catch of the day: interview with honest cooking

I've had the pleasure of contributing to the website Honest Cooking - winner of the 2012 Saveur award for "Best Group Food Blog" - over the past six months, and was recently interviewed for HC's "Meet the Team" column. You can check out the original article here, or read it in full below.

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Learn more about Carly DeFilippo, one of Honest Cooking’s New York based contributors. By Kalle Bergman

Carly is a Contributing Writer at Honest Cooking. Her interest in “food as culture” led her to Paris, where she studied French culture and culinary criticism. Currently living in New York, she works in the field of holistic nutrition and has contributed to publications including Vingt Paris Magazine and Daily Food and Wine.

When and how did your passion for food start? I’ve been interested in food traditions and odd ingredients as long as I can remember. Growing up in an Italian family, my favorite moments were always the holidays on which we indulged in once-a-year treats, like St. Joseph’s Day sfinge. My eyes really opened however, the day I was offered Scandinavian reindeer jerky. I was about eleven, and it sparked an insatiable curiosity for the foodstuffs of various cultures. Studying culinary criticism and food culture in Paris only reinforced these passions.

Do you think you have a specific cooking style or philosophy? My style of cooking is ingredient-based, i.e. finding exceptional ingredients and developing recipes to feature them – even if it’s something I’ve never seen before! I also take a genuine interest both nutrition and the pleasure of eating, and enjoy developing recipes for “healthy(er) indulgences”.

What’s your favorite restaurant, and why? This is an impossible question to answer – but I will tell you about my most amazing restaurant experience in recent memory. I was in Italy with my family, and we were sitting at wood table on a hilltop in Frascati (outside Rome), as the sun was setting. The restaurant was Belvedere 1933. The food was simple, but inspired: zucchini flowers, exceptional pizza bianca and a smattering of perfectly al dente pastas, followed by pistachio semifreddo and tiramisu. But despite the amazing food, I recall the sensation of eating moreso than specific flavors and textures – the pleasure of passing shared plates, sipping on local wine and laughing with my family as sky darkened, streaked with breathtaking hues of fuchsia, blue and gold.

What’s your favorite holiday from a food perspective? Christmas Eve, without a doubt. Growing up Italian, we always celebrated the feast of the seven fishes. I’m fairly certain we never made it to seven, but I love the preparation and anticipation that always surrounded this meal. Not to mention that I am a huge fan of fish – the fishier the better.

What do you think or hope will be the next big food trend? I would hope that home cooking becomes increasingly popular, but - in lieu of that - I am a big fan of alternative dining. I would like to see more chef’s tables or special dining events at accessible prices, as well as interactive supper clubs, where groups of strangers get to know each other by cooking a meal together.

What’s your best tip for anyone who wants to improve their cooking? Take an interest in practical skills – read up on how to stock your pantry, how to steam vegetables, how to cook a steak, etc. – and then practice! There is a wealth of information on the various food blogs and websites addressing technique. Also, try to find a cooking-mentor: a friend who loves cooking and who will let you watch them in action. There is nothing like learning directly, in-person, from a seasoned home cook.

Read more from Carly DeFilippo here.

recipe: shaved "summer whites" salad

When the weather heats up, I keep my cool with no-fuss, veggie-centric recipes - like this shaved fennel, radish & cucumber salad. It also makes for a simple, portable addition to any bbq or picnic.

Shaved "Summer Whites" Salad

Ingredients

• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 cucumber
• 4-6 small radishes
• Half a block of feta
• 1 lemon (juice of)
• 1/4 cup za’atar
• olive oil

Instructions

1. Wash all vegetables well. Cut the core out of the bottom of the fennel bulb and the tips off of the radishes.
2. Use a mandolin to shave all vegetables into a large mixing bowl. (Save the stems of the fennel, chop finely and add to mixture as well.)
3. Add za’atar, crumbled feta, lemon juice and a generous drizzle of olive oil.
4. Toss together and serve

Notes

• You can also chop these ingredients finely with a large kitchen knife, but shaving is preferable for texture.
• If you are not planning on serving the salad immediately, hold off on the olive oil and feta until just before serving.
• If you cannot find za’atar at your spice shop, you can find a recipe for this spice blend here

behind the knives: meat scientist, dr. phil

In this emerging age of nose-to-tail butchery, pigs’ accessible size has them hogging much of the attention. Breaking down a side of beef intimidates most professional chefs, let alone amateur cooks. Enter Dr. Phil, the eccentric Meat Scientist behind Certified Angus Beef.

With a Ph.D in Meat Science, his own tagline – “Holy Cows!” – and a zany enthusiasm for all things meat, Phil Bass is the consummate instructor for Beef Butchery 101. This month, I was lucky enough to throw on a hairnet, grab a handsaw and pull out my “Texas butter knife” for his hands-on butchery course at CAB’s brand new Education & Culinary Center in rural Ohio. From measuring meat quality to cooking each cut, Dr. Phil explained beef production from farm to plate. I sat down with him after class to capture his essential insight and advice for home cooks.

What inspired your passion for meat science/beef butchery?

Ever since I could reach the meat-cutting table in my grandmother’s garage, (to help butcher the cattle, sheep and hogs that my family harvested) I have had a passion and fascination for the meat cutting craft.  Butchery is an art that is slowly being revived, and I am proud to have the basic knowledge and skill to identify and isolate both classic and contemporary beef cuts.

What are some of the newest trends in beef butchery that we should keep an eye out for?

Like the old saying goes, “hang on to something long enough and it will become cool again.” Old-fashioned, bone-in versions of cuts – from “cowboy” steaks to tenderloin and chuck short ribs – are very much en vogue. The Slow Food movement has sparked an interest in the nostalgic butcher’s market, including these bone-in cuts that younger generations have never really seen.

Are there any cheaper, lesser-known cuts that you feel are underutilized?

There are several cuts on the cusp of making it big. In reality, they have been around for several years, but it takes time for “new” beef cuts to make it to mainstream consumers.

Tri-tip is a tender, extremely flavorful roast cut from the bottom sirloin, which is perfect for grilling season. Growing up in California, Tri-tip was a regional favorite, but it is only now gaining traction in other areas.

Two other noteworthy contemporary cuts are the Ranch steak and the Denver steak.  The lean Ranch steak comes from the “chuck”  (outside shoulder) and is similar in tenderness to our top sirloin. It is currently part of the Arm Roast or English Roast that you’d find at your retailer, but with a little training, mainstream meat cutters could easily produce it as a grill-able item.

The Denver steak is cut from the inner shoulder and offers an extremely robust beef flavor. Traditionally, it would be ground or used for short ribs, but it also makes a great steak if aged appropriately for about 28 days.  On a plate, it looks similar to New York strip steak, and has great potential as a price-conscious cut if it makes it to mainstream consumers.

I know your favorite cut of beef is the spinalis muscle. Can you describe why you prefer this cut and tell me if it is available in restaurants or butcher shops?

The spinalis, for lack of a better term, is the cap on the ribeye steak – the beautifully tender and extremely flavorful crescent on the outside of a ribeye that just screams “EAT ME!”  This muscle obtains its tenderness in two ways: (1) due to its location on the cattle, it does very little work, and (2) it tends to have a large amount of marbling (flecks of fat in the lean meat), which imparts magnificent flavor. It is not readily available in the meat case, but nearly every meat counter in the country does have it.

To obtain the spinalis, ask your butcher to “seam out” the muscles of the prime rib, thus producing three cuts: the ribeye, the chuckeye (shaped like a small pork tenderloin) and the spinalis (which looks like a salmon filet in the raw).  For the ideal eating experience, ask your butcher cut off all of the “silver skin” (connective tissue) on the spinalis and either grill it, roll it up and roast it, or use it in a roulade (I prefer a spinach-stuffed roulade).

What are 2-3 things a total novice should know about judging the quality of meat?

Marbling is hands-down the most important thing to look for when purchasing a cut of beef.  It is the top contributor of flavor, tenderness and juiciness.  Novice meat buyers should not balk at the sight of the little flecks of fat in the meat, but rather embrace it and become excited when it is present.

Next up is color: on freshly cut beef, the color of the lean meat should be a bright cherry red.  Darker lean meat, although safe and wholesome, may pose some less than desirable eating attributes.

Finally, “Know Thy Cuts.”  Different cuts require different cooking techniques – you don’t want to slow braise a grill cut or vice versa!  A great resource on how to use different cuts is the “Beef Cuts” link on www.certifiedangusbeef.com, which provides pictures and cooking techniques for almost any cut you can find in a grocery store.

Are there any misconceptions about butchery you would like to address?

Butchery, fabrication, meat cutting, – whatever you call it – all results in a product produced by human hands.  The craft itself is ancient. Ever since the first caveman cut up a wooly mammoth, the animals themselves have not changed all that much. Whether a consumer purchases their meat from a local neighborhood butcher or a national grocery chain, the harvesting and fabrication process is the same (albeit streamlined in some cases, depending on the source of the product).

Meat cutters at packing houses use the same knives, saws, and techniques as the small-town butcher, just on a much grander scale.  In both cases, the quality of the meat itself will be biggest contributor to your eating experience -not who or how the meat was cut.

Moreover, food safety, cleanliness and wholesomeness are paramount for everyone in the meat (and food) communities. Outside of these parameters, it doesn’t really matter how high quality the meat is. Food safety is first and foremost; flavor is second.

How has the increased consumer interest in where food comes from affected your work?

Consumers have become “hyper-conscientious” about their food and this surge of interest has made us in the food industry extremely busy – in a good way!  As their palates become more discerning, we are finding that people will pay more for a satisfying experience.  Flavor, tenderness, juiciness and aroma are the traits that contribute to “taste,” which is the measure of this satisfaction and value. High quality meats – especially beef – are driving the animal agriculture industry to focus on quality rather than just quantity – which, in my opinion, is a really good thing.

See the original post at HonestCooking.com