Wicked Tasty Harvest

A sweet surprise

 By Genevieve Rajewski

Despite April’s wonderful report on all the ways the InterContinental hotel uses honey in its restaurant, Miel, it is hardly the place I’d expect to find a rooftop apiary. But the hotel is having such great success with its new honeybees that it plans to add two more hives next year (and, fingers crossed, a new rooftop vegetable garden around them).

Below are a few (albeit poor) pictures from the reporting trip for my Boston Globe story, which came out today. And as September is National Honey Month, be(e) sure to read April’s great post on Carlisle Honey and to share any tips on your favorite local honeys.

(I’m partial to the honey from E&T Farms on Cape Cod, which is created by cranberry-pollinating bees and was available at the Wayland Winter Market, and honey from Olde Nourse Farm, which I have become addicted to visiting on my way home from my new writing job at Tufts’ Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.)

Miel’s sous chef, Cyrille Couet, and Steve Juscen, the hotel’s food and beverage director, check on the bees on the InterContinental’s fifth-floor rooftop.

 

Miel’s sous chef, Cyrille Couet, who manages the apiary and has a very charming French accent that doesn’t come across in print.

 

This is the bee cam, which provides a live feed to a flat-screen television in Miel’s dining room.

 

 A honey bee on the Greenway.

Food Playlist—NYC

Spring weekend with four (food-loving) friends

by April Paffrath

Spice Market

Sometimes you just want to know the things to eat, the great places to go, and how to pack as much yum into a city as possible. That, for me, is not a problem. When you get four food writers together, you’re in a crowd that knows how to love the food, the conversation, and the excitement. That makes for a thrilling and delicious food playlist. Check out the tracks and the liner notes.

Go to New York.
Stay at a favorite hotel or couch.
Press play.

1.     Chocolate-covered peanuts - City Club Hotel minibar
2.     The Breslin - Ace Hotel    (212 679 1939)
3.     Mas (farmhouse) - pastry chef Catrine Oscarson    (212 255 1790)
4.     Blue Hill - Dan Barber    (212 539 1776)
5.     Keugelhopf French toast, rhubarb compote, fromage blanc
            - DB Bistro room service @ City Club Hotel    (212 921 5500)
6.     Emptiness and letdown - Midtown conference food
7.     The Ten Bells    (212 228 4450)
8.     Death & Co. - team of lovely bartenders    (212 388 0882)
9.     Spice Market - Jean-Georges Vongerichten    (212 675 2322)
10.   Keugelhopf French toast - reprise
11.   Emptiness and letdown mash-up w/
            Unknown Thai restaurant - reprise
12.   Late-night chocolate mousse - DB Bistro room service
            @City Club Hotel on the patio in New York in the misting rain

Death & Co. makes very fine drinks, indeed.

Liner notes

(1) This mix starts softly with a prelude of Dean & Deluca’s chocolate-covered peanuts from the hotel minibar in the afternoon (real chocolate on real nuts), because when you’re planning to eat at Blue HIll that evening, you don’t fill up ahead of time.

(2) That is, unless you’re my friends. This track gets play on the list at the recommendation of my food cohorts who went to the Breslin and ate crisp french fries, scotch eggs with the middle still runny, and boiled peanuts fried in pork fat. The table next door had an entire suckling pig, which you can reserve for the chef’s table. It’s the only kind of reservation they take and you book two working days ahead of time for 8–12 people, prix fixe ($65/per person). According to the Breslin, there’s a lot of meat and it’s a hearty meal with sides, salads and more.

(3) This track is a bit of a sweet surprise. When you’re meeting up for a great dinner, you need to track down all parties, so meet up at a great place in the Village, like Mas (farmhouse).

Meet in the bar. If you’re lucky, one of you should be friends with the pastry chef. We ordered one dessert, and she sent out four and a dessert amuse bouche…20 minutes before our reservation at Blue HIll. Many lesser folks might feel daunted, but I was thrilled because I’m researching a book about dessert. This track listing remains an unfinished piece because even four food-loving friends cannot polish it all off before a big meal. But the abundance sure added to the excitement and fun.

We ordered the ricotta chiboust on a whole wheat sable made from locally grown and milled flour, topped with elderflower-macerated strawberries that the chef brought back with him that week from mid-strawberry-season New Orleans (that’s some good carry-on luggage, if you ask me) with a side of honey ice cream and topped with candied peppercorns. Oh my. Yum.

Yes! It's the best...

Get ready. The holidays are already swinging and you still need to tackle the best part of your list. Of course you do—you always save the best for last. Wicked Tasty Harvest has drawn up a list of must-have and very-cool things to please anyone who loves food and local goodies. How do we know they'll love all of these things? Because we would. (Side-note to our stumped loved ones: Read on and stop fretting over which sweater we'd look hottest in. This season, we're all about the local treats.)

These amazing local treats make stunning gifts, and fill gift baskets and stockings deliciously well. If you arrive in style at the next holiday party with one of these in hand, the hosts will gush. These local favorites are all tasty, well-made, and sought after. 

Homemade jams and preserves from Bonnie's Jams in Cambridge. Flavors like apricot-orange, raspberry and strawberry-ginger elevate breakfast toast into something special. $10.95, Formaggio Kitchen, Savenor's Market, Russo's and more.

Effie's Oatcakes and Corncakes from Hyde Park, MA, are the perfect biscuits for tea and cheese lovers. These crisp, crunchy and rather addictive biscuits are slightly sweet and salty—and they're just right for tea time or snack. They're also fantastic as a cracker with cheese. Try them with cheese and apples, a dollop of jam, or just plain. The oatcakes are a favorite for straight-up snacking and the corn is perfect for cheesy accompaniments. $6, at your local specialty store or at Whole Foods. Or buy them direct.

Taza Chocolate, made in their Somerville factory, offers a wide variety of tasty treats, from bars to nibs to hot chocolate scented with almond. They say they're the only American chocolate-makers offering stone-ground organic chocolate, employing a traditional grinding method from Oaxaca, Mexico. They work closely with growers to ensure top quality and fair pay. You can find the chocolate at many area stores, including holiday packages at Greenward, but if you need to buy in bulk (and who doesn't?), they're now offering free shipping on purchases of more than $50. 

Lake Champlain Chocolates, made in Vermont, have some particularly appropriate holiday offerings, including a bag of silver- and gold-wrapped disks of dark chocolate and peppermint dark chocolate. They also have a lovely box of Chanukah gelt (and they're kosher), much tastier than what you ate in Hebrew school. Buy them at Whole Foods and Sherman Market in Somerville, starting at $8.

Perfect for someone who prefers sour to sweet: Root Cellar Preserves, local pickles that sell in stores around town such as Formaggio Kitchen, Harvest Coop, and Russo's. We particularly love their sweet and spicy pickle mix, $8.

 Ask your neighborhood cheese purveyor for some lovely local cheeses. Some of our favorites include Cabot cloth-bound cheddar, Twig Farm Tomme, Vermont Butter and Cheese Company's Bijou aged goat cheese, Great Hill blue cheese, and Shy Brother's Farm's Hannahbells (pictured). Check out our holiday cheese plate primer or let your local cheese shop select a great combination of cheeses. Formaggio Kitchen and Farmstead (Providence, RI) both do amazing cheese baskets—and they ship. Don't forget about the Concord Cheese Shop and the delicious and deftly edited selection at Central Bottle. Cheese-lovers on your list are well-cared for in this area.

Traditional Goat's Milk Caramel from Fat Toad Farm is crazy delicious. It's like dulce de leche, but it's made from goat's milk, like cajeta. You can taste the flavor profile of goat's milk instead of the slick sweetness of cow's milk (also good, but different). Fat Toad Farm is a small family-run dairy in Brookfield, VT, and they make several flavors of their caramel: original, vanilla, cinnamon, and coffee. The original is awesome on ice cream, tea cakes, or a spoon. $9 at Formaggio Kitchen, Cambridge Naturals, and Farmstead (Providence).

One of the Wicked Tasty team lives very close to L.A. Burdick. Deliciously close. Too close. Burdick's chocolates rival those of the well-known European chocolate houses (and we're well-studied on those). A clear favorite is the truffle filled with caramelized lavender honey. The mouse and penguin chocolates may be too adorable to eat, but you'd never let that deter you from picking up a quarter-pound box. Heck, make it a full pound. Then, warm up holiday visitors with hot chocolate made with their shaved dark, milk and white chocolate. They're made in Walpole, NH, and they have a lovely café in Harvard Square. Boxes start at $15.

Made by Maureen Gallagher at the Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center, the Sassy Sauces line includes an addictive rum caramel sauce, spicy dark chocolate sauce (Valrhona chocolate, chipotle, Vietnamese cinnamon and cayenne), milk chocolate caramel, bittersweet chocolate, peanut butter fudge and vegan butterscotch. All are sublime over ice cream, with fresh fruit or breakfast treats, or straight out of the jar. Recently, Wicked Tasty got to try the Vera Cruz sauce (the first savory Sassy Sauce product and so new that the labels were handwritten). We seared salmon on both sides then simmered it in the sauce to finish. Easy and delicious! Sassy Sauces are available online and at Bacon Street Farm in Natick, Savenor’s Market, and select Whole Food Markets in the Boston area.

What great meal is complete without well-lubricated conversation or a tasty aperitif? Here's where to go for a gift that says, "Capital, darling!" instead of merely Kappy's. 

Drink is one of our favorite bars, and with good reason. There's no cocktail list...but there are gift certificates for your friends. And for a mere $10, the bartenders will whip them up a custom libation based on their tastes (whiskey or gin? citrus or bitters?) and, better yet, indulge their inner cocktail nerds by happily dishing on the drinks' origins (often pre-Prohibition) and variations.  We find it's best to stick to our favorite base liquor and ask the exceptional staff to steer us seasonal. Recently, we've enjoyed a twist on the traditional Frisco (made with homemade pumpkin simple syrup) and the Leather Coat, which employed Scotch, apple butter and sage to a heavenly, fragrant end. For Christmas in a glass, ask for the Lion's Tail: bourbon, allspice dram, lime juice, simple syrup and angostura bitters.

Once the lovely staff at Drink have sent you home with a few handwritten recipes, you'll find the corner packie not up to your new liquor-buying needs. Hit Brix—with shops on Broad Street and Washington Street in the South End—to source Luxardo maraschino liquor for homemade aviations, small-batch bourbons, and St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram for that Lion's Tail. The shop also has a well-curated wine selection and handsome gift baskets capitalizing on that to boot. Next hit up The Boston Shaker—online and opening any day now in Davis Square, after starting as a mini-store within Grand in Somerville's Union Square—for the dash that makes the difference. The store has the most extensive selection of bitters we've ever seen (celery, cardamon, Xocolati mole, whiskey barrel, Peychaud's and many others), along with a strong supporting cast of simple and shrub syrups, heirloom-quality muddlers and perfectly sized 5-ounce cocktail glasses.

Gift card to Craigie on Main. Though perhaps better known for the delectable food out of the kitchen, the bar has gained acclaim for creative, delicious libations using small-batch spirits and local produce that change with the seasons.

 

Sometimes a cook needs some new and gorgeous things.

A slate cheese board from Brooklyn Slate Company is ideal both for a festive party or a regular Tuesday night dinner. Brooklyn Slate Company gets the grey, black or red slate from the family quarry in Upstate New York and offers the non-porous, food-safe pieces with a rough-hewn or clean edge. They also add in a soap pencil to write cheese names right on the board. They're very lovely and at a very reasonable price. Find these gorgeous cheese slabs at Formaggio Kitchen and Wasik's Cheese Shop in Wellesley. 7" x 12" boards, $20; 10" x 14" boards, $24.

When it comes to recipes, we often find that weight is more reliable than volume or size. After all, what does "three large potatoes" mean? Are the ones I've selected large enough? Some recipes today offer both size/volume and weight (for instance: "one medium-sized squash, or 2 lbs of squash"). A food scale is an incredibly handy tool, especially if you love cookbooks printed outside the US, where weights are the standard format. Make sure you get a scale that can do both pounds and grams, so recipes in metric are no problem. Electronic scales make taring a breeze. Try your local hardware store or cooking goods shop for one, like this Salter Baker's Dream scale that has an 11-lb limit and switches units with the click of a button. $39.95, Tags Hardware in Cambridge, and other kitchenware stores.

It's good to eschew plastic water bottles in lieu of tap and filtered. But what if you prefer bubbles? Then it's either plastic bottles or glass ones shipped at a high carbon cost, right? Not so. In looking for a local soda water delivery service, we found this iSi soda siphon. Like their whipped cream canisters, you charge the filled water canister with CO₂ cartridges, making the tap bubbly and wonderful. The soda from the siphon is not short on bubbles, either. It makes a fierce soda water, which is lovely. Since Boston-are tap water is very good quality, the end result is very tasty, indeed. No more bottles, no more shipping our beverages from Italy, and yet no compromising on the brisk drinking experience. If you're so inclined, you could add flavors or juices right into the siphon. $69.99 at Tags Hardware and local cooking goods stores.

The Ratio iPhone app is not really a gadget at all, but still a completely cool tool. This program transforms your iphone into a cooking assistant based on Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio, which offers up the ratios of ingredients needed to make nearly anything without a recipe. You can store the recipes you devise and share them on Twitter and Facebook. $4.99 on iTunes.

We love a bit of class. Cooking class, that is. An evening of cooking (and learning, and eating, and drinking) is a great gift for someone you love—or or yourself. Two of our absolute favorites would be the highlight of anyone's holiday.

Get a gift certificate or sign someone up for a specific class at Stir Boston, Chef Barbara Lynch's fantastic demonstration kitchen and cookbook library in the South End. We've gushed about the classes there before and with good reason. The small-sized classes not only show you foods and techniques up close, but also provide an evening of stellar food and amazing drink as you taste it all and chat with chefs and students. The food you eat is on par with No. 9 Park, Barbara Lynch's flagship restaurant, but you leave knowing that you can do it in your kitchen, too. The cost may seem high but think of it as dining at the chef's table while asking your chef friend to ply you with wine and share his or her secrets. Totally worth it.

Learn to cook with local produce and meat from Ana Sortun, award-winning chef at Oleana and Sofra Bakery. Sit in Sofra's cozy dining room and watch and learn as Sortun and pastry chef Maura Kilpatrick guide you through a handful of flavorful recipes—and you then enjoy the tastes of their labors. The recipes are fantastic when made in a home kitchen, too; we've know, because we've tried. Ana even offers an entire class in the spring focused on making the most of your CSA.

A good cookbook is part story and part culinary sherpa. They help you get where you're going, whether it's how to boil water or the lofty heights of specialized cuisine.  

Craft of Cooking, by Tom Colicchio. Sure, Top Chef-viewers love him. You know why he's really loved? Because his food is so damn good. A trip to NYC is lacking if not for a stop at one of his many Craft incarnations. This cookbook gives you the simple tools to transform lovely ingredients into stunning food with some simple techniques and ideas. Your home cooking will get easier and tastier after reading this book. It works so well with the CSA/local ideas because the recipes make the most of quality ingredients.

Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition, by Barbara Lynch. This local chef (and head of her own growing No. 9 Park empire) has a cookbook that just came out this fall. It's named after her South End demonstration kitchen and it has some of her signature dishes. Check out how to make your own ricotta and some of her amazing pasta dishes that have made tables at her restaurants a hot commodity.

At Wicked Tasty Harvest, we love eating local and getting to know neighborhoods through their food. That's why Savoring East Somerville: A Taste-Based Guide to the Neighborhood is on our wish list. The new cookbook from East Somerville Main Streets promises recipes and full-color portraits from 26 East Somerville restaurants and business owners and family-cooking traditions from 25 neighborhood residents. Recipes from large Italian families, Salvadorian cooks and Brazilian bakers? Um, yes, please!  Order your copy (gift wrapping and shipping available).

I Know How to Cook, by Ginette Mathiot. Not only does it have a fantastic pink cover and a title that offers a fun variety of dramatic readings (I know how to cook, I know how to cook, I know how to cook), this book is a wealth of awesome French cooking techniques. This tome has been a standard for French women for decades and was on every French woman's grandmother's shelf. It's recently been translated into English and is a sort of French version of The Silver Spoon. It's full of wonderful recipes updated by Clotilde Dusoulier. French food, we find, does very well with the excellent produce, fantastic meats, and gorgeous dairy we have in New England. Might as well know how to do it the way it's been done in French homes for decades.

Gifts are more than lovely little things that make our lives delightful. They're also about those gifts that make the world a better and safer place. What gift guide could be complete without including organizations that are doing their part to improve the reality of the world. If you're giving gifts this season, consider a gift to an organization that is out there changing the world. And if you're getting this season, think about passing along some of that great feeling to others in the world. 

Gardens for Health is a Cambridge-based organization that provides tools, seeds, equipment and assistance to people living with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda. It helps them create food co-ops where they can grow food, improve their nutrition (which in many regions of the world is lacking in people suffering from HIV/AIDS), and earn income when they might otherwise have no jobs due to illness. This organization helps stop the cycle of poverty, malnourishment, and illness. Like Heifer International, your gifts are paired up with actual tools and supplies: $4 for a hoe, $180 for 100 plum tree seedlings, $500 for 8 wheelbarrows. 

Share Our Strength is trying to end childhood hunger by supporting school breakfast and year-round meal programs, improving access to fresh produce to families, encouraging farmers' markets to accept food stamps, and creating programs that teach families how to make nutritious healthy food on a limited budget. You can make a donation, order gift cards to share with other people, or buy tickets to their benefit, Taste of the Nation. The benefit is set for April 2010 and will feature Andy Husbands of Tremont 647, Jody Adams of Rialto, Gordon Hamersley of Hamersley's Bistro, Jason Santos of Gargoyles and about 70 restaurants and wineries. Tickets to the event and silent auction are 20 percent off by January 1 when you enter the code JINGLE10.

There are plenty of other organizations that bring food and giving, together. Take a closer look at the Greater Boston Food Bank, Heifer International, and City Sprouts, just to name a few.

Here's to a Tasty New Year!

 

LUPEC Tiki Bash

by April Paffrath

We talk a lot about food here. Food is what we love. So often, people assume that means everything on your plate but, it also means what's in your glass. So far the drinks aspect of our food love has been woefully underrepresented. No more.

I love events that showcase culinary talents and farmers and producers, especially local ones, because I am constantly floored by the commitment to awesomeness that the New England scene has. Events that showcase that amazing depth are great chances to share new experiences, tastes and ideas. Often, there an opportunity to do some good, too.

With that in mind, I know what you should put on your calendar this weekend. I'm crushed that I can't make it, but surely some of you will go there in my stead (go! go!). Perhaps even Cynthia or Genevieve (in which case I want a full report and photos).

LUPEC Boston (that's "Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails, naturally) is hosting TIKI BASH, it's 3rd annual fall fundraiser. This year it's a 1950s tiki theme with retro cocktails, demos from Boston's star bartenders, ukulele performances, and a burlesque act, along with other hula enjoyments. Food will feature cocktail fare by chefs from Toro, Myers + Chang, Green Street, Island Creek Oysters, and more. Oh, and the roller-skating gals passing out Taza chocolate? Those are the Boston Derby Dames. How can you not want to dress up and pretend you're in a tropical paradise? There are just so many reasons to love LUPEC Boston.

The Tiki Bash is at the Villa Victoria Center for the Arts on Saturday, November 14, from 7-11pm. Tickets are $35 in advance and $45 at the door. You can buy the tickets online until tomorrow at midnight.

The fundraiser benefits Cambridge-based On the Rise, which supports women dealing with crisis and homelessness. See? Good treats and helping a great cause while having a wild, tiki time.

A burlesque performance is part of the evening's retro entertainment.
photo: C. Fernsebner, Bostonist.com

Want to keep the party going after the tiki bash has ended? Of course you do! LUPEC's own Kitty gave me some perfect recipes to share with you. Use some of New England's great local spirits, like Triple Eight Distillery or Berkshire Mountain Distillers (my local fave).

Mai Tai
Adapted from Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide, revised by Victor Bergeron

• 1 oz dark rum
• 1 oz light rum
• 1/2 oz curacao
• 1/4 oz simple syrup
• 1/4 oz orgeat
• 1 oz lime juice                           

Shake with ice and strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a lime wheel, a mint sprig and, if possible, an exotic orchid.

The Fog Cutter
Adapted from Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide, revised by Victor Bergeron

• 2 oz light rum
• 1 oz brandy
• 1/2 oz gin
• 2 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 oz orange juice
• 1/2 oz orgeat
• 1/2 oz sweet sherry

Shake all ingredients except sherry with ice cubes. Pour into 14-ounce glass. Add more ice cubes. Float 1/2 ounce of sherry on top. Serve with straws.


These are all best enjoyed while listening to ukulele music. That bit of tropical delight as we slide from fall toward winter is a magic thing.

Local Food Outing

by Cynthia Graber

field trip with Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli to the Copley Square Farmers Market

Recently, I had the chance to wander downtown with one of my local food loves. But the story begins earlier.

I was thrilled last year that Craigie Street Bistro was doing so well that chef Tony Maws decided to expand and move his operations to a new home. (Which, of course, was no longer on Craigie Street, and so morphed into the aptly named Craigie on Main.)

This brought a note of danger into my life - danger to my wallet, that is. I'm a huge fan of Tony's cooking. And when the restaurant had beautiful little tables in a cozy, basement hide-out of a restaurant, I only went a couple of times a year.

But last November, Craigie moved into its new digs on Main Street in Central Square. Right down the street from my old apartment. With a bar area. (And an open kitchen, which you can read about in my Boston Globe article from last February.) Suddenly, a place I'd held in reserve for special-occasion dining became a neighborhood hang-out.

And Tony now has to share my undying affection with a new love in my life: Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli, who runs the bar. Tom recently won Boston's best mixologist from the Improper Bostonian in July. His name may also ring familiar to many of you locals, as his uncle is Chris Schlesinger, chef/owner of East Coast Grill and the nearby All Star Sandwich Bar, both in Inman Square.

Tom shares Tony's obsession with quality, taste, and local ingredients. I love to sit at the bar, watching him measure, pour, chop, muddle, shake. He's happy to share tales about what he's made lately, what he's experimenting with, or what he's seen at the market. One of my recent favorite drinks was a short-lived concoction made with his own "corn syrup": he took the best of the local corn, boiled and strained and concentrated until he had a syrup of pure corn sweetness, then mixed it with alcohols I can no longer remember. It was light, sweet without being cloying, with a hint of corn's earthiness.

Last Friday, Tom and I went on a jaunt over to Copley market together. I was curious to watch him interact with the produce, and I wanted to hear more about how he works it into his drink menu.

I wish I had a transcript, but I didn't want to tape a casual conversation with a friend. So instead, I'll be as exact as I can be. As these aren't direct quotes, I'll use dashes. (Tom, feel free to correct me.)

Tom told me one tale from before he took over at Craigie, from when Tony visited him at Eastern Standard: - It's difficult to be as seasonal as I'd like to be, because I have to use citrus all year round. Tony came to Eastern Standard an I made him a drink, and it had lemon in it, and he asked, is it local? -

At which point we both laughed. Citrus of course is never local in Boston. Florida and California, sure. New England? Maybe not until global warming wreaks havoc on our local climate.

We wandered around Copley, picking up husk cherries to snack on (tiny, sweet tomatillo-like delights, you can read about them in an Edible Boston article I wrote). He scooped up a bunch of peaches and nectarines. He mentioned a drink he's working on with apples and celery.

We were staring at about ten different types of apples, and I commented that I haven't yet learned to tell one from the other. He selected four different varieties and tossed them into bags.

- I'll use them in mocktails and get to know their flavor profiles, - he said.

It turns out mocktails, made for the alcohol-averse, have become something of a surprise hit. Tom even creates a flight of mocktails to accompany dinner, upon request, and he enjoys cooking up drinks that compliment and play off Tony's food. (He course creates alcoholic versions!) For example, he explained, Tony may use one flavor in a dish as an undertone, but Tom will seize on it as the main note of a drink.

- This is where I get to use more savory, - he said.

Tom said he's also looking to expand the season by canning, and we chatted about all the different methods for preserving fruit. Unfortunately, our summer downpours shortened both the strawberry and raspberry season. But he's now got a couple hundred jars of fruit, such as blackberries and peaches, behind the bar.

"What will you do with them?" I asked. "Muddle? Blend? Chop?"

- I don't know - he shrugged. - Whatever I feel like. -

Which, of course, sounds a bit like his creative approach to drinks in general. And I can assure you that 'whatever he feels like' usually tastes fantastic.

We sat outside in the sun, ringed by farmers and produce, surrounded by the sounds of the city, talking about food, cooking, eating, life. There where many times I thought - oh! this would be great to share! But I had no interest in taking out a notebook and making it official. I just drifted along with the lazy meander of our word and enjoyed the afternoon.

So you'll have to forgive me for not writing down more of our conversation. Instead, I'll offer this advice. Next time you go to Craigie on Main and somehow manage to squeeze in at the bar, see if Tom has a spare 30 seconds or so as he's putting the finishing touches on someone's drink. Ask what local flavors he's enjoyed lately, tell him what types of alcohol and drinks you like, and ask for his recommendation.

Braised Sunflowers

by April Paffrath

 
Siena Farms grows beautiful sunflowers. They are impeccable (like their produce) and intensely golden, just like you would imagine they should be. Somehow they look even brighter in huge groupings, like gigantic bouquets sitting in big buckets instead of vases.

Recently, I went to an event at Erbaluce Boston and chef Charles Draghi presented a buffet of meats, veggies and more with a bagna cauda. Included in the veggie line-up were some sunflower heads. For real. I was shocked. It's so rare that I eat something that I've *never* had before, much less something I didn't know was in the realm of possible dinner options. It was almost emotionally thrilling.

The sunflower heads looked like artichoke hearts, and tasted not too far off, either. They have that familiar tangy hit that's a tad bitter followed by the sweet sweep at the end. The sunflower, though, is less harsh and more sweet. The texture and color are very similar to artichoke, but not exactly the same. You need to try them to find out the difference.

Ever since that event, I have wanted to make sunflowers in my own kitchen. Luckily, How2Heroes posted a great video of Charles Draghi making sunflower heads (watch it below), this time filled with a ricotta herb mixture. On my next visit to Siena Farms in Sudbury—I like to go there, even though I get the CSA box, to pick up extras and see what's not making it into the box—I chatted with Trevor about the giant yellow flowers.

You want to make sure that flowers you choose to include on your plate are free from pesticides and other treatments that might not be safe for consumption. (You even have to take care with any organic treatments because "organic" does not equal "edible" in all cases.) Flowers often get different treatments if they aren't considered a food crop, so you need to ask. I asked Trevor just to be sure, even though I know Siena Farms is organic and was likely supplying food-grade sunflowers to restaurants (they are). You just need to be safe when you're dealing with chemicals and dinner. He loaded me up with a bagful of sunflowers, several of them past their bouquet prime, but perfect for dinner because they were tender and fully ripe.

I watched the video and decided to follow it pretty closely, but with a couple of tweaks….as always.

When you look at a pile of golden sunflower heads, it's hard to know where to start. I picked off the petals and trimmed around the outside edge, removing the green sepals of the calyx (the green petal-like leaves that are underneath the petals), and exposing the pith of the flower head. Next, I turned the flowerhead on edge and trimmed off the yellow face of the flower. I learned through a few practice passes that it's easy to cut too deep or too shallow. You want to remove the yellow face and be left with the pithy meat. Don't take off too much, just remove the yellow. Finally, trim off the stem that you've used as a handle, as well as the green underside of the flower. That can be a little tricky because of its concave sections, but it only took one flower to figure out the best way to go. As I prepped each one until it looked like a giant white, flat artichoke heart, I popped it into acidulated water (water + a bit of lemon juice) to stop oxidation. I went slowly on my first flower head and I noticed some browning by the time I finished, so they all got a lemon juice and water bath while I got the rest of the dish set up.

On the first flower, I trimmed the back before the face, but in doing so, I lost my handle. Oops.

I braised them in olive oil, white wine (Mâcon is what I was drinking, so that was the choice), lemon juice, garlic and herbs. When they were tender after about 40 minutes, I carefully put them in an oven-safe pan and filled them with the ricotta-herb combo. It was a difficult choice to diverge from Draghi's recipe, because it looked so good, but I split the filling in two to try different herbs. One batch was close to the parsley-thyme-basil that he envisioned and the other half was more like an herbes de Provence mix. So, each ricotta batch was a bit different: nutmeg for low flavor notes, and lemon zest for the high notes, and then different herbs for the middle range.

I sprinkled the top of the filling with bread crumbs and let it cook in the oven. It took close to a half hour to get the ricotta hot and the bread crumbs crisp and golden. Draghi suggests a vinaigrette with capers, which we tried on one part, using a caper tapenade (Formaggio was out of my favorite salted capers, so the tapenade was a compromise). I liked it, but I was in the mood for sunnier, rounder flavors. I toasted some pine nuts to sprinkle on top. Instead of vinaigrette, I drizzled a bit of the braising liquid and followed that with a very light drizzle of rosemary honey. Oh my. It was the perfect blend of sweet, toasty, bitter and awesome. To experiment, I drizzled a bit of my homemade basil oil around the plate to set off the basil notes in the braising liquid—just a touch.

Yum.

You can see how the texture is very like artichoke. The flower face feathers a bit as it braises.

Pepper with some of the plucked petals and serve with a salad and a gorgeous dressing. Then, just wish that you had thought to make this earlier in the summer when you'd have an entire season of sunflowers ahead of you, instead of mere weeks.

Check out the How2Hero video to walk you through. Then rush out and get some organic, edible flowers and try it.

A Kick in the Cuisine

by April Paffrath

Creamy burrata at Sportello. The inside is mozzerella and cream. You want this.

Where do you go for culinary inspiration?

Lunch the other day started me thinking about daily cooking during the season ahead. What will I do that I haven't tried yet? What simple combinations will make us linger over the dinner table and say, "God in heaven, can we please eat that meal all over again?" I realized, as I ate at Sportello with friends on Friday, that I need to work on support materials in a meal to make them truly amazing: The pastry doughs for Eric Kayser's savory zucchini tart. The soups de verduras like we eat in Spain that add a jolt of freshness to a meal. The foccacia studded with veggies fresh from the farm, and doused in sea salt and verdant olive oil. And, thanks to this meal at Sportello, which I've enjoyed many many times before, gnocchi that will add the deep (but never heavy) notes to a meal while remaining as fluffy as clouds. Barbara Lynch's gnocchi are nothing like the leaden versions that come in a packet at the store. And, lucky me, I learned how to make them from her at a class she taught at Stir. (More on that as I try it...with wilted greens and mushrooms, perhaps?)

Gnocchi that are light, soft and perfect. This is my favorite comfort dish.

Early spring is a time of happy research, spent thinking about the season ahead and how to make things taste gorgeous when they are fresh picked. I have stacks of cookbooks out on tables and chairs right now, which I read like novels, tasting vicariously through the authors' descriptions. Each book holds great ideas and I try my hardest to remember the exceptional ones that I know will completely make my summer. My mother and I both have formidable cookbook libraries. Mine in the hundreds, hers in the thousands. We have so much in common and our love of cooking and our ability to devour cookbooks as well as the food they talk about is one of my favorite inherited traits. I will write about cookbooks here again and again.

The way I cook is influenced greatly by many things— culture, favorite foods, dishes that characters ate in my favorite books, how my parents cook, and more. In our house, it's a daily barrage of tastiness that gently forms our culinary goals and appetites.

Travel plays a major part in how we eat chez nous. When we go to Barcelona, we bring back memories of eating at Cal Pep, Comerç24 and shopping for Lorenç Petras' mushrooms at La Boqueria. Once we get home, we weave our culinary adventures into our daily lives, hunting down black trumpets, making a basil ice cream, and finding the best bread for pa amb tomaquet (pan con tomate or tomatoes and bread). This season we'll be headed to Chicago, New York, and London...that we know of so far. I can't wait to taste things in each of those places that shake things up a bit.

We do the same thing in our own town, too. Boston has quite a culinary scene and I think it's woefully unsung. When it comes to restaurants, Bostonians are as lucky as can be. Where many cities this size might have a few stellar places, Boston has more that will thrill than I can name right now. Getting inspired here, it turns out, is easy. No. 9 Park, Radius, Beacon Hill Bistro, Marco, Oleana, Upstairs on the Square, and so many more. The chefs at these places care about food and where it comes from. The list can easily go on and on. As a city of eaters, we are incredibly and undeniably lucky. If you're stuck for ideas and inspiration for your own kitchen, you don't *have* to travel the globe when we have dozens of wells from which to draw genius. Do both, I say.

When we go out to eat, I taste the elements that don't usually make it into our home cooking. I look for ingredients, vegetables, sauces, herbs, and textures that I haven't played with enough. Suddenly, the list of things to try at home is miles long and so, so tasty. It's easy to get into a bit of a rut when work and life pressures infringe on our limited time. Traveling and tasting within your own city is a lovely kick in the cuisine.