Amuse Bouche

So long and thanks for all the....

We are off folks....the ipods are loaded...see you back on the other side around May 28th unless I somehow find a computer or two...

Our wedding song..

and others we love

Al Fresco

While I was out today running last minute errands for our trip (we leave in 5 days!!!) I stopped into REI to pick up a small SIGG water bottle to bring with me as well as one of those neoprene insulator pouches with a strap so I can hang it off my camera bag or my messenger bag I also picked up this incredible cute little case.

Can you guess what it is?

More photos and a description below.

Citrio

One of the added benefits to teaching in a culinary school is the fact that many of those you teach will one day head out to the wild blue yonder and work in various kitchens.  This means you get to swan in and visit them, try the food and have a little insider moment.
Last month I went to visit a friend of mine from CSCA at his new venture Citrio Catering & Provisions Co.
We all used to tease Mark when he was going through the program as he came in every day with his whites starched and pressed (with creases!) and after cooking all day and doing boatloads of dishes he went home looking EXACTLY as neat and clean as when he came in the door.  I mean come on, look at the cuffs on his chefs coat.  The man is neat. The other thing we miss about Mark was his ability to 'hold court' every morning before class spinning us stories of his neighbors or a charity event he had been to recently.  The man has a way with a tale. Now, he has a way with jalapeño jam, but we'll get to that later.

Mark has partnered up with well known chef, Jeff Fournier, owner of 51 Lincoln, which is located right across the street from Citrio , as well as Eric Bogardus of Vox Populi, Loche Ober ,Pignoli and also a former contender to be White House chef, to open up a sweet little bistro/cafe/catering operation right in Newton Highlands.  Both Jeff, and Eric, I might add, have previously worked under Lydia Shire, my personal cooking goddess, that fact alone makes them okay in my book.

I swung by about 2 weeks after they opened to meet some friends and catch up with Mark.  In his usual style he drew me right in telling me about the space.

The space they occupy was the site of the very first Brigham's store in the 1920's.  In later years it became Ice Cream Works and now that they have taken over the space, in a nod to its illustrious past, they have kept on making ice cream.  In fact, they have this amazing machine that can crank out 40 gallons of ice cream in an hour! The machine gives them the ability to make ice cream wholesale and sell it to local restaurants and you should see the size of the walk in freezer! They also use this spacious site to make all the breads for both Citrio and 51 Lincoln. 

The food at Citrio is Modern American with flavours culled from other global cuisines.  The day I visited I had a pulled pork sandwich on a house made roll accompanied by sweet potato chips that they make in-house.

Nice tender pulled pork in a sweet style sauce (Sorry, I started eating before I even thought about taking a picture...so good!). They have a great selection of soups including Sancocho, a Columbian style chicken and lime soup, various salads, hot and cold sandwiches, a killer Bolognaise made in traditional slow cooked style.  All of these dishes were available in March when I was there and I am guessing that they will slowly change the menu a bit to get seasonal for spring and summer.

When you walk in the door there is a deli case full of platters loaded with things like Citrio's House Smoked Chicken in a Pomegranate Marinade, Toasted Cous Cous Salad with Ginger and Grilled Plums and Peruvian Potato Salad with House Smoked Salt and Fresh Horseradish.  All of this is available to buy by the pound to take home. Right around the corner there is a case of frozen take home selections as well as the item that had me buying 10 on the spot, veal stock. 

Yes, I said house made veal stock all ready to take home and use in perfect little containers.  I was in love.  But the house made item that made my heart sing was the jalapeño jam, just one of several home made jams they sell. 

The jalapeño jam is a thick, rich jewel coloured jam packed with slices of garlic and multi coloured peppers.  It plays perfectly on the sweet/hot/tart line that I love.  Slather some on a spice rubbed pork tenderloin and grill it.  Spread a little over your cream cheese on a bagel.  I promise, you'll become as addicted as I have. I have threatened physical harm if the recipe changes.

Melissa, who also worked with us for a time at create a cook,  bakes some mean desserts for both 51 Lincoln and Citrio. Chocolate bread pudding, killer Super Charged Brownies and house made marshmallows that melt on your tongue.

On the other side they have about 20 seats in a sun lit yellow room and the day we were there a constant stream of customers came in and out as well as a few people who chose to  linger over their lunch with a book or the paper.  It's a great little neighborhood place to drop by.  Right now they have started their outdoor seating area as well and this is a rare thing here in Newton.  You can sit under the trees in a sunny brick lined courtyard and linger over your lunch.  But they don't want to stop there, Citrio also caters and this is where things get really interesting.  Rather than choosing from the usual list of catering options in tick box fashion, Citro will customize the menu for your event.  Tell them the foods you like, the cuisines you love, the theme of your event and they will custom tailor the menu for you. 

Stop by sometime, say hello to Mark and tell him jo sent you.

Citrio Catering and Provisions Co.
2 Hartford Street
Newton, Highlands
617-969-1234
Mon - Sat 11-6:30 PM
Closed Sunday

Time anyone?

I know, I KNOW, it has been rather silent around here lately.  My mojo to write hasn't left, but the number of hours in the day have been dwindling in inverse proportion to the amount of things I need to get completed in them. 

Vacation planning, lesson plans to be completed, recipe testing, food costing, the languishing garden, the seeds that should be started, the list people, she is long.

In the meantime, I tantalize you with two things to come.

Tales and reviews of my friend Mark's new place in Newton Highlands Citrio

and a recipe and breakdown of Rabbit Ragu with Fresh Made Tagliatelle

More soon.  Honest guv

New adult classes - Starting Monday

Starting Monday April 7th at create a cook in Newton we are kicking off our introductory adult classes.
The four week culinary tour series will be on Mondays from 9AM - 12.
This coming Monday we begin our trip in Spain, Week 2 will find us in France, Week 3 Italy and in week 4 we take a brief hop over to Asia. No luggage, no plane tickets, no tough reservations to make.
I'd love to see you come along.  There are still 2 openings.

On Wednesdays, Betsy, a Johnson and Wales graduate and a 10 year veteran baker, begins a basic baking series. 
Betsy's class will meet every Wednesday for 4 weeks from 9:00 AM - 12.
Week one scones and quick breads - raisin scones, chocolate loaf breads, and crepes are featured.
Week two artisan breads - participants will learn to prepare boule, eggplant tartine, and brioche cinnamon
rolls.
Week three is all about cake. We will make Celebration Cakes - two layers of yellow cake
filled with ganache and covered with butter cream frosting. The basics of cake decorating will finish the
product.
Week four is the grand finale- French pastries. Students will prepare pate a choux, pastry
crème, chocolate French glaze and create French éclairs; and lastly individual fresh fruit tartlets.

Not only will you learn some great new recipes and techniques in our classes, but the added bonus?

You get to take home every dish you make!

Some general STUFF

Just some general questions and advice if anyone has any words of wisdom....

First: I have a Canon 40D camera and a new ipod classic.  I have read on the old www that it is possible with the 5th generation ipod to transfer pictures (via an adapter) DIRECTLY from the camera to the ipod without having to stop off at the laptop and itunes.  Has anyone done this?  Does it work? 
I don't want to take my laptop with us and I will need to empty my data card every couple of days so i can take more pictures.  I was looking at storage devise like the Sanho Hyperdrive, but why drop another $300 if ipod will do the work.

Second:  We will be renting a car.  Likely it will have a CD player not a cassette so my usual means to listen to the ipod in a car not my own will not work.  here in the states I have tried the unit that plugs into the ipod and uses a radio station tuner to listen.  Here in Boston that NEVER works since every frequency is full.  I don't even know if the device will work in the U.K. 
Does anyone have any suggestions on using the ipod in a car?  Particularly in Europe.

Third:  We heard a mouse.  We baited the electronic trap.  We awoke Saturday morning to find a mouse running in circles in the sink, around and around and around.  Husband went to find a glove to remove the critter and...wait for it...he ran down the disposal shute. Ewwwwww! No!!!!  We didn't turn it on.
husband hovered over the hole with a set of tongs at the ready. Foolish thing ran right between and CLIP, husband snagged him.  He has been in the mouse relocation program and currently resides behind the garage with the litter of skulls.

Fourth:
If, IF, I brave bringing my laptop along with me, how easy will it be to get WiFi connections in Northeast, northwest, southwest england and far western Wales?  We are not talking London here, we are talking rather countrified, remote locations. Is it worth lugging this beast around?

Fifth:
Carry-ons International flights.  Can we bring noshies?  I know we can't bring liquid, but would they dump our sandwiches in the trash if we brought them through in our carry-ons?

Sixth: Want to help us with kitchen decorating advice?  Here we are, fire away!

Thanks in advance for all of your wisdom!

The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

By now, you all should realise that I am forever, and ever on the hunt for new recipes, good recipes, recipes that work.  Not every cookbook can be opened and the recipe executed perfectly.  There are some cookbook writers that I have come to inherently trust, Hi Ina(!), and others whose recipes must be tested before executing them with 30 or 40 unsuspecting pre-teens - yea, I'm looking at you Nigella, mistress of flung together recipes.

When Viking Studio offered to send me a copy of their latest, The Sweet Melissa Baking Book I jumped at the chance. 

A nicely designed and very nicely written cookbook with very easy to follow recipes, this new book contains recipes by Melissa Murphy the owner of Sweet Melissa Pâtisseries in Brooklyn. 

I flicked through all of the recipes and considered my limitations of number of burners, number of students, nut allergies, oven space, time, difficulty of execution, and chose her recipe for Chocolate Orange Macaroons.

I had one of our resident pastry chefs B test out the recipe and she gave it a hearty approval so we put it on the curriculum for this past week and I can assure you that it was a huge hit.

Rather than having the kids chopping the chocolate off of the Callebaut that we get in 11-pound blocks we used a high quality chocolate chip made by Callebaut that we get from our supplier, if I were to make these at home I would definitely choose a really good high quality chocolate.  A recipe with so few ingredients relies upon each of them being of high quality.  Also, don't try to sub out the dessicated coconut that you find in Whole Foods for the sweetened coconut called for here it will not work in this recipe.  You need the sticky, moist, sweetened coconut to make this work.  Macaroons by their very nature are a sweet cookie, I suppose you could cut back a bit on the sugar, but it is a sweet people, not a food to live on!  Also, take the ingredient of 'zest of 1 orange' with a grain of salt, one man's tangerine sized orange is another man's grapefruit sized one so zest wisely.  The household Brit gives these a big two thumbs up not to mention my peeps! 

Next week we're making Bear's Peach Cobbler, I shall report back.

Chocolate Orange Macaroons

Recipe from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy

6 ounces best-quality solid semisweet (58%) chocolate
14 ounces sweetened coconut
zest of 1 orange
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large egg whites

1) Before you start Position the rack in the center of your oven.  Preheat the oven to 325F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

2) Using a serrated bread knife, finely chop the chocolate and set aside.
3) In a large bowl, combine the coconut and zest, rub together with your hands. (This will break up the coconut and release the orange oils).

4) Stir in the sugar and chocolate to the coconut and mix to combine. 
5) Add the egg whites (we whisked them a bit to lighten them up).

6) Use your hands to mix until everything is coated and the egg whites are distributed evenly.

7) Using a 1-ounce cookie scoop, firmly pack the dough in the scoop and unmold, 2-inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheet.  Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.  Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

One of the benefits of this dough is that you can make the cookie base up to 1 week ahead and keep it in an airtight container in the fridge and just the bake the cookies when desired.  They keep well in an airtight container at room temp for 3 days.  If you want to keep them longer, wrap in plastic and then aluminum foil and freeze them for up to 3 weeks.

Beluga (black) Lentils - Poor man's caviar

Just look at that pile of little black pearls under that barramundi.  Are they not gorgeous?

I had picked up a bag of these black beluga lentils at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago and they have been hanging around in my pantry waiting to make their debut. I put them right on the front of the shelf at eye level so that I wouldn't forget that I had them, incidentally they taunted me each time I walked past the glass doors. I thought these might make a great introduction to lentils around here as they were quick to use because they are already cooked.  I am never sure about getting lentils to the exact consistency so they maintain their shape and pop in the mouth without getting all mushy in the pan. I'm far better wih pea soup where you cook the crap out of the split peas just so they make a lovely mush.

These lovely, little pearls however are a whole different story.  They literally pop in your mouth almost exactly like little pearls of caviar.  They taste earthy, without being overwhelming, and they are a great vehicle for other flavours.  These lentils are from Syria and like all lentils, they only lack one of the essential amino acids methionine which can be provided by adding a grain or a nut in order to make it a complete source of amino acids. 

There was the big question of what I would do with them until Saturday night.  I needed a side for my Barramundi filet and I started tearing through the fridge for ideas.

I had a bit of guanciale left over so I chopped that fine and sauteed it until the pieces were crispy.  Pull them from the pan with a slotted spoon and let them hang out on a paper towel.
Then I tossed in a few slices of red onion diced small and sauteed them gently until they were translucent. I minced a garlic clove fine and tossed that in as well. There were a few crimini left over from a stir fry so they were sliced up and tossed in.  Now the package of lentils tells you to boil water and drop in the whole package to warm the lentils.  I couldn't be bothered.  I tipped them in with the onions and mushrooms, seasoned everything with salt an pepper and when they were heated through I turned off the heat an drizzled on some good extra virgin olive oil and tossed on the reserved guanciale.

These gems are really worth seeking out and trying.  Please, report back on any other ways you might have used these.  I would love to work them into my regular dish rotation.

Meat CSA all the cool kids are doing it

So there I was leaning against the wall of Clear Flour bakery, waiting to pick up my Stillman Farm meat CSA share that I split with Christine from work and listening to my meat farmer chat about having everyone to the farm in June to 'see what our share does all day and meet the animals'.  He finally wraps up the conversation by asking the woman ahead of me in the queue her name. 

She says, 'Well my name is Tami, but I am picking up for Karen W'. 

So being the general tactful person I am, I blurt out, 'Hey, aren't you Food on the Food?' 

Tami looks both ways and at her adored farmer before answering the crazy stalker lady with bed head standing behind her. 

"Yes."

Thrusting out my hand, "I'm Jo, Amuse Bouche!" 

God I am an idiot.   I'm just so damn tactful I am and from my loud front presence one would never know I am actually shy under the surface.  NO.  REALLY!  I tried very hard not to terrorize her adorable son who was hiding behind her afraid of this very loud crazy woman.

It was great to finally meet someone in person that I had been reading for the last year.  We chatted for a few minutes and she introduced me to a woman and her husband that she had seduced into driving up from the Cape to get involved with the CSA share as well.  See, meet your farmer, buy a CSA share, all the cool kids are doing it.

After we parted I headed off with husband to Whole Foods in Brookline and we spotted a Kentucky license plate to add onto our license plate bingo board (It's almost full now, just missing maybe 5 states and Hawaii which I doubt we will ever see in my lifetime).  Kentucky has eluded us for 2 years!  Don't those people ever leave home?  Mississippi, we're looking for you too - and Arkansas while your at it.

Tucked inside that meat share, by the way, is a gorgeous chunk of smoked ham.. b-a-b-y.  Easter dinner, I think your fate has been decided!

Seriously, how much fun can one have on a Sunday?

More from the mouths of babes

As I was explaining last nights recipes to the class a hand shot up and asked why we never cook any fish.
I explained that two of the students in the 11-13 age group went into anaphylaxis if they ate fish so it was not possible to do any fish dishes while they were students.

And now I bring you the commentary that accompanied this revelation;

Student 1 asked whether or not these people ever went swimming in the ocean.  I told them I wasn't sure, why?  They then asked how they could swim in the ocean if they could die from eating or touching fish.  It isn't often that I am stymied and can't come up with a retort.  But that comment had me for a loop.  What would happen if a fish passed by their lips, or they swallowed sea water in an area heavy with fish.  Who knows?

Student 2, my resident local princess, informed me that it was good that we would not be making any fishes dishes as the only fish she deemed fit to consume was ahi tuna, very lightly seared.  She's 11.  Where do we go from here?