(Photo: Reuters)
Sea urchin, also called uni, is being credited with saving large beds of kelp along California's coastline:
Divers in the state now harvest 800,000 pounds of Uni annually, the Sea Urchin Commission said, adding that it expects growing consumer demand for Uni in the United States.
What's your take on uni? I'm a big fan of sushi, but I have to admit I have a bit of a problem eating it. The flavor is wonderful, though.
The Carnival of the Recipes #63- Tricks, Treats & Eats is up at Everything and Nothing, which looks like an interesting site, to boot. Lots of cool recipes to peruse over a cup of coffee this morning. Nice job!
Just wanted to let you know that Desert Island Foods™.com will offer a gift box for the holiday season that will include a gift tin of Survival Spice™, a quality all cotton DIF apron, and a few other cool things for the cook who has everything but this!
November's newsletter will have more info, but I hope you'll want to check them out. I'll post a link here but you can always go to the Desert Island Foods™.com home page and sign up in the newsletter section in the bottom right corner. No spam or evil mailing lists, promise.
(I just liked the image, no idea if it's any good or not, but hey, give it a shot if you're so inclined... h/t Jeff G)
Once again it's Friday, folks. Congratulations to those who have made it through another work week, and condolences to those who haven't. This week's Friday Funny comes to us again from Jerry in L.A., who always seems to have the funny at the ready. I'm a crawfish, BTW. What's your sign, babe?
Do you have an even vaguely food-related joke, picture or story? Email me. Make sure you take the spam words out of my email address.
Wow, what a cool munchie idea for a Halloween party. Sent in by customer Jim, in Los Angeles:
Here is a new recipe and some pics:Contains olive oil, sesame oil, Survival Spice™, and worchester sauce. Wash seeds, add rub, oil, and worchester sauce. Then 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Don't rush this one.
Best, Jim
(TPCs Alaskan Halibut crusted with pine nuts and Survival Spice™)
I hate to keep going on about this, but this truly was a magical pairing of ingredients, and I don't say that lightly. Lots of things I cook up in my head before I cook them on the stove aren't quite as good as I hoped that they would be, but this was exactly what I intended to make.
Halibut is an amazing fish to work with. It's incredibly subtle, with a firm texture, and it's important to not overwhelm it with strong, inappropriate flavors. I decided to just make a simple crust of ground pine nuts, flour and Survival Spice™. I've used Survival Spice™ with halibut before as a rub, but it's important to not overdo it. Salmon and other oily fish- lay it on, it can take it.
I dusted the fish with flour and kosher salt, squeezed a bit of lemon juice in lieu of egg wash to help the breading stick, and then just lightly breaded it with the mixture. Again, think subtle. Pan fried in Tibvrtini Extra Virgin Olive Oil and butter, it was ready in minutes. Covered on a plate, I tossed the raviolis and the blanched asparagus with the sauce and it was good to go.
The sauce was intended to add richness and decadence in terms of mouth feel, and the background heat from the pasilla chiles was just right. More richness from the cheese raviolis, and the asparagus finished it off. Truly a special meal in so many ways.
(TPCs 3 cheese ravioli with pasilla cream sauce and asparagus)
This was an excellent combinations of flavors that I served last night with some Alaskan halibut filets that I'll post tomorrow. Per Lloyd's request, I'm developing some Southwest fish dishes for him after he was kind enough to ship me a sampler of some of the most superb seafood I've ever tasted straight from Alaska.
After blackening the skins off of a few pasilla chiles, I pureed them with bit of homemade chicken stock and some heavy cream, then reduced it quite a bit. I balanced the heat with a touch of honey, seasoned with a bit of Hawaiian sea salt, shredded a bit of grana padano cheese, and that was it. It was really good, the pasilla cream sauce paired beautifully with the halibut and asparagus as well. A bright gewurztraminer did a great job cutting through the cream without overpowering the halibut.
Highly recommended. I'll elaborate a bit more tomorrow, but I have to say I'm looking forward to making this again soon for a proper photo shoot.
Update 10/27: I've had some emails asking for more information about this dish. The raviolis, which contain ricotta, mozerella and parmesan cheese, come through a good friend from a company in Los Angeles who makes them only for restaurant use at this time, but they are starting to test locally in a Whole Foods market there on a limited basis. All I can say is that I've had 5 or 6 kinds now, and they're extraordinary.
Pasilla chiles are known as chilacas when fresh and chile negros when dried. The chilacas, which I knew would look great with the asparagus and the halibut, with a nice warmth in the heat profile. Working with halibut, which has such a subtle flavor, I knew I needed to complement it in terms of texture- cream, a bit of crunch in the pine nuts, heat without overwhelming flavor from the pasillas, etc., and not in terms of strong flavors.
(Photo: TPC's Classic Chicken Noodle Soup)
It's cooling off here in the desert, so things like slow simmering stocks and soups are gradually pushing aside the grilled meats, veggies and quick pan sauces that dominated the summer dinner menus around here.
I've talked a fair amount about how I prefer to make stock- roasting chicken pieces and parts first, then taking off the meat and continuing to make the stock from only the well browned bones so the meat doesn't get stripped of its flavor- so I won't belabor it here. Great stocks are flavored from the collagen in bones, the younger the bones, the more collagen. This is why veal is preferable to beef when making stock, espagnole, demi-glace and the ultimate explosion of beef flavor, glace de viande.
If you've never tried making soups this way, give it a shot.
What did you have for dinner last night? Email me your dinner, I dig seeing the great stuff you all come up with!
Happy Friday, everyone. This week's Friday Funny comes to us from Jerry in L.A.
I don't know where he got his 'research', but it makes sense to me.
Do you have an even vaguely food-related joke, picture or story? Email me. Make sure you take the spam words out of my email address.
Ha ha, fooled you. Dr. Biggles has a handy tip for adjusting the burners on old stoves, if you're lucky enough to have one. Wrench yourself over there and have a gander, as usual he's cooking up some good stuff, too.
(This is the French McDonald's double cheesburger, and it actually looks somewhat edible.)
In what has been an ongoing stuggle between Congress and food manufacturers, the "Cheeseburger bill", after a long, bitter battle has been passed. In a rare bit of bipartisanship, the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" easily passed by nearly a 3 to 1 margin:
The bill would block in state and federal courts what backers consider "frivolous lawsuits against the manufacturers, distributors or sellers of food or nonalcoholic beverage products" arising from obesity claims. It would not block civil lawsuits stemming from tainted food.The bill comes amid growing awareness of the public health implications of the U.S. obesity problem. But supporters of the bill said obesity and overeating should be dealt with by doctors, exercise routines and personal responsibility, not by lawyers and courts.
...
The best-known case, filed by several teenagers against McDonald's Corp., was thrown out of federal court. Part of the case was later reinstated.
What's your take on this?
A great email from John in Chicago:
got off early and what the heck, a brisket is in order! I'm slow roasting it @ 250 degrees slathered in survival spice, rockin. jb
John seared it on a large grill pan before he put it in the oven. This is a great technique when you don't have an outdoor grill, it's too frickin' cold to grill outside (perish the thought!), or you just want something different. Survival Spice™ works really well, indoors and out. More pics in the extended entry.
(TPCs Smoked Beef and Hatch green chili stew. Okay, it's not exactly soup. This is my crime.)
Soup is making a real comeback, after years of declining sales, mostly because customers and restaurant owners alike see it as a quick, healthy way to provide lots of flavor at a reasonable price point.
From National Restaurant News (registration required):
"It's a comforting product with very little fat and a high flavor profile," Freedman says. Creating comforting food is one of the goals of Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. of San Diego, operator of 97 Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes buffet restaurants, which offer six to eight soups daily."We really try to take things that are familiar to people and put our own spin on them," says Joan Scharff, executive director of marketing for Garden Fresh. That approach recently yielded the promoted pairing of creamy tomato soup with three-cheese focaccia "dippers."
Garden Fresh received so many requests from customers who wanted the company's cream of mushroom soup available more often, "We gave it its own day," Scharff says. Restaurant companies that are highly dependent on soup sales may face increasing pressure from specialty soup concepts. Among them are three-unit Zoup! Fresh Soup Co. of Southfield, Mich., and 10-unit San Francisco Soup Co. of San Francisco. "With soup you can serve high-end food in a quick-service format," says Steven Sarver, co-founder of San Francisco Soup Co. His restaurants sell soups starting at $4.50 for a 12-ounce bowl.
Are you eating more soup these days? What's your favorite?
Paul, aka Chilebrown, took some ribs slathered with Survival Spice™ to the Raider's game Sunday, and from his email they got a big thumbs up:
Hey your rub was a hit. I took credit of course. (Just kidding!) The Raider nation gives you a thumbs up. We did not even use any barbeque sauce. Your rub was enough!! Peace Paul.
Thanks, Paul! I love getting stuff like this.
Got a picture of Survival Spice™ in action or one of you wearing your DIF T-shirt? Email me!
Looks like a great day in the Bay, even if the Raiders lost. More of Paul's pics in the extended entry.
(Photo: TPC's holiday fruitcake. Yes, I made fruitcake on a dare last year, sue me.)
A submarine, the U.S. Nebraska has received a gift of fruit cake from the Beatrice Baking Company since 1996, to show its support:
The crew works an irregular schedule on the sub and sometimes getting a meal is difficult, Burroughs said. So having the fruitcake on board is helpful.On Thursday, the sailors gave the bakery a plaque to show the crew's appreciation. Burroughs said he doesn't know of another submarine that gets such treatment from its namesake state.
I'm sure they're grateful, and it's terrific that Beatrice Baking is so supportive, but I can just imagine a conversation on the "poop deck":
"Fruitcake? Sheesh. Why couldn't Omaha Steaks take a liking to us?"
No word on how much ballast the crew had to dump to remain buoyant.
This has been around for a while, but I dig the idea. C'mon, bacon shaped bandages, why not?:
Bacon Strips Adhesive Bandages are genuine sterile bandages that look like strips of raw bacon. Why purchase a pathetic Band-Aid or paltry Curad, when you can put some pork on your punctured pinky?
Thanks to Chuck for the reminder.
Have a great weekend, everybody! Cook something good, willya?
Update: Barrett, over at Too Many Chefs, a terrific blog I just noticed isn't on the blogroll yet, has suggested these to ailing Cubs fans. Congratulations, White Sox! The Angels got some bad calls, but the Sox starting pitching was abolutely unreal. I'd love to see them to win the Series.
(Photos: Dr. Biggles)
This episode of "What did you have for dinner last night?" is brought to us by the revered master of the coals and all that's carnivorous, Dr. Biggles of Meathenge fame. Shame on you if you call yourself a foodie and don't visit his site every day!
Biggles did an uber-simple weekday meal, "Survival Citrus Chicken a la Biggles", along with a green salad. A quick marinade of lemon juice on the chicken and a healthy rub of Survival Spice™, and he was cookin'. Biggles tells the tale in his inimitable way, in the extended entry.
What did you have for dinner last night? Email me with a picture and a description! Important: delete the spam busting "REMOVETHESEWORDS" from the email address. I hated to put that in, because it's confusing, but I already have plenty of Nigerian investment opportunities to consider over the weekend.
(Photo: AFP)
I guess this ties in with my eating a Milk-Bone story yesterday, but a Paris shop has gone completely over the top:
Does our little four-legged friend Fido have a hankering for a foie gras cookie? Or maybe a biscuit in the shape of a heart, a flower or the more classic bone, confected with tropical fruit or carob?These and other canine delicacies -- without sugar or salt, of course -- are on the menu in France's first and only patisserie for pooches, "Mon Bon Chien" ("My Good Dog").
It was founded by an ex-American, go figure. Is this a viable business plan, or is she barking up the wrong tree?... Ouch, sorry.
(Photos: Mary, who seems very happy to shoot food pictures...)
What a feast. I got a shipment of Alaskan seafood in yesterday from my buddy Lloyd, who totally hooked me up. Alaskan King Crab legs, more crab, halibut filets and steaks, and killer smoked silver salmon.
He's challenged me to develop some Southwest techniques for preparing them, and since I just flew in yesterday, last night's dinner needed to be simple and fast. I clarified some butter, and infused it with plenty of Survival Spice™.
I'm a real purist when it comes to crab, especially the best King Crab on earth, so I wasn't sure if it would go over, but it did in a big way! I had to dump the plain butter into the "Survival Butter" because it clearly was the favorite. The sweetness complemented the crab beautifully, and the spice gave it a wonderful depth of flavor, again, complementing the crab's flavor and not obscuring it at all. Wow.
We sat outside on the patio watching baseball, drinking Red Hook ESB and dipping huge chunks of this amazing crabmeat and a Willo Bakery baguette into the butter, and life couldn't have been any better. Thanks, Lloyd!
I've been tagged with a meme by Meg. I've been challenged to write about 5 childhood memories of food, and it's been fun to take a bit of time to remember some of this stuff. Here's what I came up with:
Cubed potatoes and meat balls- This is reportedly the first dish my Mom learned how to cook when my parents got married. I remember it involving little meatballs with rice in them, and diced potatos in a tomato sauce. Good comfort food.
Milk toast- We used to eat this when we were sick. Buttered toast in a bowl with warm milk and sugar on top. Just for the heck of it, when I was sick some years ago, I made it again. Kinda lost the charm, I guess it needed Mom's touch!
Mom's Irish Stew- What can I say? It's the best. I'm sitting here drooling as I think about it. Usually no dumplings, just lots of buttered bread. It was even better the next day. I make a mean stew, but I can't touch hers.
Hot dogs at Forbes Field- Long, skinny foot-longs burned to a crisp. I remember eating them in the bleachers at Forbes Field, watching Roberto Clemente.
Richardson's Fries- One of those French Fry stands at the County Fair. Long, long fries, cooked to perfection served in a paper cone. I remember burning my fingers on hot, salty grease and not caring. Lots of vinegar and a bit of ketchup.
Bonus memory:
Eating a Milk Bone. What can I say? It was good, too, as I recall it...
Wow, I really killed some time doing this. Where did the morning go?
I guess I'm supposed to tag 2 other food bloggers with this. How about:
Dr. Biggles and Shauna? If you can't do it, I understand! But it was really interesting how many memories I came up with.
Sorry for no blogging today, I went to San Diego for the Steeler/Chargers game last night. Lots of fun but just got off a plane. See you tomorrow!
... drum roll...
PAUL, aka Chilebrown, for his version of Meg's "Su Dong Po Pork". Chilebrown is on a roll, he was also a runner up in Food Fight 3. Paul's version of Meg's dish is here.
Paul will receive a tin of Survival Spice™, a DIF T-shirt, and a bottle of Tibvrtini Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva, the organic olive oil that was rated as one of the 7 best olive oils in the world by Taste magazine, for his victory.
Congratulations, Paul! Email me the T-shirt size that you want, when you get a minute.
Thanks also to everyone who entered and followed the action this time. It was a great contest, I think, and I think it's a real tribute to the great cooks who stop by every day. Thanks for that, too. I've got a few ideas for Food Fight Five already, but I think we all need a bit of time to recover from this one!
The actual voting results are below the fold.
Another tough afternoon in the test kitchen. I haven't quite finalized the proportions yet, here's a terrific breading recipe that I'm working on. Sort of "Old South meets Southwest" concept smashing together a traditional corn meal breading with a Southwest influence.
I salted and floured some fish fillets, then coated them with a roughly equal mix of Survival Spice™, flour and corn meal, then fried them in a cast iron skillet. Normally, in a standard breading procedure, you would dip the fish in some sort of liquid- milk, buttermilk, egg, beer, etc. after you dusted it with flour the first time, but this fish was so moist that I didn't have to. I fried them in a cast iron skillet with just a bit of oil, over medium heat. You don't want to burn the corn meal, so take it easy!
The nice thing about this technique is that you hardly have to use any oil, so it still tasted great and is reasonably healthy, too.
I'm definitely going to do this one more time soon, then adjust the technique for chicken and thicker cuts.
(TPC's Quick Pasta sauce, with an hour yet to simmer)
Shauna made pasta sauce last night, check it out. Though Shauna wishes that she could have simmered her's longer, to me a fresh, vibrant tomato sauce is always preferable to one that's been cooked to the point that the flavors are dead.
This is the sauce I made for the Spaghetti with Sausage a few days ago. As I've mentioned before, I keep basic pasta sauces simple and them embellish them to each dish I make from it. Good quality tomatoes, fresh garlic, great olive oil, and fresh basil from the garden for pasta sauce, and oregano for pizza sauce is all you really need.
(Photo of FF4 entries, my entry bottom right not eligible, of course.)
Update: VOTING CLOSED- The winner will be announced Monday morning.
The voting is still open for the best FF4- Interpreted recipe submitted, until this evening. Will Paul hold on to his lead??
Please take a few minutes to look at all the entries here before you vote, because the way the post was written should be important, too. I have to say, I get quite a kick out of seeing them all in one picture, great job all!
Again, unlike previous Food Fights, I've decided that anyone reading can vote. I set the poll up so you can vote once a day, but PLEASE, no stuffing the ballot box!!!! I'm not saying that I'm closely monitoring IP addresses, but...
Voting will be up until sometime Friday evening, October 7th. Good luck!!!
The ballot is below the fold.
Congratulations to Meg over at I heart bacon, who's celebrating her blog's first birthday! Her home page is listed under 'Food Blogs", check out the cool simple syrups she made to flavor cocktails.
The super-cool elk salad she made for Food Fight Four is here. Go visit and wish her a happy blog-birthday!
You have voted on your favorite interpreted dish, haven't you?
The first edition of the Desert Island Foods newsletter, Island Currents, is now online. It's short and sweet, any feedback you have is really appreciated!
Email me, or just go to the Desert Island Foods™.com home page and sign up, if you want to get on the notification list. No spam, no evil mailing lists, just pure foodie goodness.
The voting for the Food Fight- Interpreted dishes is still underway until Friday night. Check out the entries here, then go vote. Paul has a commanding lead, but Ana's catching up, the voting will end Friday night, and you can vote once a day. Spread the word!
I had to run out for a meeting last night, so dinner was thrown together in less than 10 minutes. I sauteéd some garlic and asparagus quickly in some wonderful olive oil, added some milk and Survival Spice™ and some left over spaghetti, and let it reduce while I grated some grana padano, jack and cheddar cheese and threw that in, and garnished with a bit of chopped parsley. Easy, fast, and darn good.
What did you have for dinner last night? Email me with a picture or a link, and remember, great dinners don't have to be complicated...
(Photo: Cafeteria food, as I remember it)
Wow, could this be true? High school students now spend $65 to $80 a week on lunch? I read this at NRN, and it floored me. Apparently kids have a taste for restaurant chain food, and are thumbing their noses at traditional cafeteria crap, so schools are creating upmarket food concepts.
Smoothie bars? Whole-wheat pancakes and waffles?? Rice Bowls with jasmine rice, tandoori chicken and mango chutney??? Man, I remember "Pizza Fridays" being a treat.
Okay, you've all got some cafeteria horror stories. Let's hear 'em!
Registration required, so I'll quote a bit of it below the fold.
Last night's dinner was spaghetti with hot Italian sausage, carmelized onions and shaved grana padano, with a side dish of sautéed asparagus in Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva and butter with toasted pine nuts and a splash of Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Bianco. Crusty bread for dipping in the olive oil and vinegar, and life was good.
For me, there's nothing like the smell of home made tomato sauce simmering with garlic, olive oil and homegrown basil.
What did you have for dinner last night? Email me with a picture or a link so we can see what you're cooking!
(Photo: John)
Wow, John. This looks really great. Sent in by John in Chicago, who is a bad ass cook, he describes this as:
wild caught alaskan halibut - encrusted w/ rosemary infused Panko,
the dipping sauce is anchovy - cilantro - olive oil - garlic - lemongrass - chili paste -
mesquite honey , the veggies are tossed in lemon - capers - butter - and pepper ,
the plate is dusted w/ SURVIVAL SPICE (tm)
Email me what you had for dinner last night!
In case that doesn't make you drool enough, take a look at the picture of the halibut on a piece of foil after it was done in the extended entry:
A recent poll done by Business Week found that 82% of coffee drinkers between the ages of 25 and 45 drink traditional supermarket coffee more than other kind, and 63% go to premium coffee houses to get their fix:
Buying coffee at premium coffee bars like Starbucks is popular with 63% of the coffee drinkers 25 to 45. This is a worry for the big food companies, such as Kraft, Procter & Gamble , and Sara Lee, who are seeing declining sales for their grand old brands like Maxwell House, Folgers, and Chase & Sanborn.Sales of specialty coffees, now $10 billion today, are expected to grow 7% annually, while sales of traditional coffee brands slide downward. Maxwell House alone dropped $75 million in supermarket sales in the past two years, about one-fifth of its overall supermarket sales.
Some interesting stats there, I was surprised that there is still so much room for growth in the upscale market.
[disclaimer- TPC is a Starbuck's shareholder, though personally not a huge fan.]
(Photo: AP)
Don't you just hate it when your martini gets warm? Belly up to the Absolut Icebar, now open in London. But dress warmly, because the entire room, furniture and decorations are carved from ice:
"It's an experience rather than a traditional bar. We feel we're really offering something different," said Anette Eliasson, manager of market communications for V&S Absolut Spirits vodka company, which is opening the bar with partner company Icehotel.
For 22 dollars, you get a frosty reception, a cape, and a chance to freeze your butt off for 45 minutes in a room kept at 23 degrees below zero.
No plans have been announced for a Phoenix location yet. Man, I can just imagine walking in there when it's 115º outside. Talk about brain freeze...
