The phrase "culinary history" can sound like dusty stuff, with "receipts" for strange foods like pumpions and dried green beans.
Ah, but there is much to be learned in how people used to cook. Our local group of culinary historians, the Historical Cooking Guild of the Catawba Valley, wants to prove that to you with a class on Saturday, "Emergency Prep: Eatin' High on the Hog When the Power Goes out."
The class will cover things like equipment and supplies, how to "put food by" (canning, curing, drying, smoking and bucket storage), kitchen safety in the dark and useful resources. You'll get hands-on lessons in cooking in fireplaces, fire pits and gas cookers. You'll learn the tricks to washing up in a bucket. And you get lunch: pork barbecue, baked beans, corn cakes and apple crisp.
The class will be at the President James K. Polk Historic Site, 12031 Lancaster Highway, in Pineville from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The cost is $20, and advance registration is required. To check on whether there are spaces left, email Leila Merims at thebulldoggess@yahoo.com.
PHOTO: Pam Dudeck demonstrating fireplace cooking at the James K. Polk Historic Site. Courtesy of the Historic Cooking Guild of the Catawba Valley.
2 Ekim 2012 Salı
Want to learn how to cook in an emergency?
One Great: Black bean and coconut soup
After a constant round of travel, there wasn't much that was fresh in the refrigerator. So I stared into the cabinet where the cans live, waiting for dinner to magically suggest itself. Canned this, canned that. Nothing that seemed to go together.
Except those black beans and that can of coconut milk. Black beans and coconut milk? They didn't seem to belong together, yet something in the back of my brain thought they might. I tapped the two ingredients into a Google search to see if such a crazy idea had occurred to anyone else.
Why yes, actually. I found Caribbean versions and Southeast Asian versions. I ended up making it a real hybrid with a couple of links of chicken-based Italian sausage there were waiting in the freezer. But you could skip the meat or go with something like leftover grilled chicken.
Seriously, you never know what will happen when you stare into a cabinet.
Black Bean and Coconut Milk Soup
Adapted from my brain and several online recipes.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 or 1 whole diced onion
2 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 or 2 links of Italian sausage, sliced, or 1 cup diced, cooked chicken (optional)
2 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15-ounce) can coconut milk, preferably light
1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (canned or frozen)
1 tablespoon Asian hot sauce, such as sriracha
1 tablespoon peanut butter
2 tablespoons minced cilantro or a squeeze of lime juice (optional)
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, reduce heat to medium-low, and cover. Cook 5 to 10 minutes, until softened. Stir in the garlic and and cumin and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until fragrant. If you're using meat, add it, raise the heat to medium-high and saute until just cooked through or reheated.
Stir in the black beans, coconut milk and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. If you want a creamier soup, scoop half the beans into a blender and puree (cover the lid with a kitchen towel so it doesn't splash) or use an immersion blender to puree some of the soup. Or skip all that and leave the beans whole. Stir in the hot sauce and peanut butter and cook a few minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve garnished with cilantro or a squeeze of fresh lime juice. .
Makes about 4 servings.
Wake up: Discovery Place is featuring coffee
Time to give some serious thought to the subject of coffee. Discovery Place has opened a new exhibit on coffee, sponsored by S&D Coffee and Tea of Concord and featuring information and photography from the book "The Birth of Coffee," by Daniel Lorenzetti and Linda Rice Lorenzetti.
The Lorenzettis traveled the world to capture photos of the people who plant, pick and produce coffee. It took more than a quarter of a million miles to eight countries.
Tracy Ging, director of sustainability and corporate social responsibility at S&D, summed up the Discovery Place exhibit's focus as "relatedness":
"Millions of people are involved in growing, harvesting and caring for the coffee we love so much." That's worth thinking about when you pour your morning cup.
"Birth of Coffee" will run through Jan. 7 at Discovery Place, 301 N. Tryon St. in Charlotte. Go details on visiting the museum, go to www.discoveryplace.org .
One Great . . . roasted red pepper relish
Most of the year, recipes with red peppers are what I call "snorters." I look at the recipe, then look at the price of red sweet peppers, usually up around "worth their weight in gold." Then I snort with derision and either grab the cheaper green bell peppers or go without peppers all together.
But there is a brief time in early fall when there are suddenly red peppers everywhere. At the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market on Saturday, one farm stand had a big basket of beauties, all striped in various shades from green to red to yellow. And a price tag on the basket was one I liked even better: 16 for $4. That's more like it.
I grabbed a small bag and picked up another bag of small but meaty tomatoes that were the size of cherry tomatoes but promised more flavor. Then I searched my memory of good food writing and remembered that Regina Schrambling had run a nice piece on www.epicurious.com recently on Jacques Pepin's method for using roasted red peppers.
Regina adapted Jacques, I adapted Regina, and now I have a lovely pot of peppers and tomatoes in my refrigerator. I've already added them to sauteed zucchini, spread a few on a turkey sandwich, tossed some in a green salad and added a few tablespoons to scrambled eggs. Even the oil alone will find uses all over my cooking for a couple of weeks.
I'm definitely getting my money's worth from these babies.
Roasted Red Peppers and Tomatoes
Adapted from Regina Schrambling, who adapted it from Jacques Pepin, who probably wouldn't recognize it by the time I finished with it.
3 to 4 mostly red sweet peppers (AKA bell peppers)
About 2 cups small tomatoes
2 to 3 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
Salt and pepper to taste
About 1/3 cup good-quality olive oil
Preheat oven to 500 degrees, then turn on the broiler. (Or just heat the broiler, depending on your oven.) Place an oven rack close to the broiler element. Place the whole peppers and tomatoes on a baking sheet and place under the broiler. Broiler, turning the peppers occasionally with tongs, until the skin is blacked or well-blistered and the skins of the tomatoes show black spots. (I left mine get much darker then the ones in the picture at the top.)
Remove from the oven. Using tongs, drop the peppers in a paper or plastic bag, close and let them steam for a minute. Just leave the tomatoes on the baking sheet and let them cool for a few minutes, then grab the skin of each with the tongs and pull most of it away. Remove the peppers from the bag, pull out and discard the core with the seeds attached, then pull away and discard the papery skin.
In a glass container with a tight-fitting lid (or use a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap), layer some of the tomatoes and pieces of peppers, then sprinkle with garlic and a little salt. Continue layering in the container. Pour the olive oil over it all, cover and refrigerate.
Use peppers and tomatoes on bruschetta, in a salad, with eggs, or pretty much anywhere you want. Also use the oil to add flavor when you saute vegetables.
Makes about 2 cups. Keeps in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.
PHOTO: Topspanishtapas.com.
Want to make sausage?
Of all the things I've made in my kitchen, making my own sausage is one of the most fun. It's just so cool to have control over what goes in it, to watch how it comes together and to end up with a whole bunch of sausage that's all your own.
You can learn how to make sausage and and other things in Central Piedmont Community College's community cooking classes, Charlotte Cooks.
Coming up:
The Art of Sausage Making, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 20 or Dec. 1 on the Central Campus; $125. Hands-on class that includes equipment selection, proper handling of meat and equipment, and how to use casings.
A Taste of Italy, 6-9 p.m. on Tuesdays from Oct. 23 to Nov. 6 on the Central Campus; $135 for the series. Covers regional foods from northern, central and southern Italy.
Wrap and Roll, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Nov. 3, Harris Campus; $85. Learn how to work with a variety of spring roll wrappers and fillings.
To register, go to www.cpcc.edu/cce and click on "register now," or call 704-330-4223. Deadlines are the Friday before the start of the class.
1 Ekim 2012 Pazartesi
48 Hours in Palm Springs
When times get tough, take a vacation.
With 48 hours to decompress from the stress of life, we just needed some sun, drinks, mid-century style and a weekend getting out of LA.
Hello Palm Springs!
FRIDAY
Visitors Center
1 p.m. After about 2 hours of driving from Los Angeles, Dylan and I finally arrived to Palm Springs. If you're driving in from Los Angeles, don't forget to stop by the Palm Springs Visitors Center on your way into town. The Visitor Center is in a former gas station designed by Albert Frey. It's a super cool building. Here you can find really nice modernist tour guide, A Map of Palm Springs Modern for $5.
Vintage Style at The Ace
1:30 p.m. Dylan and I are big fans of The Ace Hotel chain. The Ace Palm Springs is "nomad-chic" meets Howard Johnson. The rooms are roomier than the Portland outlet and the grounds itself is an bohemian oasis.
BYOB...Bring Your Own Bar
2:00 p.m. We knew we'd be drinking a lot, so we decided to bring our bar on the road. We chose our favorite spirits, bitters, fresh squeezed citrus juices, gum syrup and glasses for our party to go. Dylan negroni'd it up all weekend while I sipped on Seven Grand's refreshing Big Mak and Corpse Reviver #2's.
Pool Time
3:00 p.m. After a couple of drinks in the room, it was time to take this party outside.
I love lazy time. Nothing like a little R&R.
Visiting Mister Parker's
8:00 p.m. Dinner time at Mister Parker's at The Parker Palm Springs. This is what Palm Springs must have been like back in the 60s. Low ceilings, dim lighting, Liberace-esque piano, and nudie art work makes Mister Parker's so super groovy.
from top counterclockwise
1. Ris de Veau veal sweetbreads, wild mushrooms, leek coulis, gaufrette potato
2. Filet de Porc pork loin with rosemary spaetzle, brussels sprouts, glazed pork belly, honey apple cider sauce onion
3. Salade Frisée poached egg, crispy leeks, warm bacon vinaigrette, brioche croutons
Fireplace at The Ace
11:00 p.m. Spent the rest our first evening sitting by the communal fireplace at The Ace.
SATURDAY
King's Highway
9:00 a.m. Before starting our morning, Dylan and I fueled up at King's Highway, Ace Hotel's stylish redo of a 1950s Denny's.
King's Highway is "reinterpreting American peasant food for the desert with a focus on fresh, organic, and local ingredients." With items like Tequila Cured Salmon Lox and Bagel, Coconut Bread French Toast, Poblano & Chedder Grits, and Ricotta Hot Cakes with Maple Crunch Butter and Bananas, it's no wonder why this new diner has become one of the most popular breakfast spots in the desert.
1. Sage sausages
2. Chilaquiles scrambled eggs, chiles, ranchero, homemade corn tortilla chips
Joshua Tree Farmers Market
11 a.m. Before heading out to Joshua Tree National Park, Dylan and I hit up the town's quaint farmers market at Turtle Island. We ended up grabbing some super sweet and juicy navel oranges at one stand. I love desert oranges! * Turtle Island - 61705 29 Palms Hwy. The farmers market runs every Saturday from 8am-noon.
Joshua Tree National Park
12:00 p.m. Springtime weather at Joshua Tree was simply amazing even at high noon. Dylan and I spent the day hanging out in the back of our car and shooting all the beautiful wild desert flowers.
Casual Burgers at Tyler's
3:30 p.m. Tyler's is a little burger shack on Palm Springs' main drag serving solid old school-style burgers. Don't forget to fill up on their delicious lemonades and potato salads!
El Mirasol
8:00 p.m. There's a time and place for jumbo margaritas and Mexican combination plates and that time and place is Palm Springs. Loved our giant margarita and hard taco/enchilada plate. Yea, I said it.
SUNDAY
Sunday Brunch at Norma's
10:00 a.m. They give you a shot of their smoothie of the day as their amuse bouche once you sit down. LOVE!
from top counterclockwise
1. Potato Pancakes James Beard Award Winning Recipe with homemade cranberry apple sauce and sweet carrot payasam
2. Traditional Eggs Benedict
3. Norma's Sausage Links
I wish we had more people to eat with because the menu looks amazing and I want to try everything. Don't forget to hang out at The Parker after brunch. Jonathan Alder, can you please design our space too?
Sherman's Deli
2:00 p.m. After a couple more hours hanging out at the Ace pool, it was time to check out and say goodbye to our beloved Palm Springs. But before we took off on our 2 hour drive back home, we stopped by Sherman's Deli for some old school deli treats.
Pickled tongue and pastrami sandwich with cottage fries on the side.
We can't wait to head back to Palm Springs, but I think we're going to have to wait until it cools down. The next time we go, I will have to make time for some mid-century shopping and the Trina Turk boutique. So much to do in Palm Springs.
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Fuji Cheki 50
We take this camera along with us on trips now. We're also taking the Cheki on our engagement shoots and our clients get super giddy for them. Everyone needs a Cheki in their life.
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