The Art Of Hunger

Little Skin-ny Bundles...

+++Recipe To Follow+++


Reading interviews with celebrity chefs waxing nostalgically about their mother's or grandmother's cooking and how wonderful and inspiring it all was has become fairly commonplace in food porn mags. Sometimes I wonder how much of it is true, and how much is 'truthy', or just plain marketing. Is it possible that every chef learned how to cook from their mother/grandmother/great aunt Sophia? Was every nonna and bubbie a Lidia Bastianich superstar? I guess you could say that that is why they are great chefs today, although my personal experience is a little different. While my mother certainly did cook for three boys and a husband for many years, at one point I realized that if I wanted to vary my dinner selection off the roast chicken/broiled hamburgers/chicken soup rotation of my ethnic upbringing, I was going to have to do it myself. And while I studied my favorite cookbook (Craig Claiborne's NYTimes International Cookbook), and it did puzzle some family members that I enjoyed cooking, no one minded when I took over the helm in the tiny kitchen to make such 'delicacies' as Chinese Pepper Steak. This, and other dishes like Rice Andalouse (my first introduction to the mysterious bay leaf) were added to the classics that mom had learned from my grandmother, which included salmon latkes and my favorite, stuffed helzel.



A helzel is a neck, and the dish is kind of like the skin of a turkey neck (or chicken neck, as turkey neck skin seems to be harder and harder to find) stuffed with something similar to a matzo ball mixture, then boiled in soup, or roasted in the oven alongside chicken. For my updated version, I added a little smoked duck meat to the mixture, and I tied the neck skin together with twine, rather than meticulously sewing the ends shut as I remember my grandmother and mother doing (probably the reason this dish eventually disappeared from their repertoire-too labor intensive). After pulling the neck skin off, I created a stock by cooking the necks together in a soup pot with some carrots, onions, celery, and, yes, a few bay leaves. After 45 minutes, in went the necks for about 45 minutes more. Then a quick saute in the pan, or even better, a deep-fried minute or two as you tilt your pan (see video)



+++My constant companion was revolted by the 'raw' appearing skin, even after I pan-fried the Helzels to crisp them, so she deep-fried them further, and the result was a very crispy, golden-brown skin, enveloping a smooth, almost pâté-like interior. An inspired recipe change that took the dish to a more rarefied level. She's right, I'm wrong. Again. The soup that you have left can be spooned into a shallow bowl around the stuffed neck, or saved for another occasion-I used it for a risotto the next day-see http://www.dailycocaine.com/ +++

Anybody have some oddly delicious dishes from their moms or grandmothers or just weird stuff you ate growing up?

RECIPE...

Combine matzo meal, finely chopped onion, schmaltz (rendered chicken fat-it's in the frozen food case if you don't have any lying around-about $1.79, then microwave a bit for this recipe), and eggs (similar to the recipe for matzo balls on the matzo meal package, but with fat instead of oil), and any bits of leftover meat you may have, and a bunch of herbs (I had basil lying around). Shove mixture into neck skin and tie with string. Boil in soup (or salted water if you must), then dry, and deep-fry two at a time, tilting the pan. Serve with spicy sauce, or with broth ladled into bowl.

Perhaps, I'll admit, stuffed neck-skin is not extremely appetizing to the untrained eye, or any eye...


Rich Neck Broth...


After pan-frying for a minute on each side...



Even better deep-fried for a minute or two...




A little hot sauce to add some fire...








...or just spoon in some neck broth...


Deep-Fried Method...

At Taste of The Nation last night, this was the best-presented food-pork belly pieces getting tossed into a fryer...deep fried bacon. C'mon! From Bistro One LR at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach. In fact, the hotel restaurants, including both Ritz's and the Fontainebleu's soon-to-open Côte, with Chef Sean O'Connell (32 month pata negra, fall harvest) really surprised with great food across the board. More next week, including photos and dizzying descriptions. Can we live vicariously through my alter ego, the dude that writes about great food and wine, and never runs out of either? Back at DailyCocaine (www.Dailycocaine.com ), we'll be talking about $5 or less meals. Including fried pork belly you can make at home. Really.

The Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne's Chef George Fistrovich and his staff pick fresh herbs to be used later that evening at a 'Dinner in Paradise' this past January...(photos courtesy Alexandra Rangel)






The 21st annual celebuchef-heavy Taste of the Nation takes place July 24th at The Ritz-Carlton, Key Biscayne, to benefit Share Our Strength, a charity that fights childhood hunger. More than thirty-five top Miami chefs, including Michael Schwartz of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink, Dewey LoSasso of North One10, Allen Susser of Chef Allen's, and Cindy Hutson of Ortanique on the Mile, will join chef George Fistrovich of the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne's restaurants, to care and feed the huge crowds that love to be wowed by great food, great wine, and plenty of both. Of course there will also be live music and your silent and live auctions, but the emphasis, as always, will be on sampling as many different star chefs' dishes as possible. All, as they say, for a good cause. “This is my third year doing this event,” says Chef Fistrovich, who is also concentrating on Dune Oceanfront Burger Lounge, a new outdoor 'cantina' on the Atlantic. “It's always an exciting time. Especially working with Chef Allen,” the event's longest-standing chef.








And the theme this year? Eco-friendly everything, including on-site recycling, biodegradable plates and utensils, and free valet parking for hybrid cars. “We've always tried to be a little more on the forefront than more traditional Ritz-Carlton's,” continues Chef Fistrovich. “For example, at Dune, we serve an organic burger, with organic gorgonzola cheese from Oregon, and blue cheese foam. We use heirloom tomatoes from Florida, and we even fly in our hot dogs from Allen Brothers in Chicago.” Another nice touch for the chef, that diners may not even notice, is his new custom made 'smart' grill, which the chef describes as “magical. It is not just heavy-duty, it is also quite good-looking,” laughs the chef, as though he were describing something altogether different than a cool, new, kitchen gadget.








But why do chefs seem to be at the forefront of charity and awareness-raising events like never before? “People love to eat,” says Fistrovich, “and it's a better way to get people involved. They love to know about food, and we help tingle the senses. Who better than creative chefs, who are more and more approachable, to get the word out? Also, it helps to get the chef's name out there as well, and to get their new and favorite dishes in front of people who love food.” And Chef Fistrovich has been getting his name out there for some time. He spent four years in exotic Singapore, three years in London, a year in China, and he helped open South Beach's landmark Delano Hotel in 1995. He also racked up some hard time at Paradise Island's Atlantis resort.
So can such a world-traveling chef be happy at Dune, which he describes as “like a French bistro, except instead of bouillabaisse you get burgers”? He does have Barcelona-born chef Jordi Vallès, late of molecular gastronomy guru Ferrán Adrià's kitchen, as his executive chef. Vallès's own Miami venture, Mosaico, which many feel was opened (and shuttered) way before its time, has some folks yearning for some MG flourishes from the Ritz-Carlton's dining rooms. “ Jordi is pretty phenomenal,” says Fistrovich. “But it is really hard on a sustainable basis here in Miami to keep people entertained. You need a real special kind of clientele for support. Do we use the techniques [of molecular gastronomy] as an accent, as an amenity? Absolutely. Those chefs, like Adrià or Grant Achatz of Chicago, are real specialists. I don't know how much experimentation we can do in front of 700 people!” he laughs.








And with all the celebrity chefs and their fans kicking in to help a very worthy cause, and with a spectacular oceanfront setting for the Taste of the Nation event, “simple but well-executed will usually make it every time,” says the chef. But that doesn't mean there won't be any surprises.








Pretty food, pretty tasty. Chef Fistrovich, and pastry chef Frederic Monnet’s Red Lady Papaya Bar...

( courtesy Miami.com http://www.miami.com/chowing-for-charity-taste-of-the-nation-article )



Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation Miami
July 24th
The Ritz-Carlton, Key Biscayne
455 Grand Bay Drive
Key Biscayne, FL 33149
http://www.shareourstrengthsouthflorida.org/TasteMIA08.html

Coming Soon....
At The Art of Hunger, I will examine consumables, in every sense of the word, from food and wine, to architecture and design; and create a light-hearted romp through the misty bog of it all. For your pleasure....