Never Mind The Doughnuts, Here Come The Crêpes!

I would have never suspected that tonight I would discover one of the best dishes - nay - best experiences I’ve ever had! After a day of working in the studio, I came home hungry but unenthused to cook. A glance in the fridge didn’t reveal much, and the local Pizza place -The Pizza Foundation…Amazing!- was unfortunately closed. I dug deep into my soul and found what creativity I had left to make something of what was available. I decided that a batch of buckwheat crêpe batter leftover from the weekend would be sufficient. We found the recipe on David Lebovitz’ blog, and it goes a ‘lil something like this:

"Buckwheat Crêpes

18-20 crêpes

It's best to let the batter chill overnight, but let it come to room temperature prior to frying them up. And keep stirring the batter as you go while frying since the flour tends to sink to the bottom.

2 cups (500 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons (80 gr) butter, salted or unsalted, melted
1/2 cup (70 gr) buckwheat flour
3/4 cup (105 gr) all-purpose flour (In France, I use type 65)
3 large eggs

In a blender, or with a whisk, mix together all the ingredients until smooth. Cover and chill overnight.

To fry the crêpes, remove the batter from the refrigerator about an hour before frying. Stir it briskly; it should be the consistency of heavy cream. (If not, you can add a tablespoon of milk.)

Heat a 8- to 9-inch skillet on the stovetop. You can use a real crêpe pan that's been seasoned, but I use a Tefal non-stick skillet which works great.

Drop a tiny piece of butter or neutral oil in the hot pan and wipe it around with a paper towel. (I only do this for the first crêpe.)

Lift the pan and pour 1/4 cup of the batter in the middle of the hot skillet, swirling the pan to distribute the batter quickly and evenly. The pan shouldn't be too hot or too cold: the batter should start cooking within a few seconds, giving you just enough time to swirl it. It may take a couple of crêpes for you to get your rhythm.

After about a minute, run a non-stick spatula around the underside of the rim of the crêpe, then flip the crepe over. I grasp the crepe with my fingers, but you're not me (...consider yourself lucky!) and I'm not you. So use the spatula if you wish.

Let the crêpe cook on the flip side for about 30 seconds, then slide it out onto a dinner plate. Repeat, cooking the crepes with the remaining batter, stirring the batter every so often as you go.

Crêpes should be served warm. To rewarm the crêpes for serving, fold the crepes and put them in a baking dish covered with foil. Heat them in a moderate oven until warmed through."

So I made some savory crepes with manchengo, oyster mushrooms, bell peppers deglazed in sake…..not bad. But then the magic happened. Over the weekend Emily introduced me to the Lemon and sugar method, where by one sprinkles lemon juice and sugar on the crêpe just before serving. This technique gives a swift kick of summer in winter’s ass…it’s fantastic. But looking around the kitchen this evening I realized we had used all the lemons. However, we had two Citron Vert (pretentious French for lime) and I figured I’d try the substitute. My god!.....nothing has ever been more magical. The sensation is beyond words, and my only reaction was to begin jumping up and down singing…ask Emily, it was a hilarious act for her. I refused to settle at my discovery, and decided to push the limits of possibilities. I took a bottle of our homemade vanilla extract and sprinkled a few drops on the surface with the limejuice just before removing it from the iron pan. The result was nothing short of one of the most incredibly experiences I have ever had…I kid you not, this transcended transplendent!

If you are reading this get up and do this now….now I say! Life is too short to miss out on this!

Fresh linguini tossed with butter beans, caramelized shallots, and basil, served in a pool of garlic pea sauce.

Maybe I’m in a green phase because I feel a bit like Andy Warhol right now for making all these bright green dishes. Perhaps I was channeling Warhol from the dead - or someone else for that matter - because I have no idea where this meal came from, I only know that it was fantastic!

So here’s what we did:

Make fresh pasta. I love making fresh pasta, and with our Kitchen Aid mixer it’s sooo easy. We use a version of the Kitchen Aid recipe that we’ve tweaked:

5 medium eggs

3 Tbsp water

2 Tbsp olive oil

3 ½ cups semolina four

1 tsp. fine sea salt

Place ingredients in this order into your mixing bowl: flour, salt, eggs, water and oil. Use your paddle attachment until you have a consistent mix. If the dough mix still looks dry, add a little bit of oil or water, but be careful to not overwet the mix. We’re going for a consistency just like PlayDough. Once you have a good consistency, switch to the dough hook and work into a ball for about 2 minutes. Break up this ball into 8 smaller balls, and that’s what you’re going to roll. We rolled our sheets to a 5 before cutting them.

The sauce. This sauce is simple:

6oz of frozen or fresh peas

1 Tbsp of butter

3 cloves of garlic

1 cup Half & Half

Salt and pepper to taste

Sautée the peas in butter until they are tender. Then add your garlic and stir to prevent burning for about 2 minutes. Adding the garlic second assures you won’t burn it and will give it a stronger taste in your sauce. Then add your Half & Half. Stir and bring to a light simmer. Remove from heat and use a stick blender or a food processor to purée the sauce to a desired consistency (I liked ours a little chunky). Add salt and pepper to taste.

The Beans:

I have no idea where I got the idea to use Butter Beans, other than that they came to me in a vision and I was guided to them in our local grocery store. I used canned Butter Beans, but I’m sure fresh ones are even better. You’ll need:

1 Shallot

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 can of Butter Beans

1 sprig of Fresh Basil chopped or hand torn

Sautée the Shallot in olive oil until it begins to turn translucent. Add your butter beans and sautée for a couple of minutes. When the skin of the beans begin to wrinkle or slightly brown, remove them from the heat and add your basil. Done.

Here’s how I assembled the dish. Boil your pasta for about a minute…just until it’s tender…remember it will continue to cook a bit from the trapped heat once you strain it. Place it in a mixing bowl and add your bean mix. Mix well adding olive oil, as needed, to coat all the noodles. Ladle your sauce onto place and with a set of tongs place your pasta on top. Grate fresh Parmesan on top and serve warm. Serves 2 - 4

West-Texas Food-Off

The other day we had a good ‘ol West Texas cook off -Marfa Style!- with local celebrity chef Rocky Barnett. Here’s a great video of Rocky doing his thing in the Hudson Valley:

Well it all started by asking if we could see Rocky’s Pigs. As you might recall Rocky was mentioned in the New York Times recently for his pig raising: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/travel/22journeys.html

Rocky took us out to his friend Mary Farley’s house where he keeps his pigs.

Mary is a major bird enthusiasts and has a ton of chickens.... well not literally, but there has to be over twenty. We lucked out because a couple of the hens had laid eggs. Mary raises a variety of chickens so the hues of the eggs ranged from toasty browns to subtle shades of turquoise; gorgeous!

Then Rocky took us to meet his little piggies… which are anything but small. When we arrived at their pens they were all foaming at the mouth. Rocky explained to us to not be concerned as his pigs know that when they hear Rocky coming it means food, so they start salivating like a fat kid in Cafe Tartine (That one's for you Eddy). I’ve met some cute pigs in my day, but these pigs were far from cuddly…. that’s good because it means they’ll be easier to eat. After we wrapped up tending the pigs we headed back to his place for a sip of Tequila. Rocky asked us if we’d like to try something different, and broke out a bottle of homemade Kahlua made by local legend “Crazy Johnny.” Johnny is infamous for his vintage Cadillac limo complete with long horns on the hood and murals of the West Texas landscape on the side, and for his home brewed sotol-based absinthe. I had this stuff once and it nearly killed me, so when Rocky broke out the Kahlua I was a bit hesitant. The liquor was fantastic! Made from local mesquite honey and Big Bend coffee, Johnny’s Kahlua kicked the juevos out of the brand name.

After a couple of drinks it occurred to us to use what we had collectively in our two refrigerators and cook ourselves a feast for dinner. Emily and I raced home to raid our fridge, and stopped by the local grocery store to pick up some Dead Guy Ale, Sammy Smiths, and some Early Grey chocolate. We got back to his place and organized the ingredients:

Baby Butter Lettuce, Beets, Roasted Pumpkin and Avacados, Lavender Butter, fresh baked homemade bread, Gruyere cheese, Crème Fraîche, Broccoli, Vanilla Beans, Milk, Fresh Eggs, Cilantro, Bosc Pears, limes, and shallots. To top it off I brought some home made venison sausage that Emily’s father had caught, and Rocky brought some boudin sausage he had just acquired from the eastern part of the state.

Here’s what we made:

Pear Gruyere bruscetta sautéed in lavender butter and vanilla bean.

Quiche with a fresh butter cilantro crust with Gruyere, broccoli, shallots and freshly laid eggs.

Roasted Beet Avocado Pumpkin salad in a balsamic and lime zest vinaigrette with butter lettuce and crème fraîche dressing

Baked sausage with stone ground mustard

And of course, homemade Kahlua with Earl Grey chocolate.

As you might imagine, we went home fat and happy. Three cheers to Rocky.

Communal eating is incredibly important to me. If I could I would do it every night, most Americans do not embrace such a concept. When I lived in Florence I hug out with a group of Tuscan artists, many of whom were just barely getting by financially. Despite their financial difficulties these artists ate like kings because each would bring an ingredient for the feast, and an inexpensive bottle of wine (it's true, you can get good wine on the cheap in Tuscany). Thirty or so artists would show up and we would spend hours eating pastas, salamis, salads, beans, soups, bread...you name it. Furthermore, these meals established a positive community, a group of people who genuinely cared for eachother based on the dialogs they had created over delicious meals. These dinners were the inspiration for the meals Emily and I would later serve for our friends when we lived in the Bay Area, and during special events when we are abroad.

In my opinion the United States is in a spiritual depression, one created through the isolation of consumer culture. This country needs a pick-me-up, and I think a great beginning would be if people could begin to cook and eat together. I'm sure you've had a dinner party before, but do it more often. Ask your friends to each bring what they can or have at home and see what you can create. Find spaces to cook and eat in large numbers. If your kitchen is too small, go on the roof. If the roof is out of the question then find a park, or even a community center. Spaces for creating community surround us, and food is the optimal catalyst.

Kale-Potato-Leek potage

Kale-Potato-Leek potage served around Turnip mash, garnished with roasted kale, caramelized shallots, and crème fraîche.

Believe it or not, Far West Texas is cold in winter, making it a perfect time for a hearty winter soup. My wife and I took a jaunt down to our two local grocery stores to see what was in season.

Kale, Potatoes, Leeks and Turnips were just about the only veggies that didn’t look like they had been as pumped on roids as a 1970s Schwarzenagger. Ironically, what we did with them seems to be more like a dish found in Austria than the high desert of Texas.

My wife, Emily, was inspired by David Lebovitz’ food blog, and his recent entry on potato leek soup.

Being the California boy that I am, I thought the recipe seemed delicious enough but could use some tricked out customizing. The result: Kale Potato Leek potage served around Turnip mash, garnished with roasted kale, caramelized shallots, and crème fraîche.

Recipes:

Potage (fancy name for thick soup):

8 cups of water (you could use chicken stock if you like)

1 bunch of kale de-stemmed and chopped

3 medium leeks

5 red, and 3 medium russet potatoes peeled and cut into 1in cubes

2 tbsp butter (home made is best)

2 bay leaves

1 sprig of fresh thyme

A pinch of cayenne

Salt and pepper to taste

Thoroughly wash and chop leeks. Add leeks and butter to stockpot and sauté on medium heat until soft. Add kale and stir until wilted. Once both your kale and leeks are bright green add your potatoes, water, bay leafs, and thyme. Bring to a boil until potatoes are tender. Turn off heat and remove bay leaf. Stick-blend the potage until you have a creamy consistency. If you don’t have a stick blender a blender or food processor should work, but be careful of the quantity you blend at any one time as you can easily create a mess.

Turnip Mash:

3 large turnips cut into 1in cubes

2 tbsp butter

1 chopped green onion

Salt and pepper to taste

Boil turnips until tender. Remove from heat when done and drain. Place turnips back in pot and add butter. Mash turnips until even and mix in green onion. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish:

Roasted Kale:

4 leaves of kale de-stemmed

2 tbsp olive oil

a pinch of sea salt and coarse black pepper.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and lay flat on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, or until edges of Kale are crisp.

Caramelized Shallots:

2 large shallots cut lengthwise

1 ½ tbsp butter

Place shallots into pan with butter. Cook on medium heat until shallots are translucent with brown edges. Remove from heat when done.

Assembly of potage:

Place a large spoonful of turnip mash in the center of the bowl. Ladle in potage around the mash edges. Drizzle crème fraîche and lay roasted kale on the surface of the potage. Garnish the mash with caramelized shallots. Severe warm.

Serves 6.

Making your own ingredients

Making your own ingredients:

When we tell people we’ve moved to Marfa, Texas, the response is often “Where the F#@%! is that?” And we

tell them it’s about as middle-of-nowhere as you can get. When they ask “How can you live there?” We say quite easily. Marfa has a great community, some of the most important American art of the late 20^th century, and an intimate food scene. Check out this recent article in the New York Times about it:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/travel/22journeys.html

But despite the great food to be found in the restaurants and gourmet grocery store, my wife and I have found excitement and liberation in making our own ingredients.

Making your own ingredients is simple, and easy, and ultimately not very time consuming. Often these concoctions will need to brew for several weeks or months, but in the end you will have a product that will last you a very long time. Furthermore, there won’t be any nasty additives, and more importantly, it will be the fruit of your own labor; trust me, French Toast made entirely from scratch –i.e. we made the bread, butter, and vanilla- tastes better than any French Toast you’ve ever had before!

Making your own ingredients can also be a political gesture. You can choose to buy Organic and Fair-Trade ingredients, and to eliminate the consumption of High Fructose Corn Syrup and other subsidized, corporately farmed goods. Just google "High Fructose Corn Syrup" and you’ll see how evil and pervasive it is.

Some of the ingredients we’ve made are: Hard Cider, Pear Vinegar, Butter, Jam, Vanilla Extract, Mustard, and Worcester sauce.

Many of our friends have been asking us “How do you know how to make all of this stuff?” The answer comes in two parts:

1) The Internet. I LOVE THE INTERNET! I am always amazed at how much I can learn just by googling things. Smoking cheese, brewing sake, and making crème fraîche - think of anything, and you are bound to find it on the web.

2) Saveur Magazine. I know this will come as no shock to any foodie, but Saveur has become the monthly new scripture in my religion of food. I love it, and the website is totally comprehensive.

Ex: Here is the recipe we used to make our own Worcester sauce:

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Worcestershire-Sauce

It’s a bit of a process to undertake, with ingredients being found in only the most obscure of ethnic grocery stores, but the results are fantastic.

I think the most rewarding ingredient to make so far has been Butter. Making butter is a wonderful experience, and there is no comparison to the creamy, additive-free, hormone-free taste of fresh butter.

To demonstrate how easy it is, I’ve made this instructional video for your enjoyment on how to make the crack of cooking:

A great tweak on this recipe is to make Lavender Butter.

The process is rather simple:

The ratio is about 1 pint of cream to 2 tablespoons of lavender. Warm the cream –i.e. don’t let it boil- to a light simmer and add the lavender. Turn off the heat and let the mixture steep for about 10 minutes. Then put the cream in a sealable container and refrigerate. When the cream is cold again you can add it to your mixer to whisk into butter. The difference in this recipe from the one above is the cream will not go into a whipped-cream state. Be sure you add a generous amount of sea salt to taste, as you more than likely won’t be using this butter to cook. We left the flowers in ours for the look, texture, and taste, but you could easily strain off the flowers prior to whisking. This butter is incredible served with fresh baked bread.

So I know what you’re thinking “Great Mike, but where am I supposed to get some of these spices?” It’s true, if you go to your local grocery store they often won’t have many of the spices needed for your recipe, or if they do they’re way too expensive. My solutions:

1) Starwest Botanicals http://www.starwest-botanicals.com/

Starwest is a great site and is where Rainbow Grocery gets many of it’s bulk goods. The only draw back is you might have to order more than you usually would buy at the store. But the price per weight is significantly less than what you will pay in most grocery stores. Invest in Ball jars, and keep your spices in dark dry places; your investment will last you a very long time. You could also look into a resellers license, as this will dramatically cut the cost of your investment.

2) Ebay & Amazon.com

You wouldn’t believe what you can get between these two sites. I get my duck fat from Amazon, and my Vanilla Beans on Ebay. The savings are astronomical!

Buying and displaying bulk spices, and making my own ingredients really transitioned my mentality as a cook. My kitchen feels more like an art studio, laboratory, and wizard’s lair than a post-modern, domesticated site of food production. Nothing lights the fires of passion in the kitchen more than making one’s own culinary potions. I highly encourage you to try it and find out for yourself.

TOOLS

Before I get into the Art & Cooking on this blog, we have to start with some basics: Tools

Tools are a tricky subject; I by no means think the tools make the cook, but they can certainly help. I also think there are a lot of misconceptions about tools, many of which are driven by marketing campaigns and structures of power that really have nothing to do with actual cooking.



Where to buy your tools:

When most people think about buying “nice kitchen supplies” Williams-Sonoma, Crate and Barrel, and Sur La Table often come to mind. While I have shopped at these stores in the past, and all of them have nice things, consumers often pay a "status tax" for saying that they’ve purchased goods from a bougie kitchen store. The fact is some of my best tools were bought in restaurant supply stores, are of a much higher quality, and cost a lot less than what I would have paid had I purchased a similar product at a kitchen store for the social elite. MY ADVICE: Google “Kitchen Supply” or "Restaurant Supply” in your area, and take a field trip to what will become your new favorite hardware store. Another trick is to stay in touch with these places to be aware of what kind of specials they’re having. Often times these stores have difficulty in turning over inventory as quickly as the big chains, and you're bound to get a great deal on kitchen gear almost any time of year. Example: We purchased some All-Clad pots from one of our favorite supply stores, Perfect Edge Cutlery in San Mateo, CA. The store was having an inventory sale and we got all of our pots for half of what we could find at Williams-Sonoma, Macy’s, and even online.

Also, new does not mean better. Other great places to find gear are antique stores, yard sales, Ebay, and Etsy. Why pay $120 for a boring fondue set when you can get a pristine Danish Modern one for less than half? Remember, buy quality but enjoy your tools.

Buy high quality without overbuying:
Post-War American marketing did a great job of creating an identity for the status quo: Two Cars, a Suburban home, DEET protected food, and a full set of pots and knives for the kitchen; We know how wrong they were about the first three, you think it’s any different for the last? Here’s the truth: YOU DON’T NEED A FULL SET OF KNIVES, YOU DON’T NEED A FULL SET OF POTS! BUY ONLY WHAT YOU WILL USE. UNUSED UTILITARIAN OBJECTS ARE MEANINGLESS.

Let’s do a break down:
The average quality knife set costs between $400 - $2000
But you’re thinking “I don’t need fancy!” Fine. The average low quality set costs between $20-$100
The high quality set, well taken care of should last you nearly forever, and the low cost set will probably last you six months…seriously. The fact is one should invest in quality without overbuying. When I started graduate school I swore that I would not poison my body with bad food while simultaneously exhausting my mind during my education. I decided to invest in some cooking gear without breaking the bank. I bought a MAC Santoku and paring knife at a local Japanese hardware store for $80…. and I’ve never needed another knife for anything. Now you tell me, $80 for knives that will last forever and will do anything I need vs. $80 for crap that will die in six months, or $300 worth of knives I’ll never use. Which sounds better? This same rule applies to pots, and almost everything else you could ever use in your kitchen. How do you know something is high quality? I hate to say it, but consumer reviews in quantity almost always tell the truth. See what people are saying on the net, and don’t give in to impulse buys.

NOW….MY FAVORITE, CAN’T-LIVE-WITHOUT, ULTIMATE KITCHEN TOOLS:


1) First and foremost, my Kitchen-Aid mixer.
Anyone who even remotely likes to cook should have one of these and invest in the attachments. I use mine daily, and the cost of the machine has already paid for itself. Seriously for less than the cost of a gaming system that will kill your brain you can invest in a tool that will enrich your soul. As far as attachments go here’s what I have to say: The rolled pasta attachment is a must. Having fresh delicious pasta was never so easy. The meat grinder…I’m not so sold on, but it came with it when I bought it. I wish we had registered for the ice cream making attachment rather than a whole different ice cream maker for our wedding….in my kitchen, one machine is better than two. I’ve also had discussions about what model to buy. We purchased an Artisan mainly because of the color…..retro turquoise is just too cool. However, I think there are many benefits for the higher-end models. If I were to do it again, would I buy a different one? Not a chance! If mine decides to die on me some day, would I upgrade? Absolutely.


2) My Knives.
I have a couple different knives in my arsenal. As I said I have some Mac knives, but my wonderful wife spoiled me when we were first engaged with a Kikuichi. Kikuichi is the Ferrari of cutlery as far as I’m concerned, and like a Ferrari they require regular maintenance. This has actually become a joy, much like the pleasure of washing one’s own sports car before taking a Sunday drive. In addition I also have a monstrous cleaver I bought from the Wok Shop in San Francisco for $20. At the end of the day, if stripped of everything, the only knife I would really miss would be my Kikuichi.


3) My Braun Hand Blender.
I got my first hand blender to make protein shakes when I was 18 (I know….such a meat head! I promise I've changed!). Since then I have used it to make countless sauces, dips, soups, and anything else that needed blending. As a testament to it's quality, I’ve also never needed to buy another one. A hand blender is a must in my book, and cuts out a lot of the mess that can occur with a Cuisinart food processor…but we have one of those too.











4) My Cast Iron Pans.
Gone are the days of carcinogen-lined frying pans, here to stay are the old way of frying eggs. We have two Lodge cast iron pans: a 12” square and a 6” round. Yes they’re heavy, but I’ve used them in fire pits and gas ranges alike, and they only get better with age. Furthermore they’re cheap; we picked up both for $30. We have some Le Creuset and All-Clad, but we use our cast iron 95% of the time.

5) Our Pressure Cooker. We were given a Cuisinart digital pressure cooker as a wedding present, and I didn’t know what to do with it when we first got it. My wife, a devout believer in the powers of the pressure cooker was ecstatic. I flipped through the recipe book that came with it and found a recipe for pasta e fagioli, or as I like to say “Pasta-fazzu!” Of course I decided to use my own recipe, but was simply amazed at what this pressure cooker could do. With almost no work we were able to make an amazing dish, and have created many others since. This 'lil baby will eliminate the necessity for half the things in your kitchen. ARTISTS: Should you find yourself living in a studio without a kitchen, this would be a significant step up in improving your health and time to work over the pharmacy-bought hot plate.


Of course the best thing to do is follow your curiosity into a dish, and try to be innovative in the tools you need to create it. I own a gnocchi board, but I find the back of a fork often works better. I've thought about buying a pasta drying rack, but clothes hangers work just as well for me. In the end it is really about having tools that you will love to use, because after all, the more you enjoy what you cook the better it will taste.