Is truffle cheese trite?

Jonathan, my wife's cousin, is what we call a serial obsessive. A few years ago it was old magazines. Then it was Delta blues, and he spent much of his free time collecting records and visiting its places of origins, usually proceeding through the sites at his customarily glacial speed. Then it was cheeses. Then it was mushrooms (the legal, gastronomic kind, as far as we know) and there were wild mushrooms leaving their spore prints on paper all over his very large house. Now it is truffles.

On a recent trip to Italy, he and his wife Debbie visited their daughter in Siena, and went to a number of other places. They visited the Truffle museum (2 small rooms took Jonathan 2 1/2 hours), and bought all sorts of implements, such as the truffle digger, pictured on the top left, which they will almost certainly never use. As we learned, you carry your pig into the woods to the right spots, near oak trees I think, in a wheelbarrow, because the legs of the right kind of pig are so short that you would miss truffle season if you waited for it to get there on its own power. When the pig starts sniffing and digging, you use this implement to get at the truffle which grows about a foot below the surface. Though he didn't buy any truffles, Jonathan also brought a pretty neat truffle shaver, pictured as the bottom of the three, above right. The shaver reminds me more than anything of the clamp that mohels use during a circumcision. (See above right, a more traditional and a more modern version.) There must be some spiritual connection here, I just can't figure out what it is.

What does all of this have to do with cheese, you may ask? A few months ago I had dinner at Artisanale, a restaurant in NY that specializes in an extensive cheese menu with a friend who wanted to order a truffled pecorino (sheep's milk cheese). I vetoed it, calling it "trite." Perhaps it was an inappropriate put down, never actually having tasted one, but I generally shy away from flavored cheesed (the exception being those with herb crusts or wrapped in leaves).

Anyway, after bringing out his truffle instruments, Jonathan demonstrated this weekend that his obsessions were not unique, and that they could meld. So, he brought out a large selection of cheeses, mostly pecorinos from Tuscany (and some cow's milk cheese from Vermont), many in an advanced stage of decrepitude (one had a crust with special mites in it!) that he had brought into the US in a package on which he had scribbled "PASTEURIZED" in case he had any trouble -- he didn't. (Lest anyone think I am being uncharitable here, this impromptu cheese tasting was one of the highlights of the Thanksgiving holiday.) One of the cheeses was a youngish pecorino with black truffles. It is the whitest cheese in the assemblage on the left. As a pecorino, it was quite good, though all of the cheeses were. (I think I passed on the one with the mites.) But the truffles added nothing to, and may have detracted from, what was otherwise a lovely cheese. Trite? Perhaps not the right word, but in general, a cheese stands alone, or not at all.

Sweet potato and pecan pancakes for Thanksgiving morning breakfast

I usually post recipes soon after I make them, so that any of the latest tweaks and improvements can be included. I haven't made this recipe for a few years, but I am posting it tonight since as soon as I make it tomorrow morning , we have to clean up and leave for Worcester, Massachusetts for an intimate Thanksgiving dinner with 50 of our favorite people. My daughter is home, however briefly, for Thanksgiving and I promised her I would make these pancakes, in part as an incentive to get her up and us on the road early. It worked as well for Harry and for Andrew and Bruce, friends who were staying with us. Besides, they are fabulous and worth making even if you don't have a long awaited guest to feed, and they will hold you to the main meal later.

Sweet potato and pecan pancakes

1. Bake a large sweet potato at 350 degrees for about 1 ½ hours or until very tender. Cool, peel and mash. You will need about 1 ¼ cups for the pancakes. This is best done the night before. (Any leftover sweet potato is fine as long as it dosen’t have too much seasoning.
2. Sift together 1 ½ cups flour (you may include up to ½ cup whole wheat if you want, but don’t overdo it along with 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt.
3. Put the sweet potato puree in a separate bowl. Add ¼ cup melted butter (ideally) or vegetable oil, 2 beaten eggs, and 1 ½ cups milk. Stir until you have a smooth puree.
4. Stir the moist ingredients to the dry ingredients, about 1 cup at a time. Don’t over mix or over beat. The secret to good pancakes is that the batter should be lumpy rather than smooth. If it looks to wet, as a bit more flour.
5. Stir in about ½ cup of chopped toasted pecans, and a few gratings of fresh nutmeg. Let the batter sit a bit while you heat your griddle on medium heat. I find nonstick or impeccably seasoned cast iron works best, though I use nonstick since I can never keep my cast iron seasoned impeccably.
6. When the griddle is hot, grease it very lightly (remember, these are cakes and they are baked, not fried, even if it is on top of the stove) with butter or oil.
7. Drop tablespoons of batter on the griddle. Bake until bubbles begin to appear and it looks a little dry around the edges.
8. Flip the pancakes and cook on the other side until done.
9. Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.

My wife claims that her mother used to warm maple syrup and butter together for her brother. My mother in law disputed this until they day she died. (She said that she did it for both of them.) I think that melting the butter in the syrup is excessive -- better let each person to put each on in the proportion they want. However, warming the syrup is a nice touch, and if the butter is at room temperature, it won't cool down the pancakes too much.

You can also make this with sliced slightly underripe bananas, but add a bit more flour because they are a bit moister. I frankly like it better without.

Roasted cauliflower with pasta, roasted cauliflower salad

As long as you are roasting cauliflower, and may have some more on hand, two more recipes. The roasting adds a real depth of flavor that steamed or boiled lacks. My wife hates boiled cauliflower, but practically mainlines it when it is roasted.

Roasted Cauliflower with pasta

1. Roast Cauliflower according to the directions of the last blog posting.
2. Bring large pot of salted water to boil.
3. Heat a few tablespoons olive oil on low heat(I hope I don't have to do a Rachel Ray and specify EVOO......), and add 5-10 cloves of chop garlic, depending on your taste.
4. Saute gently for a few minutes, until they are soft but not even beginning to brown.
5. Add between 2 and 10 anchovy fillets. This is a matter of great argument in our house. Amy wants none, I want 10, so we compromise on two. Add some ground black pepper and a pinch or two of pepper flakes if you like. Saute, stirring, until the anchovies dissolve into the garlic.
6. Add a handful of chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley and stir a bit.
7. Add the cauliflower and saute stirring occasionally, until it is hot. Mash it a bit from time to time as you stir -- this dish is better with smaller pebbles than large florets.
8. As soon as the water boils, add one pound of pasta. Good choices hear are penne, rigatoni, or orrechiette. (Dal Racolto has a wonderful new rusitc orrechiette which would be great.
9. When the pasta is done -- there should be some tooth to it (when we were in Southern Italy there was often some snap to the macaroni pasta!), spoon off a cup of water and drain.
10. Add the pasta to the cauliflower, and mix well to incorporate. Add a little pasta water if it seems dry.
11. Before serving, you have your choice of toppings: nothing, breadcrumbs (unflavored!!!!!!) browned in a little olive oil, or grated pecorino cheese , alone or mixed with a bit of parmiggiano. Though probably not authentic, we often like bread crumbs and cheese together.
12. If there is any leftover, it is great straight from the fridge.

Roasted Cauliflower salad

1. Combine the cauliflower with chopped flat leave parsley, rinsed capers, rinsed and seeded black olives (pre-seeded kalamatas if you are lazy, gaetas or picholines if you are not), and a little chopped red onion or shallot.
2. Dress with olive oil, sherry vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.
3. If you want a slightly Mexican (Veracruzano) flavor, add about 1/2 teaspoon of Ceylon (true) cinnamon and 1/2 to a full teaspoon of rubbed oregano, ideally Mexican. This sounds odd but it works. True cinnamon is very different from the regular cinnamon that we usually get, which is really cassia and better in desserts, Indian and Moroccan food.

Roasted cauliflower and eggs

If you haven't discovered it yet, roasted cauliflower completely blows boiled or steamed out of the water. Instead of mush, you get a beautifully caramelized vegetable. It is also a cinch, can be varied in interesting ways, and combined with eggs in various forms, makes a nice main dish.

All you do is:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Wash the cauliflower and separate it into medium florets. Dice the center stem as well, and if you want it, the thick ribs from the leaves, pulling off the strings like you would do for celery.
3. Oil a large baking sheet or jelly roll pan with a peanut or olive oil, or spray it with oil spray. (If you want to make clean up a lot easier, line it with foil first. Sprinkle it with coarse salt --we usually use Maldon sea salt for this and much else.
4. Put the cauliflower on the sheet, spray and sprinkle with salt.
5. Bake. How long does it take? It depends (on the density of the cauliflower, how hot your oven really is, the type of pan and how crowded it is, etc.), so taste, but about 15-20 minutes should do it, until the cauliflower is lightly browned. If you are going to cook the cauliflower more later and like it on the crisp side, less is more.
   
6. Broil for a about 5-10 minutes more until done how you want it. Well browned is nice, carbonized is excessive.
7. Serve hot, warm, room temperature or cold. It is great dipped into tahini or hummus, and is even better in one of the following egg dishes.

Variation #1: instead of spraying, toss the cauliflower with oil.

Variation #2: after tossing the cauliflower with oil, sprinkle it with curry powder. (I use a sieve for this to make it a bit more even.) After Madhur Jaffrey's Invitation to Indian Cooking came out in the early 1970s, I did not use curry powder for over 20 years. My loss. Although her opposition to prepared curry powder was a useful corrective to what passed for Indian food inthose days, I hope we have all moved beyond the ostentatious attachment to authenticity.

Cauliflower with eggs, North-Indian style

1. Heat 1-3 tablespoons fat of choice in a very large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Peanut or vegetable oil or ghee would be nice.
2. When hot, add 1 tablespoon of whole cumin seeds.
3. When they begin to sizzle and darken a few shades, add a dried red chili or two if you like and then add add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and stir.
4. Add one large onion, cut in half and sliced thin. Salt lightly and cook until soft and at least lightly browned. The more fat, the easier the browning, but you don't necessarily want them crisp here.
5. Add ginger, garlic and green chili to taste. (For example, a 1 inch piece of ginger peeled and chopped fine, 5 cloves of chopped garlic, and a chili or two, seeded if you want the flavor without some of the heat. You can use more, less, or none at all of these).
6. Stir for a few minutes, and if you want add 1 tablespoon ground coriander and 1 teaspoon ground cumin. If you add these spices, you might want to also add a diced tomato or two (canned is better than OK), which will round out the dish and give the spices more time to loose their raw flavor. Stir and cook a few minutes more, lowering the heat so the spices don't burn.
7. Add the cauliflower (or as much of it as you want or can fit) , and if you have any roasted potatoes lying around, add them too (they are worth making for this) and fry together, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are well blended and the cauliflower is hot.
8. Make a well in the center, add a little more of your cooking fat, and add 1-4 eggs, beaten lightly and salted.
9. Cook until the eggs are set, stirring a bit, and then break them up and mix with the cauliflower. Sprinkle lightly with garam masala (Indian mixed roasted spices) or ground roasted cumin.
10. Turn into a serving dish and garnish with a handful of chopped fresh coriander.
11. Serve with flatbreads -- chapatis or parathas best, good pita more than acceptable. This makes a great main dish with a salad (esp a yogurt and cucumber salad). It is often my wife's main dish of choice.

Cauliflower Kookoo (Iranian fritata)

We had this the Friday night for dinner when we were having Persian Jewish food and a number of the guests were vegetarian and therefore missed out on some of the best Chicken with Quince we have ever made (not our skill, but the quince were incredibly flavorful). It is extremely simple.

1. Brown a medium-large halved sliced onion in olive oil.
2. Mix the onion, 6 or seven beaten eggs, and a handful of chopped fresh together. Stir in some cauliflower -- we used about half a head here.
3. Heat a 9 inch nonstick skillet on medium high heat.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Heat until it shimmers.
5. Add the egg mixture and shake the pan to even it out.
6. After about a minute, when you start to see sizzling around the edges, turn the heat to low and cook about 20 minute until the eggs are almost set.
7. Broil 5 minutes to finish cooking and brown the top.
8. Good hot, warm cold, and reheats well.

Shakshuka with Cauliflower

Shakshuka is a Tunisian Jewish dish served in a lot of Israeli restaurants. It is just eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce. We found that it is very nice with roasted veggies, cooked the sauce before you add the eggs. Here is our variation with cauliflower:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil on medium heat in a 10-12 inch skillet with a cover.
2. Add 5 or more cloves of chopped garlic. Do not brown.
3. When soft, as a chopped jalapeno, leaving seeds in if you want it hot and stir a bit.
4. Add a handful of chopped flatleaf parsley and stir a bit, then add 1 tablespoon tomato paste and stir.
5. Add a 15 oz can of chopped tomatoes -- I am partial to the chopped cherry tomatoes from Italy under the del Valle label. Add salt to taste.
6. Cook about 15 minutes until the oil begins to separate, adding a bit of water if it is too thick.
7. Add a cup or two of roasted cauliflower and heat through.
8. Turn heat to medium low, make 4 depressions, and add 4 eggs. Cover the skill. Cook gently about 4 or 5 minutes. The white should still be set but the yolk soft.
9. Serve with pita bread for dipping. (I like thick pita with this -- the kind produced by Pita Express in Brooklyn in excellent here.) It tastes best when you eat it together from the common skillet, but these days of H1N1, you may want to serve it on plates. Use a spatula to take the eggs out so they don't break.

Deconstructed kadaif, reconstructed

I generally don't make dessert, but this is probably one of the world's easiest ones, and it is sublime: crisp pastry topped with sweetened ricotta cheese, date honey, and soft curly halva -- that's it. It is a cinch to put together -- finding all of the ingredients may be another matter, however.

Kataifi is like a finely shredded filo dough, though I think it is produced by and extrusion process rather than by rolling or stretching dough out superfine. It is generally used to produce a lazy cooks baklava that the Greeks call kataifi and in Arabic is known as kenaffy. You just stir melted butter into the dough, layer it with ground nuts, bake it, and then drench it in syrup. This dessert has nothing in common with regular kataifi, and I have only seen it at the Hummus Place, a chain of Israeli restaurants that serve very good hummus, shakshuka, and things like that, but not much else. I worked out my own version, and it is very simple to put together. The hard part is getting the right ingredients. You will need (in descending order of difficulty of finding)

Curly halva: In Hebrew it is something like Halva Mesoselet. The only brand I have every seen is Achva, and I have only found it at Kalustyan's market in the East 20s. It comes in 250 gram packages. I am sure it is available in some Israeli or kosher market somewhere, but I have checked every one that I have passed and have never seen it. Maybe you would do better in Teaneck or one of the Sephardi neighborhoods in Brooklyn. If you find some, pick up a lot, because it is also (too) good by itself with tea or coffee. It is light beige, soft and tender, rather than hard and crumbly, and resembles in shape the the pulled beef in ropa vieja, a Caribbean dish. The texture is similar to that of challah with a fine, long, crumb, pulled into shreds. Do not substitute the Turkish halva called something like Pismaniye, or thread halva. It's texture is more like cotton candy, fun to eat but not right in this dish.

Kataifi: I found the Apollo brand at the West Side Market on 110th st. I am sure it is available in other Greek and Middle Eastern Markets, and in supermarkets owned by folks from that part of the world. It usually comes frozen in 1 pound packages, and you will need about 1/3 of a pound to serve 6 people. Pull off what you need and defrost in a bag in the fridge for about 8 hours. If you forget to do this, take what you need, seal it tightly in a plastic bag, and defrost under cold running water for about 20 minutes or until you can pull it apart.

Date honey: I use Silan brand from Israel, which is usually available around Pesach, and a small jar lasts a long time. You can also use dibs, or Middle Eastern date syrup, or even a dark and aromatic honey in a pinch.

Ricotta Cheese and Yogurt: Although Hummus Place uses ricotta only, I like the combo. It is best with whole milk fresh ricotta and a full fat drained Greek yogurt like Fage, Total or Chobani, but would probably not be too bad with Polly-O by itself.

Superfine sugar: confectioner's and regular sugar won't do here -- it needs to dissolve in the cheese and yogurt mixture.   You can make your own by whirling granualted sugar in an impeccably clean spice grinder.  If you must, you can substitute agave.  The cheese will be darkened somewhat from vanilla anyway.

Method, for about 6 servings:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray or oil a baking sheet or jelly roll pan. If you line it with foil it will be easier to clean.
3. Spray the kataif well and mix, and spread on the pan. Bake for between 12 and 20 minutes. It should darken to a very light brown. Watch carefully near the end to make sure it doesn't burn. ( Do not broil and stay near the kitchen.  Click here to see what can happen if you broil it. ) Set this aside on a large serving platter until almost ready to serve.
4. Beat together about 1 cup of ricotta, 1/2 cup of yogurt, and superfine sugar to taste. Start with about 1/4 cup sugar and more if needed. It should be sweet but not cloying. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla if you want. Set aside in the fridge until it is ready to serve.
5. Just before serving, Spread the ricotta-yogurt mixture over the kataif with a spatula.
6. Drizzle about 2-3 tablespoons of date honey over it.
7. Scatter about 1/3 to 1/2 of a 250 gram container of halva over it, and serve at once. You may want to have more at the table for those who really take to it. (However, a guest once brought our leftovers home and said that his teenage daughter liked it just fine 4 hours later, at 2 a.m.)
8. It can be fun to assemble this at the table.

My favorite joke, and birthday dinners

What is the difference between roast beef and pea soup?

Anybody can roast beef.

This is actually from a Prairie Home Companion joke show, and will make a big hit with boys in the 6 - 8 year old demographic.

However, I am not sure that it is true. I cook all the time, but I have never make roast beef (as opposed to a gedaempfte brust) and it took be almost 30 years to actually bring myself to roast an entire chicken -- see one of my earlier posts on this. A formidable rib roast, cooked in dry heat is something that it may take me another 20 or 30 years to try.

All this is by way of intro of course. Usually I seem to make my own birthday dinners, and since I can be an unpleasant control freak when I enter a kitchen, this seems to make everyone happy. This year, however, I was fortunate to be invited two birthday dinners, both delicious. The one on my birthday itself was cooked by a friend with the same birthday, and featured English-style roast beef, which was wonderful, along with Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes. I have never had Yorkshire pudding before, which is odd for a reformed omnivore. However, it was sublime in the truest sense of the word -- the apotheosis of beef fat. I could hear my arteries harden with each bite. (These are compliments.) I would not try to duplicate either of these, but they were accompanied by some of the best, crunchiest roast potatoes I have ever had, and I will post the recipe as soon as I get my hands on it.

The night before, we had Mexican brisket. This recipe has gone through a few stages of transmission already, and reflects what was served to us. The style is different from that of most of my postings. It comes from Emily as taught to Jay, with my edits. I think that this is the first recipe that I have posted that I have not tested myself, but that will come soon enough. I have put some suggested variations at the end as well.

Mexican Brisket4-5 pound brisket
Salt and Pepper
3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
4 cloves sliced garlic
2 cups Mexican beer (in this case light Dos Equis)
2 cups chicken or beef broth

2 ancho chiles, stemmed seeded and torn into big pieces
2 small cinnamon sticks (preferably the soft Mexican kind)
1 Tablespoon oregano, preferably Mexican
2 bay leaves
1 cup canned tomatoes (Muir Glen diced fire roasted is nice here)

1 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds

1 chipotle in adobo (available canned, I like San Marcos brand)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Salt and pepper the mean and brown in oil in a heavy pot or dutch oven.
3. Add the ingredients garlic through bay leaves bring to boil, transfer to oven and cook for an hour.
4. Add tomatoes, raisins and almonds and cook til tender..another two hours
5. Take out the meat and discard the cinnamon and bay leaves.
6. Puree sauce in batches, return to pot and add the chitpotles to taste.
7. Refrigerate meat and sauce separately overnight.
8. Degrease the sauce, slice the mean, and return to a 250 degree over to warm.
9. Garnish with cilantro and toasted almonds.
10. Serve with rice (night cooked in chicken broth), corn tortillas or boiled potatoes.

Variations

• Add more ancho chiles, up to 4, and toast them lightly in a dry skillet after removing the seeds and the veins, being careful not to burn them, before adding to the pot. They are rich rather than spicy and won't result in a dish that is too hot -- you can control the spiciness with the chipotles added at the end.
• Rather than using a Mexican beer, try it with something Belgian or Belgian style. I would love to try this with Tres Philosophes, a cherry-flavored Belgian style beer produced by Ommegang in upstate NY. I think it would be far better than one of the fruit-flavored Belgian lambics. In this case, I might also substitute dried cherries for the raisins. Although the dish went well with red wine, I would serve this beer if made this way.
• A chopped white onion would not be amiss, and would add flavor to the sauce. Take out the meat and saute the onion it with garlic and spices before returning the meat to the pot.
• This could probably also be made nicely with a chuck roast.
• Leave out the broth -- the beer provides more than enough liquid and more will ooze out of the meat and onions. Maybe add a bone or two if you want the flavor.

Pre-Halloween Dinner, and Salmon with Wasabi Peas

I really wanted to make something that would fit in with a Halloween theme for the Friday dinner the night before, something like sweet potatoes with hijiki seaweed. The color scheme is right -- orange and black, and the hijiki looks like some kind of mysterious vermin. (The guest to whom we ultimately did not serve it said that she loved it, because it looks like worms and tastes like dirt.) At least it seemed like the perfect idea until I picked up a package of dried hijiki and saw the price: $18.94. It seemed like a lot for something that I was sure most of the people at the table wouldn't eat, so I decided to spend the money on better fish. For the seasonal touch, we had monster eyeballs for dessert. (Basically sugared peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate with M&Ms for irises -- the recipe was from Epicurious at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Monster-Eyeballs-355109 which were lots of fun. We sent Maya (now in Wisconsin) a picture, and she was very upset that we made them without her. She taked Halloween very seriously.

For the main dish, we had Salmon with Wasabi Peas, which is always a big hit. This is my adaptation of a dish that some friends of ours serve pretty frequently, which is baked salmon topped with mustard and black sesame seeds, but, as they say in Yiddish without any modesty whatsoever, "fartaytsht un farbesert," or adapted (literally translated into a Germanic language) and improved:

Salmon with Wasabi Peas

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Take a salmon fillet and season it with salt. I usually use a roasted Sichuan peppercorn and salt mix by Penzey's spices, but sea, kosher or even plain salt is fine.
3. Take 1 tablespoon sweet white miso and mash it up well so that it is almost smooth. Mix in 1 tablespoon mayonnaise until smooth. (This amount is sufficient for 1.5 to 2 pounds of salmon.
4. If you want (and you should) wash a small knob of ginger, less than 1 inch -- no need to peel. Grate it on the coarse side of a grater, take the grated ginger in you hand, and squeeze the juice into the miso-mayo mixture. Mix until smooth.
5. Spread a thin layer over the salmon. Don't overdo it, a little is plenty, and even though we are in a recession, you can afford to throw what is left away.
6. Take a handful of wasabi peas and whirl in a food processor (a smaller one works better here) or blender until the texture of bread crumbs.
7. Sprinkle evenly over the salmon -- not to thickly.
8. Bake the salmon for 10-15 minutes. Broil briefly at the end if you want it browner.
9. Serve hot, warm, or room temperature.

Notes

• The better the salmon, the better the dish. Wild Alaskan salmon is in season, inexpensive and was really good. This can also be made with arctic char. You can also use farmed salmon.
• How long does it cook? One day I will devote a blog posting to this question, but the answer is simple. It depends. In this case, on how cold the fish was when it went in the oven, the thickness of the fish, how much coating you put on, and the kind of fish. In my experience, wild salmon cooks faster and is usually somewhat less forgiving than farmed, but tastes better anyway even if it is a little overcooked.
• The inspiration for the miso topping in dengaku, a Japanese grilled tofu dish. To prepare the dish authentically, you make a sort of custard with miso, sake, eggs, dashi and seasonings. I just use miso, mayo and ginger juice and no one notices.
• One variation worth trying (I haven't done it yet) would be to broil the fish with the miso-mayo but without the peas.