Banana Leaf Coconut Fish:Recipe
Thursday, April 29, 2004
What's a beautiful shade of green, used in Asian, Latin American, Caribbean and African cooking, but completely inedible? Banana leaves! Banana leaves grow in tropical climates, and are used to steam, grill, serve and store food. In Thailand they are used just like tin foil and about as frequently. Banana leaves are used when they are still fresh and green, as a result, there is a very moist quality to any food cooked in them.
While not grown commercially in the US, banana leaves are worth seeking out because they lend a delicious herbal flavor to food when cooked. They can be used for slow moist cooking of tough meats or even tamales, and for quicker grilling, baking or steaming of more delicate ingredients like fish or chicken. You can cook several servings in a large banana leaf or cut the leaf into individual serving pieces. Steaming or baking individual servings "en papillote" is not only elegant, but generally makes clean up a breeze. The scent of the steam when the banana leaves are unwrapped is truly lovely.
This is a recipe I developed using several aromatic Asian ingredients. It has no chilies so it is particularly mild; though if you want to add chilies or other aromatics like lemongrass I suppose you could. I love using exotic ingredients like banana leaves, and when they only cost 79 cents a package, so much the better. Look for banana leaves in Asian or Latin grocery stores in the freezer section and if you find them, give them a try. (if you can't find banana leaves, you can almost always substitute tin foil or parchment paper) The foil is just used in this recipe to more easily seal the banana leaf packet.
Banana Leaf Coconut Fish
2-3 servings
1 lb firm white fish (sea bass is good)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 T ginger peeled and chopped
1/4 cup packed chopped cilantro leaves
2-3 T coconut milk
2 t soy sauce
1 t fish sauce
1 t brown sugar, packed
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and add the fish cut into 4-6 serving size pieces about 1 inch thick. Let sit for 20 minutes.
Run the banana leaf under hot water until defrosted and pliable. Cover a baking sheet in tin foil, then lay a banana leaf or pieces of banana leaf, double the size of the fish, on top of the foil. Place the fish on the leaf or leaves and make sure all the sauce and herbs are put onto the fish. Wrap the banana leaf (leaves) around the fish and use the foil underneath to secure the banana leaf. Bake on the baking sheet for 20-25 minutes or until done. Serve with rice.
Enjoy!
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Cherry Blossom Festival 2004
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
When the weather warms up we look for any excuse to eat outdoors. It could be a picnic, a day at the beach or a street fair, food just tastes better outside. Especially when the day is sunny and bright and everyone is having fun and celebrating. Warm weather signals the beginning of street fair season and one of the first ones is the annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival.
The Cherry Blossom Festival features an amazing food bazaar. The food is a mix of Japanese and American favorites, sometimes in the same dish, and it's a major reason we go each year. The air becomes thick with barbecue smoke and the scent of the grill and perhaps the gill. In addition to teriyaki burgers and strawberry shortcake, there is also bbq squid, bbq eel, rice balls and hot udon soup. This past Sunday in addition to the deliciously sweet eel and strawberry shortcake, we ate green tea ice cream, some inari which is a rice stuffed sweet bean curd, California rolls, gyoza and some spicy short ribs grilled up by the Asian Firefighters of San Francisco and served with a scoop of kim chee. Trust the firefighters when it comes to barbecue!
The Cherry Blossom Festival is a celebration of all things Japanese. It includes an arts and crafts fair, all kinds of cultural demonstrations. Some of my favorite events are the Japanese tea ceremony and performances by Japanese classical and folk dancers, and taiko drummers. Sunday was also the day of the grand parade along Post street. This year there was lots of cheering for our new mayor and our newly appointed police and fire chiefs. San Francisco is the first major city to have women heading up both those posts at once. An extra reason to cheer! We also saw several kimono-clad Japanese dance groups and scores of adorable school kids dancing and singing their way along the parade route. The strangest thing we saw was a contingent of people costumed like anime characters. Something you have to see to believe...
Now that the weather is finally warming up, keep on the lookout for beautiful cherry blossoms, head out to a street fair and find yourself something yummy to eat. Spring has finally sprung!
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Dim Sum A Pocket Guide:Book
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Going out to eat dim sum is so much fun! And a bit of an adventure as well. While in a few places you order it, mostly it comes to you. Waiters roll around carts filled with delicacies and call out the names of the dishes, in Cantonese of course. You can take a look inside the steamer baskets and take your pick of dumplings--usually fried or steamed, or filled buns or noodle dishes or maybe even mini spare ribs, and perhaps a dessert or two. Many dishes are standard, but each place that serves it may have some unfamiliar items as well. The best thing is that you get to try lots and lots things in one go--and share them with everyone else at the table.
Dim sum is a Cantonese term that means "to touch the heart". It's popular in what used to be known as the Canton provinces--in Guangzhou, to go out to drink tea and order a snack of dumplings. In Hong Kong it's called "yum cha" meaning literally to "drink tea". Here at home we focus more on the dim sum or dumplings than the tea, and enjoy it as more of a meal than a snack, either late breakfast or lunch. Many places stop serving it by two or three in the afternoon.
Once you know what you like, you can buy it to go and take it home. I like to buy dim sum when I go shopping on Clement street. Clement street is a culinary mecca in San Francisco. There are so many great places to eat out and to shop for fresh produce, seafood, you name it and there must be half a dozen or more places to find dim sum witin a few short blocks. Dim sum makes a great quick snack or meal on the go. It reheats quickly in the microwave and you can keep a bakery box-full in the fridge for a week.
If you haven't tried dim sum or still aren't sure what it is, Chronicle books has recently published a visual reference guide Dim Sum A Pocket Guide which should help you out. Page after page features full color pictures, the name of the dish in Cantonese and English and a description of what's in it. For experienced diners, there is a great section on how to tell the hostess how many people are in your party and how to order various types of tea in Cantonese. It also helps to make sense out of the record card the waiters use to keep track of how many dishes you have eaten. The markings on the card are totaled up at the end of the meal to determine what you owe. Since everything on the card is written in Chinese it can be a bit of a mystery! Once you know the names in Cantonese, dim sum is as easy to order in San Francisco, New York or Vancouver as it is in Hong Kong. And just as tasty.
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RICHART:Shop
Saturday, April 24, 2004
What's the most fun you can have with your clothes on? Quite possibly attending a chocolate tasting! Which is something I got to do this past week. As you may or may not know, I am very fond of chocolate. Some might say obsessed.
What drew me to RICHART in the first place were the beauty of the chocolates and their exotic flavors. At their San Francisco boutique run by the founder's grandson, I got a lesson in fine chocolate. I learned that the most delicate and best cocoa bean is the Criollo bean, the name Criollo is derived from creole meaning native, authentic and indigenous. I also learned that they have been making chocolate since 1925, use over 70% Venezuelan Criollo beans and blend their chocolate to a super-smooth melt-in-your-mouth 12-20 microns. They also decorate each filled chocolate with a delicate colored design to indicate its flavor.
Michel Richart believes that tasting chocolate is much like tasting wine, so one must pay attention to the base notes, the secondary flavors and how long the flavors last in your mouth. A pleasurable experience to be sure. Another way they are different from other chocolatiers, is the use of "coulis" to fill the chocolates. A coulis is a recent innovation and consists of fruit puree, sugar and cocoa butter. It gives a very fresh and intense flavor to the filled chocolates. I got to try both coulis and praline filled chocolates with flavors like rose, ylang ylang, cinnamon, curry, seven spice, hazelnut, pistachio, jasmine tea, verbena/mint and lavender. All were quite delicious and evoked different feelings, memories and sensations.
The store itself and the packaging remind one of a jewelry store, white, clean and modern. With nothing to detract from the main event--the chocolates, of course. Each box of chocolate includes written information to help you further understand and appreciate chocolate and their larger assortments include a 45 page booklet on chocolate. They also sell one of the best books I have ever read on the subject--called "Chocolate Mon Amour" and it is available in their store and online at their website as are their chocolates. If I am obsessed with chocolate, at least I'm in good company!
RICHART
393 Sutter St @ Powell
San Francisco
M-Sat 10-7 Sun 12-5
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Ecco La Pasta!
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Dried pasta is the perfect convenience food, after all it only takes a pot of boiling water to cook it. But fresh pasta is another story. It takes work. Having a food processor and a pasta rolling machine make it a little easier but it's far from foolproof. And the trickiest pasta of all is really a potato dumpling--gnocchi.
Gnocchi is such a favorite in our household that if it is on a menu it will likely find its way onto our table. While I can make a terrific ricotta gnocchi, wonderful pumpkin gnocchi and even a Roman style semolina gnocchi, the secret to making perfect potato gnocchi has remained illusive. And I have tried every trick possible--from baking the potatoes on a bed of rock salt to adding egg yolks to the dough. The problem is, if the dough is too firm it cooks up dense and heavy. And if the dough is too light, it practically melts in the pot of water, losing its shape and turning to mush. So what to do?
Well the first thing NOT to do is buy pre-packaged gnocchi, they are sure to disappoint. At the Fancy Food Show back in January I happened upon a great solution. Ecco La Pasta gnocchi flour comes in a bag that makes a pound of pasta when you add the water to mix it up. In the time it takes to boil a pot of water, the gnocchi will be ready to go--roughly ten minutes. I'm not normally a big fan of dried mixes, so I was skeptical at first...but it really works! With painstakingly clear instructions included, you simply cannot fail. If you're still not convinced you can do it, you can review the "how to" demonstration video.
The gnocchi flour in additon to their pasta flour comes in four flavors--Rosemary & Garlic, Sundried Tomato, Spinach and Potato, costs just under $4 per package and is now available locally at Sur La Table stores but check the web site to see where you can find it near you or to purchase online.
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Leek & Potato Soup:Recipe
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
If I told you that I had a fabulous soup recipe with only three ingredients in it, would you believe me? Leeks, potatoes and water or chicken broth. Oh and a little butter to saute the leeks in, that's it.
It seems to be a mantra these days that by using the best ingredients one really doesn't need to do much to turn out a great meal. Leek and potato soup epitomizes this thinking. You can add milk or cream or top it off with a dollop of sour cream if you want to fancy it up, but it's really not necessary. Based on my own research (which is corroborated by the reviews of other cooks who have reacted to the multitude of leek & potato soup recipes posted on epicurious.com) complicated preparations with more ingredients tend to distract rather than enhance.
There is something so comforting about leek and potato soup. Its pale matte green color is comforting. Its smell is comforting. And of course the taste, mellow oniony leeks and potatoes combined together in a thick pottage is, well, comforting. Either smooth or chunky its soft texture and mild flavors are as soothing as flannel sheets. It's a great soup to go with a sandwich or just on its own. And it's the best antidote to a day of gustatory indulgence where you want something just short of another meal. Does this happen to you on the weekend sometimes? If so, you're not alone.
Here is my recipe for leek and potato soup. It's a soup that actually does not need fancy spices or herbs to make it taste good...ok I lied, this soup does need plenty of salt and pepper!
Couldn't-be-easier Leek and Potato Soup
2 leeks (white and pale green parts only) cut in half lengthwise,
then thinly sliced
3-4 potatoes peeled, cut in half then sliced
1 T butter
4 cups or so of chicken broth or water or a combination (home made broth is best, of course)
salt & pepper to taste
Note: To clean the leeks, place the chopped leeks in a bowl of water and swish around until the leeks are clean. Lift the leeks out carefully, leaving the grit in the bottom of the bowl.
Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks; stir to coat with butter. Cover saucepan; cook until leeks are tender, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add potatoes. Cover and cook until potatoes begin to soften, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add liquid. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes.
Puree soup in batches in processor until smooth or use an immersion blender directly in the pot. Thin with additional broth, water or milk if soup is too thick. This soup can be very smooth or chunky as you prefer. Season with a good amount of salt and a little pepper. Top with a swirl of creme fraiche or sour cream if you desire.
Enjoy!
post to Del.icio.us | email this post!Sunday, April 18, 2004
I have to admit it. I am just not a baker. I try. But it's not my thing. I can make cookies or brownies if I stick to tried and true recipes, but cakes? Please. Let's not go there...
My blog is burning part 3. If you haven't heard of it yet, it's that group event where food bloggers from all over the world blog on the same topic on the same day. This time around? A Cake Walk. And a mighty big challenge for me. But I had a plan. I had some almond meal in the house that I intended to try baking with during Passover but didn't. So the search was on to find a recipe using almond meal. I found one, had all the ingredients, followed the instructions and bombed out. The cake was supposed to be a flourless tangerine almond tort but I'd just call it a mess. Crumbly, bitter, wet. Ick.
That's when I turned to someone who knows what she's doing in the baking department. Not a professional chef, a home cook. Someone who appreciates that some of us don't have a way with baking and gives us recipes that are quick and foolproof. Yes, the one and only Nigella Lawson. Nigella as she known to millions, is particularly well-known for her cupcakes. And cupcakes make sense when you only have two people in your household and neither of you go into an office where you can palm off baked goods. Her recipe for cupcakes can easily be multiplied or you can make half a batch, as I did. I'm not actually going to post the recipe for her "fairy cakes", you can get it on her site. But a suggestion, if you too are not a baker, Nigella has several good cookbooks that will lead you to baking success. The cupcakes not only turned out perfectly, they taste so buttery good they may not make it till Monday.
By the way, Nigella uses self-raising flour quite a bit--here's how to make your own--simply mix 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt for each cup of flour.
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Dining Out For Life
Friday, April 16, 2004
What are you doing in two weeks? Do you have any plans for April 29th? If you don't, call some friends and get together for dinner. As part of the Dining out for Life program, all you have to do is dine at one of many participating restaurants on Thursday, April 29th and 25 percent of your food bill will benefit the HIV prevention programs of the STOP AIDS Project here in San Francisco.
Other cities all around the country are taking part in this event too, so to learn which restaurants near you are participating, go to Dining out for Life and click on Participating Restaurants.
Making a difference has never been so easy, so tasty or such a good excuse to go to dinner with friends.
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Lemony Smoked Salmon Pasta:Recipe
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Our box of fresh produce was delivered today and in it was a real prize. Green garlic. Green garlic is a fresh, young, green onion-like vegetable. It is very mild and just epitomizes spring. It is only available for a short time, like many other spring treats, and it has a fresh, clean, light flavor and crisp texture. It just tastes like spring.
Most other onions are best cooked, like leeks or yellow onions or raw, like scallions or red onions. But you can use green garlic raw, or you can cook it and unlike other onions, both the green and white parts are delicious to eat. The main thing is not to overcook it, because you want the fresh flavor to come through. It's the perfect thing to top a pizza with or sliver into a salad because there is no "bite" to it. I decided to use the green garlic in a pasta and added some other ingredients I had around the house, especially smoked salmon.
When I was living in Italy, using smoked salmon in pasta was very trendy. Smoked salmon is very good with pasta, but if it cooks, the texture turns dry and crumbly and takes on a fishy taste. The best thing is to prepare the pasta, then top the individual portions with smoked salmon that has just come to room temperature. That way the color, texture and flavor is preserved. Because smoked salmon is such a delicate and elegant ingredient, it pairs well with other delicate ingredients like cream, caviar or cucumber. This pasta combines familiar flavors that you might find on a bagel for breakfast or brunch--smoked salmon, lemon and green oniony flavored green garlic.
Lemony Smoked Salmon Pasta
Serves 4 as a first course or 2 as a main course
1/2 pound gemelli or other corkscrew pasta such as rotini or rotelle
1/2 pound thin to medium asparagus, trimmed and cut diagonally into 2-inch-long pieces
1-2 stalks of green garlic or green onions, slivered
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 lemon, squeezed
fresh ground black pepper
1/4 lb thinly sliced smoked salmon, cut crosswise into thin strips
Put a large pot of water to boil. Blanch the asparagus until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes then scoop out with a slotted spoot, drain and set aside. Cook pasta in the pot of boiling water until al dente.
While pasta is cooking, heat cream and lemon juice in a large skillet until slightly thickened, then stir in slivered green garlic and remove from heat.
Drain pasta with the asparagus then toss with cream sauce in the skillet. If pasta looks dry, moisten with some of the pasta water. Season with pepper to taste. Top each serving with sliced salmon.
Enjoy!
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Meet Fergus Henderson
Monday, April 12, 2004
A British chef, who has no formal training and cooks traditional British cuisine, known for cooking what is often considered the least desirable bits of the animal, seems an unlikely celebrity. But Fergus Henderson, proprietor of London restaurant St. John and author of The Whole Beast--Nose to Tail Eating is a celebrity of sorts. His restaurant is a top stop for foodies, and he has gained the praise of chefs like Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali. Bourdain actually wrote the introduction to his book.
At Sur La Table at the Ferry Building Farmers Market today Fergus Henderson spoke about his style of cooking. In typically British manner, he started off by saying that "if you're going to kill the animal it seems only polite to use the whole thing". He talked of not trying to shock anyone, simply wanting to serve the parts that "lie beyond the fillet". Explaining that the texture and flavor of those cuts is not to be missed. But that the names "offal" and "organ meats" leave something to be desired...!
One of the signature dishes at Henderson's restaurant is "Veal Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad". He shared that part of his love for the dish comes from the fact that it is assembled at the table by the diner. The dish is not a fait d'accompli, that there is a magic in last minute seasoning, that the diner gets to enjoy some of the alchemy of the kitchen by getting to scrape the marrow from the bone onto the toast, seasoning with coarse sea salt and then adding the parsley salad to taste. As for the parsley salad, Henderson said, you want to chop the parsley four or five times to discipline it, rather than defeat it.
Taking on these meats--trotters, tripe, kidneys, chitterlings and the like, said Henderson, takes a leap of faith. You must embrace your ingredients, that as soon as there is any twinge of fear the ingredients know it and misbehave. Don't you just love the British?
The book covers not only meat, but fish and vegetables and his philosophy with those is the same, respect the whole thing, use the whole thing, and enjoy it. A sentiment that hopefully we can all appreciate.
post to Del.icio.us | email this post!Saturday, April 10, 2004
Meet Shea Rosen
Shea is a Food Technologist at Mezzetta. Best known for their peppers, olives, they have recently branched out into sauces with their Napa Valley Bistro line.
So what does a food technologist do?
Develop the company's new food products which includes conceptualizing the line, creating the formula or recipe, and successfully excecuting them in the manufacturing plant.
What is your background?
I graduated from the University of Missouri with a food science degree. After school I worked for Ore-ida in the San Franciso Bay Area and Los Angeles. Five years later, I changed jobs to work for Wolfgang Puck Food Co. Wolfgang Puck and his chefs influenced me greatly in regards to creative thinking and enhanced culinary knowledge. It was thrilling to be at Spago's twice a week developing frozen pizza's and pasta entrees for the retail product line. I also worked at Safeway for a number of years developing their private label brands.
What inspires you creatively?
Before I started the job at Mezzetta, I travelled extensively in Asia and Europe, and eating in those places influenced me greatly. Also living in California, fresh ingredients and fresh cuisine. I gain awareness of ingredients and their usage by eating out and travel. For example it's interesting to see how basil is used in Italian cooking and in Thai cooking. The basils vary slightly, but the affect the same herb has on each cuisine is very different and of course extremely complimentary.
What do you think about American eating habits, where are we heading? Are you concerned about obesity?
In regards to obesity, I think we suffer from emotional eating. In my opinion, we're confused as a society and food becomes a coping mechanism. Much of the advertising encourages people to over eat by tying into our culture of getting more for less. We stuff our faces. Also, why are we so obsessed with crazy diets? It shows that we don't really think for ourselves. Whatever the media is "spinning", we go along with. The fad diets must be really confusing to the consumer. Like the gimmicky low-carb diet, for example. A balanced diet and exercise is the long-term answer to a slimmer, more healthy body and happy mind. In other parts of the world smaller portions are the norm.
I hope tapas and small plates will continue to gain in popularity. For instance, I really enjoyed the tapas in Spain, I loved manchego cheese and quince jam, the octopus, sardines, and anchovies, and good olive oil. The olives in the Medierranean were phenomenal. Olive bars are popular and wide varieties of olives are now available even in supermarkets.
I think organic food is going to be more widespread too.
Do you use fresh ingredients in the sauces you develop for Mezzetta?
Yes. I've learned when using fresh ingredients, it doesn't take a lot to make things taste good. I try to use as many fresh ingredients as I can. In regards to our Napa Valley Bistro product line, all of the pasta sauces contain fresh garlic, onions, & herbs in addtion to Napa Valley Wine and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The Savory Siciliano Pasta Sauce for example is a unique recipe and it includes chicken stock, rosemary, chile peppers, fresh carrots and porcini mushrooms. It's savory and unique and has versatility to it. In addition to fresh basil, we use fresh parsley which contributes to the overall fresh flavor.
When you eat our Porcini & Portabella Mushroom Pasta Sauce, you can tell it's a wild mushroom sauce. We also use porcini and portabello mushrooms that are not canned. Canned mushrooms don't taste good and the texture is rubbery.
Can you tell us what other products to expect from Mezzetta?
The Kona Coast line will be coming out soon. It's a Hawaiian sauce line. Hawaiian products combine Asian, Hawaiian, and American styles. It's an exciting fun line of teriyaki and barbecue sauces, honey mustard and even pancake mix. Compared to other products, it will be very interesting. We developed a barbecue sauce that's tomato based and familar yet its got honey and ginger, there will be no mistaking that it's got ginger in it! In the Kona Coast line, we use ingredients like macadamia nuts, ginger, chilis and pineapple.
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New World Market:Shop
Thursday, April 08, 2004
I love international travel. Who doesn't? I crave getting on a plane and going some place where everything is unfamiliar and new. But when I can't quite manage a trip I make a little excursion that helps satisfy my wanderlust. I head straight for an ethnic grocery store. Granted there are plenty of things that are poorly labeled and I have no idea what they are or might be, but I have also discovered some real treasures that make me want to stop by on a regular basis.
I have shopped Italian, Latin American and Asian grocery stores for quite some time. I particularly enjoy finding ones with delicatessens where I can try some prepared foods. Here in San Francisco we are blessed with many different kinds of delis. The latest discovery for me has been a Russian grocery with a deli counter that runs the length of the store.
The first thing I go for is the homemade sour cream. I realize this is an exotic ingredient for some, but growing up in a second generation American family, sour cream was a staple item in our house. The homemade sour cream is rich and thick and tangy, so much tastier than what you can find in the supermarket, and about half the price. I also like to buy various types of "farmer cheese" something that can be hard to find on the west coast and is crucial for making blintzes. There is even a spreadable version that is very similar to cream cheese, only much lower in fat.
The other favorites are smoked fish, both wild smoked salmon for only $7.99 a pound, cheaper than Costco, and for a few dollars more, a mixed tray of smoked fish which includes trout, sturgeon and other delicacies. I also like browsing through the myriad of pickled vegetables, the kinds that Russians depend upon to get through the harsh winters.
The last thing I indulge in is various kinds of dumplings. In an Italian deli, one buys ravioli, in a Chinese deli one buys dim sum, but in a Russian deli it's pelmeni and vareniki, two kinds of Russian dumplings. Vareniki come with sweet fruit or savory fillings, pelmeni are smaller and come stuffed with savory fillings. I especially like the potato, mushroom or meat filled ones.
But the store is so big, there is still a lot to explore. I still have to get my nerve up to try the cured meats, including Russian style bacon and various salads and who-knows-what-all-else inside the glass cases....
New World Market
5641 Geary Blvd. (at 21st Avenue)
San Francisco
415-751-8810
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Toffee Chocolate Matzah Crunch:Recipe
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Passover is a major Jewish holiday. It deals with the age old themes of slavery, freedom, persecution, solidarity, covenants, spring, renewal, redemption, etc. For two consecutive nights, a ritual meal is served and stories told, prayers recited, songs sung and much discussion occurs over what parts of the evening's agenda to "pass over". Actually the term Passover refers to the angel of death passing over the homes of the Jews in the days leading up to when the Jews fled Egypt, before Moses parted the Red Sea and received the ten commandments on Mount Sinai.
One thing that most gentiles know about Passover is that it's the holiday when Jews eat matzah. Matzah is unleavened bread and we eat it all week long to commemorate the holiday and be reminded of a time when we were slaves. Many gentiles of course think it's very interesting and delicious. My parents had an Italian exchange student who was positively in love with it and begged them to send him boxes of it. Crazy kid! To me, matzah is dreadful, only tolerable when spread with a thick layer of butter and sprinkled with salt. And day after day it gets to be pretty dull stuff. Sure you can get egg matzah or onion flavored but it's still akin to crispy cardboard.
That's what I thought until I discovered toffee chocolate matzah crunch. Oh that heavenly stuff! I never would have thought making matzah into candy was possible, but it is. This recipe is perfect for bringing to a Passover seder (dinner) or for using up leftover matzah. The original recipe comes from Marcy Goldman, cookbook author and editor of Better Baking. You can find many recipes for it online, but here's how I do it.
Toffee Chocolate Matzah Crunch
2 sheets of matzah
1/4 c butter
1/4 c brown sugar
2/3 cup chocolate chips
2-3 T chopped nuts--any kind but I like pistachios
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the sheets of matzah on a greased sheet of aluminum foil on a cookie sheet. Cook the butter and brown sugar until melted, then pour it over the matzah and bake it until bubbly and slightly toasty looking, maybe 5-7 minutes. Remove from the oven then sprinkle the chocolate chips on the matzah. You have to leave it for a minute or two to melt enough so you can spread the chocolate evenly across the matzah. Spread it then sprinkle it with chopped nuts. Put in the fridge until it hardens then break it into pieces and store in an air tight container.
Enjoy!
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Colores de Mexico
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Once a year, Macy's department store holds their annual flower show. This year the theme at San Francisco's Union Square store is Colores de Mexico. The store is filled with thousands of colorful azaleas, succulents, bromeliads, orchids, cacti, palm trees and bougainvillea. In additon to the flowers of Mexico, there are also lots of special events--including the flavors of Mexico brought to life by cooking demonstrations given by several Mexican chefs.
Yesterday's demonstration featured guest chef Patricia Quintana, author of 14 cookbooks including "Taste of Mexico" and owner of Izote restaurant in Mexico City. Early in her career, Quintana studied traditional French food with the legendary Paul Bocuse, but she is best known for having spent the last 30 years exploring the heritage and contemporary possibilities of Mexican cuisine.
Here are some of the tidbits Quintana shared:
1. When chopping hot chiles, lightly oil your hands to keep the chile oil from penetrating your skin.
2. Use the whole jalapeno when cooking. Don't remove the seeds and ribs as is often recommended. The jalapenos available today are not nearly as hot as they used to be and there is great flavor to be had in the jalapeno seeds.
3. Likewise do not discard the seeds of the tomato. Much of the flavor and texture of a tomato is in the seeds and the surrounding flesh. Use the whole tomato in recipes. For a garnish only she suggested seeding the tomato and slicing or chopping it.
4. Most dried chiles are known by a different name when fresh. A fresh jalapeno when smoked and dried becomes a chiptole. A dried serrano chile, is a morita and so on.
5. While many of the dishes of Mexico are the same all across the country, the variations are infinite. A tamal or taco is different not just from state to state in Mexico, but also differs within the states from the coastal regions to the mountainous inland.
One of the recipes demonstrated yesterday was Taquitos de Requeson or cheese taquitos and this is how Quintana made them. She crumbled cojito or Mexican farmer's cheese (though I imagine you could substitute a mild feta) and added a tiny bit of chopped jalapeno and chopped onion. She softened corn tortillas in the microwave for a few seconds, then spooned the cheese onto the tortilla. She pressed the cheese to keep it's shape, and then rolled the tortilla up, securing it with a toothpick. While she advocated steaming them in banana leaves which are commonly available here in Asian markets, she steamed them in a foil packed placed in a plastic bag and put in a steamer basket. She steamed them for a few minutes then topped them with a fresh pico de gallo salsa. It's a recipe I can't wait to try.
Colores de Mexico runs from April 2nd through the 17th at Macy's Union Square. For a calendar of events associated with Colores de Mexico, including cooking demonstrations by several other renown chefs, click here.
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Doubletree Cookies
Friday, April 02, 2004
My sister-in-law Lori is a bundle of contradictions. She is super smart and yet at times naive, she is successful but lives modestly. Lori is the president and owner of a financial consulting firm that has advised more than 200 California public agencies in the last 15 years; yet she looks after her clients and treats them like she treats her neighbors. In fact when clients come to her office, she serves them lemonade and cookies.
Some time ago Lori instituted the practice of sending out cookies to her clients as a holiday gift. She heard from a couple of her clients that the cookies (which were being sent from a very famous cookie company) sometimes arrived stale. After reading about The Christie Cookie Company in Inc. magazine she gave them a try. Not only were their cookies good and fresh but for a minimal set up fee, they offered the option of sending them in a customized tin with her company logo on it. Now it appears these are Government Financial Strategies cookies. Lori's business is famous all over California for those very cookies. And yours could be too.
Another business famous for it's cookies is the Doubletree hotel chain. If you've ever stayed at the Doubletree hotel, you've eaten a Christie Cookie. Christie Cookie is the sole source of the famous Doubletree chocolate chip cookie, two of which are given to each guest upon check in. Doubletree actually bakes them onsite, so guests can smell that chocolate chip cookie smell wafting through the hotel. One of the nice things about ordering Christie cookies is that just like the cookies you make, their cookies include fresh ingredients, like real eggs, butter, and French chocolate. While their cookies may not actually be homemade, they come awfully close. If you are so inclined you can order Doubletree cookies online.
By the way Christie Cookie was founded by Christie Hauck, and is no relation to the drag performer, Christie Cookies. Though I imagine she might also have some unique ideas for gift giving...
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