Barb Designs » Food

I’m proud to be a Foodgeek

Barb — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:26:08 +0000

My friend Ryan Snyder asked me to join the Geeks team as the new online editor of Foodgeeks.com in March 2010. I was honored by the offer and jumped right in to editing ingredients, choosing features for the home page and testing recipes. The home page content will refresh every 2-3 weeks, and new features will be added on a regular basis.

Attack of the killer blueberries

Barb — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:34:58 +0000

There’s a semi-secret blueberry farm in Dee, Oregon that has the biggest, best blueberries around. If I told you where it was, then word would spread and people would start fighting over the berries. Instead, I’ll just show photos of what you’re missing.

Early blue attack

Regular blueberry v. Dee blueberry

Attack of the killer cherries

Barb — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:07:44 +0000

Bing cherry attack

My friend Chris stopped by to say hi and deliver a Santa-sized sack of bing cherries. Gotta love friends who bear gifts of the edible kind.

After washing, stemming, drying and freezing two gallon bags of cherries, I was still left with tray fulls. So made cherry almond muffins and froze two dozen. Then I tried a new recipe for cherry compote that is amazing and so easy to make.

Syrup

Cherry Compote

1. Boil 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water until the syrup becomes light tan in color.

2. Add 4 cups of pitted, whole cherries. (Watch out because the mixture bubbles up and can splatter.)

Cooking cherries with balsamic vinegar

3. Cook the cherries until they are soft and the mixture thickens.

4. Add 2-3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and cook a few minutes longer.

5. Serve the warm compote over vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate-ginger brownies if you feel like baking.

6. Store the compote in the refrigerator and warm before serving.

Eat cake

Barb — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 03:04:10 +0000

Bakery Bar

The well-designed sign outside of Bakery Bar on Glisan and 30th says, “Eat cake.” OK, no problem. But wait, there is a problem because not only must you eat cake there, you must eat scones, muffins, breakfast sandwiches on homemade English muffins, brownies, and more. Then you can eat cake.

Bakery Bar is my new favorite place to hang out, read, work, drink a latte and listen to the great mix of music that they play. They’ve also expanded their menu to include breakfast and lunch.

Good design, good music and good food converge all in one spot.

Caprese salad any time of the year

Barb — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:51:32 +0000

Roasted Caprese Salad in March

Caprese salad isn’t a dish I normally crave in the middle of winter. Although caprese-quality tomatoes are usually scarce this time of year, it can be done with Romas. Yes, I said Romas—those tomatoes that are usually tasteless, gritty and unremarkable. The trick is to slow roast the tomatoes until they are sweet and concentrated.

I used Ina Garten’s recipe for Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad and was happy to taste summertime in March.

Ingredients

nocoupons

12 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, seeds (not cores) removed
1/4 cup good olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
16 ounces fresh salted mozzarella
12 fresh basil leaves, julienned

Directions

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.

Arrange the tomatoes on a sheet pan, cut sides up, in a single layer. Drizzle with 1/4 cup of olive oil and the balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with the garlic, sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Roast for 2 hours until the tomatoes are concentrated and begin to caramelize. Allow the tomatoes to cool to room temperature.

Cut the mozzarella into slices slightly less than 1/2-inch thick. If the slices of mozzarella are larger than the tomatoes, cut the mozzarella slices in half. Layer the tomatoes alternately with the mozzarella on a platter and scatter the basil on top. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Serve at room temperature.

Best bacon ever

Barb — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:26:10 +0000

Mmmmm...bacon

A long, long time ago I was a quasi-vegetarian for about 8 years or so. Then I remembered bacon.

Heather and I got Ryan and Eric a delicious holiday gift…two nights of cooking school at In Good Taste. The class, Charcuterie 101, taught the basics of curing, smoking, salting and devouring various meats—from duck to pork belly to trout. Chef Ben Bettinger of Clyde Common (and of the future Beaker and Flask…we hope) helped his pork disciples deliver some of the best bacon I’ve ever tasted. It was think, smoky, and salty…and almost too good for words before it was devoured.

Cookie Fest 2008

Barb — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:34:12 +0000

Cookie Fest 2008

For the last 5 years or so I’ve baked 5 different kinds of cookies for the holidays. It has always been therapeutic sprinkled with fleeting moments of stress.

This year I didn’t have time for a baking extravaganza, so I chose the simple yet divine chocolate chip cookie as the headliner. I used the trusted recipe from Jacques Torres that appeared in the New York Times months ago. The secret is lightly dipping the dough balls in sea salt or fleur de sel for a sweet and salty touch. Holiday cookies don’t have to be red or green, they just have to be delicious.

Found: an amazing loaf of bread

Barb — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:16:38 +0000

Raisin Fennel Bread

Bread can be a boring vehicle for sauces, meat, cheese, jam, or it can be fabulous on its own. I found one such amazing loaf—raisin fennel bread—at Petite Provence Bakery on Division and SE 48th. It seems to be a dense pain au levain base packed with sweet raisins and licoricey fennel. It makes perfect toast with a thin layer of butter and tart jam.

The bread’s sourdough base reminds me of my favorite bread in Columbus: La Chatelaine’s au levain loaf.

Coq au Riesling

Barb — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:20:17 +0000

This dish reminds me off something my mom would make on a Sunday evening. It has down home chicken, noodles and broth but is updated with mushrooms, Riesling and leeks. I used Nigella Lawson’s recipe but added a dollop of beurre manié at the end to thicken the sauce. Use a California, cheaper Riesling to cook with and a nice bottle of German or Alsace Riesling to savor with the meal. Be sure to use skinless chicken thighs, not breasts (I don’t know why everyone loves breasts…but that’s another topic).

This is a perfect winter dish to enjoy on a Sunday evening or any day of the week.

Nigella’s Coq au Riesling

Directions

I have always loved the Alsatian version of coq au vin and this is it in a stunningly streamlined version. I replace the onion with leek, buy lardons ready cubed and buy chicken thighs. The brown meat is always best in a stew. In fact, nearly always best full stop. I don’t bother to sear the meat, which really means you need skinless portions; unbrowned chicken skin is not pretty. If you’re not buying thighs, but thigh fillets then it is probably more helpful to think in terms of boned weight, rather than number of portions: go, here, for about a kilo and a quarter/ two and three quarter pounds.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons garlic oil
1 cup bacon lardons
1 leek, finely sliced
12 skinless chicken thighs or 2 3/4 pounds thigh fillets
3 bay leaves
10 ounces oyster mushrooms torn into strips (4 cups)
1 bottle Riesling
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons freshly chopped dill leaves
Buttered noodles, optional

Heat the oil in a casserole or large wide pan and fry the lardons until crisp.

Add the sliced leeks and soften them with the lardons for a minute or so.

Tip in the chicken thighs, bay leaves, torn mushrooms and wine.

Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer gently for an hour. Like all stews this tastes its mellowest best if you let it get cold and then reheat the next day. But it’s no hardship to eat straight off. Whichever, serve sprinkled with dill and with some buttered noodles, if using.

Perfect roast chicken

Barb — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:45:56 +0000

Even though the Food Network has a talent for taking decent TV cooks and turning them into dancing, babbling puppets à la Rachel Ray, they seem to keep their hands off Ina Garten. Ina, aka Barefoot Contessa, still seems grounded and makes simple yet elegant fare. Plus, who can resist her cute husband Jeffrey who comes home just as the cookies are coming out of the oven?

Ina’s line of baking mixes at skyrocket prices makes me cringe, however I still enjoy her staple recipes like this one for the Perfect Roast Chicken. Add any kind of vegetable to the roasting pan and they will caramelize and suck up the chicken juices.

Ingredients

nocoupons

1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges
Olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.