Friday Bits and Pieces: New Year''s Eve, Alice Waters, and Playing Games

Looking for plans on New Year's Eve? The IDI has list of options from Slippery Noodle to the Rathskellar. Don't forget your favorite fine dining restaurants will have festivities -- L'explorateur, Meridian, Euphoria, Restaurant Tallent and Scholar's Inn are among places with special evenings planned.

An Alice Waters Gift: Looking for last minute gift with a little something special? The IMA still has signed copies of Alice Waters' books in their gift shop.

Games for Wine Lovers: Or rather, making any family game a little wine friendly, Jeff over at The Good Grape gives us some oenophilic twists on the classics. He only missed Clue! I always wondered if the murderer broke any wine glasses when he clubbed Col. Mustard in the dining room with a wrench.

Monday Morning Duke's Mixture

Even less food coverage in the Star: Or, well, good food coverage anyway. Susan Guyett, lately one of the only tipsters over there on openings, closings and general food happenings was let go in the recent round of layoffs.

Taste Open for Dinner: Everyone's abuzz about Taste Cafe and their new dinner service (tentatively called the unappetizing "Aftertaste.") This popular brunch/lunch cafe is a stand-out in the category. The question is whether chefs Marc and Diedre can bring in the bacon for dinner. (Heads up -- they're not open every night, just later in the week, but I couldn't find the info on the website.)

Liquefied Caramel Corn: My favorite blogger, Carol Blymire (of French Laundry at Home) is tackling the new Alinea cookbook, recipe by recipe in her newest blog, Alinea at Home. I have no doubt she'll make many of these dishes seem perfectly reasonable. At least, the caramel corn looks like a great idea to me. (She's good about noting how and where to find special ingredients and equipment in her write-ups.)

Chicken Terrine

Thanksgiving is coming and I wanted to find a terrine that might be adaptable for the holiday table. Inspired by a few of the chicken terrines Chef Chris Eley has featured lately at The Goose, and armed with both Ruhlman's Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing and Reynaud's Terrine, I decided to give a poultry-based terrine a try. (I've had good success so far with pork and rabbit.) This one was pretty simple -- chicken, shallots, garlic, chives and nutmeg with eggs and cream to bind. Once again, I thank the gods for food processors.

While chopped shallots and garlic sauteed in oil, I put the diced uncooked chicken breast and eggs in the food process. I added grated nutmeg and cream. Then the shallots, chives, salt and pepper.

The recipe didn't call for lining the mold with anything, but I like the way it looks and was worried this recipe might be bland, so I used thin slices of smoky Black Forest ham. Chicken mixture goes into the lined mold, then into a water bath. After an hour, I brought it out of the oven and weighted it with a foil covered board and a panini press (about 8 lbs.)

This morning, it came out the mold very cleanly and I'm torn about the results. More after I've had a couple of days to process and gotten some second opinions. More pics in the flickr group.

Host of The Splendid Table to Appear

I know a lot of you are fans of Lynne Rossetto Kasper of public radio's The Splendid Table. She'll be in Indianapolis next weekend for a Q&Z and signing for her latest book, The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show. 10:00 a.m., Saturday, October 18 at Clark Appliance Showcase in Castleton. The event is free.

Home Grown Indiana at Goose, The Market

And, yet another event I meant to mention to you all. Christine Barbour and Scott Hutcheson, authors of Home Grown Indiana: A Food Lover's Guide to Good Eating in the Hoosier State (Quarry Books), will be signing books at Goose, The Market this coming Saturday (Oct 4) from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Stop in, say "hello" and get them to sign your copy!

Pictures from the Home Grown Indiana Party

Pictures are up from last weekend's Home Grown Indiana book launch party. Lots of chefs, artisinal producers, food writers, magazine publishers and editors, as well as general food fans rolled out to help celebrate Christine Barbour and Scott Hutcheson's new book about Indiana producers. More pics at Flickr.

Home Grown Indiana: It's a Book!

Congratulations to central Indiana food writers (and bloggers) Christine Barbour and Scott Hutcheson on their book, Home Grown Indiana: A Food Lover's Guide to Good Eating in the Hoosier State (Quarry Books, $16.95) Many of you will know Christine from her blog, My Plate or Yours, and Scott from his Hungry Hoosier blog and columns. (By day, Christine is a political science professor at IU and Scott is an economic development specialist at Purdue. Christine is the author of Indiana Cooks.)

Together, they celebrate central Indiana producers, chefs, farmers markets, and more with their guide to more than 400 local producers, restaurants, farmers' markets, winemakers, brewers, and food festivals.

Summer Wine Reads

Wine geeks read, well, books about wine. And the wine business. And people who love wine. The good news is that a lot of wonderful writers have made it easier to do. Assuming that you've already made your way though the classics like Kermit Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route and The House of Mondavi, here are a few more summer reads on your favorite juice.

The First Crush: The Down and Dirty on Making Great Wine Down Under, Eric Arnold: This is possibly the funniest and best book on winemaking I've ever read. And it's not just that he says mechanical harvesters strip vines faster than a sailor rips the dress off a $20 whore. (He likens wine consultants to sorority girls -- the kind that have a boyfriend in every frat house.) Bottom line: he blows off a year and heads to New Zealand to work for Allen Scott Wines in Marlborough. Hilarity ensues. (Hat tip to The Good Grape since I bought it months ago after their pointer.)

The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, Benjamin Wallace: In the 1990s, the old and rare wines market exploded with the discovery of the "Jefferson bottles," a cache of 1787 Bordeaux unearthed in a cellar renovation in Paris. When experts like Michael Broadbent declared them authentic, what started as a flurry of interest became an decade-long investigation of not only one high profile collector -- and counterfeiter -- but a crack in the entire market.

The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of American Taste, Elin McCoy: Love Parker or hate him, there's no denying the mark he has left (and continues to leave) on wine. This fascinating biography offers insight into his early wine interests (not unlike a *lot* of amateurs, he just kept tasting), how he started Advocate (it took him 10 years to make enough money to quit his day job as a corporate lawyer), how he created the 100-point system, and even his prickly personality. It's an insightful view into the world of reviewing, tasting, and the business (Bordeaux futures, anyone?) Even if you hate everything Parker stands for, this one is worth the read.

Next up for me? The Judgement of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine, George M. Taber. I want to read it before the movie, Bottle Shock, opens!

New Books from Anthony Bourdain

I'm behind on my publishign email, but Grub Street caught this yesterday. The Publisher's Lunch Deal Memo (a daily report on deals from editors and agents) reports Tony Bourdain has a new three-book deal with Dan Halpern at Ecco. From the Publisher's Lunch:

Anthony Bourdain's COOKS, a follow-up to Kitchen Confidential, in which Bourdain explores how the industry he loves — and the people in it — have changed (if they've changed) since his years in the kitchen, and tracks the bizarre changes in his own life, along with more frank observations on dining, cuisine and the grim/glamorous business of cooking; NO NEW MESSAGES, a crime novel about a disgraced former 'It Boy' novelist and a disgraced chef (fresh off a public humiliation on a reality series), involved in a murder on the Caribbean island where both are laying low; and an untitled memoir of moving his family to a small village in Vietnam to spend a year in total immersion there, taking time to get to know his neighbors and deeply exploring Indonesia and Southeast Asia, to Dan Halpern at Ecco, by Kim Witherspoon at Inkwell Management.

Cookbook of the Week: Napkin Folding

Hey, you guys already knew I was a cookbook geek, and nothing is geekier than napkin folding. It's only because it was the next cookbook on the shelf: The Complete Illustrated Book of Napkins and Napkin Folding. It's pretty inclusive with everything from what types of fabric fold best to all the shapes you could imagine from the classic to the modern. Plus, I was ironing so I tried a few. (Pics over at the Feed Me/Drink Me Flickr group.)

Orange Fennel Risotto

Look! I'm taking my own food pictures now! Here, we have an Orange Fennel Risotto (from Eric Gower's The Breakaway Cook, my current "Cookbook of the Week.") As risottos go, this one is really interesting -- cooked with orange juice, white wine, fennel and shallot, it provides lots of orange tang and crunch from the fennel with a fresh spring finishe of anise. I'll be serving it at a dinner in a couple of weeks with a nice, meaty portion of halibut on top. Garnished with orange zest and fennel frond.

Oh, look! A nice picture of the fennel frond!

A Cookbook a Week: The Breakaway Cook

OK, so I skipped over the Italian book that didn't have anything good in it. I've pushed back the napkin folding tome, and deferred the Indonesian cookbook until I'm ready to tackle it. In the meantime, I'm cooking from The French Laundry Cookbook and testing a few new things for a dinner party next month. The book I've been mining for new recipes? Eric Gower's The Breakaway Cook.

Gower's first book, The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen introduced his idea of updating traditional flavors with Western ingredients and vice versa. Lots of miso, yuzo, umeboshi, and shiso paired with western preparations like smoked salmon, cole slaw, and roasted root vegetables. (How about Beet Salad with Ginger, Smoked Trout and Walnuts? Or Smoked Salmon with Edamame, Cherry and Shiso? in this one along with his unique rice (made with carrot juice) and treats like Grilled Marmalade "Bacon" with Meyer Lemon and Ginger make this book a staple for me. (His dishes pair incredibly well with wines due to their strong savoury and citrus flavors.) The Breakaway Cook takes his ideas one step further teaching cooks how to focus on simple cooking with "blasts" of flavor like maccha salt, smoked paprika, your own pickled ginger, sake, and green tea. Today, I'm test driving two new-to-me recipes:

**Orange Fennel Risotto (Arborio rice with orange juice and zest along with fennel bulbs)

**Minty Meaty Wontons (wontons with ground lamb, ground pork, and mint, Greek yogurt, and pine nuts

Maybe I'll make some maccha salt while I'm at it. Or maybe the Galangal-Brown Sugar Ice Cream!

A Cookbook a Week: Wolfert's Couscous

How's everyone coming along with the "cookbook a week" challenge? For those just tuning in to our program, the idea is that you start at one end of your cookbook bookshelf, then cook a dish from each cookbook in order about one per week. I've really been trying not to jump around, following the meme and working from one cookbook to the next. I'm still in Moroccan territory, so next up is Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco by Paula Wolfert. Wolfert's books are considered the definitive reference for Moroccan cooking but are, to my eye, starting to show their age. She compiled her work in the 1970s and takes many opportunities to lament the state of cooks and cooking in the US. However, the book is a great reference and she explains many of the special spices and techniques needed for success. I'm all tagined out but need a new batch of preserved lemons. I always use her recipe which includes cinnamon and coriander in the brine.

The timing couldn't be better. Thirty days from now, I'll be in olive-lemon chicken heaven.

Salsa Verde from Grady Spears

Picked up an abundance of produce at Saraga the other day including tomatillos. (It's Dan Dunville's fault -- I keep craving that salsa verde he uses for the black beans, eggs and tortilla dish on his brunch menu.) So, here's the Salsa Verde I made yesterday from Grady Spears. Thank the gods for food processors. Took it to a girl's night dinner last night. Make this a day ahead! It was good yesterday but is spectacular today.

Salsa Verde from A Cowboy in the Kitchen: Recipes from Reata and Texas West of the Pecos by Grady Spears (1998, Ten Speed Press)

*1 lb of tomatillos (he says about 13, I used about 10 but could have used a few more)
*1/4 bunch cilantro, stems removed, leaves chopped. (If you do this, you'll use the entire bunch)
*3 fresh serrano chilis, stemmed and chopped (to taste, obviously)

*1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions (about 5 scallions) (I used 2 bunches of strong green onions and didn't slice them but just threw them in the food processor with everything else)

*1 1/2 tsp minced garlic

*1/4 cup red bell pepper, cut into 1/8 inch dice (I used orange, and also just tossed it into the food processor)

*2 tbsp honey

*1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice (I used a bit more once I really got to tweaking this)

Kosher salt to taste

* Husk the tomatillos by removing th parchment-like covering on the outside.

* Rinse them and place in a saucepan.

* Just cover with water and bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and allow them to simmer for 3-5 minutes, or unti they are just tender but still green in color.

* Remove from the heat, drain and coarsely chop in a food processor.

* Pour the tomatillos in a bowl and add the cilantro, chiles, scallions, garlic, bell pepper, honey, and lime. Mix. Season with salt. Will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week. (Makes about 2 cups.)

The honey helps hold the heat but you can adjust as needed. This salsa just screams for sliced avocados and fresh tangy tomatos on crispy chips. It would be terrific on just-fried tortillas or even oven baked wonton wrappers. Melds in the fridge overnight so make ahead.

Tomato and Onion Confits

Last weekend, Kirts challenged me. "You have to actually cook something and post about it," he said. He knows I can cook but that I just don't very often. Cooking for me is highly dependent on the weather, the season, my frame of mind, and frankly, if I'm in the mood to eat it all. (I do cook for my own dinner parties although it seems like it's been a while since I really threw down.) Making jellies, jams, pates, and other home-processed goodies is a perfect outlet for my creative cooking side and my not-wanting-to-eat-it-all side.

This morning, ready for a holiday of procrastination from work, I decided to make my lists and get out to Saraga bright and early. So much good produce today! (Can hardly wait to cook that baby bok choy.) Armed with recipes from Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie I thought I'd make a couple of simple vegetable confits. I canned mine -- that is, I put them in small jars and processed them in boiling water so they'll be sealed and keep for a while, but these are simple to make even if you just want to keep them in the fridge and serve with meats or as part of a relish tray.

Tomato Confit from Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn (2005, WW Norton)

2 tbsp grated, peeled fresh ginger
2 tbsp minced shallots
1.5 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 EVOO
6 ripe Roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/4 cup fresh herbs such as flat-leaf basil, parsley and chives or a combination
Kosher salt and ground black pepper

1) Combine ginger, shallots, garlic, oil, and vinegar in a medium-sized saucepot (or skillet) big enough for the tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and add the tomatoes. (Don't forget to peel them. If you're me, at this point, you'll need to take the ginger/garlic off the stove, boil a separate pot of water and concasse the tomatoes.)

2) Add the tomatoes and cook the entire mixture 12-15 minutes until soft and paste-like. (I'm not sure what he means by "paste-like" but since I didn't dice my tomatoes small enough, it took more like 30-45 minutes to cook everything down until it was about as thick as really thick spaghetti sauce.

3) Transfer to a bowl to cool. Stir in the herbs (I think I used twice as much because they were chopped). Season with S/P.

4) If you're going to process, transfer to sterilized jars and follow the instructions for your normal processing. (I left a 1/2 inch of head-space and processed for 10 minutes.)

Makes about 2 cups. I like the basic recipe but this will be spectacular in the fall with fresh tomatoes and basil. It's a little like a bruschetta topping but a little of that saved over for winter won't be bad.

Onion Confit also from Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn (2005 WW Norton)

3 ounces unsalted butter (about a 1/3 cup, a little over 6 tablespoons)
2 lbs Spanish onions or other sweet onions, halved lengthwise, and thin sliced. (As thin as possible)
1/2 cup dry white wine. (I used cave because it's what I had in the fridge. Damn, I had to open the bottle. Oh, what to do with the rest of this? Well, time for a drink!)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 white wine vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1) Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cover. Cook until soft, approximately 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2) Remove the lid and season with S/P. Add the wine, honey, vinegar and turn the heat to medium-high. Reduce the liquid until the onions are almost dry. (Words he uses "until most of the liquid had evaporated.) Remove from heat and let cool.

3) Serve chilled. If you're going to process, put in jars and proceed normally. Otherwise, store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Makes about 2 cups. Fantastic! I'd make this again in a heartbeat paying a bit more attention to my knifework on the onions. I just had the better part of a jar with some white wine, dry cured salami (from St. Louis), and crackers, oh, and the rest of that bottle of cava. If you're wanting more *finished* looking "jam", then chop onions a bit. Tangy, sweet and delicious.

A Cookbook a Week: Modern Moroccan

Next on the shelf: Modern Moroccan: Ancient Traditions, Contemporary Cooking by Ghilli Basan. Love this cookbook! A few years ago, I went on a big Moroccan cooking kick. Preserved lemons (so easy to do at home), ras al hanout (Richard Blaise's favorite spice on this season's Top Chef), and a tagine (Le Creuset, natch.) To get me up to speed, I relied on two cookbooks -- a Paula Wolfert book (next on the shelf) and this one, an updated contemporary style of Moroccan cooking. It's become a favorite. It even has the recipe for hash balls, oh, excuse me sesame-coated majoun. (The same author has also done a book on Indonesian and Philippino cooking I'm delving into currently.)

I'm having a few people over before we head to Roller Derby tomorrow night, and thought I'd make a lamb tagine my favorite way with honey and golden raisins, garlic and ginger. Tagines can be incredibly forgiving. (The name applies both to the dish -- a stew like braise of meat and veggies -- as well as the traditional cone shaped cooking pot used to make it.) One can add almost any combination of meat and veg, create a thick sauce to finish, and serve over couscous or with pita bread. Since some people may want more than others, I'm going to make this dish tomorrow afternoon and let folks help themselves. I'll also add a plate of olives, dried fruit, nuts, and cheese.

So, here's the Tagine of Lamb (with a few modifications from my own notes)

approx 2 1/4-2 1/2 pounds boneless shoulder of lamb, trimmed and cubed

2-3 tbsp sunflower oil (I use EVOO)

1 oz fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped

pinch of saffron threads

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 onion finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 1/2 cups pitted prunes soaked for 1 hour (I use golden raisins)

2 tbsp clear honey (or more to taste)

salt and pepper

I also often add a cup of cashews to this dish

Harissa -- the spicy Moroccan chili paste -- on the side

Put the meat in a flameproof casserole, tagine, or heavy pan on the stove top. Add the oil, ginger, saffron, cinnamon, onion, garlic, and seasoning, then pour in enough water to cover. Heat until simmering, cover with a lid, and simmer gently for at least two hours, topping up with water as necessary. Drain the prunes (or raisins) and add them to the tagine. Stir in the honey and simmer for a further 30 minutes or until the sauce is reduced. This is a great make-ahead dish as you can hold it on the stove until you're ready to finish the sauce. Serve on its own or over couscous.

Grady Spears' Buttermilk Dressing

Psst, hey, everyone, Chef Neal Brown doesn't know how to make ranch dressing! Short of sending him to the market for a packet of Hidden Valley, here's a recipe for the real deal, straight from Chef Grady Spears, the king of all cowboy cooks, or at least the one who's managed to make a living defining Texas ranch food.

Spears' restaurant, Reata, for those who remember, was one of the premier restaurants in Fort Worth before a tornado blew it away (Ironic, really, except for that it was on the top floor of a downtown office building which is somehow more frightening.) Since then, Reata in its current incarnation has launched other up-and-coming Texas chefs like Tim Love. A few years ago, Spears opened Ft. Worth's Chisholm Club where he created the Chicken-Fried Foie Gras, one of my favorite dishes of all time. So, Neal, here's a "ranch" dressing recipe for you. It's a decadent treat and great with a big ol' wedge of iceberg lettuce and fresh tomatoes. Even better with bacon. And hey, it's pretty good on chicken fingers, too.

Buttermilk Dressing by Chef Grady Spears from A Cowboy in the Kitchen: Recipes from Reata and Texas West of the Pecos (1998 Ten Speed Press).

Yield: 2 Cups

1/3 cup minced red onion
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp roasted garlic or minced garlic
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Kosher salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and blend with a whisk. The dressing is better if allowed to sit in the refrigerator for several hours to blend flavors before serving. Store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container. It will keep for about a week.

A Cookbook a Week: RSVP by Nan Kempner

I know I said I was doing Amy Sedaris' book next, but I couldn't decide what to make. I finally settled on lemony Greek orzo soup and I haven't sorted out the recipe yet. So, we're skipping ahead to the next book on the shelf (three over from the old issues of Food and Wine and propping up 8 books on cheese -- RSVP. For those "in the know", Nan Kempner is the grande dame of NYC entertaining and the insider feel -- for those who entertain *by* those who entertain -- is the crux of this book. In RSVP: Menus for Entertaining from People Who Really Know How, it's fun to see first hand a party she threw for the Gettys or a Princess from Greece. Menus, invitations, table settings, and decor are all elegantly photographed and go well with the matter-of-fact name dropping. This book is good for ideas, but the recipes aren't great. Well, some sound great (like Fresh Figs with Lavender-Infused Cream and Chilled Herb and Leaf Soup) and others are pretty pedestrian (Beef Fajitas and Lemon Meringue Pie.) Either way, all the menus for garden lunches to formal dinners emphasize what makes a great party a success whether you're entertaining billionaire's or friends -- simple, fresh dishes that taste good. Warning, the recipes aren't well tested and unless you're enough of a cook to improvise, you're going to have some trouble with this cookbook. I know I did the first few times I used it (and I haven't made that much from it.) It's useful, though, if cooking for a large group since most of the recipes assume you're serving 8-16. With that in mind, I think I'll try the lemon-pepper biscuits. It's a basic biscuit recipe with lemon zest and cracked black pepper (easy to do if I want to adapt by own biscuit recipe as well.) It's a good idea book as well. I love mashed sweet potatoes and might like them even more with the gingerbread crust in one recipe.

Roasted Garbanzos

Have been cleaning out the freezer and ran across a bag of those green garbanzos from Trader Joe's. Love them but OD'd on them weeks ago. These were looking pretty haggard. Enter Bittman's How to Cook Everything and a recipe for roasted garbanzos. Just spread cooked beans in a roasting pan in a single layer. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Roast at 400 for 30 minutes or so. They'll be crispy on the outside. Perfect for dinner or snacking. Add curry or other spices to finish. (I used ras al hanout.) Bonus, roasting gets rid of the stale freezer burn taste. I should clean out the freezer more often. Last week, I turned a package of stale frozen lavosh into crispy flatbread crackers. (Each sheet at 10 minutes in the oven.)

Cookbook a Week -- Morton's Steak Bible

I made it through my cookbook challenge last week, did you? We had a girls cook in night last week and did pretty well with the chicken, tomato, olives, and parmesan cheese from Simple to Spectacular. The next cookbook on my shelf is The Morton's Steak Bible: Recipes and Lore from the Legendary Steakhouse by Klaus Fritsch with Mary Goodbody.

Mmmm. Steak. This one has a useful section up front on the basics of cooking steaks at home to capture all the great flavor and qualtiy of a steakhouse, including temperatures and a few secrets. And if someone in your house loves all the additional bascis -- a great Ceasar salad, a good chop salad, creamed spinach, five kinds of potatos, hearty soups, and even some great starters and canapes, this cookbook will help. (There's a great looking crab and artichoke dip in here, mmmm.) Of course, there are some old school non-steak classics -- like a Beef Wellington with a chicken liver pate filling, pepper steak, braised lamb shanks, chicken Christopher, and shrimp Alexander. There are lots of preparations for seafood, salad, sides, and desserts along with a few cocktail recipes, wine pairing recommendations, a little restaurant lore, and all the dressings and sauces.

My recipe? Maybe a little Morton's Key Lime Pie is what I need to bring myself out of the winter doldrums -- although the Cold Grand Marnier Souffle' on the next page looks pretty good, too. I'll report back.