Orange Rosemary Infused Vinegar

This is more beautiful in person.  If I were a better photographer I could show you the confetti flecks of light on the table, how the rosemary presses up against the glass, floating orange zest like a golden, botanical snow globe and flecks of red chili peppers peeking out in between.

The real inspiration for infusing vinegar was this bottle.  We saw it, we wanted it and we needed an excuse to have it.  There is an unspoken rule in our New York apartment that if it doesn't have a function we don't need it.  Frankly because it probably doesn't fit.  But there it was refracting the summer sun onto the tag sale table on the side of the road in rural Pennsylvania.  So we took it home as memory of a lovely out-of-the-city weekend and found a way to put it to good use.

You don't need a beautiful bottle for this but it helps.  This isn't quite a recipe.  You want to heat up your  vinegar so that it is warm but does not boil.  Then pour it over your aromatics.  I used 2 garlic cloves, the zest of one orange, a sprig of rosemary and 2 tian jen chilis.

I would love to hear some of your ideas for infused vinegar...

Homemade Mascarpone

I know the kind of posts I should be writing.  Spring vegetables.  Memorial day grilling recipes.  You know, something seasonally appropriate.  I am not always so timely with my discoveries of regular with my writing routine.  This blog is my foodie journal writing and I suppose this is just where I find myself today, making cheese.

I am not sure why I want make cheese.  It isn't because it is difficult for me to acquire great artisanal cheeses of every variety.....from anywhere......in New York.  I think it is the beautiful science of it.  The slow thickening of liquid to cream or curd.  I like the slow ceremony of it: sterilizing, setting up the equipment, the quiet waiting and watching.  It forces me to slow down and stay in a moment.  Then the reward, a lighter, brighter milk and tang taste, with every bite a reminder of where cheese actually comes from.

I am starting small here.  Mascarpone is a mild, soft cheese and requires no major investments from a cheese making supply company. Although, butter muslin is not a bad idea since you may loose too much of this cheese through regular cheese cloth.  If you haven't had it, mascarpone is not unlike cream cheese.

This recipe is from Artisan Cheese Making at Home by Mary Karlin.  If you are thinking it might be nice to make cheese at home than you should definitely start with this book.  Karlin does such a wonderful job with breaking down types of cheeses, equipment you will need, vocabulary and where to get cheese-making supplies that, if you were ever intimidated, you will feel confident in trying these out at home.

• 1 lemon
• 2 cups of heavy cream
• 1/3 cup evaporated dry milk

Mary Karlin stresses that you have your equipment sterilized before hand.  A good sanitizing solution is 4 liters of water to 1 tablespoon of bleach.  Also, that your whisk and spoon are a non-reactive metal.  Below is a list of the kitchen gear you will need.

• 4 quart metal saucepan
• heatproof glass bowl that will sit over the sauce pan
• butter muslin or multiple layers of cheesecloth
• wire whisk
• metal spoon
• kitchen thermometer

Whisk together the cream and evaporated milk in the glass bowl.  Add about 2 inches of water to the bottom of the saucepan and set the bowl on top. Turn the heat on medium low and switch to a metal spoon.  The stirring is important because the cream forms a skin.  The idea is that you want the temperature of the cream to rise slowly until it reaches 180 degrees F.  It should take 40 minutes, give or take a few. Once it reaches 180 degrees, remove from the heat.  Slowly squeeze in juice from the lemon while stirring, one half at a time.  Refrigerate eight hours or overnight.  Strain your cheese in a colander through butter muslin (or about 5 layers of cheese cloth) to remove any excess moisture.  The mascarpone is now ready to eat.  It will last for about 2 days.

Accompaniments: Romanesco Sauce

You think this sauce is all about the peppers.  Try it again.  Roasted peppers, yes, but there is more going on here.  This sauce has more substance than that one ingredient can offer.  Actually, it is a nut based sauce, like pesto and, having tried it again, my less naive palate now gets that the nuts are as important to this sauce as the smoky ancho chili.  I served this with a simple steamed white flaky fish but that didn't keep us from dipping our crusts of bread right into the bowl.  Spanish in origin, I have often seen recipes that pair it with fish.  But why set up limitations?  Simple sauteed chicken or vegetables for dinner?  Pair it with romanesco sauce and huzzah! It's like a holiday!

Romanesco Sauce

• 1/2 a cup of tamari almonds (you can use regular almonds but tamari almonds are already seasoned with a little soy)
• 1 head of garlic
• 4 tomatoes
• 2 small sweet peppers or one red bell pepper
• 1 dried ancho chili
•  2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
• sea salt 
• 1/3 of a cup of good olive oil
• one glass of lukewarm water

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Core your tomatoes and peppers but keep them whole. Cut the top off the garlic head and discards any skin that is loose and falling off.  Place peppers and garlic in ceramic bake ware (like Corning ware).  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.  Roast for about 45 minutes covered.

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat.  Add almonds and toss for thirty seconds or until they become fragrant.  Remove almonds and add ancho chili.  Heat thirty seconds on each side.  It should also become fragrant.  Remove and soak in a glass of lukewarm water until it softens.

When roasted peppers and garlic are done, let cool.  When cool enough to touch, gingerly squeeze the garlic cloves out of the head.  Add all ingredients to your food processor and pulse.  If you don't have a food processor, you can use a large mortar and pestle to pound the ingredients into a paste. 

A Salt's Worth

Boy, did I get some good Christmas presents! Yes, my loved ones know this foodie well.   I won't bore you with the list but let me show you these salts I got.

I know good salt when I taste it,  like that crunchy, flaky, sea salt or specialty salts with hints of truffle or garlic.  The smoked salt in this picture smells like the inside a barbecue pit.  Last night we tried a little of the Hawaiian red salt in a tossed broccoli and chickpea salad.  It was great, but here is where the subtleties of salt get daunting.  I mean when you enter the zone of red, pink, gray and black salts it is hard to know when to use which salt.  It's a place where all white sea salts are not the same.  All of a sudden my culinary universe has grown.   Do I start with a row of tiny bowls and a caviar spoon?  How do I know which salt is best for which dish?

As you can see I am still very new to the wide world of salt but here is what I have learned so far.

• Hawaiian Red Alaea Salt gets its name and color from Alaea volcanic clay.  It is used in Hawaii to preserve meat, flavor pork at a luau and in a raw fish appetizer called poke.
• Sea salt does not actually have less sodium than table salt but because of its size and flavor, one tends to use less.  See here and also here.
• Black and pink salts tend to have a more mineral or sulfurous taste.  
• Fleur de sel  is sea salt harvested on the western central coast of France. 
• Whole foods has a good beginners salt guide.  Click here.

And here is what I recommend:

• If you live in NY go to Oil, Vinegar and Salt in Chelsea Market for and amazing selection of salts (as seen in pictures above and below. 
• Try smoked salt on Spanish mackerel because it is awesome!

Tell me more about salt.  I would love to here what you know.

Accompaniments: Pickled Serrano Chili Peppers

Usually, when I am making a dish that requires a hot pepper I only need one or two at a time.  But then there I am at the supermarket and all I see are packages of hot peppers.  There just isn't a way that I will use up 20 serrano peppers this week.  But I can pickle them to use later!  I always have a jar of pickled hot peppers in my fridge and I use them in place of the fresh ones in any recipe that calls for one.  They tend to be less hot but still very flavorful. 

Pickled Serrano Peppers

• 1 lime cut in eighths
• 1 clove of garlic sliced or quartered
• as many chili peppers as you can fit in a jar
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon coriander seed
• 3 tablspoons salt
• white vinegar

Add lime, peppers, garlic, spices adn salt to a 16oz sterilized mason jar.  (To sterilize a jar and lid, place them in a pot of boiing water for 10 minutes.  Add vinegar until it rises above one fourth of the jar.  Fill the rest of the jar up to the lip with water so no air gets in.  They are ready to go after about 2 days.

Accompaniments: Pickled Cipollini Onions

Okay, so I probably put too much thyme.  One sprig was more than sufficient, but look how pretty it looks in the jar.  Its like a little a plant with vines growing around smooth stones.  I love pickles and, truthfully, I love making them too.  Somehow it makes me feel both crafty and economical.  It appeals to my "no-waste" philosophy of living.  However, I so wanted to make these that I bought the onions for this purpose rather than them being leftover onions I decided to pickle.

Unlike most of the pickles I have made in the past, these are a short life pickle.  According to the original recipe I found the shelf life is about two to three weeks. I usually use a white vinegar diluted with water when pickling with a generous amount of salt as well.  In the few recipes I found for pickles that have a shorter shelf life, the vinegar of choice is a white wine vinegar, with less salt but more generous amounts of sugar (something I always leave out of my pickle recipes entirely) and a touch of oil.  Note: no water.
As you might expect, the result was a milder, less acidic taste with just a hint of sweetness.

Recipe adapted from Fine Cooking Issue February - March 2011

• 3/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 clove of garlic ( I used 2 small) peeled 
• 1 hot chili pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• as many cipollini onions as you can fit in a 1pint jar (peeled)
• 1 sprig of thyme

Cram the thyme and onions in your sterilized glass jar until you can't fit any more. Put all other ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Pour the liquid over he onions in the jar.  Tuck in your chili pepper, bay leaf and garlic cloves.  Open in two days.

To Burundi with Love: Pineapple Salsa as a Starter

Cooking is like giving.  It is a way I show affection and involves a careful attention of the needs of others. It requires sharing the flavors that I love with understanding the tastes, needs and sometimes lifestyle choices of the person I am are cooking for.  Writing is like remembering.  It is a way that I hold on to details and savor them.  It is natural for me that these two activities should go together.

This blog post is for Melissa.  Melissa is one of my oldest friends (as in going back the farthest in my memory, not oldest in age).  We met the second year of high school at our after school job in a library.  We may have had everything in common then except our tastes in food.  I have always been adventurous eater, even then.  Melissa grew to be one later but in those days a hamburger with cheese was a little too exotic ( really, no cheese, no bun).  I vaguely remember an issue with spaghetti sauce where Melissa reverted to noodles with ketchup.

Thankfully Melissa made it through that phase and so lessened the strain on our friendship (just kidding, Mel!).  These days both of us have varied our eating habits largely based on our social, political and environmental views as they relate to the food industry.  Melissa, although no longer shy about trying new flavors, is now a vegetarian.  So this noodle-and-ketchup girl did not hesitate to dig in to my fontina polenta topped with sauteed ramps.  Times certainly have changed. 

In addition to vegetarianism being on the list of contributions to a new way of looking at diet, Melissa currently lives  in Bujumbura, Burundi. We said goodbye in May before she moved and the question arose: "what will I eat?"  There was not much way of knowing what to expect in terms of what types of food would be available and in two years she is bound to get homesick for some familiar flavors.  Alas, no beloved broccoli in Burundi.  What does Melissa do without her broccoli?  "As soon as you get the chance send me a list of the foods that are most available and I will come up with recipes for them," I offered.

She has since assured me that she is eating alright although missing the occasional few comfort foods from home.  Recently though, she sent me that list. so I will devote some blog posts to the challenge of cooking in Burundi...from New York.

Cut the top and bottom of pineapple off so that it is easier to cut off the spiny skin.  Then you can take your knife and cut down along the side of the pineapple, removing the skin.

Pineapple Salsa

1 pineapple

2 serrano pepper (can substitute another hot pepper or chili)

2 scallions chopped fine

salt

3/4 cup chopped mint leaves (can substitute cilantro but you should probably use less)

Toss and refrigerate.  This is better when the flavors get a chance to mingle.  I would make this at least 2 hours in advance.  

This is a great pairing with tortilla chips or fried plantains (easily found in Burundi, I believe).

We are the same in our thirties as we were in our teens.

Accompaniments: Sweet and Sour Apple Jelly with Caramelized Onions

This summer I became a mad pickler.  I couldn't help it.  All it took was a few to many cucumbers and an extra head of cabbage from our CSA share and I couldn't stop.  I pickled radishes, peppers, red onions and jalapenos.  What can I say?  I am frugal.  I hate waste.  Didn't your mother ever tell you about the starving children in Africa?

The truth is I have more pickled cabbage in my fridge then I know what to do with.  I must admit it is nice to put homemade pickles on an appetizer plate with olives and cheese when an unexpected guest drops by.  Or maybe my guests are trying to be polite and really thinking "what's with all the pickles?"

Despite the (wait let me count them) six jars of pickles I have left in my fridge, I recently purchased a jar of red pepper jelly off my Long Island City CSA.  It did not last longer than a week.  That is a sure sign that I need to change gears in my food preservation efforts.

I started looking at different recipes for red pepper jelly. Their is definitely more than one way to achieve this sweet, hot, peppery goodness.  Being me, I came up with something a little different.  ( I have always had trouble following directions.)  This recipe focuses more on apples with just a little peppery heat.  I thought that caramelized onions would work really well with the sweetness of the apples.

I found these beauties at the Greenmarket in Maccaren Park.  How could I resist?

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon pectin

2 cups apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

4 (or more depending on how hot you like this) small hot peppers such as jalapeno, chopped 

2 apples, chopped

1 red onion chopped fine

Combine cider vinegar, salt, apples and peppers in a pot and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Cover a strainer with cheese cloth and set it over a heat proof bowl.  Let the liquid seep into the bowl and then discard the apples and peppers.  In a separate bowl mix together sugar and pectin.

In the same pot add grape seed oil and slow cook onions on low heat until they are soft and golden on the edges.  Then remove the onions and set aside on a paper towel.  Add the liquid/vinegar from the bowl and return to medium heat.  Slowly stir in sugar and pectin mixture.  While this is simmering use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the liquid.  When it reaches 215 or 220 degrees it is ready.  Add your onions and stir.  Spoon a little on to a cool plate to test.  It should gel when cool.

Serve with your favorite cheese and baguette!