A Culinary Star's Rise And Fall

There are so many celebrities in today's culinary landscape.They stand out because of a signature dish or a larger than life personality. One, Kwame Onwuachi , is different. He has gone from the lowest depths to the acmes of success and back down again. Now his star is on the rise again and he is turning heads - along with palates with some new dishes and creativity.

Regular contributor,Priya Krishna, interviewed Chef Onwuachi for today's New York Times Food section. His background is interesting. This former problem child had to be sent back to Nigeria because he could not be disciplined. He returned to his Bronx home two years later, unchanged, joining a gang and selling drugs. He even dropped out of college. Then a kind of miracle happened. He turned things around. He sold candy on the subway,using the money to finance a catering business. After graduating from the CIA - Culinary Institute  of America and worked famed restaurants, Per Se and Eleven Madison Park. Next TV called and he was competing on Top Chef. At 25 he was handed the carte blanche for the Washington DC restaurant the Shaw Bijou. Sadly it flopped. What could he do? Write a memoir  "Notes From A Young Black Chef (Knopf 2019). It was then his life turned around.

Chef Onwuachi is now the chef at Kith and Kin. He is cooking homey Afro-Caribbean food, exploring the legacy of the African Diaspora.It also reflects his Nigerian,Jamaican, Trinidadian and Lousianian heritage.It offers even breakfast with curried crab Benedict and a jerk bacon. His family recipes are also there in the goat roti he ate at his Jamaican grandparents Long Island home.it's served with jollof rice, a staple of Nigeria, enlivened with homemade curry powder and Maggi seasoning cubes.There is also his Philly Wing Fry , with two locations in DC and national expansion to follow. This idea came when he was smoking a joint during his time at Eleven Madison Park. These only serve Philly cheese steaks, chicken wings and waffle fries  along with a mushroom sandwich. They may sound like simple fast food but they're not. The cheese steak has dry aged beef and roasted garlic mayonnaise while the mushroom sandwich is graced with herbed labneh,a creamy yogurt sauced, spiked with olive oil and za'atar. The chicken wings are glazed with a tamarind glaze and garlic and the fries come with berbere ,a fiery Ethiopian and Eritrean spice mix. Chef Onwuachi is definitely upping the fast food game.

Young chefs should buy his memoir. It is a template on how to succeed after failing. He is not only a star but a maverick on the American culinary scene.His star is rising again and fast.

A Greener Diet

Earth Day is coming up - April 22nd and it's a good time to re-evaluate  food shopping and eating habits. Not surprisingly what and how we eat does affect the planet.We can make it a better place - even with small changes.

You may begin to see grocery stores and nurseries have seed packet displays. This should spur on the thought of gardening and reliance on home grown produce. Think about the veggies and fruits your family likes and buy those seeds.If you're new to gardening, then also consider the easiest plants to grow. Radishes are one of the simplest along with carrots. Both are versatile in salads and hot dishes.Another easy combo ? Tomatoes and lettuce. These are a snap to plant and grow, plus they're palate pleasers. For those who have more knowledge then try the slightly more demanding melons and strawberries along with eggplants and melons. Another very important aspect of gardening is composting. This is where you can do a lot of green good.  Food waste such as rinds and eggshells make for excellent mulch. Surprisingly bones and gristle can also be added to the heap, although be reminded that their smell will attract wildlife such as raccoons, foxes, and even bears.Think twice before you do this. Leftover rice, moldy bread and doughnuts are all good.Even corn cobs are a great toss in.  Make the garden even more greener with grey water - water left over from baths . Also try to buy garden hoses with water saving nozzles.

Grocery shopping has to change as well. Our choices can directly impact our planet and our futures.Meat has always been considered a threat to our health and now it's a threat to our Earth.It can be an agricultural nightmare. Cattle farms require hundreds of acres of land. This means whole forests have to be cut down to make room for them.Also animal agriculture is responsible for  fifteen to twenty percent of total greenhouse gases globally. It is one thing to have a few herds of cattle for dairy : it's another thing to have thousands of them on a global scale for meat. The best bet is go vegan. If this is too much then think about vegetarianism. This allows you to have dairy and eggs. You can keep the malteds but not the hamburgers. Transitioning can be hard but there are products that can ease that.Try any of the Gardein tofu meats. They have a wide variety of products from hamburgers to even faux crab cakes. The taste is the same as the real thing, and sometimes it's even better. Another company with a huge array of soy products is Morningstar Farms. Their fake bacon is just as tasty and crisp as real rashers and their soy crumbles are great in chili and Bolognese sauce. Once you go from real to the substitute, then you can also change from dairy to nut and soy milks and products. These include yogurts, and ice cream  - which are just as delicious as their cow made counterparts.

It's easy to adapt a greener diet. It'll bring you closer to the Earth and make you more aware of what's happening with this planet. You'll not only eat good but feel good about the change too.

Your Easter Recipe Guide

Easter  is fast upon us and it's this week, Holy Week, that should be a balance of observance and preparation. Do you have the main curse settled? What about the sides? Will it be an Easter brunch or a potluck? Holiday dinner or  barbecue. Then there are the desserts.Is it all up to you or will it be a group effort? Will there be an egg hunt with treats too? It's time to start deciding and writing up lists.

One of the most important decisions is the main course. The most traditional choices are lamb and ham. The first is big in Mediterranean households, namely Italian and Greek.  Do you cook a whole lamb (which is not for the squeamish) or leg? If it's a small gathering , then a leg of lamb would be the best choice. Your butcher and some groceries can debone and butterfly it.Keep in mind that there are difference between New Zealand and American bred kinds.The American sort is meatier, fattier and sweeter than the other.You could also go with lamb chops too or the slightly tougher shoulder of lamb. Remember that lamb can also be barbecued.What should you serve with them? Fresh spring greens such as asparagus and peas. Ham is another beloved Easter main course. If you feel that it may take over your oven , then assign sides to guests .Another question to ask yourself, do you want it as part of a formal holiday meal or a brunch? That changes the sides. A more traditional dinner would have sides of roasted baby beet salad and possibly green beans with shallots and hazelnuts.Peas with mint are another lovely  side that's both fragrant and tasty. A brunch would not only have the ham as the centerpiece but also veggie laden quiches filled with asparagus and dandelion greens. Also make sure that there are mimosas and bellinis for the adults and juice and seltzer sparklers for the kids.

Easter is more a time of sweets, more so than savory bites. If you have the time, you can bake and ice a lamb cake.It is labor intensive work ( as my previous pictorial posts demonstrate) and it's easier to do if there are two people. Another festive and a bit easier  project is an Easter egg cake.It's just a one layer cake decorated with three or four dyed icings.  You can also buy an Easter egg cookie decorating set. Stop & Shop sells these and they come with already baked shortbread cookies, icing and candies for decorating.  This can also be part of the holiday activities for the kids. There is also the Peeps Coop  which has six already baked cookies to be assembled and decorated with bright yellow icing.  Sprinkles and jelly beans can be added for more dazzle.  As for the young ones, think about making Rice Krispies chicks and bunnies. It's making a whole sheet of the treat and then cutting the shapes with a cookie cutter. The mix can be tinted with food coloring  to make the pops more festive. Cake pops are another fun bite. Coat them in the various chocolates and dip in festive yellow and pink sprinkles. If the dinner is just adults , then end it with a light yet sophisticated lemon jelly roll dusted in confectioner's sugar. A raspberry trifle is also a sweet classy end to a ham or lamb dinner.

This is the time to make decisions for the holiday ahead.  Choose what dishes and treats will work for you and buy their ingredients. Then shop for the dinner ahead. It'll be easy with a list and a clear vision of what you want to make and bake,

Your Spring Must Have Arm and Hammer Fruit And Veggie Wash

This is the season when we start to see more fresh fruits and veggies in markets and stores. They may look fresh and just picked, but there may be everything from pesticides to dirt on them - not to mentions germs from squeezers and sniffers. Be extra safe with giving them a quick wash . Arm & Hammer has a new fruit and vegetable wash that will wash away all that bad stuff. Best of all it's all natural so it's safe for even kids to use.

 

This is a must have for any home chef. Every  household has some form of fresh fruits and veggies. We all want to eat healthy yet our produce can come with either traces of dirt, pesticides and even diseases. The Arm and Hammer wash rinses away these concerns. One of the best aspects of Arm and Hammer is that it's all natural. The ingredients are purified water, baking soda, salt and plant derived cleaning agents. You could concoct this at home but it may come out clumpy. It's best to let the experts make it.

The nozzle is easy to use. Just turn it to open. A fine drenching mist comes out and thoroughly cleans the fruits and vegetables. One spritz does it for an apple, a couple cleans a bowl of grape tomatoes. It's then just scrubbing for larger produce and a good rinse with tap water.

Use Arm and Hammer Fruit and Vegetable wash for your produce. This cleanser takes away any fears and concerns regarding dirt , pesticides and even diseases. It is a must have for any home chef with a kitchen full of produce.

Your Spring Baking Guide

With Easter ,Orthodox Easter and Passover coming soon, home bakers are probably gearing up for all sorts of baking. Make sure the kitchen is prepared, with the right ingredients and pans. It'll make holiday baking that much easier during these hectic days.

Passover start April 19th which is  only a few days away. It''s time to sell or throw out all flour and use ground matzoh. It's also time to buy cocoa powder and honey. Potato starch is another must have because it's used as a thickener in cakes and brownies.Another ingredient in many savory and sweet Seder dishes is matzoh farfel. These are small pellets made from egg noodle dough and is frequently toasted before being used. Also have egg noodles on the ready too, for kugel Make sure there is also fresh fruit such as apples and bananas for baking. Easter follows on Sunday the 21st. This is the time for all those lamb and Easter egg cakes. These cakes can either be made with mixes or by scratch. If you use mixes then make sure you not only have eggs but also oil, either vegetable or canola. The lamb cakes come out perfectly if Dream Whip is added to the mix so have those boxes on hand. (there are two packs to a box).If you go the scratch cake route, there's the need for flour and the leaveners such as baking soda and baking powder. Vegan cakes require corn starch and in some recipe , apple cider vinegar. Make sure you have both. The vinegar can also be used in egg dying and , salads. The lamb cake requires mini skewers in the neck to hold the head on. Please have these. Without them your creation will look like a victim of the French Revolution.

Of course these, along with those Easter cupcakes and cookies have to be decorated. The lamb cake requires five to six cups of confectioners sugar. Here I recommend buying the two pound bags  instead of boxes of it. There's also the need for butter or margarine sticks along with vegetable shortening. Country Crock also has butter flavored sticks that make for a rich tasting frosting. Remember to also have food coloring ad if you're planning on making an Easter egg cake , then add colored sugar and sprinkles to the list. These will be used to create the stripes and dots along with zigzags on the cake. If you're baking Easter egg cookies, then  make sure you have gel icing tubes, the ones used for writing on cakes. These can create perfect lines and polka dots on cookies.  You can also buy white and pastel chocolates for melting and then drizzling onto the cookie tops. If you're also thinking about making cake pops, then make sure you have sticks for them. Both the Greek and Russian Easters center around homemade sweet breads. Again, it's vital that you have yeast along with raisins and candied citrus for flavoring.

Spring holiday season is upon us. Make sure you have all your ingredients to create the perfect cakes and sweets. They will be as memorable as the holidays themselves.

A Passover Classic Gold's Horseradish

Passover is a time when generations old recipes are used for Seder. One is Gold's Horseradish, beloved for decades. It is a condiment, full of meaning and importance.

Weekly contributor and cookbook author, Joan Nathan wrote about the holiday table classic in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Ironically the root was never used by ancient Jews and is not mentioned in the Old Testament. They ate their lamb and matzoh with maror, bitter herbs like endives and wild bitter lettuce. Horseradish may have joined the tradition in the 10th century when there was migration from the warmer Mediterranean to the colder areas of northern France and Germany. Horseradish grew in abundance there, a turnip like root whose leaves broke ground in April. It was easy to harvest and the root, an isothiocyanate (a cousin of wasabi) had the symbolic bitterness needed for the Seder. Jews of Sephardic and Middle Eastern descent aren't familiar with the root so they use romaine endives and chicory for their bitter herbs) . Horseradish was brought to the States where it became a staple , not only for Passover but in Polish Catholic Easter dinners where home chefs served the red variety.

Horseradish can be a pain to prepare. Slicing it can cause watery eyes and runny noses.Thankfully there is Gold's already prepared . It started with Hyman and Tilly Gold, grinding the root with vinegar and salt along with a fight and a jail term. According to the Gold's grandson, Jason, the couple had started out selling and repairing radios. They lost the shop during the Depression. At this time. Hyman's brother who was grinding horseradish on a Borough Park, New York street got into a fight which landed him in jail. Hyman bailed him out and got the grinder as a possible thank you gift. This  prompted the Golds to continue the horseradish business. Tilly would grind it in their Coney Island Avenue apartment while her husband filled four ounce bottles one by one. He would later sell them in a pushcart, hitting local stores. Later their sons would deliver the bottle by bikes. The business grew. They relocated the business to a store below their apartment and later to a factory. The family sold it in 2015 to La Salle Capital. Gold's  first used horseradish from Long Island farms and from Poland. Now the roots are grown and shipped from Oregon and Norther California along with Missouri and southern Illinois.

Tradition is important in the Passover Seder. Gold's Horseradish carries on that tradition using classic ingredients. It has been around for generations and will be around for many many more.

That Easter Tradition A Good Meaty Ham

Ham has always been the meat of choice on almost every Easter table. This centuries old tradition has given ham lovers and home chefs good memories of a delicate salty flavor and an easy cook. It is the perfect dish for the holiday , each slice bringing joy.

Kim Severson wrote about this classic in today's New York Times Food section. Ms. Severson, a southerner herself, is no stranger to this cut of pork. Ham is also served at Christmastime, usually as the main course at the holiday dinner , along with being at baptisms, graduations and funerals. Right now sales are up because of the Easter season. The ham that we're used to is the  spiralized kind, one that is precooked and precut. It's different from fresh ham which is an uncooked part of a pig's rear leg.It's rubbed in  salt and a little spice, then smoked over wood and hung for several months to age. A spiralized ham is is soaked or injected with brine, spice and sugar. There are also curing agents added and then it's smoked a little.It's a quick process that only take four days which makes a tad more popular than the country style.Sales of them have been going up since 2017, even though their prices have also gone up. The price increase is due to American companies sending a lot of hams to Canada and Mexico.

What should a home chef look for in a ham? Check the amount of water listed on the can.Brine,a salty water mix is injected into the meat and can affect its' taste and texture. Top of the line ones are simply labelled "ham" and have to be 20.5 per cent protein by weight. Another classification is one  with "natural juices" listed. It's a good bet that around seven to nine percent of the cut is water. Most supermarket hams are labelled "hams with water added" which means that it has up to ten percent more water. Keep in mind that hams like this can turn spongy and don't do well on a spiralizing machine. Another point is that all spiralized hams have some kind of sweet glaze. The marriage of the meat and sugar is over a century old. Early recipes such as the one from the 1898 Delmonico Cookbook features a scored ham with powdered sugar. Another recipe from around 1940, found in The Boston Cooking - School Cookbook has a ham recipe that calls for frosting it with royal icing! Then there's the classic pineapple and cherry held by cloves stuck in the ham. This first started in 1931 with Irma Rombauer's first edition of "The Joy Of Cooking". The best bet is a rub with ginger ale and brown sugar. You can use pineapple too which breaks down the meat's collagen, making it easier to digest.

A good Easter dinner starts with a good ham. There's is nothing quite like a slice of silky pink meat, perfectly seasoned with spices and sweet. What a wonderful way to celebrate a Spring holiday.