Irish Quaffs

 StPaddy's Day so this week and with it delicious food likeolcannon and lamb stew. Yet he's need a good wash of something to accompany them. what better than the Irish bews the Island is known for. There are so many .What is good? What 's makes a tasty pint?

Yes, Eire is associated with beer. The Irish have been making it for five thousand years! Early ales reflected the rich greenery of the island. Some brews had the aromatic bog myrtle or heather. The misty damp climate has always made it perfect for growing barley, essential for making a good ale.It also helped that the culture developed the local pub came about. This brought towns, large and small together and fostered a sense of community. )One fo the most famous families ,Guinness started their brewery in Dublin in 1759. Even earlier was Kilkenny Brewery started in 1710 by John Smithwick. There was also William Beamish and William Crawford who opened up one of the first Cork breweries in 1782. The Victorian era saw James Murphy opening a rival one in 1856. Guinness stout is the most flavorful and can be used in both cooking and baking. It has notes of chocolate and coffee along with roasted barley,. It's perfect for those who want to try a good stout with familiar and comforting flavors.

For those craving something different try Smithwick's red ale. This too has sweet notes of caramel and toffee blended with toasted biscuit. It;s the perfect pint with grilled meats such as hamburger or lamb chops on St Patrick's Day. Paella ale is another Gaelic treat. The taste can  be flowery mixed with a rich toasty caramel flavor/. Pale ales are just good with bar nibbles like nachos and sliders however if you want a good pub go to then try fish and chips or sharp cheddar on rustic bread.Whiskey has always been considered a Scottish beverage shower they Irish are also know fro producing some good ones too.It is a month light liquor, Most have a fruit or floral flavor. They're  often triple distilled and kept in vats for a minimum. of three years. That classic dessert drink Irish coffee is made with it.This is a fun cocktail to try at  home.It taking  about two ounces of Irish whiskey and mixing it with strong black coffee. Two tablespoons of brown sugar is mixed in and carefully poured fresh whipped cream is poured over it.

St Paddy's Day is all about drinking to celebrate it's most famous Saint. There are all sorts of good ales and whiskies to try. Have fun .Be responsible with them.

 

Oscar Fare-What's Your Favorite?

 Yes, it's that time of year again for the Ocars. Just like the Super Bowl it's a time for parties and great foods. These range from super formal like caviar on buttered toast rounds to cheese corn. Some like to just have nibbles that are themed with the movies. Think "Hamnet", the movie about the Shakespeares' losing their son and think ale and pasties "Song Sung Blue" could have food  representing one of the scenes from the Wisconsin Stat Fair - corn dogs and Icees. 

What is your Oscar night go to? Mine is definitely old school with a bowl of popcorn with some kind of buttery coating. Will I have MIlk Duds and Raisinets too? Maybe the first , maybe the second too. (a thought he best  movie candy is Sno Caps.

Here's the Friday question of the week  - what is your favorite Oscar fare? Are you going fancy or family style? Let us know and may all your choices win!!!!!!

A Chef's Dark Side

 Chefs can be temperamental and with good reason. Ovens don;t always work . Fridges go on the fritz.Sometimes they'tr short staffed. Some times diners create a lot for trouble . Chefs have all sorts of issues to deal with in their eateries. Yet they should deal with everything with grace and compassion. That wasn't;t the case for the famed Noma's creator Rene Redzepi.

Regular contributor Julia Moskin delved into his story in yesterday 's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Chef Redzepi is back in the public eye die t a pop of restaurant now in Los Angeles. He was a innovator from Cophenhagen who foraged ingredients, a task he learned as a teenager when spending the summer with his father's family in northern Macedonia.He also introduced fermentation and dehydrated foods on his menus which were considered great innovations at the time.  The food reflected the seasons. Ocean season  featured grilled king crabs legs with seaweed and crab Roth with beeswax. The summer season had ingredients foraged from local forests such as mushrooms and fermented plants. Fall brought about wild game cooked with berries and more forest foraging and acorns. All tof these earned him three Michilin stars and made Denmark the culinary destination to go to.Young chefs begged to work there and learn how to forage and ferment.

For all of this Redzepi was not the greatest chef to work for. If one worker screwed up the entire staff was published. Sometimes they were led out into the cold Copenhagen night, to times they were punched directly in the stomach. The crime? Putting on techno music which the chef hated. Instead of just simply telling the young worker to shut it off he went ballistic and took his resentment out on his entire staff. There were more stories. he would crouch under kitchen tables and either jab legs with his fingers or a barbecue fork . He punched a female worker in the ribs so hard that she fell into a metal counter  cutting her hip during the fall. She was on the floor and bleeding  as she was basically ignored by staff.It was only when she went to the dressing room to change a sous-chef went after her t inquire of she was all right. This was only the tip for the iceberg. Unfortunately staff couldn't complain. The one woman human resources department was Chef Redzepi's mother-in law who did nothing to help. Now this reputation, despite his so called change has come back to haunt him. He and his newpop up are not wanted in LA.It's too expensive as well and is taking customers away from financially strapped established La eateries.

Will Chef Redzepi ever overcome his past reputation Sadly no. People remember.People. resent. It doesn't;t make for good PRfor a new eatery no matter how good the food is.

A Sunny Spring Meal

 Everything is lighter in the Spring. Clothing, thoughts even food. Menus are no starting to veer away from the heavy and concentrate on more brighter flavors . A dinner from start to finish can reflect this.

Regular contributor and chef Dave Tanis expertly knows this and ha s give a full course dinner plan in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. His recipes can easily be prepared ahead of time . allowing the home chef to concentrate on other tasks. Get whole bone in chicken legs for the main course while buying canned chickpeas for the easy to make soup. There are also baby artichokes to serve with the chicken while dessert consists of blood oranges for a sweetly tart gelato.This could be the perfect Easter meal from soup to dessert and it could also be the perfect Spring meal for a Saturday night with friends.Perhaps the easiest is the soup .The chickpeas or ceci can also be made with dried ones and are soaked overnight before cooking. They only take an hour of gentle simmering after that.The chickpeas and carrots are added in afterwards as is a Red pepper pesto.Cayenne is blended into to this for some zing and to give the soup more color and flavor.

The chicken legs are also easy  prepare with the sauce being made first. It is a mix of white wine, a dab of tomato paste, onion and garlic. A spoonful of flour gives it consistency and body.The chicken legs themselves are arranged in a roasting pan. Rosemary sprigs are placed on then and then the sauce is poured over them. They're roasted until they're a deep burnished brown and the sauce thickens considerably. This would be perfect with polenta but Mr. Tanis adds another Spring stat baby artichokes; Since they are so young(and about the size of an egg) there is no hairy choke to remove. The tops and bottoms are trimmed and then halved or quartered depending on preference. They are sauteed in olive oil until they're golden and crispy. serve scattered over the chicken and then sprinkle everything with a mi of chopped parsley and red pepper.The  meal needs to end with something bright and refreshing. Make blood orange ice cream, a silky blend of deliciously sweet blood orange juice and half and half. Gran Marnier is added in the mixture as its first cooked and then put through an ice cream churn.

Spring is full of bright colors and brighter flavors. Make it for a great meal to welcome the warm weather. It's a meld of a spicy soup, a mellow chicken and a tart blood orange ice cream

Grill Sense

 The temps have hot a record eighty degrees on the East Coast The balmy breezes have many people thinking about one thing - barbecue.It's tile to start prepping for that weather that brings about tasty burgers and juicy hot dogs.The question is  do you keep the grill or get a new one?

Most grills only have a shelf life of just three years.owever if they're cleaned and well taken care of they can last almost a decade and beyond. If you didn't;t give your grilla thorough cleaning last fall you still can do it now. keep in mind that most grills possess a clean setting but this just burns away any leftover particles of meat. What you will need for a thorough was is a good stainless steel grill brush with a steel scraper, rags and a good ny;on brush. Your dish detergent  will work just fine as a cleanser however Dawn is about the best for cleaning anything.Gas grills require their deflectors - those upside down V-angleed element. These distribute heat evenly throughout the chamber and can get dirty and greasy quickly. Charcoal grills require the ash tray to be taken out and emptied.It;s just then scrapogn off the food with the scraper and then wiping off any debris with the rags. Use more rags to wash the grill parts with the dish detergent and let dry.

If your grill is too far gone or just too old then it's time to start looking. Lowe's\ and Home Depot are your best bets along with Walmart for a reasonably priced barbecue grill.Grills vary and can be perfect for just a couple or a large family. A grill for serving two and cooking smaller portions should be around one hundred to three hundred square inches of cooking space.Medium size grills are perfect for families of four five and six people. If you plan on having a lot of parties this Spring and summer then think about a larger one. There are those , such as one from Royal gourmet that can cook up at least sixty hamburgers for a hungry crowd. Keep in mind that this can also cook up briskets and whole chickens too. Do you want to expand and go into smoking meats too? then consider a grill with a smoker. This can hell you smoke everything from salmon to chicken to even sausages. Smoked meats add another level to barbecuing and expand the summer time menu considerably.

It';s up to you want you want to do with your gril. It may just need a good cleaning. It may need to be replaced.Just have a new or old ne ready when the grilling weather comes.

Tasty Tiny Nibbles

 The weather is getting warmer and that means one thing - there's no urge to eat big meals any more. Spring's schedule also require quick bites that are filling and tasty. These are perfect for a Sunday night or after a work day.

One of the tasty nibbles I love I s bruschetta.I created a quick dish using Stop and Shop's Diced tomatoes with jalapeno. A bit if  their olive oil was added to give it smoothness .

Stop and Shop(yes I shop there again) also has excellent garlic rounds. These were perfect for this impromptu dinner that's light yet filling for a warm Spring night.

Another tasty  tiny nibble is a plate of queso and chips.

Good Foods has excellent non dairy cheese dips.Their queso with jalapeno bits is filling and perfect with the Good & Gather Chips from Target. Keep in mind that any kind of nachos a great quick dinner. You can layerthem in a small microwave bowl with beef or plant based beef crumbles and cheese for a quick version of brick years nachos. Add a side of guacamole for even more nutrition and flavor.

Spring means lighter fare. Think of these tasty ,tiny nibble for a light supper to snack. They're may be small bites but they are filling and satisfying.

What Heathcliff Ate

 There has been much said and written about the latest adaptation of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights/ Director Emerald Fennell  has created lavish scenes , especially the dinner.s Yet what would have the hero - Heathcliff and his Cathy would have eaten? What do the people of Yorkshire eat now.

Yorkshire is one of the northern shires or counties of England. It has a rich literary history with the Bronte sisters,A none, Charlotte and Emily but also with James Herriot who wrote the charming book series "All Creatures Great And Small." (this last is about a vet in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales). Whitby was mentioned in Bram Stokers horror classic Whity , a coastal town at the county's most northeast corner. (n fact Trillo,s a seaside ice cream parlor serves its' famed "whippy black ice cream" in honor for the most famous vampire. It just vanilla ice cream mixed with edible charcoal to produce  a greyish black treat in a cone). Yorkshire is mostly farms. There are big cities like Leeds and Sheffield which is famous for it's cutlery (and the setting for the riotous British film of the late Nineties,  The Full Monty). Beef and pork are big , thanks to these farms and many dishes revolve around them. One the crispy  popover , Yorkshire pudding is made with beef dripping and served with a Sunday roast. it is perfect for  holding the accompanying gravy .

Yet the county , as with other English counties is also known for its' meat pies. Would Heathcliff and Cathy had eaten them had they been real propel? Possibly. There is a meat and tatie or potato pie. Shin beef is cut into piece and cooked with onions and potatoes. The meat also is cooked with water to create a stock for the pie and the whole thing is covered with a short crust pastry. Additional gravy is ladled on slices  of the pie. Ham cake is another meat pie or a giant pasty. Gammon or ham of a pig is wrapped up in a simple lard and flour pastry crust (think a Beef Wellington) It's baked and then cut into chunky pieces for either lunch or dinner. There is a season Coast here so fish is also on the menu. Yorkshire home chefs might make a fish roast for a Friday night. This is savory bread pudding with the addition of flaked white fish  and zinged up with nutmeg, ketchup and lemon. Parsley is sprinkled on top to give it some color. The province is known for it;s baking and there are plenty of gingerbread and apple pie (thanks to the orchards) recipes. Rhubarb  si also grown on the farms there and it figures hugely in tarts and pies too.

Would Heathcliff have appreciated all this food. Yes, It shows the abundance and traditions of the Dales. It may not be the fancy food for London but it is hearty and tasty.