Forking Tasty

REEL TASTY Testing

In preparation for our August dinner I started playing around with some New York classics. Last night I took our city’s name sake steak and tried a new cooking method I recently read about. The cast iron gives a nice even heat without any flare ups which usually cause those burnt, charred ends of meat. Although the single portion was a success, I am not sure this will work for 20 guests. To accompany this I worked up a gorgonzola cream sauce. It rather nicely with the medium rare beef eaten slowly in a perfectly chilled air conditioned room. Although, it may be a little heavy for a mid-summer, outdoor dinner. I am thinking about cutting it with some horseradish. If that doesn’t satisfy I might need to start over with a bearnaise base. Rest assured this preparation has another secret twist that I have purposely left absent. You’ll just have to visit the deck to find out how the testing turns out.

Solar Pop!

Six weeks ago I pitched a solar powered ice pop truck to my client, Sungevity, I didn’t think I’d be standing in Rockefeller Center yesterday basking in the orange solar glow of a push-button, auto-articulating, air ride equipped, natural ice pop dispensing, ex-postal step van. Nor did I think I’d be watching the 30 person line double in size by the minute with happy NYers grabbing their hibiscus mint or Mango flavored all natural ice pops. But I was. And today I am doing the same thing at Grand Central and Bryant Park. From NYC this baby heads to Boston and then Jersey and maybe even as far as Maryland.

What’s on board are…

Five Minute Canoli

Ok…sooo…I really like Food Network Magazine. Even though it’s based on bubble gum, celebrity TV chef’s and their individually contrived “schtick’s”, the content is good. Maybe even great. I know, bold statement. As a brand guy I think the magazine was a brilliant move. The cookware products even smarter. Giving America a chance to touch and feel their favorite TV chef is tough to do. Short of sleeping with Guy Fieri you can now tear out a quirky response to a reader question and pin it to your wall. It’s probably not the same but it fills a need. I digress and forgive me for the back handed Food Network compliments, I’ve been reading a lot of Bourdain lately. In short, it may be the second best food magazine out there. First being Cook’s Illustrated. Yes, 1 and 2 are at complete opposite ends of the spectrum but we like the stark contrast here at FT. It keeps us on our toes.

In the June issue of Food Network Magazine there was a section on fast desserts. Running a 20-seat monthly supperclub keeps us looking for new, quick dessert ideas all the time. The above image is my favorite from the lot. A canoli lover by birth, this was an easy choice. The work part of making canoli’s is the shell. It’s a long process and a smelly one too. Take that out of the equation and you can make a plate of these in under 5 minutes. Canoli cream is easy when you 86 the candied citrus. Personally I am a purist. The best ricotta and some confectioners sugar is all you need. A quick mix and then pipe or spoon into the sugar cone. Crunch! Eat! Done!

But …there is more. The Canadian has been on a bit of a Nutella binge lately and she decided to line a cone in this Italian, hazelnut flavored, cupboard mainstay. We then topped it with the canoli cream. “Madonna mia”, as one less than fluent Brooklyn, Italian kid shouted. (me). Try it yourself this weekend. Make your own concoction and share it with us. We’d love to have some new fillings to try for next weeks pack of sugar cones. Yes. We are addicted.

Sausage Fireworks

If there is a food that looks like an exploding roman candle this is it. In addition to the edible standards of this past patriotic weekend, The Southerner and Ant showed up equipped with some sausage, shredded cheese and a box of Bisquick. Not only do these little explosions pack a punch of flavor but, they take about 6 minutes to mix and only double that to cook. An adaptation from one of The Southerner’s mom’s recipes, this bowl of bursts hit the table with as much gusto as the Macy’s firework finally. A versatile little wonder, useful as a snack, a dinner side or even a breakfast, we packed away a good half dozen for the short work week ahead. I already fortified yesterday morning’s drive with two and have another two ready for a quick pre-meeting pop. As I finalize our Cleopatra Jones menu I might have to find a place for these little gems.

Truffled Fourth

This weekend is as American as it gets. To go along with that patriotic persuit we threw these truffle salted burgers on the grill, topped them with Kraft American cheese. Ohh yes, only the super processed with do here. That was gentle nuzzled on a toasted, whole wheat english muffin with a smear of Busha Brown’s Steak Sauce. No lettuce. No tomato. No ketchup. You don’t need it. Thank my wife for this glorious concoction and the new weekly staple dinner in our house.

Enjoy the day everyone. Your grill on? What’s sizzlin’?

Literal IceCream Sandwich

As the name implies, somehow, the vision is off. Maybe it’s Americanized. Maybe it’s just not right. Either way the idea of an ice cream sandwich usual includes a top and bottom made of chocolate or, at the very least, two cookies. In a very intriguing twist we have started to see a bunch of ice cream sandwiches on menus that hold true to what we more commonly think of when making a sandwich. In this case, L’Art del Gelato uses a fresh brioche bun. A trip to Italy is planned for December so we’ll attempt to trace this back to it’s roots. In the mean time, we’d suggest you stay away. For us it tasted like really amazing ice cream crammed onto an old bun. The “bread” and the ice cream just didn’t mix right. This left us a bit sad. Sad because the gelato is amazing and we wasted that by commingling it with a lost piece of brioche. Perhaps it is lost in translation and the roman version will blow our minds and tongues. For now stick with the handmade cones unless you feel like switching up your normal lunch sandwich for the unexpected dairy disaster pictured above. Please don’t let this become a trend.

First Take

Forking Tasty – 5 Napkin Burger from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

My cousin wanted to meet up for some lunch and when my cousin wants to get together I know a burger is not to far away. He mentioned 5 Napkin Burger which I have heard a little bit about. I could not refuse so the southerner, my cousin and I headed to Hells Kitchen. In my head I was thinking a small burger joint. I couldn’t be more wrong.

Sunday Standard

You can almost see the strong hand that rung the above lemon dry and tossed it to the cutting board to move onto more important tasks like eating.

The post kitchen disaster is one we all know well but most of us done’t love it like I do. No, I don’t like cleaning but I do like to review the food carnage post any good meal. Sunday suppers are always the best because just 60 minutes prior the kitchen was a buzz with at least 5 people doing multiple tasks readying the food and table for the “BIG” meal. As I walked through the kitchen on this particular evening pockets of simple ingredients, like the lemon and grated parmesan cheese, could be found in every corner of the kitchen. On the stove was a lightly oiled pan containing some remnant garlic, chopped parsley and a few spaghetti strands. In the sink a starchy calendar next to a bowl of sticky breadcrumbs and egg whites. The other counter had several glasses half full with pre-dinner wine abandoned for a proper glass and the better wine of the dinner table.

Aside from the clues around the kitchen reminding me of the meals preparation, the post supper clean up continues the conversation back to the kitchen completing the circle of dinnertime. In our house, when I was a kid, it wasn’t just about the time we were sitting and eating. It was about the before and after just the same. These days we barely have 30 minutes to eat let alone 3 hours to cook, eat and clean. So, Sunday’s make me happy. Happy to cook. Happy to eat. And, happy to clean. Of course the food is always wonderful but to slow down the craziness of life, catch up with my family or friends, hone my work ethic and relax is a mostly unrecognized biproduct of any dinnertime. I believe it should get more conscious press. This weekend take a moment and cook, talk, eat…then clean. It might just be the relaxation you needed.

Nuptial Nosh

As promised this post is all about the food at my wedding. Although, it is 3 months tardy. I can’t really believe how quickly the time has past. I am not exactly sure what happened but a little 48 hour mini-honeymoon in Philadelphia this weekend (stay tuned for that post soon) reminded me of what happens when my wife and I are left to plan eating a day at a time. Before we get into all this I feel compelled to give some of you a bit more context on the days events. First off, I married the Canadian. I have been coy in keeping her identity a bit secret over the years in this blog. Now that she is officially in the family you can expect some guest posts.

The Canadian, in case you have not followed the sloppy hidden path backwards to her identity, is of pure Indian decent. Her wonderful parents, my new in-laws, are from Bangalore and Mysore so her South Indian roots run deep. This has everything to do with the day starting with a traditional South Indian breakfast in the Gnesha temple in flushing Queens. The fact that we visited a year prior just to eat in the temple canteen, as did Tony Bourdain, heavily influenced our decision to have our ceremony here. Breakfast was straight from the heart of what South Indians eat daily and the preparation was…

A Hidden Gem

Momma Anello’s birthday was last Wednesday and the southerner and I headed to Long Island to have some dinner. We went to a little hidden gem that is always packed called the West End Cafe. The food is always great. There was a little confusion at the table and we ended up ordering about six appitizers. One of the more unique dishes we got were duck sliders. I thought it was going to come more like a pulled pork but it was in a paddy. It really had some good flavors. Speaking of flavors the crab tower was flavorful but I felt it needed more crab in it. (see above). The dinner rolls were also a highlight on the table. Really fresh and was baked with pesto and olive oil inside it. You never want to fill p on bread before the meal but this bread was worth every bit.