Aroma Cucina

Civilized Living

Manhattan doesn’t lend itself to civilized living; it lends itself to survival techniques.
One of the things we miss most about Italy, is the very civilized aperitivo hour.  Before dinner, you stroll to a piazza and have a drink. It could be a glass of white wine, it could be a cocktail, but before you know it, other friends have gathered, there are some snacks to eat, and you have a pause in the day that brings connection, laughter and breathing space. One of the beautiful things about having a drink in Italy, is that it is always served with a snack, or snacks, or sometimes it seems like a full meal.  Beautiful crostini, olives, nuts, cheese, exquisite vol au vent.  So today’s question is: why don’t they do that in US bars? No snacks, not even a chip or a peanut.  OK, my US bar experience is limited to NY, Philadelphia and Snowbird, so maybe there are some cities that excel at bar food, I just haven’t found them. 
Piazzas are very civilized; they are the heart and soul of an Italian neighborhood. And if you miss the aperitivo hour, you can always go for a stroll after dinner, that’s called a passagiata, and it’s also a very civilized way to live.  Seems I’m having a very “Viva Italia” moment!

Honey Bees in Peril?

We've come down from the mountains and its back to urban life. I have to say that although I miss the mountain air, walking into a grocery store that has an abundance of green, crunchy things to eat, is pretty sweet.
Sweet. Makes me think of honey; that other sweetener. Which makes me think of bucolic fields of flowers with busy bees buzzing around. Apparently I need a little upside the head slap to bring me back to reality. Bees are  a business, a commodity that is trucked around. Literally, bees are trucked in 18 wheelers to different places in the U.S. to pollinate crops, particularly almonds.  Who knew?
This article  in today's NY Times is talking about the plight of the honey bee. Seems the bees don't like a nomadic, commercialized life and are either dying off, or not coming back to the colony. When you read the article,  it makes  you wonder: what happened to the beekeeper's common sense? why can't the colonies' be 'planted' in one place and allowed to settle there?  shouldn't the farmers who are dependent on the bees work in tandem with the beekeepers? It makes me wonder about a lot of  things,  including worrying about importing Australian bees. Come on...we've all seen this plot line before! Next thing you know, those cute little Aussie bees will be unstoppable....carrying off small dogs and hanging around in playgrounds...!

Spaghetti Code?

I read this article last night, and it bugged me. Aside from the lame title, I couldn’t figure out why, until this morning.
The author didn’t do the research, she shows no respect, regard or awareness of Italian cooking, regional or otherwise. What she claims to be an Italian sauce is simply a sauce that left its roots far behind and has become an American wish for nostalgia.  Her family’s “Italian” sauce is no more Italian than egg foo young. 
What is interesting about the story is how living in a family with shallow and wandering roots, this sauce becomes the anchor that holds the family together.  The dining room table that hosted all these spaghetti dinners is now a cherished object.  I have the same feelings about my dinner tables; how many dinners, how much laughter, conversation, debate and memories have occurred at the table. 
So, this story turns up as the most e-mailed story of the day, it takes up half a page in our edition of the Times, and all it does it perpetuate Italian stereotypes.  Celebrate the tradition that your family has established, and leave it at that.

P.S. Dried basil?? Come on….

Not even one sense

Back in early January, I was bemoaning the lack of sensory stimulus in the grocery stores.  Well, I didn't know how good I had it.
We're still in the mountains, and I've run out of the meat and fish that I brought with me. So, I ordered from a local Salt Lake grocery store that will deliver up here.
I ordered some ground beef, to make some bolognese sauce. Seemed pretty simple, basic, right?
This is what got delivered. Warning, these photos are graphic!!
A plastic tube o'meat! You can't see it, poke it. Nothing. It is completely generic, sealed, and promises to be only 'minimally processed'.  What does that mean???

This is what was inside the tube:

Now, I ask you: does that pink mushy stuff look anything like the photo??? 

Blech.

That Japanese Knife

Remember a few Sundays  ago, our friends Andrew and Deborah had given me a Tosagata Hocho knife?
Well, I took the knife to Snowbird with me, that and a paring knife.   I figured that this would be a good test of the knife. Would it be good in a variety of situations, cutting meat? cucumbers? Would it hold its edge? Would it be comfortable in the hand? Would the care of the knife be too much of a pain?

So here's my product review: It's a great knife! No problem doing some basic butchering, easy to hold and handle while finely dicing and slicing.  I'm am a little anal about  immediately wiping it clean and drying it. The care instructions suggest oiling it with mineral oil, but I haven't done that, and there has been no degradation of the blade, or rusting.  And so far, with some pretty heavy use, the blade is still sharp.
All in all, its a great all purpose knife.  Thanks, Andrew!

Sous Vide and Singapore

Sous Vide Scary?

Back to sous vide: the process of sealing food in a vacuum-sealed pouch and then low temperature cooking it. The controversy or discussion of the other day was about consistency and a disregard for terroir.
Another aspect of sous vide is safety, at least in the eyes of NYC officials. As far as I can tell, NYC stands alone on the ban, which went into effect last March. NYC health officials claim there isn’t an outright ban, a restaurant can file a HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point), however that is an extremely costly and time consuming project for a restaurant that just wants to sous vide some lamb shanks. NYC seems to have jumped the gun and worried about the ‘possibility’ of food poisoning without any evidence of actual poisoning in a technique that has been used in France since the end of WWII, and in the U.S. for about 15 years.

High end, creative restaurants like WD-50 have been using the sous vide process to experiment with flavors and textures; it’s highly unlikely that the team at WD-50 would not take care to be sure their dishes hadn’t developed botulism.  Botulism can develop if the food product has been stored at too high a temperature and/or cooked at too low a temperature. But can’t the same be said about just about any food product? You leave the fresh fish on the counter all day, you are going to have  a problem.
Which makes me wonder: has NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg gone all Singapore dictator on us? What is with all these food bans? Trans Fats. Foie Gras. Sous Vide. Even morel mushrooms in LA.   OK, each one has very separate issues and should probably not be lumped together.  But, it seems as if we are looking at a trend. 
And now for the next question: Why do we still allow Smithfield  to process pork in such an obviously disastrous way, but we get twitchy about foie gras?  Why do we allow our cows to be fed feed that produce e.coli not only in the meat but inside the spinach that we eat? 
And on a more philosophical note:  Hamburgers have to be cooked to death to be served to the public, so that we can kill off all that e.coli.  Why aren’t we addressing the source of the problem: contaminated meat processors, instead of adjusting our tastebuds to the charms of charred cardboard?

What a difference a day makes!

Yesterday

This morning, 7:00 am               

It has finally snowed!!  It may only be 6" overnight, but its enough to make your heart sing. It's been a  dry, lean snow year and we finally have a bit of the fresh stuff to go out and play in. Woooo-hooo!
It was enough to get me out of bed at 7:00 this morning!!

Back to food: yesterday in the hot tub was a cowboy hatted pastry chef.  How did we all know he was a pastry chef? He had the word "beurre" tattooed across his stomach. Nice touch. He's young and lean now....I wanna see that tattoo in ten years. Yeah.

The Veneto

Over on eGullet, we've been studying the different regions of Italy. This month, it's the Veneto

Here is the post that appeared on eG, but come and join us over there. What could be bad about cooking like you were in Venice??

After the relative austerity of  last month in Trentino Alto Adige, rip open your cabinets, gather up your spices, butter up your fishmonger, get the spit ready for some birdies, and open a bottle of Amarone. We are wallowing in an abundance of ingredients!

The Veneto reaches up into the Alps, and then spreads the hem of her skirts along the Adriatic, beguiling and bewitching with its lagunas and estuaries, refreshed by the Po and Adige rivers and various lakes. The Veneto is divided into seven provinces: Venice, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Treviso, Belluno and Rovigo. It’s the number one tourist destination in Italy. And the capital of the Veneto is that most amazing of cities, a floating fantasy, a folly, a magical apparition: Venice.

The Veneto cuisine runs the gamut from the simple mountain cuisine of Belluno to the celebrated dishes of Venezia and Verona. Spices, or more practically speaking, the trading of spices, was very important to Venice. Pepper was particularly prized, as a spice and preservative, it was sometimes used as part of a dowry or as in inheritance.

Venezia
As in common where there is a dominant city with royalty and an upper class, there will be two distinct styles of cooking: the elaborate, highly spiced cuisine and the humble food of the peasant. Venice is certainly no exception, especially where the use of spices granted you the status of a rich man.
One dish that is always mentioned as the signature dish of Venice is: risi i bisi. A humble origin dish, that transcends to the sublime when the peas are fresh and shelled moments before mingling with the rice. What is interesting is that in the Veneto, rice and polenta figure more prominently than pasta. Aside from the famous risi i bisi, which is somewhere between a soup and a risotto; rice is combined with myriad ingredients including, but certainly not confined to: cabbage, broccoli, celery, tomato, and sausages for an infinitive variety of soups.

The pasta exception is bigoli, which is an extruded pasta. This pasta combines soft and hard wheat and eggs, making an exceptionally firm pasta which is too strong to be rolled and pressed in the regular manner, so a torchio, or press, with various sized perforated plates is used. Older versions of the torchio had a little bench to help give you some leverage to turn the screw of the press. Traditionally the bigoli is served with a variety of sauces, including a simple sardine or anchovy sauce, or a richer duck sauce.

In older texts, there is frequent mention of “la zuca baruca”, a magnificent yellow squash, that is cooked in the oven and then sold on the streets. Does anyone know if this still happens?

Fish and shellfish come in seemingly endless varieties in Venice. The lagoons being a very benevolent place to breed all sorts of goodies: scampi, crabs, ray, branzino, sole, anchovies. Fish in the Veneto is cooked in primarily two ways: roasted or fried. And yet, with all this abundance, the Veneziani (?) are particularly fond of baccala (salt preserved cod fish) or stoccafisso (air dried cod fish). Pay attention here; some recipes use the two words interchangeably, but they produce different results. In Italy, it is more difficult to find stoccafisso outside of the Veneto and le Marche than it is to find the traditional baccala. “Baccal mantecato” is often mentioned with particular fondness, and it seems to be a dead ringer for the French brandade de morue: cod, potatoes and garlic are emulsified into a sort of pudding. Now, I’m not going to debate the origins of this dish, because even the Spaniards lay claim to inventing it!
Another typical Venezia flavor combination is ‘in saor’, which is a sort of sweet/sour flavor, with the sweet coming from sweet onions, and the sour coming from vinegar. In the winter months, raisins and pine nuts are commonly added. A classic recipe: “Sardines in Saor”, is wonderful, only coming to full flavor after about 5 days of being submerged in a pile of onions, raisins, and pine nuts.

Although meat is not a prominent feature of the Venezia diet, “fegato alla Veneziana’ is a prized dish. This dish uses veal liver, thinly sliced and cooked in a combination of olive oil and butter, onions and parsley. “Agnello alla Veneziana” calls for lamb shoulder combined with butter and milk and roasted. “Langue alla Veneziana” is a beef tongue dish, served cold and thinly sliced as an antipasto dish.
Throughout the Veneto, courtyard animals are eaten, frequently roasted on a spit, and game birds are also prized. There are wonderful descriptions of spit roasted quail, wrapped in pancetta, with juices caught in a pan and then served on either a bed of beans or polenta.

My trusty 1931 “Guida” lists the following breads as coming from Venezia, but it lacks any sort of description of the bread itself: “ciope”, “rosete”, “pan Tedesco” “montasu” and “saltimpanza”, which is descriped as bread made from milk and used for soup. Obviously, further research is required!

Padova
The cuisine is described as being very similar to Venezia. Rice and polenta play an important role, along with fresh made taglatelle and lasagne, and dried bigoli. Prized for its delicate, almost sweet white meat is the Padova hen. Reading older recipes, it seems that the Padova people were also fond of confit of goose, duck and chicken. It is described as “oca in onto”, goose meat preserved under fat, which sounds like confit to me.

Verona
Verona is said to have the oldest vegetable market in the country, which would be quite amazing if it could be proved, or if it was true! In Verona, meat plays a large role, with dishes such as “riso efigadini: a risotto made with chicken, beef, chicken liver, and sausage. “Peperat” or “peara`” is a typical dish of boiled meat combining breadcrumbs, ox bone marrow, abundant black pepper cooked in an earthenware pot over a slow flame.
The Veronese (?) are particularly fond of gnocchi made from potatoes and flour. An old tradition on the last Friday of Carnevale involves a parade of people dressed in 14th century costumes and is presided over by the “Father of the Gnoccho”.

Rovigo
The cuisine of the Rovigo province is described as simple and modest. Here various meats are roasted, snails are cooked with onions and river fish are prized. A particularly good sounding recipe for guinea hen calls for the bird to be stuffed with a clove studded onion, and cooked in a pot with oil, butter, pepper and onions.

Belluno
This province is simple Alpine cuisine. Descriptions of various soups reveal the poverty that must have existed in this region: simple potato soup, orzo with milk, flour which has been fried in fat and then served in salted water, breadcrumb soup. Frequently milk is used as the basis for the soup instead of meat based broths. Polenta is a substituted for bread. Game birds figure prominently, along with other fruits of the woods: nuts, chestnuts, and berries.
One of Belluno’s most prized products is the “Lamon bean”, which appears to have been brought from Spain in the 16th century and currently has a consortium dedicated to developing and promoting this bean.

Treviso
By far, Treviso biggest claim to fame is the red raddiccho that shows up at the end of November and is available at the market until February. The Treviso radicchio is the first Italian vegetable to gain IGP (Indicazione di Origine Protetta) status. The growth and ‘curing’ process of the radicchio is quite complicated. In mid-November, mature chicory plants are harvested, with their long root intact. The plants are gathered into bunches and placed into deep trenches that are covered by plastic. The plants are then removed, all decayed leaves are removed and the plant is put into a vat of cool, running water. After 2 weeks of forcing, a sprout will have formed and the plants are transferred to a warm and humid environment to continue growing. Once again the large outer leaves are removed, the root is trimmed, it is treated to another cold water bath and finally the radicchio is ready for market. This radicchio is highly prized and can be served both raw and cooked.
The area is also well known for splendid fruits and vegetables, including wonderful peaches and the “Asaparagi delle Rive”.

Vicenza
This province may have the most varied ingredients: lamb, beef, pork, chickens, ducks, game birds, fresh water fish and many types of fruits and vegetables.
One particularly prized vegetable is the white asparagus of Bassano del Grappa, which recently acquired DOC status. The asparagus is grown under the earth, must be completely white, although a tinge of pink is permitted, absolutely no green must be present. They are huge asparagus, about the size of a large Cuban cigar, but incredibly tender and delicious.

So, although Venice dominates the Veneto, there is a cornucopia of ingredients and recipes to keep us entertained and stimulated this month. And what good fortune! This month is Carnevale…so men: get your wigs and tights out; ladies: start practicing walking sidways thru doorways (and don’t plan on eating anything…or breathing…until you get that d*mn corset off!!).

 

Sous Vide

At it’s simplest, cooking something in the ‘sous vide’ manner, means to cook something in plastic. In practice, the food is vacuum packed, sealed in plastic, and then cooked at low temperatures.   It’s a hot buzz word in restaurants right now, for a few reasons: a) sealing and intensifying flavors, b) protecting against loss (for example: cooking foie gras sous vide can reduce loss by 5%, and at the cost of foie gras, that becomes important)  c) consistency.

In the fall issue of Gastronomica, a quarterly magazine dedicated to all aspects of gastronomy, Scott Haas makes a case for sous vide in an article entitled “Better Dining through Chemistry”.  Gastronomica does not have an online version of this article, so I cannot link to.

Although there is controversy regarding the food safety aspect of the technique, Mr. Haas is exploring the commercial benefits of sous vide.  He states, “The big economic advantage of sous vide method is that it enables chefs to create brands. Whether a signature dish at a restaurant or a specific item sold in retail stores, food prepared sous vide makes it possible for enterprising chefs to maintain a global presence. Alain Ducasse can serve a sous vide chicken dish at his restaurant in Tokyo that tastes exactly the same as the one served at his Paris restaurant.”
I have one word, no make that three words to say to that: “Howard Johnson” “terroir”. Why on earth would I shell out big bucks to have a chicken taste the same in Tokyo or Paris? That just makes no sense at all.  Howard Johnson became the powerhouse that it was because it was the same everywhere, no matter where you went; you could expect the comfort of familiarity and sameness. It’s a successful business model used by the likes of  Holiday Inn, Ritz Carlton, and Stouffer’s, and that international giant: McDonald’s. But why would Alain Ducasse, a Frenchman, want to join that club, and why would he ignore terroir?  Quality winemakers strive to make their wines taste of the ground, the minerals, the rainwater. Their wine can be produced nowhere else, and that creates value. Why would a chef turn his back on the unique appeal of a regional ingredient?

Mr. Haas goes on to explain the benefits of ‘uniformity’. “Because minute variations in temperature can yield extremely subtle differences, by precisely documenting the desired temperatures and cooking times, chefs can be assured of the identical result every time, as though they were in a scientific laboratory.” 
He quotes Philip Preston, president of PolyScience, as saying, “It makes cooking idiot proof.” PolyScience makes equipment for sous vide processing.  OK, so let me get this straight: I go to a high end restaurant and I want the consistency of product that I get at McDonald’s, prepared by people who have the same skill level.  And that is supposed to be a good thing??

I can understand the appeal of using this method for sealing in flavor and moisture, but consistency and brand building seem directly opposed to the reasons why I would choose to spend my hard earned money at Per Se, where upwards of 20% of the dishes are prepared sous vide.

The health department controversy …. Well, that’s for another day.

The weather in the mountains is absurdly, strangely warm for the second day. As we were coming home, the wind coming up the valley was balmy.  And back east, they are in a deep freeze.  Bizarre weather for sure.  Here is a photo of a little friend who was eating breakfast with me this morning.  A dude if every there was one!

Up in the mountains

Greetings from the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. Or, as they say on the Snowbird snow report, “Aloha”.
Is it true that aloha can mean hello and good-bye, like that very useful word: “Ciao”?

We are up in the mountains for the next few weeks, and there is absolutely no chance of me eating locally, unless I want to eat California blue jays and rocks, because there certainly isn’t much in the way of snow. We are having a lean snow year, that’s for sure. We’ve had cold, and wind, trace snow, fog, clouds and sun, and that was just between 2 and 4:00 yesterday afternoon. Today it’s going into the mid-40’s, tomorrow into the 50’s. Hmmmm.

Its been a fun weekend, with Jeff’s brother here visiting with a friend. Saturday was a big Scandinavian themed dinner for all the owners at the Lodge, and other than the house cured gravlax and aquavit, I’m not too sure what else was Scandinavian, but we certainly had a good time. The Lodge owners are an eccentric, fun and adventure loving crowd. 
Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday, and I confess, I’m not too good at male-sports-bonding snacks. These poor guys had to settle for some chips and beer. 
Hopefully I redeemed myself with dinner: pasta with a spicy octopus sauce.  I’ve always shied away from making octopus, seemed as if there were always too many cautions when you read the recipes, but now that I’ve gotten a few more under my belt; they’re not so hard. And yes, I do throw a cork in the sauce while its cooking. Its supposed to make it more tender, and hey, it’s not like I don’t have some corks laying around!

And here you have this morning’s sunrise; just the first bits of sun coming up over the ridge. So, as they say in Snowbird, “Aloha”.