Aroma Cucina

Baked Sweet Potato Puree

Baked Sweet Potato Puree
This recipe is for my young friend Katherine who has just discovered that sweet potatoes can taste good! 

For 2 people
1-2 sweet potatoes, they come in different sizes so you figure out how much you want to make
2-3 T butter
¼ cup heavy cream
1 egg
¼ T roasted, ground cumin
salt, pepper

Individually wrap the sweet potatoes in foil and bake at 375F until tender. This takes about an hour, you want the potato to be soft and yielding when you give it a poke, but not total mush.

When the potatoes are done, unwrap and when they are cool enough to handle, slip the skins off.

Place in a mixing bowl along with the salt and pepper and cumin. Now start whipping those potatoes, you want as much air incorporated as possible to keep the potatoes fluffy. Be careful because this is when you get carried away and lift the beaters out of the bowl while its still running and you get potatoes everywhere!  When the mixture has cooled down a bit, so that you can comfortably stick your finger into it without getting burned, add the cream and continue whipping, then add the egg.  It will go from a sort of lumpy dark orange, to a smoother, more pumpkin color.

Place in an ovenproof dish and bake at 375F until hot. Meanwhile, make some brown butter. Place 2-3T butter in a pan, and over medium heat, let the butter melt, bubble and turn brown (not scorched black, just brown, take it off the stove when you hit brown and it smells really good).

When the potatoes are done, and you are ready to serve, pour the hot brown butter over the top of the potatoes and serve.  You could make this slightly less decadent by using milk instead of heavy cream, but life is short and cream tastes better.

LocalHarvest

Looking for a farmer’s market or CSA near you? Here’s a handy dandy website (LocalHarvest.org) that acts like Market Central for your entire local, organic, sustainable (did I miss anything?) meat, fruit and vegetable needs. It’s a thorough and well-organized listing of what is going on and where.
I have it from a reliable source that a recent shipment of passion fruit was incredible, thanks for the tip, Daniel. 
If I lived in the US full time, I would certainly sign up with a CSA. I think the fun of having a farmer’s bounty delivered to you each week would be wonderful, and the challenge of what to do with an abundance of turnips in the winter could lead to incredible inspiration.

Take a look at the meat and fish offerings that are available. Pricey for sure, but I’m also sure they are top quality.
There was a recent thread on eGullet that discussed the problems of bringing clean, quality, organic foods to the masses.  It’s one thing for those of us who are blessed with Benjamins in our wallets to make informed choices about our food sources, but what about the vast majority of people who can’t afford grass fed beef? Who is working on this problem? Is there an organization out there that would assist in re-educating the masses and making clean foods more affordable? (My use of the word clean is shorthand for local, organic and sustainable.) Is there an Alice Waters for the financially challenged? Now, here would be a great philanthropic project for some of the star chefs who have made us more aware of the excellent products that are to be found in our back yard.  Their star wattage could be used to illuminate the problem of getting healthy, clean foods into the hands of children.
Check out this article on carrots in schools, and tell me what you think.

Steak and Parsley Frites

Steak and Parsley Frites

I’m a bistro girl at heart, or a trattoria girl; occasionally I’m a brasserie girl, especially if there is good charcouterie involved. So, what’s better than a Saturday night bistro dinner at home?  A simple steak frites is comfort food.  The only finicky part is the fries, but take the time to do them right and you will be rewarded with crispy, delicious fries.

I like classic parsley butter on my steak; it’s the only parsley dish that I can serve to my parsley adverse son.  Why on earth does he have such sensitive parsley radar??

Recipe and step by step instructions to get dinner all out at one time are below.

Awww...I'm blushing

Woohoo! We're famous! Weinoo gave us a great write up on Gael Greene's blog. We are in the Travel Section, and it even mentions my focaccia!  Scroll down to the bottom of the article for a picture of Montone and the review of Erba Luna Ristorante.  Thank you Weinoo!!

Funny thing about bread, it touches some primal chord.  The bread found in Umbria and Tuscany is usually the salt less variety, and it's an acquired taste. Some people find it more useful as a doorstop than as something you would willingly put into your mouth, but over the years, I've come to understand the appeal of this uniquely flavorless bread.
I started making focaccia at the restaurant, but only on weekends, then I had to start making it every dinner, then twice a day.  It stunned me how popular the bread became. People would ask for the recipe, or ask if I could I give a bread baking class. Focaccia is simple, it'€™s the ultimate no knead bread.
Here is the basic recipe, adapted from my friend Dario'€™s recipe:

Tastiest Party Ever

After 3 years of planning, building, executing, and a soft opening, the Astor Center has been officially opened. And what an opening!  These people know how to throw a party. The Astor Center has the potential to be the culinary hub in this food and wine obsessed city.

The cocktails were superb.  Different cocktail lounges and their star mixologists took shifts at the bars creating signature cocktails “Please Don’t Tell”, a cocktail bar on St. Mark’s Place sent out killer Apple Daiquiris. There was a cilantro/pineapple margarita, a brave concoction with scotch, fizzes and sours and serious contemplation of ingredients.  My two personal favorites were “The French Pearl” from Pegu and the prettiest cocktail that I’ve ever seen, ” The Poisoned Rose”, concocted by Charlotte Voisey. The Poison Rose was finished with a floating red rose petal sprinkled with silver flakes, it was romantic and dramatic and sippingly delicious.
I’m wondering just how many glasses were used last night; it had to be a staggering number.

The nibbles that came in a steady flow from the kitchen were nothing short of fantastic.  Who can argue with absolutely pristine, fresh, cold oysters shucked by charming, handsome shuckers? Seamus Mullen of Boqueria and Suba fame was responsible for the sinful duck liver beignets, oxtail croquettes with squash aioli, perfect bites of grilled lamb, brandade on crunchy toasts, fried artichokes with tapenade and that’s just a few of the highlights.  There was even a meatball slider that was just about perfect. To finish off the evening, a staggering supply of Magnolia cupcakes made the rounds while these crazy violinists took the stage. This was a food and cocktail lover’s Mecca.

We wish Doug Duda and his incredible staff the very best of luck on this venture. They are doing everything just the way you want to see it done.  Bravi!

Spring Cleaning

It may be the dead of winter, but a hard drive crash will certainly make you take stock of what you’ve got stored and have you doing a Spring Clean. Which is my way of explaining the long break in posting. My hard drive took a tumble, my photos didn’t want to come back on to the freshly reinstalled OS and I’ve generally been pulling my hair out, interspersed with visits to the tech guys.

Happily the worst is behind me, and I’ve been inspired to do a little sprucing up of the blog.
Hope you enjoy.

Vienna Vegetable Orchestra

I don't usually get into the YouTube thing, but this is just too wonderfully strange not to share.
Gives a whole new meaning to the idea of playing with your food.

Here is a link to their home page.

Morality and Eating

Spending chunks of time in the U.S. and Italy gives me a little distance from each culture and a chance to observe.  Italians are nowhere near as hung up on food as Americans are. Italians are passionate about their god given right to pleasure and Americans still seem to be hung up on Puritanical virtues.   The U.S. supermarket aisles are full of denial packaging; lots of ‘no fat’, no this, no that. Diet fads sweep the nation, wrapped in that all consuming quest for eternal good health.  We came back from Italy last year and no one was eating anything white. So bizarre.

I had never considered this from a moral point of view, until last night when I attended a lecture given by the Culinary Historian Society. Rachel Laudan, noted author and food historian, was speaking on the topic of “Refined Cuisine or Just Plain Cooking”.  In a very tight nutshell, the essence of her theory is that primarily in Western culture, there are two broad schools of thought: cooking foods brings refinement and perfection and is emblematic of culture, the opposition says cooking causes the food to be disguised, the enhancement to  food encourages unnatural appetite and therefore corrupts.

Red Pepper Magic

Roasted red peppers. Who can resist them? When can you ever make enough of them? And does anyone really not mind peeling them? That is one job that I just HATE. I’ll clean a kilo of sardines before I’ll tackle a kilo of peppers.
(This applies to everyone but my friend Dario who is allergic to red peppers…now, that is a curse!)

A recent batch of red peppers was pureed and then turned into red pepper ‘glass’ and red pepper ‘leather’.    The glass is brittle and shatters and then instantly melts in your mouth, the leather is like fruit leather, soft, malleable and sometimes sticks to your back teeth.

The other night we wrapped some red pepper leather around a marinated white anchovy.  It was good, but next time, I think the addition of a little crème fraiche would make this much better.

Red Pepper Leather or Glass
100 g roasted, pureed and strained red peppers
25 g dextrose
5 g water
5 g salt
15 g port wine

Roast the peppers in a hot oven (375-400F) until the outsides are charred.  I lay mine on newspaper with a layer of salt underneath that both serves to soak up excess juice and helps keep the peppers from being soggy.  When they are done, remove and either place in a paper bag or cover with more newspaper until they are cool enough to handle. Peel the buggers, removing all the seeds and then puree the hell out of it. Now add the other ingredients and puree some more. You want a really smooth consistency, so a pass through a fine meshed strainer is a good idea.

Spread thinly and evenly on a silpat and roast in 225 F degree oven for about 1 hour.  Glass should be spread very thin, leather a bit thicker.  To check for done-ness, tickle the edge of the pepper mixture, and when you feel it is coherent enough to pull off the silpat, it’s done. Remove from the silpat and gently place on the counter to cool.
Shatter the glass and scatter on whatever needs a little red lift.
Wrap the leather around anything…an olive, a piece of cheese, your finger.

Oxtail

Oxtail

I adore oxtail; it’s rich, meaty and flavorful, just like any meat is that is close to the bone.
I’m also pretty certain that oxtail is really bull tail, which doesn’t sound near as good, but that’s just a guess. I mean, really, how many oxen have you seen lately?

We made a marvelous discovery on Saturday: the Essex St. Market. I remember going there about 100 years ago, and it was dirty and a little bit scary. Now it’s the perfect mix of old and new, there are 2 great cheese guys, vegetables, fishmongers, a voodoo religious guy and Jeffrey’s Meat who looks to be a great new source of meat for me.  When I asked for oxtail, the butcher handed me the whole tail, skinned but whole. Knowing that his knives are better than mine, I had him cut it up into medium size pieces, which was a good move on my part!

I think I was so happy to find this butcher because I’d just lost my local butcher, Dom’s on Lafayette St.  When I first started going there, it was the two brothers, one crankier and curmudgeonlier than the next, but they were excellent butchers. When the older brother died, the younger brother brought in some Chinese butchers and they were good too. When I walked by on Saturday, they were gone, the store is shut down and I was broken hearted as yet another old time butcher had vanished. I’ve said it before, but when you find a good butcher, kiss him, hold him and treasure him (or her as the case may be…our butcher in Montone is a woman…her husband spends far more time flirting than he does with his knives).

Now, without further ado, here is an easy recipe for oxtail braised in red wine.
1 oxtail, cut into medium size pieces
1 carrot
2 stalks of celery
1 medium onion
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
Fennel seed (1/4 tsp, ground), 4-5 crushed juniper berries, 1 crumpled bay leaf and ½ tsp pink peppercorns if you have some around
Red wine

Dust the oxtail pieces in some flour, salt and pepper.

Sear the pieces in a pan with olive oil and arrange the pieces in an ovenproof casserole that has a lid. Ideally you want a casserole where you can lay each piece flat on the bottom of the casserole, not in layers.

Roughly chop the carrots, celery and onion. Don’t stress over the chopping, but don’t leave the pieces too big. Sweat the vegetables in the same pan that you used for the oxtail, adding a little more olive oil.
When everyone is soft and relaxed in the pot, add the garlic and a bit of salt and pepper and the other spices.

Place the vegetables and spices on top of the oxtail pieces, deglaze the sauté pan with red wine and pour that over everything, adding more wine until the oxtail pieces are covered.
Cover the casserole and place in the cold oven, turn oven to 250 degrees and let braise for at least 3 hours.  Don’t peek, and don’t remove the cover until you are ready to serve.

Before serving, remove the meat and keep warm. Puree the braise juices and the vegetables into a thick, rich sauce which is then added back on top of the meat.
Last night we served it with slivered toasted almonds on top (you could even add almonds to the braise sauce).  Or you could add some color and brightness by finely chopping some parsley and orange peel and sprinkling that on top.
I served it on a bed of cous cous, but polenta would be delicious and so would rice. What ever tickles your fancy. This is good food for a winter evening and the house will smell delicious all afternoon.