Radio Kitchen

By now, everybody's kids should be well into the routine of being back at school, but that doesn't mean their little feelings don't need to be assuaged.   One of the best ways to put a positive spin on the grind of school is to have a plate of cookies waiting for the kids when they get home.   And one of the classics is the chocolate chip cookie.

The chocolate chip cookie was "invented" almost accidently at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts by Ruth Wakefield.   A bar of Nestsle's semi-sweet cooking chocolate was the first source of the "chips", and Nestle eventually purchased the original recipe.    Today the familiar yellow bag of kiss-shaped chips still carries the original recipe.

Secrets include using first class butter, which you melt before stirring into the batter, superb chocolate for the chips, and letting the batter chill in the refrigerator for a few hours before spoonfuls are dropped onto the cookie sheet.   Cooking time will vary according to chewiness or crispness.   A moderate 375 oven is suggested.   Baking times are brief, no more than about 10 minutes.

Here is Jerry's recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.    In a microwave proof bowl gently melt together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar on the lowest setting until just melted.
3.    Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts.
4.    Chill in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight.
5.    Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.

Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

A few weeks ago we attended an event that featured Maryland Chefs working with Maryland Farmers to produce some pretty incredible food.   The Eat Local Movement is big, and we're glad to say it’s made an impact on how we eat.   Jerry is one to shop local every chance he gets, and he enjoyed meeting one of the chefs who did very well in the competition that was part of the event.   Chef Therese Harding works with Classic Catering People, and she is all about local ingredients.

What she cooked that won her 2nd Place:  beef short ribs in Barolo sauce, fresh corn polenta, tomato marmelade, and arugula pesto crustini.   The short ribs came from Evermore Farms and Albright Farms, two renowned local beef producers.   Veggies originate with One Straw Farm, Maryland's leading organic operation.

Here is a recipe for the short ribs that the Chef sent along:

Autumn Smoked, Slow Braised Short Ribs with Barolo Sauce

The first step is to soak the ribs in a flavorful brine.

For the Brine

2 ½ cups of water
½ cup Kosher salt
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon Juniper berries
1 Bay leaf
6 shorts ribs, about 8 pounds

In a medium sauce pan, add all ingredients and bring to a boil.   Let boil for 5 minutes.   Remove from heat and let cool.
Cover short ribs in brine and let sit for 3 hours.

For Short Ribs and Barolo Sauce

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups yellow onion, diced
1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
½ cup celery, diced
1 16 ounce can of peeled tomato, crushed by hand
2 cups Barolo or full bodied red wine
3 cups chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
1 tablespoon oregano leaves
1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1.  Pre heat oven to 300 degrees.   Heat a large oven proof sauce pan or roasting pan on top of the stove to medium high.   Heat oil, add short ribs and cook until caramelized on one side and turn.

2.   Add onion, carrots and celery.   Sauté vegetable for 15 minutes until they are translucent and meat is seared.

3.  Add wine and cook on medium high heat to reduce and burn off alcohol.   Add chicken stock, canned tomatoes and herbs.   Cover pan with aluminum foil and place in oven.   Cook ribs for 3-4 hours, until meat is tender and pulls away from the bone.

4.  Pass sauce through a fine mesh strainer into a saucepan and reduce over medium heat until thickened, about 15 minutes.

For Pesto di Rucola

2 cups packed arugula
½ cup basil
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup Parmesan
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 tablespoon garlic, mined
sea salt & fresh ground pepper

Add all ingredients to a food processor and chopped until blended.  Serve on a crostini.

Fresh Corn Polenta

2 ears fresh corn off the cob
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup polenta
¼ cup cream cheese
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.   Add corn and sauté until it browns at the edges.   Then add stock and bring to a boil.   Turn down heat and whisk in polenta and cook until thick, about 4-5 minutes.   Stir in cheeses and add salt to taste.

Tomato Marmalade

1 cup plum tomatoes, diced and seeded
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 cup shallots, diced
1 tablespoon balsamic syrup
¼ cup pepperdews, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

1.  Preheat oven to 310 degrees.   In a small bowl, toss plum tomatoes with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and brown sugar.   In a separate small bowl, toss shallots with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

2.  On a sheet pan, slowly roast the tomatoes for 40 minutes.   On a separate sheet plan, slowly roast the shallots for 30 minutes.  The vegetables should be translucent when finished. 

3.  Cool vegetables to room temperature.   Add 1 tablespoon of balsamic syrup to the shallots.   Combine the shallots and tomatoes, season with pepperdews, salt and pepper to taste.

To make Balsamic Syrup, makes 1/3 cup - 1-cup balsamic vinegar

Pour vinegar into a small, heavy, non-reactive saucepan.   Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce by 1/3, about 14 minutes.   Cool in the pan.   Pour into a small glass jar, cover and store at room temperature.

To Plate

Start with a layer of polenta on the plate.   Place a serving of ribs on top.   Add your desired amount of sauce.   Finish with a side serving of Pesto di Ricola and Tomato Marmalad.

Football season is in full-swing, and a lot of us are looking for ideas to help feed that hungry huddle of fans that keep coming over every Sunday afternoon.   One of the most popular new foods is actually an updated variation of an American classic, and that would be the slider.   As Jerry can attest, sliders are showing up everywhere from street corners to the corner bar, to fine restaurants who want to have a little fun.

Exact origins are known:  The White Castle chain of restaurants, founded by Walter Anderson.   The 1906 novel "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair revealed grossly unsanitary practices in the American meat industry.   Gound beef in particular took it on the chin.    Anderson knew that if he could change the image of ground beef (which was very cheap), and feature it in a hyper-sanitary setting, he could make money.   So, he started White Castle in 1921.   His featured item was a 2 1/2" square burger on an equally small bun that he nicknamed the "slider".   You were encouraged to buy them by the bag, a half dozen at a time.

Today, the concept of the small burger has been revived with a vengeance.   Virtually any kind of protein that can be ground up and formed into a patty has staked a claim.   Ground pork, ground lamb, ground turkey, even ground tuna have been fashioned into sliders.   Complimenting the patty are a wide variety of condiments and flourishes limited only by imagination.

The White Castle method for cooking the thin 2 1/2" patties was to cover the griddle with a layer of moist raw onion.   As the onions cooked, the beef patties were placed on top of them to steam.   In addition, the bottom of the roll was placed face down to get that special treatment.

In Baltimore, we had the Little Tavern chain which opened in 1928.   My father somehow secured their secret slider recipe (or so he said) which makes sense and tastes authentic.   He used good ground beef, finely minced onion, garlic powder and a dash of Worcestershire Sauce.   I make them and serve them on a special Martin's Potato Roll that have been designed for sliders.   I like to top mine off with slices of tomato and cheese...and lots of catsup, of course. 

Here's a short list of some great slider ideas, all using the basic beef patty:

-bacon-guacamole
-sweet potato and caramelized onions
-bacon, garlic mashed potatoes and grilled peppers
-horseradish and grilled asparagus tips
-gorganzola and roasted portabello slices
-feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes and tapinade

Over the last several shows we've been talking about two of my favorite hand-made condiments, pesto and aioli.   Today we're going to look into the world of fancy store-bought condiments, which is the province of our guest, Adam Borden.   He has filed this report.

Ketchup

Ketchup, now the preferred American spelling to the British catsup, “was used on the British table long before tomatoes arrived there,” says the New York Times.   “It was described in print as early as 1690, having made its way to Europe either from China (the Cantonese ke-tsiap means, roughly, “eggplant juice”) or from Malaysia (where the Malay word kecap referred to fermented fish sauce).   Salty Indonesian soy sauce, tart tamarind chutneys and vinegary English sauces made with unripe walnuts have all been called by the name.”  Although we think of ketchup today as made with primarily tomatoes, the historical antecedents were made with many other ingredients including fruit, mushrooms and oysters to name a few.

Modern gourmet ketchups differ from the mass produced supermarket versions in several important ways.   Mass ketchups use a tomato concentrate – tomatoes that are strained without the skin, drained, dehydrated and then rehydrated – while specialty ketchups typically use crushed, whole tomatoes.   Another important differentiator is the sweetener.   Most specialty ketchups use brown sugar, white sugar or agave syrup while mass ketchups typically contain high-fructose corn syrup and in significantly more quantity.   Lastly, specialty ketchups often use apple cider vinegar, which imparts a tarter flavor than the white vinegar used in industrial ketchups.  Heinz and Hunt’s combined control 77% of the $400 million US ketchup market, while specialty ketchups amount to likely less than one percent of total sales.

Modern gourmet ketchup seems to come in two flavors: traditional tomato or spiced. 

Sir Kensington’s (http://shoppe.sirkensingtons.com/) is the premiere gourmet ketchup on the market.   Its traditional ketchup has a chunky texture with a strong tomato aroma and sweet taste.   The company’s spiced ketchup is also excellent, with a smoky adobo (roasted jalapeno) flavor and darker color.   Completely different is the Sweet Orange Chili ketchup from Dulcet Cuisine (http://dulcetcuisine.com/index.html).   This sauce has a slight heat with strong orange notes that would pair well with roast pork or duck.

Mustard

The name mustard comes from the Latin words “mustum ardens”, which means “burning wine” and refers to the flavor created by the spicy heat of the crushed mustard seeds mixed with the juice of unfermented wine grapes.   Although mustard is frequently associated with France, 90% of world mustard seed production comes from Canada and the US.   Americans’ taste for yellow and Dijon mustards are evolving into coarse, spiced mustards with world flavors.

Two superior mustards also come from Dulcet Cuisine.   Their Moroccan mustard is a smooth grind and has a balanced heat on the back end while their Creole mustard is coarse and chunky with a startlingly spiced complexity.

Soy Sauce

Soy sauce was introduced to the US about 50 years ago post-WWII with the return of US troops from Japan and with the arrival of Japanese cuisine in Southern California.   It is made by fermenting soy beans and wheat with salt and filtered water.   While most mass soy sauces are aged for several months, Bourbon Barrel Foods (http://bourbonbarrelfoods.com/) ages its soy sauce for 12 months like other Japanese premium soy sauces.   The product is aged and fermented in used bourbon barrels with the same limestone filtered water preferred by bourbon makers.   While large makers produce hundreds of thousands of gallons a day, Bourbon Barrel bottles just 2,500 gallons a year.   Their sauce is thick and smooth with not nearly the saltiness of more conventional products.

Relish & Pickles

Most Americans are used to a sweet cucumber relish which is made with high-fructose corn syrup and guar or xanthan gum as a thickener.   American relish is frequently mushy, soupy and a muted green color.   McClure’s Pickles (http://www.mcclurespickles.com/) has a Garlic Dill relish that stands in stark contrast.    It is bright green in color with sweetness replaced by a tangy, crunchy bite.   The company presses water out of the cucumbers to reduce the volume and uses vinegar to acidify the pickle instead of fermentation.

Pickles are also usually thought of as green and sweet.   Pickles, however, are primarily a preservation technique rather than a technique that can be applied to any number of raw materials, not just cucumbers.  

Boat Street Pickles (http://www.boatstreetpickles.com/) combines sweet and savory ingredients in very unusual combinations.   Its hallmark product is pickled figs, or black mission figs cooked down in red wine, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, sugar and salt.   The figs are tangy, savory and sweet all at once, a perfect complement to roasted meat or creamy cheeses.