Jellypress: old recipes modern life

Masher

Purple Inspiration

by Laura, October 29, 2009

1. Wash and slice your little eggplant in half. Salt it now if you like.

2. Heat lots of olive oil in the pan until it is very hot but not smoking. When is it hot enough? When you put a wooden spoon in and the oil sizzles

3. Fry the eggplant on one side until it is golden. Salt it now if you didn’t before.

4. Turn with a spatula and fry the other side. Salt again.

If your garden is in full sun as mine is, it keeps going into November--even here in the Northeast of NJ. The herbs are fading but still quite serviceable. And our broccoli keeps pushing hard. Every day I still eat at least one cherry tomato. But the end is near.

Two small eggplant plants gave us an unremitting amount of fruit. There’s still some out there, and frost will come any night now. Time to collect and cook. This is a lovely way.

Masher

One Badass Cookie — Taiglach for the Jewish High Holidays

by Nancy, September 20, 2009

Now there’s a sight for sore eyes. Isn’t it gorgeous? This is my Great-Grandma Esther Hanna’s taiglach — kind of like caramel ginger walnut bar cookies — that I made for Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year. I live for this stuff and so does most of my family. Just the smell of it cooking brings back . . . okay, I’m getting sentimental here but bear with me . . . my mother’s kitchen in all its glory. Pot lids rattlin’, my Mom in her flowered apron walking on a bag of walnuts instead of chopping them with a knife, as readers of my book will know “so the pieces are small, but not too small . . .”, the dramatic moment when she dipped her hands in ice water to handle the piping hot caramel, all of it. If you don’t know taiglach, I truly believe you are missing out on one of the most Badass of the Badass cookies. I will warn you that it is only for experienced bakers. Lots of directions that say “to taste” or “by feel” and so on, but it’s worth the effort. Once you do it, however the reward is huge. You’ll have entered the collective memory of generations of bakers, and you’ll carry them with you each time you go to bake. That’s a powerful lot of bakin’ hoodoo. So if you’re game, and want to serve something really wonderful after the fast on Yom Kippur next week, read on for the recipe, a link to a cool variation with hazelnuts and almonds, the Badass Cookie tip of the week, and a chance to win Nancy’s book . . . “Shana Tovah!” (Happy New Year.)

Great Grandma Esther Hanna’s Taiglach
from Walking On Walnuts by Nancy Ring, Bantam 1996.
Makes approximately 2 dozen 2-inch square bars.

4 extra large eggs, separated
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 level teaspoon ground ginger (for dough)
approximately 1 1/2 to 2 cups all purpose flour
12 ounces honey (need not be expensive grade)
1 teaspoon ground ginger (for syrup) plus extra for sprinkling
1/2 cup sugar
6 ounce bag of shelled walnuts
6 or 7 vanilla wafer cookies

Prepare the dough balls:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Beat together yolks, oil and 1 teaspoon of the ginger.
3. Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
4. Fold egg whites into yolk mixture.
5. Add flour to egg mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, folding until a sticky dough forms that can be handled with floured hands.
6. Flour a board, and sprinkle the dough with extra flour. Pull off medium size pieces of dough one at a time, and elongate each piece by rolling with palms and fingers to the size of a thick jumbo pencil, at least 5/8 inch wide. Flour a knife and cut dough logs into marble size pieces about 3/4 inches long. Gently place each piece of dough on the baking sheet. Space the dough 1/2 inch apart.
7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until dough is golden, puffed up, and dry inside. Cool.
Prepare the syrup:
1. After dough cools, pour honey, remaining teaspoon of ginger, and sugar into a medium-size soup pot, stir, and bring to a boil.
Cook the taiglach:
1. Wrap walnut bag in a towel and walk on it briefly to get small pieces. Add baked dough and walnuts to hot honey syrup and stir to coat. Cook walnut/taiglach mixture over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally from the bottom of the mixture up, 15 minutes or more. Mixture will bubble. Taiglach is done when it is dark golden brown.
Form the taiglach:
1. Have a clean, unpolished natural wood board ready, and the extra ginger. Put ice water in a bowl and set nearby. Rub cold water on wooden board in a light film.
2. When taiglach is ready, scrape taiglach from pot onto wet surface. Taiglach is extremely hot and must be handled quickly before it sets. Put hands into ice water until they are wet and cold. Push taiglach down while returning hands to ice as necessary, until a rectangle is formed, approximately 1 inch thick. Any size rectangle is fine. Square off the corners. Sprinkle with more ground ginger while hot, to taste. 3. Cover with wax paper lightly and let cool until solid, in a cool, shady place, no sun.
Finish the taiglach:
1. Crush vanilla wafers between sheets of wax paper with a rolling pin.
2. Cut cooled taiglach into bars. Dip bottoms of bars into cookie crumbs and store in a cool, dry place in an airtight container. Do not refrigerate. Yields approximately two dozen two-inch squares.

Badass Cookie Tip of the Week: When working with caramel, use your nose as much as your eyes to determine when it is done. If it smells like sweet caramel, it is caramel. If it starts to smell burnt, it’s getting too dark.

Like the idea of taiglach but not so crazy about walnuts. Epicurious has a great variation with hazelnuts and almonds.

Do you have a Badass Cookie recipe for Laura and Nancy? If so, send it to us. If it’s Badass enough we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe and you’ll win a copy of Nancy’s Book, Walking On Walnuts.

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Masher

Happy Labor Day

by Nancy, September 06, 2009

Look what I baked this morning. I’m spending Labor Day with my beloved cousin Jeff and decided to bring this for dessert. It’s a recipe I cut from Mark Bittman’s “Minimalist” column in the New York Times a few years back and it’s been a favorite ever since. It’s the perfect way to celebrate Labor Day and say goodbye to summer fruit, which is still in abundance for a few more weeks, especially the coveted last peaches of September. You can also make this with pears and apples when the north winds really start to blow. For the recipe and a link to Mark Bittman’s wonderful blog, read on. Happy Labor Day. Enjoy.

Free-Form Fruit Tart
Adapted from Mark Bittman Bitten: Mark Bittman on Food
Makes one tart, approximately 8 servings.
1 1/8 cups (about 5 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus some to dust work surface
1/2 t. salt
2 T. sugar, plus extra for sugaring fruit if desired.
10 T. cold unsalted butter, cut into pats and frozen (keep 2T. separate for melting and brushing on tart before baking)
1 egg yolk
2 T. ice water
1 egg white, for brushing dough before baking.
turbinado sugar or other large crystal sugar, optional, for sprinkling on dough before baking
2 cups pitted peeled and sliced ripe stone fruit and/or berries, like peaches, plums or nectarines (or use apples or pears in Fall)
confectioner’s sugar, whipped cream or ice cream, optional.

1. Combine flour, salt and sugar in a food processor; pulse once or twice. Add 8 T. of the butter and turn on machine; process until butter and flour are blended and mixture looks like cornmeal, about 10 seconds. Add egg yolk and 2 T. ice water and pulse machine on and off a couple of times. Dough may look dry; do not add extra water until you remove and gather mixture into a ball. It should come together nicely when you press it together in your hands. If the dough is still too dry to stick together, then add more ice water, a little at a time. Wrap in plasic, flatten into a disk, and freeze dough for 15 minutes ) or refrigerate for 30 minutes or more) to ease rolling. (You can also refrigerate for a day or two, or freeze for a week or so.)
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roll crust out on a board sprinkled with flour or sprinkle it lightly with flour and roll between two sheets of waxed paper (a good method for beginners.) Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness; it need not be perfectly round. Put it directly on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or with a nonstick baking pad, or greased. Melt remaining 2 T. of butter.
3. Toss fruit with sugar to taste if desired. You may bake the fruit without sugar if you wish. Cover round of dough with fruit, leaving about a 1 1/2 inch border all around. Fold up edges of crust around fruit, pinching together. Cover just outer rim of fruit. Brush exposed dough with egg white and sprinkle with large-crystal sugar such as turbinado, if using. Brush melted butter onto fruit. Bake until crust is golden brown and fruit bubbly, about 20 - 30 minutes. Turn tray half way through baking to ensure even browning.
4. Remove from oven and cool on a rack; serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioner’s sugar (if you did not add sugar to fruit) or topped with ice cream or whipped cream.

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Antique Recipe Road Show

Perfection Salad

by Laura, August 26, 2009

I’m looking for a jello recipe that my then 90 year old aunt once served with our main course. The molded dish was not sweet and would be sliced and a chunk was placed on your plate instead of spooning out portions. It was made with lime jello and included shredded cabbage and possibly shredded carrots and vinegar. I think it also contained sour cream. I am unable to find anything like it from current jello recipe books and on-line. No other relatives have a copy of the recipe but remember it from childhood. Sound familiar? I would appreciate any help in finding this recipe. Thank You.
--CJ

Hi, CJ. Yes I know what this is. It’s Perfection Salad, of course and

a beloved American classic from the Gelatine Hall of Fame.

A bit of history. Gelatine dishes (also called jellies and aspics) were long ago made through a slow process of boiling a calf’s foot. Because of the labor involved, it was a serious dish. However, In the late 1800s, along came the Knox Gelatine company started making gelatine in an easy-to-use powdered form that made a once labor-intensive dish very easy and accessible to ordinary women. Recipe writers and home cooks developed a huge array of molded gelatines--both sweet and savory and started calling them “salads.” I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that the wonderful Laura Shapiro wrote a great book called “The Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century,” in which she describes the era’s passion for technology and tidy, dainty food for the white middle class. In her view, these salads were “decorative” food. Hence: items like cabbage and vegetables suspended in gel that could be sliced. It was considered a very modern and dainty dish. But really, it was just the beginning of gelatine history.

(I’ve always taken a special interest in gelatine, as my grandmother worked in the Knox rival JELL-O company’s Hoboken factory--but that’s another Hoboken tale.)

As to your own family recipe, well, the original perfection salad was probably invented in 1904, made with plain gelatine that was flavored with some lemon juice. It was quite popular. Later versions feature lime gelatine like the one you recall, but of course there are many many variations out there. This one I’m sharing comes from my little “Knox Gelatine: Dainty Dishes for Dainty People,” a 1931 edition. It has a complicated ending note for serving the gelatine cut up in pepper “molds.” Totally unnecessary. Just use a mold like the photo, or whatever shape you wish.

Perfection Salad
(12 Servings--For 6 Servings use half of recipe)_

2 level tablespoonfuls Knox-Sparkling Gleatine

1/2 cup cold water
2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup mild vinegar
2 tblespoonfuls lemon juice
1 teaspoonful salt
1 cup cabbage, finely shredded
2 cups celery, cut in small pieces
2 pimentos, cut in small pieces or
1/4 cup sweet red or green peppers

Soak gelatine in col water about five minutes. Add boiling water, sugar, vinegar, lemon juice and salt. When mixture begins to stiffen, add remaining ingredients. Turn into wet mold, and chill. Remove to bed of lettuce or endive. Garnish with mayonnaise dressing, or cut salad in cubes, and serve in cases made of red or green peppers or turn into molds lined with canned pimentos. A delicious salad to serve with cold sliced chicken, veal, or other meat.

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Masher

Julie & Julia & Me

by Laura, August 09, 2009

I didn’t think I’d like it. I really didn’t.

I mean, there was enough hype to near convince me that I wouldn’t. I don’t like hype. Come on: a huge puff piece in the NYT 10 days before the movie was even released?

I’d always admired Julie Powell’s chutzpah and clever idea to blog her way a year of cooking over 500 recipes in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” It resulted in a big New York Times story by Amanda H. And then, naturally a book deal. And though I wished Julie well, I had no interest.

But I saw the food movie tonight. And I didn’t like it. I loved it.

Loved it. And though I know my inner skeptic will kick in later, I’m going to write this blog post and indulge my exuberance right now

Meryl Streep infuses Julia with so much joy and inner beauty that I found myself crying during the cooking scenes. The scenes of Julia’s pure sensual joy over food and cooking it, her undaunted devotion--helped me remember why I spent more than 10 years of my life so fascinated with food.

But I am certain it was also the beauty of Julia, shining through Meryl Streep’s performance that got me: the great six-foot two Julia, gamer, adventurer, bon vivant, comic and artist of her own life who didn’t go to cooking school until she was 37 and didn’t publish her first book until she as 49. There’s been so much fake glamour around food the last twenty years. This movie was, most amazingly, actually about cooking. Cooking! Imagine that. Cooking in your tiny kitchen. Cooking because you want to actually learn the hard skills of the craft. Cooking through failure, like when the chicken slides out on the floor and all the stuffing falls out so that you fall down and cry. Cooking to make something so beautiful that people gather around, transformed by the beauty of it for an ephemeral moment.

And then there’s the love and passion of a good man to help make a woman even greater.... Let me say no more. There--now I’ve contributed to the hype and I’m okay with that. And so, like every review of this movie, I’ll close mine by invoking Julia: Bon appetit!

Masher

Front Yard Vegetable Garden Redux

by Laura, July 22, 2009

String Beans From the Garden

1. Send your son out with a colander and ask him to collect all the string beans. Send him back when he doesn’t come in with enough.

2. Wash string beans and snip off the tip of the tiny bit of the end with the stem.

3. Steam in an inch of water that is well salted. Let them cook until they get soft but not mushy. Drain and shock in a bowl of ice water.

4. Dress in good olive oil and vinegar. Add more salt if you like. That’s all.

Okay, so I know that every time you hear the hoopla about the vegetable garden on the White House Lawn, you think to yourself “Oh Michelle. That’s so last year. I saw it on Jellypress in 2008”

Well, it is… And we’re back with our front yard garden. And once again it’s beautiful, attracting honeybees by the dozens. We are growing broccoli, lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs and chives, peppers, too, and more. Here are the Japanese eggplant. I was astonished by how beautiful the plant is. Such an ornament for the yard with its purple flowers and stems and glossy fruit.

This year’s new addition: David is growing potatoes in this special potato bin.

Quite the ridiculous yuppie invention, eh? You plant the spuds in the the container only partially filled with soil. When the greens sprout, you cover them with more soil. A week later, when they force themselves through again, you bury them again. Add more soil. This happens successively. Each time the green leaves surface you bury them in soil, and the theory is that it forces more tubers to grow. We’ll see. Of course, people do this in garbage cans and spare tires. But this is so much more attractive. I’m sure Michelle will want one too.

Artist's Notebook

Grill-master and Artist H. John Thompson Serves Evocative Feast

by Nancy, July 12, 2009

Artist H. John Thompson
JELLYPRESS WAS ON THE SCENE Wednesday July 8th at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia for the opening of “Dave and Jim” an installation and performance piece by my good friend and fellow painter, H. John Thompson. Inside his evocative construction of embellished chain link fencing surrounding two living yards of grass, University graduate students and faculty gathered around to share potluck summer fare as John manned the grill. For more photos, John’s fascinating concept for his piece and a taste of what it’s like to eat charcoal-roasted corn and hot dogs inside a work of art, read on.

If you are an art world watcher, you may be aware of some artists who are creating installation pieces that incorporate performance such as the making of food in an environment. Rirkrit Tiravanija, the Thai artist who brings life to galleries (literally) by cooking for and alongside gallery-goers is one of these. For John, sharing food inside his installation piece was an interesting way to bring the university community together.

The piece itself draws from quintessential suburban fenced yards for inspiration. John’s idea was to lift this suburban aesthetic from its usual environment and insert it into the prominent urban landscape of busy Broad Street. “It’s a one-time suburban utopia in an urban landscape,” says Carol Moore, an artist and U Arts professor.

John rocked the grill. By the way, his love of good food was nurtured by his grandfather, Art Sketchley, of Sketchley’s Bakery, 316 Bustleton Pike, Feasterville, PA, (215-357-8765) where John’s art studio resides a floor below the bustling pastry shop.

Here’s the scene pre-party where you can see John’s carefully made construction. John, from a long line of master carpenters, is a painter who visualizes his constructions as paintings.

Here’s the yard where a table was placed for participants.

In full swing . . .

The view from the piece looking down Broad Street where you can really see the wonderful contrast between the suburban-styled installation and the urban scene beyond
.

Badass Ginger Cookies homemade by yours truly alongside a well-known American dessert icon, another study in contrasts.
If you’re in Philly this summer, look for John’s installation at Hamilton Hall, corner of Pine Street and South Broad Street. File under: Just Too Cool.Got an inquiry or comment for John? He’d love to hear from you. Email him at hjohnthompsonworks@google.com
All artwork pictured in the photographs are protected by copyright law. “Dave and Jim” copyright 2009, H. John Thompson.
To check out another great artist who uses food in her art, check out fifth generation cook Nicole Peyrafitte at her fabulous blog: http://nicolepeyrafitte.com/blog/

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Masher

Kitchen Art — Red Pepper Orange

by Nancy, June 30, 2009

Can you find the red pepper and the orange in this new oil sketch of mine? Hint: the bird shape is lifted from a very famous Manet painting . . .

Artist's Notebook

Kitchen Art — Artichoke

by Nancy, June 12, 2009

“Artichoke" Oil on panel, 16” x 20” 2009
Here is my new painting, another in a series that are all part of a conversation I’m having with 17th century Dutch and Flemish still life painting. The initial inspiration for this one came when I found this gorgeous artichoke at market with its astonishing color. I knew immediately that I had to paint it.

Artist's Notebook

Kitchen Art — Nancy’s New Work

by Nancy, May 28, 2009

Here is my new oil painting, “Leap.” I did it after spending time with the Caulfield and Zurbaran paintings I’ve posted here before. If you’ve been following this thread, you’ll recognize that lemon in my painting.

This one’s called “Dark Side.” More coming soon. Enjoy.

Masher

Can Wonder Bread Feed the Masses?

by Laura, May 14, 2009

In the food world, there has been a huge movement in the last thirty years calling for a rejection of mass produced industrial foods and a return to Oldways--and by this I mean home cooking, authenticity, farmer’s markets, beauty, small scale production, organic, and vegetable gardens at the backdoor (even Michelle Obama has joined). Some have called it a Food Revolution, and unless you have been living in a cave for two decades you know what I’m talking about.

Well, there is another side to the argument. And I can’t recommend enough this fascinating video by Louise Fresco--food and agriculture expert associated with the U.N., who uses the metaphors of Wonder Bread vs artisan whole grain handmade loaf to argue that the foodie nostalgists have completely misunderstood the value of technology, pesticides, and mass production to end poverty and feed the hungry in the developing world.

For some people, this is blasphemy--akin to suggesting that there is no god. I wish people on both sides of this argument would be less passionate and listen to one another.

I suggest watching this video with a very open mind. It’s 18 minutes long so get comfortable. Well worth every minute.

Masher

One Badass Cookie - Lavender Rosewater Cookies

by Nancy, May 09, 2009

Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone, but this is one of my Mother’s Day presents and I already know what’s in it. That’s because I made it and wrapped it myself. (Giggle.) Doesn’t it look pretty? It’s some of the lavender rosewater cookies that I baked with a group of children to help them make Mother’s Day gifts for their moms, and I made sure to bake extra because these are just too good. When we wrapped up the gifts, I wrapped the ones for me and my colleagues too. If you don’t know this recipe or have never eaten these cookies, you are in for a treat. This dough is so fragrant that raw or baked, it fills the room with a gorgeous scent. One child came into the room where they were being made and exclaimed out loud, “Wow! This room smells amazing! What is it?” When one of my colleagues tasted them she actually whispered to me (so that the children couldn’t hear,) “This is orgasmic.” A cookie that can perfume an entire room and bliss out the taster. Now that’s One Badass Cookie. And perfect for the mom in your life too if you need a last minute gift just about now. Or one to honor yourself. Read on for the recipe, a photo of the beauties in this package, and the Badass Cookie Tip of the Week.

Here they are. The combination of rosewater and lavender in these cookies is beyond delicious, romantic and intoxicating.These are the type of cookies called “crisps” that are rich and buttery, crispy at the edges and soft in the middle. The dough will be sticky. It’s fine to make the dough the day before and refrigerate it until you need it, or freeze it in logs to bake off at a later time. For a lavender rosewater cookie recipe that will delight the vegan mom, try the one on the funny and offbeat blog, Feldman Sisters Brutal Cupcakes.
Badass Cookie Tip of the Week: To create the lacy effect of frosting in the photo, dip a fork into the icing and gently let the icing drip from the fork onto the cookies, moving the fork quickly to make long thin lines rather than blobs of icing. (The kids did the frosting in the photo, so they are a little blobby, but kids love to do this so I say put aside perfection for fun whenever you get the chance!) Place the cookies on a parchment paper covered sheetpan first to make clean-up easy. Let them air-dry.

Recipe:
Rosewater Lavender Cookies
Makes approximately 6 dozen 3” cookies. Recipe may be divided into smaller batches if you like.
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) salted butter (yes, salted. This is unusual for a cookie dough but it makes all the difference in taste in this case.)
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 t. lavender, crushed (available in the spice section of most supermarkets or gourmet shops.)
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
6 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
2 pounds confectioner’s sugar, for icing
rosewater to taste, for icing
water, enough to moisten sugar, for icing

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper, nonstick pads or grease them and set them aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Do not add the next egg until the previous one is completely incorporated.
4. Add lavender and stir well.
5. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and mix only until incorporated. Do not overwork the dough.
6. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto cookie sheets. If using refrigerated dough that was made ahead, break off small pieces and flatten each slightly with fingers dipped in a little water or with the back of a spoon dipped in a little water to keep the sticky dough from sticking to fingers or spoon. Bake for about 10 minutes until edges are crispy and cookies are lightly brown. Cool several minutes on the sheetpans, and when cookies can be lifted without ruining their shape, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Prepare icing: Mix 2 pounds powdered sugar with enough water to make a spreadable glaze (about the consistency of thin stirred yogurt.) Add rose water to taste. Spread icing onto cookies or use a fork to create a lacy effect as explained in the Badass Cookie Tip of the Week above. Add more water or more sugar if needed to get the frosting the right consistency for either spreading or flowing from the fork. Let icing air dry, then store in an airtight container.

If you have a Badass Cookie Recipe, send it to Laura and Nancy using the comments link above and we’ll test it. If it’s Badass enough, we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe in a future One Badass Cookie post and you’ll win a prize of Nancy’s book Walking On Walnuts.

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Hands On

Sicilian Gnocchi

by Laura, May 03, 2009

We have been getting some stunning “Hands On” submissions lately. This, photo comes from Marisa in Australia who has roots in Sicily and Trieste. (An interesting life, huh?) Thank you Marisa for sending these photos of Niluzza threading pasta.

My Siciilian relatives live in Ragusa (south-eastern region of Sicily) and my zia Niluzza makes a lot of pasta in a variety of shapes and sizes, especially when I visit her from Melbourne, Australia.

My relatives in Ragusa make causuneddi (Sicilian) but these gnocchi or gnocchetti shaped pasta (in Italian) are known by different names in other regions of Sicily – gnocculi, gnucchiteddi, cavati, caviateddi (in Sicilian). All have an indentation in the centre to ensure even cooking. Some are rigati (have ridges on the surface) and some are lisci (smooth).

The photographs
The first photograph shows zia Niluzza’s special pasta-shaping device (it looks like a loom). It belonged to her grandmother (my great grandmother) and as you can appreciate it is very unique and rare. Small, fine strips of pasta (40mm) are rolled onto a long fine reed and by rolling the reed on the device, she makes grooves on each piece of dough. The small shapes of pasta are then released – the reed, allows them to slide off easily.

In the second photograph you meet some of the members from different generations of the same family. Life still seems to be the same in Sicily when it comes to doing things together and usually all of the women and children contribute to the shaping of pasta. My relatives make these very quickly and I am always embarrassed when I offer to help because even the youngest members of the family shape them faster than I can. It is just practice.

Check out Marisa’s blog http://allthingssicilianandmore.blogspot.com/

Thank you Marisa!

Masher

Kitchen Art — Patrick Caulfield

by Nancy, April 30, 2009

The English painter, Patrick Caulfield (1936 - 2005) painted this wonderful canvas in 1999 titled “Hemingway Never Ate Here.” I love the irreverence and humor of his Pop Art style, and especially this one with its reply to Zurbaran and his rose benighted teacup that speaks so eloquently in the painting that appeared here in the last Kitchen Art column. Hmmm, wonder if I could continue this conversation in a painting of my own . . . in the meantime, here’s another piece of Caulfield’s, “Still Life: Autumn Fashion.”

Masher

Wild Ramps (aka leeks) You Can Find Online

by Laura, April 21, 2009

A bunch of wild ramps (aka the wild leek of the forest floor, beloved in Apalachia)
A few slices of bacon
Some potatoes cleaned ad sliced thin.

Salt and pepper.
Use your judgment and taste preference on all these qualities.

1. Wash the ramps, taking care to remove any grit or dirt. Pat dry and cut away the stem and white parts. Cut into two-inch pieces.

2. Fry bacon until crisp and fat is rendered. (If you’re worried about clogging the families arteries like I am, pour off most of the bacon fat so you’ve got the bare minimum you need for flavor then replace it when enough olive oil to fry your potatoes. If no member of your family has high cholesterol, then by all means skip this step and have fun frying your potatoes in bacon fat.) Remove bacon and set aside.

3. As if it isn’t obvious now, add your potatoes. Add some salt--a little or a lot. As you see here, I pulled down my iron skillet, which I hadn’t used for a long time. Gosh you forget what a beautiful job it does browning potatoes so quick and perfectly.

4. When potatoes are getting there, add ramps. Enjoy the fragrance as they soften. Add more salt as needed. And some pepper, too.

5. Cook this until potatoes are brown and ramps are soft and delicious. Now break up the bacon into bite size pieces and return to pan. Cook a little more. You’ll know when it’s done.

Last year, a friend gave me a bunch of wild ramps she’d gathered from the forest floor in Upstate New York State. This was my first encounter with the beautiful wild leek of Appalachia fame. You can click and read my post from back then, and find out all about the history of ramps and coalminers in West Virginia and their annual community ramp suppers, and folklorist Mary Hufford’s work with the people of Big Coal River Valley. A beautiful story.

But I’m writing about ramps again now because I’ve decided to hereby anoint them as the official Earth Day Dish of America if someone hasn’t already. There are many reasons for this. First of all, ramps have had their forests and land threatened by mining and development. But also, what could be a better Earth Day vegetable than a wild onion? A green creature of the forest. The first sign of spring and hope.

There’s about one week left to order farmed ramps directly from West Virginia, as the season runs through April there. Here’s a great source where you can buy as little as a one-pound bag. And no, they aren’t cheap. If you think it is not very “earth day” to use up fossil fuel to have them shipped here just to satisfy your gourmet fetish, well, the cool thing about the Ramp Farm in Richmond West, Virginia, is that they will also sell you seeds, so you can even try to grow them yourself if you have the right conditions: moist ground, filtered light---like a forest.

If you want WILD ramps, you can order them from D’artagnan, which is presently sourcing them from West Virginia. But will continue to follow the harvest as it moves northward through spring. These are sold only in “chef quantity"--a 5 pound bad--for a steep $94. I say find three friends to share them with. They stay well in the fridge for more than a week. Mine have lasted as long as two weeks.

Now, about that Appalachian style recipe up there. I just can’t give precise measurements for such a down to earth dish. I just cooked the things and enjoyed them.

Happy Earth Day.

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About

Jellypress is about Nancy and Laura having fun with what they love: old recipes, art, and ideas--as we find them in our modern lives. We met...read more »

Quince
Yes, all the artwork on Jellypress was done by Nancy. Go to the Jellypress Art page

The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family

To find out about Laura's search for a long lost family recipe, click [ What's a Jellypress?

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Purple Inspiration

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One Badass Cookie — Taiglach for the Jewish High Holidays

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Happy Labor Day

Antique Recipe Road Show

Perfection Salad

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Julie & Julia & Me

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Front Yard Vegetable Garden Redux

Artist's Notebook

Grill-master and Artist H. John Thompson Serves Evocative Feast

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Kitchen Art — Red Pepper Orange

Artist's Notebook

Kitchen Art — Artichoke

Artist's Notebook

Kitchen Art — Nancy’s New Work

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Can Wonder Bread Feed the Masses?

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One Badass Cookie - Lavender Rosewater Cookies

Hands On

Sicilian Gnocchi

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Kitchen Art — Patrick Caulfield

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Wild Ramps (aka leeks) You Can Find Online

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Antique Recipe Road Show

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Artist's Notebook

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