Throw a proper Maine lobster bake–anywhere

from Tasting Table Everywhere, Jun 23, 2009

The water in New England is still a bit chilly for swimming, but no matter: When Yankees get sand between their toes, their first thoughts are not of sunscreen and snorkels, but of lobster and lemon butter.

Well-timed to coincide with the recent plunge in lobster prices, a new cookbook features a lobster-bake tutorial from the masters: schooner captains from Maine, the lobster capital of America.

Windjammer Cooking, by Jean Kerr and Spencer Smith, is a collection of recipes from the state’s windjammers: old fishing schooners that have been repurposed for passenger cruises. On every cruise, the captain anchors at a swath of sand and fires up an all-you-can-eat lobster bake.

Here’s how it’s done:
1. Cover the bottom of your largest pot or a galvanized-steel kettle with 2 to 3 inches of seawater (or lightly salted water). Position the pot over an open fire. Bring the water to a boil and add lobsters. Pile clams, mussels or other shellfish on top. Next, add a layer of onions, garlic and potatoes. Cover with a thin layer of seaweed and add corn (in the husk, but with the ends trimmed to save space).

2. Cover everything with a thick layer of seaweed, cover the pot and let steam for about 20 minutes. When finished, the potatoes should be tender, the shellfish should be open and the lobster meat should be white and firm. Serve with melted butter and lemon wedges.

A winemaker turns disaster into a delicious barbecue sauce

from Tasting Table Everywhere, May 22, 2009

In October 2005, an arsonist set fire to a wine warehouse in Vallejo, California, ruining $100 million worth of wine from 92 wineries. Most winemakers left their bottles to the bulldozer; Julie Johnson just couldn’t let go.

So Johnson, the owner of Tres Sabores, an organic winery in nearby Rutherford, threw on a Tyvek suit and gloves and rescued all the wine she could. Her wines were “cooked,” as they say (though quite literally this time), and undrinkable, but she took about 5,000 bottles home to see if she could do anything with their contents.

She boiled down some Zinfandel and added produce from her farm. A few trials later, she emerged with a sauce, ¿Porqué No? Fire-Roasted Zinfandel Marinade and Grilling Glaze.

Named after one of her perished wines, ¿Porqué No? has the berry aroma and smoky pepper of the Zin, complemented with pureed persimmon and pomegranate and a spicy dose of serrano chile. Johnson left sugar and tomato out of her recipe, so the flavor is tangy and complex–and not at all cloying.

As its name suggests, the sauce has multiple uses: Johnson likes to marinate pork or chicken in the mixture, then brush it on again as the meat grills. Or you can try it in her homespun recipe, a lusty, blue-cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped burger (click here to download).

¿Porque No? Marinade and Glaze ($14 for 500 ml) is available at tressabores.com

from Saveur Magazine, May 2009

THINK CONNECTICUT is one big suburb? Think again: its diverse immigrant communities, fertile farms, and vibrant university towns full of forward-thinking chefs add up to as rich a culinary landscape as that of many states three times its size.

Connecticut’s bounty is deliciously apparent on the menus of its most innovative restaurants. At the Dressing Room at the Westport Country Playhouse, the chef Michel Nischan offers classic dishes crafted with local ingredients. Our favorite: the chicken pot pie with jerusalem artichoke sauce.

LIFE AQUATIC

Whether hooked in the state’s rivers or coastal bays, Connecticut’s fish and shellfish draw crowds. Native delicacies include quahogs, the hardshell clams that star in New England clam chowder; plump bluepoint oysters; and bluefish from the Long Island Sound. In spring, Connecticut River vally residents welcome the season with shad bakes, at which the spawning fish is deboned, spread on oak planks, and roasted with salt pork over an open fire.

APIZZA!

New Haven’s Wooster Square has been synonymous with pizza (or as locals say, “appiza,” pronounced ah-BEETS) since 1925, when an Italian immigrant, named Frank Pepe opened a pizzeria that turned out thin-crust pies topped with just tomato sauce, oregano, and anchovies, perfectly charred in a coal-fired oven. In time, Pepe’s pies (shown above) became the gold standard in Connecticut (and, depending on whom you ask, the world); today, the signature version is topped with clams and chunks of garlic.

GREEN PASTURES

Connecticut has been a hub of dairy production since the 18th century, when its lush pastures supported cows that supplied milk and cheese to New York City and Boston. In the 20th century, many of the state’s family-run farms opened “dairy bars” serving homemade ice cream and diner fare; some, like the Prospect Dairy Bar, in Prospect, continue to draw loyal customers today. Between 1940 and 2009, the number of dairies in Connecticut dropped from 6,200 to 149; now many farmers are turning to a new product to keep their industry alive: farmstead cheese. Cato Corner Farm in Colchester and Beaver Brook Farm in Lyme are among the state’s best cheese makers.

5 STATE SANDWICHES

1. A Connecticut-style hot lobster roll (shown right) is sublimely simple: lobster meat, lots of butter, and a split-top hot dog bun. Try the one served at Lenny and Joe’s Fish Tale in Westbrook.

2. The steamed cheeseburger has a cult following in central Connecticut. Ted’s Restaurant, in Meriden, prepares its burger in a custom-designed steaming cabinet and serves it bubbling over with cheddar.

3. Connecticut may have more hot dog stands per capita than any state in the union; Rawley’s, in Fairfield, is beloved for its deep-fried hot dogs wrapped in bacon.

4. The Marcus Dairy Bar, in Danbury, serves the perfect old-school open-face turkey sandwich: thick slices of roasted meat and gravy on white bread with a generous helping of cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes.

5.  For 87 years, the Nardelli family of Waterbury has stacked salami, cappicola ham, and provolone on fresh rolls with a homemade pickle, pepper and onion marinade that has made the Italian grinders at its store famous.

Ben Conniff

from Saveur, April 2009

Traditional Mexican chocolate, with its intensely tannic, spicy flavor, is an essential ingredient for complex moles, or sauces, like the ones chef Rick Bayless makes at his Chicago restaurant Topolobampo (see page 70; a recipe for his pork with mole negro sauce appears on the previous two pages). Unlike European-style baking chocolate, traditional Mexican chocolate is never conched (rolled together with vanilla, sugar, and cocoa butter until it becomes smooth). Instead, the cacao beans are coarsely ground, toasted, and combined with cinnamon and ground almonds; then the mixture is molded into cylinders or disks. While the best Mexican chocolate is still handmade on a grinding stone, there are several good commercial brands widely available in the states. The most popular is Ibarra ($4.25 per 18.6-ounce box). -Ben Conniff

from Saveur, April 2009

December 13 Anniversary: Delmonico’s Opens

New York City, 1827

Italian immigrants John and Peter Delmonico helped introduce fine dining to America when they opened their first cafe, Delmonico and brother, at 23 William Street. Their Empire grew to nine locations but could not outlive Prohibition. The restaurant was raided by “dry” agents in 1921 and 1922; by 1923 it could no longer afford to operate.

I recently started a new blog called the Penny Palate, dedicated to eating and drinking cheap in New York City, at restaurants and bars and at home. In our current economy, it’s a classy site for the unabashedly stingy. Here’s a full description of the site from its about page:

from The Penny Palate

Please, sir, may I hear some more?

from the Playboy Blog, 11/7/08

After my thorough drenching at the NY Brewfest, I was happy to see that the Brewtopia Great World Beer Festival was being held indoors at Pier 92. Of course, Mother Nature responded with a gorgeous fall day. It also wasn’t particularly fortunate that I was hitting up the festival the morning after Halloween. This meant a long subway ride with a hangover vicious enough to make me question my will to live, and miss my stop. But once I meandered over to the Hudson, it took just a few sips before I was floating once more, and ready to get down to the business of picking a favorite.

Best beer: Tröeg’s Troegenator Double Bock

The Troegenator was a pleasant surprise: rich, warm, and malty but not overly sweet, a common failing that leads me to avoid double bock in general. It was also quite smooth for its 8.2% abv. The brew was a perfect complement to a tasty (though regrettably $8) bratwurst sandwich from Helmut’s Brats & Pretzels.

Worst Beer: Schmaltz Brewing Jewbelation 12

Mix one part Hershey’s chocolate syrup and one part Dubra vodka. Shake. I imagine Schmaltz’s recipe is a bit more nuanced, but the effect is about the same. The 12% abv is a plus, though.

Best surprise: Music

I normally assume that the musical acts at these festivals will be throw-away classic rock cover bands. But the two bands I saw, Quintus and Julius C were up and coming New York groups who seemed, like Sampson, to derive musical talent from their hair, as no one between the two bands had had a haircut or a shave in a good long time. Their performances were a boon to the breweries lucky enough to have booths near the bandstand and a misfortune to those on the opposite end of the warehouse, whom I confess I neglected.

Worst surprise: Hook and Ladder Brown Ale

It pains me to knock Hook and Ladder, a model company that donates a portion of all its sales to local firefighters and burn victims. But journalistic integrity forces me to say that their brown ale falls flat. It’s rare that I come across a brown ale I don’t like, but Hook and Ladder’s lacks the full body and flavor that normally come with the genre, and the aftertaste feels no different than if you’d sipped from a water hose. But I bet their other beers are worth a shot, so check them out.

from the Playboy Blog, 9/16/08

Mother nature kindly dumped barrels of rain on New York City last Friday. But that didn’t keep thirsty souls from flooding into South Street Seaport that night, where over 80 craft breweries had pitched tents for the third annual New York Brewfest.

There are difficulties inherent in attempting to write about a five hour long, all-you-can-drink beer marathon. It’s not easy to shoulder your way up to a bar through a crowd of guys twice your size in bright red Duane Reade ponchos. But looking back, my biggest problem is just remembering what the hell happened, especially on a night when any notes I may have taken quickly turned to mush. Here are the brief highlights I do recall…

Best beer: Ithaca Nut Brown
It didn’t choke me with hops like some of the IPAs, but still had plenty of earthy flavor (where some brown ales fall short), and a smooth texture. Even with 80 breweries and hundreds of individual beers to try, I came back to Ithaca for seconds.

Worst beer: Brown’s Cherry Raspberry Ale
I like to keep my berries and beer separate, but I have found a few fruity beers that are nice on a summer day. Not this one. The combination of sickeningly sweet and surprisingly boozy flavors reminded me of another brand I try to drink sparingly: Robitussin.

Best surprise: Oatmeal Stout
Everywhere. Maybe my bias just led me to it, but on a rainy day with little food in my stomach it was nice to find this hearty selection at about every third bar I visited. Samuel Smith had the best.

Worst surprise:
The state of the port-a-johns around hour 4.5. Okay, maybe that shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Here are a few of the product write-ups I wrote for the April Issue of Playboy Magazine.

Scoot-Free

Few things are more depressing than watching your paycheck tick away at the fuel pump. Make the switch to a Vectrix electric scooter ($11,000, vectrix.com) and you can bypass gas stations permanently. Though designed more for getting around town than going cross-country, this is no sewing machine with wheels. It boasts a top speed of 62 mph, and its tight handling lets you weave through traffic jams. It goes 35 to 55 miles on one charge, and if you run out of juice, just plug the on-board charger into any electrical outlet and you’re golden. Plus, the scooter’s simple construction (250 parts compared with 2,500) for a gas scooter makes it a low-maintenance proposition. No gas, no oil, no problem.

The Right Stuff

If you want to impress her by cooking Italian, remember two things: Keep it simple, and use great ingredients. New York City’s Il Buco restaurant (ilbuco.net) sources authentic staples from rural Mediterranean enclaves. Its Fiore di Sale ($22) is from the legendary Trapani salt pans of Sicily; the sublimely fragrant Viridens extra-virgin olive oil ($42) comes from Umbria. Round things out with aged balsamic vinegar ($140), fennel pollen ($46) and ground Calabrian peppers ($16).

Swingers’ Club

While the big bat-making companies save their best wood for the pros, Naked Bats ($80 to $140, nakedbats.com) are all made to the same stellar standards (with a clear finish so you can see the grain) whether you’re an average joe or Joltin’ Joe. Plus, the barrel sports a vintage pinup. Keep your eyes on the ball, there, champ.

From the Playboy Blog, 10/17/07

Ever since I visited Brazil a year ago, there’s one thing I’ve sorely missed—and it’s not the bronze-skinned, g-string-clad women with perfect bodies. OK, it is. But then there’s that other Brazilian delicacy I yearn for: a good caipirinha. A simple mixture of muddled limes, sugar and cachaça, Brazil’s staple sugar cane-based liquor, a caipirinha can transport you in an instant from the muggy city to tropical sands and cool breezes. Sure, you can order caipirinhas in some New York bars, and even more in Newark due to its significant Brazilian population. But Newark? Some places aren’t worth going, even for booze. And most of the mass-produced cachaça that makes its way north simply can’t compare to the real deal, purchased fresh off a Brazilian fazenda.

But getting my fix just got easier when I stumbled upon MONDOliquor.com, a new website that deals exclusively in independent, artisanal liquors from across the globe. They claim to “scour the world” for unique tastes, and the stuff they sell is truly idiosyncratic. Try a bottle of Scorpion Mezcal, which means just what it sounds like: there’s a scorpion at the bottom of the bottle. You can even pick up a bottle of absinthe, at least if you’re living somewhere that it’s legal. And of course, Mae de Ouro Cachaça.
The point is you no longer need to fly across the world to get an authentic, exotic liquor selection. A few clicks and it’s delivered straight to your door. And instead of feeding money into big, impersonal corporations, you’re supporting small burgeoning businesses that bring an individual care to their products.
Of course, drinking an authentic caipirinha in my Brooklyn apartment won’t measure up to sipping one on the beach in Rio; the g-string girls are not part of the package. But it might just hold me until I can afford another plane ticket.