Good Food
Cheap Wine for Celebrations; Holiday Cookies; B-che de No-l; Food From Around the World;
Best New Gift Cookbooks for 2005Harry Orlove has some wine suggestions so we can entertain without breaking the bank. Abby Dodge tells us how to take care of our holiday cookies. Jean Fran-ois M-teigner gives us the French take on yule logs and we-ll travel to kitchen tables around the world with the authors of The Hungry Planet. Ellen Rose tells us which books to give as holiday gifts and Will Clower updates the Not One Ounce campaign.
By Evan Kleiman • • 1h 0m ListenLaura Avery speaks with Laury Spensley of Cal Pecans about her great gift bags for the holidays. In addition to her regular nuts which are great for snacking and baking, she has cute gift bags for $5.00 that include pecans in the shell and a nutcracker for cracking.
Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms about his Technicolor cauliflower. He offers purple Graffiti cauliflower which is on the slightly spicy side, an orange Cheddar cauliflower which is sweet, and two white varieties: Romanescu which is an heirloom with a nutty flavor, and Jesi, which has a slight lime flavor. Romanescu and Jesi both make wonderful soups. Alex also has his "practically coreless", sweet Nantes carrots at the market this week.
Holiday Gift Ideas from Good Food
Local Options in Southern California:
Flor Morena 2742 Rowena Avenue (at Rokeby Street), Silver Lake, CA 323.655.3567
Sweetcake 5825 W Sunset Boulevard, Suite 112 Hollywood, California 90028 323.960.0738
Darby Aldaco makes the most beautiful small bite desserts. Each one is like a small gift that explodes in your mouth with flavor. Holiday selections include miniature spicy pumpkin cheesecakes with candied cranberries, gingerbread cupcakes filled with tangerine pastry creme, red velvet cakes and cupcakes, filled with white chocolate cream cheese butter cream. Order a Holiday Sampler so you don't have to decide.
Fraiche 8631 W. Third Street Los Angeles, CA 90048 888.654.7002/323.655.2880
Joan's on Third 8350 W. Third Street Los Angeles, CA 90048 323.655.2285
Deluscious Cookies 829 N. Highland Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90038 323.460.2370
Boule 420 No. La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048 310.289.9977
Valerie Confections
Valerie Confections.com 888.706.1408
Local shops where goodies can be found:
Cheese Store of Silverlake
Cheese Store of Beverly Hills
Artisan Cheese Gallery
Rechutti Chocolates
Wilbur chocolates
Chocolate Turtles from Sunnyland Farms 800.999.2488
Western Sky's Jerky Company
Bacon
Niman Ranch bacon at Trader Joes. But friends and relatives without this option might find this bacon a real treat. Bacon-of-the-Month Club
www.gratefulpalate.com Just like is says, bacon every month! -All different kinds of small-producer styles of bacon. This unique gift will never be forgotten. We also like the "Sow" and "Boar" t-shirts available here.
Honey Sampler Marshall's Farm Honey (Helene Marshall) 800.624.4637
Mars Cheese Castle - Kringle pastry
Lee Brothers' Boiled Peanuts
Williams-Sonoma - Croissants
The Thermapen My friend Sam, on whom I base most food-related judgments, highly recommends this item. -He says it is many orders of magnitude better than any instant read thermometer, ever. -It makes the other 12 thermometers he's owned look like pointy sticks for making holes in food.
Cookie Scoop Sam says he gives these as gifts and people laugh at him. -They call him a silly gearhead. -"Who needs a special scoop for cookies?" -And then they use it and realize that, yes, Sam is wise in the ways of food. -He claims that by using a cookie scoop, he can make chocolate chip cookies in less time than it takes him to go to the store and buy them, though this is not scientifically tested.
Spoon Shaped Spatula available at Chef's Catalog, as well as many other retailers. High heat resistant silicone variety is great.
Silpat Mat also available at Chef's Catalog and many other retailers. A great invention for baking.
Surfas (the new and improved store) 8777 W. Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232
For that special friend a knife from Korin.com
Abby Dodge, contributing editor of Fine Cooking magazine and author of The Weekend Baker, is here to tell us that it's time to cover every surface in our kitchen with holiday cookies.
Fine Cooking, or try this Gingerbread Biscotti recipe she shared with us.
Gingerbread Biscotti
Yields about 24 biscotti.
10 ounces (2 1/4 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 ounces (1 cup) pecans, coarsely chopped
4 ounces (1/2 cup) lightly packed dried apricots, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup molasses
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest (from about 1 medium naval orange)
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 350 F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment.
Dr. Will Clower tells us that the "Not One Ounce" campaign now has over 700 members. Although the focus is not to gain any additional weight through the holidays, members have already lost a total of 216 pounds since October.
Jean Francois Meteigner, chef/owner of La Cachette gives us an idea of what France is like at Christmas time and gives a recipe for making a classic buche de Noel.
Buche de Noel Biscuit
4.5 oz. Sugar
4.5 oz. (Cake Flour)- Sift two times
5 Egg Yolks
5 Egg Whites
Whip the egg whites adding the sugar at the end.
Beat the yolks and then add to the egg white mixture.
Add the sifted cake flour to the above mixture.
Lay parchment paper on a baking sheet and put the above mixture on the sheet.
Bake in 450-degree oven for 5 to 10 minutes.
Punch
7 oz. Sugar
1/2 Cup of water
Dark rum or coffee liquor
Boil sugar and water together and add the alcohol.
Moisten the biscuit with the punch
Fudge
Boil 1 cup of cream
Add 4 oz. Chocolate
Whisk together until melted.
Put in stainless steel bowl and let cool down until creamy consistency. It should be ready to put on log.
Chocolate Mousse
7 oz. Bitter chocolate cut in very fine
3 Tbsp. Coffee
1/2 Cup whipping cream (whipped and put aside)
1/2 Cup Egg whites
2.8 oz. Sugar
Whip the cream until very stiff and put aside (outside)
Melt chocolate in double boiler with coffee put aside to cool down.
Whip the egg whites and add the sugar to soft peak.
Add the chocolate when almost cold to the whipped cream and foil the egg white to mixture.
*Assembly*
Note: Make chocolate mousse the day before so it will be easier to roll.
Harry Orlove of Cheap Wine Club, offers some holiday choices for entertaining. He suggests a few wines that the wine aficionados amongst you might disregard because the label seems too familiar, but he says the choices he's offering are truly delicious and won't break the bank.
Here are the wines he recommends:
Sweet dessert wine 1999 Anselmann Ortega Trockenbeerenauslese
Cristallino Cava Brut and Brut Rose'
Barefoot Cabernet Sauvignon
Walnut Crest Chardonnay
David Frost "Jack Nicklaus" Sauvignon Blanc
Firestone Riesling
Rex Goliath Pinot Noir Central Cost
Ravenswood Zinfandel "Vintner's Reserve"
Vina Alarba Old Vines Grenache
Photographer, Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio, have been looking in people's fridges all over the world. From one family living in a refugee camp in Chad to another family they solicited from a street corner in Cuernavaca, Mexico, they managed to learn what people put on their tables across the globe. Loaded with spectacular photographs and sensitive writing, The Hungry Planet is a phenomenal work and it is a powerful assessment of how our global relationship with food is undergoing tremendous change.
Ellen Rose, owner of the Cooks Library in West Hollywood, drops by to tell us the best books we should wrap and put a bow on this season.
Arabesque by Claudia Roden
Artisanal Cooking by Terrance Brennan
Bones by Jennifer McLagan
Boulevard by Nancy Oakes
Cheese: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best by Max McCalman
Don't Try This at Home by Kimberly Witherspoon
Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater
Matzoh Ball Gumbo by Marcie Cohen Ferris
The Arab Table by May S. Bsisu
The Seasoning of a Chef by Doug Psaltis
Cook's Library, 8373 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048, (323) 655-3141
