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A Very Vegan and Vegetarian Friday Fun Links

November 6th, 2009

Sheri Wetherell. 1 Comment

We’re wrapping up a week of Meatless Monday (thru Friday) posts with a vegan/vegetarian finale! One of my favorite discoveries in my week of no meat? Breadfruit! Which we made into a delicious Breadfruit Coconut Curry.

The politics:

Meatless days a good idea for a healthy life. Even Presidents Wilson, Truman and Roosevelt thought so.
But, the meat industry says it threatens their way of life (well, frankly, eating meat every day threatens our lives)
High “red” meat consumption increases risk of Type 2 diabetes
Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs both blast Meatless Monday

The fun stuff:

Jones Soda’s newest wacky vegan holiday flavor: Tofurkey and Gravy
Brown Bagging it? Find inspiration in Vegan Lunchbox Around the World
Going meatless too daunting? Take baby steps with Almost Meatless
A new twist on an old fave: Mac and Cheese (with hidden veggies!)
YumSugar’s favorite vegetarian recipes
Al Dente cooks up tasty Brussels sprouts

Photo by: thebittenword.com

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Foodista Quick Tip: Infusions

November 5th, 2009

Melissa. 3 Comments

Making herb and spice infusions is one way to capture huge amounts of concentrated flavors in liquid form. Infusions like clove and cinnamon oil or basil infused cream can be used as a components or as main flavors to a recipe. Bartenders, ice cream makers, bakers and chefs all use a variety of herbal and spice infusions to create delicious creations like lavender ice cream, tarragon oil or anise infused vodka.

Sound too gastronomic or overly labor intensive? If you can brew a cup of tea, then you are already an infusion pro. There are a couple culinary rules to follow when it comes to infusions. According to chemistry cooking pro, Harold McGee, the best flavored infusions come from slow extractions of raw fruits and vegetables in a liquid at either room temperature or in the refrigerator for several days or several weeks.

In most culinary regards, there are two main ways to infuse most liquids: cold infusion and heat infusion.

Cold Infusion: Cold infusions are good for delicate herbs that lose their volatile qualities when heated: use a cold infusion technique with fragile leafy herbs like basil, mint, lavender, or tarragon. A cold infusion consists of soaking whole or blended herbs or spices in cold water, milk or edible oils, (like olive oil) for several hours. The mixture is then strained and preserved. *Keep your homemade infusions cold when not in use.

Heat Infusion: Best with woody herbs and spices like cinnamon, thyme, lemongrass or star anise. This is the most frequently used method for all dried herbs or woody spice infusions and is produced by pouring boiling water over herbs or spices and steeping this mixture for fifteen minutes to half an hour. Another way to make a hot infusion is to bring a liquid with an herb or spice to a desired temperature over a stove and let it steep. Depending on desired potency of flavor, this could take several minutes to several hours.

For recipes with infusions, check out these great blogs for ideas, or see the recipes below:

Food & Style’s Rosemary Gelato
Family Fresh Cooking’s Chai Tea Infused Applesauce
Lillyella’s Vanilla Oil

Above photo by Quinn.anya

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National Candy Day is November 4

November 4th, 2009

Sheri Wetherell. 1 Comment

Today is National Candy Day, and while we’re still trying to eat our way to the bottom of the leftover Halloween candy bowl, we thought we’d share some yummy recipes with you. Perhaps some will inspire your holiday candy making and baking plans. Also, search Foodista for more great confection recipes.

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Tags:	candy • candy making • candy recipes • confections • Sweets

Georges DuBoeuf Wine Bag Design Contest

November 2nd, 2009

Sheri Wetherell. 2 Comments

Our friend Julie over at Women & Wine has created a fun contest for Georges DuBoeuf called “Is fashion your bag?”

YES!!

Well, as a friend, I have deemed myself ineligible (darn!) but that doesn’t mean that you are! So, pull together your creative juices and design the coolest of cool wine tote bags ever! You could win a $2,000 shopping spree and a 4-day, 3-night stay at Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. You have until December 31.

Check out the details here.

Good luck!

Photo by Part-Time

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Tags:	design contest • georges duboeuf • wine bag • wine tote • women and wine

Mangalitsa Lard Chicken Confit

November 1st, 2009

Barnaby Dorfman. 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I visited with Heath Putnam of Wooly Pigs at our local West Seattle farmer’s market. We caught up a bit and discussed the development of our respective businesses. Just like Foodista, Wooly Pigs is a startup and Heath is an entrepeneur developing the market for a product. I was happy to learn that his wonderful Mangalitsa pork is now being served in some of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, including Frascati. It’s not surprising that great chefs are adopting this amazing product with exciting potential health benefits of lower saturated fat. As I was about to move on to another stall, Heath asked if he could give me some lard. I said sure and he pulled out a large white tub of rendered Mangalitsa lard. Heath gave it to us free of charge. He explained that it was rendered with the skin on, which gives it a smokey bacon-like flavor since the skin crisps up and burns in the rendering process. As a result, the lard isn’t good for sweet recipes (unless you want them to taste like bacon), such as pie crusts. In return, Heath just asked that we test it out and let him know what we make with it.

If you are like me, you have an almost instinctual negative reaction to the thought of eating lard…just typing that sentence makes me a bit queasy. But if you think about it, lard isn’t that different from butter, which I happily slather on bread and pop in my mouth. What’s the difference? Mostly I think it’s cultural, Americans just aren’t used to cooking with it anymore, but we love the taste. When you get those fantastic creamy refried beans in a Mexican restaurant…it’s the lard. The richest, flakiest pie crusts I’ve had…made with lard. So what savory dish could I cook with it? I’d been wanting to try making a chicken confit and I thought, why not try it with the lard? After researching a number of different duck and chicken confit recipes, I did what I usually do, which is to combine several different approaches tailored to my favorite flavors. I did a whole Thundering Hooves pasture raised chicken and even though I’ve never had or seen anyone confit the breast, I included it. That part was a mistake, it came out dense and dry. But the leg, thigh, and wing meat were extremely tender and moist. After the long confit cooking process, the skin was very soft, but I wanted to crisp it before serving. I first tried to crisp the skin in a frying pan on the stove, that was my second mistake. The skin stuck and the meat was so delicate that the whole thing fell apart. Next I placed it under the broiler to brown and that worked beautifully. The end result was an amazing combination of wonderful crackly skin surrounding the most fall-aparty chicken meat I’ve ever had, all infused with the unique rich flavor of Mangalitsa.

Click below to get my Mangalitsa Chicken Confit recipe.

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Spooky, Gross, Tasty Friday Fun Links

October 29th, 2009

Sheri Wetherell. 2 Comments

Not Martha bravely bakes up a gruesome, bone chilling, yet tasty meatloaf Meat Hand
CakeSpy tests her patience and makes Homemade Candy Corn
Nine things you didn’t know about candy corn
Buzz kill: the scary truth behind Halloween candy
Turn your Pigs in a Blanket into spooky Mummy Dogs – the kids will love them!
Wondering what you’ll do with all that leftover candy? Have a Candy Tournament
Spooky Brains! Cocktail
Get your drink on! Ghastly Halloween drinks
Zombie Food: Melon brains
Nerdy Jack O’ Lantern and other extreme pumpkins

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Tags:	fun links • halloween

Halloween Cocktails

October 29th, 2009

Melissa. Leave a Comment

Recently, I posted a blog about non-alcoholic Halloween drinks for kids but as we all know, Halloween is just as much a holiday for adults as it is for kids. Instead of bringing spooky cupcakes or Halloween truffles to your Halloween gathering this weekend, mix up some creepy cocktail concoctions to share with your adult guests.

Dressing up? Bring a special potion that goes with the theme of your costume. For example, if you are going as Don Draper, you should probably bring the ingredients to make an Old Fashioned. Going as a vampire? A Bloody Mary is more than fitting. Want to bring enough for a crew? Here is a list of Halloween cocktails that are to die for!

More Cocktail Inspiration
Cocktail Culture- Absithe Cocktail
Sloshed!- Hard Pumpkin Cider
Nightschool-Professional bartenders share their secrets
Vintage Cocktails on Facebook

Above photo by TangoPango

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Tags:	drinks • Halloween cocktails • Halloween party beverages

Beer for Halloween

October 29th, 2009

helen. 3 Comments

When selecting which beer to drink on and around Halloween, there are two variables to consider: the beer’s flavor and its name. Even if you ordinarily prefer a hoppier brew, Halloween beer should taste like candy, since the whole point of Halloween is candy. Oh sure, some would argue that Halloween is all about dressing up and pretending to be someone else for a day, but isn’t the ultimate reason children wear costumes to trick-or-treat to bring home candy?

The name of a beer is also important. For instance, how many days of the year can you say, “gee, this Witches Brew is tasty” with a straight face?

Whether you’re looking for something special to pair with a Halloween feast, or simply a beverage to relax with after a long night of trick-or-treating, here are a few suggestions.

If you like chocolate bars, try a Milk Stout or a Chocolate Stout. Milk stout is a stout brewed with the addition of lactose, the sugar in milk, for extra sweetness. While the chocolate flavor in most chocolate stouts is due to the roasted malts, some breweries do add actual chocolate to the brewing process.

If you like Jolly Ranchers, try a sweet fruit lambic or fruit beer. Lambics are spontaneously fermenting beers, meaning they are brewed without the addition of yeast; the fermentation is caused by environmental microbes. Fruit lambics are simply a traditional lambic with fruit added to the brewing process. While most fruit lambics are quite sour, several breweries put out versions that are very sweet. Similarly, fruit beers are also created with the addition of fruit to the brewing process and vary according to the style of the base beer.

Lindeman’s lambics: Pomme , Framboise, Cassis, Kriek, Pêche,
Belle-Vue Kriek and Framboise
Unibroue Ephemere

If you like Sour Patch Kids, try a Sour Ale, such as a Berliner Weisse, Flanders Red, or Oud Bruin. Sour ales are just that, ranging from from mildly tart to completely mouth-puckering. The sour flavor is created by naturally-occurring bacteria allowed to grow during an extended aging process.

Ghoulishly good names:

More ideas from other bloggers:

Any other suggestions or recommendations?

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Rokeg Blood Pie (and other bloody concoctions)

October 28th, 2009

Yuna. 5 Comments

Blood Pie*

The Rokeg blood pie is a celebratory Klingon dish traditionally eaten on the Day of Honor. On this day, participants reflect on their past and eat this blood pie as a symbolic gesture of renewal. And who wouldn’t feel rejuvenated after eating this? The blood and meat custard filling offers a slight resistance to the teeth but yields to the tongue to impart a rich, tantalizing umami flavor with a subtle hint of sweetness. The crust, flaky and tender, provides a nice textural contrast to the creamy, unctuous filling.

Wait, what? Where did I lose you? The Klingons? Day of Honor? Don’t tell me you don’t watch Star Trek – the best and the longest running show in UPN history!?

It’s alright. I didn’t know about this Klingon tradition either. Truth be told, I came across this dish while searching for gory sounding recipes to contribute to the fabulous Foodista recipe collection for Halloween. I was a little disappointed to find out that it was a fictional dish. If you are too, despair not. Animal blood has long been a staple food in human history and there are a lot of great non-fictional blood recipes around. Prepared as soups, sauces, pancakes, sausages, or stirred into drinks, blood eating is… how should I put it? In our blood?

Comprised of roughly 80% water and 17% protein, blood thickens at 167 degrees F due to the denaturing of the albumin protein. A common preparation technique is to heat the blood and then bring the temperature back down to allow it to set. Once set, the congealed mixture can be cut into cubes for soups, fried into cakes, or simply rolled with toppings and enjoyed.

To me, Halloween has always been a holiday that encourages people to step out their normal comfort zone, a holiday where we trade in our jeans and t-shirts for bunny costumes and superhero capes. If you are new to blood dishes, what better time to give these recipes a try?

Or perhaps you are a blood eating aficionado? What have you had? How would you describe the taste? Experience? I want to know!

*Not a Klingon blood pie, unfortunately. It’s my Swedish blood pudding baked in a pie pan. It’s my first blood dish, I will let you know how it goes.

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FoodSnap Photo Contest Winners

October 25th, 2009

Sheri Wetherell. 4 Comments

On September 18 Foodista and Keren Brown Media held FoodSnap, an all-day food photo workshop with award-winning Olympus Visionary and New York Times photojournalist, Lou Manna. What a blast we had! Lou was kind enough to be the judge of our photo contest, and we’re happy to announce the winners. Such fantastic photography from everyone (click on a winner’s name to see all their photos)!

The Grand Prize Winner of a fancy-schmancy Olympus Camera (courtesy of Olympus) is Jasmine Wilkerson for her gorgeous photo (above) of FROST Doughnuts.

The Second Place Winner of a KitchenAid Mixer (courtesy of Sur la Table) is Alice from Savory Sweet Life for her beautiful photo (below) of a Wink Cupcake.