Traditional Food and Drink – Page 2

January 2, 2014January 7, 2014

Hoppin’ John and Happy New Year

hoppin-john

Happy New Year! It’s 2014, a new year, and a new start… actually I made some changes before the first day of 2014, but January 1 still feels like a new start anyway. For the first time in years, I stayed up ’til midnight and saw the Times Square ball drop (on TV), and I’m glad for that. The next morning I took a walk to the park and made sprouted spelt pancakes for breakfast, along with coffee and mimosas. Watched the Rose Parade. And later that day I made Hoppin’ John.

Hoppin’ John is known as a traditional Southern New Year’s dish, supposedly one that brings good luck for the year, especially if you eat it with greens (green = the color of money). I’ve read that it has origins with Southern slaves, and—new to me—that it has even deeper origins with the Jewish community, 2,500 years ago. It was first written down in The Carolina Housewife, a cookbook from 1847. Continue reading “Hoppin’ John and Happy New Year”

December 17, 2013

Making Meyer Lemon Marmalade

Meyer lemons from the Lemon Ladies

It’s citrus season! I love all the delicious citrus fruit that shows up this time of year, and one of my favorites is Meyer lemons.

Back in November, I got my yearly email from the Lemon Ladies, announcing the start of their harvest. Lemon Ladies are a group of women who tend and manage a Meyer Lemon orchard in Emerald Hills, CA, a small community near San Mateo in the greater SF Bay Area (map). Their groves are 100% dedicated to Meyer lemons, and I have been extremely happy with the quality of the fruit I’ve received from them. This year’s lemons were fantastic—gorgeous sunny yellow oblong orbs that smell amazing. And they taste wonderful!

I’ve done a variety of things with Meyer lemons over the years—they are perfect for preserved lemons, make amazing lemon curd, and I’ve even dried them (dried Meyer lemons are really good added to a glass of water). But what I really wanted to do with them this year was to make marmalade. I almost made it a couple of years ago, but got scared off, thinking the process was too difficult. I couldn’t have been more wrong—at least with the recipe I used this year, it was a breeze! It just took a little planning. Continue reading “Making Meyer Lemon Marmalade”

December 3, 2013December 15, 2013

Slow Cooker Apple Butter is Easy and Delicious

The other day a Facebook friend of mine posted an update stating he was going to make apple butter in his slow cooker, with a link attached. I am always interested in learning about new slow cooker recipes, and I thought that making apple butter this way was a brilliant idea! Turns out it’s pretty awesome—delicious and easy, which is always a super combination. And I have a bunch of apples from my CSA, so this is a great way to use them.

I made a half recipe, since that’s what fit into my slow cooker. It starts with peeling and coring apples—I core my apples with a melon baller, which does a fantastic job of scooping out the seeds and stiff parts of the apple. And since I just got my knives sharpened, it was a breeze to peel the apples, though I would love to have one of these apple peelers; when I was younger, my grandmother had one and I thought it was magic! Continue reading “Slow Cooker Apple Butter is Easy and Delicious”

November 29, 2013December 15, 2013

Making a Root Vegetable Ferment

Lately I’ve been feeling like my gut and digestive system could use a tune up (not to mention dealing with a recent bout of heartburn/GERD), so I decided to make a nice root vegetable ferment. My body loves lacto-fermented foods, and I had some beautiful carrots and rutabagas from the CSA this week, plus onion, garlic, and ginger were in the house. I also added some red pepper flakes to make it a little spicy.

I washed off the vegetables (and got rid of the carrot hairs), but didn’t peel them, since there are microbes on the outside of the vegetables that help in the fermentation process. I grated the rutabagas and carrots, chopped the onion into small pieces, and minced the garlic (2 peeled cloves) and an inch chunk of (unpeeled) ginger.

I added a good shake of red pepper flakes—maybe 1/2 a tsp. Then I added 1 tbs of kosher salt, which doesn’t have iodine (that also interferes with the fermentation process). Continue reading “Making a Root Vegetable Ferment”

September 20, 2013September 20, 2013

Viva La Comida 2013 – Fabulous Food All Around

Friday night I had the pleasure of attending Viva La Comida, a food and cultural festival that takes place on 82nd Street in Jackson Heights, Queens. It’s in its second year now, and going strong. They had more space this year compared to last, and more food vendors, too. My friend Jeff Orlick is the organizer of the food side of things, and has done an excellent job getting great food vendors to participate. I ate some extremely delicious things—two dishes that stood out were from a new vendor and a returning vendor.

It was great to see food that represents so many different parts of the world—El Salvador, Ireland, The Phillipines, India, Tibet, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. I also understand there was Ecuadorian, Dominican, and Italian food represented too. Additionally, I picked up a pandebono (Colombian) from Las Delicias En Pandebono (they make THE BEST pandebono in Queens) a cup of fresh strawberry-tangerine-carrot juice from 82 Market, and a glass of horchata from Taqueria Coatzingo, all local businesses on 82nd Street.

I was also happy to hang out and share food with my friend Dayna, talented animator and food fan (so good to see friends and fellow food writers Sue, Bradley, Anne, and Joe during the evening, too!). We got there early, which was great for getting food relatively quickly. First dish we tried was two pupusas from El Oolmega, a truck based at the Red Hook Ballfields, home to amazing, authentic global food. They’ve been in business for 23 years, and their pupusas were one of the highlights for me.

We got two pupusas, one stuffed with pork and cheese and one stuffed with loroco and cheese. Loroco is a flower from Central America and used commonly in pupusas. It was delicious! They were topped with curtido (a traditional tangy cabbage condiment) and we got the optional pickled jalapeños on it, then sprinkled a bit of hot sauce and crema over everything. I couldn’t get over how fresh and delicious it all was—the masa yielded easily to the fork, with flavorful fillings. Definitely a high point of the evening.

My other favorite food of the night was the arepa con queso from Jackson Height’s own Arepa Lady crew. These arepas are excellent and have quite the glowing reputation. I especially love these smaller, thick, soft, and cheesy arepas, that are topped with more cheese. They are a little sweet, too, so it ends up being this wonderful mix of sweet and savory, one of my favorite meta flavor combos. Gorgeous looking thing, too. Continue reading “Viva La Comida 2013 – Fabulous Food All Around”

August 19, 2013August 19, 2013

In Which I Eat Adjarian Khachapuri at Brick Oven Bread in Brooklyn

Last month I mentioned that I really wanted to try khachapuri—Adjarian style, in particular—which is the traditional Georgian cheese bread. I’m pleased to tell you that I made it down to Brooklyn and my wish came true. The bread was truly delicious and I can’t wait to eat it again!

My two friends, Anne and Jen, traveled to BK with me—a straight shot on the N train to Kings Highway—and we met their friend Aleksey, who knows the neighborhood and speaks Russian. We planned to stop first at Brick Oven Bread, then walk a mile or so to Cafe Avat, make a stop in at Russian grocery Cherry Hill Market, and end our trip at Baku Bakery. Spoiler: Baku Bakery was closed, so I’ll have to go back.

When we got to Brick Oven Bread, we knew we wanted to get khachapuri, and settled on splitting among the four of us one Adjarian khachapuri. Jen also ordered a Mengrel khachapuri to take home, which was a flat circular bread with cheese both inside and out, and is placed in a pizza box. She said it was delicious the day after, too.

Anyway, our bread came out and it was super gorgeous.

It arrived piping hot with a knob of butter and a raw egg in the center. Aleksey stirred the egg and butter together with two forks, which eventually created something like a creamy scrambled egg.

We tore or cut off (it was quite hot to the touch) fluffy pieces from around the edge and dipped it into the egg and butter mixture.

The tangy cheese inside (a mix of mozzarella and feta, since the traditional sulguni is not available in this country, probably because it’s young and raw) added another great flavor to the mix and I loved the whole thing. I do believe I could eat one of these myself on a very hungry day (which is most days).

We drank a bright green tarragon soda with the bread, Zedazeni brand. The bakery owner sung its praises. Jen likened it to Jones Soda. Aleksey warned us that it would be very sweet, though I found I liked it. The color was amazing—this is not the color of the bottle, but of the soda itself. It didn’t really taste like what I consider tarragon to taste like, but that was probably because it was so sweet. It’s very popular in the Caucases, Russia, Ukraine, and parts of Central Asia.

This was a great way to start our visit to Brooklyn. More on Cafe Avat and Cherry Hill Market in a later post. Many, many thanks to Aleksey for being our guide and giving his time to our adventure!

Brick Oven Bread, 230 Kings Highway, Brooklyn, NY 11223, (718) 759-6250

August 9, 2013August 9, 2013

Chicharrón Preparado Spotted in Astoria

On the way home the other night from The Shady Lady (meeting Serious Eats NY Editor and neighbor Max Falkowitz! I love connecting with food-loving-writing Astorians), we spotted a woman walking past us with snack that looked like a flatbread with stuff on it. We turned and stared, trying to figure out what it was, but couldn’t. We turned back around and within a short time discovered what it was she was eating—chicharrón preparado.

I had only encountered this delicious snack on the Jackson Heights-Corona border—never in Astoria. But there it was, offered as a special dish from the El Rey Del Taco truck on 30th Avenue, confirmed by a handwritten sign. They once posted a fish taco special on a similar handwritten sign in the same place.

I first heard about chicharrón preparado in an article written by Sara Markel-Gonzalez about where to find them in Corona and Jackson Heights. They have origins in Mexico and are a popular street snack in the summer.

It’s basically a relatively flat piece of chicharrón—in this case, not fried pork skin but chicharrón de harina, which is still deep fried but made with flour. It’s topped with cabbage, tomatoes, avocado, crema, cotija cheese, and round rings of pickled pork rinds called cueritos. Usually Salsa Valentina (a hot sauce that is also common in making micheladas) is drizzled on top, pulling the whole thing together.

And I can tell you—it is delicious. The whole thing is a combination of crunchy/crispy, tangy, creamy, spicy, and a bit porky. So delicious. I was full from my meal, otherwise I would have eaten one. And I didn’t want to buy it and eat it later because soggy chicharrón (pork or otherwise) is really unpleasant.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this taco truck—and checking its availability at their Ditmars Blvd. truck, too—and hope to run into another opportunity for chicharrón preparado soon.