Remember when you were a kid and you looked foreward to dressing up for halloween? The clock was ticking and you didn’t know what you wanted to be. Mom wanted you to be in a “cute” costume while you fought tooth and nail to be scary. Times have changed and it seems that halloween isn’t what it used to be. Back in the 70′ and 80’s your biggest concern was to get through a night of trick or treating witout being egged or shaving creamed. Mom was very adamant about checking your candy before you devoured it. Remember those times?? It seems too that the luster of this holiday has dimmed. Being the big kid that I am I loved it…so much that I endured 15 years of going to Salem Mass to celebrate. Salem is quite a cool town, even beyond October. There is a lot of history there…but this isn’t about Nathanial Hawthorn…it is about ghosts and goblins.
If you pick up any number of magazine around this time of year…someone including Martha will focus on helping you to enjoy the “spirit” of things. Some of the things they might suggest to you are “luminaries” made from paper bags with faces painted on them. Pumpkin carving too is a big thing. All in all they try to stir your creative imagination so that you have a successful party and holiday. I too am one of those bastians of culinary info.
Using a festive paper bag is one of many things to set the mood…using ideas you might have gotten from your favorite horror movie could be another. Try if you will to avoid the sudo cobwebs you buy in a bag at party city. They might be fun going up…but a horror coming down. One thing I have done in the past was to take a piece of cardboard and wrap it with tin foil shiny side out. Then mount it in a picture frame and in red paint write “REDRUM” on it. The effect is cooler if some of the paint runs down. If you have seen the movie “the Shining” you will understand the mirror thing. Another thing you can do is the fog thing. Very simple…place chunks of dry ice into a bucket with water and voila…fog. Dry ice is easy enough to get. Usually sold by companies that supply ice cream trucks. Be careful though…dry ice is like 168 degrees below zero. The bottom line is that you can go to the nines or keep it as simple as pie…just do it your way.
Halloween is no exception to the rule, so I am going to supply yet another recipe. Chocolate Raspberry Tombstones in Dirt are a really great thing to serve at your next spooky dinner party.
The first thing you need to do is go to the candy supply store and get some chocolate molds in the shape of head stones. You will also need to get some dark chocolate covertures…which are sold in bags at the same store. Follow the directions for melting and mold as many “headstones” as needed. The dirt is ground up chocolate cookies and the raspberry “blood” is raspberry syrup. On plates spread out the dirt. Place a headstone into the dirt (write on them if you like with white frosting) and drizzle the blood down them. Be as creative and creepy as you like.
Thats it for today. Have a great holiday and I will see you next time. Bye.
Look out the window…and tell me what you see. What do I see? Well, besides the fact we are on our way to an incredible autumn season, I see pumpkins and apples and cinnamon. Hold on a second you might be saying…”where do you see that?” All of those ingredients and more are what I like to call the “legends of the fall.” Undeniably these and other flavors dominate our lives. You remember your grandma’s apple or pumpkin pie just out of the oven? Or maybe the turkey and sage stuffing? Any of these ring a bell? All of these do for me…and I carry it over year after year. Now, being a chef I use lots of sage, rosemary and alike in my every day life. I don’t think it is possible not to want to use them. A lot of people just aim for the isle with the dried herbs…and I ask why? I would imagine that they are not familiar with all of the good fresh herbs you might find in your local market. I am not a gardener by nature, so I do rely on the market for all of my herbs…and you can too. All you need to do is trust in your self. Rule number one…dry herbs are 1.5 times more potent than fresh, so you need to go easy on them. Secondly, add the herbs closer to the end of cooking to keep them bright and flavorful. Storing the herbs is easy too. Place them inside a damp paper towel and then in a zip lock bag. They will keep for 7-10 days. Once you master the use of fresh herbs you will never go back to dry.
This week I am going to offer a few tips for your fall entertaining. The recipe for success in this matter is creativity. If you are not good at baking for example, a good store bought pie from a bakery is the way to go. One thing I like to do is to make “pumpkin truffles.” Truffles are either expensive mushrooms or candy made from “ganache” and dusted with cocoa powder. Well, since Martha and the like are taking liberties, why can’t we? Take small bite sized balls of pre baked pumpkin pie and roll them in flower. Coat them with a little beaten egg and roll them in either crushed graham crackers or nuts and freeze them. After they are hardened deep fry them until golden. After you remove them from the oil, roll on paper towel and dust with powdered sugar. You can also dip the pumpkin pie truffles in some magic shell and freeze them til the shell is hardened. At any rate, all of these and more of your own creations will do the trick in a pinch.
Thanks once again for join me tonight and remember one thing…all of this is easy as long as you give it a try. Night.
There is a saying…that “Less is more.” I would have to agree with that when it comes to food. In the 80’s there was the Nouvelle movement where there was a huge plate with a tiny bit of food on it. A dinner for two cost an arm and a leg for that…and people just couldn’t get enough. Power brokers entertained their most respected clients at restaurants in New York…demanding such service. The man who started it all was Joel Robuchon. His foreward vision was to make food as art. Using a big white plate as his canvas he set the standard of what we know today. Later on we would trade in the term “nouvelle” for “minimalistic.” Once again to put a little on a plate for a lot. Minimalistic evolved into artistic…and soon after we started to call it “Prix fixe.” Price fixed menues started to pop up every where but again we hit some snags along the way. As financial times became less and less, people just couldn’t shell out as many “clams” for these high priced meals. As creatues of habit…survival is one of those habits. Chef’s got smarter. They said to themselves…”Hey, what if I lowered the price so people could enjoy my food…but not go broke?!” Hmmm, now there’s a concept. So, the Mario’s and Emeril’s and the lot did just that. They banned together and offered Prix fixed lunches, and left the high priced dinners for the more affluent. Hence, they got more famous for being less greedy…and everybody wins. It doesn’t stop there…once again another evolution. Now the prix fixe meal multiplied to an array of multiple courses…and the top number so far is about 36 courses. Sure, if you have like five hours to kill…and somewhere around $250 bucks. Most of the items in those tasting are basically one bite portions. Thomas Keller once said that he wants his diners to say “wow…I wish I had just one more bite.” He and many other chef’…super star or not are following the trend. With the addition of gastronomic hokus pokus, some creativity and even the use of lab equipment chefs are coming into their own as inventors and engineers. I was going to say “what’s next…astronaut food?” Well, Homaru Cantu from Moto makes his own…and even does his own version of “dippin dots.”
Remember one thing…that less is more, and the next time you go out to dinner…dudge for yourself.
Below is a recipe for something you just might be able to use at your next multi-course dinner party. The dish is a deconstructed Crab Tostada. This dish is very fun to make…and of course fun to eat. It serves 4.
2 oz. Canned lump crab meat, picked through for shells.
4 corn tortilla disks 2 inches in diameter, fried crisp and salted
4 T. guacamole, divided
4 t. chopped tomato, divided
4 .t shredded iceberg lettuce, divided
fresh lime segments, chopped
sour cream for garnish
place a tortilla on each plate. start to build your tostada guacamole on the bottom. Top that with crab, tomato lime and lettuce. Top with a dollup of sour cream, and garnish plate with a dusting of chili powder if you like.
Well, that’s it for this issue…see ya soon. Bye
