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Dec 01, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
There’s no time I enjoy living in New York more than December. (By the way, when a New Yorker says New York it means New York City.) Though the city is dramatic and often beautiful in all seasons, it is at its most spectacular when dressed for the holidays.
This week I walked uptown to a fascinating Austrian wine and food pairing from the Burgenland. As it was only two blocks away from Rockefeller Center I paused to enjoy the newly lit tree for 10 full minutes, with the same wide-eyed wonder as all the tourists surrounding me. I think the tree was all of 80 feet high but rose to 84 feet with the placement of the magnificent Swarovski crystal star on top.
The Austrian wine and food pairing was most successful because it demonstrated dramatically how the wine changes with the food that accompanies it. I loved the Heinrich St. Laurent 2005 by itself and with the Viennese fried chicken and especially with the accompanying sauce of lingonberries, but not when I sipped it with the Kobe beef roast where the Weninger Blaufränkisch Reserve 2003 which initially I had found quite closed suddenly blossomed. But the two biggest surprises were the sparkling grüner veltliner that went with all the hors d’oeuvres but was also extremely enjoyable by itself as was the Kracher 2003 TBA (short for trockenbeerenauslese for those who fear pronouncing it or want to boast extreme familiarity). Many people refer to this dessert wine as liquid gold and this particular one deserved the name in full. In fact it was so perfectly balanced between refreshing acidity and honeyed apricot sweetness it needed nothing at all to accompany it other than a willingness to fall to one’s knees in gratitude (difficult to do when seated).
Continue reading "New York City at Its Finest Hours" »
Dec 02, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Cookbooks
Just in time for the holidays, I've just received a signed copy of my dear friend Marcel's latest book I'm Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas!
Marcel and I started writing cookbooks at about the same time. I'm on my ninth and Marcel's new book is his 10th and we find ourselves once again siblings at the same publishing house: Wiley. I pleased to say they have done him proud with a stunning, beautifully designed book. Every recipe has a photo and I know it was Marcel and photographer Ron Manville who were behind the many imaginative and often playful touches.
Of course Marcel has added his signature "The Chef's Touch" for each recipe, sharing important tips and information. And Marcel is the real and rare thing: A chef (graduate of the CIA) plus a born teacher and writer.
There are so many recipes here I'm dying to try I can't decide where to start but it will probably be with Mrs. Lenhardt's Chocolate Almond Toffee. I know I won't be disappointed--Marcel's recipes are ones I trust.
www.amazon.com
Dec 08, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in New Products
My first job in the food world many years ago was at the Reynolds Metals Company in New York City. The main offices were in Richmond Virginia but we had a satellite office set-up for publicity with no test kitchen. And it was this job that led me to return to college and get my degrees in food.
One of my responsibilities was to distribute aluminum foil and plastic wrap to the press and to anyone else who could promote what a wonderful quality product it was (and still is)! My grandmother said she would have enough to be buried in foil but this turned out to be incorrect as happily she lived to over 99. James Beard was another happy recipient of roll upon roll of foil and plastic wrap. I felt like a female Santa Klaus and only I had the key to the store room. I wish I had sent myself more!
I have remained loyal to Reynolds all these years and have never purchased any other brand of foil. So it is with great pride that I can tell you about an invaluable new product on which Reynolds have spent years of research. It is called Reynolds ® Handi-Vac™Vacuum Sealer.
Continue reading "The Perfect Stocking Stuffer for the Home Cook and Baker" »
Dec 11, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Photos
A few postings ago i mentioned viewing the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center and how I regretted not having brought my camera. No longer, however, because standing next to me was Kurt Liu on his first trip to New York from San Francisco and he had a very impressive looking camera mounted onto a tripod. I knew his photos would be better than anything I could have taken so I asked his permission to post it on this blog and he graciously agreed.
These two photos really capture the majesty and exquisite setting of the most spectacular Christmas Tree I've ever seen in all my years in New York. Only once did I happen to be at Rockefeller Center at the moment of the tree lighting and it was an experience I'll never forget.
Thank you Kurt for allowing us all to enjoy these two fantastic photos.
Happy Holidays,
Rose
P.S. for more photos by kurt liu here's the link to his flickr site
Dec 12, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
click on this link and you'll see some advice from me and some of my esteemed colleagues!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/11/AR2007121100499.html
Dec 15, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Equipment
Kate Coldrick’s enlightening postings on the heat treatment of flour on this blog and on her own: www.amerrierworld.wordpress.com/may be responsible single-handed for a tidal wave increase in microwave sales around the world!
But it grieves me to think that people will be using their new microwaves only for flour! So I’ve decided to put together a short list to get you started on other great uses for the microwave.
First some background history.
There has been and may still exist some degree of snobbery when it comes to microwaves that sounds something like this: “Oh I would NEVER have a microwave in MY kitchen.” I suspect this attitude stems from the incorrect use of microwaves such as cooking bacon which granted rids it of fat but also toughens it.
I started experimenting with microwave cooking as a student at NYU using a microwave oven that dated back to WWII. It was my assignment to put it through its paces and in the process prepare a dinner for professor Pfaff who had one of those enviable metabolisms that required her to eat substantially well everyday or she would lose weight. No one knew much about microwave cooking at the time and there was much to learn, the main thing being that it was great for some things but to be avoided for others.
Continue reading "Microwave Magic and Me" »
Dec 17, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
I will be a guest on the Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius Satellite for the Living Today show tomorrow, December 18, at 4:00 East Coast time until about 4:30. We'll be talking about holiday cookies and cakes. Hope you can tune in!
Dec 18, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Bread
...because i can't stop eating it! when i saw the article by my friend and esteemed colleague joan nathan in last wednesday's new york times, the texture and swirl of the crumb just drew me right in. i grew up on 95th street and central park west and my parents each went to eclair on a regular basis (eclair was mentioned in the article), my mother during the week to pick up my favorite whipped cream filled eclair and my father on sundays to pick up a babka.
in my bread book i have recipes for brioche and for kugelhopf, both of which are similar to babka but not the same thing. babka is somewhere between a rich coffee cake and a brioche. compared to my brioche it has about half the egg, two-thirds the butter, and about 1/3 cup more liquid. All this conspires to make a softer and lighter cake/bread.
i am a great fan of ann amernick whose new book "the art of the dessert"(john wiley 2007) contains this recipe. you can also get the recipe by going to this link at the New York Times. you will find several choices of filling and topping. i used the cinnamon-raisin filling adapted from katja goldman, but soaked the raisins in rum as adapted from mrs. london's, saratoga springs, n.y. and i used ann's streusel topping with the cinnamon.
here are a few of my baking notes:
i like ann's use of part cake flour as it makes a more tender cake-like crumb but it also makes the dough fragile and prone to tearing so lift it carefully when placing it in the pan and if it tears as mine did, just pinch it together. it actually looks most attractive with some of the raisins and sugar spilling out and carmelizing on the crust. but i wouldn't try twisting it as indicated when placing it in the pan unless you use all ubleached all-purpose flour or you want it to break open.
those of you who prefer weight to volume, the all-purpose flour (be sure to use unbleached or the dough will fall apart completely) is 10 ounces/285 grams and the cake flour 3 ounces/85 grams. alternatively use a total of 13 ounces/369 grams unbleached all-purpose flour.
if you use instant yeast you can add it directly to the flour. use only 2 teaspoons and add the 1 tablespoon of water to the milk (which by the way i prefer to scald and then bring to room temperature before using).
i also increased the salt from 1/8 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon.
i used my nordicware "Classic Anniversary Bundt" which is non-stick and 15 cup capacity but the standard 12 cup bundt that's called for will work as it didn't come up to the very top of the pan. but the extra height did serve to shield the streusel topping so if using the 12 cup bundt you may want to tent it loosely with foil after the first 30 minutes of baking. by the way, i did not line the pan with parchment, but coated it with cooking spray and it released beautifully--even the escaped caramel part.
my instant read thermometer registered 188 after 50 minutes of baking. i unmolded the babka onto a rack as soon as it came out of the oven. almost all of the streusel stayed on what was now the bottom. as it was 11:00 at night, and i didn't want to ruin the crisp crust and streusel by covering it, i stayed up to watch "kinsey" on othe late show and by the time it was over the babka was completely cool! so i covered it with an inverted plastic box and dove into it this morning.
when you see the photos i took you'll understand just why it provided such a temptation. by the way, the little brass doorstop in the photo is an antique punch and judy. i usually move it away from the best light location for photos but this time it seemed appropriate as babka means little old-lady. actually just old lady or grandmother but in my era they were always little (now we take calcium pills)! bubba, alta bubba, babcha--they're all yiddish and polish variations which sound as endearing, comforting, and lovable as this recipe.
p.s. except for one piece, the missing part in the photo was all consumed by me withint 10 minutes!
Dec 18, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
Many of you know from reading my books that I test all the major pieces of equipment used in baking which often leaves me with a warehouse clutter that I tend to hang onto for years. But recently I've been inspired to reorganize, clean up the crawl space and share some of my special pieces with people who would really appreciate it.
For a short time Kenwood was carried under the Rival name and so I have what is actually a Kenwood 7 Quart mixer with Rival brand on it along with two 7 quart mixer bowls and 2 sets of whisk, paddle, and dough hook attachments. I'm willing to ship it to whoever makes the best offer, not including shipping, by the end of the year but it has to be in the U.S. I'd rather see it go to one of my fellow bloggers than to post it on e-bay. and of course you know the respect with which I treat my equipment. This one has not had very much use and is in perfect condition.
Dec 19, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
well there it is--the babka stayed and i gained a little over 1 pound. i just returned from my early morning swim and ran into one of my favorite neighbors waiting for the elevator. she asked me in a hushed voice what i had been baking the night before last. she said the whole hall smelled like apple pie and permeated all the apartments (she had already queried another neighbor). it was the cinnamon and butter combination of course. incidentally, ann has a luscious sounding chocolate and apricot filling as another great alternative to the cinnamon and sugar.
since i can't seem to get this babka out of my mind, i started thinking that maybe i should use half light brown muscovado sugar in the filling but then decided it was risky as where the babka opens up during baking and the filling carmelizes, the molasses in the brown sugar would make it either burn or become too dark and bitter.
i'm having trouble waiting the 45 minutes for my editor to arrive so we can finish the babka together. i'll distract myself with coffee.
Dec 20, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
Do check out the link on the forums for high altitude baking--it will be very helpful for those of you on high!
Dec 22, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Bread
Golden Honey Oat Bread
I’ve been working for a long time on a healthful bread with delicious flavor but also my ideal of a perfect texture. The result is this nutritious bread which is also amazingly light, soft, and slightly chewy with lovely crunch from the flax seed. The wheatiness of the whole wheat, flax and oat or barley flakes together with the sweetness from the honey conspire to make this one of my top favorite breads so I am offering it to all of you as my Winter/holiday present for a happy and healthy New Year.
Be sure to use the vital wheat gluten, available in many supermarkets and health food markets. It is the secret to the marvelously light texture of the bread which usually becomes quite dense with the addition of whole wheat and other grains.
Note: Though the photo shows a sprinkling of barley flakes on the crust, I prefer not to sprinkle the top of the loaf with oat or barley flakes as they tend to get hard and fall off when cut.
Note: If anyone wants to make a version using old starter see notes at end of recipe!
TIME SCHEDULE
Minimum Rising: About 3 hours
Oven Temperature: 400°F/200°C, then 375°F/190°C
Baking Time: 35 to 40 minutes
Makes: One Loaf about 4 1/2 inches high
Continue reading "A Fabulous New Bread Recipe for the New Year!" »
Dec 24, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Savory Cooking
i'm spending christmas weekend with the final revisions of my manuscript for the upcoming book before it goes into copy editing. it's great to be up here in hope with the fire blazing and minimal interruptions. (incidentally after dinner the first night we watched a fantastic dvd which i highly recommend--Vitus.) so i made a whole bunch of our fav turkey parts to last the whole long weekend along with two huge bowls of stuffing (of course i made the bread). we have separate stuffings bc elliott doesn't like chestnuts and i adore the sweet earthy quality it contributes.
the big problem always is choosing the ideal wine to serve with turkey and the problem is not the turkey but the cranberry sauce. one of the few iron clad rules in wine pairing is that the wine needs to be at least as sweet as the food or the wine takes on an undesirably bitter taste. tim hanai, who worked for beringer's, taught me how it is possible to adjust the food to alter the wine. for example, when the wine seems excessively tannic, if you add lemon and or salt to the food the tannin recedes and the fruit comes forward.(i've used this technique in airplanes where the wine was marginal. it has the opposite effect if the wine is "flabby," i.e. lacking in acid and tannis.)
when in comes to cranberry sauce, i have always catered entirely to elliott's taste which means a lot less liquid and a lot less sugar than is called for on the package. in fact, he doesn't want it to be sauce, he wants it to be a jell. it seems bitter when eaten by itself but it works perfectly with the turkey and i decided to put it to the ultimate test and served a Gevrey Chambertin Domaine Trapet “Ostera” 2001. pinot is the most unforgiving wine. it can be at once ethereal and earthy, or closed and astringent. i took a little spoonful of cranberry 'sauce' and a swallow of the wine and held my breath (well not literally). perfection. the wine was glorious with a hint of berry--a match made in heaven.
so here is how i make the cranberry sauce:
Continue reading "Are You Making Turkey for the Holidays? and What about the Wine!" »
Dec 29, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Cakes
in french it's called mis en place and refers also to "putting things in place" for cooking. everything works more smoothly when one is well-prepared. with cakes, if key ingredients aren't at the proper temperature, it will adversely effect the texture of the baked cake.
the five most essential things in cake baking to get ready are:
softening the butter if used
the butter needs to be between 65 to 75°F/18 to 23°C. cold from the refrigerator it will take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to reach this temperature depending on how cold the frig and how warm the room. to speed softening slice the butter in 1 inch/25 mm pieces. it is amazing how quickly butter comes to temperature when more surface area is exposed. you can also cover the pieces with plastic wrap and as they start to soften, press them flat.
combining cocoa and boiling water if used
be sure to cover the mixture so that there is no evaporation and allow it to cool until it is no longer warm to the touch.
preheating the oven
most cakes bake at 350°F/175°C. and close to the center of the oven. set the oven rack just below the center and start preheating the oven a minimum of 20 minutes before baking.
warming the eggs
eggs need to be at room temperature but this is easy to accomplish if you forget to take them out ahead of time. place them still in their unbroken shells in a bowl of hot from the tap water and allow them to sit for 10 minutes.
preparing the cake pan
except when a recipe such as angel food or chiffon cake requires that the cake pan be left uncoated it is necessary to grease and flour the pan. i prefer using a baking spray which contains flour, especially for fluted tube pans. if there is any clumping of the spray brush it away with a silicone or bristle pastry brush to avoid holes in the top crust.
if the pan has a non-stick coating it isn't necessary to line the bottom with parchment.
for the most even cake layers that are not over-baked or dry at the edges use a cake strip.
(if you use rose's heavenly cake strips there is no preparation of the strip--just slide it around the cake pan.if you are using cloth strips you need to wet them first and attach them with a pin unles they have velcro closures.)
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