Inspiration Outing #5: Sfogliatelle

This is a dark and sinful breakfast.  This is not your hearty eggs and toast or healthy yogurt and fresh fruit.  This is sugar and creamy, cheesy filling with a flaky, pastry crust.  Then sometimes there are those subtle flecks of citron.  There's the satisfying crunch as you break through the layers (le sfoglie) to the sweet creamy center.  Now there are flecks of sfogliatella crumbs all over your cheeks and down the front of your shirt.  This is where I start bargaining with myself.  Just one more and I will start running every morning before work.  Two and I will take the forty-five minute walk home this week.  I have no will power.  I crumble and sip my cappuccino knowing full well that I won't even so much as double my yoga classes.

The first time I can remember appreciating a sfogliatella was in in Naples.  I had had them before but never did they stand out as memorable as this one time.  It was many years ago and I was visiting relatives and friends in Italy during my August vacation.  I met up with my cousin, Livia and we took the train from my father's hometown in Frosinone south to Naples, where she was living and going to school.  She was opening up her world to me, I got to see her apartment, her city.  I was so eager I had my bag packed within the hour.  Livia was a native Italian, raised in southern Lazio.  Our father's were brothers.  Mine came to live in the US, hers stayed in Italy.  There had always been so much geographical distance between us that I was curious about her daily life, her friends, her routine, her home.

Livia spoke no English but was remarkably patient with my Italian.  I marveled at how easy it was to understand her but I realize she must have made a real effort to speak slowly and simple for her American cousin, who talked way too much in a language that had not been mastered.  We talked about art, food and agriculture.  We giggled about things I don't remember in between.  

Livia promised to introduce me to her favorite Neapolitan foods and the best places to get them.  The first place we went to was a coffee bar right outside the train station.  It was a small bar with a long counter and we ordered two espressos and two sfoglietelle.  The bar was full of stocky middle-aged men smoking and talking loudly with snapping hand movements.  Clearly this place had never had an interior designer, or even a picture on the wall, but still it had an atmosphere simple because it had absorbed  Naples, its people, its sounds, smells and tastes.  As I sipped my coffee and bit into what I will forever consider my first real Napoletano pastry, everything around me seemed to drop away from the pleasure of that moment.  Livia squeezed her coffee colored eyes in a blink and a nod to say "you are very welcome."  

This is me in front of Egidio's off Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.  I have had this sweet in many a pastry shop in NY but this was my first time at Egidio's.  It was light on the cream filling (which was nice actually), minus the citron and had a wonderful light, flaky crust.  Another place in NY with a killing sfogliatella is Paneantico in Bay Ridge.  What can I say?  For good sfogliatella you have got to travel. 

My Sweet Spot: Chai Tea Ice Cream

A rainy day in March off a street in Berlin is a strange place to have first tried an Indian chai tea, but that is how it happened.  I was young traveler in the nineties with a backpack and a eurail pass, bought with pennies saved from waiting tables. Dewey and fresh-faced, I hopped around Europe hoping to collect adventures like postage stamps and come home more interesting and worldly.

Berlin greeted me with lots of rain and some friendly faces in pubs that sold me bratwurst in cumin-laced ketchup.  I had no agenda and no cell phone, a luxury I can not even fathom today.  Still I managed to meet up with fellow dewey and fresh-faced traveler-come-waitress friend on rainy day number three and we explored the city with ducked heads and hunched shoulders.  When the chill got too much for our thin coats, we ducked into an Indian cafe for some warmth and nourishment.  I don't remember what it was called or where we were but we sat by the water streaked window.  My traveling companion ordered us two cups of chai tea.  The tea was warm and rich with cinamon and clove, and I started to thaw like someone had plopped me in front of an open fire and thrown a fuzzy blanket around my shoulders.

Since then I have had many cups of chai tea on a chilly afternoon.  It isn't just the hot liquid but the richness of the sugar, milk and spices that can be such a comfort.  I have made some pretty successful chai tea cupcakes in the past.  This day I made chai tea ice cream, a twist on my earlier post on the the italian affogato.

It has been raining here but it isn't March and I am not ready for tea.  The sun is out again. I think I will savor the fleeting summer a little bit longer.

Chai Tea Ice Cream

Makes one pint:

• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 chai tea bag
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon cinamon

On very low heat in a saucepan, heat milk and cream with the tea bag.  Heat until the tea is infused into the milk and cream. Let cool to room temperature. In an electric mixer or using a hand mixer, blend the egg and the sugar.  Add vanilla and cinamon to the egg and sugar and blend.  While the mixer is still going, pour in the milk and cream tea mixture.  Add to your ice cream maker and proceed according to its instruction manual.

Dinner on the Fly: Baked Eggplant with Tomato, Ricotta and Basil Oil

Are you tired of these super simple recipe posts yet? Just let me know and I will post some twenty-seven step French entree that spins and shoots off fireworks in front of your dinner guests.  It's not that I am lazy.  It's just that these late summer vegetables won't last forever.  I don't want to make them saucy or cook them down to a ragu.  I want to taste them the way they are right now.  I want to savor their bright flavor as I squint into the low, golden sunshine of Indian Summer.  I hope school never starts.

Don't bother making this dish if your tomatoes are not sweet.  They must be red, not orange.  Do you hear me?  Because that is the color of a tomato.  Red.  Ideally you should use a small, fresh eggplant but if you have one of the large purple-black ones from the super market, slice them in rounds, salt them and let them stand for about twenty minutes to half an hour.  This should take some of the bitterness out of them.  Basil is a must here.  If I only plant one herb in the Spring, (which this Spring I did) it is basil.  It smells like the color green to me.  Hurricane Irene uprooted my basil plant (thankfully our only damage) so I pureed the last of its fragrant leaves in olive oil.  That way we could hold on to its flavor a little longer.  The ricotta is homemade which is surprisingly easy and a recipe post to come.  In fact I have a new contributor to this blog.  Janice, will you do the honors please?

I am stopping here.  Let me post this before it is too late.  Run to your farmer's market!  Get the last tomatoes and eggplant before they are gone! 

Baked Eggplant, with Sliced Tomato, Ricotta and Basil Oil

• One large tomato, very fresh, very red, sliced
• One small eggplant cut into rounds
• Olive oil
• sea salt
• one dollop of ricotta
• drizzle of balsamic vinegar or balsamic cream (essentially like a balsamic reduction and can be bought in specialty stores or homemade) I found a great recipe for balsamic reduction however  here.

For the basil oil:

• One 2 foot overturned basil plant or 4 cups of basil leaves 
• 1 to 2 cups of olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and cut into quarters
• sea salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss your eggplant rounds in a sprinkle of sea salt and olive oil.  You want enough olive oil to coat your eggplant.  The eggplant will absorb your olive oil quickly, so you don't want to let this sit.  Spread them out on your baking sheet with some space between them.  Not much, just enough so that they are not touching. Bake until they are tender and the skins are slightly shriveled.  In a food processor, add your basil leaves and garlic and pulse.  Add your olive oil slowly and in batches in order to get the consistency that you want.  Salt to taste.

Layer your eggplant over the sliced tomato.  Add a dollop of ricotta (preferably home-made but we will get to that later) and drizzle with the basil oil and balsamic cream.

Dinner on the Fly: White Peach and Beet Salad

Sometimes I am not a good cook.  It's true.  Sometimes I don't even want to turn on my stove.  But I will for the mere necessity of eating dinner during the week.  For a few weeks I will spiral downward into a vortex of mediocre dinners.  To make it worse, my kitchen is almost never clean.  Truth is I just don't like takeout food.  But somehow there needs to be a compromise between making a perfect dinner, following recipes and being faithful to my trusted techniques, and having Styrofoam boxes of greasy food delivered to my door.  I am trying to convince myself that certain recipes are so little work that there is no difference betwwen throwing one together and ordering takeout.  Although that isn't always true I am trying to get as close to that statement as a goal as possible.  Maybe even eating something that is sure to keep my kitchen clean.  I want what I want, right?  And who says I can't have everything?

Then sometimes dinner comes together. A new recipe comes from just eyeing a combination of goodies in the fridge. Maybe it's the season.  Call it an accident.  A stroke of luck even.  Whatever.  I barely turned my oven on for this one.  I did but barely.

I had peaches. I had beets.  At some point I new that I had crostini with a smear of goat cheese and a slice of nectarine.  I am not sure where but it was delicious.  Beet and goat cheese salad is one of my classic go to recipes.  See, it was all coming together.

On this day the beets and the peaches were equally sweet, thanks to our biweekly CSA share.  Still, I couldn't help but add a drizzle of sweet balsamic vinegar.  It's like putting sugar on your strawberries in the morning.  You don't need it but it is so good.  The added complexity of a tart contrast is what finishes the salad, in this case a little lemon and a dollop of goat cheese.

White Peach and Beet salad with Goat Cheese

• one bunch beets red or white with greens attached,
• 2 to 3 peaches (white or yellow)
• 10 basil leaves torn
• approx. 1 1/2  tablespoons of olive oil
• juice of half a lemon
• approx. 1 tablespoon sweet balsamic vinegar
• salt
• pepper
• goat cheese (like chevre) for serving

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Cut your beets into cubes and toss with salt and a drizzle of olive oil.  Roast in a baking dish until tender.  While the beets are in the oven mix your oil, vinegar and lemon, mixing the oil in last ad slowly.  Allow beets to cool for 10 minutes then toss all your ingredients.  Serve with a dollop of goat cheese.

Sweet Spot: Affogato with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

I am a girl of simple tastes.  Believe me.  I sound fancy with my duck confit carbonara, mango chili pops and my trips to fancy food markets but at the end of the day, I am all about vanilla.

I think that Nick and I have agreed that this has been our favorite dessert of the summer.  Affogato literally means drowned in Italian and it is what an Italian does to vanilla ice cream once they have poured espresso over it.  Oh how I adore the poetic language Italians have for food!  Really, I could bore you at a dinner party.  But I digress.  To make an affogato you take a scoop of very good, very cold vanilla ice cream and pour a shot freshly made, very good and very hot espresso over it.  The ice cream melts just slightly so some of it pools with the espresso. If you could buy this at a stand you may never order another Starbucks Frappicino again.  In fact, I hope you don't.  (Sorry Starbucks, I respect the health insurance that you give your workers but not your monopolizing and over sweetening our coffee tastes.)

Home Made Vanilla Ice Cream

A wise cook told me recently that if you are preparing something that involves a kitchen gadget you should look at the recipes that come with gadget along with its manuel.  The manufacturer wants you to be satisfied with their product so they are going to give you the proportions of ingredients that will get you the best results.  This rang true for my ice cream maker.  I use a simple Donvier freezer bowl maker (click here to see types of ice cream makers) one that my mom had when we were kids.  This is the ratio that works best for mine but if you have a different ice cream maker it may vary. 

For one pint:

• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup cream
• 1 tsp vanilla

In an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar first.  Then add the cream, milk and vanilla.  Then follow the instructions according to your ice cream maker.

Foodie Gifts: Fudge Brownie Recipe in a Jar

This isn't the first time I gave a foodie gift in a jar.  Once when asked of what she'd like for Christmas, an aunt of mine said that she always liked "consumables."  I personally could not agree more but you could chalk that up to our small living space.  Food can make a great gift and it is inarguable a consumable.

The first year I gave gifts of tasty goodies in a jar was Christmas 2008.  Like many others, it was an economically tight year for us and I was re-evaluating our culture of consumerism.  I thought a lot about all that had been bought and wasted in our lives and our society.  I should mention also at this time Nick and I had just been married with yours truly as both bride and wedding planner.  Which means we had a ton of leftover stuff from having bought everything we needed for the wedding a'la`carte.  Things like card stock from home made invitations to silk flowers to alcohol and cocktail swizzle sticks.  Four months later we had more vodka than we reasonable could (or should) consume.  I started giving gifts of flavor infused vodka for the holidays.  Than later pickles from the vegetables from our CSA share.  I would like to think I am getting better at which kind of tasty jar is right for which kind of foodie friend.

On to the present.  After all, there are no cranberry vodkas or pickled green beans in this post.  But this year's news of my becoming an aunt has set my creative gift making gears in motion.  Making things (food or other) has always been a way in which I show affection.  So for my sister-in-law, Stacie's baby shower, I found those old party planning shoes in the back of the closet.  The ones I wore when I decided to make my own invitations, table cards and wedding favors.  The result?  Fudge Brownie mix in a jar as favors for all the guests.  I think most of us there had a fond memory of baking something sweet with a parent or grandparent.  I hoped this helped keep that tradition going.  If you don't want to make thirty they also make a nice gift for one.

Fudge Brownie Mix in a Jar

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Affix these directions to your jar:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease and flour a 9x13inch baking pan.

2.  Empty the jar of brownie mix into a large mixing bowl,

and stir to blend. In a small mixing bowl, combine 3/4 cup

melted and cooled butter with 4 eggs, then add mixture to

brownie mix. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Spread batter

evenly into greased baking pan.

3.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven.

Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.

Inspiration Outing #4: Guido's Burritos in Ocean City MD

Food obsessions run in my family.  Being meticulous about good ingredients and creative with flavor combinations are inclinations that live under our skin.  I have already featured a few family members on this blog and the list will probably keep growing.

Ocean City, Maryland was one of our family vacation spots growing up. My aunt and uncle owned a small hotel on the boardwalk (now a super-sized hotel with two pools and a restaurant, all due to some incredible business intuition, see Tidelands Caribbean Hotel) and we were always welcome for a visit.  My cousins kept up the tradition of family businesses on the boardwalk.  Guidos Burritos is owned by two of my cousins, Rocco Difillipo and Danny Robinson.  Let me share our delicious meal and the fabulous time we had.

Guido's is such a breath of fresh air on this strip.  I love the beach, the sun and open air, strolls on the boardwalk but not the fried food and candy that is sold everywhere.  Really the last thing that is appealing to me under the hot sun  I heavy, greasy fried food and sugary snacks.  I can't tell you how refreshing it is to come of the beach and go to a sit down restaurant with food that uses fresh ingredients and good drinks, the like of which are seen below.

Guido's serves local, craft beers as well as some pretty tasty sangria and margheritas.

Here's the menu breakdown:  Burritos and Not Burritos.  If you are choosing a burrito (which I recommend), your choices are take on themes of traditional flavor combinations and americana favorites.  For example the "Black and Blue Burrito" that features skirt steak and blue cheese.  I had a burrito that featured Maryland crabmeat and sweet corn seasoned with Old Bay.  Dare I admit that I dug my fork into everyone else's plate around the table?  That being said, another favorite was the "Blacken Shrimp Burrito"  that has a refreshing pairing of cilantro and pineapple.  

Shown are the appetizers we ordered.  The "Salsa Trio" consisted of a traditional red salsa, spicy mango salsa and a green tomatillo salsa.   Guacamole was akin to Rosa Mexicano in NY  (which is actually the only thing I would order there.)  

At the head of the table is Danny joining us for lunch.  He is like a proud papa talking about this place.  Owning your own business is something I imagine as an ultimate creation, and here we are happily celebrating it.