True Mex

Mention Mexican food and some may cringe. After all, it hasn't been represented well , not only here but across the globe. Yet that true cuisine and thanks to Mexican born chefs around the world, that idea is changing.

Julia Mokin wrote this interesting article in today's New York Times' Food section.For years, tacos and any bean dish were served in Mexican restaurants, from Copenhagen, to New York and from London to surprisingly Los Angeles. Things are changing as innovative chefs with roots in the Mexican states are creating a "Modern Mexican" cuisine. This is a movement similar to the New Nordic cuisine which shone a spotlight on Scandinavian rye bread, smoked fish and Arctic berries. It introduces diners to such native ingredients as cacao, agave, and cactus along with pre-Hispanic varieties of tomatoes, squash and pumpkins. The ingredients which define Mexican cuisine, corn and chilies are also shone in their  original light. Don''t expect traditional dishes such as chiles in nogada,  stuffed poblano chiles or mole poblanos. This is a movement that  uses local ingredients to create Mexican food.

Is that working? In some cases no. If the menu says Mexican, diners want fajitas and taquitos, not a bean mousse or a black bean broth with a dot of caviar and a fleck of gold leaf. This is standard fare at Californio, a San Francisco  restaurant owned by chef Val Cantu. Yet many people have a set idea, thanks to chain restaurants such as On The Border and Taco Bell.Chefs have to work with what they have as was the case with Rosio Sanchez who has her restaurant, the famed, taqueria Noma, in Copenhagen. She does have fresh hand pressed corn tortillas but also octopus with fermented corn husks.It is used in Mexican cooking but not that much.It's more about Danish tastes which revolve around dairy , acidity, fat and unami. The ingredients are all decidedly Nordic Another example is Atla, the trendy Mexican eatery in Manhattan,has a tostada topped with Arctic char, farmer's cheese and capers deliberately echoes the Lower East Side's traditional bagel with a schmear of scallion cream cheese and lox.

What is Mexican cooking? It's what Mexican chefs make it where they make it.It could be a bean mousse or dishes made with local - non Mexican ingredients. It's about adapting  but also keeping tradition.

Southern Edge

Southern cooking is a double edged sword. Yes, it is recognized and is the backbone of American cuisine. However it also has a dark history - born in slavery and enslavement,Does it get acknowledged or ignored? Brought to light or buried?

John T Edge has written about this, questioning every dish that comes out of our Southern states.Kim Severson did an article about this in last week's New York Times Food section. There have been other writers, Ms. Severson reports but none so loud or direct as he.. His new book, The Potlikker Papers:A Food History Of The Modern South , explores Southern recipes of the last sixty years.. The book's title is derived from the  name for the leftover broth from cooked greens  that slave owners fed their enslaved., Luckily the South is changing as his book points out. Fried okra may be sprinkled with fish sauce while ribs are  doused in the Chinese red pepper paste gochujang.

Mr. Edge is not a likely candidate to write abut the South's racist history  He originally dropped out of the University of Georgia where  he was a fullback. He re-entered the famed Ole Miss - University of Mississippi where he majored in Southern Studies. It seems likely that he would branch off with Southern cooking. The South and cooking have been entwined since the late 1600's with the rice trade from the Carolinas.His mentor, the historian, John Edgerton told him that there is still a debt that has to be paid by Southern eaters, relishing the recipes of the enslaved. This has led to him creating the SFA the Southern Food Alliance where it has received criticism. Yet this is what happens with Southern cooking that does come with tremendous baggage.

Will it ever resolve? No. Southern cooking like Southern history will always be tainted by the enslavement and inequality of Africans.

Yikes! There's No Food!

What happens when you thought you had ingredients and you don't? Improvise . Combine this with tat. Add a pinch of what you have and voila - a new  and tasty dish. Necessity is the mother of invention. So is a fridge and pantry full of canned and dry goods.

Every kitchen should have beans.These can be the base for a main dish when there are no other major ingredients such as meat.  These are full of protein and can be mashed into burgers along with veggies and spices to create a satisfying dinner.Don't worry if there are no buns. Toast works perfectly.Beans with tomato sauce and paste make an excellent pasta sauce.Thnik about any kind of bean in a salad too.Also if you've planned on making meringue, remember that chickpea water is the base for aquafaba,It can be whipped up to make elegant macarons or the crown for lemon meringue or Key lime pie. Remember too, that another source of protein, the egg,can be versatile and made into a variety of easy dishes. Combine them with broth to make a type of stratticella or panpiest, especially if you add breadcrumbs. Don't have those  - take stale bread and pop into your food processor. Pulse and you'll have enough for breading too.

Canned food, that kitchen classic , is always welcome.Always buy two or three of one product. You'll never know when you 'll need them.A favorite is Swanson's Chicken Ala King. This has been around sine the Fifties and it makes for a quick and tasty meal.Serve it on toast or even toasted English muffins. It can even be served on top of plain white rice or egg noodles to stretch it out. Tuna too, can prove to be versatile. Use it as the main ingredient for a delicious salad Nicoise or  layer it with  tomatoes on any kind of bread for a Provencale vibe.You forgot to buy meat for your tomato sauce. No problem .Use tuna to give it body.Canned or packaged soup can not only be used for soup, but also for a quick sauce or  flavornig, not only for sour cream but also for Greek yogurt .Keep tins of other seafood too, such as anchovies, sardines and salmon. Another canned must have is chili. It can be good on it's own but also over nachos and hot dogs. Have several cans of the beef, turkey and veggie for those just in case moments.

Don't fret if you don;t have any ingredients for dinner. Improvise with what you have. Be creative. You'll be surprised at what you can make.

A Sweet Mother's Day Treat

One of the nicest Mother's Day gifts is a home baked cake - and luckily Duncan Hines has the perfect one  - their Perfect Size. This is an easy and fun bake!

This is the container.

All a home baker needs is one egg , a quarter of a cup water and two tablespoons of butter.

Everything is blended with a mixer for about three minutes on high speed. At the same time preheat the oven to only 300 degrees F.It comes with a sturdy  paper bowl that's peeled off  after its' been cooled off.Pour batter into bowl, bake for forty minutes and presto -

It comes with an icing bag that's blended with four tablespoons of butter (for both the cake and icing I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter)

Then the butter 9which should have come first mixed with a tablespoon plus a teaspoon of water)

This is the cake , before icing ,put on a pretty plate,

Now afterwards with the icing.

I'm leaving it in the fridge overnight to set but tomorrow it will be a fine cake for a fine lady!

Happy Mother's Day to the Master Chef who taught me everything!

Exotic Ad Easy - Mother's Day Meals

What do you give the woman who cooks for you all year round, including major holidays. A home cooked meal - and not a can of Spaghetti-o's heated in the microwave. Give your mom something out of the ordinary. Think easy and exotic. It'll be simple yet memorable - the perfect Mother's Day gift.

Many non chefs or novice home cooks look to ordinary for a lunch or dinner. It's usually a meat loaf or pasta with prepared sauce. Yet there are many dishes from around the world that are just as simple to execute. Think the Southern French or Provencale dish pain bagnat.It's a tuna sandwich amped up with tuna in oil (always a richer taste however if it's too much then stick with  tuna in water) There's also hard boiled eggs, anchovies and sliced bell peppers. Scallions and Dijon mustard are added for more flavor. Use a rustic bread like a hollowed out ciambatta or French bread. After constructing, soak in oil  and wrap in Saran wrap for twenty four hours. This allows all the flavors to meld into all these delicious tastes of briny and mellow, sweet and salty. If you want a cooked meal then think of Indian curried chicken. This is heating boneless breasts with onion in olive oil simmering in a large skillet.  One third of a cup of curry powder is then added and then the covered dish is cooked for forty five minutes over a medium low heat. Afterwards, remove the skillet's lid and cook for an additional fifteen minutes. Just be careful because curry burns easily. Cook up some basmati rice for real authenticity or serve with warmed naan bread.

Mexican food is always fun and super easy to whip up. Forget the tacos, unless they're mom's favorite. Think fajitas with either chicken, flank steak,or grilled shrimp. Of course its' the  chili powder and cumin mix gives it zing but it's also the addition of sliced bell peppers and onions that highlight this recipe too For vegan mothers, you can sub in any kind of mushroom from button to portobello. Make sure the lady of the day also gets a margarita Try a frozen watermelon one, made with Cointreu and tequila along with two and a half cups of cubed watermelon and one and a half cups of crushed ice.If mom likes sushi, surprise her with home made tuna or California rolls. It is a bit labor intensive ,but that's mostly comes from preparing the rice. Start with the glutenous white sort and rinse in a colander or sieve until the water pouring through is clear. It's then boiling it for twenty minutes.At the same time combine rice wine vinegar, sugar , vegetable oil and salt in a saucepan. Cook until the sugar dissolved and then stir into the rice  to create  that tangy layer. If you're unsure about using raw fish, then use cubed avocado and matchstick cut carrots,cucumbers ,green bell peppers and zucchini. Serve with a sake for a nice touch. Instead of sushi you can sub in the tasty , fried tempura. The batter is feather light, consisting of only egg whites, flour and water, beaten almost like a meringue . All sorts of meats and vegetables can be dipped in and then fried in vegetable. oil.

Treat mom to a easy and exotic  meal for her special day, Don't go for the ordinary. Travel the culinary globe for the right recipe that's fun and different.

The LA Restaurant Scene Hot And Getting Hotter

For anyone visiting Los Angeles this  summer, the emphasis won;t be on the tourist sites but on the restaurant scene. The city is stealing the thunder from the New York restaurant scene with some funky and new eateries in up and coming neighborhoods. They reflect what's best about the Southern California dining scene.

Adam Nagourney wrote about the LA restaurant scene in yesterday's New York Times Food section, the Los Angeles bureau chief for the New York Times. He writes about several diverse ones that reflect the ever churning and  changing scene.  A surprising fact about the city is that none of the restuarants  are Michlin rated. It doesn't and never had the white tablecloth , good crystal vibe of Manhattan's four star gems.It's like  the people themselves - laid back.Jeans and sweat shirts are more prevalent at expensive restaurants than suits and dresses.According to Patric Kuh, the longtime restaurant critic of Los Angeles magazine claims there are few rules for dining in the city. The unlikely becomes real and great. There's a uniqueness that in restaurants that New York doesn't have. This has attracted New York restauranteurs such as Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park and the famed Spotted Pig owners, April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman who are already building a place near Gwen on Sunset Boulevard.

The trendier restaurants are not in the heart of the city like other cities. Here's Looking At You is right in the heart of Koreatown.It features trendy dishes such as frog legs and straticella cheese , a change of pace from the usual LA fare. Larchmont, a quiet suburban area has the new restaurant ,Kali, It showcases local ingredients such as avocados and Fiscalini, a Parmesan cheese produced in California. Many restauranteurs and chefs look for low rent places  simply because it's too expensive to own or rent space. Owners of the New York eatery , Glasserie, Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson first opened a falafel restaurant in a rejuvenated old food court in the old Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles. Their next venture is Kismet, that ' housed in a former pizzeria in the suburb of Loz Feliz. It's on the famed Hollywood Boulevard but in the quiet section.Another plus of a SoCal restaurant is the clemency of the weather. There's farmer's markets galore bursting with tomatoes and mushrooms. Some chefs even grow their veggies and herbs in their own backyards , all year round, something that can't be done in Manhattan,

Will LA ever eclipse NY with good restaurants? No, they'll be on the same par. LA will have the laid back creativity that the city won't have. Is that good? That's up to the diners .

Layers Of Perfection

Phyllo dough can be a tricky medium to work for many a home chef.  Purists will want to bake their own while those looking for a shortcut will buy it.  What makes for good flaky layers that works well with both savory and sweet dishes.

Famed chef and baker Yottam Ottolenghi posed this question on his article in today's New York Times Food section. His training in cooking school has allowed him to create the famed layers but not without flaws. Phyllo dough is simply flour ,salt and water mixed with olive oil and rolled out until it's paper thin.It's one of the world's oldest recipes and bread recipes.Chef Ottolenghi tried  with some of the best phyllo makers st one of the most celebrated baklava factories, Karakoy Gulloglu in Istanbul, Turkey The chief ,baker, Mustafa, a fifth generation baker, believes that a combination of "hard work, attention, meticulous care and love." It's more the meticulous care that creates the perfect sheets. . Do it wrong and you could wind up with holes as Chef Ottolenghi first had during his schooling. There is another way of  creating phyllo or warka as its' called in Morocco.It's similar to the way crepes are made using a red hot pan.The phyllo dough is tapped upon it until the pan is completely covered.. The chef learned the cheat way , thanks to a Moroccan home chef called Fouza. Put  a frying pan over boiling water and pour a scant amount of the  batter into the pan. The result is the perfect paper thin piece.

Another method is buying it, ready made , Chef Ottolenghi suggests getting a good brand, one that is of good quality. How can you tell? By the scrunch test. Scrunch a sheet in one hand. If it's of good quality , it'll spring apart. A bad piece will be brittle and will easily fall apart. Remember to liberally brush it with melted butter which allows the sheets to separate and rise in the oven.Work quickly when brushing them or they'll dry out. Chef Ottolenghi gives two recipes - one savory and one sweet. The savory is a feta and herb tart.It not only has the lightly tangy feta but also grated pecorino Romano cheese.mixed with such  herbs as tarragon, mint and parsley . An egg custard is made with four eggs, milk and cheese. The sweet version is  what else - baklava. except there's a twist.Chef Ottolenghi adds halloumi , the Egyptian version of mozzarella.It's mild and slightly salty - which cuts the sweetness of the rosewater drizzled on the tart. There still is the traditional filling of chopped walnuts mixed with cinnamon and nutmeg mixed together with melted butter. The baklava would make a lovely Mother's Day treat, thanks to sprinkling dried rose petals on top.

Phyllo dough can be made by any home chef. Beginners should try the warka way while more experienced can execute the traditional method. Then experiment with savory and sweet dishes.