Al Dente

Popcorn Cookies: Snack Happiness, Vegan Style

Out-of-towners who attended my sister's wedding last weekend found a bag full of goodies in their hotel rooms, including a box of cookies from the vegan kitchen of Sidra Forman.

Sidra is no slouch when it comes to cookies. She bakes hundreds of them every weekend for the Twin Springs Farmers Market in Montgomery County, Maryland. Her herbal shortbreads have been celebrated in song over at Daily Candy. And her snack happy popcorn cookies are the perfect junk food, salty and sweet and utterly addictive.

Of course, you won't find any "junk" in these cookies. Made with air-popped popcorn and raw oats, they're a healthy snack food alternative. And they're so easy to make, you'll wish you had discovered a long time ago.

Popcorn Cookies

Ingredients:
5 cups air-popped popcorn
1 cup raw oats
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons soy milk
5 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a mixer combine ingredients and mix until popcorn and oats break down.

3. Spray a sheet tray with vegetable oil. Divide the dough to make individual cookies and place on cookie sheet.

4. Bake until golden brown, about 8-10 minutes.

Makes 15 large cookies or 30 small cookies

--Tracy Schneider

Hotter Than Georgia Asphalt: July 4th Barbecue Chicken

In the heat of the summer, there’s nothing better for keeping the heat out of the kitchen than firing up the grill. My grandfather used a potent vinegar bath on grilled chicken that produced a pungent, meaty odor, sending out billowing clouds of steam and smoke as the chicken cooked. I like to make a batch of the marinade and keep it in the refrigerator in the spritz bottle. It works well with pork chops, too.

The birds in the photo are spatchcocked and threaded on a spit. Spatchcocking is a technique used with small birds like Cornish hens, quail, or even small chickens. You remove their backbones and spread them open so that they are fairly flat. Besides creating an intriguing presentation and making them simple to carve, a spatchcocked bird requires less time cooking, so the breast meat is more likely to be moist and tender.

To spatchcock a bird, place the bird on a clean cutting board, breast side down. Using poultry shears, make a lengthwise cut on both sides of the backbone from neck to tail. Remove the backbone and save it for stock. Open the bird like a book. Proceed with the recipe. For an especially flat bird, place the bird on a baking sheet, top with a second baking sheet and weigh it down with a brick or several large cans of tomatoes for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

Bon Appétit Y’all!
VA

Dede’s Barbecued Chicken

Ingredients:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup peanut oil, plus more for the grate
2 tablespoons hot sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon coarse salt, plus more for seasoning the chicken
1 (4 to 5-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Prepare a charcoal fire using about 6 pounds of charcoal and burn until the coals are completely covered with a thin coating of light gray ash, 20 to 30 minutes. Spread the coals evenly over the grill bottom, position the grill rack above the coals, and heat until medium-hot (when you can hold your hand 5 inches above the grill surface for no longer than 3 or 4 seconds). Or, for a gas grill, turn on all burners to High, close the lid, and heat until very hot, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Combine the water, vinegar, peanut oil, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and salt in a squirt bottle. Set aside.

3. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Apply some oil to the grill grate. Place the chicken on the grill, leaving plenty of space between each piece. Grill until seared, about 1 to 2 minutes per side for legs and thighs, and 3 or so minutes for breasts. Move the chicken to medium-low heat or reduce the heat to medium; continue to grill, turning occasionally and squirting with the marinade, until the juices run clear when pierced, 12 to 18 minutes. Remove the pieces from the grill as they cook and transfer to a warm platter. Give them a final squirt of sauce for flavor and serve immediately.

Serves 4 to 6

Virginia Willis Culinary Productions, LLC © 2009
Adapted from Bon Appétit, Y’all: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking by Virginia Willis, copyright © 2008. Published by Ten Speed Press.

--Virginia Willis

Japanese Cat Cafes

What to do if you love cats but work long hours, have a no-pets-allowed apartment, or are constantly traveling? In Japan, you'd go to Calico, a cafe in Tokyo that lets customers have a cup of tea and play with the feline staff. According to a writer at globalpost.com, when Calico first opened in March 2007 it was "an oddity and the preserve of lonely women and cat fanciers. It is now staggeringly popular. This March it opened a second branch in the high-rent Shinjuku business and shopping district. Last October it published a glossy coffee table book featuring its "feline staff." The original branch is so packed that reservations are recommended on weekends." The cafe charges about $9 for an hour of fur-fueled catisfaction.

--AndreaLeigh

Tom Douglas's Recipe for Crab and Pork Shao Mai

Shao mai or gyoza wrappers, available in Asian groceries, are 3-inch diameter rounds that are very thin.  If you buy square wrappers, it’s easy to stack the wrappers in groups of 10 or so and shave the corners with a pair of kitchen shears to make rounds.

For steaming the shao mai, a multi-tiered Chinese bamboo steamer with two steaming baskets works best. Set your bamboo steamer over a wok or a large saucepan partially filled with boiling water.  If you don’t have a multi-tiered bamboo steamer, divide the dumplings between two pots with steamer baskets. (If you use metal steamer baskets instead of bamboo, lightly oil them first so the shao mai don’t stick.)

If you like, you can make these ahead, chill, and reheat in the steamer baskets for about 5 minutes.

Crab and Pork Shao Mai

Ingredients:
1 large egg white
1 tablespoon sake
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons cornstarch, plus a little more for dusting the plate
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced scallions, white and green parts
2 teaspoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup drained, canned water chestnuts, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup peeled and grated carrot
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound crab meat, drained, picked clean of shell, and lightly squeezed of excess moisture if wet
About 24 raw green peas, fresh or frozen
1 package shao mai or gyoza wrappers

For serving:
Chili oil or Chinese hot chili paste

Directions:
1. In a bowl, lightly whisk together the egg white, sake, soy, sesame oil, cornstarch, sugar, salt, and pepper. Add the scallion, ginger, cilantro, water chestnuts, and carrot and stir.  Add the pork and crab meat and mix with a rubber spatula until well combined.

2. Set a shao mai wrapper on a work surface and place a heaping tablespoon of filling in the center.  Then gather up the edges of the wrapper, pleating it around the filling.  Hold the dumpling between your thumb and index finger, squeezing it to form a “waist,” while flattening the bottom of the dumpling with your other hand.  The dumpling will be open on top, leaving the top of the filling exposed.  Press one pea into the center of the exposed filling.  Set the dumpling on a large plate lightly dusted with cornstarch.  Repeat until all the crab-pork mixture is used. You should have about 24 dumplings.

3. Fill a large saucepan or wok about halfway with water and bring to a boil over high heat.

4. Divide the shao mai between two bamboo steamer baskets.  Stack the baskets, cover with the lid, and place over the saucepan or wok. Steam until the shao mai are cooked through, about 15 minutes, reversing the baskets about halfway through the steaming time.

5. Remove the shao mai from the baskets, transfer to plates and serve with ramekins of chili oil or chili paste.

Makes 6 appetizer servings

Recipe from I Love Crab Cakes (Morrow, 2006)
Photo by Robin Layton

--Tom Douglas

Tom Douglas is currently working with Amazon.com on the exclusive line of kitchen and dining products, Tom Douglas by Pinzon, aimed at building confidence in the kitchen.

Best Bang for Your Buck: BLT Steak

Who would have thought that a celebrity chef's tony steakhouse could offer the best bang for your buck?

But that's exactly the case at BLT Steak, where Chef Laurent Tourondel showers his diners with complimentary treats: great snacks at the bar, chicken liver paté with toasted ciabatta first thing once you're seated and fresh from the oven popovers shortly thereafter.

Sure, steak isn't cheap and like other steakhouses, the sides are all a la carte. So if you want the decadent Parmesan gnocchi or the grilled asparagus, it's a separate charge. But a delicious hanger steak with chimichurri, that I can easily share with one or two other people, is only $29. Share two sides at about $10 each and you're more than sated. A great deal for a grand dinner, stellar service and a cool, clubby atmosphere. You'll want to come back when you're flush for the seafood platter, the lobster Cobb style salad, and the bone-in double sirloin.

Whatever you order, Tourondel won't let you leave without dessert. His molten chocolate espresso cookies are delicious. And they're also complimentary.

--Tracy Schneider

Mahi Mahi 30-Minute Recipe with Greek-Style Dressing

A recent switch in our household to a diet less defined by red meat, has opened up a world of simple and tasty recipes for fish.  I'm always on the lookout for something that takes no more that 30 minutes to prepare and cook.  The following recipe for Greek-Style Mahi Mahi was featured in the June 2009 edition of Gourmet.  It's a savory, citrus-flavored summer dish and I suppose you could substitute a number of other white fish for the mahi mahi. I served this with a side dish of orzo dressed with fresh herbs and olive oil.  The whole thing was such a big hit we've added it to our 12 favorite summer meals list and it's now on permanent rotation.

Greek-Style Mahi Mahi

Ingredients:
3 medium tomatoes (about 3/4 pound total), each cut into 8 wedges
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
4 (6-ounces) pieces mahimahi fillet (1 1/2 inches thick) with skin
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup crumbled feta
3 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped dill
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
8 very thin lemon slices

Directions:
1. Preheat broiler.

2. Toss tomatoes with 2 tablespoons oil, vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

3. Line a broiler pan or small 4-sided sheet pan with foil or parchment paper and lightly oil foil. Put fish, skin sides down, on pan and season with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

4. Whisk together mayonnaise, feta, herbs, and lemon juice and spread over top of fish. Put 2 lemon slices (slightly overlapping) on center of each fillet. Drizzle lemon slices with remaining 2 teaspoons oil.

5. Broil fish 8 inches from heat until just cooked through, 14 to 16 minutes. If topping browns before fish is cooked, cover loosely with foil. Serve fish with tomatoes.

--flauersmartini

Potato Chips: Cheap and Fun Foodie Souvenirs From the Grocery Store

Whenever I travel overseas I like to stop at outdoor markets, specialty food shops and grocery stores to see what people are buying and eating. It's harder to discern regional tastes when traveling around the U.S., since so much of what you'll find in the grocery store is generic.

I love combing the candy aisles across Europe. English Flakes, Double Deckers and Smarties. Viennese Mozartkugelns. German Ritter Sports. But the candy aisle in the U.S. is basically the same all across the country. Here you'll find the same cereal in the cereal aisle, whether you're in Seattle or New York. The same cans of soup, boxes of crackers and containers of ice cream.

Fortunately, that's not the case when it comes to potato chips, where regional chips still prevail. My sister, Jennifer, has made sure that all of her out-of-town guests, who are in D.C. this weekend for her wedding, head home with a bag of Utz Crab Chips, potato chips made with Chesapeake Bay crab seasoning. According to Jennifer, they're the quintessential District chip.

It's good to know that I can travel the U.S. and bring back a fun (and cheap) souvenir simply by shopping the local grocery store and honing in on the region's favorite chips. In fact, I seem to recall a recent magazine article that featured regional potato chips all across the country. (I can't remember what magazine it was. Anyone know?)

I'm always on the lookout for other inexpensive foodie souvenirs, so if you have some favorites, please share them with me.

--Tracy Schneider

Friday Afternoon Internet Happy Hour: Foodie Links Worth a Click

It's Friday again! Here are a few tasty links the Al Dente editors obsessed about this week:

• This cheese-covered horror story will be haunting me for some time. Possibly in a good way. Or not.
• Get 'em while they're ripe! Gourmet showcases super seasonal cherry recipes. Yum!
• Just say cheese! A slideshow of "foody" faces.
• A frosting-shot taste test. Frosting lightweights, beware!
• Sky Full of Bacon profiles an Iowa prosciutto maker.
• Smashing! A recipe for a Raspberry-Thyme Smash cocktail.
• What to cook this weekend: Celebrate the 4th of July early with these red, white, and blue ice cream cupcakes.
• Continuing on the Jell-O theme from past weeks, check out Eat Me Daily's chronicling of a Jell-O mold competition in Brooklyn. My favorite--Jell-ROE:

Photo courtesy of Eat Me Daily

While you're out and about, reading up on food news, don't miss Al Dente's most popular posts of the week. Here are a few reader favorites:

• Wine in a box--the debate continues.
• Whip up an easy cheesecake with the help of your food processor.
• The brownie bake-off continues with Maggie's Fudge Brownies.

Did I miss a not-to-be-missed foodie link from this past week? Add a comment or tweet at me!

Have a great weekend!

--KitchenMaus

Le Pain Quotidien for Fresh & Healthy Fast Food

Le Pain Quotidien just opened on Dupont Circle, a stone's throw from my sister's apartment in Washington D.C. How lucky is she!

We discovered Le Pain Quotidien eight years ago on a trip to France. We walked by it one day in Nice, never guessing that this lovely cafe with great pastries, simple breakfasts, inventive tartines, and boards of cheese and charcuterie, was actually a chain of cafes begun in Belgium.

We went back again. And again. When Le Pain Quotidien arrived on U.S. shores, we made a beeline to its shop on New York's Upper West Side and were pleased to find that our love affair had withstood both time and distance. Le Pain Quotidien was as good as ever.

Le Pain Quotidien, which means "daily bread" in French, is known for its large communal tables, commitment to organic ingredients and strong environmental stance, in addition to its superb breads and pastries.

If Le Pain Quotidien can offer fresh and healthy fast food around the world, shouldn't there be others that will follow suit?

--Tracy Schneider

Walla Walla Onions--In the Raw and Oh So Sweet!

During the winter months, I rarely use sliced raw onion on my sandwiches or in my salads. I simply find them to be too harsh to eat straight up.

However, now that summer is here and Washington's Walla Walla sweet onions are hitting the markets, I find myself tucking the sweet crisp slices into everything from pita pockets and homemade gyros to burgers, salads, and salsas.  They are one of those seasonal regional treats that simply can't be purchased year round.

These onions hail from Washington's Walla Walla Valley, but they are originally from the Island of Corsica, which is off the west coast of Italy. More than 100 years ago, a French soldier named Peter Pieri gathered the onion seed and eventually brought it to this fertile valley in Eastern Washington. The rest is history, and the onion has been revered ever since.

Although there are other sweet onions on the market such as the Vidalia and Texas 1015, Kathryn Fry, the Director of Marketing for the Walla Walla Onion Marketing Committee explained the factors that set the Walla Walla apart.

She said, "The Walla Wallas are hand harvested and open pollinated... with a Walla Walla it's a natural sweetness. It's a really big deal."  She also explained that consumers should look for the onion's official sticker which declares "Walla Walla Genuine Sweet Onion."  This helps to ensure authenticity when various onions are sometimes carelessly combined in a produce bin at a store.

I had been poking through the onion's official website for ideas and stumbled upon this recipe for Walla Walla Sweet Onion and Watermelon Salsa. It seemed intriguing but odd. I asked Fry if the recipe was good, or if she had any other "best recipes." She told me the salsa is very popular and that it's awesome.

Over the years, I've learned to trust tips from industry folks like Fry. They know their product inside and out and they know what consumers like. So, Fry's endorsement sent me slicing and dicing last night. The salsa is cool, spicy, sweet, crunchy, and herbaceous. Perfect for a hot summer day.

Walla Walla Sweet Onion and Watermelon Salsa

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped watermelon (seeds removed)
3/4 cup chopped Walla Walla Sweet Onion
3/4 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup chopped seeded jalapeno chilies
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Stir together all the ingredients in bowl. Refrigerate, covered, at least one hour to blend flavors. Stir before serving.

Recipe Courtesy of the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Marketing Committee and The National Watermelon Promotion Board

Photo by Melissa A. Trainer

--Melissa A. Trainer