Food science lecture

FYI, I found this today:

The Science of Salami and Cheese

Cambridge, MA, United States
Email
inShare

Join Rachel Dutton and Benjamin Wolfe, food microbiologists at Harvard University’s FAS Center for Systems Biology, for a tasting of artisan cheeses and salami as they share exciting new discoveries in the science of fermentation.

The New York Times called fermentation one of the top 10 food trends in 2013. But what is fermentation and how does it transform raw materials like grains, grapes and milk into delicious foods like miso, wine, and cheese? What are microbes and how do they ferment foods? Where do the unique flavors of cheese and salami come from? Why do flavors vary across different producers and how does this relate to ‘microbial terroir’? In this special event, we’ll explore the science of fermentation through the lens of cheese and salami.

*Due the the limited availability participants may only register one additional guest.*
Alumni and Friends of the Harvard Community: $20

Rachel Dutton received her PhD in Microbiology from Harvard Medical School and is currently a Bauer fellow at the Harvard FAS Center for Systems Biology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her lab studies the microbial communities that make up the rind of cheese, with the goal of understanding the biodiversity of cheese communities, the interactions between cheese microbes, and on developing experimental model ecosystems. Research from the Dutton lab has been featured in Culture Magazine, the Boston Globe, and the New York Times.

Benjamin Wolfe is a microbiologist/mycologist at Harvard University, specializing in the microbiology of fermented foods. He has a B.Sc. from Cornell University and a M.Sc. from the University of Guelph. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University studying the ecology and evolutionary origins of mushroom-forming fungi. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow with Rachel Dutton at Harvard’s FAS Center for Systems Biology where he is working on several projects exploring the ecology and genomics of cheese microbial communities. He’s also working on a project to characterize the microbial diversity of American artisan salami. Ben has taught food microbiology courses at The San Francisco Cheese School, the Harvard Summer School and is a regular contributor to Lucky Peach magazine.

I would go if I could, but I’m busy Wednesday nights without enough notice. Registration is required, but anyone can sign up. If you’re local and available Wednesday evening, I recommend going! (And then, please let me know how it went!) (^_^)

Reference link and registration link
http://alumni.harvard.edu/events/science-of-salami-and-cheese-0

The never ending debate, Vitamix or Blendtec?

As the warmer weather continues to enter Greater Boston, I’m seriously considering moving things around in my kitchen. I have an amazing, fancy-pants mandoline that I’m thinking about putting on my kitchen island. I think I should make the tools for summer salads, etc. more readily available. Right now, it’s still in its box.

And the warmer weather means that I’m going to start hankering for fruit smoothies. I don’t have a high speed blender yet. I really want one. My sister has and loves her Blendtec, but I’m really leaning toward a Vitamix.

And then I turn around and get indecisive again.

Won’t someone help me decide?

The Table at Season to Taste, restaurant/catering review

I had an amazing and lovely dinner recently.

I was invited to a nine course dinner in North Cambridge at Season to Taste catering.  The catering company has a large table with chairs set up in the front part of the store to allow for dine-in guests (max number of guests is 12; min number is 8) – reservations and a deposit are required to sit at “The Table.”

The Table at Season to Taste espouses a locavore menu.  Our dishes were beautifully prepared by Chef Paul Trombly based on our food preferences, the season, and what ingredients were available from local farms.

Here’s a picture of the menu my dinner party found on the table when we entered:

Since some readers might find the image hard to read, here are the dishes retyped:

English pea veloute, yogurt panna cotta, trout roe
Scallop, uni butter, watercress, nori
Spring dug parsnips, fiddleheads, oyster mushrooms, sunchokes, speck
Spinach “pakora”, cauliflower, fennel, beets
Soft shell crab, spring succotash, lobster cream, micro greens
Duck, foie gras ravioli, consomme, snap peas, breakfast radish
Beef, chimichurri, pommes puree, red onion jam
Bonne bouch, blueberry jam, crisps
White chocolate, strawberry sorbet, basil ice cream, creme fraiche

Not on the menu was a clam with truffle oil (I think) and a piece of stuffed zucchini – our amuse bouche plate.

Some of the wines were different than what was printed on the menu.  The ones I know were served were:

Domaine J. Laurens Cremant De Limoux “La Rose No 7″ NV, La Digne D’aval, France
Domaine Des Grandes Perries, Sancerre 2011, Sury-En-VAux, France
Mystic Saison, Chelsea, MA (this is actually a beer)

All of the wines were introduced /explained to us by Assistant General Manager George, who was also serving us our dinner.

Impressions?

I was really impressed by the trout roe.  It was very unexpected!  The pairing with the pea soup and the yogurt panna cotta was sublime.  The scallop was perfectly seared (something I still can’t do well), and the duck was crispy but not overcooked.  The consomme (made of duck and chorizo – yum!) was poured into our bowls at the time of serving which kept the texture perfect.  I thought the pakora was addictive.  It wasn’t a real pakora, but it had the Indian flavors and it was extremely soft and tender inside.  I loved putting bits of red onion jam on the beef, and was sad when it was all gone.  The cheese plate (the bonne bouche) was a goat cheese from Vermont which everyone seemed to enjoy.

The dessert course was my other favorite plate of the night.  The basil ice cream was just “wow”… so much so that I’m tempted to make some this weekend.  I don’t really remember where the white chocolate was.  I *think* it was smeared on the left side of my plate.  There was a sort of small cake-like thing under the ice cream that, flavor-wise, took a back seat to the rest of the plate but it was another great pairing.  (I suppose I shouldn’t call it a cake-like thing.  Cakelet?  It kind of reminded me of a baked pancake than cake, to be honest.  Maybe it had white chocolate in it as well?)  And the atmosphere of The Table is cozy enough that if one of the guests, who is a former pastry chef, decides to help the chef shape the ice cream into quinelles, it’s definitely ok.

If there is any downside to eating at The Table, then it’s the bill at the end of the night.  The six course dinner is $100 without tax, tip, and drink.  The nine course is $125.  Our table had opted for the wine pairing, so that’s nine glasses of alcohol per person.  And I’m not talking about half-glasses here, The Table was generous when pouring.  Our bill came  close to $250 per person after tax, tip, and drink.  You don’t have to do the wine pairing, though.  You can order a la carte.

I’m just sad that I can’t eat here more often.  I don’t make that much money!  Although, I wish I did.  (^_^)

A huge thank you to George, Paul, and Elana (it might have been Elena – oops?) for a wonderful dinner.

Reference:

http://seasontotastecatering.com/the_table.html

(Yeaaaah… I gave up taking pictures early on.  The lighting was not in my favor, and I didn’t want to be *that* person.)

Accountability

For some reason, I think that if I write it down here, publicly, that things will actually get done. (^_^)

- experiment with breakfast pilaf and take photos
- bake bread because I ran out
- plant some microgreens
- get the City Pickers box prepped
- plant okra in said box
- make duck ham
- buy milk and salad greens

HelloFresh, review

Note: I purchased the product out of my own pocket. No one paid me or asked me to write this.

I’m a fan of the Blue Apron food/recipe delivery service. Out of curiosity, I decided to try out another similar service called HelloFresh.

Pros: Prices are tailored a bit more to what you need. For a classic box of three meals which includes meat, a two person box is $69, a four person box is $129, and a six person box is $179. The vegetarian boxes are a little cheaper; a two person box is $59, a four person is $109, and a six person box is $149.

There’s also more flexibility in your food choices. One week, the classic box came with Moroccan-Style Chicken with Cumin Chickpea Pilaf, Beef Bulgogi with Brown Rice, and Grilled Shrimp Panzanella with Basil. However, if one or two of those meals were not to your liking, you could swap them for either Pork Burger with Caramelized Onions or Virtuous Vegetarian Curry with Zucchini and Cashews.

In comparison, Blue Apron is the same price with or without meat, and everything is based on feeding two people.

Cons: HelloFresh uses more packaging than Blue Apron… like way more.  All of the seasonings I got from HelloFresh were in disposable packets. Blue Apron uses bottles and plastic cups that can be recycled. Then, HelloFresh also packs all the ingredients for a dish into a clear plastic bag for easy grab. That’s nice but I don’t need the double packaging.  I really don’t need all those plastic bags.*

I also like the the format of the HelloFresh recipe cards less than Blue Apron. They’re a little smaller which means the font and pictures are smaller.  As for the recipes themselves, I feel conflicted.

With my first box, one of the recipes was scallops with brussel sprouts, oranges, and quinoa.  It was really good even though I didn’t get a sear of my scallops.

And in second box, I got a recipe for 1) cod with ramps, tomatoes, and potatoes, and 2) linguini with tomato garlic ragu.  I didn’t make the cod as directed at all.  And I tinkered with the linguini a bit, enough so that it doesn’t really look like the picture on the recipe card.

That’s not to say that I love all of Blue Apron’s recipe.  I feel like with a box that there’s always one recipe that’s more mundane, but so far I haven’t bothered to adjust any of their recipes.

Overall, as someone who likes to cook and experiment, I am less enthusiastic about HelloFresh than Blue Apron.  I think it’s a better service for someone who wants something less exotic.  I could be wrong – I only have two boxes to base my conclusion on.  Unfortunately, you can’t preview their recipes which would be nice to have.  Blue Apron has their cookbook public and free, but Hello Fresh doesn’t seem to electronically publish their recipes.  Or at least, not that I could find.

* = I wrote a note to HelloFresh when I closed my account and mentioned my concern for all the packaging.  Their customer service support is pretty good, and they wrote back to me expressing that they are trying to figure out some sort of recycling program.  I hope they can make it work out.

Reference links:
http://www.hellofresh.com/
http://www.blueapron.com/pages/cookbook

(Sorry for the ill-lit photos.  Food was cooked after sun had set.  And I didn’t take photos of my other meals either because it wasn’t much to look at or because I diverted from the HelloFresh recipe completely.)

A must try!

My mind is blown.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268744/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=mxsc69bs

I need to try this method of heat shocking to extend the life of produce.  I never go through produce fast enough – it is one of my biggest regrets.

 

An everyday batter bread (recipe post)

Fact:  I can’t buy bread from the market anymore.  Specifically, I can’t buy bread from the bread aisle.  If it’s from the bakery section of the market, that’s ok.  But manufactured bread?  I just can’t!  Even the smell of the bread aisle has become unappealing to me.

I’ve been making my own bread fairly consistently for the last four years.  Manufactured bread just doesn’t measure up in fragrance and flavor.  I used to post about my bread attempts but eventually stopped because I only make the same two recipes nowadays.  First and foremost is a spelt version of Richard Bertinet’s basic bread recipe.  I’m very capable of making this.  I don’t even need the recipe on hand anymore.  Mix four ingredients together, work the dough for about 10 minutes, let it rest and rise until doubled in volume, shape, let rise again, and bake.  Simple.

I am still bad at shaping this dough, but that’s another story.

The second bread recipe I use a lot is a white batter bread from Bread Made Easy by Beth Hensperger.  What makes a batter bread recipe different from a basic bread recipe?  Laziness Time.  A batter bread is just that – you mix everything into a batter.  There’s no kneading.  There’s no working the dough for 10 minutes.  You just mix it until it’s a shaggy thing (like dough with a bad hair day?  or like oatmeal gone very wrong?), plop it in a loaf pan, let it rise just the one time, and then bake.

Batter breads lack complex flavor without help.  Basic bread recipes can attribute part of its flavor from the double rise.  I’ve read that three or four rises total taste even better, but who has the time for that?  Beth Hensperger’s version adds a touch of ground ginger which is deliciously amazing and you might not know it was there if you hadn’t been told.

But… I only like it in the white bread version.  I’ve tried making a whole wheat version, a spelt version, and a spelt version without ginger.  The variations didn’t satisfy me much.

And then I came across Home Baked by Hanne Risgaard.