WNYC's Last Chance Foods

Last Chance Foods: Springing Leeks

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:00:00 -0400

Strawberries and rhubarb may be superstars of spring produce, but leeks also have a place in that lineup, according to Keha McIlwaine, a farmer at the Queens County Farm Museum. She said spring leeks have been a particularly popular item at the Union Square farmers market lately.

McIlwaine explained that the leeks being harvested now were planted last fall and left to overwinter. The spring leeks look a little different from their counterparts that come up later in the year.

“Our leeks in the fall are really tall and grand... but I think because they are such short days in the wintertime, [spring leeks] come out a little stunted, a little shorter, a little more tender,” McIlwaine said.

The taste is a little different, as well. “They seem to me a little bit juicier and maybe not as fierce in flavor,” she added.

While McIlwaine and her customers are enjoying the harvest now, the real work that went into growing the leeks started last fall. The allium can be a little labor intensive to plant. “We have a long... metal spike about six inches long, it’s called a dibble,” McIlwaine explained. “We punch holes into the ground, so we get a really deep root and that gives us a nice long white, which is the preferred part.” Then each baby leek, which was started from seed in a nursery, is carefully rooted into the hole.

There’s one step that can be skipped after getting the leek into the ground, though. “We don’t even fill in the holes, which end up being about the diameter of a quarter, and they fill out as they grow,” McIlwaine said.

With some mulch, a mild winter, and an abundance of patience, farmers, she notes, were rewarded with a healthy spring leek harvest this season.

Out of the field and at the farmers market, there are a few things to look for when picking out leeks, said Cornelius Gallagher, the chef and owner of the new Upper East Side restaurant Dragonfly.

“You want to make sure that the bottom part of it is really tight, that it’s heavy, it’s not light,” he explained. “You want to look at the top of the leek to make sure that it’s bright green and crisp. And you should be able to snap a piece off and there should be water inside.”

When it comes to those greens, McIwaine notes that her customers profess to use that part of the stalk, as well. Gallagher confirmed that they are edible, but recommended them for specific purposes.

“Well, you can use the green part for stocks,” he said. “It’s something that’s going to be cooked a little bit longer, you can use the green part. But it’s usually just for infusion of flavor, to give a mild onion background flavor, especially for fish broths, things like that.”

(Photo: McIlwaine on the job. Courtesy of Keha McIlwaine.)

One of the most important steps in preparing leeks, Gallagher emphasized, is to make sure they are cleaned well. He chops up the leek and then soaks the pieces in several changes of water to make sure all the sand and dirt in the leek sink to the bottom of the bowl.

McIlwaine concurred and recommended dunking the greens in the sink a few times, as well. Ultimately, though, she takes a farmer’s view on the matter and declared that “a little grit is good for you!”

Below, try Gallagher's curry recipe with leeks.

Pan-Roasted Fresh Shrimp
with glazed leeks, young coconut and yellow curry
by Chef Cornelius Gallagher, Dragonfly

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp yellow curry paste
¼ cup coconut milk
1 Tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp water
2 ½ tsp palm sugar
1 cup fresh shrimp, peeled (laughing bird large)
½ cup julienned and glazed leeks
1/3 cup raw pea shoots (long thin)
1 red birds eye chili, sliced on bias

1. In a wok, add the oil and stir fry the curry.

2. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, water and palm sugar. Add the shrimp and cook this until a light sauce comes about.

3. By the time the sauce is reduced, the shrimp should be cooked

4. Add leeks and cook until shrimp are 100 percent cooked and the leeks are warmed throughout.

5. Adjust the seasoning and spoon this mixture into the serving plate.

6. Garnish the top of the dish with the pea shoots and the sliced chili.

Last Chance Foods: A Fish Market Returns

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:00:40 -0400

Bustling trade and loudmouthed fisherman used to be fixtures at the South Street Seaport. But in 2005, the Fulton Street Fish Market moved to the Bronx, taking its rough-and-tumble culture with it. This Sunday, New Amsterdam Market hopes to revive the seafood scene in lower Manhattan with its second Gathering of Fisheries event. Fishermen and purveyors will bring in fresh, local seafood and teach people about cutting, cleaning and cooking fish.

The inspiration for the event stemmed from the well-known history of South Street Seaport neighborhood. “The primary reason why we think fish should come back there is because it turns out that there are still people in and around the New York harbor who could be delivering it by boat,” said Robert LaValva, the founder of New Amsterdam Market. “By revving up a market with that specific aim, we could really reunite that part of the waterfront."

LaValva added that the site on South Street has continually been home to various markets since the earliest days of the city. He credits that to the strategic location of not only being on the waterfront, but also being by the former East River ferry route, which was used to transport farm goods, as well as seafood.

Vinnie Calabro, a commercial fisherman and the owner of Karen Ann Charters, will join a number of other local seafood vendors at this weekend’s event. With the spring marine migration in full swing, he expects fluke, blackfish and porgies to be plentiful.

“We’re going to have some scallops, we’re going to have some skates, and depending upon the weather conditions and how the fishing is over the next couple of days, there may be some additional species,” said Calabro.

LaValva hopes to not only highlight fresh, local seafood, but to also help educate consumers on how to handle it.

“I think that people in general aren’t so used to cooking fish at home,” he said. “When they see a whole fish, for example, they might be afraid to buy it because they don’t know the first thing about how to cut it.” To counter that apprehension, the Gathering of Fisheries event will feature chefs like April Bloomfield, who will demonstrate how she cuts striped bass and fluke.

Calabro threw in some immediate advice for picking out fresh fish. He said that the fish should be firm, the eyes should still be clear, and the grills should be bright red. In addition, the fish should only have a slight fresh fish smell.

Calabro said that his favorite way of preparing fish is to throw it on the grill, a method he particularly recommends for blue fish. “Basically if you’re doing fillets that are a pound or less, you’re talking about minutes,” he explained. When grilling, broiling, or frying, that comes out to about seven minutes a fillet.

(Photo: Calabro, left, and LaValva, right, outside the studio. Amy Pearl/WNYC)

All the fish will be coming from waters surrounding New Jersey and New York. Some will even be pulled from Jamaica Bay, a body of water that’s struggled with pollution. Despite the bay’s environmental history, the fish coming from those waters are absolutely safe, said Calabro, who has been fishing there since the 1970s.

He added that he is hopeful for the future of the bay. “The bay is recovering, I think, very well,” Calabro said. “It had its moments over the years, where...there was problems with nitrogen, with oxygen content in the water. There was a diminishing of the islands and the grasses." But he pointed out that environmental groups have been successful in replanting marsh grasses and installing oxygenators throughout the bay.

With such continued efforts and attention, the waters around New York, as well as the city's local seafood scene, may well have a long and sustainable future.

Last Chance Foods: Taking the Sting Out of Nettles

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:35:00 -0400

There are two good reasons to keep an eye out for stinging nettle in the woods. The first is so you avoid touching the plant with bare skin — the sharp hairs on the plant contain histamines that can cause pain, itching and redness. The other reason is the weed makes for good eating. Just be sure to put on a pair of gloves before reaching out and plucking a few stalks.

“After [stinging nettle is] cooked, it has a really intense flavor that’s herbally, a little minty,” said Tama Matsuoka Wong, who forages for the restaurant Daniel. “It’s better than most things you can get in the supermarket now.”

The leafy green doesn’t have the same peppery bite as arugula, but tastes more like spinach, she added.

Matsuoka Wong recently wrote a book called Foraged Flavor with Daniel chef de cuisine Eddy Leroux (they are pictured below in a photo by Thomas Schauer), and she explained that stinging nettle is nonnative, plentiful and currently in season. There’s just one very important step to preparing stinging nettle: It needs to be cooked.

“About three minutes in boiling water and it completely gets rid of any sting,” said Matsuoka Wong.

Sautéing, microwaving, and drying stinging nettle will also make the plant edible.

At Daniel, stinging nettle is often paired with morels. It can also be folded into an omelette, added to soup, or used to flavor risotto.

“I like it best in the arancini,” said Matuoka Wong. “Arancini, which I did learn [of] from Eddy, is when you take leftover risotto and then you stick it in the refrigerator overnight and the next day, you fry it up. And when you have a lot of nettle in it, you get a lot of packed herbal, nettle flavor, and it’s great.”

Even outside of the kitchen, stinging nettle has its uses. For hundreds of years, people have employed it “to treat painful muscles and joints, eczema, arthritis, gout, and anemia,” reports the University of Maryland Medical Center. In present-day use, stinging nettle is prescribed to treat enlarged prostates and urinary tract infections. It's also added to salves or compresses for joint pain, sprains, pulled muscles, tendonitis and insect bites.

Matsuoka Wong also offered anecdotal evidence that stinging nettle helps with seasonal allergies.

“Last year, [my daughter’s] allergies were so bad she had to stay home from school,” she said.

During that time, Matsuoka Wong was testing stinging nettle recipes for her cookbook and fed the results to her daughter several times over the course of two days.

“Saturday, she woke up and she... felt completely better,” Matsuoka Wong said. “There have been indications in studies that it does help hay fever, although it’s not conclusively proved to 100 percent. But for us, I think it works really well.”

Nettle and Asparagus Pizza
from Foraged Flavor, which will be released on June 12

The nettles cook down and become soft, similar to a deeply flavored spinach. They pair well with spring asparagus, making for a very flavorful vegetarian pizza.

Makes one 18 x 13-inch pizza

4 quarts (about 1 kitchen garbage bagful) nettle leaves and tips
Cornmeal
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch (1 pound) medium asparagus, woody bottoms trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1⁄2 pound store-bought refrigerated pizza dough
8 ounces (1 cup) creme fraiche or sour cream
4 ounces (1 cup) shredded cheeses, such as Parmesan, Swiss, mozzarella, and/or fontina

1. Have ready a large bowl of ice water. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the nettles and cook for about 3 minutes, or until wilted but still bright green. Drain the nettles and transfer to the ice water to cool. Drain well, squeezing the nettles with your hands to remove excess water, then roughly chop. You should have about 9 ounces.

2. Preheat the oven to 400F. Dust an 18 × 13-inch baking sheet with cornmeal.

3. In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the asparagus and cook for 2 minutes, or until bright green but still crunchy. Add the nettles, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 1 minute; remove from the heat.

4. Stretch the pizza dough to make a rectangle that fits onto the baking sheet. Spread the creme fraiche evenly over the dough, then distribute the nettle-asparagus mixture on top. Sprinkle with the cheeses and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the crust is crispy and the cheese is melted and turning a bit brown in places.

Last Chance Foods: The Tart Taste of Knotweed Revenge

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:19:14 -0400

Japanese knotweed is one of the country’s most pervasive and hated invasive plants. The tender red-freckled shoot may look like an innocuous cross between asparagus and bamboo, but it is so powerful it can push through concrete and asphalt. Urban forager and writer Marie Viljoen called knotweed a “thug” and said that it indiscriminately invades agricultural land and backyards. She exacts her revenge in a visceral and delicious way: Viljoen eats it.

“When it’s really small, up to about 8 inches, it’s at its most tender and most delicious, but it becomes mammoth,” said Viljoen, who recently wrote an article about knotweed for Edible Manhattan.

“It can grow to about 5 or 6 feet. It grows inches in a day.”

By late summer, not only is its growth seemingly unstoppable, but the stems become tough and fibrous. When the knotweed is about 3-feet tall, she peels and pickles it, or uses it in soup.

Knotweed tastes astringent like sorrel and can often be used like rhubarb.

“It has that very tart, lemony flavor,” said Viljoen, who recommends pairing the sour taste of knotweed with other fruit like apples and pears. She also roasts it along with lamb or chicken and has even made a curry from it.

Viljoen (pictured below doing her best knotweed-inspired impression of "Wildman" Steve Brill in a photo by Vincent Mounier) is relatively careful when foraging for the invasive since toxic herbicides have been created specifically to combat it. She has her own means of determining whether herbicide has been sprayed on a patch of knotweed.

“My entirely unscientific way of assessing the risk factor is to see if there are stems from the previous year’s knotweed,” Viljoen said. “It’s a very distinctive stem. It’s very tall. It’s hollow. It’s dry. So if there are 5-foot stems from the previous year, I’ve decided unscientifically that no herbicide has been applied and I forage away.”

While it is illegal to take plants out of New York City parks, Viljoen admitted that she has no qualms about chopping off knotweed shoots wherever she sees them.

“Well, my vigilante justification is that this is a thug,” she said.

Viljoen added that’s she’s careful not to stomp on anything precious and is helping to eradicate a pest that costs the parks department a huge amount of money and person power to control.

Katerli Bounds, the deputy director of forest restoration for the parks department’s Natural Resources Group, said that the knotweed invasions on public land are treated with a combination of herbicides and mechanical clearing. For smaller swaths, the parks department just digs up the knotweed.

The team needs to be particularly thorough in trying to eliminate all the pieces of knotweed though. Viljoen says that the plant spreads through its rhizomes, or underground stems, so any pieces of stem left behind will just take root and grow new shoots.

“Pulling up knotweed is arguably worse than any other method of controlling it,” she said.

Instead eating the tender young knotweed shoots may be an effective, herbicide-free means of getting rid of the pesky plant.

“Anecdotal evidence shows that if you keep picking off those very young shoots often enough year after year, the rhizome mass under the ground just gives up,” explained Viljoen. “It has no more carbon reserves and that’s the end of the knotweed.”

That method of ending knotweed may well create the beginnings of many delicious meals at home.

“A weed is really just a cultural way of looking at a plant we don’t want,” pointed out Viljoen.

Rather than considering knotweed as a problem plant, perhaps now is the time to start seeing it as the source of a feast. Try Viljoen’s Knotweed Soup recipe below.

Knotweed Soup

I used quite mature knotweed shoots for this, up to 3-feet tall, but not leafed out yet. The skin for larger stems is tough and must be peeled off, much the way you'd pull strings from rhubarb or celery. This exposes the pale, bright green, crisp and sour knotweed stem. I also discard the joints between segments, considering them too fibrous for the smooth puree that I wanted. When cooked in moist heat knotweed collapses into a lemony creaminess, for which bland potato is a perfect foil. —Marie Viljoen, 66 Square Feet

1 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
4 cups peeled and sliced knotweed
2 small potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
3 cups chicken stock
salt to taste

Heat a saucepan and when the butter in it is foaming, add the shallots. Cook gently till translucent. Add the knotweed and stir, cooking for a couple of minutes until it changes from fresh green to drab khaki (just like sorrel). Add the potato and the hot stock and cook until the potato slices are tender. Allow the soup to cool a little and then puree in batches in a blender. Strain each batch to remove any fibers and return the saucepan to heat. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Serve hot.

Last Chance Foods: Grazing on Fiddlehead Ferns

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:44:00 -0400

The bright green spirals of ostrich fern fiddleheads are a beacon of spring. Delicate and grass-like in flavor, fiddleheads are one of the season’s most fleeting vegetables.

Registered dietitian Tamara Duker Freuman admitted that ferns kind of creep her out.

“It’s not the ferns themselves,” she clarified, ”it’s those little black spores underneath some of the fern leaves.”

Nonetheless, Freuman (pictured below) got over her fear in order to enjoy fiddleheads, which she feels are a welcome spring addition after a long winter of kale and root vegetables.

“They’re very springy and fresh and grassy tasting,” she said. “They add a really nice dimension to a sauté of spring vegetables.”

While Freuman willingly advocated for fiddleheads, Tyler Gray, the co-founder of Mikuni Wild Harvest, had a confession.

“I mean, [fiddlehead ferns] look cool on the plate but they kind of taste like dirt,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s not something that, you know, the owner of a wild, foraged foods company should be saying. But, you know what? We all have our own opinions.”

One way to ensure fiddlehead ferns are tasty, said Freuman, is to sauté them in butter and fresh thyme. Barring that, however, she noted that the ferns are worth eating because they are good sources of vitamin C and vitamin A.

“They’ve got a surprisingly high amount of protein,” she added. “You don’t think of vegetables as a good source of protein, but a very meager half-cup serving has four-and-a-half grams, whereas in a comparable green vegetable you’d expect to see less than one gram.”

Fiddlehead ferns are also high in iron, Freuman pointed out.

“For vegetarians who aren’t getting iron from meat, to find a vegetable that’s high in iron is nothing to sneeze at,” she said.

When cooking up fiddleheads, though, Gray added one note of caution: there are two different kinds of edible fiddleheads — ostrich and bracken — and bracken ferns are slightly toxic.

Ostrich fiddleheads are the single green spirals most commonly seen in the Northeast and at grocery stores. Those are not toxic.

Bracken fiddleheads (pictured below) have multiple tendrils and are commonly described as looking like a curled eagle’s talon. Those are more prevalent along the West Coast.

“There’s a mild toxin in the bracken fern ... I know that you can’t eat too much of them,” Gray said.

The toxin does cook out, though, so it’s important when eating bracken fiddleheads to cook them thoroughly.

Freuman, who has only ever seen non-toxic ostrich fiddleheads in grocery stores, shared her easy, no-measurements recipe for sautéed fiddleheads. That’s below.

Sauté of Fiddleheads, Snap Peas, Ramps & Shiitakes
by Tamara Duker Freuman

Fiddleheads
Shiitakes
1-2 tsps butter
Fresh thyme
1-2 tsp olive oil
Sugar snap peas
Ramps
Salt to taste

Blanch fiddleheads in a pot of boiling water until bright green and tender but still firm. Set aside.

Sauté sliced shiitakes in 1-2 tsps of butter with fresh thyme and a sprinkle of salt until cooked.

Set those aside and, in the same pan with 1-2 tsp olive oil, saute the sugar snap peas and ramps together until the snap peas are bright green and the ramps are soft and wilty.

Add the blanched fiddleheads to the pan, season with salt to taste, and cook for 1-2 minutes more. Remove from heat, mix in the mushrooms, and serve.

Photo credit: Bracken fiddlehead ferns must be thoroughly cooked to neutralize their slight toxicity. (Pictoscribe/flickr))

Last Chance Foods: A Peppy Bite of Watercress

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:19:55 -0400

Out in the woods, leafy green watercress is appearing next to bubbling springs and shallow ponds. The peppery leaves, which are a favorite with foragers, add a sharp tang to salads and sandwiches. When seeking out wild watercress, though, it’s important to make sure that the plant is growing in or near safe, clean water. Also, be cautious to avoid water hemlock, which can grow nearby.

Foraging brings a distinct satisfaction of self-reliance, but for those who prefer not to risk the hazards of trekking into the woods to gather wild edibles, there’s always hydroponically grown watercress. Perry Hack, of Two Guys From Woodbridge, said the semi-aquatic plant is particularly suited to hydroponic growing conditions.

“It either grows wild in streams, rivers, ponds, or it’s most suitable hydroponically,” he said. “You couldn’t really grow it outside without having a lot of access to water.” Hack grows three varieties of watercress: Upland, baby green and baby red. He sells Upland watercress with the roots attached to maintain freshness.

“When you grow hydroponically... you’re actually giving the plant exactly what they need so they concentrate more on leaf growth,” explained Hack, pointing out the plant’s small root bundle.

He adds that growing plants in the soil presents challenges for maintaining nutrient levels. “Plants need nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and you’re never going to get all that in the soil unless you add it,” Hack said. “Growing hydroponically, when I walk into the greenhouse, I can immediately see, like, okay, that needs more potassium, and I can fix it. So [the plants] are actually very nutrient dense.”

For the Upland cress and other lettuces with intact roots, Hack said to store the greens in a regular plastic bag, loosely tied, in the refrigerator. The bag will maintain some humidity and keep the plant from drying out as quickly. Baby watercress is cut and packed in plastic clamshell containers, and can be stored as is.

On a separate note, Hack offered a word of advice on the one green not to store in the refrigerator: “Basil is the only thing we tell me people not to put in the refrigerator [because] it’ll die. You just put it in a vase of water and keep it on the counter in your kitchen.”

And if you're looking for a place to grow watercress, Hack said, the bathroom may be your answer. Hack explained that it is possible to grow it in a bathtub at home, but notes that it requires both light and oxygen. “So there would have to have some kind of defuser or bubbler.”

Regardless of whether the watercress is home grown, hydroponically cultivated or foraged from a nearby stream, Hack said enjoying it is easy. “My favorite thing,” he shared, “is to have a mixed salad with watercress, shaved parmesan, just a little olive oil and just some lemon juice, salt and pepper.”

For those looking for more elaborate adventures with watercress, Hack sent a recipe for crispy soft shell crab from ABC Kitchen. The restaurant garnishes the dish with red watercress from Two Guys From Woodbridge.

ABC Kitchen's Crispy Soft Shell Crab with Sweet and Spicy Sauce

For the Sweet and Spicy Sauce

first set

3 Tbsp. Garlic, minced
3 Tbsp. Ginger, minced
4 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 tsp Kosher Salt

second set

1 ¼ cup Honey
1 cup + 1 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar

third set

¾ cup Red Finger Chili, chopped
2 tsp Market Chili Flakes
1 cup hot sauce base, no butter

Method for the Sweet and Spicy Sauce:

Combine 1st set of ingredients in a sauté pan. Cook until tender but no color.

Add second set and bring to a boil. Once it boils, take away from the heat and add 3rd set.

Reserve for later use.

Method for the Hot Sauce Base:

3 oz. Orange Scotch Bonnet or Habanero chilies (about 10)
1 Orange Bell Pepper, halved, seeded, coarsely, chopped
4 1x3” strips of orange zest
4 Tbsp. Elderflower Syrup (not St.Germain liqueur), divided
2 Tbsp. Kosher Salt, divided, plus more for seasoning
1 piece Garlic Clove, smashed
1 cup Champagne Vinegar
Black pepper, freshly ground

Method for the Hot Sauce Butter:

Wearing gloves, halve and seed chilies. Puree chilies, pepper, zest, 2 tbsp., liqueur, 1 tbsp. salt and garlic in a blender. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let ferment at room temperature for 12 hours. Puree chili mixture in a blender with vinegar, remaining 2 Tbsp. liqueur, and remaining 1 Tbsp. salt until smooth. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a small saucepan. Strain mixture, pressing on solids. Reserve to use for sweet and spicy chili sauce.

For the Soft Shells

All Purpose Flour
Egg whites, seasoned with salt and black pepper
4 each Soft Shell Crab
20 pieces Basil

Method for the Soft Shells:

Place the crabs in the egg white mixture allowing the excess egg white to drain before placing in the flour. Lightly coat in flour and drop in the fryer until nice and golden at 375°F oil. Fry 20 pieces of picked basil leaves then place on a tray lined with a good amount of paper towel to help soak the excess oil. Season crab with salt and pepper.

For the Dish

Red Watercress
Basil
Soft Shell
Sweet and Spicy Sauce

Method for the Dish:

Evenly spread the sauce onto the middle of the plate. Place a small handful of watercress (enough to form a bed for the crab). Place the crab on top of the watercress and top with crispy basil. Each crab can be plated individually or all together on a larger plate or platter.

Enjoy.

Last Chance Foods: Going Green Garlic

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:41:00 -0400

One sure sign it’s spring is when restaurants and farmers markets start touting the arrival of ramps. While that branch of the allium family may be what’s trendy right now, other less well-known tender greens also deserve their fair share of the attention. Take, for instance, green garlic.

At first glance, green garlic can easily be mistaken for scallions or spring onions, but fresh green garlic is far more aromatic than store-bought green onions.

“The whole studio now smells like this green garlic that I’ve brought in, so I wouldn’t say that it’s very, very mild, but it’s not as sweet and not as earthy [as cloves of garlic],” explained chef Jacques Gautier, who grows green garlic on the rooftop of his Park Slope, Brooklyn, restaurant Palo Santo. “With the green garlic, you can use more of it, because it’s not quite as pungent and spicy. It’s more of an aromatic herb.”

Green garlic is the earliest incarnation of the same plant that produces the heads of garlic commonly used year round. Gautier notes that green garlic is at its most delicious right now, before the leaves get tough. Eventually, the leaves will give way to the shoot, or garlic scape, also a prized springtime vegetable.

“With the green garlic, you can use more of it, because it’s not quite as pungent and spicy — it’s more of an aromatic herb,” explained Gautier. He uses it in the various sauces at the restaurant, including chimichuri, a South American green sauce that’s popularly used on grilled meat.

“Another thing that we do with it now, when it’s really young and tender like these that I brought in, is just grill it [with] a little olive oil, salt and pepper, put it on the plancha and sear it, and then serve it as a garnish or vegetable,” added Gautier.

While spring is the best time to enjoy green garlic, the minimal amount of work that goes into growing it begins in the fall. Gautier explains that he just breaks apart a head of garlic and plants the individual cloves.

“It’s very easy to grow, it doesn’t even require watering or anything like that,” he said. “We plant them after the first frost in the fall, and then we don’t bother with them until the springtime, and then in the springtime they just come up on their own.”

There’s just one simple instruction to follow: “You want to make sure you’re not planting them upside down,” he said.

Once the cloves are buried in the dirt, sprout-side up, then it’s just a waiting game. Growing them in a container or backyard also means there’s no fear of sustainability issues related to foraging. That alone makes it a good alternative to ramps.

Try Gautier's recipe for chimichuri sauce using green garlic, below.

Chimichuri

"This is a good summertime recipe for all types of grilled meat and game. This recipe makes enough for 12 large steaks. It is something that keeps well in a jar in the fridge for at least a few weeks." —Jacques Gautier

1 bunch Parsley
½ bunch Cilantro
¼ bunch Oregano
¼ bunch Thyme
¼ bunch Rosemary
¼ bunch Chives
4 stalks Green Garlic or Garlic Scapes
1 Shallot
1 Red Jalapeño
100 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
100 ml Red Wine Vinegar
10g Kosher Salt
2g round Black Pepper

Wash, de-stem and chop all herbs. Chop chives. Rinse and chop green garlic. Peel and chop shallot. Remove seeds and chop chile.

Combine everything.

Grill meat, rest meat, slice meat. Spoon Chimichurri over meat.

Last Chance Foods: The MSG-Umami Connection

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:12:00 -0400

“In the case of MSG, the record is about as clear as it can be: there is no connection between consuming MSG in any form and the symptoms that are often called Chinese Restaurant Syndrome,” wrote food science expert Harold McGee in the first issue of Lucky Peach, a quarterly food journal published by McSweeney’s.

Instead, McGee explained that monosodium glutamate’s bad rap started with a speculative letter to the editor published in a 1968 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. A doctor noted that he and his friends would experience weakness, numbness and headaches after eating Chinese food. He was curious whether the MSG used in Chinese food might be the cause. The letter writer offered no evidence to back up the claim and did not have a background relating to how the body processes MSG. But the missive did result in a catchy headline: “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.”

“[The letter asked] a question, it wasn’t an answer, but it was such a snappy title that people picked up on it like it was news … and from that letter, it spread,” explained Peter Meehan, the editor of Lucky Peach and co-author of the Momofuku cookbook. “It was immediately rejected as not being true, but people picked up on it. I guess today we would say it went viral.”

By the 1970s, MSG was widely reviled and “No MSG” became a commonplace disclaimer at Chinese restaurants.

“There’s a psychosomatic aspect to it that we’ve been conditioned to believe that MSG is bad for us or will cause these negative reactions,” noted Meehan (pictured below). “There’s no science to back that up.”

Actually, monosodium glutamate is naturally present in many everyday foods, both of the processed and whole food varieties. Sure, it’s in canned chicken broth, packaged ramen, Cheetos and Doritos. Then again, MSG is also found in seaweed, mushrooms, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and aged beef.

Meehan acknowledges that, on a purely literal level, “It can be labeled as a natural flavoring, because it does come from a natural source and it is a flavoring.” The flavor that MSG triggers is umami, a taste of savoriness that joins the widely known flavors of salty, sweet, sour and bitter.

In recent years, chefs have also become increasingly aware of how glutamates play a role in creating the taste of umami. While high-end chefs aren’t using pinches of MSG extract in their food, they are paying close attention to the natural ingredients that include glutamates.

“We’re seeing a lot of dashis in restaurants these days, which is a Japanese type broth and you make it by steeping kelp, a seaweed, in a flavorful liquid and that kelp is loaded with naturally occurring MSG,” said Meehan. He also notes that fermented foods are also high in glutamic acid.

“I think chefs have become more aware that this flavor is real and they can harness it,” said Meehan. “And it adds a dimension to their cooking that otherwise they’re overlooking, you know, in that you wouldn’t want to not add acid or salt of sweetness to a dish. You pay attention to the level of savoriness to that dish and you make your food more delicious by doing that.”

Below, try chef David Chang’s recipe for the glutamate-laden bacon dashi with potatoes and clams. Also, for those interested in using MSG as an additive, Meehan included a recipe for Phat Phak Kuut (stir-fried fiddlehead ferns) at the bottom of this New York Times Magazine post.

Bacon Dashi with Potatoes & Clams
Reprinted from Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan. Copyright © 2009. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc.

Ingredients

Bacon Dashi (see below)
1 pound small fingerling potatoes, scrubbed
2 dozen littleneck or butter clams
¼ pound (3 or 4 slices) smoky bacon, preferably Benton’s, cut crosswise into 1- to 1 ½- inch batons (1/2 cup)
Usukuchi (light soy sauce) if needed
Mirin if needed
Greens from 6 scallions, cut into 1 ½-inch lengths and finely julienned, or ½ cup scallion oil (see below)

Method
1. Heat the bacon dashi in a large soup pot over high heat. Once it boils, turn the heat down so the dashi simmers and add the potatoes. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until tender. (Check by tasting one.) When the potatoes are cooked, remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon and reserve; leave the bacon dashi on the stove over low heat.

2. While the potatoes are simmering, put the clams in a large bowl of cold water and let them sit for a few minutes to purge any grit, then scrub their shells clean of any sand.

3. Heat a 10- to 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat for a minute or so, until very warm. Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until it shrinks to about half its original size and browns but does not become overly crisp, about 4 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and drain it on paper towels (reserve the bacon fat for another use if you like).

4. Meanwhile, when the bacon’s getting close to done, raise the heat under the dashi and bring it to a boil. Add the clams, cover the pot, and boil the clams until they’re all open, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, add the potatoes to warm them up in the broth, and taste it for seasoning. Although bacon dashi is salty and the liquid the clams added to the broth is also salty, the broth might need a splash of soy sauce; or if it needs sweetness or acid, add a splash of mirin.

5. Ladle the soup out into bowls, avoiding the liquid at the very bottom of the pot if the clams threw off sand while they were cooking; discard any clams that didn’t open. Garnish each bowl with some of the crisped bacon and a scattering of julienned scallions or a ring of scallion oil.

Bacon Dashi (Makes 2 quarts)

Ingredients

Two 3-by-6-inch pieces konbu
8 cups water
1⁄2 pound smoky bacon, preferably Benton’s

Method
1. Rinse the konbu under running water, then combine it with the water in a medium saucepan. Bring the water to a simmer over medium heat.

2. Add the bacon. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down so the water simmers gently. Simmer for 30 minutes at 60 degrees Celsius.

3. Strain the bacon from the dashi.

Scallion Oil (Makes about 1 cup)

Ingredients

1 bunch scallions, whiskers trimmed and any limp greens excised
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 ¼ cups grapeseed or other neutral oil

Method
1. Roughly chop the scallions. Put them in the jar of a blender, along with the salt and oil, flip the switch to puree, and let the blender do its thing until the scallions and the oil are almost one — stop it before they’re totally emulsified.

2. Set a fine-mesh strainer lined with a piece of cheesecloth over some sort of receptacle to collect your scallion oil. Pour the scallion sludge into the strainer. Use a wooden spoon to press the oil out of the scallion mush, but don’t force the issue: you want just a limpid green oil, so leaving some behind in the strainer is fine. Use the oil immediately or keep it for a day or two in the refrigerator.

Last Chance Foods: Rick Can Pickle That

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:53:00 -0400

Artisanal pickling currently serves as both an easy punchline and the catalyst for serious-minded articles examining a “craft-centric economy.” In certain parts of Brooklyn, small-batch pickles have become as ubiquitous as skinny jeans and wayfarer sunglasses. Rick Field, the founder of Rick’s Picks, has been making artisanal pickles since 2004 — way before it was considered cool.

Last Chance Foods asked Field (pictured below) why pickling has snowballed in popularity in recent years.

“A lot of people have pickling in their background, whether it’s something that they did in a foreign land before they came to New York, or something that they just plain did or experienced with their family,” he said.

Another motivation, according to Field, is many people’s desire to engage in tactile activities that are comparatively rare in modern life.

“I think, you know, as a culture right now, in our daily lives, we go from ... screen to screen to screen,” he said in reference to the pervasiveness of computer, television, cellphone screens. “It’s a very passive lifestyle that many of us lead. So being able to embrace things and touch them and experience them tactilely is really meaningful to people in the 21st century.”

Field knows the feeling. A former television producer who worked for VH1 and for "Now with Bill Moyers" on PBS, Field grew up making pickles with his family during summers in Vermont.

“I didn’t set out to conquer the world one pickle at a time,” he said. "I just wanted to kind of rekindle the fun that I’d had [with my family].”

Founders of McClures and Brooklyn Brine also left jobs in creative industries to join the artisanal pickle movement. Like Rick’s Picks, the companies have become relatively well-known brands in the market.

Field also points out that home pickling is comparatively easy and inexpensive to do.

“The barrier to entry is very low,” he said. “Basically, the most expensive proprietary piece of equipment you need to make pickles is a $4.99 jar lifter.”

Since going commercial, Field’s company has taken off and now boasts a wide range of pickled products — from traditional cucumber pickles to relish and pickled corn. He explains that part of his mission is to make pickles more than just a sad, forgotten addition to sandwiches and burgers. Field challenged those in his office to make dishes that would comprise a full-course meal using their products.

One easy way to do that is to use the brine.

“The smokra brine is wonderful to marinate beef brisket,” Field said. “It’s also a great alternative to a traditional secondary ingredient to a bloody mary. The Wasabean brine is nice to marinate salmon. Of course there are the whiskey aficionados who like to do a pickle back, a shot of pickle brine after a shot of whiskey.”

Creativity is also key to what goes into a jar. After all, more often than not, you can pickle that.

“As an experiment, we did a jar of pickled CDs,” said Field, of his time at VH1. “We like to say they’re very popular in karaoke bars in Kyoto, Japan. I pickled a jar of CDs, and I also pickled some Verizon bills once. That’s was very satisfying.”

For those desirous of getting in on the trend, try Rick’s recipe for pickled rhubarb, below.

Pickled Rhubarb
from "The Art of Preserving" by Rick Field and Rebecca Courchesne

Sweet-tart rhubarb makes an excellent pickle when preserved in a tangy brine with sprightly spices. The crisp rhubarb retains its texture and is quite chewy. If you prefer a softer result, blanch the rhubarb in boiling water for a minute, drain, and let cool before packing in jars.

1 cup (8 fl oz/250 ml) rice vinegar, preferably yuzu rice vinegar
1 cup (8 fl oz/250 ml) sherry vinegar (7 percent acidity)
1 cup (8 fl oz/250 ml) unsweetened cherry juice
2 tsp chili powder
1-inch (2.5-cm) piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into slivers
36 cloves garlic
3 lb (1.5 kg) rhubarb, trimmed and cut into
4-inch (10-cm) pieces
Makes 6 one-pint 16– f l oz /500-ml) jars

Have ready hot, sterilized jars and their lids (see page 228).

In a large nonreactive saucepan, combine the rice and sherry vinegars, cherry juice, and chili powder. Add 3 cups (24 fl oz/750 ml) water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Meanwhile, place a pinch of ginger slivers and 6 garlic cloves in each jar. Pack the rhubarb pieces snugly into the jars, making sure that none stick up above the fill line.

Ladle the hot brine into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch (12 mm) of headspace. Remove any air bubbles and adjust the headspace, if necessary. Wipe the rims clean and seal tightly with the lids. Let the jars stand undisturbed for 24 hours and then store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

Last Chance Foods: The Catch With Salt Cod

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:07:00 -0400

Though humble in appearance, salt cod played an important role in the diet of Vikings, who caught cod and cured it on their ships. The resulting salt cod provided sustenance and allowed them to stay out at sea longer and go farther. In that sense, the preserved fish contributed to the Vikings’ eventual discovery of Canada.

These days, salt cod is commonly eaten in countries ranging from Norway to Trinidad and Tobago. While Caribbean cultures may rely on salt cod because fresh cod is less available, chef Jim Burke, of Caffè Storico on Central Park West, says there’s an added benefit to the preserved version.

“Cod actually benefits from the salting,” he said. “It’s a very mild and watery fish so the salting actually concentrates the flavor. You lose some of water content so you get a firmer flesh and a stronger, more assertive flavor.”

Cooking with salt cod does require more work than using fresh fillets, though. First, it has to be rinsed well to wash off the caked salt — but that’s just the beginning.

“You soak it in fresh, cold water for at least 24 hours,” said Burke (pictured below). “[How long it needs to soak] depends on the thickness of the fish; it depends on the quality of the fish as well. And you want to change the water at least a few times throughout that day.”

Burke emphasizes the importance of changing the water because, at a certain point, the salinity of the water will equal that of the fish. Fresh water will continue to pull more salt out of the flesh. He also notes that there’s no real way to hurry the desalting process. Boiling the fish and changing the water will affect the integrity of the fish, potentially making the flesh mushy.

Instead, time and patience is key. Burke says to look for thick cuts.

“It means that [the salting process] happens a little more gradually and that it’s not as aggressive a salt flavor,” he said. “It’s not as difficult to get the salt out. The main thing, actually, you can do is know your fish purveyor and to know that they’re getting a good product.”

Burke adds that he prefers salt cod with the rib bones intact, though it’s harder to find. The bones help protect the integrity of the fish.

Once desalted, the cod can be prepared numerous different ways.

“The Italians, the Spanish, the Portugese … they often prepare it as you would a fresh fish fillet,” said Burke.” You would cut a piece and either braise it or pan sear it.”

He says that it takes a little longer to cook than fresh cod. Undercooking or overcooking can make the flesh tough, though, so use caution.

At Caffè Storico, which is a part of The New-York Historical Society, Burke serves salted cod as baccala mantecato, a Venetian bar snack that is essentially a warm dip or puree. He adds that baccala mantecato and similar chichetti, or small plates, are a traditional part of Venetian dining: “[Chichetti are] the little snacks that the Venetians eat while they’re taking their late afternoon stroll around town, meeting friends, have a glass of wine and a few chicchetti."

Get Burke’s recipe for baccala mantecato below. He recommends serving it with grilled polenta or toast.

Baccala Mantecato
by Jim Burke, Executive Chef, Caffè Storico

1 side salt cod (approximately 2.5 lbs.)
1 very small white onion, sliced very thinly
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Rinse the cod well and soak in fresh cold water for 2 days, changing the water 3 times a day. Remove from the water and pat dry with absorbent towels. Remove any pinbones, and cut the cod into 4 to 5 oz. pieces. In a pan that will comfortably fit all the cod, slowly stew the onion in a generous pat of butter until very soft, but not colored. Add the wine, milk and cod to the pan and bring to a simmer. Simmer steadily for 20 minutes. Remove the cod and onions and transfer them (while still hot) to a mixer with the paddle attachment or a food processor. Puree with just enough of the cooking liquid to moisten the mixture (about a ¼ cup) and then begin to add very good extra virgin olive oil in a thin stream until the mixture is very creamy, emulsified and just barely holds its shape. Serve with the chopped parsley and pieces of toasted bread or polenta (made with 1 quart of water for every 8 oz of dry polenta and allowed to cool and set).

Last Chance Foods: Bed-Stuy Bok Choy

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:38:52 -0500

The Tristate area may be enjoying unseasonably warm weather lately, but for the most part, farmers' markets still reflect the fact that winter will be around for a few more weeks. At Bed-Stuy Farm in Brooklyn, though, Reverend Devanie Jackson is using hydroponics to provide needy families with fresh, local produce.

Through the use of the water-based growing system and a greenhouse, Bed-Stuy Farm is currently harvesting crisp, fresh bok choy — a leafy green that is usually grown in fields in spring and summer.

“It [has] always been my vision to grow the food year around,” said Jackson (pictured below). “We were growing it conventionally, you know, no fertilizers or chemicals but outdoors in the soil. It was working fine up until November. People need to eat year-round, and they need fresh food year-round.”

That’s why she invested in the hydroponic system to help feed the families and seniors who visit the Brooklyn Rescue Mission, where Jackson serves as the director of programs.

She started Bed-Stuy Farm in 2006 with her husband, Reverend Robert Jackson, in what was an abandoned lot behind the mission.

These days, Jackson is feeding bok choy to about 4,000 people a month. She notes some people in her community were already familiar with the vegetable. In Caribbean cultures, it’s also known as pok choy or joy choy, explains Jackson.

“[But for] the rest of the people, we had to cook it, serve it up and let them taste,” she said. “But they actually fell in love with bok choy. And so what we found ... on our farm was that it’s really easy to grow.”

Bok choy is not particularly fussy, Jackson adds. At the Bed-Stuy Farm, they germinate the seeds in grow cubes, let the sprouts grow under lamps until they are about one-inch high, and then place them in the hydroponic system.

“They get some plant food, and the water is re-circulating, so it gets pumped, goes through a tube and comes down through the hydroponic system,” she said.

The system is placed on a slight tilt, so the water flows down to one end before being pumped back around.

Jackson adds that the bok choy has flourished this year, and that they have only used grow lights sparingly since the weather has been mild. Since the bok choy is sheltered in the greenhouse, it’s been safe from pests and disease.

The process of growing the vegetable also provides a learning experience for many of the youth who volunteer on the farm. Jackson describes many of them, particularly those who have grown up in urban environments, as “vegetable-ly challenged.” But once she has them try the bok choy — raw, unwashed and straight from the farm — they begin to understand its appeal.

“It brings such a smile to their face, like, ‘Oh, this is delicious. I’ve got to take it home for my family to try,’“ Jackson said. “I go by the faith that they’re going to like it because it’s fresh. But they actually like it, and they eat it.”

Jackson adds that boy choy can be eaten sauteed or in soups. Try the recipe below that she provided for Hot-and-Sour Cold Cabbage and Baby Bok Choy Salad.

Hot-and-Sour Cold Cabbage and Baby Bok Choy Salad
by Abra Morawiec
(Recipe adapted and modified from "The Illustrated Step-by-Step Chinese Cookbook" by Paul C. Huang)

½ head of Chinese cabbage
3 small heads of baby bok choy
4 ½ tablespoons of olive oil
⅔ cup rice wine vinegar
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour

1. Cut off the stem of the cabbage, about 1 ½ to 2 inches from the end. Wash cabbage leaves in cold water.
2. Bring together the leaves, bunch them up, and cut into 1 ½ inch slices.
3. Repeat previous steps with baby bok choy.
4. Put olive oil into a large frying pan or wok and turn the flame up high. Once the oil is hot, add the cut cabbage and bok choy. Stir for one minute.
5. Sprinkle the salt over cabbage and bok choy, stir well, then add the rice wine vinegar and crushed red pepper. Stir for about 30 seconds and reduce flame to low.
6. Cover the pan/wok and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
7. Add the sugar and stir until incorpoated.
8. After the sugar has dissolved, add the flour a little bit at a time to thicken the sauce.
9. Remove from heat and serve it up! This salad can be enjoyed hot or cold.

Last Chance Foods: The Nitrate Debate

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:00:00 -0500

The use of nitrates in food preservation is a hot topic of debate among those who are worried about food safety. While nitrates are a compound found naturally in soil and vegetables, the biggest controversy surrounds its use as a meat preservative.

Butcher Ben Turley works at The Meat Hook, a shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that specializes in local, sustainably-raised meat. He says there’s an important reason he uses nitrates in the bacon and sausages he produces. “Preservatives pretty much give us that edge to make sure that harmful bacterias don’t get into our product so we can sell it and know that we’re not going to get anybody sick,” Turley said. Nitrates are used to prevent botulism and other harmful types of bacteria.

But research shows that when used as a food additive, nitrates can cause problems for pregnant women and young children. As a result, the Food and Drug Administration closely monitors nitrate levels in well water and in processed food. But pregnant women and children aside, how concerned should the average adult be when eating the occasional hot dog produced with nitrates?

Registered dietitian Samantha Heller says adults and older children can safely eat meat with nitrates a few times a month. Again, like Turley, she focuses on moderation. “Eating less red, processed meats is always healthier in terms of all the diseases we talk about — cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease — and for children, as well,” she explained.

Even as a butcher, Turley (seen below) agrees that, when it comes to eating meat, there are many other concerns that might very well overshadow any nitrate-related problems. Since the amount of nitrates in meat products is carefully regulated, he says that it would take about 20 or 30 years of eating bacon every day for the additive to cause a problem. “And if you’re eating bacon every day for 20 or 30 years, you probably have bigger health problems,” Turley said. “I would say, maybe focus on that a little more than the impending doom of a little bit of [nitrates] in your bacon.”

He also points out that the FDA closely monitors nitrate use in meat. Recipes for products that include it have to be approved by government authorities to ensure that the amount used is well within safe levels. “It’s true, nitrate can give you cancer ... if you swallow a glass a day for about a year,” he explained in a blog post. “My advice as a food service professional would be to NOT do that.”

However, the same health concerns don’t apply for produce that is naturally high in nitrates, like celery, radishes, and beets, for instance. “Research is showing that somehow the vehicle with which they are transferred to your body, so whether it’s celery or zucchini, or a piece of salami, makes a difference on how it affects the health of your body,” Heller said. “There’s a lot of research that still needs to be done.”

Some butchers are using celery salt, which is naturally high in nitrates, as a work-around when creating “nitrate-free” meat. “You can still say ‘We’re not using nitrates,’ but it’s still essentially... nitrates,” Turley explained.

At The Meat Hook, Turley does not make nitrate free meat for one simple reason: He can’t do it and guarantee safety. “For a small operation like us, I don’t have the infrastructure to make sure that there’s that completely clean environment, that without those nitrates and without those protective barriers, that I can ensure safety,” he said. “Bigger operations that have a USDA inspector there every single day, watching everything that happens, can do that little better bit than we can.”

Turley adds that he probably encounters about one customer a week who specifically asks about nitrates. “There is kind of that public fear, I guess, of nitrates and preservatives and food additives, which is fine, and there’s a lot of reason to have a problem with a lot of them,” he said. “I think that’s trending mainly out of that kind of fear, kind of lumping all preservatives into the same basket.”

Watch Amy Eddings' Sixty Second Stir Fry with Ben Turley

Last Chance Foods is trying something new: a Q&A lightning round of questions with All Things Considered host Amy Eddings and this week's guest, Ben Turley.

Last Chance Foods: Coffee Klatsch

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:14:00 -0500

American coffee culture has exploded in the past two decades. The brew draws devotees, as well as a flurry of opinions on how to make the best cup of joe. Some swear by French presses, while others are certain that vacuum brewers produce a superior beverage.

“It’s less about one particular brewing method being the best for a coffee and more about following basic brewing procedures with any brewing method you use,” said Katie Carguilo, an award-winning barista who is competing in the Northeast Regional Barista Competition and Brewers Cup on Saturday and Sunday. “Different methods will produce different results, and it’s all about what you like the best.”

French presses, for instance, make for coffee that is silkier because the metal filter does not capture as much sediment. What is certain, however, is that regular drip-brew coffee makers fail on one front.

“It’s less about one particular brewing method being the best for a coffee and more about following basic brewing procedures with any brewing method you use,” says Katie Carguilo, an award-winning barista who is competing in the Northeast Regional Barista Competition and Brewers Cup this weekend. “Different methods will produce different results, and it’s all about what you like the best.” French presses, for instance, make for coffee that is silkier because the metal filter does not capture as much sediment.

What is certain, however, is that regular drip-brew coffee makers fail on one front: “They don’t get the water hot enough to brew the coffee properly,” says Carguilo, who works for Counter Culture Coffee. That results in cups of coffee she describes as tasting “flat.”

The proper water temperature is between 195 to 205 degrees. “If you’re making a cup of coffee at home, my general rule of thumb is to boil water, shut off the flame or the heating element, let the water settle down, and then brew the coffee with that water,” she says.

Carguilo also adds that its important to use coffee that’s freshly ground using a burr grinder, rather than a grinder with a whirley blade. That distinction is important enough that she recommends having a barista grind coffee using a burr grinder rather than doing it at home with a blade grinder. The reason is because burr grinders have an adjustable set of teeth that only cut the coffee once for even sizing. Blade grinders chop the coffee many times and result in grounds that are not uniform. That means the coffee loses its flavor more quickly and doesn’t brew as well.

Another basic principle to making an ideal cup of coffee is to use the correct grounds-to-water ratio. That’s 1.6 to 2 grams of coffee for every ounce of water. A tablespoon is about 5 grams of coffee. “It’s all about the amount of dissolvable material — so what that water is actually going to be able to dissolve from the coffee grounds,” explains Carguilo. “If you use too much coffee it won’t dissolve enough flavor, and those cups of coffee will taste really sour and very papery. If you don’t use enough coffee, it will dissolve too much flavor and those cups of coffee will end up tasting very bitter.”

As far as storage goes, Carguilo dispelled another myth: Don’t keep coffee in the refrigerator or freezer. Since it is very efficient at taking in moisture, coffee will absorb the smell of food around it. “I like to think about coffee like I think about fresh bread,” Carguilo explains. “I only buy it in small quantities when I need it and try and use it within a couple of days because it really does get kind of stale and lose flavor afterwards.” (But unlike bread, she does not keep it in the freezer.)

Another lesser known fact about coffee is that it is a seasonal product. “Coffee in general is the fruit of a cherry, and those cherries ripen once a year, after the coffee trees flower,” explains Carguilo. “And then it takes a couple of months to harvest all of the coffee cherries and process them and export them to the countries in which they’re roasted. But in general the coffee will taste the best within about six months of making it to the roastery. After six months, it starts to lose its acidity or its fruitiness and freshness, and starts to take on more papery, woody tastes.”

That means that Brazilian coffee, for instance, may not be available year round. To the relief of caffeine and coffee addicts, there will never be a month when in-season coffee is not available. “The nice thing about coffee is that anywhere in the world at some point in time coffee is always being harvested,” says Carguilo. “So we’re never going to run out“It’s less about one particular brewing method being the best for a coffee and more about following basic brewing procedures with any brewing method you use,” says Katie Carguilo, an award-winning barista who is competing in the Northeast Regional Barista Competition and Brewers Cup this weekend. “Different methods will produce different results, and it’s all about what you like the best.” French presses, for instance, make for coffee that is silkier because the metal filter does not capture as much sediment.

“They don’t get the water hot enough to brew the coffee properly,” said Carguilo (pictured below), who works for Counter Culture Coffee. That results in cups of coffee she describes as tasting “flat.”

The proper water temperature should be between 195 and 205 degrees F.

“If you’re making a cup of coffee at home, my general rule of thumb is to boil water, shut off the flame or the heating element, let the water settle down, and then brew the coffee with that water,” she said.

Carguilo also adds that it's important to use coffee that’s freshly ground using a burr grinder, rather than a grinder with a whirley blade. That distinction is important enough that she recommends having a barista grind coffee using a burr grinder rather than doing it at home with a blade grinder. The reason? Burr grinders have an adjustable set of teeth that only cut the coffee once for even sizing. Blade grinders chop the coffee many times and result in grounds that are not uniform. That means the coffee loses its flavor more quickly and doesn’t brew as well.

Another basic principle to making the ideal cup of coffee is to use the correct grounds-to-water ratio. That’s 1.6 to 2 grams of coffee for every ounce of water. A tablespoon is about 5 grams of coffee.

“It’s all about the amount of dissolvable material — so what that water is actually going to be able to dissolve from the coffee grounds,” explained Carguilo. “If you use too much coffee it won’t dissolve enough flavor, and those cups of coffee will taste really sour and very papery. If you don’t use enough coffee, it will dissolve too much flavor and those cups of coffee will end up tasting very bitter.”

“I like to think about coffee like I think about fresh bread,” Carguilo said. “I only buy it in small quantities when I need it and try and use it within a couple of days because it really does get kind of stale and loses flavor afterwards.” (But unlike bread, she does not keep it in the freezer.)

Another lesser known fact about coffee is that it is a seasonal product.

“Coffee in general is the fruit of a cherry, and those cherries ripen once a year, after the coffee trees flower,” she said. “And then it takes a couple of months to harvest all of the coffee cherries and process them and export them to the countries in which they’re roasted. But in general the coffee will taste the best within about six months of making it to the roastery. After six months, it starts to lose its acidity or its fruitiness and freshness, and starts to take on more papery, woody tastes.” (The photo by Fernando Stankuns below shows fresh coffee cherries in Brazil.)

That means that Brazilian coffee, for instance, may not be available year-round. To the relief of caffeine and coffee addicts, there will never be a month when in-season coffee is not available though.

“The nice thing about coffee is that anywhere in the world at some point in time coffee is always being harvested,” said Carguilo. “So we’re never going to run out.”

Last Chance Foods: Invasion of the Brussels Sprouts

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:05:00 -0500

Brussels sprouts are everywhere. The John Dory Oyster Bar serves them with mushrooms, pancetta and cheese. Ilili in the Flatiron District takes a Mediterranean spin and adds mint yogurt, fig puree, walnuts and grapes. Brussels sprouts were so popular at Momofuku Noodle Bar that chef David Chang took them off the menu — he didn’t want to dedicate the manpower necessary to keep up with demand.

Looking at New York restaurants these days, it’s hard to believe that the cruciferous winter vegetable ever got a bad rap. But up until the last 15 years or so, Brussels sprouts were often sad, overcooked, bitter little cabbages.

Chef Sara Moulton, whose PBS show Sara’s Weeknight Meals is in its second season, explains that it is all in the preparation. “Everybody overcooks them,” she said, adding that she used to studiously avoid them. “They’re like the smallest member of the culinary dirty diaper family. You know, they’re in the crucifer family and the thing with any crucifer, be it broccoli or cauliflower or cabbage of any kind, if you over cook it, it stinks.”

Moulton still remembers the dish that made her a Brussels sprouts convert. In 1996, during the early days of the Food Network, she overheard The Two Hot Tamales, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, discussing a quick and easy way of making sprouts. The recipe involved shredding the Brussels sprouts and sautéing them quickly in olive oil. “Back then it seemed very novel, now I think it’s pretty common,” Moulton said.

Now, Moulton still makes them that way for her own family. “One way to get them to cook through quickly and to not overcook them is to shred them, but shredding them can take time,” she said. So instead, she drops Brussel sprouts into her food processor. A few spins through the shredding disk attachment, and they’re ready for a quick toss in a pan. She often counters the natural bitterness of the sprouts with the addition of ingredients like Balsamic vinegar, pine nuts, walnuts or Parmesan. Shredded Brussels sprouts can even be dressed and eaten as a raw salad.

When selecting Brussels sprouts, Moulton is a fan of buying them on the stalk because it can be a sign of freshness. The stalks are also a novelty because of how strange the look. “I always thought they sort of looked like the pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” she said with a chuckle.

Moulton says to look for Brussels that are firm with tightly wrapped leaves. “The good news about Brussels sprouts is that they are a... fall-winter vegetable so that when you buy them at the farmers market, they’ve been sitting in the cold,” she said. “In the summer time, when we buy corn, and it’s been sitting there for hours in the 90-degree heat, it’s deteriorating.”

Once home, Moulton does a minimum of prep work: She just trims the ends and gets rid of the blemished outer leaves. The former Gourmet test kitchen director says that she has no preference on size, but does add that there is one advantage with the larger sprouts. “If they’re bigger, it takes less time to prepare them, so that would be a plus for the bigger ones,” Moulton said. “But, hey, I think they’re all good.”

Below, try Moulton’s recipe for Sautéed Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta.

Sautéed Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta
Servings: 6-8

1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 ounces pancetta (or bacon), finely chopped
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Parmigiano-Reggiano (shaved into strips)

1. Trim the Brussels sprouts and discard any damaged outside leaves.
2. Using a food processor, force the sprouts a few at a time through the chute with the blade in motion. You should have about 8 cups of shredded sprouts.
3. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and cook, stirring often, until very lightly browned 3-5 minutes. Add the sprouts and cook, stirring, until tender, about 5 minutes.
4. Pour in the vinegar and increase the heat to high. Season with salt and pepper and stir until the vinegar has evaporated. Top with cheese.

Last Chance Foods: Zesting Up Winter Cooking with Citrus

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:08:00 -0500

Midwinter can get monotonous when it comes to seasonal eating. While February may seem like root vegetables as far as the eye can see, there’s one seasonal ingredient that can put some zing into otherwise starch-heavy dishes. Citrus-like oranges, grapefruits, lemons and limes are in season in Florida and provide a wide variety of flavor profiles to liven up winter cooking.

“The acid or the sweetness, depending on what you want to add to that dish, can really kind of add a brightness ... often lacking in produce that’s available in the winter,” said chef Rienne Martinez, who recently taught a class on using citrus at The Brooklyn Kitchen. “The acidity of a summer tomato can kind of be mirrored in adding a little squeeze of Meyer lemon juice or lime juice.”

Her number one tip is to use the zest, which can be added to salads, cocktails, or used to finish meat dishes. It can also be used in baking. Just be sure the zest is mixed into the liquids or beaten into the eggs so that it distributes evenly.

Once the fruit is divested of its outer skin, it should be kept cold and used within a few days. Otherwise, citrus should be kept at room temperature if it’s going to be used for cooking.

“It’s easier to extract the juice if it’s not cold,” Martinez explained. “Same thing with the zest. The oils are going to be easier to release into what you’re cooking.”

In addition, rolling oranges, limes or lemons on the counter helps to break up the pulp and makes for easier juicing.

When it comes to juicing gadgets, though, Martinez eschews fancy gadgetry.

“My preference would be an old fashioned reamer,” she said.

Handheld reamers allow for maximum efficiency while avoiding a problem that can sometimes be caused by hinged reamers.

“You very often times get the oil into the juice when you’re using a hinged one, and it can add a little bit of bitterness,” she added.

Martinez also makes it a point to use organic citrus to avoid pesticides, like the fungicide that was recently found in orange juice imported from Brazil. The report has demand for organic, Florida-grown citrus skyrocketing, according to Mary Mitchell, who supplies Brooklyn Kitchen with citrus from Eagle’s Nest Grove in Crescent City, FL.

“It has tripled my orders,” said Mitchell. “I have one region of a grocery store that I normally send about 12 palates of juice oranges to, and they’re taking 40 a week.”

Nonetheless, Mitchell has encountered one unexpected difficulty with her citrus crop this season: 60 percent of it was stolen in the middle of the night. She attributed the theft to professionals, who knew to stay away from the road, her house and even her security cameras.

“You can imagine the look on my face when I drove out there to see where the color was,” Mitchell recalled. “I just locked up my brakes in the middle of the highway. There was no fruit that had been there the night before. I’m like, I kept walking back out there looking like, ‘I don’t believe this. My fruit’s gone.’”

Fortunately, Mitchell’s loyal backers are willing to cover the cost of the theft, and she’s able to carry on until next year’s crop. But her difficult experience is just one more reason to appreciate the bright, tart flavor of citrus fruit this season.

Try Martinez’s recipe for Cara Cara Orange and Fennel Salad below.

Cara Cara Orange and Fennel Salad

3 cara cara oranges
2 fennel bulbs
½ bunch flat leaf parsley
½ red onion
1/3 cup olive oil
1/8 cup champagne vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 TB toasted coriander cracked

Zest the oranges into a bowl add in the olive oil, vinegar, coriander and salt and pepper. Mix well and reserve. Section the oranges, pull the leaves off the parsley and thinly slice the fennel and onion. Combine all and dress with the reserved vinaigrette. Serves 6

Last Chance Foods: Rooting for Rutabagas

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:05:40 -0500

Rutabagas may seem like one of winter’s more homely vegetables, but chef Jesse Schenker of Recette says they’re as versatile as a potato, and even more delicious.

“You could literally swap out any potato recipe with a rutabaga and it would be even better,” he said. “It’s so underutilized, and maybe people are just afraid of it. “

Schenker notes that just name — which is derived from the Swedish word rotabagge, or “root bag” — sounds foreign and strange. Also, many people tend to confuse rutabagas with turnips, and they’re referred to as “Swedish turnips” in some European countries.

“It’s actually a completely different vegetable,” he said.

Schenker notes that just name — which is derived from the Swedish word rotabagge, or “root bag” — sounds foreign and strange. Also, many people tend to confuse rutabagas with turnips, and they’re referred to as “Swedish turnips” in some European countries. “It’s actually a completely different vegetable,” he says.

Rutabagas also have a noticeably different taste, as well. They are sweeter than radishes and turnips, but not as as sweet as parsnips or carrots. In the kitchen, Schenker prizes their versatility above all. One aspect of that is their bright yellow color. “From a chef’s stand point, and having a restaurant and wanting to make things visually appealing, you put this bright yellow puree on the plate with a piece of delicious roasted fish and some bright vegetables, it’s going to look a lot better than just a muted white,” he says. “You know, stain them with a little beet juice, or a little bit of carrot juice... and now your rutabaga’s got a little funky Grateful Dead tie-dye thing going on.”

In addition to color, another aspect that Schenker touts is the vegetable’s functional versatility. “The fact that they’re so porous is great,” he says. “It’s one of those things that you can almost treat as a piece of braised meat.” Rutabagas can be roasted and braised, or just braised in a flavorful cooking liquid, which it will then absorb. At Recette, Schenker currently serves rutabagas with wild striped bass. He cooks the rutabagas in seafood stock, stores them submerged in the stock, and the lets them cool in the refrigerator. The vegetable then picks up the flavor.

Schenker’s uses for rutabagas seem endless. He says that the root vegetable can also be peeled, quartered, sliced thinly on a mandolin and then lightly pickled in vinegar, olive oil, herbs and seasonings to make a crunchy, healthy salad.

Peeling in necessary, though, since oftentimes rutabagas late in the season have been waxed. “They wax it so that it holds up on the shelf in storage; it doesn’t lose moisture,” explained farmer Bill Maxwell, who grows rutabagas in Changewater, N.J.

Below, try Schneker’s easy recipe for making a quick rutabaga side dish or snack atSchenker notes that just name — which is derived from the Swedish word rotabagge, or “root bag” — sounds foreign and strange. Also, many people tend to confuse rutabagas with turnips, and they’re referred to as “Swedish turnips” in some European countries. “It’s actually a completely different vegetable,” he says.

Rutabagas also have a noticeably different taste. They are sweeter than radishes and turnips, but not as as sweet as parsnips or carrots.

In the kitchen, Schenker prizes their versatility above all. One aspect of that is their bright yellow color.

“From a chef’s stand point, and having a restaurant and wanting to make things visually appealing, you put this bright yellow puree on the plate with a piece of delicious roasted fish and some bright vegetables, it’s going to look a lot better than just a muted white,” he said. “You know, stain them with a little beet juice, or a little bit of carrot juice ... and now your rutabaga’s got a little funky Grateful Dead tie-dye thing going on.”

In addition to color, another aspect that Schenker (pictured right, photographer Albert Cheung) touts is the vegetable’s functional versatility. “The fact that they’re so porous is great,” he said. “It’s one of those things that you can almost treat as a piece of braised meat.”

Rutabagas can be roasted and braised, or just braised in a flavorful cooking liquid, which it will then absorb. At Recette, Schenker currently serves rutabagas with wild striped bass. He cooks the rutabagas in seafood stock, stores them submerged in the stock, and then lets them cool in the refrigerator. The vegetable then picks up the flavor.

Peeling is necessary, though, since oftentimes rutabagas late in the season have been waxed.

“They wax it so that it holds up on the shelf in storage; it doesn’t lose moisture,” explained farmer Bill Maxwell, who grows rutabagas in Changewater, N.J.

Below, try Schneker’s easy recipe for making a quick rutabaga side dish or snack at home.

Baked and Broiled Rutabagas

Serves 2-3

1 large rutabaga
1 clove garlic, minced
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan Reggiano
Kosher salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Peel large rutabaga and cut into 1.5 inch cubes.

3. Toss in mixing bowl with olive oil, thyme and garlic.

4. Spread evenly on baking sheet .

5. Season with salt.

6. Bake for 12- 15 minutes, until fork tender.

7. Sprinkle parmesan regiano on top.

8. Turn oven to broiler and finish for 3-5 minutes until there is a golden brown crust.

Serve alongside any meat or fish or eat by itself as a snack.

Last Chance Foods: Lucky Foods for the Year of the Dragon

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:42:36 -0500

This Sunday, the traditional Chinese New Year’s dragon dance will fill the streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown with performers and onlookers. The year of the dragon started this past Monday, and many families will continue to celebrate during the first two weeks of the Lunar New Year by eating auspicious foods and observing certain traditions. The practices are meant to bring prosperity, good fortune and togetherness.

Grace Young, a former test kitchen director and author of The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, as well as Stir Frying to the Sky’s Edge, made a New Year’s Eve meal this year as a means of preserving her family’s culinary tradition. “[My mother is] too old to cook now, and she doesn’t even remember the dishes,” she explained, “so it’s sort of beautiful that I can give it back to her."

Young notes that dumplings and spring rolls are eaten during the Chinese New Year because the shapes of the foods resemble gold ingots. In addition, noodles symbolize longevity.

“One of the most popular dishes to make for the New Year’s Eve meal is a whole fish, because it symbolizes a proper beginning and end to the year,” she said. “And the word for fish sounds like the word for wishes coming true and abundance in Chinese.”

Most families also save some of the fish to eat the following day with the belief that it brings good fortune from one year into the next.

Fruit like tangerines are also often eaten and displayed during the Lunar New Year because the Chinese name for the fruit is a homophone of the Chinese word for “gold.”

Young also notes that lettuce, or sang choy in Cantonese, sounds like rising prosperity. A classic preparation is to quickly stir-fry it in a very hot wok or pan.

“It cooks very, very quickly,” said Young. “One of the big tips when you’re stir-frying lettuce is you should dry the leaves first. A Chinese chef in a restaurant kitchen doesn’t have to do that ... because their stoves are much more powerful.”

Other more elaborate dishes will also grace many tables during this time. Seafood will play an important roll in celebration of the year of the dragon.

“The dragon is actually considered the king of the ocean,” Young explained. “So oftentimes the dragon is associated with the lobster, but lots of people will serve seafood dishes.”

The Year of the Dragon also holds special meaning on a larger scale.

“Of all the animals there are in Chinese horoscope, it is considered the most powerful and the most auspicious,” said Young, who explains that many people who take stock in the Chinese zodiac wait until the year of the dragon to get married, have babies, and start businesses. “That’s how powerful this year is.”

Below, try Young’s recipe for stir-fried garlic lettuce.

Stir-Fried Garlic Lettuce
by Grace Young
from The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen (Simon & Schuster 1999)

In Hong Kong, stir-fried iceberg is extremely popular, and only the Cantonese could make iceberg so delicious. The iceberg attains sweetness from the soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine, and only takes three minutes to stir-fry. Bok choy is also delicious stir-fried in this manner.

1 medium head iceberg lettuce
1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry
¾ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoons ground white pepper
3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
¼ teaspoon salt

1. Core the iceberg and separate into leaves. Wash the lettuce in several changes of cold water, breaking the leaves in half. Drain thoroughly in a colander until dry to the touch.

2. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, sugar, and pepper.

3. Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within 1 to 2 seconds. Add the vegetable oil and garlic, and stir-fry 10 seconds. Add the lettuce and stir-fry 1 minute. Add the salt and stir-fry another minute, or until the lettuce is just limp. Swirl in the sauce and stir-fry 1 more minute or until lettuce is just tender and still bright green. Serve immediately. Serves 4 as a vegetable side dish.

Last Chance Foods: To Cleanse or Not to Cleanse?

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:43:15 -0500

Mention the words “cleanse” or “detox,” and many people are likely to react with passion. There are those who swear by it, and many who consider it a sham. The start of the year seems to amplify the conversation, with the list of what people are not eating growing as long and specific as a tally of out-of-season produce.

Last Chance Foods is primarily a segment about healthy and seasonal eating, but January seemed the right time to address the inescapable buzz around cleanses. First of all, the semantics: a “cleanse” can mean everything from the (in)famous liquids-only Master Cleanse to a raw foods–only regimen. “Detox” might be used in reference to laxative-based teas or to refraining from alcohol. These loaded words call for clarification.

To tackle the touchy topic of cleanses, Last Chance Foods spoke with Dr. Alejandro Junger, a cardiologist and the creator of Clean, a 21-day cleanse. The program involves drinking shakes for breakfast and dinner, with a lunch of solid, cleanse-acceptable foods. All Things Considered host Amy Eddings tried the Clean program and says she had a positive experience.

On the other side of the debate is Samantha Heller, a registered dietitian and clinical nutritionist. She asserts that extreme, juice-only cleanses are unhealthy. “It scares the heck out of your body,” says Heller. “Your body thinks it’s starving, so it goes into starvation survival mode and you don’t want your body to have to do that.”

Junger’s program is less extreme because it does allow for solid foods and a full meal every day. Heller explains why she believes people feel better after going through similar cleanse programs. “Any time you shift to a healthier diet, you will feel better,” she says. “So it’s not necessarily the cleansing and the detoxing part of it — which doesn’t actually happen — it’s the dietary shift. Our bodies detox every second of every day. Our bodies are brilliant at it.” Instead, Heller emphasizes that people should focus instead on eating well and exercising.

Junger agrees that humans have built-in systems for detoxing — he cites the elimination of CO2 through breathing as a basic example — but he maintains that those systems sometimes need a boost. “Cleansing and detox programs [are] when somebody creates the conditions for these systems and organs to work harmoniously and efficiently,” he says. “Now, basically what this does [is] it restores your body’s natural ability to heal itself.”

Junger describes fatigue and bloating as signs that a cleanse may be beneficial. “People get what I call ‘puffy’ by retaining so much mucus and water,” he says. Cleanses can also be used to discover food sensitivities through a means of elimination and observation. When reintroducing foods post-cleanse, it’s possible to pinpoint items that upset digestion or cause symptoms like bloating.

While Heller admits that it’s useful to identify food sensitivities, she also voices another criticism of cleanses: the cost. “Cleanses in general, people spend so much money,” she says. “[For the Clean program] in particular, I saw one of the starter programs was $425. You would be so much better off spending that money [on] joining a gym, buying fresh vegetables, buying some beans, buying some cookbooks, maybe even seeing a registered dietitian to help you create a healthier lifestyle plan. And you would still have money left over.”

Junger disagrees and points out that he also wrote a book instructing people on how to make the foods and shakes themselves. Eddings adds that she completed the program without buying the supplements. “The reason I came up with products was not because I wanted to sell something,” Junger says. “It was because I had so many patients that didn’t have the time to go and buy their foods and choose the right vegetables and fruits and juice and... They just didn’t have the time to do it.” He adds that the cost of his program is not necessarily more expensive than 21 days worth of organic fruits and vegetables for breakfast and dinner.

Ultimately, individuals will always disagree on the best ways to maintain healthy lifestyles. Whether cleanses are a part of those efforts or not remains a matter of personal preference. Regardless, at the start of the year and at the end of a discussion on cleanses, it seems worthwhile to reiterate the words made famous by food writer Michael Pollan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Last Chance Foods: Parsing Pantry Staples

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:02:13 -0500

With blustery winds whipping across frost-hardened fields, eating seasonally during the winter months requires innovation aided by a well-stocked pantry. Recently, Last Chance Foods focused on cleaning out old spices and expired condiments in the interest of starting off fresh in the new year. This week, chef Amy Chaplin discussed pantry basics and suggests ingredients that will help liven up sometimes starch-heavy winter meals.

Chaplin, whose pantry was recently photographed for Martha Stewart Living, says having a well-organized storage system is crucial to being inspired to cook. “I really think the best way to store grains and beans — and other things, as well — is in glass jars,” she says, adding the recycled food jars or mason jars scavenged from flea markets work well. “[The jars give] everything a deserving place. It’s important, and it keeps much better. No weevils can get in and you can have your grains and beans for a really long time.”

As for the crucial spices to keep on hand, Chaplin recommends cinnamon as a go-to. It can be used in both sweet and savory applications. “It actually helps digest carbohydrates,” she says. “The other thing that I try to use more because it has anti-inflammatory properties is tumeric. You don’t want everything to taste like tumeric, but it’s a great one spice to have.” Chaplin explains that while tumeric won’t replace an Indian curry spice blend, it can be combined with a few fresh ingredients like garlic, ginger, cilantro, and peppers to approximate a Thai curry, for instance.

Dried herbs also hold an important place in the pantry. In particular, Chaplin like to add a pinch of oregano to beans and stews. She adds that seaweed is also a great addition to a pot of beans.

“Kombu is an amazing ingredient that actually enhances the nutritional value of food that its cooked with,” Chaplin says. “I’ve always cooked beans with kombu, because it helps them digest more easily and can help prevent gas.” Kombu may be less well known than traditional pantry ingredients but is ideal for winter, since it stores well and adds a robustness of flavor.

Keeping a few healthy snacking options on hand also helps reinforce any New Year’s resolutions. Chaplin says toasted almonds and almond butter are healthy (in moderation), as well as filling.

“Pumpkin seeds are really good,” she says. “You can toast them with a little cayenne pepper and lemon juice and sea salt, and it makes it a little more flavorful.”

Chaplin has a list of pantry essentials on her website. Below is Chaplin’s recipe for coconut curry using tumeric.

Coconut Curry
Serves 6 to 8 people

The jalapenos I used were not at all hot, so I decided to add some cayenne pepper. Make sure you taste your curry before adding the cayenne. —Amy Chaplin

6 cups filtered water
3 cups dried coconut
2 stalks lemon grass, chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil or coconut butter
1 onion, sliced
Sea salt
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 ½ inch piece ginger, minced
1 red jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 green jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 small bunch cilantro
1 small leek, sliced
2 teaspoons turmeric
2 red turnips, cut in ¾ inch wedges
4 cups kabocha squash, cut in ¾ inch pieces
3 small carrots, cut in ½ inch pieces
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder (optional)
2 cups cauliflower florets
2 cups cooked chickpeas
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 red peppers, seeded and sliced
Large handful baby spinach leaves
Cayenne pepper to taste

To make coconut milk, pour the water and coconut into a blender and blend on high speed for at least 2 minutes. You can do this in two batches if you have a smaller blender.

Place a strainer over a medium sized pot and line with a thin kitchen towel or nut milk bag. Pour the coconut milk into cloth or bag and gently squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Compost the pulp and place the pot over high heat. Add the lemon grass and bring to a boil, cover, lower heat and simmer while you make the curry for up to 30 minutes. Remove lemon grass with small strainer and discard. Set milk aside.

Warm coconut oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté for a few minutes. Add a pinch of salt, the garlic, ginger and jalapenos and cook for another couple of minutes. Finely slice the cilantro stems and add to the pot along with the leeks. Roughly chop the cilantro leaves and set aside.

Stir in turmeric then add the turnips, squash and carrots. Pour in homemade coconut milk and bring to a boil. Stir, lower heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cauliflower, raise heat to bring back to a simmer and cook for another 10 minutes. Stir in chickpeas and continue cooking for a few minutes. Slowly drizzle in arrowroot and gently stir until mixture thickens slightly. Season to taste with salt and add a pinch or two of cayenne pepper if you want it spicier.

Warm olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, add peppers and a pinch of salt and sauté for a few minutes or until they begin to brown in parts. Remove from heat and add to the curry. Stir in cilantro leaves and spinach until wilted. Remove from heat and serve.

Last Chance Foods: A Clean Kitchen for the New Year

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:48:53 -0500

Food safety expert Marion Nestle confesses that the oldest spices in her pantry likely date to when she first moved into her apartment — about 20 years ago. While they’re not going to be unsafe to eat, she does add with a chuckle that it’s probably time to throw them out. With the start of a new year, now is a good time to shuffle through pantries and refrigerators to purge old and expired items.

“If you open [a spice] up and you sniff it, and it doesn’t smell like anything, you know, it’s really time to get rid of it,” said Nestle, who is the author of "Safe Foods: The Politics of Food Safety."

When considering refrigerated items, vinegar-based foods are generally safe to keep for a longer amount of time. Nestle hesitates to specify whether “a long time” means a matter of weeks, months or years, however, but says to use good judgement.

“It is fungible because you can’t really tell,” she explained. “It’s very, very unlikely that a high-vinegar product is going to get contaminated with anything that’s going to hurt you.”

That’s because the high level of acid in those foods usually kill most harmful bacteria. But if those pickles are long past expired, and starting to look grungy, then it’s time to toss them.

“You can be a little flexible about high-acid products, but, yeah, [the sell by date] is a pretty good indication that you might want to say, ‘Do I really need this?’” said Nestle.

On the other hand, milk is one item where expiration dates are serious deadlines. In New York City, much milk will often have two dates listed on it.

“The second date is usually shorter, and it’s because if you live in New York, the chances are that milk has been sitting out at room temperature some place between cow and grocery store and it goes bad faster,” said Nestle.

Pre-wrapped foods such as processed cheeses and lunch meats are also some of the first foods that need to be thrown out. That’s because they can harbor dangerous listeria, which is the bacteria that contaminated cantaloupe this past fall, killing 30 people.

“Listeria is the one bacteria that I can think of that is perfectly happy to grow in the refrigerator,” Nestle said.

Leftovers generally keep longer, since cooking brings food to 160 degrees or higher. That makes the food and container in which it was cooked sterile. Nestle also weighs in on the debate on whether food should cool on the counter before being refrigerated.

“It depends on what [the leftovers] are, but I think straight into the refrigerator is always the best idea because that will eventually bring the temperature down a little faster,” she said. “The Department of Agriculture is very strict about what you can do and it advises you to throw away leftovers after three to five days. That seems optimistic to me.”

Nestle admits that she sometimes pushes those limits.

“I think the Department of Agriculture guidelines are very conservative,” she said. “If you follow those guidelines, you won’t make yourself sick from the food. And most food-borne illness doesn’t come from what people do at home anyway. It’s in the food before it gets to you.”

Cutting Board Etiquette

The news about cutting boards, said Nestle, is that it doesn’t really make a difference whether you use wood or plastic. What is important is to keep separate ones for meats and raw foods.

“Cutting boards are only a problem if you’re cutting un-sterile things on them,” she noted. “So the rule about cutting boards is you have to keep kosher: You have one for vegetables and one for meat. And you make sure you that never do raw and cooked foods on the same cutting boards. And you’re supposed to wash them frequently with hot soapy water.”

Also, once cutting boards start to look grungy, it’s probably time to replace them. Of course, “grungy” is relative, so go with your instinct.

2011 Year in Review: The Year's Most Talked-About Last Chance Foods

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Traditionally, religion and politics are topics to be avoided in polite company. For many, food might as well be added to that list since opinions on what people eat and how they eat it are often cause for heated debate.

But being New Yorkers, we love a good fight. In 2011, Last Chance Foods segments on bluefish and foraging for morel mushrooms (in conjunction with turkey hunting) had some listeners’ blood running hot. On the other hand, for some, episodes on sorrel, oatmeal and even infamously stinky durian fruit brought back fond memories of beloved foods and experiences.

Here’s a list of some of the most commented on Last Chance Foods episodes of 2011.

Oatmeal Got Its Moment in the Spotlight Listeners shared their favorite ways for preparing oatmeal, as Mark Garrison and Dan Pashman of the Sporkful podcast debated the merits of instant, quick cook and Irish oatmeal. Garrison declared that making good oatmeal requires a sacrifice: “If you’re not going to devote just a little bit of extra time, maybe you don’t deserve oatmeal. Oatmeal demands that you respect it and give it just a little bit of your time.” Listen to the segment, which aired in March, here.

The ‘Merkel’ of Morels Perhaps this segment should have come with a disclaimer, warning vegetarians that the segment included talk about turkey hunting. Field & Stream editor Colin Kearns mentioned that morel season in the spring coincides with turkey hunting. However, he did note that simply interacting with vocal “gobblers” by calling back and forth with them is just as fun as actually hunting them for food. “I think if you were to ask 10 hunters what his perfect spring day would be, his morning would be his turkey hunt and his afternoon would be a morel hunt in the woods,” said Kearns. Listen to the segment, which aired in April, here.

Talking About the Tart Taste of Sorrel Dr. Pamela Yee of Hook Mountain Growers touted the health benefits of this tangy leafy green plant. Sorrel is so high in vitamin C that it used to be eaten to prevent scurvy. It also supports the soil around it by serving as nutrient-dense compost. Listener Barbara Wasserman of Ossining, N.Y., remembered a sorrel recipe her mother used to make. “What memories you evoked in me with your discussion about sorrel,” she wrote. “My mom and grandmother made a cold sorrel soup called schav.” Listen to the segment, which aired in June, here.

Durian Wins as King of the Stink Trying durian proved to be very memorable experiences for many listeners. Brian from Astoria recalled sampling it in Hong Kong and asserted that it’s “absolutely vile.” Raphael Bergman added that the fruit made his small East Village apartment smell like “camel-hide lathered in way-expired non-organic milk.” However, Lisa Ramici of New York City ate it on her honeymoon and insisted that “the taste is not as brutal as the smell.” Helena Messina noted that she tried it in Thailand, where it was creamy, sweet, and odorless, because the fruit had been submerged in water after it was cut. Listen to the segment, which aired in July, here. (Photo of The Durian by Mansoor Khan)

The Much Maligned Bluefish Hank Shaw, the author of Hunt, Gather, Cook, remembers Yankee bat day as being beloved by fisherman in the Northeast because souvenir bats are perfect for clubbing sharp-toothed bluefish. Charles from Carmel, N.Y., said that the brutality of reeling in a fish was disgusting, however. Shaw’s description of pulling in bluefish suggests that fisherman have to work hard to get the creature aboard, though. “It’s like pulling a pony,” he said. “I mean, you know, if you hook a 20-pound bluefish, this thing’s taking you for a ride. It’s going to pull on the line, it’s going to make crazy runs.” Listen to the segment, which aired in September, here.

Which Last Chance Foods segments did you love — or love to hate? Tell us in the comments below.

Last Chance Foods: WNYC Morning Edition Host Soterios Johnson's Favorite Christmas Cookie

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:15:11 -0500

Leaving cookies out for Santa Claus is a time-honored tradition that calls up images of Norman Rockwell’s America. While chocolate chip or sugar cookies might be the standard, many families across this melting pot of a nation have their own spin on the traditional Christmas cookie.

For WNYC Morning Edition host Soterios Johnson, who is of Greek descent, Christmas isn’t complete without his mother’s melomakarona (pronounced meh-loh-mah-KAH-roh-nah) cookies.

“Even when I moved out and I went to college, I would always go back to school with a care package full of melomakorona,” he told All Things Considered host Amy Eddings.

Johnson's mother, Marina Johnson (pictured below with her melomakarona cookies), learned to make the cookie from her mother. Over the years, she has perfected the recipe for the honey syrup–soaked, lightly spiced, crumbly cookies.

It’s worth noting that Marina Johnson’s recipe for melomakarona makes 96 cookies and requires nine cups of flour. (She suggests rookies halve that recipe to make a mere 48.)

One happy result of that bounty is that those in the WNYC newsroom have come to look forward to sampling melomakarona every holiday season. This year, Marina personally brought in a platter of melomakarona and agreed to sit down and share her baking secrets for this week's Last Chance Foods.

Making melomakarona is a time-intensive process. First, it’s necessary to make and bake the dough. Then, the cookies should rest for a day or two to be firm enough to be soaked in honey syrup.

“I think it’s important to use Greek honey, which is different than the kind of honey you get here,” said Soterios. “And I’m not being chauvinistic, but it’s actually the nectar that the bees collect in that area of the world in Greece is unique, so it tastes different.”

Marina recommends not soaking the cookies for too long in the syrup, otherwise they’ll fall apart. Each cookie is then garnished with a mixture of chopped walnuts, powdered sugar, cinnamon and ground cloves. She takes the trouble to place each cookie in its own foil baking cup so that the cookies don’t crumble too much and the walnut toppings stays put.

“It takes a little time,” Marina said with a laugh.

Another motherly tip Marina shares is to not be discouraged if the cookies don’t come out perfect the first time.

“Sometimes, if you make it the first time, whatever you make, it’s not come out good,” she said. “When I give my cousin my cookies for Easter, she make it and it not come out good and she says, ‘I’m never going to make it.’ I say, ‘Listen, you have to try [again].’”

Watching an experienced baker go through the process is also helpful.

Ultimately, though, many “kids” have the advantage of leaving the holiday baking to the experts.

“I have not tried making [melomakarona],” admited Soterios. “I have made other things. But I don’t know if I have the endurance to do it. And why should I make it when I’ve got the master making them for me?”

What are your family’s favorite holiday treat? Check out snapshots sent in by listeners and send in your own here.

Marina’s Melomakarona

This recipe makes approximately 96 melomakarona. If you are making these for the first time, you may want to cut the recipe in half to make about 48 melomakarona.

In addition to the ingredients, you will also need foil baking cups for the final presentation.

Cookie dough

1 lb. unsalted butter (soft)
1 ½ cups olive oil (100% pure, not extra virgin, should have a light color)
¾ cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon cloves ground
½ teaspoon nutmeg ground
1 ½ teaspoons allspice
1 ¼ cups orange juice (fresh squeezed)
2 tablespoons zest of orange
9 cups unbleached flour (have an extra half-cup ready, in case the mix is too loose)

In a mixer, whip the butter, oil and sugar. Add all the spices and zest of orange.

Start adding the flour and orange juice a little at a time, so that it doesn't splash up.

As it gets thick, you'll have to finish by hand. The mixture should be firm, but not hard. If necessary, add some of the extra flour to get this consistency. You should be able to spoon some dough in your hand and form an oblong cookie (3- to 3.5-inches long, 1-inch high). Do not flatten the dough, it will go down as it bakes.

Bake cookies at 350F for 15-20 minutes, until they turn a nice light gold color.

Cookies should be left to cool and rest for a couple of days before soaking in hot syrup.

After the cookies have cooled and rested, make the chopped walnut topping from:

2 cups finely chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Mix well.

To make the syrup:

2 cups sugar
2 cups water
8 oz. honey
3 tablespoons lemon juice

In a 2-quart pot, combine sugar and water. Heat to a boil, then lower to simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add the honey and stir in lemon juice.

One at a time, place a cookie in a large spoon and gently place in the syrup, until you have about 4 or 5 in the pot. Let them soak for 3 to 4 minutes total, carefully flipping cookies after about 2 minutes. Remove cookies one at a time and put on a dish.

While the cookies are still warm, sprinkle with walnut mixture. After they cool place in foil baking cups.

Last Chance Foods: Hanukkah Doughnut Delights

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:38:15 -0500

Hanukkah starts at sundown on Tuesday, and that makes a delightful justification for eating foods fried in oil. The holiday commemorates the miracle of one night’s worth of oil lasting for eight nights. For those who don’t observe Hanukkah, now is as good a time as any to commemorate the deliciousness of fried food. Either way, it’s a win-win situation.

“Here in the U.S. and the New York area, I think most people, when they think of Hanukkah, the first food people think of is the potato pancake, or potato latke,” said Dan Pashman, who along with Mark Garrison, creates the Sporkful food podcast. “But actually in Israel, the most common Hanukkah food is doughnuts, and most commonly there, jelly doughnuts. Or as they call them there, sufganiyot, which translates as oil sponges.”

In New York City, Garrison notes that Doughnut Plant on the Lower East Side has improved on the traditional jelly doughnut with the creation of a square version with a hole in the middle. The jelly is distributed through the middle of the doughnut ring. “Each bite has an equal amount of jelly and it doesn’t spill over,” he said, “so it’s a nice innovation you can get when you’re in New York.”

Garrison also attempted to make doughnuts at home and advises carving out plenty of time, as well as inviting friends to help eat the pastries — and clean up.

“The difficulty of making doughnuts is you have to deal with the oil, and it takes some time,” he explained.

In addition, Garrison points out that each doughnut will lower the temperature of the frying oil, so don’t overload the fryer or pan.

When it comes to the consumption of the sugary treat, the Sporkful guys are doughnut dunking connoisseurs. In addition to dunking in coffee and milk, Pashman suggests dunking a doughnut in tea with honey or chocolate milk.

Garrison endorses the use of a “coffee sidecar,” which is simply a small amount of coffee dedicated to dunking. That way, there will still be coffee unblemished with sugar or crumbs on which to sip.

These days when talking about doughnuts, though, it’s hard to ignore the various over-the-top doughnut innovations out there. Rest assured, Pashman and Garrison have taken it upon themselves to venture into the doughnut-burger realm.

“I recommend if you’re going to do that, the way I found it works best [is] if you can actually grill the doughnut a little bit,” said Garrison. “You have the glazed doughnut, and it’s going to caramelize the sugar on the outside, so again you’ll have a nice kind of crisp crunch, and then you penetrate that and then you have the cheeseburger, or the bacon cheeseburger as I’ve done before.”

Pashman, who is Jewish, has created a number of doughnut-based and latke-based sandwiches in honor of Hanukkah.

“You can take a yeast doughnut, slice it in half and put a potato pancake inside, and combine the sort of the American Jewish Hanukkah tradition and the Israeli Jewish Hanukkah tradition,” he said of a concoction he's dubbed “The Maccabee Delight.”

Then, just to push the envelope further, there’s "The Hanukkah Miracle," which is chicken schnitzel sandwiched between two potato pancakes.

“That’s called the Hanukkah Miracle because it looks so good you think you can eat it all in one bite, but then it lasts eight miraculous bites,” explained Pashman.

Below, find the recipes for both fried Hanukkah treats. The recipe for traditional and sweet potato latkes can be found here.

The Maccabee Delight
by The Sporkful
The glazed donut with a potato pancake on it, with sour cream and apple sauce, is really good. The sour cream is the key.— Dan Pashman

1 glazed yeast donut (can also use apple donuts or apple cider donuts, although yeast donuts are generally better for sandwiches)
1-2 potato pancakes (enough to create a single layer covering the surface area of the donut cross section)
sour cream and apple sauce, both at room temperature

Warm the donut in the oven. Remove the donut and cut it in half the long way. Spread sour cream on the bottom half and apple sauce on the top half. This distribution puts the sour cream closer to your tongue and thus accentuates that flavor. Sour cream is key here, because it balances the sweetness of the donut and apple sauce. Then place a hot, crispy potato pancake onto the bottom half of donut, put the top half on top, and enjoy in sandwich form.

The Hanukkah Miracle
by The Sporkful

1 breaded fried chicken cutlet (or chicken schnitzel)
2 potato pancakes, about the same size as the cutlet

Make sure all three ingredients are hot and crispy, ideally because they're freshly prepared, or if not, because they've been reheated in the oven, directly on the rack. Place the chicken cutlet between the potato pancakes. Enjoy in sandwich form, and as you do, see if you can get the sandwich to last eight miraculous bites.

Last Chance Foods: On the Hunt for Sustainable Venison

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:43:25 -0500

Every day, most Americans are faced with a multitude of choices when it comes to food. Do they shop at the convenience store, supermarket or farm stand? Maintain a diet that’s vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian or one that includes meat? Each decision bears a series of large and small consequences that affect both individual health and, potentially, the environment as a whole.

For those meat-eaters who are concerned with eating locally and sustainably, hunting may be a viable option. Deer hunting season in southern New York State ends on Dec. 20, though bow hunting continues through the end of the year in some locations.

Peter Zander, who hosts hunting workshops and hunting weekends on 40 acres he owns in Columbia County, N.Y., explains that his motivation for killing deer is to maintain the most intimate connection he can to the meat he eats.

When asked whether humans have an unfair advantage when pitted against wild animals, Zander is unfazed.

“I don’t really want it to be evenly matched, I’m there to harvest my food — I’m not there to find a trophy,” he said. “I don’t want to take a chance with [a weapon that is] under-powered or questionable. I want a sure shot that will take the animal out as humanely as I possibly can.”

His wife, Nancy, is not a hunter, but recently joined a hunting party for the first time to feed and care for those on the trip.

"[The experience] was transformative because I saw first-hand … the reverence that the hunter has for the woods, and all of mother nature, and the animal that they’re hunting,” she said. “I saw the chance that these guys take, the knowledge that they have to have to go out into the woods and try and get that animal. And they’re sometimes sitting in a tree stand for five hours in the pitch black, in the freezing cold, but they know which way the wind is blowing literally … It’s the most elemental, vital connection that you can have with your food.”

After Peter kills the deer, it's time to butcher the meat. He notes that quickly taking the animal apart is key to making sure the meat doesn’t become gamey.

"By doing it myself, I can eliminate all the fat, and I think that that’s the most important thing," he said. "The fat on a deer is more like tallow and it is not a good flavor. And in fact, it will contaminate the meat just by being next to it if you store it that way."

Nancy then uses the venison throughout the year. During the summer, she’ll grill cuts and serve them with chimchurri sauce. With a source of lean meat ever at the ready, she also uses it on a day-to-day basis, sometimes sauteing thin slices to use in place of lunch meat.

One of Nancy’s favorite dishes is her Five Spice Venison Stew (see recipe below). When butchered and cooked with skill, venison is tender, slightly rich, and absent of almost any gamey flavor.

"If you’re a meat eater, some place out there in the world, there is an animal getting harvested for your food," she said. "And if that’s the case, and you’re going to eat meat that way, I would much rather know that the animal lived in the wild was revered somehow."

Five Spice Venison Stew
by Nancy Zander

2 lbs venison loin, trimmed and cut into approximately 1-inch cubes
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp olive or canola oil
flour for dredging
1 large onion, roughly chopped
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
8 oz. white mushrooms, quartered
1 tbsp Chinese five spice powder
½ cup red wine
¾ cup strong brewed coffee
1 ½ tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp minced or grated fresh ginger
⅓ cup soy sauce
juice and zest from one orange
2 cups peeled sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 ½ cups baby carrots
approximately 3 cups free-range chicken broth
fresh pasta, preferably pappardelle or fettuccine
fresh chopped chives for garnish

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large dutch oven, melt 2 tbsp butter and 1-2 tbsp of oil over medium/low heat. Make sure the oil covers the bottom of the pan. Dredge the meat in flour. Working in small batches so you don’t crowd the meat, brown it on all sides. This will happen fairly quickly. Regulate the heat so the meat browns but the flour doesn’t burn. Remove each batch with a slotted spoon, place into a bowl. Add butter and oil as necessary, and repeat until all meat is browned.

Lower the heat a bit. Add more butter and oil if necessary, then add onions. Saute over low heat until translucent, stirring two or three times.

While onions are cooking, combine coffee and orange juice in a bowl. Mix well and set aside.

Add mushrooms to the dutch oven and saute for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. Add garlic to vegetables and sprinkle in five spice power. Saute over medium heat for 1 minute, stirring slowly but constantly. Deglaze the pan with red wine, stirring, and let it reduce for a minute or two.

Add the bowl of sauce ingredients, the meat and any accumulated juices, then the sweet potatoes and carrots. Add enough broth to cover all the meat and vegetables. Stir well to combine. Bring to a simmer.

Cover pot with foil, shiny side down, and place in the lower third of the oven. Bake covered for one hour. Uncover, remove foil, and continue to cook for another 1 ½ hours. Adjust seasonings, check to be sure sweet potatoes are fully cooked. They should be falling apart enough to thicken the sauce a bit. If the sauce is too liquid, mix a tbsp of corn starch with ¼ cup of the liquid, mix to a smooth paste, and stir back into the pot until smooth. Cook for another 30 minutes.

Serve over cooked and drained pasta, sprinkled with chopped chives.

*Stew is always great the second day, but if you are serving this for guests, cook it early on the day it is being served, and let it rest. Your house will smell wonderful when your friends arrive.

Last Chance Foods: Praise for Mustard Greens

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:16:05 -0500

Now that Thanksgiving is over, the race toward the winter holidays has officially begun. This is a great time to get in a few healthy meals before the onslaught of cookies, eggnog and heavy holiday foods. Mustard greens, like kale and collards, are currently at their peak, and fit the bill for a lighter seasonal dish.

Melissa Clark, the author of "Cook This Now: 120 Easy and Delectable Dishes You Can't Wait to Make," says that mustard greens are more flavorful than some other hearty winter greens.

“They’re much spicier, much more intense,” she said. “They still have that fresh green flavor and that kind of vibrancy that you love in winter greens, but they also have a little bit of a kick.”

For those who prefer to avoid the radish-like zing of mustard greens, Clark says to look for small, tender young leaves.

“The bigger they are the spicier they are,” she said.

Often salad or braising mixes include small leaves of red mustard greens (pictured below).

Regardless of size, mustard greens boast a healthy dose of calcium, potassium, fiber, and folates. As part of the cruciferous family of vegetables, which also includes broccoli and brussels, they also include have cancer-fighting properties. Clark notes that cooking them lessens the amount of fiber and some vitamins, but helps other healthy properties.

“For some reason, the cooking really intensifies a lot of these phyto chemicals and a lot of these other compounds, which are the ones that fight cancer and which are the ones that will actually lower your cholesterol,” she explained.

Raw or cooked mustard greens provide hearty winter flavor without being too heavy or rich. They can be sliced finely for a raw salad, and Clark recommends dressing them with a hearty vinaigrette that’s equally flavorful. She likes to pair cooked mustard greens with anchovies.

“Anchovy and mustard greens, you know, you think, 'Oh my God, two strong flavors,” Clark noted. “[But it’s] a match made in heaven.”

Below, try Clark’s recipe for Raw Mustard Greens Salad with Gruyère and Anchovy Croutons.

Raw Mustard Greens Salad with Gruyère and Anchovy Croutons
by Melissa Clark
Makes 6 servings

5 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, pressed
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups 3/4-inch cubes crustless country bread
1 cup (packed) coarsely grated Gruyère cheese (about 4 ounces), divided
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 bunch mustard greens (about 12 ounces), center rib and stem cut from each leaf, leaves cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide strips
5 teaspoons (or more) fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine anchovies and garlic in small bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Place bread cubes in medium bowl. Drizzle 2 tablespoons anchovy oil over, tossing to coat. Sprinkle bread with salt, pepper, and half of cheese; toss to coat.

Spray rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Scatter bread on sheet. Bake croutons until crisp and golden, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Set aside.

Measure 8 cups (loosely packed) mustard greens and place in large bowl (reserve any remaining greens for another use). Add croutons and remaining cheese to bowl. Whisk 5 teaspoons lemon juice into remaining anchovy oil; season dressing with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice, if desired. Add dressing to salad; toss to coat.

Last Chance Foods: Pie-Eyed for Thanksgiving

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

It’s crunch time over at Baked in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The day before Thanksgiving, bakers are making sure all their crusts and pots of filling are ready for Thursday. That’s when the assembled pies hit the oven in what Baked’s owners, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, describe as “a marathon of pie.”

The process of making as much as possible in advance works just fine for pie, they say.

“Nobody’s going to tell the difference, I guarantee you, if you froze your crust the night before, or even two days, three days ahead, go ahead. Make your crust, freeze it,” said Lewis.

Poliafito agrees, “We’ll be impressed if they can discern any kind of difference.”

The reason the crust freezes so well in its unbaked form is because of its high butter content. The more the butter stays intact, the more flaky the crust will be after it’s baked, when the butter melts and creates air pockets. That’s why Lewis and Poliafito warn not to over-handle or over-mix dough for pie crusts. Instead, aim for a sand-like texture with the butter remaining in pea-sized form.

While chef Nate Smith prefers using leaf lard in his savory pie crusts, Lewis and Poliafito stick to butter at the bakery. (Off the record, Lewis admits that he’d use half-lard and half-butter if left to his own devices.) And if the crust needs to be patched up after the transfer from work surface to pie plate, that’s perfectly fine.

“A crust that breaks or flakes is exactly what you're supposed to go for,” said Lewis. “You don’t want something too dense.”

They say to leave the task of creating flawless pies to bakers who do it 200 to 300 times a year.

As for the filling, the duo says they while they use traditional main ingredients like pumpkin and pecans in their pies, they’re not afraid to add a dash of whiskey, work in some chocolate or even shake things up by throwing in some cheese. (In particular, Lewis notes that pumpkin and cheddar taste great together.)

Once dessert is under control and the eleventh hour is approaching, it’s time to start thinking about creating a welcoming environment. That’s Poliafito’s advice for making sure everyone enjoys the holiday.

"You have to set an atmosphere," he said, adding that lighting can help do that. "And I think if people, you know, arrive in a setting that is comfortable and relaxed, they in turn will be comfortable and relaxed.”

Matt agrees, adding that having snacks on hand is also a good way to make sure guests are having fun and not focusing on what’s coming out of the oven.

For a successful end to the meal, try Baked’s recipe for Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie.

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie
by Baked

This is a hearty pie crammed with the sweet-toasty flavor of pecans and a hidden layer of melted chocolate. Matt’s dad, Larry, has a small pecan farm in South Carolina, and he is always kind enough to share his extra pecans with Baked. He was also kind enough to share his favorite recipe for pecan pie, and we use it at the bakery to this day. Larry’s most important bit of advice: Be generous with the bourbon.

Baked Note: In our opinion, a pecan pie should be eaten within 48 hours of baking it (and there should be no reason for leftovers). Though there are people who would argue otherwise, we think that once the pie crust becomes soggy it is time to part ways with the pie.

Yield : 1 (9-inch) PIE

1 ball of classic pie dough, chilled
2 cups pecan halves, toasted
3 large eggs
¾ cup light corn syrup
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons firmly packed dark
brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons bourbon
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Dust a work surface with a sprinkling of flour. Unwrap the ball of chilled dough and put it directly on the work surface. Roll out into a 12-inch round.

Transfer the dough to a pie dish and carefully work it into the pie dish, folding any overhang under and crimping the edge as you go. Wrap and freeze the crust until firm, about 2 hours, or up to 3 months.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Coarsely chop ¾ cup of the pecans. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until combined. Add the corn syrup, sugars, butter, salt, vanilla, and bourbon. Whisk again until combined. Stir in the chopped pecans and set the filling aside.

Spread the chocolate chips evenly along the bottom of the frozen pie shell. Slowly pour the filling on top of the chocolate chips. Arrange the remaining 1¼ cups pecan halves on top of the filling.

Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, then cover the edges of the crust loosely with aluminum foil and bake for another 30 minutes. Test the pie by sticking a knife in the center of the filling. If the knife comes out clean, the pie is done. If the knife comes out with clumps of filling sticking to it, bake for another 5 minutes and test again.

Cool the pie on a wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature. The pie can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 2 days.

Last Chance Foods: Thanksgiving is All About the Sides

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

It’s Tuesday already, which means Thanksgiving is looming just a few days away. Hopefully, the grocery shopping is done at this point and plans of attack are being formulated. Deb Perelman of the blog Smitten Kitchen says now is the time to get cracking on Thursday’s meal — and she suggests starting backward with desserts first.

“On Tuesday, I would probably start assembling things that can be cooked ahead,” said Perelman, referring to Thanksgiving dessert fare like cheesecake, pie crusts and cookies. “Maybe it’s not as dreamy as it was [if it were] made that morning, but it’s fine.”

Biscuit dough can also be made ahead.

“I’m a big fan of making biscuits because you actually make them, you know, roll them out, or cut them, put them on a tray in the freezer," she said. "And then bake them directly from the freezer when you need them.”

Perelman said one of her favorite Thanksgiving sides is a casserole or a gratin because either can be assembled in one oven-safe, easy to reheat dish, which cuts down on Thanksgiving day dishes that clutter up sinks.

“People think that gratins have to be really, really heavy, and they don’t,” she said. “A basic gratin is just something cooked in a stock, or maybe a thickened stock like a velouté, or, you know, maybe it’s just milk. It doesn’t have to be a heavy cream bomb. It doesn’t have to have a ton of cheese.”

That’s not to say that heavy cream and cheese bombs don’t have their place at the Thanksgiving table. (We all know that this is not a holiday that lends itself to calorie counting.)

“If you’re doing that cream and potato [gratin], I’m pretty sure you can freeze it for a day or two without getting into too much trouble,” Perelman added. But stay stay away from making casseroles with bechamel or corn starch–thickened sauces ahead of time because they do not freeze well.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Perelman recommends brining your turkey, making vinaigrettes and assembling vegetable gratins. Only absolute last-minute tasks should be done Thursday like baking biscuits, reheating grains, roasting the turkey and setting out food.

"I am no fan of roasting vegetables at the last minute," Perelman said. "No frying crab cakes at the last minute. Nothing that has to be done right before people eat it, because then you have people waiting and you’re in the kitchen and you’re not having fun. You’re standing over a frying pan and that’s not a good time."

Save time by allowing family, friends and guests to assemble appetizers themselves.

When asked what her favorite Thanksgiving side is, Perelman was hard-pressed to choose just one. She's a fan of tart cranberry sauce that can also be eaten after Thanksgiving has passed with plain yogurt or on top of ice cream. Perelman also likes spicy roasted sweet potatoes topped with a chunk of tangy goat cheese. And then there's her Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Gratin, which is an easy way to include greens in what can often be a starch-heavy Thanksgiving meal.

Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Gratin
by Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchen
Serves 12

I won’t lie, Swiss chard can be a real pain to prep, what with the rib-separation and rendering of unfathomable volumes down to a few measly cups of cooked greens. I like to chop, wash and dry mine the day before, but if you’re especially in a rush, I see no reason you can’t swap pre-washed (3 pounds) or even frozen spinach (about 5 to 6 cups). I also don’t see why you can’t swap the sweet potato for thin slices of butternut squash but then you will have less of an excuse to say “yam-yam” to the baby over and over again until he laughs. Finally, if my gratin looks a little “wet” to you, don’t worry, yours — providing you squeeze your greens out well — should not. I just mindlessly baked mine for half the time covered with foil which is not a bad idea for all-potato gratins, not drying enough for greens. —Deb Perelman

1/4 cup (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 pounds Swiss chard, leaves and stems separated and both cut into 1-inch pieces
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups heavy cream or whole milk
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons flour
2 pounds medium red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams), peeled and cut into 1/8-inch thick rounds
1 tablespoon minced fresh Italian parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups (about 5 ounces) coarsely grated Gruyére cheese

Prep greens: Cook onion in 2 tablespoons butter in a wide 8-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add chard stems, pinch of nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste and cook, stirring, until vegetables are tender but not browned, about 8 minutes. Increase heat to moderately high and add chard leaves by large handfuls, stirring, until all greens are wilted. Season with salt and pepper then transfer greens to a colander to drain well and press out liquid with back of a large spoon.

Make sauce: Combine cream or milk and garlic in small saucepan; bring to simmer; keep warm. Melt two tablespoons butter in a medium heavy saucepan over moderate heat and stir in flour. Cook roux, whisking, one minute, then slowly whisk in warm cream/milk and boil, whisking, one minute. Season sauce with salt and pepper.

Assemble gratin: Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter deep 9×13 baking dish. Spread half of sweet potatoes in the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, a quarter of the herbs and a 1/4 cup of the cheese. Distribute half of the greens mixture over the cheese, then sprinkle salt, pepper, a quarter of the herbs and 1/4 cup of the cheese over it. Pour half of bechamel sauce over the first two layers then continue with the remaining sweet potatoes, more salt, pepper, herbs and cheese and then the remaining greens, salt, pepper and herbs. Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the gratin, pressing the vegetables slightly to ensure that they are as submerged as possible. Sprinkle with the last 1/4 cup of cheese.

Bake gratin for about 1 hour until golden and bubbly, and most of the liquid is absorbed. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Do ahead: You can make the entire gratin but not bake it up to a day in advance and keep it in the fridge. You can also make and bake the gratin and reheat it. Gratins reheat well, but they take almost as much time to gently heat through as they do to bake in the first place, especially deep ones like this. As for reheating, already baked and frozen, I will find out very soon! But I am near-positive it will be fine.

Chef Peter Berley's Lasagna of Fall Vegetables, Sage Bechamel, and Gruyere

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Chef Peter Berley, the author of The Flexitarian Table: Inspired, Flexible Meals for Vegetarians, Meat Lovers and Everyone In Between, is not a fan of Tofurkey.

"Tofurkey, I think, is an unfortunate thing in the sense that it leaves very little to the imagination really," he said.

As an alternative, he recommends vegetarians make Lasagna of Fall Vegetables, Sage Bechamel, and Gruyere for their Thanksgiving main. Try out Berley's recipe below.

Lasagna of Fall Vegetables, Sage Bechamel, and Gruyere
Adapted from The Flexitarian Table, Houghton Mifflin,
Copyright 2007 By Peter Berley
Serves 8

For the noodles:

2 cups all purpose flour
3 large eggs

For the bechamel:

1 quart milk
1/2 cup diced onion
1 large or 2 small shallots finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh sage coarsely chopped
1 bay leaf
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons all purpose flour

For the vegetable filling:

3 pounds Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
11/2 pounds Portobello mushrooms, stems removed, caps cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
2 dried ancho chilis, seeds and stems removed
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, diced about 21/2-3 cups
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 pounds spinach, washed and tough stems discarded
8 ounces Gruyere cheese coarsely grated
4 ounces Parmesan cheese finely grated

Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork.

Place the flour in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the egg mixture and pulse until the dough comes together in a mass. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes. Test the dough by inserting the tip of a clean forefinger. If the dough sticks to your finger add a bit more flour and knead until smooth.

Wrap the dough in plastic and set aside for 30 minutes at room temperature ( the dough can be made up to 3 days ahead if kept refrigerated, bring to room temperature before proceeding).

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Work with 1 piece at a time and keep the remaining wrapped to prevent drying. Roll each piece on a hand cranked pasta machine to the finest setting. Cut the noodles to fit the length of your lasagna pan. Lay the pieces on floured wax or parchment paper without touching each other. As each piece of paper is filled top it with another lightly floured piece and set noodles on top repeat until all the noodles are rolled.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

In a large bowl toss the squash and mushrooms with 21/2 tablespoons olive oil and season with 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of fresh ground pepper. Spread the mixture on a jellyroll pan (11x17 inch rimmed baking sheet) and roast 25-30 minutes until tender stirring twice.

Meanwhile, cut open the chilies with kitchen shears and discard the seeds and stems. Place the chilies in a small bowl and cover the with boiling water, set aside until soft, 8-10 minutes. Drain and finely chop.

Saute the onion in butter with 1/2 teaspoon salt over medium heat for 5-7 minutes until softened. Stir in the chilis and garlic and sauté 3-4 minutes longer.

Return the roasted vegetables to the bowl and stir in the onion mixture. Season with salt and pepper. (The filling can be made up to 2 days ahead, covered and refrigerated).

Place the spinach in a pot and sweat covered until wilted. Drain and refresh under cold running water. Squeeze dry and roughly chop. Transfer to a bowl and season with salt pepper and a little freshly grated nutmeg.

Make the bechamel:

In a deep sauce pan bring the milk to a boil and immediately remove from the heat. Stir in the onion, shallots, sage and bay leaf. Cover the pan and set aside for 30 minutes. Strain and discard the solids.

Saute the flour in butter over medium heat stirring constantly until fragrant and a shade darker about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk and bring to a simmer, cook 20 minutes over low heat until thick.

The béchamel can be made up to 2 days ahead. Allow the sauce to cool then cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the surface before refrigerating.

Assemble and bake lasagna:

Spread 1 /4 of the béchamel on the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch lasagna pan or gratin dish. Make one layer of noodles slightly overlapping. Spread 1/2 over the vegetable mixture over the noodles and sprinkle with 1/4 of the cheese mixture.

Make a second layer of pasta and top with 1/4 of the sauce then all of the chopped spinach and 1/4 of the cheese mixture.

Make a third layer of noodles and spread with 1/4 bechamel the remaining vegetables and 1/4 of the cheese mixture.

Make a fourth layer of noodles and spread with remaining sauce. Sprinkle remaining cheese mixture.

Butter a piece of parchment paper and lay it buttered side down over the lasagna. Cover the pan loosely with foil and bake 40 minutes. Remove the foil and parchment and bake 10-15 minutes until the lasagna is golden brown and bubbling. Allow the lasagna to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Last Chance Foods: Pulling off a Veggie, Vegan or Gluten-Free Thanksgiving

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

This year, as families and groups of friends gather for Thanksgiving, many vegetarians, vegans and gluten-free eaters will be among those who pull their chairs up to the table.

So many dietary needs has raised questions from hosts and guests on how to prepare tasty vegetarian-friendly, vegan and gluten-free dishes for a mixed crowd, and whether to bring vegetarian main courses to non-vegetarian Thanksgiving meals.

Chef Peter Berley, the author of The Flexitarian Table: Inspired, Flexible Meals for Vegetarians, Meat Lovers and Everyone In Between, encourages guests to bring vegetarian or vegan mains or side dishes, but bring enough enough to share.

“What particularly impresses me over the year of cooking for all types — vegans, vegetarians and carnivores — is that quite often vegetarian offerings are really well accepted,” he says.

As for a show-stopping vegetarian main dish, Berley recalls taking on the task of creating just such a thing with his mother many years ago. They would find an enormous Hubbard squash, which can grow to a formidable 20 pounds or more. Other large winter squash like cheese pumpkins would have worked as well. The duo would hollow out the squash, par-bake it just to make it tender and then fill it with stuffing.

These days, Berley is a fan of making a lasagna as a vegetarian main course. He uses winter squash and spinach as the filling. To make it a particularly special dish, Berley makes fresh pasta for it and layers it with sage bechamel and Gruyere cheese. (Check out the recipe here.)

“The most compelling thing about Thanksgiving in the United States, I think, can be wrapped in three words: The Three Sisters,” said Berley. “The Three Sisters represented, for Native Americans, the three spirits of the garden -- corn, squash, and beans -- which are the foundation of sustenance for North America.”

Dried corn and dried beans, which are available now, Berley added, work well for a succotash.

“I always see green beans on Thanksgiving, but there are no green beans left in the Northeast where I come from,” he said. “One thing I love to do is to get small dumpling squash that can be individually portioned out.”

Like the larger version, he par-bakes the squash and then stuffs them. (See the recipe below.) Berley said the dish was a crowd-pleaser in the face of dietary restrictions because the squash can be stuffed with a grain like red quinoa to make it a vegan, gluten-free dish.

All this is to say, for those looking to make a vegetarian main dish this Thanksgiving, there are plenty of options beyond the staid old Tofurkey, which is legendary for being a dense and dry loaf of soy.

“Tofurkey, I think, is an unfortunate thing in the sense that it leaves very little to the imagination really,” said Berley. “I don’t see soy having any place at Thanksgiving … unless you really like it, of course.”

Get Berley’s recipe for Roasted Pumpkin With Quinoa Stuffing below or check out his recipe for Lasagna of Fall Vegetables, Sage Bechamel, and Gruyere here.

Roasted Pumpkin with Quinoa Stuffing
Serves 6

If dumpling squash are unavailable, you can substitute 3 small acorn squash, halving them, scooping them out, and roasting them cut side-down until softened, then stuffing them and continuing to roast as called for.

Quinoa Stuffing:

11/4 cups quinoa
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups diced onion
Sea salt or kosher salt
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup diced celery
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped the size of raisins
1/4 cup dried currants
1/3 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Squash:

6 small dumpling squash or 3 medium Acorn squash, halved
Extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing

1. Adjust a rack to the middle shelf of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

2. Simmer the quinoa in 21/2 cups of water until fluffy, 15 to 20 minutes.

3. While the quinoa cooks, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cook and stir until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the carrots, celery, ginger, and sage. Cover the pan and simmer until the vegetables are tender, 5 to 7 minutes (add a tablespoon of water if necessary, to prevent scorching).

4. In a large bowl, toss together the quinoa and vegetables. Stir in the dried fruit, pumpkin seeds, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer half the stuffing to another bowl.

5. Slice off the squash tops ( if using small dumpling squash, or halve medium acorn squash) to expose the inside. Scoop out the seeds and membranes. Brush the skin of the squash lightly with oil.

6. Place the squash, cut side down, in a baking pan large enough to hold them in a snug single layer.

7. Pour 1/2-inch of boiling water into the pan and bake for 20 minutes (you want the squash to have softened slightly, but not completely). Transfer the squash to a plate and let rest until cool enough to handle.

8. Stuff the squash with the quinoa mixture, return them, stuffing-up, to the pan, and bake until the flesh can be easily pierced with the tip of a paring knife, 20 to 30 minutes more. Serve!

Last Chance Foods: Thanksgiving Turkey Talk

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

This year, about 99 percent of families sitting down to turkey at the Thanksgiving dinner table will be enjoying one breed: the Broad Breasted White. That’s the bird pictured in idyllic Norman Rockwell paintings associated with a specific brand of suburban America.

Craig Haney, the livestock farm manager at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, raises Broad Breasted Whites, which are prized by farmers for their lightening-fast ability to gain weight. Unlike many industrially produced turkeys, those at Stone Barns are pasture-raised.

“These are birds that are out sunbathing, dust bathing, eating ... Every year, I’m surprised at how much grass they eat,” said Haney (pictured below, top), who adds that the turkeys’ active lifestyle makes their meat a little denser. “They cook more quickly than a supermarket bird.”

Haney is married to Gabrielle Langholtz, the editor of the magazines Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn. She prefers the other type of turkey raised at Stone Barns: the Bourbon Reds. The heritage breed tends to have more dark meat than the traditional bird.

“It’s closer to its wild cousin,” said Haney.

In choosing a bird, both Haney and Langholtz agree that the term “natural” doesn’t carry much weight. Natural means that the meat has been minimally processed.

“That’s what happens to the bird after it’s slaughtered,” explained Langholtz (pictured below, bottom). “It doesn’t have anything to say about the animal’s life.”

The term “organic” simply means the bird was fed organic feed. A “free-range” turkey isn’t confined to a pen, but may still spend all of its life indoors.

“Pastured isn’t regulated at this point, but if you’re buying it from a farmer you trust at the farmers' market, you know, they should be living outside,” he said.

Regardless of the type of bird, or how it was raised, in the kitchen the main objective is to keep the turkey moist. The first step, according to Langholtz, is to start with a brine about a day before roasting the bird. That involves immersing the hefty beast in a saltwater solution. (Alton Brown of the Food Network has instructions here. Or for an even simpler method, check out this video from Epicurious.)

Langholtz, who prepares the staff meal during Stone Barns’ two-day marathon turkey slaughter, notes that she doesn’t flip her turkeys when cooking them because it’s a cumbersome process. She does, however, cover the bird with a cheesecloth soaked in butter and wine. Langholtz says that method, which she picked up from Martha Stewart, is more effective than just basting the turkey. It keeps the skin more continually moist. (Check out instructions for her cheesecloth method here.)

“My number one tip that I have for getting your turkey just right is the digital thermometer,” insisted Langholtz. “You have got to cook your bird to 165 degrees exactly.”

She notes that the thermometer isn’t just a one-trick holiday pony. Instead, it also comes in handy whenever cooking meat.

Finally, at the end of the night, Langholtz takes on her favorite Thanksgiving task: making turkey stock.

While preparing for Thanksgiving, or even during the course of everyday meals, she saves vegetable trimmings in a zip-top freezer bag. Then after the holiday meal, she dumps the turkey carcass, along with the trimmings, into a big pot.

“I also will tell you, I empty all the wine glasses into there,” she said with a chuckle. “Who cares if my sister has had a sip of it? It’s going to be boiled.”

She covers everything with water and puts in on a low simmer for several hours or overnight. Then, voilà: the resulting turkey stock can be frozen in individual portions and will last much longer than those day-after turkey sandwiches.

Share Your Thanksgiving Recipes and Tips

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:53:20 -0500

WNYC is rounding up experts to answer your Thanksgiving questions about turkey, vegetarian main dishes, side dishes and pie. We also want to hear your suggestions and your favorite recipes.

How do you keep white meat from drying out? How do you come up with interesting side dishes? What is the best way you've found to roll out a crust?

Share your recipes, tips, tricks and techniques with us below. A few lucky contributors will get to share them on All Things Considered on Wednesday. Tune into the segment at 5:45 P.M.

Last Chance Foods: Eat Your Greens

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

At this time of year, many root vegetables come with a bonus: edible, leafy tops. Greens on turnips, beets and even carrots are particularly nutritious and belong on the stovetop, not the compost heap. While the roots will keep for months, the greens themselves will only be available shortly after they’ve been harvested.

“The greens are definitely perishable,” said Chef Erice Wides, host of the Heritage Radio Network show "Let’s Get Real: The Cooking Show about Finding, Preparing and Eating Food." “If you’re buying your turnips with greens attached to them, as soon get home, you want to cut them off and store them separately.” She advises smothering the greens in a plastic bag to preserve freshness.

There’s a dual benefit to cutting the greens off.

“You never want to leave the greens attached to the root because the greens kind of suck the life out of the root,” explained Wides.

In addition to being a cost-saving twofer, turnip greens are particularly healthful.

“[They] are off-the-charts super nutritious — super high in vitamin A, folate, vitamin C, vitamin K and especially calcium and lutein,” she said. “Lutein’s that stuff that’s really good for your eyes.”

Wides added that in many Asian cultures that traditionally do not eat very much dairy, leafy greens, like those that come with turnips, are a primary source of calcium.

There is one potential downside to turnip greens for some people, though. Turnips, like rutabagas, contain cyanoglucosides.

“It’s a compound that people are either genetically sensitive to or not,” said Wides. “If you have that gene, you find them unbearably bitter.”

Basically, she adds, the root vegetables contain a small, harmless amount of cyanide. That’s a fun fact for the dinner table that may give some guests pause.

As for preparation of the greens, Wides recommends cooking them lightly, though they can be prepared raw in the manner of kale.

“Certain plants are more nutritious when they’re cooked, and turnip greens are way more nutritious when they’re cooked,” she said. “I like them kind of wilted, and I like to put eggs on top of them.”

Wides also has another easy method of preparation: sautéing turnip greens with garlic and anchovies. The recipe is below.

Sauteed Turnip Greens with Garlic and Anchovies
by Erica Wides

2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 anchovy fillets, rinsed and minced
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 large bunch leafy green, such as turnip greens or dandelions, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide ribbons, washed and spun dry
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 lemon

Heat a 10- to 12-inch sauté pan over medium-high heat until hot. Add the olive oil, anchovies, and garlic and cook just until the garlic is light golden brown, about 30 seconds. Add the greens and cook, stirring constantly, until wilted, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, squeeze the lemon juice over, and serve.

Last Chance Foods: Fall's Niagara Grapes

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:07:55 -0400

The unprecedented amount of rain brought on by Tropical Storm Irene has made for a difficult growing season for many crops harvested in the Tri-State area. But in the Finger Lake region, this was a booming year for grapes, which had a harvest up 7 percent from last year.

Photographer Diana Pappas stopped by a farm in the Hudson Valley area that reported widespread crop loss of its grapes. Rain washed off all the fungicide farmers had applied to the plants.

Pappas, who writes the blog Eat More Butter along with chef Jamie Paxton, explains that it was a different scenario in western and northern New York.

“They had fabulous harvests because they missed those rains,” she said. “They had perfect grape growing conditions. I mean, it was definitely a little overcast but it was warm. And they had fruit just falling from the vines.”

The season for grapes is just over now, though there may still be a few bunches of Concord or Niagara grapes at market. They’re worth snapping up if spotted. The grapes have a thick slip-skin and seeds, but Paxton insists they are worth the trouble, “because they’re delicious, and because they’re really unique. It’s a completely different fruit than your typical supermarket grape.”

In fact, Niagara grapes were poised to become the country’s most popular grape toward the end of the 19th century. The small, translucent green fruit was named for Niagara County, N.Y, where they were first grown.

“About 15 years after both the Concord and Cassady grapes hit the market, these two guys, Claudius Lamb Hoag and Benjamin Wheaton Clark ... decide to see what happens if they take a Concord grape plant and cross-pollinate it with the pollen from a Cassady grape,” said Pappas. “The result five years later is fruit on a really vigorous vine that has a lot of qualities of the Concord, but it’s white.”

Pappas dislikes Niagara grapes because of their floral, “shampoo” taste. But soon after they hit the market, the grapes became wildly popular.

Then the Niagara Grape Company, headed by Clark and Hoag, made a misstep. The company gave plants to growers in an attempt to seek profits from the final sale of the fruit. The result was that the market was flooded with Niagara grapes, supply exceeded demand, and the company went out of business.

These days, the Niagara grape is once again a specialty product primarily found at farmers' markets. Paxton says that the Niagaras are more delicate in flavor than Concords, and she recommends pairing the fruit with poultry. Like Concords, the grapes are primarily used to make jellies and juice.

“I can relate to not liking the slip skin and the seeds,” she said. “But, you know, I think it’s worth seeking out and spitting out the seeds here and there.”

Below, try Paxton’s recipe for Braised Chicken Thighs with Niagara Grapes, Shallots and Thyme.

Braised Chicken Thighs with Niagara Grapes, Shallots and Thyme
Serves 4
by Jamie Paxton, photographed (right) by Diana Pappas

Ingredients

4 bone-in pasture-raised chicken thighs
Lard, duck fat or canola oil for browning
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
1 cup Niagara grapes
Zest of 1 lemon, grated
1 small bunch of thyme
1 cup (homemade!) chicken stock

1. Allow chicken thighs to come to room temperature and season with salt.
2. Meanwhile, cut the grapes in half with a sharp paring knife and remove the seeds, preserving as much flesh and juice as possible. Set aside.
3. Heat a heavy-bottomed dutch oven over medium-high to high heat and brown the chicken thighs, skin-side down, in lard, duck fat or canola oil. When done, remove the chicken from the pan and pour off any extra fat.
4. Lower heat to medium and sauté shallots in remaining fat or a few tablespoons of butter until soft and translucent.
5. Add the grapes and sauté for a few minutes. Then add the lemon zest, thyme and chicken stock to the pan and bring to a slow simmer.
6. Return the chicken thighs to the pan, skin-side up, along with any juices that may have leaked out. Depending upon the size of the chicken thighs and the size of your pan, you may need a little more or a little less chicken stock. The stock should come one-half to two-thirds of the way up the chicken thighs but should not cover too much of the skin.
7. Reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer gently on the stove top or in a 325° oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the chicken is tender.
8. Remove the chicken from the pan and turn up the heat to reduce the sauce until it is thick enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon. We recommend serving the chicken warm with plenty of Niagara sauce, braised kale and crispy potatoes.

Last Chance Foods: The Weird World of Mushrooms

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:27:30 -0400

Call them creepy, poisonous, delicious, or beautiful — what is certain about mushrooms is that they are essential to a functioning planet. Fungi comprise approximately 25 percent of the world’s biomass, yet they exist in a strange category that is neither plant nor animal, explains Eugenia Bone, the author of the new book, Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms.

A food writer and co-president of the New York Mycological Society, Bone notes that fungi are integrated into almost every aspect of life on the planet. From a culinary perspective, edible mushrooms provide an enormous range of flavors and deliver an umami-packed punch.

Mushrooms also are prized — and lucrative — finds for foragers. By some estimates, wild mushroom harvesting represents the largest legal cash crop in the country. This year’s wet weather, in particular, has brought a bounty of mushrooms such as black trumpets.

“We’re moving toward the end of the season, but it’s been unbelievable,” says Bone, whose book is out this week from Rodale. “I guess, the silver lining of hurricane Irene was all of these mushrooms.”

While wild varieties like oyster mushrooms and hen-of-the-woods claim a prized spot on menus at high-end restaurants, white button mushrooms also have their place in the kitchen.

“I think those white mushrooms can taste pretty good actually,” Bone says. “The white button mushroom and the cremini, little brown one, and the portobello are all the same species. It’s all the same mushroom. They’re just selected for color, and a porcini is just a grown-up cremini.”

One advantage of store-bought mushrooms is that they don’t really need to be washed. They’re grown in sterile soil, so Bone just cuts off any dirty parts. Mushrooms should only be rinsed right before use, and there’s no need to painstakingly wipe each one with a damp cloth. Don’t soak the mushrooms, but be sure to give wild mushrooms a thorough rinse.

Most importantly: Cook all mushrooms.

The main reason for that piece of advice is because mushrooms aren’t very digestible in raw form. “Mushroom cell walls are made of chitin, the same thing that shrimp shells are made from,” says Bone. “It’s one of the things that makes scientists say that mushrooms are closer to us on the evolutionary scale than they are to plants.”

In particular, wild mushrooms should also be cooked because microorganisms might be lurking the cracks and crevices. To put it simply — if indelicately — uncooked wild mushrooms have the potential for giving people worms.

White truffles, however, are an exception to the cooking rule. Bone explains that the chemicals that give truffles their rich, musky flavor are gases that dissipate within a few days and with heat. That is why it’s traditional in Italian cuisine to shave raw truffles over pasta.

When it comes to the much-touted truffle oil, Bone has some bad news: Almost all of it is synthetic. A chemical is synthesized to replicate the flavor of the fungi.

“A few droplets [of the chemical] are put into some olive oil, and it’s poured into a tall skinny beautiful bottle,” Bone says. “Then you pay a fortune for it, but it’s probably 40 cents worth of product in the bottle.”

Try Bone’s recipes for porcini salt and porcini butter. Both are good ways to use mushrooms throughout the year.

Last Chance Foods: A Rainbow of Sweet Potatoes

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:25:43 -0400

The weather is cooling off. As memories of peaches and tomatoes fade away, root vegetables are the featured items at area farmers' markets and in many pantries.

The traditional image of a sweet potato calls to mind reddish skin with orange flesh. In reality, though, there are hundred of varieties of sweet potatoes in a rainbow of colors. Farmer Lee Jones of The Chef’s Garden in Huron, Ohio, grows 21 different heirloom sweet potatoes and supplies a number of notable New York chefs.

“In the United States, we tend to be pared down to varieties that create the greatest yield or the most tons per acre, or ship the best 3,000 miles, or some characteristic about yield, unfortunately,” Jones explained. “And for us, it about going back and exploring some of those old, lost heirloom varieties.”

One of the most common questions when it comes to sweet potatoes is how they differ from yams.

“[The] yam is a tropical plant, and it appears that the sweet potato is not, but they’re very, very similar,” he conceded. (Here’s what the Library of Congress has to say about the difference. Basically, in the United States, “yam” is a common misnomer for sweet potato.)

Jones noted that sweet potatoes illustrate an important point about many fruits and vegetables.

“One of the things we recommend and hear chefs talk about more is actually consuming the skin,” added Jones. “In America, we tend to throw the healthiest, most nutritious part of things away: We peel an apple, we peel a carrot, we peel a beet, we peel a potato. And that’s where the nutrition and the flavor is.”

Sweet potato leaves are also lesser known and very nutritious parts of the plant. More commonly used in Asian cuisine, they can be sauteed in oil and garlic much like tender Swiss chard.

“It’s probably one of the healthiest things that you can eat, very high in vitamin C, very high in antioxident,” said Jones. “I’ve seen them use this to wrap a fish in. And you’ll hold the moisture of the fish in, and infuse then in the essence of that sweet potato.”

Of the 21 varieties grown by Jones, one immediate standout is the Speckled Purple. He said that the potato has the obvious benefit of being immediately appealing to the eye — a quality sought-after by chefs. Jones added that potatoes also retain their color after being cooked.

Deb Perelman, the author of the blog Smitten Kitchen, noted that sweet potatoes can serve as an easy substitute for pumpkin (a seasonal favorite that may be in short supply this year).

“Roasting whole pumpkins is kind of difficult but baking sweet potatoes is incredibly easy,” she said. “And you, you know, run it through a ricer or just mash it up with a fork or a potato masher and you have this perfectly textured replacement for canned pumpkin.”

Try Perelman’s recipe for Sweet Potatoes with Pecans, Goat Cheese and Celery below.

“It's perfect for people who want to start eating Thanksgiving-flavored food a month early,” she said.

Also, see more photos of Lee Jones and the sweet potatoes he grows on Amy Eddings' blog, Food for Thought.

Sweet Potatoes with Pecans, Goat Cheese and Celery
[a.k.a. Roasted Marshmallow-y Sweet Potatoes with Thanksgiving on Top]
by Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchen

I roast vegetables a little oddly these days. I used to do it the “normal” way, tossing them with oil and then laying them out on a sheet but I always needed more and more oil and the pieces still stuck. Once I started generously oiling the pan, my vegetables started browning really well and didn’t get weighed down — most of the oil stays on the roasting pan.

Wary of celery? Swap all or half with chopped radishes. Don’t like goat cheese? Try ricotta salata or even blue cheese instead. Firmly believe that everything is improved by bacon? Crumble some in there, or use browned bits of pancetta. Don’t like sweet potatoes? Skip them and added diced leftover turkey to the “salad”, with additional vinaigrette or just mayo.

Serves 2 1/2

1 1/2 pounds sweet potato, scrubbed, unpeeled, in 3/4- to 1-inch coins
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/4 cup toasted and cooled pecan halves
2 tiny or 1 small shallot
2 stalks celery
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon dried cranberries or cherries (optional)
2 ounces firmish goat cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon smooth Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Coat a large baking sheet generously with olive oil, about 1 to 2 tablespoons. Lay sweet potatoes in one layer on the oiled sheet. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast, without disturbing, for 15 to 20 minutes. Carefully flip each piece: the undersides should be blistery, dark and a bit puffy and should release from the pan with no effort. If they’re not, let it cook longer. Sprinkle them with additional salt and freshly ground black pepper and return the pan to the oven for another 10 minutes or so, until the undersides match the tops.

Meanwhile, prepare your salad. Chop your pecans well, mince your shallot, chop your celery and parsley, mince cranberries if using them. Crumble your goat cheese. If you, like me, got too soft of a goat cheese for mixing, set it aside and sprinkle it on top. If it’s firmer, stir it into the mixture. In a small dish, whisk together 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon dijon. Pour half over salad.

When the sweet potatoes are done, set a couple coins aside just in case the baby isn’t into the toppings. Lay the rest on a serving platter. Scoop a spoonful of the salsa over each round. Pour remaining salad dressing over top, to taste. Eat immediately.

Last Chance Foods: The Unexpected History of Eels

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:57:24 -0400

Eels should be the token food for Thanksgiving, argues author and artist James Prosek. Turkey may be the food most associated with the holiday now, but eels were a crucial component of the pilgrims' survival during their first brutal year in the New World.

The pilgrims landed at Plymouth in the fall of 1620, but by March of the following year, half of their group had perished from starvation and disease. After the Native Americans decided to declare peace with the pilgrims, Squanto went fishing and brought back as many eels as he could carry.

“Really it’s the eels that kept the pilgrims from starving,” said Prosek. “And it was for the Indians, as well as for early colonists, and important source of nutrition.”

One of the best times to catch eels is in the early fall, when American freshwater eels begin their migration to spawn in the Sargasso Sea, about 1,500 miles east of Bermuda. The eels that make the trip have usually spent between 10 and 30 years living in fresh water.

“Almost nothing is known about the life history of the eel beyond that because we’ve never witnessed adult eels spawning in the Sargasso Sea,” Prosek said. “But we know they spawn out there because we’ve netted the babies drifting on the surface of the ocean.”

This year’s eel run was impacted by the tropical storms that swept through the East Coast recently. The migration normally corresponds with the hurricane season because elevated water levels make it easier for eels to get out to sea, said Prosek, whose book Eels: An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World’s Most Mysterious Fish is out in paperback on Tuesday. The stages of the moon and tide levels also play a part in triggering the mass move.

In Hancock, New York, along the Eastern branch of the Delaware River, Ray Turner has been operating an eel weir, or fishing trap, for about 25 years. (He is pictured below, standing in the weir.) He says this year’s rains brought unprecedented high water.

“We’ve had probably 10 to 15 feet of water over the top of the fish trap at least 16 times this year,” said Turner. “I haven’t even an idea what’s actually happened as far as the eel migration is concerned.”

The eel weir is composed of two long stone walls that form a "V." At the vortex on the downstream side is a multi-tiered wooden trap. Prosek, who has helped Turner rebuild the stone walls in the spring, explained that this year’s flooding has caused the eels to slide right over the weir. As a result, Turner said that his store, Delaware Delicacies Smoke House, will focus on selling other smoked goods, like trout and cheese, this year.

Prosek notes that eel populations have declined in general due to factors like changing water temperatures and the construction of dams. He’s heard reports of migrating eels getting caught in the turbines of hydroelectric dams, causing brownouts.

“Historically, before the major decline in eel populations, hundreds of millions of eels would be running down East Coast rivers to the Atlantic Ocean,” said Prosek. “It’s just amazing to see — just like ropes of eels slithering down river. And sometimes even coming out of the river to get around obstacles. They can cross over land on wet nights. As long as their skin is moist, they can breathe cutaneously through their skin.”

Strange attributes like that have made the slimy, slithery fish the focus of myths and folklore around the world.

Preparing eel requires caution, though.

“Eel is always served cooked because the blood has a neurotoxin,” Prosek said. “Cooking the eel neutralizes the neurotoxin.”

He added that ambitious fisherman should be careful not to get the blood into eyes or open wounds.

For those who are less motivated to prepare the fish themselves, below are a few recipes for using smoked eel. Also, check out a slideshow of Prosek’s etchings for his book, as well as his photos of Turner’s eel weir.

Last Chance Foods: The Maligned Bluefish

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:24:17 -0400

Not all fish are created equal in the eyes of fisherman, says Hank Shaw, the author of the book Hunt, Gather, Cook. Flounder and cod may be delicious to eat, but they’re lifeless and boring when caught. Now, bluefish — that’s a different story.

Not only are bluefish fun to catch, they can also make for great eating. They might get a bad rap for being too fishy tasting, but that’s simply a matter of freshness and preparation. Bluefish are currently in season, and the waters around the Tri-State area provide ample opportunities to catch one.

“It’s like pulling a pony,” explained Shaw, who also blogs at his Web site Hunter, Angler, Gardner, Cook. “I mean, you know, if you hook a 20-pound bluefish, this thing’s taking you for a ride. It’s going to pull on the line, it’s going to make crazy runs.”

Bluefish are also easy to catch, since they travel in large schools. Their feeding frenzies (like this one) are a relatively common occurrence. And since they are “slash and burn” feeders, Shaw says one way to locate a school of bluefish is to look for birds scavenging off their scraps.

Another element of excitement in hooking a bluefish is the potential for danger.

“Well, if you’ve ever seen one that’s live,” Shaw said, “they have a under-slung lower jaw, and it’s full of nasty sharp teeth.”

He notes that bat day at Yankee stadium is a particularly popular event with Mid-Atlantic fisherman. He jokes that small souvenir bats given out at those games can be crucial tools for catching bluefish.

“When that fish comes overboard, if you don’t hit him, and you try and take that lure out of his mouth, you’re going to lose a thumb,” said Shaw. “And they’re mean, and they’ll come after you.”

While bluefish are easy and entertaining to catch, they do need to be eaten immediately or they start to break down and develop a fishy taste. Since the enzymes in their digestive system are really strong, Shaw says they need to be bled and cleaned immediately.

“Bluefish is one of those fish like herring or mackerel that goes off in a heartbeat,” he explained. “It does not freeze well. If you have ever had frozen bluefish, it turns to mush, and it’s not even very good for fishcakes.”

Shaw also recommends trying bluefish at reputable restaurants first, if in doubt. Professional chefs generally get the freshest fish, and know the best ways to prepare them.

For the home cook, though, he recommends not serving a section of the fillet he calls the “bloodline,” which is the muscle that the fish uses to swim long distances.

“It is the line of very, very red, very, very fishy meat down the center of the fillet,” he said. “And some people like it. And it’s not so bad if it’s really, really fresh. Like, you know, you caught it that day. But it gets fishy, fishy bad in a hurry.”

Bluefish is also simply an inexpensive fish with character — as opposed to tilapia, which Shaw detests.

“I just hate that fish,” he admitted. “It’s a fish that’s fed corn pellets. It doesn’t taste like anything. It’s soft, it’s flabby. It’s only as good as the sauce you put on it.”

With a little time, education, and care — and perhaps a new marketing campaign — it’s entirely possible that bluefish might overcome its reputation to be loved by both fisherman and diners.

Below, try Shaw’s recipe for smoked bluefish, as adapted from a recipe for smoked shad.

Smoked Bluefish
by Hank Shaw

BRINE 1

1 cup kosher salt
2 quarts water

BRINE 2

1/2 cup salt
2 quarts water
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 chopped onion
3 smashed garlic cloves
Juice of a lemon
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
2-3 crushed dried hot chiles
5 bay leaves
2 cloves
1 teaspoon crushed coriander seeds

Mix the first brine together and soak the bluefish fillets in it for 30 minutes, then drain.

Meanwhile, bring the second brine to a simmer, stir well to combine and turn off the heat. Set this in a drafty or cool place to chill it down fast.

When the second brine is cool, pour it over the bluefish and brine for 1-2 hours.

Drain and rinse off the fillets, then pat dry with a towel. Air dry in a drafty place — use a fan if need be — for 2-3 hours, or until the meat looks a bit shiny. This is an important step; you are creating a sort of a second skin called a pellicle that is necessary to seal the fillets. If you skip this step, you will have problems with the proteins leaking out from between the flakes of the meat, forming a white icky stuff that will need to be scraped off.

Smoke over hardwoods for 1-3 hours, depending on the heat. You want the bluefish to slowly collect smoke, and cook very slowly. Under no circumstances do you want the heat to get above 180 degrees.

Remove and let cool at room temperature before packing away in the fridge or freezer.

Last Chance Foods: Concerns About Corn

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:43:15 -0400

Fall is arriving, and that means the end of the fresh corn season. For some, this quintessentially American food is happily identified with picnics and backyard barbecues. But for others, corn sparks debates on complex issues such as genetic engineering and ethanol. In many ways, this native North American grain is a symbol of the complicated relationship the U.S. has with food production.

Betty Fussell is the author of The Story of Corn and Crazy for Corn. She said that the cultivation of corn dated back to Mexico’s Olmec and Mayan civilizations.

“[Corn] was the metaphor for the entire universe — a sacred plant on which life and death depended,” said Fussell.

Fast forward to modern-day America — when corn has become a staple food and a controversial commodity. Because of the industrialization of production, corn is now a full-time commodity on the scale of a petroleum product, Fussell said.

That shift has placed the focus for many farmers on maximizing yield above all else.

“All those thousands and thousands of varieties are reduced to a single, hybrid, commercial corn,” she explained. “Everything is geared to how many kernels per cob, how many cobs per stalk.

The result is that corn is energy intensive to produce. Some 50 gallons of oil are needed to produce 140 bushels of corn, according to Fussell. That oil is spent on fertilization as well as pest prevention.

“Corn is then completely dependent on oil, but more than this, most of the corn crops goes into animals,” she added.

And that’s just commodity corn, which is one of five different types of corn (pop, flint, flour, sweet and dent).

The fresh corn found in grocery stores is sweet corn. It makes up less than 1 percent of America’s corn production. But even sweet corn comes with its fair share of controversial issues.

“Your grandfather would get Country Gentleman, Golden Bantem, Silver Queen," said Fussell. "These were true varieties of sweet corn. Since then, it’s been engineered for super sweetness, so it’s 20 to 30 to 40 percent sweeter — because we like extremes, so we don’t hold back. But the trouble with that is that everything begins to taste alike and the variety doesn’t make nearly as much difference.”

Fussell said she was thrilled that growing awareness of food issues has made many organic foods more available then they were 20 years ago. But she still takes issue with one practice that continues to happen regularly at the Union Square green market: “Why are [people] still stripping back the husks of fresh corn, violating this perfect package? For what? To find a worm? The husk is a beautiful wrapper and it contains the moisture, which is what we’re looking for in fresh corn. We’re not looking for sweetness. The sweetness doesn’t change as it used to in our granddaddy’s time because it’s been engineered differently now.”

Below, get two of Fussell’s favorite corn recipes.

Creamed Corn in Chili Butter
by Betty Fussell, from Crazy for Corn (HarperPerennial, 1995)
Serves 4

4 dried chilies, such as ancho, mulato, or chipotle
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1 small onion, chopped fine
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 cup half-and-half
6 to 8 ears fresh corn (3 to 4 cups kernels)

Discard the stems of the chilies. Break them open, shake out the seeds, and tear out the veins. Tear the chilies in large pieces and toast them in a heavy skillet over low heat, holding the pieces flat with a spatula as you toast (1 or 2 minutes a side). Pulverize them in a spice grinder and reserve.

Melt the butter in the skillet, add the onion, and sauté until softened, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, oregano, seasonings, and the half-and-half and mix well. Stir in the pulverized chilies and let the mixture simmer 2 or 3 minutes. Add the corn kernels and simmer 2 minutes more.

"This has always been my favorite after a summer of gnawing fresh corn on the cob. For me there will never be enough butter or cream, but I recognize that some faint hearts get scared off by merely naming such ingredients. For them, I suggest an end of summer Fresh Corn Sauté as follows." —Betty Fussell

Fresh Corn Sauté

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped fine
1 small onion, chopped fine
2 medium tomatoes, diced
6 to 8 ears fresh corn (3 to 4 cups kernels)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 leaves of fresh basil, chopped

Heat oil in a large skillet, add the pepper and onion and sauté 2 or 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and sauté a couple of minutes. Add the corn, season with salt, pepper and basil. Mix well, taste and serve.

Last Chance Foods: The Growing Popularity of Papalo

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:25:40 -0400

Papalo may be a relatively unknown herb in the Northeast, but it is such a part of everyday food in the region around Puebla, Mexico, that many families and restaurants keep a bouquet of it on the table. That way people can add the fresh herb to their food as desired.

Papalo, which grows wild in Mexico, has been making its way north in recent years, thanks in part to immigrant farmers who cultivate it here. Michelle Hughes is the director of GrowNYC’s New Farmer Development Project (NFDP), which supports and helps educate immigrants with agricultural backgrounds on how to start farming in the New York region. She works with several farmers who grow the herb and notes that it’s increasingly popular at area farmers' markets.

This pungent herb is related to cilantro and it’s been described as having a taste that’s a cross between cilantro, argula and mint — though, in reality, its flavor is unique. “Papalo” is a name derived from the word “butterfly” in the Nahuatl dialect of Central Mexico. Hughes notes that the plant’s leaves are shaped like butterfly wings.

Crops of papalo did not fare well in the recent deluge of rain that followed a drenching delivered by tropical storms.

“It’s really sensitive to cold, as well, and so a lot of it was lost,” said Hughes (pictured). “And so it is a lot less available in the markets now.”

Usually, markets in neighborhoods with large Hispanic communites, like Poe Park and Sunset Park, carry papalo.

“A lot of people in other parts of Mexico don’t use it and a lot of Mexican immigrants in New York City aren’t familiar with it,” she said, adding that more and more people are learning about papalo and asking for it at markets. “It has a range from Texas, New Mexico, all the way down to South America. And people in Bolivia actually use it as well.”

Papalo is usually used raw, as a garnish on top of food.

“Papalo is originally the herb that was used in guacamole and when you can’t find it, cilantro sort of is the backup,” said Hughes.

She notes that papalo is a crucial ingredient in cemitas, which are popular Mexican sandwiches.

Try the New Development Farmers Project’s recipe for cemitas below.

Cemitas (Mexican sandwiches)
by GrowNYC's New Farmer Development Project

Papalo leaves, stems removed
Avocado, sliced
Jalapeños, fresh or canned, sliced
Queso de hebra or string cheese, pulled into shreds
Lettuce
Tomato, sliced
Onion, thinly sliced
Cemita Sesame bread (a special roll from Puebla available from bakeries around 104th St in Manhattan)

For milanesa:

1 whole chicken breast or 2 lb. chuck roast or rib eye, trimmed
Salt and pepper
3 large eggs
2 large garlic cloves, minced
4 cups fresh breadcrumbs (from 8 slices firm white sandwich bread)
8 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

Gently pound cutlets to 1/8-inch thickness between 2 sheets of plastic wrap with flat side of meat pounder or with rolling pin. Pat dry and season with salt and pepper.

Beat together eggs and garlic in large shallow bowl. Place breadcrumbs in another large shallow bowl. Dip meat, 1 piece at a time, in egg mixture, letting excess drip off. Dredge in bread crumbs, pressing to coat completely. Repeat with remaining pieces of meat.

Heat butter and 2 tablespoons oil in large heavy skillet over moderately high heat, until foam subsides. Sauté meat in 2 batches (without crowding) until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined platter and keep warm.

Assemble sandwich with remaining ingredients to taste. Remember, it’s not a Cemita without papalo!

Last Chance Foods: Mmm ... Donut Peaches

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:40:20 -0400

As hard as it might be to believe, fall officially starts in two weeks. That makes right now a great time to enjoy the last of the summer’s produce. While crops like tomatoes and melons have suffered more from Tropical Storm Irene and the recent deluges of rain, much of the season’s stone fruit is still intact.

At Red Jacket Orchards, farm operations Vice President Mike Biltonen says its crop of donut peaches is doing just fine. The farm is in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York and was fortunately not in the path of the recent storms.

Wet weather aside, though, donut peaches will only be in season for another week or so. A smaller, squat cousin of traditional round peaches, the fruit has firmer flesh and separates neatly from the pit. Biltonen says they’re more difficult to grow because they crack and they’re more susceptible to certain types of disease.

The upside is that donut peaches can be incredibly sweet, and they tend to keep for a few days longer. They come in four different types: there are yellow-flesh, white, golden and green translucent donut peaches.

“It wasn’t really until the '90s [when] tree fruit growers — particularly on the East Coast, but also California to a large degree — needed to diversify their operations, and so in the ‘90s they started to take off,” said Biltonen, adding that donut peaches were originally discovered in China and made their way to the United States in 1869. “They’re still a very minor crop on the peach scene.”

In particular, he notes that the green translucent donut peach Red Jacket Orchards grows is very sweet, despite having the look of being unripe. Nicknamed the yoyo peach, it is a lesser-known variety. Biltonen warns that many commercially produced peaches are bred for color alone and, as a result, offer very little in flavor.

When selecting a ripe peach, Biltonen recommends first buying from a local farmer — that’s the best way to ensure the fruit isn’t selected for its ability to be shipped across the country. Whether at the farm stand or at the supermarket, he says to pick a peach that simply smells, well, peachy.

“Just use your nose, because the nose knows,” he said.

If the peach feels like it might need a few days sitting out on the counter, that’s okay.

“You can also have a peach that’s fully mature, which [means] it’s gone through its maturation process,” he explained. “It’s developed its sugars and all the other flavors that it has there, and what it really needs is a little time on the counter, two or three days at room temperature so that the texture comes around.”

When it comes to donut peaches, there’s one recipe that immediately comes to mind: donut peach donuts. Try blogger Cathy Erway’s recipe for them below.

Beer-Battered, Deep-Fried Donut Peaches
by Cathy Erway, Lunch at Sixpoint

(makes 6)

6 donut peaches, carefully pitted without cutting the rest of the fruit
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup beer
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
about 4 cups canola oil (or enough to submerge)

Bring oil to about 375 degrees. It should be slightly sizzling. Whisk together the egg, flour, beer, salt and sugar. Dunk the pitted donuts into the batter to coat completely.

Test if oil is hot enough to deep-frying by dropping a dollop of batter in first. If it sizzles up and turns golden brown within a couple seconds, it’s ready. Shake a little batter off each peach and deep-fry in batches of two or three at a time. (You’ll want to keep the oil consistently hot, and adding more peaches will lower its temperature.) Once golden brown, after approximately 5 to 10 seconds, transfer to paper towels to drain. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream optional.

Last Chance Foods: Mirabelle, Ma Belle

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:38:40 -0400

About 25 years ago, Terhune Orchards in Salt Point, N.Y., received an unexpected gift. A family friend admired the orchard because it reminded her of her hometown in Northern France. Then, one year, she arrived with a cutting from a plum tree from France. That cutting has since grown into one of the only Mirabelle plum trees in the New York area.

While the tree’s small yellow fruit may not be well known to New York natives, the plums have a long and celebrated history in the Lorraine region of France, where much of the harvest is used to make jams and the clear fruit brandy eau de vie. Every August, the city of Metz hosts a Mirabelle plum festival.

The tree at Terhune Orchards was discovered a few years ago by Kate Weiner, the proprietress of The Art of the Tart. Weiner uses the fruit in the rustic French puff pastry tarts she sells at the farmers' market in Millbrook, N.Y. She explains that she’s not positive how she first thought to seek out the fruit.

“I think I was in a fugue state,” said Weiner (pictured below, right, with Last Chance Foods host Amy Eddings). “I’m not sure how I discovered it. I think I just woke up one morning and had a bee in my bonnet about Mirabelles.”

Jan Czech, one of the owners of Terhune Orchards, explains that the plums have a small but loyal following.

“We really didn’t know anything about them when we planted it and how, basically, rare they are,” she said. “So our first crop, we just put them out for sale and people came in and said, ‘Oh, my god, you have Mirabelle plums!'”

Weiner was one of the few who had that reaction, and even now, has reservations about sharing knowledge about the tree.

“I have pangs that we’re even discussing this tree, because I have had pretty much exclusive rights to it for the last few years,” she said. “I buy the entire output of this one tree, which amount to a bushel in a good year and about half a bushel in a not so good year.”

Even the labor that is involved in halving the small yellow plums has not deterred Weiner from snapping up as many as she can get.

“I’m like the Tailor of Gloucester,” she said. “I sit sort of halving these things for hours at a time.”

Weiner notes that Mirabelle de Nancy, and Mirabelle de Metz are the culitvars that are most prized. She spoke with several plum experts, who told her that there are no yellow plums that are commercially cultivated. So any yellow plums found at the farmers market are from smaller scale operations. The Mirabelle, in particular, does have a very short shelf life and must be used soon after being purchased.

Unwilling to be subject to the health and availability of one tree, Weiner took to the Internet in search of her own Mirabelle tree.

“It was when I began searching for one that I realized that I had an enormous task ahead of me,” she said. “After obsessive searching on the Internet, I finally found a specialist grower.”

Weiner was put on a waiting list for a year, after which she was told she could only have one tree. She admits that the tree, which is in one of her front gardens, is not doing so well.

“I think kind thoughts about it but I don’t think it loves to be there,” Weiner said. “They’re a little high-strung. I mean, they’re cut out for Northeastern France.”

For those who are able to get some of these small, yellow plums, Weiner shares a recipe for clafoutis, a regional French specialty.

Plum Clafoutis
Adapted from a recipe first published in The Sunday Times (London)
Serves 4

Scant 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (or 5.2 oz.)
Pinch of sea salt
1 cup granulated sugar, plus a tbsp
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp armagnac
3 1/2 tbsp butter, plus extra for greasing
Confectioners sugar, for dusting
10 Mirabelle plums, or 4 large purple or European-style plums
1 tbsp toasted flaked almonds

1. Put the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor and whiz for a few seconds to mix. Add the eggs, egg yolks, cream and armagnac and blend to a smooth batter, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times. (If preparing ahead, pour the mixture into a pitcher, cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight.)

2. Preheat the oven to 375 F.. Brush a large ovenproof gratin dish, about 10 inches in diameter, with the softened butter, then dust with a little confectioners sugar.

3. Cut the plums in half, remove their stones and pat dry. Melt the butter in a nonstick pan. Dredge the plum halves in sugar, then add to the pan, cut-side down. Cook over a high heat until slightly caramelized at the edges. Transfer the plums to the prepared gratin dish, cut-side down.

4. Give the clafoutis batter a stir, then pour over the plums in the gratin dish. Scatter over the toasted flaked almonds. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until risen and golden brown. Gently press the center of the clafoutis – it should be set. If not, bake for another 5 to 10 minutes.

5. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve warm. Can be served with a dollop of crème fraîche or vanilla ice-cream.

Gloucester

Last Chance Foods: Great Garlic in the Raw

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:26:18 -0400

Right now, farmers markets are bursting at the seams with fresh produce ranging from apricots to zucchini. Gabrielle Langholtz, the editor of Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn magazines, said that she'd easily pass up all of that and beeline straight to the garlic, if she had to choose.

"Things at the farmers market are sometimes more delicious because they're a lot fresher, and certainly at this time of the year we see that with things like corn and peaches and tomatoes," Langholtz said. "You just can't compete with something that's been shipped across the country or around the world. But sometimes they're really more delicious because they're a different breed—if it's animal—or variety. And that's the case with garlic."

The garlic Langholtz highly prefers is called "hardneck" or "topsetting" garlic. It's usually only available at farmers markets, and she said it's is far more flavorful than "softneck" garlic, which is industrially grown and uniformly available in grocery stores year-round. The reason hardneck garlic is generally only grown by smaller farms is because the harvesting is much more labor intensive: During its growth cycle, the plant produces a flower which must be removed.

When comparing the difference in taste between the two different types of garlic, Langholtz painted a vivid contrast using a metaphor likely to strike a cord with farmers market regulars. "I would compare it to the difference between a really ripe, heirloom tomato at the farmers market and one of those hard pink things you get at the bodega on a little Styrofoam tray," she said.

Unlike softneck garlic, hardneck garlic has a tough stem that extends from the middle of the bulb. That's the stem that produces edible garlic scapes (long, curly green stalks) in the spring.

"If I had my pick, [garlic] is the one thing at the farmers market that I just cannot live without and this is the best time of year to eat it," she said. "Garlic, like people, takes nine months to grow. So farmers will be planting the individual cloves in October or November." That means the garlic available right now was recently harvested and still has much of its natural oils.

Langholtz, who farmed garlic years ago in upstate New York, explains that fresh garlic is milder and almost sweet, making it particularly delicious to eat raw. Older garlic that has been stored in barns loses that quality with time. "It begins to turn bitter and acrid—and that's what most people have eaten their whole lives," she said. "So if you think you don't like raw garlic, it's just that you haven't tried the fresh stuff."

Finally, demand is another reason to buy garlic now, according to Langholtz. The largest bulbs of garlic are being purchased now, so as the season continues the bulbs will get smaller and smaller.

Below, try a super easy recipe that uses fresh, raw garlic combined with a few of summer's most prized fruits: peaches and tomatoes.

Peach Salsa with Tomatoes and Basil
Courtesy of GrowNYC

Serves: 4
Ingredients

3 ripe but firm stone fruits: nectarines, peaches, or apricots (4-5), or a combination
3 large tomatoes, cut into large dice
1 red onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
20 leaves basil, ripped
½ small bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
½ small bunch parsley, roughly chopped
3 lemons, juiced
¼ cup olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.

*If making ahead, add fruit just before serving.

Last Chance Foods: A Summer Herb to Love and to Hate

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:47:48 -0400

Cilantro, which also goes by the name of coriander, is an easily grown herb that can be added to many summer dishes. Chef Vikas Khanna, the chef at Junoon, says the herb is so essential to South Asian cooking that fruit and vegetable vendors in the Indian region of Punjab where he grew up give out free cilantro, along with chilies, with purchased vegetables.

"It's indispensable, that's why they almost give it free," he said.

The herb does have a pungent taste, though, one that not everyone is a fan of. Chef Julia Child once famously told Larry King that she hated the herb for its “dead” flavor and that she’d throw it on the ground if she came across it in a dish. Well-known groups such as I Hate Cilantro abhor the herb, and The New York Times even examined the cause behind the love-hate relationship people have with cilantro.

Khanna, whose cookbook Flavors First is out this month, notes that he once hosted an event at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for children with impaired vision. One child hated cilantro, claiming it tasted like soap, while another detected a faint lemony tang.

Generally, it's the fresh version of the herb that draws the most vehement responses. One way to distinguish cilantro from the very similar-looking Italian flat-leaf parsley is to rub a leaf between your fingers. Cilantro smells potent, whereas parsley gives off little scent. Khanna says to be careful, though: he’s been caught manhandling herbs by more than one grocer.

Cilantro, or coriander, seeds and powder are less potent forms of the herb that are commonly used in South Asian cuisine. Khanna says that the seeds are a necessary ingredient for garam masala, a spice blend that forms much of the foundation of Indian cooking. He notes that he'll often lightly fry or dry roast seeds and other whole spices (rather than coriander powder) to form the base of many of his dishes.

"I generally roast seeds," he said. "It's safer. Powders could be burned very easily and every time you burn a spice powder, it turns very bitter and it changes the color of the sauce, too."

During the hot summer months, though, fresh cilantro is a handy go-to herb for dishes that don’t require heat. In addition to being used in salsa, gaucamole and salads, it can also be used in drinks. Khanna notes a popular beverage in India uses cilantro, and it’s stored in earthen jars to keep it cool.

Below, try Khanna’s recipe for an easy, cool cilantro chutney — which doesn’t even require turning on the stove.

Cilantro Chutney
(Hare Dhaniya ki Chutney)
By Chef Vikas Khanna,
Flavors First (Aug. 15, 2011; Lake Isle Press)

Yield: Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 large bunch cilantro, well washed and roughly chopped (about 2 ounces)
6 scallions, coarsely chopped
2 hot green chile peppers (such as Serrano or Thai), roughly chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons peeled, chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Method: Place all ingredients except the olive oil in a blender. Blend at medium speed, slowly drizzling in the olive oil, until smooth. Store, refrigerated, in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Last Chance Food: Give a Fig

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:43:18 -0400

Figs season in the New York area is in full swing. Ted Lee, who wrote the cookbook Simple Fresh Southern along with his brother Matt Lee, says that, in the South, the season for brown turkey figs is just now winding down. He explains that fig trees are common in the backyards of Charleston, South Carolina, where he grew up.

That’s the case in New York, too, where some fig trees can be found tucked away behind homes in Italian and Greek neighborhoods. There’s speculation that immigrants from generations ago were so devoted to the fruit that some smuggled saplings over from the old country.

“The flavor of figs is interesting because it’s sugary first off, but it also has sort of like cola-like notes,” said Lee (pictured below on the left, with Matt Lee). “Also some are creamy and have almost a coconut flavor.”

The flavor differs with the variety and ripeness of the fig. On the East Coast, brown turkey figs are common, whereas the West Coast has more Mission figs.

Whether looking for figs at the farmers' market or in a friend’s backyard, Lee says to check for ripeness by weight and touch. The fruit should feel heavy, and, if it’s still on the tree, it should hang down. He notes that often there will also be a drop of sugary sap at the top or bottom of the fig.

Lee adds that there’s a good solution for unripe figs: pickle them. They make for a crunchy pickle that’s less sweet than the ripe fruit. Other classic preparations including making preserves or using them in a sauce to accompany pork.

“One recipe we like to make because it involves two Charleston ingredients is Pork Tenderloins with Fig and Madeira Gravy,” said Lee. “You cook the figs down in Madeira, the fortified wine.”

The fruit is so coveted that many tend to share with friends and neighbors. Lee’s friend, a 90-year-old with the largest fig tree in Charleston, puts up hundreds of jars of fig preserves every year — even though the man doesn’t even like figs.

“Growing up in South Carolina, figs are more like an incidental food,” said Lee. “It’s not really something that you might get at the market, it’s something that’s usually handed to you from someone who has a big fig tree in the backyard.”

Below, try a recipe for Fig Preserves from the Lee Brothers' first cookbook. Also learn more on their new Web site.

Fig Preserves
From The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook (W.W. Norton & Co.)

We don’t know quite what we’d do without fig preserves. Spread over buttered biscuits or a slice of toast, their mellow, winy flavor has brightened up countless mornings. But they also make a wonderful addition to a cheese plate; they’re delicious baked into a cake; and a dollop over store-bought vanilla ice cream is a simple, decadent dessert. And we’ve often wondered why more sandwich makers don’t get hip to fig preserves; they dress up a simple smoked turkey, Swiss cheese, or meatloaf sandwich in a way that few other condiments can. Most of the local figs in Charleston, known as sugar figs, have greenish yellow skins that darken when they’re ripe. They make a lovely preserve that’s the brown color of a bitter-orange marmalade.

Makes 2 1/2 pints
Time: 5 minutes to prepare, 1 2/3 hours to cook, 2 days to blend

Equipment: 2 pint-sized, wide-mouth Ball jars or 1 quart-sized jar and one 10-ounce jar, with rims and lids

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
8 cups whole ripe figs, stems trimmed
3 small lemons, sliced paper-thin
One 1-inch-long piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch rounds

1. Fill a 3-quart pot three-quarters full of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Using tongs, carefully set the jars on their sides, along with their lids and a long-handled metal spoon, in the boiling water to sterilize. Boil for at least 15 minutes, then remove from the water with the tongs or a jar lifter and set aside.

2. In another 3-quart pot, combine the sugar and water and stir to dissolve. Add the figs, lemons, and ginger, cover, and cook over medium heat, occasionally stirring gently, until the liquid comes to a simmer, about 8 minutes.

3. Turn the heat to low and cook for 1 hour, then vent the preserves by tilting the cover slightly into the pan and cook for 30 minutes more, until the mixture is thickly syrupy and the figs are very soft.

4. Transfer the preserves to the jars with the sterilized spoon. Place the lids on the jars, seal, and set aside to cool. Refrigerate for 2 days before using. Fig preserves will keep for about 4 weeks in the refrigerator.

Last Chance Foods: Summer Wineberries

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:53:24 -0400

Wineberries: They look like tiny raspberries and you likely won’t find them at even the most well-stocked farmers' markets. Instead, these cousins to the raspberry can be found on a trip through the woods — or even through a city park.

Ava Chin (pictured below holding wineberries), who writes the Urban Forager column for The New York Times, explains that she’s even seen wineberries growing along commuter rail tracks.

“You can find them generally along roadsides, parks, park lands, off the sides of meadows,” she said. “They like moist soil and they like a lot of light.”

The plants are very distinctive in appearance, and the berries grow out of a hairy, intimidating looking shell.

“They are a rather dangerous looking berry,” said Chin. “When you approach them, you’ll see that the fruit is surrounded by these thorny, sticky, reddish hairs that go all the way down to the stem.”

She added that the red fuzz made wineberries easily distinguishable from raspberries and black raspberries.

“Wildman” Steve Brill has a warning, though.

“Wineberries are very, very dangerous,” he said. “There are reports of people who ate them who died of happiness — that’s how good they taste.”

In reality, there are no poisonous wineberry lookalikes that would make foraging for the berries hazardous.

“I think they taste like a cross between a raspberry meeting a navel orange — like if you think of a blood orange and add some more raspberry punch to it, that’s the wineberry,” said Chin.

She added that freezing the berries was a good way to enjoy them past their relatively short summer season.

The presence of wineberries in the United States was a happy accident of sorts. The berry is native to Asia, and was originally brought over for its decorative qualities and because of its relation to raspberry plants. While many people consider wineberries an invasive species, Brill said wineberries were low on the list.

“The new science with invasiveness is showing that not all invasives are created equal, and some of them [like wineberries] pose just a minor annoyance and don’t really take over ecosystems,” he said.

Of course, this invasive plant also has an obvious and tasty benefit.

“The wineberries are basically are peaking,” said Chin. “I would advise anyone to grab their baskets and go out to hunt for them, because they’ll be leaving us soon.”

For those who are successful in their hunt, try Chin’s Wineberry Vinaigrette, below.

“Urban Forager” Wineberry Vinaigrette

½ cup wild wineberries
2 T champagne/apple cider vinegar
1 t Dijon mustard
½ t honey
½ cup canola or extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Crush wineberries in a bowl with a hand masher. Set aside.
2. Mix vinegar, mustard, and honey until mustard and honey are completely dissolved.
3. Wisk in a steady stream of olive oil. Add salt & pepper.
4. Fold in wineberries to mixture. Use immediately.

Last Chance Foods: Currant Affairs

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:04:16 -0400

In Brooklyn, it’s illegal for donkeys to sleep in bathtubs. It’s also against the law in New York to walk around with an ice cream cone in your pocket on Sunday or to wear slippers after 10 P.M. While these are some of the sillier examples of arcane laws leftover from bygone days, up until 2003, it was also illegal to cultivate black currants in New York state.

The ban, which was enacted across the nation in 1911, sought to prevent white pine blister rust, which at the time was believed to be fostered by currant bushes. Thanks in large part to the efforts of Greg Quinn (pictured below), the law was overturned in New York several years ago.

Quinn has a background in horticulture and, by working with Cornell scientists, he discovered that only certain kinds of currant bushes were susceptible to white pine blister rust. He found that the type of plant that would produce fruit for harvest wasn’t a variety that would carry the disease.

In recent years, currants have grown in popularity, and, during the summer months, they can be found in farmers' markets throughout the city. Quinn, who has more than 10,000 currant bushes on his farm in the Hudson Valley, said that he recently harvested the season’s last crop. Now is the time to look for black currants before they’re gone for the year.

“[Black currants are] probably the last food that everybody in the world knows and loves except America, because of the ban,” said Quinn.

He first discovered black currants while working as a chef in Bavaria and, after getting the ban overturned in New York, he founded CurrantC, which sells black currants and products made from the fruit.

In Europe, Quinn’s friends and colleagues touted the fruit, which they claimed could help with everything from gout to psoriasis.

“Low and behold, there’s been extensive research done outside of the United States — because, again, it doesn’t exist here — that has proven this to be the case,” he said.

Black currants, which are small, plump and slightly smaller than blueberries, are tart and usually need to be sweetened. Red currants, and the white and pink varieties they're related to, are less tart. Quinn said that black currants were the healthiest of the varieties.

“The black really is the big gun for health benefits," he said. "As we all know, the darker the food, the darker the fruit, the more antioxidants. So black currants have twice the antioxidants of blueberries, four times the vitamin C of oranges, more potassium than bananas, calcium, iron. I mean, it’s this little powerhouse.”

Fresh currants bear little resemblance to the so-called "dried" currants found in scones and fruticake. Quinn said there’s a very good explanation why: they aren’t currants at all. The case of mistaken identity goes back to the 1920s, when currants were still banned.

“Importers started to bring in a small dried grape — a raisin — from Greece, specifically from the Ionian region of Corinth and Zakynthos, and back then labeling laws weren’t so stringent," he said. "And the Greek writing for Corinth was mistranslated to currants. So we’ve got 80 years of cookbooks telling us to put half a cup of currants in our scones and they’re not currants — they’re raisins.”

Quinn said he sells real dried currants, but they're rare.

Black currants are mostly found in jam, and Quinn recommends using them in sauces and smoothies. Below, get his recipe for Low Sugar Black Currant jam.

Greg’s Farm House Low Sugar Black Currant Jam

"You don’t need a farmhouse kitchen for this recipe. It’s simple, quick and in about an hour, you’ll feel like you’ve been making homemade preserves your whole life. You’ll have wonderful homemade jam for yourself and your family and the best last-minute gift ever. There’s nothing like a gift you made yourself from fruit grown on the farm and best of all, it’s the finest jam you ever tasted. Unlike many soft fruits, black currants have a high amount of pectin and so don’t need to add any processed pectin. This is a low-sugar recipe compared to most, but I find it just the right balance." —Greg Quinn

Ingredients:

5 cups (1 quart) of Greg’s farm fresh frozen black currants
4 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cups good tasting water
Makes roughly 6 x 8 oz jars

(For large batches, I usually triple this recipe. Any multiple will work)

Recipe:

Place a small plate in the freezer.*
Run clean Mason jars or preserving jelly jars through the rinse cycle of the dishwasher or fill with boiling water and set aside. Dry before use.
Gently rinse the black currants and remove the stems (a few are not a problem, they’re all edible and some say good for your skin).
Place fruit in a heavy saucepan with 2 cups of water. Make sure pan is several inches deeper than the fruit water mixture to allow for some foaming.
Bring slowly to boil, uncovered, stirring to break down fruit into a pulp. Cook for 10 minutes or until soft.
Turn down the heat to low and add the sugar and lemon juice. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
If desired, add a teaspoon of butter (not margarine) to curtail foaming.
Raise heat back up and bring to a full rolling boil, stirring often.
Boil hard, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat, test for jam stage.* Cook longer if needed and test again.
Let the jam stand 5 minutes, skimming off any foam with large metal spoon and stirring occasionally to incorporate any floating fruit.
Pour into hot sterilized jars and heat seal (See below).

Jam stage:

Method 1: Take the plate out of the freezer. Pour a small quantity of jam (about 1/8 tsp) onto the cold plate and chill it in the freezer for about 30 seconds. If the test jam is firm to the touch and has the texture you want for your batch of jam, then it is done. Remove from heat.

Method 2: Use a candy thermometer and cook to 220 degrees F/104 degrees C.

Tips for safe, long lasting preserves:

Use only jars and lids that are designed for preserving such as Ball or Mason.
Run clean jars through the rinse cycle of the dishwasher or fill with boiling water and set aside. Dry before use. If jars are being reused, run them through a complete cycle of the dishwasher first. Do not reuse the inner dome lids.
Immerse the dome lids into simmering water (180 degrees F) according to the package directions. Keep them hot until use.
Fill the hot dry jars, one at a time, with the finished jam or preserves. Inexpensive wide mouth funnels are available where most canning supplies or kitchen items are sold and make the process a lot easier and less messy. A big spoon is necessary with or without the funnel.
Clean the rim of the jar thoroughly with a damp cloth.
Immediately place a hot dome lid onto the filled jar.
Firmly (but not with super strength) screw down a dome lid ring onto the filled and lidded jar.
Allow your jars to cool. You’ll hear the dome lids popping down as they cool. After they’re cooled, press down on each of the dome lids. All that stay down or are already down are properly sealed.
Reheat and try again or refrigerate any jars of jam that did not seal properly.
Remove the dome lid rings. Wipe the jars clean with a warm damp cloth, and store the jam in a cool dark place until ready to use.
Refrigerate after opening.
I love to tie on a square of thin fabric with some rattan for the perfect gift.

Greg’s Farm House Low Sugar Black Currant Jam

You don’t need a farm house kitchen for this recipe. It’s simple, quick and in about an hour you’ll feel like you’ve been making homemade preserves your whole life. You’ll have wonderful homemade jam for yourself and your family and the best last minute gift ever. There’s nothing like a gift you made yourself from fruit grown on the farm and best of all, it’s the finest jam you ever tasted.

Unlike many soft fruits, Black Currants have a high amount of pectin and so don’t need to add any processed pectin. This is a low sugar recipe compared to most but I find it just the right balance.

Ingredients:

5 cups (1 quart) of Greg’s farm fresh frozen* Black Currants.
4 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cups good tasting water
Makes roughly 6 x 8 oz jars
(For large batches, I usually triple this recipe. Any multiple will work)

Recipe:

· Place a small plate in the freezer*

· Run clean mason jars or preserving jelly jars through the rinse cycle of the dishwasher or fill with boiling water and set aside. Dry before use.

· Gently rinse the Black Currants and remove the stems (a few are not a problem, they’re all edible and some say good for your skin).

· Place fruit in a heavy saucepan with 2 cups of water. Make sure pan is several inches deeper than the fruit water mixture to allow for some foaming.

· Bring slowly to boil, uncovered, stirring to break down fruit into a pulp.
Cook for 10 minutes or until soft.

· Turn down the heat to low and add the sugar and lemon juice. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

· If desired, add a teaspoon of butter (not margarine) to curtail foaming.

· Raise heat back up and bring to a full rolling boil, stirring often.

· Boil hard, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

· Remove from heat, test for jam stage.* Cook longer if needed and test again.

· Let the jam stand 5 minutes, skimming off any foam with large metal spoon and stirring occasionally to incorporate any floating fruit.

· Pour into hot sterilized jars and heat seal (See below).

*Farm Fresh Frozen Currants:

· Greg’s currants are placed into the freezer truck right in the field as they come off the bushes. They’re unprocessed and unwashed (no problem because we don’t spray them). These are the next best thing to you picking them off the bush yourself.

*Jam stage:
Method 1- Take the plate out of the freezer. Pour a small quantity of jam (about 1/8 tsp) onto the cold plate and chill it in the freezer for about 30 seconds. If the test jam is firm to the touch and has the texture you want for your batch of jam, then it is done. Remove from heat.
Method 2-Use a candy thermometer and cook to 220° F / 104° C

Proper method for safe, long lasting preserves:

· Use only jars and lids that are designed for preserving such as Ball or Mason.

· Run clean jars through the rinse cycle of the dishwasher or fill with boiling water and set aside. Dry before use. If jars are being reused, run them through a complete cycle of the dishwasher first. Do not reuse the inner dome lids.

Immerse the dome lids into simmering water (180° F) according to the package directions. Keep them hot until use.
Fill the hot dry jars, one at a time, with the finished jam or preserves. Inexpensive wide mouth funnels are available where most canning supplies or kitchen items are sold and make the process a lot easier and less messy. A big spoon is necessary with or without the funnel.
Clean the rim of the jar thoroughly with a damp cloth.
Immediately place a hot dome lid onto the filled jar.
Firmly (but not with super strength) screw down a dome lid ring onto the filled and lidded jar.
Allow your jars to cool. You’ll hear the dome lids popping down as they cool. After they’re cooled, press down on each of the dome lids. All that stay down or are already down are properly sealed.
Reheat and try again or refrigerate any jars of jam that did not seal properly.
Remove the dome lid rings. Wipe the jars clean with a warm damp cloth, and store the jam in a cool dark place until ready to use.
Refrigerate after opening.
I love to tie on a square of thin fabric with some rattan for the perfect gift.

Last Chance Foods: Is Durian the King of Fruits or the King of Stink?

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:00:00 -0400

Some have said that the durian, a tropical spiky fruit in season through July, smells like a gym full of old socks or an unearthed cadaver. But others have called it the King of Fruits for its delicious, custard-y, flavorful flesh. All Things Considered Host Amy Eddings spoke with Francis Lam, the features editor for the Web site Gilt Taste (pictured below), for this week’s episode of Last Chance Foods about reasons to love and hate the durian.

Amy Eddings: I've never had durian until now. My producer Joy Wang was able to procure some frozen durian. It's in its frozen state, but it looks like raw chicken parts. Does it look like this when it's cut open fresh?

Francis Lam: You are not getting the full experience because you are seeing it in a plastic box. The real deal is ... if you imagine a bowling ball of your nightmares, like the kind of bowling ball that has spikes all over it, and rolls towards you with angry eyes and like threatens to destroy you -- like that's what it looks like in real life. They are probably six to eight pounds. The spikes are really hard ... it can actually pierce your skin. So, you think of all the ways you can weaponize this thing — that's before you get to its famous smell ... Often they'll sell it frozen, but when you have the whole thing, and you cut into it, it looks like an alien brain.

AE: It's a yellowish flesh?

FL: The color varies. Sometimes it's ivory, sometimes it's yellow.

AE: And pink, too, I have seen on photographs on the Web, or no?

FL: Sure. They're alien brains. They can be any color they want.

AE: What do you do once you crack it open? Do you puree it? Do you slice it up and drizzle, I don't know, olive oil over it? What do you do?

FL: You are much classier than I think I am. You can certainly take it out and present it. But really, I think, what most people do is go right at it with a spoon.

AE: Like a grapefruit, you're just scooping the innards out and eating it.

FL: Yeah. More like a pudding cup. In this case, like a giant pudding bowl. One of things about durian that's really remarkable is that it's so creamy. It's really like a custard. There are some fiber, there are some fleshy parts, there are some little chewy bits, but really so much of it is custard-y, and it it tastes like it too. I think one of the reasons people why love it. You know you think of South Asia, it's not a very dairy-intensive kind of culture, so there aren't that many things that give you that creaminess, that creamy mouth feel. And durian absolutely does. It's really pudding-like. You spoon right into it and it can be really wonderful. It has its own flavor and it can taste like tropical fruit custard or tropical fruit pudding.

AE: The little bit that I'm able to sample from this, it tastes very onion-y.

FL: That's the other thing. It can either be like tropical fruit panna cotta, or it can be creamed onions.

AE: And is that just fruit by fruit? Is that a function of ripeness?

FL: I've heard that if you get the truly fine durians from this part of Thailand versus that, you're not going to get the onion flavor or whatever. But the thing that's interesting to me is that I've actually found both in the same fruit. There's some part of the fruit that might be more sulfuric, more onion-y and some other part that's again, more fruity and creamy. The first time I ate it was really weird. One bite I'd be like, "This is like a delicious dessert," and another part of me would be like, "This would be kind of good with some salt and slathered on a burger." And then a third part of me was like, "That is just too weird. That's gross. Go away."

AE: All in one fruit -- I love it. So the smell: let's address the smell issue. Because I'm not working with a fresh cut open durian, I'm not getting the full monty here, but I am experiencing a little bit of that stale, sock, sweaty smell. But full on, when it's ripe and fresh, eh?

FL: You know, it's famous for its smell. In the Philippines, I've seen signs in hospitals saying, "No Durian on the Premises." Singapore, which is not renowned for its freedoms, one of things they actually won't allow you by law to do is go on mass transit holding a durian. Airlines won't let you fly with it ... When it's whole in the fruit, when it's not cut open, it's actually sort of lovely. The smell is ... I described it once as a cantaloupe on a tropical vacation with a little parasol. It has those tropical notes like a banana, or a coconut, or a pineapple would, but it's very melon-y. Once you crack it open — really I think it's the sulfur that gives you the onion-y quality — people say it smells like socks, some people say it smells like cadaver ... The smell is really pungent and it really travels, and it really goes everywhere. The thing that's interesting about the smell, too, is that some people don’t mind it. I think it might be one of those like cilantro things, where some people eat cilantro and are like, "Whoa!" Others are like, "It's delicious, this is great, what's your problem?"

Some people just adore this smell. The thing with ripeness is a teacher in culinary school once told me that, "Ripeness is just a continuum of rot." Once a fruit starts ripening, it's just on its way to rotting. As smells get more pungent, they get more lovely, they get more beautiful. It's really sort of subjective when we decide it gets gross. And tropical fruits, in particular, have a really intense relationship with that phenomenon.

AE: Yeah, right, the heat ... the humidity. Other than eating it raw, how else is durian used?

FL: I have never seen, personally, people really cook with it or do stuff with it. I think it's often such an event when you open a whole one that people just like to go for it. But certainly durian-flavored stuff is all over the place. Durian ice cream is really popular, I think in part because it mimics the original texture and creaminess of durian, so it's a natural match. I have seen durian cookies, durian cakes, durian chips, which I think are just the fruit sliced and dried, and maybe crisped up a little bit. But again you are talking about eight pounds of this stuff. Really, what you've got to do is get twelve of your least stink-adverse friends and just go for it.

AE: Right, I was going to say for people bold enough, curious enough to try this, where can they find this here, how do you open it? It sounds so daunting with the spikes. And what would you recommend? Just a bunch of people in a circle with spoons, passing it around and eating its custard-y flesh?

FL: Yeah, that's certainly how I've done it and that's certainly how I've seen it done. Opening it is is a little bit difficult. I can't emphasize how shockingly sharp the spikes are. You can really ruin someone's day with this thing. So, frankly, an ax is not out of question, considering you kind of want to be a little far away from it when releases its essence into the world. Probably a big cleaver ... don't go at it with a small knife. You want a big board and you want to dispatch it cleanly.

AE: I'm wondering how you shop for this if it's so spiky. I can just imagine the proprietor of the store in Chinatown has a towel or something and wraps the durian in a towel and hands it to you. And you have to bring your lumberjack gloves with you when you go shopping for durian?

FL: You know those gloves they sell for oyster shucking, the steel chain mail gloves. You can hang out with [some] of those. You know, often they'll just be packaged in a net. You can just pick it up and hang it. Again, it's six to eight pounds and the size of a bowling ball. You can walk around and really intimidate people with this thing, you're sort of swinging it. When I'm in Chinatown, I see them often, they are just hanging on a rack from these nets. You've gotta grab one and just sort of hold it like the head of your enemy when you go home.

What do you think of the durian? Is it the King of Fruits or the King of Stink? Please let us know by posting a comment below.

Luna Lin contributed to this report.

Last Chance Foods: The Wild Side of Salmon

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:58:30 -0400

There’s good news and bad news coming from Alaska and it doesn’t have anything to do with politics. First, the good news: it is wild salmon season. Wild salmon have just started to swim upstream to spawn and the fish are currently at their plumpest and tastiest. During their single-minded dash to reproduce, the salmon don’t eat and get skinnier as the season goes on.

Now for the bad news. The headwaters of the largest salmon run in North America are threatened by possible industrialization, according to Paul Greenberg, the author of Four Fish. According to Greenberg, a company called Anglo American is seeking to establish a copper and gold mine in Bristol Bay, “the breadbasket of Alaskan salmon.”

“In concentration, the mine, which is called Pebble Mine, is more sulfur than it is copper, so you can imagine just the tremendous impact all the slag from this mine could have on what is just a beautifully pristine area,” said Greenberg, pictured below with his first Bristol Bay catch of the year, a wild chum salmon from the Nushagak River. Greenberg claims that the copper from the mine also threatens the salmon’s migrating ability, which is partly based on smell. Approximately 40 million sockeye salmon travel through the Bristol Bay area each year — and sockeye are just one of five types of wild salmon native to the region.

For now, wild salmon stocks in Alaska are thriving and an environmentally responsible choice of seafood. “It’s now part of the Alaska state constitution that fisheries have to be managed sustainably,” said Greenberg, adding that almost all Alaskan fisheries are certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

“With salmon, unlike a lot of fish, you really know how many there are and how many you can take. Why? Because salmon come into the rivers. We can literally count how many came in and figure out how many we need to let go by and get up river to spawn,” Greenberg said.

In terms of health, wild salmon provide a good source of protein, untainted with dyes or additives. “Certain species of salmon, particularly the sockeye salmon, are very, very low in toxins,” Greenberg noted. “Sockeye salmon eat very low on the food chain. They’re practically filter feeders. They eat little, tiny krill,” which means they are low in toxins and mercury.

The process of farming salmon has also improved in recent years. Greenberg explained that while it used to require six pounds of ground fish to produce one pound of wild salmon, that ratio is down to less than two pounds of feed for each pound of salmon. On the other hand, some farmed salmon still pose a threat to the environment, since the pens in which they are grown are sometimes placed in rivers where salmon migrate. The dense group of salmon then produce a large amount of waste and create a breeding ground for parasites like sea lice. Greenberg said that some salmon farms are starting to used containment methods to produce salmon, which keep the farmed versions out of streams.

When it comes to shopping at the grocery store, wild salmon like sockeye are easy to spot. With sockeye salmon, the flesh is evenly red, instead of a light pink, and it generally doesn’t have the white stripes of fat present in other farmed varieties.

Try New York Times writer Mark Bittman’s recipe for Salmon Roasted in Butter, from his book How To Cook Everything. "[This recipe] allows the natural complexity of wild salmon to come out," said Greenberg.

"Farmed salmon tends to have kind of a one-note, fatty-salmony flavor, whereas a wild sockeye has a spectrum of tastes. Because wild sockeye is naturally leaner than farmed salmon, the use of butter here works really well."

Salmon Roasted in Butter
From How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
Makes 4 to 8 servings
Time: 15 minutes

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
1 (2- to 3-pound) salmon fillet (skin-on is nice), preferably king or sockeye
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Minced fresh parsley leaves for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. Melt the butter in a medium roasting pan-either on top of the stove or in the oven as it preheats -- until the foam subsides. Sprinkle the salmon with salt and pepper.

2. Put the salmon in the butter, flesh side down, and put the pan in the oven. Roast about 5 minutes, then turn and roast 3 to 6 minutes longer, until the salmon is done (peek between the flakes with a thin-bladed knife). Sprinkle with a little more salt if you like and serve.

Last Chance Foods: Conquering Artichoke Prep

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:29:15 -0400

Artichokes can be intimidating and downright dangerous to prepare. The tough, sharp leaves create a formidable fortress protecting the plant. Artichoke hearts are so tender and flavorful, though, that it’s well worth learning how to get past the scary outside.

Melissa Clark writes the column "A Good Appetite" for The New York Times, and she has the chore of prepping artichokes down to a science. When WNYC talked to her for this piece, Clark noted that, while California’s artichoke season is just about over, New York–area artichokes are in their prime. Local artichokes tend to be smaller, unlike the behemoth West Coast globe artichokes that could easily serve as a weapon.

“If you want to get your kids to do what you want, brandish it over their heads,” joked Clark, who wields an artichoke like a cudgel in this instructive New York Times video.

In reality, take caution when handling artichokes, since they are thistles.

“It actually can be dangerous because each petal has a thorn at the top, so the first thing you want to do is cut those thorns off,” said Clark. “I always prick myself when I do this if I’m in a hurry, so take your time.”

She recommended using a pair of kitchen shears for the task.

Clark has another important tip: “If you let artichokes oxidize — if you keep them in the air too long — they’re going to turn brown, which doesn’t really affect the flavor, but it’s not pretty.”

To prevent that, regularly dunk the artichokes in a bowl of lemon water while cutting them.

For steamed artichokes, all that remains is to cut the stem off and plunk them into the steamer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Clark said that there was a secret chef’s bite in the stem, too. Trim off the green outer layer of the stem to reveal the white core, which is just as tasty as the heart.

“If you want to do a recipe that calls for just the artichoke hearts, this is the cleaning that is a little more labor intensive,” she said.

Getting to the heart requires peeling off all the tough, green outer leaves, which have safely been denuded of their thorns.

“When you want to have a dish that’s really artichoke-y, like a risotto or marinated artichokes, you just need to get rid of those,” insisted Clark. “It’s OK, I promise. You’re not wasting more than maybe two tablespoons worth of the meat.”

For this preparation, leave the stem on to get a good grip on the artichoke.

For baby artichokes, just peel down to soft, pale inner leaves. They’re then ready to be cooked.

“If you started with a large artichoke, you need to take out what’s called the choke,” said Clark, who added that the task is not nearly as daunting as it sounds.

Cut the artichoke in half or dig through the leaves to reveal the fuzzy interior. Then just scoop out the fuzz with a spoon.

If all this sounds like a lot of work, never fear.

“The thing about artichokes: a little goes a long way,” says Clark. “It’s a very, very intense flavor. So, if you’re making a risotto for four, you really only need ... I’d say you can get away with three to four artichokes.”

Try The New York Times’ recipe for Fregola, Artichokes, Feta, Toasted, Almonds and Herbs here, or the Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for Artichoke Ravioli with Tomatoes.

Last Chance Foods: The Tart Taste of Sorrel

culture@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:00:00 -0400

On Tuesday, the summer solstice marks the official start of a new season. While the warm weather is great for fruit and berries, leafy greens don’t fare as well and will soon begin to bolt. Sorrel, a tangy herbaceous green, is a particularly nutritious, and it’s just at the end of its season.

Dr. Pamela Yee, along with her husband, Dr. Charles Paolino, runs Hook Mountain Growers in Nyack, N.Y. She grows sorrel and explains why it’s an important plant for farmers and gardeners.

“It acts as what’s called a dynamic accumulator, [which means it] sends down roots further than most plants go — into the subsoil,” she said. “Sorrel is known to collect calcium phosphorous and potassium, bring it up into the roots and into the leaves.”

In addition to being healthy for consumption, the leaves make for excellent compost. Letting sorrel decompose is one means of organically reintroducing minerals to soil.

Sorrel, which is a perennial like calendula and anise hyssop, is a plant that’s considered to be part of the “permaculture” movement. The concept was created in the 1970s by two Australians and has its roots in long-term sustainable agriculture. Sorrel fits into the permaculture idea because it serves more than one purpose: It’s both edible and contributes to the soil around it.

“Sorrel is very easy to grow,” said Yee (pictured right). “Once you put it in the ground, it takes a year to establish, and it’s really the second year where you start getting a better harvest.”

She added that after three or four years, the plant becomes so large that it should be divided and given more space — or divided and gifted to other gardeners.

In terms of nutrition, sorrel is high in vitamins A and C.

“In the distant past, it was actually used to prevent scurvy when citrus was not available,” said Yee.

On the other hand, Yee, who specializes in holistic medicine and has a practice in Manhattan, notes that sorrel contains a high amount of oxalic acid.

“Oxalic acid can actually bind calcium in gastro-intestinal tract, making it a problem for certain people with a common type of kidney stone — [but] that’s really in high amounts,” she said, adding that both spinach and rhubarb also contain the same property.

The acid is what gives sorrel its green-apple and lemon-like flavor. Since it’s so tart, Yee said that people aren’t likely to overeat the green.

Traditionally, sorrel is used in French soups and in sauces to accompany seafood. Below, try out Yee’s recipe for Potato, Leek and Sorrel Soup.

Potato, Leek and Sorrel Soup
Serves 4-6

2 Tbs Butter
3 Large or 6 Medium Leeks, white parts only, finely chopped
1.5 lbs boiling potato, quarted and thinly sliced. You may leave the skins on if potatoes are organic.
2-4 handfuls of sorrel leaves, stems removed
Salt and pepper
7 cups of water

Heat butter in a wide soup pan and add leeks and potatoes, cooking over low heat covered for 10 minutes. Add 7 cups of water and 1.5 tsp of salt and bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer, partially covered, until the potatoes become very soft to the point of breaking apart, about 35-40 minutes. In the last 10 minutes, add the sorrel to the pot. Press a few of the potatoes against the side of the pan to break them up and give the soup some body. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve. Optional: top with creme fraiche or snipped chives.