Health | Sourfizz

05 10 2008

No-knead bread just got even easier

Posted by: in Health

Filed under: Recipes, Newspapers, Bread

bread
Attention all people-who-would-really-love-to-make-bread-but-just-can’t-find-the-time: The New York Time’s Mark Bittman, AKA “The Minimalist” has figured out how to make no-knead bread even easier. Just add more yeast.

Bittman, who made no-knead bread inventor Jim Lahey a foodie household name when he first published his recipes two years ago, knows that Lahey himself wouldn’t approve. Lahey thinks bread is best fermented slowly with just a small amount of yeast. But while Bittman’s may not taste quite as good (which he freely admits), it only takes four and a half hours to rise. So basically you could mix the dough in the afternoon before a dinner party and have fresh hot bread to pass around the table with your beef tenderloin and roasted new potatoes.

All you need is a standard loaf pan. Check out the recipe here.

05 10 2008

Slashfood Ate (8): The Friday mix ‘n match

Posted by: in Health

Filed under: Slashfood Ate

Each Friday afternoon, I bring you an assortment of nibbles from the week previous week. While it’s been a particularly dour week in the national news, the food world still looks bright. Let’s dig in.

Spanish researchers have discovered that packaging infused with cinnamon oil can prevent bread from molding for up to 10 days.
Greenpeace and Ben & Jerry’s have teamed up to develop an environmentally friendly ice cream freezer that isn’t dependent on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) as a refrigerant.
Rachel of Coconut & Lime made a batch of absolutely drool-worthy apple cider doughnuts earlier this week, forcing me to consider dragging my deep fryer out of the hall closet.
Over at Dining at Large, there is a wonderful conversation taking place about the Top 10 Deadly First Date Foods.
For all those pumpkins that are starting to show up in CSA shares and farmers markets, why not try Dorie Greenspan’s stuffed pumpkin recipe.
Always wanted to make miso soup at home, but didn’t know where to start? Check out this post from Just Hungry, it’s a full-on miso tutorial.
If you like a nice story with your recipe, check out “The View from Mrs. Sundberg’s Window” column that runs on The Prairie Home Companion website each week. Up this week: a homey autumn casserole.
Lastly, if you’re in need of a good giggle, make sure to watch this short video clip from a recent Rachael Ray show, in which she appears to be getting quite friendly with an ear of corn [via Serious Eats].

05 10 2008

Chipotle Grill to open a wind-powered store

Posted by: in Health

Filed under: Fast Food, Local Eating

chipotle store with wind turbine
So often, it feels like in order to grab a quick meal you have to check your environmentally friendly ways at the door. However, for some lucky people in the town of Gurnee, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), they will soon have a far greener fast food option.

This fall the Chipotle Mexican Grill chain will be opening a location that will get a portion of its operating power from a six-kilowatt wind turbine that has been erected behind the restaurant. They’ve also used recycled drywall, recycled barn metal, LED lighting, high efficiency faucets and toilets, and Energy Star rated equipment in the store’s construction. Check out more pictures of this store and its wind turbine in the gallery below.

This store (and we hope they mean to do more of this responsible construction), coupled with their commitment to buy locally and naturally raised meats means that there is finally a more sustainable choice when it comes to fast food. It also helps that their burritos are mighty fine eating.

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Continue reading Cocktail Hour: Cuban Grapefruit Blossom

05 10 2008

Cocktail Hour: Cuban Grapefruit Blossom

Posted by: in Health

Filed under: Cocktail Hour

Cuban Grapefruit Blossom cocktail recipe after the jump

Continue reading Big City Cooking, Cookbook of the Day

05 10 2008

Big City Cooking, Cookbook of the Day

Posted by: in Health

Filed under: Restaurants, Recipes, How To, Cookbook of the Day, Fall

cover of Big City Cooking If you’re prone to chef crushes, you could do a lot worse than Matthew Kenney — and that’s solely on the basis of his food. Though Kenney is now a primary practioner of the raw food movement, foodies who found themselves in SoHo during the late 1990s/early 2000s will remember him for Canteen, a restaurant that emphasized the fusion influences that pre-date his raw food conversion and are the highlight of Big City Cooking. But don’t be intimidated: Kenney’s magic is in revealing the essence of a flavor, an ingredient, or a technique, and thus, though it is essentially a restaurant cookbook, Big City Cooking is very easy to understand and use — always with delicious results.

The thesis of the book is that the abundance of ingredients and mash of cultures in a city can be the inspiration for a cook’s creativity. That’s a great idea, and a true one, but I don’t believe that fusion influences are specifically urban — in this day of super supermarkets, including those online, one doesn’t have to live in a big city to have za’aatar in one’s spice cabinet or, accordingly, on one’s flatbread. (In fact, most of those “urban” ingredients or techniques originated with indigenous cuisines.)

The strength of this cookbook is the dishes themselves, which are organized by technique and which highlight a diversity of ingredients. Thus there are sections on raw and steam cooking, sauteeing, grilling, roasting, and stewing. Within each are recipes from appetizers and salads straight through to desert, all of them accessible to the home cook.

05 10 2008

Wine for hard times

Posted by: in Health

Filed under: Wine, East Coast, Trends, New Products

Recession wine
With the economy taking a nosedive the past few weeks (months? years?), plenty of wine drinkers are wondering whether they’ll be able to afford their Bordeaux and Burgundy with retirement accounts shrinking and daily living more expensive than ever. Dr. Vino, a wine author and blogger, did a poll this week to find out if and how wine drinkers will cut back.

Not all winemakers are responding by dropping prices (a BBC news report says chocolate and Champagne have steady sales even in times of economic distress), but one company is embracing the socio-economic situation and turning lemons into lemonade (or, technically, grapes into wine). Recession Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon from California sell for around $5 a bottle. The company says they taste like $10 wines, explaining that the value comes from using lighter-weight glass bottles, saving on shipping costs, and using a recycled synthetic closure instead of cork, which costs $1 per bottle.

I tried the wines recently and really liked the Merlot, which was smoky on the nose, not too flabby like most cheap Merlot from California, and a little green peppery, like it had some Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. The vegetal aspect could definitely fool you into thinking you’re drinking a much more spendy wine. My husband and I rated what we thought the prices would be if we didn’t know they were $5, and here’s what we came up with: Chardonnay, $9; Merlot, $14; Cabernet Sauvignon, $6.

The wines are currently available all over New York and will roll out nationally soon–unless our lawmakers can get it together and save the economy.

Continue reading Taste Test: Bear Naked Native

05 10 2008

Taste Test: Bear Naked Native

Posted by: in Health

Filed under: Breakfast, Raves & Reviews

bear naked native
Granola was one of the staples of my childhood. It was always in the house and we ate it with milk for breakfast, with yogurt for lunch and straight out of the jar as an afternoon or evening snack. Sometimes my mom would make batches of it up from this recipe but as life got busier, she would resort to buying bags of it from the bulk bins at the local health food store.

So going into this particular taste test of Bear Naked Native, I brought along with my years of granola eating experience. My first encounter with these two new flavors (Mango Agave Almond and Yumberry Goji Currant) were during lunch. I settled down with a bowl of yogurt (Pequea Valley, to be precise) and sprinkled a few spoonfuls of the mango flavor on top. I crunched my way through and then did the same with the yumberry variety.

05 10 2008

Box Lunch: Lonche Libre

Posted by: in Health

Filed under: Lunch, Food Oddities, Rice

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Nadja.robot’s libra luche (Mexican wrestling) bentos are ready to rumble. Our luchadores El Crumpeto, the banana-faced crumpet, Los Mellizos (the twins), two angry-faced Morning Star Farms veggie patties, Arroz, the Rice Man with a fearsome nori scowl, and El Curry, the Masked Pepper. Let the best man win!

05 10 2008

Battle of the softpretzel - today!

Posted by: in Health

Filed under: Food News

Philadelphia is often thought of as a one-food town. People know us for our cheesesteaks and not much else. However, we have another mascot food and October is its month! That’s right, October is National Pretzel Month and the Philadelphia soft pretzel is basking in the glory of all the attention.

If you happen to be in the Philly area today, the Independence Visitors’ Center (6th and Market Streets) is hosting the Battle of the Soft Pretzel today from 12 noon until 2 pm. Winners will be chosen from five categories, including best flavor, best topping and most interesting shape. They’ll also crown the fastest pretzel twister in the land.

So if you’re in Center City, get yourself down there to check out all that the soft pretzel has to offer. If not, get yourself some pretzels and celebrate National Pretzel Month, wherever you happen to be.