Karmic Dilemma

This giant foodie Orca is faced with a mighty Karmic Dilemma. You see my little Top Chef Crack Monkeys, Top Chef Masters is about to hurtle back into our lives with Season Two. They just announced the lineup of 22 Master Chefs and I have to admit it's a pretty fantastic group. I thought I had my Fav to win it all picked out and ready to go......that's right, long time Shamu Chef Crush, Susan Feniger. A 30 year veteran of opening and running successful restaurants, writing cookbooks, starring as half of the Too Hot Tamales back before the Food Network went stupid. Why she even rocked the Chef Fauxhawk back in the day.How could I not pick her to win? Well....

...meet Chef Debbie Gold, Executive Chef of the American Restaurant, located in Shamu's own backyard. Oh holy hell, now what? I'm a big fan of Chef Gold's work both at the American and her former restaurant, 40 Sardines. What the heck am I going to do?

Don't worry Gail, as long as you're at the Judges Table, all will be right in our world.

In this corner we have Wily Veteran of the Restaurant, Television, and Radio worlds. She stands about 5' 4" in orange Chuck Taylors. Her first restaurant, the tiny City Cafe, only had room for a hot plate inside and a hibachi out back. Was voted Finest Lesbian Chef in the world by Out Traveler magazine. Is versed in many global cuisines. Best reason to throw the Karmic Kitchen Mojo behind her efforts to become the Top Chef Master? She gives fantastic TV and I'm a friend on her Facebook. (Along with a thousand other people.) People, nobody ever said that common sense, reason or expertise go into these picks .

And in this corner we have a local favorite and winner of a James Beard award in 1999. Have actually eaten at her two restaurants, The American Restaurant and 40 Sardines. Food was fantastic and if I had more cash and a better wardrobe, The American would see a lot more of me. A single mom whose culinary tree appears to be American with deep French roots. Looks like this is her first venture into the madness that is Food TV. Best reason to be Debbie Gold's Top Chef Master's Bitch? Possible Watch Parties at the American. (how cool would it to eat a chef's food while watching her compete on Top Chef Masters)

So in the interest of fairness I will do what all smart people do when faced with this kind of dilemma....let someone else decide by running a poll.

Who should Shamu pick as her favorite to win Top Chef Masters, Season 2?
	Go with the Wily Veteran Susan Feniger, she writes to you every day on Facebook
	Debbie Gold, you might actually have a chance to talk to her in person before Bravo finds out
	Don't you realize Ludo Lefebvre is back, slice off a hunk of that Crazy French Cheese
pollcode.com free polls

OK party people, help an Orca out and vote. And if Susan or Debbie feels like they can influence the voting by leaving a comment...well they can. I'm easy like that.

Dim Sum Sunday - Hot Steamy Soup

For our last Dim Sum Sunday, I asked our participants to bring me some sun by the way of Citrus. My bloggy friends were incredibly generous in their citrus offerings.

Key Lime Coconut Squares

First up is one of two Florida gals who soak up the sunshine on a daily basis. La Diva Cucina not only served up a decadent lime dessert but also shared an adorable photo of La Diva as a wee Divette. These lime squares will brighten up any winter day.

Three Layer Orange Cake

Dani from Gardening Under the Florida Sun knew that two layers of sunshine would not be enough for the harsh winter weather some of us have been enjoying so she brought out....The Third Layer!!! With cream cheese frosting. Yours truly would have been satisfied with just licking the bowl.

Orange and Pear Salad

We have a newcomer to Dim Sum Sunday. MS over at Making Space actually made something healthy and got the kidlets involved in producing the dinner. Getting them to actually eat the green leafy stuff we'll put off until another Dim Sum. Thanks for joining our merry band of foodie bloggers.


Which brings us to this week's theme for Dim Sum Sunday. Hot and Steamy Soup. Yes, even after the wonderful sunny citrus of our last Dim Sum, I'm still cold. That means it's time for Soup. This Sunday, show us your favorite rib sticking, better the second day soup. Post it up and wander back here to see what everyone else made and tell us you're up. Because if you don't how can we make our copious notes for the eventual National Eating Tour of Foodie Bloggers.

How'd they do that?

Last week when I was putting together my Citrus Dim Sum, I had planned to do a dessert to complete my red snapper dinner. In my research I had come across a dessert that had intrigued me. It was a goat cheesecake pastry from a 2007 NY sweet shop review by the Wandering Eater. It's beautiful and seemingly simple. A mini cheesecake in a nest of kaitfi. Well...not really that simple. There was no recipe to help me out. I was on my own.

Finding the kataifi (shredded phyllo dough) was simple.
The Greek deli down the street had exactly what I needed. Just defrost and peel off what you need. You make the nests by mixing the shreds with a little melted butter and then mold into the bottom of muffin cups. Pop in the oven for 15 minutes and you've got nests.Except that these nests seem a little short. The little mini cheesecakes sit like top hats on these flat little nests.But how to get deeper nests? I had just the thing. A popover pan. The individual cups are deeper and wider than the muffin pan cups. Another batch was soon cooling on the counter.Getting there, not as pretty as the restaurant's neat, little cheesecake but it's getting there.

Old School Food Porn

The melding of art, commerce and food has always intrigued me. The love of food porn photography is evident. But there was food porn before there was color photography. There were talented artists who toiled away, usually without credit, producing labels and advertising that would lure the consumer into reaching that hand out and paying money for a King Tut Lemon.
As I zip around the internet, poking into all things food, I'll be posting an occasional series on Old School Food Porn, whether it be fruit crate labels or World War Two Homefront posters.

Enjoy!

Just One More Reason to Go West

That reason is Boccalone. Pig parts heaven.

It has meat.......it has t-shirts...

...it has a great slogan...

...it even has a Back/Belly/Cheek sampler.

Road trip anyone?

Dim Sum Sunday - Sunny Citrus

Short of a trip to Florida, California or Hawaii, the best way I know to deal with the winter grays here in the Midwest is to throw a little sunshine into my food. Or a lot. The old zester got quite a workout today from a good variety of citrus. Both Blood oranges and Meyer lemons are available right now in addition to naval oranges and bright plump limes. But what to make? Desserts were the most obvious choice but I wanted something easy and quick for a main dish.I settled on stuffed Red Snapper with Mango Blood Orange Salsa. Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Stuff a whole snapper (scaled and gutted) with sliced onion, cilantro, orange & lime zest, and salt and pepper. Drizzle the stuffed cavity with a little white wine, then drizzle the outside of the fish with olive oil.Then wrap your fish. You can choose between aluminum foil, parchment or even banana leaves. Depending on how big your fish is, cook 25 to 30 minutes or until the meatiest part of the flesh pulls away from the bones.

While your fish cooks in it's banana leaf snuggie, dice one mango, half an onion, and the flesh of one blood orange. Mix in the juice of a lime and a blood orange and add a handful of cilantro. Drizzle the mixture with a bit of olive oil and season with sea salt. Chill until the fish has finished cooking.Flake the moist fish from the bones and top with salsa. To accompany my fish I quickly steamed some kale until it was just tender then shocked it in cold water to stop the cooking process and keep that beautiful green color. I set it aside while I melted some butter in a saucepan. I added some finely minced shallots to the butter and cooked until they were softened. To that I added a scope full of the water the kale was steamed in and a healthy pour of white wine. You want to reduce that down to at least half. Once that was done I then added the juice of one Meyer lemon and a bit more butter and let that reduce again until it slighty thickens. I drained the kale, squeezing as much water from the greens as I could. Next I roughly chopped the greens and added them to the pan, mixing the sauce and the kale together thoroughly. Serve those luscious greens immediately.
Hello Sunshine. Where have you been? The mango/Blood orange salsa sinks it's juicy roots deep into the mild moist red snapper flesh. The salsa seesaws between the sweetness of the mango, the grapefruit like sourness of the orange, and the bite of the onion. And the kale? The kale's strong bitterness is calmed by the almost sweet-like Meyer lemon sauce. That sauce goes into the data bank to try on other vegetables. A healthy and flavorful meal popping with citrus goodness. Thank you Florida and California for making my gray world just a little brighter.

Lunch Bag Art

Once upon a time, there was this dad.  The dad was a fantastic artist.  Even in his free time, the dad doodled and sketched and drew.  What did he draw?  He drew on lunch bags for his kids.  Everyday.  During his lunch.
With some sharpies and his awesome talent his kids have to be the envy of whatever school they attend.  They get to see their favorite movie, cartoon or book character come to life everyday at lunch.

Ralphie would have loved this one.  

But dad didn't just do plain brown lunch bags.  We've got Tribal Bananas.

We've got Devious Sneakers.

We've even got some snarky commentary on the Star Wars Trilogy movies (with a little Pulp Fiction thrown in for good measure).

You too can follow the daily lunch bag parade at Lunch Bag Art.

Do I really want them to test the DNA of Scrapple?

Amuse or Refuse?

Found myself browsing through Rick Tramanto's 2002 book, Amuse-Bouche, Little Bites of Delight Before the Meal Begins, at the library last week. I got sucked into the food porn photography by Tim Tucker enough to check it out. But after getting it home and really digging into it, I found myself wondering if I was really the audience they were trying to reach with this cookbook? I'm a home cook, not a chef. Sometimes when chefs undertake a cookbook endeavor they rely on what works best for their restaurant and try to translate that directly onto the printed page. However the general public at large can't always find French Green Lentils, Baby Purple Kohlrabi, or Bresaola in their humble grocery stores or farmer's markets. Still I couldn't be too picky, the amuse bouche course is a restaurant creation. You don't order an amuse, it's a mouth teaser given by the chef as a indicator of how a chef cooks and presents his food. No, I was hoping to find something that would be a fun appetizer to add to the culinary arsenal. I tried picking out something fairly easy and low key. Something that could be whipped up fairly quickly with ingredients I might have on hand. Yukon Gold Potato Chips with White Anchovy seemed to fit the bill.It's an easy recipe but you need one of these unless your knife skills are that good that you can consistantly cut paper thin slices of potatoes you'll need to make the chips. You don't need to spend a ton of money on a mandolin, this once was priced under twenty bucks.

You start by peeling a largish Yukon gold potato. Then you make your thin slices on your mandolin. Choose 5 or 6 similarly shaped slices and cut two slits in the middle. This is so you can thread your white anchovy through like a belt through a belt loop. As it just so happened, I had marinated white anchovies in my fridge. I found them at Whole Food's deli counter. (Unfortunately I'm not sure if this is the same as they used in the cookbook version. It just calls for white anchovies.) Once you've placed all the anchovies in their potato slots, brush all with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and white pepper. It's here that the recipe gets a little funky. It calls for putting the slices on parchment or silpat (on a cookie sheet) and then sandwiching with another layer of silpat or parchment and on top of that another cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. At first I liked the idea of baking them but once the first 15 minutes had passed and I checked on their progress the chips looked like they had barely cooked. Gave them another 10 minutes. A little better but still very limp. I decided to jettison the top layer and let the chips cook unimpeded. Finally after another 10 minutes in the oven, the edges had browned up and they had finally achieved some firmness. They tasted OK, a little chewy but the anchovy totally overpowered the potato chip. Plus if you don't eat these immediately you really shouldn't eat them at all. Some things are fantastic hot and only hot. Now I'm not saying these aren't fantastic in Tramonto's restaurant, I bet they are although I also bet they deep fat fry them. There is that option in the cookbook I just wasn't in the mood to try it. I just wasn't really impressed with the results of this particular recipe. However you know I couldn't let this particular recipe pass without trying a little Baconization.Oh yeah, that helped.

While Tramonto's book is very pretty and a detailed look into how they developed these amuse bouches at their restaurant, I'd definitely check it out from your library first. If it connects more with you than it did with me I'm sure you could find space in your kitchen library to add it to your collection. It would also make a great gift for the restaurant chefs in your life.

Dim Sum Sunday - Sunny Citrus

Gentle readers, here at Karma Kitchen Central, we're going on a week of solid fog and gray skies. Oh where has my sunshine gone? With that in mind, our theme for the next Dim Sum Sunday (Jan. 31st) is Sunny Citrus.
Make time for your lemons, your limes, your oranges, heck even your pomelos, just blind our fog weary eyes with sun shiny citrus creations. Come back here on January 31st and share. And remember...

All Good Things Flo To Those Who Bake

Haggis Anyone?

Anyone....Haggis....I've got plenty.....perhaps with a side of scrapple?

What the Heck is Snow Cream

In the recent Dim Sum Sunday Snowdays announcement post, I casually mentioned making Snow Cream. Stirred up a bit of curiosity, it did. Now it's time to explain. But first, I had to do a little research and then make a call back to the Mothership because you see Snow Cream lives as the one memory branded on my brain of the Great Blizzard of 1966. In late January of 1966 the DC Metro was quickly blanketed with up to 22" of snow. Not content to let the snow lie where it fell, Mother Nature decided to add 55 mile per hour winds to whip that snow into child swallowing drifts. With conditions like that you've got a storm for the ages in the Mid Atlantic region.

TV Chopper helping to evacuate pregnant woman to the hospital during Blizzard of '66.

Yours truly was but a wee child who was trapped with the rest of my family at our grandparents house. Seems the weekly family poker game was just too good to resist. Unfortunately the various aunts, uncles, spouses and children were trapped for 6 days in a very tiny house. VERY. TINY. And, might I add, this was in the time before disposable diapers. Are you digging me? Some people had bad acid experiences in the sixties...this little Almost Donner Party was a very bad trip. Acid might have helped but I can't be sure. Uglier details can not be revealed...some wounds are too deep. Still, I remember making snow cream.
Recipe for Snow Cream

Snow - fresh clean snow (no, yellow snow is not lemon flavored)
Milk or cream
Sugar
some flavoring ingredient (depends on your spice shelf and whether your mom made pancakes every Sunday morning to have maple syrup in the house)

Fold gently together.
Serve to ravenous children.
Repeat until:
A. Snow runs out.
B. Milk runs out.
C. Sugar runs out.
D. Patience runs out.

That, my friends, is Snow Cream.