A Tuscan foodie in America

The mozzarella potluck party - or why I will stick with buying mozzarella

2012-05-02T16:37:00.000-05:00

At last, the day of my Mozzarella potluck party came and went. Fun was had, mozzarella - or a cheese slightly resembling mozzarella - was made and eaten, new friends were made and good food was eaten. But it didn't all go as smoothly as I make it sound.

I have mentioned before that at times I am a real witch: I feel when a certain thing is about to happen. Alas, I never guessed the lottery numbers, so my divination powers are pretty pointless. They proved valuable though in organizing the mozzarella potluck party. We were supposed to be 11 until the day before the party, but - SURPRISE!!! - a bunch of people cancelled at the last minute, some on the day before and some on the same day. Luckily, because I knew this would happen, we had already gone into plan-B mode: I felt the lady who said she'd bring the chocolate cake would bail on us (as she did a couple of hours before the lunch), so my wife had prepared small chocolate lava cakes in advance, for instance. I felt good about the lady who had said she'd bring the wine, and in fact not only did she materialize and brought a lot of good wine, but she proved to be the only one who had some successful experience at making mozzarella (thank you Bobbi!). Incidentally, none of the Italian guests cancelled at the very last minute, which I guess proves the point that not all Italians are unreliable.

My wonderful mozzarella. Doesn't it look tasty?

Anyway, I just wish my ESP powers were more useful, but I am digressing. Let's go back to the mozzarella making thing. I already talked about my lackluster results with my first attempt at mozzarella making. The second attempt was even worse. I bought whole milk that I thought would be perfect, because it did NOT say that it was pasteurized. The results were even worse than the first: the mozzarella didn't even coagulate and remained in liquid form (see photo on the right: that is the final product. Looks good, doesn't it?)

So I had low expectations for the actual mozzarella making session with the other potluck party guests. I had bought a new type of milk that I had never used (at Costco), and had studied the whole thing online. I shouldn't have worried. Bobbi, one of our guests, was a real cheese making queen. She brought books, cheese making gloves, and a good understanding of the whole thing.

We ended up with something that did resemble mozzarella (see left and photos below) and that was better than my first attempt. But it still wasn't as good as the real mozzarella you can find in some shops. We all blamed it on the milk. Or maybe it is my microwave, who knows (we went with the microwave method). It just wasn't as smooth as the real mozzarella should be. It was edible, let's just say that, but it had a granular feeling and a toughness that mozzarella shouldn't have.

Once again, though, the ricotta cheese that we had as a byproduct of the remaining wheat was OUTSTANDING. Creamy, delicious. Far superior than anything we can buy in stores here. At least that.

The ricotta is out of this world.

Together with the food that other guests had brought (an amazing parmigiana, and a crescia, a flatbread typical from Marches region that brought back so many childhood memories, since my mother is from Marches), we also had two different types of olive oils to sample. These were courtesy of California Olive Ranch, sponsor of this mozzarella potluck party with Food52. We all liked the Miller Blend better than the Arbequina variety, which was too fruity. But both are very good olive oils, so if you find them in stores, give them a try.

To sum it all up: as much as I enjoyed throwing the mozzarella potluck party, I don't think I am going to continue making mozzarella: in order for you to come up with one subpar mozzarella and two cups of outstanding ricotta you need to use 1 1/2 gallon of whole milk, you need to set up your kitchen as if you were the crazy little chemist, and you need to waste a lot of time. So my final observations on all this is that I will stick to buying mozzarella in the future, no question about that, since the product I can obtain at home is inferior to the one I can buy. Unless I am in the mood for exceptional ricotta, in which case I will make the mozzarella first and use it on a pizza or as fertilizer.

Mozzarella making 1 - of visions, idiots and partial successes

2012-04-16T11:01:00.001-05:00

Tuscan Foodie's mozzarellas

In view of the Mozzarella potluck party on April 29 (sorry folks, all seats are taken), I thought it would be wise to make mozzarella a couple of times in advance, so as to be able to at least pretend to know what I am doing with my guests.

I bought the rennet (tablets of enzymes that create the curds and develop flavors), the citric acid (a food additive used to preserve canned goods and to add sourness to sour things), and a gallon of whole milk. I also bought a book called "the complete idiot's guide to cheese making". Although I do not necessarily consider myself an idiot, I know my limits: I may be a good cook, but I am definitely no cheese mongrel. Making cheese and cooking are definitely not the same game. So I figured I could use all the help I could get.

It is true that Food52 had a tutorial on how to make mozzarella, but I had a feeling about the process illustrated there: I knew it wouldn't work for me. Don't ask me why I knew it: I sometimes am a real witch with visions and all, so I just knew that it wouldn't work, and that it would be good to have a back-up plan. That's where the idiot's guide came in. And good thing that it did come in, because it rescued the day.

The two processes detailed in the idiot's guide and on Food52 are very similar up to the point in which you need to start kneading the mozzarellas. But the idiot's guide calls for two things that Food52 doesn't call for: distilled water and a calcium chloride solution. I had distilled water but I didn't have the calcium chloride solution, and I didn't feel like trying to trace it down (or even to start understanding what it was). The idiot's guide was also adamant that I used flaked salt, and that I do not use other types of salt. Food52 wasn't so picky about the salt (it doesn't even specify salt's quantity), and although my brain told me that salt must be important because the same volume of table salt and kosher salt (for instance) weigh very much differently, I went with the salt I had (kosher).

At this point you may start to wonder why I bought the book if I wasn't following it, and I think this would be an excellent question. Alas, it is one I don't feel like answering at the moment, because it would imply that I really am an idiot. So let's move on.

My ingredients were:

1 gallon of whole milk, pasteurized but NOT ultrapasteurized. It turns out that organic milk is not good for making mozzarella because it is often ultrapasteurized. So I had a regular milk.
1/2 tab of rennet (not the 1/4 indicated by food52 because the rennet I bought specifically called for 1/2 tablet for a gallon of milk)
citric acid
distilled water

The temperatures given in the Food52 tutorial were also different from the temperatures given by the idiot's guide, and I figured I should just stick with Food52.

The mozzarella making process

It all went well up to a point: the curds did form, the whey did separate, and I did end up with curds ready to be shaped in mozzarella. By that point I decided that I would separate my curds in two batches: I would make one mozzarella using the hot water soaking method explained by Food52 and I would make the other using the microwave method identified by the idiot's guide.

The microwave method worked (kinda): I ended up with a mozzarella which is basically very similar in terms of texture and flavor to the one you buy in the supermarket to be put on your pizza. It did not resemble fresh mozzarella, at all. Was it edible? Yes. Was it on par with the Galbani or Belgioso things you can buy at a supermarket? Yes, it was perhaps on par, but definitely not superior.

The final product

Then there was the other mozzarella. Food 52 says that once you have drained all the curds off the excess of whey, you should then re-soak them in warm water so that they get warm enough to knead. I did soak them in hot water, but the curds completely melt away, basically getting to the same stage of curds in whey. Impossible to work with. So to rescue things I just drained the curds again, and made another mozzarella in the microwave using the idiot's guide's method. I ended up with another mozzarella which was slightly different than the first: sourer, but slightly juicer (it is the one on the left in the photo below). I guess the soaking method did help getting some juices in.

The difference in juiciness is clear.

In terms of flavor and texture, again the second mozzarella was similar to the pizza mozzarella that you can buy at the supermarket, but neither one came anywhere near the real fresh mozzarella you can buy in Italy.

Since I had guests over for a pizza dinner, I put the mozzarella to work, using them in a filled focaccia. It worked, the flavor was there, but the mozzarella didn't melt as store-bought mozzarellas do. The idiot's guide's says it's not my fault: it is the milk's fault. "The reason has to do with the amount of bound calcium in the milk". Basically I need to find a milk with less calcium (and good thing I didn't use the calcium chloride solution either: on this Food52 was right).

Since I had all that fresh whey available after making mozzarella, I also decided to make fresh ricotta. I added half a gallon of whole milk and lemon juice, and I ended up with a very tasty and very good fresh ricotta cheese.

So, to cut a long story short:

I did not manage to obtain a mozzarella using the Food52 method.
I did manage to get edible and supermarket quality mozzarella with a microwave method.
I did not manage to get a product superior to the ones you can buy in stores.
I did get an excellent byproduct (fresh ricotta) that I wasn't going for, but that actually is better than the one you can buy in store.

Do I consider myself defeated? Absolutely not: I will try again soon and report back.

Fresh ricotta - an excellent byproduct of mozzarella making

Mozzarella party with the Tuscan Foodie on April 29

2012-04-11T07:55:00.000-05:00

Photo from Food52.

Come join me for lunch on Sunday, April 29, for a mozzarella potluck party. We will make mozzarella together from scratch, we will eat dishes that each of us will bring to share (that's what a potluck party is) and hopefully have a good time.

This is one of the 35 mozzarella potluck parties that food blog Food52 is organizing in the States (more info here). Food52 will also send some California Olive Ranch's olive oil to go with the mozzarella.

The concept is very simple: you come and bring a dish, we make mozzarella from scratch (it takes 1 hour or so), we eat.

Since my house isn't a palace, I have a limited number of spots. Leave a comment here, on Facebook or send me a tweet if you are interested. Details will follow for the participants.
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A rosemary Easter

2012-04-09T10:33:00.001-05:00

Rosemary is one of the most used herbs in Tuscan cooking, perhaps THE most used herb. Whenever I need to cook something without thinking, rosemary always shows up, even in places where it is not supposed to. Yesterday's Easter lunch featured rosemary pretty much everywhere:

in the honey reduction that I applied onto the US Southern fried chicken (yes, it is sex in your mouth, to quote a famous US Chef);
in the bacon fat and rosemary roasted potatoes that I cooked as a side; and
in the rosemary bread (pan di ramerino)(*) I baked to accompany the fried chicken, as a Tuscan replacement to the US biscuits normally eaten with fried chicken.

It was all very good, and we finished it with gusto.

Rosemary honey reduction

Rosemary bacon fat roasted potatoes

Rosemary bread (pan di ramerino)

(*)Pan di ramerino (rosemary bread) is a classic Tuscan bread, traditionally eaten for Easter: rosemary, flour, olive oil, raisins, the ingredients reflect its medieval origins. It is a sort of focaccia lightly sweetened, especially if you go with the option of applying a subtle coating of sugar syrup on top once you baked them (which I did).

Roasted sweet peppers

2012-04-04T12:41:00.000-05:00

I have found that the flavors of what they market here as "Mexican sweet peppers" are very similar, when roasted, to the flavors of the classic Italian roasted peppers. This is something that is often served in restaurants as a topping for crostini. They charge good money for it, but it is SUPER EASY.

This is what you do:

You wash the peppers, you put them on a tray with some aluminum foil and in the oven to roast at 375F (180C) for 40'-60'. Pay attention because you do not want them to burn.
When they are done - charred, but not burnt - you take them out, you close the aluminum foil and you let them steam and cool down. This is key: if they don't steam right, it will be much more difficult to peel them. use whatever steaming technique you are more familiar with.
When they are cool enough to touch, you remove the skin, you cut them in finger-size pieces, you put them in a deep plate. Depending on how many you roasted, you will need to put them in layers.
Put olive oil and slices of garlic on each layer (you won't need to eat the garlic).
Put everything in the fridge for at least 1 hour, for the flavors to mingle.
Cut some bread, if you want to eat them on a crostino, or else eat them like that.
Buon appetito.

My recipe on Viva la focaccia

2012-04-03T14:10:00.000-05:00

My recipe for the no-knead schiacciata (focaccia) with potato in the dough is featured on the Italian language baking site "Viva la Focaccia". If you speak Italian, there is a also a video recipe that the owner of the blog made.

Eat it, don't tweet it

2012-04-03T01:00:00.000-05:00

This made me laugh. A lot.

Lasagna. Lasagna. Lasagna. And lasagna.

2012-04-02T01:00:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, to celebrate my wife's birthday we had a few friends over dinner. We decided it would be the perfect occasion to taste a few lasagne recipes and ask guests to tell us which one they preferred. You know, for science.

Three of the four versions were devoured in a matter of minutes. One - the only one I didn't come up with myself, and that I had copied from a TV chef star - was defined as "passable", "disgusting", "very good" depending on who you talked to...Anyway, let's go in order.

Growing up, my mother made (and still makes) lasagne for lunch on Sunday. She would often make an extra batch that would be put in the freezer, in case we needed a quick meal and didn't have time to cook. I learnt them that I preferred the "frozen" lasagna. I don't know what is happening with the freezing/thawing process, but lasagna is one of those dishes that taste better if you make it, freeze it, and then you finish cooking it another day.

Anyway. Lasagna at my house has always been with Italian ragu, bechamel sauce and parmesan cheese. I didn't even hear of the existence of other versions until I was in my 20s. But when I thought about it, lasagne are just noddles: so I saw no reason why you shouldn't treat them like any other pasta, and dress them up with different sauces. Hence the idea of having different versions of them for my wife's birthday.

I made lasagne four ways. Each lasagna had only three layers: I find that more than three layers really make for a heavy bite, but that's just a matter of personal preferences. Anyway, this is how it went down.

Mushroom and smoked provolone lasagne: I prepared a mushroom sauce with dried porcini and morels, and fresh white and baby bella mushrooms. I let it cook for quite some time with white wine, thyme and some other stuff. I then mixed the sauce with a very small quantity of my bechamel sauce (I didn't want the bechamel to overpower the delicate mushroom sauce). I thought the sauce would pair perfectly with a smoked provolone cheese, rather than with parmesan or mozzarella. So I put a generous quantity of finely chopped smoked provolone on top of each layer of the noodles and sauce. I was right: the smokiness of the cheese, the creaminess of the sauce, the flavors of the slowcooked mushrooms made this the guests' favorite. Alas, I only had a bite of it.
The classic, with Italian ragu and bechamel sauce. I tried a different recipe for the ragu this time, that made it taste a lot more like braised meat. The ragu had a lot of wine in it, a lot of tomatoes and spices that I wouldn't normally put in it (thyme, for instance). I liked the ragu, but I still prefer my original version, but perhaps I am being difficult. I also used a lot less of bechamel than I would have normally used. This version was No. 2 favorite, if I made my calculations right (if not: who cares, really?)
Kale and bacon lasagne: I had played with this sauce for this pasta dish, and I really liked it. I wanted to see how it worked in a lasagna. It turns out it works very well. I put a lot more bacon in it, used mascarpone and some bechamel as a creamy agent, and added quite a lot of parmesan. I think this sauce is one of the most versatile "invention" I came up with. I now want to try it in a baked pasta dish (like ziti), as I am sure it would work very well.
The clear loser: butternut squash and basil lasagne, by Giada de Laurentiis. I had stumbled upon this recipe by Giada de Laurentiis a few months ago, and I wanted to try it, in spite of some comments saying that the ratios of the ingredients were wrong. Boy, is this thing messed up. Even with less noodles than she called for, there is not enough sauce. But even if there had been enough sauce, I probably wouldn't have liked it anyhow. A friend told me that De Laurentiis is so thin because she doesn't even try to eat a bite of her own recipe. I think that's the only reason why she would publish something like this. But then again: this recipe has positive reviews, so perhaps I did something wrong. This was the only version of the lasagna that wasn't devoured. By the end of the party, there was still half a tray of it. Oh well. I know what I will NOT be making next time.

The Tuscan Foodie himself, with his lasagne.

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My week in the kitchen/3

2012-03-30T09:01:00.001-05:00

As usual, for those who don't follow me on my Facebook page or on twitter, these are a few of the things I cooked this week.

Beef wellington (beef tenderloin with foie gras and mushroom duxelle in puff pastry crust), bacon fat fried red potatoes, bearnaise sauce. One of the best things I have ever cooked.

Paccheri with a sauce made with kale, roasted pine nuts, bacon, mascarpone, olive oil, parmesan.

"Smoky Sicilian": my take on pasta alla norma. Traditionally made with ricotta salata cheese, I made this with smoked scamorza and the classic tomato sauce and deep fried eggplants.

Everything you thought you knew about cooking is wrong

2012-03-29T09:01:00.001-05:00

I am not one of those that embraces every new technique, in any field, just for the sake of it. The fact that something is new doesn't necessarily make it better in my eyes. But I like to think that I am a pretty open-minded guy, open to new ideas. It sounds like a cliche', but the "you need to do this like this because this is how it was always done" is the type of reasoning that will push me to try something new just to piss you off.

As it pertains to the kitchen, as much as I think that a lot of the new modernist cuisine is BS (I don't need edible menus, I'd rather have food, thank you very much), I am often intrigued when I hear that everything you knew about cooking is wrong. Some of these revelations actually do change the way you cook: they either make it easier, or less cumbersome, or they simply generate better final results.

I don't think it is by coincidence that these revelations happen in America, of all places. Being less restrained by century-old culinary traditions, American chefs (professional or home chefs) try things that sound absolutely bat-shit crazy to the ears of a French or an Italian. In 90% of the cases they go wrong, perhaps (the statistics are entirely made up): but in some cases they actually invent combinations or techniques that, although wrong on paper, are actually terrific. Here are a few examples of the revelations I have learnt over the past few years that did change a lot my way of cooking.

Bread
We were all taught that you need to knead the hell out of that dough in order to develop a decent crust and a good crumb. Well, Jim Lahey changed everything: he actually taught me that if you work the dough as little as possible, and just let it be, you will make the best bread ever. Even better than most breads you can find in bakeries (look at my focaccia, which is based on his method). You don't believe me? Your problem. But if you do believe me, buy a cast iron Dutch Oven for 30$ on Amazon, and get going.

Pasta

Revelation No. 1: you don't need a lot of water to cook pasta.
Revelation No. 2: the water doesn't even be to be boiling.

How many times have I heard "you need at least 3 liters of boiling water for 200 gr (4oz) of pasta. Friends: this is BS. And I knew it all along, because I had been often making pasta with very little water, barely covering the pasta, and it always came out perfectly. Actually, I had noticed that the sauces made using the cooking water came out better if the pasta was cooking in little water. But now there is scientific evidence behind these two revelations:

(And after this, I am sure I have lost probably 50% of my Italian readership, because this goes against everything that we Italians have always known to be true...)y

Beans

I can't remember the times that I reached for a can of precooked beans, because I didn't have the time to prepare dry beans from scratch. After all, hadn't we all been taught that dry beans need to soak overnight, and then cooked forever on the stove?

Well, it turns out you can actually cook dry beans in 90 minutes. One hour and a half. I haven't tried this yet, but a few guys (one and two) did and they are raving about it. I am going to try this soon.

Polenta

Polenta - the real thing, not the precooked one - requires you constantly stirring that pot of love for at least 45 minutes, or else the polenta will create lumps and will taste bad.

Or so we were told. Enter, the slowcooker. It turned out that you can actually get the creamiest of polentas while doing absolutely nothing and letting the slowcooker do all the work for a few hours.

Don't tell that to your Italian grandmother. Or maybe she knows already.

Baby food: lessons for grown ups?

2012-03-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

My son Charlie Brown is almost 9 months old. We started to introduce solid foods in his diet when he was 4 months old. He had boiled apples as his first meal (what a lousy start...) and he didn't particularly enjoy it. But he still ate it. Over the months that followed, we started to give him a wide variety of food, although we respect the strict no-no imposed by the pediatrician (no honey, no maple syrup, no bacon - yes, I asked about bacon...).

Since I am at home, I do most of the cooking for him. I will confess that part of me also experiences a subtle, perverted pleasure when Charlie Brown refuses to eat what his mother cooks for him. That's my boy. Show her who's in charge (she actually is in charge, but this is beside the point...). I know I am going to parents' hell.

Now, normally, as far as we have been told by everybody, the baby should start eating OUR food, phasing out his own food. So how is it that we increasingly find ourselves, adults, eating HIS food? A blended spread made of carrots and dates now figures as a regular snack in our home. A recent chicken stew with parsnips, carrots, onions, celery was so good that I ended up eating half the content in the blender whereas I was supposed to freeze the leftovers (incidentally, this is one of Charlie Brown's favorite meals). And I just saved for my lunch a part of the roasted squash and pears with rosemary olive oil (another of his favorites) that I just made.

Is there a lesson here? Going back to the simple food, reducing salt and condiments (there is never any salt in Charlie's food) can be as satisfactory as more "grown up" food? Or - simply - am I pig that eats everything?

I don't know.

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Kitchen porn 2 / the views

2012-03-27T08:17:00.005-05:00

As per readers' request, here are a few photos of the view I enjoy while I cook. You can also see the lake on your right, but not from the kitchen. In our previous apartment you could only see the lake. My wife preferred that view. I must say I am biased in favor of the skyline views,

Kitchen porn

2012-03-26T11:27:00.000-05:00

Sorry folks, if you got here hoping to find some steamy action in the kitchen, you will be disappointed. These are just a few photos of my kitchen, that's all.

My week in the kitchen

2012-03-23T09:15:00.000-05:00

For those that do not follow me on my Facebook page (where I regularly publish photos of things I cook at home), here is a recap of my week in the kitchen:

Farrotto with bacon and asparagus - farro (spelt) is very fashionable at the moment in the US. In Tuscany we use it mostly in soups or salads, but here you can often find it in fancy restaurants as "farrotto", i.e. cooked risotto style. I made my own version. Farro contains less starch than the rice used in risotto, and since risotto's creaminess depends on the starch (I am oversimplifying), the farrotto will come out less creamy than a risotto. Unless you add some other form of "creamy factor", such as butter. Farro needs also to cook longer than rice.

Cornetti are one of the typical ways for Italians to have breakfast: you go to a bar, you get a cappuccino and a cornetto, you eat it on the spot and off you go. Alas, cornetti are impossible to find in the US. They are not croissants, because they are made of brioche. So I made my own, using a recipe (only available in Italian) from this blog. They came out pretty well. Surprisingly, I preferred the ones filled with cherry jam rather than those filled with nutella.

Pine nuts and honey gelato. It came out well, but there should me more honey. Recipe here.

Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles - or why ignorance is bliss

2012-03-22T11:56:00.000-05:00

In my recent visit to California, after trying the delicious burgers at In-N-Out, I tried the fried chicken and waffles from Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. My Belgian readers will be jumping on their seat: fried chicken AND waffles? Correct. This is a typical dish originated in the African American soul food tradition, which became a national US dish. As unlikely that pairing seems, it kind of work, if you forget everything you know for a moment.

But let's go in order. There are various theories about how fried chicken and waffles came to coexist in the same plate. What we know for sure is that it popped up in the cooking of Southern slaves back in the 19th century. At the time, Thomas Jefferson had brought a waffle iron back from his times as ambassador in Paris, and no doubt this set things in motions (incidentally, Jefferson was a real foodie: he is credited also with playing a key role in the creation of another key Southern dish that became National, i.e. Mac and Cheese).

Fried chicken and waffle is definitely a Southern dish, but for some reason I was expecting to find it more in New York, in a Harlem's soul food restaurant, than in California. Whatever pushed founder Herb Hudson to move from Harlem and open Roscoe's in LA, it paid off. The restaurant generated buzz among LA celebrities, thanks in part to connections between Hudson and some of the most known Motown recording artists.

So off we went. The restaurant is not a fast food place: you need to sit down and place an order with a waiter, so actually this is my first entry in my Casual dining chain project.

The menu is very confusing. At first I thought it was because I am not an English native speaker, but the two friends I was with both are English speakers and they were as confused as I was: with certain items on the menu we couldn't figure out when the chicken was fried and when cooked differently, and what type of meat you could have (look for yourself). However, our waitress was very nice, and although I think she thought we were retard, she took the time explaining everything.

I ordered fried breast, fried thigh and two waffles. What I got was the biggest breast I have ever seen in my life (actresses' fake boobs included).

This photo really doesn't do the size of this breast justice. But what you see is ONE piece of meat. That beast was larger than the waffles.

It was served with two small jars of very sweet syrup. I am pretty positive that it was NOT real maple syrup (btw: maple syrup is in season right now!), but it was tasty, and I am sure that by eating both jars I have increased by 50% my chance to develop diabetes.

The waffles were also very good. Frankly, the whole combination was very good, and we all liked it. But there was a part of me that could not appreciate this thing entirely.

It was one of those cases where ignorance is bliss, and alas, I possessed knowledge. For a bird to have such a gigantic breast, it only means two things: antibiotics and tiny tiny cages preventing any type of movement whatsoever. My friends and I were joking and we wanted to ask the waitress whether the chickens were organic or at the very least free range, just to see her reaction. These jokes served to exorcise what we know: this beast had probably more chemical in it than a pill of amphetamine.

Had I been completely ignorant of how chickens are raised nowadays in America, I would have said that Roscoe's fried chicken was absolutely wonderful. But this not being the case, all I can say is that I think Matrix' Cypher makes a very good argument about why ignorance is bliss.

In & out Burger in California

2012-03-21T07:40:00.000-05:00

I have already explained (here) how California's longest lasting contribution to the world's cuisine is big Fast Food. In my recent trip to SoCal (Southern California), I finally got to experience two of perhaps the most iconic Californian fast food creations: In-N-Out Burgers and Roscoe's fried chicken and waffles.

Both seem to have cult status, with people raving about them. I wanted to see why myself, since I hadn't heard of either before moving to the US. Today I will talk about the burgers. Next post is about the chicken and waffles.

In-N-Out out Burger
Friends had told me epic stories of In-N-out drive-ins packed with cars standing in long lines, even at night. I had dismissed them all as a figure of speech. Until I saw a traffic clog for a burger myself. But let's go in order.

In-N-Out is a burger fast food chain founded - and primarily located in - California, but with outposts in various Western States. The menu is very simple, and hasn't changed much since the first drive in was open, back in 1948 in Irvine: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, shakes. Not as many options as at a Mcdonald's. But there is a catch: the secret menu (which is not so secret, actually).

Friends had told me that you could order your burgers or fries with "special features", by saying secret words. For instance, you could have your burgers animal style, or even order a grilled cheese sandwich, which is not on the original menu (we will talk another time about the obsessions of Americans for grilled cheese sandwiches...)

I followed my friend's advice, and got a cheeseburger animal style (with, among other things, grilled onions, extra spread and a mustard cooked beef patty). The burger didn't seem anything special, as you can see from the photo: the patty is very thin. BUT, they do pack a punch in terms of flavor...This was probably the best fast food burgers I have had in a long while. It crashes Chicago's Epic burgers, which I thought were good.

The sauce, the cheese, the grilled onions, they all work together very well. The bread - which seems very normal - is the perfect vehicle for the punch of flavors that come from the combination of what's inside. Juicy, greasy, yet not in a bad way.

Is it the best fast food burger I have ever had? Possibly. If not, it is certainly on par with Kopp's cheeseburger, which I had elected my best burger ever. So good that I had a second one a couple of days later. Way to celebrate the reaching of my ideal Weight Watcher's weight, actually...

The fries were also good, but they were just fries: nothing to write home about. The chocolate shake was also good, but I still think that the peanut butter shake at Epic burgers is superior.

And then there was the largest chicken breast I have ever eaten in my life, both succulent and disturbing. But we will talk about it next time.

The Tuscan Foodie in the spotlight

2012-03-20T07:45:00.000-05:00

It is always interesting (and in this case flattering) to see how a guy from Tuscany who falls in love with American food is perceived by the hosting country...and well, it seems somebody likes what I am doing: I was featured in the cook spotlight column of Food 52, the culinary and recipe blog by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs that I recommend you regularly take a look at, because it is pretty cool.

Here's what they say:

"Today in the spotlight: meet “the other guy.” Tuscan Foodie is just that: a guy from Tuscany that fell in love with American food. "Seriously?" you may ask, "Not the other way around?" Yes. Seriously. After moving from Tuscany to Chicago with his Belgian wife, Tuscanfoodie has wholeheartedly embraced the cuisine of his new, extended home: TexMex, Mexican, and Southern food. We can’t help but smile at this genuine fascination (click here to continue reading)".

California cuisine: two sides of the same coin

2012-03-16T08:25:00.002-05:00

Together with Southern cuisine, California cuisine is now the only US regional cooking with a very defined style. Simplifying things a lot, it can be described as a French/Northern Italian inspired cuisine, especially characterized by the use of fresh, local and seasonal ingredients.

The insistence on fresh and local ingredients is key. It all started with Alice Waters' Chez Panisse, opened in 1971. Waters - who has now become a sort of guru of sustainable farming and of the use of local and seasonal fresh ingredients - started to offer French food with an emphasis on the style of Provence, in South of France. She was probably the first chef in America to partner with local farmers, changing her menu daily, and really insisting on the simplicity of ingredients.

The influence of Chez Panisse style of cooking is particularly strong in Northern California. When I visited Sonoma and Napa Valleys a couple of years ago, a lot of the restaurants seemed little replicas of that style, and I don't mean it as a bad thing.

The further South in the State you go, though, the stronger the influence of Mexican cuisine and Chinese cuisine becomes. In fact, before becoming associated with the local/sustainable/seasonal movement, California had already developed a strong cuisine based mostly on the traditions of the waves of immigrants that had made it to this State.

What is less well known perhaps - especially in light of the current image of healthy living that the word California can create in people's mind - is that California has single handedly created the big Fast Food as we know it: when you are buying one of those big macs, which seem as far removed from Alice Water's cooking as Eva Mendes is from ugliness, you are actually buying into the most durable California contribution to the cooking world.

Bob's Big Boy burger chain opened in the '30s of last century in Glendale; in 1951, Ropert Peterson opened the first Jack in the Box restaurant in San Diego; in 1962, Glen Bell launched Taco Bell in Downey, after experimenting with fast food taco creations for the best of a decade. But the most important name in the fast food industry is obviously McDonald's: this also was born in Califonia, when Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a hamburger drive-in in San Bernardino, that applied assembly-line efficiency to the kitchen.

So there are two sides in California's cooking coin. Whereas in my visit a couple of years ago I really focused on the current healthy style version of California cuisine, in my most recent visit to Southern California I definitely explored the less healthy side of things, in two of its most iconic versions: Roscoe's House of chicken and Waffles, founded in Los Angeles in 1975, and In-N-Out burgers. Next post, I will tell you all about that.

How did America change my cooking?

2012-03-08T02:00:00.000-06:00

Over the past couple of weeks I have been very busy moving apartments. The cooking was very limited, but having to move all the kitchen appliances, tools, the whole pantry, got me thinking about how my time here in the US has changed the way I cook.

Actually, I'd be tempted to say that my cooking has improved, since I moved here three years ago: I am using new cooking methods; I am using ingredients that I had never used before; and I am preparing a lot of new dishes, next to my "old" ones.

Using new ingredients or making new dishes does not equal better quality food, of course. But what I think happened is that I was forced to rethink my approach to what I was cooking. I had to understand how the flavors I wanted to recreate (or that I wanted to create from scratch) could be achieved through the ingredients I had. Results weren't always pretty, but for the most part I think I grew as a home cook.

New cooking methods
In terms of new cooking methods, the slow cooker has been a revelation. From soups to bolognese sauce, from pulled pork to chili con carne, I have embraced this technique (let's call it that), and the results have been pretty good. I have not been able to replicate the results I obtain on the stove for my Italian ragu' yet. But with this exception, the rest of the dishes I have been cooking with the slowcooker come out either on par or better than their sister versions cooked in the oven or on the stove.

Then there are my beloved cast iron skillets. Although it is not really a cooking method, more a cooking tool, I have already mentioned the fascination these pans had on me since I was a little boy watching cow boy movies on tv. Enough has been said about these wonderful things: they cook better (vegetables and meat brown better), they are sturdier than most pans, they don't release nasty chemical stuff while you cook, unlike other "non stick" pans (and yet they a entirely non-stick if you treat them right). And then they are cool, full stop. This is an entirely personal view, obviously, but every time I reach for one of my cast iron skillets (I have too many, I am ashamed to give you a number), I feel a satisfaction than a regular pan just doesn't deliver. I am weird that way.

New ingredients
Hot chiles are undoubtedly the single item that has had the heaviest influence on my cooking since moving here. Not only I am using them for new (to me) US Southern or Mexican dishes, but I often use them in new versions of Italian or French classics. Poblano peppers come up often now in recipes that originally called for bell peppers, and chile de arbol has replaced peperoncino in a lot of my dishes. My poblano / bacon (another new ingredient) risotto has been a winner for some time now...

Butternut squash has almost entirely replaced pumpkin in all my applications. Butternut filled ravioli, butternut and sage risotto, butternut and blue cheese pasta sauce...from Fall to Spring, a couple of butternut squash are always sitting in my pantry, next to a variety of fresh and dry chiles. And let's not forget sweet potatoes and parsnips: they haven't replaced other ingredients, but they have added themselves to the list of my go-to ingredients: soups, roasted in the oven, fried (the sweet potatoes at least), I would miss them a lot if I had to give them up now.

New dishes/cuisines
The natural result of all this is that I am cooking a lot of new things. Sometimes I limit myself to changing recipes I used to cook before, adding/replacing new ingredients. But more often than not I have embarked in the cooking of entirely new things, alien to my original culture: American classics like chili con carne (red or green), pulled pork, barbecued baby back ribs, but also Italian American things like...(brace for it...) braciole or meatballs, that I had never cooked in my life. I mentioned often that what goes for Italian cuisine here in the US actually originates from a very limited (geographically speaking) region of Italy, so a lot of these dishes were as American to me as chili con carne...I have even started toying with some Asian recipes, for the first time.

Since moving here I have also embraced baking: breads, focaccia, croissants, cakes, biscuits, cookies, cupcakes, pizzas...that's an entirely new dimension that I have added to my repertoire.

So this will sound bizarre to all American food haters and to my some of my European food snob friends, but I have to thank America for becoming a better cook.
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My week in the kitchen

2012-02-24T11:11:00.000-06:00

On my Facebook page I often publish photos of some of the food I cook at home, with brief explanations on what it is and how it is made. Unless you visit my page often, you miss this food porn. So I decided I will publish every week a recap of the most interesting things here on my blog. Here you go.

Home made polenta with home made mushroom ragu (porcini, morels, white mushroom). The mushroom sauce works perfectly with pasta too.

The mushroom ragu, while simmering in my beloved cast iron skillet

The polenta: this is not precooked, so you have to stir it continuously for 1 hour.

Slow cooker red curry coconut curry beef: roast chuck cooked for 3 hours in a thai red curry coconut milk. The sauce was delicious, but I think chicken or prawns would have worked better.

FAILURE. I think home cooks should share more of their failures. Here is mine: my fried carnival sweets from Italian region Marche failed. The error was in figure No. 1: I divided the dough. That meant that the rolls filled with the lemon and sugar mixture (2) were too small and they opened up while frying (3). They should have looked like two rolls connected at the bottom: basically like the two things in photo 4, combined. They instead look like sad sticks (5).

How easy is it to make pasta, really? My two cents on Top Chef

2012-02-23T15:17:00.002-06:00

I am reading many comments on food blogs about how unfair it is for Chef Sarah Grueneberg, of Chicago's Restaurant Spiaggia, to have made it to the finale of Top Chef. The criticism is twofold: they accuse her 1) of being a total bitch and of having bullied fellow Chicagoan Beverly Kim (from restaurant Aria) and 2) of always making pasta, and that making pasta is very easy, hence she is not a good chef.

I don't care about point 1. The couple of times I've had the chance of meeting and briefly talking to Chef Grueneberg, I have found her a very nice person, down to Earth, funny and amicable. Is she a total bitch in real life? I don't know, I am not friends with her. But honestly I don't care: all I care if I go to a restaurant is if the food is good. And her food for me is the best Italian I have ever eaten outside of Italy, full stop.

Also: TV programs are made to dramatize things, to generate audience. If I were to be on a TV show and say "When they behave like scumbags, I hate journalists", a TV program would probably edit it all and make me say "I hate journalists", and then show me with a gun, and then they would show a journalist. This is how TV works. So, honestly, I don't care.

But let's come to the second criticism, which I find peculiar. Did Sarah Grueneberg often cook pasta on the show? Yes, she did. So what? She is the executive chef of a Michelin-rated Italian restaurant. She is known for - among other things - her pasta. What should she be making? Stir-fries? (Incidentally, Beverly Kim, the chef that Grueneberg is accused of bullying, always cooked the same style of Asian cooking. I didn't have a problem with that, yet I would expect that people criticizing Grueneberg for making pasta would also criticize Kim for using always the same ingredients? Nope, that didn't happen...)

But the final argument is the most stupid I have ever heard: people think that it is unfair for chef Grueneberg to make it to the finale cooking pasta, because anybody can cook pasta, how difficult is that?

Well, now: if cooking pasta was so darn easy, how come that the pasta I have eaten in 99.9% of Italian restaurants in my 15 years abroad has always been disgusting? Seriously people: I make home made pasta, at times with some success. But can I make it excellent every time? Is it Michelin worthy? Nope, it ain't. Pasta is one of those things that people assume can me made to taste delicious very easily. This is so stupid: you can make pasta taste good, at times very good. But can you make it delicious every time? Not unless you are a very gifted chef.

And that's all there is to it, really. You may not like her, you may prefer other chefs, and frankly, I don't care. But when I hear "cooking pasta is so easy anybody can do it" my BS detector goes crazy.

The right ingredients with endless choice

2012-02-22T10:10:00.000-06:00

I have already mentioned that the variety of food on offer in US supermarkets is outstanding. Whereas in my Belgian or Italian years I have memories of a couple of racks with "International food", where you could find some Indian, Mexican and Asian products or Italian pesto, US supermarkets' offer is limitless. There are two reasons: first and foremost the fact that American cuisine is a collage of different cuisines and different ethnic groups. So, the "international" products are not confined to a couple of racks, but they actually are the entire supermarket. This results in an orgy of products that - if you are crazy like me - is a feast for your senses. I mean, who had ever heard of Kabocha squash while living in Belgium or Italy? I most certainly hadn't.

The second reason has - again - to do with the concept of personal choice that Americans built their Nation upon. They want to be able to choose. And the customer service is outstanding.

My wife disagree with me on the quality of produce on display here. She says that Belgian supermarkets had better vegetables. I say she is crazy (and Belgian): Belgian produce suffered from the lack of sun, so it was almost always tasteless. In spite of our disagreement on the quality of the produce, we agree on the fact that we are eating vegetables that we had never heard before. Parsnips? I had to go and look in a dictionary what the Italian name for this white, sweet carrot was (pastinaca, if you are wondering). It turned out that they used to be famous in Italy and in the rest of Europe until the 18th century, when they started to be used as animal food. Apparently over the past five years they started to become trendy again in certain parts of Italy as part of a rediscovery of cucina povera to the use of turists: so now restaurant owners can charge you 10 Euros for a parsnip soup made with scrap (tasty scrap at that) that were fed to pigs and sows.

And greens (collard greens, mustard greens), greens, and greens everywhere you go during Fall and Winter. I like to take these greens and use them in traditional Italian recipes, modifying the flavors. Recently I made a collard green, bacon and butternut squash risotto that came out fantastic, if I do say so myself.

Of course there are times when I have issues with the ingredients. For instance the clams that are sold in Chicago supermarkets are the gigantic variety that dwarfs the little clams we use in the Mediterranean for our linguine alle vongole or soups. I mean, look at this photo: the clam is twice as big as the mussel. It is a monster! The texture is also very different. So I was really happy when I stumbled into Japanese clams, in a Japanese-only big supermarket, that looked identical to the Italian clams. I bought them (cheap) and made spaghetti alle vongole that were identical to the ones I used to eat in Italy.

This is why I love this place, foodwise. The choice is gigantic, and the limits are set by your capabilities and interest. Now go and try and make a chili con carne in Italy or Belgium. Good luck finding the right ingredients.

Top 5 things that piss me off in a restaurant

2012-02-20T10:55:00.000-06:00

Las Saturday my wife and I went to eat out in a restaurant called Vermillion, in Chicago. It is an Indian/Latin American fusion restaurant. Aside from the lackluster food (an alternative name for the restaurant might be" Salt: we don't know what it is"), what really pissed me off was that there was absolutely no light in the restaurant. To the point that we had to use the lights of our mobile phones to read the menus. When we got our food delivered, we had to take a candle nearby, and use it to see what we were eating. I swear I am not joking.

I understand the need to create a nice atmosphere in a restaurant, playing with the lights. I do, I swear. I wouldn't want to eat in a restaurant with the same lights of a Walmart. But - as the ancient Romans used to say - in media stat virtus, virtus is in the middle.

Inspired by this last experience, here is my top five things that really piss me off in a restaurant:

Total absence of light, because it is very cool and hip. As mentioned above, obliging your paying guests to guess what the hell they are eating (will it be a potato? Will it be a piece of fish? Will it be a hot chile? Oh, the thrill of guessing...) is stupid. Many restaurants are guilty of this.
Ear drum breaking music. I understand that if the theme of your restaurant is heavy metal music, you will be playing loud heavy metal music, so if I come and dine at your place I will gladly put up with this (even if I am a not a fan of heavy metal). But if the theme of your restaurant is NOT heavy metal music, then I would like to be able to have a nice conversation with the people I am having dinner with. Well, guess what? In many restaurants, even very good and/or expensive, Michelin-rated restaurants, not only is this impossible, but they look at you as if you were an idiot for even thinking that. Some even write it on their menu "don't ask us to reduce the volume of our music". Well, then don't ask me to give you money for a headache inducing experience in which the pleasure of food will be ruined by stupidly loud music.
Not respecting reservations. Honestly people: if I make a reservation for 7pm, and I show up at 6.55, I want to be seated at 7pm. I don't want you to sit me down at 7,30 every freaking time. It doesn't matter how good your food is: I, the customer, want to be able to decide how to spend my evening. If I want to stand up and talk to friends before eating dinner, I will go to a restaurant with no reservations, and gladly wait my turn. If I make a reservation is because I want to sit and eat at that time. I understand that it is difficult for a restaurant to asses times and all: but it is not my problem.
Pretentious waiters. Hey, guess what? No, I don't know what "alajar infused sbiruli" is. Thus, if I ask you nicely what it is, there is no reason to go all French on me and treating me like if I had just taken a huge dump on your shoes. Be nice, answer back, and put a smile on that hippy face. Because, guess what again, it is your freaking job to explain what the food is.
Overcrowded dining rooms in fancy restaurants. Either I am getting old, and my infamously low level of BS tolerance are getting even lower, or this is something that is happening increasingly often: you go to a "fancy" restaurant (those where the cheapest main course is priced at $35) and you are basically sitting on top of the next guest. The distance between the tables is maximum 5 inches, so that to get in and out you actually need to move the entire table. I don't often go to this type of fancy places, but when I do, I would like to be able to listen to the person I am having dinner with, and not to the (closer) lady who is sitting next to me.

What about you: what are your pet peeves?

Cowboy bison and beer pie

2012-02-17T10:11:00.001-06:00

This is my take on shepherd's pie. I made it with ground bison and used a dark beer and brandy to develop a thick, sweet and sour sauce that complements well the bison's flavor. If you have time, I recommend you let the bison simmer as long as you can. Treat it like a chili con carne, and it will reward you with complex flavors. But you can speed things up, if need be. It will still be good.

This recipe is perfect if you have a cast iron skillet: you can cook the bison on the stove, and then put it in the oven directly.

Cowboy bison and beer pie
(PRINT OR DOWNLOAD THIS RECIPE)

Ingredients (for 6 people, in a 10in skillet)

1 pound (450g) of ground bison
2 tsp of chili powder
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
3 slices of bacon, chopped in ⅓ inch (1cm) pieces
1 tbsp of olive oil
3 peeled and chopped carrots
2 peeled and chopped parsnips
1 celery rib, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
½ onion, chopped
⅓ cup canned crushed tomatoes or a few tbsp of tomato paste
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp chopped sage
1 laurel leaf
1 can of dark beer (I used an Imperial stout)
1/4 cup of brandy
½ cup beef broth or water
salt & pepper

For the mashed potatoes

¾ pound of russet potatoes, or other baking quality, peeled and cut in four
¼ cup milk
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp heavy whipping cream
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper

How to make it

Heat your heavy skillet (I love cast iron) on low fire. Add the bacon and let it cook, stirring it occasionally, until it becomes crisp. This will take 10-15’. Don’t rush it. Take the bacon out of the pan and lay it on paper towel to dry.
In the same pan with the bacon fat, add the oil. Add the carrots, the parsnips, the onions, the celery and cook, stirring for 5 minutes.
Add the bison meat, the chili powder, a pinch of salt. Stir and make sure to brown the meat evenly, 10 minutes.
Add the brandy, let it evaporate 2 minutes.
Add the beer, thyme, sage and laurel. Scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, so as to make sure to get all that flavorful bits. Let the beer reach the boiling point, then reduce the heat, add the broth and let it simmer for a 1-2 hours, until the sauce has thickened to a thick gravy. You can speed up this part by slightly increasing the heat, but the flavors will not be the same. It will still be good though (treat it like a chili con carne: the more it cooks, slowly, the better).
Check for salt and pepper and adjust to your taste.

For the potatoes: cook them in lightly salty boiling water for 20 minutes, or until they are soft. Drain them and rice them into a large bowl.
Heat milk, butter and cream in a saucepan until they are hot and almost boiling. Add the milk mixture to the riced potatoes and stir. Once the potato mixture is cool enough, add salt and pepper and add the beaten egg, stirring.

If you have used a skillet that can go into the oven, simply spread the potato mixture on the flattened bison and vegetable mixture. If not, you need to transfer the bison to a baking pan. Cross hatch the potatoes with a fork, and bake in oven at 400F/200C degrees for 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes are browning (see photo). If you are in hurry, use the broiler in your oven, and it will brown your potatoes in 10’.

Let the pie rest 5-10 minutes: serve!

We have a winner (almost): Green chili

2012-02-17T08:13:00.001-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I submitted my green chili recipe and a revised version of my red chili - which for the revamp I christened as "Four fresh chiles and a ghost" chili - to a chili contest organized by Food 52. Food52 is the culinary and recipe blog by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs that I recommend you regularly take a look at, because they have pretty interesting contests (Ms. Hesser is also the author of The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century, an awesome book, if you ask me).

My green chili didn't win, but it was among the four community picks chosen by the editors. In the words of the tester: "We were won over by the gorgeous aroma of cumin and peppers filling the kitchen. Browning the pork in bacon fat is a nice touch. The end result is a seemingly mild chili with a good spicy kick at the end".

This is the third time that one of my recipes is selected as editors/community picks: the first time it was my butternut squash and amaretto cookies tortelli, and more recently it had been the turn of my spaghetti with cherry tomatoes and pecorino cheese.

I wonder: will I ever win?