Fancy Food Show 2009

I got this letter in my e mail from a reader....

PLEASE answer this online and not via e mail.

Do you use Crisco for frying?

Do raisins belong in a chicken salad?

Which mayo is better Dukes or Hellman's?

While I could certainly give an answer to the first two I had never heard of Dukes, until today at the Fancy Food Show in NY.

So reader stay tuned til the end of this column and I will address your questions, but first a few Fancy Food Show paragraphs.

I think it is time to change the name of this show, Fancy is no longer what it is about. In the past the introduction of new products was often an exotic show. To be able to get things from around the world was awesome, and sometimes it still is, but the majority of crap at this show is neither fancy, nor terribly good.

Do we need another potato chip? Puffed or otherwise?

Do we need 100 new jams that all taste of either corn syrup or too much sugar?

Do we need yet another BBQ sauce that tastes like Kraft?

Do we need another soft drink?

The answer is no, we don't. This show has become more about junk food than products used by Chefs. In order to find the gems I had to work the show for 3 days and at times I felt like a pig pursuing truffles. There were so few for all the sniffing around I did.

There are however some good things out there, and those I want to tell you about.

I have had a lot of truffle oil over the years but the best I have tasted was made by FungusAmongus the flavor is light but true and used as a finishing oil for a risotto...you are talking great food. Actually everything in the product line I tasted was top quality.



Speaking of truffles I rolled my eyes at Susan Rice truffled popcorn, but my eye roll was premature.
This is one of the most perfect snacks I have ever had, a perfect pairing, if you see it in an upscale market, grab it.

I love my friends at Aux Delices and both their white and black truffle butter are absolutely hands down the best. The won best of show last year and they deserved it. I tried a lot of truffle butter and some of it was very good, but no one can beat them.

I had some fun with the ladies at Nueske's today, Wisconsin ladies can be a hoot. Their bacon took an award this year and it was well deserved. It is hands down some of the best bacon I have ever had in my life. Apple wood smoked and just the right balance of fat and lean.


After 3 days I had Fancy Food Fatigue and did not want to taste further, but I am glad I did. Redwood Hill Farm is making an awesome Raw Milk Feta, it is aged for 60 days so it is a much mellower taste than the fresh feta. This is perfect grated onto a bit of toasted bread that has been rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil and served with figs and Malbec. I can state this with assurance because that was my dinner tonight along with a nice big salad. I am a happy camper now.

And onto the questions.....

I would use Crisco for nothing. Not a product I like. The taste can ruin delicate foods and make fried ones greasy. I like peanut oil for frying, but the truth is I very rarely fry food, so something better could be out there. Many southern cooks and grandmothers like bacon fat, and it can be pretty good. For potatoes nothing beats duck or goose fat.

As far as raisins in a chicken salad, I suppose if you like raisins then you should put them in your chicken salad. It was all the rage for a very short time when I was in Minneapolis as a youth. Someone put raisins in her chicken salad at a church pot luck, and then my friend Scott's mother used them. Back then grapes were not available year round and among the pot luck set this was considered 'very creative'. Personally I don't like them in much of anything and think that outside of Moroccan food they should never be inflicted upon guests.

Duke's is what ties this whole thing together. Before the e mail I had never heard of it. I tend to make my own for most foods, certainly when I cater I make it. Though they have no distributor yet Duke's was at the food show. Duke's beats the hell out of Hellman's. Hellman's contains sugar and you can taste it, it gives it that slight miracle whip thing. Duke's has no sugar and a bit more tang. If I were just using it on a sandwich or something at home...Duke's.

NY BBQ Festival and Elaine Stritch in Full Monty

To go from vegetables and greens to blocks filled with the smell of roasted pork and beef was a big change for me. I must admit the smell was intoxicating and I wanted to taste everything. I came close to doing so.

We have to mention Blue Smoke and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que for being willing to put their goods alongside the big boys of BBQ. Unfortunately it only highlighted that what we accept in NY is a pale imitation of the real thing.

Ubons is something special, Now they do serve it with a red sauce which is not something I usually enjoy but the one they make is vinegary and spicy, not sweet and cloying like the sauces with a corn syrup base. The real secret of Ubons is the rub. It contains a LOT of citrus with just the right amount of everything else and their Boston Butt is lightly smoky, falling apart tender and succulent beyond words, even without the sauce. Leslie and her mother were so kind and gave me a cup of the rub to take home.

Best in Show was Ed Mitchell of The Pit this is worth a trip to North Carolina. No culinary school for this master of the BBQ, he learned from his mother. As a kid he had no sisters and he was forced into the kitchen. Now grateful for the training he knows what to do with a hog.

The whole pig is pulled right off the BBQ and the skin set aside to go back on the BBQ to dry and crisp. The sauce is vinegar based and not at all sweet, just enough spice to tickle your taste buds. The proper way to make a sandwich is plenty of pulled meat, some crispy skin and Cole slaw. I was truly in BBQ heaven.

Comatose I packed some prunes and almond in my back pack after the festival was over and got on the train to New Jersey for the opening night of Full Monty with Elaine Stritch.

As expected Stritch makes magic doing a real character. Anyone in the tri state area...it's worth the trip.

What I've been eating

I've gotten a few e mail complaining about the lack of new recipes and the truth is that I have barely been cooking.

Dinner these days has been Arugula, probably more than anything else. It's wonderful spiciness is in the markets and growing right outside my bedroom window and I have been powerless to resist a salad and just a bit of something with it.

For lunch I have had a lot of Asian noodles in broth, or peanut sauce with a breakfast of a duck egg and some rye toast I have not been eating foods exciting to write about. But to me the first plate of stone cherries of the season holds more allure than a steak or even a pasta at present.

I've been recording and cataloguing recipes from my travels and diary so that I can remember how to make all the things I have collected over the decades. Heading to the theatre often and grabbing the odd bit of street food, or slice of pizza. This type of eating has it's own rewards. I have been delighted by the simplicity in my diet and the shedding of extraneous fat both on my plate and on my body. A bowl of broccoli with a bit of nutty rice IS a meal in the right company and frame of mind.

One of the random bits that was truly wonderful I will share.

1 big bowl of arugula dressed with rice wine, soy sauce and tossed with a bit of crispy bacon broken into bits. Placed on a flat pan I put a few spoonfuls of ricotta on it and under a hot broiler it went to warm the cheese. The arugula wilted just enough and the cheese made for a melty creamy counterpoint to the sharp salty dressing. A glass of Greco and a crust of bread it was quite satisfying.

For dessert, raspberries with a thick sour yogurt scooped on top.

Life needs to be simple every now and then.

fusiononthefly on Twitter

But I promise no updates as to my comings and goings and bathroom habits.

I am going to use it to alert people to great sales on food items in NY. Where to go for a good price or that special something delicious as well as any really worth theatre I see. While I use the web to post (no cell phone) I will try to make some posts as I travel so that you might find something truly tasty in your home city.

Freedom in meal planning -curry recipe

There is a great freedom in not planning your meals around meat.

When I was a kid we centered our meals around meat, at the very least we had ground beef and for holidays chunks of beef or a ham, eating well meant steak. That was the way I was raised, it wasn't a meal unless it was meat.

When I first moved away from home my budget was tight, but I knew how to make a chicken last so that I could eat meat every day.

I am not a vegetarian, but I now have much more freedom because I have no commitment to meat. I can just as easily plan a meal around vegetables or basil. I get inspired by Farmer's Markets more than butcher shops.

I often have anchovies, pancetta, or some stock I would use, but they are flavorings, not the star. tonight I am serving a lasagna stuffed with ricotta and olives.

If you like the allure of heady spices and have some greet tomatoes in your garden this preparation will make you very happy.

4 to 6 servings

4 to 6 nice sized greet tomatoes chopped
2 small zucchini cubed
12 green onions sliced half way up the stalk in 1/2 inch segments
2 cloves roughly chopped garlic
2 cups fresh arugula
Olive oil
Curry powder Madras blend
1/2 cup Greek style yogurt
Salt
Pepper

Toss your vegetables and garlic with olive oil and curry powder. You want to coat with curry and the smell should be super fragrant, but not overpowering. Indi makes a great Madras blend which is far superior to the jar mixes in the grocery.

Put veg on baking sheet and roast in a hot (400) oven for roughly 30 minutes. The zucchini should be soft, but you don't want mush. Have Arugula in a bowl, top with the roasted veg and toss on the yogurt. Mix as if it were a salad, the yogurt will coat everything and the heat of the vegetables will wilt the zucchini. Serve with basmati rice.

Risotto Carbonara

Many years ago I saved up my Lire for my first trip to Italy. I had no particular agenda but I was determined to see Venice. I landed in Rome and spent a few days wandering the streets and tasting some of the most wonderful food I had ever had in my life. I was on a serious budget so breakfast and lunch were at a bakery of coffee bar, but what bakeries and coffee bars they were. The pleasure of a bit of bread with fresh tomato, salt and olive oil cannot be underestimated. The Italians know and love food.

In Venice the prices rose and my first day all of my meals were from the same bakery, that along with fruit from a street vendor made me very happy and gave me the fuel to explore this incredible city. The next day I decided to throw lire to the wind and eat at a serious Venetian eatery. I had my first risotto, the creaminess, the bit, the mushrooms, and peas and bit of truffle were beyond my culinary comprehension. Back in Minneapolis, even with Julia Child and Betty Crocker as my teachers I had imagined nothing this exquisite.

Young and bold I went into the kitchen, found the Chef and asked if he would show me how to make Risotto like that. Fortunately he spoke some English and told me to be in his kitchen the next day at 7 a.m.

My first day I was handed a knife, I diced the shallots, sliced mushrooms and took a break with the crew for some coffee and toast at 9. Because I was American they gave me an egg as well. I chopped, diced, stirred and stayed until 10 that night. On my third day they gave me the stock, the rice, the spoon and a place in the line. I was to make Risotto. That night it was to be with mushrooms and peas. I had a series of spoons to taste with along the stages because I had to learn when it was perfect. Risotto is an art, not a science and each order was done individually.

In the middle of a very busy night a waiter came into the kitchen and told the chef that an American had ordered his Risotto Carbonara, it was said with derision. They guys in the kitchen scoffed and I am sure cursed the customers in Italian. This was NOT a Venetian dish. While I am sure it has been tried somewhere they had never heard of such heathen.

"Ci." The chef came over to me and handed me some chopped pancetta to crisp and an egg yolk with cream beaten into it and guided me to make sure I did not serve scrambled eggs. We both tasted and I think he was surprised at the creamy goodness of it. As the restaurant closed he asked me to make a large batch for the staff meal. It was a hit, who knew an awful American customer could ask for the wrong thing and still get a good meal.

I spent 5 days watching and absorbing and being well fed in that kitchen and was shocked beyond all measure when they handed me an envelope with cash in it on my last day. They paid me to learn, I was in shock and thrilled beyond measure.

I took not only money but a wealth of information about what makes the Venetian food so exquisite and the ingredients for a bastard dish that is delicious, Risotto Carbonara.

1 cup Abborio Rice
1/2 cup finely diced pancetta
A Good splash of olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup finely diced shallots
3 cups stock (chicken works best, but any stock can work)
1/2 cup cream
1 egg yolk
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
A good dash Romano cheese grated
A few dashes of salt

Saute the pancetta until crisp, remove with slotted spoon leaving behind any fat it renders. Add a splash of olive oil and saute the shallots until soft. Add the rice stirring for about two minutes until you begin to smell the toasty rice, then stir in about 1/3 of the broth. Continue cooking ans stirring until the liquid is absorbed. Bit by bit stir in the remaining rice and cook until liquid is absorbed. When the rice reaches that creamy stage with a bit of bite stir in the peas and pancetta and cheese, beat your egg and cream and turn the heat to LOW. Gently stir in the butter til melted and the yolk and cream mixture, it will gradually thicken, beware of high heat or the mix will scramble. Plate and garnish with a bit more grated cheese.

The origins of Carbonara are muddy, but we know it came from the hill cities outside of Rome, but in the hands of a Venetian...Make it and taste for yourself.

No garlic, no onions, no pork and a Puttanesca 2009

I had a week of challenges. I subbed at a restaurant with a large catering division and put out food for 160 people in 3 hours. After completing the prep for the next day I learned that I would have to tone down the onions, garlic and portion sizes. So we adapt. If I go back I have a better sense of what they need and we got the food out in time 2 days in a row, a very good thing.

It led me to begin thinking along the lines of Italian food that naturally contains no onions or garlic and I was very fortunate that I was thinking along those lines.

I arrived at the house where I was to cook for a large group of guests for the weekend and after prepping for the first meal the hostess came to the kitchen and told me she had just found out one of her guests could not tolerate garlic or onions and not to serve pork. Of course both her Italian menu for Friday and her Spanish for Saturday featured not only the intolerable ingredients but a suckling pig. Her staff ate very well and I scrambled to redo the menu.

The antipasto was no problem, Orange and fennel, roast asparagus, etc. Not a problem there but she had asked for a Puttanesca sauce for the pasta course. What could I do, I roasted the cherry tomatoes, melted some anchovies in white wine, chopped the olives and threw it all together with some capers and a splash of some good olive oil. I grabbed a taste, acceptable and we served. The remainder of the pasta sat in the pan while the Pollock was served and after they had their sorbet I, starving at this point grabbed the now cold pasta and a fork.

Wow...what a difference time had made. The olive had permeated the pasta and the juice of the tomato released with that faint salty anchovy taste, this was really good.

Don't rush to serve this hot, let it rest and have with a glass of Rose on a warm spring night.

1 lb pasta
1 cup white wine
8 anchovies chopped
2 cups of green olives, pitted and divided
1/2 cup capers
2 cups cherry tomatoes roasted til the skins burst with a touch of salt and oil.
Your best olive oil
2 cups chopped fresh basil

Warm the anchovies in the wine, they will naturally dissolve. Cook the pasta and toss all the ingredients together with a good dose of your best olive oil until combined. Go have some vegetables and come back in an hour. Eat like you have all the time in the world and savor every flavor.

A few of my favorite things

The process of making fish past is a bit like the old fashioned way of pressing grapes. (pictured.)

Everyone who cooks has some tips and tricks that wake up the flavor of food. Sometimes it takes only a little bit of something to balance the flavor and tittilate the taste buds. For a job I was doing for the short term (we'll see) I was told to cut back on the onions and garlic, I do admit I rely on the heavily but there are many other ways to get a taste kick.

Hot Peppers: All kinds from the jalapeno the the habanero taste terrific to me. I love the heat. For most however it just takes a few shakes or grinds to bring up the flavor of a dish. If you have a soup that's a little bland, just a touch of hot pepper can help wake up the other flavors.

Fermented Fish Paste/Shrimp paste: No kidding, if you have never tried this give it a shot. It adds umami that newly discovered taste sensation without MSG or any nasty ingredients (read the labels of course). I've snuck a bit into pasta dishes that were otherwise traditional, and fish paste rocks. Anchovies can do much of the same thing, but the fermentation ads it's own dimension.

Salt: Often when friends ask me to taste something they ask what it needs and the answer is often salt. Get a nice sea salt and don't be afraid of it. Mashed potatoes, gravies, rice....multitudes of dishes can be improved with just a little salt.

Butter: If a sauce does not quite have that rich mouth feel or the fish is a little dry, use some butter. Never margarine, any anyone with taste buds who has tried 'I can't believe it's not butter' knows that the name is a lie. Your first bite and you know it is a science project, not food. Believe me, don't use it, even in baked goods.

Olives are another umami sensation, if you are doing a simple vegetable toss with a few olives and olive oil and it becomes worthy of a trattoria. Play with your food and try an unconventional ingredient in a traditional dish and wake up your palate.

Bea Arthur's leg of lamb

The last time I saw Bea Arthur was when she brought her stage show back to New York for one night to benefit the Ali Forney center her in New York.

I got involved with the center when they needed a wine donation for the after party. Bea did the show barefoot so I got Erica Brandler from Barefoot Cellars involved and we helped make the party a success.

Bea was in top form strutting back and forth on the stage and as those of you who have seen the show remember...she recited her leg of lamb recipe.

At the party afterwards I approached her, she was sitting in the back of the restaurant. I had to ask..."any particular proportions for the ingredients in the lamb prep"?

In her deep booming voice she responded..."How big is your lamb?"

"I don't know."

"Trust your instincts, use a lot of mustard to coat and enough of everything else to make it taste good."

I did as instructed and it was good...very good, and so today I share with you Bea Arthur's lamb. Trust your instincts....I like mine with a lot of garlic and rosemary and sandwiches the next day, ....to live for.

A lot of Dijon mustard
Some olive oil
Some ground ginger
A lot of garlic ground up
A lot of Rosemary crushed enough to release the oils
Some salt

Mix into a paste and make some scores in the surface of the leg. Rub it all in, let it rest in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.

Put a meat thermometer in near the bone and roast 'til the lamb reaches 140 at 375 degrees. Cover with foil and let rest for a bit then carve. It should be a nice medium pink.

Bea loved to entertain. Have a few friends over and thank them for being your friends, then raise a glass to Bea.

Springtime Pollock

In New York we are getting some great Pollock from the Alaskan waters, both fresh and frozen. What I really love about this fish vs. other white fish is the texture. It has a richness that lends itself to so many preparations. I had eaten it with an anchovy caper sauce, I had done it in a stew, and I wasn't feeling creative, but I had fish and a guest coming for dinner.

I went on Facebook and my friend Robert made a suggestion that became a recipe...it's really good, and if you are lucky enough to have fresh herbs you are really in for a treat. This is for two, but it can be easily doubled.

Salt and pepper two nice fillets and set aside.

1 cup halved cherry or grape tomatoes
Splash of White Wine
2 anchovies cut into bits
A nice handful of spring chives
About a quarter cup of chopped parsley
1 teaspoon of butter
2 nice wedges of lemon

Barely cook the fillets in a nonstick skillet and place on warm plates in the oven. Get the skillet hot and place the tomatoes cut side down in the pan and cook for about 3 minutes until the skin just begins to shrivel, they may brown a bit. Hit with the wine and anchovies and toss around. Melt in the butter, as you toss int he parsley turn off the heat and spoon the sauce over the fish and top with fresh chives. Serve with the lemon.

Because it is California artichoke season I served these with artichoke hearts warmed in oil and garlic and sprinkled with Romano cheese.

If you have always been a cod or sole person...try a little Pollock. Trust me on this one.

Rice Cakes starring the Ham of God

Typically I made these with Smoked duck, or some really good sausage, but I know many of you will have Ham leftovers after tomorrow and they work well with the ham.

The Ham of God sits on many Easter tables all over the country and after a sandwich many can't wait to get rid of the stuff. If they are lucky they have a bone to cook with some beans, but fortunately this recipe does not require a bone.

1 cup leftover ham diced into tiny bits
1 small onion diced into tiny bits
2 cups cold sticky rice (Sushi rice works best, but Thai broken rice is nice as well. NO Uncle Bens or Minute)
2 eggs
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne pepper
(1/4 cup of finely chopped leftover veg can be added)
Bread crumbs

Mix everything together except the bread crumbs and roll into balls. Press the balls into the crumbs and chill. Place cold patties into a nonstick skillet with a touch of oil and fry til crisp and hot.

I like them for breakfast with a couple of eggs, but you eat them for any meal that amuses you.

The Ham of God, like the Turkey of Thanksgiving will eventually be consumed.