Tuesday, December 27, 2016

A Classic Flourless Chocolate Cake Gets a Flavor Twist

New Year's Eve is fast approaching. Super Bowl Sunday isn't that far off. Perfect for both or any celebration, a flourless chocolate cake proves the maxim, a little taste goes a long way. Because the dense cake has so much flavor, a thin slice topped with freshly made whipped cream or vanilla ice cream is more than enough to end a meal or celebrate a memorable occasion.

Many years ago I read my first flourless chocolate cake recipe in Esquire magazine. As created by Jean Banchet, the celebrated French chef, the basics were straight forward. A good quality dark chocolate is melted together with sweet (unsalted) butter. In a separate bowl egg yolks are sweetened with sugar. Egg whites are whipped into peaks. Then, the three are mixed into one bowl.

Like a souffle, a flourless chocolate cake is a delicate confection. Jostled or treated carelessly, the egg whites so carefully aerated will collapse.

My contribution to this classic was a few flavorful ingredients. Instead of a liqueur which is often used to enliven the density of the chocolate, I like to add orange zest and a handful of finely chopped roasted almonds.

The recipe will make 1-2 large cakes or 8-10 smaller ones.

This is purely a matter of taste, but I prefer thin cakes, 1"-2" tall. The taller the cake, the longer the bake. The times listed below are estimates. Ultimately the test of whether the cake is done is to insert a pairing knife into the middle. When withdrawn, the knife should have a small amount of chocolate on the blade. Be careful not to dry out the cake.

After a dusting of confectionary sugar, the cake must always be served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

A few special kitchen tools are essential. Non-stick parchment paper. Springform pans. And a power mixer.

The cake is best served warm, heated for ten minutes in a 250F oven.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Orange Zest and Roasted Almonds

Only use good quality chocolate without additives. The same is true of the heavy cream used to make whipped cream for the topping. In Los Angeles where I live, Trader Joe's has two products which I always use. The One Pound chocolate bars (56-70% cacao) and the heavy cream are both made without additives. I highly recommend them for this and other desserts.

When filling the springform pans, leave room 1" at the top because the batter will rise.

Serves 12

Makes (1-2) 6"-9" cakes or (8-10) 3" cakes

Time to prepare: 20 minutes

Time to bake: 30 minutes - 3 hours depending on diameter and height of cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 sticks + 2 tablespoons sweet butter
1 tablespoon white flour
14 ounces dark chocolate, chopped into quarter sized pieces
1 1/2 cups sugar
10 large eggs, whites and yolks separated
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup raw almonds, roasted in 250F oven 5 minutes, finely chopped
1 teaspoon orange zest, finely chopped
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
2 cups heavy cream or 1 pint good quality vanilla or vanilla bean ice cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250F.

2. Remove the bottom(s) of the springform pan(s) and place on parchment paper on a flat surface. Use a pencil to trace the outline of the bottom(s) onto the paper. Use sharp scissors to cut out the paper round(s). Lay the parchment paper round(s) inside the springform pan(s). Set aside.

3. Use a double boiler or place a sauce pan on top of another pan. Add water in the lower pot to fill halfway. Place on stove top on a medium flame so the water simmers.

4. Melt butter in double boiler. Use pastry brush to paint the top of the parchment paper and inside the springform pan(s). Dust with flour. Set aside.

5. Add chocolate to melted butter. Stir and melt but do not boil. Once chocolate and butter are combined, stir in roasted chopped almonds, set aside for five minutes.

6. Place egg yolks, sugar minus 2 tablespoons, vanilla extract and orange zest into a mixing bowl. Mix well. Set aside.

7. In the bowl of an electric mixing, place the egg whites and lemon juice. Using the wire whisk attachment, beat two minutes and sprinkle in 2 tablespoons sugar. Continue mixing until peaked but no more. Set aside.

8. Using a rubber spatula, carefully combine the egg yolk and chocolate mixtures. Set aside.

9. Transfer the chocolate mixture into egg whites being careful to incorporate all the egg whites.

10. Place the springform pan(s) on a flat baking sheet. Using the spatula, transfer the batter into the pan(s), leaving room 1" at the top.

11. Place springform pan(s) into the oven. Check every 30 minutes and rotate baking sheet to prevent the cake(s) being uneven because your stove is not level.

12. To make whipped cream, place heavy cream in electric mixer with wire whisk. With machine on high, sprinkle in confectioner's sugar. Continue whisking until the cream is fluffy. Be careful not to over whisk. The result will be butter milk.

13. Insert pairing knife into center of cake(s). When blade has a small amount of chocolate, remove cake(s) from oven and allow to rest on cake rack 15 minutes. Cake(s) will contract making removal from the springform pan easy. Lift cake(s) off the bottom and parchment paper. Place on a decorative plate.

14. Serve cake(s) warm with a sharp knife and a large bowl of freshly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Cold Nights, Warm Food - Potatoes Au Gratin and Steak Charred on a Carbon Steel Pan

It's comfort food time. Cold nights call for warm dinners with deeply satisfying dishes.

What makes you feel good in cold weather? What about a vegetable soup flavored with roasted tomato sauce and filled with roughly chopped carrots, green cabbage, shiitake mushrooms and string beans? Or spaghetti tossed with charred cauliflower buds and shallots with an anchovy-butter sauce?

I made those last week and they were delicious. Tonight I wanted meat, a starch and a green. Pretty basic stuff. Add in a Prairie vodka martini with an olive and I was definitely comforted.
Usually when I cook a steak, I make mashed potatoes with butter, half and half and sautéed scallions. Tonight I wanted something different. For some reason the idea of potatoes au gratin seemed like the way to go. I'd still have the soft potatoes to contrast with the steak but the au gratin would give me a crunchy top.

The green was my favorite: an escarole salad with blue cheese, pickled green beans, fresh chopped tomatoes (this is California so it's easy to find flavorful heirloom tomatoes at the farmer market) and carrot rounds with an olive oil and reduced balsamic dressing.

This entire deliciously comforting meal took 50-60 minutes to prepare. In actual work time, you'll do 20 minutes and otherwise be waiting for the potatoes to do their thing.

First thing is get the potatoes au gratin going. The recipe for that is below.

Because the steak should be hot from the oven and loses quality if it has to wait around for the other dishes, make the salad next. If you can't find escarole, which I learned to love when I lived in Providence, Rhode Island, use red leaf or romaine lettuce.

The salad and steak
Escarole is slightly bitter and the leaves are rough, so it holds up well in a tossed salad. Tear the leaves into bite sized pieces, peel the carrot and make paper thin carrot rounds, add a 1/4 cup of another vegetable like salt steamed green beans (I make pickled green beans) or cooked corn kernels in the summer, 1 tablespoon of chopped pitted olives and homemade croutons if you have them.

Dress with the olive oil and reduced balsamic (you make that by putting 1 cup of balsamic into a small saucepan on a low flame and reducing the volume to 1/4 cup, cool and use in the normal proportion except the balsamic is now slightly sweet) after the steak is cooked and you are ready to eat.
There are lots of great ways to cook a steak. I'm really happy with the results I get using a carbon steel pan, which, I know, isn't easy to find. In Manhattan, Zabar's on the Upper West Side sells them (second floor). In LA, Surfas in Culver City has them until they sell out, then the wait can be awhile until the next shipment from France gets through the traffic jam in LA Harbor.
Carbon steel chars vegetables and a steak equally well. It is easy and the results are fantastic. A cast iron pan is a close substitute but in my opinion not as good. Before charring the steak, heat the pan without any oil until the metal starts to smoke, To use a high-temperature pan requires that you have a good quality exhaust fan in the hood over your burners. Otherwise, the smoke will set off the fire alarums and the house will fill with smoke. Not good.

Once the pan is smoking, add a small amount of blended oil (80% canola, 20% olive oil). A really small amount, maybe a 1/2 teaspoon is all you need. Throw in a handful of shredded onions. Toss with tongs so they char not burn. Throw in a handful of thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms. Maybe drizzle on another 1/2 teaspoon of blended oil. Toss, turn and don't burn. When the onions and shiitakes are lightly browned, transfer them to a plate and set aside.
The steak needs to be a good quality either bone-in or fillet. Allow the meat to reach room temperature. Dredge in olive oil then season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Both sides.

Get that carbon steel pan going again. When the metal is smoking, use tongs to gently place the steak into the middle of the pan. Allow the meat to sear 3-4 minutes, then use the tongs to turn it over. Sear another 3-4 minutes. Then place the pan and the steak into the preheated 350F oven. Depending on the thickness of the steak, bake 5-10 minutes. Use a pairing knife to cut into the middle to test for doneness.

Once the steak is the way you like it, remove from the oven. Put the charred onions and shiitakes back in the pan and lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the top. Let the meat rest 5 minutes. That will also heat the veggies.

Serve hot with the potatoes au gratin straight out of the oven and the escarole salad crisp and cold.

Don't forget the Prairie vodka martini with an olive.

Ok, now the recipe for the potatoes au gratin.

Potatoes Au Gratin 

Serves 4

Time to prep: 20 minutes

Time to cook: 30 minutes to salt boil, 30 minutes to bake, 2-5 minutes to broil

Total time to cook: 72-75 minutes

Ingredients

4 medium sized good quality potatoes, preferably King Edward or Baby Yukon, washed
1/4 cup half and half or whole milk
1/2 stick sweet butter (no salt)
1 cup white cheddar cheese, roughly grated
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon sea salt, to taste
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup bread crumbs, fine, preferably homemade

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Fill a quart sized pot with water. Add kosher salt and potatoes, washed but not peeled. Bring to boil. Cover and cook 30 minutes. To test for doneness, insert pairing knife into each potato. The knife should have some resistance when inserted. Drain, set aside to cool.

When cool, use paring knife to remove skin only. Reserve skin to sauté at breakfast and serve with scrambled eggs and bacon.

So you can work like you're on an assembly line, place all the ingredients on a cutting board around a rectangular or a pie sized, bake-proof pan with a low lip, about 2".

Make thin potato slices (about 1/4"). Use a pairing knife for better control. This part is a bit tedious because making so many thin slices can take a few minutes. The result is worth your patience.

You are going to make layers in the baking pan in the following order: overlapping layer of thin potato slices, then paper thin slices of butter, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, then potato slices then butter slices and seasoning and so on until all of the potato slices are in the baking pan.
Place a final layer of thin butter slices on the potato slices and season. Pour in the half and half or whole milk. Sprinkle on grated white cheddar cheese and finish with bread crumbs.

Place baking pan on a baking sheet and place in oven 30 minutes.

At this point the potatoes are cooked and can be reserved and reheated just before serving.

When everyone is sitting at the table, ready to eat, set oven to broil to brown the topping. Be careful not to burn. If broiling makes you nervous, skip this step and place the potatoes into a 350F oven to reheat for 5 minutes.

Serve hot.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

After Fidel Castro, What Next for the Relationship Between Cuba and the United States? Whatever Happens, Travel to Cuba and Have an Amazing Adventure

A year ago we visited Cuba to attend the Havana Film Festival, the first time since 1999 when the country was celebrating the Millennium. 

A lot had changed since 1999. We were able to fly directly to Havana, without a stop over in Mexico. We asked to have our passports stamped at Cuban Immigration instead of asking them not to do that. The old city had been refurbished, with construction indicating more improvements to come. Hotels were being built. The restaurant scene was as thriving as those in Brooklyn and Downtown Los Angeles. The music was as wonderful as before, with bands playing in neighborhood bars and radios on window sills serenading passerby. 

There was much to enjoy. But also Havana's decay was more evident than in 1999. The old city and prosperous suburbs were bustling. Walk a dozen blocks away from the tourist areas and the streets and buildings in the heart of the city were more crumbling than sixteen years before. Only the colorful street art that took advantage of worn brick walls brightened the otherwise sad scene.

That was last year. 

This year, Cuba continues to be a popular destination. So popular at some times of the year, hotel occupancy has reached 100%. Visitors have to stay an hour or more outside of the city in their search for a place to stay. Given the demand, B&Bs are doing a good business and Airbnb has set up shop.

The ease of travel to Cuba was the direct result of the Obama Administration's decision to  remove many of the restrictions limiting American contacts with Cuba because of the Castro Administration's policies. The incoming administration has been unclear about its intentions. With Fidel Castro's death this week, many things have changed yet again. For those who were brutalized by his regime, there is cause for celebration. For those who saw him as a savior, there is cause for mourning. 

A Castro is still in power.  His brother continues many of Fidel's policies. And yet, it was Raul Castro who worked with President Obama to loosen restrictions and encourage commerce and personal travel between the two countries. 

The challenge for both governments is how to move forward in a constructive way. There is pent up demand in both countries to re-connect Cuba and the United States even with their sometimes difficult, sometimes happy relationship. 

In the meantime, as governments contemplate their next steps, this is a great time to visit Havana and all of Cuba. Travel agents now have packages that visit Havana and reach out across the island to explore the beach towns and countryside. Direct flights by American carriers from many U.S. cities have expanded during the year. So don't wait. Visit, explore and enjoy Cuba. And here are a great many reasons why and some tips when you plan your trip.

12 Reasons to Travel to Havana and 10 Tips When You Get There

The flight from Miami to Havana took less than an hour. After we checked in to the Hotel Nacional we wasted no time and left the hotel so we could start experiencing Havana. We walked to the Malecón, the iconic seawall that protects the city from the ocean. Two fishermen talked as they held fishing lines in the water.  2016-01-20-1453265960-4793464-IMG_7056.jpg
A group of middle school students in uniforms crossed the street to watch the surf hit the concrete and stone wall and spray into the air.

The day was clear and warm, perfect to take a long walk. In the middle of a residential block with towering rows of apartments, we went inside Bar San Juan on the corner of Vapor and Calle 0. Definitely off-the-beaten-path, Bar San Juan is a friendly, neighborhood hang-out. We took a seat at the curved wooden bar. The door and windows were open. The flags hanging from the ceiling fluttered in the breeze. My wife ordered a mojito and I had a long pour of Havana Gold rum. The mojito had a bright freshness, just the right drink on a warm day. The rum was mellow, golden and delicious.
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We had a friendly conversation with the barmen. The flags hanging from the ceiling were from just about every country on the planet, except for the United States. 

We spent the next week happily exploring a city that for so long has been off-limits to Americans. In the past, if you wanted to visit Cuba, you did so on a restrictive tour or secretly, asking the immigration officer at José Martí International Airport in Havana not to stamp your passport. But no longer. 

Now, that you can travel to Cuba openly, the only question is, why are you waiting?

In 2016, Cuba may well become a premium destination for Americans. There are direct flights from many U.S. cities.  Travel agents can plan trips using charter airlines that fly nonstop flights to Cuba from key American cities like Miami and Los Angeles. At some time this year, U.S. airlines are expected to begin direct service to cities throughout Cuba. 

If you book your travel on a group tour, you can choose one that focuses on your interests. You can visit historic Havana, churches, cigar factories, artists’ studios, art galleries, museums, nightclubs and restaurants, UNESCO heritage sites or beaches outside of Havana to lounge or go scuba diving.

On a first time visit you will want to spend five days or a week. The first two days will be spent exploring the city on foot or with a driver so you learn the layout of the city. Havana is large, but the locations of interest for visitors are mostly concentrated in a few areas. During your stay you will want to visit museums, art galleries, churches, historical sites and relax at the outdoor cafes to enjoy a pleasant meal.

And, of course, you will enjoy music while you are in Havana. As you walk in the street, music will pour out of radios in people’s homes. There are nightclubs, jazz clubs and nostalgic musical reviews like Cabaret Parisien and Cabaret Tropicana. Small bands play in cafés and bars where you can enjoy the music called “son” that was popularized by the movie, the Buena Vista Social Club. 

You will pass open air cafés like Sofia Restaurant on the corner of Avenida 23 at Calle O intending to have a quick coffee, but a band with a singer and five musicians will be playing. You finish your coffee but the music is so infectiously joyful, you end up staying the rest of the afternoon. When the band takes a break, you’ll buy one of their cassettes in an effort to prolong the experience by playing the CD when you get home. But nothing is as good as being in the café, in Havana, on a day when the weather is just right and the music is so full of life. Which means, before you leave the café you will be planning your next visit to Cuba.

One day I walked almost ten miles across the city where I saw Havana’s rich history displayed in its architecture with a complex mix of Spanish colonial, Art Deco, 1950s modern and Soviet era concrete-block buildings. 

You can’t go to Havana without encountering vintage 1950s and 1960s American cars. When you are riding in the back seat of a beautifully restored convertible 1958 Ford Fairlane, you will look up at the passing palm trees and enjoy the warm breeze on your face, imagining that you have slipped back in time.
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In the old city (La Habana Vieja), you will walk the narrow streets to buy souvenirs from narrow stalls tucked into old buildings, look at the work of local artists and search for Ernest Hemingway’s haunts so you can belly up to the bar and order mojitos and daiquiris like Papa did. You’ll be tempted to buy a hand-rolled Cuban cigar from one of the old women in white who are everywhere in the old city. But you have heard that the women who always have fat cigars in their clinched teeth do not sell quality cigars so you seek out the Partagas cigar factory (Calle Industria No. 520, Centro Habana) and watch cigars being hand-rolled.

As you walk around the city, you may remember the news reports about efforts to normalize relations between Cuba and the U.S. And, you may have also heard the angry voices railing against any effort to lift the sixty-year long embargo. 

Those political issues will seem far away when you are stopped on the street and asked, “Where are you from?” If you answer, “the United States,” the response invariably will be, “I love America.” One afternoon on a long walk away from the tourist areas, I had that exchange with a young man in shorts who pulled up his t-shirt to show me a tattoo of the Statue of Liberty on his chest. 

When I last visited Havana in December, 1999, the old city looked like a weathered New Orleans with wrought-iron balconies, vividly colored stucco walls and wooden shutters on the tall windows.  

At that time, the city lacked some very basic services because the “special relationship” with the Soviet Union had ended and a feeling of deprivation was evidenced in shops with empty shelves. To fill the void created by the withdrawal of Soviet subsidizes, a few small businesses were experimenting with capitalism and American dollars were an informal, unregulated currency. 

So much has changed in sixteen years. Today parts of Havana feel completely different. The streets are bustling. There are busy restaurants and paladares, where making reservations well in advance is a necessity. In the intervening years, new hotels and restaurants have opened. Streets have been paved. Historic buildings have been restored so they resemble their better selves when they first opened. 

That is what most tourists see. To experience the city as locals do, walk into the central city where you will see the effects of the embargo.
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There, the streets are potholed and the buildings continue to suffer the ravages of nature and the lack of building materials to make much-needed repairs.2016-01-20-1453266137-917249-IMG_6191.jpg
The big questions about Cuba are, when will the embargo end and how will that change the country?  Commercial ties will certainly lead to commercial development. East Germany, China and Vietnam were all transformed when they transitioned from communist to capitalist economies. But those countries were variations on a theme. Prosperous China and Vietnam are still controlled societies with human rights issues, where as East Germany has been absorbed into democratic West German.

Cuba will have its own version. Change could be gradual or rapid depending on how the Cuban government manages the transition. Once the embargo is lifted by Congress, U.S. banks will set up relationships inside Cuba. That will mean U.S. credit cards will be accepted. American corporations as varied as McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks, the Gap, Disney, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Hilton, Ritz-Carleton and Starwood will look to find opportunities in Cuba. 

What Havana will look like in five years is anyone’s guess. If you go now, you will experience Havana as the change is just beginning. Now is a good time to travel to Cuba.

12 Reasons Why You Should Visit Havana

1. The Tourist Area of Old Havana (La Habana Vieja)
Certainly you will want to explore many parts of the city, but definitely walk on busy, crowded Calle Obispo from Calle Mercaderes, near Havana Harbor, west to Avenida Bélgica. 2016-01-20-1453266190-3149325-IMG_7357.jpg
The narrow street has closet sized curio shops selling refrigerator magnets celebrating Havana’s cigars, cars and women, small mass-produced art works, stuffed dolls, marionettes, t-shirts with a photograph of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and much much more.
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Go with the flow and walk with the mass of people eating elote (corn on the cob on a stick), sticky pastries and small Cuban sandwiches. If you are lucky there will be music. Serenading bands set up on street corners, hoping for a donation. One day when I walked among the crowds, a colorful group of performers danced in the middle of the street on five-foot tall stilts.
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Dressed in Mardi Gras-styled multi-colored outfits, they would have been at home in New Orleans or Rio de Janeiro. Some of the men and women played instruments, the others smiled and shimmied, reaching out to children on their parents’ shoulders or to couples standing, arms around each other, enjoying the impromptu celebration of all things Cuban.

2. Historical Havana 
Travel anywhere in the world and you will see plaques describing the historical importance of a grassy field, a building or a promontory. Many of those sites mark the conclusion of a battle and rail against those who were vanquished by the nation’s brave defenders. In Havana those markers can be uncomfortable for Americans. While there are many markers referencing the Spanish occupation of Cuba, there are as many noting when the United States initiated an attack or attempted an invasion.

Americans typically describe themselves as the good guys, so it takes a bit of effort to put your mind around the fact that in Cuba we have been perceived as the bad guys for a very long time.

The mix of current enthusiasm and historical enmity for America is part of what makes Havana what it is.  Stop by the Nautica Bar on the back patio of the Hotel Nacional. 2016-01-20-1453266505-2131893-IMG_5691.jpg
Take a leisurely stroll on the walkway through the lawn facing the Malecón and the beautiful water beyond. The historical markers detail the time when America and Cuba faced one another canons blazing and soldiers dying under a hot sun. On a blue sky day, when the water sparkles and delicate white clouds float overhead, it is difficult to imagine such violent events happening, but they did happen and it is important to remember that history as the two countries look to reconnect in a more constructive way.

3. 1950s and 1960s American Cars
Vintage American cars are an iconic feature of Havana. You will enjoy the sight of so many antique Buicks, Pontiacs, Chrysler Plymouths, Ford Fairlanes, Chevrolets, Dodges and Studebakers. The most perfectly restored cars popular with foreign visitors wait for fares close to the hotels and in major plazas like José Martí Revolution Square.  2016-01-20-1453266571-3576537-IMG_5624.jpg
If you are a romantic, you will want to ride around Havana in one of those cars that evoke sex and glamour. But they are not cheap. 

The cars can be rented for an hour or a portion of the day. That can be arranged in advance by your travel agent or by the hotel concierge. Cars can also be booked online from Nostalgic Car Cuba (www.nostalgicarcuba.com). 

You can also be spontaneous. If you see a car you like, ask if it is available and hop in for a memorable ride. Before you get in the car, confirm the price and the amount of time you have booked.
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Not all of Havana’s vintage cars are precious artifacts. Walk on streets where locals live, like Neptuno going west from where it crosses San Miguel and the vintage cars are not pretty and shiny. 2016-01-20-1453266725-6441775-IMG_6019.jpg
Held together by bailing wire, duct tape and Cuban ingenuity, those cars with dulled paint and thread-bare seats are the workhorses of the city, transporting people and goods for a few pesos a trip. 

4. The Museum of the Revolution 
A must stop on a trip to Havana. Formerly the Presidential Palace, the Museum has exhibits detailing Spain’s colonization of the island, the period of Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship, the armed struggle that over threw him and American attempts at intervention like the Bay of Pigs.
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Some of the exhibits attest to a decadent opulence, like the sold gold telephone given to Batista and featured in Godfather, Part II.

In the open area in back, there are relics from those struggles, including a Russian designed SA-2, surface-to-air missile like the one that brought down a U-2 spy plane during the Cuban Missile Crisis as well as warplanes and a tank used to defend the island. 

Museo de la Revolución, Calle Refugio No. 1 between Monserrate and Zulueta, La Habana Vieja

5. The Palace of Fine Arts
Across the street from the Museum of the Revolution, the Palace of Fine Arts has a wonderful collection of art covering five centuries. Allow enough time to spend several hours exploring the galleries and enjoy a cup of strong Cuban coffee and a snack in the open-air café next to the ground floor, outdoor sculpture garden. The art in the museum was either created in Cuba or is the work of Cuban artists. There are also occasional exhibits with work by non-Cubans like the English photographer, Peter Turnley whose show runs until 2/15/16 with a very good curation of his extraordinary portraits of people living in conflict zones. 
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There are so many excellent works on display, you will have your favorites and I had mine. I especially enjoyed the mid-century work of Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990) whose sensuous paintings utilized many styles, the brilliant, satirical cartoonist Rafael Blanco (1885-1955) who attacked the pretensions of the upper classes and politicians and an eccentric sculpture of a woman with a headscarf on a sled being pulled by a dozen alligators by Esterio Segura (1970-present).

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, Trocadero Street between Zulueta and  Monserrate, La Habana Vieja, +53 7861-3858 or +53 861-5777, http://www.bellasartes.cult.cu

6. F.A.C. or Fábrica de Arte Cubano
On everyone’s short list of places to visit in Havana, Fábrica, as it is known locally, is a sprawling complex with an art gallery, disco, screening room, café, bar and lecture space. A tall smoke stack towers over the block-long, three story building. The lively complex would be at home in Brooklyn, Paris or London. An artists’ collective subsidized by the government, Fábrica is an affordably priced gathering spot for young people, artists and visitors. 
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Open from 8:00 PM-3:00 AM Thursday-Sunday, you will want to come early so you can view the art in the galleries before the crowds flood into the building.  2016-01-20-1453266986-171278-IMG_6435.jpg
By design the art has political undertones. Some of the paintings, sculptures and photographs are overtly political like Fernando Rodríguez’s 2012 “Suprematismo (Rojo sobre Negro)” with two hundred toy-sized red bulls mounting black cows next to a video loop of a speech by Fidel Castro.2016-01-20-1453267031-6474596-IMG_6407.jpg
You will tell your friends to hold on to the tickets they were given when they entered. Instead of paying for food and drinks in the café and bar, each person’s ticket is marked. When you leave, your bill is totaled. You will patiently explain to your friends that if they lose their tickets, they cannot leave without paying a substantial fee.

Fábrica de Arte Cubano (F.A.C.), Calle 11 #61, at 26th, Vedado, +53 7838-2260

7. Street Art
You will want to check out the street art that is everywhere in Havana, but there is no guide book to show you where to see inventive, colorful graffiti, murals and caricatures. Some are crudely drawn on stucco walls.
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Many are the work of talented artists who make the city their gallery. Your feet will be your guide as you wander the main boulevards and off-the-beaten-path streets.  2016-01-20-1453267167-1431784-IMG_7387.jpg
Some of the best art I saw was on the wooden walls surrounding construction sites, like the murals outside the under renovation Museo Nacional de la Música (on Aguiar and Avenida Belgica).
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Much of what I saw might be gone before you visit Havana. But not the art at Salvador Gonzáles Escalona’s Callejón de Hamel, a collection of sculptures and murals in a pedestrian walkway. 2016-01-20-1453267393-2901314-IMG_7521.jpg
The images are Afro-Cuban, with a heavy dose of Santería images. Everyday objects—bathtubs, tires, pots, pans, stones, bathroom sinks and wrought iron fences—are incorporated into wildly painted collages, sculptures and the walls of buildings.
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Children have art classes under the shaded patio and musicians gather to play and ask for donations. A paladar serves food and drinks. Artists sell their paintings in small galleries, some reached by descending twisting staircases into basement showrooms.

Callejón de Hamel, San Lazaro # 955 between Aramburu and Hospital

8. Paladares
You have probably heard about paladares, the small dining establishments set up by families in their homes. When they first appeared, the Cuban government variously tolerated and then shuttered them. Now they are heavily promoted as a distinctive feature of Havana culture. 

In 1999 we ate at La Guarida, a small apartment on the third floor of what had been an elegant mansion with a magnificent, curved staircase. The restaurant was in the front rooms of the apartment where the sofas and coffee table had been replaced by small dining tables and rickety chairs. The food was good but not special. Featured in Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s Strawberry and Chocolate (Fresa y chocolate), La Guarida became famous as “the” paladar to visit in Havana. That is still true today. But what is different is La Guarida itself.
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The restaurant and bar have taken over the entire third floor. The intimate dining rooms are decorated with antiques and beautiful paintings. The food is excellent, as good as any meal you would enjoy in a 5-Star European hotel, with prices to match. 

Today, there are many paladares and many types of paladares. Some, like La Guarida serve European style cuisines in settings that look very much like upscale restaurants.  Others like Ivan Chef Justo still feel like you are eating in a family’s home with bookcase lined walls, decorated with black and white photographs. 2016-01-20-1453283753-7380969-IMG_7733.JPG
Ivan Chef Justo is cluttered in a cozy, fun way and the food is delicious. You will especially enjoy the roast pork and the sauce served with the lobster. Both Ivan and Justo had been Fidel Castro’s chefs at moments in their careers. 
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In the space next to Fábrica, El Cocinero on the second floor has the open, modern feeling of an upscale restaurant you enjoy visiting in New York, Miami or Los Angeles. Brightly colored paintings hang on the walls inside and outside a sprawling deck is shaded by tall tropical plants. Serving a European menu, the food is well-prepared and platted in a way that makes what you are about to eat as fetching as the art on the walls.

At the paladar Rio Mar in Miramar, you will sit outside on the covered terrace having an ice cold cocktail and hearing music coming from the 1830 Club across the Almendares River. You have heard the Club is a lot of fun but right now you are happy having drinks and enjoying a meal with friends. The waiter will ask if you would like another mojito. You smile to yourself because you didn’t realize you had already finished the first one, it was that good. 2016-01-20-1453283947-4199859-IMG_5952.jpg
You politely refuse because right now you are more hungry than thirsty. You and your friends happily share plates of octopus salad, grilled shrimp and clams and a large, charred lobster tail, split on top with the thick meat easily available.  

La Guarida, Concordia No. 418, between Gervasio and Escobar, Centro Habana, 
+53 7866 -9047, +53 7866-2354, +53 5414-7852, www.laguarida.com

Ivan Chef Justo, Aguacate 9, Esquina Chacon, La Habana Vieja, +53 7863 – 9697, +53 5343-8540

El Cocinero, Calle 26 between Calle 11 and Calle 13, Vedado, +53 7832-2355

Rio Mar, Avenida 3ra # 11, La Puntilla, Miramar, +53 7209-4838‬

9. Restaurants and Roof-Top Bars
The restaurants and cafés catering to tourists serve food that varies in quality. Some of the better restaurants have a Cuban-Italian menu like El Litoral (on the Malecón just west of the American Embassy and Hotel Nacional), a pleasantly modern European style café with a good bar. El Litoral has an antipasto table with a selection of salads, pizza and seafood and a full menu with upscale presentations of familiar European dishes and some typical Cuban dishes. The French fries are especially good.
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Jacqueline Fumero Café is a block east of the Museum of the Revolution on a narrow street. The restaurant has a large Italian menu with service outside on a patio. On a sunny, cool day, you will definitely want to eat outside.

If you want to try a restaurant where locals go, you will want to visit Kasalta Sports Bar-Restaurant. Hopefully you speak Spanish because none of the waiters speak English. If four of you are eating together, you will ask for one order of the Pollo Kasalta. What will arrive at the table will be two large plates. One plate is topped with four large chicken legs and thigh, the other with a serving of soy sauce flavored fried rice with savory bits of chicken, ham and shrimp. That will cost you only $12 CUC and you will be very satisfied. Even if you are no longer hungry, you not be able to resist an order of flan served with paper-thin slices of fresh pineapple. After a round of espressos, you will be ready to continue with your exploration of Havana.
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Like many cities, Havana is learning to exploit its rooftops. Go on a roof-top bar-crawl and start at the Saratoga Hotel, move on to the Hotel Ambos Mundos (corner of Calles Obispo and Mercaderes) and go upstairs above El Cocinero to the roof-top bar and enjoy a drink (the piña coladas are creamy-delicious!) before going next door for dancing, art and films at Fábrica.

El Litoral, ‪Malecón 161 E, between K and L, Vedado, +53 7830-2201

Jacqueline Fumero Cafe & Boutique, Compostela No. 1 Esquina Cuarteles, La Habana Vieja, +53 7862-6562, www.jacquelinefumero.com

Kasalta Sports Bar-Restaurant, Calle 5th at 2nd Avenue, +53 7267 1717

Bar Piscina Mirador, Saratoga Hotel, Paseo del Prado #603 Esquina Dragones, La Habana Vieja, +53 7868-1000, www.hotel-saratoga.com

Hotel Ambos Mundos, Calles Obispo 153 at Mercaderes, La Habana Vieja, +53 7860-95-2931, http://www.hotelambosmundos-cuba.com

Rooftop terrace, El Cocinero, Calle 26 between Calle 11 and Calle 13, Vedado, +53 7832-2355

10. Dogs and Cats
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Walk around the city and you will meet the other citizens of Havana. Dogs and cats are everywhere and they all look well-fed. Sleeping peacefully on the side walk in front of an art gallery or sitting at the entrance to a small shop, the dogs came in all colors and sizes. 2016-01-20-1453290054-7695611-IMG_7501.jpg
Cats with thick, clean coats watched people walking to restaurants and in and out of curio shops. Their unhurried manner suggesting they had owners who love them. 

11. The Malecón
The Malecón is at the center of Havana life even if it is on the northern edge of the city.  The broad boulevard curves along the contours of the sea wall. When storms sweep across the island, the waves crash over the broad wall in thirty-foot tall plumes.
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During the day, fishermen stand on the wall, casting their lines into the surf, hoping to bring back the evening’s meal. At night hundreds of young Cubans gather along the seawall to play music, talk, flirt, gossip and go online at the WiFi hotspots called telepuntos. 

12. The United States Embassy.
Located across the street from the Malecón, you cannot enter the Embassy without special permission. In the Plaza de la Dignidad, across the street there is a mass of flag poles without flags. In 2006, when the U.S. installed an electronic display that broadcast news the Cuban government had blocked, Fidel Castro responded with a phalanx of flags on tall poles to block the view. 
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Both the electronic news display and the flags are gone, but the flag poles are very much in evidence as is the Embassy. Inaugurated by Secretary John Kerry in August, 2015, the Embassy is a physical sign that normalization between the two countries has begun in earnest. 

10 Tips Once You Are in Havana

1. Tourist Cards
Travel to Cuba is still subject to restrictions but the requirement to state the purpose of the trip has been broadened greatly to include family visits, people-to-people travel and the very general “support of the Cuban people.” 

You do not need a visa to enter Cuba, but you do need to buy a Cuban tourist card from a travel agent. Keep the card with your passport.  You cannot leave the country without showing the tourist card. When you go through Immigration at the airport on your way home, you will be asked to give it to the officer. 

2. Money 
Bring cash. Until the embargo ends, U.S. credit cards and American dollars are not accepted in Cuba. Foreigners must exchange their currency for the convertible currency called the “CUC” (pronounced “cuke”) while locals use the Cuban peso. In December, 2015 the exchange rate was $1.00 U.S. for $0.87 CUC. If necessary, cash can be wired to you through a Western Union office.

3. What you can declare when you come home
Whereas in the past, American citizens could not legally bring back any articles from Cuba, now it is permitted to bring back goods worth up to $400.00 including $100.00 of rum and/or cigars. Given that a liter of Havana Gold rum costs less than $20.00, that limitation will still allow you to bring enough rum to share with your friends while you show them your slides from the trip.

4. WiFi:
At the moment, the practical reality is that traveling in Cuba means going off-the-grid. Plan your visit at a time when you do not need to be in constant contact with the outside world. Hopefully you will find that liberating.

There is WiFi in most of the hotels. At some, like the premium Hotel Nacional, the cost is $10.00 CUC per day and the service is intermittent. For the first two days of my stay, I was able to check email and search the internet. For the second two days, I was not able to do either, although I was able to send and receive text messages. At the Hotel Nacional, every time you go online, you have to reenter your user name and security code, which is quite inconvenient.  If you search around, you will find hotels like the Melia Cohiba where the WiFi is free and the service is relatively more reliable. 

5. No Internet Means No Google Maps
Mostly you will rely on a paper map, which can be purchased in hotel lobbies for $3.00 CUC. Much of the city is laid out in grids but the tourist-friendly areas are not easily navigated without a map. The Galileo Offline Maps app (https://galileo-app.com) can help you find your way around Havana. Download the map before you venture out into the city. The app will track your movements so you can tell where you are, even though you are not online.

6. Guides and Guide Books
Guides can be hired, often with cars, arranged by a travel agent or the hotel. Check that the guide is proficient in English and knowledgeable about the city. If you have a specialized interest, such as history, churches, architecture, cigars or art, discuss the itinerary beforehand so you can request destinations you especially want to visit.

Many popular travel guides such as Fodor’s and Lonely Planet have published updated guides for Havana and Cuba. The blog Stories from the Malecón (https://storiesfromthemalecon.wordpress.com) has useful tips.  La Habana (www.lahabana.com), a free, online guidebook, is updated monthly and is an excellent source for general facts about the city as well as Time Out-style updates about events and performances taking place that month.  Download the guide so it is available as you walk around the city. 

7. Bringing art home
There are many talented artists working in Havana. When you purchase a work of art from a gallery or directly from an artist, be certain that you are given an export authorization (Autorizatión de Exportación).
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When I bought a painting from the Almost Famous Gallery (Cuarteles #3 between Cuba and Aguiar, Habana Vieja), besides the authorization, the artist Dennys Santos Diaz stamped the back of the canvas with his seal. At the airport, there is a special desk where you must show the documentation before you can board your plane.  When you enter the United States, you may be asked to show the authorization and a bill of sale.

8. Charter Airlines
Until the U.S. carriers begin regularly scheduled flights to Cuba, you will have to use a charter airline. Pick one that is flown by American Airlines, which has created a charter airline that uses the American fleet’s crew and airplanes. 

9. Is it safe to drink the water?
No. Because the water has a high bacterial count, do not drink, brush your teeth or clean your contacts with the water. In the hotels, bottled water can be expensive. Buy bottled water at a local market (a Super Mercado). 

10. Walking and Talking
Always look down when you are walking to avoid tripping on broken sidewalks or under repair cobblestone streets.

Generally speaking, Havana feels safe. Crime appears to be very limited, although caution should be exercised. There is no need to flaunt your valuables by wearing expensive jewelry and watches when walking around the city.  As in many Latin American countries, women on the street are sometimes the objects of unwanted attention. Mostly that means men whistling and shouting endearments.  The best response is to avoid eye contact and continue enjoying your walk around the city.

You will certainly share the many photographs you took on the trip with your friends. I posted mine on FLICKR (https://www.flickr.com/photos/138824908@N08/).

When you return, please let me know about your trip.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Roasted Roma Tomatoes and Turkey Pot Pies for the Day After Thanksgiving

I am amazed that it's time to order a Thanksgiving turkey already. 2016 went by very quickly.

Happily in the fall, I was busy traveling for writing assignments and video taping chefs in their kitchens showing me their favorite recipes.

For Thanksgiving I am using a new recipe from one of those experiences.

This recipe is insanely easy and incredibly delicious: slow roasted Roma tomatoes used on sandwiches. When I was working on a profile of chef Andrew Pastore at Clifton's in downtown Los Angeles, I first ate at the restaurant on the first floor, which is actually a cafeteria. I ate a rare roast beef sandwich that was excellent. The meat was perfectly cooked, moist and tender. But what made the sandwich memorable was the addition of these slow roasted Roma tomatoes.
 Putting the slow roasted tomatoes on a sliced turkey sandwich would be awesome!

With chef Pastore, I wanted him to demonstrate his turkey pot pie, a dish he serves every day at Clifton's and one I thought would be perfect for after Thanksgiving. I wrote the article about Pastore for Zester Daily. Please take a look. The recipe is really easy. The dish is delicious. And the video is fun.

Festive Pot Pies Celebrate Thanksgiving Leftovers
Slow Roasted Roma Tomatoes

Roma tomatoes work really well for this technique because they hold their shape even as they are exposed to prolonged heat. After they are cooked, I remove the skin. I've used them on sandwiches (of course!) but also cut up in pastas, in soups and in braises. They add a great umami quality.
The amount of time in the oven depends on the size of the tomatoes. Large Roma tomatoes could take 8 hours. Smaller ones, maybe only 4 hours. Check them after 3 hours. What you want is for the tomato to collapse on itself so the flavors concentrate as the water evaporates. You do not want them dried out so they resemble sun dried tomatoes. They should have a pulpy moistness.

With the larger Roma tomatoes, I put them in the oven before I go to sleep. When I wake up in the morning, the house is filled with the most delicious aroma.

Yield 8 servings

Time to prepare: 5 minutes

Time to cook: 4-8 hours

Total time: 4 hours 5 minutes - 8 hours 5 minutes

Ingredients

8 large Roma tomatoes, washed, pat dried

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 F.

Cut each tomato in half, the long ways, from the stem to the bottom.

Lay the tomato halves cut side up on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or a Silpat sheet.

Season with oregano, sea salt and pepper.

Drizzle with olive oil.

Place in oven. Check after 3 hours, then every hour after that.

Remove and cool. They can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Quick and Easy Mac & Cheese Goes Au Naturel

I remember the "blond" stage of cooking for our sons. White bread, spaghetti with butter and that store-bought, powdered flavorless Parmesan cheese and, of course, Mac & Cheese. I'm pretty certain we used Kraft Mac & Cheese. We kept boxes in the pantry so we could make the boys food whenever they wanted.

Once they graduated from high school and left for college, we stopped making Mac & Cheese. A few months ago, I was cleaning out the pantry and found a box pushed way to the back. I think it expired in 2007.

Last week we were invited to a pot luck dinner party. For no reason in particular, the dish we were to bring was Mac & Cheese.
As classic American dishes have gotten make-overs in the past decade, restaurants now serve Mac & Cheese with lobster, Dungeness crab, shrimp, truffles, artisanal cheeses, blue cheese, heritage bacon, gruyere béchamel sauce and gluten free pasta.

For the dinner party I wanted to make a Mac & Cheese that was close to the comfort food we served the boys with a few "adult" touches, but not so many that the dish lost it's identity.
I prepared the Mac & Cheese two ways. One, with charred shallots and kale added for color and texture. The second, I added slow roasted Roma tomatoes and thin sliced shiitake mushrooms along with the shallots and kale.

Mac & Cheese Au Naturel

To be "comforting," Mac & Cheese needs hot fats. Cheese alone won't be smooth enough, so I added heavy cream, whole milk and sweet butter. Not very dietetic but it tastes good. Serve the Mac & Cheese with a tossed green salad and fresh fruit for dessert and the calories will balance out.

For the cheese, use whatever kind you like. I used Kerrygold white cheddar and that worked well.

Serves 4

Time to prep: 20 minutes

Time to cook: 20 minutes

Total time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 pound small macaroni pasta
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon sweet butter
1/2 pound good quality white cheddar, shredded
1 cup kale, preferably curly green or purple Lacinato, washed, pat dried, leaves removed from rib and thin sliced
2 tablespoons shallots or 1/2 small yellow onion, washed, pat dried, skin and ends removed, thin sliced
1/2 cup homemade bread crumbs
2 large Roma tomatoes, washed pat dried (optional)
1/2 cup shiitake, brown or portabella mushrooms, washed, pat dried, thin sliced (optional)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
Sea salt and black pepper to taste.
Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions

1. If using Roma tomatoes (optional), preheat oven to 200F. Cut each tomato in half, slicing from top to bottom. Place on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat sheet or parchment paper. Place in oven. Roast eight hours. Remove. Let cool. Remove and discard skins. Refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Bring 1 gallon water with kosher salt to a boil. Add pasta. Stir well. Cook 8 minutes. When draining pasta, reserve 1 cup salted pasta water. Toss pasta and set aside.

3. Place a carbon steel pan or a sauté pan that can take high heat (not a non-stick pan) on the burner. Char the shallot or onion slices in a few drops of oil. Remove when edges are blackened being careful not to burn. Remove. Set aside. Do the same with the kale. Char but do not blacken. Remove. Set aside. If using mushrooms (optional), add a few drops of oil to the hot pan. Char but do not blacken. Remove. Set aside.

4. Melt butter in carbon steel or sauté pan. Add milk and heavy cream. Stir well. Season with sea salt and black pepper to taste.

5. Pre-heat oven to 350F.

6. Break apart cooked macaroni and add to pan. Stir well to coat. Simmer 5 minutes.

7. Add charred shallots or onions and kale. Stir well. If using slow roasted Roma tomatoes, fine chop and add to pasta along with charred mushrooms.

8. Transfer cooked pasta to large bowl. Add shredded cheese. Toss well. If more sauce is desired add 1/4 cup pasta water, remembering that it is salty so use sparingly.

9. Transfer to decorative baking dish. Top with bread crumbs. Bake 20 minutes or until cheese is gooey and bubbling. Serve hot.

Quick and Easy Mac & Cheese Goes Au Naturel

I remember the "blond" stage of cooking for our sons. White bread, spaghetti with butter and that store-bought, powdered flavorless Parmesan cheese and, of course, Mac & Cheese. I'm pretty certain we used Kraft Mac & Cheese. We kept boxes in the pantry so we could make the boys food whenever they wanted.

Once they graduated from high school and left for college, we stopped making Mac & Cheese. A few months ago, I was cleaning out the pantry and found a box pushed way to the back. I think it expired in 2007.

Last week we were invited to a pot luck dinner party. For no reason in particular, the dish we were to bring was Mac & Cheese.
As classic American dishes have gotten make-overs in the past decade, restaurants now serve Mac & Cheese with lobster, Dungeness crab, shrimp, truffles, artisanal cheeses, blue cheese, heritage bacon, gruyere béchamel sauce and gluten free pasta.

For the dinner party I wanted to make a Mac & Cheese that was close to the comfort food we served to the boys with a few "adult" touches, but so many that the dish lost it's identity.

"Au Naturel" in the sense that I wanted to focus on the basics.

The basics of Mac & Cheese are pasta and cheese, mixed together and baked so the cheese gets deliciously gooey. In country style Mac & Cheese, flour and a fat are heated together to make a roux to thicken the cheese sauce.

I decided to simplify the recipe and upgrade the ingredients. The result was easy-to-make and people enjoyed it.

I prepared the Mac & Cheese two ways. One, with charred shallots and kale added for color and texture. The second, I added slow roasted Roma tomatoes and thin sliced shiitake mushrooms along with the shallots and kale.
Mac & Cheese Au Naturel

To be "comforting," Mac & Cheese needs hot fats. Cheese alone won't be smooth enough, so I added heavy cream, whole milk and sweet butter. Not very dietetic but it tastes good. Serve the Mac & Cheese with a tossed green salad and fresh fruit for dessert and the calories will balance out.

For the cheese, use whatever kind you like. I used Kerrygold white cheddar and that worked well.

Serves 4

Time to prep: 20 minutes

Time to cook: 20 minutes

Total time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 pound small macaroni pasta
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon sweet butter
1/2 pound good quality white cheddar, shredded
1 cup kale, preferably curly green or purple Lacinato, washed, pat dried, leaves removed from rib and thin sliced
2 tablespoons shallots or 1/2 small yellow onion, washed, pat dried, skin and ends removed, thin sliced
1/2 cup homemade bread crumbs
2 large Roma tomatoes, washed pat dried (optional)
1/2 cup shiitake, brown or portabella mushrooms, washed, pat dried, thin sliced (optional)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
Sea salt and black pepper to taste.
Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions

1. If using Roma tomatoes (optional), preheat oven to 200F. Cut each tomato in half, slicing from top to bottom. Place on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat sheet or parchment paper. Place in oven. Roast eight hours. Remove. Let cool. Remove and discard skins. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Bring 1 gallon water with kosher salt to a boil. Add pasta. Stir well. Cook 8 minutes. When draining pasta, reserve 1 cup salted pasta water. Toss pasta and set aside.

3. Place a carbon steel pan or a sauté pan that can take high heat (not a non-stick pan) on the burner. Char the shallot or onion slices in a few drops of oil. Remove when edges are blackened being careful not to burn. Remove. Set aside. Do the same with the kale. Char but do not blacken. Remove. Set aside. If using mushrooms (optional), add a few drops of oil to the hot pan. Char but do not blacken. Remove. Set aside.

4. Melt butter in carbon steel or sauté pan. Add milk and heavy cream. Stir well. Season with sea salt and black pepper to taste.

5. Pre-heat oven to 350F.

6. Break apart cooked macaroni and add to pan. Stir well to coat. Simmer 5 minutes.

7. Add charred shallots or onions and kale. Stir well. If using slow roasted Roma tomatoes, fine chop and add to pasta along with charred mushrooms.

8. Transfer cooked pasta to large bowl. Add shredded cheese. Toss well. If more sauce is desired add 1/4 cup pasta water, remembering that it is salty so use sparingly.

9. Transfer to decorative baking dish. Top with bread crumbs. Bake 20 minutes or until cheese is gooey and bubbling. Serve hot.

Friday, September 2, 2016

The Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival 2016 - Up Close and Personal with Chefs, Winemakers and Mixologists at the Lexus Grand Tasting

You may have heard of the Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival but you might not have attended. The Festival celebrated food and wine in venues in and around Los Angeles for four days, August 25-28.

In its sixth year, the Festival expanded to the West Side with events at the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica and the Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport.

If you have attended Barney’s twice-annual sale at the Barker, you know the cavernous space. A football field sized interior without character was transformed for the Festival. Off-white fabric was draped along the walls, giving the warehouse the feeling of a very large, very elegant tent.

Because the venue was sponsored by Lexus, there were half a dozen beautifully polished cars outside and inside the hanger.

People were dressed like people always dress in LA. Casual, very casual and red carpet premiere chic.

Local chefs from the Los Angeles area were joined by chefs from as far away as Miami to celebrate the Festival.  Walking from table to table, you could experience a variety of regional cuisines, American., Vietnamese, Peruvian, Italian, Thai, Mexican, to name a few. You could enjoy appetizers, entrées and desserts. And you could sample spirits, beers and a great many wines.

Wines were poured from California, Spain and France. 

How to Festival
After showing your ticket, you entered Barker. A friendly server approached you with a glass of wine. What an excellent way to begin!

If this was your first festival, hopefully someone told you to pace yourself. Eat every small plate you are offered and you wouldn’t make it half way around the Barker. 

The best way to experience a food festival is walk around before you eat anything. 

At each table, a menu placard indicates the name of the chef, the restaurant, the dish being served and the ingredients. Write down which ones look good to you. When you have finished your survey of all the vendors, go back to the ones that looked good.

If you are like me, there were a lot of dishes you wanted to try. The next choice is, eat all of the small plate or take just a bite and move on until you have sampled all of the dishes that looked good to you.

At that point, you can return to those chefs whose dishes you really LOVED and eat an entire plate of their food.

Even though the plates are small, eat half a dozen and you will become very full.

You will discover that not all chefs are created equal. Some dishes are wonderful. Some not so much. 

The best chefs understand that the festival is like a cocktail or wine party. Everyone eats standing up, holding a plate in one hand and a fork in the other. 

One chef served a duck sausage bahn mi, an open faced version of the popular Vietnamese sandwich. The portion was generous but the design was not. The sausage was cut in half length-wise but the casing was left on. Eating the sausage without a knife and fork was difficult because your teeth could not cut through the casing. 

The chefs

Homegating Slider Zone sponsored by the NFL Shop. After declaring your favorite NFL team (Go Patriots!),  you constructed a beef slider.  I customized mine with Cole slaw, sautéed onions, butter pickles with sriracha aioli.

To the right of Homegating was Eagle Rock Brewery Public House Restaurant which served a shrimp fry bread with pickled corn and okra small bite round. Great crunch and heat. A nice way to begin the festival.

Not just Los Angeles chefs made appearances. Chef Billy Ngo from Sacramento’s Kru served a crispy ball of white snow crab shushi-kani miso avocado mousse nori & arané (crumbled toasted rice crackers). Very tasty.

Robert Irvine from the Food Network cheerfully posed with fans who wanted to preserve the moment. It is a rare opportunity when the dining public can meet chefs who rarely stray from their kitchens. Even rarer when a chef performs their craft on television, so this is an exceptionally special moment for fans to meet a chef they love on TV.

For those who wanted to taste Irvine’s cooking, he served up a small plate of half a deviled egg and southern fried chicken seasoned with buttermilk and sriracha. The chicken was crisp and nicely seasoned with a good amount of heat.
Established restaurants used the Festival to feature their culinary point of view. Some chefs used the Festival like a soft opening. Chef Bruce Kalman and Marie Petulla the partners behind Union in Pasadena and Bread downtown, plated an excellent octopus and garbanzo bean salad seasoned with a preserved lemon yogurt dressing a crunchy Egyptian dukkah (Sesame seeds, Coriander, pistachio and cumin). 
The dish was exceptionally good. The tasting was not only to illustrate the quality of the menu at Union and Bread, but also to announce their new restaurant in Culver City, slated to open in mid-2017.

Chef Tomas Mendez’s Peruvian restaurant Picca was represented by his ceviche criollo with seabass, rocoto, leche de tigre, choclo, canchas and a small cube of sweet potato. 
Illustrating the culinary influence on Peru from Spain, Japan, Italy and China, the dish was complex but thoroughly integrated. A lovely combination of sweet heat and fresh seafood. A key ingredient is Peruvan corn. Purchased dried, it is deep fried very quickly in hot oil. As Mendez joked, Peruvian pop corn. 

One of the most fun parts of the Festival is the accessibility of chefs. When I took a bite of Mendez’s ceviche, I was filled with questions. Happily, chef Mendez was standing at the front of the booth, readily available to talk. What fun!

For me, Mendez’s ceviche was the best dish in the Festival.

After walking around the hanger, one thing became very clear. Ceviche was popular.

One of the best, besides Picca’s, was from chef Brian Huskey of Orange County’s Tackle Box. His shrimp ceiche with jicama and cucumber was fresh tasting with good heat. He nicely sauced the ceviche so after the shrimp and vegetables were enjoyed, the Michelada flavored juice was the last part to be consumed along with the topping of crunchy tortilla chip strips with cilantro sprouts, cherry tomatoes, red onions.

Another very good ceviche was served at the Stella Artois booth. Chef Marcel Vigneron from Wolf served two ceviches. One he called “Laughing Bird Ceviche” with melon, tomato, puffed quinoa and leche de tigre. The other he made with Hamachi, seasoned with Vietnamese nuos cham, watermelon radish and puffed rice.

Not just wine
I confess I was not able to taste the wines that were being served. If I had sampled the ones that looked interesting, I would have gotten too inebriated to have completed my circuit around the Barker. 

I limited myself to a sample at the Hendrick’s gin, Owl Brew and Soyelent booths.

Hendrick’s went all out with two mixologists pouring two different cockatils in a bar set up backed by a vintage car decorated in wildly fun graphics. The two cocktails were good. 
One was a riff on a familiar cocktail called the Unusual Negroni (1 part Hendrick’s Gin, 1 part Lillet Blanch, 1 part Aperol). The other was an entertaining refreshment called the Tropic of Capricorn (1 part Hendrick’s Gin, 1 part Kiwi Green Tea, ½ part fresh lemon juice, 12 part simple syrup, ¼ part pear juice, Peychaud’s Bitters to taste, 1 part soda water).


So if you missed this year’s festival, you really must put into your calendar that you will attend the Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival in 2017.