Tuesday, October 30, 2001
Lamb Stew alla Romana
This following lamb stew is a perfectly written recipe. You can quibble, perhaps, with the flavoring, although I wouldn’t. I thought the taste was perfect, too. It is strong with garlic, rosemary, and sweet-hot red pepper flakes. What I mean is that the recipe is written precisely, tightly, and leaves no questions about what to do when. It is from the new and second Union Square Café cookbook, Second Helpings, written by the café’s chef-partner Michael Romano and restaurateur-partner Danny Meyer. [more]
Monday, October 29, 2001
Final New Links List
Here it is: The final installment of our new links. Look for all these websites to be added to the “Links” section of The Food Maven very shortly. I will continue to surf the web in search of things that might be of interest to you. [more]
Friday, October 26, 2001
Yet More Links: Interactive Restaurant Sites
Here is the next to final installment of new links, four interactive restaurant websites. That is, each one of these allows you to participate with your opinions and experiences. Note that the Zagat Survey is one of these – you can participate on line. And one of these links is from the exisiting “Links” section of The Food Maven. [more]
Thursday, October 25, 2001
Wine Buy: Ca’ del Solo Big House White
Legendary winemaker Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vinyard is known for his crazy sense of humor. His levity is apparent even before you open a bottle of his newest white wine, Ca’ del Solo Big House White. In this case, “Big House” refers to THE big house … yes, as in prison. The label bears a funny cartoon of a man trying to escape from jail, presumably carrying a bottle of this unfunny wine. That is to say the jest ends as soon as you pour this wine and realize that this five-grape blend mean business. [more]
Tuesday, October 23, 2001
More New Links: Mail Order Italian Foods
Here are two more links that eventually will become permanently available on the “Links” section of this website. They are both invaluable sources for Italian foods by mail. Arthur Avenue Specialties provides locally made artisinal products. Esperya provides artisinal products made in Italy. Enjoy! [more]
Monday, October 22, 2001
New Links: Virtual Newsletters
I have been busy coming up with a new list of favorite websites to link you to through The Food Maven website. Let me remind you, there is already a links section on this site. It’s just that it has been a long time since I added connections that I have discovered after that list went on line. My trusty webmaster, Ben McCullough, has been very busy lately (I am not his only client), so it make take some time before he gets to put the new links in the links section. Meanwhile, I thought I would tell you about them through The Maven’s Diary. Here are three for now. Tomorrow I’ll post another three. [more]
Saturday, October 20, 2001
Carole Walter's Apple Pie
Carole Walter is the best baking teacher I know, and she writes the most precise, hold-your-hand recipes. Not to mention delicious. Getting into one of Carole’s classes may not be possible for everyone. She teaches mainly in New Jersey at the four Kings Cookingstudios – in Bedminster, Verona, Hillsdale, and Short Hills – where she offers a certificate program, as well as single-subject classes. You might also catch her at other schools in the New York metro area, or even on the road around the country. [more]
Thursday, October 18, 2001
All-American Beef Stew
I’m in the mood for stew. (Is that a song title? It should be.) It’s about the weather, which finally last night took a final turn toward fall. And it’s about the gravy -- on potatoes or macaroni or rice or polenta … or biscuits, or to dunk into with crusty bread. Yes, that’s it. It’s about gravy and starch, although I like the meat well-enough, too. [more]
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Quick Pasta Sauces
Yesterday, Monday night, I taught at a la carte, Polly Talbot’s cooking school in Lynbrook, Long Island. It was a class on Italian-American dishes and one of them was Penne alla Vodka, which was actually invented in Italy in the early 1970's as a promotion for hot pepper-flavored vodka, then was quickly abandoned on that side of the Atlantic at the same time that it was embraced here. It is nothing more than a chili-flavored tomato-cream sauce with vodka. Indeed, the vodka is not even necessary. Vodka, as you may or may not realize, is, according to U.S. law, tasteless, colorless, and odorless. One can easily make the same sauce without any vodka. (Please note: There is a tiny error in the recipe as it appears on this website and that I don’t, at this time, have the ability to correct. The garlic should be minced, which is not noted. Also, I would add the hot pepper with the tomatoes, not later, as is indicated.) [more]
Thursday, October 11, 2001
Hot Chocolate Earthquakes
Leslie Glover Pendleton wrote a marvelous book a few years ago, One Dough, Fifty Cookies: Baking Favorite and Festive Cookies in a Snap. It’s a small, $13 book ($10.40 on Amazon), and perhaps the best value in a cookbook you will ever see. Actually, given the pricing on cookbooks these days, I guarantee you it is the best value in a cookbook you will ever see. [more]
Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Wine Buy: Vermentino di Sardegna (and a reminder)
First, a little business before pleasure.
I’d like to remind everyone that this coming Saturday, October 13th , I, along with my friend Michele Scicolone, will be appearing at the Barnes & Noble at 1 Campus Road on Staten Island (718-447-7501) at 1 p.m.. I will be discussing my three cookbooks, especially Naples at Table. Michelle will tell you some stories about her many books on Italian cooking, including her latest, Italian Holiday Cooking. We both will, of course, be available to sign any and all of our books. We hope to see many of you there. [more]
Tuesday, October 9, 2001
Pumpkin Seed Oil
A few weeks ago an Austrian woman called my show and asked where she could buy “pumpkin seed oil.” Funnily enough, I knew the answer. You see, Becky Bennett, my producer, Sean, my assistant, and I had just tasted pumpkin seed oil for the first time at the New York Fancy Foods Show earlier this summer. We were amazed when we dipped our bread into this deep, rich flavorful oil. Who ever thought pumpkin seeds produced such a fine product? [more]
Monday, October 8, 2001
Mechado
Joan Hamburg, my colleague at WOR, First Lady of New York radio, my “radio wife” with whom I broadcast the “Weekend” program on Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon, is probably a good cook. At least she says she is. I can testify that she makes great chicken salad and that she roasts a great turkey, but, truth be told, the only times I’ve been invited for dinner it was catered. I can say that she knows how to pick great caterers. [more]
Friday, October 5, 2001
Michele Scicolone's Italian Holiday Cooking
Michele Scicolone is one of my favorite cookbook writers. Her recipes are always precisely but tersely written. You never have any doubt about what to do or how to do it. They are for the food I love the most, which is, needless to say to readers of this website and listeners to my radio program, Italian. She even seasons it the same way I would. And she is prolific. If I wanted to do, I could cook from Michele’s books and never need another recipe. Well, almost. In any case, she is always turning up another treasure – like the simple pasta recipe that follows. [more]
Thursday, October 4, 2001
Wine Splurge: Tocai Friulano
The elegance of this week’s Wine Buy begins even before you open it and you admire the graceful line of its long-necked, dark-green bottle and note the carefully designed craft-paper brown label. Then you note it’s gorgeous green-tinged straw color, the aroma of nuts, the citrus and pear flavors. From first look to finish it seems to be a wine in an Armani suit. [more]
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Peperonata: A Mess of Peppers
It’s still sweet pepper season, until about the end of the month. They are red, yellow, and orange and were piled very high at the Greenmarket on Saturday. I haven’t noticed many purple peppers this year, but they turn dark green when cooked anyway, which is not so pretty. [more]
Monday, October 1, 2001
Roasted Red Pepper Risotto
Have you ever had a food craving that seems to come from out of nowhere? Usually I am a pasta person. Even when I am visiting a risotto region of Italy, a rice-growing region like the Veneto, I am torn between ordering pasta and ordering risotto. I think I should eat risotto because it is a specialty of the area, but usually I would rather eat pasta. [more]
