Flirting With The Brass Sisters

Marilynn and Sheila Brass are the stars of the delightful half hour PBS show Food Flirts. It's equal parts cooking and travel show as the sisters from Winthrop, Mass. go to various Massachusetts restaurants and garner recipes from some of New England's best cooks and bakers. They have also written amazing cookbooks such as Heirloom Cooking with The Brass Sisters and Baking With The Brass Sisters (both from Saint Martin's Press). Marilynn and Sheila were good enough to grant Foodie Pantry an interview.word

1.   I apologize for being late to the party with Food Flirts. I fell for it from the first episode. It’s an entertaining show - how did it come about?

In 2010, we were doing a 1-hour Holiday Special for the Cooking Channel.  We were going to bake and cook with the firefighters at our local Taylor Square Firehouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  We met with Bruce Seidel, the then Vice President for Programming and Development at the Food Network and the Cooking Channel, for lunch at Morimoto’s Restaurant, in New York City.  We ordered black cod, which was cooked, and everyone else ordered sushi.  We had never had sushi before.  Bruce asked us if we had ever eaten sushi before, and we said, “No.”  He asked if we’d be willing to try it.  Since we were at Morimoto’s Restaurant, and he was an Iron Chef, we felt that it was one of the safest places to eat raw fish.  Bruce, at that time, was the Producer of Iron Chef America. 

We ate the sushi, and it was actually very good.  We started talking with Bruce about all of the foods we hadn’t eaten or tried, or prepared, and he asked us if we’d be willing to try eating and cooking and baking those foods?  It was a sort of “fish out of water” approach.

We did the Holiday special.  A couple of years went by, and we were writing a cookbook, BAKING WITH THE BRASS SISTERS for St. Martin’s Press.  We saw online that Bruce had left the Food Network and the Cooking Channel and started his own Production Company, Hot Lemon Productions.  We contacted him to congratulate him.  We talked, and he said that he still wanted to do a series with us.  We told him that we had to finish BAKING WITH THE BRASS SISTERS first. 

We spoke on the phone several times, and Bruce came out to Cambridge to shoot some film.  He wanted to see what we would be like when he shot the footage.  He also wanted to see whether we could do the long days it would take to shoot a series.  He was thrilled with the footage he shot.  We were in our seventies then.  Sheila is now 81, and Marilynn is now 76, and we like to say that we are “overnight successes.”  It took us only 79 and 75 years to become Co-Executive Television Producers.

We all worked hard to raise the funding for the series, and PBS was interested in airing it.  Last April, we went to New York City to attend the James Beard Foundation Awards Show and Dinner.  We were one of three finalists for The Best Television Series on Location.  Although we didn’t win, it was an honor to be nominated.  The winning series traveled all over the world shooting.  We shot in Cambridge, Somerville, Dorchester, Boston, and Provincetown, Massachusetts.  They had a very large crew.  We did our series with six people and two culinary assistants.  Everyone helped clean the bathroom.  Bruce cleaned off Sheila’s car and vacuumed the rug.  The days ranged from 10 to14 hours, mostly 10 hours.

2.   What has been the response from the public?

We have heard from viewers all over the United States and Canada.  They love the show!  We have received comments from young people and older people.  We like to say, “It’s not just what you put on the table, it’s what you bring to the table!”  THE FOOD FLIRTS is a celebration of the multi-ethnic cultures of America.  As Sheila said, “It’s food without borders.”  We would love to see a return to civility where people learn that they are very much alike when they sit down to eat together.

3.   Have you thought of “flirting” in other cities, such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.?

Yes, we have thought of shooting in other cities, and even other countries.  We always come back to a kitchen, usually ours in Cambridge, Massachusetts to mash up the two cuisines we’ve learned about.  We are going to be exploring ways to find more funding so that we can do more seasons.  At this time, we managed to shoot in New England, but there’s a great wide wonderful world out there.

4.   Any chance you’d come to my state, New Jersey, the diner capital of the world? 

We love diners!  We love the informality and congeniality of them.  We love diner food.  We have great respect for people who own or work in diners or both.  It is a hard life, but the sense of community is marvelous.  As for New Jersey, we think of tomatoes and blueberries.  There is nothing so unique as a “Jersey Girl!” We would love to be honorary “Jersey Girls.”

5.   Marilyn and Sheila, how did you become interested in the history of cooking and baking?

Our mother, Dorothy Katziff Brass taught us how to cook and bake when we could just about reach the kitchen table in our second-floor kitchen on Sea Foam Avenue, in Winthrop, Massachusetts during the 1940s and 1950s.  We lived in a three-decker near the beach.

As teenagers, we found that we were buying copies of GOURMET Magazine, and we loved them.  There was a lot of information in them about food history, travel, and lots of challenging recipes.  Later, when we were in our twenties, we started to buy copies of THE WOMEN’S DAY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COOKING, which could be purchased in the local supermarket for about $1.68 a volume.  We both collected our own sets of 12 volumes.  Later we started collecting the TIME-LIFE books on cooking all over the world.  Even later, we decided to collect cookbooks.  We collect two kinds of cookbooks – printed cookbooks, and handwritten Manuscript Cookbooks.  We joined the Culinary Historians of Boston.  We love meeting people and learning about the food they eat and how to cook and bake it.  Knowing what people eat tells us a lot about how they live, how they buy food, nutrition, culture, and how they teach others how to cook and to bake.

6.   I love the ice cream molds you brought  out in the “Thailand Meets Tres Leches “ episode. When did you start collecting and where do all of them come from?

When we were about seven and twelve, we visited a cousin who worked in a grocery distribution center in the Wharf section of Boston.  He gave us a gift of some small tartlet pans used for sweet pastry and savory pastry, such as appetizers.  We still have them.   When we started buying and selling antiques about 42 years ago, we bought our first mold, a copper and tin jelly mold for a dollar at a house sale.  It had an ear of corn motif on its top.  We started doing research, and we found and collected food molds that are made of copper, copper and tin, tin, pewter, and porcelain.

We also collect menus, culinary ephemera, and culinary antiques.  We have more than 5,000 items in our collections.

7.   You also collect recipes and cookbooks from the 1600s on up. Again how did this come about? Can those recipes be used today?

About 30 years ago, we started buying handwritten Manuscript Cookbooks at yard sales, flea markets, house sales and book shops.  Everything old is new again!  Manuscript and printed cookbooks can serve as inspiration for today’s cooks and bakers.  Because everyone’s stove was different years ago, and heated by wood or coal, the woman or man who used it knew how to stoke it and clean it.  Stove temperatures were inconsistent.  Flour and sugar were different then, and the texture and composition of ingredients were different.  It mattered which mill you obtained your flour from.  Fannie Farmer was one of the first to standardize measuring ingredients.  So, the old recipes have to be “translated” for modern cooks.  We test the Heirloom recipes for our cookbooks six to ten times each.

8.   What do you think of today’s cooking and trends like the Paleo diet?

We don’t know a lot about the nutritional aspects of the Paleo Diet, but it’s interesting that people are exploring the really old ways of eating.

9.   Both of you love baking and cooking. What are your favorite recipes and can you share them with us.

The recipe for Brown Sugar Brownies is wonderful.  It has appeared in both HEIRLOOM BAKING WITH THE BRASS SISTERS and BAKING WITH THE BRASS SISTERS.  The recipe in BAKING WITH THE BRASS SISTERS was changed slightly.  We’d have to discuss this between ourselves and talk with you about this.

The last - the famed Foodie Pantry I have to ask question

10)   Which sister is the better cook? Who’s the better baker?

This is a very hard question to answer.  We both bring something different to our cooking and baking.  We approach cooking and baking differently, but with what we like to think is genuine creativity.

Sheila is very precise in baking and cooking, and Marilynn finds that she can improvise as she cooks entrees.  However, Marilynn can be precise when she bakes and cooks, as well.

A New Kind Of Grocery

If you're tired of the usual supermarket, there may be an alternative  - the old fashioned family owned grocery store. These new versions are cropping up, giving larger chains a run for their money. Is this a new food trend?No, it's much more than that. It will be a return to  more traditional food shopping.

Regular contributor, Kim Severson, covered this fascinating story for today's New York Times Food section.It's hard to believe but the American supermarket is fasting becoming an endangered species. Chains are being cannibalized by the much cheaper Dollar General and Aldi stores where prices are much lower. There is also the threat of Amazon and online deliveries gaining dominance. even though stores are doing everything they can to keep customers, from adding clothing as Kroger's did to even having craft ales on tap. Yet they  can't capture the niche market as many  of the new smaller groceries have.One, the Vancouver based Nada,created by Brianne Miller who is also the company's CEO. Nada is very unusual. There are no wrappers or cartons.Customers bring their own cartons or buy ones at the store. What is great about it is that you can just buy one egg if you need just one instead of six or a dozen. They can buy a handful of crackers or a scoop of frozen berries. Even chocolate and toothpaste don't come in containers. Unfortunately they can't sell fresh meat but they do have cured along with sustainable sourced seafood. Similar stores will pop up in Brooklyn and there are stores like these in Europe. Denver also has one - Zero.

Even the Salvation Army is getting into the business.Major Gene Hogg, the organization's commander for central Maryland found this new calling in prayer. He had fed and nourished those affected by 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. He wondered what to do next. The answer came from God - open up a grocery. It's called DMG named after the army's motto, Do The Most Good,  and it caters to people in the area.Area food banks contribute while the Salvation Army helps with human resources and other areas. The meat counters are second hand while his supplier, C&S Wholesale Grocers  give him discounts. This enables him to give customers ten  pounds of chicken or a small box of snacks.  The Rasmussens of Farmhouse Market, a Minnesota based grocery have taken it one step further. Their small grocery has a sort of honor system and it's open twenty-four hours. Members pay $99 for a year's membership and receive a key card to get into the store.There's no staff so customers check themselves out.An IPad checks them on and the store is lighted only when people are in it.  If  someone steals , they have a lifetime ban. It's gaining in popularity with 275 members. Now more than eighty people from around the world are interested in Kendra and Pul Rasmussen's store.

These old time groceries may be the wave of future food shopping. They offer , good organic foods at great prices. Like the first ones, they'll nourish  and supply tasty foods and ingredients for a whole new generation.

Summer Baking

Even baking affectionadoes do not like to be stuck in the kitchen during a hot day. It's no fun to have the kitchen turn into a sauna as cakes or cookies bake in a hot oven. It's time to turn to summer goodies that only need the fridge and microwave.

One of the easiest, fun and delicious summer cakes is one made out of ice cream. Some, like myself, were daunted by it. Would it be as good as a DairyQueen or Friendly' s? There's no need to worry. The hardest part is crushing the crumbs and microwaving the butter to make the crust and middle.
.Start with a good hard cookie or snap. Many go for Oreos, mostly for the flavor. I prefer Nabisco's Famous Chocolate Wafers, They're a rich dark chocolate that have the perfect crumble. As for ice cream, here's where you can customize it to suit tastes. Try one layer of s fruit ice cream  like cherry ,or strawberry and the second  layer can be chocolate. Or go with vanilla. Coffee ice cream works well with both chocolate and vanilla.As for icing use a chocolate hard shell. Pour on top and let drip down the sides. Fancier decorations  come from a can of whipped cream and a spoonful of sprinkles.You can also make ice cream  cup cakes but when doing this , use a silicon mold. You could use a regular cupcake tin and papers, however the last may be hard to peel away when you want to eat them.

Layered  trifles, usually reserved for fall and winter can be interpreted for summer. This is the season  for a variety of fruits . Take advantage of the bounty. a fruit trifle is an easy make, Use store bought lady fingers for the base layer, and alternate the fruit with Cool Whip. If you're ambitious you can make your own whipped cream using whole cream, with either granulated or confectioner's sugar and a tiny splash of vanilla extract. As for fruit - go wild! Try strawberries and peaches or nectarines and blackberries. You can also create an all berry one using strawberries, blackberries , and blueberries. Ice box cakes are another hot weather favorite.One is the famed zebra cake made with Nabisco's chocolate wafers and Cool Whip.A variation of this is making a triangle shaped one ,instead of where you line up the wafers.There is also the graham cracker icebox variation where the crackers are layered in a cake pan with fruit, pudding and whipped cream.Vanilla pudding is the usual filler but to liven  it up - sub in pistachio or butterscotch pudding.If choosing the last, add a layer of salted caramel topping on top of the graham crackers for decadence.

It's summer. Don't heat up the kitchen by baking. Create tasty sweets that only require your fridge and microwave .

Hi Mountain Bacon Seasoning Making Bacon Better

Can bacon be improved? Are we not happy with the salty , smokey flavor? Surprisingly it seems we're not. That's where Hi Mountain Seasonings comes in with their latest creation  - flavor sprinkles for those strips in three exciting flavors.

Hi Mountain Seasonings is devoted to improving meat. They're more known for beef jerkies - which are amazing  - and marinades. Carnivores can also buy  the company's curing and smoking equipment such as aromatic cans to have highly flavored cuts. They came out with burger seasonings and it made sense that they should create one for bacon.I decided to try it, to amp up the flavor  of vegan soy bacon.

As you can see vegan bacon does leave a lot to be desired. The plus side is that's it not super soaked in its' own fat and  it is healthy for you. There are three flavors are Black Pepper & Brown Sugar, Sticky Bun and Pineapple Sriracha.

It's just liberally sprinkling on the flavorings and microwaving for two minutes.

The Sticky Bun flavor was sweet and full of vanilla. I can see it topping a French toast strata. As for the brown sugar and pepper, it would be great if you were serving pancakes or griddle cakes, with the strips on top. As for the pineapple blended with sriracha , think appetizers where the flavored bacon is wrapped around pineapple or mango chunks.If you're into snacking a bowl of bacon - as decadent as that sounds - then sprinkle the flavorings over it - or mix it with popcorn - for real movie time treat.

Can bacon be improved? Yes!Dash some Hi Mountain Bacon Seasonings on it for a new spin on a classic favorite.

Tasting The Trends

After writing about avocado toast yesterday, I had to try it.I had all the ingredients and it was an intriguing recipe. I was also curious about the taste,especially on toasted bread.

First I started with the bread.Toasted Italian drizzled with olive oil was the best bet for this this breakfast turned dinner.

IT was cut in half  and I drizzled the oil on top.It went into the toaster oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.Meanwhile I cut up the avocadoes.

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Coarsely chop the avocadoes, add some olive oil to make it workable.

Then one sliced and diced tomato.

I used a potato masher to mash them together.Avocado topping has to be coarser and C hunker than guacamole.

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It was spooned on the hot toast.

How was it. It's an interesting departure from guacamole which I like better.I think the mash  and the bread  were at war with each other flavorwise. It must be  intense when the avocado and an egg are combined. I think any toasted bread is better with tomato not a cousin of guacamole.Still it's what trending.

An Aussie Breakfast

The latest passion for New York foodies is breakfast - and not just any breakfast . what the Aussies eat down under to wake up is becoming an obsession, Why?Probably because there's more healthy ingredients as opposed to the usual Manhattanite breakfast.

Julia Moskin wrote about this latest trend in Wednesday's New York Times Food section., Let's face it our breakfasts are usually fast, brown, greasy and starchy. They're also not picture perfect - not good for this Instagram age.Australian cafes throughout the city. Australians prefer healthy starters made with fresh , all natural ingredients that do take a while to make and cook,  another reason is that their breakfasts can last up into the late afternoon. There's time to create elaborate dishes and then photograph them.One of the trendiest early morning recipes was avocado toast, made first in 1993 at the famed Bill's in Melbourne. It's now taken hold here in the city. It's an easy make., with toasted sourdough slices topped with slightly mashed avocado halves.Poached or fried eggs can top it, but home chefs can also use thinly sliced pickled red onions or pickled chiles.( to be honest it would make a good brunch or lunch dish too)You could also serve with another Down Under dish, folded eggs. According to Ms. Moskin they're folded eggs but is a hybrid between an omelet and scrambled.

It wasn't always this way. In the Eighties and Nineties Australia had the reputation of a culinary backwater, influenced  heavily by British . The typical diet consisted of meat pies. sausage rolls, canned veggies and chocolate bars.As with our revolution theirs upended a formal Eurocentric
fine dining scene. Locally  fresh home grown food was embraced and the country's immigrant food traditions.. People started to eat slow risen sourdough and whole grained breads. Mediterranean cheese such as feta, halloumi and pecorino.Multi talented chefs such as Tetsuya Wakada, Kylie Kwong and David Thompson brought Asian flavors to the forefront. The philosophy behind it is more eating than cooking.The flavors are natural; the ingredients fresh  which has a lot to do with the finished dish's flavor.It's evident in the other recipe given - a breakfast salad. It consists of marinated feta cheese, avocadoes, sliced hard boiled eggs.cucumbers  and alfalfa sprouts topping romaine lettuce. Herbs such as basil, chives, cilantro and mint are added. Everything is simply dressed with just olive oil. Again this would make a nice brunch or lunch plate.

The Aussie breakfast is fast becoming the New York breakfast .It's healthy and delicious , full of good green ingredients.It ' not only perfect for Instagram, it;s perfect for the hungry New Yorker.

My Own No Passport Required

It is hard not to like Chef Marcus Samuelsson ' s new show No Passport Required.  The hour long show features the famed chef cooking and eating exotic food in - various cities , US cities.He has tried sa moon in the heavily Arab Detroit, enjoyed a Cajun influenced Tet in the Vietnamese section of New Orleans and made mole and carnitas  in Chicago's Mexican Back of the Yards neighborhood.I decided to have my own No Passport Required  and we t to the Middle Eastern neighborhood in Paterson , New Jersey.It was a culinary v stay cation for me.

Paterson has always attracted immigrants.When Alexander Hamilton (yes, that Alexander Hamilton)founded this city, he modeled it after the English industrial town of Manchester. Factories sprang up , using the Great Paterson Falls as its' power source.The silk and weaving industries sprang up,attracting the first wave of Syrian weavers.Now South Main Street not only has them but also Turks,Lebanese,and Palestinians  .The area is known as Little Istanbul or Little Ramallah.Go there and you feel like you're on the strèets of Istanbul
I went to Star Pide on the Main Street.Pide means bread in Turkish and they bake what's known as a Turkish pizza

We started with a salad and it was probably the best I've ever tasted.It was diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and onion.It was a simple dressing.Parsley was sprinkled all through it giving it a sprightly green flavor.They also place a dish of small yellow peppers and a spicy paprika  mix.

The Turkish pizza ,as it's known was flavorful with a crispy crust and laden with a generous amount of mozzarella.I also tried the ground beef topped with bacon crispy  pastrami.This was delicious with a generous helping of spiced beef.

The pastry shop across the street beckoned.It was a blend of American butter cookies and Middle Eastern treats.N albus Pastry and Sweet a is run by incredibly generous bakers who let us try a sweet cheese and shredded wheat called kanafah.They even brewed us a complimentary kettle of tea.I also tried kadaif, a honey soaked shredded wheat nest filled with pistachios and almonds.That was wonderful and even not too sweet thanks to the nuts used.Next time I'm going for the baklava.

Visiting Little Ramallah in Paterson was my  No Passport Required meal.Be adventurous.Visit the Culinary rich hoods where you live.It's a fun stay cation away from the ordinary.