Cookin' in the 'Cuse

Meanwhile, back in babyland...

Every now and again the enormity of it all hits me...I've been entrusted with the life of another human being.  It isn't just about raising a compassionate, smart, and well-adjusted black man in this world--I'm shaping his palate too.

I know these early days matter--my brother still hates for the food on his plate to touch and I remember that being an issue when he was 3 years old.  I know palates and habits can evolve, I can testify to that, but I want to lay the best, most delicious foundation as I can for Timothy. 

You want to talk about real simple cooking?  Then let's talk baby food.  Alongside more "lavish" meals like grilled vegetables, corn and radish salad, and marinated and grilled chicken, I've been all about the purees.  No real seasoning, no complicated recipes.  But lots of love is stirred in just the same.  So let me admit how incredibly humbling it is, to have my child spit out the food I prepared for him. 

Granted, it was a pea puree that truthfully, could have used some salt to perk it up.  Maybe Timothy's palate is just fine afer all.

To read about more of my baby food adventures as I attempt to raise a locavore, check out my piece in the June issue of Family Times magazine here.

Photo Credit:  Michael Davis

I'm a Believer...

...in five minute artisan bread.

Now understand me:  I'm a sourdough nurturer.  I like kneading dough.  But I love crusty loaves fresh from the oven even more.  A recent visit to Bluestone Farm--where those fabulously locavore nuns I love so much farm and cook from scratch--converted my heart and my tastebuds. 

On a beautifully sunny day we sat down to potatoes au gratin and a rooster salad (they say he was a mean old bird and his time had come).  With Timothy napping on my lap I sopped up extra drippings of melted cheese with a slice of a crusty baguette.  When I inquired how they had time to bake this bread every day they revealed the 5-minute technique. 

I ordered the book a few days ago and with about ten minutes of hands-on time, an overnight chill in the fridge, I woke up Sunday morning (before work) and baked a beautiful loaf of bread.  I just baked another one a few minutes ago.  It's crazy!  Crazy good!

Have you tried this method yet?  If not, what's your favorite method for getting good, fresh bread on the table?

Just three words...

Pork Belly Confit

I've got lots of posts waiting to be put up but I had to tell you about my new favorite thing--pork belly confit from The Piggery in Ithaca.  OMG.  Have you had some?  No?  Then I'm telling you it is worth the trip to get some.  (You could make it but why not let someone else spend 12 hours curing your pork belly?) 

This is my version of Pizza Night--pork belly confit, fresh mozzarella, Pasta's Daily Bread pesto on fresh pizza dough (get it at Columbus bakery on the north side or Wegmans if you don't have time to make your own). 

The pork belly confit is like bacon that melts in your mouth--and just a "little dab with do ya".

Other pies we had on deck for pizza night included one made with chunks of chorizo, spicy hot tomato oil (from Pasta's), fresh mozzarella and roasted garlic and a simple pesto, mozzarella and roasted garlic.  I think we have a new Thursday night dining tradition!

Spanish Wines and Tapas--Si Si! March 26 at Grace Church

You trust me, right?  Then mark your calendars--you don't want to miss the 2nd annual wine and cheese event at Grace Episcopal Church in Syracuse--Saturday, March 26 from 6:00- 8:30 pm. 

Gary Decker of Vinomania Wines has once again generously offered to pour wines for your tasting pleasure at this fundraiser to support the ongoing restoration of our historic structures and the many food programs that serve our community. 

With Gary Decker's discerning palate you can be assured of some wonderful and interesting wines.  But the food!  Oh my--check this out:

• Jamon Serrano and Chorizo

• Manchego, Valdeon blue cheese, Mahon and Miti Cana de Oveja served with Marcona Almonds, Membrillo and olives

• Thin slices of chorizo in puff pastry

• Banderilla – skewers of Cornichon pickles, olives, pimento, cocktail onions and baby shrimp

• Chorizo and potato tortilla bites

• Vegetarian tortilla bites

• Pork empanadas with golden raisins and olives

• White bean spread on Belgian endive

• Thick Spanish hot chocolate with mountains of donut holes for dunking.

And that isn't the entire menu!  Some of Syracuse's most talented food professionals will be making the food happen--and I'll be cooking too!

Tickets are $30 per person and can be purchased at Vinomania, 313 East Willow Street, Syracuse, or by emailing Kerri Aitken ([email protected]) or Kate Auwaerter ([email protected]).  You can also email me here at the blog and I will get tickets to you. 

'Tis the Season for Cookbook Coveting

Ninety-six.  That's the number of cookbooks my Mom counted in my kitchen bookcase.  "There's more upstairs, aren't there?" she asked.  I just nodded my head and looked away.  What can I say?  A few cookbooks a year over 20-something years can add up.  And yet, I still hunger for more.

Actually, it is fairly easy for me to peruse the cook book display at the book store and keep on walking.  I mean, how many renditions of braised lamb shank with pureed celery root does one need?  But every now and again, I'll leaf through a book and decide--I've got to have it.  James Paterson's latest, "Meat:  A Kitchen Education" is one such book.  I have to flip through it EVERYTIME I see it.  And maybe its ten years of not eating red meat catching up with me, but my goodness, I want to cook every recipe in there.

So that's become my standard in deciding whether to add a cook book to my wish list--does it make me want to rush into the kitchen and get busy?  If not, I could probably make do with checking it out of the library or doing without. In fact, I should probably catalog my collection and consider lending out the tomes that I never seem to crack open on a regular basis...I'll give that some serious thought.

Yesterday's New York Times Book Review had it's annual cook book list--just in time for the holidays, don't you know.  Many are delicously inspirational.  Others are so pretty and cumbersome, they'd never see any real action on my kitchen counter.  But I love knowing what's out there.  

So what's on your cookbook wish list--and why?

 

Thanksgiving is Coming--All Hands on Deck!

Alright folks--it's on!  Thanksgiving is two days away and I can hardly contain my excitement.  This is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  Being a priest and all, I probably have to rank Easter and Christmas in front of Thanksgiving.  And indeed, those holidays would be PERFECT if they allowed me the time I cherish to prepare the feasts that go with them.  But as it is, Thanksgiving is the one holiday when we are given complete permission to cook (and let's face it, eat) like there's no tomorrow. 

This year, instead of cooking a full-on feast myself, I'm joining forces with friends.  There will be about a dozen of us, with two dueling turkeys, a mash up of sides, and several desserts.  Here's what I'm cooking up:

Oink and Gobble Farm Roasted Turkey with truffle butter

Maple Gravy

Cornbread, sausage, apple and pecan stuffing (been making this for 20 years now, so I guess it's tradition)

Rutabaga and Leek chowder with smoked paprika butter (from the new Winter Issue of Edible Finger Lakes)

Cranberry Bourbon Compote (made with fresh cranberries a friend brought me from the Cape)

Golden Cake with chocolate sour cream frosting (from Gourmet Magazine, oh how I miss that magazine this month!)

Mom is driving up from NYC and she's packing cheese cakes for our feast--YUM!

What's on YOUR menu???

*  If you are still shopping around, check out Green Planet Grocery on Wednesday--they're having all kinds of tastings and last time I checked they had 2 or 3 Oink and Gobble turkeys available.

Foodie Town? This is part of what it takes...

 

Take a look at any city where there is a high appreciation of food and wine and you'll find some common elements:  access to great ingredients, diners with curious palates, risk-taking chefs, and places to learn and experiment.  Believe it or not but Syracuse has all of those things.  The Syracuse Community Test Kitchen is the special place where all of these come together.

Since its opening in March 2008 the Test Kitchen, located in the South Side Innovation Center, has been an incubator for entrepreneurial cooks looking to take their favorite home recipe to the big time of retail sales.  More recently, it seems, its mission has expanded to get as many people in the doors to learn, experiment, and get access to the great food resources of Central New York.

First, there are the cooking classes.  Abigail Henson, a sous chef at the Restaurant at Elderberry Pond in Auburn (and writer for Edible Finger Lakes magazine's Syracuse section) is on tap to teach a class Thursday night featuring healthy recipes made with whole grains and seasonal vegetables. 
Her menu includes Quinoa Swiss Chard Casserole, Cilantro Pesto Potato Salad, Zippy Greens with Horseradish Dressing and the "Not so Deviled Egg".  How great is that?  Well, what's great is that she'll be teaching to a capacity crowd and that there are 32 more classes featuring 11 chefs slated for late summer/fall.

Second, the Test Kitchen is the latest pick up spot for CNY Bounty.  In fact, it is the only pick up spot in the city of Syracuse at this time.  CNY Bounty brings some of the best dairy, baked goods, meats, and prepared foods straight to you.  Several years ago I remember having to drive all around the region to get some of these products.  Now all you have to do is place your order and pick up your haul.  Place your order by Monday the 21st and you can pick it up at the Test Kitchen on Thursday the 24th.

This is all such great progress.  I began this blog over 5 years ago and am constantly amazed at how much growth there has been in that time.  The Test Kitchen is just one more critical piece of the puzzle of what it will take to transform and strengthen our food scene.  Sign up for a class, pick up your Bounty, download a recipe from previous classes, and check out the cool things that are going on there.  And Believe.

Syracuse Test Kitchen, 2610 S. Salina Street Syracuse, NY 13205 (Salina at Brighton--next door to the Dunk and Bright showroom)

Building a Menu

I don't know about you, but I typically have a series of dishes that make regular appearances on our dinner table.  I say "series" because it changes depending on the season.  We try to stay out of ruts but tend to depend on our regulars--just to keep meal prep simple in these very busy days.  Summer tends to be our creative season not only because there is more fresh produce available, but because I have much more time to cook them up and experiment.

During the winter, my default mode is--roast, braise, or simmer--as in roasted chicken and root vegetables, braised short ribs (that was Thursday's dish), and simmered soups.  Thankfully, a pantry stocked with pickled beets, fig jams, poached pears, and beans helps to keep the meals fresh.

All that is to say, I don't give a lot of thought to menu planning.  I kind of throw things together and it works.  But with folks coming over for dinner tonight I've spent the past few days thinking about what to serve. 

Two of my "go to" resources for menu planning ideas are Maria Helm Sinskey's The Vineyard Kitchen, and Martha Stewart's latest "Dinner at Home".  The recipes in both are quite solid and the menus--with wine and beer suggestions, take some of the guesswork out of figuring what will go well together.

For tonight, I settled on the menu below.  I didn't get the menu idea from a cookbook--I just thought about what dishes I really enjoy eating.  I imagined the progression of flavors from course to course--a rich entree I thought, ought to be preceded by a light and refreshing salad.  I considered what the last bite of the night might be.  And then I did a bit of a mental exercise:

Think about how each dish looks on the plate. 

Take a mental bite and imagine how the flavors will taste together.  If my mouth begins to water, if I can imagine the flavors and textures complementing one another--then I suspect they'll work together in real time.  We'll see.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Here's the plan:

Appetizers:  Medjool Dates stuffed with Lively Run Goat Cheese; apple slices dotted with honeyed hazelnuts; served with Atwater Estate's 2007 Vidal Blanc

Salad:  Frisee and arugula salad with pumpkin seeds, slivers of Manchego cheese and pears.

Main:  Chicken with Black Pepper Maple Sauce served with Creamy Polenta with Marscapone Cheese and roasted carrots; Wine--Lamoreaux Landing's 2007 Reserve Chardonnay

Dessert:  Buttermilk lemon cake drizzled with Renee Suzette's Passionfruit flavored Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce; French press coffee and tea selection

Excuse me, but...

I've seemed to have misplaced my blogging mojo.

 
Not sure what it's about.  It's a busy time of year; I'm too busy reading and running.  I'm tired of the computer.  So what else is new?  It isn't that there isn't anything to say--it is just the simple motivation to open up the Typepad software and say it that seems to be lacking.  What with all that's going on--the markets are bursting forth--the SU market is on for the next few Fridays--very cool; lots of foodie events and lots of good food to enjoy.  Lots of wine to comment on...  And yet...

So here I am with a meandering post about what I cooked today. 

I've got a book club meeting tonight--always a food and wine-filled affair.  But tonight we're discussing Tender at the Bone--Ruth Reichl's autobiography.  I can't believe I hadn't read it till now but I've been eating it up, as they say.  In addition to reading the book, we're supposed to bring a dish from our childhood.  Easier said than done.

I don't eat the way I used to when I was a child but I have lots of memories of cooking with my Mom and one of the biggest treats we could have for dinner was "real macaroni and cheese".  That meant, it didn't come out of a blue box.  It meant splurging on real cheddar cheese and cutting cubes of it while waiting for the elbows to cook and then sprinkling the orange dice over the macaroni so that it got all melty and cheesey in the oven.  We LOVED this dish.

So I'm bringing some tonight.  Trouble is, I'm almost positive that what I made today is not what my Mom used to make.  (She's helping people vote today and I couldn't ask her).  But I knew to keep it simple--we didn't have much money and the cheese was already a decadant purchase.  Nevertheless, I couldn't help myself and I made a little bechemel--but on the cheap the way we would have done it had I known what bechemel was back in the 9th grade.  About a cup of milk, a little flour, a dash of nutmeg, salt and pepper, and a handful of diced cheddar thrown in at the end.  I even "whisked" in the flour with a fork--kickin' it old school-style.

I boiled up some elbow macaroni, mixed it with some cheddar cut into dice, poured the "bechemel" sauce over it and mixed it gently.  Then spooned it into a baking dish (greased with a bit of butter) and added some more cheese on top to bake later.  In deference to my new eating habits, I omitted the pats of butter on top.

After that was done--took about 20 minutes--seemed to take FOREVER when I was a kid--I made lunch.

 

Again, boiled some water for some whole wheat spaghetti, sauteed some just-picked Sungolds in a bit of olive oil till they began to burst, chopped two large garlic cloves--threw that into the pan, added salt and pepper and then mixed in the spaghetti.  A warm slice of walnut levain procured from Manhattan the other day made for a simple, delicious, lunch that was so of the moment.

Now I'm off to go find that mojo--I know its around here somewhere...

Taking it long and slow

There is so much I need to post about here but time seems to constantly elude me.  Last week--or maybe it was before that--I was inspired by the current issue of Edible Finger Lakes to make something of the cipollini onions that came in my CSA share from Stones Throw Farm.  I super-slow roasted these little orbs until they were crispy-caramelized on the outside and tender but still slightly crunchy inside.  At 200 degrees I could have the oven on without heating the whole house.  And with a three hour slowwww cooking time my hands were free to do other things.  (Michael Welch from EFL says they shouldn't take that long but I may like my cipollinis extra tender.)

As it turns out olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey is a great combination for lots of other veggies too--I see lots of experimentation in my future.

A few simple ingredients:  olive oil, really good aged balsamic vinegar and local honey.

Layer cleaned and trimmed cipolini onions on a bed of rosemary stems--about 4-5 inches in length.

Drizzle onions with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and honey.  Roast at 200 degrees for 2-3 hours or desired doneness.  Consume as quickly or as slowly as you like--leave time for adequate finger licking.