Filed under: Dessert, Fruit, America, Summer

While in Maine, I had enough blueberry pies to blow me up and turn me violet like the character Violet Beauregarde in the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. I’ve been told that Maine has over 60,000 acres of wild blueberries this time of the year. So, what better way to take in the agriculture of Maine than to savor a bite or two of blueberry pie.

I had one blueberry pie, in particular, that stood apart from all the rest. It was at Jordan’s, a diner-like institution, in Bar Harbor, Maine. It was served with a large scoop of deliciously sweet and creamy vanilla ice cream. The crust at the top of the pie was slightly flaky. The bottom tasted like a soft chewy cookie. Ah, the tiny blueberries bursting with flavor in the inside!

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Filed under: Dessert

At least once a summer, my mom makes a pie for no particular reason. When my sister was living at home, she’d do her best to plan the pie seed and continue to talk about blueberry pie or blackberry galette until my mom could resist temptation no longer. She’ll pull out the rolling pin she bought used when my parents first got married (it has a wonderfully butter, seasoned surface) and make a sincerely transcendent dessert.

If you live in the Portland (Oregon, not Maine) area, you have good reason to pull out your rolling pin this weekend. The first-ever Portland Pie-Off is taking place at the Washington Park picnic site (near the playground) this Saturday (August 30th) at 3 pm. There are eight categories to enter and 12 categories from which prizes will be awarded (there is a $5 entrance fee). So pull out your pie plates and get out the flour, cause it’s pie baking time!

Even if you don’t live in the Portland area, let this contest serve as inspiration to you to bake up a pie before the summer is over. Take a picture and add it to the Slashfood Flickr pool. Be it blueberry, blackberry, cherry or apple, there’s nothing quite like a good slice of pie.

Continue reading The first Portland Pie-Off

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Filed under: Newspapers, in sixty seconds

• As the economy tightens and people look for ways to fight back against rising grocery prices, one thing consumers can do is select cheaper, flavorful cuts of meat.
• Rob Kasper announces that the very best eating month in Maryland is September, especially since the tomatoes came late this year.
• Digging deep into the science of menu design.
• Make gazpacho a day or two ahead for best flavor.
• Make and freeze potstickers for quick meals during the week.
• A local church tries to help their neighborhood by buying and giving away $30,000 worth of groceries.

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Filed under: Lunch, Grains, Vegetables, Food Oddities, America

For your lunchtime pleasure, I’m presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. The boxes can range from austere lacquered trays to multi-tiered Hello Kitty confections of neon pink plastic. The meals themselves are anything from rice and leftovers to elaborate themed affairs of Pikachu-shaped dumplings with sesame seed eyes and carved radish trees. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today’s bento take food art to potentially dangerous heights of cuteness while appearing to retain its essential edibility. The rice kitty reclines contentedly on a bed of seafood and veggies, her whiskers tiger stripes rendered in nori (seaweed), her paws and ears in what appears to be lunch meat. Dig into this with a fork, and PETA will be be at your door faster than you can say “mink coat.”

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Filed under: Trends, Stores & Shopping, America, Artisan Foods, Food News

As of now, it’s Pomegranate located in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. The 20,000 square feet of shopping space includes aisles full kosher gourmet foods. An article from New York magazine calls Pomegranate a “kosher gourmet megastore.” The supermarket seems to be a cross between Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.

Unlike other specialty markets, Pomegranate caters to the thousands of Orthodox Jewish families living in New York City. The store has three kitchens: dairy, meat, and parve (fish, vegetables, fruit and grains). Each has its own on-duty full-time rabbi. Customers can choose from a rich selection of freshly baked challah and homemade cheeses to aged prime beef-rib steaks to an olive bar and sushi bar. The gourmet food market is an obvious business trend. Is the kosher version of Whole Foods the new trend?

I live in Brooklyn, not far from Pomegranate, and I see several smaller gourmet kosher markets on Kings Highway. The prices are not cheap. So, I do not think that Pomegranate will have a hard time competing with existing stores. You can now visit the supermarket that’s located on Coney Island Avenue at the corner of Avenue L.

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Filed under: On the Blogs, Eggs

For a period of time, long before I was born, my dad was a short-order cook. He worked the breakfast grill, cooking up mountains of pancakes, rivers of bacon strips and more eggs than is possible to count. Because of this experience, he is a master at the art of cooking eggs, be it soft boiled, hard boiled, poached, sunny side up or even over easy, hold the wiggle (a term that describes that perfect point at which the whites are just cooked and the yolks are still beautifully runny).

I credit his egg mastery to my own egg-cooking ease. It never occurred to me to feel anxiety around the preparation of poached eggs, I’ve been making them on my own since I was 9 years old. I didn’t realize that some people held to strict hard boiled egg routines, I just put them in the pot and go. They always turn out perfectly fine.

For those of you who need a bit more guidance than, “just boil until it feels right,” Cooking for Engineers has put together a thorough soft boiled egg chart and tutorial for you. Michael Chu cooked up a whole bunch of eggs, removing them from the pan at 1 minute intervals, so you can see how a two minute egg looks different from a seven minute egg. Pick your egg preference, set your timers and enjoy!

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Filed under: Business, Newspapers, America, in sixty seconds, Meat, Local Eating, Food News

Underground supper clubs - half dinner party, half restaurant - are in.

Low alcohol beers gain popularity.

Thinking of opening a restaurant? Think twice. Then think again.

Memories of teenage boy food.

The Minimalist shows us how to cook with lavender without making the dish smell like your grandmother’s powder room.

Artisanal cocktails are here. Of course.

Fortune cookies are not Chinese.

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Filed under: Feast Your Eyes

Last spring, I took a class about the theory of the narrative in short stories and writing. One of the books we read in pursuit of learning about different styles of narrative flow was Marcel Prout’s Swann’s Way. That’s the book in which the narrator describes in great detail the way in which the taste of a madeleine takes him back to a particular experience from his childhood. The night we discussed that section of the book, my professor brought madeleines and tea to class and now I can’t see madeleines without thinking of that moment.

These are a particularly lovely version of the madeleine. Big thanks to Angie for adding this pic to the Slashfood Flickr pool.

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Filed under: Beef, Retro cookery

From Dainty Desserts for Dainty People (1915), Knox Gelatine

I’m interrupting the semi-regularly scheduled Midnight Sausage series to share molded food images and recipes from my personal collection of early-to-mid 20th century cookbooks. There will be aspic. There will be mousse. There will be various gelatins. All will be semi-solid and of debatable degrees of edibility.

Please feel free to shimmy and shake your way to the comments section to share your very own magical, masticable molds of yore.

Previously - Ham Mousse

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Filed under: Grains

The short answer is that durum flour is flour which is ground from Durum wheat. Durum wheat is a type of wheat that has an especially high protein content, and in fact its name derives from the Latin word for “hard”.

Durum flour, with its high protein content, makes dough with unusually strong gluten. It’s generally used in pizza dough and pasta, and its more coarsely ground cousin semolina is used to make cous cous. Though you can make bread with durum flour, recipes usually mix durum and regular wheat flour.

Durum wheat can be ground into semolina (sometimes called semolina flour if it’s ground more finely) and durum flour, which can be referred to as extra fancy durum flour or extra fancy pasta flour. However, you can’t really substitute one for the other. Semolina is a coarse grind and it looks a lot like corn meal. In fact a lot of bakers and pizza makers use semolina to dust baking sheets and peels so the dough doesn’t stick (check the bottom of your pizza next time). Durum flour is ground as fine as regular flour and that’s why it can be used in bread and pasta doughs.

I haven’t ever been able to find real durum flour in a brick and mortar store, so I have to order it online. Semolina, on the other hand, is generally available in grocery stores, at least upscale ones. For more on the subject, here’s a good page to check out.

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