On my journey to Brighton Beach, I bought a jar of pekmez. Pekmez
is a molasses made from fruit must, usually grapes. I tried it instead
of brown sugar in a bowl of oatmeal. Less viscous than ordinary
molasses, it tastes mild, fruity, like a dark corn syrup. Perfect for a
special July 4th barbecue sauce. I sautéed pork chops and
dressed them with the sauce. We ate spinach and baked potatoes and
coconut popsicles, too. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Recipes
Mock Gazpacho and Many Garnishes
After ten days of intensive carnivorous activity—a staged and carnivalesque Atkins diet, pounds and pounds of barbecue, stretching from Kansas City to Lockhart, Texas—I needed my fruits and vegetables. Gazpacho seemed like an appropriately fibrous choice, although my approach is less than traditional: a pile of tomatoes, a blender, a knife, and happenstance chopping lead to cold chunky soup. Served with starchy garnishes and seafood, my gazpacho fakes its way to detox. Continue reading
Filed under Recipes
Strawberry Greek Yogurt Ice Cream
Needless
to say, supermarket strawberries and their fresh-picked counterparts
are of entirely different material: the first, a watery ectoplasm, the
second, a thick honey. In the fields, strawberries grow close to the
ground, buried under their own leaves and hay. Hence the German
word Erdbeeren, or earth-berries. Yet, strawberries taste
more celestial than chthonic; they are a blood spatter of sunlight cast
into fleshy gems. Warmed by the sun, a fresh strawberry looks
translucent and tastes like a heady breath of perfume. In St. Louis, we
pick fist-sized berries, not fragile fraises des bois. Whereas the
biggest supermarket berries often taste the weakest, the most mature
specimens on the farm contain the most concentrated flavor: size does
not signify dilution. We worked for an hour and harvested 15 pounds;
thus far, we have canned eight jars of jam, baked two pies, and churned a
few quarts of ice cream. With berries so sweet, I decided to add Greek
yogurt to the recipe, retaining a few egg yolks for richness. I love the
harsh scrape of strong yogurt against an almost cloying mouthful of
fruit. The following recipe only works with the best, freshest berries,
so be satisfied with pictures if you lack a local strawberry patch. Continue reading
Orzo Salad with Olives, Mushrooms, Raisins, and Sunflower Seeds
Despite the muggy weather and relative absence of olive groves, I like cooking with Mediterranean intent when I’m home from school. I’ll spin some Grateful Dead, decompress, and put a yellow onion on mellow simmer. Without the usual time constraints of college cooking, I can tinker with technique and ingredient proportion. For example, I enjoy working with salmon, but have struggled on previous attempts to achieve pork-cracklin-crisp skin. Thursday night, I let the cast iron pan reach truly incendiary temperatures before laying down a fillet. The skin tightened into a sheet of pure crunch. I served the salmon over an orzo salad—I mixed a stew of onion, raisins, sunflower seeds, mushrooms, and olives with the warm pasta. If cooking fish is a matter of precision, pasta salad is an issue of instinct. Be careful seasoning the salad, because its individual components already contain salt. I thought about adding anchovies or anchovy paste, too, but alas, the cupboard was lacking any little fishes. No lies: I have no emotional connection or special interest in the following recipe. It just tastes good, which ought to be argument enough. Continue reading
Filed under College Life, Columbia University, Recipes, St. Louis
Blueberry Pie with Sweet Corn Ice Cream
by The Baker
[Jason]: A pie for the end of school and the start of summer. This recipe makes me want to chill out with a slice of Ace of Cake’s new EP, The Bakery.
Blueberry Pie with Sweet Corn Ice Cream Continue reading
Filed under College Life, pie, Recipes, The Baker
Mango Chutney Truffles
by The Baker
Mango Chutney Truffle
120 grams cream
25 grams glucose
120 grams milk chocolate, chopped
150 grams dark chocolate, chopped
25 grams butter, room temperature
100 grams mango chutney, chopped
confectioner’s sugar
1. Heat cream and glucose in a small saucepan over medium heat. Put both chocolates into a small bowl. When steam begins to rise from the cream, pour mixture over the chopped chocolate.
2. Let mixture sit for 30 seconds, then stir with a rubber spatula (do not use a whisk–you do not want to incorporate air into the ganache).
3. Add the butter, stir to combine, then fold in the chutney. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature overnight.
4. Form the ganache into balls (easiest method is to use a small ice cream scoop) and roll in confectioner’s sugar.
