Forget everything you know about spicy foods. Chili heat, in the form of a cold beverage is a different sensation altogether. I’m not saying it’s easier to handle, or better or worse, I’m just saying it’s probably a feeling you’re not familiar with. And, if nothing else, you should give it a try because it’ll surprise you. Drinking (or eating) foods that are cold in temperature, but packing an unexpected punch of serious Scoville-scale heat from one of the world’s hottest chili peppers was new to me, and a bit of a trip. Similar to the way hearing unexpected news can become all you can think about, watermelon-habanero-lemonade may consume your thoughts after you give it a try.

I got the idea for this drink from my friend Daniel, who is constantly tackling big culinary projects. He said he was inspired by a drink he saw at Cosi, that lunch chain that is all over NYC. He said it was a big hit at a BBQ he brought it to, and after asking nicely, he agreed to share it with me. I set out to make this drink excited to try my hand at my first watermelon beverage. The color and the natural sweetness are just too enticing to not want to drink it. Besides, half the time you get a good piece of watermelon it’s dripping down your face anyways, I figured putting it in a glass would look a bit more dignified. Has anyone else noticed that watermelon juice seems to be the Summer 2010 trendy cocktail ingredient of choice? Dan added some optional rosewater, but I don’t care for the flavor, so I omitted it. If you happen to like the flavor of old-lady perfume, go ahead and add it, your drink will seem extra fancy and exotic.

I only have an immersion blender, so this process took a little longer for me then it needs to for you, if you have access to a blender just whizz it all up quickly. Basically there’s not much to it after pureeing, except straining the watermelon pulp out of the drink, so it retains that beautiful color and isn’t chunky looking. I used half a habanero, because I can’t handle foods that are too spicy without frantically looking for dairy products to put out the fire, but I think next time even I could have handled letting the habanero steep a little longer before straining. I didn’t add any alcohol to my batch, but I’m sure most of you know would want the added kick, and almost anything you have on hand, vodka, tequila, or rum would work nicely here – little paper umbrella optional. Make sure you drink up quick though, because watermelon juice does not keep long before the smell, not just the heat, will be surprising to you.

Watermelon-Habanero-Lemonade
Makes about 3 quarts.

1/4 seedless watermelon (due to differences in size and sweetness best to have more on hand)
1/2 habanero pepper (seeded and deveined, handle carefully)
1 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
6-12 mint leaves
6 cups room temperature water
Optional: 2 teaspoons rose water

Cube the watermelon, being careful to use only the red part and avoid the white part near the rind.

Remove seeds and ribs from habanero and dice (be extremely careful when cutting and handling habaneros — wash your hands well after touching them and avoid touching your eyes).

Combine the watermelon and habanero with the other ingredients in a blender (or if using an immersion blender, a large pot). Blend everything to a fine puree and allow to steep for a few minutes. Test for sweetness, heat, minty-ness, watermelony-ness. Adjust accordingly, and re-blend if needed.

Strain out the pulp by draining first through a fine mesh sieve. This may require you to push the juice through the sieve with a back of a spoon as the pulp builds up in the sieve.

Chill well in the refrigerator and serve in a tall glass filled with ice (it really is important that it be served ice cold). A sprig of fresh mint or a lemon slice looks awfully nice as a garnish to a tall glass of this stuff.

                          

I know some people who know some people who write a slamming blog filled with cultural news, cartoons, political discussion, the goings on around Miami, and so much more. I recently contributed a food post, for the best carrot cake recipe I’ve ever tried. Head over to The Heat Lightning to check out the recipe, hysterical news on The Jersey Shore in Miami, and how I really feel about cupcakes.

                          

Getting up to be anywhere by 8 am is not really my thing. I’d like to think one day I will morph into an early bird type and be able to enjoy the city before it gets busy and frantic, all the while getting a jump start on the day’s tasks. It hasn’t happened yet. Actually there is one exception to this problem. Travel. The promise of a trip, almost anywhere, will have me ready to go at least ten minutes early (even if it’s without the bright-eyed part). So, when I received an invite to accompany Fresh Direct on a tour of some of the farms they have been working with on the North Fork, of Long Island I knew I’d be jumping out of bed early at least one day that week. The promise of tasting some of this great local food firsthand, and learning about ways to eat locally and still shop at a commercial grocer, just sweetened the deal.

First stop, Wickham’s Fruit Farm, which is the oldest continuing operating farm on the North Fork. How old? Well, the farm is over 300 years old, and Tom Wickham, who gave us the tour is the 13th generation to be farming this mere 300 hundred acre plot of land. I suppose 300 acres wasn’t much if your family was house shopping pre-American Revolution?! The Wickham’s original house was build in 1649 (it’s preserved and we drove past it – yay for adult class trips!), and still sits on the property. Tom told us that 200 acres of the land is actually farmed. Originally the land was used for potato farming, but today it is a plethora of fruit orchards and an impressive greenhouse that grows the sweetest tomatoes. I tried plenty of the cherry tomatoes that fell to the greenhouse floor just to be able to tell you that. These are the same tomatoes that Fresh Direct carries. The greenhouse ground is steam sterilized which prevents them from using harsher chemicals and all the the greenhouse tomatoes are unsprayed as well. (Though they can not get the organic label because they do use fertilizer).

Tom, who is a wealth of information, gave us a lot of his personal opinions on everything from immigration policy, to the plight of disappearing honey bees, as well as his views on the organic versus non-organic debate. According to Tom, organic fruit production on Long Island is virtually impossible because of the humidity. He showed us his license issued by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, a government agency that closely regulates the spraying of crops. NYS strictly regulates the use of restricted pesticides, in part because they are protecting the acquifer that supplies Long Island’s well water. Tom, pointed out that locally grown fruit is safer to eat thanks to these regulations, as opposed to fruit grown overseas that is not regulated at all. I was so impressed with Tom and his family (his niece is running a hydrangea farm, his sister-in-law was picking blueberries, and his wife was waiting for a school bus of kids from Harlem to take them on a tour of the farm) that I would recommend anyone driving out to the North Fork make a stop at Wickham’s. The fruit stand is open everyday but Sunday. I am definitely going back out in the fall for apples and pumpkins. Another great tip from Tom, who at 71 gets noticeably excited to talk about varieties of apples, McIntosh apples are a thing of the past, and Mutsus and Crispins are the best cooking apple.

Satur Farms was our second stop and we walked into the modern farm world as envisioned by two perfectionists, Eberhard Müller and his wife Paulette Satur. When I heard that Eberhard would be cooking our lunch later that day from produce picked on the farm, I was excited. But, when I heard that Eberhard had been a chef before he started the farm in 1997, and not just any chef, but the former chef of Lutece in New York City (he also helped open Le Bernardin with Gilbert LeCoze according to his bio), that’s when I became positively ecstatic. Truth be-told, I sent a text message that read, “I feel like the luckiest girl in the world today.” I will tell you all about the lunch below, but without the farm there would be no lunch, so a little bit about why I was blown away by this modern farm.

Paulette and Eberhard started small when they opened. Their first customers were the high-end restaurants that Eberhard and his friends worked at. They would drive out to the farm late on a Friday night, work all day Saturday, driving back to the city on Sunday with whatever they picked that weekend, making drop offs at the few restaurants that heard about the amazing greens they were growing. It’s the chef equivalent of your neighbor bringing you some extra bounty from their backyard garden. Eberhard was originally from Germany and he wanted to model some of the better European ways of growing. One of the practices that Paulette explained that most impressed me, is so basic and ecologically sound that I can not believe most American farmers do not do the same. The seedling that Paulette is holding up in the photo above, is not planted in a disposable plastic container, but is planted into a little press pot of soil made by a machine. This allows them to do all their transplanting without any waste.

Satur Farms has been working with Fresh Direct for six years now. Paulette explained that Fresh Direct is their farm stand in a sense. They couldn’t just bring many of their delicate leafy greens to sit in the sun in a parking lot at a greenmarket and have them be as crisp and fresh as they want you to enjoy them. Working with Fresh Direct they pick the greens, wash them, vacuum cool them, and then package them on the farm in Long Island and then Fresh Direct is shipping them to you the next day. They have expanded their operation to a year around business buy growing the greens in Florida during the winter months. Paulette explained that the greens that they grow in Florida make their way to Long Island to be processed within 24 hours, which in her opinion is still preferable in terms of freshness and environmental concerns for us in New York. Produce grown in California would take closer to six to eight days to get to your table. Each day decreasing in flavor.

The array of vegetables that Satur Farms grows was impressive. They have mesclun, arugula (or rocket), butter head lettuce, of course. They also grow all types of herbs, leeks with long white shanks (Fresh Direct carries both of these too), chard, beets, baby carrots, baby spinach, frisee, and celery (see the photo above for what a celery bulb looks like as its growing). They started growing mache, a very popular green in Europe, and have at times taken other suggestions from chefs.  They are not a certified organic farm, but do use organic sprays and only steam sterilized manure. Another wonderful aspect of farming on the North Fork, is that they are irrigating the fields with well water. Paulette explained that when we’ve had large recalls of spinach and other vegetables from California, it is because the water they have to use is above ground and susceptible to water born bacteria. By the end of the farm tour, I already knew I’d want to support any farm dedicated to perfection and good environmental choices. Then we went to lunch at beautiful Paumanok Vineyards, pictured below, and I had a meal that was a lesson in what it means to eat seasonal, fresh food.

I should mention, in case you weren’t aware, that when most people visit the North Fork they are going for the vineyards. There’s a little map you can pick up that lists each vineyard you can visit for wine tasting. I highly recommend more people take this trip. It’s a ton of fun (I’ve done it twice by now, hoping to go again this summer) and I really do find that the white wines are really very good. I haven’t loved the reds as much, but then again, I haven’t tried them all. The Paumanok family, were all in attendance at this lunch and they were pouring Rieslings (a dry and a semi-dry), a Dry Rosé, a Chenin Blanc (I believe they are the only vineyard on the North Fork growing this grape), among others. It was a perfect setting for the lunch prepared by Eberhard. The ingredients were literally picked that morning, on our plate by lunch, fresh food. According to the Chef, when your food is that fresh there isn’t much you need to do to it to bring out the delicious flavors. Eberhard said, “food can’t taste any fresher than it does here,” and after this lunch, I would have to agree with him. If I win the lotto, I’d by a house on the North Fork over the Hamptons any day.

These photos are some of the more colorful dishes that we enjoyed.  That is a striped bass escabeche, with baby carrots, a beet salad, a green bean salad, and a peach and nectarine fruit soup with a lemon verbena syrup and red currants. This lunch will forever make my lunch of hummus and crackers and maybe a cheese sandwich seem very sad. The color’s were breathtaking. It was just as visually beautiful as it was a flavor explosion. Everything was just simply dressed letting the true flavors of the produce shine. I will try to recreate the beet salad for you in the coming days.

To sum up this day trip courtesy of Fresh Direct, I now fully appreciate how this innovative company has taken a big leap towards doing the right thing for the future, and believing that their customers are smart enough to take notice and support their efforts. Now, lucky New Yorkers never have a reason to gripe about not making it out to the greenmarket after work, or living so far away from amazing farms.

FreshDirect has provided a discount code as a special deal for all my NY readers. Enter the SUPPORTLOCAL code for 20% off your entire Local Market and is good all summer long.

* Limited time offer. Expires August 31, 2010. May not be combined with any other offer. All standard terms and conditions apply. Limit one use per customer/account. Residential orders only. Void where prohibited. Offer is non-transferable.



                          

I’m not sure what to say about cherries. If you’re not eating them, you’re missing some of the best fruit nature gives us. I eat cherries by the pound as soon as they show up in summer, until they’re practically past their prime and rotting in the box on the way home at the end of the season. I’ve never thought to do anything with them other than snack on them. Although I love cherry pie, cherry strudel, even cherry soup (yes, there is cherry soup) cherries in my kitchen do not last long. This time I wanted to try something new, and last week wanted something festive for the 4th of July. Somehow I suddenly wanted to try making a cherry baklava, even if it’s not as quintessentially American as I had in mind, I told myself it could be a great melting pot tribute to the U.S.A. After all, I’d like to think ingenuity is a quality all patriotic people embrace.

I should say that I realize that my use of the word “baklava” is only loosely appropriate here. I have never been to any of the countries where baklava is a mainstay (Greece, Turkey, parts of the Middle East) so maybe things are different there, but in New York City, I have never seen a variation on the classic baklava. So, I hope I don’t offend any die-hard baklava fans with this adaptation. That said, I feel that the use of layers of phyllo dough, chopped nuts and honey syrup are enough to allow me to consider this dessert a baklava of sorts. It is filled with pitted and chopped cherries and a bit of sugar (they’re so sweet they hardly need much help). It adds a nice flavor to the dish, as so many baklavas are completely overpowered by the honey syrup poured over the top. If you want a stellar recipe for the classic kind, check out this amazing version. As this was my first baklava attempt, I decreased the amount of layers of phyllo between each layer thinking it wouldn’t matter and be less about the crust. That was a mistake. As you can see in the photos, it’s  a bit too flat. I have adjusted the recipe so that when you try it it will be better thickness.

Before you worry that you can’t make this dessert because you don’t have a cherry pitter, neither do I. Since I was chopping the cherries in half, I simply used a small pairing knife and my fingers. It took about ten minutes to pit about a pound of cherries working quickly. Not the end of the world. Alternatively, here’s a great rundown on all the different ways to pit a cherry, including using a safety pin. Like I said, perfectly whole cherries are not needed for this recipe though, because phyllo is too delicate to be able to layer around them without a mess. Everything is chopped which adds to the great texture that this dessert has. Its a mix of crunchy chopped pistachio nuts, the soft syrup soaked bottom layer of the phyllo, and the light as air crisp top layer. It’s all those things with an added layer of cherry pie filling mixed with ground almonds. Another American virtue, like it or not is excess, and this is definitely an excess of dessert goodness.

Bing Cherry Baklava
Adapted from The Olive and the Caper, by Susanna Hoffman. Makes one 9″x13″ pan. Can be prepared ahead of time and left out till serving.

1 package of phyllo dough (about 32 sheets), defrosted
1 cup of unsalted butter, melted
1 cup of ground almonds or finely chopped
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of finely chopped pistachios
1 1/2 bing cherries, pitted and chopped
1/4 cup of sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup of honey heated and mixed with 1/2 cup of water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prep ingredients before layering.

Take phyllo dough and lay flat with a sheet of wax paper on top with a damp kitchen towel over that to keep sheets moist. Melt butter. Pit and chop cherries, mix with sugar and cornstarch, and set aside. Mix ground almonds and vanilla. Set aside. Chop pistachios and start to layer the baklava. (Either cut phyllo to fit pan before assembling or you can cheat and do it at the end like me).

Start with 7-8 layers of phyllo at the bottom of a 13″x9″ inch pan. Brush melted butter over each layer before laying on the next. Butter the last layer, then spread a third of the almond mix evenly over the pan. Follow that with chopped pistachios. Take cherries and spread them evenly over the almond layer. It will look messy, but don’t worry. Place another 8 layers over that, continuing with butter in between each layer. Layer another third of almond mixture and then pistachios. Repeat layers once more, and end with the last 8 phyllo sheets. Brush with butter well.

Using a sharp knife, cut through all the layers hanging over the pan, if you still need to and then cut 15-18 diamond or square shapes. Place in the oven for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, take out of the oven and pour any remaining butter over the top and continue to bake for another 20-25 minues until golden and crisp. Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

To finish, take the honey syrup and pour around the edges of the dish and in between the cuts. Avoid spilling on top to prevent it from being soggy. Set aside and let cool completely. Sprinkle top with chopped pistachios. Feeds many hungry people or a few greedy ones.

                          

I’m so relieved that I can finally tell you about ThinkFood. It’s been hard, waiting for the launch, but today’s the day, and now you can know that I’ve had the honor to be a part of an unique new cookbook. ThinkFood, is a collection of recipes from food bloggers around the world with a common theme. All the recipes feature an ingredient that is considered brain food, or in other words, food that has been shown to have a scientific positive improvement on your brainiac ability. Maybe it’ll even help you get better at Sudoku.

This cookbook is the brainchild (sorry) of a company called Posit Science. I didn’t know about them before I heard about the project, but since then I’ve discovered their products, and in my opinion they’re onto a great idea. Everyone could benefit from paying a little more attention to their brain health. I mean after all those years in college (and after) of abusing your brain cells (not me of course) it’s probably a smart idea to do something that can have a positive effect on your brain now. The cookbook illustrates a tasty way to approach these concerns just by eating. The cookbook covers salads and appetizers, main courses, snacks, and of course desserts. Can you guess which category I picked?

Posit Science will distribute one recipe from the ThinkFood cookbook every Wednesday for the next 50 weeks to all who subscribe. This includes the print version of the recipe for free, more about the brain healthy ingredient in each recipe, and the blogger who contributed the recipe. The actual hard copy of the cookbook will be available for purchase in July. I’ve seen the list of bloggers who have participated, and I can promise you, this will be the best tasting “health” food you’ll ever have.

Join ThinkFood’s recipe of the week campaign, sign up here. (It’s free).

Of course, my contribution to the cookbook was in the Dessert category, but you’ll have to wait until it’s my week to hear more…to be continued.

Learn more about Posit Science and their company here.

                          

I did it. I won my first contest. I don’t mean to brag or anything, but winning really is sweet. Last Wednesday, I participated in the Best Desserts benefit for The Lamp organization. In the spirit of charity, myself and five other fabulous bloggers turned out an impressive array of desserts for the competition. Esther, took home the audience favorite win with her Jacques Torres inspired chocolate chip cookies, Katy brought mocha brownies, Anna brought amazing bite-sized salted turtle cashew cupcakes, Rachel gave us Asian rice crispy treats and Emily brought chocolate chip cookies covered in a salted butterscotch sauce, yum!

I decided to make strawberry cheesecake bites after being inspired to do something with the incredibly sweet and juicy local strawberries I found at the Greenmarket last week. They blew my mind, nothing like those super-sized ones in the supermarket. These little berries have super-sized flavor and paired with a killer cheesecake, well, it’s my idea of a best dessert.

When I set out to come up with my own version of cheesecake, I went to the source of great cheesecake. It’s Junior’s cheesecake that originated at Junior’s Restaurant in downtown Brooklyn. I still remember driving past the restaurant for the first time with Bernie (my grandfather), as he pointed it out to tell me they had great cheesecake. I knew I could trust his opinion on the matter because the only thing Bernie ever points out while driving is all the storefronts that used to be a Jewish delicatessen, well, that and whoever is committing a driving violation. The man really missed his calling as a traffic cop.

Back to cheesecake, I’m from New York, and I believe that great cheesecake is New York style cheesecake, like they make at Junior’s. You can keep your French or Italian cheesecake with the soft fluffy texture. I want a dense tangy cream cheese overload slice of cheesecake. However, I wanted to make it mine somehow so I tweaked a few things to my liking. Junior’s is missing texture. So, I switched out their sponge-cake crust with a graham cracker one. And, I cut down on the sugar a bit knowing that the strawberries are sweet enough. Lastly, I cut out a whole eight ounces of cream cheese for a few reasons. Junior’s is almost too dense. It gets stuck to the roof of your mouth like a peanut butter sandwich on white bread. Plus, it was a little trick to cut down on the calorie count (and cost) this way you could eat more of it, and feel less guilty. This is the only way I would attempt to “lighten” a cheesecake recipe. It was a gamble, but I think it worked well.

One more preachy point about the strawberries, this recipe really does benefit from the sweetness of a fresh-in-season strawberry. But, if you’re craving it past strawberry season, it’s still a cheesecake recipe and it would work with any seasonal fruit. I’m really not ready for strawberry season to end, not one bit. Luckily, summer is just starting, so I guess I’ll just have to come up with a “Best Dessert” for each fruit that appears in the market.

Seasonal Strawberry Cheesecake Bites
Adapted from Junior’s Restaurant Cookbook. Do not attempt this with low-fat cream cheese. Allow these to chill at least 6 hours, or overnight is best.

2 cellophane packs of graham crackers (about 18)
5-6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
3 8 oz. packages of good quality cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup good quality strawberry jam
Pint of fresh local stawberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Have handy four small muffin size tins. Do not grease or line them.

Make the crust – Break up graham crackers in thirds and place in a food processor. Pulse until they are fine crumbs. May need to break up a few small bits with your hands. Place crumbs in a bowl and combine with melted butter until all the crumbs look wet. Take about a teaspoon of crumbs and put in each muffin slot. Press down with your fingers until flat. Chill the tins in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Make the filling – Using a stand mixer place one bar or 8 oz of cream cheese in the bowl with the sugar. Mix for about 2 minutes on low speed until sugar is completely incorporated and mixture looks creamy.

Add the cornstarch and mix to combine. Then add the remaining two bars of cream cheese and mix for another 2-3 minutes or until it looks creamy and smooth. Add the vanilla, mix. Add one egg at a time, mixing until it is incorporated into the batter. Last add the cream and allow to mix for about a minute until texture is creamy again, not liquid-y.

Using two tablespoons spoon mixture into the mufffin tins. Once they’re all full, take the jam and break it up a bit with a fork so that it is not so chunky. Place about a teaspoon on each cheesecake and using a toothpick or the end of a knife, swirl it into the top of the batter.

Bake cheesecake bites for about 20-25 minutes or until edges look set and middle is only slightly giggly. Let cool on a wire rack to room temperature, then place in the fridge to cool completely.

Top each one with fresh strawberries before serving.

                          

There are many different types of potato salad around the world, not just the bottled-mayonnaise-laden type you buy at a supermarket appetizing counter that most Americans (I know) grew up eating. Basically, wherever potatoes grow, people will have their version of how to eat them cold as a salad. So, when I set out to create my ideal version of potato salad, I decided to borrow inspiration from a smorgasbord of cuisines.

My original thought was to lighten up the mayonnaise dressing on the salad, and go with a vinaigrette dressing instead. I wanted fresh bright flavors to make it the perfect accompaniment to summer meals. Potatoes can feel heavy on a hot day and I didn’t want the dressing to weigh them down any more than necessary. German-style potato salad with the red potatoes and the vinegar-y dressing always sounds appealing, but often fails on flavor for me. I also wanted to keep it vegetarian friendly, so quick tricks to up the flavor, like adding bacon, was something I wanted to avoid.

I had seen a recipe for the Potato Gribiche they serve at Rose Bakery, in Paris, and immediately knew that had to be my inspiration, with the capers and the lemon-y vinaigrette. But, it all came together when I decided that I was going to use classic Scandinavian flavors like dill and whole-grain mustard. If you don’t like dill (which is really an under-utilized herb in my opinion), you could substitute flat-leaf parsley. But, you really should give the dill a try.

At this point in my cooking, I’m finally (FINALLY) getting out of my baker-dessert mindset and am starting to feel confident without a recipe. I know the components of a vinaigrette and just winged it with what I had. I made a quick lemon-whole-grain mustard dressing and poured that over the warm boiled potatoes and some chopped shallots, capers and fresh dill. I ended up adding just a spoonful of mayonnaise after tasting it without it. It just seemed to tie the ingredients together and add a familiar creaminess and tang that I love about potato salad. After all, no matter how exciting other cuisines are, a touch of home will always feel right too.

Potato Salad
It’s great warm or cold, and the leftovers work well the next day.

1 1/2 lbs. small red potatoes, peeled (if you choose) and diced
1 large shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons, capers, drained and chopped
1 handful of dill, chopped
Whole-grain mustard – lemon vinaigrette (recipe below)
1 heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise

Peel and dice potatoes and put into a large pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until fork tender. Be careful to not over cook them, or you’ll have mushy potato salad.

While the potatoes are cooking, chop the shallot, garlic, capers and dill. Set aside. In a large bowl make the vinaigrette. Taste and make sure all the seasoning are correct. When potatoes are cooked, drain well and add to the bowl with the dressing and other chopped ingredients. Toss gently to combine. Add the mayonnaise last and gently combine taking care not to mush the potatoes. Chill if not using immediately.

Lemon-mustard Vinaigrette
1/2 cup of extra-virgin olive oil
3 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar
1 heaping teaspoon of whole-grain mustard
1/2 lemon squeezed
salt & pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a bowl and whisk to emulsify.

                          

I’m baking again, for another great cause. This time it’ll be part of a fun-filled benefit to raise money for a great organization, The LAMP, which supports media literacy skills. I’m not sure what I’ll be making, but I do know that you’ll get to taste all the goodies from myself and the other contestants. And, of course sweets are that much sweeter when you eat them for the sake of charity.

I’ll see you there!

Click here to buy your tickets in advance.

                          

I went to San Francisco last week for a long overdue vacation and for my birthday. Hands down, San Francisco is my favorite city in this country, and one that I hope to live in eventually. The city is colorful and filled with pretty things to ogle at but only half an hour from the dramatic and gorgeous scenery that make California, well…not New York. I’m a big fan of all the views of the bay that sneak up on you after you walk up a hilly block. But, most importantly for one interested in local foods, going up to the city by the bay is like hitting the agricultural jackpot.

We stayed in a quiet hilly part of the city called Bernal Heights. It’s bordered by the Mission District, where we spent a lot of time and ate a lot of amazing Mexican.

Requisite birthday cupcake at Philz Coffee

It was hard to leave, but it always is.

                          

Mother’s Day for me is all about “Ma.” She’s been filling in for missing mothers in my family for more than twenty years now. As the years have gone on, she’s taken on even more “children.” Being a mother, is what she does best. She never had a professional career, although she would have made a hell of a teacher / bookkeeper / nurse / psychologist / personal assistant. I know because she’s been busy playing all of those roles to an impressive amount of “children” consisting of her kids, grand-kids, great-grand-kids, nieces, and neighbors, for all these years. She isn’t a grandmother like ones that you always hear about, cooking big meals from scratch of recipes from the old-country (she prefers the ones on the back of the box), or one with tales from a glamorous past from days long ago. She’s sweet and simple, unfussy almost to a fault. She’s wise and strong, and has only gotten more so with age, but she’s also hysterical, and someone who can make you feel instantly comfortable. If she had a culinary equivalent it would be the Madeleine… even if she doesn’t know what they are.

Madeleines are little tea cakes that you can serve at breakfast, brunch, tea time or dessert. If you are like me and my Ma, you’ll think most times are acceptable for a little something sweet. They are well-known as being associated with Marcel Proust’s writings on involuntary memory. (More about that here). However, despite their fancy little shapes and associations, they’re actually a snap to make, if you get yourself the proper pan. (I normally wouldn’t advocate buying a one-trick pony pan, but these little cakes are great for party favors and all sorts of occasions, that I think you’ll get a lot of use out of it). The traditional flavoring is a little lemon zest and vanilla. That is how I normally make them. In honor of Ma, I wanted to try to flavor them with strawberry, which turned out very nice too. The jam I used did nothing to change the color of the cake, so I cheated with a bit of pink food coloring. I know, I know, but pink seemed so much more festive. It was only a drop too. If you can find strawberry extract that might eliminate the need for the food coloring. I checked three stores, but I couldn’t find it. I think the flavor from using jam is probably preferable anyways.

Bake these and give them out as Mother’s Day gifts to friends or family, if you won’t be celebrating with your mom. You pretty much can’t mess these up, unless you over-bake them, so watch them towards the end. They’re a classy choice, making it seem that you went to the extra trouble to think about someone other than yourself. Exactly what the best Mas in the world do naturally.

Strawberry Madeleines
Adapted from Bon Appétit.

2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar minus 2 teaspoons
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 tablespoons good quality strawberry jam
Couple of drops of pink liquid food coloring (optional)
Pinch of salt
1 cup of all-purpose flour
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter and flour madeleine pans well.

Melt butter and set aside to cool. Beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer till blended. Beat in vanilla, jam, and salt. Beat in food coloring if using till batter is desired color. Add flour and beat until just blended.

Gradually add cooled melted butter to mixture, beating until just blended.

Spoon one tablespoon of batter into each cake shell. Bake until puffed and edges are lightly golden, about 12-15 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove from the pan and finishing cooling on a wire rack.