Food For Thought

My daughter and I are always on the lookout for a good cup of hot chocolate. The other night, after a long day, I decided to have some for dinner. I had a bar of Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate that was sent to me at work. As I was out of milk, I resorted to heavy cream, which was the only dairy product in the fridge. I combined it with about a cup of water, the 3 ounce bar of Scharffen Berger, a smidge of sugar, and a dash of malted milk powder. I put it in a heavy pan over low heat, and left it to heat as I folded a load of laundry. I returned to the creamiest, best hot chocolate I've ever made. I've never paid that much attention to chocolate, as it's not my love. But in the past I've  tried to make it like this with whatever inexpensive chocolate I've on hand. It's always been grainy and not very good. But this was an epiphany. I don't know if the 70% cacao (on the label) was the key, or the Scharffen Berger brand, but you can bet, when it comes to hot chocolate, or melting chocolate in general, I'll choose Scharffen Berger. 

Best Hot Chocolate

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup water

3 ounces Scharffen Berger Bittersweet Chocolate 

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon malted milk powder (optional)

Dash of salt

 1. Combine all in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Fold the laundry or make a phone call. Return to barely simmering creamy hot chocolate. Stir well and serve in a mug all for yourself....... Actually will serve 2.  

I know it isn't customary to cook for your own birthday party, but I had all this roasted pumpkin left over from the healthy snack program at my son’s school and wanted to use it. So I decided to make some pumpkin ice cream to go with the maple cake my girlfriend was baking. I searched fruitlessly for a recipe that didn’t use a custard that must be cooked then cooled (didn’t have time for that, of course), so I decided to make some frozen yogurt. It was much simpler, and I liked the idea of the tangy yogurt with the rich pumpkin.

All mixed up and ready for the ice cream freezer.

I used the base of my favorite lemon frozen yogurt, then added the pureed pumpkin, spices, a dose of cream cheese for richness and a dash of heavy cream to finish it off. It was fabulous with the rich maple cake. However if you don’t have any of that on hand, a drizzle of warmed caramel sauce would be lovely.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt

3             cups Greek low fat yogurt (such as Fage)

1 ½             cups dark brown sugar

2             cups pureed roasted pumpkin

¾             teaspoon cinnamon

¼             teaspoon nutmeg

½            cup cream cheese, softened in microwave until creamy

1/3             cup heavy cream

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl until combined. Place in container of ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturers instructions.

Incredible urge to eat a cheeseburger. Then 4 hours at the office putting the December issue to bed. “Can’t we come up with a better cover line than 'Seasons Greetings,' asks my boss? “Something clever and pithy with 'cookies' in it?” Well, I’m not feeling exactly pithy at the moment. Grrrrr. 

On the way home a toothache presented itself (why is it in your 40’s all your teeth start falling out, or your fillings I should say). At around 9:00 p.m., I summoned the energy to make dinner, which I’m happy to report, is the pay off for anyone laboring through this blog—our Avgolemono soup from the March 2009 issue. Perfect, as I had chicken stock in the fridge, rice in the pantry, and of course I always have eggs and lemons. Comforting and perfect for a cold, rainy evening. Here it is:

Bring 6 cups chicken broth to a simmer and add 1⁄2 cup uncooked rice. Cover and simmer just until rice is done, about 15 minutes. Whisk 3 egg yolks with 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Whisk a ladle of hot soup into egg mixture, then add back to pot. Garnish with parsley and pepper. Great with warm pitas and store-bought hummus. Makes 8 cups.

The unfortunate thing about my trip to Denver for the annualAmerican Dietetic Association meeting, (now called FNCE), was that the aseptic box of  “muscle milk” I was bringing back formy son was confiscated at security (it’s a liquid). The fortunate thing wasthat my Starbucks lunch box and accompanying adorable kids cup wasn’t (it hadno liquid in it).  The annualgathering of registered dietitians every October  includes plenty of clinical based presentations, but thehighlight is, hands down, the expo, which this year included over 1800exhibitors. These include all manner of food products—some good, some bad.  Here’s a few I liked:

Almond Milk—whilethis is a not a new product, I’ve never paid much attention to it, and I don’tknow why because it’s really good. Fortified with calcium, a cup delivers asmuch calcium as in a cup of milk, but a lot more vitamin E. And it’s great forthose with lactose intolerance. I found it much better than soy milk, as it hadno chalky after taste. Anyone cook with this stuff?

 ProBugs Organic Whole Milk Kefir—a new dairy beverage for kids made by Lifeway. Withflavors like Sublime Slime Lime and Orange Cherry Crawler, how can kids resist it. Unlike so many of theoverly sweetened yogurt products for kids, Probugs is tart and refreshing—likeyogurt is supposed to be. It contains probiotics because as their website says“you can never have too many bugs.” The packaging is really inventive—poucheswith a resealable straw, and photos of bugs.  Genius. I will be looking for these.

 Monterey Vitamin D mushrooms—these are fresh natural mushrooms that are exposed to ultravioletlight of some kind that produces vitamin D—like that we get from the sun. Theseare very timely as studies show most of us don’t get enough vitamin D.

My local paper just had an article on the word “foodie,”which apparently sparks significant emotion in some folks. If you’re readingthis blog, are you a foodie?

 While I’ve never introduced myself to anyone as a foodie,folks that know me will frequently use it to describe someone that isinterested in food, and truth is, when someone uses it, I know exactly whatthey mean. As the Southern food writer, John Egerton says, “it’s handy.” Andindeed it is. I think for foodies, good food matters. What do you think?

I brought home some lobsters from our photo shoot on Friday and as I had 3 ears of fresh corn, set my sights on making corn chowder with lobster over the weekend. I found a recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food that I had saved and made it Sunday night. Of course I used the recipe only as a guide and when it was all said and done, I really hadn't followed the recipe at all--just the procedure. Instead of bacon I started with country ham, that a friend of mine makes--it's good stuff. In the drippings, I sauteed onion, and potatoes, and added a bit of butter, as the ham didn't have as much fat as bacon. Then I immersed the corn cobs, and the lobster shells and a bit of thyme in the 3 cups of milk--I used 2% instead of whole as that's what I had--and simmered for about 15 minutes to extract all the good corn and lobster flavor. (You can do the same thing with shrimp and shrimp shells.) I added that with the fresh corn to the potato/onion mixture that had a tablespoon of flour mixed in. That was simmered for about 15 minutes until thick and fragrant. In went the chopped lobster meat, the reserved country ham, some parsley and basil, and a handful of slivered greens that were also leftover from photo. A great ending to a fine weekend. Yum. Here's the recipe:

Fresh Corn and Lobster Chowder

4 ounces country ham or bacon

1/2 onion chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon butter (depending on the drippings from the ham or bacon)

1 heaping tablespoon flour

3 ears fresh corn

4 cooked lobster tails, or 1 pound shrimp

3 cups 2% milk

pinch thyme

salt and pepper

fresh chopped parsley

fresh chopped basil

handful of chopped greens (such as mustard or collard) or spinach 

1. Place ham or bacon in a Dutch Oven or large saucepan. Saute 10 minutes or until ham or bacon is crisp. Remove ham, add onion and potato to drippings in pan and saute 10 minutes. Add butter, melt. Add flour, cook 5 minutes. 

2. Place corn cobs and lobster shells and thyme in a large skillet. Add milk; bring to a boil and simmer on medium low about 15 minutes. Strain milk into potato onion mixture. Add corn. Simmer 20 minutes until fragrant and creamy. Add reserved ham, lobster meat, parsley, basil and greens Season with salt and pepper.   

This past Sunday I went to one of the most delightful dinners of my life. It was put on by a group called Outstanding In The Field. The group’s founder is Jim Denevan, who while working as a chef back in 1996, started doing farmer dinners at his restaurant to connect the folks who eat food with the farmers who grow the food.  They were so well received, that a few years later he decided to take the dinners out into the field—literally. He has now done 163 dinners with the purpose of “re-connecting diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it.”

Our dinner was at a farm just south of Nashville, called Arugula’s Star Farm, in Columbia TN. After drinks (a lovely prosecco tea), and a tour of the farm, we marched down a path by the stream to a long white table-cloth-draped table. As we proceeded in, we grabbed a plate from a stack of mismatched dinnerware, and sat down.

For me, the meal was lovely not because it was set outside on a farm, or because the food was delicious (I’ve had lots of fabulous meals), or even because the food was local (lots of chefs source local ingredients), but because of the folks I shared it with—a group who not only wanted to be there, but who love food, appreciate the earth where it comes from, and love the community it brings together. The meal was served family-style among the 8 people sitting closest to me. As we passed the serving bowls, we talked about the food, our kids, our jobs, the evening, our pasts, and our futures. As the night wore on, cards and emails were exchanged. Not surprisingly, phones were used for photos of the food, each other, the hosts, the servers, and the table—but surprisingly only for the occasional call home.

You can go to their website, http://www.outstandinginthefield.com/about.html, for a schedule of dinners for the rest of the year. However don’t delay, ours was sold out.

Here’s what we ate, which was prepared by Nashville chef Martha Stamps.