Jan Norris: Food and Florida » Food People

Calling All Chefs, Local Farmers, and Any Foodies to Small Farms Conference

Jan Norris — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:32:46 +0000

This weekend, July 31 and August 1, the 2010 Small Farms Conference will take place at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee.

If I were in town, I’d definitely be there. Localecopia, a group whose mission it is to connect the small farmers, ranchers, and others producing foods in earth-friendly, user-friendly ways – esentially getting back to our roots on a common-sense scale – is involved.

They have introduced a number of foods to area chefs – you readers are eating some of them if you’ve had lamb or grass-fed beef from Deep Creek Farms at Cafe Boulud or pork at S&S Take-Out in Fort Pierce (best soup on the planet!) or eaten at Norman’s 180 in Miami – they’re both using Palmetto Creek Ranch porkvc.

There are hundreds of small vegetable farmers, beekeepers, ranchers, herb growers, and so many more – just waiting for support from our local chefs, markets, and diners.

The conference is put on The University of Florida and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University; registration is $160 on-site. A number of seminars, exhibitions, vendors and others will be on hand to discuss things like CSAs – Community Supported Agriculture projects such as urban gardens, subscription produce, and more. News about policies that affect everyone who eats and wants to do something about the regulations such as those that prevent us from buying fresh eggs without owning a chicken, or questions on the raw milk issue will be discussed.

For more information, go to the website for a daily agenda and list of those attending.

Madhur Jaffrey: A Chat with an Icon of Indian and Vegetarian Cookery

Jan Norris — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:55:41 +0000

Madhur Jaffrey/ photo by Jan Norris

MIAMI – Surrounded by mangoes from her native homeland, Madhur Jaffrey, noted Indian cuisine author and speaker looked cool despite the humid heat in the ballroom of the Fairchild Gardens. She related the proper way to use a mango – “Just eat it.”

The Alphonse mango of India was the star of the 2010 International Mango Festival that runs through Sunday at the Fairchild Tropical Gardens. A number of culinarians were on hand to talk about using the prized mango in dishes; Jaffrey concocted an aromatic spiced mango salsa after telling how, as a girl in India during summer, she would eat the mango: “We would find a cool stream and put the mangoes in the cold water, then take on and squeeze it like this.” She pressed a ripe mango between her fingers and turned to create a wrinkled fruit. “Then with our fingernail, we’d take off the top…” she ran her thumbnail around the top to create a small hole – “and suck out the juices.”

For her recipe, she turned the mango over a bowl and pressed. A stream of juice ran into the bowl.

After the day of demos and lectures, I chatted briefly with Jaffrey about her upcoming cookbook, her career and her passion for traveling.

Jan Norris: Do you have any new cookbooks in the works?

Madhur Jaffrey: Yes, my new one is coming out in October. It’s At Home with Madhur Jaffrey: Simple, Delectable Dishes from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. These are all simple recipes for the home cook. They can be done quickly, and don’t require so many ingredients.

JN: Was it difficult in the beginning, introducing Americans to Indian cooking?

MJ: Oh, yes! For my first cooking class after I wrote the first book, no one signed up to come. My publicist said, well, I will bring a couple of friends. Then James Beard called and said, ‘Have it at my house and I’ll have my friends over.’ So that’s what we did, and thanks to Jim Beard, it was a success.

He helped put me on the map, along with my book editor, Judith Jones.

JN: After all these years and the phenomenon of your cookbooks, are you well known among younger cooks today?

MJ: Very much so – I find it so rewarding when I speak at events, cooks come up to me and tell me that they have eaten foods from my books from their mothers, or grandmothers – so third-generation cookbook readers are following me now.

JN: What do you think about the future of cookbooks, since the publishing industry has changed radically to digital readers?

MJ: I think the young people may get the books on their Kindles or whatever devices, but I still think there is room for print cookbooks. My grandson is publishing a cookbook!

JN: How old is he and what’s the book about?

MJ: He is off to college. He is keeping the book a secret! He doesn’t want to share any of his information but it is beautiful.

JN: What group of people most embrace your books and recipes?

MJ: I think college towns – they are vegan and vegetarian and more young people explore that cuisine.

JN: Are you traveling to learn about other foods, and if so, where?

MJ: I travel all the time and write for the Financial Times and occasionally the New York Times; I am planning a trip to Colombia. I go on my own because it’s where I want to go but I would like to write for some magazine; there’s still Saveur.

You can still catch Jaffrey at the 2010 International Mango Festival at Fairchild Gardens, through Sunday. She will be speaking and will be on hand to autograph her cookbooks, Madhur Jaffrey’s World of the East Vegetarian Cooking, Quick and Easy Indian Cooking, Indian Cooking and World Vegetarian.

Other chefs and speakers are on hand; mangoes and trees will be for sale at the event.

Sun Sentinel Food Editor Deborah Hartz-Seeley Steps Down

Jan Norris — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:58:27 +0000

Deborah Hartz-Seeley, who’s been the anchor and editor for the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Food Section for 20 years, left the paper last week.

Deb and I are friends and we were colleagues. I’m going to miss her – as I’m sure her readers will.

I caught up with her for a little retrospective on her most interesting career.

The first, obvious, question – why did you leave now?

Deb: I decided it was time to leave because I felt like the section was at its prime, and readers loved it. And I think it’s best to leave when things are on top.

How long have you been involved in food – not just at the Sentinel?

Deb: I got my first job in food working in a pizza kitchen in college and never looked back. I managed a steakhouse full time while getting a bachelor’s of arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa.

And then I worked in restaurant kitchens for a year or so after graduation until I decided to get a master’s of science degree in agricultural journalism specializing in food and nutrition from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. (Journalism intrigued me because I’d helped put myself through college writing comic books.)

After that, I went straight to the test kitchen at Ladies’ Home Journal. I’ve worked on newspapers in Indiana and the Chicago suburbs. I also was editor in chief of Cook’s (the forerunner to Cook’s Illustrated) before coming to the Sun Sentinel 20 years ago.

Do you remember the very first dish you cooked or baked?

Deb: I made a spiced layer cake from a Duncan Hines boxed mix. I slathered it with maple icing made from a vanilla boxed mix that I dressed up with real maple syrup. The “recipe” was on the cake mix box. Of course, that was the first “real” food. My two sisters and I used to play Miss Cookie’s Kitchen where we pretended to run a restaurant and serve food.

Tell me about some of the most memorable stories that you covered.

Deb: I got to go stone crab fishing with Julia Child. I spent a day in the kitchen with a French chef and that turned into my being able to spend a morning a week in his kitchen working side by side with him for a couple of years. It was an incredible education. The most fun for me over the years has been going into a kitchen and actually working with a chef or home cook.

What’s your favorite kitchen tool you found over the years?

Bottom blade of corn stripper

Oxo's Corn Stripper

Deb: It’s a tool I got recently for removing kernels from an ear of corn. I used to hate that job. The cob would fall over and the kernels go flying all over the room. But this tool looks like a computer mouse with a blade on the bottom. You drag the blade down the cob and the kernels collect in the bulbous part. It even measures the cups of kernels you’ve got.

How do you think food world has changed over the years, and what or who had the most influence over it?

Deb: I think television has had the most influence changing the food world. What I’m seeing is that if you talk to the older generation of chefs (those from, say, 45 to 75), and ask them where they learned to cook, they can tell you wonderful stories about growing up. They talk about grandparents who cooked, fathers who cooked, mothers who cooked. They make you want to sit at their family tables and eat with them.

But if you talk to the younger chefs (those in their 20s and 30s) and ask where they learned to cook, they tell you from chefs and cooks they watched on television.

Did it make us better cooks, or more aware of our food? Or are we on a downhill spiral?

Deb: We are losing all those chefs’ wonderful stories, not to mention their years of experience in the kitchen that is not being passed from one generation to the next. I find it incredibly sad.

What are you planning to do now, at least short-term?

Deb: I am taking some time to relax. I know I will want to do some sort of work - whether it’s freelancing, other type of writing or teaching. I shaped a very strong food section that attracted readers and advertisers in a very down economy. That wasn’t by chance. I have many insights I’d like to share (and, no, I didn’t learn them on TV).

But I’ve been working steadily for 30 years. I have a kayak hanging in the garage that hasn’t had its skeg in water for a long time. It’s calling me. At least for now.

Where can people contact you?

Deb: I am easy to find at debhartz@att.net – and my cell is 954-675-0596.

Leave us with a favorite recipe that you learned while food editor.

Deb: Here’s a go-to dessert recipe I printed in the Sun Sentinel in 1998. It is from Lisa Montenegro, who at the time was a pastry chef/instructor at the Florida Culinary Institute in West Palm Beach (now the Lincoln College of Technology). (Ed’s note: Montenegro is at Cakeability in Jupiter, FL.)

I just made it for a dinner party I had a few weeks ago. One tip, don’t remove it from the pan until it is completely cooled.

Lisa Montenegro’s Chocolate Pecan Torte

(This pastry chef-instructor recommends Callebaut or Ghirardelli brands chocolate for baking.)

Pecan Torte:

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (see note)
1/4 pound (4 ounces, or 1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1- 1/4 cups ground and toasted pecans
1 tablespoon flour

Ganache Glaze:

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

To make torte: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan. In the top of a double boiler, combine the chocolate and butter.

Bring water in bottom of double boiler to boil over medium-high heat. Place top of double boiler over pan of hot water and stir often until mixture melts.

Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar, eggs and vanilla until well-combined. Slowly add the melted chocolate mixture and, using a rubber spatula, mix until combined. Stir in the pecans and flour; mix thoroughly.

Pour into prepared pan and bake 30 minutes or until center is set, not dry or wobbly. Let cool completely before glazing.

To make glaze: Place chocolate in a medium bowl. Place cream in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring, until it boils. Remove cream from heat and immediately pour over chocolate, whisking until all the chocolate is melted. Add the vanilla and stir to blend.

Place torte on rack over waxed paper. Let the glaze cool until it feels slightly warm to the touch and pour over torte, starting in the center and letting it cover entire torte including sides (if you have used almost all the glaze and there are any uncovered spots on the sides of the torte, pour some glaze on top right above the spots and let it run down to cover them). Place torte on rack and refrigerate 20 minutes to set glaze. Remove glazed torte from rack to a clean serving plate and serve. You may want to let it warm up just a little to make serving easier.

Makes 16 servings. Per serving: 410 calories, 5 grams protein, 32 grams fat, 33 grams carbohydrates, 96 milligrams cholesterol, 25 milligrams sodium, 71 percent calories from fat.

*Note: Bittersweet chocolate does contain some sugar but not as much as semisweet. We were unable to find bittersweet chocolate, so used 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate and 6 ounces semisweet chocolate in the torte. It worked fine.

**To toast pecans: Place nut halves in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden. Shake pan periodically to turn nuts. Let cool and then grind nuts.

Today in the World of Food: Bell Tolls for Taco Bell Founder Glen Bell

Jan Norris — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:16:16 +0000

Glen Bell died this past weekend. He was the founder of Taco Bell – the now ubiquitous face of Mexican fast food in the U.S.

The original Taco Bell

He started Taco Bell in California in 1962, after owning several other quick-serve eateries. In 1978, there were 868 of them spread across the U.S. He sold them to Pepsico. Today the chain, now serving 36.8 million customers a week, is owned by YUM brands, the largest restaurant owner in the world.

Could use more of him today

Glen Bell

Bell didn’t retire: he started a demonstration farm that taught kids about agriculture, how their food gets from farm to table, and how to respect the earth and the farmers who tends it. He was a partner with 4-H - an organization that still focuses on the importance of agriculture around the world.

EatBeat: Mario Batali at Publix Apron’s in Boca Raton Thursday

Jan Norris — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:36:00 +0000

Mario Batali

Celeb Italian chef Mario Batali – the one with the orange ponytail who lists Iron Chef America on his credits, will be in Boca Raton at the Publix Apron’s Cooking School Thursday afternoon.

The demo class he’s giving to promote his new pasta sauces (available in Publix – see my taste-test below) is sold out, but he’ll be around for a public book signing and meet-and-greet at 2 p.m.

Short pants and dress codes

Batali with his sons

I talked to the chef by phone for a Q&A that will appear in the Sentinel’s food section on Thursday, Dec. 17. We chatted about numerous things – including his shorts, the future of fine dining, and one of his favorite dishes for the holidays – glazed eels, an Italian tradition.

Do his sons Benno and Leo like them? “Not everyday – but they look forward to them on Christmas Eve,” he says.

Batali is known for wearing shorts in almost all weather – everywhere he goes, including in his kitchens. “If it’s below 45 degrees, my sons have to wear long pants. For me, it has to be below 30, and I’ll wear long pants,” he says. “But inside – I’m in shorts.” That’s at his home in Northport, Mich., he shares with spouse Susi, and their sons.

Because of that, there’s really no firm dress code at his restaurants. “How are you going to tell a guest there’s a dress code when the chef’s wearing short pants?” He laughed at the thought.

Rethinking the fine dining restaurant

When asked about gastropubs – the latest wave of casual but serious dining, he thinks that the days of white-tablecloth restaurants are dwindling. “I don’t want to write their eulogy just yet, but unless we can find a way to revitalize white tablecloth restaurants, then gastropubs and more casual dining with really good food is the wave of the future,” he said.

“If we can somehow find a way to get people together in the same dining room who wear jackets and ties at one table, and short sleeves at another one – it will work out. It used to be a mutually exclusive group. We need to create an environment that can accommodate both.”

Part of that falls to the diner, Batali said. “If you can realize the bond is the experience of enjoying great food together, then it works out.”

Batali has lowered prices at Del Posto, his 2-Michelin star restaurant in New York City that he owns with Joe Bastianich. The upscale products are still on the menu, but not in every food or in the same quantity, he says.

Green and Slow

His current project with Bastianich is Eataly New York – a 60,000-square-foot fresh foods market that’s based on the Eataly in Torino, Italy. He’s working on it in conjunction with Slow Foods — the international organization that champions artisan food producers and sustainable growing or harvesting practices, among other ideals.

All his restaurants are now “green” as of this week; they are LEED certified, meaning they are environmentally friendly. He’s also a huge supporter of local growers and food producers and works to draw attention to those producers whose foods he uses.

Mario Batali book signing

Where: Publix Apron’s Cooking School, 5050 Champion Blvd. (Polo Club Shoppes), Boca Raton
When: Dec. 10, 2 p.m.
Cost and information: Free event; for more information, call (561) 994-4883

———————————-

Mario’s Marinara Sauce — A Taste Test

In my home kitchen for dinner last night, I tasted off Mario Batali’s Marinara with my other favorite – DelGrosso’s Aunt Mary Ann’s Sunday Marinara.

Both products are made with all natural foods — that’s my criteria, along with not having any added sugar or especially, no high-fructose corn syrup. A good sauce won’t need it.

I cooked some Barilla whole wheat spaghetti al dente, and tasted each sauce, well heated, mixed with it.

Mario the winner

Mario’s sauce won me over. It was well balanced on the palate, with a good texture – not chunky but still clingy on the noodles. The flavor was bright and clean, and tasted of fresh tomatoes. San Marzano imported tomatoes are listed as the only source for tomato in his sauce.

Spices weren’t overdone, nor was salt. The very slight sweetness that balances the acid in the tomatoes comes from carrots. It’s an old chef’s trick to use a little grated carrot to sweeten a dish.

DelGrosso’s sauce, while a deeper red and very tomato-rich, was a tad acidic in comparison. Left standing in its pot, I noted that it separated and its surface became watery; Batali’s sauce held together.

DelGrosso’s too, has a good texture, with basil an addition that’s evident in the pieces suspended in the sauce. Along with “imported plum tomatoes” the label also lists “crushed tomatoes.”

Bottom line at the cash register

It could have been an even tougher call — but the price is the deal-breaker.

At $4.99 for Batali’s sauce (22 ounces) vs. $7.99 for DelGrosso’s (24 ounces), there was no contest for me.

Both sauces are available at Publix.

Volunteer to Make and Pack 60,000 Turkey Dinners

Jan Norris — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:06:30 +0000

The Big Heart Brigade is again feeding turkey dinners to the needy and homeless at Thanksgiving. This year’s event is slated to reach 60,000 in our communities – a small city of diners.

Nearly 3,800 are needed to prepare the food, pack it and help deliver the meals at the staging center: Fire Station No. 3 on Northlake Boulevard between now and Thursday.

Here’s a short video of last year’s event:

Big Heart Brigade – No Paid Administrators for this Charity

The Big Heart Brigade is a nonprofit group started in 1992 by a few local businessmen and residents working in their communities. They practice a “hands on” approach — they don’t raise funds to run an administrative machine, but turn each dollar they raise back into the community.

They’ve been doing the Thanksgiving dinner for several years and have joined forces with many other groups and organizations to make it happen.

Want to volunteer this year?
Go to their web site and click on Events, then on Volunteer.

Big Heart Brigade Thanksgiving Feast 2009

What: A chance to volunteer to help pack and deliver meals

When: Various 4-1/2 hour shifts Saturday through Thursday.

Where: Fire Station No. 3, 5161 Northlake Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens

Information: www.bigheartbrigade.com

Peach Bread Recipe a Winner from “Food Afar”

Jan Norris — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:00:26 +0000

I was delighted when my friend and travel writer Judy Wells told me to check out her new blog, Food Afar – continaing recipes and food tips picked up in all her travels.

Judy Wells

Judy’s a colorful character with amazing stories of the famous and infamous in and around northeast Florida where she makes her home.

She writes a very useful travel site for those who have limited mobility, called Travel on the Level. Those of us who can climb stairs or inclines of any degree take that mere action for granted – but it limits places others can go. Judy ferrets out those best “level” places.

Peach-carrot bread works with mangoes

Judy was asked to judge at the annual Peach-Off, a recipe contest put on by peach growers in South Carolina, and came home with this recipe for peach-carrot bread.

Here’s the thing for my South Florida readers: It’ll work great with mangoes instead, measure for measure, so mango lovers – put this in your files!

I’m keen on quick breads, they’re so fast, delicious and good anytime of day – even with dinner salads. With the peach season winding down but mangoes still on some trees, I’m sharing it here with you.

Do go on over to Judy’s blog for even more great recipes, and let her take you places with her foods!

Spiced Peach-Carrot Bread

(1st Place Side Dishes)

Judy writes about this: “Even though the judges were full to bursting, we went back for seconds of this.”

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 ½ cups chopped peaches
¾ cup grated carrots
¾ cup chopped nuts (pecans and walnuts)
2/3 cup vegetable oil
½ cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom of loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Add remaining dry ingredients. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon batter into pan.

Bake 65-70 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool in pan 5 minutes. Loosen sides of loaf from pan; remove loaf to cooling rack. Cool completely.

Serves 12.

(As most other quick breads, this freezes very well. Wrap tightly and pack in an airtight container once cooled.)

(Recipe from Ellen J. Cook, McCormick, S.C., in 2009 Peach-Off.)

Summertime Eats: Pflaumenkuchen – Plum Tart a Loving Tradition

Jan Norris — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:48:43 +0000

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of guest blogs on summertime food memories. If you’d like to submit yours, click on the Contact button at the top of the page to email me about a personal experience with foods of the summer.

Pflaumenkuchen

By Maureen Clancy, Guest columnist

Maureen Clancy

Pflaumenkuchen. I was flummoxed by the very sound of the word. Yet the syllables tripped off the tongue of the woman patting out the pie crust as easily as shiny little pebbles slipping downstream.

I had been dating a charming “Virginia Gentleman,” called “T” by his friends, for less than a month when he invited me to visit his parents’ home one late-August weekend. Little did I know that I’d marry him 11 months later. Little did I know that I’d get a fabulous Pflaumenkuchen recipe in the deal.

Seasonal plums make the dish

Pflaumen (rhymes with plowmen) is the German word for prune plums. Kuchen means cake, though this creation is more of a tart. Also known as Italian prune plums, these precious nuggets are available for a very brief period — two or three weeks max each summer, in late August and early September.

Italian prune plums

They’re the size of a baby’s fist, slightly egg-shaped, with blue-purple skin, freestone pits (which separate easily) and yellowish flesh. Though they’re tasty eaten out of hand, prune plums are best cooked or baked, when they become soft, jammy and fragrant, with nicely caramelized edges.

But, back to Carola Shiftan, who was born in a tiny village in East Germany and arrived in the United States towards the end of WWII, a few years before her son Thomas was born. She was an elegant woman with a warm, welcoming personality and an exotic (to me) accent. She liked to cook and bake, and had an impressive cookbook collection.

A different culture

As a 20-year-old born-and-bred Bostonian, I knew little about European cuisines and even less about the guttural German language. But I watched and listened, fascinated, as she mixed a few ingredients in a bowl, lined a pie plate with the dough, and laid little purple plum slices neatly and tightly, side by side, like a Rockettes chorus line.

When she died, just four months after our July 1969 wedding, I was given her well-worn Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes I and II.They were my introduction to the wonderful world of Julia Childs.

But more importantly, on a faded piece of yellow legal paper folded up inside one of those books, I got the recipe for Pflaumenkuchen.

Tart now a summer tradition

During the 40 years since then, my husband and I have awaited the end of August like little kids await Santa. I try to make the simple little tart several times during the “season,” and I just about cry the day I visit the market and find that the plums are gone.

The Mürbeteig (loosely translated as “sweet dough”) is what the French would call pate brisee, but with a lot more sugar and butter. In fact, there’s so much butter involved that I have to use the little silver pie weights when I blind-bake the shell, or it will puff like puff pastry.

After that, all that’s left to do is slice the plums, arrange them in concentric circles, sprinkle them with a bit of sugar and breadcrumbs (Progresso Plain is fine) and dot with a few more bits of butter.

Pflaumenkuchen is the epitome of summer food, the very essence of “eating seasonally.” And in our house, it brings a dearly-missed loved one back to the table every time we make it.

* * *

Here’s my mother-in-law’s recipe. I’m pretty casual about amounts of ingredients. Experiment and use what works best for you.

Pflaumenkuchen

1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar plus 2 teaspoons
Pinch salt
1 stick butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
2 to 3 tablespoons ice water, as needed
About 16 Italian prune plums
2 teaspoons plain breadcrumbs

Equipment:10-inch fluted tart pan with removeable bottom

Place flour, sugar, salt and butter pieces into a food processor, reserving 4 or 5 little pieces of butter for later. Process in short bursts until mixture starts to have the texture of oatmeal. Add egg yolk and continue to process in short bursts until dough starts to come together in a ball. Add ice water, as necessary, to facilitate this.

Remove from food processor. Form gently into a ball; dust with flour. Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so.

Roll out dough when it’s firm, patting it into a 10-inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Blind bake the pastry shell, filling with pie weights, at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes or until done.

In the meantime, wash, pit and cut each Italian prune plum into 6 or 8 pieces. Arrange them in pie tart in concentric circles. (If you run out, you can use a row of sliced peaches, nectarines or another type of plum.) Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and extra sugar. Dot with leftover butter bits. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 15 minutes, until plums are soft and jammy.

Best eaten warm, but keeps, refrigerated and covered, for several days.

Maureen Clancy spent 27 years as Food Editor, Food Columnist and Restaurant Critic for the San Diego Union and the San Diego Union-Tribune; has written restaurant guides, cookbooks and done radio and more. She lives with her family in Southern California where she still writes about food and restaurants. Read her entertaining, well-written blog at www.MaureenClancy.com

The Armenian Kitchen – A Worthy Click

Jan Norris — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:21:01 +0000

Robyn Kalajian

One of my new favorite food web sites is The Armenian Kitchen, written by Robyn Kalajian and her spouse, Doug. Robyn is a retired high school cooking teacher; Doug and I were colleagues at The Palm Beach Post. That was a huge family with many good cooks; Doug was among them.

The Kalajians are Armenian and have incredibly wonderful stories about their cuisine. Not only have I learned a lot – through their videos and recipes – I’ve got a true sense of what family means to them through their foods. That connection is the reason I write about food and Florida and the South, so I appreciate their passion for their traditions.

Here’s a little about the site:

Fans of Armenian food — meaning, just about anyone who has ever tasted Armenian food — will delight in discovering TheArmenianKitchen.com, a Web site and blog devoted to the age-old but still evolving cuisine.
The site features recipes Robyn has gathered from friends and family over the years, many of them written down for the first time. Preserving these recipes and the techniques involved in preparing them is a work of love for Robyn and her husband Douglas, a retired journalist who shares her passion for cooking and for their shared ethnic heritage.
“Food is portable culture,” Douglas said. “Armenians scattered across the world by tragedy brought their prayers, their songs and their pots. Keeping these recipes alive is our way of preserving that culture.”
Robyn’s interest in Armenian cooking began as a child, helping her grandmother pick grape leaves from their yard in Clifton, N.J.
“Armenian food is as richly diverse as the Armenian people,” she said. She noted that Armenian dishes share many ingredients with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, with an emphasis on fresh vegetables and whole grains.
In addition to recipes, TheArmenianKitchen.com features how-to videos as well as tips on nutrition, kitchen tools and food safety.

—–

I asked Robyn to share one of her favorite recipes with my readers. This is a typical one, she writes, that’s a great comfort food.

Tass Kebab

(Lamb cubes made in a pot)

Serves 5 to 6

3 pounds stewing lamb (see note), trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 teaspoons freshly ground coriander seed
Salt, pepper, paprika to taste
2 medium onions, sliced
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 beef bouillon cube
Dash sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons butter

Place lamb cubes in a large bowl and season meat with coriander, salt pepper, and paprika.

In a large, non-stick skillet, sear the lamb, in small batches. After searing the last batch of meat, add the onions to the skillet and cook until soft and slightly caramelized.

Place meat and onion in a large pot.

Dilute the tomato paste in 2 cups of water. Pour over the meat. If it looks too thick, stir in more water, a little at a time. Continue to add more water, if needed, during cooking. Stir in the bouillon cube and sugar.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cook, with the pot lid slightly tilted, for 1 ½ to 2 hours, or until the meat is fork-tender.

Just before serving, stir in the butter to mellow the tomato sauce.

Note: If stewing lamb is not available, stewing beef or veal can be substituted.

Serve with rice or bulgur pilaf, or wide egg noodles, and a green vegetable or tossed salad.

Tooling the Kitchen at Gadget Gals Site

Jan Norris — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:00:12 +0000

For 26 years I was food editor at The Palm Beach Post — that gives me some credibility when I talk about who does what in the kitchen.

silicone spatula

I know, for instance, that more men than women are into kitchen gadgets. And that silicone tools and mats in the kitchen are still the fastest-selling items in the market right now. And that most of have bought at least three gadgets or appliances we used only one time — if that.

Sometimes, it’s because something looks promising or appealing (that bacon maker in the microwave), or time-saving (a smoothie maker) – then we find out we could have done without them just fine and often, with a better appliance we already had (a blender or food processor makes smoothies like nobody’s business).

I love this site!

So I was happy to find out about my fellow ex-food editors’ site, Kitchen GadgetGals. They review kitchen tools and provide recipes, answer questions and entertain while doing it as well. It’s a super site — and an additictive read.

Nancy Byal, former executive food editor of Better Homes and Gardens, and Jan Turner Hazard, former food editor of Ladies Home Journal have so much test-kitchen experience, their words should be taken as gospel when it comes to kitchen matters.

Their entertaining web site keeps me busy for far too long – it’s a great place for browsing, but have pen and paper ready to make a wish list for gadgets you didn’t know you needed!

Wine Conditioner Clip

Right now, they’ve got a Pick of the Month I found fascinating: the Wine Conditioner Clip that I would have sneered at before reading their review of it.

Check them out at the Kitchen GadgetGals site – and tell them I sent you!