(Editor’s note: We’re thrilled to welcome New York-based food lover, Seth Knight, as a contributing editor to Foodista.)

If you have ever watched the Food Network, added herbs to a whole chicken, used olive oil, or hell, eaten out in the last 50 years, you must take a moment to give thanks to James Beard, the father and patron saint of American cooking. Beard understood the American palate preferred something familiar but also yearned for new and exciting all at the same time. Recently, I attended a symposium in New York City hosted by The New School celebrating the life of this food industry giant (literally, he was 6’4), and I found myself longing be a part of the club; whose members were taught by and touch by “Jim.”

James Beard was born in 1903 in Portland, Oregon and was raised by his mother who ran a boardinghouse.  Beard was a sickly young child and it was then that he was able to experience the joy of food though his mother and their Chinese cook. He was often fed chicken jelly, a mixture of chicken broth, with the whites of an egg and its shell mixed, chilled and strained into gelatinous globs. James would later reminisce that “The Chinese have the perfect palate.” Beard indeed remembered every meal he ate with extreme detail and clarity, which spurred his ability to create in the kitchen. After failed attempts to become an Opera singer and Broadway actor, James opened a catering business Hors D’Oeuvre Inc in 1937. It was then he also wrote his first book Hors D’Oeuvres and Canapés. His book went against America’s growing addiction to “fast, easy and cheap.” Science had replaced fresh picked berries with JELL-O and homemade bread took a backseat to Bisquick.

Beard’s books were the first to cross from a list of ambiguous instructions to a narrative. Betty Fussell, author of The Story of Corn recalled, “He was the middle man. Jim bridged my eighth grade home economics class and the select gourmets of the world. His books were “straight-talk” and were written the way Americans spoke.  And they were personal, as if to say, If I could do it, so can you…And now we’ll do it together.” She continued, “He was also from the west, a cowboy…so he cooked with that adventurous spirit.”

According to Cinema Studies Professor Dana Polan, James Beard also sought to extend the pleasure of cooking beyond the housewife. As the host of the first stand-alone cooking show “I Love to Eat,” his primetime segment would encourage “man duties” such as stuffing a raw chicken or grilling. He even suggested that men be in charge for garnishing dishes, for they are the best decorators (we’ll get to that later).

James Beard was a born teacher and loved having people around.  Judith Jones, who worked with everyone from Langston Hughes to Julia Child remembered, “Jim loved to get together with aspiring cooks and get close and instruct them. He would run to the telephone and field calls from women in Iowa, and instruct them on how to calibrate their ovens. And if anyone ever questioned the direction he was talking the recipe, he’d say, “We’re Americans, we can do as we please.”

The always outspoken food writer extraordinaire Barbra Kafka, summed-up James Beard the best, saying, “Jim was gay! A lot of people fail to mention that. He was uncompromisingly gay, as was everything he did. His books were uncompromising, his life was honest, and his cooking was real.”

Possibly Related Posts:

• A Chance to go to the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen
• Perfect Scrambled Eggs
• Oktoberfest
• When Foodies and Photographers Come Together
• Next Up for Drinking Lessons Robert Hess

Categories:	Author • Chefs • Events	4 Comments
Tags:	american cooking • Author • Canapés • celebrity chef • Chef • cooking • Events • Hors D’Oeuvres • james beard • New York • The New School

No matter how good we are in the kitchen there are always new things we can learn, right? Perhaps you want to explore Southern Indian or Provincial Italian cooking, or how about the art of cheese making? Mario Batali’s father, after retiring from Boeing, went to Italy to study sausage making. How fabulous would that be? People now queue up for his amazing links at Salumi.

After reading The School of Essential Ingredients, a wonderful book set in the kitchen of a restaurant, I’ve been noodling over the idea of taking a cooking class. So I went on TeachStreet to find some classes in my area. Teachstreet is a great site that helps you find cool things you want to learn like Snowboarding, Pilates, Voice Lessons, Adobe, even Citizenship! For us food lovers maybe a course in Wine Appreciation, Knife Skills, or a series in Thai Cuisine. Take a Bartending course and awe your guests with your keen mixology skills!  Or, improve your “food porn” skills by taking a Digital Photography course. On the flip side perhaps you’re one of those people who possesses a great skill. You can teach too! Here’s how you can share your wealth of knowledge on Teachstreet.

Check out courses in your area or simply browse what’s being offered. You never know what may spark an interest!

Possibly Related Posts:

• Is Your Beer or Wine Vegetarian?
• Wine from Scratch: A Practical Approach
• The World’s Most Neglected Wines (Part One): Australian Riesling
• A Chance to go to the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen
• Wine from Scratch: A History Behind The Bottle

Categories:	Chefs • Cooking tips • Events • Italian • Photography • Seasoning & Spices • wine	2 Comments
Tags:	cooking • Cooking Classes • Cooking School

As our readership has grown, a number of people have asked: “Beyond the blog, what are you building?” Well here’s a bit more info for you curious folks… Foodista will:

• be a great place to learn about food and cooking; and
• provide easy ways to share your food interests and knowledge with the world.

“How?” you ask…We are building a site that uniquely combines:

1. Great search of foods, recipes, cooking tools and techniques; like IMDb does for movies;
2. Community editing; a la Wikipedia; and
3. Widgets/tools for sharing it all anywhere on the web, especially on food blogs, similar to what Flickr & Youtube make possible with images.

We now have a fantastic team in place, including a stylin’ designer and an innovative web developer. A couple of other fun developments include great networking at Blogher, and growing traffic…we recently broke into the 100K top websites at Alexa…pretty good for a pre-launch blog! Above all, we are building Foodista for you. Send your thoughts and ideas for the best possible food website to ideas@foodista.com. Cheers, Sheri, Colin, and Barnaby Founders, Foodista.com

Possibly Related Posts:

• Perfect Scrambled Eggs
• Moorish Badenjan Dip
• Celebrating Chanterelles
• Remedies for Your Butternut Squash Addiction
• Fabulous Flu Fighting Foods

Categories:	Cooking tips • Meat & Poultry	5 Comments
Tags:	cooking • Food • foodista • recipes • Techniques • Website Development

It was very kind and considerate of the organizers of the all-women BlogHer to invite celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito as a guest presenter. Most of the women here were purring his name Rrrrrroco, and I must agree, he is pretty easy on the eyes.

If you were an attendee, and can’t remember what he cooked up because you were too consumed with staring at his cute mug, let me give you a refresher. He whipped up a quick and easy pasta dish using tomato sauces from Bertolli, and enhanced them with fresh ingredients such as shrimp, garlic, peperoncini, olives and parsley.

While I personally prefer to cook from scratch, enjoying the process of cooking and creating, it certainly was worth watching a hot man cook for a bunch of women.

Did I just say that out loud?

Check out his latest book Rocco’s Real-Life Recipes. He really does know his stuff.

Possibly Related Posts:

• A Very Vegan and Vegetarian Friday Fun Links
• Foodista Quick Tip: Infusions
• National Candy Day is November 4
• Georges DuBoeuf Wine Bag Design Contest
• Mangalitsa Lard Chicken Confit

Categories:	Canned Goods • Cookbooks • Fish & Seafood • Italian • Uncategorized	5 Comments
Tags:	BlogHer • Blogher 08 • cooking • Food • foodista • rocco dispirito

Nothing tops off a Summer Solstice dinner more perfectly than an apple tart. My friend’s mother, Val, made a simply divine one the other night, and I am still daydreaming about its goodness. I’m talking the-skies-opened-up-and-the-angels-sang good.

Although tarts seem like a relatively simple dessert, it’s the crust wherein lies the excruciating challenge. And to me, it’s the crust that’s the crucial ingredient. What you put on top – albeit delicious – is secondary. But Val, sweet Val, you nailed it! If crust making were an Olympic event you would win the Gold Medal. Perfectly browned; neither too thick nor too thin; and (here’s where the angels started singing) ever so light and flaky.

Mmm…mmm…mmm!

I asked her for her recipe, afraid that she wouldn’t divulge some secret family recipe, and she responded, “It’s Julia Child’s recipe. You can never go wrong with Julia.” Amen, sister.

And so I share the Queen’s recipe for Pâte Brisée Sucrée (Sweet Short Paste), which can be found in her must-have book Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Sweet short paste is made exactly like regular short paste except that sugar is mixed into the flour before you begin.

For an 8- to 9-inch shell.

1 cup flour, scooped and leveled
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon plus a pinch salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter
2 tablespoons chilled vegetable shortening
4 to 4 1/2 tablespoons cold water

Directions for making short paste by hand: Place the flour in the bowl and mix in the sugar and salt. Add the butter and shortening and, with the tips of your fingers, rapidly rub them together with the dry ingredients until the fat is broken into bits the size of small oatmeal flakes. Do not overdo this step as the fat will be blended more thoroughly later.

Add the water and blend quickly with one hand, fingers held together and slightly cupped, as you rapidly gather the dough into a mass. Sprinkle up to 1 tablespoon more water by droplets over any unmassed remains and add them to the main body of the dough. Then press the dough firmly into a roughly shaped ball. It should just hold together and be pliable but not sticky.

Directions for making short paste in the food processor: Measure the dry ingredients into the bowl (equipped with the steel blade). Quarter the chilled butter lengthwise and cut crosswise into 3/8-inch pieces; add to the flour along with the chilled shortening. Flick the machine on and off 4 or 5 times. Turn the machine on and pour in the water. Immediately flick the machine on and off several times, and the dough should begin to mass on the blade. If not, dribble in a little more water and repeat, repeating again if necessary. Dough is done when it has begun to mass; do not overmix it. Scrape the dough out onto your work surface and proceed to the fraisage.

The fraisage — or final blending — for handmade and machine dough: Place the dough on a lightly floured pastry board. With the heel of one hand, not the palm which is too warm, rapidly press the pastry by two-spoonful bits down on the board and away from you in a firm, quick smear of about 6 inches.

With a scraper or spatula, gather the dough again into a mass; knead it briefly into a fairly smooth round ball. Sprinkle it lightly with flour and wrap it in waxed paper. Either place the dough in the freezing compartment of the refrigerator for about 1 hour until it is firm but not congealed, or refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. (Uncooked pastry dough will keep for 2 to 3 days under refrigeration, or may be frozen for several weeks. Always wrap it airtight in waxed paper and a plastic bag.)

Rolling out the dough: Because of its high butter content, roll out the dough as quickly as possible, so that it will not soften and become difficult to handle. Place the dough on a lightly floured board or marble. If the dough is hard, beat it with the rolling pin to soften it. Then knead it briefly into a fairly flat circle. It should be just malleable enough to roll out without cracking.

Lightly flour the top of the dough. Place rolling pin across center and roll the pin back and forth with firm but gentle pressure to start the dough moving. Then, with a firm, even stroke, and always rolling away from you, start just below the center of the dough and roll to within an inch of the far edge.

Lift dough and turn it at a slight angle.

Give it another roll. Continue lifting, turning and rolling and, as necessary, sprinkle the board and top of dough lightly with flour to prevent sticking. Roll it into a circle 1/8-inch thick and about 2 inches larger all around than your pie pan or flan ring. If your circle is uneven, cut off a too-large portion, moisten the edge of the too-small portion with water, press the 2 pieces of pastry together and smooth them with your rolling pin.

The dough should be used as soon as it has been rolled out, so that it will not soften.

Making a pastry shell: Mold your pastry in a false-bottomed, straight-sided cake pan 1- to 1 1/2- inches deep and refrigerate.

(A French tart is straight sided and open-faced and stands supported only by its pastry shell.) When the shell is ready for unmolding, the pan is set over a jar and the false bottom frees the shell from the sides of the pan. It is then, with the aid of a long-bladed spatula, slid off its false bottom and onto a rack or the serving dish.

Prebaking the pastry shell: Partial baking sets the dough and is a safeguard against soggy bottom crusts. Line the pastry with buttered lightweight foil or buttered brown paper, press it will against the sides of the pastry and fill it with dried beans. The weight of the beans will hold the pastry against the mold during the baking. Bake at the middle of a preheated 400-degree oven for 8 to 9 minutes until pastry is set. Remove mold or foil and beans. Prick bottom of pastry with a fork to keep it from rising. Return to oven for 2 to 3 minutes more. When the shell is starting to color and just beginning to shrink from sides of mold, remove it from the oven.

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Importance of Pie Crust
• Perfect Scrambled Eggs
• Moorish Badenjan Dip
• Celebrating Chanterelles
• Remedies for Your Butternut Squash Addiction

Categories:	Baked Goods • Cookbooks • Cooking tips • French • Sweets • desserts	6 Comments
Tags:	apple tart • baking • cooking • Dessert • Food • foodista • julia child • pastry • pastry dough • pate brisee sucree • recipe • recipes • sweet short paste • tart crust • tarts

I’ve been painting my kitchen all weekend. And if you’ve never taken on the task of painting a room, let me tell you something, hire someone. Or at least know what you’re getting yourself into. I took a look at our kitchen and cockily exclaimed, “Psh, I can totally do this myself!” And I did do it myself. But now I hurt, and I’m crying for the Vicadin I so wish we had in our medicine cabinet.

Better than any pharmaceutical painkiller is my friend Tracy’s pho. She’s amazing. Most people would haul themselves down to the nearest pho restaurant and drop the $4 bucks for a styrofoam container of this Vietnamese soup. But oh no! My dear friend spends a better portion of the day brewing her own broth, and it is worth every simmered minute. Top Ramen would have helped, but her soup renewed me, even made me want to paint another room!

She’d taken a recipe and adapted it to her own tastes, and I’m sharing, as best I can, how she did it:

To make the stock:

Take about 4-6 short ribs and 2 big ox tails and roast them for about 30 minutes in the oven, or until they are good and browned. Once browned take them out of the oven, remove the fat and add the bones and meat to a stockpot. Deglaze the roasting pan with a bit of chicken stock, then add to the pot. Add a good hunk of ginger, about 2 inches sliced, and about 1 teaspoon of salt to the pot. Pour in roughly 3-4 large (49 oz.) cans of chicken stock, and let simmer for about 3-4 hours. Skim off the fat scum periodically.

After the long simmer add the following (to taste):

8-10 black and white pepper corns (a mixture of both)
1 large yellow or white onion, roughly chopped
1 stick cinnamon
5 cloves
About 20 coriander seeds
¼ teaspoon cumin
¾ cups fish sauce

Simmer another 40 minutes, then drain the stock, reserving the liquid, and discard the bones and spices.

Prepare 2 packages of rice noodles (thin to medium; it’s all a matter of preference) according to instructions – usually just a fast “swizzle” in boiling water.

Compile the following on a big plate: sliced limes, finely chopped green onions, a pile of bean sprouts, and sprigs of basil and cilantro. Have an assortment of good chili sauce (Sriracha is great!) and hoisin or oyster sauce.

For the meat version use thinly sliced beef or pork; sukiyaki cuts are available at Asian markets. The thin slices will quickly cook in the hot broth.

You’re now ready to assemble your pho. For individual servings, add some noodles to a bowl. Add sliced of beef and pour in some of your hot beef broth. Top with green onions, bean sprouts, and a handful of basil and cilantro. Give a good squeeze of lime juice and season to taste with chili sauce and/or hoisin sauce.

Hmm, I think the bathroom would be nice in a pretty shade of blue……

Possibly Related Posts:

• Winter Squash is Delicious, Healthy, and in Season
• Perfect Scrambled Eggs
• Moorish Badenjan Dip
• Celebrating Chanterelles
• Remedies for Your Butternut Squash Addiction

Categories:	Asian • Cooking tips • Herbs • Meat & Poultry • Seasoning & Spices • Soup • Veggies	7 Comments
Tags:	Asian • cooking • Food • foodista • pho • recipe • recipes • Soup • Vietnamese

Let me preface this by saying I mean no disrespect, but Barnaby has this hilarious cookbook called White Trash Cooking. While I have been known to eat Little Smokies and SPAM, I had never heard of some of the ‘delicacies’ listed in this fine publication.

Let me share one with you: Cooter Pie. I’m unclear as to exactly what a cooter is, and honestly, I’d like it to stay that way. The following recipe is duplicated exactly as published, I just want to clarify a few things first:

1. If it has eggs I’m guessing it’s a she not a he,
2. I’m never whacking the head off anything with a hatchet,
3. I’ve never called it a “toe of garlic,”
4. I’m concerned why this is best prepared in a black dutch oven. Will my white-bottomed one not work?

Cooter Pie (The Hunter’s Delight)

First you take a live cooter and wait for him to stick his head out from under his shell. When he does, you grab it and whack it off. Take a hatchet to the underside so you can get to the meat and remove it along with the liver, tripe and eggs (if he has any?). Set aside.

1/2 cup of chopped bacon
2 medium onions, chopped
2 toes of garlic, crushed
1 stewed tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon of thyme
1/4 cup flour

Fry all the the above down until it’s browned, then add the cooter and continue to cook. It’s best in a black iron dutch oven. Don’t forget to salt and pepper it to your taste. Brown the flour in an iron frying pan. Stir constantly to avoid burning. Bake sure you brown it good. Then add it to the cooter with enough water to make it soupy. Stew down til meat is falling off the bone and the liquid is thick. Now make a biscuit dough and drop small-sized biscuits over the top of the stew. Stick it in a preheated oven at 400 degrees and bake until done (golden). A hunter will come out of the woods to get this!

The recipe that follows in the book is Mock Cooter Soup. Cooter’s good enough to have a mock version? I’ll stick with chicken, thanks!

Possibly Related Posts:

• A Very Vegan and Vegetarian Friday Fun Links
• Foodista Quick Tip: Infusions
• National Candy Day is November 4
• Georges DuBoeuf Wine Bag Design Contest
• Mangalitsa Lard Chicken Confit

Categories:	Meat & Poultry • Seasoning & Spices • Uncategorized	5 Comments
Tags:	cooking • cooter • Food • foodista • recipe • recipes • white trash

I love Mexican food. So much so that I think I was Mexicana in a previous life. Actually, I say that when I eat just about any food, really. I’ve been Japanese, French, Italian…you get the picture.

My newest love is mole. You’re probably saying, “Well, what took you so long?” Honestly, I had a bit of a bad experience years ago (I’ll spare you the gory details) and have been a bit averse to trying this rich dish again. But with a less whimpy belly, a fierce gusto for food and a recent trip back to Mexico, I tried it once more.

“Holy mole this is good!” I cried with gastronomical glee. I.Am.Hooked.

I know visually it may not knock your socks off, but believe me taste-wise it will.

Mole (pronounced mo-lay) is like curry. In fact, mole is a generic term for “sauce” and, like curry, comes in a variety of flavors. Such as, guacamole, or “avocado sauce.”

Probably the most well-know mole is Mole Poblano which is made from dried chili peppers, a whole gang of spices such as cinnamon and cloves, ground seeds and nuts, Mexican chocolate (stay with me now, it’s great), aromatics…oh the list goes on!

It’s no easy thing to whip up a mole. Well, a good traditional Mole Poblano, that is. It can take days to prepare a truly authentic one. But the good news is there are a variety of premade moles readily available at your local Mexican market or markets that carry ethnic foods.

We bought a Mole Verde (green mole) and prepared it with chicken like so:

We julienned some red and yellow peppers along with a large sweet yellow onion. Then we sauteed them in a large pan with a bit of olive oil until browned, removed them from the pan and set aside. In the same pan we heated up some more olive oil and browned a whole chicken (cut into parts). Once browned we added the pepper and onion mixture to the chicken. In a separate saucepan we heated the entire jar of mole and a bottle of white wine (minus a sip or two – wink, wink) until thoroughly mixed. We then added the sauce to the chicken and simmered the whole shebang for hours. You want to simmer at least a good two hours to allow the flavors to truly marry.

Muuuuuy delicioso!

If you have nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon try one of these great mole recipes from Ramekins. I specifically like the sound of Mole Poblano #5.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Raw Tacos
• A Chance to go to the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen
• Wine from Scratch: A History Behind The Bottle
• Perfect Scrambled Eggs
• Moorish Badenjan Dip

Categories:	Cooking tips • Latin • Meat & Poultry • Mexican • Nuts • Sauces • Seasoning & Spices • Travel	4 Comments
Tags:	aromatics • chicken • Chili Peppers • cooking • Food • foodista • Mexican • Mexico • mole • Nuts • pepper • recipe • recipes • sauce • seeds • spices • Spicy

One of the delicious dishes we created in our Indian cooking class the other night was a chicken curry with cashews. As I said in Part I, the dishes that were prepared were quite easy yet wonderful and full of all that flavorful Indian goodness! If you are tired of hearing, “Chicken again?” try this recipe.

Curried Chicken with Bell Peppers & Cashews

1/2 C olive oil
8 cloves of garlic, minced
4 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 T ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 lbs. chicken, cubed
2 C diced bell pepper (we used a combination of red, yellow and orange which was beautiful)
1 C diced yellow or white onion
1 C peas
1 C cashews
1 C cilantro, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1 T olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onions and garlic and cook until wilted. Add the bell peppers and cook until onions are translucent. Take veggies out of the skillet and set aside.

Pour in the remaining oil to the skillet and add all the spices. Stir quickly until completely mixed. Toss in the chicken and cook approximately 7 minutes or until no longer pink. Put the veggies back into the skillet along with the peas. Cook until heated through. Stir in the cilantro and cashews, then serve. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with more chopped cilantro and cashews on top.

*Options: you can adjust the level of any of the spices for added flavor. We like a little kick to our food so next time I will increase the cayenne pepper amount.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Winter Squash is Delicious, Healthy, and in Season
• Perfect Scrambled Eggs
• Moorish Badenjan Dip
• Celebrating Chanterelles
• Remedies for Your Butternut Squash Addiction

Categories:	Asian • Cooking tips • Herbs • Meat & Poultry • Seasoning & Spices • Veggies	4 Comments
Tags:	bell pepper • cashews • chicken • cilantro • cooking • Cooking tips • curry • Food • foodista • Indian

Barnaby has the uncanny ability to look into the fridge and be able to whip up some fabulous gourmet meal. I, on the other hand, will take a look and immediately say, “We have nothing, nothing at all. We need to go to the store.”

Last night was one such night. I saw nothing and Barnaby saw a cornucopia of delectables. So he took over (hmm, maybe I should just start feigning culinary ineptness more often!). What he grabbed from the depths of our pantry and cold storage was this:

Freezer: clams in an abundance of their juice, a fillet of King salmon and a few halibut cheeks.
Fridge: a bit of fennel, mayonnaise
Pantry: an onion, a carton of good quality tomato sauce, saffron threads, white wine, chili powder, the remainder of a loaf of pugliese, truffle oil…I’m sure I’m missing some other minor ingredients, but you get the gist.

The result of his genius was a beautiful and ever so scrumptious non-traditional bouillabaisse. We named it Pacific Northwest Bouillabaisse due to two of its key ingredients: halibut cheeks and King salmon. He didn’t stop there, oh no, he served it with toast drizzled with a bit of truffle oil and a rouille on the side (you want to move in with us, don’t you?).

It was the best darn scavenged meal I think I’ve ever had.

For further eating pleasure:

Here’s a great classic bouillabaisse recipe from Simply Recipes.
Jacques Pépin’s Chicken Bouillabaisse from Food and Wine.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Winter Squash is Delicious, Healthy, and in Season
• The World’s Most Neglected Wines (Part One): Australian Riesling
• Perfect Scrambled Eggs
• Moorish Badenjan Dip
• Salmon with Chanterelles and Slow Cooked Tomatoes

Categories:	Cooking tips • Fish & Seafood • French • Herbs • Sauces • Seasoning & Spices • Shellfish • Soup • Veggies	2 Comments
Tags:	bouillabaisse • clams • cooking • eating • fennel • fish • Food • foodista • halibut cheeks • rouille • saffron • salmon • seafood • Shellfish • Soup • tomato • truffle oil