mizchef

posted by admin on Feb 18

Hi, kids. I’m having a hectic week working on two different cookbooks at two different stages. First, let me talk about the first book. What, No Meat? is finally close to being finished. Not just yet, but close. My publisher, Rogue Books (an imprint of Bedazzled Ink) fell way behind schedule and even though I contracted with them last summer, I’m only now seeing the proof. The fact that it took so long in and of itself doesn’t upset me. What upsets me is that we missed the Christmas shopping season. Christmas is THE prime buying season for cookbooks because people buy them as gifts. I take partial responsibility for this because this is Bedazzled’s first cookbook and I knew about the Christmas season thing, yet didn’t say anything. Honestly, I didn’t think I needed to say anything because I kept thinking that it would be out by that time. By the time it dawned on me that it wouldn’t, it was too late to say anything. Don’t get me wrong, I did keep checking in from time to time, but I should have been more aggressive about it.

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posted by admin on Jan 22

Hi, kids. It’s been a really rough week for me. I’ve had to deal with a broken sink, bad news from various friends and, worst of all, a malicious virus on my computer. It’s the Malware Defense, and if any of you have had to deal with it, you know how heinous it is. My entire week was taken up with combating this vicious thing and in the end, I had to wipe out my computer and reload my OS. It’s going to take me days to reload all my programs. A couple of programs I lost altogether because I no longer have the installation disks. <huge sigh> The people who created this obviously have knowledge and skill—why can’t they use their powers for good? I hope the proper karma is in store for the people who sit around and come up with this stuff. People like that are a waste of humanity.

Anyway, on with the show.

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posted by admin on Dec 4

Hi, gang. This week, I spent a lot of time testing recipes that required coconut. The recipes are mostly Indonesian and African, and call for shredded coconut, chunks of coconut, and coconut milk. It’s not that I was jonesing for Southeast Asian or African food, or even coconut—it was a decision of practicality. I decided that if I was going to go to the trouble of cracking open a coconut and working to get the meat out, I’d might as well do two coconuts at once and have enough for all the recipes that require it. So that’s what I did. Now I have some in the refrigerator and put a container of it it in the freezer.

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posted by admin on Sep 11

Hi, gang.  Still working on getting that KHEN interview  audio track up here. DJ Andi downloaded it to a CD for me, but when you take something off a CD, it’s a “cda” file, which nothing but a CD or DVD player can read. (I’m so not up on this audio technology stuff.) I can upload the file to the WordPress server, but it won’t recognize the file and I can’t seem to convert the file to something else. If anyone out there knows how I can get around this, I’d appreciate a suggestion from you.

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posted by admin on Aug 15

Hi, all. This past month has been a constant sampling of new and differennt foods and beverages (well, they’re new to me). Just this past week alone, I tried two jars of salsa that I picked up in Virginia. They were locally made and there was nothing in them but fresh produce and some cane sugar. One of them was a vidalia onion-peach salsa that was absolutely fantastic. The other was a summer garden salsa, with all sorts of minced veggies in it. It was such a treat to eat something that wasn’t filled with preservatives and all kinds of things that I can’t pronounce, and I was glad to support a small business.

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posted by admin on Aug 7

Hi, gang. This week I experienced one of those things recipe developers hate: a recipe disaster. It came with my first attempt at dolmas, Greek-style stuffed grape leaves. They completely fell apart and I had a big mess in the pot. On researching this tragedy, I noted two things: 1) I hadn’t rolled them the right way and 2) they need to be packed tightly in the pot.

Now, I’ve made things that needed to be rolled. I’ve wrapped spring rolls in rice paper; burritos in tortillas; manicotti in pasta; rice in banana leaves; and those of you who have been reading this blog know that I’ve wrapped tamales in corn husks (story here). All of these require the roll-and-tuck method. But there is a particular technique to rolling grape leaves. The reason for this, I imagine, is because grape leaves are oddly shaped. They are not perfectly square or round, so they have to be handled a certain way.

I was placing the filling on the left side, then trying to roll the leaf, using the roll-and-tuck method, as if it were a square. I learned that you have to place the filling across the center of the leaf, right above the stem, fold the left side over the filling, then the right, then the left, then the right, then rolling it forward over the rest of the leaf.

The wrong way to do it.

Source: www.cafefernando.com

The other secret is to use a pot that will allow you to pack in the dolmades tightly and to weigh them down with something. While I did weigh them down with a plate, they were not as tightly packed as they should have been and probably jiggled around a little. So, for attempt number two, I will be more informed. (I should have looked it up before…duh!)

Here is a great website with step-by-step instructions on making dolmades: Greek Recipes with May Lerios.

TIP: Don’t skimp on the quality of the grape leaves. I went to a local Russian market for mine. They had several brands on the shelf and I opted for the cheapest one, figuring grape leaves are grape leaves. Right? Wrong. What I got were basically grape-leaf irregulars. Who knew there was such a thing? They were scraggly, ripped, and all different sizes. I tried piecing together scraps to make whole ones but that was a bust. I was going to go buy more when I realized something: I had my own grape leaves in my backyard!

If you’re fortunate enough to have a grapevine growing in your yard (and, believe me, because of the large Italian and Greek communities in NY, it’s not that unusual), you can put all those beautiful, luscious leaves to use. If you do have access to fresh leaves, here’s what you do.

Pick the largest, nicest looking leaves you can find and rinse them off. Cut out the stems. Bring a pot of water to a boil; place the leaves in the water, shut off the heat, and let them sit for 5 minutes. Drain and let them cool. You’re ready to use them.

Store-bought leaves are available packed in jars, in tins, and vacuum-packed. Good, quality brands should give you more or less same-sized leaves. But whether you’re using store-bought or fresh leaves, keep in mind that they are extremely fragile and will rip easily, so handle them gently.

I also need to perfect my filling recipe. Needed a little something. Or, maybe they just got water-logged when they unraveled and sat in the broth/water mixture I was using. Hmm, we’ll see. If anyone has any pointers, feel free to leave a comment.

Have a wonderful week and I hope that next time, I’ll have a success to share instead of a flop. Peace.

posted by admin on Jun 19

Hi, gang. I’ve been a cooking fool lately. I am determined to finish the testing of the recipes for my cookbook-in-progress within the next few months. I don’t have a full-time job, so if not now, when?

Part of this testing is about stepping outside of my comfort zone and cooking with ingredients and methods that I am not accustomed to (i.e., that I grew up with). And since I’ve been working on this book since 2002, I’ve been doing that for quite some time. So, I really think nothing of taking an ingredient and using it in an usual way.

Let me explain…

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posted by admin on May 15

You might think from the title of this blog that I’m some kind of lush. Far from it. I advocate safe, responsible drinking. I’m often the designated driver and I always check to make sure friends are in the proper condition to drive. I also respect recovering alcoholics’ need to stay away from the stuff.

Having said that, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with enjoying the occasional libation. And with the resurgance of cocktail culture and the emergence of the mixologist—which is basically a bartender schooled in chic and complex drink making, versus a bartender, who may not know what to do with Chartreuse (a liqueur made in France by Carthusian monks) but will make you a wicked dry martini—you can really have a lot of fun trying out all different kinds of concoctions, from wild and crazy to sophisticated and classy.

Join the party…
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posted by admin on Apr 24

Hi, everyone. This past week, I decided to have myself a Latin feast. I’ll tell you all about it, but first an update on the kumquatcello.

Okay, so the kumquatcello sat for two weeks and the vodka picked up a really nice citrus-y scent and the faintest orange tint. (This is very different from limoncello, which takes on a beautiful lemony color.) I made a sugar syrup by boiling water and sugar together. If you decide to give this a whirl, don’t let this mixture cook too long because it will darken and give the liqueur a muddy look. (In fact, this is the beginnings of caramel and if you cook it long enough, that’s what you’ll get.) Then I combined the sugar syrup, kumquat vodka, and fresh vodka and split it into various containers. Now, we sit and wait. I can be drunk at this point, but the longer it sits, the better it will be. Can’t wait to try it.

Now for the Latin feast!

¡Vamanos!

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posted by admin on Apr 17

Hi, all. I’ve just gone crazy with the kumquats! The Chinese market still had them, so I just had to buy more. This time, I made kumquat salsa (different from the Cranberry-Kumquat Salsa) and kumquat marmalade.

And salsa! So read on to see how that all went…

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