What I did during Hurricane Sandy

Let me just say here and now that the hurricane was pretty fantastic in scope and destruction. New York City is still partially under water (subways) but the buses are now running again, and the bridges are now open, but they're saying that some people will be without power until at least Saturday; that's rough. I did see a bus on Riverside Drive yesterday afternoon so I know there is some mobile activity being conducted by the MTA.

In any event, it was an event. I stayed indoors and ventured out on Monday around 4:00 to walk the dog. We didn't venture out again until this morning. Last night, during all the fuss outside, I made a starter for Ciabatta (which I baked today) and I also made my second Torta di Ricotta with Almonds and Candied Orange Peel.  Here are the finished products.

Ciabatta

Torta di Ricotta

I've been promising for some time now to write about ricotta cheese and since I've already written about making ricotta, I thought it only right to make something with freshly made ricotta cheese. There are several steps involved with making this torte and it requires a fair amount of patience and skill, so let's begin.

Torta di Ricotta

It's important to have all the required ingredients at hand before you start mixing the torta.

One 10" spring form cake pan with removable bottom, buttered

Preheat oven to 350ºF

12-14 servings

Candied Orange Peal

1 Navel Orange (pealed, and pith removed)
   Peal should  then be cut into thin julienne strips. The fruit should be blended in a blender or
   food processor and reserved for later use in this recipe.

1 Cup Sugar

2 Tbs. Water

Heat sugar and water together in a small saucepan. Stir until it starts to crystallize, stop stirring immediately and wait for the sugar and water to boil. It will look like white molten lava. As the bubbles subside, the caramel will become clear and form many bubbles. At this point, add the orange peel. Continue to boil until the sugar turns the color of amber. Immediately remove from the heat. Let rest for a few moments to stop boiling. The orange peel will be extremely sticky. Remove each peel with a tong or a fork and place on a rack which has been placed on top of a piece of parchment or wax paper. Continue until all the peel is removed. Let the orange peel cool completely and set aside.

Caramel

Add to the caramel sauce 

4 Tbs. Sweet Butter

4 Tbs. Heavy Cream and stir until completely incorporated and takes on the consistency of butterscotch

Dot with little pebbles of butter and set aside in a warm place. (The back of the stove works here)

1 Cup Almonds finely ground

Take all of the orange peel and place in a food processor. Mix until thoroughly blended into a coarse paste.

Torta

Cream 1 stick of butter in a stand mixer and add

1 Cup of Sugar

1 Tsp. Vanilla

Mix thoroughly until the mixture turns pale yellow

6 Eggs separated

Add the egg yolks to the cake base one egg yolk at a time

to this add

the almond paste

the orange peel

but mix with a spatula or wooden spoon

2 Cups Fresh Ricotta Cheese 

3 tbls. Creme Fraiche

Caramel Sauce

Pulp and Juice from the Navel Orange

In a separate bowl, combine all ingredients by hand with a whisk until blended and add to the torta batter.

6 Egg Whites

1/2 Tsp. Cream of Tartar

Pinch of Salt

3 Tbs. Sugar

In another bowl, beat the 6 egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the cream of tartar, salt and sugar and mix until the egg whites take on a brilliant sheen and form stiff peaks. After completely incorporated, fold some of the egg white mixture into the cake batter until fully incorporated and then fold in the rest of the egg whites into the batter. Mix only until blended but do not fold too much otherwise the texture of the ricotta will be altered.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and place on the middle rack of the oven. Depending on your oven, bake for 50 minutes. Keep an eye on it after 45 minutes to be sure. If you jiggle the pan and the center shakes a lot, it's not done. The Torta will be completely baked when the torte has shrunk from the sides of the pan and a cake tester or a thin knife comes out clean after piercing the torta.  (I have left it in longer if it hasn't passed the cake test.)

Torta di Ricotta

Let the Torta cool in the pan and then remove cake to let completely cool on a plate. At this point you can refrigerate it or if serving immediately, dust the top of the torta with powdered sugar and serve.

I have found that the Torta is better after being refrigerated, but that is my own personal taste.

Buon appetito!

And now for something completely different:

Jonathan Waxman's Ciabatta

As you have already read, I have read and still do read a great many cookbooks in addition to the many I already have. I've often been a victim of cookbook wanderlust and have culled the stacks at a library or two (in one day) and checked some of them out to peruse on the bus, the subway, before I go to bed,  you name it.  I want to confess here and now that the only reason I am putting this recipe on my blog (besides the fact that I posted a photograph of it above) is because, besides my grandmother's sfincuini (Sicilian pizza), this is the first bread recipe that I have baked that turned out exactly as it should have. I did precisely what my grandmother would have done: followed the recipe to the letter, so here goes. One last thing: the recipe can be found in Italian My Way by Jonathan Waxman on page 38. 

6 Cups Strong Organic Bread Flour

1 Package Active Dry Yeast

2 Tbs. Whole Milk

1 Tbs. Honey

2 Tbs. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

2 1/4 Cups Warm Water

1 Tbs. Sea Salt

Mix 2 cups of the flour, the yeast, milk honey and olive oil in a large bowl. Stir together with a wooden spoon then beat until fully incorporated. Cover and let sit at rom temperatue for several hours, then refrigerate overnight.

Add the remaining flour and the sea salt and mix well (I used a stand mixer with the dough hook). Dump the dough onto a floured work surgave, dust with flour and knead for 10 minutes. Clean the bowl and coast with olive oil. Return the dough to the bowl and let rise for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425º

Cut the dough in half and form a slipper 12 inches long and 5 inches wide and about 3 inches tall. Roll the ciabatta in flour and place on a making sheet. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Let the loaves rise for 30 minutes.

Put the ciabata in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. If they brown too much, lower the temperature and continue baking.

When the ciabatta is done, remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. (see photo)

We ate hot bread with olive oil for an hour during the hurricane while Poirot solved a triple murder!

Let's Talk About Cookbooks! . . . And Bread Crumbs . . . And  Ricotta Cheese too!

Sorry about the gap in entries here but I've been out of town and took a holiday from cooking due to more concentrated efforts elsewhere, primarily at the piano. I did eat, however, and will be talking about that soon.

Somewhere along the line, I've mentioned that I have this vast compendium of cookbooks in my culinary library (upwards of 350 books in the apartment and at least another 300 in storage). I have a few friends to thank for giving me most of these for various occasions, including birthdays and Christmas. One of them, a very close one at that, continues to this day to give me fantastic first editions signed and inscribed by the author(s). My sister is almost always prone to announce to friends, family and even strangers that I "read cookbooks like a novel" and that is pretty close to the mark. They're not Dumas or Dickens - rarely are they fiction! -  but they do impart an enormous amount of information and by that I mean in addition to the recipes. Where else could you learn that in Sicily, to waste bread. even a crumb, is a sin for which you would be cast into purgatory for hundreds of years, forced to pick them up with your eyelashes**, or that, in the 14th century, pepper was more valuable than gold? These are only two of the many instances of the ricchezze I have acquired in the kitchen through reading, trying out recipes, mastering certain ones to the point that they become second nature to me, and, of course, savoring and eating every delicious morsel; it's called living.

** From what I've been recently reading, the waste of even a morsel of bread is not looked kindly upon in many other countries as well, including Austria and Hungary, Germany and Belgium - it is, after all, the staff of life. We in America, to our misfortune, take it all for granted.

Pictures in cookbooks are important; especially when the cookbook in question focuses on one primary target: a country, a city, a region; in my estimation, it's a specialized form of ethno-anthropology (cf. the Romans, who acquired all the spices - and their secrets - which were then lost after the fall, only to be partially rediscovered by the Venetians 1000 years later). I say this not only because they're pretty to look at, but because they evoke a culture that one would otherwise not know without seeing its people, its locales and the pride which stems from the specific products of that country or region. Besides all that, the photographs (usually on the order of Vogue magazine or better) mirror (or at least should) what the texts describe in these books. It is, in a sense, a particular journey which one takes without actually going anywhere. Of course, there is nothing like the real thing, and traveling to any given country whose cuisine is extraordinary only magnifies the aura and mystique, not to mention the experience.

I could go on and on about cookbooks and cooking but it's more important to talk about the food than my ever-expanding library. So, let me just say that after reading so many books on Italian food lately, and especially about ricotta cheese, I am now going to submit my own recipe for ricotta. It's simple, it isn't complicated and it's very rich. Some of the cookbooks subscribe to only lemon juice, some to vinegar and water (a lot of it). Most only use milk (I use milk and cream or even half and half) but one word of warning: if you're going to make ricotta cheese, you must either use Full Milk (Vitamin D) or Skim; the 1- or 2% versions somehow don't make the grade and don't curdle the way full milk or skim do.

This recipe is a prelude to what will follow in my next entry: an Orange, Almond and Ricotta Torta, so it will be good practice to make ricotta a few times to make sure you get the feel of it and can see first hand how it should done in your kitchen. There are myriad ways to use Ricotta (gnocchi, for instance), all fantastic for sure. There is always trial and error but this is so simple that it is difficult to screw this up.

Ricotta Cheese

Equipment: a large stainless steel or heavy bottomed sauce pan, lots of cheese cloth or a white tea towel, a large colander and a larger bowl to fit the colander in when draining the cheese.

Ricotta Cheese

One 1/2 gallon Milk

2 cups half and half
1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
1/2 cup 

Use a stainless steel or heavy enameled pot (Le Creuset is ideal) large enough to hold all ingredients. Once you stir in the vinegar, you will immediately see the milk products start to separate. Place the pot over moderately high heat and bring to a simmer (just short of  the boiling point (180º F). Stir occasionally so the milk doesn't scald and stick to the bottom of the pan.

While the milk is heating, place a double sheet of cheesecloth or a tea towel under water and then squeeze out water and unfold over a  colander.

Large clumps of curd will form and float to the top of the pan. When the temperature reaches 180º, remove the pot from the heat. Place the colander in a large bowl and start removing the curds with a slotted spoon (do not pour all the contents of the pan into the colander). Once all the curds have been removed, and if the whey is still very cloudy, you can bring the liquid back to the boiling point to see if more curds will form. If so, place those in the colander as well.

Let the ricotta drain in the colander for at least one hour. The more it drains, the denser the cheese will become. You should have a dense mass of ricotta cheese. You can place the cheese in plastic storage containers and refrigerate for up to a week but it is best when at its freshest. The clear liquid (more whey) at the bottom of the bowl can be saved in a glass jar to use in the next batch of ricotta. However, it will not stay in the fridge for more than a week so if you don't plan on using it within that frame time, you can discard it. To reuse the whey, simply pour it into the milk base the next time you make ricotta.

Bread Crumbs

I talked about bread crumbs before so let me just say that I usually make my own whenever I have leftover bread (of any kind). My Mother seasoned hers with herbs and cheese which I do as well, but I also make bread crumbs and season them with pulverized dry orange peel with fennel seed powder. You can make any combination of seasonings that are appropriate for almost any application. And of course, there are simple bread crumbs from dry bread, darkened bread crumbs from roasting the bread crumbs in the oven and still other forms, including soft bread crumbs, which in essence is torn bread left to dry and then revived with water, wine or milk. This particular bread crumb blend is especially good for breaded veal or pork cutlets, or even for Arancini (rise balls).

You need a good spice grinder (or electric coffee mill) and a nice metal tin or glass jar in which to store the crumbs. 

The rind of one orange, cut into very thin julienned strips, left to dry on a plate for 2-4 days (depending on the humidity). They will curl and become very hard.

If you have fresh fennel in the house, you can finely chop the fronds and the smaller stalks and sprinkle these on the orange rind or separately on an plate to dry as well.

Orange Peal and Fennel Fronds

4 tablespoons fennel seeds

1 tsp Kosher Salt

15-20 turns of the pepper grinder (black or white pepper)

Place orange rind and fennel in spice grinder and grind until it is a powder. Add this to about 4 cups of dried bread crumbs with the salt and the pepper. Store in air tight container of your choise. Will keep for over a year but mine are usually gone within the month.

Ossobuco con Piselli e Gnocchetti 

but first . . . 

Last night I was in the grocery store to purchase the all important peas and some ice cream (cravings) and milk (future ricotta cheese - that recipe to follow soon!) and the man in front of me was checking out at the cashier. To my horror, here is what he bought:

13 Swanson TV dinners (assorted turkey, sweet and sour chicken, pork something or other and beef something or other - all on sale at $1.00 a piece!)

6 bottles, I mean litre bottles of Cherry Soda, Sprite, Coke (all of it pure carbonated sugar)

3 large half gallon containers of pineapple juice and orange juice

at least 6 bags of potato chips and God only knows what else was already packed in his shopping bags. 

He obviously doesn't cook. I felt sorry for him but I was appalled nonetheless. I say appalled because it is so unnecessary to poison one's body with prepared garbage posing as food. Just the salt alone was enough to give me a stroke. And then there was the sugar: Entenmann's Chocolate Chip Cookies - a few boxes of those.

I'm the first one to admit that carbohydrates and sugar are bad for you but if ingested in moderate degrees it certainly won't give you a coronary, but what this person is going to consume over the next week or so will soften his brain to sludge. The poor man's pallor was already gray. I wanted to warn him of the ills that would follow on such a diet but kept my mouth shut. He paid cash for his food and it's his money and his life. Channeling Dante, I can only - sympathetically -  paraphrase: Into this dark wood I found myself wandering and came upon that place where it warned: abandon all hope, ye who enter here!

You'll note that I made cookies with potato chips but that doesn't mean I'm going to eat an entire bag in front of the boob toob; to be perfectly honest, my television went out the window with Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and I haven't watched it since. So a word to the wise: eat healthy food. Make it yourself, or at least if you can't make it, buy food that is fresh and that you can see (and hopefully touch - Julia was all for touching!) before you put it into your mouth. Even my dog has a more discriminating palette. 

Now, to the main event. Ossobuco made from veal is an expensive prospect, but the rewards when eating it are worth every penny. I'm sure there are stories of eating veal, the fatted calf, and how to make it that go all the way back to the age when calves were sacrificed. But our intention here is to eat it, not to let it go up in smoke.

Ossobuco is traditionally made throughout Italy, although you would be hard pressed to find it on those islands surrounded by the sea, Sicily and Sardegna, except in restaurants and for a very dear price indeed. It is typically made in Lombardia, the Veneto and Emilia Romagna but is also made wherever the production of beef flourishes. In the nether regions of the Veneto (Friuli and the Alto Adige) it is known as Stinco, a derivation from the Triestino dialect, schinco (shank). 

Ossobuco, tied and ready for the stew pot!

Dizionario Garzanti defines stinco as the shin bone, and the literal translation for Ossobuco is bone with a hole, and that is precisely what Ossobuco is. Other animals besides the calf also offer magnificent versions of this dish. I've had incredible Ossobuco made with Elk, and Venison here in New York City (at Employees Only on Hudson Street and at the Terrace Restaurant in Morningside Heights respectively); I've made lamb shanks but they are quite a different texture altogether and I remember an exceptionally mouth watering Stinco di Capra (goat) I had in Bologna (where else?) many years ago that knocked my socks off. These are rather gamier than veal and even though they may not have the same delicacy of calves flesh, they are just as pleasurable if prepared under the right hands.

If one were to call Beef braised in Barolo or Amarone the king of the braise, then Ossobuco is its queen. The secret is to cook it to the point where the meat falls off the bone but keep it intact until it reaches the plate! Waverly Root wrote that he counted at least 7 different versions in seven different Italian cookbooks and suspected that there were at least double that amount to be found in Lombardy alone. As I write this, I have in front of me a dozen of the 350+ cookbooks in my library (3 by the Hazans (mother and son), 2 by Bugialli, 1 by Batali and several more) and can attest to his veracity. Not one recipe is the same and in some of the books one finds at least two or three different versions on how to cook it (cut in slices, roasted whole, etc.) from a variety of opposing camps. A stinco in Friuli might be the entire leg roasted by itself to perfection with aromatic vegetables strewn on the bottom of the pan to use later for a sauce made from white wine, stock, tomato and herbs. An entire hind leg (the preferred cut) could serve 4-6 people depending on the size and what else is being or has been served beforehand. Keep in mind that in Italy, this dish is definitely a secondo which has been preceded by an antipasto and/or a primo, one of those definitely composed of pasta or soup (with pasta or not). The Milanese serve Ossobuco with Risotto alla Milanese, which would preclude a starch as a first course, however, there are so very many ways that it is cooked that it is hard to pinpoint the original to any one region. Be that as it may, the Ossobuco with which we here in the US are most familiar is the one that is slowly braised in a mixture of broth, white wine, vegetables and tomatoes depending on personal taste. Some recipes call for saffron, some do not, some prefer peas in the tomato sauce, others do not, while there exist still recipes which use no tomato at all. The one thing that is definitely consistent in every recipe, however, is the inclusion of gremolata (grated lemon peal, garlic and parsley, but even that is but one version) at the very end before serving.

Rarely does the home cook make an entire hind leg of veal left intact from oven or stove to the table. Most butchers cut the shank in thick slices (Marcella Hazan recommends not more that 1 1/2 inches thick), but if you have very - and I mean VERY - deep pockets and want to make a dramatic statement for a special occasion, it's definitely the way to go. As one famous chef writes in one of his cookbooks, "it makes heads turn!" But then, he, who will remain nameless, would say something like that. However, Ms. Hazan is not a great fan of the entire shank as it "rarely cooks long or slowly enough and it usually ends up being chewy and stringy." She also doesn't put Gremolata in her Ossobuco! See what I mean about personal taste? TV dinners or Gremolata? You decide!

So, here is my version of Ossobuco. It's not that complicated but it's not simple either. Patience is key . . . 

Serves 4 people

4 veal shanks (sliced to 1 1/2 inch thickness, tied with twine to hold the meat in place)

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic

2 carrots peeled and chopped (fine dice)

1 stalk celery (peeled and finely chopped)

1 sprig fresh rosemary (finely chopped)

1 tablespoon fresh thyme (finely chopped

4-5 Fresh sage leaves (coarsely chopped)

1 cup white wine or dry vermouth

1 cup hot chicken or veal stock 

1 large can peeled tomatoes in juice (crushed)

Grated rind of one orange

Kosher Salt

Pepper (about 12 turns of the pepper mill will do nicely)

Saffron (dissolved in the white wine)

1 cup small peas (optional)

3-4 tbls. unsalted butter

Heat the oil over moderately high heat and brown the shanks on both sides. Remove the shanks and add more oil if necessary and add onions, garlic, carrots, celery and herbs and sauté over medium heat until the onions turn translucent. Add the white wine and the saffron and cook over high heat until greatly reduced. Place veal shanks back in the pan and add the stock and bring to the boil. At this point add the grated orange rind to the tomatoes and add to the stock, check for seasoning and once the mixture has begun to boil, lower heat to a simmer and cover the pot. Simmer for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally but making sure not to upset the veal shanks. You want the veal to cook slower than faster so the flavors become infused. 

After a couple of hours, check with a fork to see if the veal is tender. You will know it is done when the flesh recedes from the bone. Turn of the heat, let the veal rest in the covered pot and come to room temperature. The shanks can be refrigerated at this point and saved for a very gentle reheating later on or if left until the next day, the Ossobuco will taste even better. You can always add a bit of stock or water if the sauce is too thick or reduces too much during cooking.

I add peas and some unsweetened butter right before the Gremolata. The butter adds sweetness and depth to the sauce and the peas definitely add a bit of crunch to the dish as a whole, not to mention the contrast in colors.

Ossobuco con Piselli e Gnocchetti

The addition of Gremolata at the very end of cooking should be added only before ready to serve. If you refrigerate the veal, add the Gremolata when reheating, not before. Same goes for the peas and the butter.

Gremolata

Grated rind of one lemon

1 tablespoon chopped parsley 

1 clove garlic, minced or passed through a garlic press

Grate the lemon avoiding the white pith. Add the garlic and the parsley and mix thoroughly.

Oh, and one - actually two - more things! Don't forget to eat the marrow inside the bone with a chunk of bread or scoop it out and mix it in with the sauce while eating. DELICIOUS!

The bone, by the way, can be gnawed on by your dog. Mine loves them.

Buon appetito!