Mouthing Off

Many years ago, I remember thumbing through my mother's Christmas  cookie recipe file and seeing all these wonderful recipes from women's magazines—think lots of green and red glaced cherries.  It was (along with my mother's jewelry box) my favorite thing to rifle through. (It's something my 10-year-old daughter, Pia,  likes to do as well.)

December's challenge for Tasting and Testing  was Sugar Cookies—just right for the holidays.  (Let's not forget that I worked on this story in August.) I had to create an all-purpose sugar cookie dough and then come up with 3 variations.  It's usually a challenge to come up with variations  for this column (and fit them all onto one single page) but this one was a breeze. I only wish I had another page to continue on with the variations.  From one dough, the possibilities are nearly infinite. Here are a few more:

Almond-Cardamom Cookies—in place of the powdered and crystallized ginger, add  1/2 cup ground toasted almonds and 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom, roll  out and cut or roll into a log, chill and slice. Drizzle with melted dark chocolate after baking and cooling.

Cherry-Chocolate Cookies—in place of the powdered and crystallized ginger, add  6 ounces mini chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped dried tart cherries. Roll out  and cut or roll into 1-inch balls and press to 1/4-inch

Green Tea-Ginger Cookies—add 1 teaspoon green tea powder (Macha) to the dough along with the crystallized and powdered ginger. Roll out and cut or roll into a log, chill and slice.

Pepper-Spice Cookies—add 1/2 teaspoon  each ground white pepper, cinnamon  and nutmeg  and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves. Roll out and cut or roll into a log, chill and slice.

Lemon—Poppy-seed Cookies— in place of the powdered and crystallized ginger, add the finely grated zest of 1 lemon and 2 tablespoons poppy seeds. Roll out and cut, or roll into a log, chill and slice

White Chocolate-Cranberry Cookies—in place of the powdered and crystallized ginger, add  6 ounces mini white chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries. Roll out and cut or roll into a log, chill and slice.

New York City was hit yesterday with its first snowfall of the season—creating the perfect setting for a cozy get-together at a friend's apartment in Harlem. Earlier in the week, I had loftily promised to pull together something "time-consuming to make and delicious to eat" (my exact words, embarrassingly) for the party. As it turned out, I didn't have any time to spend hours in the kitchen, so I instead brought over ingredients to make scallion toast, a super quick and easy Cambodian dish  that's traditionally sold by street vendors. I often had it for breakfast growing up, and it always reminds me of home. To make six servings, I liberally coated a frying pan with vegetable oil, and tossed in 12 scallions sliced 1/4 inch thick,  and 1 1/2 tablespoons each of fish sauce and sugar. I stir-fried the mixture for a few minutes, until the scallion slices were wilted. Then I slathered it on top of toasted baguette slices. The result: crispy toasts oozing with a super-fragrant sauce that's more sweet than salty (an unexpected surprise to those who saw the fish sauce bottle), and an instant hit with my friends. For more Cambodian recipes, The Elephant Walk Cookbook by Longteine de Monteiro and Katherine Neustadt is a seminal source; fortunately, a special soft-cover printing will be available around the third week in December. Stay tuned, too, to our March issue, in which we'll be running recipes by chef-owner Ratha Chau at Kampuchea Restaurant, the only Cambodian restaurant in Manhattan, at least for now.

Our December issue contains a bunch of DIY edible presents offered up by F&W staffers. The gift list runs from savory to sweet and every excellent recipe was given from the heart (aww…)

Except one, perhaps: my own. My original idea was to create a recipe for ersatz aquavit  (mockuavit?), a vodkalike spirit flavored with caraway and favored by my Scandinavian kindred. But the affably stubborn Emily Kaiser convinced me to create homemade gin instead, in part because “gin is so hot right now” (though I’d argue that aquavit is staging a comeback) and it could also be paired with Marcia Kiesel’s own cocktail onions for that much-needed holiday Gibson.

Fair enough. So I read up on infusion methods (since it’s illegal—and dangerous!—to distill spirits without a permit, and I’d never do anything illegal or dangerous) and consulted a few guys who make booze for a living. I decided on a method that involves making a concentrated, gin-flavored infusion (“essence”), then cutting it with the most neutral spirit I could find: vodka. Dozens of experiments and hooch-filled Mason jars later, I had made a “gin” decent enough to win a martini and G&T taste-off against some popular brands. (Though tasted on its own, my gin—with its light amber hue and astringent edge, two things that (illegal!) distillation would fix—was easily fingered in the lineup).

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As I ponder whether to make a Thanksgiving dinner for folks in their 20s, 40s or 60s,  or just do it all-ages, Tex-Mex style,  I started to laugh at how much, at least in my family, the choice of bird has proven a surprisingly accurate bellwether for food trends. Chez Kaiser we don't like to think of ourselves as fad-followers, but with turkeys, at least, we definitely have been. In the 1970's we considered ourselves cutting-edge when we splurged on a fresh bird, instead of economizing with a frozen one. In the 80s we tried a Butterball once, and one year my uncle microwaved it. In the 1990s we tried organic, free-range and kosher birds, and of course brined a few before wearying of the saltiness of the gravy. This year the big choice is between one of two local pastured-poultry farms. Whether or not your choice of bird is as fashion-conscious as ours has been, I hope your turkey is delicious, and the holiday a happy one.

We have tested some amazing holiday recipes in the F&W test kitchen over the years, and every year I make a few of them for my Thanksgiving table. This year I am planning to make all my favorites, past and present (though it's difficult to choose). From F&W's archives, I've put together my ideal Thanksgiving menu:

Hors d'Oeuvre & Cocktail:
Rosemary Gin Fizz
Mushroom and Fontina Crostini

Thanksgiving Spread:
Classic Roast Turkey
Chestnut Stuffing with Fennel
Serrano Ham and Arugula Salad with Pomegranate Salsa
Roasted Garlic-Parmigiano Broccoli
Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Butternut Squash-Polenta Gratin

Warm Farro and Mushroom Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette 
Buttery Maple-Thyme Biscuits
Three-Cranberry Conserve

Dessert:
Apple Cake with Toffee Crust
Heirloom-Pear Hand Pies
Pumpkin Pudding with Mile-High Meringue

We do all sorts of projects here, including our gigantic Food & Wine Annual cookbook, which includes hundreds of recipes from the year. To help facilitate this massive project, Zoe Singer--an amazing cook and cookbook author (check out her new book, The Flexitarian Table)--has joined us for several months. It turns out that Zoe has been spending a lot of time cooking cranberries this Fall. Here are her thoughts on cranberries, and a great recipe to boot.

If you only eat something once a year, it'd better be good. So I’ve always groaned inwardly when relatives arrive on Thanksgiving with cranberry sauce involving exotica like star anise, jalapenos, candied ginger, orange zest or other perhaps reasonable yet untraditional additions. Then I run into the kitchen and whip up the whole berry-sugar-and-water sauce that I love for its gorgeous simplicity and once-a-year, 100% cranberry taste. The recipe takes minutes and its perfect—why play around with it?
    But this year I’ve been warming up with mini-Thanksgivings centered around roast chicken and cranberry sauce and I’ve had to eat my words: I’m tired of my trusty sauce. So last weekend I started improvising, cooking shallots and rosemary in butter, sprinkling on sugar and letting it caramelize, then pouring in chicken stock, white wine, water and cranberries. The resulting whole berry sauce still had a full-on sweet-tart cran flavor, but the added savory richness gave it a depth that I think works even better with roast poultry. I’ll include my recipe below.
Now that I finally get the whole fancy cranberry sauce thing, I think I’ll give some of the countless other recipes out there a try. I plan to start with Marcia Kiesel’s Cranberry Sauce with Spiced Pumpkin Seeds , which sounds just right: creative, yet familiar enough to serve at an iconic meal that I look forward to all year.

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Our discerning features intern Nick Pandolfi complained that living a bit off the beaten path in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, he couldn’t get a classic Sazerac cocktail or the perfect Manhattan without taking the train into the city. Last week he came to the office with exciting news about a hot new cocktail spot in Brooklyn. His report:
 
On October 1st, Brooklyn’s cocktail scene changed when Stephanie Schneider and Andrew Bogs, both alums of the Danny Meyer empire, opened Huckleberry Bar on Grand and Lorimer Sts. in East Williamsburg. The two masters behind the bar began working together in 2001 at Blue Smoke.  Stephanie moved on to Jean Georges and then Hearth, and Andy spent some time bartending at Village.  Last year the pair decided it was finally time to branch out on their own and bring all the skills they'd picked up along the way back to their Brooklyn neighborhood.

Unlike most of its classy predecessors - Pegu Club, Little Branch,  PDT - Huckleberry Bar seems a little out of place surrounded by the discount fabric stores and bodegas that have been on the block for decades.  But Stephanie and Andy knew it was time for a place like Huckleberry Bar.  It was a risk, but so far it’s been successful.  Hopefully, they are forging a path that other entrepreneurial bartenders will follow.
    
The pair's cocktail menu is divided into two sections: classics and seasonal creations, like the Emma Frost: a perfectly balanced combination of Makers Mark, Crème de Peche and Lapsang Souchong tea.

Since winter has arrived a little early, they’ve added their arsenal of hot cocktails to the list this week. And they were generous enough to share one of the recipes.  Stephanie and Andy’s version of a traditional hot buttered rum uses vanilla and allspice-infused Cuban rum (which we couldn’t get our hands on at F&W, so we had to improvise). Dissolved palm sugar adds a bit of a Caribbean kick.

Huckleberry Bar’s Hot Buttered Rum

2 oz. allspice and vanilla bean infused rum (let half a vanilla bean and one teaspoon of lightly crushed allspice berries infuse with a cup of rum for two hours)
3/4 oz. melted unsalted butter
2 Tbs palm sugar
6 oz. almost boiling water

For many, the best part about Thanksgiving is repurposing the leftovers. Not for me: I’m happiest when the dishes are done and the meal’s remnants are sent home in the hands of industrious cooks who will dream up soups, hashes, pot pies and other ingenious uses for recycled food.

So I surprised myself last night—after this year’s “Fakesgiving” dinner, my posse’s potluck warm-up to the big dance—when I chased down my friend Deana on her way out and begged from her the remains of her wicked-awesome pumpkin bars. (Had I not already known that they’d reappear in our office today, the leftover bourbon/apple/maple Jell-O shots Kristin Donnelly brought to the meal would also not have been allowed to leave the premises. I pray she gives us all the recipe tomorrow.)

This morning Deana emailed me the recipe. Like many great desserts, it's a decades-old hand-me-down—in this case, from Deana's mother, Sandy. She also gave me Sandy’s blessing to pass it on. If you make some, send me the leftovers:

Sandy’s Pumpkin Bars
Makes 16-20 bars
Crust:
One 18-ounce box yellow cake mix
1⁄2 c melted butter
1 large egg
Filling:
One 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
2/3 cup 2 percent milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Topping:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, diced
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Make the crust: Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Measure out 1 cup of the yellow cake mix and set it aside for the topping. In a small bowl, whisk the remaining cake mix with the melted butter and the egg until combined. Press the crust into the prepared baking pan.
2. Make the filling: In a medium bowl combine the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, eggs, milk and cinnamon and stir until combined. Spread the filling on top of the crust.
3. Make the topping: In a small bowl combine the reserved 1 cup of yellow cake mix with the sugar and diced butter. Stir until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the filling.
4. Bake the cake for 1 hour, until the crust is crispy and the filling is cooked through. Let cool in the pan, cut into bars and serve.

It's a sad day at Food & Wine for all of us, because our lovely assistant photo editor Lisa Kim is leaving after over five years of working here. But it's an especially sad day for me, since Lisa's a great friend—and she likes to make me lunch (she's the more talented half of our Lunch Club, which I blogged about in its earlier days). So in the spirit of trying to continue Lunch Club by myself—as well as inspire others—I asked Lisa for her rules in choosing how she decides what to cook.

Lisa Kim's Methodology for the Perfect Lunch:

1. Go to the Advanced Search field on Foodandwine.com and run a search for "Fast" and "Staff Favorite Recipes" ("It has to be above all delicious, and quick to make, since I'm a busy city girl!" she says).

2. Choose among dishes for that month and surrounding months, as well as in previous years ("For example, right now I'd be looking for September, October and November recipes from all years").

3. For further narrowing, choose recipes written by our Test Kitchen staff. Lisa's favorites:

From Marcia Kiesel, Test Kitchen Supervisor: Parmesan-Crusted Chicken with Arugula Salad, August 2003.

From Grace Parisi, Senior Test Kitchen Associate: All the dressings in "Perfect Salad Dressings", May 2007.

From Melissa Rubel, Test Kitchen Associate: Barbecued Salmon Sandwiches, June 2007.

4. Other Lunch Club favorites ("Because of speed and deliciousness and reheatablility/lack of needing to be reheated"):

From Younhee Choi: Spicy Korean Pork Buns, December 2003

From Alex Lee: Broiled Striped Bass with Ginger Scallion Oil, March 2001.

From Christophe Emé: Roasted Red Pepper Sandwiches with Tapenade and Basil, July 2006.


 

With Thanksgiving coming up, I’ve had whipped cream on my mind – or rather, delicious alternatives. Whipped cream is the key garnish to my father’s Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, and when I was little, it was my sister’s and my job to put the beaters and the bowl in the freezer before whipping the cream with Dad. Now when I make a pie or a cake, often without thinking I’ll chill my beaters to serve a little alongside. But now that the weather's finally chilly and perfect for baking, I’ve become preoccupied with other fluffy white accompaniments to pie: crème fraiche, mascarpone, soft fresh ricotta. To that end, I want to point you to a favorite recipe from our November issue: Octavio Becerra’s date cake, an incredibly moist concoction the Los Angeles chef serves with lebneh, Lebanese yogurt that the chef combines with crunchy pistacchios. Perfect for a chilly pre-Thanksgiving evening.