Last Chance Foods from WNYC

If you’re an apartment-bound urbanite with nary a backyard to plant, here’s a micro-farming solution acceptable for even the smallest spaces: Grow yourself a sourdough starter, also known as a levain. “It’s a little like farming,” said Austin Hall, the head baker at She Wolf Bakery. “You’re trying to grow this organism that is going to help you raise the bread.” So if you’re not cleaning out your kitchen this weekend in preparation for Passover, consider combining some good flour with water, and then letting it sit in a cool spot for a two days. There’s yeast naturally present on the flour, and it just needs nurturing. “What you’re trying to do is cultivate a colony of yeast and bacteria,” Hall said. “It doesn’t sound very appetizing but, trust me [it is].” Since there are only two ingredients that go into making a starter, pay attention to each. First of all, don’t use white flour. Instead, choose a whole wheat or whole rye flour. She Wolf Bakery, which supplies restaurants including Roman’s and Marlow and Sons, gets some of its flour from local purveyors at the Union Square Farmers Market. “All those nutritious things that are good for humans are also good for tiny bacteria,” Hall said. “In about two days, you can get the very beginning of a culture. If you’re starting from nothing, it takes probably a week before… you’ll have a strong enough culture that you can actually bake a loaf of bread from it.” (Photo: Austin Hall/Courtesy of She Wolf Bakery) Ingredient number two for a sourdough starter is water. Hall explained that New York City’s tap water is chlorinated, so it’ll kill microorganisms unless the chlorine is allowed to evaporate. “It’s most important when you’re very first starting out to use either distilled, bottled water,” he explained, “or you can take regular tap water and let it sit on the counter for 8 to 12 hours, and all that chlorine will off gas and you can mix dough with it.” Finally, add a healthy dash of patience. Nothing will happen to the flour and water mixture in the first 24 hours. Even after it begins to double in size, there’s still a few more weeks of tending to do. “Don’t get discouraged in the beginning if it doesn’t taste like sourdough,” Hall said. “It’s far easier to cultivate the yeast colony than it is to cultivate the bacterial colony. It takes probably three weeks of regular of feeding before you’ll get enough of a bacterial colony for it to really taste like sourdough bread.” If all this sounds more like the unnecessary hassle of tending a Tamagotchi pet, rather than watching the fascinating activities of an ant farm, there’s another option. Cozy up to a baker and ask for a piece of starter. Keep it alive by regular feedings, and, boom, you’re ready to go. On the other hand, if you’re ready to get yeast farming, check out Hall’s directions for creating a sourdough starter.

When it comes to vegetables, it must be hard to be a rutabaga. As a cross between a cabbage and a turnip, the humongous, humble-looking root vegetable can easily be overlooked when compared to the delicate fiddlehead ferns available in the early spring. But here at Last Chance Foods, we like the underdog vegetables. That’s one reason WNYC’s Amy Eddings recently bought a huge rutabaga from Conuco Farm’s Hector Tejada at the Fort Greene farmers market. Despite all her good intentions, the poor rutabaga languished in her refrigerator for three weeks, slowly drying out and becoming slightly squishy. A rescue mission was called. The root vegetable was hauled back to the farmers market for a professional consult with Tejada, whose farm is located in New Paltz, N.Y. He explained that the rutabaga was fine to eat, though perhaps better for a cooked application since it was getting a little soft. “You want it crisp and crunchy when they’re raw,” Tejada said, adding that he usually eats the vegetable raw. Eddings’ rutabaga and those at the market now were harvested last year, around Thanksgiving, he added. They take about 120 days to reach their gargantuan size, and usually experience several frosts before being harvested. The cold weather helps make them sweeter. “They can be sitting in the field and they can be in the morning… completely icy and basically frozen,” Tejada said. “And later when the day gets warmer and the sun shines, they just defrost and the same happens with the greens.” (Photo: Rutabagas from Conuco Farm at the Fort Greene farmers market.) The greens are edible, too, and taste like slightly spicier turnip greens. At this point in the year, though, the greens were cut off months ago. For optimal long-term storage, Tejada keeps the rutabagas, still covered in dirt, in closed rubber bins that have holes punched in them for air circulation. The vegetables are washed before arriving at the market, and Tejada said to keep them in the refrigerator at home. “You don’t want to leave it exposed to the air,” he explained. “You want to keep in either a plastic bag or a sealed container.” Tejada, who hails from the Dominican Republic, explained that rutabagas are easy to prepare. He roasts them with butter, olive oil, salt and pepper. He also said that many of his customers like to steam them and mash them with potatoes. “It was not something that I grew up eating at all,” Tejada admitted. “I love them. I have them even, like, caramelized with maple syrup, like a candy.” For that, he mixes chunks of rutabaga with maple syrup or honey and seasons it before covering the dish with aluminum foil and roasting it in the oven. He then broils it uncovered until the rutabaga is crispy. If you want the details of that, you’ll have to visit Tejada at the farmers market. Eddings ended up slicing her rutabaga into strips and using Food52’s recipe for Rutabaga “Cacio e Pepe.” Rutabaga “Cacio e Pepe”by savorthis  Ingredients 1 rather large rutabaga (sliced yielded about 4 cups) 4 tablespoons butter black pepper ¾ cups parmegiano reggiano, grated ¼ cup ricotta salata Get the full recipe at Food52.

Heads up to Mallomars fans out there: The season for the chocolate-covered, marshmallow-and-graham-cracker cookie is nearly over. Yes, this packaged and processed cookie has a season. Mallomars are only made by Nabisco from September through March. The reason for that began when the cookies were invented 100 years ago, at a time that predated refrigeration. The cookies have a thin chocolate shell that would melt during the warmer months. The cool-month schedule continued on track — due to a combination of tradition and, likely, savvy marketing — even after refrigeration came into existence. “I suppose it also creates a cult-like demand for it,” said Wall Street Journal columnist Ralph Gardner Jr., who has an admitted obsession for the confection. Even sticking to the cold-weather delivery does not ensure a perfect cookie every time, apparently. “You’d assume that if it has all these preservatives or whatever that… any box should be pristine or perfect, but that’s not the case,” Gardner said. And that is the key to this oddly seasonal, weirdly delicate cookie. “The difference between a fresh Mallomar and a stale Mallomar is the difference between bliss and despair,” wrote Gardner his “Urban Gardner” column. (Photo: Ralph Gardner Jr.in action/Courtesy of Ralph Gardner Jr.) The chocolate on a “fresh” specimen should snap when being bitten into. On a stale one, it can be chalky or cracked. “If it becomes cracked and air is allowed to enter through the chocolate, then the marshmallow is sort of tough and stale,” he said. The same staleness even permeates the cookie. He explained that, while the boxes emerging from Nabisco are likely uniformly perfect in the way of processed foods, supermarkets may be far less sensitive to the optimal condition under which the cookies need to remain perfectly fresh. In one case, Gardner noticed that a display of the cookies were located under one grocery store’s heat lamp. So, despite digging through boxes to find the one with the most recent sell-by date, the cookies he brought home were less than perfect. So subtle is Gardner’s Mallomar palate, that though the cookies were in the same box, he noted some of them differed from their brethren in freshness. “It sort of introduces connoisseurship to a cookie that really has no right to be open to that,” he admitted. And while NPR reported that some fans hoard Mallomars in their freezers for year-round availability, Gardner is staunchly opposed to doing so. For him, it’s all about enjoying the perfect cookie while its in season. “I just can’t believe that a frozen Mallomar tastes as good as one fresh out of the box,” Gardner said. Gardner’s clearly not the only super-fan out there. Bouchon Bakery has created a $3.95, made-from-scratch version called the “Mallowmore.” By some accounts, it lives up to the original. It’s certain that Gardner is on yet another cookie-related mission to find out.

Consider the onion: It forms the backbone of so many dishes, but rarely serves as a main ingredient. Is it because we’re worried about the stink of onion breath? Dirt Candy chef Amanda Cohen says to grab some toothpaste and just get over it. “That’s why [toothpaste] was invented, right?” she said. “You can’t be afraid of a vegetable. The vegetable’s way more afraid of you.” There are plenty of ways beyond traditional French onion soup to make the humble allium a star ingredient. At Dirt Candy, Cohen began serving a grilled onion salad with red onions and shallots. The side became so popular that it won a spot on the menu as a main salad. Red onions are particularly good in salad and stir-fries because they’re sweeter than white or yellow onions. They also add a welcome pop of color. Vidalia onions are so sweet that Cohen is incorporating them into a dessert. “We’re just actually caramelizing them and mixing them right now into a... fudge kind of chocolate,” she said. “And it’s almost like a chocolate prune tart. That’s what it tastes like, and it’s sort of blowing all of our minds how delicious it is.” (Photo: Amanda Cohen/Courtesy of Dirt Candy) Chefs at Dirt Candy have also made tiny fried onion blossoms with pearl onions. Cohen explained that she uses Spanish onions and white onions interchangeably. “Spanish onions you can always use for soups stocks, flavoring oils, that kind of thing,” she said. “[Use them] when you really want a cooked onion that’s going to disappear.” Unfortunately, those onions are the most tear-inducing to prep, according to the chef. She knows people who chew on the unburnt end of a used match, or a toothpick, to prevent tearing up. “I’m not sure if that really works,” Cohen said. “I like the idea of sunglasses, goggles. You could do that, too, I suppose if you’re chopping copious amounts.” For her, wearing contacts has been a foolproof solution. Try out Dirt Candy's recipe for grilled onion salad with fermented black bean dressing and scallion oil. That’s below. Grilled Onion Salad This salad is really, really easy on purpose. I wanted to make a rustic salad that let the real flavor of onions shine through. The dressing is the tricky part, but it’s worth the effort because of all the layers of taste it adds. Not enough people use fermented black beans, but they add an amazing, deep, complex flavor to everything. 2 cups sliced red onions 2 tablespoons finely diced red onion 3 bunches of scallions 1 cup picked cilantro leaves 1 cup picked parlsey 1 cup picked thai basil leaves 1/2 cup Fermented Black Bean Dressing (see below) Salt to taste 1. Heat a grill until it’s super-hot, almost smoking. In a bowl, toss the whole scallions with olive oil then lay them flat on the grill. Cook until grill marks form, and they’re nice and soft. Remove from the grill and chop them up. 2. Do the exact same thing for the sliced red onions. Toss with oil, put on grill until char marks form, then pull off. 3. Mix everything together in a bowl, and season to taste. Fermented Black Bean Dressing 3 1/2 tablespoons fermented black beans 7 cloves garlic 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons lime juice 1 cup shoyu 1 cup Scallion Oil (see below) salt to taste 1. Soak the black beans in cold water for about 1 hour. Drain. Reserve 1 1/2 tablespoons of the water. 2.In a blender or a Vitamix, blend everything together until smooth. Add the bean water to keep it moving. Scallion Oil 1 cup chopped scallions 1 cup sliced ginger 1 1/2 cup untoasted sesame oil 1 tablespoon salt 1. Mix everything except the oil together in a heat resistant bowl (metal or glass). 2. Heat oil on the stove until almost smoking. 3. Gently pour the oil over the mixture in the bowl. 4. Wait until cool, at least 1 hour, and blend in a VitaMix or blender until smooth.

Cooking live lobster at home is not a task for the faint of heart. But here’s one thing seafood eaters don’t have to worry about. “Lobsters don’t have vocal cords, alright? They do not exist in a lobster. They don’t scream,” said Susan Povich, who owns Red Hook Lobster Pound with her husband Ralph Gorham. “What you’re hearing is steam escaping from the carapace — from the hard shell of the body — if you hear anything. You might be hearing your child scream when you put the lobster in the water.”  If you’re feeling up for the task, lobster is in season year round. During the winter months, lobster have hard shells and a fuller, more briny, flavor, Povich explained. That’s because adult lobsters generally molt once or twice a year, and molting usually occurs in conjunction with the spring or fall change in water temperatures. “After the lobster molts and the shells form up, I believe, is when you get that sort of sweet, summery, Maine lobster taste that everyone associates with lobster,” she added. So expect that to be in about a month, after the weather starts warming up. At the Red Hook Lobster Pound, she serves two versions of lobster rolls: one with mayonnaise and another with butter. Povich, whose family hails from Bar Harbor, Maine, said that mayonnaise is how it’s traditionally served (with the exception of the famous Red’s Eats in Wiscasett, Maine). She coined the term “Connecticut lobster roll” to describe the butter version after reading about a salesman who requested the variation at a Connecticut restaurant. When choosing a lobster to cook at home, Povich advised looking for one that’s lively. That means it should curve its tail and arch its torso like Superman when picked up. (Photo: Susan Povich/Courtesy of Red Hook Lobster Pound) For those feeling squeamish about cooking the lobster live but determined to press forward, Povich offered this tip. “If you want to kind of put the lobsters to sleep, you can put the lobsters in the freezer in a bag for 20 minutes before you put them in the water,” she said. “They do tend to go a bit dormant.” At home, Povich combines boiling and steaming methods. She starts with a few inches of water in the bottom of the pot — about four fingers of water for four lobsters. She adds a varying combination of fennel, onion, carrots, bay leaf, beer, and peppercorns. “I bring that to a … rolling boil,” Povich said. “I let those ingredients... season the water a little bit and then I put my lobsters in head first and put the lid on.” She said that method is faster than just steaming the lobsters, and recommends leaving hard-shell lobsters in for 15 to 20 minutes after the water returns to a rolling boil. A soft-shell lobster is done in about 12 minutes. Here recipe for that method of cooking lobster is below. Lobster in a Pot  by Red Hook Lobster Pound 4 lobsters (1.5 lbs each) 1 cup white wine or beer 1 onion, peeled and quartered 4 stalks celery — cut in thirds ¼ cup sea salt 4 bay leaves fennel tops (if you have some) 1 Tbs. Old Bay seasoning (optional) Place all ingredients (except lobsters) in a tall pot. Fill with water so that water is 4 fingers tall (around 2.5 inches). Cover tightly and bring to a rolling boil. Turn heat down and simmer for 5 minutes. Place each lobster, head down, tail curled under, in the pot. Cover, and bring back to a rolling boil. After 5 minutes, uncover and rotate lobsters (bottom to top, top to bottom). Cover again, raise heat to high and steam/boil an additional 3-4 minutes for soft-shell lobsters or 6-7 minutes for hard-shell lobsters. Remove and let lobsters sit and drain for 5 minutes. (Add 2 minutes additional cooking time per additional lobster, though we don’t recommend cooking more than 4 at a time).

We’ve all seen that iconic image of a straw sticking out of a picture-perfect orange. Turns out, making mass marketed orange juice is not nearly so simple or even natural.

If you’ve ever flipped over packaged food and checked for high fructose corn syrup in the ingredient list, there’s something you should know: “Experts… say that when it comes to calories and nutrition, sugar is sugar is sugar,” says Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us. “And it even gets worse, because they’ll throw in fruit juice, as well." 

Millet is a gluten-free whole grain that tastes sort of like a cross between vanilla and corn. It certainly has a flavor that birds enjoy — much of the millet in this country is used for bird seed. But what’s good for Tweety has long been considered tasty by humans, too.

Today is Valentine’s Day, so we’re going to talk about chocolate. That’s the easy explanation. The more complicated version of how Last Chance Foods choose to approach the topic of such a beloved confection involves a former aerospace engineer turned farmer, a vertically integrated beans-to-bar company, and a three-year-old factory in Red Hook, Brooklyn

From 2012 to 2013, Americans consumed an estimated 294,000 metric tons of olive oil, most of which was imported from Italy. But how do you know if Italian olive oil is really Italian? A New York Times report recently claimed that a lot of Italian olive oil actually comes from countries including Spain, Morocco and Tunisia. What’s a home cook to do when looking for an authentic Italian olive oil?

Americans now eat 150 percent more hot sauce today than they did in 2000. WNYC host Amy Eddings thinks that’s because our palates are bored and jaded. “We call ourselves foodies by just sprinkling some hot sauce over pancakes and saying, ‘I invented something new,’” she said. “What we’re doing is just blazing a hole through our tongue, and we’re not really settling in and increasing our knowledge about the complexity of taste.”

Chicken coops may be sprouting up on rooftops and backyards around the city, but don’t expect domesticated geese to be taking up urban residence anytime soon. “The biggest reason I don’t think you’ll ever see geese in an urban setting, or even a suburban setting, is they’re very loud,” said Hank Shaw, the author of Duck, Duck, Goose. “They honk at everything.”

Ginger adds zing to hot Indian tea, provides a warming holiday flavor to crisp cookies, and serves as a palate-cleansing pickle next to sushi. Considering its versatility, ginger could be considered a culinary ninja — it sneaks into various foods and makes them way tastier.

From the Hooter’s in Anaheim, California, to the Le Bernardin in Midtown — squid in the form of calamari can be found on menus across America. That’s good news since squid from the Atlantic is some of the most sustainable seafood out there.

A snowy winter storm is a daunting way to start off a new year — particularly if your resolutions for 2014 include eating better, saving money, and being healthier. One way to help meet all three of those lofty goals is to make sure you have a pantry that’s well-stocked. Late nights at the office won’t have to end in take-out, and unexpected snow days won’t lead to miserable treks to the grocery store.