Downton Abbey Wines to Be Released

For all Downton Abbey fans, it was announced this past week that a collection of Downton Abbey wines -- Bordeaux clarets and blancs will be introduced in time for season 4.

According to Fox News:  The range of Bordeaux clarets and whites are the type of clarets imported by the British aristocracy from France in the early 1900s. The recreated wines are from grapes grown on the same vines and from the same soil as the era depicted in Downton Abbey.

I wonder if Carson would approve of the wine.

Sources:  HuffingtonPost.com and FoxNews.com

Tableware affects how food tastes

I thought this was fascinating. . . see the full story (super short article). 

The size, weight, shape and color of your cutlery can affect how food tastes, a new study suggests. In the research, participants thought white yogurt tasted sweeter than pink-colored yogurt when eaten from a white spoon, but the reverse was true when a black spoon was used, reported usnews.com. Full Story

Drink Recipe: Strawberry Ginger Basil Cocktail

I needed a refreshing drink during pool time this afternoon and made this cocktail inspired by the recipe in this week's US Weekly.  It's simply:  muddled strawberries and basil, strawberry vodka, and topped with Fever Tree Ginger Beer.  It was a little sweet for my taste, so next time, I'll use less ginger beer and top it off with club soda.

The recipe in US Weekly is called Grey Goose Paradise Presse -- the cocktail was served at the L.A. Dance Project Gala held earlier this month and uses orange juice, strawberry juice, Grey Goose Le Citron vodka, sugar, club soda, strawberries and basil.  (No ginger beer.)  The headline touts that Rashida Jones and Natalie Portman "toss back this berry refreshing aperitif." 

Yes, berry refreshing!

Recipe: Thomas Keller's puree of garlic potatoes

Thomas Keller's puree of garlic potatoes from his ad hoc at home cookbook (p.223) is now my go to recipe for making mashed potatoes.  It's really amazing how his recipes elevate the most basic everyday foods.  Even the names of his recipes sound fancy.  I mean, this is mashed potatoes, but he calls the dish "puree of garlic potatoes."

My changes/shortcuts for this recipe:

• Made half the recipe which is about 4 servings.
• Used a potato ricer instead of a food mill.
• Instead of making the garlic confit (p.266) which takes 40 minutes, I minced 2 large garlic cloves and then cooked them in a couple of tablespoons of canola oil (and made sure not to overbrown or burn the garlic).

We will definitely be serving this at dinner parties at our house.

Guest Post: Summer Corn & Asparagus Salad

Thanks for letting me contribute to the Foodie Friends Test Kitchen!

A couple of months ago I found a beautiful photo of "corn and asparagus salad" on Pinterest. Normally I check the links to make sure I can actually see the recipe or content. This time, I was mesmerized by the photo and pinned without caution.  It went on to my "Summer Eats" board.

Fast forward two months and The Guy (my hubby) came home from the grocery store this weekend with corn and asparagus. Bingo! Back on Pinterest I went in a hurry, looking for the recipe behind the amazing photo. (Insert wha wha wha sound) No link could be found.

So, I improvised. And it was awesome. (I should say "we" because it was a team effort between me, "The Lady" and "The Guy") here is what we did:

Grocery List:
3 small/medium ears of corn
8 large spears of asparagus
I small to medium scallion
Fresh basil
White wine vinegar (just in case your pantry doesn't have it)

Shuck the corn and trim the asparagus (break the stems where they naturally want to)
Drizzle with olive oil, lightly salt and pepper.

GRILL - The Guy is a grill master, he cooks veggies quickly over relatively high heat (charcoal) until very slightly charred and perfectly al dente.

Cool the veggies - cut the corn off the cob when it's cool enough to handle (don't cut too close to the cob, it gets starchy).  Cut the asparagus into inch long pieces (I cut them on a bias) and put in the fridge.

Finely chop the shallot and the basil (I used about 2 tbsp chopped) Put in a bowl with a tablespoon of white wine vinegar. Mix and put in the fridge.

Combine the "dressing" with the veggies then salt and pepper to taste. Sounds so easy, but the fresh ingredients make it a perfect summer side dish. I'm sure you could sub out basil for lots of other favorite herbs, but it was perfect in my book.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Thomas Keller's endive and arugula salad with peaches and marcona almonds

We cooked a couple of recipes out of Thomas Keller's ad hoc at home cookbook the other day.  The endive and arugula salad with peaches and marcona almonds (p. 140) sounded like a lovely summertime salad, and it was.  It just took a little bit of time because I had to make the peach puree (p.249) first.  However, here are some shortcuts and things we changed:

the peach puree

• I used ONE peach to make about a 1/4 cup of puree.
• Even though the peaches I bought weren't perfectly ripe, I peeled them with a paring knife and skipped the first step of putting them in boiling water and then an ice bath to cool.
• I also didn't strain the puree through a fine-mesh basket strainer because I'm fine with a chunky dressing (and it wasn't even that chunky, just thick).
• I have a candy thermometer and could've made sure that the puree reached 215-220 degrees F, but I didn't.

the salad

• Because endive gets pricey, we used a baby spring mix that didn't have arugula.  I think the arugula would've added a nice touch and extra dimension to the salad, so I'll add that next time as called for by the recipe.

A note on the recipe says that in the fall, pears can be substituted for the peaches in both the puree and salad.  I love pears and so will definitely be trying that out!

Definition: Kosher Salt

So, what is kosher salt exactly. . . I mean, why is it called KOSHER salt?

From Wikipedia.com:

Koshering salt, usually referred to as kosher salt in the US, is a variety of edible salt with a much larger grain size than some common table salt. Like common table salt, kosher salt consists of the chemical compound sodium chloride.

Unlike some common table salt, kosher salt typically contains no additives such as iodine, although some brands will include anti-clumping agents in small amounts. Additive-free nonkosher salt is also readily available.

The term "kosher salt" comes from its use in making meats kosher by removing surface blood, not from its being made in accordance with the guidelines for kosher foods as written in the Torah, as nearly all salt is kosher, including ordinary table salt. One salt manufacturer considers the term ambiguous, and distinguishes between "kosher certified salt" and "koshering salt": "koshering salt" has the "small, flake-like form" useful in treating meat, whereas "kosher certified salt" is salt that has been certified as such by an appropriate religious body.

Also, as you probably know from experience -- it dissolves easily and provides flavor without oversalting.

Recipe: Hot Pepper Noodles

Update on Hot Pepper Noodles (original post was on 3/27/13 - see below).

Have you ever made a recipe, thinking that it was something you'd never made before until realizing it later?  We made Hot Pepper Noodles which I thought was a brand new recipe until I started writing this post and realized that we'd made it before over 2 months ago!  When eating dinner, I even mentioned that it was the best Asian dish we'd ever made (a la my comment below).

This time it was even better:

• Used flat rice noodles which fit the dish perfectly (and is what the recipe calls for).
• Added chicken AND tofu (firm)
• Used FRESH basil from our garden!
• Because of the amount of ingredients we added (3 chicken breasts, 1 whole block of tofu), we made 1.5x the amount of sauce, although next time I'd make twice the amount of sauce.

------------------------------------------------------------------

This past weekend, we made the Hot Pepper Noodles recipe in Bon Appetit's March 2013 issue (p. 22).  This was a fabulous (and quick and easy) Asian dish -- it was a write-in request from a reader who wanted the recipe from Penny's Noodle Shop in Chicago.  It's one of the best Asian recipes we've made; we'll definitely make it again.  Just looking at this photo is making me hungry. . .

Here are a few tips and changes we made to the recipe:

• Used thin rice noodles.
• Added shrimp to the dish and next time will add tofu too.  (This will require making more of the sauce since tofu tends to absorb sauce easily.)
• Added red pepper flakes when cooking the chicken and shrimp to add heat to the dish.
• Added scallions but won't do this next time because the scallions got overpowered by the other ingredients.
• Will add double or even triple the amount of basil next time.

Fatty Foods May Cause Cocaine-like Addiction

(This is old news and was on CNN Health back in March 2010.)

However, I was reading an article recently on this topic and decided to do a little more research and found this CNN article that originally was in Health Magazine.

Basically, fattening foods are addictive.  I'm not surprised.

A study in rats suggests that high-fat, high-calorie foods like bacon and cheesecake affect the brain in much the same way as cocaine and heroin. When rats consume these foods in great enough quantities, it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction.

Perhaps this is why there are so many people overweight/obese in the U.S.

In the study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the researchers studied 3 groups of lab rats for 40 days. One of the groups was fed regular rat food. A second was fed bacon, sausage, cheesecake, frosting, and other fattening, high-calorie foods--but only for one hour each day. The third group was allowed to pig out on the unhealthy foods for up to 23 hours a day.

Guess what happened?

The rats that gorged themselves on the human food quickly became obese. But their brains also changed. By monitoring implanted brain electrodes, the researchers found that the rats in the third group gradually developed a tolerance to the pleasure the food gave them and had to eat more to experience a high.They began to eat compulsively, to the point where they continued to do so in the face of pain. When the researchers applied an electric shock to the rats' feet in the presence of the food, the rats in the first two groups were frightened away from eating. But the obese rats were not.

Apparently, our processed food is similar to cocaine -- white bread, corn syrup, etc. 

No more high fructose corn syrup in our house!  That means no more Mrs. Butterworth's syrup!

Recipe: Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad with Citrus Dressing

Last night, we tried out Food and Wine Magazine's "Best First Course Salad" recipe from British chef Jamie Oliver -- Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad with Citrus Dressing.  It was originally published in their Sept 2008 issue but then was republished recently in their Best-Ever Recipe issue (p. 58. . .  I can't tell which issue it was since I tore the recipe out of the magazine, but it was from the past 4 months).

It was a really nice salad, but note that you must love cumin since the cumin flavor really comes through! 

I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but it still turned out great . . .

• I left out:
• Fresh chile de arbol since none of the stores I went to had it
• Ciabatta bread
• Baby arugula
• Roasted sunflower seeds (which we could've added because I found a small package in our pantry after-the-fact)
• Didn't toss the avocados and the greens because I didn't want the avocados to break apart and get mushy
• The carrots had enough flavor from the cumin dressing, so instead of tossing them in the citrus dressing, I tossed the greens with the dressing.

I would definitely make this again for a dinner party!

Definition: Osteria

I've seen so many restaurants named Osteria-something like Osteria Via Stato, Osteria Stellina, Osteria Coppa, and so on.

What does osteria mean? 

[I think the info below applies primarily to the osteria in Italy, not in the U.S., based on my experience.]

An osteria in Italy was originally a place serving wine and simple food. Lately, the emphasis has shifted to the food, but menus tend to be short, with an emphasis on local specialities such as pasta, grilled meat or fish, and often served at shared tables. Ideal for a cheap lunch, osterie (the plural in Italian) also cater for after work and evening refreshment.

Osterie vary greatly in practice: some only serve drinks and clients are allowed to bring in their own food; some have retained a predominantly male clientele whilst others have reached out to students and young professionals. Some provide music and other entertainment. Similar to osterie are bottiglierie, where you can take a bottle or flask to be re-filled from a barrel, and enoteche which generally pride themselves on the range and quality of their wine. In Emilia-Romagna are located two of the oldest italian osterie: the "Osteria del Sole" in Bologna and "Osteria al Brindisi" in Ravenna, both established in the mid 15th century.

Source:  Wikipedia.com

Definition: Kohlrabi

I was reading one of my fashion e-mails I receive last week, and they did a feature on kohlrabi, saying that it's the next big thing.

What is kohlrabi?

According to wikipedia.com, kohlrabi (German turnip) is a perennial vegetable, and is a low, stout cultivar of cabbage. Kohlrabi can be eaten raw as well as cooked.

The taste and texture of kohlrabi are similar to those of a broccoli stem or cabbage heart, but milder and sweeter, with a higher ratio of flesh to skin. The young stem in particular can be as crisp and juicy as an apple, although much less sweet.

In doing some research online, I may be behind the times!  There seems to have been a proliferation of articles on kohlrabi last year around this time.  In any case, I'll let you know if we find the vegetable and cook some up. . .

Paiche

We wanted fish for dinner, so I stopped by Whole Foods after work.  Paiche was on sale.  I had never heard of that type of fish, but the fishmonger told me that it was a mild white fish (and new to Whole Foods).  We tried it. . . sauteeing it with butter, garlic, salt and pepper.  I would buy it again!  It reminded me a little bit of Chilean sea bass.  Good texture and not a strong fishy flavor.

I looked up paiche on wikipedia.com:
The arapaima, pirarucu, or paiche (Arapaima gigas) is a South American tropical freshwater fish. It is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world.

Apparently it can grow to be 500 lbs.  It is unusual in that it is an air-breathing animal and it lives in the shallow, muddy waters of river-beds, popping up every 15 to 20 minutes for air. Marine scientists consider the paiche to be a living fossil, a direct link back to the Jurassic period.

It was an ingredient on Iron Chef with Masaharu Morimoto vs. Justin Bogle.  Maybe I'd know what paiche was if we had cable because The Food Network would be on 24/7!