Sweet Remembrance of Andy Griffith

Posted by spoonandshutter on July 11, 2012
Posted in: Kitchen. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

Loaded Goat Blueberry Cheescake

Yellow cake mix crust

From Shutter:  Normally Spoon does the writing here but this time I am taking the lead. First, she is a bit busy with a new venture she is involved in, Eater Maine, part of the Eater family of websites.  Secondly, she obviously had better things to do with her time other than spending countless hours watching the same episodes, over and over of The Andy Griffith Show.  Me, not so much.  I had a childhood misspent watching way too much TV and as an adult I say thank god for TV Land.

When the news broke on July 3 that Andy Griffith had died, I like so many others, started thinking of America’s favorite sheriff.  Yes, Andy had an amazing career on stage, movies, and TV with many different characters.  We could probably talk for hours, if not days, as to his best character or best performance.  But for me, it was his role as Sherriff Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show.

I am embarrassed to say (OK, kind of proud) that within 20 seconds or so into any episode I pretty much know which story line it is.  And still, after numerous viewings of every episode, I never tire of the show.

So, like many others, I was saddened at Andy’s death. I remembered that in addition to the Mayberry board game – yes someone made it – I also have a copy of, “Aunt Bee’s Delightful Desserts” by Ken Beck and Jim Clark.  I don’t know how many copies of this were sold, but I am proud to own my copy.  We decided to pay tribute to Mayberry with a recipe from this book.  We chose “Loaded Goat Blueberry Cheesecake. Fans of the show may remember episode 18 from Season 3, “The Loaded Goat”.  This is the episode that has a blasting crew putting in a new highway.  When a farmer brings his goat to town, the goat gets away and apparently eats the dynamite. As hilarity continues at the end, the goat was not harmed.

So sit back, enjoy this dessert, and maybe whistle a bit.

Loaded Goat Blueberry Cheesecake

NOTE: The original recipe called for a can of blueberry pie filling.  Spoon just could not do that so she made the desert with fresh blueberries.

Serves 12

Crumb mixture:

1 box yellow cake mix

1/3 cup butter, softened

Filling:

3 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla

Topping:

2 cups sour cream

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350.

For crumb mixture: mix cake mix butter, and 1 egg (I used my Kitchenaid stand mixer) until crumbled. Press lightly into a 9 x 13 baking dish.

For filling: beat 2 eggs, 3/4 cup sugar, cream cheese and 2 teaspoons vanilla until smooth. Pour over crumb mixture.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set. Top will just be starting to brown very lightly at the edges and the middle will not be jiggly.

While the cake bakes, combine blueberries and 1/4 cup sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar; turn heat to low and cook for about 5 minutes or until some of the blueberries have “popped” but most remain whole and the mixture resembles blueberry pie filling. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

For topping: mix sour cream, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon vanilla. Spread over the cheesecake and cool completely. Spread cooled blueberry mixture over the top and refrigerate overnight before serving.

Photo Of The Week: Pizzaiola At Porta Restaurant, Asbury Park, NJ

Posted by spoonandshutter on June 12, 2012
Posted in: Photo of the Week. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

From Shutter: This week’s photo of the week is of Freddi Vilardi, Pizziaiola of Porta Restaurant in Asbury Park, NJ.

I recently was doing a story for The Record, of Bergen County, NJ, As regular readers of this blog know, among her many hats, Spoon is the food editor there.  Most of my work with The Record is for a column she and I do on new cookbooks and a recipe.  However this assignment was on new dining spots along the Jersey shore.

This photo is an out take from the shoot at Porta, a funky, hipster (in all the good ways) restaurant that specializes in amazing Neapolitan pizzas.  It’s more Portland, Maine, than typical Jersey and I fell in love with the place as soon as I walked in. After shooting the food, I decided I needed to shoot a series of photographs of Freddi Vilardi.  As I looked around for locations in this cavernous eatery, full of great quirky decor, I saw the large American Flag.  I immediately thought of one of my idols, Gordon Parks and his famous photo of the African American janitor from 1942 titled, “Janitor in front of the flag”.

I would never compare myself to brilliant Gordon Parks, but I find inspiration and aspiration from his work.  So, instead of a broom, I had Freddi with a pizza peel with the flag in the background.

Unlike many of my photos I feature as “Photo of the Week” that have lots of technical and lighting details and information to share, this one was pretty straightforward.  It was simply my trusty Nikon D700, 28-70 f/2.8 lens and the ability to shoot at ISO 1200 with an auto white balance.  I could have set up lighting but, I wanted to emulate my inspiration from Gordon Parks and went with available light.  Although my camera holds up well at higher ISO’s I did not want to risk any noise, especially in the shadow detail.  So at f/2.8 and 1/20th of a second I shot away.

Freddi was kind and patient, despite having to get to a meeting and get ready for evening service.  I wanted to be both respectful of her time, and drawing inspiration from Mr. Parks, I acted as if I was shooting file and fired off only 6 frames.

The resulting image above is my favorite from the small series.  The image is pretty much straight out of the camera with the addition of a few post production tweaks in both Photoshop and Lightroom. After importing the images from my memory card into Lightroom, I adjusted my color balance to add some warmth, opened up the shadows a bit.  I then exported the images and opened them in Photoshop where I adjusted the curves, retouched any small issues, and this is the end result.

On June 17th the story about new restaurants along “The Jersey Shore” (please ignore any inference to the god forsaken show with the same name), will be in The Record Travel section.

Cherry Oh Cherry Oh Baby!

Posted by spoonandshutter on June 7, 2012
Posted in: Kitchen. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a Comment

The cherries came back. The bright red fruit covering the tree in our front yard that caught me so by surprise exactly two years ago  has – oh happy day – returned. And this time, there’s no guessing about what kind of cherries they are.

The cherry tree was given to Ted by his (now our) dear friend, William Clayton, after Ted’s father Bob Axelrod died in 2000. They named it Bing, for Bing Crosby, in a tribute to Bob’s longtime love of Big Band and jazz.

In June 2010, when I first looked out our front windows to see Bing festooned with fruit. I was thrilled, thinking they were the hard-to-find sour cherries of my childhood.

I rushed out to pick them and gathered enough to make a sour cherry pie.

A few days later, I noticed that the remaining cherries had darkened to a deep purplish red. These weren’t sour cherries, they were, of course, bings! We climbed precariously high to collect as many as we could to bake into a classic clafouti (from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking) which we shared with friends at a Sunday afternoon party.

Last year, there were no cherries at all -  I figured the birds had gotten wise enough to get them all early.  Or perhaps Bing is some sort of biennial cherry tree …

This year, because Bing has grown, we got out the BIG ladder. I greedily picked them before they were fully ripe, fearing to lose them to the birds, and baked another clafouti, this one from Dorie Greenspan’s fabulous book “Around My French Table.” Her recipe – as authentic as Julia’s but richer, due to heavy cream – says to leave the cherries whole, but I didn’t dare, worrying someone might crack a tooth. I also wanted to make sure there were no surprises (i.e. bugs) inside and while I’ll spare you the details, I’m glad I checked.

Dorie Greenspan’s Cherry Clafoutis

Serves 6

1 pound sweet cherries, pitted (make sure they weigh a pound after you pit them – pre-pit weight is probably about 1 ½ pounds.

3 large eggs

½ cup sugar

Pinch of salt

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ cup all-purpose flour

¾ cup whole milk

½ cup heavy cream

Confectioners sugar, for dusting

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan (or another baking pan with a 2-quart capacity).

Put the cherries in the pie pan in a single layer

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until they’re foamy, then add the sugar and whisk for a minute or so. Whisk in the salt and vanilla. Add the flour and whisk vigorously – usually you should be gentle when incorporating flour, but this is an exception – until the batter is smooth.

Still whisking (less energetically), gradually pour in the milk and cream and whisk until well blended. Rap the bowl against the counter to knock out any bubbles and pour the batter over the cherries.

Bake the clafoutis for 35 to 45 minutes, or until it’s puffed and lightly browed and, most important, a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the clafoutis to a cooling rack and allow it to cool until it’s only the least bit warm or comes to room temperature.

Dust the clafoutis with confectioners sugar right before you bring it to the table.

And yes, Julia’s recipe is for “clafouti,” Dorie’s is “clafoutis.”

London meets Nashville at the James Beard House

Posted by spoonandshutter on May 24, 2012
Posted in: Out & About. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

From Spoon: One of the high points of a media trip I participated in last month to the “Whiskey Trail” in Tennessee and Kentucky happened the very first night, when we stayed at The Hutton Hotel in Nashville. This chic and comfortable luxury property was named to Conde Nast Traveler’s Hot List for 2010; the magazine called it “the first hotel to truly capture the city’s sophistication.”

Chefs at work in the Beard House kitchen

At a special dinner that evening for our group of journalists in The Hutton’s sleek, yet warmly appointed restaurant, 1808 Grille, I met executive chef Charles Phillips, who impressed me not only with his contemporary American food, but with his easygoing manner. His enthusiasm for his work and his welcoming smile seemed to exemplify modern Southern hospitality.

Chef Charles Phillips

Chef Hus Vedat

The Hutton is owned by Philadelphia-based Amerimar Enterprises, which also owns a property referred to as The Hutton’s “sister” hotel – St. Ermin’s, featuring similar luxury in an historic building in Westminster, London (It was named to Conde Nast Traveler’s Hot List for 2012). The executive chef at St. Ermin’s restaurant, The Caxton Grill, Hus Vedat, collaborates regularly with his U.S. counterpart, so it seemed natural for the two of them to present a dinner together at The James Beard House in New York City.

The “London Meets Nashville” dinner on May 16 was the chefs’ first experience cooking at the storied Beard House – the former home of the late, great James Beard where both big name and lesser-known chefs present dinners that benefit The James Beard Foundation. The logistics and menu took four months to plan and finalize; Charles and Hus collaborated on every detail.

As guests – fans and friends of both hotels – gathered on the Beard House’s back patio on the warm spring evening, sipping champagne and Tennessee Julep cocktails (made with Benjamin Prichard’s Sweet Lucy Bourbon Liqueur), passed hors d’oeuvres gave us our first tastes of the inventive menu: English pea shooters with chantilly; gougères with chicken liver mousse; mofongo with aïoli and chickpea flour–crusted bay scallops with curried tomato confit. Clearly, this was not going to be the traditional English and southern food mash-up some might have expected.

Settled at our table in the second floor dining room – Beard’s former bedroom – we were wowed by each course. The first was named “beet textures” – a golden square of jellied beets, beet powder and beet crisps with fried goat cheese. The second was equally intriguing: nuoc cham escolar, served with appropriately named purple sweet potato velvet and micro bok choy. Next came bresaola (air-dried beef) with a salad of radishes, white asparagus and baby lettuce, followed by merguez-cornbread stuffed quail and porchetta with spiced labne. Dessert was equally distinctive – and delicious: chilled peanut butter soup with chunks of ancho-chili spiked dark chocolate and short bread grissini.

The evening was clearly as memorable for the chefs as it was for guests. “I will remember the buzz of conversation, the fact that friends, family, business partners, supporters and JBH members all came together and connected over dinner,” said Charles. “There was a great energy in the air. This is why Hus, myself and our team do what we do, if our food can in some way help bring us together and provide a delicious memory, we are happy!”

MANY MORE PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE FOLLOWING SLIDE SHOW

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photo Of The Week: Fiddleheads at The Farmer’s Table

Posted by spoonandshutter on May 23, 2012
Posted in: Photo of the Week. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 comments

From Shutter: Unlike some of my recent “Photo of the week” this one is not full of technical and lighting information.  This photo is more about the food and composition.  With great window light in the restaurant, I would have been crazy not to use it.

In celebration of spring I wanted to share this photograph I took for The Farmer’s Table restaurant on Commercial Street in the heart of the Old Port in Portland, Maine.

Inside this unassuming restaurant Jeff Landry, chef / owner specializes in seasonal locally sourced American cuisine in a casual and relaxed environment. In addition to his excellent food, I have enjoyed having what started as a client relationship turn into a friendship.

In a tribute to the season we created the above photograph of fiddleheads and ramps.  The first sign of edible springtime.

Shooting Data

Camera: Nikon D700

Lens: Nikon 24mm-70mm f/2.8

Focal Length: 70mm

Exposure: f/9@1/15th second

ISO: 250

Lighting: window light camera left.  Silver reflector camera right.

Revel: A New Place to Play on the Beach

Posted by spoonandshutter on May 16, 2012
Posted in: On The Road. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

From Spoon: Atlantic City’s newest resort may not be focused on gaming, but it’s certainly got game. For years, we’ve been watching Revel grow from the sand at the Northern end of the boardwalk – a giant’s glass house whose plain facade reveals nothing about what’s on the other side. “Breathtaking” is not a cliche when used to describe Revel’s indoor and outdoor spaces, the scope of which must have every other casino hotel in AC, even the newer, hipper, ones, also holding their collective breaths. The place is, literally, dazzling.

The atrium

When you enter Revel at the beach level, you are not immediately in the casino; that space – designed by the same stage designer who created Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show set – is two levels up, on the same floor as most of the resort’s restaurants, its nightclubs (including the titillating burlesque club, Royal Jelly), a performance venue and soon, shops. Two more levels up, and accessible only to overnight guests, is the hotel. Its expansive lobby includes tucked away bars and sitting areas, the uber-cool In/Out Pool, which sadly, we did not have time to loll about in, the spa (complete with a  beautifully tiled, coed bath house), and perhaps the resort’s most unusual feature, the SkyGarden. It was foggy and cold on our visit, but we were still impressed by this large (almost 2 acres) outdoor space seemingly suspended above the ocean, with plantings and sinuous glass-block paths connecting various seating areas with fire pits.

The In/Out Pool

The bathhouse at the spa

We were at Revel to experience the restaurants, especially two of the”big names” – Azure by Alain Allegretti and American Cut, the steakhouse by Iron Chef Marc Forgione. It was our good fortune to find both of the chefs in residence, and while we won’t reveal too much here, pending an upcoming story in the Travel section of The Record, we will tell you that both offer spectacular experiences in food, service and atmosphere. Another instant favorite eatery was Mussel Bar – a combo Belgian bistro and rocking roadhouse with great staff and, naturally, mussels offered a number of delicious ways anchoring the gastro-pub menu.

MUSSEL BAR

Mussel Bar

Mussel Bar

The huge beer selection at Mussel Bar

Garlic frites at Mussel Bar

Mussels, naturally, at Mussel Bar

AMADA

Amada Dining Room

Tapas at Amada, clockwise from top left: white sangria, charcuterie, salad with blue cheese and spicy almonds, tortilla

AZURE

AMERICAN CUT

Iron Chef Marc Forgione,  American Cut Steak House

Still to come are a four-story nightclub and a beach club that will offer the pool party experience with a distinct plus – the ocean. Stay tuned.

ROYAL JELLY BURLESQUE CLUB

MORE IMAGES IN SLIDESHOW

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Carnitas Tacos for Cinco de Mayo

Posted by spoonandshutter on May 3, 2012
Posted in: Kitchen. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

From Spoon: Growing up, all I knew about Mexican food was what I thought of as tacos – those crispy corn shells (that always shattered when you took a bite), stuffed with ground beef seasoned with mystery spices from a packet, shredded cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and if we were going really exotic, avocado. And although I’ve now eaten Mexican food at higher-end places like (the original) Rosa Mexicano in Manhattan and casual joints -  Taco Trio in South Portland, Maine (those are Ted’s photos on their website) and my favorite converted diner car dive in Paterson, NJ, I know there’s so much more to Mexican cuisine than enchiladas and guacamole.

I’ve never been to Mexico City, but Ted has, and he’s often talked about the abundance of incredible street food there. So when chef Ivy Stark‘s book, “Dos Caminos Mexican Street Food”, landed on my desk at The Record, I thought using one of her recipes would be perfect for a Cinco de Mayo column.

I met Ivy last year at the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival, and I was impressed not only with the food she was serving from the Dos Caminos booth at an outdoor event, but that this enthusiastic, personable woman presides over a group of lauded Mexican restaurants – there are 6 of them in total. I was even more excited about using the book when I read a reference to the “The Pooh Cookbook,” in her introduction -  Ivy, the “Popovers for Piglet” page in mine is well-thumbed too!

It was hard to choose a recipe, but having had Ted’s carnitas tacos a couple of times, I wanted to try Ivy’s very different preparation. Ted’s cook on top of the stove, and are just pork simmered in lard; Ivy’s include orange juice, Coke, condensed milk and spices and spend most of their cooking time in the oven. Yes, the recipe calls for 8 pounds of lard, which I’m sure will freak some readers out (Hi Mom). But somehow, the lard pulls the fat out of the pork, giving it tenderness and flavor without greasiness. The recipe isn’t complicated, just a little time-consuming, and it makes a lot. The roasted serrano pepper salsa is super hot (for me) but an important component of the tacos, which are the real thing.

The column and recipe are HERE.