Showing posts with label James Beard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Beard. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

It's All Good at Cheftopia: The 30th Annual Chefs' Tribute to Citymeals-on-Wheels

Fried Chicken, Whipped Smoked Onion Butter, Smoked Bacon Waffles and Chipotle Mustard Maple Syrup (Jonathan Wright, Rainbow Room, NYC). Photos by Yours Truly.

Early Summer Tartine: Cloumage Cheese, Young Vegetables and Herbs (Octavio Becerra, State Grill and Bar, NYC).

Seeded Foie Gras Lollipop (Barbara Lynch, Menton, Boston).

IT is not a mouthful of chocolate. It is a Seeded Foie Gras Lollipop.

Who knew cow tongue could be so beef-stew beefy?! It has been left to Tongue Tacos, Fermented Chilies and Wild Garlic to point it out.

These are just some of the more than 30 dishes on the menu at Cheftopia: The 30th Annual Chefs' Tribute to Citymeals-on-Wheels at Rockefeller Center Plaza.

Rumor meal has it that the Pacific Oyster Pan Roast on Jim's Toasted Yeast-Raised Corn Bread (Larry Forgione (LF), The Conservatory for American Studies CIA Greystone Campus, St. Helena, CA) is decadently delicious. It looks it, too.

Likewise, the forecast for the Bourbon Crab Succotash, Green Peas, Chantarelle, Pickled Cherry Tomato (Sebastien Archambault, The Back Room, NYC.)

Assistant chef Daniel Tackett presents Pressed Duck and Ground Cherries (Scott Conant, Scarpetta, Los Angeles).

Fact is, every Cheftopia dish is some form of delicious. Sumptuous. Scrumptious. Heavenly. Divine. After all, these delights, such as the aforesaid foie gras lollipops (Barbara Lynch, Menton, Boston) and beef tongue taco (Marc Forgione, Restaurant Marc Forgione / American Cut, Khe-yo, NYC), are the creations of top chefs (and team) from around the country.

That's how they roll (chop, mince, grind, simmer, saute) at Cheftopia. By now, Cheftoria is a familiar story: honorees this year and founding chefs, LF and Johnathan Waxman, got it into their heads in the mid 90s to birthday gift Citymeals co-founder James Beard with a cookarama event to raise funds for his charity.

Amuse bouche is an apt description of the Pressed Duck and Ground Cherries (Scott Conant, Scarpetta, Los Angeles). What an explosion of flavor on the palate!

Indeed, Cheftopia is a birthday gift that keeps on giving! How wonderful! How marvelous! How ecstatic are foodies! How helpful for the chronically disabled senior citizen population that
Citymeals serves!

Sunflower Risotto with Shaved Button Mushrooms (Eli Kulp and Jon Nodler, Fork Restaurant / High Street on Hudson, Philadelphia and NYC).

A welcome combination of hard and soft textures in the Early Summer Tartine: Cloumage Cheese, Young Vegetables and Herbs (Octavio Becerra, State Grill and Bar, NYC).

Monday night's Cheftopia 30 raised more than $850,000. Since its founding, it has raised nearly $20 million for Citymeals, a really good friend to the homebound elderly.

At this moment, a certain palate is doing cartwheels. The cause of this commotion: chicken&waffles. Specifically, Fried Chicken, Whipped Smoked Onion Butter, Smoked Bacon Waffles and Chipotle Mustard Maple Syrup (Jonathan Wright, Rainbow Room, NYC).

JW's iteration of c&w is set apart from others because it is not cloyingly sweet. Sweet!

Visit http://www.citymeals.org to learn more about "Cheftopia" and Citymeals-on-Wheels.

Pacific Oyster Pan Roast on Jim's Toasted Yeast-Raised Corn Bread (Larry Forgione, The Conservatory for American Studies CIA Greystone Campus, St. Helena, CA).

Bourbon Crab Succotash, Green Peas, Chantarelle, Pickled Cherry Tomato (Sebastien Archambault, The Back Room, NYC).

Fixings for Tongue Tacos, Fermented Chilies and Wild Garlic (Marc Forgione, Restaurant Marc Forgione, / American Cut, Khe-yo, NYC).

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

National Indian Pudding Day: An Easy, Breezy Dish



LOOKS yucky; tastes yummy. That is Indian Pudding in a nutshell.

Today, is National Indian Pudding day and this little Thanksgiving-time dish deserves a few, sweet words. Like so much in life, it was a happy accident. Keep in mind that Indian Pudding is one thing the British colonists did not take from the natives, though the name may suggest it.

Indian pudding was born when home cooks, lacking wheat flour, substituted corn flour, a New World staple back in that day. Eventually, the corn flour would be gussied up with molasses, ginger, cinnamon and other ingredients. These additions created a dessert, departing from the more savory porridge that it was intended to replicate.

A happy accident! Sweet, no?

Recipes for Indian pudding abound. The challenge set forth, however, was to root around the World Wide Web for one with few (five!) ingredients - the ingredient list for this little sweetie can be rather massive (as large as 15!). Success! The winner is an old James Beard recipe (below) that appears in Epicurious (http://www.epicurious.com/).

See the video at top from The Culinary Institute of America and click on the link in the photo caption below to see more elaborate Indian pudding recipes.

The recipe for Indian Pudding with Bourbon Spiked Cream is only a click away: http://www.bit.ly/17Uu9bs. Photo courtesy of Yummly.

Old-Fashioned Indian Pudding
(by James Beard)

1 qt milk (scalded)
1/3 cup meal (yellow corn)
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup molasses
1 ginger (good teaspoon)
Yield: 6 servings

Put the scalded milk and corn meal in the top of a double boiler over boiling water. Add the salt and cook, stirring frequently for about 20 minutes. Mix with the molasses and ginger and pour into a buttered 2-quart soufflè dish or baking dish. Bake in a 300°F. oven for about 2 hours. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Nutrition Information (per serving)
Calories 214; Carbohydrates 36g (12%); Fat 5g (8%); Protein 6g (12%); Saturated fat 3g (15%); Sodium 106mg (4%); Polyunsaturated Fat0g; Fiber 0g (2%); Monounsaturated Fat 1g; Cholesterol 16 mg (5%)

 
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