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Patti LaBelle makes everyone feel holiday love. What a special time spent shooting “Patti LaBelle’s Holiday Party” this year. I hope you get to watch her made some of her favorite holiday meal pieces this week on TV One.
A few burnt cookies, balancing liquid filled carafes on loaded sheet trays, and frizzy hair later everything came together wonderfully. Seeing her sing in person with her musical director and Tamar Braxton was basically a live concert.
Im excited to share with PowerHouse Productions a new show that premiered this past Saturday night at 7pm on abc7 New York.
The amazing Marcus Samulesson and Bevy Smith took a culinary adventure around Harlem, Brooklyn & Newark to show all some of the best black owned food spots!
To support these black owned businesses go to @harlemeatup or Eatupny.org
Josie is the owner of Pinoy Asian Foods CHIBUGAN, a simple Asian and Filipino-inspired market in Poughkeepsie. Her space is packed with various sized tables and chairs to host guests for events, walls lined with specialty food items and dozens of photos that feel like she has let you into part of her home.
After uprooting her life in the Philippines, she chased her dream to America. Josie pursued her degree at FIT and became a jewelry designer. And as many do over their career span, she shifted gears and fell in love with food. One thing led to the next, and she loves every minute of her entrepreneurial life! Josie sells wholesale food products, but she also prepares an array of Filipino foods for customers to devour.
Our conversation was simple, her spirit so lovely, and I felt as though I made a new connection! I promised Josie I would come back to have lunch someday, but that day I was on a mission to cook lunch for someone special! And with her guidance, she suggested I stir fry my choice of wide glass noodles with Thai eggplant, lots of garlic, and the infamous chili oil (Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp).
As I sit here at midnight slurping leftover speckled chili noodles, feeling that numbing twang of the unfavorable Sichuan peppercorn, I reflect on the day. I reminded myself that experiences such as my small conversation with Josie are essential. Building your community is a beautiful thing. Taking the time to connect with people who live and work within a small radius of your home could give way to incredible knowledge and experiences. And without her advice, who knows how lunch could have turned out??? I will surely return to visit!
The NY Times butter loaded tomato sauce is peace and love. Sweet tomatoes, velvety butter, a whole onion, (and garlic cloves). Too simple and too good. In my belly it goes :)
The celebration of the Hindu festival Holi began yesterday and ends today which means we should all be celebrating love, colors, and spring from here forward! I admit that I just found out about Holi and think it’s such a beautiful celebration of life in the new season of spring. The lovely Rinku Bhattacharya whom I’ve met through the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance brought this holiday to my attention.
She’s a cookbook author of The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles, Instant Indian: Classic Foods from Every Region of India made easy in the Instant Pot, and Spices & Seasons: Simple, Sustainable Indian Flavors. She’s also a blogger and an amazing chef and teacher celebrating all food especially from her Indian heritage. Here she shares a recipe from an event she hosted over the weekend that is enjoyed during Holi!
Quick and Easy Thandai
Ingredients
3/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
1 blade of mace
1/2 cup shelled blanched almonds (see note)
1/4 cup shelled pistachios
1/4 cup melon seeds (see note)
1 teaspoon saffron strands
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
5 cups of whole milk
1 tablespoon rose water
Rose Petals and Chopped Nuts to garnish
Instructions
Grind the peppercorns, fennel seeds, cardamom seeds and mace in a spice/coffee grinder until powdered.
Grind the almonds, pistachios, and melon seeds until powdered. Mix well together. If you wish you can make this mixture ahead of time and store and use as needed.
Add this powdered mixture to 1/4 cup of milk and blend until a smooth paste is formed.
Soak the saffron strands in 1/4 cup of the milk. If you wish, you can warm the milk slightly. This helps the color bloom quick, but not completely necessary.
In the meantime add the remaining milk to the blender and blend until smooth. If this is too much liquid you can add two glass blend until smooth.
Remove this mixture and add the saffron steeped milk and the additional milk in a large jug.
Pour into glasses or a serving jug and chill.
To serve, place a teaspoon of rose petals at the bottom of the glass. Add in a few ice cubed (if desired) and pour the than
Serve over ice garnished with rose petals and additional chopped nuts.
Enjoy !
Notes
The combination of nuts and melon seeds are a guideline. If you cannot find melon seeds, that is ok, you can increase the almonds or add in cashews. You can use all honey, or just sugar. This makes a large amount of the thandai, so for a smaller amount you can half the recipe.
I went to bed craving Chinese hand pulled noodles on a random Wednesday night last week. I woke up feeling the same about them…. That I love them and need to have them right away! I’ve never made hand pulled noodles nor did I want to try, but what I did do was create a dumbed down version of the noodle that eliminated the pulling factor. It’s as easy as making pasta dough (same ingredients and time to rest). I didn’t even pull out my kitchen-aide pasta attachment! I was too good for it at that moment. I did come to realize it would have made a big difference in my process. The noodles were good but a bit too thick (that was my fault).
I used a recipe from the wonderful website The Woks of Life. I made the sauce a little different using butter, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, sambal, and chili oil to get this saucy sauce! It was pretty darn good my friends.
Here I go again talking about testaroli… except this time I'm sharing it on beautifully handcrafted ceramics made by Dara Levine. I am obsessed with ceramics and have found myself at a pottery studio on occasion. But, these are special because they are handmade by a lovely woman who keeps the craft going. These pieces are very rustic, and I thought they would be perfect with a very peasant-like dish.
Dara says, "these accent trays are made from brown stoneware clay and finished in a lead-free glaze called "Choy". The tray is designed to be part of a larger meal and inspired by Turkey's trip a few years ago. Stoneware is dense pottery fired at high temperatures to make it resistant to liquids-or non-porous. It is made from clay but is more durable than other kinds of pottery and earthenware. These trays are food, microwave, and oven safe."
If you haven't seen previous posts about testaroli, I'll get you up to speed! It's one of the oldest recorded kinds of pasta in Italy, coming from Pontremoli, Tuscany. My dad's family is from this town (and more specifically, the villages that dot the mountains). Cross between a pancake and crepe, this spongey pasta is dunked in boiling water or broth, bringing it to life. While I traveled abroad in culinary school, I found myself feasting on testaroli during Easter week. It's enjoyed any time of the year and always with pesto and lots of Parmesan Reggiano.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!! Pasta is always the best alternative to anything.
“Is she kidding??! I want my corn beef and cabbage” -you say!
And yes! You should have had a delicious Reuben Sammie today with melted Swiss cheese and sauerkraut. I did!!! And while you nosh on leftover corned beed dipped in mustard you should also check out a few other things, like @linecookthoughtsnew podcast! Today he interviews Jeremiah Tower (@tower.jeremiah) one of the first celebrity chefs known for bringing the farm to table movement forward in California. He starred in Jeremiah Tower, The Last Magnificent produced by Anthony Bourdain. And he has won a few James Beard Awards in his time as a chef. He’s pretty incredible and quite legendary.
On this episode, I speak with one of the first Chefs who sparked the ingredient revolution, Jeremiah Tower. Known as one of the first Celebrity Chefs, we chat about his impact and what he did as A Chef. We then chat about his views on the modern food industry and he also gives some advice to cooks.
I love food cut pristinely and perfect. Perfect circles and straight edges are my things, but knives have never been my favorite kitchen tool. Sometimes I envy chefs and cooks that take pride in a good Japanese Knife -at least to me that still seems to be the trend- but I could never find appeal. I remember my first experience working in a fine dining kitchen and one of the sous chefs made fun of my German knife. The one CIA provides you in your knife kit. I always came to its defense, really, it was fine after a good sharpening. Especially, a good $3 sharpen at Warren’s Cutlery, the place where all CIA kids went.
This week host Ray Delucci of Line Cook Thoughts interviews Dillon Marra, a chef turned knife maker! And, his knives are kinda whimsical. Maybe, I just need to purchase something more stylish like this!?
Check out this podcast to see what Dillon has to say about his career as chef turned entrepreneur. He must love his knife skills!
I always wondered if I should have gone to culinary school for baking and pastry? In hindsight, I think I’m slightly jealous of those who get to make pretty chocolate bonbons and decorate cakes with pink buttercream flowers. The pastry wing at the CIA is totally separate from the culinary kids and I always felt a little more at ease going over to the other side. It always smelled like bread or warm chocolate! The worst it could smell was like burnt sugar and that’s not even terrible.
Jessica Scott must have felt the same way about desserts because she is rocking in her industry! Ray Delucci speaks with pastry chef Jessica about her rising career and now currently working at Bartong. In the past, she won Food Networks Dessert Games and a finalist for the season 3 Halloween Baking Championship. She is known for creating the Churro Eclair, which has got to be so delicious! I am very inspired by this and you should be too. Listen to Ray’s Podcast to hear all about her unique story!
On this episode, I speak with Chef Jessica Scott. She had been featured on Food Network, and is now the Pastry Chef of Barton G restaurants. She shares her story and gives advice for doing your best in the industry, and taking the chances to move forward with your career!
