Mouthing Off

I love cooking whole grains like wheat berries, quinoa and bulgur. But I find that after a busy day, some grains take too much time to cook. Luckily Lorna Sass, the author of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way, has a new cookbook coming out in January called Whole Grains for Busy People that features ingredients such as quick-cooking barley and brown rice. She also offers recipes for grains and whole-grain foods I'd never thought much about before, like whole-wheat couscous, popcorn and whole-wheat tortillas. Her recipes remind me that with a little thought I can surely eat my grains every day.

Louella Hill first came to F&W's attention a few years ago, when she was rescuing Rhode Island's farming system by linking small growers with corporate customers through the organization she founded, Farm Fresh Rhode Island. Now she's switched to a different passion: cheesemaking. I recently chatted with Hill to learn about Narragansett Creamery, the operation she and Mark Federico started in 2007. Afterward, I talked with local chef Champe Spiedel of Persimmon, who is serving Hill's fantastically creamy and naturally sweet-tasting ricotta in an ingenious way.

How did you get into making cheese?
LH: "I took a year off while I was attending Brown University to make Pecorino Toscano just outside of Siena, Italy. I started out as a general farm hand at Spannocchia, then I moved over to the sheep farm next door to work with the cheesemaker—that was when I realized how cool cheesemaking is."

How did Narragansett Creamery come about?
LH: "I paired up with Mark Federico, who had been making mozzarella curd and shipping it wholesale to restaurants out-of-state. Now we're making cheeses using hormone- and antibiotic-free milk from a co-op of dairy farmers in eastern New York state, and selling them locally."

What do you think sets your ricotta apart from other ricottas?
LH: "Most of what people know as ricotta is mechanically pumped. But we create it the old-fashioned way: We heat milk in a kettle and add the tiniest touch of salt and vinegar. Then, using slotted spoons, we ladle the curds into cups and let them drain overnight. Because they're ladled and not pumped mechanically, the texture of the ricotta is different. It's much lighter."

How do you serve the ricotta?
CS: "Right now, we're twirling fresh capellini pasta into a long spiral and piping it in the middle with ricotta and different herbs, like summer savory, tarragon, thyme and basil seeds. Essentially, it's a nest of capellini filled with ricotta—like a cannoli."

 

BBQ guru Ray Lampe partnered with the NFL to author the just-released The NFL Gameday Cookbook. In addition to delicious recipes (many would pair well with the 32 pork dishes in F&W’s ultimate NFL package, Lampe recommends a great steak house, barbecue joint and local brew for each of the NFL team cities. Though he’s based in Florida, Lampe is a devoted Chicago Bears fan and a tailgating fanatic. Here, snippets from our recent conversation on his new book, tailgating etiquette and why he doesn't believe in using recipes from players.

On the concept of his book: “I tried to write Joy of Cooking for tailgaters. When you take on the job to be tailgate cook, you’ve obligated yourself to feed people for the day. It’s an important job.”

On Pre-Game Etiquette: “Put the food out right away. Folks are hungry, and if you don’t put food out, they’ll bug you while you’re cooking. I find people usually like a little something sweet to start. If it’s an early game, something like my sticky fingers cinnamon bread would be nice.”

On Post-Game Cooking: “You’ve been in the stadium for three hours, so you’re going to be hungry. I like to wind down afterward with something like my tropical pork chop sandwiches, which can marinate during the game. And if you stick around to eat, you don’t have to fight the traffic.”

On why he didn’t solicit recipes from players for the book: “If it’s a Green Bay Packer soup, I’m never going to make it. This book is for the fans, and they don’t want to eat a recipe from a player or team they don’t like.”
 
On exciting tailgating equipment: “Eastman Outdoors’s 22-inch carbon steel work kit with Eastman's Big Kahuna burner is bad-ass cool. It’s like a turkey fryer with huge BTUs, and the thing gets really hot. I’d use it to make my parking-lot pork fried rice recipe.

Coleman’s insta-start grill/stove is like a mini toaster oven and can fit a 9x13-inch pan. It runs on a one-pound propane cylinder and is freestanding, so you can actually bake in the parking lot.”

 

In the Test Kitchen, we work on recipes three or four months in advance of publication. Occasionally, I fall in love with a few exceptional recipes. So, when a new issue of the magazine comes out, I'm often pleasantly surprised to see them again. I forget how frustrating it was trying to get something to work the way I'd envisioned it (sometimes upwards of four or five times) and champ at the bit to make it all over again. I can't wait (especially now that the weather is a bit cooler) to make the Skillet Chicken-and-Mushroom Potpie from the October issue—so soothing and satisfying.

The Food & Wine website can be such a tease. Whenever I logged on last week (which was often), I kept seeing a recipe from chef Ratha Chau (no relation) of New York City's Kampuchea for Cambodian Chicken-and-Rice-Soup with Shrimp. Each day, as the weather got cooler yet the A/C at our office continued to hum along, I wanted the soup more and more. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to cook because I had too many plans to eat out. When I finally had a free evening, I made a giant pot. Being Cambodian, I'd prepared a version of this soup countless times, but in the past, I had started with raw chicken instead of the rotisserie chicken the recipe calls for, and skipped the ginger (I loathe peeling ginger, with all its knobs). This time, I strictly followed the recipe and discovered that not only was the rotisserie chicken a huge time saver, but it added an incredible depth of flavor. I also (grudgingly) peeled some ginger, and saved the leftover to make soothing ginger-honey tea. The next morning, I unexpectedly woke up with a massive sore throat and achiness all over—I was coming down with a cold. Luckily, I had just what I wanted in my fridge to combat it.

Emily Carrus, our super food intern, has made a great discovery on the white-chocolate front. Here’s her report:

Last month, I was lucky enough to attend a demonstration hosted by Valrhona Chocolate led by two adorable pastry chefs, Phillipe Givre and Derek Poirer. Days later, I was still thinking about one concept from it that was totally new to me: roasting white chocolate. Phillipe and Derek had cooked Valrhona Ivoire (Valrhona’s white chocolate) in the oven until it darkened in color and its sugars caramelized, much like the conversion of sweetened milk into dulce de leche. The chefs then incorporated it into a mousse-like dessert and told us that with proper handling, you can use it as you would “normal" chocolate: for flavoring creams or baked goods, or making bars and bonbon shells. (Also important to note: The chefs said roasting works only with high-quality white chocolate.)

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Thank goodness for the jump button on the remote control; I seem to have one that works even with greasy fingers. Sunday night I'm going to be hopping between the Emmys on ABC and the Packers-Cowboys game on NBC. Now I just have to decide on snacks. There's our pigskin roundup, where chef Tim Love recommends Ro*Tel chiles and Velveeta. Then this week our resident television gurus, Grace Parisi and Christine Quinlan, created their own ingenious pairings, both cocktails and finger foods for some of their favorite nominated shows, so maybe I'll make a Wry Manhattan (Parisi writes: "Elaine Strich is nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress for her performance on 30 Rock as Colleen Donaghy, Jack Donaghy’s insane, emotionally withholding, alcoholic mother. This cocktail is perfect for her: It’s lethal and sneaks up on you.") But that might get in the way of my channel surfing. Decisions, decisions.

I always thought that making sticky rice had to be a production. I don't have room in my small kitchen for an authentic sticky-rice steamer, which some say is the only way to make good sticky rice. But with a little web surfing and some playing around in the kitchen, I devised a foolproof way to make great sticky rice in the microwave! I realize some might consider this heresy but it works:

In a large glass bowl, cover 2 1/2 cups of Thai sticky rice with water and let stand for 1 hour. Drain and return the rice to the bowl. Add 2 1/4 cups of water and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 5 minutes and stir the rice. Microwave 5 minutes longer and stir again. Microwave again until the rice is just tender, about 3 minutes. Let stand covered for 5 minutes.

Perfect every time.

Starchefs.com has just released the stellar lineup for its International Chefs Congress taking place later this month in New York City's Park Avenue Armory with, amusingly (oddly?) enough, a catalog featuring two underwear-clad, cut-out chef paper dolls. But the humor doesn't stop there. Among the talks and workshops led by some of the food world's most talented personalities, two get the prize for most creative name: "Voulez-vous sous vide avec moi (ce soir)"? (Paul Liebrandt at the soon-to-open Corton) and "Gin... The Other White Meat" (Audrey Saunders at Pegu Club).

Poor John McCain faces some tough competition tonight at the Republican National Convention: the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins. While McCain is delivering his much-anticipated speech, the 2008 NFL season will have officially kicked off as the reigning Super Bowl champions face the Skins. Some of the sports-crazed staffers at F&W have put together the ultimate F&W NFL package that delivers delicious recipes to get you through five months of football as well as predictions, opinions and obsessions from our favorite football-obsessed chefs.  
 
We’ll be updating our NFL package throughout the season. Still to come:

*David Chang’s prediction for the Washington Redskins's season.

*New Orleans Saints fan Susan Spicer’s favorite game day foods.

*Frank Ruta on which player he’d most like to be on the Pittsburgh Steelers.