Thursday, January 9, 2020

Lessons From Early On

If you think first jobs have no impact on lives, think again. That first one, whether at McDonald's or Wendy's can have a lifelong effect, especially on chefs and restauranteurs.These may seem menial and meaningless yet they are meaningful and important. They have formed an entire generation of professionals in the food service industry.

Priya Krishna, author of the popular Indian cookbook Indianish and regular contributor wrote about how those first jobs in yesterday's New York Times' Food section. Many who have gone on to culinary school and opened their own restaurants have spent either their high school or college years in some chain restaurant. This is not new. The famed French chef, Jacques Pepin actually had his first US job at Howard Johnson's. Even though he grew up in his family's eatery and trained in Paris, he also received life lessons during his time at the most famous of chain restaurants. He learned how to can ingredients to keep them fresh when transferred between restaurants, and how to cooks meats sous vide.He employed those techniques when he helped open up another famed restaurants, Windows On The world atop the World Trade Center.Chef Pepin believes that if you open your mind you can learn where ever you are.They can learn at the famed and fancy Per Se but also at the upscale chain Hillstone which receives good marks for its' food and service.

Yet chefs to be can learn these lessons anywhere.What is good about the fast food industry is that it is the only sector regularly hiring.The number of chain restaurants opening rose from 1,000 to a whopping 301,200 in 2017!!! Working at any one can lead to a job in food. Tiffany Derry , the chef and owner of Roots Chicken Shack, in Plano Texas got her start in an IHOP. Working there gave her the business skills needed to open her own restaurants. She learned to cost out a dish, do inventory, make revenue projections and input invoices. She teaches her employees the same. Katsuya Fukushima, executive chef and part owner of several restaurants including Haikan and Bantam in Washington DC started in Wendy's where workers are taught to be polite to all customers and taught to upsell meals. Another famed chef, Cassidee Dabney who creates amazing meals and runs The Barn at Blackberry Farm got her start at Applebee's in Fayetteville Arkansas which was considered a fancy restaurant out there. She made salads and cooked french fries which has shaped her experience at The Barn. Now she hires people with similar experiences. Even the influential Southern chef, Sean Brock, started in Waffle House, a place he loved so much he brought the famed chef Anthony Bourdain.

Working at any chain restaurant can be beneficial, especially to future chefs. It's a great way to learn about the industry and you get paid. It's a job worth considering.

e


Wednesday, January 8, 2020

The Great Indian Pickling Book

Pickling and Indian food are never really mentioned in the same sentence. Yet it's an important part of the cuisine, as Indians, both from the north and the south will tell you. There are so many different ones that complement the variety of dishes the country offers. What's great is that anyone from experienced to novice home chefs can make these tart and tasty sides.

Tejal Rao wrote about this in today's New York TImes Food section. Ms Rao, a regular contributor, also interviewed India's pickle queen Usha Prabakaran who wrote a cult classic cookbook Usha's Pickle Digest.It was on the cusp of being big, when a rare fungus lodged in the front of her brain. She needed surgery to remove it along with long periods of rest to recover. The book and the launch party had to be put on hold. This was in 1998 and through the two decades since the book has picked up a following.It was self published and then the pages were photocopied. It was celebrated in blogs and on podcasts. Ms. Prabakan, who originally studied to be a lawyer, answered inquiries with friendly PDFs which explains how her pickle books hopped the globe. Pickling is big in Indian cuisine. She learned how from her mother in law who preserved  new batches of seasonal pickles every week.The tart fruits and veggies were addictive. She apprenticed herself, learning to turn jars in the sun so the fruit dried evenly and taught herself to combine new and old tamerinds to balance out their acidity levels. Her creations were given to friends who begged for the  recipes. The book also reflects the need to preserve this tradition which is dying out thanks to pickle factories taking over.

 Indian home chefs use almost anything to create these tasty side dishes and condiments. Fruits such as plums and hog plums - a kind of smaller version of plum along with cherries and chokeberries - a berry similar to a blueberry are brined in either salt or a spiced oil. Sprouted fenugreek seeds, bamboo shoots, fat gooseberries and even hibiscus flowers (!) are also pickled. Most of them are brined in salt water but Indian home chefs also use vinegar, citrus juice , tamarind juice and yogurt. Pickled foods are served at every meal, including breakfast and with every kind of dish  including grilled cheese.Anyone can pickle. Ms. Rao gives two of Ms. Prabakaran's recipes. One's a simple carrot one that has a peeled and julienned  carrot brined in lime juice and kosher salt. Fresh , finely chopped ginger and a finely chopped serrano chile are added for heat and flavor. This would be a great side for any dinner.Another is a tomato and fennel seed pickle.It requires unripe or sour Roma tomatoes.It has a sweet and spicy vibe , thanks to tamarind juice and hot paprika. Asafoetida powder is also added. This gives a leek like flavor and is used in northern Indian cooking. This is a more involved cooking which involves cooking mustard seeds also used for more flavor, and then cooking the tomatoes in the spice mixture.It's then cooled and eaten with flat breads or yogurt.

Pickled foods are a great side to any main course. Try  Usha Prabakaran's recipes to give your meals a fun lift. They're relatively easy to  recreate and a nice jolt of heat on a cold winter's night.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

The Winterscape Cake

This was supposed to be the perfect holiday cake.
Except I made it two weeks after Christmas and a week after New Year's.
This was the cake I had wanted to make, before sickness and life happened. It was going to be a two layer cake with a peppermint buttercream
 icing.
With the way my schedule is I thought a larger one layer cake - about 13  by 9. It was easier to bake
I used Duncan Hines Perfectly Moist Dark Chocolate Fudge cake
This mix requires three eggs which makes for an incredibly moist cake.
Then it was time for the decoration. I wanted to create a winterscape with pine trees.
This was my first time using fondant
It's a white gummy kind of icing that can be used as a covering for cakes or cupcakes. I just wanted to make pine trees.
This required my embroidery scissors and the mini skewers I used for the Easter.
The scissors are used for making the boughs while the skewers are used to spin the fondant around to cut.
Since fondant is white, green food coloring has to be added.
It's then hand mixing the coloring into the fondant and rolling the fondant into cones.
It kind of looks like cotton candy before it's cut.
This is it. Not bad compared to the other three made. Fondant is temperamental. It needs to be kept in a dark cool place once the package is opened.
The icing was a simple peppermint buttercream that I got from The Two Sisters blog. They have the best buttercream recipes with all sorts of flavors. I've used their cream cheese one already.
It's typical buttercream - although I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, confectioner's sugar along with two teaspoons of peppermint extract.
It's Neisen-Massey's which makes the best extracts. This was blended with the confectioner's sugar , I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and a tablespoon of almond milk to get it creamy.
This was frosted over the cake. The trees were added , along with silver sanding sugar for a sparkly snow effect.

This was my Christmas  - winterscape cake. I will make it again. I love the new Duncan Hines' mix. and there's something about peppermint buttercream that's heavenly. As for the fondant, I will try it again. It makes for pretty decorations.

Monday, January 6, 2020

Healthy Winter Snacks

After the excess of the holiday's  - as well as observing Three Kings' day today - it's nice to eat healthy once again. That doesn't mean go back to boring and low cal. YOu can enjoy - and celebrate the Three King's vising the Christ Child with tasty good for you treats.

Many throughout the world today do celebrate when the Three Kings, Casper, Melchior, and Balthaszar visited Bethlehem. There are all sorts of dishes such as the Puerto Rican pasteles, banana leaves stuffed with everything from pork, shredded plantains and potatoes along with pumpkins. A healthier version could be just a combo of the plantains and pumpkins or squash. Use the traditional spices such as the traditional sofrito, a mix of red and green peppers mixed with onions, tomatoes and garlic.Another healthier spin is using Beyond Meat for the pork and spicing it up the same way. These and lettuce rolls are a fun snack on movie night.  Again sub in Beyond Beef or Gardein's tofu crumbles for the real beef.  The traditional recipe calls for just onions but you can also add sliced red, green and yellow peppers along with avocados for color and flavor. Cook the crumbles with the traditional spices such as pickled ginger, hoisin sauce and Asian dark sesame oil. Another fun veggie loaded dish is cauliflower crust pizza. it's using this cruciferous veggie mixed with eggs and low fat or vegan mozzarella for a satisfying crunchy crust. Top with tomatoes and basil along with peppers and olives.

Three Kings Day brings in the famed King's cake , a fixture in pre-Lenten New Orleans. This treat is actually a sweet yeast bread zinged up with cinnamon and lemon zest. The icing is a  simple glaze either dyed or dusted with green , purple,  or gold Mardi Gras colors. Usually a baby or prize such as a ring or coin is hidden inside.it's a delicious cake which can be made healthy. Use vegan butter for the real thing along with almond milk for cow's. Honey can be used for sugar so it's not too overly sweet (remember you'll be double sugaring the topping with both confectioner's and sanding sugar. You could also dye the glaze the three colors too, eliminating the need for the sanding sugar). Another idea is making sugarless and flourless (!) cookies and dying them the Mardi Gras colors. There is a recipe that just has peanut butter, stevia and one egg. They're also a nice snack with a hot tea on a wintry night. Vegan chocolate chips are always a sweet treat and you can sub in carob for the chocolate.

It's possible to celebrate this last Christmas holiday with healthy savory and sweet treats. They still taste good and they're good for you. Try them as a change over from the excess of the holidays.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Cotton Candy Dreams

Ever since I was very little - we're talking toddler here - I've loved cotton candy. I don't know why, Maybe the airiness  or the way it melts on a little tongue. It could be that I enjoyed it the first time at the Wildwood Crest, New Jersey Boardwalk after a fun day of splashing in the ocean waves. My love intensified when I received one when I was three (yes, three!)My parents sent away to Boston for it as a birthday gift which I can still remember.

Jokingly I had asked for one for Christmas after seeing it at this cool discount store Five Below.I got it.
It doesn't come with the sugars so I had to order them from Amazon. These were around $17.95
There were a lot of flavors to choose from, but I thought the raspberry - grape - cherry trio was the best choice and the most flavorful. It does comes with the cones. These are a little too big for the machine which comes with long skewers and a scoop . Which one is the best? I do like how the cones look but the sticks are easier to twirl the floss around. This is the machine after a simple assemblage.

It's just adding the sugar with the scoop that comes with it and putting it in the center disc.
This was the first try, using the grape flavor.

It looks kind of thin , I guess two scoops would give it a thicker , fluffier look. Still it's a fun snack and a surprise dessert for company. I plan on getting the watermelon and sour apple flavors next, possibly the bubble gum too.

Marcel Proust  had his madeleines. I have my cotton candy. It's just as fun as getting it at the shore or when I was three. There is nothing like it.

Friday, January 3, 2020

The Amazing Stew Leonard's

There are supermarkets and then there are supermarkets. Stew Leonard's falls into the last. It's is a mind blowing combo of Disneyland and large grocery/deli. This is a shopping experience for any foodie.

I recently went for the first time at the one located at the Paramus Park Mall, in Paramus, New Jersey.I'm sort of reluctant to head into these super stores, because I've always felt  them to be over hyped. After all, you can easily walk into any averaged sized Acme or Stop & Shop and find what you're looking for. I was wrong about Stew Leonard's. Just walking into their huge liquor section was eye opening. I have never seen that many brands or types of wines and liqueurs. There were even different brands of Prosecco which were selling for a reasonable price of $7.45. Just when I was getting over the awe of that I went into the food section. There were animatronic singing milk cartons above the dairy section. Imagine the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland turned dairy. It was wild!!!! Then there 's this duck that pops out of a giant soda can like container. Again, too wild!!!! It is a kid friendly store. Parents can throw their little ones a Stew Leonard birthday party and there are "cooking" classes for kids. They learn to prepare such dishes as mashed potatoes, chicken tenders, and broccoli and cheddar bites.

I had to try their fried chicken which again was mind blowing. As much as I love Popeye's, the Stew Leonard's version was much more flavorful, with potato chip crispy skin. That was the best part of an already delicious dinner. The legs were so huge that I honestly thought I was eating turkey drumsticks a few times.Again, they were downright delicious. I plan on going back for them again as well as trying out the intriguing chicken cordon bleu bites. These are balls of chicken meat stuffed with ham and Swiss cheese, then battered. I also want to try their cold buffet too. As for the products, it really is a home chef's paradise.I bought their vegetarian seven layer dip which was excellent. Again, I'm not one for those layered dips but theirs changed my mind. It was a tasty blend of cheddar, sour cream, guacamole, and different layers of tomatoes and beans. I really enjoyed it with breadsticks and potato chips. The store's produce department is a home chef's fantasy come to life. Stew Leonard's prides itself on buying fresh from local farms as well as family owned farms in Mexico (hence the avocados). There are a wide variety and again the choices are amazing. I plan on getting their giant onions for stuffing on my next trip (which will be very soon).

If you're in the Paramus ,New Jersey area, please stop in and visit Stew Leonard's. It's an amazing blend of entertainment and grocery shopping. You'll leave, not wanting to visit a regular grocery store ever again.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

New Year New Meatless Attitude

A new year - and a new decade  - means different and healthier recipe options. This is definitely the year to go meatless and dairyless  to help yourself and the planet. If you're hesitant, think twice. There are some really good meatless recipes  - seriously - that'll help you transition.

Melissa Clark gave a slew of them in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Her drive to help the planet actually started back in the Spring when fellow colleague Julia Moskin teamed up with Brad Plumer from The New York Times Climate desk to report on how our current food system is contributing to climate change. The results were crystal clear and deeply disturbing to her. Meat and dairy production contribute to a staggering 14.5 percent of the world's greenhouse emissions. It's  as much as all the cars, trucks, airplanes and ships combined!!! Ms. Clark has tried to lessen her carbon footprint by shopping at farmer's markets and choosing ethically raised meats. She stays away from most processed foods. Yet this isn't enough.She gives us several good suggestions. One is eat more beans.There is enough varieties out there to have an interesting and varied diet. Also eat more grains, including pasta. Go the vegan route and add more tofu to your recipes. Eat more seeds and grains too.Another must? Go to plant based "meats". These are not only good for you but delicious. Also appreciate when you do cook meat. Add some turkey sausage to spinach salad, Ms. Clark suggests, or have a good concentrated bone broth. Salami and prosciutto can add a salty unami flavor to braised veggies.

What of the veggie dishes themselves? Ms. Clark gives us a mushroom bourguignon, made with two pounds of mixed mushrooms . You can use  cremini, portobello, white button, shiitake and /or oyster types mixed with leeks and onions. Like it's beefy cousin, there is red wine and tomato paste along with thyme. Soy or tamari sauce is added for more flavor. You can serve this over polenta but also pasta or mashed potatoes for a hearty , wintry dish. Another tasty one is a riff on Indian butter chicken - Indian butter chickpeas.It's a spicy , buttery blend of the classic dish, rich with cinnamon, cumin, paprika and garam masala. If you're craving just the tiniest bit of meat then try the maple roasted tofu with butternut squash and bacon.It's a sweet, salty, spicy  sheet pan dinner that a delicious blend of texture and flavors.  There's also black bean tacos with avocado and onions,a sure way to convert those meat lovers to vegan dishes. A healthy and tasty dinner, even perfect for one is the quinoa bowl with crispy Brussels sprouts, eggplant and tahini, The veggies are roasted and added to the grains. A really fun dish is the meatless meatballs made with Beyond Meat and all the traditional meatball ingredients like, garlic, chopped parsley and breadcrumbs. Forget the pasta, Serve these with sauce on hero loaves for a tasty sandwich or with a slice of crusty and oiled Italian bread.

Make this year you save the planet. Decrease your meat and cheese intake. Try these vegan and vegetarian recipes and enjoy. You'll wonder why you ate beef and cheese in the first place.