Curried Hummus Joins the Ranks

Everyone has their refrigerator staple that comes out every day after work.  Mine is hummus if you couldn't tell.  I never feel bad about eating copious amounts because it's not loaded with (bad) fat and you get some of your veggies for the day!  I learned that eating hummus with yellow and red bell pepper slices helps aid in total body detoxification.  Cleansing foods= always a plus.
So I was thinking about curry the other day and how turmeric, a key component to the standard curry powder is very good for you.  While it has been said to fend off such ailments as cancer and Alzheimer's Disease, it is most known for its anti-inflammatory properties.  How could I incorporate more of this into my diet?  You guessed it, Curried Hummus.
I searched around for a recipe that looked good to me and found this one, although I made some modifications: http://www.epicurean.com/featured/curried-hummus-recipe.html.  I really recommend following my modified recipe for best results- it just tastes better :)

1 1/2 Cans Garbanzo Beans, drained (reserve 1/4 C. of the bean liquid)
2 Large garlic  cloves, minced
3 Small dried red chili peppers, crumbled
Juice of 1-2 medium Lemons
1 tsp. Ground Cumin
2 tsp. Curry Powder
8 T. or 1/2 C. Olive Oil
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Coriander


Blend all ingredients in a food processor to desired consistency.  Don't forget to  add the garbanzo liquid!  Use more or less olive oil according to taste.


I know using 1 1/2 cans of garbanzo beans seems inconvenient, but add the leftover beans to a salad or fry them up for a crunchy appetizer and you don't lose your beans.  Enjoy!

Ramps: The Vegetable, Not the Structure

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I recently discovered Ramps, the wild leek of the Northeast that is only available for a brief period of time in the Spring then fades away.  I had never heard of ramps until a couple of weeks ago when the food world started chattering about this crazy elusive veg.  What do they look like? Why so prized?  Well, they look like this:

Courtesty of Gourmet.com

And they are so prized because for a few weeks in early to mid-spring these leafy bulbs pop up and are devoured with haste.  The Northeast breaks out in Ramp Fever all because they are to the culinary world what a limited release album is to music collectors.  So naturally I had to find them and try them.  I found them at the Montpelier Farmer's Market and since we were traveling, I only grabbed one bunch, just enough for a taste.  I wish I'd grabbed five bunches!  I used them in a pasta dish I found on epicurious.com which was adapted from a Mario Batali recipe (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spaghetti-with-Ramps-103326).  I have to say, it was really, really yummy.  The ramp/olive oil/lemon combination make a sort of pesto on the pasta.  I can see why people go crazy snatching up ramps.  The light, garlicky flavor of the white ends in combination with the lush, crunchy body the leafy greens make for a pungent and flavorful addition to any dish.

Please try them if you see them at your local grocery or farmer's market- they are worth it!

Rainy Day Cookies

Will the deluge ever stop?  Endless rain means endless hours indoors.  I can only watch so many movies before I go nuts (although The Birdcage is on and that never gets old).  With all the chilly, wet gloom outside I needed to warm myself up in a different way.  My Mom's oatmeal cookies did the trick.  Sudy's chewy, fruity, chocolate-ly cookies never fail to spread a warm, fuzzy feeling to all who indulge in them.  The best part is, you can find the recipe on the Quaker Oatmeal box!  Mom has jazzed it up a bit and I like hers better :)  Here is Sudy's recipe.  I made the cookies with all of her modifications except the almond meal.  My final cookie was Oatmeal Chocolate Cherry with Chopped Walnuts.

I really need a better camera- this picture detracts from the magnificence of the cookies

"Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookes," from the inside to label of a container of Quaker Oats

1/2 pound, 2 sticks margarine or butter, softened (Have used all low cal margarine, but best results -1 stick of low fat margarine, 1 stick unsalted butter)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (use about 2/3 cups)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (use about 1/4 cup unbleached cane sugar)
2 eggs (one egg +two egg whites)
1 tsp vanilla (I use about 1 1/2 tsps)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (have used both unbleached organic and whole wheat organic)*
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (use roasted cinnamon!)
1/2 tsp salt (optional - so I use about half)
3 cups quick or old fashioned, uncooked oats
1 cup raisins (I use dried cherries, no extra sugar added -- soak them in just enough Grand Marnier to cover the cherries -- Boulevard Bakery trick)
I sometimes added about 1/4-1/2 cup of small dark chocolate chips. When I did that, I adjusted the amount of cherries so the combined amount of cherries and chocolate chips to total 1 cup.

* I also have substituted 1/2 cup of almond meal for 1/2 cup of the total 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour. Makes them delicious and moist. If you want them to be crunchy but still want to see what impact the almond meal has, might limit it to 1/4 cup of almond meal.

Preparation of recipe:

Heat oven to 350 F.
Beat together margarine and sugars until creamy.
Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well.
Stir in oats and raisins; mix well.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack.

Makes about 4 dozen. If you want to try these as bar cookies, bake 30 to 35 minutes in ungreased 13X9-inch metal baking pan.

The perfect rainy day cookie!

Vermont in Springtime

I need to preface this next post by saying that I do in fact live in New Haven, CT and I do not travel EVERY weekend (although I wish I could).  I just got back from a truly wonderful weekend in Vermont where I ate and drank some of the best stuff you can get.  The beauty of it all was it was uber-fresh and most importantly, LOCAL.  I love going to the Farmer’s Market and buying products grown, picked or crafted in my own community or one nearby.  There is just something gratifying and special about it, like you are eating like kings and queens and not paying out the wazoo for it.  I’m getting ahead of myself- I’ll rewind.

            On Friday I made a last-minute trip up to Montpelier, Vermont to check out New England Culinary Institute, or as it’s most commonly referred to, NECI (pronounced neck-y).  I’d had just about enough with CIA and trying to coordinate visits, find the right programs, basically get them to help me as a perspective student (#%$!@$#!!!) so after I discovered they pulled the degree I was interested in without letting me know for the second time, I said to myself, “SCA-REW YOU, CIA” and looked for a new option.  I called my wonderful, problem-solving Mom looking for some tips.  “What about the New England Culinary Institute?” she said.  Far off bells started ringing in my head as I remembered speaking with the chef at Union League Café in New Haven, a highly regarded French restaurant.  When speaking about my plans for culinary school he told me, “If you are serious about food, there is only one place, New England Culinary School.”  While that may not be totally true, I’ve heard many things from many sources indicating that NECI is one of the finest schools in the country.  So, I looked them up, they had a similar program to the one I’ve been eyeing, and called them to arrange a tour.  Not only were they very helpful in setting up my visit, but also they were SO NICE.  I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to have people want to help you and be happy while they are doing it!  If ever you’ve been to the Northeast, you may have experienced the slightly abrupt nature of folks.  It can get old.  The staff at NECI was lovely and it was a great first impression. 

My travel partner and I made the trip up to Vermont on Friday evening and started out our weekend by visiting Three Penny Taproom in Downtown Montpelier.  They are known for their fine selection of local and just plain delicious beers.  My boyfriend is quite the beer enthusiast/connoisseur so we planted ourselves on some barstools and tried a couple different brews.  Monopolizing their menu were beers from Hill Farmstead Brewery, based out of Greensboro, VT.  We tried Edward, their American Pale Ale (pretty delicious for a lighter beer), Arthur, a delicious Saison, and Phenomenology of Spirit, a dark Saison “fermented in french oak wine casks along with multiple strains of brettanomyces and…resident microflora” (http://hillfarmstead.com/wpblog/).  They were all really great- shame they don’t distribute to Connecticut!  I also began a love affair with my new favorite beer EVER, Houblon Chouffe!  It’s a Belgian triple brewed in the style of an IPA.  The fact that it has a gnome on the label makes it even better.

The next morning we rose early and hit the Montpelier farmers market where we sampled an array of cheeses, pickled goods and some great sausage that our budget (after I went wild on cheese and ramps) did not allow us to bring home.  However, we did manage to bring home two local cheeses, one a fresh, spreadable cheese from a creamery I can’t remember (but I want never to be without this cheese again) and an alpine style cheese from Mt Mansfield Creamery called Halfpipe.  All the cheeses from this creamery are raw cow’s milk cheeses with edible rinds.  Halfpipe is a beautiful cheese with a taste that made me think, “If brie had the consistency of gruyere, that is what this would look and taste like”.  I mentioned making a small grilled cheese with some of it and my boyfriend immediately shot it down, noting that this was a cheese to savor.  It’s true.  We also picked up some local ramps, a vegetable new to this Southerner.  With their leafy green tops and red stalks, this mild garlicky-onion has eluded me till now and it will be dinner with spaghetti tonight!  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  Last but not least we picked up a loaf of bread from Red Hen Baking Co., an artisan Bread Company out of Middlesex, VT.  The bread we decided on was “Cyrus Pringle” their “first loaf made entirely with Vermont-grown wheat,” which we thought was cool.  A note on the bread bag let us know more about the name, “Baked in honor of Charlotte-born wheat breeder and botanist Cyrus Pringle (1838-1911).”  You learn something new at every Farmer’s Market!

After we gathered our goodies, we met up with Scott at Admissions and embarked on our tour.  We saw La Brioche, the student-staffed bakery and pastry shop, toured NECI on main, a farm-to-table restaurant with a tapas bar downstairs, also student-staffed, and talked with every person we came in contact with.  Students approached us and asked about my interests, I asked them questions about their experiences and got to know a lot more about how the school is run.  Everything is super hands-on with students thrown into the kitchen right off the bat, learning techniques and producing food for their classmates and local restaurant goers within their first week of class.  I am super-drawn to the environment they have created at NECI and hopefully will be spending a lot more time in Vermont J

The rest of the day we spent exploring Burlington, and visiting the famous Alchemist brew pub, home of Heady Topper, the world’s greatest beer (so say beer nerds close to me).  Although Heady Topper was not available when we were there we tried a couple of other beers that did not disappoint.  The food was surprisingly great, too.  I don’t mean to hate on brewpubs, but most of the time the food is just a greasy accompaniment to soak up the alcohol consumed.  Sometimes it’s good greasy, but most of the time it’s very mediocre.  The Alchemist exceeded expectations.  While the food we had was traditional bar food, it was really well done bar food.  We had the best beer cheese I’ve ever had- in fact, I didn’t like beer cheese till we had it there.  We also tried their version of poutine; a traditional French-Canadian dish of French fries drizzled with gravy, topped with cheese curds and melted in the oven.  The Alchemist nixed the gravy and threw some sliced jalapenos on instead.  I can’t complain, it was a great mate for my beer filled-afternoon. 

After all the excitement we had to crash early, but not before I got one last Houblon Chouffe at Three Penny Taproom.  On our way home the next morning we stopped by the Co-Op and loaded up on all the beer and wine we can’t find and Connecticut, looking like total sots on a Sunday morning.  If it means good living, then frankly, I don’t give a damn what it looks like (I watched Gone with the Wind Sunday night).

Vieques, Puerto Rico! Ay!

So, I’ve been really great at blogging lately…sike!  The truth of the matter is that I took advantage of my free time and went gringo-honeymooning in Vieques, Puerto Rico for a week with my man-friend.  It was a-mah-zing.  We sunned, we swam, we ate, we beached ourselves on near-empty palm-lined stretches of sand.  I didn’t do a TON of cooking while we were there because 1) I didn’t want to stock a fridge and not be able to eat it all by the time we had to leave and 2) I’ll be cooking for a living here in a few short days, so I was taking it easy.

One of the many beautiful beaches of Vieques

            Vieues cuisine is an odd mélange of Latino/Caribbean/American influences.  A little background on the place: it’s a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico often referred to as “Isla Nena” or the Little Sister Island.  There is another such island, Culebra, which we sadly didn’t make it to (we hear it has the #2 beach in the world according to some beach comber’s magazine).  When World War II rolled around, the US Army saw Vieques as the perfect place to practice beach landings, island bombings and such because of likeness to the islands in the Pacific where much of the fighting was going on.  So the Army said, “Hey locals, we’re gonna need you to give up the East and West thirds of the island (which happen to be most fertile and have the best beaches) so we can set up shop and bomb the crap out of your lovely island.”  So that’s how the Army and the American influence got there.  Being a Caribbean island, it has those wonderful flavors and spices to draw from.  And hello! It was Spanish at one time, so there will never be a shortage of rice and beans (and there is nothing wrong with that).

Taking in some "tasty" waves

            The first thing we did when we landed in San Juan was beeline it to the closest bar, ordered Mojitos and split a Cuban sandwich.  I have been instructed many times by my dear half-cubanoid boyfriend on what he calls “The Care and Feeding of Your Cuban”.  Eating Cuban sandwiches whenever and wherever they are available is part of this compendium, obviously.  I really can’t complain.  They are flippin’ awesome.  If you don’t know what a Cuban sammich consists of, here are the basics: two kinds of pork, cheese, mustard and pickles.  Panini-it and voila!  A porky feast of a sandwich at your fingertips.  Needless to say, we had our year’s supply worth of Cubans while we were there.  When we arrived in Vieques we went to a place with what we thought was going to be traditional Caribbean but turned out to be Mexican.  I think I ordered the world’s largest burrito that night and it wasn’t intentional.  It was delicious and it fed my 6’3 boyfriend and me for 3 breakfasts.  What more can you ask for?  It was filled with pulled pork, rice, cheese, topped with salsa verde and cheese, and came with even more rice and beans on the side.  It made for the easiest “leftovers” breakfasts in the world.  Slice off a chunk of burrito, chop it up, scramble it in with some eggs and you’ve got a HUGE breakfast.  Enough about the burrito.  I had Caribbean lobster one night that was as big as my head.  They are so much sweeter than the lobster you get from New England.  MMM.  Then there was Mofongo.  This was the boyfriend’s culinary pursuit.  When I asked if this was a Cuban thing, he alerted me no, does everything he likes have to be Cuban? No.  In fact, Mofongo is Puerto Rico's signature dish.  It is basically fried plantains, which are then mashed and added to garlicky, porky (or seafoody) deliciousness and then fried again.  Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it?  It was.  I also discovered that you can get “Mofongo Mix” Munchies brand snack mix down there!  Plantain chips, Cassava or Yucca chips and chicharrones or seasoned pork rinds.  You cannot imagine my delight.  I am very into all things Yucca, so you won’t be surprised when I tell you that I went NUTS for this thing I found at a roadside stand: Rellena de Yucca.  A fat stick about the size of a twinkie of mashed Yucca stuffed with seasoned ground beef and deep fried.  It was soooooo gooood.  This same roadside stand had one of the best chicken empanadas I’ve ever had.  People in Vieques know how to do stewed, shredded chicken.  It was slightly tomatoe-y with loads of onions and a slight fruity sweetness to soften all the spices.  Yum. 

We brought back some great hot sauce from the island, called Coqui Fire, like the frog, however there are no actual frogs in the sauce!  The spice factor of these sauces is from 1-15 and I, being the hot sauce lover bought 7 and 10, thinking I would be safe with those.  Holy Cow- I tried the 7 and it was HOT.  Can’t wait to try 10.  Check out their website to get some- it is wonderful.  I recommend Smoldering Frog and Pina Star: http://www.coquifire.com/hotsaucestore.htm. 

That was our trip to Puerto Rico!  We did lots of other stuff, but it’s not food related, so you can ask me about it yourself if you really want to know!