Like most of us these days, I'm trying to stay on track on my resolution promises: Eat more whole grains, keep it healthy and save a little money while I'm at it.
Packing lunch most workdays helps with the money part. It's tough finding something uptown that's under $10 by the time you add in beverage and tip. And since so much of what's available around my office is fried or cheesed, packing is healthier too.
Wild rice takes longer to cook than white rice. (Yes, I know - wild rice isn't actually a rice, it's a wild grain.) But once it's cooked, you can add a few things to it and get a tasty lunch with lots of flavor and texture. It's good cold, so it's easy to pack it along, and you can round it out with a piece of fruit or something meat-like if you must.
For this recipe, you don't want the wild rice and long grain mixes you find in many supermarkets. You want real wild rice. You can usually find it at Trader Joe's, or look in the bulk bins at health-focused supermarkets. This makes about 3 servings, enough to take for a couple of lunches. Or you can double it for 6 servings.
Nutty Wild Rice Salad
Adapted from "The Silver Palate Cookbook," by Sheila Lukins and Julee Rus
1/2 cup raw wild rice, rinsed
4 cups chicken stock (or half stock and half water)
1/2 cup shelled pecan halves, or chopped pecans
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
2 to 3 green onions, diced (white and some of the green part)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
Salt and pepper to taste
PLACE the wild rice in a mediium saucepan with the stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered, about 30 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking about 15 minutes, until the grains taste tender and the liquid is mostly gone. (Add more stock or water if it starts to cook dry.)
ADD the remaining ingredients and toss to mix well. Serve warm, at room temperature or chilled.
YIELD: 3 to 4 servings.
21 Şubat 2013 Perşembe
One Great . . . wild rice salad
Charlotte Wine & Food time already?
No, it isn't quite a Charlotte Wine & Food Weekend year yet. The next festival doesn't happen until April 23-26, 2014. But it takes a lot of work to pull it together, which is why they hold the official kickoff a year in advance.
So: Tickets go on sale Feb. 7 for the April 20 kickoff for the April 2014 festival. Got that?
The kickoff party is from 6:30 to 11 p.m. at Founders Hall, 100 N. Tryon St., with the theme "Motown @ Uptown." There's food from Aria Tuscan Grill, wine (a lot of wine), live and silent auction items and dancing. $250 includes a VIP dinner beforehand at Aria, $125 gets you the party and free parking. And there's a new ticket level, called Young Aficionados, that's $75 for ages 21-35 for just the party.
Four charities are beneficiaries of the 2013-14 "season of fundraising" events: A Child's Place Homeless Student Initiatives, Council for Children's Rights Services for Abused and Neglected Children, Pat's Place Family Advocacy Program, and Second Harvest's Backpack Project for kids.
Tickets will be available starting Feb. 7 at www.charlotteinweandfood.org.
N.C. apple crop took a whopping hit
Early predictions in August that North Carolina had lost 80 percent of the apple crop turned out to be pretty close to the final number. A report released Jan. 25 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that our state's apple losses were huge, at 76% of the crop.
Total production was 33.5 million pounds, down from 140 million pounds in 2011. Put another way: The 2011 average was 20,300 pounds per acre and 2012's number was 5,000 pounds per acre.
The apple loss was caused by a warm winter and a sudden spring freeze. And the losses were hard to predict early on. Because of the peaks and valleys in our apple-growing sections of the mountains and the way cold air moves around them, some farms lost everything while others kept most of their crop.
It was a dark spot in an otherwise good agricultural year in N.C. A few more numbers on 2012:
- Strawberry production was up 4 percent from 2011, with a value of $29.4 million, up about $2 million.
- Blueberry production was up 9 percent, to 40.5 million pounds, valued at $71 million.
- Peaches stayed the same, at 5,300 tons, although the value of that crop increased 21 percent, to $6.2 million.
- The peanut yield was a record 4,100 pounds per acre. Total production was nearly 435 million pounds, up 49%.
- Those all-important sweet potatoes, one of N.C.'s best crops, matched the 2011 yield of 200 hundredweight per acre, even though the total was down 3 percent because farmers planted 2,000 fewer acres than 2011.
Maker's Mark cuts the alcohol level in its bourbon
I took a week off from food world last week and look what happened: Maker's Mark, maker of the bourbon with the red wax top, has announced an Impending Bourbon Shortage:
"Demand for our bourbon is exceeding our ability to make it, which means we’re running very low on supply." That's from a letter to Maker's Mark "ambassadors," people who sign up on the distillery website to receive information and occasional offers like ice cube trays shaped like bottles of Maker's Mark. (Yes, after touring distilleries last year to work on a book on bourbon, a member of my family is on the Ambassador list.)
The letter, from Chief Operating Officer Rob Samuels and Chair Emeritus Bill Samuels Jr., goes on to announce that Maker's Mark will decrease the alcohol by volume of its product by 3%.
From the letter: "This will enable us to maintain the same taste profile and increase our limited supply so there is enough Maker’s Mark to go around, while we continue to expand the distillery and increase our production capacity. We have both tasted it extensively, and it’s completely consistent with the taste profile our founder/dad/grandfather, Bill Samuels, Sr., created nearly 60 years ago. We’ve also done extensive testing with Maker’s Mark drinkers, and they couldn’t tell a difference."
This, of course, raises a few questions:
Will Maker's Mark lower the price by 3% to reflect the lower volume of alcohol?
Will the alcohol return to its previous level when the distillery is expanded?
And: In a world in which 1-quart mayonnaise jars no longer hold a quart and 1-pound jars are 12 ounces, is nothing sacred?
CPCC's bakery wants to feed you
Aspire Bakery & Bistro, the student-supported business at Central Piedmont Community College's Harris Campus, will hold an open house from 4-7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 for the public, faculty, staff, alumni and students (is there anyone that list doesn't cover?).
The idea behind Aspire is that baking and pastry students will sell food they've made including soups, salads, sandwiches, baked goods, desserts and handmade chocolates. Proceeds benefit student activities, scholarships and extracurricular activities. The bistro also gives students business training, with requirements that they serve one week as an employee and one week as a manager.
Aspire's regular hours are 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Fridays during the fall and spring semesters. The Harris Campus is at 3210 CPCC Harris Campus Drive, near Morris Field Drive and Billy Graham Parkway. Details: http://www.cpcc.edu/restaurants/aspire
20 Şubat 2013 Çarşamba
Bread & Chocolate: Bread Pudding
Bread & Chocolate’s bread pudding is a caramelized crust topping heavy, moist folds of bread, with pockets of cinnamon flavor. Raisins are limited to the top. That is a risky and often lazy approach, because bread pudding needs significant flavor and texture bursts to prevent a bland core. However, this dish maintained decent flavor throughout.
Bread & Chocolate serves this bread pudding cold, which helps condense the dish and spread the flavor elements. It really should be served with a dairy-based sauce like crème anglais. This bread pudding was very good, but an accompanying sauce, relatively thick and cold, might have elevated it to divine. It deserves a great rating.
I've only tried one other bread pudding in DC, at Elephant & Castle. That is good, in part because it is served with a sauce. However, I rank this one just a bit higher.
2301 M St, Washington, DC 20037
Washington Examiner
Yelp (2.5/5)
Tripadvisor (3.5/5)
Brasserie Beck: Carrot cake muffins with cream cheese filling
Brasserie Beck turned a muffin into a serious dessert. The muffin is lightly toasted and served warm, so a slightly crunchy layer covers the warm, moist cake. The first time I tried these muffins, a squeeze of sweet cream cheese filling spread out a bit around the muffin top, and poked about an inch into the core. The whole thing was topped off with a splash of powdered sugar. The interplay of the crunchy shell and nearly gooey inner muffin, with the decadent touch of cream cheese is excellent, and carrot cake isn't even one of my favorites.
Muffins usually suffer from a massive decrease in quality between the top and bottom, but this muffin's delightful core will draw you to start at the bottom. The first time I tried these, I would have preferred the cream cheese filling to extend through more of the muffin's depth. However, I went back the next day, in large part for more muffins, and Brasserie Beck corrected that. The restaurant now inserts the cream cheese from the bottom of the muffin. The picture is of the earlier version, where the filling was inserted from above and erupted over the top. That’s the only change. These muffins deserve a divine rating. If you don’t like carrot cake, you should try them anyway. If you like carrot cake, it is your destiny to know these muffins.
1101 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 408-1717
Google map and reviews (4/5)
Washingtonian (2/4; 2010 Best Restaurants Rank: 80, unranked in 2011)
Washington Post (Critic: 2.5/4; Readers: 1.5/4)
Washington Times
Yelp (4/5)
