PostMaker.Com

I’ve said it before, but I’m in awe of Alice Medrich. She was an early chocolate evangelist in the Bay Area, who brought us luscious desserts and truffles, inspired by what she had tasted and learned in France. Over the past few years she has written several terrific and award-winning books on chocolate including Bittersweet, Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts, and Chocolate Holidays.

Her latest book is a bit of a departure, it’s not just about chocolate, but an exploration into the world of high quality ingredients. The chapters in Pure Dessert are focused on the flavors of Milk, Grain, Nuts and Seeds, Fruit, Chocolate, Honey and Sugar, Herbs and Spices, Flowers and Herbs, and Wine, Beer and Spirits. Intriguing, don’t you think?

In each chapter is a discussion of the ingredients, the flavors and where they can take you. Best of all are the recipes, which are very simple, in part to highlight flavors and not confuse your palate. It’s a celebration of the nuances that contribute to the flavors we love. Medrich is a true perfectionist with an almost scientific like approach, so you are unlikely to ever have trouble with one of her recipes. In this season of too much frosting, sprinkles and fluff, this book is refreshing. Recipes include, Cardamom Roasted Figs, Corn Tuiles with Salt and Pepper, Blackberry Buttermilk Sherbet, Hazelnut Whole Wheat Sables, White Chocolate Souffle Cakes with Chocolate Orange Sauce, and Guinness Ice Cream.

Today meet Alice Medrich at a book signing and dessert tasting(!) from noon until 2 at Fog City News

Fog City News
455 Market Street @ Fremont St
San Francisco
415.543.7400

In an attempt to eat more whole grain this year, I’ve switched to whole wheat versions of products I used to buy in more refined form. I buy whole wheat pasta, whole wheat tortillas and whole wheat bread. It’s important to make sure wheat bread is whole wheat or you can look for the Whole Grains stamp introduced by the Whole Grains Council (an excellent source of whole grain information), otherwise you may not be getting all the benefits. If you didn’t already know, whole grains help reduce the risk of heart disease, certain types of cancer, stroke, diabetes and help with better weight maintenance. Three servings a day is considered optimal and switching to whole wheat is a good way to do that.

Whole wheat bread is a no-brainer but when it comes to using whole wheat pasta and tortillas I’ve had to rethink how I cook. Whole wheat pasta has a rougher, rustic style that works particularly well with chunky or nutty sauces and not as well with cream-based or smooth sauces. I like it with broccoli, tomatoes, olives, with a sesame or peanut sauce or a sauce that has bread crumbs or toasted nuts and olive oil.

Whole wheat tortillas are best when crispy, not soft. Both 2007/03/somewhere-along-line-i-seem-to-have.html” target=”_new”>quesadillas or mini pizzas are a fantastic way to use whole wheat tortillas. Lately I have developed a couple of recipes using little rounds of whole wheat tortillas as a crust. I punch out rounds using a biscuit cutter but you could even cut them in quarters if you like. Toasting them in a 400 degree oven on a baking sheet works great. Top them with whatever you like for a thin, crispy crust mini-pizza snack. They are quick to make, tasty, healthy and absolutely delicious. They even look pretty good, don’t you think?

Whole Wheat Mini Pizza
serves 2

2 whole wheat tortillas
1/2 cup grated cheese (whatever you like that melts)
1/4 cup vegetables such as olives, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms or a combination
2 Tablespoons meat (crumbled sausage, bacon, cooked chicken, etc.) optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut 4 rounds from each tortilla. Place them on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes or until slightly crisp. Top each round with cheese, a sprinkling of vegetables and meat if desired. Return to the oven until cheese has melted, about 3 – 4 minutes.

Enjoy!

Last week there was a flurry of comments about a 2007/11/thanksgiving-tips-techniques.html” target=”_blank”>post in which my Thanksgiving expert Rick Rodgers mentioned “natural” in regard to poultry. Coincidentally while shopping for chicken I had someone ask me if natural was the same as organic. I gave her the short answer, which was “no”. But there’s a lot more to it than that. Even reading the labels can be confusing.

Natural, according to the dictionary, means functioning or occurring in a normal way or existing in or produced by nature; not artificial or imitation. But when it comes to chicken and for that matter turkey, natural isn’t what you might think. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture the label “natural” means the food contains no hormones, antibiotics or artificial ingredients and is “minimally” processed. But that doesn’t prohibit processors from adding sodium, carrageenan and broth or water to the bird. Perhaps those aren’t artificial ingredients, but neither are they naturally occurring in poultry at least not in the quantities that end up in the bird.

In fact, up to 15 percent of the weight of the chicken can be an injected solution of those aforementioned ingredients. The salt and broth may make the bird taste better, but it’s not great for those on a low-sodium diet. According to the Truthful Labeling Coalition, the sodium added is up to 822% greater than the amount that exists in natural chicken and one single serving can contain over 25% of the recommended daily allowance of sodium for a healthy adult. Plus you pay extra for a salt and broth injected bird.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want “enhanced” chicken. I want to buy the minimally processed bird that Rick Rodgers recommended and I’ll enhance it myself. It just turns out it might not be the one labeled “natural”. I also think everyone should know just what has been added to the bird before they buy it. Last month quite a few members of congress agreed and sent a letter to United States Department of Agriculture, asking for better labeling and that the label “natural” not be used on these injected birds. You can add your voice to the cause, here.

Dear Readers,

On this Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for all the usual stuff–family, friends, health, enough to eat, and work that I love–but I am also thankful for you. You, my dear readers have stuck around even when I have been missing in action. Last night I created some buttons so you can read some other things I’ve written. Writing for other folks has kept me pretty busy recently.

The good new is, I’ve turned in the manuscript for the book, and now I can get back to blogging again. But for today I’m going to take a break and just enjoy the day, the friends, the family and of course the food. I hope you do too.

cheers,

Amy

Here are my three favorite reader-posted Thanksgiving disasters–congratulations to the winners, and do check out the rest of the stories in the comments section from 2007/11/thanksgiving-disasters-and-how-to-avoid.html” target=”_blank”>this post. Winners will receive a copy of Thanksgiving 101.

“When my mother was first married, she naturally wanted to cook a nice thanksgiving dinner for my father. My grandmother (who is a terrible cook) suggested that she put a towel soaked in chicken broth on top of the turkey as it cooked. The towel, a circa 1973 synthetic polyester avocado-green pseudo-fiber, melted into the turkey before catching on fire and driving my parents from their apartment with the smell of melting chemicals.

My father was a grad student at the time and a fellow grad student from Eastern Europe took pity and invited them over for an “American Meal” of spaghetti with ketchup sauce. To cap the day off when they returned home their dog had eaten most of the smelly, green, burned turkey which naturally made him sick for the rest of the week. My mother stopped getting cooking advice from my grandmother and now she is a wonderful cook.”

“When I was little we would always have Thanksgiving at my Grandparents old Victorian house. Their old fashioned oven wouldn’t fit a large turkey so once a year they would use the old oven in their Mother-In-Law apartment. In 1986, Grandpa did the usual routine and “cooked” the turkey for hours, basting and waiting. After the usual amount of cooking time he brought the turkey upstairs and began carving. To our horror the turkey was still bright, bright pink inside. Turns out, the seldom used oven was broken.

My very stubborn Grandpa insisted that it had cooked for the correct amount of time and was therefore “done”. As my uncle chased down his 6 year-old sons who had been given the almost raw drumsticks we were all microwaving the turkey every time Grandpa turned his back. Needless to say, this was the last time we allowed Grandpa to cook the turkey.”

“The worst Thankgiving disaster I’ve had was the year my husband and I were hosting a dinner with friends and co-workers who had to work that day and couldn’t attend dinners with family. One friend offered to bring suppies to make frozen daiquiris and try out my new blender. What none of us realized until too late was that he was using 150 proof rum instead of regular and before we knew it we were all feeling pretty woozy.

By the time dinner got to the table none of us was in shape to pass the dishes around and wound up eating whatever was on the table in front of us. If you were sitting with the cauliflower with cheese sauce, that’s what you had for dinner!!!”