Intern, Jennifer Salenger, reminisces about her culinary adventures in Japan as Halloween is upon us.
Even as an adventurous foreigner in Tokyo, I didn’t have in mind something I like to call the “Stinky Spider-webbed Beans”, officially known as Natto. Natto are fermented soybeans that have been produced and eaten on the Japanese Archipelago for thousands of years. While these fermented beans are extremely good for your health, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have an appetizing exterior—stinkier than even the most pungent French cheeses. Moreover, each time you touch a bean, it spawns new gossamer-like threads that waft in the air and get caught on everything. Talk about new ideas for Halloween party spider web decoration!
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Downing Halloween Tang Punch
Happy Halloween! For all of you party animals, The Dish’s Dishes has a festive punch that can be made at the last minute to spice up any Halloween festivity. The sugar and spice combination will have even the oldest spirits coming back for more. The key ingredient for is a throwback to the old days—Tang™!
For those who didn’t get a chance to enjoy Tang™ in its hey day, it is an orange powder drink mix that gives kids 100% of their daily value of Vitamin C with a tang of extreme orange flavor. It also jolts anyone with as much sugar as a filled bag of Trick or Treat goodies!
Our warm Tang™ punch incorporates instant tea, instant lemonade, cinnamon and cloves and gives a spicy fall flavor that both kids and grownups can enjoy. To release all your Halloween spirits, add some dark rum to the combination for a Tang-Toddy.
The bright orange color will go well with any Halloween décor and spark all kinds of curiosity with your guests. Enjoy!
TANG SPICE TEA
3/4 cup instant Lipton Lemon Tea™
1 jar Tang
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 jar Country Time™ Lemonade mix
1. Combine all ingredients. Shake them up.
2. Boil water.
3. Mix 2-3 heaping teaspoons into each cup of hot water.
This recipe makes enough for the entire party and to enjoy the morning after. If you are adding alcohol, we recommend dark rum or whiskey. Stir it in after mixing in the hot water. A nice touch would be to use cinnamon sticks as swizzlers if you are feeling extremely festive!
For those who didn’t get a chance to enjoy Tang™ in its hey day, it is an orange powder drink mix that gives kids 100% of their daily value of Vitamin C with a tang of extreme orange flavor. It also jolts anyone with as much sugar as a filled bag of Trick or Treat goodies!
Our warm Tang™ punch incorporates instant tea, instant lemonade, cinnamon and cloves and gives a spicy fall flavor that both kids and grownups can enjoy. To release all your Halloween spirits, add some dark rum to the combination for a Tang-Toddy.
The bright orange color will go well with any Halloween décor and spark all kinds of curiosity with your guests. Enjoy!
TANG SPICE TEA
3/4 cup instant Lipton Lemon Tea™
1 jar Tang
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 jar Country Time™ Lemonade mix
1. Combine all ingredients. Shake them up.
2. Boil water.
3. Mix 2-3 heaping teaspoons into each cup of hot water.
This recipe makes enough for the entire party and to enjoy the morning after. If you are adding alcohol, we recommend dark rum or whiskey. Stir it in after mixing in the hot water. A nice touch would be to use cinnamon sticks as swizzlers if you are feeling extremely festive!
A Date With a Brownie
When I was told about the Date Brownie at Murray’s Cheese, I was immediately skeptical. A brownie without chocolate isn’t very promising. However, the Murray’s wrapper boldly states, “Forget Chocolate!”
Opening the package revealed something that looked more like a blondie than a brownie, with its golden, flaky top. But biting down into the gooey center was a completely new, and very satisfying experience. A blend of butterscotch and muscovado sugar—an unrefined brown sugar with tones of molasses—enhances the sticky dates. The incorporation of walnuts adds to the refined experience. The ingredients and the flavor are almost Mediterranean, and the result is a sophisticated sweetness that could be paired with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a cup of coffee. The dense square of dates and walnuts goes for $3, but it’s best split three ways. It would also pair nicely bite for bite on a cheese platter—perhaps why it’s made and sold and Murray’s!
Opening the package revealed something that looked more like a blondie than a brownie, with its golden, flaky top. But biting down into the gooey center was a completely new, and very satisfying experience. A blend of butterscotch and muscovado sugar—an unrefined brown sugar with tones of molasses—enhances the sticky dates. The incorporation of walnuts adds to the refined experience. The ingredients and the flavor are almost Mediterranean, and the result is a sophisticated sweetness that could be paired with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a cup of coffee. The dense square of dates and walnuts goes for $3, but it’s best split three ways. It would also pair nicely bite for bite on a cheese platter—perhaps why it’s made and sold and Murray’s!
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Ice Cream Social
I came across the Ice Cream Social set at Garber Hardware a few weeks ago and immediately became fascinated by it. The set of four multicolor tumblers with built-in straws plus one plastic ice cream scoop is a genius new packaging of old Arrow Plastics products.
Naturally, I began to reminisce about my first ice cream social and about how I might recreate it. However, then a better idea dawned on me: why not fill these pink, yellow, blue, and green tumblers with A&W™, add ice cream, and have a root beer float party? The built in straw makes sipping easy while the wide mouth of the cup allows the slurper to ladle out the ice cream.
Grab a ‘scream set and soon you’ll be frothing at the mouth!
Naturally, I began to reminisce about my first ice cream social and about how I might recreate it. However, then a better idea dawned on me: why not fill these pink, yellow, blue, and green tumblers with A&W™, add ice cream, and have a root beer float party? The built in straw makes sipping easy while the wide mouth of the cup allows the slurper to ladle out the ice cream.
Grab a ‘scream set and soon you’ll be frothing at the mouth!
Trick or Treating with Spooky Vegetables
A recent visit to the Greenmarket in Union Square startled me with spooky Halloween-like vegetables! We shift seasons with strange hybrids and farmers who let nature run its course. Here’s a guide to a few items that will add to your bloodcurdling biodynamic buffet!
These days, you’ll find regal-looking purple broccoli resting up next to the traditional green trees. It comes from Hawthorne Farms (biodynamic and organic) so the color isn’t a GMO induced phenomenon. It’s simply farmers having frightening, freaky fun.
Summer is over but the baby chard is still widely available in shades of 1980s neon pink, orange, and yellow. Forget dressing up as a Power Ranger, a baby dressed as chard would have a very colorful costume!
Just as varied in color is the Indian corn that starts cropping up at the market around this time. It’s hues of maroon, yellow, red, and sometimes even a purplish blue add to tablescapes and radiate the feeling of autumnal harvest.
Celeriac starts to make its debut around this time as well. Harold McGee calls it “swollen,” so you can get an idea of how bulbous and bizarre the root is. Celeriac looks like a giant mutated white radish with knobs and growths all over it (you could use is as “Frankenstein’s brain” at a Gymboree party and really shock some six year olds).
It requires a lot of peeling to get to the tasty, edible part, but it’s well worth it. It tastes like celery but without any bitterness. Many New York chefs will accompany fall and winter entrees with celeriac puree, and it’s not to be missed (especially if they combine it with apples).
Broccoli Romanesco is surely the wackiest of the fall veggies. Its green leaves flank a conical head of mosaic-ed pea green nodules. The brainish fruit is a nutty, creamy combo of cauliflower and broccoli. However, it’s usage as a creepy tumor for a haunted house may be more appropriate.
Of course, all of these Greenmarket goodies have their culinary purposes, so as the ghosts and goblins line up, you might as well give them a taste of their own medicine!
These days, you’ll find regal-looking purple broccoli resting up next to the traditional green trees. It comes from Hawthorne Farms (biodynamic and organic) so the color isn’t a GMO induced phenomenon. It’s simply farmers having frightening, freaky fun.
Summer is over but the baby chard is still widely available in shades of 1980s neon pink, orange, and yellow. Forget dressing up as a Power Ranger, a baby dressed as chard would have a very colorful costume!
Just as varied in color is the Indian corn that starts cropping up at the market around this time. It’s hues of maroon, yellow, red, and sometimes even a purplish blue add to tablescapes and radiate the feeling of autumnal harvest.
Celeriac starts to make its debut around this time as well. Harold McGee calls it “swollen,” so you can get an idea of how bulbous and bizarre the root is. Celeriac looks like a giant mutated white radish with knobs and growths all over it (you could use is as “Frankenstein’s brain” at a Gymboree party and really shock some six year olds).
It requires a lot of peeling to get to the tasty, edible part, but it’s well worth it. It tastes like celery but without any bitterness. Many New York chefs will accompany fall and winter entrees with celeriac puree, and it’s not to be missed (especially if they combine it with apples).
Broccoli Romanesco is surely the wackiest of the fall veggies. Its green leaves flank a conical head of mosaic-ed pea green nodules. The brainish fruit is a nutty, creamy combo of cauliflower and broccoli. However, it’s usage as a creepy tumor for a haunted house may be more appropriate.
Of course, all of these Greenmarket goodies have their culinary purposes, so as the ghosts and goblins line up, you might as well give them a taste of their own medicine!
Praise for Piopinnis
The piopinno mushroom is a widely used fungus in Asia as well as through Italy and Spain. It is grown near poplar trees, and thus gets the nickname of a Black Poplar ‘shroom. They have a small, smooth, auburn cap with a long white stem. They grow in clusters much like enoki mushrooms, many white stems attaching together at a single base.
The mushrooms are firm when raw. They have a slightly nutty, forest-like taste. Their versatile taste and texture make them perfect add-ins to perk up any meal. They pair well raw in a salad with toasted pine nuts and pecorino, quickly sautéed and added to pasta, or even reduced to a sauce to be ladled over a steak stir-fry.
The health benefits of mushrooms have been widely published. They absorb cholesterol, build the immune system, and have anticancer and antiviral effects. These benefits are an added bonus to an already tasty and exciting ingredient.
The mushrooms are firm when raw. They have a slightly nutty, forest-like taste. Their versatile taste and texture make them perfect add-ins to perk up any meal. They pair well raw in a salad with toasted pine nuts and pecorino, quickly sautéed and added to pasta, or even reduced to a sauce to be ladled over a steak stir-fry.
The health benefits of mushrooms have been widely published. They absorb cholesterol, build the immune system, and have anticancer and antiviral effects. These benefits are an added bonus to an already tasty and exciting ingredient.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Las Brisas
The Arbequina olive grows 1300 feet above sea level in the Spanish city Jumilla. Jumilla has gained recognition in the wine world for its delicious monastrell-based reds made from grapes grown in extremely arid conditions. This severe weather intensifies the fruit, and it also does wonders for the olives.
Jorge Ordoñez, the utmost wine importer for the area, picked up on this and, as a result, also imports the outstanding Las Brisas olive oil, made predominantly from Jumillan arbequina olives.
Unfiltered and cold extracted (a process that protects unstable flavor), the oil retains much of the true aroma and taste of the small greenish grey olives. A rich golden oil, it hits the tongue with a fruity punch and then coats the palate with a velvety finish.
Jorge Ordoñez, the utmost wine importer for the area, picked up on this and, as a result, also imports the outstanding Las Brisas olive oil, made predominantly from Jumillan arbequina olives.
Unfiltered and cold extracted (a process that protects unstable flavor), the oil retains much of the true aroma and taste of the small greenish grey olives. A rich golden oil, it hits the tongue with a fruity punch and then coats the palate with a velvety finish.
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