Maggie's Farm

It's a new form of cheese to me: Burrata. It's a gooey variant of Mozzarella (a cheese which I do not like, even Buffalo Mozzarella. Flavorless and rubbery). Burrata, like Mozzarella, is a fresh cheese.

I'd be willing to try Burrata with sliced tomato. They may have it at our gourmet Italian market, and I am told Whole Foods carries it sometimes. I hate Whole Foods on principle, but they have always had a fine cheese department. Me love cheeses with fruits, nuts, jellies for dessert.

A good tomato platter might be sliced tomatoes, sliced mango or peach, a chunk of oozing burrata, a handful of chopped fresh basil, and a balsamic dressing.

From The New York Times Gets It Wrong about Genetic Engineering:

 ...with the exception of wild berries, wild game, wild mushrooms, and most fish and shellfish, everything in American diets is derived from organisms that have been genetically improved in some way.

Most foods have little resemblance to their natural origins. They have been domesticated and are "unnatural." Human genius defeating a cruel nature.

"We’re interested in the color, shape and sizes of the vegetables from 400 years ago, compared to modern cultivars of the same vegetables..."

A book I'd like to read: Maize for the Gods: Unearthing the 9,000-Year History of Corn

Wild maize is a grass, with the fruit/seed about an inch long. Were it not for those ancient Central American genetic engineers, we'd have neither grits nor polenta.

Photo is teosintas, ancestor of domestic maize

Despite all of her visits to every part of Italy, Mrs. BD concedes that the best Italian food she has had is at Scarpetta, one of the spots she goes to with friends when she goes to see theater and dance. She has some real foodie pals.

Scarpetta. Give it a try. As a matter of fact, she is taking a BD daughter to dinner there tonight after the new Annie Baker play. (They are Annie Baker fans after loving Flick a while ago.) She says their pastas are amazing but our advice is to always skip pasta in good Italian restaurants. Why dine on starch, when there are so many other better flavors in antipasti and secondi?

I'll make exceptions for Pappardelle al Funghi  with wild mushrooms, or Fois Gras Ravioli with Black Truffle.

Looking back, thus far, for Italian, we have also recommended Barbetta, Giovanni, Macelleria, - and Bar Eolo for genuine Sicilian. Only Barbetta is a jacket and tie joint, but for Giovanni a jacket is appropriate.

Here.  It's blueberry season now in the northeast, for a few weeks.

This sounds like a fine summer party dish from the grill, despite all the annoying greens in it.

I do like Thai flavors. Thai Grilled Pork and Vegetable Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing

Mrs. BD asked me to fix up a batch of rhubarb compote to splash on some Haagen Dasz for a fancy dinner party we are attending tonite. My guess is that nobody there will have had it before. It's a North country treat. Lots of people do not care for it much. Their loss. It's tangy. I always use half the sugar.

We are the Rhubarb People. A racial identity group and a much-abused and/or neglected one. Maybe we all originated in Yorkshire. Who knows?

Since my own recipe for hot pepper jelly (served with cheeses and cream cheese) was such a hit at a fancy cocktail party in NYC that I have been urged to produce a line of it, I decided to branch out into Spicy Rhubarb Jam. Maggie's Farm Produce, or something. All-organic, meaning grown in pig and cow shit.

Mom always grew her sizeable patch right outside the barn. We would just pitchfork some fresh horse poop and horse straw on top of it when cleaning the barn. Worked well. A rhubarb patch likes to be fed.

A good patch takes a couple of years to establish itself. How do you harvest rhubarb? With a sharp yank on the stalk. Not with clippers.

My rhubarb plantation, stolen from my Mom's garden, is overwhelming. Had to use some more of it. We'll make some pies too (never with strawberry), but I invented my own recipe for Spicy Rhubarb Jam - chopped rhubarb, lemon juice, sugar, chopped fresh red chilis and chopped jalapenos, some chopped green peppers, a little salt, and I threw in some pectin for the heck of it. No pressure canner.

Is cooked rhubarb red? Almost never. People add food coloring but I don't bother. You only get a little red from the young thin stalks.

Yes, the jam tastes like spicy rhubarb. Quite tangy. I like it. Might be good with pork or chicken. Not sure. Definitely good with cheese especially goat cheese. Not on a toasted bagel. I am no expert food canner but I just boil the heck out of the Ball jars for about 15 minutes and hope for the best. Botulism is not wanted.

Next stop might be Spicy Cranberry Preserve. Why not? Any poultry is improved with some cranberry on the side. And for those who can enjoy a tart now and then, for dessert any little rhubarb or cranberry tart is nice.

My Mom always put up tons of these pickled string beans from my Dad's garden. When you take some out, people eat them like popcorn. You can not can too many of these.

Dilly Beans.

A Bird Dog daughter and I made a couple of large batches of hot pepper jelly on Friday. Doggone it, they failed to gel despite plenty of pectin.

The good olde internet:  How to Fix (or Remake) Jam or Jelly That Turns Out Too Soft or Runny

We wanted to make a ton of Rhubarb jam on Saturday but we ran out of sugar and Mrs. BD needed to control the kitchen for a double family birthday party. Poached salmon, etc. Anyway, people gnawed on my raw Rhubarb stalks. Delicious and stringy. The Rhubarb I salvaged from Mom's garden is going great guns and, racially, we are the Rhubarb People.

Poached salmon with yoghurt dill sauce is one of our standards for bringing as our contribution to outdoor summer dinner parties. Asparagus is good on the side. Everybody loves it.

We also use this as our large group Christmas Eve after-church suppers for whoever is lucky enough to be invited to our place for supper around the fireplaces, with the tree (Christmas Eve requires seafood, and you can do this in the afternoon so it's ready when you get home.) One or two of those huge Costco filets, depending on numbers, is good to poach. Easy to do.

Recipe here. We poach the large filets intact and present them on a large tray. It's more appealing that way.

Simple and good, if you like raw vegetables.

Yes, Greeks do eat a lot of "Village Salad." It does call for Greek olive oil (often considered lousy oil except by the Greeks), which is somehow different from Italian even though the olives are the same.

Greeks, like the north africans, don't really do "extra virgin" or any of that fancy stuff.

I considered butterflied lamb, and considered short ribs. Finally decided to keep it simple - burgers on the barbie. I haven't done burgers on the grill yet this Spring.

We'll have three Dads (including me) and 10-12 people for lunch. I'm cooking. Fathers grill meat on Father's Day to signify their masculine hunter-gatherer role in life.

I like to server burgers with hard rolls, chips, and a platter of pickles, sliced onions, and sliced tomato. If somebody wants a cheeseburger, I'll use a slice of Saga Blue. Bowl of German potato salad from the market. Male cooking.

I'll probably grill up my usual platter of veggies too as a side: red peppers, onions, scallions, eggplant, mushroom, summer squash, all with browned or slightly-burnt parts and splashed with olive oil. People love my simple grilled vegetable mix and it makes excellent leftovers. I grill with charcoal + firewood.

When I do burgers, I never use lean meat. What's the point? I put the meat in a big bowl, stir it up with a little Worcestershire sauce or Soy sauce, plenty of ground pepper and Kosher salt, some garlic powder or dried onion soup mix, or sometimes a little herbed bread crumbs to hold the juices. I like them to come off the charcoal crunchy and dark on the outside and pink in the middle. Ten minutes or so, depending on the heat.

Beer, wine and bubbly water with some lime. Ketchup? You betcha. Made a batch of hot pepper jelly/relish for thems as got the nerve to try it. Hot as hell itself. Tasty on a burger. Some of my peach chutney too from last fall. Those condiments are good with anything.

We'll have a birthday cake for dessert, because we have one of those to take note of this week. Yellow cake with Mocha frosting. Except for the birthday, I would have cooked up a big Blackberry Cobbler for dessert. Even men can make that.

How do readers like to make burgers?

Pic is preparation for the cocktail hour shrimp boil at the Greyfield Inn.

Why are the shrimp so tender? They are bought directly from the shrimp boat, and they are in the boil in their shells for 2 minutes max - 90 seconds preferably - just until they turn pink. I tend to find shrimp boring but these were sweet and not chewy.

The square hole in the table is for the shells. Works for oyster roasts too.

You are supposed to drink beer with them.

They use this recipe for dipping sauce.

We are truffle fans. I have hiked those truffle woods in Umbria.

The way I make black bean soup -

4 cans of Goya black beans (make sure they are GMO black beans, much better)
2 medium onion diced
chopped garlic, as much as you like (not organic garlic, please)
about 4 slices of bacon
a couple of bay leaves
some chicken broth
thyme
cumin and/or chili and/or cayenne pepper powder
1 fresh jalapeno pepper chopped (or jarred - doesn't matter) and/or chopped scallions

Cook the bacon. Remove it. Sautee the onion and garlic in the bacon grease a little. Chop up the bacon. Dump out most of the bacon grease, then dump in the beans (don't drain them), onions and garlic, bay leaf, chopped bacon, some chicken broth, salt, and a couple of dashes or so of the flavorings. (I hold the jalapeno in abeyance as not everybody likes it. Can be added as garnish when done)

I don't use cilantro because I hate it. Cilantro - some like it, some do not. It's genetic.

Simmer covered for an hour or so or toss it in a crock pot. Add more chicken broth it it's too thick. Then mash it in the pot with a potato masher. Some people just take half of it and run it thru the blender for a creamier result but I like to mash it. Scallions on top, +/- chopped jalapeno.

I like it with a big dollop of mashed taters in the middle of each person's bowl, but some people prefer sour cream and salsa on it. Whatever.

Salad on the side? If you are a rabbit, fine.

Mom used to send us kids out into the meadow edges in July and August with our blueberry cans on strings around our necks. Wild blueberries, the small ones.  Now you can get blueberries year-round, but they are not the same. Big fat things mostly.

Anyway, simple and delicious with Hard Sauce on the side (that sauce is good without the brandy). Blueberry Cake.

The most refreshing salad, especially with grilled meat. Watermelon, Feta, and chopped mint. Lots of mint.

Recipe here. It doesn't need the olives.

I love regional Italian cuisine - all except the Neapolitan (except for their world-class desserts). We have dined on local fare in Italy from the Alps and the Veneto down to the southern tip of Sicily.

Sicilian fare is as different from Southern Italian as Southern Italian dialect is from Sicilian. Sicilian food was heavily influenced by the Greek invasion, the Moslem occupiers, then the French Norman occupiers, then by the real French, then the Spanish. Never was part of Italy until recent years and it still is not, really.

Raisins, pignolis, wild boar, sardines, risotto, couscous, eggplant of course, Pecorino, lemons, mint, and blood oranges, pomegranites... and octopus. Generally, lots of seafood and grilled meat. I love that Sicilian food but the real thing is hard to find outside that island.

You would be hard put to find this quality and variety of a Sicilian menu in a single restaurant in Sicily itself. Their Timballo looks amazing. Check out the menu just for fun. It's the real deal: Bar Eolo. 190 7th Ave.

I happen to love Borscht, but I never make it, Mrs. BD has never made it, and I've only seen it on the menu in the old Russian Tea Room. My Mom, Yankee WASP that she was, would make it to please my Dad. A refreshing cold soup.

Everybody knows how to make Harvard Beets. They are just sweet-and-sour beets, but on a bed of buttercrunch lettuce it's a salad.

Another one, to put on tasty lettuce: COLD BEET SALAD WITH GOAT CHEESE & SUNFLOWER SEEDS

And a final one today (as pictured):  Roasted Beet Salad with Mint

An Italian classic and a Maggie's HQ favorite. This recipe calls it an antipasto but we use it as a secondi.

Capers are a good garnish, also sliced baby gherkins.

Marcella insists you only use canned Italian tuna, but...

Vitello Tonnato (Veal with Tuna Sauce)

The Italian Coastal Dinner, May 18, at The Lincoln Ristorante at Lincoln Center. That delicious-looking Italian menu is below the fold, but it's neither on my workout nor my wallet menu although it's cheaper than flying to Italy for a good supper.

That's real Italian cooking.

Mother's Day breakfast. Make a good mess in the kitchen! Don't wake up Dad either.

Even if you are not Jewish, Challah bread makes the best French toast with bacon: Challah French toast with perfect bacon. A couple of stiff Screwdrivers too would probably be appreciated.

Who knows, she might even decide she likes you brats. Real Maple syrup with it, on the side.

It may be a phony Capitalist commercial day invented by Hallmark to sell their stupid cards, but we Americans are generally forced to observe it now. That's ok, but every day should be Mother's Day (and Father's Day too). It's #6 in God's Ten Suggestions.

We'll have 3 mothers here for lunch, along with misc. other family. I'm cooking of course, but maybe a daughter or two will lend a hand. Darn well had better do, with 10 or so of us here.

My simple rustic American menu:

Grill: A few fat one-and-a-half-inch thick Costco ribeyes - or maybe butterflied lamb

Creamed spinach and/or grilled vegetables with olive oil. (I usually grill onions, sweet peppers, yellow and green squash, mushrooms, maybe some asparagus or eggplant, and toss in a bowl with oil, basil, parsley, and salt and pepper.)

Mashed taters

Sliced tomatoes/vinaigrette

Beer/wine/lemon Perrier/Lemonade

A Trifle for dessert, with Bird's Pudding (but no sherry, rum, or Riesling to flavor the Pound Cake - makes it better but we have some careful teetotalers and kids). Somehow, I have two large English glass trifle bowls. (For a very large crowd, a punch bowl works well but it takes a lot of stuff to fill a punch bowl and it doesn't really fit in the fridge, so for over 15 people best to use individual stemmed glasses)

Strawberry, Blueberry, Kiwi, Raspberry, Banana is my plan. A good few hours in the fridge is good for a trifle.

Potatoes, mashed or fried, are the most popular side dishes in North America. Rightly so - the original tiny wild potato is from the Americas although it is really inedible.

Whatever you intend to do with a potato, you need to select the variety for the job at hand. If you have ever made gluey mashed taters, or had taters disintegrate in a stew, you know what I mean. Wrong potato. All of our potato types have been genetically-engineered for specific qualities. Special thanks to Mr. Johnson who came up with the Yukon Gold a few years ago.

This is handy: All The Potato Varieties You Need To Know About

As I have commented in the past, it's fun to think about all of the foods the New World native farmers and plant breeders contributed to Old World cuisine. For starters, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, beans, maize, zucchini and summer squash, winter squash and pumpkin, cocoa, strawberry, sunflower, sweet potato, peanut, vanilla, etc. etc.

At the time of the European invasions of the New World, there were few communities of pure hunter-gatherers (eg the Eskimos). Farming was big, supplemented by hunting-gathering. If you recall, the Pilgrims took over Indian hundred-acre cornfields.