Max’s Kitchen: Live and Active Cultures

It is the task of any entertainer not only to make food and drink that can stand out as satisfactory on its own, but to blend culinary creations with a logical progression that creates a harmonious meal. The most intimidating aspect of this practice has got to be complimenting a dish with wine, or visa-versa. How does one match the tanginess of a Zinfandel with the earthiness of mushrooms? Or what goes with the strong tannins of a young Bordeaux? Can a spicy Sangiovese pair with a pumpkin soup? Can anything pair with fruit? These questions can make even the most hearty of chefs shy away from the practice.
If a pairing succeeds, it can result in an ethereal match like a mash-up of Pachelbel’s Canon and K’naan; if it fails, it can be as jarring as a mash-up of Slayer and a children’s choir. It is the goal of this segment to aid in navigating this complex food version of a blind date, and empower cooks everywhere to be confident with complimenting either food or drink with the other. We will start with a dish to pair with the increasingly popular white from Germany-Riesling. To finish, we will find how to match a Hungarian trademark-Tokaji-with apples.

No two dishes embody the spirit of Mardi Gras more than Gumbo and the King Cake. In honor of tomorrow’s gluttonous celebration, I have searched far and wide for the world’s best gumbo and king cake recipes, and then I adapted them to suit my tastes, which at the time craved spice. The result of my can be found in the food pages, but I warn you, these dishes are not for the faint of mouth, for the gumbo is of fire and the cake of milk and honey.

So I’ve been going on about Cajun and Creole, but what exactly are they. In my excitement over Mardi Gras, I failed to provide an adequate history of these cultural foodways. Creole food is the child of the plantation system. In short, creole and cajun food evolved along with the slave trade. In the south, numerous plantation owners pined for the tastes of their homelands. They, along with their cooks, prepared foods utilizing local spices and imported goods to simulate the flavors of home. However, slaves this cuisine was not immune to outside influence, and changed according to plantation interaction and slaves adding their own unique flare to dishes. In this practice, two food customs were born- Cajun and creole. Cajun food was an inter-cultural preparation that relied on local ingredients and tended to be spicy and rustic. Creole food was the preference of the elite, and it utilized more imported goods, and led to more refined, although still transcultural, dishes. Today, I highlight the flavors of Cajun cooking with Sweet Potato Biscuits, and provide insight to Creole preparations with the ubiquitous Bananas Foster, revised.

Apparently, students listening to lectures via ipods perform better on tests than those who attend the lectures in person:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16624-itunes-university-better-than-the-real-thing.html
Opinions?

This is for you Rene
You have 100 coins, divided into groups of ten. One set of coins is faulty, with each in the set being 1/100 of an ounce off the correct weight (Hence the entire set is 1/10 of an ounce off the correct weight). Knowing how much each coin should weigh, and having access to a very accurate scale, how do you determine the faulty set with only one weighing?

As a non-religious Jew growing up in Pennsylvania, I have never had much opportunity to celebrate Mardi Gras (also known as Carnival). The rich colors, lavish displays, and collective revelry were all foreign to me calling forth images of the exotic. It was as if this festival were This year though, I cast aside my ignorance and set out to figure out what this holiday is all about.
The history of Mardi Gras is intricately linked with with both indulgence and deprivation. The liminal transition between the everyday and the Christian holiday of Lent, Mardi Gras occurs the day before Ash Wednesday, 46 days before Easter, every year. Though Parades, feasts, and overall madness have occurred in America since 1699, the festival can trace European roots back to the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a circus like celebration falling in mid-February. Of course, when Rome became predominantly Christian, the Church, as they did with so many other pagan holidays, co-opted the practice into their ideology, rather than destroy it.
Though numerous symbology is featured during the celebration, such as the colors of the costumes (Purple represents justice, green represents faith, and gold represents power), no holds more significance than what is consumed. The importance of food throughout the celebration’s history cannot be ignored, and for this holiday, high calorie cuisine reigns king. From the king cake, which is almost a sweet croissant-like wreath baked with a plastic baby hidden inside-to moonpies-cookie-marshmallow sandwiches-to fair food containing everything from paella to sausage, to a traditional pancake dinner (Mmmmm, brinner. I may convert just for that).
Any way you celebrate, food is sure to be a centerpiece for the occasion. So, in honor of Fat Tuesday, this week will feature recipes dedicated to the decadence of the delicious dishes of Carnival (Though there will be some health conscious options, so as to not exclude anybody).
Check the food sections today for Beignets and Creole Fruit Salad

You have 12 coins, one of which weighs an small amount more or less than the others. You also have a balance scale, and are curious to find the faulty coin. What’s the minimum number of weighings you must do in order to find the faulty coin?

In the culinary world, rhubarb is a relatively new addition to the produce lexicon.  Used up to 5000 years ago by the Chinese, this vegetable (often considered a fruit because of its predominance in dessert dishes) was cultivated for perceived health benefits.  Brewed in tea, and used in traditional medicines, rhubarb remained a plant relegated to the pharmaceutical cupboard.  It was only in the late 1800s that rhubarb began to be used in cookery.  As is usually the case with a surge in popularity of an ingredient, the success of rhubarb coincided with it’s addition to alcoholic fermentation.  Used as an additional flavorant in wines, 19th century Britons found that this unique vegetable paired well with sweets.  From then on, it became used almost to an obsessive extent, culminating in a ‘rhubarb mania’ at the end of WWII.

Rhubarb mania may have been superfluous, though it is true that the merit of this ingredient cannot be denied, and that rhubarb should be used whenever possible, as it’s sweet-sour taste pairs so weel with fruits, custards, puddings, ice creams and pies. Consequently, now is the beginning of rhubarb (forced) season; there is no better time to explore the complexity and all out unique-ness of this produce.  Just a disclaimer:  The green leaves of the rhubarb (one eats the pinkish stalks, petioles) contain ultra-high concentrations of oxalic acid, an organic poison and corrosive found in many plants.  Therefore, one should always be careful to avoid confusing the greens with chard, for they will cause excessive discomfort (toxicity) if swallowed.

The possibilities for rhubarb and numerous.  From soups and stews to sauces to grilled applications, rhubarb can feature in any meal.  Today’s recipes, however, highlight the vegetable’s complex sweet-sour flavor in dessert preparation, and offer up a Morrocan inspired Rhubarb Fruit Salad with a Ricotta-Rhubarb sauce, and Vanilla-Poached Rhubarb a la Mode Sprinkled with Rum-Toasted Walnuts.  As always, enjoy!

Ahhh! If you’re like me, you overindulged yesterday. Too much chocolate does not do the body good. An overdose of sugar/caffiene can result in a feeling much like a hangover. This is due to multiple factors: dehydration (electrolyte imbalance), sleep interruption and unstable blood glucose levels. In order to tackle all three causes, and keep your blood sugar from going on a roller coater ride, one needs to digest both whole grains and protein, to stabilize blood sugar and reintroduce nutrients into the body. This no fail combination will soothe the body, and allow for the body to get back on the right track. Find hangover cures in both the novice and advanced sections.

So, today’s the day, and I’ve saved the best for last. Theobroma Cacao, the food of the gods, also known as chocolate. The word’s etymology is a bastardization of the orginal Nahuatl form, xocolatl (Zho-co-la-tay), meaning bitter water. Over time, the Aztecs adopted both the word and the food, and began associating it with their goddess of fertility, as well as power, wealth, and prestige. Consumed only by the king, it originated as a bitter drink, combining unsweetened, processed cacao beans, vanilla and chili (To make, combine 6 ounces of coarsely chopped unsweetened chocolate, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 4 cups of boiling water, and 1 tablespoon dried chile and blend.  Serve cool).

Upon being introduced to the Europeans, the drink maintained it’s liquid state, but, in order to translate it’s prestige to the Western mind, it was combined with the most popular, high-class seasoning of the time, sugar. The concoction was an instant success, and began to be written into recipes, health remedies, and of course, as a sexual stimulant, which we can rationalize now because research has shown chocolate to have over 400 different identifiable compounds, both beneficial to health. Most notably, the tryptophan, seratonin, caffiene and Theobromide in the nibs have been proven stimulants and mood enhancers.

Chocolate bars themselves were not put into production until the emulsifier lecithin began to be used, in order to stabilize chocolate in it’s solid form. Be that as it may, a mere century after Hershey introduced the ubiquitous bar, solid chocolate has dominated the candy market.

For Valentine’s day, I present a special dark chocolate cremoso (decadent cool custard-like chocolate with a peanut-butter-like texture) with chocolate-cracker triangles, and a savory chocolate hummus with sweet chocolate-nut pitas.