SPAC Wine and Food Festival 2010

This past Saturday we decided to shut down Catskill Maison because we have a huge weekend next weekend with the warrior race, and take a rare break to enjoy ourselves. We went to SPAC's annual wine and food festival in Saratoga and it was a blast! There was a celebrity guest appearance from Lidia Bastianich who is owner of Becco and the renowned Del Posto in the city, and she is my grandfather's favorite chef so I met her (she's incredibly humble) and got a personalized signed copy of her latest Italian cook book for him. There was food from restaurants all around the Capital region (Albany area) and a showcase on Italian wines, spirits and food (it was an Italian themed wine and food festival). We picked up on some great possibilities to feature at our wine bar next year, so look out for some gems from the Italian vintages that we found this weekend. We really had a wonderful time at this laid back not overly crowded wine festival and I encourage those who have the time to check it out next year.

When It's Over It's Over (The inevitable end of summer)

I, like most people greet Labor Day with mixed emotion. Usually it's a beautiful day, very sunny with low humidity and quite warm which is perfect weather for a BBQ or picnic. But it also marks the unofficial end of summer and all that it means; the upcoming cold weather, snow and a lack of farm fresh fruits and vegetables. Every fruit and vegetable has it's season, and from living so many years part time in the Catskills where local fruits are vegetables grow regularly I'm a very strong proponent of eating things "in season" when they taste the best. What baffles me about so many people who come up for the weekend from the City is their obsession with corn. The harvest season for corn is mid July until early September, but some of the farms up here bring out these tiny ears of underdeveloped corn for July 4th weekend because the "weekenders" demand it and the end of corn season is about now (or in a week or two)...I can't begin to tell you how many incredulous stares the farm owners are given when the "corn bin" is replaced with butternut squash. Corn doesn't last forever, nor do tomatoes or berries or any other fruit or vegetable. They all have seasons and that's what makes them so special. Corn wouldn't be special if it tasted like crisp candy in January would it? Seasons are not something that we can control, so it makes sense to appreciate each one for the gift it presents.

The Hunt For Really Inexpensive White Wine

I always love a good wine bargain. Clearly sometimes you get what you pay for, but I've been able to find some quite good red wines for under $7.00, the Liquor Depot in Oneonta often has really good red wine specials for $3.99 and $4.99 of wines that the distributor wants to move and once the cases are purchased that's the end. PJ's Wine and Liquor store on 204th and Broadway in Inwood (the mecca as far as I'm concerned) has TONS of great red wine bargains (many from Spain and Argentina). However I'm usually hard pressed to find a decent white wine for under $10.00. I like generally like full white wines and they have to be dry, and trust me it's really hard to find a good white wine. Sure there are specials at my favorite shops for $4 and $6 dollars, but the entire bottle of white ends up in a stew or a marinade because it's generally not pleasing at all to my palate.

Yesterday my mom and I went to the Liquor Depot, and she found this $4.99 bottle of Italian white wine Trevini Primo that is 85% Chardonnay grape and 15% Pinot Grigio. So I snidely told her that we will add this to our "cooking wine" collection, because the last $5 purchase of white wine was a usual disaster. We chilled the wine and took a taste and were blown away! No this isn't a Cakebread Chardonnay by any means, but it's a totally drinkable white, even drinkable as a sipping wine without food. This wine is really good, actually for the price it's great. So today I purchased the last case and a half, and lucky me, the distributor was in the store at the time and he said that he had two more cases that he was going to deliver on Thursday and that was it...too bad for other shoppers who might like this wine because I've already purchased the other two cases!

Hot For Hot Pepper Jelly

Last year a guest who stayed at our Bed and Breakfast Catskill Maison gave me a jar of hot pepper jam. It was incredible, hot and spicy and tangy and sweet all in one bite. It's pepper season at the farms so I decided to give it a go and try my own version of hot pepper jelly. I went to Shaul Farm today and got a huge red pepper and some red jalapenos and made the below recipe. It seems to be tasty and I hope that the jelly sets. I really want to perfect this recipe because I want it to be a condiment on the cheese plate that customers can order at the wine bar next year.

Hot Red Pepper Jelly – makes Four 8 oz jars

1 really large very ripe sweet red bell pepper or 2 medium sized seeded and coarsely cut to put into food processor

3 or 4 red jalapenos seeded

1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

Process all peppers and add into a pot with 2 cups of sugar, a ½ cup of cider vinegar, a teaspoon of salt, 1 lemon and ½ cup of sweet cherry juice. Bring to a boil and then take off the heat and add 1 ½ packets of pectin. Return to heat and bring to rolling boil for 1 minute, then reduce to simmer, skim the foam and simmer for 5 minutes. Then put the liquid in 8 oz mason jars and close lid.

Can as usual in boiling water to the time appropriate for your altitude.

Newport Mansions Food and Wine Festival

My birthday is in a month, and for the past 5 years I've made it a ritual to do something "wine related" for my birthday. I've gone wine tasting in the Finger Lakes, the Niagara Wine Region in Canada, and this year am heading to the Newport Mansions Wine and Food Festival. This festival is taking place the weekend of my birthday (Sept 24th thru 26th), there will be a grand tasting of over 100 wineries and samples from some of New England's hottest restaurants (and I love seafood)...So very exciting and it's my first time going to this particular festival. To make it even better one of my favorite chefs Chris Cosentino who really believes in sustainable local produce and the humane treatment of meat (something that I preach about regularly on this blog) of Incanto restaurant, an offal hotspot in San Francisco where I had one of the best 5 meals of my entire life, (and considering that I love food and am always trying restaurants that's an achievement) and Boccalone and the Boccalone Salumeria which has some incredible cured pork and since pork is my favorite thing in the entire world you can imagine how much I love this meat, will be there doing a cooking demo and signing his cookbook! Newport is a beautiful village with some of the best seafood that NE has to offer, I'm looking forward to a weekend of steamers, lobster and lots and lots of wine!!!!

Its Corn Season

As most who read my blog are aware, I'm very passionate about cooking and eating what is in season whenever possible. Right now is corn season and corn is something that once you eat it locally from the farm you will never eat that frozen cob again! We get our corn from RSK Farm in Prattsville, Bob and Sandy (owners of RSK) have the very best corn, it's so incredibly sweet and crunchy and perfect...however this weekend when I got corn there was a small worm at the top of the ear. So being the city kid I am, I promptly informed Bob and Sandy that the corn (and a few other ears that I peeled back and saw worms) was bad and wormy. So Bob sarcastically told me that there was an instrument invented about ten thousand years ago called a knife, and to cut the very top that the worm was beginning to eat. He then told me that I had choices, either to have him spray the corn until it glowed to avoid the worms or to deal with a harmless worm (because that's what happens in nature) every now and then and get good non pesticide filled corn. I clearly opted for the worm and flicked it off my corn LOL! That's the difference with local corn and knowing your farmer. In the grocery store, that so called perfect produce that we get isn't so perfect...farmers have to subject the fruits and vegetables to some not so environmentally friendly practices for those perfect peaches! Worms aren't so bad after all, and boy am I getting an education!

So, it's been corn season since mid July and I've eaten corn about twice a week now for over a month...but corn season will end in about 3 weeks so I'm getting my fill now, because once it's over it's over. There is but so much grilled corn on the cob that anyone can eat, so at some point in the summer I have to get a little innovative (not that anything is wrong with a simple grilled corn on the cob with or without a compound butter). But tonight it was cold and rainy so I wasn't about to freeze my butt off grilling corn, so I cut the corn off the cobs (best way to do it is to get a kitchen towel and place the cob upright on the towel and cut down the side of the cob, the kernels fall off and don't end up rolling off the counter). My mother and I sauteed the corn in compound butter made up of roasted garlic, fennel, onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper added some scallops, lobster and smoked salmon to the corn, sauteed it in wine and lime juice and sprinkled basil on top and had an incredible meal! We ate it with some Rose and 6 grain bread and it was delicious. There are so many options for corn, I only wish it was fresh in December.

Round 2 Recipes

My mother is the queen of the round 2 recipe. She is the most innovative leftover user in the world, and takes "waste not, want not" to a whole new level! Nothing was ever thrown out of her fridge when I was a child, and I mean NOTHING. She is the original recycler and I'm not talking about reheating last night's meatloaf and putting in between 2 slices of bread and calling it lunch; I mean completely different meals out of what was left over from dinner a couple of nights before. When I was a kid, I used to think it was a whole new meal! Want to get my mom pissed off? Come over to our house and waste food. She's so good at creating a second dish out of a leftover that she has even rubbed off on me; I turned tzatziki sauce into a topping for fish tacos by adding a little of it into fresh shredded cabbage, and then turned those leftovers into coleslaw.

My mother swears that she learned these tricks from her grandmother...I personally think that she has Great-Grandma beat hands down!

Late last week I made a roasted chicken that was coated in pesto. It was easy and delicious because the pesto was utilized in place of herbs that I usually use when roasting chicken. After the meal we had a ½ chicken left and I stuck it in the fridge assuming that I would cut it up and put it over salad for lunch. Last night, I walked in to a very pleasant surprise. My mother took the ½ chicken off the bone and transformed it into an incredible Caribbean/Indian/Moroccan chicken and rice dish that was to die for. She really emptied the spice rack on this one! It was sweet, spicy, salty, crunchy, sour, nutty and soft at the same time…it appealed to all senses and touched every inch of the palate. What an incredible use of leftover chicken. If you like food that is well-seasoned and spiced, you have to try this dish. I promise you will not be disappointed… and it’s a great dish for a crowd too. I couldn't even believe it was a leftover. I'm learning that with a little creativity I can make two to three dishes out of an original dish. On a regular basis, it makes cooking that much more exciting.

The next time you have leftover roasted chicken please try this recipe. Most of the ingredients are probably right in your cupboard!

Ingredients:

• Left over roasted chicken taken off the bone
• Slivered almonds
• Chick peas
• Dried apricots - sliced
• Green onion (scallions) – thinly sliced
• 7 cloves of garlic
• 2 cups of short grain brown rice (you can use white but there are major health benefits of using brown)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Ground Cardamom
• Ground Allspice
• Ground Cinnamon
• Smoked Paprika
• Black Pepper
• Coriander
• Garam Masala
• Ground Ginger
• Tumeric
• Ground Cumin
• Ground Cloves
• Salt

Mix all spices together, and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to make a paste. Take half of the paste and coat all chicken. Put chicken in the refrigerator and let marinate for at least an hour.

Add 4 cups of water to 2 cups of brown rice. Bring to a boil and then lower flame to make the water a simmer. After 15 minutes add the green onions, and cook until tender. When the rice is finished put to the side.

When rice is finished, take chicken out and bring the chicken to room temperature

Take a tablespoon of butter and olive oil and heat in a large saucepan. Add chickpeas and almond and apricots and sauté. Add chicken to this mixture and brown slightly on all sides. Add the rice and add the rest of the spice mixture. Let simmer for 15 minutes and then add additional almonds and green onions on top as a garnish and serve.