Daily Loaf

Wanderer of ages.

There was a time when I dragged my car across the country, life in back pocket, convinced the next great thing lay under one of those rocks out there.

My adventures took me far and wide, hemmed in only by this country’s borders and the limits of my own imagination.

At the ripe old age of twenty-two, I ended up in Berkeley, CA, home of everything both weird and ridiculously normal at the same time. Buddhism, yoga, homeless people having acid flashbacks in the now-decrepit and dangerous People’s Park, the crown jewels of San Francisco Bay Area wealth glittering with haunting illusion high in the Berkeley hills. The Ashby Flea Market, a hodge-podge of booths with knick-knacks for sale, set up every weekend at the local BART (or subway) station.

I looked forward to Sundays, when I’d get off work from my collectivist restaurant job in time to enjoy a delicious cassava pone sweet treat in the just setting sun.

Read the rest of this entry »

She had never seen the Godfather. So I made her a meal she couldn’t refuse.

When Steebo told me that she had never seen the Godfather, I felt a dinner coming on. I had always liked the first two Godfather films, but I found a new appreciation for them upon reading a fascinating article in Vanity Fair. The article recounts the turbulent making of the film in the face of opposition from the mob. The classic’s stormy creation is a saga in itself.

A screening of the Godfather is a great excuse to make an indulgent Italian feast that seems to go on forever. I write not to analyze the movie, but to recount my own effort to cook a meal that could somehow measure up to its greatness.

I initially figured on a couple courses during the film. As it turns out, life imitated art, and the meal soon took on a tumultuous life of its own. As I shopped that afternoon with a vague menu in my mind, my ambition and attitude grew. I invited a few friends over and cobbled a menu together. By the end of the evening, I felt downright Italian, more hotheaded Sonny than steely Michael or the wise godfather. Read the rest of this entry »

Chef's Special Congee

As a chef, you’re only as good as your last meal. And for most of us, the memory of a bad meal tends to stick around a lot longer than the typical experience. I can describe to you every single detail of a terrible dinner that I had two years ago, but I probably couldn’t tell you what I had for lunch last Monday.

I sometimes wonder why the memory of a bad meal has such an effect on me, and two thoughts come to mind. One: Every meal is an event. It’s a small celebration of the carnal pleasures of life and it’s something I look forward to. So when I am served a bad meal, it feels like someone robbed me. And when someone is robbing you, you want to remember every single detail so you have a good description to give the police. Two: I’m generally more irritable when I’m hungry!
As a chef, I know that it’s impossible to serve impeccable, perfect food. But I also know what the standards should be, and I’m not afraid to call a chef out on a bad outing. Is this article bad karma? Maybe. But I figure if some day someone writes a bad review about my food, I probably deserved it.

Chef’s Special Congee:
It’s ironic that my first article in the “worst meals” series is written about one of my favorite restaurants Read the rest of this entry »

When I was a kid, as soon as winter melted into spring each year my family would take every opportunity possible to have a big, backyard, family barbecue. Dad’s grill was lit from Memorial Day right on through Labor Day. Each holiday, birthday, graduation and anniversary was celebrated in style under our lilac and cherry trees. The folding chairs and card tables were dusted off and set up outside. The coolers were hauled out and filled to the brim with icy cold beer and soft drinks. Everybody brought some kind of “picnic-y” dish to share. Everyone except my Aunt Giuseppina, that is. She always brought a huge tray of eggplant parmigiana. But, that’s a story for another day.

I don’t know how it is in most families, but in Italian families, hot dogs and burgers alone just don’t cut it. Read the rest of this entry »

Yield: 10-16 portions

Ingredients:
French baguette or any long bread
1 jar of store-bought basil pesto (or use this recipe)
Fresh basil leaves
2-3 Roma tomatoes
4 – 8 bocconcini mozzarella cheese balls
Salt and pepper

Instructions:
1. Prepare the following and set aside:
- Slice the tomatoes
- Slice the mozzarella
- Slice the bread on an angle
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Spread a small amount of basil pesto onto each slice of bread and place on baking sheet.

3. Put a slice of tomato, basil leaf and cheese onto each slice of bread.

4. Roast the bruschettas in the oven for 7-10 minutes until cheese melts. Serve and enjoy!

Recipe by: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

Friends invited me to dinner this week, and I offered to bring dessert. A trip to the market produced sweet-tart, juicy nectarines. I thought about a nice pie or cobbler, but my hostess can’t eat wheat products. A bowl of sliced nectarines with a drizzle of heavy cream is always good, but I wanted something a little more special.

Pavlovas were a perfect choice. They don’t contain wheat, are easy to put together, and are a wonderful showcase for beautiful ripe fruit.

Pavlovas are popular in Australia and New Zealand, where they were developed and named for ballerina Anna Pavlova. They resemble clouds on top of pillows, with a base of meringue and a crisp exterior that gives way to a soft, marshmallowy center. The meringue is filled with whipped cream and topped with fruit — in this case nectarine, but as long as it is soft, juicy and ripe it should work (tart is also a good quality). Berries are beautiful and delicious. Passion fruit is wonderful, as are blueberries mixed with a touch of lemon curd (made from the yolks that aren’t used in the meringue).

Volume is key when making Pavlovas. When working with egg whites Read the rest of this entry »

Yield: 4 Portions

Ingredients:
Fresh basil leaves
4 tomatoes
4 large balls of buffalo mozzarella cheese, or several smaller balls of bocconcini cheese
2 cups of extra virgin olive oil
2/3 cup of your favorite vinegar
1 tablespoon of grain or dijon mustard
Salt and pepper Read the rest of this entry »

Polenta. Peasant food of Gods. “Grits with a college education,” as one wise customer put it.

Thickly ground cornmeal, originating in husk of sweet yellow or white corn, dried, grounded, pounded, whisked and cooked, preferrably over a double boiler, 5 parts to 1, water to cornmeal.

PHASE 1:

A porridge like pot of mush appears. There is no better way to state it. Polenta, in this state, is soft, warm, nourishing, and good. Add butter, olive oil, grated parmiggiano-reggiano (perhaps a pecorino romano instead) heck, you can use the powder-fine grated parm in the green grocery store bottle; it will taste good. Serve in bowls as appetizer, side dish, minced parsley on top. This soft polenta is easy on the eyes on a cold, winter day.

PHASE 2:

Instead of eating your mush, Read the rest of this entry »

Fondue is a great method of cooking, especially if your goal is to entertain your guests! There are several ways to make fondue, and there are many different ingredients that one could use. I will be giving you a basic recipe utilizing colby jack cheese and dark beer. However, you can experiment with many different cheeses, and many different bases (wine, beer, stock, etc). It’s important to note that different cheeses will give you different tastes and textures. Some may even split, ball-up, or become really stringy.

To fix a fondue that is too stringy, you can add a few squirts of lemon or lime. Although this may not eliminate the stringiness altogether, it may cut it down. If your cheese splits or balls up (there is liquid and cheese separately) you can sprinkle in some corn starch a little at a time while mixing, until your mixture comes together again. I actually make a habit of coating the cheese in a bit of corn starch before starting the cooking process.

Recipe after the break: Read the rest of this entry »

Linguine with a pink shrimp sauce
From Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta.
(Read our interview with Giuliano Hazan.)

This is a very elegant sauce that is traditionally served with seafood-filled ravioli. A portion of the shrimp are chopped very fine, giving the sauce a consistency similar to meat sauce. Parsley at the end adds lightness and fragrance.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

¾ pound large shrimp
2 medium cloves garlic
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
½ cup dry white wine
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound linguine
6–7 sprigs flat-leaf Italian parsley
1 cup heavy cream

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagliatelle with chickpeas
From Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta.
(Read our interview with Giuliano Hazan.)

One of the restaurants we enjoy going to when we are in Valpolicella, the wine country outside of Verona, is Alla Rosa Alda, in the tiny hilltop town of San Giorgio. One of their specialties is a pasta dish they call “tagliatelle embogonè” in the local dialect. It is homemade egg noodles with a sauce of fresh cranberry beans. When I was growing up, my mother made a soup with chickpeas, tomatoes and rosemary that I loved. Taking inspiration from Alla Rosa Alda’s dish, I’ve adapted that chickpea soup here, into a pasta sauce that is now one of our favorites at home.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Read the rest of this entry »

Why is this called a Hummingbird Cake? You got me. It’s not like you go out and find a bunch of hummingbirds and blend em up in your food processor as the main ingredient. Well, maybe Ozzy Osbourne would, but not us sound-minded food folks.

I made this amazingly delicious cake for my mom’s birthday. She wanted a cake other than chocolate (and she calls herself my mom!)

I think this cake should be renamed something like, Banana Cake on Steroids. For rizzle y’all, that’s what it is, banana cake on steroids. Super moist with a nice spice kick. And the frosting is lick the bowl clean yummy. And it’s super simple and quick to make.

Recipe after the break:

Read the rest of this entry »

I had to jump on the Bakerella bandwagon and make some Cake Pops! I see them all over the Food Web World. They really are simple to make, but very time consuming. Of course, I made them even more difficult with all the different decorations. I love self induced torture!

And, I must say, they did have a very lengthy photo shoot. Probably about 80 pictures! My husband thinks I’ve lost my mind. But I constantly remind him that I didn’t lose it, my children have sucked every bit of brain from my skull. Just like he constantly reminds me that his gray hair is caused by me! Again, I blame that on the kids too!

Recipe after the break:

Read the rest of this entry »

The aroma of yeast fills the house. It is Friday afternoon. The children drop their backpacks near the door, heaven forbid that they put them away, and quickly make their way to the kitchen. “Is it time yet?” they ask in unison. They want to make sure that they haven’t missed braiding the challah. Sometimes they get home early enough for the second kneading; but usually they get home just in time to shape the bread into the fanciest braids possible, sometimes even creating braids with six strands. In Jewish tradition, challah is served for Shabbat. The smell of the challah baking not only makes my home smell wonderful, it also heralds the Sabbath, the day of rest, a time of peace and tranquility.

The very act of creating a challah is one of transition. Read the rest of this entry »

My Saturday habit is to start the day at a farmer’s market. Instead of going with a menu and specific ingredients in mind, I choose what looks best and design my menu around what I buy and this week the stars of the show were the peaches.

They’re in season within 100 miles of my home, getting from the farm to my table quickly. This means they are picked at their peak and I get to enjoy a peach that is dripping with juice, has a heady aroma, and tastes…. like a peach.

One of the best ways to enjoy peaches like this is sliced, chilled and topped with a drizzle of good quality heavy cream. But this Saturday I was having company for dinner and wanted something more. One of my dinner guests was my mom, who doesn’t eat much in the way of sweets.

This peach shortcake recipe was pretty, homey and very tasty. The base is a faintly sweet biscuit that gets a flavor and moisture boost from sour cream. The peaches have just a bit of sugar added to help coax out juices to drizzle on the cake. Whipped cream adds a touch of vanilla for a sweet quality without extra sugar. Read the rest of this entry »

Coconut is divine. It is so flavorful and versatile, at home as a crust on giant prawns or a decadent dessert to end a meal. When it is flaked, sweetened, and toasted it leaves such a distinct mark on any dish it’s become one of my favorite ingredients to use.

When I set out to make my first coconut cream pie several years ago, I struggled with the idea of the baking method it would involve. It seemed that blind baking a crust and cooking the filling separately would be such a task, but that filling and then baking the pie would never result in the creamy goodness I was after. So I researched a lot of different recipes, and created this version which really is so simple and yields a confection worthy of the case in any fine bake shop.

At its most basic level, this dessert is rich vanilla custard with real coconut and a flaky, traditional hand-made crust. If you can get past the initial fear of making your own pastry and just nail down the technique, it will be well worth it, so take this extra step and you won’t be sorry. Cold is the key — cold work surface, clean cold hands (your best tools!), and most of all, very cold butter.

Here’s the recipe: Read the rest of this entry »

The world seems mighty small these days. We can get to almost any corner of the globe in a matter of hours. That’s pretty amazing really, considering how much time and effort it took to get anywhere as recently as the early part of the last century. And as different cultures introduced themselves to each other (or killed each other), we humans began enjoying the diverse foods and cuisines that we encountered.

Today we can experience such an array of flavors — spices, meats, vegetables, fruit, seafood — that it is difficult to think of a time when whole wars were fought over pepper. I’ve had great sushi in Oklahoma and gulped down a cheeseburger in Asia. Even as diverse as our cultural food evolution has been, though, there are a few staples. While eastern Asia harvested their vast abundance of rice, the entire rest of the world found that with some flour, liquid and heat, we could make bread.

Click through for more about bread, with the recipe at the end: Read the rest of this entry »

Datz Deli: Salt of the Earth. Despite what some may say, Datz wants to teach you that “from fleur de sel to kosher, all salts are not created equal.” Learn how to use this humble ingredient to enhance the flavors of every bite you eat. Free. 6 p.m., 2616 S. MacDill Ave., Tampa (813-831-7000)

Z Grille: Offers 1/2 price bottles of wine every Monday, to go with its fantastic food, which you can enjoy on the cheap as well with this new happy hour food deal: Read the rest of this entry »

I get paid to decorate cakes. Or, rather, I get paid to teach other people how to decorate cakes.

A sweet deal, no pun intended. Helping others do what I love is a real hoot, and this summer’s class really churned out some nice ones.

Cake decorating is simple:

You need desire. You need drive. You must be able to focus. And your short term memory must be somewhat intact.

If you have all of the above, you’re good to go. Find yourself a book, a teacher, the necessary equipment, and get started. What you don’t already know, you’ll learn along the way.

You can start with this, the basic white cake recipe for the cakes we decorate in my class. Read the rest of this entry »

I walked into the seafood store the other day to pick up some salmon and tuna for sushi. I can spend hours just looking at fish, whether it be at the pet store, at the aquarium, fishing magazines or when I’m fishing or snorkeling in the ocean. This interest has come in very handy in my career as a chef in getting to know the who’s-who list of fish. The fish monger, however, is not as enthusiastic as I am, and usually becomes quite impatient with my loitering.

I spotted some familiar looking white fish fillets next to the salmon being sold as “swai filets”.  I smiled to myself and wondered, “How many more names can this fish possibly have?” I recognized the fish as basa right away, and asked the fish monger (for my own amusement) to tell me about this fish. Instantly he went on a sales pitch about this new, rare and delicate fish from Australia called swai ,and suggested that (at $5.95 per pound – dirt cheap by Floridian seafood prices – but expensive for what it is) I must try it. I then remarked how “I can get these basa filets in Toronto for $1.99 per pound!” He sunk down for a few moments and then confessed, like every contraband dealer eventually does!

No matter what it is called, this is a white, almost odorless, firm-fleshed fish. It is a beautiful fish to cook with, as its firm flesh holds together well but is yet delicate enough to incorporate into fine recipes. You can fry it, broil it, batter it, poach it, and incorporate it into rice dishes (such as paella), sauces and soups.

Most of it comes from fish farms and rivers in Vietnam, although recently it’s coming from Australia too. But this is the type of fish that I would rather expect to find at a knock-off market in Hong Kong next to the fake Gucci wallets and Armani suits. It is a fish that, due to its wide versatility in texture and taste, can and has been passed off as many other fish and goes by several different names.

I have personally bought this fish as basa, smooth dory, swai, catfish, vietnamese catfish, and pangasius. And I have been the knowing victim of chefs trying to pass it off as snapper, bass, and black cod. I’m sure it goes out in restaurants all over the world, dressed in many different costumes by many different names. It’s the quality of this knock-off that is its saving grace.

When first introduced into the American market, basa threatened to put the catfish industry out of business by being sold as “catfish” to unsuspecting buyers. If the American fish industry hadn’t fought back so swiftly and sternly to boycott the sale of basa as “catfish”, I’m sure they would have been finished. To tell you the truth, I would rather eat a mild tasting, fried basa filet any day than a stringy, mud flavored catfish filet! But I guess you have to defend your local crop – don’t get me started on the blunders we have committed to keep the American corn farmers in business (high fructose corn syrup and ethanol but to name a couple).

In short, I am actually very much a fan of Basa. Not only because of the exciting, undercover, knock-off life it lives, but also because when push comes to shove, its quality is superior to many other fish worth two or three times as much.

So the next time you’re in your local fish store, give basa a try. You won’t be disappointed!

By Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

Every year I obsess about the first few weeks of school. Not because I’m worried about my children’s teachers — I’m more concerned about lunchtime.

My kids do purchase the stuff made at school, but there are also times when they’re fortunate to have fabulous food prepared for them by their gourmet cook father. Yes, we do send leftovers and those wonderful Thermos containers that keep food hot are a godsend. But all too soon there will be days when a quickly made sandwich ends up in the bag.

What causes me consternation is not that my kids will get odd looks when they bring a frittata or curry soup that might not appear on a regular school lunch menu; rather it is that the kind of sandwich my children prefer always gets a comment from a new teacher or another child in class who isn’t familiar with our sandwich filler choices.

My kids like Nutella. For those not familiar with it, Nutella looks like a chocolate spread, so to the untrained eye my children are eating a chocolate sandwich. In these days of hyped up healthy eating-isms, chocolate is bad!

At some point, early in the year, I find myself explaining: Read the rest of this entry »

One of the best things you can do to impart flavor to vegetables is to roast them in the oven on high heat. With just a little salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil, you let the oven do the work and reap the rewards of a great soup base or side dish. It’s a foolproof and healthy way to bring fresh seasonal vegetables into your diet, and can be modified based on your preferences and what is available throughout the year.

This particular recipe is a hearty roasted tomato soup and is a simple and cozy dish with some crusty bread or a grilled cheese sandwich on the side. You can take this method and substitute mushrooms, butternut squash, or a variety of other options for the tomatoes. Feel free to swap out the Romas and vine-ripened tomatoes for whatever looks good at the store or is on hand at the time. The crushed tomatoes used here also help to ensure that a full flavor is achieved even if the fresh ones are lacking, so look for fire roasted if possible to optimize this boost.

Here’s the recipe: Read the rest of this entry »

What do I do with this avocado?

You were walking down the produce aisle and spotted a mob of people busily squeezing a case of avocados. So naturally, you got in there and started squeezing some yourself. You noticed that some were rock-hard, and you put them back. Others were way too soft and smelled a little rank. Those went back too.

But this one, oh yes, this one! Glorious leathery skin, nice heavy weight, and its semi-soft flesh gave in reluctantly to your gentle squeeze. So you whisked it away and gave it a good home on your kitchen table. Now what? Read the rest of this entry »

Seven days of food and drink coverage, shortened to a series of pithy links. Eat it up.

Holley Sinn’s Stinky Drinkers combine alcohol and running!

Chef Gui improves your cooking with ten tips, then helps you with plating techniques!

CL’s Top Chef Masters podcast continues its obsession with sex! And food, I guess.

Lael Hazan loves Israel’s food and restaurant culture!, and relates a perfect day in Venice, Italy (with a recipe for fried zucchini blossoms from her husband Giuliano Hazan).

Rishi Ramkissoon eats and fights his way through Bangkok!

Chef Cristian Ferer tells you five things you may not know about food!

Taylor loves Argentinean malbec!

Bethany Sherwin reviews Avery’s Ellie’s Brown Ale and interviews the founder and brewmaster of Terrapin Brewing!

Erica Miller previews Wood Fired Pizza Wine Bar!

Colleen Sachs makes locally-raised braised rabbit!

You like to cook at home but you’re missing a little something to put you over the edge. You watch the Food Network, read cookbooks in bed, and wish that you had that little extra knowledge to make your cuisine a personal work of art. You admire chefs, and study your plate every time you sit in a restaurant. You wonder how they make it taste and look that way.

With my experience in the restaurant/fine catering business, and now teaching at the Art Institute of Tampa, I think I have acquired a sense of what amateur chefs really need to greatly improve their skills, almost instantly. Now, don’t get me wrong; it takes many years of experience to achieve a sense of artistic wholeness that some chefs have. However, there are a few tips that most people would enjoy knowing.

I’ve been teaching privately for a long time, and home chefs are always looking for the same advice. It’s my pleasure to give you the following 10 tips that will improve your cooking pretty much instantly. Guaranteed. Read the rest of this entry »

Summer is the traditional time to travel, and what could be more fun than traveling with your entire family? OK, I heard that! Traveling with kids can be: exhilarating, anxiety-producing, joyous, excruciating, eye-opening, fearful and downright fun! Recently, my family and I spent a marvelous day in Venice. The other one. The one in Italy.

My family had a mission on this trip: to eat and then go to the great square of Piazza San Marco and play. Venice is overwhelmingly rich in museums, churches and history. Just taking the vaporetto, the city waterbus, down the Grand Canal allows one to see the great Gothic palazzi that fill so many postcards.

Getting lost in Venice is a fabulous experience: Every turn exposes new treasures, from beautiful door handles and exquisite glass chandeliers that often hang from the decorative ceilings on the noble (second) floor, to the beautiful and intricately carved water wells that are the focal point of even the smallest square. Venice is magnificent and, if you can, plan to spend at least four days reveling in its beauty.

We only had one day for this trip. Read the rest of this entry »

When I seek out ingredients, I make an effort to find good-quality local items. Sometimes that means eggs and greens that travel fewer than 20 miles to get to me in the Florida panhandle. Other times, when something is not available on a truly local level, I try to find it regionally (usually Florida, Georgia and Alabama).

It isn’t always possible, but when I have a choice I buy local. That helps the local economy and uses fewer resources to go from farm to table. It also makes me focus on buying items that are in season, which is when they are the least expensive and taste the best.

For me, local buying is easy when it comes to seafood. It’s abundant in the Gulf of Mexico and Choctawhatchee Bay. Local buying has also worked well with cheese, honey, vegetables and meats. One of the meats I buy are ranch-raised rabbits from Seely’s Ark in Ocala. Read the rest of this entry »

When I find fresh seafood, the first word that comes to my mind is paella. This dish brings back childhood memories, and after all these years it’s still one of those foods that I find exciting to cook and delicious to eat.

Paella is a baked (or charcoal-simmered) rice dish typical of Spain. The basic paella would be a white rice simmered in saffron-infused stock, sauteed onions and peppers. From this versatile base people concocted  all sorts of variations. You can add everything from chicken wings to the classic mixture of fish and shellfish to this dish.

In this recipe, I used fresh seafood as the main ingredient. I was out of white rice one day and decided to use jasmine rice instead. To my surprise, it turned out to be a fantastic combination of scents and flavor. Read the rest of this entry »

When I began eating red meat again after a 10-year hiatus, the satisfaction was immediate. I ordered a dry-aged, grilled filet topped with seared foie gras and a cabernet-truffle sauce at Harris’ Steakhouse in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights. All I remember from that epic first bite is taking in the rush of rich flavor, leaning my head back with closed eyes, and falling deeply in love.

Since then I’ve only been brave enough to buy and prepare filet mignon at home on one occasion. I’m afraid that the bar is just too high, and so I leave it to the experts and opt instead for a selection that is more home-cook friendly.

Also known as bavette to the French, flank steak Read the rest of this entry »

(Ed. note: Make it to the end for the recipe. It’ll pay off.)

Like most people, I love a challenge. I especially like them when they’re related to food. That’s why I had so much fun when I was asked to cater a party for about 100 people.

OK, I can handle that. It’s in Canada. I can handle that too. The theme is Caribbean. So far so good. The idea of fresh, clean island flavors begin swirling in my mind: citrus, seafood, sweet, spicy. Of course there has to be a twist: The folks hosting the party and the guest of honor do not like cilantro.

This is a constraint that is difficult to overcome. When I think of the Caribbean, I think of rum drinks and foods with heavy doses of cilantro. Good salsa almost always has cilantro. The flavor is unmistakably bright and unique and screams of steel drum bands and sand in your toes. Leaving it out seems wrong on many levels Read the rest of this entry »

I get tired of seeing people caught up in these diet fads that amount to unrealistic starvation and improper nutrition and an absence of physical activity.  Unless you seriously get into modern pharmaceuticals (another post) you just can`t sit around and lose weight on diet alone. Not healthfully, at least.  It is important to make your diet work for you instead of against you, and one such way is to look for certain power foods  I love supplementing my major meals with small snacks that are high in protein, such as yogurt.  Yogurt, with its fats and proteins is a good way of both staving off your appetite and improving your probiotic health. However all yogurts are not equal. Read the rest of this entry »

Filet was on sale today for $13.99 a pound! I usually buy ribeyes, but this was too good of a deal to pass up.

Before I slapped it in a pan, though, I had to review my rules for cooking the perfect steak

1) Start off with a super hot cooking surface. I get my grill — topped with a cast iron flat plate — to 500 degrees.

2) Always bring your meat to room temperature prior to cooking. This ensures even cooking.

3) Less is more. Drizzle with canola oil, and put a nice thick coat of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper (although, honestly, how many of you have a pepper shaker in your house?).

4) Don’t flip. Read the rest of this entry »

Choice. Angus. Natural. Organic. Humanely raised. Grass-fed. Prime. Wagyu. Kobe. These days, there are more marketing terms associated with beef than ever before, all of which attempt to separate you from your food budget with promises of better quality or better moral character. And it’s important to know what those terms mean, especially if you’re concerned about greening your meat.

But for most folks, taste is the deciding factor. We might buy prime for the intense marbling, or Kobe and Wagyu for the promise of massaged, beer-drinking cows with intensely tender flesh. Grass-fed beef provides more old-school beef flavor, while organic gives us happier — and possibly more tasty — cows.

We cut through the marketing lingo straight to the meat of the matter by pitting six different, readily available, supermarket steaks against one another: Angus from Sweetbay, choice from Publix, humanely-raised from Publix Greenwise, humanely-raised from Whole Foods, prime and American Wagyu from Mazzaro’s.

Each steak, all NY strip, with one exception, was simply seasoned with the same amount of salt and pepper (by size) and each was grilled to medium-rare (although the thickest gave us a few problems). We then assembled a crack team of CL carnivores — foodies and amateurs — to sample the steaks in a blind tasting and rate the meat.

The results surprised the hell out of us. Find out the winner after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

Berbere, Awaze, Mitmita. Spicy words denoting super-spicy flavor. Combine with beef for stove-top success. Host to an Addis native (Addis Ababa, capital city of culture-rich African nation, Ethiopia), I was recently schooled in the ways of preparing Ethiopian-style sauteed meat, or tibs.

Tibs is a fun and easy dish that capitalizes on the magnificence of berbere, a 20-ingredient spice blend, and onions, both found throughout Ethiopian cookery.

My love affair with Ethiopian food began in Berkeley, CA, host to numerous fabulous Ethiopian restaurants. When I moved back to my home state of Florida, I brought a little of that Ethiopian flavor with me, adapting traditional recipes and tastes to fit the “can’t quite take the heat” Gainesville populace. My friendship with Fitsame — my guest — came about as a result of a book I published, Ethiopian-inspired Cooking, a compendium of vegetarian recipes, as well as other publishing interests we both shared.

When she announced a trip to the States this year, I knew I was in for a traditional Ethiopian cooking treat. Yes, we made sourdough Injera flatbread from tef flour. Yes, we dipped into platters of lentils, shuro and potato salad. And yes, we practiced the tradition of feeding a guest three times (so as not to make an enemy, but a friend) by placing a small bit of rolled food into their mouth.

But it was with tibs that I received my proper Ethiopian cooking lesson.

ETHIOPIAN BEEF TIBS

Beef (about 1 pound, free range/organic steak if you can get it, any cut will do)
1 large onion
1 green bell pepper
Berbere spice blend (buy online, at local international grocer, or make a substitute with 1 tablespoon paprika, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 tablespoon ginger powder, 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper, 1 teaspoon dry basil, 1 teaspoon oregano, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon ground clove all mixed in a bowl together)

Cube beef into small cubes, about 1/2 inch square. Marinate meat for a few hours in awaze sauce (1 tablespoon berbere, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon red wine). This is my modification — Fitsame cooked the beef dry in the pan, then added seasoning, but I think this would be a nice addition.

Saute onion, sliced or diced, in enough vegetable oil to cover; tradition is to use 1/2 cup of water, adding more as needed until onion is soft. Cook until softened, about 10 minutes.

Lower heat, add beef and thinly sliced or diced bell pepper, turning regularly, until cooked through, about another 10 minutes. If cooking dry beef, cook in separate pan first, then add to onions and bell pepper. If using marinated beef, go ahead and add to already sauteed onions with bell pepper.

Season again with 1 tablespoon berbere and a splash of red wine. Saute another 5 minutes until liquid from wine cooks out.

Garnish with some fresh sprigs of rosemary and a side dish of awaze sauce for dipping.

Ian Finn, former cafe manager, cookbook author, cooking instructor and food maverick, dishes up a whole lotta amazing recipes here.

I recently read Michael Pollan’s impassioned (and alarming) book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, that explores “our national eating disorder.” It’s difficult to be a proud carnivore (or a fast food eater) after reading it, but somehow I didn’t plunge headfirst into a vat of vegetarianism.

In one section, Pollan insightfully reports about the deplorable living conditions of factory-churned, corn-fed cattle, so shortly after reading it I earnestly sought out humanely-raised, grass-fed meat. I figured if I was going to continue to assert homo sapien’s food-chain dominance, I could at least do it with a clear conscience.

Essentially, grass-fed means the cattle are born, raised and harvested to meet USDA Approved Grass-fed Protocol. This edict forbids the use of artificial hormones, confinement feeding, animal by-products and antibiotics. Turns out, there’s not a helluva lot of places you can buy grass-fed beef in Tampa Bay. In fact, I only uncovered one reliable place: Whole Foods. And Mark Malowski, Meat Team Leader at the Tampa location, reports their three-month-old grass-fed beef program is booming. Their weekly delivery sells out every Monday, the day it hits the cooler. Read the rest of this entry »