I am a strong supporter of everything local–I will do whatever possible to make sure most of my ingredients are locally grown.
With this said, once in a while I like to see what other people are doing with their local produce and ingredients.
My friends from Serendipity Spreads in Santa Cruz, CA are a great example. Family tradition, many years of experience and only the best ingredients are the components to these great products.
Kristen Cederquist sent me a sample of a few of their great offerings. Brandied Apricot Preserves; Spiced Tangerines; Spiced Carrot Jam; Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon Marmalade; Caramelized Onion, Fig, and Balsamic Spread; East Meets West Peach Preserves; and Salt Preserved Meyer Lemons. All of them look great and taste even better. These would make an excellent gift for any foodie.
CA spiced tangerines and PA red cabbage
I had so many options here that I didn’t know where to begin, so I went with the Spiced Tangerines. I was using red cabbage for one of my side dishes that night and I decided to finish it off with the Spiced Tangerines. Something so simple elevated this side dish to another dimension–my Pennsylvania red cabbages were touched by sunny California Spiced Tangerines and together they were delicious.
For more information on Serendipity Spreads, visit:
Picture recipe for desarme, a traditional Asturian stew
Maybe because of this time of the year, or perhaps because I can eat it anytime–fish is on my mind. Salted cod to be more specific, which brings me to this recipe.
Salted Cod with Garbanzo Beans and Spinach, known in Asturias and probably all of Spain as “Desarme,” is one of the most typical salted cod recipes of the Asturian region, and a dish that brings me back with every bite. Every year in October, Asturias celebrates war triumphs of the past with this dish. Desarme itself is a culinary triumph. It’s called “desarme” because it supposedly was so good that it “disarmed” opposing forces: they laid down their guns to enjoy a bowl of this soup. This dish reminds me of how good something so simple can be, anytime of the year. Enjoy!
ingredients
1 pound dry garbanzo beans
1 pound salted cod
1 pound frozen spinach
1 onion small diced
1 slice of bread (preferably from a few days old baguette)
3 cloves of garlic
2 eggs
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp. Spanish smoked paprika (pimenton)
1/2 cup of parsley
olive oil
Soak the garbanzo beans in plenty of cold water over night. Follow the salted cod directions for soaking and preparation. Some salted cod might require an overnight process.
Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans. You could use canned garbanzo beans, but I wouldn’t recommend it for this recipe. They don’t make as good of a stock for your soup.
Cover the garbanzo beans with warm water. The garbanzo beans should be below the surface of the water by at least two fingers of water–about an inch and a half.
Pour a tablespoon of olive oil onto the water, add the bay leaves and bring to a boil. Cook your eggs until they are hard boiled. Cool and set aside.
In a sauté pan add two tablespoons of olive oil. Fry the bread on both sides, remove from pan and put in a food processor. Lightly toast the garlic cloves making sure they won’t burn, and add to the bread. Add the parsley.
At this point the garbanzo beans are probably boiling. Reduce to medium heat and skim off the white foam from the surface of the water.
Add a little extra oil to the same pan where you cooked the bread and garlic, and sauté the onion. Add the pimenton to the onion and mix in for a few minutes. Pour the sauteed onion mixture in the garbanzo pot.
Remove the egg yolks from the eggs and add to the food processor. Add a half of a cup of the garbanzo stock to the food processor and blend until you have a creamy paste.
Once the garbanzo beans are tender, tear the cod into small pieces with your fingers and incorporate into the soup.
Stir in the bread and egg yolk paste into the soup and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add spinach. Allow it to cook for at least ten more minutes for all flavors to come together.
Much has been written about the DiBattista family. Bellevue has enjoyed this family’s ventures for many years and very few in the food industry in Pittsburgh have not heard of them.
I grew up in a restaurant much like this one. I have known and worked with these folks for a few months now. In this short period of time I have witnessed their strong commitment to good food, good service, and a special warmth that keeps everyone coming back for more.
An informal gathering in the Vivo kitchen
Sam, Vivo’s patriarchal figure and chef, would agree with me when I say that restaurants like Vivo are abundant in Europe, but not in the States. The menu changes daily, pleasantly surprising the dinners with the freshest ingredients available.
Whenever a group of restaurant people -- particularly chefs--get together, we like to eat! When "Fat Club" convened at Vivo, there was an amazing array of food, from parmesan bread pudding with berry/balsamic coulis to homemade soprasetta to chipped beef sliders! This brie en croute was one of the snacks we enjoyed that evening, brought by chef Dan from Toast! on Baum Boulevard.
Making your own dessert is almost as fun as eating it!
Seeing Lori, Vivo’s matriarchal figure and pastry chef, working in the kitchen or interacting with the customers brings back many fond memories. I have turned around to find Lori assisting children of guess at the restaurant make their desserts and later on I encountered the parents of these children thanking both Lori and Sam for another great meal.
And you’ll always have great service from Martina and Danina, the younger generation of Vivo, they’ll make you feel like a regular from the moment you come in.
Even local chefs from other restaurants (including me!) can’t resist when a chef/foodie gathering is organized by these great people. This passion for our most basic of needs–food–is well understood here, so please, come spend a little time with us, share with us and I can promise you that you will go away with more than a great meal.
Marrow bones served as an appetizer at Vivo--delicious!
VIVO
565 Lincoln Avenue
Bellevue, PA 15202-3531
412-761-9500
First of all, I want to mention that it’s really great that Daniel is using local resources as his ingredients. It’s really sad that people are so urbanized and removed from nature that they don’t even trust the fruit that grows on their local trees! Just like Daniel used the local quinces for the Yinzer torte recipe, I have often thought about using the ginkgo “stinky” fruit that falls from the female trees that are common all over Washington, D.C. Stinky Gingko Fruit – unfortunately, it is SO stinky, that it will probably never happen!
The first point I want to make is that I am not a proponent of pairing dessert wines and dessert. The way I see it, there’s a missing synergy. In my book, I Drink on the Job (www.idrinkonthejob.com), I have a complete chapter on pairing wine and food, and the principle that comes to mind is “1+1=1/2″. It seems weird, but when you put a sweet food in your mouth and then you drink a sweet beverage (it could be any beverage – fruit juice, cola, etc.), the sweetness is significantly reduced. The pairing rule I often learned was that the wine should be at least as sweet at the dessert, but I don’t see how it makes a difference–sweet and sweet mostly cancel each other out!
Another point is that the Yinzer torte is made with highly acidic quince fruit turned into a butter emulsion. So now you have acidity – and yes, you do want to match acidity in a dish with an equally acidic wine, or the wine will taste really flat! You could easily pair this dish with a traditional dessert wine like a Sauternes or a Hungarian Tokaj, and that will do just fine. But let me throw you a few curve balls:
I prefer to have contrast to a sweet dessert dish. Just like many people really enjoy coffee with sweets because the tannin in coffee contrasts the sweetness of dessert on your palate, I would rather pair this with a spirit – and my spirit of choice for this dish is either a Cognac or a Calvados. Cognac is distilled from grapes and has a nice fruit component. Calvados is distilled from apples and has that fruit component as well. You could have a whisky or a Scotch, but definitely avoid a really smoky/peaty version of the latter – there are no smoke components to this dessert (unless you’re puffing on a cigar at the time!),
Change the dish a bit to make it go better with wine–this is called a pairing “bridge”. For example, you could put some chopped walnuts on top and maybe serve with a slice of blue cheese and now Ruby Port goes perfectly! Crunchy nuts would also add texture which makes food more interesting on the palate. Add a caramel sauce, and now a Tawny port, which is port that has been pre-aged in barrel will work with those flavors. You could even bridge this dessert by making a dessert wine reduction, and that would bring the flavors together.
Add fresh whipped cream with a little liqueur in it like Cointreau. OK, it won’t match better with any wine, but certainly it will make the dish all the better, and isn’t pleasure what you’re really after?
For this recipe you don’t need to toast the nuts. Put them in a food processor and grind them as fine as possible. Add the Maria cookies to the nuts and grind them all up. In a separate bowl cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg, and as you mix pour in the vanilla. Zest the orange and lemon into the butter mix, and then add the ground nuts and cookies. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Quickly combine. When every ingredient is uniformly mixed, add the flour and baking powder. Mix to achieve a cookie-dough-like consistency. Make into a loaf. If at this point the dough is too soft, put it in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into two parts, one a little larger than the other. The larger portion will be the base of the torte.
As you can see, I couldn’t find my torte pan so I used my springform pan. But of course you can use a torte pan.
Evenly distribute the larger half of your dough on top of your pan. Work quickly, or it will get too soft and difficult to work with. Then spread the fruit jelly over the dough. The final decoration of the torte is really up to you. I illustrated the most common way to go about it, but you can be creative with this step. I did use my pasta cutter, but a knife will do.
Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 25 minutes or until the dough turns light golden brown. Let it cool down and dust it with powdered sugar. Before you serve and enjoy, don’t forget to check out Charlie Adler’s wine pairing for yinzer torte!
In keeping with my philosophy of bringing chefs closer to those that appreciate food, I would like to mention David Bulman. David’s fire for his love of cooking burns strong. He’s young but full of information and always eager to try new things and share them. David talks of these memories that formed him to be the food professional that he is today:
Chef David Bulman teaching a class at the Robinson Township Market District
I started cooking professionally at the age of 19. After the first week I knew I had found my profession of choice. Not long after that, I decided to attend le cordon bleu culinary program in Pittsburgh. I have a great love for fresh and sustainable produce and agriculture. I love all aspects of cooking including learning about food and food cultures.
The first recipe I can remember producing as a child is a horseradish sauce. Simple but versatile. Capable of making the most bland roast come to life. I learned to find the roots from my grandfather. At times it could be unbearably hard to learn anything from him, probably due to that pint of cheap vodka he usually kept stowed away in his cowboy boots, but I did manage to learn a thing or two from him before I became a food professional. We used to find the wild horseradish in ditches in the spring. Later on, I learned that due to the hardiness and general invasiveness of the root, it could grow in just about any conditions. We would only dig in months that had an “R” in the spelling (September, October, April, etc.). Now as I do some background research for this particular article I’m finding that ideal cultivation is actually done in late fall and early spring. This might make sense for most places, but I come from Western New York, 20 miles from Lake Erie. If you try to harvest horseradish there in December, January, or February you will probably find yourself in the same situation as the roots you seek–buried up to your crown in snow! If you were able to submerge your shovel into the dirt, though, you would theoretically be able to harvest some of this hardy perennial.
When harvesting for culinary purposes you generally want the smaller roots that tend to be crisper and more pungent. These grow off the main root which is generally woody and not suitable for eating. It does still have an excellent use though: it can be split in half and replanted. I would not recommend planting it in your garden then forgetting about it since it tends to spread like soft butter on hot bread. After harvesting the root several times with my grandfather and my family, I eventually planted the root in a very wet patch of ground behind my childhood home. The next spring I found that the root had flourished, and to my knowledge still grows there today.
The first time I made horseradish sauce myself I did it over the phone, with my grandpa walking me through the recipe each step of the way. It’s a very simple sauce. The sauce goes great with roast beef. It lends an excellent kick to pork. Paired with a little ketchup, it makes a great accompaniment for shrimp in the form of cocktail sauce. Goes well on a sandwich, too, like mustard (which is a horseradish cousin in the same family).
I like it best on a good old simple saltine cracker, which is how my family generally ate it as a snack at home. It’s also a well known fact if you need to clear you sinuses, a couple tablespoons of horseradish will clear up the problem in no time! If you tend to water up when cutting up fresh onions, be prepared to cry more than that time somebody kicked your dog.
If you have a few older second or third generation European relatives you can probably find a jar of the good stuff in their refrigerators. The root has deep origins in Eastern Europe, throughout most of Europe, actually, and is commonly used in America in place of another cousin root: wasabi.
Future site of Burgh Bees' apiary and demonstration garden
As a fan of the East End Brewery and beekeeping, I thought this was great news. I can’t wait until the East End Brewery makes a honey beer with honey from accross the street.
From the January 2010 Burgh Bees newsletter:
The City of Pittsburgh has granted a lease to Burgh Bees for a block-long lot on Susquehanna Street in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The currently vacant lot, which sits across the street from the East End Brewery, will host a dozen honey bee hives as well as a demonstration pollinator garden and will serve as Burgh Bees’ outdoor beekeeping classroom. The site will be open to the public for tours several times during the spring and summer seasons.
This variation on the classic linzer torte recipe was made with local--"yinzer"--quince!
This is my second winter in Pittsburgh, and like many new comers to the ‘Burgh, I quickly fell in love with the beauty of the changing seasons that you can so distinctly observe in the city. Fall is perhaps my favorite season–it’s not so warm anymore and my vegetable garden is at its peak. Nice memories for these colder winter days.
Between gardening and work, my wife and I find time to take our dog on walks around the city. We have walked through neighborhoods, like Oakland, that were home to many immigrant Italian families. These people might no longer be here but you can still get a glimpse of what once was when you come across the many fig, chestnut, and even quince trees left behind.
unripe fruit on the quince tree (cydonia oblonga) in Pittsburgh in May
Quince trees are loved by Italians and many others, especially Mediterranean cultures, and they are a big part of Spanish culture and cuisine. Membrillo–quince paste–is most popular in Spain and is commonly enjoyed with cheeses like Manchego or used in savory sauces.
So, needless to say, finding a quince tree in the ‘Burgh made it feel even more like home to me. I kept an eye on that quince tree all fall. I quickly realized that the quince fruit was just rolling all over the street and going to waste. The Italian family that once lived there was now replaced by college students with no knowledge of what they had in their yard, and probably no desire to take the time to do anything with it.
I felt I needed to do something with this fruit, I couldn’t let it go to waste! So, I took advantage of this situation and after an almost effortless urban gleaning I had a sack full of quince fruit.
I laid the quince on cardboard in the cool basement to "blett" them
This was a special treat for me, and I decided I didn’t want to just make membrillo (quince paste). I felt the best way to preserve it and use it, not only as a sweet addition but as a savory ingredient, would be to make a quince butter. For this I basically went about it the same way as you would to make the paste, but I used only half the sugar and I reduced the cooking time.
The butter had a bitter, sour citrus quality and could be a great addition to a sweet desert or a chutney.
Everyone was making their cookies and nut rolls for the holidays and I really wanted to use my quince butter for some sort of cookie. Linzer tortes came to mind. They are nothing but a large cookie with some kind of fruit jelly, jam on them–maybe even a fruit butter? I had to try it.
I halved the quince and put it in the pressure cooker
And this is how the Yinzer Torte came to be. “Yinzer” is what some people call Pittsburghers, because locals often say “yinz” instead of the plural “you.” (Pittsburghers say “yinz” the way Southerners might say “y’all.”) The German/Austrian immigrants brought the tradition of this torte to the Burgh, the Italians brought the quince. I combined them.
The sweetness of the dough and the tart finish of the fruit makes this a simple and delicious dessert. Only in Pittsburgh–Yinzer Torte.
Below are a few more photos showing how I processed the quince fruit into the quince butter that I used in my torte recipe.
I put the quince through the food mill to mash it up and remove the seeds and skin
I only used about half the sugar that you would use to make a traditional membrillo (quince paste) recipe
The quince butter took so long to cook that the dog became bored. You can see how thick the mixture is; the spoon is standing on its own!
My friend Paige had told me all about the new outdoor parrilla that she and her family had built in their backyard.
Paige’s brother had the whole family involved in the construction of this outdoor barbecue. He had learned about parrillas in Uruguay, where this barbecue method is so popular. Upon returning from this country he had to have his own parrilla.
After hearing about it, I immediately wanted to try it out. I decided that a paella would be a great dish to test the parrilla’s cooking abilities. Cooking over hot coals can be tricky, but in this case it worked out great. I had heat intense enough from the coals to brown the chicken and then I was able to spread the coals around to maintain the even heat needed for a perfect paella. Our friends marvelled at the sight of the stock gently boiling. Amazing how a few coals can pack so much heat.
I had a great time cooking on the parrilla, and everyone enjoyed the paella.
Arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) is such a great Latin comfort dish, as Daniel mentions, pretty much every Latin country has their version, even cultures from the Middle East and Asia have similar versions, only using different spices. As I do for all pairings, I always like to break down pairings into simple component parts: originating region of cuisine, cooking technique, balance of flavors and spicing, the body of the dish, and the seasonality of the dish are all major points to consider.
Region: Spain and Latin America – this is a comfort food dish throughout Latin countries – each spices it a bit differently, but chicken, rice and sofrito (In Latin American cuisine, it is a sauce of tomatoes, roasted bell peppers, garlic, onions and herbs)
Cooking Technique: This is a true “Momma’s Dish” that every loving mother makes for her family by spreading the flavors of the chicken into the rice by browning and then stewing with the sofrito. This dish can be served right-away, or even refrigerated and served the next day.
Balance of Flavors and Spicing: The major flavor components of this dish are the browning of the chicken meat, the chorizo sausage, and the sofrito which is a flavorful tomato, onion, garlic and spices/herbs blend. I noticed Daniel in this version uses quite a bit of cumin, which adds body and smokiness to the dish as well as the chorizo which is a smoked sausage. This brings a rustic heartiness and depth to the dish, sort of a base note. Rice is pretty neutral, but using Arborio rice is an elegant addition which adds some cooking time as well as more texture to the dish.
The Body: Just mentioned, the browned chicken, the texture of Arborio Rice and the earthy/weighty flavors of smoked chorizo and the sofrito gives this dish a rich flavor. The secret is to let the flavors stay together long enough to create the harmony of this dish – that’s why it tastes even better the next day!
Other Factors: This is a comfort food dish and I think beverages that are served with comfort food work. Beer would work great, but everyday wines, particularly reds will work.
Wine Pairing Conclusion: This is the kind of dish where an inexpensive light to medium bodied red works perfectly, I’m thinking a nice Spanish Tempranillo or a rustic Grenache based wine. In a pinch, an Italian Sangiovese like Chianti would work great, but any light regional red works. The components I would pair are really the rich flavors coming from the tomato/onion/red pepper sofrito and the cumin which adds a rich gravy flavor that gives the chicken more weight and body. The melding of chicken fat and juice, smoked sausage, tomatoes and rich spices create a harmony of dish where the wine should be simple and just stand up to the flavors. For a little variation, you could also replace some of the chicken stock added to the rice with, say, a cup of wine to give the dish a little zing – I generally cook with light crisp white wines like Sauvignon Blanc, but you could use a light red as well. Drink a nice simple red wine with this dish, and follow with some Tequila Anejo or Whiskey to mellow out the wonderful pleasure of heartiness and simplicity!
Conclusion: Don’t over think this pairing, just pull a bottle from your stash and enjoy!
Consider yourself paired!
Charlie Adler
Author, “I Drink on the Job: A Refreshing Perspective on Wine” (Release date: February, 2010) www.idrinkonthejob.com
Twitter: @idrinkonthejob
idrinkonthejob@gmail.com
I was raised in Asturias, northern Spain, in a family that loves to cook. My culinary development started early, watching my grandmother cook... [More]
You can see how thick the mixture is; the spoon is standing on its own!
