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Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth: Behind the Scenes & on the Cutting Room Floor

Kate-with-pie This Sunday, in many areas but sadly not mine, Ruth Reichl will visit Jon Rowley's Seattle, the second installment of Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth. Julia Child called Jon Rowley the "fish missionary" and viewers can watch Reichl as she tastes the first Copper River salmon of the season and forages for clams and fiddlehead ferns at his side.

But viewers won't have the opportunity to join the pie class Ruth attended with "pie whisperer" Kate McDermott, Rowley's wife and an accomplished baker in her own right. McDermott spent two years experimenting with pie dough before she arrived at the perfect crust.

If Kate's Art of the Pie class with Ruth had not ended up on the cutting room floor, you would have learned that they baked two pies that afternoon, a rhubarb pie made from enormous red Northwest stalks and an apple pie made with the last of the storing apples. 

And you would have been surprised, then delighted by Kate's approach to making pie. She throws the cookbook out the window and breaks all the rules when it comes to baking.

Kate tells you to imagine that you're a mother of six on the plains of the Mid-west in the early twentieth century. There's fruit that needs to be used up, kids that are running in and out of the kitchen, and supper that must be put on the table. These women weren't using the "dip and sweep" method to measure their flour or cutting out perfectly symmetrical apple slices.

Kate beams as she holds up a measuring cup with a little more or a little less flour. Watch as she roughly chops her apples, peel and all, into mismatched sizes. Kate shows that baking a pie need not be a production. And if you had been behind the scenes you might have heard Ruth say, "Kate, your approach to baking has really been liberating."

--Tracy Schneider

 

The Warlock: A Halloween Cocktail that’s Spooky Good

Not sure what to serve up at this year’s Halloween fright fest (serve up to the adults, that is: the kids get all the candy they can eat. By the way, for other Halloween party fun, check out the Amazon Halloween Store)? Or, are you looking for a signature cocktail to serve the next time you invite friends over for a night of bloodcurdling horror movies featuring Christopher Lee? Let me introduce you in the below video to the perfect mix for these situations, the chilling (well, chilled, at least) cocktail called the Warlock. Featured in my new book Dark Spirits, the Warlock combines brandy, Italian favorites Strega and limoncello, freshly squeezed orange juice, and Peychaud’s bitters, with an end result that has a bit of a kick and lots of flavor. One warning: the Warlock might turn you into a sorcerous zombie. But that’s a risk worth taking.

--A.J. Rathbun

Who Will Be The Next Iron Chef? My Money's On Holly Smith

Nic_holly_s3x4_al Did you catch the season premiere of Food Network's hit show, The Next Iron Chef?

I got to watch it with one of the contestants!

Holly Smith, winner of the 2008 James Beard Foundation Award for best chef in the Pacific Northwest, had a party at her wonderful Cafe Juanita Sunday night. There were three big screens set up around the dining room and guests nibbled on an all-star lineup of passed apps: Seared Foie Gras Brioche with Candied Ginger, Cocoa Nibs and Huckleberries, Grilled Octopus Chickpea Bruschetta, House-Smoked Trout on Pumpernickle Crostini, Italian White Anchovies with Salsa Verde and Ciccoli Sliders, which were like chicken-fried pulled pork. Oh my goodness, that was some fantastic finger food! The savory snacks were perfectly paired with Mark Ryan Viognier.

While waiting for the big show to start, chef Holly filled us in on some behind-the-scenes scoop. The biggest bomb was that the flight the East Coast chefs arrived on lost power in one engine and nearly had to make an emergency landing in Death Valley.

After the 90-minute debut, during which she tackled jellyfish as her slippery secret ingredient and "survived to cook another day", I asked Smith how she had been cast. "They called me," she said. Bravo!

Cafe Juanita is one of just two restaurants I gave four stars to while I was reviewing for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, so I wasn't surprised to learn that she had been recognized as a possible Iron Chef. Stay tuned to see how she fares. Or do you want to predict a winner?

-- Leslie Kelly

Hubig's Pies Take the Cake in New Orleans

Hubigs Hubig's Pies aren't well known outside the South. They don't travel well. They're delicate and have a short shelf life because the age-old recipe doesn't include preservatives. But fans of these fried pies are so fiercely loyal, they prodded the company to change the way it does business.

The company was started in Fort Worth, Texas, shortly after World War I by German immigrant baker Simon Hubig, whose likeness is still on the iconic yellow and white packages. The factory in a residential neighborhood of New Orleans is the last Hubig's standing. And after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, there was some doubt whether it would survive.

But it was the New Orleanians displaced by the terrible storm and subsequent flooding who persuaded Hubig's to start shipping its fruit pies made with many locally sourced ingredients. The owners of this family-run business were buried in requests, especially from parents wanting to send a taste of home to military families serving abroad.

So, now, the pies can be shipped in a special box designed to keep them as fresh as possible. The price is high, $50, but customers don't seem to mind as the orders pour in. After one bite of the dreamy coconut pie following a tour of this busy, well-run operation, I could easily see how folks get hooked. The crust was so tender, the custard filling intense in its coconutiness.

The most popular flavors are lemon and apple, along with cherry, pineapple and chocolate. These hand-held treats sell for just 99 cents in and around New Orleans. Sounds like a good excuse to visit the Crescent City, doesn't it? If and when you go, let me know and I'll be happy to provide a long list of my very favorite places to eat in the second best city to dine in this country. (NYC is No. 1 for me, but NOLA's a very close runner up.)

In the meantime, here's a little film I made on my Flip camera from behind-the-scenes at this tiny pie factory that produces huge numbers of pies daily with a crew who has been on board for decades.

-- Leslie Kelly

Serious Barbecue with Chef Adam Perry Lang

Check out Chef Adam Perry Lang, author of Serious Barbecue: Smoke, Char, Baste, and Brush Your Way to Great Outdoor Cooking, grilling some steak in Jimmy Kimmel's backyard with Adam Carolla, Joel McHale, and Jimmy Pardo.

Adam-and-adam

Jimmy Kimmel's backyard is amazing. He's got a massive pizza oven, a massive gas grill with infrared burner, a Big Green Egg, and even a kegerator. And everything is built-in. It's what I imagine heaven is like.

See or download the podcast at Adam Carolla.com.

--Spanno

Wake Up Right this Weekend with an Apricot and Berry Smoothie

Weekend breakfasts are so great: no worries about having to rush to work, happily a little slow to wake up, the time to create something truly tasty for mid-or-late-morning eating. If you’re thinking pancakes or waffles for the upcoming weekend, or even something eggier like a quiche, then can I suggest augmenting it with a delish apricot and berry smoothie? Having that side of smoothie starts the weekend day on an even nicer note (if that’s possible), and, luckily there’s a swell video of Adéle Schober blending up this very thing in the awe-inspiring Breville Hemisphere 2-speed blender. Not only will the video ensure you get the measurements right, but you’ll get to learn the recipe while listening to a cute accent, which is never a bad thing.


Mix It Up: Breville Apricot and Berry Smoothie from Breville on Vimeo.

PS: If you wanted to make dad a drink this weekend, but didn’t want to go for the New Orleans Buck too early in the day, then I think this smoothie fits the Father’s Day bill wonderfully. If you want to buy him the blender too, well, you're an awfully good kid.


--A.J. Rathbun

The Daisy Cocktail: An Ideal Summertime Sipper

As the weather heats up and the summertime party season hits full stride, let me suggest that you make your soirées stand out by serving up some Daisies. And I don’t mean a handful of flowers (though that might be nice, too). I do mean the Daisy Cocktail, a refreshing combination of gin, lemon juice, mint, grenadine, and a touch of club soda served over crushed ice, a mix which matches up with sun-speckled shindigs perfectly. Naturally, you’ll want to learn how to make it before diving in though. Luckily, in the below video (from the amazing food-and-drink video site How2Heroes), super talented Kirsten Amann teaches you how to make a Daisy, with a few laughs and some history along the way. If you don’t know her already (and if you like drinks, you should), Kirsten’s a top Boston drink-maker-and-developer and one of the bloggers on the sweet LUPEC Boston blog (LUPEC equals Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails by the way. And is, in my mind, one of the best organizations ever), and also writes about drinks in other spots. Be sure to look her up--but after you make a Daisy.


--A.J. Rathbun

Sweet Dreams and the Cutest Cupcake Construction Worker Ever

This amazing short film, Sweet Dreams, by Kirsten Lepore is not only adorable with its cast of dessert favorites, vegetables, and fruits, but also marvelously wistful and reminiscent of a host of fantasy and childhood favorites. And if that’s not enough, let me just give you a quick plot overview: a cupcake construction worker goes on an adventure, and along the way travels through an ice-cream cone forest and a broccoli and greens forest, sails in a sugar cube boat, meets a host of friendly produce, finds a bit of romance, has adventures, and changes his own attitudes and those of other desserts. Just fantastic--and a huge shout out to the delicious blog Key Notes with Becca (which is packed with recipes, links, and more tasty fun), where I first found the film.


Sweet Dreams from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

--A.J. Rathbun

The Best (Bacon) Dessert Ever?

Bacon-dessert The never-ending battle between Coke vs. Pepsi just got an interesting new twist with Pepsi's recent debut of cane sugar-sweetened "Throwback." To do a side-by-side sipping sample between the two involves a search for Coca-Cola made in Mexico.

That South of the Border sweet stuff--which fans describe as crisp when compared alongside the soda spiked with high fructose corn syrup--is the not-so-secret ingredient in a dessert I'm madly in love with: a bacon-topped blue cheese panna cotta. I know it sounds crazy, but somehow it works. This wickedly tasty treat is on the menu at Tom Douglas's Palace Kitchen in Downtown Seattle, one of the country's first gastropubs, making its debut in 1996, long before the term gastropub became red-hot trendy thanks to New York City's Spotted Pig.

Pastry chef Garrett Melkonian whimsically nicknamed this creation "cheese and crackers" because a delicate house-baked saltine leans up against the cheesy custard made from Oregons' Rogue Creamery blue. That silky panna cotta is adorned by crumbled blue and chunky bits of bacon finished in a reduction of Mexican Coke made with cane sugar. But that's not all folks.

There's also slices of Pink Lady apple, cooked sous vide in a mix of bacon fat and butter for 12 hours, a whey caramel finished with a splash of sherry vinegar and a hint of black pepper. Holy moly! Sounds like a whole lot going on one plate, right? Yet no one component shouts too loud. They all get along and, if you can manage to get all the elements in one bite, it's like a salty, sweet, tangy party in your mouth.

I'm not even tempted to try making this at home. Not when I can go feel like a queen eating it at the Palace. (Which has its own Facebook page!) The bacon/Coke combo does inspire me to dig out an old recipe for soda-glazed ribs to inaugurate the summer grilling season. Anybody have good luck with that preparation? Or is Dr. Pepper the griller's go-to pop? Sounds like an excuse for a cook-off. In the meantime, check out this video recipe for the panna cotta:

--Leslie Kelly

Bobby Flay Makes a Breakfast Burger

Here's Bobby Flay pimping his amazing new book, Bobby Flay's Burgers, Frys, and Shakes on CBS's The Early Show. Notice how a crowd forms after the burgers are done.

--Spanno

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