June 2018 – Table For Two

June 30, 2018

Scallops and Sorrento

One of our dreams is to travel out to scenic Italy as homage to our families’ roots. The cuisine is known for its Mediterranean flair plentiful in fruite de marre. It’s so much more accessible for a seaside country to specialize in shellfish than a land-locked one. Since a package of scallops this week was only $9. Let’s give them a spotlight before they shoot up in price like those $21 shrimp.

Scallops in the package — Freshly packed scallops from the fish monger… looks delicious! Better get cooking!

The scallops we know and love are actually just the muscles (let’s not get confused with mussels, shall we?) that joins the fan-shaped shell together. As Lidia Matticchio Bastianich tells in her cookbook “Lidia’s Italian Table”, Europe also saves the peachy-colored roe. Sometimes you can have them served together. Once scallops are shucked, they’re put into a preserving liquid, hence the official name, “wet scallops.” Wet scallops are best when they’re an off-white color and have been kept at very low temperatures. This is one time when we won’t bash the idea of an ingredient being somewhat frozen at the start. If they appear off-color, feel slimy, have been at room temp for too long or smell sour, throw them out immediately! Paralytic shellfish poisoning can be at worst deadly! If you have any sort of symptoms after eating shellfish, SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!

Fresh scallops sizzling in the pan — Just plopped these suckers into a nice and hot pan. You can here the roaring applause chef Ann Burell speaks of.

Remember that Giovanni fettuccini from Reel Seafood Company? Spinach, cherry tomatoes, shrimp, oyster mushrooms and scallops on a bed of fettuccini. It hits the spot when you’re looking for that classic huge Italian plate.

Jeremy macaroni Al-dente — We prefer our macaroni Al-dente.

When I was in Italy (before I met my dolce inamorata) we would spend hours at the table at meal times. Each meal was a couple courses long with EVERYTHING from pizza, salad, antipasto and every kind of fish they could find. All throughout, there would be conversations, laughing and savoring each other’s company unlike the hustle and bustle of today’s on-the-go fast food services.

The Reel Seafood Company in particular holds a special place in our hearts as a couple. We went there for our first anniversary of our first date. In fact, this was the first meal I had there while you had the stuffed haddock. Ironically, when we returned a year later last March, we inadvertently swapped meals! Isn’t it beautiful how food can be so nostalgic and refresh some of those fond memories? With all that being said, let’s get to cooking.

Looks like the feet of the scallops are cleared off already. All we have to do is season both sides, plop them in the oiled pan and flip when they feel right. Seasoning for these little suckers has to really pack a punch. I gave them a mix of pink salt, black pepper, parsley and paprika.

Adding a bit of lemon to the scallops — A little squeeze of lemon juice

We got some words of advice from the vender in the seafood section to make sure they were a nice crispy brown on the edges. A simple way to test is to compare the feel of the scallops to the flesh between your thumb and first finger. If the scallop is firmer, you’ve over-cooked it and consequently, it will be very chewy. If it’s squishier, keep it on the heat for another 30 seconds. Just keep in mind, scallops cook relatively quickly.

After about 7 minutes, we flipped them over

We left the spinach whole, (Not my best idea, strips would have been so much easier. Oh well, save it for next time) minced the garlic and the oyster mushrooms and sliced the cute cherry tomatoes in half while we waited for the water to boil for the macaroni.

Sauteing the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes

Timing on our end has improved with experience in the sense of synchronizing the cook-times of the ingredients. Water may take seemingly forever to boil-you know what they say about watching pots too closely- but if you keep yourself busy with other parts of the entrée, time won’t feel so stagnant. It’s not just water boiling or not, but the chef that wastes time watching.

Once we melded everything together into my mother’s macaroni bowl, everything tasted just fine with a small drizzle of olive oil. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the wine for the white wine sauce. This was a big fat oops on our part because macaroni tends to stick to itself if not properly dressed in some sort of oil, butter or sauce. The scallops were tender and spiced just right.

What really tied it all together for us was the atmosphere. Holding hands across the table, pulling out each other’s chairs and turning an ordinary dinner into a date night with Italian-American music and fancy clothes. Food is not only best made with love, but it’s also best shared among loved ones. It fills your stomachs and your hearts. Viva L’Amore!

June 24, 2018

Finnish Follies

Jeremy here, and boy are my wings sore from flapping. I just flew back from Finland for an academic conference. I spent five days in lovely Joensuu, the capital city of North Karelia in eastern Finland. Here are some of my thoughts about the local cuisine…

The first thing I noticed when I took my first bite was the lack of seasoning in the food. In some ways, this was nice as it allowed the natural flavors to come out. We tend to over-season foods over here in the states. Instead of tasting potatoes or peppers, I taste a shaker of salt and even more black pepper. However, if done right, a little pinch of this and a dash of that can bring out those flavors which are otherwise very mild and hard to taste. I can’t imagine biting into a hard-boiled egg with absolutely no spice, or cooking cauliflower with no garlic or pepper.

It was a very surreal experience. According to Wikipedia, since the winters tend to be very long and dark, historically people would hunt and fish for their proteins. Like in Alaska, there are days where there is no light and in the summer, there is no night. As such, hunting would be the way to go. Finnish food involved a lot of gamy-type meats and fish – none of the traditional beef, pork, and chicken we are used to here, at least not in the traditional way we have it, from what I observed. It is mostly found in sausages (makkara), which they are fond of. Almost every meal I had over there had some sausage in it. On my second-to-last night there, we had a meal of grillimakkara, what I would liken to a mix between hot-dog and bratwurst.

What struck me was the large amount of salads that were presented. From what I read online (see Food of Finland and this Quora board), I was prepared for a dearth of vegetables. My professor was recounting to me a story when he was visiting Poland. There, the daylight hours are not as extreme, but he told me that most of the dishes consisted of beef and cabbage. So I was prepared with my soluble fiber when going over. But it turns out that many of the dishes were green, as explain in this USA today article. While none of the green leafy vegetables were there, there was a wide array of tomatoes, cucumbers, turnips, beets, etc. – a notable cornucopia of root vegetables to be sure. To count, it seemed that there was at least one root vegetable present in every dist. There was this one dish, I likened it to a cauliflower casserole, but it had mixed in beets – a nice mix of orange, white, and purple. Also present was the wide array of mushrooms, much to my delight – especially the chanterelles. They had a distinct meaty taste with hints of creaminess.

The one notable thing about Finland was their propensity for alcohol. Around every corner there was a bar. Even the hotel I was staying at and the school where the conference was served alcohol. I am not one to drink too much, due to health reasons, but even I got carried along by the tide. I don’t really have much of a taste for alcohol, but I noted the amount of American brands available. If I were to pick one that stood out the most was the hard cider I had on my outing. It had strong apple notes without the bitter after note that comes with alcohol. What is more on my level is coffee and tea and Europe is known for their coffee. Any coffee joint or tea house and you will find me there. There were several cafes in town, but unfortunately I was not very impressed. Nine times out of ten it tasted burnt and I found myself needing to add cream and sugar to it. The espresso though, when I could get some was slightly earthy and dark with slight acid notes – not exactly my “cup of tea”, but it was better than being burnt. Plus they served pieces of dark chocolate to go with it – can’t beet that!

All-in-all, I would gladly recommend anyone to travel to Finland. The people are friendly, the climate is wonderful, and the view is something that can only be experienced first hand. The food was really good, but no strange stories like the ones from China though – which may or may not be a good thing. My one wish was that I could remember more of the names of the dishes I had while there, maybe a picture or two. See you next week!

June 17, 2018

Bugging Out

Hello Everyone! This is Lauren speaking. I’ve decided to go it alone this post to chatter on about something I’ve had a curiosity about since I first heard of such a bizarre thing in the food world. (Yes, the WORLD. Food is not just about countries you know.) Rest assured, Jeremy will be back next week to share everything he discovered and experienced on his trip to Finland this past week.

There are so many different diet lifestyles out there. I’m not talking about fad diets that sell their trendy shakes and bars. I mean the lifestyle choice diets; vegan, vegetarian, the laws of kosher and pescatarian being well-known. There is however one that fascinates and horrifies at the very mention of it. I’m talking about a diet some say will be accepted in the future…Are you ready? Are you sure? Here it comes…entomophagy-aka the eating of bugs.

The tradition goes back to the reign of Bodenheimer and Holt. It may not be easy to take off the legs, wings and shells, but still it cuts gas emissions by 2.84 kg according to the article on BBC news. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31589764 They are also incredibly hard to mail-order in. Bug farms are few and far between, with little marketing status because (Let’s admit it) eating bugs comes off currently as being a gag-trigger. In North America and Europe, bugs are considered pests, not treats. Then again, the Torah confirms that locusts are kosher. It’s estimated that over 2 billion people globally include bugs in their diet. Thailand, Japan, China, Vietnam, Mexico, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines have been known to sell bugs as street food complete with seasoning, on skewers, in bags and some with crispy fryer coatings. As a matter of fact, former US president Bill Clinton awarded “Aspire Food Group” 1 million dollars to begin an industry of farming edible bugs as a way to stabilize the supply as a future source of food to compensate for the ever-growing human population. They explain their mission in fuller detail here.

http://www.ediblebugfarm.com/blog/edible-insects-list/ has a list of 50 different bugs that people eat. Ants, grasshoppers, spiders and varieties of worms and bees range not only in species, but also in flavors. Some are nutty like crickets. Bees having lived on honey in the raw all of their lives are said to be super sweet. There are even lemon ants with a distinctive citrus zing; hence its name. Doesn’t it all sound like candy? Having eaten a cricket-lollipop myself last Halloween, my opinion is that the shell was really difficult to get out from between my teeth and distracted me from what was the WORST artificial grape candy I had ever tasted!

Bugs can be boiled, toasted or roasted as the eater sees fit. I think this would be a cleaner and easier way to introduce insects to North American cuisine because the shock is mostly from seeing a full-sized water-bug with all of its appendages squirming around and “looking” at the eater. When they are ground up into a fine powder, the mixture looks the same as wheat-germ or flax seed. This might also help in versatility, adding a dusting of cricket to a frozen yogurt, on popcorn, or in any place you would want a little protein boost. Finland is currently experimenting with crickets mixed in with flour and baking it into bread. This clip is taken from Helsinki.

As a matter of fact, beetles commonly called “cochineals” are used in carmine as a red food coloring usually noted as “Red Dye number 4”. The FDA requires as of April 2009 that it be declared on the packaging of anything in which it’s contained, written as “carmine” or “cochineal extract”, especially since some people have allergic reactions to the dye. Studies across the board state that cattle take up more space and water than raising bugs. They’re very full of nutrients and don’t produce more than 1% of greenhouse gases compared to typical cows.

Vegetarians and vegans disagree with the innovation. It isn’t the same as eating birds, seafood or cattle, but it is still a life, even if bugs are cold-blooded and don’t have any way to feel pain in their bodies. They are simply the land versions of crabs, shrimp, oysters and other shellfish. The answer is strongly, NO!

If you on the other hand are interested in giving some crispy crickets a nibble, check out this super friendly baking website dedicated to cricket recipes. https://www.cricketflours.com/how-to-eat-insects/

What about you? Let’s hear some opinions from the audience. Are you brave enough to take a measly bite of maggot? Have you ever eaten a bug or worm? Talk about it with us in the comments section.

June 9, 2018July 9, 2018

Experimental Eggs Benedict

As Jeremy was wandering around YouTube, he happened upon a video titled, Eggs Benedict 5 ways. It was named after 2 people, a retired Wall Street wiz named Lemuel Benedict who ordered “buttered toast poached eggs, crisp bacon and a hooker of hollandaise” as a hangover cure in 1894 at the Waldorf Hotel, and an 1860’s Delmonico’s frequenter, Mrs. LeGrand Benedict who went straight to Chef Charles Ranhofer wanting something more unique to eat. We thought it would be fun to see what sort of interesting combination we could invent to create our own spin. What came were 2 sandwiches. One made with pulled pork, the other with greens and mushrooms.

I’ll be honest. This was my first hollandaise and my first double-boil. I’ll take it from here, Darling. All that goes into a hollandaise is egg yolk, butter and lemon juice.

Cracking an egg with one hand, because I can do it.

One-handed egg separating — Crack and pull just enough to let the whites seep out a bit at a time. That way, you can plop the yolk alone into the bowl.

You see, heat cooks the eggs and along with acidic lemon juice (it has a ph of about 3) kills bacteria, but you have to continuously whisk the mixture in the double boil or the eggs will solidify into essentially, scrambled eggs.

What’s a double boil, you ask, essentially a pot of simmering to hard-simmering water with a bowl or smaller pot on top. It keeps things warm without putting things on direct heat. It is good for melting chocolate, or in our case, for making hollandaise sauce. In our opinion, ours tasted like mustard. We’ll need to further investigate with different methods to see if next time we can get something closer to that French lemony butter everyone else describes it to be.

Hollandaise sauce being whipped — Hollandaise sauce as it’s being whipped looks looks like a runny yellow mustard

Let me tell you, whisking meringue by hand is tiring.

whisking meringues by hand — Look how fast this whisk can go!

Last time, I used an electric hand mixer. Since Jeremy was here and we were using such tiny containers, the beaters wouldn’t have fit. It took both of us to get it thick enough to scoop. Turns out, it was slightly over-whisked. You can see the clear run-off on our baking sheet. Into the oven that went for 4 minutes.

2 clouds of meringue, slightly over-beaten

Yeah, According to Kitchn, there are various stages of whipping: no peaks, soft peaks, firm peaks, and stiff peaks. When egg whites are over whipped, the fat and water will separate with no coming back. The whites turned crispy and brown for the most part.

The reason that they tasted so bland was because someone forgot to season them before scooping. That’s executive chef rule #4. Season everything as needed. These whites need it otherwise, they taste exactly like Styrofoam. As a last resort, we threw down a large pinch of black pepper over the cooked whites on both sandwiches.

cooked pulled pork — Cooked pulled pork reheated over the stove.

Why did we choose pork for our first sandwich? My mother had some in the fridge from a few nights ago fully cooked and just needing to be reheated. I watched so many “Cutthroat Kitchen” challenges where the chefs had to harvest their ingredients out of tea sets, macaroni sculptures and massive sandwiches that I started taking spare left-over dinner parts and turning them into new dishes. It’s a bit unconventional, but then again, it does bring new life into what may seem boring the second and third time or otherwise will rot behind the milk. Since we’re not being judged for it by Antonia Lofaso or Jet Tila, we’ll make the best of what we have in stock. We slapped a thin slice of sharp cheddar halfway and let it melt inside.

Quick side-note, the color of the cheese is the result of dying and the sharpness has to do with the aging process: the longer it’s aged, the sharper it will be. Sharper cheese tends to have less moisture and will not melt as easily.

On the other half of the bagel, we had an arugula salad, stirred up a little olive oil with a pinch of onion powder, garlic (aka, the staple seasoning of the Italian-American home) and added a tiny bit of salt and black pepper. We decided to mix in some spinach with the arugula to balance out the peppery taste. Turns out (according to Biology Q&A) the same chemical found in arugula is also found in mustard plants. So to avoid having too much of the same thing, we mixed in some spinach.

Let’s talk about #1 the pulled pork. It had a BBQ taste and came off as being very meaty (obviously). I’d give it a good 3.5 out of 5. It was a sandwich by definition, but from what we tasted, it was a burger in disguise. I agree. None of it was dried out, and it had that fatty pork flavor coming through in every bite. It became the main focus of the sandwich, putting the meringue down to non-existence. If we had followed the original 1896 cookbook recipe using my brother’s ham, it might have tasted more like the typical American breakfast. For all of you kosher folks, I would suggest using sliced beef, or sirloin. If people can order a breakfast burger with an egg, this substitution is only a slight breach from that.

Now, let’s discuss sandwich #2 the garden. Every bite seemed complete from the elusive umami flavor in the mushrooms, the bitter arugula balanced by filling vitamin-rich spinach, our tangy hollandaise and the sweetness of toasted honey wheat bagels. Again, the baked meringue was completely lost. You’re Right. As it’s mostly vegetables, this one is satisfying, but not enough to hit like a cinder box. What really struck us was how hard the pepper hit the tongue. We really overestimated when it came to how much to season the individual contents. It may be a sheer disappointment to eat bland food, (As Gordon points out in all of the restaurants on “Kitchen Nightmares”) but it doesn’t help anyone to drown it all in salt and pepper. We must remember; the key is balance. If nothing is overpowering or understated, everything will have a chance to shine in its own right.

What if next time, we reel in a seafood meat like crab or tuna mixed in with mayo and celery and no cheese? That would feel lighter on the stomach and satisfy any cravings for omega-3. I remember having salmon benedict scones when you took me out on my birthday to Tailored Tea in Latham. I remember it being a savory, dune of runny yolk, buttery sauce and salty Canadian bacon with a personal tea pot on the side. That was made in the classic style. If we can find a stellar place for some fresh crab, we’ll simply have to put it to good use. Catch you later! Bye!