Aroma Cucina

Celery Soup

Celery Soup also known as the Empty Fridge Soup

You know the drill. No time to shop, you are hungry, you don’t want to spend time in the kitchen, you don’t want to order up nasty, fatty food, and all you’ve got is some celery, a bit of onion, and a piece of left over blue cheese in the back of the fridge.  This soup solves the problem, it’s tasty, filling, quick and delicious.  Besides, I think celery is under-rated.

Celery Soup

5-6 celery stalks, roughly chopped
½ onion roughly chopped
½ good quality bullion cube, chicken or vegetable, or maybe you have some home made stock on hand, if not a bit of salt in the water will do just fine
4 cups water
2T olive oil
1 T heavy cream, optional

Blue Cheese Crouton
4T crumbled blue cheese
1 small clove of garlic
1t olive oil
4 slices of baguette

Sauté the celery and onions for a few minutes, add the water, simmer for 20 minutes. Puree the bejeezus out of the soup until it is nice and smooth. God bless the Vita Mix. Return to low heat while you make the crouton.

Preheat oven to 375F
Mash the garlic clove with the olive oil in a small bowl. Add the blue cheese and mash everything together, then divide and spread equally on the baguette slices. If someone gets more blue cheese than the other person, there will be problems. Lay the baguette slices on a baking sheet and bake until the bread is firm and the cheese is bubbly.

Pour soup into bowl, add the crouton, and now eat the soup.

Roasted Salt Crust Fish

This recipe is for Stacey and Julio and I want to see some pictures when you make this!

Roasted Salt Crust Fish

1 whole fish, head on, bones in, guts cleaned, scales removed.
Approx 1 pound of salt  (use sea salt, but don’t some fancy salt, look for a good cheap sea salt. They do exist.)
3-4 thin slices of orange
3 sprigs fresh thyme, can also add basil and a sprig of mint

Sauce
¼ cup melted butter
Juice of the remaining orange
1 sprig fresh thyme

Preheat oven to 350F

Choose a whole fish like red snapper, orata or bronzini. If the fish are small, you will need one per person. It must be a whole fish otherwise the salt will leach into the fish. You are creating a moisture (steam) absorbing crust that will seal in the fish flavor, so don’t even be tempted to get a filet, or a bone less fish.
Slide the thin slices of orange into the gullet of the fish. They will be overlapping. Add the fresh herbs. It sounds a little odd, but a leaf or two of mint in the bronzini just lifts all the flavors, it’s wonderful.
Pour a good thick layer of salt in the bottom of a heavy roasting pan. I like to use ceramic, pottery style roasting dishes.
Arrange the fish or fishes in the pan and cover with all the salt, you want the fish to be completely covered by at least ½” of salt.
Roast until done. OK, here’s the somewhat tricky part because you’ll need to be estimating how long to cook the fish. A 1 1/2lb fish, in a preheated 350F oven will take about 25-30 minutes.  The outer salt crust will be hard and dry.

About 3-4 minutes before the fish is ready, melt the butter, don’t let it come to a boil, squeeze in the orange juice from the half of the orange that you have left, and stir the mixture with the fresh thyme branch.

Remove the fish from the oven. Show it off to the dinner guests because it does look pretty cool. Take it back into the kitchen and carefully remove the salt crust. It will easily crack off bringing the fish skin with it. Arrange the fish on a plate, pour the butter sauce over the fish and serve immediately.
A gorgeous crisp white wine would do very nicely, maybe an Old World Riesling, or a French Vouvray, or even a simple Grechetto from Italy.

The To-Do List, and Bonnie Slotnick

We all have them. I have to-do lists with sub-sub categories, from the 'must do today' list, to the 'must do before we leave NY', to the 'before I die' list.
I’m not exactly sure which list Bonnie Slotnick’s Cookbook store was on; the 'before we leave NY', or the 'before I die' list, but as I was zooming down 10th St. on my bicycle, on my way to the library, there it was!
It’s a tiny, narrow store, with very high ceilings, and the books are stacked from floor to ceiling leaving Ms. Slotnick a small spot for her desk. New, used, archaic, historical, silly, professional, international, memoirs; it’s an eclectic mix of culinary wonderment. Two women walked in while I was there, took a look around and backed out, saying they were overwhelmed. Wimps! Slow down for a moment, and savor what is around you!
I scored a Ken Albala book, “Eating Right in the Renaissance”, for only $20! As someone who has lusted, but cannot afford his books, this is a rare treat.
What took me so long to go there?
Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks
165 W. 10th St.
NY, NY. 10014
Open 1-7 most days.
212-989-8962

Cocktail Anniversary

Yesterday, May 13th marked the 202nd anniversary of the cocktail. Actually, it marked the 202nd anniversary of the first time that the word cocktail appeared in print, or so says the lore, but with a little googling, there may be some difference of opinions.

From Vital Statistics: the first sighting was in 1803, in Farmer’s Cabinet, a cocktail is described as being “excellent for the head”.  Note the date of the entry: May 13

The Boise Weekly has this timely info: The first appearance of the word "cocktail" in any publication appeared May 13, 1806 in The Balance and Columbian Repository, a New York newspaper. Described simply as, "a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters--it is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a Democratic candidate: because a person, having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow anything else.”

The Museum of the American Cocktail sites the same quote, but puts the date as May 6, 1806, and does not name the publication.

Bear in mind, this little controversy is only regarding the etymology of the word cocktail, not where, or when the first cocktail appeared. That debate we leave for another day.

I leave it to you, dear reader, to decide, but yesterday, we raised our glasses to salute the cocktail and the bartenders that make them.

Snip v. Slash

Speaking in bread geek: how do you slash, people?  I’ve never been satisfied with my slash technique, so now I’m experimenting with the snip. 
Slash is what you do to the bread loaf right before it goes into the oven so that you will get those lovely exploding patterns. I don’t have a good slasher or lame, all I do is tear.  I’ve tried taping a razor blade to a flexible spatula; I bought a lousy lame, all to no avail. So, now I’m snipping with scissors.

The ongoing sourdough starter experiments continue. I’m taking some of my favorite Bertinet formulas and substituting my sourdough starter for the usual pre-ferment. Yesterday’s batch was the best ever, fully developed flavors, nice crust and soft crumb.
Now, if I can figure out how to get the ale flavor that I like into the sourdough starter that would be pretty cool.

This is only starter level bread geek speek, if you want to hang with the big boys at Sourdough Companion who talk about ash content and potassium like you and I speak about toast, then that’s where you need to go. For now, I’m happy pushing the limits of my starter and occasionally making some toast.

Mother's Weekend

Hope it was a Happy Mother’s Day for all of those who celebrated. Our weekend was one of those ‘best laid plans oft go astray’ weekends, and once again I pay homage to the goddess of serendipity!
Saturday we biked from downtown to the far reaches of uptown, stopping to eat BBQ at the Dinosaur BBQ in West Harlem. A street side musician, a funky old building, excellent ribs, noisy tables, and I almost thought I was in New Orleans.
Next we headed to the Guggenheim museum where our eyes opened and minds exploded. The exhibit by the artist Cai Guo Qiang is astounding. If you are in NYC, go see this exhibit; the man’s creative spirit is infectious. Between running with the wolves and playing with explosives, it was pure inspiration.
Saturday night dinner was a calm dinner at home with a chance to catch up with a friend, who is now as intrigued by cocktails and gin as we are. 
Sunday, the official Mother’s Day, became Paella Sunday, with my son and his beautiful girlfriend chopping, dicing and laughing. Is there a better time to be had than when the kitchen is so full of people that you can’t turn around? Not for me. Although being presented with a big platter of fresh oysters is pretty good too!

Started as a simple dinner

It was supposed to be a simple dinner, old friends, new friends, a chance to relax. Somehow it turned into a grand dinner, and I didn't realize how grand until Elaine e-mailed me. What a dinner! What a night!

E-mail from Elaine Tin Nyo:
I had dinner tonight at Jude and Jeff's.
Guests included Wil, Andrew, Deborah and Andrew and Deborah's new kitten, Mouse.
Jude made a lovely dinner of shortribs braised with tomatoes and scented with bayleaves, rosemary and cinnamon, along with sauteed green beans, and Lebanese couscous with citrus rind and a bit of olive oil.
We drank Montepulciano d'abruzzo.
Delicous! We were feeling no pain.
Then Wil pulled out his cheese board and gave us a tour. Petite Billy from Bretonny. Constant Bliss from Jasper Hill (VT), a dry, nutty, washed-rind sheep milk cheese from Catalonia, another cheese with a yellowish rind from the lichen in the diet of the Corsican sheep, and finally a Blue from Oregon with malty overtones. We talk about the various ways a rind is developed. Jude had made a crusty, round loaf of native yeast bread (deriving a yeast mother from the Soho air). Now, fully educate by Wil, we had our way with the cheeses, and we became giddy.
Early in the evening there had been talk about a treehouse of epic proportions built by an army of friends for their now grown son. It was designed by a ship builder on stilts so it could sway with the trees it was build among. One get's the feeling there is always more than enough at Jude and Jeff's table (in every way). And I am enthralled to them for their open hearts and humor because that nourishes me most. I love everyone and every cat at that perfect moment. And then Jude serves the salad of baby arugula, oranges and shaved fennel and we punch through to a higher plane. Someone is sharing stories about almost killing his then five year old son in a kayak. We are talking about the art of affinage. How Pecorino is originally Sardinian. I am convinced and bullied that I might learn to ski in Snowbird this winter. And then Wil who has been standing at the kitchen counter puts a spatula in my face and I lick it. My mouth is filled with buttercream with bits of praline. He has been
plating desserts from Blackhound pattiserie. Suddenly there is a sea of desserts (lots of buttercream and chocolate and raspberries and strawberries) on the table now, along with fresh mangos. After a mouthful of each, I surrender, "I have officially had too much sugar. One more bite and I will be running with scissors." That is when Wil confides about hanging out with the nuns during after school detention. Nuns without their habits on.
There are pictures of Jude and Jeff's house in Umbria. How can I not visit them this summer? By now Mouse is exhausted from a night of climbing new furniture and stalking the two Abbyssinians. And we say our "so-longs."
Here, 140 blocks north, I am in recovery. The skin is stretched tight against my belly. I can thump it like a watermelon. What delicious discomfort.

E.

Bruce on just another Sunday in the Bywater

This is an excerpt from an e-mail from Bruce at NoLAdder that I had to share with you. Doesn't this sound and smell about as good as it get??  Bruce is trying to explain to me about cooking fish on a plank. But, I don't know nuthin' about fish and planks!

I was walking in da'ByWater on one of my visits to town, maybe even Christmas, down Royal around Piety, and there was a pack of gay boys having a soiree in their back yard and really throwing down the food. I mean I could smell it for a couple of blocks before I found them. I say gay boys but you know everyone was there from within a few blocks...the St Ann crowd. They had 3 (THREE) 55gal cookers going, 2 shrimp boilers and a ton of other stuff going on at the table. Really these cats were swingin. I just stood there thinking that this is of course what it means to miss New Orleans...when they opened one of the cookers and started pulling out these plank fish: Salmon, Red Fish, Mahi (each mahi with its own portabella mushroom on top), catfish,  a pile of crawfish mixed with...hmmm...peppers and maybe chow chow (that one was to absolutely die for but I can't even begin to say what was in it. I do remember corn and the peppers which had been grown right there beside the cooker:), so where was I...Judith, they pulled out about ten planks. Rockin. So the wood, guy told me he might get 4 good cookings with one plank but sometimes he'll use a thick piece of particularly good pecan and try to make it last and soak it all up don't'cha know. They said that it really did not take long for the fish to cook on the planks. Now as for the heat? They had one of those side fire bins, you know connected at the bottom of the cooker, for the heat and smoking. Dude was good with the wood fueling too to whip that many fish.
Now in one of the other cookers they had a whole hog with a pomegranate in its mouth and truffles for eyes and total mystery stuffing. The 3rd cooker was all veggies and only smoked...or roasted peppers in the bottom?
So there, just another Sunday afternoon in da'bywata.

Wine Blogging Wednesday

Old World v. New World

Wine Blogging Wednesday is a blog event created by Lenn Thompson. Read more about WBW here.  The basic gist is that a host proposes a wine to taste, you taste, then blog about it.

This month’s pick is Old World Reisling. My first reaction was “Blech. I don’t like Riesling’s, too sweet.”  But, I was going to be open-minded. Quit snickering.

Not knowing my Old World from my New World Rieslings, I decided to subject our guinea pig dinner guests, Mitch & Ali to a little blind tasting. 
The Old World: Chateau D’Orschwihr Riesling Bollenberg 2006, France.
The New World: Grant Burge (Barossa) Thorn Eden Valley Riesling, 2006, Australia

Served with roasted quail over bulgur wheat.  For anyone remotely interested in why bulgar is spelled about 25 different ways, click here.   It’s amazing how much importance something like this can take on when there are 2 bottles of wine being drunk! I’m also a firm believer in tasting wine with food; it’s the way god intended wine to be drunk.

The Australian Riesling came out of the bottle with a bit of a fizz, or maybe it was just a sparkle, but it had a pleasant, peachy nose with hints of citrus, moderately lingering finish.
The French Riesling was clearer, more direct with hints of lemon peel, but also a cooling minerality and a longer finish.

The night wore on and we continued to sip and to eat and funny things started happening in the glass.
Our Aussie friend, well, she just sort of relaxed in the glass, and got a little flabby, a little too lazy. She’s just a party girl at heart.
Our French friend remained….austere.  That was the word Mitch used, when he nailed the Old World wine.  It stayed upright and proper all through the meal while continuing to refresh and enhance the palate. 
The Chateau d’Orschwihr was empty by now, so we returned to the Grant Burge for a final sip, and on its own, not in a comparison tasting, it was quite a nice, easy to drink, summery tasting wine.
Moral of the story: Rieslings are good. They should be a great, food friendly summer wine choice. See, pays to be open minded. Come on, quit snickering!

Good Dumpling House

One of the benefits of living downtown is our proximity to Chinatown, where it is easy to find good eats.  I don’t normally write about restaurants, but our local go-to lunch place, the Good Dumpling House is an exception.  It’s a trifecta: quick, inexpensive and delicious. 
We went in the other day for some of those steamed pork and chive dumplings and I happened to have my camera in hand. Our waiter/cook friend, depending on the day, he can either be chopping away in his chef attire or else he is nattily dressed as the head waiter, saw my camera and realized this was a chance for a little publicity.
The Good Dumpling House is a very modest establishment, but they truly care about their dumplings and the astonishing amount of foot traffic they get is testimony to the quality of their dumplings. And their shark fin soup isn’t bad either!

Good Dumpling House, 214 Grand St. Chinatown, NYC