hugh acheson's "a new turn in the south".

nenes, i know. three posts in a row! what is this? 2005??

do you know hugh acheson? he of the unibrow on top chef who looks like the love child of henry rollins and bill berry from REM?  he's sorta my favourite chef at the moment, and his book, "a new turn in the south" is fast becoming a staple in mah kitchen. southern food is a cuisine i don't think about often, but acheson's book shows how healthy and vibrant and exciting it can be. yes, exciting. i don't like to think that my dinner is more interesting than me, but well. this food is.

my absolute favourite recipe in the book is something i cooked tonight: frogmore stew. it was the first recipe i'd tried, and i just cannot get enough of it; a low country staple, it is basically a seafood boil where shellfish is the main ingredient, fortified by sausage, potatoes and corn, in a not-too-spicy, citrusy, unctuous broth. when assembling it, i think, oh, okay, this looks good, but once it gets to where it needs to be? oh maaaan.  it tastes magic: fresh tomato juice is the foundation, with andouille sausage adding a dimension to the prawns and  that only pork products can, chopped arugula and fresh thyme along with traditional old bay seasoning adds a freshness to what could be a musty mix. and it's so pretty.

another favourite is a simple update on an old school southern staple: pimento cheese. you know the stuff--cheese paste with pimentos. NOM.  i am not a big fan of sharp cheeses, roasted red peppers nor plain grilled cheese sandwiches, but one made with pimento cheese (which is basically cheddar cheese and roasted red peppers)  is just enough to take the flat plasticky dimension out. 

of course, if you are mixing things up a bit, you might as well add some thinly sliced ham and locally grown arugula. might as well.

i like chef acheson's book because although it is undeniably a southern food cookbook, the recipes seem lighter than what i associate with the cuisine, yet there is still a deep traditional vein running throughout (he even has a recipe for cane vinegar cooked chicken which sounds almost filipino). the recipes are sometimes ingredient intensive, but with items that are common enough to find or substitute, even on guam. the techniques used, however, are as simple as pie. which reminds me, there's a delicious-sounding peach pie recipe in the book that i will have to get to this summer.....

you can find the frogmore stew recipe here  and pimento cheese recipe here. oh, and the cane vinegar chicken here.

these are our salad days.

My salad days,
When I was green in judgment: cold in blood,
To say as I said then! But, come, away;
Get me ink and paper:
He shall have every day a several greeting,
Or I'll unpeople Egypt.

--thus spake Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra

i would love to tell you this is where i first came across the term "salad days" but unfortunately, it was here:

ah, green bananas probably learned more from the kemp brothers than ol' billy shakes, but whatever the etymology of the phrase, it's still just a little bit odd. i imagine being in the first flush of youth, wading in a tub of rocket and romaine, innocently and non-freudianly nibbling on a carrot.

oh hai. did someone say something about focus?

**

my metaphoric salad days have become that slimy iceberg lettuce trail in the bottom of the bin, but my literal salad days have only just begun. i am trying to eat healthily, consume more green, less red and white, and i am tired of lettuce. i am always looking for clean, fresh flavours and easy recipes. my favourite cookbook these days is the ottolenghi cookbook, from the café chain in london. (i am not the only one. everyone loves a little ottolenghi.) i have never been to any of the restaurants, but photos on flickr are v. much of the gastropornographic ilk. that's my kinda spread, honey. so i bought the book, which did not disappoint. great photography, a modicum of well-written text, and recipes, recipes, recipes. the focus of flavours is mediterranean, but the recipes themselves are simple in technique and the ingredients are such that i feel comfortable in adapting the recipes to what is available in my tropical marketplace.

'course, i haven't really ventured past the veggie section, but i'll get there.

***

guam fiestas are not known for showcasing produce, but if you are going to find a salad it most likely will be one of cucumbers marinated in vinegar and a little sugar, or maybe jumped up with some finadene. it is still my favourite cucu prep, but should you care to dress it up a bit, the ottolenghi approach is not dissimilar; in fact, it is pretty much the same, only with added depth of flavour: add a splash of oil, some fresh herbs, a little crushed garlic, and maybe a seed or two. the cookbook went for olive oil and poppy seeds for their occidental approach; i went with a little toasted sesame oil and charnushka for a more oriental one. a lot of chopped cilantro and some mild chilis completed the salad. it was just that easy and still managed to transform the local staple significantly.

also just that easy is a grilled broccoli salad which just calls for some broccoli florets placed directly on a hot grill until blackened, then tossed into warm oil in which thinly sliced garlic and chili peppers have been sauteed until fragrant. some slivered almonds add depth, or you can add paper thin lemon slices to lift it.

beets are rarely anyone's favourite root crop, which is a shame. however, you should just boil one up sometime. then slice it up, toss it in some arugula. make a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, crushed garlic and a little maple syrup, sprinkle in some sunflower seeds. you know, how ottolenghi does. if you do not like beets, you might actually enjoy this. if you love beets, you will enjoy this.

my current favourite--photo posted at the beginning of this post--is based on a broad bean sand radish alad which abby from eat the right stuff has so kindly posted the recipe. as broad beans are uncommon here, i used boiled, shelled edamame soy beans, mixed them with red radish wedges, some lemon zest in lieu of preserved lemon, lots of chopped mint, parsley, cilantro and green onion, and dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, and a touch of cumin. a tahini sauce bumped up with crushed garlic, cilantro and parsley is served on the side. or on top. or all over.

**

of course, there are other chapters in the book to get through. i'm not eating much animal protein these days, but i can highly recommend the turkey meatballs with sweet corn, served with a roasted red pepper sauce (recipe graciously posted by oh my apple pie!)

outside of the veggie section, i am drawn to the desserts (derrr). i have an apple and olive oil cake in the oven right now (thank appetite for cake for posting the recipe), and all week long i have been craving the blueberry crumble muffins i baked last week.

these muffins are a lesson in happy contradictions: heaving with fresh blueberries and granny smith apples, they are light and fluffy in texture. covered in a sugary, buttery crumble, they are fresh with the abundance of fruit and lemon zest. my only adaptation was the use of white whole wheat flour instead of AP flour, which made it almost healthy. but we won't tell. no reason to shatter that youthful naiveté.

**

maybe if i keep up with the healthy eating i can have a second shot at those salad days. hopefully they won't go something like this:

ottolenghi--the cookbook. buy it!

buta no kakuni, morimoto-style.

probably not the most auspicious post to ring in the new year of food blogging, considering i'm trying to lose weight/eat healthier, but cheeeese, look at it. 'tis beaaaaauuuuutiful, no? buta no kakuni, pork belly braised in sake and a little bit of soy sauce, flavoured with just a tiny bit of sugar and star anise, served on brown rice congee infused with spring onion oil and flavoured with a bit of dried scallop. this was modified from a recipe by masaharu morimoto from his book, "morimoto: the new art of japanese cooking." someone rather kindly mailed a copy of the book to me and like, a whole lot of other bloggers. i generally say no to the freebies because i know i'll never review them, but i heart the morimoto-san, and at the time i was broke and thought i was saving up for something, so why not? but now i'm not saving, still broke, still no review. sorry dk books person! i officially cannot be trusted with your merchandise. however, the book is lovely and i've cooked a bunch of deelish things from it.

n. e. how.

this was actually one of the last recipes i thought i'd cook from the book, but when i saw maki's lovely more traditional version of the pork dish, i really wanted to try it. she and kirk both explain there are chinese cuisine connections to the dish, as does humba, the filipino version of this dish. i haven't had humba in awhile, but i always remembered my family's version to be flavoured with star anise and ginger; morimoto-san's recipe calls for neither, but the thing i love the most about the pork is that hint of spiciness, especially from the anise, so i added two whole star anise to the final braising liquid. also, i used brown rice in morimoto-san's congee recipe instead of the usual white; the result was more texture and flavour to play against the dried scallop and spring onion oil.

this recipe is not difficult at all, but some of the ingredients can be tricky to find, and it requires a good amount of time and patience. there is an initial eight hour simmer which renders out the majority of fat from the pork, then an overnight chilling before returning it to simmer in braising liquids for an additional 2 hours. if you do the first part in a slow cooker, then chuck it in the fridge whilst at work or asleep, it's actually quite uncomplicated. the melt-in-your mouth texture and exquisite flavours make it worth the work.

funnily enough, this was the first recipe that aun and s from the wonderful chubby hubby decided to try. they've already proclaimed the recipe a favourite, so maybe you will too.

techie toys for cooks

one of my new favourite things is delicious library, a database for your books, music, dvds, and games brought to you by the fine swiss cheese plants at delicious monster. each item of your library is easily added by typing in the title or barcode, or even better, by pointing a handheld scanner or firewire digital video camera to the item's barcode; information from all of amazon's international databases (us, uk, germany, france, canada and japan) is accessed and downloaded. you can display your library as a database or as these nifty shelves, which can be browsed, searched, or sorted. i've just started, but i've already got a better grasp of my cookbook collection, which in the real world is strewn across various rooms, flats, even continents. and huzzah! book covers are also downloaded, so i have my entire fiction collection at my fingertips (which as many of you know, is organized in a most unorthodox manner).

unfortunately for many people, delicious library is optimized for macs; for the mac user, it is christmas in a (window)box: you can use your built in iSite for scanning, there is a lending library synchronized with your address book and iCal, there's a widget for easy access to your database, which can also be stored on your iPod. iImpressed. it's a solid US$40 investment.

**

appetites.us is one of the first food blogs i'd ever read, and continues to be a favourite; for a food blog it has remarkably few photos, but remains evocative and appealing--chalk that up to robert peyton's excellent writing skills. it was also a prime source of information about new orleans during the katrina crisis, and continues to enlighten me on what life is like for a typical citizen in the aftermath. a recent post mentioned a new (beta) website, rouxbe, which features detailed instructional videos by real chefs cooking real recipes. it, alas, does not provide this as a free service, but from the free preview you can see the videos are attractive, thorough, and most importantly, all about the food. if all that dreck on the food network bugs you as much as it bugs me, this could be for you. no mucking about.

however, if the US$49/year ($99 lifetime) membership is too steep--yet you still managed to blow $299 on a video iPod--epicurious.com offers free video podcasts of various cooking and entertaining techniques (no, not how to not spill a drink on someone--think napkin folding). these one to two minute segments look not unlike rouxbe's videos, but deal with the basics: how to sharpen a knife, how to julienne, how to poach an egg, la la. there are currently 36 free episodes (search "epicurious food and drink" in the iTunes directory), 14 of which i've seen and digested. i honestly was always vexed by how to dice celery in a uniform manner until recently. now i can rest easy at night, knowing The Truth About Mirepoix. you can, too.

**

and finally, not a techie toy, not even a toy. just toyed: a gummy bear rug. you know you want it.


tagged! software podcasts videos library fun with gelatinous substances

a new cookbook (or two. or three).

i buy a lot of my UK-published books in the philippines because it's more economical for me than to order them online. i bought three cookbooks this time around: gorgeous cakes by annie bell, roast chicken and other stories by simon hopkinson with lindsey bareham, and the book that is currently holding my fascination, dough, by richard bertinet.



i used to bake bread on a regular basis, and became fairly adept at it. i had experimented for months, with different kneading and proving techniques, various equipment and ingredients before coming to the conclusion that the simplest possible recipes and techniques were often the best. what i like about bertinet's book is that there are five very simple doughs from which his recipes evolve, and he has a simple, yet effective method for working the dough that uses your fingertips, not the heel of your palms, that takes a fraction of the normal kneading time and seemingly incorporates more air for a lighter, bouncier product.


fougasse

i haven't baked bread regularly for several years, so i have lost the knack for it, and felt it was best to start at the very beginning. i did as the book suggested and tried the first recipe, for fougasse, which turned out well taste and texture-wise but only looked okay (the problem was i lost track of time and have no idea how long it rested). i know i can do much, much better. i was, however, quite impatient to try making a puff ball, which is one of the recipes that sold me on the book.


puff ball

the puff ball uses the same dough as the fougasse, but it is rolled out as thin as possible, and then baked on the highest heat, where it bloats and crisps into a hollow zeppelin of the thinnest crust and not much else. bertinet includes a cute little trick of how to create a small hole on the bottom of one, in which salad greens can be stuffed; served right side up on a plate, with instructions to break through the center at will, it becomes a little entertainment along with a starter salad with built-in bowl and crouton.



i'm still stuck in the first chapter, where there doesn't seem to be a recipe i don't want to try; i'm looking forward to the sweet dough chapter where i espied doughnuts and a chocolate bun that screams to be made. my particular copy of "dough" also includes a short, but very helpful dvd that illustrates bertinet's dough technique, so perhaps i should do a second viewing; hopefully the next fougasse will be up to snuff.

book 'em and cook 'em

more fodos on flickr!

ah, the cookbook meme, as brought forth by anthony. this is a self-activating meme, with no conditioners, so feel free to bring forth and multiply.

1. Rationale behind what we're seeing?
books in a bookshelf. where they belong, unlike the other 50% which are scattered over the floor, still tucked in boxes and crates, or back in the familial homestead. i've been in this place for two years, and this is as far as i've gotten. they're not in any particular order (unlike my other books).



2. Most recommended?
bill granger's "sydney food", especially if you live in the southern hemisphere or in a mostly tropical clime and are not particularly adept in the kitchen. it's a great starter book, the recipes are pared down to the essentials, most of the ingredients are available throughout asia and the americas, and for pure satisfaction purposes, the food turns out exactly like it does in the photos.

3. Cookbook that made you what you were?
what i was? cookbooks don't make me, manny, my family does. however, if one did, it might be "city cuisine" by mary sue milliken and susan feniger. although my mother's and my family's cooking defines me foodily, city café in los angeles probably shaped my tastebuds more than any other restaurant. the only way to describe the food is fresh and precise. although, it's really mary sue and susan, i reckon, not really the book.

the cookbook that defines me as a blogger, though, is def. "sydney food"....

4. Porniest cookbook?
definitely "intercourses: an aphrodisiac cookbook" which is not about the food, nenes, it's about the hotty bodies smeared with warm chocolate. paula deen's books get a mention because of the obscene amount of butter and cream in every recipe, and the lack of photos, so it's all left to your imagination. my current pillow book, though, is tetsuya wakuda's eponymous book, which is spare, sleek, and positively straining under the hidden sexuality trying to bust out of its austere sensuality. all about the texture, baby, you have to feel it.

5. Sophie's Choice cookbook?
you mean, what book compels me to speak in a fake accent for three and a half hours? i would rather lose them all than save just one. i'm talking about cookbooks, folks!

6. If you were a cookbook, which cookbook would you be?
where to sin in san francisco by steve mcgarrett himself, jack lord. not strictly about food, but neither am i.

7. If your cookbook were extremely valuable, so valuable you might hide it with other valuables, where would that place be?
guam.


truthfully, i love my food magazines more.

thanks anthony! it was fun, but i think i put everyone (including myself) to sleep!

old cookbooks never die....

saw this story about a cookbook shop in nyc. yahoo! considered it headline news, right up there with hurricane frances, the tragedy in russia, and the conflict in darfur. bless.

what's *your* favourite cookbook? do you collect old ones? is there one you would fight tooth-and-nail (or by wwe smackdown, for that matter) to own or keep?