Mouthing Off

I hadn't cooked for my kids for more than two weeks, but all that changed when they returned from camp yesterday. Maybe I was out of practice, maybe I was feeling a bit defiant or maybe I was just hoping for a change, but given how much I enjoyed superspicy broccoli rabe last week, I wanted it again. There were sweet Italian sausages in the fridge, some homemade focaccia buns in the freezer and, of course, broccoli rabe—all ready to come together. I thought about sautéing the broccoli rabe, chopping it and kneading it into the sausage meat, but that would've been too cruel to my kids, not to mention self-defeating (I would surely have wound up making PB&Js). To satisfy everyone, I sautéed the broccoli rabe with garlic and so much crushed red pepper flakes all our mouths were vibrating, grilled the sausage patties (and the buns) and sandwiched it all together. A little aioli with olives, capers and herbs from my garden finished the dish. Malcolm, my 7-year-old son, passed on the aioli and broccoli rabe, but my 12-year-old daughter, Pia, ate it all.

I spotted an unusual cheese on both of Le Bernardin’s tasting menus recently: la faisselle. When I asked about it, I discovered that it's a soft, creamy cheese handmade exclusively for the restaurant by the Vermont Butter & Cheese Company.

La faisselle looks like fromage blanc, but tastes extraordinarily different because of what’s in the cultures. Also, the fromage blanc found in stores is made with skim milk, while la faisselle is made with whole milk and has a little crème fraîche added at the end. The result is a delicate texture and a fresh, milky flavor with a hint of hazelnuts and a bit of acidity.

 

Part of the fun is how the cheese is served at Le Bernardin: The cheese is ladled into special ceramic pots (faisselles) that have holes to allow the whey to drain out. Michael Laiskonis, Le Bernardin’s pastry chef, pairs the cheese with honey, toasted almonds and a coulis of local strawberries.

Today on Etsy.com, the world's largest online market for all things handmade, F&W's amazing style editor, Jessica Romm, picks out some great things to buy for a clambake, including nautical-themed items like this sailboat (left). Over the summer F&W editors will pick more of their favorite Etsy party items; what can we say, when it comes to entertaining, we like to shop as much as we like to cook. For more clambake recipes, click here.

Grub Street and Eater.com are all over New York City's of-the-minute food trend: haute poutine, dressed up versions of the beloved Quebecois junk food of french fries, gravy and cheese curds. The latest NYC poutine spotting comes via a Tweet by Freemans owner William Tigertt: “Forget the truffle mac & cheese @ Waverly Inn, the duck confit poutine @ Hotel Griffou is the new artery clogging crack for downtown set.” Outside Manhattan, Mary Dumont, a Food & Wine Best New Chef 2006, tops hand-cut fries with melted cheese curd and chicken velouté at Harvest in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Rob Evans, a BNC 2004, layers his duck-fat Belgian fries with cheese curds and homemade duck gravy at Duckfat in Portland, Maine.

Murphy-Goode Winery’s search for the ultimate social networker has received a ton of attention. So far, more than 250 videos have been submitted by prospective wine country social media whizzes hoping to become Murphy-Goode's “lifestyle correspondent.” The job description in a nutshell: Move to Sonoma for six months to promote Murphy-Goode’s wines via blogs, Twitter and Facebook, and get paid $10,000 a month plus free vineyard digs. I’m shamelessly promoting my favorite video, from former Food & Wine intern extraordinaire Nick Pandolfi. Check it out here and place your votes. The winner will be announced July 21.  

 

According to Susan Roberts in a recent Daily Beast post, you know you have "restaurant syndrome" when you 1. Eat out. 2. Eat out too much. 3. Feel bad. 4. Repeat. Roberts, a nutritionist, goes on to say that "the problem with eating out in America today is that it’s making us fat" and offers laughable tips like "accidentally" spilling water on any leftover French fries. In F&W, we offer more practical tips on how to eat out at restaurants and still lose weight from Dorothy Cann Hamilton of Manhattan's French Culinary Institute and food writer Melissa Clark (pictured). And stay tuned for Philly restaurant critic Joy Manning's secrets in our August issue.

First came the blog, the Julie/Julia Project, where Julie Powell documented the trials of cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Then came the book, Julie & Julia, based on the blog. And now, this August, comes the Nora Ephron movie based on the book starring Meryl Streep as Julia and Amy Adams as Julie.

Julie Powell and I have recently become friends, at least on Facebook, where I follow her hilarious daily musings. I decided to ask my new “friend” what it’s been like to see her words go from the computer to the big screen.

Powell says the most surreal part has been the paparazzi shots of Amy Adams in a Julie wig in front of her old office, at the Strand and a block away from her apartment. “The Julie of the movie bears some resemblance to the Julie Who Is Me,” Powell wrote me. “But, she’s definitely a fictional character.” For one, the movie Julie doesn’t curse as much as the real-life Julie!

Julie & Julia follows the basic plot points of Powell’s book, but is a very different creature. The voice is more Ephron than Powell. According to Julie, “The movie is very much Nora’s baby.” But, “Nora’s done an amazing job of weaving together the parallels between my and Julia’s stories, and how this is about two women finding themselves.”

The highlight for Powell: meeting Meryl Streep, who stayed completely in character—voice, wig, and dress—throughout their conversation about high heels.

Powell second book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession, is due out in December. Always busy, she’s got irons in the fire but says she’s giving up memoirs for now—“while the gettin’ is good.” 

 

This morning I had had breakfast with writer Anna Watson. Anna used to be a peripatetic editor at the brilliant but sadly shuttered Culture + Travel magazine. These days the La Varenne–trained foodie has been spending her days in the kitchen, on a mission to try and eat extraordinarily well on a budget. She recently launched a new blog called The Recession Cookbook, where she shares her cost-saving strategies (steak dinner and a bottle of red for two for under $35), excellent recipes and genius ideas for turning leftovers into delicious meals. I know I’ll be regularly checking in for value-minded dinner party inspiration.

Try as I might, I am not destined to be an urban gardener. I have yet to get one of these to even sprout, and my herb-garden seedlings from Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza last spring met a terrible end. Hope springs eternal, though, so I’m sure I’ll uncover my (secret) green thumb by participating in gardening and food blogger Willi Galloway’s Feed Me: Recipe and Seed Swap. Willi’s been running DigginFood for almost a year now, chronicling the mischievous antics of her four laying hens and the amazing bounty that can come from a backyard plot and some serious gardening skills. (She’s the West Coast editor for Organic Gardening magazine.) While driving a few weeks ago, Willi got the idea for the swap, which, like her site, combines her twin passions for tilling the land and cooking up crops. Here’s how her swap will work: Sign up and get paired with a partner. Download an adorable recipe card and write out your favorite recipe, then send it off to your partner with a seed packet for one of the ingredients; your partner will do the same for you. I just hope my partner sends me seeds that are drought-resistant and averse to sunshine. 

With little notice, we are moving our Test Kitchen to temporary digs across town. Not only do we have to pack up equipment and tools, we have to empty our freezers—freezers that (in my case) have housed long-since-forgotten items, held on to for some future use. (I've had this fridge since 2002...) It's sort of liberating to get rid of things, but I must say, I'm very sad at tossing my two quarts of rendered duck fat. Yes, I could take it home to fry potatoes, but I'd like to someday meet my grandkids....
I did find several packages of frozen sweet cherries that I couldn't bear to toss (remember how thrifty/cheap I am). I didn't feel like baking them into a clafouti or pastry, so I threw them into a food processor with some honey and lemon juice and made a superfast sorbet. Since I can't eat it all in one sitting, it will have to go back into the freezer, but with a few more days until the move, I'm sure it won't get lost in there.

QUICK CHERRY SORBET
MAKES 4 CUPS

Two 10-ounce bags frozen sweet cherries
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup honey or agave nectar

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and puree until smooth. Transfer to a shallow bowl and freeze until firm, about 1 hour. Scoop and serve!