"FOODNOTE"

"Foodnote" is a new addition to my blog. It's basically a food/restaurant review from my travels. I have considered writing about unforgettable foods for months now - I have accumulated pictures and notes on my phone - and I have always meant to broaden my "food-search" beyond what I can develop and cook at home with the goal, of course, of improving my skills, at the same time leaving an impression about restaurants with wonderful food knowledge. (This very first review will be foodnoted as FN1.)

Picture inset is a cardamom bun from the Vergennes Laundry Café. (We were in Vermont last Christmas break.) The surprise to me about this bread was that it's provincial - like coming straight out from the hearth of a barrio bakery. Cardamom, as a flavor, is toothsome-sweet, it lifts up the bread's milk like fresh lemon juice lifts up a tomato's ripeness. In pretzel-like braids, the bun was glossy not sticky to break, and the crunch and softness of the first bite are one, and the crystallized sugars metabolized all its deliciousness in your mouth. I recommend having it with cappuccino that Didier (the owner) makes. His coffee bested what I make at home.   


















 
 

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"WOWGER"

I'm sure you had guessed I was playing with the "cultural" word Whopper. Good! Well - this is my anti-establishment veggie burger brioche, with arugula lime salad. I had fun doing it: the process reminded me of making a Filipino luscious lumpia (fried egg roll) filling, a recipe I learned from the Lumpia Shack at the Brooklyn Flee Market in Dumbo (not that I had actually made one; just transitively).

THE FILLING (half a cup of the following, plus some): minced sweet onions, cooked chunk potatoes, cooked carrots, cooked rice, rough ground toasted pumpkin seeds, "bread crumbs" (I used some leftover Ecuadorian cheese empanadas with their lardy crust), plus some (more than a cup of) minced mixed Mesclun salad greens (no, I don't have Kale, sorry; actually I purposely didn't want it - I want freshness not bitterness). Oh, don't forget the egg. Two.

In a large bowl, mix fillings together pack like a meat loaf, and break the eggs in last - keep using your hands to integrate well. Salt and pepper and chili flakes it, some olive oil, and oh, yes - Soy Sauce! - about two tbsp, and juice of half a lemon. Form filling into a ball, and let it rest for about an hour in the bowl covered with Saran wrap.

PREPARE SALAD: I only have three ingredients: a bag of washed arugula greens, white onions (cut up into thin half moons) and zest of one lime. The dressing really is the key. (Look for a previous recipe in the blog - good luck; but I guarantee it's there; hint: early last year.) But for this salad, though, I used more measures of fresh lime juice and lemon juice over the wine vinegar, and like my "trademark" dressing, because of the plentiful use of whole spices, it's got an Italian-Mediterranean punch.

WOWGER TIME: Heat up the oven to 375, olive oil a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, form veggie patties (recipe makes 3 enormous wowgers), and when oven heated, stick sheet in for about 35 minutes. Turn oven light on. You obviously had noticed the cheese in the picture. Yes, you need that, too. At the 35th minute when the wowgers are charred deep brown (there's really no preference for "How do you like it done?" with  a green burger. Do you really want to eat a "meatloaf" that's pink in the middle? I didn't think you would), melt a very special, high quality cheese, like a slightly moldy/briey kind from the co-op in Middlebury, Vermont called Tomme. In less than 5 minutes, you're done.

TO SERVE: Toast up a thick slice of brioche bread (Agatha and Valentina's; it's becoming my go-to food store these days since moving to Gramercy-Kips Bay, Manhattan from Bushwick, Brooklyn) in butter, both sides, remove baked cheese wowgers from the oven,  and turner spoon a wowger perfectly on the bread, and then the other. Cut sandwich in half (diagonal), and assuming you had successfully made the arugula lime salad, tong a generous some over the plate with your burger (oh, did I use the "Right" word), look at the picture for inspiration - and there you have it liberals!




 

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OH LARD!

The story is we were at Antidote Bar in Vergennes, VT and commented on the quality of their food (we were there this past Christmas). Lard, it turns out, was their "key" ingredient, and so we said, "Wow." After dinner walking back to the guesthouse in very frigid cold conditions, the chef (we found out later) came running out to us with a plastic bag in his hand: "This is for you, guys."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Render it in boiling water, and you'll have lard." "Right," I gasped. Vergennes is the smallest town in Vermont with the biggest heart for food-love and sharing. The fatty frozen strips in the bag were from Barnumtown Farms.    

Back in New York, I rendered my lard in corn cobs/parsley stems stock for about 4 hours under low heat. After, I let it rest on the kitchen counter overnight. The next day I put the pot in the fridge (at the lowest compartment; the coldest spot) - and two days later, I harvested my thick, waxy "white oil." The first thing I did with it was to make dough for an Ecuadorian cheese empanada I was thinking to make.

Recipe to come!

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FEELING THE COLD...

KOREAN GREEN PEPPERS-BLACK OLIVES-GARLIC CAVATAPPI MAC AND CHEESE

I will skip the recipe (please refer to an old one posted last year). But I will say this: before cooking the pasta, blanch the seeded green peppers in the boiling liquid for a few minutes to infuse their heat - then scoop them out - and throw in the cavatappi.  Drain pasta and peppers in a colander (see picture). 

In the same pot over medium heat, very slightly brown garlic in butter and oil with the olives, add chili flakes, salt and pepper, then mix in the "DMZs" - then blast high to char for 5 seconds. Turn off heat. Add pasta in pot and mix well with garnish, add some whole milk to coat, fresh chopped herbs, and all the Vermont cheese you could grate, those you had bought at the Middlebury co-op, last time you were there. I had Humble Pie brie from the Woodcock Farm; melty Raclette from Spring Brook Farm; and Plymouth Artisan cheese. Transfer everything to a seasoned cast iron skillet (make sure the garlic is on top!), and bake set at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, just until flaky-crumbly brown on top, until your kitchen smells like a cheese cave!

AND

                      OJAI VALLEY CALIFORNIA OLIVE OIL CAKE

This is really an oil that's a cake! If you love an oily moist, almost pudding-like cake, then this is it. The dry ingredients are: almond flour, all-purpose flour, bread crumbs - ratio: 3/4 cup, 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup, respectively, plus a 1 tbsp baking powder and a pinch of salt. Wet ingredients are: 1 cup vivacious olive oil, 4 eggs, and zest of 1 Meyer lemon and 1 orange; whisk thoroughly until eggs are emulsified thick with the oil. Combine with dry ingredients. Transfer batter into a small iron skillet that was buttered all round. Bake for about 35 minutes, 350 degrees. 

Eat or spoon mac and this cake alternately, with your blankey-shawl over your back, and feel happy, darling...

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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO CURRY "HUMMUS"

Out of the blue after my walk I asked my doorman, Charlie, what's a typical breakfast from his country. Straightaway he said: Curry chickpeas on bread! How do you do it, I said? (I got pretty excited because - and I'm not kidding - I actually have cooked garbanzos in the fridge, so it'sjust perfect.)

Here's how, he said - in one sentence:
Mash or puree the peas in oil, salt and pepper, hot sauce, and curry powder, herbs if you have, think of a hummus, and spread it over toasted bread.
Got it.

The version I made was executed as instructed, with just a little enhancement based on what I have - and in one sentence:
I mashed the garbanzos with fork, added olive oil and some garlic-veg stock I have, sumac and za'atar (just a little - I was thinking "hummus"), yellow curry powder, hot sauce (I have Sriracha), fresh lemon juice and curly-kind parsley -- all combined to taste. 
The flavor profile should be Indian-Caribbean with a "cool-side," like the personality of my doorman!

I actually loved it on toasted cheese bread from Tribeca Oven. Thanks, man!

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YOGURT BISCUIT

I was trying to think of what to do, something simple, with my leftover mint raita (from the restaurant Bhatti Indian Grill) the night before. This is a two-ingredient biscuit adapted from my favorite food show, Splendid Table.
Here are  my "two" ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour (with 2 tbsp of baking powder and a pinch of salt)
1 cup raita (Indian yogurt condiment; O.K. I lie - make that 3/4 cup, and 1/4 half-and-half)

Combine in bowl and form to a ball, then transfer to a floured surface. Knead a few times until just so-so smooth, then press down dough to a round shape about an inch thick. Cookie-cut dough to oreo sizes. 

Bake in 450 degree preheated oven on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper; 6-8 minutes. (I actually grated Dutch Edam prior to baking to savory-up the crunch on the outside when done.)

This biscuit is as good as it looks!

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BEFORE AND AFTER

How to cook a hearty Asian-American breakfast called Roasted Pear and Sage Pork Chops, sided with simple sushi egg rice:

This is the perfect replenishing-the-"bone"-meal after skiing. (I'm assuming your cabin in the alps has a full kitchen - and that you had brought over market-fresh meats and produce and fruits.) 

Heat oven to 475.

Rub chops with rock salt and fresh-cracked peppers and sumac powder all over, especially on the protruding bone. Olive oil them, and rub/massage spices again. Look at the "before" picture. Do that (think of the name of this dish; I actually added rosemary and shredded Brussels sprouts for more earthiness flavor to balance out with the pear and sage "appleness." Some salt would be good.)

Cover tight the cast iron skillet with aluminum foil and bake for about 25 minutes. Remove foil and lower temperature to 350, and cook for another 10-15 minutes for medium done-ness. (The indicator is a nose full of infused vegetable aromatics silently crackling and broiling with the meat and fat to the tune of, "I am incorporated now, Chef"; a trained "sniffer" is in us all when it comes to home food deliciousness coming out of "pipes" in the kitchen).

I have a reverse technique before serving this dish: sear the chops over high heat in the same skillet - both sides, about a minute or two each - immediately after baking; the meat achieves the succulence and tenderness in the oven, but not the color of "Ipanema" high noon skin. Leave the veggies in the skillet and sauté for "colorifics." Plate (as seen in "after").

Leave your ski boots on - and attack!

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