Licking the Plate

From Lithuania with Love

2012-02-20T13:56:00.000-05:00

I was recently interviewed for Llamas Valley, a gorgeous online journal all the way from Lithuania, and the issue is now out. Please get yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, settle in, and have a look. My feature begins on page 116, but you may find yourself spending the afternoon leafing through the whole thing... sooooo many beautiful images and stories!

It is an honor to be in such creative company. Thank you Alge! Our many back and forth communications getting everything set up properly for the debut worked out beautifully.... :)

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T09:49:00.000-05:00

I think you could say I may have gone a little overboard. I love romance and sentiment, and so I've cooked up some goodies that you'll love, I think, no matter if you're embracing Valentine's for one, two, or a party with all your peeps. In the spirit of L-O-V-E, I have also updated my banner. It was time, and I hope you will enjoy all the little nooks and crannies in the new display! :-)

If you're still on the hunt for something special for yourself or your sweetie, go for some gorgeous blooms at Graceful Gardens - all the flowers in these images were graciously selected and arranged by the lovely ladies Grace and Francesca, at their floral shop in Brooklyn. Rarefied or classic, they have just what you seek.

Whether or not you have plans to celebrate, there is a lot of pleasure in the confections you're about to see. I will confess I found some good inspiration from recipes I've just discovered in Donna Hay while thinking up what might make for a sweet story. Don't be surprised if you find yourself in full swoon, repeating "be mine, be mine..." after the aching temptation brought on by viewing these treats.

Here's to Love Day...

Raspberry Mascarpone Creme stuffed Double Chocolate Cookies

For the cookies:
3/4 lb good dark chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 oz pastured butter
2 pastured eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 tsp baking powder, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract

for the creme:
1 cup mascarpone
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup raspberries, chopped

Place two-thirds of the chocolate and all the butter in the top of a double boiler to melt over medium heat. Be sure not to let the water spatter, turning the heat down if necessary. Place eggs, vanilla, and sugar in a large bowl and using a stand or hand mixer, beat until light and creamy - think the color "buff"- about 10 minutes. Stir in all remaining ingredients: the flour and baking powder mixture, the stirred chocolate-butter mixture, and the remaining chopped chocolate. Let stand for 10 minutes, and preheat oven to 350 degrees(F).

Spoon tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake for 8 minutes or so, until tops are puffed and cracked. Allow to cool completely on trays before making into sandwiches. To make the filling, stir together mascarpone, sugar, and chopped berries. This can be done ahead of time and re-refrigerated. For the sandwiches, spread a nice layer of the mascarpone creme on one cookie, and sandwich with another. The perfect combination of not-too-sweet berry-creaminess, and decadent-airy chocolatey-ness, these will not last long...

Champagne with Spiced Cranberry Sugar Cubes

In a food processor, combine:
1 cup fresh or thawed cranberries
juice from 1/2 an orange
zest from one orange
2 tbsp brandy
1 stick cinnamon

Pulse until all ingredients are well combined. Add a cinnamon stick and seal in a jar, refrigerated, for a day or two for flavors to meld. On the day before you want to use the sugar, place however many sugar cubes you'd like to use in a small dish, and cover completely with the cranberry mixture. Be sure that all sides are covered, ensuring better saturation. After about an hour, check to see color absorption. Do not let sugar cubes sit in the mixture for longer than a couple hours, as they will begin to dissolve... Remove cubes from the dish scooping with a fork and dry on a wire rack. Store in a sealed container after dry.

When you are ready, place the cube (you can use more than one, but I don't like it too sweet) at the bottom of a glass, and pour Champagne, Prosecco, or Cava (all delicious sparkling wines - choose one that is crisp more than sweet) over. The sugar will fizz until it completely dissolves, leaving a sweet-tart cranberry finish to your drinking pleasure!

Sea Salt Ganache Tartlets

Makes 6

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 1/3 ounces of good semi- or bitter-sweet dark chocolate, chopped

Large flake salt, like Maldon

Prepare dough for 1/4 portion pâte sucré and roll out to 1/8 inch thick - similar to pâte brisée but with the addition of egg yolks and a bit of heavy cream. Check here for the recipe if you need, and scroll to the galette recipe.... Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut rounds and carefully mold into lightly greased tart tins and re-refrigerate. Preheat oven to 350 degrees(F). Line tart shells with parchment and fill with baking weights or rice, and bake for 8 minutes. Remove the paper and weights and bake for another 5 minutes or until golden, and remove from oven, setting aside. Full disclosure ~ once baked, my tart crust overlapped just enough along the edge of the tins that I could not dislodge them without them crumbling. Keep that in mind as you form the edge of your dough.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring cream to a boil and remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until dark, creamy, and glossy. Allow to cool slightly, and pour or spoon into the baked tartlets, and top with sea salt flakes. Can be eaten warm, room temperature, or chilled. Pure seduction.

Grapefruit - Strawberry Sips

for the strawberry syrup:
1 cup strawberries, cut into wedges
1/4 cup cane sugar
water

for the drink:
Natural grapefruit soda - I used Gus
Wide strips of orange peel - be sure to trim off any bitter white pith
Chilled gin, vodka, tequila, or other spirit, to your liking

Pour enough water in a small saucepan to just cover the berries and sugar, and turn flame to medium-high. Stirring occasionally, bring to boil and then skim off any foam which forms. Skim and stir intermittently, for about 10 minutes, checking for color saturation in the cooking liquid. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Pour liquid through a sieve and mash fruit with the back of a spoon to extract their juices, discarding the pulp. Chill and store for up to one week. Can be added to ice cream as well as beverages...

Mix fruit soda and syrup in a measuring cup to taste. I used 1 tbsp syrup for every 12 ounce soda bottle. Pour into glasses. Thread orange twist onto cocktail stirrers, add spirit and stir to enjoy.

Barely-Done Brownies with Pomegranate Seeds

Makes 6

4 pastured eggs

1 1/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 sticks pastured butter, cut into cubes

12 ounces good semi-sweet dark chocolate, chopped

Seeds removed from 1/2 a fresh pomegranate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees(F). Using a double boiler, melt half the chocolate and all the butter. Be careful that the water doesn't bubble up into the top saucepan as you do so. In a large bowl, thoroughly combine the eggs, sugar, and flour. I used a fork for this, but you could use a mixer if you like. Add the slightly cooled melted chocolate mixture and the remaining portion of chopped chocolate, stirring to combine all. Line a square or small rectangular baking tin with parchment and pour the mixture in. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out almost clean. If you jiggle the tin, the center should move just a little. Cool in the tin, cut into squares, scatter the pomegranate and enjoy the combination of gooey, molten-like chocolate heaven and bright, juicy sweetness of the fruit.

Whatever February 14th means to you, live it to the fullest. You never know when something crazy might happen, so take time to savor this life with those you love! Thank you all for reading with me and for indulging in all the sweet fun. :-)

Winter Reds, and Tomatoes, too...

2012-01-27T11:12:00.000-05:00

I have a gazillion recipes that I say to myself, "One day I'll make this". That, somehow I am going to just dedicate time to special (and strange) recipes from my grandmother and my mother - and other places in my history - and share them with you all. Usually, it's an idea tucked way far away in the back of my head. I comb through books and the internet and usually end up creating from what's right in front of me.

I can assert now, however, that things have moved more in the other direction as I write about this wonderful jam-syrup creation. My friend David calls this sandalwood jelly, from somewhere in his own history, and it hails from 1948, come my way by another dear friend, Bluejay. I love the idea of savory-sweet preserves, and so tucked this into my files for that down-the-road-someday time. When ripe tomatoes were abundant a few months ago I took to making the preserves. A bit labor-intensive, it was entirely worth it. I wish I'd made three times as much, in fact.

Tomato Preserves
Select the smallest plum tomatoes you can find, so you can leave them whole.

plum tomatoes - Make at least 3 pounds of tomatoes - gives you a good starting amount, and also makes the math simpler

for each pound of cored, peeled tomatoes:
1/2 lb sugar - I used organic brown cane sugar
3 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1 1/4-inch peeled fresh ginger, cut into thin slices
1/4 lemon, thinly sliced and seeds discarded
cheesecloth and kitchen twine

Select slightly underripe tomatoes. Core and then peel off their skins by cutting a shallow X at the rounded end and dipping them in boiling water for 30 seconds. Slice tomatoes in half across the middle if they are large, and remove their seeds. Layer tomatoes and sugar in a deep, enameled pot (or other heavy saucepan). Cover, and let stand overnight (do not refrigerate).

The next day, put the spices in cheesecloth and secure with string. Add the spice bag to to tomatoes, along with the sliced lemon. Over medium heat, bring pot to a simmer. Cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes have become slightly translucent and the syrup is think and begins to gel. This will take a while and is the most labor-intensive part. Do not boil the syrup, or the tomatoes will fall apart. If the tomatoes finish first, remove them from the pot and reduce the syrup over medium-high heat. Discard the spice bag. Meanwhile, sterilize enough jars to accommodate the preserves. Fill the jars 3/4 full with tomatoes and lemons, cover with syrup, and seal using your preferred method.

Eat the preserves with a creamy or bold, nutty cheese on bread crisps or crackers. I promise you it won't last long...

Savory Winter Rock Shrimp & Sausage Pies, Cast Iron Skillet Tri-tip Steak, Black Pepper Tomato Focaccia....

Savory Winter Rock Shrimp and Sausage Pies
Serves 4

pie filling:
2 tbsp butter
2 leeks, quartered, rinsed, and chopped - I used the whites and light green parts, and saved the dark green for stock
2 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes - I used yukon gold
2 spicy pork sausages, quartered and chopped into small chunks - you may use sweet sausage, or even another meat - I liked the subtle heat that the spiciness imparts
1 lb (raw) rock shrimp
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dry vermouth
1 cup fish or shrimp stock

shortcrust for pie tops:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/4-1/2 cup ice water
1 egg plus 1 tbsp heavy cream, lightly beaten, for egg wash

Pulse dry ingredients for the shortcrust in a food processor a couple times to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture looks like a coarse meal. All can be done by hand, using a whisk to combine, and 2 butter knives to cut the butter into the flour mixture. Slowly pour in 1/4 cup ice water and pulse just until mixture begins to hold together. Add more water if dough is too dry, a spoonful at a time, and pulse again. Divide dough into four mounds, gather into balls, and place (each) wrapped loosely in saran. With your palm, lightly flatten into disks. Refrigerate until firm, about an hour (or overnight).

Remove from saran and roll each disk of dough out to just under a 1/4-inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut out a circle from each using the ramekin sizes as a guide, allowing for some overhang. Using a small cookie cutter or tiny glass (a shot glass is perfect here), press into center of circles and remove cut-out, for steam to release. Mound scraps together and save for a separate use (keeps frozen for a few months). Refrigerate again to firm, while filling is cooked and then spooned into dishes.

Melt butter in a deep cast iron skillet over medium heat. Sauté leeks until softened, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes or so. Add the sausage and brown on all sides, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and sear until fragrant, a minute or two. Stir flour in to combine, and then the vermouth, incorporating liquid to leek-sausage mixture. Add stock and potatoes and cook until potatoes are just tender, about 5 minutes. Add the shrimp, stir to incorporate with the rest, and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F). Divide the filling into 4 four-inch ramekins, and top with the cold shortcrust dough, pressing slightly the along edge to adhere. Brush egg wash over tops, and bake until pastry is golden and filling bubbles, about 18 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack for 10 minutes before serving.
These were delightful both as an easy supper, as well as a savory breakfast pie the next day... :-)

Tri-tip Cast Iron Steak
Serves 4

1 1/2 lbs grass-fed tri-tip steak
1 clove garlic, cut in half
1-2 tbsp large flake sea salt - I used Maldon
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup medium bodied red wine, such as Côtes du Rhône or Sangiovese
1 tsp butter

Tri-tip steak is relatively uncommon, and is far less expensive than similar cuts of meat. Only two per cow, it is the tip of the sirloin. This cut is superbly flavorful due to its nicely marbled flesh, and makes an excellent candidate for grilling, broiling, and roasting. Are you drooling yet...?

Bring steak to room temp, rinse it and blot it dry. Dry-age it on a wire rack (use one from a toaster oven, or for cooling cakes, etc.) and set over a plate overnight in the refrigerator, or on the counter for an hour. Rub meat all over with the cut side of the garlic. Heat a dry cast iron skillet over high heat, and scatter sea salt over its surface. When the salt begins to pop, press the steak into the pan, and sear it on both sides until brown, about 9 minutes total, for medium-rare. You may want to turn a fan on or open a window, as this process will make the kitchen smoky.

Transfer steak to a cutting surface, top with freshly ground pepper, and let meat rest for 10 minutes or so. Pour the wine into the skillet and scrape any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Reduce the liquid by half over medium-high heat. Remove from the flame and add the butter, swirling it in the pan to incorporate. Serve the steak in slices, pouring the sauce liberally over, and accompany with fresh, crisp veggies.

I used pira cicaba, seared just briefly in the empty pan. It is an heirloom green similar to broccoli which I discovered at the market one day. Delicately floral and with a sturdy crunch, it made a nice counterpoint to the rich, juicy flavor of the steak.

I must confess I did not make the delightful black pepper-tomato focaccia. I only harvested the airy, oil-rich flatbread from its shelf so that I could nibble away at it immediately. I discovered this bread on a rainy Sunday morning, on one of my habitual trips to a neighborhood farmers' market called the Foodshed. My bags overflowing with organic and local produce, eggs, bread, honey, and other delicious things, it is a uniquely great experience that nourishes on every front. So, you can't fault me, right? You'll agree that it looks good enough to steal away with, and maybe challenge me to actually make focaccia soon. Keep your eyes peeled.... :)

And that brings me to the last recipe in this soothing story...

Apple Bourbon Bundt Cake
from The New York Times

for the batter:
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra to grease pan
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra to dust pan
4 free-range eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg - I add more, as I love the spice it imparts

additions to the batter:
3 tbsp bourbon
1/2 cup candied ginger, chopped
1 cup sour cream
1 tbsp good vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 medium granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely grated
1 cup pecans, toasted and finely chopped

for the glaze:
1/2 cup sugar - I used organic cane sugar
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup bourbon

This multi-staged cake is well worth it: moist, subtly nutty, and fragrant with liquor. The only difficulty is its numerous components, so dive in!

Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan and set aside. In a small bowl, combine bourbon and chopped ginger, and let stand 10 minutes. In a large bowl, beat together brown sugar and butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy with stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. - Or, using a hand-held mixer... I hadn't seen this detail in the recipe, and had made my mind up that I absolutely was going to make this delicious-sounding cake, and so forged ahead using my vintage hand-me-down hand mixer. It worked just fine... Determination goes a long way. - With my hand-held mixer, it took about 7 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour with baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. In another bowl, fold vanilla into sour cream until combined. Pour in the bourbon from the ginger mixture (save ginger), whisk until smooth, and stir in zest.

Turn oven to 325 degrees (F). With mixer on medium speed, add dry ingredient mix and sour cream blend to the sugar-butter-egg solution in three additions, alternating adding one and then the other. Fold in the ginger, apples, and pecans. Pour the batter into the bundt pan and bake until golden brown, where a skewer inserted into the batter comes out dry, about an hour.

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and run a butter knife around the sides of the pan to release the cake. Cool on a wire rack, bottom-side-down. While cake cools, make 10 slits on top with a paring knife, and heat the 1/2 cup sugar and bourbon together in a small saucepan over low heat. Gently stir until sugar dissolves, remove from heat, and add lemon juice. Pour half the sauce onto the still warm cake. When it has fully cooled, flip the cake and pour over half the remaining glaze. Turn upright, serve, and accompany with the last of the sauce.

I hope you have thoroughly enjoyed this warming and wintry adventure. So many things to keep us cozy on chilly nights! Here's to a little frost on our windows to inspire us all. :)

A New Winter Story

2012-01-24T13:16:00.000-05:00

Winter is here. There are some new things I am eager to share, so give me a day or two while I put the finishing touches in place. Things to soothe you on chilly days and delight you in their surprising deliciousness. Think winter, and warmth... :)

Happy New Year!!

2011-12-31T15:53:00.000-05:00

It has been quite a holiday season. Instead of allowing myself to slow down these last days, things seem to have only picked up! My parents have come to town and I LOVE being with them (they are like my best friends), but I gotta say we've been doing far to much lifting and running around. A turn of the century highboy is now in our living room, as is a Knoll mid-century settee, and a Spanish tiled end table. They are beautiful. I feel so lucky to live with these new beauties, but I am pooped having lugged them to our top-floor apartment.

I made a wicked hummus, a roast chicken, garlicky mushrooms, lentils and preserved lemons, and a cranberry apple tart for a special potluck upon my parents' arrival. For Christmas - and for my step-grandfather who doesn't get much home cooking - my whole family teamed up to prepare garlic and rosemary roasted leg of lamb, minted mashed peas, roasted veg - including tons of shallots and the sweetest tiny carrots! - caramelized turnips, parsnips, potatoes, and an exquisite pan jus. And yesterday we endeavored a fab butternut squash risotto with toasted walnuts and shaved parm, and a raw celeriac-haricot salad with grain mustard vinaigrette. Just the right amount of creamy butteriness and bright, crunchiness.

What's on the menu for New Year's, you ask? I haven't got a clue. But, I'm sure I'll figure something tasty out. In the meantime, these sweets and bites may make an appearance while I catch up to myself...

Crunchy Bacon-Wrapped Potatoes with Thyme Mayonnaise
Serves 6-8

For the mayonnaise, I used a good, prepared mayonnaise to make my life easier. In a mixing bowl, squeeze juice from half a lemon onto 3/4 cup mayonnaise, and add leaves from a good bunch of fresh thyme. I like the peppery taste thyme imparts, so feel free to use as much as you like. Season with s + p to taste and stir the mixture to combine. Spoon into a dish and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F). Take 20 small potatoes (I used Yukon Gold) and give them a good scrub under cold water. Slice 10 pieces of good bacon in half and wrap around each potato, securing with a toothpick. Place all in a roasting pan and put into oven to bake. After 10-15 minutes the kitchen will smell of heavenly bacon and the crackling, sizzling sounds will drive you crazy. Turn each skewer for even browning, and repeat the process after another 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven when bacon has cooked through or to your liking, a half-hour or so. Set on absorbent paper to cool, and then place on a serving platter with sauce to devour with friends.

Pear & Dried Cherry Tartlets
Makes 6 tartlets
6 peeled and cored bosc or similar firm pears, chopped into 1/2-inch chunks
1 1/2 cup dried cherries
1 cup Calvados or other spirit
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup cane sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp heavy cream

For the pastry
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2 sticks cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup ice water, or a little more if necessary

For the pastry, pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until the mixture looks like a coarse meal. Drizzle ice water in and pulse again, until dough just starts to come together. If dough is too dry, add a tiny bit more water and pulse again. Empty out onto two sections of saran wrap, separating into two mounds. Gather each into a ball and then flatten into disks, wrapping loosely in the plastic. Give each a once-over with a rolling pin in each direction, and refrigerate until firm, about an hour.

Dress the pears in juice squeezed from a couple wedges of lemon and set aside. Put the cherries in a small bowl and pour liquor over. Let sit for 1/2 hour or longer so that the cherries may absorb the liquid (they should plump up nicely). Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Roll out first disk of dough to 1/8-inch thick and cut out 6 rounds using your tartlet tins as a guide. Drape the dough across each tin and press into the bases with the back of your index finger. Refrigerate until firm. Roll out second disk and do the same - these will serve as the top crusts. Using a small cookie cutter, perforate 3 of the dough rounds in an off-center pattern. You can paint a little water on the cut-outs to re-affix onto the dough surface if you like, echoing the original cut-out pattern. Refrigerate again.

Toss the cherries and liquor in with the pears and add the spices and sugar. Mix well to combine. Spoon the mixture into the pastry shells, mounding it in the center. You can add a few dots of butter if you like, but I didn't this time around and they turned out just great. Lightly beat the egg and cream together, and paint the wash along the edge of the tart shell. Place the top crust over and press gently around the edge to seal the two together. Be careful of thin lines in your perforated design: remove from the fridge and allow to warm slightly so that when you drape it over the tart filling, it does not tear. Paint surfaces with egg wash and chill again. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 35 minutes or until crust is golden. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes and then using a pot holder or plate, invert to release from tart tins.

Everyone needs a good bubbly to celebrate with, and we are blessed enough to rely on the expertise of our friend Leigh. Her lovely little wine shop, Picada Y Vino in Brooklyn, showcases great and unusual finds like this biodynamic and crisp (with notes of strawberry!) sparkling rosé. We bought a few bottles to give as gifts, and we are excited to stock a few more for ourselves. :-)

Salmon Roe and Quail Egg Blini

Serves 6

12 blini

3 oz salmon roe

12 quail eggs

2 tbsp crème fraiche

2 tsp dijon mustard

6 tarragon stems

7 chives, minced

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees (F). Warm the blini for 5-8 minutes on a baking sheet. I bought mine from this wonderful deli called Russ and Daughters - a Manhattan establishment open since 1914 - but you can certainly make yours from scratch if you like! Mix the crème fraiche, chives, and mustard in a small bowl and set aside. In a cast iron skillet or stove-top griddle on medium-high heat, fry the quail eggs sunny side up. Transfer to a plate when cooked through, keeping the yolks soft.

Place the blini on a platter and spoon a little crème fraiche onto each. Top blini with a quail egg and then spoon a little salmon roe onto each yolk. Garnish with tarragon, and celebrate!

Lastly, amidst this sweet revelry, I would like to wish you all a prosperous, loving, peaceful, and just 2012. Let's embrace our loved ones and empower others in creating a more just world for us all to live in, for our children and our children's children.

Happy New Year!!!

Adding to the List

2011-12-20T15:06:00.002-05:00

Just a couple quick things today. There are wonderful things all a-buzz around me, and if I don't sit down and write you all right now, it ain't gonna happen. Seriously, when are they going to invent the 35-hour day??

For those who like to celebrate in style, I have a new photo feature in tomorrow's (printed edition) New York Times that will go nicely with some chilled bubbly. As it is online today, you may also read it here.

Also, as a thank you for writing about the products they shipped me, Gilt Taste has offered me and my readers a delicious discount until end-of-day on the 22nd. You still have time to indulge in any of their gourmet products for yourself or for friends! For 15% off, use promo code lickingtheplate. Merry Christmas. :-)

Getting to the Root

2011-12-13T11:30:00.002-05:00

Eat from the earth. Literally. We have arrived upon the season where bounty has grown ripe deep in the dirt, and is ready to bring to the table. These roots in their many shapes and colors, dense and heavy, are some of the greatest eating around. This is a story of L-O-V-E. There's more, too. Like the great things I did with the stuff Gilt Taste sent me a couple weeks ago: Becker Lane's gorgeous pastured pork shoulder, and BliS bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup, which is every bit as dynamic as it sounds. Savory, sweet, hearty, and all of it comfort food.

Pairings at The New York Times

2011-12-08T16:21:00.000-05:00

Suffice it to say, I love shooting projects for The New York Times. I love the challenge to create something interesting and graphic that will show well in either color or black & white, depending on how that week's paper layout determines. Here's an article - with a great recipe, by the way - in which I produced the photography. Appeared in yesterday's print edition and is currently viewable online.

Another I liked, an outtake...

Tis the season.... merry, merry. :)

The Beauty of Fall

2011-11-25T12:13:00.012-05:00

As I write this, the year is slipping away faster than ever. I can't believe it - there are still so many dishes to make and share, and experimentation to get lost in. At least I have the day-to-day provenance of coziness in making - and eating - so many of the results!

This food you're about to see was all SO good. That's what I mean - I want to make it all again and yet, I have adventures waiting in the queue, new stories tugging at me to make them. I guess there are tougher problems to have, right?

* 29 November - Updated with recipes - scroll down to view!

The goodies from our anniversary adventure

I was informed by the kind folks at The New Amsterdam Market to stop by one particular Sunday, so that I could swoon at crazy, gorgeous mushrooms. I know that doesn't seem to qualify for "kid in a candy store" material, but it was exactly that. While there, I met Les Hook and Nova Kim and learned about their wild foods - harvested on Saturday in Vermont, driven to NYC for Sunday's market. I made the acquaintance of mushrooms I never knew existed.

Had we shown up at the very beginning we would have found an even greater selection, but I left happy, with many paper bags filled with earthly delights: Lobster mushrooms (those bright red-orange beauties, and they do taste quite like their namesake); White Matsutakes, lower left; Chicken of the Woods, at lower right (they taste exactly like chicken); and the most unusual, Blue Alb mushrooms, at top right (they are a gorgeous sparkly blue-black hue, and bitter - an acquired taste, ultimately).

With these, I made a fantastic mushroom ragout adapted from those great ladies at Canal House. Served with creamy polenta, it made for the perfect comfort food.

The pretty squash we brought home got some loving from the organic elixirs shipped to me from Crown Maple Syrup... I painted their grade A medium amber syrup (mixed with some olive oil) all over their surfaces, sprinkled with some sea salt and cracked pepper, and let them roast away in the oven. The result was caramely-savory, soft, delicious squash. Perfect autumn. I used some as a side dish and then pureed the rest in a soup.

Then, there were the apples. Oh, those apples. So many sweet, tart, crisp and juicy apples. We ate plenty straight out of the sack, but I wanted to have fun with them and so hollowed a bunch out and stuffed them with spiced goodness. Worth doing many times over.

Lastly was the pie. It was my first attempt at a shingled crust. I tossed the apples in nutmeg, brandy, and lemon juice. It's so nice to try something out for the first time and for it to become a smashing success!!! Know that you have to be patient as a saint for all the cutting-out of those shapes for the crust, but it too was absolutely worth it.

I hope I have tempted you all well enough to return, so you can make these treats for you and yours. Happy, cozy days..... :-)

Winter Cooking, Chocolate Mousse & Sweet Paul Holiday Edition

2011-11-16T22:11:00.001-05:00

Sweet Paul Magazine came out yesterday, and we all agree that it looks fabulous. I had so much fun working on the issue! There is photography by me throughout, including this and that. But the real show-stoppers are my Winter Cooking story, and the Fave Photographers' feature. So cool!!!

Here is another look at the tasty morsels...

I can attest that each and every item is sensationally tasty. Please click here for the recipes and tell us what you think!

When Paul asked me about my signature holiday dish for his favorite photographers story, my mind went racing. I could do the leg of lamb I love so much or different cookies that sing the holiday-tune, but as I thought further, I knew my Kahlúa chocolate mousse had to be it. In an ad torn from the pages of a really old issue of Gourmet, this recipe is what I make to surprise neighbors and colleagues with (and when I don't make it, you can believe I hear about it).

Here's a pairing I fancy that didn't appear in the magazine. The plum garnish is a playful adaptation from the famous "Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem, where it says "...while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads"... The glistening sugar coating offers a nice crunch, and the flesh makes for a bright and juicy accent in all that chocolatey depth!

A sublime treat to enjoy whenever, and especially nice to share with loved ones. This has been another great adventure. More on the way soon!

Sneak Preview to Holiday Treats

2011-11-14T10:59:00.001-05:00

Good day! It appears the holidays are upon us, and what better way to celebrate than with sneak previews to tasty goods that anyone would love to have? Michaela Hayes of Crock and Jar was just featured on Clean Plates. Her kraut blends are amazing and zingy, with all the crunch you can handle. After shooting her products for Sweet Paul Magazine, she sent me home with jars of her Spicy Kraut (think delicious kimchi, with a twist), and the Pickle Kraut (tangy, assertive, wonderful). These unusual treats make a great and thoughtful gift for anyone who loves a food adventure. :-)

Speaking of Sweet Paul, the holiday issue comes out tomorrow! Here's a sneak peek - including photos by yours truly - over at Bright. Bazaar. I photographed a number of things for this issue, and I am so excited to see how it all has come together. Paul says we can see the full spread after 8 am. I'll be there with a warm cup of coffee to keep me company! Here is a teaser from a story I shot:

There's lots more great bits on the way. The nice people at Crown Maple Syrup sent me some of their fantastic, organic syrups for me to play with, and Gilt Taste thought to include me (thanks, Ruth!) in their new bloggers list to receive products and share stories. So look forward to more treats, coming soon. :)

Making Pasta

2011-11-04T13:55:00.002-04:00

I was invited to take a class at the Institute for Culinary Education, and after browsing various options, decided on a pasta and sauce making course. I love a good fresh pasta, and am a total sucker for the process.

It was a grey, wet day, but I was energized to cook! Our chef instructor reviewed several pasta variations we would attempt as groups: a saffron-based dough, a whole wheat version, and one formed using spinach (or other similar greens). We were also going to create sauces to accompany these delicious noodles: a fresh tomato sauce (and another, with the addition of meat), an alfredo, a fresh herb-style, a Bolognese, and a roasted pepper-cream sauce.

We made our way into smaller groups and Chef Loren demonstrated each process to insure a success of our efforts. After all, we were going to eat the results.... :) I had so much fun photographing everything, I had to remind myself to stop and actually perform each process so that they would gel for later (in real life!). I hope you all enjoy the photographs. Note: you can click on each series to see them larger! It's worth it.

Measuring flour and making a well

Incorporating the egg into the flour, bit by bit

Incorporating the mixture using a bench scraper, then by hand

Loren describing the gluten network

kneading and forming the dough

Porcinis and pancetta, starting out the Bolognese sauce

The three groups made dough using different means - my group made the saffron dough using the dough hook attachment on a stand mixer. Not my favorite way. Chef agreed that it was tedious, and volunteered that his preferred way to make the dough was by using a food processor. I was sold.

He also showed us how to roll the dough out, first using a stand mixer attachment (easy-peasy), as well as a hand-roller. I asked about using a rolling pin as I don't own either, and in his dry wit, complete with a raised eyebrow, explained that that is the traditional way to do it, but to be prepared for a lot of work. Ah well, challenge is my middle name....?

Making tagliatelle

This goddess was framed on the wall; the Bolognese shaping up

Ravioli demo

The stand mixer slowly bringing the saffron dough together; a nice photo of me looking like I know what I'm doing :)

Loren shaping tortellino

A humerous moment talking about navels - the namesake for this great pasta~!

Finishing up, time to feast

It was an ambitious list and we did not get to it all. Everyone was focused, however, and some truly delightful dishes were created through the learning process. Nothing like a glass of wine in the afternoon, accompanying food that you toiled and scrambled to make!

I was happily surprised by how delicious it all was. YUM. As a result, I am definitely going to invest in a proper pasta roller to make experimenting at home a real option. There is nothing quite like fresh pasta and its sauce. Thank you for joining me in this adventure!

Anniversary Apples

2011-10-18T15:04:00.003-04:00

I haven't meant to be away so long. There have been all kinds of wonderful things happening, like an ICE pasta course I have been invited to take (and will be documenting, mmm I can't wait). Look for that soon. And the Brooklyn specialty foods line I am helping to launch. And stories I've shot for the holiday issue of Sweet Paul magazine! I could go on. But I am here to instead share with you - now almost a month ago - the enchanted time J and I had on our anniversary.

We rented a car and drove to an orchard just beyond Beacon, NY. We chose Lawrence Family Orchards because they seemed to have the most variety, and I was hungry for a farm experience in all its glory. As it turns out that wasn't exactly so, but we dove in and made the most of it. Here is the fruit from our labor... :-)

Orchard views, down the slope

We happily stumbled upon some raspberry bushes - too ripe to take home, we ate our fill while picking


Looking for broccoli

Our wagon full of goodies

I hope you experienced a little of the enchantment from our special day. We brought home broccoli greens (for stews and soups, since the florets were mostly harvested), kabocha and pumpkin squash, purslane, some sad tomatoes that I have since made incredible preserves from, and over 20 pounds of apples! Look for a part two story (with tasty recipes) coming very, very soon.

Recent Features

2011-09-23T14:21:00.001-04:00

There have been a lot of things recently underway. One of the most exciting is - I have a new website. It has been many, many weeks of editing, retooling, and trouble shooting.... and finally, I have a great new - and vastly improved! - online portfolio. Have a look and leave a comment below if you like. :)

In other news, I've had bits collecting here and there of work I produced in the past month or so. The lovely people at Gotham asked me to shoot a another story, this one about the new Ladurée boutique opening up on Madison Avenue. The little sweets were shipped directly from France, and Asprey lent some of their fine pieces for the shoot. Here is what my editor selected, followed by some outtakes.

In other news, my editor at The New York Times had me photograph this lovely story, when berries were still in abundance. *Sigh*. Summer really did fly. As it so happens, I heard from a friend who made the recipe, that it is totally delicious.... ;-)

Here are two more delicious items recently in print. If everything else hasn't gotten your stomach gurgling, these certainly will.

I am on to shooting glorious stories made for campfires and cabins... look for news of this soon! Happy fall everyone. ;-)

The Shapes of Summer

2011-09-08T15:38:00.003-04:00

The days are changing. I looked at the sunlight in my studio just the other day and I saw new directionality in the light streaming in. With the added milestone of Labor Day behind us, schools are back in session and people have returned to their full-swing things, signifying Change. I will volunteer and say that I am not ready for autumn, as much as I love its crispness and soft, worn hues. Autumn is actually my favorite time, but I am stuck in love with the heady ripeness of summertime's flavors and shapes - bright and bold, each so easy to love.

Here is a collection of amazing-tasting things I managed to prepare in recent days. Thankfully, much of the bounty of the season is still available at farmer stands, so you still have time! I hope that once you pour over the images, you will be inspired to try your hand at one (or all!) of these. They are - almost entirely - surprisingly simple to make, and the return on flavor is well worth it. Enjoy!

Please let me know if you try your hand at any of these. I'd love to answer questions should you have any, or just hear how much you enjoyed a recipe you shared with loved ones!

Birthday Celebrating

2011-08-12T12:39:00.010-04:00

Now a little while ago already (where does the time go??), I made sure to celebrate my birthday this year properly, by making trips to two of New York's most fantastic and specialized markets, back-to-back! Smorgasburg on Saturday, and The New Amsterdam Market on Sunday, my special day. Smorgasburg was with my dear friend D. In the sultry sun, I didn't want to make a big deal of taking pictures so the series is shot completely on my iphone. Sunday was with my sweet man, and he was kind enough to be the official camera chaperone when I didn't feel like shouldering it. :-) As you'll see there was lots of good eating to be done between the two. I am so lucky to call New York my home with this incredible bounty of interesting foods.

The most incredible avocado ice cream (really!) from La Newyorkina

Neill with the goods at Bon Chovie

The lawn, looking out onto the East River

Toothsome organic pastas from Flour City

The impressive menu from I8NY - seriously tasty

It was a bright, sultry day

New Amsterdam Market, at the old Fulton Fish Market in lower Manhattan

Heirloom fruits at Flying Fox Fruiterer

We took home a wonderful sunflower rye loaf from Nordic Breads

Stone Barns' vegetable harvest

The Dumpling Diva and her poffertjes

poffertjes, with a smear of butter and confectioners' sugar

Pour-overs from Blue Bottle Coffee

The ice block at People's Pops

Sampling the hay (earthy, honey, yummy!) and basil ice cream from Early Bird Cookery

Summertime! Hamptons Magazine, The New York Times, and More

2011-08-02T15:13:00.000-04:00

I've been eager to share these images with you all for a while now - a series I shot at the end of June for the Hamptons Magazine. It's for the Soft Serve Fruit Company - healthy, actually, and quite a tasty list of offerings (as you can see)! Having fun photographing melting things is some of the most spontaneous creativity out there. :)

For more fun with food, I photographed a new still life for The New York Times, which appeared in last's week's dining section.

For the still life, I sourced from friends. My good friend Jon is an expert on all things delicious, and a few years ago he shed new light on what a good mussel is. He over-nighted 5 pounds of these plump, sweet, and sustainably grown mussels, harvested from the nutrient-rich waters of Puget Sound. The carrots and beans are from the well-tended gardens of none other than Susan Orem, who runs a yoga & retreat center in heart of the Catskills. I am (as ever) eternally grateful to these folks. Wisdom, friendship, and great food! What more can a girl ask for?

As you might guess, I had a good bit of leftovers and so got to cooking. I hope you'll adore these preparations. Rather different from one another, equally outstanding in flavor.

Gotham Magazine

2011-07-20T11:34:00.000-04:00

Here is new featured photography by me, out in this month's Gotham Magazine -

The feature showcases a couple images, about a new hotspot here in The Big Apple. Here are more from the shoot:

Each is every bit as delicious as it looks. :-) Stay tuned - there's more like this soon!

Betty Fussell: A Body of Flesh and the Pleasures of Eating

2011-07-11T12:17:00.001-04:00

Betty Fussell is filled with a zest for life and has observations on everything. She is a peach of a woman, possessing spunk beyond measure... I know this sounds like gushing, but it's true. Some years ago I had the fortune to meet her through my friend Jon Rowley (another amazing spirit) and in the time since, she has become essential to my experience. Thank you Betty for sharing your world with me, and for letting more worlds share in you.

I interviewed her at her home a couple weeks ago, before sitting down to a characteristic meal of lush, elemental food together.

Collections of every kind fill Betty's home, including a coyote skin from her son--a hunter--on the settee

San Cristóbal & Santa Catarina traditional Day of the Dead damas - notice the cigarette held by the figure on right

Betty's dining table

A beloved (and solid!) ceramic jaguar from a mountain village in Mexico, brought home over 20 years ago

What is one of the most important things to you right now? Philosophy, ingredient, food issue, anything…

I think it’s the pleasure of thinking about eating. What am I going to have for lunch, what am I going to make for dinner? It’s the anticipation. I think this has always been true for me, but because I’ve lived so much alone, it’s the way of ritualizing the day that is totally pleasurable.

Mm-hmm. I can appreciate that!

Eating has a lot to do with ritual.

How would you describe the process of that ritual?

I’ve never missed a meal, three meals a day! Because I’m home and working at home, I snack all the time, if there’s something salty around... But it has everything to do with the anticipation of creating something that will only be done once, it will never appear again. It’s like a Buddhist sand mandala - it’s for that moment only and there’s something about that that I adore. It’s also creating something out of nothing, essentially, which I also adore! I didn’t create the food, I didn’t make me, but you know… I love the process, and always feel I am part of the food. It’s part of me, I’m part of it. We’re going through the same thing.

Was your mom a good cook?

In my household, my mom wasn’t there and my step-mom never cooked a meal in her life. My dad was the cook and he was - this was a puritan household - a Calvinist Presbyterian of the 1930s when there was a Depression on and we were very poor, so we didn’t know anything about good food.

What was the food?

This was canned peaches, because these were farm folk and they just adored that they didn’t have to can all summer long, although my father still canned a whole lot of stuff, but it wasn’t the necessity it had been. So, canned DelMonte peaches was great, postum – there was no coffee – ovaltine for the kids; Wheaties – that was a luxury, mostly cornmeal mush instead. There was no oatmeal; everything was cornmeal – again, this is very Midwestern. Favorite Sunday supper was toast in hot milk with cinnamon and sugar. This was very old fashioned, you know.

wowww…

Everything had to be bland and everything had to be as close to liquid as possible, literally. Everything had to be soft – soft and bland.

What was that about?

That’s about food is an evil because it has to do with the body. And this is the generation of colonic irrigation, and the Kellogg sanitarium didn’t invent that but it tapped into the same strain. My grandparents did not have the money for a stay at Kellogg's, but the culture was the same, where food – anything to do with the body – is wicked. Old-fashioned Calvinists… food is just stuffing this body thing, so you try to make the food like water, and then you get rid of it as fast as possible. You keep flushing the system, from the top and from the bottom. (laughter) It is not about bodily pleasure – no! Bodily pleasure – everything to do with the body - is a sin, so you try to get rid of it everywhere you can.

When did that start to shift, because obviously it did?

Culturally, for me, it shifted with my good friend from junior high school. (the one whose ashes are around the jaguar sculpture’s neck) Her parents were not Calvinist Presbyterians, so I learned there was another way to live. They actually had lamb chops on their table – how astonishing! Her mother and father were never home, so my friend was raised by her grandmother. They were from the east and they were upper middle class, as opposed to my lower genteel middle class. So it was a whole different food pattern. Very exciting! Her pattern turned out to be closer to what became the norm of food, after The Depression and the War. Her grannie’s meat was the first meat that I had to chew – that was an astonishment – and not until I got to college did I eat meat regularly, even though it was like slop, or glop, as we called it. It was still better than what I had at home. And then, we could go out to dinner and have a steak…

When you were in college?

First time. After age 16 – that’s when I went to college. Different world. Not recoverable, thank God.

No matter what our backgrounds are, we always have some kind of a contextual story that defines our eating patterns, diets, and it’s kind of bizarre to look back on. That those were the eating habits…

Because food, like everything, is both intimate and cultural at the same time. We confuse the two because we don’t realize how much our tastes are conditioned by our culture - everything to do with a moment in time. What food is accessible, what’s acceptable, what class you are, what you identify with. And religious forms of prohibition or acceptance are just one form of that. One thing I love is that anybody now can discover through food that the world really is constituted of clubs, that we have to divide up into groups in order to have an identity. How many billion people are alive at this moment?? We’re approaching 8 billion – or was it 80 billion (laughter) – doesn’t really matter… Okay, so how do you identify? You friend people on Facebook! Food is another way of friending, where you join a different food club. So what you eat always reveals what your club is. Always has. As Americans we think we’re club-free, but of course we are not. Cave men had clubs: “our cave was not that other cave.” Same with food.

In your life here now, what are five indispensable food items? Or, if you knew that a certain meal was going to be your last, what would you have?

Similar answers. Indispensable are butter and lemon. They're for the lobster, for my last meal. :-)

Lobster... It’s the texture of lobster, the sweetness, and I never of course had any seafood growing up. It was only when I came East that I ate, on my honeymoon at Cape Cod, my first lobster. Never forgotten it. It was a complete revelation. I love cooking it, I love the fact that they were climbing out of the pot, I love the action, the theatricality. I had no idea how to cook or eat it, but fortunately there were other people around whom we were having to dinner. But the taste of it … I salivate when I think of lobster. This is the scenario of my last meal: I’ve been caught – finally for all the murders I’ve committed. It's time and the guard comes with my tray and there's no lobster on it. There’s coca-cola and a burger and I can’t stand it...might as well get on with it.

Back to the essentials – we need three [more] for the daily life...

Salt. I’m partial to lemon, but salt is my necessity. Sugar is not. I can do without chocolate. It would be a hardship, but it’s not part of my five. Garlic, and, what’s the fifth? Maybe egg. I really live on eggs. All those textural differences again. There’s no egg without butter, or salt. So it all goes together...Hmmm, I’m thinking egg and lemon…I’ve not done lemon on scrambled eggs…

Well, you could do a hollandaise…

Ah yes, hollandaise! There we go, the texture again. Velvety, agreed.

Returning to that last meal...

I think we start with oysters. Another extraordinary thing – we had oysters once in 8th grade. That’s the only time I’d ever seen an oyster – that any of us had seen an oyster in southern California. We did not have airplanes bringing in oysters. This was completely unknown, and half the class wouldn’t eat it. We were doing the required Home Ec course. So we were each given an opened shell and told how to eat the contents raw, and of those few who tried it, most of them gagged. I was one of the lucky ones, because I thought “What was that?!” (Can I have another??). This is very individual; I understand the people who gagged, but I’m not a gagger. I love new foods, I love discovering another world, even in eighth grade. Ah! Somebody out there is eating this!! How amazing.

And what a striking contrast to those canned peaches or toast soaked in milk….

Yes! Literally a different world.

So, lobsters and oysters, what else would you have at that dinner?

We’ve gotta have a green, because of the taste and contrast, and then the palate. You require it to refresh. It would have been watercress, but now watercress is raised different, so the bite is gone. Now it’s arugula (and they’re trying to take the bite out of that) I want a green bite. Just the leaves without any dressing.

Betty prepared the sweetest, juiciest squid - no seasonings at all, only seared in olive oil

This bark, left, is actually pastured spiced beef jerky! Delicious, all of it

Market strawberries...

What is one of your favorite all-time recipes? Is there a recipe you’ve returned to either because you love it, or…

Oh yeah! that’s easy – the one I do all the time because it’s the easiest thing I know and because it has all the ingredients I like. It’s shortbread but with flavorings. I’m sure I’ve made it for you. My fave at the moment is chocolate chili. You do it all in the processor, takes two minutes, then you press it into the pie pan and twenty minutes later, it's done. It’s like a really good cookie that’s not too sweet. Use brown sugar and butter and nuts and just enough flour to hold it together. Just enough sugar to help grind the nuts, and then you can add whatever you want, like crystallized ginger, or chipotle and guajillo chiles with a little cocoa. You can also vary the texture by putting in oatmeal. You can keep varying and varying it. It is a perfect, instantaneous dish.

...recipe (and pictures, of course) upcoming - look for it... (and badger me if I'm taking too long to post it!)

Who is one, or some of, your role models, and why?

In writing, I came to food from the road of literature. My word life was profoundly shaped by - okay - Shakespeare. I know he doesn’t count, but he counts to somebody my age. My modern greats were Yeats and Eliot. They were totally different bookends of what was for me "modern" poetry. Little relation to each other except that they were writing in English (chuckle).

The first food writer I found was Elizabeth David, who remains for me a heroine because she addressed food sensually. She’s also very good with language and with history. Mediterranean Food, 1950s – this was a changer, the beginning of what ended up as the Mediterranean diet. England was a starving, war-torn country, and here David was talking about the pleasures of real food. She has an extraordinary biography (look at it) . What an adventurer, she was an amazing person. I met her once when she was trying to run a food shop in London in the 1950s, and that failed because she was in no way a business woman. She was an educated English lady who was also a rebel adventurer. I can’t remember who her husbands and lovers were, but she lived a long time, well into her 80s.

I discovered her before I discovered MFK Fisher, another amazing person. I didn’t find MFK until The Art of Cooking - I was late in reading her. She was a major discovery for me because she was creating literature out of food. There was very little of that in this country. You had it in France but not in America. MFK was Southern Californian and although originally from the Midwest, she was upper middle class; much more like Julia. She has a very strong voice, and I was always a little bit wary of it because it was so highly crafted, which is why W.H. Auden said she was writing the best prose in America. MFK did write really well. Her book A Cordial Water is the best book on food I know and it’s tiny, only 100 or so pages. She, like David, incorporates history, although David's form is more objectified. Both were in the journalism world, because that’s how you got published in classy magazines: Spectator for Elizabeth and Gourmet, etc. for MFK. David was very much an English journalist, Fisher, an American. You sense a personality behind MFK that may be different from the way she talks. This was not true of David – she was who she reported. Fisher was a fictioneer in her essays. She created a written persona.

I did 3 or 4 personal interviews of her for magazines, The New York Times, etc., and Fisher was as wary of me as I of her. I was too close to her in age, not an adoring innocent. It was fascinating. This was a woman who I would not have wanted to be the daughter of. Her middle name is Kennedy and I’m a Kennedy, from the same drawer of Scotland. I feel as if I know this Scotch-Irish background and share too much of it. I wrote a profile of her as both an empress and a witch, and this exactly described why I was careful. Now she's become a Saint, but that will sort itself out. Her writing is wonderful and there's nobody better, just writing about food.... Hmmm, if there were a movie now, who would you cast…? Aahh, she’s a tricky one! In Julie and Julia, we have a very Hollywood image now of Julia. But MFK was herself a glamour girl… There are pictures of MFK out of Vogue in the 1940s/50s, where she looks like a movie star.

So she’s got this dichotomy going, playing this one thing and playing to this other thing, too.

Yeah... and her three marriages within this dichotomy. A total romantic. An extraordinary American figure. Had her Hollywood period, had an illegitimate child, never said who the father was. Had two daughters… You can’t open her files until 50 years after her death. She’s got a big back story behind the persona - dead out a magnificent persona - but that’s all that people know.

When did she pass away?

In 1992 just short of her 84th birthday. So, she lived a long arc. I saw her in the late 1970s and 80s, when she was already an old woman. Later, she got quite infirm, but was still present of mind.

These are wonderful, powerful food women... I had no identity whatsoever with guys like Craig Claiborne, or Jim Beard.

Who would be more your contemporary food heroes.

That’s right. More recent figures that I love in the food world are Paula Wolfert, who wrote the first really fine book on Moroccan cuisine. She’s a food-through-culture person, and a very adventurous gal. There’ve been a lot of really good, strong women that have emerged in the last 40 years, and that is wonderful. And Julia of course is right out front, but everyone knows about her. Of all of the food people I’ve met, she was by far the most generous of heart, a totally generous person. The way in which people respond to her is very accurate.

How has the culinary landscape in New York changed in the years that you’ve been here?

Atom bomb. (laughter) It’s changed explosively. I’ve been in New York for 30 years, which is when it began to explode. I have been lucky to watch it happen, because it moved very fast. And so completely. When food becomes a hook to "celebrity"- all those millions of food bloggers - and food is hot on the tongue, it becomes part of everybody’s daily conversation. Conversation changes culture, and that's fine, except you wonder, "What does all this chatter really mean?" America has certainly benefited by discovering that bodily pleasures are good, and that we are creatures of appetite – good! Food is also a measure of how much America changed after WWII into a major global culture, which it certainly was not before. Nor was it in the 50s when we traveled to Europe to find all the the signs of "Yankee Go Home." There was a lot of anti-Americanism then because we had established ourselves as a power: we were the new barbarians to countries that had lived anciently. We were the nouveau riche, as a country. Fascinating to watch this happen through food and in New York. The whole French wave of Jacques Pepin, and Pierre Franey, Andre Soltner - all that happened here (New York!) after the War. Everything that was going to happen happened here first, and then spread around the country. Or used to.

Is there anything else you would say to people?

That the change now is the most radical of any. So, if that was an atom bomb, this is what…? The digital revolution is like a galaxy exploding. It has everything to do with communicating and the atomization of everything is hard grasp. It happens at such speed and on such a scale. There is no mediation between private and public, an individual and the universe... (breathy) Since food is at the center of human communication from cradle to grave, what I’m eating at any given moment is cosmic. All blogs are equal and of equal importance. Well, okay (laughing)... It’s hard to make this adjustment of scale. Most of us haven’t done it yet – it’ll take us a few decades and it keeps changing. So I don’t know, I don’t know where it goes, I don’t care where it goes, since I'll be gone. I just know it’s bewildering in its speed, and fracturing.

Yeah, there are a lot of messages going out..

Drowning in them. Drowning! And there’s as much misinformation as information. Data is meaningless, it’s white noise, web noise… What are you going to select and why? I dunno (laughing again)…

And do you even have the willpower to look up various sources….

You can’t begin to see all the sources. And knowing that, everything you know is a speck of dust in relation to what you could know at that moment, and that other people are tapping into knowing some part of at that moment. That’s bewildering. (Laughs)

I try not to think about that too much because otherwise I will be frozen in my tracks, or feel immobilized to do something, because there’s just soooo much vastness….

That’s right! At your fingertips. That’s the galactic explosion. Who knows how to deal with it, because it goes on happening even as you speak or work your thumbs. In this black hole, you try to figure out fast who you are as this little dust spot, what you have to say, what you want to say, who you have to talk to. And you know that black hole is enlarging as you talk. So you arbitrarily select a tiny frame, a "club" of other people like you to communicate with. This cave rather than that cave. And they can be anywhere in the world (and maybe other worlds) of 80 billion caves. Space and time? Gone. There's huge fall outs with all of this, as we see in the Middle East. Because this is a medium of images rather than words. Words are disappearing. The new language is visual Esperanto, a huge change that was set into place with motion pictures. So, you’ll figure it out… Meantime, you and everyone else has to eat. You are still a particular body of flesh and bone in this vastly expanding universe.

Books which litter her bedside; a large painting above her bed by a San Miguel DeAllende artist

Some of Betty's many traveling hats

If you would like to listen to Betty and me, here is a snippet from earlier in the interview. Enjoy. :-) Thank you, Betty!

Happy July 4th!

2011-07-03T14:01:00.006-04:00

Spiced lamb sausage and whole grain mustard with farmer's market micro sorrel...

Lemonade coolers (from BUST magazine feature) for easy summer sipping.

Asparagus, fresh pea, and dill fusilli...

And to top it all off, a lattice crust strawberry rhubarb pie... :)

By now, you're probably hungry. Happy July 4th, everyone! Recipes coming soon...

Lemonade, BUST Magazine

2011-06-21T22:47:00.001-04:00

I wanted to let you all know about a pretty picture I produced for BUST magazine, out this month....

With hopes to include this with a larger story I've been working on, I waited to share the news. Alas, too many things are going on (all good!), so while we're still in this month - my-goodness-how-time-flies - I wanted to give you the opportunity to go out and get a copy. Each lemonade variation is divine, I can attest to that! Hope you all have enjoyed the longest day of the year, at least here in the northern hemisphere....Here's to summertime and all the high-key treats of the season. ;)

Go to the Farmers' Market

2011-06-16T00:37:00.000-04:00

I used to think going to the farmer's market was a fun, field-trip kind of experience. And then I read more and did the math of how expensive places like Whole Foods add up to be without necessarily offering better quality, and realized that for my money I prefer to support actual people as much as possible. I still get some things from WF and other places, but I really enjoy talking recipes and details with the farmers and walking stall to stall to see whose daily lot looks the most alive and why... I guess you could say that connecting to the growers helps me appreciate the food I'm going to prepare later at home.

The market is more fun than ever, now a weekly excursion - and even more frequent sometimes, to see growers I miss on other days. I've built it into my to-do pattern as a way of living, incorporating into my life the freshest fresh, seasonal foods. These photographs are the bountiful array from last week's trip at the Union Square Market in New York. Check online for your local farmers' market - almost every city and town has one, if not a few! If you are linked to a CSA - community supported agriculture - even better. :)

We got our strawberries from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm and our eggs from Violet Hill Farm. The mushrooms are from Bulich Mushroom Farm; the pork chops from Flying Pigs; thanks to Hudson Valley Organic Gardens for the mung sprouts, and our radishes came from S&SO Produce. The mutsu apples are from Nemeth Orchards; our plants - the zinnias, are from Van Houten Farms, and the basil is from Nature's Healing Farm; the cheese is a sheep's milk aged gouda style and found at Valley Shepherd, and our cream-top whole milk is from Milk Thistle Farm. After collecting all these goodies and with our bags filled to the brim with as much as we could carry, we decided it was time to return home and begin the feast!

With local and personal in mind, I want to offer you a sneak preview of my next post... I am eager to share with you an interview I made with none other than the great food writer Betty Fussell, who has written stories on America's love affair with (and the history of) corn and beef, amongst many, many other things. She is an amazing person, and someone I am honored to call a dear friend. Please stay tuned for this very special story.

Things a-Brewing

2011-06-06T20:22:00.001-04:00

Well, I have a bunch of things cooking on the metaphorical burners I can't wait to share with you all! Here's an item hot off the presses, another collaboration with The New York Times. This still life was great fun to produce: to do so I went hunting to Despaña for the famous paella rice, otherwise known as "bomba" or "calasparra" rice. Some are sold in cloth bags and feel special and unusual packaged like this. What an unlikely opportunity to need to search these parcels out so I could compose just the right shot! And now, to try out the recipe....

Please stay tuned for more wonderful things I am putting together - the weather is gorgeous and the food is delicious. :-)

Interview at Great Food Photos

2011-05-31T20:56:00.001-04:00

With all my social networking to keep track of (oy vey there's a lot to stay on top of ), I somehow managed to forget to share with you all this wonderful interview that Donny over at Great Food Photos did of me last week. We can't figure out how we learned of one another, but all the same I am grateful that we now have this flowering friendship to nurture...

I hope you enjoy the stories and images we put together! It was a lot of fun considering what my answers to his thoughtful questions would be, and, as per the title I of course selected some images to accompany the feature. Have a great week everyone :-)

Spring Snacking

2011-05-25T11:24:00.001-04:00

I love the zing Springtime flavors bring. And their bright colors, yippeee! The crunch of baby lettuce leaves (look for more on that soon...), the juiciness of citrus wedges (almost a spring thing, and certainly welcome after squash and tubers for months on-end), and then ease of simple ingredients casually tossed together, symbolize a lot of what I cherish most about the (finally arrived) warmer weather. Here's to this time of year!

dogwood tree in my mother's garden

And for that good crusty bread, here's an enormously satisfying snack to accompany any meal, or to eat in-between. With oranges as well, this makes for a nice pairing with the above salad. :) As it was completely impromptu there really isn't a "recipe" to speak of. My ingredients, though, are listed below...

I bought duck fat garlic bread - yes, there is such a thing, at the Union Square Market, at Bobolink Dairy & Bakehouse . After cutting it into thick slices, I slathered on double-cream brie-like d'Affinois cheese, and then layered a smear of chunky marmalade. The natural pairings of duck and orange - along with the silky texture of the oozing cheese - put me into a state of immediate bliss. So easy, you absolutely must go now and try it. If this specific bread isn't readily available where you are, choose any rustic, good, wood-fired bread. Dig in, and relish the effortless delights of spring!

Saveur's Must-Read List and Edible Manhattan

2011-05-18T13:11:00.001-04:00

So, dear Annie in Wisconsin notified me today that Saveur Magazine included my blog in their list of newest - to them - great blogs to follow. I found myself in pretty amazing company and am once again awed by all the talent and content out there. A few that caught my eye are: Canal House Cooks Lunch, Three to One, and The Year in Food. I can't wait to learn more about each of the blogs listed (wouldn't hurt to have an eighth day each week...)! Thanks for including me, Saveur. :)

In other news Edible Manhattan's most recent issue, Eat Drink Local, includes my image of Spring ramps! Tribute gets paid to one of Union Square Market's finest, Rick Bishop, and his hard work foraging for ramps and other fleeting seasonal delights. Many of the top restaurants and chefs in the city source from Bishop - some even make time to accompany him as he scours terrain in the Catskills for these highly sought after wilds. For us lucky regular folks, he can be found at the market twice a week so we can bring the booty to our tables at home.

Crock Pot Porchetta

2011-05-14T23:38:00.000-04:00

When cooking is done right, there really isn't a more blissful experience than eating the fruits of that labor. My friend Kate had a party not too long ago for which she made all kinds of delectable food; one dish in particular had me returning for seconds and even thirds (perhaps a bit gluttonous, I agree). She described it as a slow-cooker version of porchetta.

Having visited the famous little nook that is Porchetta in the East Village just today, I can verify that the slow cooker version is exactly like the one I feasted on a few hours ago, but here, with the bones left in. When you experience for yourself just how juicy and flavorsome this tastes, I think you will agree every bit with my assertions. I welcome you to prove me wrong, in fact. You cannot mess this recipe up if you have a crock pot and sustainably sourced, good quality meat. And with the leftovers you will have, the gifts just keep on giving. ;)

I bought a bone-in (more flavor in the cooking with those bones left in) pork loin roast from Ottomanelli & Sons, one of the oldest family-run butchers here in New York. They have offered pastured and local prime meats for over 80 years. Go there. It is a wonderful experience and they are such sweet fellows (and will take great care of you!). After slathering it with the pureed herb-spice mixture (see recipe below), I simply popped the roast in my crock pot for a number of hours and tried to find distractions from being driven crazy by the intensely savory fragrance filling my home.

I had enough leftovers to last a few days (yippeeeee!). So, I made two types of sandwiches to see if either satisfied me more, and really, they both were outstanding. First, I pan fried thick slices of red onion in a cast iron skillet and sandwiched them with the pork between the heavenly signature semolina-golden raisin-fennel rolls from Amy's Bread. For the other, I toasted a seeded bun and slathered the buttery meat with the last of my homemade grain mustard, and served pickled watermelon rind to accompany the sandwich. Their crunchy texture and sour kick complemented the juicy meat quite nicely. If you find new variations for your delicious leftovers, I want to hear about it! So many options. So much flavor.

A Feast for Friends

2011-04-27T00:44:00.000-04:00

It is actually looking like spring outside! What fortunate timing, as I've been starved for the season's flowers and the fragrance they bring. So with Easter as my excuse (should I ever need one) I bought numerous dainty and bright blooms and made preparations for a meal that would make use of things calling out to me from my refrigerator's stocks... food I think anyone would happily gobble. Made for ease and versatility - and of course supreme deliciousness - shared with friends. Enjoy. ;)

The fragrance from these jonquils permeated the living room!

As you can imagine, we had a great time. Nothing like catching up with dear people (it seems like far too long in-between each time one or another of us makes arrangements, but then again I guess that's New York). What even better time spent, making a festive occasion of it with flowers celebrating the season, and special-feeling, fantastic food.

Happy Easter & Happy Passover Wishes

2011-04-24T19:21:00.003-04:00

Lately I have had quite a busy schedule, photographing for the Hamptons Magazine, Gotham, and BUST, and have been hard pressed to make time for my own work... a great problem to have!

I hope you are enjoying this special day with family or others dear to your heart. It was a beautiful day here today, and I spent it churning the creative juices...I'll be posting a new food story with delicious recipes very, very soon. Thanks for being so patient, and stay tuned. :)

Please Nominate My Blog!

2011-04-07T00:20:00.001-04:00

Saveur is hosting their annual Best Food Blog Awards, and I need you lovely people to take a moment to vote here for my blog, for best food photography. You can view my blog's recipes (with oodles of yummy food photography) here, as well as peruse Licking the Plate in general for tasty visual treats. A big THANK YOU for your time and support!!!

Satisfying, Simple Eating

2011-04-06T21:51:00.000-04:00

I am a big fan of throwing food together in a matter of moments. Sure, I love to go all out with pies, roasts, and other feats in the kitchen, but it is the simple creations that sometimes make time stop in its tracks with their small brilliance. This dish is exactly that. BIG on satisfying flavor, while - after the prepping of the artichokes - taking only a small effort to execute.

Artichokes are one of the esoteric vegetables, right up there with kohlrabi. That isn't to say that I don't enjoy it (because I adore it!), I just mean that I have to prepare with a capital "p" when I want to incorporate it into any dining plans. When I was a child, my mom would make steamed artichokes with an "aioli" for dipping. As part of the new wave of nutrition-minded mothers, she made our aioli out of yogurt, lemon juice, and a touch of store bought mayo. Not bad, actually. I remember relishing the ceremonial aspect of eating this strange & prickly vegetable: layer-after-layer, eating the flesh off the edge of each leaf, and all the discarded leaves piled in square metal saucers my mom would provide. Then came the dramatic finale of digging out the hairy choke so we could indulge in the tender heart. It was certainly eating with deliberateness.

In my recipe I have left the ceremony to the enjoyment of many elements together, like you with your beloveds and some good red wine. I've used baby artichokes (with some modification, you can use regular ones), and after trimming some of the tougher exterior parts and then braising them, you can eat the whole thing....yum!

If you like artichokes in any way - from your mother's cooking or recipes of your own - then make this! You will love it. And when all you have left is the braising liquid, use it as a sauce over pasta or add it to your favorite marinara or stew. Every element contributes new bounty - now dig in. :)

Sweets & Spring

2011-03-28T11:09:00.000-04:00

A week ago I attended a fun and funky little gathering in Greenpoint, Brooklyn penned as a welcome fest for spring, called the Sweets Swap. Boy, was it ever. :)

Jen and Sarah, the hostesses, encouraged everyone to wear their most divine spring brights while munching on the sugary treats that each participant created, to complement the sentiments of joy and frolicking. Rather than contribute something edible, Jen suggested I bring my camera to show everyone just how much fun a sweet swap can be. Between sips of homemade fresh fruit punch and impromptu games she periodically announced (blindfolded stick-the-candle-in-the-cupcake, anyone?), the space was filled with mounting laughter and the banter of interesting characters.

Not to end anticlimactically, there was even a pinata to whack! Sadly, I had to leave as they strung it up, in the rich sun of the waning day - it was that rich kind of sun that you actually feel warmed by (could it really be spring??).

I can attest, it was a sweetly unique way to spend a Sunday. Thanks again, Jen!

"Funfetti" cookies

My favorites - and they were vegan! chocolate chips + chopped nuts

This Dr. Seuss-looking dessert was tasty: meringue, blueberry mousse, and lemon zest!

Pretty Lisa, editor at BUST, decked in flowers and dots

Erin, at left, creates beautiful illustrations. She made sweet-inspired cards for everyone to take home!

Sweet bunny, lighting the way

Our Hearts Go Out To You

2011-03-17T00:55:00.002-04:00

The devastation in Japan keeps sinking in deeper as the days go by. I cannot believe the layers of impact - literally and figuratively - as I tune into news reports online. Aftershocks, flooding, radiation (!!), and bitter cold, all after a horrendous earthquake felt across hundreds of miles and the decimation from a tsunami. The story I want to share is my small way to try and offset the heartbreak, a story of love. I wanted to share with you some of the wonderful and sweet people we came across as we traveled. I hope you will smile and delight in viewing these interesting, luminous spirits.

Our first day, Shimokitazawa

He made amazing drinks from inside a tiny van, the "Motoya Express"

My mocha and interesting items on the menu

At Tsukiji Market

My beautiful friend A, who was with her parents when the earthquake struck (and is ok!)

It doesn't get any cuter than this...

Almost unbearably adorable

Near Arashiyama, the bamboo forest

At Kiyumizu-dera temple in Kyoto - post coming soon

The stylish winter in Takayama - story soon

If you are looking for a way to help you can give here, here, and here - few organizations whose members work so hard, and that I love. Thank you for your concern and compassion!

Let us send love and relief to the people struck by the devastation in Japan.

Pairings Article, The New York Times

2011-03-15T11:56:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone! It has been a crazy week, and it's only Tuesday. Here's the link to today's feature, a recipe from Priorat, Spain. If you make it, please let me know how it turned out!

Screenshot from www.nytimes.com

Thanks for stopping by, and don't let the week get out-of-control. :)

Wintertime (yes, still) Indulgences

2011-03-11T18:35:00.003-05:00

It isn't every day that I eat pizza or pasta. Hardly ever, in fact. I made a deal with myself long ago that because of my love for chocolate (see my Valentine's Day post), I decided not include other delicious things that I cherish in an effort to maintain a healthy physique and "order in the house"... well, ahem... currently, that has been tossed out the window. You might be aware that it has been an unusually bitter and protracted winter here in New York. I keep saying to myself, "when I'm overcome with heat during the city's oppressively humid summer, I'll wish it was cold like this!" But because winter has been so ferocious, I have actively sought out THE MOST comforting comfort foods, and am having quite a lot of fun with the results.

Not too long ago, I decided to make a pizza. Two small ones, in fact. I usually go for red and saucy but this had none, save for a drizzle of olive oil at the end. I had seen it from recipe grazing on the web over a year ago, and saved it for who-knows-when. The ingredients are simple and yet the result is so flavorsome I would make it again in a heartbeat: a crust with just the right bite, oozing cheese, meaty mushrooms, and buttery slivers of potato... What's not to love?

In my story, there's also a lasagne tale... Scroll down for the juicy bits on that. :)

This recipe is divine! Please let the pictures (and my vigorous encouragement) speak for themselves. :)

My lasagne has a somewhat sad ending, but fear not. There is romance and passion, and it turned out amazing. There's just a wee problem that happened along the way...(notice the absence of my gorgeous, baked and bubbling tray of lasagne?)

What happened I vow will never happen again. So delighted was I with my tray of perfection, I hurredly scurried with oven mitts and hot pasta to the studio from the kitchen. While pulling a board from the shelf to set it upon (not looking at said tray in the other hand), it promptly slid right off my mitt and exploded on the floor. CRASH. I was red, shocked by the calamity in front of me.
There was no way to repair this defeat and all I could do was scoop the poor thing off the (thank god freshly cleaned) floor... all the lessons we get taught by parents or bosses or teachers or whoever flashed before me and I could have just kicked myself, dammit. Because I am a masochist, I had to know what exactly I had ruined with a little nibble from my trashed masterpiece. It was outrageously tasty...I think this means that somewhere down the road there is a lasagne re-match awaiting me. Hopefully, it won't take another crazy winter to bring me to the stage, so I can indulge in its spicy, cheesy, incredibly savory layers for real.

Thank you for sharing in this little drama, and have a fantastic weekend!

Amazing Tsukiji Market, and a Guest Blog Appearance

2011-03-07T16:09:00.030-05:00

Please tell me that you are still loving the photographs from Japan. Because, while it is becoming a cherished memory further in the depths of my mind, there are some incredible images yet to share.

While traveling and since I've been back, I have been cooking up a treat for you all with a lovely woman halfway around the world. She is passionate about delicious foods and the photography that captures them so well. Sarka hails from Prague and currently lives in London, and has a penchant for a lot of the things that speak to my own heart (and after this long day, red wine is front and center!). Realizing that we have a lot in common, she invited me to guest blog, and today, one of my most incredible experiences while in Japan is shared here and at her blog, Cook your Dreams. We both hope you enjoy this shared adventure!

Which brings me to the phenomenon that is Tsukiji (pronounced "tskee-jee") Market in Tokyo. I'd taken a trip there before and marveled at the endless stalls of exotic and alien creatures. Many fresh from the kill, and still many others kept alive in filtered temporary quarters boxed in styrofoam, until their ends would come too. I can say in both experiences that walking through the wet, bustling aisles was a fascinating, gruesome, and humbling experience. Oh, and freezing. It escapes me to understand how these men and women survive countless hours in a day (for their lifetimes, mind you) in this wet, chilly stadium-market. One of the many enigmas of this incredible place....

Dried goods were part of an outdoor secondary market encircling the stadium

These were alive and moving...

Fresh clams


Left, the man occasionally placed his hands on that teapot to keep warm. Right, fresh tuna.

Carting away tuna heads

Left, 4-foot lengths of frozen tuna waiting to be carted. Right, discards.

After hours wandering around, I couldn't feel my fingers or toes. Small price to pay to witness the whirring kerosene-powered foot trucks; the careful and expert butchering of mollusks and tuna; the late-morning banter amongst colleagues, a sure sign that their work day was near its end and that the customary communal meal was next.

J and I were starving, even through the empathy and pity we felt towards these incredible creatures. At one stall, a smiling older gentleman (pictured in the red jacket, well above) offered us advice on where to go for some of the best sushi we would ever have. And though numb and ravenous, we managed to find it and wait in a line that made satisfaction a further forty minute delay... but it was worth it.

Our sushi master preparing omakase - oyshi!!

More at The New York Times - and Daily Candy, too

2011-02-24T10:01:00.001-05:00

Yesterday's New York Times dining section included more of my photography here and here. I am grateful to work for such a prestigious organization, and it just so happens to be a lot of fun. Thanks for that! Some screen shots, below.

Over the weekend, Daily Candy gave a shout-out to Four Tines, a gourmet organic frozen food company I helped launch by doing all the collateral & packaging photography. They are carried in all the Whole Foods markets here in the city, and up and down along the east coast. It's only a matter of time before these healthy, smart, and delicious foods take over the world! :D Two of my favorites from their line:

Have a satisfying and flavorful weekend everyone!

View from a Train & Kyoto in Green and Orange

2011-02-22T19:19:00.002-05:00

More glimpses of Japan, as I have yet a bounteous number of images to share with you dear readers! We traveled by high-speed shinkansen - otherwise known as the bullet train - to Kyoto to visit temples and shrines in their wintry glory. This first collection is taken from the window of the train (it is always a good time to take pictures): Sloping Mount Fuji with its icy top, and some wonderful industrial landscapes...

Traveling at 185mph, I don't know how I achieved such a perfectly symmetrical image...

Wasting no time, we traveled to Fushimi Inari that evening- a Shinto shrine dedicated to Inari, the god of rice, sake, and prosperity - and walked up the mountain into the darkness.

It felt rather eerie walking along the winding path in the middle of the forest: the insistent sounds of many crows doing their evening callings, and J and I alone together. We sensed the ghostly presence around us in the displays of shrines, statues, and myriad torii. With the hour drawing later and later, we opted to turn around before total darkness set in, letting the crows take the forest for themselves.

Still with a hunger for the forest, our next day brought an adventure to the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest on the outskirts of Kyoto. It was quite chilly. Though numb from cold I mustered click after click, drinking in everything and documenting it with the lens to live-again later. Good thing that I did. :)

These incredible trees dotted homes on small streets as we made our way

A small cemetery on the grounds

I hope you can gather the sense of wonderment I felt at exploring these magical places. Even with the chill biting at our limbs, it was an amazing couple of days!

Pairings at the Times

2011-02-16T10:42:00.000-05:00

Hello dear readers. I had the good fortune to be asked to produce the photography for today's New York Times "Pairings" column, in the dining section....

It was a lot of fun to produce! If any of you decide to make the recipe, do let me know. Happy Wednesday!

Be Mine

2011-02-14T13:51:00.003-05:00

I love a good sweet as much as anyone and in fact probably more. I go out of my way to plan for sweets day-to-day and perfection looks like this: rich french press (or other comparable) coffee around 4pm, accompanied by a chocolatey pastry (homemade and amazing, of course). I travel with a bar of dark chocolate regularly, and like to be able to break off a little chunk when the mood strikes. So it is, and I embrace it.

Which brings me to today - Valentine's Day! I'm not all that big into celebrating these over-hyped special days but as noted earlier, I go out of my way for sweets. I thought to combine some stored-away inspirations with an excuse to make and share these confections, bringing divine treats to you and yours on this auspicious day.

Never having made a creme brulee-style dessert, I thought why not? Time to take the plunge! I'd had a recipefrom Gourmet Traveller tucked away and got straight to work.

The recipe calls for sheep's yogurt, but I mistakenly remembered goat's instead. No worries, it all turned out fabulously...
Serves 4
7 yolks from free-range eggs
65 grams caster sugar, and extra for brulee sprinkle
100 ml full cream milk (get it at the farmers' market!)
335 ml goat's milk yogurt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until well combined. (I loved seeing how intensely saturated my yolks from the market were) Pour milk into a saucepan and bring to boil. Slowly pour the milk over the egg mixture, whisking like crazy to prevent it from curdling. Once fully integrated, add the yogurt and whisk well (your curdling troubles are now behind you!) Pass the mixture through a fine-meshed sieve and pour into 4 ramekins or other oven-suitable China - I prayed that my pretties wouldn't shatter while baking and all turned out well. Do some research in advance to make sure your China will hold up to the heat. Place them into a roasting tin and pour enough hot water (I had a saucepan on the burner once I combined the yogurt into the mix, so that it would be ready here) to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Don't worry if you have varying sizes like I did - use the median size to gauge the water.
Note: it is a wise choice to place the roasting pan into the oven before pouring the hot water - simply too many risky liquids to spill this way or that - better safe than sorry! Pull the oven rack out a bit, place the pan down, and use a pour-spouted saucepan or heatproof pitcher to transfer the water over. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast..........
Bake for about 20 minutes, until the custard sets around the sides and still wobbles a bit in the middle. Carefully remove the pan from the oven and the ramekins or China from the pan. The residual heat will continue to cook them, finishing them off quite nicely. Allow them to cool for a half hour and then chill for a couple hours - I did overnight.
Just before serving, sprinkle sugar over the top of the custards - enough to cover the surface - and caramelize with a blowtorch or in the broiler.

I also made some cookies to go with and they make for a winning combination. Somehow I came across The Local Spoon Blog in my web journeying and found this recipe for rosemary shortbread cookies. Her urgings to just make 'em had me convinced, and I thought pairing them with the custards would be fun. They are deee-lish. Way too easy to eat one-after-the-other-after-the-other. Which means great for sharing with friends! Make them. Make them now.

For about 50 cookies

2 cups flour - I used a combination of all-purpose, whole wheat, and flax meal

1/4 rice flour - though like Steph, I used regular flour

1 tablespoon good sea salt

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary

3/4 cup sugar

2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces (try to find pastured butter: humane + delicious!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, and then add the cut butter. Note: I was running low on regular sugar and so used a combination of turbinado/confectioners'/caster sugars - perhaps not a good idea as far as purists go, but this recipe did not seem to suffer. Use two knives or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment to incorporate the butter into the mixture until there are no chunks. I am in the unfortunate former category and it did take a while to slice and mash the butter bits until all was combined, but there was a certain satisfaction in that success. :) Then using your hands, work the dough until it comes into a ball - your body heat will warm the butter much more quickly now. If it seems to be troublesome, you may wet your hands with water to further bring the dough to shape. Roll the dough into a log - refrigerate for 10 minutes or so if it becomes messy at this point, to re-chill the butter - and cut into 1/4 inch disks. Bake for about 10 minutes on ungreased cookie sheets, or until the edges and bottoms are golden. Totally yummy, and great all on their own.

As if the above wasn't enough (!), I thought to use a recent Martha Stewart snippet and make "cupcakes" out of melted dark chocolate, painted into paper foils and filled with piped mascarpone. Yes, I am crazy. I apparently don't think anything of trying TWO complex dessert recipes which I have never made, make them, and also photograph them. It was a mostly wonderful experience, with a little humility thrown in for good measure.

Serves 6
6 cupcake foils
a fair hunk of dark semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, shaved for melting

for the filling:
1 cup mascarpone
a good scoop of creme fraiche
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

Melting the chocolate went fine, and so did painting the cupcake foils - I like Callebaut bittersweet dark chocolate. Use a double boiler to melt the chocolate - it doesn't need to be runny, only a soft melt so that you can work it, brushing the chocolate onto the paper surface. The best procedure is to paint one foil and refrigerate it as you move on to the next (following in kind), and return to the first once each of the whole set has a layer painted. I went through the lot 3 times to ensure the edges wouldn't be too thin and risk cracking. Once all have 3 layers of chocolate for even coverage, refrigerate for a little while as you make the filling. When they are cold sturdy, peel the paper foil away and Voila! you will have very pretty chocolate shapes to put the delicious filling into....

For the mascarpone frosting, combine the mixture in a bowl and stir well to combine. I don't prefer it very sweet; I like the tangy presence of the creme fraiche to cut the sweetness of the confectioners' sugar. See what you like and modify as needed. With a pastry knife press the mixture firmly into a pastry bag (with whichever tip you plan to use) to remove any air bubbles. Here came the humbling part. I didn't have a large enough tip to achieve the effect I wanted, along with the the complication of the thicker texture of the mascarpone mix. Heavier like a cream cheese, it doesn't pipe as easily as say, a buttercream would. Oh well. I understand this now for next time. Thank goodness it tasted as delicious. Twist and squeeze the bag with one hand and direct your movement with the other, swirling the frosting into form as you like. Once again, your body temperature will warm the bag's contents, so alternate chilling it occasionally to maintain the preferred consistency. Once you have those chocolate beauties filled with the creamy mixture, top with a little praline sprinkle - I used toasted pepitas - for texture and even more flavor. Wow. These are unusually delicious- not cloying in any way, and outrageously cute to boot! I hope you feel your saliva working, and that you'll want to try these amazing desserts out.
Make it sweet and have a ball. Happy Valentine's Day!

Bicycles and Buildings

2011-02-09T00:12:00.000-05:00

If you're like me, when you travel you have your eyes and heart on everything that comes your way. It's like everything is there to be drunk in, one feast after another. As a result I found myself documenting as much as I could keep up with. My love affair with Japan's relationship to bicycles, as well as the interest (and common practice) to create sculptural, other-worldly buildings became its own mini-project along the way. I think you'll understand if I share with you images to go along with my ramblings....

a typical scene tucked into a corner of one of Shibuya's busy intersections

Do you see these men, on their bicycles in slim suits? And the one closest to my camera, with his jumble of parcels so tidily attached on the back of his bike?? Effortless-looking.

Loving the tones and shapes - every day we would cross a pedestrian bridge that overlooked this intersection and I always found something new and fascinating about it...

On our first day in Shimokitazawa, we saw this tricked out bike hanging in a balcony alcove.

On another, we encountered this bizarre back-to-the-future style bike in a store window.


One of the few people I saw wearing a helmet.

This beautiful vintage bike sat near train tracks outside of Kyoto.


What great handlebars, never mind the leather seat and that headlight!

There were plenty of other bikes, all made for usability on city streets and sidewalks. In Japan, there are wide enough sidewalks to allow for the passage of pedestrians and bicyclists, or alternately, there are narrow paths alongside car traffic where bicycles and people make their way together. Hands down, people on foot or bike are courteous and looking out for one another. We found this to be the case wherever we went.

A mama and her tyke (check out that happy baby!).

This is a tricycle hybrid - look closely and you'll see...

Loved this funky detailing.

Elegance & Function!

Those who know me know my partiality to red. See how the bike is set against that stone? Gorgeous.

Together in snowfall, Takayama.

In addition to babies strapped to the fronts and backs of bikes, we routinely saw elderly people traveling by bicycle. 70-and 80-somethings, evenly traversing the roadways on their way to wherever. This made an impression on J and me - I don't think either of us could recall having seen that stateside before.

Then there were the buildings. Too numerous to possibly record, here are some of my favorites.

In Daikanyama, Atelier and storefront; Culinary Institute.

Soaring elements of the massive Roppongi Hills complex.

A Louise Bourgeois sculpture at Roppongi Hills; walkways and a fountain under the steel wheel.

These each made their appearance like moments in a dream, engulfing and caricature-like. Yet their grace was evident, too. A casual presence on tiny street corners and grand thruways, these monuments often shared space next to traditional structures - company to all passers-by - evocative of the many flavors of Japan.

The Art of Simple Eating

2011-02-03T14:58:00.004-05:00

If it's one thing the Japanese can do it is to make food shine, simply. My belief is that what they leave to simplicity in ingredients, they more than make up for in their methods of packaging, something special all unto itself (read: another post on that one!). Not that there aren't elaborate displays of food - believe me, I experienced that too - but that in general I found a more elemental approach to food on a plate. Food undisturbed. One evening, we were treated to an izakaya dining experience. My friend repeated, "they don't try to make the food look pretty - it's just good food". This is a no-frills place - simple benches and small wooden chairs provided respite for diners and drinkers fresh from work. Lengths of aged-looking paper lined all of the walls, describing menu options. There was a din of smoking, laughter, and conversation. It felt like a measured carnival and we were happy to be along for the ride.

As we were still putting our belongings aside to settle in, an older lady who served as waitress to the entire place presented bowls of small cooked shrimp dressed in a spicy roe mixture. SO tasty. We began with beer and sake, let our hosts order, and eagerly anticipated what would come next.

Many things followed...

After two plates of incredilbly juicy sashimi, our waitress brought an oyster-cabbage stew; ham + tofu stir fry; chicken bits, tofu, and greens in flavorsome broth (came with it's own side sauce); coconut encrusted oysters on shredded raw cabbage with a dollop of hot mustard + mayo...

the broth, served with its side sauce

These two courses proved for the more adventurous - slices of fish liver served over shredded daikon in sauce, and turban shell served with a savory broth, in its shell.

salary women taking a needed break; our dear host slurping the last bits from the shell

My favorite course was ochazuke, which was like a savory rice porridge. The small bits of salmon, the confetti of nori, the warming flavors of the tea broth - it was wonderful.

There were other things I did not capture, like the fiddlehead fern tempura or the pieces of red snapper tails. I can assure you however that each and every thing placed in front of us disappeared quite quickly, and we left pleasantly full from those many small plates and our fill of beer and sake. Out to explore more of Ginza - our izakaya neighborhood - and to see what else the night had in store.