foodie nyc

Why The Food Network Sucks

You've most likely read my take on the current state of the Food Network on this site before. As I'm sure you can guess (considering my passion for all things food and cooking), I really want the Food Network to succeed.  Like you, I'm passionate about food and cooking, so why do I continue to find the Food Network such a big let down?

As you may also know, I also work in advertising and marketing.  So I've decided to combine some of my skills to dissect exactly what the problems are with the Food Network programming and marketing strategy.  I am obviously doing such an exercise for my own amusement and to hear what you think about my ideas.  It goes without saying that I don't have access to any of the viewership information the execs at Food Network use to make critical programming decisions. 

Regardless, I don't think it takes a decade of programming experience to understand what's wrong with the Food Network.

Ripe Summer Freshness....and Cheese

A few friends were coming over for dinner on a Friday night, straight after a long day of work. I was looking forward to creating a nice meal, mainly because I was surrounded by creativity all week and felt the need to express my own, if ever so briefly.  Of course, I needed to keep it simple.  Time and energy were not on my side.  Thankfully, the summer season produces ripe, juicy freshness that needs little enhancement.    For whatever reason, I landed on an idea to create small appetizer plates that featured a few different varieties of raw, ripe, fresh vegetables or fruit paired with complimenting cheeses.   To the right you'll see raw cucumber with layers of a very fresh, tangy goat cheese, lots of fresh ground pepper, fruity olive oil, tarragon and a bit of lemon juice. I thought about adding a spicy element but decided to restrain myself and stick with the black pepper.

On the same plate were two small, thin slices of watermelon.  I created a small hole in the watermelon slice and filled it with soft, oozing brie.   The runnier the better.  I simply garnished the cheese with fresh mint.  Finally, a single fig stuffed with a puree of fresh corn kernels, parmigiano reggiano and finished with a drizzle of truffle honey.  I decided to serve this raw, but I usually heat stuffed figs in the oven for a few minutes.  I serve them warm but I have enjoyed them after the figs sit around and come back to room temp.  Somehow, the flavors meld together better after a few minutes of heat.  (By the way, a recipe of mine for warm corn stuffed fresh figs can be found here). The truffle honey is a great combination for fresh figs - give it a try.

I wish I had a better shot of the entire plate to show you, as I thought is was a good looking presentation.  But those are the perils of shooting food while people are waiting to eat it!

The Earthy Sweetness of Truffle Honey

For those of you who have ordered cheese at Otto (part of the Molto Mario chain here in NYC), you know about the wonders of truffle honey.  It's nothing short of outrageously addictive.  Sweet, fragrant honey is laced with chopped black truffle, creating a balance of earthiness and sweetness that explodes in your mouth with flavor.

While in Montalcino, we were served an excellent, floral and fragrant local honey with a plate of cheeses.  But the menu called out the truffles in the honey, but I know truffle honey dammit, and there weren't any truffles to be found.  My mother loved the regular honey and purchased a few small bottles of it, but ended up buying the truffle honey instead. This mix up annoyed her for some reason, so she gave them to me.  We served a bottle a few days later with local cheeses at our villa in Umbria.  Seriously, this honey is so damn good that if Sandra Lee was covered in it, I'd even lick it off of her.

I'm down to my last small bottle but I know I will be a cracked-out mess once I run out.  Of course, I've contacted the producer Calugi via their website, begging them to tell me where I can get it in the States or whether they can send me a lifetime supply.  Nothing. I have found some other brands on the web but fear disappointment (average honey or lack of truffle flavor).  Does anyone out there have any truffle honey tips for me? Please? Where does Otto get theirs? Let me know and I'll be your bestie. 

How Fresh Porcini Leads to Ginger Hazelnut Oil

By now you may know that I spent a week cooking with a chef in Tuscany in his restaurant kitchen.  I'll slowly start to integrate what I've learned and how I've applied it to my own cooking now that I'm back in my kitchen.

I spent a week cooking with Chef Claudio Piantini in his restaurant Torre Guelfa in the little town of Figline Valdarno, about twenty minutes south of Florence.

As you'll be reading here, I've learned a lot from Chef Claudio - including composure, patience, and dedication.  But I'm sure I'll get into the details later.

For now, I'll tell you about watching Claudio make pasta at his restaurant.  It was porcini mushroom season while I was in Tuscany, and very similar to the way I cook, Claudio gets entranced in the seasonal abundance that is all around him.   He was pretty much obsessed with porcini while I was there, which I was obviously thrilled to experience.   I tasted and cooked the most beautiful fresh porcini I have ever seen.  I buy fresh porcini when I can, but I've never had it in the condition I experienced in Tuscany during porcini season.  I've included a picture of the porcini in their raw beauty from Torre Guelfa restaurant.

Claudio roasted a whole porcini cap that crowned a fillet of the famous Tuscan Chianina steak. He sliced raw porcini and served them with shavings of pecorino, the cheese of Tuscany (I went to see a pecorino producer, much more on that sometime down the road). Claudio made an intense porcini soup that was also spectacular.  But my favorite dish was the simple porcini tagliatelle that he made virtually ever night while I was at the restaurant.  I can make it in my sleep at this point. 

When he made the porcini pasta, he flavored the olive oil with whole cloves of garlic, then removed the garlic from the oil when just colored.  He'd then add the porcinis and cook them in the oil until soft.  In went the pasta to finish cooking in the garlic infused oil and chopped porcini, and the dish was done.   No herbs.  No cheese.  I asked Claudio why no herbs.  "Porcini" was his answer, with a big, passionate smile.  I asked why no pecorino? "Porcini" he smiled again.  I tasted and he was right.  Porcini.  Fresh and perfect for only a few months of the year, not to be compromised with competing flavors.  That was the beauty of the dish and the perfect example of his cooking style.   He would tell me later that night - "Not taste cheese.  Not  taste herbs. I want to taste porcini." 

I was recently looking to garnish a dish I made that had nothing to do with the trip to Tuscany.  I was doing what I love most on Sundays - experimenting and creating dishes in my kitchen that I've never made before.  I needed a flavored oil, light yet bold in taste to garnish a salad.  I thought of Claudio and the whole garlic simmering in olive oil, infusing its flavor into the oil but then removed to avoid competing with the main flavors of a dish.

I thought about infusing fresh ginger into oil, as I had some on hand.   I would have liked a neutral oil, like a safflower or peanut oil, but I only had a hazelnut oil on hand.  I chopped plenty of ginger and simmered it under a very low heat with the hazelnut oil until it turned just brown.   I removed the ginger and let the oil cool.   The ginger hazelnut oil had a remarkable, balanced flavor that I recommend trying for salads or finishing oils for summer dishes.

Claudio would probably stare at this post in confusion. Have I missed the whole point?  No, I have not missed the point about keeping flavors simple.  In fact, I will post many of the dishes I learned with him that I have since made on my own, don't you worry.  But what can I say, I'm generally known as someone who marches to the beat of his own drummer.  I watch.  I learn.  Then I'm inspired to do my own thing. 

So for now, hazelnut ginger oil is on the menu. 

Lost in Montalcino

We decided to take a day trip from our villa in Umbria to Montalcino, home of Brunello.  I was very excited about this trip, mainly because I knew it would be as beautiful as the wine would be fantastic.  I was also hoping to taste a few Brunellos that I hadn't tried before.

After enjoying a long lunch and wine tasting, we began to make plans to visit a vineyard.  We quickly realized that most required advanced reservations, including a few that I was very excited about visiting.  It was looking like the only option was going to the massed produced, American owned Banfi vineyards.  Gah.  Oh well, would be fun anyway.

As we drove out of town, we quickly move from paved roads to twisting, winding dirt roads surrounded by lush vineyards.  We were following Cousin Michael, who somehow beat us from Umbria to Montalcino despite leaving well later than us.  So he had earned the navigation stripes (not a hard task with our crew, me being the absolute worst) and he was leading us with a vineyard map in hand.  But after a while of dirt-filled, I-can-barely-see-the-road-in-front-of-me driving, we stopped at a random house to regroup and look at the map. 

We were parked in the driveway of the house featured to the right, wondering where to go next.  Out of the house comes a young woman and an older man.  My NYC instincts sent me running back to my car, but the woman spoke English and began speaking with Cousin Michael. She was savvy enough to understand that we were clueless tourists looking for vino and said they had a winery and could taste some of their wines.  Michael turns around for approval and we give him a big thumbs up.   At this point, we don't even know the name of the winery we are visiting.  I personally found this thrilling but I had rather low expectations. I rarely have good luck in these types of situations.

We drive a bit further down to their winery.  When we get there, we realize the English speaking girl is the daughter of the family.  We are joined by her mother, who doesn't speak English but is very accommodating and looking to get us some glasses.  She clearly had been out in the vineyards most of the day.  We begin to hear about their winery as we walk back to the barrels in which they were aging their wines. 

They were a family producer of Brunello and had opened the facility we were in only a few years ago.  Angelo Sassetti, her father, was the winemaker and the namesake of the wines they produced.  His father had been making wine from the same estate, but you could tell that this new winery was a big deal for the family.  It was modest but modern and well kept.  As we began to taste the wine from the barrels, Angelo joined us. 

This is a corny thing to say, but all of us agreed Angelo was adorable.  You can't tell from the picture at the right, but he has the biggest cheeks, almost like a child.  Yet he had clearly been working in the vineyard all day, day after day, and his work clothes were filled with dust and his cheeks were burnt red with sunburn.  By simply looking at him, I could see the amount of hard work he and his family put into their craft.  Funny how I can be inspired by someone without even speaking the same language.

We tasted their Brunellos from the barrel while Angelo's daughter translated back and forth between our group and Angelo.  He explained to us how bad the 2002 vintage was for him and all of Montalcino and how he couldn't make wines for that year.  We couldn't help but think how such a  bad year can heavily impact a small, family run vineyard like theirs.  Angelo explained they would release their earlier vintages more strategically to make up for the difference, but even without speaking English, you could read the disappointment on his face.

We tasted every single wine they seemed to have in the winery.  The best wine we tasted was the Angelo Sassetti 2000 Brunello di Montalcino, which was only selling for 16 Euros.   This brunello wasn't a classic brunello to me.  It was not a huge, tannic wine that needed to age for the rest of my lifetime.  It was fruity and lush, yet it had nice firm tannins, nice oakiness and a long finish.  We bought a lot of it to drink during our stay at the villa.  I recommend it to you, biased by the welcoming, charming and personal experience the Sassetti family provided for us. 

In trying to track down more information and a link where you can buy a bottle here in the U.S., I found out here (scroll down) that Angelo and his brother seemed to have a difference in wine making styles.  Apparently his brother produces another Sassetti wine from their Pertimali estate in a more traditional Brunello style.

Read more about Angelo Sassetti here.  And if you are interesting in buying a few bottles, I tracked down the wines at Mario Batali owned Italian Wine Merchants. 

Cooking in Umbria: Tomato Water

                              

I'll be recounting the culinary highlights of my trip to Umbria and Tuscany over the course of the upcoming weeks (maybe months.  Hey, what can I tell you.  I ate, drank and cooked the entire time!).  I begin today by recapping a few of the interesting dishes we made while staying at our Umbrian villa.

Our family and friends rented a villa right near Lake Trasimeno, just south of Perugia.  The shot from above is a view from the villa.  More villa shots to come later, I'm sure.

But for now, the topic is tomato water.  During our stay at the villa, my uncle, our friend Joe and a host of other family and friends helped us cook each night for the other 18 friends and family staying in the villa.   The night we made tomato water was the last night of our stay. Since it was our last night, we need to use everything we had procured from the markets over the previous days. 

Part of the fun of staying in the villa was stumbling upon the amazing fruits and vegetables at the markets in Umbria and being able to cook with them.  In this case, we picked up beautiful, bursting-at-the-seams tomatoes.  We had an abundance of tomatoes, so with the need to use them all before we left, my uncle and I made tomato water.  We simply salted the roughly chopped tomatoes and placed them into a colander above a bowl.  After 20 or so minutes, you'll get the natural juices of the tomato that the salt helped release from the fruit.  We reserved the roughly chopped tomatoes for a tomato salad. 

The result was a cold tomato juice that had a burst of fresh tomato flavor, but with a clean, fluid texture. It lacked the thickness of tomato juice, which was the key difference that I enjoyed most.  We intended to poach freshwater shrimp in the tomato water, than chill both the shrimp and tomato water and serve them cold as a refreshing, light main course.  But since the fish stores had closed by the time we made it to them, we had a dinner of amazing flavorful local sausages.  Boo hoo.  But we served the tomato water, very cold, in shot glasses as a refreshing start to the meal.  I just added some ground black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice to the tomato water shot.

When I got home, one of the first things I made was the shrimp poached in tomato water.  It was  very successful and refreshing for a hot night.  Just make the tomato water as above.  Clean the shrimp and season them, then bring the tomato water to a simmer.  Add the shrimp until just cooked.   Take them out and shock them for a minute in cold ice water, just to stop the cooking.  Keep them in the fridge.   Bring the tomato water to room temp, then place in the fridge to chill.  To serve, just ladle some of the cold tomato water into a bowl, garnished with a few shrimp. A little lemon juice and pepper rounded out the dish.  You could add herbs (I used parsley), but the first time you make this, I would just concentrate on enjoying the flavor of the tomato water. 

The Emperor of Wine and the 100 Point System

I recently finished Elin McCoy's The Emperor of Wine, a chronicle of the rise and influence of wine critic Robert Parker, Jr.

I can't recommend this book enough to those of you who are passionate about wine and familiar with Parker and The Wine Advocate.  I personally wouldn't recommend it to those of you who don't know much about Parker, as I can imagine the book could be considered boring otherwise.  I say this because the book takes a very granular look at his life and therefore could be uninteresting to those without a well developed interest in Parker.

The Emperor of Wine was revealing to me because I had been indoctrinated into being a serious wine drinker after Parker had already achieved major influence over the wine market.  By the late 90's, after I stopped drinking Old Swill and started caring about wine, Parker had already reached the pinnacle of his influence. 

When I began researching wines that I should consider buying or tasting, the 100 point system for rating wines was already firmly established as the major method for wine critics.  I have never known anything but the 100 point system.  Parker's system had become so ubiquitous that by the time I began consuming wines regularly, retail shops, wine retailer websites, and even other wine publications like The Wine Spectator were using the 100 point system full stop.  In fact, it is so ingrained into the wine marketplace that I barely even knew the 100 point system was developed by Parker.  This book does an excellent job taking you through how Parker started The Wine Advocate and how the 100 pt system became adopted within the wine marketplace.

As you probably know, once Parker gives a wine a great score, sales jump and the wine not only sells out almost immediately, but its value and price usually increases as well. There are a host of  consequences to such power, and the book does an excellent job outlining them for the reader by providing many sides of the issues - from the winemakers, importers and even Parker's point of view.

There are a few issues that struck me, but rather than write for days on end about them, I'll just stick to the issue of the 100 point system.

ILSL Monthly Recipe: August 2006

That's right, Sandra Lee loathers.  It's that time again.

You know the drill by now.  Many of you have rallied behind the Sandra Lee monthly loathing sessions aimed at all things halfassed, unhealthy, unwholesome and just plain disgusting, but there are many more of you left to participate.

C'mon, show the internets how much you loathe Sandra Lee.  All you have to do is join me by undoing the Semi-Disgusting equation of hers -  70% semi-homemade +30% creativity = 100% of the credit - and making a much better, tastier dish with 0% semi-homemade processed crap and 100% of your own creativity.

The creativity comes into play as we use her August recipes from her horrendous 2006 calendar as inspiration to show how wholesome food is actually made.  After the jump is one of her actual calendar recipes for the month of August.  All you have to do is use her recipe as inspiration - eliminating the semi-crap ingredients and making a dish all your own from it.  Send me in a submission and I'll post your photo, links or whatever the hell else you want alongside the recipe I create.  Here are examples of some entries from the past.
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This month will be fun and easy to play with - a pasta salad made with the excellent summer combination of sour cream and canned pineapple.  You know, because it's summer and the hot weather always calls for a tub of sour cream and canned fruit.   Plus, you know that fresh fruit is really inconvenient to use right now.  So remember - 100% creative and 0% semi-homemade.  Those are the only rules.  Send in your submissions to joe at foodienyc dot com by noon July 31.  I will post all entries on August 1.

I'm Back....Unfortunately!

My food and wine adventures through Umbria and Tuscany have concluded.  The jam packed, sticky subways I experienced this morning were certainly a reminder of the realities of my life but also made me appreciate the amazing experience I had over the past few weeks.   I  am feeling rejuvenated, inspired and reinvigorated about many things, food and cooking being one of the most obvious.  I will be sharing all the details of what I've learned about the cuisines and foods of Umbria and Tuscany over the upcoming weeks and probably months.  I'll be creating an ongoing Tuscany/Umbria section on this site that will be home to the techniques I learned from training with a chef in his Tuscan restaurant, as well as all of the amazing experiences I had cooking and eating the local produce.  Of course, I'll be cooking and recreating dishes from my experiences to share with you along the way.

Basil Ginger Ale

ed: Who's down with O.P.P? Yeah you know me! Sorry, that has nothing to do with this post or the fact that I'm on my last day of vacation and will be back posting soon.  Enjoy this ginger ale in the meantime...

I made a ginger syrup in order to make a homemade version of ginger ale.  The ingredient that took it to another level was fresh Thai basil.  The basil added a fresh taste that was perfect for a hot summer day.  This concept would work well with mint, or other varieties of homemade syrups.  Since the syrup is made with water and sugar, any ingredient that can impart a sweet and fragrant taste in the syrup could work.  I'm thinking I'll try a rhubarb syrup as well...

Check out my full recipe below.

Experimenting with Frozen Grapes

ed:  This post was originally published in April 2005. You should try this idea with something other than foie if you find it intriguing. 

I had a bunch of grapes on hand, so I froze them after reading a recent post by Debbie over at Words to Eat By.  I have stuffed fresh cherries with foie gras before to great reviews, so I thought pitted and stuffed frozen grapes might be another interesting vehicle for a foie mousse. It worked out very well.  I used the D'Artagnan foie mousse as I was feeling too lazy to make my own on this particular day. As the temperature and intensity of the grape can be powerful when frozen, I found it was important to get enough foie mousse in the grape in order to avoid being overwhelmed.  Tasters agreed, so I will now replicate this using a pastry bag, allowing the foie to get all the way down to the bottom.

Balsamic in Strawberries

ed note: This post was originally published July, 2005.  I'm on vacation, cut me a break.

I had been inspired by a recipe created by Chef Doc over at A Perfect Pear. His idea was stuffing a fresh strawberry with a tomato jam.  The presentation of this dish featured drops of a sweet balsamic, a traditional Italian condiment for strawberries that I've enjoyed during previous trips to Italy.  I have also become obsessed with gelees (see below) because they offer an intense blast of flavor without much labor.  They also seem perfect for summer fruit.

I played with the pairing of balsamic and strawberries by reducing balsamic to a sweet yet acidic syrup.  After combining the balsamic with gelatin, I refrigerated for a few hours to firm up.  I then created cubes and stuffed them into a hole I created in the side of the strawberry.  From a pure taste perspective, the combination and the texture contrasts really work. In retrospect, I would have made a cavity through the top straight to the bottom (like Chef Doc's recipe) and would have stuffed as much of the gelee as I could have fit in the berry.  The ratio of gelee to strawberry could have been enhanced in the above presentation.