Almond Mayo ?? A Nutty Idea But Yes

 Since its' inception in 1802 mayonnaise has always been made with eggs. Yet as the world embraces more vegan options may recipes are not leaning toward the plant and nut based. There's a new one out , based entirely on almonds. Is this a nutty idea? Yes but the almonds produce a smooth silky condiment better than the egg  rich original.

I discovered this new Mayo when look for a vegetarian option. I really love it .It was the perfect sauce for the ImpossibleBurger.

Fresh Vintage  Farms produces it and it's made with one hundred per cent pure almond oil.The Central Valley, California based company also makes and sell almond and walnut oils for salads and frying. Third generation almond farmers Tommy and Tara Tickenoff came up with this healthy  choice of a Mayo  everyone will love 

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Their idea has paid off. I love it on tomato sandwiches. The almond mayo has the same eggy taste as the traditional ones but there's also a silkiness  in texturet o it too. I can't wait to use it in potato salads along with making homemade French dressing too. Best of all there isn't a heaviness to it. It is very light.

Fresh Vintage Farms has given the world a very good vegan option. Try their almond oil based Mayo for all sorts of salads and sandwiches. It is both good for you and good tasting.

Tailgating Fun

 It is tailgating season.There are two schools of thought regarding tailgating.Is it fun to have a party in the arena, near where the action is happening or is better just to have it in the comfort of your own home? There may not be excitement bu there is a decent bathroom along with less noise and parking lot stress,

WHich camp are you? I actually prefer an at home tail gating party. It's somehow more comfortable to relax on  a couch with amenities at my fingertips

Which are you .Let us know if you're a more stadium partyer or prefer a cozy living room or den.

Kansas City Still Barbecue Capital

 Kansas City is synonymous with barbecue. People have come from all over the world just to get a bite of tender smoked and sauce ribs and other meats. Is it still the capital? Yes! It's growing thanks to inclusivity and ethnic influence.

New contributor , Jed Portman, a major contributor of Serious Eats, wrote about tthis in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday's Food section. Kanasa City has a reputation for having a barbecue that is drenched in sauce as opposed to the more preferred  and more sophisticated Texas style barbecue.The city's heartland barbecue with it's wide variety of meats and thick sauce may feel too approachable to be considered cool Barbecue slathered in sauce doesn't fit the "Texas craft aesthetic" according to Robert Moss, the South Carolina based author of Barbecue: The Hisotry Of the American Institution.It's one of the great American barbecue styles and people have moved away from it. Yet all is not lost. More American prefer the large variety  of smoked meats that the city has to offer.It's a style that involves cooking inexpensive cuts of meat low and slow.Kansas City had one of the largest stockyards in the country .Brisket was almost handed to cooks .A Kansas City specialty - burnt ends , the ends of brisket, was given to peoples. It too is  drowned in sauce.

Kansas City has good barbecue joints that are noteworthy. There is Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que that has been lauded by former president Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain. Cheif stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are big fans of the restaurant which has three locations.Owners Jeff and Joy Steffney  felt the barbecue scene was stagnant, especially in the Seventies and Eighties. They brought a competition exactitude to such age old techniques that involved meat sauce , rub and coals., foreshadowing the rise of craft barbecue in Texas in the 2000s.Kansas City barbecue also has ethnic influences too. There are racks of baby back ribs seasoned with jerky seasoning from Lampang. Thailand. Barbecoa, a Mexican barbecue joint has smoked chicken with echeberra while the South Indian eatery Of COurse serves burnt ends with cardomiHome Chefs can also replicate the recipes at home. Mr. Portman gives recipes for sweet chile baby back ribs and burnt ends..

Kansas City will always be the capital of good barbecue. People will go to it and enjoy all sorts of smoked meats. It;s what the city is known for,

Meatballs Done Easy

 Surprisingly one of the hardest dishes to make right looks like it would be the easiest. The simple meatball is far from that. It's a complext marriage of meats cheeses and spices. SOmetimes its' recipes call for a binder. Sometimes not. Yet it's so delicious that home chefs should never shy away from making a batch of them.

Regular contributor and good stylist Sue Li gave recipes and advice on them in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Basically there are no strict rules for making them as she has found out from her years of being a food stylist and working with professional chefs. A meatball is nothing more than a blend of meat seasonings and in most cases a binder of sorts. There's not one single formula however but a few principles for ingredients and techniques. Once they're learned a home chef can make the perfect polpetti every time. The classic Italian-American one should be a delicate one. Ms. Li's recipe for it is a blend of fattier ground  beef and pork. It's lightened with two kinds of cheeses - Pecorino-Romano and ricotta.It adds milkiness without the milk along with tenderness . The ground beef used should have a good ration of fat - about eighty per cent lean to twenty percent fat. As for mixing  - mix the egg, cheeses  and seasonings separately and then add the meat. This will ensure that the flavors are equally distributed and it is a loosely packed ball.Mix in the meat , according to another great NY TImes chef, Kenji Lopez-Alt as if you were folding in egg whites into yolks.

What about meatball size? Try not to aim for the mammoth ones that many Italian restaurants serve. Go for ping pong sized ones using a cookie dough scoop.Sear them in olive oil, making sure to seal in the inside and creating a burnished crust There are some meatball  recipes that require a tighter texture and more mixing. Ms.Li gives a chicken meatball made with the ground meat. The tighter ones hold their shape giving them a springy texture that perfect for frying and dipping. Chicken can be bland tasting, unlike beef and pork. Ms. LI adds paprika, cumin and coriader along with mint leaves.The sauce sin;t tomato but a dipping sauce made of Greek yogurt and lemon. Then there is the other recipe, one that is rich with pork and tofu.These are Lion's Head meatball so name probably because of their large size. The tofu gives the other ingredients a lightness. These are first formed and dipped in a slurry made from water, cornstarch and soy sauce.They're then steamed for more spring, nesslater being served with cabbage and broth.

Meatballs are actually pretty easy to make. Try these recipes for a new spin on a classic recipe. They're a simple dish but complex in flavor and texture.

 

Your Best Holiday Baking Guide

 Baking is going to be an important aspect for home chef during the next two months. Luckily The New York Times dropped their baking issue in Sunday's papers. There is everything here, from cakes, to cookies to even muffins. These are all perfect for the dinners and parties ahead.

This is a pretty substantial issue and definitely a keeper for all sorts of bakers from experienced to novice ones. Keep in mind that these are not your typical sugar cookie and vanilla cake with chocolate frosting recipes. These have interest. These have spice. These have even fire. There are caramel cookies heated with the Korean gochujang, a red chili paste usually used with veggies or meat..Miso gives layers of unami to pecan banana bread. Again it's used mostly in soups to bring out the flavor.Candied ginger give zing to ordinary marbled shortbread cookies.Lemon bars are given color and tanginess with cranberries. Even a simple apple crunch cake is boozed up with half a cup of bourbon. Even sugar cookies are not the typical holiday recipe. The New York Times recipes gives them color and an earthiness by the addition of freshly ground  Earl Grey tea leaves cooked with butter.

There are some traditional flavors used but not in the way you'd think. The highlight of the issue is a peanut  butter and jelly pound cake. This is a peanut butter rich cake marbled with raspberry jam. The icing is from the jam being mixed with confectioner's sugar.Imagine this finishing a holiday brunch. There's also s'mores brownies and pumpkin brownies ,perfect t for both Halloween and Christmas tree trimming parties. There's also a sweet potato and brown butter snacking cake - just great for those weekends in with family.Yes, every fall baking issue has a doughnut recipe and this one is no different. Home bakers will appreciate the baked apple cider doughnuts , baked in the oven for a lighter taste instead of deep fried. Cheesecake also makes an appearance but it's the Basque kind with a deeply caramelized top. There are also maple pecan sticky buns amongst others for a a lazy morning in.

Go through your Sunday papers for this issue if you haven't already saved it. It;s chock full of great recipes. Bake these for the holiday season and beyond.

A Family Classic Pumpkin Soup

 This is the season for pumpkin and soup. Why not combine them in  a comforting  dish that symbolizes what autumn is all about. Nothing beats a creamy, flavorful soup,

I made my bisnonna's or great grandmother's Piedmontese pumpkin soup. It was just a perfect dish fora cold, rainy day. It's a pretty easy cook. You do need two sixteen ounce cans of Libby's pumpkin puree(DO NOT get the one that's meant exclusively for pie filling.It's loaded with pumpkin pie spice)along with half a white onion, and veggie stock.

The onion is halved and then cut into little pieces. It's sauteed with a mi of olive oil and Country Crock plant butter.

Saute the onion pieces until they;re translucent (about five to ten minutes)

I like a rich, buttery flavor so I put two large tablespoons of Country Crock plant butter/

It was then adding the pumpkin and then briskly stirring it into the onions. This needs to be thinned out.I used two cups of Lidl's Veggie stock (Which is excellent and I'll be using it in other  homemade soups too)

For creaminess I added a quarter of a cup of almond milk(whole cream is usually added in the nin vegan version) This gave the soup a lovely light caramel color.

Pumpkin can be bland tasting hence the reason for highly spicing it. I added two or three dashes of salt and freshly ground pepper along with a sprinkle of garlic powder.

Rice is also important in Piedmontese pumpkin soup. I used Lidl's instant rice which only takes two minutes to cook.

This was the most amazing soup. It was creamy and rich in flavor. The onion and pumpkin were the perfect marriage together ,creating a smooth texture with some crunch to it.

It's fall.It;s pumpkin season. Make this delicious soup to celebrate the two . It's a wonderful way to welcome in  a chilly season with a hot bowl of goodness.

The Hunt For Plant Based Meats

 Any vegan will tell you - the IMpossible burger is exquisite. A vegan will also tell you it's becoming harder and harder to find. It seems grocery stores are not carrying any of the plant based meats.anymore. They're becoming harder to find than a -  plant based unicorn.

It's a phenomena of sorts that I've been noticing for a while. It started  - for me - in my favorite Lidl. They were selling Impossible chicken nuggets and dino nuggets for a the longest time. It was great to pick up a package and have t for two meals during the week. However like some of their items (such as the Duc du Couer potato and vegetable gratins) Lidl stopped carrying them. The alternative was my local Acme. They're three times the size of Lidl and there was bound to be something there - nuggets burgers  - bacon. Nothing. The pickings were so slim. THey do have a vegan deli section but even that's limited to veggie hot dogs, and cold cuts. Luckily and thankfully Wal-Mart has come to the rescue. They sell all kinds of Impossible Plant based meats and fish . Gardein is also there offering such plant based main courses as sweet and sour chicken and nd battered cod fillets. I stocked up on IMpossible Burgers and Nuggets. and , Beyond Steak Tips. All are going to be used in various dishes for the next week or more.

The question is why have the other stores stopped selling these plant based meat?Why is Wal=Mart  close to being the only one? I did read that Wal-Mart  was catering to the younger and hipper vegetarian crowd, hence the wide variety of  products. They want to expand their customer base and this was one way of doing such.Is it working? Most likely. A shopper enters Wal-Mart with one product on his or her mind and walks out with several. It's also a great way of introducing first time visitors to take a look at the store's other products  like computers, appliances or clothes to name a few . Trader Joes' does carry some plant based meats and a few creations of their own.  Target and Shop Rite also has a selection but I don't think they're as extensive as they used to be. It could be the stores themselves. It's much more cost effective to carry the real thing  such as twelve dollar real  burgers  and whole chickens for fifteen dollars each. Stores will always cater to the carnivores. Yet they're losing out on catering to other important sectors , the vegans and vegetarians.

What's to be done of vegan and vegetarians can;t get their plant based meats. Switch to Wal-Mart? Write to the bigwigs at local groceries. Just get that vegan main course for those who need it.