Spooky Fruit from Frieda's Produce

Ghost chiles. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 Pretty innocent-looking chiles, right? These miniature morsels of molten hellfire are Ghost Chiles, the hottest chile pepper on the planet, certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. These red demons, known as Bhut Jolokia in India, where they are grown, top the heat-o-meter at 1 million Scoville units (jalapenos, by comparison, rate 2,500-5,000, and habaneros 200,000-300,000).

 The witty folks at Frieda's Produce included the Ghost Chiles in their Spooky Pack, sent to me this week. Accompanying the chiles were a Kiwano (Horned Melon), a Buddha's Hand Citron, and bag of black garlic.

Frieda's Spooky Pack. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 The Kiwano, colored like a Nickelodeon cartoon, is featured in Frieda's Facebook promotion, "Save a Pumpkin, Carve a Kiwano."  Check out the clever carvings on Facebook and contemplate your own Kiwano makeover - be sure to post a picture and you could win goodies from Frieda's.

I've only heard about black garlic before today, probably from watching "Chopped," and assumed it was a variety of garlic, but it is actually fermented and aged garlic, which is why I haven't taken it out its packaging. Frieda's advises using black garlic in barbecues and Asian dishes. Any advice from readers out there?

I experienced the Buddha's Hand citron with my sense of smell before my sense of sight. The floral fragrance was released when I opened the box. My kitchen smells great, a good thing, since the Buddha's Hand is really rather creepy. Looks like a claw, doesn't it?

Buddha's Hand Citron. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Giveaway time! Frieda's Produce will send a Spooky Pack to an A Cook and Her Books reader, so just leave a comment with your favorite spooky food (it doesn't have to be a fruit or vegetable) and a winner will be chosen at random on Sunday, Oct. 28!

This contest is now closed. Thanks for entering!

Text and images copyright 2012, Lucy Mercer.

Disclaimer: Frieda's sent me this lovely Spooky Pack, but other than that, I was not compensated for this post. My opinions are my own. And thanks for reading.

Fusion, hot or cold

Coconut rice pudding with mango. Lucy Mercer.A Cook and Her Books.

 

On the most perfect April Saturday afternoon in Georgia, one straight out of the Weather Channel’s Wish book, the hubs and I tasted our way through Roswell, a small town due north of Atlanta blessed with historic charm, a verdant setting and a vibrant foodie culture.

The afternoon was a fusion of ideas and influences ~  over three hours, we dined on everything from pristine Thai salads to Mama's meatballs to N'awlins beignets, and then on to Cajun fried pickles and Caribbean clam chowder and Bourbon pecan ice cream.

My friend Beth, whose Atlanta Culinary Tours are becoming must-do weeknight and weekend dates (see my Sweet Auburn Curb Market visit), recently added the Roswell tour after being contacted by Erin Susan Lark, a Roswell yoga instructor. Erin served as the tour guide, walking and talking us through a two-mile tasting course anchored on Canton Street in downtown Roswell. The tour  included three restaurants, one bakery and an olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting.

We began with Rice, where Chef Kris Boonruang shared his philosophy and art, Thai heritage and cuisine. Chef Kris is a fine artist, with a painting in the collection of Atlanta's High Museum of Art, as well as other museums and private collections. He is also an artist in the kitchen, treating my fellow culinary tourists and myself to a lettuce wrap with larb (seasoned ground pork), cellophane noodle salad with Thai shrimp, and sticky rice pudding with mango. As interesting as the plates was Kris' discourse on gardening, art and creativity, including his routine of walking barefoot outside his home before sunrise or after sunset, each day.

Next stop on Canton Street was Table and Main, with owner Ryan Pernice sharing his restaurant's "simple, Southern, seasonal" style. We tasted Mom's meatloaf reinvented as a meatball, replete with sticky sweet tomato sauce, but my favorite bite was a scoop of Bourbon butter pecan ice cream, an ode to the South as true and sublime as Sidney Lanier's "Song of the Chattahoochee." ("Out of the hills of Habersham, down the valleys of Hall..." Roswell is near the Chattachoochee recreational area, and I can't help recalling the famous poem I memorized in middle school. "I hurry amain to reach the plain, run the rapid and leap the fall.." Oh, don't get me started...). A meal at Table and Main concludes with the check delivered in a Southern novel ~ lots of Flannery O'Connor to choose from, a bit of Zora Neale Hurston, some Faulkner, Shaara, Flagg and McCullers.

The bookshelf at Table + Main awaits diners' checks. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

A surprise for the staff are the comments that diners scribble in the books.

Diners pay their checks and comment on the literature at Table + Main in Roswell. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

After leaving Table and main, we crossed Canton Street and walked around the corner to get to Artisan Bakery, where Chef Hoyt Williams displayed a sugar-dusted pyramid of beignets and described in delightful detail the various breads, sandwiches and pastries produced at the bakery.

Mellow and full, we journeyed to Oli + Ve, a six-week old culinary shop, where we listened to the women owners talk passionately about the versatility of infused olive oils and balsamic vinegars. We traveled from room to room, tasting and sampling the various vinegars and olive oils. (I purchased the lemon olive oil and the strawberry balsamic for homemade salad dressings, and just to open them, breathe in and daydream.)

It's hard to say that we saved the best for last, because each of the stops was so incredible and the food so extraordinary, but the Fickle Pickle really stands out for the quantity and originality of its offerings. While Chef Andy Badgett shared his tales of the restaurant biz and the culinary history of Canton Street, I scarfed down still-sizzling-from-the-Fry-o-lator Creole fried pickles dipped in remoulade. Followed by Caribbean clam chowder and a fried green tomato BLT and two kinds of cookies - soft ginger and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Cajun Fried Pickles from the Fickle Pickle. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 On the ride home, mellow and stuffed to the gills, the hubs and I performed the post-mortem, discussing our favorite bits and bites of the afternoon. As we talked through the walk, I remarked that as good as the food was, the secondary pleasure was listening to men and women who enjoyed their work and wanted to share their knowledge of food and service with others...

...Like Chef Kris sharing his morning routine of walking barefoot around his home, gardening before dawn and after dusk.

...Chef Andy telling the history of the Fickle Pickle restaurants, a history marked not with years, but each of his six children’s birthdays. And throughout, a history of the Canton Street restaurant revitalization, as well.

...Ryan, a young man with a passion for the hospitality business, on Bourbon and The Band and a commitment to local, seasonal food and first-class service.

...The women of Oli + Ve sharing their knowledge of infused olive oils and balsamic vinegars. Chef Hoyt discussing the variety of baked goods produced by his store.


Fusion is what you make of it. It can cross cultures, it can cross the street. It can be Cajun fried pickles with spicy remoulade  or the most divine pecan ice cream with real Georgia pecans infused with a buttery Bourbon streak of caramel gold.

Fusion is hot or it’s cold. It’s strawberry infused balsamic vinegar paired with lemon-infused olive oil because a saleswoman recommended it. It can be the irresistible idea of a pimento cheese fritter that Chef Andy kept talking about as I dove again and again into the basket of obscenely hot and crunchy fried pickles. (Salty and fried. Do not judge me, we’ve all been there, girlfriends).

There are so many culinary roads to go down with this post, but I think I’ll journey back to the first stop on Canton Street, Rice, and my version of Chef Kris Boonruang’s sticky rice pudding with mango.

Coconut Rice Pudding with Mango. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Coconut Rice Pudding with Mango

 This is my adaptation of a traditional Thai home-style treat. I based the recipe on one found at Serious Eats that uses jasmine rice instead of the typical Thai glutinous rice. I like the richness of the full-fat coconut milk, but light coconut milk may be substituted.

1 cup raw jasmine rice
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 cups coconut milk
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 ripe mangoes, peeled and sliced

1. In a medium saucepan, preferably nonstick, set over medium heat, combine water and rice. Bring the water to a boil, cover the pot and reduce the heat. Cook until the water is absorbed.

2. Add the coconut milk, sugar and salt; stir and bring to a boil. Cook for two minutes, stirring constantly.

3. Cover the pot and remove from the heat. Let the rice sit for 10 minutes, to completely absorb the liquid.

4. Serve pudding warm or at room temperature, garnished with mango slices.


This post is part of #LetsLunch, a monthly Twitter party on a given theme. The theme for May is fusion.

Check out more #letslunch stories and recipes here:

Ana‘s Miso Salmon with Mango Salsa at In Foodie Fashion
Cathy‘s Bacon-Studded Polenta With Tomato Gravy at ShowFood Chef
Eleanor‘s Wok Picadillo at Wok Star
Ellise‘s Salty Lime Sablés (Margarita Cookies) at Cowgirl Chef
Emma‘s Kimchi Bulgogi Nachos at Dreaming of Pots And Pans
Felicia‘s Mexican-Lebanese Hummus at Burnt-Out Baker
Grace‘s Taiwanese Fried Chicken at HapaMama
Jill‘s Southern Pimento-Stuffed Knishes at Eating My Words
Joe‘s Grilled KimCheese Sandwich at Joe Yonan
Karen‘s Ukrainian-German Cabbage Rolls at GeoFooding
Leigh‘s Venezuelan-Italian Cachapas Con Queso at Leigh Nannini
Linda‘s Project Runway Pelau: Rice & Beans Trinidad-Style at Spicebox Travels
Linda‘s Edible Salad Totes at Free Range Cookies
Lisa‘s Sunday Night Jewish-Chinese Brisket at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Lucy‘s Coconut Rice Pudding with Mango at A Cook And Her Books
Maria‘s Spanish Shrimp with Bacon, Cheddar & Chive Grits at Maria’s Good Things
Nancie‘s Chili-Cheese Biscuits with Avocado Butter at Nancie McDermott
Patricia‘s Buttery Tofu, Pasta & Peas at The Asian Grandmother’s Cookbook
Patrick‘s Kimchi Jigae and British Mash at Patrick G. Lee
Rashda‘s Mango Cobbler at Hot Curries & Cold Beer
Renee‘s Asian-Spiced Quick Pickles at My Kitchen And I
Steff‘s Chicken Fried Steak at The Kitchen Trials
Vivian‘s Funky Fusion Linguini at Vivian Pei

Thanks Beth and Erin of Atlanta Culinary Tours for a delightful afternoon, tasting, walking and talking. Check out Atlanta Culinary Tours’ fantastic tours ~ I highly recommend the tour of Sweet Auburn Curb Market, too! (and full disclosure, this was a gratis tour for media.).

My pictures from the tour were not so great, but my fellow bloggers took gorgeous pictures ~ check them out:

• Digital Cornflakes 
• Dr. Princess Julia
• Brandy Nagel writing for Roswell Patch
• Beth's Atlanta Examiner article. Check out the slide show!

Words and images copyright 2012, Lucy Mercer.

An apple a day

Apple signs at Mercier's Orchard, Blue Ridge, Georgia. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 Our lovely North Georgia mountains, the foothills of the Appalachians that stretch up the Eastern seaboard, are blessed with stunning fall color and the apple harvest. We take a family trip one weekend each autumn to Blue Ridge, an idyllic town with apple barns nearby.

Blue Ridge train station. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Mercier sign. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Our favorite apple barn, and the largest, is Mercier's Orchard, in business since 1943. In fact, Mrs. Adele Mercier, now in her 90s, can be seen in the tasting room at the apple barn, still overseeing the business she and her husband built together. Mercier's has been savvy in the agri-tourism business, offering u-pick tours, rides through the orchard, and expansion into other fruits - cherries are expected around Memorial Day 2012, followed by strawberries and blueberries. Inside the apple barn, visitors can sample and purchase apple cider, buy apple-stuffed breads and fried pies from the bakery, and choose from many varieties of apples, including heirlooms. On our annual pilgrimage, we loaded up with Mutsus (we insist on calling them moot-soos, but have been told that the correct pronunciation is mutt-soo), also known as Crispins; Cameos; Granny Smiths; and my favorite, Macintosh, warmly reddish on the outside, pearly whiter-than-white on the inside, and unlike beautiful-but-bland Red Delicious, crispy and juicy sweet.

Limbertwig sign. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

This year, I came home with an heirloom variety, too, Limbertwigs, that I used in making an apple crisp. I discovered through the miracle of Google that there are many varieties called Limbertwig, and I'm not sure which one I bought. My review of the Limbertwig: an ok eating apple, similar to a Granny Smith, but not as tart or sweet. A fine apple for eating out of hand, but better for baking - it holds its shape in pies and crisps.

Basket of Limbertwig apples from Mercier Orchards. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

In fact, I made an apple crisp when we got home from Blue Ridge, a recipe that I'll share tomorrow, the first of a month full of apple recipes. Meanwhile, here are a few pictures from the glorious weekend in Blue Ridge and the North Georgia mountains.

We spent a few hours at Mercier's, on the you-pick tour where you could sample all you want, in addition to filling up your bag with juicy, ripe apples:

Apples at Mercier Orchards. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

In downtown Blue Ridge, under a true-blue dream of a sky, we ate lunch at the Beanery - I had a delicious chicken salad. It was a glorious day for a walk, taking in the sights of this small town in the North Georgia mountains.

The Beanery in downtown Blue Ridge. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Church in downtown Blue Ridge. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Blue Ridge Art Museum and the Statue of Liberty, petite, land-locked version. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 The next morning, we headed north, crossing into Tennessee, searching for the most awesome corn maze. We found it. This one featured maps and stations throughout -clues were based on Bible or sports knowledge.

Build it and they will come. Corn maze. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Inside the corn maze. Lucy Mercer/ A Cook and Her Books

After an hour negotiating the corn labyrinth, Lil' Bit took a ride in the cutest kiddie train ever. Each cow car was made from a recycled drum and was sponsored by a local business. The girls also took turns milking "a cow." This is by far the most complacent cow ever to be milked.

Cow train. Lucy Mercer/ A Cook and Her Books

Cow train pulled by tractor. Lucy Mercer/ A Cook and Her Books

Complacent cows make for quality milk. Lucy Mercer/ A Cook and Her Books

More apple recipes:

Apple crisp
French thin-crust apple tart
Classic apple dumplings
Short-cut apple dumplings
Applesauce
Apple blondie

Three recipes that use apples:

Morning Glory Muffins
Mulligatawny
Kid-friendly sushi

 In the comments, please tell me your favorite apple varieties! Have you tried a new apple variety - I've seen Pinata apples, Jazz apples? Are heirloom varieties among your favorites?

Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.

Think pink...and green for the Salad that Men Love

Green salad with raspberries, toasted pecans, Vermont cheddar, raspberries and raspberry vinaigrette.
Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

I'm thinking pink and green this month, for women's health and for the men in our lives. For California Giant Berries' Think Pink promotion for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I created a salad using healthful, anti-oxidant- rich pink raspberries, those plump nuggets of Vitamin C; red and green leaf lettuce; toasted pecans and Vermont cheddar cheese, dressed with a divine raspberry vinaigrette.

This is a riff on a recipe given to me by my friend Lynn, who brought the salad to me when my daughter was born. I couldn't get enough of it; my husband devoured it. I've made it for family gatherings since and the men always like it. That's right. Men. Liking Salad.

My husband says its magic has to do with the sweet and tart salad dressing. I think it has to do with all the goodies in it - you can hardly go wrong with fresh berries, creamy cheese and toasty, rich nuts sprinkled over crisp greens.

The keys to this salad are fresh raspberries and the dressing - it makes a lot, so just put the remainder in a screwtop jar in the fridge - it keeps for several weeks.

Pink and Green Salad
(Green Salad with Raspberries, Toasted Pecans,
 Vermont Cheddar and Raspberry Vinaigrette)

1 bunch green leaf lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

1 bunch red leaf lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

8 ounces Vermont cheddar, shredded

1 cup pecans, toasted in a closely watched skillet for five minutes

1 pint fresh raspberries


Dressing:

1 bunch green onions, cleaned and trimmed, cut into 2-inch lengths

2 tablespoons raspberry preserves (such as Polaner's)

1/2 cup raspberry vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1. In a food processor, mince onion with sugar. Add preserves, vinegar, salt, and mustard, and process. Slowly add oil and process until emulsified.

2. In a bowl or on individual plates, arrange greens, raspberries and pecans. Drizzle with raspberry vinaigrette and shredded cheese.

To make it kid-friendly, I just spread out the accessories - cheese, nuts, and berries and give the girls small bowls of the raspberry vinaigrette and let them dip. As my six year old says, "Raspberry vinaigrette? That sounds like vinegar for girls."

"Like" California Giant's Facebook page to help spread the word about Breast Cancer Awareness.

And if you haven't made the appointment for your annual visit and mammogram, pick up the phone and do it right now. There are a lot of people counting on you to stay healthy!

(Guys, of course, are excused from this particular plea, but please encourage the women in your lives to take care of themselves. Make the appointment and drive her there, if you have to. Buy her lunch and bring her flowers. It's that important.) 

Raspberries. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Disclosure: I have not been compensated for this post. It is an entry in a contest sponsored by California Giant. If my post is chosen as the winner, then a $100 donation will be made on behalf of my blog to the National Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Awesome!


Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.

Easy ice cream, vegan and gluten-free

Banana soft-serve ice cream. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Looking for a simple frozen dessert recipe? One that will please vegans, the gluten-free crowd, the lactose intolerant, diabetics and kids big or small? Try this one-ingredient frozen dessert that doesn’t even require an ice cream maker – banana soft serve.


It’s a tasty and frugal dessert that can be whipped up in just a few hours. Purchase over-ripe bananas from a local Atlanta supermarket, peel and slice them, freeze for a couple of hours and blitz in the food processor for a minute or two, until it’s fluffy and smooth. The soft serve dessert may be eaten right away or frozen for a scoopable texture.

Sliced bananas, ready for the freezer. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

In its purest state, this is an easy dessert to please guests with dietary challenges, but it’s also a blank canvas for culinary upgrades. A bit of honey (not vegan, though)  or agave nectar and lemon can perk up the flavors, and mix-ins such as chocolate chips dress up the dessert.

Super-ripe bananas. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Banana Soft Serve “Ice Cream”

Serves 4 to 6

6 medium ripe bananas

Optional: Juice of ½ lemon, 2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar

Mix-ins such as chocolate chips, chopped peanuts or almonds, fresh berries.

1. Peel bananas and slice into 1-inch chunks. Place in a zipper lock bag and freeze for at least two hours.

2. Remove bag from freezer and place banana chunks into bowl of food processor. Add lemon and honey or agave nectar, if using.

3. Process for one minute, then check consistency of frozen banana puree. If mixture still has chunks, continue processing in 10 second intervals until it reaches the desired texture.

4. Serve immediately, with mix-ins. The banana soft serve may be stored in airtight container in the freezer.

If you have extra uber-ripe bananas, make my favorite banana bread or create an elegant and easy ice cream topping.




Best banana bread - ever! Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



Blackberry winter

Blackberry Doobie with Lemon Ginger Ice Cream by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


Spring comes early in Georgia, and like the best dinner guest, knows when to leave. We can spend Easter afternoon in flip-flops and shorts and Mother’s Day poolside, but every now and then we get a taste of what the old-timers call blackberry winter, a cold snap just as the wild blackberries come into fruit. Blackberry winter is in contrast to Indian summer, the warmish spell in autumn. The chilly temps are said to sweeten the ripening berries.

Evening temperatures usually hover in the 50s in late April, rising to the 60s in May, just enough chill in the air to make you grab a sweater before leaving for work in the morning. Every now and then the white witch of winter will sweep her frosty gaze across the land in May, and we scurry to locate sweatshirts and long pants and only recently forgotten socks. In addition to the wardrobe change, blackberry winter can put a hurting on tender annuals and other blooming glories of spring, like azaleas and rhododendrons, turning their vibrant blooms to brown mush.

Blackberries by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Blackberry winter visited us last week, two nights of temps in the upper 30s, which meant making a place inside for the herb seedlings I’d left in pots on the porch. Down went a bathmat by the front door, and I placed upon it pots of chives, basil (both sweet and purple ruffle), Italian parsley, rosemary and thyme. (I will consider myself a true gardening success if I can get the thyme and rosemary to grow – both plants can put up with the suffocating heat of July and August in north Georgia, but I need to get them through a frosty May first.)

Blackberry, the plant, and I are old friends. I don’t have the barefoot memories of picking berries as a youngster, but since we cleared the land for our house, I know a lot about the thorny vines. We pull on our long pants and long sleeves and gingerly approach the fearsome plants, more afraid of the chiggers, (some call them red bugs), than the skin-piercing thorns. My granddaddy used to dust his ankles with stinky sulfur powder to keep the chiggers away when he went hiking. On our scrubby, woodsy acres, we’ve pursued the wild blackberries, pulling them up by the roots, until they’re nearly gone. To be honest, I don’t miss the tiny, seedy berries, and I certainly don’t miss the thorns and red bugs. I do, however, like to pick a couple pints of fat blackberries from the market and make Bellwether’s blackberry doobie, an old-fashioned stewed fruit dessert with buttery dumplings that soak up the sweet, tart berry juice. I serve this bubbling fruit stew with frosty lemon ginger ice cream – a month of weather extremes reflected in dessert.




Bellwether's Blackberry Doobie with Lemon Ginger Ice Cream by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books




Bellwether’s Blackberry Doobie
Bellwether Vance is a wonderful, witty writer and cook on the Florida Gulf Coast. Her stories appear on Open Salon every couple of weeks and I look forward to her posts as much as I do my children's artwork (that is to say, very, very much - they are treasures). This is her Blackberry Doobie recipe taught to her by her grandmother.

For the blackberry broth:

2 (12 oz.) packages fresh blackberries

Water to cover

½ cup of sugar (or more, depending on the sweetness of the blackberries)

Juice of ½ lemon

1. Place the berries in a medium saucepan and add enough water to cover the blackberries. Stir in the other ingredients. Simmer over medium heat for fifteen minutes - tasting and adjusting the sweetness and acidity along the way. Set aside to steep and cool slightly, about 15 minutes. Strain using a fine-mesh strainer, and return the strained juice to the saucepan. Heat to a low boil.

For the dumplings:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes

½ cup buttermilk (whole, if you can find it)

1. Combine the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter with your fingers until it resembles coarse meal. Add the buttermilk, kneading it into a ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press out to ¼-inch thickness. Using a knife, cut into strips that measure about 1 ½ inches wide and 2 ½ inches long.

2. Drop the dumplings, one at a time, into the bubbling broth. Once all the dumplings are in, lower the heat slightly and let it simmer at a slow bubble for 10-12 minutes, stirring gently every few minutes. Remove from the heat and let it sit for at least 20 minutes to cool and thicken. Serve warm with a scoop of lemon-ginger ice cream.



Lemon-Ginger Ice Cream

3 lemons, zested and juiced

2/3 cup sugar

4 cups half-and-half, divided

5 egg yolks, whites saved for another purpose (angel food cake!)

Pinch of salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 2-inch slices crystallized ginger, finely diced, divided

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat 1 cup of half-and-half, the sugar, the lemon zest and ½ of the chopped, crystallized ginger. Stir with a whisk until sugar is dissolved and let it come to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool for at least15 minutes.

2. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks until thick and lemony in color. Slowly add the half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats a spoon. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a large bowl.

3. Add ½ cup of lemon juice, the vanilla, and the remaining chopped, crystallized ginger to the strained custard, whisking until combined. Add 3 cups half-and-half, whisking again. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Store in airtight container in freezer.

Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.

More cheese, please

Cheese board by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

I had the opportunity last week to meet Liz Thorpe of Murray's Cheese for lunch at Holeman & Finch. Liz is the author of "The Cheese Chronicles: A Journey Through the Making and Selling of Cheese in America, From Field to Farm to Table," (Ecco, 2009), an exploration of the vast world of artisanal cheese. Murray's Cheese Shops are in six Atlanta area Kroger stores - Edgewood, City Walk, State Bridge, Ansley Mall, Marietta and Sugar Hill.

The lunch was simple and perfect - bread, cheese and salad. The cheese selection included Westfield Capri, Sweetgrass Chevre, La Serena, Nettle Meadow Kunik and Burrata. The latter is a soft, buttery cheese, much like a liquid mozzarella. Murray’s flies it in from Puglia every couple of weeks, according to Liz.

And the good cheese news doesn't end there, at least for Atlantans. Restaurant Eugene, next door to Holeman & Finch, celebrates cheese every third Thursday of the month. Five wines paired with five cheeses, $40 per guest, reservations required. http://www.restauranteugene.com/.

The ladies who lunch (plus a charming gentleman). Author Liz Thorpe is fourth from the left. Vikki Locke is to her right. I'm second from the right, Wendy Shannon of With a Southern Twist is on my left and Mary Reynolds of the Reynolds Group is on my right. Gina Christman of Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles is second on the left.

Salad with mushrooms, radishes and ramps. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Burrata, Italian for buttery. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

H & F bread. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Cheese board, midway through the lunch. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.

Have bento, will travel

Turkey bento

Once the calendar flips over to November, we seem to be in a Thanksgiving tizzy. I love the holidays, but in recent years have taken a relaxed approach. It helps when the feast is located at a house other than mine. We’re fortunate, my husband and I, that our families are nearby and it’s just a matter of driving a few miles and showing up with food. This year, we’ll roast the turkey to burnished perfection, wrap up the bird, place it in the cooler and drive 15 minutes to my mom’s house.

As much as I love being close to home during the holidays, there are times when I think it would be grand to stick my toes in the sand the last Thursday in November. To sip a frosty drink, relax with a frivolous magazine and stare at a Pacific blue sky. It must be an accident of birth, surely, that I was born in Tennessee and not in Hawaii, where my heart belongs.

Let’s just pretend, for a few paragraphs, that I’m getting my wish for my upcoming wedding anniversary - a trip to Hawaii. Hawaii, the 50th state, home of pristine beaches, volcanoes and SPAM. That's right, mainlanders, Hawaii is the largest U.S.  market for SPAM. In fact, the savory pork in a tin is referred to as "Hawaiian steak." The Pacific popularity of the canned “SPiced hAM” began during World War II when 100 million pounds of the tinned meat were shipped abroad to feed Allied troops.

SPAM is universal and it’s a product that I grew up with - Pan-Fried SPAMwiches with mayo on white bread being a specialty of my father’s cooking repertoire. (I kind of miss the dangerous-seeming old packaging with the pull tab that zipped off the wall of the can.)

I'm homebound this holiday, but I can dream up some yummy travel snacks inspired by Hawaii's favorite meat and the Japanese tradition of bento - small portable foods, usually made with rice and known as much for their artistry as their taste.

I fried sliced SPAM in my homemade teriyaki sauce, then chopped the meat and used it as a filling in onigiri (rice balls) and also in the Hawaiian portable snack musubi, SPAM slices with rice and nori. There's a lot to learn to making onigiri and musubi, and especially bento. The techniques and recipes are simple, but much too involved to write about here - check out this excellent tutorial  from Just Bento on forming the rice balls.

SPAM musubi is a plank of teriyaki fried meat and a finger of rice bound together with nori. This portable tropical treat is simple to make - nori is difficult to find at my local upermarkets, so I subbed blanched bok choy.

SPAM musubi

Teriyaki Sauce

Fry SPAM slices in this flavorful teriyaki sauce and use in fillings for onigiri 
and also as a dipping sauce.

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1. Combine all ingredients. Keep in glass jar in refrigerator or freezer. Use as marinade for SPAM, chicken or salmon or steak or vegetables. Put on ice cream. (just kidding).

Onigiri with noodles and vegetables.

Dessert is light and simple, a cornstarch-thickened coconut pudding with sliced bananas and grapes. Use the cute small containers and keep refrigerated.

Coconut Pudding with Bananas and Grapes

4 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 ½ cups water
1 (12 oz.) can coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Bananas and grapes for garnish

1. In a bowl, stir together sugar, cornstarch and water.

2. In a saucepan over medium heat, pour in coconut milk and add sugar - water mixture. Whisk constantly until mixture is thickened. Stir in vanilla and let cool. Spoon into small cups, layering bananas in cups and topping with sliced grapes. Seal individual portions. Keep refrigerated.

All text & images copyright 2010, Lucy Mercer.

The coconut pudding recipe is adapted from "Yum-Yum Bento Box" by Maki Ogawa and Crystal Watanabe (Quirk Books, 2010).

For bento inspiration, check out Just Bento.com.

A Special Dark Halloween: Chocolate Drizzled Poached Pears

Elegant and eerie poached pears with chocolate drizzle. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 
Americans eat 12 pounds of chocolate each year and as Halloween approaches, I think I'm already into my 13th pound of the stuff. I love chocolate in all its candy forms - Reese's peanut butter cups, M&M's, Hershey's miniatures - these go into the "approved for mommy" stack as I sort through my daughter's Halloween candy haul.


While I'm familiar with the sight and smell of chocolate in its processed form, the botanical form was a mystery until a recent visit to the Atlanta Botanical Garden's exhibit "Chocolate: From Seed to Sweet." Through a series of interactive outdoor exhibits, my girls and I learned the process from the bloom on the cacao tree to the chocolate bars in the girls' plastic orange pumpkins.

The Cacao Pod by the Atlanta Botanical Garden


Walking through the outdoor exhibition, we learned about the taxi-cab yellow seed pods of the cacao trees. The farmers harvest the seed pods, then grind them into chocolate liquor, which is then separated into cacao butter and powder. The exhibit stations are designed for children to roast, winnow, grind, mix and mold the cacao beans. And I learned this interesting fact - cacao ( (ca-COW) refers to the tree and beans inside the seed pods; cocoa refers to the byproducts of the coca bean - cocoa butter and cocoa powder. And here's another factoid - each cacao pod is about the size of a pineapple and holds enough seeds to make about seven milk chocolate or two dark chocolate bars.

That concentrated dark chocolate appears at my house each Halloween in the form of Hershey's Miniatures. When I was young, I gave away the Special Darks and gobbled up all the milk chocolate. These days, while I still have a taste for the milder milk chocolate, I have a hankering for dark chocolate, and Special Dark is the way to go.




Hershey's Miniatures  chocolate by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



When I weary of eating the chocolate straight, I make a luscious sauce that can be used in many ways - on ice cream, on spoons, on fingers, but is delightful on a perfectly poached pear. This is the very essence of a simple, elegant, seasonal dessert. A ripe pear, poached in a flavored syrup, caressed with chocolate. It's divine.




Pears by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



Poached Pears

Take extra care when peeling the pears and be sure to trim the bottoms 1/4 of an inch so that they sit level on the plate.


2 quarts water


2 cups sugar


1 cup apple juice


1 cinnamon stick


3 slices lemon


6 pears such as Bartlett or Bosc, peeled, bottoms trimmed 1/4 inch


1. Place all ingredients, except for pears, in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Gently place pears in liquid and reduce heat to a simmer. Let cook for 20 minutes. Remove pears from liquid and serve with chocolate sauce.




Poached Pear by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



Chocolate Sauce

24 Special Dark miniatures, unwrapped


4 ounces heavy cream


1 teaspoon vanilla


Pinch salt


1. In a microwave safe bowl, place chocolate and cream. Zap for 1 minute at 50% power. Remove from oven, whisk and then return to oven. Zap for 1 minute more at 50% power. Remove from oven, stir with whisk. Repeat in microwave if necessary, but it should be fine at this point. Add vanilla and pinch of salt. Whisk until smooth and garnish poached pears.





Poached Pear with Chocolate Sauce by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 

My daughters decided to help, so the plates took a turn from elegant to eerie. (Reminds me of what would happen would happen if Norman Bates and Vampira had a child who grew up to be a pastry chef.)

Text and images copyright 2010, Lucy Mercer, with the exception of the first picture, provided by the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Thanks to the Atlanta Botanical Garden for information on the chocolate exhibit.