Review: Tastykake Kandy Bar Kakes York Peppermint Flavored

Crisp can innovation continues

Microwave Milkshakes?

Hot Dog Journal: Pink's

Food Truck Journal: Frozen Hoagies

Ketchup goes gourmet

Bacon joins dessert at Burger King

Chocolate cream cheese? Yes!

Hot Dog Journal: Hawaii's Cadillac Dogs

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Review: Erin's All Natural Jalape�o White Cheddar Popcorn

Crisp can innovation continues

Microwave Milkshakes?

Hot Dog Journal: Pink's

Food Truck Journal: Frozen Hoagies

Ketchup goes gourmet

Bacon joins dessert at Burger King

Chocolate cream cheese? Yes!

Hot Dog Journal: Hawaii's Cadillac Dogs

Animal Snacker?

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View the original article here

My Waldorf Salad: a new twist on an old classic

My Waldorf Salad: a new twist on an old classic

Celeriac is a problematic vegetable. It's not very pretty. And although it has a subtle celery flavor, it is easily overpowered by other flavors. Despite many recipes floating around for mashed celeriac, its texture really doesn't lend itself well to mashing. And subtle can easily fade into "dull" if you aren't careful. The classic French treatment is a remoulade, i.e. a kind of a celariac coleslaw. It's not unpleasant, but it lacks the crunchiness of a good coleslaw and rarely has enough pepper for my taste. So what do you do when it turns up in your CSA box with irritating frequency? I have mashed it. I have made a gratin. I have paired it with beans for a hearty soup. But I still felt I was missing the poor vegetable's potential somehow.

And then I had a bit of an epiphany. Lunching with a friend recently, I tasted the Waldorf salad that she'd bought. Until then, my knowledge of the great Waldorf Salad was confined to laughing at the Waldorf Salad episode of Fawlty Towers and paging through the 1938 edition of The American Woman's Cookbook, which I inherited from my grandmother. I thought the idea of mixing mayonnaise and apple was faintly disgusting and best avoided. And yet...when I finally tasted the supermarket generic salad that she'd bought, I found I liked it. The flavor combinations worked just as well as you would expect in a recipe that has stood the test of 110 years' time. And so I thought of my humble celeriac, waiting in my veg box at home. Celeriac Waldorf Salad. Perfect.

And it is. Crunchy and savory and just a bit sweet, it's a very satisfying and reasonably healthy lunch. I have to admit, though, that I'm not as much of a genius as I thought I was when I first came up with the idea of using celeriac instead of actual celery in a Waldorf Salad. A quick web search revealed that I was not the first to come up with the idea by far. But that does not make it a bad idea - far from it! So here is my version, coming in at a bare 2 WeightWatchers points per serving.

Celeriac Waldorf Salad (makes two small salads)

1/2 a medium head of celeriac (about 250-300 g), peeled and chopped in small sticks
2 apples, washed, cored and chopped in small chunks
10 walnuts
1 Tbs low fat mayonnaise
2 Tbs plain yogurt
1 tsp red wine vinegar
celery salt to taste
Garnish: a bit of chopped chives, a lettuce leaf or two

Heat the oven to 175C/350F. Spread the walnuts on a tray and place them in the oven for about five minutes, removing them just as they start to smell nutty. Do not leave them too long as they will easily burn. In the meantime, mix the mayonnaise, yogurt and vinegar in a medium bowl. Add a dash of celery salt and taste. Fold in the apples and celeriac. Chop the nuts and fold them in as well, reserve a couple pieces to place on top of the salad. Place a scoop of the mixture on a lettuce leaf or two, garnish with the chives and reserved walnuts and serve! Including the time spent preparing the celeriac and apples and toasting the walnuts, you shouldn't need more than 20 minutes for a healthy and very tasty lunch.

Posted by Meg in Sussex at December 7, 2009 5:54 AM Print-friendly versionPlease be sure you read and agree with our ADVERTISING POLICY before posting.

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Brussels Sprouts Braised in Red Wine with Bacon and Lentils

Brussels Sprouts Braised in Red Wine with Bacon and Lentils

The Observer Food Monthly recently ran a series of articles addressing the somewhat frivolous question of what do celebrity food writers or chefs eat when they are cooking only for themselves? What is special about solitary meals? It is, after all, the dead season of food writing: not many sexy vegetables are in season, they've finished telling us what wonderful dishes we can make for the holidays and what frugal healthy ones we can prepare to make up for the holidays. And it IS interesting in voyeuristic kind of way. You can get a holier-than-thou feeling when you realize that three-star Michelin chefs sometimes eat standing over the kitchen sink too. In the end, most of the confessions fell into two categories: simple snack food that wouldn't usually be considered a proper meal, and experimental dishes.

And so I thought of the article earlier this week when I was making my solitary meal. Like the others, my meals on my own tend to be snack-like (a big bowl of buttery salted popcorn, cheese and crackers, smoked oysters on Triscuits, heaven help me) or else they involve experimenting with some ingredient from my CSA vegetable box that I know the rest of the family won't eat. Like Brussels sprouts. (When I first met the Critic, he insisted that we make Brussels sprouts at Christmas, though he refused to eat more than one. Since then, he has dropped that senseless idealism and we get by with only four vegetables on the Christmas table.)

Usually, these solitary dinners made of unpopular vegetables are tasty enough, but nothing to write home about - nothing worth writing about here. And then, every once in a while, I stumble upon something rather good. As I did this week. If you like Brussels sprouts, I think you'll love it. If you don't, you might just change your mind. It's a meal in a bowl: healthy, hearty and just plain good. Looking back after I finished it, I toyed with the idea of adding a few herbs (thyme, for example) to improve it. But in the end, I am not sure it needs it. Really good bacon is essential - the slices I had were thick and had been cured a good long time to give a nice dry texture. And don't cook the sprouts too long or they will smell unappetizing, get soggy and put you off forever. As soon as they turn bright green you should test one for tenderness and think about removing them from the heat.

I would suggest you use this dish to convince sprout-haters that they can be delicious. But then it would no longer be the perfect solitary dinner. And it was so good that I'm hoping the sprouts will still be in season when my next box arrives!

Brussels sprouts braised in red wine with bacon and lentils (serves two)

I loved the way this dish came together in my head. Bacon and brassicas are a natural together, so that leapt to mind when I saw the bacon that was nearly out of date on the fridge shelf. Then I thought of Barrett's cabbage and lentil salad and reached for the lentils. And as the whole thing was just starting to get a bit dry and I was looking around in desperation for something to deglaze the pan, I noticed the dregs of red wine in a bottle on the counter. It brought a perfect rich and earthy tone to the dish. Don't be afraid to salt; despite the bacon it will most likely need a bit of salt and a generous helping of black pepper.

1 lb Brussels sprouts, washed, trimmed and finely sliced (I halved them first and the cut in thin slices)
1 Tbs butter
3 thick slices of English bacon (in the US, I would either use country style thick sliced bacon or even some nice country ham)
1/3 c (about 50 g) green or brown lentils
1/3-1/2 c red wine
salt, pepper, water

Cover the lentils with water in a small pan and bring to a boil. Lower to a slow boil and let them cook while you prepare the rest. Melt the butter in a deep frying pan. Slice the bacon in thin strips and add to the butter. While they are cooking, you can prepare the sprouts. When the bacon is brown and cooked, add the sprouts. If you are using US (streaky) bacon, before adding the sprouts, drain all but a tablespoon or so of the fat. Stir fry the sprouts until they are starting - just - to stick a bit to the pan. Add the wine and stir furiously, scraping the bottom of the pan to get up any bits of sprouts or bacon. Turn down the heat to a bare simmer and cover. When you can smell the sprouts, remove the lid and see if they are bright green and tender. If so, remove from the heat. Drain the lentils, which should be done by now, and add them to the pan. Stir it all together, taste for salt and pepper, stir again and tip onto the plates. If you have some nice crusty bread to soak up the juices, all the better. Consume happily in front of the TV with a nice glass of wine. Or at the dining table with a good book. Or, in a pinch, with a good friend.

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Sausage and Sweet Corn Risotto

Sausage and Sweet Corn Risotto

We interrupt our normally scheduled healthy low calorie recipe line up to bring you this sinfully calorific creamy and child-friendly recipe. Sausages. Corn. Salty soft rice. What's not to love?

If you look in the "child-friendly" category of this site, you will unfortunately find very few recipes. This is for a few reasons. Firstly, I believe that in an ideal world, children should gradually come to eat the same as their parents. With the exception of things that are potentially dangerous for young children (raw eggs and seafood for example) I like to think that most of our recipes can either be served to children as they are written or toned down a bit, in the case of very spicy dishes. Secondly, my children do not actually live up to this theory yet. I'm working on it. But many of the things I make for them fall into simple categories like "scrambled eggs with vegetables" or "pasta with vegetables and cheese". The Critic tends to get home far too late to make a family dinner feasible during the week, so too often I cater to the boys with simple food.

This dish, however, bridges the gap between "kid food" and "adult food". The boys (after the usual token "I don't like rice!" opening volley in the food battle) settled down and enthusiastically ate a big bowl each. In terms of healthiness, it's not too bad. Sausages, of course, are full of salt and fat. But sweet corn is in season and absolutely loved by children. With cheese and rice, you have your four basic food groups in a bowl. And it's so tasty that you'll find yourself, like me, sneaking bites out of their bowls while they are absorbed in watching Beauty and the Beast on the laptop. (Yes, we rely on the dinner time cinema at the end of a long and tiring week. All the play dates we planned for the summer holidays have seem to have been crammed into the last week before school starts. It's hard work being a highly social two or four year old around here!)

Sausage and Sweet Corn Risotto (serves two hungry pre-schoolers)

Whenever we have a barbecue, I grill up whatever sausages are left over at the end and either freeze or refrigerate them. Frozen, they can be defrosted and used in stuffing. From the fridge, they can be chopped and mixed into pasta, scrambled eggs or this dish. I've thrown away far too many raw sausages in my day because they sat in the fridge past their sell-by date. Now I cook them up right away!

1 heaping tablespoon butter
1 small leek, chopped fine
3/4 cup risotto rice
1 ear of corn
1 1/2 cooked sausages
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup (or more) freshly grated Parmesan

Melt the butter in a thick-bottomed frying pan. When it is bubbling and frothy, add the chopped leek and cook for a few minutes until soft. Watch the leek like a hawk as it can go from not-quite-soft to brown-and-crispy-and-bitter in a heartbeat. Add the rice and stir for a few minutes until all the grains are nicely coated with butter. Add half the broth and stir. Yes, I know that for an authentic risotto you are meant to add the broth gradually. However, this is not particularly authentic, and you'll want a good amount of liquid to cook the next ingredient: the corn. Using a sharp knife, cut the kernels of corn from the cob. Don't worry too much about getting right next to the cob, just roughly cut off the bulk of the kernels. Add them to the rice and stir. Then hold the cob over the frying pan and gently scrape the cob with the sharp edge of the knife to release the remaining milky insides of the kernels. Cut the sausages into 1/2 cm cubes and add them to the mix. Stir. Add a little broth if it seems to be getting dry. Continue stirring occasionally and adding broth as needed until the rice is plump and soft. Again, an authentic risotto will have a bit of bite to it but I find that my boys are extremely lazy and don't like to chew one bit more than necessary. I cook the rice until it's nice and soft, about 45 minutes from first adding the broth. Remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan to taste. You shouldn't need salt, as the cheese and sausage will have plenty. You might want a bit of sharp pepper, especially if you are cooking for adults and not children. Though some children like pepper: my youngest is a fan of salt and cracked pepper crisps. I make a lot of risotto for the boys, but this combination is by far the tastiest. There is something about the texture and taste of corn and sausage together with rice that just feels wonderful. And my boys will agree!

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The Perfect Rhubarb Parfait

A few weeks ago, as I was dropping off Big Brother at his nursery, I noticed one of the mums - who lives on a farm - handing over a big bag of freshly picked rhubarb to one of the assistants. I pricked up my ears and when I heard her say (as I expected she would) that it was over-running her garden and she couldn't get rid of it fast enough - I jumped in with an offer to take some off her hands. I love rhubarb. My grandmother grew it in her back yard and so when I was growing up, I had an endless supply. As a result, I hate paying for it. Why should I buy something that grows like a weed and should be in every garden? (No, I haven't planted any yet: that is the next step in my master plan to exploit my poor friend who has the luck to live on a farm...I'll see if she wants to free up some space in her garden by giving me a plant.)

When I next saw the farmer's wife (who is actually the wife of the head of the local agricultural college if you want to be exact) she asked what I had done with it. And I had done as I always do: stewed it with sugar until it made a glossy red compote and spread it thickly on my morning toast every day for a week. (As an aside, rhubarb stewed with sugar is only half a Weightwatchers point for 75 g, which is plenty for a piece of toast.) She thought this sounded disgusting. Which is funny to me, because my first (and last, as far as I am concerned) experience of an English rhubarb tart truly was disgusting. It managed to be simultaneously slimy and woody - and so sour that I am puckering again just remembering it. There are some aspects of English cooking I will never understand.

I thought of this when I began planning a big barbecue combining a housewarming (which we never held when we moved) and a birthday party (because my 40th was spent nursing a newborn every two hours in a post-birth hormonal haze). I would make a rhubarb dessert that would show this woman exactly how amazing rhubarb could be when stewed with sugar. And I would have shown her too, if she had shown up.

Actually, the dessert was a huge hit. Even the Critic, who, because of experiences with the aforementioned English Rhubarb Tart, has always maintained that he doesn't like rhubarb - loved it. The mousse came out a bit sweeter than I would normally make it, but this complimented the strawberries perfectly. Topped with unsweetened whipped cream, the parfait was creamy and sweet but with a bite of ever so slightly sour strawberry. It really was a perfect early summer dessert. Or pudding, as they say over here.

The Perfect Rhubarb Parfait (serves 6-8)

Making the mousse for this parfait was, I'll admit, a bit of a job. However, the result is so good that I'll be making it again - and often. It makes a very classy dessert for a dinner party and can be made up the day before and assembled in five minutes when you are ready to serve. If I were to compete on Masterchef Goes Large, this would be my dessert.

4 cups chopped rhubarb
2 1/4 c sugar (450g)
1 tsp gelatin or 1 sheet
2 cups heavy cream, divided
1 quart/500g strawberries

Cook the rhubarb with 1/4 cup of water and the sugar in a saucepan until soft. Strain, reserving the liquid. Pur?e the rhubarb in a food mill or food processor while you reduce the liquid to 1/2 a cup or until your patience runs out, whichever comes first. (The recipe I adapted from my Fannie Farmer cookbook called for cooking it down to half a cup but my patience ran out somewhere around the cup and a quarter mark.) Soften the gelatin in two tablespoons of cold water and then stir it into half a cup of the hot syrup. (Note to self and any other birdbrains out there: do NOT lick the spoon you have been using to stir boiling syrup without letting it cool first. It will hurt.) Stir the gelatin mixture into the rhubarb. Whip 1 cup of the whipped cream until stiff. Fold into the rhubarb gently. Spoon into wine glasses or martini glasses and refrigerate at least six hours.

Before serving, wash the strawberries and cut them in bite-sized chunks. Whip the cream. Sprinkle the berries over the mousse and top with whipped cream. Enjoy.

Note: the parfait looked very pretty in a champagne flute, but I think that next time I'll probably use martini glasses. You really want to have a bit of cream, a strawberry and mousse in every bite and this is easier to achieve with a wider brim on the glass.

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Spicy Zuke Soup

This was supposed to be a nice minestrone soup. The summer rain was pelting down on the roof of the conservatory and the Critic had just phoned to say that he was coming home from work early as he had the flu. I looked at my selection of fresh summer vegetables and started skimming the cookbooks and decided minestrone would be the perfect use for my seasonal vegetables. According to Marcella Hazan, I would need tomatoes (check), garlic (check), onions (check), zucchini (check), borlotti beans...no check. Or, rather to be precise, no cooked beans and the dried ones in my cupboard would take too much time to prepare. Never mind, I thought. I'll just pop down to the village shop. They have everything there. Everything but cans of Italian or French white beans as it happens. But the shop did have canned chickpeas, which set my mind off in another direction: Morocco. The Critic isn't overly fond of North African food, but I figured if it was spicy and didn't include couscous (which he can't abide for some reason) he'd never complain. I hurried home and started searching the cupboards for the elusive tube of harissa I knew was lurking there somewhere. And I found it: with a split side, spicy paste oozing everywhere and a sell-by date of 2007. Good heavens, the stuff was older than my youngest child!

And so in the end - I chucked the cookbooks and just started cooking. And really, I'm delighted that I didn't have the ingredients I wanted in the cupboard, because the soup turned out delicious: coriander and cayenne spiced the soup without overpowering the sweet tomatoes and zucchini. Chickpeas gave the bowl a satisfying bite and a bit of weight. It was hot, sweet, spicy and full of summer goodness, the perfect foil for a bout of the flu.

Spicy Zuke Soup (makes four bowls at 3 WeightWatchers points each)

When I told the Critic I was making soup for dinner, I did not say "Hey, I'm thinking of making a spicy courgette and chickpea soup." I know my man too well. I told him I was making a spicy tomato and turkey soup. He was delighted as I knew he would be. His face fell, admittedly, when he saw how much zucchini was in his bowl. But he came back for seconds, and not because he was being polite. Use smallish tender zucchini if you can as they will hold up better in a soup and have more flavor than the big overgrown ones. (Use the big ones in zucchini bread, where no one will notice.)

1 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed and then minced roughly
250 g turkey breast meat, cubed
3 tomatoes, cubed
1/2 can of tomatoes (replace with 3 more fresh tomatoes if you have them, but we haven't hit full season here yet)
2 medium zucchini or summer squash, cubed (I had one green and one yellow, which made a prettier soup)
1 chili pepper - medium hot, finely chopped
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
700 ml chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
1 can (about 300 g) cooked chickpeas (in the US these are often called garbanzo beans)

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over a medium flame and then add the onion. Cook for 5-7 minutes until the onions become soft and translucent. Add garlic and continue cooking another five minutes. Turn up the heat slightly and add the turkey. Quickly brown on all sides, taking care to stir frequently so that the garlic and onions don't burn. Don't worry about cooking the meat through, as it will be cooked in the stock as well. Add the zucchini, tomatoes and chili pepper and stir for a moment. Add the spices and cook until they start giving off an aroma. Add the rest of the ingredients and use a spoon to scrape the bottom of the pan if any of the meat or garlic or onions have browned on there. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the zucchini are just cooked through. Taste for seasoning. At this point, I added a tablespoon of lemon juice to balance the sweet tomatoes; you may not need it if your tomatoes are not too sweet. Serve in big bowls with lots of freshly baked bread and sweet butter if you have it.

Posted by Meg in Sussex at August 3, 2009 10:09 AM Print-friendly versionPlease be sure you read and agree with our ADVERTISING POLICY before posting.

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Spicy Tomato Salsa

Have you heard of the "canvolution"? Judging by some of my favorite blogs, it seems to be sweeping the food world at the moment, at least in the U.S. For some of us, it's an indulgence in the latest new fun-thing-to-do-with-food. For some, it hearkens back to memories of how our parents or grandparents lived. For some, it's an environmental decisions: buying food at its prime and preserving it means less need to ship it from far away climes or force it out of season in energy-guzzling greenhouses. And for me, it's all these things. When I first read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I had a real epiphany: I could preserve food in small quantities, and for the most part with equipment I already owned. Yes, I would need to buy some canning jars and freezer bags. But by judiciously choosing which vegetables to preserve and how, I could do a great deal to reduce my carbon footprint. Initially, this just meant flipping through my cookbooks and consulting with the organic farmer who supplies my vegetable box each week. We had a very symbiotic relationship this summer, with me offering to take off her hands any vegetables for which supply was overtaking demand. She threw in a lot of vegetables for free, too, as a perk. As a result, I have canned apricot jam, tomato sauce, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, marinated peppers and pickled onions. In the freezer, I have bags of zucchini, shelled broad beans, runner beans, French beans, caramelized tomatoes, corn and grilled eggplant slices. However, one thing you may notice in this list is that, with the exception of the pickled onions, nearly everything is simply the preservation of a one-ingredient item. And then I suddenly had another realization: instead of buying mediocre Old El Paso salsa for my Tex-Mex cravings, I could make and can my own salsa. Surely the acidity of the tomatoes, combined with a dose of citrus juice, would overcome the need for pressure canning, even if I did use non acidic ingredients such as garlic, onions and peppers? And a little web research revealed it would. All I needed to do was pick my recipe.

In the end, I decided to work with a recipe from the New Mexico State University website. I don't know why so many universities seem to publish books and online recipes for canning, perhaps the combination of young energetic people and scientists? In any case, this page has a half dozen fantastic recipes. A word of caution: whenever I find a recipe - in a book or on the web - I have a tendency to tweak it to my taste. This is a dangerous practice if you are canning, because a slight decrease in the acidity of the contents of the jar can have serious, sometimes fatal, repercussions. The most I am willing to depart from a recipe of this sort is to add an extra clove of garlic, and even then I compensate by adding a few tablespoons of lime juice. It is much, much better to be safe than sorry. If you really want to go wild and make changes, I suggest you invest in a pressure cooker and can the serious way.

For myself, I much prefer recipes that only require boiling in the ?.50 gargantuan iron pot I picked up at a jumble sale a few weeks ago. That has got to be one of the best investments in my cooking life. (Though I really do need a round cooling rack of 22-23 cm to put in the bottom of it to fully utilize its surface area. Anyone have a suggestion?)

The recipe I chose made a wonderful versatile sauce. How hot it will turn out will of course depend on the peppers you use, but mine came out just hot enough to be interesting but not so hot that you reach for a cold beer before you've swallowed. I will be cracking open a jar to enjoy with tortilla chips, adding a jar to beans to kick-start a chili con carne and even using it for a quick and tasty last minute dinner. Last night, I set some brown rice boiling, saut?ed a chopped onion in a little olive oil, added chopped chicken breast and about 150 g frozen zucchini, covered it with a jar of salsa and simmered until the rice was done. With a grating of low-fat cheddar and a spoonful of low-fat sour cream, it made a hearty, delicious dinner at only 8 WeightWatchers points.

One of the things that puts many people off the idea of canning is the amount of time it takes. I've been pretty busy with canning and freezing for the last few weeks and really all it takes is the odd afternoon or morning once a week or so to fill up your cupboards and freezer nicely. What's more, for me one of the advantages is that the morning I spend chopping vegetables and making sauces, adds up to a lot of time saving down the line. In the case of the Mexican chicken dish I made last night, total time cooking from start to finish was 30 minutes and for the last 15 minutes I was sitting in the living room with the Critic, sipping a beer.

Another issue that puts many people off is the food safety side of canning. A very good friend of mine who is a fabulous and much more experienced cook than I recently confessed to me that she only freezes food, because it's "safer". In fact, with a touch of common sense it's not that difficult at all to keep your food safe. Firstly, as mentioned, follow the recipes exactly. Secondly, adapt your proportions carefully. For the recipe below, as I chopped my tomatoes, I measured them into cups. Then I used the number of cups of tomato to calculate, proportionally, how much of the rest of the ingredients I would need. If you must err, do so on the side of more acidic content, rather than more of the basic Ph foods (onions, garlic, etc.).

Spicy Tomato Salsa (as adapted from a New Mexico State University recipe)

14 cups peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes
2 cups seeded, chopped long green chiles
2 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped, seeded, jalape?os
1 1/2 Tbsp oregano leaves (I used about a tablespoon of dried oregano)
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro/coriander
1 cup bottled lemon juice (bottled lemon juice has a more reliably high acid content than fresh lemons)
juice of one lime (about 1/4 c)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp salt
1/2 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp ground cumin

Note: about 7-8 pounds of tomatoes will yield 14 cups of chopped tomato. Plunge the tomatoes a few at a time in boiling water and leave them for a minute or two. Run them under cold water briefly (just to cool them enough to handle) and the skin will now easily be removed. Chop them roughly and add them to a measuring cup, counting how many times you empty the cup into the pan.

Before starting, wash your jars - the short cycle on a dishwasher will do. I then place them in a hot oven for ten minutes. Set your largest soup pot (or canning pot) on a high flame, covered and filled 3/4 of the way with hot water. It takes a surprisingly long time for a large pot of water to come to a boil, trust me.

Combine all ingredients except cumin, oregano, and cilantro in a large pot and bring to a boil, stirring frequently, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add spices and simmer for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot salsa into jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. I used 8 oz. jars, not the pint jars recommended in the recipe. Theoretically, this means you could reduce the processing time but since I'm not a food scientist I have no idea by how much. In fact, it calls for 15 minutes of processing, which is not very long and so I didn't bother trying to calculate a shorter time.

Reminder: if you are using classic Bell jars (the kind with a ring and a disc) never re-use a disc that has already been used in canning. Buy new ones, always. And once you have finished processing the jars and they have cooled, verify that they are properly sealed and the bubble on the lid is depressed. Any that haven't sealed properly should be put in the refrigerator and eaten within a week or two.

Enjoy with crisp tortilla chips or your favorite Tex-Mex meal. Or better still, impress your friends and family with a novel Christmas gift!

Further reading:

The Blogher network has some very good resources and links to many blogs that have canning recipes and techniqueshere.

Barbara, of Tigers and Strawberries, has a thorough and practical introduction to pressure canning here.

Back in the traditional reading world, a classic on all aspects of home food preservation is Putting Food By, by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg and Beatrice Vaughn. They take a very informal, practical tone that is easy to read. The layout is also highly practical in that you can easily find the freezing section or canning section and look for the vegetable you are researching alphabetically.

And lastly, it will come as no surprise that I highly recommend Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She is a very talented writer and if you aren't convinced that preserving food makes sense by the end of her book, nothing will sway you.

I searched the house high and low for these two books so frequently over the months of August and September that I eventually realized the best place to keep them was with the jars themselves.

Posted by Meg in Sussex at October 17, 2009 4:47 AM Print-friendly version

one never knows how tried and true it is just from surfing for a recipe online ...

We always get lots of requests for our salsa - here's the recipe - tried n true

Tastes similar to a main stream salsa company's

Homemade Salsa Recipe:

? lb jalapeno or cherry peppers (I always use jalapeno, cherry peppers are VERY hot)

8 cups coarsely chopped peeled tomatoes (I don?t peel them)

3 cups chopped seeded sweet banana peppers

2 cups chopped onions

4 to 5 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups cider vinegar

1 cup EACH chopped sweet red and yellow peppers

* I use a total of 5 cups of whatever colour sweet peppers are either on sale, or in my garden, the yellow banana peppers to give a nice perky flavour, though

1 @ 5 ? oz can tomato paste

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons spanish paprika

1 teaspoon dried oregano

? cup chopped fresh cilantro (the fresh leaves are cilantro, the dried seed is called coriander)

**if you can?t get fresh cilantro you can use 2 teaspoons ground coriander (and up to ? cup parsley fresh or 2 tablespoons dried)

Method... see www.sylviafox.ca or salsa recipe

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Remembrance of Things Chocolate

Remembrance of Things Chocolate

Ever Since Proust famously experienced an epiphany of memory over a crumbly madeleine cake, it has been more than a clich? to muse on the power of food memories. We all have countless triggers: the delicate powdery cookies my Austrian grandmother made at Christmas, Great-Aunt Marcie's soft caramels, my mother's gravy. However, it is only once you become an expatriate that the full force of the issue really hits you. I have lived in nearly 18 years in three different countries now and I have to say that in my experience - personal and observed - food is the single biggest trigger for homesickness and the one issue that unites everyone, gourmet cook and food slob alike. In fact, to be honest, it's usually the non cooks who suffer the most, as they are the ones who rely on packaged goods that are not available in their new country. An American in Paris may not be able to find Philadelphia brand cream cheese or soft brown sugar, but he or she can find something close enough to substitute for a delicious cheesecake or chocolate chip cookies. (Kiri cheese and sucre roux, for those who are interested.) However, the poor sod whose Thanksgiving depends on Stouffer's Stove Top Stuffing, will find himself trekking halfway across town to one of the American specialty shops and nearly fainting at the thought of forking over 7 euros for what is essentially a box of flavored bread crumbs. But trek across town he will, because it's Just Not The Same with an unfamiliar stuffing.

When I first arrived in Europe, I was determined to immerse myself in the local culture and turned my back on American food. In Bavarian beer gardens, I ate steckerlfisch and and consumed vast quantities of Edelstof and schnapps. In Paris, I happily explored the 365 cheeses and ate, well, everything in sight: snails, frog legs, steack-frites, moules-frites, cr?pes and pastries. I turned into the ultimate Francophile snob, informing visitors how superior a croque-monsieur was to an American grilled cheese sandwich, how they would never find a baguette in American to compare with a Parisian one. (Though I did loftily admit that a friend of mine had told me of a bakery in the Seattle Pike Place market which had bread that was was made by a Frenchman, in a French stove, with French flour - which was "not bad".) But over time, I found more and more food items sneaking into my suitcase when I returned from visits to the US. Smoked oysters and Triscuits. Concentrated cranberry juice. Baking powder and yeast. Reese's peanut butter cups. And I came to realize that although French food might be vastly superior to American food in general (and I do say might: the Critic would disagree completely) in your heart of hearts, nothing can replace the food you grew up with.

Now that I am the mother of two boys with American and British passports, another truth has become apparent. Not only do we crave the food of our childhood, but we yearn to pass it along to our children. While I am delighted that my boys will have happy memories of Cadbury's chocolate and the fish and chips van that comes to the village every Tuesday, I also want them to remember fresh picked Illinois sweet corn and trick or treating on a cold October evening. In short, like every parent, I want it all for my kids. And while I can't change the fact that "pudding" will forever mean "dessert" in their little half-British minds, I can at least ensure they know and appreciate what an American means by "chocolate pudding" . Chocolate pudding may not come in a little cardboard box here (one of my earliest cooking triumphs was making Jello brand chocolate pudding) but it's almost as easy to make with ingredients in your cupboard. Well, in my cupboard anyway.

Chocolate Pudding for the Homesick American (or any child)

Although I generally try to remember to weigh my dry ingredients in metric measures for European readers, on this occasion I completely forgot. However, the proportions are not set in stone and the amount of sugar will depend on your tastes and your chocolate.

1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbs cornflour (Maizena in France)
dash of salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3 oz. / 85 g of baker's chocolate (I used Williams and Sonoma fondue chocolate buttons that someone gave me for a Christmas some time ago)
2 cups semi-skimmed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional - I just love the flavor of vanilla and almond combined with chocolate)

Thoroughly mix the dry ingredients in the bottom of a saucepan until no crumbs or clumps remain. Drizzle a tiny amount of milk and stir into a paste. Keep gradually adding the milk, being careful not to allow clumps of dry paste to form. Once all the milk is incorporated, add the vanilla and the almond extract. Place over a medium heat and bring gently to a boil, stirring consistently. Do not turn your back on it for two minutes to look after a needy two year old as it will undoubtedly start to boil the second you do. Once the mixture is boiling, turn the heat down and continue to cook for another minute; the pudding should already be thickening nicely. Beware of the splatters of hot pudding which can erupt from the boiling mass as they will be very hot. (Big Brother, who was helping me, was banished from the stove at this point, much to his irritation. "I t'an't SEE!" he complained.) Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate. Continue stirring until it is completely melted and incorporated in the pudding. Pour into six parfait glasses and either serve warm or put in the refrigerator for at least half an hour to finish setting. Consume with great relish.

Weight Watchers note: this recipes makes six servings of four points each, not bad for a very chocolate-y delicious dessert!

Posted by Meg in Sussex at May 22, 2009 4:45 AM Print-friendly versionPlease be sure you read and agree with our ADVERTISING POLICY before posting.

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The Cumin Kick: Kohlrabi and Quinoa Salad

The Cumin Kick: Kohlrabi and Quinoa Salad

I have been on quite a cumin kick lately. In a post long ago, I referred to being (like a painter with his color "periods") in my "nutmeg period". I have definitely moved on to cumin now. It's spicy without being burning hot. It stands up well to gutsy vegetables like cabbage and onions. It reminds me of good Mexican food, which is no longer a cuisine to be taken for granted as it was long ago when I lived in Chicago. And now that I'm on a program to lose weight, all of those things - well, except for the Mexican cuisine, which can be quite high in calories - are to the good. So when a funky purple kohlrabi showed up in my weekly vegetable delivery, it immediately sprang to mind.

As is usual when confronted with an unusual vegetable, I hit the Internet looking for inspiration. Sadly, I found none. Nigel Slater, my favorite source of inspiration, detests the poor vegetable. Other offerings were almost universally unsuitable for a woman on a diet, involving baking the slices in cream or grating them and dousing with mayonnaise. So I turned back to my first idea: cumin and kohlrabi. I decided they needed a substantial background and so I opted for quinoa as a base and also threw in a red pepper that was lingering in the back of the vegetable drawer. And finally, I decided to add a generous helping of mushrooms. We recently got the barbecue working again for the season and so I opted to simply grill the mushrooms. The result was deeply satisfying, with the spicy flavors of cumin and cayenne pepper, meatiness of the grilled mushrooms, sweet red peppers and kohlrabi with its delicate brassica note. It stood up well to the other flavors but didn't fight them - a perfect hearty summer salad.

If you are interested in the less diet conscious classic kohlrabi recipes, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a fan of the kohlrabi and included three recipes I'd like to try in last Saturday's Guardian.

Kohrabi, Quinoa and Cumin Salad (serves 4, at 3.5 WeightWatchers point per serving)

250 g quinoa
700 ml stock
1 onion
1 small kohrabi (around 350 g)
30 medium mushrooms
1 red pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt (or considerably less if using commercial stock)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

In making the salad, I opted for simplicity and cooked the onion, kohlrabi and quinoa all at once in the stock. As it turned out, the timing was perfect, with the kohlrabi becoming tender just as the little quinoa seeds were popping into perfectly cooked curlicues. If you are nervous about this method, you could easily steam the kohlrabi separately and add it once the quinoa is nearly done. In this case, I would replace some of the stock with the water from steaming kohlrabi so as to preserve all the vitamins.

Bring the stock to a low boil and add the quinoa. Slice the onion in fine half-moons and add to the pot. Wash the kohlrabi and slice in thin bite-sized tiles. Most recipes call for peeling kohlrabi, but mine was young and such a pretty glossy purple that I opted to simply peel away the few rough patches and and cut it up with the skin. Add the kohlrabi and spices to the stock and quinoa, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the quinoa is swollen and open and the kohlrabi is tender. It should take about 20-25 minutes.

In the meantime, wash and trim the mushrooms. Slice the larger ones in half and leave the small ones intact. Fire up the barbecue and grill the mushrooms until slightly shriveled and browned - about five minutes. Turn them over and cook the other side until nicely browned. Remove to a plate. If you don't have a barbecue, you can simply roast them in a hot oven, shaking the pan from time to time to cook on all sides.

Wash, cut in two and deseed the pepper. Place it in the hottest part of the grill, skin side down. Grill until soft and blackened on the skin side. Place in a bag in the refrigerator to cool. Again, this can be done in a hot oven if you don't have a barbecue.

Taste the quinoa for spices. With home-made stock, it may need a little more salt or cayenne or cumin if your spices are a little old. Peel the pepper and slice in strips. Toss all the ingredients together with the quinoa and kohlrabi mixture. Eat warm or cold. It would be a perfect picnic dish with a cold beer!

Posted by Meg in Sussex at June 30, 2009 7:27 AM Print-friendly versionPlease be sure you read and agree with our ADVERTISING POLICY before posting.

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Salade des Landes Anglaises

One of the many benefits of living in a "socialist" (horror!) country like France is that workers are genuinely well looked after. Admittedly, this is less of a bonus from an employer's point of view, especially when coupled with that nasty tendency to strike and the near impossibility of firing an incompetent employee. However, if you are an employee - competent or not - the benefits are obvious. A minimum of five weeks of holiday every year, in addition to a slew of public holidays. Great unemployment benefits should the impossible occur and you find yourself out of work. A government agency whose sole purpose is to help you find a job, for free. And in addition, companies are obliged to either provide a cafeteria which supplies cheap, healthy food or give their employees tickets restos, lunch vouchers that can be exchanged for food in nearly every restaurant in the city and many supermarkets too. Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? I was woefully unaware of this issue for the first ten years I lived in Paris for the simple reason that the international organisation where I worked had a snack bar, a cafeteria and a restaurant on site. When I went to work for a French law firm near the Champs-Elys?es, I was surprised and delighted to find that in addition to my salary, I would benefit from just under nine euros for lunch every day, rain or shine. Admittedly, food around the Champs is not cheap and several of my colleagues complained that it simply wasn't enough for a "proper" meal. But for an American who was happy with a nice salad or sandwich, it was plenty. I generally ended up with a dozen or more of them left at the end of the year, which I happily distributed to the homeless population of Paris. They were happy to have such a generous donation; I was happy knowing that they would have to use it to buy food. Win-Win.

I spent the first few weeks exploring the neighborhood around my office, scoping out the caf?s with the best service and cheapest good food. And I found my local - complete with a nice grumpy waiter who looked out for regulars like a trouper - on the avenue FDR. I won't bother giving the address here, because the last time I was there it had changed beyond recognition and my favorite grumpy waiter was gone. But for the two years I worked in the neighborhood, I was there at least a couple of times a week. And at least once a week - until I got pregnant* - I had the World's Best Salad: la Salade des Landes. Seriously, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Imagine a mixture of tender lettuce leaves tenderly dressed with a tangy, very mustardy vinaigrette. Add sweet tomatoes. Then add meaty g?siers confits (preserved gizzards - trust me, they are heaven on a plate and not at all gamey) and magret de canard (smoked duck breast). Then add two thick slabs of foie gras and hot toast. All for just under nine euros. Is it any wonder I loved that place? I don't miss Paris often, but I do feel a pang when I remember those tranquil (one hour) lunches with no children pulling on my sleeve or running wild, just a good book and a delicious salad for company. Sigh. Not that I don't love my harum-scarum boys, mind you, but I'd love a tranquil lunch break sometimes.

And on that note, this lovely salad was consumed to the sound of Tom and Jerry on the computer, two year old shrieks and mayhem. But it was still delicious. No foie gras, mind you, but then again I'm on a diet nowadays. Weight watchers points: 2. Win-win.

*A note for any pregnant visitors to France: French people, including restaurant workers, have what many Americans would consider a somewhat cavalier attitude about food safety issues. Eggs are not refrigerated in supermarkets and salads are - frequently - cut with the same knife that just finished filleting a chicken breast. On the same unwashed chopping board. For this reason, doctors in France advise pregnant women not to eat salads in restaurants, for fear of toxoplasmosis or salmonella. At home, you can ensure that the lettuce is well washed and my doctor even advised soaking it for 15 minutes in a water to which a tablespoon of vinegar had been added.

Salade des Landes Anglaises

mixed lettuce leaves (in France, you can buy a mix usually referred to as "mesclun")
a handful of cherry tomatoes
50 g chicken livers
2 small cooked beets
butter

For the dressing:
1 heaped teaspoon of French mustard (Maille for preference)
1 generous tablespoon of red wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
salt, to taste
a dash of tarragon

In a non-stick pan, melt a pat of butter (for WW purposes, I only used half a teaspoon, but a little more would never go amiss). When it is good and frothing, but not brown, add the livers. Sear them quickly and then turn over. I follow the advice of an old French grandmother who told me how she cooked foie de veau and tend to cook over a very high heat, turning frequently so that the meat does not burn. Remove from the pan when the meat is just barely pink in the center and tender.

Wash the lettuce leaves and dry them. Mix all the dressing ingredients in a small jar. Toss the lettuce in the vinaigrette, reserve a little. Dress the salad with the tomatoes, beets and chicken livers, the latter cut into smaller pieces. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the meat, tomatoes and beets. Consume with enthusiasm and dream of tranquil Parisian lunches and grumpy waiters.

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In defense of the humble zucchini

In defense of the humble zucchini

Zucchini are the rabbits of the vegetable world. In the spring you plant three of four little seeds and suddenly in late July you realize you have an ever increasing mountain of vegetables. When I was growing up, it was a running joke in the summer months: don't visit Grandma because she won't let you leave without a huge bag of zucchini! My mother used to grow them, until she realized that it wouldn't keep my grandmother from trying to offload her surplus on us anyway. It was the stuff you literally couldn't give away. On top of the problem of sheer volume of produce, there was also the lack of imagination in what to do with it. My grandmother included it in her steamed vegetable mixes, which today I would probably quite like. But at the time all I noticed was that it got all slimy and tasteless. And she usually included celery in the mix, which overpowered the poor zucchini. She also made zucchini lasagna, which was lovely - but not something you'd want to eat three times a week. Especially in the Chicago suburbs in the summer: you do NOT want to turn the oven on when it's already over 100 degrees in the shade outside. And zucchini bread. We all loved Grandma's zucchini bread - in the winter. Again, not so fond of turning on the oven in the summer. So zucchini was a real conundrum and a bit of a joke.

Over the last 15 years, though, my perspective on zucchini has changed a lot. For one thing, I moved to the city, where you are in little danger of having unwanted vegetables forced upon you. For another, I met some beautiful classic zucchini dishes: French ratatouille and Catalonian escalivada, which is in some ways like a drier, meatier version of ratatouille. I started experimenting with this versatile vegetable and I learned to love it.

So now we are at the height of the zucchini season and I'm aware that in much of the world, zucchini disposal is still something of a problem. I thought I would share a few ways to address the glut:

1. With the wisdom of years, I am now convinced that part of the problem was that my grandmother was too greedy. Well, not really greedy, perhaps, so much as "too proud of her gardening skills". She - and everyone else I knew back then - never picked a small zucchini. They always let them grow and grow to the size of small baseball bats, by which time the skin was a bit tough, the inside woody and bland. What a revelation it was to me when I arrived in France and saw beautiful small courgettes with their tender skin and full flavor. Seriously, if you pick your zucchini when it's half the size, logically you'll have half the weight to deal with. And it will have twice as much flavor.

2. Use the wealth of information at your fingertips (literally) to find new recipes. My mother and grandmother relied on their various cookbooks (many of them community based and very reliant on cans of mushroom soup and cake mixes) and friends for recipe ideas, a relatively small pool. Today, you have a gazillion food blogs like this one and celebrity chefs falling over themselves to give you free recipes. I've done a quick search on our database and just a few of the ideas include: Grilled Summer Vegetable Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing, Pasta with Vegetables and Goat's Cheese Sauce, Warm Zucchini and Tomato Salad, Pesto, Pasta and Summer Vegetables, Green Eggs and Ham (a great one for small Dr. Seuss fans, and incidentally zucchini makes a lovely base for baby food too) and of course my most recent post below, Spicy Zuke Soup. This is just a smattering of the results on our site alone. There are a lot of great zucchini recipes out there: it's a lovely sweet vegetable when treated with respect. Grill it. Grate it. Roast it. Just don't steam it with celery, please.

3. If all else fails - and even with a wealth of great recipes, it can - PRESERVE IT. Last year, I wrote about being deeply affected by Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Take a leaf from her book and save the vegetable that is over-abundant now for the cold winter months. Zucchini can be canned with a pressure cooker, but even more easily - it can be frozen. Wash it well, slice it or cube it and blanch it in boiling water for three minutes exactly. Then plunge it in ice water for a further three minutes, drain well and pack it in freezer bags. The result will not give you delicate summer salads, but it will enhance your curries, stews and soups. My favorite soup, the one I make on average twice a month through the winter months, is best with a generous helping of zucchini. This year, thanks to the 2.5 kg of cubed zucchini waiting in my freezer, I won't have to feel guilty about buying it out of season to add to my soup all winter long. I have also frozen grated zucchini in two-cup bags, following my grandmother's practice: perfect for a mid-winter loaf of zucchini bread. And lastly, there is the ubiquitous Zucchini Lasaga. I'm sure most families have a version of this old standby. My mother and my cousin collated all my grandmother's recipes into a home-published cookbook for the family and I used her recipe (with a few small departures) to make a double batch this week. One for us now, and one for the freezer. Fast food for the winter months!

A note on the photo: despite all I've written above about the prolific nature of zucchini, a less than stellar summer, combined with a less than stellar cat-sitter (who did not water the plants as promised) meant that I personally only harvested one zucchini this year. But the woman who runs the local organic farm is delighted that I'm such an enthusiastic buyer. And they are cheap!

Grandma Kehoe's Zucchini Lasagna

My Fannie Farmer cookbook has a clever suggestion for when you are making a casserole specifically to be put in the freezer: line your baking pan with tin foil or saran wrap before freezing, so that you can, once frozen, lift the casserole out, put it in a freezer bag, and use the baking pan for other dishes. Then when you are ready to reheat the casserole, remove the wrapping and pop it back into its original baking pan. Clever, no? This recipe makes enough for two nine inch square pans. Four WeightWatchers points per serving, if you divide each pan into six servings. It would be less if you can find low calorie mozzarella. It exists but was not in stock when I was shopping for this dish.

Note: if you are very brave and have a mandolin slicer, it can be invaluable in creating perfectly uniform thin slices of zucchini to resemble the lasagna pasta. I say brave, because of course you can't fit a zucchini lengthwise in the feeder which protects your fingers. Proceed with caution and at your own risk!

2 1/2 lbs (1.1 kg) approx. zucchini, well washed and thinly sliced lengthwise
400 g ground beef
10-12 tomatoes, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, pressed or very finely chopped
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
2 c. low fat cottage cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
2 mozzarella balls

Cook the zucchini in boiling water for four minutes, then drain well. A colander will not do it: you will probably need a couple of dish towels to get out most of the water. Brown the ground beef. Add the garlic, tomatoes, salt and herbs. Beat the eggs in a small bowl and stir in the cottage cheese. Slice the mozzarella as thinly as humanly possible. (If you are not watching your calories, you might want to use three balls for two pans of lasagna and not skimp quite so much.) Lay one quarter of the zucchini in the bottom of an 8" or 9" pan. If you cut the slices very thinly, you may want to do as I did and lay two layers in alternating directions. sprinkle one quarter of the bread crumbs evenly over the zucchini, then one quarter of the cottage cheese, one quarter of the meat sauce and half of a mozzarella ball. Repeat. Then repeat the whole process with the second pan (having first lined it with tin foil or plastic wrap if you want to remove it afterwards). Bake at 350F/180C for around 30 minutes, or until heated through, bubbly and brown on top. Allow to rest at least ten minutes before serving.

If you freeze the second lasagna, you can follow the same instructions for reheating from frozen - just be sure to test the middle with a knife to make sure it is heated through before serving. If the top begins to brown too much before the middle is heated through, cover it with a piece of brown paper bag.

Posted by Meg in Sussex at August 15, 2009 11:15 AM Print-friendly versionPlease be sure you read and agree with our ADVERTISING POLICY before posting.

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Sweet Corn Soup: the Midwest in a Bowl

Sweet Corn Soup: the Midwest in a Bowl

When you live outside your home country, the first question nearly every new acquaintance asks you is "What brought you here?" It's a simple question with a complicated answer for most expats. A job, a spouse, a parent, these are all the simple answers. "Because I studied French in high school" is the beginning of the long and complicated answer for me. Because I studied French in high school, I continued it at university. And when I was unhappy in my second year (romance problems of course), I decided to apply for the year abroad program at the Sorbonne. Because I had studied French in high school, and otherwise when would I have a chance to use what I had learned? I didn't actually speak much French or learn much French while in Paris that year as I was terminally shy. But I did fall in love with the city. And so two years later when my boyfriend of the time got a job in Munich, we both thought "Well, it's closer to Paris than here, so why not?" And when the Munich job ended, we moved to Paris. And I got a job, a new boyfriend, a cat, a few sticks of furniture. And then one day I turned around and realized I'd been there for 17 years.

Living in France was a rich experience for me and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. It gave me a husband and two adorable children and wonderful friends. It introduced me to a world of good food. But there was one thing missing, I have to admit. Well, actually a few. But I'm here today to talk about one important food. Corn on the cob.

You can take the girl out of the Midwest but good golly you will make her miss her sweet corn. For years, I used to bring back packets of seed corn and distribute them to friends who had houses in the country or suburban yards. "Here, plant some corn - you won't believe how good it is compared to the stuff you can get here in France!" They all took the packets with a bemused smile but not one, as far as I know, actually planted them. In France, you see, the corn you find in the supermarket - on the rare occasions when you can - is half shucked, plastic wrapped and (mostly) from Israel. I'm pretty sure it's the variety that Americans feed to their cattle, not their children. In any case, it's tough, frequently moldy on the underside and not very sweet. And expensive.

So you can imagine my surprise and delight last September when my box of vegetables from the local organic farm included a few ears of genuine, fresh sweet corn. It wasn't quite as tender, juicy and sweet as the corn I devour every summer when we visit the Midwest. But it's manna compared with the corn I have found in Europe until now. In fact, it's so good that this year I ordered 36 extra ears and blanched and froze the kernels for the winter months.

And one recipe I am looking forward to reproducing is a hearty sweet corn soup. This recipe came about when I discovered we had three ears of corn left over after a big barbecue. As you can imagine, when you suffer sweet corn deprivation for 17 years, you are not going to waste a single kernel once you find decent corn. So I chucked the corn in a soup pot with leeks, chicken broth, summer squash and thyme and zapped it with my stick blender. And then I tasted it. And added a handful of grated sharp cheddar cheese. And declared it heaven. The Critic, who also has a healthy appreciation for good sweet corn, loved it. It is the Midwest in a bowl and I'll be pulling a bag of frozen corn out of the freezer this winter whenever I get the Expat Blues.

Sweet Corn Soup (serves 4, WeightWatchers points per serving: 2.5 if you use half-fat cheddar cheese)

The first time I made this soup, I merely whizzed the corn with a stick blender. This will probably work fine if you are using very tender corn. However, next time I will pass the soup through a Chinoise or - better still - the pur?e attachment on my KitchenAid. The texture of the soup was a bit chewy, which is fine if you are an adult but totally unacceptable for the 2-4 year old crowd.

3 ears of cooked corn on the cob
3-4 small summer squash (you can substitute tender young zucchini but the resulting soup may not be as pretty a yellow)
1 leek
1 Tbs butter
300 ml chicken stock
5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme
75 g grated cheddar cheese
salt and white pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a stock pot. In the meantime, wash thoroughly and slice the leek in rings. Add it to the butter and stir. While the leek is softening in the butter, slice the kernels off the ears of corn with a sharp knife. Scrape the ears with the side of the knife to extract every bit of juicy goodness. Add the corn to the pot and stir. Wash and cube the summer squash or zucchini. Add it to the pot. Add the thyme leaves and the stock and simmer until the squash is tender. Process in a blender or with a stick blender until smooth. At this point, taste the soup to see if the texture is smooth enough. If not, pass through a Chinoise and return to heat. Stir in the cheese and stir until melted. Taste for seasoning. (A generous pinch of white pepper lifts all the flavors and gives it a bit of a bite.) Serve with crusty home made bread or, better still, these cheese biscuits.

Posted by Meg in Sussex at September 18, 2009 4:02 AM Print-friendly versionPlease be sure you read and agree with our ADVERTISING POLICY before posting.

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Review: Noche Buena Assorted Cookies

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Taste: This was one of the more elaborate cookie packages we've encountered, and it also contained some pretty good cookies. The large package started with a foil wrapper depicting Santa reading his mail, plus lots of cookies. Opening the foil revealed a thin cardboard box bearing the same artwork on front. The back of the box had some Christmas cards and stamps that could be cut off (if you have access to a scissor). Inside the box, there was a clear plastic tray that was molded to fit the particular cookie shapes, plus the tray was sealed with a clear peel-off top. The tray contained seven kinds of regular butter cookies, one chocolate butter cookie, plus some chocolate wafers. Back to the elaborate packaging, the chocolate wafers were actually contained in their own a sealed foil wrapper within the tray. Some of the cookies had plain geometric designs, while others had Christmas symbols on them, including Santa, candy canes and candles. They were all good cookies, and I enjoyed eating them with some cold milk.

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Aroma: Good butter cookies smell.

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Review: Orion Fresh Pie Strawberry Cream Pie

Crisp can innovation continues

Microwave Milkshakes?

Hot Dog Journal: Pink's

Food Truck Journal: Frozen Hoagies

Ketchup goes gourmet

Bacon joins dessert at Burger King

Chocolate cream cheese? Yes!

Hot Dog Journal: Hawaii's Cadillac Dogs

Animal Snacker?

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Review: Market Basket Golden Creme Cakes

Crisp can innovation continues

Microwave Milkshakes?

Hot Dog Journal: Pink's

Food Truck Journal: Frozen Hoagies

Ketchup goes gourmet

Bacon joins dessert at Burger King

Chocolate cream cheese? Yes!

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Review: Hawaiian Kettle Style Potato Chips Cracked Pepper & Sea Salt

Crisp can innovation continues

Microwave Milkshakes?

Hot Dog Journal: Pink's

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Ketchup goes gourmet

Bacon joins dessert at Burger King

Chocolate cream cheese? Yes!

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Review: M&M's White Chocolate Peppermint

Crisp can innovation continues

Microwave Milkshakes?

Hot Dog Journal: Pink's

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Ketchup goes gourmet

Bacon joins dessert at Burger King

Chocolate cream cheese? Yes!

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Review: Olive Oyl Popped Corn

Crisp can innovation continues

Microwave Milkshakes?

Hot Dog Journal: Pink's

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Review: Trader Joe's Pretzel Slims Everything

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Taste: These pretzels were a lot like the Pretzel Crisps made by The Snack Factory ones, with a flattened, knotted shape. For an "everything" flavor, I was surprised by the relatively small amount of stuff on the surfaces. There were poppy seeds, sesame seeds, grains of salt and more, but just not that much of any of them. The crunch was nice, and the taste was good, but it would have been better with more of everything. In particular, more salt would have been quite nice, as the salt crystals were quite sparse. I could taste the individual salt crystals when I encountered them, but that was just not often enough. Still, these were pretty good.

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Aroma: Kind of garlicy.

"Not content with mere salt atop your pretzels? Everything Pretzel Slims are for you. Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic, caraway seeds and, of course, salt, give these crispy teats an edge."

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Review: Popchips Sweet Potato

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Taste: These round crisps had kind of a brownish orange color, with some bits of sugar visible on the somewhat wiggly surfaces. They were a bit thinner than the potato-based versions Popchips. I crunched in find a high level of crispness and a good crunch, but not much in the way of sweet potato taste. So I checked the ingredients to see if they actually included sweet potato (I was guessing maybe they meant "potato + sugar = sweet potato") and it turned out that they did, but only as the second ingredient, Sweet Potato Flakes, while the first ingredient was actually Rice Flour. I liked the taste, and as I ate more, I could taste some sweet potato. However, I would not even begin to compare the taste to actual sweet potato chips, as there are many great kinds of those, and these were nothing like them. So these were good and might be worth a try to see if you like them. But if you're craving some sweet potato, don't bother with these; get some real sweet potato chips.

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Aroma: Kind of mildly like fried dough.

"all the flavor. half the fat. think popped!? lately all this low-fat health talk has been taking the fun right out of snacking, not to mention the flavor. so we found a new way to put it back into an all natural chip like you've never tasted before. never fried. never baked. we don't fry it (unhealthy). we don't bake it (undelicious). we start with sweet potatoes and other all-natural ingredients, apply heat and pressure (no oil, mind you), and pop! it's a chip. then we use the finest seasonings for a snack so tasty and crispy, you won't even notice that it's (we hesitate to say) healthier."

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Review: Brach's Peanut Clusters

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Review: Linette Caramel Cups

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Review: CVS Gold Emblem Dark Chocolate Covered Jumbo Cashews

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Review: Chewy Chips Ahoy! made with Reese's

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Taste: Just when I decided that I wouldn't bother to try any more new variations of Chips Ahoy (after the lackluster Chewy Gooey Caramel, American Summer and Soft with Chocolate Chunks), they had to come out with a Reese's version that I could not resist buying. From the outside, these cookies looked mostly like regular chocolate chip cookies, but there were some peanut butter chips (not cups) on the exterior, nearly camouflaged because they were just about the same color as the dough, plus some cut-open partial peanut butter cups. The feel of the cookies was very soft. It was so soft that I would barely even say the cookies were chewy; it was almost like raw cookie dough. The taste was decent, as I could taste some chocolate and some peanut butter, but not a whole lot of either, and definitely not the taste of Reese's. I'd would have said that they were OK, but several of the cookies had some strange hard bits that were very different than the otherwise soft texture and felt weird in my mouth. I'm pretty sure one of these was a fragment of some sort of nut, while the other ones seemed to eventually dissolve before I could pull them out of my mouth, so maybe they were just hardened bits of cookie dough. Whatever it was, that stuff kind of ruined it for me.

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Aroma: Doesn't smell like Reese's at all. JUst a weak chocolate chip cookie smell.

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Review: CVS Gold Emblem Absolutely Divine Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Review: Orion ChocoChip Cookies

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Review: Special K Cracker Chips Southwest Ranch

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Taste: This box resembled a smallish cereal box (appropriate for Special K) and contained a foil bag that turned out to be about two-thirds full. I opened the bag to find that the "Cracker Chips" basically resembled Popchips ? round, wiggly crisps with a beige/yellow overall color and some unevenly applied green seasoning. There was no resemblance to Special K cereal. I poured some onto a plate and crunched in to find that the chips had less "pop" than Popchips, as they were not as crisp or crunchy. The chips also seemed thinner and denser than Popchips, which might explain the inferior feel. The taste was a bit bland. It tasted like the Cracker Chips were made from potato, but without much flavor, while the southwest ranch seasoning was just OK, with some ranchiness and some kick, a good taste, but just not anything special. To confirm my guess of potato, I checked the ingredients, and it turned out that the first two ingredients were potato (specifically, Potatoes and Potato Starch), but there were also some other grains, including Brown Rice Flour, Whole Grain Yellow Corn Meal and Oat Fiber. After I finished reading the ingredients, I noticed that there was a pretty good hot aftertaste. So nothing bad here, a decent light snack, but inferior to Popchips in multiple ways.

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Aroma: Only remotely ranch-like, but I could notice the zing of the hot peppers.

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Review: Orville Redenbacher's Pop Crunch White & Sharp Cheddar Mix

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Taste: This bag of popcorn promised the unusual combination of two different kinds of cheddar on the various kernels, a departure from the common practice of combining two (or all three) of caramel corn/cheddar popcorn/butter popcorn. It seemed strange to pick these two, because I didn't figure there'd be enough of a contrast between the white cheddar and sharp cheddar. I was also taken aback by the bag's non sequitur claim of, "All of the flavor 1/2 the fat of regular potato chips." That seemed wrong on all sort of levels. Why do non-potato chip snacks always need compare their fat to potato chips? Who cares ? they're not potato chips! And were they really trying to say that this cheddar popcorn has the flavor of potato chips? Didn't think so.

Fortunately, bag nonsense aside, this turned out to be very good popcorn. The two kind of cheese were easily distinguishable by color, as the sharp ones were quite orange versus an off-white for the white cheddar ones, and the flavors were also quite different, with a creamy cheese taste for the white ones and a sharp, tangy, sweet cheddar for the sharp cheddar ones. The kernels were crisp and had a mild crunch, with lots and lots of flavor (and I'm pretty sure there was a good helping of sugar in addition to the cheese). Our tasters were quite impressed as they enjoyed multiple handfuls.

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Aroma: Good, very cheddary and sweet popcorn smell.

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Review: Popchips Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips

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Taste: After years of offering round Popchips that defined their own new category (and have seen quite a few imitators), the Popchips folks have made a turn in the Doritos direction. These Popchips-inspired, triangular, corn-based chips had a nacho cheese flavor ??and lots of it. The chips were light orange-colored equilateral triangles, with generally flat surfaces and just some minor wiggle. I crunched in to find that the chips were quite a bit thinner and denser than the various kinds of round Popchips, while also being less crunchy, and slightly thicker and less dense than Doritos, though less crunchy than those too. The crunch level did vary from one piece to the next, but in general, the crunch was very soft, nearly nonexistent, so not crispy at all. Some of the pieces did have a more Popchips-like crunch. On my very first chip, I noticed that the cheese taste was very nice, as it was intense, like a nacho cheese dip. After that, I noticed how much the cheese levels varied from one piece to the next, as some were positively loaded with powder (leaving some on my fingertips) while others had relatively little. Our tasters liked these a lot, as some people though they were just like Doritos and liked that, while others noticed differences but liked those differences.

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Aroma: Kind of weird, but not bad.

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Review: Salv�o Cinnamon & Sugar Sweet Potato Tater Pops

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Review: Cofresh Cheese & Onion Flavour Potato Grills

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Review: Doritos Jumpin' Jack

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Review: Herr's Bacon Cheddar Cheese Curls

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Taste: These cheese puffs had lots of bright orange seasoning, plus some large specks of green, with generally not much curvature in their shapes. They had an excellent soft-but-crisp texture, and they were pretty tasty, with lots of cheese flavor and middling level of bacon. Most of our tasters liked these and found the mix of cheddar and bacony flavor quite good. Some were a bit less impressed, citing the fakeness of the bacon taste as a negative. The fake bacon had an upside as well: One of our snackers saw this bag of cheese puffs and poured some for himself, but then saw the "Bacon Cheddar" label and realized that he couldn't eat them, since he keeps kosher. After being told that they probably don't contain actual bacon, he checked the bag and found that not only was there no bacon, there was no meat of any kind, and indeed the bag was actually certified as kosher and dairy. So he did eat them after all.

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Aroma: Kind of bacon, sort of.

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Review: Orion Cuttlefish Peanut Ball Spicy

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Taste: These roughly spherical snacks averaged about three-quarters of an inch in diameter and consisted of a peanut center surrounded by an airy-but-crunchy coating of corn and wheat starch, with some cuttlefish meat and hot peppers seasoning added for good measure. Considering the negative reactions we've gotten to some other Asian seafood snacks, we didn't expect our snackers to like this one much. But somehow, many people actually liked these. These were lots of strong flavors from lots of sources here. It seemed that the hot peppers were just enough to offset some of the fishiness of the cuttlefish. That, combined with the nice crunch and fresh peanut taste, had some people coming back to the bag for more, while others still couldn't handle the fishiness.

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Aroma: Mostly like peanuts, but definitely some fishiness too. Not too bad.

"Ingredients: Processed Peanut, Waxy Corn Starch, Wheat Flour, White Sugar, Vegetable Oil (Palm and Sunflower Seed), Hot Sauce Seasoning (Powder-Hot Pepper/Sugar/Salt/Garlic), Maltodextrin, Citric Acid, Vinegar Powder), Corn Syrup, Modified Starch (Potato), Sliced Cuttlefish, Leavening Agent (Ammonium Bicarbonate), Salt, Shrimp Extract, Annato Color Caramel Color"

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Review: Turtle Turds

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Taste: These round candies were apparently supposed to look like turtle turds, but since I don't know what turtle turd looks like (or tastes like!), nor do I have much interest in finding out, I will just evaluate these based on what's in the bag. They came in two colors, with the black and orange/beige pieces both the same size, about 1/4 inch in diameter. I popped a bunch into my mouth to find that they tasted like licorice. I thought that they were going to be soft, but they actually felt more like hard candy, so I avoided biting in. They seemed so soften up a bit after being sucked on for a while, but when I bit in, they stuck to my teeth, which I didn't like. Still, they tasted very good.

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Aroma: Not much.

"Ingredients: Sugar, Corn Syrup, Maltodextrin, Gum Arabic, Artificial Flavor & Artificial Colors (FD&C Red 3 and 40), Yellow 5 and 6, Blue 1 and 2) & Carnauba Wax. Mfg. on Equip. used to process peanuts."

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Review: Hello Kitty Biscuits with Chocolate Cream

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Review: Utz Southern Sweet Heat BBQ Potato Chips

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Review: Sheila G's Brownie Brittle Chocolate Chip

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Taste: This was one of those snacks that I never knew existed, yet as soon as I saw the words Brownie Brittle, I was compelled to buy a bag. Inside the resealable bag were randomly shaped, thin, flat pieces with a fairly dark brownie-like color (much darker than it looks in the picture on the bag), highlighted by even darker chocolate chips. The texture was entirely different from peanut brittle, as it was much less dense. The "brittle" name turned out to be a better fit for this than it ever was for peanut brittle, because this stuff was, in fact, brittle. The feel was crisp and crunchy, while not being at all hard like peanut brittle, so you won't need any muscle to break this apart or bite in. And it was fabulous. Great texture, great taste, great crunch. Our snackers were unanimous in instantly becoming big fans after one bite.

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Aroma: Kindof like brownies, but also kind of like very chocolatey cookies.

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Review: Tastykake Kandy Bar Kakes made with Reese's Peanut Butter

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Taste: These rectangular cakes looked quite nice from the outside, with smooth milk chocolate surfaces accented by some peanut butter squiggles on top. I bit in to find that they were just like the picture on the box, a mostly chocolate cake interior with the chocolate top and bottom separated by a fairly thin peanut butter layer. They didn't claim to be Reese's bars, but rather just to contain Reese's peanut butter to go along with the Tastykake chocolate, and indeed, they were not made by Reese's at all, but by Tastykake, which just licensed the name. That's pretty much what they tasted like, not actually like Reese's, just a mix of chocolate cake and a creamy, peanut butter-like substance. It was still a good moist mix of milk chocolate and PB, pretty good, but it just wasn't really Reese's in any way as far as the taste went.

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Aroma: Pretty good chocolate and peanut butter smell.

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Review: Cracklesnax Potato Squares

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Taste: These snacks contradicted the way they were described on the bag in a couple of ways. First, I can objectively say that the Potato Squares inside were not actually squares, but rather non-square rectangles, with one dimension just slightly longer than the other. The second is a bit more subjective, as the bag described the snacks as crackers, but they were so puffy and light that "crisps" or "puffs" seemed far more apt than "crackers" to describe them.

The light beige-colored pieces were thick and had a low density, with a pattern of holes. Most of the (non) Squares had some curvature, including many with scoop-like shapes. Upon crunching in, our snackers found that they had a great crispness and nice crunch, with lots of salty potato flavor. The taste was a lot like the original flavor of Popchips, and these had a similar type of crunch, though the different shape and thicker cut made the experience different. Our tasters were fans of these, and they enjoyed the salty potato taste with some beers.

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Aroma: Typical potato crisp smell.

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Review: Craisins Chocolate Covered

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Review: Green Giant Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips Zesty Cheddar

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Taste: This bag of chips was a surprise hit among our snackers, as the product was almost entirely different from what we expected from looking at the bag. With the never-before-seen-on-a-chip-bag Green Giant smiling at us above the "Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips" brand name, I was expecting some sort of bland earthy-crunchy veggie snack. But our snackers crunched in to find that these were a lot like Doritos, except even better. The chips had a slightly softer crunch than Doritos but were still plenty crisp, and they were loaded with lots of tasty cheddar, with some added sweetness in the underlying chips, probably because of the vegetables. Ho, ho, ho, our tasters loved these chips!

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Aroma: Strong sweet and cheesy smell, very nice. Kind of like Doritos, but sort of extra sweet from the veggies.

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Canlis, Seattle, Washington

I enjoy fine dining. Not to the exclusion of street food. It’s just another category where I can find deliciousness. When I first moved to Seattle over a decade ago, Canlis was the name that came up most often when you mentioned fine dining. I have found that most people see expensive decor, a gorgeous view, fancy service, and a pricey bill and think that they have experienced the finest of dining. This is not to say that the food at Canlis was without value several years ago when I ate there, but it was completely unmemorable to me. More of a show than a redeeming culinary experience for me.

But, a couple of years ago, Jason Franey, took over the reins in the kitchen, and I started to hear good things. Very good things. I finally got to see what it was all about and I was not disappointed. (I should note, that they did google my reservation and knew that I was coming, but I also don’t believe that a restaurant can be better than it is just for someone writing a food blog. And I don’t believe we got any special treatment over and above the special treatment they give all their guests. Or certainly none that I could detect.)

Yes the service was impeccable. Yes the decor was warm, and fine, and modern. The view was sparkly. Yes it had all the accoutrements of the traditional fine dining establishment, but all that mattered to me was the food. We ate, in order, Sweet Potato Soup with Cranberry and Cinnamon, Young Beets with Sheep’s Milk Yogurt Sherbet, Pumpernickel, and Blueberries, Smoke-Cured Salmon with BLiS Maple Syrup, Steelhead Roe, and Caraway Seed, Chicken with Prosciutto, Salt-Baked Celery Root, and Matsutake Mushrooms, New York Strip Steak with Carrots, Curry, and Cauliflower, Pineapple with White Chocolate, Passion Fruit, and Coconut, and finally Creme Fraiche Custard with Oatmeal Streusel, Granny Smith Apple Sorbet, and Spiced Cider. We nursed our bottle of 2000 Clos Du Sarpe from home which was positively lush.

As with any established culinary genre, there are themes and conventions. And a chef’s first challenge is to master those. Picasso could paint a traditional painting with the best of them. But once mastered, he wanted to grow. And when you go to a restaurant that has mastered a refined expression of food, it’s certainly enjoyable in its own way, but it’s not exactly memorable. And often, it’s just boring. Creating your own identity, your own flavor palette is an exercise of constraint and restraint. And it takes someone with vision and security to create that type of signature. One where you can eat the food and know it’s them.

While I’ve eaten extensively across the planet, I won’t claim to be a definitive expert. That said, based on my moderate eating experience, Franey has created a distinct culinary style that I found refreshing, original, deep, and positively delicious. The main theme throughout the dishes was the use of the sweet part of the spectrum. I’m not a big dessert guy, and relish the savory over the sweet. I admit it’s a preference I have. And when sweet flavors are introduced into savory dishes, it can be cloying, overpowering, or just plain distracting. But the flavors I experienced in dishes like the sweet potato amuse, or beets melded sweet and savory in a delicate balance to create some entirely new compound flavor profile. The balance was perfect. And this threaded throughout the meal including the salmon which was served in the most distinct (and intense) salmon consomme I have ever tasted. It’s like I had visited a new planet and was eating food that simply didn’t exist here on earth. Did Franey bring this signature from New York? I honestly don’t know. But I’m glad it’s here in Seattle.

Just when I thought I understood the meal came the sous-vide chicken dish with the mini-mirepoix floating in the center of the plate. The sweet was present in this dish but in more of an emotional sense. To be blunt, this dish almost made me cry. It was home cooking. It was the flavors of home. The smell of family dinner. The taste of warmth, but expressed with this incredible refinement. The dish touched my heart. Just when I thought the meal was all about new flavor profiles and plating that resembled modern art, I was confronted with this dish that tugged at my heart strings.

And dessert? It flipped the equation. The savory and sweet elements switched places and gave me an inverse version of what I’d been experiencing throughout the meal. Sweet was now dominant, but savory didn’t disappear. It was a perfect bookend to the meal.

People were still proposing to each other on the evening we were there. Couples still came there for an occasion. And some of the long time customers were still there as they likely are on a regular basis. The environment seemed preserved from Canlis of old. And tradition is good. But the food was all new and exquisite. Creating something new, and maintaing it thematically to tell a story through the course of a meal is vision+execution at the highest level. And that’s what Canlis is doing right now.

2576 Aurora Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98109, (206) 283-3313, website This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Photos, Restaurants, Seattle, SeattlePI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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