Year: 2012

Tomato glut #1: Mission Hill’s cherry tomato salad

Posted on by Pat and David
It's that season of mixed emotions as the garden starts shutting down and we're swamped in a sea of wonderfully ripe produce. No matter how we stagger the plantings and the ripening season of different varietals, we're faced with a tomato embarrassment of riches at the end of August and early September. We just returned from one of the great agricultural regions of North America, the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, where the explosion in grape-growing and fine wineries in recent years has also led to an explosion in great dining options and in boutique agriculture to support the chefs. Mission Hill Family Estate, the leading winery of the region, showcases the Okanagan cuisine at a stupendous fine-dining restaurant called, simply enough, the Terrace Restaurant....Read More

What to drink at the airport … in Kelowna

Posted on by Pat and David
No, we didn't take this photograph in the cute little Kelowna airport, located in the heart of the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Once principally an orchard area (the peaches and cherries are incredible), the valley now boasts more than 150 wineries and an untold number of vineyards. It is emerging as one of the hottest new table wine region in the North American west as well as continuing its excellent production of Canada's best-known ice wines. We spent a few days touring and tasting and have to admit that it's hard to beat the striking vistas from the hillside vineyard tasting rooms that overlook the chain of lakes in the Okanagan Valley. Looking down the long green rows to the blue water--and then across...Read More

Bowties with tomato trimmings

Posted on by Pat and David
We're in the midst of the tomato and basil harvest--lots of Costoluto Genovese tomatoes and lots of Genovese basil. Most nights that means slicing up some fresh mozzarella cheese and enjoying giant plates of insalata caprese. But what do you do with the tomato shoulders and irregular bits left over when you make a pretty plate of caprese? We took a little inspiration from Sicily and added lemon and ground pistachio nuts for a solid pasta plate that takes full advantage of the harvest. FARFALLE WITH TOMATOES, LEMON, AND PISTACHIOS Serves 2 as main dish, 4 as pasta course Ingredients 2 cups farfalle (bowties) 1 1/2 cups peeled, chopped tomatoes 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic, grated grated zest of...Read More

Six things to bring home from New Hampshire

Posted on by Pat and David
In our last post, we mentioned six items we like to bring home from trips to Vermont. Since Food Lovers' Guide to Vermont & New Hampshire has about the same number of entries from each state, it seems only fair to mention some of our favorite foods to bring back from the Granite State. Flag Hill Winery & Distillery (297 North River Rd., Lee, N.H.; 603-659-2949; flaghill.com) doesn't need our imprimatur to sell their immensely popular, often sweet wines made from berries and apples as well as first-generation French-American hybrid grapes. Our preference goes to products from the artisanal distillery. The barrel-aged apple brandy is a classic American applejack, and the neutral spirit, a vodka triple-distilled from apples, is smooth and sultry. It's named for...Read More

Six things to bring home from Vermont

Posted on by Pat and David
It's official. The Food Lovers' Guide to Vermont & New Hampshire has shipped to stores and is available online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Thanks to our efficient editors, we beat the technical publication date of July 3. In addition to restaurants, the book highlights great shops and local food producers. Vermont may be best known for maple syrup and cheddar cheese, but there's a whole lot more. Here are some of our favorite things to bring home from the Green Mountain State. The Red Bar from Middlebury Chocolates (2377 Route 7 South, Middlebury, VT; 802-989-1610; www.middleburychocolates.com) is the hardcore chocolate lovers' chocolate. Stephanie and Andy Jackson make all their chocolates straight from the bean. The Red Bar, says Andy, is “a throwback to...Read More

Recapturing a great flavor of New Hampshire

Posted on by Pat and David
Our latest book, Food Lovers' Guide to Vermont & New Hampshire (Globe Pequot Press), just arrived two days ago and it brought back fond memories of the research. One of our favorite meals was at the Bedford Village Inn, when Benjamin Knack, fresh from a season on Hell's Kitchen, had just take over the dining program for this romantic destination property. It so happens that Ben makes a killer gnocchi, which he claimed was so simple that even his then 4-year-old daughter could do it. There are a couple of secrets to getting just the right texture. The potatoes should be cooked so they “squeak like Styrofoam when you squeeze them,” he says. And they should be pushed quickly through the sieve so the potato...Read More

Beyond chile peppers: the nuanced Santa Fe cooking of Estevan García at the Tabla de los Santos

Posted on by Pat and David
We had the pleasure of spending Spanish Market in Santa Fe last July at the Hotel St. Francis, a luxury hotel that strongly resembles a monastery. And while we were there, we enjoyed the cooking of Estevan García, one of the pioneers of refined Southwestern cooking from his days in Los Angeles. A one-time monk himself, he seems right at home at the St. Francis. His cooking is as straightforward and unpretentious as it is subtle and delicious. We wrote about him for the Boston Globe's food section. The piece appeared on May 9. You can find it online here. The article also included García's recipe for this incredibly rich goat's milk flan: GOAT'S MILK FLAN Serves 6 The goat's milk adds a slight tang...Read More

You can’t beat this spread for the Derby

Posted on by Pat
I'm guessing that there's a run on cream cheese in Louisville, Kentucky, grocery stores in the early May days leading up to the running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs (this year May 4-5). The staple of cheesecakes around the country is also the basis for the uniquely Kentucky cucumber spread called Benedictine. No self-respecting Louisville host or hostess would be caught dead without Benedictine as part of his or her Derby Day spread. Kentucky being the land of bourbon, it's not surprising that the spread has nothing to do with the 502-year-old French liqueur of the same name. Instead, it's named for its creator, Jennie Benedictine, who began a catering business in the late 19th century. By all counts she was a very...Read More

Sweet on grandmothers

Posted on by Pat
When it comes to sweets, even the most adventurous chefs seem to have soft spots for their grandmothers' homey favorites. When Josh Moore, the executive chef at upscale Italian restaurant Volare (volare-restaurant.com) in Louisville, Kentucky, was tapped to prepare the dessert course at a recent taping of the TV cooking show “Secrets of Louisville Chefs Live,” he decided on his grandmother's recipe for Kentucky Jam Cake. “It's very simple,” he told the studio audience. “Mix the wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients. Then combine them.” Moore's grandmother added applesauce for moistness. She also made a decadent caramel frosting. As Moore beat together the butter, sugar, and cream in a stand mixer, it was all I could do not to stand up and ask if I...Read More

What to Eat at the Airport: ATL (Atlanta Hartsfield International)

Posted on by Pat and David
Back in November, we described how the fantastic tamales at Pappasito's Cantina had helped to salvage an otherwise tedious delay at the Dallas Fort Worth airport. Since then, we've been keeping an eye out for local food specialties to break the monotony of the fairly generic airport experience and at least glean a little flavor of a place that we're only passing through. We had practically written off Atlanta airport where the nice little food court in Terminal B had a fairly predictable line-up of Sbarro pizza, Popeye's Fried Chicken & Biscuits, Seattle's Best Coffee, and even sandwiches from Boston-based Au Bon Pain. But, it pays not to give up too quickly. Away from the food court area, we discovered Café Intermezzo, a coffee shop...Read More