The Best Damn Meyer Lemon Cake, by Saveur

TBDMLCITL (If you are from Columbus, OH, you will get this acronym.) I love a good lemon cake and trust Saveur's bold statement, which after making this, most definitely agree with. This super lemony and refreshing cake sure is the best damn meyer lemon cake in the land.  A preview of spring...  See the original article here:

Photo: André Baranowski

SERVES 8 – 10
INGREDIENTS
1 tbsp. butter, plus 8 tbsp. melted
2 tbsp. fine dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup whole blanched almonds
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. fine salt
1 1/3 cups plus 2 tbsp. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
2 tbsp. lemon extract
Zest and juice of 2 Meyer lemons
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°. Grease a loaf pan measuring 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 2 3/4" with 1 tbsp. of the butter and dust it with the bread crumbs. Invert and tap out excess crumbs; set aside. In a food processor, grind the almonds until very fine, about 1 minute; set aside. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

2. Put the remaining butter into a large bowl and add 1 cup of the sugar. Mix with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just long enough to incorporate, about 30 seconds. Add the flour mixture and milk mixture in 3 batches, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat until mixed after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, about 3 minutes total. Mix in the lemon extract. With the spatula, fold in the lemon zest and ground almonds. (The mixture will be thin.) Turn batter into prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean and dry, about 65 minutes.

3. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack. Prepare the glaze: Combine remaining sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. (Do not boil.) Brush the glaze over the hot cake. (The excess liquid may pool along the sides of the pan; it will absorb completely as it sits.) Once the cake has absorbed all the liquid, turn it out of the pan and allow it to cool upright on a rack. Once it's cool, wrap the cake with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours before serving.

Bringing Junket Back

    

What's old is new again.... at least to me. I love moments of discovery- especially when they are food related. 

The topic of dessert came up in conversation last night while having dinner at Cap City with Kevin and my mother-in-law-- a born and bred Bostonian who has no shortage of fun tales from the 50s and 60s. After explaining my intentions to use an amazing home made Chocolate Pudding and Baileys Irish Cream recipe (see previous post) to make my husband a pudding convert, she asked if I ever had Junket?  

I thought she was joking. Junket does not sound delicious and I would have remembered if I ever ate something named such. We launched into a discussion about puddings- both the milky types and bread puddings- brulees, custards, tapioca, and curds, but still Junket didn't ring a bell. Moments like this call for the smart phone and 30 seconds later... voila! We are on junketdesserts.com

As a child of the 70s, I understood her loose comparison to the Jell-O packs of pudding mix, but even after 5 minutes of research I still wasn't sure what this junket stuff was all about. I understand curd. I understand whey. Just add milk. No eggs. (I was in too much of a food coma to 'get it.') I also noticed Junket's mascot is a Little Miss Muffet styled girl (not coincidentally named Little Miss Junket) with a giant spoon of pink stuff. Any pink food has got to be delicious. 

Call in Wikipedia. "Junket is a milk-based dessert made with sweetened milk and rennet, a digestive enzyme which curdles the milk. Akin to a custard, or a very soft, sweetened cheese"

OH- it's practically custard. I grew up on the stuff, but it was frozen and we called it Glen's Custard. (I guarantee my mother would never have gotten any of us to eat anything called Junket. But frozen custard "ice cream"? By the truckload!) As a grown-up with a palate for curd I am all over this junket stuff.

Being a history buff, I dug around to see if there was more to the story. I guess junket is the loose term for any milky, sweetened, curdled dessert, which in medieval England was made using cream and was, not surprisingly, found on noble tables. The etymology of the word supposedly derives from the Norman French word jonquette: a cream made from boiled milk, egg yolks, and some form of sweetener. 

http://kitchenpantry.blogspot.com

In the fifteenth century, Henry VIII changed it up a bit. He became a fan of syllabub (also not delicious sounding)- fresh cow's milk boiled with cider and left to sit for a few days. It was, so they say, the Tudor cappuccino. Doesn't sound terribly appealing, but if anyone served this Peach Raspberry Mascarpone Syllabub. I wouldn't think twice about devouring it. 

Junket is also a brand name, which has been around since 1874 (read the company history here). During the early to mid-twentieth century , junket's popularity was confined to specific places like southwestern England (which I interpret as Cornwall) and the East Coast (hence my Wellesley-based MIL's familiarity.) It was often used to treat stomach ailments. Come to think of it, whose grandparents didn't down a pint of heavy cream when their tummy's bothered them- right? Why not make it taste better-- just add junket.

1970 Jello-O advertisement

Made me wonder if Pittsburgh (my hometown) was "east 
coast enough" to have fallen within the realm of junket. I asked my mother if she ate it or served it to us as kids. She confirmed that she grew up on the milky custard and thoughts of it stir up old memories. She recalls getting a hand-cranked ice cream machine with little packs of Junket for Christmas (but said "it was no Easy Bake Oven"). However, Jello-O was the "pudding of choice" by time I came into the world in 1970. (This ad's recipe is for Boston Cream Pie).

Junket's website is rather nostalgic and carries only a handful of products: flavored junket mix, ice cream mix, Danish dessert filling, and rennet tablets.  The recipes are simple-- and they remind me of my grandparents and my mother. I already resolved to make at least two of these desserts for our Fourth of July shindig. Seriously. Ambrosia Pie screams of balmy summer evenings.

Maybe, if I frequented more Renaissance festivals, I might have spotted this custardy dessert on the feast table. Or perhaps, if I ever made cheese, I might have had the need for rennet enzyme tablets (which Junket also makes) therefore discovering the company a while ago. Alas, neither is the case. 

Perhaps many of you are already familiar with this brand, but it was completely foreign to me. I owe our Moms a big thanks (and a gallon of Pink Cloud Pudding) for bringing Junket back.

Preserved Lemon Salt, by cookblog

I love preserved lemons because North African tagine recipes are in high rotation in the Foy household. After blogging for Patricia Wells's Salad as a Meal cookbook and learning how to flavor salt in unexexpected ways, I can't live without a pantry full of salt being steeped in unusual ingredients. I was immediately drawn to this article by cookblog on Punk Domestics, two of my favorite foodie blogs. In fact, the author of this article won the Food52 charcutepalooza contest (and a trip to France). And come to think of it, this IS Meyer lemon season....


LIKE SALT, ONLY BETTER

There are dozens of posts out there about preserved lemons, so to avoid redundancy I thought I’d take the idea one step further and share an idea I had a while back. Preserved lemons are an item that my pantry is never without. They’re easy to make and keep forever, and their bright, unmistakeable flavor is essential to a variety of dishes, particularly Moroccan. What I love about them is that to the nose, they smell candied; it’s impossible to tell that it’s salt that has concentrated their flavors rather than sugar. That sweet, lemony aroma permeates any dish they’re added to, but when the lemons are gone the salt that worked its osmotic magic on them has accrued a great deal of interest in the process. This may already be a thing, but I haven’t heard of it before: preserved lemon salt.

The process is easy. Wash and quarter organic lemons and pack them in a jar with salt and lemon juice and such spices as you are inclined to add. I like clove, star anise, cinnamon, and black pepper. Between the salt and the acidity, nothing at all is going to grow in there and over time they turn into homely brown crescents with a intense and powerfully illuminating lemon flavor. It works with other citrus just as well; I have done the same thing with limes and yuzu to excellent effect. Cover the jar, making sure the lemons are submerged in the liquid, and leave it in a cupboard for at least a month.

To use them, scrape the pulp off the peel and discard it. Mince the peel before deploying in soups, stews, tagines, vinaigrettes, or anything else. Rinse them first if you want, since they’re very salty. As your jar nears the bottom, make another one.

And once you’ve used the last sticky, slimy, fragrant wedge of glory from the first jar, pour the lemony brine through a strainer onto a silpat and pop it in a low oven or dehydrator (or out on the porch or in your car in summer) until the moisture evaporates.

Give the fully dried out salt a bit of a grind to powder it, and put it in a spice jar. The spices and residual lemon solids in the brine will caramelize if you dry it out hotter than a dehydrator (I did this in the oven at about 150˚) which adds another layer of flavor. I also ground this up with a little plain sea salt to tone the flavor down a bit. Other spices and herbs can also be added to obtain a custom mix.

The uses are infinite: sprinkle it on a chicken before roasting, cure gravlax with it, make brine for olives, hit some scallops with it before you sear them hard. Use a bit as finishing salt on lamb or fish, or sprinkle a little bit on top of lemon squares or tarts to give them a sublime salt caramel vibe. It plays superbly with ras-el-hanout or 5-spice in rubs. It’s a fabulous ingredient, and it makes something sublime out of the drab goop that we might otherwise pour down the drain; as with fermented pickle brine and whey, the byproducts of these techniques are often worth the effort all by themselves.

Primanti Bros. Sandwiches, Recipe by The Washington Post

The "almost famous" sandwich has been featured by the Food Network, Travel Channel, National Geographic, and was named a James Beard American Classic. This is a completely over-indulgent culinary MUST if you visit Pittsburgh. 

Anyone who has spent time in Pittsburgh probably has heard of Primanti Bros. The historic sandwich shop has been making its trademark fried-potatoes-and-coleslaw-topped sandwich since 1933. Now with locations across the city (and a couple in Florida), it's hard to miss.

For this recipe we use a spicy capicola ham, stocked in Italian delis. But don't let that limit you: Nearly any deli meat can be substituted in this great Iron City creation.

MAKE AHEAD: The slaw can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.

8 servings

Ingredients:

For the slaw

• 1 pound (about half of a medium-size head) green cabbage, shredded or finely chopped (about 6 cups)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 to 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• Freshly ground black pepper

For the twice-fried potatoes

• 6 to 8 large (4 to 5 pounds) russet potatoes, washed well
• 8 cups vegetable oil, for frying
• Kosher salt

For the meat and cheese

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 pounds spicy, thinly sliced capicola ham
• 8 thin slices provolone cheese (about 5 ounces)

For assembly

• 4 vine-ripened tomatoes, cut into 16 thin slices
• 16 large slices of soft Italian bread (18 ounces total)

Directions:

For the slaw: Combine the cabbage, sugar, salt and celery seed in a colander set over a medium bowl. Let stand at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours; the cabbage will be wilted (about 4 cups total).

Discard the draining liquid in the bowl; rinse and dry the bowl, then transfer the wilted cabbage to the bowl. Add the oil and vinegar; toss to coat. Season with pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the twice-fried potatoes: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Line a few large baking sheets with several layers of paper towels. Fill a large bowl with cold water.

Cut the (unpeeled) potatoes lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick sticks. Submerge in the cold water. Rinse in subsequent changes of cold water to remove all visible starch, then drain in a colander and spread the potatoes on the paper towels, patting the potatoes dry.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat, until the oil temperature reaches 320 degrees.

Fry the potatoes in 4 batches; each batch will take 2 to 4 minutes. Stir occasionally as they cook, until the fries are soft and cooked through but still pale. Allow enough time for the oil to return to 320 degrees between batches; use an instant-read thermometer to monitor the oil. Use a slotted spatula to transfer the potatoes to the lined baking sheets.

Increase the heat to high (or as needed) so that the temperature of the oil reaches 375 degrees. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Refresh the paper towels on the baking sheets as needed.

Cook the fries a second time, working in 4 batches; each batch will take 2 to 3 miinutes, until the fries are crisp and golden brown. Transfer to the lined baking sheets. Immediately season lightly with salt, then place in the oven to keep the fries warm.

For the meat and cheese: Melt the butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Have ready a large baking sheet.

Separate the ham slices and add to the skillet, turning them as needed until the slices are warmed through. Transfer the slices to the baking sheet, creating 8 equal portions. Top each with a slice of provolone cheese. Place in the oven (along with the fries) just until the cheese has melted.

For assembly: Place the portions of cheese-topped ham on 8 bread slices. Top with a large handful of the warm fries, then pile about 1/2 cup of the slaw on each portion. Garnish with 2 tomato slices for each portion; use the remaining 8 pieces of bread to finish each sandwich. Serve warm.

2012 Food & Dining Trends, BY Cooking With Amy

2012 Food & Dining Trends

In no particular order, here are COOKING WITH AMY's predictions with a tiny sprinkling of wishful thinking...

More transparency and labeling in the food system
Have you been to a supermarket lately? All the seafood is now labeled so you know where it comes from and whether or not it is farmed and if color is added. That is amazing considering that not long ago seafood had barely any labeling at all, but it's just the beginning. I believe consumers will demand labels on produce and meat too. Food contamination and security issues are only a few of the issues driving this trend.



Foraging, hunting and wild foodWild and foraged ingredients are showing up on more and more menus and there are classes and books to help you learn about this return to a more primal way of eating. The poster boy for this trend is Hank Shaw. The poster Girl? Georgia Pellegrini! 

Local culture on the plate
Rene Redzepi the chef at NOMA, (the world's number one restaurant according to one survey) has inspired countless chefs and delighted diners. He uses local ingredients to create a unique cuisine that is a reflection of a singular time and place. This is where high end dining is going. Something that can only be found in one spot is the ultimate in exclusivity.

Honey
The world's first sweetener and a product from bees who we are dependent upon for pollination of fruits and vegetables from avocados to watermelon. Bees have already been in the news because of colony collapse but I think their honey will get some more attention soon too, now that the scandal of widespread bogus honeyhas been revealed. Honey is an unrefined sugar and a true expression of flora. Trying and learning about honey is as exciting and never ending as learning about wine or coffee.


Digital Cookbooks

Epicurious is leading the way here with ecookbooks, offering a variety of best selling cookbooks you can now save to your "recipe box." Since we are already using our computers in the kitchen and to look for recipes, this makes a lot of sense. It makes finding, sharing and using recipes much easier.

Lamb, goat, rabbit and bison

I'm sorry to disappoint any vegan activists, but it's just not likely that Americans are going to give up eating meat. However I do believe they are going to think about sustainability and start making more informed choices. Goat is the most popular meat in the world, we already love goat cheese, the meat can't be far behind. Likewise lamb, rabbit and bison represent more sustainable and ecologically friendly choices than industrially raised pork, beef or chicken.

Chia

I'm seeing chia everywhere. It's a fascinating seed, considered a superfood by some, loaded with vitamins and minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, protein and fiber. It creates an amazing gel like texture but can also be used like a grain in baked goods. I hope chefs are as inspired to play with it as I am.

Chefs doing good 
As we get more and more tired of the endless self promotion associated with celebrity chefs (not to mention some food bloggers) I think chef charities will gain in visibility as a way of chefs getting limelight, but for all the right reasons. Great examples include the Mario Batali Foundation, Jamie Oliver Foundation which includes Fifteen and the Ministry of Food, and Rachael Ray's Yum-o!

Handmade sodasMore and more restaurants are offering housemade soda as a non-alcoholic option. Sophisticated and not overly sweet, I expect we will see a lot more of them. Some good local ones try include Jesse Friedman's seasonal offerings fromSodaCraft.

Deli
Perhaps the David Sax book Save the Deli led to a resurgence in interest in Jewish delicatessen food. While LA style Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen failed to knock my socks off, the excitement over their pop-ups indicates a real desire for it. I do believe good deli is on it's way. Perhaps it's the new charcuterie?

Lower alcohol wines
I think this year in Napa might be the turning point. It was a cooler than normal growing season and vintners found that lower brix in this year's vintage meant an opportunity to craft more elegant and lower alcohol wines. We will see how consumers react. But I hope they can learn to appreciate something beyond the big fruit bombs Napa has become known for producing.

Small plate breakfasts
Ok I admit it, this is wishful thinking. But a girl can dream can't she? After having the most spectacular brunch ever at Michael's Genuine in Miami, I just hope this idea catches on. Imagine instead of a big stack of pancakes, just one. Plus a single egg benedict, and a house made pop tart? Heaven.

The other Mediterranean
Perhaps I am just inspired by my trip to Morocco, but I can't help think that Moroccan, Egyptian, Tunisian, Algerian, Lebanese and Turkish food will be on the rise. They are part of the Mediterranean but often get overlooked in favor of French, Italian and Spanish cuisine. Think of them as the new frontier. At very least, recently released cookbooks by Mourad Lalou and Paula Wolfert will fuel the interest in Moroccan flavors.