

Caramelize the Bosc pears:
Place the butter and olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat.  Season the pears with sea salt and add to the pan.  Sauté over medium heat until the pears are browned and the edges crisp, about 7 to 8 minutes.  Add the brown sugar to the pan and toss the pears to coat.  Allow the pears to cook about 2 minutes more, until caramelized.  Set aside.

Prepare the risotto:
Place a large risotto pan, or large heavy saucepan, over medium heat.  When hot, add the bacon and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.  Add the olive oil and the onion and sauté about 2 minutes.  Add the garlic, cinnamon, allspice, and ginger, and cook until the onion is softened, about 2 minutes more.

Reduce the heat just below medium, and add the rice.  Stir until coated.  Add the sage.  Cook, stirring until the rice begins to turn a milky white, about 5 to 7 minutes.  Add the wine.  Cook, stirring frequently until the wine is absorbed, about 3 minutes.  Ladle about 1 cup of the broth into the rice mixture and cook, stirring often, until the broth is almost completely absorbed.  Continue cooking and stirring the rice, adding 1 cup of broth at a time, but only when the previous cup has been absorbed.  After about 15 minutes, begin tasting the rice and adding the broth in smaller amounts until the rice is cooked through.  When the risotto is done it should be creamy with a slight firmness (al dente) to the bite.  Your total cooking time should be about 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove from the heat.

Stir in the butter, the parsley and season with salt and pepper.  Gently fold in the vegetables.  When incorporated, gently fold in the caramelized pears.

Service

Place the risotto in warmed serving bowls.  Garnish with Asiago cheese shavings.  Serve immediately.

Recipe and photo by Donna Marie Desfor. Originally published 9/05.

In Mexico, pepitas are a favorite savory snack. Lightly toasted with salt, sugar, and a hint of chipotle chile, they are a perfect addition to a snack tray for a card game or a pre-dinner cocktail. (We do love them with a glass of Prosecco.)

Ingredients

1 cup pumpkin seeds
3 garlic cloves, minced
kosher or sea salt, to taste
2 teaspoons crushed dried cipotle chiles
sugar, to taste
lime wedges, to serve

Preparation

Scoop the seeds out of a pumpkin and rinse them briskly in a bowl of water to separate out the strings. Lay the seeds out on paper towels and blot well to dry.

Heat a heavy-bottomed sauté pan over medium-high heat and add the pumpkin seeds, dry-frying them for a few minutes. They will dry out and begin to swell. Be sure to keep the seeds moving in the pan so they don’t burn.

After the seeds have puffed up, add the minced garlic and sauté for a few minutes more, adding the salt and crushed chipotles. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the sugar over the seeds, then shake the pan well to coat the seeds.

Serve the pepitas hot with wedges of lime for squeezing over the hot seeds.

ReMARKable Palate #219: Food and Photography

This week, I bring you special audio from the participants in my
Brookyn Cookin’ food and photo workshop. You heard me talking about it the past months, well it finally took place this past weekend, with Chris Marquardt from Tips from the Top Floor co-teaching with me. We speak with the participants, and then afterwards I speak with my good friend and fellow food blogger Jaden Hair from www.SteamyKitchen.com about doing the food photography for her own cookbook.

photo by Chris Marquardt.

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

After you taste the ethereal spiciness of homemade chai tea, you will be hard-pressed to purchase it in a store ever again. It only takes a few more minutes to make than “regular” tea, and it is worth every extra second. The wonderful thing about chai is that it is a mixture of spices you can custom tailor to your own tastes; use the quantities specified below as a guideline, and adjust them to suit your palate.

2 servings

Ingredients

1 cinnamon stick
¼ teaspoon pink peppercorns
¼ teaspoon white peppercorns
¼ teaspoon black peppercorns (see Chef’s Note)
6 cardamom pods
2 cups milk
3 teaspoons high-quality loose black tea (or 3 tea bags)
2-3 tablespoons honey, to taste

Preparation

Place cinnamon stick and spices in zip-top bag or plastic wrap and crush with kitchen mallet or cast-iron pan. Add spice mixture to small pan along with milk, tea, and honey. Heat on a very low flame until steam begins to rise from the surface of the milk, stirring occasionally. Allow to steam lightly for 10-15 minutes until heavy streams of steam are rising from the surface. (If your tea bags break that is OK.)

[Chef’s Note: It is important to note that ¼ teaspoon of black peppercorns will give this mixture a significant kick. If you want to tame the peppery taste, reduce the amount to 1/8 teaspoon.

You do not want to boil the milk in this recipe. The creation of flavor relies on a slow, gentle infusion whose fragrance will make you swoon during the cooking process. We promise. If you do see small bubbles forming around the edge of the pan, the milk is ready to boil, so if you have not yet cooked the mixture for a full 15 minutes, simply turn off the heat and let it sit for the additional time, then continue with the instructions below.]

Strain mixture through a colander lined with a paper towel. Press on the spices and tea with a spoon to extract all the fragrant liquids.

Pour tea into cups and serve immediately, or chill and serve cold.

[Chef’s Note: Though tea bags might be the easiest route to take in this recipe, we really do recommend purchasing a high-quality loose black tea such as Ceylon or Assam. Teabags contain stale, dusty leaves that have been sitting on shelves since the time of Methuselah himself, and their bland flavor can detract from such a lovely creation. The bags fall apart in this recipe anyway, and you have to strain everything, so why not give yourself the indulgence of some fragrant, recently-dried black leaves?

If you prefer decaffeinated tea leaves, they can also be used, but we recommend increasing the amount of tea by 1 teaspoon to make up for the loss in flavor.]

Recipe by Jennifer Iannolo

Dinner party nightmares. We’ve all experienced them: Someone puts a plate down in front of you, or arrives at your door with a little “special something” to serve during the party. As good guests and hosts we try to oblige, but the gag reflex is in full effect and it’s all we can do to endure the experience.

Since it’s Halloween week, we’re delving into the realm of the scary with this week’s Gilded Fork Cookbook giveaway.

What’s the most frightening thing you have ever been served (or brought to serve) at a dinner party? Post your comments here, and the one that makes us cringe the most will be announced as the winner on Monday, October 26th.

Go to it!

P.S. If you’d rather not participate in this most disturbing display, you are welcome to purchase the cookbook (did we mention that every copy is signed by us?) in our Gilded Fork Boutique.

Also, to avoid being the source of said nightmares, we recommend said cookbook. We also have lots of recipes and entertaining tips here on Culinary Media Network.

CHIC Podcast #200: Chef Herve Chabert

Chef Herve Chabert joins us this week for the CHIC podcast. He has a strong resume in pastry and education. He gave us demonstrations on brioche and puff pastry. We talk about his upbringing and his career. He also tells us what to look for when visiting Chicago.

a test kitchen dossier

Honey comes out of the air….At early dawn the leaves of trees are found bedewed with honey…. Whether this is the perspiration of the sky or a sort of saliva of the stars, or the moisture of the air purging itself, nevertheless it brings with it the great pleasure of its heavenly nature. It is always of the best quality when it is stored in the best flowers.
- Pliny (A.D. 23-79) ‘Natural History’, book 20

Foodstuff: Honey

Etymology: From the Old English huniġ; honeycomb is from the Old English huniġcamb

Area of Origin: Middle East

Definition
What would life be like without the supple sweetness of honey? A versatile ingredient, this timeless sweetener can be used in just about every type of cooking, and is featured in the food of nearly every culture around the world. Made from the busy work of bees, honey is their food supply for the long winter months when flowers have gone dormant. Happily, the European species of bee (Apis Mellifera) produce enough excess that our own palates may be sated. We’re grateful for their productivity.

History
Honey has been a staple of kitchens since man developed a sweet tooth, which seems to be on record as far back as ancient Babylonian times (Twenty-First Century B.C.), as well as in documentation from other countries in that part of the world, including India and Egypt. One odd thing we discovered was that honey in fact does not go bad when kept at room temperature, though it may thicken or crystallize with time. Incredibly, honey pots from Egyptian tombs have been found containing honey that is still edible.

As a valued foodstuff, honey was not only used as a sweetener in ancient cultures, but as currency as well. In Ancient Greece it was used in tribute to the gods, particularly in mead (considered the drink of the gods). One also hears of the Biblical term “the land of milk and honey,” referring to the lands of Israel and Palestine, which were said to be brimming with plenty.

In the modern age, honey has become a bit of a delicacy; with the prevalent use of refined sugars, honey is often a treat or special ingredient. Artisanal production methods have resulted in numerous varietals of honey, which can be as esoteric as the truffled variety (we swooned when we discovered that one).

Though more details can be found in our review of Covered in Honey: The Amazing Flavors of Varietal Honey, below is a general overview.

Honey Varietals
There are more than 300 varietals of honey available in the United States alone. Apart from artisanal varietals, most commercially found (supermarket) honeys are a blend of clover and alfalfa, and can be found as liquid, spreads (whipped), and in the combs themselves. Here are some of our favorites:

Clover & Alfalfa: Popular varietal, found on supermarket shelves; mild-flavored, light-colored
Buckwheat: Darker color, more pungent flavor
Wildflower: Dark color, very sharp, molasses-like flavor
Lavender: Light in color, beautiful for baking; light scent of lavender
Truffle: To die for. Earthy yet sweet, with a pungent fragrance

Best Matches
Honey is beautifully matched with mildly flavored creams (hence our decision to pair it with Mascarpone cheese this month). It is also a delicious accompaniment to many fruits, including apples, figs, and pears.

Typical Uses
As a sweetener, honey can be used “straight” in beverages, or as a component of recipes to add delicate sweetness. It is also a wonderful thickener for sweet and savory sauces, and a good base for barbecue sauces and glazes. We’ll go into this in more detail in this month’s Test Kitchen Notes.

Our Approach
We are honey freaks, and we loved exploring its uses in both Middle Eastern dishes and as an alternative in baking, so we will feature a variety or uses this month.

Recipes

Honeyed Chai Tea
Pork Tenderloin with Asian Honey Glaze
Honeyed Carrot Cake
Persian Almond Honey Brittle
Moroccan Lemon Chicken with Chickpeas and Honeyed Sauce
Honey Biscotti
Mascarpone Cheesecake with Honeyed Pistachios
Lavender & Honey Roasted Chicken
Ever After Cocktail
Rosemary & Honey Roasted Pears
Honey Souffle with Earl Gray Anglaise
Roasted Fennel with Lavender & Honey Marinade
Milk & Honey Lavender Sorbet
Honey Lavender Caramels
Mascarpone Brownies with Honey Chocolate Sauce
Champagne Sabayon with Roasted Strawberries and Honey Pecan Twists

Resources:
National Honey Board
Honeyview Farm

Jennifer and Chef Mark enjoy a tour of the Stroud Brewery in the Cotswolds. Greg and Ian show them how they make their small batch craft brew, and tell some stories of the historic location they’re in.

A production of the Culinary Media Network.
www.culinarymedianetwork.com

by Mani Niall

There’s a whole lot happening in this episode, from my trip to BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas to my journey through the Cotswolds in the UK. I’m also continuing my Sex on a Plate adventures, so please do join me for a little stimulating conversation.

Among other things, I was invited to see Zumanity in Las Vegas — the sensual side of Cirque du Soleil. Suffice it to say, the show’s sumptuous, erotic display gave me much inspiration for what is ahead. Today’s show also features interviews with Sally Jarrett from Prince Charles’ Highgrove shop and Chef Shane Kisby from The Priory Inn, both in Tetbury, England.

I’m also sharing a little love for my dear friends C.C. Chapman, Laura Fitton and Jen Kushell, who were all with me for some tasty meals in Las Vegas.

And hey, have you purchased your signed copy of the Gilded Fork cookbook? (shop.gildedfork.com)

Music: Beau Hall (www.beaurocks.com), George Fletcher’s Bourbon Renewal (www.georgefletcher.com)

Food Philosophy is a production of the Culinary Media Network (www.culinarymedianetwork.com)

When it comes to simple desserts, there are few things as comforting and satisfying as warm pears. Don’t be deceived by the simplicity of this recipe; treated to a simple roasting, this is an elegant and flavorful way to enjoy them. Fragrant sprigs of sweet rosemary add a wonderful, yet unusually aromatic and peppery flavor to an otherwise ordinary dessert. This is also a perfect dessert for effortless entertaining — just prepare ahead of time and pop into the oven to roast while enjoying your main course. Buy firm pears, as they maintain their shape best with heat.

6 servings

Ingredients

For the roasted pears:
3 large firm Bosc pears, peeled, quartered and cored
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup good quality honey, such as Wildflower, Orange Blossom or even Rosemary Blossom honey
2 large sprigs of rosemary, cut in half
1 cinnamon stick
Strips of lemon zest from 1/2 lemon

For the whipped crème fraîche:
1 6-ounce container of crème fraîche
1 teaspoon honey

Good quality aged balsamic vinegar, for drizzling

Equipment

Handheld or electric mixer
Melon baller
Vegetable peeler
Zester

Preparation

Prepare the roasted pears:
Preheat oven to 450° F. Place the pears in a baking dish at least 8 x 8-inch in size. Add the rest of the ingredients and roast in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until the pears are just tender and caramelized, basting occasionally with the honey juices.

Prepare the whipped crème fraîche:
Beat the crème fraîche and honey together with a mixer until fluffy and a soft whipped texture. Do not over-whip. Refrigerate until needed.

Remove from the oven and serve warm with the whipped crème fraîche.

[Chef's Note: If you enjoy the pear skins, feel free to leave them on, as they take on a beautiful deep-amber glaze when roasted.]

Service

Place two pear quarters on each plate, spoon a dollop or a quenelle of the whipped crème fraîche on top and drizzle with the extra honey syrup from the roasting dish and balsamic vinegar. Enjoy warm!

Variation

Replace the pears with apples for another delicious late-summer or fall dessert.

Recipe and photo by Monica Glass

ReMARKable Palate #218: Stroud Brewery

This week, it’s back to the Cotswolds region of England, where we recently had the pleasure of meeting Greg Pilley from the Stroud Brewery. The Stroud brewery is truly a local microbrew, making small batch craft beer in the village of Thrupp in Gloucestershire. Greg tells us about his unlikely path to running a brewery, and we also learn about why the spot in which they brew has a unique place in history.

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

We join Chef Lidia Bastianich at the NY Botanical Garden’s Edible Garden as she demonstrates some great recipes using fresh garden herbs and vegetables. Here she makes a savory crostata filled with rice, zucchini & ricotta cheese.

A production of the Culinary Media Network.
www.culinarymedianetwork.com

After a few days at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas, we definitely came away inspired by old friends and new, re-energized by the strides they are making to enhance this lil’ experience we’re all having on the interwebs.

Looks like we’re not alone. We had some great responses to this week’s giveaway about who inspires you most in new media, and the Gilded Fork Cookbook goes to…

…Sean Park from Take Thou Food! (He’s also @TakeThouFood on Twitter.)

Sean has been inspired by Ree Drummond from The Pioneer Woman, a site I recently discovered for myself — and fell in love with for its beautiful design, photography and healthy pinch of sass. As someone who “channels Lucille Ball and Ethel Merman,” Ree has inspired students on Sean’s campus to get in the kitchen. As Sean says, “A lot of my friends around campus who had zero interest in cooking really got into it after discovering Ree’s site. She makes it look easy and the step-by-step photo/instructions helped my friends get inspired.”

I hope you will take a look at her work and Sean’s, because both convey the kind of passion we like to celebrate! Congrats, Sean!

P.S. That Beat Cancer effort? It made the Guinness Book of World Records as the most widespread social media network message in 24 hours. Well done!!

CHIC Podcast #199: Tango Sur

This week we visit Argentina at a restaurant called Tango Sur. It’s on Chicago’s North side. The order of the day is meat and plenty of it. Wook Kang and I talk about what to order at an Argentine restaurant. I loved the intestines! We also take on some listener mail from Singapore.

Fall’s bounty of fresh pumpkins, crisp sweet bell peppers, and tender zucchini blend tastefully together over creamy, warm polenta. Roasting the pumpkin pieces along with the other vegetables releases their natural sugars, making them tender and rich with caramelized flavor. This simple dish will be sure to please anyone on a cool autumn evening.

4 servings

Ingredients

For the roasted pumpkin and vegetables:
3 cups fresh pumpkin, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups fresh sweet red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups fresh zucchini, cut into 1-inch pieces
¼ cup olive oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper, to taste

For the polenta:
4 cups water
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup polenta or course ground cornmeal
2 cups half and half
¼ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Equipment

Roasting pan
Serrated knife
Medium saucepan
Large non-stick skillet

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Prepare the roasted pumpkin and vegetables:
Using a serrated knife, cut and peel the pumpkin into 1-inch pieces. Next, cut the red bell pepper and zucchini into 1-inch pieces. Place vegetables in a roasting pan lined with aluminum foil. Drizzle about half of the olive oil over the vegetables and gently toss. Spread the vegetables into a single layer and place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until tender and caramelized. Remove from the oven and cool slightly.

[Chef’s Note: It is important to cut all the vegetables about the same size so they roast evenly.]

Prepare the polenta:
While the vegetables are roasting, combine the water, salt and butter in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the temperature, and slowly add the polenta while continuously stirring with a wooden spoon. When the polenta is completely incorporated into the water mixture and smooth, slowly pour in the half and half. Continue to stir well. Add the grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and continue to stir for about 5 minutes or until polenta is creamy and smooth. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Sauté the roasted vegetables:
When the vegetables are roasted and slightly cooled, heat the remaining olive oil in a large skillet. Add the minced garlic and sauté for about a minute. Be careful not to brown the garlic as it will become bitter. Add the roasted vegetables and toss with the garlic and oil for about 4 minutes or until tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Service

Spoon a portion of the polenta onto a serving plate and top with the roasted pumpkin vegetable mixture. Serve immediately.

Recipe and photo by Lia Soscia

As promised, we’re going to be running a different contest each and every week until the end of the year, as as a prize, you can win your very own SIGNED copy of our Gilded Fork: Entertaining at Home Cookbook!

This week, we’re in Las Vegas attending Blog World Expo ‘09, the largest gathering of bloggers, podcasters, and other New Media types around, and having a great time connecting with friends both old and new. Among others we’ve had the chance to hang out with Grammar Girl, CC Chapman (one of the photo contributors to the book), Ariel Hyatt from CyberPR, Jason Van Orden, Chris Brogan, Rob Blatt, Howard Greenstein, Jim Turner, Rick Calvert (The head honcho of Blog World), Jen Kushell from YSN.com, and so many more. One of the things that we’re reminded of at these events is just how many enormously talented people are out there producing great content, and helping others perfect their own use of the media.

In particular, Christine Lu and Chris Noble are spearheading an effort this week at Blog World to beat cancer! By promoting the use of the hastag #beatcancer on twitter, they’ve managed to get a number of big companies, including eBay, PayPal, and Miller, to donate money to the effort, and in the process, they’re trying to beat a world record for most mentions of a single hashtag in one week.

So we thought we’d ask you: Who do YOU think is doing a great job in this cyberworld? Who do you admire for their great content, their commitment to a cause? Who puts out amazing shows on a regular basis that you love to consume and can’t imagine living without?

Add a comment to this post with the ONE person you admire the most, and give them some link love. And while you’re at it, be sure to pingback this post with one of your own so the person you’re giving love to knows you think they’re great. We’ll take all the comments and pick one at random on Monday October 19th at Noon EST, and that commenter will win a copy of our Gilded Fork Cookbook.

Of course, we know you’ll comment just to show appreciation for someone cool, right? But who knows, you just may win a signed cookbook!

ReMARKable Palate #217: The Cotswold Food Store

This week, I speak with Richard Brooks from the Cotswold Food Store & Cafe, a new business in the UK which brings together dozens of local and artisanal food products made in the region, and which serves as an example of how a local business can bring specialty foods together and make being a “locavore” an easy task. Richard took me through his shoppe and introduced me to so many local specialty products, so get ready for a quick intro to the foods of the Cotswolds!

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

This summer I was invited by Wines from Spain and the Rias Baixas wine region to explore their viniferous offerings. I came away from the trip with a lot of new thoughts on white wines, as they hadn’t held much excitement for me — until I discovered why. A big part of enjoying wine comes from finding out what you like, the reasons you like it, and building from the flavor notes that attract your senses, so much was revealed to me in the span of this tour. With 3 winery visits a day for the better part of a week, I really got to know the nuances of Albarino grapes and Rias Baixas winemaking, so I now feel more empowered and knowledgeable in my search for the flavors that awaken my palate. I hope my findings will help you to discover the sparks that awaken your own.

During my trip I toured the 4 sub-regions of Rias Baixas exploring both large and small winemakers, including Pazo de Señoráns, the winery of the D.O.’s founder, Marisol Bueno. The region is known for the fortitude of its female winemakers, which I have to admit, made me smile.

I’ll be releasing a series of videos and stories about the region, but for now here’s a little taste of my arrival in Santiago de Compostela, a site of pilgrimage for many Catholics. You might hear a sound that is quite unexpected coming from Spain. (Please pardon the video quality — been working out bugs with the conversions.)

A production of the Culinary Media Network (www.culinarymedianetwork.com).

Full disclosure: Travel and accommodations for this trip were provided by Wines from Spain. Any opinions expressed, however, are my own.

Welcome to our one-stop resource for your entertaining questions, quandaries and helpful hints. We know how stressful the entire process can be, but our goal is to do as much of the work for you as possible — we’d rather you spend most of your time enjoying yourself and the company you’ve invited into your home.

If you purchased our Gilded Fork: Entertaining at Home Cookbook, you have 13 menus to choose from, so that’s a good place to start. Now there are some details to be dealt with, so we’ve compiled our favorite how-to articles and printouts to help:

Planning 101: The Power of the List – A little Type-A goes a long way
The Magic of Ambience – A how-to for decor, from table displays to music and lighting
The Good Host: Grace Under Fire – How to pull it all together without tearing your hair out

OK, so we like lists. Our reasoning behind this little bit of Type-A behavior is that once it’s on paper, it’s out of your crowded brain and less likely to be forgotten (and overwhelming). Here are some we love:

Household List
Shopping List
Master Calendar

Now all you need to do is get to it! If you want to riff on our menus a bit, feel free to peruse our full list of recipes for some ideas, as well as a great list of cocktails including wine, liquor and non-alcoholic varieties.

If you have questions, please feel free to post them below and we’ll do our best to answer you quickly. You can also find us on Twitter (Jennifer and Chef Mark), where we are often doling out tips, recipes and other tasty suggestions. We’ll continue adding to this entertaining page as we find new items for you, but for now we think this is a great starter kit. Into the kitchen!

CHIC Podcast #198: Southwestern Food

Just back from Santa Fe, New Mexico we talk about Southwestern food today. We ate some great food and had some great hospitality from the folks of New Mexico. We had everything from street food to the finest dining experiences. Come with me as we explore everything with green chiles.

As you know, we like to travel around the world and bring back videos of our exploration of world cuisine. Well, we’ve finally found a great new service that allows us to easily display the videos from each of the trips we take, and to more easily share them on other websites. It’s a new website called www.yubby.com, and they’re one of the sponsors of the 2009 Blog World Expo. They make it easy to aggregate videos on any topic into channels that are more easily shared.

Here are a few of the CMN Travels Feeds for your enjoyment. You can grab the embed code to display any of them on your own website or blog in the lower left hand corner of each widget.

We’ll soon have each of these feeds in iTunes as well.

And here’s a widget that plays ALL our CMN Travels content in one widget that pops up each channel in a separate window:

Well, you guys really came through, and with 54 comments, we got the most for just about any post here on Culinary Media Network! This week’s inaugural Gilded Fork Cookbook Giveaway was all about your perfect guest list for a dinner party. We asked which 5 guests you would invite to your dinner party (of course we assume you’ll be preparing one of the dinner party menus in our Gilded Fork Entertaining at Home cookbook!).

We had some great answers, including some pretty unusual guest lists! What struck us more than anything was the juxtaposition of some of the people, and the fact that most people picked at least one or two folks from their real lives in their “dream team”.

We picked one poster at random (seriously, we closed our eyes, scrolled through the comments, and put our finger on the screen!), and this week’s winner is….

Diego Moya from www.cookdiegocook.com

What’s great about these kinds of contests is that a whole bunch of people come out of lurking and post on the site, and we get a little more insight into the fascinating people who are reading and consuming our content. In this case, Diego has an insightful blog with his thoughts about food and cooking, and some pretty darn amazing photos of the food he cooks and grows in his garden. We urge you to go check it out. And while you’re at it, go through the comments of many of the other folks, and check out their blogs. Some great stuff by some great people.

Hey Diego, contact us at info@culinarymedianetwork.com and let us know where to send your cookbook, and how you want it dedicated!

Come back next week for another Gilded Fork Cookbook giveaway. We promise that we’ll mix it up each week, sometimes asking a trivia question, sometimes it may be a scavenger hunt on our site, or heck, we may even ask you to submit a video! We’ll be giving away one cookbook a week until the end of the year.

HOWEVER, if you like what we’re doing here at CMN, there’s no reason why you can’t head over right now and order your own signed copy. We’ll even dedicate it however you want it. So buy one for yourself now, and enter each week to win one for a friend. Or buy one for a friend now and come back next week to see if you can win one for yourself!

Also, remember that we have a great affiliate program, where you can earn a commission on all orders you send our way, whether it’s for the cookbook, Tondo balsamic vinegar, flavored sea salts, artisanal olive oils, or even gift certificates.

ReMARKable Palate #216: The Foods of Peru

I speak with Chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino, one of the vanguard chefs of Lima Peru, who is trying to highlight the native foods of the Amazon at his Malabar restaurant in Lima. I then speak with Moises Olivares, at the Sol y Luna Lodge & Resort in the Sacred Valley, high in the Andes Mountains, where Chef Schiaffino is the Executive chef and oversees the culinary programs. I learn all about the unique dishes of this truly food-obsessed country!

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

Full Disclosure: Our attendance at La Mistura, travel to Peru and accomodations were sponsored by PromPeru, as part of a Press Trip of North American journalists to learn about many foods of Peru.

Though we are loathe to say it, the holiday season is almost upon us, so we’ve set our sights on making it a bit more fun. And since we happened to publish a shiny new Gilded Fork: Entertaining at Home cookbook, we’d like to help ease the stress.

By giving away free cookbooks.

Between now and the end of the year we’ll be posting a Question of the Week (which we’ll also link to from our blogs, Twitter & Facebook). Post your comments here on the CMN site and we’ll pick a random winner to receive a free cookbook. First question is at the bottom of this post to kick things off.

Or, hey, if you don’t want to think that hard, you can just buy a book. And tell your friends to buy them too, because the books really want to go to good homes.

To be sure you’re following the action, here’s where our questions might turn up:

Food Philosophy
ReMARKable Palate
Jennifer on Twitter
Chef Mark on Twitter
Facebook fan page

Good luck!

Question of the Week #1: What 5 guests (living or dead) would you invite to your perfect dinner party?

Jennifer’s guest list: Ayn Rand, Julia Child, Claude Monet, and my new pals David Rosengarten and Colleen Coplick

Chef Mark’s guest list: Jacques Pepin, David Sedaris & Amy Sedaris, JRR Tolkien, & my good friend Jaden from Steamy Kitchen!

Now you — GO! Post your guest list below! We’ll pick a winner at noon on Friday, October 9.

a test kitchen dossier

I’ve learned there are three things you don’t discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin.
- Linus, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Foodstuff: Pumpkin

Etymology: Alteration of obsolete pumpion, from obsolete French pompon, popon, from Old French pepon, from Late Latin pepon, from Latin, watermelon or gourd, from Greek, ripe, large melon.

Area of Origin: North America, specifically southern Mexico.

Description
Such a happy little friend is the bright orange pumpkin. He makes us think of jack o’ lanterns, fairy tale coaches, Ichabod Crane and even the Land of Oz. However, we rather like to eat him instead! Botanically, pumpkin is usually listed along with summer squash, but because it has a harder exterior and more solid flesh than zucchini, yellow, and other varieties of summer squash, it is typically grouped in with winter squash. Unlike winter squash, however, pumpkin is usually available just in the early autumn months; of course, this might have more to do with the market demanding pumpkins in October, when the vast majority of larger pumpkins go for decoration and for jack o’ lanterns! Pumpkin, like other orange colored vegetables, is high in beta–carotene.

History
Pumpkin seeds dating as far back as 7000 BC have been found in Mexico, and references from other continents can be found in the evolution of the pumpkin’s name from Latin, Greek and Old French. In North America, however, the pumpkin’s use is most well known.

Native American Indians used pumpkin as a staple in their diets centuries before the pilgrims landed, and made use of all parts of the pumpkin in their daily activities. They dried strips of pumpkin and wove them into mats, roasted long strips for eating, and used their flesh in recipes both savory and sweet. Interestingly enough, the origin of pumpkin pie is thought to have occurred when the colonists sliced off the pumpkin top, removed the seeds, and then filled it with milk, spices and honey. The pumpkin was then baked in the hot ashes of a dying fire (Source: www.pumpkinpatch.com).

Picking Pumpkins
Look for a hard rind with a firm stem and a bright orange color. The best pumpkin is like a gem: It should be perfect, deep and vibrant in color, and the surface should be smooth with no soft spots or cracks. When knocked, it should have a pleasant hollow “thump,” and be heavy for its size (which indicates a good ratio of flesh to inner cavity).

There is no significant difference in taste between large and small pumpkins, and although large pumpkins are prized at state fairs and for the scariest jack o’ lanterns, the best pumpkins for eating are the smaller ones (those less than four pounds) because the inner flesh is less fibrous. You will sometimes see “baking pumpkins” or “sugar pumpkins” in the supermarket, which do tend to be smaller and sweeter. Choose these whenever possible.

Cooking with Pumpkins
Pumpkins keep for a long time if kept in a cool place, and if the flesh is unblemished. Note: Since the outer flesh is so hard and durable (good for the pumpkin), it can be hard to get at the tender inner flesh (bad for Peter Peter).

To get chunks of pumpkin flesh for sautéing or for another purpose, it’s easiest to peel away the outer skin first, the same way you might remove the outer flesh of an orange. Cut off the top and bottom so that the pumpkin lies flat, then use a sharp knife to remove the outer flesh, curving along the outside from top to bottom. One you’ve removed all the skin, then you can cut it in half and remove the seeds and flesh.

If making pumpkin purée, you can simply cut the pumpkin open, remove the inner strings and seeds, and steam or bake the halves until the flesh is tender. Then you can scrape the flesh away and mash it or pass it through a ricer. It’s never advisable to boil pumpkin, as it absorbs too much water and gets mushy, and boiling leeches out the vitamins into the water (there’s nothing like orange water down the drain to ruin the pumpkin-esque goodness of a recipe).

Pumpkin seeds, or pepitas (recipe below), are incredibly popular as a snack in Mexico, where the pumpkin is native. They are a healthy snack for the kids, and are easy to make.

Pumpkin blossoms are also a tasty treat which can be enjoyed in many ways. (Be sure to peek inside to ensure no small insects are in there!) You may also wish to remove the stamen, which can sometimes be bitter. Pumpkin blossoms can be filled with goat cheese or ricotta, and cooked in a light tomato sauce, or lightly fried in oil.

Our Approach
We love pumpkin in both sweet and savory dishes given its smooth texture and hint of sweetness. We’ve used it in curry and bisque, and savored the crunch of pepitas. We couldn’t ignore the sweeter side, naturally, so there are also a few yummy desserts to savor (save some for holiday baking!).

Recipes

Calabacitas
Thai Red Curry Beef and Pumpkin
Roasted Pumpkin & Vegetable Medley with Creamy Polenta
Pumpkin Bisque
Pumpkin Streusel Cake
Pumpkin Flan with Ancho Chile Brittle
Pepitas (Spicy Pumpkin Seeds)

It’s back to Cardiff for an unexpected extra day of exploration. Chef Mark runs around the town discovering the covered 19th Century arcades, then stops in for a bite at the Victorian-era Central Market.

A production of the Culinary Media Network.
www.culinarymedianetwork.com

CHIC Podcast #197: Pumpernickel Bread & More

This week I had a request for pumpernickel bread. Normally, I would send the requester to the bakery to get a proper one but I thought I would try my hand at it. It was easy but it took 3 whole days to make it. I’ll tell you all about it. Plus we talk about some great restaurants here in Chicago. I guess they weren’t enticing enough for the Olympic committee. We love them though.

ReMARKable Palate #215: Rob Rees, The Cotswold Chef

This week, Jennifer and I speak with Chef Rob Rees, who is known as The Cotswold Chef because he is a champion for the foods of this adorable region in the UK. Rob helped us to get acquainted with the foods of the Cotswolds by arranging for a number of visits with local food producers, cheesemakers, and brewers. But first, we stopped in to Rob’s cottage on a rainy day and he made us lunch! His cute little girl even got in on the act!

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

This hearty soup offers the perfect segue from summer to autumn, making use of those last fresh ears of corn from the farmer’s market. The chipotle and chorizo sausage add a subtle, smoky heat and spice combination that is a perfect foil for the soup’s creamy richness. You can also substitute frozen corn if winter leaves you yearning for a belly-warming bowl of goodness.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 small chorizo sausages (dried)
3 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (can substitute frozen)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 1/4 cups chicken stock
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 (or more) chipotle pepper, canned, packed in adobo sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt
Cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Preparation

Melt the butter in a sauce pot over medium-low heat. Add the chorizo and corn, turning to coat. Cook for about 15 minutes until the mixture starts to brown slightly. Add the onion and garlic, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft and the mixture begins to stick.

Remove from heat, add the chicken stock and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen the caramelized pieces. Using an immersion blender, blend some or all of the mixture, depending upon your preference, for a chunky or smooth puree.

Add the cream and place the pot on medium-low heat. Bring almost to a boil (when bubbles start to form around the edges of the pot). Season with a pinch of salt and allow the soup to bubble gently until it is reduced by about 1/4.

Finely chop the chipotle pepper into a mash and add a tablespoon at a time to taste. Continue cooking for 5 more minutes.

Serve with chopped cilantro as a garnish to add a citrusy sparkle of flavor.

After several days here in Peru, one thing has become apparent: This is a culture deeply in love with its food. Nowhere else have I seen such a strong emotional connection to the kitchen and table. In kicking off La Mistura, Peru’s annual culinary festival, Chef Gaston Acurio talked about the state of the economy, and how food is the one sector that is growing in this country — because the emotional connection Peruvians have with their food is the last thing they’re willing to let go. Instead, they are spending their scarce funds on high-quality food products and ensuring that one integral piece of their lives remains intact.

There is something to be learned from this. To eat in Peru is to take the pleasure of dining and hospitality to a level we rarely see in the U.S. Even the fast food here is of better quality — and I’m happy to say that Bembo’s, the national burger chain, is outselling the golden arches, simply because the food is better.

Service is also prized here, and Peruvians demand the very best. The quality is evident at every level, from street foods like anticuchos (hearts, liver and intestines), papa rellena (a mixture of beef, onions and olives deep fried in a mashed potato crust) and picarones (fried dough) to the more exotic fare found in the city’s best restaurants.

With such a rich choice of ingredients, my palate has been surprised a number of times with new textures and flavors, including some from the Amazon that I’ll detail in a later post. We’ve practically gorged ourselves on ceviche and pisco sours, both national treasures. We’ve even sampled cuy (guinea pig), which is surprisingly good, especially when the skin is crisped to a crunchy finish.

It will take me a while to really absorb and share what I’m experiencing here, because it’s life-changing. I’ve never had so many new flavors in a matter of days, so my palate is still reeling from the experience.

We are now in the Sacred Valley in preparation for our trip to Machu Picchu, and it seems that everywhere I look the landscape is bursting with colors and textures — my senses will remember this trip for many years to come. We’ll have videos, photos and podcasts in the months to come, and can’t wait to share it all, but for now we’ll post as much as we can. It’s difficult when we’re always on the go (I’m supposed to be sleeping right now, as I have a 6:45 AM train to Machu Picchu), but at the very least you can take a peek at my Facebook albums:

La Mistura Culinary Festival
Lima Market Visit & Ceviche Lesson
Lima: Photos of the City
Museum of Archaeology (and Erotica – my fave!)
Sacred Valley & Pisac Market (and me on an ATV – w00t!)

Top two photos by Jennifer Iannolo
Bottom photo by Mark Tafoya

One of our favorite uses for the delicious pumpkin, this fall soup never fails to satisfy. The addition of sherry elevates the dish to something sublime. For the ne plus ultra of soups, serve with a small dollop of foie gras mousse, or drizzle whole wheat toast points with truffle oil.

6 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 leeks, including light green parts, sliced and thoroughly rinsed
1 celery stalk, diced
1 small onion, diced
3 ½ cups diced, peeled pumpkin
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 fresh sage leaves
2 quarts chicken stock
1 tablespoon kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 Tablespoons Fino sherry

[Chef’s Note: Tie the bay leaf, thyme sprigs and sage leaves together into a bouquet garni, or wrap into a sachet using cheesecloth, so that it can be removed easily at the end of the cooking time.]

Equipment

Medium soup pot
Immersion blender

Preparation

In a medium soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the leeks, garlic, celery and onion. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, 7 to 10 minutes. Add the pumpkin, herbs and stock and bring to a boil. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes, or until the pumpkin is tender and cooked through.

Remove the bouquet garni. Purée the soup with a handheld immersion blender until no lumps remain. If necessary, pass the soup through a sieve. Return the soup to the pot and add the sherry. Bring the soup back to a simmer. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve in warmed soup bowls with croutons or a swirl of cream.

Variations

You can dress this up in many ways, including adding a dollop of foie gras mousse with truffled toast points, as mentioned, or drizzle with a balsamic and maple reduction, a dollop of harvest spiced crème fraîche, or pepitas (mexican spiced pumpkin seeds).

Recipe by Mark Tafoya

CHIC Podcast #196: Let’s Eat More Fish

We kept talking about it. This week we do it. We select, bone, fillet and cook our fish. We prepare flounder meuniere. It’s a beautiful presentation by Chef Wook.

We’re visiting the amazingly diverse city of Lima Peru this week, and attending “La Mistura“, Peru’s 2nd annual gastronomic festival, celebrating all things Peruvian & food in one huge party. Combining a food fair with tastes from fine dining restaurants, street vendors, and everyone in between. There’s also a conference on sustainability, the cultural identity of Peru’s cuisine, contests, and demos by famous chefs. We’ll have extensive audio and video coverage of the events of La Mistura, as well as our discoveries of this beautiful country, coming soon. In the meantime, here are just a few images from the festival.

Chef Gaston Acurio, Peru’s star chef, and the chief force behind the organization of La Mistura, showing press around the festival before the official opening.

Foods of the Amazon. Did you know that over 60% of Peru is Amazon Forest?

Chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York speaks to the Peruvian crowd about methods he uses to produce the majority of the food he serves in his restaurant. Chef Barber spoke of his newfound love for the foods of Peru, and said that he thinks Peruvian food will be the next big cuisine worldwide.

Jennifer gets jiggy with some of the MANY aji peppers found in Peru!

Chef Mark enjoys anticuchos (little bites) of cow’s heart on a skewer, with chicken livers and tripe.

Cayo, sous-chef at Fernando Pacheco’s Caplina restaurant, presents his ceviche, which we learned to make. We’ll have a video of Chef Pacheco showing Chef Mark how it’s done!

Chef Mark’s facebook photo albums from Peru:

Lunch at Madeira Restaurant

Visit to the International Potato Research Center

Dinner at Astrid & Gaston Restaurant

Dinner at Malabar with Chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino

Lima Market & Making Ceviche

Lima Cityscapes

Jennifer’s Facebook photo albums:

Photos around Lima

Market Visit & Ceviche Lesson

Restaurants: Astrid y Gaston & Malabar

La Mistura Culinary Festival

Full Disclosure: Our attendance at La Mistura, travel to Peru and accomodations were sponsored by PromPeru, as part of a Press Trip of North American journalists to learn about the fair and the many foods of Peru.

A simple dessert to warm you up on chilly nights, there is no better way to celebrate the comforting flavors of fall than with this bread pudding. Sweet caramelized apples and toasted bread cubes sing in a warm cinnamon-laced custard. The cider caramel sauce itself is divine, but particularly so when generously poured over the voluptuous pudding.

Find this recipe in our new Gilded Fork Cookbook!

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

For the bread pudding:
4 apples (Braeburn, Gala, Fuji or Empire recommended), peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup butter
1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
pinch of salt
1/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 loaf of Brioche or Challah bread, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla (increase to 1 tablespoon if omitting the vanilla bean)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
1 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted

For the cider caramel sauce:
1 cup apple cider
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 cup heavy cream, warmed
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt

Equipment

8×8 baking dish
Large saucepan
Non-stick baking spray
Pastry brush
Rubber spatula
Tall non-reactive metal pot
Whisk
Wooden spoon

Preparation

For the bread pudding:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Toast the bread cubes in the oven until they are crispy, but not burnt, about 10-15 minutes. Place in a large bowl and set aside.

Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large saucepan. Add the vanilla bean, brown sugar and salt, stir until the sugar is dissolved and then add the apples. Sauté the apples until caramelized and the sugar becomes a thick syrup consistency. Set aside to cool.

Combine the heavy cream, milk, vanilla and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together the eggs, yolks and sugar. Remove the milk from the heat and slowly temper the eggs with the hot milk, whisking as you combine the two. Whisk in the cinnamon and nutmeg and remove the vanilla bean. Pour the liquid over the bread cubes in a large bowl; add the caramelized apples, walnuts or pecans and mix to combine. Let sit for about 1 hour to completely soak all of the bread with the liquid.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a baking dish with either non-stick baking spray or butter. Place the soaked bread cubes into the prepared baking dish and gently press to create and even layer on the top. Bake in the preheated oven until the custard is set and bread is puffed and golden brown on top, about 45 minutes.

For the cider caramel:
Place the apple cider in a small saucepan. Bring to a low boil over a medium flame and simmer until the liquid has reached a dense syrup-like consistency and has reduced to approximately 1/4 cup. Set aside to cool slightly.

Combine the sugar, corn syrup, water and lemon juice in a tall non-reactive metal saucepan. With one hand work these two ingredients together until it feels like wet sand. With a wooden spoon, stir the sugar constantly over low heat only until the sugar is completely dissolved. This step prevents the caramel from becoming grainy. Remove from heat and using either a pastry brush or your hand, clean the insides of the pan so that there are no stray granules of sugar on the sides. Do not stir.

Return the pot to the stove and bring to a boil over moderate heat. Cook, without stirring but swirling the pan occasionally, until a golden caramel color is reached. In a separate pan or in the microwave, heat the cream to slighlty warmer than room temperature. Remove the caramelized sugar from the heat and carefully whisk in the warmed cream. It will spatter and boil up, so it is best to stand back when adding the cream. Place back on the heat and whisk to remove any remaining lumps of sugar. Quickly pour into a clean glass or metal bowl to cool. Whisk in the butter, salt and reduced apple cider. Let cool to room temperature.

[Chef's Note: We use the "wet method", which when just enough water is added to sugar to make it a sandy texture, to make caramel in this recipe. During the boiling process, any excess liquid evaporates, causing the syrup to thicken, the sugar concentration to increase, and eventually the color to change from opaque to a rich, golden brown. This method takes longer than the "dry method", cooking sugar without the addition of water, but is easier to control and does not burn as easily.

When making caramel, there is always a danger of crystallization, which can give the finished caramel a grainy texture and cause it to cook unevenly. If the pan or spoon is not completely clean, if the syrup is stirred once it boils, or if the sugar is not properly dissolved, you are bound to get lumps of sugar that will agitate and crystallize in the caramel. However, this is easy to avoid by using a clean pot, adding a pinch of an acidic ingredient such as cream of tartar or lemon juice, and taking caution not to stir the sugar once it boils. Swirling the pan during cooking also helps to evenly distribute heat and color to the sugar without stirring.]

Service

Serve the bread pudding warm, drizzled with caramel sauce. Bread pudding is delicious eaten cold, too. For easier slicing, refrigerate the bread pudding for a few hours and then reheat before serving.

Variations

Bread pudding adapts well to improvisation. Try using a variety of breads, if available, and other flavorings such as grated lemon zest, cardamom or star anise. Pears and other fruits can also be substituted for the apples.

Recipe by Monica Glass
Photo by Andrea Meyers

CMN Video: Prince Edward Island Seafood with Chef Michael Smith

Chef Michael Smith joins Chef Mark for a discussion of the bountiful foods of Prince Edward Island, Canada, and shares 2 quick and easy recipes using the amazing fresh seafood of the province: Beer steamed mussels and Creamy dilled pasta with smoked salmon.

A production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

Prince Edward Island Smoked Salmon with Pasta and Simple Lemon Dill Cream Cheese Sauce

This is one of the most popular dishes on my table. Our friends love its bright, familiar flavours and we love how easy it is to make. You can toss steaming, wet, just cooked pasta with melting cream cheese to form an incredibly smooth luxurious sauce. The smoked salmon adds extravagance balanced by other familiar flavours: dill, lemon, onion, mustard and capers. A five star dish for sharing!

Serves 4

1 lb penne or your favourite shaped pasta like bowties, long pastas like spaghetti don’t work as well
1 cup room temperature cream cheese
1 bunch of fresh dill, chopped
4 green onions, sliced
1 lemon, juiced and zested
1 heaping spoonful of Dijon mustard
1/4 cup capers
8 ounces smoked salmon, or more
sprinkled sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Season it liberally with salt until tastes like a day at the beach on Prince Edward Island. As the pasta cooks it will absorb the salted water and become properly seasoned. Cook al dente, until the pasta is cooked through but still pleasantly chewy.

Scoop out some of the starchy cooking water. Drain the pasta but not quite all the way. Leave it a bit wet. Toss the pasta back into the pot along with a splash or two of the reserved water, perhaps a half-cup or so in total then immediately add the rest of the ingredients. While the pasta is still steaming hot it will easily melt the cream cheese and form a rich creamy sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Simply Steamed Island Blue Mussels with Three Different Flavours

Mussels are super simple to cook and travel with their own built-in sauce base. They’re easy to steam and when you do, they release a flavourful broth that many connoisseurs swear is the best part. That broth can be flavoured any way you care too so mussels are also a great ingredient to free style with.

Serves 4

Five to six pounds of mussels, rinsed well with lots of cold running water
Choose 1 of the following three flavouring groups:

A 12 ounce bottle of your favourite local beer, a sliced onion, a tablespoon of butter

1 cup of orange juice, 1 tablespoon of curry powder

1 cup of whatever wine you’re drinking, 1 tablespoon of mustard, 1 teaspoon of dried thyme, 1 tablespoon of butter

Wash the mussels very well and discard any that are open and wont close with a bit of gentle finger pressure.

Pour the liquid and other aromatic ingredients of your choice into a large pot with a tight fitting lid. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the mussels and cover with the lid. Shake the pot occasionally and cook until all the mussels have opened, ten minutes or so.

Spoon out the mussels into a serving bowl. Strain the remaining liquid to remove any broken shell or lingering sand in it. Serve with the mussels and lots of bread for soaking up the flavourful juice!

Recipes courtesy of Chef Michael Smith.
www.chefmichaelsmith.ca

With bites of tangy blue cheese between little nibbles of tart apples, and a sweetly scented orange honey to round out the palate, bread elevates from standard to sensational. A little sweet, a little savory and full of delicate, yet rich flavor and textures. This simple, unfussy tartine is perfect for a light lunch, hearty snack or even an alternative to a cheese course.

Psst…this recipe is a featured star in our Gilded Fork Cookbook.

Serves 6

Ingredients

6 nicely-sized slices of country bread
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons honey (if you can, try orange blossom honey)
1 teaspoon orange blossom water
1 Granny Smith or other tart apple
6 ounces mild blue cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 orange, zest only
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Extra honey for drizzling

Equipment

Mandolin or very sharp knife
Zester

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a small bowl, mix together the butter, honey and orange blossom water. Spread the mixture over one side of each slice of bread. Toast the bread, butter side up, in the preheated oven until golden and crispy, 5-7 minutes.

Cut the apple in half and slice very thinly using a mandolin or sharp knife. Top the toasted bread with a neatly arranged a layer of about 6-8 slices of apple, covering completely. Crumble the blue cheese and nuts over the apple slices, dividing evenly between the six slices of bread. Lightly zest the orange over each slice tartine, and then season with black pepper to taste.

[Chef's Note: If not using apples immediately, squeeze some lemon juice over the slices to prevent oxidation.]

Service

Serve the tartine immediately, cold and drizzled with the remaining honey, or warm the tartine under a preheated broiler for 1-2 minutes, just until the cheese is gooey, and then drizzle with honey. Pair with soup or salad for a lovely lunch or dinner, or savor alone as a hearty snack.

Variations

Goat cheese or camembert would be a delicious alternative to blue cheese. Try pears instead of apples. Use a new variety of an artisanal honey.

Recipe by Monica Glass / Photo by Jaden Hair

ReMARKable Palate #214: The Foods of Wales

This week, I take you back to Wales, which I visited earlier this summer, for a taste of the traditional foods of this distinct country in the United Kingdom. First, I speak with Carol Watts, whose family has been selling cockles and laverbread in the Swansea Market for generations, and then Jennifer Iannolo and I speak with Angela Grey, one of the foremost experts in Welsh cookery, whose BBC program takes her all around Wales to show Welsh chefs cooking traditional foods

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

During our trip to Scotland, I sat down with Chef Jason Henderson from Knock Castle to talk about his approach to fine dining. I posted my initial impressions about Knock Castle, but this takes a little behind-the-scenes look at how Jason thinks about food, and what he wants people to experience in his dining room. His able staff left me with one of my best hospitality experiences to date, so if you are going to be in the vicinity of Crieff, Scotland, I highly recommend staying here. He didn’t pay me to say that, though he is awfully cute.

I’ll also fill you in on my world of Sex on a Plate, and a peek at where I’m headed with it.

Don’t forget that our Gilded Fork: Entertaining at Home cookbook is now available! You can find it at https://shop.gildedfork.com.

P.S. Are we friends on Facebook? How about Twitter? Find me here:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jenniferiannolo
Twitter: @foodphilosophy

Food Philosophy is a production of the Culinary Media Network (www.culinarymedianetwork.com).

Music: Beau Hall (www.beaurocks.com), Evan Stone (www.asamandrummeth.com)

I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on the hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream… I know how the nuts taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting
— The Autobiography of Mark Twain

Foodstuff: Apples

Area of Origin: The Tien Shan Mountains bordering China and Kazakhstan

Etymology: From the Old English æppel. Linguists believe that the word for apple is one of the oldest words in the Indo-European language family to have descended to English in recognizable form.

Description
This time of year can be a little bit sad for food lovers. At the end of such a bountiful season, who can help but mourn for the last few weeks of tomatoes, fresh beans, corn, stone fruits and berries? While we should certainly revel in this abundance awhile longer, it’s nice to remember that there are still things to look forward to as well. To us, apples are synonymous with fall; they conjure up the smell of cinnamon and cloves, the flicker of firelight and the cozy softness of new wool sweaters. As colors change and the air grows crisper, we begin to dream of apple-picking, pie-making and cider-drinking.

In recent years you may have begun to take apples for granted; since they are available year-round in supermarkets, apples have lost their connection to a season. You may have begun to think that apples come in only a few varieties and are often dull and tasteless with a waxy skin. Banish these thoughts from your mind, supermarket apples from your counter, and try to remember the apple of the not so distant past — a very different apple from the one you may remember.

History
For hundreds of years of human history, apples symbolized something tantalizing, dangerous and ultimately irresistible. Adam and Eve both fell for the apple, and Snow White could not resist even under extremely suspicious circumstances. Our ancestors prized apples for a variety of reasons: their natural sweetness, the intoxicating effects of apple cider, and their boundless variety. When apples are planted from seed, they have a natural tendency to play mix-and-match with their genetic code, creating an endless array of new types. Before the era of industrialized farms, apples were exciting: You never knew quite what you were going to get. In fact, apples were so popular that discovering a successful variety was like buying a winning lottery ticket — it could bring you fame and fortune.

Only in the last hundred years were apples transformed into a symbol of health rather than excitement. Apple growers worried that Prohibition’s ban on alcohol (and hard cider) would destroy the fruit’s profitability, so they invented the slogan “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” As orchards became industrialized, apples began to be bred for durability and consistency, rather than for their taste; these apples had none of the lure of apples of old. Luckily for us, the resurgence in all things heirloom has lead to an explosion of new varieties in recent years, so once again, buying an apple can be an exciting, mind-altering experience.

Varieties of Apples
There are literally thousands of varieties of apples throughout the country and the world, each of them outfitted in a unique array of colors, and each with its own distinctive taste. While many markets are improving their offerings, there is really nothing like going to an orchard and picking your own apples, especially since orchards near you will offer the varieties which grow best in your particular climate. Below we’ve shared a few of our favorite kinds, both for the poetry of their names and the particular succulence of their fruit.

Honey Crisp
This recent hybrid has created quite a stir. Very sweet with a wonderfully crisp texture, many believe this to be the “perfect” apple.

Hubbardston Nonesuch
This classic New England apple is exceptionally sweet and at its prime in October (we also really dig the name).

Golden Delicious
This supermarket staple is incomparably more delicious when tree-ripened and fresh.

Yellow Newton
This yellow apple with red stripes is excellent for cooking and cider-making.

Empire
This apple is widely available in orchards on the east coast and is an excellent all-purpose apple.

Recipes

Apple Anise Pizza
Apple & Blue Cheese Tartine
Apple Cinnamon Empanadas
Apple & Fennel Salad
Apple & Turnip Soup with Nutmeg Cheddar Breadsticks
Caramelized Apple Bread Pudding
Secret Garden Cocktail

Sources
Great Moments in Apple History by Mitch Lynd
The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
All About Apples: Varieties

Dossier by China Millman

CHIC Podcast #195: Chef Wook is Back from Ottawa

Chef Wook is back from Ottawa. He was visiting the chefs there and learned quite a bit. We also talk about kosher challah, chicken feet, Chef Jean Joho and so much more. We’re all over the map today.

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Doreen & Tony Duncan, of The Yellow Bird Dancers from Arizona share their music, dance and culture with the world through demonstrations. Here we see the Apache Rainbow Dance and the Hoop Dance.

A production of the Culinary Media Network.
www.culinarymedianetwork.com