Friday, January 28, 2022
Black Ankle's Chispa (2017)
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Pulpo en Purgatorio
Source : Tesori del Matese |
PULPO EN PURGATORIO
Recipe from Gusto TV and Serge the Concierge
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 2 cups olive oil
- 2 small onions, finely diced
- 1 pound of fresh, large octopus tentacles
- 4 red chiles, seeded and sliced (or 2 teaspoon crushed red pepper)
- 1 chile, minced for garnish
- 1/2 cup parsley, chopped, plus more for garnish
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
1. If using fresh octopus. Heat half the oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, parsley and chiles (or crushed red pepper) and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions soften, about 6 to 8 minutes. Put the tentacles in a pot and add the onion mixture and the remaining oil. Add enough water to cover just the tentacles and bring it to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, season generously with salt, cover and cook, stirring occasionally until the liquid has evaporated, about 2 hours. Serve immediately.
2. If using cooked octopus. Heat half the oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions, and garlic, and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions soften, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add octopus, parsley and chiles (or crushed red pepper), salt and black pepper, and stir to combine. Cook until octopus is heated through. Transfer octopus with oil to platter, garnish with remaining parsley and red chiles. Squeeze juice of 1/2 lemon over dish.
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Kitchen Pepper
For as long as there have been organized societies on this planet, there has been a spice trade. For most people, that trade is associated with the "silk road," which connected the Far East (principally China) with the rest of Asia, Europe and Africa. The silk road began around in the third century, B.C.E and continued until the Ottoman Empire effectively shut it down in 1453. What may be less known is the network of "silk roads" that date back to 2,000 B.C.E. This network facilitated the trade in, among other things, cinnamon from Ceylon (now, Sri Lanka), and cassia from China. These routes also gave rise to the trade in cloves and nutmeg from the "spice islands" (later conglomerated into what became Indonesia).
Other roads - or more appropriately, voyages - added to the spice trade by introducing ingredients from the "New World." These ingredients included allspice from Xaymaca (now Jamaica), along with chiles and vanilla from Anahuac (the Nahuatl name for what is now known as Mexico).
In sum, the spice trade introduced a wide range of new ingredients -- black pepper, cardamom, cassia, chiles, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, ginger, mace, nutmeg, saffron, star anise, and turmeric -- to cooks around the world. Cooks from around the world began incorporating these spices into mixes, adding new spices as they became available. These spice mixes include Berbere in the Horn of Africa, the masalas of the subcontinent, and Baharat in the Middle East.
European cooks in the 15th century began to categorize (loosely) those mixes. They fell into three categories: powder blanche, powder deuce (sweet) and powder fort (strong). The mixes eventually were lumped together into one common term, "kitchen pepper."
The story of kitchen pepper is not a uniquely European. The reason is that other voices have contributed to the narrative. These voices include the enslaved Africans, who worked in the kitchens on plantations in the New World and elsewhere in colonies across the globe. For example, Hercules Posey, the enslaved African who served as the cook (really, the chef) for George Washington, is believed to have used a kitchen pepper mix that featured nutmeg. James Hemmings, the enslaved cook (again, chef) for Thomas Jefferson is thought to have used a mix heavily studded with black pepper. And, then there was Polly Haine, who may have used allspice as part of her kitchen pepper spice mix. Polly Haine went on to use that mix to create her Caribbean Pepper Pot soup, which she sold on the streets of Philadelphia in the late 18th century. Each of these examples underscores the primary characteristic of kitchen pepper: everyone has their own individual mix. All of those mixes that give rise to the story.
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Michael Twitty |
If I had to summarize kitchen pepper, then I would do so in the following way: kitchen pepper is about the artistry of an untold number of individual, enslaved cooks, each of whom crafted his or her own spice mix. It is about an unspoken effort to assert one's individuality while subjugated in a brutal, dehumanizing system that was intended to deny that right and freedom to that individual.
KITCHEN PEPPER
Recipe by Michael Twitty, available at Bittman Project
or Michael Twitty, The Cooking Gene, pg. 24
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon ground allspice
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon ground mace
- 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
- 1 tablespoon ground red pepper flakes
Thursday, January 6, 2022
Vietnamese Grilled Clams with Oyster Sauce and Peanuts
VIETNAMESE GRILLED CLAMS WITH OYSTER SAUCE AND PEANUTS
Recipe available at Food and Wine
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 3 pounds cherrystone clams or 1 pound mussels, scrubbed
- 2 scallions, finely chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) or cilantro
- 1/4 cup packaged crispy fried shallots (such as Maesri)
- 1/4 cup oyster sauce
- 1/4 vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons finely chopped peanuts
Saturday, January 1, 2022
In Search of Orange Gold: Part 4 - The Whole is the Sum of its Ingredients
At the time, Brunn was trying to establish a spice business, the Baltimore Spice Company, in downtown Baltimore. He initially sold spices to butchers and meatpackers. However, his business was ideally located for a different customer. The Baltimore Spice Company was located across the street from a historic seafood market, first known as the Center Market and later as the Fish Market. Brunn took the short walk to the market and tried to sell his spice blends to the seafood vendors. He encountered resistance, because each vendor had their own proprietary blend of spices that they used and sold with their seafood. None of the vendors were interested in a newcomer who sold only spices and not fish. While Brunn was turned away, he was not discouraged. Gustav Brunn believed that he could make a better spice blend for seafood.
Mr. and Mrs. Brunn Source: Jewish Museum of Maryland |
Yet, despite his best efforts, Brunn was not able to fool everyone. Some of those final ingredients have been identified over time. Despite his best efforts, some of those ingredients have been identified or revealed over time. They include:
With the history of Gustav Brunn and a good sense of the Old Bay spice mix, it is now time for me to try my hand at making the blend. I will try to recreate Old Bay and, perhaps in the process, try to discover what may be the three remaining ingredients. Stay tuned and ...
ENJOY!